#but. i think i’ve mentioned once or twice that my brother fell into that youtube alpha male ‘self help’ bullshit a few years ago

[mars-ipan]

ohh my brother’s healing ;v;

[ezekielbhandarivalleros]

Addicted to Weed - Chapter 1

Characters: Jake Tweneboah (MC), Sienna Trinh, Jackie Varma (Mentioned)  Ethan Ramsey (Mentioned)

Summary: Sienna finds out about Jake’s weed problem

Rated - M

Taglist: @princess-geek @gamechoices-player @secretaryunpaid @arnikki-2406 @choicesficwriterscreations @riana-drarry @treasure-seeking-elf @lisha1valecha @yourresidentplayer @schnitzelbutterfingers

Also thanks for @secretaryunpaid for helping me make the necessary changes and editsl

Jake let out a sigh of relief as he stepped through into his apartment. Quickly he locked and dead bolted the door, and slid the security chain into place. After nearly three years at the hospital he never entered his apartment without immediately doing those three things. He turned on several lights and moved to the kitchen to start a pot of coffee brewing before dropping himself onto the couch.

Jake retrieved a cup of coffee and settled himself into the couch. He kicked off his shoes to display his mismatched socks as he loosened his tie. He was very glad to be home, but at the same time it increased his anxiety. While he was an introvert and did enjoy spending time alone with Jackie, the last few months had been hard. Lately when he was alone he turned to Weed, but for the past two weeks he had been trying to avoid using it. He hadn't been very successful. He had tried to wean himself off slowly, but once he had taken a small dose he usually got to the point that he didn't care and ended up taking more. Already, though he had only just gotten home, he felt his eyes drifting to the bathroom where he kept the drug hidden. He gripped his coffee cup tightly, trying to fight off the urge to use.

He thought briefly about calling one of the team to see if they wanted to go out for something to eat, but quickly decided against it, deciding he needed the rest of the evening to relax. Jake sighed and put his cup on the coffee table. He rubbed his face and again his eyes drifted to the bathroom. He was so tired, but he knew that he probably wouldn't be able to sleep without some help. He groaned and leaned back on the couch, and tried to distract himself by watching random videos on Youtube.

Abruptly he stood and crossed to the bathroom. He tore open the medicine cabinet and pulled the last of the weed out of its hiding spot in a box meant to hold cough syrup. Not that he really ever had anyone over to his place besides his old roommates, but he still wasn't careless enough to leave it out in the open. He tossed the box aside and unscrewed the top of the bottle. He held it wavering in his hand. He wanted desperately to just tip the bottle to empty the contents into the sink and be done with it. He had had this battle with himself many times before. Two times he had even succeeded, but then found himself calling his dealer only hours later to gain more.

Jake ran into his and Jackie’s bedroom and pulled out pieces of rolling paper and made blunts. Jackie was the only person who knew that he still smoked as he told the others that he quit a few weeks ago. He remained on the floor for quite some time, feeling no desire to move back to the living room with the tv still on.. He was perfectly content where he sat, enjoying the feeling of nothingness and after a while he dozed a bit. He didn't know how much time had passed before he heard a knock at the door. It had probably hadn't been more than an hour or two. He tried to ignore it, but whoever it was knocking was persistent.

Groaning, he rolled to his knees then used the edge of the bed to pull himself to his feet. He legs felt rubbery, so he stood there for a moment to steady himself. He looked at his reflection and stifled a giggle. At the moment he found looking in the mirror incredibly funny, but he wasn't entirely sure why. It felt somewhat surreal, looking at himself. The knocking at the door became more persistent. He sighed. It was probably was one of his friends. No one else ever came to his home this late.

He cringed as his door was pounded on, and this time was accompanied by a voice. "Come on, I know you're home. Please open the door." Jake sighed heavily. Sienna. Of course it was her. Anyone else would probably have given up, but she would be there until two in the morning, still knocking if he thought that  was home. Jake shook his head and made his way down the hallway slowly. He hadn't even made it halfway when Sienna knocked again, louder.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," Jake called out. He made it to the door and fumbled with the locks, struggling with the security chain. It took several tries for him to be able to slide it free. He swung the door open. "What are you doing here, Sienna?" he asked, not bothering to try to hide his irritation. "Hey, grumpy much?" Sienna smirked and raised her hands. Jake didn't respond except to glare and gave a roll of his eyes. "Aren't you going to invite me in?" "You've never been out this late before. Why did you decide to just show up in the middle of the night?"

"Somebody's cranky when his beauty sleep gets interrupted." Sienna pushed past Jake into the apartment without his invitation. He held up a brown paper bag. "I left the office about an hour after you did and I thought I'd stop and grab some Chinese at that really good restaurant and then realized how close I was to your place so I figured I pick some up for you and Jackie and bring it over here, but as she’s asleep you can have hers”

"That restaurant is almost seven miles from here, Sienna," Jake said.

Sienna didn't seem fazed as he walked into the kitchen and rummaged through the cupboards for paper plates not caring if she woke Jackie up. "I got those egg rolls that you like." "Okay, I see we're just going to pretend that you showing up here is normal," Jake grumbled. He followed Sienna as he brought the plates to the dining room.

Sienna looked around the luxury apartment, taking in the well-used but comfortable looking furniture and the many shelves housing hundreds of books and the one shelf that contained dozens of science fiction DVDs. " I can definitely tell that you live here and It shows that mostly everything belongs to you."

"It's my apartment, Sienna. Was it supposed to look like someone different lived here?"

She raised an eyebrow. "You usually reserve this level of hostility for occasions."

Jake blushed and looked away. "Sorry. I'm just tired."

Sienna shrugged. "Sit down and eat."

"I'm not really hun—"

"Sit," Sienna interrupted. "Eat." She ordered.

Jake dropped into the chair, looking a bit like a child who had been reprimanded for something. He grabbed one of the egg rolls and took a small bite.

"I'm fine," Jake said quickly.

"How often have you been using the drugs?" Sienna asked conversationally.

Jake looked up, the expression on his face giving the impression of him being a deer caught in the headlights. "What are you talking about?" he asked, voice a little higher than usual.

Sienna pushed his plate of food away and leaned forward, elbows on the table, and his face suddenly deadly serious. "You're high right now, aren't you?”

“Hey, I was still eating that” Jake screamed.

Jake laughed, the sound slightly hysterical. "Sienna, you- you're confused. I-I'm not-… I don't-…" he sputtered, trying to keep the smile on his face. "That's crazy," he finally managed to finish.

Sienna's face was still locked in that serious look. "I'm sorry, kid. I knew something was going on with you, we all did. I thought maybe it was PTSD. But we all left you to deal with it on your own. We should have been there for you. I should have been there. I should have seen. I'm sorry."

The faux smile fell of Jake’s face as she spoke. He dropped his eyes to the table, seeming to struggle with himself to find the words. It looked as though he was trying to decide if he wanted to admit to the drug use or to continue to try to deny it. The internal battle waged for nearly a minute before he looked back up. "Pretty stupid thing to do for someone who's supposed to be a genius isn't it?" he smiled, but it was bitter and self-deprecating.

"Not stupid. Not really smart either," Sienna sighed, looking at Jake his dark eyes troubled. "It's Weed, isn't it?" “Jackie has been telling me.”

Jake nodded, almost imperceptibly, avoiding eye contact. Morgan wasn't reacting to this in a way he had expected. There was no yelling, or threatening. No accusations or anger, only a weary acceptance. "I stole it from one of they younger interns after their first week and got hooked, not even my brother whose a year above me knows. After I ran out I bought my own. I t-… I tried to stop. I really did. I threw it out twice. But I always-… I always got more afterwards." He ran a trembling hand through his hair.

"How often do you take it?"

"Usually only once a day, but I don't take it at all if we're working a case," he elaborated, shooting a quick glance at Sienna.

"Why do you only take it when you're home?" She asked him. She was still acting much to calm for Jake to understand, and things that Jake didn't understand made him nervous.

Jake shook his head. "If the other know, for sure Ethan might have to report it, and you'll be fired. I won't tell him as long as you stop."

Jake looked desperate. "I've tried before, Sienna. I don't think I can do it." He looked so hopeless that it almost made Sienna want to cry.

But she didn't. Instead she leaned forward and put his hand on the older man's shoulder. "Yes, you can, and you will. You've only tried by yourself before. Now you've got help. You don't have to be alone anymore."

[nicknellie]

By the time I finish/send this it’s going to be at the most random time so I say good night and technically good morning for whenever you read this!

I’m glad that you were able to finish your schoolwork, if it’s any consolation you still did hand them in, which is amazing! Also shame on them, they should’ve explained how all of this was going to work.

Same here! It’s so fun replying to these

Let’s do this

(Also if I were to make a tally of how many times I used exactly and agreed I would be in the hundreds by now 😂)

1. You are so brilliant, yes. Reggie just uses random stuff to hold his things especially considering that he has like 1000 scrapbooks so all the other stuff needs to go somewhere. (He also has used Luke’s and Bobby’s)

2. I didn’t think that Reggie actually has pictures of random baby, oh my goodness that is hilarious.

3. Exactly, and the reason why he doesn’t recognize the French dip is because he has no clue where it came from but it does belong to him

The non-box stuff

First two very random comments that totally did not come from me accidentally hitting some board games and seeing jam which led to inspiration for this

First point, Sunset Curve and then later Julie and the phantoms most definitely had board games. In this scenario I’m going to use Spin Master Hedbanz because, I have no clue when this game came out so I’m just gonna say it’s a game that the Molina’s play.

(Hedbanz is the fast-paced, easy to play question game of “What am I?” Ask “yes” or “no” questions, I think Amazon can be thanked for that description)

Anyways, so they play this and after not guess Luke flips a table. that’s this entire point that Luke is the one during game nights to flip tables (never play Monopoly with him)

The second point, the jams. First Reggie hates strawberry jam, loves raspberry jam and is indifferent to marmalade (I mention the last one although it’s not really a jam) however Alex loves marmalade and grape. Luke has no taste, but sometimes likes jelly, and Bobby like marmalade as well (honestly idk)

Now numbers,

2. Wait yes, I don’t know how else to describe it aside from that. (All of them feel guilty, and massive group hug and movie night after)

3. Luke as a frustrated puppy is his facial expression when Reggie accidentally scares Victoria and Luke sits down on the couch. Also yes, that is exactly the conversation they have (Yes Willie can also get through to him). Also it does work when Juli tries it however maybe not as much as when Alex and Willie talk to him.

4. Yes, basically Luke and Alex are two halves of a whole and can read each other very well.

5. Oh yea, Alex is always very sarcastic with the boys and is a tiny bit hesitant in front of Julie however after that interaction he acts more like how he normally is.

6. Yes and there’s no in-between (although it could be that he stayed there for a few days and hasn’t been back since). Aww, that’s so sad and exact what happens, however he doesn’t have someone who gives him a flower, unlike Julie, so he just sits there crying.

8. Yes! I like that theory as well, also for some reason Luke was always very good at solving Rubiks cubes however Bobby never was.

10. So I randomly saw this meme one day and you mentioning the spinning tea cups reminds me of it (I have no clue who made this sadly)

(Just change Luke to be sitting with Julie then) Also yes Luke doesn’t like things that spin, honestly I love the fact that I went off on a board game tangent and you went off on a theme park tangent.

Yes, every single ride Alex goes on, also yes for bobby. I love the little addition you made that they save it for the end of the day, adding on there’s like one ride that Bobby won’t go on (maybe the tea cups) and he always rides the logflume ride during that time)

Oh yes, anytime they go to a waterpark or go on a roller coaster or basically anything Reggie will take a picture of it, (also there’s quite a few of the boys going on roller coasters that Reggie doesn’t want to ride)

Luke goes on a ghost train once and regrets everything, he spends the entire ride with his head buried in Alex‘s hoodie. Yes, also Bobby has to make sure that Alex doesn’t accidentally bump in to random strangers.

Toffee nut- for a second I thought you said that Reggie didn’t know one of his friends was allergic to gluten and I was like this fits Bobby so much but I misread that severely. But that’s exactly what happens, also Julie brings it up once, just in general, and that’s where Alex has to be like ‘Reggie we are already dead’

11. The game to see if Reggie is lying or not, love that. (Honestly I wanted him to have actually met Queen Elizabeth very randomly however your theory fits so well)

13. Yes, they all just randomly dance around the studio. I mean the band in full cowboy outfit should be very high up on your list of things to expect for season two.

14. That’s exactly why I said that, because Nick shouldn’t be able to see the boys however since he’s actually Caleb during that moment he can. So he has to pretend like he isn’t furious, he kind of fails but somehow is able to pass it off.

They can’t deny good music, love this line and yes they most definitely can’t.

15. I’m glad that you like the little Han-solo idea

16. Yes, yes, we all know that Alex still lets them in the kitchen because he can’t say no to the puppy dog eyes however during that moment he tries his best to keep them out

17. Alex was most definitely the cutest baby also that is precisely what the photo looks like. (As you mentioned earlier I believe whenever Reggie was upset at Luke he would give Julie baby pictures of Luke. So of course Reggie does the same to Alex and shows Willie pictures of him as a baby. And Willie has heart eyes for the rest of the day from that photo

19. They definitely jump in puddles also the amount of times Luke has done that to Alex for no reason at all is a lot (also this is adorable)

20. Yes, I think everyone fell in love with Alex after the first episode as they should. ‘I have been crying for 25 years. How is that possible?!?!’

