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lucy-sky · 5 years ago

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Birthday Headcanons Vol. 2

Happy Birthday my dear friend and Rockwell Psycho soulmate @magnetoserik!!!

I’ve already written a longer introduction to this post, but Tumblr didn’t save it. Pretty frustrating because I planned to make 3 things for your Birthday, but due to these sudden health issues managed to finish just this one... And it doesn’t let me post it! Okay, attempt #2:

Here you will see the characters who didn’t take part in Birthday headcanons last year (however there’s a little bonus in the end). Some of them might be a bit too cheesy (Charley), sorry for that. Also I apologize for possible mistakes and promise to correct them later (that’s why I put the whole text under “read more” thingy) Hope you enjoy these anyways and they will make you smile :)

Once again, Ily and I am really really blessed to have you in my life.

Hugs, Lucy

Update: Mistakes corrected, woohooo!!! Well, most of them, I hope :DDD

Victor Mancini

You’ve just recently started dating and it’s important for Victor to show you that you mean way, way, WAY more than just a sexual partner for him. Normal relationship is something still new and a bit confusing for him, but he’s trying his best. So he asks you out on a classic date: a movie and a dinner. What could go wrong? Yet, you didn’t make it to the dinner. Who knew the lovely romantic movie Vic chose for this date would suddenly become such a turn on for both of you. You could blame it on the movie setting, or the chemistry between the characters, or… But who are you lying to? The truth is – yes, there was chemistry, but mostly between the two of you. You enjoyed his closeness, his hand on yours, stroking your skin gently… Eventually you ended up shamelessly kissing and cuddling, thankfully the cinema hall was half empty… Somehow you managed to watch the movie until the end, but afterwards the only thing you both could think about is bed. So instead of the dinner you headed straight to your place and had a really passionate night (honestly, you almost did it right at the door, if you get what I mean…) In the morning Vic, with a slightly guilty look on his face presented you a chocolate cupcake with a lit candle on top of it.

- It was in my bag all the time, but uhhh… I completely forgot…

- That’s okay, - you say with a soft chuckle. - Not that we had much time for that…

- Wonder why all my attempts to be sweet and romantic end up naked in bed like this, - Victor murmurs as you cuddle closer to him. - It’s more than that with you, do you know that?

- Sure, - you reply, stroking his soft messy hair. - I don’t have any doubts.

John Moon

John loves hiking. You love it too. So you both liked the idea of celebrating your birthday together, just you and him, in a place far away from the annoying hustle and bustle of the city. You grab your favorite snacks and drive along the woods to the mountains. You find the most beautiful place with an amazing view on the autumn forest. When you stand there together, him holding your hand, you feel like you’re on top of the world and no one can reach you. You make photographs and John watches you, smiling silently. He loves seeing you so happy and excited.

In the evening before heading home you kiss at the campfire, him holding you close to keep you warm. Instead of a Birthday cake you have coffee from the thermos and baked marshmallows for dessert.

John didn’t forget about a present for you too, it’s a small and simple silver pendant in a shape of your favorite flower – a daisy. There are quite a lot of things you like about John, and the fact that he remembers some small details about you which may seem unimportant, is one them.

You come back home pretty late. At Cecil’s farm down the hill the lights are already out. You feel sleepy after such a long day, so you go straight to bed where you make love gently and tenderly and fall asleep in each other’s arms.

Coach Bill

Oh no… His team is playing today!.. You’re a tiny bit sad that he’s busy, but of course you understand. Bill has a suggestion: how about you come and see the game, and afterwards you’d go celebrate your Birthday to your favorite Italian restaurant that serves best pizza in town. You’re not the biggest basketball fan, but you’re always ready to support him (and pizza sounds great too), so you agree on that plan.

So, here you are now, in a school gym, screaming and cheering your boyfriend’s team. After the first period it’s time for the cheerleaders’ performance. At some point you see them unfurling a big banner and your eyes widen in surprise as you see your name and a “Happy Birthday” on it. Bill runs up to you with a wide grin on his face, offers you a hand and leads you to the center of the field. Everyone is clapping to you and you are shocked and incredibly flattered.

The game goes well, Bill’s team wins and as you approach to congratulate them, they all thank you and wish you a Happy Birthday too. Bill asks if you liked his surprise and you tell him how overwhelmed you are and that it’s the most epic thing someone ever did for you.

- And the banner, Bill!.. Did the girls help you making it?..

- Uh, no, you see… I got this idea rather late, so I had to paint it myself, that’s why it’s far from being perfect… But I’m glad you appreciate the attempt, - Bill laughs and you can see him blushing.

- I think it’s absolutely perfect, - you say, as you hug him tightly, pressing your lips to his.

Guy Fleegman

You go to the geek store together, where you spend quite a lot of time discussing books, comics, toys and other cool thingies. Eventually you find costumes and other cosplay stuff. Of course you have to try all these on! In the end you decide to buy something, because the shop assistants already start giving you not very friendly looks… So you choose Princess Leia’s costume for you and Han Solo’s – for him.

Without taking the costumes off you head to the city center and just have fun there walking around and taking funny photos together and with people you meet on the way. It’s a lovely day and your inner child is absolutely happy.

Bob Fosse

To be honest you are pretty sure that Bob forgot about your Birthday. You’re a bit sad about it, but not surprised. You know very well how he can get lost in his work completely. Yes, you prefer to think it’s work, not some other women involved… You’re in relationship for quite a while, but this man is still a mystery for you. You’re not sure how serious this relationship is for him. Anyway, you don’t want to think about it today. You just put on a nice dress and go out with your best friends.

It was a lovely evening, you had fun, but since it’s a weekday, you arrive home before midnight. As you enter your apartment, you immediately hear the phone ringing. Of course it’s Bob. He asks you to come over.

- Bob, it’s late and I’m exhausted, - you say.

- Take a taxi, I’ll pay for it. Come on, y/n… I need to see you…

Mentally cursing yourself for being so weak you agree.

Bob meets you at the door and kisses your hand. As you follow him into his apartment, you see a table served for two, candles twinkling. Music is playing softly.

- Happy Birthday, - says Bob, giving you one of these charming gentle smiles of his.

- Oh, Bob… - You’re a little lost for words. – I… I thought you forgot…

- How could I, sweetheart?

- Well, you’ve been so busy these days we hardly saw each other, - you shrug. He reaches out to stroke your cheek as he looks you in the eye.

- That’s true. And trust me or not, but I missed you as hell. So I ordered some nice food and wine, and… We can finally have some time together, just you and me. How about that?

He sounds honest, or you just want to believe him. You don’t want to analyze it right now.

- Sounds amazing, - you reply, letting him pull you into a gentle yet passionate kiss.

Bucky “The Kid”

Bucky tells you it’s a surprise, so he covers your eyes and doesn’t let you open them while he leads you to his place. When you finally open your eyes, you see a throne made from an old yet pretty cozy armchair on a pedestal of wooden boxes, all decorated with flowers, garlands and twinkle lights. It looks too much in a way, but still really cool. Bucky suggests you get on this throne and pronounces you The Queen of these woods. Of course he didn’t forget to make a crown for you.

Bucky also managed to find a cassette with your favorite movie and you watch it together on his old TV set, eating snacks he prepared for the occasion: cookies, chips, sweets and chocolate bars.

- Oh my god, Bucky! - You laugh. - It looks like a 12 year old kid robbed a supermarket!

- So what! We’re having a party! But if you don’t want this or this, don’t worry – I’m pretty much able to eat all this alone…

- Nah-huh. Don’t even think of it, - you reply, grabbing a chocolate bar.

In the evening there are also fireworks.

Later, you cuddle with him in bed under the stars, and it feels so weird, absolutely surreal. But also incredibly beautiful.

Pero Maholovic

The district Pero lives in is far from being a luxury one. He doesn’t have much money to take you out to a fancy restaurant or something. But he’s one of those guys who can create romance out of nothing, and this kind of romance is always the most sincere. You spend a lovely evening on the rooftop, sitting on a blanket, drinking wine and watching the sunset.

Pero’s gift for you is a big bunch of bright yellow balloons.

- They’re just as shiny as you are, - he says.

Together you make paper airplanes, write your dreams and wishes on them and let them fly.

When it gets darker and colder, you get inside his flat. Pero makes you coffee. The radio plays softly and he pulls you into a playful dance. You wrap your arms around his neck as he hugs your waist, bringing you closer, and then you kiss devotedly, until he eventually grabs you tightly in his strong boxer’s arms, lifts you up and heads to the bedroom.

Francis

Francis has big plans for tonight. First – he takes you to a shooting club. You’re not sure how you feel about this idea, because you were never really interested in guns and shooting, but later you understood why he chose this place – him teaching you how to shoot is actually sexy as hell. You love him speaking in this quiet voice, standing so close your bodies almost touch, his hand on yours… In the end you really enjoyed it and it also gave you some sort of adrenaline rush.

Afterwards you go to a party in a club. There’s a dancing competition, and Francis wouldn’t be Francis if he didn’t convince to take part in it. Once again a new experience for you – you don’t mind dancing in general, but competition… You’ve never consider yourself confident enough for such things. However with him you managed to catch the right mood, and you even win a bottle of expensive champagne which you drink together in bed a couple of hours later.

Robert Goode

Robert is an absolute sweetheart. He brings you flowers and a big box of your favorite candies. He takes you out to a nice bar where a jazz band is playing. Surprisingly it turned out that a couple of the band members used to study with Robert. When they learn about your celebration they play Happy Birthday to you in your honor and all the audience is clapping. Later they invite Robert to play with them, and after a bit of hesitation he sits at the drums. He does really good and you feel proud about your boyfriend.

The rest of the evening you dance, drink, enjoy great music and nice company. Then he takes you home. The weather is lovely even though it’s autumn, so you decide to walk instead of taking a taxi. You hold hands, talk about nothing and everything at once, admire the lights of the night city… You even sing and dance a little on your way. As you get to your porch and it’s time to say good night, you just can’t let him go and after a passionate makeout session at your door you decidedly invite him in. Rob doesn’t seem to mind.

Eddie

Eddie is quite a simple guy. You just take a long stroll with him around the city center. You kick the leaves in the park, take coffee to go, walk into some funny or geeky stores you see on your way, take silly photographs, buy the biggest and the spiciest pizza in a cozy diner, talk and laugh a lot… You feel very comfortable with him, even though you’ve just started dating it feels like you know each other for ages.

In the evening you go to the amusement park where you eat cotton candy and caramel apples; Eddie wins you the biggest teddy bear, and then you kiss on the top of the Ferris wheel.

Charley Ford

Charley’s all sweet and shy. He brings you a bunch of wildflowers and kisses your cheek. You go to one of your favorite places – a beautiful meadow not far from the forest river, hidden from strangers’ eyes by the tall trees.

Lying there on the grass, you watch the clouds passing above you, talk about what you see in them. He holds your hand and you snuggle closer to his chest, feeling warm, calm and safe. Charley kisses the top of your head, and as you look up at him and see his soft and loving gaze, you both know there is no need for words. His lips finally capture yours in a gentle kiss, and for a while the entire words slips out of existence. There’s just you and him, his soft but determined lips, his warm breath against your skin and the sound of your hearts beating together.

Bonus #1:

Biker! Silas Groves

Silas is not a very big fan of crowded and loud parties. Also you’re really special for him so he wants this day to be for just the two of you. You both hop on his bike and head to the seaside. It’s a bit chilly there at this time of year, the weather is rather cold, but it’s still very beautiful and calm. There’s no one else except you and it’s amazing.

You walk along the beach holding hands, and Silas hugs you tightly, wrapping in his leather jacket to protect you from the wind. You collect seashells and take a few nice photographs of this stunning landscape. You've got coffee in the thermos and Silas has a small flask of whiskey to keep you warm. After a while you leave the beach and spend some time walking around the town. You know in summer there are quite a lot of tourists, but now it’s unusually empty and calm. Most of the bars and cafes are closed, but you still manage to find a lovely diner to have lunch.

Since it’s already pretty late and you drank a bit, you choose not to get back on a bike tonight and stay at a small but pretty cozy hotel. As you got a little cold during your walk, you decide to take a warm shower. Soon Silas joins you and his strong arms wrapping around you, his lips peppering your neck and shoulders with soft kisses, his tickling beard against your skin and his firm body pressing closer to yours warmed you up a lot more than hot water.

You woke up rather late, Silas a bit earlier than you, as usual. You ordered breakfast in the room, and after regaining some energy, you’ve spent a couple more delicious hours in bed before getting back on the bike and heading home.

Bonus #2:

Jason Dixon

- Hey there! - You smile, entering the kitchen. - How are you guys doing?

- Heeeey, Birthday Girl! - Jason beams at you happily. - We didn’t expect you that early, right, little man?

The little boy giggles in his chair as you come over to give him and your husband a kiss.

- Didn’t you enjoy the girls’ night, huh? - Jason frowns.

- I did! Thank you so much for letting me go, - you reply contently, sitting on his lap, your arm wrapping around his shoulder, as he hugs your waist. - But… I just missed you two so much!

- Well we missed you too, and we made something for you, actually.

- What’s that? - You raise your eyebrow curiously. - Oh! You made me a Birthday card! How cute!

On a sheet of cardboard you see a big sun painted with yellow gouache. It grins at you happily. Its rays are made of spiral pasta noodles, also colored with gouache. Above this work of art there is a caption “You are our sunshine!”

- You like it? - Jason smiles proudly.

- It’s the best card I’ve ever seen, - you say honestly. - Can’t believe you made it by yourselves!

- Bill did a great job, I almost didn��t help him!

You look at your son, who is apparently more interested in coloring another sheet of paper with an orange crayon rather than paying attention to his parents’ conversation.

- I’m very proud of my boys, - you say, leaning in to kiss Jason again.

- That’s not the only surprise, you know, - he smirks against your lips.

- Really?

- Uh-huh. Since it’s your Birthday, I’m gonna grant your any wish tonight… After we get the little one to bed, of course, - he winks.

This playful tone of his never fails to make you weak.

- Oh yeah? - You chuckle, stroking his hair. - Any wish? Absolutely?

- Abso-effin’-lutely, - your husband replies, raising his eyebrows. - I can even wear my uniform…

- Oooh, - you laugh. His jokingly-seductive attitude is absolutely adorable. - And what about the handcuffs, officer?

- Shhh… Let’s not talk about that in front of the kids… - Jason smiles, and you shiver as he kisses the side of your neck. - I’ll think about it though…

You look at his face. His features are so familiar and dear to you. Sometimes, as you look at him like that, and he looks back at you with this tender gaze, and his green eyes are sparkling, the feelings overwhelm you and you feel so lucky you can hardly believe it.

- You know you’re the most precious gift for me, right? - You ask, reaching out to stroke his cheek. - Both of you.

He just nods, kissing your lips again. No need for words, you already know that he feels the same.

- You’ll gonna love me even more after you learn about my most epic surprise, - he murmurs softly in between the kisses, - I ordered pizza...

Thanks for reading, and once again -

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

#sam rockwell #headcanon #lucy tries to write #Happy Birthday!#rockwell psychos l and m

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cards-onthetable · 5 years ago

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the strangest autumn

Note: This fluffy little Joble oneshot is meant to be read in the context of @ontherockswithsalt‘s penthouse universe. the names Cavatappi (Cav) and Tripoline (Trip) are hypothetical pasta placeholders in this hypothetical future scenario in which everything is hypothetical and nothing is real okay? Okay.

***

“Ughhh, when are we gonna be there?”

In the passenger seat, Noble suppresses a laugh at our five-year-old’s dramatic groan, leaving me to glance at Cav’s eyes in the rear view mirror and answer him. “We were in the car a lot longer yesterday and you didn’t complain once.”

“You said this was gonna be short!” He counters.

“It is! We’re like… ten minutes away.”

“Ten minutes is looooong!”

“Look out the window and tell us when you see the pumpkin signs,” Noble suggests. “That means we’re really close.”

“This thing better be worth the hype,” I mutter, low so the boys can't hear.

“It’ll be great once we actually—“

A loud wail from our three-year-old’s car seat cuts him off. “Hey, leave your brother alone,” I warn.

“Every trip we take, you’re all negative about it until we get there and you have a great time,” Noble tells me. “Just relax and have fun, okay?”

“Not every trip we take--”

“Yeah, pretty much. You’re always too worried about having everything be perfect. But it doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be us.” His arm nudges mine on the center console. “The boys will have fun, we’ll have fun, we’ll be exhausted by the time we get home, it’s all part of the experience.”

“Well the experience of everything changing at the last minute is not my favorite.”

“Oh so you’d rather hang out with Ben and Scott than be alone with your own husband—“ he teases.

The mention of our friends catches Cav’s attention and he excitedly pipes up, “Is Cleo gonna be there?”

“Nice work,” I tell Noble as he explains again, “No buddy, remember? Cleo is sick so she had to stay home.”

I think that’s what has me on edge this weekend. Scott’s the one who did the heavy lifting as far as planning this little weekend getaway. He and Ben brought their daughter Cleo to this fall festival last year, back when Noble and I were just starting the process to become foster parents, and I’m pretty sure this damn trip was like, their number one priority the second Cav and Trip moved in with Noble and me. Seriously, Scott booked the Airbnb back in March.

So I couldn’t help but feel a little anxious about having to suddenly do all my own research when Scott and Ben bowed out because of Cleo’s strep throat. I was all ready to postpone until next weekend, or maybe cancel altogether. But they, and Noble, insisted we stick to our plans. They’re even still covering their half of the cabin. So I didn’t have much choice.

“I see the pumpkin sign!” Cav shouts a few minutes later, and sure enough a giant, bright orange wooden pumpkin alerts us that the Parker Farm Fall Festival is one mile ahead.

“Are you excited?” I ask, an appropriate amount of conjured enthusiasm in my voice.

Both boys shout proof back at me.

“Trip, are you gonna pick out a pumpkin?” Cav says. “Your very own pumpkin?”

“I want a pumpkin!” Trip replies.

“Well guess what, Papa said we both get to pick out a pumpkin!”

Cav’s habit of speaking to his little brother like that—like Trip is still a little baby who doesn’t understand anything that’s going on, like it’s Cav’s job to explain it—usually gets on my nerves but I manage to ignore it as I roll past bored teenage attendants who direct me to the next open spot in the field full of parked cars.

“We’re here!” Noble announces. “Be careful boys, we’re in a parking lot…”

Stepping out into the crisp morning air, a deep cleansing breath helps to ease that lingering tension in my gut. In my frantic, last minute research of this fall festival, I read about all the events and activities to make a mental list of everything I thought we’d all enjoy. But I know Noble’s right, I need to relax and let the day unfold organically.

It’s not about checking boxes and rushing from place to place to cover every activity that caught my eye. Hell, Cav and Trip would probably be thrilled to spend the entire damn day on the moonbounces. It’ll be a fun, memorable weekend even if we don’t make it to every single attraction.

“Is there snacks here? Can we get popcorn?” Cav chatters across the parking lot. “Can we get a pumpkin that weighs a million pounds? Are we gonna see the inside? The slimy stuff…?”

“Snacks, yes. Popcorn, we’ll see. Million pound pumpkin, only if Papa carries it to the car,” I reply.

“Nuh-uh,” Noble tells him. “I’m the brains of this operation. Daddy’s the brawn.”

“What’s brawn?”

“Brawn means big, strong muscles.”

“I have big strong muscles!” Cav brings his fists up in a flex, nearly whacking the woman in front of us in line. “I’m the brawn.”

“Hey, son, watch out for other people,” Noble warns.

“Are you going to carry a million pound pumpkin to the car?” I ask Cav.

“I carry the pumpkin!” Trip insists.

“You’ll both get to carry a pumpkin.”

“Next in line?”

Noble and I usher the boys to the painted plywood booth. “Two adults and two kids,” Noble says.

“He’s three, is he free?” I wonder, swinging Trip up onto my hip.

“Sorry, just two and under. Do you want one-day admission or weekend passes? That includes the hot air balloon launch tomorrow.”

“We’ll do the whole weekend.”

While Noble pays, I manage to get green paper wristbands onto both boys and myself. Then we emerge from the gateway into the wide, dead grass expanse of the pumpkin patch.

“Whoa it’s a—!”

Cav is already barreling forward as I turn to Noble, his face a reflection of my own caught somewhere between amusement and shock. “Did he just—?”

“What did you say, Cav?” I call.

“It’s a bitch! Dad! Take a picture!”

“It’s a witch,” I insist. “A witch is… a magical woman. Bitch is not a nice word. We don’t ever say that, okay?”

I’m sure he’s not listening to me as he poses next to the wooden board painted with a cartoon witch, cat, and frog with open ovals where their faces should be. “No buddy, you have to go behind it and put your face in the hole…” I try to explain.

“Cav, Cav. Come here.” Noble tugs him by the arm and they disappear around the back of the photo prop with Trip. A second later their heads appear in the face holes and I snap a couple of quick pictures.

“I wanna see!” Trip shouts, while behind him Cav takes off in some other direction. Noble catches my eye with a happy, goofball smirk before chasing after him and I can’t help the little laugh that escapes me.

