#and then travis goes to collage..

[brain-maggot1]

sometimes i believe ill turn into him

[natsredbra]

Our Yellowjackets collage!au

Hi hello, welcome to the very specific collage shaunanat au that I and the amazing wonderful @ssaintofthelostcauses made!

Here’s a little smau, explanation and lore of the characters (Natalie Scatorccio, Jackie Taylor and Taissa Turner); find Shauna Shipman, Lottie Matthews, Van Palmer and Laura Lee over on Ro’s page!

Mains: Shauna Shipman and Natalie Scatorccio

Side characters: Lottie Matthews, Van Palmer, Taissa Turner, Laura Lee and Jackie Taylor

Background/Rarely mentioned: Travis Martinez, Mari Ibarra

************

—Natalie Scatorccio—

Nat is a student at Brown who befriended the infamous Jackie Taylor, weaseling her way into her friend group. She’s soon very accepted and joins their soccer team as well. Everything is amazing up until she has an affair with one of them - the community strap, Shauna Shipman. She’s a psych major, a kind soul who wants to help people that went through similar things as she did.

Pairings:

x Shauna Shipman - situationship/sneaky link

x Lottie Matthews - platonic (mostly, wouldn’t be an ang thing if there was no lottienat)

x Jackie Taylor - platonic (best friend)

x Van Palmer - platonic

x Taissa Turner - platonic

x Laura Lee - platonic

x Travis Martinez - romantic (briefly)

—Jackie Taylor—

Jackie Taylor is as popular on campus as can be, a fem lesbian with loving friends and a large social circle. She runs the Phi Beta sorority which gained her a following on her socials as well. A marketing major, destined for success and fame. Unfortunately finds herself in the middle of the Shaunanat mess.

Pairings:

x Natalie Scatorccio - platonic (best friend)

x Shauna Shipman - friend/sneaky link

x Lottie Matthews - platonic

x Van Palmer - platonic

x Taissa Turner - platonic

x Laura Lee - platonic

—Taissa Turner—

Taissa is a beautiful, collected and elegant girl. She’s got her shit together, and is basically married to Van. Obviously in pre law, uses her argumentative side to her advantage. She’s very big on tough love, especially when it comes to her deranged bestie, Shauna. Who wouldn’t want her in their life?

Pairings:

x Shauna Shipman - platonic (best friend)

x Lottie Matthews - platonic (best friend)

x Van Palmer - romantic

x Natalie Scatorccio - platonic

x Jackie Taylor - platonic

x Laura Lee - platonic

Here’s a small rundown on the story: There’s a happy little gay friend group over at Brown University along with their token straight bisexual friend Nat. All goes well until Shauna decides she wants a piece of her, not caring about the consequences or the fact that Natalie is taken. One by one the girls find out, last to know was Jackie who was secretly hooking up with Shauna as well. This all sparks drama, arguments and fights, breakups, and wounds to friendships.

or

Comphet Natalie, Fratboy!Shauna, angelic Taivan and Lottielee. Shautietai & Jackienat bestfriendism.

Ending: Natalie ends up with Evangeline and they have three cats and a wedding in Thailand; Rowan fucks around with Shauna and cries himself to sleep every night.

[blue-jay-13]

So, I got hyper fixated on Aphmau’s MyStreet in 2025, which I haven’t thought but about since like 5 years ago.

Anyways, I like many others realized that the series had so much more potential than how it’s ended up, specifically in the character department.

So I started messing around with the idea of how I’d write it and the changes I’d make.

I don’t know how I feel about including all the magic and non human shit, so as of now this is a completely normal world with some remanants of magic for slight hijinks.

I also don’t want to delve into the romance parts just yet, and honestly would rather focus on the non romantic relationships first

I’m also going to state that I absolutely love the idea of Aaron, but I don’t like the canon execution of him. Fanon Aaron is far superior, and I’m going to do my best to channel that.

Please keep in mind that this is kinda just a rough idea of stuff I’d want to do, so It’s not all that polished!

High school:

- Aph starts high school as a sophomore, homeschooled previously because of bullying and over protective mom. She meets FC online and they talk every day. BFF/online siblings.

- She meets Garroth who’s a year older than her, prodigal child of his family leaving high standards for the others.

- Also meets Laurance, who is in the same year as her, friends until he moves away towards the end of sophomore year but comes back during senior year.

- Zane is a year younger than her, is a bit of a menace. Bad relationship with garroth due to the expectations placed upon him.

- She, KC, and Kaitlyn are in the same grade and become quick friends.

Collage:

- Aph and FC still talk every day.

- She and KC go to the same college, Kaitlyn goes to a different college that is nearby and meets Lucinda. At their college, Aph meets Travis and Dante. Lucinda Kaitlyn, KC and Aph have girls nights every other Saturday so that’s how Lucinda folds into the group

- Laurance and Garroth go to the same school, Laurance on a soccer scholarship, garroth for business. They’re roommates.

- Garroth shares several business classes for the first year with Aaron (who’s been forced into it by his parents). They actually become pretty good friends, at the end of their first year they both switch majors. Garroth realizing that business wasn’t actually his dream, and that the only reason he did it to begin with was to make his parents proud. His parents are happy that he switches to doing something else he loves. Aaron transfers schools entirely, but him and Garroth keep touch. [ while Garroth does, tell Aaron about most of his life and his parents and yada yada, Aaron really only says that He’s in a similar boat and that His parents want him to take on the business but it’s not for him, so while good friends Garroth doesn’t really know everything about Aaron’s family life)

- Aaron transfers college and ends up meeting Blaze and his friends, idk exactly what Aaron is going for but he goes and kinda disappears off his families Radar (or they decide to let him have a bit of rebellion) [Blaze quickly becomes Derek and Rachel Lycans number one hater]

Pre Mystreet:

Aph has an apartment, that turns out to be in the same building as Garroth and Laurance, who she’s kept in touch with since hs, but not as much as she prefers. This is where the two would really realize they have feelings for her.

KC and Kaitlyn have an apartment about 20 minutes away, Lucinda has a diff apartment but is at KC and Kaitlyn’s place often.

Dante has a job at the same place as Garroth, which leads him to getting introduced to Laurance, the trio becomes quick friends.

Zane, still a bit bitter doesn’t talk to Garroth or keep in touch, tho he went to collage for business and minored film. He’s actually the first to move to MyStreet.

Travis is off doing something else at the time tho he keeps in close contact with Dante, and occasionally calls Aph

Aaron has a house out in the woods, he actually opens up a dog training business out of his house, as well as a doggy day care. He really only keeps in touch with blaze, Garroth, and occasionally Shu (they’ve been messaging less and playing their game less as their adult lives start)

Lucinda and Nicole went to Hs together and buy a house on MyStreet not long after Zane, but before the rest arrive.

Mystreet:

- To be less creepy, Aph is the one who actually suggest moving to MyStreet to Garroth and Laurance. The landlord at their apartment changed the lease and has been getting worse, so the three collectively decided they want out.

- Aph convinces Kaitlyn and KC to join her, as their apartment is rather small, and definitely not in the greatest shape, and they agree.

- They all decide to get places near each other, and end up moving out around the same time, Garroth and Laurance only a few days ahead of them. They invite Dante, as the boys had gotten pretty close and they wouldn’t mind living with him. The six move in the same week, they still don’t know Zane lives there.

- Aaron’s family eventually find him through his dog day care, and are pretty disgusted in what he’s doing. His parents call him uncivilized, and essentially threaten to ruin his business if he doesn’t “go back to being a civilized human and move into a real house.” So he starts looking around and ends up in the City the rest live in. A few people see him around town, coffee shop, convenience store, grocery store, and around their neighborhood as he’s looking at the house there, and they think he’s a Hobo (he does in fact look like one a bit)

- When he moves in, no one really notices that it’s “the Hobo” since he really isn’t out that often. When they do l, they finally get to show Garroth that guy they’ve been seeing around town. It takes garroth a moment but he eventually recognizes Aaron. (Since he was till under his parents thumb at the time, Aaron’s appearance was much more well kept and clean.)

- Aaron actually bonds with the other members of the crew instead of just being their cause they’re Aph’s friends. He’s only really introduced to the guys at first, since Garroths the only one that knows him (and the guys were the only ones noisy enough to gossip about the “hobo”). So he becomes pretty close to Garroth, Laurance and Dante. He’s also pretty chill with Zane, their mail gets mixed up often, which is how they met. Zane likes that Aaron’s a pretty good listener, Aaron is happy that Zane’s fine with him just listening instead of responding.

- Aph finds out Aaron is FC, because he sent her a picture of the logo he came up with for his dog training/daycare site, and she sees the same logo as a sticker on the back of Aaron’s laptop. He had no idea she was Shu till she told him.

That’s all I really have for now but if I get more ideas I’ll definitely post them up here

[daughterofapollo-official]

So what did the Stoll brothers do after they left Camp-Half blood?

I sincerely believe Connor started a youtubre prank Chanel. Travis went to collage then after graduating started appearing on a few video’s on Connor’s Chanel. The crowed eventually grows to love Travis as a duo. And Travis goes on got make his own account. And they even make a joint account.

They do every prank trend you can imagen. Then they start doing chalanees too.

On their joint account Travis and Connor start doing travel vlogs. Going all over the country, and even leaving the country on multiple occasions. The camera is always on.

The two even have a whole series of ghost hunting.

And the conflicts….

They did get into YouTube drama for not giving credit in reaction videos and for stealing. Stealing content and in actually stores.

“They are a bad example for their majority child audience” type shit.

[evillama666]

“Class crush”

“Class crush”

Travis (Gossip) x reader

Please! Why are there no fanfics for him!? He’s literally such a sweetheart and someone I can relate to. I’d kill to be his best friend. I literally love weird art so much!! This fanfic is more for my own comfort 

Summary: After weeks of admiring you from afar, he finally strikes up a conversation

Tags: Artist reader (I’m an artist if that wasn’t clear), Shy Travis, crush, outcasts, anxiety, college, classmates

Word count: 3628

He's so adorable

꩜…꩜…꩜…꩜…꩜…꩜…꩜…꩜…꩜…꩜…꩜…꩜…꩜…꩜…

Travis and you are in the same class. He sits alone, each class with no one to talk to. He noticed a couple other people sit at your table but you never engage with them. He’s been fighting himself for weeks to just go over and say hi! He finds you so interesting. He’s noticed all your little habits, like the way you bite your lip when you focus, the way you mess with your hair, how you bob your head around when you listen to music. He finds it all so cute. He just can’t bring himself to go over to you.

‘Today I’m gonna do it. I’m going to go over and say hi.’ He thinks. He’s been saying that to himself every day for weeks now. He sets his pencil down as he looks at you. Why does he find this so intimidating? He chews on his lip as he tries to build his courage. Suddenly, he stands without his own permission. Well, now he’s standing, he kinda has to make a move. He doesn't want to look like an idiot standing up, then sitting back down for no reason. He takes a deep breath as he walks over to your table and- Oh no. He lost his voice! You look up from your drawing as he stares at you. You look back for a minute before speaking up since he won’t. “Hi?” He blinks once. He can’t back out now! 

“Uh… Hi.” He rubs the back of his neck, hating how nervous he sounded when he said that. He doesn’t know what else to say. You know he’s always sitting alone, so you invite him over. “Wanna sit?” He’s so glad you made a move. “Uh yea…” He mumbles as he goes and grabs his stuff from his table. He sets his stuff down at your table, then sits. He doesn't know what to say. Oh! He should introduce himself. “Hi, I’m Travis.” You look up from your drawing and smile. “Travis? That suits the way you look. I’m (Y/n).” Oh thank god, you're weird like him. He glances down at himself. “My look? I never thought of it like that.”

You set your pencils down and lean over the table. “You’re that dude that made the giant college of Naomi Preston, right?” He stares at you blankly as he internally panics. Shit, shit, shit! This was such a bad idea! He tries to keep his tone casual. “Um yea.” You suddenly get a huge smile. "I read the news story about it last year! I found it sooo interesting.” Wait- someone actually likes it!? So many people called him a freak for doing that, he considered dropping out. “Wait really?” He asks, genuinely intrigued. You nod eagerly. He loves how excited you are over this. “Uh-huh! I love how the collage progressed as the rumors changed. That was so cool. It changed with the rumors.” (I nerded out watching him make that.) Travis smiles just slightly. He has met no one that wasn’t weirded out by that project. “Heh, thanks. You're the first to have any encouraging words about that. Everyone thought it was weird.”

You can’t help but smirk. "Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable." (Cesar A. Cruz) His smile widens. “That’s my favourite quote.” You're feeling just as excited as Travis. You haven't met too many people on an equal level of weirdness as you. “I thought it fit.” His voice is soft as he blushes and looks down at his hands. “It does, it really does.” You can’t help but feel like a total nerd right now. “I read your point of view on the whole, uh, thing. It was so interesting! I loved it!” If you keep praising him, he’s going to fall, hard. “Th-thanks, but the whole thing was a damn mess.” 

