#as some sort of moving in together welcome party halloween style

[meep-meep-richie]

If BuckTommy would throw a halloween party [au]

[classic80sand90smovieloves2]

Meeting and Dating Lydia Deetz

(Not my gif)(Requested by anonymous)

- You met Lydia after she moved into town. You went to the same school as her and were in a few of her classes, though you doubted that really mattered; you’d find out about her pretty quickly even if she wasn’t.

- Lydia was an ...interesting character. You liked to think of your school as fairly accepting, people weren’t outwardly mean to her; some were even welcoming, but you somewhat understood many peoples hesitance towards befriending her. Above all, she was fairly standoffish though at the time, no one knew why.

- Still, you liked her style. She was strange and unusual, something you admired. So you took the chance and tried to befriend her, approaching her after school and trying to start a conversation as she unlocked her bike. She was polite but quick to end your talk, making up an; obvious, excuse before riding off.

- But you wouldn’t be deterred, continuing your efforts as the days rolled by and eventually getting her to warm up to you. You even managed to invite her out with you, giving her a tour around the town and slowly getting to know her better.

- Over time, you grow to like her more and more until you realize that you don’t just want to be her friend. It’s then that you have a real predicament on your hands, and a decision to make: try to ignore your feelings and hope they go away or confront them and hope for the best.

- It’s a few months into your friendship that you decide to confess your true feelings for her. Unbeknownst to you, she was planning on doing the same.

- You were sitting in the towns graveyard with her, a place you’d been to several times mainly because you knew she loved it. It seemed like the perfect place to tell her how you felt so you took a deep breath and stumbled through your confession. And... she burst out laughing.

- Yeah, so not a good sign. You were completely embarrassed and was wondering whether you could play it off like you were joking. Deciding that you couldn’t, you went to stand up and leave before she lunged forward, grabbing your hand quickly and exclaiming “no, no” as she tried to stop her laughter.

“I’m sorry, really. It’s just that, all day I’ve been wondering how I was gonna tell you that I liked you and, well, here we are.” She smiled, and ushered you to sit back down.

- The two of you had your first date in one of the towns many fields. You brought a basket full of stuff and sat out there for hours, having a picnic and overall just hanging out. She’s got about a dozen photos of the day.

- You had your first kiss at least a week after you first got together. Neither of you were brave enough to just go for it so it took you a while to actually do it.

- When you did, it was after the two of you snuck out together and were taking a late night walk through the town. You were sat on an old wooden fence, the moonlight shining above you as you talked. That was when you turned to look at each other and just began to lean in, inching closer and closer until your lips met.

- And thus began your strange and beautiful relationship.

- The two of you are most likely bambi lesbians; your relationship is fairly innocent and things never really get too hot or heavy. 

- It’s the 80s and you sort of live in a small town so you try to keep your relationship on the down low. Whenever you’re out in public, you try to just act like friends, never doin anything exclusively romantic in nature. 

- Holding hands, locking arms, hugging, sitting very close to each other; you can get away with a lot since you’re young girls but you try not to push your luck. 

- Most of your dates take place where there isnt a lot of; if any, people. She prefers keeping to herself so you wind up just hanging out at her place or places no one really goes, like the graveyard or forgotten roads.

- Pecks on the lips and cheeks.

- Sweet and chaste kisses. 

- Laying your head in her lap while you sit and talk. Occasionally, she’ll run her fingers through or just play with your hair, looking down at you with a soft smile. 

- She’s got soooo many photos of you. She likes to jokingly call you her muse, taking random snapshots while you’re doing something or asking you to pose for her. 

- Horror movie marathons. The two of you have stayed up late countless times, eyes wide and glued to her tv screen as you shovel popcorn into your mouths. 

- Riding your bikes together after school. Sometimes you’ll just ride around town, stopping at some random place you’ve never been to and going exploring together.

- Walks through and picnics in the graveyard. It’s one of her favorite places to visit except when its close to the anniversary of her mothers death. 

- Letting her talk to you about her mother and rant about Delia and her dad. 

- Meeting the Maitland's and her eccentric parents. They all love you and have a feeling that you aren’t “just friends”, not that it really matters to them anyways. Delia is particularly happy with the idea of you two being together, Lesbianism is so avant-garde. 

- Morbid conversations. Want to have an hour long conversation about death? Well, you’ve come to the right girl!

- You’ll never have to worry about getting rid of spiders again for the rest of your life. She’ll just scoop them up in her hand and gently place them outside while you trail hesitantly behind her. 

- Dancing together. 

- Surprisingly enough, she’s quite fond of being bridal carried or getting piggyback rides. 

- Getting to see all of her rare smiles and giggles, most of the time they’re reserved pretty much exclusively for you. 

- She doesn’t really use nicknames/pet names all that much but occasionally she’ll call you the name of a character from a movie or show when you say or do something that reminds her of them. 

- Collecting and pressing flowers with her. You help her swap out and rearrange the ones on her wall every few months. 

- She has a bit of a dramatic streak so occasionally you’ll just have to snap her out of it, either by cheering her up or helping to rationalize a situation.

- She loves rainy days. She likes to invite you over, sit up in her room and just hang out with you while the skies are a dreary gray. She finds the atmosphere very beautiful.

- Her room is perfect for afternoon naps. The two of you head over to her house after school, lock her bedroom door and pull the curtains down before snuggling under her covers and catching a few zzz’s.

- She’ll never admit it out loud but she actually really likes cuddling. You tend to cuddle hugging each other, taking turns having your heads resting against each other’s chests.

- She loves eating dinner or lunch at your house. Delia prepares the weirdest foods for everyone so being able to eat something like a normal turkey sandwich or bowl of soup is a nice change.

- Going to antique and thrift shops. If it looks haunted, she’ll want to buy it.

- Holidays!! She gets all festive around them; especially Halloween, always wanting to decorate and do the usual seasonal activities.

- Letting her style your hair. She finds it really fun and you certainly don’t mind looking a bit unusual.

- Gothic tea parties. Join her on her wooden floor, surrounded by black teddy bears and creepy dolls, eating little sandwiches and drinking tea.

- She likes to write you little poetic letters. Some are purely romantic while others are dreadfully depressing but you love them all the same.

- It’s pretty easy to find her presents; if it’s ugly then she’ll love it.

- Doing little crafts together. She likes artistic stuff, as long as it isn’t weirdly abstract like delias art.

- She tends to stick to compliments about the work that you do or the things you choose to wear. She prefers making you feel good about the stuff that you make not the things you were born with.

- Many people don’t seem to realize it but she’s got a pretty good sense of humor. That, paired with the shenanigans you get yourselves into, ensures that the two of you have a good time together!

- Getting dragged into supernatural and paranormal adventures. If it was her choice, she would probably leave you out of it, but alas, it isn’t.

- Beetlejuice is certainly an interesting individual to meet. Lydia is not fond of him calling you babe though, even if he calls everyone babe.

- She’s never really gets all that jealous. She reasons that you’re with her and if you’re with her, then you most likely like weird people, which you don’t find all that often where you live.

- She’s certainly been through some stuff, especially after moving to town so she’s fairly protective of you. Now that she knows the dead can linger on, she tries to look after you even more.

- She’s somewhat sensitive so she tends to take things to heart even when they’re misunderstandings.

- You dont fight a whole lot but when you do, your arguments wind up turning into catty yelling fights. One of you will usually storm out, throwing a “fine” or something of the sort out before you go.

- The two of you will give each other the silent treatment for a while but you’ll most likely be miserable the entire time. She’ll cave a little sooner than you will, finding you at school somewhere or being let in by your mom and just showing up at your bedroom door shyly. You both usually have a hard time staying mad at each other, once either of you apologize.

- She gives you a “love you” everytime you say goodbye. It’s pretty much routine by now.

- She doesn’t realize it for a while but ever since she met you, she hasn’t thought about dying. In fact, now that she has you, she can’t even bear to imagine it. She wouldn’t want to leave you behind, she loves you.

- Her one goal in life is to be the woman that historians say “lived with her lifelong best friend, never marrying or having children but writing letters to each other about loving each other fiercely”.

[danifics18]

🎃  Dance of the Wolves  🎃

Welcome to day one of Spooky Time Drabbles! I have thirty two prompts that I’m going to attempt to pump out in spirit of Spooky Season! If you want to see a continuation of any of these works- let me know! Once I post the majority of my Spooky Time Drabbles, I will be posting any extra smuts, or small continuations. 

Tags : Werewolf! Mingi//PWP//Marking//Slight ass play//cunnilingus//knotting// 

TW: Mentions of blood

Word Count : 4k

    General Masterlist    Ateez Masterlist

  With a cold breeze skittering down your spine, you place the last box inside your home to look around, figuring out where to place the new Halloween decorations you’d just bought that day.

  Moving away from a big city, to follow the feeling of Wanderlust- as your mother would’ve put it, to end up moving to a much smaller town in a more remote, forest area. It wasn’t even a quarter of the size that your previous town was, but you like it. The neighbors were kind, the community was tight-knit.

  It felt like home.

  And with the feeling of home and wanting to fit in in mind, you decided what better way to fit in than to join the town’s celebration by decorating your house to match the others. 

  Normally, for Halloween, you would’ve left a candy bowl out by your door for anyone in your apartment floor to get, along with hand delivering small bags of candy to your apartment’s security guard - Seokmin - for him and his kids to have, as well as to the elderly couple who lived right down the hall. But, besides that, you weren’t the one to really go out that night, preferring to stay in and watch movies like ‘Halloween Town’ or some other movie that wasn’t deemed as scary. 

  But much to your findings, people here didn’t celebrate Halloween, instead they celebrated something they called ‘The Dance of the Moon’ - where they essentially partied all night at home and at the town square. From what your town mayor , Mr. Song, explained to you, was that hundreds of years ago, the small town had been plagued by wolves. They would go after children, elderly, anyone who couldn’t readily fight back from being eaten. Every time someone was found missing, the townspeople would send a group to kill some wolves; how many people were taken and eaten- that was the amount of wolves that would be killed in return.

  “An eye for an eye,” as the older gentleman had explained, with a hardened look on his face.

  Supposedly, the resolution was found as the town had experimented with what would please the wolves- since back then, the closest town with a decent hunter was days away, and there weren’t enough people to both send out and watch over the rest of the town. The wolves would stop going after a lot of townspeople if there were sacrifices made.

  The Mayor was quick to assure that the legends hadn’t specified human sacrifices- they never exactly said what was sacrificed, really, but for the past thirty years or so, they had been using pigs, goats, or cows that were due to pass on soon. They would drop them off at a specific place in the forest, and knowing that the residents would be safe from any wolves, they would celebrate in the town festival until early dawn. 

  The last piece of information that Mayor Song had dropped on you before he handed you your house key- new residents had to participate in the festival. Seeing that you were the only resident to come in this year- it really is a small town with not a lot of travelers- he asked you to accompany the animals to the post; with his son, Mingi, of course. When you had agreed, Mayor Song had sent you on your way, notifying you that his son would pick you up with his animal hauler at around five, the evening of. 

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  To prepare yourself for the festival- that did make you a little unsettled, but you were sure it was just a stretched out rumor- you spent the week finding whatever Halloween knick-knacks for around the house that you could. 

  You had no plans of dressing up at all for the festival, until one of the ladies- Theresa- working the cash register, had asked if you had your outfit ready yet. With a glace to your face, she had explained that for the festival, people usually wear red, purple, white, and black. It didn’t have to be a full outfit or anything, but you would look like an outsider, since most of the town residents liked their outfits to look from back then. With that in mind, you quickly used up your last days trying to piece together an outfit with the corresponding colors.

  A white, knee-length, lace dress accompanied by a black headband, and purple nail polish. The red garment, however, left you slightly baffled. The only red clothing that you could find was a deep red cloak that you had bought on one of your ‘spurge days’, after getting your first job at seventeen. You didn’t need the item for anything, it just looked so cool that you had to have it. And now, so many years later, you contemplated wearing it- quickly deciding that you’d ask Mingi his opinion when he picked you up, but just in case, you’d wear a lipstick the same shade of red.

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  The day of the festival had left a pit of excitement in your gut. You hadn’t had work today- town’s rules that no work was permitted on holidays, and that included town holidays- and the same goes for tomorrow as well, although, it is asked of residents to come to the festival grounds to help clean up.

  As the day dwindled to late afternoon, you decided to head back home to get into your costume for later tonight, and then wait for the mayor’s son. This would be your first time meeting the boy, the only things you know is that you are the same age as him, and he’s got a deep voice- from what your coworker has told you.

  A loud knock on your front door snaps you out of your thoughts, checking yourself over one last time in the foyer mirror, before opening the door to see a tall man with brown hair- styled in a gelled undercut. 

