#and every time i see the cardinal marks (the ones s&s have on their clothes) i smile like an idiot

[corpsoir]

i feel like every time im drawing solvei i give her bigger hair. and its the right thing to do

[ask-the-clergy-bc]

Ghost Term Guide for Fanfiction (Incomplete)

I’ve been sitting on this for a while but here is a small guide for Ghost fans who are writing fiction :) 

I noticed there are a LOT of very specific terms that might be confusing to new members when it comes to fandom lingo- on top of there being a lot of religious garbs and other terminology! This is something I just made in my spare time with research. 

I will reblog and update this every so often. This is also just from MY personal research, but I will try to keep it as accurate and informed as possible.

Thanks! 

Religious Garb:

(Note: A quick reminder that all of these garments can be subjected to various changes depending on the exact faith they are being used for. I tried to keep this as close to western Catholic and Christianity for the sake of simplicity and to match the exact religious themes used by the band.)

Alb - A typical priest’s robe or tunic, often plain and white. Usually long sleeved and ankle length with minimum decoration to symbolize purity. Sometimes worn plain or with a cincture. Albs are also worn over cassocks but under important vestments like the chasuble. (Papa III’s alb is the garment he wears with the lace gold sleeves under his chasuble.)

Amice - A white, square shaped linen cloth worn over the shoulders and under the alb or other vestments. In the middle ages it also served as a hood or cap. Typically worn during mass or new baptisms. 

Balaclava - Also called a ski mask or a bally. A head fitting cloth mask that usually has the mouth or eyes cut out. Typically worn under helmets of costume masks. (Used by nameless Ghouls under their masks.)

Bauta Mask - a style of Venetian Carnival mask. Marked by having no mouth, a full covering for the face, and a pointed chin and jaw line. (Black ones worn by the Era II Nameless Ghouls.) 

Biretta - A Square cap characterized by having three to four peaks and sometimes decorated with a decorative tuft. A cap’s color can also designate rank within a clergy: Red for Cardinals, Purple for Bishops, and Black for priests. Worn both for and outside of ceremony. (See Cardinal Copia’s pointed hat.)

Cappello Romano - (also called a Saturno) a wide brimmed hat with no ceremonial purpose. Just used as a sun hat when paired with a cassock. Designs change depending on the rank of the wearer. Popes typically wear red with gold detail. Black is the typical color for eveyone. 

Cassock

Chasuble

Cincture 

Clerical Collar 

Crosier

Ferula - or “Papal Ferula” is that staff carried and used only by the Pope, decorated with a knob on the top and a cross. (See Papa II’s staff with the Grucifex on top.) 

Habit - Clothing uniform worn by members of a religious order. In this case, a nun’s dress. 

Mitre - The ceremonial headdresses worn by Bishops and Abbots. Characterized by a pointed, two sided structure that is decorated at the base with lappets. Also worn by Cardinals and the Pope. Three different types exist and are all done for very different occasions. Mitres are typically white with varying degrees of decoration for the occasion. (See all the mitres worn by each Papa.) 

Rochets - a shorter, white linen tunic that is used by Cardinals and Bishops that is worn over the cassock. It has narrower sleeves and is often decorated with white lace or embroidery on the sleeves and ends of the garment. In Catholicism it is only worn by these higher clergymen and prelates as choir dress, as given permission to them by the Pope.  

Stole

Surplice 

Vestments - Term for ceremonial clothing or clothing symbolizing religious office worn during service. Think Chasubles, stoles, etc. 

Wimple - headdress or veil worn by nuns. 

Zucchetto - A silky skullcap that resembles a hemispherical beret. They are colored based on rank. Retired and acting popes wear white, cardinals wear scarlet, Archbishops/bishops/abbots wear amaranth, and priests and deacons wear black. 

Items:

Athame - Ritualistic dagger, often decorative and considered sacred. 

Host/Communion Wafer 

Pew 

Thurible 

Ranks/Titles:

Mother Superior

Nun

Church based Locations:

Abbey

Cathedral 

Cloister

Parish

Pulpit

Sacristy

Catholic/Religious Terms:

Canon/Canon Law

Clergy - All ordained members that perform the duties of a religious organization. 

Conclave

Confession

Congregation 

Doctrine

Delict

Ecclesial Law  

Epicospal 

Eucharist 

Excommunication 

Faculty 

Laicization

Laity - Non-ordained members of a religious organization, also known as laypersons/laymen/laywomen. 

Liturgy 

Liturgical

Mass

Ministry

Ordinance

Ordinary 

Penance 

Prelate - a high ranking clergy member or church dignitary with authority over a jurisdiction. Usually an Ordinary in the church. Typically an abbot, bishop, or cardinal.  

Province 

Rite 

Ritual

Sacrament

Seminary

Superior 

Vespers

Satanic/Luciferian Terms:

Demon

Important Figures/Demons:

Baphomet

Lilith

Lucifer

Mammon

Satan

Ghost Exclusive/Contextual Terms:

Nameless Ghouls - the masked and nameless members of the band that serve under Papa. Always instruments or back up vocals. 

Grucifex - The play on the Ghost Grucifex. The official symbol of the band and the clergy. An upside down cross decorated with a ‘G’ for Ghost. 

Ghuleh

Papa - The head of the Clergy and the Ghost project. Essentially an Anti-pope and unholy leader of the ministry. Also the lead singer of the band. 

Prime Mover - In lyrics, the title given to the nun who will go on to birth the Antichrist. In fandom terms it is often given to the mothers of the Emeritus line. 

Ritual - The name given to the band’s concerts. 

Sisters/Brothers/Siblings/Children of Sin - The members of the congregation of the Church of Ghost. 

Fan Made Accepted Terms or Definitions:

Kit(s) - Juvenile/Infant Ghouls

[hellsbedroom]

Arvin Russell // NSFW Alphabet

arvin russell x reader

Masterlist

A = Aftercare (what they’re like after sex)

Arvin needs a minute to recover, not gonna lie. He rests his forehead to yours and breathes the moment in. He’ll hold your cheek or squeeze your hand and whisper, “that was so good.” Then he always cleans you up with a damp rag and offers to get you a glass of water before laying back down. The afterglow is blissful, with your hand tracing shapes on his chest as he speaks softly and you doze off together.

B = Body part (favorite body part of theirs and their partner’s)

He never really thinks about it, but he supposes he appreciates his hands. They’re strong and lean and can be so harsh to people he wants to hurt. But at the same time they can be so soft with people he loves, especially you. He loves how you don’t mind the calloused pads of his fingers tracing over your skin after a long day at work.

And your legs could knock him flat any day. He loves their shape and how they look under any dress you’re wearing. He especially loves how good your legs feel when they’re draped over his hips when you straddle him. Squeezing your thighs is one of his favorite things in the world.

C = Cum (anything to do with cum basically)

If he can’t cum inside you, Arvin loves to cum on your chest. When you go down on him and let him drench your naked chest in cum he almost loses it. You just look so pretty and in love with him. He’s always good about cleaning it up after, especially if it got on any of your clothes. But even so, a little mess never hurt nobody ;)

D = Dirty secret (an interesting dirty secret of theirs)

He thinks about your lips all the time. Especially sitting in church, when things are supposed to be holy. He’ll dream of the curve of your lower lip or the new lipstick color you wore the day before. Thoughts of messing up that lipstick by making out or your pretty lips wrapped around his length always follow.

E = Experience (how experienced are they? do they know what they’re doing?)

He’s had a little experience with a girl or two when he was in high school. Making out, fondling, he’s not totally new to the idea. But with you is the first time he really explores someone. And he’s a fast learner. It doesn’t take him long to figure out what makes you tick and where he can kiss you to make you moan like that. 

F = Fantasy (what’s their favorite fantasy/roleplay?)

Arvin will indulge in a nurse roleplay sometimes. You saunter in the room in a little white outfit with the red crosses and pretend to take care of him a bit (he answers everything with a smirk and “yes ma’am”) before he’s kissing you everywhere and trying to get the damn dress off. You take care of him so much in real life that a little fantasy play is the perfect way to spice things up.

G = Goofy (are they more serious or goofy in the moment?)

He can be playful with foreplay, anything to make you smile even while you’re just making out or trying to get your clothes off. But as things progress, he gets more serious. He wants to make sure you’re enjoying yourself and is so in awe of you that he sobers up and gets to work when you’re between the sheets.

H = Hair (how groomed are they, does the carpet match the drapes?)

He’s not really worried about grooming, but he’ll trim if he knows that’s what you prefer.

I = Intimacy (how are they in the moment, romantic aspect)

A huge romantic. Arvin won’t always set up flowers or candles but he’s so focused on being close to you that everything else fades away. He gives constant praise and keeps his eyes locked on yours when you need it most. His favorite thing is to always be holding your hand if possible, and squeezing when either of you reaches climax. It’s a way to anchor himself to you because the moment is so important.

J = Jackoff (about masturbation)

A guy’s gotta get stress relief somehow. Especially if y’all spend a few days apart. He’ll pull one out in the shower thinking of the last time he saw your figure splayed out beneath him. Sometimes you’ll leave a few racy polaroids for him to find and they become a treasured part of the routine.

K = Kink (any kinks)

Marking you with bite marks or hickies — where no one can see, of course. Slight daddy kink (saying “c’mon daddy” will end him). Pulling his hair makes him grin and now he’s sure to keep those locks long. And of course a praise kink!!! Breathlessly moaning that he feels so good, he’s hitting the right spot, that you love him and he’s doing such a good job. All of it will send him in a tizzy.

L = Location (favorite place to do it)

His car! It gives the two of you the most privacy when you can go park in a clearing far away from everyone else. You’ve figured out just the right way to lay on the seat to make it work and Arvin hovering closely over you is nice anyway. And it gives him a little pride when he’s driving alone and thinks back to all the things you’ve done on those seats.

M = Motivation (what turns them on, gets them going)

A pretty new dress will do it, but what gets him most of all is when you sass him. Getting playful, sarcastically quipping at him, and teasing him with a twinkle in your eye. He cocks his head in surprise but loves it deep down. It makes him mutter “c’mere you” and chase you around, which always ends hot and heavy.

N = NO (something they won’t do, turn offs)

Hitting your face. It’s too degrading and he couldn’t bear it if he hurt you. 

O = Oral (giving and receiving)

Arvin is so eager to please, he wants to do right by you and one of the best ways he’s found is by fervently going down on you. Hearing the sounds you make and feeling you quiver around him sends him over the moon.

But you on your knees for him is a real pretty sight, too. You can make any bad day fade away with the things you do to him. He’ll never admit it, but he loves when you tease him, keeping him on the edge and driving him wild.

P = Pace (are they fast and rough? slow and sensual?)

If either of you have had a hard day, or you’re barely hidden in his car like giddy teenagers, he’ll be quicker and rougher. You’re breathing fast, his chest has a sheen of sweat, and his teeth glint in the darkness as he grins and takes you like there’s no tomorrow. Otherwise he’s on the slower side, taking his time to do it right. Burying himself in every inch of your form is important and you’re one of the most precious things in his life so he doesn’t like to be harsh. 

Q = Quickie (opinions on quickies rather than proper sex, how often, etc.)

He has no real need for quickies; if he wants to fuck then he’s gonna do it properly and not let anyone rush him along. Especially if you’ve found a good secluded spot in the woods. Rushing it doesn’t allow him to fully appreciate you and your body anyway. On occasion it’ll happen if he has to head out to a work site for a few days and you can’t resist having him one more time.

R = Risk (are they game to experiment?)

He’s not too keen on being risky other than maybe being caught out in the woods. He likes stability when he finds it. You’re the one who has to shyly bring up new ideas in the bedroom and he might be a little hesitant, but he’s willing to try anything once. 

S = Stamina (how many rounds can they go for, how long do they last)

Early in the relationship Arvin busts quickly, he can’t help it. But now he can last decently long, especially because he follows the cardinal rule of getting you off first. And for stamina? The man is like an ox. As long as he has a bit of a breather between each round he can go for as long as you want.

T = Toys (do they own toys? do they use them on a partner or themselves?)

You won’t find a lot of sex toys in 1960s small town America. Mostly he likes knowing he can get you off by himself anyway. But if you visit a big city and come back with a vibrator to play around with, he wouldn’t be opposed.

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease)

Usually Arvin gets right down to business, but he can get in moods where he’s a real tease. In public he’ll stick to pinching or swatting your ass when he’s in that mood. When you’re alone he’ll taunt, “you like that, pretty girl?” when he can tell you’re really enjoying yourself. Hearing you beg for him when he’s endlessly teasing makes his eyes blow wide and he can’t help but give in to you. 

V = Volume (how loud they are, what sounds they make)

Surprisingly, he’s not quiet. He’s no screamer but you will definitely hear that he’s having a good time. He’ll groan deep in his chest when you nip at his neck or when he’s sinking into you, and he’ll gasp your name near the finish. And he’s always talking to you in between, murmuring how good it feels.

W = Wildcard (random headcanon)

When he’s drunk: Arvin finds everything funny when he’s drunk. He chuckles at anything you do and will even take your hand and make you spin for him just so he can admire you. He leans on you more, burying his face in the crook of your neck even if you’re with friends and family. You’re always so happy to see him let loose and relax for a bit.

X = X-ray (let’s see what’s in those pants)

He’s an average length and fairly girthy. Fills you up well. There’s also a curve to it that does wonders for you.

Y = Yearning (how high is their sex drive?)

Moderate. He can sometimes be really eager to get his hands on you, especially if you spend the weekend apart or something like that. Or he’ll sneak into your room late after you’ve gone on a date just to taste you again. But some days he just enjoys being around you with no pressure to perform in any way. 

Z = ZZZ (how quickly they fall asleep afterwards)

It varies. Sometimes Arvin will be out like a light as soon as he knows you’re satisfied and cleaned up. Other times he lays awake worrying for your safety or a dozen other things, and those nights you’re there to hold him and whisper the anxieties away with sweet nothings.

[drariellevalentine]

Medically Inevitable

Chapter 11:- Beloved Birthdays

Characters:- Arielle Valentine, Ethan Ramsey, Mark Raines, Liam Mercado, Sienna Trinh, Elijah Greene, Landry Olsen, Jackie Varma, Bryce Lahela, Rafael Aveiro, Kyra Santana, Danny Cardinal, Phoebe Reznik

Pairing:- Ethan Ramsey x Arielle Valentine

Warnings:- Alcohol, Swearing

Arielle’s PoV:-

You wake up around 3:30, not being able to sleep. After tossing and turning in your bed with no avail, you step into your bathroom and decide to start your morning routine. After brushing your teeth and a series of skincare steps, you slip on your robe and head out to your balcony.

Sliding the glass door shut, to make sure no one wakes up, you step outside and lean against the railing. The cool breeze makes you shiver as your med school memories come rushing inside your mind, against your will. You forcefully shut your eyes, trying to make it stop, but it doesn’t...everything comes crashing down. You remember everything...from the moment you met him, to the platonic hang-outs which evolved into romantic dates, the sweet Valentine’s Day activities you would do every year, meeting each other’s families and the day when he said ‘I Love You’ and you said it back….and finally the moment when your heart was ripped apart. You sink to your knees, head between your knees, and let everything out. All the emotions swirling inside of you finally pour out of you as tears, completely soaking the front of the robe. It’s been about 10 minutes when you hear, “Arielle?” Looking up, you see Elijah right outside the threshold. You quickly wipe your tears and quickly stand up.

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. An eyelash fell into my eye.”

He looks at you. “That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard.”

You sigh. “It’s a long story.”

“Okay then, short version.”, he says.

“I was in a six-year relationship during med school and it came crashing down a few months before residency. So, he ended up cheating on me...with my best friend.”