Yes Reggie and Willie definitely only talk in puns to each other and Alex is not happy (lies but for now they will let Alex be)

Also this makes me think that if flynn had known that Luke existed when she was going to egg Julie’s house, he definitely would’ve helped. Also yes, Emily buys those eggs right then and there, alongside toilet paper because.

21. That’s exactly what I thought but now seeing it in writing makes me upset. Him having a key symbolizes that he now found his home, and when Luke ran away Alex was so torn because obviously he supported his best friend more than anything however at the same time he just didn’t know what to do. (I don’t think I’ve seen this list but I am very intrigued, should we petition the show to let you write Mitch‘s character for season two) Yes, Alex and Luke are such brothers and we can blame Mitch.

24. The first time I saw the song I just thought that she sang in it as background vocals or something and then I was massively disappointed. Wait wait, what if in season two we get a song from Flynn that basically answers flying solo and shows how much Julie means to Flynn. I am in the same exact boat flynn is in a music program so at the very least we have to see her doing something they can’t just waste that talent like that. So I know this YouTube creator by one video and one video alone which is I’m going to kill Santa Claus, but yes I added it to my watch later (also you did get the title right, caps and everything)

25. Yes, he wanted to be strong for her which is why he initially went. (Third chance at getting a family 🥺🥺 awww)

Yes they exactly would’ve been uncle Reggie, uncle Luke, and uncle Alex, she definitely would’ve been nicer just due to the fact that the boys never would’ve let her get away with it.

26. I mean even when the boys forgive him, he still doesn’t forgive himself. Also yes, and the first thing he does is remake the hat for Alex because for some reason Alex hasn’t been able to find the hat (and or one for Willie because he wears beanies as well) Just imagine happy Bobby reunited with his bandmates (family) though aww.

28. Yes, also Reggie is like a cat when it comes to yarn so after he initially got tangled of course he got himself even more tangled until he just became a ball of yarn. (I love that title, also there is two parts because Reggie made a similar one again due to the fact that this happened twice)

30. Yes, Willie does have an old soul and him and Alex connect very well with Vitoria

32. Yes, best fan base ever. Legitimately they will get stopped on the street and if someone finds out that their sunset Curve they immediately get some sort of fanart or sticker (also a hug because Luke will give free hugs to everyone)

Yes, honestly I was thinking that Alex could be a cat as well however you’re entirely correct it’s Bobby who is the cat. I’m a bit stumped on what Alex would be, hear me out he would be a hedgehog just because that would be absolutely adorable. (Also I love the owl idea that’s brilliant)

Wait, not only does Alex get that but a fan handmade a puzzle of the band and it’s one of Alex‘s most treasured items from a fan.

34. The boys laugh for so long but the eventually help him out of the fridge, not before Reggie takes a picture though

35. Wait yes, Ray helps them out with the photoshoot. At first he thought that Flynn was asking him to take the pictures and he was completely prepared but then he quickly realizes that she kind of just wanted him to be there too not only help out but because he’s the greatest.

37. They take all of his hoodie expect the pink one, however they do wear it just give it back.

39. He says it immediately, honestly doesn’t even register that he says it until about five minutes later

40. It’s actually a mixture of both, also because Alex wears Luke’s shirts while they are practicing. Even if the practice doesn’t turn out the best they always have a great time just because they love spending time with each other and that makes everything better.

So you mentioning Willie wanting to learn lifts and stuff, and it made me think of the fact that Kenny Ortega has done dirty dancing which means they should have a scene like this

https://youtube/DIKpUa0O7Ns (if the link doesn’t load basically its the dirty dancing - time of my life final dance)

So now I need this in season two. (Also Willie is the one who is being lifted)

Also I agree this may take the cake for my favorite (also because I now have the dance I want Willie and Alex to do in season two)

Now I may have Time of my life stuck in my head ‘and I owe it all to you’ (actual a song lyric and technically I only have myself to blame)

I’ve been trying to answer this all day but kept getting interrupted by things including but not limited to my schoolwork and the fact that my kitten escaped the bathroom while my mum was trying to wash her which caused s t r e s s but I’ve finally got round to it so here we go!

Before I start, thanks! I actually managed to get most of my work in on time today which I’m really proud of (all of it was in on time if we ignore maths, but that’s my worst subject and I don’t think my teacher is excepting much from me anyway 😂😭)

And oh god I kind of am tempted to make tallies of how often we say that now lmaooo I’d add for me any variation of “ahdslflkdp” or “omg lmaooo yes”

Anyway! Let’s start!

BOX STUFF

1. Thank you!!!!! Exactly but somehow I can imagine he still manages to be messy. Like all his stuff is packed away neatly, but the boxes they’re packed away in are just everywhere and it’s a nightmare for Alex who likes to be clean and tidy. (Luke doesn’t care whether things are messy or tidy, and Bobby is messy but not as cluttered as Reggie I think) And yes!! He uses Luke’s and Bobby’s too, as well as a drum Alex accidentally broke and is now kind of like a box if that makes any sense lol

2. Ikr lmaooo he just puts them in there like “well we needed something” and when Bobby continues to say it doesn’t count because it’s not him he just claims the baby is an honorary member of the band

3. Yes! Maybe he found it one day, thought to himself that he’d read it and try it out later but then completely forgot about it and the box

BOARD GAME AND JAM STUFF

1. I am so in love with this idea oh my godddd, yes, your mind!!!! They have these extravagant board game nights that last hours and hours (while they’re all wearing their matching pyjamas or onesies of course). I love games like Hedbanz omg and I can totally imagine them playing this and also games like Cluedo, Pictionary, Articulate (great game btw if you’ve never played, highly recommend), and any game Julie finds like at a charity shop (because I can totally see her and Flynn going to charity shops and finding a bunch of cool stuff??) Whoever is in a team with Julie is pretty much guaranteed to win (unless it’s Luke, but Alex or Reggie with Julie are pretty much unstoppable) and in the old days Reggie was the master of all games. You’re so right about Luke getting angry lmao monopoly was banned after the first fifteen minutes of the first time they ever played it

2. I love how random that whole thing is but also that you’re 100% right. Also the fact that This Band Is Back is also called Reggie’s Jam has led to some interesting different versions of that song over the years

NUMBER STUFF

2. This kind of links in but not really - once they’re with Julie they have movie nights too and Flynn and Willie often join in. Julie and Flynn have a couple’s jumper and Reggie and Luke are jealous of how comfy they look all snuggled up together so because Luke is wearing one of Alex’s hoodies they both get into that. The only problem is Alex’s hoodie only has one head-hole so they end up stretching it and Alex isn’t happy. Him and Willie just watch the whole time, Alex not finding any of it amusing, Willie laughing his head off

3. Yes that was the exact image I had in my head!!! And it only works when Julie does it because it’s Julie and Luke isn’t really convinced but he’ll agree with her because it makes her happy and that’s all he really wants

4. Ok that made me think of Merlin if you’ve ever watched that show??? If you haven’t then you should, it’s on Netflix and one of my all time favourites. Anyway the phrase two halves of a whole is really similar to two sides of the same coin which is used all the time in Merlin and now I kinda wanna write a Merlin AU where Luke is Arthur, Alex is Merlin, Reggie is Gwaine, Julie is Gwen, Carrie is Morgana, Caleb is Uther, etc.

5. Yeah 🥺 I kinda just want more of Alex relaxing around Julie next season y’know? Like they’re obviously super close but he doesn’t always act around her the same as he does with the guys. I want to see them get closer, have nights where it’s just the two of them, maybe Alex officially coming out to her (though I like to think he already did that and it just wasn’t shown to us)

6. Omg ok that hurt. Wow. Because the boys don’t cross over or go to wherever Rose went after they died, they just stayed in the dark room for an hour, they can’t watch over Bobby and see how he’s doing and they can’t send him any signs like Rose did for Julie. If they had been able to do that then things would have been so much different!

8. What if Bobby started trying like everything the boys liked when they were alive? Like after he realises he can’t make jewellery or write poetry anymore he tries the Rubik’s Cube but can’t do it. So he tries puzzles but just can’t find them as interesting as Alex did. And he tries crosswords and sudokus but can’t wrap his head around them like Reggie. Eventually all his interests kind of drop away and he’s left with even less than he already had.

10. Absjdldl yes lmao that’s perfect! Honestly I love that for us, little random tangents here and there is perfect 😂

Yessss I love that lol like when he meets up with the guys again he’s soaking wet and grinning like an idiot lmao

Reggie has scrapbooks dedicated to their theme park trips and it’s kind of messy and most of the photos are blurry but he loves them as they’re some of his best memories

Also the image of Alex getting so lost in his happiness watching everyone having fun that Bobby just has to pull him out of the way of people is glorious and I love it

Also I had another random thought literally just now. This is kinda based on something that happened when I was 12 I think? So Sunset Curve goes to a theme park and they’ve just finished lunch and Alex wants to go back on rides immediately so they decide to go on something small and not scary so they won’t like vomit their food everywhere. Reggie goes with it because they won’t be going on a big ride. They go on one of the smallest rides there, literally it’s this platform that moves side to side I can’t really explain it better than that. And it is the most terrifying ride any of them have been on in their entire lives even though it looks fine and Reggie refuses to go on anything else for the rest of the day just in case he’s tricked by its tame appearance again.

Toffee nut - omg yeah no I love that! Bobby is definitely allergic to gluten. Alex loves baking special gluten-free stuff just for him and the others are banned from eating it (but y’know they ignore that and do anyway)

11. Tbh now you’ve said that I want it too and I’ve changed my mind, there’s a high chance he did meet her. Somehow. Even he’s not really sure what happened but yeah he did 😂

13. Honestly just any kind of fancy dress? Like cowboys is up there but I’d love to see Fairy Princess Luke ngl

14. I love the image of Nick very poorly containing his anger and ending up accidentally saying something like “they wouldn’t know sophistication if it snuck up and slapped them” and then having to explain what the hell that meant to Julie

16. No one can resist Reggie and Luke’s puppy dog eyes 😂 I love the idea that he shoos them away but they look at him through the door. So he shuts the door, leaving them outside, but they move to the window. He pulls the curtain down over the window but they come in through the front door and stand in the kitchen again and either he has to relent and let them stay or offload them to Bobby or Julie depending on when this is

17. Afjkgjl yes and Alex looks as if he’s embarrassed by it but really he’s isn’t, he’s actually angry because he wanted to be the one to show Willie his baby photos and Reggie stole that from him damnit!

19. This is kind of unrelated but it’s on the subject of water so kinda close - water fights. Absolutely. Especially in summer. Alex is the best at them. Luke sucks (it’s kind of becoming a theme that Luke is awful at anything competitive and I love that lmao)

20. LITERALLY. He said that and a bunch of other things (there’s too many to list lol) and I was immediately like “ok yeah he’s gonna be my favourite isn’t he” and I was right

Absjdidko yeah he hates the puns but love that they’ve found something to bond over, he’ll just never admit it. Whenever they’re doing it he just shakes his head disappointedly, trying to hide a smile

Lmao yeah Luke is well-practised at egging houses and for at least an hour he would have been thinking “I want to but it’s Julie” unable to decide and eventually he would have done it for the fun

Emily Patterson honestly would’ve won Mother of the Year imo (except the arguing with Luke, but that’s one flaw and otherwise she was great)

21. Omg yeah totally, he would have definitely struggled between supporting Luke by not going and supporting himself by going. Either he would have not gone, or gone secretly and updated Emily and Mitch to tell them Luke was safe.

YES DEFINITELY PLEASE AND THANK YOU. Honestly I love Mitch and there’s so much I want to see from him (especially a conversation with Ray) and I would love to write his character @ Kenny Ortega please hire me :)

Also here’s the list of you want to look through it whenever lol

24. I love this yesss we deserve to see Flynn’s response to Flying Solo! Honestly my prediction for her is that she kind of starts feeling left out of everything because she can’t see the boys (even though Julie and the guys obviously don’t mean to leave her out and they’re devastated when she tells them that’s what’s going on) which A) could be how she starts to reconnect with Carrie and B) could be the reason she sings a song for Julie. And YES Jadah Marie is so talented therefore Flynn is and that can’t be wasted!

Lmaooo I’m Going to Kill Santa Claus is one of the only videos I’ve not seen of his but I love all his other stuff. And I’m legit proud of myself for remembering that title 😂😂

25. Exactly! Like Trevor I think would be a semi-lenient parent and whenever Carrie acts up it would have been Alex who was the first to tell her off and tell her what she should have done. He would never shout, but he also wouldn’t sugarcoat it and would be honest. Reggie and Luke would have been gentler on her but Bobby would have just been terrible at discipline lol

26. Yes omg 🥺 the little gestures like making more hats are the things that get the boys to finally forgive him. And I know for a fact that Willie wearing a beanie is all I’m going to be thinking about forever now, holy moly

28. Ajsbdkspskke yes!! Eventually it turns into a whole series of songs that end with “Bobby I Swear I Will Hide All Your Knitting Needles If You Don’t Start Cleaning Up Your Yarn, This Is Your Final Warning”

32. I love that! The band is very sociable so they run into fans a lot and fans just start bringing their fanart and stickers wherever they go because you never know when you might run into Sunset Curve

Omg I can totally see hedgehog Alex that’s literally perfect I love it! Because he’s kind of shy and nervous but also prickly (like come on, his sarcasm and the way he just deadpans half his lines is brilliant)

Yessss it’s this really detailed painting made into a puzzle of all of them and Alex puts off making it for ages because he doesn’t want to damage it or anything 🥺

34. Lmao yeah Reggie has to take a load of photos because he’s using his Polaroid and he’s laughing so much that the camera shakes and the photo comes out blurry every time

35. Yes she wants him there because Ray is obviously the Best Dad Ever (I am definitely in agreement with Reggie on this one). Also it helps because then it doesn’t look like Flynn is by herself taking all these photos because the guys can’t be seen 😂

37. Yes lol the one rule is that if you take the pink one you MUST give it back. Willie is the only one who can occasionally get away with breaking that rule, in which case Alex just takes it back himself

39. Absjdldl yes especially because Carrie doesn’t comment on it (because she’s not really listening to him, just speaking her thoughts aloud, because I feel like she does that a lot? Talks to herself because it’s easier to understand her thoughts when she says them?)