  “Hi, I’m Mingi, it’s nice to meet you”, the mayor’s son reaches his hand out for a handshake, feeling your fingertips and palm tingle from the contact. Feeling thankful that he can’t notice the blush on your face, you shake his hand and return the greeting.

  You both take a moment to look each other over, and you have to admit, he looks good. He’s dressed in a flowy, long sleeve white shirt that has two untied strings in the front of the collar- showing off the black velvet choker with subtle deep purple moons embellished in the fabric - and a pair of cropped black pants. Looking up to meet his eyes properly, you gasp under your breath.

 Hearing a cow moo in the trailer behind him, he suggests that you guys leave now, before quickly turning to walk to his truck. Walking after him, you thank him as he opens your door for you, before he enters on his own side. 

  Throughout the drive, you both make small conversation about your likes and dislikes, finding out that you both had quite a bit in common. You were both shocked to find that you enjoyed things like Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream, and neither one of you really like cake. You found out that he was a nature photographer who used to live a few hours away with some friends; he moved back a couple years prior after he had gotten attacked by some people who were illegally hunting who had mistaken him for an animal. He had plans to move back with his friends, he just felt like he should be back in his home roots for such a big injury. 

  Looking out the window, you try to make out any shapes of the passing by trees- the darkness of the early night made the forest a lot darker, being unable to see anything if it weren’t for Mingi’s headlights. For the next thirty minutes, the only view you could see was the dirt path with the occasional flying creature - probably bat - flying above the truck, before flying into the darkness. 

“We are almost where we need to be, there’s a small cabin that this road leads to. From there we can stop and walk the animals a mile out to the post”, Mingi says, his unnaturally bright, honey-colored eyes flashing over to you- being so bright that you can’t decide if they’re real or not. You’d been wanting to ask him since you had first noticed them, but you didn’t want to be nosy, or feel like you were asking a really obvious question. 

  Soon enough, the trees break away to show a meadow, a cabin and a shed in the middle of the clearing. Pulling the truck to a stop in the make-shift dirt driveway, you both get out and walk to the back end, where Mingi opens the back trailer revealing a single cow and two goats. Mingi hands you the leads for the goats as he takes the cow, and you both start walking down a pathway- stopping frequently when the animals decide to graze at the long grass. 

  Neither you or Mingi made conversation, besides the occasional comment towards the animals. Eventually, you both had made it to a pen of sorts, seeing other animals in the pen as well.

  Giving Mingi a questioning glance, he ignores you, taking the leads from you to walk the animals into the pen, before disappearing to the sheltered building, before coming out with handfuls of hay to give to the animals.

  “There’s no wolves out here, you know?” The tall man finally says, “ No actual wolves. Just me,” he finishes giving you a smile,” I know my father meant well, but I was hoping for this to be more natural.” Confused, you start walking backwards, your heart beating so hard you think it might go through your chest. 

  Not waiting for you to say anything, he continues, "I know you must be confused, but I can explain. You should probably stop walking back though; it is a full moon tonight, and my wolf isn’t in the playful mood tonight- especially not with how you smell.” As his last sentence rings through your ears, you quickly decide to ignore his warning, and run down the path back to the cabin.

  As you pump your legs faster you hear a forced laugh from the man, ”So this is the type of mate I have,” the pen gate rustles behind you, and as much as you want to look back, Mingi’s words make you feel the opposite. With the now red colored moon shining your path, you reach the cabin, not being able to decide what to do next. 

  Apparently, you wouldn’t have any time to decide anyways, seeing that as you started to go to the cabin’s door, a large hand grabs your shoulder, halting you from moving. Being forced to turn around, Mingi stares down at your form breathing heavily. Eyes widening, you start to squirm as you see his eyes now a deep red color, before freezing at the deep rumble that comes from his chest. 

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  “You're not too good at following directions, huh? C’mon, let’s get inside, I’ll make some tea and properly explain since you wouldn’t let me earlier. I won’t hurt you- if I had wanted to do that, I could've done that on the trip here,” He tells you with an unimpressed look, before walking you in front of him, to the cabin. 

  Minutes later, you were sitting down on a couch facing the fireplace with tea in hand, as Mingi sat on the recliner angled to the couch, tea in his hand as well. Taking a sip of his beverage, he clears his throat “ So, I’m sure my dad and some people have been talking about tonight’s festival,” you nod “Okay, well pretty much, my dad told you a different version of the town’s legend. We did try sending animals, but they hadn’t worked, it wasn’t until the town herbalist had offered to go out as a sacrifice instead. Seeing that nothing had worked, previously, and she was a recent widow, everyone let her,” Mingi stopped as he heard your soft gasp,” Apparently, she went out, and she did get attacked.”

  He paused, tilting his head as he asks” Did you know that wolves can tell when a human is pregnant?” You nod your head- you’d seen plenty of videos of how wolves in safe havens had reacted towards pregnant guests. Mingi smiles at your knowledge and continues on,” Well unfortunately, they noticed that she was pregnant after attacking her. As she was dying one of the she-wolves approached her, and somehow gave the human her life force- their spirits joining together. The lady survived, but she was the town’s first werewolf- her son being the first born werewolf. Seeing the power she had, the rest of the pack listened to her. As she went back to the town- the villagers considered it a blessing. It isn’t clear how it happened, but she was able to get the villagers to join their spirits with the pack. Of course there were people who rejected- and they left the village,” Mingi stops again sipping his drink.

  “How does that work though? Would that mean the entire town is full of werewolves? Isn’t that unsafe?” You ask, setting your now empty mug, on your lap. 

  “This has never been a town to get a lot of visitors. After a while of the town learning how to be wolves and humans, there were quite a few attempts to kill the pack from the people who’d left. The first woman, at that point she was what we call a Luna, had heard about a witch a few towns over who might be able to help- so they sought her out. After agreeing to help the witch with a small problem, the witch put a circle around the town. Other supernaturals can find the town- but to humans, this entire place is just forest. The only humans who can come here are like you, they’re mated. Destined to be with someone from here. And that person happens to be with me,” Pausing to gauge your reaction, he continues explaining,” Werewolves have mates, and they’re pretty much soulmates. I can tell because your scent is intoxicating for my wolf, it’s a very homey scent. You will be able to feel the pull the more we are around each other- for now, you’d probably get a ticklish feeling if I were to touch you,” You think back to when you’d shook his hands, and the feeling you got when you brushed against his arm- it makes sense, but earlier you had thought it was just your nerves from being around a handsome guy,” But eventually, you will develop a better sense of smell, and probably better hearing and sight- although it won’t be the same as being an actual werewolf. Unless, that is, you choose to reject me?” He questions with his facing down to look at the unlit fireplace.

  Taking a moment to think, you make up your mind before answering,” What do I have to lose?” You get up to place yourself on Mingi’s lap- something that you wouldn’t have done if it were anyone else, but you knew that you were comfortable with him.

  “I’m in a new town that although it might be new and strange, it still feels right. I definitely don’t understand the whole wolf thing, but there’s plenty of time to learn,” You finish, leaning into the large hand that was placed on your face. Feeling his breath on your face, you close your eyes as he gets closer.

  “I’m glad, now shall we go back to town? Everyone was really excited to be around a new face, you know,” Mingi says, placing a kiss on your nose.

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  Weeks turning into months, and months turning into years; two years precisely, you’d never imagined the day that you’d leave this cozy town that you had considered home.

  You and Mingi had officially started dating two weeks after first meeting- although, typically werewolves never really bothered with the whole dating thing, unless they weren’t mates- and you two were still going strong.

  With an influx of new packmates from a neighboring pack alliance, and Mingi’s need for joining back with his friends- which you had found out were actually his formed pack- you two decided to move away, to the plot of land that they owned.

  When you two had first pulled up to the place, you couldn’t help but scoff at your boyfriend’s words. “Only a small plot of land he says. And Disney World is just a small fair, right?” His only response had been a bashful grin. 

  The place still felt very homey, and very similar to your previous town; being located in the middle of nowhere, it was twenty acres of land, fenced off to show the property lines. It was pretty clever- seeing that when you first pulled into the main road in, it honestly looked pretty inconspicuous, if it weren’t for the big fence surrounding the place. 

  Meeting the pack members had made you a bit nervous, but you soon realized that they reminded you of brothers- very teasing, a little annoying at times, but you cared for them, and they cared for you. 

  Thankfully, you guys didn’t share a house together. It was bad enough that most times, you would wake up to find Wooyoung, Hongjoong, or hell- sometimes the entire pack in your house, eating your food and lounging about. Every pack member had their own individual houses- each spread out, and separated by a lot of trees.

  This was extremely helpful when it came to your boyfriend’s mating season.

  Usually, for his rutts, you guys had been fine for the most part. He hadn’t marked you yet, so of course, he would be a bit more aggressive and testy with the other males. But, unfortunately, his heat this time had definitely taken a toll on you both.

  With him being, essentially, part wolf, he can keep track of your cycles pretty well. If he’d noticed that you were bleeding, he’d be more attentive than usual. Early in your relationship, it had embarrassed you that he could literally smell you, but now - although it does cause some embarrassment - it doesn’t make you feel as weirded out, especially since he only tries to help you.

  But, a big downside of this has been him knowing when you’re ovulating. When this starts, you aren’t really allowed to go anywhere; Mingi’s wolf sees this time as your heat, even though humans don’t actually have one. It’s even worse when your ovulation is timed up with his rutt.

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  Laying on your stomach with your arms crossed under your head, you blink your eyes open, shutting them as the late afternoon sun works its way through your window. As you decide to fall back asleep before your boyfriend awakens, the hand that is wrapped around your waist, tightens; your naked body shifts under the loose sheet as you get moved to your side.

  You attempt to even out your breath to trick your needy boyfriend into thinking you were still asleep. You loved the attention he gave you during this time, but with how long you two were going at it earlier today - hence why you had taken the nap in the first place - you did have a small worry in the back of your head of you both getting over exhausted.

  Your plan quickly got thrown out the door; a growl emitting from the chest behind you, as Mingi rutts his bare length into your lower back.

  Spotting kisses around your neck and shoulder, your boyfriend speaks.

  “You know, I think it’s so cute,” placing a kiss on your shoulder “That you think I can’t tell when you’re awake,” placing a kiss where your shoulder meets your neck “When I can still smell your sweet cunt beg for attention when I barely graze you,” he finishes with a light bite below your ear; a place that makes you breathe out a whine.

  “Mingi, please,” “Please what?”

 Pouting at his teasing, you pull his hand that’s wrapped around your waist, and place it in between your legs- sure that he can feel the accumulated arousal.

  “Please fuck me, I really need it. I really need you,” You beg, tilting your head to the side as much as you can to tantalize him.

  In an instant, you are shoved onto your stomach, Mingi’s thick thighs straddling yours, his long length resting on your butt. Feeling his precum dripping onto you, you grind your ass up to feel some type of friction- being stopped by Mingi grabbing your hair and pulling you back enough for him to whisper in your ear.

  “Little mate, I suggest you not tease me. I would love to make you properly mine- but if you keep acting up, my wolf will take over, and you will be marked and knotted,” His raspy voice makes your eyes flutter back. Inhaling a deep breath, his hand in your hair tightens, as he undoubtedly smells the new wave of arousal gushing out from his words.

  “Please Mingi. Mark me, knot me, I don’t care. I just need you in -!” Your begging gets cut off as you feel your boyfriend crawl down you- him lifting your hips up, and sliding his tongue through your slit.

  Rolling your eyes back as his talented tongue does wonders on you, he grabs your ass cheeks for more leverage. After sliding his tongue into you a few times, mocking what’s next to come, he travels up, licking at the pink hole between your cheeks. Reaching your arms out behind you, you attempt to hold him in place to continue eating you out. Much to your disappointment, he gets back up to his previous position, holding your hands behind you.

  “Baby, hold yourself open for me,” You quickly obey, grabbing your cheeks to present yourself to him.

  His groan fills your ears, before feeling his cock enter you, him only stopping when his lower stomach is fully resting on you. Being left breathless from the sudden intrusion, you let out a loud moan when he pulls out, only to thrust back in- the power of the thrust shaking your form.

After a few more slower thrusts, his resolve finally breaks, as he starts snapping his hips into yours at a faster pace; the room filling with the sounds of moans, and slapping skin.

  Hands having fallen, you grasp the bed sheet, as you raise your hips back to meet Mingi’s thrusts.

  Feeling his cock throb inside you, you moan out, letting him know you’re close. He bends down closer to you, hips pistoning even faster. If it weren’t for the pillow between the wall and the headboard, you knew that there would for sure be a dent in the wall.

