#and explain how much he admires him from the few email interactions and his general knowledge of what my dad does | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

bronwiebear-brad · 4 years ago

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Giiiiirl! Listen this I know u only write about Bradleyboy but I see that u fancy the holland boys and haz 😏😏 (who doesn't right?) so pleaseeeee write something with them, pleaaaaaaaaase 🥺love you writing so much it would mean the world for me 💛

A/N: You all know that I cannot resist my sweet anon’s requests, so consider this an early christmas gift. Lmao. I hope your staying healthy. Btw I’ve choosen the most soft boy ever aka Harry Holland because that boy is lovely af - also this is my first time writing about the boys so pls be gentle 💛

Warnings: nothing much just a few curse words.

Spending quarentine and 24/7 trapped inside a house with the most loud, messy, cheeky boys ever wasn’t actually in your dream plans. Everyone got a part of their day busy, either was college, work, cooking, drinking, boys silly videogames challenges, boardgames and a lot of pranks. But apart from all that quarentine was making you guys build strong bonds.

You all tried to be active, productive and keep the days busy. But let me tell you this: that boys were always up to no good.

You were siting in the living room with your laptop in the coffee table and paying extreme attention to your zoom class. Harrison was in his, writing a few emails and you both were enjoying the quietness of the room while your teacher rambled about something important.

You totally missed Harry cheekily giggling and running into the living room, disappearing right after into the backyard. But little boy Tom definitely not gone unnoticed when he came shouting and shirtless, trying to catch his brother, making a quick appearence into your lecture since you had your camera and mic on the moment he passed behind you.

“HARRY! YOU’RE GONNA GET IT, YOU DICKHEAD!” Tom disapeared into the backyard door and Harrison looked at you trying his best not to laugh. You were looking at your classmates, with your face pale and widen eyes as you were noticing some of them laughing, freaking out and most importantly, your teacher had this serious unread expression on his face.

“That's it, I'm completely done”. You thought to yourself while smiling awkardly to the camera and thinking about million ways to murder Thomas freaking Holland.

"Wait, wasn't that dude, Spiderman?" Your teacher asked making Harrison and the rest of the class brust in laughter, meanwhile you grew red.

Apart from ruining zoom lectures, spending quality time with your bestfriends was the best thing. But most important, spending quality time with your very special friend Harry. Of course he didn’t knew he had a special place in you heart - and you meant to keep that way - but you two were very close and as the days went by it was more dificult to pretend that he didn’t make your stomach funny every morning when he came down and kissed your cheek, smelling heavenly with his sleepy eyes and messy curls.

Harrison was the mainly reason you've met Harry and the rest of the boys. It was during a summer break where you joined an workshop to learn more about the process of making movies and writing scripts. You didn't want to persue that professionally, but you needed exciting things to do on your summer break from high school so why not join a class to discuss movies?

You two got along right away after the teacher set you together to recreate a new ending for Titanic. You both did a comic approach, making everyone in the group laugh and even the teacher said that you were really a good duo. You had the writing skills and he had the acting. You were pretty unaware of Harrison’s truly intentions tho. But the minute he noticed your general interests about certain genres and cinema in general, the way you discuss the photography, scripts and plots even tho you didn’t understand very well about it and just by the way you stood in the theaters reading all the credits after a movie just ended. All of that simple things, reminded him of something. Or to be more precised, someone. That someone was nothing less than Harry Holland.

So he knew that he had to settle up you two, that you two would get along very well but Harrison wasn't going to force it, it had to happen naturally. That's why you started to hang out more with him. Going out to lunch or drink coffee, study sessions in the library, parties or movie sessions in his house and that eventually, gave you Tom.

Tom usually came with Harrison to the study sessions, studying his scrips and even joined the workshop at one point. Sadly he got off when he started working on the first big challenge in his career and all the Spiderman thing.

You three grew together and everyone started to getting in the right way of their lifes. Of course Tom knew his best friend's intentions from the start and decided to join the team of cupids.

It was needed one night at the pub, where you three were drinking and having a good time, to steping the plan to a whole another level.

"Guys, I'm going to quit the workshop." You said camly making Tom frown and Harrison almost spit his drink.

No no no, his plan didn't even started yet!! He thought.

"What? Why?!" Tom whined. After he had to quit it because his filming career, he was truly excited about his two best friends doing something similar to his job. He like the heated arguments and opinions about the films on movie nights, like you all had some sorta of film club.

"Did you got a boyfriend, is that it?" Harrison talked curious. "He doesn't let you hang with us?" He leaned on the tabled talking low as if he was saying a secret password.

"No Harrison, I'm still single. What the hell?" You chuckled and rolled your eyes.

This man and his obsession with my lofe life. You thought.

“I'm starting college and thats a big deal. I'm not going to have time to commit there, I only joined it as a hobby and it's been two years, guys." You smiled at them noticing their attention on you. "Also, I'm searching for a flat here, downtown before it all starts and I'm not finding anything." You simple explain frowning and taking a long sip on your drink and Tom's eyes lit up. He was proud of his flash thinking. Even if sometimes he wished he could just shut up and don’t say stupid things as his brothers would say to him.

"Move in with us, there's enough room there!" He let out excited. His eyes moved to Harrison and the blonde boy raised an eyebrow thinking further and understanding his best friend cheeky expression.

"Yeah, you could join us, darling. Real estate is a mess these days" Harrison smiled widely and your jaw dropped.

Are they serious right now?

"As if you knew about real estate." Tom rolled his eyes and Harrison playfully smacked his head.

"Uh-I-I don't know... You don't live there alone, what about the other guys? I don’t want to change the frat crazy house of yours.." You weren't sure if it was a good idea to move to a house without asking the other people who lived there.

"Oh you mean my brother Harry?" You nod after whatching Tom carefully. "He is super excited to met you, we’ve talk a lot about you". He simply let out making Harrison widen his blue eyes.Tom and his big mouth.

"Wait what?!" You asked being caught in surprise.

Three years later and there you were, standing in the kitchen, after Tom cooked dinner - by cooking you mean ordering - since it was your and Harry's turn to wash the dishes. As you washed the plates, he dried them with a white towel and was humming a song that was playing from his playlist. - swear that boy had a playlist for everything.

"Did you and Tom got your script thing sorted out yet?" You asked while passing a plate under the water. He stopped singing and listened to you carefully.

"Yeah, we are pretty far ahead. Moving to find a good plot. It's pretty hard" He answer grabbing the plate from your hands and noticing your eyes on his face, blushing slightly. "Don't tell Tom but I can give you the abstracts if you want to have a read? I know how much you love to read." He smiled and looked at your face properly. You were smiling widely and his heart softened finding your dimple extremely cute.

"Really?!" You sound so excited that he chuckled nodding.

"Of course. You're running out of books to read, I was planing on giving you one for Christmas but-" he continued driyng the plates but got caught in surprised when you kissed his cheek and said thanks. Seconds later he was right back in the kitchen after a short trip to the moon. "How's the online classes going?" He smiled, still blushing from your previous interaction, and looked at your face.

"It's going good." You stopped for a few seconds just admiring his face and the way his curls fell into his face lazily. He looked extremely cute in that green sweater. "I think my teacher fancies me more now. After the litle acident and knowing I share roof with spiderman, the dude." You said with a funny expression and you both laughed.

"Glad I could contribute on such achievements, miss." He bumped his shoulder into yours playfully. And you laughed even more. Your giggles filling the kitchen and besides the music playing on his playlist, Harry swore it was the most beautiful melodies he ever heard.

You two returned your attention to the sink and as you were doing it you got caugh in a Arctic Monkeys music playing and trying to remember the lyrics.

Click.

Your attention was brought back after hearing a camera and seeing a flash. Harry was still looking at you thru the lense with a lovely smile.

"Harry? Oh my god, no!" You blushed at his bold moves. "I'm looking horrible right now. Why did you take a picture?"

"Nonsense. You look so cute while doing the dishes." He turned the camera, showing you the picture and you blushed even more.

"Eww. Please, delete it." You warned and he chuckled putting the camera straps above his neck and resting the camera on his chest.

"I'm not going to delete it, love." He kept his task as you. "Sorry not sorry." He laughed maliciously and you rolled your eyes.

"You're going to delete it." You looked at him and he clicked his tongue.

"Uh-uh." He hummed moving his head negatively and his curls balanced up and down. That was a good sight.

"Oh yeah?" You raised and eyebrow asking one more time and didn't even gave him the time to turn your direction. Your hands already throwing him foam and he stepped back, foam hitting his hoodie and his chest.

He smirked but his hands went to his camera, inspection it.

"Oh shit, the camera." Your mouth making a "o" shape. "Im sorry H, I didn't thought about it." You pouted giving him the most apologetic smile and he pulled a poker face at you for a few minutes.

You were starting to believe that you actually broke the device but then he started to laugh hard.

"It's water proof, dummy." He showed you his tongue and hit you smoothly with the towel in your face.

"You absolute arse!" You thrown him more foam and after a peace threaten by his hands up, he finally stopped laughing. "Im serious now, delete the picture, carrot." You warned and he laughed at the nickname.

"I think I'm going to set it as my wallpaper." His words rolled out of his tongue so easily as he concentrate on drying the plates again and you didn't even moved from your spot, getting caught by his words.

"What?" You asked finally, studying his face and his eyes opened widely. "Harry why use my picture as your background?" You dried your hands.

Did I said that out loud? Damn it, Harry you fucking dick. He thought.

"Hmm..." He swallowed. "It's a really nice picture. You look rather pretty.... And I-uh kinda like you, I guess." His hands scratching his head and his blood stopping running thru his body. Well there wasn't no intention of hidden it now.

"Oh I'm so enjoying this." Tom said to Harrison, as they were siting across the room in the couch watching the whole scene in silence. You two didn't even noticed them spying.

"It's a romcom and we were the directors of it." Harrison joked and Tom chuckled.

"Thanks." You smiled and went to hug Harry. "You look rather pretty too." You said into his shoulder and earned a kind smile from him "Look." You were closer to him and your head moved back to look into his eyes properly, his hand traveled to your back and laid way to high for your liking. But it was Harry, and he was always so respectful that he didn't want to be sneaky or ruin the moment by placing his hands too down. You found that gesture so cute.

"I think I kinda like you, too." Your face got closer to his and his eyes closed feeling your hot breath hit his face. You stand there admiring his freckles for minutes.

"Do we have to move their heads too?" Harrison asked whispering. The duo was watching the scene unfold ahead of them with frowning expressions.

"Why aren't they kissing?" Tom dramatically pulled a face as if their plan came out totally wrong after all those years of dedication.

Harry started to dance slowly, his lashes clicked a few times and he opened his eyes. And you followed him. You both had silly smiles on your faces and after a long time of slowly dancing in his arms. He lean in, kissing you passionately. And you returned the kiss, like you meant to tell him that you loved him all along.

Continuously gags and whistles followed by an loud “FINALLY” from Harrison could be heard from the kitchen making Harry and you pull back from the kiss and stare at the boys. You both smiled and kissed again.

"Oh get a room you two!" Tuwaine shouted after entering the kitchen surprisingly and seeing you.

Despite that, you two didn't pulled back and Harry gave them the middle finger, covering your faces and the kiss with his hand, from the sneaky bastards across the room.

"We've created monsters" Tom's statement made everyone laugh.

#Harry Holland #harryholland #harry holland request #tom holland #harrison osterfield #harry holland #Harry Holland imagine #Harryholland #holland brothers #Holland boys

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emsartwork · 5 years ago

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What are your winx couple headcanons?