The kids’ enthusiasm is contagious and Noble and I just follow their lead. Within the first hour we hit up a moonbounce, climb on a display tractor and a huge pile of hay bales, take a detour to the line of port-o-potties, and convince the boys to ride down the giant homemade hill slides on our laps. And they don’t let us pass any of those painted photo-op boards without stopping for more pictures.

It’s been hard, parenting Cav and Trip, in ways we didn’t quite expect. Adding two preschoolers to our family certainly took some adjustment but we were pretty well prepared for those challenges, at least as much as first-time parents can be. The part that nobody warned us about was the inevitable drama of foster care — the constant scrutiny, the arbitrary demands, the frustration of sharing kids who feel like ours with another parent whose questionable decisions drag them, and us, down all kinds of unpredictable roads.

But here, away from the relentless bustle of the city, all that feels far away — almost like a whole different life. Here it’s just us, a normal family having normal fun, nobody looking over our shoulders. Standing next to my husband, who looks all casual and innocent in jeans and a thick, dark orange cardigan like he doesn’t know what he does to me. Watching our kids squeal in delight, free and uncontained and totally fascinated by the open space and the fresh air and the pit filled with dried corn kernels that will surely find their way back to our house like a thousand unwanted souvenirs.

No obligations, no real agenda — a strange feeling, entirely unfamiliar. Just this warm, overwhelming affection blooming in my chest against the chilly air as our younger son clambers back to us from across the corn kernel sandbox.

“Daddy! I wanna ride the train!” Trip announces, pointing at the tractor dragging a chain of little orange cars behind it.

I agree easily. “Alright, let’s go ride the train. Cav!”

“No, not the train!” Cav whines. “I want to do the big one with the big tractor where there’s ghosts!”

“We’ll do that too, the big hayride. After this, though, come on.”

Noble turns to me a moment later, a knowing grin on his face as the boys rumble away on the train. “Having fun yet?”

“I suppose,” I offer my easy answer as I try for another picture of the train.

His teasing elbow digs into my side. “Give me a break, you love this shit.”

“This? Having fun with them? Sure. But the port-o-potty situation here...”

He cracks up, throwing his head back with that whole-body laugh of his that never fails to charm me. “Okay, god, I’ll handle the next bathroom break. But come on. This is amazing.”

“It is,” I acquiesce with a chuckle. “Oh, but look. We’ve got to make them keep their heads up in those picture boards. Every single one, they’re looking down at themselves.”

Flipping through my phone, he sees what I’m talking about — all these pictures of the tops of the boys’ heads sticking through face holes as they look down at their painted corn cob or scarecrow or superhero bodies.

“It’s a difficult concept, clearly,” Noble laughs. “And hey, if my choices are looking up at you or looking down at my off-brand Superman six-pack, I’d probably choose the six-pack too.”

“I don’t need anyone to paint me fake abs. I’ve got the real thing.” I smack my hand against my stomach for emphasis, a quiet thump over my zipped hoodie. “Which you could too if you cut down on the pancakes and bacon—”

“Hey, okay, some ass-flavored green smoothie might be good enough for you in the morning but I’m not sending my kids to school without a real breakfast.”

“Yes, right, you’re father of the year,” I tease. “With the dad-bod to go with it.”

“Hey!” He drops his shoulder and checks me sideways, knocking me off balance a couple of steps until I grab his arm to steady myself. “Not even close. And like, I didn’t hear you complaining yesterday morning…”

“This is a family place, dude,” I warn.

“Where’d you even learn the term dad-bod?” He scoffs. “Like you’re all young and hip or something. Old man.”

I straighten my shoulders set my narrowed gaze on him. “Old man? That’s not what you were saying yesterday morning—”

“Look who’s back!” Noble interrupts loudly as the train rolls to a stop in front of us. “Did you have fun, guys?”

“Yeah, I guess,” Cav shrugs like he’s too cool for this toddler train business. But the smile he’s failing to hide gives him away.

“Papa, I want popcorn!” Trip shouts.

“Yeah, popcorn!”

“Okay, let’s go find popcorn,” Noble agrees. As soon as he sets Trip down he’s running off with his brother, leaving the two of us to scramble quickly behind.

Our pace doesn’t seem to slow down for the rest of the day as Noble and I chase the boys around the property — moonbounces again, the petting zoo, a near-meltdown from Trip at the face painting booth, the big hayride that Cav insists on even though the sound effects that come from the bedsheet ghosts in the trees along the route freak him out. But the boys are still going strong and it’s my and Noble’s own exhaustion that finally makes us herd them to the expansive pile of choose-your-own pumpkins so we can accomplish that task and head back to the cabin for the night.

“There’s a million pumpkins!” Cav exclaims, his brown eyes wide in the waning fall sunlight. “I’m gonna get the biggest one.”

“Better get to work then, dude,” Noble tells him. “Climb on up there, go ahead.”

While Cav navigates his way to the middle of the pumpkin pile, Trip doesn’t make it past the first pumpkins he sees. “I want this one!” He shouts every time he tries to pick up a nice average-sized squash before it proves too heavy for him and he moves on to another one. I trail behind him, paying no attention to Noble and Cav climbing away in search of the biggest pumpkin they can find — which turns out to be a mistake.

“Daddy! Dad, me and Papa found the best pumpkin! It’s huuuuge!”

It takes me a second to follow Cav’s voice and then I scoop up Trip around his middle, tearing him away from his latest pumpkin of choice to reach his brother in the middle of the pile.

Noble stands on one foot with the other propped on their prize like he’s conquered it. “Look, Daddy, Cav found the one.”

“Oh he did, huh?” I pass Trip to Noble and circle to evaluate the pumpkin from all angles. “That’s a really big pumpkin, bud. I don’t know if we can even get it out of this pile to buy it.”

“Yes we can!” Cav insists. “I’ll help—” he squats, braced against nearby pumpkins, and tries to grip but his little arms barely reach halfway around this beast. He grunts and carries on with genuine effort but after an amusing moment he gives up with a sigh. “I think you gotta get it, Dad.”

“Cav, buddy, I don’t think…”

“Please?” He whines. “I want this one!”

“He wants this one!” Noble echoes.

“Then you pick it up,” I mutter at him under my breath.

Noble bounces Trip in the air and catches him. “My hands are full. It’s all you, boss.”

My dumbass husband — of course he’s over here acting like we can totally bring this thing home, he can’t say no to these kids. And I’m left to bring everyone back down to earth.

“It’s just too big—”

“Just use your muscles, Dad!” Cav insists, and dammit, I find myself humoring him too.

“Oh, geez. Alright, I’ll try. Watch out.”

Crouching, I act like I’m finding a good grip. But this thing must weigh sixty or seventy pounds, and with other pumpkins piled around it there’s no easy way for me to heave it out of here.

“I’m sorry, Cav,” I announce. “You’re going to have to choose another one. Something normal sized.”

“No, this one!”

“We can’t—”

“Please? Papa said!”

“Papa said we’d ask Daddy, and Daddy says no,” Noble interjects.

God, except for Trip losing it a little at the feeling of a paintbrush on his face — a disaster that was easily averted — we’ve had such a good day. But now Cav is nearing tantrum territory and I’m not sure anything short of this impossible pumpkin will make him happy.

I reach over and take Trip from Noble. “This is your mess,” I tell him over Cav’s indignant whining. “Come on Trip, we’ll go find you a little pumpkin.”

By now Cav has plopped his butt on a nearby pumpkin, arms crossed, facing away from us so we can’t see his classic grumpy pout. I let Trip loose with a bunch of other toddlers at an outer pile of smaller pumpkins, keeping one eye on him and one on Noble as he crouches next to Cav. Before long they get up and start perusing again. Cav still doesn’t look thrilled, but at least he seems to be moving on.

Trip is still jumping happily from small pumpkin to small pumpkin when Cav and Noble find us, a nice, reasonable, medium-sized pumpkin in Noble’s arms. “We’ve reached an agreement,” he announces. “Instead of one giant pumpkin — one medium pumpkin and one small pumpkin.”

“Yeah because medium plus small is like a big one,” Cav explains.

“Oh-kay,” I agree. “Sounds like a plan. Go ahead and pick a little one so we can go back to the cabin and watch a movie before bed.”

“Trip, you gotta go get your medium pumpkin so you have a medium one and a small one,” I hear Cav say.

“I think Trip is happy with his little one,” Noble calls before I can ask him exactly how many pumpkins we’ll be buying today.

“Couldn’t stick to the plan, could you?” I muse.

Balancing Cav’s pumpkin on one hip, he finds my hand with his free one and squeezes. “Hey, okay, the kid’s hardly seen a real pumpkin before, much less carved one—”

“I know, I know. I’m glad they have you around to make sure they get those experiences. We just need to, you know, be a little realistic.”

“And I’m glad we’ve got you to be realistic for us,” he murmurs. “Because fuck, I was not excited about carrying that beast home up three flights of stairs—”

“Shut up, you would’ve made me do it anyway,” I scoff.

“I would’ve… helped…”

“Liar.”

“I would have!” He insists.

“You’re a dirty liar,” I shoot back.

“I don’t know about liar, but that dirty part—”

“Oh god,” I cackle, leaning into him before I take the pumpkin he’s been holding. “Keep it in your pants, huh? And go help your son. That pumpkin’s about to knock him over.”

***

“Are they down?”

“Didn’t wake up at all,” Noble assures me. “Perfect transfers. I’m magical. Like a witch.”

“Oh good. Here you go.” I push a drink towards him across the counter and he takes it as he returns to the couch to turn off the Disney movie that the boys just fell asleep watching.

“This is okay,” he muses.

“Just okay? Is it not strong enough?” I take another inquisitorial sip of my own margarita.

“No, no, it’s pretty good. It’s just not, like, Ben’s Paloma good.”

I let out an incredulous laugh as I realize he’s just teasing. “Oh yeah? So you wish Ben and Scott hadn’t bailed, hmm?”

“It’d be fun if they were here,” he says. “We could play poker and I’d have some actual competition—”

“Oh!” I call out, a hand coming up to my chest like he’s wounded me. “They make better drinks, they play better cards…”

“They’d’ve let us bring home that huge pumpkin,” Noble adds.

“You’re as bad as the kids,” I tell him.

“It was an awesome pumpkin!”

“Well you know what—” I finish straightening up the small kitchen and grab my drink to join him. “I’m glad they’re not here.”

“That so?”

“Mhmm. Because if they were here, and we were playing poker and trying to carve some huge-ass pumpkin, then we’d be pretty busy.”

“Busy?” He stretches back against the couch cushions, propping one arm across the top as his gaze wanders openly down my grey t-shirt.

“Busy,” I repeat. “Too busy for this—”

Leaving my drink on the rustic end table, I smoothly drop to his lap, my knees settling on either side. With my hands free I’m quickly all over him, fingers turning his head up to meet my lips while my opposite palm slides down between us.

“Mmm, god, I’m never too busy for this.”

I shut him up with a hard, insistent kiss. He wastes no time reaching under my t-shirt, his hands a cold contrast against my skin after holding his icy glass, pushing the fabric up my torso until I duck out of it. As soon as I do, he steals the leverage I have over him and swoops me sideways, following quickly on top of me where I land on my back. My fists are in his hair, squeezing hard so I don’t make too much noise as he works biting kisses down to my shoulder.

Just as his touch trails lower, a suspicious noise from down the hallway stops us both short.

“I thought you said they were asl—”

“They were,” he insists. “Shh.”

Listening again, we’re met with only silence.

“Must've been the wind,” I conclude.

He pushes his weight off of me, sitting up on his knees. “Still. Does the bedroom door lock…?”

“I didn’t notice.”

“Let’s hope.”

I reach a hand up and he grabs my wrist, heaving me up off the couch. “What if it doesn’t?” I wonder.

“Well then.” He slides a hand into the waistband of my gym shorts, where he snaps the elastic against my skin. “I guess you’ll just have to stay quiet, won’t you?”

#Jamie x noble #joble #joble fluff #theyre such cute dads and i’m Into it #this whole thing is pretty disgusting though but I do not apologize

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raven-wraith · 5 years ago

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StarVIEW Valley (get it?)

I am a gamer of many passions. Most of these passions extend mostly into games that offer numerous ways to brutalize and maim your adversaries (such as Mortal Kombat or The Witcher) or games that have adversaries that brutalize and maim me (such as Bloodborne or Outlast). So when I was finally finished with acquiring every achievement in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice(1), I needed a break from it all. The killing. The being killed. So in an effort to flip the script, I went to the otherside of the spectrum of gaming. That’s where I found one of my new biggest passions to date. That passion is called Stardew Valley.

The game begins with a simple soundtrack and a main menu. A background of green hills, flying birds, and blue skies as the title comes from the top of the screen. There are four buttons. New, Load, Co-op, and Exit. While it’s a small pick of things to do, most main menus are on the first boot. But, immediately, the care to detail is noticed.

Not on my first pickup or even my fifth did I notice that there is a counter at the bottom of the screen that notifies you on how many times you have logged in. Clicking on things in this screen reveals secret easter eggs, all of which are adorable to look at. I knew I would enjoy this game even since then.

Stardew Valley has surpassed the perception of wholesomeness and has ascended, wait, transcended to a volume equivalent to a playable Bob Ross painting where everyone you meet is a form of Fred Rogers’ mind. I think the most important pieces that make up and come from Stardew Valley is it’s development and the message it sends while you play it. The game handles lots of things impressively well, but the three mentioned topics are the driving factors of gameplay for me.

“The title is made by a multimillion dollar corporation with over four hundred people working on this sole project, all of which was shown at E3 only to have a massive graphics downgrade on release.” That sentence is what I would write if it was true. Stardew was created by one computer science major(2) who decided he didn’t like how Harvest Moon(3) games were going/were being made. So he dedicated his time to making this game, delving into his artistic views to make the game come to life even more.

After some time, he reached out to Reddit and Twitter for his progress updates, to which he was returned with waves and waves of support from the online community. What went from a small project soon turned into his full time investment. Once Chucklefish came on board to help carry the load of publishing the game, Ape went and set his days on polishing the game the best he could before initial release.

And thank goodness he did.

The game was a success. Is a success. With over ten million copies sold by January 2020, ConcernedApe still to this day works on patching bugs, adding content, and discussing the future of the game in online forums. This direction of development was not only eye-opening to me, but it’s admirable in its own right.

The charm from that is enough to be portrayed into the game. Every detail, every spoken word from the NPCs and every pixel on the monsters in the mine was drawn and rendered from one mind. That level of dedication to this craft is so impressive that the weight of that notion carries throughout the gameplay. To know that so many mechanics were programmed in C# by one person astonishes me, and the returns tell us that many others feel the same way.

Next, the message of the game. It’s introspective, it’s mature, it’s prominent but not obvious. Basically:

Fuck Capitalism.

I mean, fuck wasting your life away behind a desk without connecting to those around you in a world where human interaction should not be as forced as it should be welcomed.

From the prologue, prior to your adventure to Stardew Valley, your call to action comes in the form of a letter from your grandfather. Trapped in your cubicle in the fictional company Joja’s office, you have finally grown tired of the stale lifestyle you’ve been leading. Opening the letter, you read about the property your grandfather left you. You head to his home. Once you arrive, your game starts.

This entire exchange of scenery, world building, and story takes place in under ten minutes. However, it is executed perfectly. The theme carries over in town once you realize there are two places to get your groceries, a Joja Market and Pierre’s General Store. The game makes a point of competition between these two establishments and it’s direction is influenced from the player’s involvement to love nature.

I believe that this was excellently done. It all revolves around a place where little fairies live, all of which need your help rebuilding their broken home. Now you can help them find their precious food and crafts or you can buy a membership at Joja like some kind of toxic, stupid, disrespectful, horrible, waste of space human filth that smells bad. I took to helping them with my good nature. I’ve run around, collecting only the most beautiful flowers and harvesting the dankest crops to give to those little bitch fairies to see that center bloom to life.

And I loved it. I loved it so much that when the Joja manager showed up to make a statement after I had repaired the entire establishment, I was gratified to see Pierre duke it out with this man. ConcernedApe took an approach to seeing past business in such an appealing way that I never once thought of it as a chore, let alone as a rebellion against societal standards.

Stardew Valley is a special experience. You can’t just continue to play games without giving this one a fair chance. It’s cute, it’s handcrafted, and I think most importantly, it’s completely unique in its delivery. While influences from other games and works of art are present, it’s safe to say that Stardew Valley goes above and beyond the usual farming simulator or dating RPG. Good job ConcernedApe, I will be returning to that farm almost constantly.

My statement still stands.

Fuck Capitalism.

(1) From Software’s newest title, a new IP from their universally acknowledged Dark Souls series.

(2) Nerd.

(3) A farming simulator released in 1996, which is still continued to be made.

#more stuff from my boyfriend #orova #oro lion #video games #stardew valley #game reviews #quarantine #corona suggestions

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jiminthestreets-bonesinthesheets · 6 years ago

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The Way We Were Supposed To Be - Ch Two

HUGE ENDGAME SPOILERS!!!!!

Title: The Way We Were Supposed To Be

Fandom: Avengers

Pairing: Stucky

Rating: Lemon

Tags: minor character death, there will be smut, slow burn… I think that’s it really.

Summary:

Two years after defeating Thanos, Steve finds himself faced with a harsh reality. Because of his decision to stay in the past with Peggy and finally give himself the life he thought he had always wanted, Nick Fury returns to face him with a daunting truth. With the world’s timeline in disarray, it’s up to Steve to return to the past and restore the world to its natural order. Unfortunately it means that the all American hero has to sacrifice his heart and soul to save the world once again. And although Steve thinks that his one chance at a happy life had passed, who knows what the new future holds, perhaps… everything he had been searching for was right there all along.

AO3 Link

Masterlist

A/N: Soooooo yeah, like it says at the top, HUGE ENDGAME SPOILERS!!! So if you haven’t seen the movie yet turn back now and read this later!!

And for those of you that have seen the movie already and who are reading this, you're awesome and I hope you like it. This is just my way of getting the satisfying stucky ending that I was really hoping for that the movie didn’t quite deliver for me.

So yeah, if you do like this I would be so so so grateful if you gave this a reblog or even a comment, and if you want to be tagged for this or future works let me know!! Love you guys and enjoy <3 <3 <3

Chapter two:

Not exactly knowing where to go, Steve drove aimlessly through the streets of New York, eventually finding himself making the all too familiar hike down to Washington. By mid day he made it to the bustling city and parked his car in a mostly empty parking lot. Following the path up the small hill, he weaved his way through the seemingly endless grave stones before coming to the one he was looking for. For the second time in three days he was staring down at Peggy’s grave.

“Oh, Peggy,” he whispered into the breeze now picking up, “I'm sorry we could never truly be together, but it has to be this way. I couldn’t let the world run an unnatural course and I know that if you knew the consequences you would have done the same.”

The wind chose that moment to blow through at a fierce strength and he smiled to himself as he continued, “Exactly what I thought.” He knelt down and placed a hand on the stone, closing his eyes for a moment before whispering, “I wish with everything I have that I could have kept that life with you, Peggy. It’s the only thing I have ever wanted, but I know that you had a happy life with your husband, and your kids, and I can only hope that someday I’ll find that happiness too. I know it’s what you’d want me to do, to move on. And maybe Fury’s right, maybe I’ll find happily ever after this time around. Third times the charm, right?”

Steve laughed wholeheartedly this time as the wind blew through the cemetery again, this time hard enough to slightly push him off balance and away from Peggy's grave. “Alright, I'm going!” He stood and gave her grave one last look, “But no matter what, Peggy, don’t you forget that I’ll always love you no matter what.”

