#Putting this in my queue so it posts a bit later but this struck me right after I posted that last one

[siren-of-agony]

Like every second post of mine

[ingravinoveritas]

Follow-up to this post and a point-by-point recap of last night's events:

- Definitely thought I would be nervous, but as soon as I saw Neil waiting backstage from the vantage of my fourth row seat, all that went away.

- The event was a tribute to Ray Bradbury, with Neil and several actors reading different short stories and Neil talking about them in between. He started off the night by talking about being a TikTok meme ("Neil Gaiman, why are you in my falafel?") and how his time as a meme was almost up.

- There was an after party in the bar following the show, and the ticket I had purchased allowed me to attend. I didn't even realize Neil was there yet because he was so low profile and just chilling while a line began to form at his table.

- When I went up to him, he was very smiley and kind and soft-spoken. I mentioned really enjoying the Bradbury story he read ("The Homecoming") because it felt like an allegory for autism, for an autistic person in a family full of neurotypicals, and it really resonated with me. So we talked Ray Bradbury and writing and it was lovely. - I also mentioned the tweets from a few years ago (here and here) that involved him commenting on a photo of me in a red bikini and me offering to cook him dinner if he came to New Jersey, and he remembered! Haha. He also still seemed very interested in the offer and said, "It's a date" and "We'll do dinner." Oh, Neil... - At the end, I somehow finally remembered to tell him my name and said "I'm Amy" as we shook hands. To which he replied, "It's lovely to meet you, Amy. I'm Neil." - After we took the picture, I wished Neil a good flight (the venue staff said they were trying to hurry up the queue because he had an early flight today) and safe travels, and he said "Thank you!" and was again so sweet and lovely and just a person. - Didn't talk to Neil about anything Good Omens, but I did end up chatting with a woman who knows Rob Wilkins (someone waiting in the queue asked Neil how to get in touch with Rob and he pointed to this woman, so that was how I first became aware of her). Later on in the evening, after Neil left, we were on the other side of the bar and struck up a conversation about all things GO, Terry Pratchett, fandoms, Michael and David's chemistry, and much more. She also told me to follow her on Instagram and message her if I ever needed tips for navigating the overwhelm that is NYCC. A totally unexpected and thoroughly enjoyable conversation overall. - Also got to talk with Yetide Badaki (who was in American Gods and one of the actors who performed last night) and she was beyond lovely. I complimented her performance and said how it was "like Siri, but less creepy" and she burst out laughing and asked if she could put that in her résumé. Haha. The topic of autism came up and she said how it was so important to her and how there needs to be more awareness. I mentioned being a professional speaker and that I've done a TED talk on autism, and she said she wanted to watch it. Again, completely unexpected interaction, but so delightful and so much fun.

My overall thoughts and takeaway from this is that real life is very, very much different and not the same thing at all as online fandom. It was incredibly refreshing to see Neil and talk to him in a non-fandom context, and to see how gracious he was with every person in line (adults, kids, couples, all of it). He signed books, took pictures with people, and hugged fans who seemed to be sharing particularly emotional moments. I feel like the fandom tends to treat Neil like some kind of god, but for me, I truly enjoyed seeing and getting to meet him as a person--charming, intelligent, funny, polite, and just a bit awkward...

[jkpfr]

OC-tober Day 19: Inspiration

I’m queueing this post because I know I’ll be away from the 17th to the 19th – and because the theme is “inspiration”, I get to talk about my boy Hideki yet again.

(…Though it’s very likely that I won’t have talked about Hideki as part of this challenge yet, but I don’t know that for a fact since I’m writing this way ahead of time. What I mean is: I love talking about this. Strap in.)

When I first created my sweet boy Hideki, his name was Daniel and he was white. Horrible history, I know. I completely revamped this character around 2018-2019 for a Danganronpa RP (horrible history, I know) which gave me the perfect opportunity to keep the same basic layout but make it better, and accentuate some aspects, such as his relationship with being a top-student, a lot more.

One thing that hadn’t changed was my warm memory of the song that inspired this character in the first place. And that song was Animal I Have Become by Three Days Grace.

I created Daniel at some point when I was in high school. By that point, I already knew that song by heart. I’d discovered it via an edgy bloody anime girls montage on YouTube when I was like 10, and after years of listening to it via the AMV, I’d bought the album it was on, One-X, when I was in middle school. And for some reason, this was my go-to CD to put on when I was home alone and washing the dishes.

So it was one random day, as I was washing the dishes and listening to this song I loved, that inspiration struck and I came up with him.

I’m not going to lie, I still love this album unironically. Three Days Grace was never the same after their lead singer left – the new singer and direction never matched the raw and sincere frustration expressed in their earlier works. This album, generally, and this song were relatable as hell. When I listened to the song for the first hundred times, without really knowing what it meant and with English as my second language, I related this song to my personal experience of living in an abusive home (a theme explored in other songs on the album) and going to a school where I didn’t belong for many reasons. The “animal I had become” was, to me, the version of me that was too mentally exhausted to interact fully with the world, to be the real me I identified with. Years later, I could even add that the “monster” was my then-undiagnosed anxiety, which scared me and made me react in ways I didn’t understand. However, this song is ultimately about addiction. This is something I think I started to understand as my grasp of the English language gradually got better, and that I wound up confirming with a Google search.

It's with that personal relationship to the song and with that knowledge in mind that I came up with a character who had become someone they hated. A character who was a horrible version of themselves, but would internally beg for help, to be freed from this horror. I came up with a character who was initially a complete softie (in my more recent writings, I would make it obvious that he was too soft for his own good) and through abuse, confusion and exhaustion exploded one day and let himself become the worst possible version of himself. This “explosion” isn’t without the intervention of addiction, he lashes out on the person he wanted to build a life with, who then leaves him, and everything is interlinked.

(Of course, because I love a little bit of drama, there’s a misunderstanding with what really caused his boyfriend to “leave”. But that’s unrelated to any song. What matters to what is at the heart of what this song means to me, is what Hideki thinks happened.)

This was the gist of Hideki’s characterisation for a long time. Now, here’s the thing about that Danganronpa RP. Although Hideki was one of my most popular characters ever, and I went through a lot of effort to explore his characterisation as fully as I could within the limitations of that story, the person organising that RP, aka the GM, abused the shit out of me. Oopsie.

This post isn’t about me so I won’t go through the details, but taking advantage of the horrible mental state that I was in back then from going through undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder following my aforementioned situation of abuse, this person, among a couple others, made me go through hell and worsened my mental state to the point that I… went in shock one day from realising I had hit rock bottom a long time ago – that I had become the monster I’d feared all my life. This was accompanied by my own break-up, which was in fact what caused me to suddenly wake up.

And here was the inspiration for the second part of Hideki’s writing.

Funnily, my ex-partner had participated in that RP alongside me and had hated Hideki’s boyfriend for having left him, even if Hideki had in fact wronged him, because they knew that character knew what he was going through, and how dangerous it was to abandon him then. I shit you not my partner wound up doing the exact same thing to me. And it’s fine! I’d always defended the nuance in what Jun – the boyfriend character – was perceived to have done.

Here’s the thing, though: there’s a good ending to that story. Having suddenly opened my eyes to what was happening to me, I first went through so much shock that my mental health reached a brand new low and my life was in direct danger. And yet, this was a period in my life that was filled with hope. I was going through something extremely difficult, and that forced me to face the me that wanted to fight to the end. I’ll skip over the details – but after surviving this, having gotten some of the help I needed, having been faced with that strong ability to survive I had, I was able to take control of myself again. And I was free to be the real me again.

And that’s when it struck me that I’d never really conceptualised a good ending for Hideki.

My writing of Hideki kinda stopped in the middle of the conflict. As far as shoving him in different RPs where he would live through specific adventures went, that was perfect. But suddenly, I had a brand new experience, and something inside of me must have known just what made sense for such a relatable character as Hideki.

I know this is already very long, but here’s another song; one day, not too long after my healing had started, I was listening to some rock classics. One of those was Highway to Hell by AC/DC.

And very fittingly for Hideki, randomly, for no particular reason, I started to think about a character who was going to heal.

I thought about a Hideki who eventually reached the right time. Who one day felt like listening to music to help vent his frustrations, and by chance discovered rock, hard rock and metal. Who listened to Highway to Hell, felt something, and suddenly had something he wanted to do. Ideas like “attending a concert”, hope like “I will enjoy it” and “I will be able to blend in”, and that was the start of a messy journey, but a journey of healing nonetheless.

This is the start of an iteration of Hideki which I often joke about, dubbing him “metal Hideki”. He dyes his overgrown bright orange hair an ashy brown, he puts on an edgy t-shirt, and there’s something so fun about how silly it is and yet how much it means to his finally putting himself out there.

This inspired me to finish writing his and Jun’s stories, and I’m very satisfied with how I was able to draw inspiration from different stages in my life to write a compelling character, and by how a song was somehow the starting point both times.

There’s a lot more I could say about Hideki; his backstory and his future, which I never used in RP, in part because I have a full story to tell now! (And also because I’m never doing that shit again. Holy shit.) I’ll leave it at this recent cutesy doodle of him, which is directly taken from a song I felt like he would relate to.

[soberyinragingyang]

TL;DR: this fandom is great and I ramble about smitherses characterisation

omg you guys... I put that post in my queue because I wanted to decide on posting it or not later, but then it did 😅 thank you for your responses, I'm happy it struck a cord in that sense. I'll be going through them and probably replying soon.

I usually try not to 'start shit' (which is why I don't tag it, and censor the character names in a way) because I believe everyone is entitled to their own opinions and interpretations of characters. I know I personally bend the 'rules' a bit even looking at the classic seasons for what's probably considered 'in character' or not and I don't want to pretend I know the truth about characters that aren't my own. Part of what makes niche fandom so enjoyable to me is the endless possibilities for personal interpretation!

But I believe our little ingroup of sorts can agree that part of what makes smits enjoyable to us is his adoration of scheming, plotting men with little care for the consequences to others, and the fact that they, in the current seasons, proceeded to then frame his character as 'here's to enjoying the good in each other, while ignoring the bad' (paraphrased) in the Portrait episode was extremely uncomfortable to me, like a pretty big, cartoon slap in the face. It made me realize that a lot of people see this character as something so different from me/us, including the current showrunners.

Which is, you know, okay... I just firmly disagree and sometimes I get a bit too irked for comfort. Honestly, lucky to see I'm not alone in this and get to bother people besides my boyfriend with opinions he can't bring himself to care about much 😂

To be clear with this: I really, really don't want to think of smits as someone who goes along with evil deeds only because he's tasked to. Someone who turns a blind eye to moral corruption for the off chance that things may get better, or worse, that he might get a relationship out of it if he sticks around and suffers through it all long enough. In the current seasons he comes off as so meek and unhappy, and I really can't consider it 'character development' even if I wanted to.

So yeah, big kudos to his characterisation in Who Shot Mr.Burns Part 1 where he very clearly drew a line once things weren't enjoyable for him any longer. I see him as a guy who, you know, only acts as a doormat when he feels like it, and genuinely enjoys all of his and burnsie's corporate adventures. Bonus points if he gets into a bit of good old fashioned backstabbing (I miss you, anagonist-to-Homer smits..)

Anyway, I miss these two being friends, I miss how they looked like partners in crime who, generally, enjoyed being around one another. I miss how comfortable they both were in their cartoony boss/lackey dynamic. I get we can't have that back, with that chemistry dwindling since past season 8 (and even past season 3, in a different way), to the point where I don't even want them to be canon anymore... but I really enjoy keeping the spirit alive with all of you.

And to those of you who don't see them as I just described and still ship them, or don't: godspeed!

[arigatouiris]

never too late // bakugou katsuki

Author’s Note: I’m a Bakuhoe and it is so evident ughhh. So I’d been to Hong Kong earlier this year and I visited Ocean Park and fell in love with the place! It’s the amusement part I’ve based off of for this one-shot. I personally think Theme Park AUs should be a thing, you know? I don’t personally know how things work, so I just made things up here. Hope ya’ll like this! 

Word count: 5480 (omg words just spilled oops)

Pairing: Theme Park AU! Bakugou Katsuki x Reader

Warnings: slow burn, pining, some angst if you squint, fluff

❝

As soon as you wore your uniform and stepped out of the locker room, you heard a scream. 

     “Help me! Somebody help me!”

You were late to work that day. You came in an hour late (a very reasonable excuse, if you had to say so yourself). You blinked before trying to find the source of the scream, scanning your eyes amongst the crowd of children and grown-ups in front of the queue leading to the aquarium. You sighed before walking over to a small child, whose hands were being held by his father, you presumed, and crouched down with a smile. 

     “Is something wrong, sir?”

The child looked at you and blinked before saying, “He isn’t buying me ice-cream!”

His father shot you an apologetic look, which you returned warmly. 

     “Maybe, you can get ice-cream after the aquarium visit? The fish aren’t allowed to have ice-cream, they’ll get jealous!”

The little boy’s eyes widened, before looking at his dad, who shot him a heartwarming smile. As the boy cheered, you bowed and made your way into the aquarium. 

You were incredibly happy with your life and your job—but after a certain incident, you were demoted. You were once a part of the dolphin crew—the best job, according to you, in Ocean World. You sighed as you thought about the dolphins and seals you were working with, you missed them and though it wasn’t as if you weren’t allowed to visit them, not working with them in those little skits broke your heart. 

Stupid Mineta, you thought before grumbling and heading to your current post. Well, at least he lost his job or fucking quit, I’ve no clue, you thought. 

You were currently in charge of the aquarium section—answering queries, if any, watching over the bigger fish, ensuring the tanks were clean and managing the crowds too. It wasn’t much on most days, but during weekends, it was jam-packed. You used to be one of the lead performers in the Ocean World’s dolphin and seal act—alongside the one and only Tsuyu Asui. Thanks to a little grabbing and slapping incident involving a regular pervert, Mineta (who was most probably fired or forced to resign, either one), you were asked very kindly to shift departments. 

While the entire ordeal was unfair, there was little you could do. You were given the hope that when things died down (you did not know what this meant), you could return. The best part about working in Ocean World was that you knew almost everyone who worked there. 

The head of the aquarium department was Midoriya Izuku, a close friend of yours from when you were in school. His knowledge of aquatic animals and plants was tenfold, there was no one who knew better than him. He was kind and stern when he had to be, and children adored him. The aquarium was large and the departments that were connected to it were—the Koala reserve, the Panda reserve, and the reptile section. 

Your good friends Jirou Kyouka and Yaoyarozu Momo worked in the Koala reserve, with Momo being a ranger herself. The Panda reserve had Kaminari Denki and Uraraka Ochako working there, and Uraraka was someone you constantly met with to share hot gossip, even when you were working with the dolphins and seals. The reptile section was headed by Bakugou Katsuki and Kirishima Eirjiro, but there was a slight problem there.

Bakugou Katsuki did not like you. 

And it wasn’t as if you hid your dislike for him, either.

Kirishima was often struck in the middle amongst your bickering but rarely said a word because only often does he get to enjoy two of his friends fight about the silliest things like water bottles or broken plastic chairs. 

It wasn’t as if you hated one another, no; Bakugou and you shared a weird relationship. You’ve known Bakugou for as long as you’ve known Izuku, and you could even call yourselves friends. But, the deal was very simple. 

There was a point in your life when you had a large crush on him, and there was a point in his life when he knew about it. However, there was no confession and there was no rejection—things were left floating in the air until those feelings evaporated in its entirety. You two now shared a weird kinship, bickering all the time but not letting it get too far if the other had a problem. 

When you were working with Asui, you rarely got to see Bakugou. The man never ate with the others, stuck to working all the damn time, and barely ever hung out after. He had a schedule he stuck to like nothing else—and this was perhaps why his only friend was Kirishima and sometimes, Midoriya tried to talk to him as well. 

     “(y/n)-chan!” Izuku whisper-yelled as soon as he spotted you.

He was standing in front of the tank that contained sawfish. You blinked before walking over to him, wondering what the whisper-yelling was about.

     “Izuku-kun? What’s wrong—”

     “It’s Kacchan.”

You hated that the situation began with ‘It’s Kacchan’ like it was a problem you had to deal with. You didn’t want to, but despite everything, Izuku was still your friend and it meant dealing with his friends from time to time as well. 

Groaning, “What’s wrong this time?”

     “The boys were getting beer last night and somehow Kacchan joined us, maybe Kirishima-kun forced him to, I don’t know... So, things got... Things got a bit—”

     “Excuse me, miss?”

You turned around to spot a lone parent with a worried expression.

     “Yes?” 

     “I can’t seem to find my daughter... I’m worried, she doesn’t have a phone on her, can you—” 

Your eyes widened, “Do you have a picture of her, ma’am? We’ll get on it right away. Izuku-kun, can you announce her name on the loudspeaker?”

Midoriya paused instantly and nodded, “Of course! Ma’am, please give us a picture of your daughter?”

     “She’s 7 years old... She’s deathly afraid of water, I wanted to bring her here to show her that it isn’t all that bad! I didn’t think she’d run away—”

     “Ma’am, I’m sure she’s fine. This is a big place, but we will find her. Rest assured. What’s her name?”

     “Mimi. Ito Mimi.” 

You nodded once before taking the picture from the mother and showing it to Izuku. Midoriya ran off to the mic station to make an announcement, and you started to look around inside. You instantly posted a message of Mimi’s picture and name in the Ocean World group on WhatsApp. 

Me: 𝙽𝚊𝚔𝚘𝚞 𝙼𝚒𝚖𝚒. 𝚂𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚗 𝚢𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚜 𝚘𝚕𝚍. 𝙻𝚘𝚜𝚝. 𝙻𝚊𝚜𝚝 𝚜𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚕𝚊𝚛𝚐𝚎 𝚊𝚚𝚞𝚊𝚛𝚒𝚞𝚖, 𝚜𝚊𝚠𝚏𝚒𝚜𝚑 𝚜𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗. 𝙿𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚎 𝚔𝚎𝚎𝚙 𝚊𝚗 𝚎𝚢𝚎 𝚘𝚞𝚝!  〣( ºΔº )〣

Ocha-chan: 𝙾𝚑 𝚐𝚘𝚘𝚍𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚜! 𝚈𝚎𝚜, 𝚠𝚎’𝚕𝚕 𝚔𝚎𝚎𝚙 𝚊𝚗 𝚎𝚢𝚎 𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎! ( : ౦ ‸ ౦ : )

Eijirou-kun: 𝙽𝚘 𝚔𝚒𝚍𝚜 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎, 𝚞𝚗𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚝𝚞𝚗𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚕𝚢 (╥_╥)

Kyou-chan: 𝙾𝚏 𝚌𝚘𝚞𝚛𝚜𝚎, 𝚗𝚘 𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎𝚜 𝚛𝚎𝚙𝚝𝚒𝚕𝚎𝚜 ┐(︶▽︶)┌

Eirjirou-kun: 𝚁𝚎𝚙𝚝𝚒𝚕𝚎𝚜 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚕𝚢! 𝙽𝙾𝚃𝙷𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝚒𝚜 𝚠𝚛𝚘𝚗𝚐 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚖 ヽ(`⌒´メ)ノ

Me: 𝙶𝚞𝚢𝚜... (￢_￢)

Kyou-chan: 𝚂𝚘𝚛𝚛𝚢, (𝚢/𝚗) (シ_ _)シ

Eijirou-kun: 𝙸’𝚕𝚕 𝚔𝚎𝚎𝚙 𝚊𝚗 𝚎𝚢𝚎 𝚘𝚞𝚝! (￣^￣)ゞ

You sighed before holding your phone in your hand and scanning each and every child’s face in the aquarium. A second later, Izuku’s voice was heard on the loudspeaker, announcing Mimi’s name and asking her to stay put wherever she is. He even stated that she should try and find someone wearing the Ocean World uniform and ask them to bring her to the Aquarium entrance. 

A second later, your phone buzzed.

Your eyes narrowed when you noticed it was Bakugou who was calling you.

     “I really don’t have time for—”

     “Shut up, idiot. The kid’s here with me. She’s fucking crying and I don’t know what to do.”

You blinked. 

     “What?”

     “Are you fucking slow or something? The kid’s with me—”

     “Bakugou! What did you do? Did you make her cry?”

You couldn’t understand. Kirishima said there was no kid in the reptile section. But, where was Bakugou?

     “Wait, where are you?” 

You could hear him groan on the other end, “I’m near the amusement park. Outside the roller coaster.”

     “What are you doing there?”

     “Shut up and come get her.”

You let out a long sigh. Ocean World was large—it was the largest theme park in the entire country. Since half of the park was situated literally on top of a mountain, the park is separated by a large mountain into two areas, The Summit (Headland) and The Waterfront (Lowland). To get to the amusement park, you had to move from the Lowland to the Headland—and you can only do so by using a cable car (which takes close to 20 minutes on its own). 

     “Seriously, Bakugou,” You said, right before he hung up, “Is everything okay with you?”

You didn’t hear him curse, which was new. You heard him breathe on the other end and say not a word.

     “Bakugou—”

     “(y/n), just come get the girl. She’s scared and has no idea how she got here.”

You nodded once before ending the call. You wanted to drop a message on the group saying the girl has been found, but you decided you’d do so after seeing the girl first. You quickly rushed to Midoriya and grabbed him by the shoulder.

     “Quickly tell me what’s up with Bakugou in like, 30 seconds.”

Izuku blinked, “We were drinking last night and we spoke a lot about you and Kacchan, not intentionally, but it just came up about how you two could have dated in school but didn’t and—”

     “Oh my god, Izuku-kun, I will kill you—”

     “But, Kacchan was quiet during the whole thing! I haven’t ever seen him so quiet before! It was strange... As if he was regretting something. Also, he called me Midoriya after and not Deku—”

     “So weird.” You said, scrunching your eyebrows.

     “Weird, indeed. But, it was Kaminari-kun who brought it up. Anyway, when Kirishima-kun asked Kacchan if he liked you back, he just up and left. We haven’t seen him since. He apparently took a day off today, too.”

A day off? You blinked. But, he just called me!

     “Uh, okay. So, I think I know where Mimi-chan is, so I’m going to head there now, okay? We’ll talk about Bakugou after!”

     “There really isn’t anything more to talk about, considering how he knew you liked him back then—”

     “The entire school knew, Izuku-kun, I’m over it.”

     “He just looked really depressed about it, that’s all. It’s like, the second your name was mentioned, Kacchan wasn’t Kacchan anymore.”

You felt your heart skip a beat at the mere thought. Nodding, you shot a personal message to Bakugou saying you were going to catch a cable car there and asked him not to move.

Bakugou: 𝚆𝚎’𝚛𝚎 𝚊𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚘𝚍 𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚕𝚕, 𝚒𝚗 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚗𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚛𝚘𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚛 𝚌𝚘𝚊𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚛. 𝚂𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚑𝚞𝚗𝚐𝚛𝚢.

Me: 𝙸𝚜 𝚜𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚌𝚛𝚢𝚒𝚗𝚐? (ᗒᗣᗕ)՞

Bakugou: 𝙽𝚘, 𝚜𝚑𝚎’𝚜 𝚜𝚝𝚞𝚏𝚏𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚏𝚊𝚌𝚎 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚏𝚘𝚘𝚍. 𝙸𝚍𝚒𝚘𝚝 𝚔𝚒𝚍.