Other questions about relationships also answered below

Like how they interact? I talked a little bit about the canon dynamics in an ask-dump here but I’ll write a little more and copy paste stuff here lol

BLOOM AND SKY: so bloom and sky aren’t the most stable couple, and in my version it would take bloom a little longer to be ok with dating a prince. Bloom is fairly insecure in her relationships because of self worth issues, and tend to run away from problems instead of dealing with them. Sky on the other hand is confident but doesn’t really know how to handle people’s feelings and tends to push confrontation. Bloom is also prefers to move a little slower than Sky would maybe prefer, like he’s good with their relationship and tries not to push Bloom or make her upset but he’d probably like to be married already lol. Bloom and Sky have figured out that if they’re having conflict issues, one of the best things to do is for them to write out whats bothering them and send letters/texts/emails back and forth. This gives Bloom a safe space and time to process her emotions, and lets Sky express his opinion with out getting to intense and pushing for Bloom to talk to him. They’ve taken to doing this with non-conflict thingies too, like its not out of the norm for Sky to receive a wax sealed envelope with a beautifully calligraphied message on parchment that simply says Bloom saw a super fluffy dog that day lol

STELLA AND BRANDON: They love each other so much its the best omg. Stella finds her worth in her appearance but she always seems to take Brandon’s complements in a less…. arrogant way? if that makes sense? like she truly appreciates them and wants his support. I wish we knew more about Brandon but he’s legit such a good boyfriend. I think they fight mostly when Stella is being a little selfish, or when Brandon is too busy to meet her emotional needs. I think Brandon and Stella are the kind of couple that could be married for years and still feel like they’re on their honeymoon, They would probably get married because of societal pressure but if Stella wasn’t a princess they wouldn’t bother with the ceremony since it wouldn’t change their devotion to each other. They flirt with other people pretty casually but neither would EVER cheat or go any further than idle compliments. Stella’s fear of being alone/disliked is still present, but Brandon will generally just pick up some chocolate, put on a movie and let Stella do his nails or hair or make-up whenever she’s feeling down. Stella was perfectly fine with Brandon not being a prince, she came to terms with the situation a lot faster than Bloom did. However, she does try to make sure Brandon knows she’s with him for him. One of Stella’s main love languages is gifts, and Brandon does appreciate it, but his main love language is actually acts of service, so sometimes he feels a little underappreciated (if Stella doesn’t pick up on this Sky will and let her know). In which case Stella will sneakily figure out what he needs and will take care of it (shopping for a new coat? done. its super flattering and makes his eyes pop. mess hall cleaning duty at Red Fountain? she’ll do it(with some magical assistance). he doesn’t have time to make himself lunch? she will try her best but it might be safer for her to order him some take out) Like Stella is silly, excitable, and can be self centered but she loves her people and wants to make sure they know that.

FLORA AND HELIA: So Helia is more of a drama queen in the comics but we’ll ignore that for right now lol. Flora and Helia are probably the least problematic couple in the entire show. They met. Flirted a little. Confessed. and started dating with out any major problems. I think both Helia and Flora’s love language is quality time so they’re fairly low key and just like to be in the same space with each other. Unfortunately their issues stem from both of them being passive aggressive. Like Flora doesn’t want to cause problems or upset anyone, and Helia just doesn’t freaking talk. This can lead to slow simmering fights that build until one of them blows up. They learn to catch the signs of that starting earlier and earlier tho, so they’re both learning its better to bring up an issue earlier if its gonna be a problem later. Flora thinks Helia would be happier as a full time artist than as a warrior or mage, but knows he needs to come to his own conclusion.

TECNA AND TIMMY: They’re super cute honestly. I think Timmy was probably the one to instigate the relationship and bonded with Tecna over technology since she wasn’t super emotionally available at first. They have issues when Tecna is unable to voice her emotions and Timmy needs to know what she’s feeling mostly, but after the first few times they’ve both learned to give the other space to figure their stuff out. Timmy will ask Tecna to use Emoji’s if she’s having a really difficult time figuring out what she’s feeling. He knows its not fair to Tecna but Timmy sometimes feels a little resentful because she’s had a fairly easy life, access to top rate tech, rich parents, stable environment, and barely had to study, while Timmy scrapped and saved and had to learn fast because of his environment.(his home isn’t exactly unsafe, but asteroid colonies are nomadic by nature which mean a certain level of instability is part of living in one)

MUSA AND RIVEN: Ok so, ignoring the several times Riven was LITERALLY MIND CONTROLLED his character is still difficult to deal with. I think Musa and Riven are both very intense people, and while that can be super fun and develop into a good relationship, it can also lead to LOTS of problems. For their relationship, I think they wouldn’t even start dating until like season 3 era at the earliest.(this is partially why season 4 is so rough for them, its a new relationship) a lot of their issues would stem from their attachment issues and how they respond to insecurity. Riven’s mom left him, just fucking dropped out of his life while he was a young kid, leaving him with an emotionally distant and dismissive father he could never please. So Riven responds by pushing people away before they can reject him, becoming controlling, or dismissing them in anger and pretending not to care about their opinion. Musa’s mother was taken away from her by illness. I think it happened in Musa’s early teens, since it’s clearly still a tender subject in the first season. A parents death is painful no matter the circumstance, but a sickness that slowly steals the person you love away from you must be incredibly painful. As a result, Musa experience a lot of anxiety about the people she loves leaving her(whether by their choice or not), and becomes clingy, emotionally demanding, and sensitive. When Riven pushes her away to protect himself Musa tries to force her way back to him, when Musa wants Riven to act certain way or do something to ease her anxiety (even if its irrational and she is at fault) Riven dismisses her needs because it means he can keep himself safe from failure. They have similar problems but the way they respond to it ends up escalating every issue. They do eventually grow and become vulnerable with each other, Riven tries to express his affection more(even if it’s not through words) instead of hiding them in fear of rejection, and Musa tries to explain when her feelings are hurt more clearly instead of just assuming Riven knows what he did wrong. They also clash a bit over parentage, both only have their dads left, but Musa’s is involved and (now)supportive, while Riven’s is still distant. Musa has positive memories of her mother and misses her a lot, but Riven has very few memories and is terribly angry at his mother. I think that Riven still left at the end of season 6, but they didn’t exactly break up, they both recognized that Riven needed some time away from the specialists to work on his own shit and gain confidence in his own skills and self worth, so it turned into a low key long distance thing. (if he hadn’t come back in season 8 they would just decide to break it off but lol he’s back)

AISHA AND NABU: ugh perfect couple. minus the kind of sketchy beginning lol. Aisha and Nabu generally don’t fight once they get used to each other. Nabu is a focal point that Aisha is kind of bungee corded to if that makes sense? like obviously not in a restricting way. Its just Aisha is hella active/independent and needs her own space to explore and grow, but Nabu is her solid ground that she relies on and always comes back to. Nabu and Aisha are both smart, but Nabu is a little more of a nerd than Aisha and has a lot of book knowledge. Nabu sometimes gets irritated at Aisha’s impulsiveness, he tries to let it go and jump with her sometimes but generally just lets her do her own thing, of course on the other hand, Aisha can get irritated at Nabu’s resistance to change, she knows pestering and pushing him won’t help tho so she tries to slow down and walk through it with him when she can.

AISHA AND NEX: So like I said Aisha is an active, independent woman, and if Nabu was a separate, stationary, focal point for her, I think Nex is related, moving, counter point. So like Nex can actually keep up with Aisha, and push her and challenge her. Which isn’t a bad thing in relationships so long as a mutual respect is there. Nex is aggressive and can be hot headed but I think he actually takes life at a slower pace than Aisha who is a master of multitasking. Aisha admires Nex’s drive but wishes he would be a little more directional with it. When they’re not being competitive, they have a very weird calming effect around each other. Aisha and Nex don’t seem to notice this, but the rest of the group picked up on it one day and could not for the life them figure out how two such intense people could have such a chill vibe.

Daphne and Thoren actually met when they were kids, but didn’t spend much time together because it was at a formal event. Daphne is technically 20 years older than Thoren(only a few years older than Sky), but they’re the same physical age because Daphne spent so long as a spirit. I also like to think Thoren met her as a spirit(with out recognizing her) during his paladin training. They probably wouldn’t get married as quickly in my version, especially with Daphne’s trauma. Daphne was actually receiving physical and mental therapy on Ohm when Thoren visited the planet as part of his paladin duties. They didn’t hit it off right away, but didn’t dislike each other or anything. They actually bonded over scars, Thoren has scars from some paladin related incidents, but also has a scar from when he attempted suicide. Daphne asked him about his first, she eventually explained hers to him but since they were more recent it took a little longer for her to come to terms with what happened to her. Thoren finds her scars beautiful, partially because they’re a part of Daphne, but also because they mean she survived and that she’s healing. Daphne will have nightmares sometimes and Thoren has a whole routine for comforting her and helping her feel safe and grounded. Thoren gets anxious easily, and Daphne will use her magic to subtly change the environment so he feels more comfortable. They like to watch reality tv together and yell at stupid dramatic people. Daphne is terrified of losing her loved ones and can be over protective of Thoren even though he can take care of himself, and Thoren hesitates to ask her to do anything for him because he’s (irrationally)nervous about overwhelming her. In the future, Daphne is a little unsure about asking him to marry her, not because of their relationship, but because he would assume the role of King of Domino and that’s a lot of pressure but they discuss it and work through everything together. Neither of them are good at gardening, but they have a little section of the Domino castle gardens they like to try and grow things in. Thoren also does fine metal work with wires.

Their families are very pleased with the relationship. Thoren’s mom and Daphne are pretty different but vibe together really well. Thoren and Oritel take up sparing together and Oritel has no problems with Daphne’s choice of partner. Thoren’s dad finds Daphne to be a very fine young lady, though he has concerns that his son is with some one who has so much recent trauma and he worries it’ll kick start Thoren’s depression again. Marion doesn’t think anybody is good enough for her girls but Thoren comes pretty close, Thoren has expressed interest in learning magic, and Marion is eager to teach him, though he may regret letting her once the lessons actually start lol.

Oritel and Marion like Sky well enough, and they recognize he’s still young and is growing, but they privately think Bloom could do better. Erendor and Samara are concerned about Bloom’s civilian background (how will she handle ruling a kingdom when she has no political training?) and though the Dragon flame would be a huge asset to Eraklyon in power it could also draw unwanted attention and attacks so they’re also concerned about that. But besides those issues, Erendor actually really likes Bloom. Samara.... is very stiff and formal so its hard to tell if she likes Bloom or if she’s just being civil and tolerating her.

Brandon’s parents LOVE Stella, they think she’s hilarious and cute and they dote on her whenever possible. If Stella and Brandon ever broke up they would probably still invite her to family events and stuff lol. Luna and Radius, when they’re not dealing with their own relationship issues, enjoy Brandon’s company. They kind of wish Stella had chosen a Solarian partner, but its customary to let Solarian children follow their heart and pick their own partner.

Timmy’s mom hasn’t met Tecna in person, but Timmy talks about her all the time and Timmy’s mom thinks she sounds wonderful. Electronio and Magnethia were unsure of Timmy at first. They ran the numbers through the Zenithian Compatibility and Success in Relationship Indicator and Timmy + Tecna didn’t do so well on paper. However, Tecna was absolutely firm in her decision to be with Timmy even if it didn’t make sense to her parents, which was unusual for her. They like him a lot now, even if they don’t fully understand how he works lol.

Helia’s dads think Flora is a total catch for Helia like “damn son how did you convince her to date you???” Helia just groans and rolls his eyes. Magic dad likes to talk nature magic with Flora and Warrior dad is always trying to teach her some new self defense tactic when she visits, much to the embarrassment of his son. Alyssa and Rhodos like Helia, even if they think he’s a little out there. Like Flora, they try to encourage his pursuit of art. Miele likes to mess with Helia and pull pranks on him, Helia pretends to be horribly offended but he actually thinks she’s hilarious.