  Placing kisses on your shoulder, to sweeten the blow that was prepared to come, he finally finds your sweet spot; biting down on it as he feels you come around his length. Whining at the intensity of the strong orgasm, you don’t notice the trail of blood running down your collarbone, from where your boyfriend was latched onto you.

  Mingi finally pulls back, slowing down his thrusts as he comes, his cock swelling in size and pumping his seed into you directly.

  Gasping out at the slightly uncomfortable feeling, your attempts to wiggle around are thwarted by Mingi laying his upper body on you- turning your face to kiss it. 

  “So this is what knotting is?” you question, as the uncomfortable feeling subsides, having adjusted to his large size “Yes it is. The knot should go down in around twenty minutes- there was a lot that went in, so it’s going to take a little longer than usual,” He replies with a tired yawn.

  Turning over to your sides, you press your upper body against his before falling asleep feeling content.

[fanfics4all]

Angelina

Request: Yes / No  Could you please do a multi parted storyline(kinda like the most important parts of the show) where Veronica and Hermione move to Riverdale with Hiram’s second(most involved and more important) family, his wife Dove and his his daughter(Veronica’s half twin sister) Angelina, Angelina starts off dating Archie(after Veronica and he kiss in the closet and Betty is over him) and later in season 2 she starts dating Sweet Pea(I changed my mind) and btw she becomes a serpent -she becomes a serpent along the season 2 storyline, could include pictures Thanks Anon

Request are open but ONLY if they’re Halloween <3 Have a nice day/night

Archie Andrews x OC (Former)

Sweet Pea x OC  

Word count: 1956

Warnings: Nothing

A/N: I was super super tired when I wrote this so I’m sorry that this probably sucks! 

PLEASE DO NOT STEAL MY WORK, I WORK HARD ON MY FICS AND IT’S NOT COOL TO STEAL SOMEONE ELSE’S WORK! 

If you want to be on the tag list for anything (My series fics, specific character fics, or just all of them) All you have to do is send me an ask and I will add you! 

Masterlist 

(Not my photo, credit to whoever made it!)

My father had gotten arrested and now my Mother and I were moving to his hometown, including his ex-wife and my half sister. We weren’t going to be living in the same apartment, but we would be in the same building. We were moving into The Pembroke and it was probably the nicest thing in this town. 

“Why couldn’t we just stay in New York?” I asked. 

“We’re here till things cool down.” My Mother said. 

“Right…” I sighed. 

We each went to our separate apartments, ours being bigger than Hermione and Veronica’s. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love my half sister, she’s like my best friend, but I still enjoy being better than her. Once I finished unpacking my things and got my room sorted I walked out to see my Mother just getting off the phone. 

“Hello dear, would you bring this back to Hermione? She ordered from a small diner that she said was to die for. I ordered for you already and you and Veronica are going to go pick it up.” She said and I sighed slightly. 

“Fine.” I said and grabbed the phone from her. I took it over their apartment. Veronica answered the door and smiled at me. 

“Oh, thank you. I see you’re ready to go.” She said with a smile. 

“Let me just grab my coat.” I said and went to go get it. 

“Ready.” I said and we went out to the car. When the car stopped it was in front of a small diner called Pop’s Chock’Lit Shoppe. 

“We’ll be right back.” Veronica said as we got out. We walked inside and I noticed someone staring at us. Veronica pulled me along, near the table of the guy staring at us. 

“I called in an order, for Lodge?” Veronica asked the man working. 

“Four burgers, yeah, almost ready, but you gotta wait.” He said with a kind smile and walked behind the counter. 

“Hi.” Veronica said to the two that were sitting in the booth we were standing in front of. 

“Hey.” The guy that was staring, smiling at us. 

“How are the onion rings here?” I asked. 

“So good.” He answered. 

“Can we get some onion rings too, please?” I asked. 

“Yeah!” The man working said.

“Thanks. We just moved here with our Moms, so…” Veronica said. 

“From where?” The guy asked. 

“New York.” I answered with a smile. 

“Wow.” The guy said. 

“Do you guys go to Riverdale?” I asked. 

“We do. Both of us. Together.” 

“Yeah, we’re sophomores.” The guy and girl said at the same time. 

“Us too.” Veronica said. 

“I’m filled with dread.” I said. 

“Why is that?” The guy asked. 

“Are you familiar with the works of Truman Capote?” I asked and he nodded. 

“I’m Breakfast at Tiffany’s, but this place is strictly In Cold Blood.” I said and he laughed while I giggled. 

“Angelina Lodge.” I introduced myself. 

“This is my half sister, Veronica Lodge.” I said as I shook the guys hand. 

“Archie Andrews.” He said with a smile. 

“Uh, this is Betty Cooper.” He said as he introduced the girl. 

“Wait, are you…” Veronica trailed off. 

“Supposed to give you your tour tomorrow? Yes. I’m your peer mentor.” Betty finished. 

 “Do you want to join us?” Archie asked. 

“Hey, maybe we can un-fill you with dread.” He added. 

“Our Mom’s are waiting for us.” Veronica said. 

“But, to be continued.” I said with a flirty smile. Veronica pulled me away and we grabbed the food. We went back to the car and we were on the way home. 

“He was pretty cute, what do you think?” I asked. 

“For a small little town, yeah, he’s cute.” Veronica agreed. 

“Now I’m very excited about school tomorrow.” I said and she rolled her eyes. 

School was interesting for the week. Veronica and I joined the cheer team and she became pretty good friends with Betty. I on the other hands didn’t really find anyone that really interested me besides Archie. He wasn’t my usual type, but why not try something new? So when the dance came and Veronica, Betty, and I went with Archie. Veronica was trying hard to get Betty and Archie together, but it didn’t work out. So now we were going to an after party at the Blossom’s house. It was a lot more fun than the actual dance was. 

“It’s game time at Chez Blossom, kiddies.” Cheryl Blossom said as she gathered a bunch of people up. 

“We’re going old-school tonight. Seven minutes in Heaven. Who wants to tryst in the closet of love first?” She asked. 

“My vote is A for Archie. Anyone care to second it?” She asked. 

“Wait, actually-” 

“Yes, Andrews! Yes!” Reggie said, cutting Archie off. 

“Alright, gather round, kids.” Cheryl said. 

“Let’s see who’s riding the ginger stallion tonight.” She said as she placed a bottle on the table and spun. I sat next to my sister and hoped with baited breath that I would get to be the one in the closet with Archie. It landed in between Veronica and Betty. 

“Oh no way!” Reggie said and I rolled my eyes. 

“It’s clearly pointing to... new girl, Veronica. This should be fun.” Cheryl said. 

“Um… I’m not doing this.” Veronica said. 

“That’s up to you. But if you don’t, house rules decree the hostess gets to take your turn.” Cheryl said with a smirk. My sister got up and went into the closet with Archie. I narrowed my eyes at the door. 

“I’m out of here.” I said and left quickly. How dare she! 

“Angelina, what are you doing home so early?” My Mother asked. 

“My bitch of a sister ruined my night.” I grumbled. 

“Watch your language! What do you mean she ruined your night?” She asked. 

“There’s a boy here that I told her I had my eye on and she went and tried to get him with another girl and then kissed him!” I said and she sighed. 

“So high school drama.” She said and I narrowed my eyes. 

“I’m going to my room.” I said and stormed off. 

A little later Veronica came into my room and I immediately threw a pillow at her. 

“Get out!” I growled. 

“You’re not honestly upset that I kissed him, are you?” She asked and I narrowed my eyes. 

“I told you when we first saw him that I thought he was cute, you should know that means I have my eyes on him!” I said and she rolled her eyes. 

“Please, he’s not even your type.” She said. 

“Seriously? Just get over it.” She said and I glared at her. 

“I told you I liked him and one, you go and try and get him with another girl, then two, you kiss him!” I said. 

“I’m sorry Angie, but I can’t help that I like him too.” She said and I rolled my eyes. 

“Get. Out.” I growled and she sighed. 

“Fine, whatever.” She said and left.

A few weeks later and I was the one dating Archie Andrews. Veronica was jealous, especially since I was rubbing it in her face. She always got the guy and this time it was my turn. As our relationship went on I realized he really wasn’t my type. My type was definitely someone more like Jughead, the bad boy type style. Archie actually got jealous about me hanging out with Jughead more. I was bringing out my normal style, lots of black and bad girl looking clothes. Something my Mother and Father hated. They’d rather I dress more like Veronica does, but that just isn’t me. When the year was ending I broke it off with Archie. We just weren’t end game and I didn’t want to waste my time anymore. Jughead understood where I was coming from, but he was the only one. However when I was coming home after the breakup, I walked in to see my Father sitting at the end of the table. 

“Daddy!” I said and ran over to him. 

“Hello Princess.” He said as I hugged him and he kissed my head. 

“You’re back! So we can go home right?” I asked and he shook his head. 

“I have plans here, so we’re staying.” He answered and I frowned a little. 

“What’s wrong?” He asked. 

“I just broke up with my boyfriend and I do not want to stay here anymore.” I said and he sighed. 

“Sorry Princess, we need to stay here a bit longer.” He said and I sighed. 

“Alright Daddy.” I said. 

Weeks went by and Jughead and I were definitely spending more on the Southside, something my parents hated. They especially hated when I joined the Serpents. That night was amazing. It was the night I met Sweet Pea. It was at Jughead’s Father’s retirement party and I was about to become a Serpent. Before I left the house with Veronica I put on the perfect lingerie under my black dress that my parents allowed me to wear out of the house. 

A bit into the party Jughead nodded me towards the back of the stage. He walked over to Hogeye and told him that it was time. I undressed and left my heels on, ready to do this dance and have every guy looking at me. Even though I didn’t have feelings for Archie and he was dating my sister now, it would be so fun to see his face during this. 

“We’ve got something special tonight, we’re gonna be welcoming a new member to the Serpents. Everyone, give it up for Angelina!” I heard Hogeye announce and people started clapping. The song Lil Freak started playing and I walked out on the stage with a sexy strut. My eyes scanned the room and I saw Archie looking at me with his jaw dropped. I smirked and walked up to the pole and worked it like it was my job. As I continued scanning the room I saw a tall tan Serpent boy with a sexy Serpent tattoo on his neck. 

When the song ended I got my jacket and I walked to the back to get dressed again. I met Jughead outside the door and he smiled. 

“How does it feel being a Serpent now?” He asked and I smirked. 

“Like I’m finally my own person and not Daddy’s little girl.” I answered and he chuckled. 

“Well, you got a fan.” He said and I raised my brow.

“Come, I’ll introduce you.” He said. 

“Angelina, this is Sweet Pea, Sweet Pea, this is Angelina Lodge.” Jughead said and I smiled as I saw the tall tan boy. 

“Pleasure to meet you.” I said offering him my hand. 

“You were amazing up there.” He said and I smirked. 

“Thanks for noticing.” I said and he smirked in return. 

“Angelina! What the hell was that!?” Veronica asked, completely ruining the moment. 

“I’m a Serpent, that’s what that was.” I answered with a roll of my eyes. 

“Clearly… Daddy and Dove are going to be pissed.” She said and I scoffed. 

“Like you care, now if you excuse me, I’m talking with a very attractive guy.” I said and turned back to Sweet Pea. 

“Let’s get you a drink.” He said and led me off to the bar. 

That was how our relationship started. That was also how I lost the title of Daddy’s little girl. My Father hated that I joined a gang and that I was dating someone from it. My Mother didn’t care as much since she was happy that I was happy. Angelina Lodge was no longer going to let other people run her life, no, I was taking my life into my own hands now! 

[lokikingofasgardslover713]

Kinktober 2: Dirty Talk

Masterlist 

Kinktober Masterlist

Pairing: Loki Laufeyson X OFC

Warnings: Dirty talk, smut

Summary: Trying to dirty talk Loki is working out way better than originally thought, but did she get more than she bargained for?

A/N: Picture a Halloween party at the compound and you get the guts to toy with Loki.

Words: +1,300

————

Monsters and martinis was the theme this year. One that the teams newest member was all too happy to attend with the Avengers and what few guests were still present now that it was almost 2 am. 

She had chosen to go as a fox but kept it simple. A plaid shirt that hugged every curve perfectly, ripped skinny jeans hugging plump hips, combat boots, a set of fangs all her own, and a tail and ears found online. Still, only a few alcoholic drinks in, and eyeing Loki who stood to himself. 

The two of them had been flirtatious privately around the party, he had placed carefully planned caresses over her torso when no one looked. It made her curious if he meant them or not. Looking around to note all the others were highly intoxicated or possibly passed out, she made her way over to the god.

There was no sneaking up on him, she knew that as she carefully sidled next to him on the opposite side of the column in case this turned out embarrassing for the both of them.

