#and then years later I found out he was my little sister's guitar teacher but. details | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

hajimeiwaswife · 3 years

Text

STRINGS

Word count: 4,1K

Warnings: major character death, little angst

Summary: two lovers reunited by the power of music.

"Traveller! Be careful!" Xiao shouted, reaching to Aether in time to safe him from being knocked by a giant rock that fell out of the mountain.

"Thank you, Xiao." the boy said, out of breath, before resuming the fight against their enemies, the ones that had taken his sister away from him.

Xiao recognised easily the odour of blood, having spilled so much by himself in his past. If it had been any other time, he would have fought harshly and precisely, but now that he had finally found happiness, he didn't want to die. Or worst, his significant other to die.

Years took upon the Adeptus to finally open up to the Anemo Archon, who didn't give up on him ever since they met. Barbatos, or Venti, as he liked to go by, had been by his side trying for the Adeptus to comprehend human emotions, feelings that he already had inside of him. He had been so patient with him, so caring, that now Xiao finally understood what it was to be loved. But what if this battle took it away from him? He was terrified.

The sound of explosions surrounded the landscape, lifeless corpses on the ground above pools of scarlet liquid decorating the grass. The touch of Death wrapping those who sighed their last breath, too many to be count. The Adeptus was heading into battle again when he felt someone grab his shoulder, the gentle hands of his lover.

"Not there," Venti stated, taking Xiao's hand in his, "you're needed in this other area. The Millelith are having trouble."

He took his orders, not without giving him a nod to indicate respect and, in Xiao's language, a 'take care'. Venti, however, took the Adeptus' nape and kissed him briefly before running away, laughing mischievously. Poor Xiao, flustered as ever, followed the way he had been indicated and started fighting in all his might again, powerful lance in hand.

Hours of battle passed, more dead around the survivors to assimilate. The Adeptus was tired and in need of checking on his loved ones, but he continued to fulfil his duty, he understood that if he was exhausted, humans would be in their limit. Nonetheless, after everything went quiet, he breathed as if he had been deprived of oxygen for centuries.

The silence was appalling, announcing the misfortunes and desperation that waited for those who were still alive. Xiao took a look around, sighting Aether with Paimon, Zhongli, Kaeya, Diluc, Jean and some of the Knights of Favonious. He also saw some of his fellow Adepti and the Qixing. But he couldn't find Venti, the Anemo Archon was nowhere to be seen nor to be heard.

A bad feeling sunk in the bottom of his stomach, with shaking legs he started walking along the path of corpses, wishing to be mistaken and to not find his lover laying within them. When he saw no green in the clothes of the dead, he felt relieved, knowing that the Archon was somewhere else, until he saw the blue braids he loved so much.

His heart dropped while he approached the corpse, green clothes now red from blood, characteristic hat lost somewhere in the valley, aquamarine eyes, once full of life, now looked at the sky without emotion, lifeless, no soul behind them. The Adeptus' knees gave up and fell next to his lover's body. He was speechless, in shock, completely gone from reality as his brain tried to understand what was going on in front of him. 'Please, let it be another nightmare.'

With tremble hands, Xiao took Venti's body in a cold hug, the Archon's head on the Adeptus' chest that rumbled in a hurt scream, shouting to the skies and letting them know he had had enough, he had lost the person he loved the most. Swaying them both from side to side, Xiao cried, caressing Barbatos' hair. "I love you, please, don't leave me." Xiao begged, heartbroken. "I know I never told you, but I think- no, I am in love with you. At last, I understand my feelings. Please, Venti, don't go."

Aether came next to Xiao, pitying his friend's sobs that didn't stop. He also felt sad by Venti's loss, he considered the Archon his friend, and he was going to cry and mourn his death. Along with him, the survivors of Mondstadt as a whole kneed in front of the dead Archon and the Adeptus, bidding their goodbyes to Barbatos, the Archon of the City of Freedom.

2000 years later, in another dimension...

Xiao was late, he had overslept and had lost the train to the Conservatory, again. He had spent the night studying Harmony II and lost track of time. What was sleep for a student, though? 'Never heard of it.'

Running across the street, trying not to lose his piano sheets, he finally got to the bus station, the only transport apart from the train that could get him to his destination. It was to its fullest, so he would have to be standing, not very practical to study. He eyes followed the Chopin Nocturne nº20, thinking the rubatos in his mind and trying to memorize the digits in the final scales. He sighed, if he hadn't had spent so much time studying the Harmony rules in the Gregorian Era, he would have had enough time to practice piano. But organization wasn't his best attribute.

He trusted his ability reading at first sight and closed the folder, looking out the window. It was a good day, the sun was shining and lighting the path of those who walked in their way to their jobs, schools, universities or even who were just strolling. The few trees the city had were full of green leaves that were swaying to the sound of the pre summer breeze, warning people of the incoming heat wave. Xiao wished to finish the year as soon as possible so he could go to the beach and stroll and listen to music with the dancing waves of the ocean.

The rest of the morning went without incident, his inner talent allowing him to feign having study and his teacher praising his musicality. Xiao was a sensitive person, he felt too deep, different from what everyone who knew him thought of him because of his rough facade. His musicality and deep feelings were what made him an expert in Chopin, being the best in his region to play the musical pieces of the Polish composer.

He exited the place and walked to the train station thinking about his incoming exams, music was definitely one of the tougher and more beautiful things he had ever experimented. At the same time, he started listening a guitar melody and a sweet voice accompanying it; Xiao looked to the source of the sound and saw a boy his age playing an acoustic guitar and singing inside the train station. He had dyed dark blue hair, nearly black, that degraded into a light blue the nearer it came closer to his hair tips. He had enough hair to pull it into a bun, giving him a carefree look that matched his crop trousers, white t-shirt and denim jacket. But when they both made eye contact, Xiao swore to had seen those eyes before, gentle aquamarine gaze looking back at him.

The pianist stood there for a few minutes, listening and admiring the singer, but he had to go if he didn't want to lose the train. He just hoped he would see the singer again, captivated by his songs and, especially, his eyes.

Indeed, he saw the man every day since at that same spot, at the same hour, different songs. Xiao envied him, he also wanted to compose, but was too focused learning classical pieces to invest more time in composing his own ones, but he was positive one day he would.

It continued like that for a month; the man would be there, playing and singing while Xiao stood there for some minutes listening to him. He was so familiar and strange at the same time that Xiao had no choice but be intrigued by him. Until one day, the man wasn't there.

"What?" Xiao looked around, but the dark blue haired man wasn't in his usual spot nor in any nearby.

For a week, the singer didn't appear and Xiao started to think he would not see him again. Much to his disdain, he felt sad; he always waited for the time of the day where he would see and hear the man, it was like a ritual for him. Now, all of a sudden, it was gone.

Walking out of the train, distracted looking for the man, he didn't notice his folder opening and the piano sheets getting lost among the people.

"Hey!" he heard behind him. Even if he had never heard him talk, he knew it was him, his voice sounded as sweet as when he sang. He turned around and saw the singer behind him, shaking some papers in his hands, "I think these are yours!"

Xiao took at what the singer had in his hand. He was still rather shocked by finding him again after so long, but he paid attention to the papers to recognise them as his piano sheets, the ones he needed for his exam tomorrow.

"Thank you," he said nonchalantly, taking them from the other musician.

Their hands touched for an instant, a short among of time for any other mortal, but enough for them to feel a tingle inside their chests. Xiao took the sheets quickly and put some distance between them both. He didn't know what that feeling was and he definitely didn't want to discover it.

"You're welcome!" answered the man, smiling brightly after falling silent for a few seconds after the incident, "I see you play the piano, are you majoring in music?"

"Yes," replied the pianist, looking at everywhere but the man in front of him.

"That's so cool! I would have loved to learn music officially, but I had to conformed with learning by myself."

"I see."

"Hehe! I always saw you pass while I was playing, it's cool to know that I had a fellow musician listening to me!"

"Hmm, you're not that bad."

"Why, thank you."

The singer felt how closed up the pianist was, so he took it as a compliment, comprehending that maybe he wasn't really used to interacting with people. Meanwhile, Xiao was panicking. He had been looking for the man for weeks and now he couldn't even talk properly.

"What's your name?"

"My name?"

"Yes!" the singer waited for the other man to reply, patiently.

"...Xiao," said the pianist after considering telling him or not, "and yours?"

"I'm Venti, nice to meet you!"

Again, them both felt like those names were too familiar, a similar sensation like the one before arose in their stomachs. Venti smiled, something that Xiao noticed to be frequent, as in the two minutes they had been interacting he hadn't stopped smiling.

"Well, I hope I see you around! Maybe one day we can play together."

"I guess so, yes."

With a parting nod, Xiao turned around and went to his daily classes, not without thinking about their encounter. Something felt odd in the deep of the situation, he just couldn't think of what it was. Feeling like you know someone without having actually met wasn't something that happened at Xiao's life.

Returning from the Conservatory that afternoon, he first heard the guitar and voice, and then saw Venti playing at the train station. 'So, he's back, definitely'. He passed by him, Venti's eyes on Xiao already, giving each other a smile from the singer's part and a nod from Xiao's, and then parting.

The following weeks followed the same dynamic. Sometimes, Venti ventured to talk to Xiao, small talk, enough to get the pianist to open to him. He learned that Xiao was majoring in music specializing in piano, that he had his final exams in June and that he had a cat. The singer felt happy to have collected so much information for someone who rarely opened up.

"I was thinking that maybe we should play together," Venti said, one afternoon after Xiao returned from his classes. They had decided to have a coffee every Thursday to catch up and so they could have more normal conversations and not rushed ones at the station. Or, better said, Venti offered and Xiao just followed.

"I don't play your type of music."

"Ah?" said the singer, confused, "What do you mean with 'my type of music'?"

"Well, I'm specializing in classical music." Xiao shrugged his shoulders, returning to his almond and chocolate muffin.

"Well, yes, but that doesn't mean you can't play other styles."

Xiao continued eating, listening to Venti rumble about pop, rock and R&B. The pianist knew which styles they were, their characteristics and the most popular singers for each style, but something in the way Venti talked made him want to listen nonstop. The young singer was passionate about what he did, just as Xiao was about his profession.

"So? What do you say?"

"I don't know," Xiao started, biting his lip, "I don't think I would be good on it."

"If you can play Chopin and Mozart, you can play four chords on repeat."

Like that, Venti took Xiao to the little studio he had with Aether, his producer. Both musicians were really young, but had already launched a couple EPs. Xiao was amazed by the studio, there was a little keyboard, an acoustic guitar, an electric guitar and then the recording studio and the production table.

"Do you like it?"

Xiao just nodded, directing himself to the keyboard and switching it on. The keys were less harsh than a piano's keys, but he was sure he could manage to play on it. The sound was more electric, just what he expected.

Venti, on his part, was following Xiao's movements, happy to see him interested in what he could offer. He had been feeling dizzy in the pianist's presence for quite some time now, and he was sure he was falling for him. He was determined to show him how he felt and to open Xiao's mind.

"You can come here whenever you want, I would love to play with you," Venti said, smiling brightly when Xiao sat on the bench and placed his hand on the keys, "Can you play something for me?"

The pianist thought for some seconds, deciding on what he could gift Venti's ears with, and decided to play Fantasia in D minor by Mozart. A beautiful and complete piece by his favourite composer, he enjoyed so much playing him that got lost in the moment. The most difficult thing was to keep balance between the left and the right in the sense of sound, but for the rest Xiao had everything so clear that the melodies kept falling out of the keyboard.

After nearly ten minutes, hi finished. Venti was shocked by the way the man played, emotional and emotionless at the same time, a technique enviable. If he could do that in a keyboard, what could he do in a piano? What could he do in a harpsichord to keep up with the real instrument Mozart used?

"Sorry for the quality, a keyboard doesn't make justice to the piece." Xiao said, timidly, standing up from the bench.

"Nonsense," started the singer, still moved by the little performance, "it was incredible. You're such a good pianist!"

"I'm just mediocre." mumbled the man, blushing furiously.

"No mediocre pianist can do what you had just presented, Xiao."

They looked at each other on silence for a moment, Xiao noticing his heart rushing again. Something about Venti made him feel dizzy in a good way, it scared him, but also desired to know why he felt so attracted to the singer. Venti was just admiring Xiao's features, skin kissed by the moon, eyes deep as gold wells, rough expression that was becoming in a vulnerable one. He reminded him of a cat, wanting to make it look as he was independent and surly, but that actually was a sweetheart who needed love and care as any other human being.

'Maybe he'll let me love him in a near future.' thought the singer, gazing at a distracted Xiao, who was touching the acoustic guitar.

They decided to try and play something together, improvising in the moment and giving each other inspiration to think of better ways of following the music. Xiao had to admit to himself that it was fun and that it sounded good. He never thought he would be able to improvise to pop music, but there he was, following a guitarist and singer man.

Venti opened his mouth and started singing an, of course, improvised melody. Xiao nearly stopped playing, too distracted with the sweet and hypnotizing voice of the other man. Every time he heard him sing a memory came to his mind, one of that same voice singing just for him. Memory? No, it couldn't be. It felt like a dream, a very far away dream he had when he was a kid.

Venti, on his part, had the same memory whenever Xiao appeared when he was singing. He saw a lyre, green clothes and tattoos, golden eyes that returned his caring gaze; he also heard his own voice. What it was he didn't know, but that it had a meaning, he was sure.

The following days, after a hard time convincing Xiao, the both of them started composing a song. The chords were not the usual for the 21st Century chords, they reminded of an old Era, one forgotten by the human kind, one that only the two of them understood. The melody was melancholic, similar to a letter to a loved one you lost. The lyrics were heart-breaking, Venti provided a cruel perspective of love, requited love that did not fulfil the dream of both lovers of becoming true for centuries of being apart.

Xiao was in love with their creation, wanting to play more and more, getting lost in the music that Venti gifted him with. He didn't care about the heartache he felt whenever Venti called him 'friend', he didn't care about the goose bumps every time the singer touched his hand, he didn't care about the overwhelming desire to kiss him when he smiled. He only cared for giving him the best piano version he could offer.

"Crimson red blinded my vision, there and then you took the decision," sang Venti, fingers moving within the strings of his guitar, "'I'll see you again', you said, 'when the sun goes down and I don't feel regret."

Xiao played, keys sounding too much for his liking, he really disliked the keyboard, but it was his only way of playing with Venti. He had considered inviting him to his house, but the acoustic wouldn't have been that good.

"Arrows flied, swords were wielded, but your kiss was enough to put me out of war. Let me tell you, everything but you was a blur."

The pianist couldn't take it anymore, the lyrics had been giving him a headache ever since Venti wrote them. He loved them and hated them at the same time, it was like they were mocking him, remembering him of something he lost, but he couldn't remember what it was.

He stood up from the piano, storming out of the room and living Venti confused. The singer knew how Xiao could be, but that didn't make him feel less worried. He had never left a rehearsal, always playing his best and taking part actively in the decisions taken for the song. What could have trigger him so much to make him exit the room?

"Hey!" Venti called out, stopping Xiao from going out the studio, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." replied the pianist, tone piercing.

"Don't even try that with me," said the singer, annoyed, "we're passed the state of putting a facade."

"Really, it's no―"

Venti didn't know what crossed his mind. He was so angry, frustrated, annoyed and disappointed in Xiao not trusting him after so much effort to get to him that he kissed him out of desperation.

The pianist couldn't move, not understanding why he had a pair of lips on his, but liking the feeling of the kiss. Hesitant, he placed one of his hands on Venti's waist and the other on his left cheek and corresponded the kiss.

Hearts content and reunited, jumping in euphoria; souls greeting each other after being apart for so long; bodies finding like you find an old item you forgot you had but that you deeply cared for. They separated, a thread of saliva connecting the two of them.

"W-what?"

"Come with me, my lovely adeptus."

"Adeptus? What's that?" asked Xiao, confused, still grabbing Venti's waist.

"I-I don't know, it just felt... right? To say." replied an equally confused singer.

Venti dismissed the topic fast, carrying Xiao with him to the studio's couch. He made the pianist lay on it while he topped him, kissing him again and again, taking away his shirt after checking for his consent.

The windows tarnished because of the heat, moans of pleasure could be heard as they both took care of the other in a loving way, caressing, kissing, biting their bodies. When Venti entered Xiao after preparing him, they both saw the stars. Love noises filled the empty and soundproof room, fastened breaths demonstrating the effort of being in love, orgasmic euphoria filling the empty space on their chest, gifting them the chance of reuniting something that didn't consummate on the past.

No amount of time could break the bond they created at that moment mixed with the one they forged two thousand years prior. Post orgasmic music running between them as they recovered from the love-making session.

Venti got up, searching for towels on the little bathroom of the studio to clean both of them, trying to extend the blissful moment before they had to talk about it, focusing on the aftercare.

"Thank you." whispered a tired Xiao after getting cleaned up and being helped to put his clothes on.

"It's nothing," said Venti, shy for the first time the both of them had met, something that didn't passed Xiao's observant skills.

"Do you... regret this?"

"No!" exclaimed Venti after noticing the insecurity on the pianist's voice, "No, of course no. I was just, you know, wondering if..."

"If?"

"Wondering what this leads us to."

Xiao thought for some seconds, he knew he liked Venti, it would explain his body reactions whenever he was near him, and he understood what had just happened as Venti returning his feelings. For what he had read on books, that meant they were dating, but he could be wrong.

"I guess I'm your boyfriend," he mumbled, gazing at the floor.

"B-boyfriend!?" asked Venti, surprised of the statement the other man made.

"Isn't that the term for the person you are dating?"

"Uh... yes, but you hadn't asked me to be your boyfriend..." Venti was amused and shocked with Xiao's bold attitude, but he blamed it to the pianist's lack of experience.

"Oh, then, would you be my boyfriend?"

"But don't make it so... cold!" Venti face palmed, laughing at the situation they had at hand. He had to say, though, Xiao's ignorance on the topic was adorable, his heart was melting at the man's confused gaze.

"Then how?"

"Forget it, yes, I'll be your boyfriend." Venti replied, still laughing.

"Okay, good," said Xiao, nodding and processing the information. "now what?"

"Now we continue with the song, that we have to finish recording it."

Venti stood up from the couch, giving Xiao a small peck and 'hehe'-ing after. He positioned himself on the guitar again, shaking a little at the amount of emotion running through his veins. The pianist was still on sitting, watching Venti's every move the same way he looked at his piano. The singer was touched by the sincere look on Xiao's eyes, meaning he did feel the same.

"C'mon, little Adeptus, go play the piano half as good as you played my body."

The blush on the other's man face was imminent, causing Venti to find his new favourite thing: teasing the music student.

Music had reunited the lovers that war separated once, being the conductor channel of an Archon and an Adeptus to find their way back to the other's arms. Their past kept a mystery from them both, but their souls did remember each other, hugging and causing the two men to love as much as they once did. A bright future waited for the two talented musicians now that nothing could separate them again.

The air was pure and clear again.

#xiao x venti #xiaoven #venti x xiao #xiao #venti #xiao genshin impact #venti genshin impact #genshin impact #musician venti #musician xiao #pride 2021 #happy pride 🌈

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hlupdate · 4 years

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In a never-before-published 2012 interview, Harry Styles and Niall Horan talk about their childhoods, the future of One Direction, and much more

In the spring of 2012, I spent a few entertaining days hanging out with the five young members of a British boy band who were just breaking big in the United States. The guys from One Direction were unjaded, unguarded, totally charming, and a puppy pile of optimism and energy. On April 8th, in a New York City hotel room, an 18-year-old Harry Styles and 16-year-old Niall Horan sat down with me for a joint interview, published here for the first time. (The reporting was intended for a Rolling Stone cover story that never ran.)

It was late morning, and they had both just rolled out of bed. Styles wore a hotel bathrobe; Horan, with braces still on his teeth, was in sweatpants, a T-shirt, and a Dallas Mavericks hat a fan had given him during a recent trip to Texas. The conversation was casual, full of laughs, and focused on their formative years.

What did you do at the gym last night? Harry: One of our security guys, his friend’s over, he’s a personal trainer, so I was working with him, and he ripped me to shreds.

In 12 hours, you have to do Saturday Night Live. Are you ready? Harry: Yeah, I think so. I think it’s going to be a fun day. It’s just really exciting, obviously. The show is so huge. For us to get the opportunity to be on it at all was just amazing, and to us, to be performing and just be involved with the show is amazing.

Have you seen whole episodes of it? Harry: I’ve watched a lot of clips on YouTube. They don’t show it in the U.K.

Growing up, when did you realize you could sing or that you wanted to sing? Harry: I sang in primary school, like the school productions, plays and stuff.

What was your first one? Harry: The first one was…I was five, and there was a story about a mouse who lived in a church, and I was Barney, the mouse. I had to wear my sister’s tights, and a headband with ears on it, and I had to sing a song all by myself. I remember it was just like, whatever…in the second, I was Buzz Lightyear in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, so you know when they run and hide in the toy shop? Buzz Lightyear was in the toy shop, so they just created my character. The last one, I was in…you know Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat? I was the pharaoh, but I was an Elvis pharaoh.

Did you have a sense that this is what you wanted to do in your life? Harry: I think in school, I was OK, I wasn’t a bad student. I think I just knew I wanted to entertain people and stuff. I was a bit of an attention-seeker at school.

Niall: Me, too. I just talked too much, sang too much.

You were onstage as a kid and were like, “This is what I like”? Harry: I knew it was fun, I had a lot of fun doing it, and I stopped when I started high school, and then I didn’t really do anything, I just sang at home, in the shower, in your bedroom, that type of thing. I guess it started again when my friends were in a band and they wanted to do this battle of the bands competition that was at school, and they needed a singer, and one of my friends asked me.

What did you sing? Harry: We sang “Are You Gonna Be My Girl” by Jet, and “Summer of ’69.” We did it more towards the Bowling For Soup version.

How about you, Niall? Niall: I always knew I wanted to sing. I was academic…I was one of those people that if I’m not interested in something, I don’t really care. If I’m not interested in school, I would have never trained or done my homework or anything, I’d have just gone outside and played football or whatever.

Harry: [helpfully translating] Soccer.

Niall: So I always wanted to sing. I was singing here and there, not gigs or anything, but I always sang around the house or whatever, and I played Oliver in a school play. And then I just did that, and people told me I should do something…I was only 10, what could I do at 10? I just did a couple of gigs, and when I got to high school, they told me that I should just try out for The X-Factor.

Who told you? Niall: My French teacher. We used to do talent shows and stuff at school, she was like, “You should do it,” so I did it.

What did that entail? What were the steps from being a kid in high school to getting on the show? Niall: It was the final of The X-Factor the year before, and at the end credits of the final, it says, “If you want to apply for 2010, go online,” so a couple of weeks later, I said, “Right, I’m going to do it,” and I filled in the form online, we were sending emails back and forth, going to this place at this time. The first one is at a big stadium, then if you get through that, you come back the next day. Is that the way they did it with you?

Harry: I had to wait a little bit, I think.

Niall: I was there at five a.m., I got seen at 12, and I was out of there by quarter past 12, and the next day I came back at 10 in the morning. You get through the first round, then they do a round where they don’t tell you if you got through after that.

Harry: They film it.

Niall: The producer and someone from the label. They film it and show it to whoever. Then if you got through that, it takes about two or three weeks until you find out. I was in Spain. Then you just go through the audition.

Harry, how did you wind up on X-Factor? Harry: I basically said, the same as Niall, I was watching the year before, and I remember looking at the young guys on there, and I was kind of like, “I’d love to have a go at it just to see what happens,” and that was kind of it. My mum actually did the application, and then three weeks later, I walked upstairs and she said, “Oh, you’ve got your X-Factor audition Sunday,” and I was like, “OK.”

Niall: In England, it’s the biggest thing ever. It took a while to build.

Harry: The two or three years were steady, and third or fourth, it just blew up.

Niall: It works that one in three people in the UK watch it. There’s 60 million people in the UK, and 21 million people watched the final the year we were in it.

Harry, your band also played at least one wedding right? Harry: Yeah. We actually said that we’d do the wedding gig, and…

Niall: You get paid for it?

Harry: Yeah. 160 quid, between all four of us. 40 quid each…we said we’d do it, and then we found out it was the weekend coming up, and we hadn’t done anything for it, so we asked the bride what kind of stuff she wanted, and she said she didn’t mind, but she wanted some Bob Marley songs. Literally in three days, not even three, probably two days, we learned like 25 songs. We might have known like three of them before. I was 16, maybe 15, singing these Bob Marley songs. There was a girl a couple of years below us, and it was her mum, she said she wanted us to play.

Niall: Can you imagine you’re at a wedding and you have 16-year-old kids up on the stage?

Maybe you were really good! Harry: Yeah, the drummer is one of my best friends from school, he’s a sick drummer, he’s so good.

Did you think the band could be something? Harry: A bit. My friend’s mum was a radio presenter, and she did a radio show for a bit, so she was trying to sort us out a little bit of studio time, we were going to go in and record.

What do your parents do? Harry: My mum is a PA. My dad is a financial adviser.

How about you? Niall: My dad works at a supermarket, he’s the head manager, general manager of an area, not just one, and my mum is unemployed now, so I try to help them out whenever I can.

You probably can. That must be nice. Niall: Yeah, it’s nice, it’s good.

Plus, now you can tell them what to do. Harry: [laughs] “Now you go to bed.”

Were you happy as kids? Did you have adolescent angst and stuff? Did you go through depressed periods? Harry: Not really. I think at one point, I started acting like I was…I had a phase of listening to really heavy music.

Niall: I never went through that.

Harry: Not stupid heavy, but a bit… just because I thought it was cool.

Like what? Harry: Like Nirvana T-shirts, wore black all the time, pretty much.

Were you pretty happy go-lucky? Niall: Yeah, I was always happy. I think me and Harry were lucky. Our parents got divorced quite early, didn’t they, when we were really young. I was four, I didn’t know much, so I was always a happy kid, always up for a laugh, very carefree, and I’m a bit like that now.

Did you both grow up in your moms’ houses? Harry: Yeah.

Niall: I went between both, my mum moved to the country and I didn’t have any interest in it. I always felt like the country is for when you’re older. I was with my mom for a while but got bored, all my friends were in town, I went to school in town and all that stuff. It was more like that.

Harry: I lived with both parents, and then moved with my mum, and we owned a pub for like five years. I remember the first night, it was like a night where a band was playing, and I just thought, “How am I going to get to sleep?” I was three stories up, I was like, “How am I going to get to sleep with this noise?” I was next to a road in Sussex in the middle of nowhere, and by the end, I could fall asleep next to the band, I was so used to the noise.

