#coastal dark blue is bad ass | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

brideofcthulhu10 · 4 years ago

Text

Behold another Lost Boys holiday special! It was between this and Valentine’s day, but honestly I love writing Christmas specials, its such a cozy time despite the high suicide rates, but lets not get into that. A BIG SHOUT OUT TO @imlostinsantacarla FOR HELPING ME EDIT MY FINAL DRAFT!

Fun Fact! My husband, David (yes, that is actually his name) actually does have the bah humbug hat I mention in the head canons. He’s a heavy metal goth so when I found it at the store I had to get it for him. And you just know if our David found that, he wouldn’t be able to resist it!

Christmas with the Boys

Alright, so the whole touchy, feely and mushy feelings that surround even the topic of Christmas time is not something any of the boys will ever openly admit to enjoying. After all, they see themselves as these bad ass brutal killers who thrive off of death instead of holding hands and caroling with the goodie goodies of this coastal town.

Yet, it's challenging for them not to get sucked into the glitz and glam of the holiday season. Everything is a big deal in Santa Carla. Dia De Los Muertos, Halloween, Thanksgiving- everything! But especially Christmas.

Christmas in Santa Carla dwarfs the frenzy craze of Halloween. The entirety of the boardwalk is decked out with red and green lights that are tightly wound around palm trees, red bulbous bows are wrapped tightly around street lamps, the reds and whites of velvety fabric swirl down the posts, creating the effect of candy canes. All the store windows are painted to appear frosted, or covered with painted snowmen whilst several rooftops are covered with white felt in which mimics the texture and sight of snow. Even the boats in the harbour are all extravagantly decorated in a sea of lights that parade around brightly at night in every color imaginable.

Between the dates of the 30th of November all the way to the 24th of December the city of Santa Carla hosts a plethora of wondrous events in it's annual Holiday Festival. Large green, white and red kiosks are erected, selling a wide range of baubles and treats, from delectable chocolate coated rice krispy Santa Clauses, elf candy apples caked in a plethora of dark chocolate and peppermint, to a variety of Holiday hats, masks and even hand made costumes by the many local artists. Even hand carved candles in wondrous scents of pine, mint, or spice.

Currently, David possesses a black fur Santa hat which he acquired on a night out that boasts the words "Bah Humbug" proudly sewn over the front. It's the only holiday attire he'll even humor. Last time Marko attempted to place reindeer antlers on his head, David had set them on fire roasting atop a pan of chestnuts. Now it's not to say that he's a grinch persay. Rather, the complex and intense emotions that come hand in hand with Christmas can leave him perpetually indifferent at best, disdainful at worst. The whole occasion leaves him displeased. After all, he was an orphan who had been almost eagerly abandoned by his hooker mother left to fend for himself from the beginning, and of course never met his father. Even she could not identify which of her many clients may have been responsible. Most of his mortal life he had lived as a street rat, barely making ends meet by picking the pockets of tourists and Santa Carla citizens oblivious to the true dangers of the lower side of town. The rich and uppity classes who often snubbed their entitled noses his way would never suspect as he lurks between alleyways, leaving them cornered at knife point. It was scarce that he ever did see a kind face in the sea of those who had little interest for anyone that was not themselves. Back then it was rather uncommon for anyone to step outside their own little lives, which led to most interactions, outside of the other boys, having been met with great hostility, thus he had learned to be just as equally hostile in turn. Even the mere thought of anyone suddenly dawning a false kindness due to a certain time of year simply agitated David. It rattled him to the very core in a way very few other things did. Why bother with the lies? Couldn't people just face the very basic fact that they weren't nearly as charitable as they often deemed themselves to be? I mean, the young man had seen firsthand a family having previously snubbed a dirty homeless man with appalled disdain at the sight of his muddied clothes and dirt stained skin, only to then begin volunteering at a soup kitchen to purge whatever guilt they carried on their conscience once the holiday season began. The whole ordeal was pitiful! Nevertheless, - more so for Paul and Marko's sakes than his own -, he did humor these traditions amongst the holiday's festivities. Ruining a good time just wasn't his style. Unless they started fucking singing.

Most traditions David could tolerate, some he even enjoyed slightly; although he would never be caught dead admitting something as embarrassing as that! However, he just couldn't stand Christmas carols! They were the bain to his immortal existence. The repetitive nature of these overly cheery jingles left him covering his ears lest they nest in his brain leaving him humming the same damn melody for weeks. This was the case because the dynamic duo of dumbasses were well aware of his hatred for Rudolph the Red Nosed fuckin' roadkill! Stupid red nosed abomination.

“OOOOOOH-,” Paul begins with cheerful mischief.

“Don’t. You. Fucking. Dare.” David seethes through tightly clenched teeth, eyes screwed shut in indignance.

Paul hesitates. He looks at Marko. Marko looks at Paul. Wicked grins of agreement spread wide like wildfire across their faces as their master plan comes into play. Full throttle. What’s more fun than annoying the shit out of David? One on the left, the other on the opposite side of the cave on the right. This was nothing but Divine perfection if you asked the two troublesome vampires.

“OOOOOH DASHING THROUGH THE SNOW!” Paul belted out at full volume.

“IN A ONE HORSE OPEN SLEIGH!” Marko followed in suit, the widest eerie grin plastered on his face.

“OVER THE HILLS WE GOOOO” Paul howled enthusiastically.

“I WILL FUCKING KILL YOU BOTH!” David's voice hit a whole new octave it had never in all his life so far. All the while Dwayne had opted to vacate the room lest he be caught in the middle of the escalating madness with Laddie in tow. He loved these guys, but not enough to dive head first into their fuckery.

Paul thrives during the Christmas holidays! How could he not? The food, the punk rock covers of Christmas songs, the absolute babes prancing around the town in Santa hats under mistletoe?! He loved it all! You can find him sneaking under mistletoe with many sweet honeys on a constant basis, regardless of whether or not he's acquainted with them. Most do roll their eyes or laugh it off, but every once in a blue moon the guy will get a little lovin' from a beach babe in the Yuletide mood. What else could he ask for? You can bet he’ll run into the woods December first, and quite literally RIP a pine tree out of the ground to bring home like a wee carrot being plucked from the ground. The bigger the better! He may even drag Dwayne or Marko along with him if it's too big for him to carry himself. And all the boozy drinks he can concoct up? This boy is in his element! Mulled wine, spiked eggnog, candy cane vodka, butterscotch bourbon hot chocolate?! Yes! David straight up refuses to try anything that Paul creates himself (remember the concoction he made in Max's kitchen? Those poor goldfish....) which is also another reason why he has Dwayne help him. Or rather, the other boys insist the most responsible of them monitors the blonde lest he poison them with some sickly brew. That, and the fact that Dwayne's the least likely out of all of them to blow up the damn kitchen!

Dwayne is indeed the designated cook during the holiday rush, albeit a field even he tends to struggle. Avoiding the kitchen catching aflame, perfecting his craft lest he blow up the stove, leaving only a pile of ash in its wake. As previously mentioned, ever since the dreadful chain of events that lead to the unfortunate destruction of Max's kitchen, this raven haired vampire has attempted his hand at learning to use a stove properly: Although he often finds himself forgetting ingredients either in the midst of cooking or after the final product is done and he's taken a big bite.

“Shit! I forgot the milk and eggs!” Dwayne grumbled with a mouthful of dry crumbs, a true disgrace of a cookie.

Paul always gives him crap for it of course.

“Oooh I just thought you were going for a sandy, dusty dry cookie kinda thing.”

"Yeah man, these taste like ass!" Marko would cough out in midst of choking.

"And what, like you dumbasses could do any better," Dwayne retorts with a huff. Only Star manages to have any manners when testing his failed baking endeavors.

"Well I mean, the taste isn't that bad. Just a little dry is all."

"At least Marko wouldn't be choking to death." David would mutter from the darkest corner of the room, a little late in the conversation.

In all honesty, Dwayne's biggest motivation when it came to improving his skills was obviously Laddie. The kid never got much of a Christmas whilst living with his mom, so now that he was with the boys, he wanted to ensure that Christmas's were something that Laddie would remember for all eternity. Though granted, it is quite the mess when he was helping in the kitchen. But when the mini vamp grins from ear to ear whilst coated in flour and rapidly stirring an overflowing bowl of chunky cookie dough--the sight is too freaking cute!

Since Laddie joined the boys, they participate in Secret Santa every single year, which definitely includes Paul bursting through the entrance of the hotel as Santa on Christmas day. We won't talk about the fact that each year he almost falls flat on his face and swears, ruining the surprise for the kid.

"Santa where are your reindeer," he'd question, to which Santa Paul scoffs

"Pff, reindeer, I don't need any fucki- Ow," cut off by a firm and covert kick to the shin from Star, Paul quickly changes his response. "Oh! Ho ho, well, you see little boy, Santa can fly too! On his, uh, uhm… magic motorcycle! Yeah, that!"

But it's okay because Laddie already KNEW (he figured it out a year or two ago after Paul's beard fell off not once, but three times), he just doesn't have the heart to tell any of them because, well Paul really gets into it. And he knows the others are playing along for his sake. But to be fair, Laddie would have to be pretty dumb to believe it was Santa. I mean, the beard Paul's wearing is hanging half off his face by this point! But anyway, just like Paul's style, the entirety of the goody two shoes schpiel is thrown out the window, replaced with sleeves that have been ripped off, muddy boots, spiked bracelets and his Metallica shirt in full view beneath his flared red coat. He calls this BIKER CLAUS!

Laddie is not a squasher of traditions! But there was the one time that David had to intervene when Paul and Dwayne thought it would be great to use Laddie as the star at the top of the tree. David practically had a heart attack. Well, that's impossible but it still felt like he was having one!

“Ho ho ho! Now, don’t be a bitch, little David or Santa will have to give you coal.” Paul stated mockingly to David, brows furrowed.

“Well, Santa,” David scolds, a wry smile developing on his face when setting down the eight year old now off to shake his presents beneath their behemoth of a tree. “You best be careful. You never know what's in those milk and cookies, hm?”

Each year Marko buys bird toys for the pigeons in the hotel. Well, buy is probably the wrong word. More like he liberates the stores of their stock. And then for the next six months, David has to hear the agonizing jingle of bells. David almost roasted one pigeon in particular that kept flying over him to drop the ball with a bell in it on his head. That was Paul's entertainment for the next five hours, hell, he'd try to find it if the bird lost it and give it back. Marko defends the pigeon. Between running through stores buying up surprises for his friends, he's helping Paul throw out decorations for the cave. The dollar store has some surprisingly unexpected treasures, allowing him to deck the fucking halls to the max. Tinsel here, ornaments there, tiny light up trees to hide around the caves, a butt ton of cinnamon pine cones which he ends up throwing back and forth with Paul.

And Paul often steals his gifts or goes dumpster diving for any hidden gems. He forgets to take the tags off of them the majority of the time, which is always an indicator whether or not its new. Any time Star asks where he got them from he refuses to answer. Just gets up and walks away. But for David's gift? Well this lucky bastard has found coal in the dumpster and chucks it to David when he's not looking and he sighs deeply in disappointment because this is the third year Paul has done this.

"Huh? What? Who did that? Wasn't me. Somebody's throwing stuff."

Other than that he'll find a fat bag of charcoal and just tape the name David on it. David is certainly not amused. Dwayne will actually try to figure out what the others want, and has the sense to save the money taken from their previous meals. After all, they're dead, they wouldn't have much use for it anyway. He's not about to waste his hypnosis on some poor cashier. That would be a waste of time in his eyes.

When Christmas did arrive the tree was piled with mysterious boxes crudely mashed and taped together with bows and ribbons underneath it. It's obvious which ones are from Star since those gifts are wrapped in neatly pressed paper, wound tight beneath curled ribbons that remind the boys of her hair. Marko often goes on a food run rather than allow them all to be subjected to a potentially charred turkey, no offense to Dwayne of course. So, with a table covered from end to end with copious bowls of gravy, potatoes, candied sweet potatoes, a beast of a turkey in the center packed to the brim with cornbread stuffing, the boys cram into their chairs knocking back beers and spiked cider. Keeping to their own traditions, after fattening up, they gather around the tree and play card games, just as they had over eighty years ago on that frigid night. David still slays them in poker, and Marko is an utter dark horse when it comes to blackjack. Paul insists they try Go Fish. No one ever wants to play Go Fish. Closer towards the end of the night Dwayne will slip away to Jasper's shrine and bring him a fresh glass of rum as well as unwrapping what he got him that year. While Dwayne is there, the other boys will join him - omitting Star and Laddie left unaware of the Lost Boy they'd never met - in celebrating the last hour or so of the Holiday season with their fallen comrade.

Although Christmas time is often about uncomfortable mushy moments and emotions that create deep, unfamiliar times for David. The entire ordeal becomes that for everyone of the boys and Star. But God forbid anyone who even mentions it! I mean, it's kinda obvious though considering he's spending it with the people he always called family, knee deep in traditions that are sentimental to himself and the boys. There's a fluster of emotions running rampant during this particular Holiday Season, and although the blonde brooding vampire decides to squint at it with skepticism he savors these moments, knowing like Jasper, it could all be swept away with a single ray of light or the foolish hand of a hunter. So as they sit, drunk, full, and laughing beside Jasper's grave he can't help but smile at the sentimentality of it all. Christmas is a pain in the ass, but… it's a pain he'll gladly sit through for his brothers.

99 notes · View notes

jj-lynn21 · 5 years ago

Text

Cozy Cove: Saved by an Angel

surfer terms: Axed-to be held down under the wave after a fall. Aggro- aggressive surfer. Other term NORML: National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws

In this fiction Axel Cluney (Bill Skarsgard) is a surfer/owns his own garage in a coastal vacation destination town. His Brother Josh (Valter Skarsgard) is a lifeguard and older brother Eric (Alex Skarsgard) is a construction worker who makes the girls swoon with his guitar playing. Not really any smut until Ch 3.

warnings: Angst, blood,

ch 2 A side of tits with your pancakes , Ch 3 Fires Burn Hot ,

ch 4 Spending the nights , Ch 5 Learning and Loving,

Ch 6 The end is not always the end , Ch 7 Axel Grease Old Wounds, Storms Pass, Dangerous Waters

Axel and Susie Q.: Ch 1. Saved by an Angel

Welcome to Cozy Cove a beach town of only 600. The Mayor of the town, Dr. Cluney, runs the town, his practice and his home with precision. At least he tries to. With three boys and a deceased wife his personal affairs have always felt more difficult to handle.

He would have liked his boys to be off at college becoming Doctors to help the the town. He doesn’t see their current employments as satisfactory even though they are all productive, important citizens of Cozy Cove. The tourists flood in at this time of year. And that makes everyone, including the Dr., a little more happy with bussiness booming.

Susie Quinnby is one such tourist. She walked along the beach in front of her families new summer home as soon as she helped her parents carry their things in the new cottage. The Midwest girl took a deep breath to inhale the salty ocean air. The waves crashed along the shore line. She sat in the sand running her hands through the grains as she looked out at the water to the one lone surfer.

The Pipes were Axel Cluney's go-to surf spot. It was less crowded than the nearby more popular Cardiif Reef. At this time of day, he thought himself lucky to be alone with the waves and his board. He had paddled out to catch a ride in on a larger wave he hoped to tame.

Susie notices him as Axel jumped up to stand on his board. He surfed down the crest of the wave until it curled up around him. He rode it until it overtook him. She jumped up as he disappeared under the water. She tried not to fret waiting for him swim to the surface. When that didn't happen, she ran into the surf. She swam out with all her might.

His foot was still connected to his board when she found him floating face down. There was no lifeguard to help as the sign said on entering the area. It was a struggle, but Susie got Axel on to his board to make it easier to pull him to shore. As soon as they were on shore she checked if he was breathing.

Axel's head was bleeding reddening the sand. She put her white wrap under his head and tilt it up. Then checked to see if there was anything in his mouth by chance before she started giving him mouth-to-mouth. He coughed up water within a minute, and she turned him on his side.

"Are you alright?" She asked

"I got axed out there," Axel sat up slowly, holding the material to his wound. "Thanks for pulling me out of the drink. Back from the brick of my possible death."

"You are lucky I was out here since it seems mostly vacant." She sits back on her knees brushing the sand from her breasts, "I'm Susie Quinnby.. May I ask your name aggro?"

Axel watched how she was brushing the sand so absentmindedly before looking back up with something between a grin and a smile. "Axel Cluney."

Axel looked at the material that covered his head wound. Susie grabbed it and put pressure back on the opening where blood still seeped.

"You should keep that on your head," She insisted.

Axel put his hand over hers where she had the blood soaked garment. "You think I'll need stitches?" He said feeling a little woozy from the blood loss. "I don't think I can drive right now."

"Maybe, you sure are bleeding," She glanced again. "I didn't see a hospital when my family got into town. Where can I take you to get stitched up?"

"Oh, your vacationing here this summer?" His eyes were a little unfocused, but he had to find out where this Angel came from who saved him. It was just in his nature to sound flirty. "Where are you staying?"

"At one of the dunes cottages but that's not important right now." She stood up and offered a hand for him to stand. "I drove my own car. You think you can walk to the parking area. It is less than a mile. Then you have to tell me where to take you."

"Oh, yeah head is still bleeding," He chuckled as he stood up a little shaky. "I'll be alright. There is a small clinic in town between the donut shop and tattoo parlor. They handle stuff like this. I'm practically a regular." Axel chuckled again.

Her parents were sitting on the porch of the beach house when her and Axel walked up. They rushed down to see what they could do for the bleeding stranger their daughter was helping.

"What happened?" Her Father asked first.

"You ruined your white wrap," Her mother said when she saw what was being held against the wound. "I will go get a clean towel, so I can try to get that clean." She rushed in the house.

"This is Axel," Susie said. "I was sitting on the beach when he had a bad spill while surfing. I think he needs stitches, so I'm going to take him into town where they have a med center."

Axel still had on his wet suit that cover his tattoos, "Yeah, she saved my life Sir."

Her Mother quickly switched the white or what use to be white wrap for a dark blue towel.

"Sorry, about your wrap Susie Q." He said seriously.

. "It's ok Axel," She held him steady. "Keys?"

"Yeah, of course sweetheart," Her Dad rushed up the stairs. That is when Axel saw his huge N.O.R.M.L tattoo across his upper back.

Her Dad tossed her the keys, and she caught them easily. Then she helped Axel to her car. A champagne pink Ford Fusion with a sunroof she opened as soon as she got inside. She had pink plush seat overs with a little bling sown in to the fabric. It was the girliest car he had every scene, and he laughed to himself. She got in the drivers side. Axel already had his head back loosing grip on the towel as his eyes got a little heavy.

