#Used Volvo Engines

[reaperseal-archive]

sold my 25 year old shit beater unreliable car and got a whole $2000 for it :-)

rest in peace 1998 volvo s70 🙏

[rabbitcruiser]

New York became the first U.S. state to require automobile license plates on April 25, 1901.

License Plates Day

License Plates Day is celebrated on April 25 to celebrate the first-ever issued license plate in the U.S. in 1901. Prior to this, there was no official marking or designation on any vehicle. The lack of acknowledgment hurt the vehicle owners because horses and carriages had more rights, and they could be denied access to roads. With the passage of the law, New York became the first state to issue a license plate on vehicles, and the trend was swiftly picked up by the entire West Coast states. Today, there are more than 250 million registered vehicles in the country, and each of them has a unique number plate.

History of License Plates Day

It’s amazing to think that today’s norms are yesterday’s discoveries. It wasn’t until the 20th century that someone thought of distinguishing vehicles on the basis of number plates. In 1901, New York Governor Benjamin Odell Jr. signed a new bill into a law that required motor vehicle owners to be registered with the state. Initially, the bill included directions about the design of the plate, which were later scrapped after the big automobile boom of the ‘50s. Individuals could design their own plates, as long as the characters were three inches high. On May 2, 1901, George F. Chamberlain became the first person to receive a license plate for his vehicle. A week after the law came into effect on April 25, 17 people had already applied for licenses. Within a year, the number of license plates in America climbed up to 1,566.

Although individually marking vehicles at the time came at a cost and effort to both authorities and citizens, it was also a relief. Without proper marking or acknowledgment, vehicle owners were harassed by laws that differed in each state. The U.S. took its lead from the Netherlands and France, which started a national database for license plates in the early 1890s.

License plate historian Keith Marvin notes that the license plate fashion parade was a spectacle of the past, with owners resorting to the use of metal, leather, and even wood to adorn their plates. The license plating took a turn from the initials of the owner to state numerals as their numbers increased. Subsequently, the state took over the issuance, designing, and database of license plates. On April 25, people take their cars for a stroll and display their unique plates in pride. License plate exhibitions are held across the country, and passionate souls come together to share their love for the interesting history of license plates.

License Plates Day timeline

1901 The First American License Plates

New York’s Governor passes the first law mandating the use of license plates on vehicles.

1902 The Number Climbs

1,566 automobile owners register their vehicles in the first year after the law is passed.

1903 The State Takes Over

Massachusetts becomes the first state to distribute state-issued license plates to vehicle owners.

2014 Petersen Automotive Museum

The Petersen exhibition opens up in Los Angeles to present vintage license plates and other historic automotive parts.

2021 Exponential Growth

16.1 million new vehicles are registered in the U.S. in one year.

License Plates Day FAQs

How can I get a license plate?

License plates are issued by the state. You can get a license plate from your county’s Department of Motor Vehicles.

Is it legal to drive my car without a license plate?

You are allowed to drive your newly bought car without registration or license plate. In most states, you are required to get a permanent plate within 90 days of purchase of the vehicle.

Do I need a rear license plate?

It depends on where you live — 31 U.S. states require both front and rear license plates, whereas 19 mandate only the front plate.

License Plates Day Activities

Read the legislation

Study road safety laws

Be the change

The License and Registration Act was the beginning of a new era in America. This landmark legislation changed the status of automobiles in the country. Following the recognition from the state, cars went from being an embarrassment to the riches to a household necessity. License Plates Day is a great day to brush up on that old history and honor the legislators behind this change.

When was the last time you acquainted yourself with any laws, let alone road safety laws that impact us all? It’s time to pick up the rule book and go by the page to absorb all safety laws and measures that you can adopt to become a better co-passenger of the road.

With a swipe of a pen, New York’s governor ushered in a new set of laws in the country which benefited the vehicle owners and the government. On the anniversary of his most impactful decision, emulate his life’s teaching and be the change that you wish to see in the world.

5 Fascinating Facts About License Plates

The oldest plate

U.S.P.S. royalty

The uniqueness of Pennsylvania

Potato for the win

The vanity of Virginia

The first-ever license plate issued by the state of Massachusetts in 1903 still holds an active registration.

Vehicles owned and operated by the United States Postal Service are exempted from bearing a license plate.

Vanity plates were introduced to the U.S. by Pennsylvania in 1931.

The first-ever graphic license plate was that of a potato, issued by the state of Iowa in 1928.

Virginia issues the most number of vanity plates, customized as per the owner; while Texas comes last in the list.

Why We Love License Plates Day

It’s an opportunity to get creative

It’s unique for all

It goes into the national database

Customizable license plates and vanity sets are unique spoils of America. Most vehicle owners see license plates as an extension of their personality. On April 25, you have a chance to spruce up your own set and fill it with details that no one else has yet.

There have been a couple of hundred million unique license plates on the road ever since the first plate was issued in 1901. In a world where everything can be copied and originality has been reduced to a buzzword, our license plates stay true to the promise of being one of a kind.

Maintaining a central registry of every vehicle ensures accountability in times of need. The unique identity helps in keeping a trace of the vehicles and keeps a census of the automobiles on the road.

Source

[primeautopart]

Volvo Auto Parts for Sale

Volvo Engine

The Volvo Engine has revolutionised how engines are designed. It’s a horizontally-opposed engine layout where half of the cylinders lay flat on their sides like a boxer’s fists moving in opposite directions.

This engine design contributes to the vehicle’s handling, stability and as a result safety. Because the pistons run in opposing directions they neutralise each other’s inertia, which results in good rotational balance. This reduces vibration and harshness, resulting in less wear and tear, lower cost of ownership and longer lasting reliability.

It’s also much lighter than other engine configurations, which helps to keep the car’s weight low, improving fuel economy and handling. All-aluminium construction of the crankcase and cylinder head significantly contributes to this weight reduction.

Another major advantage is that it enables the cylinder walls to be made semi-closed. This increases the strength of the cylinder wall and reduces cylinder bore stresses and fatigue that cause engine failures.

Lastly, this layout allows the cylinders to be mounted low in the engine bay, enabling the car’s overall height to be kept low, which is important for safety. This means that if the vehicle is involved in a frontal collision, the engine will be pushed underneath the passengers instead of into them, helping to reduce the chance of injury.

Volvo is committed to the Used Engine, so they don’t plan on changing it in the near future. They are using it in their all-wheel drive vehicles and hybrid powertrain applications.

If you would like to know more about Volvo Engine, please feel free to contact us: 425 999 3388

Volvo Transmission

The Volvo Transmission, is a continuously changing transmission that delivers infinite and seamless variability in available drive ratios without any noticeable shifts. This is a highly innovative technology that delivers maximum engine performance and fuel efficiency and is available on many Volvo models.

Volvo Transmissions

In the past, many Volvo models had six-speed manual transmissions as an option. These include the Legacy Spec B, and 2015 WRX.

These Used Transmissions are essentially split-case designs that have been modified to accommodate the torque converter. These transmissions are much more efficient than their predecessors, as well as more powerful and strong.

A lot of sports car enthusiasts prefer a manual transmission to the CVT. For these drivers, Volvo offers a six-speed manual transmission as a standard feature on the base and premium trims of several sporty models.

If you want to experience this high-tech, automatic transmission system for yourself, contact us at All Drive Volvo today. We'll help you find a great Volvo model with the right transmission for your needs.

If you would like to know more about Volvo Transmission, please feel free to contact us: 425 999 3388

The Volvo Axle Assembly and Why It's Important

The front axle assembly is what gets your wheels moving, in large part because it uses the engine’s power to spin them. It’s also a vital component to the suspension system. If it’s not working properly, you won’t get to where you need to go.

Used Axle Assembly are durable and usually don’t need to be replaced. They consist of two constant velocity joints that allow the axle to spin while the suspension travels up and down, and you steer the vehicle. Each joint is covered by a rubber accordion-looking boot that holds the grease in and keeps dirt out.

When the boots are worn out, grease escapes, dirt gets in and water gets into the CV joint causing it to wear out over time. When this happens, a clicking noise from the front of the car may be heard while turning.

It’s recommended to check the CV joint boots for dry, cracked, or torn boots every 30,000 miles. Periodic inspections can prevent the need for replacement if you catch it early on.

Volvo Axle Assembly are very important for your car, so it’s worth spending some time maintaining them. When they’re in good shape, you’ll enjoy smoother acceleration and a more comfortable ride. When they’re not, you’ll want to have them checked out as soon as possible. You’ll be glad you did! Then, you can feel confident driving to your next destination without any concerns. That’s why it’s important to use only genuine OEM parts for your Subaru.

If you would like to know more about Volvo Axle Assembly, please feel free to contact us: 425 999 3388

The Volvo Differential Assembly and Why It's Important

The Volvo Differential Assembly is one of the most important parts of your vehicle. It distributes engine power to the wheels by adjusting the speed of rotation so that your car will have the best grip and control when making turns.

The Differential on a Subaru

If your Volvo has a front or rear differential, then you'll need to make sure that it is properly maintained at our Service Center. Changing the fluid or oil that lubricates this part of your vehicle every 30k miles or more will help to lengthen its lifespan.

Rear Differential Noise

If you notice that your Differential Assembly makes gear whine, clunking or bearing noises it is a sign that it needs to be replaced. This can be a result of overloading or lubrication failure.

Rear Differential Worn Out

When the rear differential on your Volvo gets worn out, it can make a grinding or humming sound when you are moving your car. The humming is usually more noticeable during acceleration than deceleration.

Rear Differential Costs

Replacing your differential completely can be expensive, depending on the make and model of your vehicle. It can be $500 to $1000 for a salvaged differential, up to $2000-$2500 for a brand new one.

Rear Differential Damage

If the rear differential on your Volvo is damaged, it can cause a lot of trouble and may require a full replacement. This is why it's important to have it checked and repaired as soon as possible so you don't have to worry about the future of your car.

If you would like to know more about Volvo Differential Assembly, please feel free to contact us: 425 999 3388

The Volvo Transfer Case is a One Piece Wonder

Integrated into the transmission, the Volvo Transfer case is a powerhouse.

Using the latest in automotive gizmos, the one piece wonder is assembled and torqued to spec in about 2 minutes.

Optimal transmission and Used Transfer Case alignment is a must for optimal performance.

ADS is proud to offer a full complement of Volvo service solutions in our Wallingford area showroom including a state of the art maintenance centre and our own fleet of mobile technicians.

Most notably, we are happy to provide a comprehensive range of Volvo OEM parts and accessories, allowing you to maintain your new car with the quality it deserves.

We look forward to serving you soon.

Contact us today to learn more about our inventory and schedule your test drive of the top of the line Volvo models for sale at our dealership in Lyme, CT! Our courteous and knowledgeable sales staff will be more than happy to help you find the perfect new Volvo model to fit your lifestyle and your budget.

- Best of all, we are happy to make you a cup of coffee and answer any questions you may have during your test drive experience!

If you would like to know more about Volvo Transfer Case, please feel free to contact us: 425 999 3388

Volvo Seats - What You Need to Know

Driver Seat Comfort

A lot of work goes into designing a comfortable front Used Seat for the driver. Whether it's power recline, adjustable headrests, padding, or support, it's important to make sure that drivers are able to relax and drive for long periods of time.

Car Seat Safety

Volvo offers a number of features that can help keep your family safe as you travel on the road. The new Volvo Seat Reminder System, for example, alerts you when you've left your child or a pet in the rear seats.

Legroom

Extend My Seat brackets provide 5.5' inches of additional legroom for any Volvo vehicle (even in the third row). This product is available for select Impreza, XV Cross trek, Outback, Legacy and Forester models.

Seat Covers

Protect your seats from spills and everyday wear with a variety of stylish seat covers. We offer a range of designs, colours, and textures to choose from.

Seat Jackers

If you need some extra leg support during a longer ride or road trip, consider using our patent pending front Seat Jackers. These seat lifts will raise your front driver or passenger seat to increase legroom without impacting headroom.

Leather-Upholstery

From the sporty Volvo WRX to the dynamic Volvo Cross trek, Fairborn, OH area drivers can find several trim levels that come standard with leather seating. And even the BRZ comes with leather-clad seats in the Limited and Touring trims!

If you would like to know more about Volvo Seat, please feel free to contact us: 425 999 3388

Volvo Drive Shaft

Volvo is an excellent choice for anyone looking for an upscale, reliable, and versatile vehicle. Their models include the Ascent, BRZ, Cross trek, Forester, Impreza, Legacy, Outback, and WRX, which all provide drivers with top-notch styling, technology, safety features, and performance capabilities to make driving a pleasure.

Drive Shaft

A driveshaft is a key component of any vehicle that transfers power from the transmission to the wheels, or in more specific terms, it sends torque to the front and rear differentials. This is a crucial function that can be easily compromised by a damaged drive shaft. Common signs that a Volvo drive shaft needs to be replaced include a clunking sound when you accelerate or shift between drive and reverse, as well as vibrations in the steering wheel during deceleration.

Replacement Drive Shaft for Your Subaru

Replacing Used Driveshaft with a new or remanufactured one will improve the way your car moves by ensuring that the components on it are able to support the increased torque, especially with all of the acceleration that comes with high power levels. Choose a remanufactured drive shaft that has been rebuilt with all new U-joints and CV joints - complete with bearings to keep it from vibrating under load, and balancing weights to prevent vibration during normal road speeds. Find a quality, heavy-duty drive shaft that fits perfectly to your Volvo vehicle with O'Reilly Auto Parts!

If you would like to know more about Volvo Drive Shaft, please feel free to contact us: 425 999 3388

Volvo Cylinder Head Replacements

The Volvo Cylinder head resides at the top of your engine and houses many important components. From the valve gear and spark plugs to the cylinders themselves, it plays a critical role in the performance of your vehicle.

Having the right cylinder head is key to the longevity of your Subaru. Luckily, AutoZone offers a wide selection of Volvo cylinder heads at affordable prices.

A Used cylinder head can improve your vehicle's performance and reliability. If your Volvo is experiencing issues, such as misfiring and low compression, it's time to get a replacement.

The cylinder head is the main engine component that seals your piston to create a combustion chamber. It's also the home of several specialised passageways for oil and coolant.

There are two types of cylinder heads on the market: cast iron and cast aluminium. While both have their merits, the former is more durable and dissipates heat better than the latter.

Choosing the cylinder head for your vehicle can be confusing. To ensure you select the correct replacement for your Subaru, it's a good idea to consult with an expert.

ATK has a full line of remanufactured cylinder heads for your Subaru. These remanufactured cylinder head Volvo engines have been tested and proven to perform as well or better than the original OEM version, ensuring your vehicle is always performing at its best.