Before he left he blew a kiss to her grave and followed the now gentle breeze out of the cemetery and got back in his car.

~~~~~~~~~~~ With no where else to go Steve made the trek back to New York and eventually made it to the compound gates. It took a year after Thanos destroyed it for the land to be levelled out and the building to be rebuilt, all thanks to Pepper who funded it all in Tony's honour. “He would have wanted it this way,” she had said back then, “for you all to have a place to call home no matter what. This was always his dream, and I want to make sure it stays alive.”

For the year while the compound was being rebuilt, Bruce was working on a different project of his own, rebuilding the time travel device. And for that year while Steve waited, he and Bucky had rented a two bedroom apartment downtown. At this point, he wasn’t quite sure where he belonged right now. Since he changed the time line and now changed it back his house with Peggy no longer belonged to him, and he wasn’t sure if he still had a place with Bucky after leaving him behind for another life. Till the end of the line had once seemed so true and so final to them both, yet Steve was realizing now that he had been quick to throw it away, without even considering Bucky’s feelings on the matter. Steve couldn’t exactly expect Bucky to welcome him back with open arms. And as for the compound, he wasn’t sure if he would even be granted access after two years away, but what else could he do.

When he pulled up to the security pad by the gates, he held his breath, and reached a hand out his window. Luckily his prints seemed to still be in the database and the gates opened letting him inside. He parked in his old space and walked inside. It was quiet, he seemed to be the only one there. He walked through, peeking into the rooms he knew some of his fellow Avengers had once occupied, and it seemed as though they hadn’t been lived in for a long time. Dust had settled in most of the rooms and some seemed to have even been emptied of all personal belongings.

Wandering a bit further in he finds himself in the main control room. He slips himself behind the desk and pulls up a screen in front of him. He taps on the light blue hologram a few times and eventually finds what he wants. He's happy on one hand to see that the avengers still check in with updates on their GPS locations, but on the other hand is also quiet disappointed to see that over the last two years everyone seems to have once again gone their separate ways.

Clint remains on his family farm, though that one doesn’t surprise him. Wanda seemed to have made her way into Europe, Banner was still at his lab, the kid was back in Queens, T’Challa home in Wakanda, Thor wasn’t even on the map, Sam still remained close to the compound, but the one person he wanted to find he can’t. Bucky has no location on the map, and even searching his name brings up nothing on the screens.

With a hard sigh Steve pushes back in the chair running a hand through his hair. How could he blame him though? Steve left. He left Bucky without so much as a warning or a promise to return. Steve remembered how he had felt back in their time when Bucky was leaving for the war. He knew there was always a chance Bucky wouldn’t come back, but there was always the promise and the hope of a safe return for his best friend. He hadn’t even granted Bucky that much when he decided stay back with Peggy. So, if Bucky had gone off the rails and erased himself from the grid once again, Steve would only have himself to blame for that.

Not wanting anymore disappointment for the day he turns the screens off and leaves the room. He heads out to the common room and sits himself on the couch in front of the TV. He takes up the remote and absently thinks to himself that he's alone here, no one lives here or has lived here in a long time, so at the very least he should be fine to stay since he currently has no where else to go. The place belongs to Pepper now anyways, so if anyone does show up and has a problem he can always talk to her. And if she decides that it’s time for him to move on, then so be it, he did this to himself after all.

Trying to push the idea of loneliness out of his mind for the time being he decides to just watch a movie, but before he can turn the TV on he hears the whoosh of the front doors and a familiar excited voice travelling through the halls.

With a slight burst of excitement rushing through his chest at the possibility of maybe not being so alone after all, he pushes himself off the couch and rushes to the front doors, and his eyes widen as he sees who just walked in.

~~~~~~~~~~~

“Man, that assassin didn’t know what hit him!”

Sam was nearly bouncing as he followed Bucky back into the compound. When the doors closed behind them Sam jumped forwards and shook Bucky’s shoulders, “Come on, Bucky, at least show a little emotion here. We just saved the god damn president.”

“Did you properly park the jet this time?” he instead asked Sam without looking at him.

“You know I did,” he answered as he released his shoulders, “it was one time man, and I only ruined one flower bed before we stopped it.”

Bucky managed to let go a small almost inaudible chuckle, “Yeah, and when Pepper got the alert she nearly killed you. Quite frankly I'm surprised she didn’t.”

“Yeah, me too…” he cringed thinking back to the pure rage on her face, then took a few quick steps to catch up to Bucky, “Where you going? Wanna hit the gym and burn off some of this adrenaline?”

“Naw,” he still refused to turn back, “I'm going to bed. Wake me up if someone else is about to die.”

With a sigh and a shake of his head Sam decided enough was enough. This had been going on for too long and he had already vowed to himself that he would not lose another friend. “Bucky, stop!” He did, but remained still with his back to Sam, “When is this gunna end man? You sleep all day, barely come out of your room except for an emergency, I don’t think you're eating… he's been gone for two years Bucky. He wouldn’t want this from you-”

Sam’s stopped dead when Bucky suddenly turned and violently stormed into his space, gritting through clenched teeth, “Shut up! You have no idea! You have no idea how this feels, what I’ve lost!”

“I think I know more then you think I do,” Sam answers with a sad knowing look.

“Then you know I can’t just move on like you did!” Bucky backs up slightly, out of his face, “After everything we’ve been through now he's just gone, lived a life without me and I can’t ever get him back. It wasn’t the job, it wasn’t death that took him from me, it was worse, it was time and age. There’s a lifetime between us now and I wasn’t in it!”

“Bucky…” Sam breathes.

“Just stop,” Bucky shakes his head, “I just… I can’t do this without Steve. I want him back but I can’t… I can’t have that.”

“I'm sorry man,” Sam sighs, knowing there’s really nothing he can do or say to help.

“Whatever, I'm going to bed, so just leave me alone.”

Sam watches as Bucky turns slowly with his eyes glued to the ground at his feet before something catches his eye. The shape of a man coming around the corner, and at the thought of the compound being empty for nearly a year and a half now, he instinctively reaches for his gun but stops when he sees who it is.

“Bucky!” he calls out.

“I said let me go, Sam.”

“No, Bucky stop!” he calls with more desperation this time.

Bucky stops and turns on his heel, annoyance etched clearly on his face when he looks up at Sam and shouts, “What, Sam?!”

Sam shoots him a winning smile which confuses the hell out of Bucky, and if anything else makes him more angry. He's about to completely snap when Sam just looks around him. Bucky scrunches his brow at the odd movement but slowly follows Sam’s eyes as he turns, stopping dead when they land on the target.

He feels like his whole world has stopped spinning, his hears are ringing, and his eyes are so watery he can barely see. He wants to move his feet and surge forwards but he can’t, they suddenly feel like lead bricks weighing him down, and his voice seems to have suddenly betrayed him too.

It feels like a lifetime of standing there before he's finally able to croak out one single word past the extremely large lump in his throat, “Steve…” barely comes out in a whisper.

It seemed that Steve was having the same symptoms as Bucky since all he could do was nod, eyes just as wide and wet as his own. But that simple gesture seemed to awaken something in Bucky, as if the response was proof that this wasn’t another dream turned nightmare when he woke up and realized Steve wasn’t really there. But when Steve answered him, even though no words were exchanged, it was enough for Bucky to finally move his shaking legs and run full speed the rest of the way down the hall, a desperate, “Steve!” leaving his lips as Steve too began to run at him.

The two crashed together where they met in the middle of the hallway, both immediately tucking their heads into the others shoulder. When he finally had his arms around him, pressing him as tightly to his body as he could no matter how much it hurt, Bucky knew this was real. Steve was here, in his arms, back where he belonged. And when Steve was finally able to whisper into his ear, “Bucky,” he closed his eyes and sobbed into Steve's shoulder.

Sam watched it all unfold before his eyes and couldn’t express in words how truly happy he was in that moment. Steve was back, he didn’t know how and quite frankly didn’t really care at the moment, but he was back and he knew that Bucky would finally be okay. He was grateful for that. This would be the end of his worrying over his friend, the last one he really had left after everything went down, and as a plus he got Steve back as well.

When he realized the two weren’t going to let go of one another any time soon, he gave a nod and started walking past them. He stopped briefly to give Steve's shoulder a pat, Steve's arm reaching out briefly to grab at his as well, before it was quickly returned to Bucky’s back, Steve not wanting to let him go any time soon. With one last look at them, Sam continued into the compound and towards his room, leaving them in the privacy they deserved.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N: So thats chapter two, finally we see Bucky!! More to come, let me know what you think XD

Tags: @goingknowherewastaken @kdcollinsauthor @pessoaslily @tiffyfromtw @acrushedrosestillwins @wizzardhowl @buckybarnes-is-my-child-help-him @julie130201 @kittycattycatherine @meanoldmomma @fabinapercabeth4179 @butterflymess @lucaimboreddd

If any one else wants to be tagged just let me know!!

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quicksilversquared · 6 years ago

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There’s No Camembert in Tibet: Chapter 19

Being cramped together in a car all day was... well, not a ton of fun.

At least most of them were transformed. They had gotten in to Tenzin's house late the previous night, with no time to shower and would no doubt smell of the trail and sweat if not for the odor-muffling abilities of their suits.

"I'm looking forward to the hotel tonight," Queen Bee said as they pulled out of their first rest stop of the day. The Miraculous holders had had to use and detransform in the family restroom, going one at a time. It slowed down the stop considerably. "Dibs on the shower first."

"I'm not sure that dibs works if the person you're sharing the room with is in the other car," Ladybug said with a laugh. "You'll be with Alya, right?"

"I assume so."

"We may require your assistance in getting flights booked right away," Jade Turtle told Queen Bee. "I know you're looking forward to showering, but making sure that we get the rest of our trip back to Paris set up is important."

Surprisingly, Queen Bee didn't argue. She only made a slight face before she nodded. "Okay. I'll find my wallet."

"We thank you."

The two cars zipped down the highway, over low hills and through straight stretches of road. Chat Noir wound his hand around Ladybug's, resting his head on her shoulder while they watched the scenery go by.

"We might try having the second car detransformed after lunch today," Jade Turtle said after another few minutes. "As long as the cars aren't driving side by side, we should be fine. And I know Wayzz desperately needs a break."

Ladybug nodded, thinking of the little turtle kwami. Wayzz had been looking a bit haggard the last few times that she had seen him, even with the veggies they plied him with and support from the other kwamis. "I can call Lycaena and get them in on the plan, so you can detransform."

Jade Turtle nodded. "An excellent plan! Please do."

It didn't take long for Ladybug to take the call and set up a plan with the others. The car with Mrs. Agreste in it would go behind the other. Both Jade Turtle and Queen Bee would detransform, as the members of the group who had spent the most time transformed. Ladybug and Chat Noir could choose to do the same, or they could stay transformed.

"Do we want to be serenaded by a cheese song? Because that's what's going to happen if Plagg comes out," Chat Noir said as their car passed the other one. "So if anyone was planning on sleeping, then I'll stay transformed."

Queen Bee groaned. "Great. Just what I needed first thing in the morning."

"We can always ask him to hold off on that until later in the day," Jade Turtle said. He said something to the driver in Mandarin and he nodded before blocking the side of his face with his hand. Jade Turtle detransformed in a flash of light, and Queen Bee wasn't far to follow.

"Just warn the driver if you two decide to detransform," Master Fu told them. "He has to briefly close his eyes so that he doesn't get blinded by the light."

Chat Noir looked to Ladybug. "Shall we free the cheese beast, my Lady?"

"Sure." Ladybug waited until they were on a long straight stretch of road and then signaled the driver. There were two "detransform me!"s in unison, and two more kwamis spiraled free.

"Ah, a break," Plagg said happily, curling up on top of Adrien's head. "Fantastic. Can someone pass me some cheese?"

Sighing, Adrien passed a small chunk up. "Just don't get any in my hair, all right?"

Plagg sniffed as he snatched the cheese. "I make no promises."

"Plagg."

"You will be able to take a shower this evening, Adrien," Master Fu pointed out. "So, while it might be unpleasant, you will be able to wash any crumbs out."

"Still! It's gross!" Adrien gave his kwami the best stink eye he could manage. "I don't want to spend all night in the shower just because Plagg couldn't be a neat eater."

Plagg stuck his tongue out, just because he could.

Over in the other car, conversation had gone from "kind of stilted and one-sided" to "very stilted and one-sided". With Mrs. Agreste there, they couldn't discuss anything that would give them away.

And since they were two of Adrien's best friends and his girlfriend's mom, that covered most anything that they might talk about, since they were very likely to talk about the exact same things once they met Mrs. Agreste as themselves. Paon had tried talking about his favorite songs, since that was vague enough to not give himself away, but some of the songs had come out after Mrs. Agreste was trapped and the rest, well...

Mrs. Agreste had a bit of a different taste in music than he did.

"I'd say we could try to play that Telestrations game again, but there aren't enough of us in this car to make it funny and the other car is all detransformed," Rena Rouge said after a half-hearted round of "favorite food" had petered out. "Uh, what else can we do?"

"I Spy?" Paon offered weakly. "Uh, have the driver tell us stories and Mrs. Agreste can translate? Or Lycaena could."

"I can certainly try," Mrs. Agreste said, though she had perked up at the suggestion. "My Mandarin isn't perfect, of course, but it should do."

"I'd be interested in hearing about what life is like over here," Rena Rouge agreed. "Or about his family history, that's quite interesting as well."

"Oh, is he familiar with the temple?" Mrs. Agreste turned and asked Palijor a question. Her face lit up with interest when he responded, and Rena mouthed nice one at Paon. They had gotten Mrs. Agreste included in something. Adrien would be happy.

"He says that his family had the Pig most recently," Mrs. Agreste reported. "And that before, they had had a couple ancestors with other Miraculous- oh, just one other," Mrs. Agreste corrected herself. "It got passed down until recently."

"Yeah, Jade Turtle took it back," Rena Rouge piped up. "Because they didn't need it here."

"And because Palijor has several kids, and he didn't want to have anyone claiming that he was playing favorites," Mrs. Agreste added after a short exchange. "Which I can understand. The culture is changing and it isn't the default for the eldest child- or eldest son, I suppose- to get the big inheritance anymore. And having more than one surviving kid complicates things."

"There's more of that that's not fair feeling when big items are up for grabs in big families," Rena Rouge chimed in. "My siblings were crazy jealous that I was going on a big trip this summer. I can't imagine how much they would whine if our parents had a magical item to give to just one of us."

"At least with the Rat, they knew that there was a responsibility attached to the Miraculous," Paon said. "And since a lot of the family didn't want to deal with the responsibility and with living out in the middle of nowhere, there wasn't that jealousy."

"That's one way to keep people from all clamoring over the Miraculous," Mrs. Agreste agreed. "It's a lovely area, but not an easy life out in the country."

They all nodded in agreement. They had all seen how limited things were out in the rural areas. There was no easy, quick way to get into a city, and it was hard to communicate with no cell phone coverage or internet. Winters would no doubt be really tough, too. Farming was a tough life, too, and it would likely be hard to meet someone to marry in such a small community.

For people who had grown up in a large city, that way of life- doing that for an extended period of time and not just a couple days- was pretty much inconceivable.

"He says that in his family, people took having the Miraculous seriously at first, but when there were no further threats then it was seen as more of having a magical pet," Mrs. Agreste reported after another quick exchange. "That, combined with his kwami's urging, led him to make the decision to return the Miraculous."

"I have to admire that," Rena Rouge said. "Like, I hate to admit it, but I would hate to give up my kwami. I probably wouldn't. If I had Chat Noir's kwami, though..."

"He'd be easier to give up, I think," Paon agreed.

"He grows on you, though!" Lycaena protested. "He's a handful for sure, but he has his own sort of charm under the cheese obsession."

"Is he the one who sometimes sings at night?"

"That's the one."

"He does seem like a character," Mrs. Agreste agreed, laughing. "And probably very hard to keep secret. I can't imagine that any decent parent would miss a singing kwami."

Rena tried not to laugh. Glancing to the side, Paon and Lycaena seemed amused as well. Adrien was lucky that Plagg was only acting up now because he was bored and the kwami didn't behave like that at home. Mrs. Agreste was clearly going to be a much more observant parent than her husband (not that that was a high bar to reach or anything) and Plagg would have to work a little harder to fly under the radar.

"What was the Pig kwami like?" Lycaena asked, steering the conversation back on track. "I mean- I could ask, but..."

"Oh, I like getting the practice using my Mandarin." Mrs. Agreste turned to the driver and repeated the question in Mandarin. Palijor made a bit of a face, shrugging just slightly before answering. Mrs. Agreste nodded in understanding before twisting back to address the back seat.

"He said that the kwami was nice enough. He didn't spend that much time with it, though, because it tended to stay out of sight- out of habit, I suppose?- and then pretty soon after it was passed down to him, he and Tenzin decided to return their Miraculous to Jade Turtle. It's been many years since then."

"Oh, okay." Rena Rouge felt a bit disappointed in that. She wanted to know more about the other kwamis, darn it! The Rat's kwami had kept to himself for the part of the trip that they were together, just like its Chosen had, so she hadn't learned anything there. "Were his kids disappointed that none of them would get a Miraculous?"

Another exchange of words, and Palijor shook his head. Mrs. Agreste nodded in understanding and turned back to them. "He didn't tell them about the Miraculous at all. The family tended to keep the kwami fairly hidden and he asked that his father not tell the grandkids anything. He'll tell them the stories of the temple in the future, but not mention how recently the Miraculous was given up."

"Oh, that's probably smart," Lycaena said. "My Miraculous is definitely going back when I get old. No passing down through the family there."

Rena Rouge tried not to snicker. Of course the Butterfly wasn't going to get passed down. Lycaena only had one child, and she had had a miraculous of her own for much longer.

"Maybe we can go back to the stories?" Paon suggested. "We kind of got derailed there pretty quickly."

"Of course, of course!" Mrs. Agreste turned back to Palijor, and they all settled in to listen. "Okay! So the first of his ancestors to go to the temple, many, many years ago..."

After lunch, the two cars did a quick shuffle, having Queen Bee switch with Lycaena so that Nooroo could have a break. Paon and Rena Rouge were sure that their kwamis would have liked a break as well, but Ladybug and Chat Noir weren't going to be going over to their car any time soon, and obviously poor Wayzz needed as much rest as he could get.

"Do Ladybug and Chat Noir not like me?" Mrs. Agreste asked anxiously as the two cars pulled out of the stop. "I can't help but notice that they've kept their distance. I mean, I'm not entirely surprised since Gabriel must have inconvenienced them quite a bit with his akumas and now they've given up part of their summer to help save me, but... have I offended them?"

"I think that they're just really looking forward to being normal civilians again for a while," Rena Rouge said hastily. She could understand why Mrs. Agreste would think that, but she doubted that Ladybug and Chat Noir wanted that to be her impression of them. "And they can detransform in that car, and of course their kwamis have been working the hardest over the last year. They need the break more than ours do."

Mrs. Agreste didn't look convinced.

"They like talking about what they're going to do with the rest of their summer," Paon chimed in quickly. "What's left of it, I mean. To remind themselves that they can be normal again. They've gotten tired of having to police what they say so much. They've had to do it all year, with all of their interviews with reporters and whatnot and just talking to people in general."

"I can understand that, I suppose," Mrs. Agreste said. "But really, is it necessary to be so secretive? What are the chances that I would actually know them? Or you guys, I suppose."

There was a muffled snort-cough from the front, and they all glanced forward to see Queen Bee covering her mouth. She looked mightily unimpressed by the attention.

"Sorry," she said, not sounding particularly sorry at all. "Water went down the wrong way."

"Are you okay now?"

"Just fine." Queen Bee brushed off the completely dry front of her suit. "It surprised me, that's all."

"I see."

"So, we were listening to some of the old stories from Palijor's family before the stop," Paon said, perhaps a bit too loudly in his haste to change the subject to literally anything else. "They were pretty interesting. Maybe we can listen to more?"

"I'll ask," Mrs. Agreste told them. "It's a good way to include the drivers, too. We were hearing about what his ancestors did with their Miraculous, dear," she added to Queen Bee. "They had the Pig."

Queen Bee wrinkled her nose. "A pig? Ew." She yelped. "Ow!"

Rena Rouge and Paon snickered. Apparently Pollen could actually pay attention to what her holder was saying while transformed, at least a bit.

"A pig-shaped kwami, dear, not a farm hog."

"Oh." Queen Bee considered that. "I suppose that could be cute."

"So do you want to hear about that, to help pass the time?"

Queen Bee thought about it. "I guess that could be cool."

Over in the other car, they were already enjoying a much different form of entertainment, courtesy of one recently-fed kwami.

"Cheese! Some cheese! Some tasty cheese! Someone, get me some Provolone!"

"I suddenly regret taking this car," Sabine said with a laugh, glancing across the backseat to where Plagg was dancing around. "I'm all for music, but this is, uh..."

"Quality entertainment?" Plagg supplied, still spinning around. "A fantastic ode to the magic that is cheese? The best thing you've ever heard?"

"Not quite what I was going to say, but sure," Sabine sighed. "If that's what makes you happy."

"He's been doing this all day," Adrien said, sounding exasperated. "He's excited to get into town, because Master Fu said that we would be stopping by a store and picking up more supplies. Which means fresh cheese, apparently."

"Yes, it was a mistake," Master Fu admitted. "I should have kept it a secret. But we had to discuss plans. We've been trying to decide how far we want to get each day, or if we can shave a day off by driving overnight."

"Not tonight," Sabine said immediately. "We're all too tired, and I think there'll be a riot if people don't get to sleep in a bed tonight. We need to stock up on groceries. People want to shower."

"I think it entirely depends on when there are flights available," Tikki pointed out. "If there's nothing for a few days, there's no point in hurrying. If we can get a flight in two days, then we need to hurry."

"And we can check on that and get tickets tonight, at the hotel," Sabine finished. "I'd prefer to get home sooner, but if it's easier on the drivers, we can adjust that."

"I'd also prefer to get everyone home sooner. The longer we're together, the more likely it is that something will happen and someone's identity will be compromised. And if one is compromised, that means that all of us are at risk. That was the main problem with me selecting people that are close to Adrien."

Sabine nodded, glancing back at Adrien. She was of the opinion that it was better for them to have taken that risk in the long run, really. Adrien had needed the support on their trip, even if he had done his best to put on a brave face. There was also the fact that their current group was properly motivated to get the spell to work on the first try, whereas there might be others who... well, who might want to do what Mr. and Mrs. Agreste had done, where their route got figured out over the course of several smaller trips rather than one large one. It would have taken longer that way, which easily could have impacted Adrien's performance at school.

There was also the fact that it just felt better to have familiar faces along with them on the trip. Sabine thought that Master Fu had chosen well.

