#because I skipped some pages because I’m messing around with style and setting and stuff

[dinitride-art]

Happy birthday Will Byers! Here’s 5/27 half-finished pages of the comic I’ve been working on :)

[descendantofthesparrow]

Finale - Rewrite - POYW - Harry Hook x reader - part 7 - Beast

=

It had taken a bit to get from the castle to the dorms but now you, Celia, and Uma sat in Audrey’s room as Mal and Evie searched the campus for any clues for where the possessed princess might be. Uma was on Audrey’s bed reading her diary while you lay across her legs, playing with the fishnet wrapped around Uma’s waist.

Celia was digging through Audrey’s jewelry as Mal and Evie turned to the room, both looking exhausted from their run around campus “she’s nowhere on campus” Evie breathed, leaning on the vanity as she caught her breath.

“Found her diary,” Uma said distracted as she continued to flip through the private pages. You had told her of Audrey’s struggles before but seeing them on paper was a bit of a heartache, wow her grandmother really was a bitch. “and damn did you ruin her life” Uma chuckled, setting down the diary and giving Mal a sharp smile

Mal just looked sad at the notion, yes, she might have originally not cared about running someone's life (Audrey and Uma being examples of her old cruelty) but knowing first hand from Audrey’s own diary that she had ruined her life made her feel terrible “did you find anything that we don’t already know or?” Mal asked dryly, trying to brush off her feelings so they could get this mission done.

“she hangs out at fairy cottage” Uma closed the book and tossed it aside, patting your leg as it hit your head. “you know? Where flora, fauna, and Merryweather hid her mom from your mom?” Uma teased, laughing a bit as Mal rolled her eyes.

“ha-ha, yeah yeah, do you think that’s where we'll find her?” Mal laughed dryly and looked down at you, as out of all the vks you were the one who was around Audrey the most.

“Maybe, she does hang out there a lot, and it’s very secluded, deep in the enchanted woods and way past Auroria castle, it’ll be past midnight by the time we get there” you muttered, picking at your nails. Mal nodded, it would be their best bet.

“Then let's head back to Evie's and wait for the boys, then we’ll head for Auroria immediately, we’re short on time as it is” Mal pushed you up from your spot on Uma’s legs and let you grab Uma, who was being very stubborn, wanting to stay on Audrey’s very comfortable bed.

Evie turned and gave a disapproving look to the thieving Celia, who had one of Audrey’s gaudy blue songbird tiaras on and multiple other pieces of jewelry. “First off, those don’t suit you at all, second, the bling stays here” Evie snorted as Celia pouted at her.

“But she’s bad!” Celia wined, shoulders slumping as Evie reached out and took the tiara off her head.

“And Dizzy made better jewelry when she was seven, now come on, put them away and I’ll get you some styling jewelry after this is all over, I’ll ever take you to the bayou.” Celia perked up a bit at that and started to take off Audreys stuff, rushing after the others with Evie after she set the last bracelet down.

-

“Ben!” Carlos called out for the lost king, looking around every turn in the search for their dear friend. Jay called out for him as well, Gil attempting to use his tracking skills for any footprints that might lead them to Ben, Harry trailing behind with Hadie as the five boys searched for the King.

Carlos sighed, calling Dude back to him and sitting down on a rock, pulling out a scrap of Ben’s clothing for Dude to smell and track. “come on, nothing?” Gil perked up and almost skipped over to a blueberry bush, picking some off and moving aside for Hadie as the older vk looked especially curious at the bush.

“Are these blueberries?” Hadie asked, picking one off and tossing it in his mouth, his eyes comically sparkling as the taste. Gil chuckled and picked off a handful for the god and poured it into his hands, Hadie devouring them in seconds.

“ya know” Jay chuckled walking up next to Gil and picking off a berry or two “that is the same face Mal makes when she eats strawberries” Carlos turned and laughed, nodding along.

“It is! Ya know, I always thought you and Mal had some similarities, I guess your dad being, well, your dad, solidifies that eh?” Hadie just shrugged, distracted by the delicious blue-purple fruit.

“soooo, how long have you known about you and Mal being siblings?” Gil asked, once again Hadie just shrugged.

“uh, I guess when Maleficent dropped her off at dads door” Hadie muttered rubbing his lips free from the stain of the fruit. "so, around 19 years I guess” Gil hummed and nodded, picking a couple more blueberries and popping them in his mouth, Dude and Harry walking around looking for Ben still.

Harry looked down as Dude pawed at his boot and then nodded, realizing Dude had picked up a scent. “Pup!” Carlos looked up at Harry, then silently cursed to himself, why did he still respond to that dumb nickname Harry had given him when he was 7. “Dude found somethin’ !” Carlos stood and ran after Harry, who was already trailing Dude as the dog went off the main trail and went deeper into the forest.

Gil, Jay, and Hadie quickly followed, not realizing there were eyes on them as they resumed their search for the king.

-

The girls arrived at Evie's cottage, which luckily wasn’t far from Auradon prep especially with the bikes, and hopped off their vehicles, Uma whistling in appreciation for the quaint home “nice place” Uma muttered, smirking a bit as Evie grinned at her.

“I got a good deal” she chuckled, taking her key out and unlocking the back patio doors, the five girls walking in and getting comfortable. Celia suddenly stopped as she noticed light snores coming from the parlor and tiptoed in, gasping a bit as she locked her eyes onto the twins and Dizzy, all three sound asleep.

Dizzy seemed to be having a nightmare, and Celia quickly calmed it with a long blanket and soothing words, Evie smiling at the two as (y/n) made sure the twins were okay. Mal walked into the living room and sighed with relief, all the other vks were still here, asleep, but here. Claudine, Colin, and Ginny were huddled up on the couch with Ginny as the main pillow, Colin on her legs as Claudine took her chest, and Diego was sound asleep in Carlos’ favorite armchair with the leg rest popped out.

Uma turned as sudden loud snoring came from the room just off the kitchen, Uma, Mal, and Evie quickly walked towards it only to find Doug on the ground in a crumpled mess, some tubes of fabric rolled out across from him. He must’ve been cleaning up when the sleeping spell washed over the house. “uh, who’s the dude?” Uma asked, Evie pushing past her and kneeling next to him.

“Doug, my boyfriend” Evie placed her hand on his head and checked for any injuries, sighing in relief when she found none, he might be sore from sleeping on the hard tile of her workroom but otherwise he’d be fine. “let's see if this works, Mal” Mal perked up, raising her brow “go get the yellow bubbling potion in the thin and long glass tube that’s at the top of the cabinet above the refrigerator,” Mal grumbled and turned, calling out for (y/n), since she couldn’t reach that spot; might as well get some help with it. Damn her 5’2 height.

Uma raised her brow in curiosity as Evie sat Doug up to get ready to administer the potion “uh, what potion?”

“Some anti-sleep spell potion I made a while ago” Evie smiled at Uma, and Uma paused a bit, suddenly fearing the once thought to be a simple fashion forward prissy isle princess “I made it from some of the poison from Maleficent’s spindle on the needle, should reverse the spell on Doug. I know Mal said there’s not a lot that can reverse the curse of the scepter but there’s no harm in trying” Mal and (y/n) returned with the bubbling yellow potion and Mal handed it to Evie. Evie popped off the cork and poured it down the sleeping Doug’s throat.

Evie clasped her hands together and prayed to whatever gods were listening that it worked. And it did, because a few moments later Doug's eyes fluttered open and he smiled softly at Evie “thank goodness for your potion-making skills” he rasped, leaning in to hug Evie as she squealed and pounced on him.

Uma laughed a bit and turned to give the two some privacy as Evie quickly caught Doug up to speed, (y/n) and Mal following close behind. Uma paused as she looked directly at the unpackaged Jane cake.

You met her gaze then looked at the cake, then sighed “well, it's gonna go bad if we don’t” you gestured to the cake and Uma practically skipped towards it “just leave a slice for Jane at least” Uma nodded, grabbing a knife and cutting herself a sizable piece, Celia running into the room to get on the cake action.

“I hope they find Ben” Mal muttered, sitting at the kitchen window counter and leaning on her hands, eyes downcast in worry for her boyfriend.

“I’m sure they’ll find him Mal” you comforted, rubbing her shoulder and offering her some cake. “have some faith in them”

-

Carlos called for Ben as Dude let them deeper into the forest, the dog pausing ever so often and then leading them in a new direction. “Ben!!” Carlos yelled out, spinning in a circle to get his voice to reach father as Dude sniffed at a large claw/shoe print.

Dude shook his head and turned to look at Carlos ‘I found a print! Smells like Ben and-something really really smelly! Even worse than Jay's power shakes!’ Carlos snorted and walked up to Dude to look at the print, yelping as a large stone statue leaped from the brush next to him, swiping at his face but thankfully missing.

“holy shit!” Carlos yelled, picking up Dude and running back towards Jay, the stone statue close behind. Jay’s eyes widened as he got a good look at the beast. It was one of the marble lion statues from Auradon prep!

The boys turned on their heels and ran, Hadie taking a small chance and creating a fireball in his hand then throwing it at the statue, grinning as it blasted the beast into pieces. But it was replaced with two more that lept from the brush just behind him. “fuck!” Hadie yelled bolting after the others.

…

Ben opened his blackened eyes to the sound of screams…familiar screams. He lept up from his shady spot under a tree and bolted towards the sounds. His friends! His friends were in danger! He slid to a stop on all fours and let out a pitiful whine as he watched Harry, Gil, Jay, Carlos, and Hadie run away from the marble beasts chasing them, Hadie taking quick shots at them but unfortunately missing.

Ben let out a low growl as several more marble beasts went to attack his friends, he arched back on his heels and went to pounce but stopped. He saw his horrific reflection in a small puddle next to him, beastly matted hair, black eyes, sharp fangs, dark curling horns, paws with claws the size of his face, he had also grown several times bigger than his human size.

He was a monster, he sank back, watching his friends with watery eyes as they attempted to fight against the beasts. Ben let out a pained roar as one of the beasts jumped at Harry and sliced into his shoulder, the pirate falling to the ground in agonizing pain as Harry screamed out. Blood poured from his shoulder and Ben steeled himself.

They were his friends, they were being hurt, they cared about Ben.

They wouldn’t fear him, and they would never hurt him.

He had to be brave, for them. As their king and friend.

Ben leaped out of the brush, letting out a mighty roar and slamming into two marble beasts, the stone crumbling under his claws in an instant. He whirled around and jumped towards Harry, slamming into the beast about to clamp its jaws around Harry’s throat and tossing it away. Ben let out a terrifying roar, one that echoed out throughout the forest.

“Beasty?” Harry weakly asked from below him, hand clamped on his heavily bleeding shoulder. Ben looked down at him and let out a cooing whine, looking back up and growling as another two statues came near him. Ben reared up and slashed at the beasts, the marble crumbling under his strength.

“Go Ben!” Carlos yelled from next to Jay, who stared slack-jawed at beast Ben. “you got this! Kick their butts!” Ben grinned at Carlos’ encouragement and did quick work of the last two beasts, swiping and destroying them under his jaw and claws.

Gil and Carlos cheered for Ben as Jay stared in awe, Hadie bolting towards Ben and sliding underneath him to attend to Harry. Ben backed away and nudged at the slowly becoming unresponsive Harry. “shit” Hadie curse, patting Harry’s face to wake him “come on Hook, don’t pass out on us”

Carlos, Gil, and Jay ran closer to the three, Jay grabbing onto Ben’s collar just in case he got afraid of their reactions and tried to run. But thankfully that was the last thing on Ben’s mind as he looked down at Harry.

“Harry come on dude” Gil whispered, taking off his bandana and soaking up the blood as Harry’s eyes fluttered “(y/n)s gonna kill me if i-woah!” suddenly Ben was sprayed with water, his body glowing a soft periwinkle as he shrunk down to his normal size and his horns, paws, claws, and fangs reduced with it.

Ben shook his head and looked around, eyes widening as he spotted Jane holding a long water gun, probably half full with enchanted lake water. “Jane!” he called, waving her over to Harry. “help him! the water can help!” Jane hurried over and gasped as she saw the badly wounded Harry. She kneeled next to him and gently sprayed the water onto this shoulder, the slices glowing the same blue as Ben had and closing up, the blood disappearing as the water ran over it.

Harry slowly regain consciousness and groaned, sitting up with the help of Ben and Hadie. “wha-Beastie boy? How did yeh?” Ben just nodded at Jane then quickly explained what had happened to him.

“Audrey, no, Maleficent cursed me to become my worst fear, an unlovable beast like my father, but the water” Ben nodded at Jane again, who was being hugged by Gil “turned me back, it breaks spells and can drastically reverse curses but-“ Ben gestured to himself, still mostly furry and fanged “-only mostly, we’ll have to defeat Maleficent to fully remove the curse” Harry just nodded, still out of it slightly and stood on wobbly legs, he had lost a bit of blood so it would be a minute before he didn’t feel dizzy anymore.

“Let's head back to Evie's place, they’re waiting on us,” Gil said, pushing Jane to Carlos for the younger vk to take her as Gil and Jay helped Harry get situated to move out. “and We’re running out of time” Ben nodded and followed after his friends, Hadie trailing just behind them, eyeing the marble statues that had been destroyed by him and Ben.

-

Mal stepped behind Celia's chair, looking at Uma slightly unsure before she decided to just go for it “Thank you, Uma. That was a really good idea” Uma turned to her with raised brows, confused on why Mal was talking to her willingly “searching Audreys room, now we have an idea of the right track” Uma frowned and glanced at you, who shrugged and continued to eat one of your snacks that you had hidden at Evie's just in case.

“Is there an insult in there or something that I missed?” Uma asked with a mouthful of cake, Mal shook her head, sincere in her words.

“no, no insult, I just…wanted to thank you.”

-

Audrey, no, Maleficent clicked her tongue in frustration, slowly her weak little failure of a daughter and her ‘friends’ were figuring out where she had gone and were getting closer to beating her…if only little Malsy didn’t have that blasted ember, it was the only thing next to the wand that could defeat the scepter and reverse the possession spell she had placed upon the daughter of Aurora.

“On the right track,” Maleficent said through Audrey, glaring down at the image on her scepter as Mal sat across from Uma, getting a plate of cake for herself “you won't be going anywhere” Maleficent looked up and smirked at Chad, who looked as if he was five seconds from peeing his pants. “how about we mess em up a little?” Chad looked at her fearfully and attempted to suggest something less…evil. Which made Maleficent angry.

“I say we go back to my place and binge-watch some tv?” Chad suggested, his eyes wide with terror “huh? Or maybe order some stuff online?” Maleficent/Audrey tilted her head with a smirk, somehow that translating to ‘yeah let’s do that instead’ to Chad “yeah? Yeah!” Maleficent/Audrey flicked her hand down and Chad followed it, his body glowing a soft green as he went to his knees. “no?! um-what about pizza?” Maleficent/Audrey flicked her hand out and Chad fell on his ass, his back facing an open closet…which gave Maleficent/Audrey an idea “okay, you don’t like Pizza, salad! Sa-“ Chad stopped as he looked towards the front door of the little cottage the two were in, eyes widening as he looked at “Audrey’s” shadow.

Except it wasn’t Audrey’s shadow anymore, once with long hair and a crown perched on her head, was now a taller older figure, with curling horns protruding from its head. Even Chad wasn’t dumb enough to not figure it out. He looked from the shadow to Audrey as discreetly as he could, clenching his jaw as he noticed Audrey’s usual honey brown eyes were turning a vivid green, similar to Mal's eyes.

He went to stand and attempt to take the scepter from his possessed friend but Maleficent blasted him back with a wave of her scepter and Chad was in the closet, the lock sliding shut with another wave.

He started to bang on the door, pleading for Audrey to fight the spell that had taken hold. Maleficent only laughed, there was no saving Audrey now, by the time her daughter and her friends got here, it would already be too late.

Maleficent turned and disappeared into a swirl of green smoke, she had a much better place to execute her evil plans than in this old hideout the good fairies once hid the princess Aurora.

-

Mal chewed her lip as she watched Uma from across the dining table, Uma ignoring her as she enjoyed another piece of Jane’s cake. “Okay I know I’ve been feeding you sugar for the past three years but slow down you’re gonna give yourself a sugar crash and stomach ache” you joked as you pulled the almost empty plate away from Uma, laughing as she glared and pulled it back.

“Fuck you let me have my sugar,” Uma said in a teasingly angry tone, a smile on her face as you tried to take the plate again “take the plate and I stab you”

“Stab me and I’ll turn you into calamari” you shot back, snickering as Uma rolled her eyes.

“That’s squid dumbass, I’m an octopus.” you held your hands up and sighed, leaning back in your chair and looking outside to keep an eye out for the boys.

“Hey, Uma?” Mal asked nervously, playing with her piece of cake as Uma looked at her with wary eyes “I um…I wanted to apologize” Uma looked genuinely shocked at that, sharing a look with you before looking back at Mal apprehensively, unsure of what Mal was going to say.

“I-I was a bitch of a kid” Uma snorted at that, going back to her cake as Mal continued to talk “I really was a bitch to you specifically, the…shrimp incident, the harassment after that, I treated you like dirt even before all that and I really want you do know that I regret it all, im sorry for the way I was and how I was so cruel to you, I know we were raised to be like that but still, I feel awful about it”

Uma glanced up at Mal, her face giving away nothing. Mal sighed, pushing a lock of hair behind her ear “im not expecting your forgiveness or anything like that, I don’t expect your friendship, just because I apologized doesn’t automatically mean you should forgive or forget about the way I hurt you. So I understand if, after today, we never speak again” Mal smiled at Uma and looked down at her piece of cake, seeming as if a weight had finally been lifted off her chest.

Uma stared at her for a moment before nodding and pushing around a piece of cake with her fork “You were right (y/n)…she has changed” Uma muttered, pushing down a smile as Mal perked up at that and looked at her confused.

“(y/n) talked about me?” Mal asked, looking at (y/n) with shocked eyes “Why would you talk about me?” you shrugged and grabbed your bottle of root beer, keeping your eyes on the outside.

“Told her ‘bout you going to therapy n stuff and how you are actually doing better than just saying it and not changing at all” you hummed, sipping at your soda and sighing. “in my world, the movie you was a whole ass bitch and the writers didn’t develop your character properly at all, treated everyone like shit, including Ben…weird thought but what if we’re in the third movie right now?”

Uma and Mal shared a look of ‘ah right forgot she’s from another dimension where we’re fictional characters’ “that’s possible, but please don’t even mention that again I do not want to implode” Mal snarked, laughing a bit as you flipped her off without looking.

You froze as the hum of magic suddenly pulsed around you, a dome of blue magic that shimmered with green and pink surrounded the house like an airtight cage, sealing the doors and windows. “What the fuck!?” Mal yelled out, standing from her chair and rushing towards the windows, yelping as the dome pushed her back from them “It's Audrey, she trapped us!”

“Celia!” Uma yelled out for the young vk, the aforementioned girl rushing in just after that with a panicked look, running into Uma’s arms and burying herself into Uma’s side.

“What’s going on!” Evie yelled as she ran in from the living room, Doug just behind her with wide fearful eyes as he looked at the magic dome blocking the windows and doors.

“Audrey trapped us, Mal do you got a spell or something for this!?” you grunted as you slammed your shoulder into the patio doors, rubbing it as pain flared from a particularly hard smack.

Mal froze for a moment, trying to figure out a quick spell to get out of the castle when one finally came to mind “please work” Mal pleaded to herself, holding her hands out “You’ve caused my friends pain and fear/we’ve had enough, now disappear!” Mal went a twinge of pain run through her, mostly hitting her head as her hands sparked light blue with magic but nothing else happened “shit! I don’t think I can, I don’t have access to my magic anymore” Mal pressed her palm to her head as Uma looked down at her necklace, the ember within glowing along with her shell.

“What?!” you screeched, backing away from the door as the glass started to crack from the dome pressing on it “But you used a spell on the knights?!”

“I don’t know?! I think I connected to the ember or something?!” Mal grabbed onto Evie as the windows creaked with effort “what is she trying to do, kill us?!” Evie winced as the windows cracked, whelp, that’s fun, and hundreds of dollars down the drain to get those fixed.

Uma’s mind went back to when she and Mal had combined their magic to defeat the knights, and then remembered Mal had cast a spell with her, through the ember! Mal was right, she had connected with the ember! Uma stepped up to Mal, holding out her hand for Mal to take. Mal just looked at her confused and scared.

“Together,” Uma said forcefully, shaking her hand a bit to encourage Mal to take it “like with the knights, our magic together can overpower it.” Mal looked relieved at the idea and took Uma’s hand, the ember blazing bright blue as she did and their hands glowed teal-blue. Uma and Mal nodded at each other once before turning towards the patio doors, focusing on the dome just outside.

Uma’s eyes glowed turquoise as Mal’s glowed yellow, and her hair moved like fire once again. “You’ve caused our friends pain and fear/we’ve had enough, now disappear!” Uma squinted as the ember and her shell burst out in a bright show of light and another glow burst out from her and Mal’s conjoined hands and flowed out towards the rest of the house and the patio doors. The dome shattered with the burst and they were free. Uma and Mal’s hands dropped and separated, the ember within Uma’s necklace dimming from its lost connection with Mal.

Both Uma and Mal let out a slow breath, their shoulders dropping in relief as the tenseness from being trapped released. “you did it” Evie breathed out, looking relieved that her doors or windows didn’t shatter

“Nice, now get me the hell outta here” you grumbled, moving to push the doors open and gasping as you saw the boys running towards the house, with both Ben and Jane. “It’s the boys!”

The other girls followed you and Mal ran to Ben, Uma colliding with Gil as you ran into Harry's arms, slowing down as you noticed his sluggishness. “Harry” you breathed, gently squeezing his torso before pulling back to examine him “what’s wrong, did you get hurt?”

He just nodded, stumbling a bit as his supports named Gil and Jay had gone to make sure the rest of the girls were okay “aye, Audrey sent some stone statues at us, one of ‘em got me pretty good, it’s mostly healed though, Jane had some enchanted lake water” you nodded at Jane in thanks and she nodded back, leaning on Gil’s arm as he introduced her to Uma properly.

Uma caught your gaze and gasped, seeing the slices on Harry's shoulder as he pulled his hand away. She raced over to him and laid her hand on top of the shallow cuts and muttered a healing spell, focusing on the rips in the fabric of his shirt and jacket as well. A moment later Harry was fully healed and his clothes were fixed as well, he also looked as if he had renewed energy. He pulled Uma into a hug and thanked her, the sea witch nodding and patting his arm to tell him to let her go.

Mal was making sure Ben was okay, pursing her lips at his fuzzy face and fangs “Are you okay?” she asked concerned, knowing one of his greatest fears was turning into a beast. Ben smiled and shrugged.

“I am now” he hummed, giving Mal a reassuring pat on the arm “hey it’s okay, I was scared at first but-I’m not now, I’m not a beast, Im just” he gestured to himself “fluffy” Mal looked unconvinced but let it go, they didn’t have time to argue over Ben brushing his problems away when they were clearly important.

Ben looked over to Uma, looking slightly surprised to see her “Now where the hell have you been?” Uma just looked sheepish as Gil and Harry pouted at her. “wait lemme guess” Ben pointed at you as you snuck behind Harry “(y/n)s been hiding you at your request?”

“How in the hell did you guess that?” Uma said surprised, her eyes wide. Ben just shrugged.

“I know (y/n) and that is exactly something she would do, and knowing you from Harry and Gil, that is also something you would do” Uma turned to her boys, slightly surprised they seemed to talk about her that much. Harry and Gil just shrugged as Mal turned Ben’s attention to her.

“okay, so Uma found a clue in Audrey’s diary” Ben looked at Uma slightly disappointed that she had gone into Audrey’s private life like that but Mal quickly turned his attention to her again “I know I know, we’ll both apologize to her after this is all over, but now we think she may be in Fairy cottage, the one her mom was hidden in when she was a kid, do you have any idea where it may be?” Ben nodded, wringing his hands a bit.

“yeah, she took me there every fairy godmothers day…speaking of FG’s where is FG?” Mal, Evie, (y/n), Jay, Celia, Carlos, and Hadie all looked uncomfortable at that.

“uh, she got turned to stone” Hadie muttered, kicking away a stone at Jane and Ben’s shocked looks. “we were trying to get the wand and I suppose Audrey found out and stopped us before she could get it.” Ben nodded solemnly turning back to Mal, who gave him a sad smile. Ben took a deep breath and went into king mode, turning to Doug and Gil.

“Doug, Gil” the two looked up slightly surprised at his authoritative tone “go with Jane, find FG, I know she stone right now but knowing her exact location would be good” Mal went to say she was at the museum but stopped as Ben continued to talk “then get the wand just in case, Jane should be able to access it” He looked to Jane for confirmation and she nodded, looking sure she could control its magic this time around. “and if we do fail in defeating the scepter, you’ll be our last hope.” everyone nodded, the tension rising in the area as you all realized you were all heading into a final battle situation, where the stakes were high and death was probable. “good luck, take the bikes if you need to” at that Carlos opened the garage to reveal Harry and Gil’s new motorbikes, to which Gil and Jane climbed on his and Harry quietly threatened Doug to not ruin his.

Soon the three were off into the setting sun, Mal biting her lip as she remembered Beasts words on the deal ‘return the scepter and the crown to the museum at sunrise, or the barrier will be closed for good’

Ben intertwined their hands, seeming to know what Mal was thinking about, she gave him a watery smile and they turned to go back into Evie's place for a moment to make a quick plan with everyone before they all headed out.

-end of p7-

part 7 yall!!!! hoped you liked it!!! i really like how the beast ben part turned out along with Mals apology and the scene just after that :3

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[warlordess]

Ah, my main special project for this year’s Pokeshipping Week event! I have skipped meals, sleep... uh, probably some responsibilities at work but don’t tell anyone... just to finish this stupid thing on time! It’s the proudest moment of my life to know that I got to semi-successfully draw my number one OTP kissing... Alas, my artistry skills are quite limited so I made up the difference/details by writing an accompanying fanfic, which I hope you’ll all read.

Btw, the first page was originally a “standalone art” for the prompt, which is why the art style may appear a little more detailed/different in general. Btw 2.0, I absolutely loved the concept of drawing these two “blushing up to their ears”, which I did twice in this comic. So yeah.

I’m also begging people to reblog this type of stuff from me when I post it because I’m trying (and failing) to get into the world of commissioned artists.

Fanfic is below the mandatory cut!

Pokeshipping Week 2020: “If Ash was aware of his feelings during their journeys together…”

 Setting: Orange Islands, after most events taking place in the episode “Wherefore Art Thou, Pokemon?” with slight alterations to closing scenes.

 --\--/--

 Paradise.

 It’s the first word that comes to mind as the faint scent of brine wafts up her nose and the sea breeze ruffles her tied up hair around her head. She sighs and leans into the breadth of atmosphere her surroundings have presented her, so awash in it that she practically forgets about the company she’s opted to keep.

 “So,” Ash Ketchum starts abruptly, and her brow creases in reactionary frustration at the very audacity he has to try and interrupt her glorious seaside fantasy.

 Ever since first coming to the Orange Islands, Misty has felt more at home than almost anywhere Ash’s travels have forced her to go. A bratty voice at the back of her mind can’t help begging the question… What could he possibly think is worth bothering her with now?

 “So… do you think it’s true? That kissing thing, I mean.”

 Kissing… thing?

 The first word alone causes her spine to snap straight, head ricocheting against her neck enough to cause a lingering ache after. A drowsy, near napping Togepi in her arms is jostled into a more urgent state of consciousness, though the egg Pokemon thankfully doesn’t start bawling.

 “W - wait, what?” she asks before she can stop herself, and her pale cheeks burn the shade of puce as memories replay of earlier in the day. Ralph and Emily had since returned home and Tracey had actually begged to come along, hoping for a final opportunity to sketch their lover Pokemon, Maria and Tony, before Ash’s group left the island for their next destination.

 “Uh, y’know, from earlier with the Nidoran… How they battled Team Rocket, then kissed and evolved? And Tracey said maybe them kissing had something to do with that.”

 She can’t help gaping ever so slightly open-mouthed at him. Distractedly she hopes internally to herself that the persistent flush to her cheeks can be blamed on the combination of her fair complexion and the rosy sunset they happen to be watching while sitting on the pier together.

 Is he serious…? Why would he even ask me something like that? she wonders, nearly angry at the possibility of him messing with her, unwilling to accept alternatives. She faintly reminisces over how he’d stood stock still during the very scene he was currently describing, appearing mildly confused all the while. For someone as immature as Ash Ketchum, she had to admit that such a lackadaisical reaction had been rather anticlimactic at the time.

 However, apparently he’s been ruminating on the fiasco that was their latest daily misadventure ever since.

 It’s a joke, she affirms to herself, barely holding in the urge to nod at the conclusion just in case it gives him strange ideas regarding his curiosity. A joke or a prank because there’s no way…

 “Uh… We could - or, well, I’d like to maybe…” with you, he realizes he doesn’t have the courage to say (which is outrageous for one, Ash Ketchum), but the whole thing is quite new to him, obviously. “W - we could… make it an experiment, couldn’t we?”

 “Pfft!?” The sound of her scoff jars him from his briefly swelling hope and drags him back down to reality. “Stop messing around, Mr. Pokemon Master!” She’s practically laughing mirthfully at him. “You’re talking about kissing here, right? As an experiment? For what?”

 “I’m not messing around!” he blurts, tone a few octaves higher than either of them are used to, pushing them back towards the precipice of awkward silence while he tries to string his next thoughts together.

 Maybe he’s brought this on himself. He hadn’t meant to use the word ‘experiment’; it had just been an excuse in case she didn’t reciprocate his intentions… Or was it his feelings? Sure, he was curious about things enough to try for that reason alone, if he was being honest with himself but… he certainly wouldn’t have pursued conclusions to his hypothesis if it hadn’t been Misty sitting beside him at the time!

 Urk! The acknowledgement leaves his tummy knotting and tumbling over itself as he stares the redhead down, daring her to underestimate him now that he’s come this far. But of course that reckless bravery only lasts a couple seconds before he has to blank and concede the round.

 “I wanna try… I mean, with you… if you’d like.”

 Because if it’s possible for people to change when they kiss then he’d surely be interested. But only if it’s with her and the two of them were… changing together.

 “Fine.”

 “Mwah!” he yelps before he can help herself, body twitching to and fro before he collects himself and squints up at her. “Wait, really?”

 Her mouth a grim, thin line and her cheeks bright enough red to bely the truth, she looks him in the eyes, then away long enough to softly clear her throat, then back at him, and shrugs nonchalantly.

 And he doesn’t know it but all of these mixed signals she’s giving off are because she’s calling his bluff. Or so she thinks.

 Thanks to his trademark ignorance, he presses forward with the plan, slowly leaning in. Consequently, the lapping of the rising tide below them and the setting sun sinking on edge of the water in the distance disappear and only the two of them are left in the world.

 With every millimeter of space lost between them, Misty’s shoulders stiffen a little bit more…

 Eep!

 … Her grip on the drowsy Togepi ever so slightly tightening…

 It’s gotta be a joke!

 … Her lips pursing to almost nothing, eyes widening while her brows disappear under her fluttering fringe.

 Ash would n-e-v-e-r--

 She’s not running away so…

 Her internal screeching is cut short at the last second when she sees him out of the corner of her eye, grabbing his cap and wrenching it around backwards (amazing that he has the foresight to know it would get in the way during a moment like this) before finally closing the last inch or two of distance, his lips covering hers in an understated, chaste kiss.

 The static buzz that promptly replaces any previous faulty transmission causes the kiss to last longer than either of them expects, not that they know what to expect, seeing as they’ve never kissed anyone before.

 Misty’s hyperfixation on most recent events transpired eventually causes her grasp on Togepi to slacken, leaving the Pokemon to slip an inch or two toward the edge of her knees. Maternal skill kicking in, the redhead immediately snatches her baby more firmly back under one arm, the other one reflexively soaring out and knocking Ash away…

 … And straight over the side of the pier, into the water.

 A resounding splash! carries back up to her, followed almost immediately after by her former partner in… something… sputtering, spitting, coughing in an attempt to catch his breath again after breaking the surface, glaring halfheartedly up at her as she pokes her head around to ensure his safety.

 “Um, whoops…?”

 “Guh,” he begins, biting back the part of himself demanding her repentance for such behavior, and he tells himself it’s not because his lips are still tingling just so in response to their activity coupled with the sight of her flushing magenta once more against a perfectly accented skyline.

 Instead he opts to call out Lapras and hitch a ride back to shore, pulling off his socks, shoes, and jacket vest along the way to try and shake or wring the excess water out of them. She meets him at the boardwalk a few minutes later, baby Pokemon still clasped snugly in her arms, handing him the backpack he’d been forced to abandon a short time ago.

 Later they’ll be forced to feed Tracey some sorry excuse as to how things have ended up the way they have, and they’ll decide as a group that it will be better to stay in town for the night so that Ash can keep from getting sick from the persistent sea breeze adding to the chill from his unexpected swim. The two of them will likely refrain from much direct interaction and Tracey will chalk it up to their latest fight (which, after both nearly physically attacked him earlier for comparing them to Ralph and Emily, he’ll know better than to say a single word about).

 And, though sleep will be anxiety-ridden and fitful, morning will wash away the intensity of their actions and Ash will have his answer; yes, people kissing truly does lead to evolution, and it’s highly anticipated, that they’ll get to experience this change together.

--\--/--

I cannot quite explain how weird it was to write Ash as the semi-mature one during a romantic interaction with Misty. Whew, what a wild ride... But honestly? If he’d known about his feelings during their travels together... and if the anime had paid a little more attention to their romantic relationship... this might have happened. Lol.

Mm’kay, see ya tomorrow! Reblogs are love (no offense to likes)!

[wandercrss]

‹ kathryn newton. cis woman. she/her. muse 1q. › cassandra ‘cass’ mitchell is back in rochdale for the summer. they’re currently twenty two years old and are known as the lot soul of the rioters, especially after they were constantly skipping classes and smoking during school hours. they graduated in 2017 and since then they’ve been nomadically moving from place to place working odd jobs. they decided to come back for the summer because she’s alone and secretly feels like the rioters are the only family she’s ever had. let’s hope they have the summer of their dreams! ( jess. she/her. 24. est. )

trigger warnings: death, abandonment, drug mention

full character page here

G E N E R A L

FULL NAME: cassandra elaine mitchell

NICKNAME(S): cass

TROPE: the lost soul

B A S I C S

AGE: twenty-two (22) 

BIRTHDAY: november 1, 1998

NATIONALITY: american

ETHNICITY: caucasian

GENDER: cis-woman

PRONOUNS: she/her/hers

ROMANTIC ORIENTATION: panromantic

SEXUAL ORIENTATION: pansexual

POLITICAL AFFILIATION: liberal 

RELIGION: atheist 

OCCUPATION: moves from job to job / currently looking for something new

R E L A T I O N S H I P S

PARENTS: kristen mitchell (mother - estranged), biological father (unknown)

SIBLINGS: penelope mitchell (older half-sister - deceased)

SIGNIFICANT OTHER(S): none.

CHILDREN: none.

CLOSEST FRIENDS: tbd.

RIVALS: tbd.

ENEMIES: tbd.

P H Y S I C A L   T R A I T S

FACECLAIM: kathryn newton

EYE COLOR: blue

HAIR COLOR: blonde

HEIGHT: 5′5

BODY BUILD: slim

NOTABLE PHYSICAL TRAITS: eyes

AESTHETIC/STYLE: casual (punk undertones...yes, i’m making that up)

P E R S O N A L I T Y

POSITIVE TRAITS: brave, determined, adventurous, loyal

NEGATIVE TRAITS: resentful, secretive, deceptive, isolating

TYPICAL MOOD/EXPRESSION:  neutral

ZODIAC SIGN: scorpio

MORAL ALIGNMENT: lawful evil

ENNEAGRAM: type eight - the challenger

MBTI: entj

HOGWARTS HOUSE: slytherin

M I S C E L L A N E O U S

SKILLS: getting out of trouble, making something you’d least expect an adventure, thought-out pranks, ‘hangover cures’ 

HOBBIES: sketching/photography, pulling a prank on friends, smoking/drinking, more to come

FEARS/PHOBIAS: being left completely alone, losing those she loves

FAVORITES: iced coffee, burritos, thunderstorms, sunrises over sunsets

B I O G R A P H Y

cassandra elaine mitchell, mostly known as cass, was the second child born to kristen mitchell on november 1, 1998. cass’s upbringing was known to be rocky, at best. kristen was a single mother to cass and her older half-sister, penelope. cass and penelope were almost seven years apart in age, but that couldn’t get in the way of their bond. 

from a young age, penelope felt very protective over cass. part of that was out of necessity. see, kristen wasn’t exactly committed to the whole mother-gig. penelope and cass weren’t apart of her plan, just byproducts of drunken one-night-stands. kristen often had trouble holding down a job and seemed more invested in finding herself a relationship to dive into. when it came to being a mother, though, she often didn’t even try. she relied on penelope a lot as the girl got older, even leaving the young child in charge for days at a time as kristen went off on another bender or to another party. penelope tried to shield cass from a lot of it, but that wasn’t an easy job. 

when penelope turned 19, kristen was even more of a mess than usual. she had lost her job completely, their home was about to be repossessed, and the woman just couldn’t handle it all. so, she disappeared. packed up and left, leaving cass under penelope’s care. 

it was less than ideal for a 19-year-old to now be on her own taking care of a 12-year-old child, but penelope and cass were closer than anything. they knew they could make it work. now that it was just the two of them, they didn’t have to worry about their mother coming in and screwing things up. penelope began working two jobs in town so she and cass could rent a tiny one bedroom. it was tough, but it brought penelope and cass together. 

with penelope at work so often, cass was suddenly on her own more and more. it was lonely and isolating, so she decided she would find adventure for herself. cass was always an explorer. a wanderer, as penelope would often call her. she liked to dive into unknown territory, discover new things, and jump off high places just to see how it would feel. it drove penelope crazy, but it made cass feel alive. 

cass always prioritized herself over school. it wasn’t that she wasn’t smart. it was that she hated the idea of being cooped up in a classroom for eight hours every day. she became known for her skill in cutting classes. 

when cass was in high school, she started to make more and more friends. eventually, she found herself apart of the group known as the rioters. other than penelope, cass had never really had a family. and slowly but surely, the rioters really became to feel like one. she was their very own sarcastic, jaded, adventurous lost soul. some of her best memories ever were with the rioters. 

as high school came to a close, cass had to decide what was next. most of her friends were off to exciting things, but cass didn’t have a plan. neither did penelope. but the older girl was exhausted all of the time, having spent half of her 20s just working to put a roof over their heads. so, the two decided to leave rochdale behind and actually see what else the world had to offer. after graduation, they jumped in their car and were off. 

they spent many years travelling...setting up shop in small towns where they could earn some money, spending nights eating one-dollar cheeseburgers and sleeping in their car. it was far from glamorous. but it was exciting. all they needed was each other. cass would take photos, documenting their journey. they would pick up jobs in retail during the holiday season or waitress at a local diner for a few months until they decided to move on.  they lived their lives month-to-month. week-to-week. minute-to-minute. 

eventually, penelope felt like they should think about settling down somewhere. as much as she enjoyed the adventure with her sister, she craved stability. cass didn’t agree. this was the life she liked. nomadic. impermanent. nowhere they could hang around too long and risk getting hurt. they fought about it. weeks went by, and the two still couldn’t agree. hurtful things were said, accusations were made. cass and penelope had finally found the thing between them they just couldn’t settle. 

one night, cass stormed out of their motel, having had enough of her sister. little did she know, penelope went after her. she drove around all night looking for her sister, but it was no use. penelope was starting to feel tired behind the wheel. she decided to go back to the motel, thinking perhaps cass had returned. on her way back, penelope was drifting, trying like hell to stay awake. she didn’t even realize when she had run the stop sign. then...crash. 

the police were already at the motel when cass decided to head back. she found them there, lights flashing, waiting. they told her about penelope and the crash. they told her about how her sister, her person, died instantly from the impact. and that day, something inside cass broke. 

as soon as she could, cass packed up her stuff and left. she was full of anger and resentment. she hated the world, but mostly, she hated herself. cass continued to travel around, now on her own. she spent a lot of time in colorado, working on a horse farm. but she couldn’t let anyone get close to her. she was incredibly lonely. after almost a year of life without penelope, cass felt herself drawn back to rochdale. for how long? she didn’t know. maybe just the summer seeing old friends would do her some good. but she was afraid to admit the truth. she needed them. the rioters. the only family she had left.