You sit up a little, wanting to reassure him. “Well, I know you were innocent the whole time throughout it. That’s all that matters.” Travis has felt bitter about the whole thing, so your words are helping. “Thanks… So, uh, what are you working on for this project?” Of course he’s asking because he’s genuinely interested but, he’s also asking for inspiration. The subject for this project is ‘Still life’, which Travis fucking hates. He just finds it so boring. You flip your drawing around to show him. It’s a marble statue but instead of being in greys and whites… It’s in pinks! (That’s how I drew all my stuff in highschool. It was never the original colour.) Travis fucking loves it! Why didn't he think of that? It’s abstract while still being still life. “I love that. I love the colours you chose.” He glances down at his page that’s covered in erased pencil marks. “I’ve… sorta been struggling with this project. I don’t like still life.” 

“Why don’t you draw like me? I know you like abstract art.” Travis both loves and hates that you know so much about him. Damn, you actually did read that news article. He hates that he doesn't know anything about you. “I uh… I would, but I don’t really know what to draw.” You look around the room. There are lots of still life setups around the room but nothing that suits Travis. “Well, the deadline is this Friday.” Wow, thanks for reminding him. Not like he was stressed enough. Why couldn't it be Monday, so he had time over the weekend? His voice is very soft. “Yea, I know.” You keep looking around the room. “It's gotta be something simple, so you have time to finish.” He looks back at your work. He could never compete. He doesn't get why you liked his collage at all. Well, you just told him but, his work is just so bad compared to yours. “I don’t know.” He mumbles. He’s just accepted he’s going to fail this project. 

Your eyes land on all the bottles stored in the corner. “How about a funky bottle? You could make it a neon colour! I even have a couple I could bring.” Why are you trying to help him so much? He’s literally never spoken to you before. He laughs nervously. “Thanks, but you don’t have to do that.” Your eyes are still lingering on the bottles. There’s a couple that are funky. “I’m sure there’s one here you’d like.” Travis looks at you as he thinks. You’re being so cheery and nice to him. He doesn’t get it. “Probably…” He mumbles, looking over at the glassware you're looking at. Some of them are beautiful. You think of another way to help him out, then get an idea. “How about I take some reference pictures for you? Maybe that’ll make things easier for you.” Travis smiles to himself. He’s grateful he came over when you did. You're being so kind and helpful. He shrugs as he answers. “Yea, sure.” And with that, you stand, going over and grabbing some bottles. You bring them back to your table and set them down, already taking pictures of them. (I don’t care if this was set in the 2000s. Bear with me.) 

Travis watches your every move. He already finds you so interesting after like two minutes of talking. He watches as you rearrange the bottles and take pictures of different angles and perspectives. You must like photography. (I love photography) You’re trying to find Travis the perfect reference photo. It’s always so exhausting looking for a good reference. Once you're done, you sit on the table next to him, showing him the pictures you took on your phone. “Will any of these work?” These were taken on a phone in less than a minute, yet look so professional. Travis loves them. He’d love to get to draw a picture you took. “Yea, those'll work.”

You hide your smirk, now getting to play out your idea. You shrug, glancing away as you play casual. “Oh, well, I guess you'll have to give me your number so I can send them to you.” His smile drops, then his cheeks flush. Damn, that was smooth. He’s also very relieved you asked before him. He could never do that. He nervously takes the phone from your hands. “Yea, totally.” The contact is already pulled up for him to enter his information. He looks away as he hands you the phone back. You smile widely. It has never been that easy to get a guy's number. His own phone chimes as you send him the photos. Wait, he did it. He finally got a girl's number. Well, a girl got his number. But he’s still counting it as a victory!

He smiles as he scrolls through the photos, finding the perfect one to draw. He sets his phone down as he begins to draw the rough shape of a bottle. “Thanks.” You sit back in your seat, going back to your drawing. “You’re probably going to have to finish that after class so, why don’t I join you? So you can get my tips on how to draw like me, of course.” Of course. That’s what you meant. It’s half true at least. You don’t want him to fail. “Oh, uh…” Travis can hardly process. He’s been trying to build up the courage to do all of this for weeks and here you are, doing everything for him. “I wouldn't mind that.” He finally answers. 

Your face beams. “How about we meet at the fountain after classes? It’s so pretty... As long as you're not busy, of course.” Obviously he’s not busy. This man’s got no social life. “I’m not busy. I’ll meet you there right after. And you're right… It is pretty.” He loves how nerdy you are. “I know, right? I’ve taken a few pictures of it.” That confirms it: photography type. “Really? I’d love to see those. I, uh, actually drew it once.” Your eyes light up. “Aw, we both found inspo from the same thing! And of course I’ll show you those, as long as I get to see your drawing sometime.” It’s official. Travis is in love. You're so cute and have not judged him once. He glances back at your work, craving some advice. “What colour should I draw this?”

You answer without a beat. “Bright orange with neon yellow highlights!” That’ll… definitely be abstract. He loves it! “That’s so much better than boring old green. I really like how you're doing this project. I find still life so boring.” You laugh softly. You sound so passionate about everything. Travis strives to be half like that. “Same! That’s why one day I was like ‘Fuck it. I’mma make this blue.’ It just brings out so much life.” He looks back at the pink drawing. There’s so many little details Travis could never get. “I can see your personality in your art.” Your eyes light up. Best compliment ever! “That’s why I liked your art so much! I could see how interesting you found the Naomi case in your collage.” You somehow make Travis feel so much better about his art. It’s all the poor boy needs. “You really like that, huh? You keep bringing it up.”

“Course I do. You're an amazing artist, Travis.” He can physically feel his heart thump. He’s waited to hear those words forever. You're so perfect for him. You make him feel so good about himself. And the way you said his name really tied everything in. “You are too. I can’t get over how damn realistic your drawing is.” You smile, and of course, he smiles back. He’s gotta be dreaming, right? This is too perfect to be real. “Why’d you never come over sooner? It’s so easy talking to you.” He didn't think anyone would like talking to him. What the hell’s he supposed to say? ‘I was too intimidated by all the scenarios in my head where I asked you out and you rejected me?’ He laughs nervously. “Oh, I don't know.” 

You look back down at your work as you continue to draw. “Well, I'm glad you did. I noticed you were sitting all alone. You seem like you could use a friend.” Friend? Yeah, Travis needs more of those. “You're, um… also easy to talk to.” He glances down at his sketch. It’s messy, and he’s really going to need to use all his free time, so he gets it done on time. He keeps comparing it to yours. It could never look that good. “Uh, what about you? You were also sitting alone.” 

You shrug as you keep drawing. “I enjoy being alone. Plus, all the people here suck.” You suddenly lift your head, making sure no one heard you. Travis finds this sight both adorable and hilarious. “I definitely know a few things about that…” He feels like he could talk to you for hours without judgement. He never felt like that with anyone else. He keeps stealing glances at you while he draws. You catch him and smile. “What?” Usually Travis would hate that he was caught staring, but your soft tone soothed him. He so wants to compliment you, but just can’t. “Nothing… Just like your art.”

You smirk. “M’kay Travis, but it wasn't my art that you were looking at.” He suddenly looks up from his paper. Wait, was it that obvious? He looks back down at his paper, feeling ashamed. “Sorry.” He mumbles. You laugh softly at his mumbled apology. “You’re ok. It’s pretty cute. You can’t get enough of me.” He groans as he rubs his hand down his face. “God, was it that bad?” He hesitantly looks back at you. “Well, I've had men look at me worse so, no.” The way Travis looks at you, has nothing sexual behind it. It’s all pure curiosity. He struggles to come up with something before complimenting you in his own way. “You’d make a lovely art piece.” You can tell he’s genuine. You smile, resting your cheek in your hand. “Yea? Would you like to draw me sometime?”  

Travis’s cheeks flush pink. Heh, heh, what the fuck did you just say? He looks away to hide his blush. “I- I-... I don’t think it would look any good…” You give him a reassuring smile. “I don’t care. As long as you enjoy making it.” His head is already swarming with different ways he’d draw you. Some are very, very inappropriate. “We’ll see. I kinda have to get a grade on this one first.” He cleans up the sketch, making the lines neater and smoother. That’s the easy part. Now he actually has to add colour and shade this damn thing. He glances at your work again, seeing how you added highlights and shadows. You notice him and push your drawing over so he can see it better. “Need inspo?” 

“Man, I could never draw like that.” He says, smiling nervously. “Our styles are very different. Stop comparing them.” He freezes for a second. Wow, way to call him out like that. He picks up an orange pencil, adding the base colour. He glances at the time. Shit, he’s not going to be able to add much. You can see the way he’s looking at his drawing. “Hey, why don’t I bring my pencils when we meet up after school?” You hope that’ll bring up his spirits. He’s just so down on himself. “No, no, no. That’s nice, but I've got my own.” 

“Mine are really nice, though! Maybe they’ll help you get a better grade.” That does sound nice, but… Why would he make this easy? “If they're nice, I definitely don't want to use them.” Why’s he gotta be like this? “I’m bringing them.” You say sternly, hoping to actually get through his head. He swallows thickly. God, that tone was so attractive to him. He nods silently as he looks at his drawing. 

When class ends, you pack up your stuff, giving Travis a little wave. “See ya, Travis.” He waves back quickly so you don’t miss it. “Oh- Bye Y/n!” He watches as you leave with the rest of the people, leaving him standing there, wondering what the fuck just happened. It’s never that easy for him to talk to a girl. Gasp. Maybe you're the one. Or maybe you're just really nice. He packs up his stuff and makes it to his next class. 

Later that day, he finds you already sitting at the fountain. He was half expecting to be stood up. He walks closer, then notices your pencil case. Shit, you really did bring them. He sits next to you, pulling out his art project. “Hey.” You look up from your phone and smile. “Hey. Here are those pictures I took of the fountain. He tenses as you lean into his shoulder to show him. “Are you taking photography class?” He asks, watching you scroll through a bunch of different photos. “Uh-huh.”

“Oh, we must be in different classes then. I would have noticed you.” God, he hopes that did not sound creepy. “Mine is in the afternoon.” His is in the morning. “Yeah, different classes.” His eyes are filled with curiosity as he looks at the photos. They're all unique, just like your drawings. He happily listens to you explain each story behind each different one. When you're done, you hand him the case of pencils. “Here, use these.” He tentatively opens the case and picks out an orange one. They're not Prisma but, they're something high class like that. “It’s a fucking pencil, Travis. Stop being so afraid of it.” He looks at you with wide eyes. Why did he find the way you spoke so hot? He quietly begins drawing. He keeps asking for your input, like how you would shade, highlights, and what colours you would use. This project is going to be the death of him.

“It’s coming along nicely.” You say, laying your head on his shoulder. He glances at you from the corner of his eye. He’s glad you're comfortable with him, but damn, is it distracting for him. He just nods as a reply. He’s fucking stressed over getting this done in time. You like that he’s quiet. It’s so much better than all the overstimulating people here. You’re quietly watching him as he draws. Usually, he hates when people watch him draw so intently. He feels like he’s being judged or doing something wrong. But with you, he feels comfortable. After a while, he speaks up. “Do you think I’ll get a good grade? Me and this teacher don't exactly… have the best relationship.” 

“Oh yeah, that teacher's a bitch. But he liked the way I was doing this project, so I don't see why he wouldn’t like yours.” He sighs heavily. He hopes you're right. “I feel like he hates me. Like he’s out against me or something.” You hate strict art teachers with a passion. “I don’t think he hates you personally. I think he just fucking sucks at his job.” Travis stifles a laugh. “Yeah, I think so too. Art should be free, not confined by rules.” You nod, closing your eyes as you rest your head on his shoulder. College is exhausting. “I like the way you think.”

Travis is attacked by a swarm of butterflies. That compliment means so much to him. He always worries about what people think because he thinks differently. “Thanks. That means a lot.” His eyes scan over your features. He has so many ways he could draw you. He can’t believe this is happening. He literally has a girl falling asleep on his shoulder. It’s distracting, but he’s able to focus on his drawing… Mostly. 

He sighs when the sky begins to darken. He can’t keep drawing. He looks at your sleeping face. He hates to wake you, but he can’t sit here the whole night. He softly nudges you with your shoulder. “Hey…” You lift your head, mumbling. “Leaving?” God, why do you have to be so damn adorable? His voice is soft. “Yeah, it’s getting too dark to draw.” He hands you back your case of pencils. “Lemme see.” Let you see how dark it is? What the fu- Oh! Let you see his drawing! He holds it up for you. “I uh… actually like how it’s coming out.” 

“Daaaamn! You got a lot done. I don’t think you’ve gotta worry about the deadline.” Travis smiles to himself, beginning to pack up his stuff. He finally isn’t dreading this project. You shove your pencils in your bag and stand with him. “G’night.” He mumbles as he rubs the back of his neck awkwardly. He’s not exactly sure what to do. You get up on your tiptoes to press a peck to his lips. Just when his brain registers what is happening, you're already pulling away when he’s trying to kiss back. You hum and shrug your shoulders like nothing happened. “Night Travis.”