Plagg had started singing again in the back seat, and Sabine did her best to ignore it and focus on the conversation. "So basically the plans are a bit up in the air and subject to change right now, but we just want to get back to Paris as soon as possible."

Master Fu made a bit of a face. "That's about as far as we've gotten with the planning, yes."

"So we need to figure that out as soon as we get to the hotel, so that people can be prepared." Sabine had to raise her voice as Plagg swung into the chorus of his song. "Do both drivers know about the potential driving overnight thing?"

"Yes, I ran it by them over lunch. They're fine with it. I think they're eager to have the trip over and their cars back."

Sabine could understand that. Road trips weren't fun, even when the driver and all of the passengers could actually communicate and when there were no singing, dancing kwamis in the back seat.

How Plagg had managed to come up with cheese-related lyrics to the tune of Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Sabine did not know. Nor did she particularly want to know. It wasn't exactly a crowning achievement or anything.

When it became clear that there wasn't much more conversation happening, Tenzin reached over and turned the radio on, drowning out Plagg's warbling. It stayed on for the rest of the afternoon, and eventually Plagg attempted to add his cheese-related lyrics to the unfamiliar music before his silence was bought with a large chunk of Cheddar.

The silence was very much appreciated.

They pulled off into a hotel parking lot before the sun even set. All of the younger Miraculous holders and Mrs. Agreste blinked in confusion and then turned to Master Fu and their respective drivers for clarification.

"The next city is far enough away that it would be difficult to get there and get everything done that we need to do," Master Fu explained. "We need to get plane tickets and Mrs. Agreste needs to call home and get her passport sorted out, and we need to be at a hotel in a larger city such as this one to do that. Otherwise we would keep going and then camp next to the road once it gets dark."

"Oh, okay." Adrien glanced towards the other car, which was parked a bit behind them so that Mrs. Agreste couldn't see into their car. "So, uh, how are we going to do this? Who is going in first? I assume that we don't want the locals to pick up on the fact that Miraculous holders are here."

"Well, Queen Bee will have to come over to our car and detransform. She and our drivers will go in and get our rooms. Palijor and Tenzin will lead Mrs. Agreste to her room, and then we can all detransform and go in safely. We'll try to get her and maybe Palijor and Tenzin on a different floor from us." Master Fu waved the drivers over and repeated the plan to them. "Queen Bee should wear a hoodie. That way, she can hide her hair. Is her bag in this car, or the other one?"

"In ours, and hers is the top bag, but if we turn around we might be visible from the other car." Adrien glanced backwards and then ducked down in his seat. "Should we transform again? I don't want to attract a ton of attention with lights going off in our cars."

"No, Tenzin can find it." Master Fu turned back to Tenzin and asked, and the driver immediately nodded, popping the trunk and hopping out of the car. "I'm not sure how to get around the lights problem, though."

"I have an idea," Sabine spoke up. "Our car can drive to the grocery store and pick up what we need once the drivers return, so that there won't be any accidental reveals from her glancing over here. And once Mrs. Agreste gets into the hotel and situated, the other car can go on a short drive around town and Paon and Rena can detransform under a towel or something to muffle the flash. It's unlikely that anyone would be curious enough to follow the car back to the hotel."

Master Fu laughed. "It's a bit like a spy movie now. But I think that's very smart. We can get our errands done and try to make sure that no one is paying us any attention all at once. We'll be less obvious that way, too."

Tenzin interrupted with a shout of victory and they turned around to see him holding Chloe's yellow hoodie. He hurried towards the other car and handed it to Queen Bee, gesturing for her to put it on and follow him. Thankfully, Queen Bee seemed to catch on and she pulled it on before hopping out of the car, even remembering to grab her backpack, which held her wallet.

"Detransform in here," Master Fu called through the open driver's door. "Then pull your hood up and you can go get rooms. Come, come, and we'll tell you the plan."

It took no time at all to get Chloe caught up and then they watched as the she vanished into the hotel with their two drivers. There were a few other people milling around the lot, but they paid the foreigners no attention.

The clerk in the lobby might raise a brow at a blond teenage girl getting six rooms for the night, but hopefully they would forget about it soon enough.

The rest of their plan got pulled off just as flawlessly. They got their errands done and the last members of their group detransformed as inconspicuously as possible before returning to the hotel and getting settled in, all without getting any unwanted attention.

The group had opted to stay in their rooms as much as possible, just so Mrs. Agreste wouldn't step out and run into any of them. Alya, Nino, Adrien and Marinette had all holed themselves up in one of the rooms, watching some TV show while Adrien did his best to translate. Since Chloe was the one with the credit cards, she was the one to accompany Master Fu and Sabine to the hotel lobby to use the computer there. Fu had dressed down in a less obnoxious shirt, and Chloe's distinctive blond hair was tucked under a hooded sweatshirt, just in case.

While Emilie Agreste seemed trustworthy and the kwamis had confirmed her good nature, that didn't necessarily mean things would stay that way forever- and they didn't want her accidentally mentioning who any of the new Miraculous holders were to Mr. Agreste, who would likely take advantage of that information somehow.

Sabine didn't trust that man not to try to attack the city again to turn back time and change things so that he wouldn't end up in jail with a ruined reputation. Emilie had seemed none too pleased with her husband, and it would be right in character for Mr. Agreste to try to turn to magic to fix that.

"I'm going to have to keep an eye on this card after this," Chloe grumbled as she pulled up an internet window. "I don't trust this connection, not at all. But I don't think there's any other option."

"I think other places would be pretty similar," Sabine agreed, pleased to know that Chloe did have a bit of sense when it came to credit cards and money. From what she had seen and heard before the trip (and a bit during the trip), she had rather wondered. "Make sure that all cookies and login stuff is cleared at the end for sure."

Chloe rolled her eyes. "Yeah, duh. I know that." There was a pause, and then Chloe winced and rubbed her shoulder. "Uh, I mean- thanks for the reminder, I'll do that for sure?"

Sabine hid a smile. Somehow she suspected that Pollen might have stung her Chosen.

It took no time at all for Chloe to pull up a list of flights, and Sabine and Fu scanned the flight schedule over Chloe's shoulder. There were two flights per day from the closest airport to Paris, just over four hours apart. Both stopped in Chengdu instead of Beijing like their flight out had, which would shorten their travel time somewhat.

"So Adrien has to go first," Chloe announced. "So that he gets home before his mom. But there's only two seats left on the earlier flight two days out. Maybe we can do Mrs. Cheng and Adrien?"

"No, let's put Adrien and Marinette on the early flight," Sabine told her. "We need to spread out the people who speak Mandarin."

"And I think that we should put Sabine on the same flight as Mrs. Agreste, the second flight of the day," Master Fu chimed in. "Just to keep an eye on her to make sure she gets back safely. Out of all of us, she's the least likely to stand out among the crowd. And normally I wouldn't do flights on such a quick turnaround, especially since Mrs. Agreste doesn't have any paperwork with her, but she assured me that Nathalie would be able to figure something out."

Chloe nodded, checking the seats on that flight. "Five seats left there."

"Good. I'll try to get a seat where I can see Mrs. Agreste, but she wouldn't be staring at me for the whole flight." Sabine glanced over at Master Fu. "And then the four of you can return the next day on the same flight."

Chloe's fingers were flying as she reserved the seats, triple-checking the dates as she did. Adrien and Marinette's reservations were first, followed by Sabine and Mrs. Agreste's. They spent a couple minutes looking over the remaining seats available on the two legs of the flight, figuring out which ones would be best. They settled on two seats that weren't too close together, but that would allow Sabine not to lose Mrs. Agreste when they were getting off of the plane.

"Got 'em," Chloe announced. "Now I need to get ours, but that's not as big of a deal."

"Well, you don't want to miss your flight and have to go back even later," Sabine pointed out. "If there's too much time between when we get back and when you get back, someone is bound to notice."

"My dad won't," Chloe said matter-of-factly. She winced and rubbed her side- Pollen had apparently bitten her again- and then corrected herself. "But I suppose Nino and Alya's parents might, so I'll get our tickets right away."

Sabine glanced around the lobby as Chloe made the last of the reservations. Mrs. Agreste hadn't emerged, it would seem; there was no hint of her distinctive blond hair among the sea of dark-haired locals. That was good, though Sabine was sure that the other woman was probably either bored out of her mind or incredibly anxious. She hoped that Mrs. Agreste wasn't calling home quite yet. It would be best if Adrien could call and update Nathalie first on his return home, just as to not completely freak the poor Agreste family secretary out.

With a few more clicks of a button, Chloe printed out the confirmations for all of the flights. Emilie's reservation confirmation got trimmed down to remove anything that could identify Chloe or Mr. Bourgeois, and then Chloe cleared the computer of all of her credit card and email info before logging out.

"Well, that went well," Master Fu commented as they headed back upstairs. They got off on Emilie's floor and slid the paper with the flight information on it under. Wayzz popped under for a moment to make sure that she got it, and then they were on their way upstairs to update the rest of the group on the plans. "We'll have to drive overnight, though. I'm not sure how people will feel about that."

"Well, we have the hotel to enjoy tonight," Sabine pointed out. "And some time to get out and about if we need. That'll have to balance tomorrow out."

"Would they have a hairdresser in this town?" Chloe asked immediately. "I just want to get my hair evened out, so it's not immediately apparent that it was a home job. It won't be up to the standards of my favorite salon, of course, but it'll do until we get home."

"Probably. I can send Tenzin out with you to look around town," Master Fu told her. "Would you like to shower before, or just go right away?"

"Oh, god." Chloe made a face. "I don't want anyone touching my hair when it's in this state. I don't want to be touching my hair when it's like this. I'll shower first and then go out after I'm done."

"That sounds like a plan."

"But won't you have little bits of hair from the cut then?" Sabine pointed out. "That'll be itchy."

"I'll take another shower when we get back, no problem."

Sabine supposed that she should have expected that, honestly.

They reached their floor, and the first room that they visited was Adrien and Marinette's. To their surprise, Nino and Alya had apparently headed over to another room, leaving Adrien and Marinette alone with a TV program playing quietly in the background as they lay flopped across the beds.

"Oh, we'll get to go back really soon, then," Adrien commented, pushing himself up as he scanned the flight details. "I thought we might have to wait a few days to get spots to open up! This is fantastic. Good work, Chloe."

"Just promise me that you won't let my father see you until I've texted that I'm back, promise," Chloe told Adrien. "Since I'll be getting back a day later, and so will Alya and Nino. Stay inside. I won't make a big deal about it when I come back so my father might be a little blurry on the return date after the first couple days, but..."

"Of course," Adrien promised. "I'll probably be spending the time with my mom, after all. And I'm sure we'll probably spend that time inside." He sighed. "Like usual."

"You think she'll be as overprotective as before, with things with the Rat all ironed out?" Chloe asked. She frowned. "Maybe if my dad talks to him-"

Adrien shook his head. "He wouldn't have the right approach, I don't think. I'll have Nathalie talk to her, and get her to see sense."

Sabine frowned and made a mental note to talk to Adrien's mother as well once they were back- or maybe she could even start working on her as a neutral third party while they were on the road. If she asked what Emilie's plans were once she got back to Paris, just all interested-like, and do a bit of fishing, then she could figure out how overprotective she was planning on being. She could point out that the Rat wasn't going to harm her or Adrien and there were no further threats. Sabine was sure that some basic security was going to stay, and Adrien seemed to enjoy having a driver, but he could be let out on his own more often, and particularly on outings with his friends.

After tasting freedom, Adrien would not easily accept going back to his sheltered, confined life from before. And Sabine would do everything she could to help him.

Chloe just shrugged, apparently accepting Adrien's words without argument. "We'll figure it out. But, speaking of Nathalie-" her lips stretched into a smirk- "Your mom'll probably call her as soon as she finishes reading over the flight information. How much do you think she'll freak out?"

#Miraculous Ladybug #There's No Camembert in Tibet #My writing #Adrien Agreste #Marinette Dupain-Cheng #chloe bourgeois

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curvesandcorners · 5 years ago

Text

SLOVENIA

Slovenia 5/12/19 – 5/19/19 Republika Slovenija. The country is about the size of New Jersey but ever since I first visited in 2006, it left a big impression on me and I have always wanted to return. And especially with a bicycle. After a trip to Norway didn’t pan out I had committed myself to the idea of another bicycle trip and after a short think, Slovenia was it. Quite a bit of flight itinerary option analysis later, I had a free flight via American Airlines miles to Venice. I had about a month to plan out the trip so wasn’t too stressed. Then work got crazy, then I ended up in LA for the week before the trip, and then all of a sudden I was leaving the next day and I still had a route to plan and accommodations to book. That all somehow comes together no matter how unprepared I am and it would this time as well. So a long flight to Madrid, a short flight to Venice, and a 2 hour train ride later I was at the border town of Gorizia, Italy where I had the day before booked a hotel for the start and end of the trip. The hotel room turned into a bike shop and I re-assembled the Rick Jones that night and would leave the travel case with the hotel for the week. The following morning I pedaled across the border to Nova Gorica in Slovenia and started on my clockwise loop around western Slovenia.

The first day was grey and a little wet, which would prove to be a theme for the trip, but the riding started out pretty good, riding over one Italian hill before unknowingly crossing the official border at some unmarked spot and onto a bunch of small Slovenian farm roads.

Just before the town of Plave I hit a ripper of a descent and satisfied myself with my brakes ability to stop me, and then the Soca River first came into view. I had been waiting to see this river for 13 years, and it did not disappoint with amazingly clear turquoise blue water.

My route for the day would follow small roads along the Soca River valley, hitting small towns, and transitioning between perfect pavement, gravel, and jeep track. The weather shifted from threatening to very threatening but luckily never rained more than a spitting. But what the weather lacked in rain it made up for in gusting wind, and blowing the wrong direction. I stopped for a picnic of leftover pizza from the night before, and though I was exhausted from the travels and jetlag, and despite the wind, made it to the town of Bovec to check in to the friendly hostel I booked. A good meal of trout, in the somewhat humorous and cartoonish Bovec style, and a couple glasses of local wine and I was out like a light.

The next morning my body still wanted to wake up on NY time so I got a late start but when I got intel on the route I had planned I found out my intended one-way foray up to the Mangart Saddle was not going to be possible as the road was closed because of snow. I thought about trying it out anyway, but it is a one way road 30 miles out and back, with 5000’ of climbing, and I’d have to return right back to where I started in order to continue on the overall route. So it was not hard to decide to skip that part and I now had a short 20 mile day. This worked out swimmingly as these 20 miles were stunning and provided reason to stop and take photos almost every 50 feet. The wind was back and working against me and I cursed not following the general advice of doing this route in counter-clockwise direction. I took a wrong turn somewhere and then coming back for a ½ mile with the wind sent me sailing along at 30 mph without a pedal stroke. The Soca cut through a limestone gorge and my path followed more small roads and easy mountain bike trails, with a few river crossings over these lovely bridges.

The mountains I had been pedaling towards started getting closer and closer and pretty soon I found myself at my destination of the Koča pri izviru Soče mountain hut.

The hut is part of the Planinska Zveza Slovenije aka the Alpine Association of Slovenia and I had become a card carrying member the day before my trip, which meant I could sleep in the hut dormitory for a friendly 10 euro fee. It was early so I went on a rainy hike for the afternoon and I was glad I had packed my non-cycling shoes as the hike had me scaling some vertical faces before finding the source of the Soca river, a fissure in the mountain with a bottomless blue hole. The host of the hut fixed me up nicely with a wild mushroom stew, a delicious cottage cheese struklji, and a glass of wine. I climbed up the ladder into the loft dormitory and tucked in with my kindle for a good night of rest.

On the morning of Day 3 I breakfasted with my host again and discussed my cycling plans. She did not like my plan to continue up and over the Vrsic pass. The same snow that had closed the Mangart Saddle had apparently unofficially closed the road over Vrsic, unless your vehicle was equipped with snow chains. My bike was not. She called a hut-friend up on the mountain who confirmed her fears and told me I should not make an attempt. The detour was just not an option I would consider and I had been daydreaming about this pass for weeks so I thanked them both for their worry, but I’d be going up, and walking the bike if I needed to. As I stepped outside in the morning it was cold and grey again but I started pedaling and immediately climbing. Not 30 minutes later I was blessed with bright blue sunny skies that came out of nowhere and I knew I had made the right decision. The Vrsic Pass road is a military road built by Russian prisoners of war during World War I and has 50 numbered hairpin switchbacks, 26 going up on Trenta side and 24 (cobblestoned!) descending on the Kranska Gora side. The road was also absolutely stunning and a pleasure cycling up. The feeling was incredible. I looked behind me to see the valley from where I had just came, the sharp bends of the road getting smaller and smaller as I climbed higher and higher, and the surrounding mountains getting closer and closer and just could not believe this was reality.

Somewhere around switchback 20 or so, I was nearly at the summit and the warnings came true. The temperature plummeted and the road surface was covered with a few inches of snow over a sheet of ice. I ran into an older Austrian couple I had spoken with the day before in their SUV as they were turning around because their vehicle couldn’t make it up the road. Despite the snow we shared this moment of excitement because of the beauty of the mountain peaks and the encouraging sunshine. They asked how it was cycling in the snow and I replied “it doesn’t matter. it’s beautiful” to which they replied in charming Austrian accents “IT IS SO BYOOTTEEEFULLLL”. I pedaled when I could and pushed the bike when I couldn’t and put on all my layers and both pairs of gloves and made my way across the 4 or 5 km of snow covered summit. A well placed hut provided a hot tea to warm myself back up before making the descent. The north side has cobblestones on each of the 24 hairpins which was not ideal for a bicycle moving way too fast, but maybe that extra caution kept me from flying off the road and off the mountain. In any case, the descent was over before I knew it and I paused at Lake Jasna to admire the morning’s accomplishment.

From here I would enjoy 25 miles of picture perfect solitary riding along a tiny perfectly paved road/path through the Triglavski National Park, all the way to Lake Bled.

And somehow this cycling utopia of a road provided me with my only puncture of the trip.

A quick lunch in Bled and a lap around the lake and I continued on my way. After a few km I turned off the paved road and onto a mountain bike trail and started on the 2nd big climb for the day. A much smaller one at 580 m, but a much harder one thanks to the dirt and varying 8 – 15% grade.

But the top would reward me well with this alpine meadow and a view the whole way down the other side of the mountain to Bohinjsko Jezero.

I was further rewarded with freshly paved and absolutely perfect tarmac which allowed me let the bike sing down the swoopy descent. There were a few shouts of excitement as I was having so much fun and my bike felt so good. A few minutes later I was down at the lake (Bohinjsko Jezero).

A quick pedal to look around town and then I had a 5 or 6 km ride back up into the woods to another Alpine Association hut where I planned to stay. I approached a closed looking hut but was happy to see there was a woman doing some work around the back. But unluckily she informed the hut was closed until the weekend. The day was too good to let this setback annoy me so I quickly turned around and another trip back down to town and I managed to find a lovely little hotel lodge to call home for the night with an excellent “Foksner” burger and great selection of Slovenian craft beers. I toasted to an unforgettable day on the bike and was drunk in one pint and asleep in two. The next morning I woke up high on the euphoria of such a good previous day. I didn’t have any epic alpine passes planned for the day but overall it was the biggest day of the trip I had planned. I looked out the window and saw a miserably grey sky and rain pouring down. I checked the forecast and it did not look good.

I reviewed my planned route and saw I had quite a bit of climbing and a lot of it was on mtb trails. This just did not sound fun in 40 degrees and rain all day so I decided to call an audible and re-routed myself to a more direct route on mostly pavement. This cut the day down to a more manageable 95 km. The rain never stopped aside from one hour of respite, and it was indeed cold, but I layered up, put some house music on my Bluetooth speaker on my handlebars, and got into a groove with my cadence and pedaled instinctively. It was great and miserable at the same time. The route would take me along some beautiful roads and some average ones, and eventually I reached my somewhat arbitrarily selected destination of Trojane.

From Trojane I had picked out another Alpine hut for my accommodation. This was about 10 km outside of town and seemed doable from my review of the maps. My confidence was shaken though, by the previous day’s surprise closed hut. I continued out of town towards the woods and the hut. I got to the last remnants of a village before entering the woods and saw a woman outside and asked if she had any idea if it would be open or not. She didn’t speak a lick of English but grabbed her son who did and he knew the hut and was fairly confident it was only open on weekends so would be closed. I knew that would be a pretty terrible thing to trudge up to this hut only to come right back down, all in the cold pouring rain, at the end of a long day, and I also really liked the idea of a hot shower at that point (no showers at the Alpine huts) so I accepted defeat and headed back to Trojane for a hot tea and to figure out accommodation for the night. I met Melita in the Trojane café and we made friends and she was thrilled that I chose Slovenia for my cycling trip. We took a photo on her ancient digital camera. I took advantage of the wifi and successfully booked another cheap room at the wonderfully Soviet-esque meets mid-century modern Hotel Trojane. The hot shower made it worth every single euro (not that many!) and I cranked the heat and used my bike as a drying rack to try to dry off my thoroughly soaked clothing.