The most notable feature of a cylinder head is its ability to produce more power and torque than the original. This is usually achieved by increasing the size of the cylinders and increasing the volume of air being fed into them, which leads to more horsepower.

If you would like to know more about Volvo Used Cylinder Head, please feel free to contact us: 425 999 3388

Why a Volvo Steering Column is So Important

Having a well-designed and functional Volvo steering column is an important part of ensuring your Volvo is safe to drive. The steering column is where it all begins – from the front of your car to the back, it houses the steering wheel, airbag and other key components.

Used Steering Column is a nifty little piece of engineering that allows your car to turn smoothly, even when there are road obstacles in the way.

The best way to describe the steering column in layman’s terms is to say it is where all the magic happens – including the steering wheel, ignition barrel and the airbag.

It is also where the major components of the steering system are housed, namely, the horn button, power steering and electric brakes.

As such, it is no wonder that Volvo is a leader in the steering column game.

The steering column is not only the most visible component of your car but it is the most complex as well.

Using the correct tooling, your mechanic can remove your steering column in pieces and then install it in one go.

This is an efficient and safe way to get the job done.

To make sure your Volvo is as safe as it can be, schedule a service appointment at a participating Volvo retailer today. A qualified technician can inspect your car, and if needed, replace your squeaky steering column with a new and improved model that will last the distance.

If you would like to know more about Volvo Used Steering Column, please feel free to contact us: 425 999 3388

Volvo Rack and Pinion

Steering is one of the most important systems in a vehicle, affecting safety and driving ability. Volvo Rack and pinion is a steering system that manufacturers of quality cars use to deliver direct and accurate steering with excellent road “feel”.

The Rack and pinion uses a gear set to translate the rotary motion needed to turn your wheels into the linear movement that the tie rods on your front wheels use to push in and out which causes them to turn your vehicle. This system is powered by either hydraulic or electrical power-assisted systems.

How Does it Work?

The rack and pinion gets its name because it uses two long rack gears that are connected at both ends to the tie rods. A small pinion gear is also connected to the steering wheel and meshes with the long rack gear. The pinion gear rotates with the steering wheel and transfers its motion to the rack.

Symptoms of a Bad Rack and Pinion

In order to keep your vehicle turning smoothly, your car needs to have a powerful power steering system. This system pressurises a high-pressure fluid to help the rack and pinion move as you steer your vehicle.

Usually, this fluid comes from a pump located on your engine. If your power steering system starts to have trouble, this may be caused by a leak.

Leaks are a common problem with power steering systems. Most leaks occur at one of the seals between your steering column and rack and pinion assembly or around your tie rods. If these dry out, crack or shrink, they no longer form a seal and your system will fail.

If you would like to know more about Volvo Used Rack & Pinion, please feel free to contact us: 425 999 3388

[mrsterlingeverything]

I’ll share my story of being sent to conversion therapy by accident by my father!

So, basically my dad is a loving but stupid person, businessmen are just like that I suppose. I came out to my parents around 13 years old and both my parents were supportive, I was also attending a Catholic school and my parents told me not to discuss it until I finish the school year and I can choose a different school to attend in the next school year but summer was approaching and I was also interested in going to camps or something. My dad was talking to my neighbor and casually mentioned I came out as gay and the neighbor said he knew a camp for “kids like me” my dad being my dad didn’t really do his due diligence and just wrote a check to the camp and a few weeks later my parents dropped me off at some rural camp. I had bad vibes about the place after they took our cellphones away, and started touting all this religious nonsense and psychological manipulation, some kid was telling me he wanted to be cured of his homosexuality so his parents would love him. I was like what the fuck?? I couldn’t call my dad or mom because they took my phone away. Felt really weird they even watched us shower to make sure we weren’t engaging in “immoral acts” they fucked up when they let me call my mom for a weekly check-in. I simply told her, I feel unsafe, and somethings really bothering me. Well, within 2 hours I heard this engine revving and it was my mother driving at least 60mph on a dirt road in a Volvo suv, she took me out of there so fucking fast. Got Dairy Queen that afternoon. She almost divorced my father over it. He was very upset at himself. They made me speak to a psychiatrist just in case. Yeah… anyway love your tumblr horse boy.

U have awesome parents

[gryficowa]

Remember, we are boycotting Disney and the Olympics

As I see, GF ships are coming back… In 2024, bruh

Marble Hornets? Jeez, I haven't heard that name in years, and I haven't even watched the series (Or that type, because it was more of an ARG before the term ARG)

Well, thanks to them, Slenderman was who he was (Tia… And then this situation with 12-year-olds and this movie from 2018)

Now that I have your attention:

Unfortunately, the biggest problem with sharing links to collections or fundraising posts is that you don't know whether they will be shared or not, which means that the collections don't reach people who could help, which sucks :/

It doesn't help that Tumblr has shadowbanned the Palestine/Gaza tags, which means they don't show up in trends (Although they're in purple, so they're there, but they don't show up, but what can you expect from a site run by Zionists?)

If it was possible to predict whether a post with collections would be shared, it would be a miracle, but unfortunately it is not and it sucks :/

By the way, fuck Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga because they are silent about Gaza

And yes, I know that by sharing links to my fundraising posts and doing the same thing every new post, a chain is being created, but yes, there are also collections from Congo and Sudan (However, there are a lot of collections, and this is the only way to reach people)

There will probably be a lot of tags under this post, because when I talk about many topics in one post, there are usually many tags (Which has its pros and cons, but unfortunately, as I mentioned, otherwise the collections come to a halt)

List of corporations that support Israel:

Disney

Nestle

Microsoft

Intel

Google

Puma

Nike

Amazon

Axa

Booking.com

Burger King

McDonald

KFC

Kinder (It's not written down, but I found the information)

Zott

Coca-cola/Monster

Snicers/Sky milk

Lion

Oreo

Pizza Hut

Papa John's

Starbucks

Volvo

Wendy

Domino's pizza

Tic tac

Pepsi

Lipton

Dove

Nestcafe

Danone (Actimel)

Doritos

Leys

Fanta

MIrinda

Lego

Walls's

Carrefour

Ariel

Orakl-B

Nokia

Xiaomi

Marvel/Fox/Pixar (Disney)

Mattel

Hewlett Pacaro (HP)

Motorola

National Geographic

Tide

There is more, but finding all the companies is a nightmare, so I gave as much as I could

By the way, boycott "Stranger Things" because it is a series created mainly by Zionists, many actors and the scriptwriter revealed their support for Israel

Fuck Rowling too because she liked a Zionist tweet and showed neutrality towards genocide (And the creator of Winx often supports what she says, so yes, we have a chain)

[things-about-cars-in-posts]

Which cars are most bisexual?

Ever get the chilling feeling that you made a grave mistake long ago and you are about to reap what you sowed?

In short, I hit some of my friends up to ask for help. In random alphabetical order:

@jettacar suggested the fourth gen Nissan Quest:

"It's like, no one really bought these. They aren't particularly common. But also, there's no one type of person that buys a car like this. Rationality would have you believe only families are buying this, because it's a giant minivan - but i can't immediately think of another car with a wider variety of types of people that own them right now (excluding cars that just sell incredibly well)"

Unfortunately, that made the conversation derail into minivan talk.

Up next, @rabidragon suggested the Fiat Multipla, due to its peculiar seating arrangement of two rows of three seats:

"3 seats in the front for you and your man and your woman".

Indeed, the peculiar thing about the Multipla is its row of three full-sized seats in front (many old cars had a front bench with some having three lap belts, but the Three Individual Front Seats club is as exclusive as it is devoid of prestige) and the many peculiarities that it caused, like off-center pretty much everything (mirror included) because the driver is further to the side than usual and where most of the centered things go there's now a passenger who would like to be.

But the even more peculiar thing about the Multipla is how spectacularly ugly it is. It's one of the few cars I've ever actually seen that manages to be full-on ugly not just outside but inside. Click on any list of ugliest cars in the world and if it doesn't contain the Multipla I can promise you that list was created by a machine that has since been physically shot. And if you're thinking "Well, it's not bad enough to warrant that hyperbole" - you are looking at the second generation. This is the pretty one. I put the first one and its interior at the end of the post under a read more because I genuinely did not want to be responsible for you seeing it.

I noted that Honda's FR-V managed the same seating layout with downright smart looks inside and out...

...and unfortunately that made the conversation derail into engine swap regulation loopholes.

Finally, @chevyventure suggested multiple. In (roughly) his words:

First generation Mazda 3 "It's a hatchback, good for many different uses - and Mazda is a little silly, charming and off the beaten path (if you were getting a Japanese hatchback you'd probably get a Toyota or a Honda) with a cute lil' smile like a Miata"

1988 Volvo 240 Wagon "Volvos are frequent hand me downs from family like all the cool childhood trauma the LGBTQs get"

[Editor's Note: bro.]

Renault Clio "It's peak hotness while also being cute in its own way, not necessarily preferring a masculine or feminine audience. I've never seen an ad for a Clio before, but if my assumptions about the car market are correct my guess is the normal one is kinda marketed towards women"

[Editor's note: So, I wanted to check that, so I just looked up "Renault Clio ad". These were the first two ads I found.

So yeah. I feel it qualifies.]

Unfortunately, talking about the Clio made the conversation derail into TWR's involvement in- oh wait, you're not gonna know about that Clio variant, are you.

So, many racing series can only be entered with racecars based on some production car - which is great for manufacturers, because they get to advertise their brand and one of their models simultaneously! But since there are rules on how much of the base car can be changed and how much of it must be retained, the stricter they are the more what you want as a base for your racecar is something high performance. So when you want to go racing with a dinky little thing like, say, first car to ever use plastic bumpers and only car to ever be called Renault Le Car in America Renault 5...

...what you are going to want to do is what, among many others, Toyota did with the Yaris GR and Lancia did with the Delta: the homologation special. Basically, you make a special version of the car with the characteristics you'd want in racing, sell enough to clear the rules's bar for "production car" (or at least, convince the officials you've done that), and go racing with that. So Renault did that to the 5 and hit up one Marcello Gandini to redesign it around the changes. You know, Marcello Gandini, guy most famous for designing mid-engined Ferrari-slayers:

Which makes sense, because the Renault 5 Turbo was a mid-engined Ferrari slayer. It was faster than the top-of-the-line Ferrari both in acceleration and in cornering speed. This thing.

(sidenote: The Interior. end of sidenote)

Well, twenty years on, some legend at Renault thought "You know what? We were onto something with that. Let's do that again but HARDER." Presumably, into the headquarters of Tom Walkinshaw Racing, a racing team that developed for Aston Martin, F1 teams, and made Jaguar's Fastest Production Car Ever record holder, and of course a fuckton of the most exciting racecars around, showed up uninvited that Renault madman saying "Y'all wanna work on something REAL prestigious?" before chucking them the keys to a second generation Clio and walking off with a "Don't thank me".

The result was the Clio V6, most notable for HAVING A FUCKING V6 WHERE THE BACKSEATS WERE. This car is genuinely incredible. Like, you see it and you go "Ooh ahh, the Clio V6!" and you look inside to see, you know, the huge V6 compartment thing and you see the interior and you realize this thing cost good sportscar money and when you got in it was a fucking Clio.

Mental stuff- wait shit this post was about bisexual cars wasn't it? How did the conversation derail like this? I swear this never happens. Well, I guess it's time for my pick.

Personally, chatting with Mr. Venture about hatchbacks, I realized that I cannot think of a more "girls car" than a Fiat 500 Cabriolet (which actually is called 500C) and cannot think of a more "boys car" than a Fiat 500 Abarth (which actually is called Abarth 500)...

...so how about the Fiat 500 Cabriolet Abarth?

It actually isn't called that but I think you could piece that together. As though a spoiler on a canvas roof wasn't weird enough, it contains the third brake light, probably making this the only car out there in which it can change position during use. Although I assure you, you're not gonna be thinking about that when driving it. Thing's a RIOT.

But honestly, that wasn't what I started off wanting to answer. So, last but most definitely not least, I candidate my first, gut-reaction answer: the NA Mazda Miata.

See, to me bisexuality (and pansexuality, but awareness of the nuances between them is so low they may as well be picked over flag preference) is someone appreciating all the beauty in the world, seeing no point in gatekeeping themselves out of half of it. And is that not what a spider is about? Is it not about saying "this world we're in is so full of beauty, who would rather blind themselves to half of it?". And look at the damn thing. It's bursting with exactly the kind of joie de vivre one would associate with such sentiment. It oozes enthusiastic curiosity. OwO what's this?: The Car.

Also, just look at this picture.

It can drift. IT CAN WINK. IT CAN WINK MID-DRIFT. I mean, what more than this degree of flirtatious playfulness can you possibly need to be convinced?

Links in blue are posts of mine explaining the words in question - if you liked this post, you might like those!

...

...are they gone? I think they're gone.

The Multipla pictures are down here. Go on then if you're gonna, you sick fuck.

If you have dealt with traumatic tumor-related experiences and seeing that dashboard caused you genuine discomfort, well, do not say I didn't warn you.

[ofthecaravel]

Heaven In Time

Chapter 1 Chapter 2

Chapter 3: Bleeding Hearts, Angel Voices

Danny Wagner x Sam Kiszka

Summary: The last supper. Or is it?

Tags: Religious trauma, hella guilt tripping/mentions of religious upbringing, internalized homophobia, sliiiiiight slut shaming, sibling fighting, slight sauciness

Words: 10k

A/N: As promised, here's the playlist, as well as the last chapter of this little series. Thank you all so much for being so sweet about it and I'm so happy you liked it!! Tell me all your thoughts!!! OH also, I'm aware that only Catholic priests really wear clerical collars, but I decided to include it because Josh is dramatic and would think it looks cute. Okay enjoy

~~

“This is it?”

“Yup.”

“Wow. Somewhere along the way you failed to mention that it’s absolutely gorgeous.”

“It’s practically sinking into the lake, Dan.”

Already crabby, Sam really wanted to be able to trash the house looming in front of them. But for all its ghosts and lonely corners, Sam couldn’t write off the fact that his childhood home (and Jake’s new permanent place of residence, apparently) was and had always been a sight to behold. It wasn’t particularly flashy with its modest white paneling having been frayed by weather and stained with mildew, and it certainly wasn’t modern by any means. However, with the silver maples conspiring around it and a lakeside view from the bottom of the hill it rested on, the house with all its flaws and farmhouse style charm was enough to make Danny’s eyes widen. 

“I didn’t know my parents had moved,” Sam noted softly, heart racing as he observed his brothers’ cars in the driveway and wondered where his dad’s station wagon was parked now. 