He blinks once as he watches you go. His brain catches up, then he smiles. He kissed a- Wait… A girl kissed him! A girl kissed him! That just made his day- week- life! That just made his life! He’s basically jumping up and down with excitement until he realizes there are other people walking by. He takes a deep breath to calm himself. He’s so glad you're the direct type because it would have taken another month and a half of just building courage to kiss you, just for him to chicken out. He can’t wait to see you at art class tomorrow. He finally has something to look forward to. That little kiss keeps replaying in his mind as he walk home.

[the-pantry-of-art]

Judge my taste in music based on albums I love listening to!

Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys

Either/Or by Elliott Smith

Is This It by The Strokes

The Queen Is Dead by The Smiths

Magnolia Electric Co. (Deluxe Edition) by Songs: Ohia

Lent by Autoheart

The Last Stand by Sabaton

Heroes by Sabaton

Toxicity by Systen Of A Down

Graduation by Kanye West (I have lisened to nearly all of his albumes but this one I like the most[or just listen to the most})

Kids See Ghosts by Kid Cudi & Kanye West

Good Kid, M.A.A.D City by Kendrick Lamar (Same as above in KW)

Rodeo by Travis Scott (same as above in KW)

Plastic Beach by Gorillaz

An Evening With Silk Sonic by Bruno Mars

Oh My Heart by Mother Mother

The Sticks by Mother Mother

Eureka by Mother Mother

Touch Up by Mother Mother

Le Pop by Katzenjammer

A Kiss Before You Go by Katzenjammer

Ants From Up There by Black Country, New Road

Random Access Memories by Daft Punk

Discovery by Daft Punk

American Idiot by Green Day (fun fact on of my all time Fav T-Shirts is a black T-shirt with the ,Dookie' album cover on it ;)

The Black Parade by My Chemical Romance

The Normal Album by Will Wood

Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum by Tally Hall

Good & Evil by Tally Hall

Hawaii: Part II by Miracle Musical

JJBA Intro's by Lito Munoz

The Doors by The Doors

FREEDOM PIANO STORIES 4 by Joe Hisaishi

Chłopi (Original Soundtrack) by L.U.C

All Things Must Pass (2014 Remastered) by George Harrison

Yellow Submarine Songtrack by The Beatles

My Head Is An Animal by Of Monsters and Man

Polka's Not Dead by The Dreadnoughts

Uncle Touchy Goes to Collage by The Dreadnoughts

Drunken Lullabies by Flogging Molly

Pelicans We by Cosmo Sheldrake

The Much Much How How and I by Cosmo Sheldrake

Hung, Drawn & Portered by The Rumjacks

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel

The Glow, Pt 2 by The Microphones

Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Haven by Godspeed You!Black Emperor

Hell's Comin' with Me by Poor Man's Poison

(I have lisened to all af this from cover to cover)

Other bands/musisians I listen to a lot but not to any particular album just some songs:

Origa

Enej

Tyler, the Creator

Dawid Podsiadło

Arek Kłusowski

Lady Punk

Maanam

Mindless Self Indulgance

Smash Mouth

Panic!At the Disco

Bloodhound Gang (tbh they'r like top 7 on my list so <3)

Molchat Doma

Comus

Jeff Rosenstock

The Killigans

Sir Reg

Queen

Rammstein

MARINA

Firkin

Paddy And The Rats

The Rumpled

Rokiczanka

Coldplay

Smokey Bastard

The Cloverhearts

sanah

Rusty Cage

Nocny Kochanek

Bad Religion

Billy Talent

Black Sabbath ( & Ozzy Osburne ofc)

Kult

Kazik

The Real McKenzies

Britney Spears

Death Grips

& more, theres just so meny I'm to tired to write everyone down XD

Uhh It was a lot of writing... I'm awaiting ur Opinion!

[tumbleassbitch]

another lost soul (letting my instinct take control) | The Quarry | TravisxLaura

Characters: Laura Kearney, Travis Hackett, The Hackett family Summary: Max dies in the cellar. This changes everything.

Chapter 9/? | Chapter 8

July 15, 2022

All things considered, it’s not that bad.

Underneath the fluorescent lights of the shower room, the bruises along her ribs look… normal. No internal bleeding or squashed organs. 

Probably, Laura thinks dubiously. 

Looking over her shoulder hurts like hell, but she only finds a collage of purples and blues beneath a scattering of crimson scrapes and pricks, the worst covered up by bandages. It kind of looks like an ugly Jackson Pollock painting, but at least it’s non-lethal.

She pulls her shirt back down with a wince and makes the stilted walk back to her cot, trailing one hand along the wall to keep upright. By the time she’s made it halfway, sweat is beading along her brow and she feels uncomfortably close to passing out. 

That is, until a steady arm loops under her own.

“You should’ve called,” Travis says, irritation lacing his words.

And do this whole dance and song again? she thinks dismally, but there's no point in starting a fight with the person who’s literally holding her up. 

“Thanks,” she says flatly. 

They make it back to the cell in quick time, and she slumps down with a heavy breath, taking no effort in masquerading just how much that short walk took out of her.

Travis lingers by the cot, folding his arms in stern judgment.

There’s a reason she didn’t ask for help. Looking at him now in the light of day makes last night all the more worse.

“I brought you your things,” he says after a moment of loaded silence. “They’re tucked under the bed.”

“Cool. I’ll make sure to dig around for them later.”

“I didn’t—” He pinches the bridge of his nose. “I put them there so you wouldn’t trip when you got up.”

Laura grunts, but there’s no real malice behind it. He eyes her shrewdly. 

“I brought you some ice to switch out for the heat pack, and I’ll charge that while you rest. Breakfast and coffee will be ready in a bit. I figured something with protein might feel good, so I’m defrosting some sausage and—”

He’s rambling.

“—is your pain level? Do you need something stronger? I guess now’s about the time to take another dose, huh?” He feels around his shirt pocket, and his mouth dips into a deeper frown. 

“Shit. I’ll get you the pills before breakfast. Afterwards, I can help you to the showers if you want, maybe put a chair in there so you can sit—” 

Travis pauses, and his eyes narrow with accusation. “Are you even listening to me?”

“...Yes?”

He purses his lips, looking both exasperated and uncomfortable all at once.  “Okay, you know what? I’ll go get your meds. Don’t do anything stupid in the minute that I’m gone.”

He casually tosses something on her pillow, and her world goes still. It’s her phone. The bright but scratched, polka-dot casing stands out amongst the grays. Max’s mom got it for her two Christmases ago.

When Laura looks up, he’s already gone.

.

July 16th, 2022

“You missed the funeral.”

“Yeah.”

"Yeah?" Skylar Brinly's breath is heavy against the receiver. "That's it? Where have you been, Laura? I’ve been trying to get ahold of you for weeks!”

A beat.

“Max. Max is. He's... You haven’t even called until now."

“I know.”

“You know?” Her laugh is a staccato, bitter note. “I know that my brother’s body was so mangled that they gave us his fucking shoes to ID him. I know that my mom, who took you in like a daughter, didn’t eat for a week. We had to admit her into hospice. She’s still there, by the way.”

A whine builds up in the back of her throat. 

“Are you even listening to me? Say something, Laura! Say anything! …Laura?”

“Yuh- yeah.” Laura’s words break off into a silent cry, and she curls up in agony. Her muscles scream against the sudden stretch.

Skyler makes a discontented note on the other line, but Laura interrupts her with a gasp of air, like she’s finally breaking the surface of a long dive.

“I’m s-suh-sorry," her breath hitches, "I’m s-so sorry, Sky, I-I can’t explain⁠— I wasn't there and I should've been there, I wanted to be there for you and Dave and Jules but I wasn't. I fucked up. God, I fucked up."

"Hey," Skylar says hesitantly, her own voice suspiciously wet sounding, but Laura blubbers over her.

"No. Fuck, Sky, listen. I'm a fucking curse. I shouldn't have made Max go with me in the first place. But I'm gonna m-make it better, alright? And then if yuh-you guys still want me then, I can come h-home—"

"Oh, Laura."

"—but I can't do that right now, 'Kay? I can't. I can't."

Skylar shushes her. Her contact photo is one of the both of them at high school graduation, and even through the cracks in her old phone screen, they look flushed and sweaty and happy. 

It aches to look at now, after everything, but Laura latches onto it like a lifeline. Her shoulders rack around another sob.

"Are you…" Skylar asks hesitantly. "Is this about…?"

She's talking about That.

"No," Laura says as firm as her voice will allow. It isn’t much.

"It’s not your fault.” Skylar’s voice goes soft, familiar. It’s the tone she used when Laura used to have an episode. “There wasn’t anything you could’ve said or done to stop him. You know that. The cops were already there.”

“It’s not,” she starts, licking her lips. “It’s not about that.”

“Well, it kinda sounds like that. Because you’re saying you can’t come home after my brother died, and yet you weren’t even there when it happened. So it seems to me like you’re blaming yourself again for something completely out of your hands, again, and I don’t want to see you go down this path. Again.”

“I’m not, Sky. I won’t. I’m just not… ready.”

“...Okay.”

“I miss you.”

Skylar’s voice hitches, and it takes a moment before she speaks again. “I miss you. I miss Max, too…”

They go on like that for a while, even if most of the conversation is the two of them sobbing and stumbling through their grief. But, still. It feels good to talk to family again.

Skylar ends the call with a promise and a threat to talk again soon, and that if she isn’t home in the next few weeks, she’ll hunt Laura down herself.

Coming home would be good, if not quite feel right. It’s hard to imagine going back to the old room in the Brinly household, eating cereal with Dave at the old and dented kitchen table. 

What really stops her above all else— Even beyond your revenge fantasy, girl?— is the thought of seeing Max's face again. His dorky, bright, beautiful smile is forever memorialized in the dozens of family photos littered around the house. 

She hasn't dared open the gallery on her phone, and she zoomed past the home screen photo of them at the zoo as if it would leap out and grab her. Fuck, it took her a day after getting her phone back to call his sister, her best friend. 

She's a coward. That's the truth.

And maybe she hasn't stumbled out of this cell because of it. This werewolf curse is too convenient of an excuse to go back into the "real world" of funerals, and college, and starting over. Maybe that makes her a bad person. 

Honestly? This isn’t even the defining moment of making her a bad person. This is just another nail in the very real, heavy coffin that is her life. Just one more mark against her that she has to wipe clean before other people can see it, too.

A cough pulls her from her thoughts, and Laura sharply inhales.

Travis stands in the doorway of her cell like an awkward penguin. She’s still curled up in a fetal position like some unstable person.

Of fucking course. It’s almost like he waits for her to crack before appearing like some ghoulish phantom.

“What,” she says flatly.

“I—uh. Wanted to check on you.”

Laura furiously wipes at her face. “I’m fine.”

“On your injuries,” he elaborates, fidgeting with his belt. “Won’t take a minute.”

It’s going to take a fucking hour, she thinks ruefully. Her back hurts so bad that she had to crawl to the toilet in the middle of the night, and it’s not like the rest of her is doing any better after that emotional dump of a phone call. 

She lets the silence stew, and Travis eyes her warily. Maybe he expects her to lash out. That, or break into tears, which is a mortifying enough thought that she musters up a glare that could wither stone.

“I already checked them this morning,” she replies. With her clogged nose and grated throat, it sounds little more than a whine. The weight of his stare makes her crack first, if only to get this moment over with sooner.

“You may approach, officer,” Laura says sarcastically.

Travis rolls his eyes, though something about him clicks back into normalcy. This back-and-forth routine is far more comfortable than whatever they teetered on so carefully just two nights ago.

Slowly, grimacing with pain, she manages to roll onto her front. It’s like her back is seizing up more by the hour, and she’s tempted to abort halfway.

“Just do it,” she mumbles into the pillow when he hesitates. “Don’t get handsy.”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” Travis says with a disgruntled note. But his hands are still careful when they roll her shirt up, and his touches are short and quick along her spine and sides.

“It’s looking better. At worst, I think you just bruised your ribs,” he says after a while, rolling her shirt down. “But it might not even be that bad, from the looks of it. Your breathing’s still clear?”

“Yup.”

He hums in acknowledgement. One finger lightly traces over the skin of one of the scabbed-over cuts, and his touch leaves a trail of nerves in its wake.

“There’s nothing we can really do, ‘cept continue to wait,” Travis says quietly. He places another fresh pack of ice on her back, and stands with a grunt. 

As abrupt as he first appeared, he turns to leave. She stops him. “What did you tell them?”

“Who?” It’s obvious who she’s talking about. He’s stalling.

There’s a lingering stretch of quiet, like the balm after a long storm. His mouth dips like a bobber in the waves.

“You and Max were traveling to the motel. He forgot something back home. Rather than make you drive with, he dropped you off to reserve a room and left on his own, and took a corner too fast. These back-country roads aren’t easy for out-of-towners. It was… quick.”

“It was,” she says, worrying her lip absent-mindedly. He clears his throat, suddenly averting his eyes to the wall.

“Travis.” Laura waits for him to look at her before continuing. “Thank you.”

