#costumes and a story that made me cry and an absolute angel as the lead

[risingphoenix24601]

I love Anastasia the Musical so much. Can we just talk about Anastasia the Musical? How it's my favorite musical ever? How it has the best love song I've ever heard? How it's main theme is everything is more complicated than it seems and we're all human beings? How it doesn't glorify monarchy and shows the harm it did but also that the Romanovs were human beings and that to Anastasia the Tsar was just papa, and the revolution destroyed everyone she loved? How it has a positive portrayal of a disabled character in the lead?

i think it's really funny how Dmitry saves Vlad from being shot and then Vlad just kinda starts following him around. they're like that one vine "i should have left you at that corner where your were standing" "but ya didn't" idk they are quite silly

[incurablyromanticsblog]

Don't know how people are gonna feel about this but Loki should've been dealt with the way they dealt with Lucifer (from the Netflix show) I mean while the show straight up dismissed loki's feelings, lucifer netflix really showed us the natural and organic character growth with ups and downs while still maintaining the comic hilarity (WHICH WASNT AT THE EXPENSE OF THE MC). It's love interest and side characters are all original characters dealt as independent characters rather as brownie or plot points.

And the scenes that prompted me to think this?

1. Lucifer asking his Mazikeen to cut off his wings because he's moved past being a pawn in his father's 'Great Plan'. We could've had loki come to this conclusion and tell Mobius (who would've been an actual all out ally who was forced into doin lg what he did) that he no longer wanted any place in a land that hated him. (Once again like Lucifer calling the silver city hell)

2. Lucifer actually being the way he's supposed to be (angel of light, light bringer etc.) We could've had Loki act like the way he Actually Is. Not like how @iamnmbr3 so eloquently put it 'like larry the dumb lookalike'. We could've had Loki being stern yet having that air of sarcasm and wit that he had in his the films. His eloquence, his physical prowess (none of the falling flat on his face stuff, a lot of people talk about how he was trying not to hurt the people in ep 2 but srsly Loki would just immediately disarm them), and most of all his agency and refusal to cower or the pathetic attempts at lying.

3. Costumes. The lucifer netflix team had an extensive costume department that ironically pales in comparison to what disney is capable of but still we see Lucifer have a wide array of clothes and styles. Have Loki take the first chance to change his clothes. If he wants the 50s aesthetic have at it! he can wear the tuxedos and the nice leather. Or maybe change into some nice Viking-inspired leathers and battle armor. Have him as a pirate, or a knight or a cowboy. You're traveling through time good man! you can at least hit some of the cool spots.

4. In depth analysis of lucifer's mental health. the only episode of the Loki tv show I liked (loose term) is the first one cause it's the only one that gave a fraction of what we were promised: an insight into loki. That's it.

5. Lucifer's organic growth. This is self-explanatory. Loki watched one video and was good. Very good five stars. I understand that they only had six episodes but come-on. You could've had the subtle changes through out all the eps and lead to the big finish finally. With each episode focusing on certain aspects of Loki.

5. Lucifer's exploration of self-loathing. This deserves to be a separate point because Istg it was done so well. Basically lucifer messes up and he's faced with the hatred that's been conditioned into him (not unlike Loki) and then he learns what it is and actually tries to love himself. And not by kissing a female variant of himself (ew and also respect the gender fluid persons). He actually saw the good in him by reflecting and his actual good friends helping him.

6. Lucifer actually wanting to be good. Look Idc what shut mike waldron wrote, loki is not selfish when his whole arc has been doing things for asgard, thor, odin, frigga etc. We all know that New York was mind control, I do not know why it's being swept under the rug. But here's the thing, that self loathing I mentioned earlier is a huge part of Loki thinking he's some monster and intent on proving it.

7. Lucifer facing his 'devil-face'. Loki should've come to terms with his Jotun heritage. The TVA could've had a case in Jotunheim concerning the Royal Family and Loki could've seen the entirety of Jotunheim and it's people not just that most-likely war propaganda the Asgardians force-fed him. Maybe have him meet his siblings or better yet his mother. There's a very nice fic on A03 called Asgardian Galdr that deals with this beautifully.

8. Luicfer having a Breakdown and Crying: First off this happens gradually, his problems pile up etc etc. and he faces off his father and gets angry until he finally breaks down. And basically God says, "I'm sorry but i can't fix you," And Lucifer in all his grief and desperation asks, "But you're God,'. I know we talk a lot about Loki being made weak in the Show but that's specifically about him being made weak and helpless to make Sylvie seem like a stronger character (Don't get me started on the Sif and Narcissm scene istfg), But maybe seeing Loki try awkwardly to be good and near the finish of the show we see it blow up in some angsty way? only for some conversation like this to happen and have Loki understand that being good is something that is innate and something he already had the potential for all along. Maybe learn that he's not lawful good but as always the morally grey character we know him as. (Protector of misfits, god of outcasts i.e all the shit Marvel shat on) and rise as the God of Chaos and Stories against the rigid bonds of The TVA and essentially Kang.

9. Lucifer having a nice healthy romantic interest and relationship. Lucifer and Chloe's relationship is more often than not the main point of the show but no matter how much it is focused on it remains health, organic and not a weird allegory for something disgusting. Even if Sylvie weren't a Loki (once again ew) the whole dynamic was toxic. She constantly put him down, and invalidated his feelings (Sounds like Odin huh?) and guess what Loki fell in love with her after one day, one conversation of what love was and Mobius calling her his girlfriend (he also said that it was freakish and i agree). We could've had Sigyn sweet lord. (I'll make another post about this)

10. Lucifer's Sexuality. There is a whole episode in which Loki's paramours are getting murdered and they all vary from men to women to all that comes in between. And there's no shame, no offensive jokes. Have Loki flirt with dudes, i understand ms.karen that this is for children, don't worry the casual sex ;) was offscreen. Have Loki turn into a woman and flirt with woman cowards, maybe make some questionable remarks about horses (That make Sigyn laugh)

11. Lucifer's Powers: lemme sum up, Lucifer can, let's call it, use compulsion on people. He is known for his strength and prowess and abilites to grant favors. Have Loki shapeshift into animals, absolutely mauling people. Have him use his silver-tongue to coax people into making or changing history (Yes Brutus, Caesar is getting to be a bit much, say have you heard how sharp knives are?)

I'm pretty sure there's more that i can't remember rn. And here is one thing i would like to make very clear.

You are not bad for liking the show or hating it whatever. The problem is that the show framed a lot of bad things as good (Anything the TVA did, Mobius' torture session with Loki, the way Sylvie treated Loki only for them to become romantic partners, the Sylkie fiasco as it was offensive to genderfluid people and the bare fucking minimum of LGBTQ and POC rep). The show was also marketed specifically to make us think hey! Loki might actually be the main character only for it to blow up in our faces. We were also promised an actual plot rather than a constantly plot twisting concept that could've been worth something.

Also i'm still working on a Loki fic rn after which i will write a Loki(TV) Rewrite but unitil then ig.

[dessarious]

The Angel of Death Pt28

Inspired by this Story Starter by @someone-ev

AO3   Prologue   Beginning   Previous   Next

“Of course I do Nooroo, but it’s dangerous for you to come with me. After this mess there’s likely to be others coming after me until I kill enough of them to make them stop. Not to mention the organization that trained me was under the impression that I was dead and one of them, at least, is going to recognize the way I fight.” Tris glared at Fu the entire time she was speaking. None of this would have happened if he had just talked to her rather than running off to try and get himself killed. She was too focused on him and didn’t notice a string connected to Adrien move until it was too late.

“So you’re the one who murdered my husband.” She was mentally cursing in every language she knew as a woman, obviously wielding Duusu’s Miraculous, stepped out of the shadows. She’d given the box to Chloe for safe keeping, not so she could just hand Miraculous out to everyone she knew. At this point she half expected Luka and Kagami to show up in costume. Granted it was nice to know that the strings weren’t at all impacted by the Miraculous, at least not to her.

“I am.” Tris couldn’t tell by the woman’s tone if she was upset by that fact or not, but she wasn’t about to back down now. She did what was necessary, and she’d do it again.

“She’s also the one that fixed Duusu’s Miraculous and saved you.” Nooroo was floating protectively in front of her glaring at everyone indiscriminately. She wasn’t certain why the Kwami had decided she was his to guard but he’d been incredibly overprotective since the night she’d rescued him. Chat Noir went over to whisper in the woman’s ear and her expression went from confused to shocked. Great, just what she needed, one more person knowing how old she was. She’d gone three years with no one finding out and now there was absolutely no hope of ever keeping it underwraps. There were going to be assassins coming at her left and right to prove they’re better than her. Because her life wasn’t screwed up enough as it was.

“This is really not the place for this conversation. I was live streaming the fight, or rather massacre, to try and stop the rumors now going around that I’m an inept child thanks to someone telling these idiots information I foolishly divulged.” Fu just looked at her calmly, no sign of guilt or remorse. She was seconds away from stabbing him just to let out frustrations and he didn’t seem to sense the danger. She really shouldn’t be surprised. “So if everyone is going to insist on lecturing me before I disappear I suggest we go elsewhere.” She would just leave but knowing Chloe especially, someone would try to come after her and that would just get them killed.

The Miraculous holders looked confused more than anything else. Wonder Woman was frowning at her the same way all her teachers did when she corrected their misinformation. She couldn’t wait for whatever was going to come out of her. Fu looked disappointed, it was a look she was used to getting from Talia to be honest. Her Nonna though… she looked smug? No that wasn’t it. Proud maybe? It had been so long since anyone had looked at her like that she honestly wasn’t sure.

“Lead on then.” She took the cue from Gina and headed back out the side entrance assuming the others would follow. She was honestly hoping they didn’t but there was no way she’d get that lucky. She ended up leading them to the warehouse she’d used to meet Fu at. It seemed appropriate and even if everyone else seemed willing to divulge their identities and secrets she wasn’t going to help them. She was tempted to take them back to Fu’s shop just to get back at him, but the Kwami would be in more danger if she did that. When they got there the others detransformed and it took everything in her not to yell at them for their lack of caution. Plagg, Tikki, and Duusu all immediately rushed her to cling onto her.

“You can’t just leave.”

“You can’t just leave me here with them! I haven’t had this much fun in centuries.”