C U R R E N T L Y

cass has just come back to rochdale for the summer. she is looking forward to seeing her old friends again, but she is more than scared to admit how much she feels like she needs them. she intends to play it cool...exercising her usual bit of not letting people in. at least, not enough to see the pieces of her she keeps hidden away. 

having been on the road for a long time, cass isn’t used to staying put, so she might start to feel a little restless. despite her loss, she still craves adventure and maybe even a bit of recklessness.

C O N N E C T I O N S / P L O T S

partner in crime: i would love for there to be someone who was cass’s ride or die, her partner in crime while they were in the rioters. 

on-again-off-again: cass is bad relationships, but there could have been someone she was in that classic on-again-off-again relationship with. she probably cares about them a lot, but just couldn’t let her go there. 

unrequited love: come on, she would also be the type to have head a friend that was like in love with her or something, but she never knew or never wanted to admit that she knew. 

frenemies: someone she bumped heads with a lot. maybe they got in each other’s way or just couldn’t stand each other. 

exes (flings, hook-ups, brief relationships etc): anything like this i’m totally game for.

hateship: am i a sucker for a hateship/enemies-to-lovers trope? perHAPS

anything at all: i am truly open for anything. please don’t be afraid to ask if you think she fits something you want for your character too. i can be bad at asking for plots so please don’t hesitate to hit me up!! :) 

[fondnesses]

roscoe’s notebook post

A while back I said I was going to write a post about the way I use notebooks for writing projects. This is the first of several posts about Writing Process I’ve been tossing around in my drafts for a little while as a result of conversations with friends, so bear with me.

I. Love. Notebooks. I genuinely would have to deeply overhaul my whole Process of writing anything on the longer side if I were to go paperless; I find physical paper pretty invaluable when I’m outlining, brainstorming, and researching, and I still probably write ¼-⅓ of all my actual content on paper first. (That proportion used to be a lot higher, but I’ve gotten better at being productive on a computer in recent years, which is great.) I’m a very visual person, so notebooks really help me visualize my ideas, story structure, etc. It’s very helpful to be able to use arrows and diagrams and physically strike things through, and the tactility is really soothing to me. If I show people my notebooks or talk about them, I often get a response like “this is so organized”, which is sort of true, but I have to stress that it’s “organization for a disorganized mind”; I can’t misplace ideas or notes if it all goes into the same physical object, vs. electronic notes, which are much more, like “Did I say that in a voice memo? PM it to myself on Discord? Leave it in a desktop sticky note? Write it directly into the Google Doc? Who knows! It’s lost to time!”. It’s very much an ADHD management strategy.

It helps that I’m a very neophyte stationery hobbyist and appreciate any excuse I have to use my pens, but I also will go off at any opportunity about how helpful I find them for writing projects, which is why I decided to just make a post about it. Right now I mostly use them for (fan and original) fiction projects, but I used a notebook for a very similar purpose when I was working on my undergrad thesis, and I have a slightly different but equally necessary-to-me approach to notebooks I use at work.

My typical structure for a notebook that’s devoted to one project only looks like this:

I always leave the first couple pages blank so I can go back and retroactively index bujo-style. I don’t always actually do the index, because sometimes I get too lazy, but I like having those blank pages there to give me the option. I also usually put epigraphs/inspo quotes on the first page.

After that, there’s often (but not always, I’ll talk about it) a couple pages at the start where I’m frantically jotting down loose brainstorming ideas before they've coagulated into a story structure. Just, like, vomiting into the void.

Stemming out of that, I usually write out about like 5-10 pages of outline-style notes in chronological order, laying out all the main story beats and charting out the story trajectory. This will inevitably get revised and rewritten many times, but I find the process of writing these wide-angle synopses really useful for dislodging ideas, making connections re: thematic threads, etc. from my brain.

I’ll devote a couple pages after that to specific things like "sex scene brainstorming", "random scene ideas/minor details that don't have a clear place in the outline right now but I'll turn to for inspo later" [this is what I refer to as “bits” in one of the later photos], "page where I just outline the Motifs And Themes", "research notes", "to-do list", "stuff to check on a second pass", "things to put in the a/n and AO3 tags", etc.--the specifics vary with the story.

Then, I skip ahead to approx. halfway through the notebook and cordon off the rest of the pages to be “free writing” space, AKA writing of actual content rather than planning, with the expectation there will be no internal organization and I’ll transcribe to laptop as I go. Writing on paper feels less binding than typing something on a computer; it’s like a little secret kept with myself, and it doesn’t need to go anywhere or be seen by anyone if I decide I don’t like it. Setting aside pages in the back half of the notebook means that, as more things come up re: planning, I can go back and add those in the rest of the pages that were intentionally left blank. This is how I avoid (for the most part) having the whole thing be a jumbled mess where there’s no separation between the notes and the actual story writing; I learned this the hard way via the first notebook I’ll show you in a second. I’ve recently gotten really into using Muji sticky note tabs to label any pages/sections of particular import that don't want to have to refer back to in the index and would rather just flip to instantly.

I do use notebooks that aren’t specific to any one project, but those are much less organized and less worth sharing.

Before I look at more recent stuff, here are some selections from my notebook for the project that got me into writing longfic, my Golden Kamuy canon divergence AU (with apologies for the bad photos, my phone’s camera is trash). I worked on this from Sept 2018-July 2019. It was a learning experience in a lot of ways, and notebook utilization was one of those. I’ve always used notebooks for keeping track of writing projects, as I said earlier, but before this it was largely without much organization or structure; just total chaos. Having a physical notebook became really important for this project because it was a sprawling multichapter story with rotating POVs and a lot of historical research. I also learned a lot about what not to do with a notebook, personally, or at least things that don’t work so well (for me). This was a college ruled spiral-bound Decomposition Book, for the record.

By the time I bought a notebook for it I already had a (very basic) plot outline in mind, so I wasn’t doing that very initial ground-zero brainstorming in here; I was copying out of my phone’s notes app, basically, and then going from there. 

This is one of the first pages in this notebook; I wanted to visualize the relationship web between the four central characters in the story in terms of how they feel about one another. The two colours correspond to the POV characters (Sugimoto in orange, Ogata in pink), and I used this colour-coding throughout the notebook with highlighters, etc. to keep track of information that was more relevant to one character than the other. Tsurumi and Yuusaku aren’t POV characters, but they’re prominent in the story and their presence impacts the central relationship between Sugimoto and Ogata, and it was helpful to me to map out the emotional ecosystem, as it were.

(There are coffee stains all over this, because I wrote the vast majority of the story in coffee shops because I didn’t want to be around my roommates, lol. This is part of why I never do fiction writing in notebooks that are too nice, I get neurotic about needing to keep them tidy. I can’t use ones that are too shit though, either, so it’s a bit of a narrow window. I’ll talk more about brands and paper quality etc. later.)

As you can see, this is the first page of many I set aside specifically for jotting down different pieces of historical information relevant to my story. It’s about fictional characters who are members of an army division that existed in real life, and both the canon and my fic involve a high level of attention to detail with regards to which divisions were present for which battles, etc., as well as general historical details specific to the Russo-Japanese War setting--what did people eat in the trenches? What did they do to fill time? How did they get through the winter? What did third party observers have to say about the conditions? What were the specs of their weaponry (particularly important because one of the POV characters is a sniper and gun nut)? I did a lot of reading (and watching of antique gun collector Youtube videos... the things I do for love, eh), and it came in handy so many times, because it turns out it’s much easier to write trench warfare slice of life if you have factual details to pull from when you don’t know what to do with a scene! Imagine that!

This is the first of three “grid outlines” I made; this is a way I sometimes like to visualize a story outline all on one page, with the columns representing chapters and the squares within the columns representing sections/scenes within the chapters. As you can see, early on I was hoping to get this done in five or even FOUR chapters (whatmakesyouhaha.mp3), with POV switches happening internally within the chapters. This proved to be unwieldy for many reasons, so I revised the outline:

Here I’d come to terms with the fact this story was going to have a lot more chapters than I’d planned, and I rearranged things so that it would happen in ten, with each chapter belonging to only one POV character. This also needed revising later, and in the end the story looked a bit more like this (though it did in fact end up being twelve chapters, but only because Chapter Ten was like, 12k, and needed to be split in two chunks):

I must have remembered to bring my fineliners to the coffee shop this time, lol, because as you can see it’s properly colour-coded this time. This outline was made when I was already four posted chapters into the fic, which hopefully gives you a sense of the way in which I am sort of a planner and a pantser; I can’t get into a longer project without an outline, but the outline inevitably changes many times throughout writing and I often end up with a finished product that looks pretty different from what I was intending. My creative M.O. as always is Do The Maximum! Amount! Of! Work! Possible!

This is what a “free writing” page looks like, for me. In this notebook I didn’t set aside any specific spaces for free writing so it’s strewn throughout the notebook in a really disorganized way and I was constantly flipping through looking for bits I’d written and forgotten to transcribe, and I decided to be more organized in future as a result of that. If something’s crossed through, that means I transcribed it. As you can see, they’re often small sections, sometimes just a coupled decontextualized sentences. About 3/4 of what I write in a notebook makes it into the story, I’d say; some of it never goes anywhere, and that’s OK. I have less of an issue killing my darlings if they never make it off the paper page.

A very brief, top-down chapter outline, where the goal was not to get too bogged down in details and just to visualize the beats and pin down what they’re trying to accomplish. Chapters for this fic typically ran about 6k, and five or six scenes per chapter was pretty common, so the average scene length was about 1-1.25k words/scene. IDK why I called it storyboarding when I didn’t make drawings. (Margin numbers are to keep track of word count, since I was using a daily word count tracker while writing this.)

This page was, as titled, for keeping track of the various balls in the air when I was about 2/3-3/4 of the way through the story and really feeling the pressure with regards to tying up the various loose ends. This was... a struggle. I hadn’t ever written anything longish (this fic ended up just under 70k) that had an action plot before, let alone a canon divergence scenario where I had to engage with and explain away various canon plot elements so I could maintain the audience’s suspension of disbelief.

Now, I mentioned earlier that I learned various “things not to do” with my notebooks while working on that project. One of those lessons I learned is to be more realistic when assessing how big a project is likely to get, not least because I RAN OUT OF PAGES around the chapter 9-10 mark. In my defense though, that’s because I’d never written anything even half this long! But I know better now, and try not to be in denial. Finishing the notebook early was a way bigger problem than I’d anticipated, and was part of the reason the last few chapters took several grueling months to finish. The issue was that I needed to be able to use a notebook to maintain my workflow--attempting to do it only on a computer was dismal--but it seemed silly to start a notebook of a similar size to the one I’d finished (80pg, approximately B5 dimensions) when there was no way it would need that much space, especially since the reference pages, like the historical notes, didn’t need to be transcribed over. I was also pretty broke at the time and didn’t want to spend money unnecessarily, lol. I tried to get by using a Moleskine Cahier for a month or so because I had one lying around, but it was horrid; it was too small to be used comfortably, it wasn’t spiral-bound so it wouldn’t lay flat, the ghosting is terrible and I hate the way Moleskine paper feels, etc. Eventually I caved and went to Muji and bought a 30ish page A5 with closer to lay-flat binding, and I finished the story in there. I would take a comparative pic for you of the relative notebook sizes and include some of the scene staging diagrams, etc. I put in there, but I can’t find it :(

So I learned that specs really do matter, and it’s okay to be picky if the pickiness is going to make the difference between actually using a notebook or not. Things that are important to me in my notebooks:

Ruling (gotta have ruling, I can suffer through grid but blank or dot is a no-go)

Size (I can’t use anything smaller than at least a medium-large notebook, I find it claustrophobic and get miserly about page space)

Binding (twin ring is my preference because it looks and feels better than a classic spiral but has the same comfort of use with regards to bending the pages back to suit workspace size and laying flat with ease)

Paper quality and colour (I don’t like anything too slippery/smooth or with too much visible ghosting, and I strongly prefer an off-white paper to bleached paper--part of why I don’t use Decomposition Books anymore, the paper is scratchy and it’s too damn bleached!)

Pagecount relative to size of project

Portability (in non-COVID times; anything bigger than a B5 wouldn’t fit in the satchel I used to bring to work at my old job), etc.

But everyone’s taste is different in this respect, and the only way to figure out what works for you is through trial and error, I’m afraid. I also suspect I’m more neurotic and particular about the sensory experience of using a notebook than most people are, but I yam what I yam.

Now to talk about the notebooks for my current projects, where I’ve refined my approach somewhat. I’ve included less photos for these because they’re ongoing WIPs I don’t want to spoil completely, but I’ve tried to include some outline-type stuff to give you an idea.

My big bang fic is in the very ugly twin ring notebook on the right; I got it at a dollar store by my house because I needed something to work in and didn’t want to wait for an online order, but it’s been very serviceable for my needs. The paper isn’t even bad. The bigger notebook (B5) is my Sangcheng fic.

I wanted something with a lot of pages for this, because I knew it was going to be a long story, and for some reason the fact it’s smaller than my usual preference doesn’t bug me (I think it’s an A5?); it just fits this story, somehow. I’m not sure exactly how many sheets are in here but I’d guess about 150.

Because this notebook has upwards of 100 sheets, I made a lot of use of sticky-note tabs to label high-priority pages. The colour coding of these doesn’t mean anything, it was just whichever ones I had at hand at any given moment. These are those tabs from Muji I mentioned, I’m really obsessed with them--the shape makes them so much less obtrusive and more practical than conventional squares/rectangles OR flag shapes, IME.

My big bang story is nonlinear, so, similarly to what I did with colour coding for the two POVs for my GK fic, this story has two main colours corresponding to whether a given section takes place in the “before” or the “after” portions of the timeline, with blue as “after”, yellow as “before”. This is what the most current version of the outline looks like in there:

If you squint, you can see the alphanumeric notes in the top right of each section entry; I gave them each a code like “A3″ or “B5″ corresponding to their position in the story sequence (so, it goes A1, B1, A2, B2, etc., through to B9 and then the epilogue). [Unintentional that this schema overlaps with notebook size labeling and so is kind of confusing in the context of this post.] At first I was just keeping track of the sections via the highlighted titles, but it got confusing because I’d write down “Wedding” or “Yiling” in my notes and then refer to the notes later like “but there are multiple marriages?? and multiple scenes in Yiling??”. Stuff gets struck through with a straight line if it’s been written in a more-or-less complete form and crossed out with a squiggly line if it’s been cut from the outline or made redundant.

As I said earlier, I started out all the initial brainstorming for my Sangcheng fic in its notebook, instead of brainstorming it in someone’s DMs/my notes app/a voice memo/etc. and then transcribing it into the notebook in a somewhat more organized fashion, which is how my stories usually start out. Because of this, the first five-ish pages are basically just stream of consciousness rambling where I was trying to jot down every disconnected thought I had about the story concept. I don’t have photos for that because it’s too spoilerific for later developments in the fic, but I can show you some of the stages the outlines went through, once I was able to corral those initial notes into a story structure:

All the chapters in this fic have their own highlighter colour, so when I started trying to make sense of my initial brainstorm notes I just went through and highlighted stuff in the colour of the chapter it would make the most sense for, and then transcribed things more-or-less in chronological order into the relevant chapter outline. I later ended up rewriting all the chapter outlines AGAIN to refine them and divide them internally by the individual scenes, which makes them a lot more legible and less wall-of-text-y. They look like this now, with about four sheets per chapter:

Because this fic is on the longer side, I have some pages that are just for keeping track of other story elements, like this, where I refer back to whatever the fuck the “themes” are supposed to be whenever I forget what this fic is about:

It’s all about the visionboarding... Anyway, that’s most of what I have to offer, since most of these two notebooks is Forbidden Content.

With regards to brands/supplies, I really like this Kokuyo Campus Wide notebook that I’m writing Sangcheng in, it’s pretty perfect for me. I also like the B5 Muji twin rings, but those only come in 30 sheets, so I wouldn’t use it for anything above a ~20k project. The B5 Maruman Spiral Note 6.5mm ruled/80 sheet is another good one, though I wish it was twin ring instead of spiral. As you can tell, I like Japanese stationery brands because it’s easier to find decent paper quality and minimalist design without shelling out $$ than it is with American/European brands, at least IME. I like Rollbahns too. But honestly, I can usually find pretty serviceable random notebooks that aren’t brand-name from Asian dollar stores; it’s really not something where you need to shell out tons of money.

[partnersatfazbear]

I’m... salty? Fazbear Frights: The Cliffs anaylsis

My initial thoughts about The Cliffs under the cut (contains spoilers):

The Cliffs - My favorite story of the bunch, but mostly because I really liked the main character. Not TOO much to write home about, but I will pick apart a few lines from this one. In my first set of similarities, the wife dies in childbirth. Not only is this a huge fear of mine (for my wife, in the future), but I wrote this happening in William’s backstory in RS. I generally loved the protagonist here, except when he didn’t realize the obvious: the Freddy was telling him not to kill himself, but where is son was. That doll got burned (yes, burned!), run over, and tossed off a cliff for nothing. I wouldn’t be surprised if that thing came back to kill them :V

Only thing that annoyed me was a few paragraphs wasted on a female co worker, because for some reason that was relevant. (No really, it wasn’t.) Why does this series insist on writing PAGES about useless love interests that do nothing for the plot, nothing for the MC, AGH. I know it’s a kids book series but Christ it’s annoying and I’ve been skipping this sort of stuff and the long action sequences.

The Breaking Wheel - This was the story I liked the least, but honestly, the one I’ll be writing the most about. I think it parallels William and Henry a little and I was a little irked how similar a specific part was to my Springtrap-springlock chapter in Resurrection Seeker.

So first, the story focuses mostly around two kids and they are rivals in a robotics class. One kid a huge douche (Julius) but competent and the other is struggling to put his ideas on paper (Reed). Then there’s Reed’s friend, Pickle, who is a genius.

I’m just gonna bullet point stuff I thought was relevant:

- Reed describes his relationship towards Pickle as: “He was so used to Pickle out performing everyone around him that praising him for doing something well was like praising him for breathing.” (This really reminded me of William’s admiration for Henry, although there isn’t any jealousy here.)

- Reed is described as having a “monkey face”. This reminded me of William, mostly because of the criticism from the fandom towards The Silver Eyes GN’s design. It could be a jab or coincidence.

- Julius’ robot is an exoskeleton (like the power loader from Aliens). When showing off, he becomes trapped in it:

- Reed leaves Julius to be trapped in the exo all night, including locking him in place so he can’t move. This is initially to get back at Julius for being a dick, but then the guilt starts eating away at Reed. Also, Julius getting locked in: “Julius jerked his arms, yanking to free them from the restrains of his skeletal suit....” Julius says: “Unlock me!” and “Do what I tell you! Unlock me!”

Reed tells him, “I’m going to leave you here in your suit overnight... so you can get an idea of what it feels like to... [be treated the way you treat others]. Maybe your robot can teach you a thing or two.”

Julius says, “Get back here you stupid ape! Do you know what you’ve done? I’m going to kill you! ... I’m going to tear you apart, limb from limb. Get back in here and unlock this! ... You can’t leave me in here like this!”

So, yeah. It reminds me a lot of Springtrap. As for the actual story... I was disappointed. The story starts off good (albiet with that poor kid trope this series LOVES) and reminded me early on of The Tell-Tale Heart. Then it defies stated logic to make a real, edgy ending that I didn’t care for. If the entire thing had been in Reed’s head it would’ve been better (more akin to Blackbird, which did the “in your head” trope poorly. If these stories were switched around, I think they’d work better.) So this story was meh. Such a promising start.

Another thing that annoyed me was a few paragraphs wasted describing Orey (fml I don’t care if I spell it wrong. Who the hell comes up with these names). He barely shows up in the story and is just a background character... story could’ve worked without him.

He Told Me Everything - If you love Goosebumps style stories, this ones for you. I really enjoyed it, but it had almost nothing to do with FNAF. The Chris name is obviously a giant troll (and to make matters worse his father’s name is Dave). The sister and wife don’t have any name parallels, although the wife reminded me a lot of my design for Mrs. Afton. The backstory of Chris’ family reminds me a lot of Afton’s backstory for Resurrection Seeker. Like. A lot. It’s spooky how close it is.

“The houses were small, identical little boxes, which had originally been built for workers at the steel mill...” “His dad... ...had gone on to vocational school to learn how to work on cars.”

Another thing to note about the Dad is his weight is specifically touched on several times. Seemed like a callback to the novels’ mention of an earlier version of William.

All in all, a solid entry into the books and some weird coincidences I can’t overlook.

The story did drag a little, but honestly, not nearly as bad as the others. It was good.

Now, for the epilogue.

I don’t know if I wanna fume or not. I’m DISAPPOINTED. Afton essentially dies in the end of it, only to have a piece of his soul in a female endoskeleton escape into the factory. Also, the fucking... the fucking PUPPET shows up (and is actually why Afton dies). [Note: I didn’t realize that Left-E isn’t shown burning in the FNAF 6 ending, which many people are using to justify this. Read below for how I feel about that.] I just. I don’t know. I mean, William always comes back, but... I don’t know how I feel about this. I have a HUGE suspicion that the female endoskeleton is what becomes Vanny. I definetly still see this sort of leading into Security Breach EXCEPT for the fact: The Puppet is still alive.

Okay, so those were my initial thoughts. Upon looking around / rereading people say the female endo is Eleanor (Baby). My wife pointed out I missed the long necked detail. Woops. I wonder if Eleanor/Baby MIGHT be our Vanny stand in in this universe, though. And yeah, still not happy.

Afton is pretty much dead outside of a small part of his soul existing in the endo that escaped (this is an assumption on my part, I don’t think it’s stated, so essentially he’s dead, dead). There are parts of this I liked (and William only had ONE line: “I am Agony.”) Like, no shit? I couldn’t tell! SMH

However, despite some of the parts I thought were interesting (we get a thorough description of AlmagAfton and when he dies its pretty pathetic and I had all the FEELS), I think overall I’m disappointed because we may be at the end of Afton’s story. I have a suspicion that Vanny will be replacing him and possibly even betraying him in Security Breach, if this is anything to go by. Another odd duck is that Jake, in the remnants of the Stichwraith (that everyone insists is the GF parallel) is still wandering around too. I’m assuming Puppet went down with the ship, quite literally, since he [William] falls apart into a lake. Thanks, Charlie. You continue to ruin my day.

My wife pointed out the lake reminded her of OMC’s lake and I’m like... Why are we backpeddling?! This entire epilogue is a fucking mess. Another thing that irritates me (and apparently quite a few people) is if this IS the way the story is heading, then it makes FFPS pretty much USELESS to the story, nullifies Henry’s sacrifice / wishes... and that sucks! ESPECIALLY the fact that the Puppet SURVIVED the FNAF 6 fire! I get she just wants William to pay for what he’s done to her and her father, but... Henry wanted her to rest. To move on. She didn’t do that. That’s shitty to me.

Also, apparently souls have a smell. So that’s canon now.

[purplesurveys]

1085

survey by -egocentricity-

On Myspace, what was in the last bulletin you posted? I haven’t been on Myspace for well over a decade; and even when I was there I didn’t have any friends added nor did I remember ever posting anything. Friendster and Multiply were a lot more popular.

When and where was the last time you took a picture of yourself? I took a selfie last Saturday in the dining room. It’s of me holding up the vape pen that Andi lent me for the meantime to show Angela, since she wanted to see what it looked like.

Have you ever been scolded by a mall cop? I remember being lightly chided once when I was like, 7 – I was leaning on a glass wall of a store in the mall, so the guard from that store nicely told me to get back up to be safe. Overall, I don’t think I’ve ever exhibited behavior in public that should’ve gotten me into trouble.

How often do you catch yourself daydreaming? Definitely not so much these days. I need to keep being preoccupied with work or other things to do/accomplish since my daydreaming always seems to end with thinking of scenarios that now upset me, like, idk, happier times with my ex. I’m tired of letting that happen and always being upset in the end, so I try to avoid getting lost in my thoughts anymore.

What's your favorite thing to think about as you're falling asleep? Idk about you but thinking in general keeps my mind up and racing lol, so when I’m trying to sleep I do my best to black out my mind so that I can doze off.

Is there anything that you want to do, but won't because you're too afraid? So I went to college with this girl - I believe she’s several batches older - who, as soon as she graduated, set out on a hitchhiking journey across the world. She’s been doing it for four years, and I believe she has finally made it to Europe after being stuck in Kazakhstan for a year due to Covid. She’s amazing and her spirit is so fucking beautiful. She has a Facebook page that I actively follow detailing her experiences; but as great as her journey has been, I don’t know and I highly doubt that I can set out for such a demanding, commitment-heavy challenge myself.

Who was the last person to yell at you? My mom is the only person who does that, but she hasn’t done so in a while.

Who gets up the earliest in your household? The latest? My dad, since his work starts the earliest. I will sometimes hear the car engine purring by 5:45 AM. The latest would be my sister, since she stays up the latest as well. I think she’s up by 8 AM, but she doesn’t show up outside of her bedroom until 10 or 11.

Have you ever had a pet walk across your keyboard while you were typing? No, and I am glad that’s the case because both of my dogs are too big and I fear that they could actually snap my laptop in half.

What political issues do you think deserve less attention/worry? No political issue deserves any less attention than others. Political issues always mean that someone is on the losing end and I don’t think it’s fair to compare and decide which ones can be put on the backseat. 

Anyway, I do believe it’s not so much the issues that should be compared, but the people in politics who are given the spotlight. Here in the Philippines especially, a lot of celebrities want to have their own political careers (and usually win a seat) despite their zero experience and the media gobbles that shit up all the time, which is disgusting. Related to this, I hope the media makes a consicous effort to wipe Trump out of the headlines once he’s out of office.

Which political issues are you most passionate about? I dunno if I can measure that since I’m pretty vocal about a lot of things. What I can tell you is that in the political issues I have a say in, I always side with the marginalized and the oppressed. IPs, POC, LGBTQ+, immigrants, factory workers, jeepney drivers, contractualized employees, activists, student-activists...my heart has always been with them and their cause.

You're going to your favorite foreign country; what landmarks do you go see? I’m not sure if I have a favorite country, but I’m very picky about landmarks in general anyway. I’d rather experience the local life and eat at smaller local places and go to lesser-known beaches and stuff.

What is the longest amount of time that you have spent away from your home? A little longer than a week, and this was usually when I traveled abroad.

Did the last movie you watched have any emotional effect on you? Yeah, so much so that I was unable to finish it and I had to show up at dinner while still fresh from crying.

What motivates you to go to school? Not applicable to me anymore, but I suppose this can be easily rephrased to mean work. Honestly, my main motivation is the desire to have a perfect record at work lol. I’m super neurotic about this and I hate the idea of being absent or late. Money comes second; I rarely buy stuff for myself so I mostly don’t even realize the money coming in to my account every two weeks. Then third is the desire to be good at my job because I do want to get promoted and rack up more positions as I go along.

How much caffeine have you consumed in one day? The most cups of coffee I’ve had in one day is 3, and that was not an enjoyable experience ha. Right now, I’m on my first cup of coffee.

Are you more hyper and up-tight, or laid back and relaxed? I guess it depends on the situation. I can definitely exhibit either, but my behavior will vary based on the people I’m with and/or how comfortable I am in a certain situation.

When was the last time you heard someone talking about you? Around a week ago. My parents were having dinner separately and I heard my name being mentioned in a few sentences.

How did you pick out your last outfit? I wanted an outfit that was chill and easy to carry around, but would still make me look like I put some effort into picking it out.

When buying shoes, what do you look for in the product? I admittedly like brand names, so that’s the first thing I look at. I also like to keep up with what’s trending, so I look at items in a brand’s catalog that I see more and more people wearing. If it matches with my own personal style, then I keep an eye on it/purchase it altogether.

What happened to cause the last mess you made? The last and current mess I have on me is my work desk, which I’ve since abandoned in favor of my bed + portable desk as my new workspace. Idk, over the Christmas break I just ended up stacking up so much shit on the desk until it became a little too cluttered. I’ve cleaned it up here and there to make the space look neater, but there’s still a lot of stuff.

Are you embarrassed to bring people into your bedroom? Not embarrassed; I just find it unnecessary. My bedroom is too small to host guests and the only times I’ve let someone in there is when I had a significant other. I prefer people to stay in the living room.

When was the last children's birthday party you attended? It was my third cousin Isabella’s 7th birthday party at a Jollibee. Her family has been living in Australia for a while, but I guess they wanted to host a party with their Filipino family so they flew back here to stay for a few days. Because she is my third cousin and because she’s been living in Australia all her life, I don’t actually have any sort of relationship with her lmao but I still made an effort to greet her and stuff.

Are you good at reading other people's body language? Yes, to the point that it contributes to my overall anxiety.

If you're sick, do you go to school or do you stay home [usually]? I rarely get a fever so when I do it feels like actual death. For that reason, I usually have to skip the day and focus on feeling better.

Does chicken noodle soup really make you feel any better? I never had it whenever I’ve felt like crap in the past. I don’t really like soup though, so on a personal level I doubt it would have any effect on me.

What is one meal that you like to eat whilst sick? I don’t have a go-to meal because again, I rarely get sick.

Think of the last survey you filled out; did you enjoy it? Sure, it was easy to digest and it’s the kind that you can take over and over again.

Have you ever fed bread to ducks or geese? I’ve fed bread, but to fish in the sea; not ducks or geese since idk if we have either here other than in zoos. In our trip to Mactan in 2010, I remember how we were allowed to pay a certain small amount to get bread from the resort and proceed to feed the fish swimming around in the beach.

Is it hard to imagine you were ever as small as a 1-2 year old? Yeah, I definitely feel that way sometimes.

What set the tone for your mood today? Eh, I wouldn’t say I had an overall mood today, honestly. It was a normal day at work, maybe a little more uneventful than other days; and I was on top of my tasks so there wasn’t anything to dread or worry about. I was just concentrated on getting the day over with and wasn’t strongly attached to any emotion.

Have you ever set out to ruin someone else's day? I don’t think so.

Have you ever felt like the whole world was against you? It happens sometimes.

The name of the last video game you played? Mario Kart 8 probably? It’s been a while but it’s all I play if I do play a video game, so it’s a safe guess.

The name of the last board game that you played? We whipped out my old box of Trivial Pursuit last November when we didn’t have electricity and internet because of the typhoon.

What was the last thing that you told yourself? I don’t remember the last time I talked to myself, but like two minutes ago I was starting to feel sad so I silently reminded myself to think of positive things.

How many times a day do you wash your face? At least once, in the morning before I start work. I’ve learned that cleaning myself up, even if it’s just splashing water on my face, super helps if I want to start working in a good mood.

Do you remember your D.A.R.E. officer's name? I didn’t have one of those, anddd I’m sure we didn’t have that program here.

Someone throws hot coffee on you; how do you react? It’s taken me a whole goddamn week to finish this survey, lels. Anywho... I think out of instinct I would scream out in extreme agony first? And I’d probably spend the first immediate seconds to try and process what just happened. I don’t know if I would fight back because I’m pretty sure the burns would be hurting too badly for me to focus on revenge.

Is there a high school or college that you would rather be attending? I attended one school from kindergarten to college, and I can’t imagine having attended anywhere else. I had one dream university and I ended up attending it.

Have you ever lived in an apartment or duplex home? Yes, both. My parents lived in an apartment for a few months when I was a newborn. From ages 2-10 I lived in my childhood home, which is actually a duplex. The other house belongs to my grandpa’s late sister and her family.

Has anyone ever commented on your weight? Sure, but I care so little about my weight that they don’t really have an effect on me. The most common one I get is to “eat more.”

Where do you stand when it comes to sexual intercourse? Erm not really lmao. Just do it?? Idk. And just make sure consent is mutual and that you aren’t doing it out of pressure.

Name a show from the 90's that you miss? I guess ‘miss’ is the wrong word since I never watched it while it was ongoing, but I do love Friends. I’m excited to see what they have planned for the reunion episode.

Who provokes your sarcastic side the most? Bad co-workers, but luckily I haven’t had to pull that side of me in a while.

Have you ever thought about joining the military? Never.

When you were little, did you ever stare at disabled or "different" people? Being a kid, I probably did but never thought anything of it during those times. My mom certainly would’ve whooped my ass if I tried to comment anything mean or be a smartass.

Could the contents of your bedroom get you in any trouble? The one thing that would piss my mom off are my vape pens. I still have Gab-related stuff in my room that I’m too lazy to throw out, but I doubt I will get into trouble from those anymore because there has been no relationship to speak of in the last four months.

Do weather patterns sometimes have an effect on your health? Not on my health, but on my mood.

If it snows a lot where you live, do you experience cabin fever? It doesn’t, so idk what this would feel like.

When was the last time someone disapproved of something you were doing? Not entirely sure; this hasn’t happened in a while. Admittedly, as a people pleaser, I thrive on doing what people would want me to do lol.

How good are you at getting along with other people? On a scale of 1 to 10, probably a 9? I’m super nice to everyone and in the end it only really boils down to whether I have chemistry with them or not. If I fail to feel comfortable around someone I’m more likely to stay formal, but I do try to be lively and crack jokes with everyone as much as I can.

Do you consider yourself to be approachable? I want to be and I always try to come off as such, but my resting bitchface hurts that chance sometimes haha.

Do you know anyone that's a little emotionally unstable? Uhm, no one comes to mind.

Have you ever felt like you were going out of your mind? Yes.

Has anyone ever suggested that you might need "help"? I don’t recall being told this by anyone before. But with the way I broadcast my anxiety and sadness from time to time, I’m sure people have thought of it.

Do you take offense to things easily? Yeah you can say that. I’ve always been more sensitive than most.

How do you respond to cheesy pick-up lines? As with any pick-up line, I inwardly roll my eyes and move on.

Do you like to give people a taste of their own medicine? It’s such a waste of time and energy for the most part, so no. But if I feel petty, I have no problem doing it.

How was the service at the last restaurant you visited? It was...fine. Nothing to write home about. It was unlimited Korean barbecue and they actually had a system in place where they gave us a link to some internal website they kept, and we could simply order from there to minimize contact with the servers. I will say that I never got the kimchi jjigae I had ordered, but it was fine because I was full by then lmao.

Are you ever jealous of happy couples? No. I mean, I guess I’m reminded of my loneliness when I see couples in public, but I don’t get jealous or angry. I just shake it off and try to focus on myself.

Describe a thought that is sticking with you today? That I can’t wait for Friday.

Lately, who has spent the most time on your mind? I’ve been thinking more of my anxieties than certain people, tbh.

In a car: air conditioning, or roll the windows down? Air conditioning. Though sometimes it’s nice to have the windows down, especially when I’m driving within my village or up a mountain.

When was the last time you did anything to your playlist? I made an angst-themed playlist over the weekend.

Is there a new song or band you've discovered? Massive Attack. Hayley Williams did a super great cover of their song Teardrop, so I checked out the original version which I also ended up enjoying. Olivia Rodrigo too, who I found out is part Filipino yay!

Which teacher gives you the most homework? My Journalism Ethics professor will probably rank the highest on this list.

What type of personality do you find most annoying? Idk, condescending ones maybe? There are a million kinds of personalities lol, but yeah I hate those who make you feel dumb, and feel good about doing so.

How did you hear about Bzoink? If my memory serves me correctly, my 10 year old self just wanted empty about me surveys to answer. Bzoink was always one of the first websites to come out if I searched for surveys on Google.

How long did it take you to sign up for an account - if you have one? I don’t think I ever made an account on there since I was too shy to share my answers.

Are you punctual? Yes, very.

Have you ever howled at the full moon? No.

Have you ever seen yourself on camera? Like if I’ve seen photos of myself??? I would be very surprised if anyone can say they haven’t.

Do you give any consideration to what's said in your horoscope? No.

When was the last time you felt like you were being followed? This has never happened before, thankfully.

[yamayamawrites]

Pickle - A Switched Prequel

A/N: Hello hello! In my recent fic “Switched”, I mentioned that Tsukkishima and Yamaguchi had a cat named “Pickle”. I got the brilliant idea to write a one-shot about how they got Pickle, and also, how they got together. They can be read alone but technically they take place in the same universe! You don’t need to read one to understand the other - they just share a headcanon of mine that Tsukki and Yamaguchi have a pet together! 