His lips part softly in surprise. Thank you for doing what you could to save my life, is what she was going to say, but the sudden openness to his face, the vulnerability, stops her short. It’s like the years have melted off of him.

It’s too much, is what it is. This side of Travis feels weird to know. Maybe ‘weird’ is too strong of a word, but all she knows is that it makes her insides twist uncomfortably and that, in itself, is weird. 

“And that’s my kindness quota for the day,” she blurts. “So, if you don’t mind…?” 

His brow crinkles in confusion, then irritation when she makes grabby hands.

“Don’t get addicted,” he says gruffly, slapping two painkillers into her palm. She accepts them greedily.

And since she’s in a better mood than usual, Laura doesn’t even tease him for the way his ears have gone pink.

July 18th 2022

It’s a little past midnight, and Laura is woken up by the sound of someone else in the building.

“...the middle of the night?”

It’s hard to say if it’s a man or a woman, but Travis’ hushed words leading to the office carry over from the main room like an agitated bee hive.

It’s a while before their voices come back around. They must be heading back towards the entrance.

“...none of your business…”

“Couldn’t you, y’know, handle it?” 

It’s definitely a man. It would be weird for Kaylee to come by this late, she supposes, yet the disappointment comes all the same.

“...you even hear yourself? ... a police officer!” Travis has never quite sounded like this before. He’s angry, obviously, but there’s a different note to it that she can’t place a finger on.

Laura strains to hear more, but their voices continue to fade.

“ ...won’t...keep your mouth shut.” 

They’re gone. 

She must drift back to sleep while listening for anything else, because the next thing she knows, a strike of a car engine overhead jolts her back to awareness. The headlights cast fingers of light across the stone, reaching past the bars on her little window, and settle into the lines of the stone wall and Travis’ face.

Her throat closes up. There’s Travis, leaning against the wall, a bottle of something dark in hand. The light flits away as the car moves on, the crunch of pavement sounding faintly. All that’s left to illuminate them both is the pale touch of moonlight.

Her mind instantly runs through every question, her possible escape routes, but… he’s just sitting there. He isn’t in her cell, and he doesn’t even seem to notice that she’s awake.

He probably couldn’t even walk a straight line. The bottle looks more than half empty.

Travis releases a heavy sigh into the night, and he slumps further down the wall. Seeing him this way feels… wrong. Like she’s witnessing something forbidden.

It’s not my fault he camped out here, she thinks defensively.

“Didn’t mean for this to ‘appen.” His slurred voice catches her off guard. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”

She lies painstakingly still.

“Y’shouldn’t have thanked me,” he goes on to say. “M’not worth that.” 

The way he appears before her is typically so self-assured. He stalks around here with an air of well-worn exasperation, always ready to unleash his own brand of confidence through dry wit and blunt honesty. 

This? This sad man stretched out on concrete and moonlight, drinking straight from the bottle? She doesn’t recognize him.

Yes, you do, she thinks ruefully. What other kind of man goes to the trouble of covering up his family’s mess?

He huffs a bitter laugh, and sloshes the bottle’s contents around before setting it down with a look of disgust. 

“I’m fucking pathetic, is what I am,” he comments wryly, gazing up at the window. It’s eerily close to her train of thought, and for a second, she’s worried she spoke aloud.. A lopsided grin twists his face in a mockery of amusement, and the smile dies after a few breaths.

He swallows heavily, throat bobbing with the movement, and slowly rises to his feet. It takes a few unsteady steps before he remembers the bottle, and it takes even longer for him to lean down and swipe it.

“Sh-iiiit,” he mumbles, stretching out the curse. “Fuck me. Fuck.”

Laura holds her breath as his shuffled gait disappears down the hall. 

Later, much later, she’ll wonder if he understood the gravity of what he was apologizing for.

July 20th, 2022

“I’m ready,” she announces.

Travis looks up from the coffee pot in surprise.

“Ready?” he repeats drily. A packet of oatmeal is in hand, and a bowl is already out for her. It looks like she came by just in time.

“I was able to walk all the way here without help, so yeah, I’m ready.” She puts a hand on her hip, relishing in the soft, familiar material of her leggings. The matching cropped jacket and baseball cap make her feel almost normal, as if this were a casual summer trip and not a manhunt.

His calculating gaze sweeps over her, and if it were coming from any other man, she’d feel like a piece of meat. Instead, she just feels irritated.

“We agreed. It’s been three days.”

The last couple of days has been a slow crawl of pain meds, hot and cold packs, and one awkward session of bandage changing that Laura immediately vetoed from ever happening again.

It’s been painful in nearly every faucet, and Kaylee still hasn’t stopped by.

Travis himself offered up the compromise, “if only so you could please shut up for five goddamn minutes,” so, here she is.

Though, given what she happened to witness a few nights ago, some productive time away will do him some good, too. He can blame it on her impatience as much as he wants, but she’s seen beyond the mask.

Travis needs a distraction, and she needs a partner who isn’t five steps away from getting drunk and watching pretty girls sleep. Yikes.

Her boot taps impatiently against the side of her bag. It’s a little shoulder pouch she packed to ferry around bandaids and snacks at camp, and it doubles as a perfect overnight bag.

He eyes her unimpressed. “We agreed to reassess in three days.”

“And the full moon is in just a few days!”

“That’s right,” he says matter-of-factly. “Which means I have prepping that I need to do, and you still have to take it easy. I’m not dragging your ass up another ravine.”

“C’mon,” she says flippantly. “Don’t act like you haven’t already taken the day off.”

He makes a sort of indignant sound, but he doesn’t deny it. “The day, I could maybe swing. But what’s with the bag?”

“In case I need it,” she says vaguely. “It’s a bit of a drive, right?”

His eyes dart up towards the ceiling. Thinking. Perhaps… waiting, is a better word.

She can see the moment his resolve cracks. Wordlessly, he puts the bowl back in the cupboard and walks past her, scooping up her bag in one smooth motion.

They take no detours. His broad stride takes them to the main entrance, and when he locks up behind them, it feels like the closing of a chapter.

Laura pauses to take it in. The sheriff station stands like a monument to another time; the chips on the double doors reveal layers of old paint, years of cosmetic cover-ups stacking up into a sheet of grime. Last night’s soft summer rain still lingers in the air, and her old hiking boots scuff lightly against the pavement. 

Here, in the pale light of morning, something’s changed.

“I thought you said you were ready?” he asks next to the cruiser. A light note of sarcasm dances along his tone.

“I’m surprised we’re not taking a personal car,” Laura says. Travis shoots her a look, which she takes as an invitation to continue. “I just figured… the ‘North Hill County Sheriff’ cruiser might attract a lot of stares.”

“I don’t have a personal vehicle.”

She frowns thoughtfully. “Is that a… cop thing?”

Travis’ mouth twitches. “I suppose… you could say it’s a ‘cop thing.’ I just never used mine, so I lent it to a family member who needed it.”

Laura hums in consideration and gets in, shooting a quick glance to the backseat. And— yup. She smirks; his duffle bag is already there. He doesn’t look at her, but he does switch on the radio almost immediately.

“Get comfortable,” he says. “It’s a three hour drive to Colton.”

.

.

Def Leppard thrums alive over the speakers, and Travis turns the volume up. So much for conversation, she thinks wryly.

It’s been a while since Laura’s gone on a long drive. Being with Max was all about noise; the bright notes of the latest pop song, his constant need to fidget, his driving urge to make her laugh. 

Travis is the exact opposite. This man is made up of thick, solid lines drawn in the sand. The center console is paramount to the Iron Curtain. But after an hour of thick tension, she has to break it.

“Have you heard from Kaylee at all?”

He looks at her out of the corner of his eye. “No.”

“Really? Nothing?”

“Surprisingly, she has nothing to say,” he replies slowly. 

“Have you tried to reach out?”

He snaps his head over with a scowl. “Out with it.“

“Nothing, geez. I’m just asking, I want to know that she’s okay. It’s weird that she hasn’t come by, so…”

Travis sighs through his nose, glancing off to the side. His fingers flex on the steering wheel. When he looks back to the road, his face is set in stone.

“Look. I appreciate your cooperation with me, despite how all this… started out. But I don’t think it would serve either of us if this agreement went any past that.”

“...Um, what?”

She watches as irritation passes through his face, but he locks it down, face resetting back to that same impenetrable stone.

“Let’s not mix business with pleasure,” he says.

Laura blanches. “Pleasure?”

Travis is already shaking his head before she finishes speaking, and this time, annoyance is plastered all over him. 

“Okay, no. God. You know what I mean.” He takes a deep breath. “Look, I appreciate you caring about my niece. I really do. But I don’t want things to get more… complicated than they already are.” 

“I think this is as complicated as things can get, Travis,” she deadpans, but he moves past it.

“Once this is over, you can move on, live your life. Hell, you can even go and turn me in for false imprisonment,” he says wryly, then fixes her with a serious look. “But I ask you this— leave my family out of it. Leave Kaylee out of it. I know that might be asking a lot of you, but. Please. I don’t need another thing to get tangled up with.”

Another thing. 

His words twist something ugly in her chest. Laura Brandt. Another thing.

“Sure,” she says neutrally, looking at the passing scenery.

She doesn’t feel much in the mood for conversation after that.

.

.

Eventually, the highway unrolls into the meandering sprawl of country roads. There, nestled within thick evergreens and heralded by an American flag, is an old sign reading, “WELCOME TO COLTON.”

Aside from an odd cow statue that greets them with a plastered hoof full of cheese, there’s nothing much to the town. 

It’s small; maybe a bit larger than North Kill, but only just. Travis takes them down the quiet main street for several blocks before turning down a side road bracketed with pines, houses scattered in-between.

They reach a backroad that feels like it was intentionally set aside, and Travis pulls over to the side. Across the street is the town library and a gas station a bit further down. It takes a moment for Laura to actually notice the purpose of their road trip.

The cemetery is, frankly, underwhelming. 

It’s split into two levels, which may be a bit odd, with the typical tombstone and flat marker laid out in rows. The dirt lot next door looks big enough for a neighborhood to fit, but it’s hard to imagine a literal circus being held in a place like this.

It’s not like she’s been to a lot of cemeteries before; only once, and that was to visit her mom’s grave. But this one doesn’t exactly scream, ‘Hey, witches and werewolves! Come check this out!’

Though there’s obviously been an attempt at upkeep, the bushes lining the fence are heat-fried, and their dried corpses look less than friendly beneath the wrought iron words, COLTON CEMETERY: HERE LIE OUR FALLEN FRIENDS.

They step out of the cruiser in silence, and come to a pause outside of the rusted gate.

“Any idea on what we should be looking for?” she asks, peering down the lanes.

"The Vorez name, I’d assume.” Travis’ hand lingers near his gun. “Anything else that seems… otherworldly.”

“Right.” She crosses the threshold, and despite not expecting it, she’s still vaguely surprised that nothing… happens. No goosebumps, no chills down her spine. Just another Sunday morning at the graveyard.

“I’ll start on this half,” she says, gesturing to the right half that’s down a few steps.

“You really want to split up?” he asks with a raised brow.

Absolutely. “I don’t see any cliffs nearby,” she says drily. Her face splits into a shit-eating grin that doesn’t quite feel natural. “What, you scared?”

His flat stare speaks volumes. Travis takes the other half of the cemetery without a word. And something in her uncoils. 

After being stuck in a car with him after that stellar conversation, leaving his orbit is like a breath of fresh air. Literally. It’s like she can actually breathe again without snapping whatever tenuous peace they’re see-sawing off of.

She rolls her shoulders with a wince, and descends the concrete steps into the next level. At first glance, the graves aren’t anything unique. She mentally rattles off each name while passing through.

Edna Graceson, 1886-1929

Steven Callick, 1935-1972

Geoffrey Beaumont, 1955-2003

The late morning sun starts to heat up, and she unzips her jacket. At least her baseball cap keeps the sun out of her eyes. 

God, she’s missed wearing a hat. Maybe it’s stupid, but it’s been so long since she hasn’t had one at hand. Having the choice to wear something? Priceless.

The sound of grass whispering under foot rasps a ways above, and Travis’ stalking figure passes by in the upper rows. The sharp, dark lines of his body fit in with the decor. 

“See anything?” he calls.

“No,” she replies. “Just… a lot of dead people.”

He studies her face. “Once I finish up here, I’ll join you down below.”

“Alright,” she starts to say, but he’s already disappearing behind the ledge. “O-kay,” she mutters. Pretty dramatic for an old cop.

The longer she looks, a trend makes itself apparent: the cemetery is very, very old. There’s more than a few markers from the 1800’s, and several of the darker, weather-beaten stones read birth years from even earlier. 

One group of tombstones catches her eye. There’s no mementos in this section— flowers, photos, the like. Etched in weather-beaten stone, she reads years from the 1700’s. These probably belong to the earliest settlers in Colton.

Laura crouches down, squinting at the barely-legible carvings.

ÉLÉ NOR   M RIE    VALET

Below the faded name reads, ‘no longer shall you face.’ That doesn’t make sense. Face what? 