Aisha was a dream match for Nabu’s parents, they cared more about her status as princess than her as a person at first. After Nabu’s death they blamed Aisha and rejected all of her attempts to contact them. In the process of healing, they’ve reached out to her and are trying to appreciate/get to know her as some one their son loved and not just a rung on the social ladder. Aisha’s parents liked Nabu, they didn’t really get to know him very well, but thought he was a smart, capable, and well mannered young man. They saw Aisha was happy with him and left it at that.

Aisha’s parent’s were less sure of Nex, Andros is a fairly planet centric culture, and Nex, as a Mare Lynphean especially, didn’t quite fit into their Land/Sea dichotomy. Aisha of course, isn’t one to follow social norms if she doesn’t want to. Nex is a little worried about her parents approval, but Aisha insists that the only approval he needs is hers. Niobe and Teredor are currently leaving the relationship as is, knowing fighting Aisha will just make her dig her heels in more. Nex eventually wins them over with his bravery, charm, and devotion to Aisha. When Nex told his parents he was dating a princess, they were kind of surprised. They were also surprised when Aisha turned out to be an athletic, independent, and brash young woman instead of a delicate, dependent, and prissy princess. They absolutely approve and love spending time with her.

Musa hasn’t met Riven’s dad. Riven and his dad aren’t close, they talk maybe once a month and its usually a text from his dad with “update request; academics, physical health, extra curricular, and relationships statuses.” and Riven usually just responds with “update; fuck off.” Riven’s dad does know he’s dating some one but doesn’t have a lot of information. Musa’s dad DID NOT like Riven at first. He didn’t like his look, his reputation, or his attitude. however, Ho-Boe comes from a warrior background, though he prefer(ed)s musical pursuits, he came to respect Riven’s discipline in those areas, and eventually was able to relate to Riven’s rejection of his heritage.

Bloom and Daphne are a little.... one sided, at least in the beginning. When Bloom first meets Daphne (that she remembers) Daphne isn’t even a real person, she’s a dream or at most a spirit. Even after Bloom learns her name Daphne is a mystery, and its not until like end of season three that they start talking regularly. On Daphne’s side, Bloom was a toddler, and then is suddenly grown up. Daphne still thinks of her like her baby sister, even tho the two of them are, physically, almost the same age now. Daphne also always knew she had a sister, while Bloom thought of herself as an only child for the majority of her life at this point. So while they love each other and get a long pretty well, they have misconceptions and don’t always view the other person as they actually are.

Sure! Stormy likes cream puffs, like A LOT. She owns only dark red lipsticks. She likes doing her makeup but has no patience for her hair, she usually chops a lot of it off every couple months and just lets it do whatever it wants. Stormy has a “worry stone” made of metal she keeps in her pocket. She’s got adhd and Darcy sometimes magically helps calm her brain down when she needs to focus. Stormy of course, loves thunder storms, she gets little electric shivers when they’re getting close. She collects static like nobodies business. Stormy is primarily Omegean and Androsian, tho a little Dominian, Zenithian, and Melodian blood runs through her veins as well. She likes cats.

yaaaaaaas, ok so I actually gave his dads names finally Vaonaaj dad is Bi’ran (bee-ran) and Lynphean dad is Reed (last name is Deshene). When Helia was born Bi’ran used magic to like float him around and keep him out of trouble and stuff and it annoyed the hell out of Reed (like “for natures sake please don’t hex my son” “im not hexing him its just a floating spell!!”) Reed gave Helia a little sword really early and Bi’ran was appalled ( ”why would you give him a weapon he’s like FIVE” “good he can learn early”) When Helia started to express interest in art his dads were confused af because neither of them have an artistic bone in their bodies. They try to be supportive but honestly have no idea what Helia is doing lol. Helia really wants to please them both so he spent a year at Lynphea College in the basic magic course. When warrior dad(Reed) started to pressure him to learn to fight as well, Helia’s grandfather Saladin offered him a place at Red Fountain, partially because he could see Helia needed his own space to figure himself out and partially because it would appease Reed. Helia was only planning on staying at Red fountain for a year but his relationship with Flora and his friendships with the rest of the group extended his stay. Bi’ran and Reed know they need to let Helia make his own path, but they worry and just want the best for him so they tend to stick to what they know and are comfortable with when advising him(magic and fighting respectively). Bi’ran and Reed have a standing date night every week, and usually they get really out of hand as they try to outdo the other in excitement and romance (dinner and movie one week leads to a 5 course meal and an play the next which leads to a private chef, a one of a kind meal, and an entire theater rented out for a personal performance etc etc etc) until they both realize they’re being ridiculous and promise to keep it simple from then on and the cycle repeats itself. Bi’ran really likes to play with Reed’s hair. Helia always beats them both at card games.

#winx #winxems #askems #anonymous #geovanabeatrizberredo #winx couples #im not tagging everyone good lord #winx daphne #winx stormy #winx helia #reed #bi'ran #relationships

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detectiveran · 5 years ago

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Shinichi Kudou was enamored. And not in the normal way either. Didn’t usually people met, talked, hung out, did the whole social interactions shebang before they got attached? But it seemed like he missed all those steps because boy, was he hooked.

In his defense, these weren’t normal circumstances at all. He had seen her in award shows and television when he, himself was new to the music industry. Her voice was so angelic, so beautiful that he couldn’t help himself but admire her. As a man of words, her voice was an inspiration to him. He would be lying if he said that hearing Ran Mouri’s voice sing didn’t bring out the best of his words out of him.

Ran Mouri had made herself a household name at the age of eighteen as a soloist. Guided under the watchful and protective eyes of her parents, who had supported her dream of being a singer, she had successfully launched her career which was full of critical accolades and the general public’s admiration.

Shinichi had first heard her voice on the radio and was awestruck at how much her voice moved him. She had such an emotive voice and soulful lyrics that he could practically paint the picture her song presented. Her songs sent chills down his spine.

He had always been a fan of music, finding solace in the world of melodies, words and the emotions they conveyed. He, himself, had written some songs down and won few local songwriting competitions. Apparently, his words had the power of making the listener feel them viscerally. Shinichi didn’t put in much stock in those compliments but hearing her voice, he knew he had to take the plunge. He couldn’t sit around forever, knowing that he loved writing songs, but never did anything about it.

And so, in the month of September, at the age of eighteen; same age as Ran, Shinichi started sending his songs to various music agencies. It took a lot of sleepless nights, endless strings of disappointment, being cheated out of his money, three years and almost quitting to finally, finally land up as a songwriter.

SC or the Suzuki Corporation, was a big name in the music industry. They had produced endless musicians, all very talented and beautiful looking, to capture the hearts of general public. He had been able to attend award shows and see Ran Mouri perform on various occasions, and her performance never disappointed him. Shinichi was proud of himself to have a job in that company but it didn’t last for long.

The first time he met the group of songwriters for the band he was supposed to write, he was sorely disappointed how shallow their words were. Yes, the melodies were catchy and the repetitive hook was going to be stuck in public’s mind but what about the words? Weren’t they the core essence of the song? Shinichi was baffled but kept his thoughts to himself. After all, he was a newbie. And the company had a record of doling out hit music, who was he to start being all knowing about an industry in which he had just stepped in.

But after months of mind numbing lyrics and hit dance numbers, he had reached his limit. He was a songwriter, for god’s sake! And it wasn’t as if he didn’t appreciate upbeat, pop music. He did, if they were written well but the songwriters at SC sucked at their job. He needed a vessel to let go of his frustration. He didn’t have that big of a dream, he didn’t want to sing or dance or appear on stages, he just wanted to write and it seemed like he was never going to get that chance if he stayed at SC.

So, one night, he popped his headphones in, played his Ran Mouri playlist and wrote. He wrote for the whole night, his eyes burned with the need to sleep but his mind was on full drive. He need to let go of the anger, disappointment and hope he had felt all these months and so he wrote.

Later, he would blame it on sleep deprivation and split second insanity, but Shinichi did something he never had the courage to in all of these years and so he sent the lyrics he had written to Kisaki Eri, Ran Mouri’s agent.

In his defense though, it was her who had contacted him which had been a by product of rubbing elbows with industry people. Apparently, Eri had read his songs when he was a teenager and was interested in what he had to offer. Shinichi had been awestruck at that time and had nodded his head fervently and thanked her profusely for reading what he had written. Her praise had been enough for him to stick it out at the SC but now he was done. He knew he needed to let go of the insecurity he held that his songs weren’t good enough and grab the chance Eri Kisaki had presented to him. His sleep deprived self agreed and so, the songs were sent.

When he woke up in the middle of the day with two email notifications and thirty four missed calls, he knew he had done something stupid.

The short of it was that he was fired from SC as he had breached his contract with them by sending his songs to people outside of their company and that he was also hired by Eri Kisaki as a producer, if he was interested.

Now, Shinichi knew he could be a hare brained moron who made dumb decisions but he wasn’t a brain dead moron. Being a producer? At the Kisaki Agency? The one in which his inspiration, Ran Mouri, was in? The words yes and thank you and grateful weren’t enough to describe the elation he was feeling.

And so, the next morning, with butterflies in his stomach and his heart in his throat, he rapped the door of the self made company and was struck stupid when Ran Mouri, herself, answered.

“Hi, are you Shinichi Kudou? My mom’s expecting you,” she said with a smile.

He must have nodded or did something to indicate that, yes, he was Shinichi Kudou and yes, her mom was expecting him but for the life of him, he couldn’t remember what he said. He just hoped it was a coherent sentence because how embarrassing would it be if a song writer couldn’t come up with words?

His meeting did get better though, he was surprised how much Eri Kisaki and Kogoro Mouri cared about music. And he found himself agreeing with their vision. He was excited at the prospect of working with them, of writing his songs and giving shape to his thoughts. He felt invigorated and he knew he had made the right decision to send his songs to them.

In the months that followed, Shinichi had never been happier. The parent-daughter trio was a trip. They fought endlessly and never failed to speak up whenever they felt that something didn’t measure up to their standards. They went on trips and amusement parks and acted like they were kids. There was no pompous bone in their bodies. The only thing that did indicate that they were a music agency was the recording room upstairs filled with equipments and Ran’s trophies.

Shinichi had always been enamored by her voice and her words but now, seeing her pen down her words first hand and seeing the whole process of her being in the studio, his respect for her grew tenfold. This girl was twenty four, same age as him, but she was so talented, so hard working that it felt like she was on an another spectrum.

And so he did something stupid again, he wrote a song for her. Now, the thing is he wrote songs for her because he was a producer but this song was for her for her. As in, it was about her. As a homage. This wasn’t the stupid thing though, after all, he did have a habit of writing his feelings down. No, that wasn’t the stupid thing he had done. What he did was that he let that song stay in the public folder that the four of them shared. So, he wasn’t surprised at all when Eri Kisaki smiled at him slyly and commented on his infatuation with her daughter the next day. Shinichi had grappled for words, explaining how the admiration was just as an artist and he didn’t have any nefarious intentions.

But he knew that he was lying, well, not lying, just not saying the complete truth. He did like Ran. As in like her as a woman. They had gotten closer and he would be lying if he didn’t feel the warm, fuzzy butterflies whenever she was in the vicinity. The thing was that he didn’t think that he was in her league. It was Ran Mouri. The soloist of their generation. He was insane to even think about having romantic feelings for her but he knew he could hide his one sided feelings for her, or so he thought.

But it seemed like his feelings weren’t one sided.

“Hi, Shinichi! Can you check this sentence? I can’t seem to find the right words for it,” Ran said.

Shinichi smiled at her and said, “Sure, let me read through it.” He held his hand out for the sheet of paper and Ran sat beside him.

They were close enough that their shoulders kept touching. Shinichi had to remind himself to keep breathing and not spaz out, he had a tendency to do that when he was alone in her presence.