He gives you a sympathetic look. “I’m so sorry Arielle.” He wheels his chair towards you as you slump back into your plush armchair.

“I’m fine. I’ve dealt with it. It just came back to me, reopened some old wounds.”, you say tears well up once again. He wordlessly envelops you in a hug, letting you sit there for some time. “Thanks, Elijah. You’re an amazing friend.” He’s about to reply when a yawn cuts him off.

“Looks like I’m a little sleepy.”, he smiles sheepishly.

“I completely forgot it’s so early. How did you even hear me?”, you ask.

“I heard sobbing from the side of my bed. It’s right next to your balcony remember?”

“Oh yeah. You should get some sleep.” He slowly wheels away but turns around, “Will you be okay?” You nod. He exits the room as you walk into your bathroom and decide to make yourself a nice hot bubble bath. Turning the hot water tap, you survey your bubble bath mixtures until deciding on a jasmine and coconut scented one. Pouring a generous amount in, you slip off your clothes and sink into the tub and let yourself relax.

After a long soak, you dry yourself off and go to the kitchen to get something to eat.

“Hey.” Startled, you look up to find Landry at the front door.

“You’re up this early?”, you ask.

“Yeah, I always leave this early. Even Dr. Ramsey gets in this early. I mean, he’s the example you want to follow right?”

“Yes, but it doesn’t mean that you have to follow his schedule.”, you reply teasingly.

“So are you coming or not? It definitely will help you in the competition, it gives you time to study your charts.”

“Alright. Just give me a sec.” You head into your room and pull on a pair of scrubs. You quickly pull your hair into a high ponytail and grab your backpack as you head out the door with Landry.

“We’ll take my car.” You slide into Landry’s car and drive to Edenbrook. You both grab your stuff and after dropping off your stuff, you both head out to the near-empty atrium. “Hey, want to see if Dr. Ramsey posted the new rankings earlier?”, he asks.

“That’s today?”, you ask.

“Yeah. You don’t remember?!”, he asks.

“Well, my mind slipped. I’m focused on my patients. Let’s go see.” Both of you walk towards the notice board and Landry slowly reads the list from the top. His face falls as he notices his rank.

“What!? How did I slip to eighth?”

“Well...did you make any mistakes recently?”, you ask.

“Well, I almost misdiagnosed a case the other day.” You look at him ridiculously.

“It wasn’t my fault! I didn’t know that she had changed her daily routine!”, he defends.

“Didn’t you talk to the patient?”, you ask.

“Why should I? We’re supposed to figure out what’s wrong with them, not listen to all their life stories.”, he shrugs.

“Learning about the patients and their stories is the best part! Anyways, it’s part of the job.”, you answer.

He nods. “Ok, I have to go.” He heads towards the nurses’ station. You notice your ranking, right above Landry’s. A small beam of pride washes over you. Taking advantage of the very empty atrium, you decide to visit Naveen when you notice Dr. Emery coming your way. Crap!

“Good morning, Chief Emery.”

“Good morning, Dr. Valentine.”, she nods in response. Quickly, you head back to the nurses’ station and go to pick up your charts when you hear someone call you.

“Valentine.” You turn around and see Zaid.

“Yes?…”

"Valentine, new admission in room 712. Dr.Ramsey wants you to handle it," Zaid states.

"Dr. Ramsey… asked for me?" You ask shocked.

"By name," Zaid says in a plain voice.

"Really? Why?" By now you can't help your smile.

"Gee, I dunno Valentine. I didn't ask. Maybe I should be more like you and badger my superiors with incessant questions," Zaid returns your smile sarcastically making you drop yours.

"Fineee," you raise your hand in mock surrender. "I'll go and attend the patient."

You make your way to the seventh floor. Entering the room with a smile on your face, you find a man in his late 50's laying on the bed.

"Good morning Mr.Platt. What can I do for you today?" You say nicely with a bright smile on your face.

"You can start by-" before the man can complete his sentence, he burps loudly scaring you with the sudden action. You compose yourself quickly. "turning down the A/C in this godawful hospital! I'm not a polar bear. And then you can send my doctor." He says rudely which annoys you but don't say anything rather play nice. "Enough nurses. Show me some-" he burps again -"respect."

"Mr.Platt I am your doctor-" he interrupts you." Like hell-" he burps loudly again," Like hell you are."

By this time your anger rises at this man's audacity. "Excuse me?" Your voice comes out louder and angrier than you expected.

"You look like a little teenager. You don't even look qualified to wipe my ass. Go and call an actual doctor."

“Oh, that’s it! How dare he question your qualification!” You’re about to rip him off when you remember he’s your patient. Taking a few deep breaths, you grit your teeth and calm yourself.

"I'm highly qualified. Mr.Platt, I assure you that I am older than I look," you decide to play the nice card one last time, "I graduated top of my class from-"

"Anyone can be certified for anything now-" he burps- "thanks to the internet."

“Oh my god!!!”, you think. “ Luckily Edenbrook has an extremely rigorous standard for its staff. I'm one of the best doctors of my year, nationwide. You are in good hands."

"Hrm. We'll see about that," he says, his voice filled with arrogance.

"Now why don't you tell me what brings you here today," you pick up his chart ignoring the wish to tear him apart. "Your chart says you have been experiencing chest pain."

"That's what I have been saying-" he burps again, "My chest hurts."

“When on Earth did he say that? All along he was just trying to question my qualification!”, you inwardly scoff.

"Okay. Anything else out of the ordinary?"

"Tingling in my arms like pins and needles." His expression turns into a horrified one when he says the next lines. "I read online that it means I'm having a heart attack."

"Well, that certainly can be a symptom. Have you been experiencing something else? Any jaw pain or maybe lightheadedness?"

"My damned hair has been falling out. Clumps of it in the pillow every morning when I wake up."

"Interesting," you note the point down "Definitely not a symptom of heart-" but you are again being cut off by him.

"But that's what-" he burps loudly for the hundredth time now, "-the internet said."

"The internet can be misleading, sir. Still, we'll send you down for an E.C.G to rule out the heart attack. But first I'll-"

"What the hell is an A.B.C.? You're making up this garbage as you go. Send me a real doctor now." You pinch the bridge of your nose as you make your way to the ER to get a head start on your shift before lunch.

Ethan’s PoV:-

You’re just finishing up your shift in the ER when a scent of coconut and some kind of flower wafts through the air. Turning around, you find none other than Dr. Valentine. You can tell she’s livid but trying to be calm.

“Dr. Valentine. How is Mr. Platt’s case going?” She weighs her options on what to say.

“He’s…quite difficult. But nothing I can’t handle.” You allow yourself a small smile regarding her response. “Dr. Ramsey, I have a question.” You nod. “Is there perhaps a certain reason you assigned me this case?” You were wondering when she was going to ask.

“There is.”

“Why?”, she asks clearly eager to know.

“Figure it out.”, you say swiftly leaving the ER. You can hear a groan escape her lips as you leave.

Arielle’s PoV:-

“What the hell does he mean, ‘Figure it out’?! Ugh!...”

“Dr. Valentine. There are no patients right now here. You can go.” You turn to see Sarah gesture to the empty beds.

“Well at least people aren’t sick.”, you think as you head back to the nurses’ station.

After rounds, you grab a light salad and a strawberry smoothie and spot some of your friends at a table.”Hey guys! What’s up?”

“What’s up is that’s it’s Jackie’s birthday today, but she thinks nobody knows.”, Elijah says.

“Wait what!? Why didn’t anybody tell me?!”, you ask.

“Well that’s why we’re telling you now!”, a voice says from behind. You turn around to find Bryce flashing you his signature smirk. You roll your eyes.

“So...what are we going to do?!”, you ask.

“How do you guys know?”, you ask.

“I saw a text from one of her friends.”, Sienna says.

“So, I and Bryce came up with this plan….”, Elijah explains the plan (with Bryce chiming in with (‘This was my idea!’) every once in a while as you chow down on lunch.

“Sounds awesome! Everyone on board?!”, Si asks. Everyone nods.

“I can snag us a reservation downtown.”, you offer.

“Those places have to be reserved months in advance!”, Sienna says.

You smirk, “I have friends in high places.”

“Of course you do.”, Bryce says. Just then your pager beeps.

“Time for my ER shift.”, you dispose of your tray and head to the ER after trading your pumps for a pair of sandals.

“Dr. Valentine!” You twirl around and see Danny waving.

“Hey, Danny.”

“Here’s the test results you asked for.”

“Thanks! By the way, we’re planning a surprise birthday party for Jackie today. You should come, Sienna would want you to.”

“...okay. I’ll try. And I won’t say a word to Jackie.”, he responds.

“I’ll send you the address later.” Thanking him, you look through the results for some clue...but find nothing.

You groan as you enter the ER. “Why did Dr. Ramsey even assign me this case?!”

“Having a bad day?” You turn around to find Rafael standing at the door of the E.R.

He gives you a sympathetic smile, "You sound like you could use someone to vent to. And not to toot my own horn," he smiles," but I have been told that I am a great listener."

"I don't doubt it," you smile back.

He pauses for a moment then adds, " Want to grab dinner after work today."

"I would have loved to, but I have got plans with some other interns tonight," you reply feeling guilty for denying such a sweet offer. However, you smile brightly as an idea strikes your mind, "Rafael, why don't you join us for dinner tonight?" You ask excitedly.

"Me and a bunch of hotshot doctors? I'm not sure that's my scene," he nods his head still smiling.

"C'mon! It's Jackie's birthday, so we are throwing her a surprise party. It would be fun," you say hoping he'd agree, " Also you could meet my friends. They are awesome."

He laughs at your excitement, "I am sure I have met them a couple of times. I bring a lot of emergency patients."

"Meeting them in the emergency ward don't count, Raf." You playfully roll your eyes. "They are a great group of people, they'll love you. And so will you..." Making a puppy face you request him in the cutest way possible," Please!"

Rafael bites his lips thinking and then shakes his head smiling.

"You can be very persuasive, you know?"

You grin at the comment. "So does that mean that you'll join us?"

He nods before laughing at your childish excitement. Your pager beeps.

“Incoming patient.” The pager should be known as the universal interrupter for doctors! I swear it just loves to interrupt people!”, you exclaim as you wave back to him.

“Well, It also does make sure that none of your patients are dead.”, he calls out. You laugh as you head to the emergency bay.

After your shift in the ER, you quickly update Dr. Tanaka on the scheduled surgeries and head to the 5th floor to find Ines.

“Ines! I need a favor.”

“Of course! What can I do for my favorite intern?”

“You probably shouldn’t say that out loud,...but I don’t mind.”, you reply with a cheeky smile. “I need you to keep Jackie busy with patients until I text you a heart.” She gives you a look. “Today’s her birthday and we want to surprise her.”, you explain.

Her face brightens, “Of course! I’ll make sure she doesn’t suspect anything.”

“Thank you!” You throw your arms around her for a quick minute and head off to the parking lot after grabbing your stuff. After a quick drive, you enter your apartment to see everyone except Jackie getting dressed.

Bryce notices you and walks towards you. “So, have you made the reservation yet?”

“Just about to call.” You head inside your room and scroll through your contact list until you find Mark, hitting dial. He picks up almost immediately.

“If it isn’t my favorite doctor cousin.”

“I’m your only cousin who’s a doctor.”, you laugh.

“So, how’s residency going? The last time we talked, you told me you were in a competition.”

“It’s...a learning experience. How’s Blair?”

“She’s amazing. She’s at the firm right now with Adrian.”

“Awesome. So, I need a favor from my favorite chef.”, you say.

“Ask away.”

“So, it’s a friend’s birthday and a need to make a reservation somewhere downtown. I would have made one before but I only got to know today. Do you know any restaurants in Boston that can squeeze a group of around...uh…10 people? Please?!”

“I’ll need more than that. Tell me what kind of place.”

“Hmm...let’s see. She would appreciate some a bit fancy but something where everyone can still be themselves and enjoy the night. The place would be nice if it was private, secluded. Definitely with like an open bar or something like that.”

He doesn’t respond. “Mark? Are you still there?”

“Yeah, I’m here.”

“Sorry if it’s too much to ask. I’ll find something.”

“Woah, wait a sec Cherry! I was just thinking.”, he responds.

“Yeah, I know. It’s a lot to ask.”

”Luckily, I know just the place.”

“Thank you, Mark. So much.”

His voice softens, “Who else would I do this for? I’ll text you the address and any other details you need to know.”

“Ok bye!”

“Love you too Cherry!” He sarcastically says after he ends the call. You come out of your room to find everyone dressed and ready.

“Ahh! You guys all look amazing!”, you exclaim.

“And so will you, once you get ready.”, Sienna exclaims as she pushes you back into your room. “Okay, let’s see what you have.” She rifles through the evening wear section of your closet and pulls out a black lace dress. “This is perfect! Now get dressed while I pick out some accessories to match.”, she says as she goes through your jewelry drawer. You step into your closet and pulling on the dress, you pair it with a pair of gold stilettos.

“Are you done yet?!”

“Geez Sienna! Just a minute.” You walk out of your closet to find Sienna holding a pair of gold hoops and a gold wristwatch. Taking the earrings and clasping them on, you slide onto the stool and touch up your morning makeup. Sienna pulls out a baby pink liquid lipstick and applies a coat to your lips.

“All done!”

“Thanks for your help!”, you reply as you pull a matching gold crossbody purse and fill it with all your things. “Hey, I meant to ask. Is Wayne coming?”

Her face falls, “No, he said he’s busy.” You look at her, knowing she’s hiding something. “...I told him that I need a break.”

“Oh Sienna, why didn’t you tell me?”

“I don’t know...he’s changed Ari. It’s like he doesn’t even care about me or what I do. You saw how he acted at the housewarming party.”

“I think you should talk to him. And if things don’t work out…”, you give her a pointed look. “Look Sienna, I get it. But you deserve better.” She nods as she takes your phone from you. “What are you doing?”

“You’re an influencer! And you need to post about how amazing you look right now! Now, pose like this…right by your armchair.” She snaps a pic and posts it on Insta for you.

“I think we look amazing, don’t you?”, you ask as you turn to her.

“Nope…I know we look amazing!” You both giggle.

After one final look in the mirror, you and Sienna head outside and join your friends. “Okay, I’ve told Ines to keep Jackie busy so…she’s probably at the hospital. I’ll tell Ines to let her go so she’ll have just enough time to get ready as I text her.” Everyone nods in agreement as you pull out your phone and text Ines.

“Okay, Jackie’s on her way home. Now I’ll text her.”

You show everyone the series of texts. “Mission Birthday Surprise is a go!”

“Awesome! This is going to be amazing! Arielle, where’s the reservation?”, Sienna asks. You’re about to reply when Mark calls.

“Just on time.”You slip on a Bluetooth and answer.

“Hey, Mark. We’re all in the living room right now. Did you get a reservation?”, you ask.

“Let‘s just say I pulled a few strings. I’ll send you the address. We’ve already been here before but at a different part of the restaurant. I booked you guys a rooftop, so you guys should have privacy and instructed a few other things. The head chef will greet you there, and he’ll explain everything.”

“That’s amazing! Thank you so much!”

“Anything for you.”, you laugh.

“Okay, talk to you later.”

“Have a nice time. Love you.”

“Love you too.” You cut the call and turn to everyone to break the good news when everyone stares at you. “What?!”, you ask.

“You never told us you had a boyfriend!”, Elijah says. You stare at them in confusion until it hits you. You burst out in laughter as everyone stares at you.

“Oh my god guys, he’s my cousin! I’m currently single as a pringle. Now, seeing that you guys heard everything Mark said, let’s go!”

Everyone cheers as they all pile up in your car.

