#November 2019 Wrap Up

[insanityclause]

Over the past 13 years, Tom Hiddleston has died more times than he can recall. “Let me think about this,” the actor tells us, pausing to count in his head. “I think, officially, there were two big ones.” 

He’s referring to his many exits from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the blockbuster franchise in which he’s played shape-shifting Norse god Loki Laufeyson since Kenneth Branagh’s 2011 film “Thor”—the son of Asgardians Odin (Anthony Hopkins) and Frigga (Rene Russo), and the half-sibling of Thor (Chris Hemsworth), the god of thunder. 

The character has since bounced between villain and reluctant antihero across five films, a handful of post-credits scenes, and Michael Waldron’s Disney+ spinoff series “Loki,” which Hiddleston also executive produces. The show wrapped its second—and supposedly final—season last November. The finale presents an end for the character, but not one of the aforementioned “big ones.” 

Hiddleston’s first “official” farewell came in Alan Taylor’s 2013 sequel “Thor: The Dark World,” which saw the god of mischief take a sword to the chest to save his beefy brother. “As written in the first script, it was a true sacrifice,” Hiddleston says. Unfortunately for Marvel’s long-term plans, the actor had done too good a job playing the trickster.

“When Marvel [executives] were testing the movie, they’d given [viewers] questionnaires that said, ‘Is there anything you didn’t understand?’ ” he remembers. “Literally every single audience member said, ‘Well, obviously, Loki’s not really dead.’ ” 

In classic comic-book fashion, the character did return, gallivanting alongside his brother in Taika Waititi’s 2017 follow-up “Thor: Ragnarok.” He died again one year later (“big one” number two) in the Russo brothers’  “Avengers: Infinity War.” There were no smokescreens or questionnaires this time; audiences watched as Loki’s neck was crushed by the purple fist of intergalactic warlord Thanos (Josh Brolin). 

Hiddleston remembers arriving in Atlanta to shoot his final scene and immediately bumping into Brolin. “He came up to me, gave me this huge hug, and said, ‘I’m so sorry, man.’ ” 

He meant it, too; everyone meant it. The sun, it seemed, had actually set on Hiddleston’s MCU journey. “At the end of that scene, I got a big round of applause, and everybody was so sweet and kind and gracious,” he says. “I got notes and emails saying, ‘Tom, you’ve done so much for us—what a journey. Come and see us anytime.’ I really thought that was the end.” 

And it was, for real, right up until it wasn’t—when the time-traveling shenanigans of 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame” blasted a younger version of Loki out of the established canon and into his own series. Over two seasons, the multiversal storyline envisions the title character as a figure who exists outside time and space. Across all there is, was, and may come to pass, there will always be a Loki, in some form, wreaking havoc. 

Hiddleston has long since accepted what this means for him as an actor. Maybe “Loki” Season 2 really was his last time in the role; or maybe he’ll play him until the sun burns out. “I’ve realized that, in human consciousness, that’s who Loki is,” he says. “Loki is this ancient, mythic character, who, in our collective mythology, represents the trickster, the transgressor, the boundary-crosser, the shape-shifter—somebody who’s mercurial and spontaneous and unpredictable who will always confound your expectations and wriggle out from underneath your certainties and convictions. Someone who we need and [who] is necessary.”

Hiddleston pauses, getting emotional. “Maybe Loki escaping death a couple of times is sort of an emblem of who he is in our culture,” he says, grinning at his own gusto. The actor has a habit of being self-deprecating about the depth of the character’s lore. “I spend a lot of time thinking about Loki. You can probably tell.”

You can tell, and it’s incredibly endearing. Talking to Hiddleston about Loki feels like discussing Shakespeare’s Richard III with Laurence Olivier or Tennessee Williams’ Blanche DuBois with Jessica Lange. They were actors who put their definitive stamps on those roles by returning to the well and constantly digging deeper. 

In conversation, Hiddleston is equally as likely to reference comic-book arcs as he is the ancient, anonymous Old Norse scribes of the “Poetic Edda” or Richard Wagner’s epic four-cycle opera “Der Ring des Nibelungen.” He speaks reverently of actors who embodied the trickster god before him, like Jim Carrey in Chuck Russell’s 1994 comedy “The Mask” and Alan Cumming in Lawrence Guterman’s 2005 sequel, “Son of the Mask.” He also heaps praise on those who played the part after him, such as his “Loki” costars Sophia Di Martino, Richard E. Grant, Deobia Oparei, and—in one very surreal Season 1 moment—“some alligator they found somewhere.” He cites legendary Marvel creators Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Walter Simonson alongside the likes of English essayist Walter Pater and Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw, who once wrote of life as a “splendid torch” to keep burning for those who follow.

“Loki is ‘a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment,’ ” Hiddleston quotes, “and I want to make it burn as brightly as I can before passing it on to future generations.” 

This level of study started before he even landed the role. He recalls the 24 hours leading up to his “Thor” audition, when he was 28 years old. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 2005, he quickly earned small-screen and stage acclaim—but he hadn’t yet achieved a major breakthrough. When he received the script for “Thor,” it felt familiar. “I remember thinking, This is almost Shakespearean, this language,” Hiddleston says. “What’s the best example I can [look to] of an actor who managed to humanize and make real this elevated world of myth?” 

He found the answer in Christopher Reeve, who played the title role in Richard Donner’s 1978 blockbuster “Superman.” “He’s masterful in that film,” Hiddleston says. “In a way, it’s a similar premise: He’s a god or he’s a being from a different realm, and it’s not naturalistic in the way that we might expect. He does it so truthfully, and it’s so clear and clean and open and honest. I thought, If I can even approximate or get close to the kind of clarity that Christopher Reeve had in those films, I’ll be lucky.” 

And then, the morning of his “Thor” audition, Hiddleston went for a run, “which is my habit before doing anything unusual,” he explains. 

Running has remained a constant throughout the actor’s MCU tenure. At any given moment over the last decade, the god of mischief was likely doing laps around Marvel’s go-to shooting location, Pinewood Studios (now Trilith Studios) in Atlanta. “Life is movement; I really believe that,” Hiddleston says. 

“I find when I’m running or walking, the repetitive nature of it relaxes the mind and allows ideas and inspiration to come from a deeper place. I see my work as an actor—especially in preparation for a project or a scene—as almost preparing myself to be open and ready to receive ideas, to receive energy from other actors, to receive energy from my imagination.”

Hiddleston found the technique particularly helpful when he was filming a scene for the “Loki” series premiere that he calls “one of the most thrilling challenges I’ve ever had as an actor.” In it, Loki has been poached from the flow of time itself by the temporality-policing Time Variance Authority and forced to watch what is, essentially, a highlight reel of his entire MCU arc. It’s one of the most deeply existential moments you’ll ever find streaming alongside the likes of “Bluey” and the “Cars” movies. Here is a man watching the sum total of his life—his hopes, his dreams, his failures, his own death—play out in a 30-second clip that ends with the cold, clinical words: “End of file.”

“I just kept imagining: If you were afforded the opportunity or forced to watch your own death as a bystander, it would bring about an existential shock and crisis unlike any other,” Hiddleston explains. “It was a scene where I thought, I don’t have a reference for how to play this. I just have to allow shock, disgust, disgrace, shame, disbelief, acceptance, incredulity, and sorrow to exist in the center of me.” 

As an executive producer on the series, Hiddleston had a say as to which of Loki’s many misdeeds would play in the sequence. He chose clips like Frigga’s death in “Thor: The Dark World” and his father’s final words in “Thor: Ragnarok”—moments Hiddleston knew would most fill the character with regret. As production was preparing to shoot the scene, he asked first assistant director Richard Graves for a 20-minute warning.

 “I decided to jog around the stage and internalize as many of those memories of those people, those characters, those actors [as possible]—to try and find the center of my own vulnerability,” Hiddleston says. “Part of the joy of it was just going back to basics, trying to simplify this very complex thing…. Go for a jog, get into your body, allow yourself to be open, and just be there; just feel it.”

One “Loki”-like time jump later, Hiddleston found himself in a similar situation as he was preparing to shoot his final moment of Season 2—a scene that effectively caps Loki’s 13-year arc. Across 12 episodes, the show guided its title character toward a truly heroic end: With all of existence on the verge of collapse, he steps out of time to tie the strands of every reality together. As the credits roll, Loki sits at the center of time, holding in place all that is—alone. 

It’s a lot for any actor to internalize, especially one who’s performing solo in front of a blue screen. With 45 minutes to cameras rolling, episode co-director Aaron Moorhead made a suggestion. “He said to me, ‘Why don’t you go back, if you can bear it, and watch some of your work [over] the last 15 years?’ ” Hiddleston remembers. “ ‘Take it in, see what it means to you, and then carry it when you step out onto the stage.’ ” 

The actor took Moorhead’s advice to heart. And suddenly, without meaning to, he was mirroring the moment that started the series: absorbing the sum total of Loki’s MCU run. But this time, his regret had been replaced with gratitude. Hiddleston watched clips from “Thor,” remembering a time when he and Hemsworth had yet to ascend to the A-list. He recalled working with powerhouses like Hopkins and Russo, and the bonds he forged with the “original six Avengers” in 2011. He thought about how fun it was to film “Thor: Ragnarok” with Tessa Thompson and Jeff Goldblum, and of the more recent friendships he found with his “Loki” castmates Di Martino and Owen Wilson. 

“I thought, What Loki is doing, he is doing for his friends. And so, Tom, why don’t you do it for your friends?” Hiddleston says. “That’s where the two of us met in that moment. And then I was so grateful I had this most amazing crew, and we did it together.”

The actor is, of course, noncommittal as to whether this is actually the end of his MCU run. The franchise is scheduled out until at least 2027, and Hemsworth has mentioned his desire to make another “Thor” film. And if Loki’s past has proven anything, even the most official endings can be undone. 

Either way, it seems to Hiddleston that something significant has ended, even if it’s just Loki’s full-circle arc. “I hope it feels redemptive because his broken soul is partially healed; and you see that this character, who is capable of love, has made a decision from and for love,” he says. The actor cites the “beautiful prologue” of the first “Thor” film, in which Hopkins’ Odin tells his two sons: “Only one of you can ascend to the throne, but both of you were born to be kings.”

“At the end of Season 2, Loki is sitting on a kind of throne; but it’s not arrived in the shape he expected, and there’s no glory in it,” Hiddleston explains. “There’s a kind of burden, and he’s alone. He’s doing it for his friends, but he has to stay there without them. There’s a poetic melancholy there which I found very moving.”

For now, Hiddleston “can’t even conceive” of his life without Loki. He only hopes that he’s lived up to his guiding ethos as an actor, which he sums up with a plea from E.M. Forster’s 1910 novel “Howards End”: “Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height.”

“The feedback loop for actors is that we get to inhabit a fiction,” Hiddleston says. “But hopefully, that fiction bears the shape of a truth that we recognize about life—that what we do reflects the ups and downs, the peaks and troughs, and the breadth and profundity of all of our lives.”

Hiddleston exists in that space between fiction and reality, the work and the resulting art, the prose and the passion. Long after we’ve moved on from our interview and started casually discussing the cherry blossoms blooming in New York, his eyes light up. He’s made another connection, remembered one more thing—just one last thing he’d like to impart about Loki. 

He spends a lot of time thinking about Loki. You can probably tell.

“I’m so aware that the reason I’ve been able to play him for so long is because of the audience’s curiosity and passion,” Hiddleston says. “I’ve been delighted to find that for a character of such stature, he’s remarkably human. Many of the characteristics that people connect to in Loki are deeply human feelings. That’s been the pleasure, is infusing this elevated character with humanity.”

Even then, honestly, it feels as if Hiddleston, like Loki, could go on forever. Unfortunately, outside of the MCU, time moves in only one direction. Once again, he has to run.

This story originally appeared in the June 6 issue of Backstage Magazine. Subscribe to In the Envelope: The Actor's Podcast to hear our full conversation with Hiddleston (out 6/6). 

[daydreamingyuta]

Mornings | Jaehyun

summary: fluff, a collection of mornings with Jaehyun over the years as you spend your lives together. word count: 1,127

Saturday August 10, 2019 [7:18 am]

You woke up, having hardly gotten any sleep, but energized as ever. Today you were meeting up with your boyfriend, Jaehyun. You two had just made everything official and your heart was so happy.

You go into the bathroom to do your skincare, and when you walk back into your room, you notice a good morning text from him.

Jaehyun: "Good morning baby! Can't wait to see you today <3"

A single text shouldn't make you this filled with joy, but it's from Jaehyun, so of course it does.

Y/n: "I can't wait either! Do you think we could also get some ice cream afterwards?"

Jaehyun: "We'll do anything you want angel"

You flop back onto your unmade bed, your thoughts filled with how lucky you feel to be Jaehyun's girl. You start to get giggly because you know that, by the end of the date he's going to cup your face into his hands and tell you how pretty he thinks you are, like he always does.

⸻

Sunday November 10th, 2019 [1:17 am]

You were supposed to be at home, already asleep in bed by now, but you and Jaehyun didn't want to leave each other. Each of you making excuses to prolong your date. Now it's one in the morning and you're on a walk, the street lit up by the moonlight. Each step you take, now unconsciously synced with his. Jaehyun hasn't let go of your hand once, and you wish that he never would. While you were enjoying your stroll, his mind was racing, thinking of how to tell you. He knew in his heart that you felt the same way about him, so he decided it would be best to just tell you outright. "Y/n?" He says, with a hint of nervousness in his voice.