"Don't doze off Axel," She begged as she started the car. "Stay awake and hold that towel. Tell me what you do when you are not letting waves crash over you?"

Axel holds the towel tighter as his eyes flutter back open trying to focus on what Susie asked him. "I um I'm a mechanic. Fuck, my ID and money are with my motorcycle back at the beach. Can we stop to get them Susie Q. Such a cutie name for sexy hero."

"Not right now Axel," She blushed/ "We are almost there."

"Where?" His eyes were slit open barely.

"The clinic to get your head stitched up," She parallel parked right in front of the building. "Stay awake Axel. I'm going to get a little help to get you inside." She ran in the automatic doors to the desk at the far end of the room.

"Just fill this out, and we will be right with you," The clerk said blandly as she handed the girl a clipboard with a paper on it to fill out.

Susie took a deep breath as she laid the clipboard on the desk, "I have Axel Cluney in my car bleeding from his head. I need help getting him inside. He is dizzy from the head injury. I'm not sure he can walk on his own right. now"

The desk clerk picks up the phone, "Doctor Cluney your son is bleed in some girl's car again. I will send them right back Sir."

An orderly came out with a wheelchair and followed Susie to her car. He helped Axel into the chair "You have a big wipe out Axel?"

Axel looked up at him in a daze, " Yeah, Brent. But I had a guardian Angel save my ass. Susie pulled me right out of the drink and gave me mouth-to-mouth."

"Is that so," Brent smiled at Susie. "How long was he out before he came around Miss Susie?"

"It was only maybe three minutes," Susie thought. "It took me about two minutes to get him to shore. Then only about a minute of giving him mouth-to-mouth before he spit out water and came around. I am more worried about the bleeding."

"Yeah, looks like a pretty good gash" The orderly pushed him back the hallway between the desk and a bathroom right into a room. "You can come in after I get a gown on him Susie."

She nodded waiting at the door. She could hear them chuckling but not what they were saying. She wasn't sure if she should stay or run while she had a chance. Brent called her back in the room. She sat at Axel's bedside as Brent held pressure on Axel's head wound.

"How are you feeling Axel?" She asked. "Do you want me to go get your wallet?"

"He should be feeling real good any minute," Brent smiled. "I gave him a dilauded injection for the pain."

Axel looked to her with glossy eyes. He reached a hand out to hold hers. "you are so tiny," He chuckled. "An Angel of the water for me. Stay for now, alright?"

She nodded, her hand practically disappeared in his.

His Father walked in with a smirk on his face. "I've told you a thousand times or more not to surf alone, Axel." He goes to look at the head injury. He shakes his head. "Yeah, you need about fifteen stitched here. Brent, have the nurse bring in the kit." "Sorry Dad," Axel mumbled. "None of the guys wanted to get their asses up to surf at dawn."

"Then you shouldn't have been out there either." He growled, "You are going to kill yourself one of these days. You are lucky this young lady was able to pull you in and get you here before you bled out. Thank you young lady. I apologize for him in advance. Axel is not the brightest bulb."

The nurse comes in with the suture kit. She helped the Doctor drape a cloth over Axel's head. Shaved around the wound. Axel didn't even flinch when she arrogated the area.

"I'm just glad I was there at the right time," Susie looked to Axel not believing his own Father called him stupid. Her parents would never do that. "My family just got into town this morning. I was just sitting on the beach when I saw him go under. I had to do something. It is just how I was raised."

"That's good of you young lady," Axel's Father started stitching the wound. "You are probably exhausted. You can go. I'll make sure my son gets back to his apartment. I'll have one of your brothers keep an eye on you tonight, Axel. Josh doesn't have a real job, so he can do it."

"Being a lifeguard is a real job Dad," Axel blurted. "Susie, I'd like you to stick around if you are not to exhausted."

"I'll stay if it is alright with the Doctor," She smiled keeping a hold of his hand.

"Suit yourself," He snipped off the edge of the stitches tying it off. "No going into the garage tonight. I'm sure one of those idiots you work with can cover for you. And no surfing for two weeks so this can heal. The stitches will dissolve themselves."

"Alright, Dad." Axel huffed. "I'll call as soon as I get my cellphone from the Harley."

"I'll send Josh to drive it to your apartment." He threw away what was left of the kit with his gloves. "No driving tonight either, you hear me? I don't know why you have such dangerous hobbies. It is time for you to grow out of this shit and stop with the tattoos. Your body is a temple not a canvas."

Axel shrugged, "I see it as both."

His Father rolled his eyes, “I will stop to check on you when I get done here tonight." He leaves.

Axel signed some paperwork.

Susie helped him to her car. "Where is your apartment, Axel? I'll get you settled and be on my way."

"Thanks for staying as long as you have Susie Q." He chuckled. "Q R S..." He babbled a moment. "Oh, I live at the end of Sea Street across from the entrance to the Dunes. I'm sure you saw the street. Its five miles back on Sea Street where the ocean meets the shore right at my back door. It is such a beautiful sight. I can't wait for you to see the sunrise there."

"Pretty presumptuous of you, don't you think?" She smirked. "I'll be heading home like I told you."

"Sorry, I um pain med has my mind spinning," He swallowed hard. His mouth feeling dry. "Sorry, I didn't mean it...I didn't mean to sound rude to you, lovely Angel who saved my ass."

She drives as he continues to babble a little incoherently. She walks with him to the door. He leans down to get a spare key hidden in the mouth of a porcelain frog. Her heart jumped when he slowly moved his big green eyes up her body to meet her blue eyes. His hands awkwardly palmed her face.

"Have I thanked you appropriately for saving my life?" He pushes some stray hairs behind her ear.

She looked up at him hold her breath for a moment before beginning to speak, "I, you..."

Axel leaned down to kiss her lips softly. A motorcycle was heard come up the driveway. A car horn was beeping. They parted looking at each other a moment.

"I should go," Susie looked away. She was blushing as she walked to her car past the blonde getting off Axel's motorcycle. She gets in her car and drives away.

"Scare off another one brother, "The blond chuckled. He got Axel's cloths and wallet out of the saddle bags of the bike.

“Shut up,” Axel glared.

Axel's other brother walk up behind Josh. "How are you feeling, brother?"

Axel grumbled, "I am fucking starved. You want to go get me a burger and fries, Eric?"

#axel cluney #Axel and Susie q #original story #fiction #surfing #romance #bill skarsgard #valter skarsgard #alex skarsgard #beach

10 notes · View notes

metalotaku-da · 6 years ago

Text

MerMay Shance

Prompts stolen from @justshance. all pieces are up for grabs if anyone wants to take them further or rework them. @shancemermay

WARNINGS: DARK SHIRO, kidnapping. nudity, threats of violence and execution. illness, injury. no one dies.

BROGANES. 26. shinning pearl preqeul to 21

"Your majesty." The eldest of the humble fisherman's house said in greeting. Bowed deep to his king and party. The rest of the family silent as they stayed knelt with their heads down. "What brings your greatness to our humble home.

Humble it was. A collection of barely more than driftwood shanties dotting the land just out of reach of high tide in the tiny lagoon. All set upon stilts.

Shiro nodded to that to address his subjects while he looked around at the bunch. None seeming to match the description of the man he was looking for. But the location matched And so was the proof he and his men had witnessed first hand in the nearby town.

"His Royal Highness has come seeking the fabled healer who resides here." Thace answered after climbing off his own horse. Shiro looked back the carriage he had exited from himself. The court doctors still by his half brother's side. Trying to keep him stable and alive for this trip.

"I'm afraid sir that I don't know who you request. We are but mere fisherman and divers. Our family has no healer." The family head of Garrett spoke nervously.

Shiro didn't have the patience anymore for this. It had already taken 3 days to get Keith here and he didn't know how much longer he would last. He was desperate to save his brother. "Do not waste my time with lies." He said staring down his nose at the peasant. "Where is the healer with eyes that shine like the ocean? I have seen his handy work throughout your village. And I do not have anymore time to waste on riddles and half conscious memories of this miracle healer." He let out an angry huff. "I will give you one chance to procure him, if you refuse I will have your family members executed for treason, one at a time until he heals my brother."

That got the peasants moving. His soldiers circling the cowering family as the women gathered the children into their arms in a feeble attempt of protection. Their only salvation being to give him his request.

"Please your majesty. Have mercy truly none of my blood is the healer you…"

"Start with the oldest man and work your way down." The king cut the old man off.

"Wait!" The oldest son moved in between the advancing soldier and the old man. Shiro holds up a hand to still him. "Please he speaks the truth. None of us are healers."shiro begins to drop his hand. "But we can send for him." Shiro keeps his hand still as his eyes bore into the young man. "We assist the injured and sick in contacting him. But he does not reside here. It will take time and…"

"You have till sunset. Then you will start losing family members." Shiro cut him off.

"The healer requires animity your majesty. He will not come nor heal with an audience." The young man spoke his family pulling at his clothes trying to stop his disrespectful speech to his king. Standing while addressing him.

"He will do as his king requests. I will not be leaving the side of my brother. Summon him."

"Then you leave him to parish, and us to die. He will not be swayed. For you are not his king to command." The boy spoke clearly though he did flinch back when the soldier brandished his sword at the peasants neck. "These are his terms my king. Do you wish for your brother to…."

"You insolent brat!" Antok bellowed. The boy closing his eyes waiting for the blow.

"Stop antok. What is your name boy?" The king commanded stepping towards the brave fool. Keith would have enjoyed witnessing the exchange if he was well enough to.

"Hunk Garrett sir." He answered looking up at his king before bowing his head.

"Summon him. And I will agree to let him work without audience. He fails you all die. He must be here before sun down."

"Hunk no you can't." A small female child threw themselves at the boy’s legs clutching them.

"It'll be ok. He'll be ok. Lance won't let anything bad happen to us. It'll be alright." The boy consoled her before pushing her back into her mother's arms. "Can they go inside? And I will show you where to bring the prince." Hunk asked bowing again.

"Very well. Keep them under lock thace." The king directed. "Kolivan have the soldiers bring my brother carefully. One of the court physicians is to follow." He turned back to the fisherman's son. "Lead the way."

Soldiers hustled the family into the largest home before the rest followed the king and fisherman's son down the beach. He lead them into a cave on the craggy wall that made up the northern wall of the lagoon. The party following closely having plenty of room to walk. The passageway three men broad. It opened up into a larger cavern where the prince's groans and wheezing breathes echoed off the walls and water where the surf laped at a gentle shore line in the cave. Light filtering through many small holes and from where the sea was visible from the beach. A large stone altar had been shaped into a gentle curve to hold a person comfortable just 15 ft from the beach. Four stone pedestals around it.

"You must place the prince onto the table." Hunk spoke up after he lit a few lanterns in the cavern. Giving it even more light. The sun just beginning to get low in the sky. "And then leave."

The king sneered at the fisherman's son. "You have not even summoned this healer, yet you expect me to leave my brother unintended in your care?" The king snarled.

"He was summoned as soon as we entered the cave. He won't come till you leave. You will just have to trust me your majesty. For your brothers sake. If he dies so does my family. I have much more incentive to keep him well."

The king narrowed his eyes at that. "You best be true to your word boy, and healer skilled, or this night will end in aganony for you all."

"Lance will take care of the prince. And heal him back to perfect health my king. I trust him with my life." Hunk answered.

The king kept a dark glare on the boy as he ordered his men out of the cave. Only turning away to shoot the same look to antok as he questioned the order. The words dying on the soldiers tongue. Only he and kolvian staying behind with the king as he paused near his brother. Brushing sweaty bangs out of eyes. "It's ok Keith. Soon you will be well. And I will get to hear you complain of every task I set for you in court once more." He brought his brothers hand to his lips giving it a gentle kiss. "I'll do whatever I must to keep you at my side brother. Please fight a little longer." With that he placed his brothers hand down to his own chest and left the cave.

"I do not trust this fool not to make a run for himself or this healer." He said bitting. "I want soldiers to row into the cave from the waters entrance. But stay hidden. Myself and the rest will prepare to enter from here should I run out of patience." He ordered. Kolivan sending antok with a group to block the sea exit.

Just before the sun touched the water on the horizon, a blue glow began to emit from the cave. Soft and flickering. The sound of groans and whispers bleeding out with it. Once the sun had set the king had lost the patience to wait taking five guards with him as he entered sword drawn. He stopped just before the bend in the passage way. The others following their king. His eyes wide at the sight before him.

What appeared to be a lithe tanned boy sitting naked and damp on one of the pedestals next to the bed. Blue scales dotted his body like stars in the clear night sky. His eyes glowing a soft blue. His ears tinged blue at the tips where fins seemed to sproat. Webbed toes digging into the sand beneath them. And webbed hands stroking down the ill prince's body a bubble of glowing water following their path bleeding into the prince's body. A red glow being pulled from it before it dissipated into the air.

"You are doing so well. Just a little longer." The healer whispered to the prince as he worked. Gently pushing the hair from the prince's face. Who was staring at the boy treating him. His bare chest rising and falling with much more ease than when the king had seen him last.

"You're so beautiful." The dazed prince said bringing his own hand up to the healers face.

"Not so bad looking yourself there stud. To bad your family seems to be a piece of work." The healer chuckled.

"Lance, now is not the time for this. You have to hurry and get out of here." Hunk said nervously his position unseen from the king's location.

"Hunk calm down. I'm not going to let anything happen to your family. I'm going to heal the prince completely before I go. So he can't say I half-assed it and take it out on your family. It takes time. Specially in one go. It's why we break up big heals. And this poor sod has been cursed, poisoned, an infected laceration. I'm surprised he was alive when I got here."

"Cursed?" Hunk asked. And the king bristled.

"Uh complicated, probably not the word he'd use for it. And to hard to explain right now with what I'm dealing with. But I don't know maybe he deserved it all if what you say about this king of yours is acting."

"Angel." The prince said groggily brushing his hand down the healers arm. The healer chuckled. "No, but maybe a sea angel. Sometimes I hear the good sailors say that about us mers." The boy giggled.

The king stood frozen at the words. The healer was a mermaid. Or perhaps merman. The tales of which spoke of their great powers. But none had ever been collected alive during his or his father’s reign to know for truth. Just the tales of sailors and coastal residents. And here before him one alive seemily treating peasants ailments at his whimsy. At the Beck and call of a lowly fisherman's family.

"You shouldn't say that Lance. What happens when he's no longer groggy and delirious?"

"Then he chalks it up to a fever dream like all the others. I'm more worried about you. Will this monster you call king keep his word? Or do I need to like beg and grovel to my mom to get your family out of here?"

"I don't know. I've Never heard tales of our current king being cruel like this. He’s never come this far out from the capital. But maybe it's stress from his brother being this bad. Everyone knows the king loves his brother despite him being a bastard."

"I hate that word. Only humans would have a concept of illegitimate for a child."

"I'd do anything to protect my family, he probably would too."

"You wouldn't harm an innocent person hunk."

"I put you in harm's way didn't I?" Hunk said softly.

"No I will always come to your aid hunk. Don't feel guilty about this. It makes me feel closer to my grandpa. Or at least the stories mom told me about him, before the voltron treaty fell apart. Before all the nations fought. To help people, heal them. Specially when they aren’t mers. I will always heal people. It’s what he would’ve done i think.” The mer turned to smile brightly at where shiro assumed hunk to be. “Maybe by saving this human, i stopped your king from going crazy like zarkon.”

“Yeah man let’s hope so.” Hunk came into view pressing a hand the prince keith’s forehead. “Temperature is way down.” he looked over at lance and met the kings gaze. His eyes widened and mouth dropped. Shiro rushed forward with his men close behind. “Lance get out of here!” Hunk shouted unable to assist his friend with the now sleeping prince and the table between them. Lance tried to stand but moving quickly on his human legs was hard especially when he was exhausted from using his magic. He fell to the ground only able to push himself up enough to get his back to the stone altar and look up at the king with terrified eyes.

“Get off me! Don’t hurt him!” Hunk shouted as he was grabbed by two soldiers more coming in from the sea. The small trio being surrounded. “We did as you asked. Please.”

“Hunk!” The mer called out trying to push himself up more to get to his friend. “Leave him alone!” tears started to track down the mers cheeks. His eyes no longer glowing but still shining bright as the sea at him. Shiro watched the tear track down his cheek as it pilled up and dropped to the sand. Solid. A sea pearl. Joined by more as the mer wept eyes locked with the king.

“You dare disrespect your king…” The soldier shouted back hitting hunk on the back of the knees to send him down.

“Stop, stop, please don’t hurt him. Your prince is healed.” Lance cried tearing his eyes away to see the guards drag hunk out into view his arms bound.

“Restrain mr. garret. And send for the physician to check on my brother.” The king directed his eyes running down taking in the mers body. More scales clustering around it’s joints. Sparkling in the lantern light. Two under his eyes, and a collection where the human sex would be. Shiro assumed in had some sort of fold or slit like the dragon race to protect it’s sex. The mer pulled his legs up a little closer. The physician was quick to enter and take vitals on the prince.

“His Fever is broken your majesty. The infection must be clear.”

“No the poison is clear, his infection i was in the middle of when you charged up in here swords out!” Lance shouted back. Tears still falling. He flinched as the king lowered himself down to the mers level. Shiro brought his hand forward and brushed his palm across the mer's cheek. The healer closing his eyes tight at the movement. He used his thumb to flick away a few tears.

"Lance was it?" Shiro said watching the mer as he slowly opened his eyes. He smiled as those blue eyes met his once again. "It's a pleasant surprise to see the old tales of the mers magic is true." He ignored the flinch of the mer as he spoke. "Can you finish healing my brother?" He spoke softly as he rubbed his thumb over his cheek. Keeping his hold light.

"I won't do anything for you if you hurt hunk or his family." The mer said back.

"Lance, don't. Just don't make him mad." Hunk pleaded with his friend.

"I promise that the Garrett's will not be harmed. You have my word." Shiro said to him. "Can you stand?"

The mer knodded. And went to push himself up his legs wobbled. The king helped to steady him. "There you go. Antok to you have a cover for the boy?"

"Yes your majesty." Antok took an extra shirt that had been for the prince and dipped it into the ocean surf before bringing it to the king. Shiro nodded so antok knew to step back. He draped the soaked shirt onto the mer who let out a breath.

"Why should I trust you to keep your word this time." Lance bit out his legs nearly buckling under him. The king caught him and settled him back on the pedestals.

"I will keep my word. But I need you to save him." Shiro said turning the mer carefully to face his brother.

"He is already saved." Lance placed his hands back on the prince near his shoulder and face. "He'd heal on his own with rest and normal treatment." His eyes began to glow and the water pulled from the shirt draped over him to his hands glowing with his eyes. "But if you insist."