“Even if you do leave the Miraculous will still be in danger since people will come after Fu to find you. We must make a plan before anything else.” Duusu’s plea and Plagg’s insulted tone didn’t carry near the weight of Tikki’s reason. The Kwami of creation had a point and she really did need to figure out how to keep them all safe. Fu she couldn’t care less about but the Kwami needed to be protected.

“And you’re all just okay with the fact that she makes a living killing people?” Wonder Woman sounded somewhere between insulted and confused by the Kwami’s behavior though she had no idea why.

“My fairy only goes after those that need to be killed. Men and women who destroy innocent lives for no reason other than power and greed. She’s doing the world a favor and you should all be thanking her for it.” Yep, definitely pride. It was so weird to hear that directed at her.

“You’re the new roommate that Adrien was telling me about. The one with no social skills that’s making the faculty cry and have mental breakdowns.” She just shrugged at Mme. Agreste’s comment but Chloe let out a bark of laughter.

“You should have seen her tear apart the history teacher's doctoral thesis. It was a thing of beauty. She’s not allowed near any of the general education teachers now.” She still didn’t understand what the big deal was. He should have been happy she pointed out his mistakes before he actually turned it in.

“You really killed my father?” Adrien’s timid question made her pause. For all Plagg seemed to think he wouldn’t hate her for it, people tended to be rather attached to their family whether they deserved it or not.

“Yes.” He was obviously expecting more of a response but she wasn’t going to make excuses for it. She was hired to do a job and she did it, end of story. Chloe let out a strangled noise.

“You’re an assassin.” Tris just nodded. Wasn’t that already established? “Someone paid you to go after Hawkmoth.” She nodded again finally understanding where she was going with this. “My father hired you didn’t he?”

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[pocketseizure]

Disneybound

Case #0180602. Statement of Ted Nakamura, regarding a strange experience at the Haunted Mansion attraction in Disneyland, California. Statement recorded directly from subject on June 2, 2018.

Jonathan takes the statement of someone whose memories may not accurately reflect the events of his childhood. He then has a short conversation with Martin and learns something (perhaps not so) surprising about Elias.

The events of this story take place after Episode 103, "Cruelty Free" (the one in which Jon reads the statement of a farmer in New Zealand with a monster pig).

( This story is also on AO3. )

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Jon cast a level gaze at the American sitting on the other side of the table. He was fit and clean-shaven, and he appeared to be in his early thirties. He wore a wide grin and a bright red shirt depicting Minnie Mouse posing in front of the Eiffel Tower.

Jon sighed and pressed the record button of his tape recorder.

“Statement of Theodore Nakamura – ”

“Call me Ted, please. Or Teddy, if you like. All my friends do.”

“Ted Nakamura, regarding a strange phenomenon he experienced at the Haunted Mansion attraction in Disney World – ”

“Sorry, but it’s ‘Disneyland.’ Disney World is the one in Florida.”

“In Disneyland, California. Statement recorded directly from subject on May 25, 2018.”

“This is exciting! I love the detail you’ve devoted to authenticity. The tape recorder is a nice touch.”

Jon grimaced. “Statement begins.”

A hint of uncertainty crept into Ted’s smile. “I’ve never done this before. Is there a protocol? Maybe some sort of standard introduction I should start with?”

“Just tell me about the incident you came to report. You can start whenever you’re ready.”

“All right, I’ll start at the beginning.”

Ted clapped his hands on his knees and took a deep breath. Jon watched as his eyes made a brief circuit around the densely packed shelves arranged in disorderly rows at the rear of the room before finally coming to rest on one of the objects jammed between the accordion folders and cardboard boxes. He’d witnessed this process often enough that he could pinpoint the object of the man’s attention – a cloudy snow globe with a tarnished metal base. It wasn’t connected to any of the cases on file in the archives, merely something Gertrude had brought back from one of her travels on a whim.

“I guess you could say that I’m not the sort of person who would be the star of a Disney movie,” Ted began. “I’m not an orphan, and I had a happy childhood. My mother was an architect who moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles during the construction boom of the 1980s, and my father went to business school at UCLA and never left. His family is from Seattle, and they made some money in real estate in the 1990s. We’re comfortably middle class, but I went to one of the big public schools in Orange County.”

He paused, seeming to expect some sort of reaction. When it became clear that no such reaction was forthcoming, he continued.

“Even in LA, where everyone tries to stand out, high school was all about belonging to a group. I didn’t have any interest in the grandstanding of my school’s Gay-Straight Alliance, and I didn’t have the looks or the talent for the student theater club, which is where a lot of kids like me spent a year or two on their way out of the closet. Mostly I kept my grades up and my head down as my circle of friends from middle school gradually went their separate ways.

“My mom worked from home, and she made sure our house had the first high-speed internet connection in my neighborhood. I don’t mind admitting that I spent a lot of time online. I posted an embarrassing number of bad stories about cartoon characters on LiveJournal, and I eventually ended up being invited to join a popular Disney fan community moderated by a friend of a friend. All the people I spoke with on the comm were strangers, at least at first, but we gradually got to know one another as we responded to each other’s posts and comments.

“Between one thing and another, we somehow managed to figure out that most of us were the same age. Oddly enough, a lot of us lived in SoCal, so we decided to meet up over the summer at Disneyland. Everyone showed up, and we had a great time. We met again the next summer, and then again after my senior year.

“Nothing bad happened, but I stopped updating my LiveJournal after that. I went to college in New York, got a job in the city, and fell out of touch with most of my online friends.

“I moved back to LA four years ago, not that I do anything glamorous. I manage the back end of a tech company’s website and intranet, mostly database stuff, but I still have an IG account. I started it just for fun, but I joined early and picked up more than a thousand followers in less than a year. Someone suggested that it would be cool for me to visit to Disneyland and post photos, so I thought, why not? Like, I love Disneyland!”

Jon cleared his throat. “And what is this ‘strange incident’ you came to report?”

“Hold your horses, I’m getting to it. It’s important that you know my background, right? What I’m trying to say is that I’d only been to Disneyland three times before. It wasn’t a major part of my life. But it was a good part of my life – that’s important.”

Jon nodded in acknowledgment. “Very well, then. Duly noted.”

“Disneyland was considered to be a little seedy when I was in high school, but it’s gotten fancy in the past ten years or so. It used to be that you could just walk in, but these days you practically have to make an itinerary. So I did some research, got a group of people together, and we went and saw the sights. Everyone wore an outfit to match the style of a character, and we took a lot of pictures. The photos were so popular that I hit 5k followers in less than 24 hours, can you believe it? Everyone and their sister is into DisneyBounding these days, but picking up that sort of following from on-location fashion photos was still a thing you could do in 2015.

“Like I said, I had a happy childhood, but no one ever paid me that sort of attention. It was such a dopamine hit, you have no idea. Or maybe you do?”

Jon grit his teeth. “Please continue with the statement.”

Ted laughed. “Pushy, aren’t you? But that’s all right. It’s weird, but I feel like I can tell you anything. Has anyone ever said that to you before?”

“You’re not the first.”

“Maybe it’s the librarian thing you’ve got going on – or archivist thing, sorry. Puts me right at ease. And I appreciate that. If there’s an adult who willingly goes to Disneyland for fun, especially someone like me, people tend to think that’s creepy. The therapist I was seeing at the time called it ‘Peter Pan Syndrome,’ of all things. I never went to another appointment with her again, but that’s beside the point. What I’m trying to say is that I kept going back to Disneyland, usually with friends but sometimes with my boyfriend, who I met on Insta. We bonded while sharing theories about the Haunted Mansion, which is… Well, it used to be my favorite ride in the park. It still is, I guess, but I can’t go on it anymore.

“It took me long enough to get here, but this is the part of my story that should interest you. The reason I like the Haunted Mansion is because it reminds me of my mother, who passed away from a heart attack while I was living in New York. It was very sudden, completely out of the blue, and I never got to say good-bye. I never cared about the Haunted Mansion when I was in high school – we all thought it was cringe for some silly teenage reason that probably involved how awkward it would be if we were in the dark with each other. It wasn’t until I visited the park again as an adult that I finally went on the ride. When I did, I had this sudden flashback to a childhood memory.

“I must have gone to Disneyland with my parents when I was young, because standing in the dark and listening to the music made me recall being on the ride with my mother. This was during the lead-up, before you get in the Doom Buggies and begin the ride proper. I remember being absolutely terrified by what I thought was an endless maze. I felt like that line, after it entered the building, lasted forever. Kids can be like that sometimes, but my memory of this is crystal clear – the corridor genuinely didn’t end. I felt like there were people all around us, there had to be, but somehow it was just me and my mother, alone in the darkness.

“And then I remember that this terrible thing appeared out of nowhere. I’m not sure how to describe it. It definitely wasn’t a person in a costume, but it was too realistic to be the projection of a cartoon, and it was talking to us in voice that sounded like laughter and crying at the same time. Like it was hurt, but it found its pain amusing. Meanwhile, the walls kept stretching, and as they got taller I started to see awful things in the gaps between the ceiling and the floor.

“My mother held my hand the whole time. She kept whispering to me: ‘It’s going to be okay. You are brave, and you are strong. Nothing in here can hurt you.’ Just that, over and over, until the ride was over.

“When we finally got out, I ran straight to my dad, who knelt down on the pavement on the other side of the gate and hugged me. He and my mother both patted my back as I cried. I was so relieved to be outside again that my tears wouldn’t stop.

“My dad seemed confused by how afraid I was. This didn’t occur to me until I started thinking about it much later, but isn’t it strange that he didn’t understand why a young child would be frightened by a scary ride?

“I moved back to LA almost immediately after my mom’s funeral, but Dad became a little distant with me. We were both grieving, and it must have seemed callous to him that I was posting shots of myself at Disneyland on social media right after Mom died. Really I just needed a break from the move, from my job, from mourning, from everything – and I guess a part of me felt like my mother would never die as long as I kept returning to that memory of her holding my hand in the Haunted Mansion.

“My dad eventually moved on and married a younger woman. She would probably be my evil stepmother if my life were a Disney movie, but she’s actually a princess, and I adore her. I spend more time with her than I do with my dad these days, but I’m trying to do better. I thought I could reconnect with him if I took him along with me on a visit to the park, but he turned down my invitation. He told me he enjoyed my photos, but that he had never been to Disneyland and had no interest in going. Too many screaming children, he said.