40. Omg yes and that’s even better because Alex had done it with Luke and Reggie so he knows how! I mean, it doesn’t go well at all, but they have fun!

God me too now I’ve got it stuck in my head 😂 tbh I had Devil Went Down To Georgia and also Ring Of Fire stuck in my head for ages after we mentioned those so it only makes sense lol

[colbybrocksmolder]

Can You Keep Up? - Colby Brock x Reader (curvy)

“Sam!” Colby whisper yelled. “I swear to god there is someone upstairs.”

Looking at the camera, Sam silently pondered their best move. “Well, lets hide for a few and we’ll see if we hear anything else. We’ll be back in a few minutes guys.” He then shut the camera off.

“Over here”. Colby led Sam to a dark corner of the abandoned building. “I don’t hear anything, but I swear I’ve seen a flashlight like 3 times.” Colby explained to Sam.

“Maybe it’s just another kid like us. We run into other explorers all the time.” Sam replied.

The duo waited it out. After not seeing or hearing anyone for about 10 minutes, they turned the camera back on.

“We’re going to try to get to the roof to place our sticker. We’re just going to try to be extra quiet just in case we run into someone.” Colby said, passing the camera back to Sam.

They made it to the top floor, circling the different rooms trying to find a way to the roof.

“See that.” Colby pointed towards a collapsed staircase. “Guys I don’t think we’re going to make it to the roof.”

“Is there no other way up?” Sam asked, shining his flashlight around.

“I mean, it looks like we can climb those bricks, but then we’d have to jump all the way to that platform.” Colby replied, his tongue sticking out of his mouth and a look of concentration on his face.

“You’re the ninja.” Sam laughed.

“Fuck it. I’ll try.” Colby said, taking off his backpack and making sure his shoes were tied tight. “If I make it you can chuck me our stuff and try to climb up.”

On his first attempt, Colby mis-stepped and skinned his shin, landing back on the concrete ground. “Oh fuck me, that hurt.” He yelled, his leg stinging too much for him to stay quiet.

“Hello?” the boys heard a girl call out. “I’m carrying protection. You don’t want to mess with me.”

“I fucking told you there was someone else here!” Colby whisper yelled. He looked down and realized his hand and shin were covered in blood.

“Hello?” Sam called out. “We aren’t here to hurt anyone. We’re just filming a YouTube video.”

“Deadass?” The girl chuckled.

“I swear on my life.” Colby called back out, laughing at her odd response. “You don’t happen to have a band-aid or something do you?”

Hearing Colby mention a band-aid, Sam looked down finally seeing Colby’s injury. “Oh shit, are you okay dude?”

The girl looked down, the two guys unaware they were being watched. *They look harmless* she thought. *Cute even.* She jumped down from the platform Colby had been trying to get to, scaring the shit out of both of them.

“Jesus Christ, you almost gave me a heart attack.” Colby half shouted, leaning back against the wall and placing his hand over his heart. Hearing her laugh, he looked her up and down. She was a curvy girl, that’s for sure. Cute style. *How the fuck did she make it up there?* Colby thought, his pride slightly wounded. She had on black skinny jeans and a baggy black tank top with holes in it. Underneath you could see what looked like a black sports bra. A few tattoos sprawled across her skin.

“By the looks of the bloody hand print you just left on your shirt, I don’t think a band-aid would help you much.” The girl said, concern on her face. Colby realized he had been staring at her and blushed. “What happened?” She asked, kneeling down by Colby and opening her bag.

“He was trying to jump to the platform you just effortlessly jumped off of.” Sam snarked, still filming. Showing the platform with the flashlight.

“Hey!” Colby laughed. “It was my first try. I would have made it up there.”

“I’m sure you would have, stud.” She laughed. “Can I take a look?”

“Pet names already, baby? You can look at anything you want.” Colby tried to say in a sexy voice, but he hissed when she tried pulling his jeans to the side to see the wound.

“Is this what he does when he’s in pain or is he like this all the time?” she looked at the camera laughing and then at Sam.

“It’s probably a mix of both, honestly.” Sam laughed. “I’m Sam.” He introduced himself.

“My name is y/n.” she replied. “What’s yours?” She asked, looking at the injured boy. *Cute. Definitely cute.* she thought.

“Colby.” He replied. “Y/n, I’d shake your hand, but as you can see.” He waved his bloody hand in the air.

“Well Colby, how do you feel about me cutting the hole in your jeans bigger?” She asked. “You already ripped through a little when you fell.”

“No way! These are the jeans I wore to our first bando!” Colby replied.

“Then your options are to continue bleeding until you possibly pass out or take them off.” She laughed, opening the first aid kit she always kept in her bag.

“Trying to get me naked?” Colby smirked.

“Nah, I tend to go for dudes who can keep up with me.” y/n stared into his blue eyes with a smirk on her face.

Sam laughed, turning the camera on himself. “I’d normally say that Colby has the upper hand in any flirting situation, but I think he’s met his match.”

“Brother! Why are you filming me losing my dignity!” Colby laughed, trying to shimmy out of his jeans. “I could keep up with you. Patch me up and I’ll prove it.” He cockily said, finally getting his jeans over the gash in his leg. Adrenaline was coursing through him, so even though he was in pain, he felt like he had a lot of energy.

“Okay, pumpkin. I’ll even give you a head start.” Y/n joked. “This is going to sting a little bit.” She said, spraying some rubbing alcohol on the wound so she could wipe it clean.

“Fuck, shit, damnit, balls, fuuuuuuck.” Colby said, swearing as quietly as he could.

“I’m sorry.” She replied, giving him a sympathetic look. “Good news, you didn’t go down to the bone. Bad news, you’re going to need stitches.” She reached into the first aid kit, grabbing some butterfly bandages.

“How did you even cut yourself that bad?” Sam asked, dragging the flashlight along the wall looking for where Colby busted his shin. “Oh shit!” he said, walking towards a piece of metal sticking out of the wall. “Your blood is all over this.”

“Jeez, babe.” Y/n said, looking up at the metal bracket hanging out of the wall. “No wonder it went right through your jeans.”

“I..I didn’t even see it.” Colby replied. His mouth had gone dry the second Y/n used another pet name so he kind of stuttered before regaining his composure. “Fuck, that hurts.” Colby shot his hand out, gripping her shoulder.

“I know it sucks, but if it starts to heal open you’ll have a big nasty scar and they may not give you the stitches you need. It’ll take twice as long to heal.” She reassured him. “Why don’t you talk. It’ll distract you.” y/n suggested.

“What should I talk about?” Colby grimaced as she pinched the wound together to add another butterfly bandage.

“Tell me about yourself.” y/n replied.

Sam put the camera on the ledge to continue recording the scene in front of him and sat down next to Colby’s leg to shine his flashlight on the wound so y/n could see better.

“I don’t know what to say.” Colby replied. He realized he had been squeezing her shoulder and quickly retracted his hand. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to grab you.”

“Don’t worry, sweetheart. You didn’t hurt me or anything.” Y/n said in a soothing voice. “Tell me about why you make YouTube videos.” She continued.

“Sam and I were really bored with ‘normal’ life bullshit.” Colby said, using air quotes. “We knew there was something more out there for us.” He hissed, feeling y/n pinch another section of the wound. “And we wanted to help people.” He continued. “I mean, I know you probably don’t believe it, but the sexy specimen before you used to be a lost, insecure, nobody.” He laughed.

Sam chuckled watching Colby ramble.

“Colby, nobody is a nobody.” y/n said, looking up at him. “And it doesn’t matter how sexy you are, everyone is insecure.” Letting her gaze linger a few seconds longer than she intended, she looked back down and continued patching up his leg. *Way to make things serious for no reason y/n! He’s going to think you’re a freak* she internally kicked herself.

“You’re right.” Colby’s voice caught in his throat. “I felt like a nobody. Sam and I found each other and suddenly, I wasn’t so lost anymore. Together we kind of made this goal…this plan to be something bigger than what we were. Once we realized that a lot of our fears and hang-ups were just in our heads, we wanted to help other people get out of that place.” He hissed in pain when she got to a slightly worse part of the gash.

“Two more butterfly bandages and I’ll wrap up your leg. You’re almost there.” y/n reassured him, smiling up at him. “It’s cool that you guys wanted to help people. Kids need someone to look up to that they can relate to.”

“It’s crazy. We’re friends now with some of the people we looked up to.” Colby laughed. “We were 100% balls deep committed to our plan, but we never thought we’d make it as far as we have.”

“So, I take it you guys are pretty big on YouTube?” She asked, finishing up the bandaging by wrapping his leg in an ace bandage to keep the smaller bandages in place.

“We do alright.” Colby smirked at her.

“I meant to ask earlier, but are you okay if we post this on our channel?” Sam asked, walking back to the camera.

“Sure thing.” She replied, “You can put your pants back on now, Colby.”

He laughed. “I kind of forgot I wasn’t wearing any.” She helped him stand so he could carefully slip them over the bandages. “It already feels better.” He said, kind of swaying on his feet. “Fuck, I feel dizzy.”

“You lost quite a bit of blood there, cutie. Let’s not have you fall and hurt yourself again.” She said, putting her backpack on and throwing his arm over her shoulder. “Did you guys drive here?”

“No, we ordered an uber.” Sam said, slinging on his own backpack and grabbing his phone to order another car.

“Well this one needs to go to the emergency room, so why don’t I drive you guys there?” she offered. Colby was leaning quite a bit of his weight on her now that the adrenaline had left his system.

“If you don’t mind, that would literally be perfect.” Sam replied, turning his flashlight towards the direction they needed to walk to get out. “Are you sure you’ve got him?” he asked.

“I’ve got him. Don’t worry.” Y/n looked over at Colby and realized he was staring directly back at her.

“She’s got me, alright.” Colby half slurred, smiling.

The three of them slowly and safely made their way back down to the bottom level. They walked the long way around the field so that Colby didn’t chance tripping over holes in the dirt and grass.

“Let’s get you laid down in the back, Colby.” Y/n said, hitting the unlock button on her car’s key fob.

“Don’t make me sit alone.” Colby said, getting into the back-seat ass first so he didn’t hit his leg.

“Oh, come on, now. You were so cocky upstairs.” Y/n laughed. “Surely you can sit by yourself for 30 minutes while we get you to the hospital. You need the room to keep your leg elevated.”

“I wasn’t being cocky, I was being brave.” Colby said, sticking his bottom lip out and crossing his arms.

“Well keep it up, brave boy. I promise I’ll sit with you in the waiting room.” She said, pushing his hair out of the way and leaning down to kiss his forehead. *Y/n don’t fall for this boy.* she thought to herself.

Once they got to the emergency room, Y/n walked Colby in while Sam parked the car. When Sam walked into the waiting room, he took the clipboard from Y/n and started filling out Colby’s information for him.

“I don’t feel good.” Colby said, leaning his head on Y/n shoulder.

“Sam said you haven’t eaten anything today and you just had a massive adrenaline rush. You’re probably going to feel crappy for a bit.” She replied, putting her arm around him to give him some comfort. “They’ll take you back soon, though. There aren’t many people in here.”

Less than 15 minutes later, Colby’s name was called, and he was taken back to his own private room. “Can my friends come in here when I’m getting stitches?” Colby asked, panicking a bit.

The nurse answered, “You can have one person in here while the doctor is patching you up. After that you can have up to 3. Would you like me to go get someone from the waiting room?”

Colby immediately answered, “Her name is Y/n.”

When the nurse walked out into the waiting room, she called out for y/n. When she explained that Colby could only have one visitor for the next hour or so and that he’d be in the hospital for a minimum of 24 hours, Sam asked to borrow the car. “We were planning on posting this video tomorrow and my laptop is at the apartment. Do you mind if I run and grab it?”

“Not at all! Make sure to grab Some clothes for both of you. And a coffee for me if you don’t mind.” y/n replied, handing him some cash.

“Dude, I’ll buy you all the coffee you want, but keep your money. You’ve helped us so much.” Sam pushed her hand holding the money back towards her. “I’ll grab some food too.”

When Y/n followed the nurse into Colby’s room, his face lit up. “You stayed” he said, reaching out for her hand.

“Of course I stayed. How are you doing, brave boy?” she chuckled, looking at the iv in his other hand.

“Not so brave at the moment. I fucking hate hospitals.” Colby said, visibly uncomfortable. “Was Sam mad I wanted you to come back for the stitches?”