Was it imprinting your brain? Harry: Maybe. One of the guys who used to play every so often, he used to be in Deep Purple or something… He started teaching me guitar when I was like 10, I think 10, maybe nine. I loved it. I was 10, 11, all of the regulars, I got on with them. I’d walk behind the bar and my head would barely go over the bar. It’s still going now. We sold it to my best friend, we go in all the time still.

People say you come off as more mature than your age, you come off wiser. Did hanging around all those people as a kid help you mature?

Harry: I don’t know, maybe. I moved when I was seven or eight from Cheshire, and it was still Cheshire, but half an hour away, but in terms of not driving and stuff, all my friends lived near my school, so that was a bit further out. One of my friends there was my sister’s age, he was 16 when I was 10. It was so tiny, they were the only teenage boys…we’d ride our bikes and go to the driving range and stuff. It was good, it was fun.

You both wanted to entertain – if it hadn’t worked out, would you have been really unhappy? Harry: Yeah, I think it would be kind of like…one of the reasons you go for X-Factor in the first place is that you want to do this, and it kind of helps you get out of the life that you were doing before. I worked in a bakery for two years. Obviously, I didn’t want to do that for ages!

If you’d asked people at school, would they have said, “Yeah, they’re probably going to be famous,” or would they never have guessed that? Niall: My aunt, I was in the back of her car. We used to go across Ireland to go to the beach for a couple of weeks, and I remember we were in the car, I was singing, and she thought I was the radio, and she told me, I never forgot it, that she thought I was going to be famous since I was six, seven. She was the only person who told me that, so I always remembered that.

Harry: My dad said it. I used to listen to a lot of the music he was playing, he’d play Elvis Presley to death, the Stones, I’d sing along to that and he’d say, “You’re going to be famous,” or whatever. He came on tour with us for a few days out here, he came to the Radio City show. He just said, for him, it was so educational. Obviously, he hears about what happens when I call him, but to see it and see it actually happen and how everything works was so good for him, he really enjoyed it. So that was nice.

So you grew up on Elvis and the Stones? Harry: Yeah, pretty much. My dad was a massive Stones fan, so it was pretty much Beatles and Stones in terms of what my dad played.

People say you kind of look like Mick.

Niall: He gets that a lot.

Harry: I get it more here, probably, than I do at home. It’s because of the British thing.

What have you learned about life from the last few years, what didn’t you know? What advice would you give yourself? Niall: How much more independent we actually are – me, anyway. Your mum attends to your every need and does your food and washing and gives you somewhere to live. Then you go into the real world, as you’re told as a kid…

Harry: We’re living on our own now.

Niall: We just started living on our own in the last six months, really.

Harry: I’m moving when I get back.

Niall: We do our own washing, we make our own food, we rent places, we’re out on our own now. You mature so quick, you’re dealing with big businessmen every day, you’re not dealing with school, people your own age. It’s a bit different.

Harry: You seem to learn so many life lessons, but in such a short space of time. If I speak to my friends and they’re having problems with girls, whatever it is, now I seem to just have the answer. I don’t know, it’s just different. Or I think I have the answer. In terms of…one of my friends was trying to decide what to do with school, stuff like that, and I would have had no idea what to say to him before.

The last two years must feel like 10. Harry: Yeah, but at the same time, it feels like six months, it’s weird. X-Factor was two years ago, but it seems like five years ago, but at the same time, it’s gone so quick. It’s a really strange dynamic of how it feels.

Do you have a sense of how this is going to go? Does it matter if it’s two years, five years or forever? Harry: I think how much we all enjoy it, because we love what we do – if you have to call it a job, it’s an incredible job to have, and we love it. We’ll all want to do it for as long as possible. If we have the opportunity to have a Take That kind of career, I don’t see any reason why we wouldn’t want to do that. If we don’t, I don’t know…we’ve done some amazing things already, but we don’t want to stop there, we want to keep going. I guess if we didn’t, I think we’d probably want to still be involved in…I’d just write, I guess.

Do you want to act? It feels like you could have your own TV show. Harry: I think it would be more of a documentary, because obviously, we’re not actors.

People must want you to try. Niall: Watch tonight, tell us what you think. Watch SNL.

Will you all make solo albums? Is that inevitable? Harry: No, I don’t think so.

Niall: Let’s do a swing album!

Harry: [laughs] We’ll all do swing albums. We’re just so focused on this, we all feel so lucky just to be part of this opportunity that we’ve all been given, it’s incredible, we’re just loving it. It’s sick.

People make a lot of assumptions about people in your position. They think you’re puppets and do what you’re told. What do you do when people make those assumptions? Harry: When you look from the outside, especially if you’re a skeptic of groups made through TV shows, which is fair enough, people don’t see what we do on a daily basis, people don’t see…I think from the outside, it looks so glamorous, they see us do TV performances every now and again, see us doing an interview every now and again, but they don’t know that we work seven days a week.

Niall: If there was eight days, we’d fit it in.

Harry: It’s not as completely glamorous all the time, of course it’s not, it would be stupid to think that it would be, but it’s hard work.

Niall: You’ve got to remember that you’ve got people on your team that have been doing this for many years and have been through the mill. You have all that experience around you, even from our tour manager, who’s been doing this for 20 years, they know what’s right, but at the same time, we want to have creative control, because at the end of the day, it’s us stepping out onto the stage of SNL tonight and have to sing these songs. We want to be singing what we enjoy, as we said last night. The music we all listen to is what we try and blend together to make this One Direction sound.

Harry: We obviously want to make it authentic and have our say without going, “People say we don’t control it, so we need to take control.” We’re not…we haven’t been writing songs for 20 years, we’re not producers. We’ve got an incredible team around us. Luckily, we’ve been given a lot of freedom, so we don’t go, “OK, we just need more and more control,” because we have a lot of control already. I think we find a really good balance in the way we work with our record label and our management, and it’s just how we work together, I think.

In any case, it’s probably better than the bakery. Harry: Yeah. But I don’t get a nice bun on my break anymore, that’s the thing.

Did you wear an apron? Harry: Oh yeah, I wore a white polo shirt and a maroon apron with white stripes. “What would you like? 78 pence, thank you very much.”

Were you behind the counter? Harry: Yeah, I was behind the counter. It was good. It was Saturday morning, I started at five and finished at four in the afternoon and got like 30 quid, it was a joke.

Niall, did you have a job? Niall: No, never.

So this is your first job. Niall: Yeah, not bad at all. I was chilling, I was being a kid.

Harry: I had a paper route before that. It gave me a bad back, bad posture. It was a heavy bag.

I interviewed some fans downstairs, and asked if they knew who you were six months ago, and they all said yes, and a year ago…They were all early adopters, heard you from the Internet, watched X Factor on YouTube… Harry: It’s the internet. People have friends over here that might tell their friends and look on YouTube and show their friends. It’s insane how it’s blown up. We’ve had the opportunity to come over to America and do shows, and release our music over here, which is amazing. Through the power of social media, we already had a bit of a following before we’d ever been over here, we hadn’t done any shows. We had some fans out here, which was amazing, but weird, really strange. I don’t know, it’s gone crazy. We don’t really see loads of it. We do the shows, then we’re in hotels, then we fly somewhere else. We don’t see massive amounts of it, we just go with it. This whole thing has gone on, and it’s sick.

Do you ever feel anxious through all this? Harry: Yeah, I think, obviously, just naturally, you think about what’s going to happen in the future. We’re 18, 19, 20 years old, we’re young. I wouldn’t say anxious, we’re just excited most of the time, and having so much fun, that if stuff were to finish and you were to look back on your time and all you did the whole time throughout this amazing stuff was shitting yourself about what’s going to happen next, then it would just be…I think you have to enjoy it while it’s going on. I think you should be wary about the future, but not worrying about it all the time. We still enjoy it and have fun, but obviously, you do think, “What am I going to be doing in 20 years, 30 year?” I’ll have kids by then.

Harry, I saw a tabloid with pictures of everyone smiling, and you were looking thoughtful. Do you get down sometimes? While everyone else is having fun, do you start drifting off? Harry: No, I think I’m naturally…not everyone is happy all of the time. I think you always have times when…like when you’ve just landed off a really long flight or miss home or something. They got a picture of me where I wasn’t smiling. I usually smile, but they got one where I wasn’t smiling and used that, and then said I wasn’t happy. They did that for a few days, that’s when we were in L.A. last time. It goes with the morbid voice.

Ringo would say, “It’s just me face.” Niall: “Who’s that little old man?” [quoting Hard Day’s Night]

Harry: “That’s Paul’s grandfather. He’s very clean.”

Sometimes you can drift off, that’s just your thing. Harry: [laughs] I’m just soulful, man, I try.

Harry, do you mind when you’re singled out for attention? Harry: I don’t know. I don’t really…I don’t know. We’re a band. Everything we do is together. I don’t take much notice of it.

So you’re not the Justin. Harry: No.

Niall: J.C. was popular, too, wasn’t he?

It’s not like that for you guys. Harry: Not at all.

There was an imbalance in that group. Harry: I think we find it important that people get to know all of our individual personalities, because…

Niall: I think that’s what’s good about it, people see us as individuals as well as a band, we all have our own personality, and we all give something to a band. Previous bands, they go around and can never explain themselves, they can explain the band, but as individuals, what we bring to the band and stuff…

Harry: We all know that we all have our roles, and we all know that without one of us, it wouldn’t work.

#harry styles #niall horan #one direction #230720 #1d ten

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skieswords · 4 years

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Pull Through Part 5

Please make sure you read the warnings in part 1❤️

"Fuck. Wake up boys, we're late." Becca's eyes fluttered open at the sound of Alex's voice, and the first thing she noticed was the warm chest her cheek was resting on, and the hand pressed against the small of her back. Luke groaned, and opened his eyes, looking down to see a mess of curls lying on top of him, and feeling Becca's t-shirt in his hand. She was on top of him, her blue eyes looking up at him in surprise. "Uh, morning." Luke grinned as Becca buried her face in his chest again, groaning into his t-shirt. They looked to their left and found Reggie staring at them, his hair sticking up in all directions. "Did you

two...?" He pointed between them, eyes wide. Becca's jaw dropped in horror, and she jumped off Luke, accidentally kneeing him in the stomach. He groaned and buried his face in a cushion, hiding the furious blush spreading up his neck, while Becca smiled apologetically and ran a hand through her hair. "No, we didn't. Gross." Alex came in, car keys in hand, yawning and stretching his arms above his head. "Morning Bex. Luke, a word?" He shot a glare at Luke, who was now sat up on the sofa, rubbing his temples gently. He held his hands up towards Alex, and shuffled through to the bathroom, pulling his shoes on as he hopped. "Bex. Car. Now." Alex was pissed, and Becca sighed as she laced her converse, looking over her outfit. "I need to get changed. I have clothes in the l-" She was interrupted by Reggie dropping a bag on the floor from the loft, a collection of Becca's clothes from over the years. "Loft. Thanks Reg." She knelt down and started raking through the clothes, blinking desperately to keep herself awake. A few moments later, she'd yanked an old band t-shirt over her head, and tossed her curls into a messy ponytail, and was now trying to pull her shorts down in the mirror, groaning when they didn't budge. "I'm going to get dress-coded. Alex can I just skip?" Alex laughed from behind her and tugged her ponytail gently, crossing his arms as he leant against the wall. "Mom and dad are already going to kill me for having you out all night, the least I can do is force you to go to school." She stuck her tongue out at him, and gave up, hoping the tights would be enough the satisfy Ms Carlisle. The bathroom door opened, and Luke emerged looking slightly more awake than he had when they first woke up. He made eye contact with Becca and cleared his throat, glancing at Alex as she blushed and ran into the bathroom. "Seriously dude? The literal minute she turns 16 and you're after her." Luke shook his head and snorted. "Not a chance. You know how we see her. Little sister, all the way." He looked into Alex eyes, hoping his best friend bought it. They'd known since they were 12, Becca was totally off limits to the boys. Something about not wanting his little sister mixed up with rockstars- although he had a feeling that wasn't the actual reason. Becca listened to their exchange through the bathroom door, sadness clouding her eyes. She'd hoped that after last night, with Luke telling her all that stuff about being on stage, that they might have grown closer. She'd fancied the boy since she was 13- and over the last year, having shared a lot of laughs during rehearsals, she'd developed a full blown crush. But he clearly didn't feel the same.

"Bex! Where were you last night? I tried calling but your mom picked up, said you were studying..." Becca nodded slowly, realising that must have been the lie Alex spun to her parents. "Yeah, I had a ton of math work to catch up on." This was feasible. The entire class knew about Becca's turbulent relationship with the math department. Ray nodded and leaned up against the locker next to hers, taking in her appearance. "You're gonna get in so much trouble for that- Ms C is in an evil mood." Becca groaned and slammed her head against her locker door, shoving a textbook into her bag as she turned to face Ray. "I'll just avoid her. It'll be fine." He grinned and reached into his bag, holding out a messily wrapped box. "Happy birthday." She couldn't help but smile back at him, rolling her eyes and reaching out to take the box. "Thank you. You shouldn't have though, I told you I don't like my birthday." He shrugged and watched with eager eyes as she tore off the paper, opening her locker to throw it in as it fell. "No you didn't. Ray!" She threw her arms around his neck, the box pressed between them. "I noticed your wheels were looking kinda wonky the other day, so. Here you go. Can you come tonight? I'll put them on for you." Becca smiled at him and tucked a curl behind her ear. "Yeah, yeah I think so. Thank you, Ray." He'd gotten her a set of new wheels for her skateboard, which she desperately needed. A blowout with her dad a few weeks back had resulted in him tossing her board out the 3rd floor window, and had sent the front wheel off to the left, and she hadn't been able to fix it. Ray was a genius with boards, and had the most gorgeous hand painted designs. She slipped the wheels carefully into her bag and linked arms with him, letting him walk her to english. Luke watched the entire display from across the hall, his hand resting on the small box in his locker. It was stupid, just a little gift- but he thought she'd like it. It could wait, he decided, and he pushed his locker door shut a little too harshly, causing a loud clatter to echo through the hall. He swung his guitar case over his shoulder and headed for the music rooms, passing off on the AP english class he had with Becca. He couldn't watch her with that guy any longer.

The end of the day took it's time, but as soon as the bell went, Becca was out of her class and in her locker, desperate to get home. "Hey Mercer, you looked good last night." Becca looked up, surprised to find Will Thomas, star quarterback, smirking down at her. "Oh, hey Will. Thanks, I didn't know you were there?" He shrugged and ran a hand through his hair. It was similar to the move Luke frequently pulled, but Becca didn't find the action as endearing when Will did it. "Uh, I should get going." She turned to walk away, but he grabbed her wrist, holding her back. "I'm having a party this weekend. You should come." Becca looked at him in shock, her eyes wide, flicking down to the tight grip he held on her. "Oh, really? I'll see what I'm doing." He nodded at her, letting his eyes rake over her body unapologetically as she walked away, her right hand rubbing the wrist he'd held. Luke watched the interaction, once again from across the hall. Having lockers opposite each other wasn't the ideal situation he had originally imagined it to be. Slamming his locker door shut again, he followed her out the doors, face thunderous and hands thrust deep in his pockets. Becca was already at the car, complaining about something to Alex. "Why can't you just drop me off on the way home? I'll get food later." Alex rolled his eyes and gave her a push into the car, opening the trunk for Luke's guitar. "It's your birthday, mom and dad want to see you." Becca huffed and crossed her arms around her knees. She brightened slightly as Luke approached the car, but sank into her seat when she noticed his expression. Apparently everyone was having a bad day today. "What's up with your face?" Luke shrugged and leaned against the side of the car, avoiding having to sit next to Becca, instead waiting for Reggie to come out. "Teachers on my ass about work, that's all." Becca frowned; Luke never did work, and never cared when he was chased up for it. "What we doing this weekend? We don't have anything booked, do we?" Alex shook his head, dumping his jacket in the back and sighing as the californian sun once again defied all odds, and appeared just as they were hitting December. "Nothing booked, think we were just going to hang out at the studio." Luke nodded, risking a glance towards Becca, who appeared to be examining her ripped tights in great detail. Luke frowned as he noticed the large tear in the material- they'd been fine that morning. Reggie arrived at the car, grumbling about his government teacher, who'd told him he'd have to drop if he didn't buck up. "At least you actually go to class. Luke skipped english this morning." At the mention of his name, Luke's head snapped up, his eyes slightly brighter. She'd noticed his absence. "Where'd you go?" Luke shrugged and pushed the seat back as Reggie clambered in, dropping into the front seat. "Didn't feel like class." Becca rolled her eyes and leaned over Alex's seat, activating her most pleading puppy dog eyes, and resting her chin on his shoulder. "How come he gets to skip class? He's behind already, and I'm acing english." Alex chuckled and shoved her back into her seat. "Luke's older than you, and exactly. You're acing it because you go." Becca scowled and leaned on Reggie, reading the various scribbles running up his arms. Looked like he had a lot of homework. "How do you guys fancy a party this weekend? Heard Thomas is having one." Becca looked up as Luke began to speak, her eyebrows raised in surprise. Reggie frowned. "I thought you hated him? Said something about him being a-" Luke glared at Reggie in the mirror, sticking his lower lip out in such a childish way that Becca couldn't help her grin. "It's something to do. Bex got invited." Becca leaned over and punched him in the arm, scowling and glancing at Alex nervously. "Yeah as if she's going. You know what he's like." Becca groaned from the back seat and kicked Alex's chair, making him jump. "I can do what I want." All three of the boys laughed at the same time, and Alex started to drive off. Becca slumped in her seat and stared out the window. Sometimes having 3 older brothers wasn't ideal.

"Happy birthday darling!" Becca blinked in the sudden brightness as she walked into the kitchen, and found her mom standing beside the kitchen table, beside a birthday cake and a bunch of balloons. "Thanks mom." Julia smiled and pulled Becca into a hug, kissing her head and squeezing her tightly. "I have a shift later on tonight, but I thought we could have dinner together? And then Alex will take you over to Reggie's to study, but I want you to come home tonight, please." Becca nodded absentmindedly, sticking a finger into the icing on her cake. It was vanilla. "Is dad coming home?" Julia shook her head with a smile, and Becca noticed that her shoulders seemed more relaxed, and her hair hung around her face, a rare sight for the usually up tight Julia Mercer. "I got you something. It's on your bed." Becca grinned and hugged her mom one more time, before running out and up the stairs, nearly knocking Alex over in the process. "Woah, what's got you in such a rush?" Becca shrugged and kept running, barging through her door and squealing delightedly. Alex came racing in behind her, afraid that she'd gotten hurt. Becca was unwrapping a small parcel on her bed, not caring about the muddy soles of her converse. "No way." She held up a shoebox, laughing lightly to herself. "Vans? I'm trying to work out if this is some type of sick joke, or if she just asked around to see what kind of shoes skaters wear. Do you think this means she'll let me go?" Alex shrugged and smiled at the expression his little sister wore. She knew she'd have to wear them, so she wouldn't hurt their mom's feelings. But she also knew wearing them to the studio would mean getting ridiculed by Luke. "Fuck it. Are you eating with us?" Alex sighed and gave her a gentle smack round the back of the head, kneeling down to tie her laces. "Depends." Becca fell silent, and he felt her eyes on him. "He's not coming." Alex looked up and met her eyes, watching the grin slowly spread across her face. "Then of course I am. I'm not missing out on birthday cake." She cheered and jumped off the bed, waiting for him to stand up before throwing herself at his back and wrapping her legs around his waist. He hooked his arms through her knees and started to carry her down the stairs, stopping on the landing. "Not a word about last night. I want to speak to you about it in the car anyway, so keep your mouth zipped." Becca nodded and rested her chin on his shoulder. This was shaping up to be her favourite birthday yet. Cake, her mom, and her brother, with the promise of a trip to the skate park and a visit to the boys as well. Not to mention she got to wake up on top of Luke Patterson. Not that that's important or meant anything to her in the slightest, she reminded herself.

Skateboard in hand and new vans on, Becca headed out to Alex's car, happier than she'd felt in weeks. Even though he'd said no to the skatepark, Alex had said she could take her board and practice tricks in Reggie's backyard, as long as she was careful and didn't damage any plantpots. "So. About last night." Becca fidgeted in her seat, not sure where this was going. Was it about the performance? Or the drugs? Or Luke? It could be any number of things, none of them particularly high on her list of preffered car conversation topics. "When were you gonna tell me you could play like that?" Becca let out a sigh of relief. Definitely the least dangerous topic. "Uh, I didn't really know I could play like that myself, to be fair." Alex raised his eyebrows at her, and pulled out of the driveway. "I taught myself a little, and I spoke to some of the music teachers at school- they helped. But I dunno, I just really enjoyed it. Luke worked out I could play by himself, he found some stuff I'd written and forced me to tell him." Alex pursed his lips, and his eyes hardened. "Mmm. That's another thing. Luke." Becca groaned internally- she'd hoped to avoid this one. "What do you mean?" Alex shot her a look of pure disbelief, and she threw her head back against the seat. "Nothing, Alex. I promise. We came in late from the garden last night, and he was gonna sleep on the floor. I felt mean so told him to share the couch." Alex looked at her intently as they reached a red light, before shrugging and continuing the drive in silence. Becca watched out the window as the houses flew by, sighing wistfully as they passed the turnoff for the skatepark.

Luke watched as Reggie nearly fell over the railing in the loft for the fourth time, rolling his eyes and collapsing onto the couch. Alex had said they'd be there around 7, and had warned they better be ready or he'd be pissed. Luke jumped up as he heard a car pull into the driveway, sharing a look with Reggie, who was still sitting on the banister. The familiar roll of Becca's skateboard could be heard on the crazy paving , alongside the jingling of Alex's car keys, and then a scuffle and a screech, as Becca tripped. Eventually, the Mercer siblings appeared at the door, Becca's skateboard tucked under her arm, and Alex trying his hardest to suppress a grin. "Oh my god. Guys!" Becca's hands flew to her mouth as she took in the garage. The boys had spent the last few hours stringing fairy lights across the ceiling, and a painted banner hung across the rafters reading 'Happy Birthday Bex!' in Reggie's handwriting, thankfully. Reggie pulled her into a hug and ruffled her hair. "It's the least we could do." Alex pushed her into the studio, and towards the coffee table, where a messily iced cake sat, chocolate frosting layered thickly over the entire cake. Becca smiled to herself, a warm feeling spreading across her chest as it hit her that the boys remembered her favourite. "Did you make this?" She glanced at Luke suspiciously, who held his hands up and rolled his eyes at her. "Reggie's mom made it- but I iced it." She grinned and pulled him into a hug, letting her head rest on his chest as she breathed in his musky scent of cheap aftershave, and something distinctly boyish. "It's awesome. Thank you." Luke wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly, resisting the urge to stroke her hair. They stayed like that for a moment longer than was strictly necessary, until a look from Alex caught Luke's attention, and he jumped away, clearing his throat. "Where's Bobby?" Reggie shrugged and flopped onto the couch, watching Luke with a slight grin. The dark haired guitarist was walking around the back of the studio, scuffing the toes of his vans against the floor, as he watched Becca out the corner of his eye. The tension between them could literally be cut with a knife, but they still chose to ignore it. Even Alex had commented on it before, much to his own disgust. The idea of his baby sister dating anybody genuinely terrified him- and he knew what a flirt Luke could be. But as the drummer and bassist of Sunset Curve watched the two from opposite corners of the room, the only thought going through their minds was 'how long now.' The pair had been dancing around each other for years now. Luke had even taken Becca to her freshman, and her sophomore homecoming, with it now being an ongoing joke between them. Becca couldn't dance in the slightest. In fact, at both dances, they'd had to take a break so that Luke could ice his foot. He'd asked her by coincidence in freshman year because she'd been crying in the hallway after school, after a group of sophomores had teased her for going alone. By sophomore year, him and Alex were good friends, and they decided to do it as a joke. Junior homecoming was coming up, and he wasn't sure whether to ask her or not. He wanted to, but now that they were both aware there was something more there... it might be weird. Not to mention Alex would insist on being there with them. "We're not exactly speaking to him right now." Becca nodded at Alex's words, and let a hand drift up to stroke the edge of the banner strung up in the rafters.

"I got you something." Becca looked up, pleasantly surprised to see Luke's eyes boring into her own, a hint of worry floating in them. She smiled at him and tilted her head to the side slightly, swaying from left to right gently. "You shouldn't have. Thank you, though." Luke nodded and reached into his jacket pocket, handing over a small box wrapped in brown paper. "Meant to say earlier, nice kicks." He bumped the the worn toe of his vans against the fresh white of hers, smiling as she took the box from him with a brief eye roll. Becca felt her cheeks warming up as she stroked her thumb over her name, scrawled on top of the package in barely legible handwriting. She met his eyes again, and after an encouraging nod from Luke, tore the paper, and opened the box. She stared at the gift in silence, silently grateful that he couldn't see her expression. A guitar string lay coiled inside, resting on tissue paper. It had been cut, just about the right size to fit around her wrist. There was a charm hanging off it, three silver icons that made Becca's breath catch in her throat. A minature electric guitar, a pair of drumsticks, and a bass guitar. Her boys. A slight cough from Luke made her glance up at him, to find his cheeks on fire, and his lip in between his teeth. "It's not much- I saw the charms and thought of you, and I restrung my six string last week so I thought it would be cool, I get it if you don't wanna wear it of course, it's stupid-" He was cut off by Becca's arms being thrown around his neck, catching her in surprise and holding her tightly, feeling a smile spread across his face. "I love it, Luke. Thank you." They stepped apart, and Becca handed him the bracelet, holding out her wrist. "Can you?" He nodded and fiddled with the clasp, clipping it around her wrist. It fit perfectly. He didn't let go of her wrist, his thumb stroking over her hand as he admired the bracelet. It was pretty neat, if he said so himself. Alex watched their interaction from his spot on the couch, groaning internally. He knew it would only be so long until the two of them got over themselves, and the thought terrified him. He didn't want Becca getting hurt, and he knew Luke had a bit of a reputation. It was clear they liked each other- to everyone apart from them, apparently. Luke's attempt to lie to him that morning had been quite pathetic, even for him.

Bobby showed up not long after Becca and Alex had arrived, but he avoided giving her a hug, after multiple glares from Luke, who hadn't left her side all evening. The boys were rather cold towards him- they weren't happy he'd bailed on them for the gig. "Did you get on alright without me though? It didn't make a huge difference to the set, did it?" None of the boys got the chance to answer- Becca snorted loudly, and clapped her hands. "Ha, no of course not. They had me instead." Bobby raised his eyebrows, and looked her up and down appreciatively. "Woah, so you play too? Nothing like a girl who's good with her hands." He winked at her, and she gagged, while Alex punched his arm, and Luke clenched his fists. "In your dreams, Robert." Reggie grinned at Becca and fist-bumped her, handing her another cup of juice. Luke sighed and settled back onto his couch, trying to ignore the voice in the back of his head, telling him to floor Bobby. That wouldn't be the best way to end Becca's birthday. They sat there for a while longer, enjoying each other's company, until Alex looked at the clock and swore quietly. "It's getting late Bex, we should head soon." Becca glanced at the clock and frowned. It was only just after 8pm. She met Alex's eyes, but the slight frown on his face explained everything. "Right. Let's go."