You can find this on my AO3 page here or you can read below! Either way, as always thanks for reading and I really hope you enjoy!

Tsukkishima stood outside Yamaguchi’s door, shifting a bit uncomfortably in the cool fall air. They had the day off from practice, and Yamaguchi hadn’t come to school, which was unusual. Normally Tsukkishima would play like he didn’t care and go home, but his feet dragged him here without his consent. He’d gone home and at first, he thought he’d stay there, but without even realizing it he’d packed an overnight bag and was out the door with a quick goodbye to his mother. Said overnight bag sat by his feet as he debated whether he should knock.

He didn’t need to, as it turned out. Yamaguchi swung the door open, jumping a bit in surprise and almost dropping the potted plant in his hand. “Oh, hey Tsukki!” he chirped in his normal way, despite the fact that his eyes were very clearly saying “asshole, you nearly gave me a heart attack”.

“Mind if I come in?” Tsukki asked, his usual droning tone having vanished. Yamaguchi wordlessly stepped aside.

“I’ll be in in a minute, this pot just needs more dirt.”

“Okay,” Tsukki called over his shoulder, already welcoming himself into the western-style home. He looked around at the dozens of potted plants, breathing in the air which smelled mostly like Yamaguchi with a hint of dirt. This was probably the most bizarre part of Yamaguchi’s personality, and the one that surprised him the most when he first came over. Both Yamaguchi and his mother (who Tsukki rarely saw anymore) had such natural green thumbs that half the time when Tsukki came over it was because his mother asked him to go get some fresh vegetables from their garden. Now, though, with the onslaught of winter just a few weeks away, all the outdoor vegetables migrated inside.

Tsukki spent his time trying to find a surface that didn’t contain a plant. That was how he usually spent his time when Yamaguchi wandered the house, watering plants while he watched. Sometimes they moved; Tsukki made note that the tall tree-like plant that had been in the corner by the television had now made its way to the dining area.

Though it was bizarre, it was never anything Tsukki really paid much mind to outside of Yamaguchi’s home. The smell of dirt didn’t follow Yamaguchi the way Tsukki might have expected it to, and aside from the occasional dirt stain on Yamaguchi’s uniform he gave no hints to his hobby. Tsukki almost wondered if Yamaguchi felt embarrassed of it, but no, that couldn’t be it, because on occasion he brought fresh pies and such for the team members using the fruits and vegetables grown at home.

Yamaguchi toed his shoes off at the front door as he returned inside, setting down a relatively large strawberry plant on the table in the front window – which was now so overcrowded with plants that Tsukki worried one might topple. Judging by the smear of dirt on the rug, that’s what had happened that required Yamaguchi to refill the pot in the first place.

“I’m really glad you’re here, Tsukki,” Yamaguchi commented offhandedly as he readjusted the pots on the table so they were at least a little less likely to fall. “I was actually going to call and ask you to come over.”

“Oh yeah?” Tsukki droned back, but his heart skipped a bit. He and Yamaguchi were in a weird sort of limbo with their relationship; he had no better way to describe it than a weird game where they tried to act like everything was normal between them, when it most certainly wasn’t. Not after Tsukki last spent the night.

In fact, that was mostly why he ended up here – to clear the air. He wondered if Yamaguchi had stayed home to avoid him, but as his eager friend ushered him down the hall towards his bedroom, he panicked and thought maybe Yamaguchi was done pretending.

When Yamaguchi pushed open the door, Tsukkishima realized, oh, we’re not going to talk about it.

Sitting on the bed with a piece of ribbon around its neck as a makeshift collar was an orange kitten, maybe not even eight weeks old, playing with a ping pong ball. “So,” Yamaguchi cleared his throat, grabbing Tsukki’s wrist and pulling him into the room before closing the door behind them, “this is…a cat.”

“I can see that,” Tsukki replied. “Mind explaining a little more?”

“Well,” Yamaguchi rubbed his neck sheepishly, teetering back and forth on the balls of his feet. “See, when I woke up I put my cucumber plants out on my windowsill so they could get some extra sun while I took a shower. And well, when I came back…he was here. Gnawing away on my cucumber plant.”

“What happened to the plant?”

“Who cares, Tsukki?” Yamaguchi replied with a stifled giggle. “What do you think we should name him?”

“’We’?” Tsukki questioned, the smallest hint of a blush touching his cheeks. “I’m not taking joint custody of a rat.”

“First of all, it’s a kitten,” Yamaguchi pouted, “and second, I can’t really…afford to take care of it on my own.”

“Then let it go,” Tsukki droned.

“No, it’ll die!” Yamaguchi huffed. “I think it’s one of the strays around here’s kitten. Haven’t seen her around in weeks, and I even asked a few of the neighbors if their kitten got out.”

“Is this why you weren’t at school today?” Tsukki asked finally.

“Does it matter? Okay, yes, I wasn’t at school. You’re changing the topic,” Yamaguchi whined in a way that made Tsukki want to bite his tongue and never annoy Yamaguchi again.

“What do you want from me?” Tsukkishima asked cautiously. This all crept towards ‘couple’ territory – owning a pet together was the first step in having kids together, and Tsukki’s face turned a sickly green. Oh god, we can’t have kids, we barely even kissed and we can’t even talk to each other about that and a cat is super close to raising a kid…

“I’m not going to ask for much,” Yamaguchi replied just as cautiously. He could tell Tsukki’s mind had already reeled itself into a knot by the way his face turned green. “You don’t even have to act like it’s yours. I was just wondering if you could lend me some supplies.”

Tsukki’s childhood cat had passed away when he was ten, and both boys knew well that instead of donate the food bowl and litter box, his mother had stored them away in case they ever decided to get another cat. Nearly six years later and there was no cat to show for it. Tsukki’s shoulders relaxed; he was sure his mother would rather give the supplies to someone she knew, anyway. Plus, this meant that his earlier conclusion of joint custody could have been off.

“Also will you help pick a name?” Yamaguchi spat quickly, his cheeks flushing as he snapped his head to the floor to avoid looking at Tsukki.

“Ah, yes to the supplies. No to the name.”

“Tsukki,” Yamaguchi whined.

“Fine. How about ‘Tadashi’?”

“Tsukki!”

Tsukkishima huffed, running a hand through his hair. “Alright, alright…you’re sure you want to keep it, though?”

“Yeah! He’ll keep me company when mom’s not home.”

That statement in itself probably would have had Tsukki in tears (internally; he didn’t cry on the outside) had they not been in such a weird place with their relationship and his mind not been taken up trying to unfurl that mess.

Yamaguchi scratched the cat behind the ears, eliciting a purr from him. “What do you think of ‘Pickle’?”

“Why Pickle?” Tsukki asked, cautiously stepping forward to pet the cat as well.

“Because he was eating my cucumber plant,” Yamaguchi shrugged. “And ‘Cucumber’ isn’t as cute.”

“I like it,” Tsukki murmured, voice ever so soft as his knuckles bumped against Yamaguchi’s. Neither of them looked at each other, blushing furiously; instead, they stared down at the cat, which was tilting its head this way and that to encourage more head pats.

After a few moments, Yamaguchi cleared his throat. “U-um,” he broke the silence, “I hate to ask you to do this, since you came all the way here and all, but could you—”

“You want me to go get the stuff, huh?” Tsukki droned. Yamaguchi flushed and nodded quickly.

Tsukki finally sighed and got up, rifling through Yamaguchi’s closet.

“H-hey!” Yamaguchi cried. “What are you doing?”

“It’s cold and I left my jacket at home,” Tsukkishima replied with a slight shrug. In all honesty, it had been something of a ploy to encourage them to talk about what happened between them. Still, without that conversation happening, Tsukki felt an odd satisfaction in making Yamaguchi so embarrassed. “I figured it’s only fair, since you want me to go back out in the cold.”

“I-I’ll have hot cocoa waiting for you when you get back.”

***

Yamaguchi wasn’t lying. As Tsukkishima trudged back up to his door nearly an hour later, food bowl and litterbox awkwardly in his hands, Yamaguchi swung it open for him, already holding two steaming mugs. “Tsukki!” he said excitedly. “I almost thought you wouldn’t come back.”

“Sorry it took so long,” he said in a condescending tone. That shut Yamaguchi up. “It’s a little hard to carry this stuff such a long way.”

“Right!” Yamaguchi set the mugs down on the dining table and grabbed the litterbox from him. “I don’t suppose you’d want to go to the store with me to buy litter and food, would you?” he asked hopefully.

“Yamaguchi,” Tsukki replied in a warning tone.

“You’re right, you’re right!” he squeaked. “I’ll, um, I’ll go tomorrow morning.”

“If you want to go tonight, I can stay here and watch…the cat,” he mumbled, a little embarrassed that he would even suggest watching the thing.

Yamaguchi perked up. “You would?! Oh, that would be great!”

“Only if you’re quick,” Tsukki snapped uncharacteristically. He supposed it was mostly due to the tension that revolved around the two of them. “Sorry,” he supplied shortly after.

“I’ll be quick,” Yamaguchi agreed. “I just need a few things. Like a collar and stuff!”

The two flopped down onto the couch side by side, watching the curious kitten stumble his way out of Yamaguchi’s bedroom. He was cautious, sniffing everything in sight, stilling when he saw Tsukki and Yamaguchi watching him. “He’s a little skittish,” Yamaguchi murmured. “Please don’t scare him.”

“I won’t do anything on purpose,” Tsukki supplied, and though it was genuine, Yamaguchi laughed at the implication that Tsukkishima was intimidating even to cats.

By the time they had finished their hot cocoa, Pickle had decided the couch was a safe bet and settled onto it, still eyeing the two of them curiously. Yamaguchi carefully took the mug from Tsukki’s hands, making sure not to touch him (which frustrated Tsukki much more than it should have). He said little more than what was necessary to Tsukki before he gathered his things and left, and then it was just Tsukki and Pickle, who had taken to digging his paws into the couch.

Tsukkishima tried to redirect his attention with the strap of his overnight bag, which worked for approximately five minutes until the cat became bored again. He half-debated letting the cat run rampant and just playing on his phone, but he knew Yamaguchi would probably lose his mind if the cat knocked over one of the plants. So, every time the cat got even close to doing so, Tsukki would pluck him from his spot and move him somewhere else.

He chased the cat around the house for about an hour before Yamaguchi finally returned, carrying a few grocery bags. “I had to get the small bags because I don’t think I’d be able to carry it all the way,” he huffed, setting the bags aside while he took his shoes off. Tsukki grabbed the food out of the bag and took it along with the food dish to the sink.

“What’re you doing?” Yamaguchi asked quizzically.

“It’s a kitten,” Tsukki replied with a shrug. “It probably can’t eat super hard food. I’m going to mix it with some water.”

Tsukki missed the way Yamaguchi gazed at him like he was some sort of angel, and he certainly missed the way Yamaguchi blushed and wrapped his arms around himself defensively. Before long, he heard Yamaguchi pouring kitty litter into the litterbox, and while he mixed the food he could hear Yamaguchi chasing the kitten around the living room, trying to put its new collar on it.

Tsukki set the food dish near the front door, and immediately Pickle trotted over to him, making a happy noise before digging into the dish of mushy cat food. Yamaguchi watched him, a bit breathless from chasing the cat around. “You know a lot about animals, don’t you?” he asked.

“No,” Tsukkishima countered. “My childhood cat just had kittens one time, and I remember that’s how we fed the babies when they were old enough to eat.”

“Oh,” Yamaguchi mumbled. He slumped onto the couch, Tsukki by his side, and they watched the cat eat.

Every time their shoulders blushed Tsukkishima could feel Yamaguchi shy away, and it upset him to the point that he decided he was sick of playing this game of acting like everything was normal. “Can we please talk, Yama?” he asked softly, despite his anger.

“About?” Yamaguchi countered, but the way his body stiffened, Tsukki was sure Yamaguchi knew exactly what about.

“Last time I spent the night.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

A silence fell over them, save for the noises of Pickle eating in the background. “I’m not mad,” Tsukkishima said finally, hoping maybe it would encourage Yamaguchi to explain why he kissed him.

He watched Yamaguchi’s shoulders slump. “I can’t apologize enough for that, huh?” Yamaguchi asked, almost a bit bitterly. “Look, I get it if you don’t have feelings for me or—”

“Who said that?” Tsukki countered, taking on a bitter tone himself. “You can’t make decisions like that for me and then lead me to believe something when—”

Tsukkishima stopped talking then, as Yamaguchi’s shoulders began to tremble. Tsukki dropped a gentle hand to Yamaguchi’s thigh, and the boy didn’t pull away. Instead, he glanced up, a few tears trickling down his cheeks. Tsukki used his other hand to wipe them away wordlessly, and before either of them could restrain themselves, their lips were brushing on each other’s again.

It was different this time. For one, Tsukkishima hadn’t been in the middle of talking and interrupted by an eager Yamaguchi stealing the words from his mouth. No, this one felt more longing, a bit more understanding of each other. Hearing Tsukkishima deny him an apology, even if that didn’t mean he also had feelings for him, felt like the most wonderful moment in the world. Tsukki himself had been toying with the idea of attraction towards Yamaguchi long before the kiss, and when Yamaguchi forced an apology and begged them to pretend nothing happened after the first kiss, it had broken his heart. But now, now he felt like he could finally repay Yamaguchi how he should have in the first place; he returned the kiss, or perhaps he initiated it. Neither of them knew who moved first, nor would they bother to pin that blame.

Their lips met with more intensity the second they parted to breathe. Having known Yamaguchi so long, Tsukki wondered idly (between the near-constant thoughts of wow, this feels nice) if that’s how their lips moved together so wonderfully. Any clumsiness his classmates had talked about when they had their first kisses hadn’t presented itself. Tsukki’s hand that had been on Yamaguchi’s thigh moved to grab his waist, his body turning to face Yamaguchi more.

The feeling of Yamaguchi’s arms winding their way around Tsukki’s neck was shocking enough itself, were it not for the ease with which Yamaguchi pressed their bodies together, resulting in Tsukki laying on the couch with a surprisingly dominant Yamaguchi on top.

A soft ‘meow’ across the room had them pulling apart just as quickly as they’d connected, faces flushed and breath labored. They refused to look at each other. Pickle the kitten was proudly sitting in the mush of food, cleaning his paws with his tongue.

“Such an efficient way to eat food,” Tsukki droned sarcastically, and Yamaguchi laughed.

Maybe nothing really had changed; maybe this was how it was meant to be. Tsukkishima couldn’t help but hope so.

[stellalux-universe]

Without You

Summary: It was just a stupid fight, that's all it was. But when your passion runs as high as theirs does, sometimes that's all it takes to rip you apart. The real question is, are you brave enough to try again?

Hello!

This is my first Crüe fic and I was so excited to write it because I adore Tommy and Nikki together but then I started writing and what was supposed to be like 8,000 words max grew out of my control because it seems I'm incapable of writing anything short.

So what was the end result? Nearly 50 damn pages of angst and sadness and emotion. A little happy, fun stuff here and there too, but still!

In any case, a couple of things to know, this story is set in an au where hair metal is seeing it's heyday in the current year, so modern timeline and it is A/B/O because I have been dying to explore writing with omega!Tommy and alpha!Nikki. Hopefully I did it some justice. Also, the timeline skips back and forth between 2018 and 2019, all of the past is in italics just in case you miss the date change!

This is also posted on my AO3 under StellaLux if you would prefer to read it there! I just thought, “maybe some people are on tumblr but not AO3? What the hell, I’ll post it tumblr to get like 2 notes just for kicks!”

Enjoy!

~May 15th, 2019~

In retrospect, Tommy supposes that this entire situation was his own damn fault.

Not that he would ever say that out loud. Introspective contemplation of his past choices and mistakes have never really been his style. In his experience, such things only led to a tortured mind and put you into a depressive mood and that was definitely not his vibe. He couldn’t go back in time to change anything, so he may as well not worry about it anymore.

Even still, he has to admit that if he hadn’t been so bone dead tired a day ago after not only a photo shoot but also a reshoot on top of that because the fucking photographer hadn’t liked the fucking lighting, he probably wouldn’t be in this mess.

Because then, when Tom had called to beg him to attend this party for the band he had just signed, he would have had the wit to ask the most basic but important question, “Which band is it?”

But Zutaut had called him right after he had changed into his street clothes. Right after shooting from 5 in the fucking morning to 6 in the evening, when he was ready to go home, crawl into bed and not wake up for a full 24 hours. Tom was lucky he had even answered honestly. When his phone rang, Tommy had looked at it with nothing short of absolute disgust and had wanted so badly to just ignore him.

Tom Zutaut wasn’t a person that people had hard line opinions about. Despite having a cool job that usually got people’s attention, the newest producer at Elektra records was, to put it as nicely as possible, an absolute fucking bore. He was the epitome of a brown paper bag, plain and bland, the kind of person who was just… there. Tommy didn’t particularly like him, but he didn’t dislike him either.

Had Tom been anyone else, Tommy would have declined the call and continued unencumbered with his plan to get home as soon as possible to pass out. But it was Tom, and despite thinking the producer was probably the most yawn-inducing individual he had ever met, Tommy couldn’t ignore him and the reason was simple. Tommy owed Tom. He owed him a lot.

Tom had come into his life when Tommy was at his lowest; he had just broken up with the man that he was pretty sure was meant to be his mate, was forced to leave his new, fledgling band that he was in love with, and was living on a friend’s couch. Tom had seen him at a party one night and after talking for just a few minutes had gotten him a role as an extra in a music video. That cameo had caught the eye of an up and coming photographer and landed him his first photoshoot and that photoshoot had landed him a 5 year contract with a pretty big modeling company. It wasn’t necessarily what Tommy had envisioned for his life, but it paid the bills for a nice apartment, a nice car, and a fairly glamorous lifestyle so he couldn’t really complain.

And he couldn’t ignore Tom, who had put everything in motion for him.

~May 14th, 2019~

Tommy feels like crying when his phone rings. He’s so damn tired and he barely has enough in him to drive himself home, let alone entertain a conversation but the caller id says it’s Tom and despite not typically caring to follow the rules of social niceties, Tommy would feel bad about ignoring the other man who has helped him so much. So he picked up reluctantly and threw himself down into a chair in his stylist’s dressing room so he could at least sit through whatever banality that Zutaut had to throw at him.

“Hey Tom.”

“Tommy! You are exactly who I wanted to talk to!” Tom’s voice is higher than normal and overly happy. The tone is familiar to Tommy, it’s the tone the other man takes when he’s about to ask for a favor that he’s going to wheedle him into doing by throwing the fact that Tommy owes him in his face.

Tommy sighs, eyes drooping as he tapped the fingers of his right hand against his jean clad legs to a beat of a song in his head, “Yeah, I figured, you know, since it was me you called.”

Tom gives a nervous chuckle and when he speaks again, his words are stilted and hesitant like they always are when he tries to cash in his IOUs, “Yeah, I guess that’s true. Well, uhh, I kind of need a favor.”

“Uh huh.” Tommy responded, eyes falling shut against his will as he waited for Tom to continue.

“You see, I just signed this band, and it’s my first major signing and they’re going to be fucking awesome Tommy, like seriously, they’re going to be huge and they’re right up your alley. Like, for real Tommy, you would love them, they’re so cool-“

“Tom, please, for the love of god. I’m literally like a minute from fucking passing out here, please just tell me what you want.” Tommy interrupts as he gets up to start walking to his car. He’s not paying much attention anyway so he may as well multitask.

“Oh shit, yeah, you had a job today. Hope that went well, I saw that stuff you did for Gucci last season. I don’t know much about that stuff but you looked great-”

“TOM!” Tommy growls into the phone, startling some of the people in the hallway. Tommy waves an apologetic hand and flashes a smile and they laugh and shake their heads at him.

“Yeah, okay, so here’s the thing, we’re throwing them this signing party to celebrate and introduce them to other people at the company and I really need some cred with these guys Tommy, so they’ll respect me-”

“You got them a record deal Tom, that’s not enough for them to respect you?” He rolls his eyes as he pushes his way out of the back door, waving to the security guard and walking over to where he parked his car.

“These guys are crazy Tommy, the first time I sat down to talk to them, they had a woman underneath the table who tried to surprise blow me!”

Despite his exhaustion and the fact that he’s barely listening, Tommy snorts out a laugh at that because that’s fucking hilarious. Thinking about a straight laced guy like Zutaut in a situation like that… his reaction had probably been priceless. He gets exactly what Tom is getting at now. The type of wildness that comes with that kind of activity, those guys probably see Tom as a fucking doormat.

Which he is, but still.

“And what do you think I can do about this Tom?”

“Well, you see, I was thinking that if I show up at the party with a gorgeous omega model, maybe it will earn me a little bit of credibility.”

Tommy groans as he opens his car door and slides in. He could honestly probably afford a driver and right about now that sounded like heaven but there was something he absolutely adored about driving around LA and he didn’t want to give that up just to be boujee and lazy.

“So you want to use my looks and profession to make a good impression on some wild rock stars? I really don’t know how much of an impact I’ll have Tom.”

“Tommy. Seriously. Have you seen you? You’re literally one of the most attractive people I’ve ever seen and I work with a ton of attractive people. You literally just did a campaign with Gucci last season. You’re the perfect blend of ridiculously sexy and cool that these guys will appreciate! If I walked into the party with you on my arm, it’d be a good start to getting them to listen to me a little bit more.”

Tom’s voice is plaintive, almost whiny and the flattery would be nice if the beta didn’t say it in such a matter of fact way. That was part of the problem with Zutaut, Tommy thought. There wasn’t an ounce of passion in the man. Everything was a calculation, everything had a purpose, and Tommy’s attractiveness was just something to be used. It made him a fairly shrewd businessman and definitely contributed to why he was able to make producer at such a young age, but it was also the reason for the current predicament he was in. With his wild rock star clients not giving two shits about what he said because he was such a damn square.

Tommy starts the engine and there’s a brief pause in their conversation as his phone pairs with his car’s system and then Tom’s voice comes back, “Please Tommy. Last favor, I swear. We’re even-steven after this.”

That was familiar, Tommy’s pretty sure Zutaut has said that the last four times he has asked for favors. Still, it was just a party and Tommy was still a sucker for parties. And honestly, if it ended this conversation so Tommy could focus on driving himself home to sleep, he’d agree to anything.

“Fine.”

“Awesome! Thanks Tommy, this is going to help me so much, you have no idea. Try to look your best okay? Like total knockout. The party is on-”

Tommy sighs in frustration for what has to be the billionth time that day and cuts the beta off as he continues to prattle on, “I’m hanging up on you now Zutaut. I need to focus on driving so I don’t fall asleep at the wheel and crash. Just text me the damn details.”

And with that, Tommy presses end.

Tom texts him as soon as he hangs up to tell him that he would pick him up at 7pm the next night and to remind him in a completely blatant way to “dress up”. Tommy guesses that’s Zutaut’s way of asking him to dress slutty to appeal to a bunch of rock stars and he immediately regrets agreeing to go at all. Tom is generally annoying to be around for any extended length of time and it grates on his nerves when people treat him like he’s only worth having around to ‘look good’. It comes with the territory when your job is built around your physical appearance, but that doesn’t mean that the people in Tommy’s life should treat him as such and he certainly didn’t tolerate it when they did.

He feels better after he wakes up the next day a little after 1pm. He hadn’t even bothered to change when he had gotten home, had just shed his pants and collapsed into his bed, so he feels a little gross while he walks out of his bedroom in yesterday’s shirt and underwear to head to the kitchen to make coffee and get some food.

He pauses in the living room when his eyes catch the drum kit shining in the afternoon sun. It’s tucked away in the corner between two large windows, unassuming and gleaming in a way that pulls at his heart and makes his fingers twitch.

He hasn’t played in a year.

It’s tortuous sometimes. Drums are ingrained into his very being, as much a part of him as the blood that rushes through his veins when he’s hitting out a beat. He misses it with a severity that’s intense and all-encompassing but the pain he feels when he looks at the kit now dampens his desire until he can’t summon the will to pick up his sticks again.

He can barely remember back to the time when all he felt when he looked at his drum kit was joy and pride. It’s there, back behind the pain and the heartache and the sadness. A memory of a room and three other guys, hard hitting vocals, a shredding guitar, his own limbs heavy with exhaustion but adrenaline lighting him up as he pounds a beat out hard. A memory of a bassist with pale green eyes who gives him a heart stopping smile when they come to a break.

It’s only been a year, but Tommy has shoved those memories down so far into his heart that the men in them feel like ghosts to him. He sometimes feels like a ghost himself. The Tommy Lee who so loved his drums, who was wild, and excitable and so, so in love with life was dead.

Now all that’s left is this stereotype of a tall, pretty omega model in Hollywood who can’t even think about pursuing his passions because of how much it hurts him to remember.

Tommy scoffs at himself and tears his eyes away from his drum set, walking into the kitchen and letting muscle memory guide him into making coffee and reheating leftovers from the day before as he thinks that this is exactly why he doesn’t focus on the past. It’s just too damn depressing.

~January 18th, 2018~

Tommy is nearly bouncing in his seat at the diner in excitement. He keeps throwing little glances at the man a few booths away to make sure it’s who he thinks it is, but Tommy’s pretty fucking confident that it is.

He looks at his friend’s amused face across from him and the girl laughs softly at what has to be the goofiest of hopeful expressions that is morphing his features.

They had just gotten out of the concert they had met up for, and Tommy was already a ball of energy because London was one of his favorite up and coming bands and the show had been sick but as soon as they had been seated after deciding to get some food, he had caught sight of a familiar face and then proceeded to steadily lose his shit.

“Seriously, that’s him right? That’s Nikki fucking Sixx sitting just a few booths away from me?” Tommy harshly whispers, as if the other man was paying any attention to anything other than the paper spread out in front of him and the tissue he kept pressing to his bloody nose.

His friend just grins at him, “Looks like it, yeah.”

Tommy fidgets and bites his lip, “Should I go over and talk to him?”

The girl across from him nods, small little wicked smirk on her face. She’s a good friend but she loves watching him make a fool of himself, which is no doubt exactly what she thinks he’s about to do now.

“Yeah, you should. I’m just gonna get a milkshake and get gone.”

Tommy is already sliding out of his seat as she speaks, giving her a thumbs up and a ‘see you later.’

He walks over as confidently as he can with his nerves flaring up. Tommy isn’t one to be shy or embarrassed by much, but he’s eighteen and the older bassist is probably one of the coolest musicians on the scene right now and that’s enough to make him jittery. It also doesn’t help that the man is probably the most gorgeous alpha that Tommy has ever actually seen in public. Dark hair, killer jaw line, intense pale green eyes and just as intense alpha aura, Tommy practically shivers the closer he gets. Tommy could hardly be called inexperienced, he’s been with a couple of alpha’s before but it’s always been with people his own age, fumbling around, figuring out how their biology even worked. But the vibe that Nikki gives off is nothing like the alpha’s Tommy has been with, and the omega in him is intensely attracted to that.

He stops right in front of the table the other man is sitting at, bounces on his heels a few times and decides to just go for it, “Hey, that was badass dude. The show, not the nose… but the nose was pretty badass too.”

Tommy almost blushes as Nikki looks up at him while he rambles. The other man doesn’t say anything for a second, just drags his eyes over Tommy a few times before he finally replies in a drawling voice, accent something that Tommy can’t really identify, “The singer’s an asshole.”

Tommy releases a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding when he hears Nikki’s reply and feels a little more confident, “I know. I saw. Hey, fuck him though, he deserved it.”

Nikki gives him a nod and goes back to scanning the paper in front of him, he seems to have lost interest or something and Tommy bites his lip before blurting out, “I got your poster on my bedroom wall.”

The alpha looks up at him incredulously then, raising an eyebrow and letting a small, delicious smirk stretch across his lips when Tommy closes his eyes and groans at how that sounded. “I can’t believe I just said that. I mean, fuck, I didn’t mean it, you know, like that, I just meant-“

Nikki chuckles as he stumbles over his words and shakes his head, “Take the fucking poster down man, London’s dead.”

Tommy opens his mouth to reply when the waitress comes over and stops on the other side of Nikki’s table, “What can I get you boys?”

Tommy blinks and slides into the booth across from Nikki, giving the man a smile when he gets a confused look from the bassist. The alpha just gives a small smirk again before looking up at the older beta waitress with a charming smile, “Can I please get a Jack and coke Dottie?”

The waitress rolls her eyes but writes it down regardless and Tommy gets the feeling that maybe Nikki is a regular here and she’s used to the request. The woman looks at him then, “And for you honey?”

Tommy smiles brightly at the woman and is satisfied when her lips tug upwards in response, always happy to make others a little happier, “Blueberry pancakes, please.”

“Of course hun.” She says lightly as she walks away and when Tommy looks back at Nikki, the bassist is staring at him with this intense gleam in his eyes that wasn’t there before. Sitting across from him now, Tommy can make out his scent prominently, and it’s something that goes straight to his head. Nikki smells like the aftermath of a storm, when the trees and the soil are wet with rain water and everything is saturated in bold, rich color. Tommy wonders if Nikki can smell him too, he’s been told before that has a particularly pleasant scent, he wonders if that’s why the bassist is looking at him with more interest than he had before.

Tommy watches in rapt attention as Nikki leans forward and starts talking with more passion than previously, “My next band is going to be something no one’s ever fucking seen before.”

The alpha’s eyes drop back down to the paper in front of him. Tommy studies it more closely then and sees ads for musicians looking for bands. One in particular catches his eye, Mick Mars: loud, aggressive guitarist and without thinking he whips one of his drumsticks out from his belt and uses it to point at the ad, “That dude looks pretty cool.”

Nikki uses the pen he has to circle it and Tommy feels joy flood him when the older man takes his suggestion before Nikki leans back against the booth and regards him with a curious look, head tilted slightly to the side, “Do you carry those around with you everywhere?”

“Yep.” Tommy smiles, popping the p at the end of the word playfully and thrilling when Nikki chuckles at him.

The waitress is coming back then and she sits a coke and a small bottle of Jack in front of Nikki, “Here you go kid. Your pancakes will be out soon honey.”

Nikki thanks the older woman gratefully and proceeds to twist the top of the liquor bottle and instead of pouring it into the coke like Tommy had expected him to, proceeds to down the contents in one go, his eyes never leaving Tommy’s as the omega bites his lip and starts twirling his drumstick in his fingers. It’s a habit he had developed ever since he had taught himself how to do it, especially when he was nervous or stressed and the way Nikki was looking at him was making him both in the most electric way possible.

He sees Nikki eye the movement with a slightly impressed look on his face and it makes Tommy giddy to have caused it, “Where did you learn to do that?”

Tommy does blush at that but he’s honest when says, “High school marching band.”

Nikki full out laughs at that, not meanly, but in surprise, like he hadn’t expected Tommy to be that honest and it makes the omega grin when he adds, “But hey, I rock too.”

Nikki is leaning forward and smirks then and Tommy feels the warmth of arousal spread through him when the bassist lowers his voice and says, “I bet you do babe.”

A plate is sat in front of him and it makes Tommy blink in confusion as the moment between him and Nikki is interrupted, Dottie smiling at him gently for startling him. He looks back up and Nikki has gone back to looking through ads, but Tommy sees the little smile pulling at his lips and it makes him grin again, pushing the pancakes more toward the center of the table to get Nikki’s attention.

“Help me eat these pancakes and tell me more about this band.”

Nikki full out smiles at him then, and Tommy knows that he’s going to be gone for this man in no time flat.

It only takes six full days in fact.

Nikki had pretty much demanded he be his band’s drummer as soon as he found out that Tommy had drummed for Suite 19 before the band had dissolved.

“I saw you guys once. Shitty band but you have some real fucking talent babe.”

Tommy’s pretty sure he had fucking beamed with hearts in his eyes when he heard Nikki say that.

They spent the next couple days meeting up and talking about their vision for what was going to be their band. Nikki always said that, always called it “our band” and not “my band” and Tommy always felt pride move through him when he did. They spent their mornings and nights planning in Nikki’s shitty little efficiency that Tommy adored just like he adored when Nikki would pull him in close with an arm around his shoulders on the couch to look through lyrics. Tommy could see the way Nikki’s eyes would follow him as he walked through Nikki’s home, following his body when he would get up to grab them beer from the small refrigerator that was against the far wall from the couch. There was a hazy atmosphere that settled over them when they were together, it was palpable and charged and Tommy knew they could both feel it.

Their sixth day hanging out together they were sitting outside on the fire escape, taking a break between seeing guitarists and sharing Nikki’s last cigarette when a breeze blew past them. Tommy tilted his head back, enjoying the brisk air blowing his curls around his face but when he opened his eyes, he was immediately met with Nikki’s eyes squeezed closed and body tense.

Tommy put a hand on the bassist’s shoulder and squeezed at the muscle gently, “Hey, you okay Nik?”

Nikki breathed in a deep lungful of air and he smiled in what had to be the softest way Tommy had seen so far, “I’m good babe, you just…”

The alpha trailed off for a minute, the look on his face contemplating as Tommy prompted, “I just?”

Nikki shook his head with that smile, fingers coming up to brush Tommy’s hair out of his face, “You just smell really fucking good T.”

“Oh.” Tommy breaths out, heart jolting and beating fast at the admission. Before he could think to reply to that though, an absolutely shitty little hatchback was screeching to a halt in front of Nikki’s complex and a short beta with jet black hair was grumbling as he tried to get an amp out of the trunk.

Tommy and Nikki both snorted out a laugh but Tommy, being Tommy, was already running down the stairs to help the shorter man out, “Whoa, dude. You got it? Here for the audition?”

The older man levels a deadpan look at him that Tommy took to meant, ‘well no shit genius’, but he sticks with a simple, “Yep.”

Tommy helps him get the damn amp out of the trunk and the man looks at him with a scrutinizing glance, “You the singer?”

The omega laughs at that, “Absolutely not. That’s funny though, drummer.”

The beta gives him an odd look, “Pretty scrawny for a drummer.”

Tommy narrows his eyes in response. He feels Nikki moving in behind him but that doesn’t stop the annoyance from filling him. He doesn’t know this beta, he doesn’t know if he’s the type who means ‘It’s unusual for an omega to be a drummer’ when he said what he said but just for good measure he asks, “Do you have a fucking problem with that?”

Nikki is looking at him, Tommy sees him from the corner of his eyes but he doesn’t move his narrowed gaze away from the beta’s who looks satisfied at the challenge, “I meant scrawny, drummer, I didn’t mean omega. And I don’t have a fucking problem with either as long as you can fucking play good fucking music.”

Tommy’s whole demeanor changes at that, bright smile back on his face and he grabs one side of the amp and motions for the beta to do the same so they can carry it up the stairs, “Good, would have hated to give you a no before even seeing you play, old man.”

The beta growls at him at that, “Fucking teenager.”

Tommy just laughs, “I’m Tommy, the lazy fuck behind you carrying wires is Nikki.”

The short man gives the barest hint of a smile, like he doesn’t want to but just can’t help it. “Mick.”

Mick is in from the first riff of his guitar and as they play Tommy sneaks glances at Nikki just to see the nearly manic grin on the bassist’s face. Every so often their eyes will meet, and the passion Tommy finds in their locked gaze overwhelms him so much he has to look back down at his kit so he won’t blush. He’s pretty sure he still does. And he’s pretty sure that Nikki sees.

He thinks about Nikki that night while he’s at home. He’s probably going to have to move out soon. His parents don’t approve of him wanting to skip college to be in a band and as loving as they are, they aren’t going to let him live in their house unless they feel like he’s working towards something worthwhile.

But that’s not important right now. What’s important is that he’s pretty sure he’s in love with his bandmate. Tommy has a bad habit of falling too hard and too fast for people. He thinks maybe it’s a combination of his general enthusiasm for everything and his general love for people that makes him the way he is but this doesn’t feel like his usual falling in, falling out routine.

The thing between him and Nikki is magnetic. Tommy feels like he’s stuck in the bassist’s orbit, completely unable and unwilling to move too far away from him. There is just something inside of him that slots perfectly into place when he’s around Nikki and by the look in the alpha’s eyes when Tommy catches him staring, he’s pretty sure Nikki feels the same.

A few weeks of pining later he’s letting himself into Nikki’s efficiency, it’s about 11am so he knows that the bassist is probably still asleep but he hasn’t let that stop him the previous mornings and it’s not going to stop him today so he opens and shuts the door and takes off his shoes before flinging himself at the alpha who is spread across the mattress on the floor.

Nikki groans loudly and starts swatting at Tommy, because he knows it’s the younger boy, this routine becoming way too familiar but instead of laughing and rolling off of him like usual, Tommy just laughs and straddles his hips.

“Nikki, Nik, listen! I was up all night thinking about this,” Tommy starts, not even phased when Nikki tiredly tries to hit him for waking him up, “Listen Nikki! We’ve been looking for a singer and I thought about it and I think I know a guy. I actually went to high school with him, he’s absolutely perfect-”

Tommy yelps when Nikki tries to roll over and dislodge him from his perch so he can go back to sleep but Tommy is stubborn and he tightens his legs around the older man’s hips and whines out, “Nikki!”

The drummer feels Nikki go stiff as a board underneath him and when he meets his gaze, Tommy feels frozen, absolutely pinned by the intensity in the bassist’s green eyes.

“Nikki…” Tommy practically breaths, kind of scared by how silent and still the man underneath him is and that fear has him rambling pretty quickly, “Shit, I’m sorry Nik, I shouldn’t have woken you up, sorry if I annoyed you, I know you’re always telling me that you would rather I wake you up later in the afternoon and I never listen which must be irritating but I just- mmph!”

Tommy doesn’t even have time to process what is happening when Nikki suddenly surges to sit up, one hand firm on his hip to keep him stable on his lap and the other twisting in his hair to hold him still as the bassist presses their lips together in a sudden kiss.

It lasts seconds but when they part Tommy is panting like it had been hours and there’s a flush on Nikki’s cheeks when he sees the surprise in Tommy’s big brown eyes, “You, uh, you have this habit of licking your bottom lip when you nervous ramble you know? It’s really, really fucking cute.”