You both stop and turn to face each other, knowing from the tone in his voice that he needs to tell you something important. "I love you." Words cannot describe how your heart feels in this moment. The way he's looking at you, like you're the most precious person in the world to him, was making you melt. "You love me?" You say with a teasing smile, tilting your head slightly. "So much y/n. I can hardly take it." He says, breathlessly. You stand up on your tippy toes and give him the biggest kiss you've ever given him. "I love you too, Jaehyun."

⸻

Sunday December 15th, 2019 [9:12 am]

The slight movement of Jaehyun cuddling more into you was the reason you had woken up. You move to get into a more comfortable position, causing Jaehyun to wrap his arm tighter around you.  “I’m sorry baby, did I wake you up?” Jaehyun says with his morning voice that you couldn’t get enough of.  “Hm, it’s okay. I love cuddling with you in the mornings.” Jaehyun nuzzles his head into your neck, “Me too, baby.” You fall back asleep, thinking about how excited you were that it’s almost your six month anniversary together. You can’t believe that you’ve been together for that long, the time feeling like it was going by so fast. 

⸻

Friday April 16, 2021 [7:32 am]

You knew something was up. You weren't sure what, but Jaehyun and all your friends and family had been acting strange for the past month. Like they all knew something you didn't.

You had just gotten a promotion at work, so maybe they all came together to plan a surprise party for you. But that's not really something you would enjoy and they all know that, so you really had no clue what it could be.

Today, Jaehyun was taking you out on a fancy dinner date, so whatever was going on definitely wasn't happening today.

"Good morning, angel." Jaehyun says, once he sees that you're awake. He's carrying a suit that he must have just picked up from the dry cleaners.

"Did you buy a brand new suit for our dinner?" You ask, confused.

"Yeah." He shrugs, as if getting a new suit was no big deal. As if he didn't have to spend days finding the right one for the special occasion. As if he didn't get the suit tailored to fit him exactly the way he knows you like.

You had more questions, but Jaehyun distracted you from them all by climbing into bed with you and giving you a million little kisses. You were in heaven whenever he did this.

Little did you know, that in only a couple of hours he was going to be down on one knee, in the park that you two visited during your first date, asking you to make him the happiest man on earth.

⸻

Monday May 16, 2022 [10:35 am]

You woke up with the waves coming from right outside your hotel window. You feel around the bed and notice that Jaehyun must have already gotten up. You hear a sound in the bathroom and know that he just got finished with his morning shower.  He comes out of the bathroom with a white robe on, his hair wet and messy, but you don’t think you’ve ever seen anyone as handsome in your life.  “Can you believe we got married two days ago, Jae?” You ask, unapologetically staring him down.  “No, I can't." He says, jumping back under the covers with you. "Did my beautiful wife have a good night's sleep?” You rest your chin on his now bear chest. “Yes, I did.” He strokes your hair as he looks down at you. “Should we sleep in on the first day of our honeymoon?” You nod your head yes, adamantly. You come up to press a kiss onto his lips and he cups your face into his hands and kisses you back. He pulls away, but just for a moment to ask you a question. “Do you know how beautiful you are y/n?”

⸻

Monday May 8th, 2028 [7:23 am]

“Mommy!” You hear as your oldest hops onto your bed, waking you up. “Mommy, happy mothers day!” She presses kisses all over you, making sure that you're fully awake. “Thank you sweetheart.” You say, sitting up so you can give her a hug and another kiss. She giggles in your arms and gets close to your ear like she has a secret to tell you.

"We made you something." She whispers.

Soon after, Jaehyun walks through the door, balancing your youngest in one arm and a stack of pancakes in the other.

“Happy mothers day, angel.” Jaehyun tells you as he sits the pancakes down on the bed and leans over to give you a sweet kiss.

[zahri-melitor]

Ric Grayson, or Tim 'Nightwing' Drake: a story of how Tom King's Nightwing pitch would have functioned.

You can often see the remains of discarded or overruled pitches in comics, if you look at structural decisions and compare them to pitches that you know were made.

One obvious one people might be familiar with is that Helena Bertinelli, back in 2003, was being set up to be removed from the Bat books and transferred over to what eventually became Greg Rucka's Checkmate 2006. There's a whole establishing storyline done in Gotham Knights by Scott Beatty. However, Gail Simone's pitch for Birds of Prey, which was published a mere two months after the Beatty story wrapped up, took Helena and used her to expand the Birds of Prey roster. It's a move that likely redirected Helena's character arc permanently (though the ghosts can still be seen in the choice to use Helena B as Matron in Grayson).

Equally: I hypothesise the reason we got Ric Grayson is because we got Young Justice 2019.

If you look at the storytelling, in terms of cover dates:

Dick was shot in Batman #55, in November 2018

Tynion's 'Tec run finished July 2018

Young Justice 2019 started March 2019

City of Bane started September 2019

King's pitch for Tim to take over the Nightwing mantle would probably have been a 12 issue run, to my eye; with the schedule that Nightwing had at the time, it would have been 6 issues (twice monthly) and then 6 issues (once monthly), ending the run and placing Dick back as a restored Nightwing...in issue #61, August 2019.

City of Bane kicked off the next month, being King's big 'all family-in' storytelling climax arc. It would have been the perfect place to put Nightwing, once again himself, reuniting with people. (I cannot tell how this placement would have gone should King have got his full 100 issue run; but I don't think City of Bane was significantly shifted forwards?)

Now I can't tell if the twice monthly issues dropped to monthly because Ric Grayson went down like a lead balloon with the fandom, but that would have been a very fast turn around in solicits for DC to withdraw support on a new direction (about a month). If it was expected to remain twice monthly, then I still think it would have been a 12 issue story, but might have stretched to 18 to meet plot needs over in Batman (King doesn't seem to have an issue about padding stories to get timing to line up in ways he wants them to)

King's pitch was also made at the time when Tim was still Red Robin, but clearly there was internal interest in transitioning him away from the name and into some other identity as part of the shift away from n52. Putting Tim into the Nightwing suit for 6 months to a year would have been a nice intervening step to use as the prompt to give Tim a new identity.

It's a pitch from King that just...fits in really really well. I can see how he'd have had it interact with things. Especially as King really hadn't had an opportunity to use Tim in his run yet due to the Mr Oz storyline, and he'd been pulling so many other faces through his story.

(I will also note that the 'Drake' identity and costume for Tim appears in January 2010 in Young Justice; Bendis' initial concept was clearly taking Tim back to Robin before he also tried a 'new costume' growth arc).

But instead Bendis wanted to use Young Justice to anchor the whole Wonder Comics initiative, and he wanted Tim as Robin for it because the concept was to pull in all the nostalgia for everyone for Young Justice 1998, thus having everyone in their original identities. And that whole decision probably had more lead time than your average comic, so it took priority over suggestions of moving Tim to Nightwing (because they already had plans brewing).

(And then Young Justice got fucked over with SO MUCH editorial meddling, to the point that I cannot wait until enough people have left DC that we actually get stories about exactly how bad it was, rather than just inferring it from what can be seen in the text itself)

Come back next time for when I instead explain what I think happened with the accepted pitch for Ric Grayson (and how I cannot BELIEVE this was actually an accepted pitch, given the way it was treated as a hot potato; it feels more like an editorial dictate of a concept that was passed off until Dan Jurgens came up with an idea of how to make it into an actual plot)

[lovrsm]

ᴄʜʀɪꜱᴛᴍᴀꜱ ᴛʀᴇᴇ ꜰᴀʀᴍ

sum: Christmas is near the corner, remembering how in this time of the year, everything is magic with the man you love.

word count: 2.5k

pairing: charles leclerc x childhoodbsf!reader

warning: angst, overthinking and FLUFF!!

disclaimers: we’re going to pretend that in Monaco it snows, FOR THE SAKE OF THIS SILLY WRITING. Alright? I investigated what winter is like there, and it’s not even close to snowing🤕. Also, kinda wrote this like a fairy tale, I’m so in love with it wtf😭♥️

Merry Christmas to you all🫶 love you and enjoy!

Spotify - Apple Music

ᴍᴀɪɴ ᴍᴀꜱᴛᴇʀʟɪꜱᴛ

“Just being in your arms takes me back to that little farm”

Christmas was around the corner.

Or maybe in a few couple days.

In reality, it was more than a month away.

November, 1st of November, and everything turned a mix of red, white and green. The colors of your favorite time of the year.

Your hands were covered in bags, and the bags filled with presents for all of your loved ones. It was barely afternoon, but you had woken up since 6am to be at stores as quick as you could.

Every single present was planned, even if it’s one time they mentioned they wanted it, or something they’ve been dying for since forever. Your presents were always the best, and everyone knew that.

After you buyed some great amount of gift wrapping, you finally headed home.

You knew you’d take a long time to get home, holiday shopping traffic was surely starting now.

Just a day after halloween and you knew you had to make everything green and white, and hella lot of red.

The rest of the day was for yourself, your family, and for making everything festive. Changing your bedsheets from black to red. Having christmas decorations over the entrance of your house.

The only thing that was missing, was the Christmas tree.

The very thing you waited for all year long.

You weren’t sure if it was the smell, or the shape. But the journey to find the tree, that was all you needed for Christmas.

You closed your eyes, and that silly little Christmas tree farm was the only thing you pictured.

-

“Sweetie, it’s time to go, they’re here!” My mom screamed from downstairs.

shit

I finished drying my hair, since I had just showered. Quickly, I grabbed all the extra clothes I needed for the cold weather outside.

I rushed downstairs, grabbing a beanie I had by the door in the way.

I could see at the corner of my eye the whole place covered in a blanket of snow.

“Oh, we are ready to go now!” I heard my dad shout as I was locking the door soon a lot of footsteps.

“Took you long enough” I heads a calm voice behind me.

I turned around to see the face I’ve been missing so much. I quickly jumped into his arms. “I’ve missed you too, asshole.” I whispered in his ear. He chuckled, making my whole body shiver with excitement.

“Missed you too, you have no idea.”

I let him go, taking a good look at him. His dimples showing up, and his white pearled teeth shining at me.

I couldn’t hide my smile, he was finally here.

A honk interrupted my thinking. “Come on you two, we want to get early this year!” I heard Lorenzo screaming from his car.

We both rushed to it, my dad, mom and Pascale left in the other car. While the Leclerc’s, my brother and I traveled in this car.

“Hey y/n!” Lorenzo smiled at me through the car mirror “Sup!” Arthur gave me a wave from the co-pilot seat.

“Hi!” I responded as I settled into my seat, putting on my seat belt. Lorenzo wasn't the best driver around.

“So, how was everything both of you? Did you miss us?” My brother started a conversation.

“It’s been crazy! All I could ever imagine, it literally felt like a dream”

“Yeah, all the behind the scenes is absolutely crazy, definitely learned a lot from the team, I think white looks good on us” Arthur completed.

“But, do you know what will look even better?”

“Red!” We all said in union and laughed.

Charles had won the new Ferarri seat for the 2019 season, and we were all so proud of him.

“We all saw you at your races, y/n was the first one to wake up and put on the tv, always.” My brother, Matthias tried to tease me.

Charles turned to look at me with a grin plastered in his face.

“Okeyy, I’m a morning person, alright? What is wrong with that?” I answered normally.

Yeah, I am a morning person, but I would normally go walking on my mornings or maybe do some exercise, not stay home watching tv.

But if Charles was on it, there was no way I would miss it.

“If you say sooo” I leaned out of my seat to look at Matt, since he was on the other side of the car. Charles was in the middle.

“okay.” He quietly answered to my glare.

“Anyway, so what is the first thing you want to do when we get there?” Lorenzo asked from the pilot seat, concentrated on not crashing.

“The sleighs”

“The horses!”

“Maybe we should get the trees first” Charles said calmly, looking at the road ahead.

“Yeah, you know how quickly they buy them, we should get the best two around.” I smiled at them, and everyone nodded in agreement.

Charles was right, the biggest, greenest and beautiful trees were obviously taken as soon as possible.

Last winter we were left with not the best tree because we all got distracted doing something else.

“So, we all know the drill, right?” Arthur asked, turning to look at the three of us in the back.

I smirked, this was going to be fun.

-

“Maman, papa are with Pascale, I texted them. They are going to wait for you, Enzo”

And with that, we arrived to the parking lot, and thank god we found a good place to park in, I did not want to walk too much after the whole day.

We always end up exhausted.

“Everyone get their phones at maximum volume, if someone calls answer immediately!” We all agreed.

“Go go go gooo!”

I opened the door as fast as I could, and waited for Charles to get out, but in a blink of an eye he already grabbed my hand and started to run to the barns direction.

I was slowly catching to his pace.

Shit he was faster than last year.

He finally stopped at the start of the trees. “Well, we have a lot of options”

Charles was concentrated on watching every single tree in front of us, scrunching his nose in a very cute way.

“Yeah… we better go looking”

-

Half an hour. A whole 30 minutes we were looking for the damn trees.

All of us took this very seriously.

“Too short”

“Too tall”

“Ew, that’s ugly.”

“Never liked the ones with fake snow.”