“That was a surprise to me, so I told him about my memory of the Haunted Mansion. While I was talking, his face went completely pale. I don’t mean that as a figure of speech – it was like all the blood had been drained from his skin.

“He insisted that he had never been to Disneyland with me and my mother, but then he told me something strange. When I was about five years old, we went to visit his family in Seattle. My grandfather had just taken on management of a property in Capitol Hill, one of the old Gothic Revival mansions that used to be common there before the neighborhood gentrified. It was an old house, almost as old as the city itself, but my grandfather was having trouble finding potential buyers. The property had been designed by the student of a famous British architect by the name of Robert Smirke, and he wanted my mother to come take a look. Do a walkthrough, point out any potential areas of interest and value, that sort of thing.

“According to my father, my mother had a bad experience in that house. She refused to talk about it with him or anyone else, and she never went back to Seattle. She took me along with her on her tour of the property, and I was apparently just as upset as she was when we came out, even though my dad says we spent less than ten minutes inside. If I thought this place was the Haunted Mansion, and if the ride at Disneyland evoked such a strong memory, it makes me wonder – what did we see in that house?

“I checked with my grandfather, and he said the property never did find a buyer. The only person who seemed seriously interested was a British woman by the name of Gertrude Robinson. Shortly after she made inquiries, the place burned down. Imagine my surprise when I ran a search and learned that this Gertrude Robinson was employed by an institute dedicated to paranormal research.

“So,” Ted concluded, meeting Jon’s eyes, “I gave you my statement. I hope it will be useful to you. I was wondering what you could tell me in return.”

“Not much, I’m afraid. As you can see, we’re still in the process of organizing our records. We’ll investigate to the best of our abilities and contact you if we learn anything.”

“I would love that, thank you. Well, you have my information so…”

“We’ll be in touch. I believe I see my assistant Melanie hovering around. She used to have a large following on social media herself. I’m sure she’d be happy to show you outside.”

“So you’re from LA,” Jon heard Melanie say as she held the door open. Ted directed his dazzling smile at her, which she returned before allowing the door to slam shut behind them.

“Statement ends,” Jon muttered as listened to their conversation growing fainter. He ended the recording and leaned back in his chair.

“Any thoughts you’d like to share, Martin?”

“Oh, I, um,” Martin stammered. “I didn’t want to interrupt the, you know. The statement.” He rubbed the back of his neck as he emerged from between the shelves.

“It’s fine, Martin. It was a relief. To know that you were listening.”

“I’m sorry, I… What? It was?”

“I’ve never been good with people like that.”

“People like… Wait, excuse me?”

“People who are so…” Jon made a vague gesture to illustrate his point. “Sunny. Bright. Content. When someone comes here to make a statement, they’re usually upset.”

“Ah, right. I can see what you mean. But he looks like he just got back from a trip to the happiest place on earth.”

“The happiest place on earth?”

“You know, Disneyland Paris.”

“Disneyland Paris? They finished construction?”

“A few decades ago, actually.”

Jon sympathized with Ted Nakamura’s father. Between the crowds and the relentless sunshine, he couldn’t imagine a more ghastly location, and by this point he considered himself something of an expert on cursed geography.

“I don’t suppose we’ll have to go there ourselves to investigate,” he said, making an attempt to smile. He failed. His muscles were still tense from the process of taking a statement, and his face felt frozen.

“Really? You… want to go to Disneyland Paris? I suppose I could come too, I mean, if it’s not…”

Jon was alarmed by how red Martin’s face was becoming. Did Martin want to go to a theme park? Jon didn’t know much about Disneyland – or Paris, for that matter – but his childhood had been unusual, to say the least. He’d never asked, but Martin’s family couldn’t have been much if he had nowhere to sleep but down here in the archives. Perhaps he could use a vacation. Perhaps they both could.

Jon turned to face his assistant. “Martin, I…”

“Did someone say Disneyland Paris?”

Jon frowned. “Does this conversation interest you, Elias?”

“I heard you were planning a trip. You really must go sometime. It’s fantastic, quite the experience. I went myself, back in 1996.”

Elias made a quick series of taps on the screen of his phone before holding it out in front of him. Jon and Martin leaned forward to get a better look.

In the photo, Elias was posing next to someone wearing a Mickey Mouse costume. He wore an aloha shirt over denim shorts, and he was grinning from ear to ear. The camera had caught him in the act of pulling a tall man with a square jaw and a severe expression into the frame. The image quality was poor, but the man seemed far too pale for the summer sunshine.

Jon’s frown deepened. “And that is…?”

“Oh, this is Peter. You’ll meet him soon enough, I’m sure.”

“Do you, um. Do you go to Disneyland often, then?” Martin asked.

“Just the once. Peter lost a bet, you see.”

“Right.” Jon couldn’t put his finger on it, but he had a bad feeling about this.

“I wouldn’t mind going back. We could all go together, make an office party of it. It would be fun. You do know what fun is, don’t you, Archivist?”

Martin’s eyes darted between Elias and Jon. “I don’t think it’s safe to…”

“Come now,” Elias interrupted. “Would you have any reason not to?”

“China.”

“Excuse me?”

“China. I need to follow up on a statement, something Gertrude was looking into before she traveled to New Zealand.”

“Excellent. I’m glad that’s settled. I’ll leave you to your preparations, then.”

“Damn it.” Jon clenched his fists on the table as Elias left. A trap had been set, and he’d walked right into it.

“Don’t feel bad,” Martin said, oddly perceptive. After everything they’d been through, Jon was coming to appreciate that about him. “At least we know that Elias is still human. He likes Disneyland, after all.”

Jon wasn’t convinced that a fondness for theme parks qualified someone as being ‘human,’ but what would he know? He had to admit that Elias was right about one thing – it would do him good to get out of the archives.

“Are you really going to China, then?”

“I suppose I am.” Jon removed his glasses and rubbed his forehead.

“I’ve always wanted to go someplace like that, somewhere far away,” Martin said, his eyes darting to the tape recorder on the table. “I’d like to hear about it. If you don’t… If you don’t mind, of course. Maybe I could, I mean, we could go out for a coffee together. After you get back.”

“All right,” Jon replied, replacing his glasses. That would be rather nice, actually. “After I get back.”

[pluckyredhead]

Daredevil 101: What Happened to Milla, Part 1

For the past while in Daredevil 101, Matt has been somewhat rockily married to a woman named Milla Donovan. Sharp-eyed readers may have noticed that Matt is no longer married in comics continuity. What happened?

*sigh* “To the Devil, His Due” and “Without Fear” happened, aka Daredevil v2 95-105 by Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark. Aka an absolutely interminable parade of pointless cruelty riddled with dangling plot threads and misogyny. Yes, the team that gave us the masterful “Devil in Cell Block D” has now gone off the rails so hard that Amtrak is still working on the repairs. (Sadly, their run never improves, so strap in, I guess.)

Now, Milla is not exactly my favorite character, but very few things in DD history make me madder than the way she was written off. It’s so clear that Brubaker wanted to fridge her but realized he couldn’t get away with a fifth dead Daredevil love interest, so he figured out a different “fate worse than death” (hoo boy we’ll have to unpack that in Part 2). No price is too high for a woman to pay if it means Matt Murdock suffers, amirite?

And with that tempting introduction (?), let’s get into it!

Content Warnings: Ableism, sexual assault and implied threats of sexual violence.

We begin with Melvin, who is in jail thanks to having attacked Matt back when he was blackmailed into doing so. Specifically, we begin with Melvin in a room with a bunch of dead bodies he swears up and down he isn’t responsible for.

Matt and Foggy and most especially Becky Blake believe him and take his case, but just a few days later it happens again - Melvin is found surrounded by dead bodies and claiming to have no memory of what happened but that he didn’t do it. The psych eval doesn’t go well, in that, well, he passes:

According to the doctor, this isn’t Melvin being taken over by his Gladiator personality or an actual second person stepping in - this is just Melvin himself killing people. Which for Melvin’s legal team (and friends) is the worst possible option, of course.

Meanwhile, Milla appears to have taken up therapy:

Aside from what this story does to Milla and Melvin, part of what makes it so bad is the structure. This was partially due to a couple of company-wide crossovers that we’ll see marching through the book in a little bit, but also just lots of things being set up and then dropped without going anywhere. Here we see Milla in therapy, which is never returned to or discussed. The sinister way this is framed makes it clear that the person she’s speaking to is the villain of the piece, but the fact that he met Milla at therapy is never revealed or mentioned at all. Later in the scene he says something about how he hasn’t told his wife that he’s in therapy but he should stop underestimating her, which is clearly meant to get under Milla’s skin in regards to her relationship with Matt, but that kind of subtle manipulation is too interesting for this story and leads absolutely nowhere. And of course we don’t get to actually see Milla talking to her therapist, which would require her to have an interior life.

Which means we have an entire scene that could have been replaced with a single panel of Milla bumping into someone on the street that would have had exactly the same effect on the plot. And the pacing problems only get worse from here, folks!

Anyway. The state decides to move Melvin, but he escapes his prison transport - and attacks Matt, who’s been keeping an ear on things:

Melvin kicks the crap out of Matt and escapes, but Matt realizes that there’s something wrong with Melvin - it may not be the Gladiator taking over, but this isn’t his friend, either.

The next day, Nelson and Murdock receive a surprise guest: Lily Lucca, who you may remember as she of the Karen-smelling perfume who aided and abetted in multiple murders and lured Matt into a confrontation with Vanessa Fisk:

As you’ll recall, the perfume Vanessa gave Lily to entrap Matt with makes her smell like every man’s fondest memory [INSERT GIANT EYEROLL HERE], which is why Foggy’s falling all over himself here. But now she has a problem: even though she’s not using the perfume anymore, she still smells like it, which means men are constantly creepily following her around, getting into fights over her, etc.

This is...sigh. There’s an aspect of “female character is punished for using her sexuality” here that makes me super uncomfortable. Certainly 90% of comic book villains have some kind of monkey’s paw in their backstory (“I tried to make a cool suit of armor and now I have robot tentacles!” “I tried to cryogenically freeze my dying wife and now I am really cold all the time!” etc.), but there’s a way in which it’s weaponized against certain types of female characters that’s deeply gendered and often kinda rape-y. (I got this vibe with Debbie and Micah Synn as well.) Lily wanted to control men through their desire to her? Well, now they might desire her so much they’ll assault her! That’ll show her! I guess. Ugh, it just grosses me out.