It’s Nikki’s turn to squirm a bit as Tommy sits there in his lap in shock and the alpha swallows before he starts talking again, “I know I probably shouldn’t have, you know, just fucking went for it without asking you for your permission or some shit like that first but fuck Tommy, I just feel, I feel so right around you. You’re so fucking beautiful, and passionate and talented and you’re not fucking annoying so don’t say that again and I just-”

It’s Tommy’s turn to interrupt him now, hands burying themselves in Nikki’s hair and pulling him forward to connect their lips again and Tommy moans when he feels Nikki’s arms wrap around his waist to pull him as close as possible, chest to chest as the bassist licks at his lower lip and dips it inside when Tommy opens his mouth. Tommy feels delirious and so fucking high that he whines in protest when Nikki breaks their kiss to breath.

Tommy laughs happily after he catches his breath, wrapping his arms around Nikki’s neck and throwing them down to lay back against the mattress, “What the fuck took you so long?!”

Nikki is laughing then too, rolling them over to hover on top of him and press kisses into every inch of Tommy’s face and neck and the omega giggles at the action but releases a sharp gasp when Nikki suddenly bites down underneath the scent gland just behind his ear.

“Sorry for making you wait babe,” Nikki’s speaks into his ear, lips brushing against the lobe and voice so low and gritty that Tommy feels a wave of heat spreading from his lower body, flush blooming along his cheeks, “Let me make it up to you.”

And he certainly proceeds to do that.

Life becomes a whirlwind for Tommy, they get his old high school friend Vince Neil to join their band and soon they’re Mötley Crüe. They spend their days writing music and preparing to take Sunset Strip by storm and they spend their nights partying and meeting people and raising hell. Tommy gets a job as a waiter at a strip bar just down the street which the rest of the boys love because it means they can drink for free during Tommy’s shifts and he, Nikki, and Vince pull their resources to get a small two bedroom apartment right on the Strip.

Tommy and Nikki are inseparable. They are so caught up in each other most of the time that they often can’t keep their hands to themselves and more than a few times Vince has to yell at them to take it to their bedroom so he doesn’t have to watch them fucking.

Nikki surprises Tommy every day with how thoughtful he can be, taking him on dates to the beach even though he hates it because he knows Tommy loves it, always picking a movie that he thinks Tommy will like even if it’s something Nikki probably wouldn’t otherwise be interested in, murmuring praises against Tommy’s skin in the early morning sun until he sits up to grab the book he keeps by the bed, arms wrapped around Tommy’s waist as the drummer sits in his lap as he writes out lyrics all about Tommy. Nikki will hum out a melody and Tommy will listen intently and fill in the spaces with a beat that he hits out on Nikki’s arms or legs, whatever is closest and the bassist will beam at him and nine times out of ten, tackle him against the bed. Nikki looks at him like he’s the most precious fucking thing in the world and when he’s with Nikki, he feels like he is.

They go into summer with a plan and a full list of songs to take over the world with. Tommy has his alpha, his lover, his absolute best friend by his side. He has his band, his chosen family, and his whole future ahead of him.

Of course, life can never be that fucking easy, can it?

~May 15th, 2019~

It’s a little after 6pm and Tommy has just gotten out of the shower, sipping from a bottle of Rosé as he stands in front of his open closet, music blasting from his speakers. Wine isn’t typically his drink of choice, but he hadn’t restocked his liquor cabinet and a few bottles had been left in his fridge from the last time he had friends over, so wine will have to do for now. If he was going to spend the rest of the night letting people assume that Tom fucking Zutaut was his date, he was at least going to get hammered. May as well start early.

Tom had asked him to dress nice, which Tommy translated in his head as “please dress slutty so my new rock star clients are envious of me for landing you as a date”.

Tommy grabs out his favorite black jeans. They’re torn to hell all up and down the legs and honestly show more of his skin than they cover up but they’re also super comfortable. He had thought about the soft leather pants right next to them but everyone was probably going to be in leather if this was a party to celebrate signing a new rock band and his stylist’s voice was sounding in his ear saying ‘dare to be different Tommy!’

With that catch phrase in mind, he pulls out some fishnet stockings too. He slides them on before pulling his jeans up carefully, mindful of the rips and tears and looks back at the mirror in the corner of his room. He lets a small smirk pulls at his lips as he takes in the band of his fishnets settling at the smallest dip of his waist and remaining visible for about three inches before disappearing below his jeans, making reappearances through the rips and tears along his legs. Yeah, that will do nicely. For the top he picks out a black worn tee. It’s cropped, so it shows the fishnet off and it’s just oversized enough that the neckline is constantly dipping down his left shoulder and it would be almost plain if it weren’t for the beautiful embroidered red roses that stretched along the entire right shoulder. He doesn’t even remember what brand it is but he loves it and it’s simple and chic enough when paired with the lower half of his outfit.

He thinks he’s dressed well enough to turn a few heads so he works on taming his hair into soft waves, briefly toying with the idea of teasing it before deciding that it was too much work for the likes of Zutaut and he prefers it loose and natural anyway. He does just enough make up to even out his complexion, give him those smoky, bedroom eyes that his photographers love so much and darkens his lips with a long lasting burgundy red.

As he finishes his makeup, he finds himself thinking that this is first time in a year that he’s done anything related to music or musicians in general. Tom is the only one even remotely tied to the music industry that he still speaks to and that’s only because of everything the other man has done for him. He ghosted everyone tied to his previous life when he walked out on him a year ago and he avoided the music scene like the plague ever since.

Nikki. Tommy does his best to not think about the green eyed bassist but no matter what Tommy does, the alpha inevitably pops back into his thoughts. It must be a combination of his earlier nostalgia with his drums, the fact that he’s about to go to a party for some up and coming rock stars and the wine, Tommy thinks as he takes a shaky breath. There was no other reason to think about his ex. Nikki was his past. Sure, he still loved the man like he doubts he would love anyone again, still longed for him during his one night stands with piss poor alphas who couldn’t hold a damn candle to the bassist, still hurt every time he wondered what he was doing at that very instant.

But he wouldn’t ever see him again, and he just needed to deal with it and push past it and continue living his damn life. Half alive was better than nothing he supposed.

Tommy downs the last of his wine and touches up his lips one last time. He’s putting on a black choker and some long dangling earrings when he sees his phone go off in the corner of his eye.

He picks it up as he walks out of his bedroom, boots in hand, “Hello?”

“Hey Tommy, I’m outside.” Tom’s voice is nervous and it makes Tommy roll his eyes as he pulls on his black boots. The heels are pretty conservative, just two inches but they’re just tall enough to give a little swing to his hips as he walks.

“I’ll be right down.”

Tommy flips the switch on his stereo system and turns out his lights, he really doesn’t need anything else, so he slips his key into his pocket after he locks his door and spins his phone in his hand like he used to spin his sticks and walks down the hall to the elevator.

Zutaut has a nice car but like everything else even remotely cool that Tom owns, he only has it because he thinks it makes him look cool. Which to Tommy is just so fucking sad. Still, he slides into the passenger seat and laughs when Tom nods at him approvingly.

“You look good Tommy.” The beta says happily as he pulls away from the curb and proceeds with what has to be the slowest drive to the Hollywood Hills that Tommy has ever experienced.

“Thanks, you told me to, but thank you I guess. You look…” Tommy trails off as he takes in Tom’s outfit of choice, “Like you’re going to church.”

Tom frowns instantly and points to the seatbelt that Tommy had neglected when he got into the car. “I like to dress professionally when I’m around my clients.”

Tommy scoffs and flicks at Zutaut’s arm lightly, “It’s a party Tom. Who the fuck wears a cardigan to a rock n’ roll signing party?”

“California is chilly at night! You’ll be begging for this cardigan later on!” Tom protests and Tommy laughs.

“Hos don’t get cold Zutaut. All you had to wear was jeans and a t-shirt and it would have been better than this. At least take off the cardigan and roll up your sleeves. You look like a goddamn missionary.”

“I’m regretting this already. They think I’m a loser Tommy!” Tom whines and even though it’s annoying, Tommy feels a little bad for the guy. So he resolves to do his best as Tom’s fake date for the night to get him noticed a little.

“Well, they won’t think that for long. That’s why you invited me, right?” Tom looks at the omega briefly before looking back quickly at the road, pulling into a long circular driveway and joining the line of cars waiting to be valeted. Tommy can hear the music already, something heavy and loud and it moves through him and makes him grin already.

Tom for his part looks sick and Tommy wants to bash his head in. What a night he’s in for. Okay, he thinks, time to at least set some ground rules.

“Listen Tom. I’m okay with letting people assume what they want to, alright? But if anyone blatantly asks what we are, you will tell them that we are friends. Okay?” Tommy speaks slowly so the other man doesn’t misunderstand through his nerves.

Tom’s face screws up unhappily, “But I thought-”

“I’ll walk in there with you. I’ll let you get me a drink, and I’ll let you put your arm around my waist while you introduce me to these guys that you signed but letting people think what they want to think and letting you blatantly say that you’re fucking me are two totally different things. I’m not playing that game. That’s where I draw the line, okay?” Tommy thinks that he’s being fair. Besides, being friends with a model is almost as good as scoring with one right? Maybe not, but that’s all Tom’s getting so, he should probably make his peace with it now.

Tom nods sulkily as he pulls his car up to the front, “Okay.”

Tommy sighs before putting a smile on his face when his door is opened for him. The house is monstrous, beautiful in that very in your face kind of way that Tommy doesn’t really care for. He’s been here once before, it’s Tom’s boss’ house, but the party that’s going on now is way rowdier than the last one he had attended here and Tommy feels his smile becoming more real. At least he’ll probably have fun tonight. All he has to do is meet Tom’s new clients and then hopefully he can go off and get drunk and act his normal foolish self when they lose interest and move on.

Tommy nearly startles when he feels an arm wrapping around his waist before he realizes that it’s just Tom and going by the look on the man’s face, Tommy is going to need to be the one to lead here. So he walks confidently up the sidewalk, dragging Tom along with the grip the other man has on his waist, and doesn’t even bother knocking on the door, pushing them open and walking inside like he owns the damn place.

“This is ridiculous.” Tom mutters under his breath so only Tommy can hear.

“This is awesome, Tom. Come on, at least try to have a little fun.” Tommy laughs happily, taking in the chaos that’s going on inside. The music is loud and aggressive and the lights are blued out in places and faintly strobing, enough to be special but not enough to be annoying, and twinkling white in others. There’s a sea of people dancing and Tommy spots a pool table in the room to the far right, a swimming pool visible through the glass walls with people fully dressed in it and surrounding it, and plush suede couches along the back wall.

Tommy has spotted at least a handful of musicians that he knows about, a half a dozen models he’s worked with, a couple of photographer’s and designers, and everyone else he has no idea.

“I need to find the guys!” Tom yells out to him, eyes darting around nervously. There’s a table to their left, one end empty while a bunch of guys play cards at the other end and Tommy sighs before hoisting himself up to sit on the edge.

“I’ll stay right here. You go ahead and get me a drink and bring whoever back that you want.” Tommy yells back. He crosses one long leg over the other and leans back just a little, weight resting on one arm that he props against the table a little behind him, taking note as one of the guys playing cards follows the movement with his eyes. Tommy gives him a coy smile and a wink just because he can as Tom nods and walks away.

The guy watching him from his card game looks at him curiously before grinning and getting up to walk over. He looks vaguely familiar to Tommy, with his long blonde hair, cute grin, and tall stature. It’s hard to tell people’s sub-gender’s in an environment like this, too many people in too close a proximity to really make anything out, but the man holds himself like an alpha.

He’s standing in front of Tommy before the omega has time to figure out where he knows the other man from and his grin is absolutely giddy as he looks at him.

“You’re Tommy Lee.”

Tommy blinks in surprise. It’s not like he doesn’t get recognized. He does occasionally, but people more often remember his face, they don’t really know his name.

“Umm, yeah, I am… How do you kno-”

“My lead singer is an absolute Gucci freak and your spread is literally one of his favorites. He has the photos posted up on his bunk wall on our tour bus.” The guy is laughing happily, sharing a conspiratorial look as he confides his friend’s secret and Tommy has to laugh along with him.

The omega shakes his head as he grins, “I really don’t know what to do with that information.”  

“Oh, tease the hell out of Axl when I bring him over to meet you, I hope. Don’t get me wrong, I’d rather have you all to myself, but he would literally, and I mean literally, kill me if he were to find out that I met you and didn’t go get him.” A lightbulb goes off in his head at the name Axl and suddenly Tommy knows exactly who he’s talking to.

The omega smiles at him, “Well, we can’t have that now can we?”

The blond beams again, holding his hand out for Tommy to take and shake, “Duff Mckagen.”

Tommy leans back again when he releases the man’s hand, “I know, I watched your music video on MTV the other day. Guns N’ Roses, right?”

Duff nods, scratching at the back of his head somewhat sheepishly, “Yeah? What did you think?”

Tommy just can’t resist the opportunity to tease, “Eh.”

Duff throws his head back and laughs and Tommy smiles at him when he leans in a little closer, “You don’t pull your punches do you sweetheart?”

Tommy’s grin turns sharp as he lowers his gaze and looks at the bassist through his eyelashes, “You have no idea.”

The blond haired alpha leans his hip against the side of the table, nearly pressed right against Tommy’s side and he brings a hand up to lightly grip at his chin, tilting it to meet his gaze as he gives a little smirk that’s definitely attractive on him, “Maybe I should risk death and forget about introducing you to Axl, don’t need him to whisk your attention away from me.”

“Tommy!”

The omega sighs and rolls his eyes at the questioning look Duff gives him. Tom is making his way back over but Tommy doesn’t see anyone with him so he figures that he’s free to keep flirting with the blond bassist as Tom presses a drink into his hand.

“Did you find them?” Tommy asks politely. Zutaut looks anxious as all hell, so Tommy feels the need to be nice to the man.

“Uh, yeah, they were right behind me? I guess they got side tracked, they’ll be here.” Tom says, eyes flitting over the crowd before finally realizing that he had company.

“Duff? Hey man.” Tom says, voice at a higher pitch than usual, and Tommy raises an eyebrow at the producer. God, no wonder his clients didn’t respect him. The man couldn’t even talk to a musician without losing his shit.

“Hey Zutaut. Are you here with…” Duff asks but trails off like the question is so ridiculous he can’t even finish it.

Tom is about to answer but Tommy is cutting him off with a glare, “Yes and no. He’s a friend that I’m doing a favor for.”

Tom looks a bit put out but Duff smiles again, arm draping around Tommy’s shoulders, “Good, I was about to be really bummed out.”

“Look out Zutaut! Duffie’s gonna steal your model if you aren’t careful!” An obnoxious voice calls out boisterously followed nearly immediately by a loud and startlingly familiar, “HOLY FUCK.”

Tommy freezes. His whole body feels like a block of lead and he all of a sudden can’t breathe because there’s no fucking way.  

There’s no fucking way that after a year, Vince Neil is at the same party as him. But then a softer and achingly recognizable, “Shit,” has him wanting to cry because that was definitely Mick’s voice. He feels cold all over and despite not wanting to look up, he just has to because he knows, if Vince and Mick are there together, someone else is probably there too.  

So he shifts his gaze to look directly in front of him and sure enough, he’s there. Vince is staring at him with the most shocked expression on his face, Mick is looking at him with something that looks apologetic but he’s barely aware of any of that because Nikki is standing behind them both with the most intensely indiscernible expression on his face, eyes locked onto Tommy’s face.

He looks so good. So damn good in black jeans that are cut up at the knees and a tank top that shows off his muscled arms that are littered with more tattoos than he remembers, hair still jet black but pushed off of his forehead so his gorgeous face is visible and Tommy wants to whine and reach out for him, the longing he feels in his heart wanting a physical expression.

“Hi Nikki.” Tommy manages to force out even though the words had felt stuck in his throat before dragging his eyes away from the dark haired bassist, “Vince, Mick.”

Tommy narrows his eyes at the fourth person, “I don’t know you.”

“Sammy doll face, drummer.” The man reaches a hand out to shake but Tommy ignores it. And yeah, that may be petty but considering the situation, the omega feels like his actions are pretty justified.

Instead he tips his head back and downs the full glass of whiskey that Tom had brought him while the producer asks, “Tommy, you know the guys?”

“Apparently.” Tommy glares at the man. Why the hell didn’t he say earlier that the band he had signed was Mötley Crüe? Why the fuck hadn’t Tommy asked who this fucking party was for.

“Tommy was actually our original drummer.” Mick sighs, probably trying to ease the awkward atmosphere that’s settled around the group.

Sammy laughs, “No shit?! What happened? Couldn’t take the heat doll face?”

Tommy growls and is about lay into the asshole when Nikki all of a sudden finds his voice, “No, I fucked it all up. It was my fault he left.”

The omega feels a sharp spike of pain shoot through him and it’s enough to make his eyes water and he tries to take a breath without being too obvious about the fact that he suddenly can’t seem to get enough air.

He unexpectedly feels Duff’s arm moves from his shoulder to around his waist, hand squeezing his hip gently and Tommy can see the way Nikki’s jaw clenches and his eyes narrow, “Hey, you alright?”

Tommy shakes his head, “I’m not drunk enough for this shit, come get me another drink.”

And with that Tommy is dragging Duff with him and away from the people, the person, who was supposed to stay in his past.

Tommy feels panic bubbling up in his chest as he walks away from the alpha, and he can’t help but think about the last time he did this, a little less than a year ago.

~May 22nd, 2018~

Tommy didn’t necessarily like his job. It was alright, most of the time, and the owner never minded if he sent free drinks to his boys whenever they would come in to wait until the end of his shift so they could go out.

But the patrons were fucking annoying. They constantly groped or made comments to him after they had too much to drink, and while Tommy could usually handle this with a smile that typically got him extra tips, sometimes it went a little too far and it just flat out made him uncomfortable.

The most annoying part of his job though, is the goddamn strippers who don’t seem to understand- even though Tommy has very clearly and explicitly spelled it out for them- that Nikki is fucking off limits. Several girls would often caress the bassist’s shoulders as they walked by or lean down to peck him on the cheek but that was usually just to tease Tommy and while it annoyed the hell out of him, it was all in good fun and at the end of the day he knew that they respected him enough to never actually cross the line.

All of them, except Mindy.

Fucking Mindy, with her stupid fucking ‘only appropriate for a stripper’ name, was constantly flying past the goddamn line. Tommy hated the nights that he worked with her because that meant that she would usually plant herself right in Nikki’s lap for a free dance. Tommy confronted her about it a couple of times and she always said the same damn thing.

“You’re not mated Tommy. Until you are, Nikki is fair game so fuck off.” Fucking blonde haired bimbo.

Mindy and her shitty behavior made him seethe, but what really troubled him about the whole thing was how Nikki would just sit there and let it happen. Tommy had told him before that it bothered him, but the handful of times they talked about it Nikki would just dismiss his concerns with a ‘she’s just doing her job babe, doesn’t mean anything’ or a ‘you know her type doesn’t do anything for me babe, I prefer tall, leggy brunettes’ before he would proceed to make Tommy forget whatever they had just been talking about.

Despite Nikki’s nonchalance at the whole situation, it continues to upset Tommy every time it happens. Besides just the instinctual surge of possession that it stirs up in him when he sees the skank grinding on his alpha, there’s also the hurt that Nikki doesn’t seem to care that it bothers him. He could get maybe that Nikki doesn’t understand that seeing him under another omega, in a place of business or not, makes him feel terribly insecure which is so far from the norm for Tommy it actually turns his stomach when it happens. But to Tommy, it should have just taken him telling Nikki that it upset him for the alpha to put a stop to the activity.

But he doesn’t, and tonight it’s worse than usual because Mindy stays in Nikki’s lap even after Tommy clocks out. This is unusual because she typically times it to steer clear of Tommy after the omega had growled at her when they bumped into each other backstage last month but tonight when he walks out of the back, she’s still there and Nikki is calmly taking a sip from a bottle of Jack as he talks to Vince who has a girl in his own lap.

Tommy feels an unbridled rage fill him when he sees it and he has half a mind to stomp over there, push the bitch off of Nikki’s lap and maybe even punch that handsome face that belonged to his boyfriend, but he figures physical violence would probably get him fired and wouldn’t exactly be healthy for his relationship

So he decides to get drunk instead and wait for Mindy to leave so he can go over there, drag Nikki home and scream at him until Nikki just gets it because this is ending, tonight.

He huffs angrily when he harshly sits himself down on a stool at the bar and glowers, even when the bartender gives him a sympathetic smile and a drink without him having to ask.

“Mindy at it again?” She asks.

Tommy looks at her with a storm brewing behind his eyes, “Do you have to ask?”

“I don’t get why he doesn’t just knock her on her ass. He can do that if she’s giving him a dance he’s not paying for.”

“That’s what I fucking said.” Tommy grumbles before knocking back his drink. He sighs as he spins the empty glass and is about to motion for another one when the red haired beta behind the counter is passing another drink into his hands.

He gives her a grateful look but she shakes her head at him, “That one’s not from me honey.”

She points a little ways down the bar and a man that Tommy recognizes from his rotation is waving at him with a little half smile. He’s attractive, objectively. He’s a little shorter than Tommy which isn’t surprising, most people are, but he’s built well and he must be some sort of Hispanic because his skin is tanned cinnamon and his short hair is thick and a deep dark brown just like his eyes. Tommy is a little surprised and he’s waving back as he takes a sip from the drink. Apparently the guy takes that as an invitation because he’s walking over immediately.

He’s sliding to stand against the bar right next to where Tommy is sitting and the drummer’s eyes widen at how close the other man is so suddenly.

“So, I’m guessing since you’re drinking that means that your off?” The guy has a nice smile, Tommy will give him that. And he smells pretty good, obviously an alpha and like strong coffee. But this is really not anything that Tommy is interested in.

“What an intelligent observation. Give the guy a prize.” Tommy rolls his eyes. Yeah, that was a little bitchy but he’s mad, and upset, so sue him.

The guy’s smile stays firmly stretched across his face though, brown eyes lit up in amusement, “Ouch.”

Tommy snorts a laugh at the guy’s determination not to be deterred by his obviously pissy mood, “Sorry, you just really caught me at a bad time. I’m taken anyway.”

The omega looks back to check on Nikki and practically growls in frustration when he see Mindy still seated on his alpha’s lap. When the fuck does she get off work anyway?

The alpha at his side leans around him to follow his gaze and raises an eyebrow when Tommy meets his eyes again, “Is that who you’re taken by?”

Tommy bristles at the judgment he hears in the man’s voice and finishes his drink quickly, not minding in the least when the alpha motions for another round from the bartender.

“Didn’t mean to offend you. It’s just, how much of a moron is he if he has someone like you waiting for him and he’s wasting his time with that dime a dozen slut?” The guy snorts and presses the glass of another drink into Tommy’s hands.

And well, wasn’t that just the most dangerously right thing for him to have said.

Tommy watches as the guy smiles again, obviously amused that Tommy is so shocked by what he just said, “I’m Gabe.”

“Tommy.” The drummer answers almost unthinking, “And he may be a moron but I’m, unfortunately at the moment, in love with him so if you could not insult him, I’d appreciate it.”

Gabe shakes his head incredulously, “You’re really something else. Really irritates me that you’re not available. Well Tommy, I have a proposition for you if you’re interested.”

“This ought to be good. Go ahead.” Tommy smiles in amusement. He wasn’t doing anything else at the moment. Just waiting for a slut to get off of his boyfriend. No big deal. He had time to waste.

The smile across Gabe’s face morphs into a smirk and he takes a step further into Tommy’s space so that he’s very nearly knocking knees with him, “I’m just going to throw it out there that I am totally okay with you using me to give your guy over there a taste of his own medicine. Like, completely okay with it, down right on board to flirt with you for a while until he learns his lesson.”

Tommy’s laughing even though he doesn’t want to. From the corner of his eye he sees Mindy finally get off of Nikki’s lap and even though Nikki looks completely unbothered by her absence, head turning this way and that, obviously looking for Tommy, the omega is still incredibly angry and upset and maybe a little tipsy. Liquor doesn’t typically hit him this hard but three drinks so fast on an empty stomach while he’s tired from a shift obviously have had more of an effect than usual.

And Gabe is nice and funny, and Tommy really wants to just make Nikki understand how he’s been feeling. His head is screaming ‘bad idea, bad idea, bad idea’ but the pain in his heart just says ‘fuck off, we’re doing this’ and he’s spreading his legs just enough for the alpha to push just a little bit closer. It’s nothing explicit really, the man is just standing in the space between his knees, nowhere nears his thighs or his hips, but the suggestion is there and Tommy looks up at the other man, “And what lesson would that be?”

Gabe is still smiling but his eyes are serious when he lifts a hand to sweep his fingers through the curls that frame Tommy’s face, “That you’re a fucking knock out, and if he isn’t careful, someone will definitely sweep in to take you away.”

Tommy laughs softly, no fucking way was anyone taking him away from Nikki, but he’s flattered all the same, “You really are pretty fucking smooth, if I wasn’t-”

“Tommy.”

The sound of Nikki’s voice, pitched low and warning, has Tommy jerking away from Gabe so fast he nearly gets whiplash. He also teeters precariously on the stool at the movement and he feels Gabe place his hands on his waist to steady him so he doesn’t fall but the deep, loud growl that Nikki lets out has Gabe’s hands flying away in a flash.

Tommy faces Nikki fully then and the alpha looks like a force of nature standing there, body tense and eyes dark, jaw and fists clenched, looking for all intents and purposes that he’s seconds away from lunging at the alpha that’s standing so close to Tommy.

“We’re going home now Tommy.���

Nikki’s tone leaves no room for argument but Tommy still rolls his eyes and out of spite, because how dare Nikki sit there for like an hour with a stripper in his lap and then get this angry over a few minutes of harmless flirting, he turns back to Gabe as he stands up and says, “Thanks for the drinks, and the company.”

Tommy can practically hear Nikki’s teeth grinding when Gabe beams at him, “Anytime sweetheart.”

Nikki is gripping his hand then and pulling them rapidly toward the door but Gabe catches up with them, apparently unable to resist fucking with Nikki’s head one more time, and presses a napkin into Tommy’s hand, “Just in case you ever find yourself unattached.”

They’re out the door in a flash after that and Tommy throws the napkin with what he expects is Gabe’s phone number scribbled on it away. He knows Nikki sees him do it but it does little to calm the older man down as he pulls Tommy quickly down the street, dropping his hand when they approach their apartment and taking the stairs two at a time, leaving the door open for Tommy to shut.

As soon as the lock clicks into place, Nikki is speaking, and his tone is so raw and angry that Tommy is actually startled.

“What the fuck was that Tommy?” Nikki’s eyes are stone cold as he looks at him from across the living room.

Tommy is quiet for a minute because this is a little more intense than he had thought it would be. He figured Nikki would be pissed and they would scream at each other before falling together into angry passionate sex to relieve the frustration and then kiss and whisper apologies into each other’s skin afterwards. That was what was typical for them, both running a little too hot and energy just too high between them to argue quietly or passive aggressively.

Though, Tommy thinks a little guiltily, flirting with Gabe was some pretty passive aggressive shit on his part but no! Fuck this, this whole thing started because of Nikki’s shitty behavior and lack of regard for his feelings so he doesn’t get to stand there on the offensive and make Tommy feel bad. Fuck that.

“Oh fuck off Nikki, you’re not seriously going to stand there and question me over a little fucking flirting are you?” Tommy crosses his arms over his chest and glares at the alpha, not backing down and rearing to tear into him over this finally.

“A little fucking flirting? The guy was between your fucking legs and looked to be about one fucking drink from getting you into bed with him.” Nikki snarks at him cruelly.

Tommy narrows his eyes further and snarls back, “I would never have done that Nikki, thanks for the fucking vote of confidence though. It’s absolutely fucking mind blowing that you can stand there and call me a whore for letting another man barely touch me when you literally just spent an hour my with coworker’s ass grinding on your dick.”

“Oh for fuck’s sake, is this coming up fucking again?! She’s a fucking stripper Tommy, that’s what she fucking does for a living.” Nikki has the audacity to look annoyed now and Tommy growls at the alpha for still being so stupid.

“No, this is ending fucking tonight because I am so sick of you just not fucking comprehending this. She’s not fucking accepting payment from you for those fucking dances Nikki. That means she’s doing it because she fucking wants you and you fucking entertain her, while I’m literally feet away working, you selfish, cold fucking dick! What fucking part of this confuses you? It would have been no different if I had pushed that fucking guy into a seat and rode him in the middle of the fucking room. And you do this every fucking week! Fuck! Maybe I should have kept his fucking number, as least he had the damn sense to see that I was more worth his time than a fucking stripper!” Tommy fumes, and yeah, that was a little harder than he typically goes but he needs to get this through Nikki’s skull right fucking now.

Nikki’s pale green eyes are ice right now, hardening the more Tommy lays into him, but Tommy can see the wild panic that shoots through them when he mentions keeping Gabe’s number. Tommy knows that this isn’t good, he knows that Nikki has abandonment issues from how he grew up and fear makes Nikki do irrational, terrible things and he immediately wants to de-escalate the situation but then Nikki is speaking again and his tone is nothing short of disgusted when he says, “Are you really that fucking insecure?”

It’s like a sharp slap to the face and Tommy feels his control of the situation slipping through his fingers, knows that Nikki has none to speak of either and this is spiraling much further than it needed to.

He tries to soften his approach and weakly says, “Nikki…”

But it’s too late for that now, fear and pain and panic have a hold on Nikki now and the older man is backing away from him then and shaking his head, not even screaming but voice still cutting into Tommy’s heart when he continues his assault, “I should have fucking knew that you were too immature to handle this Tommy. What kind of a juvenile fucking slut tries to fuck with another guy just to make their boyfriend jealous over a few fucking lap dances?”

Tommy bites his lip to try to stifle the whimper the wants to come out because Nikki doesn’t usually speak to him like this. They scream and curse and they’ll insult each other but it’s always general, this, this is personal and he feels like he’s going to cry, eyes watering but doing his best to clear his expression and stop this before it goes too far to fix, “Nikki, baby, please…”

Nikki shakes his head, “Who fucking fucks up their relationship because of some stupid insecurity? A fucking kid does that Tommy, it’s fucking pathetic.”

Tommy takes in a shuddering breath, “Nikki stop, just stop!”

“This is the fucking life Tommy. This is being a goddamn rock star. This is what we fucking wanted. If you can’t handle a few fucking strippers without thinking that I want them more than I want you then we should just fucking end this now before you bring us all down with your goddamn pathetic insecurities. I don’t want anything to do with someone like that.”

Tommy feels a shattering pain in his chest and distantly hears a small broken whimper that he’s startled to realize has come from him. He can feel the warmth and wetness of his tears finally falling down his cheeks and Nikki is looking at him with what looks like immediate regret mixed up with the anger and the fear but Tommy can’t analyze that look, he can’t stay there for one more fucking minute and he’s running out of the apartment as fast as his long legs can take him, heart breaking all the more when he realizes that Nikki isn’t coming after him.

He ends up on a friend’s couch that night, and after several nights with no word from Nikki, he supposes that the set-up is permanent. He feels broken, unable to get himself to do the simplest of things, and as the days go by it doesn’t get any easier. He spends his nights curled up on the couch in physical pain from missing the older man so damn much. Everything in him wants to call Nikki. If he wants to fix this, he needs to be the one to do it because he knows that Nikki is probably buried too deep in a hole of self-loathing to even think that this is repairable. But every time he goes to press the alpha’s number into his phone he hears those terrible things he had said to him and he physically recoils from the slim possibility that Nikki actually meant them.

His friends go get his stuff from the apartment. Vince and Mick try calling him and texting but he can’t read them after the first few glances revealed Nikki’s name so he blocks all of their numbers, the last of Tommy Lee, drummer of Mötley Crüe, dying as he presses the delete button on Nikki’s contact information.

~May 15th, 2019~

Tommy all but collapses again the counter top when they reach the kitchen and Duff has the common sense to move them a little further into a more secluded corner, away from most of the people who are milling in and out of the room.

The omega is grateful to him because he feels like he’s about to have a panic attack, and wow, he’s never had one of those before. But Duff presses into his space, cupping his face to push his hair back so that Tommy focuses on his face.

“Hey, hey, Tommy, look at me okay? Focus on me, I need you to try to breathe a little more deeply okay? Just slow down a little bit okay?”

Tommy feels his breathing even out a little bit, still a little shaky but not nearly as gasping as he had been. He pulls back from the other man and leans against the glass door that leads to the balcony, the cold seeping through his shirt at his shoulder blades and grounding him.

Duff gives him a minute to calm down, but when Tommy is lucid enough to clearly meet his eyes, he’s raising an eyebrow, “So….”

Tommy groans and covers his eyes with his hands before resolutely dragging them through his hair.

“I’m guessing you and Sixx have history then.” Duff says gently, settling against the door next to Tommy.

Tommy closes his eyes and feels the words sink into his brain. History. Images of Nikki grabbing him around the waist, the both of them giggling loudly as they dance crazy and wild in the living room, of Nikki wrapping his arms around his waist from behind randomly and pressing his lips to his shoulder softly to inhale his scent, flash before his eyes and he walks to the table where the liquor is. He grabs the first thing he sees, a bottle of vodka in an ice bucket and unscrews it to take a gulp as he stands there.

Duff nods, “Yeah, definitely history. Shit, I knew Sixx was fucked up over someone, never imagined it would be over Tommy fucking Lee.”

Tommy whips his head around to stare at the blond haired alpha, “What do you mean?”

“Dude, Nikki has been a damn mess ever since I met him. We didn’t know what his deal was, you know? Because he doesn’t do the typical rock star shit, like yeah, he drinks like no one I have ever seen and he’ll take a bump every now and again and he smokes weed whenever you offer but the whole one night stand, fucking groupies, going to strip clubs, all that other shit, he wants nothing to do with. We couldn’t believe it because Nikki Sixx is one crazy mother fucker, we thought for sure that he would have a constant rotation of omega’s and beta’s but he was never with anyone. So we asked Sammy because he’s the only one who will talk about it and he said that Sixx fucked up his shot with his true mate and he hasn’t been interested in anyone since. Guessing that was you.”

Tommy bites his lip, taking in the information and feeling his heart hurt at the thought of his alpha in pain over him. “We were always, we were always so intense you know?”

Duff doesn’t say anything, just nods and listens like he knows that Tommy needs to just talk it out.

“It was immediate, like a gasoline fire, coming to life so fucking fast but it just never, it never burned out. I think we almost half expected it to, that’s why we took a couple weeks to acknowledge it but it just never went away. Not after we confessed, not after we got together, not even after months of being a couple. It was incredible because it meant that everything was so passionate, everything was electric and so fulfilling but it was a double edged sword because when we fought, Christ, we fought hard. That’s what did it, a stupid fucking fight we should never have gotten into. He said some things, I said some terrible shit back, and then he said some really terrible shit and it just spiraled out of control until we broke and neither of us could bring ourselves out of our heart break to try to repair it.”

Duff watches Tommy as he takes another pull from the vodka bottle, his eyes are closed, brown waves still falling softly around his face and every inch of him screams longing. Sixx is a fucking lucky guy.

“You still love him.”

Tommy lowers the vodka bottle and opens his eyes and the look he gives Duff, the sad little smile, is heartbreaking, “Of course I still love him. He’s my true mate. I knew it from that very first night we met in that dingy little fucking diner.”

Duff is nodding suddenly, and it confuses Tommy because the blond alpha looks resolute as he says, “Why don’t we get some air? You go wait out there on the balcony and I’ll be right back, I’m just going tell Zutaut that you’re okay and you’re calming down so he doesn’t come bothering you.”

Tommy finds himself nodding along gently, some air would be nice and there weren’t any people out there on the balcony. So he slides the glass door open as Duff walks out of the kitchen and closes it behind him.

Zutaut had been right, California does get chilly at night but Tommy has lived here all his life and he embraces it happily. It feels nice against his stress heated skin and he walks over to lean his elbows on the wide stone railing and look out over the garden.

He’s taking another long sip from his vodka bottle when he hears the door behind him slide open and shut again and he turns around as he says, “Well that didn’t take too long.”

But it isn’t Duff standing there just a few feet away from him. Of course it isn’t. Because life isn’t fair like that and it doesn’t care what Tommy thinks he wants, it only cares about what he needs.

Which is why Nikki stands there like one of Tommy’s damn dreams. Tommy is quiet as he drinks in the sight of the alpha in front of him, eyes tracking over the familiarities of his features and noting the changes, how his body seems broader, muscles thicker than just a year ago but his face and his eyes are looking at Tommy like they always used to, with that damn expression that made Tommy feel like the most important thing in the whole damn world to Nikki.

It makes him angry.

“What do you want Sixx, I’m trying to drink myself into a stupor here.” Tommy says as he turns his back to the man so he wouldn’t have to see his eyes anymore.

“Tommy.”

The omega fucking flinches at the sound of his name like that. Nikki didn’t speak it so much as breathed it reverently, and he needed to shut that shit down right now.

“Don’t say my name like that.” Tommy snaps at him, whirling back around to face his past head on. Nikki is looking at with a determined expression that literally scares the hell out of Tommy, the omega’s eyes widening when Nikki starts walking towards him.

“Stay the fuck away from me Sixx.” Tommy warns him, but his voice is nowhere near as strong as he wants it to be, cracking underneath the weight of his emotions as Nikki gets closer to him.

Nikki just shakes his head and simply says, “No baby.”  

There are tears in Tommy’s eyes again at the pet name and he’s weakly demanding, “Don’t fucking call me that.”

But Nikki is right on top of him then and his arms are wrapping around Tommy like they belong there, one going around his waist to pull him close and the other coming up to bury his fingers in Tommy’s hair and cradle the back of his head as the omega melts into him with a sob, face buried in Nikki’s neck.

Nikki is pressing gentle kisses into his hair but he’s breathing harshly and Tommy can feel tears dropping to land on his shoulder but he’s sobbing too, shoulders shaking with his hands against Nikki’s chest, the alpha’s heart beating so fucking fast as he talks, “I know, fucking hell, baby, I know, should have done this that night, I was so stupid, Jesus Christ Tommy, baby.”

Tommy cries soften at that, just enough for him to stammer out, “What the fuck happened? What the hell happened to us?”

Nikki is pulling back just enough to look into Tommy’s face and his cheeks are wet with tears when he shakes his head again, “It was me baby. It was all fucking me. I got, I was so caught up in portraying this image of what I thought I should be and I let it get way too fucking out of hand. Fuck Tommy, I was so fucking disrespectful towards you, I should never have even let that slut come near me, let alone… fuck and even then I should have stopped it the minute you said it upset you.”