“Not fluffy enough”

“Oh come on, there is no way an ornament will look good in that.”

Every time there was an excuse. That was until Arthur and Matthias called us saying they found the 1st one.

Then my maman and papa called right after just to say they finally found another one, the most ‘perfect’ in the place.

In the pictures they sent to us, they looked so cute and wonderful. Surely there was no complaining at all.

So the Christmas tree hunt was over. And now we could peacefully walk around the place.

Charles and I walked silently to our favorite place here, it was somewhere close to the icy and blue ice rink.

Some small open cabins were there, just so people could get somewhere to get warm, and to lit up a bonfire.

The temperatures here were no joke.

Charles and I were basically freezing, even if we had the mittens that his mom made for us last year.

I snuggled into my sweater as I waited for charles to set the bonfire.

“You cold?”

“Mhm” he laughed at my state, I always get easily cold, but that doesn’t mean I hate winter.

It’s actually the exact opposite.

“Your nose is red as a tomato.” He pinched my nose.

“Hey!” He shrugged and smiled while he gave me his white scarf. “Thanks…”

I was now hypnotized by the dancing fire, and Charles came closer, having his arm touching mine.

“I wish you could’ve come with me” He whispered.

“To your races?”

“Everywhere, I needed you there.” He sweetly smiled at me. But I hit him in his arm “ow? What was that for?” He laughed at me.

“For all the times you were reckless and almost gave me a heart attack!�� but, I would’ve loved being there with you too, you know that”

He chuckled, since we were little, when he was karting I would always be there for him when he crashed or just had a bump on the way.

Always.

But now we were talking about F1, something people should not play with. Cars that go at a speed I can’t even think.

So, yeah, I obviously had my nearly death experiences while watching the tv and having Charles crashing out of nowhere.

But here he was, next to me and I could now feel his warmth.

-

charles pov.

Missing her is just an understatement, he needed her. Every day it passed without her was absolutely devastating.

Yeah, they texted and called often, but there was nothing like having her by his side.

At this point she’s the air he need to breathe, it was like the sun finally appearing after long rainy days.

She was the first person he called when he got into Ferrari, she was the one who he texted in the middle of the night when he couldn’t sleep.

Charles didn’t even know how much he needed her till she wasn’t by his side anymore.

How do I even tell her?

She’s at my side, peacefully watching the bonfire while I am dying inside to tell her how much se makes me feel.

“Hey…” I started, I don’t even know what Im fucking going to say.

She turned her head to look at me, and tilted her head while shining her big gorgeous eyes at me.

I gulped. She stopped the world completely by just looking at me.

“Are you ok? You look like you’ve seen a ghost” she laughed, and the ends of my lips turned upwards.

“Here, let’s go take some hot cocoa, maybe it’ll help you relax”

She stood up and offered me her hand, and I took it hesitatingly, if I don't do it now when will I do it? I can’t just not tell her.

“Oh god, you’re even paler now.” She looked a bit worried.

“Come on big boy, you will be fine, follow me”

I grunted, but she didn’t stop moving. The cold air hitting us as soon as we left the warmth of the bonfire.

“Here, with marshmallows, just how you like it Charlie.” She showed her teeth at me handing a warm cup of hot chocolate.

“Feeling better?” She placed a falling piece of her hair behind her her ear after taking a sip from her own cup.

“More than ever” I replied.

She looked directly into my eyes, god I could melt right now.

“What was it that you were saying?”

I almost choked.

“Ugh, nothing important”

“Must be, you can always count on me Charlie.” She placed her delicate hand on top of mine.

Charlie, she has called me that since we were little. My parents and hers were friends since forever, and I guess we just followed.

“I just, was thinking about when I was away. Uh, I was just thinking about this… girl.”

-

ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴘᴏᴠ

I felt a sting on my chest

But that is does the mean anything, right?

“Oh” i just managed to say, I looked at my feet just so I couldn’t meet his angelic eyes.

who am I even fooling at this point?

“It’s just, I really, really want her to be more to me than she is now. I just don’t know how to tell her.”

Cool.

Cool cool cool cool cool… cool.

“I mean, I don’t know, what is she like?” I looked everywhere just to not look at him.

But I’m pretty sure he must be distracted thinking about this girl.

why am I feeling like this?

“Well” he chuckled. “She’s like, the best woman I’ve ever met. She gets me, and she’s so creative and funny and everything great in this world...”

My heart was slowly breaking by each compliment he gave her.

“…I just want her by my side.”

“Just tell her, if you feel all… this, maybe you should just tell her”

It’s the first time I’ve heard him talk about a girl like this, heck, he even called her a woman.

I finally looked up at him, just to find out he was already looking at me.

His eyes shined with that sparkling light he had. I could resist the smile creeping up my cheeks already.

“Really? I’m just afraid I’ll screw everything up.” He concluded.

“Any girl would be nuts to say no to you.”

His cheeks turned a slightly darker red. I could feel my cheeks burning already.

But I had to stop myself, this isn’t you who he is talking about.

I turned around, I need to take a breath.

“y/n…” he grabbed me by the wrist to turn me around. I met, once again, with her dreamy eyes.

“Yes?” I quietly replied.

“You know who I’m talking about, right?” He raised an eyebrow at me, and gave me a look I couldn’t quite figure out was trying to say.

I shook my head side slowly. I felt my eyes watering.

I looked around just so that he couldn’t catch my glossy eyes.

But I met with a mistletoe just over a head. I opened my mouth in awe.

I felt a shift in the ambiance, I looked back at Charles and saw him smiling showing his dimples.

He was looking at the mistletoe above us.

“I can’t, I just can’t anymore y/n.”

what?

He met my gaze and took both of my hands, I could feel them over my mittens.

“Since we were kids, there was something about you, the is something about you that has always made my heart skip a beat.”

This isn’t happening.

I could feel my mouth slowly forming a smile.

“And I’ve always thought it was normal for me to feel like this with you. But god, being away from you has been hell. I need you, I can’t conform with just texting and calling.”

“Maybe this might sound selfish, but I don’t even want to picture you with someone else who is not me. I thought it was a little crush, but heck, you make me feel this way every single time and I never get tired of it.”

I was completely speechless.

This is happening.

“It’s ok if you don’t feel the same way, but it physically hurts to not tell you how much you actually mean to me. I’d be a fool not to tell you how special you are.”

At this point I started crying.

I cupped his face in my hands.

“What i’m trying to say is… I love you. More than I’ve ever loved anyone.”

I was left with words, I’ve never been good at telling my feelings.

But I am good at showing them.

I slowly looked up at the mistletoe, and he followed my eyes.

I bit my lip. And furrowed my eyebrows asking him with signs, not words.

“Please” he quietly begged. I didn’t even had to think it twice.

I crashed my lips into his, expressing every single ounce of love I had for him. He followed.

It was the most magical night of the year.

-

Under the sparkling lights, bundled up in their mittens and coats, sweet dreams of holly and ribbons…

The couple finally found their way together, and their souls finally united and all their wishes came true.

Their love was blooming, and it all started in that little Christmas tree farm.

-

Taglist

@delicatepeanutsublime @leclercera16 @ironspdy @architect-2015 @buendiabebeta @zlut1r

[38sr]

How did you get where you are now? Job wise I mean? Were you a college student before doing this or did you go looking for jobs in the art industry straight away?

Oh, well it's been quite a journey for me in terms of how I got to where I am right now but here's the full timeline (?):

August 1996 - BIRTH

April 2007 - I watch Brave Story at Tribeca Film Festival, life is changed and I decide to purse animation

June 2014 - Graduate high school and accepted into Montserrat College of Art for Animation & Interactive Media

Summer of 2016 - Studied abroad in Japan attending Niigata School of Art & Design

Summer of 2017 - First animation job as an animation intern for Sesame Street (yes that Sesame Street)

December 2017 - Graduated from college (yes I graduated early due to having college credits in high school), did not have a job lined up

2018 to 2019 - Living back in NY with my parents, working on indie animation productions, creating emotes and animated intros for content creators, applying and getting rejected from many job listings, received and fail multiple storyboard tests, developing my own projects and story ideas after years of not being able to for school work

July 2019 - Fly to California for the first time, made the decision to move in order to further pursue a career in animation, at this time the Nickelodeon Artist Program were accepting submissions so I busted out boards for a personal project in 3 days and submitted it (please do not be like me, take your time haha)

September 2019 - I receive a call from Nickelodeon and I go through a series of interviews for 2 months straight

Thanksgiving 2019 - I receive news I was selected as a trainee for the Nickelodeon Artist Program

January 2020 - Move to California and begin work as a trainee at Nickelodeon (specifically for Rugrats reboot)

March 2020 - The pandemic

July 2020 - I leave Nickelodeon and move onto Titmouse as a storyboard revisionist for Star Trek Lower Decks

November 2020 - My Supervising Director for Lower Decks recommends me to the first Critical Role show Legend of Vox Machina

December 2020 - I do freelance boards for Vox Machina and get hired as a full time revisionist for season 2

January 2021 - I receive a interview request for a job on WondLa at SkyDance due to one of the directors finding my work online, I heavily consider the job

May 2021 - My Adventures of Superman is announced, I draw a piece of fanart that goes viral

July 2021 - Vox Machina season 2 wraps, I receive an offer to return to Lower Decks season 3 as well to work on X-Men 97 (I said yes to Lower Decks)

August 2021 - Spiderman Freshmen Year (now known as Your Friendly Neighborhood Spiderman) asks if I be interested to do boards, I decline not knowing what it was for

September 2021 - Showrunner for Spiderman contacts me personally for interview, my Superman fanart from May 2021 finds it way in front of the eyes of one of the creators for MAWS, still currently doing revisions for Lower Decks S3

October 2021 - Accept job offer as board artist for Spiderman, freelancing on MAWS as a character designer (first time doing this job), turn down SkyDance job offer

December 2021 - Wrapped on Lower Decks S3

January 2022 - Launch as board artist for Spiderman at Marvel Studios, still been developing my own personal projects at this point

February 2022 - Studio Shaft offers layout and genga work for Madoka Magia Record after seeing animation work of my personal projects, I accept

April 2022 - My episode of Madoka Magia Record airs, Studio Pierrot sends offer for work on Boruto

May 2022 - After my first episode on Boruto I am offered to work on Bleach Thousand Year Blood War, I accept and continue to on Bleach as of this post (3 seasons in total), Studio Mir offers me animation work for XMen 97 (I accept but only work on the first episode)

Summer of 2022 - Working on Spiderman, animating on animes, I think at some point this is when I was offered to do animation work for Castlevania Nocturne

November 2022 - Complete season 1 of Spiderman, Marvel/Disney lays me off for *reasons*, I receive an email about potential work on an unannounced show at Nickelodeon, I'm unemployed at this point

January 2023 - Collecting unemployment, freelancing on animes, trying to survive in general, also approached by Colosso to create my own course

February 2023 - Land a short gig on Big City Greens movie over at Disney TVA, Studio Mir once again offer me work but this time for second animated Witcher film

March 2023 - Land an interview as a character designer for that unannounced Nick show, didn't get the job

May 2023 - Wrap up on Big City Greens and Witcher, fly to Japan to relax (I failed)

July 2023 - Land a layout artist position at A24 (no it's not for Hazbin Hotel), Studio Mappa offer me work on Jujutsu Kaisen Shibuya Arc

September 2023 - Land another interview with Nickelodeon (this time for storyboard artist), freelancing on layouts and animation for Castlevania Nocturne S2, A24 job is stressing me out way too much so I decide to leave, MAWS hits me up for retakes on season 2

October 2023 - Wrap up at A24, I land the board artist job at Nick, I am also drowning in Jujutsu Kaisen production meltdown, complete my online course for Colosso, wrap up on MAWS S2

November 2023 - I start at Nick as a board artist, Colosso course release, I am still dying by the hands of Studio Mappa

January 2024 till now - Still boarding over at Nick and still animating on animes (I am VERY selective now about it though after JJK), I am also in therapy now Yeah so that's like, a real rough timeline over everything from school till now (and even then I am missing a lot of work details like video games and development projects due to NDAs). But pretty much what carried me was putting myself and my art out there on social media along with building relationships with people in the studios (outside of just my production) and that's how I've been able to maintain a steady work flow even when I was unemployed. Also not being afraid to develop my own ideas and share them since most of the times that gives the leadership a pretty good idea what sensibilities I have (and they just happen to match). I hope that answered your question!

[ira-in-ink]

[🌹]:has anyone ever thought about the blue lock timeline, and what month or year they're in?

cause i definitely have. and so, i put together this long (and probably wrong) analysis of the timeline.

first off, kaneshiro himself said in an interview that blue lock started right after the 2018 world cup.

the world cup ended on july 15, so we can guess that blue lock probably kicked off 2-3 weeks—or maybe a month—after that.

so, it likely began in august. originally, the program was supposed to last six months, but because of the whole fatso situation (aka hirotoshi buratsuta), they didn’t continue the original plan after the second selection, which wrapped up in october.

how do i know that it ended in october, you ask? the egoist bible says itoshi sae turned 18 right after the second selection. and when’s his birthday? october.

moving on, let’s assume the training for the u-20 match started after sae’s birthday, and that took about two weeks, which lands us in november.

the match happens in november, and then there's a two-week break.

if we assume the break takes up most of the month, the neo egoist league probably starts in the last two weeks of november.

the nel is said to last four months, and as far as we know, that hasn't changed.

so, as of now, while the pxg vs bm, and manshine vs barcha are going on, it's probably around february to march of 2019. which means! that monster of a man, known as jinpachi ego, didn't let the guys celebrate christmas!! it also means that mihya's birthday happened while the nel was going on, so he must've just turned nineteen!