Anyway, Matt reluctantly agrees to help her, or more specifically have Dakota help her, since she won’t be affected by Lily’s scent the way he and Foggy will. Even with this caveat, when he meets Milla for dinner she does not like this:

I think we’re meant to be reading Milla as not being entirely rational about Lily because she’s so jealous of Karen’s memory and Lily reminds Matt of Karen, but she’s not wrong. I have no idea if we’re meant to read Matt as being sort of a douche in this scene but if my husband was like “Keep your voice down” and “Don’t be so hyperbolic” I would walk out of that fucking restaurant.

Or run, as the case may be:

Matt distracts Melvin so that Milla can get away (lotta Ms in this storyline), then somehow quick-changes to Daredevil for a fight. Melvin knocks him out and Matt wakes up handcuffed in the back of a police car:

The cops are arguing because it’s the middle of Civil War, which didn’t touch the Daredevil book very much but Matt was firmly on the anti-registration Team Cap side, unsurprisingly. As an unregistered superhero, just being out in a mask made him a criminal. (They don’t do anything with the fact that his secret identity was basically an open book at this point, which would have been interesting.)

Anyway, The Mysterious Voice Speaking On A Frequency Only Matt Can Hear gleefully tells him that he left his wallet at the restaurant, which has his home address, which means Melvin knows where to find Milla. Of course, Melvin was one of Matt’s bodyguards when his identity was first exposed and definitely already knew where he lived, but whatever.

Milla is, of course, wandering around the apartment in nothing but a bra and panties when Melvin shows up, because Daredevil artists apparently love putting her in her underwear to terrorize her and this is the last chance they’ll have to do it.

Melvin takes Milla up to the roof to wait for Matt. I’m including this exchange, where Milla tries to talk him down by appealing to his better nature, because it’s basically her last moment as herself. Reminding others of their better angels has always been one of her strengths, and she deserves to have that highlighted before...everything else.

Matt shows up. Melvin throws Milla off the roof:

Matt miraculously saves her and returns to fight Melvin, but Melvin has pretty much given up at this point and it’s all over but the crying. He’s bundled off to maximum security, and that’s...well, that’s the end of Melvin. This storyline came out in 2007, and this sweet, interesting character who has been around since the Silver Age has been unusable ever since. So thanks for that, Brubaker.

Matt’s furious, and determined to figure out who did this to Melvin:

“What did your sensei say about fighting angry?” always makes me laugh. Also, why would you ever suggest Matt follow Stick’s advice, Foggy, honestly.

(Foggy is A+++++ in this storyline and it makes me mad that I can’t even enjoy it because he’s just frantically trying to salvage a steaming pile of shit the whole time. Also given the overall ableism in this story I’m a little :/ that he basically takes over being the functional adult like Matt’s incapable of it.)

Matt runs into another dropped plot thread here because he gets on the trail of a street drug that makes people angry, which, like, how would Melvin have even gotten that in prison anyway, especially nonconsensually? Also, every other depiction of this drug shows it putting the user into a senseless rage, but Melvin sure was able to find his old lair, put on his Daredevil costume, track down Matt, and kidnap his wife when the plot required him to. How very Guardian Devil.

Anyway, Matt starts tracking the drug to its source. Meanwhile, Milla shows up at N&M:

Yeah, from here on out Milla is all tears and hysteria. Sigh.

Foggy decides to take her home, and Lily tags along, even though Foggy thinks that’s a REALLY REALLY bad idea because a) she's upsetting Milla, b) she fucks with Foggy’s head, and c) every dude in the subway is going to be all over her. But Lily insists, because she’s...manipulative? Genuinely feeling guilty and choosing the absolute worst way to fix that? Flimsy plot reasons? Let’s go with flimsy plot reasons.

While waiting for the train, Milla pretty much loses her shit at Lily, and also the world in general:

“I don’t know what I’ve done to you” is pretty rich, Lily. YOU LURED HER HUSBAND ON A MURDER CHASE ACROSS EUROPE.

Meanwhile, Dakota is still trying to figure out where Vanessa got Lily’s original perfume from - and Matt has followed the drug trail back to the Enforcers, a bunch of goofy-ass Silver Age villains we haven’t seen in decades. (They are specifically named the Ox, Fancy Dan, and Montana. They are ridiculous.) They clobber him and take him to their leader:

LARRY CRANSTON. MISTER FEAR. He made the perfume. He drove Melvin insane. And he’s the reason behind what happens next:

Lily lives. The random bystander does not. And when Matt, having been literally thrown out of the window and into the garbage by Mister Fear, returns home, Foggy is waiting for him:

Next Time: Milla is taken into custody, and Matt searches for a cure.

[accidentally-logince]

Guardian Angel - Chapter 4

Summary: Virgil spent years dying and then being resurrected the very next day, and no one but himself seems to remember it happening. He finally works out a way to end it for good, but he left his friends in the overworld, and he can’t bring himself to fully disappear until he knows they’re all safe

If you missed: Prologue, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3

A heads up, I’ve recently switched from writing 1st person to writing 3rd person, so if you go back and read the previous chapters, the perspective will be slightly different up until this one

Warnings: Suicide mentions, mentions of death, crying, mentions of bullying

Word Count: 1.3k

Pairings: Royality, eventual Moxiety

---

Patton walks up to school the next morning with surprising ease. He'd expected some sort of hesitance as he approached the door, a falter in his steps. But he's able to push the door open with practically no reluctance. Roman gives his hand a reassuring squeeze as they walk into the lounge, and Patton smiles up at him fondly. They'd walked together after Patton had slept at his house, and Patton had one of Roman's sweaters draped over his shoulders, having woken up too late to go back to his own house to get clothes.

Logan is in the lounge, waiting for them when they walk inside. He rushes over, pulling Patton into a rare hug. Patton wraps his arms around Logan, trying to draw out the hug for as long as he can. He had to admit, the worst part of staying home was that Logan was hardly allowed to come over. Roman, he would walk into Patton's living room every day. But Logan's parents wouldn't let him over that often.

There's still awhile before the bell rings for first period, so Roman leads them into the drama room, where the teacher, Ms. Sherbrooke, let him stay in the loft when none of the theater tech was working.

It's quiet up there, with the seemingly endless racks of costumes muffling their voices, and the ones of the kids practicing in the room below. Patton finds all the rest of his worry melting away as they chat about absolutely nothing, breaking into fits of laughter every now and then. 

Only then, Patton finds himself noticing the strain on the others' eyes. Logan had had a sort of stressed look to him since even before Virgil had died, but now, it looked as though it was for something entirely different. Patton frowned, finding himself talking less and less, until the others started to notice. They give each other a knowing glance, and Logan quietly looks away, silently giving the speaking role over to Roman, who sighs.

"They have a memorial set up for Virgil today," he says, his eyes flickering away from Patton's for a split second. "We were worried about telling you, because we didn't want to scare you from coming back. It's first thing today."

Patton shrinks into himself a little. How ironic. Just the day he'd decided to come back, and now look what's happening. But he just breathes in, calming himself down. "I'll be okay," he says. His voice is surprisingly steady. "I want to be here... when we're all saying goodbye to him." Roman gives him a soft smile, stretching his arms out. Patton accepts the invitation, wrapping his arms around Roman. A few tears slip onto his cheeks, but he finds that he's surprisingly content. 

There was only fifteen minutes left until first period. They were able to look past the nerves of the upcoming memorial, and went back to chatting about nonsense. Even with the strain of the memorial gone from their eyes, Patton again started to notice that initial strain that Logan had around his eyes for awhile. He was about to finally ask about it when the bell rang, and they all shot each other glances that seemed to say "here we go".

"We've gotta head to the gym now." Roman stands up, slinging his bag over his shoulder. "You're sure you'll be okay, Pat?" He reaches out a hand, helping Patton stand.

"I'm sure," Patton answers, taking Roman's hand and grabbing his own bag--which was overrun with work from the past few weeks he'd been gone. "I would feel awful, missing the memorial. I want him to know I care."

When they get back down to the main drama room, Ms. Sherbrooke is herding the drama kids out the door, instructing them to get to the gym. She turns around at their footsteps, and when she catches Patton's eye, she gives a gentle smile. Patton is grateful for the sincere sympathy that shines in her eyes.

The gym is loud and dark when they finally get there, pushing through hordes of kids to get to the bleachers. With the lights dimmed, it's hard to walk up the steps without tripping over any bags, but they finally make it to the top, and Patton is relieved to see that the corner seats are empty. 

They push past the kids on the top row, and Patton squeezes into the far corner. Roman sits next to him, draping a gentle arm over his shoulders in reassurance as Logan sits on the outermost seat next to them.

The three of them sit quietly until Principal Woodfield walks onto the makeshift stage, leaning into the microphone standing in front of her. She spends a few minutes getting the rest of the kids to settle down. The attitude of the groups round them showed Patton just how much they all cared that his best friend was dead. He found himself glaring at the wall. At least some of the kids were quiet, if not out of respect, then out of shock.

When Principal Woodfield started talking, Patton wasn't even listening. He was too far in his own head making his own monologue, how he wished he could just yell at everyone who was disrespectful. He ends up with tears in his eyes, thinking of everything of everything he wished he could say to Virgil, of everything he wished he could say to everyone--

"Would anyone like to say a few words in memory of Virgil Tempest?"

Patton doesn't even realize his hand is up until all the eyes turn to him. His eyes widen, fingers curling with nerves as everyone stares back at him. 

"Patton Meadows. Come down to the stage, then."

His eyes flicker through the audience, seeing everyone watch him as he slowly brings his hand down. Roman's hand touches his leg delicately, and Patton turns to meet his eyes. He looks worried, but Patton gives him a reassuring smile and stands up, carefully walking down the bleacher steps on stiff legs, as if his body were telling him "No! Don't go up!" He ignored it in favour of making sure he didn't trip over any bags.

Everyone had gone silent, or perhaps that's just the shock, causing Patton's hearing to go shallow. He takes a couple deep breaths, his fingers tapping against his legs as he gets to the stage, and looks back timidly at the hundreds of kids who'd never even cared about Virgil. Many of them had even made fun of him. He didn't deserve this, to be surrounded by people that hurt him his whole life, that had probably made him do this in the first place

Patton's tongue is thick in his mouth for a few moments, before he forces it to move. 