Tommy looks away to the side, his own guilt eating him up until he says, “I shouldn’t have flirted with that guy in the bar that night. It was fucking petty and I knew it was a bad idea, I was just so mad and upset and I-”

Nikki cups the side of Tommy’s face gently with one hand to turn it back to meet his gaze, calloused thumb swiping over his cheekbone to brush the tears away as they continue to fall, “You had every fucking right to do whatever you could to try to get me to see how much I was hurting you Tommy. When I saw you with him, fuck I had already been drinking and that just sent me into a rage and when I got closer and heard him fucking say that shit about taking you away from me, I just lost control for the rest of the night. I was so scared Tommy, I was so fucking scared of that happening, you have no damn idea because I knew, I knew I wasn’t good enough for you. I let that fear and my own damn fucking ego influence me and I didn’t mean a goddamn thing I said to you that night baby. If nothing else, I need you to know that. I didn’t mean a single word.”

Tommy lets the words fall over him and feels his heart break all over again at how they had let something like this ruin them, keeping his eyes locked with Nikki’s when he asks something that has kept him awake for many nights over the past year, “Why didn’t you come after me? Why didn’t you call? I was waiting for you Nikki. Do you know how much I fucking tortured myself with wanting to call but refusing to because I thought that maybe you didn’t want me around anymore? Part of me knew you still loved me, part of me knew that it was just a stupid fucking fight that got out of hand but as soon as that part of me would convince me to call, I would think about what you said and I couldn’t stand it. I couldn’t stand the thought, the possibility that maybe that was really how you felt.”

Nikki makes a pained sound in the back of his throat, more tears tracking softly down his face as he presses his forehead into Tommy’s and the omega can’t help how his hands curl over the sides of his neck, Nikki’s pain a reflection of his own.

“I’m sorry Tommy. I’m so absolutely and completely fucking sorry. I was the moment I finished talking but the look on your face...”

Nikki suddenly releases the grip he has on Tommy and the omega feels the loss of contact in the form of a physical pain as the other man take a few steps away and looks out over the railing, “I didn’t fucking deserve you Tommy. I don’t deserve you. The expression on your face that night before you ran out the door, I did that. That was my fault, I made you feel like that and that fucking haunted me. I couldn’t call you, I was afraid that if I did, if you came back, I would do something to put that expression back on your face again eventually. You were better off without me.”

Tommy bites his lip softly. There were a million ways that he could respond to that and initially he wants to yell at Nikki that he’s a fucking idiot because not only was that completely untrue, that also wasn’t Nikki’s choice to make. But he knows Nikki, he knows him so well and being back in his arms, even as stressful and brief as it had been, has brought back in stark relief just how desperately Tommy had missed him.

“You never got it Sixx. You could never quite understand that you’re not the bad guy.”

Nikki shifts his gaze back to Tommy quickly, eyes wide and mouth open like he wants to protest but Tommy doesn’t give him the opportunity, “You’ve never been the bad guy Nikki. No matter what you think about yourself, it’s just not the truth. You try to be sometimes, but you can’t quite manage to be what you seem to think you are. Better off without you? I was fucking miserable every damn day. You hurt me that night Nik, but I hurt you too. You don’t carry the responsibility for where we are now alone.”

The alpha shakes his head, about to respond when the doors to the balcony are suddenly thrown open, a drunken couple practically falling through the doors before crowding themselves against the railing to make out without even a glance to see who was around them.

Tommy has to let out a breathy laugh as he wipes at the tear tracks on his cheeks. He remembers when he and Nikki used to be like that, their passion consuming any sense of shame or modesty. Nikki must be thinking the same thing because he’s looking at Tommy with a wistful little smile.

“Not exactly the best setting to have this conversation I guess.” Nikki sighs gently, moving a little closer to Tommy now to keep their words private.

Tommy shakes his head, wrapping his arms around himself, unsure of what to say or do now that the emotionally charged moment has been broken.

Nikki reaches a hand up to sweep through his hair, pushing it back off his face before he grimaces, obviously at war with what he’s about to say but forcing the words out anyway, “Do you want to go back to the party? It looked like you were having fun before, with… with Duff.”

Tommy can see how the statement hurts him to say, can see how hard Nikki is trying to respect that Tommy isn’t his anymore and not get possessive but Tommy doesn’t want to go back to the party. He doesn’t want to go back to flirting with Duff and pretending like Nikki is just another person in the room, like they weren’t still desperate for each other.

Tommy didn’t know a lot right now, he was confused and overwhelmed but if there was one thing he knew with certainty it was that he had never stopped loving Nikki. Even just standing here next to the alpha after everything that had happened over the last year has Tommy feeling like something in him is finally settling back into place, a warmth reawakening that piece of him that had been dormant without his bassist.

If they were going to fix this, if they had a second chance, it wasn’t going to happen with them parting ways here and acting like nothing had happened for the rest of the night.

So Tommy shakes his head, “I don’t want to go back to the party Nikki…”

The bassist lets out a long exhale, relief clear on his face before hesitating. It’s new to Tommy, to see Nikki acting so cautious, so careful and unsure.

“I could drive you home? We could talk a little more in the car, if you want?”

“It’s your party Nikki. Fuck, you guys got signed! You should stay and enjoy it.” Tommy is earnest when he says it, despite wanting nothing more than to continue talking. He doesn’t know what’s going to come of this, if it’s closure that he’s after or maybe something more, the idea of a second chance settling dangerously in his mind and in his heart the more Nikki looks at him. But just because he isn’t exactly in a party mood anymore doesn’t mean that Nikki shouldn’t stay and celebrate.

But Nikki’s lips pull into that smile that always leaves Tommy a little breathless, the alpha reaching towards him to sweep some of the curls around Tommy’s face back behind his ear, “Like I give a fuck about anything else in the world when I have the chance to stay with you just a little bit longer.”

“Nikki…” Tommy whispers his name so softly, like he couldn’t help himself, it makes Nikki shudder to hear it from the omega’s lips.

“Let me drive you home Tommy, please?” Nikki is almost begging at this point and he looks completely unbothered by this fact. So okay with pleading for just a few more minutes of his time that Tommy is nodding without even thinking about it.

“Yeah, okay. Okay Nik.”

The dark haired bassist nods in acceptance, hand coming down to rest against the small of his back and lead him through the doors. Tommy sets the bottle of vodka he had swiped back on the counter top as they move through the kitchen, not needing it as much as he had when he walked away from Nikki earlier that night.

Nikki’s hand is warm against his lower back and it lights him up in a way he hasn’t felt in the past year. Such simple contact, such a simple touch but even so, it’s eliciting more passion from him than the entire experience of the four one night stands he has had over the past year. It’s deliciously distracting, so much so that Tommy barely notices his surroundings as they move through the house, not even acknowledging anyone who calls out to him and Nikki is much the same, moving at a steady pace with single minded determination.

The valet brings Nikki’s car so fast that they barely get the opportunity to even look at each other, eyes meeting shyly and cautiously. Tommy grins when the car pulls up. He knows nearly nothing about cars, but he recognizes the sleek black vehicle as one that Nikki used to go on and on about when they were together.

Nikki notices his eyes light up in recognition and laughs softly, “My signing bonus was well spent, yeah?”

Tommy laughs along with him, suddenly so happy for the other man. He knows that Nikki’s upbringing was tumultuous, between his neglectful mother and living poor with his grandparents. Being able to buy something that he had dreamed about for years, owning something that, was absolutely incredible.

“That’s a fucking understatement.” Tommy teases as Nikki insists on opening his door instead of the valet attendant.

Nikki slides into the driver’s seat and as soon as he starts the car, the engine roaring to life, heat shoots through Tommy so abruptly he nearly gasps. Nikki just looks so good like this, just as fucking gorgeous as he always was and the whole scenario is suddenly crashing into Tommy’s head like a wave. If they hadn’t been so stupid that night, if either of them had just been brave enough to reach out sooner, Tommy would have seen this on the regular. He’d have probably been there when Nikki went to purchase the damn car in the first place.

If the past year hadn’t happened, Tommy would be able to do something about the lust rushing through him at the sight of Nikki right now. Tommy blushes when he realizes that he probably wouldn’t have hesitated to do exactly what he wanted, how he would have undone his seatbelt so he could lean over far enough to bury his face in Nikki’s lap, how he would have pressed kisses to Nikki’s length through the material of his jeans until Nikki would growl at him like he used to when he would tease. How he would have continued to go much further than that.

Nikki is inhaling sharply suddenly and the sound has Tommy blinking away the daze that he had been in just in time to hear what Nikki says, “Tommy, baby, whatever you’re thinking about, please stop.”

Tommy’s blush deepens when he realizes that sometime during his heated daze he had gotten wet. Jesus Christ, has anyone ever been able to wind him up like that just by sitting in the damn driver’s seat of a fucking car?

“Sorry…” Tommy says quietly in embarrassment and Nikki turns to him sharply, eyes dark and serious.

“Don’t ever be sorry for that Tommy. Fuck, I’m so deliriously happy that you even still… fuck, that you even want me like that. I just, you smell so fucking good babe and it’s making it really difficult to control myself and I don’t think it’s going to help us talk about everything we need to talk about if I jump you right here in my car.”

Tommy shivers, a small part of him wanting to encourage Nikki to do just that, but he was right. They had a lot to work out before coming close to that point.

So he takes a deep breath, trying to cool down a little bit and decides to tease the older man to break the tension, “You’re right Nikki, it’s just, it’s a really fucking nice car.”

The alpha laughs at that, the sound just as boisterous as Tommy remembered and it has him laughing too. Nikki quiets down to a chuckle and brings up the navigation screen.

“What’s your address babe?” Nikki asks and Tommy leans forward to put the address in, looking at the estimated time of 25 minutes and then Nikki is grinning.

“Want to see how much we can beat that time by?” Nikki challenges, voice mischievous as the engine revs and Tommy feels a tingle of excitement creep into his chest.

“Trying to impress me Nik?” Tommy asks, brown eyes bright as he looks into Nikki’s pale green ones.

Nikki grins, “Fucking always babe.”

Tommy doesn’t even have time to respond after that because he’s letting out a small surprised yelp as Nikki floors it and takes the fuck off. He hears the alpha chuckling again and he reaches out to slap his arm for scaring him but he’s laughing anyway too.

It’s so easy. So ridiculously easy falling back into the fun, playful flirting. This was how it was supposed to be, the two of them laughing as Nikki sped down the streets of Los Angeles with Tommy encouraging him to go faster, music blasting out of open windows and by the time they pull into an open space on the street outside of Tommy’s apartment, a full ten minutes faster than their navigation had said, both of their cheeks hurt from smiling.

Tommy knows his hair is an absolute wreck from the wind but Nikki’s eyes are moving over him after they park and sit there for a minute, and Tommy feels more stunning with the bassist staring at him with that look in his eyes than he does glammed out in front of the camera for work.

“I always loved when you looked at me like that.”

The words are escaping his lips before Tommy has a chance to pull them back but Nikki smiles at him softly, “Like what?”

Tommy looks down briefly, biting his lip as he thinks about it before deciding to just say it, “Like you think I’m the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen.”

Nikki’s smile grows, his eyes still warm and intense as he stares at him, “I always look at you like that.”

Tommy nods and exhales a shaky breath, “I know.”

Nikki reaches out slowly, giving Tommy time to stop him if he wants to as he cups his cheek in his hand, thumb rubbing softly over his cheekbones, “We didn’t really talk like we were supposed to.”

Tommy leans into the caress, eyes closing as he thinks over what he wants to do. He knows most people in his position would do the logical thing, the safe thing. They would tell Nikki that they can meet up tomorrow or whenever they both had free time. They would take this slow, take the time to heal together before moving on to maybe try a relationship again.

Tommy opens his eyes, knowing exactly what he wants to say.

“You could come up? To talk now, if you want.” Tommy has never been most people.

Nikki is looking at him searchingly, silent for a minute as he takes his hand away before nodding.

“Yeah, yeah, let’s talk.”

They’re quiet as Tommy scans his key card to let them into the lobby and they wait for an elevator. Nikki is looking around curiously, trying to acquaint himself with this new aspect of Tommy’s life that he missed out on.

Tommy likes his apartment. He could afford something bigger if he really wanted, but he never really felt the need for more when it was just him. A part of him reasons that maybe he just didn’t have the enthusiasm over the past year that he once did and that was why he didn’t necessarily care about having fun with his money. But still, he lived in a nice area and the building had been an old 1940’s hotel that had been renovated into apartments. His own unit is nice, with tall ceilings and massive windows that give a stunning view of the city but with that interesting old world charm that makes it unique. When they make it to the peak floor nine stories up and Tommy opens his front door, Nikki grins wide and nods to himself in some sort of approval.

“I love it T, not something I’d expect from a Gucci model but I absolutely fucking love it.”

Tommy blushes as he throws his keys and phone onto the small table by the door and takes his shoes off to get more comfortable, “Oh, you saw that huh?”

Nikki surprises him by blushing too, the older man toeing his own shoes off to match Tommy, “Uh, yeah, well... I don’t want to say that I stalked you on social media for the last six months but that’s kind of exactly what I was doing I guess.”

“Oh.” Tommy says quietly, and Nikki would be worried but the omega has a small little smile on his face.

“Yeah.” Nikki exhales, looking around as they stand in the front entrance of Tommy’s apartment.

Tommy feels nerves flood him suddenly. It was easier in the car when they had something fun to distract them but there’s something much more intimate about having Nikki in his apartment. He had tried to completely erase any sign of Nikki from his life when he had left and now the man was here, standing barefoot in his home.

He takes a shaky breath and moves to the open kitchen, needing an outlet for his nervous energy, already opening up cabinets and getting glasses down as he asks, “Do you want anything? I mean, I haven’t restocked my liquor but I have wine that someone left here if you want some.”

Tommy nearly screams when he feels hands touch his waist softly to settle and turn him around.

“Wine is good T, why don’t you sit down and I’ll get it?” Nikki asks him slowly, obviously trying to calm him down a little bit.

Tommy nods and follows Nikki’s suggestion, sitting himself down on the couch and taking a few deep breaths until Nikki hands him a glass of some sort of white wine, sitting the bottle on the coffee table and sitting down himself a respectful distance away. Tommy doesn’t know if he wishes he would move closer or further. Not sure what would settle his nerves better.

They drink quietly for a few minutes, trying to figure out where to start. There’s so much Tommy wants to say and yet everything escapes him at the moment but he has to say something and a sudden thought lights up in his head.

“Duff said that you haven’t been with anyone in the past year.”

Tommy blushes when Nikki starts coughing on the sip of wine he was taking. And he can’t really blame him, of all the places to start, Tommy chooses that.

“He fucking told you that?” Nikki groans, hand coming up to cover his eyes in what seems to be mortification.

“Don’t be mad at him, he was trying to get me to calm down and I think he could sense that we, you know that we had history and was probably just telling me what he thought I wanted to hear.” Tommy tried to sooth.

Nikki shakes his head and moves his hand but he keeps his eyes on the glass of wine in his hands, “He wasn’t.”

Tommy looks at the other man in confusion, body twisting to settle so that he’s angled towards the alpha, “He wasn’t what?”

Nikki sighs and moves so that he mirrors Tommy, looking him in the eyes again, “He wasn’t just telling you what you wanted to hear. I haven’t been with anyone in the past year.”

Tommy widens his eyes as he stares at the bassist incredulously, “Why?”

Nikki downs the rest of his wine and then sighs, “Tommy, you... you really have no idea how much it hurt me to lose you do you? I fucking, I hated myself. When you ran out, I wanted to follow you, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t get myself to move because I was so fucking angry at myself and then you didn’t come back. You didn’t call, you didn’t text. You were always so much better than me with talking things out and expressing yourself and I was being selfish again by waiting for you to reach out but when you didn’t, I fucking lost it. I didn’t want to hurt you anymore, and I thought the only way I could do that was by staying away.”

“That was stupid.” Tommy replies heatedly, “We were both so fucking stupid.”

Nikki nods solemnly, “I know. I know that now. Seeing you sitting on that table, I swear, I think my breathing just stopped. My whole body stopped. Vince literally had to drag me forward. You were just there and so damn stunning, fuck Tommy, how could I have wanted anyone after you?”

Tommy feels his eyes watering but he can’t cry anymore tonight. He thinks back to the one night stands he had while trying to forget Nikki and he feels so guilty that he’s covering his face with his free hand to hide.

“Babe, Tommy, it’s okay baby.” Nikki is scooting closer to him and gently pulling his hand away. “It’s okay if you were with someone else. You didn’t owe me shit, and besides, I wouldn’t have wanted you to go through a heat by yourself.”

Tommy’s eyes widen again and frantically catch Nikki’s gaze because no, he absolutely can’t think that.

“I didn’t spend my heat with anyone Nikki. How in the absolute hell, that was never an option. I couldn’t, you… you’re the only alpha I ever want for my heat Nik.”

Nikki growls at that and the sounds sends shivers down Tommy’s spine and heat through his lower stomach. That sound was always one of Tommy’s favorites, it was just so primal, so deep and possessive that it never failed to get him hot and now is no exception.

Nikki swallows hard and lets go of Tommy’s hand, “I think I need to go baby.”

Tommy flat out whines at that, still caught up in the headspace that Nikki’s growl had sent him into but he comes out of it quickly enough, “Wait, what, but what are we…”

“Babe, I don’t want to leave. Trust me. But between what you just said and your earlier stunt in the car… I may not be a bad guy but I’m not a saint either baby and I’m really running out of self-control here and I’m trying to respect your space.”

Tommy frowns, heat still spreading through him at the blatant desire in Nikki’s eyes. He doesn’t want Nikki to leave. It’s such a sudden but desperate thought that Tommy is reaching forward and grabbing at Nikki’s hand, “Don’t leave.”

Nikki’s eyes soften and his fingers of his free hand rake through Tommy’s hair until it rests under his jaw, “Let me take you to dinner tomorrow.”

Tommy blinks in confusion, dizzy from how all the different directions this night has gone, “Huh?”

Nikki nods and smiles nervously at him, “Dinner T. You know, like a date. Or a pre-date, or just a get together between friends who may or may not pursue each romantically after a period of healing. Whatever you want it to be, this is totally up to you-”

Tommy laughs softly and nods just to put Nikki out of his misery, “It’s a date.”

Nikki laughs, “Okay. So it’s a date.”

Tommy smiles but then Nikki is pressing a sweet kiss to the fingers of the hand Tommy had used to grab his and getting up to walk to the door.

This is good, Tommy thinks. This is beyond anything he could have ever hoped for and really, to go one day without Nikki in his life to having a date with him the next day was far faster than most people would have moved were they in his situation so he should be satisfied. He should be okay with letting Nikki leave and then going to bed by himself. That’s healthy.

Tommy is moving before he even thinks about it, “Nikki.”

The alpha turns around just in time for Tommy to wrap his arms around his neck and press their lips together and the absolute sigh of relief that Nikki lets out makes Tommy melt, releasing his own desperate little noise when Nikki’s hands find their way to his hips automatically.

They part gently, arms still around each other tightly as they stare with half lidded eyes.

“Tommy…” Nikki groans, obviously still fighting with himself about giving Tommy more time.

The omega just nudges his nose against Nikki’s cheek softly, breathing in his scent, “Stay Nikki. I want you to stay.”

Nikki nudges Tommy’s cheek back before reconnecting their lips in a brief, sweet kiss. They part again and Nikki exhales loudly, “God, Tommy.”

Tommy feels delirious when Nikki surges forward to press him against the door, lips pressing harshly against his in desperation and Tommy feels more alive than he has all year.

Nikki groans at the absolute plushness of the omega’s lips, the feeling better than he could have ever imagined after an entire year apart. He pushes harder against Tommy’s lips, dragging his hands down his sides to grip at his waist and hold him as close as possible. When Tommy gasps he can feel it and Nikki can’t help himself from running his tongue over the omega’s full bottom lip, angling his head so he can lick into the drummer’s mouth.

Nikki feels his body burning, igniting all the more at the way Tommy whines into the kiss, the way his hands reach up again to tangle in his hair, until he feels drunk off the feeling, no whiskey needed, breaking the contact of their lips to trail kisses and nips along the omega’s jaw and down his neck, firmly licking at the scent gland just underneath his ear. The moan Tommy lets out is so loud and unexpectedly high pitched, but he couldn’t have held it in for anything. Nikki is here with him, he’s touching him just the way he loves and Tommy wants this, wants it so badly and that only becomes more true when Nikki growls his approval as a wave of arousal crashes through him.

He smells so sweet, so fresh, Nikki can’t get enough as he keeps licking and nipping at the gland until he starts to smell the heat of arousal thick around Tommy’s usual honey orange scent and that, that just sets him off even more.

His hands run firmly over Tommy’s hips until they come to a stop on his ass, squeezing both cheeks and the omega keens and pushes his hips up into Nikki’s, the alpha answering with an automatic roll of his own before he grips the backs of Tommy’s perfect fucking thighs, thankful for the natural strength that comes from being an alpha as he lifts him easily to wrap those sinfully long legs around his waist, hips pinning the drummer’s to the door.

The move surprises Tommy, body heating up even more at how effortlessly Nikki lifted him, thighs trembling around the bassist’s hips as he feels himself slicking up, getting wet because of the man he loves in between his legs. It’s straight out of a dream but so much better because it’s real and Tommy uses the grip he has on Nikki’s hair to tilt his face back up and kisses him desperately.

Nikki is sharply inhaling through his nose suddenly and he pulls back from the kiss to stare sharply into Tommy’s eyes, his own pale greens dark and wild and it makes Tommy whine to see him that way again. But the alpha shakes his head, rests his forehead against the drummer’s again.

“Is this too fast babe? Do I need to slow down because shit, I can fucking smell how wet you are and if we don’t stop now, I don’t know if I’ll be able to. Tell me, tell me what you want baby.” His voice is pitched so low and his cock throbs when he smells the slick Tommy is producing, struggling to keep his hips still as he flexes his hands around the omega’s thighs.

Tommy is shaking his head, hands carding through Nikki’s long black hair and pulling him back a little to look him in the face, “Don’t stop, Nikki, alpha, don’t stop please.”

Nikki groans, hips rocking forward against Tommy’s, grinding against him deliciously as his hands move back to grip the omega’s ass to hold him up more firmly.

“Don’t fucking stop,” Tommy is saying again, dragging his lips down Nikki’s neck, whimpering at the friction between his legs and the heavy forest rain scent that blossoms on his tongue when he licks over the alpha’s scent gland, giddy at the choked moan he gets as a reward. “It’s not, ah, it’s not too fast, it’s perfect. It’s right, it’s, fucking finally Sixx.”

Nikki feels his lips pull into a smile, “Fucking finally.”

Then he pulls Tommy against him roughly with the grip he has on his ass, making sure he has him secure in his arms before he pulls them away from the door.

Tommy’s legs tighten around his hips, arms around his shoulders, and the needy noise he makes in his throat is intoxicating.

“Don’t worry baby, I won’t drop you.” Nikki teases, thinking Tommy’s gasp and tight grip are from the fear of falling. He keeps them upright as Tommy hides his face in his neck, the omega’s hands moving from his shoulders to feel where the muscles are tight and flexed in his arms.

“I know you won’t, you’re so strong, my alpha.” Tommy calls him so breathlessly, it has Nikki walking back to press him up against the wall next to the door, surging forward to devour the youngers lips in a rough kiss, running his tongue over every surface in Tommy’s mouth. His hands drag along the omega’s legs wrapped around him, up and down his waist, everywhere.

“Tommy, Tommy, fuck, I know baby. I know exactly how you like it.” Nikki thrills, biting at the base of Tommy’s neck in an instinctive bout of possession. “You like that I can carry you around, like that I can move you, shape you however I want. I could hold you up and fuck you right here baby, and you’d fucking love it, wouldn’t you.”

Tommy keens, body burning, absolutely on fire. God, he loved this, always loved how Nikki would talk, Tommy can’t believe that he had forgotten this, but he can’t say those things and expect Tommy to be able to actually answer coherently.

“Come on baby, I want to hear you say it, need to hear what you want,” Nikki whispers lowly in his ear, one hand coming up to grip Tommy’s chin to force him to look at him. Nikki’s breath rushes out of him when he sees the omega’s face, the blush staining his cheeks, curly hair messy, big brown eyes dilated and lips kiss swollen. “Need you to tell me everything you like babe, want to hear everything, want to make it so good for you.”

Tommy moans when Nikki’s hips start moving again, the alpha staring into his eyes expectantly, and really, Nikki did such a wonderful job communicating tonight, so good at starting to bring them back together like they should be, he could do this now for the other man if it means that much.

So he nods, hands clenching on Nikki’s shoulders and nosing at his neck, “I like it Nikki, it’s so good, makes me feel so good, want more baby.”

“Fuck. I’ll give it to you babe, give you anything you want, always.” Nikki pulls him away from the wall and walks him through the kitchen and into the hallway before he stops, “Where do you want me babe? You’re bed, the wall, the floor, god wherever you want, I’m there.”

Tommy laughs at the question, Nikki grinning at the sound. But Tommy quiets after a few seconds and bites his lip, eyes hooded, small smirk growing along with some of his confidence. Nikki isn’t the only one who can tease.

The omega pulls lightly on the long black strands at the base of Nikki’s hairline, reveling in the groan the alpha lets out, the way his hands tighten on his ass, “My bed baby, want you to take me in my bed, want you to get your scent all over it and me, please, alpha.”

Nikki breaths in sharply, heat punching through his gut and he starts down the hall, kicking the door open that Tommy points to, “Don’t fucking push me Tommy. I’m struggling to control myself as it is.”

“Don’t,” Tommy gasps as Nikki drops him down onto the bed before kneeling between the omega’s spread legs. Nikki stops at the word, hands kneading into the younger boy’s thighs, but not moving down and Tommy realizes that he didn’t finish his sentence. He had gotten overwhelmed by the alpha’s scent surrounding him and the notion of having Nikki in his bed like this.

“Don’t control yourself Nik, I want it, I want you so bad, can fucking handle anything you give me.” Tommy reaches up and uses a hand on Nikki’s neck to pull himself up, arching his back to peck the alpha on the lips, “I can handle you, baby.”

Nikki’s growl comes from deep in his chest as he reaches out and pulls the black tee shirt off of Tommy swiftly before pushing him back down. Tommy’s a fucking perfect omega, so fucking beautiful just like Nikki remember, long slender limbs, flat stomach, small waist. Nikki eyes the small swell of his hips through the fishnet with hunger, hands yanking his own tank top over his head and throwing it off to the side before sinking down into the omega’s arms and attaching his mouth to Tommy’s collarbones, biting harshly to hear him yelp and then soothing the mark with soft licks, moving on to suck bruises into the line of his throat. His hands smooth up the soft skin of his sides until he gets to his chest, both thumbs rubbing at his nipples.

Tommy whines, long and needy as Nikki continues the assault on his chest, fingers pinching and pulling as he sits back to watch the omega squirm, “Fuck, yeah, you can handle me. I know you can babe, I remember, you’re going to be so good for me, already making me so fucking hard sweetheart.”

Nikki abandons one of his nipples to grab a hand that Tommy has thrown over his head, bringing it down and putting it on the bulge of his cock and even through the material of his jeans, the touch is heavenly.

“Feel that babe? That’s for you, you’re making your alpha so fucking hard because you’re so goddamn hot. Want you more than anything baby.”

Tommy can’t do much at this point but moan helplessly at the words, his hand rubs at Nikki’s cock through his jeans and the omega’s mouth waters because it’s so hard and feels so big in his hand, just like it always did.

“Shit, T.” Nikki groans, ducking back down to kiss him roughly, fast, before moving down to take a nipple into his mouth, sucking gently and flicking his tongue against it, loving the way Tommy arches it further into his mouth, hands attaching to Nikki’s hair, pulling lightly and whimpering so pretty for him.

Nikki continues to kiss his way down, sucks a bruise or two into his ribs and then busies himself with making hickies across his hips as he unbuttons and unzips the tight black jean still keeping him from seeing all of the drummer.

“Nikki, mmm, feels so good, come here, please, fuckin’ want to kiss you.” And really, Nikki doesn’t think he’ll ever be able to deny his drummer anything ever again, so he moves back up Tommy’s body and kisses him deep.

The alpha feels Tommy’s hands caressing down his chest and abs, fingers tracing the indents of the lean muscle, making him groan until the omega finally reaches his jeans, undoing his own button and opening the zipper, both struggling to push each other’s pants down while still staying connected in their kiss.

Eventually they break apart in giggles when it of course doesn’t work, then Nikki kisses Tommy quickly once more before moving off him and the bed and hurriedly removing his jeans and underwear in one smooth movement. He groans at the relief of his cock being free from the tightness of his pants and when he looks up Tommy is staring at him with so much desire in his eyes, tongue coming out to wet his lips, and Nikki knows that look. He remembers that look so fucking well, it has him letting out a heated moan.

He gets back on the bed quickly and pushes Tommy down where the boy was attempting to get up with a firm hand on his chest.

“Now, now babe,” Nikki says as Tommy whines at being pushed back down, “As much as I am dying to see those pretty lips around my cock, I really don’t think I’ll last as long as I want inside of you if you do that first.”

Tommy pouts and it makes Nikki huff out a laugh in surprise, “You can blow me after baby, promise. Right now I just need to get inside of you before I go crazy.”

The omega moans and nods in acceptance, “Okay, okay Nik, just please, hurry.”

Nikki’s hands drop back down to Tommy’s hips, pushing down below the material of his pants and peeling them off slowly, eyes never leaving the omega’s until they’re completely off. Nikki’s heart pounds as his eyes run over every inch of the younger boy below him, moving to settle on his haunches so he can look at all of him. He’s so pretty, so goddamn pretty. His cock is long and thin, curving up along his pelvis, long legs smooth and slender and covered in those goddamn fishnets that drive him crazy to look at. Nikki pushes the stockings down his legs mournfully, sad to see them go but his mouth waters when he sees Tommy’s thighs glistening with slick. With his pants removed, the sweet smell of it is even stronger and Nikki feels desperation move him to grab Tommy’s ankles and drag him further down the bed so Nikki can run his hands down his legs, wrap them around the underside of his thighs and push them back towards the omega’s chest.

Tommy moans loudly at the rough action, feeling another wave of slick gush out of him at the manhandling and shivering at Nikki’s answering growl when the alpha sees it where he’s staring at him with those intense green eyes.

Tommy is fucking gorgeous ivory skin everywhere and Nikki could come just from looking at him for too long.

He has plans for now though, and as much as he wants to dive at the omega’s entrance immediately, Tommy’s thighs are driving him wild. Bending down from where he’s holding him up and open, Nikki groans when he sinks his teeth into the flesh of the inside of Tommy’s right thigh, making the boy underneath him cry out in surprise.

Tommy’s hands attach themselves to his hair again and when Nikki looks up, the omega is looking down at him, lips open and panting, expression absolutely wrecked as he whimpers when Nikki grinds his teeth into the flesh of his thigh. Nikki feels a little crazy, but he can’t stop licking and sucking at the soft skin, the taste of his slick sweet on his tongue and tempting him to move closer to the source but it’s not until Tommy begs him, strings of ‘Nik, please’ and ‘more, Nikki, god I need more’, does he move his hands to his ass, spreading him apart and giving a firm lick right over his hole.

“You’re so fucking pretty down here Tommy, so smooth and gorgeous for me babe, gonna eat you out so good.”

The broken whimper he gets is addicting and Nikki wants to hear it again, so he moves up a bit, lets Tommy’s legs fall onto his shoulders, hands groping at the firm cheeks in his palms, and presses his face in deep, tongue licking over his hole gently, gliding through his slick over and over until he firms his tongue up and feels Tommy opening up for it and drives it inside as deep as he can.

Tommy is floating, distantly he can hear himself making these embarrassing high pitched gasps with every thrust of Nikki’s tongue, arching his back and using the grip he has on the alpha’s hair to keep him in place as if the other boy had any notion of moving, but he can’t think about anything other than the pleasure he’s in. Tommy feels the pressure building in his lower stomach, heat getting too intense and his cock twitching as pre-come drips from the tip.

“Nn-Nikki, please, unnn, you have to stop, I’m gonna, ah, gonna come if you don’t s-stop.” Tommy moans and his toes curl when Nikki’s tongue rubs against the walls of his entrance.

Nikki pulls back just a little, enough for Tommy to see his lips, his nose and chin wet with his slick, his eyes are impossibly dark, jaw sharp and Tommy’s thighs tremble at the arousal that moves through him at the sight.

The alpha grins darkly when he feels it, turning to place a small kiss on the biggest bite mark he left on his thigh, “Then come babe, fucking want you to come from my mouth, I’ll make you come again when I’m inside you, don’t you worry about that.”

And then he’s diving back down, lips closing around Tommy’s rim and sucking hard while one of his hands squeezes around the omega’s cock and Tommy feels his orgasm ripped from him, body shaking and belatedly realizing that he had screamed Nikki’s name.

The alpha licks him through it, not stopping even when Tommy whines as he starts getting hard again too fast and it’s sensitive and so good it hurts a little.

Nikki pulls off with one last kiss to the omega’s thigh and moves back so that Tommy’s hips fall back down to the bed, hitching his legs up to wrap around his waist again and resting his weight on his forearms on either side of Tommy’s head so he can kiss him, groaning when Tommy starts sucking at his tongue. He rubs his hips against Tommy’s ass where it’s still tilted up a bit, cock getting wet from the slick the younger boy is still producing, the head catching on Tommy’s rim a few times.

“Nik, Nikki, need you inside me now, please, no more teasing, I’m so wet for you, ready for you, need you to fuck me, been waiting so long for it, please alpha, please.” Tommy babbles, desperate for the older boy to just slide into him already, tilting his hips up to try to get him inside.

Nikki lets out a harsh breath, “Baby, fuck, babe wait, need to get a condom.”

Tommy makes a plaintive whine in his throat before pushing at Nikki’s shoulders, the unexpected movement catching Nikki off guard so he’s easy for Tommy to push down onto his back and straddle him.

The alpha grunts when he feels Tommy reach a hand back and grab his cock, his hands flying up to hold the omega’s hips when the drummer rubs him against his entrance andTommy whimpers at the awestruck look on Nikki’s face.

“I’m clean, I’m clean Nik and I know you are too and I’m on birth control. We don’t need a condom, want to feel you in me, please baby.” Tommy bites his lip, wanting to sink down onto Nikki’s cock, has been wanting it in him since Nikki took off his pants and he saw it, big and hard and as perfect as Tommy remembered.

Nikki groans, shooting to sit up straight, mouth meeting Tommy’s in an open kiss, arms wrapping around his waist and hips and pulling him down so he sinks onto the alpha’s cock below him. Tommy feels his heart swelling as they finally start connecting in the most intimate way.

Nikki grits his teeth as inch by inch his cock disappears into Tommy’s warmth, he feels heady, light headed and Tommy is panting by the time he’s fully seated. Tommy can see the tears clinging to Nikki’s lash line as they sit still for a minute, body’s getting used to the sensation of being connected again. Nikki needs to distract himself from the surge of emotions flooding through him so he grips Tommy’s ass roughly, and talks.

“Fuck babe, fucking hell baby, you feel so good around me. Took my cock so well babe, so tight and wet, beyond my dreams, can’t wait to fuck you, can you move now sweetheart? Wanna see you fuck yourself on my cock.” Tommy’s body is a live wire listening to his alpha whispering filth in his ears and his hips start rocking without him even thinking about it when Nikki asks him to move.

He’s gentle at first, just a soft rocking motion but before he knows it he’s bouncing himself onto Nikki’s cock, hips grinding when he sinks all the way down, his alpha gripping his hips, fingers sinking into the flesh and groaning into his ear.

It feels so good, so good beyond anything Tommy has ever felt in the past year and his mind jumps back to earlier when Nikki had asked him to let him know what he liked and so he starts to tell him.

“Nngh, Nikki, oh, so good, your cock is so good, baby, I want it, want it more, want more, don’t hold back.”

Nikki snarls in his ear, throwing Tommy down against the mattress, arms over his head, before hitching his legs around his waist and sinking his cock back into his entrance. The wet sound makes Tommy squirm because he’s dripping, he doesn’t think his body has ever produced so much slick outside of a heat before. Nikki sets a brutal pace, thrusting into Tommy with smooth thrusts that end with a snap that have him moaning every time his cock punches into him.

The alpha gives his own deep, long moan when he feels Tommy purposely tightening around him, teasing him and Nikki smacks his ass once in warning.

“Be good babe, be good for me. I don’t want to have to punish you.” Nikki smirks when Tommy flushes further, gasping when Nikki sits up and grips his hips hard enough to bruise, tilting them up to change the angle and nailing his prostrate on every other thrust. Tommy’s hands latch onto his shoulders, dragging him back down so they can slip to claw at his back, rolling his hips up to meet Nikki’s in a nasty grind that makes his legs shake.

Nikki is fucking hot above him, sleek with sweat, green eyes dark and narrowed in concentration, breathing harshly through open lips. Tommy can see his abs flexing every time he thrusts into him and he is winded by the thought that this beautiful man is in his arms again. The idea has him clawing into his back more harshly, giving his own dark grin through his panting when Nikki hisses at the sensation and looks at him heatedly.

Tommy arches his back so he can bite at Nikki’s neck, sinking his own teeth into the base where it meets his shoulder and then licking at the mark, moaning into the alpha’s ear, “Mine, my alpha, mine.”

Hearing the possession in the declaration snaps something in Nikki and Tommy licks his lips at the wild look in the alpha’s eyes before the older boy is pulling out, flipping him over, pulling up on his hips and growling out a “chest down” that has Tommy automatically complying, screaming when Nikki pounds back into him from behind.

Nikki has a bruising grip on his hips and he’s forcibly moving his ass to bounce back on his cock with every thrust forward and Tommy has never been fucked this good before. He feels dumb with pleasure, crying out because Nikki is hitting him just right every single time and he’s in total control of how Tommy moves and it’s so good, he’s crying.

“You’re so fucking hot babe, and all mine. Missed you so fucking much baby. I’m yours, your alpha, but you’re my fucking omega, my baby, mine.” Nikki’s voice is all base now, gritty and he growls at how fucking good Tommy looks below him. The drummer’s long slender back is bowed, chest to the bed just like he asked, skin glistening with sweat and face contorted in pleasure. He keeps making these ‘ah, ah, ah’s’ that are driving Nikki out of his mind, moans making Nikki’s cock twitch where he’s buried inside of him.