The moment he concentrated on her words though, everything disappeared. She had such an expressive way of writing that it always made his heart beat faster. Visceral, that was what those judges had said those years ago and reading Ran’s words, he thought that he could understand what they were talking about. Those heart palpitations were never induced when he was at SC.

As far as her request was concerned though, he said, “Nah, the word fits perfectly. You are expressing your affection, right? And comparing it to a flower that’s blossoming? So, using softer words and metaphors work out really well. It looks cohesive.”

He turned his head to the side to see how Ran received his thoughts and was surprised to find her face so close to his. His eyes instinctively lowered to her lips and then back up to her eyes, in a quick motion. Everything around him faded to background and all he could see her was eyes, which were staring right back at him.

Their eyes locked for a few seconds and he was speechless. Was he supposed to say something? What was he supposed to say? Was this awkward? It was awkward, wasn’t it? He should speak up but he didn’t want to. Ran had beautiful eyes, he didn’t want her eyes to stray away from his and he knew, if he spoke up, their moment would break and he didn’t want th-

“I like you.”

!!!!

#dcmk #detective conan #shinran #shinichi kudou #ran mouri #shinichi kudo #ran mori #musicians au #my writing #another incoherent babble #thank you for reading it as always #on a scale of -90 to 0 how much brain cells you lost pls comment

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aelaer · 5 years ago

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Suicide TW!!! I live for the Nick/Stephen frenemy relationship, so: AU where Stephen is severely depressed and, instead of crashing his car, he parks in a pull-over and attempts suicide (drugs, alcohol, cutting, up to you) only to then be hit by an oncoming car. As a result, he ends up in hospital to realise that not only is he still alive, but Nick knows what he did. He can't stand the shame and humiliation, until he hears the words "I'm sorry" out of nowhere.

Okay nonny, so a couple things:

By relationship I presume you meant “platonic relationship” as my list of (serious) romance-focused stories in the MCU is a big fat zero and will remain that way probably for some time. If not all time. But I never say never.

I altered the scenario a bit and decided not to use a car crash, but the main elements (depression/suicide, Nick and Stephen interaction, Nick Knowing) remain. This also sort of allows it to potentially be in the “realm of canon” with enough stretching, should one decide to want the headcanon. Though IMO this is an AU-verse.

So I hope that’s all okay and you still find it fulfilling. I’ve never actually written Nick before (though I dabbled with the idea of all the events of Doctor Strange from Nick’s POV like, back when the film first came out) so that was also fun. I really dislike fics that make him look like an idiot (or worse, a pervert for some weird ass reason) so it’s great to get my own view out.

And I also didn’t want to write a book because I’ve got too many WIPs that are books that need to get finished first, so I was going for “short and sweet”. In a manner of speaking. I mean it seems I’m still incapable of doing something under 2000 words but it’s shorter than the last prompt so you know, I’m getting there.

As the prompt suggests, this fic will go into detail about very serious subjects around mental health, including depression and suicide. Please proceed with caution if these are sensitive subjects for you.

Please also note that the symptoms and actions taken within the story are not a guide or diagnosis tool and should be interpreted as strictly fictional. Please refer to official literature such as those offered by the National Suicide Prevention Hotline (US) and other verified sources for what you should do if you believe someone you know is suffering from suicidal thoughts.

Written for @stephenstrangebingo square, “It’s Not About You”.

—————–

Every employee at Metro-General took the confidentiality of their patients’ conditions seriously. There was no doctor or nurse on staff that could be bribed to leak any celebrity’s medical information; they were known for having some of the best doctors for a reason. Many of the elite of New York went to that hospital in the middle of Midtown for that famous discretion.

There was, however, one glaring exception to this rule that every nurse and doctor learned early on: if one of their co-workers had something very serious happen to them, their status would eventually leak out to the rest of the staff. There was never anything particularly hostile about the whispers, and while curiosity was the biggest fuel to the information train, news tended to spread out from concern rather than scorn. This trend even applied to staff members that were generally seen as assholes.

Doctor Nicodemus West learned this during his next shift. A couple minutes after entering his office, just as he was getting into his email inbox, a quick knock at the open door broke his concentration. He looked up and smiled. “Morning, Alyssa.”

The nurse offered a brief smile in greeting, but stepped inside and closed the door before speaking. “Did you hear the news?” she asked softly; her smile was gone.

His brow furrowed. “I’m sorry, news?”

“Doctor Strange was admitted to the ER last night.”

His mind came to a screeching halt. “What? Seriously?” He generally avoided the man if he could, though from what was going around the gossip circles the last couple weeks, Strange was still a raging asshole, but in good health. “What happened?”

Alyssa shook her head. “I don’t know all the details, but he had to get his stomach pumped.”

Nick winced in sympathy; that was not a pleasant experience. “Jeez,” he muttered. “Is he doing okay?”

“Last I heard, he’s stable,” she answered. “Apparently Doctor Palmer’s still his emergency contact, though.”

“She would be anyone’s emergency contact; she’s too good of a person,” he replied in return. “Thanks for letting me know, though; I suspect others in the department may need to take some of his patients that can’t wait for him.”

Alyssa nodded. “The administration is already looking through his cases, though I expect he’ll be up and back at work as soon as he can. Doctor Strange is never really one for breaks.”

“I suppose not,” said Nick. The conversation turned to other topics and the neurosurgeon put the matter with Strange in the back of his mind, left as generally unimportant in the grand scheme of his life.

—————

Strange got back to work and things got back to normal in the neurology department.

Only thing was, Nick started noticing things.

While Doctor West was no prodigy like Doctor Strange, he would not have the ability to become a neurosurgeon without the ability to notice details. It was the details in life— in the human body in particular— that fascinated him and turned him towards medicine in the first place. No, he wasn’t a prodigy, but he was still damn good at his job.

So when Strange came back to the office a few days after his visit to the ER, Nick decided to break his usual policy of avoiding Strange as much as humanly possible and went to his office to welcome him back. It was good for department morale to act mostly cordial to each other, even if most of the effort was on his part.

The door was open and Strange was still in his outer coat, back to him, when Nick knocked on the doorway. The doctor turned to face him and Nick raised a hand in greeting. “Hey. Just wanted to say welcome back.”

Strange’s brow furrowed and he made a rather weird expression. “Oh… uh, thanks.” He turned to the coat rack in the corner of the room and began to remove his outerwear.

“How’re you…” Nick started, but paused as the coat was fully removed, revealing Strange’s dress shirt underneath. It hung rather loosely on his figure; apparently the man had lost some weight recently. Due to Christine Palmer’s honeymoon phase about two years ago, Nick was more aware than he would prefer to be about how ‘fit’ Doctor Stephen Strange was (which really was unfair).

It seemed that wasn’t the case anymore. When had that happened?

Strange didn’t seem to notice his trailing off. “I’m fine. Perfectly alright, thank you. I hope you didn’t botch any of my surgeries while I was gone.”

And there was the asshole he remembered. Nick pressed his lips together. “All your patients are recovering without setback. You can even see them for yourself.” He did his best to cut back the bite of sarcasm in his last sentence.

If Strange heard it, he didn’t comment on it. “I’ll let the nurses handle it. Now if you’ll excuse me, I do have a lot of emails to catch up on. Close the door behind you, if you would.”

Nick rolled his eyes and shut the door as he left the office, but the detail seen settled in the back of his mind to remain quiet, but not forgotten.

And with that one thing noticed, he started to notice more things as the weeks passed on.

According to Alyssa, Strange was rarely seen in the hospital cafeteria anymore— one of the cafeteria staff members who had an open crush on the doctor was complaining about it, apparently.

Strange was having bouts of insomnia, according to gossiping security personnel. There were times that doctors did not go home for the night, but his were becoming more consistent occurrences.

As Nick ate with members from both his usual surgical team and Strange’s surgical team one lunch time a few weeks after Strange came back to work, the topic somehow went to Strange and his uncanny recollection for music, no matter the genre or decade it was released. It was well known that he liked to have the others on his team try and challenge him with their song choices while he was performing his operations.

“Not anymore,” said Billy, and Alyssa frowned at him.

“What? But that’s his gig! He’s been doing that for years.”

Billy shrugged. “He hasn’t been doing it for a few months now. He’s told us he doesn’t care what we want to play, but he doesn’t guess at songs anymore. Doesn’t give any recommendations, either. It sort of sucks; my music library has barely expanded this year.”

“Maybe you need to find something really challenging, a song so obscure that he’ll be drawn into it again,” she said. “I wonder how well he knows Jamaican music.”

“We tried British and Australian Top Hits of the ‘80s last year, but we haven’t done Jamaica. Do Jamaicans generally speak English? He hasn’t memorized songs from every language in the world.”

She rolled her eyes, and as Alyssa started explaining the history of Jamaica and Jamaican Creole, Nick stored this new bit of information away in the section of his brain that, somehow, had become dedicated to collecting all these tidbits.

And Nick noticed that every time he bumped into the other neurosurgeon in the hall, he appeared exhausted. Nick did not know if anyone else noticed the clear loss of weight and the dark bags around his eyes, but they were blindingly obvious to him.

Usually Strange moved with an endless amount of energy when off to surgery, and with some of the more challenging surgeries the energy stayed with him no matter how long the procedure took. It was an exuberance that even he admired, though it was never something he planned to admit to Strange. But now the energy was missing. He was still snarky and aloof, but the spark of genuine joy that was once clear to everyone in the department was gone.

If Strange was a friend, he would have acted weeks ago. If Strange was a colleague he got along with, he would have waited no longer than a month, just to make sure. But two months after his short medical hiatus and Nick remained uncertain, because this was Stephen Strange. Surely no one as big-headed and arrogant as he could ever actually be— yes, there were some signs, but it just seemed too far-fetched. Surely not.

A couple weeks later and some of the doctors from neurosurgery, some from cardiology, and some from the ER were having a rare lunch together. Somehow Christine Palmer had managed to drag Strange out of his office to see his coworkers. And somehow he ended up sitting next to Strange, though the man was mostly quiet as he took the occasional bite from his salad. That in itself was very unusual, as Nick was used to Strange enjoying all the attention of the room.

The conversation turned to a sudden, inexplicable death that happened just yesterday that the hospital was still trying to solve. As theories went around the table, Nick heard Strange mutter under his breath, “Maybe she just realized life wasn’t worth living.” None of the others heard it. Nick pretended he didn’t, either.

But the comment resonated in his head for the rest of the day.

————

This was not going to be comfortable. This was not going to be easy. Nick hated that he, of all people, had noticed. Had no one else seen it?

It only took another day to push his discomfort aside. “It’s not about you,” he mumbled to himself in the mirror in the early morning. “Strange needs help.” And he was a doctor, first and foremost. And doctors helped people in need.

He wanted to speak with Strange outside the hospital, in a neutral place for them both. The only problem was that he never saw the man outside of work and he had no idea how to approach him.

The opportunity came a few days later when Nick was already performing surgery while on call. Another emergency craniotomy was required and Strange stepped in at Christine’s request while Nick was unavailable. It was as good a reason as any.

“Thank you for taking that patient yesterday,” he said in greeting the next morning.

Strange looked up from his computer, surprise crossing his features. He looked tired. “No surgeon can be in two surgeries at once,” he said with a shrug.

“Still, I appreciate it,” Nick said. “I know you’re not fond of the ER.”

“A butcher shop.”

He ignored the comment. “So I’d like to thank you. You free after work? Dinner’s on me.”

The other man stared at him. “You want to have dinner,” he said flatly.

“As colleagues,” he added, hopefully unnecessarily, because really? “I’m trying to be nice and show my appreciation, Strange. Don’t be an ass about it and just say yes.”

Strange lifted his brows high, but the fuel to his ego did the trick. “Yeah, sure. Got any place in mind?”