"Virgil was my best friend. He strived to make his friends feel safe, to make them feel accepted and happy. He supported me, through all of my hardships, through all of my lowest moments. I wish I'd been able to support him through his." Patton's throat threatens to close up with tears, but he clears his throat and continues. "Virgil was his own continuity. He made his own story, he didn't want to conform to what others expected. He... he gave off his own atmosphere, a kind of attitude that was so comforting, and familiar, and... and I hope that... he's still here with us. He'll live on through us and keep us safe."

Patton's eyes drift up to meet Logan's. Even from down on the stage, he can tell his eyes are misty with tears, and he gives him a soft smile. Then, right as Patton thinks he's run out of words, he remembers Logan's drawings and leans back into the mic.

"Our very own Guardian Angel."

---

My Other Fics

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[lilyvandersteen]

Invisible

Author’s note: I couldn’t resist writing a oneshot from Blaine’s point of view in the A Rose for You verse. Enjoy!

The first part of this story, A Rose for You, can be found here. Or on AO3 or Fanfiction.net.

Chapter 2: Invisible

“Please, Blaine? I don’t want to come here all by myself…”

Trent pouted, and Blaine felt himself waver. It wasn’t like he WANTED to go to a theatre camp organised by what seemed like the most pretentious git he’d ever met. He’d much rather perform at Six Flags again, at least then he’d be earning some money.

But Trent had been his rock and his shoulder to cry on so many times, and Blaine knew it was about time he helped out his friend for a change.

“It looks great, honey bee!” Pam beamed at Blaine, and Trent’s mom nodded enthusiastically.

Of course they’d say that… Anything to get them out of the house for two weeks.

But Blaine resigned himself to his fate. “Okay.”

“You’ll come?” Trent asked, his voice high and jubilant.

“Yep.”

“You’re the best friend ever!” Trent squealed, hugging Blaine, and then whispering into his ear, “My mom said it was either this or football camp, so thank you for saving me from that!”

K&B

A week later, Trent and Blaine arrived at the OSU campus with their luggage and were shown to their dorm room. They’d be sharing it with two other boys, one of which had already arrived. His name was Chandler, and neither he nor his mom seemed to have an OFF switch, both of them jabbering non-stop.

Blaine felt a headache coming on, and escaped the room for a minute to go check out the shower facilities and the kitchen.

Turning the corner, he bumped into a new arrival, a ridiculously tall guy carrying two large suitcases.

“Sorry!” they said in unison, and then they laughed.

“Hey, where’s room 206?” asked Tall Guy. “That’s where my brother will be sleeping.”

He pointed behind him, and Blaine’s mouth went dry when he saw the absolute vision now gracing his view. The guy was a super model, he was pretty sure.

“I’m in 206 too,” said Blaine. “My name’s Blaine. Come with me, I’ll show you the way.”

“I’m Finn,” Tall Guy volunteered, “and that’s Kurt.”

Kurt didn’t acknowledge Blaine. He just followed Finn and Blaine to room 206, his eyes firmly on the ground and his mouth a thin line.

Another guy who really doesn’t want to be here?

When they came into the room, Blaine announced, “Guys, this is our fourth roommate, Kurt. Kurt, this is Chandler and this is Trent.”

Blaine saw Kurt’s eyes skitter over the people in the room for a fraction of a second. Then he looked down again without saying anything.

“So which bed is Kurt’s?” Finn asked.

Chandler bounded up to Finn and Kurt, and with a bright smile, he announced, “He’ll be bunking with me. I chose the top bunk, I hope that’s okay? If it’s not, I can switch, it’s no big deal.”

Kurt had taken two steps backwards and hidden behind Finn when Chandler came towards him. Was he scared? It seemed kind of silly to be scared of Chandler, of all people. But Blaine, remembering his freshman year in a public high school, recognised the signs. He, too, had once been bullied to the point where even the sweet cashier in the supermarket made him jump in fright when she spoke to him or made a sudden movement.

Blaine’s heart went out to Kurt, and he wanted to take his hand and assure him that everyone here in this room was safe to be around. He didn’t really know Chandler yet, but he was pretty sure the boy was harmless.

But it seemed like Blaine’s explanation would have to wait. Chandler had clearly spooked Kurt to the point that he needed to leave the room. He was now tugging Finn after him and mentioning something about visiting a girl called Rachel in her dorm room.

Blaine resolved to talk to Kurt when he came back. Only, Kurt didn’t return until everyone was in bed, and Chandler and Trent were already fast asleep.

Kurt came into the room silent like a ghost, took his sleep things and his sponge-bag and headed to the showers. When he came back, his eyes scanned the room, relief on his face when he found Chandler sleeping.

He’s going to scream in fright when he sees I’m awake, isn’t he? I had better talk to him tomorrow. In broad daylight. That’s less scary.

So Blaine closed his eyes and pretended to sleep, and within a minute he’d fallen asleep for real.

When he woke up the next day, Kurt had already left the room, though it was only eight o’clock. Blaine took a quick shower, threw on a tank top and shorts, and went to the cafeteria for breakfast. He internally fist-pumped when he saw Kurt sitting there alone, reading and picking at a half-eaten muffin. Blaine ordered a medium drip and a chocolate croissant and headed in Kurt’s direction. Just before he reached the right table, though, a girl plunked down on the chair opposite Kurt and started chattering at a volume and speed that made Blaine wince.

Okay, some other time, then…

The auditions for the play were that day, and Blaine sang “Something’s Coming”, giving the performance his all.

He saw the director nod, scribbling something on his clipboard. “You’ll do. Best I’ve seen so far. Next?”

The next person proved to be Kurt, and Blaine hung back so that he could hear him sing. He wasn’t disappointed. From the very first note, Kurt had him entranced, and he stood there gaping in awe listening to the crystal clear voice reaching notes so high that it seemed impossible, and weaving a spell over him that made him want to be close to this angel always.

The director, though, did not seem moved. With a curt “Next”, he waved Kurt off the stage, and when he pinned the cast list onto the cork board the next day, Kurt wasn’t even on it.

Blaine, whose heart had leapt with joy when he saw he’d be playing the male lead, went through the list twice more to check. How was it possible that Kurt hadn’t gotten a part when he was so talented?

“I can’t believe it!”

Blaine looked up, ready to agree to the sentiment, but the sight of a furious Kurt left him speechless. Kurt chewed Jesse out for his arbitrary casting, accusing him of choosing actors that didn’t have half of Kurt’s talent. Jesse didn’t give in, though, merely handing him over to the main stage hand to learn all about the backstage work.

Kurt took one look at the handsome blond and shut up straightaway.

Blaine wanted to scream, “He’s straight! I saw him kissing his girlfriend this morning! Don’t crush on him, pick me!”

But then he remembered that he’d gotten the lead role, and that Kurt must surely resent him for it, so he swallowed the words and went to find and meet the Rachel Berry that would star opposite him.

The next week and a half, he tried everything he could to catch Kurt’s eye, but he might as well have been invisible.

He got up early in the hopes of having breakfast with Kurt, but Rachel always beat him to it, and he didn’t dare get up before Kurt had left the room in the morning, wary of scaring him.

Blaine tried bringing Kurt coffee during his breaks, only to have the director swoop in and take the mocha with a “Oh, I needed that”, and gulping it down without so much as a thank you.

He helped out with the painting of the backdrops after the day’s rehearsals were over, but Kurt was concentrating so hard on his work that he didn’t even hear Blaine’s timid tries to start a conversation.

When Lisa, who played Rachel’s mother, had no other option than to bring her daughter with her to rehearsals one day, Kurt entertained the little girl by telling her stories and drawing pictures for her to colour in, and then singing to her when she became whiny because she was tired. Blaine went to his dorm room for his guitar and provided the instrumentals and harmonies, but he didn’t think Kurt even noticed, focused as he was on the girl.

Blaine dressed in his tightest pants and T-shirts, and made sure to smile at Kurt with all the Anderson charm as often as he could, but Kurt never had eyes for anyone but Stagehand Sam, who was tall and blond and ripped.

Even Blaine wiggling his tush at Kurt on purpose during his costume fitting, wearing his skimpiest briefs, had no effect. Kurt’s face remained impassive. It didn’t stop Blaine from smiling at him sunnily before leaving, but his mind was whirring with plans to make his interest in Kurt clearer.

He’d try joining his crush for breakfast once more, and if that didn’t work, he’d have to step it up. With a serenade, maybe. Or flowers?

The next morning, more determined than ever before, Blaine used the time Kurt spent in the shower to get dressed, and then jumped back into bed when he heard him come back into the room. His eyes widened when he saw that Kurt was wearing nothing but a tiny towel around his waist, which barely covered his ass, and he couldn’t keep a groan from escaping when Kurt bent over and his ass cheeks were clearly visible.

The noise he made startled Kurt, who looked around him in a panic. Blaine shut his eyes and did not move until Kurt had left the room. Then he quickly went to the campus café, catching his crush just as he paid for his purchases.

Perfect!

Blaine asked if he could join Kurt for breakfast, but he was turned down flat, and Kurt was gone in a second. That was… disappointing, to say the least.

Okay. I need to step it up. Flowers it is.

Blaine went to the nearest florist and looked at their offerings, finally buying a bouquet of red and yellow roses. Those colours would certainly pop, and maybe that would get Blaine Kurt’s attention?

Blaine planned on giving the roses to Kurt after the dress rehearsal, and then, hopefully, they could have a coffee date before opening night.

What he hadn’t counted on, though, was the rehearsal going wrong. Badly wrong. Chandler stumbled into the tower, and the last thing Blaine remembered was running towards Rachel when the tower came down with her in it, holding out his arms to catch her. She fell on him and then everything went black.

When he came to, Kurt wordlessly handed him an ice pack and then went into problem-solving mode to get the tower back up and Rachel in the tower though her ankle was sprained.

Blaine got out of the way, but froze when he saw the bouquet for Kurt, which he’d been hiding behind one of the bigger props. It had been hit by the debris of the tower, and most of the stems and flower heads were crushed.

Blaine took the broken flowers and went backstage, mourning another ruined plan, until he noticed one flower had survived. It wasn’t the biggest, and it wasn’t in full bloom yet, but it would have to do. He laid it where only Kurt would look: right next to the sewing machine.