#jatpsmut #jatpluke #jatpimagine #jatpcast #jatpimagines #julieandthephantomssmut #julieandthephantoms #julie and the himbos #julieandthephantomscast #luke patterson imagine #lukepattersonsmut #lukepatterson #luke patterson smut #luke patterson x reader #jatp

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thatbanjobusiness · 3 years

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Hey guys! I realized if anyone wanted to be better acquainted with the idiot here yakking on banjos and bluegrass, I could give a little explanation of my music background? Gah, I swear I was trying to be brief!

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I started piano when I was about five or six. I’d watched my older sister learn piano and decided I wanted to emulate her (she later switched to electric bass). My mom tested my interest by teaching me a little before we switched to formal lessons. Piano became My Instrument and I took lessons through college undergrad.

In addition to classical piano, I learned keyboard reading chord charts. My father was the church praise band leader and first pulled me in around nine years old, my uncle gave me a few tips (he was the lead keyboard player), and I filled in periodically through the end of high school.

In elementary school, I loved choir. I auditioned into our special choir and took as many solos up for grabs as I could get.

When I was about twelve, my dad asked if I wanted to play flute. I didn’t have strong feelings for or against it, but said “Yes,” and ergo began private flute lessons. Flute became my co-main instrument. I enthusiastically participated in All Things Music in high school: band, orchestra, chamber ensemble class, woodwind quintet, pit orchestra for the school’s musicals, marching band, pep band, outside gigs... I added piccolo and clarinet (my flute teacher also taught clarinet) and had a best friend teach me viola. During my senior year, the pit orchestra required pennywhistles and recorders, which I rapidly picked up.

I auditioned into as many regional and state honor ensembles I could. After the fluke of getting first chair flute in All-State Orchestra, I was so blown away by the experience I decided to be a music major in college. Specifically, Music Composition.

I’d been composing music my entire life. I have crayon-scribbled booklets notating tunes for toy instruments and tapes of Mom recording me singing semi-adlibbed original (and very very horrible!!!!) songs as a four year old. My piano teachers encouraged and taught me composition, and starting in third grade, my dad introduced me to MIDI sequencing and music notation programs so I could compose multi-track pieces digitally.

Music Composition wasn’t my only college major, but it was the most time-consuming. Due to limited ensemble opportunities on flute, I switched to viola for orchestra (and sounded terrible XD) and played in Japanese Ensemble on taiko, shamisen, and shinobue. When I traveled to Cambodia in 2012 for a study abroad, I came back with a tro, tro ou, and several khloy. But mainly, I worked on writing Contemporary Classical Music for ensembles, periodically performed by myself or my peers.

The music composition program grew me tons, but after undergrad, I was burned out. My musical ideals didn’t match the program’s values, and I had gone on to pursue a Masters and PhD in Linguistics, leaving me little time to do music. After quitting the PhD, I was busy trying to stabilize work life. I did a few short (usually incomplete) projects composing music for amateur video games, and my musical instrument collection kept growing (ocarina, khene, shakuhachi, ukulele, guitar, fiddle...). But it wasn’t until two years ago (2019) that I jumped back to doing music consistently.

Life is a **TON** better now that music is back in my life! I can talk later about the journey of why country music resonated with me after a background in classical music. But regardless! I found banjo, or banjo found me, and that’s what I’ve been doing ever since!

#thatbanjobusiness #that banjo business #General Banjo Business #blabbing Haddock #I'll write a companion post that's more like a testimonial for how bluegrass music impacted me

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dailytomlinson · 4 years

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In the spring of 2012, I spent a few entertaining days hanging out with the five young members of a British boy band who were just breaking big in the United States. The guys from One Direction were unjaded, unguarded, totally charming, and a puppy pile of optimism and energy. On April 8th, in a New York City hotel room, Harry Styles and Niall Horan, both 18, sat down with me for a joint interview, published here for the first time. (The reporting was intended for a Rolling Stone cover story that never ran.)

What did you do at the gym last night? Harry: One of our security guys, his friend’s over, he’s a personal trainer, so I was working with him, and he ripped me to shreds.

Have you seen whole episodes of it?

Harry: I’ve watched a lot of clips on YouTube. They don’t show it in the U.K.

Growing up, when did you realize you could sing or that you wanted to sing?Harry: I sang in primary school, like the school productions, plays and stuff.

What was your first one? Harry: The first one was … I was five, and there was a story about a mouse who lived in a church, and I was Barney, the mouse. I had to wear my sister’s tights, and a headband with ears on it, and I had to sing a song all by myself. I remember it was just like, whatever.… In the second, I was Buzz Lightyear in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. So you know when they run and hide in the toy shop? Buzz Lightyear was in the toy shop, so they just created my character. The last one, I was in … you know Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat? I was the pharaoh, but I was an Elvis pharaoh.

Did you have a sense that this is what you wanted to do in your life? Harry: I think in school I was OK, I wasn’t a bad student. I think I just knew I wanted to entertain people and stuff. I was a bit of an attention-seeker at school.

Niall: Me, too. I just talked too much, sang too much.

What did you sing? Harry: We sang “Are You Gonna Be My Girl” by Jet, and “Summer of ’69.” We did it more towards the Bowling For Soup version.

Harry: [helpfully translating] Soccer.

Who told you? Niall: My French teacher. We used to do talent shows and stuff at school, she was like, “You should do it,” so I did it.

Harry: I had to wait a little bit, I think.

Harry: They film it.

Niall: In England, it’s the biggest thing ever. It took a while to build.

Harry: The two or three years were steady, and third or fourth, it just blew up.

Niall: It works that one in three people in the UK watch it. There’s 60 million people in the UK, and 21 million people watched the final the year we were in it.

Harry, your band also played at least one wedding right? Harry: Yeah. We actually said that we’d do the wedding gig, and…

Niall: You get paid for it?

Niall: Can you imagine you’re at a wedding and you have 16-year-old kids up on the stage?

Maybe you were really good! Harry: Yeah, the drummer is one of my best friends from school, he’s a sick drummer, he’s so good.

What do your parents do? Harry: My mum is a PA. My dad is a financial adviser.

How about you? Niall: My dad works at a supermarket, he’s the head manager, general manager of an area, not just one, and my mum is unemployed now, so I try to help them out whenever I can.

You probably can. That must be nice. Niall: Yeah, it’s nice, it’s good.

Plus, now you can tell them what to do. Harry: [laughs] “Now you go to bed.”

Niall: I never went through that.

Harry: Not stupid heavy, but a bit… just because I thought it was cool.

Like what? Harry: Like Nirvana T-shirts, wore black all the time, pretty much.

Did you both grow up in your moms’ houses? Harry: Yeah.

People say you come off as more mature than your age, you come off wiser. Did hanging around all those people as a kid help you mature?

So you grew up on Elvis and the Stones? Harry: Yeah, pretty much. My dad was a massive Stones fan, so it was pretty much Beatles and Stones in terms of what my dad played.

People say you kind of look like Mick.

Niall: He gets that a lot.

Harry: I get it more here, probably, than I do at home. It’s because of the British thing.

Harry: We’re living on our own now.

Niall: We just started living on our own in the last six months, really.

Harry: I’m moving when I get back.

Do you want to act? It feels like you could have your own TV show. Harry: I think it would be more of a documentary, because obviously, we’re not actors.

People must want you to try. Niall: Watch tonight, tell us what you think. Watch SNL.

Will you all make solo albums? Is that inevitable? Harry: No, I don’t think so.

Niall: Let’s do a swing album!

Niall: If there was eight days, we’d fit it in.

Harry: It’s not as completely glamorous all the time, of course it’s not, it would be stupid to think that it would be, but it’s hard work.

In any case, it’s probably better than the bakery. Harry: Yeah. But I don’t get a nice bun on my break anymore, that’s the thing.

Did you wear an apron? Harry: Oh yeah, I wore a white polo shirt and a maroon apron with white stripes. “What would you like? 78 pence, thank you very much.”

Were you behind the counter? Harry: Yeah, I was behind the counter. It was good. It was Saturday morning, I started at five and finished at four in the afternoon and got like 30 quid, it was a joke.

Niall, did you have a job? Niall: No, never.

So this is your first job. Niall: Yeah, not bad at all. I was chilling, I was being a kid.

Harry: I had a paper route before that. It gave me a bad back, bad posture. It was a heavy bag.

Ringo would say, “It’s just me face.” Niall: “Who’s that little old man?” [quoting Hard Day’s Night]

Harry: “That’s Paul’s grandfather. He’s very clean.”

Sometimes you can drift off, that’s just your thing. Harry: [laughs] I’m just soulful, man, I try.

Harry, do you mind when you’re singled out for attention? Harry: I don’t know. I don’t really…I don’t know. We’re a band. Everything we do is together. I don’t take much notice of it.

So you’re not the Justin. Harry: No.

Niall: J.C. was popular, too, wasn’t he?

It’s not like that for you guys. Harry: Not at all.

There was an imbalance in that group. Harry: I think we find it important that people get to know all of our individual personalities, because…

Harry: We all know that we all have our roles, and we all know that without one of us, it wouldn’t work.

#brian hiatt #rolling stone #harry styles #niall horan #press #230720 #10years1d

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cultofbeatles · 5 years

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beginners guide to the beatles

made one of these a long time ago but i'm surprised by how short it was. so here we go again. doing it right this time lol.

pov: you told a bad joke and now the beatles are judging you.

john winston lennon. later in his life known as john winston ono lennon.

born on october 9, 1940

i believe in astrology bc how does john just happen to be a libra

when john was four he started living with his aunt mimi who acted more as his mother figure

his mother, julia, remarried and would visit him quite a bit.

it was julia who taught john how to play banjo and piano. and she bought his first guitar.

they both had a deep love for music and rock n roll

he never really thought of her as his mother but more as a cool friend i suppose

aunt mimi was more rough on him and did the disciplining

his father was never really present growing up and his uncle passed away when he was young

he thought he was a curse for the men in his family

he had five half siblings. two of them, julia and jacqueline, he was pretty close to. the other three he barely knew.

fashion icon.

hated school but loved art

very early on he was insecure with himself

teachers always shit on him and said he would go nowhere in life

he met paul at a church fete on july 6, 1957

paul taught him how to play guitar properly.

once told paul that he didnt know how paul carried on after his mother died bc he just didn't think he could do it

john’s mother died from being hit by an off duty policemen. john was seventeen at the time.

he took her death really hard and became a bit of a recluse.

first serious relationship was with cynthia (we stan her)

once cynthia cut her hair short and he didn't talk to her for two days.

hate men. kill all men.

when he asked her to dance at a party she turned him down saying that she was engaged, and so he said “well i didn't ask you to fucking marry me, did i?”

slapped her once bc he was drunk and another boy was talking to her.

only time her hit her.

read cynthia’s books about john pls. i beg.

once a psychic told him that he would be shot in the states.

founder of the beatles and also came up with the name.

instruments he could play: guitar, harmonica, rhythm guitar, banjo, keyboard, piano, saxophone, bass guitar, and a little drums.

main songwriter in the beatles along with paul.

was more open minded to change in the beatles music.

was insecure in his relationship with paul after a while bc he thought he only needed him for songwriting.

would bitch about paul all day long but the second anyone else said something about him he’d be on their ass.

had a lot of issues and needed a good hug.

suffered from eating disorders, drug addictions, depression, insecurities, and questioned his sexuality bc of the time.

was super open minded and ahead of his time in many instances.

once he was called “the fat beatle” and after that he stopped eating as much.

truly loved his first son, julian lennon, and would buy him presents all the time bc he was excited to see him play with them.

“your famous ex husband”

he enjoyed playing monopoly.

he once claimed that he saw a ufo.

he had written three books but he always wanted to write a children's book.

the last song he ever performed in front of a live audience was “i saw her standing there.” with elton john.

he was afraid of the dark.

found out later in his life that he was dyslexic.

was also legally blind without glasses.

never could catch a break huh.

said that his best lyric ever was “all you need is love” i agree.

the first time yoko and john met was not at her art exhibit but actually when she approached him about giving away songs for free.

wanted to write a musical with paul.

once a friend dared him to masturbate ten times in one day and he managed to do it nine times.

would hold circle jerks with paul and a few other friends.

just dudes being dudes.

went on a holiday with brian epstein, who was gay, and told some people afterward that they did certain sexual things. but we will never know for sure.

yoko says that john was bisexual.

once in an interview he said that he would of married a rich man or woman if he wasn't in the beatles.

hated his voice on records. would always ask for effects on his voice for final recordings.

made a film with yoko where it was just his penis going from flaccid to erect for fifteen minutes in slow motion.

only beatle not to of become a vegetarian while he was alive.

murdered on december 8, 1980.

gave his autograph earlier in the day to the man who would murder him.

died at the age of 40.

“all my loving” was played while he was at the hospital.

and its spooky bc a lot of times in interviews he would say “when i'm 40..”

and it’s sad bc he was finally becoming who he truly wanted to be.

honorable john moments that i love:

“thanks for the purpler hearts” he says while receiving the silver heart

“you are the first person from liverpool that i've ever seen” “great”

eric lennon on my mind today

this come together performance where he messed up the lyrics lol

that interview where paul was sick and john keep checking on him

john lennon speaking nothing but facts

when he said that he could see the beatles going separate ways but that they'd always come back together.

SHUT UP

“shut up while he’s talking..”

this interview breaks my heart sometimes

and this interview is great as well

sir james paul mccartney

born on june 18, 1942

if you ever have spare time just check out this man’s natal chart.

idk how he’s still alive with his chart tbh.

he has a younger brother named mike and a step sister named ruth.

his dad thought he was the ugliest baby he’d ever seen when he was born.

when he was young paul would kill frogs in a way to prepare himself for the war if he ever was drafted.

the first instrument he ever learned to play was the trumpet.

I don't even want to list every instrument this man can play but trust me when I say it’s a lot.

but for the beatles he mainly did bass, vocals, and piano. sometimes playing the guitar and the drums.

the beatles was just paul moving really, really fast.

he lost his mother when he was 14 due to surgery for breast cancer.

never really learned how to cope well with loss of a loved one tbh.

had the cutest chubby cheeks as a kid tbh

met john and was accepted into his band

sometimes they'd ditch school together and either work on music or would visit art galleries.

went to paris with john and john bought him all the banana milkshakes that he wanted.

connected over their love and admiration for music, and bc they had both lost their mothers.

had a girlfriend’s mom who he would make comb his leg hairs.

was an ass to his first girlfriend.

kill all men again.

almost had to marry his girlfriend dot bc she was pregnant, but she ended up losing the baby.

was the one who introduced george harrison to john.

practically despised pete best and stuart stutcliffe bc they were bringing the group down.

got arrested along with pete best bc they lit a condom on fire in hamburg.

still felt awful and a little guilty when stuart died suddenly.

main force behind the beatles imo.

without him we’d have not as much beatles music as we do.

was dating jane asher throughout majority of the sixties.

when they first met they talked about syrup and paul fell in love.

they broke things off after she walked in on him sleeping with another woman though.

directed magical mystery tour and it was amazing and I don't care what anyone says ok?

when john divorced cynthia he was the only one not scared of john and went against his wishes of not speaking to cynthia.

was a little controlling at times.

has a good heart though.

mal evans had to drive him home once after a beatles sessions bc he was crying so hard.

was talking about getting the band back to touring when john said he was leaving the group.

everyone kind of turned against him when the beatles were breaking up and i hate it.

he just wanted what was best for the band.

married linda and had a nice little farm.

we love that story.

linda i'm free thursday if you want to hang out pls.

started up the whole “no meat monday” thing where you don't eat monday on mondays

food meat. not the other kind of meat.

children: james mccartney, stella mccartney, heather mccartney, mary mccartney, and beatrice mccartney.

rip martha.

WINGS!!

he lost linda in 1998 due to cancer.

cried for a whole year bc of it.

still has dreams about john and says they're nice.

wrote a sad song about john called “here today.”

really loved john. like..he truly, genuinely did.

want someone to love me like paul does john.

“think of me every now and then old friend.”

honorable paul moments:

his story about george’s dad

“john? he was beautiful. very beautiful.”

humpty dumpty rap

another story about him and george.

his google search video that I watch every week

this

george harrison

born: February 24, 1943

or at least we think

bc he use to say that his birthday was february 25, but later started saying it february 24.

why can't we change our birthdays its not like we picked it

he was the youngest child.

baby of the family and of the beatles awwww

two older brothers named harry and peter. one older sister named louise.

when george’s mom was pregnant with him she’d play sitar music.

his mom was super supportive of his career choice

when he was 16 he worked as an electricians apprentice.

his dad kind of hoped he would start a family business out of it.

george said nah

would ride the bus opposite way of his house just to spend time with paul

headbutted a kid bc he didn't think they were worthy of paul’s friendship

was brought into the band bc of paul insisting to john

would follow john around like a lost puppy when he first met him

once had an eight hour erection. don't ask me how idk he said it.

was 17 when he lost his virginity and the other band members were in the room watching and cheered him when he finished

most sex craved beatle tbh

once walked into a girls dressing room and asked if they could stand there so he could masturbate

he was the first beatle to go to america

got a black eye for defending ringo once

would make john and paul take turns sharing rooms with ringo when he first joined the band so that he felt more welcomed

when ringo left during the white album and then came back george decorated the studio with flowers for him

during the beatles first recording session he told george martin that he didn't like his tie

became a vegetarian at 22

favorite candy was jelly beans and purple was his favorite color

used the phrase “grotty” in the hard days night movie, hated it, but everyone else picked up on the slang

met his first wife, pattie boyd, on the set of a hard days night

was turned down by her at first

they married in 1966

wouldn't let her do modeling stuff and was kind of an ass

a stylish couple but not the best image for a healthy relationship

got into eastern religion around 1965

during the Hamburg days he would eat chicken on stage

had an affair with ringo’s first wife maureen

got a divorce from pattie in 1977

in 1978 he married olivia who he stayed with until his death and had one son with. dhani.

was the first beatle to hit a number one single and album.

was buddies with led zeppelin

inspired their “rain song”

smashed a piece of cake on john bonham’s head and then was thrown into the pool by him

he financed and produced films. had a production company.

tom petty said that george never shut up once you started talking to him

but he was often referred to as “the quiet beatle”

formed another band called the traveling wilburys

he’d answer questions online in the 2000′s and it’s the cutest thing ever and his answers break my heart too.

“what do you miss most about john lennon?” “john lennon.”

in 1999 a schizophrenic person broke into his house and stabbed him 40 times

thank god olivia was there bc she was the only braincell in the room

had to get a part of his lung taken out

died november 29, 2001 from lung cancer

ashes were scattered into the ganges river

honorable george moments:

this interview he did with ringo

“i'm sad bc i can't play guitars with john anymore. but i did that...i know we’ll meet again some day.”

when he invented reaction videos

“the wind was blowing.” “..blowing my girl?”

“what kind of girl do you like?” “john’s wife.”

sir richard starkey aka ringo starr

born on july 7, 1940

oldest member in the group

has no siblings

naturally was left handed but his grandma thought it was bad luck so he writes right handed, and plays drums with a right handed kit

but does everything else left handed

when he was 6 he fell into a two month coma

was a very sick child

when he was 13 he was in the hosiptal for tuberculosis and formed a hospital band

grew up poor

loves and looked up to his stepfather a lot

his step father bought him his first drum kit in 1957

wasn't that great in school bc he missed so much of it from being so sick

he worked for a britain railway for a while

also served drinks on a day boat for a job

loves dancing

Rory storm and the hurricanes

got his nickname from all the rings he would wear

replaced pete best as the beatles drummer

dealt with people hating him for a bit bc they liked pete more

had to style his hair in a bowl cut to be in the band and i'm still mad at them for making him do that shit

ringo i'm so sorry

george martin didn't really like his drumming and had a session drummer come in for the first album

in 1964 he had tonsillitis, pharyngitis, and high fever all at once and had to be in the hospital for a bit.

was worried the beatles would replace him for good

he’s a cancer don't worry

was the first beatle to try weed

drummers always go first huh

married his first wife, maureen, in 1965

she kissed paul, ringo, and george.

what a champ

honeymoon was ruined by reporters

was really insecure in his relationship and needed a lot of reassurance

had a great relationship with pretty much all the beatles

but a great one with john

john felt his most relaxed when he was with ringo

was once in a movie with roger daltrey

divorced maureen in 1975

his wife now is barbara bach who he married in 1981

had alcohol problems

once gotten so drunk that he beat barbara so badly that he thought he killed her

put himself into rehab after that

barbara lowkey looks like jan from the office

children: zak, lee, and jason

zak is the drummer for the band the who

peace and love

but don't send me fan mail anymore

peace and love

ringo starr and the allstar band (starting 1981)

was the narrator for thomas the tank engine

will play at paul’s concerts sometimes now for fun

mad bc he came on stage during paul’s last concert show and it was on my birthday and I couldn't go to it

honorable ringo moments:

“do you want me to come with you?”

stupid barbara walters

talking about paul

giving us a little dance

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mamaskillerqueen · 4 years

Note

Maybe an imagine with Ben where the reader's brother teaches him gow to play the drums for BoRhap and the reader is at her brothers house and Ben kinda falls head over heels for her but thinks that she's actually the girlfriend and not the sister? 🙊

A/N: Okay, so I have a big brother who is my literal best friend. We’ve been through a lot and so we’re pretty tight. Unfortunately, our ages are pretty close together and we don’t look much alike, so this has been an actual problem on several occasions. This was so fun to write, I hope you enjoy it!

“Are you for real right now?!”

“Oh come on!”

A knock on the door pulled your brother from your shared rant about the video game you were both currently playing. He had moved into this new place two months ago and was a bit further away than you were used to.

Growing up, even through all the sibling abuse, you were both really close. Not having him close by to chat to when your life was in shambles was a struggle. He always gave the best advice and so you often found your self crashing on his couch on weekends.

As he got up to answer the door, expecting someone for some drumming lessons, you switched the game to single player. He was always higher ranked than you and it left him better off. This weekend you had been determined to catch up.

“Y/N, we’ll be over here with the drums. Do you mind checking on the coffee then?”

Your brother was probably the biggest enabler of your coffee addiction and almost always had a fresh pot brewing. After the ridiculously late night of travelling here, coffee was just what you needed this morning. Quick to make sure you weren’t going to be loading into a match, you jumped up from your seat to bounce into the kitchen.

“You got it!”

When you rounded the corner of the couch though you came face to face with a set of gorgeous green eyes. He offered a slight smile and you couldn’t help but return it.

“Would you like some coffee too?”

Always the hostess, as your brother was horrible at it. When the blond beginning drummer nodded his head you headed towards the kitchen to fetch some coffee.

Why your brother thought the dinning room was a great place for his drum kit, you’d never know. But when you had three mugs filled with the delicious beverage you headed into the room. The men were talking animatedly about music and you didn’t want to interrupt.

“Ben, right?”

The man turned, his cheeks a bit flushed, probably from passionately discussing music. With a smile you handed off his coffee.

“Sorry, I didn’t know how you liked it. I left everything on the counter in the kitchen though.”

“Thank you.”

You handed off your brothers coffee and with a quiet ‘I’ll leave you to it’, you went back to the game.

You could feel eyes on you but you decided to ignore it as you slipped the headset back on and continued on your mission of levelling up.

Ben’s POV

Roger. Fucking Taylor.

He just landed the role of Roger Taylor. Without knowing how to play the drums. Panic was quick to set in after the initial elation. He enlisted the help of a few of his friends and tracked down a reputable player who was willing to teach.

Excitement and anxiety was expected, and was exactly how he felt the whole way to his new teacher’s house. He knew music, played the guitar and often himself writing songs without much thought. Drums were intimidating though. One small mess up on the drums and the timing of the whole song is off.

What he didn’t expect was his teacher’s girlfriend to be there, or for her to be so damn beautiful. It had definitely taken him off guard and he was hoping that he wasn’t too obvious in his checking her out. This was the role of a lifetime and he couldn’t mess it up because he found some girl attractive.

When she left to make coffee, it was easier to get sucked up in the conversation of music. It had been years of learning the structure of songs and passion behind writing lyrics but he’d never had anyone to discuss it with. Having the chance to was incredible and he almost completely forgot about the girl his teacher called Y/N.

And then she handed him coffee. There was something about her eyes that pulled him in, something he felt like he couldn’t resist. He wouldn’t make a move, that would be horrible but, it didn’t make the pull any weaker. Her walking away was probably the best thing to happen since he stepped in the door.

The rest of the lesson went on without an incident, his mind filling with notes and tempos and pacing. He didn’t have time to think about her, or the fact that she was just in the other room. It wasn’t until the lesson was over that he was forced to come face to face with her again.

Y/N’s POV

You were more than thankful for the noise cancelling headset but even with them on, and the gaming running, you couldn’t quite help but get sucked into the lesson happening behind you. No matter how much you were going pretend like it wasn’t the case, you were definitely interested in this actor that was suddenly taken with drumming.

In the midst of trying to pay as much attention to the task at hand in game, you felt something hit you in the head.

“Hey bitch, c’mere!”

You pulled the headset off your head, glaring at your brother who had a huge grin on his face. Mischief written all over his face made you skeptical as you rose from the chair you were in.

“What do you want, jerk?”

“Hang out with Ben while I run upstairs real quick.”

With a roll of your eyes you leaned against the dining table, motioning towards the stairs so your brother would go do whatever it was he needed to. When your eyes landed on Ben you noticed the wide eyed look he had and almost laughed. You could only imagine what was happening in his head. Your brother disappeared, taking the steps two at a time.

“How’d the first lesson go?”

A casual tone was what you were going for but you honestly weren’t sure if that was even close to what it sounded like. Lucky for you, Ben didn’t seem to notice. His eyes blinked a few times pretty quickly, like he was pulling himself from an inner monologue.

“It was good, really good. Learned a lot. Thank you for letting me come into your home and practice.”

“Oh, this isn’t my home. So, you know, you’re welcome anytime.”

His brow pulled together for a split second but then he chuckled along with you. Having experienced this situation more than once you finally caught on to what was clearly happening.

“I’m just visiting for a few days. Haven’t my jerkface of a brother in a few weeks so, you know, had to come pester him. Little sister duty and all.”

“Sister?”

He clearly didn’t mean to say that out loud but you couldn’t help but laugh again as you nodded your head.

“Sister.”

“Huh.”