Travis’ footsteps creep up behind her while she’s still trying to figure it out, and she shifts to the side to give him room.

“Check this—” she starts, but the words lodge themselves in her throat.

Because this isn’t Travis.

She isn’t sure what it is.

The mass of contorted limbs and flesh is so unlike anything she’s ever seen, that it takes a moment for her brain to recalibrate. It looks human. Or, at least it was. 

The angles are all wrong, so, so wrong. Shoulders and elbows and hips and knees have been dislocated and forced in unnatural bends. Its sallow flesh is tinged and hanging with rot, sticky with dusty scraps of fabric that have long since passed the point of recognition. 

But the middle— that’s where her eyes stop. Because lodged in whatever is meant to be its midsection is a large metal pole. There’s no blood. Just… dark folds of skin, swallowing it whole.

The moment hangs by a thread. Laura slowly rises from her crouch, white noise humming between her ears.

She can’t say what holds her in place as it jerkily reorients its limbs; a leg flips to the other side, the spine practically snaps in half. In the center of it all, blooming like a flower from hell itself, is Eliza Vorez’s face twisted around a gaping maw.

She takes a step back, and the thing twitches forward.

Holy shit. 

Everything clicks back into place. Adrenaline hits her bloodstream like a bullet, and Laura takes off in a run. The steady pop of joints and bones and the metallic clang of the pole bouncing along the ground confirms the horrible truth.

It’s hunting her. 

“Travis!” 

She doesn’t have a gun. Why doesn’t she have a fucking gun?

Laura hops over the tombstone on jegs made of jelly, pumping her arms in time with the thump, thump, thump of her heartbeat. The bruises along her back and thighs, the dozens of cuts splitting open with the movement, none of it registers as she sprints amongst the graves.

Later, she won’t be able to describe what compels her to do it. But one moment, there’s a strange high whistle in the air, and Laura pivots sharply to the left out of instinct. 

A half a second later, something unyielding crashes almost directly into her leg. The impact knocks her over with a cry. 

Next to her, the pole is lodged into the ground, caked with rust and some other brown substance. If she hadn’t moved, if she’d just been one millisecond too late—

Eliza’s mangled body skewers itself on the pole once again, slamming into the ground with a solid thud. Laura doesn’t waste any more time.

Her fingers dig into the manicured grass for purchase, and she scrambles up to her feet in a staggered run. Pain doesn’t even register at this point.

The stairs are so close. Where the fuck is he?

She desperately leaps over another tombstone, and the sharp ring of metal against stone follows quickly after.

She takes the stairs at a breakneck pace and almost loses her footing on the last step, if it weren’t for someone grabbing her arm. Laura chokes on her gasp, and in her panic, she tries to shove away and almost tumbles down.

“Hey! Hey, it’s me!” Travis has her locked in place. “What the hell’s going on?!” 

The tint of fear in his voice is enough of a drive to push him back, moving them both away from the ledge. 

“There’s a- it’s chasing—!” she garbles out. 

Travis pulls her behind him without another word. His gun is already drawn, and he scans the area with the end of his barrel. Laura spins around so they’re back-to-back, and her eyes desperately scan the rows upon rows of graves behind them.

“Do you see it?!” she asks breathlessly.

In the distance, the gas station sign across the street flickers.

“No.”

“It was- was some kind of monster,” she says, voice embarrassingly cracking. “It had Eliza’s face.”

His back goes tense, and the muscles coil against her spine. It’s silent, save for their heavy breathing.

Travis starts to rotate, and she follows his lead slowly, heel by heel. They’re too out in the open, but is it truly better to run at this point? Could it outrun the car?

A dry rustling sound breaks the silence, and he sharply pivots in front of her. She grabs the back of his shirt out of instinct, and immediately feels stupid. It’s just a fucking bird in a bush.

She swings back around, desperately looking back for something, anything, that crawling mess that will forever live on in her nightmares, but… there’s nothing. Belatedly, Laura steps back. 

She looks up to find that he’s already been watching her.

“I’m not crazy.”

“I know,” he says, and drops his chin meaningfully. “If you’re seeing things, then that has to mean we’re getting close. I’d tell you to go back to the car—”

“No way in hell.”

“—and that’s what I thought.” His eyes have a knowing glint.

He searches her face, looking for some wordless confirmation. Finally, Travis lowers his gun, but he doesn’t holster it. “Let’s go back to where you first saw this thing.”

The rational side of her brain is screaming to leave and never come back. But it’s not so rational, is it? They’re getting closer. She can feel it. 

Fuck, she could be Helen Keller and still realize something’s up. It would be idiotic to turn back now.

Don’t bitch out, Kearney, she thinks furiously. That’s not what we do.

“Okay,” she acqueices, and Travis’ face glimmers in satisfaction.

Shoulders squared and eyes alert, they retrace her steps. The soft summer light felt warm before, but now it feels harsh and stark against the rich greens and sun-bleached browns.

Neither of them can deny it, now. They’re not alone.

The old graves haven’t changed or moved an inch from where she found them. Nothing monstrous or supernatural looks to have taken place. Still, she can’t help but lower her voice.

“This is the one,” she says quietly. “Éléanor Valet.”

Travis moves in, crouching down to inspect the markings. After barely a moment’s worth, he inhales sharply.

“Does this look familiar to you?”

Brow crinkled, she leans down beside him. “Um… no?”

“No longer shall you face your blight,” he reads breathlessly. He fixes her with a lopsided grin that borders on manic. “It’s part of the poem. Look,” he caresses the stone, “there’s more here, it’s just faded.”

She looks again, and holy shit. “Or fear the dread of the full moon’s light,” Laura reads aloud. He’s right.

Travis sits very still.

“I found my copy of the poem in the wreckage thinking that those motherfuckers wrote a ‘101 Guide on Werewolves’ for tourists,” he says softly, voice weirdly detached. “Turns out, Eliza and Silas were on the scavenger hunt of a lifetime.”

He dips his head. The pressed shirt on his back begins to ripple with how violent he begins to shake. 

For a moment, she thinks he’s crying.

But then he throws his head back in a silent laugh, little cracks of air puffing out of his lungs. It builds into a desperate chuckle that leaves him bent over his knees. 

This side of him is unlike anything she’s seen before. The pathetic man drinking alone in front of her cell was a different creature entirely. This? This is unhinged. 

He stands abruptly.

"Family is everything,” Travis spats in a mocking tone, turning his face of unbridled fury on her. Laura involuntarily takes a step back. “That’s why they came to my fucking town. She was probably looking for a fucking cure." 

She watches as he puts himself back together piece by piece, chest heaving around some unimaginable pressure. His eyes remain wild, but where there was a burning devastation radiating from his bones before, a wasteland has replaced it. The fortress has been rebuilt. 

It’s unnerving to watch. 

Laura is fighting to say something, do something, when Travis strides past her without a second glance.

“Hey!” she calls. “Where are you going? What about the rest of the graves?!”

No response. The petty part of her wants to stick around and force him to either leave her or come back, but then she’d have to be alone. Gritting her teeth, she strides after him, up the stairs, past the gate.

Unexpectedly, he stalks right past the cruiser and heads for the library down the road. There’s a new intensity to his gait, and an added edge to his jaw that wasn’t there before. 

Travis crashes through the front doors. The middle-aged woman at the help desk regards them as if she’d been staring into the void, and the void spat them up. 

“Um,” she stutters.

“I need access to your computers,” he commands.

The woman’s eyes dart over to Laura for help, but then she gives her a onceover and her face turns even more pale. Travis follows her gaze.

“It’s for police business,” he offers up.

The woman’s eyes go wide as if Travis lightly mentioned there being a homicide taking place in the science fiction section. She nods desperately. “Yes, absolutely! Let me get you in with a guest account.”

She scurries over to one of the computers, and the only other one occupied within the same vicinity is a pimply teenager who takes one look at them and awkwardly flees.

The moment they’re logged in, the woman leaves and Travis settles into the chair like it’s his personal throne. Laura remains standing.

“What the fuck are we doing here?” she hisses. “Let’s keep looking.”

“I thought you said you do research,” he says airily. 

She blinks. Laura takes the chair beside him, scooting close enough to slide the keyboard and mouse over. A quick search of ‘Éléanor Marie Valet’ and ‘Colton, New York’ yields several ancestry websites, but the one she clicks on first is a grave index.

It’s a photo of the same plot, and the inscription is as disappointedly faded as the one in person. However, the sidebar has a bit more information.

Born June 18th, 1765 Gévaudan, France

Died November 10th, 1796 Colton, New York

“She was French?” she repeats. Something pings in the back of her brain. “That town sounds… familiar.”

She tries another search, typing “Valet” and “Gévaudan,” adding in “Werewolf” as an afterthought.

It’s as easy as that. Hundreds of thousands of search results come up, and Travis leans in.

“The Beast of Gévaudan is one of the most famous werewolf stories in modern history… Of course. This Valet family knew enough to leave their knowledge behind in a way that wouldn't be destroyed by time.”

Wondrously, his face splits into a wide, unadulterated grin. “This is good, Laura.” 

She can’t help but smile back. It’s contagious, and his hope seeps into her own chest. She clicks on a page and scrolls, scanning till she finds it. 

“‘The Beast of Gévaudan made its first recorded attack in 1764,’” she reads aloud. “‘A young woman, Marie Jeanne Valet, was tending her cattle when she claimed a wolf-like beast came upon her. She managed to keep it at bay, though terror striked the region as more and more victims were reported.’”

“‘Lone men, women, and children were repeatedly attacked while tending to their livestock… Researchers surmise that upwards of five hundred deaths were attributed to this beast over the three-year span of attacks.’”

Laura exchanges a wordless look with Travis. That’s a lot of death over a very short span of time. And at some point, Marie and her kin must have taken it upon themselves to gain some tricks up their sleeve.

It’s not that hard to believe. Hell, it took one encounter for her to be sitting here next to the cop that kidnapped her, searching up werewolf lore on a library computer. But five hundred deaths? All the work of one werewolf, or more?

Speaking of… Laura types in a few more searches with the added information, pulling up an old genealogy site. 

“Shit,” she mutters. This Valet line died out by the mid-1850’s.

“What about cousins?” Travis suggests, and there’s still a hopeful tint to his words. He doesn’t take his eyes off the screen. To the average eye, he looks calm and in control, but she’s been around him enough to recognize his tells. Right now, a frenetic energy practically vibrates off of him. 

“Maybe they don't hold the surname, but there’s a chance that if this family did know something, they could’ve passed it along,” he adds.

“True, but the American immigrants didn’t exactly thrive over here,” she says grimly. "What do you think brought them over?"

Travis shrugs, the excitement loosening him up a bit. "From what I can recall, France had quite the witch hunt for werewolves. I think… thirty thousand were executed in the mid-17th century out of suspicion.”

Given the attacks almost a hundred years later, the tables obviously turned at some point along the way. 

“Maybe that’s where the Vorez family originates from?” she ventures. “If these guys were… werewolf hunters, then there were probably families fleeing from persecution.”

It’s a dismal thought, hunting down fellow immigrants suspected of being a werewolf.

Isn’t that what you’re doing? a little voice needles back.

This is different, she thinks. Silas is dangerous.

So are you. So is he.

Travis’ finger lightly taps the desk. "There's a good chance this poem might not be over. Wherever their next stop would’ve been after North Kill… we need to check there first. Go back to the graves website.”

She pulls it back up, and he leans over to type in the most recent death. Their shoulders brush.

Théo Louis Valet, 1810-1853.

Lincoln, Maine

Travis scrutinizes the computer with a heavy brow as if he could scare the words into changing. The sudden mood shift makes no sense.

Laura frowns. “What? Travis, we have a lead.”

He’s silent for a long moment, still glued to the screen. Finally, he swivels towards her with a grave expression. He steeples his hands like a man about to make a deal with the devil.

“It’s in Maine,” he says matter-of-factly.

“Yeah. It’s close.”

“You’re kidding,” he says flatly. 

The ease in which he gives up is infuriating and disappointing all at once, and she grits her teeth, turning back to the computer.

“Where’s Lincoln?” she mutters aloud, opening a new tab and typing it in. “Holy shit, it’s eight hours from here? We could start driving today.”

“We can’t. Not today.”

If they weren’t in a library, she’d probably slap him. “You’re ridiculous,” she hisses. “I thought you wanted to end this?”

There’s no other way to describe it. Travis unravels.

“Of course I want to end this. I want my fucking life back,” he growls. “I want a full night’s rest. I want my niece to go off to college and get out of my shithole of a town. But I can’t just, just be gone for another day like this.”

“How the fuck—” she cuts herself off after an older gentelman in the VHS section gives her a dirty loo, and leans in impatiently. “Why are you always making things so damn complicated?”

“Because there’s lives on the line!” he outright snarls. More people are starting to give them looks, and Travis notices, buckling it back down with visible reluctance. “C’mon.”

She has no real desire to go anywhere with him like this, but she does it all the same. They leave with a wide berth around them, the scant library visitors parting around them like waves.