"What is it little vixen," Loki began, not looking away from the landscape and taking a sip of what scented as mead before giving her a side glance.

"Nothing," she began quietly, surprised when he reached out to brush styled hair behind her ear as if it was irritating him it had fallen in her face.

Except this was more than that, warm hand wrapping her jaw, tugging her close to dip next to her ear.

"You should know better than to lie to the god of lies pet," he began, the darkness in his voice making a shiver run her spine to pool between thick thighs. Unintentionally she shifted to press her thighs together for some sort of relief.

"Let's try this again," Loki’s voice spoke even lower, breath fanning over her neck, lips so close they tickled the shell of her ear.

"What has my little vixen pressing those beautiful thighs together and wetness to coat her pants? Because I know for a fact you aren't wearing any panties," he finished, nipping at her ear to make her gasp out quietly but still he stayed close. 

Ever so slighly Loki moved to lock her gaze, looking over the fangs she sported that even made a chill run his own spine and pants tighten. Noting her take in a deep breath, scenting him. Loki knew she scented his own desire along with the mead he had been drinking all evening.

"Your vixen," she spoke nervously, holding his gaze as the gods need flooded keen senses, jeans growing damper. 

"Yes, my vixen. If I take you to my bed you will be forever mine and no one else’s," Loki growled possessively, holding her gaze like the predator he was. 

"Then I want you in my bed, on your back so I can fuck myself on your cock," she all but forced out past the lump in her throat, surprised she had said it just like the god who gave her a wide smirk at the admittance. Her face went hot at the admission but kept his gaze.

"Brave little creature-." Studying her close he could tell she was beginning to feed off of his desire, and it made his pants even tighter. Pulling flush to her, slipping the hand to her throat to wrap it gently, thumb caressing the soft flesh under her chin as he looked her over. 

"But what if I prefer my vixen under me, writhing and moaning out my name like a pious servant only loyal to me," Loki echoed, feeling her hands moving to rest on his sides, ever so slighly twisting in the shirt he wore. 

"What if I prefer the same but with you under me? Praying to me like a goddess," she all but panted across his lips.

The god barely tasted any alcohol on her breath, arousing him to point of making the pants too tight at the fact she wasn't drunk. This was her; he was what she was after, she came to him after all the others flirtatious nature didn’t seem to faze her. Fingers twisted tighter in his shirt to make the stitches creak while she only pressed into him, feeling her heartbeat quicken under his thumb. 

A heated freehand found a loop in her jeans to wrap fingers in it and press tented pants into her.

"You will worship me like a god is meant to be worshipped, on your knees," he all but growled as he pushed her backwards, releasing her to fall.

It took her breath without any to spare to yell out, heart pounding hard as she landed softly on a padded surface. Pushing up on her elbows, she managed her feet to stand on the mattress before he was able to pin her to it.

Looking down at the god with a smirk, she snapped her fingers to place them in her room, not his. Still standing steadfast on her bed, gaze defiant as she didn't budge when he moved to stand before her.

"You should be the one worshipping me," she smiled widely before he grabbed the bend of her knees to have her falling to them on the mattress with a huff.

"On your knees pet," he growled grabbing her hands to hold them in front of her and tugging her to his lips in a greedy kiss.

Loki smirked at her small effort but felt a slight give in the noticeable power struggle they were having. The kiss breaking for him to note the dark, lust blown look of her eyes, apparent she wasn't about to give as he felt his own knees buckle, but he didn't dare give in as he returned a dark smile.

"I am the only god here that is absolute," he growled, pressing her back onto the bed, falling between her legs to pin her, hands above her head.

"Shut up and fuck me already, all this talk is-," she huffed before he magicked their clothes away and slammed deep into velvet core.

Letting out a yelped moan, she wasn't about to deny how perfectly he filled her. Grinding her hips hard into his, rubbing throbbing nerve against him. Whimpering as he pulled out only to slam back in, this time harder, making her hips bounce on the mattress.

"Cry my name pet, pray to me," he growled, moving close to her throat to pinch the soft flesh harshly between his teeth.

"No," she yelped at the pain and pleasure flooding her body, shivering against the god above her.

With another harsh nip at the same spot, gliding out to slam into heated core, prodding cervix to remind her he was god, he was in control. Drinking in her huffed cry of pleasure, plump hips pressing against his to rub over his flesh and flood her with pleasure he tasted on her skin.

"Pray to me pet, I alone can grant you release," he calmly breathed across her throat, stilling and even forcing her to still via seidr.

"No," she panted, this time he took time gliding in and out of velvet core, sure to allow her enough friction to drive her insane but not grant release.

"You will, I will have you a begging wreck beneath me crying for release," he sneered darkly, moving to meet her gaze, but this one had a defiant streak larger than his own.

Moving his hips, he was careful to not contact delicate nub, taking his time. It was maddening torture, but she was loving every minute of it. And if Loki thought she would give in quickly then was in for a shock.

"I will not. By all means, torture me," she smirked, the look of defiance she gave made him grin wildly.

"As you wish, my pet," he growled, releasing her wrists to wrap his hand in her hair, holding her in place as he smashed his lips to hers, biting down on her lip to force them to part.

Senses flooded with copper as he let out a dark chuckle, "appears it will be a long day my little vixen."

Tags are OPEN! REBLOGS ALWAYS WELCOMED!

Tags:  @ruckystarnes@moonfaery @dark-night-sky-99 @gramaeryebard  @katstablook @andiyholly @jovanna-shewolf @nickyl316h @aslandia726 @furstinnajoelle @itsbqueenthings @collinsstanharbour @jazzieomega @moonlightprime @bambamwolf87 @tomhardy41 @get-loki @drakonwild @alexakeyloveloki  @scorpionchild81 @devilbat @cherrygeek86 @kemkem101 @jessiejunebug

[hrrytomlinson]

here are a bunch of AMAZING fics I’ve enjoyed and loved reading throughout the month of august. I recommend that you read these great fics in september, if you haven’t already!! also check out the HL Summer Fic Exchange!

(all fics with a star are my favorites and if there are two stars then it was a favorite favorite)

1. How Far We’ve Come 32k

“This is Harry Styles,” Chiron offers.

He’s beautiful. His eyes are a stunning green, the color of new foliage. The new kid’s limbs are long and lanky—he looks extremely uncomfortable and uncoordinated. Louis internally smirks to himself, guessing the kid probably won’t be too skilled with a sword, or a bow, or anything sharp, most likely. His hair falls to his shoulders in sets of loose, brown curls. The color is rich and luscious, resembling soil so much that it looks like flowers could sprout from his hairline at any moment. But Louis’ eyes are stuck on his soft looking lips, pink as flower petals and slightly parted as his eyes scan the horizon of the camp.

“Welcome to Camp Half-Blood, Harry.”

2. It’ll All Come Up Roses 4k *

Louis was leaning against the railing of the bridge, looking down at the water completely lost in thought when he heard someone approach the bridge from the side that he came from. Glancing up, he noticed Harry walking towards him, hands stuffed deep in his pockets, and seemingly lost in thought. Louis shifted his weight onto his other foot and stood up properly, watching quietly as Harry walked past him. Louis opened his mouth. He wanted to say something to Harry to break the silence, or at least to get him to notice him standing there against the bridge railing - but the words got stuck in Louis’ throat, and he snapped his mouth shut, going back to staring down at the water mindlessly instead. All the while, trying hopelessly to figure out what the fuck he’s doing with his life. Harry kept walking, and soon Louis was once again left alone to his thoughts.

Or the one where Louis really doesn't hate his neighbor who keeps waking him up at the crack of dawn. Ft magic, Liam, Niall, and Zayn barely being mentioned, Harry and his fucking motorcycle, a date and a kiss.

3. Freeze This Moment in a Frame and Stay Like This 5k

Harry (not so) secretly crushes on the cute footie player and fills pages with sketches of him.

4. Wrap You Up In Daisy Chains 10k *

Ten minutes later, an awkward, long-legged, curly-haired, so pale she’s reflective, and so obviously gay-looking Harry Styles is sitting shotgun next to Louis in a bikini, denim cut-offs, and heart-framed sunnies.

Or, Harry and Louis and a too-small bathing suit.

5. Small Doses (Loving You It’s Explosive) 38k

Louis Tomlinson finds himself at Vitality Fitness to try and turn his life around after having left his cheating boyfriend of four years. The gym's owner, Liam, quickly becomes a good friend, but his right hand man is rude and dismissive from the get-go.

Louis and Harry continue to clash all while Harry is trying to move his way up the ranks in Manchester's amateur boxing circuit, but they can't seem to stay away from each other.

6. Some Flowers In Your Hair 23k *

When Louis mentions offhandedly that he’s really been enjoying watching some TV show called Alone, and that the idea of humans surviving without magic in the wilderness fascinates him, he would never have guessed it would land him in a situation like this.

This is supposed to be a friendly camping trip between Louis and Liam, just a couple of bros surviving in the wilderness for bragging rights, not whatever rigmarole that fucker is currently outlining. And certainly not including one Harry Styles, pretentious twat that he is.

What is he getting himself into?

Or, a magical camping AU in which Louis is jealous of Harry's magic, Liam's a little too enthusiastic about surviving in the wilderness, and Niall might have misunderstood the rules.

7. We’ll Be Seamless 52k **

Green reblogged an old photo of himself. It was from back in October, a Halloween special. A pulse shot all the way through Louis because this photo was his absolute favourite, and it had taken the rest of the year for him to wean himself off of it.

Green was on his knees, arms stretched out in front of him with his fingertips digging into the surface of his bed. He was wearing a pair of cat ears on his head, his curls falling forward. His back was arched, and in the foreground of the picture, Green’s bum was high in the air, a long, black cat tail sitting neatly between his cheeks.

Louis spends all his spare time scrolling arty nude blogs on Tumblr but amongst them all, Green is his favourite.

8. Chasing Empty Spaces 79k **

The year is 1934 and Harry Styles was to inherent the largest tobacco firm in the south. His parents have picked out the “perfect” girl for him to marry and he has the privilege of receiving the highest education possible. The problem was, Harry hadn’t realized he didn’t actually want any part of that future until he met a mechanic named, Louis Tomlinson.

9. It Had To Be You 45k **

A When Harry Met Sally AU.

Harry and Louis are strangers who share the drive from Chicago to NYC after college. They don't have anything in common, don't get along, and at the end of their trip, they're both glad to say goodbye. During a chance meeting five years later, they find that nothing has changed, and they part ways expecting never to see each other again. Ten years after their first meeting, Louis and Harry meet once again, but this time they become friends. Eventually, things get complicated.

10. Perfect Sky 11k

Deep, deep down, Louis knows Niall hadn’t meant to do this. He knows that this really was a last minute conundrum Louis had found himself in. Louis could’ve muddled the dates just as easily as Niall could have misremembered them. This hurts for other, more difficult reasons.

This hurts because it was supposed to be Louis’ honeymoon.

Louis meets Marcel at the lowest point of his life. A few poorly timed jokes, and a cigarette (or twelve) later, Louis starts to think love’s not a sham after all.

11. Magic Everywhere We Go 19k

Fifteen years after first meeting Louis at a mutual friend’s birthday party, Harry is just as in love with his husband as he was on their wedding day. And with the birth of each new child, Harry seems to have only grown to love him more.

And now Harry is spending four days at the happiest place on earth with all of his favorite people – his mum and stepdad, his four beautiful children, and his perfect husband.

Life couldn’t get any better than this.

Or, Harry and Louis go on holiday with their family to Disney World.

12. One Day, Maybe Next Week 6k

Louis was staring at him, expecting a response, and Harry was supposed to be the one coming up with that response, and he was so not prepared, so he blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

“Where were you? You weren’t on the bus for a few days.”

Louis raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“Uh… Sorry, I just- Um, sort of noticed that maybe you weren’t on the bus since last week. Not that I watch for when you’re on the bus or anything. That would be weird. Obviously, you have your own schedule, and I have mine. I just saw that you weren’t here, so I wondered what you were doing, or if something bad happened, like you got kidnapped or something. God, that sounded creepy. I promise I’m not threatening your life or something. Jesus, just stop me. If you have pepper spray, I would totally understand if you got me in the eyes right now.”

Louis had his lips pressed together at this point, holding back a laugh. Harry really didn’t blame him for that.

Or, the one where Harry just really wants to talk to Louis. And when he finally does, everything he says just comes out wrong.

13. Building Castles In the Sky 22k **

"D-dad? You think I c-can do it? Y-you think i c-can..." Evan trailed off looking down at his chest. And Louis' heart melted.

"I think you can do everything, love. Everything." Louis said while pulling his boy closer. "Because you, my little dandelion, are very brave! And so strong and wonderful and so very bright! You will go up on that stage, and you will blow everyone away. I just know it."