"I do." Shiro answered taking his brother's hand. He could feel the energy on his brother's skin. He could still see the pearls falling from the healers cheeks on top his brother.

"Angel, back." The prince mumbled as his eyes cracked open.

"Never left buddy." Lance answered. "Sorry had to wake you again. But once we're done you can rest again."

"Thank you." Shiro said to the healer.

"I'm not doing it for you." The mer replied. He dropped his head as the last of the red dissipated. The glow left the mers eyes and then they shut. The healer falling backwards. The king catching him.

"You did good my little pearl." The king said to the mer scooping him up into his arms ignoring the dampness of the shirt draped on the mer.

"Ok he's healed. Please your majesty. You got what you needed." Hunk pleaded. Looking at his friend hanging limp in the king's arms. He'd had only seen Lance so drained once. For Mrs. Ona's birth. It was thanks to Lance her second child survived.

"I did." He looked to the physician who was checking Keith once more. Getting a nod from he turned his gaze back to the mer in his arms. "And more." Without looking up he spoke his orders heading for the exit. "See to it that the Garrett's are set free and given a substantial reward for their duty to the crown."

"What? No. No. I don't want anything. We don't want anything. You can't take him." Hunk pleaded. Antok struck him. “How dare you try to order the king. Insolent swine.”

“Antok enough. See to it keith is carried with care back to the carriage. The mers powers are wasted here on trivial matters. He will serve our country in a greater capacity by my side. Thank you hunk garrett For your service to the crown.” The king said over his shoulder as soldiers took keith out in front of him. Shiro ignored the desperate cries of the fisherman's son as his entourage proceeded to their travel. With keith laid well across one bench. He settled himself with the mer’s head in his lap. The damp shirt covering his modesty.

Shiro turned to thace who came to the carriage to see his king in much better spirits than he had been in days. Eyes widened at the sight of the mer. “Thace send a team ahead on our fastest horses. I want my private bath emptied and refilled with water brought in from the ocean.”

“Of course your majesty. The mer was the healer?” He asked tentatively.

“Yes. my pearl saved my brother.” Shiro said with a smile. “So I will make sure he is well cared for at the palace. I’m sure I will find far more usage for his talents.”

“An excellent acquisition my lord.” Thace said with a bow leaving the carriage to start it’s journey as he sent ahead the messengers.

Shiro smiled softly at his dozing brother breathing easily for the first time in days. And the mer dozing in his lap. The first leg of their journey peaceful.

#mermay #shance #voltron #dark shiro #lance #broganes #mermayshance #hunk #keith #shiro is stressed

27 notes · View notes

poisonquill · 5 years ago

Text

QUEEN OF THE QUILLS. rita alvera skeeter. twenty five. creative. silver tongued. resourceful. corrupt. cruel. vindictive. selfish. reporter. columnist. gossip icon. death eater collaborator.

too bad. so sad.

playlist pinterest

soft betrayal, mom jeans and high heels, long nails tapping impatiently against paper, organized chaos, quietly humming while ruining yet another life ( piece by piece ), ancient typewriters, never getting your hands dirty ( but your hands are stained red, regardless ), the devil’s favorite weapon is a quill, coffee that burns your tongue, burying yourself in strangers, chasing stories, the sweet taste of destruction, heart shaped lollipops, sunkissed shoulders, blurred lines between right and wrong, dog eared pages, blowing bubbles, fake smiles, the color of dark oceans, running in high heels, slowly becoming an empty shell of a girl, sour ambition, ‘my heart will leave you blistered and stained’, roses tucked behind ears, revenge in a tea cup, backhanded compliments, writing and writing and writing until your heart bleeds, scribbled notes in margins, blood red lips..... and how you’re so afraid that you think it might just break you ( luckily, villains don’t break that easily ).

LINDSEY MORGAN? No, that’s actually RITA SKEETER from the MARAUDERS ERA. You know, the child of ADRIANNA VARGAS (NEE SKEETER) and DIEGO VARGAS? Only 25 years old, this SLYTHERIN alumni works as an REPORTER and is sided with THE NEUTRALS / HERSELF ONLY. SHE identifies as a CIS WOMAN and is a HALFBLOOD who is known to be VINDICTIVE, CRUEL, and CORRUPT but also SILVER TONGUED, CHARMING, and RESOURCEFUL. — &&. ( LIZ, GMT+2, SHE/HER, 22. )

BACK TO BASICS.

name: margarita alvera skeeter. born name: margarita vargas. occupation: journalist. nicknames: rita, ree.

+ creative, silver tongued, resourceful, charming and bright. - two faced, cruel, vindictive, selfish and scheming.

age: 25. date of birth: december 31. zodiac: capricorn. hometown: acapulco, mexico. current location: lives across the street from the ministry in an apartment she can most definitively not afford. gender: cis female. pronouns: she/her. orientation: bisexual. allegiance: herself only. but she collaborates with the death eaters frequently, as she will write anything that they want. spoken languages: spanish ( native language ), english ( fluently ), french ( sufficient ). moral alignment: neutral evil. - A neutral evil villain does whatever she can get away with. She is out for herself, pure and simple. She sheds no tears for those she kills, whether for profit, sport, or convenience (x).

element: water. house: slytherin.

BACKGROUND & FAMILY.

so. margarita vargas was born as the youngest of five daughters. she grew up in the coastal city of acapulco, located in mexico, and her first few years were spent in absolute bliss. her father, a muggle man, was a famous - and later, infamous, televangelist. diego vargas was known all over mexico for his weekly broadcasted church service, and became very rich for it. what did he do with this wealth? well, for the most part, he spoiled his family rotten.

the vargas girls were the perfect daughters, as was expected of them. they grew up in the public eye, attending sermons, smiling pretty, posing for elaborately staged family portraits. and always, always saying the right things. like pretending that they were being sent off to a christian girl’s school every year, instead of attending illvermorny.

mr. vargas married adrianna vargas knowing full well that she was a witch, and intended to take full advantage of that. and adrianna was happy to make diego’s life easier, because she loved him. but more than anything, she loved him for his fame, his money, his success.

unfortunately for the vargas, everything came crumbling down when rita was eight. then, it became public knowledge that her father was heavily involved in financing and also collaborating with several corrupt political bodies which aimed to cause mayhem, destruction and terror within the country.

so the vargas fell from grace, and out of favor in the public eye. mr. vargas faced jail time, lost all of his sponsors, and suddenly didn’t seem so appealing to mrs vargas anymore. so adrianna packed up her bags, took her daughters, changed their names and moved to england. and so margarita vargas found herself with a new identity - rita skeeter.

after that, she would never see her father again. her mother never spoke of him ( like most things, in the skeeter household - problems were buried but never forgotten ), and refused to acknowledge his existence.

their new life was a sharp contrast to their past, which would come to seem like a blurry dream. while the vargas had bathed in luxury and money, the skeeters kinda struggled financially. her mother was fueled by fury - angry with a man that had humiliated her, taken advantage of her, left her with nothing. so she vowed to never be dependent on anyone else ever again. she found herself a job, and set up a new life for herself and her daughters, one that wasn’t focused on the saintly teachings of her ex-husband. instead, adrianna skeeter drilled into her daughters that success, power and glory was all that mattered. everything else, even family, comes second. you can only depend on yourself.

so, the skeeter girls became competitive. cut throat. dangerous. her sisters’ names can be read in the highest offices of britain, in politics, in the nicest corporate offices in london. but they also hardly ever speak to each other, anymore.

HOGWARTS YEARS.

she arrives at hogwarts ready to prove herself. show that she’s just as good as her sisters, if not better.

but she soon realizes that she falls painfully short — that she isn’t the brightest of the skeeter bunch, that she isn’t the most talented witch. hell, she doesn’t even place second.

so what does she do? she plays dumb. pretends that she’s just a pretty face. it’s just a fluke that she’s getting high grades - it’s not that she sits up all night studying. or that she manages to bribe and cheat her way into getting a time turner by her fourth year. she’s working herself into the ground, but refuses to let anyone know. it’s better, that way.

really though, pride isn’t the sin that will hang rita. she’s playing the long game, and comes to realize that no one doubts a pretty, senseless girl. so that is what she shall be.

she gets through hogwarts on dirty tricks and hard work, but makes it look effortless.

around hogwarts, she was known as quite the party girl, always looking to have a good time. maybe a little too good of a time, actually. her reputation always walked the line, on that one.

she acts drunker than she is, but is careful to always remain sharp. most people think of her as baby skeeter - fun, but harmless. for rita, secrets become a currency.

and so she moves through different social circles, shedding her personality like a snake sheds its skin, all to fit in with any crowd, any house. she loses herself somewhere along the way - at this point, rita doesn’t know who she is. but that’s just as well. rita skeeter has never let anyone in, and she never will.

a new name appears in the school paper around rita’s fourth year. bridget higgins writes the stories that are on everyone’s lips, but no one knows who she is. obviously it’s rita.

by her seventh year, rita manages to become an animagus, and a royal blue beetle begins its reign. miss higgins’ stories become more and more elaborate, more daring, more scandalous. by the end of her time at hogwarts, rita is already writing in blood, destroying lives through the flick of her quill.

AFTER HOGWARTS.

rita started interning at witch weekly during the summers after her fifth year at the school. she wrote short fluff pieces about fashion.

after graduating, rita started working as a columnist for witch weekly. she wrote a popular gossip column about popular famous witches and wizards, but also dipped her toes into the pool of wizard politics in britain.

eventually, she came to take on a second job at the daily prophet. she stretches herself too thin, but she makes it work. somehow.

at the daily prophet, she writes more political stories. zeroes in on the ministry. asks uncomfortable questions. shows up where she is definitively not allowed to be. she becomes a pain in the ass like no other, and writes exposés that become notorious for putting people in tight spots.

many at the ministry treat her like crap, like a bug that needs to be squashed. she realizes quickly that they have little respect for her, and she is quite happy to return the favor. if they treat her like she’s awful, she might as well be just that.

her stories aren’t entirely fabricated —- every story that she writes has a seed of truth in it. just enough to make it believable.

most of it is bullshit though, but to stir the pot, she every now and then drops something that is very accurate. sometimes she does it to help the order. sometimes she does it to help herself or the death eaters. but there is always a motive behind it.

eventually gets involved with the death eaters. didn’t actually mean to, but fucked with the wrong person at the ministry !!! now she’s under their thumb and it kinda sucks but she’s also not that mad about it because she gets some ~~~~carefully selected~~~ information in return. so she basically writes whatever the fuck the death eaters want her to write.

rita started out with the goal of doing good reporting, but realized quickly that those stories did not sell papers and gained little interest from the public. so she turns to sensationalism, doesn’t see the harm in spinning her stories a little further than necessary. which soon spiraled out of control.

RITA’S FUTURE ( 1998 and forward. )

rita skeeter goes missing in 1999 and is rumored to be laughing all the way to the bank because the biographies she wrote on harry potter, albus dumbledore and severus snape sold MILLIONS. new books by rita skeeter resurfaces every few years, but no one ever sees her again. conspiracy theorists are sure that she was murdered ( and her books are now penned by a ghost writer ), but others say that she’s off on an island somewhere.

THE TIME CLASH.

so ------ rita is pulled from her youth, straight into the future. it’s a bit of a shock, of course.

rita is a reporter first, everything else second. so what does she do? RESEARCH. looks around. tries her best to figure shit out. makes diligent notes of everything that has gone wrong, and everything that has gone right. she researches her future self. she researches everything her future self has written.

most of all, i think she adapts. to the muggle technology, mostly, but also to the new world order.

AS A PERSON.

holds a grudge like no other !!

other talents include backstabbing and lying!

lowkey mean. lol.

only does what serves her best : ~)

neutral evil thank u

never sleeps? runs on coffee and caffeine pills

has never done a selfless thing in her entire life

daddy issues 4 sure

super good at faking niceness!!! it’s a talent, really

most stubborn gal ever, try to change her mind

doesn’t actually realize that she’s the villain

always playing dirty

*sombra vc*: where’s the fun in playing fair?

has like three cents to her name at all times :/

always working a fucking angle and plays the long game.

loves attention!!!

cut throat, will drop u so fast !!!

very bi

loves hearing her own voice!!!

but also very observant and can shut up if she knows that’s more beneficial to her !!

the type of person to take and take and take until u are left with absolutely nothing

10000% her parents’ daughter !!! takes after them both.

very determined!!!

doesn’t really believe in what voldemort is doing, but also isn’t personally invested enough to properly care.

trust issues!!

not so much motivated by money ( she’s broke ) as she is by fame. could have something to do with her past idk.

possibly the most selfish girl on the planet?

FAVORITE CHARACTER TROPES.

THE DARK CHICK - good at reading emotions, resolving fights and weaponizing her strengths — all the while keeping an eye on what she considers to be the bigger picture.

FEMME FATALE - ‘first she turns you on, then she turns on you.’

INTREPID REPORTER - a troublemaker sort of journalist.

THEN LET ME BE EVIL - any sense of good reporting and morals gets broken down by being treated like crap by presumptuous forces of good for too long. aka everyone telling her she’s shit.

CONSUMMATE LIAR - a liar so good you never want to play poker with them because you’d go home without your underwear and short next week’s paycheck.

BITCH IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING - wears a thousand masks to hide her true colors.

THE POWER OF ACTING - a character who acts her way through life.

NO FACE UNDER THE MASK - does the real rita skeeter even exist? who is she? can she remember her true personality? probably not.

THE EVIL PRINCE - a character that knows they’re meant for greatness, but there are a lot of other… less great characters in their way. if only these characters could be “persuaded” to move, then nothing would stand in their way to the throne. ;)

CHRONIC BACKSTABBING DISORDER - someone who constantly and successfully betrays their allegiances. switches sides as frequently as she switches clothes. what is loyalty?

AMBIGUOUSLY EVIL - it’s never quite made clear what side she is truly on? sike, she’s playing for both teams !!!

HEEL / FACE REVOLVING DOOR - morality is grey, and this character switches sides so often that in the long run, they end up… just not having one.

THE CORRUPTER - the metaphorical devil on your shoulder.

THE CON ARTIST - selling lies so outrageous they can’t possibly be true, but still getting away with it.

CHARACTER INFLUENCES.

SOMBRA ( overwatch ) - always got another dirty trick up her sleeve, kinda selfish, always infiltrating something, out there manipulating those in power hell yeah

KELLY KAPOOR ( the office )- the narcissism, the many layers, the gossip, the jealousy, the drama, the lies, ‘i don’t talk trash, i talk smack. they’re totally different’.

CONNOR WALSH ( htgawm ) - wow i can’t believe rita skeeter is connor walsh?? either way. so sly, bit of a slut, utterly shameless, lies a lot, doesn’t care too much about other people, very confident, bit over emotional at times. gets whatever the fuck they set their mind on. the ends justify the means, always.

MARGAERY TYRELL ( game of thrones ) - the cleverness, the manipulation, the scheming.

HERA ( the goddess ) - the vengeance, the viciousness, the jealousy.

DEBBIE EAGAN ( glow ) - lowkey thinks the world revolves around her. bit manipulative. really ambitious. kinda cut throat. ready to throw anyone under the bus to get places.

JESSICA HAMBY ( true blood ) - the strict religious upbringing, the rebellion, the occasional softness.

ALISON DILAURENTIS ( pretty little liars ) - the bitchiness, the cruelty, the constantly shifting personas, the lies.

CHANEL OBERLIN ( scream queens ) - really ruthless, can be quite mean, bit narcissistic.

LIRA ( to kill a kingdom ) - the siren!!!! singing (aka writing) people to their undoings!!!! with little to no remorse!!! hell yeah

LAUREL CASTILLO ( htgawm ) - a snake that is good at hiding under the radar, kind of shady, highly manipulative, bounces back and forth between allegiances.

JACKIE BURKHART ( thats 70s show ) - the STYLE!!!!!!!! the narcissism! the manipulation! the greed!

#quantum intro #murder tw #death tw #insect tw

9 notes · View notes

papatonyinsandiego · 6 years ago

Text

Flagging Lavender, and Old Guard

Hanky code: Lavender. QUESTIONS:-Does anyone know what it really mean?-Does it really exist within the Old Guard community?

Oh, lordy. This again. Sigh.

All right, then.

Time For Some History

Back in the 70's, there were a LOT of gay people moving into large cities. I referred to the "Gay Neighborhoods" as "Refugee Camps." Many, MANY gay/queer/trans people were fleeing the closed-minded, intolerant areas and establishing the Gay Ghettos, such as "Boy's Town" (West Hollywood) in Los Angeles, Hillcrest in San Diego, and the Castro and South of Market (Leather) areas of San Francisco.

Folks lost all desire to live in Squaw's Ass Idaho, or Chicken Leg, Nebraska. They picked their coastal major urban center and MOVED as soon as they could get mobile, and never looked back.

As more and more people came pouring in to the ghetto, buying up the old houses and fixing them up ("gentrifying"), the housing got too expensive to buy in the heart of the ghetto, so folks started expanding into outlying areas. However, in the HEART of the ghetto, an enormous number of bathhouses, shops, boutiques, bistros and BARS started opening up to cater to a very, very gay clientele.

It was heaven, for a while. It was pure sexual adventure, all day, every day. It was common to refer to each other as "numbers", as in "What do you think of that number over there? I'd fuck him, even with your dick!" In case it isn't obvious, the number referred to, was as in "Now Serving Number 64". Yes, things really were that sexual.

In a crowded street, or a VERY crowded bar (one of very many in the city), you had thousands of possible sexual prospects. You didn't have time to WASTE on idle chit-chat, flowers, boxes of candy, or four hours of buying drinks for the handsome stranger. You would finally got into bed with him, only to find that he was NOT a good sexual match for your particular tastes.

So, the hankie code was started. This made it REALLY easy to spot an ideal prospect, hook up fast, throw his pretty ass out the door, take a Disco Nap (a nap that allowed you to stay up later on the dance floor that night), and get ready for the next man.

Many folks don't know this, but in the earliest days of wearing bandannas in the back pockets, or Sam Browne belt on your torso, or keys on your belt-loop, or gauntlets on your wrist, or armbands on your bicep:

On the East Coast, the sides were reversed from what was happening on the West Coast. In New York for a short time, Tops flagged on the right, and bottoms on the left. The West Coast won out, and from then on, Tops are on the left, and bottoms are on the right.