“I’m sure Jake will fill you in on everything,” Danny assured Sam as he parked next to Jake’s crappy Volvo. He cut the engine and studied Sam’s apprehensive expression out of the corner of his eye, selfishly hoping that Sam would call the whole thing off and they could drive off towards the loving embrace of Danny’s own childhood home just beyond the state border. He knew his parents and sister would absolutely adore Sam, but he wasn’t sure that Sam’s brothers would welcome him as readily.

“Okay,” Sam blurted, smacking his hands against his thighs and letting out a fast exhale. “Quick overview before we go in.”

“Right,” Danny nodded. Honestly, he could use a refresher. It was always a struggle to get Sam to talk about his family like this.

“Josh is the oldest,” Sam started, beginning his list of points by marking them on his fingers. “Technically. He’s older than Jake by, like, I don’t remember, a couple of minutes. Super friendly, loud as fuck, took up my dad’s pastoral duties after he got deep into the televangelist bullshit that I’m sure he’s still doing now. He was a natural, of course, given that there’s nothing he loves more than the sound of his own voice.”

“Harsh.”

“Dude, trust me. You’ll get what I mean. Anyways, you’ve met Jake. Sort of. He’s very…passionate, which you’ve seen. Kind of hot headed, very one track minded. He basically runs the whole ministry from the shadows, even when Dad was still pastor. Josh gives the go ahead, but Jake’s the organizer. He’s busy 24/7 and has been since they were, like, 12.”

“Doesn’t sound very sustainable,” Danny commented. Sam let out a laugh and shook his head.

“It is not,” Sam agreed bitterly. “But he likes barking orders and playing puppet master, so I guess it works for him. And, I mean, school and youth group pretty much taught us that there was no other way for us to live other than doing church shit all day every day, so I can’t say I’m surprised he turned out this way.”

“Pretty relentless, huh?”

“Yup. Especially when your dad’s running aforementioned church and giving you shit for doing anything, I don’t know, childlike? Or for just enjoying stuff?”

“Definitely explains why Jake was such a dick about your cute ‘fit,” Danny said. “Those values trickle down if you let them, I guess. I still don’t think you had to change, by the way.”

“I definitely did,” Sam muttered, looking down at the plain jeans he’d pulled from his suitcase and the thin flannel he’d buttoned over his chest after their backseat tryst. “Josh would’ve lost his shit. No way he’d go full ‘Ooh, look at me, I’m a man of God and that means I get to preach with corporal punishment’ route, but he’d sure as hell think about it if I showed up in those shorts.”

“Baby,” Danny lamented, heart sinking as he watched Sam fiddle with a button while wearing a sullen expression. “We don’t have to do this.”

“I want to,” Sam insisted, reaching for Danny’s hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze. “For, you know, closure.”

“Okay,” Danny relented, still hesitant but trusting in Sam to know when enough is enough.

“Okay,” Sam echoed. “Okay. Okay, let’s do this.”

Sam pulled Danny in for a quick kiss of courage, bounced once in his seat, let out a nervous sound and then threw open the door and climbed out. Danny chuckled and got out, locking up the truck and watching with adoration as Sam shuffled towards the peeling front steps. 

-

“One second!”

The voice came booming through the rattling front door after Sam had given it a timid knock to the beat of three. Almost instantly, Sam’s nerves flared with electrifying panic and he spun to face Danny.

“Actually,” Sam declared in a rushed, reedy tone. “Fuck this, let’s go.”

“What?”

Before Sam could drag Danny down the stairs and bail harder than anyone has ever bailed before, the door swung open with a melodramatic bang and then there was Josh. Danny could immediately see the startling resemblance between him and Jake, but there was something particularly unique about Josh that immediately set him apart. Danny assessed his tidy curls and the clerical collar nestled snugly at the base of his neck and knew it must be these physical differences, but he stood there puzzling nonetheless. Josh’s face was lit up with a plasticine cheer that seemed to be his resting expression, but at the sight of his deserter younger brother turning to him like a deer in the headlights, his face morphed into uncharacteristic shock. Once again, Danny stood in awkward silence as the useless mediator. This time around he had the good sense to step to the side before the situation devolved.

“Oh,” Josh said simply, his graceful hands rising to cup at the sides of Sam’s face with practiced theatrics. “Oh, praise be to God. Sammy. You’re okay.”

“I’m okay,” Sam repeated, already faltering under Josh’s fiery gaze. “Hi.”

“I can’t believe it,” Josh breathed, tears glittering in his eyes as he shook his head with wonder. “I just can’t even believe it’s really you. It is, right? Or are you some agent of the Lord sent to test my faith in His protection of you?”

“Pretty sure He’s not worried about your faith, Josh,” Sam muttered, grasping Josh’s wrists and lowering them. “I’ve been protected just fine. It’s me, I swear.”

“Thank God,” Josh blubbered, throwing his arms around Sam and pulling him into a crushing hug. Despite it all, Sam accepted it gratefully, crossing his arms behind Josh’s back and holding him just as hard. This was the reunion he’d been dreading the most, but his shame was temporarily assuaged in the comfort of his brother’s embrace.

Danny kept his silence as they hugged, but eventually Josh caught his eye and appeared to register that there was someone on the porch other than Sam for the first time.

“I’m sorry, I’m being rude,” Josh began after he let Sam go, wiping a tear with the heel of his palm and presenting his other hand to Danny. “I didn’t catch your name.”

“Danny,” Danny introduced himself, giving Josh a firm handshake and smiling nervously. Even though so few words had been exchanged, Danny had to admit that it was enough to feel that Josh’s presence could quickly become overwhelming.

“Daniel,” Josh grinned, pleased. “I assure you our home tonight will be no den of lions.”

“Of course,” Danny smiled, completely disbelieving of Josh’s sentiment. “Pretty sure that was revealed to me in one of my many visions. …That is what Daniel did in the Bible, right?”

Josh’s laugh erupted out of his chest and he clapped Danny on the arm with an approving grip. Sam shared a look of surprised amusement with Danny, whose shoulders flickered with a shrug as Josh came down from his laughing fit.

“Good man,” Josh wheezed. “Ah, that’s funny. Am I right in assuming you’re Sammy’s companion in the travels I’m sure he’s had? The travels I simply cannot wait to hear about?”

“Correct.”

“I’m happy to hear it,” Josh beamed, flashing his wide smile back on Sam. “I knew this would happen, you know. That He’d send you a guardian angel to watch over you. I prayed for it.”

“I’m truly blessed,” Sam agreed, giving Danny a private, bashful smile while Josh became temporarily distracted by propping open the door.

“That you are,” Josh professed, gesturing into the house as he crossed the threshold again. “All of us are, really. Now I don’t want to keep you waiting on this drafty old porch, please, come in, come in.”

Josh went in first, flying ahead of Danny and Sam as the door closed behind them and the house swallowed them whole. 

“Here we go,” Sam whispered, nearly inaudible. Josh guided them, humming and singing under his breath as he reached to graze his fingers against the walls of the hallway lined with crosses of all sizes and finish.

“It’s going good so far,” Danny whispered back. “He likes me.”

“Wait ‘til he finds out what kind of guardian angel you are,” Sam murmured. Danny flushed and snaked his arm behind Sam and gave him a pinch on his side, only inches away from the situationally appropriate angel wings messily inked on Sam’s lower back. 

Sam bit back a muffled squeak and smacked Danny in the arm. He was ready to send another flirty whisper his way, but when they emerged in the kitchen, Sam froze up once again at the sight of Jake stationed at the stove. Jake’s hair had been relieved of its outdated ponytail and skirted over his shoulders in messy waves, swaying with motion as he tended to a pan.

“When you said surprise guests, I was certainly not expecting a surprise like this!” Josh cried, shaking Jake by the shoulder. “You drive me nuts.”

“You drive me nuts, it seemed only fair,” Jake smiled. “I’m surprised you saw me come home acting the way I was and didn’t immediately know Sam had something to do with it.”

Sam let out an offended little exhale from his nose and Jake finally regarded him and Danny, renewed tension stretching between them all as he gave them a curt, impersonal nod.

“You really came,” Jake noted plainly, gaze lingering on Sam before turning back to the stovetop, pushing sizzling green tomatoes around the skillet.

“You invited us,” Sam reminded him, cautiously approaching and watching him work. “Enthusiastically, actually. Is this Grandma’s recipe?”

“Yup,” Jake answered flatly, still refusing eye contact as the oil snapped and leaped when he flipped the tomatoes.

“It smells divine,” Danny piped up. Jake gave him a side eye that Danny honored with a nervous, polite smile, but Jake ultimately shut him down with empty air. 

“It’s all divine in this house,” Josh followed up dreamily. 

“Well, hopefully it doesn’t taste like ‘disappointment’,” Jake muttered pettily, bringing up Sam’s words from the gas station. Sam sighed and took a step back from Jake, who filled his space by moving from the pan to open the oven, poking noisily at a covered tray. 

“Come on, Jake,” Sam groaned. “We come in peace. I don’t want to fight with you anymore.”

“And I don’t want this catfish to char,” Jake countered. “Scoot.”

“I’ve scooted, thanks,” Sam frowned, taking another step back. “Why are you acting like we’re showing up uninvited? You literally asked us to come.”

“Hey, what has gotten into you two?” Josh interjected, finally absorbing his twin’s clipped tone. “We should be celebrating. And we have company, so if you could save us all the trouble of picking apart your rude semantics, that would be lovely. I mean, honestly.”

Jake let out a huff and continued working to pull dinner together, plunging the kitchen into icy silence as Sam sneered at the floor to prevent any tears from creeping up on him. Danny wanted nothing more than to hoist him up and carry him out of the house, but he watched helplessly as Josh came over to Sam and gently pulled him out of the room.  

“You two can hash it out later, okay?” Josh whispered, and Sam nodded as they crossed the threshold into the wood paneled dining room. The dining table was set with four crisp placemats, all of them centered in the middle of the table under the flowering hands of the chandelier. It was odd for Sam to see, considering he’d never known the table to be set without a placemat at the head of the table for his father. 

“Sorry,” Sam apologized, falling into old habits. “We ran into Jake at a gas station and it ended…weird. You know he can be kind of-”

“Snippy?” Josh finished for him, pulling out a bundle of cutlery from a drawer. “Righteous? Yes, he can be. Lord knows I know. He’s working on it. Been working on a lot since you left, actually. Some days I swear he out prays me.”

“When did Mom and Dad move?” Sam asked, changing the conversation while robotically accepting and laying down silverware as Josh handed it to him.

“Two months ago,” Josh replied nonchalantly. “Turns out Dad’s broadcast made its way to Nebraska and amassed a following there, so they picked up to be closer to his flock.”

“Nebraska?” Sam exclaimed, nearly dropping the bundle of forks in his hand. He swallowed the revelation with a shiver of relief and an equally strong wave of grief, no doubt felt by the lonely little boy he carried inside him. Sam realized with blank shock that there was a very good chance he would never see his parents again.

“So, what, they just up and left?”

“Yeah…”

“For Nebraska?”

 Danny walked in then, unable to withstand Jake’s angry clanging for another minute.

“What’s in Nebraska?” Danny asked innocently. 

“Our parents,” Josh explained with a weak smile. “I trust Sam’s told you about our Dad’s post preaching venture?”

“A little,” Danny lied. He’d heard plenty about what the Kiszka patriarch had been up to since retiring and passing on the torch of preacher to his oldest son: good ol’ American televangelism, complete with the incensed ramblings and an addiction to being on screen. From what he heard from Sam, this came at the cost of quality time with his family. Sam had assured him the blow was softened significantly considering they’d all been fruitlessly clamoring for his affection for their entire lives and were long accustomed to the scraps they’d been dealt.  

“I guess I shouldn’t be so surprised,” Sam laughed flatly, shooting Josh a knowing look. “Lord knows Dad has the means to afford it.”

“Oh, here we go. I don’t want to hear your conspiracy theories, Sammy,” Josh replied sternly. “I have faith that every drop of his viewer’s donations go right to the Convention.”

“Right,” Sam muttered. “Just like the college fund did.”

Josh stiffened, bright eyes suddenly cast in shadow as he set a glass down on the table. Danny’s eyebrows silently rose in curiosity. He’d never heard mention of college.

“Always the firecracker, Sammy,” Josh said with a brusque laugh, recovering with shocking speed and slipping his cheerful mask back on with ease. Sam rolled his eyes and carried on doling out glasses and napkins, but Danny found Josh’s abrupt mirth disturbing and studied him from where he leaned in the doorway. Danny had felt quite certain in his assessment of Jake when they’d met, but with Josh, he couldn’t quite pin what it was about him that kept Danny’s attention.

-

Dinner had gone off without a hitch, much to the surprise of everyone at the table. There was a bit of a rough start when a chilly direction from Jake had Danny positioned at the seat farthest from Sam, one that also conveniently faced the portrait of Jesus on the wall. But after they’d all sat down, Josh had led them in a tearful round of grace praising Sam’s safe return and then insisted on hearing every single detail of their cross country journey. Knowing that “every single detail” would send both his siblings into cardiac arrest, Sam had regaled them with only the most entertaining stories. Danny felt his heart swelling in his chest watching Sam settle into his natural element, rolling his wrists in the air and grinning like a madman as he detailed engine mishaps and eccentric motel squatters. The biggest surprise of all was Jake slowly warming up as the conversation rolled along, never contributing more than a few words at a time but eventually offering up the smallest of smiles and persistent eye contact as his little brother rambled away.

“I just can’t believe it,” Josh noted brightly at the tail end of one of Sam’s stories. “You’re so bold now, Sams. I remember when you were such a little scaredy cat too scared to get the communion wafers from the back room by yourself. Now you’re out there roughing the wilderness and pushing cows off the road.”

“Trying to push cows off the road,” Daniel corrected with a smile, remembering how hard he’d laughed watching Sam push with all his might against a cow where its herd had blocked the road somewhere in Texas. “Emphasis on trying.”

“I pushed that big one with the brown spot!” Sam argued. “You saw! He went running!”

“He felt bad for you, Sammy.”

Jake let out a snort that set them all off into their own fits of laughter, save for Sam who open mouth scoffed and mouthed threats to Danny across the table. Despite his faint indignation at Danny poking fun at him, Sam felt a great rush at the light hearted mood that had settled over the room. For a split second, he thought of a world where they could eat dinner like this on a regular basis, but he held himself back from indulging in that hope and laid it to rest in a far corner of his mind as quickly as it had risen.

Sam found it to be a wise choice when the laughter died down and Josh, completely unknowingly, killed the mood.

“Is it a hassle to find churches near motels?” Josh asked with sincere interest. “Or is it nice to settle for one day a week when you’re always driving around all willy-nilly?”

Jake let out another snort and Sam and Danny made awkward eye contact across the table.