Only when they’re back outside does Travis rub his face, looking down on her with a bleary set of eyes.

“I can’t just— I-it’s not. Fuck,” he says with a deep breath. “You keep forgetting that you’re not supposed to be here. Right? You’re not supposed to still be alive. My family would kill you in a heartbeat if they knew about you, all in the name of keeping themselves safe.”

“You can’t… let that be what stops you,” she says awkwardly. Yeah, she’d prefer not to die, but he can’t seriously be saying that they’re not going to go any further just because of what might happen to her?

“You’re not stopping me from doing anything,” he says increduously, as if the very notion is stupid. If they weren’t in the middle of an argument right now, her face would probably flush like a tomato.

As it is, she scowls. “Well, that’s what I’m hearing. You’re worried your ‘little ma’ is going to put a bullet between my eyes, isn’t that right?”

He shuts his eyes as if the very effort of looking at her is beneath him. 

“You’re being awfully reckless with your life, Miss Kearney. I don’t think you really get just how important it is that I don’t, ah, rock the boat. Y’see,” he says with emphasis, leaning in like she’s a lost kid on the playground, “There’s expectations of me that I gotta meet, or it’s going to tip them off, and that’s the end of this little venture we have going on. Did you get all of that?”

“So, we just wait for the grave to grow legs and walk?”

He scoffs in disbelief, his little effort at intimidating her failed. He moves to get into the cruiser, and she can’t just, just give up like that. 

Laura catches his wrist and pulls him back. “No, look. I’m sorry,” she says earnestly. “I’m just saying… sooner or later, you’re going to have to go. That, or continue to wait for things to line up for you, but I don’t think either of our luck is that good.”

His eyes stray towards her hand, and she belatedly releases him. 

“I don’t like this,” he says finally. “These risks.”

“I know,” she replies delicately.

He wets his lips. “No detours.”

“None.

“And no more splitting up,” he adds, softer this time. The change in tone takes her aback. She follows his gaze; he’s looking at the blades of grass still sticking to her legs. 

When she doesn’t respond, he cocks a brow meaningfully.

“Done,” Laura agrees readily.

Travis nods, giving her another onceover before getting in the car. “Wipe your shoes before you step in!” he calls before slamming the door shut, and she rolls her eyes. He doesn’t even blink when she plops down, mud and grass and all. 

He pulls onto the quiet road, and they leave the town cemetery behind without another word. 

They don’t need to talk. Enough has already been said.

[vinehasnohopeleft]

Parents of Sam, Travis, and Duncan.

Sam’s mother: Scarlett woods   -single mother.   -works around 2 jobs to support herself and Sam.   -is a twin herself.   -loves books and has published a few books of her own.   -owns a gun and knows how to use it

Travis’s mother: Tracy Burton.   -happily lives with her husband.   -popular girl in high school.   -has a job on the side as a freelancer.   -known Duncan’s father since middle school and had a grudge on him ever since.   -yells...loudly.  

Travis’s father: Jackson Burton. -a sweetheart but can fuck you up.  -are the reason Travis likes horror movies (got lectured about showing Travis a scary movie when he was 7) -dated Sam’s mom in high school but fell in love with Travis’s mom later on in high school. -has a soft spot for Duncan and treats him like his own son. -has the dream to be a graphic designer since he went to collage but became a doctor instead.

Duncan’s Father: David Jackson.   -not the nicest guy to be around.   -never hurt Duncan or his mother but looks down on Duncan’s interests. (duncan can’t show him anything without being judge)   -isn’t home 90% of the time.   -is the reason Duncan can’t/ won’t have friends over and why Duncan goes to Travis’s place.

-----

so far, planning on writing a story with them, that’s why i am saying this now. I am unsure if Duncan and Sam even have canon last names but i will change it if so. I will add their relationships to one another and possibly Duncan’s mom and Sam’s dad later since i don’t have the attention span.

[gatesofember]

when travis goes to collage and theres like a group hug and it takes like 20 minutes to get everyones stuff back to them

ok ok I hear you but what if they slip things in his pockets? small things like a pack of his favorite gum or maybe notes that say stuff like “I miss you already!” or “good luck! I love you!” or maybe little keepsakes and trinkets to remind Travis of camp or to help him when he feels homesick like a bead to wear on his camp necklace that one of his siblings made in arts and crafts class and then by the end of the hug Travis’ pockets are just full of stuff

[pbandjesse]

So I was having a perfectly nice night but I missed the text to make an appointment for the covid vaccine and didnt get an appointment and now Im all in my feelings and upset. Like I just requested the next available date, since their werent any open to chose from. But Im still really bummed. I feel like work has become more and more lax in the conversation around the pandemic and making sure the kids are being safe and it just doesnt feel good. I just want a vaccine and I want to feel safe. Sucks. 

But Jess got hers tonight and Im so excited for her.I know its not going to be a quick fix, and a lot more people have to get the shots, but it feels like a step in the right direction. Hopefully they email me with an appointment soon and I can feel better.

Today was still a pretty nice day. I didnt sleep to bad last night. I am trying the things I know to do, and so far its all good. Were making progress. 

I got up around 830 and took a while to actually get out of bed. I knew James was doing substituting again today and I didnt want to walk past the camera in my jammies so I got up and dressed before they started for the day. 

I felt pretty cute and cozy. It was actually a lot colder inside then outside. It was warm out today! A false spring I suppose, but well see if it holds. 

I had a nice morning. James made me strawberry pancakes. They were very good. I did some art!! I worked on my collage drawing for a while and that was nice. I didnt get a ton of it done but I did make a video of the progress but I am still really proud of myself for doing any work at all. 

But soon enough it was time to go. I changed my shirt and put on tights and headed to the store. I was very surprised by how warm it was. I walked to Walgreens to get psoriasis shampoo and vitamin e oil. Looked at the very few squishes they had. And then I was off to work. 

It was a pretty solid day. Kids doing work. One of the little boys wanted to draw me so I drew him. Which lead to me drawing a bunch of them. I dont draw kids well though so they all look like teenagers but they were still happy and used them as coloring sheets and that was fun. Collaboration. 

We made wire rings and while it didnt work as well as the penny pendants, they still liked using the hammers and it was fun. 

I taught them a half hour of ballet. I was very proud of them and they did a good job following along. Not everyone did it but the ones who stuck it out were great. I was surprised by the 2 boys that really did the dang thing and that was just cool. 

But that was a lot of exercise so once Travis wanted to take them to play basketball I offered to split the class and so a handful of kids stayed in the class with me to watch videos and make a little art. 

I did some knitting. Chatted with the new little girl. She ended up cutting her finger on some scissors and I had to clean that up and help her out. She was okay. I think we were all just surprised it happened. But we worked it out. 

The end of the day took a while. A student thought their phone was stolen, but really they had never even brought it to the center. So that was a half hour of searching wasted. 

I made a comment after that search that my kid wont have a phone til their 16 and my little friend Jayce goes all big eyed and says "youre a mommy???" and I was like nah but someday and it was just so sweet. 

Once the last kids were gone we checked the room was clean and I was off into the world. 

I walked home and James had pizza and broccoli for us ready and I was very thankful for my partner. And after dinner we worked together to organize some stuff in my studio and hang my new stuffed animal hammock. Trying to feel more organized. Im hoping to do more actually sorting this weekend because a lot of my space has gotten out of control and its stressing me out. But it will get done. 

Showers were had. And weve been in bed hanging out. My phone was charging which is why I missed the text about the vaccine. So Im still feeling really bummed but it will be okay and Ill get it eventually. Now Im going to brush my teeth and get ready to sleep. 

I hope tomorrow is good and I hope you all have a good night. Take care of eachother. Goodnight!

[glenngaylord]

OUTFEST 2020 FILM REVIEWS:  The Rest Of The Fest

As the curtain closes on another Outfest, this one presented under extremely unusual circumstances, I sit in awe of the filmmakers and of the staff who put together not only a great group of films, but managed to creatively bring them to its audience online and at drive-in screenings.  Typically, you find yourself having to choose one film over several others, but with this new format, you have a great chance of seeing everything you want.  In past years, I found myself lucky if I saw 15 films.  This year I saw 23 features and 4 shorts programs out of the 160 on the schedule.  

As it’s impossible to get full reviews submitted for everything while the festival is still chugging along, I wanted to write capsules of the remaining films not covered at TheQueerReview.com .  Please visit the website for all the other reviews I wrote as well as those by my colleagues.

THE OBITUARY OF TUNDE JOHNSON ★★★★★

Melding a Groundhog Day-style concept with police violence against black people, this stunning film could not be more prescient and emotionally overpowering.  A black gay teenager relives his moment of murder over and over again, with slight shifts in the narrative taking us to someplace unexpected and earned.  Director Ali LeRoi directs his first feature as if he’s been doing it all of his life and has interpreted Stanley Kalu’s ingenious script with a great cinematic approach.  Gorgeously framed, beautifully acted, written, and directed, this is one of the most powerful films of 2020.

TWO EYES ★★★★★

I can’t form sentences here so I’m gonna vomit out words:  Instant classic. Glorious. Set over three centuries seamlessly melding a triptych of stories about gender identity.  I’m a blubbering mess.  Fantastic and very funny last line.  Travis Fine is a very gifted filmmaker who screams love child of Terrence Malick and Kelly Reichardt.  Heartbreaking. Inspiring. Unforgettable.  Montana is so beautiful.  Barstow is not.  A perfect film for anyone who wants to find their place in the world. I wouldn’t complain if TUNDE and TWO EYES both received Best Picture Oscar nominations.  

DRAMARAMA  ★★★★

Theater nerds rule in this incredibly endearing, early 90s set film about a group of high schoolers discovering themselves in one night at a ridiculous Murder Mystery-themed party.  Hilarious script, vivid and wonderful performances, and the opposite of a “Coming Out” movie in the best possible way.  Jonathan Wysocki has given us The Breakfast Club for air-kissing, mid-Atlantic accented freaks and geeks. 

CICADA ★★★★

What happens when a traumatized, bisexual man who has more sex partners than any standard montage can contain slows things down to concentrate on one kind but also traumatized young man?  This elliptically told film has a fun, flirty side but carries its heaviness with great ease.  A terrific feature debut for director/writer/editor/lead actor Matthew Fifer. 

THE STRONG ONES (LOS FUERTES) ★★★★

From Chile comes this sexy, moving story of two men at cross purposes who form a beautiful bond.  Set against some stunning scenery and mining the chemistry between its two leads for everything it has, I am half-jokingly calling it Brokeback Andes.  It’s so much more than that trite, hackneyed comparison.  

MONSOON ★★★1/2

Director Hong Khaou’s followup to Lilting sets its sights on modern day Vietnam as Henry Golding’s character visits to find a suitable place to distribute his mother’s ashes.  It’s a terrific mediation on a gay man finding a sense of belonging in a place he’s never been and Golding proves himself to be a subtle, compelling actor.  Perhaps a little too quiet and reflective, the film makes up for what it lacks in narrative drive with its awe-inspiring cinematography and immersive qualities.  

P.S. BURN THIS LETTER PLEASE ★★★★1/2

What an unexpected surprise.  Michael Seligman and Jennifer  Tiexiera’s documentary about a treasure trove of letters dating back to the 1950s brings us into the world of drag queens from almost 70 years ago.  With many of its subjects not only alive but in fine form telling their stories and the dishiest voiceover readings ever to grace a film, I was not only thoroughly entertained, but I didn’t expect to weep like Laura Dern at the end.  Oh, this is so so so so good. 

MINYAN ★★★★

Eric Steel’s feature debut has its own unique tone and a star making performance by Samuel H. Levine, a spitting image of a young Al Pacino/Sylvester Stallone hybrid.  With its 1980s Jewish Brighton Beach backdrop, this powerful yet subtle film about a young man coming to terms with his sexuality as well as his place within his religion, it’s a stunning debut.  Ron Rifkin is stellar as Levine’s charming grandfather and Alex Hurt (William Hurt’s son) has his father’s intensity.  Fantastic, lived-in production design which feels like its decade without resorting to the usual candy colored tropes and a evocative score makes this a memorable experience.  Reminiscent at times of On The Waterfront, this film puts a fresh new spin on a coming of age tale and finds so many moving moments from first sex to an elderly gay couple hiding in plain sight.  A must-see. 

SHIVA BABY ★★★★

Writer/Director Emma Seligman must have studied Rosemary’s Baby quite a bit with this angsty story set mostly at a memorial service.  Rachel Sennott is fantastic as a young lesbian who moves from one cringe-worthy moment to the next in an attempt to avoid as much conflict as possible.  The great supporting cast includes Polly Draper, Fred Melamed, Dianna Agron, Molly Gordon, and Jackie Hoffman, all note perfect.  Less a comedy and more of an emotional horror story, Seligman knows how to make the best of a cramped space and throw up an endless variety of obstacles.  You just want Sennott’s Danielle to get her goddamned bagel with lox and cream cheese, but the fates have something else, something better, in store. 