Nick shrugged. “There’s a good Italian place three blocks south of us.”

“Italian’s fine.”

“Cool. See you later.” He ignored the expression on Strange’s face and took his leave.

—————

The walk from the hospital to the restaurant was a bit of an uncomfortable one, but Nick wasn’t certain if it was mostly one-sided or not; Strange was more or less expressionless. He only tried to instigate conversation once throughout the walk, but it trailed off to silence before they reached the second block, so Nick decided then to save all attempts at conversation for dinner.

It was going to be hard enough then.

After they arrived and were seated, he also decided to wait until they had finished eating before approaching the topic. Maybe the food would relax the nerves in his gut.

So in the meantime he talked shop. It had been some time since either of them had discussed their cases with each other, so he figured that it was a safe enough conversation topic until the end of the meal.

Unfortunately Strange, bastard that he was, threw him off his planned course. It was just after they ordered food; both had a glass of wine and their waiter had already set down a basket of bread and a saucer of olive oil for dipping. Strange caught Nick as the latter was ripping off a piece of bread to smother in the dipping oil.

“What is this really about?” he asked.

Nick paused mid-dip. “What?”

“All this.” He waved an arm to gesture to the restaurant. “I’ve helped in the ER several times when your hands were full. What is this actually about?”

He set his bread on his plate, frowning. “You can’t wait until after we eat?”

Strange raised a brow. “Consider yourself fortunate I said yes to this at all. I only came because, admittedly, I’m curious; I cannot begin to guess what you could possibly want to talk to me about outside of work.”

“Fine, fine.” Nick sighed and set his elbows on the table. He pressed his lips against his closed fists as he figured out how to start. All the while, Strange stared at him with an odd mix of exasperation and puzzlement. “You…” he started slowly. He trailed off.

“Me,” said Strange.

Fuck it. “You’ve been off lately.”

His brows shot up. “Off?”

“Yeah, off. Not yourself. Different.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“It means exactly that. You’re acting differently lately. For a while, apparently.”

He bristled in clear irritation. “If you’re just going to waste my time—”

“You don’t enjoy your work anymore.”

That shut him up. Nick continued in the silence. “You used to always enter and exit your operations with this excitement that echoed down the halls. That’s completely gone.”

Strange recovered his voice. “If you’re implying that my work has suffered—”

“No, no,” he interrupted. “Not at all. This isn’t about the quality of your work; this is about you.” Strange didn’t have an immediate retort to that, so Nick continued, “Or maybe it’s not about you but about this man that’s taken over you the last several months. That man is clearly not eating and sleeping well, barely comes out of his office, hasn’t bragged about his newest studies and speeches in months, and mutters about life not being worth living at lunchtime.”

His colleague’s mouth hung slightly open as if he wanted to say something but had forgotten how to speak. Nick couldn’t quite read the emotion in his eyes, either. Before he completely lost his nerve, he said one last observation. “And that man,” he muttered, “had his stomach pumped two months ago, and those circumstances combined with the rest paint a picture of a man who… might be a bit lost.”

Something raw flashed through Strange’s eyes that made him appear more vulnerable than Nick’s ever seen him before. That brought on a strange and discomforting feeling that joined the rest of the jumbled nerves in his stomach.

Quickly he continued, “You don’t need to tell me anything. I’m not demanding anything from you. I just wanted to say that— no matter what differences we have— that if you do need someone for— for anything— that I’m here. Even if it’s just to listen.”

He fell silent, and still Strange didn’t say anything immediately, which was unusual in itself. Nick wasn’t sure if he should continue looking at him or if he should look away, or what.

And thank God, dinner arrived and gave him the perfect reason to look away and leave Strange to his thoughts.

The silence sat for the remainder of the meal. Strange didn’t eat much (though he couldn’t blame him) but also didn’t leave. Nick didn’t know what that meant, or if it meant anything at all.

Still, he had one last thing to say.

After he paid the bill, he pulled a card from his wallet as he stood up. “She came with high recommendations,” he said as he put down the card of a therapist that most certainly did not work at Metro-General. “Think about it.” With that, he took his leave, allowing Strange time alone to dwell on what he said.

————

When they next saw each other at work, neither of them made any indication to each other that they had dinner last night. Their last conversation never crossed the threshold of the hospital. Strange never called him, and Nick never inquired about his well being more than he did any other coworker.

But a few months later, when he got word that Strange was starting his music challenge games in his operations once more, Nick allowed himself a small smile at the news.

#doctor strange fanfic #stephenstrangebingo #doctor strange #stephen strange #nick west #my writing #my fanfiction #prompt fill #tw: suicide #tw: mental health #Anonymous

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theaccidentalstepmom · 4 years ago

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Breakups suck. I’ve had a few- less than most but more than many. After a breakup my feelings for the other person lie somewhere between heartbroken, totally ready to move on and hoping the other person’s fingers grow fishhooks and that they also develop a strong itch in their genitals. Somewhere in there...

There are those select humans that can somehow remain friends with their exes and genuinely support them. I admire those people and I hope to be one of those people when I grow up. That said it does take two to make that work. But in general I think those people are on a different plane and there probably don’t need to read this blog. Actually no one needs to read this blog... who reads blogs anymore? Let’s be honest this is just a glorified online journal for me to unpack the crazy making in my life. But I digress...

Breakups happen. Wish them fortune or ill but eventually you move on. Right? Sure... assuming you CAN actually make a clean break. Assuming you don’t live/work/go to school together. Assuming you’re not married (because divorcing someone is a undoing a legal contract and that doesn’t happen in a vacuum). Also assuming there’s not a child involved because then that person that you’d much happier never having to see again EVER is someone you are forced to continue interacting with for the next 18 (minus your youngest child’s age) years longer.

We have a triple threat and that’s where our story begins...

This isn’t our love story (or is it?). Well okay... a quick background. It’s 1995, Wilson high school, Portland Oregon: I’m a Senior he’s a Junior. We didn’t date but we both liked one another- but I had a boyfriend and having a crush on two boys was too much for me to handle!! I graduated, went to college, loved my life. No idea what happened to him. 12 years later years and I’d just moved to SF and who do I see on the bus? What?? Still cute, he just moved to SF from DC after a few years living in Iowa... with his wife. He’s married. Of course he is. Cool let’s be Facebook friends and I’ll see you never. Berceuse WTF would I say if I ever met your wife? “Nice to meet you I had a big crush on your husband in high school”. That’s just awkward.

But we did exchange numbers. He was a chef and I was a waitress so when he got a new job he might text me and tell me to stop by (I never did) or if we needed a new line cook I’d reach out to him (he never replied). At some point on Facebook I saw that they had a kid. Cute little thing with a buttload of hair.

Fast forward 2.5 years. It’s Valentine’s Day and I’m showing a couple friends who aregg bet single how Tinder works: “Oh no... he’s no good. See you just swipe left- hard left!”. He was like the 3rd guy that pulled up. We chatted back and forth through the app a couple times then I just texted him because I had his number and I’m paranoid about conversations through apps. (I just imagine people who work for Tinder reading them and laughing their asses off at my attempts to play it cool.) Anyways, a week later we went on our first date and it was pretty much game over for me.

He was 8 months out of a 10 year relationship and had a toddler why am I not running the other direction? That’s a great question and I have no good answer. Or at least not a sexy one... I’m attracted to vulnerable men? They’re like my catnip: “Come here kitty- Mama like”!

His son was 2.5 when we started dating. I knew I was dating a man with a child and I knew exactly what that meant. I babysat A LOT and I was a nanny for 5 years. It’s not the same thing as being a parent by any means. But compared to an average childless woman I did have a better understanding of what I was getting into and what spending hours with a toddler was like. I knew that if we were going to be in a relationship the kid comes first, I’m replaceable the child is not.

His ex was trying to move to Hawaii to live with her new boyfriend and wanted to take their son. That’s a hard no. Absolutely not. R had already filed for divorce but that got sidelined by custody. She hired a more aggressive attorney and insisted she would be taking their son. When describing his ex and her behavior R was throwing around with like crazy and narcissist and borderline.

Okay, okay... this situation is really stressful. I’m sure she’s not that bad- you married her right? Stress does not bring out the best in people’s personalities- quite the opposite. It’s hard to think straight. This is probably situational- I’m sure she’ll calm down soon. Maybe try phrasing your text this way so she doesn’t get defensive- I’m sure she’ll be reasonable if you just explain it really clearly...

Bahahaha.

I spent months empathizing with her and trying to help R better communicate with her. All in vain- it toa long time to realize she doesn’t want to communicate or compromise she just wants her way. And any attempt to have an open honest discussion is just ammunition for her to use against you in a future conversation.

If she asks R for a favor and his answer is no she’ll twist the conversation into her being victimized.

If she asks R for a favor and his answer is yes she’ll twist the situation and say that she actually did him a favor.

If R asks her for a favor she ignores him, calls him names and/or tells R he’s harassing her.

To be clear, most of the time she doesn’t ASK- she demands.

If R agrees to something once he has to agree in the future it or he’s a hypocrit.

She flat out remembers things wrong and when R shows her the screenshots of the text she wrote proving she’s m wrong she says he’s being petty.

When R asks her to discuss child related issues directly with him rather than asking their 4 year old son to communicate the message to him she tells R he’s being difficult.

When it’s her custodial time and R has a scheduled FT she bribed their son with candy or ice cream to end the call early. (He can have it after he’s done).

I feel like we’re in an alternate reality. She’s constantly coming after R legally with baseless claims. She projects all the shit she does to R and accuses him of doing it to her!! We read her motions and were like “What’s is she talking about? R didn’t do that to her she’s doing that to R!”. And no is not a misinterpretation and they’re both doing it- she’s doing it and accusing him of doing it. It’s crazy making.

Claim: R refuses to communicate with her and insists on going through attorneys.

False. She has ZERO emails or texts to back this up- they agreed to communicate via text and email. She hasn’t sent a single email or text to R to “discuss” anything so how is he refusing to communicate? R has written numerous long and detailed emails to her for years and even more over the past 10 months of Covid trying to communicate and co-parent with her, share information and get schedules finalized without the courts involvement and her responses are dismissive and often only one sentence. His attorney and her attorney even tried to resolve issues without the court but she refused to comply and court was the last resort.

Claim: wasn’t even a claim really, mores demand that both parents needing to be flexible about scheduled FaceTimes in their child is swimming or playing during that time and also be accommodating if the other parent wants to do an unscheduled call they can.

Reality: Totally... R has never denied her a FT, has been flexible when she’s asked to reschedule and he’s sent MULTIPLE emails to her saying she can do an unscheduled FT anytime she wants (just give him a heads up). She’s done maybe 4 unscheduled FaceTimes in 2 years. We don’t plan any activities during her scheduled call time because it’s her scheduled time... so her calls don’t ever “interrupt” anything. Please, I beg you, show any evidence to the contrary.

Oh and while she’s looking for evidence that doesn’t exist I’d like to show the email she just sent from December 2020 telling R that when their son was with her during Christmas he was ONLY allowed to FaceTime during his scheduled time of 6:40-8. No “bullshit” unscheduled FaceTimes calls like he did last summer when he called their son “every day” it was “harassment”.

(Calling every day would have been excessive, but not harassment. But he didn’t call every day. He had 2 scheduled FaceTimes per week by court order and in addition he called 1 extra day a week (so three calls a week). Also, important to point out is that their son, who primarily lives with his father, was going to not see his father for three months because of conflicting language in the ruling and delays in getting it clarified due to COVID and Jennie’s refusal to discuss shortening the time to what they’d agreed to.