Getting Back To Your Actual Question:

The ONLY colors of bandannas being sold everywhere back then (supermarkets, drug stores, Army/Navy surplus stores, porn shops and book stores) were:

- Black (SadoMasochist) - Dark Blue (Ass Fucking) - Hunter Green (Daddy/boy) - Light Blue (Cocksucking) - Gray (Bondage) - Yellow (Piss) - Red (Fist Fucking), and - White (I have a Cold)

I heard of Brown (scat) eventually, but I'm not aware of anybody actually flagging brown until the early 1990's.

We thought that was a LOT. This was rock-solid, and unchangeable. NOBODY tried any other colors. Period. Besides that: There was no manufacturer MAKING any other colors!

Then, when folks did a lot of dying, and the bathhouses closed, and the Internet came along, and the bars closed, and the vast areas around the "Gay Neighborhood" became more and more diverse and open-minded for EVERYBODY, then folks started dicking around with the color charts. They added more, and more, and more choices, and posting them online. They made a fun project out of it:

Us old guys thought it was hilarious, to hear about "Gold Polka Dots on White" and the like. In our experience, if one, isolated person was flagging an unusual color, they'd have had to spend the whole night having to explain what their colors meant, dozens of times, and not getting any nibbles. Seemed kinda pointless.

The actual fact is, what we did was new, and PRIMITIVE, back then. We were making it up as we went along. We had NO experience, or fetishes for:

- Furries - Puppies - Latex - Urethral Sounds

and a lot more fetishes that have become exciting and widespread in the Internet years.

So, The Reason For The Sigh:

Too many people read the "Old Guard" comic book, and not knowing any better, thought that it was the Bible. Please don't assume that the old ways were somehow better, or wiser, or more rigorous. We were living in a big, messy and constant flow of upward growth, but it was not in any way structured. What people assume are true and long-lasting Olde Guarde protocols, were actually practiced back then by maybe one percent of the kinky gay-male Leathermen's community. If that.

Why do newer folks follow the old precepts so avidly now? I assume that it's because a few folks wrote books, unlike the majority of the rest of us, who didn't. Just about everything else in our historical record was lost during the bad years, so this becomes the entirety of the story for the folks who weren't there.

137 notes · View notes

tippitv · 6 years ago

Text

Supernatural Recap: 14:01 “Stranger in a Strange Land”

The road so far... is thirteen years long. Thirteen years. If this show were a person, they would be dealing with acne and/or getting their period. We're on the fourth American presidential term since this show started. My dog Henry looked like this

And now he looks like this:

But back to the show's rock-n-roll montage to catch us up for this season.

There was a nephilim boy named Jack, an alternate dimension accessible by an episiotomy in spacetime where bad angels ruled and dead characters were still alive, and a weird fight between Dean Winchester (with archangel Michael stuffed up in him like a heavenly turducken) and Lucifer that ended up looking like the video for Total Eclipse of the Heart.

At the end of it, Michael absconded with Dean's hot bod and made him wear a silly cap and break the fourth wall.

As the episode starts, Sam's full beard lets us know that some time has passed since the finale. He's driving through slick streets because it's always raining in the lush coastal rain forest of Kansas. .

But then we cut to some other bearded guy, asleep in a room somewhere that looks like a room they've used on this show a lot, but this time with a weirdly loud background soundtrack of ocean waves and seagulls. The guy gets up, puts his prayer mat down on the floor, and begins praying in what the CC tells me is Arabic.

He looks up to see Michael (in Dean) sitting there in his little cap. "Hello, Jamil," Michael says. Jamil looks surprised, as one should.

Michael quotes from what Google tells me is verse 2:98 of the Holy Quran in order to introduce himself: "Whoever is an enemy to Allah and His angels and His messengers Gabriel and Michael..." He still makes Jamil go through a guessing game. God? No. Gabriel? No. One of these guys in Newsies?

Also no. He says he's there to ask Jamil the same question he's spent weeks asking people all over the world. "Do you want your newspaper on your porch or in your mailbox?"

"What do you want exactly?" Michael asks him. Jamil says he wants peace and love. Michael says "you never would have ran" from Syria if that were true. Okay first of all, that's "would have run," Mister Archangel. Second of all... wait, where did the seagulls go? It's quiet now. As if they left to bother someone else.

Michael flings him around a bit with his angel powers. Like is that even fun? Super powerful beings always act like it is but it's just a normal part of his abilities like my being able to scratch my elbow or blow my nose is normal for me. Anyway, Michael says he wants a better world. Cut to the season's new title card!

Meanwhile, the bunker has been embraced by the resistance fighters from the alternate dimension. Is anybody feeling guilty about the fight they left behind? Are they assuming the fight over there is done because Michael is here now? Mary checks the aim of a new gun by pointing it at or very near these people's danged heads.

The girl already died once so maybe she's unflappable and the guy's too busy getting a monster tooth removed from a wound to notice. He says it happened in Phoenix... which Google tells me is at least a 16-hour drive away if you have a normal car.

Sam joins the bunker, letting us know that he's been in Atlanta checking up on a possible Michael-Dean sighting that turned out to be someone's drug-induced hallucination. It's the good thing the Impala travels a thousand mph or that would've been a lot of wasted time. He and Mary exposit about how it's been three weeks since the end of last season. That's only three weeks of beard growth? Does that seem like a lot just because I don't grow beards?

Sam has just enough time to yawn and be sad before some guy who looks like if maybe Jonathan Van Ness got halfway through getting ready to go chop fire wood tells him there are some "gypsy type" vampires heading east. Boo, Fake Jonathan. Even though he's exhausted, Sam starts delegating teams to go take care of the problem and sits down to hack into a traffic cam.

Then he remembers a cliffhanger from last season. "Hey how's Jack?"

Cut to Jack getting his ass handed to him by Bobby in a fight training session. Aw look at his cute lil sweats. Wait... what are those windows in the gym? They look look like they're streaked with rain. Isn't the whole bunker underground?

Also omg someone give that boy a face guard while he's sparring! He can't heal his cute little mug anymore!

Meanwhile in Detroit, Castiel is following up a lead at a BBQ joint called Motown Meats. And like I know "Motown" is also a nickname for the city and not just the name of a record label, but the country music playing in this joint is still annoying to me. Anyway some pink-cheeked fella who thinks burgundy brown shoes go with cornflower blue suits strides into the place all, "Castiel! Darling!"

This fella, with his imperious little strut and vaguely Southern demeanor, simply demands I refer to him as Young Lindsey Graham. He orders sausage, brisket and "pork ribs, well done." What the fuck, Linds? All pork ribs are well done! If someone gives you underdone pork anything, you get right off your ass and call the health department!

"I didn't think you consorted with my kind," Linds says, revealing himself to be a demon and also someone who doesn't know his basic show history.

Castiel is loath to admit that he needs information. "Does any demon know where Dean Winchester is?" Young Lindsey is delighted and scandalized at the thought of Cas losing any Winchester, much less Dean. "I thought you two were joined at the... everything." He gets about as close to pointing/looking at Cas's dick as Mary got to pointing that gun at those people's heads.

Yes, I'm terrible at making gifs. Anyway, Linds goes, "What's in it for moi?" And Cas tells him, "Your life." So Linds is like, "Come again?" Honey, he ain't even come the first time yet, don't get ahead of yourself.

Castiel uses his graveliest voice on Young Lindsey, but to no avail. It turns out the whole place is full of demons. Wouldn't Cas have picked up on that? Is he that powerless? They all crowd around him and knock him to the floor.

A sign outside a church in Duluth welcomes "Sister Jo" and advertises its morning prayers at 8 in the morning. Does that seem ridiculously early to me just because I'm a heathen? Also it's clearly nighttime in this scene. Some parishioners thank Jo for saving their lives. It seems like she should be trying to fly under the radar, so to speak.

Oh now she's walking through a dark alley, counting her money. I'll give her a pass because she has angel powers, but people on this show are always being unwise in alleys. Michael approaches her. "You don't recognize me with this pretty face?" he asks. It's the hat! It! Is! The! Hat! He reveals his big seagull-lookin' wings.

Jo is naturally suspicious of Michael. "Why would Dean say yes to you when he turned you down like seven seasons ago?" she asks. "We needed a cliffhanger for the finale and he'd already been a demon," he says. I mean, that's not what they say but I'm sure they were thinking it.

He asks her what she wants, and she tries to be glib about it but he's not buying it. He says she wants love and a family and barfy stuff like that. He keeps asking people what they want and then just ends up telling them.

Back at the bunker, Sam has a chat with Jack.

"I know this must be so hard," Sam says, "without your grace, without your powers...It's a lot, I'm sure." I mean, Sam wasn't a nephilim but he used to be super juiced up on demon blood with telekinetic powers. If there were ever a time for Sam to bust out with "hey I went through a sort of similar thing," it'd be now. Mary interrupts this tender moment to say someone's awake. Way to talk-block, Mary.

Sam reluctantly leaves Jack to go see whoever this other person is. He opens the door as the soundtrack builds up tension. The camera finally swoops in and reveals...

NO.

NO! I REFUSE. I!!! REFUSE!!!! THERE IS NO WAY NICK'S CARCASS SHOULD STILL BE ALIVE. NONE. BEGONE YOU FOUL THING, BEGONE!!!

You know what this means, right? Either that whiny little baby Lucifer will come back somehow and need to possess him again, or when they inevitably get Dean back, Michael will use this empty toothpaste tube of a human as his vessel. OH FUCK HE'S TAKING HIS SHIRT OFF

Okay why does Sam need to be the one to clean his mostly healed wound? It's not like Nick's hands are broken. Nick has a big dramatic reaction. Calm the hell down, it's peroxide not alcohol. Then he just puts the same dirty old bandage back on. What. The. Fuck.

Sam is being very sympathetic, if rattled because this guy's got the same face as the fucker that tortured him for a hundred years. Nick doesn't remember much about what happened, but says Michael told Lucifer "he wanted to do things right this time." Sam goes outside to collect himself when his phone buzzes.

"Oh, hey, Cas," he answers. Young Lindsey Graham corrects him: "I'm the boy who's got your angel." Okay, when I said he was young, I meant compared to current day Lindsey Graham. He's clearly not a boy. He's also clearly not a very worthy foe.

The music goes "eeeeeEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!" to build up tension, but fourth-tier demons are like basically gnats compared to the other baddies the Bunker Bunch have fought. It's kinda silly that Cas even got captured by these twerps.

But everyone is taking it very seriously and packing up their weapons to head to Detroit. Maybe the Other Dimension people haven't fought demons before? I can't remember. Sam assigns teams. "Maggie, you're with Bobby. Mom, you're with me."

Jack wants to come, too, but Bobby protests that he's not ready for a demon fight. And Maggie is? That poor child seems perpetually on the verge of jumping out of her own skin. But Sam's like, "He needs this, Bobby."

Back in Detroit, a bloodied Cas sits magically cuffed to a chair. "You sure I can't get you anything hot... and black?" Young Lindsey asks him in a needlessly suggestive manner. I mean, he's talking about coffee, not Grindr. Wtf, my dude? Castiel's face right now is so relatable.

We launch into a good old-fashioned Sit-n-Chat! Linds blah blahs about coffee and using Cas as bait, then reveals, without naming names, that Michael recently approached him like he did the other guest characters in this episode. He was asked what he wanted. "I realized after 600 years as a demon walking the planet...I didn't know." But now he's realized he wants everything. Start with some shoes that look better with your suit.

Meanwhile, Sam and Mary are driving through the perpetual rain. Seriously, how do y'all in Kansacouver deal with this much rain?? I live in Houston and we get a lot of rain, but in like... big groupings and not just constantly. Anyway, seeing that Sam is fretting, Mary says, "It's gonna be fine." Sam isn't convinced. "You don't know that!"

Now, normally this 900-mile trip would take about an hour, but Sam and Bobby didn't carpool so the Impala had to slow way down. Lol when Sam walks through the door at the barbecue place it looks like he's wearing the doorbell as a tiny hat.

Sam gets frisked to make sure he's not packing heat, then Young Lindsey waxes impressed about his shoulders and hair. He makes a "mm MM!" sound like he's just been presented a bowl of delicious bread puddin' and hot caramel sauce.

Here we are nearly at the end of the episode and we finally find out Young Lindsey Graham's name is actually Kipling. "Kip, for short," he says, offering his hand for a shake. Sam leaves him hanging. Also: lol "Kip." Kip's goons drag Jack and Maggie inside. Sam's nostrils flare in consternation as one of the demons punches Jack.

God this guy talks a lot. To sum up: Kip wants to be king of Hell and he wants the Winchesters to treat him like they did Crowley. You know, keep him around past his expiry date and then still somehow manage to make his death too abrupt.

When Sam turns him down, Kip has a bit of a tantrum. "In life, I rode with Genghis Khan!" he rails, mispronouncing it. He pouts and stomps some more, but Sam stays chill because he knows Mary and Bobby are about to bust in with guns blazing.

Slo-mo fisticuffs ensue! Kip throws Sam across the room with his powers. He's a higher level demon who could kill every human with a swoosh of his hand, but then the show would be over. Also, didn't the Bunker Bunch all have devil's trap bullets and stuff? These demons are taking a long time to die.

Kip somehow gets hold of the demon knife during the melee and takes one second long to admire how cool it is. This gives Sam enough time to switch things around and stab him with it. Kip dies as he lived: admiring Sam's shoulders.

Sam calls an end to the fight. "There will be no new King of Hell!" All the remaining demons vacate their meat suits. Who's going to run the barbecue restaurant now? Also, Castiel has been sitting, still cuffed, to that chair this whole time.

Back at the bunker, everyone is beat to hell. Cas and Sam have a rueful talk about what they just went through. Cas is embarrassed he went to the demons, but Sam says he'd work with anyone if it meant finding Dean.

In the kitchen, Mary and Bobby do a little Chekhov's flirting.

Cas goes to find Jack and try to cheer him up. "You did well," he says. "All I did was get punched in the face," Jack says. Don't sell yourself short, kid. You also got punched in the stomach.

Jack feels frustrated and useless without his powers. Cas tells him they have each other and they're family. Aww. I feel like Cas could also say he relates here. "I used to burn the eyes out of demons and destroy buildings with my voice!"

Sam gets a call from Jo. "We have a problem," she says. Is she working for Michael? Maybe!

Cut to a grungy abandoned warehouse, where Michael is currently having a chat with a monster of some kind. Maybe it's one of the vampires mentioned earlier in the episode. "Your want is pure," Michael says. Monsters are soooo much easier to deal with than people or angels! "You just wanna eat," Michael says as the monster shows off some fangs.

Incidentally, "You just wanna eat" also describes me at a brunch buffet.

So that's the end of the season premier! The FOURTEENTH season premier. Holy hell right?

If you'd like me to recap the next episodes, let me know. Thanks for reading!

And now’s the self-promo time when I add my Ko-Fi link! (ko-fi.com/A4017DA)

These are some very desperate times for me, so if you have a few bucks to spare and you enjoyed this fic, I would very much appreciate any donation. I know it looks like I’ve received quite a few donations recently but those larger ones were me “donating” to myself with credit cards to pay bills that had to be paid from my bank.

I'm afraid of not making rent this month, thanks to several clients just refusing to pay me for my work.

Or my Paypal address is [email protected] and if you send it as a gift I think no fees are deducted from my end.

#supernatural #spn recaps #recap #spn crack #so many captions #terrible gifs

71 notes · View notes

knightofbalance-13 · 6 years ago

Text

http://saltwukong.tumblr.com/post/177992323986/rwby-actually-has-poc-representation-you-dolts

You know, even a newbie can kick your asses.

For the sake of saving space, I cut the gifs out of your post and edited the format. Anyway here’s why you’re the most wrong person to ever be wrong. I’m going to give you a list much like the “doing LGBT rep” thing I did a little while ago, in fact it’s pretty much identical.

Translation: watch me bullshit out of my ass.

If your “poc rep” falls into any of these categories:

unimportant/background

villain

dead

whitewashed

You get no points whatsoever. You have no representaton. Shame on you

A. Doesn’t matter

B. Doesn’t matter

C. Doesn’t matter

And D. Is always misused.

Not to mention you didn’t explain how this doesn’t count. And no, it doesn’t work with ‘racism’ because I can find an equvilanet in white people.

So each time you just throw someone into one of the ‘doesn’t matter’ categories, you lose a point. You are erasing representation. Sucks to be you. Oh, and double points for the ‘Is always misused’ category.

So how many of the characters you just outlines pass this test?

Dunno, how many of yoru arguments make you sound like a racist by your own standards?

There is no RWBY equivalent. Besides, even if them having Chinese names had weight, they’re still white as fuck. Yang and Tai are blond and blue-eyed as fuck, and Raven can only barely be called Asian-coded because of her dress and choice of swordplay–both of which are ripped directly from Adam Taurus, who isn’t the least bit Asian-coded. “Whitewashed” is in full effect here. So no, these characters don’t pass the test.

Not whitewashing as that requires the original to be anything but white. So -2 points.

Oh wait, Asian people are alos known to be light skin. Double points for racism. so -4 for you.

You’re knee-capping yourself. You not only admitted she’s white, but headcanons don’t count.

So your headcanon of “RT is racist” doesn’t count?

Ding dong, you are wrong.

“Racial parallel” does not actually equal “non-white”, especially when there actually are non-white people in the show. Blake gets a 0 for representation.

BZZZT!

Skin color doesn’t matter in Remnant so your argument is invalid since it requires Remnant to work by OUR definitions which it doesn't.

Also you didn’t explain WHY it doesn’t equal. So double points.

1 - -6 You are losing.

You don’t. Lie Ren is Asian-coded, heavily so, and his features and name all match. He’s not whitewashed, dead, a villain, or unimportant, so he gets a pass. We’re 1/6 on your supposedly poc characters right now.

And you're at -6 of your so called ‘right’ points. You ain’t one to talk.

Yatsuhashi Daichi is also very Asian-coded without being whitewashed, dead, or a villain. He is, however, incredibly unimportant. He smashed a few Grimm, got beat up by Mercury, and then no one had any more reason to care about him. He does not qualify for representation per the rules we laid out. 1/7.

Doesn’t matter

2 - -7

Aside from the fact that this is just as invalid as Blake was, I have some information from you: you can’t represent poc with white people that are abused and harassed. You can represent them with ethnic features that actually have more variety to them than the standard barrel of white characters allows. Velvet does not do that, so she does not qualify.

Doesn’t matter and you don’t explain why.

3 - -9

That almost becomes amusing, but doesn’t quite make it, considering you go on to try and tell me how those very white villains are also poc.

At any rate, her being a villain is absolutely important. Black people are tired of being the villains just like gay people are. That is nil for representation. It breaks the rule, so it doesn’t qualify.

Equality is equality bitch, there are white villians too.

So double points for double standards.