He was quite for a while, far longer than you were comfortable with. The silence stretched on and made you shift your weight against the table you were leaning against, your arms crossing over your chest. His eyes were unfocused, like he was lost in thought and so you just awkwardly looked around the room.

What the hell was your brother even doing?

“So, as the sister, I’d still be able to get lessons if I asked you out on a date?”

Your head snapped up from the spot on the floor that had become incredibly interesting.

“I’m sorry?”

“You don’t think he’d make me find another teacher if I asked you out on a date?”

It took a moment and then a smile quickly took over your face, maybe you had read the whole situation correctly afterall.

“No, he definitely wouldn’t make you find another teacher. As little sister, I’d just got tell mum.”

This got you a laugh, one so melodious you were sure it could be the perfect hit single. Top of the charts. The only thing to beat it was when he actually asked a moment later. It wasn’t until all the details were figured out, and phone numbers were exchanged that your brother finally made an appearance. It was almost like he was just sitting at the top of the steps waiting.

He handed over a pair of drumsticks to Ben, siting that they were far superior to any other. You suspected he was lying, but you didn’t say anything other than a goodbye to Ben. When the door clicked behind his exit you turned to your brother with a raised brow and a shake of your head.

“You are such an idiot.”

“Hey now, I just got you a date! Shut it.”

#ben hardy x reader #ben hardy imagine #ben hardy fanfiction #ben hardy fluff #banana writes #banana answers #xstrangesoundsx

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jaskierswolf · 4 years

Text

You Set My Heart Ablaze Pt.10/25

The flat was filled with the melodic sounds of sitar strings, or more accurately, the screeching sounds of sitar strings.

Jaskier still hadn’t gotten the hang of his new baby.

It was a truly beautiful instrument but completely different to his usual stringed instruments. The long neck of the sitar had way more pegs than he used to and he just couldn’t get it to sing like he wanted. He was struggling to play with the microtones that the sitar music was famous for. He would probably have to see if he could find a teacher to help him. That wasn’t going to be easy.

He gently put the instrument back in its case and sat down at his piano instead. His flat wasn’t really big enough to house his baby grand piano but he just hadn’t been able to leave the beautiful instrument behind in the shop. It had called out to him like a siren and he’d been helpless to resist its call.

Of course, he’d probably be able to afford a bigger flat if he managed to stop buying instruments.

He laughed. “But where’s the fun in that?”

His fingers idly pressed the keys without him putting much effort in. He closed his eyes and let the music free from his heart.

School was starting back the next day and he’d been up almost all weekend trying to finish up his lesson plans. He hadn’t meant to leave it to the last minute but time had just gotten away from him and suddenly it was Saturday and he’d not done any work. Luckily coffee and cat naps were his bestest friends in the whole wide world and he’d finally managed to get it all done. Just in time to enjoy his last evening before the kids took over his life once more. His kids were amazing but full of energy and it took a lot out of him to be so switched on all day long. He’d already drafted his email to the parents to send out on Friday evening based on his lesson plans for the week, but he still had Geralt’s left to write.

Not that Geralt received any special treatment or anything.

It was just that he needed to be mindful of Ciri’s special circumstances.

Or at least that was the lie he’d told himself all term.

But at least he still personalised each of the emails a little before sending them out!

And so what he he wrote Geralt handwritten letters more frequently than the other parents.

It wasn’t a crime.

The only crime was Geralt’s ass.

It was to die for.

He groaned and shook his head to try and clear out the thoughts of his love, his fingers slipping on the keys of the piano, but there was really nothing he could do to stop the barrage of Geralt thoughts. Since parents’ evening he’d developed a blooming friendship with Geralt and it was making him feel all sorts of things that he really shouldn’t be feeling if he wanted to keep his job.

They had managed to meet up a few of times over the last half of the school term to discuss Ciri’s progress at school, although Jaskier could count on one hand how many times Ciri’s classwork had actually come up in conversation. Jaskier could never resist flirting with the firefighter which Geralt took in his stride. Although Jaskier wasn’t entirely certain that Geralt even realised he was flirting.

Jaskier was ninety-five percent sure that Geralt was interested in men, and in him specifically. He’d never explicitly said it and there was nothing about their meetings that really screamed anything more than friendship, but every so often Geralt would seemingly flirt back and it floored Jaskier every single time. How was he supposed to handle that? This tall muscular amber-eyed God was actually paying him attention. The small smiles that Geralt gave him made his heart sing, and to the gods when Geralt laughed, he felt his insides turn to mush. Geralt was usually happy to let Jaskier hold most of the conversation, talking about his new instrumental conquests, books he was reading, the beautiful birds he’d seen on the walk to work, but the white-hair man was beginning to open up.

Jaskier had learnt more about Roach, who he’d mistaken for a large dog in Ciri’s drawing. He had, of course teased Geralt over his choice of name but that hadn’t lasted long when Geralt had turned the table on him and asked what Jaskier would call a horse and the only name he could think of was Greg. Geralt offered up a little information about his teammates but notably avoided talking about his childhood. Jaskier couldn’t blame him for that. He had avoided that topic himself.

He knew that Geralt struggled to find time to cook but always made an effort to cook something from scratch with Ciri’s help at least once a week. Their favourite thing to make was pizza, it was also their favourite take-away. He’d learnt that Geralt tended not to watch much tv unless it was with Ciri and the man could tell you far too much about Ciri’s favourite cartoons, which explained his Apple Jack lunchbox. Geralt preferred to read in his free time instead, normally fantasy books, anything with a dragon in. Geralt’s favourite colour was blue which Jaskier adored. He could pretend that the reason was because his eyes were blue. He had filed that information away to fuel several romantic daydreams which ended in a summer wedding.

His fingers began to dance over the keys in a previously unheard melody.

It was beautiful.

“Ah fuck!” He cursed and scrambled to find manuscript paper as he pushed his glasses up his nose.

It was buried in between his lute and his computer. There was barely a spare page in the notebook but he managed to find one in the middle. Once he’d got the melody captured he would copy it over into a fresher, more organised book that held his complete compositions.

He closed his eyes again as he tried to remember precisely what he’d played before but it was missing something. The chords weren’t quite right and it left the piece sounding almost empty and dead.

“Bollocks!”

The moment had passed and his muse had left him.

He pulled out his phone and scrolled through his recents calls until he found the number he wanted. The phone rang twice before the sweet dulcet tones of his younger cousin sounded in his ears.

“What do you want?” Essi asked wearily.

“Lovely to speak to you too.” Jaskier shot back.

Essi sighed. “I’m working, Dandelion.”

“This late?” He double checked the clock. It was almost nine in the evening but then again she was a professional singer. If she had a gig then it was likely to be later on in the day, and now that he paid more attention he could hear the sounds of a bar in the background of the call.

“Not all of us work nine til five, Dandy.” The old nickname slipped out.

“Essi!” He groaned. “I stopped calling myself Dandelion years ago”

“Says the man that realised an album last spring under the alias of Dandelion.”

“It’s a stage name.” He pouted before he remembered she couldn’t see him.

He heard someone calling her name in the background and she yelled back. He winced as the shout hurt his ears. “I gotta go, did you need something?”

He sighed as he ran his fingers over the keys of his piano without making a sound. He could still hear the notes in his head as he desperately tried to recall the tune he had played before. “I just lost another composition to the cruel winds of time.”

“Who were you thinking about?” She asked and he could picture her easily. One hand on her hip, guitar case slung around her shoulder, long blonde hair falling in front of one of her cornflour blue eyes, eyes they had both inherited from their shared grandfather.

He frowned as he considered her question. “Who said I was thinking about anyone?”

She laughed before shouting again at whoever was trying to get her attention. Jaskier held the phone away from his ear this time. Essi really did have a set of lungs on her. “Dearest cousin. Your first album was all about your failed relationship with Pris. The second album was your failed relationship with Stella, and Valdo’s betrayal by stealing away your true love.”

“Wow. Geez. Thanks Essi. You really know how to build a man up.”

“So what failed relationship is it this time?”

“There is no relationship.” He spat back through gritted teeth, wondering why he even bothered with his cousin sometimes. In many ways she was like his little sister and she never hesitated in telling him exactly what she thought of him.

“Sure, sure. That’s why it’s failed. Look I really have to go. They need me on stage. Don’t be a stranger Dandelion!”

The phone line cut off and Jaskier stared at the phone in his hands.

“Oh cock!” He cursed as he realised she was completely right.

He’d been thinking about Geralt.

He closed the lid of the piano with more force than necessary and moved to sit back down on the sofa. He hadn’t meant to think about Geralt. He’d just been thinking about the work he needed to do for school and his thoughts had drifted to his infatuation on their own accord.

As if reading his thoughts, his phone buzzed signalling he had an email.

From Geralt.

“Oh no. No no no. Can’t do this right now.” He moaned and put his head in his hands, knocking his glasses half off his face. “Can’t I have a moment in peace?!” He asked the ceiling.

It was Sunday. He didn’t have to worry about what to say to Geralt until Friday. That was the rules… unless they had a catch up about Ciri but they hadn’t organised another meeting yet. Yes he missed Geralt desperately but he was aware that that was borderline clingy and he didn’t want to scare the man off, and yet here he was emailing Jaskier out of the blue.

It was probably about the present he’d bought Geralt. It wasn’t much, just a voucher for one of the outdoor activity shops in town and a poem he’d written about Roach.

It was terrible.

He hated it.

“Oh fuck off.” Jaskier groaned at his own thoughts and clicked on the email.

Jaskier,

Sorry for bothering you. I know you’re busy.

I wanted to say thank you for my present. I read Roach the poem. She was very impressed.

Jaskier grabbed a pillow from his sofa and hugged it tightly as he continued to read, feeling very proud of himself.

I am sorry I didn’t think to get you anything from me but hopefully you liked Ciri’s gift.

He had. Ciri had bought him a brand new travel mug. It was covered in music notes just like his mug from the staffroom at school. There had also been a little photo of Roach tucked into the card because Jaskier hadn’t stopped asking Geralt about her.

I need to ask you something. It would probably be better in person or over the phone. I’m not good at emails.

- Geralt.

Jaskier re read the last paragraph twice before hitting the reply button.

He sent Geralt his number before he could change his mind and then threw his phone onto the sofa. The phone barely managed to bounce on the cushions before it started ringing and Jaskier lunged to pick it up.

He clicked to accept the call and all at once he felt lighter than he had in weeks.

“Geralt!” He cried happily. “Hi!”

“Jaskier.” Geralt’s gruff voice answered. Jaskier felt like he’d turned to goo. The way Geralt said his name never failed to make him feel weak at the knees.

Pull yourself together Jaskier! He chided at himself.

“So, my dear, what was it that you wanted to ask me?” He kept his voice light like his fingers on his lute strings, not betraying the way his heart thundered in his chest.

Geralt grunted on the other end of the line and Jaskier rolled his eyes and smiled. How was it that he even missed Geralt’s ineloquent grunts?

“It’s not a stupid question, Geralt.” He replied. “If you don’t know something then you should ask.”

“I’m not one of your kids, Jaskier.” Geralt huffed.

He laughed at that and put the phone on speaker. His fingers were itching to move and he was getting restless not being able to play whilst holding the phone.

“Yes yes. I know that.” He hummed as he let his fingers trail across the many different instrument cases that were stacked up against the wall. They landed on his lute, an instrument long forgotten to many but one that remained so dear to him. He’d originally started to play the lute because it was different and he liked to stand out. Every musician in the folk scene played guitar or violin or piano.

He didn’t want to be like every other musician.

He wanted to be the best.

So he’d pick up the lute and never looked back. It was an expensive and delicate instrument so he tended not to bring it into school that often but he often found himself playing it at home.

It was also a reminder as to why he’d begun teaching full time. At first he’d only taught guitar and piano whilst he was at university in Oxenfurt to help finance his music career and pay for his rent after he had had a disagreement with his parents. The lute was the first instrument he’d bought for himself after the argument, to celebrate having enough students to finally make it through the month without begging his friends for cash and managing to save for the first time.

Soon after he realised how much he really enjoyed teaching and after graduating with a degree in music, he went on to study teaching. He’d worked as a teaching assistant in Oxenfurt before moving to Upper Posada where he finally had his own class, the Buttercups.

“Have you put me on speaker?” Geralt asked.

“Don’t you have sharp ears?” Jaskier teased his friend, he was sure they were friends. “It’s just me here, I just needed my hands.”

“You needed your hands.” Geralt replied and Jaskier could practically hear the smirk in his tone.

“Not like that!” He cried. “Honestly, Geralt, is that really what you think of me?”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You didn’t have to. I just wanted to grab my lute.”

Geralt laughed. “Is that what they call it these days?”

“Geralt Rivia!” Jaskier exclaimed.

Geralt just laughed in response. It was infectious and soon enough Jaskier was laughing along. Once they’d calmed down he began to strum the strings of his beloved instrument gently, fiddling with the pegs to make sure it was in tune.

“Don’t think I didn’t notice you changing the subject, Geralt.” Jaskier spoke softly as Geralt’s laughter faded away.

“Right.”

“Geralt!” He all but whined. “You said you needed to ask me something. Come on! The suspense is killing me.”

Geralt hummed thoughtfully. “Maybe I’ll finally get some peace.”

“Now hang on!” Jaskier gasped in offence. “You rang me!”

“Regretting it already.”

“I’ll hang up!” Jaskier warned.

“No. You won’t.”

Jaskier sighed. “No. I won’t, but honestly Geralt. Is something wrong? Not that I’m not delighted to be talking to you, but…”

“But you’re Ciri’s teacher.” Geralt finished.

“Yes.”

It was a topic that had come up a few times. They weren’t doing anything wrong exactly. The friendship that had sparked up between them came as natural as breathing. They argued as if they’d known each other their whole lives, an easy banter that was unpracticed and yet almost flawless. Jaskier was fighting his attraction to Geralt the whole time, and he was sure the other man was doing the same with him but there was still this cloud looming over them. The line between professional and appropriate behaviour between parent and teacher.

He knew teachers and parents had hooked up before. It was scandalous and often the topic of vicious rumours in the staffroom. If it was reported to the headmaster and proven those teachers got in a lot of trouble, some of them were often asked to resign. Jaskier knew his professional relationship with Stregobor was rocky at best. He couldn’t afford to make a mistake.

But he was falling in love with Geralt, hard and fast.

It had moved beyond infatuation the moment he’d sat in the fire engine and they’d began to talk. The more he learnt about the man, the more he fell in love. Geralt was a complex man. He struggled to express himself and he constantly worried about being a good father to Ciri, but he was kind and loyal to his family. He had a surprisingly quick tongue that never failed to make Jaskier cackle. He wasn’t a pushover either, he was strong-willed and relentless in sticking to his own morals.

His determination to be a good man made Jaskier feel all fuzzy inside.

This strong and handsome man was just a gentle giant, one that could absolutely kill him given the chance, but there was just something about Geralt that made Jaskier trust him.

It was probably those eyes.

He adored Geralt’s eyes.

They were so unusual, like swirling pools of amber brought to life by bright beams of dazzling sunlight.

And that was why it was so important that their calls and meetings had to remain professional.

Without the guise of Ciri or work then their friendship was ruined. Jaskier would fall head over heels in love with Geralt and then…

and then…

He’d have to break it off.

He couldn’t risk it.

Even if there was a chance that Geralt fancied him back.

So he constantly reminded himself that they were friends and managed to frame every meeting or conversation they had as a work based thing. It was imperative that he didn’t forget that.

Friends only, and even then he really should be careful. Tissaia was right. Stregobor was just looking for an excuse to get rid of him and if he was shown to be favouring Geralt ,and in turn Ciri, too much then he might as well start looking for a new job.

He closed his eyes and mentally chastised himself for being a fool.

“So talk to me Geralt.” Jaskier pleaded. “What did you need? Did Ciri say something?”

Geralt just grunted again.

“I told you it’s not stupid.” Jaskier sighed. “It was obviously important to you.”

“It’s for Ciri.” Geralt stated bluntly. All traces of their easy laughter was now gone from his voice.

“Good. I am her teacher, what does she need? Did she say something?” Jaskier’s mind instantly recalled every interaction he’d had with the young ashen-haired girl over the last few days, looking for moments where he might have upset her or said something wrong. He couldn’t think of anything but he could have easily misread the situation.

“We went to Lambert’s for Solstice.” Geralt added.

Jaskier frowned trying to follow Geralt’s train of thought and failing. He stayed silent, waiting for Geralt to find the right words.

“He likes this band and Ciri just started screaming.”

Jaskier felt his heart skip a beat in his chest.

A band.

It wouldn’t be.

It couldn’t be.

Barely anyone even listened to his band. They barely had a thousand views online for their most popular song.

“She swears to the gods it’s you, Jask.” Geralt finished.

Jask.

It wasn’t the first time Geralt had called him that. He hated it. It made his heart do weird things in his chest that was not appropriate when talking to a friend.

He took a page out of Geralt’s book and hummed noncommittally. “Right.”

“And then Lambert pointed out Ciri’s Ukulele teacher is called Priscilla just like Dandelion’s bandmate. I thought it was all just a coincidence, but then I realised, Jaskier, Buttercups.” Geralt added, sounding weary. “Dandelions. All flowers.”

“Ah.”

“Jaskier?”

His fingers stilled on the lute strings. He pressed down with the palm of his hand to dampen the resonating sound. “It’s, well, it’s sort of a hobby?”

“You’re Dandelion?” Geralt stammered.

“Hello?” He tried to joke. “Nice to meet you.”

“Fuck.” Geralt swore loudly. “We all told Ciri she was wrong.”

“And now you’ll have to tell her she was right. That’s embarrassing for you.”

“Shut up, Jaskier.”

Jaskier scowled. “Hey! None of that grumpy firefighter stuff. It’s not my fault you didn’t trust your daughter!”

Geralt growled and hung up the phone.

Jaskier gaped at the blank screen.

“Oh no you don’t!” He rang Geralt straight back and to his surprise, he actually picked up.

“I’m sorry!” Jaskier said before Geralt could say anything. “I didn’t mean that.”

“Hmm.”

“Well. I did mean that’s it not my fault and I don’t know why you’re cross that I have a band, but I shouldn’t have said that about Ciri.” He rambled on.

Geralt still didn’t answer. Jaskier had to check the screen to make sure he was still on the line, quickly putting it back onto speaker. “So I’m sorry. I can explain to her tomorrow at school, about the band. Although, you really should be able to admit your mistakes. I know it’s not always easy.”

“Hold on.” Geralt said and then was a thud. Jaskier assumed that was Geralt putting the phone down. He could hear footsteps and the sound of a door opening. He held his breath whilst Geralt did whatever Geralt needed to do.

He picked his lute back up again and began to play. The notes flowed easily this time, the same tune as before. He grinned and scribbled the notes down onto the coffee stained page of manuscript. He got so caught up in the music he didn’t hear Geralt enter the room on the other side of the line, and this time he wasn’t alone.

“Mr Jaskier?” Ciri sounded exhausted. Geralt had probably just woken her up given the time.

Jaskier blushed and thanked Freya that the young girl couldn’t see him.

Ciri wasn’t supposed to know they’d been talking more outside of school in case she got confused or the wrong idea. Why was Geralt involving her?

Unless the wrong idea… was the right idea?

He swallowed nervously.

“Hello Buttercup!” He put on his best teacher voice, smiling brightly even though she couldn’t see him.

“Dad said you needed to tell me something. That it couldn’t wait.” Ciri asked in a small voice. “Did I do something wrong, Mr Jaskier?”

“Of course not Ciri!” Jaskier reassured her. “Geralt just wanted to ask me about the band your Uncle Lambert likes.”

“In the middle of the night?” Ciri groaned.

“Well…” Jaskier searched for a good explanation.

“It’s not as late for adults.” Geralt suggested.

Which wasn’t entirely true. Jaskier had to be up early for work and he was exhausted from his late night the day before. Geralt would have to up early too to get Ciri to school on time. They both needed to get to bed soon but there wasn’t a better explanation.

“Hmm.” Ciri hummed starting to pick up on some of Geralt’s mannerisms.

“Your father said you thought that Dandelion sounded like me?” Jaskier asked cautiously.

Ciri gasped and squealed excitably. “It sounded exactly like you Mr Jaskier! But everyone else said it was impossible and then Dad said my guitar teacher was called Priscilla and Uncle Lambert said a naughty word and apparently you are Dandelion, which I already knew because I’d already told them it was you and then Dad said a naughty word!”

Jaskier chuckled. “I am, indeed, Dandelion.”

“Of course you are!” Ciri answered completely certain in her assessment.

“But I need you to keep that quiet. Have you told any of your friends yet?” Jaskier asked.

“You have to speak, Ciri, he can’t see you.” Geralt answered softly.

“Nope.”

Jaskier sighed in relief, his band wasn’t exactly child friendly and he didn’t want it getting out that he’d inadvertently taught his whole class how to swear like a sailor. “Can you keep it to yourself, Ciri?”

“Yes, but why?” Ciri asked.

Jaskier ran his hand through his hair as he tried to think of a good way to explain. “Umm….”

“The band is something Mr Jaskier does outside of school. It’s good to keep work and play separate, Princess.” Geralt answered for him.

“Will you still play for us?” Ciri asked.

Jaskier laughed. “Of course I will, Ciri. It wouldn’t be Buttercups without song time!”

Ciri seemed to consider that. “Good. Dara likes it. Everyone else assumes he can’t listen to music but he can. Dara said he can hear it through the vibe…vibe—”

“Vibrations?” Jaskier suggested.

“Vibrations!” Ciri agreed “and he can still understand the words. He likes that you don’t treat him differently.”

Jaskier almost sobbed. That was probably one of the sweetest things his kids had ever said to him.

“I’m tired now. I’m going back to bed. Goodnight Mr Jaskier, Goodnight Dad!” He heard Ciri’s footsteps patter away.

“Fuck me.” Jaskier sighed and Geralt chuckled. “She’s a good kid.”

“The best.” Geralt agreed. “I should go too.”

“No hanging up this time?” Jaskier teased.

Geralt hummed in response.

“Goodnight, Geralt. Sleep well.”

“Night, Jaskier.”

Jaskier hit the end call button, his hands shaking in his lap.

“Fuck me…” He repeated under his breath and rubbed his eyes, smearing his glasses.

Geralt Rivia was going to be the death of him, and he would die happy.

______

#the witcher #geraskier #geraskier fanfiction #geralt of rivia #jaskier pankratz #geralt x jaskier #jaskier x geralt #geralt z rivii #geralt/jaskier #modern au #essi daven #cirilla fiona elen riannon #ciri #dad geralt #fireman!geralt #teacher!jaskier #you set my heart ablaze #wolfie's witcher writing

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mybiasisexo · 4 years

Text

Oh, Brother

Genre: Angst | Fluff | College!au

Pairing: Kai x Reader

Length: 7.5k

Warning: Unfinished | Language | Love Triangle (I know, but hear me out!!)

Summary: You’ve finally started college and are getting the full freshman year teen romcom experience and it’s not as great as you though it would be, but a certain ballerina (ballerino? I googled it and its ballerino in Italian [quote unquote] but in French they are a danseur and im rambling) might be the calmness you’ve been needing...that is until you meet his brother....

Author’s Note: I plan on turning this into a scenario??? Question marks cause idk if I want to turn it into a chaptered fic instead??? Anyways I wrote this back in like 2014 so its kinda dated but it is what it is yall.

MASTERLIST

credit

With the arrival of the bell came the flood.

You got caught in it. Dragged into the depths of the sea that was the main hall. You grunted and fought against the current, as students barged their way past you, slamming roughly against your shoulders as you clutched onto your books for dear life.

It seemed never-ending, it actually felt like you were moving backwards as more and more people rushed, trying in vain to arrive to their next class on time.

You didn’t think that college would be like this.

You thought it would be peaceful and calm, like a pond or a small lake.

Not the damn sea during a hurricane.

It was probably because it was the first day, and everyone was still trying to catch their bearings. Or because this hall was seriously the most used and classes held up to two hundred people. Whatever the reason, you felt a sudden panic attack crawling up your throat like a corpse clawing out of the grave. You knew that very soon you would lose it, and so you began to count in your head to calm yourself down.

“I…2…3…4—” push “—5…6—” shove “—7…..8….9….”

Before you could lose your cool, you broke the surface and felt the cold wind snap deliciously against your damp face. You closed your eyes and sighed with relief as you realized that you had won.

You battled against the human sea and you beat it victoriously.

But could you deal with that every other day?

You shuddered as the thought hit you and decided to ignore it for the meantime. You had to admit, despite that near death journey you had just trekked, your first day as a college student wasn’t as bad as you—and your parents, not to mention your little sister—had imagined. Today was Monday, and on Mondays, you had three classes: English 1102, Math 1143, and Introduction to Art.

You had just left the math department and now had a couple hours to kill before your last class.

You decided to call your best friend, Suho, and see if he had escaped his side of campus.

“Hello?” He answered happily—did he have any other emotion?

“I nearly died just now. This hallway is lethal, I don’t know if I’ll make it.”

“Well, I’m glad you made it out alive. When does your next class start?”

“In two hours. Wanna get lunch?”

“Absolutely, I’m starving. Meet me at the Student Union building?”

“Okay, see you then.” You hung up and tried your hardest to recall just where exactly the Student Union building was located.

Nearly twenty minutes later, you stumbled upon the holy land. You found Suho almost immediately and rushed over to his table.

“What took you so long?” He wondered, munching on a fry.

You plopped down in the seat across from him and let out an exhausted breath, “I forgot how to get here. I had to backtrack like four different times.”

He sighed, “You could have called me, I would have helped you.”

“I’m aware,” you dismissed, stealing a fry from his tray. He frowned, but didn’t do anything to stop you from stealing another one.

“It’s the first day, and I’m already beat,” you muttered after you had returned to the table after leaving him briefly to buy a cold sandwich, a bag of salty chips, and a bottle of green tea.

“And it’s not even over yet,” Suho reminded you with a smile on his face.

“Can you not? I don’t want to think about that just yet.”

“At least it’s art. You can unwind in your last class. My last class is Physics, there is no unwinding in physics.”

“You’re smart, you can literally handle anything.”

He cocked his head to the side and studied you. Once he caught your attention, you stuck your tongue out at him and drained your drink, smacking your lips obnoxiously when you were done.

“it’s a wonder we’re even friends,” he mused aloud around his sandwich.

You shrugged, “you still have time to run.”

He grinned, not missing a beat, “I wouldn’t even dream of it.”

You held out your semi-empty plastic bottle, “I’ll drink to that.”

He chuckled and lifted his own soda can, your drinks clinking exotically together, confirming your status as best friends for life.

Which Suho was. The two of you had known each other since you were five. Your fathers were childhood friends that lost contact after college, but somehow—when the two of you were five—reunited and stuck to each other like glue. Even opening their own music store together. Kim Junmyeon, who was lovingly addressed as Suho, and you grew up at the music store, learning how to play different instruments as well as the ropes to owning a business, and the chemistry between your fathers ultimately rubbed off onto you, causing yet another family-like bond.