[eternal-love]

AUSTIN AND ME

“For the last time.”

“Wife to the ‘king’. Icon to the world. Destined for more.”

Summary: At 18 years old, she fell in love with Austin, at 20 years old, she became his wife, by 22, she was his doll. In which Cynthia’s life changed drastically after falling head over heels with a man that promised her the moon and the stars. She takes us down the memory lane of what could’ve been— the perfect marriage.

Inspired by the book: Elvis and Me by Priscilla Presley.

I do not condemn any of the portrayals I decide to do about certain people, it’s just fanfiction. And it would be divided in parts.

English isn’t my first language so I’m trying my best!

This one is for my girl @lovemyselfyay hope u like it girl!

The months following my birthday were hectic, with my advanced pregnancy, I was alone once again on my last trimester as Austin was away filming two movies, Dune Part Two and The Bikeriders. I found myself alone but I wasn’t lonely, because I had Lori with me.

Our lives has changed since ELVIS came out, he was an actor on the rise, finally getting the fruits of what he had been working on for a decade. I was an actress but he was more popular than me. I hadn’t worked since 2019, three years. And with a baby, I doubted I would go back any sooner.

By the time he was back home, it was November. And I didn’t expect to go into labor— at home.

I had never been so scared before. We had talked about possibilities of me having a birth at home but I was terribly scared. Even though I had a midwife, a doctor and Austin. It wasn’t an easy birth. I called the midwife a bitch, I think I even gave her another check with the subject ‘sorry for cursing at you, miss’

And after hours of labor, the baby was finally born. I was scared, emotional, in pain, sweaty, and the first thing they did was hand my child to Austin. I glared at the doctor.

“It’s a boy! Look, baby, a boy. Oh, and he has my face!” Austin was enthusiastic, maybe even more than he was when Lori was born.

Once I saw my boy, I held him close to me, the bundle in the blanket, oh, yes, he looked exactly like Austin. Nine months carrying him just so that he ends up looking like his idiot of a father.

But I loved my boy, his light blond hair, his blue eyes. His father’s copy. The same beautiful nose. I chuckled as I held him close. I felt happy.

I received a ton of congratulations from good friends, as well as many visits by Austin’s celebrity friends. I wasn’t in the mood to receive that many people but I tried to tell myself that they did it with their best intentions at heart.

Lori was a bit jealous, she had been crying nonstop at nights, Austin had to hold her and tell her:

“Mommy isn’t replacing you, she’s just taking care of your little brother. Don’t you love him?”

And she would cry louder, she still thought we would forget about her. So every morning, I tried to be the one waking her up. Even though I was sleepless thanks to Sean. I would color with her instead of sleeping once Julian was asleep, or take time to try and bake with her.

Christmas was a few weeks away and we were going to spend it at his grandparents home. They wanted to see Lori and Sean. Wanted to make them experience the Christmas Austin experiences as a kid.

So, we went Christmas shopping. I was one month postpartum but I felt hay I had to look god to be by his side. Because he looked amazing, so I went all out. And Thank God I did. Because some people took photos of us.

But I was more focused on getting everything on Lori’s letter than my facial expressions.

“I swear to God. I have never seen so much pink in my car.” Austin complained as he placed some bags on the backseat. The back of his seat was filled with stickers, Lori’s work. “And they don’t come off.”

“You can thank Lori for that.” I said as I sipped my drink. Getting into the passenger seat.

“You’ll wrap all the gifts, right?” He asked me once he got inside the car. I glared at him. I was taking care of a newborn and a four year old. “Got it. So princess wrapping, right?”

I chuckled and nodded. I was happy that this time I wouldn’t have to cook, or do much.

“We shouldn’t spoil her so much.” Austin said as he drove. “I mean, we got her too many presents this year.”

I didn’t answer, as a child, I was used to getting so many presents. My entire living room would be filled to the brim with presents for my sisters and I.

“Not sure in the right person you want to tell that.” I said, looking out the window. He scoffed.

I had my hair done up all 60’s beauty queen style, I had made the effort and as always, he started sticking his fingers onto my teased hair.

“Stop it.” I tried to slap his hand. Laughing.

“Stop it.” He mimicked my voice as he kept sticking his fingers into my bouffant.

The car then stayed silent after he stop, at a red light, he spoke.

“Callum called me to congratulate me. He said that— he was happy for us. He’ll make sure to make time to visit.” Austin said awkwardly, gripping the steering wheel.

Your friend and wife’s side lad con you on the birth of your child wasn’t something any man wanted.

“Really? He could’ve texted me.” I said, but I regretted immediately.

Yes, tell your husband that you wished your ex-lover would have texted you! Great thinking, Cynthia!

“So, does your grandma like Cinnamon Rolls?” I tried to change the topic to my baking.

“She does. She does.” He nodded, his face now serious.

“It’s over between Callum and I. You don’t have to worry anymore.” I said, looking down on my lap.

“That’s good.” He nodded, his hand rubbing his chin and then clenching his jaw.

Then everything went quiet, only the music he had on played in the background. I was now regretting saying anything at all. Again, someone should’ve slapped my mouth as a child.

The Christmas Day I was all day running around like a chicken without its head. Getting the things ready, my desserts, the kids. I had to bathe the kids, had to dress Lori, dress Sean.

In the end, I did myself. I kept my bouffant, did my makeup, keeping it light. I couldn’t go all out, it was in his grandparents house. And I wore a pink plaid dress, white flats. He wore his usual clothes, a white tshirt, a leather jacket, straight denim jeans and his black cowboy boots.

Once we arrived, he took charge of getting everything inside while I took the kids inside. Lori was so excited while Sean was asleep in my arms.

“Oh, my dearest loves!” Austin’s grandma opened the door, Lori rushing towards her and pulling her in for a hug. “I missed you too, sweetheart. I want to see your brother too!”

The white-haired woman looked at the bundle in my arms. The tiny boy in the blanket moving his head a little, his mouth open.

“Look at you, you’re shining!” Grandma said, making space for us to come in.

We settled down and his grandpa came to greet us, he had been busy with the turkey and the rest of dinner.

They were very loving towards the kids, never I can I complain about them. They did what they could and they loved my kids to the bone.

After helping us unwind, I sat on the old couch, smiling down at Sean.

“You look stunning, dear. Are you sure you just had the baby?” Grandma asked me, smiling at my boy.

“I’ve been holding up lately. Austin got me a cook and a maid.” I smiled.

I had to admit, Austin stepped up this pregnancy because he knew he would be away filming.

“You did good, sweetie.” Grandma patted his leg, Austin smiled with his lips closwd.

“But seriously, Cynthia, you look stunning.” Grandpa complimented me, the old man pushing his glasses up his nose bridge, as Lori sat on his lap.

“Thank you.” I smiled at the man. I enjoyed getting compliments, even more now that I just given birth, my hormones made me believe I was the ugliest girl alive.

“He looks just like Austin. I remember when we first saw him. He was this tiny red thing, he looked like a shrimp!” Grandma joked, laughing.

“I’ve seen pictures. He was so red!” I laughed. For whatever Austin’s faults were, he was a cute kid once.

“I was flushed, alright? Enough laughing.” Austin pouted. He took Sean from my arms, Sean looked very small on his hands.

We were staying the night of Christmas Eve, so after I was finally able to tuck Lori in bed after promising that if she fell asleep, Santa would come to put her presents under the tree. Lori had her own room at Austin’s grandparents house, since she was the only great-grandchild that ever stayed here.

Austin and I had our Sean into his portable crib, as we were in his childhood bedroom, in bed, he was all over me, his lips on mine as his tongue made his way into my mouth.

“So sweet…” he muttered on my lips.

The last thing I wanted was to have sex, but could I ever say no to Austin’s lip? No, I couldn’t refuse him.

“So pretty and all for me now…” He muttered again, chuckling and his thumb caressed by stomach.

I had been self conscious lately. I was trying to get rid of the baby weight, but Austin seemed to like it. He never commented on it. I remembered the time I was pregnant with Lori, starving myself because I thought he would want me always small and lean. He didn’t.

I couldn’t believe we could be fighting minutes before and now we were making out. I hated him but I loved him. I didn’t know what to think. I just hated how many times he had hurt me but I couldn’t stop loving him. Even after I had screwed around another man, no one could compare.

At about 12 AM, we went to the car to take our all the presents and put them under the tree. Austin ate the cookies and poured the milk down the sink.

“Look at this. We’re spoiling her too much.” He whispered as he walked backwards, looking at the present-filled living room. Yes, Lori was definitely the daughter of celebrities.

“She’s been good. And she deserves it. So she doesn’t think we’re forgetting about her and replacing her.” I said, crossing my arms. I yawned.

“Let’s go to sleep. I just know she’ll wake up at seven am.” Austin said, his hand on my lower back as he guided me to the bedroom.

We laid together at bed, I couldn’t sleep without Sean by my side. So I placed him between us. The tiny boy cuddled with me, Austin hugged Sean’s little body.

I was falling asleep after him, he looked so beautiful, they did. A part of me felt guilty for ever thinking of leaving him.

I was being selfish towards myself. That man had hurt me many times. But I couldn’t help loving him.

The next morning, Lori came to wake us up at eight am. Excitedly she pulled my feet and I woke up startled, Austin too, she even pulled Sean’s tiny feet, poor baby, he started crying after she scared him up.

“What is it, baby? Huh?” Austin asked her as he picked her up.

“Presents! Santa!” Lori smiled, nuzzling her face into Austin’s neck.

Once she saw the living room, she yelled excitedly, I watched as she opened her presents one by one, I held Sean on my chest, I couldn’t wait until he was old enough to enjoy Christmas too.

“I got you this.” Austin told me, he held a small box and opened it in front of me. A beautiful ring.

“Austin, you didn’t have to-“ I said, I was very excited. A new ring, from him! I didn’t know how to feel but my heart softened, I appreciated the thought so much. Very much.

“I has our anniversary date carved on the inside. So you have me with you anytime. Like you already do with the locket.” He caressed my cheek with his thumb before kissing my lips softly.

Afterwards I sat down to see Lori putting together some of her toys while I was playing with my new ring, just watching Lori made me smile. She was the reason I stayed with Austin, she was the reason I had out up with so much. She was the reason I was still trying to make things work with Austin.

And I thought. I really thought that things were starting to work out once more. Specially once we had breakfast all together.

After the breakfast, I was in the bedroom, tidying everything up. Until Austin’s phone vibrated a shit ton of times. I didn’t mean to be nosy but I was just curious so I grabbed it. Text messages from Kaia Gerber.

‘Merry Christmas baby💋’

‘I hope we can see each other so I can give you my present ;)’

‘I’m sure Cynthia wasn’t able to give you one anyways.’

I thought I could trust him once more. But I had forgotten how secretive and how low key he could be. I thought they were just mutual friends. I had been pregnant with his second child this whole time.

This was the last time I was trusting him.

Motherfucker.

[exoluxionlove]

[INFO] EXO comeback scheduled for July 10th, 2023!

"According to a distribution official on the 9th, EXO recently confirmed the release of the new album on July 10 and began wrapping up the album.

Excluding the special album, EXO's new album is the first in about three years and eight months since its sixth full-length album 'OBSESSION' released in November 2019.

EXO has been steadily preparing for the album since the beginning of this year for a full comeback. Kai, who entered the military on the 11th of last month, is also expected to participate in this album and give a welcome voice."