4 - -11

Sometimes I think I’m too confrontational and rude, and should make more of an effort to come across as nice rather than an asshole. Then this sort of dumbassery pops up and reminds me that I’m fine the way I am.

And yet I’m a racist for calling out your bigotry and lies.

First off, narrowed eyes are not an Asian trait. “Slanted” eyes are, and while Ren and Yatsuhashi have them, Tyrian does not. If this were an Asian trait, Mercury, Torchwick would also be Asian, and you pointedly did not list them. Narrowed eyes are a character designer’s way of saying that this person is a bit more serious than the more animesque or bubbly characters like the main team, who all have very large eyes that mimic the style. Long hair? That damn sure isn’t an Asian trait. Weiss, step forward.

Also, you dumbass, he’s white as fuck and, at best, is from Vacuo.

Also Fanaus

5 - -12

For reference ya’ll, since I removed the gif, here it is again so you can see Arthur Watts’ reflection in a dark, red, glassy orb that obviously doesn’t make him look darker than he actually is. That’s the gif rwdebitch chose to go with.

Actual good point.

5 - -11

Not to mention he’s from Atlas, which is so far coded as “land of white people and that one meme team who aren’t”. Here’s a gif of him next to Cinder in broad daylight.

two women on each edge are clearly not white so coding is bullshit.

In fact, why don’t we go ahead and take off a point for each use of the world ‘coding’ as an argument to showcase how bullshit it is?

5 - -17

Darker than her, admittedly, but that isn’t saying much. There’s also the fact that he’s coded as English. I’d say we could give him half a point, but he’s a villain. So he doesn’t qualify anyway. We’re 1/11 and the record is only going to get worse.

You’re right-

You just showed racism against mixed race people by your logic.

Also another instance of coding.

And you fail to explain how he’s English ‘coded.’

5 - -20

Hazel looks like my lumberjack uncle who visits seedy bars. Yeah, his skin is darker than others’….but he breaks the same rule that Tyrian, Watts, and Cinder do. In fact, why don’t I go ahead and say it: even if you were right about all these villains being POC (and literally the only villains you don’t try to twist POC are Torchwick, who’s dead, Neo, who’s gone, and Salem, who’s the color of snow), that would be worse. A team full of villains who want to wreck the world and they’re all nonwhite? No thank you.

You did Cinder a little later but I’m doing her early to match the other villains.

Don’t explain why, has show to be a liar and admits that the leader of the group of ‘non whites’ is white.

6 - -20

The only point you’re gonna get here is the part where Monty said that. Because no, narrow eyes, as we already pointed out on Tyrian, aren’t an Asian trait, and you’re confusing that for slanted eyes. Her costumes are no more influenced by Asian culture than the basketball shorts I’m wearing. But yes, despite her pale appearance, Monty did indeed imply she’s Asian.

She’s still a villain.

And guess what? Monty’s Asian. So it means he was fine with it, which goes to show your villain point flies in the face of what some people want.

And again, equality bitch.

7 - -22

He has a tan, you dumbass. He’s a Chinese-inspired character with a Chinese name, who looks like a surfer from California considering his blond hair, blue eyes, and coastal tan. Got all that? We call it “whitewashing”, so he breaks the rule, too.

Except many interpretations of Son Wukong portray him as light haired. Including other Japanese media.

Also not whitewashing because Sun is his own character.

AND he’s a fanaus so it STILL doesn’t matter.

8 - -25

Besides. He’s also unimportant as fuck, a fact I’m very upset about. All he’s around to be is Blake’s love interest, which is the only thing that saved him from vanishing into the void with his team, who haven’t been mentioned.

You know...

Aside from saving Blake against the WF in Volume 1...

And getting illa’s scroll in Volume 4...

And protecting Blake in Volume 5...

Huh, you seem pretty quick to devalue the efforts of minority characters.

1) I have a question for you–why do you keep saying all these pale people are dark-skinned?

2) HE’S FUCKING BLOND, WHITE, AND BLUE-EYED. SO YES, YOU’RE GONNA HAVE TO EXPLAIN THIS ONE TO ME. LOOK AT THE GIF DIRECTLY ABOVE THESE WORDS.

He’s whitewashed, so he breaks the rule.

Because minorities are all dark skinned! yep, Asians don’t exist at all!

8 - -26

Huh, I didn’t think Qrow had long hair. Or are you talking about another feature that blatantly isn’t Asian, on a white character?

Yeah, they said ‘non white’. Not the same thing. Point would have worked then.

On top of the fact that I already told you Raven is just a genderswapped Adam, I’m gonna blow your mind–she’s still white. Just like everyone else on this list. Is she a white-passing Asian? Perhaps, but considering all the other people who are white on this list you tried to tell me were Asian, I’m not gonna trust your judgment on that matter.

And considering you unironically used fucking white passing as an argument, you’re lucky I don’t just double the negative points you have.

Even missed out how their last name is Welsh.

8 - -27

Hmmmm, you’re gonna have to–because Flynt Coal is a character literally created after a meme, to be marginally important as an enemy for one episode and never be important again. Like all the Vytal Tournament characters. You could’ve done better by putting Arslan Altan on here–at least not only is her skin tone dark, but her style of dress and fighting are also eastern as well. She’d still fall into the same “unimportant” hole though.

And you’re gonna have to explain why I should care.

I didn’t care when shows like Boondocks and Black Dynamite did this to white people, why should I care here?

9 - -28

Ooh, this one is especially bad. Yeah, you got the dark-skinned part right, but guess what else he also is?

A villain

Dead

So he doesn’t pass, either!

So is Torchwick, who is white.

No dice.

10 - -30

Neptune is based on a Greek god! I hope you’re not another person who thinks Greeks aren’t white. Because they are. I’ll admit to him being darker-skinned, but that doesn’t look so good considering how we outlined Sun being whitewashed and still tanned.

You can make a case for him being Asian-coded based on how he’s Sun’s partner and the original Sun Wukong’s partner was also, obviously, Chinese. But that’s about it. A reach at best, whitewashing at worst.

He’s also never been important, in the scale of the small plots or the large one. He fails on two fronts. So he doesn’t represent either.

Exact opposite of what OP was saying.

Coded penalty.

And not explained.

11 - -33

I’m neither, thanks. But I also don’t look to characters who got one line, never got to do anything of importance, and whose only moment to shine was against a stationary opponent who couldn’t move, for representation. I don’t think most poc RWBY fans would, either.

No, calling you dumb is an insult to dumb people. You’re willfully ignorant.

Also: I considering the number of people who love Sage, you’re wrong. Oh and seeing as you tried speaking for my best friend, double points.

You are right. I could make a case for him being unimportant, since he basically exists literally for white Ozpin to project himself from, but as far as RWBY goes, he doesn’t break any of the rules. Record is so far 2/20. One tenth of the characters you’ve proposed to be poc representation actually are poc representation.

A. Ozpin has no race since he takes on the race of whoever he inhabits.

And B. You’re at 12 - -34. They are 46 points ahead of you.

She’s also a villain who nearly kills one of the other supposedly-poc characters here. She doesn’t pass. Nor does she pass as LGBT rep, for the same reasons. 2/21.

Doesn’t explain why on either end.

13 - -36

If you reach any further, you’ll touch God himself. [clears throat]

YOU CAN’T SAY THAT A PALE-SKINNED CHARACTER WHO MIGHT HAVE EYES THAT ARE SLANTED IF WE SOMEDAY SEE WHAT HIS FACE LOOKS LIKE, IS POC. THAT’S LIKE SAYING HEY, SUN MIGHT NOT BE STRAIGHT, SO HE’S GAY REPRESENTATION!

And I already outlined why race parallel =/= poc representation, so please stop using that as your platform

And I explained how that’s jackshit. still doesn’t work/

14 - -38

Right you are! It’s a shame she got killed off without a fight 5 minutes after her interesting introduction, a move that incited so much anger she got a posthumous fight scene that was busy trying to salvage someone else’s character.

She’s dead. Guess what that means? Representation test failed!

And Roman is dead too. As are a lot of white characters. Guess what that means? Doesn’t count!

15 - -40

His eyes look the same as every other heroic character’s eyes you dim-witted motherfucker, now quit hurting your arm like tha

Qrow.

Out of the twenty-three characters you listed, most of them were white as snow and their gifs were immediately followed by reaching and twisting to try to make them non-white representation, which doesn’t work. Out of the twenty-three characters listed, only two actually were nonwhite without falling into one of the pitfalls laid out at the beginning.

And of the pitfalls you listed, none were explained and all of which white characters also fell into as well so it still works.

You also disregard all but two fanaus characters for skin color despite them being the minority equivalent in Remnant.

Rooster Teeth is looking pretty damn racist. Now go away.

Actually you came out of this looking racist, especially for bitching at RT for them treating minority characters like all other characters.

Or can white supremacists call racism over white characters dying now?

Despite OP being a newbie, you completely lost. You fell into every pitfall they did and didn’t but even fucking harder. Congrats, in yoru own words, a reaching dumbass can beat you in an argument.

#saltwukong

6 notes · View notes

blackkudos · 8 years ago

Text

Biggie Smalls

Christopher George Latore Wallace (May 21, 1972 – March 9, 1997), better known by his stage names The Notorious B.I.G., Biggie, or Biggie Smalls, was an American rapper. He is consistently ranked as one of the greatest and most influential rappers of all time.

Wallace was raised in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. When he released his debut album Ready to Die in 1994, he became a central figure in the East Coast hip hop scene and increased New York's visibility in the genre at a time when West Coast hip hop was dominant in the mainstream. The following year, Wallace led his childhood friends to chart success through his protégé group, Junior M.A.F.I.A. While recording his second album, Wallace was heavily involved in the growing East Coast–West Coast hip hop feud.

On March 9, 1997, Wallace was killed by an unknown assailant in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles. His double-disc album Life After Death, released 16 days later, rose to No. 1 on the U.S. album charts and was certified Diamond in 2000, one of the few hip hop albums to receive this certification. Wallace was noted for his "loose, easy flow", dark semi-autobiographical lyrics and storytelling abilities, sometimes changing his pitch on songs. Two more albums have been released since his death. He has certified sales of 17 million units in the United States.

Life and career

1972–94: Early life, arrests, career beginnings and first child

Wallace was born in St. Mary's Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, New York, on May 21, 1972, as the only child of Voletta Wallace, a Jamaican preschool teacher, and Selwyn George Latore, a Jamaican welder and politician. His father left the family when Wallace was two years old, and his mother worked two jobs while raising him. Wallace grew up in the Clinton Hill section of Brooklyn on 226 St. James Place near the border of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, considered at the time to be within the latter neighborhood's boundaries.

At Queen of All Saints Middle School, Wallace excelled in class, winning several awards as an English student. He was nicknamed "Big" because of his overweight size by age 10. He said he started dealing drugs when he was around the age of 12. His mother, often away at work, did not know of her son's drug dealing until Wallace was an adult.

At his request, Wallace transferred out of Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School to attend George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School, which future rappers DMX, Jay-Z and Busta Rhymes also attended at the time. According to his mother, Wallace was still a good student, but he developed a "smart-ass" attitude at the new school. At age seventeen, Wallace dropped out of school and became further involved in crime. In 1989, he was arrested on weapons charges in Brooklyn and sentenced to five years' probation. In 1990, he was arrested on a violation of his probation. A year later, Wallace was arrested in North Carolina for dealing crack cocaine. He spent nine months in jail before making bail.

Wallace began rapping when he was a teenager. He entertained people on the streets and performed with local groups the Old Gold Brothers and the Techniques. After being released from jail, Wallace made a demo tape under the name Biggie Smalls, a reference to a character in the 1975 film Let's Do It Again as well as his stature; he stood at 6 feet 3 inches (1.91 m) and weighed 300 to 380 lb (140–170 kg) according to differing accounts. The tape was reportedly made with no serious intent of getting a recording deal. However, it was promoted by New York-based DJ Mister Cee, who had previously worked with Big Daddy Kane, and it was heard by the editor of The Source.

In March 1992, Wallace was featured in The Source's Unsigned Hype column, dedicated to aspiring rappers, and made a recording off the back of this success. The demo tape was heard by Uptown Records A&R and record producer Sean Combs, who arranged for a meeting with Wallace. He was signed to Uptown immediately and made an appearance on label mates, Heavy D & the Boyz' "A Buncha Niggas" (from the album Blue Funk). Soon after signing his recording contract, Combs was fired from Uptown and started a new label. Wallace followed and in mid-1992, signed to Combs' new imprint label, Bad Boy Records.

On August 8, 1993, Wallace's longtime girlfriend gave birth to his first child, T'yanna. Wallace had split with the girlfriend for some time before T'yanna's birth. Wallace wanted his daughter to complete her education, despite being a high school dropout himself. Wallace said that if his mother had promised him what he promised his daughter, everything she wanted, Wallace would have been not only a graduate but also at the top of his class. He continued selling drugs after the birth to support his daughter financially. Once Combs discovered this, he forced Wallace to quit.

Later in the year, Wallace gained exposure on a remix to Mary J. Blige's single "Real Love", under the pseudonym The Notorious B.I.G. He recorded under this name for the remainder of his career, after finding the original moniker "Biggie Smalls" was already in use. "Real Love" peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and was followed by a remix of Blige's "What's the 411?". He continued this success, to a lesser extent, on remixes with Neneh Cherry ("Buddy X") and reggae artist Super Cat ("Dolly My Baby", also featuring Combs) in 1993. In April 1993, his solo track, "Party and Bullshit", appeared on the Who's the Man? soundtrack. In July 1994, he appeared alongside LL Cool J and Busta Rhymes on a remix to label mate Craig Mack's "Flava in Ya Ear", reaching No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100.

1994: Ready to Die and marriage

On August 4, 1994, Wallace married R&B singer Faith Evans after they met at a Bad Boy photoshoot. Five days later, Wallace had his first pop chart success as a solo artist with double A-side, "Juicy/Unbelievable", which reached No. 27 as the lead single to his debut album.

Ready to Die was released on September 13, 1994, and reached No. 13 on the Billboard 200 chart, eventually being certified four times Platinum. The album, released at a time when West Coast hip hop was prominent on US charts, according to Rolling Stone, "almost single-handedly... shifted the focus back to East Coast rap". It immediately gained strong reviews and has received much praise in retrospect. In addition to "Juicy", the record produced two hit singles: the Platinum-selling "Big Poppa", which reached No. 1 on the U.S. rap chart, and "One More Chance" featuring Faith Evans, a loosely related remix of an album track and its best selling single.

Busta Rhymes claimed to have seen Wallace giving out free copies of Ready to Die from his home, which Rhymes reasoned as "his way of marketing himself." Around the time of the album's release, Wallace became friends with Tupac Shakur, also a rapper. Cousin Lil' Cease recalled the pair being close, often traveling together whenever they were not active in furthering their careers. According to him, Wallace was a frequent guest at Shakur's home and they constantly spent time together when Shakur was in California or Washington, D.C.. It was claimed by Yukmouth, an Oakland emcee, that Wallace's style was inspired by that of Shakur. Wallace also formed a friendship with Shaquille O'Neal, O'Neal remembering his first time hearing Wallace, during listening to the song "Gimme the Loot", where Wallace mentioned him in the lyrics and thereby attracted O'Neal to his music. O'Neal requested a collaboration with Wallace, which resulted in the song "You Can't Stop the Reign". Sean Combs related that Wallace would not do collaborations with "anybody he didn't really respect", adding that Wallace paid O'Neal "respect by shouting him out." Daz Dillinger said in 2015 that Wallace and he were "cool". Wallace would travel to meet with him, and Dillinger recalled serving him cannabis and recording two songs with him.

1995: Junior M.A.F.I.A., Conspiracy and coastal feud

In August 1995, Wallace's protégé group, Junior M.A.F.I.A. ("Junior Masters At Finding Intelligent Attitudes"), released their debut album Conspiracy. The group consisted of his friends from childhood and included rappers such as Lil' Kim and Lil' Cease, who went on to have solo careers. The record went Gold and its singles, "Player's Anthem" and "Get Money" both featuring Wallace, went Gold and Platinum. Wallace continued to work with R&B artists, collaborating with R&B groups 112 (on "Only You") and Total (on "Can't You See"), with both reaching the top 20 of the Hot 100. By the end of the year, Wallace was the top-selling male solo artist and rapper on the U.S. pop and R&B charts. In July 1995, he appeared on the cover of The Source with the caption "The King of New York Takes Over", a reference to his Frank White alias from the 1990 film King of New York. At the Source Awards in August 1995, he was named Best New Artist (Solo), Lyricist of the Year, Live Performer of the Year, and his debut Album of the Year. At the Billboard Awards, he was Rap Artist of the Year.

In his year of success, Wallace became involved in a rivalry between the East and West Coast hip hop scenes with Shakur, now his former friend. In an interview with Vibe in April 1995, while serving time in Clinton Correctional Facility, Shakur accused Uptown Records' founder Andre Harrell, Sean Combs, and Wallace of having prior knowledge of a robbery that resulted in him being shot five times and losing thousands of dollars worth of jewelry on the night of November 30, 1994. Though Wallace and his entourage were in the same Manhattan-based recording studio at the time of the shooting, they denied the accusation. Wallace said: "It just happened to be a coincidence that he [Shakur] was in the studio. He just, he couldn't really say who really had something to do with it at the time. So he just kinda' leaned the blame on me." In 2012, a man named Dexter Isaac, serving a life sentence for unrelated crimes, claimed that he attacked Shakur that night and that the robbery was orchestrated by James Rosemond aka Jimmy Henchman.

Following his release from prison, Shakur signed to Death Row Records on October 15, 1995. Bad Boy Records and Death Row, now business rivals, became involved in an intense quarrel.

1996: More arrests, Tupac Shakur's death and second child

Wallace began recording his second studio album in September 1995. The album, recorded in New York City, Trinidad, and Los Angeles, was interrupted during its 18 months of creation by injury, legal wranglings and the highly publicized hip hop dispute in which he was involved. During this time, he also worked with R&B/pop singer, songwriter and producer Michael Jackson for the HIStory album. Lil' Cease claimed in 2013 that Wallace denied his wishes to meet Jackson, citing that he did not "trust Michael with kids".

On March 23, 1996, Wallace was arrested outside a Manhattan nightclub for chasing and threatening to kill two autograph seekers, smashing the windows of their taxicab and then pulling one of the fans out and punching them. He pleaded guilty to second-degree harassment and was sentenced to 100 hours of community service. In mid-1996, he was arrested at his home in Teaneck, New Jersey, for drug and weapons possession charges.