“You are taking piano, aren’t you?” You asked him a few minutes later.

His attitude shifted instantly as his smile faltered a tad. It was barely noticeable, but you could read this young man in front of you like a book.

“Junmyeon,” You said warningly, using his real name to show how serious you were.

He sighed, “I want to. I just… so much is already on my plate, and I didn’t want to burden my parents with another credit and…”

“And you just didn’t want to,” You finished for him. You lowered your voice, “I thought you liked music.”

“Of course I do, but that’s something our fathers love. Music is their dream, not ours.”

You pouted. He was right, even you weren’t taking any classes related to music, but you were still planning on practicing the viola on your own time. Music was in your blood, it was just as unavoidable as Suho. You didn’t know what life would be like without it, and quite frankly, you didn’t want a life without it.

Suho adored music more than you did. When his father first taught him how to play the piano, he had to be forcefully removed from the bench. There was nowhere else he would rather be, and as he grew, so did his talent. He was so talented, that he won many competitions, and even wrote compositions for many popular songs heard on the radio today.

He was a prodigy.

You? Well, you just liked to play. You were nowhere near as good as Suho, despite the many things he had told you, and you knew that and was fine with it. For you, it didn’t matter if you won or lost, as long as you got to play. You learned how to play the guitar, clarinet, drums, and even the piano, but nothing called to you like the viola. It was an extension of yourself, and Suho once said that when you played, people could tell you transported into a different realm. You were in your own little universe, and would only return once the piece was finished.

“It can be both, couldn’t it? You play so well…” You could tell Suho felt uncomfortable and would rather not discuss the matter anymore, so you just let your sentence carry. Instead, talking about everything else and nothing for the rest of your time together. “Well, my class is about to start in ten minutes. Luckily, I know where the art building is. I’ve only been going there since I was twelve.”

You tried to laugh, but got nothing out of Suho. His smile still plastered on his face, but his eyes dull as he pulled himself up and collected your trash, throwing it in the trashcan and following you out into the crisp fall air.

The art building was very hard to miss. It was one of the bigger buildings because the college you attended focused mostly on the arts, and was painted a bright blue, while every other building was a tan brick color.

“Paint me something nice, alright?” Suho said once you both stopped outside the doors of the building.

You rolled your eyes, “You know I suck at painting, Su, I’m more of a charcoal person.”

He shrugged, “I still want a painting. Charcoal is so boring.”

You smacked his shoulder, “go. Before I lose my temper.”

He laughed and held his arms up in surrender, “We wouldn’t want that now would we?”

He sauntered away and left you to stare up at the intimidating building. Hesitantly, you pried the glass door open and scuttled into the structure. Noise overwhelmed you. You could hear many people tuning their instruments, and the noise of a teacher counting and the soft thud of footsteps. If you listened harder, you could faintly make out people singing.

It was beautiful.

The cacophony of sound settled around you in a somewhat numbing hum, beckoning you to walk even deeper within the building. Almost all the doors were open and you peered into each one, loving everything that you saw. A chubby boy wailing away on his trombone. A lanky boy with a mop top and a short thick girl with glasses singing a duet. What appeared to be an African dance class. A trio practicing on their violins. A boy twirling about in an empty dance room.

You paused once you glanced inside the dance room. He was doing barrel turns across the room, and when he reached the end, he pirouetted for what seemed like a long time, stopping smoothly with one foot resting in back of him and his arms held out in the perfect stance.

He was breathing hard as he dropped his position and ran his fingers through his dark hair, dragging the strands away from his face, only for them to return. He must have felt your stare, because he suddenly swiveled his head to meet you eyes.

He was gorgeous, to put it simply. He had slightly tan skin and perfectly shaped almond brown eyes and a straight nose, and lips that seemed to be the center of his face. He looked almost ethereal as he attempted to catch his breath and sweat slid alluringly down his lean frame and his eyes remained on you.

“Lost?” He asked. His tone wasn’t mocking, simply curious.

His voice was just as lovely as his features. You shook your head, “Just looking around.”

He walked up to the mirror where a drawstring backpack laid, and pulled a small towel out of it, wrapping it around his neck, “class starts pretty soon, doesn’t it? You might be late,”

“Oh. Yeah, I guess you’re right. It’s so easy to get distracted in this building. There’s so much going on.”

“First day?” He asked with an understanding nod of his head.

You returned the nod with a rushed one of your own, “I’m in sensory overload at the moment.”

“Happens to all of us.”

He turned around and headed back to the corner of the room. You stared at his retreating frame for a moment and then decided it was time to leave. “See you around then.”

He turned his head so that you could see the outline of his nose and raised a hand, “see you.”

You had to forcefully remove yourself from the doorway, and practically run to your classroom, making it in with thirty seconds to spare.

~*~

After your last class was finished, you headed over to the dorms.

You still could not believe you were actually living on your own, away from your parents and sister. And as you stepped into your new home, you couldn’t help but grin.

It was small, but cozy. With a living room that held a couch, there was one bedroom that your roommate and you would be sharing and you got your own bathroom which was nice.

You noticed that your bedroom door was open and you could faintly make out a voice coming from within. It appeared your roommate was in. You hadn’t met her yet, and was nervous. Would you like her? Would she like you? You carefully tiptoed towards the door and paused in the threshold. She was singing under her breath and it was beautiful. The words did not sound very familiar to you, but her voice was so lovely, you found myself creating notes to accompany her with in you head.

Finally, you grew the courage to gently knock on the wall and peek your head in.

She was sitting at a white vanity she must had brought with her, and was clipping something into her jaw length black hair. She spun around quickly, startled.

Once you were facing each other, you carefully examined the other. She was gorgeous, but seemed a bit rebellious with her black lace clothing and scruffy boots. With the light from the window on her hair, you spotted green and blue highlights in it. Her eyes were covered in kohl and her lips were set in a hard line, but you noticed the tips curled slightly in a mischievous grin.

After your slight stare down, she held out her hand, “Park Sunyoung. But I go by Luna.”

You smiled and marched in to shake her hand and introduced yourself as well.

“Like what I’ve done with the place?” She smirked, spinning around to face the mirror again.

The room was placed in such a way that each half was your own. Her side was crowded. The white walls were covered with posters. You spotted both movies and boy and girl groups respectively. She had a purple fluffy mat on the wooden floor, and clothes were strung there and about. She also placed a flat screen television on a dresser that she pushed in the middle of a wall so that it was between your beds.

You glanced at your side, You had only put sheets on your bed, leaned your viola case against the wall, and tossed your suitcases on your bed. It was—and would still be once you finished unpacking—bare compared to hers.

You nodded your head, “you just moved in?”

She nodded her head also. “Bout to grab a bite to eat. Wanna come?”

You bit your lip. You wanted to unpack and maybe practice your instrument for a while, but the need to make friends overwhelmed you, especially a girlfriend. “Sure.”

You watched as Luna hopped off her chair and grabbed a black homburg hat before snatching your wrist and dragging you out of your room.

You entered the cafeteria five minutes later, the building was bustling with life and you couldn’t help but to search around, looking at your fellow schoolmates.

There were a bunch of different stores to choose from, and after watching Luna tap her chin while glaring at each station, you both finally decide on Chinese. You grabbed your plates and then Luna pulled out her phone, dialing a number before she pressed it to her ear.

“Yah! Where are you?” She laughed. Your eyes widened. You were not planning on meeting other people. “I can’t see you! Oh! By the taco station? Mmm… Okay, on my way.” She hung up and glanced at you, tilting her head in the direction she was heading before walking off. You quickly tried to match her pace. You arrived at a round table with seven chairs and two girls sitting there in comfortable silence.

“Hey!” Luna sang as she pulled a chair next to one of them, you quickly followed suite.

The girl next to Luna had brown hair that she had cut really short, a pixie cut. While the girl beside her had straight black hair that cascaded down her body. The one with the pixie cut was sporting a guy tank top and khakis while the one beside her was wearing a black and white stripped dress and blood red lipstick.

“Who’s the stranger?” The girl next to Luna asked, studying you.

“This is my roommate,” Luna beamed with pride and you smiled shyly as she introduced you. “This is my cousin Victoria and our friend, Amber.”

“Nice to meet you,” you greeted.

“Are you a freshman like Luna?” Amber asked, giving you her full attention.

You nodded, “what grade are you in?”

“We’re both juniors,” Victoria supplied, taking a giant bite of her food.

“So… how was your first day?” Amber asked Luna, who rolled her eyes.

“Fine. I guess. All I had were generals today. I can’t wait till my fun classes begin.”

“Are you, by any chance, in choir?” You asked.

She stared at you with wide eyes, “oh god, no! What makes you think that!?”

“Well,” you began nervously. “I heard you singing when I entered the room…”

“Oh~~” The three nodded.

“I do love singing,” Luna informed somewhat sheepishly. “I just…”

“She just doesn’t like to do things when told to do them.” A girl who just walked up to the table finished for Luna, pulling the chair next to Victoria out and unceremoniously plopping down. She was tall and skinny and had long blonde hair. Just like Luna, she was wearing dark clothes and makeup, her expression unimpressed.

Another girl who was the polar opposite took a seat beside her. She had reddish-brown hair that went down to her collarbones and was wearing a pink skirt and shirt and a genuine bright smile. She instantly reminded you of Suho.

“Shut up, Krystal,” Luna barked.

“Make me,” the Krystal girl retorted, sticking her tongue out.

“Choir is just so stuffy,” Luna defended herself. “You have to sing three octaves higher than you normally do, have to wear hideous outfits, and have to move your mouth like this,” she began to open and close her mouth in a way that resembled a fish. “It’s horrible.”

“Plus, she never goes to class, so she’d probably get dropped,” Krystal grinned wickedly at Luna.

“Didn’t I tell you to shut up?!” The two began to bicker, and you locked eyes with the bright girl next to Krystal who was looking at you.

“What is your name?” She asked. You told her and asked for hers in return. “I’m Sulli. Sorry about my friends. They tend to not have manners.”

“I heard that!” Krystal screeched and smacked Sulli’s shoulder, causing her to wince. She then turned her gaze to you. “I’m not that bad, really. I’m Krystal, by the way.”

You introduced yourself to her and she boldly held out her hand for you to shake. Her hand was very soft.

“Are you a freshman?” She asked and you nodded your head. “Cool. So are Sulli and me. Are you Luna’s roommate?”

“Yes she is, so can you stop asking so many questions?” Luna asked, exasperated.

Krystal shrugged, sniffing a cup of fruit, “just curious. I’m surprised you’d invite her along. I know how much you hate new people.”

“I don’t—”

“YES YOU DO!” The four interrupted Luna, causing the whole table to laugh.

“You all suck,” Luna pouted, but a smile tugged on her lips.

“Welcome to our crew,” Victoria said to me, holding up a bottle of apple juice. You lifted your own drink and you all chugged the liquid.

It tasted like a long friendship.

~*~

Back in your room, all unpacked and exhausted, you laid on your bed. Luna was taking her last class of the day, which was at eight, and she wasn’t very excited about that, so you had the place to yourself. You wanted to play your viola, but was so tired, you couldn’t budge.

Vibrating caught your attention and you groaned as you felt around for your phone. Once found, you answered it without bothering to check caller I.D.

“I take it you’ve already eaten?” Suho asked you from the other end.

You grinned, “What makes you so sure?”

“Because you aren’t harassing me about how you will die any second if you don’t get any food in you soon.”

You sighed, “You know me so well.”

“That’s why I hold the title of best friend.”

“Sorry. Are you hungry?”

“Kind of.”

“Did you just finish your last class?”

He was silent for a second, “no. I, uh, finished it a while ago.”

“Well why didn’t you call me then?”

“I was…distracted. Come down. I’m at your dorm.”

“But, Suho!”

“You shouldn’t have unpacked all at once. That’s your fault. Hurry!”

He hung up and you had no choice but to get your lazy butt up and head downstairs.

He was outside the building, leaning against the cool brick.

“What is the rush?” You asked once you spotted him.

“It’s the first week of school, there is so much we could do!”

“Like…?”

“Like visit the art building and watch people.”

Your eyes brightened and you hurriedly pushed Suho, he laughed at your eagerness and you headed over to your favorite building.

“I should have brought my instrument,” you pouted as the doors opened.

Suho shook his head and you entered the first room you found.

There were a couple kids acting in this one. You watched for a minute, but you both knew which rooms you wanted to really be at.

“Let’s just go to the music room,” You ordered. You started running down the familiar halls, eager to enter the one room you had been in over the years.

Suho continued walking, and you wondered if it was because he didn’t want to go to this room after all.

You entered the room and took a deep breath, smiling widely as you were surrounded by all the instruments. You were in the string room, and you bowed to the professor before heading over to decide which instrument to play.

There were a few kids there in a small circle with guitars on laps, so you picked up an acoustic guitar and joined them.

You quietly tuned your instrument as two of the other boys were playing off each other. The music was very bluesy and you nodded along as they continued.

All music stopped and you heard a few gasps. Suho must have entered. You turned to verify his presence and tried not to laugh at his awkward smile. He hated the attention. Anybody who considered themselves piano players knew who Suho was, and anybody in this area who was aware of music knew who he was as well. He was kind of a big deal.

“Please, continue,” Suho said, motioning for the two boys to play. They stared at him instead, either too nervous or starstruck. With a sigh, you held your guitar on your lap and began to play a song you had made up a few years ago. The people around the room blinked over at you, distracted from Suho, which you knew he was grateful. You felt him sit down beside you, but you ignored him and continued playing. Your fingers gliding confidently over the strings.

“You think she’s good at this,” You heard Suho say. “You should see her play the viola.”

You missed a note and lost your train of thought as laughter bubbled up your throat.

“Please stop, Suho,” you chuckled, finishing the song quickly. Once you were done, everyone in the room applauded and you bowed your thanks and Suho and you sat silently and listened to the others play for a while.

“Should we go now?” he whispered in your ear after about twenty minutes and you nodded. You both got up and bowed to everyone before heading out.

“That was nice,” you grinned up at your best friend, his hands in his pockets and his smile somewhat strained.

“Uh… yeah, nice…”

You laughed, “You hated every waking minute of it.”

“No!” He quickly defended. “I just… you know I hate it when people treat me like that.”

“Like a celebrity?”

He sighed, “I hate that word.”

“But, I mean, you kind of are a celebrity, Suho.”

He groaned and covered his face with his hands, “don’t say that!”

You laughed again and dragged him out of the hall. On your way out, you passed the dance room, and you glanced into the empty room. You were somewhat disappointed to see how lifeless it was in there compared to earlier today….

~*~

Your first week went by smoothly. You hung out quite a bit with Luna and her friends and only got lost once. Suho and your schedules did not align very well, and you rarely got to see each other, which frustrated both of you, but you made time—as little as it was—to hang out at least once a day.

It was Monday again, and after a semi stressful weekend, you were looking forward to another week of college.

Your alarm went off and you chuckled as Luna groaned and tossed in her bed, “turn that off!”

She threw a pillow in your direction and you turned the alarm off, and with a whispered ‘goodbye’ you left for your first class.

After your math class ended, and you had once again fought against the ten o’clock rush, you decided to head over to the art building early to goof off for a bit and kill time.

You found yourself pausing in front of that damned dance room again. The door was closed, but you could hear the faint thud of bass coming from the speakers within, and you just knew that man from last week was in there. After a bit of hesitation, you finally pried the door open.

He was there alright. Wearing cut offs and a black wife beater. He was stretching on the center of the floor, leaning against one leg as the music played on. When he lifted his upper body he noticed you, “you’re back.”

You couldn’t tell if he was happy or annoyed by the fact, but you smiled at him anyway, “I told you I’d see you later.”

He laughed once under his breath and shook his head faintly.

“Mind if I watch?”

He opened his mouth, but didn’t say anything.

You deflated, “or…not.”

As you began taking a step back he let out a breath, “no! Wait.”

You glanced at him expectantly and he sighed, “You can stay if you want.”

You beamed and came all the way into the room, closing the door solidly behind you. You sat against the mirror and pulled your legs up to your chin.

“It’s nothing much,” the beautiful boy began. “I’m just going to be doing some stretches and going over some routines….”

“That’s fine,” You encouraged and he paused before nodding his head self-consciously.

After fifteen minutes of warming up, he began to dance. You knew he was not going full out, but even still he was captivating. He moved effortlessly, almost as if he were bored, and he made every move seem easy, although you knew it was anything but.

At one moment he attempted a leap, but couldn’t land right. He groaned with frustration, “I can’t get this jump right.”

You perked up, with him talking for the first time in thirty minutes. He was standing in the middle of the room with his hands on his hips, eyeing himself in the mirror.

“I don’t even know why it is so difficult for me, but I just can’t get it. The teacher told me I was landing too hard but what does that even mean?”

You blinked at him and were silent for a moment. Finally you worked up the courage to speak, “may—maybe you can demonstrate it again? I’ll watch and see if I can spot the problem?”

His eyes flickered to yours questioningly, “you dance?”

“Uh… no, but I’m sure I’d notice if you weren’t landing right.”

He thought about it for a second, but must have seen there was no harm in it because he shrugged and started the music up again.

You watched him as he twirled around the room before going for the leap. He was flawless in the air, but once his foot came down, he was a stumbling mess. He had to hold his arms out to catch his balance and you figured out the problem.

“You’re not distributing your weight properly,” You informed him once he was at a standstill. “You put all your weight on the leg you’re landing on when you need to put it on both.”

“How do I go about doing that?” He asked, twirling the lid off of his water and chugging half the bottle.

“As soon as your foot touches the ground, stretch out your back leg and lift your arms higher.”

The dancer’s eyes wandered above him for a minute, probably imagining the actions he had to take, and then he put his water down and started the music again.

When it got to the troubling leap, you held your breath. He was up, up, up and then he came down. His foot touched the floor and he seemed to spring higher as he flexed his legs and raised his arms, not even wobbling.

“Perfect landing,” you breathed with a grin as he continued on with the choreography. You couldn’t help but to notice how dazzling his face looked graced with that triumphant smile that seemed nearly blinding.

He was now going all out, as if he were performing on a stage, and your heart was in your throat.

You had seen a lot of beautiful things. Watching your father play the trombone, watching Suho play the piano, listening to one of your friends, Yuri, sing, but this fellow in front of you took passion to another level.

Tears began to obstruct your vision as you watched him reach towards the heavens with every jump. Every flex of a muscle seemed to be a part of a story only he knew how to tell, but the story was magnificent and you could not look away.

It ended with him pirouetting before landing on one knee, an arm stretched towards you.

The music ended and the only thing that could be heard was his hard breathing.

“That… that was beautiful.” Beautiful could not cover base to how life altering watching him perform was. He was beyond that, he was something no word could yet define.

“Thank you,” he grinned and bowed humbly.

“No, I’m… I’m serious. I don’t think I have ever seen anything that passionate before in my entire life, and my father lives and breathes music. You are truly talented.”

You watched him bite his lip and scratch the back of his head before repeating, “thank you.”

“No, thank you,” That sounded so cheesy out loud, but you really wanted to thank him for showing you that. You wiped away the tears that had fallen from your eyes and laughed at yourself, “I swear I don’t usually cry watching people dance. Only if I’m moved enough.”

“I moved you?” He asked. You noticed the teasing tone in his voice, but also surprise, as if he didn’t believe he was that good.

“To tears,” You confirmed, holding your hands out to show him the salty wetness on them.

“Thank you,” he repeated yet again, and you blinked up at him.

“For what?”

“For helping me with that turn. Also for letting me know just how good I am. Sometimes you need other people besides those who are always telling you to realize your potential, you know?”

“Absolutely. I definitely understand. I remember when I was first learning how to play the viola, and my father was constantly telling me how good I was, but I felt like I wasn’t adequate. It took my best friend to finally make me realize that maybe I was worthy of the instrument.”

The sweaty ballerina just stared at you for a moment, and you grew embarrassed. Were you talking too much? You were definitely talking too much. This is why you only had two friends growing up.

“You can come watch me practice whenever you want,” he suddenly allowed. His smile grew at your shocked expression. “I realize now I enjoy the company, and you can probably help me on some things. So… whenever you want, if I’m here, don’t be shy.”

He said all of that without even glancing at you, but you could tell the sincerity in his voice. Plus, you found it endearing how he dug the ground with his toes.

It was your turn to repeat yourself, “thank you.”

~*~

You ran all the way to your dorm after art, eager to get this off your chest.

You felt kind of bad that Suho wasn’t the person you wanted to talk to about the matter, but this was strictly a girl thing, and you knew he wouldn’t understand.

“Luna!” You practically screeched when you finally slammed the door to your bedroom open, scaring the living daylights out of your roommate.

“Jesus!” she cried, throwing the magazine she was peacefully reading on her bed onto the floor. “What’s gotten into you?!”

“I’m in like,” You breathed, falling unto your bed with a longing sigh.

“In like?” she questioned.

“Yes. With a beautiful ballerina.”

“Ballerina?”

“It’s a guy,” you clarified, rising up to meet Luna’s gaze. She was grinning from ear to ear, leaning in closer.

“Well, spill it!”

You told her about the mystery dancer who just so happened to be drop dead gorgeous and wanted your company.

“Wow, that is so romantic! What is his name? Maybe I know him.”

“It’s…” Your smile melted off with the realization that you in fact had no name for the face you most definitely would be dreaming of later tonight.

“You don’t know?” Luna’s eyes widened and than she gasped, “that’s even more romantic! It’s like Cinderella! Does he know yours?”

You shook your head and she threw a pillow up in the air. It hit the ceiling before landing on the floor behind her, next to her long forgotten magazine. “Oh my god! The two of you are so mysterious! That is so hot.”

You couldn’t help but giggle. You’ve grown quite close to Luna this past week; she was someone you really needed in your life.

“You have to keep me posted on the development on your unfolding love story. And don’t forget who was there in the beginning when you have to pick a maid of honor for your wedding!”

“Oh, I will def keep you up to date.”

~*~

Sadly, there was nothing to report back to Luna.

Classes started to add pressure the rest of the week, and you were so swamped in schoolwork, that you had no time to eat a normal meal, let alone watch someone dance for a couple hours. you even had a test in art!

When Friday came around, all you wanted to do was relax, but Suho had other plans for you.

“Come on! We haven’t seen each other all week! I miss my bestie!”

“I miss you too, but I’m so tired,” you complained, rolling around in your bed for affect.

“We are all tired, we’re college students.”

“Why can’t you hang out with your roommate? I’m sure he will keep you company.”

“He is hanging out with me. I’m trying to expose you to more people,” You could hear the annoyance in his voice.

“I don’t need more friends. You’re like five friends put together!”

“Please,” Suho whimpered, muttering your name softly. You tensed, knowing what he was doing. “We haven’t seen one another in five days and I just really need my best friend right now. Is that a crime? Is wanting to see you such a bad thing?”

He sighed when you remained silent, “fine. I won’t bother you anymore. Take your nap and be a loser for all your life, but don’t call me when you finally want to settle down, because I would have moved on with a new bestie by then.”

“Fine!” You cried, hopping off your bed. “Jesus, Suho! I’ll hang out with you, damn!”

He chuckled and you heard a muffled ‘works every time’ before he was back in your ear, “you have ten minutes. Dress really cute, we’re going somewhere fun. You better be waiting for us when we get there.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” You hung up before he could guilt you into doing something else you didn’t want to do and slumped over to your closet.

Suho’s definition of really cute was a scary concept, and it made you wonder where he was dragging you. He loved heels and thigh highs. You always joked and told him he was a subtle pervert, and he would reply by simply shrugging, tilting his head to get a good view of the girl he had his eye on at the time.

You groaned and yanked the clothes you knew he was already picturing in his head before getting ready.

Six minutes later, you were standing outside the dorms in a thin pink dress, black tights, chunky black heels, and a glare.

True to his word, Suho was in front of the dorms ten minutes after your call ended. He stepped out of the passenger side of a very expensive looking black car, dressed in dark jeans and a sky blue button down, and you knew that you were dressed accordingly.

His grin grew into a full-blown smile as he took you in, “you never disappoint.”

“Shut up, you perv,” You retaliated. He just laughed, continuing walking up to you. Once you were right in front of each other, he pulled you into a hug and you soon felt a tugging at your hair.

Suho pulled away with a satisfied grin, “you look prettier with your hair down.”

“What is this?” You snapped, as he ruffled your brown hair that he had released from the ponytail you had it in seconds ago. “Are you trying to hook me up with someone?”

“I might be, but I just want you to have fun tonight. You have to dress good to feel good.”

“I mean, I guess?” You let him drag you over to the car. He opened the backseat door for you and helped you get in before crawling back to the front. There were two males sitting to your left, both incredibly handsome and one behind the wheel.

Suho called you and you glanced at him, really nervous. You usually felt at ease around the opposite sex, but Suho made you dress up, and it made you self-conscious, especially since all the men in the car were good looking.

Not as fine as your little ballerina, you thought suddenly, and you felt your cheeks heat up. They definitely weren’t that pleasing to the eyes.

You blinked, quickly focusing back at Suho. He had his hand on the driver’s shoulder, “This is my roommate, Kris, and those two sitting next to you are Kim Jongdae and Do Kyungsoo.”

“Nice to meet you,” you said, nodding towards them. They all nodded in return and you zoomed off to some unknown place.

“Jongdae and Kyungsoo are singers,” Suho informed as you continued driving. “And Kris here is an actor. They all have scholarships and are top of their classes.”

“Why must you talk us up like this?” The one furthest to the window whined. He had a cute voice and a cat like curve to his lips that you couldn’t help but stare at.

“It’s alright,” you began. “It’s in his nature. He’s like a proud father.”

“This girl right here,” he started, and you rolled your eyes. “Is one of the best viola players in the country, if not the continent! She also draws, plays other instruments, and sings.”

You shook your head rapidly, “please do not tell professional singers that I sing, Suho. That’s embarrassing.”

He simply shrugged, “how many times have you sung the lyrics to my compositions?”

“I’m not sure anymore, Suho,” you sighed, your gaze flickering to the singers beside you. They looked intrigued, and you wanted to shrink.

“Exactly, because it’s been too many times to count. If it had been up to me, I would have given you the songs to record. I write them for you anyway.”

“Gross,” you cried, kicking his seat. Sometimes he said things that made it seem as if you were closer than you actually were. It was a habit you were trying to get him out of.

It was around ten when Kris—who had been silent throughout the entire ride there—pulled into a karaoke bar.

“Damn,” you muttered under your breath. Suho was toying with you the entire ride there, the bastard.

“What was that?” The smaller boy beside you, Kyungsoo, asked. His voice was deeper than you had thought it would be at first glance and his wide eyes and plump lips made him seem older than you would have originally thought, more mature.