He always texted her before his scheduled FaceTime to confirm the time would work and it wouldn’t conflict with activities they’d planned. But even though it was a scheduled call it always seemed to interrupt something fun that their son was doing: swimming, hiking, skateboarding. Funny how when she asked him to push back his call 2 hours he STILL was interrupting fun plans. It’s his SCHEDUKED time- plan your shit on a different day OR if you can’t contact R ahead of time to reschedule the FaceTime so it doesn’t conflict or interrupt your plans.

As for unscheduled FaceTimes he’d text in the morning asking to do a FaceTime in the afternoon (so giving her at least 3 or 4 hours notice so she can pick a time that works for her). She wouldn’t reply, instead he’d just immediately get a FaceTime call. To her credit she doesn’t refuse the calls and conveniently their son is often immediately available.

But it’s funny how if she knows R’s gonna call she seem to have plans, but when she doesn’t know he’s going to call she’s just sitting around the house doing jack shit.

She is bananas.

0 notes

deladane · 6 years ago

Text

Whirlwind Weekend in the Windy City ~ 05.26.18

Saturday, May 26, 2018

We woke up bright and early today, and when I checked my email, there was a second reply from the general manager of Big Bus Tours Chicago. He said they would be running modified service because of today’s parade, and there would be a shuttle between stops 1 and 3, so we could get on at our normal stop at the Willis Tower at stop 3, and ride back to stop 1 to join the normal bus for the rest of the route. That sounded too complicated and with too much room for error, so we decided to go with our alternate plans. After going back and forth a few times about what to do about the Memorial Day Parade impacting the HOHO bus, we finally decided to use the public bus that can pick us up 2 blocks away from our hotel, and drop us off right at the Adler Planetarium. Our plan was to take that bus to the Planetarium and arrive before they open at 9:30am, and then by the time we finish at the museum in the early afternoon, hopefully the HOHO bus will be back on track and we can get on at stop #7 at the Planetarium and continue around the loop from there. The sun was already shining bright when I peeked out the window of our hotel room!

First thing on today’s agenda was to find something to eat for breakfast. When I booked our hotel, I knew it did not include a big breakfast buffet, but yesterday when we checked in, they told us there are granola bars and cereal available at the lounge downstairs. I wanted something more substantial than that, so DH got some espresso in a to-go cup from the fancy self-serve machine downstairs, and we set out to find somewhere to eat. This area of the Central Loop is made up of mostly office buildings, so while there are lots of places to grab a quick breakfast, none of them are open on the weekends! That was really a bummer because there were a bunch of places that would have been perfect breakfast options for us, but they really cater to the business crowd and it does make sense for them to stay closed when people are off from work. We found a Subway around the corner from the hotel where I could get an egg and cheese sandwich, so that would have to do for today.

After breakfast, we walked over to the bus stop to catch the bus to the museum. This bus normally runs down State Street, but we didn’t think it would be a problem because the road was still open to traffic since the parade didn’t start for a few more hours, so surely the bus should still be running on the normal route, right? Nope! We got to the bus shelter and saw a sign that our bus was being rerouted starting at 8am today, and it was now around 8:45am. I was a bit annoyed about this because we did look for signs in the bus shelters last night as we walked back from the hotel at 11pm, but there were no signs posted at that time. I also looked online at the public transit website and could not find anything about route changes for the parade. Maybe this new plan of ours wasn’t meant to be? The sign was very confusing and said we could catch our bus on Harrison Street between State and Michigan Avenue, so after a bit of searching on Google Maps, we figured out where that was located and walked down that way. When we got to Harrison Street, we realized that State and Michigan are 3 blocks apart, so how could we know where the bus would stop?! We walked that whole stretch of road and did not see any bus shelters or signs about makeshift bus stops. I even went into one of the hotels to ask their concierge, but he had no idea where they bus stop was located. Just as we were about to give up and use Uber instead, a bus turned the corner off of Michigan Avenue! We flagged him down in the middle of the street as if he was a taxi driver, and when he opened the door to tell us that we aren’t at an official bus stop, we just boarded the bus right there! We put in more than enough effort today trying to find this bus, and there was no chance we were letting him drive away without letting us on board! After we got on and he continued on his route, he turned left off of Harrison to go south on State Street and stopped at that corner. Wouldn’t it have been better if the detour sign told us to board the bus on the southwest corner of State and Harrison?!? That would have been a whole lot more clear than making us run up and down a 3 block stretch of city streets trying to guess where the bus might stop! Ok, rant over!

The bus ride itself was very quick, and we pulled up in front of the Adler Planetarium at 9:10am. There is a promenade that runs along Lake Michigan between the Planetarium and the Shedd Aquarium, which offers beautiful panoramic views of the downtown Chicago skyline. The trip down here is worth it just for this view, even if you don’t want to visit the museums!

We still had a few minutes before the museum opened so we walked around the grounds, admiring the beautiful views of Lake Michigan. Along the south side of the museum was a small beach. I imagined this would be quite crowded later today when the temperatures were due to top 90 degrees!

The instructions on our City Pass said to enter the museum from the marked door at the side entrance where we could skip the lines of the main ticket office. One of the employees unlocked the door promptly at 9:30am and we were first in line to have our pass scanned and exchanged for an actual ticket to the museum. We were also given a list of all the shows playing on the various screens, and the lady told us to pick 2 shows to start. Our pass gave us access to unlimited shows all day, but she could only give us 2 tickets to start and then we could return to the ticket booth later in the afternoon if we wanted to add more shows. We didn’t want to spend the whole day here since we still had to go on the HOHO bus, so 2 shows seemed like a perfect amount. We signed up for the 11:30am showing of Planet Nine, and the 1:15pm showing of Skywatch Live, thinking that would give us 2 hours to enjoy the museum first, and we could eat lunch at the museum cafeteria between the 2 shows.

I honestly can’t remember the last time I visited a planetarium, so I was really looking forward to seeing the exhibits here. They had exhibits about the various planets, telescopes, the moon, the history of astronomy, and current space research. Some of the exhibits were geared more for children, but a lot of them were informative and 2 hours was the perfect amount of time for us to see the whole museum. This was from an interactive exhibit where you could take an infrared selfie!

The doors to the theater opened about 10 minutes before each show, so we headed that way at 11:20am and there was already a long line to get in. Definitely try to line up a little early so you can get a good seat because this show was in the dome theater where the movie will surround you and it’s best to sit towards the back in the middle of the row for the best view. We were really excited to see a show in the big dome as that is one of the best features of planetariums! Here was the description of this show, Planet Nine, from the museum website:

In July 2015, the New Horizons spacecraft gave us our first close look at Pluto, the most famous dwarf planet in the outskirts of our Solar System. The New Horizons flyby was big news, and the pictures it continues to send back to Earth reveal a world far more complex than anyone realized. Using nothing but their wits (and high-powered telescopes and a thorough understanding of orbital mechanics), these intrepid explorers are making new discoveries about how our Solar System formed—and what it may be hiding. Follow Mike Brown and his team at CalTech as they uncover dwarf worlds like the remarkably bright Eris; Haumea, an egg-shaped object rotating incredibly fast; and Sedna, whose orbit takes it deep into the far reaches of the Solar System. Is there a new planet beyond these distant objects? We’ll tag along on Mike Brown’s first night searching for the ninth planet at the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii. Join us on the hunt!

When we were at the ticket booth this morning, we basically picked our shows blindly because it was hard to know what the show was really going to be like just by reading the descriptions. We both loved this show! It was very informative and explained things we knew nothing about in a way that made it very relatable and easy to understand. The images were amazing and you really felt like you were moving at some points as they showed you images from space. The show lasted 30 minutes, and as soon as the lights turned back on, we headed straight to the cafeteria.

The theater was quite big and held over 100 people, and I had a feeling lots of people would want to get lunch when that show ended at noon. I was right! We were one of the first to arrive and there was no line at all, but by the time we finished ordering, there were at least 50 people in line behind us! Timing is everything!! The cafeteria had a bunch of salads, sandwiches, and mini-pizzas, and everything was very well priced at under $10 a dish.

DH ordered a chicken sandwich and I got The Harvester salad with grilled chicken, apples, grapes, craisins, walnuts, feta cheese, and balsamic dressing. They gave us a buzzer and told us to find a table and we could pick up our food at the counter when it was ready. It took about 10 minutes for the buzzer to go off, so the wait wasn’t too long, but I can imagine people at the end of that long line would be spending a lot more time at the cafeteria than they may have wanted! My salad was delicious and so big that I couldn’t finish it!

After we finished eating, there were still a few minutes before we needed to line up for our second show. Outside of the main museum building, they have the Doane Observatory which houses the largest aperture telescope available to the public in the Chicago area. We walked over there to check it out, and they let us look through the telescope to see the surface of the sun. They said they were looking for sunspots and that they could see 2 of them today, but honestly, I just saw a blob of orange haha It was fun to check it out though and the docents were happy to answer any questions. The walk back between the observatory and the main museum offered beautiful views of Lake Michigan.

Lots of people are out on their boats today!

We went back inside to a different dome theater for our second show: Skywatch Live. I think the museum had 2 dome theaters plus 1 or 2 flat screen theaters, so there was really a lot to offer here! This is the description of the show from the museum website:

The Adler’s view of downtown Chicago is magnificent, but the lights of the city make it a little tough to see the ones in the sky. What’s a stargazer to do? Join us for Skywatch Live! In this show, your live presenter will turn down the city lights and crank up the stars to show you the night sky over Chicago like you’ve never seen it before. You’ll learn how to navigate by starlight, get to know the stars behind your favorite constellations, and witness the incomprehensible vastness of the Universe without ever leaving your seat. Our view of the real sky shifts each day as Earth makes its way around the Sun, and so does the model sky in Skywatch Live! Every day, the show matches the view of the sky directly over Chicago on that day, so you’ll get a new perspective on the Universe every time you return.

This show was more of the typical show you see at most planetariums. The docent used an interactive computer to point out which constellations are visible in the sky tonight over the Midwest region. She explained about how each constellation got its name or what the history was behind it, and a little bit about how to find it for ourselves, although the bright city lights make it very hard to see most of these stars while in Chicago. It was interesting, and we were both glad we saw the show, but it was not very unique and we both liked Planet Nine much more. This show also lasted 30 minutes, so it was over at around 1:45pm. By then, we were ready to move on with our day, so we headed out to look for the HOHO bus stop.

There was a long driveway along the water, and there were bus shelters marked for several other bus tours, but we didn’t see any signs specifically for Big Bus Tours. Luckily, we had seen the buses driving around town yesterday, so we knew what to look out for. After about 5 minutes, we saw our bus pulling up so we walked over to where it stopped. When we showed our City Pass to the driver, she was supposed to exchange it for a real HOHO bus ticket. There were several people boarding the bus at this stop and she didn’t want us to hold up the line, so she said to just get on and take a seat and that we could process our ticket before we got off the bus. Ok! Sounds good to me! We saw a few people getting off the bus as we got on, so we went up to the top level in hopes of finding a seat up there. Sure enough, there were a few available seats, so we sat down and got comfy for our big bus tour.

While the open top design of the bus is great for seeing the views as we drove around the city, there is absolutely no shade up there, so it was very hot in the 90+ degree temps! Good thing we had a small tube of sunscreen in my purse to prevent a burn!

Our plan was to ride a full loop of the tour, and then to get off when the bus got back to Millennium Park. While it would have been a shorter walk to get on/off at Willis Tower, that would mean we’d have to stay on the bus for an extra ¾ of the ride, so it made more sense to get off at the Millennium Park stop, which is just 3 stops after where we boarded. It was now after 2pm and there was a lot of traffic, but the guide did a good job of keeping us entertained between stops. It’s not always easy to take good photos on a moving bus, especially when trees and power lines block your view, but I did my best.

First, we passed the Field Museum.

Beautiful views of the city on this bright sunny day!