In June 1996, Shakur released "Hit 'Em Up", a diss song in which he claimed to have had sex with Wallace's wife (at the time estranged) and that Wallace copied his style and image. Wallace referred to the first claim about his wife's pregnancy on Jay-Z's "Brooklyn's Finest" where he raps: "If Faye (Faith Evans, his wife at the time) have twins, she'd probably have two 'Pacs. Get it? 2Pac's?" However, Wallace did not directly respond to the record during his lifetime, stating in a 1997 radio interview that it was "not [his] style" to respond.

Shakur was shot multiple times in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada, on September 7, 1996, and died six days later on September 13, 1996 of complications from the gunshot wounds. Rumors of Wallace's involvement with Shakur's murder were reported almost immediately. A two-part series Chuck Philips wrote for the Los Angeles Times in 2002, "Who Killed Tupac Shakur?", based on police reports and multiple sources reported that "the shooting was carried out by a Compton gang called the Southside Crips to avenge the beating of one of its members by Shakur a few hours earlier" and that Wallace paid for the gun. His family publicly denied the report, producing documents purporting to show that the rapper was in New York and New Jersey at the time. The New York Times called the documents inconclusive, stating:

The pages purport to be three computer printouts from Daddy's House, indicating that Wallace was in the studio recording a song called Nasty Boy on the night Shakur was shot. They indicate that Wallace wrote half the session, was In and out/sat around and laid down a ref, shorthand for a reference vocal, the equivalent of a first take. But nothing indicates when the documents were created. And Louis Alfred, the recording engineer listed on the sheets, said in an interview that he remembered recording the song with Wallace in a late-night session, not during the day. He could not recall the date of the session but said it was likely not the night Shakur was shot. We would have heard about it, Mr. Alfred said."

Moreover, Philips' article was based on multiple sources. As the Assistant Managing Editor of the LA Times Mark Duvoisin wrote: "Philips' story has withstood all challenges to its accuracy, ...[and] remains the definitive account of the Shakur slaying." Faith Evans remembered her husband calling her the night of Shakur's death and crying due to him being in shock. Evans added, "I think it’s fair to say he was probably afraid, given everything that was going on at that time and all the hype that was put on this so-called beef that he didn’t really have in his heart against anyone." Wayne Barrow, Wallace's co-manager at the time, said Wallace was recording the song "Nasty Girl" the night Shakur was shot. Shortly after Shakur's death, he met with Snoop Dogg, who claimed that Wallace played the song "Somebody Gotta Die" for him, in which Snoop Dogg was mentioned, and declared he never hated Shakur.

On October 29, 1996, Faith Evans gave birth to Wallace's son, Christopher "C.J." Wallace, Jr. The following month, Junior M.A.F.I.A. member Lil' Kim released her debut album, Hard Core, under Wallace's direction while the two were having a "love affair". Lil' Kim recalled being Wallace's "biggest fan" and her being "his pride and joy." In a 2012 interview, Lil' Kim said Wallace prevented her from doing a remix of the Jodeci single "Love U 4 Life" by locking her in a room and according to her, Wallace stated that she was not "gonna go do no song with them," likely because of the group's close affiliation with Tupac and Death Row Records.

1997: Life After Death and car accident

During the recording sessions for his second album, tentatively named "Life After Death... 'Til Death Do Us Part", later shortened to Life After Death, Wallace was involved in a car accident that shattered his left leg and temporarily confined him to a wheelchair. The injury forced him to use a cane. He and Lil' Cease were arrested for smoking marijuana in public and had their car repossessed. Wallace chose a Chevrolet Lumina rental SUV as a substitute, despite Lil' Cease's objections. The vehicle had brake problems before the accident but Wallace dismissed them. According to Lil' Cease, Wallace's leg was shattered when they hit a rail along with Lil's Cease's jaw. Wallace spent months in a hospital following the accident and had to complete therapy. Despite his hospitalization, he continued to work on the album. The accident was referred to in the lyrics of "Long Kiss Goodnight": "Ya still tickle me, I used to be as strong as Ripple be / Til Lil' Cease crippled me."

In January 1997, Wallace was ordered to pay US$41,000 in damages following an incident involving a friend of a concert promoter who claimed Wallace and his entourage beat him up following a dispute in May 1995. He faced criminal assault charges for the incident which remains unresolved, but all robbery charges were dropped. Following the events of the previous year, Wallace spoke of a desire to focus on his "peace of mind". "My mom... my son... my daughter... my family... my friends are what matters to me now".

Death and funeral

Wallace traveled to Los Angeles in February 1997, to promote his upcoming second studio album and film a music video for its lead single, "Hypnotize". The album, Life After Death, was scheduled for release on March 25, 1997.

On March 7, he presented an award to Toni Braxton at the 1997 Soul Train Music Awards in Los Angeles and was booed by some of the audience. The following evening, March 8, Wallace attended an after party hosted by Vibe magazine and Qwest Records at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. Other guests included Faith Evans, Aaliyah, Sean Combs, and members of the Bloods and Crips gangs.

On March 9, Wallace left in a GMC Suburban SUV at 12:30 a.m. (PST). By 12:45 a.m. (PST), the streets were crowded with people leaving the event. Wallace's SUV stopped at a red light at the corner of Wilshire Blvd & South Fairfax Ave 50 yards (46 m) from the museum. A dark colored Chevrolet Impala SS pulled up alongside Wallace's SUV. The driver of the Impala, a black male dressed in a blue suit and bow tie, rolled down his window, drew a 9mm blue-steel pistol and fired at the SUV. Four bullets hit Wallace. His entourage rushed him to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where doctors performed an emergency thoracotomy, but he was pronounced dead at 1:15 a.m. (PST), six months after Tupac Shakur was killed.

Wallace's autopsy was released to the public in December 2012, over a decade after his death. According to the report, three of the four shots were not fatal. The first bullet hit in his left forearm and traveled down to his wrist; the second hit him in the back, missing all vital organs, and exited through his left shoulder; and the third hit his outer left thigh and left through his inner thigh. The report said that the third bullet struck "the left side of the scrotum, causing a very shallow, 3⁄8 inch [10 mm] linear laceration." The fourth bullet was fatal, entering through his right hip and striking several vital organs, before stopping in his left shoulder area. That bullet struck his colon, liver, heart and upper lobe of his left lung.

Wallace's murder remains unsolved and there are many theories regarding the identities and motives of the murderers. Immediately after the shooting, reports surfaced linking Wallace's murder to the murder of Tupac Shakur, because of the similarities in the drive-by shootings and the involvement of Shakur and Wallace in the East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry. In 1997, Los Angeles Times authors Chuck Philips and Matt Laitt reported that the key suspect was a member of the Crips acting in service of a personal financial motive.

Biggie's funeral was held on March 18, 1997, at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel in Manhattan. There were among 350 mourners at the funeral, including Queen Latifah, Flava Flav, Mary J. Blige, Lil' Kim, Lil' Cease, Run–D.M.C., DJ Kool Herc, Busta Rhymes, Salt-N-Pepa, DJ Spinderella, Foxy Brown, Sister Souljah and others. After the funeral, his body was cremated and the ashes were given to his family.

Posthumous releases

Sixteen days after his death, Wallace's double-disc second album was released as planned with the shortened title of Life After Death and hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 charts, after making a premature appearance at No. 176 due to street-date violations. The record album featured a much wider range of guests and producers than its predecessor. It gained strong reviews and in 2000 was certified Diamond, the highest RIAA certification awarded to a solo hip hop album.

Its lead single, "Hypnotize", was the last music video recording in which Wallace would participate. His biggest chart success was with its follow-up "Mo Money Mo Problems", featuring Sean Combs (under the rap alias "Puff Daddy") and Mase. Both singles reached No. 1 in the Hot 100, making Wallace the first artist to achieve this feat posthumously. The third single, "Sky's The Limit", featuring the band 112, was noted for its use of children in the music video, directed by Spike Jonze, who were used to portray Wallace and his contemporaries, including Sean Combs, Lil' Kim, and Busta Rhymes. Wallace was named Artist of the Year and "Hypnotize" Single of the Year by Spin magazine in December 1997.

In mid-1997, Combs released his debut album, No Way Out, which featured Wallace on five songs, notably on the third single "Victory". The most prominent single from the record album was "I'll Be Missing You", featuring Combs, Faith Evans and 112, which was dedicated to Wallace's memory. At the 1998 Grammy Awards, Life After Death and its first two singles received nominations in the rap category. The album award was won by Combs' No Way Out and "I'll Be Missing You" won the award in the category of Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group in which "Mo Money Mo Problems" was nominated.

Wallace had founded a hip hop supergroup called The Commission, which consisted of Jay-Z, Lil' Cease, Combs, Charli Baltimore and himself. The Commission was mentioned by Wallace in the lyrics of "What's Beef" on Life After Death and "Victory" from No Way Out but never completed an album. A song on Duets: The Final Chapter titled "Whatchu Want (The Commission)" featuring Jay-Z was based on the group.

In December 1999, Bad Boy released Born Again. The album consisted of previously unreleased material mixed with guest appearances including many artists Wallace had never collaborated with in his lifetime. It gained some positive reviews but received criticism for its unlikely pairings; The Source describing it as "compiling some of the most awkward collaborations of his career". Nevertheless, the album sold 2 million copies. Wallace appeared on Michael Jackson's 2001 album, Invincible. Over the course of time, his vocals were heard on hit songs such as "Foolish" by Ashanti and "Realest Niggas" in 2002, and the song "Runnin' (Dying to Live)" with Shakur the following year. In 2005, Duets: The Final Chapter continued the pattern started on Born Again, criticized for the lack of significant vocals by Wallace on some of its songs. Its lead single "Nasty Girl" became Wallace's first UK No. 1 single. Combs and Voletta Wallace have stated the album will be the last release primarily featuring new material.

Musical style

Wallace mostly rapped on his songs in a deep tone described by Rolling Stone as a "thick, jaunty grumble", which went deeper on Life After Death. He was often accompanied on songs with ad libs from Sean "Puffy" Combs. On The Source's Unsigned Hype, his style was described as "cool, nasal, and filtered, to bless his own material".

Allmusic describe Wallace as having "a talent for piling multiple rhymes on top of one another in quick succession". Time magazine wrote Wallace rapped with an ability to "make multi-syllabic rhymes sound... smooth", while Krims describes Wallace's rhythmic style as "effusive." Before starting a verse, Wallace sometimes used onomatopoeic vocables to "warm up" (for example "uhhh" at the beginning of "Hypnotize" and "Big Poppa" and "whaat" after certain rhymes in songs such as "My Downfall").

Lateef of Latyrx notes that Wallace had, "intense and complex flows", Fredro Starr of Onyx says, "Biggie was a master of the flow", and Bishop Lamont states that Wallace mastered "all the hemispheres of the music". "Notorious B.I.G. also often used the single-line rhyme scheme to add variety and interest to his flow". Big Daddy Kane suggests that Wallace didn't need a large vocabulary to impress listeners – "he just put his words together a slick way and it worked real good for him". Wallace was known to compose lyrics in his head, rather than write them down on paper, in a similar way to Jay-Z.

Wallace would occasionally vary from his usual style. On "Playa Hater" from his second album, he sang in a slow-falsetto. On his collaboration with Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, "Notorious Thugs", he modified his style to match the rapid rhyme flow of the group.

Themes and lyrical content

Wallace's lyrical topics and themes included mafioso tales ("Niggas Bleed"), his drug dealing past ("10 Crack Commandments"), materialistic bragging ("Hypnotize"), as well as humor ("Just Playing (Dreams)"), and romance ("Me & My Bitch"). Rolling Stone named Wallace in 2004 as "one of the few young male songwriters in any pop style writing credible love songs".

Guerilla Black, in the book How to Rap, describes how Wallace was able to both "glorify the upper echelon" and "[make] you feel his struggle". According to Touré of The New York Times in 1994, Wallace's lyrics "[mixed] autobiographical details about crime and violence with emotional honesty". Marriott of The New York Times (in 1997) believed his lyrics were not strictly autobiographical and wrote he "had a knack for exaggeration that increased sales". Wallace described his debut as "a big pie, with each slice indicating a different point in my life involving bitches and niggaz... from the beginning to the end".

Ready to Die is described by Rolling Stone as a contrast of "bleak" street visions and being "full of high-spirited fun, bringing the pleasure principle back to hip-hop". Allmusic write of "a sense of doom" in some of his songs and the NY Times note some being "laced with paranoia"; Wallace described himself as feeling "broke and depressed" when he made his debut. The final song on the album, "Suicidal Thoughts", featured Wallace contemplating suicide and concluded with him committing the act.

On Life After Death, Wallace's lyrics went "deeper". Krims explains how upbeat, dance-oriented tracks (which featured less heavily on his debut) alternate with "reality rap" songs on the record and suggests that he was "going pimp" through some of the lyrical topics of the former. XXL magazine wrote that Wallace "revamped his image" through the portrayal of himself between the albums, going from "midlevel hustler" on his debut to "drug lord".

Allmusic wrote that the success of Ready to Die is "mostly due to Wallace's skill as a storyteller"; in 1994, Rolling Stone described Wallace's ability in this technique as painting "a sonic picture so vibrant that you're transported right to the scene". On Life After Death Wallace notably demonstrated this skill on "I Got a Story to Tell", creating a story as a rap for the first half of the song and then retelling the same story "for his boys" in conversation form.

Legacy

Considered one of the best artists in hip hop music, Wallace was described by AllMusic as "the savior of East Coast hip-hop". The Source magazine named Wallace the greatest rapper of all time in its 150th issue in 2002. In 2003, when XXL magazine asked several hip hop artists to list their five favorite MCs, Wallace's name appeared on more rappers' lists than anyone else. In 2006, MTV ranked him at No. 3 on their list of The Greatest MCs of All Time, calling him possibly "the most skillful ever on the mic". Editors of About.com ranked him No. 3 on their list of the Top 50 MCs of Our Time (1987–2007). In 2012, The Source ranked him No. 3 on their list of the Top 50 Lyrical Leaders of all time. Rolling Stone has referred to him as the "greatest rapper that ever lived". In 2015, Billboard named Wallace as the greatest rapper of all time.

Since his death, Wallace's lyrics have been sampled and quoted by a variety of hip hop, R&B and pop artists including Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Alicia Keys, Fat Joe, Nelly, Ja Rule, Eminem, Lil Wayne, Game, Clinton Sparks, Michael Jackson and Usher. On August 28, 2005, at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards, Sean Combs (then using the rap alias "P. Diddy") and Snoop Dogg paid tribute to Wallace: an orchestra played while the vocals from "Juicy" and "Warning" played on the arena speakers. In September 2005, VH1 held its second annual "Hip Hop Honors", with a tribute to Wallace headlining the show.

Wallace had begun to promote a clothing line called Brooklyn Mint, which was to produce plus-sized clothing but fell dormant after he died. In 2004, his managers, Mark Pitts and Wayne Barrow, launched the clothing line, with help from Jay-Z, selling T-shirts with images of Wallace on them. A portion of the proceeds go to the Christopher Wallace Foundation and to Jay-Z's Shawn Carter Scholarship Foundation. In 2005, Voletta Wallace hired branding and licensing agency Wicked Cow Entertainment to guide the estate's licensing efforts. Wallace-branded products on the market include action figures, blankets, and cell phone content.

The Christopher Wallace Memorial Foundation holds an annual black-tie dinner ("B.I.G. Night Out") to raise funds for children's school equipment and supplies and to honor the memory of the late rapper. For this particular event, because it is a children's schools' charity, "B.I.G." is also said to stand for "Books Instead of Guns".

There is an oversize portrait mural of Wallace as Che Guevara on Fulton Street in Brooklyn a half mile west from the star's old block. A fan petitioned to have the corner of Fulton Street and St. James Place, near Wallace's childhood home renamed in his honor, garnering support from local businesses and attracting more than 560 signatures. The Notorious B.I.G.'s children C.J. and Ty'anna are set to star in an animated series called House of Wallace.

Biopic

Notorious is a 2009 biographical film about Wallace and his life that starred rapper Jamal Woolard as Wallace. The film was directed by George Tillman, Jr. and distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures. Producers included Sean "Diddy" Combs, Wallace's former managers Wayne Barrow and Mark Pitts, as well as Voletta Wallace. On January 16, 2009, the movie's debut at the Grand 18 theater in Greensboro, North Carolina was postponed after a man was shot in the parking lot before the show. The film received mixed reviews from critics and grossed over $44 worldwide.

In early October 2007, open casting calls for the role of Wallace began. Actors, rappers and unknowns all tried out. Beanie Sigel auditioned for the role, but was not picked. Sean Kingston claimed that he would play the role of Wallace, but producers denied it. Eventually it was announced that rapper Jamal Woolard was chosen to play Wallace while Wallace's son, Christopher Wallace, Jr. was cast to play Wallace as a child. Other cast members include Angela Bassett as Voletta Wallace, Derek Luke as Sean Combs, Antonique Smith as Faith Evans, Naturi Naughton formerly of 3LW as Lil' Kim, and Anthony Mackie as Tupac Shakur. Bad Boy released a soundtrack album to the film on January 13, 2009; the album contains hit singles of B.I.G. such as "Hypnotize", "Juicy", and "Warning" as well as rarities.

Wikipedia

#Biggie Smalls #05-21 #03-09

14 notes · View notes

subtletyislost · 8 years ago

Note

How goes those original stories of yours?

Most of them go pretty well, I think.

Scion In Space/The Forgotten Realm of Dreams goes kind of slowly, because I’m writing it on paper first and my hand gets tired. Space Cadet Luka has the same problem. Daughter of Death hasn’t gone anywhere since like 2013. And The Invisibles is sitting in a folder on my computer waiting for me to figure out what happens next.

Light in the Dark goes really well. I think part of it goes here:

Coastally located Veritae State University is the foremostuniversity to attend if one wanted to be noticed by The Seekers of Truth; therecould be no doubt about it; they had, after all, founded the university overfour hundred years ago, and that was one of the driving forces behind CassandraTesla choosing there as her school of choice.

She was alone on move-in day; she liked it better that wayhaving worked hard to get where she wanted to be, and having done all that workalone. She didn’t have, nor did she want, anyone to share the moment with. Theonly person she’d ever cared about, her brother, had gone missing when she wasstill in middle school. This university, and joining The Seekers of Truth, washer best chance at finding him.

Cassandra had never been one for plans, if she had she mighthave actually talked with her roommate beforemove-in day. Even so, despite not planning things much, she did have goals.Her goal on move-in day was simple: move in, preferably alone. She’d been underthe impression that she was the first one to arrive and that her roommatewouldn’t be coming until later in the day. So, it was a shock to her when shearrived at her dorm room and found it was already open. She tapped her footagainst the door to get the attention of whoever was inside the room. Shecouldn’t quite see who might be in there through the boxes that she wascarrying.