“I should have known we would be singing,” you said a bit louder to him, although you pushed your knee deep into the back of Suho’s seat.

“And drinking,” the guy near the window, Jongdae, winked at you playfully and you sighed with both content and relief, because he was really cute and you really needed a drink.

“Good,” you breathed as you all headed out.

You followed the guys into the bar, and was led into probably the biggest room you had ever seen in one of these places. It was already filled with about six other people, both male and female.

You felt pressure on your arm and lips at your ear. “Don’t be afraid to make friends, and maybe even get a bit touchy if you want,” Suho winked at you and you grimaced. What was up with him today?

There were only two other girls in the room, and you quickly ran to sit beside them, introducing yourself quickly. They were Hyeri and Hyorin. There was a guy singing a Super Junior song, and he was really good. You just sat silently as everyone got comfortable. Jongdae soon appeared with around four huge bottles of liquor, while Kyungsoo scuttled behind him with shot glasses.

“Whose ready to turn up!” Jongdae’s high-pitched voice rang loudly over the commotion of the room, and everyone—including yourself—cheered. Jongdae and another boy who you weren’t acquainted with poured the shots, while Kyungsoo handed them out. You were the last one to receive a glass, and he sat beside you with a shy smile. You returned it and waited for one of the shorter boys in the room to give the toast speech, “to freshman! To the beginning of the rest of our lives!”

You all held your glasses up high before tilting your heads back and downing the liquid fire with grimaces and coughs.

Liquor made you friendly, to put it simply. It also made you extremely confident, yet also very uncoordinated. You took six more shots of the strongest stuff Jongdae had to offer, and before you knew it, you were singing a duet with one of the boys named Byun Baekhyun. It was an intense balled, and you acted the part, even pressing against each other, his arm around your waist while one of your hands were on his cheek as you both shared his microphone.

You gathered hoots and hollers and you just laughed and laughed when the song ended. He gave you a wink and carried you off the small platform, making you sit on his lap back on the couch.

“You’re fun,” He yelled into your ear, his voice deep enough for you to feel warm from the compliment.

“You give good speeches,” you replied, remembering him giving the toast earlier.

“You sing very well,” he countered.

“Well… you’re very handsome.”

His smile was a million watts.

~*~

(Another lil snippet that I haven’t even gotten to plot wise but I had a Vision™ and wrote it down before I forgot, to give you better insight on what I'm trying to do here haha)

“Jongin….”

“Oh no, silly girl, I’m not Jongin,” his eyes remained piercing into your soul as he pushed a chunk of your hair back behind your ear just to whisper, “I’m Kai.”

You blinked up at him, “who?”

“Kai,” he clarified. “Jongin’s twin brother.”

It was silent for a moment and then you burst out laughing, pushing his shoulder. He looked at you stunned, “stop playing, Jongin. What kind of joke is this?”

He raised an eyebrow, “It’s not a joke, plus, Jongin’s sense of humor wouldn’t allow him to play such a prank. Maybe when we were younger and used to switch classes for the day, but ever since college, all that boy’s focused on is the art.”

“The art?”

“Dancing.”

“Oh… oh!” Your eyes widened as you remembered asking Jongin about his hiphop routine. Your eyes flashed up to the Jongin in front of you, “you were the one doing the hiphop routine!”

He smirked and nodded boldly, “That I was.”

“Shit, you’re telling the truth.”

“Duh. I’m not a liar. But, it seems like Jongin might be…..”

#kai scenarios #kai scenario #exo scenario #exo scenarios #kai drabble #kai drabbles #exo drabbles #exo drabble #kai oneshot #kai oneshots #exo oneshot #exo oneshots #kai

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accioharry · 4 years

Text

unsaid emily: rewritten (ch.1) | read on ao3

Her mom made the photo album, documenting Luke’s life until his death the first week after he died before she changed her mind and threw it in the attic with everything else. Knowing the recent pictures would be at the back, she flipped to the end, and her breath hitched in her throat.

On the page was a taped in picture of Emmi on her fourth birthday, sitting on the shoulders of her long-dead brother, Luke Patterson.

The same boy currently standing in Julie’s studio.

What if Unsaid Emily wasn't about Luke's mom, but his little sister he left behind when he ran away from home? Twelve years after his death, Luke comes face to face with his younger sister, Emmi, who isn't ready to forgive her older brother for abandoning her. JATP AU// boys died in 2008, not 1995.

Emmi was exhausted.

Her alarm didn’t go off, making her almost late for school. She was lucky that Julie always walked to school with her, if it wasn’t for her best friend hitting her with a pillow, she’d sleep until noon.

She stood at her locker, fumbling with the lock that never seemed to open when she felt her two best friends appear on either side of her. “

Hey, underachiever!” Flynn nudged her, while Julie echoed with “Hey disappointment!” on her other side.

If a teacher heard them, they’d get a lecture about respecting other students, but are you really best friends if you don’t greet each other with an insult?

Emmi laughed, finally yanking her locker open. “Are we ready for class?” She looked between the two girls before she and Flynn looked over at Julie.

Music used to be the three girls’ favorite class, but after Julie lost her mom a little over a year ago, things had changed. Gone was their usual singing to and from school and jamming in Rose Molina’s studio, but instead, Emmi longing to go back into the room she nearly called home for the entirety of her friendship with Julie.

She never could explain her attachment to the studio in the back of the Molina garage. A lot of things in there were old, stuffed in boxes and bags in the loft that was there when the family moved in before Julie was even born. Rose caught Emmi looking through the loft when she was ten, and even though Emmi was terrified her best friend’s mom would be upset, she wasn’t. She never told her where the things came from, but never questioned it when Emmi would find an old drumstick to twirl or a worn-out band t-shirt to wear when she would get her own clothes dirty after playing outside with Julie. She loved that studio so much, and when Julie told her they couldn’t go in there after Rose had died, Emmi felt as though a part of her was missing, but she could never explain it.

“Do you know what you’re going to sing?” Flynn asked Julie, but Julie shook her head. The girls hated that the school had given her an ultimatum, to sing again or be thrown out of the program. They were pushing Julie when she wasn’t even close to being ready, and it made Emmi angry every time she thought about it. Her hand twirled the guitar pick that hung around her neck, if she was old enough to remember when her brother died, she might have felt the same way about music.

“I’ll know in the moment,” Julie shrugged, eyes flickering to Emmi’s hand on the guitar pick. “His birthday is soon, isn’t it?”

“Yup, Mom is making the cake like she does every year,” Emmi tucked the pick under her shirt. “She doesn’t talk about him, just puts the cake in front of me to blow out the candles, puts his stocking up for Christmas, and that’s it.”

“I’m sorry,” Flynn muttered. “I know this time of year is hard to be at home,” she smiled at Emmi reassuringly.

“I mean it when I say I’m fine, I was a kid when he died. I don’t remember him, I barely got to look at his pictures before Mom stuffed them in the attic with the rest of his stuff.” She shook her head, turning her attention back to Julie. “Enough about me, it’s not important.”

Before she could get another word out, the sound of heels hitting the tile floor made her groan internally, rolling her eyes. The three of them turned to see Carrie Wilson, their school’s queen bee, strutting to them, her boyfriend (and Julie’s long term crush) trailing behind her.

“Girls!” She squealed, a fake smile etched onto her face.

“Carrie,” Emmi jokingly twirled a piece of her brown hair around her fingers. “What can we do for you on this beautiful day?” She could hear Flynn and Julie snickering behind her.

“Always such a sweetheart, Emmi!” Carrie grinned, but Emmi saw right through it. “My group is performing at the spirit rally tomorrow!” She handed Emmi a flyer, the words “DIRTY CANDY” written in big letters across the top. “I’m sure you guys have nothing better to do,” she smiled at Flynn.

“Oh my gosh, Carrie thanks!” Flynn put on her sweetest, most annoying voice. “It’s not like it’s a required part of our school day and any of us have a choice!”

“Oh my gosh Flynn,” Carrie mocked back, “don’t bother coming!”

“Did she miss the part where you said it was a required school event? Emmi leaned over and whispered in Flynn’s ear, but Julie elbowed her in the side. “Ow!”

The three of them waited until Carrie had focused her attention on another student before they turned to each other.

“Please tell me we’re over Nick,” Emmi groaned. “All he does is follow Carrie like a lost puppy!”

“A cute lost puppy,” Julie sighed dreamily but snapped out of it when the bell rang. “Okay, guess it’s time for class.”

“You got this Jules,” Emmi smiled, “I know you do!”

-----

Emmi’s worst fear came true: Julie didn’t sing.

She and Flynn had followed their friend out of class, finding her crying on the stairwell. Anything and everything that had to do with music made Julie upset, and Emmi could only sympathize, watching her parents go through the same thing when her brother died twelve years prior when Emmi was only four. She couldn’t remember what he looked like, but she remembered not understanding what happened. One second he was hugging her, telling her he needed to go on his own but would always come home, and then a police officer was holding her mom as she sobbed, three weeks later. Christmas was never the same after that, none of it was.

Her parents had packed up his room and taken down all of his pictures within the first month, and it was only when Emmi was six her Dad took her up to the attic without her Mom knowing, to show her some things that used to belong to her brother. That’s where she found the guitar pick her father put on a necklace for her, and she’s never taken it off since. Her mom obviously knew about it, but she never said anything. It was an unspoken thing, the only token Emmi got to have of the brother she couldn't remember.

Flynn had a student council meeting after school, so Emmi walked home with Julie. Her parents worked late, so she often ate dinner with Julie and her family, which she loved. Even though Julie’s loss was still an open wound, she thought her family handled it ten times better than her parents did. Her brother was a forbidden topic at home, but at Julie’s house, her mom was everywhere, just as she should be.

She was sitting at the table working on a pre-calculus problem when Ray, Julie’s dad, came into the room.

“Ah, two of my favorite girls!” He smiled. “Flynn at student council?”

Julie nodded, her Dad pulling up a chair to sit next to them at the table.

“What’s up?” Julie asked, a nervous tone in her voice. Emmi bit her lip, she knew Julie was terrified of her Dad finding out she was kicked out of the music program, and frankly she hoped the ground would swallow her before she had to witness that conversation.

“Well, I got some news today,” he started, and Emmi really wished the ground would take her at any moment. Julie stiffened.

“From my realtor friend,” he continued, and both girls sighed with relief. If Ray noticed, he didn’t say anything.

“He said if we’re serious about selling the house, then we need to take pictures for when we list it on the market.”

Julie nodded in understanding, and Emmi squirmed in her seat. Julie wanted to move away, and no one, not even Emmi and Flynn, could talk her out of it. The way Ray and Carlos would willingly move their entire life to help Julie heal made Emmi once again jealous, her parents doing nothing but closing the door to her brother’s empty room before it became Emmi’s playroom a couple of years later.

“But,” Ray continued, “I was thinking you could tackle Mom’s studio?”

Emmi looked at her best friend, Julie’s eyes already filling with tears. “It’s okay if you’re not ready,” he placed a comforting hand on his daughter’s shoulder. “Carlos and I, we wouldn’t know where to begin.”

“It’s okay, I’ll do it.” Julie shrugged. Her eyes met Emmi’s, who cleared her throat.

“I’ll help,” she offered, and Ray smiled at the two of them.

“Great! Now I’m already late for Carlos’s game, where are my keys?” He stood up to look.

“Under the mail,” Julie and Emmi said at the same time, before Ray laughed, taking his keys and heading out the door.

“Jules,” Emmi muttered, not wanting to hurt her friend. “Are you sure?”

“I mean we’re moving, right? Got to face it sometime,” Julie shrugged, but Emmi knew that was the end of the conversation.

----

Walking to the studio felt like a movie, Emmi thought. It was dark by the time Julie had the courage to walk down the steps that were all too familiar, but like Emmi promised, she wouldn’t do it alone.

“I’m right here,” she told Julie. “Anytime you want to leave, we leave.”

“Okay,” Julie sniffled, and with one hand held tightly by Emmi’s, she pushed the doors to the studio open. She let go of Emmi to walk over to turn on the lights, and Emmi gasped as she saw the familiar fairy lights turn on around her, dropping her backpack on the ground. Julie walked around slowly, her hand running over the familiar grand piano that was covered by a white sheet, before she yanked it off, coughing with the dust.

Emmi found the ladder to the loft, smiling when she heard the familiar creak of the steps underneath her feet as she climbed. The drumsticks were right where she left them the last time she was here, and she didn’t hesitate to grab them. She never played drums or any instrument for that matter, but she always had fun twirling them around in her hands. Her feet dangled off the side as she rummaged through one of the dark bags left up here, but nothing stood out to her.

“Em! I found something,” Julie called, and Emmi rushed down the ladder and over to her best friend. “I didn’t know Mom had this CD?”

Emmi took it from Julie, flipping it over to look at the tracklist. “Sunset Curve?” She muttered to herself. “Why…why does that sound familiar?”

“It doesn’t sound familiar to me,” Julie shrugged. “Should we play it while we look around?” Emmi nodded, putting the CD in the player before pressing play. A guitar riff filled the room, and Emmi found herself captivated by it, almost as if she knew it.

She definitely knew that riff, but she couldn’t figure out where she heard it from. “Jules, I know this song—” she started to say over the music, but a loud screeching noise, almost as though someone was yelling, filled the room, forcing the girls to cover their ears.

Emmi blinked, and all of a sudden three teenage boys had appeared out of nowhere, falling onto the floor, groaning as they hit the ground. The music stopped in the background.

The girls stood frozen, watching the boys stand up, shaking the dust off their clothes.

“Woah,” the boy in the middle said, “how did we get back here?”

Emmi screamed.

#mine #jatp fic #julie and the phantoms #luke patterson fic #luke patterson #julie molina #jatp #reggie peters #alex mercer #julie and the phantoms fic #netflix fic #jatp au

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randomestfandoms-ocs · 4 years

Text

Riverdale OC Masterlist

(several of these ocs may end up getting scrapped entirely, but I’m not ready to commit to that yet so they’re on the list for now)

Name: Amethyst Andrews

Story: (Cast Not Your Stone at the) Wayward Daughter

Series: (Child, They’re) Seeking Weakness Tonight

AO3 | FFNET | WATTPAD

Face claim: Kaya Scodelario

Love interest: queerplatonic poly Serpents, endgame romantic Sweet Pea & Jughead Jones

Summary: Amethyst Adams was 8 years old when her father died, 12 when she joined the Serpents, and 15 when her adoptive father, Fred Andrews, was shot in a diner. Between trying to run a gang, keep her family alive, and maybe, just maybe, not die along the way, her return to Riverdale never had a chance of going smoothly.

Name: Aaliya Andrews

Story: My Brother’s Keeper

Series: (In Their Triumph Die) Like Fire And Powder

Face claim: Danielle Rose Russell

Love Interest: Jason Blossom; eventual Sweet Pea & Fangs Fogarty

Summary: Aaliya Andrews loved her brother more than anything, and she would do anything for him; even keep her summer a secret. Archie didn’t need to know that she’d joined the Southside Serpents towards the end of their freshman year, he didn’t need to know that she’d done a strip show in a sketchy biker bar to earn the jacket that she hid in the back of her closet, and he definitely didn’t need to know that she’d started that fateful Fourth of July by waking up in bed with Jason Blossom. But then sophomore year starts, and with that comes cheerleading and football, playing guitar and talking about going professional, her boyfriend’s - now ex boyfriend’s, she’d suppose - body being found in the river, and an investigation that threatens to reveal every secret she’s ever kept.

Name: Abigail Adler

Face claim: Hailee Steinfeld

Fic: Swan Song

Love Interest: Archie Andrews

Name: Addison “Addy” Blake

Face claim: Troian Bellisario

Fic: Alike In Dignity

Series: (From Ancient Grudge) Break To New Mutiny

Love Interest: Sweet Pea & Toni Topaz

Summary: Addison Blake had it all. Class president at Greendale Prep, captain of the field hockey team, reigning champion of Riverdale’s Country Club’s teen tennis tournament, all around top girl. But when a shocking scandal shuts her school down and she’s forced to start at Riverdale High, she’s less than impressed—especially when she learns that an entire gang is transferring there too. When one of the boys catches her eye, she tells herself that she can resist the electricity she feels, but something is hanging in the stars, and star crossed lovers have never had a chance.

Name: Adelynn Andrews-Smith

Story: Abyss

Face claim: Phoebe Tonkin

Summary: Back in 2000, Mary Andrews was told that she could never have kids; and so, she and Fred looked into adoption. They found eight year old Adelynn Smith; and despite her temper and how many families had given up on her, they knew that she was perfect for their little family. And when Mary miraculously got pregnant with Archie a couple of years later, they were thrilled that their family was going to grow. And for several years, everything was perfect. They knew, and Adelynn knew, who her parents were; they allowed and encouraged her to develop her relationship with her father; and they always listened when she talked about her long-since adopted twin brother. And when, shortly after Fred is shot, Adelynn tells them that the Chic claiming to be Charles Smith is definitely not her brother, they listen.

Name: Alina Allan

Story: Violent Delights

Face claim: Krysten Ritter

Love Interest: FP Jones

Name: Ally Andrews

Story: Home Again

Series: (Make This Place) Your Home

Face claim: Adelaide Kane

Name: Amber Andrews

Story: Petrichor

Face claim: Kennedy McMann

Name: Anastasia Andrews

Story: Say I’m In Too Deep

Series: (Cause I’ve Still Got) A Lot of Fight Left in Me

AO3 | FFNET | WATTPAD

Face claim: Abigail Cowen

Love interest: Jughead Jones

Summary: Starting high school was supposed to be fun, right? Apparently whoever said that had never found their brother hooking up with the pedophilic music teacher on their first day, but Anastasia Andrews could tell you from experience, that ruined it. And if Archie was lying about his relationship with Grundy, could that mean he was also lying about July 4th? She might not care about Jason Blossom, but she cared about protecting her brother, and if the best way to do that was to team up with Jughead Jones to solve the case themselves, well, she’d do it.

Name: Angela DeSantos

Story: Gold Lie Promises

Face claim: Sofia Carson as Evie

Love interest: Veronica Lodge

Summary: Angela De Santos was a born Serpent, although she and her twin brother didn’t officially join until they were thirteen. She loved the Serpents, she really did, and she would do anything for them. So when her brother got roped into disposing of Jason Blossom’s body, she kept her mouth shut; when he got assigned to seduce the Keller kid to keep an eye on the investigation, she gave him a folder of research on all of his interests and hobbies; and when she got assigned to seduce the Lodge heiress to keep an eye on her parents? Well, it’d hardly be the worst thing she’s done for the gang, so long as she can keep her own feelings out of the mix.

Name: Ariel Blossom

Title: I’m No Princess of Pain

Series: (Something) Next to Normal

Face claim: Holland Roden

Love interest: Malachai

Summary: As the oldest Blossom child, Ariel was always supposed to inherit the family business. But after learning the truth she rejected the “maple industry”, moving to California the day after she graduated. Pursuing her dream of acting and modelling, she had no desire to ever look back. She wouldn’t have ever stepped foot in Riverdale again, if not for her baby brother’s corpse being found with a bullet hole in the head.

Name: Artemisia Andrews

Story: Watch What Happens

Face claim: Katie Douglas

Summary: When Arti Andrews first left Riverdale during her parents’ divorce, she was happy to get away from the small town and live in a big city. But over the years, things changed, and she wanted nothing more than to go home and reunite with her dad and her twin brother. So when, five years later, Ari Andrews is finally going home, she couldn’t be more excited. But Riverdale isn’t the town that she remembers, and with all of the secrets she’s keeping, the stakes are higher than ever.

Name: Astoria Topaz

Story: There’s A Fire Burning In My Bones

Series: (Hell Is Empty) And All The Devils Are Here

Face claim: China Anne McClain

Love interest: Jughead Jones

Summary: Astoria Topaz was a Serpent by blood, and by choice. She joined with her twin sister and their two best friends, Fangs and Sweet Pea, when they were all thirteen, and had quickly risen in the ranks among teenagers. She never expected to be a leader though, until FP Jones got arrested. Suddenly there was a hole that needed to be filled, and apparently Astoria would have to fill it. That’s fine, she’s a born Serpent and knows how to keep her family together–or she did, until Jughead Jones walks into the Wyrm, suddenly ready to take on his legacy. But still, Astoria was born a Serpent, and she’ll die a Serpent, she’ll live as a Serpent come hell or high water.

Name: Barbie Booth

Story: New Girl In Town

Series: (Cause I Am) So Much Better Than Before

Face claim: Candice King

Summary: By fifteen, Barbie Booth already had her eye on the prize: early admission to Tisch for musical theatre, followed by an upper east side apartment with her best friend Veronica Lodge - who would be studying business at Columbia, and then starring as Elle Woods in a revival of Legally Blonde The Musical. But her plan didn’t include Veronica’s dad getting arrested, and her other half moving to some bumfuck town called Riverdale, leaving her alone for her sophomore year at Spence. And it definitely didn’t account for her parents up and moving them to Riverdale, for reasons that they refused to explain. But at least she’d be with Ronnie again, and at least Ronnie told her that Riverdale High wasn’t as bad as they’d imagined. But then they get to Riverdale, and her plans really go to shit -not only did her parents not research the town that they were moving to, but they bought a house on the south side of the town, dooming her to the rundown school on the wrong side of the tracks, riddled with gangs, murder investigations and, worst of all, no musical theatre program.

Name: Becca Jackson

Story: Everybody Else’s Girl

Series: (Maybe One Day) She’ll Be Her Own

AO3 | FFNET | WATTPAD

Face claim: Sofia Carson

Name: Bella Baxter

Story: The Beauty of A Secret

Face claim: Ciara Bravo

Love interest: Reggie Mantle, Sweet Pea & Fangs Fogarty

Summary: Bella Baxter is as Northside as they come. Raised in a two story house with a white picket fence, River Vixen since freshman year, best friends include Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Kevin Keller, and Jughead Jones. The only thing that isn’t “proper Northside” about her is simple, FP Jones, the Serpent King himself, is her godfather–and more importantly, has been her legal guardian since she was ten years old. Bella has clung desperately to her Northside image for the past five years, but when Jason Blossom goes missing, it’s time to decide: is her loyalty to her family or to the persona she’s so carefully crafted.

Name: Beverly Mantle

Story: Steady Satellite

Series: (I’ll Walk Through) Hell With You

Face claim: Arden Cho

Love interest: Fangs Fogarty & Sweet Pea

Summary: Everyone at Riverdale High knew the Mantles. Beverly and Reginald, Bev and Reg, as inseparable as they’d been in the womb. Vice-Captain of the River Vixens and Vice-Captain of the Bulldogs, they were untouchable. And Jason Blossom’s murder only brought them closer together. They’d never had any secrets from each other, it was them against the world. Or it was, until a fight causes Beverly to run away, to cross the bridge to the Southside, where she meets two boys as attractive as they are mysterious, and she knows that she can never let Reggie find out.

Name: Beverly Mantle

Story: The Inevitably Cursed Life Of Beverly & Reginald Mantle; The Inescapable Secrets That Follow You From Riverdale

Series: (I’ll Walk Through) Hell With You

Face claim: Arden Cho

Love interest: Fangs Fogarty & Sweet Pea

Summary: Fangs got shot, the Serpents were at war, Archie had just been arrested, and Beverly had been shot. Well, the Mantle twins had always known how to cut their losses. They’d already dealt with being emancipated, after Reggie’s jingle jangle business had Marty hospitalizing both of this children, so it was clearly time for the next step. Get the hell out of Riverdale. Rosewood seemed like a nice enough place to go, and they already had a friend there. Sure, they hadn’t talked to Allison since last summer but really, how much can change in a year?

(aka the PLL crossover that nobody asked for)

Name: Caden “Adder” Archer

Story: Snake Bite

Series: (In Unity) There Is Strength

Face claim: Tyler Posey

Summary: Caden and Carson Archer, Adder and Asp to most of the world, had always been inseperable. Even as young children, stuck in the Sisters Of Quiet Mercy orphanage, they were always together. So when the Archers showed up, looking to foster a child, they knew they had to take the pair. Growing up on the Southside brought them closer, and the duo found themselves joining the Serpents together and quickly embracing their new names; Adder, dangerous but only when provoked, and Asp, unassuming but volatile and lethal. But even after they joined the gang, found themselves an extended family in the form of rough around the edge bikers, they were always closest with each other. And that’s why they’re the only ones who know the truth - on July 3rd, Caden and Carson Archer were hooking up with Cheryl and Jason Blossom and on July 4th, they heard a gunshot.

Name: Cameron Newton

Story: Ghost Of The City

Series: (The Ashes Of The People) You Really Meant To Be

Face claim: Maia Mitchell

Love Interest: Archie Andrews

Summary: After the creep in a black suit - the Gargoyle King - took over her town and sent her parents to work at his prison-slash-drug-den, Cameron Newton really didn’t think that anything could surprise her. And then the so-called Red Paladin showed up with nothing but his best friend an an absolute determination to destroy the man who ruined his life. Well, Cam can relate, and she quickly appoints herself as their third musketeer - if only she’d known what the quest had in store for her, for all of them.

Name: Candy Barker

Story: Sweet As Sugar

Series: (The Loneliness) Of Loving You

Face claim: Elizabeth Gillies

Love Interest: Poly Serpents

Summary: Candy Barker knew that the Blossom and Cooper children didn’t know that they were related. She also knew that they didn’t know that there had been a third brother once, who broke off from the family and changed his name to Barker. And that was fine with her, she could keep the secret from her cousins - it’s not like they’d ever talk to ‘Southside Scum’ anyways. No, Candy had no problem with keeping the secret between herself and her closest friends. At least, not until Jason Blossom is murdered in the Wyrm and Candy’s life gets thrown into madness.

Name: Carolyn Cooper

Story: Dirty Little Secret

Face claim: Dianna Agron

Love Interest: Reggie Mantle, Archie Andrews, endgame Poly Serpents

Name: Carson “Asp” Archer

Story: Snake Bite

Series: (In Unity) There Is Strength

Face claim: Shay Mitchell

Name: Carter “Lilith” Lane

Story: No Sweet Dream

Series: (I Keep A Record Of) The Wreckage Of My Life

Face claim: Nina Dobrev

Summary: Everyone at Riverdale High had heard of the infamous Serpent, Lilith Lane, and the equally dangerous Ghoulie, Carter. But no one would have guessed that they were the same person, let alone that she was their very own Carter Lane.

Carter “Lilith” Lane was something completely unheard of in Riverdale - a Ghoulie and a Serpent. Born to parents in rival gangs, she’s never really known who she was. Lilith Lane didn’t deal anything harder than weed; she was a party girl; she was very vocal about hating the Serpent Dance. Carter was the best drug dealer in town; a street racing champion; a part time stripper. And Carter Lane? She was little more than a ghost; a River Vixen who hated Cheryl Blossom, the main supplier for Bulldog parties who never showed up herself; someone who everybody knew of but who nobody knew.