You giggled before rushing to the cable car section. Of course, he doesn’t use emojis. 

You were glad it was a weekday, which meant the cable cars were free and you could literally hop on one before heading up to the Headland. Sighing, you sat inside the cable car and waited, wondering about Bakugou the entire time.

It was all true. You could have told Bakugou you liked him back then but chose not to. You didn’t know why, but some part of you wanted to get over him and not face rejection. There were many signs that showed he had an interest in you as well, but you assumed it was mainly because he knew you just as much as he knew Izuku. You got over your crush in less than a year—you even dated Monoma after that for a whole year! And after that ended badly, you decided you’d not date anyone in your close circle.

But, each time you did think of Bakugou, you felt sad. Almost as if you let something go—you barely knew him too well when you liked him, but there were things about him that were so attractive. He was focused and had his way with the reptiles. You’ve watched him with them, he wasn’t his usual loud and abrasive self. He cared for the reptiles and treated them all like children, despite reptiles being hated by so many for being physically repulsive. You wouldn’t deny it, you hated reptiles before Bakugou explained them to you.

They’re just misunderstood, he’d say.

You gulped when you thought of how you could apply his words for him as well. For the most part, Bakugou was misunderstood, and it was no fault of his. He was loud, true, and could be intimidating, for sure—but, he was kind and you had seen it and experienced it first hand.

Now, when you came to think of it, you couldn’t see why you never told him. And to think he knew about it—that shocked you more. He knew you liked him, and never told him, you only wondered what he thought of you. 

Did he wonder why you never told him?

Did he... you gulped, Did he also...?

You shook your head before thinking of such things. 

On reaching the Headland, you sighed before looking down at the 10-minute walk to the amusement park. You shot Bakugou a message saying you’d reached the Headland, asking him about his whereabouts.

Bakugou: 𝚂𝚑𝚎’𝚜 𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐.

Me: 𝚃𝚑𝚊𝚝’𝚜 𝚐𝚘𝚘𝚍. 𝙸 𝚗𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚔𝚗𝚎𝚠 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚠𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚐𝚘𝚘𝚍 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚔𝚒𝚍𝚜! (￢‿￢ )

Bakugou: 𝚈𝚘𝚞 𝚍𝚘𝚗’𝚝 𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠 𝚊 𝚕𝚘𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝚊𝚋𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚖𝚎.

You froze. 

Your fingers were itching to type something in response to that, but you shoved your phone inside your pocket and made your way to the amusement park. You knew the entire theme park like the back of your hand, so what would normally take you 10 minutes, took you 4. You weren’t sprinting, but you were eager to see Bakugou more than ever before.

He wasn’t working, which meant he would have to be in civilian clothes. He walked out of a party or whatever it was, without saying a word—very unlike him to call Midoriya as Midoriya and not Deku, and it was very, very odd for Bakugou to say what he had just said.

For some strange reason, your heart was beating very fast. Suddenly, it felt like you had two hearts palpitating instead of one—your nervousness was profound. 

It had been years since you had seen Bakugou alone without anyone else. It was a strange thing to think about when you were going to meet him alone, but it shocked you, too. You hadn’t been alone with Bakugou in more than 8 years almost, you were always with your friends or he was with Kirishima. 

And the last time you were alone, you had a huge, huge, huge crush on him.

You spotted Bakugou sitting across a small child with brown hair. You sighed in relief when your eyes landed on him, but a second later, his eyes met yours—almost as if he knew you were there. You froze where you stood; suddenly, Bakugou was a remedy for heart palpitations. Or he made them worse. You couldn’t tell.

You walked over there and double-checked if the girl was the missing Mimi. It was.

     “Mimi-chan,” you voiced, your heart still beating frantically, “Your mother is looking everywhere for you! She was so worried. What happened?”

     “I wanted to see the cable cars...” She said, guiltily. 

You sighed before placing a calm hand on her shoulder. 

     “Once you’re finished with your food, let’s go to your mother?”

She nodded happily and pointed to Bakugou, who was quietly sitting across her.

     “Baku-san’s very nice! He bought me popcorn and cotton candy!”

You looked to Baku-san with amused eyes, “Baku-san sure is something else, isn’t he?”

Bakugou blushed with embarrassment, a very evident frown on his face.

     “Baku-san’s the best!” Mimi exclaimed, causing you to giggle.

     “He sure is—”

     “Stop talking about me like I’m not here, you stupid extras!”

A second later, you shot a text to Izuku saying the girl was found. Midoriya instantly called you.

     “She’s fine, Izuku-kun. Is her mother there with you?”

     “Can you stay put there? Her mother and I are coming to you.”

You blinked, turning to Bakugou, “Uh, I can bring her to you—” Bakugou’s hand grabbed your wrist, shocking you to stillness. 

     “Stay here.”

Your eyes widened at his words, such a confusing change of behavior. You blinked twice before trying to figure out what to do.

     “Alright, Izuku-kun. I’ll be here. We’re at the roller coaster food trailer.”

     “Okay!”

Once the call was done, you turned to Bakugou with a scowl. You wanted an explanation. You pulled her hand away from his grasp before turning to Mimi, who was concentrating on her food. Plopping beside Bakugou, whose facial expression was currently null, you hit him across his arm.

     “What the fuck is going on?”

You never swore, but on the rare occasions that you did, Bakugou was always amused. You heard him chuckle. You hit him across his arm again.

     “You’re not acting yourself, Bakugou! What is going on?”

It wasn’t like him to beat around the bush. Bakugou’s firecracker personality didn’t make a lot of people like him, but that was the one thing you admired. Sure, the two of your relationship dwindled after school but that didn’t mean you hated him. You two drifted apart, and that was as natural as anything else. 

     “Why are you so fucking annoying, (y/n)?” He asked, not looking at you.

     “What is that supposed to mean?”

     “You...” He shook his head, trying to find the right words, “You fucked things up.”

Your heart fell at his words. Fucked things up? What did he even mean?

     “What did I even do? You aren’t being clear here—”

     “Why didn’t you tell me?” You barely heard him but you managed to understand what he said.

     “Tell you... what?”

Bakugou turned to look at you with a ‘really?’ expression. His red eyes were literally piercing into your soul. You had to gulp before even trying to answer.

     “Oh...” 

He chuckled before turning away, “Yeah.”

You two sat there, not saying a word. Your heart was beating so fast, you could feel the blood rushing to your ears. 

     “But, why does that matter now? I mean, it’s been 8 years, Bakugou...” 

     “And not once in these 8 years did you think I deserved to know?” Bakugou asked, and you had no idea why his words pierced you.

You almost winced at the way his words sounded. He was stoic, but it was unusual. 

     “I didn’t think you’d like me back. It seemed like you hated me. It seemed like you hated everyone. I couldn’t approach you—”

     “I didn’t fucking hate you, (y/n). Fuck, I...” He cursed under his breath, “I really thought you of all people knew me better.”

Your eyes widened and you turned to look at him avoiding your gaze. Your hand reached out to his, but he pulled his hand away before you could even graze your fingers against him.

     “Bakugou—”

He turned to the girl, Mimi, who had finished eating by then. 

     “You done, kid?”

She nodded happily before Bakugou stood up. 

     “I’m going to the roller coaster. When you’re done handing her over, come see me,” He turned to you before deadpanning at you, “We’re not done talking.”

You nodded. It was so unlike him, but you knew you had to get things over with. It was 8 years overdue.

     “Why did you take a leave today—”

Bakugou was already several feet away. You sighed before turning to the girl and smiling. A few minutes later, Midoriya and her mother came over. Mimi hugged her mother before waving goodbye at you and Izuku. You sighed for the thousandth time, before turning to Izuku.

     “Say, Izuku-kun,” You struggled to find the right words, “Do you think I should have told Bakugou about liking him?”

Izuku hummed, “I think if you have a crush on someone, they deserve to know. I mean... I’d have felt bad if Uraraka-san never told me that she liked me. She did and it didn’t work out after, but I’m glad she was honest.”

You stayed quiet. “Do you think Bakugou feels bad I was never honest with him?”

     “Anyone would, really. But, if you ask me,” Izuku looked at you with a calm smile, “I think Kacchan is hurt not because you weren’t honest with him. Everyone knows he struggles with expressing his own emotions. He won’t hold it against someone for struggling in the same way.”

You blinked, what Izuku said made sense. But, then why was Bakugou hurt?

     “Then why is he...?”

Oh. 

Izuku chuckled, “I think you know the answer, (y/n)-chan.”

You could barely breathe. There was more than one type of guilt. You might do something horrible that you later regretted. But you could also feel guilty for something you'd not done. By not telling Bakugou you liked him, you robbed him of a chance to respond; you robbed him of a chance for a confession, you knew he could have done so himself if he wanted to, but that was something you knew now, and not before. You robbed Bakugou a chance of experiencing something for the first time, and you robbed him of a chance to grow up not wondering, ‘Am I not worth liking?’

Oh God, you thought, feeling fresh tears strike your eyes. What if he thinks...? 

What if he thinks he doesn’t deserve it?

What if he spent all these years thinking he doesn’t deserve it?

You brought a shaky hand to your mouth before turning to Izuku. He merely smiled at you, patting your shoulder twice.

     “Don’t overthink it,” He suggested, “Kacchan’s a lot more complex than people give him credit for.”

You knew all this. You knew how he was always misunderstood. You urged people to give him a chance, despite pretending all this while to hate him. You were aware that he had difficulty expressing his emotions, but you also knew that didn’t mean he didn’t have emotions, to begin with.

If Bakugou knew you liked him and did everything you could to get over him, if he knew just this fact and especially if it didn’t come from you, then he must believe that you hated it the whole time.

You needed to rectify this. You needed to let him know that you didn’t tell him because you were scared. You needed to tell him that he’s worthy of those feelings, that he has nothing on him that can even be considered repulsive. You knew of his internal struggles, you knew how hard he worked, even in college. You knew he was focused, driven, arrogant—only because he wanted to be a better person, a better adult, a better human being.

And you had denied him, despite knowing it all, of a chance to grow romantically.

You could still argue on why Bakugou never confessed to you if he liked you back. But, the problem was a lot bigger than just him liking you back or not. The problem was you never having told him yourself. The problem was him believing you didn’t want to. 

     “Izuku-kun, can you ask someone to take over for me?” You were glad you were wearing a tank top underneath the Ocean World uniform.

Midoriya’s eyes widened as you handed him your uniform.

     “W-Where—”

     “Just take this and put it in my locker. You know my combination, right?”

Izuku nodded, “Yeah—”

     “I need to rectify something I should have done 8 years ago, Izuku-kun, so, please. Do me this favor, okay?”

Izuku nodded before smiling at you. You loved this boy, he was just so precious. You leaned forward and kissed his cheek, earning a chuckle from him.

     “Are you going to tell him?”

     “Oh, yeah.”

As soon as Izuku walked away, you turned to the roller coaster and rushed over there. You spotted Bakugou, using his phone, leaning against the counter. The roller coaster was apparently the scariest rollercoaster in all of Asia. While you hated rollercoasters with your life, you also knew Bakugou loved them. He loved anything that involved adrenaline, so you had something in mind.

     “Baku-san!” You teased, before making Bakugou scowl at you.

     “Don’t call me that, idiot.”

     “Don’t call me idiot, idiot.”

You grabbed his hand before leading him to the ticket counter. Bakugou’s eyes widened before you rushed to the rollercoaster’s waiting line. You two worked there, you didn’t need tickets.

     “What the fuck—Hey! I thought you hated—”

    ��“Oh, yeah, I hate them. I might grab on to your hand and squeeze the life out of them so, just take it.”

Bakugou blinked before being violently pulled into the rollercoaster’s first car. You gulped before feeling your entire body tremble, grasping Bakugou’s hand as tightly as you could.

     “(y/n), you’re literally shaking.”

     “Shut up. If we’re dying, at least we’re dying together.”

You heard him chuckle once just as the rollercoaster began to move. You squeaked before tightening your grip against his hand, only to have Bakugou hold your hand in return. You wanted to appreciate this gesture, but you were scared shitless. Just as the coaster moved, you screamed—you screamed, screamed and screamed some more—before you stopped screaming.

     “Oi—”

You were about to faint.

    “(y/n)—”

    “We are so dead—”

A minute of death later, the rollercoaster stopped. Bakugou helped you out, pulling you to a standing position. Your hands, legs and your lips were quivering, causing Bakugou to fall into a fit of laughter. You knew the adrenaline made him laugh and not to mention, your scared face.

     “S-stop l-laughing, I-I was r-really—”

     “Why did you do it?”

You looked him straight in the eye and frowned. Your frown deepened when you noticed his smirk increase.

     “Let’s go. I want to see the dolphins,”

Bakugou looked at you from the corner of his eye.

     “I really like dolphins. I especially miss Kiro and Soma, they were lovely. Not to mention, Tama the seal. She’s adorable! Did you know she loves mackerel the most? I mean—”

     “(y/n), you’re nervous.” 

You shook your head, “I mean, Tama’s the nicest seal too! She loves when you put her in those cute little—”

     “You definitely are. You talk a lot when you’re nervous.”

You could feel your heartbeat in literally every part of your body. You didn’t know why.

     “No, I don’t. I was just talking to you about—”

     “Do I make you nervous?” You could practically hear the smirk from Bakugou at this point.

     “No. I’m not nervous, Bakugou.”

     “You’re trembling.”

You hated how perceptive this douchebag was. 

     “I’m cold and I almost just died.”

Bakugou laughed before noticing your hands were still connected. He didn’t say a word and walked ahead, your linked hands still linked. You tightened your grasp, looking over to him and blinking a few times, expecting some response. When you felt him tighten his grasp as well, your heart skipped a beat.

     “Yeah, I noticed.”

When you reached the open auditorium where the dolphin show was happening, you noticed Tsuyu and your temporary replacement, Iida Tenya, perform a different skit. You smiled when you saw your animal friends, your hands still linked with Bakugou’s.

     “Bakugou?”

When you didn’t hear him say anything, you assumed it was safe to talk.

     “Can I call you Katsuki?”

He turned to look at you once, before nodding. He noticed how you weren’t meeting his gaze, and he knew he had to say something before things escalated.

     “Listen, you don’t have to do this shit just because—”

     “Just because of what? I see what I did wrong, and I... I regret it.”

     “(y/n)...”

You turned to him now with pleading eyes, “No! I have to do this—”

     “This isn’t the time or place for—”

     “Then take me somewhere you want to, wherever you think is appropriate. If I don’t do this now, I... I’ll live with regret all over again, and I don’t want to do that. Katsuki,” You didn’t notice how his face reddened when you called him that, “I was so wrong in not telling you how I felt. I was so wrong, I wish I could go back in time and tell you back then how much I—”

     “(y/n), I’m in love with you,” Katsuki said, with a straight face.

Your eyes widened. 

     “Have been. For years. It sounds like a fuck-all cliche, but it’s a fucking pain. And when I got to know you liked me back in school, I knew I should have fucking said something. But, I’m like this,” he gestured to himself, “And you’re you.”

     “What is that supposed to mean?”

Bakugou groaned, “It means, we’re not compatible.”

     “And who made that fucked up assertion?”

Bakugou tried to let go of your hand, but you held on tighter than ever before.

     “For the last time, Katsuki, tell me what the fuck is on your mind or I swear to fucking hell I’ll never know.”

Katsuki took a moment. He was frowning at you, but you knew it wasn’t at you but at the thoughts, he was currently having. He took a deep breath before composing himself. 

     “I can’t give you what you want,” He brushed a hand through his hair and, “I’m not... I’m not boyfriend-material. I can’t be nice, I can’t be romantic for shit, I can’t surprise you, I can’t compliment you, I can’t—”

     “And all of those things, you did today. In a single day.”

Katsuki’s eyes widened.

     “What?”

You nodded, “You can’t be nice? You bought a random little girl some food and made sure she stopped crying to the best of your abilities. Boom, next. Can’t be romantic? You held my hand all through the rollercoaster ride despite finding it hilarious. Boom, next. You can’t surprise me? You gave me a hell of a shocker by even saying you’re in love with me and practically everything you did today is a goddamn surprise, so boom! Next,”

You stepped closer to Bakugou, your hands still in his. You noticed his grasp on your fingers was loose, and you used this opportunity to play with his hands. 

     “You can’t compliment me? You told me you love me, Katsuki. That’s the biggest compliment anyone can ever give me.”

Katsuki just stared at you, blankly. 

     “You’re a fucking idiot.”

You giggled before leaning down and placing your forehead on his chest. Bakugou’s hand wrapped around the nape of your neck, and he leaned against the pillar by which he was standing. 

Suddenly, a thought entered your head. Leaning back, you looked at Bakugou with a confused expression.

     “What?”

     “Do you have anything to do with Mineta quitting?”

Katsuki scoffed. He didn’t say a word and just leaned back, eyes closed. You quietly placed your forehead back on his chest and sighed, wrapping one arm around his waist.

     “I guess I have my answer.”

A few minutes later, you led Bakugou out of the open auditorium, hands still connected. 

     “Katsuki,” He didn’t say anything. “So, you love me? Like, love me love me?”

You could practically see how the cringe form in his face, making your smile grow in response. 

     “I take it back.” He snapped, grumbling.

You giggled before leaning closer to him, hands still connected, “No.”

Bakugou raised an eyebrow, “No, I can’t take it back or no, you don’t... You don’t feel...?”

He felt like an idiot even saying it. He could feel something sink inside of him. He guessed it was his dignity. He placed his hand to cover his jaw, in an attempt to cover the redness in his face.

Your fingers wrap around his fingers and you pull his hands from his jaw so he can look at you, or you guessed, so you can look at him.

     “No, you can’t take it back, silly.” You said in a voice so deep and warm and full of things that Bakugou couldn’t get mad anymore. 

This has to be what people mean when they say they “melted.” Bakugou would never admit he felt this way.

Bakugou gulped. He couldn’t look away from your amused expression. Your eyes were so deep and warm at the same time, just looking at him and nothing else. Right then, Katsuki wondered how could a person’s eyes be so ridiculously gorgeous and enchanting and so full of things he desperately wanted to know.

     “So, what’s your answer?” He almost whispered, afraid he might screw it all up.

Those eyes of yours widen a little bit. You hold your breath. You lean forward, standing on your tip-toes, feeling the confidence come from who knows where and fan your lips over his.

     “I like you, Katsuki,” you say and close the gap instantly.

❞

[crackedoutgiraffe]

To The Moon and Back

A/N: This is from a work I have on AO3, this is chapter 3 from Spencer’s POV. My username is giraffecrack. GIF by @cassidyandtuliplove​

Word Count: 1,775

Warnings: Fluff

SPENCER’S POV (italics represent Spencer’s thoughts)

That morning was like any other morning. I woke up at 7 am, put on my regular sweater vest and tie. I fixed my scruffy hair and brewed my first cup of coffee. We had gotten back from a case a few days before so it was a given that I needed to bring my go-bag, pre-packed with plenty of ties and sweater vests. As I sat down at my table, I pick up the book I was reading last night. I didn’t get a chance to finish it yet. Just then the clock struck 7:30, I grabbed both my briefcase and duffle bag and headed to the train station. I never liked driving. There was too much risk involved and I never had the chance to learn when I was 16. With my mom in her own world and me away at MIT, it was just easier to take the metro. 

My walk to Union Station was the same as it always was. Boring. I found a way to make it fun though. Counting the number of people with black hair one day, brown the next, and blonde the day after. The ride to Quantico always gave me extra time in the morning to relax. I would just sit on the seat closest to the door with my bags on my lap and a book in hand. When I finally got to Quantico, it felt different. There was something new, but I couldn’t tell you what it was. I got into the elevator and noticed what was different, there was someone new. She had y/h/c hair and carried her self very confidently, but I had never seen her before. Just as the doors closed she started to walk toward the elevator. I could feel her happiness radiating through the entire building, she had a smile that made you feel like everything was going to be alright. She also had the most beautiful y/e/c eyes. The doors closed, cutting me off from a literal ray of sunshine. 

The entire elevator ride she occupied my mind. Her smile, her hair, her eyes. The elevator doors opened and I went right to my cubicle. I set my stuff down and went to grab a cup of coffee then headed back to my desk. Morgan, Prentiss, and JJ were congregating not too far from my desk. After organizing a few papers, I went to join them. Just then, JJ pointed out someone new walking in, we were used to having new people coming and going from the office, but this was a welcome surprise. It was her. The mystery goddess from the lobby. She started walking toward us but made a detour for the stairs and entered into Hotch’s office.

“I wonder what that is about,” JJ asked.

“I don’t know,” Morgan said. “I do remember Hotch saying something about interviews for a new member of the team, but I thought he said he wasn’t going to go through with it.”

Dear God, please let her be a new member of the team. We all sat in anticipation, waiting for Hotch to come and say something to us. We saw them get up and head for the door. My heart was racing. Can you please shut up. Hotch and the new girl walked down the hallway to Rossi’s office. I couldn’t help but stare, and she stared back. 

As the minutes passed by we were all still waiting for Hotch to come back and tell us what she was doing here. Finally, she and Hotch left Rossi’s office, she had the biggest smile on her face that showed her perfect teeth. They started to walk down the stairs and head toward the four of us, so we all scrambled to seem busy as to not face the wrath of Hotch.

“Glad to see you guys are working,” Hotch quipped. “I’d like to introduce you to the newest member of the BAU team, Dr. Y/N Y/L/N.” 

Bless the Lord. JJ was the first person to go and greet her. 

“Jennifer Jareau, but everyone calls me JJ,” JJ said with a kind smile. 

Then Prentiss went up, “Emily Prentiss, but everyone calls me… well, Prentiss,” Y/N seemed surprised at something.

“It’s lovely to meet you both” she replied shaking both their hands. 

The next to greet her was Morgan, “I’m Derek Morgan.” She seemed to be flustered by Morgan’s presence. Of course, she would be attracted to Morgan. 

“Do you prefer Derek, or do you have a nickname too?” she quipped. They all laughed at her surprisingly funny joke. 

“Just Derek is fine. Do you have a nickname, or would you prefer me to give you one?”

“Surprise me.”

I was next. Don’t fuck this up. “Hi, I'm Dr. Spencer Reid,” I said, extending one arm for a handshake. She looked at me weird. What was she looking for?

“Dr.?” you said with a smirk, reciprocating his handshake that went on a bit too long. 

“Dr.” I replied still not letting go of the handshake. 

 Hold on, what was that? Reid stop staring you look weird. I couldn’t stop staring. Now that we were closer, I could get a good look at her eyes. They were y/e/c with little flecks of green toward the middle. She smelled fantastic, like roses and lavender. Everything about her was perfect. Her face, her body, and from these first few seconds I’ve known her, her personality. 

“But we just call him pretty boy,” Derek said, hitting me on the back, releasing us both from our trance. 

“Ok, pretty boy,” she replied, looking him up and down while messing with her hair.