After an excellent night’s rest, I had an easy route planned from Trojane to Ljubljana for two day’s in the city. But I wanted more bikes so I planned a big epic murderous ride up to the Austrian border, across three mountain passes, and then back down to Ljubljana. Then I checked on road closure conditions and two of the passes were closed because of snow so I settled for something in the middle with one mountain pass. But before that I had to go see Hut Dom dr. Franca Goloba na Čemšeni��ki planini, which was supposed to be my destination the night before. I headed back out of town, passed the woman and son whom I had spoken to the day before, and then started to climb up into the woods. I soon realized I had very much made the right choice as the roads up to the hut went from

And they got stupid steep. But eventually, after a couple miles that felt like an a couple hundred, I came to the hut.

What an amazing place. The host was there doing some sprucing up and though she spoke no English I was at least able to confirm she was there the night before. I didn’t regret my decision but I sure was glad I still came to see the hut. The view off the mountain and across the valley below was breathtaking and the grounds of the hut were charming as possible. Picnic tables covered in snow with the sun shining and an incredible view meant I had to enjoy a morning beer.

I enjoyed my beer and went back in the direction I had came but took another trail I thought might be more bike and less hike. It was not. But it eventually spit me out onto another dirt road which was a very fast way back down off the mountain.

I passed through Trojane one last time, grabbed a few snacks, and then quickly turned off the pavement and onto a forest road which was one of my favorite sections of the whole trip. I had the whole forest to myself and enjoyed beautiful and tranquil dirt roads in great shape as I climbed up and down the undulating hills. This heavenly dirt road brought me to another secondary paved road, a small mountain pass, and through a few small villages. I made a friend, enjoyed the rolling hills and perfect pavement, and soon found myself at the base of the Trobelkski Vrh climb. At 460 meters the climb was not insignificant but with grade hovering around 15% it was a worthy challenge, especially on my loaded bike. Luckily it rewarded my effort with another set of amazing views of my surroundings.

At the summit I turned onto a paved main road and had a thrilling 7 mile long descent back down to the Kamnik River. The asphalt was freshly laid and I raced a Subaru WRX down the hairpin turns. Towards the bottom there was a section of road work and the roadworkers were working on laying more of that sweet glass smooth asphalt. I yelled as I passed :chef kissing fingers: “IT’S BYOOTIFULLL” pointing the asphalt and they loved the appreciation and cheered me on with a round of ALLEZ ALLEZ ALLEZ. It was a great moment and made my already ear to ear smile stretch even bigger. I followed my route on into Ljubljana and easily found my hotel and settled in for two days of espresso, beer, and great food. Ljubljana is a lovely little European gem. The River Ljubljanica runs right through it with beautiful buildings and cafes running along it. The food is good, the beer is good and cheap and plentiful, the good espresso is really good, and everyone seems to be happy and friendly. It was a lovely little rest off the bike for two days.

After two days of relaxing, eating, and drinking, it was time to get back on the bike. I called ahead this time to make sure the Alpine hut was open and promised the host I would be there by late afternoon. Then I loaded all my belongings back onto the Rick Jones and headed west out of the city.

After 25 km of flat, boring riding I turned onto a dirt road and climbed a few hundred feet. Then another stretch of flat riding before I started up a really great 400 meter climb to the village of Podkraj. It started to rain along the way which put a bit of a damper on the long and fast descent, especially the -17% portion. I managed that ok but wished for disc brakes and cursed my luddite-ness. I entered into Slovenian wine country and cycled up and down and alongside numerous vineyards.

And then shortly after the village of Dolenje I was gingerly descending around a series of hairpin turns and all of a sudden I was on the pavement with a painful thud. I’m not sure what happened but my tire slipped out from under me as I was making my way around the curve, even though I was doing so really slowly. I crawled off the road and lay out in the grass moaning and groaning. I checked my bike and had to push the brake lever back into position and do my best to re-align the bent derailleur hanger. As I was laying there a car or two passed by, veeerryyyy very slowly and both checked to see that I was ok. A couple came cycling by on mountain bikes in the opposite direction as me and stopped to check on me and we chatted for a while. They were locals and told me everyone knows that road and especially that turn are dangerous and extremely slick.

Once I collected myself I had no choice but to continue on. From there I had 25 km to get to my hut. Luckily my bike worked well enough, even without perfect shifting. The rain started to come down hard with about 20 km to go so I gritted my teeth and pushed on, up into the woods again. The last 8 km or so were really gorgeous but there was no time for photos with the rain so I pressed ahead, anxious to make it to the hut and looking forward to a hot meal and a drink. Some time around 4 pm I got to the Hut Stjenkova koča na Trstelju and looked forward to drying off and going to sleep very early.

As I entered dripping wet I saw two men and a beautiful but terrifying German Shepherd. Then a third man bolted up from behind a table. He was the host, Bostjan, and I had just woken him up from his afternoon nap. “YOU! NEW YORK!?” he yelled out and I confirmed. He commanded I sit down and placed a beer in front of me straight away. From there it would turn into absolutely the most fun night of the trip. Bostjan, and his friends Dragan the casino craps dealer and Miha the former motocross champion of Yugoslavia and the beautiful blue-blooded lineage purebred German Shepherd called Siri welcomed me into their Saturday night party. The beer flowed non-stop, I fortified myself mid-way with a hearty stew, and then again with a late night pancetta party, Bostjan brought out home-made grappa from his fellow communist (“NO, SOCIALIST”) comrades, Dragan brought out his homegrown Slovenian mountain kishkish, we toasted to Tito’s portrait multiple times, and some time around 1 am we had drunken 20 L of Laško beer and the keg was kicked. I couldn’t have asked for a better last night in Slovenia. I will never forget those guys and the fun time we shared.

I woke up the next morning in a haze and hurting just as much from the crash the day before as from the drinking. Bostjan stumbled to the kitchen and prepared me a breakfast of scrambled eggs with beer, along with more pancetta and then I had a short last day to finish out the trip and return to Gorizia.

I was able to enjoy the mountain roads without so much rain this time and after a quick 50 km I was back in Italy and the whole town was closed since it was Sunday. I checked back into the hotel I had started the trip at, went through the tedious process of disassembling and packing my bike back into the s&s case, wandered aimlessly on foot until I eventually found something open ending up back at the same pizza place I had visited 7 days previous (very good pizza!), and got a night of rest before waking up early for the long travel journey of a train to Venezia, bus to the airport, 13 hour flight to Philadelphia, 6 hour layover which worked out perfectly for a happy hour reunion with friends, and then a one hour flight back to LaGuardia where I and thousands of other people would deal with the hell that is LaGuardia construction and transportation. At 2 am I walked back in the door of my Brooklyn apartment, dropped all my things at the front door, and collapsed into bed for a few quick hours of sleep before waking up for work and re-entrance into the real world.

Before I sign off, what sort of bike nerd would I be if I didn’t nerd out on my bike and gear selected for the trip. I wanted this to be a non-camping inn-to-inn or hut-to-hut in this case tour to keep the bike relatively lightweight and make the riding more fun. My Rick Jones has served me well for 7 years now and did not fail on this trip.

-Even with the front rando bag, frame bag, and saddle bag adding on about 15 or so lbs, the bike was spry and handles like a dream.

-Braking is, well…its as good as you can expect from cantilevers I suppose. Pretty decent when dry and alarmingly inadequate when wet, which happened to be most of the trip.

-I refreshed the drivetrain a couple months ago with new 11 speed Ultegra which proved as reliable as expected. I changed out the compact gearing for 46/30 sub-compact chainrings mounted onto my White Industries VBC cranks and really appreciated that choice at many times throughout the trip, both going up the alpine passes in the 30 tooth and cruising along on the flats and downhills in the 46.

-The way-too-complicated electrical system, yes electrical system, consists of the SonDelux dynamo hub powering an IQ-X front headlight, as well as a taillight, and a Sinewave Revolution usb charger. The setup got complicated when I had to make it demountable for packing into the S&S case with quick-disconnects all over the place. One ripped out as I was taking the bike apart, requiring a last minute solder and leaving me not all that confident in the system holding up to the travel and the trip. But it turned out to not be an issue and worked the entire time and survived the disassembly and trip home with no problems or re-soldering required.

-Tire selection was the do-it-all goldilocks of a tire Compass aka Rene Herse Bon Jon Pass 700c x 35 mm. Everything is tubeless compatible but I ran tubes due to the packing wheels tightly into a suitcase a little smaller than the wheels are round. Aside from that sudden crash which probably can’t be blamed on the tire, they were great and gave me the road and gravel performance I wanted, while still being able to handle some rough stuff when the route turned more towards mtb trail.

-Navigation was handled with my Hammerhead Karoo which is enormous but works very well and a great tool for touring and especially good when re-routing on the fly becomes necessary. Between my trip to Oaxaca in December and this trip to Slovenia, I have confidence in the Hammerhead to get me wherever I want to go.

-Bags consisted of a Swift Ozette rando bag out front, a Porcelain Rocket frame bag, and an Oveja Negra saddle bag. It looks like a generous amount of storage but it fills up pretty quickly and I needed all the space they provided for this trip. -Inside the bags I packed: (1) pair bibs + jersey + socks (rotated daily between the set I was wearing), an insulated Rapha gilet, a Search & State rain jacket, arm warmers, knee warmers, toe covers, a pair of full finger riding gloves, a pair of glove liners, and a merino wool neck gaiter. I was very glad to have every last piece of riding gear that I did as the temps and constant rain necessitated wearing everything on several occasions. I treated myself to the luxury of a pair of pants, a pair of shorts, a t-shirt, and a light wool sweater. Being able to change into dry normal clothes and the end of each long, wet day was a treat. And the most luxurious item packed was a pair of sneakers, which although they took up more than half the saddle bag they were also a god-send at the end of the day when I just wanted to take off the cycling shoes and for the couple of short hikes and the two days spent walking Ljubljana. Add in my Fuji XT1, a Kindle, a Bluetooth speaker, a headlamp, two water bottles, phone/wallet/passport, framepump, two tubes, tools, and a daily supply of snacks and that was the bike packed. I was happy with everything packed, and there was not a single item I regretted lugging around by bicycle for a few hundred km.

If anyone has actually read this far. Thank you for reading and now go visit Slovenia. Tell them I sent you and say hello. I am already scheming on a return trip next year with cycling and fly fishing combined.

Nasvidenje!

#bicycle touring #slovenia

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athousandsmiles-away · 5 years ago

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Have you ever visited Taiwan?

A lot can be argued about whether Taiwan is a province of China, or whether it is a fully independent country... Taiwan considers itself to be independent politically, in fact, it has a regime of its own; but it also resembles China in several other aspects (like the language or the architecture) . Either way, all I know is when I arrived at Taipei’s airport I got a stamp - which doesn’t usually happen when you travel to a province within a country.

I travelled to Taiwan with two of my best friends for around five days, two of which we spent in Taipei and the rest of which we spent in Hualien (the East Coast of the island).

Taipei wasn’t all that much surprising, especially after having seen other megacities such as Hong Kong or Shanghai. It looked completely like an average Chinese city and, to be honest, I didn’t find super nice to walk around, except for a few temples and skyscrapers.

Some of my favourite attractions were the National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, the Bao-an temple, the Elephant Hill and the Shilin Night Market - every single Asian city has one.

Chiang Kai-shek’s Memorial Hall rises like a magnificent work of art in the midst of all the busy roads and grey skyscrapers of downtown Taipei. It was built in honor and memory of the former President of the Republic of China, Chiang Kai-shek, and today it is the most prominent historical landmark in Taiwan. The complex of temples catches one’s eye because it’s style and colors contrast so much with its surroundings.

When night fell, we walked north to explore several temples, among which we found the Bao-an temple. The temple does not differ much from any other Asian temples or pagodas by day, that is why it is much more worth a visit at night. At this time, it lights up from top to bottom, becoming a sort of mystical place of worship.

Even if the streets that lead up to the temple are not very pleasant to walk through, Bao-an deserves the journey.

If you keep walking up or catch a bus from that point, you’ll finally reach the Shilin Night Market, packed with foods stalls as well as souvenirs and clothes shops. The crowded Night Market really lifted up our mood that day, because up until then we really had the impression that there was nobody in the city, because the streets and parks were almost empty and really quiet.

My last (but not least) favourite visit was the Elephant Hill, a little mountain at the outskirts of Taipei which overlooks its whole skyline - with the Taipei 101 reigning over every other skyscraper. The hike up Elephant Hill is short but steep, and it is definitely a must for all Taipei visitors, because it gives a stunning perspective of the whole city. We hiked up the hill to catch the sunset, except that there was no sunset because the sky was completely covered in clouds - oh well. But I have to say, the views were quite impressive anyway.

We also went up Taipei 101 (to the 101th floor in case there were any doubts) and the views were also pretty; however, I wouldn’t recommend it as much as the Elephant Hill, as the most iconic skyscraper there is to see is the Taipei 101 itself - which you obviously can’t see from within it.

One last thing I loved when in Taipei: their dumplings! Never leave Taipei without trying its Xiao Long Bao!

After the big city vibes, we took a train to Hualien, a smaller city on the East coast of the island. Hualien itself does not have a huge cultural offer - or even nothing at all -, but it is located right next to a beautiful national park called Taroko National Park, as well as the stunning Qinshui Cliffs.

Possibly because of the time of the year we chose, Hualien was virtually empty when we arrived. I suppose most tourists prefer to visit the Park under sunny skies and warm temperatures, but that was not a priority for us. Although the skies were somehow cloudy, the temperature rounded 15-20 degrees, so we still had a really pleasant weather during our stay.

As soon as we dropped our bags at the hostel, we rented a scooter and drove all the way to Taroko National Park. On our way, we saw several Taiwanese villages composed of tiny houses and big farms, which contrasted abruptly with the tall skyscrapers and wide roads we had seen in Taipei... After 40-50 minutes, a picturesque entrance gate leading to the National Park surprised us.

Technically speaking, there exist both Taroko Gorge and Taroko National Park. Taroko Gorge, an 18 kilometre-long marble-walled gorge, is a section of the Taroko National Park. The national park itself boasts 27 peaks over 3,000 metres in height. It also has several milestones to see, and I’m sure it would take more than three days to cover them all and do all the hikes. We chose those which we considered to be the prettiest and most important ones.

If I could describe the landscape in a few words they would undoubtedly be green and leafy trees and clear turquoise waters; abrupt caves and noisy waterfalls; but also a sort of sense of peace and calm, as if all things in nature were in harmonically connected. No wonder Taroko is one of Taiwan's most loved protected areas.

Outside of the national park and on our way back to Hualien we found the Qinshui Cliffs. They took my breath away! I perfectly remember those spectacular cliffs rising dramatically from the Pacific Ocean up to over 800 meters above turquoise waters. The dark tall cliffs contrasted with the white cloudy skies right before night was about to fall... and I can’t almost describe the feeling of peace and tranquility it all brought to me. Finding those magnificent chunks of land right at the end of our journey certainly made my day - and the whole trip as well.

That night we also visited the small town of Hualien and it’s night market, but I didn’t find it any different to other Chinese cities I’d seen before. There is one thing that I really liked though: dumplings!

In general, there aren’t many people who list Taiwan as their favourite destination ever, and many times it gets overlooked in favour of other more well-known countries in Southeast Asia. Having been there just for five days, I personally think this tiny little island has a lot to offer: amazing sceneries ranging from impressive mountains in the north and sandy beaches in the south, breathtaking hikes, the mixture of European and Chinese culture, great food...

Possibly because of its lower popularity, Taiwan is not as crowded as other destinations within Asia, and that is in part where it gets its charm from. One of the things that makes Taiwan so great is that you’ll often feel like you’re one of the only tourists in the country, and the locals will welcome you in a much warmer way - I know this from personal experience.

Taiwan is interesting culturally, historically and geographically, not to mention politically. The country is plunged in a serious identity crisis. It is a country that is not a country, successful from a manufacturing and high-tech point of view, yet striving for recognition by most of the world.

But when you visit Taiwan, you’ll quickly realise that it really is a separate country and certainly not the same as China, Vietnam or Thailand; that it has a culture of its own and plenty or attractions that can be referred to as uniquely Taiwanese... That is why my advise at this point is: go to Taiwan now before it bustles with tourists!

#travellers #taiwan #taipei #taroko #backpackers #asia

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courtenaychung · 6 years ago

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London, England

May 28 - 31, 2018

Is the third time really the charm?

Packing my bags, sorting out trip details and breezing through airport security is becoming a comforting feeling for me. Thinking back to my first overseas trip over six(!) years ago, stress levels were much higher but the buzz of excitement has never changed. There is nothing that makes me happier then heading out on a new adventure; off to explore another little corner of the Earth.

This trip, like my last in Europe, started and ended in good old London. That shouldn’t come as a surprise, as everyone reading this knows that London is far and away my favourite city I’ve ever been to.

I’m convinced that you could live in London for years and still never see everything the bustling capital has to offer. With only a couple days in the city this time around, Jen and I developed a plan: pick a couple of neighbourhoods and explore them to the fullest. Oh, and go on a walking tour. Duh.

London Eye

After taking the red eye from YVR to LHR and sleeping as much as possible on the way, we hit the ground running. Hopping on the Piccadilly line, it was a straight shot from Heathrow to Russel Square station. Getting off the tube and stepping out onto the London streets felt like coming home after three long years away. We made a quick stop to check in to our hostel and drop our backpacks, then we were off on a double decker bus to meet our friend Joe and his buddy Taylor at Borough Market (they just happened to be passing through London on their own backpacking trip). It was a late start to the day, but we made the most of it, spending time with good friends, walking around London and relaxing in Hyde Park, like true Londoners on a sunny bank holiday. We tucked into a little Italian restaurant in Covent Garden for dinner just in time; the weather decided to take a turn for the worst and a torrential downpour started before evolving into a full fledged thunder storm.

Buckingham Palace

Our first full day in the city, like so many others, began with a walking tour. We all know I’m a sucker for a good waling tour, and this was Jen’s first time in London, so a tour was a no-brainer. This one took us to many of the city’s most popular landmarks, including Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, and Big Ben (though the famous clock tower was completely covered in scaffolding for restorations).

Wild at Heart florist in Notting Hill.

Notting Hill has always been a borough of London that has intrigued me, so I was more than happy when Jen suggested we hop on the tube and head out that way to explore.

The colourful building and markets of Portobello Road

We started the day with a delicious breakfast at Farm Girl, which we heard about on Instagram. Knowing that the café gets quite busy, we decided to go early to minimize the wait and maximize our time in the area. This ended up being a great decision on our part, as we were the first customers of the day, and got our choice of tables, watching as the cozy restaurant filled as the city woke up. I had the avocado toast, watermelon juice and a rose latte, and everything was just as tasty as it sounds. I would 100% recommend Farm Girl (which also has locations in Chelsea and Soho) if your in the area, not only for the great food, but also for the insta-worthy interiors and friendly staff.

After breakfast we wandered down Portabello Road and ventured off into the side streets, browsing the vendor stalls and enjoying what the area had to offer.

Just another photoshoot in Notting Hill

On one particular side street we encountered lines of brightly painted houses. These are the kind of homes I picture when I think of Notting Hill (probably due to the movie of the same name). We stopped to take some photos, and while we were there, at least six other groups came over and started snapping pictures as well, including an actual photoshoot equipped with hair, make up, lighting and a professional photographer.

Daydreaming of the lives inside these homes in Notting Hill.

Another area of London that we wanted to explore was Kensington. Arriving in the UK fresh on the heels of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding, there was a buzz in the air throughout the city, so a trip to Kensington Palace was a must. We spent an entire afternoon in the gardens, enjoying the understated beauty and change of scenery from London’s urban cityscape.

Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace.

My travel buddy on this trip, Jen, in the Sunken Garden after a passers-by instructed her on how to pose.

We made our way through Kensington Gardens and eventually across Hyde Park, stopping to admire the intricate Albert Memorial, Royal Albert Hall and the many sights of Hyde Park.

A peak at Kensington Palace from the Sunken Garden.

We did a lot during our time in London, but the time spent in Notting Hill and Kensington was the most enjoyable. It might even top my list of my favourite things to see and do in the city!

London will forever be one of my favourite places and though it was my third time exploring the historic and bustling capital, I can’t wait until my next visit.

#london #travel

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jonathangroffcentral · 6 years ago

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In Conversation With Mindhunter’s Jonathan Groff

Photo: Larry Busacca/Getty Images

Actor Jonathan Groff has already enjoyed a huge degree of respect and recognition for his previous roles in theatre (Hamilton and Spring Awakening), on TV (Looking and Glee) and also in film with the hugely successful Frozen. Lately however he has found a whole new audience, who are singing his praises for his outstanding performance as Holden Ford on Mindhunter. In my extended interview with Jonathan we talk about his early years, his first roles, working on Mindhunter, his thoughts on David Fincher’s directing technique and so much more. (x)

By Paula Courtney - July 29, 2018

PC: So how are you?

JG: I’m doing well. I’m in Pittsburgh.

PC: I’m in Edinburgh: have you been?

JG: I’ve never been.

PC: Well you must put right that wrong.

JG: I know and there’s that famous theatre festival there.

PC: Yes and it starts in about a month; actually it’s the worst time to come to the city: it’s jam-packed then.