Source

ETA: SM confirmed the news

[leclerc-s]

honest series timeline

(white events indicate an official date, blue events indicate no official date, red indicates which events have corresponding parts)

1989

july first: daniel ricciardo's birth december thirteenth: daphne jones' birth

1994

september first: carlos sainz's birth

1996

february seventh: pierre gasly's birth

1997

march second: penelope trevino's birth september thirtieth: max verstappen's birth october sixteenth: charles leclerc's birth december eleventh: rowan todd's birth

1998

june sixteenth: natalia ruiz's birth

1999

may eleventh: mae jones' birth march twenty-second: mick schumacher's birth november thirteenth: lando norris' birth

2000

october fourteenth: arthur leclerc's birth november twenty-first: freya vettel's birth december thirty-first: logan sargeant's birth

2001

april sixth: oscar piastri's birth july tenth: dulce perez's birth september seventh: bailey winter's birth

2002

january twentieth: isabella perez's birth february twentieth: zoya torres' birth trevino family moves to madrid, spain first meeting between penelope and carlos

2003

first meeting between natalia and charles

2004

2005

freya's adoption

2006

october twenty-fourth: daphne's debut album release

2007

2008

november eleventh: fearless release

2009

september thirteenth: daphne gets interrupted by kanye west at the vma's

2010

twenty-fifth: speak now release

2011

july tenth: daniel ricciardo's debut grand prix

2012

october twenty-second: red release

2013

2014

june twenty-seventh: mae's debut in girl meets world october twenty-seventh: nineteen eighty-nine release

2015

march fifteenth: max verstappen and carlos sainz's debut grand prix april fifteenth: eyes wide open release mae and max begin dating first meeting between daniel and daphne

2016

february twelfth: kanye west releases famous february fifteenth: daphne seemingly shades kanye west at an award show july sixteenth: kim kardashian releases video footage of kanye's phone call with daphne, daphne issues a statement defending herself after the leaked call september twenty-eight: daphne and daniel begin secretly dating october fourteenth: evolution release october twenty-third: daphne performs after the us grand prix mae and max break-up

2017

daphne disappears for a year august twenty-third: daphne announces reputation october first: pierre gasly's debut grand prix november tenth: reputation release

2018

march twenty-first charles leclerc's debut grand prix november ninth: singular act i release natalia and charles' friends with benefits relationship begins

2019

pierre and rowan's situationship begins march sixteenth: lando norris' debut grand prix june thirtieth: scooter braun purchases daphne's masters july first: lover release july nineteenth: singular act ii release september thirtieth: seven release (see seven for further info) november twelfth: zoya's debut on high school musical: the musical: the series

2020

january thirty-first: miss americana release march twenty: the entire phone call between daphne and kanye get leaked july twenty-fourth: folklore release december eleventh: evermore release daniel and joshua reunite mae and max

2021

lando and bailey's fake relationship begins april ninth: fearless (daphne's version) release march twenty-eighth: mick schumacher's debut grand prix may twenty-first: sour release september: filming for daisy jones and the six begins november twelfth: red (daphne's version) release mae and max begin dating again

2022

march: filming for daisy jones and the six wraps natalia becomes pregnant july fifteenth: emails i can't send release september twenty-eighth: daphne and daniel get married october twenty-first: midnights release pierre and rowan accidentally get married in vegas september twenty-eighth: daniel and daphne get married november twentieth: sebastian vettel's final race

2023

january seventeenth: baby leclerc is born rumors of daphne and fernando dating begin (see the daphlonso scandal for further info) lando accidentally leaks daphne and daniel's secret relationship during a livestream (see the daphlonso scandal for further info) march fifth: logan sargeant and oscar piastri's debut grand prix march seventeenth: daphne's eras tour kicks off and emails i can't send fwd release mae and max get secretly married the first meeting between logan and zoya july seventh: speak now (daphne's version) release july eleventh: daniel replaces nyck de vries at alphatauri august twenty-third: mae and max's familial wedding party september eighth: guts release october twenty-seventh: nineteen eighty-nine (daphne's version) release november 11th: daphne's famous line change, "karma is the guy on the track" (see karma is the guy on the track for further info) november fifteenth: mae and max's vegas wedding party (see what happens in vegas never stays in vegas for further info)

2024

january 25th: charles leclerc extends his contract with ferrari for a disclosed amount of time (see divorcegate for further info) january 26th: lando norris extends his contract with mclaren for a disclosed amount of time (see divorcegate for further info) february 1st: lewis hamilton announces his departure from mercedes, and announces his multi-year contract with ferrari. (see divorcegate for further info) february 4th: the 66th annual grammys, daphne announces her new album, the tortured poets department ( see let him be a trophy husband! for further info) march 2nd: the 75th formula one season begins. april 19th: the tortured poets department release june 21st: the secret of us release july 29th: carlos sainz to williams racing announcement august 23rd: short n' sweet release august 27th: logan sargeant's departure from williams racing september 26th: daniel ricciardo's departure from visa cashapp rb december 8th: the final eras tour show

… more events to be added

[pupphe-additions]

Reunited at Last

Word Count: 2,479 a/n: Anything written in italics is spoken in english, anything written in bold and italics is what Evie is thinking. Warnings: swearing, talks of anxiety and throwing up

November, 2019

Evie wakes up to her alarm at three in the morning and she sighs heavily. She stretches and dismisses her alarm in the same swift motion and then she gets up to start her day. She first heads to her kitchen, petting her dogs as she passes by them. She rubs the back of her head awkwardly as she grabs one of her premade breakfast meals out of the freezer. It’s a homemade ham, bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich that she made the night before, she pops it in the microwave. While it heats up she grabs a container of peach yogurt and some white chocolate granola to put inside it. She snacks on the yogurt while going over the plan for the day in her head. She needs to shower, walk her dogs, talk to her management, then go about her normal training. It’s going to be a very long day…

She’s brought back to reality when she hears her microwave beep, she grabs her food and goes and sits on her couch tucking her legs under her as she does. She rubs her temples before she eats her food kind of quickly and then she gathers herself to go shower, playing music as she does. During her shower she makes sure to wash her face and brush her teeth. She wraps herself in her robe before she walks back to her room and quickly heads to her closet. She grabs a pair of black leggings and a white cami. After she gets her clothes on she grabs her favorite oversized hoodie that is near her bag and slips on her sneakers. 

“Luna, Aurora, it’s time for your walk before I go to training, my loves.” Evie calls to her dogs and they instantly run to her side with their leashes in their mouths.

Evie smiles down at them and clips their leashes to their collars and puts on their booties before they head out, she also slips on her face mask. Evie ends up walking her dogs for about twenty minutes, replaying bits of last night in her mind. She feels like a burden and lets out a stressed sigh before letting her dogs back into her apartment and hanging their leashes back up on the wall.

“You guys behave now, ya? I don’t want a single message from my roommate that you guys didn’t listen. It’ll be a longer day today so I won’t be able to see ya til tonight.” Evie says to her two dogs before kissing them both on their heads.

She grabs her bag from her room before rushing out the door, she’s late now because she lost track of time during the walk. She quickly pulls her baseball cap onto her head and slips her face mask back on before bolting out the door to catch her ride. Her manager told her they had to talk to her and those words haunted her the entire time she tried sleeping. What could they need from her? Surely she isn’t in any trouble right?

Yesterday’s training was really hard for Evie and she’s remembering every mistake she made and she wonders if it was because of that. Maybe they are cutting me from the family? Maybe I’ll never debut after all. She thought to herself tears threatening to form and she quickly stops that line of thinking and pops her earbuds in and listens to her music to calm her mind. She laid her head on the window and zones out as her mind races as to what management could want from her.

She shakes her head and comes back to reality again when she notices her phone is going off. It’s her brother and she instantly answers.

Evie is all smiles as she answers the facetime call. “Huddy! Hi! How’d you know I was up?” 

“I didn’t, I have some amazing news for you though and that’s why I called you at this hour.” Hudson, Evie’s older brother, is equally as smiley as she is, if not more.

“Well, out with it!”

“You’re going to be an Auntie!” Hudson nearly shouts as he waves a positive pregnancy test at the camera.

“I’m glad!” Evie says with a beaming smile. “Unfortunately I’ve got to go, we made it to the building.” 

“Awe, well, call me when you can ya?” Hudson says with a slight frown. “You’ve been extra busy the past few days.”

“Yes of course I’ll call ya. Don’t forget to eat brekky and to take care of yourself. I’ve got things to tell you later. I love ya Huds.”

“I love you too, Evs.” he replies before hanging up.

Talking to her brother seemed to bring up Evie’s mood a lot and she thanks her driver before she heads to the practice room. Blinking a lot to get her eyes used to the bright lights of the room. By now it is nearly  five in the morning, usually she’d be here by now or just leaving. Evie basically lives in the practice rooms not because they make her but because she doesn’t deem herself worthy of being an idol.

“Evelyn?” says an oddly familiar voice, at first she can’t put her finger on who it is. Then her eyes instantly widen when she looks up and sees who it is. She nearly drops her bag to the floor as she bows her head very low.

“Yes sir? Was it you that needed to speak to me?” Evie asks in a shaky voice in English before she mentally scolds herself and repeats it in Korean.

“I have some really really good news for you. Follow me.” JYP says before leading her out of the training room she’s been calling home for the past year.

“Don’t you dare think I haven’t noticed how hard you work yourself Nari.” he says, stopping suddenly. Evie turns and looks at him tilting her head not wanting to interrupt him if he wants to speak again. 

“I know how hard you took your elimination from the show, and I do apologize. I just hope you understand I did that so you could grow even more as an artist and find yourself more. I’ve been monitoring you closely since you’ve been eliminated and I don’t think you fit with the other girls you’ve been training with. You belong with them.” he says to her before nodding to a door. Evie starts to tremble in place, her eyes widening again.

“Skz is in there?” she asked quietly, missing her boys.

“Yes, only Chan knows you’re coming. Enter when you’re ready, you’re going to be extremely busy from this moment on. I hope you enjoy being back with the group, that is your home Nari.” with that JYP turns and walks away leaving Evie standing there with her jaw on the floor.

She takes many deep breaths trying to calm her nerves. She hasn’t seen these boys since the day she was eliminated from the show. These were her best friends in the entire industry, her literal motivation to work so hard, to be better. Right there, all she has to do is open the door. Her hands are trembling, what if they are mad at her for something? Woojin just left the group not too long ago, so what if people begin to think they added her to replace him? There’s STAYs who have been begging for Evie to debut with SKZ even now so they won’t, but what if others do? Not everyone is going to know her history with SKZ. Evie just open the door and stop procrastinating. 

Evie lays her head against the door and can hear the quiet sounds of talking of the boys who she assumes had just woken up not long ago. She stays like that for a few moments until she hears footsteps coming toward the door and she quickly and quietly moves away from the door fearing it’ll open and they will see her creeping on them like that. Holding her breath she just opens the door, knowing if she doesn’t do it now she never will. She wanted to make sure that the door opened because of her and not one of the boys needed to go to the bathroom or something and exposed her waiting to enter.

When the door opens all the chattering in the room dies, she slowly closes the door behind her staring at the floor, afraid of their reactions. She nervously scratches at her arm and sort of shrinks. The silence is oh so loud.

She quietly says, “Hi…” 

No one says anything, the boys just stare at her in disbelief as if they are seeing a ghost. She finally looks around to see the shocked looks on everyone’s faces and Hyunjin is crying, she wants to hug them all to catch up with them but she can’t find it in her to move. She stares at Minho and her heart drops, he looks pissed at her. Her gaze then goes to Felix who looks like he’s ready to pounce on her and tackle her in a hug. Then she sees Jeongin who is staring blankly at her as if he doesn’t believe that she’s truly there. Chan, who knew she was coming, is smiling softly and warmly, the love that always radiates off him when she’s near him is something she never forgot. Changbin is staring at her shocked to see her, his jaw hanging open. Seungmin is just staring at her, his facial expressions are hard for her to read. Finally she looks at Han who is smiling widely. 

She takes one step forward before falling to the floor and she just bursts into tears, she’s having such a rough time believing any of this is real. Quickly Chan, Felix, Han, and Hyunjin rush up to her and hug her in a group hug to comfort Evie. She’s crying really hard and sorta pushes everyone away after a few moments and runs out of the room to go catch her breath, she suddenly feels really anxious. She at first didn’t have a plan, she wanted to just run home and pretend this awkward reunion never happened but she decided to just head to the bathroom instead knowing that’d be the wiser decision.

She sprints to the bathroom and ends up throwing up her breakfast. During this whole thing her phone was being blown up, she doesn’t know who could be texting her this much at this time but she just turns it to silent and washes her face and slaps her cheeks to hype herself up again. She feels really stupid for leaving them like that, for breaking down in front of them, for throwing up with anxiety. She sighs at herself and takes her phone out of her pocket and sees she’s been added to a group chat, that’s why her phone was being blown up, none of the phone numbers are saved, she couldn’t be bothered to actually read any of the messages just blankly stares at her phone for a few moments before she finally heads back to the room that she sprinted from.

She knocks on the door gently this time before entering, the chattering once again stopping when she enters the room. She feels as though all the connections she had with these boys have disappeared by the silence. She sighs and just grabs her bag and puts her phone in it before putting it in the corner of the room. When she gets back to the center of the room it’s still silent.

“Can someone please say something…?” Evie asks as she anxiously runs a hand through her hair.

“Evelyn? Is that really you?” Hyunjin was the first to say anything.

She nods before speaking. “Yes, hello. I missed you guys…” tears threaten to fall again.

“Why are you here?” Minho asks a bit coldly and Evie visibly shrinks.

Evie shrugs and equally as coldly replies. “Ask your damn leader.”

Felix comes up to Evelyn and just pulls her into a tight hug and she instantly relaxes and mumbles an apology to Minho and Chan for getting snippy as she hugs back her fellow Aussie. He gently rubs her back and kisses her on her cheeks.

“We missed you so much Evs.” Felix says to her excitedly.

“Doesn’t feel like it…” Evelyn pouts and reluctantly pulls away from the hug staring at Minho again.

“Don’t mind him, Bug.” Chan says from behind Felix. “He really missed you, he was torn up after you had to leave. I think he’s in shock.”

“Okay?” Evie is clearly confused. “Doesn’t mean he has to be cold to me like we are strangers now. It’s only been a year…”

She moves around Felix and hugs each member excluding Minho who is just glaring daggers at her.

“Oi!” Evie shouts at Minho to get his attention. “Do you want a hug, Minnie?”

He stands up and just opens his arms and she borderline runs into his arm catching him off guard and they fall to the floor laughing and just cuddle one another, the cold front instantly leaving when he finally got her in his arms. Minho was always one of the members Evie was close to. After they hug for a short while she goes back to clinging to Hyunjin, another one of the boys she’s extremely close to. Instinctively he kisses her head and Chan ushers the group to gather around, Evie sits between Minho and Hyunjin.