“Round table meeting in 5,” Hotch announced right on queue. JJ and Prentiss started to approach her and lead her away and out of the bullpen. She was perfect. The way her hips moved when she walked. The way she smiled seemed to make all the problems in the world go away. The way her hair bounced and flowed on her shoulders. And to think she couldn’t be any better, she was a Dr. Finally someone on the team who could match his intelligence.

“Oh, it looks lit pretty boy has a crush,” Morgan announced.

I turned around in shock, “I do not.”

“Then what’s with the staring,” he whispered. Was it that noticeable? 

Finally, it was time for the roundtable meeting, “Alright let’s get started,” Hotch said, walking in and sitting down. “Garcia.”

“Does anyone remember this picture,” Garcia started.

“Hotch and I were there,” Rossi answered Garcia’s peculiar question. “That’s principal Doug Givens, we had to drag him to safety.”

“High school bombing in Boise, right?” she added. The way her lips moved with every beautiful word she spoke, she was a goddess. incarnate

“School shooter and school bomber,” JJ continued. “A kid named Randy Slade shot 3 students and then set off an I.E.D. in the school cafeteria via cell phone, killing himself and 13 kids total, but not before posting all of his plans online. It was one of those ‘where were you events’. My whole campus was glued to the TV”

Garcia nodded looking at her tablet, “Last night principal Givens was killed by a bomb modeled exactly like the old one.”

“It feels like the unsub wants to attack the man who kept the whole school together after the bombing,” Morgan added. “It’s a pretty symbolic target.”

“And this week is the tenth anniversary of the massacre,” she added

“And today is the first day of a 4-day event to commemorate the bombing at the school,” Garcia continued.

“Except commemorating it isn’t enough for this unsub,” she said.

“No, he wants to relive it,” Hotch said. “Alright wheels up in 30.” As we all left the room she was called to stay back, but a few moments later she left. She left the BAU, where was she going? Did she get fired already? No, that couldn’t be the case

I walked back to the room to find Hotch, “Where is Y/N going?” 

“She’s going home to pack, shell meet us at the airfield.” And with that, all your worries went away. She wasn’t leaving, she was just packing. 

The rest of the morning went like normal. I had my third cup of coffee, grabbed my bags, and headed for the airfield. I arrived a few minutes early so I could get a good seat on the plane. I ended up sitting at the table for four with the window seat. As I got settled, I noticed she and JJ walking toward the plane at the same time. They were almost indistinguishable. Prentiss came and sat next to me, and to my surprise, Y/N sat across from me with JJ right next to her. We sat on the plane for half an hour before starting to talk about the case. I was able to read about 1200 pages in that time. 

“Perpetrators of school violence are often sophisticated with their weapons. Randy Slade carried his bomb in his backpack. This guy hid his in Givens' clock radio,” I noted. 

“Yeah, and progressive,” Prentiss added. “Each one tries to top the body

count of the one previous.”

“And they're loners by default, not by choice,” she said. “They try to join various social

groups, but they get shut out.”

“Randy Slade wasn't a loner at all,” Hotch said.

“The family cooperated fully with us,” Rossi noted. “He was a high-functioning psychopath, straight-A student, varsity wrestler, lots of girlfriends.”

“With an above-average intelligence that made him incredibly resourceful,” I added. “His explosive of choice was Semtex. It's found at demolition sites, but it's held under lock and key.”

“Which made us consider the possibility of a partner,” Rossi continued. “Never found one.”

“Slade was too much of a narcissist to share credit,” Hotch said. “But he was also an impulsive teen, which is what bothers me about this unsub.”

“His sense of control?” she asked.

“And the end game that he's working toward. Slade's pathology revolved around the big kill,” Hotch noted.  “This unsub could have done the same if he'd waited for the candlelight vigil.”

“Which means there's no blaze of glory fantasy here,” Rossi added. “This unsub has

more bombs made, and he's savoring the anticipation of his next attack.”

“You and Reid can go to the medical examiner when we land to examine the bodies. Morgan, Prentiss and I will set up at the police station. JJ and Rossi, you two will visit the crime scene.” Hotch commanded. Once he finished, everyone returned to what they were doing.

[eccentriccowboy]

Assassin// pt. 3

Synopsis: Luke confronts his target with the help of y/n and her secret weapon.

Can you tell I’m not good at synopsis’?? that was god awful just read the god damn fic ok

Pairing: Slow burn bestfriend!Luke x reader

Warnings: None besides my lack of proofreading.

Word Count: 1.9 k

Notes: Im so so sorry this took so long to write life has been all over the place for me at the moment.

part 1 and part 2 here!!

also i cant stop staring at calum leaning back on michaels arm and just wow what couple goals. and also ashton glaring back at them bc michaels touching his man.

*****

As the number of players dwindled down Luke was beginning to become more and more anxious.  I better not mess up now, like I usually do, Luke was thinking, lying in his bed, staring at the ceiling. I need another win. At least I’ve won twice, unlike Y/N.

Y/N. Fuck. She(He/they, idk who you are) is so focused on winning this year, it’s adorable. Part of me, the part that can’t stop thinking about her smile, or her laugh, or the way she says my name, wants to help her win; even if that means I lose. But the logical side of me is telling me that’s stupid, she hasn’t even shown she likes me back.

But she did kiss me on the cheek earlier today. Thinking about it made Luke’s heart clench tightly, a small smile at the memory tracing his lips. But she’s done that before, it probably wasn’t anything special, just a way of saying thanks. Luke reasoned with himself. But this one was different, it felt different. And she left so quickly afterwards. Was she nervous? Does she feel the same? 

Luke shook his head, his feelings getting the best of him. He should be focusing on how to get Calum out. He’ll deal with you later. Luke turned on his side, trying to get more comfortable in the hopes of finally finding sleep. After a long while, he drifted off to dream, the feeling of your soft lips against his cheek never leaving his mind, no matter his state of consciousness.

*****

Luke woke early that morning to the sound of his phone ringing loudly. He quickly reached over to his nightstand, his heart clenching when he saw your name flash across the screen.

He ran a hand through his curls, even though you couldn’t see him, before pressing the ‘answer’ button.

“Yea?” he answered, his voice hoarse from his sudden awakening.

“Hey,” you replied, trying your best to not focus on how low and gruff his morning voice sounded. Damn it, he’s gonna be the death of you.

“Whya calling me so early?” he asked. “Not that I’m mad or anything, just like, wondering,” Luke cringed internally at his awkwardness, but thankfully enough you giggled.

“Well we’ve got Calum to get out, don’t we? Times a tickin’.“

Luke chuckled. “God damn, Y/N. You really wanna win this year, huh? You know this game could go on for weeks, really.”

You shrugged. “So what if I wanna be victorious a bit early?”

“Fair enough,” Luke agreed, “But what’s the plan? I can tell you’ve already made one up.”

You smirked mischievously. “Open up your door and find out,”

*****

Luke’s eyes widened. He didn’t know you were already here. He quickly rushed out of bed, throwing on a pair of sweatpants before looking himself in the mirror and splashing water on his face.

He jumped to his door, opening up to see you and a guest waiting, smiling at each other. Luke’s jaw dropped, disbelief riding over him that you would go this far.

There in front of him stood Mali-koa, Calum’s sister, who he hasn’t seen in well over six months.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me, Y/N,” Luke laughed, bring Mali in for a hug. She laughed along with him, wrapping her arms around his neck.

Once they stepped back from the hug, Luke ushered you two into his apartment, still in disbelief you’d go as far as to fly in Mali for this game.

Luke flopped on the couch, jiggling his knee in excitement, “I see you have brought a secret weapon,”

Mali laughed at that. “Is that all I am to you?”

The two of them dove into conversation, catching up like old buddied. They had grown up together, so seeing each other was always a pleasant occasion.

Meanwhile, you were a bit too busy trying to distract yourself with your phone to get your mind off of Luke, who was sitting two feet away. Shirtless.

It’s not like you haven’t ever seen him shirtless before, it just caught you off guard. Here you are trying to organize a plan to help him yet you could not stop staring at the line of silver necklaces that laid against his broad chest.

Mali and Luke’s conversation had drifted to this year’s game of Assassin. He had started to ask her about the plan, but apparently she didn’t know, either. 

This led to you, the Puppet Master, if you will. You began to explain the plan, a rather simple one compared to the amount of work(going through trash) it took to get Michael and Ashton out. For this one, you really just get to sit back and watch the plan unfold.

*****

It started with a text. A short, quick one from Mali to Calum. Hey there, lil bro. Want a surprise gift?? You smirked as Mali sent it, waiting for Calum’s reply.

It did not take long for the response. Calum texted back a quick what? and just like that the plan was in action.

Mali revealed what was happening, or what Calum would think was happening. Wellll, I may or may not be in LA right now to visit you...

You giggled, knowing already that Calum won’t be able to turn this down. You kind of felt bad, taking advantage of Calum’s family connection just to win a game, or in this case for Luke to win, but to be fair, the Hoods were an easy-going family; And technically, you didn’t specifically tell Mali too come here to help trick her brother into losing, you more so just knew she was planning on visiting her brother soon and suggested she fly on the closest available day possible. 

Mali boarded the next possible flight right after you two talked, knowing it’d be hilarious to not only trick Calum, but get to brag about it afterwards. And hey, she gets to see her brother, who she hadn’t seen in ages.

Calum started screaming at Mali over text, clearly showing his excitement over her being here. After countless texts, blowing up Mali’s phone, she suggested the two meet up. Calum immediately agreed.

They agreed to meet at a bar that was close to Mali’s hotel, the plan setting in place perfectly. 

Luke started to get giddy with excitement, tricking his best friend bringing his great joy. He couldn’t believe he fell for this so easily.

Right when the three of you were getting ready to walk out the door, Mali’s phone rang. 

“Shit, it’s Calum.” Mali answered the call, her bright face slowly falling. “Gimme a minute, ok?” she told the caller. 

She put her hand over her phone, blocking out her next words. “He fucking remembered the game. He’s asking if I can just meet up with him at his place.”

Your face fell, the thought of the plan failing hitting you hard. But you did not get Mali to fly all the way over here just for a family reunion. Nuh-uh, Luke was going to get Calum out. 

Luke was as determined as you are. “Tell him his place is really far from your hotel, you’re tired.”

Mali quickly reiterated the lines, going on about how much she did just to get here. Calum hesitated, but reluctantly agreed.

“Fine, just don’t post anything about where we’re gonna be. And for the love of god Mali, don’t you dare fucking talk to Luke,” he said before hanging up the phone.

Mali laughed, the adrenaline of this plan settling in. “Let’s go get that bastard out.”

*****

Kicking it in the passenger seat of Luke’s rental car was by far the easiest part of the night. The three of you had driven over to the bar, but you had stayed in the car, locked in and safe away from Calum, your attacker.

Meanwhile, Mali had walked into the bar, where she waits for her brother. Luke, on the other hand, was waiting in the men’s room, waiting for the queue from you to run and get Calum.

It wasn’t long until you saw Calum’s car pull up to the bar, right next to the rental. You slumped down in your seat, keeping your eyes trained on Calum’s body as he walked quickly into the bar, his head checking behind his shoulder, paranoid that Luke was here. And, oh boy, should he be.

You called Luke on facetime, wanting him to film when he got Calum out. He answered from the boys bathroom, and automatically knew what you were calling for. Excitement took over his features, and your heart warmed at his smile. You smiled back, and told him Calum had just entered the bar.

He kept you on facetime as he quietly opened the bathroom door and tiptoed his way around the wall, peaking around to see Mali and Calum hugging. Mali was smiling over his shoulder, her arms wrapped tightly around her brother, and as she opened her eyes she made eye contact with Luke, sending him a quick thumbs up.

Right as they were pulling away from the hug, Luke ran up from behind, placing both hands on Calum’s shoulders. Calum looked behind him, bewildered, before realization struck. 

“Fuck, No! You’ve gotta be kiddin me!” Calum wailed. Luke broke out in a fit of laughter, you along with him. Mali giggled as well, wrapping her arm around her brother’s shoulders. 

“Sorry, lil bro, Y/N’s got a devious brain, that one” Mali remarked, making you laugh harder over the phone. 

“Fuck you, Y/N” Calum laughed. “I was planning to get you out tomorrow,”

“Well not anymore!” Luke hollered, ecstatic over his win. 

“Well now you’ve gotta go up against her,” Calum reminded him, crossing his arms. 

Mali laughed. “Good luck with that, she seems pretty determined this year.”

“Now get out of here, let me enjoy some time with my sister without you asshole” Calum said. 

Luke said his goodbyes, before looking to you on facetime. “Alright, we only have the one car. So I say, I’ll drive us to my home, we can kick it there. No attacking the other. The game will start again tomorrow. Deal?” Luke questioned.

“Deal,” you agreed. “Let’s order some food.” you said, before hanging up and waiting for him to come back to the car.

Before he entered the rental, he reminded you of your deal, as if you didn’t just make it 30 seconds ago. 

“Yes, I understand. Now just take me home. I’m tired.” you replied, the adrenaline from your plan succeeding wearing off.

He got in the car, a small smile still on his face, making you smile a bit, too. You leaned against the car window, admiring the man seated next to you. You two drove in comfortable silence, until he finally said: “Thank you for today. The plan and stuff, it was- it was really cool.” He smiled, turning his eyes away from the road to face you. 

You smiled back, keeping eye contact until he had to face the road again. You kept looking at him, until you slowly drifted off to sleep in the passenger seat, only coming to consciousness once more later.  When Luke had tucked you into his bed, pressing a small kiss to your forehead, the feeling of his soft lips on your forehead becoming engrained into your memory.

*****

thanks for reading!!

taglist for Assassin: @cashtonspicelatte @curlious

@wrappedaroundcal @teenswithbrokensmiles @lu-fakebetch @northangerpark

@summertime-acoustic @yasminesflowers @oh-annaa @that1girlmary

[jestbee]

WHAT DID YOU SAY TO THEM

Not a lot is the short answer. But, in case you wanted long detailed post about it all, my entire meet & greet experience is below the cut

So we got there super early and we were sat at this bar/restaurant that’s attached to the venue and we looked up at a window across the way and I thought, fleetingly in the back of my mind, “That looks like the back of Phil’s head”. But I didn’t say anything to my friends because I thought I’d come across as a bit of a weirdo. Who recognises the back of someones head? Inside a building? In silhouette? 

Anyway. Turns out it was Phil’s head, and then Dan came to the window wearing his grid jumper and waved and we all waved back (I’m sure I looked like a stunned idiot) and then he got his phone out and held it up while he continued to wave at us.

Consequently, I’m half convinced he has a photo/video of us on his camera roll somewhere. A very odd thought. 

So that was the first moment. The one that was to kick off the weirdness of seeing them in real life and- let’s be real- the low key panic attack I was just going to have for the next two hours until it was all over. 

And I remember Dan smiling really wide and I was just like, ‘oh my god, he’s real�� which is a stupid thought to have, but it wouldn’t be the last time I thought it. 

When the time came we went to the foyer of the venue and they had all the merch but you couldn’t buy it yet but they were setting it up in the vip area upstairs so we could buy it there. 

There were so many cool people, other fans just having fun and it was really nice to be in an atmosphere where you knew we were all there for the same reason. Gathered because of two tall ex-emos that somehow make our days a little brighter.

There was also a line of old people buying tickets to other things at the box office looking around like this was the oddest thing they’d ever seen. They were right. It probably was.

We were counting down, watching the merch trolleys being wheeled back and forth to the lift and it was getting more and more real. Then it was 4 o’clock. People started doing that British-person-shuffle thing where you all try to get as close to the place you are supposed to be as possible. As if that will get you in quicker. It rarely works but we all try. 

They took the barrier down. It was starting. 

The venue staff looked at our tickets and then gave us a wrist band and we went to an upstairs area (that was actually like a bar you usually go to before shows) and the m&g backdrop was there and a merch stand and a playlist playing out of a Beats Pill speaker just plugged in in the corner. I mean.... what? 

World wide tour, neon lights and a fancy set and this is the production value Nottingham could provide. Well done hometown, well done.

We sat on some tables near the front of the room and there was a stoic security guard in a grey suit standing at a door next to the screen like something out of a movie. Everyone made so much noise every time the door vaguely moved and we were all on edge. 

The room was buzzing. People were hyped.

So at this point I got SUPER nervous and my face and neck starting getting hot, even my ears felt like they were about to spontaneously combust on the side of my head. Thank god for @ineverhadmyinternetphase and @charlottekath who were also nervous but totally encouraging, because I never would have coped without them 

The organisers put a line of green tape on the floor and they were giving out Haribo... I think. I’m a vegetarian so I didn’t get any. I couldn’t concentrate anyway.

Also the line for merch was REALLY long at this point but we thought we’d go after our m&g. Good decision. There was no queue after cus everyone was queueing for m&g so we walked straight up. 

Plushies had almost gone though but we were lucky and snagged 2 of the remaining 3. 

They had more later, downstairs, this was just the vip stand.

So it then came time to line up behind the green tape and we all got in a queue and we were 5 PEOPLE FROM THE FRONT and at this point I began to panic a little and I was half convinced I was going to leave... Seriously, I just had the thought that I could turn around and go because why was I putting myself through something I knew was going to give me anxiety, you know? Why did I need to do this?

Good friends, my pals. Good friends. They pointed out that I’d regret it if I left which yeah, I would have. I stayed.

On shaking legs goddammit it, I stayed.

So then it was explained that the boys were on their way and that there was a lot of people there but that we had time and we would definitely all get to meet them so no pushing etc. The crowd kept cheering and being loud when she was talking which was annoying but everyone was just so excited! 

So, you had to have your 1 thing to sign, you could get a selfie/photo whatever and then you’d have your wristband cut off and get a little vip merch tote thing. Have it all ready in your hand before you go round. Trust me, it makes it so much easier! 

I wasn’t taking much more in by this point because the heat in my face and neck was uncontrollable and at this point I was hitting myself in the knuckles with a sharpie because I think I was very near a panic attack. 

Then it was TIME. 

They came out through the side door. The cheer started at the back and followed down the line like a wave at a sporting match and then.... they came round into full view. 

I was just... stunned. Into silence. 

Literally lost the ability to speak. 

Most people comment on how tall they are. I can deal with tall. I’m used to tall. I’m not used to two nerds I watch on my computer screen suddenly appearing in real life. 

I was mostly struck by how Dan was wearing merch actually. He really followed through on that. Plus it was the one I wanted to buy so I was glad to see it in person. 

Dan asked us all how were were doing and everyone cheered appropriately. 

Then Phil said (quietly and mostly to Dan) “Thank you for coming” 

Then Dan said louder to the crowd “Yes, Thank you all for coming!” 

And that was cute as hell, because Dan clearly does all the shouting and Phil giving him that little prompt was just... wonderful. The way they work together so easily is just lovely. 

So then they went back behind the screen thing and the moment came. 

Everyone moved forward, I was panicking and hitting my knuckles with the pen and counting down the number of people left to go before I would have to do it. 

Then it was our turn. We’d already talked about how I was going last out of the three of us because I am a wimp. So those two went up together and I watched them in the reflection of the glass and they were all laughing and I was like, SO SO HAPPY for them. Honestly, my friends are the best and getting to experience this whole thing with them was the best. 

After what seemed like a hilarious conversation I won’t spoil here because you can probably read about on their blogs, it was my turn.

But first: 

“Is that a letter?” she said.

They collect the letters and things before you go round to see the guys and then put them in these neat large brown envelopes with “Dan and Phil” written on and the venue and date. 

“Yes,” I said, “But it’s not from me. It’s from my friend. In California.” 

Sometimes when I am nervous I ramble. But, @adorkablephil that one was for you. I wanted to make sure I mentioned it. 

“Ready?” 

“As I’ll ever be.” 

Then I had to go around the screen. 

Before I got there, in fact for the entire 7 months since I bought my ticket I have been saying the same thing. I was looking forward to my Phil hug and I didn’t think I’d be able to handle meeting Dan in person. I don’t know why. He was intimidating to me for some reason. 

But, let me tell you. I was not prepared for the absolute force that is Phil Lester. 

I rounded the corner and Phil immediately smiled and held his arms out and I just kind of shuffled over and gave him a hug and he was like “hiiii” 

Then I got a half-hug from Dan in that way that he does and I was so happy about it. They are both like, SO lovely. And gentle.

Phil was just... I don’t know. Dan looked like Dan does on my laptop screen. Just, in real life which was bizarre yeah, but Phil... Phil looks different. I don’t think if its the hair or just that I’m not yet used to 2018 Phil but he looked his age. Which... if you’ve been paying attention to this blog at all you will know is totally my jam. 

I’m a Phil girl. I’ve become a Phil girl. I think it’s just time I admitted it. 

I didn’t intend on saying much. I didn’t have anything planned and there was no huge statement I wanted to make. I never would have been able to manage it, my anxiety levels were pretty high at this point and I just wanted to enjoy the moment without any added pressure to say anything like, meaningful.

And I was still pretty much stunned into silence anyway so I think I went “Hi.” all quiet and squeaky. Then the conversation went like this:

P: Do you want us to sign your calendar? 

Me: Oh, Yes please. 

I passed them the calendar. Backwards. Of course. I’m an idiot. 

D: Do you want us to sign May? 

Bless this boy for checking. God amongst men. Cus I didn’t have it in me to correct it unprompted. 

Me: Oh. Actually, June please. 

They flipped it over, both with black sharpie in hand, poised and ready. 

I almost let it go. I had a plan that I almost let slide because, hello awkward, but I didn’t. I summoned the courage to finally like, actually speak.

Me: I, um, I brought a silver sharpie. Cus... it’s black. 

I meant the page. June is the black background photo and I didn’t think the black sharpie would show up. 

At this point I kind of thrust the sharpie at them and Phil smiled again. I died. 

P: You’re so prepared

D: We’re never prepared for anything in life just generally

I laughed. 

At this point I realised my error in only bringing only one pen because then they couldn’t do the crossed-arms thing to sign. But it was okay. Phil still held the calendar but Dan signed first and then passed the pen over to Phil. Seamless. Wonderful. 

At this point I’m digging my phone out of my front pocket and my hands are shaking. 

Phil puts the pen lid back on and passes it all back to me and I like, fumble with all my stuff and flicking open the camera app at the same time. 

D: Would you like a photo?

Me: Yes please could you... *passes him my phone*.

I never give anyone my phone. Ever. But here is Dan Howell with his huge hands on my phone just handling it like a pro and it was great. 

So I sort of awkwardly shift to the middle of them and Phil leans in SO close behind me and Dan takes the picture and I think I don’t look too bad. A little stunned, of course, but that was to be expected. 

Me: Thank you so much.

D: Thank you for coming, I hope you enjoy the show. 

Me: You too

What? You too? Ugh I’m the worst. 

P: Bye!

Me: Bye!

Then I get round the other side and the guy with the totes looks at me like really hesitantly, like he’s approaching a scared animal and says “Can I cut your wristband off?” 

I held out my wrist. Silent and shook and shaking. He cuts the wristband off, He gives me a tote bag, I clutch it and the calendar to my chest and wander back over to my friends and finally, mercifully, collapse. 