“They don’t go to church, Josh,” Jake answered for his brother. Josh blinked and Sam bowed his head, suddenly very interested in tearing at the seedy heart of the tomato at the end of his fork.

“I suppose we can be few and far between,” Josh nodded. “I don’t think it’d hurt to peek in on a general Christian service, though. It’d do the job if the Baptist radio stations don’t reach wherever you end up.”

“They don’t want to go to church, Josh,” Jake continued. Sam kicked him under the table and Jake shot him a snotty look, raising his eyebrows haughtily as Josh turned to Sam.

“Is that true?” Josh asked, sounding a little hurt. 

“Did nobody here read the note I left?” Sam mumbled childishly, keeping his eyes down as Josh sputtered and looked between him and Danny. Danny couldn’t muster anything more than an embarrassed cough, also looking down but keeping his eyes firmly glued to Sam.

“I did, about a thousand times,” Josh insisted, shifting his entire chair to face Sam. “But I figured you’d, you know…well, maybe I don’t know.”

“I bet there’s a lot we don’t know,” Jake added, kicking back when Sam kicked him again. 

“What are you, 12? Stop it,” Josh snapped, adding his own kicking leg to the fray. “And what is that supposed to mean?”

“You should’ve seen what he was wearing when I saw him,” Jake said conspiratorially.

“Jake, shut up!” Sam hissed. “You’re so fucking prissy.”

“Woah, language!” Josh scolded, throwing his hands up. “Everybody take a brea-”

“He was practically naked. From where I was, I actually thought he was a girl.”

“Okay, Jake, give it a rest,” Danny snapped, anger finally giving him the courage to speak up.

“I’ll “give it a rest” when you stop necking my brother in broad daylight, how about that, Florida?” Jake snarled, tossing his fork on the table with a furious clatter and crossing his arms. Danny’s mouth clamped shut at the same time Josh’s fell open. Sam let out a strained howl, staring daggers through his brother’s skull as Jake sent them right back.

“God, Jake, you’re so, so,” Sam stammered, insults piling in his mouth. “You’re so fucking jealous!”

Jake didn’t reply, but his eyes fluttered from the sting of Sam’s words. Sam had hit a nerve with sharp precision and they both knew it.

“What on God’s green earth is Jake talking about?” Josh asked, eyes glued to Danny where he wilted in his chair. Danny drew in a breath like he was about to answer, but they all found that the silence he gave instead was just as clear as if he’d spoken. 

“Sam?” Josh asked, a little desperate. For some reason, he didn’t sound as deeply disappointed as Sam had imagined, and certainly not as mad as he’d feared. 

“I hate you,” Sam whispered across the table to Jake, ignoring his other brother searching his face for something he’d missed entirely. “I said I didn’t want to fight.”

“Are we fighting, or am I just saying things that are objectively true?” Jake countered with eerie calm. “You don’t go to church. You dress like a girl. You’re screwing a total stranger. Anything else you’d like to add? Is he paying you, perhaps?”

Sam’s chair scraped loudly as he got to his feet and sent it banging against the wall. He crumpled up his napkin and threw it in Jake’s face before storming out of the dining room, leaving behind another frustrated cry that was cut off by the metallic clang of the front door. Josh turned to Jake with his own expression of genuine anger. 

“Do you want him to leave again?” Josh growled, glaring him down before casting his eyes on Danny. “Daniel, I am so sorry. Please, forgive us.”

Jake’s face grew cloudy and sullen at Josh’s fury, clueing Danny into whose opinion he must value most in this world. He sank further in his chair when Josh breezed past him and followed Sam’s warpath out of the home, leaving Jake and Danny to sit side by side in their private rages after the door had slammed for a second time.

-

They sat there for a very long time. Danny wanted to run to Sam (he was always running to Sam, and he thought maybe he always had been) but knew that Sam needed Josh more than him. As much as he was not enjoying this trend of being left alone with Jake, he sat with the storm cloud beside him and did his best to steal glances and collect information without Jake’s knowledge. When they’d first encountered him, Jake had seemed so eager to fly Sam back home to the nest. He’d seemed almost understanding, or as understanding as someone like him could be, but it’d spun out within seconds. Danny was trying to figure out the exact moment that had turned him into a cold shouldered teenager so desperate to cut Sam down. 

 When slyly sliding his eyes to try and gauge Jake’s expression, Danny startled slightly to find that Jake’s focus had shifted from the wall to him. When he followed the low trajectory of his tired gaze, Danny saw that Jake was staring at…Danny’s scuffed cowboy boots. From the looks of it, he was tracing the stitchings in the brown leather. Lost in a daydream, maybe? Danny considered with a note of private amusement that Jake might be looking at his boots and tucking himself into a fantasy of cowboys and fast horses. Maybe that was something he and Danny both did; escaping into an idealized reality when the one at hand was too much. 

Then, with a jolt, it clicked. The way Jake had grown cruel when Sam had defended his new look and new life, no doubt shattering Jake’s pre established perception of his baby brother. Inviting him to dinner and cooking what Danny knew were some of Sam’s favorite foods, only to spoil it all with appetite stealing jabs. How he had shrank under Josh’s disappointment. How he sat now, staring at Danny’s boots like he wished they were his. 

Like he wished he could run.

“I’m sorry, Jake,” Danny blurted. Jake jerked at the sudden sound and regarded Danny with wide, confused eyes. He blinked once before his face crumpled, perplexed.

“For what?” Jake asked, all bite gone from his voice. He sounded almost friendly. He sounded a little like Sam, actually. Danny used that familiarity to gather his confidence.

“I’m sorry Sam didn’t invite you to go with him. That must’ve really hurt.”

Jake’s expression held its dumbfounded composure but Danny could see the emotion shift from confusion to something akin to being completely crushed. He barely blinked and Danny watched his eyes fill with tears.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Jake hissed, his voice wobbling slightly as his lip curled in feigned disgust. “You two are going to die out there, one way or another.”

“You must be a masochist, then,” Danny accused, continuing to find his nerve. “Because I’m willing to bet that Sam wasn’t too far off when he said you were jealous. I’m really not trying to be rude, I’m just trying to understand.”

“Understand what? Why I hate your guts?”

“You don’t hate my guts, Jake. And I sure as shit don’t hate yours.”

“Could’ve fooled me. You didn’t even give me a chance.”

Ah. There was another puzzle piece clicking in place for Danny.

“That’s another thing I’m sorry about,” Danny said honestly. “I shouldn’t have shut you down like that. It’s just - and this isn’t an excuse, it’s just an explanation- it’s just that I’ve spent the past year trying to get Sam as far away from what he was running from. And, well, you’re a part of all that in one way or another. But I should’ve understood your circumstances the same way I do Sam.”

Jake was quiet for another beat, swallowing and sniffling before letting out a sigh.

“I guess I shouldn’t have shut you down like that either,” Jake admitted. “And I guess I should thank you for keeping him safe and, well, alive. It’s just so weird to see Sam like this. He’s so…”

Jake’s lip trembled in a particularly Sam fashion and his eyes drifted off into space as tears began to roll down his ruddy cheeks.

“He’s so happy,” Jake breathed, in awe. “He was right, he was never happy here. I pushed him too hard. Josh was too wrapped up in his own crises. Our parents never gave him a second glance. And now he’s so free. He got out. You two have done so much and gone so far that it just makes everything at home feel even smaller. I guess I didn’t realize until I saw him again that there was something to ‘get out’ of.”

“It’s okay,” Danny whispered, reaching out and putting a hand on Jake’s arm. “Hey, breathe, it’s okay.”

“It’s not,” Jake wailed, fully swept up in his hysteria now. “It’s not okay. This is supposed to be a place people flock to, not run from. And, shit, if it was so bad that he had to run, you’d think he’d have the decency to at least tell me and Josh. You’d think he’d ask if...”

Danny thought he’d be more distressed watching Jake completely spin out, but he was actually pretty calm. He supposed this was par for the course in a place like this. Another holy man laid to waste by a betrayal. Another brother struck down by his brother, laying still while the other wandered. In some twisted way, there was something divine here, but not in the way that any of them wanted. Danny suddenly felt even closer to Sam, and he shivered a little with the understanding and satisfaction of it despite the gaunt atmosphere over the entire estate. He kept a steady hand on Jake’s arm when he crossed his arms on the table and buried his face shamefully, the lean crest of his back shivering with an unruly sob. 

“You should go, Jake,” Danny whispered. “I mean, you should leave, too. You can’t be happy here.”

“That’s not an option for me,” Jake laughed, his face still hidden by his periwinkle sleeves. “There’s too much here for me to leave behind.”

“Josh?”

“Josh,” Jake repeated, voice wobbling. “Always gonna be Josh. As much as I’d love to have a week to myself without having to set up a million church activities or food drives or buying a trunkful of candles, I know he can’t handle the responsibility all on his own. It’s just easier if I do it so he can focus on writing sermons and doing confessions.”

“What happened to having faith in each other?”

“He doesn’t want to handle the responsibility on his own,” Jake corrected. “That’s another thing. In all honesty, I always thought if any of us were going to make it out of here, it’d be him.”

“Really?” Danny asked. From what he’d heard, Josh was more than happy with a microphone in his hand and adoring congregants standing at the ready to harmonize with his gospels. 

Jake calmed slightly, resurfacing from his arms to rest his chin and catch his breath. His round face was still flushed with emotion and Danny resisted a very genuine urge to brush his hair back from where it lay lingering on his cheeks, kept there by stray tears. 

“Josh…” Jake trailed off, his gaze finding comfort counting the slats in the blinds. “Josh struggles. I mean, we all do, but he…I don’t know. He doesn’t tell me much. I just know something keeps him convinced that he’s not worthy of being the pastor. Which is ridiculous, in my opinion.”

“Really,” Danny repeated, slightly more somber as he thought back to his first impressions of Josh and the immediate recognition whose source alluded him. It came to him in a wave, then, along with the fond ache of understanding.

“No one is more deserving,” Jake continued. “There’s no one as kind or as devoted as him. I think it’s just the church, well, the Convention, really, that has certain ideas that make him feel…unworthy, maybe. There’s an expectation he thinks he doesn’t live up to.”

“He’s..?” Danny trailed off, testing the waters cautiously in case the conclusion he’d jumped to was entirely wrong. 

“He’s my brother,” Jake said firmly, finally looking Danny head on. “And my best friend. That’s all that matters to me.”

Danny sat back in his chair, a long held breath (of relief?) escaping his chest as his understanding of Jake finally crystallized. He wasn’t really a sharp tongued, verse slinging Bible thumper with a million little hills to die on. Jake was a man who was first and foremost devoted to his family, and he was willing to forego all of his wants for their needs. He was a brother, and he feared for how the world would treat his brothers, both inside and outside his little world. And at the end of it, he’d withstand feeling forgotten if it meant they felt seen. He had never been angry, not really. Just hurt.

“You’re a good brother, Jake,” Danny insisted, flashing Jake a smile. “You and Sam should have a chat before the night is through. And I still believe you should think about leaving. Both you and Josh, actually. There’s a lot of world you’d really like to see. Obviously it’s not my place to tell you what to do, but I do think it’d help.”

“You’re probably right,” Jake agreed. “And thank you. Sorry for, you know, everything.”

“It’s no problem,” Danny said genuinely. “I’m happy to help.”

“You are, aren’t you?” Jake laughed. “I’m surprised you’ve stuck around this long, honestly. Especially since you’re not religious. But I guess if you’ve put up with Sam for a year and not jumped overboard, you must be accustomed to some nonsense.”

“I don’t ‘put up’ with him,” Danny asserted. “It’s a privilege to get to spend so much time with him.”

Jake watched him with an arched, amused eyebrow, finally straightening in his chair to smooth his hair back and settle with his arms crossed. 

“So, what, I’m gonna wind up being your brother, too?”

“I mean…in a way,” Danny laughed, heart racing. “If you don’t mind.”

“I don’t mind,” Jake answered, shaking his head slightly. “I figured. I mean, after he hit 21 and had no dating prospects or interest in dating at all, I assumed he was gonna forgo it completely. I just guessed he was more interested in his commitment to the church, like Josh.”

“Seems they both had their reasons to stay away from girls,” Danny noted.

“I suppose they did,” Jake said with a light laugh. “And still do. But, wow, Sam really does light up around you. I’ve never seen that with him.”

Danny smiled, blushing with warmth again as he tried to recall Sam’s expression when he was around. He’d always been smiley and wide eyed when looking at Danny, complete with pupils blown wide and overtaking the honey brown of his iris while he mapped Danny’s face. Wasn’t that how he’d been before they met? Apparently not. 

“You’ve got good intentions?” Jake interrogated, nudging Danny’s knee with his own. “You treat him right?”

“I do, I do,” Danny insisted, crossing his own arms and grinning. “I sure try. He’s easy to love.”

“You love him?”

“I…yeah, I do,” Danny affirmed, certain of his answer. “I didn’t even mean to say it like that, but, yeah. Is that alright?”

“Yeah, it’s alright,” Jake smiled, yet slightly subdued. “Just…be careful, okay? At least as long as you’re in Alabama. Especially in Shady Grove.”

“I know,” Danny said softly, a little more morose. “Sam warned me about that. Another reason he left.”

“Another reason we should go,” Jake replied reluctantly. “Right?”

“Right. Believe me, nowhere is going to be perfect, but I think you’ll like the version of Josh you’ll meet when he can be himself. I’ve loved watching Sam come out of his shell.”

“I wish I could’ve been there for that,” Jake whispered, choking up again. “He’s probably out there right now telling Josh how much he hates me.”

“Don’t say that.”

-

“I fucking hate him.”

“Sam.”

Sam had bolted the second he was out the front door, but Josh had known where to find him. Ever since Sam had been young enough to start throwing the tantrums that had made him so intolerable to their parents, he always fled to the dock at the bottom of the hill. Ever the mediator, Josh had spent his fair share of time on the rotting wood planks listening to Sam vent his frustrations as they plunged sticks and rocks into the murky water, eventually advising him with echoes of affirmations he’d heard from the mouths of older congregants. But they were adults now, and as Josh sat on the dock with Sam curled into his side, he realized with a faint panic that there were no more words to borrow but his own. 

“I do,” Sam insisted, his head resting on Josh’s shoulder as he glared out over the blurred surface of the small lake. “I really do. I’m done with him.”

“No, you’re not,” Josh sighed, throwing an arm around Sam’s shoulder and rubbing his arm. 

“Whatever,” Sam grumbled. “I want to be.”

“You don’t have any kind of hate in your soul, Sam,” Josh told him. “God takes it from you and leaves you even more kind and enduring.”

“Josh, stop,” Sam whispered, sending an embarrassed thorn right into Josh’s side. 

“Stop what?”