COWBOYS ★★★★

Steve Zahn gives a career best performance in this moving story of a father with mental health issues and his trans son escaping into the Montana wilderness.  Sasha Knight makes an impressive debut as Zahn’s son and Jillian Bell expertly walks that fine line between villain and empathetic character.  Its comparisons to Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid are not coincidental.  Not perfect by any stretch, it may feel fairly conventional, but it’s tackling a vibrant subject matter.  Extra points for giving Ann Dowd a role where we don’t hiss at her. 

BREAKING FAST ★★★

Solid romcom with a Muslim backdrop, this very tight, deceptively simple script provides just the right amount of sparks between its charming leads, Haaz Sleiman and Michael Cassidy.  While structurally not breaking new ground, the entry point into a world we don’t see enough of on screen coupled with food porn for days makes this a fun, funny, goes down easy delight.

ASK ANY BUDDY ★★★1/2

Q: Daddy!  Daddy!  What were the 70s like down at the Piers in NYC?   A: Oh shut up and watch this movie.  

An experimental collage of vintage gay porn and archival footage from the disco, pre-AIDS heyday gives this film a mesmerizing, museum installation quality.  While technically without a story, you feel like you’ve gone on a journey nonetheless.  Would pair well with William Friedkin’s Cruising. 

DRY WIND ★★★1/2

Slow cinema meets voyeuristic gay porn in this one of a kind Brazilian exploration an arid small town, a workers’ union crisis, and a man obsessed with the Tom Of Finland drawing come to life who motors into his life.  Overlong and a little too obtuse as it goes along, it’s worth watching this Alice In Wonderland takes a quaalude, gets a very hairy back, and has a lot of sex in the dirt. 

NO HARD FEELINGS ★★★★

This year’s Teddy Award Winner at the Berlin Film Festival, Faraz Shariat’s film uses its backdrop of a refugee camp in Germany to tell the story of Iranians and Irani-Germans searching for a better life.  Its three leads bring a spark and youthful energy to a story with devastating undercurrents.  A wrenching glimpse into the emotional effects an oppressive culture has on its people, yet told with a driving pulse. 

LILY TOMLIN: THE FILM BEHIND THE SHOW ★★★

A look behind the scenes as Lily Tomlin and wife Jane Wagner workshop their legendary 1980s Broadway show, The Search For Signs Of Intelligent Life In The Universe.  It’s great to see these two at the top of their game and get a glimpse of their creative process, but this documentary is almost devoid of incident and feels more like a sweet gift to the fans than a fully realized film. 

SHORTS: WHAT A BOY NEEDS ★★★1/2

A mixed bag here of people searching for excitement, I found a couple of gems here nonetheless.  Not to take away from the shorts I don’t mention, I want to single out two exceptional films. Ruben Navarro’s Of Hearts And Castles looks great, has a beautiful vibe, and shows us a lovely connection forming right before our eyes.  Kiko’s Saints proves highly original as we follow a female Japanese artist on assignment in France become obsessed with a gay couple who have a lot of sex on the beach.  Combining animation with fairly explicit sex, I loved seeing the male gaze from a female perspective. 

THE CAPOTE TAPES ★★1/2

I love Truman Capote. I grew up at a time when smart authors found themselves on talk shows and were treated like superstars.  I’ve read his books and always have been in awe of his ability to be himself.  Featuring never-before-heard tapes of Capote’s friends being interviewed by George Plimpton, unfortunately, I don’t think this repetitive documentary gave me anything all that new.  It’s still touching at times and for the uninitiated, this is a great overview of his life, but I was watching the clock. 

OUT LOUD ★★★1/2

A moving look at the Trans Chorus of Los Angeles as they prepare for their first public performance.  With its ticking clock storyline, director Gail Willumsen expertly interweaves storylines of its founder and members.  As such, you really learn what’s a stake and what it means to them.  I was lucky enough to see the chorus perform David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust a few years ago and basked in the power of its mere existence…and was also ridiculously entertained. 

TWILIGHT’S KISS (SUK SUK)  ★★★1/2

This quiet charmer form Hong Kong shows us something we almost never get to see on film - two elderly gay men meeting and falling in love.  The fact that both have been married to women doesn’t stop them from exploring their feelings.  A little to gentle by half, I still was in awe of this rarity.

[marianajacqueline45]

Hoy cumple años Robin Tunney 48 años es una actriz estadounidense de televisión y cine, conocida por su papel de Teresa Lisbon en la serie de televisión El Mentalista. Desde que era un bebé aparecía en anuncios de televisión. Más tarde, con 18 años, Tunney se mudó a Los Ángeles, California, donde obtuvo unos cuantos papeles como personaje recurrente en series como Life Goes On (1989), Law & Order (1990), Dream On(1990) y Class of '96 (1993). Uno de sus papeles más importantes fue en Empire Records (1995), donde encarnó a una adolescente suicida. Luego recibió el rol estrella de una bruja gótica en The Craft(1996), donde trabajó con las actrices Fairuza Balk, Neve Campbell y Rachel True. Robin perdió su cabello en la grabación de Empire Records, por lo que debió usar una peluca en The Craft. En 1997, Tunney actuó en Niagara, Niagara, de Bob Gosse, junto con Henry Thomas, ganando el premio a «Mejor Actriz» en el Festival Internacional de Cine de Venecia de ese año. Tunney también actuó junto a Arnold Schwarzenegger en la película de acción de 1999 End of Days. En 2000 trabajó en las películas Supernova y Límite vertical, teniendo en esta última uno de los papeles protagonistas. En 2003 trabajó junto a Michael Douglas en Hasta que la muerte nos separe, remake del film original homónimo de 1979 dirigido por Arthur Hill. En 2004 actuó en las películas Shadow of Fear y Paparazzi, realizando el papel coprotagonista en esta última; también actuó en los dos episodios piloto de la serie de Fox House. En 2005 interpretó al personaje de Veronica Donovan durante la primera temporada de la serie Prison Break y el primer episodio de la segunda. Desde septiembre de 2008 protagonizó la serie de CBS El Mentalista junto a Simon Baker, dando vida a la agente Teresa Lisbon. La serie concluyó en febrero de 2015. Actualmente en 2019, da vida al papel de Maya Travis en la serie The Fix, producida por la cadena televisiva ABC. #Collage #ProgramaCollage #Cine #Historiadecine #revistacollage #esterno #movie #magazine #revista #programa #televisión #series (en Montevideo, Uruguay) https://www.instagram.com/p/CBovkexpAIK/?igshid=1c064nm3n6eza

[nettiguess-blog]

Postmodern Inspirations

The easiest way for me to understand post modern art is to see it as artists attempting to reacquaint artistic creations to the standard viewer. 

The text makes it clear that artists see the disconnect between observers and those involved in the art community. Many people see art as something that is beyond their comprehension, as if we are in the days where only the rich and powerful can enjoy the luxury of fine art. Postmodern art is something that everyone can enjoy. Post modern art  has no right way to be created, presented, discussed, or felt. 

This isn’t to say that there are no rules when it comes to postmodern art. There are many grey areas, and they vary from situation to situation. It can be presented in a gallery, on a brick wall, or on your hard drive.

Postmodern art is encouraging a liberation from the belief that you need to be properly educated to enjoy postmodern art. The artists are helping people realize that they have the intuition to understand what is being presented to them by creating art that speaks to our natural reactions. 

Escaping Confines of Museums 

Title Unknown, Date Unknown, Spray Paint on Concrete wall, year unknown. 

I found this piece in a warehouse in Hawaii. There were many other pieces done on the walls, but this one stood out to me the most 

Collapsing Boundaries Between High and Low 

“There is Nothing I can Do”, Michiel Folkers, year unknown, collage, acrylic, spray paint on canvas. 

https://michielfolkers.com

I actually have a reproduced canvas of this piece in my bedroom

Rejecting Originality 

“The Punk Supper Club”, Rodakrodak, May 2013, Digital.

http://rodakrodak.deviantart.com

 Jouissance 

“Mund” (Mouth, Brigitte Bardot’s Lips), Gerhard Richter, 1963, Oil on Canvas. 

https://www.gerhard-richter.com/en/art/

 Working Collaboratively 

Untitled, Travis Czejaksju, Jon Stommel, Rather Severe, 2017, Mural Painting, acrylic, aerosol paint. Located on the Cherry Creek Trail, Denver.  

https://denverpublicart.org/public-arts/untitled-rather-sever-artists-travis-czejaksju-jon-stommel/

Appropriating

“God Save the Queen Album Cover”, Jamie Reid, 1977, Decollage. 

https://medium.com/fgd1-the-archive/jamie-reid-god-save-the-queen-25852ef575d4

Simulating

“Untitled Film Still #21″, Cindy Sherman, 1978,  Black and White Photograph. 

https://www.theartstory.org/definition/postmodernism/artworks/#pnt_4

Hybridizing

Unknown Title, Hu Yi Wei, Year Unknown, black and white photo layered with digital art. 

Mixing Media

Untitled, Bela, March 2018, photo transfer, acrylic.  

https://blog.itsybitsy.in/mixed-media-canvas-with-photo-transfer-art/ 

Layering

“Abe and Mo Sing the Blogs”, Marisa Olson, Abe Lincoln, 2006, website and sound files, layered photoshopped images. 

The entire project is an album and a website. But the album artwork is what I am focusing on for this section 

Mixing Codes

“(Forever Free) The Greatest Show on Earth”, Michael Ray Charles, 1999, Painting, Acrylic Latex, Stain and Copper Penny on Canvas. 

http://www.artnet.com/artists/michael-ray-charles/forever-free-the-greatest-show-on-earth-a-6VGFsitZQsHyk8xSLmmsCg2

Re-contextualizing

“Object (Le Déjeuner en Fourrure)” (The Luncheon in Fur), Méret Oppenheim, 1936, Fur Covered Cup, saucer, and spoon.  

Confronting the Gaze 

“Legs of Eggs”, Roni Weiss, March 2019, Broken Mirror and Chair. 

Using Narratives

“The Story of Virginia” Sandro Botticelli, 1496-1504, Tempera on panel. 

These paintings are inspired by the classical writer Livy’s tales of two Roman heroines. 

Creating Metaphors

The Annunciation, Robert Campin, 1427-1432, oil paint, canvas, altarpeice. 

The objects placed throughout the altarpiece serve different symbolic and metaphorical purposes. Take the vase of lilies beside Mary. That is meant to represent her purity. This article by the dailymagazine goes into depth on the other metaphors found in the piece. 

https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/merode-altarpiece/

Parody 

“Monica Lewinsky as Woman of the Year”, Dean Rohrer, The New Yorker Feb. 1999. Digital. 

[thegoldenshot]

Jason Travis -- “Persona”

Jason Travis is a modern-day photographer based in Los Angeles whose work has been recognized by CNN, USA Today, and many more. He is best known for his award-winning “Persona” series. The series started in 2007 and is still ongoing. He has photographed more than 500 individuals and their bags. After capturing these photos, he creates a collage by matching their portraits to their bags. This series has also even been featured in NY Times. For this series, he goes out to photograph strangers of all ages, and the things they carry in their bags. Not only is this series fun, but it is also a form of story-telling as it tells a lot about the owner’s characteristics. Based on the things found in their bags, we get a hint of their interests, gender, age, and occupancy. However, Jason does state that these items don’t make the person, but rather manifestations. I think this series is interesting because of what goes on behind the portraits. It takes a lot of courage to ask strangers if you could photograph them, and I can only imagine how much more it takes to ask what they have inside of their bags. 

I was first introduced to Jason Travis’s work by my photojournalism professor and I have always thought it was a creative idea. One of my classmates were even inspired by his work and pitched the idea for one of our class projects. After taking a closer look at his work, I am starting to realize his use of high contrasted colors in his work. I personally enjoy unique and high saturated colors in photographs, which is why I am a fond of Jason Travis’s work. I’ve also attached a photo of one of his drone shots, which I found really interesting and unique. Jason’s work goes on to show how creative and unique he is.  A fun fact about Jason Travis: He’s allergic to cats. Link to Jason Travis’s series: http://www.jasontravisphoto.com/persona

[ivycali-blog]

Musical Ideas From My Notebook Pt.4

Pace: Straight-time, accelerating, decelerating. Combinations: Staggered, Clustered

Shape: Ascend (Types? Stairsteps, Back & Forth, straight, etc.), Descend (Stairsteps, Back & Forth, Straight, etc), Linear Cominations: Staggered, Clustered

The music is a symbolic representation of the message/vocals

Pop songs are more mathematic/artificial than drug-out/speech-like songs.

Build the song up to meet the imagined/intended outcome.

Repetition, solos, & breaks aid absorption.

Aesthetic sounds have lots of texture.

Megan Thee Stallion (Feat. DaBaby) - Cash Shit: “Slurp” sound - highly aesthetic, “lack of concern” vibe

What would you be doing in the situation the song is portraying? Sipping while driving or grinding (Cash Shit) (Song is about grinding, then you get a relaxed “slurp” every now and then to give it a confident/relaxed feel.)

What elements do I want to include? Then how and when do I want them to play out?