As disastrous as the dress rehearsal had been, so smoothly flowed the real performance, and the audience was really into it, giving them a standing ovation and clapping for ages.

Blaine beamed as he slipped backstage to change out of his costume. Then, he went to check if Kurt had found the flower yet. And yes, he was at the sewing machine, and holding the flower. He seemed convinced it belonged to Rachel, though.

Time to come clean…

So Blaine stepped closer and told Kurt the flower was for him.

Kurt’s first reaction was fear again, and then astonishment, even when Blaine bared his heart to him. He did accept the rose, though, when Blaine offered it to him again, and the blush and smile that stole over his face were beautiful.

So Blaine worked up the courage to ask him out, only for Kurt to tell him he didn’t even know Blaine’s name.

Ouch.

Before Blaine had recovered from that blow, Kurt had linked arms with him and was tugging him out of the auditorium, talking about a diner he wanted to go to, if that was okay.

As soon as Blaine caught up with the programme, he agreed to whatever Kurt wanted to do, and before he knew it, they were sitting in a diner booth, sharing a milkshake and fries and talking and laughing. And it was… everything.

Blaine had to pinch himself to check if he wasn’t dreaming, and more than once, he zoned out just looking at Kurt, who was at his most beautiful when talking freely about his family and his interests.

“Hey! Are you even listening to me? Are you falling asleep?”

Blaine shook his head. “You’re… distracting. You’re so gorgeous I can’t help staring.”

Kurt covered his mouth with his hand, but there was no hiding his wide smile and reddening cheeks.

“We should probably head back to our room, though,” Blaine sighed. “It’s getting late, and we have another performance tomorrow.”

“Our room?”

Blaine rolled his eyes. “Yes, rub it in that you never noticed me before, why don’t you?”

Kurt giggled, and Blaine wanted to bottle that sound and label it as pure happiness.

“I’m one of your roommates,” Blaine explained. “The others are Trent and Chandler. They’re nice guys, I promise.”

Kurt bit his lip and nodded.

Blaine paid the diner bill, and they walked back to campus, Kurt winding his arm through Blaine’s again.

When they arrived at their dorm room, Kurt stopped Blaine from going in with a hand on his arm.

“This was really nice,” said Kurt. “Thank you.”

“Anytime,” Blaine beamed.

“I’m sorry I didn’t notice you before,” said Kurt, looking down.

Blaine lifted Kurt’s chin until he could look into those gorgeous eyes again and smiled softly. “You have now.”

Kurt’s eyes flitted down to Blaine’s lips, and Blaine’s heart rate accelerated.

“Can I…?” Kurt asked.

Nodding, Blaine puckered his lips and met Kurt halfway.

Kurt’s lips were soft, and so was his hand when he cupped Blaine’s face with it halfway through the kiss. Blaine closed his eyes and savoured the moment.

Far too soon, the kiss ended, and they stood there grinning inanely.

“Was that… okay?” Kurt asked. “I’ve never really… I mean, there was this girl in my sophomore year…”

“That was more than okay,” Blaine assured him. “I want to do that again and again and again, and then some more.”

Kurt’s grin grew wider still, and then he pecked Blaine on the lips again, grabbed his hand and led him into the room. “Tomorrow then. Now it’s time to sleep. But tomorrow. Definitely.”

Blaine resisted the urge to fist-pump. “Breakfast tomorrow?”

Kurt smiled at him. “It’s a date.”

[goofynerd-67babylove-blog]

Sexy Slushy Slinger

Author: goofynerd-67babylove

Pairing: Dean, Sam, Castiel x reader (Winchesters’s sister)

Warnings: none, fluffy crack, very small mention of smut (one picture below the cut contains slight nudity)

Word Count: 1,454

Summary: You found out the Winchester’s are your brothers, and have been living with them for a couple years, when you meet human Castiel. It’s Halloween, and you want them all to go to a costume party with you. Problem is Castiel got his costume advice from Dean.

*note* I thought of this idea after reading @reigningqueenofwords story called “I’m Batman” and I wanted to give her inspiration credit. I hope writing this story doesn’t offend you. I loved your story, but I’m a Cas girl, and I just had to write this.

***Please I know I am not well known, but I do not give anyone permission over my fanfiction*** (stealing ANYONE’S stories makes you a douche) Reblogs and feedback however are very welcomed!

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

You open your eyes and feel the warm weight of your not so graceful angel beside you. It’s been a little over two years since you bumped into the sexiest Gas-N-Sip clerk you ever laid eyes on, literally bumped into, spilling a blue slushy all over him.

“Oh..” you exclaim, “God, I’m, so sorry.. I’m so clumsy…”

In a beautiful gravely voice, “It’s ok, really. Me and that machine are not on the best of terms most days.” He smiles at you while wiping off the remaining blue goo. “At least the color goes with my vest.”

You think to yourself “unphf, and with your eyes too”, but all you could do was melt.

After that you knew he was the one. You went on a few dates, and never quite understood what he meant when he told you your dates together were much better than being left alone with a small child. He was always saying strange things like that, but you didn’t care, you couldn’t get enough.

You invite him to live with you and your brothers, after all there is plenty of room. You know it was probably a lot to ask being you had only found out about having brothers not very long ago, but how were you supposed to know that Steve was their friend, previously fallen angel/Castiel. After finding out the past between them, you really didn’t understand why he wasn’t already living with them.

Trying to nudge him awake in the morning is close to impossible. You wonder if years of not needing sleep as an angel has caught up to him in his human form.

“Hey, wake up. It’s Halloween, Yoohoo.”

He groans at you, and if you didn’t know any better, your pretty sure he was playing possum.

“C'mon babe, you promised, this year we would go to a costume dance.”

“uhnnn”, as he rolls away from you.

“Cas! Quit ignoring me! One Halloween has come and gone since we’ve been together, and there is no way I’m letting this one pass us by. We are going out to a club… a dance club… a dress up, have some drinks, fight no creepies what-so-ever club.”

Turning to look at you, “Now (Y/N), you know I can’t promise that.”

“YES you can, and you…”

His stern face turning into a goofy grin “I’m just saying I cant make any promises, that we may or may not find a monster that we might have to fight, but I do have a surprise for you. First, go, get up, get some coffee, and I will be right out.”

You begrudgingly get out of bed, but excited for your surprise. He tells you to wait for him in the library, and assures you that you will love it.

Sam is rattling around the kitchen. He already beat you to coffee making, even making your favorite.

“And thank God for the early bird.” jokingly to Sammy as you pour yourself a cup.

“Well we can’t all be bed potatoes.”

Giggling at his comment, “Happy Halloween Sammy. "Sooo… uhh… are you… uhm.”

“Yeaas (Y/N), We are taking the night off, all of us, as you wish.”

You let out a little scream of delight, “Thank you! Thank you!.” jumping into his big frame for a hug. “This will be so much fun, I promise. So what’s your costume?”

“Uhh ha, Yeah, about that. I said we were taking the night off, so…”

Sighing back at him, “Party pooper. But hey, meeting me halfway, I can live with that.”

You practically skip to the library to wait for your surprise. Your so happy that you finally get to go to a real dance, with all your men, and even on your favorite holiday. Dean is also up, staring at the anime “art” on his computer, and drinking a beer.

Sliding into the chair across from him, smiling “Little early for that?”

“Hey, you said we were taking the day off, this is how we take the day off.” Dean says tipping his beer at you.

You start to ramble, “Ohmygoodness, I know, I can’t wait. So where are we going? There is a dance at the Mighty Moose, and they’re having karaoke with a costume dance at the Jade Hall ,or is where we are going my surprise?”

Dean starts to take a drink, as he tilts his head upward, he sprays you with beer, and bursts out laughing.

“Dean really!” You turn in the direction he’s looking, and suddenly see why. Your gorgeous angel is proudly standing behind you, dressed in nothing but a skimpy red and blue American flag decorated leotard. You can not believe what you are seeing.

“I am Batman.” he proclaims.

Sammy joins the room at just the right time. “Dear god! What is that?”

Snickering into his beer, Dean says, “He is Batman.”

Your not sure whether to laugh or cry, “Dean! Your awful! Cas, that’s Wonder Woman.”

“Oh. I.. uhh.. well I was told Batman was a popular man’s Halloween costume.” Cas replies, genuinely confused.

“By who?" you ask, already knowing damn well who.

Dean clears his throat and looks to the floor, "uhh, yeah that…”

You look toward Dean, who instantly tries to avoid your gaze. “Never mind, we all know who put you up to this.”

Dean trying to save himself “Ok! Ok! but look, I didn’t think he would actually put it on. Cas show her the other one. I told you she would like that one better.”

Cas turns to leave, clueless of Dean’s joke, and still clearly confused about the whole human tradition of dressing up anyway.

“Dean your terrible.” Sammy says, shaking his head, and taking a seat at the head of the table.

“What! He came to me and wanted help finding a costume that (Y/N) would like. I gave him some help. Just wait, I did right by the next one. You’ll see.”

You and Sammy both, almost instantaneously, “Yeah sure.” “Unhuh.” “I bet!”

Dean all defensive, “Hey I got style. Watch and observe.”

You sip on your coffee nervously waiting for Dean’s next disaster. You know that Cas was only trying to make you happy, but he should know Dean’s sense of humor by now. You hear a click clacking of footsteps coming down the hall, almost to afraid to turn in their direction.

“Ok (Y/N) What do you think?” asks Cas, leaning against the wall in his best Clint Eastwood stance that no doubt was also Dean’s making. “Howdy Pardner.”

Sam screams, “Oh God! Cas, Too early!”

Dean immediately “That was NOT my idea! I told him girls liked cowboys.. and I made him watch some movies.. that’s all, and I thought… No.. nope, uhn uhh!”

My jaw drops, I jump up and run to stand in front of him, “Wow! Uhh Cas, I think you left some of your costume in your room.”

Cas proudly states “but Dean said you would think this was sexy.”

Dean: “I said no such thing!”

Cas: “You said I would most definitely get lucky with (Y/N) if..”

Dean trying once again to defend himself, “Well yeah, I may have said something like that, but..”

Cutting him off, “Ok Dean, you had your fun. C'mon Cas. let’s go see if we can find the rest of your costume.”

You grab his hand, and lead your confused angel back to your shared room. You look around the room at all the shed clothes and costumes, noticing there is absolutely nothing more to go with this particular costume.