JG: I have friends that have been over there during that time and they loved it there.

PC: It is really good because it opens the city up much more. We are getting a lot more cosmopolitan, in that the cafés and venues are open much later.

JG: And are you liking that or is it taking away its charm?

PC: I like it because it’s similar to when you visit other parts of Europe where you can be sitting outside at a cafe at 10 p.m. – guaranteed we don’t always get the weather. Especially on a Sunday, I don’t know about America but Sundays could be quite boring when I was a kid: there was nothing open, nothing to do. So yeah, I like it where it’s going.

JG: Nice.

PC: What about yourself: what kind of town is Pittsburgh?

JG: Well Pittsburgh is interesting, kind of like what you are saying about Edinburgh: where it has been becoming more cosmopolitan, probably in the last decade or so; it’s sort of like Hipster Land now. It was a kind of big, industrial town and then it crashed and now there’s cool coffee shops and bike stores. There are actually really incredible restaurants! My friend actually has a place in New York called Caselulla, it’s on 52nd and 10th, (it opened when I was doing Spring Awakening back in 2007) and they opened a sister location in Pittsburgh. So there are people from all over the culinary world coming and taking up space there, which is interesting.

PC: In the past British food was slated for being bad but it’s turning around nowadays, which is great. Having said that some food in these fancy places I’m like, ‘What even was that?’ (Both laugh)

I always like to begin an interview talking about the person’s name. I’ve read your middle is Drew: does that have any special reasons as to why your parents chose that or did they just like it?

JG: My mom wanted my first name to be Drew after her older brother. He just passed away a couple of years ago but yes, his name was Drew. My brother’s name is David; he’s my older brother. I think there’s Jonathan and David in the Bible, who were very close friends, and I think my mom and dad liked the name Jonathan and they associated it with the name David because of that.

PC: You were born in Pennsylvania: what was it like growing up at the time you were aged around 8 -10 years old? What kind of boy were you at that age?

JG: Life was good. My dad trains horses for a living in Lancaster PA. We didn’t live on a horse farm – our house was separate from the horse farm – but in the summer I spent a lot of time with my brother and our friends running around this kind of giant, grassy field on our farm. There was a corn crib there – a giant structure you put corn cobs in after you get them out of the field – that was always empty over the summer and we would climb and play in that. There were lots of little barns we would play in and horse stalls. The first play I ever did was when I was Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz in my dad’s barn: we sold tickets to our parents; we have video footage of people coming to the show. It was very kind of creative and ‘country’.

PC: Is that because you had to make your own fun, because you didn’t have access to museums, art galleries etc?

JG: Yes definitely. I mean, once we got a Nintendo in the late ‘80s that definitely took up a lot of time as well. For better or for worse my brother and I spent a lot of time on the Nintendo, but my mom and dad were very athletic and cool, and they really liked the outdoors, so my mom was always trying to get us out of the house and get us playing outside – took us on bike rides. We were outside a lot: for which I’m really grateful. I feel grateful that there really was a nice situation for us growing up because there was this horse farm, but there were fences all around it, so it wasn’t like we were just in the middle of nowhere. Our parents were always up on the top of the hill and we would go acres away and play: so it was a great balance of having independence, but not really. We could go off on our own but our parents were always aware of where we were, they didn’t always have their eye on us but it was a nice balance.

My mom grew up in a small town called Strasburg in Pennsylvania where she’d climb out of her back window and run through the streets and play. She tells all these stories about meeting her friends at the pool – just stuff you would never do now because it would be so dangerous for kids to roam the streets at 5, 6 & 7 but she grew up in a town where there was this level of freedom and independence that would just be impossible today, because now it’s way more populated.

PC: And also because people now often say they don’t even know who their next door neighbour is. In those days, where I grew up in England, it was really rough and there were some very unsavoury people but on the flip side there were more good people than bad, who looked out for each other and their families, so we could play out all day. Certainly where I live now we know our neighbours but I’ve heard lots of people say they don’t know theirs. When you have kids it is a fine balance: it can be a big bad world out there never mind what we see on Mindhunter…

JG: Yes.

PC: Did you have a nickname in school?

JG: I did not. I used to hate it in elementary school when people called me Jonny; I don’t know why I didn’t like that nickname.

PC: I suppose it would be just like Groffy or something, if you can add a ‘y’ to a name people do tend to do that.

JG: Yes, I have way more people now call me J Groffy, they call me JG, so I have lots of nicknames now but I didn’t have any in high school. In middle school which is 7-8th grade here (you know 10-12 years old) I was very obsessed with being cool and having the right clothes and going to school dances and hanging out with the ‘cool’ kids. I was very obsessed with the social ladder at age 11 & 12. And then, once I did the 8th grade play – which I guess I was maybe 12 or 13 at that time – I just found my love for theatre and then I didn’t care at all where I fit in the social scene.

PC: Really? Because you do look like the type who was in with the ‘cool’ kids.

JG: All of that kind of need and headspace that was taken up thinking of trying to be cool or whatever, was gone almost in a blink of an eye. As soon as I did the play it was like ‘boof’ and it was gone – all I cared about was theatre. Then there are these two great theatres in my hometown: one is called the Fulton Opera House, which is a regional theatre where they would have actors from New York come down and perform in the plays; and then there’s another theatre called the Ephrata Performing Arts Center, which is a community theatre which would hire local actors. So once I was 13-14-15-16-17-18 I spent all my free time after school working at those theatres, whether that was playing parts or being in ensembles in the musicals or working with as backstage crew. I just became obsessed with theatre and acting and then that’s all I did, all I could be about, throughout high school. I had friends in high school and I would do the high school plays and stuff but I spent all of my social time at these theatres – I had a handful of friends at high school that I connected with but I wasn’t quite as involved – I was always thinking about theatre outside of school.

PC: You were always going to be an actor it seems, weren’t you?

JG: Yeah I thought I wanted to be an actor when I was in the barn playing Dorothy at 4 or 5 years old but then, once that 8th grade play happened, and I started meeting people in the community that were from New York who made their lives being actors, that’s when I really became keen on the idea of pursuing that.

PC: What was it that drew you? I mean: are you sort of the sort of person that likes to be in the spotlight, did you like the confidence it gave you or the closeness you feel with people when you are in a play? I was an amateur stagehand at one point and there was always a feeling of being lost after a play run finished.

JG: For me, the desire to act always comes from a place of play, imagination and daydreaming and play, and all of that is really where that joy comes from, and it just has really always turned me on. You know everybody acts for different reasons: people act from a place of pain, expression – a sort of exorcism of that – but for me it’s always come from a very joyful place and a sort of place of imagination. I think there was a part of me… you know I was not out of the closet when I was in high school and I wasn’t living fully a gay life until I was 19 – that was the first time I was ever with anyone sexually and then I didn’t come out of the closet until I was 23 – so I also think there was an element of escapism in acting that probably helped me express myself when I was sort of not expressing myself, in retrospect. I think that was there definitely an element of it but even now (even with Mindhunter) I so enjoy playing ‘pretend’.

PC: I have spoken to a lot of actors who have said that acting is an escape for them: whether that’s from a terrible childhood or whose parents have said, ‘Acting is the last thing we want you to do.’

JG: My parents actually – when I was thinking of going to college and wanting to major in theatre – they encouraged me to not major in theatre, but to move to New York instead and just pursue acting. They said, ‘You know you love it and you have so much experience in community theatre and whatever, why not just go to New York instead of paying 40 thousand dollars to train in acting?’

PC: Yes. I interviewed an actor who has been in a couple of Quentin Tarantino productions and Quentin Tarantino said the same thing to him, ‘Don’t bother going to acting classes, just act wherever that may be and watch two films everyday.’ That worked out great for him.

JG: For me experience has always been the best learning tool and if you are lucky enough to be able to get experience… I’ve always learnt on the job, that’s always been the best way for me. Jumping in and trying it, and getting to work with different people and different directors and different actors and different musicians – and taking stuff from all of those experiences.

My parents, even though they are not at all in the arts, somehow instinctually knew that, aside from the fact they didn’t want to help me pay for college, (laughs) they really supported me: they knew it’s what I loved. My dad trains and races horses for a living and my mom was a physical education teacher, they centralised on things they were really passionate about. So when I said I wanted to be an actor – even though they didn’t know a lot about acting, the passion that I felt for that – I think they recognised that so they were very supportive in my pursuit of that as a career.

PC: It’s like what Holt [McCallany] said in his interview with me. Obviously his parents were in the business, but he said when he and his brother got to university level his mother said, ‘I will pay for you to study anywhere you want.’ She was that supportive – and of course he ended up in France. Amazing to have that kind of support.

JG: Yes it’s amazing! Holt and I have that in common actually. He was very close with his mother. It’s so funny because we often talk about how we spend all this time in Pittsburgh, when we are acting in Mindhunter, talking to these serial killers. One of the many consistent qualities is that they have all have troubled relationships with – mostly – their mothers, and how he and I have had just the opposite experience.

PC: Yes I know with Holt he couldn’t have been more loved, by the sounds of it. You wonder: would they have turned out differently had they had that love and support? I don’t know how much you have researched serial killers, but does that just apply to men, or is that a factor in female serial killers too?

JG: That’s a great question, most serial killers are men (at least the ones on Mindhunter are) I don’t [know] to be honest if female serial killers have a troubling relationship with their parents. We talk a lot about nature v nurture (that sort of age-old question) how someone naturally dotes when they’re young and then it’s their environment that cultivates the bad behaviour: is it more one than the other? I think it’s still a question people are still trying to answer and it’s one that we explore a lot on the show.

PC: I suppose if the show runs and runs eventually, if not this coming season, it will feature a female serial killer.

PC: So you said earlier about your parents being very into physical education: was there any pressure to do sports? And with your dad: he didn’t expect you or your brother to follow him into the horse business? What does your brother do?

JG: My brother runs a company in Lancaster PA: he is a businessman. We are very different from my parents. My dad actually comes from a long line of dairy farmers: he is the oldest brother of his family and he was meant to take over at the dairy farm; it would have been the appropriate next step for him. He was not passionate about dairy farming and he was not passionate about cows (was not a fan of cows) – cows are incredibly hard work and you have to be really into it. He didn’t want to do that so he found another avenue, through family friends, and discovered a passion for horses. He would not have wanted to demand that my brother and I go into the horse business because he was sort of permitted that freedom, as the oldest son, to get out and to do his own thing. He would have loved it if we were in the horse business. I’m sure that would have been amazing for him to have that happen – it would have been a great experience and a bonding experience for us – but it doesn’t always add up that way. We became close in a different way. He’s still racing the horses. And my mom: the great thing about her being a physical education teacher for my brother and I was, even though we didn’t go into teaching or Phys Ed in any way, she instilled in us passion for exercise and running; we were doing races when we were in elementary school, in 4th grade we were doing the three-mile run or whatever and when we were on vacation. She instilled in us that love of being active. She will be 64 in the Fall and she looks so young because she took care of herself and she exercises.

My brother, even though he is a businessman, gets up every morning and works out. Certainly, as an actor – for example on a show like Mindhunter – you get issued with your costumes at the beginning of the season, then we have 10 months of shooting and I can’t get fat! (Laughs) On the set there’s always food going around and I wake up every morning, religiously, and exercise, and that’s partially because it’s great therapy and it’s great to stay in shape, keep my mind clear or whatever and that’s a lot to do with the fact my mom gave me that habit when I was a kid.

PC: What about horses? Did you get to ride any? Are you an accomplished horse rider or were they purely for breeding?

JG: No! Well my dad does harness racing so he’s not on their back, he’s behind them. So I’m sure if we had shown any interest at all, my brother and I, I’m sure that he would have gotten a horse we could have ridden around and that would have been really fun. But my mom kind of instilled in us a fear of being around the horses because, in those times that we were playing around on our own, she didn’t want us to go near the horses and get kicked. So we grew up with sort of this fear of horses, funnily enough, and then occasionally on Saturdays we’d have to shovel the horse poo out of the stall – just everything about the horses as a kid was what we would eye roll about. So we were never really around them.

The first time I had to ride a horse was for a movie I did called Taking Woodstock: which was my first film that I shot in 2008. It was directed by Ang Lee and the final shot of the film was me riding up this hill on a horse at sunrise. So I took some horseback riding lessons for a couple of months and I invited my dad to the set on the day that we shot the scene where I rode the horse up the hill and so it was this very proud moment, ‘Look Dad! I know how to ride a horse!’ I’m 33 now but I did get on a horse eventually and he was there to see me do it, which was a special moment.

PC: I’ve been on a horse a couple of times but it was really scary especially when they lower their heads to eat grass, it’s so scary.

JG: Oh totally and they feel your fear. I find them very skittish and very sensitive and you jerk the wrong way and they flip. Each horse has a different personality but as a whole they are very sensitive so the minute you are scared in front of them they are basically all over it, so trying to get ‘Zen’ and breathe…

PC: Are you a sucker for musicals, or theatre in general? In your free time would you go see a straight play or do you think musicals are so much better?

JG: Good question. I mean my heart is always in musicals, because that’s what I started [out] doing, but I was just in New York this week (I had a couple of days off so I went there) [and] I chose to see two straight plays. I love theatre in general. I’m a junkie – a total theatre junkie – pretty much anytime, anywhere, I love live theatre in any form. For me when a musical is great there’s nothing better. To successfully put a musical on and all the elements come together – the choreography, direction, music, orchestra and all of that – it’s just a miracle that a musical ever works (there are so many different elements to it) so when that is all kind of ‘cracking’ and it all comes together, there is nothing more exciting to me than that. I don’t discriminate: I love all live theatre.

PC: What was it like doing the voice-over for the character Kristoff for Frozen? How does that differ from other mediums, since you wouldn’t necessarily feel connected to the other actors like you would in a film or show where you are side by side? I assume they record the voice over segments separately?

JG: The big revelation for me was that doing a Disney film is the same as re-enacting a Disney film when you are a kid in your bedroom, because you are just totally alone in a padded room (‘now you’re in an ice storm’ so you have to pretend ‘Anna’) using your imagination; so it’s harking back to the days of me being in a room alone acting out Peter Pan or Mary Poppins.

PC: I’d never thought of it like that but yes you are right.

JG: I never met any of the other actors: well I’d met them but I never worked with other actors. I didn’t see them throughout the whole process until we were sitting there watching the first screening of the movie together. They cut it all together and that was very surreal to see how… You are really, as a voice actor in those animated films, a small piece of a big picture. There is so much work and so much effort goes into it and how it comes together is really just phenomenal. They videotape you while recording and then try to match your mouth with what the character does, and it’s pretty amazing.

PC: Did you cry when you watched the first screening?

JG: I think I did cry.

PC: You would have to be hard-hearted not to!

JG: My mom and I will still watch. I mean it’s been years (and now we are recording the second one) it still has not sunk in fully yet that I’m in a Disney animated film – very surreal.

PC: What about the technology they use in The Avengers for Ultron? Where they have sensors on the actor’s costume. That would be cool on Frozen.

JG: Motion capture you mean. They don’t use that on Frozen: they have a little video camera in the recording studio, so the animators can sort of reference if there is a gesture or something while you are making a vocal sound. They match the gesture, like if they are saying ‘Wow what was he doing there” they can reference it visually, but they also use their own faces as well. It’s just fascinating to watch the process. We had a session with the animators about where you breathe from and where you sing – what’s happening in your mouth when you’re singing as opposed to talking – to help them animate the singing part.

PC: Returning to family stuff: I read somewhere you have roots in England, Scotland and Germany. I have been burnt before where I’ve referenced something and it turns out there is no truth to it… so have you?

JG: No! Maybe I’m just not aware of it. (Laughs) Years ago we did one of those genetic test things with my family and I think we were West German; I think that’s where most of our DNA was from; I would have to go back and look at it.

PC: How has it changed for you in everyday life since Mindhunter blew up? Can you still ride the subway? Can you still go your doctor’s surgery and go shopping without wearing false glasses, nose and moustache?

JG: It hasn’t changed at all, not even a little bit. Yesterday I was in a coffee shop in Pittsburgh and the girl was saying, ‘Are you in Mindhunter?’ I have a very sort of ordinary white boy look and I don’t really have distinctive features that stand out in a crowd, so it’s great.

PC: I suppose, say someone like Johnny Depp, you might recognise straight away.

JG: Right. When I was in high school and I came to New York I saw Kristen Chenoweth. She is a famous musical theatre actress and she’s [done] some TV stuff – she is barely 5ft tall, blonde, just like this petite, little blonde girl, when she walks around she looks like she has a spotlight on her, just the way that she looks. I remember seeing her in Times Square, I went, ‘Oh my God! That’s Kristen Chenoweth!’ and went over to her and spoke to her and got her autograph. I don’t have that quality.

PC: I’ve asked that question before and other actors have said there are just so many famous people wandering around New York at any given time that it’s not the same like if you came to Edinburgh, you would be swamped. One actor told me he saw Bruce Springsteen in Manhattan and he was being a complete fan boy about him but he didn’t stop him and ask for his autograph even though he was dying to. Maybe people just leave you alone.

JG: Yeah, maybe.

PC: I always like to ask what life lessons has a person taken from their parents or grandparents. When the time comes, hopefully years and years away, when you look back and say, ‘Oh I remember this about my dad or this is why I’m this kind of person.’ You are obviously a nice person, a gentleman: has that rubbed off on you from your parents?

JG: The biggest thing would probably be discipline and the appreciation and sort of joy that you get from working hard: both my grandparents worked really hard; my parents worked really hard. When I was at that formative age 9-14, I would mow my grandmother’s lawn and I’d worked for my dad on his horse farm – they were always forcing us to do stuff we didn’t want to do. We were sort of like ‘ugh’ through all of those years when you are going through puberty and being forced to do manual labour. Then coming out of the other end of it and understanding the value of it and the sort of joy that you get from working hard and, when it’s over, feeling pride in what you achieved and looking forward to doing it again. That’s something my parents have that I know they took effort to instil into my brother, and I don’t know if that quality comes naturally or not in people, but it was definitely kind of forced upon us. Now it might show itself as being as simple as learning all your lines before you come to set, or being really prepared for an audition: just having that respect for yourself and respect for the people who you are working with so are prepared in doing the work. Doing the ‘math homework’ version of your job is something that my parents instilled in me when I was a kid, that I take with me. I remember my mom always saying, ‘It’s important to always make a good first impression.’ I remember ‘Have respect for people who are older than you’ was a golden rule – we talked a lot about that when I was a kid. But the biggest thing was probably the value of working hard.

PC: That is probably reflected in the fact that you didn’t want to go to university or whatever and just wanted to get in there, hands on, get your hands dirty and do the work.

JG: Yes, they instilled in me that desire to learn and work. From an early age I was such a sponge. Once I got to high school age, and was meeting those people from New York who were working in my hometown, I was just asking questions, then I was going to New York in my senior year of high school and then I finally moved to New York when I was 19 – taking classes and waiting tables. Getting the understanding: you get out what you put in; if you work really hard and put a lot in, that work takes you somewhere. Sometimes it doesn’t always take you where you expect it to go but it definitely helps.

I just read this really great book called The Creative Habit, by the choreographer Twyla Tharp, and she talks about her creative process and other people’s creative processes – other famous artists and how they do their work. She just really drives home the point that, no matter how lucky and brilliant someone is initially (and perhaps there is an artist who at one point, you know, just got lucky, they basically sneezed and became famous through something), she talked about if you want to have a long career, anyone that is considered an expert or quote ‘genius’ – brilliant at what they do – nine times out of ten they have a very intense work ethic and they work really hard at what they do. It’s a myth that some people are just brilliant and can do whatever they want. When you look at all the people who have had success, a lot of it is hard work, and I feel grateful that my parents have instilled that quality into me at a young age.

PC: Holt said about you, in his interview with me, that you always turned up on set with your lines learned – that was one of the things he admired about you.

JG: Well he’s the same way. I will never forget when we rehearsed our first scene (the first scene we shot together) it was where we were teaching at road school and we were talking. He was talking about motives and stuff and for the first rehearsal we were both off-book. We were set up ready to play and I’d never really met him before – I’d met his mom, we were familiar. But we got there and I went, ‘Wow! Okay, cool. This is going to be fun.’ You never know what your co-stars are going to be like, and he showed up and it was very clear we both had a similar kind of desire to do well. We wanted to come in and we wanted it to be good and we showed up ready to play and we just had so much fun the first season, because we both had this deep desire to do a good job, and to be there for each other, and to make something great. We wanted to fulfil David’s [Fincher] vision: we both have immense respect for him and what he does, and we just wanted to do well together.

PC: It’s a mutual respect you and Holt have. I asked him how he would describe you and he told me you were so ‘infectious’, as in: ‘Always happy, eager to work and a pleasure to work with from day one,’ those were his words. I asked him, if I ever spoke to you, how would you describe him? He replied, ‘Ah, you know, the grumpy one, the guy who arrives on set at 5 a.m. grumpy until I’ve had coffee.’

JG: That’s so not true! We are a very interesting pair because we are very opposite in many ways and sort of like it is in a show, sort of like an ‘Odd Couple’ dynamic between the two of us. But at the same time he makes everybody laugh.