“Not at all” she laughed. “He was relieved. He took my car to go grab some stuff from your apartment.”

“Oh, thank God.” He said, releasing her hand to text Sam something. *I want him to get her one of my hoodies* he thought. Adding phone chargers to the list of shit he text Sam to grab. “They said I have to stay a full 24 hours so they can give me antibiotics and a tetanus shot” Colby said, reaching for y/n hand again.

She pulled a chair up to the hospital bed and grabbed Colby’s hand. “That’s good, though. They’ll be able to make sure you don’t get sick.”

It felt like forever before the doctor walked in and introduced himself. “I hear you have a pretty bad gash.” He said, gently unwrapping the ace bandage from Colby’s leg.

Colby winced, so Y/n answered. “Yeah, we were all on a hike and he fell. Caught his leg on a piece of metal.” Colby squeezed her hand in thanks.

“Oh, boy. You really cut yourself good, there.” The doctor said, leaning down to examine the wound. “Who bandaged this?” he asked, probing the little strip bandages.

“I did.” y/n replied. “I didn’t want it to stay dirty or start to heal open before we could get here.”

“Did you sterilize it?” he asked, looking impressed at her handiwork.

“I flooded the whole wound with rubbing alcohol and used sterile gauze to clean it out.”

“It stung like a bitch.” Colby laughed.

She started to get nervous. “Did I do it wrong?”

“On the contrary. I don’t think I’m going to remove the butterfly bandages or give him stitches. At this point it would reopen the wound and I think it’s better off healing how it is.” He removed his glasses and stood straight up. “We’ll keep an eye on it while he’s here, but Mr. Brock, I think you’re in good hands with this one.”

Colby squeezed her hand and looked over at her. “I think so too.”

The doctor replaced the outer bandages and Informed Colby his other friend could join him whenever. Colby text Sam what room he was in and soon enough, Sam walked in with a much larger backpack on, food in one hand, and a drink carrier in the other.

“How did the stitches go?” Sam asked, handing out the food and pulling out the laptop and phone chargers.

“I didn’t actually end up needing any. Y/n did such a good job, he didn’t want to redo it.” Colby answered, biting into the burger Sam had handed him. “God, this tastes so good. I was starving, brother.”

“You were also suffering from blood loss, so that burger should make you feel a lot better.” Y/n laughed, throwing a few fries in her mouth.

“I feel better already just knowing I don’t have to get stitches.” He replied, inhaling more of his burger.

It was quiet in the room for about a half hour as everyone ate and let the stress of the night slowly pass over them.

“We never filmed an outro!” Sam said, pulling out his headphones and grabbing his camera. “Lets stand on either side of Colby’s bed and do it.” Sam started setting the camera up on the tripod.

“I don’t need to be in it, I can film it for you.” Y/n said, standing up from her chair by Colby.

Colby grabbed her hand before she could walk away. “You’re definitely going to be in it.” He said, smiling up at her.

“Fine, but only because you’ve been a brave boy.” She laughed, messing up Colby’s hair. She stood on one side of the bed while Sam took his place on the other.

“I SURVIVED!” Colby half yelled, clearing his throat and fixing his messed up hair. I’m not quite sure when Sam stopped filming, so I don’t know where you saw us last, but tonight has definitely been an adventure.”

“You’ve got that right. Colby not only lost his dignity, but we made a new friend!” Sam said, gesturing to Y/n.

“And I’ve apparently found two amateurs who need some lessons in climbing” Y/n laughed.

“Hey! I’m hurt! You’re both supposed to be nice to me!” Colby fake pouted.

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding. These two are awesome. I can’t wait to find their channel and subscribe WHICH IS WHAT YOU GUYS SHOULD DO!” Y/n said, pointing at the camera.

“She’s a natural” Sam laughed. “How about this. If this video gets 100K likes, Y/n will go back to that bando with us and teach Colby how to get on the roof.” Sam said, looking hopefully at Y/n.

“Oh, teach COLBY, huh?” Colby snarked at Sam. “You don’t know how to, either! She’ll teach BOTH of us how to get on the roof.”

“You’re cute when you’re grumpy.” Y/n said, laughing at Colby. “And of course, I’d love to go back.”

They ended the outro after explaining again that Colby was fine and that he’d be able to go home tomorrow night.

After they talked for a bit more, Sam had his headphones in editing and Colby saw y/n gathering her things. “Are you leaving me?” he asked, a sad look on his face.

“I assumed you’d want to get some rest.” She answered, walking to the side of his hospital bed and grabbing his hand. “Sam has my number so we can definitely get you guys that second video.”

“But what if I don’t want you to go?” he stuck his bottom lip out and stared up at her with his big blue eyes.

“You need rest, Colby.” y/n said, leaning down to kiss his forehead. “So do I, actually. I practically carried your ass down 5 flights of stairs.” She laughed.

Laughing, Colby scooted away from the side of the bed Y/n was standing by. “I see a perfectly good bed right here.”

“If you think my thicc ass self is going to fit in that little sliver of bed, you may have hit your head when you hurt your leg.” y/n said covering her mouth because she laughed so loud.

“yyyyy/nnnnn” Colby dragged out your name whining but also laughing. “I’m hurt. I need cuddles. I even had Sam bring you my favorite hoodie so you’d be comfy.” He finished scooting over so you’d have a little more room.

“Oh, fine. You big baby.” Y/n gave in. Plugging her phone in to charge, she grabbed the hoodie and slipped it on. She slipped off her vans and gently crawled into the hospital bed with Colby. “If we get in trouble for this, you’re taking the blame.”

“Fine with me.” Colby said, pulling y/n towards him so that she half laid across his chest. “Put your leg over here.” He said, waiting for her to throw her leg over his uninjured one.

“I don’t want to hurt your other leg.” She said, hesitating.

“You won’t. Just cuddle with me, damnit.” He chuckled, pulling y/n tighter to him.

After a few minutes of giggles and getting comfortable, Colby broke the silence.

“I never said thank you.” He said, thinking back to the events that had taken place. “Tonight could have gone so wrong for so many reasons.” He shuttered imagining that someone dangerous could have found them while he was injured, or he could have passed out leaving Sam to panic alone.

Y/n felt Colby shake and looked up at him. “Don’t worry about it. Things happen for a reason. You’re safe and I’ve got 2 great new friends.” Y/n studied the look on Colby’s face. He looked sad almost.

“No, I need to properly thank you.” He looked down at her, running his hand over her hair. “You don’t know how often Sam and I run in to people that just don’t care. You corrected me earlier tonight. You said that nobody is a nobody and that everyone has insecurities.” Colby paused, sighing. He stared at the ceiling. “I may have felt like a lost, insecure nobody when I was a kid, but honestly LA and fame and followers…It makes me way more insecure than I ever felt as a kid. Sam and I have very few real friends out here. We’re constantly making “friends” that just want something from us. And tonight, you risked your own safety to help us. You didn’t know if we would hurt you. You didn’t know we were famous. You helped us without expecting anything in return. I will never be able to thank you enough.”

Looking up at Colby, y/n saw that he was still staring up at the ceiling. She felt sad for him. “Colby.” Y/n said, reaching up to pull his gaze down to hers. “You know you deserve good things, right? You may live in a fake ass city, but I’m willing to bet that the people who meet you…even the ones that want to use you for fame, are better people because they met you. I’m very grateful I chose tonight to go to that abandoned building.”

“The doctor gave me pain meds, so if you’re mad at me for this you can blame the meds.” Colby said before leaning down and pressing his lips to y/n’s. “I’m very grateful you chose tonight to go to that bando, too.” Colby stared down at her for a few seconds before leaning back and pulling her tighter to his side. “Let’s get some rest, babe.”

Y/n could feel her lips tingle as she buried her face in Colby’s chest. She wanted to say something back, but she felt like she would ruin the moment.

Soon the both of them drifted off, exhausted from the crazy night they shared. Sam had stayed up sitting at the counter editing, consuming copious amounts of caffeine and trying to finish the video on time. It was almost 3AM when Colby had been taken to his room at the hospital and it was now almost 8am. When he decided he needed to stretch his legs, he took his headphones out and turned towards the other two. He hadn’t even realized Y/n had crawled into bed with Colby. As he gazed over their intertwined bodies, he couldn’t help but smile. Colby had text him a few times about y/n as the night had played out and Sam could tell that he really liked her. Sam grabbed his phone and snapped a few pictures of them. He took a short walk through the hospital hallways to stretch his legs and went back to finish the video.

A short while later, a nurse came in to check on Colby.

“Aren’t they cute” She said, looking to Sam.

“They aren’t going to get in trouble, are they?” he asked, ready to wake them up.

“No, no, sugar. Don’t worry. The doctor won’t be back in here to check on him until around noon because you guys came in so late. I’m just going to write down his numbers and replace his IV bag and I’ll be out of here.”

Sam had finished editing the video and was using his wifi hotspot to upload it to YouTube. Y/n had given Sam her Instagram handle when he asked her what link she wanted in the video description. Waiting for the video to finish uploading, Sam went to follow her on Insta.

“Holy shit” he said, scrolling through her pictures. He realized he was already following her and that she had almost 3 million followers. Y/n’s Instagram didn’t have a single photo of herself. In fact, no one knew what she actually looked like or that it was a her. It was filled with beautiful graffiti art that she painted over bad or harmful graffiti. She would post before and after photos. She covered up racial or homophobic slurs, bad words, hateful phrases…And what she left were beautiful murals that rebelled against those slurs.

The post she had made right before meeting Sam and Colby was 2 photos from the building they had just been in. A before picture of graffiti someone had left saying “I’m worthless.” And an after picture of a mural she had painted. It was big and bright. It was of 2 people embracing each other with the words “You are worth the world” written above and below them, framing the art.

Sam liked the photo and scrolled back to the newest photo she had posted. It was a screenshot of something she had written in the notes app on her phone. It said, “I met 2 amazing people tonight.” The description under the photo read “You’re finally going to find out who I am. Make sure to Subscribe to Sam and Colby to catch the big reveal.”  

Sam laughed and pulled up a new post. He picked one of the photos he had taken of Y/n and Colby cuddled together in the hospital bed and wrote out his caption. “Sometimes when you least expect it, the best people walk into your life. New video up in 10! Make sure you don’t miss it! (ps, Colby is alive and safe. Please don’t freak out because of the hospital room. Watch the new video for the full story!)

Sam changed the video from unlisted to public and hit save. He tweeted out a few things from his twitter and the duo twitter. He uploaded the thumbnail to his Instagram story, and laid across the chairs that were in the room. He turned his phone on silent and fell asleep.

Colby woke up a bit later to the Doctor messing with his bandage. “Sorry to wake you.” The doctor quietly said.

Colby rubbed his eyes, squinting from the bright lights. “It’s okay. Do I have to wake her up or can I let her sleep?” he asked, looking down at Y/n. She was still tucked into his side, her hair flung wildly across her face and his chest.  

“You don’t have to wake her.” The doctor chuckled. “It sounds like you guys had a long night. The nurse said your friend there didn’t go to sleep until a little over an hour ago” He added, pointing at Sam.

“He must have been up editing.” Colby answered.

“Are you in much pain?” The doc asked, wrapping Colby’s leg back up.

“My leg is throbbing.” He answered honestly.

“I figured your pain meds had worn off.” The doctor said, getting ready to leave. “I’ll send the nurse in with some more and then you should get some more rest.”

“Thank you.” Colby answered, grabbing his phone and waiting for the nurse.

He opened Instagram and scrolled through his feed. He stopped at Sam’s post. He liked the photo and then read the caption. He noticed that Sam had tagged Y/n so he clicked on her profile. He was met with the same shock Sam was. “I already followed you and I had no idea.” He said, looking down at the sleeping figure beside him in awe. Hers was one of his favorite Instagram accounts. She brought so much beauty into the world.

He clicked on the story feature on his own profile. Holding his phone out far enough to get both y/n and himself in the frame, he started talking. “Hey guys, I’m sure that by now a lot of you have already watched the video. I haven’t had a chance to watch the footage because I’ve been in the hospital sleeping” he laughed, his eyes dropping down to Y/n. “I’m alive and fine, but last night was crazy. So, make sure you swipe up and watch it. I hope this beautiful girl is going to be in many more videos with us, so make sure you follow her, as well. I think many of you will be surprised to find you already follow her. I sure was.” He ended the story, added a filter, added the link, and sent it to his profile.

The nurse walked in and handed Colby some pain meds to swallow with a cup of water.

He thanked her and laid back in his bed. While he waited for them to kick in, he thought about how crazy the last 12 hours have been.

He grabbed his phone one more time, opening up the twitter app. He decided to take what Sam had written and tweet it out. With a spin.

“LA may be a fake ass city, but sometimes when you least expect it, the best people walk into your life.”

He closed his phone, brushed the hair out of Y/n’s face, pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead, and fell asleep.

[vroenis]

Uncharted 4: An Era’s End

It’s recently come to light that game developer Naughty Dog has been subjecting its employees to crunch; the practice of overworking and underpaying staff in order to meet deadlines. This is not unique to Naughty Dog, nor to their current project pending release later this year, The Last Of US 2. Reports suggest that crunch has been endemic in the working culture of Naughty Dog for some time and this is now no surprise to us as such reports continue to surface about studio after studio, most in the corporately structured, premium funded and managed space we call “triple A” or AAA, but many smaller studios and independent spaces also. Several senior and long-tenured creatives have left Naughty Dog quite recently, and some may have been leaving earlier than those that have been reported during what’s turning out to be a turbulent development cycle for The Last Of Us 2.