Shaking your head “I can’t believe him, I mean of course you trust his advice, and I guess there was some kind of good intention hidden in all this.. but wow! He’s a mess.”

“(Y/N) I don’t understand. I thought you would be happy that I was dressing up with you.” Cas says starting to feel somewhat hurt.

“No.. I mean yes.. never mind. Hey I got an idea. You still got your vest from the Gas-N-Sip?”

Cas reluctantly nods a yes to you.

“Good. Ok here we go, some jeans, shirt, and your vest, you can be my very own personal sexy slushy slinger, exactly how I remember you when we first met.”

Smiling up at you, for the first time not confused or hurt, “(Y/N) I would really like that.”

Finally stopping to take a good look at your bare assed angel, “Wow, Cas, Dean is right.”

Completely caught off guard, “What? Huh?”

“Girls love cowboys, and you can totally get lucky with me dressed like that. How bout we leave that on for a little while.. in private?”

In his best short learned cowboy accent, “Certainly ma'am, No problem.

[reivenesque]

Requested by @lovelylittlegrim for the @teenwolfexchange

1. (Thiam) A fluffy fair fic. In which Liam takes Theo to his first fair/carnival and they have their first kiss.

Umm, not so much the fluffy fic I planned on when I started and it may or may not be their first kiss. I honestly didn’t know where this was going until I arrived there, but I hope you enjoyed it regardless *hides* I haven’t written a humour fic in ages I could feel my funny bone creaking with disuse as I was typing.

All’s Fair that Ends Fare

One of Liam’s earliest (and fondest) memories was of going to the seasonal fair with his mom and whichever boyfriend she was dating at the time. The only thing Liam really remembered about the guy was that he was a huge dick and pissed at Liam for being forced the tag along because the baby sitter cancelled at the last minute. As a result, Liam made it a point to do his absolute hardest to be the worst little shit to the guy behind his mom’s back and the most innocent angel when she turned to look at him.

The date didn’t last the night. The guy stomped off in righteous fury muttering about annoying children and stupid fairs and his mom was left in confusion staring at his retreating back.

They spent the rest of the night just the two of them going on rides and playing games, and even though his mom put on a smile when she looked at him, Liam could tell that she was hurt, but at the time, his cold little nine-year old heart didn’t care. The only thing that mattered was that the guy was gone and he had his mom all to himself again.

Adult Liam eventually came to the realization that he was a terrible, shithead of a child.

But then his mom met his stepdad and the man didn’t run away no matter how much Liam tried to chase him off, so all in all, it worked out for the best in the end.

“This milkshake sucks.”

The very first words spoken between the two of them in the merry compound of the town fair that night.

“It’s free, so shut up and drink it, asshole.”

God, Theo could be such a negative Nancy. Often times Liam forgot that he was actually Scott and Stiles’s age because of how petulant he could be. But then he remembered that neither Scott nor Stiles acted Scott and Stiles’s age so that was a rather pointless train of thought to have.

“Why are we even here? If I wanted to spend my night grinding up against the smelly sweaty bodies of half the population of Beacon Hills, I would have gone to a club – where they have air-conditioning – and alcoholic beverages instead of this… watered down gluten free soy whatever,” said Theo, swirling around the white liquid in the see through plastic cup in front of his eyes and staring at it suspiciously.

“It’s not gluten free or made of soy,” he said, exhaling exasperatedly.

“Well it might as well be,” said Theo petulantly. “How come you’re having juice then?”

“Cause I wanted to get you something special! Now shut up, Theo. We’re here to have fun tonight, and we will have fun even if it kills you,” said Liam.

“Sounds like fun already.”

Liam ignored him. “What do you want to do first? Which ride do you want to try?” he asked.

“How about that one?” said Theo, motioning towards the open gate at the far end of the field under the neon green sign that said ‘Exit’.

“Hilarious,” he said, his face completely straight and his mouth downturned in a frown.

It wasn’t how he’d originally planned on spending the night, but the funfair was in town – with emphasis on fun, and he was bored as hell – Scott was away on a bro-date with Stiles and Mason was away on a date-date with Corey, and Liam who was at that moment on a sad-date with him, himself and no one else, was feeling particularly left out. Plus he’d recently come to learn that Theo had never been to a fair before. Obviously the Dread Doctors weren’t big on the fun kind of activity that didn’t involve suffering, mutilation and death.

“What about the haunted house?” he suggested. He was pleased to see that it piqued Theo’s interest.

It was also a pivotal moment in which historians somewhere down the line would jot down in their tiny little notebooks as the moment Liam vowed to never take Theo into another haunted house ever again.

The screams of terror were not out of place, obviously, it was a house designed to scare the living crap out of the faint hearted. What was out of place was the sight of the people in ghost costumes, some covered in prosthetic fur and fake ears and fangs and other limbless figures covered in blood running out of said house in absolute pant-wetting terror, shoving each other aside and stepping on toes in their hurry to escape.

Theo’s cackling laughter beside him was like the sound of nails on a chalkboard. Theo was the nail and his face was the chalkboard.

“That’s not funny,” he said, turning around just in time to see Theo’s glowing yellow eyes reverting back to the dark blue and his fangs retreating back into his gums.

“Come on, it’s a little funny,” he said. “Don’t be such a sourpuss, Liam. If I wanted to date a boring, disgruntled old man I would have asked out Derek. Or that old guy that lives at the end of the street that likes to throw sand balls made of cat litter at people who walk past his house.”

Firstly, Liam was absolutely offended by getting compared to a disgruntled old man. Secondly, he hated to admit it but it was sorta funny, but he wasn’t about to confirm that fact to Theo, the guy was insufferable enough as is.

“So? How about it? Are we here to have fun, or are we here to have fun?” he asked with a smirk.

“I don’t know what that even means,” said Liam, furrowing his brows.

“Think of it like Troy,” said Theo, reaching over to circle an arm around Liam’s shoulder in a way that was suspiciously intimate, one hand motioning out towards the sky as if he was trying to get Liam to imagine one of the unlimited – and most likely illegal – scenarios he had cooked up in his head. Whatever he was about to say, it was bound to be bad – people were probably going to end up in tears, or dead, or both. “The best way to get in with the enemy, is to get in with the enemy,” he said, punctuating each word like a different intonation would somehow make the meaning different.

“Once again,” said Liam, “Please speak English.”

“You’re the history nerd, Liam” said Theo – completely ignoring the indignant tone Liam used when he repeated the word ‘nerd?’ as a question, greatly offended, “You know this stuff right?”

Liam scrubbed at his face tiredly. He kind of had an idea where this whole thing was headed, and he didn’t like it – or did he? He hadn’t decided. He didn’t want Scott to be disappointed in him and that was definitely what was going to happen if he went through with what he was inevitably about to go through.

“Create havoc from the inside?” he asked, turning his eyes to look at Theo, only to see the insufferably smug gaze already staring back at him. He really wanted to punch Theo in his stupid face at that moment, either with his fist or with his lips. He hadn’t decided that either.

“I knew you were smart, Liam. I’m impressed,” he said.

Liam tried to keep the blush from spreading across his cheeks at the praise. But as it is with Theo most of the time, he knew to take it with a grain of salt. Theo was only super nice like that when he wanted something in return. “Shut up, Theo,” he said, elbowing him in the ribs. “So… what do you have in mind?”

“A thought just came to me.”

“God help us all,” said Liam with a sigh.

“What if we did both? Have a little fun while taking these people for everything they’re worth? I mean, the hammer game? Come on, we could beat that out of the literal park without breaking a sweat.”

“That’s cheating,” said Liam.

“Well good thing I’m here with Liam, and not Scott, right?”

Liam let out a half exhale-half groan type of inhuman sound. “Scott’s going to kill us both when this is all said and done you know?”

“Seriously, Scott would never harm one soft, moisturized strand of hair on that perfect little head of yours. And even if he does, we’ll have a lot of kick ass stories to tell in the afterlife.”

“I don’t like this plan,” said Liam.

“You don’t have to,” said Theo, “You just have to… you know, have fun.”

Liam knew that word was going to come back and bite him in the ass. He thoroughly regretted every life choice he ever made that lead him up to that point in his short sad life.

“Yeah, fun,” said Liam in an over-exaggerated mocking tone.

Everything was on fire.

Children and adults alike were crying; bawling their eyeballs out and screaming in horror.

There was the sound of a gleeful cackle in the distance over the white noise and the small explosions still going off in the background.

Theo was picking bits of glass and pie crusts out of his hair with Liam beside him, doubled over in laughter.

“That was awesome!” Liam said through his mirth. “Who knew exploding pie could cause such devastation! That’s something they definitely don’t teach in chem class.”

Theo couldn’t keep the pleased smirk off his face. “Living with mad scientists for as long as I did, you’re bound to pick up a thing or two.”

The backdrop, the once upright and proud House of Mirrors was in shambles; its wall barely hanging off the hinges and surrounded by almost half a foot of broken glass on the pulverized ground.

“I hate to admit it,” said Liam, “But I don’t think I’ve had this much fun… well, ever. We’re both about to be killed by my dad, Scott, Melissa, Sheriff Stilinski and half the population of Beacon Hills – but, this is definitely the best night of my life.”

“You could say,” said Theo with a wolfish grin, “That we went out with a bang.”

The sound of sirens pierced through the veil of the night, approaching the once upright fair, now several heaps of rubble – some still smoking and smoldering, with parts of blown apart teddy bears strews across the ground like there had been a horrific murder on Sesame Street.

“I think that’s our cue to amscray,” said Theo, smacking Liam on the arm with the back of his hand; both their eyes looking towards the incoming source of the noise.

Liam didn’t turn to meet Theo’s eyes at first, the cogs of his brain and conscience working overtime trying to override his instincts of self-preservation and will to live. He exhaled once before squaring his shoulders.

“No point in us both getting caught,” he said as the whinnying cruisers made their way into the compound, one blaring vehicle after another. “Save yourself… I’m going down fighting.”

Theo furrowed his brows. “Why do I feel like I’ve heard this before?”

“Just go, Theo. I’m not running away.”

He could hear Theo’s frustrated groan beside him but the guy made no move to leave. He opened his mouth to speak again when he turned to look at Theo, but the words were barely out of his mouth before he felt Theo grab him roughly by the side of his face, pulling him close. Everything around him slowed down to a crawl and the sound of the sirens became muffled noises in the distance when he felt Theo’s cool lips crashing down onto his.