“The God stuff. Please. Just, not now, at least.”

“The ‘God stuff’ used to make you feel better.”

“No, it didn’t. I just didn’t say anything.”

They sat without speaking for a minute. Without their voices, the rushing rain sounds of the mayflies and the hush of the surrounding trees filled the void between them. 

“You could’ve said something,” Josh murmured. “Especially if it would’ve stopped you leaving.”

“It wouldn’t have,” Sam answered. “I’ve thought about it a lot. I think I would’ve left no matter what happened.”

“Oh,” Josh said, sounding small. “Did you know that before you left?”

“To some degree.”

“...I would’ve liked to know that, too, Sammy.”

Sam swallowed a guilty lump in his throat and sulked further against his brother. 

“Sorry,” Sam whispered. “It was selfish. It’s just…I was scared if I told you, you’d tell Jake, and then he’d tell Dad, and then you’d all hatch some master plan to keep me here.”

“I suppose that’s not an unfounded fear,” Josh admitted. “Remember when Jake had his little Sunday school girlfriend? I didn’t see him for, like, three days after Dad got wind of it.”

“Exactly. And then you would’ve written up some elaborate, guilt trippy sermon and sat me down in the kitchen and made me talk about my feelings for 2 hours minimum.”

Josh laughed a little, drawing a knee to his chest against a cool breeze that rolled off the lake.

“I’m pretty predictable, huh? Goodness.”

“And that wouldn’t have worked because if I talked about my feelings…”

“What?”

“...”

“What, you wouldn’t want to hear my feelings about the whole thing?”

“Well, yeah, but it’s too late for that now. And that’s not-”

“I haven’t even told you how I felt,” Josh pointed out. 

“I know how you felt,” Sam murmured, tears searing his waterline again. “Maybe it’s you and Jake with your creepy twin telepathy, but I felt you both the whole time, even all the way out in California. It’s horrible. Some days I couldn’t even enjoy myself because I could feel the disappointment two thousand miles away.”

Josh felt tears of his own threatening to spill over hearing that. It had never occurred to him that a lifetime of observing at the sidelines would’ve made Sam so accurately attuned to his family’s emotional patterns.

“Sammy,” Josh exhaled. “It pains me to listen to this. You don’t have to feel so guilty about everything.”

“Neither do you.”

Josh bristled slightly, lifting his cheek from Sam’s hair and looking down at him.

“What do you mean?” Josh asked gently. 

“I know you didn’t want to be pastor.” 

“Well, I love it now.”

Sam pulled away from Josh and crossed his legs under him, staring out over the water before staring Josh in the eye with a look so sincere and cutting that it made Josh lean back slightly.

“It’s okay if you don’t, you know,” Sam said evenly. “It’s okay if you’re upset.”

“What do I have to be upset about?” Josh teased, pushing Sam’s bony shoulder. “I live in this beautiful little town and get to spend my days with its beautiful little people talking about what I love. Plus I just got my baby brother back. I’d be a fool to complain.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Josh, cut it out,” Sam snapped, grief fizzling into frustration. “You sound like Dad at his worst. Why can’t you just drop the act for 2 seconds and admit you hate it here?”

Josh’s eyebrows flew up and he let out a reflexive laugh, anxiety coloring his tone as it fluttered cautiously out of him. Sam looked at him pleadingly, grabbing his brother's hand and gripping it tight.

“I know you didn’t want to be pastor,” Sam repeated firmly. “I know you wanted to go to college. And I…I know you’re gay.”

Josh immediately froze, falling silent as Sam stared into his eyes and what felt like his soul. 

“And that’s great,” Sam continued on, a tear escaping his eye and rolling down his cheek. “It can feel amazing if you’d just let yourself feel anything. Trust me, I know. You’re not trapped here, dude. You can still go to school and be yourself and be happy. You just have to put yourself first for the first time in your fucking life.” 

Josh, struck dumb, couldn’t do anything but breathe as his heart burned in his chest and pushed up hot tears that blurred his vision of his brother. His brother, who was undressing his façade with effortless impatience that made Josh begin to wonder just how transparent he truly was. Or was it only Sam, who was part of him in so many ways, that could see how blind Josh was? When he spoke in dizzying circles of hell and damnation, were his congregants shaking their heads in pity with the knowledge that all Josh was really doing was scaring himself back into submission?

“If you’re really okay with how your life is turning out, tell me now and we can never talk about it again,” Sam promised. “I swear to God. I will leave it alone.”

Josh hesitated further, pulling his hand from Sam’s and letting out a slow breath. Looking down at the cloudy water swaying underneath them, he wondered how big of an inhale of it would take for him to sink right to the bottom. 

“You’re right,” Josh confessed, his voice as soft and as uncertain as Sam had ever heard him. “I didn’t want any of this. It’s too much pressure. And the more I read the Bible and listen to the sermons from out in Texas and Georgia…the more I lose faith in what I’m supposed to be telling people.”

“Yeah,” Sam whispered, finding respite in Josh’s honesty. “I never really believed we were all born sinners.”

“I still kind of do,” Josh admitted. “But now I’m thinking there’s no amount of trying that’ll change that. I do all of this praying and writing and confession but I’m still…”

“It’s not sin, Josh. How you feel, how we both feel. There’s nothing to be saved from when it comes to that,” Sam insisted with quiet urging. “Seriously.”

“Maybe,” Josh whispered, picking at the skin around his nails as a dark coil of shame slithered in his stomach. “It just isn’t natur-”

“It’s like this,” Sam started, trying to put something into terms that would get through to him. “God is everyone and everything. Maybe that’s something I still agree with. And when you stop dedicating yourself to trying to get him to pay attention to you, you start to see Him or whatever “He” really is everywhere. You realize that you’re honoring Him by honoring yourself and doing what feels right to you. I don’t know if that’s something we’ll get rewarded for in heaven, but the reward of it on Earth is enough for me.”

“‘Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it’,” Josh recited with a nod. “Hebrews.”

“Sure. Yeah, actually, yeah. What I’m trying to say is you should live for yourself, Josh, not God or Dad or anyone. And if you still want God, you’ll find that without even trying.”

“Did you find Him with Danny?” Josh asked quietly. “In Texas?”

Sam blinked in surprise. He’d never thought about it like that, but…

“I guess I did,” Sam breathed, a smile drifting onto his face as he thought fondly of Danny. “At the start, at least. Now it’s all just him, no capital H.”

Everything was Danny to him, in complete honesty. Even though Sam only half believed the whole speech he was giving to Josh, he couldn’t deny the divinity he felt in the presence of his boyfriend. His best friend.

“I want that,” Josh murmured. His throat closed with emotion as he forced the words out, but it felt good to say. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d expressed wanting out loud, and based on the look on Sam’s face, he realized it may have never happened before.

“Go get it,” Sam said fiercely, his grin growing wildly when Josh’s eyes lit up a little at his encouragement. “You wanna come to Florida with us? We can find you a nice, alligator hunting boy.”

“Slow down, slow down,” Josh laughed, holding up his palms in surrender. “One step at a time.”

“Just Florida, then. We’ll ask Danny.”

As if summoned, there grew the sound of hushed voices and the sound of shoes on the wooden steps down to the deck, bodies hidden by the trees and the dark. Eventually they emerged, Jake hopping down from the last step that had been laid too high, bending at the knee from the impact as long legged Danny casually stepped down beside him. Sam and Josh turned to face them, leaning back on their hands and giving little waves. Without any words, they all knew the night’s battle had blown over, and Sam reached for Jake as he sat down between him and Josh. Jake received him with a hug, both of them bent into each other awkwardly as they murmured brief apologies to the other. Josh, unable to stay out of anything ever, leaned into their embrace and struggled to wrap his arms around both of them. Danny laughed as he settled next to Sam, their knees bumping as Sam attempted to wiggle out from the hold Josh had joyfully trapped them in.

“I’m just so grateful,” Josh wailed with phony passion. “I love my family!”

“You’d hug Mom and Dad like this?” Jake asked incredulously.

“...I love my brothers!”

All 4 of them laughed again as Josh finally released them, immediately proceeding to chastise Jake in a low voice as he fiddled with the frizz his hair had accumulated. Sam teetered backwards and landed with his back to Danny’s chest. Danny took advantage of the twins getting distracted and planted a kiss on top of Sam’s hair, letting his eyes flutter shut for a moment at the consolation of Sam back in his arms after the whirlwind day they’d had.

“All good?” Danny whispered in Sam’s ear, smiling when Sam nodded and tilted his head to grin up at him.

“You?” Sam asked, humming when Danny mimicked his own nod back to him.

“Jake said we can stay the night in your old bedroom,” Danny informed him, repeating what Jake had said in the conversation on their way out of the house. “But he won’t make us breakfast.”

“Fuckin’ liar, he will,” Sam laughed, reaching a hand up and lovingly stroking Danny’s cheek as he utilized his other hand to smack Jake’s thigh. “What’s this about no breakfast? You want me to burn the place down trying to make toast?”

“I’m just not babying you anymore is all,” Jake announced, smacking Sam right back. “Danny agrees it’ll be good for our relationship.”

“Traitor,” Sam complained, smacking Danny on the cheek and squealing when Danny scoffed and smacked him back. Jake let out a brash cackle and Josh a defeated groan.

“You’re like the Three Stooges,” Josh whined. “Also, coming from you, Sam? That’s a bold accusation.”

“Wow!”

“Look who’s finally growing some balls,” Jake continued to cackle, hooking his elbow around Josh’s neck and pulling him into a side hug. 

“The state of my balls are none of your concern,” Josh muttered, which made Sam and Jake let out identical barks of laughter. The three of them got whipped up into a frenzy of bickering and Danny watched with a grin and a bloom of warmth flowering in his chest at the sight. There was something being healed here, he thought, and he could almost see the misguided little boys they’d once been as they tussled and giggled on the groaning dock.

It was strange to think how differently he had felt just a few hours ago. With Sam in Danny’s life, it seemed like things changing at the drop of a hat was something that Danny was going to grow well accustomed to as long as he was around. After that night, even with Sam squirming out of his grasp to try and push his brothers into the lake, Danny knew with complete certainty that he wanted Sam to stick around forever. It was time he told him that.

-

“How was your shower?”

“Arctic.”

Danny laughed and opened up the wing of the sheets and comforters to welcome in Sam, who came rolling in with his hair still wet. He was clad in linen pajamas from his teenage years that fell slightly too short on his wrists and ankles, while Danny lay under the blankets in only his boxers and socks. Even though Sam’s skin and hair was freezing cold from the shower and dampened his own skin, Danny pulled Sam against him and struggled with the blankets to bundle them together as best as he could. 

“There, now we’re a proper burrito,” Danny smiled, kissing the tip of Sam’s nose.

“I’ve never had a burrito,” Sam whispered in a hushed, secretive voice. Danny gasped.

“You’re joking.”

“I’m not!”

“Well, that's okay, we'll remedy that. Plus, they’re not half as good as this,” Danny mumbled, using his grip on Sam’s back to pull him further into his bare chest and tuck Sam’s head into the crook of his neck. “Was the water really that cold?”

“Sub-zero,” Sam promised with a shiver. “Those assholes hogged all the hot water, I bet. Typical.” 

“I’ll warm you up plenty,” Danny purred, sliding his hand up Sam’s shirt and tracing his fingers along his cool skin with featherlight touch. Sam shivered again and giggled, nuzzling deeper into Danny’s neck.

“Not in my childhood bed you won’t, pervert,” Sam murmured against Danny’s skin, which seemed to be radiating great waves of heat like he were a human furnace. 

Said childhood bed had been a source of poorly hidden smiles from Danny, who finally admitted through a smothered laugh that the entire room looked like his grandma’s room back in Florida. No doubt done up and never redecorated for the daughter his mother had been expecting and never received, the wallpaper was pale, flowery and hung with silver crosses. Picture frames held stitched psalms that sat cheerfully on the vanity facing the bed. The double bed barely fit the both of them and, as Sam admitted through laughs of his own, the sheets and comforters that surrounded them now did, at one time, belong to his granny. When they’d first walked in, Sam had felt the loving ache of being remembered upon finding that the bed had been made and the room had been tidied for his return.

“How about some sleep, then?” Danny offered. “We’ve had a long day.”

“No kidding,” Sam quietly agreed. “I’m glad what happened did happen, shockingly enough. I really thought it was going to be a trainwreck. I should’ve had more faith in them, I guess.”

“You’ve got just the right amount of faith,” Danny hummed, eyes drifting open and shut as he grew sleepy from the perfume of Sam’s shampoo and his natural sweetness. “I’m really proud of you, baby. I know that was a lot for you. You’re a tough cookie.”

“I’m your tough cookie,” Sam murmured, tickling Danny’s neck with his nose and planting a lingering kiss on the pulse thrumming violently under his lips. Danny let out a breathy groan and gently dug his fingers into Sam’s back as Sam mapped a sleepy path of kisses along Danny’s neck.

“Easy, cookie,” Danny raggedly chuckled, smoothing his palm up and down Sam’s back as he fought in vain to stave off the growing pressure in his boxers. “I thought being in this bed was a no go.”

“It is,” Sam doubled down, lips dragging against Danny’s skin as he whispered. “Just saying thank you real quick.”

“You and your fuckin’ ‘thank you’’s,” Danny smiled, eyelids fluttering fully shut as he tilted his head back and gave Sam more area to cover. “This is like that first night all over again.”

“I was so embarrassed,” Sam giggled, his breath fanning out in warm bursts over the thin layer of saliva cooling on Danny’s skin. “I thought I’d gone and fucked up the best thing that ever happened to me.”

“Sweetheart,” Danny cooed, butterflies fluttering in his stomach. “You’re the best thing that ever happened to me.”

“No, I’m not,” Sam refused, pressing his cheek into the hollow of Danny’s collarbone.

“Yes, you absolutely are, my little California love.”

“Even after today?” Sam asked, sounding more uncertain than he wanted to. “I can’t think of a single other person on Earth who could’ve sat through all of that bullshit and still liked me at the end of it. Like, I really can’t apologize enough. Especially for Jake’s crazy ass.”

“Especially after today,” Danny insisted. Sam lifted his head from Danny’s chest and looked up at him with an unconvinced sneer, their noses brushing as Danny raked his fingers through Sam’s damp waves and searched for the fortitude to say what he felt. These were the moments where Danny felt it the strongest; Sam burrowed into him with his eyes as wide and wondering as the day they’d met. This was what love was to him.

“Sam,” Danny whispered sincerely, voice low and breathless. “If it meant I got to keep you by my side for 10 extra minutes, I’d live today over and over again. Do you understand? There is nothing you could put me through that I wouldn’t stick around for. Not when I’m this ridiculously in love with you.”