The camera app is still open on my phone. My ears are still hot and my knuckle has a bruise forming I’ll definitely regret tomorrow but this has been one of the best things ever. 

I had to drink two beers with lunch just to get over it. 

[tgwltw]

Her hand

Back with another request! Anyone who knows me knows that I absolutely love writing Wally x Batsis!! Hopefully, this is alright for you! Thank you so much for sending this prompt in and I really do hope you enjoy this! Trying to go through requests still so posting might be slow! (Also I am trying to see if I can complete at least two-three requests per day so I can go through the requests nicely!)

Wally wrings his hands as he tries his hardest not to bolt out of the room. He never really thought this day would come, sort of. Actually, Wally also never thought he would last this long with you – his relationship with you had been a rocky one but Wally has never been one to give up on who he loves and you being the stubborn person that you are has managed to wedge yourself completely deep in his heart and Wally knows he is never going to be able to let you go – at least not anymore.

“Is there a reason you ask for this meeting?” Bruce stares at Wally and Wally almost lets out a curse – deep down inside, he knows Bruce knows why he is here – he probably already knew about this meeting even before Wally decided to come see him. When Bruce shifts, Wally tenses slightly before clearing his throat.

“Well – yeah – uh, Sir.” Wally used to be able to talk easily (read: run his mouth off) with Bruce before but now that he had come to the manor with a very important mission and he really does not want to ruin any chances. “I think you already know why I am here,” Wally averts his gaze from Bruce’s all-knowing ones and catches sight of a new family photo – it brings a smile to his face when he sees just how happy you are, surrounded by your father and your brothers.

Bruce doesn’t even move to follow Wally’s gaze because he knows well enough what Wally is staring at. He chuckles inwardly seeing the love-stricken smile on the young man’s face. Bruce honestly never thought the relationship you shared with Wally could last long – given the nature of the lives Wally and you are living but he is glad. Bruce is glad over the fact that he has seen that look ever since Wally had been a younger teen and whenever it came to you, that look of love and adoration that always cross his face somewhat relieves Bruce – he knows well that Wally is a very good man – one that can keep you grounded and one that made you feel very complete. “I do.” Bruce finally answers.

Wally lets out a sigh of relief before slowly reaching for the black velvet ring box that feels extremely heavy in his pocket. He takes it out from his pocket and places it on the table in front of him – he knows it’s nothing much compared to what Bruce could probably afford but Wally had saved up enough money to buy this ring you have been eyeing for the longest time. “I would like to ask for your daughter’s hand in marriage, Sir.” Wally takes a deep breath and looks at Bruce straight in the eyes. It unnerves him a little with how intense Bruce is looking at him but relief washes over him when Bruce slowly nods his head. “Are you serious?” His jaw drops and Wally feels as if he had been smacked in the face – he actually thought Bruce would put up a lot of resistance.

Bruce chuckles at the expression Wally is wearing before nodding his head. “I have seen the both of you grow, Wally and you are a really good man for Y/N. I have never seen Y/N happier and I am afraid, I have to burst your bubble.” Bruce states seriously causing Wally to stare at him in confusion. “If you think I was the one that will be giving you a hard time, you are definitely mistaken – have you considered what the rest will have to say?”

Wally blanches when he finally realizes that he has to talk to the rest of your brothers – Dick had been alright with his plan, in fact his best friend had been in full support ever since the two of them got together and Dick had already given him the ‘talk’ too. Tim might be a little bit alright and Jason might try to shoot him but Damian… Damian is definitely going to give him a lot of hell. “Oh.”

Bruce simply smiles before reaching for the cup of tea Alfred had poured for him earlier. He sips his drink – it’s lukewarm now – and watches the man in front of him. Bruce really cannot wait to see you in your wedding dress.

Asking Tim had gone smoothly. Wally didn’t even know why he had fretted in the first place – actually, he does know. He knows just how much your brothers mean to you and he really wants to do you right by asking all of your brothers for permission. Tim simply smacked him on the back, “took you long enough, Wally! Y/N’s going to be really happy.” Wally had a love-struck smile when Tim brought you up causing the latter to smack his back again. “Okay, gross – I don’t need to see that look on your face whenever you think about my sister!” Tim exclaims and Wally sputters because his thoughts had been innocent enough. Tim laughs at Wally’s expression. “Joking, Wally. Are you going to go look for the rest now?”

Wally nods his head. “Dick already gave me the green light. I just need to find Jason and Damian.” He winces at that thought. Maybe he should have gone to see Damian first because he knows how close Damian is to you. Tim also winces when he heard the last two names.

Chasing Jason down was not as hard as Wally thought it would be. Granted, Dick had to set up the meeting and insisted he is let in on the meeting too. Just in case Jason decides to go after him, that is. Wally rolls his eyes at his friend’s vote of confidence – Wally likes to think that Jason likes him a little bit more than Damian. Just by the tiniest bit.

Jason raises his eyes as he dismantles his gun. Wally eyes the table carefully before taking a seat across of him. “So what did you want to meet up for?” He asks, tilting his head to the side. Wally takes out the black velvet box he had been carrying and simply places it in front of him. Jason’s gaze zeroes in on the box and Wally can feel the tenseness in the air. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

Wally reels back at Jason’s words. “No – I got Bruce’s permission already.” He squeaks before clearing his throat and repeating the words again. “I just wanted to tell you that I am planning on asking Y/N’s hand in marriage.” Jason narrows his eyes at Wally. Wally tries his hardest not to notice just how quickly Jason put the gun back together.

“You better not hurt or make Y/N cry or else.” Jason loads the gun and Wally nods his head. “I can think of several different ways to shoot you, Wally and you are going to hurt in places you never thought you would get hurt. Got it?”

Wally gulps and nods his head. “Of course – Dick has also given me the ‘hurt Y/N and I’ll make sure you regret it’ talk and I am pretty sure Damian is going to be harder to convince – but thank you?”

Jason rolls his eyes, scoffing at Wally. “Good luck trying to convince that spawn.” Jason hisses and that’s Wally’s queue to leave him alone. He grabs the ring and slides it in his pocket before rushing to the kitchen where Dick has been raiding Jason’s pantry.

“No.”

Wally sputters. “What do you mean ‘no’?”

Damian shakes his head. “Tt – and I am supposed to give dearest sister my blessing?” He eyes Wally a few times before shaking his head, clicking his tongue and returning his attention back to the book he had initially been reading right before Wally had disturbed him.

“B – oh, come on, Damian.” Wally frowns as he tries once again. He knew Damian was going to be the hardest one to convince – he also knows just how close the both of you are too so he somewhat understands Damian’s reservations even if he is starting to feel annoyed. “Everyone else has given me their permissions and blessings and are you really not going to give me your blessings?” Wally presses.

Damian simply ignores him in favour of reading the very action-packed part of the book. He has always admired your wonderful tastes in books! He can’t wait to have a discussion with you regarding this book – out of all of his siblings, having discussions about literature with you is always the best.

Just as Wally is about to start pulling his own hair out, a voice catches the both of them by surprise.

“Wally, Damian – my two favourite men in one room.” You greet them happily. You haven’t seen your boyfriend for the past few days because you had been trying to catch deadlines and finish up all of your assignments and you have missed him terribly. Talking to him on the phone had quelled some of the feelings you had but seeing him in the flesh is much better. The grin on your face widens when Wally turns to look at you with a smile that could blind you.

“Babe,” Wally pockets the box and stands up to wrap his arms around you. You giggle as you snuggle closer, wrapping your own arms around Wally. He kisses your temple. “How was your day – did you finish your assignments? Have you eaten?” Wally throws questions at you – if he had been paying attention, he would have seen Damian looking at the both of you with a serious look on his face.

You shrug your shoulders, pressing your nose against his collarbone. “Day started off quite badly – forgot my umbrella in the car, it poured when I was walking across the campus and the deadlines I had been trying to catch turned out to be postponed to next week and overall, it just sucks.” You told him, suddenly feeling very tired at how your day had turned out to be. “I am really happy I get to see you – I missed you, Wally.” Wally pulls you closer, showering you with kisses causing you to giggle a few times.

Damian pretends to gag causing the two of you to turn to him. He has his bookmarker at the page he had been reading and he stands up. “The least the both of you could do was to wait until I was out of the room, Tt.” Damian deadpans causing you to laugh. He closes his book and heads toward the door. “Sister, I will see you during dinner later – I will tell Pennyworth to make your favourites for tonight, to make up for your horrendous day.” Damian informs you and you could not help but reach over to ruffle his hair, causing Damian to hiss and pout at your actions. Damian is about to head out of the room when he pauses by the door to stare directly at Wally.

Wally raises one of his eyebrows.

“I suppose you have mine.” Damian mutters, confusing you but that had been enough for Wally because the grin on his face widens and he begins to try and talk your ears off by talking about what he had been doing at work (in an attempt to make sure you don’t catch on to what Damian had said) and Damian resists the urge to roll his eyes because it is really unbecoming so he settles for crossing his arms. “Tt.”

[wineanddinosaur]

VinePair Podcast: Sparkling Wine Is Having a Moment

December is traditionally the month when wine drinkers think about sparkling wine the most, whether to augment their holiday celebrations or to bring a bit of cheer to cold and dreary weather. However, the incredible range and diversity of sparkling wines now available in the United States make a strong argument to turn sparkling wine into an all-seasons beverage.

To kick of VinePair’s celebration of Bubbly Week, Adam Teeter and Zach Geballe are joined by guest host and VinePair staff writer Tim McKirdy to discuss some of their favorite offerings, why American sparklers are taking off in wine regions all over the country, and how Prosecco, just like Champagne, has turned itself into a luxury brand.

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Or Check Out the Conversation Here

Adam: From Brooklyn, New York, I’m Adam Teeter.

Tim: From Queens, New York, Tim McKirdy.

Zach: And in Seattle, Washington I’m Zach Geballe.

A: And this is the VinePair Podcast. And before we get into the podcast, a word from today’s sponsor. This podcast, and Bubbly Week, which is occurring this week, when this podcast is airing, and it’s all about bubbles, and it’s one of our favorite weeks of the year here at VinePair, is sponsored by Luminore by LaMarca, J Vineyards & Winery, and Otello Lambrusco. And with that, we’re on to the pod. So we’re going to talk about bubbly in a little bit, but before we jump into all things sparkling, Tim! You’re our guest host for this week. It’s great to have you, a staff writer at VinePair. Obviously, we’ve explained to you the rules of the game, so what have you been drinking recently?

T: Well, thank you guys for having me on. So, yeah. What have I been drinking recently?

A: Besides tea, obviously. Because I want to say this. I’ve noticed that in every British program I watch recently, there’s a lot of tea consumption. And do you guys really like tea, or is it just a ruse? Do you put it on for the tourists?

T: Well, I would say that’s better than your comment you made to me the other day about dentists and British people. I like tea, but if I’m drinking it for the purposes we normally have hot drinks, to get going in the morning or whatever, I prefer a coffee. But if I need something to warm me up in the afternoon, I will go for an Earl Grey. But I haven’t been drinking a lot of that recently. To return to your original question, as my 10 Instagram followers will know, I tend to drink a lot of Martinis, and I recently discovered a Japanese vermouth. It’s not actually technically a vermouth because it’s made with a sake base, but it’s Bermutto, and I thought that it’s the perfect pairing for some of the range of incredible Japanese gins that are out there these days. So, yeah, I’ve been using that for my Friday night Martini and will probably add a little bit more vermouth then I typically go for, just because the flavor is incredible. I’ll normally go like super dry, just a splash, but yeah, maybe even go up to a two to one.

A: Wait, where did you discover this sake-based vermouth?

T: So this was actually a product I’ve received as a sample and enjoyed, and it was sent to me as a gift by someone. So we were doing the huge vermouth roundup, and I was reaching out to try tons of different sweet vermouths for a different story that I was writing about Negronis, and the person that I was in contact with with like, “Well, you have to try this dry vermouth” because they actually happen to know that I’m a big Martini lover as well. So they sent that along, and it’s wonderful. And it’s hard to glean the name of the producer from the bottle. There’s not too much information on there, but if I get it, maybe we can add it to the show notes.

Z: Or you all can go follow Tim on Instagram, and we can make sure he posts a picture of the bottle there.

T: That’s what I was really aiming for there. You know, you’ve got to follow me now.

Z: Double that follower count for you. We’re going to go from 10 to 20.

A: Seriously Tim, come on, man.

T: It’s an incredible, a really wonderful Martini, and really highlights some of the amazing Japanese gins that are out there these days, too. So yeah, go out there and look for it, there can’t be too many on the market. So if you find one online, it’s probably the same one I’m drinking.

A: Well now I’m jealous, but that’s fine.

Z: Wasn’t that the point of this whole, this whole bit here, Adam?

A: It’s also not the first time I’ve been jealous of Tim, so it’s OK. Zach, what about you?

Z: To me, the most striking thing that I had this last week, I taught a class about Rioja this past weekend and opened the current vintage, or I guess they’ve just switched vintages, but the 2007 Reserva from López de Heredia, I think we’ve talked about him a little bit already on this podcast before honestly, their Vina Tondonia, which is one of their single vineyard Riojas. And two thoughts struck my mind. One is: I just adore those wines. They’re definitely not the thing that I want all the time. I have to be in the right kind of mood and place for them to work for me, whether it’s the reds or even the whites. But the other thing I’d say is, it reminded me in doing it for this class, it brought back all these memories I had of selling it as a sommelier and how much I had to fight with that wine in a restaurant setting, because it really needs like four or five hours in a decanter before it really is enjoyable. And for me at home, whatever, that’s fine, I’ll open it and then come back to it in the evening when I’m ready, and I actually encourage the people in my class to open it hours beforehand. But boy, it was a pain in the ass in restaurants, and I love the wines, and it’s not meant as a knock on them, but it was hard as a sommelier to explain to people that like, well, really, if you want to enjoy this wine, you should have ordered it four hours ago.

A: Oh my God. Yeah, I’ve only had their wine once or twice. I don’t remember how long it was decanted for.

Z: The white is a little bit more forgiving. The reds are just typically—

A: Oh, you had the red. I thought you had had the white.

Z: No, I have had both, although the red is the one I had the other day, and delicious with time to open, but you gotta plan ahead. It makes sense this past week of Thanksgiving, where all the food you prepare takes a long time to queue up. So it’s kinda like, the wine equivalent to making a turkey or something like that.

A: So can you just explain so what would it be like if you hadn’t given it time? Is it just incredibly tight and there’s nothing there?

Z: And maybe one day we’ll do a podcast topic about some of these wine terms that are hard to define, like “tight,” but basically to me, when I describe a wine that way, what I would say is that the overwhelming sensation of the wines are the structural elements. So the tannins and the acid, it’s kind of the equivalent experience you get sometimes if you have a white wine that’s too cold, where sometimes all you taste is the acidity in the wine and the fruit profile and the aromatics are really muted because the wine is too cold. With reds, serving temperature can affect that, but it’s more often just with wines like that that are aged for a very long time in barrel, and then for very long time in bottle, they just need that time in a decanter, or at least being open on your table or something to really fully start to express themselves. And so when you taste it just freshly opened, you taste nothing but really tart fruit and a lot of tannin and almost aggressively medicinal quality. And then when you come back to it, three, four, five hours later, the fruit is a little bit more generous, although still quite dry. And then you get much more of this savory, but not off-putting notes that you get when it’s just freshly open. So more of the leathery, wood, smoke notes that I really enjoy, but it takes a little while to come out of the wine when it’s just been opened.

A: Interesting. Interesting.

Z: What have you been drinking, Adam?

A: Oh gosh, a few things. Drinking a lot more wine lately, obviously, than cocktails. And beer, ‘cause I love beer. I drank a really great KCBC beer Kings County Brewers Collective, but I forgot the name of it. It was their seasonal this year, but just a delicious, hazy IPA. That was pretty tasty. But then on Saturday night I made fresh pasta with truffles, and I opened a bottle of Cogno Ravera Barolo that was dope. Really, really, really, really good. I think it was our No. 1 of the year two years ago on the VinePair list. And it was just a beautiful bottle. And again, the reason I was asking is because the same thing happened with the Barolo. I popped it and let it sit for like 45 minutes in the decanter, and when we first drank it, it was all tannins still. And then 30 minutes later, it had completely opened. So I guess basically an hour and 15 minutes sitting in the decanter, and then it was beautiful. But it was just crazy how that happens. So, yeah, that’s basically what I’ve been drinking recently.

T: Look at you guys, men of the people, popping out the decanters.

A: Shut up, Tim. Shut up Tim, usually —

Z: Why did you bring Tim on this podcast, again, Adam?

A: Because it’s fun.

T: Actually I saw that, Adam, I think I saw you posting it on Instagram and I was like, wow yeah, that’s the way to spend a Saturday night.

A: No, that was the second bottle. Remember, I texted you this, you messaged me on Instagram. And I was like, yeah, I made a mistake. Like we’re doing a Zoom with some people at 10 p.m. and it’s only 8:30, so I’m going to pop another one. And now that I’ve already had this bottle, I’m going to have another bottle, and continue watching my football game.

T: It’s a whole new meaning to the term double decanting.

Z: Oh my God.

A: Yeah, totally

Z: Tim with the fire today.

A: Always the fire, it’s the best. But it’s funny, ‘cause I really haven’t had a lot of cocktails recently. I love a Martini. Tim has inspired me, but I haven’t made one yet this season actually as it’s gotten cooler, I think I need to later this week. I don’t know if I’ll do it tonight.

Z: I mean, it’s a great week for it. We’re recording this obviously before Thanksgiving and is there a better couple of days to be drinking Martinis at 2 p.m. than on Thursday and Friday of Thanksgiving week?

A: When you’re with your in-laws?

Z: Hmm, fair enough. I don’t know. You might need the Martini. I’m sure Naomi’s parents are lovely, lovely people.

T: I’d like to think of it like if New Year’s Eve is the Super Bowl of drinking, then Thanksgiving is the playoffs, right? You know, we’re leading in the season, we’re getting there. So, you know, mid-week Martini might be appropriate. Who knows?

A: I agree, Tim. I have another question for you before we jump into today’s podcast, how’s your storage unit doing?

T: My storage unit is brilliant. I wanted to come live from that, but this is maybe not a problem not all of our listeners have, but living in New York, having an incredibly small apartment and basically being confined to that apartment for gosh, eight months now, my girlfriend and I had the realization the other day of “why don’t we get a storage unit?” And it’s honestly a game changer. I got my wines in there that I want to age, you know, it’s temperature controlled. I say my “wines that I want to age,” there’s like 12 bottles, no illusion. But honestly, this is a game changer. If you live in New York, public storage, it’s wonderful. You get a great deal. I highly recommend it.

Z: Do you have a promo code for us, Tim? So we’ll save 10 percent off if they drop your name?

T: 10 pounds off with “McKirdy Martini”

Z: 10 pounds. Oh my goodness. That’s actually funny that you mention that, though. ‘Cause I actually, my wife and I, we rent a house here in Seattle, but with a child it became clear that with Covid and quarantine, it was not big enough. So we actually also rented a storage unit a couple of months ago, and it has also been a game changer in our house because now my wife and I don’t have to fight about how we’re going to find room for anything, any new toy for our son, because we put all the old toys in storage and yeah, I’m team storage locker, too.

T: Yeah, my girlfriend and I said, think of all the things that we can buy direct to storage. It’s brilliant.

A: I can’t. You two are too ridiculous. So let’s jump into bubbles, shall we? Always a fun time of year, always a fun topic. This is one of my favorite weeks of content we do every year. And it’s really awesome that for the past three years, it’s been sponsored by Luminore by LaMarca, J Vineyards & Winery, and now Otello Lambrusco. But it’s a celebration of all things bubbles. I didn’t drink as many bubbles in early Covid just because it didn’t feel like it was a celebratory time, but I’m really ready to drink bubbles now. And just of all kinds, do either of you drink bubbles regularly? And if you do, do you have one that’s a go-to or a kind of style as a go-to? And don’t say Champagnes, Zach. I know you’re a somm, but we don’t need to tell everyone else.

Z: I would say that I do drink sparkling wine, a lot, including Champagne. My wife is a big fan as am I, to be fair. I would say, though, that as far as go-tos, it’s been really interesting. That’s been something that I think has changed a lot for me over the last couple of years. If you had asked me this question a few years ago, I think I would have said Crémant and I would’ve just left it there, and I still drink a decent amount of Crémant. For those who are unfamiliar with Crémant there’s a range of different regional Crémant appellations throughout France that refer to basically wines made in the traditional or Champagne method, but not in Champagne itself. And they can often be really, really good. They’re not usually aged as long as Champagnes. Certainly not as long as vintage Champagnes, but even your standard Champagne bottlings typically spend more time aging than most Crémant, but they’re very good. They’re often very good. They’re serious wines. They’re taken very seriously by the producers in most cases. And they’re obviously significantly more affordable in many cases than Champagne, but for me, actually, I surprisingly, perhaps to myself, have found myself actually gravitating towards drinking a lot more Prosecco than I used to. It started by visiting the region a couple of years ago and having some Prosecco that was — let’s say it was just a different category of Prosecco than I was familiar with from just working as a sommelier and as a wine drinker here in the States. Fortunately, a lot of those wines have become more available in the U.S. over the last few years, or at least here in the Seattle market. And I find myself really enjoying a lot of the balance that you find in Prosecco that is actually sometimes harder to find in a lot of sparkling wines, because the Prosecco is typically not quite as acidic and typically has a little bit more residual sugar. And so it’s a little bit more balanced unto itself, whereas sparkling wine, especially Champagne and Crémant, is delicious and an awesome pairing with a lot of foods, but if I just want to have a glass by itself, I actually find myself more gravitating towards Prosecco and I think that’s something that’s been a broader trend in this country. And that people have realized that if they’re just going to have a glass of something sparkling, I think more than ever before, that thing is Prosecco. And I guess I’ve just caught up with the trend.

A: Interesting. Tim?

T: Yeah. I definitely am a lover of all sparkling wines. I think it’s probably up there with my favorite styles or go-to bottles. It’s something I definitely drink quite regularly. When it’s just a normal week, probably not during the week, but a normal weekend, I will be looking for something in the store that’s a little bit more budget-friendly. Like Zach says, I do tend to find a lot of value in Crémant wines from France. Tons of great American sparklers as our friend Keith Beavers likes to call them.

Z: And only Keith, let’s be clear.

A: Yeah, no, I think he’s onto something, people. I actually think “American Sparkler” is a great name for sparkling wine from the U.S.

T: Let’s make that happen.

A: Let’s make it happen. We’re making it happen.

T: I think Cava as well as is another style of sparkling wine that I think if you know where to look and spend just a couple of bucks extra, I think you can find some amazing wines in there, aged on lees, that are just fantastic.