PC: I love his deep, hearty laugh.

JG: Yes, he has that quality I don’t have where he’s always the life of the party, everybody shows up and he’s always telling jokes. He’s always like shooting the shit with the guys on the crew, making everybody laugh and smile. He’s just got this jovial, infectious energy that is just so specifically Holt – honestly I don’t know anybody else who has the energy that he has.

PC: He is so passionate as well when he speaks, you can hear it in his voice.

JG: Totally, totally and he’s incredibly intelligent.

PC: Yes he is, it is like when I watched the interview where he is speaking away in French and you are looking at him in wonder, like: ‘Where the hell did you learn to speak like that?’

JG: Oh my gosh that was a trip! We did this press tour. He’d talked about how he’d gone to school in Paris, he had a flat in Paris… He’d talked about all, but it had never occurred to me that he speaks fluent French! So we were in Paris on this press tour and all of a sudden he whips out this French – I was like: what?

PC: It is written all over your face.

JG: He just is endlessly fascinating and is constantly surprising.

PC: Some French people have told me he actually speaks the language very well, not some pigeon French.

JG: Yes! That’s what we were asking the Netflix people that were based in Paris, that were French – they were saying yes. They were like, ‘You do have an American accent but you speak the language so well.’ He’s just such a character that guy.

PC: I have such a soft spot for him. He goes out of his way to help people. He’s just lovely!

JG: He’s such an old school gentleman – they don’t make them like that anymore. He’s just got class. He would say this and credit it to his mom. She was Midwestern and very well-mannered; she had impeccable manners. She was very humble and very gracious, always thought about other people first. We don’t have that as much anymore: it’s very old-school. He’s like a guy from another time in a lot of ways. His nature and his manners are just very special.

PC: He is so nice with his fans too.

JG: His mom became a famous cabaret singer and she had very personal interaction with her fans. That’s part of the beautiful quality about him.

PC: Is Holt going to be your forever friend?

JG: Oh absolutely! Absolutely! We’ve gone to see a bunch of plays together in New York; we went to Shakespeare in the Park last summer.

PC: Yes, he was saying, ‘I will get Jonathan over when I go to London. He will drag me to all the plays and musicals. We will just spend the whole weekend at the West End.’

JG: Yes. When we were on the press tour in London, we went to go see a play. That surprises me because Holt doesn’t seem… I mean, even on Mindhunter, in the past he’s done all these action movies, he’s played a lot of cops, he’s played boxers, he plays a lot of meat-heads and so you wouldn’t guess that he’s very cultured, loves cabaret, friends with the writers of Kiss me Kate for example.

PC: Holt knows everyone like Liam Neeson and Clint Eastwood.

JG: I would kind of expect him to know those guys – that makes sense to me because those guys are action type actors, that to me I can understand but, for example, when we went to the memorial service for his mother, he knows Steven Brinberg, who is a cabaret artist famous for doing a Barbra Streisand impression. I was like, ‘How do you know Steven Brinberg?’ It’s just hilarious that he’s very close friends with him. When you know Holt’s body of work in action films you just wouldn’t put those two together.

PC: Yes I watched Holt on the Jimmy Fallon show he was teaching Fallon some boxing moves and he was very ‘New York’ Manhattan-like, very different to how he is. It’s that whole different perception of him, to what comes out of his mouth especially when he speaks French. Most actors I’ve spoken to have been lovely, but there is just something about Holt that is special. Actually all of the Mindhunter cast – and I don’t know if it’s coincidence or if it’s particularly driven that way but – (those we have dealt with so far) I think are really special. They are really supportive of each other. We have remained friends with a core group of them. I don’t know if these people were especially handpicked by David or the casting people with that element of being young and ambitious and kind. I have seen this once before that was in cast and crew members on NBC’s The Blacklist but it’s rare.

JG: Well I think David doesn’t have time for bullshit. He’s not going to waste time. He’s all about the work. He’s all about finding the best way to tell the story and has a hard-working discipline and I think partially intentionally (but maybe subconsciously) finds people that want to work. Not to have this thing lead into the next thing but to have them go work on specifically that job. Which sounds like obviously something everyone would do but. like you said, generally it’s not. I think David, whether it’s intentional or not, ends up surrounding himself with people that are there to work. In the case of Mindhunter, you’re right: it is a very special group of people and that’s partially just that simple fact that everyone is there because they want [to be there], they’re showing up to work and trying to make something that’s really good.

PC: Yes, and they are very supportive of each other’s work too, like when Cotter Smith and Jack Erdie did a play in Pittsburgh together recently, both David and Holt turned up to watch it.

JG: Totally.

PC: Tell me more about working with David Fincher. Obviously his name is on everyone’s lips nowadays and we know his style of directing – we all know he may shoot the same scene 70 times – but there’s much more to him than that. I always like to get information first hand, if I can. What kind of impression has he made on you?

JG: Well it’s just the whole idea, for me at least, [of] having complete faith and trust in someone and knowing that they are going to take you somewhere that is interesting, and working with him is different to working with anyone else. One of the reasons being that you go, ‘Okay, I will just do whatever you want,’ because I so believe in him and in his brain and in his vision, and his point of view, because he’s just proven time and time and time and time again – with all of his films and projects – that he’s one of the most interesting, creative people working today. So just to get the opportunity to be a part of his world is exciting and especially with this TV experience, particularly right now, in this very moment, it’s the first time he’s ever come back to a television show. He directed the first two episodes of House of Cards and he was Creative and Executive Producer on that show, but he never came back to direct it again. He very much had his hand in every episode on the first season of Mindhunter. We weren’t sure if he would come back and do the second season or not, because he has never done that before and now here he is, and we are working on the second season. Just to get that extended time with him and to see how… I guess the thing that is so inspirational about him is that he doesn’t sit back and go, ‘Okay, we know what we are doing. We know who these characters are. Let’s just continue comfortably down the road we were going down before.’

We came back to the second season and obviously some of the sets are the same, and we actually basically know who the characters are, where before we didn’t know what the show was yet – we were still making it. So there’s that element, which is great. But it’s still the same process as it was the first time around: it’s not laid back and comfortable; it’s not pressing the same notes; he’s really trying to move things forward and make things different, evolve it and grow it and change it as it goes along – that’s just an artist that is always searching, always changing and always asking the questions. He’s just always trying to get to a better version of the truth: in the writing, then in the shooting and in the editing, he just never stops working and never stops asking questions, and it’s just so rare to find someone like that.

PC: So how does it work that David Fincher directed the first two episodes and the last two: what happens in-between when he hands the reins over to another director but is obviously still on set?

JG: There’s a bit of a balance: you know he lets them do their thing and they are of course directing in the context of the world he created, so he can’t just hand it over.

PC: It’s not total control for them, he’s leading it?

JG: Yes, he’s set up the vocabulary of the show and the vocabulary of the shot and how the show is made, so they are allowed a certain amount of creative freedom, but in David’s world. In the first season he would occasionally come on set and help us stage certain scenes or certain shots in the morning, then he would leave and let us figure it out from there, or he would let the director set up their shot then give them notes later. He was literally in Pittsburgh for the entire year so his presence was there regardless of if he was on set or not. But then in rehearsals and stuff – because one of the other things about the show is we get a lot of rehearsals, we get to read through all the scenes with the writers before we shoot them – he’s there for all of those.

So we are always talking about the intention of the scene and what the intention will be on the day. He said this great thing on the first season that I’ve really stuck with: that when the writer is asking, ‘Why do we have to bang out every specific word of the scene before we start shooting?’ David talked about how, when you show up on set the crew gets the sides, the actors get the sides, the extras get the sides – everybody gets a copy of the sides – and everyone will have a different interpretation of what these sides mean and how the scene is going to look, so you want the scene to be as specific as possible once it gets into the hands of all those people. So that there is this innate direction of where the scene is going by the specificity of every word, of every line; and really taking the time to craft that out – so everyone getting their hands on those on the day, on set, is very important. Even just the attention to detail in that regard, in the writing and in the rehearsing, affects how the guest directors will then come on and direct the scenes because we spent so much time rehearsing specifically – exactly – what every line, and every word, is intended to express.

PC: Can you say to David Fincher, or the writers, ‘I don’t like this line,’ or, ‘This line isn’t something I feel Ford would say.’ A lot of writers are very precious about their work (and of course you wouldn’t do it just because you could) but would you be able to challenge a line and make a suggestion about what would fit better or is that totally off-limits?

JG: My sort of personal thing is to sit back and let it happen, let the evolution of the writing take its course without me saying… As an actor I find you think, ‘Oh I don’t know if I would say it like that?’ And then you start saying it ‘like that’ and it ends up being a great surprise; ‘I wouldn’t have thought I could sing like that but now this is actually adding a dimension I wasn’t aware of.’ So my tactics, certainly in this Mindhunter experience, is to let the writers write – and just because David is so involved and has the whole thing mapped out in his head, I’m pretty quiet during that part of the process. I just take the tack of: I’m just here to try and make whatever they give me work. That’s my own personal philosophy.

PC: I guess you’d have to struggle with yourself to imagine doing it better than the vision Fincher has in his head.

JG: It’s kind of going back to that thing of working with different people and being inside of different processes. I’ve done shows where they would say ‘Action’ and we would improv for about a minute into the scene and then we would get into the vibe of the scene and then improv out of the scene – and that was really fun, and stuff would come out that was really unexpected and great, and that they would use sometime in the edit or whatever. This process is the complete opposite of that – absolutely no improvisation – everything is planned within an inch of its life and like you said: when you are in the room with a brain like David Fincher’s, I’m just going to let him take the reins. For me at least that’s part of the joy of this process – being submissive to his brain.

PC: I hate asking questions you will have already been asked a 100 times or more but: how did you get the role, basically? I have read how it happened but I like to hear it from the horse’s mouth so to speak.

JG: I met David when I auditioned for The Social Network in 2008 and didn’t get it. Then I was doing Hamilton on Broadway and they sent me six or seven scenes (which are just pages of dialogue) and I put myself on tape in New York on a Monday or Tuesday, and then they responded immediately and had me put myself on tape again on Thursday, and then I flew myself to New York that Monday (it all happened in about a week) and sat with him in his office.

PC: What was that like? Obviously you had met him before but you must have been blown away thinking, ‘I could be the lead on a show that David Fincher is doing!’ Do you have to pinch yourself or do you feel you have earned it?

JG: It’s a total dream. I honestly didn’t believe that it was going to happen because it was too good to be true. Even when we were in rehearsals in LA, I really would go home and think, ‘I’m certain it’s not going to work out,’ and then we are shooting it and I’m thinking, ‘It’s still not…’ I was so excited about it. I just didn’t believe it was real until it came out, actually. It really wasn’t until about half-way through the season of shooting it – when it was clear that it was going forward – [that] I started to go, ‘Okay, this is really happening.’ Every step up until that moment I was too excited to let myself even think that it was real.

Photo by Eric Charbonneau/REX/Shutterstock

PC: Television is such a fickle world as well: you just can’t call what’s going to be a hit and what’s not. Obviously, because it had David Fincher attached to it, there’s going to be some sort of success but it’s not guaranteed.

JG: Totally! You never know what’s going to happen.

PC: I think I read that at the end of a day’s shoot you weren’t thinking, ‘Oh my God! There are all these serial killers going about!’ That, in fact, you were raring to get your teeth into the role you played. Did the things that you found out whilst filming affect you? Like when you are at home eating dinner: did the what’s and why’s cross your mind or did you just go home and switch it off?

JG: I’m not a method actor. The minute I think about what we are talking about is real, I just don’t want to go there, because I think, ‘Wow! These are actual people who actually did these things.’

PC: Who could be living next door to you!

JG: It’s too much to even think about, so that – combined with the fact [that] in the first season I was in almost every scene – I would go home and not even have time to even think what we had just done. I would be memorizing my lines for the next day, trying to keep up and not lose myself as far as the preparation for the work goes; there’s just so much work to do, it didn’t linger with me that way. It wasn’t like I had reflective time to sit and think ‘wow these people’… I was like: ‘Okay, what are my lines for tomorrow?’ It was more about the logistics of problem solving and telling the story than it was sitting and meditating on the reality of what went down.

PC: What about when filming finished? I know some of the cast have explored serial killers further and like Holt saying he wants to interview a serial killer (he told me that he had written to one).

JG: He wanted to go and talk with David Berkowitz.

PC: Yeah and Anna Torv said she had read up a lot about it after filming finished.

JG: There is not a part of me that wants to meet David Berkowitz: just the idea of it makes me feel scared and weird – and what would I say?

PC: And what he would say? Yikes, I agree it would be really scary. It would be too real, not pretend anymore.

JG: Too real! On this show we are trying to tell the story as respectfully and accurately as possible and then I just don’t want to think about it.

PC: Everybody raves about how outstanding Cameron Britton was as Ed Kemper and rightly so: apart from him, is there anyone in particular who stood out for you or just overall whose performance was great?

JG: Good question. In my audition scenes they were with the Kemper, Brudos [Happy Anderson] and Richard Speck [Jack Erdie] and what I loved is that they were all different, and this show isn’t just serial killer of the week. You get the information from the serial killers and you get a little window into their lives, but then you also see the evolution of the FBI agents and how they get savvier and how they put things together, and the psychology of getting somebody to open up in a different way – so for the Brudos thing, the idea of the shoe. And even when Holden goes back and interviews Brudos and they talk in the third person about his killings – that I found really chilling – what a creepy, strange way. It almost makes it feel even scarier to hear him talking about it. When he’s talking to me he’s sort of deflecting, deflecting, deflecting and then how he talks in the third person – I found that really scary.

PC: When Kemper hugged Holden and you had that panic attack, I could really feel it in my chest, like, ‘Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!’ Imagine that actually happening! I’d probably just die of fright, on the spot. You just don’t know what his next move could be.

JG: Yeah it’s scary and I think that the show does that really well: where you feel a sense of safety – because you’re in this jail it feels like a contained environment and they seem so docile – and all of a sudden you realise how dangerous they are and that feeling kind of comes in and out through the course of an interview; all the interviews are that way. I love that quality of the story, it’s very complicated. It’s not like you go, ‘Oh my God!’ It’s like, ‘Okay, that seems like a normal question.’

PC: What do you think of how your character evolved from, I think you said someone who was possibly a virgin, impeccably dressed, boy next door, to how he became near the end of the season and how he will be in season 2? How he was affected by the sexual nature of the killings: in that he grew up more or his eyes were opened more?

JG: Yes, I think so – certainly there’s an element – and John Douglas (who the character is based on) talks a lot about the heaviness and the horror and the depravity and the sadness of the victims’ experience. You know he had a complete mental breakdown in dealing with the stuff on a daily basis and being so all consumed by it. There’s that aspect of the evolution of the character that I think is really interesting, and that’s reflected in the scene where his girlfriend puts on the shoe, and it’s the first time you realise that work is kind of coming home with him and he starts to lose it a little bit. And then, obviously, at the end when he runs literally into the arms of Ed Kemper and is sort of lost.

But the other kind of evolution I find really interesting in the character (maybe the most surprising) is that idea of narcissism and the idea of taking credit for creating something and I think it’s such a human, and American, and embarrassing quality of: ‘I made this. I’m taking credit for this. I started this.’ I say at one point to Wendy, in the one scene, and seeing how that sweetly intentioned, buttoned-up kid, gets a little full of himself, and watching that quality bubble to the surface of Holden I think is really surprising . That quality of narcissism coming to the surface and really loving the fact that he is such a, quote, ‘revolutionary character’ with revolutionary ideas. One of the things that David always talks about doing, that he loves, is that he’s only interested in an argument on-screen where both characters are right and Holden has that scene where he walks out and looks at the OPR [the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility] and says, ‘The only mistake I ever made was doubting myself.’ Holden is never wrong in his actions and in his ideas but the way it sort of transforms him is a very discerning and a little scary: that he’s seemingly so innocent [yet] becomes so monstrous and egotistical.

PC: It will be interesting to see where it goes and how far it will go next season.

JG: Exactly. I love playing that because it’s so rare that you get to play someone that is kind of so innocent, that takes such a journey like that by the end of the season.

PC: I was looking through some fan forums and these are some descriptions that written about you… Someone asks: ‘What do you think about Jonathan Groff?’ Someone else replies: ‘It’s impossible to list just one – he’s an incredible package, not just his body and perfect bone structure, his seductive eyes, playful and innocent. Lips that make the most adorable smile…’ Need I go on? My point is, I wanted to ask: what you see when you look in the mirror?

JG: Oh my God! What do I think when I look in the mirror?

PC: Yes, do you think, ‘Oh today I look dreadful. I have a spot’? Or do you think, ‘Yep, yep you look pretty good today son’?

JG: The latest thing is… well first of all I don’t love looking in the mirror (it’s not my favourite thing). The other day I had to look in the mirror in a scene that we were doing – and I really don’t like looking in the mirror when I’m playing Holden, because it makes me laugh. Looking in the mirror while acting just makes me feel crazy. Some actors love to watch back on the little monitor screens, like, ‘Okay let me see that back, see how it looks.’ That just makes me feel so self-conscious. I would so much just rather watch it all after it’s been cut and made up. I don’t love watching myself in the process. The main thing that I found when I looked the mirror was – because I had a couple of days off and I went to New York – I’m 33 and I’ve never had facial hair and now I’m getting a beard; I am actually able to grow facial hair. That has been the latest revelation looking in the mirror I’m like: Oh my God!! Basically I can go maybe a week and a half and have a normal person’s 5 o’clock shadow, but now it’s been a couple of days of not shaving and I’m starting to grow facial hair.

PC: Wow! You will be able to have one of those full beards that the hipsters have.

JG: Yes and I’m like: I’m officially getting older; I’m starting to grow facial hair; I’m starting to feel more like a man. (Laughs)

PC: I often get messages from people who have been grateful that someone I’ve interviewed has helped them through something by talking about their own experiences, whether it be depression, grief or something else. I know you had a scare with skin cancer and wondered if you would like to talk about that.

JG: Yes of course. Skin cancer for me was so undramatic, in that I just booked for a physical check-up and I’d never gotten my moles checked, so the doctor recommended I did. They saw a mole that looked weird and they cut it out and then they saw that it had like a melanoma cancer in it. The great thing is to get it out before it spreads, have it cut out and then there’s nothing else to it. So before it had spread, they just cut it out and now I make sure I’m wearing sunscreen every time I go in the sun and I get my moles checked once a year. I wasn’t in the hospital; I didn’t have to go through any treatment; I just have this scar on my chest from where I had it removed. It didn’t feel life-threatening or scary in any way when it happened.

PC: There is a fan debate about how you got the scar on your chest and equally the scar on your bicep: that you allegedly got from some woman’s stiletto or something. Is that true?

JG: That is true. I had a light scar… Let me see if it is still there. I had a light scar there from when I was doing “Bohemian Rhapsody” in Glee and I was wearing a T-shirt and we were doing the run through. We were just rehearsing it and the stiletto scraped my arm down my bicep – it was pretty hilarious. I had a scar there definitely for a couple of weeks, then it was a light scar and now I think it’s completely gone.

PC: Shows you how dedicated your fans are that they are discussing your scars online in a forum.

JG: That’s impressive that they know so much.

PC: Your meaty thighs are another whole thread!

JG: That’s amazing!

PC: Which word do you find yourself using more than others and do you have a favourite word?

JG: I’m trying to stop saying ‘like’ and I’m trying to stop saying ‘totally’. I’ve had lots of friends in my life who say I say ‘totally’ a lot, so that’s definitely a most used word that I’m trying not to say. The other thing I’m trying not to say is: ‘That’s so interesting’. I say that a lot. And I’m trying to not go up at the end of my sentence per David Fincher: when you talk like this and you end a statement like it’s a question. I’m trying to stop doing that.

PC: You are putting a lot of pressure on yourself! Do you have a favourite word?

JG: I’d say my favourite word is ‘yes’.

PC: How would you spend your perfect day?

JG: It would depend what I’m doing at the time… You know what my perfect day is? It’s waking up, doing some form of exercise – be it yoga or spin class or going for a run. Then it would be maybe having breakfast: making it alone with the radio playing. Then hopping on my bike – this is all taking place in New York by the way. Go on a bike ride to Central Park and then meeting my friends in Central Park at Sheep’s Meadow. Eating and hanging out for a while there.

PC: What’s Sheep’s Meadow?

JG: Sheep’s Meadow is a big sort of grassy area in Central Park. Then maybe go over to a restaurant… let’s see… where would I go? I would go to some restaurant on the Upper West Side, near Central Park, and have a late afternoon lunch with my friends.

PC: I need more details: a meat, fish or cheese dish?

JG: I would go to The Smith and have steak salad and a glass of rosé then I would go back home to my apartment; I would take a nap. Then I would hop in the shower. I would get back on my bike ride up to Midtown and I would perform in a Broadway Musical. Then I would go with my cast members again to some bar afterwards – where I would have a whiskey – and then I would hop back on my bike and ride home. Perfect day!

PC: Do you ride your bike a lot to get round New York?

JG: Yes that’s how I get around. I love it. When I was there two days ago I rode my bike everywhere.

PC: That’s how people don’t recognise you because you are wearing a bike hat: do you wear a hat?