“I call shotgun!”, Bryce yells as he slides in the front seat. “Kyra, Phoebe, Danny, and Raf said that they’ll meet us there.”

“Awesome! I’ll send them the address.” After a quick text to all four, you start to drive.

Blasting and singing to music all the way, you reach the place in 20 minutes.

“You have reached your destination.” Everyone cheers.

“Come on! All of you out!” All of you grab your things and walk up to the swanky restaurant. You enter the restaurant and walk up to the person.

“Ah! You must be the group Chef Raines has personally reserved. Please, follow me.” He leads you up an elevator to reveal a beautifully decorated rooftop with tables set up and an open bar.

“Damn! This is nice! Way to go, Arielle!”, Elijah says. You turn around as you hear someone call your name.

“Well if it isn’t the one and only Arielle Valentine! Or should I say, Dr. Valentine?”

“Liam! What are you doing here?”, you shout as you hug him.

“I’m now head chef of this restaurant.”

“That’s amazing!” You turn to everyone. “Guys, meet Liam Mercado, an amazing chef, and my childhood bestie.” As you introduce everyone to each other, you notice Phoebe, Raf, Kyra, and Danny coming out from the elevator. “Elijah, Sienna! Look who’s here!” The four of them start talking as they constantly blush, leaving you to giggle.

“Arielle!” You walk towards Liam. “So I’ve done a birthday cake and everything and food prep will be done in about an hour. So, it’ll be perfect for you to surprise your friend and play some games right before dinner. Just tell me once you guys are ready for dinner and we’ll bring everything out.”

“Thank you, we have to catch up sometime. The last time I saw you, I was still in med school.”

He nods, “And the last time I saw you, I wasn’t engaged either.”

“What!? Why didn’t you tell me!?”

“Because in a few weeks, I was going to invite you to Lara’s baby shower.”

“Oh my god! Congratulations! If you keep dropping bombs on me like this, you’re going to give me a heart attack.”, you shriek.

“Trust me, I wasn’t planning to tell you like this either. But I’m really excited.”, he says with a fond smile.

“You’re going to be an amazing dad.” He smiles as his phone rings.

“Excuse me, but I have to take this. It’s Mark. Probably to see if I’ve met the expectations of his favorite sister.”, he sarcastically replies. Laughing, you walk back towards the group when you hear Sienna shout. “Oh my god! We forgot about presents!” Shit! You completely forgot about presents. Quickly calling everyone over, all of you decide that you and Kyra will go and get the presents with the money everyone pitches in. “Let’s go!”, you quickly drive to the nearest mall with Kyra.

“Do you have any idea about what we should get? We don’t have much time either!”

“I know Kyra. I think we’ll buy multiple small items and make them into like a huge gift basket.”

“Awesome idea! That should work.” You both quickly rush to the mall’s directory and skim the list of stores. “Hey Ari, there’s a Sephora on the ground floor. We should start there.” You nod and head to Sephora.

“Okay, we’ll split up and just pick out a few of our favorite products. Then we’ll meet up and decide what to keep.” You quickly scan all the aisles, picking out products as you go. Knowing that every female doctor’s biggest struggle is dark circles, you pick out a tube of concealer, primer, and light-weight foundation from your favorite brand as you try to match her skin tone. Then you pick out a few different types of eyeliner and mascara, knowing that pretty much no one can spot Jackie without her signature cat-eye.

“Ari!” You spot Kyra holding a bag of her own. You go over and put all your products together. She’s picked out a perfectly sized eyeshadow palette and a few different liquid lipstick and glosses.”This is perfect! We’ll go buy a basket and some ribbons later on.” After finishing the purchase at Sephora in a record time of 12 minutes, you rush out of the store.

“Ooh! What about some products from Lush?! She loved the spa day!”, you say.

“Great idea!” After browsing around Lush, you both come up with the idea to make the color of the products themed. Kyra picks out a few soaps and bath bombs as you decide to go to Bath & Body Works. Ending up with a bottle of hairspray, perfume, and a few candles, you meet Kyra back at the second-floor lounge.

“You’re back! I found this amazing scarlet pink basket that matched our theme! Then I bought some tissue paper and ribbons and a bunch of extra stuff!”

“Amazing! I also stopped by the card shop and found this savage birthday card. We’ll get everyone to sign it. Let’s get to work!” After a tedious discussion of placement, you and Kyra manage to arrange everything in the basket neatly. She wraps the basket in a clear wrapper and ties it up with a matching ribbon and bow.

“I think we make a great team.”, you say.

“We do, don’t we!” Both of you quickly drive back to the restaurant and rush up to the rooftop. You step out of the elevator to find the place fully decorated by your friends.

“They’re back!”, Bryce shouts. “And come bearing a huge gift basket!” You and Kyra explain to everyone about the gift, then pass the card around for everyone to sign. After you sign, Si helps you tie the card with the gift basket.

“I think we’re all set.”, Landry says.

“Yeah, this was some great work! I can’t believe you guys came up with this today!”, says Phoebe.

“That’s cause it was a team effort.”, Elijah says.

“And one which will be wasted if the birthday queen isn’t here. Where is she?”, Bryce asks.

“She’ll be here in 20, Bryce. Meanwhile, we need to set up the gifts and set up the tables.

You help your friends set up the tables and gifts that you bought, with the restaurant’s staff’s help. After a while, your phone rings. You shout, “Guys, be quiet! It’s Jackie!”

You answer the call. “Hey, Jackie! Are you here yet?”

“Yeah, I just parked. What do I do now?”, she asks.

“Tell the receptionist that you’re here for the dinner that the Raines’ reserved. We’re up on the rooftop. Bye!” You shove your phone in your purse and shout, “Okay guys! The moment we’ve been all waiting for! Places everyone! I’ll switch off the lights. Once I switch on the lights, everyone yells! Understood?! Everyone nods as they take their places. You kill the lights, and a few minutes later Jackie enters from the elevator. “Arielle? Sienna? Elijah? Guys, I swear if this is some kind of prank-“ You stifle your laughter as you switch on the lights.

“Surprise!!!!” Everyone runs up and hugs her as she stands there like a deer in headlights. Bryce takes a picture of her wide-eyed face.

“Happy birthday Jackie!” You exclaim as you trap her in a hug. “You look amazing!”

“Let me guess, this was all you?”, she responds with a knowing smirk.

“Noooooo!... It was all Bryce!”, you sarcastically say.

“Hey! Offense taken!”, Bryce shouts as both of you laugh.

“You guys did all this for me?”

“I don’t know, do you know anyone else named Jackie?”, Kyra teases. All of you laugh.

“Well then, what are we waiting for?! Let’s get this party started!”, you yell.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Authors’ Note:- Hey lovelies! Hope you enjoyed this chapter, and make sure to comment/reblog below! Also, make sure to turn on your notifications for the next chapter, where the gang gets involved in....let’s just say a quite adventurous dare. Let us know if you want to be added to the taglist!

And a special thank you to @nikki-2406, this a-ma-zing human being saved my ass from editing pics! Love you girl!🥰

Part 1 of taglist:- @kaavyaethanramsey @rookie-ramsey @ohramsey @caseyvalentineramsey @hopelessromantics4life @realmrsramsey @binny1985 @maurine07 @alina-yol-ramsey @helloitsthiv @tsrookie @arcticlumineer @mary-c92 @sad-satan-herself @whippedforethanfreakingramsey @archxxronrookie @ethansrookie02 @semanticsandsea-lemons @mrandmrsramsey @starrystarrytrouble @deepikakkannan @siaramsey @katkart122 @openheartthot @imonlybibecauseofethanramsey @luvevelynclaire @literaryexpress @miss-smrxtiee @nadeen-ahmed11 @mrsalanrickman394 @drstellavalentine @ethandaddyramseyx @annekebbphotography @custaroonie @ladyrileybrooks @robbies-sutcliffe @cralinedp @bladesofopenheart @ezekielbhandarivalleros @daddyethanramsey @aquirkychica @romewritingshop @lilyvalentine @xpandabeardontcarex @in-love-with-a-trans-girl @coastalengineer @starrystarrytrouble @clowneryme @natureblooms24

[ashintheairlikesnow]

Can pretty please I get a Ryan bonding with Danny or Nate about dealing with noncon trauma? If you're still up to doing micro fiction tonight

CW: Discussion about past noncon/torture

"They’re going to know.” Ryan forces the words out, he doesn't want to, he doesn’t want to talk about this but he has to, it’s driving him crazy not to say something, not to ask.

Danny is lying on his side with his back to Ryan, staring out the hospital window, at a cardinal in a tree outside. A bright red and black flash of wings and a song he recognizes, from Canada. Has he seen a cardinal, before, in California? It’s like he never thought about it. Never paid attention. 

Nate, sitting next to him in the stupid fucking visitor chairs, looks up from a book to blink at Ryan in the doorway, standing in his own clothes for the first time since they were saved. Not the sweatpants and shirt Abraham made him wear, not a loose hospital gown, but his own soft cotton pants and shirt. 

“What?” Nate’s voice is calm. Danny doesn’t turn back, but Ryan knows he’s listening, somewhere in there. Danny comes and goes right now, sliding into Red and back into himself again, struggling more than any of them.

Then again, Ryan isn’t on half the painkillers Danny is, his back wrapped carefully in layers of bandaging. Ryan hurts, deep inside of himself, in ways he never knew he could. His neck and wrists itch and ache as the skin heals over and scars from the iron collar and cuffs. 

But - just like every other goddamn time the demon looked at them both - Danny had pushed himself in front of Ryan to take Abraham Denner’s rage... and taken a knife to the back for his trouble. 

“When I go back to work,” Ryan says, uneasily. “When I put my suit back on and walk back into my office, into the, uh, the boardroom... everyone there is going to look at me and know what happened to me, Vandrum. What, um... what... he did.”

Nate closes the book, carefully marking his place first, and sets it aside. “They will kn-know you were held, and h-h-hurt,” Nate says evenly, calmly. “That’s all, M-Michaelson.”

“No, it’s not.” Ryan has tear threatening, but he pushes them down. Danny shifts a little but his foggy, flat gaze is still locked on the cardinal he can see through the blinds. “All those people already knew what he did to Danny-” 

“Red,” Danny said faintly.

Ryan and Nate both winced.

They’re... they’re going to assume... that it happened to me, too. And they’re right.”

Nate considers that for a moment, reaching up to lay a hand over Danny’s, rubbing his thumb gently over the scarring. Danny’s eyes close, slowly, but then push open again. “Yes. They are. D-Does that matter?”

“I don’t know, how can I fucking work, if everywhere I go, people know I was... that I... that he did that to me, Vandrum?” Ryan can hear the desperation edging his voice, but he can’t seem to stop himself, the words well up and don’t stop falling like stones from his mouth, a kind of avalanche of his shame and loathing for every time he did what he was told. “I can wear the suit and I can use the words and I can talk like Dad but I’m still Abraham Denner’s goddamn toy, aren’t I? Even if he’s dead, he still-... that shit doesn’t leave your head! How do I-... how can I ever-...” 

Nate is quiet, only watching him with gentle understanding, and somehow that’s more infuriating than his anger ever was, because Ryan doesn’t want the understanding but he needs it.

“Ryan, the n-n-number of people who have been... who uh, understand us... is greater than w-we know,” Nate says, softly. “You g-go to therapy, and you d-d-do the work, and it couldn’t h-hurt for you to read a book-”

“You and your fucking books as the answer to fucking everything!”

Danny flinches, and Nate tightens the grip on his hand Ryan sighs and steps into the room, closing the door behind him. “I’m sorry, Dan.”

This time Danny doesn’t correct him. 

“Sometimes,” Nate says softly, “Books actually do provide a v-v-valuable resource for healing, M-Michaelson.”

“Yeah, okay. But unless you have a book on learning to run a goddamn company when every one of your employees can look at you and see someone Abraham Denner bent over the couch in front of his own fucking brother-”

“They d-don’t see that.” Nate shook his head, slowly, giving Ryan a faint smile. “I promise. Put your f-fucking face on, Ryan, and walk in like you oh-own the place, since... you do.”

“Not yet.” Ryan smiled weakly.

“Fine. You will own the place. But... listen. Come see Dr. R-Rosa with us, with D-D-Danny and I. Do some joint appointments with him. You two... need to hah... to handle what happened to you together, at least a l-little. I c-c-can’t tell you how you’ll have to live with it, R-Ryan.”

At the use of his first name, Ryan swallows. “What can you tell me, then?”

Nate is silent for a moment. Ryan watches him squeeze Danny’s hand, watches Danny, even foggy and distant from the painkillers, squeeze back. 

“All I can tell you, Ryan, is that after living with you for so l-long... you’re irritating and an an, angry drunk and I c-c-can’t stand the way you eat and your disdain for my b-b-books is palpable, and...” Nate sighs and runs one hand through his hair. “Ryan, no two p-people live the same way through what we’ve survived.” 

“Abraham told me nobody else ever survived him unless he let them go,” Ryan says. His voice is small. 

“I don’t mean him. I just mean... Look. I can’t tell y-you how to live with it. All I can say is that I know you... Wear your s-suit like armor, Ryan,” Nate says, quietly. “You sl-slayed a dragon.”

“You did.”

“We b-both did. I couldn’t have without your h-h-help.”

“... does that make my brother Rapunzel?”

Nate smiles, just a little - that odd quirk to one side thanks to the scar on his lip - and he turns to press a kiss to the top of Danny’s head. Ryan’s older brother closes his eyes and lets out a soft sigh, pushing his head into Nate’s touch. 

“It makes your b-brother the center of the st-story, doesn’t it? Is he the s-s-symbol of my n-need to have s-s-someone to fight for in order to escape him, or of your j-journey from spoiled pr-prince to compassionate ruler of the land?”

Ryan just stares at him, blankly. “Is that your professor shit coming back to the surface?”

“I g-guess.”

“I don’t think it was our journey, Vandrum. Or not just our journey. The story isn’t about the fucking prince, Nate, it’s about Rapunzel.”

“The pr-prince had a story, too,” Nate points out, looking up at him. “He had a st-story before he had to rescue a princess tr-trapped in a tower.”

“Maybe. But that’s not the one that ends up in the books. You know, my mom used to read us really old versions of fairy-” Ryan winces. “Shit. I like that word so much less now that I know I am one. Fairy tales. She used to read us the bloody, really violent versions.”

“Of course she d-did.”

“In Rapunzel, the prince gets blinded. And Rapunzel has to take care of him, and there’s... just like a lot of blood in my mom’s version of the story.”

Nate just stares at him, and Ryan finally lets out a huff of laughter.

“Look, my point is that the prince saves Rapunzel from the tower, but Rapunzel has to save him, too. So maybe we’re all a symbol of something for each other. But none of this tells me how to be at work.”

Nate snorts. “Just be the f-fucking prince, Ryan Michaelson. Be exactly who y-you are, damage and all.”

Ryan goes still, surprised by the affection lacing Nate Vandrum’s voice.

Affection for him.

“When y-you go back to work, you’ll be every inch the irritating asshole you always h-have been... only stronger, for having been one of the ones to rip that motherf-fucker’s heart out for what he did to D-Danny... to you... to us. Nobody can t-take that from you. No one can take from y-you that when Danny needed you, you stood up.”

[loverscreation]

3- IN THE AUDIENCE

I was not expecting to write this story any time soon, but I was thinking back to theatre and it just sort of... Fell out of me. 

Though this story is a little shorter, some magical things happen~ 

It was finally the early days of November, meaning the stage was about to be mine. Tonight was Hello, Dolly!'s opening night.

The nerves were bunching up in my gut like no other, warning me that the next four days would be a risk to my reputation and our overall performance.This had been the biggest project to be conjured up by the company, which was very apparent backstage. We had been robbed of almost a week's worth of dress rehearsals and had too many costume malfunctions than any of us were comfortable with.