They laid there on their porch while they hugged each other tightly. His little boy was so brave. Louis didn't need to see him on a stage to be proud. He was proud of him already.

"You know,” Evan mumbled aloud again. “Mr. S-Styles says the same t-thing. He s-says I c-can do e-everything too.”

And Louis couldn't help but smile.

Or, where, Louis had a four year old with a stuttering problem. Harry was always there to help.

14. I Come Alive When I Hear Your Voice 7k

Harry let out a satisfied sigh and sat back in his cushioned office chair. He looked down at his laptop and tapped his fingers against his bottom lip in contemplation. He was fairly pleased with what he’d finished so far on his latest project; he just needed to fine-tune some bits and then send it off to his management for their approval. He sent his coworkers an e-mail giving them commenting rights on the document for any constructive criticism they might have, and cringed when his stomach let out an unholy gurgle.

Aka: Harry the mute songwriter falls in love with the single dad working at the bakery down the street from his studio.

15. Cupid’s Defense 116k **

In which Harry is Cupid, Louis and Liam own a law firm, and they're all getting sued.

16. Palms Reflecting In Your Eyes 6k **

Harry visits Louis at his campus and finds a crop on the wall.

17. There Is No Resistance 1k

It's Harry's birthday and Louis has found him the perfect gift.

18. Sound Like a Song 14k **

In high school, Louis Tomlinson lit up Harry’s world like nobody else, even if Harry did most of his pining from the safety of his tightly knit circle of friends. Ten years later, Harry is ready to make some changes. He’s tired of having so many regrets and not taking charge of his life, and he still hasn’t forgotten how brightly Louis shines. He’s about to get a long awaited second chance.

Or the one where Harry helps out at a farmer’s market and gives Louis free vegetables.

19. I’ve Seen How You Sparkle 56k *

Their eyes locked again and Harry blushed, suddenly feeling shy. Louis just smiled at him, tilting his head a little as his eyes ran over the younger boy. Harry self-consciously placed his arm over his stomach, afraid that Louis would somehow see through his clothes and notice the druid mark on his right hip. It was a triple spiral, a triskele. Although it wasn’t that big and fairly easy to hide, Harry was always paranoid that he would maybe stretch too much and reveal the mark.

It wasn’t that he actually believed Louis would have him executed, but he knew Louis was fiercely loyal to his father. If it came to choosing between Harry and his father, Harry was honestly not sure what Louis would do.

Or Louis is the Crown Prince of Camelot and Harry is a druid hiding his magic. It would have been a lot easier if he didn't also have to deal with a forbidden love, a dangerous quest and a whole lot of trouble.

20. One Shines Brighter 11k *

“Hi, baby. You doing anything fun today?”

Harry shrugs. “Dunno. Thought I’d see how I was feeling before making any plans.”

“You wanna get married?” Louis asks. Harry’s face breaks into a smile, and he nods.

Louis’ lips are just brushing Harry’s when Gemma appears in the hallway. “You two are in so much trouble.”

Harry's wedding was never supposed to be the happiest day of his life. No, that was going to be the day after, when he finally got to start his marriage. Unfortunately his family (and Louis) have other ideas.

Featuring a pair of moms who only want the best for their kids, meddling sisters with too much time on their hands, and a groom who gets caught up in the fairytale.

[mtmeventsplanner]

Grand Opening Ideas

Early introductions are everything. In case you’re propelling another business, a fabulous opening event incites energy, interest, and a feeling of the network. Be that as it may, an exhausting old strip cutting won’t cut it.

From thought to activity to luminosity, here are the means by which to think of excellent opening thoughts, advertise your event viably with MTM Events and executed with style.

Focus in on your objectives for your stupendous opening

A stupendous opening isn’t only any event. Your objectives for your business are explicit. For example, you may look:

Make mindfulness around your image. This is your first enormous showcasing exertion, and you can just do it once. Ensure you have a tight, bound together the brand message. Everybody on your staff should know precisely how to discuss your event — and your image — from the get-go.

Get individuals amped up for your business. Past mindfulness, you need to make a bona fide association with your neighborhood network. You probably won’t be the principal store of your sort nearby, however, your excellent opening is the event organisers Singapore that can separate your business.

Assemble associations with the network. Your stupendous opening event can kickoff your connections with clients as well as with colleagues and merchants you’ll interface within the years to come. Get these connections off on the correct foot by welcoming them to an amazing opening gathering that will truly energize them.

In light of your business objectives, it’s a great opportunity to conceptualize fabulous opening thoughts.

Fantastic opening thoughts that emerge

Each fruitful dispatch begins with an incredible thought. Here are only a couple of fabulous opening plans to make your dispatch an undertaking to recall.

Break a record

Guinness World Records has been wowing individuals since the ’50s. Yet, did you realize that the well-known association behind record-breaking exhibitions has a key Business Solutions group?

These accomplished promoting masters can enable your association to break a record at your terrific opening gathering. The Guinness group helped LG Electronics manufacture the world’s tallest place of cards on an LG clothes washer while it was running. They can enable you to think about a record to break and force it off.

Make an attention stunt

The Tour de France began as an exposure trick to advance another French paper. The Macy’s Day Parade additionally began as a trick. Presently, the yearly events are dearest customs, broadcast over the world.

Enticing tricks can make for the best excellent opening plans to create PR. Consider arranging a blaze crowd, making a human announcement, or propelling your very own yearly race or march to grab individuals’ eye.

Breath life into a previous decade

You probably won’t almost certainly book a popular craftsman, yet cover groups that harken back to a particular melodic period can draw a shockingly huge group. Support ensembles and serve sustenance and beverages regular of the decade to broaden the topic.

Dress it up

More than 50 percent of twenty to thirty-year-olds refer to Halloween as their most loved event, yet it doesn’t need to be October for individuals to need to spruce up. Move participants with a topical outfit test. In case you’re opening a store dedicated to extravagance things, for example, a Great Gatsby party sets aside a few minutes — and web-based social networking commendable photographs.

Bolster a reason

Is there philanthropy that is firmly lined up with your business’ topic or objectives? Is there a nearby reason you could bolster? Pledge drives, sponsorships, and basic gifts are on the whole extraordinary approaches to set up your image as beneficent and pull in a liberal group.

Advertising your fabulous opening event

Advertising fabulous openings are marginally not the same as advancing different events in light of the fact that your image or space is new. That implies you probably won’t have a current gathering of people to market to.

To contact new individuals, you’ll have to receive some particular strategies.

Nearby PR. Radio, TV, and paper promoting is a compelling method to contact a nearby group of onlookers. You could likewise welcome a DJ, grapple or writer to cover your stupendous opening corporate events Singapore faces to face. Offer them VIP treatment to tempt them to visit.

Online networking. On the off chance that you don’t as of now have internet based life pages set up, you should before your event. Label your posts at nearby problem areas and with well-known hashtags so clients who aren’t yet tailing you will see your posts.

Make a Facebook Event. Make a Facebook Event from your Facebook Business Page so your excellent opening event will come up for all clients who lead an important event seek.

Promote on the web. Exploit internet publicizing stages like Google and Facebook that enable you to set a financial plan and focus in on a neighborhood target showcase.

When you accumulate email addresses in the enrollment procedure and at your event itself, you’ll have the capacity to send participants promoting refreshes. Consider messaging them post-event with a markdown and connections to tail you via web-based networking media.

So what are you hanging tight for? Begin on your next event.

Read also: Reasons To Hire MTM Events As Your Event Planner In Singapore

[3one3]

The Sequel - 890

Halloween Romance

André Schürrle, Juan Mata, other Chelsea/BVB players, and random awesome OC’s (okay they’re less random now but they’re still pretty awesome)

original epic tale

all chapters of The Sequel

“You have to hold it still for me, sweetheart. It’s not going to look like a pumpkin if I mess up the icing.”

“You could finish them a lot faster if you just put the cupcake on the counter.”

“Yeah but he wants to help.”

“His help makes everything harder.”

“Do you not want to hang with us today? Would you like to go home? Is there somewhere else you prefer to be?”

“No- I- Sorry. I was just trying to be helpful. We’re really late.”

Christina glanced up from the chocolate cupcake Lukas was holding for her to assess whether Espen’s apology was heartfelt or self-preserving. She took the afternoon off on Halloween to be a mom. Lukas helped her make the cupcakes, with chocolate chip cookie dough stuffed inside, and then recruited her assistance in decorating his trick-or-treating bag with all sorts of craft goodies, like googly eyes and pipe cleaners. Espen was on duty and supposed to attend the party at Marco’s too, mostly to be an extra set of adult hands and eyes. Her employer didn’t really need her for Lukas, though she did need her to keep an eye on him while she got into her Daenerys costume- a lengthy and involved process. They worked together to get the little boy and his dogs into their costumes, and then it was time to swirl the homemade orange icing onto the cooled cupcakes and add the candy pieces to make them look like jack-o-lanterns. The hardest part wasn’t actually Lukas’ inability to hold the cupcakes still while the very bad cake decorator tried to finish them- it was keeping the long blonde and braided wig out of the icing. Regardless, Christina thought her nanny out of line in both tone and attitude. Her expression looked sincere enough though following her apology.

“Just because you’re dressed as the Red Witch doesn’t mean you have to be all mean about innocent kids,” she teased her after returning her gaze to the cupcake.

“I was being practical. You said you didn’t want to be late,” Espen stressed.

“Are you nervous about seeing Marco or something? Or seeing Marco while Zoe is there?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course! I haven’t talked to him in...I’m not sure how long. A long time!”

“Mkay. Give that to Espen,” Christina told Lukas. Espen was in charge of fitting the completed cupcakes into a fancy plastic tray designed specifically for cupcakes. It came with a tall lid to protect the icing creations. She was in charge of putting the finishing touches on them too.

Christina was pretty clumsy with the icing bag but she and the baby dragon managed to complete the last three cupcakes without wearing the orange stuff or messing up the aesthetic appeal of the treats too badly. There was a short photo session with the pumpkins outside the front door to make sure there would be lasting evidence of the greatness of the costumes, and then everyone was packed into the Range Rover for the short trip over to Marco’s neighborhood, which was partially overrun by ghosts, Paw Patrol characters, superheroes, very small football players, witches, ballerinas, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, princesses, pirates, Disney characters, and little animals. The houses weren’t very close together, and many were gated, with long drives. It wasn’t a great street for trick-or-treating, so the proactive families in the community set up a maze of tents around the cul-de-sac at the end, each one decorated for the occasion and manned by someone with candy. Some people went all out. They had spooky music, dry ice to make smoke, huge jack-o-lanterns, animatronic mummies, and actual people in scary costumes. There was a circle of straw bales in someone’s yard for scary storytelling around a fire. A couple of families teamed up to offer hot chocolate, warm cider from a cauldron, and some grilled food. One of the houses right off the circle was close enough to the road that its garage door made for a perfect surface on which to project classic Halloween films. Marco’s driveway was the last one accessible by car, before the road was blocked. He let Christina in to park there, and then walked her crew and her cupcakes up to Zoe’s tent. He didn’t have a costume but his face was painted Mexican “Dia de los Muertos” style. The very, very well done black and white paint made it hard to tell if he had any feelings about seeing Espen, and that situation was a sideshow. Christina really wanted to show Lukas a good time. It was important to her to do Halloween right for her son, because she felt Halloween an incredibly meaningful thing for a kid. It felt like a magical occasion to her as a child, and one she always looked forward to, like Christmas.

“Lukas!” Zoe, dressed as Harley Quinn, smiled to welcome him into her graveyard-themed EZ-Up tent. As she explained to his mom, she took advantage of her design skills and the knowledge of construction she picked up in school as part of her design studies to build aged-looking headstones, crosses, spooky trees, a “steel” fence, and even a mini Gothic church. She used cheap Astroturf-like carpeting for the ground, and had a very real looking coffin at the back, full of platters of treats and bowls of candy. Any kid brave enough to stroll through her graveyard would be nicely rewarded. There was a stand in the coffin with an empty plate waiting for Christina’s cupcakes. “What are you?”

“Dragon,” Lukas replied absently, distracted by his over-stimulating surroundings. There were kids of all ages everywhere, and lots of dogs, and music.

“How scary! Did you breathe fire to cook these fantastic cupcakes?” Zoe questioned after Christina presented the plastic tray. The girls winked at each other at the same time.

“No...Mommy, is that Daddy?” The little winged dragon pointed at a grown up wearing a yellow Lakers uniform. He thought everyone in all yellow was André.

“That’s Lukasz, actually,” Marco laughed. “You know him. Come on- I’ll take you over there. Your friends are there.”