A: Nice. I mean, it’s interesting. Yeah. I don’t drink as much sparkling wine as I would like to, but I do think I’ve found myself recently drinking a lot more American sparkling wine, like the stuff from, for example, Domaine Carneros, any of those kinds of producers like that are out in California. I think that there’s some people doing really interesting things. Also a lot of the Italian sparkling wine — not just Prosecco, but Franciacorta as well as the stuff coming from other areas that are just really interesting as well. I think that there’s a lot of delicious sparkling wine out there that also is more than just Champagne. And I think the reason I’m saying more than just Champagne is, I would love to drink it all the time. I think it’s absolutely delicious, but I just can’t afford that. For the Champagnes that I enjoy, they’re always well above 60 to 70 bucks a bottle. And it’s very rare that I drink reds or whites that I love that are above 60, 70 bucks a bottle. So to justify that in Champagne all the time is very, very difficult. So I don’t do it. But there’s bottles in the 20s and 30s that are from everywhere else that are equally delicious in the right moment.

T: To your point there, Adam, I think as well with domestic sparkling wine, you named Domaine Carneros. I’d say another go-to for me as well — you’ve mentioned it on the podcast before — but Gruet. I think you manage to capture that Champagne flavor profile. Some might argue that the nuance might not be there as with a $60 bottle of Champagne, but you capture that overall flavor profile. You can also find those wines practically everywhere, which I think is a huge plus. And they’re also budget-friendly. One of my favorite things to do in the “before times,” as we’re calling it these days. So living in Queens, some people might be familiar with some of the neighborhoods here. There’s a neighborhood close to me called Jackson Heights and they have the most amazing momo trucks. So what I would typically do is pick up a chilled bottle of Gruet, go down there, stick it in the larger size of the brown bag, and take along some cups and order some of those momos. And that pairing for me, it’s just one of the most incredible things. It’s something I would normally do to kick off Thanksgiving as well, but I’m not sure that’s going to happen this year, but that is a pairing that we might get onto pairings today, but that’s a pairing that isn’t very classical, but I want to put that one out there and claim it for myself, if I can.

A: Oh yeah. I read about that, that you do that in a publication called Eater, I think. There was an article written about how you do that, but I wasn’t sure if it was you because it mentioned a husband, so I’m not sure if it was you.

T: Well, what can I say? The quality of journalism and reporting these days, fact checking is not what it was.

Z: This is great, though, because I actually think Tim points to a really important story, whether it’s about the American sparklers or just sparkling wine more broadly, which is one of the cool things that we’ve seen emerge, at least I’ve seen I think, and it’s not exclusively the province of America, but I think you’ve seen it here a lot is this interesting approach to sparkling wine that that is there are producers that are making wines that are very much modeled intentionally after Champagne, in terms of the choice of varieties, the winemaking methodology. But you’ve also got producers who are working with almost every variety possible, whether it’s Germanic varieties like Riesling, and Gewürztraminer, and Müller-Thurgau and making sparkling wines from those, or making sparkling wines from other aromatic white varieties like Muscat and people making Pétillant-naturel or Pét-Nat wines here, there’s this incredible range of sparkling wines, and this kind of dovetails with the conversation, Adam, that you and I had with Keith a couple of weeks ago about American wine and some of the exciting places to look at. But one of the things that the U.S. has is a lot of these areas that are newer wine-producing regions that might not be quite suitable for big red-wine production. They’re cooler, they’re wetter, they have higher altitude, but they make for amazing potential spots for sparkling wine. And so this idea of expanding the idea of what sparkling wine means beyond this Champagne paradigm is really exciting to me. And I think those food pairings like the one that Tim discussed with the momos or the incredible range of cuisines that we see in this country. I mean, that is where sparkling wine shines. Besides just as a drink by itself, as I described at the beginning, but yeah as this incredible pairing tool, because sparkling wine itself is so diverse and can work with so many different flavors. And so I found incredible pairings at home with take-out Indian food and some interesting Pét-Nat Lemberger from here in Washington. That was a weird-a** pairing, but I thought it worked pretty well, especially with things like paneer cheese that work with a lot of different flavors. So yeah, the possibility space for those of us who are interested in drinking sparkling wine is really broad, and having a broader canvas of wines to work with is also super exciting.

A: Absolutely. And I think the thing that you’re picking up on that is really cool is just how delicious these wines are with a range of cuisines, and how well they go with a range of cuisines. I think a lot of people don’t think about that that often, right? I think we can blame movies and popular culture for this, but Champagne, or sparkling wine in general, but it all began with Champagne. Now it’s this celebratory drink, right? So you pop it at the beginning of a meal to cheers everyone. It’s the wedding drink when the bride and groom first come on and there’s the toast or whatever, but that there’s a lot more to these kinds of wines and they’re very complex. They have a lot of different flavors and aromas then other wines do that pair really well with even things like steak and roast chicken and stuff. That’s just delicious. You might be like, “Oh, I was feeling a red tonight.” Well actually like, you can do just a really delicious sparkling wine with lots of yeasty notes and a savory quality that makes it the perfect pairing for those kinds of things. I think, yeah, you’re right. The amount of fun that people are having with sparkling wine now is really interesting. I think that’s something that we’ve even seen in the re-emergence of Lambrusco. Like there’s this wine that got a really, really terrible rap in the ’70s and ’80s because the stuff coming over from Italy was just sickly sweet. But it’s a wine that comes from the same region as Parmesan cheese and prosciutto, right? And it’s made to go with those wines when it’s done really well. And it can be delicious and dry and easy to consume, obviously, cause it’s often lower alcohol, but then also just does beautifully with pizzas and does awesome with red meats and things like that and spice. And that’s been really fun to watch people discover that because it’s a great wine to have in your repertoire, along with, you know, whites and reds.

Z: Lambrusco is like the perfect wine for one of the few truly American foods, and that’s barbecue. And we’ve had, I guess we call it a spirited conversation about barbecue and what exactly that word means on this podcast, people can go back and listen to the barbecue wine podcast that we did over the summer to get more detail. I’m not going to reiterate everything that was said there, but I do think it’s important to point out that Lambrusco works really, really well with almost any variety of barbecue. And also is one of my absolute favorite pairings for a dish that I don’t personally have very often, because it’s not really what I do, but a very classic edition in December, which is a Christmas ham. Because as Adam mentioned, Lambrusco is from Emilia-Romagna, which is the salted pork capital of the world. So if you’re going to have salty pork, you should have Lambrusco.

A: It makes sense. It makes sense.

Z: And it is really like the capital of the world. I cannot overemphasize how much cured pork I had in my couple of days in Emilia-Romagna. It was — obscene isn’t even the right word. It was something beyond obscene.

A: I want to go to Emilia-Romagna.

Z: It’s very un-picturesque.

A: I just want to go there for the salted pork.

Z: And actually surprisingly also, and this is a thing that comes up in Italy, they have some of the best bread in Italy, which Italian bread is really hit or miss. Like just absolutely dreadful bread, uh, but Emilia-Romagna’s bread is good. Tim, I have a question for you, because we were talking about the culture and the context in which people drink sparkling wine here. And Adam made a dig about tea earlier, or at least hinted at it. But, I was going to say that I think there’s a perception in this country right or wrong that the Brits are more sophisticated when it comes to wine than Americans traditionally. Is the role of sparkling wine in England functionally different than what it is here? Is that something that’s changed, or what’s it classically like there? Or maybe in the modern day?

T: Yeah, that’s a great question. And I think, the simple answer is that, in my experience, I don’t think that British culture is in any way more sophisticated when it comes to wine or any other type of drinking, but I should add the caveat that I also grew up in Scotland, as well. So, that’s a whole different story. Just search for Buckfast and read about that. And if you’re not familiar with it, that will reveal some things about us as a nation. So I would say that sparkling wine, I don’t think it does have that connotation as only being for celebrations. It’s definitely present at the celebrations. Any occasion I can remember growing up, getting together as a family, there would always be Champagne there. But I’d say more in recent years, and this is even before I came of drinking age. I remember growing up and Cava being so huge in the U.K. And maybe there was some kind of breakout moment where we were told as a nation, “This is like Champagne, but it’s a lot cheaper.” And then at some point there was a shift. I want to say that it was probably about 12 years ago, maybe a little bit longer, where Cava changed to Prosecco. And you know, through the lens of, “Is sparkling wine only for celebration?” I would say absolutely not. Especially for the majority of the nation. It would stun me if Prosecco wasn’t the best-selling wine in the U.K. You know, maybe rosé or maybe something like Malbec might challenge it, but Prosecco is just so popular, and it’s everywhere, and it’s definitely not like the celebration wine. It’s wine for every day. It’s the wine for when my mum gets together with her friends, or when you go out to brunch with friends, or, I guess all the occasions that we have it here, as well, but it just always seems to be on the table.

A: It seemed to happen in the U.K. and in the U.S. around the same time for some reason. It just popped. Everyone, all of a sudden — obviously Prosecco was here for longer, but it feels like all of a sudden people were aware of it. And they knew it by name. And I think what’s become really interesting, now we’re getting onto the business side, is that yeah, during Covid right while Champagne sales slumped, Prosecco interest and sales continued to stay fairly high, and people were asking for Prosecco by name. So where they might call an American sparkler Champagne, they know now to call Prosecco “Prosecco.” It’s become this thing that is this just massive behemoth that people recognize as like the sparkling wine you can drink all the time. And yes, I mean, if you want to toast with it great, but also if you just want it on a Tuesday night with take-out, and then you want to watch Netflix, it’s a great wine to have, and it’s just been everywhere. And that, I think, has been really interesting. And the only thing I wonder about with Prosecco is like, how much more can it grow? Because it’s just grown so much, but it doesn’t really show a ton of signs of slowing. So, there definitely is still opportunity.

Z: Adam. I have a question for you and for Tim, of course, too, if he has thought about this. So, you mentioned the business side of it and the growth of Prosecco and the fact that it’s now a category distinct from Champagne, and then I guess sparkling wine more broadly. But what I wonder is the thing I haven’t seen a lot of, I’ve seen a little bit of it, but not a lot of it, is producers in the United States or other parts of the world really trying to go after Prosecco’s market share directly. So you see a lot of people pushing other kinds of traditional-method, fully sparkling wines as an alternative. Oh, you know, whether it’s Cava, whether it’s other Italian sparkling wines, whether it’s domestics, et cetera, but you don’t see people saying, “Hey, we’re going to try and make a wine that, flavor-profile-wise, is similar to Prosecco.” Now, maybe that’s because no one else is growing Glera. And so they’re not going to really make something that tastes exactly like it because they’re not growing the grape. But I think a lot of it is maybe that for whatever reason the success of Prosecco, no one has an explanation in the wine world. No one really understands it. They don’t know whether to credit it to the style of wine itself or just it’s relative affordability, and the fact that I guess the name resonates with people, it’s easy for people to pronounce and remember. That stuff matters, too. I don’t know. Do either of you have a read on why you’re not seeing more people making semi-sparkling, tank-method sparkling wines, and trying to push them as Prosecco alternatives?

A: I do. I think that sparkling wine, for the majority of consumers, is a lifestyle beverage. It’s much more similar to rosé than it is to other wines. And so when you’re talking about a lifestyle beverage, you’re talking about what else that wine represents, besides quality-to-price ratio, the grape it’s made from, whatever. Prosecco represents to most American consumers now a posh, Italian lifestyle. It represents this idea of Italy and Milan and what’s really funny is, and Venice, it represents everything. And I remember talking to a few French corporate producers about this last year at a conference. And they’re like, “But we are closer to Milan” and I’m like that’s fine. But we’re Americans, we don’t know where Omaha is compared to where New Orleans is. We don’t. We have a very weird idea about where things are in other countries. And so it’s like, wait, of course Prosecco is closer to Milan, and maybe Rome, too, but it just represents Italy as a whole. And in the same way that Champagne to people represents this posh French lifestyle. Which is why I think Crémant could never really unseat that in most Americans’ minds and make them aware of that. ‘Cause Champagne already represents that to them. So like “the budget-level Champagne from France,” I’m not interested in that. I’m interested in the lifestyle of high-end French culture and fashion and food, and that’s Champagne. Again, right now I don’t know what that could be for Cava. Can you tie that to Barcelona? It’s super close to Barcelona, but no one’s done that yet. No one’s really been able to figure out how to make you connect the culture of that sparkling wine to that lifestyle, because again, I think we’re still, as Americans, unsure of what Barcelona is as a lifestyle place. Whereas Italy and France, we really know. It’s fashion and food and all the things that we love. And that’s why I also think you don’t see American producers trying to copy it, because it’s hard. Like what are you copying? Yes, you can potentially copy the flavor profile and the price, but you can’t copy all the other things that it says about you. And I think sparkling wine is truly a product where Americans think a lot about what it says about them in the same way we think about the fashion brands we wear, or the kinds of furniture we choose to have in our homes or whatever. What’s the initial connection? The “brand-this-type-of-person” connection that people make to say, “Oh, well they drink these brands, they must be this kind of person.” And so it’s very hard to compete against. And like it’s interesting to me that it took the Italians this long to make it click, but they did. And now I think it’s just very strong.

Z: That’s fascinating, Adam. I know we’ve talked about that context or that idea in the context of Champagne specifically as a luxury brand item, but it had never occurred to me that it just is true in a different way for Prosecco — that’s super fascinating.

T: Yeah, I think you both raise really great points there about sparkling wine in general, and I guess certain sparkling wines becoming brands within themselves, right? Like Champagne, Prosecco, maybe Cava to a lesser extent, but I don’t feel like there are many others in the world, right? Like Corpinnat. That’s never gonna break out, or Franciacorta, sorry guys. I don’t think it ever is either. But looking at the business perspectives, Zach, I think there’s another interesting aspect here that someone mentioned to me recently, I can’t remember who I was speaking with. And they were talking about the fact that it was probably a very good idea that, as of late two thousands, the Glera grape was known as Prosecco. And then it was changed so that, when grown within Europe, it needs to be called Glera now. And I think that was a very savvy decision to protect the Prosecco brand, right? Because otherwise what could happen, you could have all these different producers in other countries where maybe they could make wine for cheaper and even undercut the price of Prosecco, use that grape and use it on the labels, and then that could create all kinds of problems for the Italians. So I think that’s an interesting thing to explore a little bit from the business side of things.

A: I don’t know. I think the other thing too, with the American styles, for whatever reason, they are just trying very hard to be either the Champagne equivalent or be so obvious that they’re not, that all I’ve ever seen in an American sparkling wine or in the majority of them — and I’m looking at a few of them on the floor of the room I’m in right now — they kind of copy the look of Champagne. The label, everything, and so you’re like ‘Oh, so this is the Champagne alternative.” And I always wonder, are they doing this in case the consumer doesn’t realize this isn’t Champagne? Or is this really what they’re going for? Or then they’re very modern, right? Ultra-modern-looking labels and things like that, which I also don’t think totally works. But again, it comes to that connection, right? I think if you had a sparkling wine region that was really close to New York, or really close to maybe L.A. or something else that we think of as being super posh, maybe you could have that tie into fashion and that tie into culture that would make it be a much stronger luxury product, but you don’t. And with Champagne or with Prosecco, you have that. And you look at how these packages are designed for both of those kinds of skews, and for the most part, they evoke other luxury brands. I mean, you look at Luminore by LaMarca and that blue, which is beautiful on the bottle, also definitely nods to Tiffany’s. It definitely does, we know that blue. You look at the Mionetto bottle, and it nods to Veuve Clicquot. You look at a lot of these different well-known brands on both the Prosecco and a Champagne market, and I think they just do a much better job than sparkling wine around the rest of the world at positioning themselves as what most consumers consider them to be, which is luxury products.

Z: And the last point I wanna make, ‘cause it ties all those things together in some sense to me, is that one thing I would encourage our listeners to think about is that Prosecco, Champagne, Crémant, Cava et cetera, these are only a slice of what’s possible in this sparkling wine realm. And I think that one of the encouraging things for me, as I mentioned before, is that producers and importers and distributors are starting to see the value in having a really wide breadth of sparkling wine options for people, whether that now includes things like Lambrusco, whether that includes Pét-Nat, whether that includes some other kinds of interesting wines. Whether it’s the variety, the methodology, whatever, sparkling wine is a really diverse category and it’s growing more diverse all the time. And while the classics and the tent-pole styles and icons are still delicious and worth investing in and worth checking out, I do think that one thing that will be exciting in Bubbly Weeks to come, hopefully, is discussing the incredible possibility space that’s still out there that we’re just starting to explore as a broader wine-drinking community.

A: Absolutely. Well, I hope everyone has a wonderful Bubbly Week and you drink lots of sparkling wine. I know I plan to. Tim, thanks for joining us as this week’s guest host. Always a pleasure to have you, sir.

T: Always a pleasure to be here. Thank you both for having me.

A: Yeah man. I mean, I don’t want to keep you away from your tea, so we’re gonna let you go. I’m sure you have a hot pot going with a little bit of a biscuits as well. Everyone, thanks for listening. Leave us a like, comment, review on iTunes, Spotify, wherever you get podcasts. It helps everyone discover the show. Zach, I’ll talk to you next week, man.

Z: Sounds great.

Thanks so much for listening to the VinePair Podcast. If you enjoy listening to us every week, please leave us a review or rating on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever it is that you get your podcasts. It really helps everyone else discover the show. Now for the credits, VinePair produced by myself and Zach. It is also mixed and edited by him. Yeah, Zach, we know you do a lot. I’d also like to thank the entire VinePair team, including my co-founder, Josh, and our associate editor, Cat. Thanks so much for listening. See you next week.

Ed. note: This episode has been edited for length and clarity.

The article VinePair Podcast: Sparkling Wine Is Having a Moment appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/bubbly-week-podcast-2020/

[johnboothus]

VinePair Podcast: Sparkling Wine Is Having a Moment

December is traditionally the month when wine drinkers think about sparkling wine the most, whether to augment their holiday celebrations or to bring a bit of cheer to cold and dreary weather. However, the incredible range and diversity of sparkling wines now available in the United States make a strong argument to turn sparkling wine into an all-seasons beverage.

To kick of VinePair’s celebration of Bubbly Week, Adam Teeter and Zach Geballe are joined by guest host and VinePair staff writer Tim McKirdy to discuss some of their favorite offerings, why American sparklers are taking off in wine regions all over the country, and how Prosecco, just like Champagne, has turned itself into a luxury brand.

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Adam: From Brooklyn, New York, I’m Adam Teeter.

Tim: From Queens, New York, Tim McKirdy.

Zach: And in Seattle, Washington I’m Zach Geballe.

A: And this is the VinePair Podcast. And before we get into the podcast, a word from today’s sponsor. This podcast, and Bubbly Week, which is occurring this week, when this podcast is airing, and it’s all about bubbles, and it’s one of our favorite weeks of the year here at VinePair, is sponsored by Luminore by LaMarca, J Vineyards & Winery, and Otello Lambrusco. And with that, we’re on to the pod. So we’re going to talk about bubbly in a little bit, but before we jump into all things sparkling, Tim! You’re our guest host for this week. It’s great to have you, a staff writer at VinePair. Obviously, we’ve explained to you the rules of the game, so what have you been drinking recently?

T: Well, thank you guys for having me on. So, yeah. What have I been drinking recently?

A: Besides tea, obviously. Because I want to say this. I’ve noticed that in every British program I watch recently, there’s a lot of tea consumption. And do you guys really like tea, or is it just a ruse? Do you put it on for the tourists?

T: Well, I would say that’s better than your comment you made to me the other day about dentists and British people. I like tea, but if I’m drinking it for the purposes we normally have hot drinks, to get going in the morning or whatever, I prefer a coffee. But if I need something to warm me up in the afternoon, I will go for an Earl Grey. But I haven’t been drinking a lot of that recently. To return to your original question, as my 10 Instagram followers will know, I tend to drink a lot of Martinis, and I recently discovered a Japanese vermouth. It’s not actually technically a vermouth because it’s made with a sake base, but it’s Bermutto, and I thought that it’s the perfect pairing for some of the range of incredible Japanese gins that are out there these days. So, yeah, I’ve been using that for my Friday night Martini and will probably add a little bit more vermouth then I typically go for, just because the flavor is incredible. I’ll normally go like super dry, just a splash, but yeah, maybe even go up to a two to one.

A: Wait, where did you discover this sake-based vermouth?

T: So this was actually a product I’ve received as a sample and enjoyed, and it was sent to me as a gift by someone. So we were doing the huge vermouth roundup, and I was reaching out to try tons of different sweet vermouths for a different story that I was writing about Negronis, and the person that I was in contact with with like, “Well, you have to try this dry vermouth” because they actually happen to know that I’m a big Martini lover as well. So they sent that along, and it’s wonderful. And it’s hard to glean the name of the producer from the bottle. There’s not too much information on there, but if I get it, maybe we can add it to the show notes.

Z: Or you all can go follow Tim on Instagram, and we can make sure he posts a picture of the bottle there.

T: That’s what I was really aiming for there. You know, you’ve got to follow me now.

Z: Double that follower count for you. We’re going to go from 10 to 20.

A: Seriously Tim, come on, man.

T: It’s an incredible, a really wonderful Martini, and really highlights some of the amazing Japanese gins that are out there these days, too. So yeah, go out there and look for it, there can’t be too many on the market. So if you find one online, it’s probably the same one I’m drinking.

A: Well now I’m jealous, but that’s fine.

Z: Wasn’t that the point of this whole, this whole bit here, Adam?

A: It’s also not the first time I’ve been jealous of Tim, so it’s OK. Zach, what about you?

Z: To me, the most striking thing that I had this last week, I taught a class about Rioja this past weekend and opened the current vintage, or I guess they’ve just switched vintages, but the 2007 Reserva from López de Heredia, I think we’ve talked about him a little bit already on this podcast before honestly, their Vina Tondonia, which is one of their single vineyard Riojas. And two thoughts struck my mind. One is: I just adore those wines. They’re definitely not the thing that I want all the time. I have to be in the right kind of mood and place for them to work for me, whether it’s the reds or even the whites. But the other thing I’d say is, it reminded me in doing it for this class, it brought back all these memories I had of selling it as a sommelier and how much I had to fight with that wine in a restaurant setting, because it really needs like four or five hours in a decanter before it really is enjoyable. And for me at home, whatever, that’s fine, I’ll open it and then come back to it in the evening when I’m ready, and I actually encourage the people in my class to open it hours beforehand. But boy, it was a pain in the ass in restaurants, and I love the wines, and it’s not meant as a knock on them, but it was hard as a sommelier to explain to people that like, well, really, if you want to enjoy this wine, you should have ordered it four hours ago.

A: Oh my God. Yeah, I’ve only had their wine once or twice. I don’t remember how long it was decanted for.

Z: The white is a little bit more forgiving. The reds are just typically—

A: Oh, you had the red. I thought you had had the white.

Z: No, I have had both, although the red is the one I had the other day, and delicious with time to open, but you gotta plan ahead. It makes sense this past week of Thanksgiving, where all the food you prepare takes a long time to queue up. So it’s kinda like, the wine equivalent to making a turkey or something like that.

A: So can you just explain so what would it be like if you hadn’t given it time? Is it just incredibly tight and there’s nothing there?