The Buckingham Fountain was going off as we drove by. Obviously my photos were better yesterday when we got right closer to it, but it was still fun to see it again today.

Last glimpse of the skyscrapers before we go under ground…

Chicago was built as a city above a city. There is a whole network of roads below the main city roads which allow traffic to get across the city without stopping at every intersection at all of the stop lights. This also allows them to keep the delivery trucks and garbage trucks somewhat hidden from the tourists and locals up on the main city streets. The HOHO bus took us down there to cut across the city, but I’m not sure that it was much of a short cut because the traffic was very heavy. The guide made sure to tell everyone to stay seated when the bus was underground, and I could see why. Look at how close our heads were to the top of the tunnel!!

When we emerged from the tunnel, the bus headed north on Columbus Drive to cross over the Chicago River.

Trump Tower really stands out from this perspective!

The bus then turned right onto Illinois Avenue towards the next stop at Navy Pier. I told DH that I thought this building looked like a giant fidget spinner, and then a minute later, the tour guide said the same thing! This is actually called Lake Point Tower and is the tallest building along the waterfront. There was a law passed that no other tall buildings could be built that close to the water because it obstructed the views of the surrounding buildings and created an eyesore, but this building was grandfathered in. Lots of famous people own condos here, including Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell, Alice Cooper, among others.

Navy Pier looked a lot more crowded now than it did when we were here last night. Crowds are not my favorite thing, so we opted to stay on the bus instead of hopping off to check it out. Plus, when we got to the bus stop, there was a very long line of people waiting to get on, and it looked like it would take 3 or 4 buses for everyone to find seats, so we didn’t want to deal with that hassle. Just a thought: if you do take this HOHO bus and want to get off at Navy Pier, don’t try to reboard here. Instead, walk a few blocks back to the prior stop at the Sheraton Grand Hotel as it is a flat walk and only about half a mile away. That way, you won’t have to wait in a long line, and you can get a seat when lots of others get off the bus at the Navy Pier stop!

Next, the bus drove along the Magnificent Mile to point out all the high end stores, and then drove through the River North neighborhood. I loved how there were random old building scattered between the new modern skyscrapers.

Then, we turned a corner and could see the building formally known as the John Hancock Tower. A few weeks ago, John Hancock actually gave up the naming rights, so the building does not have a name right now, and it will remain that way until someone wants to pay $1 million per month to name it!

The bus continued on its way through the River North neighborhood. There were tons of interesting restaurants and shops here, and I think I’d want to spend more time in this area if I ever returned to Chicago. This is also where we had dinner last night at Lou Malnatis.

This is the original location of Pizzeria Uno. Our guide explained something that should have been obvious but that I never really thought about before. Why is it named Pizzeria Uno? Because they were the first pizza restaurant to make deep dish pizza! There is also a Pizzeria Due a few blocks away, likely the second pizza shop.

This is Tribune Tower, at least that was its name the day we saw it. It is the long-time home to the Chicago Tribune, but due to declining sales in print newspapers thanks to the internet, they no longer needed such a large building. They are relocating to a smaller office and have sold the building, which will soon be converted to condominiums. The building itself is beautiful, with an ornate neo-Gothic façade, designed to mimic the Rouen Cathedral in France, complete with gargoyles and flying buttresses. The lower part of the outer wall is comprised of pieces of stone from famous landmarks all over the world, including the Great Wall of China, Taj Mahal, Parthenon, Westminster Palace, the Great Pyramid, The Alamo, Angkor Wat, and Notre Dame, just to name a few. I truly hope that they keep the outer façade of this building intact when it is converted to condos as it is such a unique piece of architecture.

We saw this flag all over the city, and then learned that it is the Chicago flag! The white sections represent the North, West, and South sides of the city. The blue stripes represent Lake Michigan and the Chicago River. The 4 Red Stars each have 6 points, which represent something different for each of the stars. The stars represent Fort Dearborn, the great Chicago fire of 1871, the 2 times Chicago hosted the World’s Fair in 1893 and 1933.

After that, the bus returned to the first stop on the route at the Riverwalk. Our guide was ending his shift, so we waited a few minutes for a new guide to get settled, then we continued along the first part of the bus route. Just as we were getting ready to go, the guide found out that State Street was now opened to traffic, so we were the first bus to resume the regular bus route! I guess our plan to ride the HOHO bus in the afternoon paid off after all! We drove down State Street, passing the Chicago Theater and several old department stores, then turned west on Adams Street, driving passed our hotel, to reach the Willis Tower.

There wasn’t much to see or photograph in this neighborhood since it’s mostly just office buildings for government and private businesses, but then we returned to Michigan Avenue to see Millennium Park and the Art Institute.

Like I mentioned, our original plan was to stay on the bus to hear the full tour back to where we boarded at Adler Planetarium, and then to get off the bus 3 stops later when the bus returned to the park. By now, we had been on the bus for over 2 hours, it was extremely hot, and we found this new tour guide to be kind of annoying, so in a split second decision, I turned to DH and said, do you want to just get off now? We were only a few blocks from our hotel, and we were both ready to move on with our day, so he said YES! No time to think twice, since the next stop is much further down on Michigan Avenue, so we quickly ran down the stairs and off the bus before we missed our chance. Once we were standing on the sidewalk, we realized we never redeemed our City Pass for an actual HOHO ticket. In theory, we could have just walked away and no one would know the difference. The lady driving the bus ended her shift when our original guide did, back at the Riverwalk, so the new bus driver had no idea that we didn’t pay yet. That didn’t seem right though, and we suspected that they get reimbursed somehow based on how many people redeem their City Pass each day, so we wanted to do the right thing and pay for our fare. Besides, we had such a jam-packed weekend planned that there wasn’t even time to add another attraction to our agenda, so there was no reason not to just redeem or pass. There was a Big Bus Tours employee on the sidewalk, so we asked him if he could help us redeem our City Pass, and he said that was no problem. He printed out a receipt that we could use if we wanted to reboard the bus, but it was now 4pm and the pass is only good until 5pm, so we knew we wouldn’t use it for that purpose. The receipt also included a voucher for a free souvenir bag to be picked up at the store below The Bean, and a free sample of popcorn from Garrett’s Popcorn. The employee said we could redeem those vouchers any day we wanted to, so I put them in my purse and figured we’d deal with it tomorrow or Monday. For now, we just wanted to go back to the hotel and take a nice, long shower!

We realized an added bonus to cutting the HOHO tour short was that we’d have time to attend the free wine and cheese event at the hotel at 5pm. That is, until we walked in the lobby of the hotel and asked the front desk staff where the event is held, and they said it was cancelled today. Wait, what?! We didn’t even know this free wine and cheese existed until we checked in yesterday, and now you’re telling us it’s cancelled?? That’s not fair! Apparently, the hotel was short staffed because someone called out sick, and they were extremely busy dealing with all the tourists staying at the hotel for the holiday weekend, so they didn’t have anyone to staff the event. We were a bit annoyed about that and thought they could at least make it self-serve like the coffee and breakfast food, but I guess that wasn’t an option and instead, they just cancelled it. Oh well, such is life!

While we were talking to the front desk staff, we asked if they had any thinner pillows and explained the saga from last night. They said they would talk to housekeeping and try to send something up for us. With that settled, we went up to the room to get showered and changed for the evening.

By 5pm, we were ready to go. Instead of sitting around killing time, we decided to just go out to dinner now. Our plan was to go to Giordano’s for another dinner of deep dish pizza. They have a location just 3 or 4 blocks from our hotel, so we decided to go over now in hopes of beating the dinner rush and getting seated quickly.

Our suspicions were right, and the hostess seated us immediately! Deep dish pizza takes 45 minutes to cook, so we knew it would be a while before we saw our food anyway, so why not just get the evening started early? Tonight, we kept it simple and ordered a small cheese deep dish pizza, and added mushrooms, black olives, and meatballs for our toppings. We knew it would be a while before the food arrived, so we also ordered a pitcher of Goose Island beer because it is local to Chicago!

Exactly 45 minutes after ordering, our waitress brought our pizza out to us. Immediately, we knew we would like Giordano’s pizza better than Lou Malnati’s. The presentation was much better with it being served out of the cooking pan, and we could see the crust looked tastier and it was much thicker than our pizza from last night.

All it took was one bite and we were obsessed! This pizza was amazing, with rich, buttery crust, a thick layer of cheese, perfect seasoning in the sauce, and just the right amount of toppings. Unlike the small pizza we ordered last night which was barely enough to fill us up, tonight’s small pizza was cut into 6 slices and I could only eat 2 of them before getting full and admitting defeat. Not wanting any of this deliciousness to go to waste, DH was happy to finish the rest of my portion. Just when we had written off the hype of Chicago style pizza, we discovered Giordano’s and our opinions completely changed. These two New York natives can officially say we loved our Chicago pizza!

We were done with dinner a few minutes before 6pm, which meant we could officially start our night out on the town! Last night on the walking tour, Aram suggested a few bars that offer great views of the city, so we thought tonight would be a great time to check them out. Our first stop was Cindy’s, a stylish and trendy rooftop bar in the Chicago Athletic Association Hotel on Michigan Avenue. We walked about a mile from the restaurant to the hotel, and found a long line in the lobby to get on the elevator. We waited about 20 minutes to reach the front, then rode the elevator up to the top floor. The bar was super crowded, and the hostess said it would be a wait if we wanted a table for food service, but we were just there for drinks so we went straight outside to the balcony and were treated to a beautiful view of Millennium Park and Lake Michigan. DH went back inside to get us some drinks from the bar while I took a bunch of photos and marveled at the great views!

Fun view of the Bean… you can see how big it is as compared to the people standing next to it

Looking past the Art Institute, you can see the Planetarium out in the distance at the end of the peninsula jutting out into Lake Michigan

This water feature was directly below us. We would later learn that the faces on the towers are people blowing kisses.

It also spurts water out from their mouths. I am sure the people playing in the water enjoyed cooling off a bit from this hot day!

Cheers to a great Saturday night out in Chicago!

We planned that our next stop would be at London House, which is another rooftop bar located along the Chicago River. When we arrived, there was an extremely long line to get in so we decided to skip it and just continue walking north to the John Hancock Building. We knew there would be a long like there too, but that destination was more important to us than the London House. Luckily, all 3 of these bars are located right on Michigan Avenue so the walk was easy.

I really liked this sculpture and water feature in the lobby of the John Hancock building. The lights from the fixture hanging from the ceiling reflected on the smooth water below, creating a modern and elegant focal piece to the lobby.

As expected, there was a very long line for the elevators at the John Hancock building. One of the big tourist attractions is called Chicago 360, which is on the 96th floor of this building. They charge about $25 to go up and see the views, and there is a slanted glass window where you can lean out and feel like you are floating above the city. We decided to save some money and opted for the free version. There is a restaurant on the 94th floor and a bar on the 95th floor of the building, so our plan was to go up to the bar for a drink and enjoy the same view as those people one level above us at the tourist attraction. When we eventually got upstairs, the staff was surprisingly rude and unhelpful. The man standing outside the elevator door pointed us in one direction, but we really should have gone the other way. There was a line forming to get a table, and we all just waited there, with no host or anyone telling us what was happening. After a few minutes, another employee came over and asked the people at the back of the line if they were a party for 2, and when they said yes, he brought them to a table, ignoring the rest of us who were already waiting in line before them! Realizing it would take an extremely long time to be seated if they weren’t even going to go in order, DH and I decided to just get off the line and walk over to the windows to check out the view. At first, another employee tried to stop us because I think she thought we were going to seat ourselves at an empty table. We said we just wanted to look out the window and walked passed her to see this stunning view looking south over downtown Chicago.