“Mommy?” Lukas was a bit intimidated by everything. His mom knelt down to give him a kiss and assure him that Uncle Marco would deliver him to his friends- the other BVB kids he knew quite well from playdates, matchdays, and birthdays. Noah ran over from the tent the BVB right-back was standing in front of in the basketball costume. He was a little fighter pilot with aviators and everything, and he was a more trustworthy escort for Lukas than his dad. The two kids skipped off with their candy bags, Marco in tow.

“I’ll go with them,” Espen volunteered. She had Spencer and Lucky too. They were even more overwhelmed than their human brother, but far more excited. There was candy and chocolate poison everywhere. The other two girls nodded. Of course you will, the rider smirked to herself. Follow Marco away from his girlfriend? Sure. Why not?

“Where did you get this jacket?” Zoe interjected into her friend’s musing. “Did you like buy it from the HBO costume department? It looks so real.”

“Ebay. It looks good on the outside but it’s totally unfinished inside. These are my own shoes, too. But I’m obsessed with this wig,” Christina bragged while trying to figure out if she could help move the cupcakes onto the plate without knocking over or damaging some part of the decorations. The passageways in the tent were child-size. It was a squeeze for grown-ups, and her jacket was really long and fairly rigid. She couldn’t figure out why Zoe insisted on approaching the coffin from the front when she could walk outside the tent, hold up the black sheeting she had hanging down back there, and access her full-size coffin full of sugar from behind. “Did you do Marco’s face? It looks amazing. So does your makeup, come to think of it.” Girl Protocol dictates that I have to compliment her, Christina reminded herself. In addition to worrying that she didn’t know how to socialize with all the parents she’d encounter at the Halloween block party, she actually put thought into how to behave with Zoe, whom she heard thought it was really, really weird that she helped Marco pick out lingerie for her.

“Marco’s face took forever,” the interior expert laughed, moving out of the way of a kid dressed as a cowboy. The kids moving from tent to tent seemed to care very little about the adults, unless they were popping out of somewhere to scare them. “He can’t sit still. No is better behaved.”

“Did you use Kool-Aid or something for your hair? How did you do the pink and blue? You’re so lucky to have hair the same color as this wig. You can do fun colors all the time.”

“I ordered some temporary dye online. I hope it washes out soon! You should have blonde hair permanently. It suits you. And the braids are kind of sexy,” she giggled. The two friends picked their way through the headstones to get out of the way of other incoming kids. The smell of all the candy was kind of nauseating to Christina, but she wanted to eat one of her own cupcakes and regretted walking away without one.

“I should just wear the wig now and then, like for parties and stuff. The braids can come out. It’s really just a high-quality long blonde wig that someone Daenerys’d.”

“I used to love wigs. I had a whole bunch of them that I wore for fun nights out and things. I still have a black one that I looooove. It’s very...Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction. Marco hates it. I wore it to dinner once, and he made me take it off before bed. He was like, “I can’t sleep with you with that- I feel like I can’t touch your hair”.”

“That’s what Juan said about this,” Christina laughed. “He was like, “I’m never fu-“ Shit. She made eye contact with the girl with cotton candy hair to see if her mistake registered at all. What she saw was two green eyes peering skeptically back. Is she making that face at me because I just stopped talking mid-word, or because she wants to know why Juan said anything to me at all about sleeping together? I have to finish the sentence or it’s even more awkward, eh? “He was like, “I’d never fuck you with a Game of Thrones wig...””

“Weird.” The skeptical gaze was unyielding. Christina tried to laugh it away.

“Yeah. So who else is here that I know?” She turned 45* to survey the busy scene and hopefully segue away from her misstep.

“Everyone. That red tent over there that looks like a surgical theatre? The coolers on the table are full of boozy punch, not organs. Three down from there has a trash bin full of dry ice and also bottled beer. Someone is passing out marijuana cigarettes too. And they have Jell-O shots in the haunted sweet shop. Oh, did you want to get something to eat before you hit the drinks?”

I guess she’s gonna move on, the Olympian concluded before explaining her disinterest in alcohol. She didn’t actually want to spend the waning hours of sunlight sneaking booze and gabbing with the other Dortmund wives in attendance. As such, she let Zoe take her on a quick loop of the tents to greet people she knew and introduce her to other neighbors, and then she grabbed a cheeseburger and a box of popcorn to share with Lukas.

He was very much the quiet one in the group of players’ kids. His mom found them fishing for floating plastic pumpkins with tiny toys inside with poles consisting of a twig, some string, and a magnet on the end to attract the magnet glued to the top of each plastic pumpkin. They were floating in a kiddie pool. Lukas was watching some bigger kids try, at Noah’s side. He didn’t have any candy in his bag yet. Espen and Marco were watching too, but Espen was like Lukas- not talking to anyone, and Marco was like Noah- laughing with friends. The baby dragon was glad to spot his mom, even if it took him a second to remember that it was her in the wig and the long, pointy-shouldered getup. He was even happier to see that she had food. They took the dogs so that Espen could get something to eat too if she wanted, and picked a straw bale near an inflatable spider to sit on. Lukas’ tail was kind of in the way. He didn’t like sitting on it in the car either. Christina picked him up and slid him back so that it could hang down behind the bale.

“Better?” she asked. He nodded with a mouth full of burger. The dogs were surprisingly stationary on the ends of their leashes. Their human thought they were inhibited by their Avengers costumes, the way some of her horses hated to walk with shipping wraps or boots on. She gave them a couple pieces of popcorn. “So what do you think of all this? Fun, right? Do you like hanging out with the other kids?”

“It’s okay,” Lukas shrugged. His head was on permanent swivel, taking everything in.

“I’ll walk around with you to get candy when you finish that.” He’s not old enough to be embarrassed by his mom, right? You don’t care if your friends see you with your mom at two and a half, right? I wish we could get like one other kid to go with us though. What if he grows up hating kids and always wanting to hang out with the adults, like me? “Which of your friends are here?” Christina inquired. Her little dragon was too distracted to respond, so she started rattling off the names of André’s teammates’ kids that she could remember. He nodded yes or no to some, and ignored others. “Who do you like to play with best? Who’s most fun?”

“Gala.”

“Who?”

“Gala.”

I don’t know who that is. What kind of name does that sound like? We have...Polish, Spanish, German obviously, Greek, Turkish... What if he’s not saying it right?

“Is Gala here?” Mom questioned. Lukas nodded affirmatively. “Where?” He pointed at a bunch of kids walking around with Espen and Nuri’s wife. “Which costu- Err- What is he wearing?”

“Dress. Blue? Blue. There.”

“Oh! Marc and Melissa’s daughter. Ohhhh.”

“She’s nice.”

“Do you want to ask her to walk with us? To find some lollipops and chocolates and stuff? You have to say “trick or treat”, remember?”

“With us?”

“Yeah. Do you want her to come with us?” A very excited Mother of Dragons smiled with anticipation at her beloved dragon, and he blushed before he nodded and wiped his nose. Awwwwwwwwww-I’m-gonna-melt, the rider gushed inside. She immediately wedged the carton of popcorn between her knees and fished around in her crossbody bag for her phone so that she could text André and tell him Lukas had a crush on a princess. Seeing his cheeks turn red and his eyes sparkle a little instead of being glazed over from the overwhelming atmosphere was by far the best part of her day- better than checking herself out in the mirror and feeling awesome in her Daenerys outfit, better than completing the best of the pumpkin designs on a cupcake, and better than realizing Zoe wasn’t going to ask her anything about Juan.

“Lulu Schü has a crush on Marc’s daughter. She’s one of the princesses from Frozen. We’re gonna go ask her out.”

Christina had napkins in her little bag, as usual, and used one to wipe some cheese off her son’s face and make sure he looked his cutest when he was finished eating. Then she shoved the leashes up her wrist, stuffed the popcorn into the bag and zipped it enough to keep the carton upright, grabbed Lukas’ hand, and marched confidently toward a little girl in an Elsa costume with a plastic pumpkin bucket. She started to panic as they got close. Do I ask him to introduce me to her and then I invite her to walk with us? Do I tell him to ask her? Do I find her mom? Is it gonna totally salt his game if I even talk to her? Does she understand English? How does this-

“Gala!” Lukas called, breaking away from Mom to kind of jog the last meter to his friend. The brunette girl with messy pigtail braids turned to see who was looking for her, and smiled and waved when she spotted him. She asked to see in his bag and then showed him that she had some candy in her bucket. Lukas pointed at Christina, so Christina bent down to say hello. Her son introduced her. “This is Mommy.”

“Hi, Gala. I like your outfit!” the queen said to the princess. The princess didn’t seem to understand. “Uhhh...me gusta tu vestido?”

“Gracias!” Gala lit up and actually grabbed Lukas’ arm to tug and lean on it. Then she got distracted by canine Captain America and canine Ironman, who also wanted to know what she had in her bucket. Lukas, the perfect gentleman, introduced them to her too, and pushed them away from her stash. “Gala...quieres caminar con nosotros? Para los dulces?”

Both children seemed alarmed about the questions. One had no idea what Christina was saying, and the other seemed anxious. That one kept looking around for something. Christina deduced that she, like most kids, had been told by her parents not to go off with strangers. The situation was easily rectified, though not without a great deal of personal embarrassment. The rider left Lukas with the group and took the dogs to go find Melissa. She decided to just laugh it up and be cheesy and admit that her son was interested in trick-or-treating with her daughter and ask if it was okay, and if she could go tell her it was okay so that she wouldn’t think her friend’s mother was trying to kidnap her. Melissa was very friendly about it, and laughed along too. She thought it was cute, and joked that it was up to Gala.

It all worked out very well. The kids got bite-sized chocolate bars, tiny boxes of sugary hard candies, suckers, bubble gum, bat cookies, eyeball truffles, Harry Potter wands, cheap scary masks, and hot apple cider. Lukas and Gala took turns leading each other around, holding hands, from candy stop to candy stop and game to game, or little haunted scene to scary tent. They played with some friends as they ran into them too. Christina followed along behind them, and Lukas showed her things he wanted her to see. He got scared by an “It” clown at one point and literally ran for Mommy, but not without making sure his friend got to the safety of the Behind Mommy Region too. She was absolutely in love with being Mommy that evening, and in love with Lukas’ burgeoning personality.

He was a good kid. He didn’t run around screaming. He didn’t pick on anyone, or steal candy. As far as she could tell, he and Gala didn’t even talk to one another, but they managed to communicate and have fun together through sharing and exploring. One saw something scary or exciting and immediately summoned the other to see it. One found a particularly desirable type of sweet and got an extra piece to put in the other’s bag or bucket. When one was unsure about a decoration or sound effect, he or she reached for the other’s hand or arm and they checked it out together. It was all adorable, and impressive. Christina had no idea kids that age could be so smart or resourceful. She had no idea kids at that age had figured out the concept of sharing experiences to make them better, or safer.

André got a lot of pictures, and a video of the two kids bobbing for crabapples. He said falling for princesses ran in the family, and that he was showing the photos to Marc. It all went well until the kids plopped in front of the garage door to watch a Halloween cartoon with their friends and two lap dogs and Christina left them under Espen’s supervision and went back to Zoe’s haunted cemetery. She had Lukas’ bag of candy so that he couldn’t eat it all while he watched the movie, and grabbed a folding chair next to Marco with the intention of going through the haul to pick out what she wanted from it. Not 30 seconds after she sat down and started talking to her old friend, his girlfriend appeared and told him to go find Noah and see if he needed a potty break. He didn’t want to go. She angry-faced him into obeying, and slotted right into his chair as soon as he got up. After a couple of words about how cute Lukas and Gala were together, she got down to business.

“How is the wig holding up? Is it comfortable to wear all night?” she asked harmlessly. The other girl touched her head to verify that her nearly white wig was still in place. It hadn’t moved. Espen was weirdly adept at placing and securing costume hair. Her Red Witch wig, while not as nice and natural looking to begin with, still looked great and stayed in place.

“I forgot about it after a while,” Christina shrugged.

“You know before when you said Juan wouldn’t let you wear it in bed? You meant André, right?”

“Uhh- Yeah.” Why is she asking me this? How awkward. Go away. The rider blushed harder than her little boy did over his friend.

“I’m just calling your attention to it because I don’t want you to slip up and accidentally call André Juan to his face or something,” Zoe explained in a tone and with a demeanor that said whatever she was up to was definitely not for Christina’s benefit. “That’s so awkward, and it can lead to fights, like the one I had with Marco just now when he asked me for a cup for water and called me Espen.”

“Weird.” Christina didn’t know how to respond to that any more than Zoe knew how to respond to her earlier slip up. She did, however, look across the cul de sac to find Espen, as if staring at her would help the situation. Is he not allowed to talk to nannies? Does Zoe know they hooked up? Am I supposed to be responsible for my nanny’s behavior?