Z: And maybe one day we’ll do a podcast topic about some of these wine terms that are hard to define, like “tight,” but basically to me, when I describe a wine that way, what I would say is that the overwhelming sensation of the wines are the structural elements. So the tannins and the acid, it’s kind of the equivalent experience you get sometimes if you have a white wine that’s too cold, where sometimes all you taste is the acidity in the wine and the fruit profile and the aromatics are really muted because the wine is too cold. With reds, serving temperature can affect that, but it’s more often just with wines like that that are aged for a very long time in barrel, and then for very long time in bottle, they just need that time in a decanter, or at least being open on your table or something to really fully start to express themselves. And so when you taste it just freshly opened, you taste nothing but really tart fruit and a lot of tannin and almost aggressively medicinal quality. And then when you come back to it, three, four, five hours later, the fruit is a little bit more generous, although still quite dry. And then you get much more of this savory, but not off-putting notes that you get when it’s just freshly open. So more of the leathery, wood, smoke notes that I really enjoy, but it takes a little while to come out of the wine when it’s just been opened.

A: Interesting. Interesting.

Z: What have you been drinking, Adam?

A: Oh gosh, a few things. Drinking a lot more wine lately, obviously, than cocktails. And beer, ‘cause I love beer. I drank a really great KCBC beer Kings County Brewers Collective, but I forgot the name of it. It was their seasonal this year, but just a delicious, hazy IPA. That was pretty tasty. But then on Saturday night I made fresh pasta with truffles, and I opened a bottle of Cogno Ravera Barolo that was dope. Really, really, really, really good. I think it was our No. 1 of the year two years ago on the VinePair list. And it was just a beautiful bottle. And again, the reason I was asking is because the same thing happened with the Barolo. I popped it and let it sit for like 45 minutes in the decanter, and when we first drank it, it was all tannins still. And then 30 minutes later, it had completely opened. So I guess basically an hour and 15 minutes sitting in the decanter, and then it was beautiful. But it was just crazy how that happens. So, yeah, that’s basically what I’ve been drinking recently.

T: Look at you guys, men of the people, popping out the decanters.

A: Shut up, Tim. Shut up Tim, usually —

Z: Why did you bring Tim on this podcast, again, Adam?

A: Because it’s fun.

T: Actually I saw that, Adam, I think I saw you posting it on Instagram and I was like, wow yeah, that’s the way to spend a Saturday night.

A: No, that was the second bottle. Remember, I texted you this, you messaged me on Instagram. And I was like, yeah, I made a mistake. Like we’re doing a Zoom with some people at 10 p.m. and it’s only 8:30, so I’m going to pop another one. And now that I’ve already had this bottle, I’m going to have another bottle, and continue watching my football game.

T: It’s a whole new meaning to the term double decanting.

Z: Oh my God.

A: Yeah, totally

Z: Tim with the fire today.

A: Always the fire, it’s the best. But it’s funny, ‘cause I really haven’t had a lot of cocktails recently. I love a Martini. Tim has inspired me, but I haven’t made one yet this season actually as it’s gotten cooler, I think I need to later this week. I don’t know if I’ll do it tonight.

Z: I mean, it’s a great week for it. We’re recording this obviously before Thanksgiving and is there a better couple of days to be drinking Martinis at 2 p.m. than on Thursday and Friday of Thanksgiving week?

A: When you’re with your in-laws?

Z: Hmm, fair enough. I don’t know. You might need the Martini. I’m sure Naomi’s parents are lovely, lovely people.

T: I’d like to think of it like if New Year’s Eve is the Super Bowl of drinking, then Thanksgiving is the playoffs, right? You know, we’re leading in the season, we’re getting there. So, you know, mid-week Martini might be appropriate. Who knows?

A: I agree, Tim. I have another question for you before we jump into today’s podcast, how’s your storage unit doing?

T: My storage unit is brilliant. I wanted to come live from that, but this is maybe not a problem not all of our listeners have, but living in New York, having an incredibly small apartment and basically being confined to that apartment for gosh, eight months now, my girlfriend and I had the realization the other day of “why don’t we get a storage unit?” And it’s honestly a game changer. I got my wines in there that I want to age, you know, it’s temperature controlled. I say my “wines that I want to age,” there’s like 12 bottles, no illusion. But honestly, this is a game changer. If you live in New York, public storage, it’s wonderful. You get a great deal. I highly recommend it.

Z: Do you have a promo code for us, Tim? So we’ll save 10 percent off if they drop your name?

T: 10 pounds off with “McKirdy Martini”

Z: 10 pounds. Oh my goodness. That’s actually funny that you mention that, though. ‘Cause I actually, my wife and I, we rent a house here in Seattle, but with a child it became clear that with Covid and quarantine, it was not big enough. So we actually also rented a storage unit a couple of months ago, and it has also been a game changer in our house because now my wife and I don’t have to fight about how we’re going to find room for anything, any new toy for our son, because we put all the old toys in storage and yeah, I’m team storage locker, too.

T: Yeah, my girlfriend and I said, think of all the things that we can buy direct to storage. It’s brilliant.

A: I can’t. You two are too ridiculous. So let’s jump into bubbles, shall we? Always a fun time of year, always a fun topic. This is one of my favorite weeks of content we do every year. And it’s really awesome that for the past three years, it’s been sponsored by Luminore by LaMarca, J Vineyards & Winery, and now Otello Lambrusco. But it’s a celebration of all things bubbles. I didn’t drink as many bubbles in early Covid just because it didn’t feel like it was a celebratory time, but I’m really ready to drink bubbles now. And just of all kinds, do either of you drink bubbles regularly? And if you do, do you have one that’s a go-to or a kind of style as a go-to? And don’t say Champagnes, Zach. I know you’re a somm, but we don’t need to tell everyone else.

Z: I would say that I do drink sparkling wine, a lot, including Champagne. My wife is a big fan as am I, to be fair. I would say, though, that as far as go-tos, it’s been really interesting. That’s been something that I think has changed a lot for me over the last couple of years. If you had asked me this question a few years ago, I think I would have said Crémant and I would’ve just left it there, and I still drink a decent amount of Crémant. For those who are unfamiliar with Crémant there’s a range of different regional Crémant appellations throughout France that refer to basically wines made in the traditional or Champagne method, but not in Champagne itself. And they can often be really, really good. They’re not usually aged as long as Champagnes. Certainly not as long as vintage Champagnes, but even your standard Champagne bottlings typically spend more time aging than most Crémant, but they’re very good. They’re often very good. They’re serious wines. They’re taken very seriously by the producers in most cases. And they’re obviously significantly more affordable in many cases than Champagne, but for me, actually, I surprisingly, perhaps to myself, have found myself actually gravitating towards drinking a lot more Prosecco than I used to. It started by visiting the region a couple of years ago and having some Prosecco that was — let’s say it was just a different category of Prosecco than I was familiar with from just working as a sommelier and as a wine drinker here in the States. Fortunately, a lot of those wines have become more available in the U.S. over the last few years, or at least here in the Seattle market. And I find myself really enjoying a lot of the balance that you find in Prosecco that is actually sometimes harder to find in a lot of sparkling wines, because the Prosecco is typically not quite as acidic and typically has a little bit more residual sugar. And so it’s a little bit more balanced unto itself, whereas sparkling wine, especially Champagne and Crémant, is delicious and an awesome pairing with a lot of foods, but if I just want to have a glass by itself, I actually find myself more gravitating towards Prosecco and I think that’s something that’s been a broader trend in this country. And that people have realized that if they’re just going to have a glass of something sparkling, I think more than ever before, that thing is Prosecco. And I guess I’ve just caught up with the trend.

A: Interesting. Tim?

T: Yeah. I definitely am a lover of all sparkling wines. I think it’s probably up there with my favorite styles or go-to bottles. It’s something I definitely drink quite regularly. When it’s just a normal week, probably not during the week, but a normal weekend, I will be looking for something in the store that’s a little bit more budget-friendly. Like Zach says, I do tend to find a lot of value in Crémant wines from France. Tons of great American sparklers as our friend Keith Beavers likes to call them.

Z: And only Keith, let’s be clear.

A: Yeah, no, I think he’s onto something, people. I actually think “American Sparkler” is a great name for sparkling wine from the U.S.

T: Let’s make that happen.

A: Let’s make it happen. We’re making it happen.

T: I think Cava as well as is another style of sparkling wine that I think if you know where to look and spend just a couple of bucks extra, I think you can find some amazing wines in there, aged on lees, that are just fantastic.

A: Nice. I mean, it’s interesting. Yeah. I don’t drink as much sparkling wine as I would like to, but I do think I’ve found myself recently drinking a lot more American sparkling wine, like the stuff from, for example, Domaine Carneros, any of those kinds of producers like that are out in California. I think that there’s some people doing really interesting things. Also a lot of the Italian sparkling wine — not just Prosecco, but Franciacorta as well as the stuff coming from other areas that are just really interesting as well. I think that there’s a lot of delicious sparkling wine out there that also is more than just Champagne. And I think the reason I’m saying more than just Champagne is, I would love to drink it all the time. I think it’s absolutely delicious, but I just can’t afford that. For the Champagnes that I enjoy, they’re always well above 60 to 70 bucks a bottle. And it’s very rare that I drink reds or whites that I love that are above 60, 70 bucks a bottle. So to justify that in Champagne all the time is very, very difficult. So I don’t do it. But there’s bottles in the 20s and 30s that are from everywhere else that are equally delicious in the right moment.

T: To your point there, Adam, I think as well with domestic sparkling wine, you named Domaine Carneros. I’d say another go-to for me as well — you’ve mentioned it on the podcast before — but Gruet. I think you manage to capture that Champagne flavor profile. Some might argue that the nuance might not be there as with a $60 bottle of Champagne, but you capture that overall flavor profile. You can also find those wines practically everywhere, which I think is a huge plus. And they’re also budget-friendly. One of my favorite things to do in the “before times,” as we’re calling it these days. So living in Queens, some people might be familiar with some of the neighborhoods here. There’s a neighborhood close to me called Jackson Heights and they have the most amazing momo trucks. So what I would typically do is pick up a chilled bottle of Gruet, go down there, stick it in the larger size of the brown bag, and take along some cups and order some of those momos. And that pairing for me, it’s just one of the most incredible things. It’s something I would normally do to kick off Thanksgiving as well, but I’m not sure that’s going to happen this year, but that is a pairing that we might get onto pairings today, but that’s a pairing that isn’t very classical, but I want to put that one out there and claim it for myself, if I can.

A: Oh yeah. I read about that, that you do that in a publication called Eater, I think. There was an article written about how you do that, but I wasn’t sure if it was you because it mentioned a husband, so I’m not sure if it was you.

T: Well, what can I say? The quality of journalism and reporting these days, fact checking is not what it was.

Z: This is great, though, because I actually think Tim points to a really important story, whether it’s about the American sparklers or just sparkling wine more broadly, which is one of the cool things that we’ve seen emerge, at least I’ve seen I think, and it’s not exclusively the province of America, but I think you’ve seen it here a lot is this interesting approach to sparkling wine that that is there are producers that are making wines that are very much modeled intentionally after Champagne, in terms of the choice of varieties, the winemaking methodology. But you’ve also got producers who are working with almost every variety possible, whether it’s Germanic varieties like Riesling, and Gewürztraminer, and Müller-Thurgau and making sparkling wines from those, or making sparkling wines from other aromatic white varieties like Muscat and people making Pétillant-naturel or Pét-Nat wines here, there’s this incredible range of sparkling wines, and this kind of dovetails with the conversation, Adam, that you and I had with Keith a couple of weeks ago about American wine and some of the exciting places to look at. But one of the things that the U.S. has is a lot of these areas that are newer wine-producing regions that might not be quite suitable for big red-wine production. They’re cooler, they’re wetter, they have higher altitude, but they make for amazing potential spots for sparkling wine. And so this idea of expanding the idea of what sparkling wine means beyond this Champagne paradigm is really exciting to me. And I think those food pairings like the one that Tim discussed with the momos or the incredible range of cuisines that we see in this country. I mean, that is where sparkling wine shines. Besides just as a drink by itself, as I described at the beginning, but yeah as this incredible pairing tool, because sparkling wine itself is so diverse and can work with so many different flavors. And so I found incredible pairings at home with take-out Indian food and some interesting Pét-Nat Lemberger from here in Washington. That was a weird-a** pairing, but I thought it worked pretty well, especially with things like paneer cheese that work with a lot of different flavors. So yeah, the possibility space for those of us who are interested in drinking sparkling wine is really broad, and having a broader canvas of wines to work with is also super exciting.

A: Absolutely. And I think the thing that you’re picking up on that is really cool is just how delicious these wines are with a range of cuisines, and how well they go with a range of cuisines. I think a lot of people don’t think about that that often, right? I think we can blame movies and popular culture for this, but Champagne, or sparkling wine in general, but it all began with Champagne. Now it’s this celebratory drink, right? So you pop it at the beginning of a meal to cheers everyone. It’s the wedding drink when the bride and groom first come on and there’s the toast or whatever, but that there’s a lot more to these kinds of wines and they’re very complex. They have a lot of different flavors and aromas then other wines do that pair really well with even things like steak and roast chicken and stuff. That’s just delicious. You might be like, “Oh, I was feeling a red tonight.” Well actually like, you can do just a really delicious sparkling wine with lots of yeasty notes and a savory quality that makes it the perfect pairing for those kinds of things. I think, yeah, you’re right. The amount of fun that people are having with sparkling wine now is really interesting. I think that’s something that we’ve even seen in the re-emergence of Lambrusco. Like there’s this wine that got a really, really terrible rap in the ’70s and ’80s because the stuff coming over from Italy was just sickly sweet. But it’s a wine that comes from the same region as Parmesan cheese and prosciutto, right? And it’s made to go with those wines when it���s done really well. And it can be delicious and dry and easy to consume, obviously, cause it’s often lower alcohol, but then also just does beautifully with pizzas and does awesome with red meats and things like that and spice. And that’s been really fun to watch people discover that because it’s a great wine to have in your repertoire, along with, you know, whites and reds.

Z: Lambrusco is like the perfect wine for one of the few truly American foods, and that’s barbecue. And we’ve had, I guess we call it a spirited conversation about barbecue and what exactly that word means on this podcast, people can go back and listen to the barbecue wine podcast that we did over the summer to get more detail. I’m not going to reiterate everything that was said there, but I do think it’s important to point out that Lambrusco works really, really well with almost any variety of barbecue. And also is one of my absolute favorite pairings for a dish that I don’t personally have very often, because it’s not really what I do, but a very classic edition in December, which is a Christmas ham. Because as Adam mentioned, Lambrusco is from Emilia-Romagna, which is the salted pork capital of the world. So if you’re going to have salty pork, you should have Lambrusco.

A: It makes sense. It makes sense.

Z: And it is really like the capital of the world. I cannot overemphasize how much cured pork I had in my couple of days in Emilia-Romagna. It was — obscene isn’t even the right word. It was something beyond obscene.

A: I want to go to Emilia-Romagna.

Z: It’s very un-picturesque.

A: I just want to go there for the salted pork.

Z: And actually surprisingly also, and this is a thing that comes up in Italy, they have some of the best bread in Italy, which Italian bread is really hit or miss. Like just absolutely dreadful bread, uh, but Emilia-Romagna’s bread is good. Tim, I have a question for you, because we were talking about the culture and the context in which people drink sparkling wine here. And Adam made a dig about tea earlier, or at least hinted at it. But, I was going to say that I think there’s a perception in this country right or wrong that the Brits are more sophisticated when it comes to wine than Americans traditionally. Is the role of sparkling wine in England functionally different than what it is here? Is that something that’s changed, or what’s it classically like there? Or maybe in the modern day?

T: Yeah, that’s a great question. And I think, the simple answer is that, in my experience, I don’t think that British culture is in any way more sophisticated when it comes to wine or any other type of drinking, but I should add the caveat that I also grew up in Scotland, as well. So, that’s a whole different story. Just search for Buckfast and read about that. And if you’re not familiar with it, that will reveal some things about us as a nation. So I would say that sparkling wine, I don’t think it does have that connotation as only being for celebrations. It’s definitely present at the celebrations. Any occasion I can remember growing up, getting together as a family, there would always be Champagne there. But I’d say more in recent years, and this is even before I came of drinking age. I remember growing up and Cava being so huge in the U.K. And maybe there was some kind of breakout moment where we were told as a nation, “This is like Champagne, but it’s a lot cheaper.” And then at some point there was a shift. I want to say that it was probably about 12 years ago, maybe a little bit longer, where Cava changed to Prosecco. And you know, through the lens of, “Is sparkling wine only for celebration?” I would say absolutely not. Especially for the majority of the nation. It would stun me if Prosecco wasn’t the best-selling wine in the U.K. You know, maybe rosé or maybe something like Malbec might challenge it, but Prosecco is just so popular, and it’s everywhere, and it’s definitely not like the celebration wine. It’s wine for every day. It’s the wine for when my mum gets together with her friends, or when you go out to brunch with friends, or, I guess all the occasions that we have it here, as well, but it just always seems to be on the table.

A: It seemed to happen in the U.K. and in the U.S. around the same time for some reason. It just popped. Everyone, all of a sudden — obviously Prosecco was here for longer, but it feels like all of a sudden people were aware of it. And they knew it by name. And I think what’s become really interesting, now we’re getting onto the business side, is that yeah, during Covid right while Champagne sales slumped, Prosecco interest and sales continued to stay fairly high, and people were asking for Prosecco by name. So where they might call an American sparkler Champagne, they know now to call Prosecco “Prosecco.” It’s become this thing that is this just massive behemoth that people recognize as like the sparkling wine you can drink all the time. And yes, I mean, if you want to toast with it great, but also if you just want it on a Tuesday night with take-out, and then you want to watch Netflix, it’s a great wine to have, and it’s just been everywhere. And that, I think, has been really interesting. And the only thing I wonder about with Prosecco is like, how much more can it grow? Because it’s just grown so much, but it doesn’t really show a ton of signs of slowing. So, there definitely is still opportunity.

Z: Adam. I have a question for you and for Tim, of course, too, if he has thought about this. So, you mentioned the business side of it and the growth of Prosecco and the fact that it’s now a category distinct from Champagne, and then I guess sparkling wine more broadly. But what I wonder is the thing I haven’t seen a lot of, I’ve seen a little bit of it, but not a lot of it, is producers in the United States or other parts of the world really trying to go after Prosecco’s market share directly. So you see a lot of people pushing other kinds of traditional-method, fully sparkling wines as an alternative. Oh, you know, whether it’s Cava, whether it’s other Italian sparkling wines, whether it’s domestics, et cetera, but you don’t see people saying, “Hey, we’re going to try and make a wine that, flavor-profile-wise, is similar to Prosecco.” Now, maybe that’s because no one else is growing Glera. And so they’re not going to really make something that tastes exactly like it because they’re not growing the grape. But I think a lot of it is maybe that for whatever reason the success of Prosecco, no one has an explanation in the wine world. No one really understands it. They don’t know whether to credit it to the style of wine itself or just it’s relative affordability, and the fact that I guess the name resonates with people, it’s easy for people to pronounce and remember. That stuff matters, too. I don’t know. Do either of you have a read on why you’re not seeing more people making semi-sparkling, tank-method sparkling wines, and trying to push them as Prosecco alternatives?

A: I do. I think that sparkling wine, for the majority of consumers, is a lifestyle beverage. It’s much more similar to rosé than it is to other wines. And so when you’re talking about a lifestyle beverage, you’re talking about what else that wine represents, besides quality-to-price ratio, the grape it’s made from, whatever. Prosecco represents to most American consumers now a posh, Italian lifestyle. It represents this idea of Italy and Milan and what’s really funny is, and Venice, it represents everything. And I remember talking to a few French corporate producers about this last year at a conference. And they’re like, “But we are closer to Milan” and I’m like that’s fine. But we’re Americans, we don’t know where Omaha is compared to where New Orleans is. We don’t. We have a very weird idea about where things are in other countries. And so it’s like, wait, of course Prosecco is closer to Milan, and maybe Rome, too, but it just represents Italy as a whole. And in the same way that Champagne to people represents this posh French lifestyle. Which is why I think Crémant could never really unseat that in most Americans’ minds and make them aware of that. ‘Cause Champagne already represents that to them. So like “the budget-level Champagne from France,” I’m not interested in that. I’m interested in the lifestyle of high-end French culture and fashion and food, and that’s Champagne. Again, right now I don’t know what that could be for Cava. Can you tie that to Barcelona? It’s super close to Barcelona, but no one’s done that yet. No one’s really been able to figure out how to make you connect the culture of that sparkling wine to that lifestyle, because again, I think we’re still, as Americans, unsure of what Barcelona is as a lifestyle place. Whereas Italy and France, we really know. It’s fashion and food and all the things that we love. And that’s why I also think you don’t see American producers trying to copy it, because it’s hard. Like what are you copying? Yes, you can potentially copy the flavor profile and the price, but you can’t copy all the other things that it says about you. And I think sparkling wine is truly a product where Americans think a lot about what it says about them in the same way we think about the fashion brands we wear, or the kinds of furniture we choose to have in our homes or whatever. What’s the initial connection? The “brand-this-type-of-person” connection that people make to say, “Oh, well they drink these brands, they must be this kind of person.” And so it’s very hard to compete against. And like it’s interesting to me that it took the Italians this long to make it click, but they did. And now I think it’s just very strong.

Z: That’s fascinating, Adam. I know we’ve talked about that context or that idea in the context of Champagne specifically as a luxury brand item, but it had never occurred to me that it just is true in a different way for Prosecco — that’s super fascinating.

T: Yeah, I think you both raise really great points there about sparkling wine in general, and I guess certain sparkling wines becoming brands within themselves, right? Like Champagne, Prosecco, maybe Cava to a lesser extent, but I don’t feel like there are many others in the world, right? Like Corpinnat. That’s never gonna break out, or Franciacorta, sorry guys. I don’t think it ever is either. But looking at the business perspectives, Zach, I think there’s another interesting aspect here that someone mentioned to me recently, I can’t remember who I was speaking with. And they were talking about the fact that it was probably a very good idea that, as of late two thousands, the Glera grape was known as Prosecco. And then it was changed so that, when grown within Europe, it needs to be called Glera now. And I think that was a very savvy decision to protect the Prosecco brand, right? Because otherwise what could happen, you could have all these different producers in other countries where maybe they could make wine for cheaper and even undercut the price of Prosecco, use that grape and use it on the labels, and then that could create all kinds of problems for the Italians. So I think that’s an interesting thing to explore a little bit from the business side of things.