Each month, as part of the paid subscription to the Playstation Plus online service, Sony offers a small selection of games. For April, one of them was Naughty Dog’s Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, from which I derived my title. Not only am I here to suggest the studio’s troubles may have begun during the development of this game, first released back in 2016, but the title may have been one of the first significant indications that the book was closing on AAA development as we know it. I appreciate there have been many good voices shouting from the rooftops about the how unsustainable it’s been from before then, but the Naughty Dog for a long time seemed like a light in the dark, signalling that a big studio could still produce good product under strong leadership.

I feel that Uncharted 4 rather than The Last Of Us 2 is the real light, and instead of a light-house, it turned out to be a signal-fire warning that even then the composure of Naughty Dog was an illusion.

This piece is going to contain significant spoilers for Uncharted 4. It’s also not investigative - I just played it for the first time, completed it and I have some thoughts about it; these are my thoughts.

I didn’t like the third game at all. I took nothing away from it. I’ll never play it again as there’s nothing I want to relive from it, so I’d better look up the wiki on what happened in it... well that didn’t help at all as I don’t remember playing any of that, it was so unmemorable. I remember the wandering around in the desert bit and then some shooting in the desert which was all pointless. There were also some puzzles with shadow puppets that were almost good but so short and pointless, those two things sum up my feelings about the third game entirely.

What a way to start.

I’ve replayed the first and second games once each, so I’ve played those each twice thru and have decided that the first game is overlong and poorly paced, and the second game is the best and probably two-thirds good. Honestly, Elena should drop the Drakes in the ocean, run-off with Chloe and keep in touch with Sully because those are the only three characters with any depth and meaning. Let’s roll-back a bit.

I get that Nathan’s supposed to be a charming, happy-go-lucky character and for the most part, it works. Maybe I’m just getting too old for it or it’s wearing too thin. I really think the third game was completely unnecessary. When I review my notes on the fourth game, I think about the emotional quandary it attempts to set up i.e., ultimately that Nathan should be more honest with Elena - spoiler; he isn’t, but don’t worry it all works out *SPIT* - this was already a problem I was ready to face at the end of the second game. Given my feelings on the third game, I’d have much preferred a simple trilogy and conclusion that faced that emotional brunt to wrap things up. Naturally of-course, that’s not how money-spinners work.

If Uncharted 4 doesn’t spend time on Elena, who does it spend time on? Nathan has a brother! To be fair, I love Troy Baker as a voice actor and if there’s one thing that is consistent in Naughty Dog games, it’s excellent voice acting. I don’t know if I’m now biased after seeing so much of Nolan North and Troy Baker on YouTube outside of their VO talent work, but they’re wonderful people and their professional work is always great. The supporting cast is always great, too - so too the villains even if the narrative arcs are always completely absurd. I know these are always a bit of a lark, you can’t take them too seriously so I can’t hold Uncharted up to Kentucky Route Zero (got my mention in) and shake them comparatively, that’s not fair. It’s OK to have an excuse for a romp even if it does wear on a bit over time.

The problems I have with Uncharted 4 specifically are things like the level and environmental design. I’ve never gotten lost in this franchise up until now when it happened in almost every level... several times. I simply didn’t know where to go. There would be absolutely no clear indication of where to go and no assists, no subtle environmental guide and no camera nudges to help. There is a timer that eventually tells the player where to go and at times, this is tied to deaths so at one point I just threw Nathan off cliffs repeatedly to respawn until the hint appeared. This is unquestionably stupid design. I began to wonder if this was due to criticism that previous games had too much hand-holding, but when the UI assist was finally given and I made my way to the next check-point, I would *never* have found it under normal exploratory gameplay.

This remained true during several moments of scripted action sequences, some including during combat which brings up something else I now remember about the third game. I still couldn’t tell you when it was other than I didn’t know where to go and it was stupid, so there you have it. Maybe the third game was the real signal fire in my metaphor, who knows. In any case, constantly reverting to check-points and having to repeat, not understanding why you’re failing when the game isn’t telegraphing what you need for a success state in a scripted sequence is an exercise in frustration I’m not willing to ever repeat. While I’m not a souls-like player, I completely appreciate the admiration and respect for those games because they have rules that are clear to parse. Video games are *all about* providing feedback to the player. I’m not saying it’s easy, it is an incredibly difficult thing to achieve but it is literally the job you set out to do, it is the only vehicle you have to convey the lofty emotions you want to communicate to your audience.

And then there’s the driving. Naughty Dog. Do not put driving in your games. This is something you’re not able to do.

I don’t want to bash the driving so hard because at this point I feel like it may have been bolted on without time to make it stick correctly. This is the first game in the title where the hot-zones for interactions weren’t quite right. Where I bugged out of animations and had check-points or re-spawns instanced or loaded. Where I glitched out and fell off things, where I had to walk back and forth in-front of things to make buttons appear. The edges of that Naughty Dog polish were fraying. I’d attempt to do a thing and it just wouldn’t work, I’d fall to my death. I’d attempt to do the same thing the same way and it would work. Again this is dredging up more nondescript memories of the third game so I’m beginning to have my suspicions about the working environment there and when in the timeline things started getting bad - but cameras and jumping distances got really difficult to judge. One gap at one time would be fine to jump, then another would have you plunge to your death, and they’d be inconsistent to read or judge. These were not frequent, as with the third game, almost as if the artists and level designers were given time to adjust lighting and camera geometry tracking and control mapping as much as possible but just couldn’t get to them all. But throughout the games, it creeps in more and more.

I’d talk about combat - it’s functional, but it’s not interesting. These games don’t add anything interesting to the genre or video games in general. I play the games on easy because I don’t need to prolong the experience, I don’t actually have the physical time - if I could play the games without combat, I would. There are other games to play if I want dexterity challenges which I do engage in, Uncharted isn’t one of them. Even in 2016 I’m not entirely sure this would have turned heads. I realise I’m playing this a full four years later, but it’s hard to think of the sum-total of this game’s parts and see it as relevant...

But you know what? Uncharted 4 visually looks immaculate. Outside of the voice-acting and sound design, without question, the highest priority has been given to the visual fidelity of this game inclusive of the animations. So much has been invested in how the tech works, to the abandonment of everything else, I’d say the for example, the driving suffered the most, level design next, then interaction scripting. The attention to detail in the environments is stupendous...

...yet it’s all hollow. You know what? I don’t care about pirates and adventures anymore. Whatever. By the fourth game, I don’t care. I totally get that the game’s not for me but I played it and I’m writing how I feel about it. You’re telling me a story about a guy who met the person of his dreams and marries, then his brother turns up and he can’t be honest to his wife? Meow meow meow it’s all for the sake of drama so we skip over all the details but the contrivance is too much. You want me to accept these things on face value, then on face value, I say Nathan and his brother can go get fucked.

I took particular issue with the comically brief relationship discussion Elena and Nathan have after she saves him and they set off together in which she concludes she’s with him “for better or for worse”, which from memory the game chapter is titled after. Now either the character genuinely believes she owes him under the sanctity of nuptial obligation or she’s using it as a justification of such. This is a wholly unsatisfying discussion for me was when I finally checked out of this game - sure I should have done so hours before but this was the last straw and the indication that I am definitely too old for this shit - but this is a horrifying and stupid message to be spouting. Elena don’t owe anyone shit. Married or not, she’s free to save Nathan if she wants to, for any reason, but she’s certainly not obliged to. I despise this massive chunk of traditionalist patriarchy smashed into her character and the narrative, even if it is “well it’s just about her character” yea great, so that just re-enforces her as a loyal dog-trophy for the main character in the on-going male power-fantasy shenanigans shit-train. Nathan’s behaviour isn’t exactly selfish but it’s certainly not adult or considerate. He behaves like a child not taking on an appropriate level of responsibility. Others around him, being Elena and Sully, continuously bail him out - literally saving his life while endangering their own, and he continues to behave like a manchild that neither acknowledges their physical and emotional labour nor does he grow and evolve as an individual. What a fucker. Does he ever sort his shit out, ask Elena what she wants to do for a career and support whatever the fuck she wants to do with her life? Of-course the fuck he doesn’t. Know why? Because he’s a literal man-baby. And his brother is too. But that’s OK cos  he’s a fucken jock-hero and a funny guy so as long as we can all laugh about it and the narrative says-so and it all works out in the end and he gets the girl and she ends-up supporting his career anyway, it’s aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall fine.

Nathan should have died and Elena shouldn’t have given a fuck.

I know I know, it’s not that serious. Look I’ve been thru some shit, alright? I can see it both ways. Sometimes you don’t think about stupid shit that deep and sometimes you do. Most of the time, I do, and most of the time, I take it to the nth degree, so yea, shit like that gets to me. I call it bad writing, so no, I don’t like the story. At all. Nathan’s supposed to be flawed but nothing ever costs him. When people make mistakes in life, those mistakes cost. The unfortunately thing is the cost is most often paid by the others around them, and sometimes they themselves never realise it. I don’t like stories where there’s a fuckhead at the centre but everyone still stays happy. Nathan seems to have been given a lesson, but I don’t think he earned it. This is why y’all watch Game of Thrones and are surprised when characters die because you keep consuming narratives with no stakes, and GoT is *still* only middling stuff.

Anyway.

How could Elena’s character have been given more attention? Uncharted 4 isn’t all bad. The most valuable thing Naughty Dog achieved was the recreation of real domestic spaces; the Drake households. Twice, we’re given time and space and encouraged to explore them without being funnelled by level design, events, NPC shepherding or audio cues. Rooms and the objects that fill them are meticulously and beautifully created, and they're given life and purpose in a way that has meaning far beyond all the pirate nonsense that while almost as equally beautiful, is completely vacuous.

Putting on Elena’s vinyl record as her daughter Cassie was the only time I enjoyed the music in the game, and it was a great call-back to Nathan having done the same thing in their house much earlier. Sure, there’s the Drake theme that repeats ad nauseam throughout the series but otherwise the soundtrack is bland and unremarkable adventuring fare. It contributes more to the feeling of this game being out of touch, contrasted to something like Control which certainly has a completely different setting, sure - but that’s part of it, so that affords the creative team room for more modular synths and drones and to have a distinct sound.

Walking thru those houses, first as Nathan but really as the player repositioning themselves from adventurer to ordinary life-living person in a domestic setting, and then as Cassie - daughter of these two amazing characters in an equalling urbane setting yet filled with wonderful objects, made up the most fascinating and enjoyable moments of the game for me. The mess of each room gave the houses the perfect lived-in feel to a degree that most other games struggle to achieve, probably due to how much effort it takes to get that much geometry mapped in - Giant Sparrow’s What Became of Edith Finch is probably one of the few games that has come close. The difference between the tropical islands, decaying pirate mansions and the domestic Drake residences is that the houses felt like everything in there felt like it meant something and was in there for a reason, like it had been part of something. I don’t mean that just for the objects that were intrinsically tied to implicit narrative beats like collectables or even items from countries where Uncharted 4 or prior games are set, but also things like towels, washing baskets, plates and dishes, books and picture frames, shampoo bottles, food - the detail in the fridges! That you can feed Cassie’s dog, Vicky is the most meaningful interaction of the game - by the way, the second most meaningful set of interactions is buying an apple in the market in Madagascar then playing with lemur and letting it take the apple.

Back to the houses, I’m disappointed we never got to walk through one of them as Elena. Now that the core of the franchise is wrapped, I’m left with the impression that she’s the most important character in the series and she’s left woefully under-served. This is a very me thing, and unsurprising. I doubt anyone else cares enough about writing and character to have thoughts like this. They’re into Uncharted for the adventuring and the shooting, but as soon as you present me the opportunity for character drama and you want to have a red-hot go at it, I’m here to set aside the rest of that guff and go for it. The running and jumping and shooting never changes, and I’m here to say that the puzzling could have stepped up orders of magnitude that Naughty Dog never committed to - Crystal Dynamics did far better with Rise Of The Romb Raider, and while the puzzling was never really difficult, the way I described it to a friend was to liken the puzzles to desk toys; not intended to be too challenging, but more satisfying in their tactile nature. I feel Fireproof’s The Room series for iOS and Android are great examples of providing similar sensations.

I don’t mind a game mostly about shenanigans, I just don’t want it centred around a character that won’t learn, or who gets off cheaply. Elena is infinitely more interesting to me - her concerns, her desires - Chloe too, for that matter, and I absolutely am not above making the joke about shipping them as I’m sure thousands have before me (no I won’t write a fanfic about them, I’m sure there are plenty around).

I didn’t play the first The Last of Us. There was a horrifically jarring moment when the game felt it was over-playing its sense of cinema to me, then had a sudden camera zoom transition onto I think the first combat gameplay and I checked out. The tone of that game is trying to telegraph TAKE ME SERIOUSLY and I feel all I’m going to do is read tonally similar things to what I have here but far worse. Also post-apocalypse is easy pickings for bad writing, especially by video games narrative writers, I just don’t have the patience. I’m pleased that there’s lesbian representation in the second game but I’m not sure it’ll be handled with sensitivity. While I’m in no way invested in the game as a product, I continue to be concerned for the welfare of the employees at Naughty Dog, and all game developers everywhere, as always. It is a hugely unregulated industry that is in the process of slow collapse, and now more than ever do we need reform and cultural change.