“You guys are probably curious as to why Evelyn is back with us in this room. Well I have got some news for you all.” Chan starts the announcement and Evie grabs one hand of each of the boys around her feeling nervous for some reason, fearing they would reject Chan’s words. 

“I have been having a lot of serious conversations recently after everything that has been happening. I voiced how we were upset with the fact that JYP cut Evelyn from the team. After telling him about how I don’t feel like the team is truly ‘Stray Kids’ without Evelyn he told me that he has been monitoring her training process since the day she left us and that if we wanted…” Chan pauses for a moment, probably for dramatic effect before speaking again. “She could join Stray Kids during our next comeback!”

The boys all let out gasps and Minho squeezes Evie’s hand rather tightly, probably from excitement from being able to be with her everyday again. All the boys voice their agreement to let Evie back into Stray Kids, agreeing the group felt so wrong without her. Evelyn finally felt at home again for the first time in about a year. She hugs everyone and tells them all she loves them before they all got ready to actually start practicing.

[mgopinoon]

I'll think we'll find out rather quickly if these two are still together after Austin wraps. Kaia will not be able to wait any longer to get him on a pap walk in NY or LA just to prove they are still together. If they are.

But as others have said, it could be a case of nothing is confirmed until January. It is similar to his break up with Vanessa. They were last seen together in November 2019 and the break up was announced in January 2020.

I think now is a good time to announce it hahaha but if they don't do it we'll have to see if Kaia spends her vacation in Los Cabos without Austin and then the situation will be more evident. I'm decreeing that we have an announcement and that the end is real.

[wandafiction]

Mockingbird - Just Us Chapter 43

Warnings: Description of Blood, Death, Accident, Gore

Word Count: 3929

Series List | Chapter 42 | Chapter 44

================================

November 8th 2019

I was woken by the high pitch wails of Evie, let me tell you she is the sweetest most innocent thing to ever exist but my God does she have a pair of lungs on her. I look to my right, the big red digits of the clock flashing 2.34am in my face, well at least she stayed quiet for an extra few minutes tonight. I feel Sarah stir next to me, a small disapproving grunt leaving her lips.

"It's okay baby, I've got her." Sarah lazily gives me a thumbs up and a small thank you as I climb out of the bed. "Love you."

"Love you too." Her voice riddled with sleep and muffled by the pillow, I give her a quick peck on the forehead before making my way to her side of the bed, where the bedside crib is. 

"Hello my little angel." I pick up her small body, holding her securely in one arm as my other searches for her toy elephant that Tony was adamant would be her favourite toy once she grew up. I mean she loves it now, but that's probably because the nose has a rattle in it and the ears make a funny crunching noise when you scrunch them in your hands. I hold it up in the air where she can see it and her eyes go wide, her crying turns to sniffles. I bring it down to boop her on the nose with it and she gives me a gummy smile as she coos up to it. She smacks her lips together, which is a tell tale sign she is hungry. 

"Mama's boobs are a little sensitive right now baby, but let's go and make you a bottle." I wrap her tiny body back up in a blanket so she doesn't get cold, the small elephant toy under my armpit so I don't have to struggle with the doors on the way around the house. I put a little hat on her and make sure her hands are also wrapped up in the blanket, it gets cold this time of year in Sokovia. Well I mean it's pretty much cold all year around, but November and December are definitely the worst times for it. 

I open the bedroom door, giving one last look to my sleeping wife before leaving her in peace as I coo down at Evie to try and keep her calm as we move through the cold hallways. I brought my phone with me, so tap a few buttons and hear the heating click on. The lights in the kitchen flicker on when I enter and my body shivers at the temperature in the room. Why is the kitchen always the coldest place in the house? I pull Evie more towards me to try and allow my body heat to radiate through the blanket a little while the heating does it's job. I fill up the kettle, turning it on so the water can boil while I grab some of the good ole breast milk out of the fridge. I pumped it today so it should still be nice and fresh, hopefully satisfying Evie's huge appetite. 

I pour the milk into one of her bottles and put it in the small bottle heater, because we all know that babies like their milk warm. It's weird to think about but it's not actually half bad, before you lot go crazy with your smirking faces imma stop you. No. We have to taste test the milk to make sure it's not too hot or too cold, get your heads out of the gutter your dirty minded people.

Anyway...where was I? Oh right, heating the baby milk. 

As the milk is heating up the kettle comes to a boil, with Evie still in my hand I grab a mug from the cupboard putting it down on the counter. I put in a tea bag and fill up the mug with hot water, the aroma of the green tea fills my nose and it makes me sigh in bliss. I would have a normal cup of tea, but it's now 2.46am if the clock in the kitchen is right, and the green tea normally helps me get back to sleep easier. I see Evie's bottom lip quiver, and know that she is getting more and more hungry. Come on stupid heater, heat it quicker my baby is about to wake up the whole street.

As if the heater heard me, it pings to let me know it's done. I carefully take the hot bottle out of its place, making sure it's not too hot for me to hold with my bare hand. Because my other arm is wrapped around Evie's body I bring the bottle up to my mouth letting a few drops of milk escape and land on my tongue. It doesn't taste the best, but it's not horrible and it's the perfect temperature for my little baby. I bounce her in my arms as I walk from the kitchen to the living room wanting to sit on the couch to feed her. Once I have settled on the edge of the couch, I bring the bottle up to Evie's mouth and her lips attach around the nipple of the bottle like we haven't fed her for days, when in reality it was a few hours ago. After a couple seconds I remove the bottle from her lips, so I can pace her and make sure she is just gulping down air. 

She smacks her lips together again, so I replace the nipple of the bottle back between her lips and she gently gulps down some more milk. After a few more gulps her eyes start to close, so I remove it and her lips stay parted. I get up from my seat, taking the bottle with me, heading into what will be her room in a few months, grab one of her baby towels and wipe at her face where she was dribbling. Her eyes flutter open for a second so I test out if she wants any more by placing the nipple back near her lips, but she simply turns her head closing her eyes again. I put the bottle on the nightstand, I will sort it out later, throw the towel over my shoulder and bring Evie's body up so I can burp her. Once I hear a not so graceful burp leave her lips, I check her face for any sick which thank god there isn't and start to make my way back to the kitchen, grabbing my tea before heading up to our room. 

As I slowly lower her into the crib she starts to fuss and wiggle around. I unwrap her arms from the blanket so she can move more freely, the heating is finally doing its job as the room starts to warm up. I place the mug on the bedside table, before looking down at my beautiful baby girl. Her curious eyes look up at me in the dark, as she continues to fuss. I let out a small sigh bending down, placing my hand in the crib and she grabs onto my index finger. I swing her arm about a little, her grip remains strong on my finger, her eyes still open searching the darkness. I start to rock the small crib trying to lull her to sleep, but when she continues to fuss I move to the last resort. I sing her what my mom used to sing to me.

"Hush, little baby, don't say a word

Mama's gonna buy you a mockingbird

And if that mockingbird won't sing

Mama's gonna buy you a diamond ring

And if that diamond ring turns brass

Mama's gonna buy you a looking glass

And if that looking glass gets broke

Mama's gonna buy you a billy goat

And if that billy goat won't pull

Mama's gonna buy you a cart and bull

And if that cart and bull turn over

Mama's gonna buy you a dog named Rover

And if that dog named Rover won't bark

Mama's gonna buy you a horse and cart

And if that horse and cart fall down

You'll still be the sweetest little baby in town

So hush little baby, don't you cry

Momma loves you and so do I!"

She finally let's sleep consume her, her grip on my finger relaxes so I slip it out of her hand and stand up making sure to still the crib so it isn't rocking her in her sleep because it usually wakes her up. I trudge back to my side of the bed, pulling the covers back so I can slip under. Sarah's body gravitated towards mine as she pushes her back against my front and I wrap my arm around her waist to bring her closer leaving a small kiss on the back of her neck. I hear her let out a content sigh so I know she is awake still.

"Honey, go back to sleep. It's nearly 3.30 and you need your rest." She turns her whole body so she is now facing me, stuffing her face against my neck. 

"Sing to me." I smile against her hairline, pecking her forehead a few times feeling her relax against me.

Hush, little baby, don't say a word

Mama's gonna buy you a mockingbird

And if that mockingbird won't sing

Mama's gonna buy you a diamond ring

I hear light snores leave my wife's lips and it makes me smile. I pull our bodies impossibly closer, taking in her vanilla scent before I continue singing, until I once again finish the song and let sleep take over me.

I wake to a cold bed, my arms no longer wrapped around my wife's body but instead the pillow that smells just like her. I lift my head up when I hear a small cry, searching for Evie's body in her crib but she is not there. The cry must have come from somewhere else inside the house. I turn to look at the bedside clock, the red digits flashing 7.58am at me. Why do I always have to wake up before the hour? I could use the extra 2 minutes to, well, sleep. I groan, wiping my hands over my face trying to rid it of sleep, sitting myself up and swinging my legs out from the covers digging my toes into the carpet. I stretch my hands above my head as I stand up, a loud yawn escaping me. I trudge downstairs where I can hear the soft cooing of my wife's voice as she talks to our daughter.

"Momma loves you so much. Are you excited for your first Christmas, because I am and mama has brought us to her Sokovia. Yes she did, she brought us here to see all the wonders as a family. Do you know I love you mama? I do, with every fibre of my being and I love you to the moon and back. I can't wait to grow as a family, maybe add another brother or sister." 

"Already thinking of more?" I enter the room pressing my front to her back as I wrap my arms around her waist, my chin resting atop her head as I look down to our daughter. I kiss the top of her head and she leans against me more.

"Mmm, I made coffee and breakfast." I kiss her head once more and unwrap myself from her so I can grab the waffles and coffee.

"How did you manage this with her in your hand?" 

"I have my ways" She just smirks at me and it makes me laugh.

"Thank you for letting me sleep in baby." I sat my bowl and mug at the table , taking a seat as she sits in the one next to me.

"No problem, you were up with her for a while so I thought it best to let you rest. What's the plan for today?" I look at her and our baby girl  as she bounces Evie in her arms to keep her quiet.

"Well the Christmas markets open today, so I thought we could go and have a look around, maybe get some decorations ready for the 1st of December then we can prepay for a tree from the local farmer who grows them. Then we can go out to that little café we have been to, then we can visit Carl and spend the day with him and the witches." 

"I love that, I will go get me and Evie ready for the day. I bring some extra blankets and the hand warmers just in case. Also why do they call themselves witches?"

"Because they own the coven café. Just makes sense."

"Sure. Anyway, eat up and we will go when you're ready." Sarah stands from her chair, placing a chaste kiss on my lips before disappearing upstairs.

I turn back to my waffles and smile at the whipped cream and cherry smiley face. My wife is such a child sometimes but I eat it and for some reason it tastes better than normal. Must have been the artwork that added to it. I finish off my coffee and waffles moving back to the kitchen to wash up. I hear my wife's footsteps coming down the stairs and smile at her as she is wrapped up like a burrito in her coat, hat, scarf and gloves. Evie is wrapped up warm too, and her extra blanket hangs over Sarah's shoulder. I give them both a kiss as I pass them on the stairs to go get myself ready.

When I come back downstairs I look out the window to see the two loves of my life waiting out in the car, the engine running and I can only assume the heating is being blasted. I grab my wallet, making sure I have my phone and lock up the house as I leave. When I get in the car, it felt like I was getting in a sauna, my face being blasted by hot air as Sarah holds her hands out in front of the vent. I laugh at the sight but put my seat belt on and pull out of the driveway. 

"Did you buy the car just so there was something on the drive?" Sarah looks at me amused.

"What if I did? I have the house here and might as well have a vehicle so I don't have to rent one each time." I shrug as I look both ways before pulling out onto the main road that leads straight to the center of the city. 

"Your own money or the joint account?" I furrow my brows slightly at the question but shake it off, Sarah has always been funny when it comes to me spending money on me. She prefers it to come out of my earnings from working then what we make through the company as CEOs.

"My account. The joint account we agreed was for a new house for the three of us and our future." She gives me a look. "It was one time and I didn't realise I had used the wrong card, it was an honest mistake." I defend lightly.

"Well when $182'000 leaves the joint account I thought it was fraud." 

"Was it or was it not worth the $182'000? And I put the money straight back."

"Well it was definitely worth it. I mean you did propose with the $182'000. Got a nice ring out of it too." She jokes as she shows off her engagement ring and wedding band.

"Exactly so, stop complaining."

"Mhmm, I love you."

"I love you too." 

I come to a set of traffic lights going right through them, as ours are green. Before I can even comprehend what is happening, the car is struck on the passenger side sending us flying to the left as the car flips too many times to count through the air. The car hits the road and skids along hard ground, but not before the bottom of the car is hit again sending us rolling once more. We come to a sudden stop and everything goes black. 