For my personal baggage, I'd never been given the privilege of being a soloist before, yet I found that such a thing was left on my plate this time around. The biggest dance piece would be tied together by my partner and I pulling a few stunts. It was an honor and a stresser all at once. I had also been blessed with the quickest costume change right after that song.

Only an hour remained until showtime. Thousands of layers were tied onto my small form, face caked with makeup, and my hair was being filled with pins and spray. The dear friend in charge of my hair, Hannah, was chatting away, but all I could hear was a blurry tapestry created by ruptured nerves.

The vibration of my phone on the table cut through the white noise. I was receiving a call from ‘💚’.

“A green heart-” Hannah purred “-you should put it on speaker.” The others I know of my relationship, but not many details were offered. Since she was the curious type, I expected nothing less.

I bit my lip in consideration. “Oh, alright.” I swiped the green call bubbled outwards then tapped the speaker button.

I raised my voice in the now deadly silent room. “Hey, babe. What's up?”

“Hello.” The low Italian laced voice raised a few teasing eyebrows. “It is opening night, congratulations.”

The smile on my lips was impossible to push away. “Thank you so much.You coming tonight?”

In the distance sounded another voice. “You bet your ass we are!” The Third always had a way to make me laugh and now was no exception.

The Second sighed and took over once more. “We just arrived. We had bought out the front row, look for us there.” A few coos from the girls reached the other side of the call. “Am I on speaker phone?”

“You are,” I responded through a nervous chuckle. “The whole family's coming? You guys are the best! Thank you!”

“We must support our own. On that note, you need to finish preparing, darling. I will speak with you shortly.”

The pet name painted a blush through my thick foundation. “Yeah, you're right. I love you!” The words just slipped out before I could stop them.

He paused. “I love you too.” And with those words being said, the line was cut.

That remaining hour was full of teasing and gushing over how beautiful the girls found his voice and how he told me he loved me. Though embarrassing, I didn't mind. Talking of him was something I always did fondly.

The opening track started playing, signalling the five minute mark. It was time to take places.

Sprinting in the backstage area on my tiptoes to avoid clicking my heels, I took my spot. The first place on the lower stage right embrace. I was one of two couples to enter first, which was one of many starting cues I had.

The show had been going smoothly. The crowd was lively and all mistakes were unrecognizable.

I had been enjoying one of the small breaks I was given, right after Sunday Clothes and before Dancing. Just being in the flowing coral skirt reminded me of the importance of this next song.

It was my moment to shine. I knew that I was supposed to smile out at the crowd during my first solo, and that was my chance to check the crowd for my loved ones.

Dolly started her dance instructions for Barnaby and Cornelius, and I knew it was time to go. Taking the upper stage right entrance, I found my partner, Joe, waiting there for me. he gave me a smile and encouraging pat on the back.

“We got this,” he reminded. He had a way of knowing when I was about to lose it, which I suppose was a perk of being dance partners. There was a therapist that knew my body language better than I did. I gave him a determined nod.

We waltzed in perfectly on time, our movements graceful with every step. I could feel the eyes of the crowd on us, though it was no surprise as we were the most accomplished dancers on that stage. While others remained slightly choppy or bouncy, we held structure and fluidity. Each move flowed into the next, and I knew our proud choreographer would cry at the sight of it.

Then the time came. All the couples had formed a semi circle, opening towards the audience for ideal view of the center.

I followed my given steps with purpose, Joe floating ahead of my path in preparation. I did my grand jeté leap into his arms, straightened legs held almost wide enough to be frozen in the splits as I was twirled around twice. The skirt drifted about like a dream.

I was set down at the very front of the formation, closing it into a circle and taking the lead. As the crowd erupted, my eyes found the front row.

They all seemed captivated. The First studied my movements with a pleased smile, The Second's chest had swelled with pride, The Third looked like his mind was blown, and Cardinal Copia threw his eyebrows up to express he was impressed by my execution of the routine. This was success.

One by one, couples dance off stage until it was just Joe and I. Another lap around Dolly and the ending of the music was upon us. He spun me and I curtseyed at him. We ran off hand in hand, but I didn't stop when the audience couldn't see me.

In fact, my pace sped up and I launched myself to Hannah. She was holding my next skirt, ready to put on my new layers as I took my current ones off.

We had thirty seconds to pull it off, but I had to go on the other side of the stage for my next leading cue. My role had been set to the lead cheerleader for Before The Parade.

Not a beat of rest was given before I was on again. As I stood at the ready in my formation, I got a great opportunity to make eye contact with The Second. He smiled my way.

The show went on as it always does. When my individual bow came, the crowd went nuts. They liked me that much, huh?

The cast was running offstage with excitement, off to see their family and friends at the door for the meet and greet. My chest felt light with butterflies, and I happened to be one of the first ones out in my hasty pace.

Heading my way was my beloved, his brothers, and his friend. They all held their own bouquets. The sight made tears prick at my eyes, hands covering my mouth.

The Second snaked an arm around my waist, kissing the top of my head. “You are radiant on stage, it was a blessing to witness.” Red roses were traded from his arms into mine.

I held them tight and smiled at him. “And it was a blessing to have you here.”

He stepped aside to let the next form approach. Three hugs and bouquets later, I found my heart as full as my arms.

“Papa Nihil and Sister Imperator couldn't make it. But they wanted you to know they are cheering you on from the church,” Copia informed with a squeeze of my shoulder.

I nodded and smiled even brighter. “That's sweet of them. Tell them thank you for me.” I hadn't met them, yet they were already supportive. They must be incredible people.

Now that I seen everyone who came to see me, it was time to retire my costume for the evening.

“Again, thank you guys for coming. I have to head back to the dressing room and change, but I really enjoyed seeing you all.”

Goodbyes were exchanged and I disappeared from the public. As I strolled down the door hall, the only thing occupying my mind was how quickly my life started to look up with The Second and his family in it.

We'd been dating for only, what, a few weeks? But they showed up and showered me with gifts and affection. Nothing could make me feel more loved.

[gibbzer]

Diary Of A Dutiful Daughter

I wrote these posts on Blogger years ago but am now shifting them all over here. 

This first one is about my sister who has Downs Syndrome. My mother, her carer, had died a few years before,  leaving my brother and I in a state of real concern about how she, and we, would cope in our mum’s absence. The post tells some of how we did. 

My sister, my mate.

The day my sister was born was the day I grew up.

Not physically. I was still in buckskin shoes and ankle socks. But it was the day my brother and I passed into my mother’s out-tray. The day my mother cut our invisible chord and wrapped it tight round my sister’s pale sick heart.

My sister had arrived as the ambulancemen were carrying my mum out of the high rise and into the forecourt. My cousin was there when it happened. We were upstairs - 6 floors up - watching my aunt’s black and white television. (I have no memory of what was on.) My cousin said my sister’s tiny body was the same colour as her best lilac blouse.

The day we found out my sister was Downs was the same day Neil Armstrong lifted off for the moon. My brother and I sat in the car outside the hospital eating opal fruits. (None of your Starbursts then!) I watched my parents go in as one thing and come out, one lifetime later, as another. It was their body language. My father was more hunched. And my mother’s eyes were red.

She would tell me later that the hospital offered to take my sister ‘away.’ (Who knows where ‘away’ was. It was the 60’s.) But that was never on the cards. One of my mum’s repeated litanies was ��What’s for you, won’t go by you!’ She lived by it. And so did we.

They got back in our wine red Ford Anglia and we drove to Stevenston. To my Aunt Mamie and Uncle Davie’s caravan. They weren’t real relatives but they were my parent’s best friends. Chosen relatives. They had experience of disability. They had Anna. Not their own child but their niece. We’d grown up with her too. Anna was blind, couldn’t walk and had the learning age of a 5 year old. She was 25. And we loved her.

It was summer. We played football, ran on the stones, ate ice cream cones and fell out with my ‘cousins’ while inside the caravan my mum wept. On the journey home it was pitch black and my brother and I sat in the back, noses pressed to glass, watching the moon. “Are they there yet?" "Bet I see them walking on it before you do!" "How much?” In the front my mum and dad sat silent. They must have felt their future as black as the sky.

My parents were told she wouldn’t last the year. My dad was working in Nigeria at the time. An electrician by trade he’d decided there was no future in Greenock so he’d gone abroad to carve a living. By the time my sister was born he’d worked and lived rough in Pakistan, East Africa and Nigeria. It was another one of my mum’s litanies. ‘I’ll say this for your dad, he’s a good provider’. She meant it as a compliment.

Now we had a crisis. Did my dad go back and leave us all here? To wait for my sister to die. As always my mother took control. She swept us all up and off we went. To Nigeria. My brother went to a local school. I taught myself by correspondance course. My tutor was in Australia. I did the work, put it in the post and he marked it. It took three weeks for a composition to come back. I was my own mistress. I loved every single minute of it.

Just as well, because my mum had other things on her plate. Her mission, which she embraced with a passion, was to prove the doctors wrong. By the time we went back to Scotland, on leave, my sister was walking, talking, even swimming and the murmur in her heart had gone.

My sister was my mum’s life and her achievement. I wrote a film about the intensity of their relationship. I was with them when they both watched it for the first time. When it was over she turned to my sister and said, "That’s not you, you know. You’ve got better manners".

But it was my sister on the screen. And my mum. And ‘Kenny’ was me. I was working through my anger and my love. Selfish, I know. Just like the characters in my story, my mother had kept my sister close and safe. She was bright, artistic, talented, kind, polite, funny and happy. But she’d never been left alone for as much as five minutes. She’d never been out of my mother’s sight. She’d never been to a Centre, never mixed with other Downs people, had never made her own dinner, picked her own clothes or crossed the road by herself. And all those chickens came home to roost when the fictional events of my story became the facts of our lives.

The week the film premiered in Glasgow my mum was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Her response was characteristic. "We need to talk". She didn’t cry that day. Well, not in front of me. She died two and a half years later. She’d been given six months. But she held on, determined not to leave my sister. I lied to my mother more in that time than at any other in my lifetime. (And I’d lied to her a lot.) I promised her I would keep things exactly as they had always been. I would keep my sister close and safe. I needed my mum to die in peace.

My sister and my dad lived with us for two months after she’d gone. Two months. That’s all. But we were all on top of one another. No one could breathe. My husband and I couldn’t work. My excuses choked me. So they went back to their own flat and I drove the thirty miles to see them every day. My mother’s ashes were in the boot of my car. To chide and comfort me.

I got social workers involved. They provided carers. Sometimes three different ones in the same week. My cousin rallied round. Without her we could not have managed. My sister learnt to use the microwave and clean the toilet. She made sure my dad didn’t fall over or set the house on fire. She hid his cigarettes and dished them out one by one. She’s my mother to the root. She discovered a love of baking. Though we had to draw the line after she baked four huge banana cakes in one week and polished them off by herself.

I gave her money but she bought all their food and choose her own clothes. I arrived one day to find her feeding our demented dad a sandwich of avocado, chicken, tinned salmon AND beetroot. Another day she went out wearing pink velour joggers with a swingy leopardskin jacket. She’s four foot eight and weighs twelve stone. I could feel my mother’s disapproval in the bite of the air. We had what we euphemistically call ‘blips’. We had tears and tantrums. Both of us. In spades. She was living a late onset adolescence. My dad had early onset dementia. It was an interesting time.

Then I committed the most cardinal of sins and enrolled her in college. She was 38. The ghost of my mother was two steps behind her the first time we walked down the corridor. The room at the end was full of other adults with a variety of learning difficulties. Some were Downs. The first thing my sister learnt was that she was part of another family and that we were not all there was.

Now she’s about to go into her third year. This year will prepare her for work. She’s just been nominated as a finalist in Scotland’s Adult Learning Awards. My knee jerk reaction, apart from pride, was to tell her not to be disappointed if she didn’t win. I followed that up with a quick ‘what’s for you, wont go by you!‘ Her response was swift. "Who do you think you are? My mother?"

If I think back to that night in the car, the night the astronauts were on their way to the moon, I remember exactly how I felt about having a sister with Downs. I’m ashamed to say my major disappointment was based on the fact I might not be able to dress her up in pretty clothes. Last week she tried on my favourite little black Ghost dress and looked fantastic in it. She’s wearing it to her award dinner next Tuesday.

[soccerdrawings]

Five Doubts You Should Clarify About Top 8 Best Soccer Leagues In The World | Top 8 Best Soccer Leagues In The World

10. Kalidou Koulibaly — SSC Napoli

8 best soccer players | World, Amazing gardens, Sweets cake - top 10 best soccer leagues in the world | top 10 best soccer leagues in the world Almost all of Europe's bigger clubs are rumoured to be absorbed in demography Kalidou Koulibaly abroad from Napoli.Manchester United and Manchester City appetite him, says Transfermarkt, as does Chelsea, according to Calcio Mercato. Football Espana says Real Madrid are afterwards him, and Football Italia says Paris Saint Germain are, too.Why wouldn't they be?The Senegalese has been unwaveringly solid for a cardinal of years now, and was as acceptable as anytime in 2019. He was called Serie A's best apostle for aftermost season, and additionally in the Africa Cup of Nations' Aggregation of the Tournament. 9. Sadio Mane — Liverpool FC When addition is accustomed Lionel Messi's allowance of approval, you apperceive they charge be good.At 2019's FIFA Best Awards, the Argentine voted Sadio Mane as his cardinal one amateur in the world. Unfortunately for the Liverpool ablaze however, he didn't alike accomplish the top three in end."It's a abashment to see Mane accomplishment in fourth place," Messi told Canal at the time, says Goal. "Mane accomplished a abundant year that was aberrant for the absolute Liverpool team. That's why I chose him." 8. Eden Hazard — Real Madrid Few in apple football accept bigger dribbling abilities than Eden Hazard. That's approved best by the actuality that over the aftermost decade, the Belgian completed added acknowledged dribbles than any added amateur in the Premier League, managing an absurd 909 during his time with Chelsea. Since affective to La Liga, he's maintained those aerial standards, averaging 4.4 dribbles per adventurous — the additional accomplished in the analysis abaft alone Lionel Messi. He has alone played seven amateur this appellation due to abrasion however, so already he's absolutely fit, that boilerplate is acceptable to acceleration alike higher.

The world's best footballers: the top 8 list | Football .. | top 10 best soccer leagues in the world 7. Paul Pogba — Manchester United Paul Pogba didn't alike accomplish the top 50 of Business Insider's best players of 2019 list.Since affective to Manchester United in 2016, the Frenchman has bootless to carbon the anatomy he showed at antecedent club Juventus. That is by no accountability of his own, however.Former United administrator Jose Mourinho bootless to see eye-to-eye with Pogba, oft either arena him out of position or abbreviating him completely. The 26-year-old additionally wasn't helped by the audible abridgement of affection about him at Old Trafford. A added authentic absorption of Pogba's adeptness is aback he plays for his country. He leads the band like a accurate midfield general, arena with flair, grace, and adeptness in according measure, but best importantly, with a smile on his face.A adored Pogba is a apple chic Pogba.   6. Kylian Mbappe — Paris Saint Germain If you were to attending at Kylian Mbappe's bays cabinet, you wouldn't accept he is still alone 21 years old.A Apple Cup, three Ligue 1 titles, and the Coupe de France are aloof a few of his aggregate honours. Individually, he's won the Golden Boy award, the Ligue 1 Amateur of the Analysis trophy, and Ligue 1's top scorer prize. He additionally has 122 career goals to date already, which is far added than both Lionel Messi (50) and Cristiano Ronaldo (36) had managed by the time they accomplished the aforementioned age.Should he abide in the aforementioned fashion, the Frenchman has the aptitude to beat both as the avant-garde game's greatest anytime goalscorer, and conceivably even, player. 