It had always been easy to keep those parts of herself separate. And then summer came around; Carter Lane got emancipated, Carter moved into the House Of The Dead, and Lilith Lane dumped Jason Blossom’s body into Sweetwater River. And she’s fine.

But then school starts up again, and when Jughead Jones decides to investigate the events of the summer, her worlds start to collide.

Name: Cecilia Chambers

Story: Miss Americana And The Serpent Prince

Face claim: Josephine Langford

Love Interest: Jughead Jones

Summary: In a town like Riverdale, everybody knew everything about everyone. Or at least they liked to think that they did. And they certainly thought that they knew everything about Cecilia Chambers. They thought that she was the perfect All-American girl, the sweet, blonde, girl next door type. They didn’t know that she was a Southside Serpent, born and raised. They didn’t know that FP Jones was her godfather, and her parents’ best friend. They didn’t know that, when Archie bailed last minute, she was the one FP went to, whom he begged to get Jughead out of town for the summer. And even she didn’t know why, didn’t know what dark secrets he was trying to protect them from. But she agreed, and found herself embarking on a cross country road trip with Jughead Jones.

Name: Charlotte Jones

Title: No One Has to Know

Series: (This Time Maybe) I’ll Be Bulletproof

Face claim: Britt Robertson

Love Interest: Malachai

Summary: Alice Smith told FP Jones that she was pregnant, and he decided to raise their daughter. Serpent princess, heir to the mantle, and protective older sister, Charlotte would do anything for her family, including keep the secret about what happened to Jason Blossom; and she knew the truth, she dumped the body.

Trying to protect her brother without letting him in on the secret should have been easy, if only he hadn’t decided to write a novel about what happened on the Fourth of July.

Name: Christine Cooper

Title: Young & Beautiful

Series: (When I’ve Got Nothing But) My Aching Soul

Face claim: Sasha Pieterse

Love Interest: Poly Serpents

Summary: Christine Cooper had always gone after what she wanted. She’d gone after the Queen Bee title of Riverdale High, ruling the school with her best friend Cheryl. She’d gone after her older sister’s boyfriend, sneaking into Thornhill for clandestine hookups with Jason. She’d gone after the picture perfect life, existing in a different world from most of the town. And everything she went after, she got. She got the popularity, she got the boy, she got the dream tv life. And then Jason ran away with Polly - no, then Jason died. And the perfect, lovely, completely fake life that Chris had build fell apart.

Name: Daphne Dwyer

Fandom: Katy Keene

Story: Pasts That Haunt

Face claim: Leighton Meester

Love Interest: Katy Keene

Summary: Of course Daphne Dwyer remembered Riverdale, how could she not? Even when she wanted to, there were too many reminders: daily texts from her former foster brothers, Fangs and Sweet Pea, the leather jacket that she hid so carefully in the back of her closet, and, especially, the serpent tattoo she covered up every single morning. But she wasn’t a teenage biker gang member anymore. No, she had left that behind her when she was eighteen, when she moved to New York, when she began to climb the ladder as an Upper East Side socialite. Now she’s up and coming designer DeeDee; now her past is in her past and she’s only looking forward; now her best friend Katy is introducing their newest roommate - her former brother’s former fling, the daughter of Riverdale’s last mayor, Josie freaking McCoy

Name: Delaney “DC” Carlyle

Story: This Business Of Surviving

Face claim: Kristine Froseth

Love Interest: Endgame Jughead Jones & Archie Andrews

Summary: Matthew Carlyle was innocent, Delaney would bet her life on it. But, despite DC’s absolute belief in her father’s innocence, the FBI agent was still arrested for the murder of his fellow agent, Christopher Wells. So Delaney’s mother packed up their house in Washington, DC and moved her daughter back to her own hometown. But when they get to Riverdale they find a town shaken to its core by the disappearance of Jason Blossom. Honestly, DC couldn’t have cared less; she only cared about solving her father’s case and proving his innocence. At least until her mom brings her to the local Drive-In and everything changes.

First, she meets a boy in the projection booth who’s writing a novel about the murder; then she meets a man who turns out to be that boy’s father, her mom’s childhood best friend, and a gang leader - a gang that her mom is apparently a part of; finally she meets another boy, one with a snake tattooed on his neck and an undeniable magnetism. That’s when her whirlwind summer begins. But just as quickly as it started, her summer of romance, Serpents, and mysteries ends, and it’s time to make her space in a new school. DC is ready to put the past behind her and focus on the future, when in walks the daughter of Hiram Lodge - the last man her father put in jail.

Name: Doria Mary Wallis

Title: Untitled

Face claim: Jenny Boyd

Name: Drake Dawson

Title: Son Of Steel

Series: (Cause He’s) Stronger Than You Know

Face claim: Matthew Daddario

Summary: FP Jones and Derek Dawson had done everything together. They’d been Southsiders at Riverdale High together, they’d joined the Serpents together, they’d joined the army together, they’d even gone to Afghanistan together. But only FP came back. Drake Dawson had been raised by FP Jones for as long as he could remember, had idolized the man who was like a father to him, and had always tried to make him proud. And now, after four years of military service, the Serpent Prince is back in Riverdale. But everything has changed, and Drake no longer recognizes the town he grew up in.

Name: Emily Blossom

Story: Bloom

Face claim: Debby Ryan

Love Interest: Jughead Jones

Name: Everett Evernever

Story: Ain’t From No Heaven

Face claim: Madison Davenport

Love Interest: tentative poly Serpents

Summary: Of course Everett Evernever loved the Farm. Of course she respected her father and of course she pretended that her mother was her sister. Of course she only had one kidney and a partial liver. She would never consider anything else, would never question Edgar’s rulings. At least, not until her psychology class started to study cults. And the more Everett learned, the more things seemed familiar. But the Farm couldn’t be a cult, could it? It was her family. So she started acting out, determined to prove herself wrong. And that’s when Alice Cooper comes into the picture. In order to prove her loyalty and dedication, Alice is assigned to set Everett back on the right track. And it’s while she’s living with the Coopers that Everett meets the Southside Serpents, and her perfectly planned, perfectly secret life is thrown into a whirlwind.

Name: Evan “Fairy” Fogarty

Story: Don’t Take My Kindness For Weakness

Series: (Gonna Feel Me) When I Fight Back

Face claim: Lana Condor

Love interest: Sweet Pea & Jughead Jones

Summary: Evan Fogarty has been affectionately known as “Fairy” by the Serpents since she was nine years old, trailing after her brother and his best friend. It was Sweet Pea who came up with it, thought it was fitting for the sweet girl who paired a leather jacket with pastels, a switchblade with her ice capps, and razor blades with her pigtails, and honestly? She loved it. The Serpents, her family, knew that she was a lot tougher than she let on, but the Northsiders constantly underestimated her. They hear the nickname and expect an airhead child, not a girl who’s been taking care of her sick mother since she was ten. They expect a naïve fool, not the brains to her brother’s brawn. And yeah, she’d rather make peace with the Northsiders than start an all our turf war, but if that’s what’s happening, she’ll still be on the front lines. And when FP Jones is arrested for a murder she knows he didn’t commit, Evan knows that war has finally come to Riverdale.

Name: Fallon Parris “FP” Jones

Story: Every Day Is Like a Battle

Series: (We’re On the) Road to Ruin

AO3 | FFNet | Wattpad

Face claim: Brenna D'Amico

Love interest: Toni Topaz, Sweet Pea, Reggie Mantle

Summary: Fallon Parris Jones, FP to her friends, was taken to Toledo against her will when her parents separated. She would have stayed, for Jellybean, except her dad called her and told her that her twin had just been hauled in and questioned for murder. Fallon may play at obedience, but her twin’s wellbeing is always the most important thing in the world, so she hops on the next bus to Riverdale with no intention of leaving him ever again. It isn’t until she arrives that she finds out just how deep her family is in this mess, and clearly no one else can be counted on to fix everything. Armed with nothing but her well-worn Serpent jacket, a switchblade, and an unstoppable determination to protect her brother, Riverdale is about to find out that they messed with the wrong family

Name: Francesca Jones

Story: Living In Sin

Face claim: Lili Reinhart

Love Interest: poly Serpents (not Jughead of course)

Summary: Hal and Alice Cooper had only ever wanted two children, two perfect daughters for their perfect family. But when Alice found out that she was pregnant with twins, they agreed to keep both, and Francesca and Elizabeth Cooper were born. But then they found out that Francesca was deaf and, despite their decision to keep both twins, they were quick to give her to the Sisters of Quiet Mercy.

Shortly after Jughead was born, Gladys Jones was told that she could no longer have kids. Devastated, she and FP were quick to look into adoption, and found the perfect addition to their family; Francesca.

Francesca Paige Jones grew up on the Southside with her brother Jughead and their miracle sister Jellybean, although she chose to stay on the Southside and not interact with the other side of town, despite knowing that she had a twin sister and biological parents somewhere across the tracks, despite knowing that Jughead was even friends with her twin. But then Gladys and Jellybean move to Toledo, Jughead leaves home, FP helps dispose of Jason Blossom’s body, and suddenly the Northside is paying attention to them. She would have been perfectly happy to fly under the radar, to continue to pretend that she had no ties to the Northside, had she not come face to face with a mirror image of herself named Betty Cooper.

Name: Genevieve Grundy

Story: Perfect Stranger

Series: (Don’t Like Your) Little Lies

Face claim: Natalia Dyer

Love interest: Poly Serpents

Summary: Genevieve Grundy wasn’t a born Serpent like her friends, but she was still Southside through and through. She’d been raised on the Southside by her grandma, until her grandmother died and she was taken in by Serpent foster parents. She’d attended Southside High and joined the Serpents, she was a Southsider. Keyword being was. But after the Jason Blossom Incident, as they had taken to calling it, Gen found herself being moved to the Northside. She would be fine, she told herself, she could still visit her friends and it might be nice to go to a better school. She would be fine. And she almost believed it, until she walked into her first music class of the year, only to find that the teacher was using her grandmother’s name.

Name: Harley Day

Story: Legendary

Face claim: Bianca Santos

Love interest: Poly Serpents

Name: Harper Hope Harrison

Story: My Demons and My Muse

Series: (Though It’s Truth You Find) It’s Innocence You Lose

AO3 | FFNET | WATTPAD

Face claim: Dove Cameron

Love interest: Fangs Fogarty, eventual Fangs & Sweet Pea

Summary: In the midst of her parents’ messy divorce, Harper Harrison and her mom go to live with her mom’s cousin, Fred Andrews. She was really excited, her Uncle Fred was the coolest person ever, and apparently her cousin Archie is now as into music as she is. But after an accident during the drive to Riverdale lands her in the hospital instead of onstage, Harper has to reconsider everything she’s ever known. She doesn’t think that she could ever be on Broadway now, not after the accident left her with severe hearing loss, but the boy across the hall, recovering from a gunshot, is determined to prove otherwise.

Name: Hera Lodge

Story: Sins Of The Father

Face claim: Camila Mendes

Name: Holli Hansen

Story: A Thousand Cuts

Face claim: Skyler Samuels

Name: Ivy “Vine” Verona

Title: Dreamers Often Lie

Series: (Look Like The Innocent Flower) But Be The Serpent Under’t

Faceclaim: Emily Rudd

Summary: If there was one thing that Ivy Verona was good at, it was lying. She lied to the Northsiders; she said she was Northside pure, that her guardian was an accountant, that she’d never even heard of the Whyte Wyrm. She lied to the Southside too; she said she was flunking all her major classes, said cheerleading was only a front, said she planned to stay in Riverdale the rest of her life. And then there was the lie that she told the entire town - that she had no idea what might’ve happened to Jason Blossom.

Only her uncle FP and best friend Joaquin knew the truth. She’d been Jason’s dealer; she’d brought him to the Wyrm; she’d watched him die, and then washed away his blood; she dumped his body in the river and pretended it never happened.

But the biggest lie she told was to herself - that Jason Blossom’s death was not her fault.

Name: Jac Daniels

Story: Light In The Dark

Series: tbd

Face claim: Alycia Debnam-Carey

Love interest: Fangs Fogarty & Sweet Pea

Summary: Despite being a Southside Serpent, Jacqueline Daniels was one of the last truly good people in the town of Riverdale. Despite being surrounded by darkness, she wore her heart on her sleeve and always kept her heart open for more strays. Of course the majority of it was taken up by her three best friends and fellow Serpents, but when Jughead Jones transferred to Southside High, she knew there would be a place for him too. And there was, and Jughead found himself with a new tour guide slash bodyguard slash friend, whose open heart and pure soul were rivalled only by her fierce loyalty and protective nature. But even the brightest light in Riverdale has a breaking point, and when Northside drama starts to endanger her friends, her family, Jac may just discover her own.

Name: Jasmine Blossom

Story: Archaic

Face claim: Abigail Cowen

Love interest: tentative Archie Andrews

Name: Jennifer Andrews

Story: Two Can Keep a Secret (If One Of Them Is Dead)

Series: (Though It’s Truth You Find) It’s Innocence You Lose

Face claim: Dove Cameron

Love interest: FP Jones

Summary: Before there was Harper or Archie or Jughead, there was Jennifer and Fred and FP. The Rebel Girl, the All-American Boy, and Mr. Varsity. Jennifer and Fred Andrews may have been cousins, but they were as close as siblings, and rarely seen without their best friend FP Jones. They’d always been inseparable, and detention was no different. While Fred and FP were in trouble for streaking, Jen had gotten caught spray painting the boys’ locker room. It was just supposed to be one Saturday, but instead it ended with a corpse, hair dye, and a secret to bring to grave.

Name: Jennifer Andrews-Harrison

Story: My Demons and My Muse

Series: (Though It’s Truth You Find) It’s Innocence You Lose

AO3 | FFNET | WATTPAD

Face claim: Kristin Chenoweth

Love interest: FP Jones

Summary: Jennifer Harrison (née Andrews) had been in love once and married once, but they weren’t the same man. She’d been in love with Forsythe Pendleton Jones Jr. since she was fifteen, although she only confessed it when she was sixteen and left Riverdale for good. She’d been twenty five and three months pregnant when she married Joseph Harrison, and they’d managed to put up with each other for sixteen years. But when she finally files for divorce, she realizes that she can’t keep her daughter in the middle of it, and moves her to Riverdale. She tells her boss that it’s to write an exposé on the small town now rife with crime and corruption–a girl had just been murdered during a school musical, after all–, she tells her cousin Fred that it’s for her daughter’s sake, and she tells the town that it’s to get away from her husband. She didn’t realize that going back to her hometown meant going back to a secret she buried twenty five years ago, or to feelings that she’d tried to bury the exact same day.

Name: Jett Jones

Story: Daddy Lessons

Face claim: Crystal Reed

Love Interest: Jason Blossom, Archie Andrews

Name: Opal “Jewel” Cooper

Story: This Be The Verse

Series: (In This Town) There’s No One To Trust

Face claim: Grace Phipps

Love Interest: poly serpents (not Jughead, of course)

Summary: Opal Cooper, the youngest of the Cooper sisters, had always known that she was different. How could she not? Her dark hair made her the literal black sheep of her perfectly blonde family. Sure, her mom always claimed that she inherited it from her grandfather, but Opal knew that something was different. So, in the summer before she started high school, she did some digging. She wasn’t surprised at all to find she wasn’t a Cooper, but she was more than a little shocked to learn her biological father was none other than FP Jones. A simple desire to build a relationship with her real dad started Opal down a road that she never expected; a road of gangs and murder and nicknames. Starting high school armed with a switchblade and the truth about what happened to Jason Blossom, the newly nicknamed Jewel Cooper was nothing like the Opal anyone remembered.

Name: Julia Smith Thomas

Story: Begin Again

Face claim: Lily James

Love Interest: FP Jones

Name: Juliet Capes

Story: Star Crossed

Face claim: Sarah Jeffrey

Love interest: Fangs Fogarty

Summary: When Fangs Fogarty got dared to seduce the uptight Northside princess Juliet Capes, he knows it’s a dick move. But he also knows that it’ll get him his stripes, get him accepted with the teen serpents. The river vixen is easy to win over, and soon he’s claimed all of her firsts. Fangs would be happy to keep his motivations, and the gunshot they heard, a secret, but in a town like Riverdale, the truth always comes out, and someone always gets hurt.

Name: Fraser Paxton Jupiter Jones

Story: Amphisbaena

Face claim: Dylan O’Brien

Love Interest: Poly Serpents (not Jughead)

Summary: Fraser Paxton Jones was many things. He was a Riverdale Bulldog, a Southside Serpent, Cheryl Blossom’s boyfriend, Jughead Jones’ big brother, FP Jones’ firstborn son; he was Jupiter Jones. The one thing he wasn’t was a murderer. But when Clifford Blossom showed up at the Wyrm in early summer, threatening to kill his little brother if the Serpents didn’t do what he said, the line between who Jupiter Jones was and wasn’t started to blur.

Name: Kathryn Keyes

Story: All That Glitters (Isn’t Gold)

Series: (Glory And Gore) Go Hand In Hand

Face claim: Olivia Holt

Love Interest: Archie Andrews

Summary: Kathryn Keyes loved growing up in Orange County. She loved the sunshine and the beaches, Disneyland and busy streets, shopping and even school. She loved that boxing classes, her dojo, and her ballet studio were all within five minutes of each other, with a Starbucks in between. Really, she loved everything about her perfect glittery life. But that didn’t stop her parents from moving her all the way across the country to some hick town called Riverdale. There’s no Disneyland or busy streets, no beaches or shopping, not even a Starbucks. But there’s a gym and a studio, a forest and a river, so her summer is spent boxing and dancing, running and swimming. And on July Fourth, she runs into something - a redhead boy who couldn’t be any older than she was, and a woman at least twice their age, and despite what they said, it definitely wasn’t just music lessons. But still, when the boy offers to walk her home, she says yes; she figures she might as well have one friend at her new school, after all.

But then they hear a gunshot and Kathryn finds herself drawn into the web of lies surrounding that day. She knew that helping to unravel the mystery would reveal some secrets, but she never expected to learn that her perfect glittery life in California wasn’t quite as golden as she thought.

Name: Keegan Rhodes

Story: Everybody Else’s Girl

Series: (Maybe One Day) She’ll Be Her Own

AO3 | FFNET | WATTPAD

Face claim: Jordan Fisher

Love interest: Stevie Cooper

Name: Kit Cooper

Story: It Gets Worse Here Every Day

Face claim: Kiernan Shipka

Summary: Hal and Alice Cooper had only ever wanted two daughters. Two perfect daughters. They’d never wanted the third; the wild child, the unplanned twin. They were going to keep her, they weren’t going to separate Betty from her twin, but when Kit Cooper was diagnosed with severe hearing loss and that was the last straw. Only five years old, Kit was shipped off to The Sisters Of Quiet Mercy, out of sight, out of mind. They told her sisters that she was at a private care facility, one that was better equipped to handle her disability than they were. They would have gotten away with it, if ten years later they hadn’t sent Polly to the Sisters as well. Now the secret is out, and Betty and Polly will do whatever it takes to get their sister back.

Name: Kristiana Keller

Story: Silver Screen

Series: (Know the Water’s Sweet) But Blood Is Thicker

AO3 | FFNET | WATTPAD

Face claim: Danielle Campbell

Love interest: Toni Topaz

Summary: If the Keller twins could explain one thing, just one thing, to the people of Riverdale, it would be that they were exhausted. With their father as Sheriff, it always seemed like they were held to a higher standard than the rest of the town. Lieutenant of the cheer squad and the best wrestler in his weight class; student body vice president and social coordinator; Model UN Secretary General and Chargé D’Affairs; 4.0 GPAs; and a secret to take to the grave. And if anyone found out that they heard the gunshot on the fourth of July, it might just be to the grave.

Name: Lola Lexington

Story: Living Like A Devil

Series: (Find Me) Where The Wild Things Are

Face claim: Emeraude Toubia

Love Interest: Toni Topaz & Sweet Pea

Name: Lyra Lovell

Story: Unconquerable

Series: (With A Devil) On Your Back

Face claim: Haley Lu Richardson

Love interest: Jughead Jones

Summary: When Jughead Jones moved to Toledo after his dad’s arrest, he thought that he was finally leaving Riverdale, and the Serpents, behind him. But when his mom introduces him to his guide, he knows that’ll be impossible. Lyra Lovell was a Serpent legacy like he was, and left her mom in Riverdale to move to Toledo with her dad. Being surrounded by the so-called Toledo Serpents would have been bad enough, but then FP is proven innocent and Gladys sends him straight back to Riverdale. Fully prepared for the worst, he’s pleasantly surprised to find out that Lyra has decided to go home too–if only they can find a way out of their seemingly inevitable destinies.

Name: Mallory Mason

Story: Lamb To The Slaughter

Face claim: Willa Fitzgerald

Summary: Mallory Mason had been popular once - with Moose as her brother and Cheryl as her best friend, she couldn’t have been anything less. She had been popular once, and happy, and desperately in love with her best friend. And then she came out. At fourteen, Mal Mason was sent to the Sisters of Quiet Mercy for conversion therapy. At sixteen, her best friend and first crush shows up in Mal’s personal hell. And then she gets rescued, and drags Mal out with her. And suddenly, after two years, Mal has to face Riverdale again. And, more importantly, Mal has to face her family.

Name: Mila Turner

Story: Fearless

Face claim: Victoria Justice

Name: Nova Nixon

Story: Serpentine

Face claim: Emma Dumont

Name: Olivia Cooper

Story: Walls Come Tumbling Down

Series: (Does It Almost Feel Like) Nothing Changed At All

Faceclaim: Lily Collins

Love Interest: Sweet Pea & Fangs Fogarty

Summary: As much as Olivia Cooper loved her sisters, and she truly did, it often felt like she was living with strangers. While Betty and Polly were thick as thieves, she never quite fit in. But she still knew her sisters better than anyone, and she knew that Polly wasn’t sick. No matter what their parents said, she knew her twin and she knew that something wasn’t quite right. She just never expected her investigation to bring her face to face with two magnetic Southside Serpents, and she definitely never expected to find herself feeling more at home with them than she ever had with her sisters. But that won’t stop her from finding out the truth about Polly, no matter how many secrets get revealed along the way.

Name: Pandora Peabody

Story: The Snake Whisperer

Series: (It Isn’t In) My Blood

Face claim: Ashley Benson

Love interest: Poly Serpents

Summary: Everyone on the Southside knew Panda Peabody, daughter of the Snake Charmer, Penny Peabody herself. A king pin in the making, Panda was virtually untouchable, and she had her mom’s talent for business. But instead of dealing in favours, she deals in secrets.

Everyone on the Northside knows Pandora Patterson, the aloof queen bee herself. Pandora isn’t popular the way that Cheryl Blossom is, through a desperate grasp at the social ladder, but rather because she’s so disinterested. She walks like she owns the halls, she keeps to herself, and she knows everything about everyone.

While the Serpents knew that their own Snake Whisperer was a student at Riverdale High, dealing in both secrets and drugs, the Bulldogs had no idea that their It Girl was not only a Serpent, but the one most capable of destroying all of them.

Name: Persephone Parsons

Story: Heartbreak Is The National Anthem

Face claim: Ginny Gardner

Name: Presley Palmer

Story: Living In The Garden Of Evil

Series: (Tell Me All Your) Sweet, Sweet Little Lies

Face claim: Carlson Young

Love Interest: Sweet Pea & Toni Topaz

Summary: Presley Palmer wasn’t just a normal Northsider. No, she was the peak of the Northside. Raised by a single father who was as rich as the Blossoms, in a sprawling mansion near Thornhill, and Cheryl Blossom’s best friend and co-captain of the River Vixens, she was the girl that every Northsider wanted to be or to be with. But, as popular and social as they were, Presley and Cheryl were equally insular. It was always, only, the two of them; ice and water; Queen Pres and Cherry; Presley and Cheryl. Two sides of the same coin, they knew everything about each other.

Well, not everything. Cheryl didn’t know about the snake tattoo that Presley covered up every day; she didn’t know that on the other side of town, Presley Palmer was known as Prissy Peabody, the only daughter of the infamous Snake Charmer; and she most certainly didn’t know that it would be Jughead Jones’ investigation into her brother’s disappearance that would bring those secrets to life.

Name: Queenie Quincy

Story: Liability

Series: (Die Only For) You Above All

Face claim: Marlo Kelly

Love Interest: Toni Topaz

Name: Raven Richards

Story: Cruel Summer

Series: (This Town Will Be) The Downfall Of Us All

Face claim: Emma Mackey

Love Interest: Poly Serpents (not Jughead)

Name: Rayne Rivers

Story: An Ounce Of Loyalty

Face claim: Lucy Hale

Love interest: Poly Serpents

Summary: Maybe Rayne Rivers wasn’t the most popular Serpent, or the most feared Serpent, or anything special whatsoever by her gang’s standards, but she was loyal. Loyal enough that FP Jones asked her, personally, to help deal with Jason Blossom’s body. Loyal enough that she did so without question, without complaint. Loyal enough that now that his body has been found, Rayne would sooner die than give her up her gang’s secrets. But in a town like Riverdale, be careful what you wish for.

Name: Renee Steele

Story: Ourobos

Face claim: Winona Ryder

Love Interest: Robert Steele

Name: Riley Richards

Story: Cruel Summer

Series: (This Town Will Be) The Downfall Of Us All

Face claim: Kathryn Newton

Love Interest: Jughead Jones & Archie Andrews

Name: Robert Steele

Story: Ourobos

Face claim: David Harbour

Love Interest: Renee Steele

Name: Rose Blossom

Story: A Rose By Any Other Name

Series: (Ill Met) By Moonlight

Face claim: Sophie Turner

Love interest: Sweet Pea & Jughead

Summary: The youngest of the Blossom siblings, Rose had always been the most spoiled. Affectionately, and mockingly, referred to as Princess Blossom, she was everything a Northsider, everything a Blossom should be. Of course, things started to fall apart when her brother disappeared, but when she joined the River Vixens, things seemed to be getting back on track. At least they were, until her brother’s body is found with a bullet hole in his head. Unsure of what to do next, Rose runs. She runs and runs until she finds herself on the Southside, falling into the arms of a tall, dark, and handsome stranger who goes by Sweet Pea. And then there’s the question of Jughead Jones, and the magnetic attraction she feels towards him. The cycle always ends the same way; a Jones and a Blossom, a Serpent and a Blossom, but by god, Rose will make sure that she’s not Riverdale’s next tragic Juliet.