Sam’s already wide eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets at that, pupils expanding slowly as a nervous smile wound its way onto his flushed face. Danny smiled at him, feeling a flush of his own beginning to heat his body from his heart outwards. 

“You’re what?” Sam asked, leaning back slightly to look at Danny properly. 

“You heard me,” Danny teased, pinching the rosy apple of Sam’s cheek. “What do you think about that?”

“I think you’re crazy,” Sam laughed, shimmying in their cocoon of blankets and limbs to readjust his arms to wrap around Danny’s neck. “And may have been dropped on your head as a baby.”

“How did you know that?”

“It’s the only rational explanation as to why you’d go and say that,” Sam flouted breezily. 

“Is it really so hard to believe?” Danny asked, making a pitiful face that made Sam’s heart flutter. “You make it very easy to be in love with you, as a matter of fact. I don’t have to try at all.”

“I love you,” Sam murmured, in awe. It’s not like he was stupid, he knew Danny had to have loved him for them to have gotten as far as they had, but it still felt entirely unexpected to actually hear it. After a year of being startled awake by Sam’s sleep talking, patiently listening to stories of the worst of Sam’s childhood punishments, even sleeping sitting up in a jail cell in New Mexico when Sam’s newfound chutzpah found purchase with a rowdy biker, there was Danny at the end of it all. Patiently awaiting what fresh hell Sam would drag him into next. 

“I love you, too,” Danny assured him. “But are you in love with me?”

“Fucking obviously,” Sam blurted. “I'm so in love with you, Danny, fuck. I didn’t realize I even had to clarify that.”

“Of course you did! How else would I know?” Danny laughed, eyes glittering with glee and relief at Sam’s confirmation.

“I thought I had made myself plenty clear when I followed you across the country with zero hesitation. Twice.”

“I guess that’s fair.”

“Also, I mean, you popped my cherry, so.”

“You weren’t gonna give that up for just anyone, huh?” Danny laughed, his freckled nose crinkling. 

“Nope,” Sam smiled flirtatiously. “I was saving it for truuue looove.”

“Is that what this is?” Danny asked softly, his smile paling with uncertainty as he searched Sam’s dark eyes. 

“I hope so,” Sam breathed, his heart racing just as fast as it did when he was still learning to look at Danny without feeling faint. “Do you think it is?”

“I do,” Danny said sincerely, cupping Sam’s jaw. “Let’s say it is and go from there.”

“Works for me,” Sam agreed, nervously tilting his chin forward and melting from the inside out when Danny met him with a fiery kiss.

Sam was no stranger to the possessive pressure Danny preferred to apply when kissing, but there was something fierce behind this kiss that left Sam feeling utterly and completely loved. Lying in the same bed just over a year ago, Sam recalled how he’d bundle the blankets into a wall to press his back against as he slept, pretending it was someone to keep him steady and wake him in the morning. He thought of how that was something he didn’t need to dream about anymore. He thought of how lucky he was. How blessed.

“I’m starting to think Josh may have been right,” Sam sighed against Danny’s mouth, now tucked under him with Danny’s loose curls tickling his cheeks. “I think you’re my guardian angel.”

“You’re the angel here,” Danny insisted, thinking of Sam’s tattoo and feeling his thighs tighten unconsciously on either side of Sam’s hips. “Never gonna let anyone clip your wings ever again.”

“I’m serious,” Sam whined, twining his fingers in Danny’s hair and pulling him closer. “You’re the real deal.”

“Maybe Josh did get one thing right tonight.”

“Speaking of Josh…how do you feel about another passenger on our way to Florida?”

“He’s going to have to share the backseat with Jake if that’s the new plan, ‘cause I’m pretty sure I convinced Jake to pack up too.”

“Family road trip,” Sam sang. “I hope your parents don’t mind.”

“No, they’ll love a full house,” Danny answered. “And my sister will love peer pressuring them into doing stupid shit.”

“I can’t wait to see them drunk for the first time,” Sam confessed with a laugh. “They’ll be fucking ridiculous.”

“I don’t know if you’ll want to see them like that if they’re anything like you were the first time you got drunk,” Danny teased, nipping at Sam’s earlobe. “I’ve still never heard you talk like you did that night.”

“Stop that,” Sam giggled, muffling a squeak when Danny kissed the sensitive skin under his ear. “I don’t even remember half of that night.”

“Your brain is protecting your dignity,” Danny joked, his voice low and warm against the shell of Sam’s ear. “You were kind of a slut.”

“Yeah?” Sam asked weakly, panting slightly from so little. Danny tended to do that to him.

“Oh, yeah. Big time. You cried when I wouldn’t put it in.”

Sam immediately slapped a hand over Danny’s mouth and shushed him theatrically, attempting to smother him when Danny laughed hysterically and tried to lick and bite at his fingers.

“What if they heard you!” Sam hissed, his wrists now pinned beside him as Danny held him down with visible triumph.

“Then I’ll apologize!” Danny laughed, jostling as Sam tried to wrench himself out from under him. “You’re the one making the mattress squeak all suspiciously. This is a Christian household, Sam, I mean really.”

“Shut up!”

“You shut up!”

“I hate you,” Sam declared quietly, sharp eyes trained up at Danny with a glimmer of mischief dancing at his waterline. Danny smiled fondly and lowered himself so their chests were pressed together. He cocked his head, looking Sam over with his hazel eyes lush with emotion.

“And I will love you ‘til the day I die, Sam Kiszka,” Danny announced, pressing his lips to Sam’s with careful appreciation and keeping them there for the hours that followed. 

In the morning, they’d clamor and argue and shed tears before pulling out of Shady Grove with a body in every seat of Danny’s beat up little truck. They’d follow the fate line to Florida to settle and heal and wander from the path like they always did. But that night, they had nothing to do but lay under the blanket of the whistling Alabama sky and love each other.

They’d find in the years and decades that followed, it never got much more complicated than that.

~~

Taglist: @holdingup-fallingsky @milojames16 @spark-my-nature @bladenotblaze @currentlyfangirling10

[holdmytesseract]

Hello bestie I am back with another request 👀🎉

Magnus crushing on a barista and a robber coming into the coffee shop and him coming to her rescue 🥹👀

Knight With Curls and Blue Eyes

Magnus Martinsson x fem!Reader

Summary: Magnus has a crush on you - a barista. When the coffee shop you are working in gets robbed, the curly haired policeman is more than eager to save and protect you...

Warnings: police things, guns, bit of violence, blood? robbery of a coffee shop, fluuuuff!

Word Count: 3,1k

a/n: Since I'm going to go on holidays on Tuesday and therefore won't be as active for a few days, I thought I'm giving y'all a bit of Magnus to read. 😊

That oneshot was SO much fun to write! 🥰 Magnus, our sweet little meow meow. 🥹 Hope y'all like it - especially you, bestie @muddyorbsblr ! I think you are probably in need of a bit Magnus fluff at the moment. 😉🥺

Also, please go easy on me, guys. I haven't written for Magnus that much yet. I hope it's good, though. 🥺

Tagging: @muddyorbsblr @lulubelle814 @km-ffluv @loz-3 @vbecker10 @jennyggggrrr @chantsdemarins @multifandom-worlds @fictive-sl0th @lovingchoices14 @simping-for-marvel @stupidthoughtsinwriting @vanilla-daydreaming @lou12346789 @lady-rose-moon @evelyn-kingsley @smolvenger @ijuststareatstuffhereok89 @wolfsmom1 @lokidbadguy @icytrickster17 @mandywholock1980 @november-rayne @lokiforever @hisredheadedgoddess28 @mischief-dream @jaidenhawke @crimson25 @cakesandtom @buttercupcookies-blog @salvinaa @javagirl328

°☆• Masterlist •☆°

"Do you really think this is the best strategy?" Magnus asked his colleague, as he looked through the binocular; gaze undoubtedly directed out of the car window and focused on the small seaside cottage. His question stayed unanswered, causing him to frown and peel his eyes away from the object in his hands. "Kurt?"

Looking over at the driver seat of the detective's black Volvo, Magnus noticed that said detective had fallen asleep. Unable to suppress a small laugh, "Kurt. Hey, Kurt." the young policeman gently hit the older man's arm, causing him to literally wake with a start. Alarmed, Kurt looked around; anticipating the worst. "What is it?! Did you see something?!" The man with the curly haired mane on his head chuckled. "No, it's nothing. You fell asleep. I just thought I should wake you up." Kurt groaned; running a hand over his face. "Dear god, Martinsson..." Magnus rubbed his neck; "Sorry." smiling uptight. "But hey, I told you to get more sleep!" "I'm trying! It's just not that easy..."

A strange atmosphere spread throughout the car after the experienced man's words. Magnus knew what Kurt was talking about. The last years hadn't been easy and not always kind to him. It also caused silence to fall over them; both policemen just staring out of the windows and observing their main suspects cottage - until Magnus decided to 'break the ice' again.

"You up for some coffee? I feel like we could both use one, eh?" Kurt's gaze fell on the younger man again; a small smile tugging at his lips. He nodded; starting the engine of the car. "This is the first reasonable thing you're saying today, Magnus," Kurt remarked; teasing his colleague. Magnus just shook his head with a smile.

No ten minutes later, Kurt pulled up the car bedside the cosy, little coffee shop, which wasn't far from Ystad's småbåtshamn - and the police station. It was the go-to coffee shop for the policemen and women. Nobody knew why, it just became some kind of tradition. A habit.

The detective stopped the car and turned off the engine, before he nodded at his colleague. "You know how I drink my coffee." Magnus blinked; pointing at himself. "You want me to get the coffee?" "You suggested it. Besides, I'm the driver." A groan left the curly haired man's lips. "But I'm always doing the coffee run..." Not without reason, Kurt stated in his head. Instead of saying what was on his mind, though, he just shrugged his shoulders; trying desperately to hide a smile. "Well, I guess you're the chosen one."

"Fine," Magnus grumbled underneath his breath and unbuckled his seat belt, before he got out of the car and crossed the road to enter the coffee shop.

Kurt, who stayed seated in the car, had a victorious smile displayed on his face. He knew exactly what he had done. After all, it was no secret throughout the - meanwhile whole police station, that the young policeman had a massive crush on the cute and extraordinarily kind barista, who worked in that very coffee shop. Magnus was very bad at hiding it. Let's put it that way. Everybody noticed, but Magnus didn't notice that they had noticed. He may have been aware of the crush he had, but that his colleagues always send him on the coffee run because of that hadn't occurred in his mind yet.

Feeling his hands already getting sweaty - like every time when he looked through the big window pane and saw her standing behind the counter, he wiped his palms off on the dark blue fabric of his jeans. Tucking his white shirt properly back inside his jeans after and giving himself a short once-over, Magnus stepped through the glass door. The little bell above the door announced his presence. Usually, the so popular coffee shop was very crowded; filled to the brim with people, but not in that very moment. Well, it was late in the morning and the most Swedes were at work. He stepped closer; watched with a soft smile how you handed a steaming mug on a tray to an elderly woman.

"Varsågod, fru Olsson." The woman smiled; taking the small tray with a slightly shaking hand. "Tack så mycket, min kära." You smiled brightly. "Ni är hjärtligt välkomna. Njut av ditt te." The woman stepped away then, passing by the young policeman. "God morgon," Magnus greeted the woman; tipping his head with a smile. He may be of a younger generation, but he still had manners. The woman looked at him with a smile, "God morgon, unge man." and passed him by to sit onto one of the comfortable benches. The man watched her for a moment, before he turned his attention towards the counter. Towards you.

You already greeted him with that sweet smile; causing the curly haired policeman's knees to go weak. You recognised him of course by now. He was a regular customer. "Oh god morgon, herr polisman," you said in a cheerful, happy voice. You never failed to make Magnus smile. Always a ray of sunshine. It made his heart skip a beat. "What can I get you today? The usual, or something different?"

Magnus just stared into your breathtakingly beautiful face for a moment; noticing how your Y/E/C eyes sparkled with joy as you spoke. Your hair was bound together as always. You wore your black apron as always, but you didn't wear a white blouse underneath today - like he noticed. Your blouse was a soft, light blue. Oh fuck, he thought; catching himself staring. I'm in so deep.

"H-Hey, um, god morgon, I..." He stammered; losing his composure for a moment. "No. Not the usual today, I'm afraid." Magnus quickly tried to turn the corner; giving you a dazzling smile. "I'm on patrol with my colleague, so... It's just the two of us." "Ahh, I see," she said; wiping her hands off on the apron. "Well, your wish is my command." The policeman couldn't help but smile again. "One black coffee please and-" "One coffee with cream and two sugars, right?" You chimed in; interrupting him and already went to work. Magnus just blinked at you. She remembers how I like my coffee... She remembers!

You saw his distraught face; immediately thinking that you did something wrong. Clearly it was disrespectful to interrupt the sweet and kind policeman with the untamed, blonde-brown curls. "I shouldn't have interrupted you. I'm so sorry, I-" "No!" Magnus jumped in on an instant. "No... It's alright. I'm just stunned that you remember." He admitted with a soft chuckle; cheeks turning red. Your body relaxed again. "Well, I always remember, Mr. Martinsson. You come here very often, you know." That was true. "Well, yeah, I... My colleagues always condemn me to do the coffee run..." You giggled - it was like music in Magnus's ears; "I noticed." and placed two cups of coffee on the counter in front of him. "One black coffee and one coffee with cream and two sugars to go." He smiled, paid and took the cups in his big, veiny hands. "Thank you." You mirrored his smile. "You're welcome. Enjoy the coffee and have a great day." "Thanks. You too." With his eyes still lingering on you, Magnus turned to leave and almost ran against the door, because he couldn't tear his gaze apart from you. He noticed it in the last second, though, before it was too late. You hadn't seen any of it, because you were already busy with the next customer's order. Cursing under his breath, he made his way out of the coffee shop and back to the car.

After handing Kurt his cup of black coffee through the opened window, he rounded the car and got in the vehicle. "What took you so long?" Magnus shrugged; taking a sip. "Had to wait."

Kurt answered nothing; started the engine instead and drove off - smirking. Something that slipped Magnus notice. Unbeknownst to him, Kurt had witnessed everything...

"No, I think we can't exclude Svensson," Kurt stated; looking at his team. They were all seated in the small conference room. It was late in the evening. Everybody sat on a chair around the big, quadratic table; except for Magnus. He was leaning against a desk; arms crossed.

"But he has a watertight alibi, Kurt," countered Ann-Britt - another detective. "Yes, but his motives are clear and I don't trust this. I'm going to-" The loud ringing of a telephone cut suddenly through the air; interrupting the older man. "Magnus, telephone," Kurt said; looking at his younger colleague and sending him - like so often, to pick up the call. With a sigh and internally rolling his eyes; the curly haired man made his way to the desk on which the ringing telephone was located, while the others kept on discussing.