“You look so damn hot on my cock sweetheart, never seen anything so fucking beautiful, sound so good, do you feel good baby? Tell me how good you feel taking my cock.” Nikki lifts his hips up further and Tommy screams again.

“I- ahhh, nnngh Nn-nikki, ff-fuck, ahh I can’t, mmm…” Nikki smirks at the other boy, slowing his thrusts down until he’s just grinding his cock lightly into Tommy’s prostrate, making him shiver and whimper.

“Sorry baby, I was making it hard for you to answer me, go ahead now babe, tell me how good I’m making you feel, please, need to hear it baby.” Nikki whispers in his ear, leaning over to drape across his back, pushing his cock impossibly deeper into the omega beneath him.

Tommy whines, trying to push his ass back and fuck himself on Nikki’s cock, squeezing around him unconsciously to try to entice him into thrusting again, but all he gets for his effort is a smack to his ass that has him jolting.

“Please Nikki, please don’t stop, keep fucking me, it’s so good, the best, fucking me better than anyone else could alpha, I’m so close, gonna come again for you, plea- ahhhh!”

Tommy screams again when Nikki abruptly starts fucking him even harder than before, snapping his hips so hard Tommy is pushed up the mattress until he puts his hands against the headboard, making it bang against the wall harshly with every thrust.

Nikki leans forward and licks at the back of Tommy’s neck, feels the omega squeeze tightly around him, feels his body shake.

“I love you Tommy, fucking love you so much baby, come on, come for me again. Want to feel you come on my dick.”

And then Nikki bites down, right underneath Tommy’s scent gland and Tommy moans his name so loudly as he comes, hole contracting around his cock, Nikki couldn’t hold off his own orgasm if he tried, groaning lowly as his come flows into the omega and the brief instinctual flash of an idea bursts into his mind, of breeding Tommy, of seeing him swollen with his pups growing inside of him and his heart jolts and he’s dropping kisses along every inch of skin he can reach, pulling out of the younger boy slowly.

Tommy turns around onto his back and Nikki’s hands come up to cradle his jaw, peppering his face and neck with kisses, whispering under his breath, “Love you baby, I love you so much Tommy, can’t even fucking believe this is real, you did so good, so good babe, absolutely unreal. You’re fucking amazing.”

Tommy’s tired arms come up around his back, meeting Nikki’s mouth suddenly to kiss him, once, twice, again and again.

“I love you Nikki,” Tommy says, rubbing his nose against Nikki’s cheek, eyes a bit teary from the intense pleasure of their fucking and from how loved he feels with Nikki whispering endless praise and confessions of love. “Love you so fucking much, my alpha, missed you so much.”

Nikki settles onto his back and pulls Tommy to him with an arm around his waist. Tommy nuzzles his faces into Nikki’s chest, yawning but smiling right after when he feels Nikki burying his nose in his hair and inhaling.

Tommy’s eyes are falling shut against his will, still fighting against the pull of sleep until Nikki presses a kiss against his forehead, “Sleep baby.”

~April 12th, 2018~

Tommy slowly comes into consciousness with the feeling of arms wrapped around his waist and kisses being pressed into his neck from behind. He smiles, can’t help himself when his lover is touching him like this.

“You need to be careful there Sixx, I might start expecting this kind of treatment all the time.”

Nikki pauses his kisses for a short moment and Tommy feels his lips pull into a smile of his own against his skin.

“I’ll do this every day for the rest of our lives as long as you want me Tommy.”

~May 16th, 2019~

When he wakes up, Nikki is still asleep next to him. Tommy hadn’t pulled the blinds shut the night before and the sun is filtering into the windows and making Nikki’s tan skin glow. He’s so busy looking at the man that he doesn’t even notice that Nikki is awake and staring right back at him.

“Good morning baby.”

Tommy startles a little before blushing at the soft, loving look in Nikki’s eyes. He shifts onto his side so that he’s facing the alpha, “Hi.”

Nikki smiles and moves onto his own side to mirror Tommy, hand coming up to tangle gently into his curls, “Hi.”

“So that was, beyond fucking incredible.” Tommy says it quietly, enjoying the stillness of the moment.

Nikki nods emphatically but he’s sobering up quickly, “Are you okay though, I didn’t come here with that as my intention Tommy, I really want to do this right, I need to get this right.”

Tommy arches his back to press a soft kiss to Nikki’s lips, staying close when he pulls away, “I’m perfect Nikki. Screw how anyone else would handle this, that was us baby.”

Nikki’s smile spreads back onto his face and he presses their foreheads together with a happy little sigh,  “Yeah.”

He’s about to say more but Tommy’s stomach gives a loud growl and they laugh at the interruption.

Nikki grins, “You want to add a breakfast date to today’s agenda too?”

“Only if you take me to that diner where we met.”

Tommy knows they still have a lot to talk about. They have healing to do, both individually and together. He needs to apologize, he had been the one to run off after all and even if he had a good reason, he was serious when he told Nikki that he was responsible for their split as well. He needs to apologize to Mick and Vince for having left them like that and not even being strong enough to talk to them about it.

They need to catch up on everything that had happened over the past year, but Nikki gives him an excited laugh in response to his request, practically pulling him off the bed with him to get ready to go and says, “Anything for you baby.”

And Tommy knows that they’ll get to all of that. For now though, for now, he’s fully alive with Nikki. Just like they were always meant to be.

[amazildoessomethingstupid]

Chapter 87: Boy Toy

Oh boy, this one was a trip for me.  I’ll start out by saying the main problems I have with this chapter are primarily with the start because that is so...ugh. We start off with Daisy caring about Paulo, and Abbey being a jealous little fuckboy. But that’s not what we’re here for is it? No.  We’re here because of this 

Oh boy.  Yeah that is definitely gay behavior that would totally bring someone’s sexuality into question.  I mean just look at this.  Who the fuck does that?  I mean someone’s up in your face, and acting all tough and stuff.  So in order to show how much it doesn’t care and just to piss them off you kiss them?  Jesus christ that would make anyone question their sexuality!

I mean god, just look at those fucking gays! My god.

Okay, but in all honesty this really is stupid, and when I heard and saw this shit it left such a sour taste in my mouth because it’s so ignorant to imply this is gay given the context of both of these characters and the situation.  Because this to me doesn’t make me believe that Paulo is starting to act gay or in a way that would make him question his sexuality.  It’s actually the opposite, because to me this is an act of defiance, it shows Paulo’s comfortable enough in his sexuality that he’d kiss a guy to piss him off and not even think twice about whether or not it’s gay.  

Then we move on to the immediate next page where there’s another thing to bring up because 

First of all, Mike where the fuck have you been?  Look at this scene composition: 

Who the fuck was talking to you Mike?! No seriously, who was talking to you?  This is the same scene, same place.  I know it’s the next page, but seriously was there a time skip in-between pages? Was there cut dialogue? Why is he saying that?  No one seemed to be talking to him before.  This is weird composition, and it��s messing with my head a little.  But that’s just probably a rewritten bit of dialogue from trying to write and rewrite this scene to make it more presentable and less clunky.

Unfortunately it didn’t work, because these bits of dialogue seem clunky as hell.  First of all what is Mike even talking about with “I’m not against guys, uh...” I guess he means “against guys kissing” so it’s clear he’s insinuating Paulo has The Gay(tm).  But this just seems like such an awkward thing to say, maybe “Hey, I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with you...y’know...” or something like that.  Why is he being broad about it “I’m not against guys...” and not “I’m not against you...” what do other guys have to do with it?  It seems like even he doesn’t know what he’s trying to say.  And I don’t get the point of “It doesn’t seem like something you’d normally do”  like, I guess yeah but if Mike’s earnestly trying to be supportive here, wouldn’t he say something like “I mean if that’s what you wanna do, that’s what you wanna do...” or “Hey I’m not judging or anything, I mean you do you man.” Why would he say it like that?  As if this would be something out of.. character...

OH HA HA HA VERY FUCKING FUNNY YOU SON OF A BITCH 

Oh yeah, and Paulo’s reaction is just ridiculous.  Guy goes from zero to one hundred, and jumps to the conclusion that he’s being called gay even though Mike’s language has been pretty vague and not really even saying “gay”.  I guess maybe that’s what Taeshi was trying to accomplish here, but it just comes off as weird.  And according to the author’s notes Paulo’s reaction was actually supposed to be even MORE overblown than this.

But moving on from this awkward exchange, we go to the next page where Paulo is now in a tissy, and 

HOLY SHIT ffffff god I just got visual whiplash!  Is that even a thing?!  Like the whole big head style is whatever, but jesus christ Rachel, what are you? 3 feet tall?  Reminder: Rachel is at least a year older than Paulo, and is also a chubby puppy.  What the heck is this?  Remember kids: If you base character size based on how short they are comparatively to the people around them and not based on how tall they are from the ground, you can find yourself falling into the trapping of making your characters dwarves.  And if you have a style that gives them big anime eyes, and petite bodies, you might accidentally turn them into lolis.  And if you’re not okay with that, then you must quickly reevaluate your stylistic choices.

But anyway, I know this is long but don’t worry kids I’m not gonna roast every single page.  Just every page that I got problems with.  And there’s nothing as bad with the next few pages.  Matt invites Paulo to a party, and Paulo being an angsty confused little shit is rude to him at first.  But luckily the best character in this entire comic is here to set him straight 

Have I mentioned how much I love Rachel?  Cause I do.  A lot.  And this is a big part of my reason why.  She’s not one to put up with other people’s bullshit, even those that she loves. 

She’s not gonna let that shit stew for months or shit, nah she’s gonna call you out the moment she sees it, and she’s gonna set you straight.  She’s not gonna put up with anyone’s shit, and I fucking love her for that.  You fucking go girl!

...

And don’t tell me about what’s coming up...I already know...

I got a bottle a jack ready for it, but I don’t know if I’m ready for it...

anyway I guess this isn’t so bad, I mean my only real problem with this chapter is how Paulo’s  sexuality is being handled here.  I feel like it could definitely have been handled better and more naturally, especially if it wasn’t spurred on by him fucking with Abbey, maybe if it was another character like...

Oh yeah!  David!  Hey, that’s a good point! David would’ve been perfect for a chapter like this.  I mean, if I had to write Paulo questioning his sexuality his relationship with David would be an obvious go to.  I mean they’re practically inseparable, and it’d be easy to use that to be how Paulo would start to question his sexuality!  And while I hate to put myself in Taeshi’s shoes, because I would never want to be her; if I were writing a chapter where Paulo starts to realize he’s bi or starts to question his sexuality, I’d start with his relationship with David.  I mean it’s pretty much all but confirmed that David is gay if not bi himself, and from an outsider’s point of view one would easily presume that they were gay together.  So what if Paulo’s talking to Matt or something, like when he’s getting invited to Matt’s Aunt’s house.  And Matt says Paulo can bring David as well. And Paulo would laugh about it and be like “Hey, I don’t have to bring David everywhere it’s not like we’re a couple or anything. I got Rachel!”  And Matt would be like “ha, could’ve fooled me~”  or something like that.  Just off-handedly joking about it, but it plants the idea in Paulo’s head that maybe his relationship with David is kinda gay, and that’s what makes him start to overthink things.  And he could start acting out against David, like trying to push him away which causes him to get upset and figure out what’s wrong eventually getting him to open up about it.  Man David would be perfect for this chapter!  Maybe he can help show Paulo how being gay isn’t bad, or show him that his behavior is nothing to be worried or upset over!  Maybe by showing an actual platonic friendship with someone who is gay, Paulo can realize the nuance of being gay an-

Oh that’s all that we get out of David for this chapter huh?  Okay, that’s cool....

Well after this nothing really happens in this chapter.  Paulo sees Daisy again, and gets flustered/scared? And decides to go watch a movie because...he told Daisy he’d do that.  It’s pretty contrived. 

In fact the whole movie part of this chapter is contrived, and doesn’t serve any real purpose besides giving us 6 pages of Paulo just overthinking things, and being confused.  There’s not much to comment on, besides this scene composition 

First of all, indeed WHAT DO YOU MEAN NC-17?! Movies don’t get released into theaters with an NC-17 that shit’s straight to DVD.  That’s the unrated cut, with titties and shit.  What the heck kind of theater is showing that?  What cinema is this? 

 AMAYA!

AMAYA, ARE YOU FUCKING SHOWING NC-17 MOVIES?! YA FREAK! WHAT KIND OF PORNO THEATER SHIT ARE YOU RUNNING HERE?! 

Okay but all jokes aside, after this Paulo reassures his sexuality for a moment when he bumps into a girl and...

flirts? I dun get it.  Is this all it takes to remind him that he is also into chicks? Well that was easy, and...

wait...DID YOU POP A BONER?  I-is that what’s going on here?  What’s going on here?  This feels really contrived, like it needed to be expanded upon more to make it organic. Anyway speaking of contrivances

Hello Mike, I see now why all this is happening.  You see, I have a theory about this chapter and its purpose with having Paulo be bi.  Actually, I have a few theories on its purpose, but one of them is that, this...all of this...is wind in the sails.  Because, it may be too early to say this but I’m like 99% that this whole Paulo questioning his sexuality thing, isn’t going to lead anywhere.  And before you fucking @ me about Jordan, let me ask you...did that really need to happen?  Did it really change his character?  Does this change Paulo’s views on his relationships, or potential relationships?  Do you think this is going to affect his personality or actions in a non-hamfisted way? Cause call me cynical but I don’t.  I don’t think it will.  What I think this is for, and especially why Mike is going to be the one explaining to Paulo why it’s okay to be gay is because...

Taeshi wants to blow wind in the sails of people who ship Paulo with Mike...

And somewhere, somehow, in some dark secluded corner of the earth...A man named Raxki Yamato just had the biggest, sloppiest, most intense orgasm of his entire life...only a select few of you will probably get that joke.

Anyway, Mike takes Paulo to his house to tutor and...

W-was Paulo checking out Haley?  That’s...admittedly weird. 

Anyway, the story rears it’s face in again and imma keep it real with you chiefs...

I actually like this page.  This part with Mike talking to Paulo about Sandy is really nicely done.  It brings up a dynamic I actually didn’t quite realize between Paulo and Mike in that they both have had relationships where their girlfriend is often too busy to make time for them.  And I really like this.  I like their dialogue, it feels very in character, especially Paulo’s snarky quip in the above picture.  I just love it. 

aaaaaaaaaaaand we’re back on that gay shit again! But don’t worry, because I actually like this part.  

This back and forth between Mike and Paulo, is exactly what I was talking about with the beginning of this chapter.  This whole exchange works, having them going back and forth between uncomfortable conversation to light hearted banter is precisely how this whole thing should’ve been handled.  And I really like how it’s handled here.  

But anyway we finally end the chapter with a follow up scene with Rachel and 

For real look at her.  If I showed you this picture out of context, what would you guess her age?  12? 10? 8? Like for real, this shit is ridiculous. 

But anyway, Paulo apologizes to Rachel for being stupid and taking it out on Matt, coming to the understanding that he doesn’t understand and that’s okay.  And Rachel reistablishes herself as the saving grace of this comic once again and all is well.  

Overall I give this chapter a 3/10.  After all the shit I’ve heard about this chapter, I kinda expected it to be completely bad, but Taeshi didn’t shit the bed completely and there was some actually good moments in this chapter.  But I still give it a 3 because 70% of this chapter was still bad.  The beginning of this was insultingly convoluted, the middle bit was dumb and kind of pointless, and if it weren’t for the end bit where the characters actually felt like their characters I’d rate this even worse.  But all in all, not all bad at least it’s not too insulting.  The worst part of it is just that it feels pointless if not redundant.  Because another theory I’ve heard spread about this chapter is that it was done to explain away Paulo’s homophobic behavior in past volumes, which to me is what really ruins this for me.  Because, it is such a trope to have the homophobic character be homophobic because he’s secretly gay/bi.  It’s fucking stupid, especially since you could’ve easily had a natural way of showing Paulo break away from his homophobic tendencies through Matt!  In fact, that’s what I presumed was happening.  

Paulo would just naturally not want to piss off Matt cause Matt’s a pretty cool guy, and friends with Rachel, so he’d try to not say homophobic shit, or maybe Matt would call him out on that stuff and Paulo would realize the pain his words cause and would learn the error of his ways, and naturally try to stop saying those things.  But alas, this is how it goes, and in the end it gets a 3/10 it’s not like December bad, but it sets a precedence for this character that I know isn’t going to matter.  And I guess TL;DR the best I could say about this chapter is: 

(I was also gonna do the interlude here, but this shit is fucking LOOONG so I’ll do it for the next post.  See you guys then)

[twinkiplier]

AntiSepticEye Edit Tutorial (PhotoShop)

I’m sure a lot of you out there need some help making Anti edits, or just never knew where to start, or just want to know how other people do it. I like to think I’m pretty handy with PhotoShop, so I made up a little guide for y’all.

There’s also a tutorial on coloring eyes at the bottom!

Step One: Find your image.

Yeah, I know, we’re starting here. Bleh. But it’s really important that you get the right resolution for a picture, okay? So I’m just gonna make sure you get it.

When you search for your image, make sure you’re using the tools and that you’re searching for a fairly large image. Larger than 2MP is the best option, but sometimes doesn’t have what you’re looking for.

When you find the image you’re looking for, hold on - it might not be the biggest size you can find. Make sure you Search by image first.

This should pop up underneath the search bar of the new page. Click on All sizes, it’ll take you to another page with just that image.

Clicking on the first usually brings up the biggest one, but sometimes they’re of bad resolution and you have to click through. If it takes a second to load, chances are it’s nice and big. But wait! Don’t just click and drag.

Make sure you View image to get the highest resolution! It’ll open in a new tab.

You’ll need to right click and Save image as…. This will allow you to save to the desktop, or whatever work folder you’re using. Hooray! Now you have the best possible image to use for this.

Step Two: Prepare the image.

Okay, so you have it now. You need to get it into PS. But before you open a new canvas, hang on.

OPEN. Yes. I’m literally showing you how to open a document. Deal with it.

Now that you have it open, it’s best to crop it to whatever size you want. Just so it’s easier to work with.

It was pretty okay as-is, I just wanted it a little more tight around the shoulders.

Now, duplicate your layer. You can do this by pressing Cmd-J or Ctrl-J.

On this layer, we’re going to adjust the levels (Cmd-L or Ctrl-L). If you don’t know how to do that, just bring the black and white arrows in closer to eachother with preview on. It’ll look right eventually.

Step Three: Basic Overlay.

Start by making a new layer. Simple.

Pick a shade of green. Make it bright, but not infinitely saturated to oblivion. I picked this lovely shade, but it doesn’t really matter in my opinion.

On your new layer, fill in the whole canvas with your green. Ta-da.

In order to actually see Jack under it, you’ll have to change the layer style to “Color.”

It’s still way too bright and saturated, so we’ll need to dull it down a bit by lowering the opacity to... about 50% in most cases.

There, that looks better.

So now, with the color layer still selected, let’s mess around with the Hue/Saturation menu a little bit (Ctrl-U or Cmnd-U) with preview on until it looks good. I settled on this, which was -15 Hue and -45 Saturation.

Step 3.5 (Optional): Using Filter Gallery.

This part is completely optional, but it allows for much more playing around - if you are using a program similar to PhotoShop but don’t have the actual thing itself, such as Gimp, you can skip this step.

So now, we need to make another copy of Layer 1, and place it overtop of the green layer for the moment.

On this layer, we’re going to open up the Filter Gallery so we can mess around with it.

For Anti, one of the best filters is Film Grain. Crank that up to max and you have yourself something pretty cool. Messing around in these can take up hours of time just seeing what horrific creations you can make, but don’t take too long or you’ll forget what you’re doing.

Especially when you discover this button.

Now, what I’ve done is added some maxed-out Rough Pastels overtop of the film grain, giving it a sketched and blurry look.

After bringing that in, I decided I wanted it offset to be more noticeable - but there’s a gap.

So I copied that layer and left it in place, tuning them down to 25%.

There’s still a gap.

To get rid of it, I just select that gap and place a layer mask on the second effect layer.

There’s a bit of a glitch on the edge, but who cares - it’s Anti.

So now, I’m gonna move the green to the top, so it affects everything.

Much better. It kinda looks like a watercolor painting.

Step Five: Adding Glitches.

Now, if you’ve looked over Robin’s edits of Anti, you know his glitches are somewhat subtle and more auditory than anything.

Making sure to use the Add to selection tool, select some bars over the entirety of the image. Just three or four.

Make sure to avoid areas like the eyes and face aside from a few small bars. Now, all we need to do is invert selection (Ctrl-I or Cmnd-I) add a layer mask to the green layer.

Good, that lets a few more normal parts peek through.

Now duplicate that layer, we’re going to do something cool with it.

Turn that entire layer into static, the easiest way is to use Filter Gallery but you can also just tint an image of static green.

Now it’s starting to get a bit more of an Anti feel to it.

I switched the static’s layer style to Hue just so it would pop more, and look just a bit less flat.

Now, because of the hair problem, what I did was chop the layer in half. Turning the top one back into Color and leaving the bottom part in Hue.

Yeah, doing stuff like this requires a lot of layers. It makes things easier to tweak in the long run, especially if you did something wrong in an early step.

If you’ll notice, Anti has a bit of a glow around him sometimes. To replicate that, we need to select Jack - but not just any old way, no. This is the only time I’ll recommend use of this, but we’re using the magnetic lasso tool. Copy the layer of Jack, and do this on the copy.

Just draw around him, it doesn’t have to be perfect and if it looks choppy or messy, good.

Now, select and mask.

Crank up not only the Edge Detection and Smart Radius, but also Shift Edge. That gives it that weird, off look. Use this selection to create a layer mask.

Now comes the glow. Double-click on the layer and you’ll be brought to this menu, where you can add an outer glow.

Mess around with it while you have preview on, just have a little fun. The jankier, the better. If you want to use Divide, make sure the color you’re using is the exact opposite of the color you want it to come out as.

When you’re done, make sure you put the full green layer all the way on the bottom. 

Now, all the way at the very top, we’re going to add an adjustment layer for Hue/Saturation.

Adding +50 makes the whole thing just a bit more saturated, which gives it an Anti vibe.

You don’t want to oversaturate the bits of Jack, though, so make sure you add that same layer mask to keep it inside the Anti part.

Step Six: The Eyes.

It’s coming along pretty well, I’d say. You can stop here, or keep going, make tweaks and add more glitches. It’s up to you, really. Have fun with it. However, if you want to know how to do the eyes, well then. I’m absolutely here to teach you.

First, we need to get real up close and personal. Turn off all the layers except the bottom one, and duplicate that. This is what we’re working with.

You can use the lasso tool first to get a rough approximation of the eyes, then make a layer mask around that, but you need to use the brush tool to refine the layer mask by hand until it’s only the eye.

When the other one’s done, you should have something horrific staring back at you. :)

Now, the first thing we’re going to do is oversaturate the eyes. That’ll make them pop even more.

Turn on the layer beneath it, and you can see it’s just a subtle change but it’s crucial.

Once you turn the other layers back on, though, it’s like we’ve done nothing at all.

So, to fix this, we just move the layer up.

I actually oversaturated them again after that, and it’s such a small difference but it really stands out. Now, if you want to make black demon eyes, it’s really simple.

Just make another duplicate of your base layer, add the eyes layer mask, and then turn down the levels almost all the way until you’re satisfied. Make sure they still shine a little! That’s what makes them look good, and not just painted black.

See? Now we’re really getting somewhere. The last thing is, of course, the Septic Eye. on a new, blank layer, set your brush’s flow and opacity down to 20-30%, and color in the sclera green and the iris a much brighter blue.

It might be a little rough around the edges, so don’t be afraid of using a soft eraser to touch it up. 

Don’t worry if it looks bad up close, either. No one can tell from a distance.

Now, just turn all the other layers on, and voila. Pretty neat, huh?

Here’s the full, finished image. I had a lot of fun making this! Might make a Darkiplier tutorial too, if y’all want that. Let me know if there’s anything you’d like to know how to do, I’d love to help out.

[duhragonball]

Babbling about Comics

One of my New Year’s resolutions is to get back in gear with my plan to read my entire collection of X-Men comics.   I had this big plan to do it in 2015, but I only made it about halfway, which put me around Uncanny X-Men #280 (September 1991).   That’s about 29 years’ worth of comics, though, so my plan was probably unrealistic.

Ever since I reblogged this, I’ve been thinking about how I used to be big into American comic books, but not so much anymore.  One person in that thread jokes about how complicated it is to start reading X-Men and Wolverine, and the thing is, I actually know how to do that, because I spent maybe a week in 2014 obsessively studying the Marvel Chronology Project website to come up with a good reading order.  Honestly, it’s kind of fun, but only because I’m a maniac.  I can’t see how any normal person would even want to bother untangling that mess.  The system was designed for only two kinds of immersion.

1) You bought the comics when they were published, and read them in more or less their intended reading order, because you had no other choice.

2) You’re a maniac like myself, who accumulated all this stuff after the fact and you’re determined to go back and figure out what happened.

Nowadays, it’s a lot easier for a new fan to dig into the past, because so much of Marvel’s back catalog is available in digital format, but it’s still a pretty big paywall when you think about how many X-Men comics they’ve made.   And even if you download torrents, you still have to read the whole thing, and who has time for that?  Generally, Marvel’s marketing strategy has been to try to make the new stories accessible enough for new readers to follow, while only reprinting the older material that’s important or popular.   As a collector and a completist, this always frustrated me, but I think I’ve finally begun to see the wisdom of that approach.

See, the real gateway to a franchise like this is to stick to the greatest hits.  For me, that’s Uncanny X-Men #94-167, which spans 1975-1983.  Then you jump all the way to Wolverine’s solo book, which started in 1988.  The first thirty issues of that are really, really good.   I like the stuff that Larry Hama did with Wolverine later, but it’s not for everyone.  If you want to read a crossover, I’d recommend “X-Tinction Agenda”, since it provides a decent snapshot of where the X-Books were at in 1990.  Now, I’m skipping over a lot of other material from the period, but a lot of it was pretty awful, and the good issues of X-Factor and New Mutants  were kind of inessential.   The point is that you have to sample the best stuff first, then decide if you care enough about the characters to go dumpster diving through the rest of it.   You’ll find some gems, but you have to be willing to put up with some real crap to get at it. 

For example, right now, I’m in the middle of 1992, which was sort of a defining period for the X-Men franchise.   Chris Claremont had ended a 17-year run as the writer, and they were trying to build everything around superstar penciller Jim Lee.  I don’t know what went wrong exactly, but by the end of the year Lee had left to start his own company, and a lot of the X-Men comics from that year have a long list of co-plotters, co-scripters, and guest artists.  The flagship title, X-Men v.2, held up reasonably well, but it’s sister Uncanny X-Men suffered from neglect.  UXM #281 was supposed to herald this bold new era, but instead it just looks like a tire fire, one that continued to burn until #293 at least.   But, those issues are notable because they introduce Lucas Bishop to the franchise. 

I never cared much about Bishop, except that he looks pretty cool, and he had a cool voice in the X-Men cartoon.  Otherwise, I only knew he was a guy from the future with a gun, just like the dozen other future-guys-with-guns in 90′s comics.    But when Bishop was introduced, he hailed from the year 2062, where he’s part of a Judge Dredd-style security force.  Bishop revered the X-Men as legends, but once he meets the real deal he quickly finds out they’re not what he expected.  Bishop sees himself as a peacekeeper, and he’s honored to join the X-Men, but he keeps finding his violent, hair trigger methods at odds with the X-Men’s rigid protocol. 

The thing is, I identify with the guy.   I used to write him off as a knock off of Cable, or one of the other loose-cannon hardcases the X-Men keep recruiting, but they actually found a way to make Bishop stand out from the crowd.   He loves the X-Men in theory,  but he really doesn’t understand what makes them work.  Which is sort of like me trying to read all these comics I only know by reputation.    A lot of of the things fans praise the X-Men for are vastly overrated or completely misrepresented.  The conventional wisdom I always got from the fans was that the X-Men were only great when Claremont wrote them, and then Scott Lobdell took over and Ruined Everything(tm).    The reality (from my perspective) is that Claremont ran out of mojo around Year Eight of his 17-year run, and he was running on fumes from ‘83 to ‘91.  I’ve seen fans carry a torch over what happened to Madelyne Pryor, but as far as I’m concerned Madelyne Pryor’s introduction was when the Claremont run jumped the shark.  Her whole character arc was a no-win scenario and their biggest mistake was in not ending it sooner.  I used to think the X-Men comics of the early 90′s were a creative train-wreck, but somehow it managed to generate Bishop, and that gives me hope. 

Also, there is something oddly comforting about reading these old comics.   Nothing ever really changes with the X-Men.   If a character gets killed, they just come back a few years later.   If a character quits or turns evil, it’ll get reversed later.  The X-Men never really win or lose any battles.  They just sort of show up and fight, and then something else happens and they get distracted by that for several issues.  Last night I read the issue where Forge gets upset because he’s in love with Storm and he hasn’t even gotten five minutes alone with her to rekindle their feelings from 1988.   He awkwardly proposes to her, and she punts, telling him she’ll think about it.   In the very next scene they have together, he leave the mansion before she can even give her answer.  Forge is convinced that Storm doesn’t really love him, and that she’ll never set aside her X-Men career long enough to make time for a serious relationship.   As he slams the door, she mutters “I would have said... yes.”    That’s classic X-Men for you.   All angst, all turmoil, no resolution.   We don’t know if Storm is sincere or not, and Forge won’t even stick around to find out.   Is he right about her, or is he just too afraid of rejection?   Maybe we’ll see in a later issue, but I bet we don’t.   It’s Schrödinger’s ship.   Everything sort of hangs in midair. 

Now, I might have said that this is why I’ve come to prefer anime lately, because the stories are more decisive.   Goku married Chi-Chi and that’s it.    Done.   There’s no hotshot editor trying to split that up or retcon it to clear the way for a fresh pairing.   The real tragedy of Storm is that she’s trapped in Comic Book Time, so she couldn’t have a long term relationship even if she wanted to.    If she had married Forge in 1992 they would have inevitably been divorced a short time later, because Marvel likes to rotate romantic partners around every few years.   Storm actually married the Black Panther later on, but I’m pretty sure that’s over now.   But Goku’s marriage to Chi-Chi is absolute.   I like certainty.   It helps make the characters feel more genuine, and less like imaginary dolls driven by editorial whims and sales charts.

But, having recently finished Revolutionary Girl Utena, I find the X-Men’s open-endedness kind of soothing.   I didn’t get what I wanted from the ending of the Utena TV series.  I’m not sure what I wanted, exactly, but what I got wasn’t completely satisfying.  I may warm up to it later on, or I’ll watch the movie version and see if that’s more to my liking, but that’s pretty much all I’m going to get.   With the X-Men, I’m not particularly invested in the characters, and I have a general knowledge of what happens to them, and that anything that happens to them is mutable and transient.  It takes a lot of the punch out of Forge walking out on Storm, but it’s still decent theatre, and I’m not in the mood for dramatic punch right now.   Utena was like getting dramatically punched by Star Platinum for five pages.   I’d watch one episode and then I’d have to take a break before moving to the next one.    Not everything needs to be like that.  Sometimes it can be Bishop possibly getting Storm on the rebound, only to discover that she’s not as good in bed as the history books said she was.

Nevertheless, I think this is something the comics industry needs to address.  I got fed up with following comics because the new ones are expensive and inconsistently produced, and nothing worthwhile ever happens in them either.  They keep relaunching series with new #1′s, or renumbering them every time they get close to a Big Round Number, so it’s probably even harder to keep the reading order straight than it was twenty or thirty years ago.   So it’s a lot of the same hassles you get from back issues, except my back issues are already bought and paid for, so I might as well waste my time reading them instead of paying for overpriced new stuff.   Their best bet is to introduce new characters, especially female, POC, and LBGT+ characters that are tough to find in the back issue rack, because that’s something novel they can use to draw modern audiences.   Because Thor’s dealt with Ragnarok about a dozen times already, and the X-Men haven’t accomplished anything tangible in 30 years, so eventually no one’s going to fall for the same corny “Nothing Will Ever Be the Same!” gimmick.

[cosmosogler]

after this many instances, i can’t tell if being dressed up like an ice cream cone just makes my day horrible or if being dressed up like an ice cream cone is what makes me feel a little sillier after a horrible day.

i dunno. pastel colors are just cheerful. i like these shorts and they only go with the ice cream shirt and the pokemon shirt.

well. i tried to sleep early last night but i was kept awake by, hmm, the usual sort of memories that make your eyes snap open when you��re laying alone in the dark. snoop won’t protect me the way i know eve would. i could feel the, just... heaviness wearing into my face as i tried to settle in and get some sleep.

it keeps me up a lot of nights. weird things set it off. laying in certain positions. unpredictable trains of thought, or maybe my thoughts just get derailed every now and then. certain noises. makes it hard to get comfortable.

i don’t have to “bury the hatchet” with dad if he doesn’t acknowledge there even is a hatchet, right? because his behavior during the family vacation was unacceptable and he never said even one word about it except to be passive aggressive the last month at home.

i wonder if mom notices that i ask about my brother and sister and the dogs but not dad. honestly i don’t really care how he’s doing... i don’t have energy to devote to things i don’t care about and i don’t have the energy to pretend i do care either.

i actually don’t usually ask mother how she is doing either. i feel like that’s a bad habit to get into. i really don’t have any other resources right now though. since i’m three hours ahead of my family now i really can’t... find any good time of day to call my siblings and chat with them. not that i was talking to them that much at home anyway...

anyway i went to school. i left at 7:55, which is TECHNICALLY before 8. i had woken up while it was still dark, 6:30... it was hard to get moving.

no one was at the department when i got there except people who were actively teaching classes so i sat at my desk and tried to power through the quantum homework by myself. i did get a little help with the problem i had trouble with last night from an internet acquaintance, and i did the third and fourth problems by myself with not too much trouble. 

jennica came into the office about 10 minutes before class and i asked her for help. she pointed out what i should focus on and i compared it to algebra distribution and she said “not at all.” then she proceeded to describe how to do the problem using algebra distribution and i got annoyed but i didn’t say anything at the time. quibbling about what to call the thing i was doing cost me time i needed. i tried to do the rest between mechanics and quantum and didn’t get it done. i had to turn it in anyway. i was a little over halfway through it. at least i ha all the other problems done.

after quantum i was hanging out with the other students in suzanne’s office and we were talking about how to manipulate operators because the professor had not been clear on what exactly he was doing when he showed us some stuff at the end of class. he’d skipped a step or two and we were trying to kind of reverse engineer his final equation. jennica disagreed with us about where we could put the operator, even though it was clearly shown in the book. then she started doing the exact same thing we had just done on the blackboard and continued to disagree with us while using the math we had just used. i got that angry static in my head so i went out to try to eat some lunch in my office.

i know she’s probably smarter than i am, or at least a more consistent worker, but it’s frustrating to argue with someone who agrees with you but won’t consciously agree with you. and it’s frustrating to argue with someone when you’re using facts from the textbook with the page open and they are saying “no, that’s wrong.” and then not explaining why they think that.

but she got the homework done and i didn’t. so.

anyway i was checking my emails while i was unpacking my lunchbox and i found the email from the physics adviser. 

(aside- i instinctively spell it “advisor” and i can’t figure out why because every spellcheck keeps correcting me. i looked it up on google and the dictionary says either is fine but i don’t like the red line.)

so my test scores were so bad that i had to meet with him in less than two hours to discuss “schedule adjustments.” i responded the responsible way: by freaking the hell out. i paced around in my office for about 30 minutes before i gave up on trying to sit down and i went out to the counseling center for my group intake appointment. i also stopped by the pharmacy. and i tried to call mom four times. she didn’t answer. i talked to oz about it a little bit while i was walking and waiting at the center. 

i know, deep down, that in my field any sign of weakness or inconsistency is basically death. getting sick will get you laid off when finances get low. being a woman will get you laid off when finances get low because if you’re a woman you have to be exceptional to be considered average. (white) men with the very same qualifications get priority. 

i do not have the advantage of good health. i just don’t. this seriously hurts my ability to perform on a rigorous class schedule. this is why i think that i may not... get my phd. i am afraid that knowing i might not get it is what will cause me to not get it. i’m afraid that the lack of confidence is going to be the deciding factor here. but i can’t not know about this. it’s a very real handicap for me. when i am too stressed for too long my internal organs start permanently shutting down apparently.

ha ha, in a few years i’m not going to have any non-vital organs left. probably.

during my intake interview i started crying and said i was very unhappy today. i felt really bad for taking this interview and making it about this upcoming talk with the advisor. i had brought up that one of my goals for group would be to make the transition to graduate life... at that point i was worried about it still being “graduate” by the end of the day though.

you know, when i went to the pharmacy, i kept telling myself “i’m not going to need those later” in an effort to talk myself out of refilling my medications. i’m not going to need those later, it doesn’t matter, nothing means anything.

when i looked at the front door i sighed and said to myself, “but i will need them later, won’t i.” and that heaviness fell over my entire body again. i’m not afraid to die as much as i am afraid to survive.

mom finally called back as i was leaving to get to the advisor’s office back in the physics department. i told mom what was going on and she said “well, talk to him then!” and i dunno, i felt so brushed aside. i didn’t tell her i was afraid of losing my tuition waiver or my paycheck because of the change in course credits or whatever was going to happen. 

the professor was very nice as usual. he did tell me that my prelim results were extremely worrying. i actually almost passed the thermo portion of the test, but i got essentially a 0 in literally every other subject. he wanted me to drop down into undergrad courses for two out of my three subjects. it ended up that undergrad quantum meets exactly during my classical mechanics lecture, so i got to stay in graduate quantum. he said that was very risky. i told him it wasn’t that i was deciding to take a risk so much as that looked like it was just how it was going to be. he said yeah. 

he was nice about it... he told me that once the university had taken on a graduate student they couldn’t just screw them immediately and that he and the board had put a lot of effort into adjusting my schedule to make sure i had a chance to succeed. and retaking one graduate course next year won’t put me too behind schedule. but if i don’t get a b+ or higher in any of the courses i’m taking now i would be in a lot of trouble schedule-wise and gpa standard-wise.

i dunno. i feel like i didn’t actually have any control over any part of this situation. i feel like i got cheated out of the potential to do well on that test by my eight-month illness. i feel like i should have kept going anyway even though i could only eat so little that i had even lost a lot of weight. 

feeling cheated is the worst. or, one of the worsts.

i feel like i don’t have any control over the direction my life is going in. i mean... i’m making choices, i’m making a lot of them every day and lots of compromises and calculations. but big picture wise i am severely limited by how sick i get and by how dumb i am. i didn’t have any choice about how my schedule was going to change. i didn’t have any choice in which grad school i got to go to. 

i guess i made the choice to go to grad school at all. 2 choices is NOT very many though.

i chose to cough up a pile of money for snoopy’s well-being. mike told me that it is worth it, cats will definitely live longer if they are on the prescription diet after they get kidney disease. snoopy doesn’t have a lot of control over her life. i try to give her some say in what happens. i ask to pet her, i stop brushing if she doesn’t want to even if she’s still kinda grimy. it’s sometimes easier to figure out what cats do and don’t want than it is to figure that out with dogs. 

i’m not gonna compensate for the lack of control in my life by grabbing snoopy’s though. i’m just trying to recognize that i can work within some parameters. even if i’m not happy about the way my academic life is already falling apart around me 10 days into the semester.

so i got a new e&m class and professor with the undergrads. his teaching style is a mess but i already know the material very well from this part of the course. i’m kind of surprised and shocked that he is doing this part of the course so early- why aren’t they working on point charges and forces BEFORE they do flux and green’s theorem and stuff like that? 

he asked me to meet with him tomorrow after lunch. so i’ll be doing that i guess. i need to look up his course web page and syllabus...

after class i was feeling REALLY bad so i went home. i said hi to snoopy and cleaned her litter box and sat around for a while. then i made spaghetti for dinner. it was missing something, and i’m not sure what it was, but i know i didn’t have it anyway. i’m thinking i should use a different kind of marinara sauce.

then i ate a ton of oreos and listened to a taz episode. it was really good... the podcast, i mean. the oreos had gotten a little stale. i forget that it’s humid here and food ages differently.

i had meant to get to some homework from my to-do list but i spent the night diddling around on the computer doing basically nothing instead. i also had ice cream because i just really wasn’t feeling good at all emotionally and i wanted sugar. 

tomorrow i need to teach two labs in a row!!! hopefully it will go better than my first one, which did not go well at all!!!!!

i’m not sure how to proceed here. i didn’t really... read anything tonight. like the lab manual, which i did want to brush up on before i tried to teach the lab again. there was all kinds of weird stuff in there that we didn’t do in the practice lab last thursday and i wanted to be more familiar with it. maybe i can do that before i leave tomorrow. i’ll try to get up a little earlier... 

man, i don’t want to sleep at all. i remembered my dream last night. i kept getting talked over by neckbearded dudes. i couldn’t do anything without getting interrupted, and also i was in a part of “dirt college town” that i had never been in before and it was difficult at best to navigate. at the end i was wandering around in a swamp (which was also in a computer?) and there were the nerds trying to “find secrets” and also there was a bear. i wanted to be alone i think. well, i do now.