Name: Rosebud Reynolds

Story: The Price Of Your Greed (Is Your Son And Your Daughter)

Series: (I Gotta Recognize) The Weapon In My Mind

Face claim: Halston Sage

Love Interest: Archie Andrews, Toni Topaz, Sweet Pea, endgame FP Jones

Summary: At seventeen years of age, Rosebud Reynolds had… well, she definitely didn’t have it all, but she had what mattered. She had the Serpent jacket that she’d been wearing for ten years and the nickname she’d had for even longer - and god help anyone who used her real name. She had fifteen years of ballet lessons under her belt and an upcoming audition for Juilliard.

But everything is on the line when she gets sent to Riverdale High to keep an eye on Jughead Jones. It would have been fine, if he hadn’t decided to investigate the disappearance of Jason Blossom.

It would have been fine, if she didn’t know the truth about what happened.

It would have been fine, if she hadn’t watched her father shoot him.

His son.

Her brother.

Name: Roxie Harrison

Story: Nothing Town

Face claim: Shelley Hennig

Love Interest: Poly Serpents

Name: Ruby Klump

Story: Blood In The Water

Series: (This Town Kills You) When You Are Young

Face claim: Meg Donnelly

Love interest: Fangs Fogarty, eventual Fangs x Sweet Pea

Summary: Ruby Klump had been thirteen when she was first sent to a school for “troubled kids” on the outskirts of Greendale and, despite still living in Riverdale, that had been the beginning of a lifetime of isolation. She barely knew any other teens in Riverdale, not even her older sister’s friends. Her parents had worked long and hard to keep their problem child away from their perfect Riverdale life, but when Midge is murdered during the school musical, Ruby has to come to the funeral. And once the floodgates are open, there’s no going back. Finally making friends in her town, Ruby refuses to be hidden away anymore. Especially after she befriends a particularly cute boy in a leather jacket… who just got arrested for her sister’s murder.

Name: Ryann Hernández-Viamonte

Story: A Real Nightmare

Series: (Dangerously Having) The Time Of Our Lives

Face claim: Sofia Carson

Love interest: Toni Topaz

Summary: Next to her brother Malachai, Ryann Hernández-Viamonte had always been underestimated, never seen as a real threat by anyone outside of the Ghoulies. But the Ghoulie Princess knew that, despite everyone’s assumptions, she was one of the most dangerous people in Riverdale. And after the stunt that Andrews kid pulled at the drag race, Ry found herself spending eight months in Juvie. Finally, two months after her brother and most of their fellow Ghoulies were released, Ry is back in Riverdale, only to find that everything has gone to shit. First she finds out that she’s now attending Riverdale High, and then she learns that not only did Malachai make a deal with Penny Peabody, but now they’re also working for Hiram Lodge? Well, not if she has anything to say about it.

Name: Samantha Cooper

Story: Glissade

Face claim: Willow Shields

Love Interest: Fangs Fogarty & Sweet Pea

Summary: Skating was, and had always been, Samantha Cooper’s entire life. But not by choice. No, as much as she had always loved skating, it was her mother who had forced her to focus her entire life on perfection, on the Olympics. It was her mother who didn’t let her have friends, or hobbies; who didn’t even want her to go to a proper school. And Samantha really didn’t mind skating being her priority, but she’d always wanted a real life. And when Alice pushes too far, when Samantha runs off in the middle of the night, right into the arms of two tall, dark, and handsome boys from the wrong sides of the track, she may finally get her chance. But everything comes at a price, and Sam is soon going to find out the cost of her choices.

Name: Skylar Smith

Story: Lonely World

Series: (This Town Has Got) The Youth Of Me

Face claim: Amanda Seyfried

Name: Stevie Cooper

Story: Everybody Else’s Girl

Series: (Maybe One Day) She’ll Be Her Own

AO3 | FFNET | WATTPAD

Face claim: Sabrina Carpenter

Love interest: Keegan Rhodes

Summary: The middle Cooper sister, Stevie never really knew or cared about the Riverdale drama or the Cooper drama, because she was “eat, sleep, breathe, gymnastics”. She didn’t even live in Riverdale, she lived just outside of New York City at an elite facility, where top athletes could train with the best of the best, while also attending a school designed to accommodate their training.

She knew that Polly had been dating Jason Blossom, but didn’t really care as long as Polly was happy; she knew that Betty had been in love with their neighbour since she was eight, and that she was spending the summer with some fancy internship, but that was it.

But after a broken wrist takes her out of gymnastics for a while and she has to trade her gymnastics-oriented boarding school for Riverdale High, just in time for the first day of class, she realizes exactly how much shit her little sister is caught up in, at school and at home, and god help anyone who tries to stop her from protecting her.

Name: Summer Simmons

Story: Such Sweet Sorrow

Series: (Serpent Heart) Hid With A Flowering Face

Face claim: Janel Parrish

Love interest: Archie Andrews

Summary: Much like her twin brother Sweet Pea, Summer never used her real name. No, no one needed to know that–most people didn’t even know their last name. So yeah, names had never really meant anything to Summer, until she finds out that the Archie she’s been dating, ever since he walked into the Wyrm in a Riverdale High varsity jacket, is none other than Archie Andrews–her brother’s new enemy and now the leader of some teen vigilante gang that’s sworn to hate her gang–her family. Well, as Shakespeare would say, the course of true love never did run smooth.

Name: Talia Steele

Story: Ourobos

Face claim: Zoey Deutch

Love Interest: tentative Poly Serpents

Name: Tanya Conway

Story: Yesterday’s Girl (Is Not What You See)

Series: (This Human Place) Makes Inhuman Monsters

Face claim: Kat McNamara

Love Interest: Poly Serpents

Summary: Identity was fickle, as far as Tanya was concerned. To some she was Tanya Trent, a first generation serpent whose mother was the principal of Southside High, until the Black Hood killed her. To others she was Tanya Svenson, a Southside punk whose father was the janitor at Riverdale High, until he was killed for being the Black Hood. To herself she was Tanya Conway, a teenage girl who knew that the Cooper family had killed her dad’s family; who knew that, even after they divorced, her dad loved her mom; who knew that, no matter what anyone said, her dad wasn’t the Black Hood. And now she’s just Tanya, a scared but stubborn girl with no sense of identity who’s just been sent to Riverdale High with her fellow Serpents, armed with nothing but the snake tattooed on her back and the need to clear her father’s name.

Name: Tiara Blossom

Story: Dollhouse

Face claim: Maddison Brown

Name: Victoria Lodge

Story: You Inherit The Sins, You Inherit The Flames

Series: (Now We’re In The Ring) And We’re Coming For Blood

Face claim: Jenna Ortega

Summary: Victoria Lodge was the black sheep of the Lodge family. She didn’t care about the constant parties or connections, she didn’t particularly like her dad, she’d never even watched Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and oh, right, she had no interest in being a mob princess. Maybe that’s why she’s the only one looking forward to moving to Riverdale–until she realizes she’s walked onto the set of a real life murder mystery, and even her parents are suspects.

#masterlist #riverdale oc

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fayewonglibrary · 4 years

Text

Faye Wong's emotional past with Dou Wei, Jessica Jiang and Gao Yuan (2020)

DISCLAIMER: Some of this information is taken from Jessica Jiang's book so take it with a grain of salt.

- excerpt from Sister Na's Light and Shadow Notes -

Faye Wong and Dou Wei’s past must start with Jessica Jiang [Jiang Xin].

In her autobiography, "Days When My Long Hair Flew", Jessica Jiang recalled the legendary emotional entanglement between her, Dou Wei and Faye Wong.

In 1989, Jessica Jiang was 18 years old. She was attending a party at an underground dance club when she met several young rockers including Dou Wei.

"There was a boy in a black windbreaker. I couldn't see his face under the flashing lights, but I noticed his long hair that was flying with the rhythm... He danced very well and was very intense."

It was an era when everyone was very young and also unknown. Dou Wei was a Beijing native. His parents divorced when he was young. His mother took him and his sister to live in a compound. He went to a vocational school at the age of 16 and majored in psychiatric nursing. But because of his love for music, he learned guitar during his school days and began to play music. At the age of 18, he was admitted to the Beijing Youth Music Group.

Jessica Jiang dropped out of school in her sophomore year and started to make music, initially singing in a bar. The two met and fell in love. In addition to being driven by young love, they also had a mutual appreciation for each others talents.

Jessica Jiang wrote in her book, "Love is something that suddenly occurs in an instant. It is something that catches you off guard and you can't get rid of it."

After the two lovers confirmed their relationship, Jessica Jiang followed Dou Wei to live in his small courtyard [living quarters].

At first, the parents on both sides opposed to their relationship. Dou Wei's mother felt that the two were too young to fall in love and shouldn't live together. Dou Wei persuaded his mother on the grounds that "We are serious about love, we are not playing around. We will get married when we are old enough".

At that time, Faye Wong was already a singer in Hong Kong. When she was bored, she liked to fly back to Beijing. Beijing was home and a place of freedom and love. At that time, Faye Wong’s boyfriend was Luan Shu from the band Hei Bao [Black Panther], so she also knew Dou Wei and the other band members.

According to Jessica Jiang's recollection, one day she was home alone and received a parcel pickup slip from the postman. The address was the United States and the sender was Faye Wong.

When Dou Wei returned home, he took the slip to the post office to retrieve the package. It was a box full of CDs, a nice knit cap, and a letter. The letter was about her recent troubles, and at the end it said, "Can you stop calling me Little Wong in the future?"

Obviously, such precious gifts and an ambiguous letter from across the ocean meant something beyond a relationship of ordinary friends.

Dou Wei saw Jessica Jiang's displeasure and said, "Don't be so petty." and then gave the hat that Faye Wong sent to him to Jessica.

As for when Faye Wong and Dou Wei got closer, there was a rumor that she and the entire band often met up in those days. One time, Dou Wei was going to buy something and Faye Wong followed him but the two did not come back.

Whether this is true or not, I am afraid that only the parties themselves will know.

No matter what, it can be seen that Faye Wong is very proactive with her feelings. She takes the initiative to pursue the career she likes and takes the initiative to approach the people she likes. She never passively waits.

Many people feel that Faye Wong's life is carefree and easy. This is probably because she chooses every part of her life on her own initiative. No matter what the outcome is, there will be no regrets. Her life is fully lived and experienced, so there is real freedom. And those who are passive or hesitant miss the right to choose and will have so much reluctance and resentment.

In the winter of 1991, Dou Wei left Black Panther and cut his long hair. At that time, the band's popularity was at an all-time high and everyone did not understand. But this decision had something to do with Faye Wong. After forming a new band, Dou Wei asked Jessica Jiang to come watch his performance. But when Jessica arrived at the scene, everyone else was there, only Dou Wei was missing.

Finally, Jessica found Dou Wei and Faye Wong at a hotel.

"I found him and he was in the bathroom in her room. He had obviously just taken a shower and I noticed that his hair was wet - that was the last thing I wanted to see."

As Jessica rushed into the hotel room, the security called the police, and the three were taken to the police station. Because of her Hong Kong identity, Faye Wong was released first while Jessica and Dou Wei were detained overnight. Early the next morning, the two left the police station, walking one after the other. Dou Wei began to walk faster and faster and then ran. Just like that, he disappeared from Jessica's eyes.

Jessica Jiang wrote in her book:

"To be honest, I did hate her [Faye] at the time. But after many years, I began to understand - there is no right or wrong in love. We have all seen the beauty that exists in someone. We all desire to share a life with him. So who is wrong?"

There is no right or wrong in love. But a relationship between three people does bring pain to each other.

Dou Wei once asked Jessica very seriously, "If I stop making music and just open a small grocery store at the entrance of the hutong, or become a music teacher at the primary school, will you still love me? Will you be happy with me?"

Of course, Dou Wei did not give up music, nor did he stop his relations with the two women.

One afternoon, Dou Wei's grandmother, younger sister and Jessica were making dumplings. Dou Wei answered the phone and went out. When he returned home, he was dragging a suitcase in his hand and was followed by Faye Wong.

The three of them sat at one table, eating and chatting together until late at night. In Jessica's memories, Dou Wei said this:

"I know you love me and I love you. But to be honest, I don’t think this [situation] is contradictory. I can give you everything you want from me, so I really don’t understand why we make ourselves suffer. I have never dared to say these words and kept them in my heart because I was also asking myself - is it normal to think this way? Is it right? I have not overthrown myself and forced myself to make a choice. But my conscience is always disturbed..."

The three fell silent and politely added water to each other’s cups. Faye Wong asked Jessica, "Do you think he loves you?" Jessica said, "If he didn't love me, why are we together?" Faye Wong said, "But he told me the same."

This three-person love line lasted for awhile. Whenever Faye Wong returned to Beijing, Dou Wei went to Faye Wong. When Faye Wong returned to Hong Kong, Dou Wei went to Jessica.

At that time, Faye Wong was already very popular and became a superstar. The photo of Faye Wong coming out of the toilet in her pajamas one morning was taken by paparazzi and the public was in an uproar.

Faye Wong truly loved Dou Wei and the love was very painful and persistent. Her own lyrics in the song "No Regrets" may be an accurate expression of her state of mind at the time: "This time I resolutely confront / I rashly allow myself to become enraptured / I don't care whether this is right or wrong / Even if it is a dangerous trap, I won't care about anything else / Even when it comes to love, I'll love without regrets”.

In 1996, Faye Wong got pregnant by accident and the two got married.

Dou Wei's mentality at the time was probably a bit helpless. At their dinner banquet, Dou Wei hesitantly said to Faye Wong, "Actually, I’m not a good man. You have to think about whether to marry me or not."

Upon hearing this, Faye Wong's friends became angry and her manager Katie Chan immediately hit the table, "What do you want? Are you marrying her or not?"

Dou Jingtong was born in 1997. The stable, seemingly perfect marriage that was finally attained only lasted a little over two years before it came to an end.

Later, Dou Wei publicly stated that he suspected that it was a conspiracy when Faye Wong married him. He blamed Faye Wong for putting too much emphasis on her career and disregarding the family. Buying him a car and house corrupted his will, consumed his creative talents, and almost ruined him in music.

But the real reason for the divorce was the existence of another woman, Gao Yuan.

In early March of 1999, Faye Wong held a concert in Tokyo. Dou Wei appeared at the after-party. However, the atmosphere between the two was obviously off. Not only did they sit separately from each other without any communication, but Faye Wong also seemed very down. It was not until Dou Wei left that she became lively.

The reporters immediately sensed something was wrong in their marriage.

Faye Wong's team tried to clarify the rumors until one day Dou Wei brought Gao Yuan to an event and said to the media openly, "She is Gao Yuan, my lover."

Gao Yuan is a photographer and met Dou Wei when she took photos for his band.

According to her, they met in 1994 and have been together since so she was not a third party in Faye and Dou Wei’s marriage .

At that time, Faye had a glimmer of hope for Dou Wei. She once said, “Everyone makes mistakes. If there’s an affair, I must first know under what circumstances the other party made the mistake. If there is no intention to give up the family, I will be forgiving at my discretion. If he likes the other person and will not look back, then I will give up fighting and I won't force it anymore."

As a matter of fact, doesn’t the one who has been let down have a right to choose? Talking about forgiveness is self-deception. Unfaithfulness will never be truly forgiven. There will always be a gap between the two people, reminding you of the existence of betrayal and the collapse of trust all the time.

After seeing Dou Wei with Gao Yuan, the "battle" was too late. Faye Wong made up her mind and chose to end this marriage. That year, she was just 30 years old.

A few years later, Dou Wei married Gao Yuan but their marriage did not last long and ended in divorce. Perhaps people like Dou Wei are not suitable for marriage.

I don’t know if their story paints them as "jerks", so I hesitated when writing about them. Now that I have written about them, I will say a few more words - aside from moral judgments, I can actually understand that artists, especially when they are young, need high-stimulation and fresh emotional experiences to enrich their perception and artistic life. It is precisely because they are such highly sensitive and highly passionate people that they have moved towards the fate of creativity.

Of course, those entanglements and betrayals in the relationship must be painful when they experience it. But Faye Wong makes me admire her:

She has never regarded the end of her marriage as a failure in her life. She has never used her child to sell an image of a miserable mother to win sympathy from the public.

Dou Wei's influence on Faye Wong's music is obvious.

I really like Faye Wong's album "Fuzao", which has a strong color of Dou Wei. I particularly like the song "Impermanence”. The lyrics were written by Faye Wong and arranged by Dou Wei. The whole song has a far-reaching artistic conception and it seems to be pondering subtle feelings with a Buddhist flavor. Impermanence, like their love that was once so fierce, burning brilliantly and recklessly had soon disappeared. Another song I like is called "Fracture": innocently smiling, see through everything, exhausted of love, don’t disdain anything. The first time I heard this song it hit me deeply.

On the other hand, I also like Jessica Jiang's music very much. She has a more carefree and casual personality. She did not have a strong desire to pursue pop success. She was always regarded as relatively indie. My feeling is that she sang with all her life emotions, not her skills.

She has a song called "I'm Not a Random Flower" that I really like.

Jessica Jiang married drummer Zhang Yongguang in 2003; he died of depression in 2014.

Faye Wong fell in love with Nicholas Tse after her divorce, then married Li Yapeng in 2005 and divorced him in 2013. She reunited with Nicholas Tse in 2014. Of course, that is a whole other story.

------------------------------------------------------------------

SOURCE: THE PAPER // TRANSLATED BY: FAYE WONG FUZAO

#2020

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adabassist · 4 years

Text

SKATING AWAY ON THE FRETLINES OF A NEW DAY

I expect that there’s not a single electric bassist out there who can’t remember the first time they got to play a fretless bass. The difference in the sonic, visual, tactile, even the emotional experience - it leaves an impression on almost every player, whether they pursue the instrument or not. It’s really as close to the human voice as a bass is gonna get. It’s a truly seductive instrument; it’s even downright sexy. If Kathleen Turner played bass, I’d bet you a dollar she’d play a fretless.

The passion I developed for this instrument consumed me; once I discovered the fretless bass, fretted basses became boring, limiting, and they just felt plain weird. I had a fretless with me everywhere I went, every gig, every studio date, every rehearsal, every trip out of town. I even took it on dates; hey, you never know, right?

My introduction to the instrument was anything but unique: my high school band teacher suggested that I get an album called Heavy Weather by a jazz fusion band called Weather Report. Upon hearing the opening track, “Birdland”, I immediately recognized the sound I was hearing as a bass, but it sounded like what that bassist was doing was impossible! As far as I knew, without a whammy bar, there was no way to make those harmonic notes move and slide like that… so I brought the cassette to my teacher and played the intro for him, and asked him how they were doing that… he said, “Well, isn’t Jaco Pastorius the king of the fretless bass?”

I said, “King of the what? And who’s Jaco?”

What followed was a desperate attempt to get my hands on a fretless, even just to try it; none of the music stores around had them (living in a flyover state with the nearest metropolis over an hour away has its disadvantages), nobody I knew had one or even knew anybody else who had one, and when I finally found an upstart guitar company who made a stock affordable fretless, my folks wouldn’t get it for me because, not being terribly musically inclined, they couldn’t understand why I would need a 2nd bass.

At this point my teacher moved away, and I found a new teacher at the music store the next town over. And HE happened to have a fretless bass, and he let me borrow it that summer while he was on vacation. He dropped it off on his way out of town, pretty close to midnight. I took it down into the basement and pulled it out and was all set to plug it in when I heard, “DON’T TURN THAT AMPLIFIER ON, YOUR SISTER IS SLEEPING!”

Jeez, not anymore I bet, Mom. “Okay, okay, I won’t turn it on…”

But there I sat, on my barstool in the basement, bass strapped over my shoulder, just plucking the strings and sliding my fingers up and down the fingerboard. For a good half an hour. If I had smoked, I would have needed a cigarette afterwards. (I told you it was sexy.)

The next morning I realized how amazingly difficult it was to play that bass in tune. No lines, hardly any useful reference points. Very difficult to figure out where I was on the bass. But the tone it created, and my desire to make more tones like that, superseded any concern about how much practice this was going to take. I finally got my very own fretless - a Rickenbacker 4001 - and really began concentrating on mastering it (much to the detriment of my grades in school).

One of my favorite things about the fretless bass is that the tone really lends itself to lyrical melodies. The instrument takes on qualities of the human voice in the middle to upper registers. And I found myself learning horn parts to jazz tunes as well as more traditional bass lines like those from my favorite rock bands, which ended up serving me really well down the road.

Another favorite thing is the fact that many fretless basses used to be fretted basses, and the slots leftover from said frets being removed usually get filled in with material of a contrasting color to the surrounding wood. These are known as “fret lines”, and if used correctly, they can greatly enhance one’s ability to play notes in tune. They are also the subject of great controversy among we bass nerds, as there are those who feel it’s “cheating” somehow. For my money, I’m on Team Fretlines.

So I practiced and practiced, and even went to music school for a year after high school, and came home and kept practicing. One thing led to another, and less than a year after I returned, I found myself auditioning for a band in the area that had already been signed to a small local record label, and was getting some pretty big gigs around the country, and needed a true fretless bassist, as opposed to a bassist who trots out a fretless as a novelty on stage for one song. Unbelievably, I landed the gig. Of course the REAL work was just beginning, but I was blessed with a really fast and accurate ear, and they decided to give me a shot.

I soon realized how green I really was compared to true professional musicians, and I had to make a concerted effort to keep up, but after a lot of hard work, not only did I learn to behave as a pro, but I really sharpened my ear and its relationship to my fingers… I was developing the ability to create a phrase in my head, and play it on my first attempt. (This is a big deal for musicians; imagine not being able to say much to anyone unless you practice it over and over, and you’ll have an idea of how most musicians approach music.)

Several years later (same band), I get a call from my keyboard player, who wants me to come in to the band studio the next morning before rehearsal (we recorded at one band member’s house, and practiced at another’s in the same neighborhood) so I can put down a bass melody for a demo of a song he’s writing for the next album.

I show up with my bass at 8am (yeech!), and we start discussing the song: “I need you to double that melody with the cheesy synth-sax sound. The song goes through the same chord progression 3 times, and the melody occurs during the 1st and the 3rd pass.”

“Got it. What happens during the 2nd pass? Should I just take a solo over the chords?”

“No, I’m going to have my sax player friend replace the synth melody, and he’s going to do a solo, so just leave it empty.”

Plugged in, got signal and levels. I was taught the melody - beautiful, and not too complicated. Cool little chord progression with a twist. He hit the record button, and I played the melody I had just learned along with the track.

As I played the final note, preparing to rest for the next 32 bars, he dropped a bomb in my lap: “Why don’t you just throw down a solo here anyway.”

This was exactly ZERO WARNING, for a song I had heard for the first time about 10 minutes prior. It’s like being thrown an enormous water balloon at 94 mph and being expected to catch it.

That’s when my brain became my best friend.

My ears said to my brain: here’s what should come next. tell the fingers to make this happen…

My brain said: i can do that! fingers, do this, this, and this, and then this.

And the phrase I thought would sound great instantly came out of the studio speakers.

I didn’t have time to be shocked; my ears were ready for the next phrase, giving orders to my brain, which meted them out. This happened at least a dozen times in a row, right up until the melody was supposed to re-enter. And my ears, having connected a long series of invisible dots over the last 60 seconds or so, even properly glued the last phrase to the beginning of the melody. It was like a factory assembly line: my frontal cortex had an idea, my ears refined it and made sure it fit the chords, the frontal cortex figured out where those notes had to be on the fingerboard, the motor cortex took those plans and sent the signals down to my fingers. And each set of “orders” took less time than the blink of an eye.

I peeked up after I got to the “safe zone” of the out melody (which I already knew), and my keyboard player’s jaw was on his chest. I had to remind myself to concentrate; after all, I was still recording.

When I finished, he hit the stop button, turned to me, and said, “How did you do THAT??”

I didn’t quite understand, so he rewound the tape and played back what I had just recorded.

And I was treated to a sonic representation of the way my brain and ears operate when they’re in top form. I had no memory of playing the actual solo (and I still don’t); it was a true transcendental experience. Yet, as I listened back to the track, I KNEW every note I was about to hear as if I had been waiting my entire life to play that solo. It was like a perfectly written story that practically told itself. 25 years later and I still know it by heart; haven’t thought of a single thing I’d do different. It was a complete stream-of-consciousness expression, in fretless bass solo form. I’ve never had another experience like it since.

We both kind of sat there for a few seconds after the song ended, and he finally said, “I don’t care what anyone else says; for my money, this song’s done. Let’s show this to the band at rehearsal.”

So we took it along and played it for everyone else. Everyone loved it, but the bandleader said, “I know that was an amazing solo, but there’s already too much fretless on the upcoming record. I think the solo should be sax instead. I hope you understand.”

And I did understand, even if it was a bit of a bummer. Oh well, at least I had a copy of my solo on cassette tape for posterity.

Sax player showed up a few days later, on a day when I wasn’t there, to play the melody and do a solo, but there was a problem - he had been sent the same demo tape that I had, with my solo on it, and it was influencing his improv in a way that didn’t really suit the sax. He finally said, “I need to skip the solo. The melody is fine, no problem, but I keep veering off course during the solo because I hear the bass solo in my head so strongly.”

So the bandleader calls me and tells me what happened, and that he’s decided that HE will play an electric jazz guitar solo over the chord changes (he did this regularly in the group, and to great effect). Okay, great. Curious as to what I’ll hear in two days when it’s done.

Two days later I get another phone call: “I can’t do it. I keep playing stuff that works great on the guitar, and it fits the changes nicely, but the phrases just sound disconnected, I keep hearing your solo in my head, and I can’t seem to fix it. Would you mind if I transcribed your fretless solo and played it on the jazz guitar?”

“Feel free, it’d be an honor,” I said. Good thing FaceTime wasn’t a thing back then, because I’m sure I was smirking.

The next day I arrived at the studio to record another song for the new record, where I find the bandleader standing outside shaking his head.

“Did you finish the solo? How’d it go?”

“Yep. And I hate it.”

“What happened?”

“I spent over an hour last night transcribing your part. And I just spent another hour recording it. You know what it sounds like?”

I had an answer ready, but I wasn’t about to say it out loud if I didn’t have to. I figured I’d let him say it instead, which he did:

“It sounds like a bunch of great fretless bass licks, played on the wrong instrument. I think we should just use your original bass solo.”

Now that’s taking the long way around to come to the right decision.

When I look back on that moment, I find it amazing that I don’t remember coming up with the phrases, and I certainly don’t remember anything happening that pulled me out of that “mode” I was in; the solo all but wrote itself, and I was simply the conduit. But I remember my bandmate’s reaction.

Since then, I have tried to conjure that mojo dozens of times, with varying degrees of success, but never quite to that level. But it showed me what was possible within the realm of performance. All those scales and exercises and hours upon hours of practice were paid off in that one instance of musical epiphany and pure expression. It was enough to ensure I’ll die a happy man.

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