“I hope you don’t mind,” a soft voice from inside the roomsaid, “it’s just that it was easier to leave the door open than to have to keepunlocking it.”

Cassandra tilted her head as she walked into the room,lowering the boxes just enough to see over them as she did so. “It’s notrouble,” she replied. “Who are you?”

The girl she was addressing, that she assumed was herroommate, was probably the most delicate looking girl she’d ever seen—wearing alight blue sundress with a ribbon around her waist and matching Mary Janes. Inher mind, the girl gave the impression of the enchanted rose from Beauty and the Beast; almost more likean idea than a person. She had long dark blonde—or was it light brown—hair withfaint, but still visible, red and dark brown streaks running through it, asthough it contained a fire within its French braid. Her smile was soft, barelyeven visible, and she looked like she might have played a sport in highschool—probably archery or fencing. Her brown eyes sparkled in the light fromthe window, like a stone of topaz against a blanket of snow. Never in her life,had Cassandra ever seen a girl that made her wonder if she was staring, but shehad now.

“I’m Ruka,” the girl replied. “Ruka Oriani, your roommate.The boy—young man, sorry—stacking books on the shelf of there—“ she motionedtoward a boy and a bookshelf, both under the loft bed on the left side of theroom “is my brother, Aydan. And the girl sitting on the bed is his twin sister,Elissa. They’re helping me move in.”

The boy smiled and nodded slightly without really actuallylooking at Cassandra, but his twin paid her more attention. Cassandra could seethat they both looked fairly similar to Ruka, except that the boy’s hair wasdarker. Elissa was staring at Cassandra, looking slightly afraid—like shethought that Cassandra might hurt her sister. They were both dressed similarly,in matching t-shirts and jeans.

“It’s nice to meet all of you,” Cassandra replied. “I’mCassandra.” She didn’t exactly like the pleasantries that she was giving, butthe unexpected change to her idea of what the day would be like was no reasonto get angry with the person she’d be spending the next nine months with afterall, it wasn’t like Ruka had done this on purpose. It would be ridiculous tothink that Ruka had shown up first just so that she couldn’t be alone, unlessRuka had done it on purpose becauseRuka herself had wanted to be alone. She sat her boxes on the floor of thelittle closet on the right side of the room.

“Would you like some help with your stuff, Cassandra?” Rukaasked quietly. “I don’t have much myself, and I’m sure that Aydan and Elissawouldn’t mind helping us both.”

Cassandra started to reply and tell Ruka that she was justfine doing things by herself, but stopped when she realized that Ruka was justtrying to be nice to her and that telling her that would be kind of a jerkmove. “I don’t have much stuff either,” she replied instead. “If you and yoursiblings would like to help me, I’m not against it. I just have a couple moreboxes in my car. They’re mostly clothes, some books.”

Ruka smiled and did something that Cassandra found odd, shebowed slightly as she nodded her affirmation. “What do you think, Ay? Will youand Elissa help the two of us?”

“Mom wants us home for dinner, but father said we are tohelp you. All day if that’s what it takes. Making sure that you’re here, safe,and well attended is supposed to be our top priority today, sis,” Aydanreplied. “Honestly if he wants you safe he should tell Marissa to take a hikebefore either I or Reno kick her ass.”

“Aydan, please. Father wouldn’t want you to talk like thatand neither do I,” Ruka said. “You make it sound like Marissa is the devilincarnate, but she’s not all that bad. Besides, Reno is only seven and I would fight you if I found out you lethim fight someone four times his size.”

Cassandra listened to the slight argument between Ruka andher brother without comment, despite having questions come up at times, themost important one seeming to be ‘Who isMarissa?’. She pushed the boxes she’d been carrying into the bottom of thecloset. They were clothes, she could sort them out later, well they were mostlyclothes. One of them was her ‘desk stuff’—she’d never admit to it if someoneasked, but she was fond of little toy cars and had quite a collection of themthat she kept on her desk.

“Cassandra,” Ruka said when Aydan was finished arguing thebenefits of physically fighting whoever Marissa was. “this might sound like aquestion better asked after we’reboth completely moved in, but would you mind if we had a tv in the dorm?”

Cassandra considered this. She had left her own tv at heruncle’s house. Despite hating living with him, she did think it was a betteridea to leave some things there—at least until she found an apartment sometimenext year. The tv was only one of them, another being a small obsidian statueof some kind of dog-like animal that had been a gift from her brother.Transporting either of them just seemed like a bad idea, her uncle had paid toomuch for the tv when he bought it for her as a birthday present to riskaccidentally breaking it trying to take it to college with her and the obsidianstatue wasn’t exactly too valuable to keep in a dorm, but it did look valuableenough that someone might steal it and she was unwilling to risk that. Besides,the dorm was small and there wasn’t really a place for a 42 inch tv or aten-inch statue. “Perhaps a small one. Why? Do you have one you wanted to putin here? I left mine at home.”

“No, there’s some things my mother thinks that I need for adorm room, that she decided I could just buy once I got here and was actuallyphysically in the room. A tv was one of them,” Ruka said. “Marissa won’t behere until tomorrow, so if you’re not busy and you don’t mind, I was hopingthat maybe you could come with me when I go to buy the things on my list. Someof them are the kind of items that you only need one of in a dorm room, and ifyou don’t have them already then it’s a good idea that we both have a say inpicking them out, since well both be using them.”

“Who is Marissa?” Cassandra asked in reply. “We can decideon the things for the room, after we’ve gotten all the things we already haveinto the room.” Everything Ruka had said made sense to her, it certainly wouldbe easier to transport some things from a store in the city than from somewhereelse.

Ruka nodded slightly. “It’s not important right now whoMarissa is. She’s not here and that’s what’s important.”

Cassandra nodded, but ‘it’s not important’ was something yousay when something is definitely important. She looked at the door, then atRuka and her siblings. Elissa had climbed down off the bed and was standingbeside Ruka. It was then that Cassandra noticed the striking similaritiesbetween Ruka and Elissa, including a similar hair and eye color. If Cassandradidn’t know better, she would have sworn Ruka and Elissa were twins, and yetthere was something different about the two of them that made Ruka far moreinteresting to her than Elissa. Perhaps it was just knowing that Elissa was theyounger of the two, or perhaps it was that Ruka had that strange ‘athletic butdoesn’t work-out’ aesthetic to her, while Ruka looked more like she played amore physical sport, maybe football or some kind of martial art. “Are we goingto leave the door open or…?”

“You have a key, don’t you?” Ruka asked then smiled. “I havemy key. It’ll be fine, we won’t get locked out.”

After a moment, Cassandra nodded. “Alright. Let’s get thisover with, so your siblings can be home in time for dinner.” She turned towardthe door, and nodded toward it.

Ruka was the first to leave and the twins followed herclosely. For a second, Cassandra contemplated not going. She did want to bealone, really badly too, but… perhaps isolating herself from her roommate fromday one would be a bad idea. Especially since Ruka had reached out to her firstand was strangely fascinating to her. She was having trouble figuring out whyshe couldn’t get her mind to focus on something else, and decided that it wasjust an off day. Come on Cassandra ittakes very little effort not to be a jerk to the person you’re going to livewith. You can manage that.

When Cassandra left, she closed the door behind her. Shewasn’t shocked when she figured out that it locked automatically behind themsince Ruka had mentioned having to unlock the door every time. It seemed like auseful security feature, but it also seemed like a good way to get peopletrapped in the event of an emergency. There were probably procedures in placeto handle situations like that; she should probably ask someone about them whenshe had time. Turning to look down the hall, she noticed Ruka and the twins waitingfor her, and very slightly involuntarily smiled. It had been a long time sincesomeone waited for her just because they wanted to. Cassandra hadn’t reallyexpected herself to want a friend, she’d ran out of patience for them in highschool, but being there, and having someone waiting for her, almost made hermiss the times when she did have friends.

#light in the dark #scion in space #my writing #writing #novels #shut up amaranth #anonymous #scion talks to people

1 note · View note

craft-rose · 8 years ago

Text

october (pt.1)

Title: October

Genre: Romance/Thriller

Author’s Note: This isn’t fan fiction. This is an original story of mine, told in first person (kinda memoir style) and it has nothing to do with kpop or Harry Potter. If you choose not to read this story, I completely understand. No offence taken. Please don’t feel obligated to read everything I post if you follow this blog. I’m pretty much just fooling around with this story, testing the waters, etc.

Anyway, here goes! Forgive the messiness.

For the first eighteen years of my life, I grew up in a coastal town called Sterling Harbour, in the northwest.

The townspeople were nice. Most of them had lived there for generations. It was a small, but loving community, and the town itself was gorgeous. Originally from the big city, my parents and older brother had moved to Sterling Harbour while my mother was eight months pregnant with me. Growing up there I didn’t have many friends. The other kids were all very outdoorsy and extroverted. I, on the other hand, had spent most of my time inside the house, either tinkering with my dad’s photography gear or sneaking into my brother’s room to play with his SNES when he was out.

Suffice to say I wasn’t one of the cool kids, I had a weird haircut for most of my teens, and everyone at school thought I was a lesbian.

My only real outlet was photography. In order to get my lazy ass out of the house once in awhile, I decided to join the school newspaper and publish my photos there. It was a small gig, and it did nothing to help my social standing, but I enjoyed it. My duties included going to games, pep rallies, dances, and other ‘fun’ activities, except I was restricted to the sidelines, snapping photos of everyone else like a complete loner.

One such time, around mid-October in my junior year of high school, the senior editor, Cathy, had invited me to join her and a few of her friends at the movies. Because it was so close to Halloween, there was a horror movie marathon at our local theatre. I wasn’t very well acquainted with the editor nor any of her friends, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to go. I had nothing else to do that night.

I met them outside at around eight o’clock, and we bought tickets for the nine o’clock showing of The Shining. Before heading inside, we grabbed a quick bite at the local burger joint, and Cathy, the editor, took the time to properly introduce me to her fiends. There were four of them. Haden, Gia, Kenji, and Sam. Cathy and Haden had been going steady for a few months at that point, so they were all over each other the entire night. Gia most definitely had a thing for Kenji but he was too busy dick-riding Stanley Kubrick to notice. Then there was Sam. He was quiet, and also kind of an asshole. The others had all been very nice to me, but Sam just sort of sat there silently, grunge music flooding out of his walkman as he pointed a look of scrutiny in my direction.

They were all in the year above me, and to my knowledge, Sam had recently squeezed his way out of a rocky relationship with an older girl. Rose. Maybe that’s why he’s in such a cranky mood.

It was only as we entered the theatre and found our seats that I realized this wasn’t just a hangout … it was a triple date, and Sam had the misfortune of getting stuck with my crusty ass.

When he wasn’t glaring at me, he was glaring at Cathy. I figured his original date had bailed and Cathy had asked me to join last minute. Probably because I was the only loser who for sure didn’t have plans Friday night.

Needless to say I was just as unhappy with the arrangement.

I wasn’t actually a lesbian like everyone thought, but I also had zero interest in going on any dates with the guys from my school, particularly Sam. He wasn’t bad looking or anything, in fact he closely resembled a young Edward Furlong, but he was definitely a prick and then some, and he literally could not have leaned further away from me.

I had definitely showered before leaving the house, but the way he was positioned, he had me convinced that I reeked of garbage juice or something.

Cathy and Haden were making out, Gia was clutching onto Kenji for dear life, and I was holding back the urge to split. I normally didn’t care what my peers thought of me, but I had also never really put myself out there like that before either. It was only a pseudo date, but it was a date nonetheless — my first one as a matter of fact — and the jerk-off I was there with, made zero efforts to hide the mess of disappointment and repulsion in his eyes.

Luckily it was dark inside, and luckily I lost myself in the movie.

Around halfway I couldn’t hold it in any longer so I got up to use the bathroom. Sam didn’t make any room for me to leave. I was pretty sure I had stepped on his shoes by accident and I was pretty sure he had scowled at me.

Hakuna Matata.

I ducked out to use the bathroom, grabbing a bucket of popcorn and a drink on my way back. The others had eaten their fill before the movie, but I only had a few bites due to social anxiety, etc., so I was pretty hungry by then. I tiptoed my way inside, smirking to myself as Sam-o very wisely made room for me to walk past this time. The second I plopped down in my seat I did the kind, considerate thing, and I tilted the popcorn towards him. He lifted an eyebrow at me, very questioningly, and for a good, long moment I thought he was going to scoff at me and tell me I have cooties or something, but he did the opposite. Or at least, close to the opposite. His features softened and he discreetly popped a couple kernels into his mouth, crunching on them as I followed suit.

I wasn’t trying to his buy his affection or anything. I just figured it would have been awkward not to offer him anything. To make sure he didn’t get the wrong idea, I offered popcorn to the others, too. The bucket was half empty by the time it made its way to me.

Slowly but steadily, I felt Sam begin to look at me. I could tell he was trying to be inconspicuous, only looking at me during the high points of the movie, but I felt it every time.

About two thirds of the way into the movie, he unobtrusively leaned in and said, “You have a piece of popcorn stuck to your cheek, Ericka.”

My stomach collapsed within itself as I realized what exactly he had been staring all along, and I hurriedly brushed my cheeks. Indeed, a tiny piece of popcorn fell down onto the sticky floor, and I could have sworn I saw Sam smirk at me.

The nerve of him.

“It’s Erin,” I, then, corrected, only mildly surprised that he got my name wrong.

Once the movie was over, good ole Haden and Cathy suggested that Sam drop me off in his car. I tried to make excuses saying I lived close to the theatre and could therefore walk home, but they refused to take no for an answer. Within moments I found myself trailing behind Sam, jogging to keep up as I followed him down the street, to where he had parked his car. The skies were dark, and the pavement outside was still glistening from the evening rainfall. Although the weather had settled down, it was still very cold outside.

I hugged my coat tighter, pressing my lips into a frown as Sam sped up ahead of me.

He eventually slowed to a halt as a shiny black Nissan Skyline came into view. I wasn’t sure what sort of car I had expected for him, but a Skyline wasn’t it.

Glancing back at me as if to check if I was still there, he made no change in his dull expression; he simply unlocked the car and climbed in. I tentatively climbed in after him, hastily fastening my seatbelt as he pushed his key into the ignition.

The roar of the engine was met with music as the built-in stereo came to life, flooding the muted energy between us with Stay by U2.

I kept quiet, pointing a look through the rain-mottled window as he smoothly pulled his car away from the curb. He was a decent driver. Better than me by a long shot. I had yet to pass my drivers test. Judging by the ease with which Sam drove, I figured he had passed his test on his first try.

It was only as we reached the nearest intersection that I realized I forgot to give him my address.

We darted a look at each other at the same time, and he pulled his car to a stop in front of the red light.

“You’re on Baker Street, right?”

I raised an eyebrow at him, quickly remembering that Cathy and I lived three houses down from each other. She had most likely told him where to drop me off.

Clearing the lump from my throat, I nodded. “Uh, yeah. Fifth house down.”

He didn’t say anything to me in response, he merely drove.

As we finally reached Baker Street, I felt the knot in my gut begin to unravel. The closer we got to my house, the sooner I was able to leave. Although he hadn’t said anything mean, it was awkward being there with him, sitting so closely together in his car after he had basically ignored me the entire night. I silently wondered if he felt bad, if my popcorn offering had clued him into the fact that he had been acting like a jackass.

“Fifth house down,” Sam repeated, pulling up to the curb of my family’s house. It was light blue, a shade or two lighter than the summer sky, and the lights were all turned off, meaning my parents were probably asleep.

I promptly unbuckled my seatbelt, the gentle zip filling the silence as Sam darted a look at me.

In the back of my mind I wondered if maybe I had forgotten something, the truth dawning on me all at once. I looked back at him, hand already on the door. “Uh, thanks … for the ride.”

All of a sudden, we locked eyes, and I felt my insides twitch.

“If I asked to have a redo of tonight, would you be down?” Sam inquired, in no particular way.

My eyebrows bounced up, past my bangs. “A redo?”

“Yeah,” he nodded. “I don’t know if you noticed but I was kind of a dick to you earlier, and … well, I’d like to make it up to you.”

Holy shit. The asshole pities me.

I glanced away to hide the colour as it drained from my face and neck. “That’s … unnecessary.”

“It doesn’t have to be anything crazy,” he casually added. “Cathy mentioned you’re a Jaws fan. I’m pretty sure they’re playing the first one at the Cineplex tomorrow night.”

“Another movie?” I asked, before I could stop myself.

His bottom lip twitched with uncertainty. “Would you rather do something else?”

I sincerely had no desire to suffer through another painfully awkward encounter with him, but for some inexplicable reason I couldn’t allow myself to say no.

“We could … grab a bite or something …” I suggested, inwardly cringing at myself.

He showed no such insecurity. “Alright. I’ll pick you up tomorrow night, say, eight o’clock?”

In state of soft disbelief, I nodded and then climbed out of his car, the soles of my shoes smacking against the wet pavement as I raced to the front door of my family’s house, rummaging for the keys in my purse. It was only as I slid them into the lock, twisting it open, that I felt him leave.

Before stepping inside, I glanced back, watching as he slowly drove away, the streetlight reflected on the surface of his car.

The Next Night

I nibbled on my bottom lip, staring at my reflection in the bathroom mirror as I heard a knock on the front door. “Don’t answer the door! I got it!” I hollered from the second floor of the house, speeding down the stairs in a great hurry as my mom came out of the living room.

Her eyes briefly widened as she noticed what I was wearing. For the first time since I was a little girl, I was in a dress, by choice.

“And where are you headed?” she instinctively asked, her lips smoothing out into a knowing grin.

“Nowhere,” I mumbled, brushing past her as I quickly stepped into my boots.

Her face screwed. “Oh, no, no. Not those,” she said disapprovingly, reaching for a different pair. “Here. These should do the trick.”

I glanced down at the slinky black pumps in her grasp, a knot of worry in my stomach. “Are you crazy? You know I can’t walk in heels.”

“Well you can’t go out there in combat boots,” she furthered, sparing a moment before wiggling her eyebrows at me. “So, do I know him?”

I nearly choked on the lump in my throat. “What do you mean?”

“The boy you’re so obviously going on a date with. Is he in Newspaper Club with you?”

“It’s not a date,” I blurted, wobbling as I attempted to stand in those heels. “And I’m definitely not wearing these.”

To my luck, she didn’t persist. I laced myself into my combat boots and slid into my denim jacket, the hemline of my velvety blue dress brushing just above my knees as I opened the door. My mom bowed out of sight as to not be seen, but I hurriedly closed the door anyway, a slight hitch in my chest as I found Sam waiting for me only a few feet away, his hands in his pockets and a his cheeks rosy from the cold. Similar to the previous night, he was dressed in jeans that were torn at the knees, a black leather jacket, an Oasis t-shirt, and a pair of black Chucks which looked as though they’d been through hell and back.