And in the midst of that, one day we’ll get a decent game that’s about domestic partnerships and wonderful emotional relationships with stunning visual fidelity; maybe it’ll have running and jumping and shooting and maybe it won’t. Maybe it’ll end sadly and maybe it’ll end happily but hopefully it’ll be well-written. 

Here’s to Elena.

[nico-idc]

This post is basically going to be me writing out a thought I've had recently, which then turned into a vent post. In case you didnt see the tags, I'll be mentioning self harm, covid 19, quarentine, and eating disorders, including my personal experience with all four. This post gets really dark, but gets a bit more optimistic towards the end (theres also a metaphor that compares mental health to a cliff or something like that). This post also goes into detail about what it's like going through this. If this bothers you, feel free to skip this post. If you have the same feelings I describe in this post, please seek help.

Of course, spreading awareness and educating people about things like self harm, and eating disorders is great. But, theres one major problem with spreading awareness about these problems. It shows people that it's a thing. Now, that may seem like a good thing. People should know that it's an issue, something that happens and could happen to someone they care about.

But it's not so great when a depressed 11 year old who has no idea how to cope with his depression comes across people talking about people cutting themselves. Now, all these posts mention that it's not a good thing to do. And that you should seek help if you have the urge to do this. And the 11 year old understands that, so he doesn't even think to try it.

But then, when that boy isnt doing as well as he was when he found those posts, the thought comes up again. He remembers that cutting himself is a thing people do, and they say it relives the emotional pain and the numbness for at least a little bit. So the boy gets up and grabs a pair of scissors, and drags it across his wrist. He does it once or twice more, before he stops. Because only a little but worth hurt, as long as he doesn't take it too far, right?

So now the boy is in a bit of a better place, he wouldnt have picked up those scissors for the first time in this state. But, now that hes done it before, he wants to do it again. He wants that brief escape that the blade of that pair of scissors gives him. So he does it again.

Skip to a few days later when the boy's doing the dishes. Theres a few sharp knives in the mix. The boy wouldn't have had any problem with this normally, hes been washing these knives for a year or two now. But, now that hes felt a blade go across his skin, he wonders what it would be like to use something sharper than a pair of scissors. What would it feel like to use a kitchen knife? So the boy tries to come up with a way to sneak a kitchen knife back to his room. Thankfully, the boy gets too scared to act on his plans, so he just sticks to the scissors.

But the boy began to like feeling the pain of those cuts. So when he would wash dishes, the boy would make sure to fully submerge his wrist in the hot water, which was as hot as the sink could get the water. Just to feel the sting.

Skip to a few months later. The boy gets an old hunting knife that belonged to his grandma. His parents didnt know of the cuts, and the boy was very responsible, so they didnt see a problem giving him a knife, as long as he promised to only use it with adult supervision. The boy agreed, but soon broke his promise.

Remember a few months ago, when the boy wanted to steal a kitchen knife to see watch it would feel like to use a knife instead of a pair of scissors. Well, the boy still had these thoughts. The only difference from a few months ago and now, is that the boy now has easy access to a knife.

So, the boy opens the knife, and puts the blade to his skin, and slices. This is the first time the boy managed to make his wrist bleed. The knife hurts a lot more than the scissors, so the boy does this a few more times, before he stops, and goes to the bathroom to clean off any dried blood. The boy doesn't use the knife often, only when things get really bad. He uses the scissors most often.

A few months later, the boy tells his parents that he thinks he has depression. His parents are supportive, and the boys dad isnt surprised. His parents suggest he starts going to therapy. The boy agrees, knowing that its not healthy to be feeling the way he is, and he wants to feel better.

So the boy goes to therapy, and the first appointment is just his therapist getting to know the boy, and his parents and brother are in the room for this appointment. The therapist asks the boy and his parents questions, and the boy answers honestly. Well, mostly honestly.

When the therapist asks the boy if he has ever harmed himself, the boy says no. The therapist accepts his answer, and moves on. At the end of the appointment, the therapist asks if there anything else the boy or his parents want to add. The boy, knowing that he has to tell his therapist about his cuts, says there is one thing, but he needs his brother to leave the room when he says it.

The boy is protective of his little brother, and doesn't want to be how his little brother finds out about self harm. He doesn't want to be the one who plants the idea in his brothers head that that's a thing. So the boy insists that his brother leaves the room.

Once the boys brother is in the hall, the boy rolls up his sweatshirt sleeve and says "I lied about not harming myself" and showed his mom, dad, and therapist the lines on his wrist. The boys mother is almost crying, and that makes the boy feel like it was a mistake to say anything. But theres no turning back now.

Nothing changes at home. The boys parents didnt take the knife away from him. They never checked on him when he locked himself in his room for hours at a time. The boys dad even gave him a multipurpose tool with two knives in it for Christmas that year.

Luckily, the boy quickly got out of his depression with the therapy and being able to see his friends again. But even now, two years later, when the boy is in a bad place, and looks back at how his parents didnt change anything for him when he was self harming, and he wonders if they really cared that he was dragging scissors across his wrists once a week.

Skip to two years later, and the boy is sitting in health class. The boy had always been insecure about his weight, so when the teacher said that they would be learning about eating disorders, the boy fell into a similar hole to the one he was in 2 years ago.

Now, they boy has heard of anorexia and bulimia before. But now hes learning all about it. Now hes learning how quickly people loose a few pounds, just by skipping a few meals.

Now, the boy sees an option to loose the weight that hes had all is life, that he can't seem to drop. So, the boy begins to wonder if he could get away with just not eating.

Thankfully, the boys mother is up when the boy leaves for school, and always makes sure the boy eats a good breakfast. So hell get at least one meal a day. And his friends arent going to let him skip lunch. So that's 2 meals a day. And then, his mother always makes dinner, and the boy has no choice but to eat it. It would be easier to convince his friends that he didnt need lunch for a month than to get away with skipping dinner.

So the boy couldn't starve himself. So he thought about just throwing up afterwords. But he quickly realised that wouldnt work either. He wouldnt have time in the morning to get ready for school, eat, throw it up, and then hide it from his mom. So he couldn't throw up breakfast. Then at lunch it wouldnt work because his friends would notice if he was always running to the bathroom after lunch. And then at dinner, his mom would hear him.

Once he realised that he couldn't starve himself, and he couldn't throw his food up, he gave up on the idea all together pretty quickly. And he got better. He got out of the dark place he was in and was doing good, if not great, for a few months.

But then Covid 19 hit. The thin ground that the boy had just managed to get himself up on a few months before, started crumbling. Suddenly, his friends weren't there to calm him down when he had a random breakdown. Suddenly, his friends weren't there to stop him from skipping lunch. Suddenly, his mom wasn't making him breakfast anymore. Or dinner really. Suddenly, the boy lost his appetite Suddenly, the boy lost all the things that kept him from getting an eating disorder.

Luckily, the boy had a few ledges that he could grasp onto to keep himself from falling into a deep, dark pit. He and his friends video called a lot. He was able to meet up with his boyfriend a bit. He began listening to MCR, and P!ATD, which gave him songs that he could scream to when he wanted to cry. He started watching more youtube, and he found some youtubers that he really liked, that made him smile and laugh when he felt like crying. He found youtubers that were a part of the LGBT+ community. He found youtubers that had anxiety. He found youtubers that had depression. He found fandoms that accepted anyone and everyone.

Thanks to these ledges, the boy was able to keep himself out of the deep dark pit he had fallen into when he was 11. Thanks to these ledges, the boy valued his own health, and made sure to eat at reasonable times. He made sure to get enough sleep. He made sure that he kept himself from falling into the pit. He tried to keep finding ledges, and he did. He slowly kept finding more. Hes still holding on to these ledges, but it's getting easier. He no longer has to cling to each ledge, he can sit and relax for a minute. He can keep going up. Every now and then a ledge crumbles a bit beneath his feet, but he has more that he can catch himself on.

[littlemisssquiggles]

Very interesting theory. Seems quite dark but I could see something like that happening in the future. Particularly the Salem wanting to steal Oscar thing. We do have flying monkeys now 👀

Yep that seems to be the universal reactionfrom most of the folks who have commented on this theory. In regards to Oscarand the flying monkeys, I’m still banking on Oscarbeing kidnapped together with Ruby.

The more I consider it, the more I would love to moresee a Dark Domain standaloneseason with just Ruby and Oscar surviving Salem’s Domain on their own completely stranded and separated from their teammatesand friends who they last left behind during the Fall of Atlas and were unsureof their fates.

Oh! Doyou know what could be really, really cool? If during the Fall of Atlas, Vacuo comes to the kingdom’s aid and ends up helping them out. During V6,Tyrian mentioned something along the lines of Atlascalling Vacuo for help which increased Salem’surgency to deploy her representatives to try and prevent that.

In the event of Ruby and Oscar gettingseparated from their friends, imagine if…the others end up being taken to Vacuo to seek refuge, prompting Rubyand Oscar to make the same voyage. Journey to Vacuo.

I already shared a theory about Oscar becoming RWBY’s version of the Golden Cap, gaining control of the Winged Beringels from Salem via awakening hismagical potential. In the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy Gale used the power of the Golden Cap to command the wingedmonkeys to transport her and her friends across Oz; among other things. I’mhoping for a version of that in RWBY where after they escape the Dark Domain,Ruby and Oscar take flight on the back of a winged Beringel under Oscar’scommand with the intention of making the long journey for Vacuo. But not beforestopping in Vale first where the two young rosebuds reunite with old family and friendsincluding Glynda Goodwitch.

Oh! Doyou know what could be really, really cool? If during the Fall of Atlas, Vacuo comes to the kingdom’s aid and ends up helping them out. During V6,Tyrian mentioned something along the lines of Atlascalling Vacuo for help which increased Salem’surgency to deploy her representatives to try and prevent that.

In the event of Ruby and Oscar gettingseparated from their friends, imagine if…the others end up being taken to Vacuo to seek refuge, prompting Rubyand Oscar to make the same voyage. Journey to Vacuo.

I already shared a theory about Oscar becoming RWBY’s version of the Golden Cap, gaining control of the Winged Beringels from Salem via awakening hismagical potential. In the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy Gale used the power of the Golden Cap to command the wingedmonkeys to transport her and her friends across Oz; among other things. I’mhoping for a version of that in RWBY where after they escape the Dark Domain,Ruby and Oscar take flight on the back of a winged Beringel under Oscar’scommand with the intention of making the long journey for Vacuo. But not beforestopping in Vale first where the two young rosebuds reunite with old family and friendsincluding Glynda Goodwitch.

Picture…Ruby and Oscar returning toVale together and meeting up with Tai Yang and Glynda who agree to accompanyand escort the children toward Vacuo.

Or perhaps…Ruby and Oscar reunite with everyone in Vale? Either way, I think itwould be really cool if the CRWBY Writers shake things up again for the RWBYseries and give us a season or seasons where they separate our heroes again; but rather than it splitting thestory 4 ways from the perspective of all four RWBY girls. In a twist, the storyjust focuses on Ruby and Oscar’s journey alone for a while, concentrating ontheir dual growth and relationship while keeping the fate of all their friendsa mystery.

One critique I heard from RWBY Youtuber EruptionFang is that the Writersappear to be reluctant in deviating the story from the standpoint of the fourmain RWBY girls. This isn’t a bad critique to make and in a sense I see what hewas trying to say with this point and kind of agree with him. What made V3 so interesting is that ittruly shook things up for the narrative for RWBY. I was notexpecting our heroes to face such a dark travesty and be separated as early asthe show’s third season. V3 altered the direction of RWBY. Some fans thoughtthat was cool. Others, not so much. I, for one, was on the side that thought itwas pretty dope.

Contrary to the popular FNDM opinion, I hadno issue with V4. Of the entire completed Mistral Trilogy, V4 is easily mysecond favourite of the entire arc despite the fact that it gets flak from somemembers of the FNDM for being a boring season; partially due to the divided storylines or so I’ve heard.

Personally, my main gripe with V4 wasn’t thedivision of stories to focus on different characters. Though it could’ve beenhandled better, the plot jumping from character was not my issue with V4.

The kicker with V4 for me was when the Writersoften times omitted or failed to show certain developments in parts of another’s story whichmade their side of the plot feel rushed while another felt like it was draggedout for too long. For example, Weiss and Oscar’ sides of the story in V4 had moments that neglectedcertain details such as Weiss blaming her brother Whitley for backstabbing herwhen there was no evidence from other parts of her story to even suggest thosewere his intentions and for Oscar; him just coming to decide to leave homeafter showing contempt and resistance in the story’s last involvement with himwith no true middle ground to connect the two.

Since V4, I’ve heard fans make remarks aboutthe CRWBY Writers being reluctant to split up the RWBY girls again based onwhat happened in V4-V5. I also heard fans say that the CRWBY Writers said theywould never take RWBY to the level they went with on V3. I’m still waiting tohear where said fans heard those comments from Miles and Kerry. However, ifthis is true, I find that hard to believe.