[ehonestreviews]

Discover an Explosive New Parrot Training System

Discover an Explosive New Parrot Training System Honest Review

Product Name: Discover an Explosive New Parrot Training System

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Description:

For All Parrot Lovers Who Want A Happier, Even Hilarious Bird…

1. Yelling at your Parrot to “SHUT UP” when it screams 2. Over-reacting and shouting “OOOH”, “AAAH” or “OUCH” whenever it bites 3. Giving your Parrot only seeds to eat 4. Placing the cage near the window overlooking the garden 5. Putting your Parrot above chest level 6. Having a single perch in your Parrot’s cage7. Placing the food and water bowls just beneath the perch8. Placing your new Parrot on your shoulders…

Even if you are doing any one of the above, you are inadvertently snowballing bad Parrot behavior. It’s time you correct your Parrot handling techniques to become a perfect Parrot parent in just 15 easy days…”

( A Parrot Lover For The Last 12 Years)

Not even the worst blood-drawing

biters, crystal-shattering screamers, or stubborn,

party-pooper non-talkers have a chance to resist these powerful

Parrot training techniques… get your

Parrot to do exactly what you want

with ease…

All in record time!… Super easy, NEVER

using punishment!

The Really Great Part Is, Your

Parrot Will Love You More For It!

“Wow! This Stuff

Really Works…”

“In just under 2 weeks I have gone from a quivering, tearful, frustrated bird rescuer, to the proud owner of Dylan, the Parrot who in his own words is ‘alright’…. Thank you for your information…” (Josette Bellham, Lowestoft, UK.)

“Your training info has done a great amount with my Parrot … My bird now is very friendly towards everybody and looks forward to getting out of his cage and onto people’s hands.” (Stella Lam, Danville, Virginia.)

“Thank you so much for your training info, it has worked wonders with my Parrot Sam, his talking has improved, and I am much more confident in handling him and understanding him.” (Pauline Chamberlain)

“We were about to find him a new home. However, your techniques regarding responding to shrieking episodes have worked. He is much more calm and playful. His biting attempts, handled in the way you suggest (moving into the bite) have dropped considerably, and he is not biting as hard.” (Terry Clark, Los Gatos, California)

“Wow I cant believe it! Its already starting to work, today I had D.J. on my hand, which he would never do, unless I had a towel on my hand because he would bite me vicously, but… now i can acctually hold and pet him! What a difference!” (Ashley Bratt, League City, Texas)

**********

“This book puts its ideas into terms that you can understand, many things not thought of by the general population such as bathing, preventing illness… useful tips about cage placement… and definite direction as to WHAT NOT TO DO. I would reccmmend this book to anyone interested in learning more about having birds as house pets of any breed. (Brenda A. La Platte, Jupiter, Florida)

Dear Parrot Lover,

I want to tell you a true story that’s on the edge of potentially scandalizing you…

About 13 years ago, a good friend

of mine, Wayne, “rescued” Parrot

that showed up mysteriously on his back porch balcony one day.

He came right in the house when offered

a cracker, and woofed it down like a ravenous feathered pig…

the poor, lost fellow was obviously very hungry.

Well, Wayne, being a good guy, kept

him in the house (he didn’t have a cage), and tried to locate

the owner of the lost Parrot by putting an ad in the local paper.

Nobody responded to the “Lost Parrot”

insertion… and in the end, Wayne ended up becoming an unexpected

Parrot owner, as

he never did find the original owners.

In the meantime, Wayne named the

playful and friendly fellow “Polygon”. And to his shock, Polygon

talked… and it wasn’t just “Hello” he was saying. Polygon’s

chatting was a little more “complicated”…

“I want

pot seeds”

Huh?!… pot seeds??? Were the

ex-owners giving this bird marijuana seeds? Perhaps they were

tasty, perhaps Polygon was even getting high!? I really don’t

know, I just know that Polygon loved to say this (I

heard it myself many times).

Wayne thought it was pretty funny,

even though he didn’t smoke or drink. That is… he thought

it was funny until guests came over… then it stopped being

funny fast!

Wayne had to do some serious explaining

to his dubious, and shocked guests that HE wasn’t giving Polygon

pot seeds and getting his friendly bird drugged out!

And it wasn’t the only thing Polygon

said…

One day when I went to visit Wayne and Polygon, Wayne excitedly waved me over, “Nathalie, listen to this…”, he then called out “Whoa…” and Polygon called right back…

“Whoa

Baby! Light my fire!”

Wayne and I laughed so hard it

brought tears to our eyes!

Polygon had just made me become

a passionate Parrot lover. I never

imagined that Parrots could be so

charming and funny, and I never really had even imagined owning

one.

For the last 12 years, I’ve learned

A LOT about these feathered friends, mostly through the school

of hard knocks (or should I say “bites”)! I’ve gathered literally

hundreds of tips and tricks on how to keep happy and healthy

Parrots, and if you

let me, I want to share this knowledge with you to help YOU successfully

resolve any Parrot challenge you

might be facing.

I want to share with you my passionate

quest to have the happiest, healthiest, and funniest

Parrots possible!

Does this

sound like such a far away dream…

to own such a funny, talking Parrot?

Well, know that this dream is

not difficult to achieve with the right knowledge.

I mean, I too have certainly

discovered that not all Parrots

are like Polygon at first…

Are you dealing with sore, even

bloody fingers (bitten to death), ringing ears (those sonic

screams), or simply Parrot that

refuses to speak… and you have no clue why he is mute as a

fish, bites, or screams, despite your best determined efforts?

I bet you didn’t realize owning

Parrot would be so emotionally

involving, perhaps a nerve-wracking challenge, even outright

dangerous in some cases!

Dang!

Parrots can BITE!!!

If you haven’t already noticed,

when some of these guys bite, they don’t mess around… we’re

talking about beaks that mother nature designed to crack open

hard nuts, or rip through tough wood. You don’t want these razor-sharp

“feathered-pruners” snapping at your soft fingers… or worse…

towards ears and eyes that look like leaves and fruit to an

untrained, frightened, or frustrated Parrot…

And when your

Parrot becomes, or IS already, a constant screamer?

Well, you already know… you’d

be better off having a 16 year old rebel teen-ager in your home,

who dreams of being a worshipped Rock Star, with his new Gibson

electric guitar, distortion pedal, 200 watt Kenwood amplifier,

and truckload of speakers… the point being…

Holy

smokes! Parrots can SCREAM!!!

You know it’s getting bad

when your guests involuntarily spill their drinks after a 80-decibel

Parrot scream,

or when someone sits down quickly, holding their heart, worried that

they may be going into cardiac arrest!

Some birds even scream at

night… talk about a sleepless, wide-awake nightmare… and

not just for you, also for your local angry neighborhood!

But I’ll leave that (hopefully) just to your imagination…

because it won’t match THAT awful reality.

But

enough scary Parrot talk…

I’m not here to talk you

out of getting Parrot, nor do

I want to scare you into the !TRAGEDY!

of dumping a “misbehaving” Parrot

off at the local pet shop, nor do I want to inspire the bird-brained

idea of setting Parrot “free”

at some local park (yes this unfortunately happens out of ignorance

and desperation)…

And no, pot seeds will

NOT cure your Parrot! That was just

a funny memory I shared to illustrate that Parrots can and WILL say the craziest things once they start talking.

And apart from the fact that Polygon’s ex-owners might have

been irresponsibly giving him pot seeds, he was obviously

very well treated and well trained to be such a happy and talkative

bird.

What I want to talk to

you about is a very easy way to STOP and PREVENT ANY

Alfred Hitchcock style feathered nightmare… I want to show

you how to own a loving, talking, tricking, playful, and colorful

feathered angel… like Polygon.

The good news is you really can do something

about your current Parrot situation

and improve it dramatically. You just need to understand your

little guy, and then act accordingly with proven training techniques

to keep him or her as your colorful “best of buds friends” in your

home.

(Friends don’t bite and scream, and they

are hopefully politely potty-trained).

It’s time you easily understand your Parrot’s simple needs, train him or her with techniques that work honest-to-goodness wonders, to live the constant, heart warming pleasure of keeping a Parrot that talks and plays like a small child, often so funny that they make you laugh to tears… And avoid the all-too-often tragic nightmare of a “ferocious caged rat with feathers”.

That was meant to be a funny

exaggeration, but a mean

Parrot that bites hard, or an ear-shattering screamer

that gives you and your neighbors ZERO peace, or even a frightened,

terrified Parrot that sees YOU as

a giant evil monster, is far from funny, and no laughing matter…

We’re talking tears and blood… and it’s

time to stop or prevent this bad behavior for good, or before

it ever happens, and inspire the positive fun behavior, like

talking and tricking… starting today!

Who would put their

Parrot in a closet?

Fortunately, (and unfortunately)

only a small handful of Parrot owners

put their birds in a closet, or some

other unpleasant location, but it happens, more out of ongoing

desperation than cruelty…

No mean punishment will EVER

get your Parrot to snap out of his

“destructive or stubborn spoil-sport ways”… don’t force, you’ll

only make things worse!

There’s a FAR easier, and

an infinitely more effective way to get your bird to behave

and perform… that can literally:

Start The

Talking And Singing… Not just “hello”

… get him to beg and plead for mercy till he gets

his favorite treat… greet you when you walk in the door with

such an upbeat message that your spirits rise, even get him

to sing like a star, and ring like a phone (tricking your friends),

you’ll never know what sort of silliness he’ll say or imitate

next… could be hilarious, and watch out, it could be shockingly

embarrassing!

Perform

Hilarious Tricks… Amaze your friends and family…

and simply have great fun with your Parrot

(he’ll love it too)… kind of like having an in-house circus

star…

Glow In

Radiant Health … A healthy

Parrot is a happier Parrot, that is far more likely to

behave well. Learn everything you need to know to keep your

Parrot

shining and bright, avoiding disease and injury.

Stop The Biting…Save your

fingers from painful sharp bites quickly by using a few powerful

training techniques that work outright wonders in less than 15 days,

only 30 minutes a day… you won’t believe it when your bird

hops onto your hand without taking a bad habit snap at your

poor fingers!

Stop The

Screaming… Save your ears, and sanity

from ear-shattering screams… the problem could be just the

position of your Parrot’s cage,

or one of many factors that makes him scream, find out, and

stop this fast.

Stop The

Messy Poops… Can’t stop mother nature, but

you can get your bird to aim better and become potty

trained!

Save Your Wallet… from

very costly vet, or personal expert trainer bills… you can do everything regarding training on

your own when you have the right knowledge base.

Save Your

Heart… from breaking, because you know something’s

not right with your Parrot… you

just don’t know what the heck it is…

Understand Your

Parrot

So Well…

It’s VERY simple common sense… that can give you real results immediately

and amazing results within 15 days or less!

Listen, if you own or want to own a Parrot, the least you need to do is dedicate 15 minutes a day to this creature. Make it real quality time that gives you amazing results…

Parrot Secrets

has the

very simple goal of helping you make your

Parrot happy and healthy, with knowledge

and training techniques that will allow you to achieve this

goal in flying colors!

A happy,

understood, properly

fed, and healthy Parrot will

be nothing short of deep joy, hilarious fun

, and affectionate love within your home…

now, teach your Parrot to talk,

sing, play, snuggle, even do astonishing tricks with ease! Your

happy Parrot

will most likely even surprise you, and do this on his or her

own!

“…Aside from this bird, your training was the smartest

purchase I ever made.”

I have to thank you so much for your training course for

my Parrot JoJo.

I adopted him from someone who abused him terribly. He

had chewed one of his toes off (before I got him 4 months

ago) because he was put on a wet floor that was just washed

with Mr. Clean and not rinsed or dried. He ended up in

the basement of this person’s home with no attention.

His chest & thighs were completely picked apart –

he was naked! The only feathers he had were on his head

& wings.

He was very, very skiddish and would hardly let me put

food in his bowl or give him fruit without wanting to

bite my fingers off. He hardly spoke out of fear. He would

growl like an angry dog waiting for his slab of meat.

After your training course, I cannot believe the trust

i have gained with him. It is incredible. I am now part

of his “flock” and know that he loves me.

He gives me kisses on my cheek, takes showers with me,

he waves, plays games with me, eats dinner with me and

his feathers are coming back! We are now working on his

potty training…..That’s our next endeavor….He even

gets along with my cats and they play together.

I am amazed how fast this training has taken off. I am

more shocked than anything. Nothing else was working,

I listened to what the vet suggested and it just wasn’t

working out.

I cannot thank you enough, and aside from this bird, your

training was the smartest purchase I have ever made. Every

day we learn new things together.

This course in less than 2 weeks has changed both of our lives… Thank YOU, again!!!

Jennifer Clark, New Hyde Park, New York, USA

“…His biting attempts, handled in the way you suggest… have dropped considerably…”

I ordered the training materials to assist in working with our parrot, who had developed the habit of ear-piercing shrieking and random biting, hard enough to draw blood. We were about to find him a new home.

However, your techniques regarding responding to shrieking episodes have worked. He is much more calm and playful. His biting attempts, handled in the way you suggest (moving into the bite) have dropped considerably, and he is not biting as hard.

Despite owning and reading two bird books, we were unaware of the accurate information regarding hours of light he should experience in a day, and hours of darkness needed, and we have adjusted his schedule.

He is clearly a more content bird. Thank you.

Terry Clark Los Gatos, California

“…Wow I cant believe it! Its already starting to work,… He has already made a big change”

Wow I cant believe it! Its already starting to work, today I had D.J. on my hand, which he would never do, unless I had a towel on my hand because he would bite me vicously, but today I tried the thing where you pet him with the sticks on each side then move closer with my hands and that made alot of progress, then I had him on my hand, I would let him bite me then he got really confused so he would then he just nibble.

He has already made a big change, now i can acctually hold and pet him! What a difference!

Ashley Bratt, League City, Texas

“…As You Can Imagine This Was Driving Me Crazy… He

Is Now Happier Than Ever.”

I’d first like to tell you just a bit about our Parrot

Dylan.  We never planned to have a bird or indeed

ever even thought about getting one.  However, our

son, Scott, rescued him in a local park with the aid of

a quaver crisp.

Poor little thing was very, very frightened and used to

spend all day literally screaming which as you can imagine

was driving me crazy, right up to the point of wanting

to find him a new home.

Hence I looked on the net and found your training course.

I am glad to say that he has now stopped screaming within

just a few days after I read your course. He is now happier

than ever as we have such a nice long chat with him several

times a day.

He is such an intelligent little bird.  He woolf

whistles, whistles little tunes we have taught him, and

we also ask him every day “are you alright?” to which

he replies “I’m alright are you alright?”! He

is such a star and I am so grateful to have found your information.

  In just under 2 weeks I have gone from a quivering, tearful,

frustrated bird rescuer, to the proud owner of Dylan the

Parrot who in his own words is “alright”.Thank you for your information which has helped

me understand so much more.

Josette Bellham, Lowestoft, UK

Here are the four ebooks that you

will find in Parrot Secrets

and the essential

Parrot knowledge you will find in each digital book.BOOK ONE

: How to Get Your Parrot To Talk

And Do Astonishing Tricks

Mute as a fish? Discover

the best way to inspire your Parrot

to talk more. (See Page 3)

How to use an under-estimated

���old” powerful training technique that has just been

rediscovered in the Parrot world…

the “Positive Reinforcement Technique”… that will help you

tremendously to teach your Parrot

to say the funniest stuff in front of your friends and family, perhaps

even within a few days or hours! (See

Page 3)…

Discover the 3 easiest words

for your Parrot to learn

that you should consider teaching your Parrot to say first,

before you teach it anything else. It’s likely you will get

far better results if you teach your Parrot

to say these 3 words first before you teach it to say any other

words. See Page 5 to find out what

these 3 words are…

Is it worth persevering when

your Parrot is as silent as a tomb?

(YES!) and how long can it take, if your

Parrot doesn’t talk right away?

(See Page 5)…

One major factor that might prevent

your Parrot from talking… and the simple things that you should do in order to avoid

this. (See Page 6)…

Strategic phone placement tips… Discover why it can be SO important for you to put your telephone somewhere near your Parrot’s cage, but be careful… (See Page 6)…

Training warnings…

Once your Parrot starts talking,

you may have an undesired critic that gets you in hot water,

not a fun chatter! (See Page 6)…

How to use the audio tapes and

CDs that you may already own to teach your

Parrot to speak, and when they are most effective.

(See Page 7)…

Real communication, not just “Bird” talk… How you will be able to amaze your

friends and your family by teaching your

Parrot to say “I want a grape” every time it wants to

have a grape! (See Page 7)…

The 2 special “indicator” ready-to-talk

signs that you need to watch out for in order to know

when your Parrot is ready to begin

learning how to speak. (See Page 9)…

What is the best time of the day to teach your Parrot to speak? Is it mornings, afternoons or evenings? Many people get this crucial thing wrong and their Parrots never learn to speak! (See Page 9 for the correct answer and why)…

Don’t push it! What is the maximum amount of time that you should devote to each training session with your Parrot in order to get the best results? Is it 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, or 2 hours? Once again, many Parrot owners get this crucial step wrong and their Parrots may never learn to speak! (See Page 9)…

10 secret TOP Parrot trainer

tips that will help you to teach your

Parrot to talk in 15 days or less!

(See Pages 9,10, and 11)…

Hilarious ongoing conversation… How you can teach your Parrot

to not only say a few words and phrases every now and then,

but also to actually carry on an intelligent conversation with

you for several minutes! Can you imagine the look of sheer astonishment

on the faces of your friends and your family when they see you

doing this? They would have never thought that this was possible!

(See Page 11)…

Warning: Mean Parrot Creator?

A terrible training mistake that you

should stop immediately if you are doing this as it can actually

make your Parrot mean!

(See Page 12)

How to dramatically increase

your Parrot’s vocabulary. Did you know that some Parrots can have a vocabulary of several

hundred words? (See Page 12)….

How to train your

Parrot to do tricks with ease

(See Pages 13 and 14)…

3 fun tricks, “Perch On T-Stand”, “The Wave”, and “Shake Hands” that you can quickly and easily teach your Parrot to do to start the trick learning process. (See Pages 13 and 14)…

I have been very pleased. I have read and listened

to everything I can get my hands on to date, and your

course, Parrot Secrets

, has been the most helpful.

It’s critical to begin training a companion Parrot correctly

as soon as possible to avoid future behavioral issues.

A solid knowledge base is key, and your

Parrot Secrets

course has

helped me with that.

I received your course about a week ago now. I have a

4 1/2 month old bird. To date, Yuri can wave,

do the ‘big eagle’ and best of all…he is potty trained. All of this without any negative reinforcement.

As a bonus, he’s stopped nipping and is thoroughly comfortable

with being handled, even though I did not specifically

address these issues. A very nice bonus of training!!!!

Brooks wrote back a few days later saying:

I’ve gotten another bird since we last corresponded as

well, and in three days she’s step up/down trained, AND she’s

potty trained!

Thanks for the training tips!!!!    

Brooks Conforti Littleton, Colorado, USA

Your training course has done a great amount with my Parrot . At first my Parrot wouldn’t even step onto my hand, but with your training course I was not only able to get him to step onto my hand but I was also able to teach him how to shake my hand through the Wave.

My Parrot now is very friendly towards everybody and looks

forward to getting out of his cage and onto people’s hands.

Stella Lam Danville, Virginia, USA.

Thank you so much for your training course it has worked

wonders with my Parrot Sam, his talking has improved,

and I am much more confident in handling him and understanding

him.

I would highly recommend the training course to anyone who owns a Parrot or is thinking of buying one. The course offers so much help and understanding with Parrots. I have bought books about Parrots before but none have been so helpful and easy to understand as your training course.

I can honestly say that all your hard work and effort

you have put into this training course have benefited

me and my Parrot.

Pauline Chamberlain Essex, United Kingdom

I liked the course I purchased from you.The e- books were very easy to download and I like how you broke down the categories so I can go directly to what I need to know. Each category is easy to understand and very much into detail. My bird has learned how to wave and he is only 5 months old. We are now working with shaking hands.

I have a parrot that is aggressive about his cage and he don’t like to be petted, so I am using 2 wooden dowels as you talked about so I can tame him enough to pet him. The e- book on bird health is GREAT!!! There was so much I didn’t know about this topic. But having this information makes me feel that I will keep my babies as healthy as possible.

You need to keep the e-books coming and I will refer you to anyone that has birds and would like to become more educated. Thank you so much for helping me with my birds!

Wanda Bucklew, Cobbs Creek, Virginia

I have had parrots before, and did not really expect much of them (and to be honest they developed bad habits that drove me absolutely crazy)! Of course, I want totally eager to get another when my daughter asked, but after reading your book I can now see where I went wrong before!

Parrots are actually very intelligent and friendly pets! My family and I have applied your “secrets” and we have not only learned a great deal about the species, but have also had great results! Our parrot is very much a part of our family! We have even established a evening routine. Of course, the kids let him out daily after school, but during the afternoon/evening routine, is the part I enjoy most.

“Purple” as we call him, is so affectionate and social I can hardly believe it! My previous birds flew away from us, biting us if we ever got too close, but Purple actually flies to us! He goes from one family member to the next, over and over (even my “rowdy” 3-year old) and affectionately “cleans” or “kissing” each of us as he goes along. He is even attempting to make friends with our cat!

Thank you for being interested in your customers!

I am looking forward to reading your entire book, because I know there is much more to learn.

Jennifer Calate Sacramento, California

I have been meaning to write and let you know how very useful and informative I found your bird training course. As a first-time Parrot owner I was impressed with the wealth of information on my bird’s diet, health and behaviour. The section on interpreting my bird’s body language was particularly useful as it taught me to gauge T’wee’s moods and determine how and when to approach him just by watching what he does.

Prior to reading the training course, I had only a limited idea of the intelligence, memory and learning capabilities of parrots. Now my adolescent bird is talking and singing a blue streak, yawning every time we say “night-night” to him, and learning to shake hands. Your course has enabled me and my family to bring out the best in our bird; we enjoy teaching and playing with him and are constantly amazed at how quickly he is able to learn new things using the simple but effective methods we have learned from your e-book.

I recommend it to any bird owner who wants the best for their pet

I will read your course over and over again, it is a great reference guide.

I immediately purchased your training course for fear of ending up with an uncontrollable bird. Cheeky did not want to come to me but ran from me and nipped a little. I started putting Cheeky with me in the kitchen when I cooked, he sits in an old colander hanging above my sink, and I also take Cheeky in the shower with me just to spend some quality time. Much better and is not so nippy. Cheeky is also starting to try to talk too. I started with something simple. I make the kissy sound then say Kiss Kiss.

After the first day, Cheeky started to try to repeat the word. The kissy sound is perfect but the words Kiss Kiss still are somewhat scratchy. I’m sure he will improve. I thouroughly have faith in your training course and am sure Cheeky will come a long way. Thanks from Cheeky and I

Ginger L. Wagner Harleysville, Pennsylvania

I’ve got the info for you. These

are the stunning techniques that stopped even really wild and

mean birds from biting, real life stuff on film, put on paper

in easy to follow steps. They work better and faster than any

other technique I’ve ever seen.

I’ll say it again… they

work better and faster than any other technique I’ve ever seen…

In less than 2 weeks, your

Parrot biting and screaming problems will be dramatically

reduced, perhaps even sooner. And you will also learn how to

PREVENT any such bad behavior from EVER surfacing.

This is a special ebook

that I have permission to share with you when you order, but please don’t hesitate, because I can’t guarantee for how

long the author will allow me to share this info with you before

he decides to sell it himself exclusively.

BOOK TWO

: “How To Get My Parrot To Love Me”

Look

at what’s inside…

Discover this expert bird training author’s personal favorite solution on how to fix

your Parrot’s behavioral problems,

that your

Parrot will LOVE!

(See Page 1)…

Watch the amount of light

your Parrot gets…

Exactly how many hours of sunlight should your

Parrot get every day? Giving it more than the recommended

number of hours of sunlight can make your

Parrot start screaming! Right now, you could very

well be unknowingly giving your Parrot

much more sunlight than what it should be getting! (

See Page 6)…

Does your

Parrot scream? Or are you afraid that your

Parrot

might start screaming in the future? Find out more about

a brilliant new technique to prevent your

Parrot from screaming. You will also read about a

real-life case study in which a bird that used to regularly

scream upwards of 45 minutes at a stretch every day was

trained to stop screaming altogether!

(See Page 6)

How should you react to

a screaming Parrot?…

see the most common mistakes most Parrot

owners make that only make this worse!

(see Page 7)

How to cure the habit of

screaming in already pampered and spoiled

Parrots. (See Page 7)…

How to figure out the exact

reason as to why your Parrot

is biting you (See Pages

8-10)…

The key to training a Parrot to stop biting is to figure out why it has the habit of biting in the first place. If you have figured that out, you have already won half the battle.

Pages 8-10 of

this book will give you a step-by-step scientifically proven

process by which you can determine why your

Parrot bites you.

How to permanently

stop your Parrot from biting, once you have figured out why it bites…

(See Pages 8-13)…

How to cure the habit

of biting in pampered and spoiled Parrots (See Pages 10-13)…

If you have a baby

Parrot, you could be rightly worried that it may start biting

when it grows older, even though you spend a lot

of time with it. Find out how to ensure that your baby

Parrot will never bite once it grows older…

(See Page 8)

Powerful real-life biting case study…The famous real-life story

and case study of how the author got an extremely aggressive bird who used to fiercely bite anyone who came near it

to not only stop biting altogether but also to actually

lie on its back to be cuddled by humans and enjoy being

pet on its tummy! If your Parrot

bites you, you can implement the same secret and closely guarded

techniques to not only stop it from biting, but also to actually

WANT to be pet by you! No Parrot

owner who cares even a bit about his/her

Parrot can afford to miss this famous case study!

(See

Page 9)…

Important tips to help

you recognize biting tendencies coming from natural breeding

desires, and how you should handle your

Parrot when it is in breeding mode.

(See Page 9)…

Discover a surprisingly

powerful but extremely simple strategy to stop biting

in smaller Parrots, or bigger Parrots that aren’t breaking

the skin. Learn how the author got another bird who had

the habit of biting him every time he wanted to have him

step up onto his finger to stop biting him in just 2 weeks

flat (and how YOU can too)! (See Page

9)…

What if your

Parrot bites extremely hard? Learn a break-through

technique called “perching” to stop your

Parrot from biting… developed by the author that

is hands down the BEST method and even allows you to tame

your Parrot without getting

bitten once! (See Page 11)…

Important tips on where

your Parrot should be in relation

to you while you are training it.

(See Page 11)…

Discover the best place

in your house to train your Parrot

most effectively. (See Page

12)..

Learn where exactly

in your home you should put your Parrot’s cage. This crucial decision can make or break

your relationship with your Parrot

and can determine whether your Parrot

is healthy and playful or lonely and depressed!

(See Pages 1-2)

Important cage placement

details…Once you have determined which room to

put your Parrot’s cage in, where

should you put the cage – in the center of the room, or in

one of the corners? This will determine whether your

Parrot is friendly and good-natured or fierce and aggressive.

The correct answer will definitely surprise you!

(See Page 2 for the correct answer)…

Discover the truth… cage

near a window? A lot of Parrot

owners put their Parrot’s cage

beside a window. Is that a good idea and should you do the

same? (See Page 2)…

Should you put your

Parrot’s cage on the ground or should you put it higher up in the

air? (See Page 2 for the answer)…

How many toys should

you put in your Parrot’s cage? (See Page 3) …

3 simple toys that

your Parrot will absolutely LOVE!

(See Page 3)…

Shower frequency

and feather plucking … Do you know exactly how

many times a week your Parrot

needs to have a bath during the summer? During the winter? Lack

of attention here can cause your Parrot

to start plucking its feathers! (See

Page 3 to find out the correct answer)…

3 very important

benefits and tips to consider while bathing your

Parrot… (See Page

3)…

How to control your

Parrot’s adolescent behavior (See

Page 5)…

The best way to deal

with changes in your Parrot’s

attitude and behavior once it starts to mature

(See Page 5)…

The only correct way of handling your Parrot when it is in breeding mode (See Page 5 and Page 9)…

My husband and I have started taking showers with our bird named Cosmo. He absolutely LOVES it and I would never have tried without reading your book. His screeching and screaming (which is the reason I purchased her e-book) has also died down considerably. We leave the room completely and go back in and praise him when he stops. We have also learned that remaining calm and speaking softly to him but not leaving our seats until he stops works remarkably well as well.

Thank you so much for putting you ideas in writing! He is so much more enjoyable (in his adolescent years)!

Thanks – Terry & Renée St. John

Renée St. John Norway, Maine

I had the opportunity to be able to use your training on my new parrot and I’m very satisfied with the results I’m getting. I started the course by reading the material on Getting your bird to love you and which bird to buy. To be honest the bird was kind of shy when she came home about 1 week ago and she was biting my fingers, so I did as you have said to let her bite them and now what she does is that she bites them so soft because she wants me to touch her head with them. She enjoys to be pet.

I’m trying also the part that you teach us how to feed your bird in low quantities so that’s the next step I’ll take. My bird is 4 months old and in the next few days I’ll read the other materials on training her to play games, etc… For now I’m happy to get the response I’m getting from my new friend Paulita Margarita. Thank you very much

Eduardo Aguirre Sunrise, Florida

After reading the Parrot Secrets, my parrot only being here for a few weeks are playing on their homemade wall mounted jungle gym, making their way back to their cage when hungry and thirsty, taking rides on our fingers (even my 4 year old). As I speak to them, I can see direct eye contact, their eyes just light up, we can tell that they are concentrating intently on what we are saying. Though their flying feathers have not come back completely, they are still starting to venture around the house despite the other household pets who watch them, and almost appear to protect them.

This book puts its ideas into terms that you can understand, many things not thought of by the general population such as bathing, preventing illness, trying fresh food snacks and links to where you can buy supplies. There are useful tips about cage placement, ideas on how to make your bird comfortable and happy in any location and definite direction as to WHAT NOT TO DO.

I would reccmmend this book to anyone interested in learning more about having birds as house pets of any breed. Brenda A. La Platte Jupiter, Florida

I just loved the training course. I adopted a parrot 2 years ago and have not been able to train he at all. In his last home he did not have much attention so I have been struggling with bitting and screaming for sometime.

I have been doing the techniques in your course now for about 2 weeks and screaming is less and I am able to hold cocoa. He comes out of his cage and walks the floor to find me.

This course has helped us a lot, to have a nice companion for my family. Cocoa has even calmed down enough to let my youngest of 5 children (1 1/2 year old) pet him with supervision of course. Very nice! I thank you so much for the time and effort.

Christine Donelly Feasterville, Pennsylvania

I love the course, I have two parrots. There was so much Information that seems to work for both of them. I would strongly recommend this training course for anyone who wants a great deal and fantastic customer service. I like the fact that I am not forgotten after the sale and you still send me all kinds of new articles as well as training ideas. Thank you

Richard Lupyak Fayetteville, North Carolina

The very important

optimal Parrot training diet

… How to determine exactly how much food you should give

your Parrot and what kinds, while

training it for the best results, all the while making your

bird even healthier…(See Page 14)…

BOOK THREE

: A Happy Parrot Diet…

Important Tips And Warnings

“…diet

is the most common reason for Parrot

disease…”

A shiny, smart Parrot tip

…How you can turn your Parrot into a glossy-looking, intelligent

and bright bird just by modifying its diet (See

Page 3)…

11 secret psychological tricks (currently known only

by the TOP experts in this field) you can use to persuade and

convince your Parrot to try a new

and improved diet rich in nutrients even if your bird is extremely reluctant to shift to the new diet!

(See Pages 5 and 6)…

Too many seeds? What is the maximum percentage of

your Parrot’s diet that should be composed

of seeds? If you exceed this percentage, it can have really harmful

consequences for the health of your bird!

(See Page 6 for the answer)…

Give ’em power veggies! What are the 2 vegetables that

MUST be included in your Parrot’s

diet? (See Page 7)…

Healthy fun variety…Discover the proper amounts of

different food items that your bird should eat. (See

Page 8)…

Not enough, or too much protein? The optimum percentage

of your Parrot’s diet that should

be composed of proteins is 20%, read some tips to help you raise

or cut back on your Parrot’s protein

level to avoid future health problems… (See

Page 8)…

The most common bird nourishment problem… What is

the optimum percentage of your Parrot’s

diet that should be composed of Vitamin A? And what are the foods

that best supply this critical vitamin?

(See Page 8)…

Your Parrot goes crazy for these

fruits and veggies… The 25 different fruits and vegetables

that your Parrot will love and that

are also extremely good for its health! (See Page 9)

…

The 9 most important diet switching tips that you MUST

keep in mind when you are transferring your Parrot

from its current diet to a more balanced and healthy diet.

(See Pages 10 and 11)…

A secret “beak-watering” Parrot

recipe that is also nourishing and excellent for your bird’s health! Your Parrot will LOVE you for this sumptuous

bird treat! (See Page 12 for complete

details)…

Parrot digestion secrets…

Which specific fruits and vegetables help your Parrot in digestion

(See Pages 14 and 15)…

The 4 most important food preparation rules that you

must follow when you are preparing your Parrot’s food – not following all 4 of these rules can have serious

consequences for your bird’s long-term health!

(See Pages 16 and 17)…

The 11 food items that you should NEVER – ever give to your Parrot under any circumstances. A lot of Parrot owners give these food items to their birds without realizing that they are seriously affecting their birds’ health. Read Page 18 of this book to find out whether you are making the same mistake…

I have found all of your training course very useful.

Indeed, after one day of trying your methods our bird, named Morgan, was saying “hello”.

Now after having him for about 5 weeks he is saying all sorts of things including his name and his favourite at the moment “night night”!

We love him to bits. The methods we have tried are as in your course i.e. Repetition and Association. Morgan easily picks up sounds and phrases and loves to whistle. We spend as much time as possible with Morgan when we are not at work and he is always eager to get out of his cage onto his perch, at first we could not get him out but we put his perch near his cage and after a while he realised he was coming out and is now very noisy if we don’t let him out within minutes of arriving home.

The book about interpreting Parrot body language was very useful to us because we now know when he is happy and when he is not.

Also, your information about Parrot diets was very interesting because we now know what to give him and what not to give him.

Finally, the book on biting was excellent, it makes very interesting reading and in fact we used the methods in this book to stop Morgan from biting us when we first got him.

I am more than pleased to have spent my money on this training course and associated parts because it has been very helpful to my family in starting to train Morgan.

Leslie J Sharples Northampton, United Kingdom

I have really benefitted from your training course. Sherlock, my Parrot, is extremely intelligent. He not only can immitate voices, sounds, words, sentences, etc, he understands concepts. He knows when it’s time to go to work or church, he knows when it’s clean-up time, and he can have full conversations with himself that make sense.

However, I was not successful in getting him to respond to my questions, requests, etc. when I wanted him to. He gives our English Springer Spaniel different commands such as: Zoe, come, sit, shake, down and so on. He praises her as well. Of course, he only does this when he feels like it.

After receiveing your course of study, I realized how wrongly I was trying to train Sherlock. Today, he finally responded correctly when I made my request to count, and he received a treat and praise as a reward. We are on our way to successful training.

Another problem I have, is that Sherlock makes a beeping sound every time I sit down to eat. He expects to get some of my supper. Your course has helped me to start correcting that problem. He is starting to realize that he only gets some pasta (which he loves) or other treat, when he is quiet or responds to my requests.