Ranking - Top 8 Best Football League In The World - top 10 best soccer leagues in the world | top 10 best soccer leagues in the world 5. Kevin De Bruyne — Manchester City If Kevin De Bruyne were a car, he'd be a Rolls Royce Phantom. Classy, elegant, and luxurious, but with a able 450 bhp agent hidden abroad beneath its hood. The Belgian ablaze plays the adventurous effortlessly, but to adverse effect.His ambit of casual is additional to none, and, aback accumulated with his abstract aboriginal blow and astute acquaintance of what's accident about him, it agency he can behest any game.The 28-year-old's adeptness to alluvion accomplished defenders at the bead of a accept additionally evokes memories of a prime Zinedine Zidane. 4. Virgil Van Dijk — Liverpool FC "Think of the best defenders in Premier League history — John Terry, Rio Ferdinand, and Nemanja Vidic. Van Dijk is all three players formed into one."Those were the words of above Liverpool and England ablaze Jamie Redknapp, according to Goal.A adventurous statement, but one difficult to altercate with accustomed aloof how accomplished the Dutchman has been aback his move to Anfield in aboriginal 2018.His Terry-esque heart, his Ferdinand-esque brain, and Vidic-esque animality accept adapted Liverpool's aback four into the best in Europe. Should Jurgen Klopp's ancillary win its aboriginal anytime Premier League appellation as accepted this season, a lot of acclaim will, and accurately so, go to Van Dijk.  3. N'Golo Kante — Chelsea FC On the pitch, N'Golo Kante does not comedy like a superstar. He doesn't accept agitating footwork, he rarely scores, and he never absolutely acreage himself in hot water.  

Global Club Soccer Rankings | FiveThirtyEight - top 10 best soccer leagues in the world | top 10 best soccer leagues in the world Off it, he doesn't act like one either. No blatant cars (he still drives a Mini Cooper), no adorned artist clothes, and no partying til the aboriginal hours. But that is absolutely what makes him so unassumingly, but terrifyingly, brilliant. Whether it's block the brawl relentlessly for 90 mins, sitting in advanced of the aback four, or arena as an advancing midfielder, the able 28-year-old consistently adds value, and a lot of it.  2. Neymar — Paris Saint Germain Neymar didn't accept a decidedly memorable 2019. Injuries, suspensions, poor form, advancing alteration rumours, and off-field problems all fabricated for one of the affliction years of his career.A asperous 12 months abreast however, the Brazilian charcoal an acutely accomplished footballer, who has the adeptness to change a adventurous like no added amateur in apple football, bar Lionel Messi. Seductively skillful, a acute passer, and capital finisher — Neymar has it all in his arsenal. At 27, he still has affluence of time to accomplish his abeyant as the world's best which he showed during his time at Barcelona.  1. Lionel Messi — FC Barcelona Lionel Messi has already been mentioned a lot in this article, alike afore we've accomplished him. "Lionel Messi's allowance of approval." "Bar Lionel Messi," "Behind alone Lionel Messi."Anything and aggregate every added amateur does gets instantly compared to the Argentine. Why? He is the best. At everything.He runs with the brawl like no added player, passes a brawl bigger than anybody else, and, of course, he array the best goals — 717 in absolute to date. Diego Maradona may accept been adored with God's hand, but Messi got the rest. 

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[sopewriters]

Superbia.

Seven Steps to Hell: The Seventh Step.

Series: Prologue | BamBam | Mark | Jackson | Youngjae | Yugyeom | Jaebum | Conclusion

Genre: Smut, honestly; 7 Cardinal Sins! AU

Word Count: 3.3K

Notes: Kinky shit happening. Slight D/S undertones, kind of dubious consent, erotic asphyxiation, among others. Don’t read this if you’re uncomfortable with anything I’ve just listed. Otherwise, please enjoy^^

Edit: Moodboard below submitted by @saf0607

“It was Pride that changed angels into devils…” 

- St. Augustine 

It’s finally time to face the last one, the darkest and most cynical of the Sins. You aren’t sure how well this will go, since you know that he’s the one who holds the most grievances—that his power stems through the rest of the Seven.

You dare to enter regardless, taking a deep breath as you approach a door that’s carved with runes. The ancient language is littered all over the entrance, incidentally drawn into concentric circles, as a protective measure. The rest of the Sins don’t have protection like this, which is what makes him so much more difficult to absolve.

You lay your palm against the center of the circle, breathing slowly as the symbols glow bright red for mere seconds, before the door swings open.

It’s time.

You walk inside the dimly lit room, projecting a calm that you certainly don’t feel. You know, more than anyone, how important it is that you preserve your image and appearance in front of this particular man, that you need to make sure he doesn’t see any weakness.

“Creator.” His voice, high and fair, cuts through the air, and you don’t let your expression flicker in the slightest as you turn to face him, taking in his regal features with a practiced eye.

He is prostate on the floor, arms twisted back and shackled to the floor in a painful arrangement; despite which he shows no such expression on his impassive face, which is carved to an imperial perfection.

You say nothing, knowing that this needs to be the first move in the game which you’ve stepped into. To acknowledge the man would only serve to tilt the odds in his favor.

If there is anything he would hate, it’d be to not be acknowledged. And that is what you aim to play at. Superbia is the deadliest of the sins, yes, hence why it is essential that you approach him with care and caution.

“What’s the matter?” His voice is dry, rough from a lack of use. He’s been here the longest of all of them, being the first to fall in the mortal realm, so it makes sense, really, that his voice is in a state of disuse.

“Too high and mighty to talk to me, Creator?”

You continue to ignore him, waving your hand so that a chair materializes in the corner—set so that you may observe him, but so he cannot do the same—and pull out an Old text, a story that you’ve particularly favored, about the fate of Civilization.

You can sense his frustration at being ignored so much, and while you would love to speak to him, you know that you can’t take the risk and let the pride run rampant, else the entire cycle could get jeopardized.

You take out the book, flipping to the page designated with a bookmark, mindful of your robes as you slump disinterestedly against the chair.

With each page, the silence grows more unbearable, even more so when you flip each page as obnoxiously as you can, the sound of paper tearing through the air.

“You are, aren’t you?” His voice is spiteful, which is to be expected, but he says after certainly isn’t, “Too good for the rest of us? That’s why you let us go to Earth every time, let us get killed fruitlessly for a crime we’ve never committed.”

You grit your teeth at the words, his voice grating on your nerves as you fight to remain ignorant to him.

“Oh, the High and Mighty Creator, revered by all for being Good and Virtuous, but for one tiny detail that everyone neglects.” His eyes, a deep violet, glint maliciously, “That you’ve condemned seven oh so poor souls to an eternity of misery, caused by your mistakes.”

Your grip grows tighter on the book, almost squeezing it beyond comprehension as he continues to spew unbearable words that dig deep.

“That’s right. It’s all your fault. It’s not ours, yet we’re suffering for it, while you get to prance around punishing us.” He growls out, and you taste a metallic flavor in your mouth—blood, from biting your lip so hard—as he spits out those vengeful words, “You like it, enjoy it, don’t you? You like having us agonize like this!”

“Jinyoung!” You snap out finally, breaking the rules but entirely too irate to care, “Watch what you say—”

“Why, in the name of Azazel, should I?” He yells back, straining uselessly against his bonds, though you can see fury dancing in his cold features, “You’ve suppressed us for so long that I ought to let you know about it!”

“Do you think I honestly do not know?” You demand, rising from your seat, book disappearing as it is dropped, “Do you not think that I recall every second of that dreadful mistake I made, the terrible desire to make the world balanced?”

“It doesn’t matter to me.” His voice is warm enough to freeze the entirety of the room, “Not when you can’t even fix your own mistakes.”

“Lucifer is unyielding.” You say firmly, “There is nothing that I may do about that. So I ask—no, demand—of you to simply keep the hope burning alive in your chest. The younger ones look up to you, Jinyoung, as do the elders, and do not forget that.”

“I don’t care.” Amethyst eyes flash in anger, as he flails some more, “Those idiots are worth nothing to me; they’re only a heavier burden on my shoulders. I only try so hard so that I don’t need to be in the presence of ingrates like them.”

“You don’t mean that.” You reason, even as your vision tints red, “Let go of your pride, for once, Jinyoung, and do what is right.”

“You’re asking me to let go of my pride?” He tilts his head back and laughs bitterly, the sound echoing around the chamber, “I am Pride! There’s nothing to be let go of!”

And herein lies the problem: Jinyoung has always been the most susceptible to his Sin, so is always the most difficult to absolve. You worry that, one day, you might run out of ways to do that but, for now, you must take him to task.

“I don’t want to do this the hard way.” You warn, “I am giving you one last chance to surrender your Sin, Jinyoung.”

It’s a useless sentiment, and you know it, even when he spits furiously at the ground near your feet, thankfully missing your person. Still, the disrespect cannot go unpunished and you sigh, trying to keep your frayed nerves under control.

“Very well.” You acquiesce, walking toward him, “I will do as you wish…though I really wish I didn’t have to.”

With a wave of your hand, the fabric clinging to his body begins to melt off, disappearing into the void. His eyes widen, as he clearly hasn’t expected this, but Jinyoung gives no other outward reaction to your move. You wouldn’t expect any less from him, of course: he is prideful, if nothing else.

“Do you think you’re above me?” You raise an eyebrow as you tower over him, forcing him to look up at you.

“Of course.” He hisses out, “I know I am above you. Just being in your presence alone is bothersome.”

“Is that so….” You drawl out, though a twinge of hurt sounds in your heart, before doing what you’ve never dared to do to Jinyoung before, pushing him down on his back with your foot.

As expected, his reaction is violent, though it does not come to fruition as the chains continue to hold him well.

“Don’t fucking touch me!” He snaps out, eyes blazing as he tries, and fails, to push you away, “Especially not with your feet!”

“Oh?” You raise an eyebrow, “And why shouldn’t I?”

“Because you’re disgusting.” He spits out the hurtful words, eyes a dark purple, “And clearly not worth an ounce of me.”

“Tell me, Jinyoung.” You change tactics, choosing not to respond to the verbal jibe, “You’ve always liked being on top of things, haven’t you? I wonder how you’ll react now, since what I’m about to do is…well, it’s very unexpected.”

“You’re forgetting something,” He sneers, kitten lips curling in disgust, “I still have eyes, Creator and…you’ve always been easy to read.”

“Is that so?” You hum thoughtfully, before snapping your fingers, resulting in a sharp intake of breath from the male, “How is this, then?”

There’s no answer, though you don’t expect one. Secured around his eyes is a satin cloth. You’ve made it so he cannot see, only hear and feel.

“Fuck. You.” He spits out, and you roll your eyes at how stubborn he is, since you know the job would be much easier if he were a little more cooperative. Well, you might as well have some fun while you do this, right?

“I plan to.” You smirk at his mouth, parted in surprise, as you sink to the ground so that you’re eye level with him, though he doesn’t know that.

You drag your hand gently through his silky black locks, smirking as he shudders with revulsion. You know Jinyoung usually wouldn’t mind, but right now, he’s under the complete influence of Superbia: and there’s no fighting it.

“Something wrong, Jinyoungie?” You question cheekily, smirking when he growls angrily, wrists undoubtedly getting chaffed from all his struggling, “I’d advise you to stop moving so much, so you don’t hurt yourself any more than you already have.”

“Shut up.” He snarls pathetically, mouth set in a frown, “I’ll do what I want!”

“That is adorable,” You confess, making his mouth part in silent surprise, “But, unfortunately, untrue. You see, Jinyoung, you can’t do what you want.”

Your mouth sets into a firm line. “You do what I want.”

“What—” He begins to say, but a flick to his exposed nipple has him shuddering in pleasure, undoubtedly sensitive there.

“What was that?” You ask, hands daring to further tweak the rosy buds, rolling them between your finger. He gasps and arches into your touch, biting his lip to prevent himself from making any more noise than he already has. You can see his face scrunched up in turmoil, and something in you crows with delight, because this is what’s necessary, and he’s falling right into the trap.

“D-Don’t touch me there, you filthy—!” He can’t even stutter out a complete sentence as his body is toyed with relentlessly, and you see that his member is hardening, slowly but surely.

“You’re already aroused for me?” You tease, seeing his cheeks heat in perhaps, anger or embarrassment, “I haven’t even touched you there!”

“N-Ngh, I don’t want your hands on me, you impertinent bitch!” He snaps out, and ouch, that is a painful blow to handle, but you have done it before, with him.

“Too bad,” You let your hands linger, brushing against his angry, leaking cock, “I thought you might have wanted to find your release.”

“Well, I don’t need help,” He hisses, biting his lip, “Especially from the likes of you.”

“Are you sure?” You thumb across his leaking slit, collecting drop of precome even as he groans, “I don’t mind leaving you like this…”

Hands ghosting along his cock, you bite your lip, gauging his reaction; you’re rewarded with a choked moan and wet lips opened wide in slack-jawed pleasure.

“You want me to touch your properly?” You press, applying a slightly firmer touch and rewarded with the bucking of his hips, “Do you, Jinyoung?”

“N-No,” He huffs out, though he cuts himself off with a louder moan at your insistent touches, skin flushing red, “O-Oh God.”

“You and Bammie seem to have similar interests.” You note in fascination, though you give an experimental squeeze, causing his breath to stutter, “So I’ll tell you exactly what I told him: God can’t hear you. Not down here.”

“F-Fuck you!” He glowers at being compared to someone else, someone that Pride deems unworthy of him, “Go to hell!”

“We’re already here.” You smile serenely as you take his cock in your hand, fondling it with hard, measured strokes, “So it’s a bit too late for that, Jinyoungie.”

“D-Don’t t-touch me!” He protests, though it begins to lack conviction, even to his own ears, “I-I h-hate you, damn it!”

“No, you don’t.” You tell him seriously, straddling his hips despite his complaints and, pulling your underwear aside, sink down onto him, “But, after this, you just might.”

A choked moan breaks through the air, as he twitches desperately, cock encased by your tight, inviting heat. Your core throbs with want, lubing his length with its juices in a parody of a caress; the two of you are joined, for a mere moment, before you lift yourself up and slam back down onto him, a mewl ripping from your throat.

“S-So tight!” His lips glisten as he cries brokenly into the dim light, and you don’t think much as you lean forward, planting yours against his. To his credit, he doesn’t reject you immediately, allowing you to coax his mouth into submission, letting you taste him and hesitantly doing the same back.

“D-Does it feel good?” You pant in exertion, rolling your hips against him in chase of that spike of pleasure, “Tell m-me, Jinyoung.”

“I-It does,” He whimpers, kitten lips still parted obediently from after you’ve leaned back, “P-Please!”

“What happened to your pride?” You challenge, breath stuttering when you angle your hips just right, and yes, it feels so good, “I-I thought you…you didn’t want me to fuck you?”

“I…” You can’t see his eyes, so you wave your hand, removing the blindfold, and are rewarded with the sight of his eyes flickering rapidly between purple and their normal, genteel brown, “D-Don’t…know…”

“Admit that you like it.” You tighten his bonds slightly, making his eyes widen and they look pretty like that, flitting rapidly, “You like being tied down, don’t you? Like it when you have no power, when you’re forced to lie on the ground that you say is beneath you?”

“Shut up!” His cheeks flush a pretty pink as he eyes you angrily, though it doesn’t hold much of an effect as you continue to gyrate against him, pleasure beginning to peak like you’ve been aching for, “N-No…”

“D-Deny all you want.” You tell him, thrusts getting sloppier the closer you make it to the towering white, waiting for the lust to bleed from your body, “But the truth always holds!”