Pattern: Comprehendible variation/Texture: Blended/rapid/incomprehendible variation

We learn through association. The more things you can relate/associate with a concept you’re trying to learn, the easier the process will be.

What are your repeating motifs? What do you want (them) to absorb?

Create a cheat sheet of helpful songwriting tips to set at your desk. (Plug n’ go)

What media/influences surrounded you during your youth? (1995-2007) Use aesthetics/associations from those sources.

The lyrical message could be like a dream/fantasy scene. (Erotica lol)

“Does this song sound “insert intended vibe” enough? Create a convincing soundtrack of tones, feelings, & dynamics to frame your “intended vibe” song.

Gunshot=gangster, so overtime the gunshot goes off, you’re reminded what type of song this is. Your brain goes “gangster!”

Write a “_” <-- (vocal attitude overtone) song about “_”.

During writer’s block moments, listen to Post Malone, Travis Scott, or any other artists that keep it simple & to the point.

Post Malone - Rockstar (”I feel just like a rockstar”<-- Main point)

Variety, contrast, rhythm, & melody<--incorporate these wherever you can

It’s all about where the lead melody is in relation to the rhythm melody/bass

Setting=context/vibe component

“Roots in the ground” song: Short motifs (at end specifically) -->Short, playful notes, not emotional

Straight-time beats vs groove beats

Rhythmic simple melody/note vs. complex melody

Complex vocal melody vs. simple vocal melody <--contrast

Where would you hear this song being played at?

Come up with/imagine a prompt melody to start your lyrics. From there it’s not hard.

Get into character when writing. If it’s gangster, dress/act gangster when you write. Method act.

Story (vocals) vs. context (Instrumentals), which is easier to start with (writing)

Songwriting is equivalent to painting mental-pictures.

Start with a sentence about something, then repeat, alter subtle aspects, or elaborate.

Play with small clusters/multiples (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)<--Seconds notes/chords are being held, or number of times within a section/cycle notes are being played in a motif.

1/4=Straight-time, 3/4=Exponential Cycle? (Fibonacci Numbers)

1, 2, 3, 4 or some rhythm in 1/8 time, then the same rhythm in 1/4 time creates more complex rhythms

Mismatching (right-hand) chords with their (left-hand) bass melody is fun

Music is constantly diverging and converging.

Post Malone - Rockstar main vox melody: D#, D#, D#, D#, D#, D#, D#, D#, D#, D#, D#, D#, D, D, D, D, D, D#, D, C (Anchor notes used: D#, D, C)

Secondary vocal melody: G, F, G, F, G, F, G, C, A#, A#, A#, A#, A#, A#, G#, G, F, D#/A#, A#, A#, A#, G#, G, F, D# (Anchor notes used: G, F, C, A#, G#, D#)

2-chord songs pull you from where you are (home base) to the feeling they want to put you in.

3-chord songs pull you & throw you in the air to a new feeling

4-chord songs are an emotional dance with multiple arch/climax points

5-chord songs add stair steps to these arch/climax points

The first note/chord/rhythm is your center/baseline emotional place. The song will take you from there. This prompts specific contrast in relation to the starting point.

Start with the showcased instrument - for hip-hop, it’s the bass & 808′

What’s the minimum amount o times you need to create variation? (Example: Sectional changes, key changes, beat changes, etc.)

Music - an ordinary message for an extraordinary frame

Essential component: Change of pace, focus, & emotion

Hum/beatbox something good, then input the lyrics

For a Post Malone/Tank God - Rockstar type song, describe the massive party/scene and shift the focus to different events/scenes within. (Why you got a 12 car garage? Been fucking hoes and popping pillies, don’t give a damn, it was legendary threw a TV out the window of the montage<--all fit the mood & describe different aspects of the rockstar life)

They’re gonna take your word for it, whatever you say/describe in the song.

Even if you’re trying to portray a different character, it’s still coming out of YOU.

When listening to music, you want a specific feeling to move you.

Jump into the song’s portrayed character when singing.

Simple to complex ratio: Amount of time:number of notes/chords

Is the melody accompanying the beat? or vice versa?

For each instrumental/vocal motif, write something that screams the vibe you’re going for.

“Ooh, that feels “_”.

If you can dance, vibe, & laugh, you’re in the correct mindset to write music.

Take the process 1 section at a time.

Create as much non-clashing variety & motion as you can while maintaining some ground.

Vocal rhythm matters more than melody. Even rap has annunciation/phonetic melody.

Rapping flow rate usually sits between 1/8 & 1/16 bpm, or 1/16 & 1/32

All of the chords in a chord progression don’t need to be different. Try repeating previously used chords.

Repetition & accentuation/emphasization

changing a 2-note motif into a 3-note motif at the last note (Lizzo - Truth Hurts “Minnesota Vikings”)

Music is metaphorical. Metaphors make the mind think.

Your audience wants to belong with you, and you want to belong with your audience. Most of your ways are common to all.

Travis Scott - Skyfall: Just frame the song with vocals that would do it justice. Clear emotion & rhythmic variation is what matters most.

Songs are collages/symphonies of separate dynamics and aesthetics diverging & converging.

Bass/rhythm - Environment/ Leads - Subject

Label, or call, something by it’s adjectives. It’s not “weed”, it’s “that sticky sticky”

All of my songs are within “Ivy’s world”. I’m welcoming the audience to my reality.

Put the listener in a certain space.

Pick a topic/flow/melody/rhythm/harmony/etc. & stick with it, then elaborate again and again until satisfied with what has unfolded, then pick a new center of axis.

Tempo - The ground/song’s heartbeat

Art says what words are incapable of saying. To illustrate a point effectively, explain it in doodles, in a song, or in a sketch.

What sounds/noises/instruments rise & fall? Motors, The waves, Voices, Sirens, etc.

Common patterns in our world: Increase/decrease, back & forth, bouncing, swinging, rocking, tapping, etc.

Contrast draws attention: Dawn Golden - Still Life (last note differs from the repeated notes before)

There’s a lot of simple melodies that say what you want to say. You just have to find them. Clear minds can carve through the possibilities quicker.

Miniature motifs can be combined to create more complex motifs.

Ad-libs are like your “crew”. They’re the voices of the people hanging out with the character during the song.

The better a motif/part is, the more you want to present part of the motif, and tease the possibility of completing it.

You gotta be cocky in order to effectively write music.

The key to slipping on another persona is complete and utter External AND Internal) confidence.

Who are you portraying? Who are you speaking to?/Where/who are you vocals being projected to? Drake speaks to his bodyguard/whoever’s next to him most times.

Transitional baselines/chords/notes* (Basslines/chords/notes between the main basslines/chords/notes)

Songs are literally just as important as any audio file or soundbite. Perceived value is placed by our own hearts & minds.

“Give me something I can “_” to!”

[futuraforthekids]

MODULE 5 - PLACES+FACES: PERSON B

Target Audience:

13-28+ year-old individuals who share the same passion for 90s vintage-style photography, and the hip-hop culture.

How to Improve Viewership/Brand Recognition:

Places+Faces can increase viewership by posting more photographic content on their Instagram page. Instead of exclusively using famous brand influencers, artists, or models in their photographs, the brand should take advantage of the various modelling agencies available in cities where they are most active (London, Paris, Toronto, New York, Los Angeles, etc.) given that they already have a good number of loyal supporters. Consistently posting quality content is a critical way to enhance a brand’s social media presence (10 Ways Small Businesses Can Improve Social Media Presence, 2019).

Places+Faces could increase brand recognition and visibility by actively engaging with their audience in a meaningful way, for example, engaging with their followers through direct messages, comments, and also interact with other social media accounts on Instagram. This approach increases the loyalty of the brand’s supporters and also increases the willingness of supporters to recommend the brand to friends/family.

Places+Faces regularly features rappers like Kanye West, Travis Scott, A$AP Rocky, etc. (Ekpoudom, 2016) in their photographs. The brand should start following artists that they normally feature on their Instagram page, and interact with their fans. This approach helps the brand gain new audiences through these artists’ Instagram page; audiences that may not have been exposed to Places+Faces.

Strength:

One of the greatest strength of Places+Faces is its ability to influence and shape our current generation through their style of photography and story-telling. The brand started off in 2013 by taking pictures of artists during their concerts using vintage film cameras (Nwosu, 2016). This trend of using vintage film cameras caught on in early 2015 and Places+Faces was one of the brands that gave it the attention that it deserved. The love and passion that goes into creating these photographs inspired many other young creative individuals to try and experiment with new ways of seeing the world through their camera lens.

Person A’s Part Improved:

Strength:

- Places+Faces has a unique style of photography that stands out.

- Places+Faces is not just a clothing brand, but a lifestyle brand. The two founders of Places+Faces are not just focused on the fashion-scene, rather, they branch out to other creative fields; they are DJs, photographers, videographers, and graphic designers.

- Places+Faces often experiment with different styles of photography; 3D-photography.

- Places+Faces has its own magazine where they showcase exclusive photographs.

- Places+Faces has an easy-to-navigate website.

Weakness:

-       Places+Faces are on every social media platform, but they are most active on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

-       Places+Faces do not post consistently on their social media pages.

Abstract/Synopsis:

This report outlines Places+Faces social media methods, strategies, and uses. It identifies how this company uses social media effectively and ineffectively, as well as suggesting ways in which they can improve their use of social media.

 Introduction:

Places+Faces is a striking example of how a brand successfully manages to capture a target audience through the use of various social media platforms. What started as a photography project on Tumblr (placesplusfaces.tumblr.com), has grown into a worldwide creative company which focuses on combining art, music, photography, and clothing into a culture, or rather, a lifestyle. This report will assess Places+Faces use of social media through a consideration of their various social media strategies through the platforms it utilizes such as Instagram (placesplusfaces), Twitter (@placesplusfaces), Facebook (placesplusfaces), Tumblr, Snapchat (placesplusfaces), and YouTube (PlacesPlusFaces).

Methodology:

Places+Faces mostly use Instagram and Twitter to expand its brand recognition and reach their target audience of 13-28+ year-old individuals who share the same passion for 90s vintage-style photography, and the hip-hop culture. It is through these two main platforms that this report collected its information and conducted its analysis. The brand gained popularity through its style of photography; using famous artists/influencers as models for their cover shoots and video editorials, and vintage film cameras as their primary tool.

Results:

Firstly, one of the greatest strengths of Places+Faces is its unique style of photography and story-telling which they effectively showcase on its Instagram page to draw in, influence, and increase viewership from their target audience.

Secondly, the brand effectively uses Instagram and Twitter to both create a sense of urgency whenever a new issue of its magazine and a new season from their clothing collection drops. They do this by posting on both of these platforms in order to spread the word about the latest drop. Further, they consistently use the hashtag #placesplusfaces in their tweets and Instagram posts to increase the branding, visibility, and promotion of the brand.

Discussion:

Despite the brand’s largely effective use of social media, further research has shown ineffectiveness in their use of social media. They are ineffective in three ways:

Places+Faces does not post content consistently; specifically in platforms such as Twitter and YouTube.

Places+Faces uses too many social media platforms which leads to its inability to be more consistent and create more meaningful content for their primary social media platforms (Instagram and Twitter).

Places+Faces has 0 followings on their Instagram account. It matters who brands follow because similar to how backlinks work in regards to SEOs (Moz, 2019), it refers its audience to Instagram pages with similar content or content that followers of the brand may like; strengthening the brand’s ability to influence what is currently “cool” or “trending.

Conclusion:

This report has assessed Places+Faces use of social media. It has discussed the strengths of its use of social media through its unique style of photography, spreading the word about its clothing drops, and using it as a forum to suggest new ideas. It also pointed to the ways in which the brand uses social media ineffectively through inconsistent posting, too many social media platforms, and lack of followings.

Suggestion for Improvement:

The online population has increased by almost 2 billion users in the past 9 years (Statista, 2019). With the predicted increase of social media use, the online population will increase as well. This makes it important to more post more frequently in order to increase the company’s online presence and not get lost in a user’s newsfeed.

Multimedia:

This is a collage of Places+Faces’ editorial for their issue of “P+F Vol. 2,” shot in Tokyo; magazine available in select stores. This picture was posted on their Instagram page to advertise the release of their new magazine.

Bibliography:

“10 Ways Small Businesses Can Improve Their Social Media Presence.” Digital Marketing Institute, Digital Marketing Institute, 21 Mar. 2019, digitalmarketinginstitute.com/en-ca/blog/10-ways-small-businesses-can-improve-their-social-media-presence.

Ekpoudom, Aniefiok. “Meet The London Photographers Who Turned Their Tumblr Into A Global Rap Brand.” The FADER, The FADER, 7 Nov. 2017, www.thefader.com/2016/03/08/placesplusfaces-ciesay-soulz-interview.

Nwosu, Amarachi. “Meet the African Duo Behind the Tumblr Blog-Turned Lifestyle Brand, Places+Faces.” OkayAfrica, OkayAfrica, 2 Oct. 2017, www.okayafrica.com/african-duo-lifestyle-brand-place-plus-faces/.