He bounced a look at me, and I suddenly felt embarrassingly overdressed. If it wasn’t a date, why had I gone through the trouble of shaving my legs, wearing my hair down, applying mascara, and trapping myself in a dress?

For a split second he parted his lips as if to say something regarding my attire, but he ultimately didn’t, nodding to his car instead. “Shall we?”

I did nothing but follow, cheeks prickling with embarrassment as I climbed into his car after him. The second he pulled away from the curb, I glanced back at my house to see mom giving me the thumbs up through the living room window.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake …” I grumbled.

Sam flicked a look at me, and then at the living room window, his lips twitching into a smile as he drove away from the house. “So … where do you want to go?”

“Uh.” I hadn’t given any thought to where, but I had enough money for even the most pricey place in town. Regardless I figured it was better to go cheap. “I heard they opened a new fish and chips restaurant by the pier. What about there?”

“Frankie’s?” he asked.

I tentatively nodded. “Unless you have a better idea.”

Sam hesitated. “Frankie’s is fine,” he began. “I just … I know someone who works there.”

Um. Okay. Does he not want to be seen with me?

My heart sank at the thought. “Oh. Well, we can go someplace else. I don’t mind.”

“No, it’s cool. Worst comes to worst we can just take our food to go and hang out by the beach or something,” he suggested.

I glanced down at my exposed legs, still cold from when I had stepped out of the house. Before I could say anything, we arrived at Frankie’s and I found myself standing in line with him as the girl at the register eyed us down. She was tall, beautiful and looked to be a little older, around my brother’s age if I had to guess.

The second I got close enough to read her name tag, I felt my gut sink in.

Rose.

Sam’s ex-girlfriend.

She was a couple of years older than him, in her second year of community college, and she was visibly amused by the sight of us together. Rumour had it, she was the one who dumped him but I couldn’t be sure. He seemed rather unperturbed for a guy who was on a pseudo-date at his ex-girlfriend’s place of employment.

For a hot second I wondered if he had brought me there to show off, to flaunt, quickly dismissing the idea. Surely if he wanted to rub a date in his ex’s face, he’d have brought someone who was at least halfway on her level.

I didn’t think of myself as ugly or undesirable by any means, but I certainly wasn’t a tall, beautiful Claudia Schiffer lookalike, either.

As we approached the counter, I glanced from Sam to Rose, wishing I could have rolled my third wheel ass right out of there. I couldn’t help but make a mental note of how good they looked just standing in front of each other like that. Together. The energy between them felt magnetic.

In other words they matched, whereas Sam and I did not.

Going by the look on Rose’s face, she agreed. “Sammy,” she said, smiling as she glanced to him. “I haven’t seen you in forever. How have you been?”

“Fine,” he answered, focusing on the menu board overhead. “We’ll have two regular combos to go and two regular sized drinks, thanks.”

Rose paused as if taken aback by his curtness, quickly clearing her throat after. “Coming right up. Two combos and two drinks.”

I immediately opened my purse to grab some cash, but Sam placed a fresh twenty on the counter before I could so much as locate my wallet.

Rose pointed a discerning look at the two of us, swiftly zeroing in on me. “You’re the newspaper girl, right?”

I opened my mouth to answer, the prolonged silence only adding to how awkward it was. “Yeah. I-I take photos for the school newspaper.”

“Cute,” she smiled, plopping two drink cups on the table. “Well, you two kids have fun, yeah? I’ll go place the order. Be back in a bit!”

Within seconds she disappeared into the kitchen, her shiny blonde hair bouncing with each step, and her jeans hanging just low enough to provide a whisper of her lower back tattoo.

I instinctively looked to Sam.

“Sorry about that,” he said to me as we approached the drink fountain, pouring Coke into both. “I had no idea she was working tonight.”

I shrugged, plonking a straw through the lid of my drink as Sam did the same. “S’okay.”

Rose came sauntering back a moment later, having packaged our fish and chips into takeout containers, napkins and sauce packets on top. “Here you go,” she said brightly, her eyes lingering on Sam.

Given that I was closer, I went over to grab the food, hesitating as she pulled the containers back a second. I looked up at her, mouth drying as she gave me the stare of someone who was about to say something cruel.

“I have to say, Newspaper Girl … I didn’t think Sam was your type.”

There it was.

The first lesbian joke of many.

Sam swiftly found my side, grabbing the food and my hand, before turning with me and pushing through the doors, though not before I caught a glimpse of the look of shock on Rose’s face. Mildly satisfied, I felt Sam give my hand a light squeeze as we stepped outside.

The brisk October air was just cool enough that I felt chills, though I couldn’t be sure if the weather was the only cause.

We made it all the way inside his car before he looked at me, the warmth from the takeout containers making my thighs prickle with heat as I placed mine on my lap.

“I, uh … I look at your photos sometimes. The ones in the school newspaper,” he began. “They’re good.”

I couldn’t help but snort. “The crappy ones Cathy makes me take at pep rallies and stuff?” I asked. “Those are trash, my friend. If you want to see something that’s actually good, I’ll bring my portfolio next time.”

He quirked an eyebrow at me. “Next time?”

My cheeks blanched. “Or just like … in the hallway at school … or something …”

There was a brush of laughter behind his lips but he didn’t see it through. “Well maybe ‘next time’ can be at Gia’s Halloween party.”

“A party?” I asked, feeling like a complete dork.

He nodded, popping a fry into his mouth. “Yeah. Her parents are pretty lax, so it should be fun.”

“Oh … I don’t know. I wasn’t invited, so …”

“I wouldn’t worry about that. Gia’s cool. She won’t mind,” he added, reassuringly.

I felt a bubble of uncertainty in my gut, but I suppressed it. “Um, okay. I’ll see if I can make it.”

Sam smiled, mostly with his eyes. “Cool. So, what kind of photos do you usually take?”

“A bit of everything,” I shrugged. “I prefer landscape, but I don’t have my licence yet, and it’s hard to find good locations on foot.”

He nodded along, slurping on his drink as I began to munch on my fish and chips.

To my luck, he didn’t press me for details. We ate in comfortable silence, and once we were done, he popped out of the car to dispose of the empty takeout containers. While he was gone, I wheeled a curious look around the inside of his car. He kept it relatively clean. There were a few crumpled up receipts in places, and a backpack in the backseat, but other than that, it was spotless. Practically new.

Sam came jogging back a moment later, with ice cream. Triple scoops of vanilla on waffle cones. Granted, it was a little cold for ice cream and he was probably just trying to make up for the awkwardness at Frankie’s earlier, but I found his efforts to be endearing nonetheless. I quietly thanked him as he handed me the less drippy of the two cones, and then I gave it a lick, praying to Merlin that I could survive the next few moments without staining my dress.

Blissfully unaware, Sam devoured his top scoop in a few seconds. “You know,” he began, all tongue-y sounding. “There’s this place about twenty minutes out of town, near the beach. It might be a decent location to take photos.”

Mildly shocked that he remembered what I had said earlier, I opened my mouth to respond, only to feel melted ice cream dribble down my chin. “Shit …”

Sam grabbed one of the napkins from Frankie’s and held it out, a dash of surprise in his eyes as I misinterpreted the gesture and leaned forward. He quickly dabbed the ice cream off for me, his motions gentle, steady, precise and then we were left hovering there, inches away, just looking at each other. The second his cool green eyes dropped down to my lips, I felt my chest contract. For whatever reason he was looking at me as if he wanted to kiss me, as if he were imagining it right then, in his car, the way it might feel, and for whatever reason I was imagining it, too.

The moment I closed my eyes, I felt his hand brush the hair gently away from my face, and then I felt his lips on mine, ending the night with a chaste, vanilla-flavoured kiss, lightly, as if he knew it was my first one.

Track

#original

9 notes · View notes

nevadacountydude-blog · 8 years ago

Text

ON SUNDAY, NEW YEAR'S DAY 2017, we awoke to a dark and roiling sky and ocean. The waves on the gray water were churning up acres of foam, rain was falling from the black clouds. Hail fell. Snow fell. The wind blew. We were cozy in our room after our wild New Year's Eve; splitting a bottle of Champagne and staying up till eight o'clock. We spent the day in our room, reading and looking out at the changing sea and sky. For lunch we had left-over Thai food. In the early evening we made a short drive to Kyllo's Seafood Grill for dinner. My nice clean car, that I'd parked in the hotels covered garage, got rained on. :^( Dinner was great. We sat in a booth in a window, overlooking the beach and the roiling sea. Barbara had the crab cakes, I had the halibut; we shared a berry cobbler ala mode. The food was delicious, the service excellent, the view spectacular. ON MONDAY WE AWOKE TO GLORIOUS SUNSHINE and blue skies. We packed up and headed south, towards Coos Bay. We wound through lush rainforests and then open vistas of the churning Pacific; every once in a while we'd pass through a little town - sometimes a big one...but not very big. The sun was out and then it wasn't and then it was. It sprinkled occasionally. We took one side trip out to the Yaquina Head Lighthouse, mainly because the signs said it was an "Outstanding Natural Area". It was pretty nice but I'm not sure if it was outstanding. It was definitely cold. We got out of the car long enough to take a selfie of us in front of the lighthouse. We stopped in Florence at MO's for lunch (they have the best clam chowder in Oregon...or so it is said). Barb had the chowder, I had the fish and chips but I got some of Barb's. We eventually rolled into Coos Bay to the Fred Meyer store, which is like a Target, and got a partial charge at their EVGO charger. I picked up a few items in the store while we waited. I wanted a bottle of gin but forgot we were in Oregon and because of their antiquated laws, you can only buy hard liquor in a special liquor store. We found the Coos Bay Manor Inn and checked in. It was a beautiful old home in an old residential neighborhood. Our room was spacious and light. Our hostess, Madge, seemed nice but I will confess, we found her to be slightly "off". She talked about he history of the house but it was very fragmented and didn't make much sense. She talked about herself and her family (she'd lived her whole life in Coos Bay) and that too was a bit fragmented and confusing. But, she never asked anything about us; where we were from or what we did, etc. It seemed odd to me, and Barbara. I would think that one of the perks of owning a B&B is meeting people and learning about them. It was almost like she was hiding some dark secret (My best guess: bodies buried in the basement). There were menus from all the local restaurants for our perusal in the living room. In the end, we decided our lunch had been sufficient and we were tired of traveling and not interested in going out to a restaurant, so we had tangerines and potato chips for dinner, with kettle corn for dessert. ON DECEMBER 28, 1851, the "Captain Lincoln", an old-at-the-time, three masted schooner, left San Francisco, bound for Port Orford on the Oregon Coast. She immediately encountered bad weather blowing up from the south. It pushed her north; the direction she wanted to go. But, she began taking on water due to her aged condition and was unable to make it into Port Orford. She was driven farther north. The pumps were manned 24 hours a day to no avail; the water began to gain on them. Their only recourse was to try to beach her to save the cargo. At two in the morning on January 3, 1852, the captain gave the order to run her into the shore. Luckily it was a sandy one and not rocks. Everyone got ashore and eventually most of the cargo too. The ship was destroyed. They built shelters for themselves and the cargo out of masts and spars and sails, and waited for rescue; they called it Camp Castaway. That was 165 years ago tomorrow and it was the first U. S. settlement at Coos Bay. ON TUESDAY WE HAD A NICE breakfast in the inn's dining room and then set out to explore. It was a cold morning; frost everywhere; the car was like a block of ice. We drove out to Cape Arago State Park and walked out to the edge of the ocean. It was so cold we didn't stay long; we didn't even take a photo. The ocean and rocks were beautiful though. There was a botanical garden there too but because of the cold we opted not to go check it out. We drove back into town and eventually back to our room. In the afternoon we went to lunch at a Mexican place, then walked to the liquor store across the street for wine. Once again we ran into problems with their liquor laws: you can only buy liquor in a liquor store; you buy wine in a grocery store. The good news: they had Death's Door gin. I bought a bottle. Pot is legal to buy in Oregon but alcohol is a pain in the ass! I HAD A DREAM: I was talking to Steve, the owner of the Golden Era, and he told me he was looking for an old beat up camper; if I saw one, let him know. Soon thereafter I saw one. It was on an old beat up pickup truck and had hand-made camper on it; it was like a gypsy wagon; like a giant barrel (not unlike one we'd seen the day before on the road). I bought it, figuring I'd just turn around and sell it to Steve. When I had him come look at it he started picking it apart. He didn't like the sink (which looked just like the one in our room at the B&B). He didn't like the toilet. The truck was too rusty, etc. I was about to freak out, when I woke up. WHEN WE WENT TO MESA VERDE last year and marveled at the cliff dwelling sites, they evoked one giant question: why? Why would a people who lived on the mesas happily for a thousand years, decide to move to the difficult to access and supply, cliffs? We both agreed it had to because they were hiding from something. The book "ICE", that I just finished, takes that premise all the way: they were hiding from aliens who were abducting them. Not the greatest book but it was an adventure that covered half the globe. MY REVIEW OF THE COOS BAY MANOR INN The Coos Bay Manor Inn is a beautiful, stately, old home in a quiet neighborhood. Our room was of a nice size and had a king sized bed. The bathroom was small but to be expected in a 150 year old house. Our hostess was a bit strange and we were surprised she didn't take charge of cooking our breakfast but hired someone to do it; a woman who was dressed as if she was going out to milk the cows and had a personality that said: I hate my life and I hate you and I want to die. And, there was no mention of "organic, non-gmo, sustainable, local, etc.". But, our stay was "fine". Would we stay there again? Probably not. ON WEDNESDAY MORNING WE awoke to two inches of snow! At sea level! It was beautiful out; everything was blanketed in white. We packed up and headed south through a winter wonderland to Bandon where we got a charge. While there a local guy and his wife came up to the car and explained they lived in town and had recently bought a Tesla. Like all Tesla owners, including ourselves, he couldn't stop talking about it. We arrived in Brookings around noon and had lunch at a somewhat dingy cafe. Then we went to Fred Meyer's (Oregons Target) and bought some wine and few snacks. We checked into our hotel. We had a beautiful room overlooking the ocean. We could watch and listen, to the waves crashing on the shore. We had cocktails...and a bag of potato chips...and some chocolate...we were in for the night. THURSDAY WAS A GLORIOUS, SUNNY morning, from the perch of our room on the shore. After coffee, a bagel and a couple of tangerines we took a nice long walk down the beach and back. The air was freezing cold but the sun was warm; the ocean blue and beautiful. Around noon we went to the restaurant next to our hotel and had lunch; we split a crab Louis and a bowl of clam chowder. The Louis was great, the chowder a bit weak (we're chowder experts now, having sampled it in almost every town on the Oregon Coast). From there we explored Bookings. Actually looking for where they sold "tourist crap" (T-shirts, etc.); apparently they don't have a place; we couldn't find it. We did come across some beautiful coastal vistas though. In the evening, after nearly going blind watching a glorious sunset, we went to Kitanishi Sushi for dinner. We'd been there the last time we were in town (about a year and a half ago) and loved it. It didn't let us down; it was perfect. I ate enough sushi to feed a family of four. Barbara had the teriyaki salmon. ON FRIDAY MORNING WE packed up again and headed south again; this time for Mendocino. The drive along the coast was beautiful, as was the drive through the redwoods. It was a long and winding road though and by the time we reached our destination, we were done. We checked into the Inn at Cobbler's Walk. Patience, our hostess, was anything but; she ran through the map of the property, the amenities and the rules so fast, the only thing I remembered was that we were allowed only one Presto Log per day for our fireplace. I suspect Patience was a former school teacher and a good one at keeping her pupils in line, for when I got out of line by questioning the logic of having our room on one side of the road and all the amenities on the other, she shut me right down, not with these words but with this sentiment: "Now, now Johnny, just calm down. You know we don't allow dissent in our classroom." Our room turned out to be fairly sumptuous, spacious, high-ceilinged and beautiful in a minimalistic way. We were on the west side of highway one; the main house was on the east. And when I say "side of Highway One", I mean ten feet from it. During our stay 864 vehicles rumbled by, 214 needed muffler work. We didn't have a picture window or sliding glass door to look out, we had several windows. Three of them looked at Highway One, the other looked south and gave us a far-away view of the coast, and a close up view into our neighbor's bedroom window. We put our one log in the fireplace and got it going. We had a dinner of sourdough, cheese and salami we'd picked up in Fort Bragg. We had a glass of wine. We were in for the night. WE AWOKE IN THE morning to the storm that'd been forecast. Rain and snow were covering the entire state. We stayed in while it raged outside. Around noon the rain let up so I took the trail to the bluffs (Barbara was too cozy). It meandered through meadows and pines and eventually spilled me out on the cliff above the shore. The sea was churning and crashing on the rocks. It was a lonely but beautiful place. We spent the rest of the day reading; I'd just started "The Simpleton". IN 1542 THE PORTUGUESE EXPLORER, Juan Carrillo, sailed from New Spain (Mexico) up the coast of what is now California to Cape Mendocino. He named it after the Viceroy, Antonio de Mendoza. He was the first European to be in the area. In he 16th century, the Spanish regularly sent ships from Mexico, with ill-gotten gold and silver to trade for silks and spices in the Philippines. The problem was the return trip. They had not discovered favorable winds and currents to make the trip easily. Until, a Captain Urdaneta, sailing the San Lucas, on a hunch sailed north from the Philippines to near Japan before finding the currents and winds he sought. He crossed the Pacific relatively easily (Unfortunately, he hadn't planned well and his stores ran out causing many of his crew to die of hunger and scurvy) and arrived on the North American coast near Cape Mendocino in 1565; opening up a new, lucrative trade route. Another ship, the San Jose, left Manila in 1657. A year later it was found intact and adrift off the coast of Mexico; its crew and passengers all dead and mummified. ON SATURDAY EVENING we walked across the "street" to the main house to partake of the Inn's "Wine Time" and later, a "Farm to Table" dinner. At Wine Time we met a few of the guests and chatted a bit, but at the Dinner we met three very different but very nice couples; all from the Bay Area. One couple was retired; he from the storage shed business, she from teaching the third grade. Another young couple; he in the healthcare insurance business, she in the cyber security business. And another couple; he an attorney, she in healthcare administration. The attorney had, three months ago, taken a crash on his mountain bike at Downeyville (in my opinion he was way too old to be mountain biking) and was badly injured and had to be airlifted out. His neck was still in a brace. He was lucky to be alive and ambulatory. Oh, and by the way, the dinner was unbelievably delicious.

0 notes