Your vision begins to spin as your legs twitch, orgasm ricocheting in you as you throw your head back in bliss, still doing your best to continue your lewd movements, pulling tiny whimpers of pleasure from him, even as your eyes begin to readjust to the dim lighting.

“You want to come, don’t you?” You slip off him, smirking tiredly at his whine of loss, “Admit it.”

“I…I do.” He acquiesces, though his expression shutters, “I don’t need you to do it though.”

“You don’t?” You frown in mock disappointment, hand sliding smoothly up and down his shaft, your juices functioning as lube, “I think I know what you need.”

A low curl of excitement festers in your stomach as you straddle him, a move he clearly doesn’t expect going by his low moan. Amethyst eyes snap open in shock when he realizes that he can’t breathe, eyes watering as they meet yours, before landing on your delicate hands wrapped firmly around his throat.

“You like this?” You smile in amusement as you quickly release your hold, watching as he sputters for breath, hips rolling smoothly against his cock, so close, but never letting yourself sink onto his throbbing cock, “Like being this helpless?”

“No.” He insists, though his cheeks flush red, “It might be your interest, but not m-mine—”

He’s cut off when you press your hands back onto his throat, making his eyes flutter shut, dick twitching actively in interest, mouth parted lewdly for breath.

“I think I can make you come just like this.” You note in delight as he struggles to catch his breath again, “But, to think that someone so above everyone like you indulges in such…frivolous activities is certainly interesting.”

Knowing Jinyoung can’t possibly answer yet, you roll your eyes, hand coming to stroke him off, to help him reach his release.

“You want to come?” You ask again, for the umpteenth time as his hips follow your hand stutteringly, “Then I want you to beg.”

“Please,” He blurts out, tears dribbling from the corner of his eyes, “Please let me come!”

You only smile at him while furthering your pace, bringing him to the edge of release before you let go, at his disappointed moan, only to close your slick hands around his neck, squeezing lightly once, twice, thrice, before pressing down even harder.

“Look at you,” You drawl as impassively as you can, “Mouth going off about how you’re so above everyone else, yet here you are. You like being humiliated, you like it when you’re entirely helpless, aren’t you?”

His body twitches and his hands jerk furtively against their bonds as his eyes roll into the back of his head, and he cries out, painting his thighs white with his release. You let go of your hold on him only when he wheezes and, though you’ve been careful, you still worry a bit; the concern dissipates when his breathing calms, though his body still shutters through his release.

The chains disappear with a wave of your hand, and Jinyoung wastes no time diving into your arms, head burrowing into the crook of your neck, as he hiccups through his orgasm, tears wetting your collar bone.

“Are you alright?” You ask quietly, knowing Jinyoung’s the one in control again, that Superbia’s been driven out temporarily, and are rewarded with a small nod from the man, “Good.”

You stay like that for a little while, hand still running through his hair, until he’s recovered his wits about him enough to pull away from you and wipe himself clean the best he can.

“Y-You…” He croaks out, wincing at the pressure on his throat, but hurries to explain at your crestfallen expression (you didn’t realize it’ll hurt for him to speak now), “Got a lot more c-creative.”

“Thanks.” You smile softly, clothing him again easily, making him blink in surprise, before smiling fondly.

“S-Sorry for what I-I said.” He apologizes needlessly, because you know it wasn’t him in control, “D-Didn’t mean it.”

“Do not worry about it.” You assure him, helping him get to his feet after materializing your clothes, “I understand. Whenever you’re ready, you can go on ahead for rebirth.”

You motion to the door that appeared right after he was absolved, and he looks at it in understanding.

“Good luck, Jinyoung.” You wish sincerely, arms wrapping around his body in a gentle hug, rewarded with the warmth of his hands in return, “Take care of everyone for me.”

“I w-will.” He smiles sadly at you, eyes crinkling cutely in the corners as he nods, “And th-thank you.”

And, with that, you leave to the main hall, to take your leave from the place that’s tormented you, above all others. When you arrive, you take a deep breath, relaxing your mind, anticipating your warm chambers and comfortable bed, waiting to be whisked home…though nothing happens.

Your eyes fly open at the mad cackle that filters through the air, expression one of alarm.

“Lucifer,” You breathe shakily, as you realize you can’t leave, “What have you done?!”

Written By: Midnight :)

Seven Steps to Hell: The Conclusion.

[dannymdip]

02 - Act 2 (draft)

Act 2:

It is March 1, 2000. Ryan is called into an office. Duke and Edward are both there. They tell Ryan that he’s doing really great in the program and that he’s earned a visit from his parents. They will come to the facility and talk with him there for a couple hours. Then they’ll take him out to a restaurant in Castle Rock, the nearest town. The meeting will be supervised by both of them, and Edward will come along and supervise the outing. Edward is given carte blanche to use whatever means necessary in the case of an attempted escape. The visit will be March 4, this coming Saturday.

Ken and Liz are driving down the dirt road leading to Eshelman. They’re talking about how they’re excited but nervous. They remark on the unsettling seclusion of the compound, but they talk about how Ryan seems to be doing really well here.

Ryan sits in the office; next to him is Edward, who says, “Don’t fuck this up.” In comes Ken and Liz, lead by Duke. Duke explains that he understands how excited they are but there is a no touching policy for safety—it probably wouldn’t be a problem in this case, but the policy has to be universal. Ryan’s parents tell him how happy they are to see him. They ask how he’s doing, basically what you’d expect. Ryan, of course, tells them he’s doing great, the program is great, he gets to do all sorts of things and he’s making the best friends he’s ever had. He introduces them to Edward, who tells them how much Ryan has improved since coming. Duke tells them that if Ryan keeps it up, they’ll be able to send him care packages soon. It’s all very jubilant and celebratory.

They’re in Ryan’s parents’ car. Ken asks him where he wants to go. Ryan, sitting on the left, says, “Can we get McDonalds?” Suddenly, Edward’s eyes go wide. He looks back at Ryan, but instead sees a 10-year-old Liam, saying something indistinct. He looks forward to see Liam’s father, enraged. Back at Liam, he’s saying over and over, “Can we get McDonalds? Can we get McDonalds? Can we get McDonalds?” Liam’s father turns all the way around and yells at Liam, “Shut the fuck up, Liam, you little piece of shit!” Liam’s mom yells, “Honey!” He begins to turn, when everything goes dark and blurry. Edward strains to focus to see Liam’s father, head against the steering wheel, pouring blood. He looks at Liam, who says, “…Dad?” Edward yells, “Liam cover your eyes!” Liam puts his hands over his eyes. Edward kicks his door open and runs around to the other side. He opens the door and helps Liam out of the car with his hands still covering his eyes. He hugs Liam tight and says, “It’s okay, Liam. It’s gonna be okay. It’s gonna be okay.” Edward blinks and is back in Ryan’s parents’ car. Ken says, “What do you think, Edward? McDonalds or Wendy’s.” “Oh, um. McDonalds, I guess.”

They’re all finishing their burgers. Ryan is looking around. The exit sign catches his eye. He watches as people leave the restaurant, each with a ‘ding!’ He looks at Edward, who has finished his food and is sucking noisily on a soda, looking the other way, out the window. Ryan’s eyes dart nervously back and forth from the exit to Edward. The bell dings in his head over and over; the sign starts to change into different messages, ‘ESCAPE’, ‘RUN’, ‘HES NOT LOOKING’, ‘YOU CAN MAKE IT’, ‘NOW’. He blurts out, “I’m ready to go back now.” Edward turns around and looks surprised, then smiles.

That night, Edward volunteers for Head Night Owl duty. He begins the usual routine of sitting by the riflemen, filling out paperwork. He has coffee and Cheetos. He sighs; he looks nervous. “Corner count,” he says to the riflemen. They nod, disinterested, and continue chatting. Edward enters the corner room, bringing his Cheetos with him. Liam is the only one currently on corner time. He’s lying on a mattress on the floor, but his eyes are open and sad. Edward whispers, “Liam.” He looks up, confused, “What’s wrong, what’d I do?” “Nothing, don’t worry.” Edward sits on the mattress next to Liam, who sits up. They both eat Cheetos while they talk:

Edward: “I was thinking about the crash today.” Liam: “Hm.” E: “I like it here, but I’m always worried. You know, I lost my parents, then your folks took me in. I lost them, then mom took us in. She kicked me out. Now Lou is like a father figure for me; every day I worry something’s gonna happen to him.” L: “Lou’s a dick.” Edward laughs. E: “Yeah, but my dad was kind of a dick, too. I don’t think I’ll ever feel secure until there’s no one left above me. If I’m at the very top, I can’t lose anyone I look up to.” L: “You sound like a megalomaniac.” E: “Maybe.” Liam takes a beat, then smiles. L: “Well, you’re always the top as far as I’m concerned.”

Liam puts his hand on Edward’s crotch. “Cardinal Rules, Liam. I don’t want that guilt on my mind.” Edward pauses and says, “Well. I want it, but I just can’t. I gotta get back to my post, babe.” Edward kisses Liam and gets up. Liam says, “Love you.” Edward says, “Love you too.”

Now a similar Ryan montage as before, but with more conviction. More privileges, higher ranks. He’s now a Coordinator, doing headcounts and recording clothes. He’s now a Night Owl, drinking coffee and eating Cheetos all night while counting heads in the boys’ dorm upstairs. He sees down the stairs that Edward was not lying about the riflemen. He’s getting Bottom Bunk Privs, Exercise Privs, Writing Privs, Facial Hair Privs, Jewelry Privs, Long Sleeve Privs, Couch Privs, Music Privs. He’s now a Shingle Expeditor, in the X’s—the highest division, acting as security. He’s formally introduced to KRYSTAL ROGERS. She’s the staff member in charge of the X’s. She’s young, late 20’s, she’s cute and charismatic. He takes a shine to her. He’s now a Senior Shingle Expeditor, now a Coordinator of the X’s. He’s now dressed fashionably with a shitty beard; he listens to a Walkman while he lifts weights twice a week. he has good bedding from home and gets care packages with treats. During his free time, he shoots the breeze with Duke, Krystal. He has now achieved the highest rank, Senior Coordinator of the X’s. There was only one other SCX—Edward. Unlike most of his promotions, Lou is present for this one. So, in the room is Duke, Lou, and Krystal. Lou tells Ryan that this is the fastest any student has ever completed the program. His growth has been outstanding, he’s one of the best students they’ve ever had at Eshelman. As Lou says this, Edward passes by the door. Edward lingers after passing it to listen to Lou. Hearing this, his face turns to one of bitterness and jealousy.

It is now May 30, 2000—one week after the release of the Marshal Mathers LP. Lou stands in front of the room and yells, “HOUSE IN THE DINING ROOM!” Everyone files in. Lou begins a speech: “It has come to our attention that some of you have been talking about a hack musician by the name of Marshal Mathers, or ‘Eminem’. Mathers is not to be spoken of in this house anymore—Ever. He sets a horrible example for you all, and he goes against everything Eshelman stands for. He had a terrible upbringing; he glorifies the breaking of all three of our cardinal rules: drugs, violence, and sex. He has lyrics like: ‘I take seven kids from Columbine, stand ’em all in line/Add an AK-47, a revolver, a nine/A MAC-11 and it oughta solve the problem of mine/And that’s a whole school of bullies shot up all at one time’. Columbine is not a joke. It’s not to be laughed at or heralded. Maybe if Mathers had been a student here, he would be a good person now, like Bruce Fletcher. But instead, Marshall Mathers will be dead within the next three years; mark my words.” At the mention of Bruce Fletcher, Ryan’s eyes go wide and his jaw drops. He approaches Lou after the speech, “Hey Lou, what was that you said about Bruce Fletcher?” Lou says, “Oh, Bruce was a student here at Eshelman back in the 80s.” “That’s so cool; that’s like all I listen to on my Walkman. Did he graduate?” “Absolutely.” Ryan thinks for a second, “Do you think I could write to him?” Lou smiles, “I don’t see why not. Ask Krystal about him, they were students here at the same time.”

Ryan is talking with Krystal in the staff office, “So you knew Bruce Fletcher?” Krystal says, “Sure, I knew him. I looooove his music. He was great; a lot like you.” Ryan grins, “Do you think you could call him and ask if I could write to him?” Krystal says, “For you? Of course.” She picks up the phone and dials. It rings, then a voice answers, “Hello?” “Hey Bruce, it’s Krystal. I have a student here at Eshelman who’s a huge fan, I’m gonna put him on, okay?”

We now get a series of short letters back and forth between Ryan and Bruce. At first it’s introductions, then talking about Eshelman, then really being buddies and Bruce telling him once he graduates, they can jam together, he’ll give Ryan one of his guitars, etc.

It is now June 12. Once again Ryan is called into the room with all the staff and Edward. Lou tells him that he thinks Ryan’s ready to do a home visit. He makes it clear that they must plan this out in painstaking detail and stick to the itinerary 100%. Edward, naturally, will be coming along to monitor.

We see the whole itinerary. It’s specific to the half-hour He is to get to Chicago on Friday evening and leave Sunday morning. When he arrives on Friday, there will be a small party with his family. The next day, at 5:00PM it says “Dinner at [somewhere fancy]”.

Friday afternoon, Ryan’s parents’ car pulls into their driveway. Ryan steps out of the car; it’s the first time he’s been here since being thrown into a van. He looks around with almost no recognition. He walks into his house and to his room, still looking like he’s never seen any of it before, sometimes picking things up and considering them. The doorbell rings.

In the evening, Ryan’s family sits around the living room, talking. It’s Ken and Liz, his grandparents on both sides, and an aunt, SOPHIE. Edward isn’t paying any attention to the conversation. He looks to the kitchen and notices Ryan’s parents behind the little bar. Ken is about to pour a glass of wine, but Liz stops him and grabs the bottle, saying, “We can’t drink at all in front of Ryan, we have to set a good example.” Ken says, “Good call.” Edward blinks and the scene of Liz grabbing the bottle from Ken turns into a scene of Edward’s mom, Sydney Dersch, grabbing a bottle of whiskey from his dad Roger. “You’ve had more than enough, Roger.” “I’ll say when I’ve had enough!” “Please, give me the bottle. You get so mean when you’re drunk.” Edward’s dad yanks the bottle to the side, unintentionally hitting his wife in the head with it—hard. She falls and hits her head again on an end table. Roger’s jaw drops and the bottle slips out of his hand. The whiskey begins soaking into the carpet along with the blood. We now see that Edward had been watching this whole thing play out from the couch. He has a safety blanket. Roger looks at Edward with tears in his eyes. He walks into another room and walks back with a revolver in his hand. He comes up to Edward. “Eddy, listen, I’m going to do something you’re not going to understand for a long time. If I don’t do this, I’ll have to go to a very, very bad place—a place where I don’t think I could make it. So I need you to close your eyes now and cover them up with your hands.” Edward does it. “That’s good, buddy, that’s good. Now stay like this no matter what. In a little bit, some nice people will come visit and they’ll tell you when you can look, but right now I need you to stay like this, okay?” Edward nods. Roger says, “Okay.” He walks over to where his wife is and picks up the phone. He dials 911. We see Edward peeking a little bit. We are now viewing the scene from Edward’s perspective—just little bits between the cracks of his fingers. Roger says, “Hello yes. I need you to come to 644 Madison Road as soon as you can, and please, take good care of my kid.” Roger drops the phone, puts the gun barrel in his mouth, and pulls the trigger. Edward takes his hands down and approaches the bodies. He sits down cross legged and puts his safety blanket onto his mom (Not covering her head; just like a normal blanket). He picks up the phone, which is saying “Hello? Hello? Sir?” Edward says, “Hello.” “Hey there, what’s your name?” “Eddy.” “What’s going on, Eddy, is everything okay?” “No, I don’t think so. My dad spilled on the carpet but I’m gonna, I think, have to clean it up ‘cause I think they’re, I think, both dead.” Edward blinks again and it’s back to the present, the exact moment from before, no time has passed. He watches Liz put away the bottle and Ken put back the wine glass.