As a writer, you shouldn’t be afraid to shakethings up or try something different in your story once in a while. That’s partof the fun of writing where you get to surprise your readers with somethingthey’d never expect. I mean there are some writers who are notorious forrepeating the same formulas over and over again only making it a wee bitdifferent each time to keep the readers invested. I guess the point I’m makinghere is I find it disbelieving that Miles and Kerry would openly admit to the public that they wouldnever pull a stunt to top the events of V3. That’s disheartening to hear. Thatbasically just tells me as a fan that the Writers’ intentions moving forwardwould be to never top V3 which is credited as one of their best seasons in anarc which is their best executed one to date. Howcould your aim not be to beat your best? Seriously, Ineed proof of where Miles and Kerry said that because I can’t believe that.Even if the statement is true and the Writers meant it in a sense where theywere saying they would never do something with RWBY as drastic as V3, that’sstill discouraging to hear.

What happenedin V3? Our heroes were divided. Important charactersgot killed in front of the eyes of their friends. Our heroine failed to saveher friends from being murdered, not once but twice within the same volume. Thevillains won or turned the tides in their favour. A main character lost a limb.A known huntsmen academy valued as a beacon of hope fell with its headmaster whoalso got killed. The Grimm has overrun the school. The entire world becamedisconnected and possibly on the brink of war as a result of what transpired inVale.

V3 was the first season that made me as a fango “Holy shit, these characters aren’tas protected by plot armor as I figured they were.”

V3 shook things up. Shit got realin V3 which, as a story, made things better. As thestory for RWBY progresses, things are going to get real. More serious. Grimmer even. They are expected to get grimmer. RWBY isn’t just a story about four girls learning tofight monsters in a school anymore. It’s not even a story about good vs evilanymore. It’s a story about war and peace. Rising tensions. Controversy.Treason. Lies. F**king magic!  The heroescan’t always win with the power of love and friendship all the time. The heroescan’t do misleading things that would obviously get them in trouble only tohave them face zeroconsequences for their actions all the time.

It will get old pretty fast which seems to be the debate with some of the fans,particular the ones who left or are thinking of leaving the FNDM.

You even can’t have our hero be the one to save theday all the time. I actually would love to see Rubybe the one to be saved for once. Kind of-ish.

This is why I love the concept of a volumethat strips Ruby away from everything sheknows. The knowledge of friends being safe andsound after another traumatic travesty. Gone. The security and company ofconstantly being surrounded by her teammates who can protect her and allies shecan trust. Gone. 

This isn’t like V3 where Ruby had the option to ask Yang orJNR to accompany her to Mistral. If she’s in the Dark Domain, she’s basically aprisoner of Salem; trapped in her world following the disastrous fall of a second kingdom where’s Ruby herselfis not sure if any of her friends made it out okay.

Her friends and family could all be dead and gone andRuby wouldn’t know the difference. In this idea of mine, she has no way ofknowing it. She’s far from home. Far from her friends yet again. Completely out of her element yet again only this time, she’snot sure if anyone would be coming to her rescue. Her aid. Her only source of hope rest in thehands of Oscar—a less adept huntsmen than her but still the only familiar face who made it out alive only because he was taken hostage with her.

So it’s just Ruby and Oscar alone together ina completely Dark Land, forced to make the dangerous trek on their own clingingdesperately to a salvation neither is certain exists anymore. All they knowthat they have is each other but the question is, will that be enough to get themthrough the darkness.

Imagine one standalone season or even two where it’s justRuby and Oscar leading the story. No othercharacters. Just our two youngest huntsmen—our smaller more honest soulsagainst the world. I can understand a lot of fans might not like an idea likethis since it will mean saying sayonara to Weiss, Blake, Yang, Jaune, Nora,Ren, Qrow, etc for some time only giving focus to the Rosebuds for a while.

All the more reason why I would really lovesomething like that to be done. Once more, it’ll shake up the story. Focusingthe story on just your two youngest characters; one being the main heroine,learning to survive on their own would be interesting. It has a risk attached to itbut I find this idea way more compelling than the latter of Oscar is the onlyone to get kidnapped and we spend an entire season focusing on Ruby once again beingthe heroine—the leader of a search party across the dark lands to save thecaptive Oscar.

I mean this also shares reference with theWizard of Oz where Dorothy leads a search party to rescue Princess Ozma andwhile I like this idea too however…I’m leaning back to my original idea of aDark Domain Arc with just the Rosebudsalone. Ruby alone fighting to keep possibly theonly friend she has left alive in a world infested with Grimm while beingpursued by the embodiment of evil sounds far more interesting to me especiallyin the realm of how much further it can push Ruby emotionally. It can also bean awesome way to finally flesh Oscar out some more—possibly the biggestchapter in his character arc.

Buuuuut that’s just me. These are all just myinterpretations at the end of the day. I guess we’ll only know what theWriter’s intentions are when that time comes.

~LittleMissSquiggles(2019)

[toogoodmusic]

TOO GOOD TUESDAY INTERVIEW: G Flip

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Australian singer, songwriter and all around bad-ass drummer Georgia Flipo better known as G Flip just released her debut album About Us last week. The ten song project chronicles G Flip’s on-and-off again relationship with her current girlfriend. Starting off as a drummer for various other people, G Flip decided to start her own project which began with the release of her debut single, “About You” – a synth and emotional song with big drums incorporated. The song blew up and propelled G Flip’s solo career right off the bat. About Us is just the beginning for this talented artist as she continues an impressive festival circuit inclusive of a fall headlining tour and spot on the Falls Festival line up – which has always been a dream of hers to play. Lucky for Too Good Music, G Flip took some time out of her busy schedule to do an e-mail interview. Check out the full interview below to see how she got her start in music, what draws her to the drums, what the most personal song off the album is and so much more:

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TOO GOOD MUSIC: Starting from the beginning – what’s your earliest memory of music? When did you know you wanted to pursue it as a career?

G FLIP: When I was 3 years old my family went to a Christmas party in the park. There was a local band set up playing some classic tunes on a little stage. I had just been gifted a children's sized play guitar and happened to have it in the car. I asked Dad to go get it from the car for me. He came back with the guitar, gave it to me and I took it without a word and walked directly onto the stage. I stood alongside the band without saying a word to them and strummed away, bopping along to the songs they were playing whilst I pretended to play along with them for every single song. It was my late Poppy's proudest moment of me.

Source: G Flip | Photo Credit: Reuben Moore

TGM: Ha! that’s a great story. So you went from crashing sets on stage to a debut album - congrats on, About Us by the way - it’s been a while since I fell in love with an album...it’s an incredible debut. What’s the meaning behind the name of the album? What can fans expect off this album that is similar or different to previous releases?

GF: Why thank you!! The meaning is quite straightforward actually. Most of the songs were written about my on and off  relationship with my girlfriend. I hadn’t seen her in a year back in 2017 and when we caught up she asked me, “Are you still playing drums, who are you playing for now?” And I told her, I’ve decided to go solo I’m no longer drumming for people anymore and I’ve made a heap of tracks in my bedroom studio. She was inquisitive and wanted to hear the tracks, I was very reluctant as every song was about us. So it felt fitting to just call it that, About Us.

TGM: I agree - sounds fitting! Which song on the album are you most excited for fans to hear? Which one was the most personal to release?

GF: I'm super excited for my fans to hear “2 Million.” It’s by far my fave tune on the record. After “About You” blew up, my world expanded from my bedroom to the world and my life started drastically changing. So this song follows a timeline of my life from when I got my first guitar, to (hopefully) buying my first home, to falling in love, getting married, growing old until I pass away and all that’s left is the stories I told on earth through my music.  It’s trippy to think that, as songwriters even when we are gone we have left stories behind on earth.

Source: Facebook

TGM: I always think about that quote that goes “You die twice in this life: one time when you stop breathing and a second time, a bit later on, when somebody says your name for the last time.” It’s really crazy to think about what we leave behind and can outlive us. In that same vein what song(s) have inspired you the most throughout your career?

GF: There aren't really any particular songs that have inspired me to do what I do, but there’s definitely bands and artists that I have listened to my whole life.

The Rolling Stones, Joan Jett, The Clash, Rancid, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Usher, Beyonce, Paramore, Florence + the Machine, The Internet, Rihanna, Miguel, D’Angelo, N*E*R*D, Hozier, Bon Iver, Justin Timberlake, Benee, Joji, Stevie Wonder, Kanye West, Blink 182, Elliphant, HAIM, Jamie T, Jeff Buckley, No Doubt, Linkin Park, Dave Brubeck, Bill Evans, Leon Bridges, Dominic Fike, Lizzo, The Teskey Brothers, Frank Ocean, Matt Corby etc.

TGM: Great list. What’s been the best piece of advice – music, life or otherwise – that you’ve gotten?

GF: I once read this quote that said “Create the things you wish existed” it has stuck with me ever since.

Source: G Flip | Photo Credit: Reuben Moore

TGM: That’s a great quote and think a great mindset to have while creating art. Shifting gears a bit, you recently played Lollapalooza in Chicago as well as some additional festivals and have an Australian tour set for the fall. What’s a G Flip show like? What’s your favorite part of taking your music on the road? What’s the most difficult?

GF: There’s a lot of drums and drums solo’s. It’s high energy and when I’m not behind the kit I’ll be running around jumping. Me and my 2 best mates that I play with on stage switch instruments every song, so i'll be on keys, then on bass, guitar, drums or just with the mic.

TGM: Speaking of music festivals, I just saw your story where you posted a video from 2017 explaining how cool it would be to play Falls Festival and you recently announced that you are! What does that mean for you and what do you have planned to make it a special show?

GF: Still pinching myself about this one! Falls has been a festival that growing up my friends always went to. It was a yearly highlight and despite spending almost all of my income on musical equipment, I did finally get to go Falls Festival in 2012. Fast forward 7 years and I'll be playing there and I'm so psyched! That's a cheeky question, I don't want to give anything away! But I do have some fun, high energy additions to the live show You'll have to wait and see.

Source: Facebook

TGM: I’m sure the fans will be ready and I’m sure there will a lot of drums! What is it about drums that you’re so drawn to?

GF: The drums are so fierce, loud and fun. You’re literally hitting things with wooden sticks, what a sick concept.

The amount of groove and rhythm you can create using all your limbs is pretty cool too.

TGM: If you could only listen to (5) artists for the rest of your life who would they be?

GF: This definitely changes every month...

1. The Rolling Stones

2. HAIM

3. Bob Marley

4. Florence + the Machine

5. Frank Ocean

TGM: What does the rest of 2019 look like for you?

GF: I'm psyched to be doing an album tour around Australia in November. I'm playing at Sound On Festival in Perth, Triple J One Night Stand in Lucindale and Spilt Milk Festival in Ballarat and Canberra with some of my favourite bands. As you mentioned I'll be bringing in the new year playing at Falls Festival! So it’s gonna be busy. Hopefully I get a week off somewhere to take the Mrs. somewhere on a getaway too.

TGM:  Here’s hoping you get that week off with the Mrs. at some point but enjoy the rest of the year and congrats on the debut album!

Source: Facebook

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A HUGE shout-out to G Flip for taking the time out of her extremely busy schedule to answer some questions with Too Good Music. Keep up with her exciting fall by following along with the below links:

 Apple Music | Facebook | Instagram | Spotify | Twitter | Website | YouTube

[yesuriyatop]

Okay so as the reality of all this is beginning to set in….it’s best I get out my thoughts before it truly sinks in all at once and I’m not able to function.

I had this whole post ready to finally address the Jinki incident. I was waiting until after the 22nd because you never really wanna make rash decisions during Mercury retrograde. Even though you mean well, your thoughts are muddled and won’t come across well. To battle this, naturally, I fell down the SHINee rabbit hole on YouTube. The last thing I watched before closing the computer down was Jonghyun’s Savage Moments. It put a smile on my face, made me laugh, like I knew it would. I thought to myself, ‘wow what a dork, I’m glad we can still see this side of his personality when he’s comfortable in his environment’. I went to bed feeling good that I could finally get those words out I’d planned. That the decision I made was right for me. That maybe all the anxious energy I had in relation to SHINee would finally be put to rest.

Early this morning I was awaken by a text asking me if I was okay. I’ve had a rough week. Really rough. It was so bad I had to take two days off from work. But, even with all of that going on, I knew I was fine. I mentioned my anxiety earlier, right? Well there were many reasons for it. I had a feeling in me that I couldn’t shake. No matter what I tried, any time I would see news regarding the members, my anxiety would get out of control. So after reading the text…my mind immediately went to them. Thinking back, my friend thinking I was so screwed up to ask twice this week if I was okay…wasn’t likely to me. Her thinking I wouldn’t be okay because of something involving SHINee? That makes more sense in my mind right now. 

This year alone showed me that SHINee is so much more important to me than I ever realized. They’re one of the main reasons I’ve still held onto Kpop. This group, the individuals, the music, etc, has helped and still helps me through dark times. Jonghyun specifically during his run on Blue Night provided intellectual gems for me. His words were like relief. I felt like “Ah….he gets it. Someone who doesn’t speak my language and lives in a completely different societal culture, understands this very thing I’m going through and even expresses (and doesn’t express) it in the exact same way I do.” It’s always a special feeling when someone you genuinely have nice feeling toward can relate to you, even more when they can relate to the exact thoughts you have. You don’t feel alone. You feel a sense of comfort. I honestly didn’t know how much Jonghyun’s existence meant to me until I saw the headline and felt my chest cave in. How could I feel like this for someone I didn’t know, right? For me, this hits directly home.