Thanks to your course, I now have the proper techniques to train Sherlock to do what I want him to, when I want him to.

Thanks for your dedication to training birds, and for your concern with each one of your students. I imagine that your other students are as appreciative as I am. Thanks, again!

Ethel Sherman Lykens, Pennsylvania

I have had my Parrot, Dooney for 1 month today. After bringing her(I think it’s a her) home for the bird store she was the sweetest little bird going but after one day on top of her cage by herself, she turned into the devil bird.

I came home from work after having left her out of her cage (cause she likes being out) and when I approached her she turned into a lunging, biting devil bird. She tried to bite me and everyone in the family. She did manage to bite me. I absolutely panicked and called my son to see if something had happened when I wasn’t home that could have caused this. He said no.

I thought I had screwed up but I found your training course and immediately ordered.

Now after learning that she was controlling me and everyone around her, I am back in control by using your tips. She did try to bite me this morning and I let her know she wasn’t the boss.

It’s funny because you can look at her facial expressions and see that she is trying to figure out what she can get away with and when she’ll be in trouble. After reading your training and learning how to put myself in control, she doesn’t generally try to bite me but she’ll try to push my hand away with her beak.

That tells me that she is communicating with me but doesn’t feel the urge to bite me.

Marcy Mason Henderson,Nevada

BOOK FOUR

: How To Choose Your

First Parrot Wisely…Tips And Warnings

The

#1 most important “buyers rule” that you need to keep

in mind when you buy your Parrot. (See Page 9)

…

The #1 catastrophic “buyer” mistake that first time Parrot owners make when they buy a Parrot… and how you can easily avoid making this mistake. (See Page 9)…

The 5 different types of sellers where you can buy a Parrot… and how to choose which place is the best for YOU. (See Pages 10 and 11)…

Effective research tips… How to research before deciding on getting a Parrot (See Page 15)…

The

4 crucial “store” questions that you must ask any store

from which you buy your Parrot (See Pages 16 and 17)

…

I think your training course is wonderful.

I have had my new companion “Angel Pie” for about three months now and she is already etched on my heart. My cat Brittany (Himalayan Persian – 14 years old) loves her too!

I applied your techniques to stop my bird from biting the first day I got your info and she was almost completely cured of that habit within a week – and within two weeks – no more biting. Now she only gives little “love” bites.

Thank you for delivering the goods that work!

Kimberly Olson Fort Worth, Texas, USA

Your training course is WONDERFUL! I learned so much from all of it. The food section has changed the way my parrot eats and with little resistance. The sleep section (on hours of light) was something I did not know,within a few days my Jac-ee was a different bird! The age definitions totally explained why Jac-ee acts like a sometimes bratty teenager. I cannot say enough about all that I learned from your course, and Jac-ee too! We are “high four-ing” now! Thank You Thank You Thank You.

I will read your course over and over again, it is a great reference guide.

Linda Kleist Arvada, Colorado

We was quite excited to find your website and once we began receiving the instructional emails we had to know more so we ordered your ebook. My husband and I absolutely loved it! We are first time bird owners and have purchased a parrot (Mr. Grey) as a handfed baby and another parrot (P.J.) as an adolescent (which has some undesirable personality traits). We we doing several things absolutely wrong and your book made absolute sense! We we trying to train our birds the way we do our dogs!

WRONG! We now have faith that with your guidance we can rear Mr. Grey properly and correct P.J.’s behavior and be able to provide them a permanent loving home.

Gala Payne Portage, Indiana

I received my training course and I have worked with my birds for a couple of weeks, and I can see a big difference in them.

I want to thank you for the training course it has made my life a lot easier and my fingers are not sore all the time from my birds always biting – the biting has been reduced approx. eighty percent and I am so proud of my birds.

William B. Coulter, Crestwood, Kentucky, USA

Your product has made me more knowledgeable about my bird.

I have started working with my pet and I am already starting to see improvements. Your product is excellent.

Sasheen Maharaj South Africa

I thought it was extremely informative. It helped me and my 2 new birds bond. It showed me not to be scared of them and how to handle them properly. They did bite me at first but, I read in the e-book what to look for and it really works. They are easier to handle and play with now. I am very glad I bought the e-book.

I am very skeptical of on-line products. The transaction was very secure, I am very pleased with the e-book. By the way, this was the first e-book I have ever bought. It was very easy to download. I am a satisfied customer.

Thanks for your helpful information.

Sincerely, Donna Lonsiak

I found your parrot training courses easy to understand and follow. With a little patience and good humor, you can follow Nathalie’s information and train your bird to be a wonderful, life-long companion. My bird Sapphire is screaming less and I’m enjoying her more. What more could you ask?

Bill Tanner Los Angelas, California

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on every email I send you.

The real

question is: How much are you willing to spend to have

a happier, healthier, playful, well

behaved, and more affectionate Parrot

sharing the intimacy of your home with you, your family, and

friends?

Perhaps

not much until you have a serious problem…

I guarantee you,

as soon as something starts going wrong, or your

Parrot starts misbehaving, or gets ill, then it really

does become a serious issue, perhaps even VERY costly in both

time and money for you to resolve the problem or inconvenience.

As you might have already experienced, the emotional attachment between a Parrot owner and his or her Parrot, can be VERY INTENSE, and you’ll do just about ANYTHING to solve the problem, as quickly and happily as possible.

My sincere desire

is to help you and your Parrot find

more joy through very helpful knowledge that ALL Parrot

owners should have when they take on the BIG responsibility

of caring for a delicate living creature…

You don’t want

to be the unwitting cause of unnecessary suffering…

To make sure this

ebook set is picked up by as many Parrot

owners or future Parrot owners as possible, I have made a radical

decision…

56 DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE – See more details below.

SPECIAL FREE BONUS #1

How To Keep Your Parrot

Radiantly Healthy And Avoid Disease

Know the 9 major diseases that can affect your Parrot

… and the crucial symptoms you need to watch

out for in order to detect these illnesses before

they can become serious. (See

Pages 3, 4, 5 and 6)…

Young Parrot disease…

Polyomavirus affects young Parrots… and what you can do to prevent your

Parrot from getting affected by this disease

(See Page 4)…

The 10 most common injuries that can affect your Parrot… and what you can do to protect your

Parrot from them. (See

Pages 7, 8 and 9)…

Those first crucial 2 weeks… Why the first 2

weeks after you bring your Parrot

home are absolutely crucial for the development of

a healthy relationship between you and your

Parrot, and what you should do during the

first 2 weeks in order to build rapport with your bird (See Page 10)

…

5 Critical Longevity Tips… The 5 crucial things that you must learn

about your Parrot in order

to ensure that it has a long and healthy life.

(See Page 10)…

One expert Parrot owner health

tip: One essential health food item that you

should include in your Parrot’s diet that will not only give it a shiny, gorgeous

plumage but also make it far more intelligent!

(See Page 11)…

Alternative medicine for Parrots? Did you know

that the Japanese technique of Reiki and the Chinese technique

of Acupuncture can benefit not only humans but also

Parrots? Not to mention homeopathic remedies, even

aromatherapy! Find out how you can use alternative

medicine to cure your Parrot’s illnesses or mood swings!

(Pages 11 – 12)

As this site develops it will become a monthly payment

subscription site, but if you purchase now, we will

give you a FREE “early bird” membership for life,

as an early contributor that adds value to this important

Parrot resource site.

In

need of emergency advice for your Parrot?

Come ask in the members only forum, and you will

almost certainly get a prompt and very helpful response

from another Parrot owner

who has already been there in your shoes before you.

Fast answers to important questions…Get

immediate access to many questions that have already been

asked, and the very helpful answers that followed.

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fanatics (once these little fun-filled feathered

guys get in your heart, you can’t help but become fanatical

towards them!), and develop lasting friendships, through

mutual support and sharing.

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and share the coolest and funniest new

Parrot tricks and outrageous real-life stories

…

Make this very small monetary investment now, both for your

Parrot’s sake and for you too!… you won’t regret it!

You’ll start seeing positive results immediately once you apply

the professional yet simple Parrot

training techniques shared in these ebooks.

No need to search further, wasting precious time … make your

Parrot happier right now, with all the comprehensive

info you need at one low price.

You won’t find so much helpful Parrot

knowledge all gathered into one place, and at one low price, ANYWHERE!

Well, you have absolutely nothing to lose as I’ll take all your risk!…

100% Money Back Guarantee

Take 56 days to read through all the material. If you are not satisfied with the helpful knowledge shared in my book, just contact me during that time, and I will promptly return your money, no questions asked.

  Here’s how it works to Order And Download

Parrot Secrets

IMMEDIATELY:(Yes!

Even at 3 a.m.)

You’ll Get:

BOOK ONE: How to Get Your Parrot To Talk and Do

Astonishing Tricks

BOOK TWO: How To Get

My Parrot To Love Me -(Fix your Parrot’s

behavioral problems – Biting, Screaming, etc… with expert

Parrot training info).

BOOK THREE : A Happy Parrot Diet…

Important Tips And Warnings

BOOK FOUR : How To

Choose Your First Parrot Wisely… Tips

And Warnings

SPECIAL BONUS #1 eBOOK: How To Keep Your Parrot

Radiantly Healthy

SPECIAL BONUS #2 “Parrot Secrets

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Copyright (c) 2005 – 2007 Nathalie Roberts 1901 60th Place E. Suite L4484, Bradenton, Florida, 34203, USA

@ Click Here to CONTACT US BY EMAIL

P.S. You may be

inadvertently encouraging your Parrot’s bad behavior, don’t you think you owe it to yourself

and your Parrot to find out? Your

Parrot really will love you more for this… it’s

natural, any living being that feels understood, well cared for,

and safe, will spontaneously give back such love.

Click Here To Order And Download Now On A Secure Server

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@ Click Here to CONTACT US BY EMAIL

I’m a stranger to downloading E-books and was a little worried if I was doing the right thing… but I finally made up my mind… What did I have to lose?

Even the price you were asking was not going to break the Bank… it has to be worth it I thought …

Boy! was I sensible… It was more than worth it!…

Downloading your book or should I say books was so simple that I didn’t believe that they had downloaded… Sure enough there they were… so quick… so simple… so worthwhile.

I found your information extremely valuable. Plus…this is a BIG plus…your enthusiasm in your writing is overwhelming… This straight forward… no nonsense composite guide has to be one of the best reads I’ve encountered on the well being and upkeep, plus easy training techniques on Parrots… and I’ve read loads believe me.

If you own a Parrot and are reading this and are in any doubt… like I was …then think it over and ask yourself will this book make a difference… a real difference? Can the training work for me and my Parrot… will we really find it that easy?…

Yes…Yes… and Yes is the answer…

Victor Door United Kingdom

I have found that the best part of your course is in the educating yourself on behalf of your bird and learning why they do what they do. You also stress the part of spending quality time and the placing of your bird in the house where they can see and hear you.

We have an eight month old parrot and already it is spoiled and thinks it is and has always been a part of the family. I can’t remember having so much fun. Gracie jumps down off her perch and wonders through the house looking for me if I stay old, her vocabulary is amazing. She rattles on for 45 minutes at a time. She is constantly learning new words and phrases.

I believe it is because where I read that you should spend quality time with them and become their friend. She has bonded with both my wife and me and either one of can and does feed and baths her. She likes to sit on my shoulder and watch t.v. while i feed her sun flower seeds.She has from spending time, learned to trust me and I am sure that I now have been adopted as part of her flock.

Keep up the good work and if you come up with new stuff let me know.

Pastor Brian Adams Jackson, Ohio

I am writing back about your training course. My husband and i have been reading and searching for the right bird for us we have actually decided to go with a parrot at petsmart in burnsville minnesota.

However we have spent alot of time looking, holding, and playing with all different birds. I have read some of your training course and it has helped minumize alot if pet stores that dont take care of there birds properly.

i am very glad we purchased your training couse and i believe it will help us in the long run with our dusky.

Andrea Tesseman Farmington, Minnesota

With regard your training course my comments are as follows:

I wish I had got your course before getting my parrot. I found I was really struggling with my parrot as he would only allow me to touch him.

Since sharing your course with the whole family, we have progressed to the level where my wife can now pick him up and take him around the house, in fact he now even follows her even when I’m in the room. He is far more tolerant of the children (5 & 7 Yrs)and has now really become the family bird, not just mine.

The e-books on diet and health were very informative and helpful. You also provide insight on maintaing your parrot, after reading this I was horrified at how my birds wing had been clipped. On the whole your course was worth every cent, and my family and my self refer back to it continually. Potty training was also helpful and we are halfway there with having our bird potty trained.

Frank Rawson Laezonia, South Africa

I invested in your training course after purchasing a young female parrot. She was hand fed as a baby, but then the pet store made the mistake of putting her back in a cage with her siblings. She had become hostile and fearful of humans, and the pet store employees had nicknamed her “Jaws” because of her defensive biting when they caught her with their hands.

I’m a counselor, so I love a challenge, and I felt a bond when the little creature cuddled under my flannel shirt. I tood her home and named her M

The course was helpful, especially the chapter on problem behaviors and how to get your parrot to love you. In no time, she was stepping up onto a wooden perch, and she has not seriously bitten me now in about 3 weeks. To the contrary, she skitters to the end of the wood perch I use to Step Up, and cuddles in the hollow of my hand inisisting I rub her head and neck. It’s pretty amazing. It was also helpful to know which fruits and veggies I can safely feed my bird.

I find a parrot the perfect bird for a middle aged professional who works long hours at the office. Her life expectancy does not exceed mine, which is one less worry.

Her playpen is small enough to sit on the end table next to my recliner while I read or watch TV, allowing us daily time together. They naturally like to hide in pockets and shirts, which makes them adorable and convenient

Steve Warner Montrose, Colorado

Your training course was of immense help to me. Even with limited time due to two new babies in the house – one of the bird variety and one of the human variety, I have seen a dramatic change in the way that my parrot interacts with me and my husband.

I was concerned when we first bought him as he was showing an extreme level of nervousness and aloofness as birds tend to do, however I beleive it is your program that has trained us to interact with our new baby.

Thank you so much for your insight and practical tips. I will not hesitate to recommend your training program to any bird owner.

Diane Ponsen Newcastle, Australia

I haven’t actually completed reading the entire course material, however, what I will say is that what I have read, I have learned from. My children and I are the proud owners of three lovely colourful birds (Ohla, Beeker & Baby Blue). Ohla had a tendency to bite my two year old daughter who enjoys walking around with all three on her shoulders or in her hair (the biting has stopped). Once and a while she tries, but we follow what you recommend and it doesn’t occur for long periods of time after that.

My thirteen year old takes showers with all three of them and it completely calms them down. We never knew you could! They really enjoy their showertime. Baby Blue is now sticking her entire head into the water reservoir, which she never did before beginning her shower regime.

My son who is eleven takes part in their development as well, so the whole family is really enjoying these little creatures. They don’t just remain in their cage.

Your material is easy to read for everyone and simple to follow. We’re happy we found you on the internet. My two year old daughter also likes to have them on the edge of the tub when she takes her bath and they are happy to stay there!

Thanks for the tips, they sure have helped.

Cheryl Ann Chambly, Quebec

I was really depressed because I got sick and had to retire early.I bought a parrot which I named “chi-chi”.He was scared to death of me at first until I purchased your course.Now he is tamed and knows I am his other “Daddy”.He is a very happy bird.Sings “All’ day long!He has added to my life richly.Due to your course I was able to bring Much “Joy”to his life as he brings to our home Thank You!!!

Jesus Espinosa Mesa, Arizona

I am thrilled with your parrot training course. Your knowledge and understanding of these beautiful creatures is extraordinary.

I am a studio musician and producer, well known for playing the guitar on such shows as Seinfeld and Married With Children as well as being a member of the grammy award winning musical act Manhattan Transfer, Jean Luc Ponty and rocker Bryan Adams.

I have a parrot named Renge. He loves to accompany me in he car, in the recording studio and even for a ride on my scooter. Although I have to use a leash on the scooter, your course has helped me build a relationship with him, so he can be free around the house as well as the recording studio.

After 6 days with your course, Renge who was already murmuring some words, is clearly saying Peekaboo, Baby Bird, Cmon, and Goodnite. he doesn’t yet do it on command ,but we are working on it. I am also working on the response to my questions exercise that you mention in your great book.

Your chapter on nutrition and feeding has opened a world of new foods for him to enjoy. I had been feeding him only “pretty bird” conure food and a piece of apple each day. Now he enjoys fruits and veggies, pasta, and I’ve even taken him to a couple of restaurants where he shares for example ..rice at the Mexican restaurant. there is much fun work to do thanks to your Parrot Secrets and I intend to get good at this, as he gets better and better.

This past week there was a bird feeder making class at the HUTCHINGS MUSEUM in Lehi Utah. I was invited to bring Renge, and the 20 or so children loved him. The museum upon hearing that it was Renge’s birthday on May 1st (he will be 1 year) has offered the museum for his birthday party. Now if that isn’t a testament to him and your training methods, i don’t know what is. Thank you

Jamie Glaser

Provo, Utah

Where do I start about your training course, first I have been involved with avians of all sorts but particularly parrots since I was 8 years old… dating myself that would be 37 years. I have always been to many bird seminars & I have tried to read everything I can get my hands on about information that I had not previously learned about or read elsewhere.

I had for the most part been a parrot person. Your course has been especially helpful in getting my parrot, Gabby started on her speech, in less than 2 weeks she now says ” Hi Gabby, Hello, Love you too & Gabby like?” I couldn’t believe how quickly she started & how soon she perfected the words, she speaks very clearly.

We are currently working on some trick ideas, as my daughter wants to be on “Pet Stars” and is determined to take Gabby to Hollywood.

I have shared some of your information on the biting & screaming issues with a dear friend of mine (although I advised her to purchase them for herself, which I believe she did), whom rescued a Double yellow head, who had all his negitive behaviors reinforced by his previous owners. She is reporting no blood draw for over a week, and the screaming stops with just a little “flock whistle” when she leaves the room.

So I must thank you so much for myself, as well as my girlfriend she was really getting close to the end which would’ve meant I would have inherrited her bird & I am really quite content at the moment with my pet numbers, so thank you again for saving me from adopting one more parrot in need of reform, by helping my girlfriend through your training courses, to gain confidence, be able to read his body language & get the upper hand back.

Thank you so much for your courses they are wonderful, and anyone thinking of getting a parrot should purchase them as well as anyone currently sharing their life with a parrot or parrots.

Maureen Snyder Oyen Novato, California

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[wrestlingisfake]

G1 Special in USA Day 2 preview

New Japan held back on the full card until we knew who was advancing in the US title tournament, so several of these matches have only just been announced.  This show will air live tonight at 8pm EDT on NJPWworld.com, and I think it’s supposed to air in its entirety on AXS next week.

Kenny Omega or Jay Lethal vs. Tomohiro Ishii or Zack Sabre Jr. - This is a tournament final, with the winners of the two semifinal matches earlier in the card.  Whoever wins here will become the first IWGP United States champion.

All things being equal, this match comes down to political factors.  Supposedly New Japan wants the US champion to regularly defend the title at Ring of Honor events in the States.  Sabre probably can’t do that due to his commitments with EVOLVE.  Lethal could, but with his rib injury angle it’s going to be awkward to put him over Kenny Omega without some shenanigans.  Omega has done little if any work in ROH lately, but if the plan is for him to feud with Cody over control of the Bullet Club, it would make a lot of sense for him to do more US stuff.  NJPW could easily spare Ishii from the Japanese schedule to appear on more ROH shows, but there’s no way to know if the company really sees him as the best face to put on their American expansion movement.

Of course, it’s possible the winner of this tournament will simply drop the title in short order to someone else better suited to New Japan’s plans for the rest of the year.  Cody would make a lot of sense as US champion in many ways, and if he’s going to rain on one of these guys’ parade, Omega would make the most sense.  Then again, Cody could simply interfere in this match to cost Omega the title.

It would be easier to pick a winner if the semifinals had already been completed, but based on what we know now I have to figure Omega beats Ishii to win the title.  It’s the best main event for this show, and it sets the stage for Kenny to deal with internal Bullet Club stuff for a while before he gets back to chasing Okada’s title.  It’s Omega’s tournament to lose, and until a reason pops up for him to lose I gotta bank on him.

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Billy Gunn - Tanahashi is defending the IWGP intercontinental championship.  This is basically equivalent to what it would be like if John Cena went to Japan in 2017 to defend a title against the fake NWO Sting.

I kinda know what to expect from a Tanahashi match when he’s up against guys like Okada, Nakamura, Omega, AJ Styles, and Naito.  Billy is...not like any of them.  He was a big tall “hoss” in the 1990s, who slid by in the Attitude Era by being the butt of ass jokes and Jim Ross’s line about him being the “best pure athelete in the WWF.”  He’s likeable enough and maybe worth having in your undercards, but he’s not going to suddenly get super-good and deliver the kind of match you’d expect from a Japanese promotion’s semi-main event.

(Fun fact: Billy Gunn was born two weeks before the Kennedy assassination.)

I could knock New Japan for misreading what will appeal to American audiences, but as a fan I’m looking forward to this trainwreck simply because I’ve never seen anything like it in New Japan.  The spectacle of Tana trying to figure out what to do with this guy should be worth it.  And to be honest, with Tanahashi’s biceps all messed up, I don’t really want him working a 30-minute classic against a strong-style guy.  Let the poor guy take it easy doing a short, three-star match against an old man who’ll just toss him around a little.

It’s an outside possibility that Gunn could actually capture the title, if only to shock the world and then drop it to someone else next month.  But let’s face it, Tanahashi is going to win this thing.

Kazuchika Okada & Will Ospreay & Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe vs. Cody Rhodes & Bad Luck Fale & Marty Scurrl & Yujiro Takahashi - If this feels like an amalgam of two matches from last night, that’s because it is.  It’s a standard pattern for New Japan to take the big matches from the night before and remix them into the undercard tag matches.  They don’t want to wear out Okada and Cody, but if they sent them home some fans wouldn’t get to see them live on the second show, so this way they appear on the show without having to work as hard.

At Dominion we saw Cody come out (with most of Bullet Club behind him) trying to throw in the towel to stop Kenny Omega’s title match.  Last night we saw Omega (with none of the Bullet Club behind him) trying to throw in the towel to stop Cody’s title match.  Both times, the Young Bucks tried to oppose the towel-throwing, suggesting they’ll be the peacemakers in this issue.  The question is whether the rest of Bullet Club has already quietly taken Cody’s side, and we might get some signs of that here.  Mostly, though, I expect Okada will pick up another win here, to remind the US audience that he’s the top guy doing top guy things and such.

Nick Jackson & Matt Jackson vs. Rocky Romero & Trent Beretta - The Young Bucks (Nick and Matt) won the IWGP junior tag team title from Roppongi Vice (Romero and Beretta) a couple of weeks ago, so this is the rematch.  I feel like I’ve written that about 300 times in the last couple of years.

Look, gimme a break.  I could lay out this match in my sleep by now.  The Bucks act like prima donnas, they cut off the ring and isolate one of the faces, every time RPG mounts a comeback the Bucks magically pop up and do a bunch of superkicks and indytakers, which don’t keep anybody down for long because the Bucks’ gimmick might as well be that their fancy moves don’t work, and you can really just skip to the last two minutes of the match because nothing that happens before that will matter.

The Long Beach crowd is super into Bullet Club so the Bucks will probably retain for the big pop.

Raymond Rowe & Hanson & Michael Elgin vs. Tama Tonga & Tanga Roa & Hangman Page - War Machine (Rowe/Hanson) won the IWGP heavyweight tag title from the Guerillas of Destiny (Tonga/Roa) last night.  Elgin and Page were both eliminated from the US title tournament last night.  So this is something for all of them to do.  Page is the lowest guy in this match, and that’s probably enough to ensure that he loses the match for his team.

Tetusya Naito & Hiromu Takahahsi & EVIL & BUSHI & SANADA vs. Juice Robinson & Jay White & Dragon Lee & Voldaor Jr. & Titan - I was kinda hoping Evil/Bushi/Sanada would defend their trios championship here, but I guess someone wanted all five members of Los Ingobernables de Japon in one match.  This is basically a retread of last night’s LIJ eight-man match, but with Naito and Juice added, since they were knocked out of the US title tournament.  LIJ will almost certainly get the win, unless maybe they want to set up a Naito feud with Juice or something, but they probably don’t.

Tomohiro Ishii vs. Zack Sabre Jr. - This is one of the semifinals in the US championship tournament.  Ishii is all about strong style and close-range clubbering; Sabre is all about chain wrestling and fancy, low-impact submission wrestling.  It’s tough to imagine how this is going to go, but it should be interesting.  I think Ishii will win.

Kenny Omega vs. Jay Lethal - The other semifinal in the US tournament.  Last night Lethal was selling his rib injury angle from ROH, and it became very clear that about 90% of his moveset involves landing on those ribs.  It’s one thing for Hangman Page to job to Lethal in that condition, but it’d be idiotic to have Omega lose clean to an injured and exhausted Lethal.  Unless Cody comes out and starts some shit with Omega, there is zero chance of Kenny losing here.

KUSHIDA & Jushin Thunder Liger & David Finlay vs. Yoshitatsu & Sho Tanaka & Yohei Komatsu - Same match we saw last night, minus Tanahashi and Gunn.  There’s even less reason for Kushida’s team to lose this time.

[yujachachacha]

How do you burn the subtitles in the video using HandBrake?

Is this the anon from before who was asking about subbing/fonts/Korean? If so, hi again! :D And if not, well, hello there, new anon! It seems like I’m slowly turning into a “how-to” blog lately, haha. Probably because I’ve been busy with RL lately, so my online productivity has taken a hard hit.

In fact, I’m actually going to get two of my wisdom teeth pulled out today…and if it’s anything like when I had my first two removed, I’m going to be miserable for the rest of the week. (´；ω；｀) I’m hoping that it actually leads to me having some more free time since I’ll be staying at home to heal (I have vivid memories of certain things splattering from last time). Knowing me, I’m more likely to end up binge-watching Aqours niconamas while whispering “i must be insane why did i agree to let some person saw my gums open” as I rock back and forth in a blanket cocoon and cry over Shukashuu’s cute face…

…uh, enough about my boring personal life, lol. As I mentioned in a previous ask, I’ve actually been using ffmpeg lately to mux and burn my subbed videos instead. In fact, the recent video that I edited for Shukamod’s comeback post was processed with ffmpeg. ffmpeg is handy because it can both mux and burn in subtitles, and can be used to fiddle with a variety of video/audio/subtitle options for files as well. For serious encoders, I’d recommend going with ffmpeg because of this versatility.

However, I do know that ffmpeg isn’t quite for everyone since it’s a command line tool. That means it requires typing stuff into Terminal (if you have a Mac) or Command Prompt (for Windows users) that looks like this -

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf “ass=subtitle.ass” output.mp4

- at its simplest, which can be off-putting to some people. HandBrake, on the other hand, is probably a bit more user-friendly since it has a GUI - meaning there’s an actual window for the program with ~buttons~ and stuff. I know that some subbers out there use HandBrake, and this program is fantastic because it also gives you a lot of encoding options, plus it’s very easy to navigate.

The major downside is that unlike ffmpeg, HandBrake can’t do muxing - your video has to already have the subtitles muxed for HandBrake to burn them in. Luckily, there are plenty of programs out there for this step. I personally use MKVToolnix since it also has a great GUI and comes with command line tools like mkvinfo, mkvmerge (which is basically what the MKVToolnix GUI does), and mkvextract. For the purposes of simple subbing, all you really need to know is that MKVToolnix is a very fast and powerful tool for creating the muxed files you need for HandBrake! :)

Ah, and for HandBrake, basically all you have to do is check off “burned in” for the encoding options and you should be set, lol. So even though you’re using 2 programs instead of 1 for hardsubbing (MKVToolnix for muxing, HandBrake for burning in those subs), it won’t take very long. For example, if your subbed video is only a few minutes long, the mux/burn process should take mere seconds! It’s quite simple, but I’ve also picked up a few things that might make the process even easier, so I’ll share those with you!

(Side note: I have no idea if HandBrake looks drastically different on Windows/other OS, so everything I say here might only apply to the Mac version of the program. Hopefully, they’re not too different.)

tl;dr version of how to use HandBrake:

1. Mux subs into a video with MKVToolnix or program of your choice.

2. Open up the file in HandBrake and navigate to the “Subtitles” tab in the middle of the HandBrake window.

3.Click the drop-down under the “Track” heading and select the option with “(SSA)”, which should be the Aegisub file (.ass) that you muxed into this video. Check off the “Burned In” option.

4. (This step isn’t always necessary, but is kind of a “just-in-case” measure.) On the “Picture” tab, make sure that the “Cropping” option on the right is set to “Custom”, and that the numbers are all set to 0.

5. Under the “Destination” section (2nd bolded heading in the window), set the file name and destination for your finished product.

6. Hit the green “Start” button at the top and wait for HandBrake to work its magic! It should send you a desktop notification when it’s finished.

That’s basically it! Detailed instructions under the cut~

Softsubbing (muxing) with MKVToolnix

Before we get into HandBrake, we need to deal with this step of the process. Unlike ffmpeg, which can create a hardsubbed .mp4 right off the bat, Handbrake requires a softsubbed file in order to create a hardsubbed version.

Softsubbing means that there’s a subtitle file associated with the video that you can “turn off” or “turn on” when watching from a video player on your computer, versus hardsubbed files where the subtitles are “burned in” and inseparable from the video. Advantages of softsubbing includes being able to, as stated, “turn off” the subtitles when watching a video, and being able to choose from multiple versions of subtitles for a video.

This doesn’t just mean multilingual support - it also includes subtitle styles as well. So in one video, you could have a Spanish subtitle file, a Chinese subtitle file, an English subtitle file from one fansub group that uses Open Sans font, an English subtitle file from another group that uses Lato and animated karaoke effects, another English subtitle file from a different group in Helvetica Neue along with a markedly different translation style, and yet another English subtitle file that’s styled in god-awful rainbow colors and Comic Sans or something, lol.

Of course, the downside is that if you’re playing the file with anything but a decent video player, the subs won’t appear at all. For example, if you upload a softsubbed file to YouTube, you won’t see any subs show up on that video. Hardsubbing is the go-to method for uploading files onto video-sharing sites to ensure maximum coverage, so that viewers on all platforms can see the subs.

So, we’ll be using a program called MKVToolnix to generate a softsubbed version of the video that’ll later be used as the base for the hardsubbed video we’ll make in HandBrake.

(Ah, by the way, what I said before about HandBrake possibly looking different to non-Mac users applies here as well. Again, I’m tentatively guessing that things will look pretty much the same. Fingers crossed.)

At the time of this post, the most current version of MKVToolnix is 12.0.0. Windows and Mac users can download the installer from this page - Linux users should go to the MKVToolnix homepage for download options. The install shouldn’t take too long, so you’ll be able to get going pretty quickly.

MKVToolnix is real simple - drag and drop files into the window, and click start. Bam, there’s your muxed file! :)

You can add files by either dragging and dropping them directly into the “Source files” window, or through the “Add source files” button on the left-most side of the bottom of the GUI. You’ll be dragging two files here - the video file and the subtitle file. As you might have guessed from the name of this program, softsubbed files are in .mkv format, so that’s what your output is gonna be in. On the bottom, where it says “Destination file”, the box will automatically fill in with an identical name and file location as the source video.

Let’s say our input files are named “testvideo.mp4” (the video that we want to add subs to) and “testvideo.ass” (the subtitles created for the video on Aegisub). The output will be named “testvideo.mkv” by default. I’ll usually rename the output file to something like “testvideo_muxed.mkv”. Even though it’ll be obvious that this is the muxed video without renaming (since it’s .mkv rather than .mp4), I still like going through with this for the sake of order. It’s up to you whether you want to do this or not - you only really need to rename the file if your source video was a .mkv file as well. Also, if you want the muxed file to be saved in a different location than the original video, you can click the button next to the text field to browse for your desired place.

You don’t need to mess with anything else after that - just hit the “Start multiplexing” button at the bottom and the job should be done in seconds (or minutes, if for whatever reason you’re subbing a 1 hr+ video).

If you find a different program for softsubbing that you’re more comfortable with, feel free to use that one instead! All that matters is that you have a .mkv softsubbed file to use as an input for HandBrake.

Hardsubbing (burning in) with HandBrake

When you open up HandBrake, it should automatically open up a window for you to browse through your files. Go ahead and select your muxed video file (the .mkv you just muxed, NOT the raw .mp4 file!) now. If you happen to accidentally close this window, no worries - you can just click the “Open Source” button located on the top-left corner to navigate to the file you need.

Once you’ve selected a file, HandBrake will read the file and load the appropriate options. There are a lot of options you can mess around with on HandBrake - feel free to explore them on your own, if you’re interesting in encoding and the like. However, since our goal here is just to burn in subtitles, I’m just going to skip to the basics.

Feel free to do these steps in any order you want, since the order doesn’t matter. I’m a simple gal, so I like to start at the top and work my way down. The first thing I usually do is go to the Destination section (second from the top) to set the name and destination for the finished file. If the file destination is already right where you want it, then you can just type directly in the space where you can edit the file name. If not, click the “Browse…” button on the right and find the location you want to save the file to.

Since the encoded file is going to be a .mp4 rather than a .mkv, you don’t have to change the file name if you don’t want to. Well, you do kinda have to if you didn’t rename your .mkv before since you’re gonna end up with two .mp4 files and you probably don’t want the raw video and the finished product having the exact same file name, but you get what I mean. I personally like having the .mp4 that I’m eventually going to upload be named appropriately, so I’ll usually name the file something like “testvideo_FINAL.mp4” so that I can easily pick it out from my cluttered hard drive. Use whatever you’re comfortable with!

Next, we’re going to determine the settings of the actual output.

By default, the output format should be .mp4. If for whatever reason you want your hardsubbed file to be in .mkv format instead, you can do that through the drop-down menu next to “Format”, under the Preset heading. Speaking of Presets, you can also decide what quality you want your video to be in. There should be a “Toggle Presets” window on the top right of the GUI - the Preset window should already be sticking out of the right side of the Handbrake window, but if not, go ahead and click that toggle button so it does pop out.

The default setting, IIRC, is “Fast 1080p30” (meaning “fast encoding at 1080p and 30 fps”). I haven’t used any other preset, but I assume the “Very Fast” options will sacrifice quality for a smaller file size and fast encoding speed, and the “HQ” and “Super HQ” options will create higher quality files that’ll take longer to process. Feel free to choose whatever you think is appropriate for your video here (e.g. the 720p preset might work if your original video was in that resolution).

The most important step is in the “Subtitles” tab. Take a look at the drop-down under the “Track” heading - by default, it should currently be on something like “Foreign Bitmap”. Click the drop-down and select the option that says “(SSA)” at the end, which should be the Aegisub file (.ass) that you muxed into this video. Then, check off the “Burned In” option. Don’t touch anything else.

It probably helps to have an illustration at this point, so here’s a screenshot of what I had on my screen back when I made a silly video for an ask:

Fair warning - since this is from October 2016, the window looks slightly different now since the program has gone through a few updates. Off the top of my head, the changes include: (1) the “Picture Settings” on the toolbar has migrated down to become one of the tabs along with “Video/Audio/Subtitles/Chapters” in the main workspace, (2) the “Start” and “Pause” buttons have swapped places with the Queue buttons, and (3) the “Normal (Default)” output setting has become a Legacy preset. Other than those few minor differences, I don’t think the window should look significantly different, so hopefully this image still helps.

Make sure you complete these two steps (selecting the .ass file and checking off the “Burned In”) properly, or else your output file will not have subs burned in. If you don’t see the SSA option in the drop-down list, then you either loaded the wrong file into HandBrake, or you somehow didn’t properly mux your video and subs. Either way, you’ll have to open up a new source file and start over (which isn’t that bad, since all we’ve done is rename the output file and select the subtitles we want to burn in).

Barring any mistakes, that’s pretty much all you need to do before you begin the final step. However, I personally have one more thing I do before I proceed.

Something I observed in the first few times that I tried using HandBrake was that my finished product was oddly cropped. That is, the video looked like it was resized, so that a good chunk of the visuals were cut off. After a few puzzled minutes of looking through the Handbrake settings, I realized that it was because HandBrake has automatic “cropping” enabled in its picture settings. All it took for me to fix that was to switch from “Automatic” to “Custom”. On the “Picture” tab in the middle of the HandBrake window, make sure that the “Cropping” option on the right is set to “Custom”, and that the numbers are all set to 0. This should ensure that no cropping occurs on your final product.

I have no idea if the current version of HandBrake still does this by default, since I always use custom Picture settings when burning in subs with HandBrake. If you find that HandBrake processes your file just fine under the default settings, then go ahead and skip this step.

Once you’re sure that you have the subtitle options and correct file name/destination down, hit the “Start” button at the top and HandBrake will get to work. Depending on the length of your video, HandBrake should be done encoding either in a few seconds or a couple of minutes. If you have desktop notifications enabled, HandBrake will alert you when the encoding is done, so you’re free to navigate away from the window to do other stuff on your computer in the meantime.

At the end of this process, the folder containing all your output files might look something like this:

testvideo.mp4 (raw video)

testvideo.ass (subtitle file created through Aegisub)

testvideo_muxed.mkv (softsubbed video created through MKVToolnix)

testvideo_FINAL.mp4 (hardsubbed video created through HandBrake)

Do whatever you want with the other files - it’s the final .mp4 that you want for uploading onto Tumblr/YouTube/video-sharing platform of your choice.

And that’s it! Hopefully this answers your questions. If this still seems unclear to you…then my bad, I probably should’ve inserted step-by-step screenshots and explained myself more clearly, but this post was already getting quite long. :’)

In the end, keep in mind that this is not the only way to softsub/hardsub videos - for example, I migrated to ffmpeg because I was too lazy to use two programs, lol. You can find various methods scattered all over the internet, from tutorials on fansub group homepages to even the Aegisub manual. There are plenty of people out there far wiser than I am, so feel free to hit up Google to satiate your curiosity. I personally found the MKVToolnix + HandBrake process suitable for beginners using a Mac, so it’s up to you if you want to stick with this way or if you want to explore other methods!

If you want, you can come off anon and chat with me on Tumblr Messenger. I usually answer a lot faster there, so if you ever have any quick questions, that’s always an option~