I come to when I hear people shouting and lots of blue flashing lights. I open my eyes, all I can see is red so I bring a shaky and sore hand to wipe my eyes. When I bring my hand away, opening my eyes slowly, I see my hand covered in blood yet I am not sure if it is mine or not. I look out to what used to be the windscreen but is now a mess of smashed glass and warped metal. The world is upside down, so that means I am upside down. I look to where my wife should be and see a mess of red and metal, her body no longer recognisable as her own. Her body lays still, her blood seeping out of a large gash on her neck...it's not stopping. I can see her chest rising up and down slowly, but it's not strong. She is so weak. She licks her lips slightly, her eyes fluttering as she tries to open them, but gives up when she can't. I hear a small breath escape her mouth.

"I….love….you….3000." I scream out in agony as her body gives up to her major injuries, I know the moment her heart stops beating and pushing blood around her body, because her neck is no longer bleeding the blood is just pooling around her now. 

I hear a cry from behind me and turn my head as much as I can to see my baby girl screaming her lungs out, but she has a nasty gash on her head. I bite my lip to stop me from screaming out again, the voices of all those around me not being heard as my ears start to ring. 

"Hey, hey hey. Evie baby everything is going to be fine. Everything is going to be just fine." I know she can't understand me and I know everything is not fine but the moment she hears my voice she goes quiet, a small whimper leaving her mouth. 

Her big glossy eyes look up at me, I haven't seen her move at all but the gash on her head won't stop bleeding. I know she won't be rescued in time, she probably has internal hemorrhaging and a brain contusion. She isn't going to make it, but she doesn't need to know that. I just need to keep her calm while the rescuers do their work. So I do the only thing I can do at that moment.

"Hush, little baby, don't say a word

Mama's gonna buy you a mockingbird

And if that mockingbird won't sing

Mama's gonna buy you a diamond ring

And if that diamond ring turns brass

Mama's gonna buy you a looking glass

And if that looking glass gets broke

Mama's gonna buy you a billy goat

And if that billy goat won't pull

Mama's gonna buy you a cart and bull

And if that cart and bull turn over

Mama's gonna buy you a dog named Rover

And if that dog named Rover won't bark

Mama's gonna buy you a horse and cart

And if that horse and cart fall down

You'll still be the sweetest little baby in town

So hush little baby, don't you cry

Momma loves you and so do I!"

By the time I'm finished Evie has gone quiet, her eyes no longer holding their color. I scream as I turn to the front of the car, slamming my hands against what's left of the steering wheel. That's when I finally look over my body to assess my injuries and my eyes grow wide at the site of the piece of rebar sticking out just below my right ribcage. That's when I realise I can't feel my legs, and the angle at which the rebar has entered let's me know it has torn through my spine. I cough up blood, well shit. I feel someone tap my face so I turn to look up through the broken windscreen, and I'm met by the sight of a firefighter.

"Hey, we are doing our best to get you out of here. You just have to stay with me." He gives a few commands to his colleague but stays with me as they start taking the car apart.

"What's the point? They're dead. Why couldn't it be that easy for me?" I see him visibly gulp at the sight.

"I'm sorry for your loss, but you have to stay with me. You have to fight. For them.' His words make me angry, but I don't say anything, I just nod. I feel my eyes closed and don't fight the darkness as it consumes me. "We're losing her!" 

Present day 

I look around the hospital room, momentarily forgetting where I am because I got so lost in the story. I feel a body press against mine and freeze for a moment until the smell of strawberries wafts through my nose and it instantly calms me down and brings me back. I see that there is not a dry eye in the room and Christina hands around tissues. No one says anything. There is nothing to be said, but Christina is the first to break the silence. 

"So I heard some news Y/n. A little bird called Tony told me. Why didn't you tell me this at our last session?" Tony and his big mouth.

"Because there's some things that I need to process by myself." 

"But it caused a panic attack, and we made a deal to talk about them everytime."

"So what are we going to talk about it now?" I scoff but bow my head in apology.

"We are because then we can use it to help prove to yourself that you are not to blame." Wanda and Natasha sit up more ready to listen. "So tell me Y/n what's the news?"

"He is going down."

"Who's he?"

"The man that hit us with his truck." 

"What's he going down for?"

"Reckless driving, driving with intent to hurt, plotting murder. Murder in the 1st degree."

"And that's good."

"Yup"

"What about the other man?"

"What's with all the questions?"

"Because I am trying to prove to you that it's not your fault."

"But it is! If I hadn't saved that kid then we wouldn't be here would we? No!" I slam my hand against the railing of the bed and I see Natasha and Wanda jump at my aggression and I just want to wither away and disappear at that point. "Sorry."

"So you blame saving Carl for the death of your wife and child?" 

"Yes because if I didn't save him, there would be no reason to come after me!"

"And who was it Y/n. Who plotted your murder. What other person is going down now that they have the evidence?" 

"I…." I take a breath. "I don't blame the kid."

"I didn't say you did. I asked the name of the person who plotted your murder."

"I…"

"Y/n we can't move on from this point unless you say it out loud. These two people here want to help you, but they don't know everything. So tell them. Tell them the name of the man who plotted your murder."

"Ultron."

================================

[conradscrime]

3 Halloween Murders

October 31, 2024

Karl Jackson

On October 31, 1998, Karl Jackson who was 21, got out of his car in the Bronx, New York, to tell a group of teenagers to stop throwing eggs. Once Karl finished, he returned to his car and got inside of it. It was then that one of the teenagers he had confronted pulled out a gun and shot him in the head.

Karl's father, Karl Jackson Sr., had reported that his son actually never went out on Halloween, claiming that it was too dangerous. However, Karl had made an exception that night to take his girlfriend, Darlene's 9 year old son Clyde to a Halloween party.

When the party had ended, Karl had plans to drop off Clyde to a babysitter and go out to another party with Darlene.

It was then that their car got egged and Karl stepped out. Between 1984 and 2010, The New York Times reported that 24 people had been killed or seriously injured over egg throwing confrontations.

Curtis Sterling was the person who shot and murdered Karl Jackson, being only 17 at the time. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Every year on Halloween, Karl's mother sends Curtis a Halloween card to tell him that she's happy he is behind bars.

2. Laura Ann Aime

On October 31, 1974, Laura Ann Aime who was 17, left a Halloween party in Utah. Unfortunately she would shortly run into one of the world's most known serial killers - Ted Bundy.

While the details of Laura's murder are unknown, it is known that Laura had left the party to go buy cigarettes. Almost a month later, her body was found halfway down an embankment in American Fork Canyon. She had been raped, bludgeoned and strangled.

Her family chose to put November 1974 as her death date on her grave as there were reports that Laura had been kept alive for a few weeks, and died only one week before her body had been found.

Laura's murder was quickly tied to 17 year old Melissa Smith, who was the daughter of a local police chief, and the disappearance of 17 year old Debra Kent, whose remains have never been found besides one of her kneecaps found in 2019.

Ted Bundy never necessarily confessed to murdering Laura, but investigators believe she was one of his victims as her death matched his M.O., as well as the timeframe and location adding up.

3. Lisa Ann French

On October 31, 1973, in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, a 9 year old girl named Lisa Ann French went trick or treating. Lisa was dressed as a hobo that year and had already gone to two houses before visiting her neighbour, 25 year old Gerald Turner.

According to reports, Lisa actually knew Gerald as he had once rented the other half of her family's duplex. She often visited him to say hello or show him things that she'd found.

That night, Gerald invited Lisa into his home. Gerald later said that he remembered Lisa looking happy as she recognized her, but then her smile turned to fear in her eyes when he closed the door behind her.

Gerald took Lisa to his bedroom where he brutally sexually assaulted her until she stopped breathing. Lisa died from asphyxiation and shock.

Gerald attempted to cover his crime by wrapping Lisa in a garbage bag and dumping her body. Police soon came to his door where he admitted to killing the little girl. He later recanted his confession but was sentenced to 38 years and 6 months in jail.

After Lisa's murder, the area did trick or treating differently. There was set hours for it and it never occurred after dark.

Here were three horrific Halloween stories where 3 individuals lost their lives young. Karl, Laura, and Lisa all had families, friends, hopes and dreams. The monsters who took their lives are scarier than any spooky Halloween movie fictional killer. May their killers never know peace. I hope everyone had a great October and a safe Halloween tonight!

[venusvity]

i really REALLY need a venus timeline of their album releases + solo cause why am I thinking they be releasing album on top of albums like 😭😭 do the girls not know the word REST ??

they don't because they're under mydol dnkjask anyways!

2018

SHE DEVIL would be released in March and promoted until May.

Baebi would debut solo in June with Bubble Pop and wrap up promotions the same month.

Kisseus would be released in August and be promoted in September. Jiah would also debut solo with "Why, Why, Why?" in August but only had a two-week promotional run.

Baebi would have her first comeback in October with Tell Me More, which would wrap up promotions within the same month.

They would close off the year by releasing Tasteus in November and conclude promotions in December.

2019

The VSCAPE Era was a continuous six-month promotional period, with each release of BATTLE ROYALE, PUNCHOUT, and LOVE SIMULATOR, each getting two months of promotions and the era concluding in late June.

Jiah would also have her first solo comeback in June with "Good Luck, Hun." and wrap up those promotions in October.

Chloe would debut solo in August with Fine and promote the single until September.

Jiah would have another solo comeback that year with "Moon, Sun, Stars," in November and would conclude promotions within the same month

The girls would continue to promote the VSCAPE albums sporadically throughout the rest of the year.

2020

BRAINROT was released in January and promoted until March. #dontlike would release in May and conclude promotions by June.

In July, Come N' Get It would release and have a pretty short promotional run due to the backlash they received for the sexy concept so they only promoted it for the month of July.

Baebi would release Gashina in August and pretty much promote it on and off throughout the rest of the year because of it's success.

Chloe would have her first solo comeback with Underwater in October and conclude promotions in November.

Bad girl was released in November and would wrap up promotions by the end of December.

2021

I AM VENUS would release in January and be tied in the promotional run of VENUS, I AM which was the repacked version of the album. This album promotional run lasted from January to April.

Illusions would release in May of that year and conclude promotions in early June.

Summer Luv! would release in July as Venus' last comeback of the year but this song, due to it's crazy success, was promoted for the rest of the year.

Hello Baebi! released in August and received a short promotional run of two weeks, concluding in the same month of its release.

Chloe would have a comeback, Siren, in October which concluded promotions in November.

And Baebi would close out the year with the release of Touch in November and promote it into 2022.

2022

Chloe would kick the year off for Venus in Feburary with her comeback Shoreline, that would conclude promotions in March.

Venus would have their first comeback of the year in May with Hi-Tops and conclude the promotions for it in June.

July would be their last comeback with their beloved creative director, Lexa, and be So Sweet which would be released in July and conclude promotions in August.

Baebi would have a solo comeback, Twit, in Septemeber that would conclude promotions in October.

Venus would end the year off in November with the release of GOTCHA and promote the mini album until Januaray of 2023.

2023

VMOONS and (RE)MOONS) would have a joint promotional run as the ladder was a repackage. The promotional period for these albums would start in March and conclude in July.

Jiah would also have her first solo comeback in over four years with "Teddy Bear" in July and wrap up promotions within the same month.

Venus would release TTYL in August and conclude its promotions in October. Just a week after the promotions for TTYL would end, they would release BLESSED IT BE, which would conclude its promotions in late November.

Chloe would have a solo comeback, INVU, in December and conclude promotions for it in the same month.

2024

The majority of the year was used to promote VENUS VICTRIX by releasing three promotional singles: DRAMA, I AM THE BEST, and THE BOYS, which would be the lead single of VENUS VICTRIX. This album only recently officially concluded its promotional run this September.

Chloe would have a solo comeback with POP in March and wrap up promotions within the same month.

Baebi would make her long-awaited solo comeback in April and wrap up promotions in late May.

Sena would debut solo with Sweet Like Candy in June and conclude her solo promotions in August.

They are currently gearing up for a November comeback with the mini album WHIPLASH.

[ericleo108]

Blog Navigation 2023

“The nation's greatness can be judged by how it treats its weakest members.” - Gandhi

Blog Navigation List: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019

Last Updated 12/29/2023

Summary

I make these navigation posts at the end of the year to give a wrap-up and a look back on the year. I post a long-form Update every sunday to YouTube that ends up being in my Friday song release blog post. (You can find the Sunday Update YouTube playlist here.) My book “108 The Story of Discovering Earth’s Consciousness” is still fundamental in understanding my story, perspective, and the content I talk about here in the blog. I put the cosmic luve log first this time because I think it’s the most relevant. If you actually understand what I’m saying about how these celebrities are reflecting me and I think the coincidences are how Gaia is communicating using them as a vessel, you get it. The only real new treatise editions are to FarmingHumans.com where I came out with a new rendition for the “American Inequality” song release and the “Corporate Rule” album expands upon the public reaction to this in an aggressive tone.

2023 Cosmic Luve posts: (In Chronological Order)

In Last year’s blog navigation (2022), I listed all the cosmic luve entries since the very beginning. This year, I will begin where we left off and the last entry about Taylor Swift’s Folklore.

CosmicLuve.com April 2023 - Sun: In this entry, I give more of a personal update and set goals while relating it to the semantics I’ve been experiencing and previously mentioned. 

CosmicLuve.com July 2023 - The Main Thing: In this entry, I talk about how Emma Watson is the main thing and the reason for all my aspirations, so we can become friends. I talk about her posts on Instagram and relate them as a response to my poem in the Hope Sept 2022 entry. 