Pardon the glare, but it was hard to avoid with the windows. There was another long line to get on the elevators to go back downstairs. Overall, our experience was disappointing, given the rude staff and difficulty getting a table. Had they treated us better, we would have paid for a drink here, but instead, we just ended up getting a free view of the city and leaving shortly after arriving. While we waited online for the elevators, we could look down to the restaurant on the floor below.

By now, it was close to 10pm so we started walking back towards the Riverwalk. It was a clear night, so with no chance of rain we wanted to try out one of the bars along the river. Unfortunately, this really was not meant to be because we walked down several flights of stairs just in time to find out the bar was closing! Apparently everything on the Riverwalk closes at 11pm and the bars stop serving drinks at 10:30pm, so we barely missed last call. The Riverwalk was on our way back to the hotel from the John Hancock Building, but it would have been nice to take a break from walking and enjoy a drink on the river. Instead, we climbed back up several flights of stairs to reach street level and walked back to the hotel. DH wanted one last drink before calling it a night, so he went to the bar downstairs in our hotel. It was called Elephant & Castle and was a typical pub with a decent beer selection. I was exhausted by the point and just ordered a water to keep DH company, and when he was done, we retired back to the hotel room to hopefully find our replacement pillows. When we opened the door, we found one thinner pillow sitting on the desk. Okay, this will work for me, but DH wanted a thinner pillow too. We called down to the front desk and they said they only had one pillow like that. Ummm, ok? This whole thing was really irritating, but DH said that he was able to get a little sleep last night so he would make due with the original pillow and let me use the new one since I did not sleep at all. After such a long day of walking around the city, we both fell asleep shortly after laying down in bed!

Step Tracker Daily Total: 19,049 steps; 7.69 miles

#Chicago for MDW 2018 #chicago #windycity

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drewkatchen · 8 years ago

Photo

2002 ad for rooms in an apartment in Somerville, Mass.

I’m starting to recognize the underlying theme of most of what I’m writing here lately has everything to do with available space and how I respond to it. Not in the city (either New York or Jersey) or the world, but in our home, the humble square footage that holds two sizable adults. Now that we’re officially a married unit and Ryan doesn’t have just some things in the apartment but the bulk of his belongings (not including the entirety of his vinyl collection) there, I’ve really had to part with a variety of things -- be it a slew of faded old shirts and hordes of holey socks to, of course, that main culprit of space invasion: books. Honestly, it’s mostly books. They’re so damn easy to pick up and collect in any unruly configuration you like, and I can’t help myself because I want them all, especially the big bulky ones with tons of pictures.

The first big paper purge came a few years ago when Chris, my stepfather, helped excise two bulky old Ikea shelves from my home when he gave me a needed upgrade in the form of a custom wall unit, which effectively opened up the office area, enabling a desk bigger than two feet to finally grace the area. He’s really handy like that and always willing to put in the elbow grease to help out. A good amount of books went high up on the wall and the rest I schlepped to the Unitarian church sale down the street. This collection wasn’t stocked with rare items, but I amassed it over two decades and they were mine, so I was sorry to see them go. But they’re hopefully now being loved by someone else and have likely been passed again on down the church donation chain. at the least, parting with them gave us a lot more space to spread our arms.

So yes, space is something I seem to grapple with and therefore write about. Lucky you.

But it’s not just writing about space for the sake of it.

In that incremental process of paring down my collection -- which never seems to end, really -- I’ve come across all manner of personal nostalgia that ended up being unwittingly preserved for the future. It seems I was a habitual stuffer of novels, and I never went back to remove what I put there either in some odd and knowing act of preservation or, more likely, my ADD got the best of me and I’d moved on and could no longer remember which novel held which personal artifact. A bookmark from We Think The World of You in Boston’s South End (closed, seemingly with little fanfare) tucked inside Seamus Heaney’s version of Beowulf, in Michael Byers’ Coast of Good Intentions (which I kept) a picture of me, arms crossed awkwardly, resting on a couch with someone I thought I loved completely but maybe just liked a lot for a brief moment, dried flowers, bad poetry (my own), receipts from B-grade burrito joints, notices of overdue fees from a crummy San Francisco hostel I stayed in during my lost summer between junior and senior year of college. It’s a curious young life I had simultaneously straddling anxiety and ecstatic joy, these items indicate. Not my entire existence, but they do point specifically to real peaks and valleys that I cherish and, on the other side, view with a feeling well below enthusiasm. It’s the collections of half a person, if I may borrow from this man.

And then there’s this roommate advertisement, the paper still crisp, that presented itself in one of my fits of organizational fury. It’s from 2002. At the time I was twenty-five and struggling to keep afloat, both financially and emotionally, in Somerville, a leafy and pretty damn perfect town of denim-clad graduate students, just a bit north of Boston. I am originally from nowhere near there, but I needed to dive somewhere to see if I could swim, whatever swimming really meant in actual, lived reality. To think back on it, it’s a complicated time of my life, both tender and choc full of tumult and fear of totally falling off a financial cliff. To swim, I tried, but I also did a lot with my head just a bit underwater, struggling for air, so to speak. And good friends that propped me up, too.

It was also a time where I was on the hunt for a new apartment, because it took me several tries in that town to lock down a home with just one roommate as opposed to two or three that seemed to have been the creation of someone’s nightmare, be them slovenly, loud as a fleet of trucks or both. This is also where my friends came in, as luck would have it.

I’ve been wanting to write about this ad since I exhumed it from hiding several months ago and what I’ve learned since about the person who placed it, but I wasn’t sure how or I wasn’t sure if it was appropriate or even interesting.

I guess I’m just going to wing it and see how it goes.

The one thing I can say is it’s not an apartment I sought out, and I never responded to the ad. Before I could, a savior in the form of an indefatigable soul with sterling credit pulled us both up by her bootstraps and got us into an amazing place -- top floor of a quiet house, clean, huge porch, wood flooring, quiet street -- we both still discuss it as idyllic. I still owe her for it, too. I’m almost being literal when I say I went from living in a ditch to living in the sky. But, as you can see in the picture above, I did selfishly take the entire flyer rather than a mere tab, most likely so others couldn’t get to it before I did. The ad is for September of 2002, and by this point, I was well into living in the Boston area for a year-and-a-half. I would be gone from the city in less than a year after losing a job and after living there became just financially unmanageable. I felt rich in friends, but Boston destroyed me otherwise.

But more on the ad.

“I’m a 30-year-old responsible, professional, gay white male,” it began, which I no doubt at the time read as everything I aspired to be: A little older, seemingly stable but not above having roommates to help with the bills and able to use the term ‘professional’ (in any capacity, really) when describing myself at parties. Sure the guy was single at 30, but that’s still young in an urban, urbanish area. “I’m outgoing, sociable, and friendly,” and prone to the vice of watching too much TV (who isn’t?) it continued after describing a situation where for $700 (!!!) the applicant with the right credentials and vibe could have a “good-sized bedroom with closet” near Tufts and access to a “large back porch,” which would no doubt be useful from May to October. If the ad maybe doubled as romantic, which in a way it seems to, that’s smart to me. It is my sincere hope it all worked out for him.

As I said, I never followed up on this place, and I went on with my life living in near total bliss in a great living situation not far from the bustling Davis Square. Life continued.

---

For the nearly three years I lived in Boston, I didn’t so much as have a single proper date with a man, a fact that has as much to do with my not really seeking one as it does no one was really asking me for my hand. Sure, I had moments of meeting people on Internet sites, but nothing really panned out there, and it’s honestly for the better because I was all about solitary self-improvement at the time. It was just me and my portable CD Discman and not a lot of thoughts about romance, really.

But I also looked around a bit because I paradoxically always yearned for someone. Because we all do even if we think we don’t, and I hit the clubs both alone and with friends. Just to see, I guess, what people thought of me and I of them. Still though...nothing serious came of my many dance marathons to The Cure at Manray or Kylie at Ramrod or The Standells at Common Ground or of my voyages to loud and ebullient basement hardcore shows.

There were always men I noticed in my regular comings and goings: A rugged construction guy I would sometimes see on the bus, the bearded college kid at Au Bon Pain who sometimes assembled my mozzarella and pesto sandwich when I could afford such a splurge. And also this one guy I’d see around town on my walks to the Diesel Cafe or when I was having an Ana’s burrito on the concrete block in Davis Square across from the Somerville Theatre. Several years older than me and more muscular and in better shape -- he was built like a football player -- and seemingly kind in how he interacted with baristas or people he knew, he became something of a private crush. I could discern he had a generous smile and an unencumbered gait, two things I also desperately wanted for myself. My heart always skipped a beat when I would see him out but knowing myself and where I was in life, I would’ve been too much a flawed mortal for him to consider me a worthy partner. I remember nearly having a panic attack when I later discovered he and I briefly shared a gym. I admired from afar and never got close; I would’ve been too tongue tied even if I did work up the nerve to ask him to, say, spot me on the bench press. I was a buffoon when it came to such social niceties. As crushes tend to go, the butterflies eventually lessened as our paths crossed but only a few times, and I soon moved away and began dating the person who would become my first real boyfriend.

Time pressed on, and I never thought about him again.

---

Fifteen years later and the Internet being what it is now, it took very little effort to put a few things together rather quickly when I started digging a bit into the unearthed ad. I guess I was just curious. Finding it now seemed so peculiar. Why did I keep it?

Because an email address was attached to the ad -- one seemingly bearing a last name -- I learned his full name in seconds, which I obviously never knew before. I thought maybe if I found him, I would send a picture of it back to him on Facebook or something for fun, explaining how I’d come across it and we’d have a laugh over it and call it a day.

But that wouldn’t be possible.

In the next mouse click, learned the man behind the ad that was affixed to a wall or pole on either Elm Street or Highland Ave or Chester Street (or wherever I found it) sadly was no longer alive. He died in 2007, while in his thirties, due to complications from surgery, according to his online obituary. As I also read a story online about his volunteer work as a phone counselor for an LGBT crisis hotline, I learned the man behind the ad had to an extent lived his life with compassion. It seems he was inspired to give back to his community after the same helpline assisted him as a teenager. I loved reading that.

And, of course, as you would suspect, I learned the man behind the ad and the man of generous spirit who is no longer alive is also the man I saw from time to time in Davis Square or at the gym -- the one I privately admired in my twenties. I couldn’t make any of this up, and why would I want to? A thumbnail picture of him at the very top of his online obituary showed me his face. It was unmistakably him; I recognized him instantly. Everything together blended into such an odd coincidence that I couldn’t help be struck by it, and I couldn’t help but wonder if my life would have been any different had I applied for one of the rooms and gotten it.

After that, I just thought about the minimal impression I had of him. Someone I didn’t know but could still picture with what I think is real accuracy and just how odd memory is when it comes to picking up and holding onto seemingly insignificant faces or events.

And I hope he had a wonderful remaining five years. I hope he had great roommates and people who cared for him. I hope he had someone to watch Ally McBeal with and someone to consume copious amounts of coffee with. I hope he had fun, and I hope he had long talks on the phone with old friends and family and I hope he ate great meals and read good books.

Like I said, I never knew this guy, but I’ve now been gay and in my thirties and single, and I know what that feels like now. There are times where I consider sending this ad to his family, just so they can have another little something to remember him by, a tiny piece of him they may or may not know exists. But I’ve never struck out to do that because that also maybe feels inappropriate or something they may not want. Maybe somehow they’ll find this despite the fact I don’t name him.

It’s an odd thing to discover something a decade later from someone no longer alive, something that maybe no one else has. And it’s even stranger when you never knew the person but you also know the very rough outline of their life’s arc thanks to breathtaking technological advances.

But I can see his face when I think about it, plain as day. And in his own way, even thought I’ve never found an apartment based on an ad placed on the street, he’s had an impact on a complete and total stranger who now lives hundreds of miles from that time and place with his husband in northern New Jersey.

#storytelling #roommate wanted #Boston

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