A: I don’t know. I think the other thing too, with the American styles, for whatever reason, they are just trying very hard to be either the Champagne equivalent or be so obvious that they’re not, that all I’ve ever seen in an American sparkling wine or in the majority of them — and I’m looking at a few of them on the floor of the room I’m in right now — they kind of copy the look of Champagne. The label, everything, and so you’re like ‘Oh, so this is the Champagne alternative.” And I always wonder, are they doing this in case the consumer doesn’t realize this isn’t Champagne? Or is this really what they’re going for? Or then they’re very modern, right? Ultra-modern-looking labels and things like that, which I also don’t think totally works. But again, it comes to that connection, right? I think if you had a sparkling wine region that was really close to New York, or really close to maybe L.A. or something else that we think of as being super posh, maybe you could have that tie into fashion and that tie into culture that would make it be a much stronger luxury product, but you don’t. And with Champagne or with Prosecco, you have that. And you look at how these packages are designed for both of those kinds of skews, and for the most part, they evoke other luxury brands. I mean, you look at Luminore by LaMarca and that blue, which is beautiful on the bottle, also definitely nods to Tiffany’s. It definitely does, we know that blue. You look at the Mionetto bottle, and it nods to Veuve Clicquot. You look at a lot of these different well-known brands on both the Prosecco and a Champagne market, and I think they just do a much better job than sparkling wine around the rest of the world at positioning themselves as what most consumers consider them to be, which is luxury products.

Z: And the last point I wanna make, ‘cause it ties all those things together in some sense to me, is that one thing I would encourage our listeners to think about is that Prosecco, Champagne, Crémant, Cava et cetera, these are only a slice of what’s possible in this sparkling wine realm. And I think that one of the encouraging things for me, as I mentioned before, is that producers and importers and distributors are starting to see the value in having a really wide breadth of sparkling wine options for people, whether that now includes things like Lambrusco, whether that includes Pét-Nat, whether that includes some other kinds of interesting wines. Whether it’s the variety, the methodology, whatever, sparkling wine is a really diverse category and it’s growing more diverse all the time. And while the classics and the tent-pole styles and icons are still delicious and worth investing in and worth checking out, I do think that one thing that will be exciting in Bubbly Weeks to come, hopefully, is discussing the incredible possibility space that’s still out there that we’re just starting to explore as a broader wine-drinking community.

A: Absolutely. Well, I hope everyone has a wonderful Bubbly Week and you drink lots of sparkling wine. I know I plan to. Tim, thanks for joining us as this week’s guest host. Always a pleasure to have you, sir.

T: Always a pleasure to be here. Thank you both for having me.

A: Yeah man. I mean, I don’t want to keep you away from your tea, so we’re gonna let you go. I’m sure you have a hot pot going with a little bit of a biscuits as well. Everyone, thanks for listening. Leave us a like, comment, review on iTunes, Spotify, wherever you get podcasts. It helps everyone discover the show. Zach, I’ll talk to you next week, man.

Z: Sounds great.

Thanks so much for listening to the VinePair Podcast. If you enjoy listening to us every week, please leave us a review or rating on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever it is that you get your podcasts. It really helps everyone else discover the show. Now for the credits, VinePair produced by myself and Zach. It is also mixed and edited by him. Yeah, Zach, we know you do a lot. I’d also like to thank the entire VinePair team, including my co-founder, Josh, and our associate editor, Cat. Thanks so much for listening. See you next week.

Ed. note: This episode has been edited for length and clarity.

The article VinePair Podcast: Sparkling Wine Is Having a Moment appeared first on VinePair.

Via https://vinepair.com/articles/bubbly-week-podcast-2020/

source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/vinepair-podcast-sparkling-wine-is-having-a-moment

[potterlivesrp]

sample application.

Below you will find my sample application for Seamus Finnegan (FC: Thomas Doherty)! Thank you for your patience as I got this all together. I do want to make the strong point that the freeform section is absolutely up to you. I mean it when I say you can do whatever you want! I have elected to write a bunch of headcanons because that works for my personal character building process; if you want to do something different, please do! Good luck to everyone who is applying, and if there is anything I can do to help, please do not hesitate to let me know.

OUT OF CHARACTER

Name/alias: Honey

Age (18+): Twenty three

Preferred pronouns: She/her

Timezone: GMT+11

Life responsibilities: 8/10. In addition to being the admin, I am also a newly minted PhD student (yikes!). Between all the chaos that entails, I am actually quite good at time management, so I am here for the long run! If ever I need to duck away for a few days, I will make a post on the main and the OOC blog just to keep everyone updated.

OUT OF CHARACTER - Q&A

Answer the questions in the application here! No, I won’t give away the answers.

IN CHARACTER - BASICS

Full name: Seamus James Finnegan

Age and date of birth: Twenty years old (December 10th, 1980)

Zodiac sign: Sagittarius

Gryffindors born under this sign are exuberant and full of good humour. They are intelligent, but often do not make the best of students, because they would rather be outside enjoying the fresh air or off studying on their own. They aren’t good at diplomatic silence; if a teacher makes a mistake, the Gryffindor Sag will draw attention to it right away, usually loudly and in front of the entire class. At length. These students can get into trouble - their hot tempers make for easy dueling matches, and their impish senses of humour inspire a great many practical jokes. Still, they rarely mean anything malicious. They’re too jovial to harbour malice. These Gryffindors are likeable extraverts, on good terms with practically everybody, and they generally do all right in the end. Many excellent Quidditch players come from this sign. (Source)

Ex-Hogwarts house: Gryffindor

Gender identity: Cisgender male

Sexual orientation: Homosexual panromantic

Faceclaim: Thomas Doherty (if I were an applicant, I would put three FCs here in order of preference!)

IN CHARACTER - IN DEPTH

PERSONALITY TRAITS

POSITIVE: Generous, curious, idealistic, humorous, energetic, adventuresome, enthusiastic, brave, optimistic, confident, flirtatious.

NEGATIVE: Inconsistent, impatient, upfront, brash, undiplomatic, tactless, disorganized, careless, superficial, gullible.

HEADCANONS

Although he would loudly object otherwise, Seamus is a bit of a country bumpkin. His father was a muggle farmer when he met his mother, who was a field officer for the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. The way they met was hardly romantic: she was there to investigate an outbreak of grindylows; he was about to call the council about the strange creatures infesting the water supply for his flock of sheep. But in a twist that is now legendary, Mary didn’t tell James about her magic until after they were married. This was hilarious to a young Seamus, who never tired of teasing his parents about their mutual deception. “Didn’t she give anything away?” Seamus would demand, laughing, and his father would grin, “Aye, I did wonder why a woman so beautiful would look my way.” Theirs was a happy home, one full of good humor and light-hearted conversation. Both of Seamus’ parents were Irish: national pride was not so much an aspect of Seamus’ upbringing as a permanent feature. Endlessly curious, Seamus would pour over old family photographs, nose nearly pressed to the unmoving faces of his father’s side, fingers tracing the crinkling smiles of his mother’s ancestors. In many ways Mary and James had parallel families, despite being magical and muggle respectively. They had seen famine and hardship, cruelty and poverty. The Finnegans were working stock, all calloused hands and sun-browned skin. Seamus burst with pride when he thought of his family’s blood and sweat that had seeped into the green fields of An Neidín.

Even in the middle of a war, Seamus knows he will return to Kenmare. His childhood was spent helping out on the farm, flying brooms with his cousin Fergus, and playing tricks on the local muggles. None of this was ever in ill-humor, for Seamus has an especially warm approach to all people. At school it wasn’t uncommon for him to apologize profusely if one of his jokes went a little too far (once he’d stopped laughing fit to burst, of course). One of the most important things in life, he reckons, is laughter. Laughter and good conversation. Indeed, Seamus could talk the hind leg off a donkey. When he was a child, Seamus would often ride his bike into the local muggle village on an errand of some kind – the newspaper for his Da, a bottle of ale for supper – and be found some hours later, engrossed in discussion with the shopkeeper over any manner of topics: animals, weather, farming. Seamus has an open, approachable manner that attracts him to farm-hands, milkmen, beleaguered Ministry workers, bartenders. With a vast and rambling mind, he manages to pick up snippets of information that, although often untrue or exaggerated, do mean he can contribute to essentially any topic in some respect. The degree to which his contribution is useful or even heeded, however, is up for debate.

Seamus has no clue what he wants to do after the war. Survival is his priority, as is anyone’s, in his opinion. For some years, however, he and his cousin Fergus have discussed opening up a whiskey distillery. This idea often surfaces after they have had a few too many whiskeys themselves, although Seamus would be remiss to say he isn’t seriously interested in the idea. He likes to imagine himself as the salesmen, the face of the company, while Fergus can do all the hard work. Fergus, needless to say, refutes this distribution of labor, and usually remarks that of the two of them, anyone would be more willing to look at Fergus’ pretty face than deal with Seamus and all his freckles. These conversations then regress into a tussle, which Seamus rarely wins. Fergus is a slippery little fucker.

The Finnegans are a small clan, and so Fergus is Seamus’ closest and only cousin. His senior by five years, it was Fergus who introduced Seamus to the first of most things. They attended the Quidditch World Cup together (where Seamus got catastrophically drunk – at fourteen, no less – under Fergus’ careful “supervision”); they often met in Diagon Alley for a pint and a game of chess together (Fergus always loses, mainly because he is easily distracted by the barmaid); and they flew brooms together. The last is among Seamus’ most treasured memories. Fergus would say he wanted to be a famous Quidditch player when he grew up. “I’m destined for greatness,” he insisted seriously, “haven’t ye seen me skills? Lad, you’ll be beggin’ for me autograph one o’ these days, just you wait.” Fergus did in fact make the reserve team of the Kenmare Kestrels a couple of years ago. Professional Quidditch, it turns out, is more about training and hoping you stick out enough to be picked for a game than it is about fame and glory. Now that the war has struck, Fergus has returned to Kenmare to stay with Seamus’ mother and father. The Regime has little need for sports at the moment, particularly when they’re too busy murdering muggles. If Seamus writes to anyone, it’s to Fergus, and damn Hermione’s rules about owling out too often. Fergus is his one link to home: without him, how would Seamus know about the new calf, or his mother’s redundancy from the Ministry, or his father staying up late, night after night, smoking his pipe and gazing into the fire? War means more than battles; it means leaving your family behind and hoping beyond hope that they’re missing you less than you miss them. For Seamus, who is so connected to his blood, the Resistance can be a form of torture.

Seamus dresses in muggle clothes more often than not. His parents had a relaxed attitude towards presentation, with his mother foregoing wizarding robes in favor of floral dresses or comfortable slacks, and his father usually slogging through the back door in enormous green wellies, a tweed flat cap crammed over his greying hair. Seamus is all muggle black Levi jeans, tight t-shirts of bands he’s never heard of, flannel overshirts, and a denim jacket littered with magical badges. He’s often found lounging on a sofa, trainer laces trailing, t-shirt rucked up his freckled stomach, a Quidditch magazine glued to his nose. Seamus has perfected the art of claiming a sofa to oneself (this also extends to beds, brick walls, and queues outside clubs). The trick, he reckons, is in looking utterly bored and somewhat post-coital, with half-mast eyes and a ready smirk, should anyone catch his eye. Seamus does have an air of sensuality about him -- and he can be an incorrigible flirt. “I can’t help being a sex god, can I?” he’s asked rhetorically on more than one occasion. In reality, Seamus is less sex god and more sex menace. At school he was often complaining about the regularity of his shags, the quality thereof, and the attractiveness of his partners. Being a part of the Resistance has had the effect of dampening his sex drive, but only slightly. Instead, Seamus channels his frustration into dueling. Blue balls is a very effective battle tactic.

Seamus is actually remarkably ordinary when it comes to magic. He is fair at transfiguration, good at charms, and reasonable at hexes. But it’s his patronus charm that is remarkable without exception. Seamus’ corporeal patronus – and it is always corporeal, make no doubt about that – is a fox. At first he demurred when it was suggested he teach others in the Resistance how to cast a patronus charm. “I’m not that good,” he said uncomfortably, “can’t ye get someone else t’do it?” Seamus isn’t a very good teacher when it comes down to it. He is easily distracted and often goes off on tangents, preferring instead to fall into conversation than to actually direct his student’s magic. This is a shame, because Seamus does have a gift, and it’s certainly lucky that this falls into one of the most difficult areas of magic there is.

His place in the Resistance is unquestioned. Seamus couldn’t bear to be at home, twiddling his thumbs, hoping that someone else was going to save them all from His reign of terror. Part of the reason why he joined the Order for a hot minute was simply all that energy. Seamus, for all his humor and chatterbox nature, is a doer. He needs to be in the fray, to feel useful. The Finnegans never got anywhere without getting their hands dirty, after all, and hard work is something Seamus is used to. His father certainly didn’t allow his only son to lollygag about the farm when there were cows to milk or agricultural fairs to attend. Much of Seamus’ early memories take place in the passenger seat of his father’s truck, bumping along endless green fields, heading towards some distant destination, their border collie panting and bouncing over Seamus’ shoulder. The problem with the Order was that he felt peripheral. Seamus will never kid himself: he knows he’s not a leader. He doesn’t have the charisma, for one, or the attention span. Although he’s definitely gifted at boosting morale and connecting with people, he far prefers a secondary role than being right at the front (this doesn’t stop him soundly criticizing anyone he believes is slacking off, of course). In the Resistance at least there is the feeling that they are working towards something. The Order was all cloaks and daggers: now Seamus is engaged in the gritty everyday of the Resistance’s existence. Someone has to scout out new camping spots, to figure out when they should attack that Death Eater hot zone, to teach people how to cast a patronus. Seamus is happy right in the middle of the action. He needs to feel valued.

For Seamus, the war sounds like late-night laughter, hushed in the blue dark, from people sitting around a bonfire. It’s the smell of a forest at dawn, of the rain-washed clean of another nameless British moor, the cold rush of ocean air whipping over dunes. Unmade beds, dish-washing duty, the organized cacophony of group breakfast. It feels like trudging along another country track, his boots sticking in the mud, Dean bumping into his side as their readjust the straps of their backpacks. The war sounds like the music that thumped out of a muggle club that one time in London; the way it pounded into the close summer air and tangled in Hermione’s sweat-damp hair. It’s that time he and Ron found themselves stuck in an abandoned warehouse for hours, watching a Death Eater do Merlin knew what across the way, until finally she apparated at four in the morning and left them sore, tired, and stupid, snapping at everyone when they arrived back at headquarters before collapsing asleep in bed for twelve hours. It’s the red bruise forming between his fingers from where he holds his wand. The war mainly feels like one anticlimax after another, but it mainly feels like holding a cup of tea on a frosty morning in Devon, sitting outside the flap of the tent and watching the light turn from dust to silver to gold. It feels the way that Dean makes him feel: short of breath, nervous, thrilled with their proximity.

For all his positive qualities, Seamus is a flawed individual. He finds it easy to identity the alleged weak spots of other people and does not hesitate in pointing them out, often loudly at at length, with little regard for other people’s feelings. He can also be quite brusque and even dismissive, believing that he has already considered the consequences and someone else’s opinion is merely a beat too late. In addition to this, his brash nature can cause him to be sloppy, clumsy, and heedless of consequence. Taking responsibility for his actions is something he struggles with constantly. There is a reason Seamus is not put on the trickier missions, when a careful hand and a steady eye are the only ways they can succeed. He is far better in the thick of it, with his spirit burning bright, his spells shooting through the dark like jets of flame. He lacks the finesse that a true spy requires; he does, however, have the mettle of a freedom fighter, and that is his redeeming feature.

One of Seamus’ biggest problems is his ability to jump to conclusions. It’s not an uncommon occurrence for Seamus to forego any logical explanation and simply choose whichever answer is the most salacious, extraordinary, or unbelievable. And somewhere, in the crowded, bright places in his mind, these tales take on a life of their own. At school it meant he was especially susceptible to gossip. More recently, his doubt in Harry Potter exemplifies this. Seamus would never discriminate based on blood status, and that is not the reason he feels uncertain around the prophecy of Potter being the Chosen One. No, he has a problem with the fact that Harry essentially knows nothing about how to fulfill this supposed prophecy. Although a halfblood himself, Seamus did essentially have a magical childhood. His mother imbued their home with magic in all of its ordinary glory: floating teapots, evergreen flowers on the sill, self-refreshing laundry. Seamus is used to the lovely everyday of magic and the wonder it can inspire in even the most mundane of chores. Even his father, in his sentimental moments (which are frequent; the Finnegans are an emotional lot and prone to heated monologues) expresses how strange and empty his old life feels without the touch of his wife’s wand. So how can someone who has never known the poisoned touch of You-Know-Who, who never grew up with stories about his reign of terror -- how can someone like that be expected to save someone like him? Even Seamus’ mother had a rough time during the first war; Seamus has seen her scars. You-Know-Who might have taken everything from Harry -- and that angers Seamus on Harry’s behalf -- but he also doesn’t know about the grim reality of Dark magic. What a word without Light is really like. And that, to Seamus, is difficult to reconcile.

EXTRAS

Seamus’ blog can be found here!

Here is a Pinterest board for him.

This is also where I would link to two writing samples if I were an applicant! They do not have to be IC.

[northeastern-nicolemarco]

Week 8

So this post requires a little bit of a backstory.  Last year I took a class called Cornerstone of Engineering, but I took two semesters of it in one semester as an 8 credit class.  It was definitely a challenging (although rewarding experience).  My professor had an entire schedule of the class planned out by week.  As we approached week 8 in the semester, she started to warn us it was going to be a tough one.  AND LET ME TELL YOU *nervous sweat* it was pretty tough, we had six pretty time consuming and weight bearing assignments due! But we survived and lived to tell the tale, and Week 8 went down in infamy.  What do you know, spring semester, Week 8 struck again with a very difficult homework assignment for one the classes me and my friends were in. We now have an ongoing “I survived Week 8” joke(yes, we have seriously considered getting T-shirts made). 

So why should you care about Week 8?  Week 8 is notoriously difficult because it falls in the range of the beautiful point in the semester called Midterms (queue young girl screaming).  

Midterms are, for a lot of classes, the first time you’re seriously tested on the material, and often times counts for a large portion of your grade.  This means it’s a great opportunity to take a step in the right direction toward a good final grade in a class, but also means if you don’t perform well, it will be that much more important to do well on your finals (we’ll get to those in a later post). Midterms normally fall in the week 6 to week 8 range, but can vary based on if your professor gives multiple test during the semester.  Personally, I think Midterms are even more stressful than finals because you still have classes and extracurricular activities in full swing that aren’t necessarily happening during finals week.  And for the case for a lot of the Northeastern community (about half at any given time), this is around the time that interviews begin for Co-ops.  Midterms can put a lot on your plate, so it's important to remember some key strategies to stay calm and do well!

Plan. Seriously this might be my motto (see last week’s Mouthful Monday for my complete plug for planning).  If you’re going to a pick a time to plan though, I highly suggest to do it around Midterms.  Like I said before, you still have classes going on, and you want to make sure you have a good grasp on when assignments are due and when you have club meetings and other obligations, so you can really devise good times to sit down and study for your upcoming tests.  Another planning tool I use is to make a study plan.  For example, I had an Organic Chemistry test today, and my study plan was to first read my notes and make flashcards, then to go through my homeworks and redo problems I had struggled with previously, then run through the flashcards, then work problems from class, then run through my flashcards again.  Having a plan really helped make my study session more manageable and efficient, and I felt like I was prepared for my test!

Prioritize.  There are a lot of different ways you should be prioritizing during Midterms.  This one seems like common sense, but prioritize the assignments and tests coming up the soonest over things you have more time for.  Do assignments that are more weight bearing on your grade first so that they get done well.  Prioritize school over extracurriculars.  It is important to show devotion and dedication to clubs and activities on campus, but remember that you’re at school for just that, school, and it really is the most important thing.  Your club members or coaches or bosses will completely understand.  MOST IMPORTANTLY, prioritize yourself.  I think this the one thing people forget to do most.  It is okay to know you’re overextended; it is okay to need a break; it is OKAY to not get the grade you were hoping for; it is OKAY to go to bed because you need sleep, because your health and well-being are always number 1.

Study with friends. This is something I almost never did in high school, and I am super happy I have adopted it now.  One reason I push this is that when you study with other people who are studying for the same thing, if you hit a roadblock on a concept or problem, you can immediately ask someone for help who can explain it to you and teach you.  And if you’re the one teaching, concepts are reinforced and mastered by teaching others—a wonderful symbiotic relationship.  Another great reason to study with friends is that sometimes studying with other people gives you motivation to stay focused.  When you’re alone, it’s easy to just check Facebook “really quick” or watch “one” YouTube video.  When you’re with others who are focused, you’re kind of guilted into staying focused too.  However, it is important to know when studying with friends becomes joking around and procrastinating with friends, it’s time to go hunker down on the silent floor of Snell Library and really get some work done.  

Reward yourself.  This can be as simple as a 20 minute Netflix break for every hour or two of work, or a piece of candy every time you get a practice question right.  Whatever it is, giving yourself a reward is a great way to stay motivated.  Take the little wins where you can, it helps a lot! And when it’s all over, when the last equation has been solved, or the last essay written, give yourself a big reward.  I had a big Thermodynamics midterm, and afterwards I bought myself pumpkin bread and a latte from Starbucks as a reward to myself, and boy did it make it worth it.  Whether it's buying yourself something on amazon, getting a yummy treat, or even planning something with friends, rewarding yourself makes all the hard work feel like a bigger payoff than a letter grade on a screen.  So go ahead, treat yourself!

Yes, midterms are tough. Yes midterms are maybe even a little scary, but having some good strategies can make it a lot easier to trudge your way through.  Just remember to keep your head up, and talk to your friends because they understand, and you can all support each other.  And trust me, you’ll get to say you survived Week 8 too!

[crackedoutgiraffe]

To The Moon and Back

Chapter 3 re-uploaded. I’m not quite sure what happened to the last one.

Masterlist

SPENCER’S POV (italics represent Spencer’s thoughts)

That morning was like any other morning. I woke up at 7 am, put on my regular sweater vest and tie. I fixed my scruffy hair and brewed my first cup of coffee. We had gotten back from a case a few days before so it was a given that I needed to bring my go-bag, pre-packed with plenty of ties and sweater vests. As I sat down at my table, I pick up the book I was reading last night. I didn’t get a chance to finish it yet. Just then the clock struck 7:30, I grabbed both my briefcase and duffle bag and headed to the train station. I never liked driving. There was too much risk involved and I never had the chance to learn when I was 16. With my mom in her own world and me away at MIT, it was just easier to take the metro. 

My walk to Union Station was the same as it always was. Boring. I found a way to make it fun though. Counting the number of people with black hair one day, brown the next, and blonde the day after. The ride to Quantico always gave me extra time in the morning to relax. I would just sit on the seat closest to the door with my bags on my lap and a book in hand. When I finally got to Quantico, it felt different. There was something new, but I couldn’t tell you what it was. I got into the elevator and noticed what was different, there was someone new. She had blonde hair and carried her self very confidently, but I had never seen her before. Just as the doors closed she started to walk toward the elevator. I could feel her happiness radiating through the entire building, she had a smile that made you feel like everything was going to be alright. She also had the most beautiful blue eyes. The doors closed, cutting me off from a literal ray of sunshine. 

The entire elevator ride she occupied my mind. Her smile, her hair, her eyes. The elevator doors opened and I went right to my cubicle. I set my stuff down and went to grab a cup of coffee then headed back to my desk. Morgan, Prentiss, and JJ were congregating not too far from my desk. After organizing a few papers, I went to join them. Just then, JJ pointed out someone new walking in, we were used to having new people coming and going from the office, but this was a welcome surprise. It was her. The mystery goddess from the lobby. She started walking toward us but made a detour for the stairs and entered into Hotch’s office.