JG: Yes of course.

PC: What could you not live without?

JG: Music!

PC: That takes us nicely to the next set of questions…

What was the first record you ever bought or the first download you ever downloaded?

JG: The first I ever bought would be Brittany Spears’ “Hit Me Baby One More Time” on CD – it was great.

PC: Is there a song that takes you back to a special time in your life?

JG: I remember listening to that song “Kiss Me” by Sixpence None The Richer when I was in 8th grade doing the 8th grade play. It was in the movie She’s All That and I remember I had to kiss my friend Emily in that play and I just remember the anxiety of having to kiss her and that song being on the radio.

PC: How old were you?

JG: 12 years old.

PC: Aww… was that your first kiss? Did it all go fine?

JG: Yes it was fine.

PC: Do you have a song that you must blast out when it comes on?

JG: Pretty much anything Beyoncé, but especially “Grown Woman”.

PC: Is there a movie soundtrack that you particularly love?

JG: When I was in 2nd grade I used to obsessively listen to the soundtrack Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, with Kevin Costner.

PC: With the Bryan Adams’ song that was in the charts for months?

JG: Yeah exactly. That one.

PC: What about now: what movie soundtrack would you put on?

JG: I love David O. Russell films and I’ve always loved the music in his films so I bought the Silver Linings Playbooksoundtrack; I bought the soundtrack for Joy. I just love the music in his films so definitely one of those two.

PC: Apart from musicals, is there a specific genre you favour or do you just love music generally?

JG: I found out that at Beyoncé’s Coachella concert (which I’ve now watched about 150 times) when she has this long 5-minute intro and it starts with a drum roll, and then this sort of like New Orleans jazz music playing in the background – I learnt that the tune is from this band called The Rebirth Brass Band so I’ve been listening to a lot of their music. I’ve been listening to a lot of New Orleans Jazz. I will listen to anything though.

PC: What about live music? Do you go to many live gigs?

JG: I wish I went to more. I don’t go to a lot of live gigs and every time I go to one I always think I wish I watched more live music. That was even the case with the last one I went to, I can’t even think off the top of my head who that was. The best one was definitely going to the Formation Tour [Beyoncé].

PC: Obviously you are a wonderful dancer. Are you always up first on the dance floor – or do you take a bit of persuading?

JG: It depends on my mood. Last time I was dancing was at the opening of Frozen on Broadway and I was definitely the first person on the dance floor.

PC: So you are on a road trip with only a dog for company, not a goat and not a horse: what’s on your playlist?

JG: I would drive all the time – I love driving. Beyoncé, Frank Ocean – let me just look at my phone – Bobby Darin (I’ve been listening to a lot of his), the Black Panther album, Alesia Keyes, The Carpenters, The Velvet Underground, Lou Reed , Kendrick Lamar, Barbara Streisand, Chance the Rapper, Lolo (my friend Lauren Pritchard from Spring Awakening), Sara Bareilles, Jackson 5, Elton John, Simon & Garfunkel, The Beatles, Amy Winehouse and Billy Joel.

PC: What does music mean to you?

JG: It’s like the reflection of every joy, sadness, confusion. Music is like life to me: there just a reflection in absolutely everything. I love it!

#jonathan groff #mindhunter #interview

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mummified-game-review · 2 years ago

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#65 Milkmaid of the Milky Way

youtube

[cover of Milkmaid by The Longest Johns]

Welcome back to another review here on Mummified Games. I'm Tony and today we're going to be taking a look at the amazingly beautiful point and click adventure game, Milkmaid of the Milky Way, a game by Mattis Folkestad.

Milkmaid of the Milky Way is, as I said, a point and click adventure game where you go around picking up random items and solving puzzles about what items work.

The story for most of the first act is as such. In 1920s Norway, Ruth is a lovely Milkmaid who works and tends to her bovine in fields high above a fjord. There she milks the cows, turning the milk into butter and cheese to be sold back in town.

While you are getting the lay of the land you're able to take in these beautiful scenes around where Ruth lives. There's the farm she lives on, it comes with A small house, a barn, and a lemon tree. Outside her home is a path up to the fields, passing a log with a nail in it. A cool gateway where you find a missing bucket. Further up that hill you crest, lays the field where the cows grazed after being milked. A path to the north where you can find a weird panel that must have fallen from the sky or something. Looks like salt. To the east of the field there is a place to tie up a boat, then a memorial at the top of a great hill. Following the lake’s outlet you find a cliff where Ruth has been scared of falling off and dying her whole life.

You go around clicking on anything and everything that triggers your mouse to do a little pulse. And you get a quick little rhyme talking about whatever item it is or how you interact with it.

Oh and that's one of the most charming things about this game. All the dialogue and descriptions of the scenes are in cute little rhymes.

Being able to give a description

With a rhyming diction

Takes a lot of work

My lunch came with pork

Okay so not everyone can make it up on the spot like that.

But the charm and the cute nature of the rhyme scheme was so nice.

The art in this game as you could probably tell is all pixel art. Ruth goes running around and you can see here hair blowing in the wind with single pixels, items that you’re meant to interact with stick out better. Its hard to talk about anything in this game without defaulting to the word Charming.

Charm, charm, charm, charm.

This game is just lovely from the get go. I wanted to just jump in and live in this world where you can be a Milkmaid and live above a fjord working with cowes all day.

So I try to not give away most of the story when I do these reviews trying to keep it to just the story mostly up to the inciting action that causes the hero to move into the unknown. But I feel like to give a good idea as to what to expect from this game. Its important to tell you about the inciting action and what happens to Ruth. And since its on the front page of the game and in the thumbnail on most game pages.

SO! After a night were you rescue Ruths favorite cow from the lake, the next day you see a large ship in the sky. Following the ship you find it in the gracing filed obducting your cows and taking them into the ship.

Only now saying that outloud do I notice the weird trope that is aliens abducting cattle.

But the ship takes Ruth’s cows and starts heading out. After leaping from the clif she was scared to fall from. She lands on the wing of the ship. Uses melted butter to loosen a door on the ship and sneek her way inside. Getting almost immediately apprehended by some of the crew.

The crew are all aliens from another world, the captain of the ship uses her staff to allow Ruth to understand what they’re all saying. And then shown to where her cows are being kept.

That's all I feel like getting into because there are some serious things that start to kick off at this point. Definitely some OH NO moments.

Its a great game that honestly everyone should go play.

But there are some downsides and things that I need to point out.

If you’re playing this game on multiple monitors. You are going to need to be careful. The game is not “full screen” in the truest sense, its more like “Borderless fullscreen” were if you go too far off the edge of the game you will click another window and you’ll have to deal with the computer lagging out for a seconds. Like if you hit alt tab to go to another window awa from your game and then back in.

That was honestly the worst thing I ran into while playing the game since I kept this game on my Right monitor and there came a point where I had to quickly move and do something in the game on th3e left side of the screen i would travel too far and the game soul phase out and come back to the desktop for a second. And then go back into the game. It all really cuts the tension of the game and takes you out of the moment.

There once on the space ship there were a few locations wher I( would try to walk down a ramp or go to a spot and Ruth would walk back and forth rapidly in one spot not knowing how she was going to navigate down to the location I just asked.

A small issue that then is easily fixed by just picking another location for Ruth to move to. That's all.

And that's all the constructive criticism.

And that's saying something. That's all I had a problem with. The point and click adventure stuff all made sense. There was never a moment where I felt like UHG what do I do?

This game is great in almost every way. The only two things I have to complain about is some AI stiff and a 1st world problem of having more than one monitor. I'd certainly count that as a win.

Running into a few locations where things can be interacted with and the few items you have can be used quickly to solve the “Puzzles” feels so good.

The music isn't repetitive in areas where you might be stuck for a second.

The art gives you nice things to look at in almost every location.

Everything in this game is great. I'm not going to Fjorget about it any time soon.

What did you all think! I loved this game and it was my first point and click adventure game that i can remember ever playing. Are there things that veterans of Point and Click games noticed that I might not have? For those of you who haven’t played Milkmaid of the Milky Way are there any other great point and click adventure games out there that you think I should Try? Amazon Prime did give me a bunch of the Monkey Island games that I could roll through. Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

IN THE MEANTIME! I am worried I'm slowly developing a lactose intolerant gut as I get older and older. I think I'm going to start developing an opinion on lactose free alternatives. Like soy and almond. Cause papa can't live without his Mac and Cheese!.

You all do the Youtube Dance, Like, Sub, Hit the bell, comment your thoughts, share and tell someone you know about these videos, It all helps out a lot.

And as always friends. Keep Digging, and we’ll make it out sometime.

See you in the next one.

#Female Protagonist #norway #Pixel Art #Point & Click #Retro #Sci-fi #Story Rich #machineboy #Milkmaid of the Milky Way #Youtube

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fantasticworldoffanfics · 6 years ago

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DEREK/STILES

——— (part 7) ——–

Fandom: TeenWolf

Even a longer list of fanfics :)….

top favourites, more top favourites, part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6

Cornerstone

Author: Vendelin

Summary: Suffering from PTSD, ex-Marine Derek Hale moves back to Beacon Hills to open a bookshop and find a calmer life. That’s where he meets Stiles, completely by accident. Stiles is talkative, charming and curious. Somehow, despite the fact that he’s blind, he’s able to read Derek like no one else.

See Derek Date

Author: mikkimouse

Summary: When Derek sees his ex-boyfriend, Jordan, for the first time in ten years, he tells a little white lie about his love life (or lack thereof). Of course, that all blows up in his face when his sister Cora finds out and demands that Derek bring his (imaginary) boyfriend to her wedding.Now he's got one month to change that "imaginary" boyfriend into an actual one.

Your Majesty

Author: grimm

Summary: It wasn’t like he was a pro or whatever, but like any teenage boy he’d spent a lot of time jerking off, and there were a lot of people on the internet that liked watching that sort of thing. And while the idea of doing actual porn - like, porn with another person’s dick in his ass porn - kind of made him uncomfortable, jerking off by himself in front of a camera sounded okay. If you’re good at something, never do it for free, right?Based off a prompt asking for Stiles as a cam boy and Derek lusting after his hot virgin bod.

Something Spooky

Author: crossroadswrite

Summary: Derek sighs and boredly stuffs a handful of gummi bears in his mouth, straight out of a Halloween candy bowl Aunt Olivia insists in buying every year even if they never get trick or treaters this far into the woods.He tilts his head and tunes back into the boys’ conversation, which has been the prime time entertainment of the Hales for the past ten minutes or so.“It’s dark,” one of the boys whines.“Don’t be a baby, Scott,” the second chastises.“But, I don’t wanna,” Scott whines, like a baby.

My Hips Don't Lie (And I'm Starting to Feel You Boy)

Author: MagnificentlyMagic

Summary: “Dancer’s hips,” Derek joked.“Oh yeah baby, my hips don’t lie,” Stiles smirked, licking his lips.“You’re an idiot.”“You love it.”

OR; The one in where Derek is a photographer for Calvin Klein and has roped in his dancer boyfriend (and his dancer friends) to model for him.

A High School Cliche

Author: halelujah

Summary: “Are you the one that played a porno in the Principal’s office?” A gruff voice asks.“Depends if you’re the one that threw a dumbbell through a window.” He drawls, not bothered in moving from his comfy spot.

Miguel the Wolf Dog

Author: orphan_account

Summary: Stiles' roommate Derek was pretty strange, and Stiles didn't know much about him. His dog, Miguel, was pretty cute though, and it was adorable how Miguel and Scott did the same rubbing thing because apparently Stiles "smells like another werewolf, and the pack doesn't like that". Well, it wasn't actually that cute when Scott did it. And if only he could find this other werewolf on campus...

Camp Lake Hale

Author: sarcasmandirony

Summary: Stiles and Scott decide to spend their last summer before college being camp monitors in the summer camp they used to attend when they were kids. Stiles aspires to rival Nathan Hale as the coolest camp monitor ever. Of course, this being Stiles' life, Nathan is getting married at the end of the summer, which leaves the most boring Hale family member in charge of camp matters - Derek Hale. Blah.

That Which You Cannot Undo

Author: uraneia

Summary: By twenty-eight, Stiles has resigned himself to a quiet life of working in his magic shop, selling Jackson Whittemore fart-inducing tea, and looking after his goddaughter. It's a good life. But the quiet goes to hell when his sister, Lydia, shows up with a crispy werewolf in her trunk and a bite mark on her shoulder, because hard on her heels comes the hottest person Stiles has ever seen, and he happens to be looking for his uncle.You know, the dead guy Stiles helped Lydia bury last night.

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

Author: grimm

Summary: There's something weird about Beacon Hills that Stiles can't quite put his finger on. The way everyone in town knows his name the day he arrives. The way they insist the melancholic howling that echoes through the forest every night is just a dog. The way his dad denies getting a dog, even though Stiles comes home to find one sprawled across his bed, some big black thing whose eyes gleam red in the right light. The way that massive oak tree out in the woods vibrates under his touch, pulsing with sickly life.There's something weird going on in this town, and Stiles is determined to get to the bottom of it.

Our Lives Are Changing Lanes

Author: grimm

Summary: There's a lot of screaming going on inside the first house Stiles visits. He isn't really worried, because it sounds like kids, but then the door opens and hi, says his dick, because the dude in front of him is gorgeous, built like a god with a face like thunder. Stiles wants to lick that solid jaw line. Hold the fuck on, says his cop brain, because the dude's got kids hanging all over him; one's on his back, skinny legs looped around his waist, and another two hanging off one arm, toes barely brushing the ground. There's a tubby toddler clinging to his leg like a koala, and he's got a baby tucked into the crook of the one arm that doesn’t have kids hanging off it. Stiles' mouth drops open."How many of those kids did you kidnap?" he asks before he can wrangle his brain into submission.The man gives him a look that says what the fuck is wrong with you and snaps, "You think I'd subject myself to this on purpose?""Oooh," says one of the kids hanging off his arm. "I'm telling Mom."

My Heart's Been Offline

Author: thepsychicclam

Summary: 31/M/New York. Rich, lays in bed all day, likes to read (aka Derek Hale, son of an Oscar winning actress, brother of one obnoxious reality star and one rebellious fashion designer, hates the paparazzi so much he's a recluse)26/M/California. Boring office job, likes to read (aka Stiles Stilinski, co-owner of a 100 acre organic farm with his dad and two best friends, writer of obits for a newspaper, has absolutely no life )Or, where Derek and Stiles meet online, and Stiles has no clue Derek's part of a famous family.

A (Sort of) Fairytale

Author: briecheesie, daunt

Summary: The summer after senior year starts normally enough, with the gang spending their final months before college together at the Martin family's lake house. Then Jackson stumbles onto the burial ground of a witch's ex-husband, Stiles is magically turned into a fox, and things somehow manage to get worse from there. The gratuitous Princess Bride references are only of moderate help.

Of Wolves And Doughnuts

Author: Hatteress (goddammitstacey)

Summary: When Derek was fifteen, circumstance and a goddamn doughnut had seen fit to Bond him to Stiles Stilinski. In which Derek is more cunning than anyone gives him credit for, Stiles doesn't understand why the new Alphas in town are all up in his business and everyone gets a violent crash-course in what it means to be Pack, whether they're in it or not.

With a Little Christmas Magic

Author: AceLotti

Summary: AU: Stiles is jobless this Christmas and as a last resort, is stuck playing one of Santa’s elves at the mall. The job is a bust, and Stiles isn’t really in the Christmas mood, until he finds salvation in the Starbucks at the food court, not only in hiding from kids, but in one very sexy barista named Derek.

OR: In Wich Stiles in an Elf and Derek is a Christmas Coffee Magician

Crasher Landers

Author: gyzym

Summary: In which Stiles learns to Stalk That Stalk. (Or, how to accidentally woo your unfriendly neighborhood alpha in roughly five hundred handwritten steps.)

A Desperate Arrangement

Author: mikkimouse

Summary: "I'm sorry, I believe there's something wrong with my hearing," Stiles said. "Because I could have sworn you just told me you set up a betrothal agreement with the Hales. A betrothal agreement involving me. Me."Scott smiled his easygoing smile and nodded, which told Stiles no, he hadn't misheard a damn thing.After seven years of lengthy negotiations, the treaty between the Hales and the Argents has fallen apart and the two countries fell into war.Months later, there's an uneasy truce, thanks to the intervention of King Scott McCall, but it won't last. In a desperate attempt to maintain the peace, the Hales sign a treaty with the McCalls to marry Prince Derek to Prince Stiles Stilinski, King Scott's brother.In the history of the world, there have been many better ideas.

Salty Sweet

Author: secondstar

Summary: Derek works at a porn store. One day, Stiles comes in asking all sorts of TMI questions about different toys. That's where it all starts.

A Californian Wolf in New York Series

Author: dancinbutterfly, knight_tracer

Part 1: A Californian Wolf in New York

Summary: When Derek finally realizes that there's nothing left for him in Beacon Hills, he goes back to New York, gets a life, falls in love and finds his home. (A podfic/fanfic collaboration)

Part 2 : It’s a Break, Not a Vacation

Summary: The anniversary of the fire sneaks up on Derek. So he follows his instinct and leaves Manhattan to get to the one thing he really needs to survive the worst week of the year, Stiles. Unfortunately, that puts him in Beacon Hills - the worst place he could possibly be at the worst possible time. Yeah, Derek didn't really think this through.

It Started with the Fox Ears Series

Author: thelucky13

Part 1: Fox Ears are a Blessing

Summary: The fic where Stiles has really sensitive ears and Derek uses it to his advantage. Sexually of course. mhmm. Sex.

Part 2: Blame It on the Twins

Summary: A peek through Stiles' pregnancy, with sexy times because I can never not.

The One Where Stiles is a Fox (literally) Series

Author: OneSmartChicken

Part 1: Tales of the Grizzled Pup

Summary: Stiles gets turned into a fox, and it's sort of awesome, and this is a terrible summary.

Part 2: Counting the Constellations On Your Face

Summary: And then the fox became a man, barely more than a boy in truth, and Derek should not have been surprised by his unique beauty, and yet he was.In fact, it could be said that Derek was transfixed.That's it. That's all it is. A little pack bonding and Derek thinking about how pretty Stiles is.

The Company I Keep

Author: secondstar

Summary: Stiles has a favorite table at the library. Then some asshole comes along and steals it from him.

We've Written Volumes (In Blood, in Scars and Ink)

Author: notthequiettype

Summary: Stiles is on his back on hard-packed dirt. He's cold and there are leaves stuck to his neck and there's a four inch gash in his side that he thinks he can feel his ribs through. There's so much blood around him he feels like he's floating on a pond and everything is so much dimmer above him than it was a minute ago, which is saying something because he's in the dark center of the forest in the middle of the night. And the worst of it is that he's alone, totally alone with the smell of his own blood drowning him and the soft side of him run through by a tree.As his eyes slip shut, the last thing he thinks is, "This is going to kill my dad."

Permanent Fixture

Author: linksofmemories

Summary: Derek is Scott's older brother. Stiles is Scott's best friend. Derek is falling in love with Stiles. This is a bit of a problem.

Howlin' For You

Author: Lenore

Summary: A college AU with strippers, crime bosses, and a mystery to solve.

I Want to Say Yes, Sir

Author: Halesbennett

Summary: “I’ve got a 17 year old boy in the back of my car and I’m running him up to the station.” His dad sighs.“Oooo is he cute?” Stiles asks jokingly.Stiles can practically hear his Dad’s eye roll. He can hear the Sheriff shift as he turns around to look at the boy in the back. “Hey my son wants to know if you’re cute.”He hears the boy on the other end go after a second of hesitation, “I want to say yes, sir.”His Dad just cracks up laughing.

Mr Virginity

Author: MourningDawn

Summary: AU. Derek Hale has a reputation, one that has been built through out high-school. He's the captain of the basket ball team and he's the most popular guy in school. But Derek is also know for going after any virgins at his school which he is how he gets the nick name "Mr. Virginity". To Derek it's fun crossing names off the list as he helps usher in the virgins into the world of sex. It's nearing the end of his senior year and there is just one last person still holding on to their virginity. Their is a reason why Derek left nerdy, hipster, social award, star wars loving Stiles Stilinski for last.

Mouthy, Mouthy

Author: colferstilinski

Summary: Derek raggedly ruts up, still chasing. Still coming. Eyes that have been clamped shut blinks blearily as he tries to finally look down at the swollen gland, and yep. That’s a knot. Definitely his knot.

Closer

Author: lavieboheme0919

Summary: Stiles is a prostitute at an all-male brothel disguised as an exclusive club. He caters specifically to those with a BDSM kink. On the 7th anniversary of the brothel's opening, he entertains a sexy businessman with gorgeous green eyes and dark, black hair who wins 48 hours with him. The two push each other to extremes neither thought possible, but the aftermath may mean that both can heal from what has been done to them.

Just the Tip

Author: Ookamisan

Summary: In which Derek is an Alpha and resembles the wolves from Van Helsing, fucks Stiles on the Hale House lawn and things get weird.

more fics: part 8

#teenwolf #fanfiction #fanfic #fanfics #fanfic rec #sterek #derek hale #stiles stilinski

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