“Yeah, it was weird. You have to be around someone a lot, or talk to her a lot, to have her name on your tongue,” the decorator continued. “Especially with a unique name like Espen.”

“You think? Sometimes I go home after a lesson and immediately call Luke “Kyle”, because I was literally just yelling at Kyle.”

“I don’t know. He never returns home from the training and calls No “Mario”.”

Christina just nodded because she didn’t know what else to do. She took her phone out to give herself an excuse to avoid further conversation. Espen has been tetchy as fuck lately, faux-Khaleesi reflected. It’s almost like the filter she normally applies to silence the stuff I’m sure she’s always thought but knew better than to blurt out loud is malfunctioning. Is it because she’s all up in Marco’s DM’s again or something? I can’t picture him cheating. I can’t picture him cheating with my nanny, above all. She’s not his type. And what’s with Zoe? She goes 0-100 like I don’t even know. Have some chill, girl. Does she think I know of some affair between them and I’m not telling her? This is why I like hanging out with animals and my kid. He’s way cooler than Zoe.

After the Halloween block party, and after assuring Lukas that his candy would be in the kitchen waiting for him in the morning so that he could go to sleep, Christina and her Toy Fox Terriers settled into the beanbag in the basement to watch Chelsea play Roma at the Stadio Olimpico. Human had bowl of steamed veggies and grilled chicken. Dogs had new chewy pig tails. Chelsea had a shocker.

“I don’t get why everyone in front of the ball is just standing around. It’s so static. It’s like you only know how to play on the break. No one is making runs,” Christina explained to her personal Blue, Juan, from the comfort of her bed while he rode a bus to the airport. “What the fuck is the point of Alvi if not to make runs? Why do they have you on the ball in midfield instead of up there making runs? Why don’t you have Schü? That’s what he was good at for Chelsea. Or- You know what? Why not play Marcos on the wing but as an actual winger? Let Rudiger play behind him. Four-four-two. Azpi, Gaz, David, Rudiger; Pedro, you, Baka, Marcos; Eden, Alvi.”

“I’ll pass that along to the manager.”

“Please do.”

“He’s in a great mood,” Juan told her sarcastically. He sounded tired and a little frustrated, but not yet angry. His girlfriend knew the anger would come eventually. His club dropped to second in the group. Atletico de Madrid was looking a whole lot worse and failed to beat minnows Qarabag for the second time, so he needn’t worry too much just yet about getting out of the group stage. Point situation aside, the performance, however, was pretty concerning. It was terrible at both ends, fraught with carelessness, individual errors, and even a lack of fight. It was a perfect storm of failures and deficiencies that could unite players, the manager, and the fans in one unique post-match feeling: disappointment in the players.

“You looked really good in black,” the rider offered as meek consolation.

“We wore the white kit.”

“No I know. I mean in the sweatshirt you had on before the match. I caught the build-up because Lukas passed out as soon as I got him into bed, no story. He had his first date tonight.”

“With who?”

“Marc Bartra’s daughter.”

“Attraction to Spaniards runs in the family, hm?” Juan asked without much inflection.

“Guess so. Am I supposed to be talking a lot and distracting you, telling you it wasn’t so bad and I love you anyway, or some other option I haven’t thought of? ‘Cause it kind of sounds like you don’t want to be on the phone, but you called me...” I swear, being with a footballer should come with a psychology handbook or something, Christina fretted to herself, feeling helpless. It was rare that all of the players close to her were suffering the same football strife. They were divided into just two teams then instead of four, and so the odds on them all going through tough days were shortened when Mario and André joined Borussia Dortmund. She was used to at least one of them enjoying a good run of personal and team form.

“I don’t know what I want, but I always call you on the way home. It’s part of the routine. What are you doing?”

“I’m going to sleep after this. I’m in bed. I was waiting for you.”

“Go to sleep, I guess. I’ll-“

“Juanin-“

“It’s okay. I’m going to sleep on the plane too.”

“Call me when you get up. I’ll send you Halloween pictures.”

“Okay.”

“Love you.”

“You too.”

I wonder who the guys think he’s talking to. He calls his dad after matches too a lot, and his friends can probably deduce that. Surely they speak Spanish. But who is sitting next to him on the bus and who does that person think he just called? Juanin says “you too” instead of any form of “I love you” when he’s not alone. He didn’t call me cariña a single time on that call, so does that mean he’s sitting next to someone who knows he calls me that? Like Azpi? Or was it just a coincidence that he didn’t say it?

Christina had exposure on her mind. The more she thought about it, the less likely Zoe’s line about calling her out about saying Juan instead of André being for her benefit was true. Sure, Marco’s girlfriend had her own agenda in even bringing it up, but it was still curious. Christina worried that she would bring it up to Marco, who would then start asking André questions, which would irritate him and add further hassle to the arrangement for him. She’d leaked vague information about that arrangement to numerous friends, through necessity when they’d already sort of put it together, or to correct a wrong impression, and André didn’t tell anyone. His wife didn’t know he conceded the existence of the triangle to their agent, and he was keeping it from his best friends and his family. Juan’s family knew. Juan’s best friend knew. It was another imbalance and unfairness.

André was already asleep in his hotel room. She didn’t mention anything about Zoe’s comment to him, of course. They spoke before he went to bed, entirely about Lukas’ Halloween experience. It made him happy. It was nice to have something in his life that almost had nothing to do with him but could still make him feel as good as something he did himself. He didn’t have to score goals or win games or get big husband points to glean happiness from his son’s life. And it wasn’t just Lukas’ fun night and his little “date” that made the player feel good inside. He was really fulfilled by Christina’s takeaway. He loved hearing that she had a great mom experience. She sounded so excited and so thrilled about it. It had become quite rare to hear her so positively animated about something other than horses. Her reaction was also kind of adorable. She wasn’t the kind of mother who obsesses over her child every minute of the day, or does everything with him, or shows him off to everyone. Her response to Lukas’ cuteness was sweet, and reminded André why he loved her so much. He loved her heart, and the things that melted it to mush.

[radicalruss]

The One-Armed Homeless Man

While driving to a party early last evening (it was still twilight), I'm stopped in traffic at SE Powell and 84th when I see something that saddened me.

For non-Portlanders, we're talking about a two-lane boulevard (Powell) with a center turn lane, just two blocks from a state highway (Hwy 213, or 82nd), with very heavy traffic.

There, winding slowly through the cars on Powell backed up for the stoplight on 82nd was a strange-looking shirtless caucasian man wearing a pair of sweatpants that were just barely hanging onto his wiry, tanned body.

His hair was a disheveled, matted mess. He wore no shoes. Most strikingly, he had no left arm - entirely, like, all the way to the shoulder and no shoulder blade.

Every few steps he would stop. His knees would knock together and he'd twitch. I can only compare it to what it looks like when you really, really, going to shit yourself in about six seconds and you're exerting every muscle trying not to.

Now the traffic is beginning to move. Cars on the oncoming side of Powell are slowly trying to maneuver around him. He makes it almost to the sidewalk, then collapses into the gutter near it.

"This guy is going to get killed," I said. I had Lori Nelson Duckworth, who was with me, get on the phone and call 911. There was a bit of time on hold - it is Halloween weekend, but, still, 911 puts you on hold? - and finally we got a 911 operator.

Lori describes the scene above, but, oddly, in her description of the man she leaves out the part about his missing arm. The operator (I can hear her on speakerphone) says she's gotten a few calls already about the incident. Lori's emphasizing that he collapsed and is dangerously close to traffic. The operator's asking follow-up questions to determine if she should just send police or add an ambulance.

I can't take it anymore. "THE GUY'S ONLY GOT ONE ARM!" I interject into the conversation.

Then, the operator floored me. "Oh, yes," she said, with a hint of recognition in her tone. "He's a local transient in the area. He's a regular."

A regular. She said it like I heard bartenders in my playing days talk about the drunk falling off the barstool at 3pm as me and the band were setting up for the night's gig.

There was nothing regular about that man. There should be nothing regular about first responders knowing someone as a "regular."

I don't know the poor man's story, but clearly, he's not just going to "go out and get a job" or "pull himself up by his bootstraps." You gotta have boots first and I don't see him acing any job interviews.

I think of all the dumb shit our tax money gets spent on - from little things like paying some state inspector to come out to my back yard to make sure I'm only cultivating twelve total cannabis plants for the three patients who collectively paid the state about a thousand bucks for the privilege, to the big things like spending billions on an F-35 fighter plane program that even the Pentagon doesn't want - and I marvel how within that spectrum of spending there's not a dump truck full of money to, you know, promote the general welfare?

I know for a fact there are many young people with social work degrees who are driving Lyft or working Starbucks because there are no jobs for them. I know for a fact there are homes everywhere sitting empty and owners who'd take a government check to house people.

Can we cancel just one F-35 and shovel that money toward helping the least among us? I was told we are a Christian nation; isn't that like the whole Jesus Prime Directive?

My theory is that those in power consciously don't want to help them. They need there to be a hell on earth to act as the stick when the carrots of a paycheck and health care lose their pull on the wage slaves. "Man, my job and boss and commute really sucks... but I don't want to end up collapsed homeless in the street!"

If you had a sexual predator or a bully for a boss, or worked in unsafe or unsanitary conditions, or were being cheated of hours and overworked, but you knew you could quit and have a safety net that would cover your health care, housing, and food for as long as you needed to find a new job, you would. 

With such a safety net, a sort of competitive workplace evolution would occur. Wages would have to increase, benefits become more attractive, in order to lure people out of the safety net. Bosses would have to be nicer and workplaces more inclusive and welcoming. Most of all, CEOs and execs would have to make far less money.

And we can't have that. We're a Christian nation, all right, but it's that Joel Osteen / Creflo Dollar style "prosperity gospel" Christianity. That's why the one-armed man is a "regular."

[thegeekdevil]

Send in the clowns…

It’s the late 80’s in a small New England town. A group of bullied and abused kids band together to fight an ancient evil that’s hunting the children of the town, disguised as a clown called ‘Pennywise’…

“How do you solve a problem like Stephen King?”, asked no-one ever. One of the worlds most popular and successful living writers, King has provided a rich seam for film and television producers over the years, who have often sought to adapt his phenomenally successful work at the first opportunity, with varying degrees of success. On the one hand, there are acknowledged modern classics, such as ‘The Shining‘, The Shawshank Redemption‘ and ‘Stand By Me‘, as well as cult classics, such as ‘The Dead Zone‘, ‘Christine‘ and ‘The Running Man‘. And there’s also a good helping of tripe as well, chief amongst them the barely coherent ‘Dreamcatcher‘ and the recently released ‘The Dark Tower‘, a movie based on Kings most epic work that was years in the making, only to be released to scathing reviews and tepid box office. Indeed, the epic nature of much of Kings work means that it more often finds a more natural home on television in the form of a miniseries, where the many complicated plot strands have more time to develop naturally. ‘The Stand‘, ‘The Tommyknockers‘ and ‘The Langoliers‘, along with many others have been produced this way, and like the cinema adaptations, some are very good and some are not so. Falling into the ‘quite good’ category is the first adaptation of ‘It‘. Produced by ABC in 1990, the series was a big hit on it’s original broadcast, and retains a loyal following to this day, primarily due to the incredible performance by Tim Curry as ‘Pennywise The Dancing Clown‘, the primary manifestation of It throughout the story. Curry’s performance is rightly lauded as one of the all-time great horror performances, and has probably done terminal harm to the birthday party clown industry (which can only be a good thing), but as is the way with Hollywood a new adaptation of ‘It’ has been on the cards for a number of years. Originally being developed by first David Kajganich and then Cary Fukunaga, who got as far as casting Will Poulter as Pennywise, the movie has finally reached the big screen under the guidance of Andy Muschietti, an Argentinian director mainly known for the underrated 2013 Jessica Chastain starrer ‘Mama‘. Has Muschietti done a good job? let’s find out…

  The first thing I’ll say is that, considering he wasn’t involved from the beginning, Muschietti has done an excellent job in bringing his vision to the screen. Although the script is still credited to Fukunaga (along with Chase Palmer and Gary Dauberman), it’s been widely reported that significant revisions have taken place (mainly by Dauberman and Muschietti), including the removal of one particularly controversial scene that readers of the book may be familiar with that, even in todays ‘enlightened’ times, would be difficult to film without upsetting lot of people. What remains is relatively faithful to the source material, although the setting has been updated from the ’50’s to the late ’80’s. As such, this has also resulted in some minor alterations to the storylines of some characters, with the very ’50’s based fears of the original novel replaced by more up-to-date ones. These manifestations of It are brought to the screen using a combination of live-action and CGI, and it mostly works very well, with the twisted painting that terrorises young Jewish kid Stan Uris an unpleasant stand-out. All these creatures, however, pale into insignificance compared to It’s most famous form, that of Pennywise. If you already have an issue with clowns (and let’s face it, who doesn’t?) then his appearance here, all long limbs, weird angles and an off-kilter smile, will do nothing to help you deal with it. And if you’re one of those foolish people who claims that they are completely okay with clowns, then this should put paid to that resilience. I’ll talk about casting later, but suffice it to say that Bill Skarsgard (son of Stellan, and cast after Will Poulter dropped out), is superb as Pennywise, using all of his gangly 6ft 4in frame, along with an incredibly creepy make-up and costume job, to convey all of the malice and sheer evil of a creature that eats children in the same way you or I might eat a biscuit, namely often. Put simply, he’s bloody terrifying.