"Ystad Police, Magnus Martinsson."

"H-Hello? I-I need h-help."

Magnus's face fell; facial expressions derailing. He knew that voice. He'd recognise it everywhere. It was hushed and quiet, but it was undoubtedly yours. It sent a jolt through his heart.

"Okay, stay calm. Tell me what happened." The young man tried to stay calm as well - which wasn't exactly easy, given the fact that his crush was on the phone - and obviously in danger.

"I-I closed the s-shop a-and went to... to the backroom to do a f-few things, b-but-" Your voice became silent.

Unbeknownst to Magnus, you sat huddled in the little broom closet inside the coffee shop; shaking like a leaf in the wind - and now holding your breath, since you heard steps. And they got closer.

"Y/N?!" The worried policeman's voice brought you back. "S-Someone's here. I-I can't t-talk."

Magnus thought so. He had quickly connected the dots and was already grabbing his jacket. "Okay, Y/N, listen to me... Try to stay calm. We're on the way." "O-Okay," he heard your quiet, but ragged and shaky voice through the phone; causing his heart to clench.

The young policeman quickly hung up, slipped in his jacket and ran back towards the conference room; interrupting his colleagues. "We have to go! There's a robbery going on!" Not hesitating for another minute, Magnus checked on his gun and grabbed the car keys. He was already marching off to the door, when Kurt came running after him. "Magnus! Magnus wait!" The curly haired man stopped in his tracks; turning to face the older man. "Where? Where is a robbery going on and what is even happening here?" "The coffee shop."

Kurt's eyes widened.

"The coffee shop?" "Yes. Y/N was on the phone. She needs help. I have to go." With that sentence, Magnus's already obvious crush became even more obvious. Now Kurt knew for sure - and before he could answer something, his colleague had already walked off again. Kurt cursed underneath his breath and followed him again. "Damn it, Martinsson!" He yelled after him; catching just so up to Magnus. "Have you forgotten everything you learned?! You can't act so headless now, only to play the knight in shining armour!" The experience policeman placed a hand on his younger colleague's shoulder; holding him back once again.

"If we are really dealing with a robbery here, we have to act careful. Not headless. I know you want to save her - and we will, but we do it right. Okay?" Magnus's breathing was quick and unsteady; adrenaline flooding his veins, but he nodded. "Okay."

So, they did.

About ten minutes later, Magnus, Kurt and quite a few other policemen were ready to storm the coffee shop. Now dressed in a bulletproof vest and gun in hands, the curly haired man stood pressed against the wall beside the backdoor of the shop. His heart was beating fast; as if it had to win a marathon.

Not that he didn't do all this before, but... This was different.

Exchanging a nod with Nils - his colleague, they quietly entered the shop through the backdoor. Taking step after step; Magnus's breathing quickened. It was quiet. Too quiet.

Lurking around the corner, inside the only room down that little hallway, Magnus saw a man. Dressed in all black. A mask over his head. He was rummaging through a little box with one hand. The other was outstretched; holding a gun and- The young man's eyes widened. It was pointed towards you. You sat on a chair; hands nestled in your lap. Your bottom lip wobbled dangerously. You were visibly afraid and tried hard to make not a single sound or god forbid, cry.

"Damnit," Magnus whispered quietly under his breath. He wanted to storm that room right then and there, but he knew better. He knew he should do as he was 'taught'. So, he kept looking out for any signal Kurt - who was entering the shop from the other side, could be giving him. And when he saw it, everything happened so fast...

Gun ready to shoot, the policeman stormed the room; followed by his colleagues. "Polisen!" Magnus shouted; pointing his gun at the man - who was visibly shocked and surprised that he was caught. "Släpp vapnet!"

The robber froze for a moment, but then the realisation kicked in - and he loaded his gun; pointing it straight to your head. "Försvinn, annars skjuter jag henne!" Yelled the man back; stepping dangerously closer to you. Magnus clenched his jaw; hearing you wince and watching how the first tears escaped the corners of your eyes. He was losing his patience.

"Jag sa släpp vapnet," he snarled. The robber didn't move a muscle - and Magnus lost it; too afraid that something might happen to the woman he harboured feeling for since such a long time. Everybody seemed to hold their breaths. You, Kurt, the other policemen - except Magnus. He was high on adrenaline. High on emotion. Nobody had seen the young man act like that before. Not even Kurt. So they were all stunned.

"Nu!" Magnus shouted - in vain. He saw the man's finger twitch against the trigger - but Magnus was faster and shot the man in his left leg, before he could shoot you. Crying out in pain, the criminal sunk to the floor.

While Kurt and two other men dragged the wincing man off the floor and walked him off, the curly haired man literally threw his weapon away and stumbled towards your side; checking in on you immediately. "Y/N! Y/N, are you alright?!" You were still shaking and crying; the shock was profound. The policeman squatted down in front of you; worried blue eyes looking into your Y/E/C. "Hey..." He spoke softly. You began to nod slowly. "Y-Yeah, I think so. I-I'm just-" "Shocked. I know." Magnus finished your sentence. His oceanic blues calmed you down; functioned like an endless pool of calmness in which you could drown in.

"Do you want me to get an ambulance, to check on you? Or should I call somebody?" You shook your head. "I... I could go to my p-parents." Magnus nodded; thinking that it was a good idea. You shouldn't be alone tonight. Of course, he'd gladly volunteer to stay with you and look after you, but... No, no. That would most likely be crossing the line. "I-I don't want t-to be alone tonight." You whispered; wiping a stray tear away. "Yes, you shouldn't... I can give you a lift home?" Glassy, red eyes were meeting his once more. Ugh, how he'd love to hug you right now. "Y-You would do that?" Cuddle up in bed with you, pull you against his chest and tell you that everything is going to be alright, because he's here to protect you. He'd always be. "Sure." Magnus gentlemanly helped you stand up and escorted you towards the door. "Kurt, I-" The older man was standing beside his car; typing away on his phone. When he heard his colleague calling out his name and saw what was going on, he nodded, "Of course, Martinsson." and interrupted him with a smile. Magnus knew that look on Kurt's face and had a hard time to stop himself from blushing.

He opened the passenger door of his police car for you to sit inside, before he rounded the vehicle to join you and driving you home - or well... To your parent's home.

Arrived there, he parked the car and killed the engine. "There we are." The light was still on inside the little, cosy looking Swedish house.

"Thank you," your soft voice was urging to his ears once more and when he turned his head to look at you, he saw nothing but pure thankfulness and relief in your face. "For driving me home a-and especially for saving me. You are definitely my knight in shining armour now, herr polisman." During the car ride, you had visibly calmed down. Sure, you were still troubled after what had just happened, but it was better now; being in the safety of the sweet and kind policeman.

Magnus had again a hard time to not blush. This time because of your words. "Magnus. My name is Magnus." Magnus... You couldn't help but smile a little. Handsome name for a handsome man.

Magnus, telling you his name reminded you of something... "How... How did you know my name?" The curly haired man chuckled softly beside you; hands fumbling nervously in his lap. "Well... I, I heard your name being called the first time when I walked into the coffee shop and I, um, I couldn't forget it - you since then..." This time, he couldn't stop his cheeks from turning pink.

Your eyes widened. "Oh, really?" Magnus nodded; awkwardly. "Uh.Huh." And you? You just smiled; tucking a loose strand behind your ear. "Well, Magnus..." The way you rolled his name off your tongue send a shiver down his spine. It sounded so right. "We should go, eat something together sometime." His heartbeat immediately sped up when he heard that. "Is... Is that... Are you asking me out for a date?" Your smile widened. "Perhaps..."

Translation:

småbåtshamn – marina

Varsågod, fru Olsson. – There you go, Mrs. Olsson.

Tack så mycket, min kära. – Thank you very much, my dear.

Ni är hjärtligt välkomna. Njut av ditt te. – You are most welcome. Enjoy your tea.

God morgon (unge man). – Good morning (young man).

herr polisman – officer

polisen – police

(Jag sa) släpp vapnet – (I said) drop that gun!

Försvinn, annars skjuter jag henne! – Piss off, or I'm going to shoot her!

Nu! – Now!

[themaninyourcomputer]

I know this sounds crazy, but today I was driving, and jamming out to Teenagers by My Chemical Romance. Windows down and everything. So I'm screaming along with Gere, and I come up to a stoplight. A man in a volvo stops next to me, and looks out of his open window DEAD into my eyes. He revs his engine, and peers at me. He was wearing a fine tailored suit and a bowler hat. His cigar hangs loosely off of his gold ring studded fingers. Suddenly, he begins to sing along. "The boys and girls in the clique, the awful names that they'll stick, you're never gonna fit in much, kid" I finished the line, "but if ur troubled and hurt, what you got under ur shirt, will make them pay for the things that they did' All of a sudden, cars around us began to join in. "Teenagers scare the living shit out of me!" screamed a young woman walking a terrier. The whole street was unfied, as more and more pedestrians joined in the chorus. As if struck by a premonition, I abruptly turned my gaze to cross walk ahead of me. Standing there, was none other than Gee! He was HOLDING HANDS with Frank Iero. He looked directly at me, and burst irnto spontaneous song. A Helena themed flash mob appeared seemingly out of nowhere and burst into choreography. A single piano note rang out. "When I was a young boy..." He began, as a marching band entered behind him. We all cheered, and clapped, and abandoned our cars. A huge mosh pit formed, and we moshed the night away. I don't CARE if you don't believe that this happened. IF YOU FLAME U ARE A POSER. I have PHOTO EVIDENCE.

[seat-safety-switch]

So many of our loved ones have left us recently. I speak, of course, of restaurants. Times are tough for the food-providing industry, between landlords turning the screws on innocent business owners, workers asking for a liveable wage, the price of wilted iceberg lettuce, and the incessant hum that directs, nay, commands them to sleepwalk in the middle of the night towards the howling void that lives at the centre of town. With all this in mind, it should be no surprise that our favourite greasy spoons are at risk of closure.

Everyone agrees that the real victim in all this is me. Restaurants that are closed sit useless and empty, unable to be converted into garages because of bigoted anti-shitbox municipal building code. I can't even park in front of them for a long period of time, because the city fathers decided to put parking meters in front of them back when they were popular restaurants. No matter how you look at this, there is simply no way I can benefit from the current state of affairs, which is the biggest tragedy of all.

There is one hole in their logic, though. Food trucks. Because of a little mix-up in the city's health code – a teeny-tiny boo-boo – food trucks can be run as long as you have the rights to a former restaurant. And, despite the name, there is actually no legal requirement as to what kind of vehicle a food "truck" is. See where I'm going with this? I hope you do, because otherwise it's going to be very awkward when a smoking 1978 Volare is parked outside your house, pouring boiling 75W90 engine oil into the gutter from its near-shattered slant six. It will still have a net benefit, thanks to the fact that I've ratchet-strapped an old Frito-Lay snack vending machine to the backside. Try the Fritos, or the Lays, and either way you can't deny that it's a motor vehicle you can buy food from.

All this is really a roundabout way to say that I've bought the rights to several dozen bankrupt restaurants, cafes, eateries, and saloons dotted about the tri-state area. To tow me – to dare to oppose my might – is to challenge the primacy of small-business food service the world over. It's gonna bring some heat. And let me tell you, if you think you have a problem now, with some weirdo dispensing potato chips into your neighbourhood? Wait until Ikea shows up with one of a fleet of specially-modified Volvo 240s, machine-gunning free samples of Swedish meatballs into anything that stands still long enough to show up in the sights.

[hirocimacruiser]

MITSUBISHI STARION

Technology that is inextricably linked to the Lancer EX Turbo

Leading early Group A races with advanced supercharging technology

The Japanese car that fought best against Eggenberger's Volvo at the Inter TEC. Starion may have such an image. In the All Japan Touring Car Championship, he showed a perfect run from an early stage.

Stability and reliability are the keys to good results A-car that makes it to the ground safely

In the lineup of Mitsubishi Motors, the model developed in 1982 was the Starion, positioned as a high-end sports coupe that was the successor to the Galant (Lambda) and Lancer Celeste.

This model was introduced in the All Japan Touring Car Championship that began in 1985, but Mitsubishi's motorsports activities were originally focused on rally fields rather than circuit races.

This is clearly evidenced by the A53/55 Galant, the Southern Cross Rally with the AR73 Lancer, and even participation in the WRC, which began in the 1970s. Participation in the long-distance rally raid from Paris to Dakar was also seen as part of these rally activities.

However, for other manufacturers, for similar reasons, the most convincing PR activity for a market that was hungry for performance while surviving emissions regulations was motorsport. It was a result of making a decision and stepping into the circuit race at hand.

In this sense, the Mirage Cup, which started the one-make race, is probably the best example. As a category that conveys the glamorous atmosphere of racing, it was one of the races that attracted attention at the time.

On the other hand, in the touring car race of Group A vehicles, the Starion Turbo, which had a proven track record in the North American continent, was brought in. One of the reasons for this was that until then, Mitsubishi had had little to do with domestic races, and that they could not find a suitable car to participate in the newly-started Group A race.

This is also the case with Nissan's Group C cars, which used the proven mechanics of the IMSA series in the form of "reverse imports."

Well, that Stallion is equipped with a G63B type 3-valve SOHC + turbocharger engine. Mitsubishi had accumulated turbocharging technology with the Lancer EX2000 for WRC. The engine type of the Lancer EX2000 Turbo is the 4G63 type (different from the 4G63 type of 4-valve DOHC used in the Lancer Evolution series later. It is the SOHC 2-valve engine that became the prototype of this), and the basic part is Stallion's

Common with the G63B type. Looking back on these circumstances, Mitsubishi had a certain amount of experience and confidence in the basic mechanisms and content that make up the vehicle.

The first Stallion that appeared in such a background was InterTEC in 1985. After that, Akihiko Nakatani, who became the main driver of the Stallion, was combined with M. Liu and Fumio Mutoh to finish 4th overall. Considering that the 1st and 2nd place was the Volvo 240 Turbo and the 3rd place was the BMW 635CS, it was a good result, what happened to the other Japanese cars?

Then, from 1986, Kunimitsu Takahashi and Akihiko Nakatani teamed up to participate in the All Japan Touring Car Championship series on a regular basis. He finished 5th in Round 1 and 3rd in Round 2, and in Round 3 at Tsukuba, he finally won his long-awaited first victory.

At this time, the opponent was Takao Wada/Aguri Suzuki's Skyline RS Turbo, and although they conceded the series championship, they were always on even terms and won the 2nd place in the series. He had become a presence respected by other entrants.