The afternoon of the next day, Ryan’s parents are gonna take the kids out for dinner. After driving a while, they pull into an apartment complex. Ryan asks where they are. His parents tell him that they have a surprise for him; they’re not going to [fancy restaurant]. Ryan looks nervously at Edward. His parents lead them to one of the apartments. His mom says, “Why don’t you knock, Ryan?” Ryan knocks. The door opens to reveal it is the apartment of Bruce Fletcher. “You must be Ryan.”

They’re all sitting at a dinner table while Bruce brings out plates. Ryan asks Edward, “Hey, do you think this is okay for us to be doing?” Edward says, “I think it’s fucking awesome.” Ryan looks relieved.

They’re all eating, having nice conversation. Bruce is asking about Eshelman stuff—is Duke still there? How’s Lou doing? Where are you in the hierarchy? Ryan is asking about his music career. Ryan says, “You know, a lot of the time I would skip school or stay out late to go to your concerts. It’s like I was meant to go to Eshelman and you helped me find my way there.”

After dinner, Bruce is showing Ryan all of his guitars and stuff. He asks if Ryan wants to jam and they play a few things together, Ryan on guitar and Bruce on drums. Bruce improvises some lyrics; Edward taps his foot to the beat. “You got some talent, kid. You know, sometimes at Eshelman they would let me play guitar—for special occasions and such. You should see if you can do that.” Bruce gives Ryan a signed pick that he used at some big show. Ryan is elated.

The next morning, they begin the drive back to Eshelman. Ryan plays guitar in the car and comments on how good the pick feels. He tells his parents to play certain CDs and sings along. He can’t wait to get back and ask Lou about being allowed to play. We haven’t yet seen Ryan get anywhere close to this level of excitement, optimism, general happiness. Edward smiles.

When they get to Eshelman and Ryan and Edward are in the office, Ryan asks Lou about playing his guitar. Lou says he’ll think about it, but probably. Ryan goes to bed with a smile on his face.

The next morning, Ryan’s eating breakfast on the couch when he hears a call from Duke, “RYAN! COME KNOCK!” He looks confused, but he walks to the door and does the knocking ritual. When he enters, the dealing crew asks if he knows why he’s there. He says he doesn’t. They tell him that Edward brought it to their attention that he deviated from the itinerary. Ryan’s expression changes to one of hurt and anger. He swallows and straightens his face. The dealing crew tells him he’s being shot down. They give him a harsh Verbal Reprimand and send him to the staff office. In the office, Lou is sitting looking disgusted with Ryan. Duke looks pissed off and Krystal looks the other way. Lou says, “You are not to communicate with Bruce Fletcher ever again. We’re confiscating the guitar pick he gave you as well as all written correspondence with him, past, present, or future. Your L.E. is corner time. One hour. Get the fuck out of my sight.” Krystal walks him over to the corner. When he sits down, she puts a hand on his shoulder and says, “Don’t worry, Ryan. You’re the best student we’ve ever had. You work extra hard, you’ll be back to SCX in like a week, easy.” Ryan looks comforted. He looks over to see Liam still in the corner. Liam looks gaunt and tired, like he hasn’t been eating or sleeping enough. Liam stares intensely at the corner—which we see is just blank wood—muttering quickly, “Shut the fuck up, Liam, you little piece of shit.” He’s rocking in his chair. We look back to see that, from Liam’s perspective, the corner is covered in dozens if not hundreds of ants.

END of Act 2

[dulwichdiverter]

Life before Hornblower

How the streets of East Dulwich became an unlikely inspiration for CS Forester’s peculiarly English brand of noir crime fiction  

By Mark Bryant

It’s 80 years since the skilful yet self-doubting seaman Horatio Hornblower first entered the public consciousness via CS Forester’s famous naval novels series. 

The author, who died in California in 1966, lived in East Dulwich for more than 16 years and published almost 20 books during that time.

Forester was born Cecil Louis Troughton Smith in Cairo, Egypt, in 1899 and was the youngest of five children. His father was an English teacher working at a British-style school in the city, and his mother also taught.

Forester claimed his ancestors included a master woodcarver who had worked on the pews in St Paul’s Cathedral; a mathematical instrument-maker who had made Isaac Newton’s telescopes; and the part-owner of the rights to Welsbach’s bestselling gas mantle, which was used in public and private lighting until the introduction of electricity in the 1900s.

In 1901, after 15 years in Egypt, Forester’s mother came back to London with her children and settled at 37 Shenley Road, on the border of Camberwell and Peckham. His father remained in Cairo but regularly returned on leave.

Here he was looked after at first by the family’s maid, who became cook to the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, and later followed his siblings to the nearby Lyndhurst Grove School.  

His oldest brother Geoffrey went on to Alleyn’s School, Hugh won a scholarship to Christ’s Hospital School (where he was a contemporary of the poet Edmund Blunden) and his two sisters went to Aske’s Hatcham School in New Cross.

While at primary school Forester bought a bag of gunpowder from a local shop, poured it into a socket for holding a clothes-line post in a friend’s back garden, stuck the post in the socket and lit a homemade fuse.

Describing “The Big Bang” in his memoir, Long Before Forty (written while he lived in Dulwich), he wrote: “Underneath that clothes-line post was about as much powder as was used to charge a 32-pounder in Nelson’s day.” The resulting explosion blew the post into a garden two doors away and shattered numerous windows in the neighbourhood.

Forester later attended Alleyn’s School where he was a near contemporary of  the future short-story writer VS Pritchett. While at Alleyn’s he also met his future first wife, Kitty Belcher (then at James Allen’s Girls’ School and living in Hawarden Grove, Herne Hill),  who was  the younger sister of a schoolfriend.

At this time the family still lived in Camberwell and every day Forester walked to school from Shenley Road (two miles each way) along what is now Green Dale. However, in 1915 they moved to 58 Underhill Road, off Lordship Lane in East Dulwich and in September that year he  entered the sixth form of Dulwich College as a boarder.

Deemed unfit for military service in the First World War due to his weak heart, he followed his brother Geoffrey and cousin Harry and enrolled as a student  at Guy’s Medical School in  October 1917. However, finding himself unsuited to a medical career, he left in his third year.

In 1920 he told his family he had decided to become a writer and immediately set about writing 6,000 words a day for a fortnight. When he had  finished, a friend, Gladys Roberts,  typed up the manuscript. She suggested the pseudonym “Cecil Forester”, possibly after Mrs Cecil Forrester, a character in Conan Doyle’s The Sign of Four. He changed it to CS Forester and sent the book off to a publisher.  

After it was rejected a number of times he wrote another novel, The Paid Piper, in six weeks. Then, while these two books were still doing the rounds he wrote a third novel.

Set during the Napoleonic Wars, as the later Hornblower series would be, A Pawn among Kings appeared in 1924 and was his first published book. He was then commissioned to write, in two months, a non-fiction book about Napoleon which was well received and led to a companion volume on the Empress Josephine.

At about this time his father returned from Egypt for good and settled down at 58 Underhill Road for the remaining 23 years of  his life. However, although Forester was now an established writer, he still had to take on casual jobs to make ends meet.

Then came his critically acclaimed crime thriller Payment Deferred in 1926, which was set in south London. Theatre and film versions appeared starring Charles Laughton, and Julian Symons later included it in his Sunday Times list of the 99 best crime stories.  

He married Kitty Belcher in August that year and, backed by his publishers, bought a 15-foot-long motorised dinghy to go on a boating trip to France and later Germany, resulting in two travel books.

It was in 1927, while he was preparing for their French trip, that Forester bought a set of three bound volumes of The Naval Chronicle (1799-1818) for his library on the boat. After studying these journals he came up with the idea for  the Hornblower series.

The character’s name itself may have been inspired when he visited Alleyn’s School in 1922 for the unveiling of an honours board to those who had fallen in the Great War – one of those listed was Private Edward S Hornblower.

After their travels Forester and his wife lived in the attic of 58 Underhill Road and their first son John was born in the house in October 1929. He would later attend Alleyn’s School.

That same year Forester published another biography, Nelson, and his first naval story, Brown on Resolution – the only one of his books to be filmed twice. The first version, in 1935, starred a young John Mills.

In the autumn of 1930 Forester and his family moved into a flat in Gothic Lodge, on the corner of Mount Adon Park and Lordship Lane. The house was once the home of William Henderson, the brother of the newspaper proprietor, James Henderson, who built Mount Adon Park (see The Dulwich Diverter, November/December 2016).

The same year he published his second crime thriller, Plain Murder, which, along with Payment Deferred, was praised by the Guardian in 2011: “These two short novels establish Forester as the improbable pioneer of a very English form of noir crime fiction – domestic, darkly ironic and as hard as a hanging judge.”

The last book published while he was living in Dulwich was Death to the French (1932), a novel of the Napoleonic Wars which directly influenced Bernard Cornwell’s Sharpe books (its hero, Matthew Dodd, even appears in Sharpe’s Escape).

Forester moved to Sydenham at the end of 1932, where he wrote The African Queen (1935) and the Hornblower series, beginning with The Happy Return in 1937.  

However, though many of his most famous books were written elsewhere, he gained his first success as a writer – as well as his pseudonym – while living in Dulwich. In all he published nearly a third of his total output while in the area, including biographies, crime thrillers, travel books, historical fiction, drama, verse and short stories.  

Before moving to the USA during the Second World War, Forester often returned to Dulwich, especially when his parents were still alive and living on Underhill Road.

His son John even remembered visiting his grandfather’s house and sailing homemade model boats on the old boating pond (drained in the 1960s) situated below the bandstand in the gardens of  the Horniman Museum nearby.

In an article for Holiday magazine in 1955, Forester acknowledged the influence of his early years in Dulwich and Peckham on his work. To paraphrase slightly, he wrote: “No writer ever quite escapes his own childhood. I have gone back to that part of London again and again in my books for events, for people, for stories, for tiny details, for settings and houses and furniture.

“When we left Peckham, we moved to a house in Dulwich; halfway between these two homes Mr William Marble of my Payment Deferred later buried a corpse in his back garden, and not far from there Randall (of The River of Time) spent his married life.

“It was while I wandered along those same quiet streets much later on, in the 1920s, that plots formed in my mind; Rifleman Dodd went through his adventures one evening as I walked along Court Lane, and The Gun played its part in the Peninsular War in Spain as a result of watching workmen removing a fallen tree down towards Herne Hill.

“These books were written in all sorts of odd places in the world, but that was where they had their start.”

..................................

Dr Mark Bryant is a former secretary of the London Press Club and lives close to Forester’s house in Underhill Road. His wife attended Lyndhurst Grove School, Forester’s primary school in Peckham.

[fangirlnationmag]

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) brought in an estimated $220 million during its opening weekend in North America. That’s a lot of people. What many fans of the franchise don’t know is that before the new film arrived, it was precluded by the book series Journey to the Last Jedi which leads up to the film. Even fewer fans probably read the series. Among those books were Leia: Princess of Alderaan by Claudia Gray, and Phasma by Delilah S. Dawson. These books filled in some of the gaps within the saga, as well as provided more depth to the new film.

Amilyn Holdo

Amilyn Holdo was first introduced to Leia Organa in the book Leia: Princess of Alderaan. She served in the apprentice legislature with Leia on behalf of her homeworld Gatalenta. Although at first Leia had trouble communicating with Amilyn; who is more known for speaking in metaphors than direct communication, the two become fierce friends and allies. Amilyn’s indirect communication style may also help to explain why she didn’t feel it was necessary to communicate her plan to the entire Rebel fleet during the film.

Amilyn’s purple hair in The Last Jedi is reminiscent of her youth when she often wore bright and extraordinary clothing in order to set herself apart from her people. Amilyn’s dress in the film is closer to true Gatalentan fashion. The people of Gatalenta are known to dress in plain and simple clothing. This dress choice might also indicate that the young Amilyn followed some advice given to her by the young Leia, but I’ll let you read the novel to find out what the advice was.

During the film, you might have noticed that while many of the Rebel’s crew members expressed fear and concern after the First Order tracked the Rebel’s through light speed, Amilyn remained calm and collected. She’s had a lot of practice at keeping it cool while in mortal peril. In the book, Amilyn was a member of Leia’s pathfinding class. The class was to help Leia learn to climb a mountain by herself to complete a challenge of the body. Amilyn’s goal for the course was to become comfortable while in mortal danger and she happily put herself in dangerous situations while in Leia’s company on several other occasions, often against Leia’s wishes. Judging by her sacrifice in the film, it’s apparent that she found the comfort she was seeking.

Phasma

Remember in the film, when Fin; also known as FN2187, hit Phasma so hard that it broke a piece off of her helmet, revealing both her skin and eye color? What you might have missed during that moment was the significance of Fin seeing even part of Phasma’s face. There are very few living people in the universe who have ever seen Phasma without her helmet on, and it seems like she’d like to keep it that way.

Phasma’s first appearance in the Star War’s Cinematic Universe was in The Force Awakens (2015). Phasma was given her own Journey to the Last Jedi novel titled Phasma which, in detailing her origin story also explains that she was brought into the First Order by Armitage Hux’s late father Brendol Hux. Brendol Hux; who had seen Phasma without her helmet, suffered from an unknown illness not long after bringing Phasma aboard as both his personal guard and as a lead trainer for stormtroopers on the ship the Finalizer.

No living person in the First Order has ever seen Phasma without her helmet off except for Brendol Hux’s previous personal guard Cardinal, whose whereabouts are currently unknown. Aside from Cardinal and now Fin, only two other potentially living people have also seen Phasma’s face, the Rebel spy Vi Moradi, and one of Phasma’s previous followers a woman by the name of Siv. This fact makes the brief portion of Phasma’s face revealed by Fin noteworthy.

Crait

The Rebel base known as Crait is the first Rebel base that Leia set foot in. She found it when she was sixteen years old, during her time in the apprentice legislature on Coruscant. Leia was doing some research and discovered strange traffic patterns heading to the salty planet and took a ship to discover the cause. There she not only discovered a Rebel base, but also her adoptive father Bail Organa who was at the center of the Rebel activity. This marked a turning point for the family and also Leia’s involvement in the rebellion.

To discover more, check out the books (I suggest the audiobooks which have music and sound effects):

A list of the Star Wars: The Last Jedi Books

A Guide to Every Star Wars: The Last Jedi-Related Book Coming December 15

History You Might Have Missed When You Watched Star Wars: The Last Jedi Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) brought in an estimated $220 million during its opening weekend in North America.

[melindarowens]

It’s A FOMC Day Today! – Daily Pfennig

November 1, 2017    

* Another nothing day in the currencies… UGH

* U.S. Consumer Confidence Soars higher!

* A Like it never happened day for the FOMC…  

 Good day…  And a Wonderful Wednesday to you! And Welcome to November…  How was your Halloween?  Mine was good, as a few neighbor friends sat around a fire that I built in the driveway, and gave out candy to the Trick-R-Treaters…  It was cold out, but not around that fire pit! Then we folded everything up, and went inside, and I watched the last few innings of the World Series Game 6, thinking that the Astros would build a come back rally like they had in previous games, but that was not to be last night and so we’ll see a Game 7 tonight! Game 7’s are very special… Who will blink?  One of my best memories is Game 7 of the 2011 World Series, when I was at the ballpark with my sons, Andrew, Alex and Jerry to watch our beloved Cardinals win the Series.  Supertramp  greets me this morning with their song: From Now On…    

Oh, and I stayed up way too late watching the baseball game last night, which means this morning I almost didn’t answer the bell! But like I’ve told you before, whenever I’m laying there thinking that discretion would be the better part of valor, and go back to sleep, I think about my dad…  Who had all kinds of ailments through the years, but got up and went to work driving a truck, every day! And so… here I am! Aren’t you glad? HA! All my clothes last night smelled of wood smoke, they went straight to the washing machine room!  