The setting for these horrific events is key to the story (like most of King’s stories, it all takes place in a small town in Maine), and this is another area where the film does well. Taking place in the fictional town of Derry (although actually filmed in Port Hope, Ontario), the picturesque town is as much a character in the story as any of the kids, or even Pennywise himself. It’s a beautiful place to look at, with tree-lined avenues and well-kept colonial style buildings nestling alongside majestic forests and rivers, giving the impression of a perfect town, and the ideal place to raise a family. And of course, it’s all a complete lie. Despite it’s beauty, despite it’s seemingly welcoming nature, Derry is a town with a dark tragic past, where great disasters occur with frightening regularity (roughly every 27 years), children go missing, never to be seen or heard from again, and adults act like nothing is wrong, desperately trying to ignore the evil in front of their eyes. Not-to-mention the fact that there’s a centuries-old demonic entity from another dimension living underneath the town. I don’t think even Kirstie Allsopp could convince you that moving here would be a good idea…

It’s why, when something resembling heroes are required, It falls upon the children of the town to step up. And these are not the cool kids either. Much like in ‘Stranger Things‘, to which you feel this owes a fair debt, these kids exist on the edge of things, bullied, abused, poor, or just ignored, no-one’s idea of saviours. Which is why they’re perfect for the job. While things are initially deeply personal for group leader Bill (Jaeden Lieberher) after his younger brother Georgie is taken by Pennywise he, along with the rest of The Losers Club as they come to call themselves, gradually realise the size of the fight in front of them, and the true scope of the evil underneath their town. The adults either don’t know or don’t care, and the other kids in town, personified in mullet-sporting bully Henry Bowers and is gang, are too busy being horrible to the main characters to help. Considering their importance, the casting of the Losers Club is tremendously important, and Muschietti has come up trumps. Alongside Lieberher we have Jeremy Ray Taylor as overweight introvert Ben, Finn Wolfhard as joker Ritchie, Chosen Jacobs as African-American outsider Mike, Jack Dylan Grazer as hypochondriac Eddie, Wyatt Oleff as thoughtful Stanley and Sophia Lillis as Beverly, the one gal among the guys. Although relatively unknown (Lieberher featured in indie sci-fi ‘Midnight Special‘, while Wolfhard will be familiar to fans of the afore-mentioned ‘Stranger Things‘), all of them are excellent, infusing each character with individual quirks and traits that will be a real challenge to whichever actors get the job of portraying these characters as adults. A particular mention should go to Lillis, who is at times heart-breaking as Beverly, dealing with all the problems of adolescence as well as a Father that takes a little bit too much of an interest in his daughters well-being. Her friendship with the boys provides relief, and the moment she finds the strength to break away from her father may well have you punching the air. If most of the adult characters don’t really register, well that’s sort-of the point. Parents, teachers, librarians, policemen, all are next-to-useless in the fight against Pennywise. As for Pennywise, although he’s been covered earlier, it’s worth repeating that Skarsgard is superb as the clown, literally, from hell. He’s neither better or worse than Tim Curry, he’s just different. He’s thoroughly weird-looking, completely out-of-step with our world, and just about the most unsettling thing you’ll see on screen this year. I look forward to people dressing up as him for many Halloweens to come…

Some people were keen to write off ‘It’, long before it made it to the screen. Delays caused by issues with script and budget are never a good sign, and that’s before you consider the esteem in which the previous adaptation was held (well, Curry’s performance anyway). All of this taken together could’ve resulted in a minor disaster, but happily that’s far, far from the case. The delays simply meant that time was taken to make sure everything was done properly, while everyone involved is keen to stress that this is not a remake of the 1990 series, just another adaptation of the novel, and that’s the only way to look at it (and what’s more, it should finally kill off that ludicrous notion that clowns are all about fun and happiness). Put simply, ‘It’ is an excellent film, full of great performances, with a creepy, unsettling atmosphere that frequently gives way to moments of genuine terror, while Skarsgard should join Curry in the pantheon of great horror performances. At the same time, special praise should go to Andy Muschietti for taking on a project that was so closely linked to another director, and making it his own in every way. Although it’s not been confirmed, I certainly hope that he comes back for chapter two. Following this will be quite the challenge. Let’s hope he’s up to it…

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‘It: Chapter One’ Review Send in the clowns... It's the late 80's in a small New England town. A group of bullied and abused kids band together to fight an ancient evil that's hunting the children of the town, disguised as a clown called 'Pennywise'...

[isabelmarantachat]

City Portrait: Mebane

photograph by Anna Routh-Barzin

My first real connection to Mebane came 10, maybe 15 years ago, when a friend asked me: Would I mind watering her flowers a couple of times a week over the course of that July, while she was out of town? Could I specifically water her sedum — once cuttings, she was eager to tell me, from her grandmother’s garden? My friend, an art historian, was remodeling a fabulous 100-year-old house near downtown (like seemingly everyone else I knew in Mebane). The bones of the thing were so good: heart pine floors, huge windows, long shotgun kitchen. She and her architect spouse threw noisy parties, cooked whole fish in salt merengues, let friends and neighbors draw cartoons in pencil on the bathroom walls. I understood Mebane to be a place of wonder, is what I’m saying. A place where people looked after one another — and, by extension, took good care of each other’s heirloom succulents.

Mebanesville — the town’s name for three years before it was shortened to its current moniker — was incorporated in 1881 and was a furniture town, a mattress town, a mill town, a railroad town. But this is the story of so much of central North Carolina; nothing necessarily particular blooms from that. So I asked a painter friend and Mebanite: What makes Mebane Mebane? What about this town makes it so nurturing, makes it a place where things can grow? “Oh,” he said. “You need to ask Evan” — a mutual friend and another art historian. (Mebane! Locus of all things art and art history!) “She’s to Mebane what Andy Warhol was to New York City,” he said.

Left: Art historian Evan Gatti and her dog, Fresca, on their front porch in downtown Mebane. Right: Collectibles at the Curious Peddler. photograph by Anna Routh-Barzin

Off to Evan Gatti, then. Who lives, of course, in a 100-year-old house she just remodeled. And who also hosts terrific parties. Note to you, dear reader: It only takes asking two or three people about Mebane to start wanting, in a necessarily particular way, to move there.

If your sense of Mebane is one that starts at the interstate, at the outlet mall, then you’ve got it not quite right. Though I love a good deal as much as anybody, if you’re out that way, you need very much to drive the couple of miles north on Fifth Street into downtown proper. There you’ll find, nestled along the train tracks, several blocks of two- and three-story brick buildings that seem lifted out of — well, not a movie, because none of it’s that precious. Mebane seems more genuine than that. I ask Evan if she knows what I’m getting at.

“We do have a sense of our history as part of our present,” Evan tells me over coffee at Filament, her local coffee-shop haunt. White string lights hang in the windows; people cluster at tables playing board games, planning dinners. Everyone seems to know everyone else one way or another. Impromptu carpools spring up more than once while we talk. But the history is here, too: exposed bricks, original beams, original doors in some of these storefronts. Painted mosaics right on the pavement. I’ve been out walking, and it’s like this all over. Mebane seems to understand both where it’s been and where it’s going.

There is a sense of being part of a rambling sort of extended family here.

The sprawling White Furniture Company building on one side of the tracks has been turned into lofts, and so has an old mill on the other side. The thriving downtown streets boast bookstores (two bookstores? Even if they double as gift shops? Mebane, I swoon) and bars and restaurants galore, running the gamut from Karma on Third, an organic café that seems lifted from Boone or Asheville, to Pomodoro’s, a classic Italian place that made the newspaper last fall just for changing its menu. There’s an authenticity here, the sense that all these American flags and North Carolina flags flying off the tops of all these buildings aren’t jingoistic but instead hopeful, earnest, honest. The downtown murals suggest this, too: The huge paintings depicting Mebane’s past — horses and buggies, steam trains, drugstores with soda fountains — just belong, and feel very much part of the place, instead of, well, painted-on. An art historian could probably say it better than I.

“People are interested in balancing growth and our small-town vibe,” Evan says, and goes on to talk about her fondness for her local government, her feeling that it’s easy to get involved in this place, to feel — to know — you’re making real change.

And then she gets excited. Governance and policy is one thing. Daily life is another.

It’s a feeling of belonging, of knowing your neighbors. There is, Evan says, a sense of being part of a rambling sort of extended family here. Halloween is done ’70s-style: kids all over the streets and parents hanging out in the yards in between, dusk settling like a blanket. In the summers the city closes down blocks for live music. There’s a dogwood festival. There are food clubs that end in farm-to-table dinners beneath string lights in backyards. I must come back for the Christmas parade, Evan tells me, a nighttime extravaganza that must be seen to be believed.

Left: Downtown Mebane’s eye-catching (and eye-opening) offerings include a flight of organic, free-trade java at Filament Coffee + Tea. Right: Pan-seared snapper with wilted brussels sprout leaves, shallots, pork belly, and house-made pasta at The Mebane Downtown Table. photograph by Anna Routh-Barzin

Snow days, Evan says, are the best. Kids gather in clumps at all the best hills, and the parents aren’t far behind. “We often move from the ‘hill house’ to the ‘heat house’ for the evening,” she tells me, laughing. “One of our neighbors built a pizza oven in his backyard, so he’s pretty popular. We have three home-brew kegs on tap, so our house is usually part of the equation, too.” Her lone Mebane complaint: no brewery. Yet.

The houses are set far enough apart in these blocks to get a sense of the land rolling away toward the mountains on one side, the sea on the other. The sunrises and sunsets, Evan says, are spectacular. You can see the night sky, something you can’t say of larger cities, with their lights run amok. “I can always find the Big Dipper when we get home after dark,” she says. “It’s one of my favorite things to look for.” And storms, Evan says — she likes to watch storms from her turquoise front porch swing, or from the neighborhood pool, “when they roll in with that welcome wind, parents rushing to gather stuff before the rain, or their kids from the water before they get electrocuted.” She shrugs. “Priorities.”

Fear not: Mebane is a city that watches out for its kids. Adult swim and the 30-minute lightning-and-thunder rule both still apply. Maybe that’s the very heart of it, even: I well remember those summer days all those years ago, tending my friend’s garden. The smell of the water from the hose was the smell of my own childhood, a childhood it was so easy to imagine had taken place here, in Mebane. Maybe it’s all these Craftsmans and Victorians. Maybe it’s the kids running from one screen door to the next, the line between friend and family readily blurred. Mebane, you come to understand, is not a small town just dressing up like one. It’s not a city that can’t figure out what to be. The Fourth of July parade didn’t make the national news because it was trying too hard — it’s that people here just seem to know how to move from day to day. You get out of the car, and you think, yes, I could live here. I could build a life. And you get the clear sense that you’d be welcome — that before you even started pulling boxes off the moving truck, you’d already be somebody’s neighbor.

In the Neighborhood

Local characters come together to make Mebane a welcoming place.

The Gourmet Chef Bob Compton at The Mebane Downtown Table prepares a variety of elegant dishes to complement the romantic, upscale atmosphere in the heart of downtown Mebane. Order classic Southern shrimp and grits, or be more adventurous and try the vegan napoleon. Neither will disappoint. themebanedowntowntable.com.

The Train Collector Tommy Long donated his scale-model train collection — one of the biggest in Alamance County — to create the Mebane Train Display. The collection has expanded to include seven trains that wind through detailed miniature landscapes. On the second Saturday of the month, the community turns out to see the trains in action. themebanetrainlayout.com.

The Artists Painters and potters and artisans of all kinds sell a mix of contemporary art — from oil to acrylic to mixed media to pottery — at Fine+Folk Art Carolina. The airy downtown gallery exhibits the works of local and regional artists, and also offers weekly painting classes and fine-art workshops throughout the year. fineandfolk.tumblr.com.

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