The following year, 1987, they maintained their first-class competitiveness and got off to a great start with two consecutive wins at the opening of West Japan and West Sendai. After that, he continued to lose races due to trouble, but he managed to win the series ranking 3rd place thanks to his savings in the early stages. He has proven that he is still a first class contender.

In 1988, the Skyline fleet changed to the HR31 type, the Sierra RS500 increased, and the Supra entered the war. The SOHC system engine was already severe, and the chassis performance had reached the stage of review.

In terms of results, the 2nd place in the match against Nishi-Sendai was conspicuous, and the number of cases where other division 1 cars fell behind was increasing.

On the other hand, the wide-body GSR-VR (1987) was launched on the market during this period, and the basic performance was slightly improved, but compared to the trend of rival cars, the progress of evolution was not good. He took small strides and eventually withdrew from Group A racing in 1988.

After that, Mitsubishi's motorsports activities shifted to Group A rally cars with turbo 4WD starting with the Galant VR-4, and after the release of the Lancer Evolution series, it became a WRC top contender until it captured the world title.

Even so, in 1986, when the race began in earnest, the Stallion, whose basic design was already outdated, was able to achieve such a good track record. It's nothing but Taka.

At the 1986 Inter TEC, which was the debut race, it was exciting to see the Stallion running fast and make the Volvo team say, "What is that car?"

[beardedmrbean]

Swedish researchers say they have developed a new method of recycling batteries from electric vehicles that allows recovery of 100 percent of the aluminum and 98 percent of the lithium.

Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology have presented the efficient way to recycle metals from spent batteries, and at the same time minimize the loss of valuable raw materials such as nickel, cobalt and manganese.

Furthermore, no expensive or harmful chemicals are required in the process because the researchers use oxalic acid—an organic acid that can be found in the plant kingdom.

“So far, no one has managed to find exactly the right conditions for separating this much lithium using oxalic acid, whilst also removing all the aluminum,” said Léa Rouquette, PhD student in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. “Since all batteries contain aluminum, we need to be able to remove it without losing the other metals.”

In the Chalmers battery recycling lab, Rouquette and research leader Martina Petranikova showed how the new method works—taking the pulverized components in the form of a finely ground black powder and dissolving it in a transparent liquid – oxalic acid.

Rouquette produces both the powder and the liquid in something reminiscent of a kitchen mixer. Although it looks as easy as brewing coffee, the exact procedure is a unique scientific breakthrough. By fine-tuning temperature, concentration and time, the researchers came up with a new recipe for using oxalic acid, an environmentally friendly ingredient that can be found in plants such as rhubarb and spinach.

“We need alternatives to inorganic chemicals. One of the biggest bottlenecks in today’s processes is removing residual materials like aluminum,” says Martina Petranikova, Associate Professor at the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Chalmers. “This is an innovative method that can offer the recycling industry new alternatives and help solve problems that hinder development.”

The aqueous-based recycling method is called hydrometallurgy. In traditional hydrometallurgy, all the metals in an EV battery cell are dissolved in an inorganic acid. Then, you remove the “impurities” such as aluminum and copper. Lastly, you can separately recover valuable metals such as cobalt, nickel, manganese and lithium. Even though the amount of residual aluminum and copper is small, it requires several purification steps and each step in this process can cause lithium loss.

With the new method, the researchers reverse the order and recover the lithium and aluminum first. Thus, they can reduce the waste of valuable metals needed to make new batteries.

The latter part of the process, in which the black mixture is filtered, is also reminiscent of brewing coffee. While aluminum and lithium end up in the liquid, the other metals are left in the “solids”. The next step in the process is to separate aluminum and lithium.

“Since the metals have very different properties, we don’t think it’ll be hard to separate them. Our method is a promising new route for battery recycling – a route that definitely warrants further exploration,” says Rouquette, who published her results in the journal Separation and Purification Technology.

COOL IDEA: Scientists Power Tesla on 9,400-mile Journey With Rolled-up Printed Solar Panels

Petranikova’s research group is involved in various collaborations with companies to develop electric car battery recycling and is a partner in major research and development projects, such as Volvo Cars’ and Northvolt’s Nybat project.

The research was funded by the Swedish Energy Agency, BASE Batteries Sweden, Vinnova.

[thoughtlessarse]

Languages: Deutsch

Car manufacturers, energy companies and environmental NGOs have issued an urgent warning against revoking the EU’s 2035 de facto ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars ahead of the meeting of EU leaders on Thursday and Friday (27-28 June) “The 2035 zero emission cars goal is Europe’s most straight-forward EV industrial strategy bringing vital investment to European companies,” the Platform for Electromobility, which counts members such as Renault Group, Uber, Volvo, Ford and Tesla, wrote in a joint statement published on Monday (24 June). Under EU law, new cars sold after 2035 are not allowed to emit CO2 emissions, which de facto bans the sale of new cars with an internal combustion engine, such as diesel or petrol cars. The coalition said it was “very concerned by recent statements calling on the incoming European Commission to reverse the already agreed on CO2 standards for cars and vans,” referring to the lawmakers within the centre-right EPP, who have declared their ambition to revoke the ban, and to instead allow for more ‘technological openness’.

continue reading

A ban on new internal combustion engine cars is just silly. They should ban all cars, except those used by the disabled. Invest in public transport that's accessible to all.

Of course, it's the right that want to drop the ban.

[extraaa-30]

PJO, Disney, and Palestine

I'm seeing some nonsense in the PJO fandom rn about how to support Palestine. And, though I'm by no means an expert, I am super super done seeing all the nastiness and bad takes. So I'm gonna try to clear up some confusion.

Long post ahead, bear with me <3

First, let me be real clear: Free Palestine.

I'm not getting into it more than that. You either know already or should know about the ongoing genocide. If you don't know, there are plenty of resources available.

Obviously, we should all be doing everything we can to support Palestine. There are lots of ways to do this. One of those ways is to observe boycotts called for by the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement.

BDS has a policy on Disney. But it does not mean what most of this fandom thinks it means.

Here is the official list of BDS targets as of three days ago (1/17/24):

(source)

You'll notice there are four types of targets. Let's go.

1.) Consumer boycott targets

This is the category most people think of. BDS has asked for a total consumer boycott of these brands. In other words: do not buy from these brands.

[List from image: AXA, Puma, HP, Chevron, Ahava, Carrefour, Caltex, Siemens, RE/MAX, Texaco, SodaStream]

Worth noting: Sabra hummus is also a major part of this list. Not sure why it was left out of the graphic.

Here is more info from BDS about the reasoning for these choices. You'll notice that Disney is not in this target category. Let's move on.

2.) Divestment and exclusion targets

This category is about pressuring governments and institutions to end their dealings with these brands on a large scale.

It's really important to note that BDS is not asking consumers to boycott this category. The best way we can support is to put pressure on our institutions (e.g. local governments, universities).

Obviously, if you personally want to stop buying from these brands, you can! But that is not the ask from BDS right now. That is your personal choice.

[List from image: Elbit Systems, Intel, Chevron, CAF, Barclays, JCB, CAT (Caterpillar Inc.), Volvo, TKH Security, HD Hyundai, Hikvision]

Still don't see Disney, right? Moving on.

3.) Pressure targets

And here we have arrived!

✨✨ This category includes Disney. ✨✨

BDS is asking us to conduct pressure campaigns against these targets.

This can include boycotting ("when reasonable alternatives exist")! It can also include:

lobbying (sending letters, emails, petitions...)

peaceful disruptions (nonviolent direct action, protests)

social media pressure ("hey followers, go sign this petition! go call this number!" "@ slimy corporation, why do you support genocide?")

[List from image: Google, Amazon, Booking.com, Teva, Expedia, AirBnB, Disney]

Again, if you personally want to boycott these brands, go ahead! That is a valid and worthwhile choice that you can make. It's worth noting though that boycotting does not mean just pirating a show on a different platform.

Boycotting is about ending our support as consumers completely.

That means ending subscriptions, canceling accounts. It also means not consuming any products from these companies or their subsidiaries. For Disney that includes Marvel, ABC, ESPN, Pixar, National Geographic, and literally a billion others. For Google, it's not just the search engine but things like Google Docs and YouTube.

As you can imagine, a complete consumer boycott of these brands would be complicated. That is why, strategically, BDS is not asking for that at this time.

It is imperative that the movement to free Palestine is strategic and organized.

The BDS movement has been doing this work for a long time. Following their lead is a good idea. Directing our energy into the actions they recommend is efficient and vital.

I've seen a lot of people in this fandom saying to boycott Disney as if it's a top priority, or even harassing others for continuing to engage with Disney content. That is nonsense and unhelpful.

There is too much to do, urgently, for us to waste time.

That said, let's briefly go over the last category:

4.) Organic boycott targets

These are boycott campaigns that developed independently. While BDS is not diverting official energy towards fighting these brands, it does support the public in that fight.

In other words, don't buy from these brands.

[List from image: McDonald's, Domino's Pizza, Papa John's Pizza, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Wix]

Not listed but worth noting: people are also boycotting Starbucks

In conclusion,

This? Still true.

Just be strategic and informed about it. And don't be an asshole. There is too much work still to do.

[Also, before someone gets on my case about Rick Riordan, I made a whole separate post about it here.]

[alianoralacanta]

My First Race (13-03-2007)

Context: While waiting for the 2007 season to start, there was a forum thread about the first race everyone had attended live. This was before I could travel to races independently, but I did have a story to tell (even if the flies get more of a starring role than Michael Schumacher did), and it was long enough to need to go on my blog…

Warning! Long post alert!

I'm still waiting for my first GP race, but Dad did take me to the 2002 British GP qualifying. Boy was it a memorable day!

Having done my last GCSE exam the previous morning, I got home to discover that Dad had got qualifying tickets at the last minute (two friends had tickets, but couldn't go for reasons I never established). We promptly spent the next few hours getting necessary supplies - stuff for making sandwiches for lunch, earplugs for my rather sensitive ears, wellington boots that didn't have holes in them (in case of mud) and a little bag that folded out into a seat.

Waking up at 4:30am the next day, Dad and I were in our hitherto reliable red Volvo on the road to Silverstone by 6:00am. Everything was going fine and I was just remarking about how little traffic we'd seen when the fan belt went on the Volvo. It was 8:05am and we were just about to leave the M1. After a long wait and an even longer journey in a breakdown vehicle, we eventually found ourselves in Lutterworth at about 8:40am. Fortunately the local garage fixed the problem very quickly, an event Dad attributed to us telling the garage that we were heading for Silverstone…

We finally got to the track just in time to see Eddie Irvine's Jaguar go down the back straight for the last time in the morning practise. After that, we walked halfway round the track to see the paddock, with armful of Jordan advertising. The merchandising area looked really interesting, particularly for me whose previous experience of F1 merchandise stretched to a battered McLaren hat one my brother's friends gave me the previous year. Speaking of hats, Dad and I both bought a hat - Dad got a Ferrari cap and I got a Jordan one.

After this, we continued around the outside of the track, looking at all the corners. It was about when we got to Stowe that Dad noticed a problem. There was a swarm of flies and a few wasps hanging around my head! I had foolishly picked a yellow Jordan hat instead of a black one, and the poor insect life around Silverstone must have thought I was a giant flower…

The next thing we did was eat lunch while listening to the circuit radio. Dad and I had chosen the exit of Club corner for our area, and it was a very good choice. Not only could we see everything from the Stowe exit to the start of the Luffield complex, but there was also a giant TV in the vicinity. Halfway through our sandwiches, the action began.

Seeing an F1 car in its full glory was really exciting, but seeing several together was about the most thrilling thing I'd seen in my life! Hearing the V10s and seeing the different lines everyone took was exciting, especially in the rare moments I could hear the commentary over the sweet song of metal on edge. The intellectual interest was high too; not only was there the pole chase, the Jordans and the home drivers to watch out for, there was also the question of whether Alex Yoong would qualify (he didn't) and whether Arrows would even bother to participate (they did; it was the last time Arrows put its whole heart into a race weekend, too).

As a Jordan fan, I'd've been happier if that song had not been punctuated with the awful scrape of Sato's nosecone dragging on the tarmac (it fell off its connectors on its own accord, apparently) and if Fisichella's original engine had stayed operational for more than one-and-a-half laps. This was probably why I couldn't find anything suitable to say to the Jordan staffer I saw a few hours later in the petrol station on the way out…

You may have noticed that at no point during any of this did I need the new wellies. In fact, Dad and I got back with sunburn. We'd packed the bag with stuff for every weather, including a complete change of clothes - except for sunscreen. For once, summer was in Britain - and I forgot to plan for it!

As for the grid, I considered it a fairly minor matter until I got back home to watch the video Mum did of the coverage, but it went:

1st…Montoya (a fast lap that seemed to come out of nowhere, but Montoya then went nowhere fast on race day)

2nd…Barrichello (unusually, he beat his team-mate, and would go on to have an eventful race and still come 2nd)

3rd…Michael Schumacher (took it a bit steady, but won the race next day)

[darkmaga-retard]

By Eric Peters

Eric Peters Autos

August 24, 2024

The main reason EVs aren’t selling well has to do with the main reason for buying an EV.

People are told how how extremely quick EVs are; that they are much quicker-accelerating  than almost any vehicle with an engine, especially otherwise comparable vehicles. And it’s true. The typical EV is very quick. Most EV crossovers are quicker than almost any V8-powered muscle car, even.

For a muscle car, quickness is a hot selling point. It is – along with how they look – the main muscle car selling point.

It’s why they are called “muscle cars.”

But muscle cars were never sold as practical – much less economical – cars. You were buying a muscle car because what mattered most was how much power it had and how quickly it got to 60 and through the quarter mile. Almost nothing else mattered.

Not range, certainly.

It was understood – it was accepted – that a muscle car had not much range because it used up a lot of gas (very quickly) in order to get to 60 in six seconds or so – which was how quick most of the quickest muscle cars of the ’60s and early ’70s were. It didn’t matter, because almost no one bought a muscle car with the idea that it would be their daily driver – much less their family vehicle. It would be like a woman buying a bikini to go to work – at the bank – in.

Also, it didn’t matter that a muscle car’s range was not-much because even if it got 6 miles-per-gallon, it only took a minute or two to put six gallons back in the tank. Five minutes or so to completely fill it. So even if a muscle car could only go 150 miles in between fill-ups, it didn’t matter all that much – at least in terms of the inconvenience – because it could be ready to go another 150 in five minutes or so.

But EVs aren’t muscle cars – at least not primarily. Most are sedans or five-door crossovers, like the ’24 Volvo XC40 Recharge I recently test drove. Vehicles, in other words, that are supposed to serve primarily as practical transportation.

Not – primarily – as quick transportation.

That’s when quickness becomes a problem.