Well, I’ve beaten around the bush enough today…  It was another “nothing day” for the currencies yesterday, and through the overnight sessions. Gold lost $5.60 but is up $9.30 in the early morning trading today… But this non-movement in the currencies is beginning to give me a rash! I mean this is like its the Dog Days of Summer, and we’re way past that!  The Dollar Index moved 1 tick in the past 24 hours, as yesterday morning it was 94.63, and today it is 94.64…

The best performer overnight is the New Zealand dollar/ kiwi, which has really spent an inordinate amount of time in the woodshed, folks… but it escaped last night, and found its way back to the 69-cent figure… That’s about a 1/2-cent move for kiwi, and that’s a good thing.. I think, and I believe I said this last week here, that kiwi has been oversold, and a reversal of that overselling should be on the way…   So, there you go! Now, if kiwi can just keep the pedal to the metal here…   

The U.K. pound sterling is also stronger this morning and is up one full cent to trade in the 1.33 handle. Over and over again, pound traders continue to believe that Bank of England (BOE) Gov. Mark Carney is going to hike rates here… The economic data in the U.K. is a mixed bag-o-nuts and then the U.K. has the BREXIT negotiations hanging over it like the Sword of Damocles…  I would use these “run ups” in sterling as an opportunity… wink, wink…    

The price of Oil moved higher again in the past 24 hours, and now trades with a $55 handle… But the Petrol Currencies are not getting any traction from this move in Black Gold, Texas Tea… 

Here in the U.S. it’s an FOMC Day today…  And this meeting by the Fed will be lile ServPro  “like nothing happened!”  The fed will meet, they’ll leave rates unchanged, and make that announcement, and that’s it. No press conference with Janet Yellen, no statement at this time…  The minutes of the meeting will print in a few weeks, but until then we’ll have to think that Fed is still trying to come to grips with a rate hike in December… 

Of course I’ve said over and over again since April that there will be no rate hike in December… And maybe the FOMC meeting minutes will give us a clue when they print in a few weeks… By then, we’ll be stuffing ourselves with great Thanksgiving fare!  The weeks all begin to meld together from here on out folks… Thanksgiving will be here before we know it, and then it’s into December and Christmas!  

I talk about this  because I’m looking at the Tax Reform Bill which has still not made itself public… and when it does, there will be little time before the Thanksgiving Break to get it done, and then, well, like I said above, it’ll be Christmas!  And this Tax Reform Bill is what has the dollar so perky these days… As the Bill is supposed to remake the American economy…  and no one knows when it will be presented to the American public… Hmmm…    

I hear that part of the TBR (tax reform bill) is a provision to reduce the amount of money investors can deposit to the 401K’s on an annual basis…  I have loved the idea of the 401K through the years, but now that I’m sort-of retired I don’t contribute to my 401K any longer, so I won’t be affected…  But my kids will be! But my two older kids are teachers, so they have their own retirement plans, and Alex still has 2 1/2 years to go through college… 

But I see this as a real dud for other people…  No, not a real dud, a real bummer, as they used to say back in the 70’s…    

Boy the U.S. Data Cupboard yesterday, Consumer Confidence saw a moon shot higher moving to 125 from 119…  Again, they don’t call me for my opinion, so I just move along here for these are not the droids we’re looking for!   And today’s Data Cupboard is all about the FOMC meeting this afternoon…   

As I said above Gold lost $5.60 yesterday to close at $1,270.40, but is up $9.50 this morning, so this morning its trading at $1,279.90…  Yesterday, I told you about the story going around about the Canadian Royal Mint stamped wafer turning out to be fake…  Well, the Canadian Royal Mint issued a statement yesterday that claimed the wafer not to be one of theirs…  So, if that’s the true, then someone out there has a Mint stamp and using it for no good…   I’m thinking of Dudley Do-Right, and Snidely Whiplash, right now…  

To recap…  It has been a nothing day for the currencies in the past 24 hours, kiwi was the best performer and it only gained 1/2-cent! The Dollar Index moved one tick from 94.63 yesterday to 94.64 today…  Gold though sold off by $5 and change, and is up $9 and change this morning… The price of Oil is now trading with a $55 handle… But that hasn’t helped the Petrol Currencies…  And the Fed’s FOMC meets today, to announce that they are keeping rates unchanged…    

For What It’s Worth….  The FWIW article came courtesy of dear reader Bob, who seems to know exactly what i’m looking for in these articles! this is about small community banks getting swallowed up by the Big Banks and it can be found here: https://www.globalresearch.ca/selling-out-to-americas-megabanks-regulation-is-killing-community-banks-public-banks-can-revive-them/5615902    

Or, here’s your snippet: “At his confirmation hearing in January 2017, Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin said, “regulation is killing community banks. If the process is not reversed, he warned, we could “end up in a world where we have four big banks in this country.” That would be bad for both jobs and the economy.” He goes on to say… 

“I think that we all appreciate the engine of growth is with small and medium-sized businesses,” said Mnuchin. “We’re losing the ability for small and medium-sized banks to make good loans to small and medium-sized businesses in the community, where they understand those credit risks better than anybody else.”

The number of US banks with assets under $100 million dropped from 13,000 in 1995 to under 1,900 in 2014. The regulatory burden imposed by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act exacerbated this trend, with community banks losing market share at double the rate during the four years after 2010 as in the four years before. But the number had already dropped to only 2,625 in 2010.  What happened between 1995 and 2010?”   

Chuck again… Yes, the times they are a changing… eh? This is a good article just to give you a heads up of what to expect coming down the line with banking…    

Currencies today  11/1/2017… American Style: A$ .7682, kiwi .6913, C$ .7767, euro 1.1638, sterling 1.3303, Swiss $1.003, …  European Style:    rand 14.1235, krone 8/1326, SEK 8.3806, forint 267.55, zloty 3.6388,  koruna 21.9620, RUB 58.18, yen 114, sing 1.3602, HKD 7.8019, INR 64.62, China 6.6327, peso 19.14, BRL 3.2799, Dollar Index 94.64, Oil $55.04, 10yr 2.39%, Silver $16.98, Platinum $928.41, Palladium $994.10, and Gold… $1,279.90  

That’s it for today… I heard some good jokes last night… And was amazed at a kids magic tricks with cards… So… why don’t you grab a ghost from behind…   Give up?  Because you get a handful of sheet!  Again, I had you going there didn’t I?  So it’s November, my most hated month, and to attempt to make it go fast, I’m heading to S. Florida for 12 days this Friday after my infusion on Thursday.  No Worries, I’ll be writing from there… But no Pfennig on Friday, right? Correctomundo! I’ve got a real oldie spooling up for the last song this morning… Barbara Lewis takes us to the finish line today with her song: Hello Stranger…  Don’t know Barbara Lewis? She was huge in the 60’s… You should check her out on YouTube…  And with that… I had better send you on your way to having a Wonderful Wednesday…  Be Good To Yourself! 

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source https://capitalisthq.com/its-a-fomc-day-today-daily-pfennig/ from CapitalistHQ http://capitalisthq.blogspot.com/2017/12/its-fomc-day-today-daily-pfennig.html

[everettwilkinson]

It’s A FOMC Day Today! – Daily Pfennig

November 1, 2017    

* Another nothing day in the currencies… UGH

* U.S. Consumer Confidence Soars higher!

* A Like it never happened day for the FOMC…  

  Good day…  And a Wonderful Wednesday to you! And Welcome to November…  How was your Halloween?  Mine was good, as a few neighbor friends sat around a fire that I built in the driveway, and gave out candy to the Trick-R-Treaters…  It was cold out, but not around that fire pit! Then we folded everything up, and went inside, and I watched the last few innings of the World Series Game 6, thinking that the Astros would build a come back rally like they had in previous games, but that was not to be last night and so we’ll see a Game 7 tonight! Game 7’s are very special… Who will blink?  One of my best memories is Game 7 of the 2011 World Series, when I was at the ballpark with my sons, Andrew, Alex and Jerry to watch our beloved Cardinals win the Series.  Supertramp  greets me this morning with their song: From Now On…    

Oh, and I stayed up way too late watching the baseball game last night, which means this morning I almost didn’t answer the bell! But like I’ve told you before, whenever I’m laying there thinking that discretion would be the better part of valor, and go back to sleep, I think about my dad…  Who had all kinds of ailments through the years, but got up and went to work driving a truck, every day! And so… here I am! Aren’t you glad? HA! All my clothes last night smelled of wood smoke, they went straight to the washing machine room!  

Well, I’ve beaten around the bush enough today…  It was another “nothing day” for the currencies yesterday, and through the overnight sessions. Gold lost $5.60 but is up $9.30 in the early morning trading today… But this non-movement in the currencies is beginning to give me a rash! I mean this is like its the Dog Days of Summer, and we’re way past that!  The Dollar Index moved 1 tick in the past 24 hours, as yesterday morning it was 94.63, and today it is 94.64…

The best performer overnight is the New Zealand dollar/ kiwi, which has really spent an inordinate amount of time in the woodshed, folks… but it escaped last night, and found its way back to the 69-cent figure… That’s about a 1/2-cent move for kiwi, and that’s a good thing.. I think, and I believe I said this last week here, that kiwi has been oversold, and a reversal of that overselling should be on the way…   So, there you go! Now, if kiwi can just keep the pedal to the metal here…   

The U.K. pound sterling is also stronger this morning and is up one full cent to trade in the 1.33 handle. Over and over again, pound traders continue to believe that Bank of England (BOE) Gov. Mark Carney is going to hike rates here… The economic data in the U.K. is a mixed bag-o-nuts and then the U.K. has the BREXIT negotiations hanging over it like the Sword of Damocles…  I would use these “run ups” in sterling as an opportunity… wink, wink…    

The price of Oil moved higher again in the past 24 hours, and now trades with a $55 handle… But the Petrol Currencies are not getting any traction from this move in Black Gold, Texas Tea… 

Here in the U.S. it’s an FOMC Day today…  And this meeting by the Fed will be lile ServPro  “like nothing happened!”  The fed will meet, they’ll leave rates unchanged, and make that announcement, and that’s it. No press conference with Janet Yellen, no statement at this time…  The minutes of the meeting will print in a few weeks, but until then we’ll have to think that Fed is still trying to come to grips with a rate hike in December… 

Of course I’ve said over and over again since April that there will be no rate hike in December… And maybe the FOMC meeting minutes will give us a clue when they print in a few weeks… By then, we’ll be stuffing ourselves with great Thanksgiving fare!  The weeks all begin to meld together from here on out folks… Thanksgiving will be here before we know it, and then it’s into December and Christmas!  

I talk about this  because I’m looking at the Tax Reform Bill which has still not made itself public… and when it does, there will be little time before the Thanksgiving Break to get it done, and then, well, like I said above, it’ll be Christmas!  And this Tax Reform Bill is what has the dollar so perky these days… As the Bill is supposed to remake the American economy…  and no one knows when it will be presented to the American public… Hmmm…    

I hear that part of the TBR (tax reform bill) is a provision to reduce the amount of money investors can deposit to the 401K’s on an annual basis…  I have loved the idea of the 401K through the years, but now that I’m sort-of retired I don’t contribute to my 401K any longer, so I won’t be affected…  But my kids will be! But my two older kids are teachers, so they have their own retirement plans, and Alex still has 2 1/2 years to go through college… 

But I see this as a real dud for other people…  No, not a real dud, a real bummer, as they used to say back in the 70’s…    

Boy the U.S. Data Cupboard yesterday, Consumer Confidence saw a moon shot higher moving to 125 from 119…  Again, they don’t call me for my opinion, so I just move along here for these are not the droids we’re looking for!   And today’s Data Cupboard is all about the FOMC meeting this afternoon…   

As I said above Gold lost $5.60 yesterday to close at $1,270.40, but is up $9.50 this morning, so this morning its trading at $1,279.90…  Yesterday, I told you about the story going around about the Canadian Royal Mint stamped wafer turning out to be fake…  Well, the Canadian Royal Mint issued a statement yesterday that claimed the wafer not to be one of theirs…  So, if that’s the true, then someone out there has a Mint stamp and using it for no good…   I’m thinking of Dudley Do-Right, and Snidely Whiplash, right now…  

To recap…  It has been a nothing day for the currencies in the past 24 hours, kiwi was the best performer and it only gained 1/2-cent! The Dollar Index moved one tick from 94.63 yesterday to 94.64 today…  Gold though sold off by $5 and change, and is up $9 and change this morning… The price of Oil is now trading with a $55 handle… But that hasn’t helped the Petrol Currencies…  And the Fed’s FOMC meets today, to announce that they are keeping rates unchanged…    

For What It’s Worth….  The FWIW article came courtesy of dear reader Bob, who seems to know exactly what i’m looking for in these articles! this is about small community banks getting swallowed up by the Big Banks and it can be found here: https://www.globalresearch.ca/selling-out-to-americas-megabanks-regulation-is-killing-community-banks-public-banks-can-revive-them/5615902    

Or, here’s your snippet: “At his confirmation hearing in January 2017, Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin said, “regulation is killing community banks. If the process is not reversed, he warned, we could “end up in a world where we have four big banks in this country.” That would be bad for both jobs and the economy.” He goes on to say… 

“I think that we all appreciate the engine of growth is with small and medium-sized businesses,” said Mnuchin. “We’re losing the ability for small and medium-sized banks to make good loans to small and medium-sized businesses in the community, where they understand those credit risks better than anybody else.”

The number of US banks with assets under $100 million dropped from 13,000 in 1995 to under 1,900 in 2014. The regulatory burden imposed by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act exacerbated this trend, with community banks losing market share at double the rate during the four years after 2010 as in the four years before. But the number had already dropped to only 2,625 in 2010.  What happened between 1995 and 2010?”   

Chuck again… Yes, the times they are a changing… eh? This is a good article just to give you a heads up of what to expect coming down the line with banking…    

Currencies today  11/1/2017… American Style: A$ .7682, kiwi .6913, C$ .7767, euro 1.1638, sterling 1.3303, Swiss $1.003, …  European Style:    rand 14.1235, krone 8/1326, SEK 8.3806, forint 267.55, zloty 3.6388,  koruna 21.9620, RUB 58.18, yen 114, sing 1.3602, HKD 7.8019, INR 64.62, China 6.6327, peso 19.14, BRL 3.2799, Dollar Index 94.64, Oil $55.04, 10yr 2.39%, Silver $16.98, Platinum $928.41, Palladium $994.10, and Gold… $1,279.90  

That’s it for today… I heard some good jokes last night… And was amazed at a kids magic tricks with cards… So… why don’t you grab a ghost from behind…   Give up?  Because you get a handful of sheet!  Again, I had you going there didn’t I?  So it’s November, my most hated month, and to attempt to make it go fast, I’m heading to S. Florida for 12 days this Friday after my infusion on Thursday.  No Worries, I’ll be writing from there… But no Pfennig on Friday, right? Correctomundo! I’ve got a real oldie spooling up for the last song this morning… Barbara Lewis takes us to the finish line today with her song: Hello Stranger…  Don’t know Barbara Lewis? She was huge in the 60’s… You should check her out on YouTube…  And with that… I had better send you on your way to having a Wonderful Wednesday…  Be Good To Yourself! 

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from CapitalistHQ.com https://capitalisthq.com/its-a-fomc-day-today-daily-pfennig/