“I wonder what that is about,” JJ asked.

“I don’t know,” Morgan said. “I do remember Hotch saying something about interviews for a new member of the team, but I thought he said he wasn’t going to go through with it.”

Dear God, please let her be a new member of the team. We all sat in anticipation, waiting for Hotch to come and say something to us. We saw them get up and head for the door. My heart was racing. Can you please shut up? Hotch and the new girl walked down the hallway to Rossi’s office. I couldn’t help but stare, and she stared back. 

As the minutes passed by we were all still waiting for Hotch to come back and tell us what she was doing here. Finally, she and Hotch left Rossi’s office, she had the biggest smile on her face that showed her perfect teeth. They started to walk down the stairs and head toward the four of us, so we all scrambled to seem busy as to not face the wrath of Hotch.

“Glad to see you guys are working,” Hotch quipped. “I’d like to introduce you to the newest member of the BAU team, Dr. Y/N Y/L/N.” 

Bless the Lord. JJ was the first person to go and greet her. 

“Jennifer Jareau, but everyone calls me JJ,” the blonde one said with the kindest smile. 

Then Prentiss went up, “Emily Prentiss, but everyone calls me… well, Prentiss,” Y/N seemed surprised at something.

“It’s lovely to meet you both” she replied shaking both their hands. 

The next to greet her was Morgan, “I’m Derek Morgan.” She seemed to be flustered by Morgan’s presence. Of course, she would be attracted to Morgan. 

“Do you prefer Derek, or do you have a nickname too?” she quipped. They all laughed at her surprisingly funny joke. 

“Just Derek is fine. Do you have a nickname, or would you prefer me to give you one?”

“Surprise me.”

I was next. Don’t fuck this up. “Hi, I'm Dr. Spencer Reid,” I said, extending one arm for a handshake. She looked at me weird. What was she looking for?

“Dr.?” you said with a smirk, reciprocating his handshake that went on a bit too long. 

“Dr.” I replied still not letting go of the handshake. 

 Hold on, what was that? Reid stop staring you look weird. I couldn’t stop staring. Now that we were closer, I could get a good look at her eyes. They were bright blue with little flecks of green toward the middle. She smelled fantastic, like roses and lavender. Everything about her was perfect. Her face, her body, and from these first few seconds I’ve known her, her personality. 

“But we just call him pretty boy,” Derek said, hitting me on the back, releasing us both from our trance. 

“Ok, pretty boy,” she replied, looking him up and down while messing with her hair.

“Round table meeting in 5,” Hotch announced right on queue. JJ and Prentiss started to approach her and lead her away and out of the bullpen. She was perfect. The way her hips moved when she walked. The way she smiled seemed to make all the problems in the world go away. The way her hair bounced and flowed on her shoulders. And to think she couldn’t be any better, she was a Dr. Finally someone on the team who could match his intelligence.

“Oh, it looks lit pretty boy has a crush,” Morgan announced.

I turned around in shock, “I do not.”

“Then what’s with the staring,” he whispered. Was it that noticeable? 

Finally, it was time for the roundtable meeting, “Alright let’s get started,” Hotch said, walking in and sitting down. “Garcia.”

“Does anyone remember this picture,” Garcia started.

“Hotch and I were there,” Rossi answered Garcia’s peculiar question. “That’s principal Doug Givens, we had to drag him to safety.”

“High school bombing in Boise, right?” she added. The way her lips moved with every beautiful word she spoke, she was a goddess. incarnate

“School shooter and school bomber,” JJ continued. “A kid named Randy Slade shot 3 students and then set off an I.E.D. in the school cafeteria via cell phone, killing himself and 13 kids total, but not before posting all of his plans online. It was one of those ‘where were you events’. My whole campus was glued to the TV”

Garcia nodded looking at her tablet, “Last night principal Givens was killed by a bomb modeled exactly like the old one.”

“It feels like the unsub wants to attack the man who kept the whole school together after the bombing,” Morgan added. “It’s a pretty symbolic target.”

“And this week is the tenth anniversary of the massacre,” she added

“And today is the first day of a 4-day event to commemorate the bombing at the school,” Garcia continued.

“Except commemorating it isn’t enough for this unsub,” she said.

“No, he wants to relive it,” Hotch said. “Alright wheels up in 30.” As we all left the room she was called to stay back, but a few moments later she left. She left the BAU, where was she going? Did she get fired already? No, that couldn’t be the case

I walked back to the room to find Hotch, “Where is Y/N going?” 

“She’s going home to pack, shell meet us at the airfield.” And with that, all your worries went away. She wasn’t leaving, she was just packing. 

The rest of the morning went like normal. I had my third cup of coffee, grabbed my bags, and headed for the airfield. I arrived a few minutes early so I could get a good seat on the plane. I ended up sitting at the table for four with the window seat. As I got settled, I noticed she and JJ walking toward the plane at the same time. They were almost indistinguishable. Prentiss came and sat next to me, and to my surprise, Y/N sat across from me with JJ right next to her. We sat on the plane for half an hour before starting to talk about the case. I was able to read about 1200 pages in that time. 

“Perpetrators of school violence are often sophisticated with their weapons. Randy Slade carried his bomb in his backpack. This guy hid his in Givens' clock radio,” I noted. 

“Yeah, and progressive,” Prentiss added. “Each one tries to top the body

count of the one previous.”

“And they're loners by default, not by choice,” she said. “They try to join various social

groups, but they get shut out.”

“Randy Slade wasn't a loner at all,” Hotch said.

“The family cooperated fully with us,” Rossi noted. “He was a high-functioning psychopath, straight-A student, varsity wrestler, lots of girlfriends.”

“With an above-average intelligence that made him incredibly resourceful,” I added. “His explosive of choice was Semtex. It's found at demolition sites, but it's held under lock and key.”

“Which made us consider the possibility of a partner,” Rossi continued. “Never found one.”

“Slade was too much of a narcissist to share credit,” Hotch said. “But he was also an impulsive teen, which is what bothers me about this unsub.”

“His sense of control?” she asked.

“And the end game that he's working toward. Slade's pathology revolved around the big kill,” Hotch noted.  “This unsub could have done the same if he'd waited for the candlelight vigil.”

“Which means there's no blaze of glory fantasy here,” Rossi added. “This unsub has

more bombs made, and he's savoring the anticipation of his next attack.”

“You and Reid can go to the medical examiner when we land to examine the bodies. Morgan, Prentiss and I will set up at the police station. JJ and Rossi, you two will visit the crime scene.” Hotch commanded. Once he finished, everyone returned to what they were doing.

[cecilbaldwin-fan]

Quick notes on the show, more later (probably tomorrow). 

I got a lot of good photos, so I’m going to do those photosets everyone does after shows. So look forward to that in the next few days! The only bummer is that I didn’t get to see Meg’s DYEB faces, because there was a stand with Cecil’s script on it, and it covered her face from our side of the room. So there won’t be a “that’s so DEB” tag, sadly. But I did get to see her do the Hailvale dance - it looks like a robot dance in the photos, but is actually an undulating thing. It was very cool. 

My Symphony and Cecil photos came out better, because she’s so much shorter that her face stayed under the stand, but even in those photos the stand can be seen right next to her head. I wish I’d been on stage right for those photos, but oh well. I have a lot of Meg MC’ing photos and Symphony being a curtain call cutie, so that’s good. 

Definitely the funniest show so far. I laughed so much! There was some audience participation that involved chanting, hand signs and hand-holding. It was just the right balance between staying immersed yet also feeling like a part of the show. Chanting is quite cathartic somehow. 

The story was not as moving as “Ghost Stories”, but the ending was very sweet. No mention of Carlos or Steve Carlsberg. There was a certain season one feel. After all, the Glow Cloud is one of the very first characters mentioned back in episode 2.  

This is getting very long, so I’ll use a “read more” tag. It’s not a spoilery post though, I’ll make some of those later. All the photos are on my phone right now, I’ll upload them on my computer and pick the best ones later. I just got off the train. I want to write down my impressions before I forget them.

Meg did a longer bit in the beginning, possibly because they had no guest stars this time. I enjoyed it a lot. Meg’s MC’ing is a magical moment in the show. As you may well know, she is one of my favorite cast members, but to most fans, she’s just the Proverb Lady - until they hear her MC the show. It’s a moment where Meg gets to shine as herself, with her own jokes, and she has a great charisma. I’ll talk more in another post, I don’t want to give away all of her jokes. I will say there was one slightly naughty joke, and half the audience didn’t get it, possibly because they weren’t expecting it. I think I laughed the loudest at that one. WTNV is pretty vanilla, but if you read Meg’s Twitter, she actually has quite a dirty sense of humor. It wasn’t crass, but it took a moment to register. 

Cecil was amazing, I don’t even know what else to say. He had to, OK I’ll do a spoilery post later, but he had to suddenly change his tone completely and he just did it with such ease, it was awesome. I’ve seen him live 3 times now (plus two times with the Neos). Every time, I’m impressed by his range. I’ve seen it before yet it still surprises me, because it’s magic. I got quite a few good photos with his expressions, including some where he’s looking right at my camera. He does so much with so little - inflections, hand gestures, facial expressions. He was wearing the suit with the quilt style look of patches with floral stuff and other stuff. (i’m great at writing about clothes, I don’t know what anything is called.) It looked even more dapper in person. Ditto Meg, Erin, and Symphony’s outfits, I’ve seen them before in photos, but you don’t really notice the fit until you see them move in the clothes. Everyone has a specific aesthetic and it only really comes alive in person. 

I got to see Symphony on stage! and also talk to her after the show!! She was every bit as joyous and energetic as I had expected. She had the same energy off stage and on, so it was fun to see her interact with the fans. She was like taking dance steps going from fan to fan, beaming with this big smile. I was actually able to say words to her, and we took a couple of rad selfies. We’re about the same size, which was cool. Cecil and Meg are so tall, they towered over me when we met in ‘14.

The Deb bit was very funny, up there with fyalconry gear. Like I said I didn’t get to see the faces, which sucks, but I did get to hear the voices and see the “hailvale dance”. It’s an unusually physical Deb bit, which makes it even more fun. We found out a bit about Deb’s family!

Erin’s set was badass and also included audience participation (with varying success). She has a great energy on stage. We got to sing along and clap - one time she said “this is a very long song, so don’t start clapping yet”. She talked about becoming a musician and it was actually very personal and moving. Her set had a feel of fun and I could tell people were charmed by her, and I was as well. She also did a very cool song about Donald Trump. She was very confident and calm onstage, and knew how to engage the audience. I feel blessed because I’ve gotten to see three live shows with three very different artists - Mary Epworth in ‘14, Eliza Rickman last year and now Erin.

I was helping Erin with merch, which she was very grateful for, although it wasn’t that much work. Erin looks very different offstage somehow. She’s a lot more casual. Her on stage attire and hair is very specific. It’s something like Meg’s big hair/fancy dress thing, where she looks completely different in the cast seflies. 

Merch manager Natalie was selling the wtnv merch, and she had a long line of people both before and after the show. She was very quick and professional about it. I remember Natalie gave me 50 cents discount in 2014, because I had to put my bag in the obligatory expensive cloakroom. Erin told me there wont’t be much sales before the show, and after the show it will be “crazy” and she will be helping out. This turned out to be true. I only sold one before the show; people would look at me and you could tell they were thinking “who is this and why is she selling her CD’s here?” They may have thought I was the weather artist. But after people had seen Erin’s set, they were queueing up to get the CD’s. We ran out of one album. I took the money and Erin signed for people and talked to them. A lot of people came up saying how moved they were by the show, and I realized that an artist hears that umpteen times a night, and it must feel weird after a while. The fans were all very earnest and sweet with her, and I could tell she appreciated them. The only problem was that we ran out of fives at some point, because the CD’s were 15 euros and everyone paid with 20′s. But everyone got their CD’s in the end. I got a free one with Erin’s autograph, so cool cool cool. 

I tried to take photos of Erin doing something other than singing into the mic while playing guitar, because everyone gets such similar photos of her, but then that is what she does for most of the set. Erin was stage left and right in front of me, but there were lights in her show that blurred out her face a bit. I did get some good shots though. 

I’ve always wondered why fan pictures show Disparition as this dot in the background, but the same thing happened to me. He sat stage right in a corner, and he just does the music, like he’s a creature of pure audio with no body. He didn’t even take a bow, until the second bow that I posted earlier. He came out after the show and he’s, like, Mr Casual. A lot of the fans didn’t seem to notice him. I saw one fan glance at him and her eyes went big like “!!! it’s you!” I got his autograph on my ticket. I forgot to ask Symphony for an autograph, but I’ve got the selfies. Could have taken a selfie with Erin and Disparition too, if I had thought of it. These moments with the cast are always so short and you don’t think of things in the moment. The point is though, I don’t think I said anything stupid and I wasn’t bowing to the ground going “I’m not worthy”, so it went OK. 

Meg and Cecil didn’t come out after the show, and to be honest I was relieved, because I feel so star struck around them, it’s difficult to actually have a conversation. I’ve had a chance to talk to all the major cast members now, except for Jeffrey, who left the first Helsinki show early and has since stopped touring with the show. And Kate, who did come out in Stockholm but I didn’t catch her. 

I was there with a couple of people, although I didn’t have a chance to talk to them much because I was busy merching. I sat next to tokoshu-desu, who is fun to sit next to, because he’s so excited and exuberant. He had a rad bird head cosplay (which wasn’t directly WTNV related but was very impressive). I didn’t see a whole lot of people in cosplay, but our party had a lab coat/Joseph Fink cosplay, so it’s like a Carlos-Joseph Fink hybrid. I saw many WTNV shirts, some home made, and a couple of people had a WTNV logo drawn on their foreheads. I feel I was in a familiar crowd, with nerds all around. 

I’ll put this at the end because at this point, most people have stopped reading. A couple hours before the show, I experienced what I can only describe as a gastrointestinal panic attack. I did what any grownup would do: call Mom and whimper that everything will be ruined, I will vomit all over the merch stand, etc. Mom talked me down and I took some pills and it went away completely. So I didn’t feel like vomiting and I also didn’t have bad flu symptoms. When the show was about to start and I thought that soon I will see Meg, not in a photo or video, but in the flesh right in front of me, I felt like vomiting again. But once she stepped on the stage and started the show, I felt nothing but joy and happiness. I’m so glad I got to see this show. What a blast! 

[dramallamadingdang]

Now that I’ve dumped stuff in the queue, time for...

REPLIES! :D

For @kayleigh-83, @jellybeanery, @clericalrodent, @acquiresimoleons, @dunne-ias. @sim-boo, @didilysims, @twofingerswhiskey, @penig, @nanashi-sims, @eulaliasims, @zoragraves, @taylors-simblr, annnnnnd @nerianasims...

kayleigh-83 replied to your photo “Steven’s grave got struck by lightning, so he popped out for a daytime...”

What the frick, I have catching up to do! I didn't know Steven died. :(

He did. Came home with a cold one day, went to work the next, and died on the sidewalk when he came home. So sad. Ah, RealSickness... Usually, I like it to hit later, when I’ve got a larger population that’s actually in need of culling. I’m just glad it didn’t kill the whole household, like it sometimes does, because otherwise there’d only be Sharon and Gwen’s daughter Amelia to spawn the third born-in-game generation...

kayleigh-83 replied to your photoset “Up-Front Confession: I am knowingly breaking the creator’s terms of...”

I'm absolutely DYING over their grinning faces in the last picture HAHAHAH

It’s a thing of beauty, isn’t it? :D Although I don’t know why Cyd’s grinning, since he’s got Julien’s face impaling his abdomen. That just can’t be comfortable...

jellybeanery replied to your post “jellybeanery: @dramallamadingdang Do you still have the high-res...”

CuriousB's desert terrain works for me, so I don't think it's the chipset.

Hmmm...Well, I had a look at the uploaded file, and it appears to be the right one. :\ I have no idea what’s going on. Give me a day or two and I’ll make a new file and maybe also make a high-res one, and then you can see if one or the other will work...

clericalrodent replied to your post “Civilization V”

Thought I'd ask - would you like some tips that aren't in the in-game tutorial? Nothing absolutely necessary, but might make your life a bit easier.

Sure! I still haven’t installed the game, but I probably will this weekend since we have no plans and it’s too darn hot around here to do much of anything outside. Maybe send me an ask or whatever with tips?

acquiresimoleons replied to your photoset “Up-Front Confession: I am knowingly breaking the creator’s terms of...”

Omg. This is awesome, thank you, my sci fi hood is gonna get a swingers club now ����

Well, it’s certainly a perfect object for that! :) There’ll be other stuff you’ll probably be interested in for such a club, too. I just need the time to make it...

dunne-ias replied to your photoset “Up-Front Confession: I am knowingly breaking the creator’s terms of...”

I both want this and also would be scared about what would happen if I put this on a commercial lot in my story hood. I have the original, but honestly I think I only used it once, in a Bacc household full of romance sims because I had a rule against TV and well, what else would they do on their days off?

HAH! Sex is better than TV by a mile, so... :) Anyway, the advertising on the thing is set so that if you use this on a community lot Sims don’t get overly obsessed with it so long as there are other fun things of equally-strong advertising around. That’s how I wanted it to be because it’s basically going to be an avenue for Sims to meet people in this wacko neighborhood, but I do want them to do other things when they’re on the lot where this will be, too. 

But yeah, I suppose it has the potential to screw up stories. But it also might give you ideas, too. If you keep the characters for whom you have planned storylines away, others in the population might do interesting things to spark some ideas.

sim-boo replied to your photoset “Will took his boatload of scholarships and headed off to join boring...”

Lol personally id consider it a blessing to not be related to goopy gilscarbo ;)

Heathen! Nah, I kid. I know he’s an acquired taste. You have to like Romance Sims, and a lot of players seem to not like Romance Sims. You also have to like Sims who aren’t conventionally beautiful. I like Romance Sims (They’re my faves, actually), and I like “ugly” but not deformed-looking Sims. So he’s totally win-win for me! :) I do change his outfit, though, because that pixel-man has very questionable fashion sense. :)

I also like Ben Long a lot, but he’s a Knowledge Sim and I find them rather boring in general, so when I play him, I have to do terrible things to him to make him interesting. :)

didilysims replied to your post “Civilization V”

Never tried it myself, though from what little I've seen, it looks like something I could get interested in. All friends who have played it said Civ IV was better though. :P

I still haven’t installed it because there’s stuff for TS2 that I want to get done, and I know I’ll get distracted. But I’m really looking forward to trying it out. And as for the version...Well, Civ V is what was there at the shop. :) And for $5, even if I ultimately don’t like it it’s not like I’m really out much.

didilysims replied to your photo “I just noticed that the binoculars that Sims use to birdwatch have red...”

They always looked like nebulae to me. I figured they were really powerful lenses.

SO POWERFUL THEY REFLECT THE LIGHT OF THE ORION NEBULA!! Yeah, that should be the advertising slogan on those puppies. :)

twofingerswhiskey replied to your post “jellybeanery: @dramallamadingdang Do you still have the high-res...”

could be they have graphics chipsets that are defaulting to the maxis terrain due to inability to store it effectively in the graphics memory?

Apparently not in Jellybeanery’s case. :\ I’m still at a loss. If you’ve got any ideas about what else it might be, I’m all ears. Or eyes, as the case may be. :)

penig replied to your photo “I just noticed that the binoculars that Sims use to birdwatch have red...”

I think it's the light glaring off the lenses.

The light from the red district? :) No, you’re probably right, but...Geez, what color is the sun supposed to be in SimWorld? :)

nanashi-sims replied to your post “@bunsblr asked for a tutorial about how to do this a while back and I...”

Wow this is fabulous! So many objects that need to be recloned, but so worth it!

Yeah, there’s a lot of Maxis stuff that’s used outdoors that ought to be neighborhood-visible but isn’t. Especially when it comes to outdoor-type seating. And I don’t think the telescopes are neighborhood-visible, either, now that I think about it. Once you get used to doing it, though, it goes quickly.

eulaliasims replied to your photo “Steven came home from work the next day and….Oh, dear. Well. That’s...”

Steven! No! D:

I KNOW! I was bummed. Frankly, I could stand to lose Arcadia, but I was hoping Steven would spawn some more, if nothing else. I need more population that “counts,” and he had that convenient Family aspiration... 

sim-boo replied to your photoset “Arcadia and Aaron, as the only two non-infant people in the household...”

usually they cry for sims they have memories of. like if the dead sim taught them to walk/talk, i've seen before that they cry sometimes even if theres no blood relation.

I’ve never seen that happen in my game. In this case, I know Steven taught Will to talk, at least. But, no mourning from him. Now I’m wondering if I’ve got a mod that’s interfering. Hmmm.....

didilysims replied to your post “Aww you almost had the Aristocats in your game <3”

A lot of Disney is overrated. Emperor's New Groove? Seriously underrated. But I got The Aristocats for my birthday as a kid and watched it probably 100 times at least, so it's near and dear to my heart.

I really don’t know why I never saw The Aristocats. I mean, I was a kid when it was made and all, but I only ever saw the older Disney movies from the 40s or so. (Fantasia is another favorite.) I saw the later Disney movies from the 90s and 2000s because I had kids then, so we saw them in the theater, and I got them when they came out on video, and they watched them ad nauseum. (And The Lion King is one of Ethan’s favorite movies; it resonates with him because he lost his dad at an age when he really needed one. So, we watch that one a lot and I bristle because of all the hyena maligning.) But I don’t think I’ve seen any Disney movie from the 70s in its entirety,

Now as for Emperor’s New Groove: I will argue (and HAVE argued) that it’s the best buddy movie ever made. Kronk and Eartha Kitt’s scenery-chewing (She did it SO well, always did) is just bonus. 

zoragraves replied to your post “So, um....”

Now I want to know what those objects are, at the very least :D

Ohhhhh, you probably really don’t. *laugh*

taylors-simblr replied to your post “@bunsblr asked for a tutorial about how to do this a while back and I...”

Thank you so much for this, I might give it a go tonight! I surrounded my campsite with nengi's bigger bourgainvillas and it's been driving me crazy that they are invisible from any other lot ^__^

Good luck with it! I thought those bougainvilleas were already neighborhood-visible, though...Or maybe I made them so. I don’t remember... Anyway, let me know if you have any trouble!

nerianasims replied to your post “re. StarTrek Multi-PT: I'm pretty sure I remember someone creating the...”

What is this Enterprise show you mention? I am sure it does not exist.

I dunno, I heard a rumor about it. Something about a prequel sort of thing, only done way after the other shows were produced. Seems like kind of a dumb idea... 

(Seriously, I really wanted to like Enterprise. I really, really like Scott Bakula. Quantum Leap is one of my favorite shows. And while I enjoyed a few of the episodes, the writers just didn’t seem to know what to do with any of the characters, especially the poor helmsman dude, which is sad because he was a very pretty black man. I mean, I don’t even remember his name... And of course they had to sex up the female Vulcan. *sigh* They get points for destroying Florida, though. No, I’m kidding. Well, sort of...)