CosmicLuve.com August 2023 - Orange: In this entry, I talk about how it appears as if Gaia got me a taco for my birthday. I came to this conclusion after getting semantics from Selena Gomez and Connor Price. 

CosmicLuve.com September 2023 - Bam: In this entry, I introduce Janelle Monae as a cosmic luve and explain how Blue has diabolical plans against Big Carbon. 

CosmicLuve.com November 2023 - Cosmic Bros: In this entry, I induct Connor Price as the first cosmic bro after relating new semantics to the previous entry, Slender Man, Connor’s new “Thrillin” video, and new Hailee Steinfeld reflections. 

CosmicLuve.com December 2023 - Deer: In this entry I give a prophecy by identifying semantics from Gaia that come from Emma Watson being referenced by a deer, a tree, the color purple, etc.

Media and Treatise List:

Sociology:

🏚️FarmingHumans.com 2023 - This was the “American Inequality” song officially released this year and posted as the official Farming Humans 2023 edition. In this post I talk about what socialism is, how money is speech, and how corporations are legal persons and farming humans for labor and money (through consumption).

🎃Corporate Rule Album - The “Corporate rule” album expands upon the information outlined in the “American Inequality” song. The album is a response to that assault on democracy with an Immortal Technique approach. The blog post expands upon how there is a conspiracy of the corporate rich working in unison (using far-right tactics) because it serves their self-interests.

🧾NouveauEconomics.com 2022 - In this post, I talk about how the economy needs to account for what the environment does naturally and give it a monetary value. A start is how certain parts of the environment, like Lake Erie, are being granted personhood. This will be updated semi-annually and can be found at NouveauEconomics.com

🍱 The Psycho Consumption Cage 2021 - In this treatise, I talk about how it’s hard to see environmental degradation that is not added to our economics, how you should be using your buying power strategically, how apex species need economic and congressional representation, some solutions, and examples of psycho tendencies from Christmas and hip-hop.

🏳️‍🌈 Gender Equality 2021 - In this essay, I break down gender equality into six categories: LGBTQ, Phobic, Sexual, Mental, Feminist, and Economic. To properly show the subject of gender equality I reference the 6 Netflix documentaries and linked and discuss related videos from Ellen, HeForShe, TED, Jordan Peterson, The World Bank, and the UN.

🏁 Dark Racism 2021 - In this treatise, I explain the science of racism, how it’s an arbitrary distinction that is socially constructed. Black people do have it worse due to institutionalized racism and white privilege. However, I talk about how black people create their own in-group morality around the word “nigga,” and my presented solution.  

🌎👣 Earth: Sustainability, How To Save Our Planet - If you want to know how to save our planet this post is the summation. Taking from the featured WWF video, I focus on a carbon tax and the three ways to save the planet. Along the way I discuss how it relates to The Psycho Consumption Cage.

🌲Marijuana Treatise 2021 - Published on April 20th and introduced with a discussion of my personal use, in this essay, I wrote about the versatility of hemp, the immorality and failure of the war on drugs, and the medical benefits of cannabis. 

Philosophy: 

🌍108 The Story Of Discovering Earth’s Consciousness (post) - This book is fundamental to understanding me and stands as the foundation in which I build my artistry. The book is nonfiction and autobiographical and about celestial consciousness, my personal story of struggling with schizoaffective disorder, atmospheric consciousness, sustainability, and eugenics, and finishes with what the number 108 means for the origins of life on Earth.

🚸🚜 Knhoeing 2020 -  The information is broken down into celestial consciousness, atmospheric consciousness, sustainability, and eugenics. Knhoeing states the planets, stars, and atmosphere are alive, and how humans can understand that through sustainability and eugenics. Knhoeing has to do with understanding your position in the universe and expresses and addresses human purpose through a eugenics goal. To survive & thrive as a species, we must support ourselves through healthy sustainability and breed to understand higher dimensions. 

🙏Sentientism 2022 - This post contains insights into my mind and the voice in my head, Gaia. Sentientism explores the belief (whereas knhoeing is the knowledge) that Gaia is conscious and communicating. I explain how sentientism is the religion of Gaia where you worship through action and create dogma through science and philosophy. If the planet earth is conscious how would she try to communicate considering she has no mouth or ligaments? How would Gaia try to communicate? I postulate and explain how Gaia could be communicating through a kind of telepathic randonauting.

📐 Expanding on Plato’s Philosophy: Forms and the Tripartite Soul (2020) - In this treatise, I explain how Plato’s forms are stored and strived for by Gaia and how Plato’s theory about the tripartite soul is similar to my theory about the will.

♟️ Logic - This post is a short introduction to logic. I use quotes and pictures of pages from the book “How Philosophy Works.” The content includes deductive, inductive, and abductive reasoning, fallacies, and formal logic. I have also embedded a couple of CrashCourse videos.

Releases

🕸️New Release Blog at EricLeo.org - Over the last year I have been releasing at least on the 1st, 3rd, and if there is a 5th Friday of every month if not every week. Each release has its own post in my new release blog which is constantly being updated. The same posts are also here on this Tumblr blog as I post them at the same time. A list of releases is cataloged as follows:

2021

Read 108 - about my book

Vibe on the Wave - catchy intro

Eat The Mind - intellectual rap

Bump This Banger - party music

Cloud 9 - about recreational drugs

2022

Who’s Hip-Hop - my perspective in hip-hop

Black Lives Matter - support for the cause

Smoke Blunts - high intellectual bars

Flossin - dance track

Hey Emma - dance track, made for Emma’s everywhere

Champagne and Chocolate - romance track

Just Us Two - expression on evolution and companionship

Make It Hip-Hop - Homage to favorite artists

My Word - Celebrating 10 years

Gaia and Blue - Expands on “108” book

Love the Mission - the purpose of my music

Hit Me with the Download - a great tune

Talk to Me - romance track about wanting more

Cunnilingus - dating life experience track

Just Dance - dance track

Just Like You - happy expression 

We Dance - play when dancing is a protest

Come On Dawg - what my music stands for

The Villain - playing the role of the villain

Rage - subjects will put you in a rage

Bounce with This - party music inspired by Charlotte

Take Your Medication - Kayne Diss

2023

Gold Shaw Farm - about Morgan and Alyson’s farm on YouTube

Betsy - about the character from Hulu’s “Dopesick”

Bo Peep - political rap about America

Atheist Raps - self-explanatory, rebuke’s Christianity 

Blow Me Up - asking for help with exposure

Michigan Love - romance track about love in Michigan

I Got You - Letter asking for help from my fans

Breaking Bad - Eminem and Dr. Dre homage

Bleed - heartfelt plea about ending mass shootings

Going Gaga - fun romance track with Gaga Gaga-inspired hook

Funk You - response track to Olivia Rodrigo’s “good for you” and “deja vu”

What Now - 6 track EP about and inspired by other artists

Bong Hits For Jesus - about how when you smoke, you smoke with Jesus

Up Wasted - subjects and getting “fucked up wasted”

God Damn - fun and energetic track showing skill

Love You Mom - A thank you to my mother for being a good mom

American Inequality  - about how America is an oligarchy

John Wick - gets out aggression toward sex traffickers

Philosophy 101 - based off Cornel West’s Introduction to Philosophy Masterclass

Yeah We Bang - about American imperialism

Legend - about my feelings toward the music industry

We Make The Party - Party music with global warming bars 

Freaky Naughty - emulating Dr. Dre’s sound with global warming bars

With You - Cmadd feature about riding with your girl

Vulnerable - Selena Gomez response to her song with the same name.

Mitten Kingz - a song with artists representing Michigan

Soldier For Love - a message to keep going out of love

Our Love - a break-up and get back together song

My Everything - how your lover is your everything

Be My Dream - how I want Emma Watson to be my dream come true,

Reputation - A response to Taylor Swift's reputation 

Karma - about your fate in terms of civilization

Corporate Rule - 8-track album in Immortal Technique style

Earth - my hit and best representation of my music

Back to Life - Hailee Steinfeld response and homage. 

Process, People, Product - about Marcus Lemonis 3 P’s business philosophy 

All Homo - An edgy and controversial take on support for the gay community

Cosmic Luve Brownies - A response to Taylor Swift’s Lover album

Praises - a sexually charged song from artists from Kalamazoo Michigan 

…

Chalice Mixtape side note: “Talk to Me” (2022), “John Wick,” “Be My Dream,” “Reputation,” “Karma,” and the “All Homo” ep, were all remakes from ‘The Chalice Mixtape. “Charlotte’s Web” drops April 15 2023 and the remake for “I Love You” is in production. I will probably never remake “Listen Alice,” “Loyal,” “Problems,” or “The Profit.”

Already uploaded and scheduled to drop in 2024:

Kyle Beats Collective EP - 6 tracks made with free beats from Kyle Beats. Jan. 5th

Check it out - track from the (unofficial) party politics era/album Jan. 19th

Kato & Wysh Album - 7 tracks made with Kato and Wysh beats. Feb. 2nd

The Industry Album - 12 tracks with 14 features some with big names over Anno Domini beats. March 1st

Sun poem - spoken word track I recorded from the Cosmic Love Sept 2022 hope post. March 19

Charlotte’s Web - Emma Watson-inspired track released on her birthday. April 15th

Westside Connection Album - 7 tracks with big name features over Anno Domini beats. May 3

YOU - Song based on John Gottman’s 7 principles for making marriage work. June 7th

Can You Hear Me? - Rap song about global warming and summer heat. June 20th

[ausetkmt]

Donald Trump's Hate Has No Place in Black America. Let's Remind Him in November.

We are seven months out from the most consequential election in our nation’s history, and Black voters know what’s up: A recent survey conducted by Black pollster Cornell Belcher’s firm asked 800 Black voters in battleground states to identify the single greatest threat to the Black community.

Their answer? A second Donald Trump presidency.

We should not be surprised by this finding. Trump is prepared to enact – and in many cases, reenact – policies that will do great harm to the Black community and to communities of color. He is expected to authorize mass deportations, wage war on the federal civil service (of which Black employees comprise 18 percent), cut taxes for the rich at the expense of the middle class, fight to make healthcare more expensive and less accessible and support an abortion ban that will only worsen the maternal mortality crisis.

While we have focused a lot on what Trump would do during a second term with the stroke of his pen, we cannot forget about the damage he inflicted on our community as president without even lifting a finger. Over his four years in office, Trump normalized a culture of racism and xenophobia that trickled down from the highest levels of our government to everyday interactions in-person and online. The former president’s social media posts and speeches were laced with a mix of dog whistles and outright hate speech.

How could we ever forget his claim that the attendees of a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va. were “very fine people?” Or when he ordered members of the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” after being asked to condemn the white nationalist militia group? Or when he suggested that four Democratic members of Congress – all women of color – should “go back…[to the] places from which they came” in a tweet that a Republican congressman even described as racist?

Coming from the mouth of the President of the United States, this kind of rhetoric signaled that hate did indeed have a place in his America and gave top cover to those who realized they no longer had to keep their racism under wraps.

Consequently, racial violence skyrocketed during Trump’s presidency. In fact, this trend started before he even took office. The Washington Post found that counties that hosted a Trump rally in 2016 experienced a 226 percent increase in hate crimes in the months that followed. From 2016 to 2017, hate crimes across the country increased by 17 percent. From 2018 to 2019, deadly hate crimes more than doubled. And in 2020, more hate crimes were reported than in any year since 2001. Perhaps unsurprisingly, alleged civil rights violations went under-investigated under Trump’s DOJ. During its first two years, the Trump DOJ opened 60 percent fewer civil rights cases than did the Obama DOJ and 50 percent fewer than the Bush DOJ.

For those who think that the extent of the harm inflicted by Trump’s racism can be fully captured in those statistics, think again. In a multitude of ways, the Black community continues to suffer from the flames of hatred that Trump fanned while he was president. For example, racism is exacerbating the Black mental health crisis: Black youth experienced a 144 percent increase in suicide rates from 2007 to 2020, with both institutional and interpersonal racism identified as strong risk factors driving this trend.

While Trump was president for only a portion of that period, he was active in spreading racism – including promoting the Barack Obama birtherism lie – for almost the entirety of it.

Speaking of Obama, the election of our nation’s first Black president helps us understand why the election of Trump – which once seemed unthinkable – was actually an inevitable reaction to Black progress. Study after study has pointed to racial resentment as a significant driver of the support Trump received from his voters. His base wanted trickle-down racism, and trickle-down racism is what they got.

Fast forward to today, and like any other proverbial old dog, Trump is clearly stuck on his old tricks. On the campaign trail this time around, he has already evoked Hitler, saying that immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of our country, and suggesting that Black voters appreciate him because he is being “discriminated against” in the legal system. Naturally, Republicans have made him their nominee for the third time. But while he might speak for their party, we do not have to let him speak for our country. Not again.

In 2016, Trump promised his supporters the ability to hate openly with impunity, and he most certainly delivered. Now, he’s ready to do it all over again. And while it might be tempting to give into fear and cynicism, we should take hope in recognizing that thanks to our community showing up for Joe Biden in 2020, we helped elect a president who is committed to aggressively prosecuting hate crimes, who has appointed judges with a respect for civil rights, and who recognizes that “hate never goes away, it only hides.”

Donald Trump has never hidden his hate. This fall, let’s show him once again that it has no place in our America.