No one knew, but I’ve almost lost my younger brother to suicide twice in the past year. So as an older sister, the news was surreal to me. My brother is the reason why I haven’t dealt with this properly…I can’t let him see something is wrong. He’s been particularly down, it’s been gloomy outside all day, and I simply don’t want to make it worse. For me as an individual, this is a wake up call for me to seek help. Although not diagnosed, I’ve struggled with symptoms of depression for as long as I can remember. I never attempted, but I’ve had, and still have, suicide ideation. I live and breathe psychology, so I know how important and serious the condition of mental health is. I feel such rage and embarrassment. Jonghyun took the step to seek professional help and wasn’t given the proper care he needed. I’m incredibly angry at such a display of unethical behavior and impudence toward the profession.

As a Shawol, though, this feels unbearable. I knew he was struggling (we all did), and there was nothing I could do to help him. I wanted to tell him that his words made the day better. I wanted to thank him for having the courage to be so open on the radio and in his music. But now all I can do is apologize for not finding a way to let him know how important he, the individual, was. For not letting him know how much he mattered and was needed. The fact that his last moments were not only planned, but him believing he was to blame, and thinking this was the only solution, that he knew the negativity people who hated him would spew, so he asked them to also just say he worked hard….makes me feel like I’ll never get over him being gone.

His mom, sister (and Roo), Taemin, Minho, Kibum, and Jinki are the people that I have on my mind the most right now. I don’t know if they’ll be strong enough to handle this, but I hope that they rely on one another.

You did work hard, Jonghyun. It’s not your fault. Rest peacefully now.

[beingallright]

People behind Pop

Lately, I’ve been getting into pop music. That includes the 1960s to now, and although I am more of a rock person I liked some of the stuff a lot. However, what truly got me is One Direction. Even when writing this still sounds wrong to me and probably I should give some explanation. 

As I might have mentioned once (or twice) - well, quite frequently to be honest - I did not have the best time at school. I did not have real friends for a long time. Additionally, I missed out on normal social activities, including parties, drinking with others, talking about boys and whatever being a teenager is about. I learned it from books, but that’s it. I loved my music, which was mostly Rise Against, Linkin Park, Asking Alexandria, The Offspring and similar bands. Closest to pop was The Script with “Hall of Fame” as that was the soundtrack to my year abroad. Everything else teenager I got from movies. With my buddies being cool was most important. My self-esteem was non-existent anyway. Even if I would’ve known 1D back then I could not have liked them (well, I knew them, but honestly, the first album and mostly the second one are not as good). 

One month ago, schools long out for me, I got into the One Direction Youtube-Realm. And I did not manage to get out, it even gets worse. I fell in love with Louis, Liam and Niall. I was listening mainly to “Made in the AM”-Songs, therefore Zayn was never an important part for me personally (although I love his voice). If you can count your realised there are only four listed there, so one must be missing. 

Harry. Before I knew them I was a Louis-Fan (without even knowing his name) and I knew Harrys’ name, but I didn’t like him. He was so similar to everyone else in media. When he was in Dunkirk and his acting skills were impressive for a pop star and he was so lovely in all the media coverage for the film, I just could not stand it anymore and became a huge fan. I started spending more and more time on interviews and live-concert clips. Eventually, it shifted to an addiction. I bought the album. I desire concert tickets and would pay too much. I love him, genuinely. A brother resembling him is what I always wished for. He seems so relaxed, so kind, so generous.  

You might think “Sure, alright, what wrong with that? Lots of people fancy celebrities”. I know that the person I love so much does not exist in real life. I know that he is just what he is presented as and that I have this fictional character I adore and a real person who I do not and will never know. 

This last bit bothers me. Meeting him? Meh, I would only be disappointed I guess. But still, I need to see what is behind that character. Knowledge has always been the thing I craved most, not to spread it and gossip or so but to understand. Especially stories behind people get me and I want to know how it feels to get famous at 16, fill arenas at 17 and be all over the tabloids at 18. What does it do to a brain? How can anyone stay sane through all of this? Can they? Maybe that is why I am so interested in him and what I love so much, that he is private even though he shared everything from the first minute on the X-Factor with all the world. I am interested in all the 1D guys for that! They were in the public for a whole 5 years as Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram connect directly with fans. Did they ever get used to it? 

There is just that bit of me I am missing. That part that wants to know how it is, that wants to have this life. And the bigger part who does not even want to know because even though I am neither rich nor famous or good looking and adored by all I have fewer problems than they do. I do not have to read all my private activities in the headlines, I am not followed by paps. I do not have to endure endless rumours. I can go out, I can stay in. They have to go to work as much as I do, if not more. They get more money but for what price?

Alright, I am lying there. I want to have their life. I want to be able to go to the places that I have always wanted to see. I want to be able to visit everyone I am missing so much. I want to make special memories in situations that no one else can ever understand. I want people to like me. I want to be creative and stunning and bold, compassionate, intuitive, witty, resourceful, adventurous, sympathetic. I want to be famous. 

[alittleroseandhoneyblog-blog]

Rose Notes:  32 Chapters “Cliff notes” Style

I love social media, I like meeting new people, I like getting to know them and connecting over the things we have in common so I thought it would be fun to lighten the mood a little with a blog about myself – 5 random and fairly well known facts about me, with a little twist to each -  My life is pretty open I believe there are 32 amazing chapters, each has taught me something about myself that it makes this book worth reading, or for some of you – skimming! (or judging the cover) but the fact is social media is meant to be user controlled - it’s what the user wants to portray, the “life” the user wants published- the user’s narrative. I’ve said it before that some people use social media for their marketing other to grow their E-commerce portion, others use it to display their photography and personal trainers use it to sell their services and I have seen some people make a career using it – although I agree social media can open up a lot of shade however there is a benefit that not everyone is comfortable taking advantage of.  

I think the obvious things people ask when they are getting to know someone are the basics- where are you from, what do you do-what’s your sign- the obvious who what where kind of thing (Canadian girl and Cancer btw, lol) I also have 1 sister, she is 3 years older and a mama of 5 amazing kids- Noah 15, Madison 14, Violet 12, Jilly 7 and Eli who is 3- my favourite color is purple and I love old school chick flicks like Dirty Dancing and the Body Guard- Whitney Houston was my idol growing up and the reason I starting singing in the first place – My grade 1 best friend Kristy and I used to choreograph routines to her music all the time and would perform in front of the class (lol) seems so lame now but she was so much fun and I can remember even at 6 years old how carefree I was!

Which leads to fact 1 –

Fact 1 with a (neat) twist- I love the stage, I grew up singing at such a young age that it almost all blurs together, but there are a few things that I was able to do that I remember clearly- I remember starting singing lessons at 7 years old with a teacher named Mrs. King- oh my god she was terrible but she got the job done – I started competing in competitions when I was about 8 with songs and routines from Disney and YES I had costumes and YES I have pictures- I even managed to inherit the nickname Mad Jasmine because I was Jasmine (A whole New World) from Aladdin and Danny had just beat me again for the 10th time, he was actually really freaking good and beat me every year until we were like 13 lol ) And if you ever tuned into Chym FM on Christmas Eve and listened to the Kids Singing Christmas carols – that was us and my first taste of being in the studio and since then have had many!

Shortly after that it was larger competitions, bigger stages, larger crowds like star search which held its main event at the London fall fair every year ending with auditioning at Canadian Idol 3 years in a row (until the Canadian version was cancelled lol) but in between all of that I was lucky enough to audition for local theater and was an extra in a movie that starred Glenn Close (which was shortly after her role in 101 Dalmatians and really cool for me to be standing 50 ft away from her.)  A lot of this time I spent travelling with my mama and she even stayed over night in line with me when I auditioned for Canadian Idol lol I have loved music since Whitney Houston wanted to Dance with Somebody and true to nature still plays a huge role in my life today!

Fact 2 with an (interesting) twist- I am married, but did you know that I could have been raised as his cousin and how completely different my life would have turned out?

When I was born on June 28th there was another mom in labour at the exact time in the room beside my mom- thinking back 32 years the same precautions we have now when a baby is born were not in place and I was put in the arms of that other mother and a baby named, Rhandi was placed in my moms- after debating the identity of us children we were switched back and I assume I went home with the right family (I look an awful like my mama) but growing up I always knew the story as it was often used against me when I did something wrong or when my mother wanted to make joke about who I really belonged to, but who would of thought that in Grade 9 I would meet the girl I was almost switched with AND have her quickly become one of my best friends and although I never met him prior to when we started dating, I some how ended up dating her cousin who is now my husband, Matt – and as we always talked about in high school Rhandi and I became family, and the family I could have grown up with as my “aunts, uncles and cousins” are now my mother, father, sister and brother in laws! Lol

Fact 3 with a (sad) twist- I have a 7 year old son named Colton, he is in Grade one and seriously the funniest kid ever, he is smart and clever -I knew from the second I found out I was pregnant that I was going to have a strong willed child, independent like his mama- ready to take on the world- and he sure proved it when he came into the world 6 weeks early and absolutely perfect-   the doctors told me “he knew he was in distress and he put you into early labour” and I remember them telling me how Lucky I was – but pregnancy was tough for me– I was sick ALL the time and there were so many close calls where I thought we weren’t going to make it to the end (and we didn’t) and that fear of going through it again terrified me so much so that we put off having another child until I felt able to handle being pregnant again-

After many years of being asked “when’s the second one or worse, what’s taking so long” it got harder to hide the sadness of admitting we miscarried twice and after what seemed like years of trying with no success, I was recently diagnosed with Endometrioses and told that chances are another baby just is not in the cards for me anymore –

so, I have to admit that I still have not come to terms with that and it’s absolutely heart breaking to know that that one thing a women is supposed to do is something I actually can no longer do but as people have told me I have hit the jackpot with Colton, he is such an incredible child and I am really lucky to be his mama and my sister in law is pregnant and I will get my fair share of baby snuggles in July when we visit them in PEI!

Fact 4 with a (career) twist – I went to school for Interior Design and have an obsession for everything houses and renovations. I own a 115-year-old century home that is true to all its character- mind you It has been in renovations for the last 2 years but it’s beautiful and I am obsessed with all the original wood! I thought for sure I was going to have a career in real estate, when I was 20 I had a 5 year plan to go through school to get my license but 20 year old Jenna fell in love with boy, moved to London and just kind of settled into his life –He broke my heart lol, and I ended up moving home about a year later and I got involved in the fitness industry when I met a girl named Marta, we quickly became friends and she introduced me to 6 am work outs in the park, squats and the burpee bottle- which is like fight club…We just don’t talk about the burpee bottle. Shortly after that I started working with Anytime Fitness and I have to admit I knew nothing about the fitness industry short of what Marta had taught me, but I had a passion for sales and social media and it happen to work well in my favour, I moved up quickly and had so many amazing opportunities not just in my career but in my personal life as well, The first time I ever got to travel outside of Canada was with Team Bazely, we went to Nashville for a conference, as a team we toured the city, the recording studio where Elvis recorded his albums and ate at some of the most incredible restaurants- I heard stories from Keni Thomas who survived Black Hawk Down and Elizabeth Smart who was kidnapped at 14, survived and lives to tell her story! I got to experience my first burlesque show, I leaned to line dance in a 3 story bar and Shannon made sure I got to sing in Nashville, even if it was in a dirty dive bar at 2am just before we were about to make the 11 hour drive back over the border, I also experienced my  first “hangry” episode where once again, Shannon saved the day and supplied salads for the rest of our trip, but honesty I learned so much about the industry and about what being apart of a team was like - I can remember that being the week I really fell in love with the fitness industry - I also got to travel to Lake Placid, New York for another conference where I partied on the Olympic ski slopes, set 2 Guinness world records with over 2800 clubs worldwide, Represented Canada and carried the Canadian flag into the Lake Placid Olympic Center in front of thousands of people!

I experienced bobsledding first hand and met so many amazing club owners and staff members- I even got to watch keynote speaker and YouTube sensation Gary Vaynerchuk where we were first introduced to Rick, But I also had the opportunity on many occasions to meet the CO-Ceo’s of AF and pick their brains – they had a way of making fitness fun- I remember it being 12am sitting outside of my hotel room in Lake Placid with another Manager from a club in Arkansas and Chuck and Dave walked towards me, I said hello, they called out my social media handle “look it’s Canadianrose” which may not seem like much BUT with over 3000 clubs worldwide and thousands of faces in the crowd they recognized mine - I met some amazing people and in a round about way I found Zumba which as I have mentioned owns my heart, and where my next venture is going to take me – working with that team taught me so much and played a huge role in who I am too, and indirectly opened doors for where my passion lies and although it may not be interior design I am in control of marketing, social media and the complete design aspect of what’s next and I am allowed to be creative!

However, outside of working with Anytime, I have never travelled but I am dying to go somewhere warm!  

Fact 5 with a (reality) twist – I am not only what you see on social media, I am a human being with feelings and someone who is really struggling right now to do what’s best for herself- which hasn’t always proven to be easy.  I have started therapy, it was necessary for me to ask for help because I am having a hard time finding who I am. But what I am that is never going to go change is that naturally charming girl that I talked about months ago, my experiences that I have mentioned above have curved my path and have contributed to who I am today- I own that and I am confident in my own skin and the decisions I have made, I am bold enough to call someone on their bullshit, I have the strength to take on an already failing empire just to have my voice back and you simply cannot match what I bring to the table – and I am confident enough to eat alone-and I am confident enough to portray the real me on social media and in real life going forward and throughout whatever venture is next!

And to answer the above 2 truths and lie- I do not drive a Mercedes!