The kiss was haphazard and sloppy; Liam wasn’t sure where to put his hands and Theo still kind of tasted like the terrible milkshake he had earlier. He could feel the heat from the car’s headlights shining on his back, illuminating them brightly as the cars pulled up to surround them like a barricade. But the moment he found the pocket of comfort inside himself and his hands found the perfect curve of Theo’s back that sloped down and back up to frame his perfect, perfect ass, Liam couldn’t think about anyone or anything else in the world anymore.

There was only him and Theo in the moment surrounded by the police cars and what sounded like helicopter rotors flapping in the distance and the only thing Liam could think was that it was a very Thelma and Louise type of scenario, which was pretty rad.

He decided in that moment that he wanted that movie to play at his funeral. He wondered if he had enough time to write out a will.

If he had a pen on him he’d definitely scribble it down on Theo’s butt cause quite frankly he didn’t want to take his hands off it ever.

At least not until he heard the sound of someone clearing their throat very close to their vicinity and the familiar stern voice saying the word, “Boys,” in a very crisp, no nonsense tone. It was the biggest of turn offs a person could ever hope for.

Liam found his tongue flicking out to lick at his red and heated lips the moment he and Theo pulled apart.

Sheriff Stilinski’s unamused face was the sight that immediately greeted them.

“Sheriff,” said Theo with a nod as a greeting.

The Sheriff’s reply was a gonad shriveling glare that he shot the both of them.

“Explanation. Now.”

Liam and Theo shared a look before launching into the most abysmal, incoherent, inconsistent explanation that somehow involved the song Extraterrestrial, a bottle of hot sauce, two cans of skimmed milk and the Ace of Diamonds – at the same time.

The Sheriff looked like he was seriously considering murder in that moment which he said as much. “I would honestly kill both of you right now, but then I’d be sparing myself the joy of watching your dad –” he pointed at Liam with a stern finger, “– and Melissa McCall –” he said pointing at Theo (who all of a sudden looked much less amused and slightly more concerned) – “Kill both of you. Slowly. Hell, if I’m lucky I might just get in on some of that action; Scott too. As a matter of fact, we’ll make a party of it!”

“Excuse me, Sheriff,” said Theo suddenly and Liam wondered if it would still be considered manslaughter of you killed a person in front of about half a dozen officers of the law. He vehemently hissed at Theo to ‘shut the hell up’, which unsurprisingly went unheeded. “Would it help any if I said that I was offended by their terrible portrayal of werewolves? I mean, what kind of self-respecting werewolf plays basketball?”

For the record, no, it did not help any.

Getting slammed into the hood of a cruiser while having his arms being yanked behind him and cuffed with cold hard steel was honestly not much fun. It was slightly more fun watching it being done to Theo and seeing the way his face scrunched up in pain. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough to get the insufferable asshole to shut up.

“I didn’t know you liked it rough, Sheriff.”

“Shut the fuck up, Theo!” he found himself hollering across the distance.

And Liam had such a positive start to the day too.

To say that his dad was livid would have been like saying a whale was a very big anchovy. He wasn’t allowed to leave the house or have any contact with the outside world at all. His only means of communication was eavesdropping whenever his dad was watching the news to hear whether there had been a reported murder in Beacon Hill or news about a dead body of an eighteen year old male, dark hair, blue eyes, insufferable attitude, washing up on the shore.

There wasn’t.

The silver lining (as Theo –god rest his soul – would have said) came a few days later when it came to light that the fair had been a front for an underground drug ring. They used the fair as a cover to move from town to town making and selling meth, and apparently, the highest concentrated amount of it was found inside the milkshake stand. Liam felt a little bad when it occurred to him that he might have gotten Theo a glass of methshake instead of a milkshake…

Sheriff Stilinski came personally to deliver the news to him and his parents. So not only was he off the hook for the shenanigans he and Theo pulled, the both of them were also getting commendations from the Mayor for thwarting a massive criminal organization.

Once he was freed from his house arrest – his dad was not so much pleased by the sudden turn of events as he was relieved – the absolute first thing he decided to do was to go see Theo (or what was left of him anyway).

Frustratingly enough, the guy seemingly came out of it completely unscathed.

“Tell me the truth,” he said straight out of the gate, “Was this whole thing intentional, or just a massive coincidence.”

Theo’s smug grin gave nothing away. “Of course it was intentional. You think I’d really wreck that much havoc on such an innocent establishment?”

“Yes,” said Liam immediately with absolute certainty.

“Okay, fine. It was a bit of both, okay? Something didn’t feel right in that place but I couldn’t put my finger on it, so I thought, what best way to get to the bottom of it while getting our kicks at the same time?”

“Right,” said Liam skeptically.

“Why do you not believe me?” asked Theo, feigning hurt.

“Cause you’re you and your middle name is ‘trouble’.”

“That’s a gross oversimplification,” said Theo.

“Oh really?”

“My actual middle name is ‘chaotic neutral.”

Liam couldn’t hold back his snort. “You’re right about the chaotic bit but there’s absolutely nothing neutral about you.”

“Please, Liam, I’m the most neutral person you know. Who else can play both sides of the field with as much skill and grace as me? Besides you, that is – I mean, between me and Hayden, that’s like opposite ends of the spectrum in more ways than one.”

“You’re really full of yourself, you know that?” said Liam, rubbing at his face with his hand.

“But that’s why you love me,” said Theo with a smirk.

“I do not –”

Liam was silenced completely by the lips that came down to meet his.

And so, all’s well that ends well, or in their case, it helped being the luckiest motherfuckers alive cause Liam was pretty fond of being alive thank you very much.

The one thing they could both agree on was to make a blood sworn oath to never talk about the Ferris wheel hot dog incident to anyone ever, dead or alive.

The End.

[vigilante-rpg]

Welcome 1anc3a10t! We’re pleased to announce your audition for Dimetre Evans Darc / The Peacock has been accepted! Please send your account into the main within the next 24 hours. We can’t wait to have you join us!

{ PLAYER INFORMATION }}

NAME: 1anc3a10t

AGE: 19

TIMEZONE: PST

PRONOUNS: She/Her

ACTIVITY LEVEL: Fairly active, my most active times will be after 5:30 PST. I am on Tumblr quite often, I check the app at least twice a day. ((Now that it’s summer my schedule will be much more open, I’ll be available starting after noon.))

PREVIOUS ROLEPLAY EXPERIENCE:  I’ve been roleplaying on a more active level for about 5 years. While I have participated in a few Tumblr rps the bulk of my writing has been done over discord type apps, Amino, and google docs.

PERSONAL TUMBLR CONTACT: removed for privacy

TRIGGERS: Nope! :)

{{ CHARACTER INFORMATION }}

CHARACTER NAME: Dimetre Evans Darc.

((He prefers to be called Evans, but will answer to Dimetre if called by someone he knows.))

PRONOUNS: He/Him

AGE: 28

ORIGIN: The Peacock

FACE CLAIM: (First Choice) Godfrey Gao  

(Second Choice) Harry Shum Jr

QUOTE: “I prance and preen for them, but not everyone knows that yet.”

OCCUPATION: Newhaven’s most famous vigilante! ;)

((When he was younger he used to be a rather famous singer, but stopped when his agent pointed him towards a more…heroic life.))

PERSONALITY:

Caring: Growing up in such a large family and having a job that created connections with many different people in their walks of life had taught Dimetre to understand that not everyone has gone through the same relatively good life he has. He always keeps his arms stretched out and door wide open if he runs into someone that’s down on their luck, perhaps the pick-me-up from him is what could help get their life on the track they envisioned it to be? He’s rather perceptive of others feelings and will act accordingly on them. If someone wants to rant he’ll sit there and listen, and if someone needs a shoulder to cry on he’ll be that stable rock.

Sarcastic: Dimetre has a sharp tongue. Don’t expect him to fight back with his fists when he’s been wronged, but rather by throwing out nasty sarcastic comments that cut through a person’s self esteem. Sarcasm is his way of getting his angry point across without needing to yell or knock someone’s lights out. A sadistic side of him likes to watch how criminals huff and puff when they can’t think of a comeback to his witty remark.

Petty: This applies more to his non-heroic life, since there is no time to be petty in a life or death situation. Dimetre loves people and he’ll remember any extraordinary meeting that happens with them, though not all talks go the same, and he does hold petty grudges over the people that assume he’s a bad person just because he likes attention. (This may also be applied to other vigilantes if he meets them outside of battle.) While he won’t outrightly talk bad about them, since he understands the power of the media and paparazzi, he’ll just reply with an ugly look on his face. It’s a bit difficult to repair a relationship with Dimetre since the pettiness runs deep.

Persistent: Dimetre is not one to give up, this is mostly because he hates losing, and a little because he doesn’t like to disappoint people. He is the epitome of ‘try, try again’! Fighting a villain doesn’t go well the first time? Dust yourself off and try again. Buzznews writes a bad gossip article on you? Refute the points and show the city your the vigilante they deserve. Puppy pees on the carpet? Just restart the potty training regimine.

Excellent Public Speaker: Dimetre has always had the ability to captivate a crowd with his words. Whether that’s through singing or just simply by telling a story. As popular as he is amongst the city of Newhaven he finds himself addressing large crowds about some matter or another quite often, so this skill of his is continuously exercised. Some may address him as a smooth talker, and he doesn’t deny that, though through the perfect balance of opinion and facts Dimetre is able to convince anyone of anything without needing to schmooze them over.

Clumsy: Dimetre could trip on thin air or a grain of rice, and he has tripped over the later before. Its something he is always constantly worrying about since it makes him look incapable of doing a proper job as a vigilante, and it really hurts. Though it does make for interesting conversation starters if he happens to fall into a stranger. This isn’t something that was caused by an injury or infection, he’s just naturally a klutz.

BIOGRAPHY:

Water is everywhere. In the sky, in the earth, running through the pipes beneath the cities cement, coursing through the human body, and Dimetre had always been aware of all of it. The presence of water has an odd feeling, almost like a wave but deeper and deadly. Sometimes his body would move along with the invisible flow of the current, taking him places and making him lead lives he never thought he would. Water is impulsive and reckless. It slams against the shore to get the world’s attention and erodes the rocky path that was paved for him by the heroes he admired. While water provides for countless people they only notice its beauty and loud noise. Despite that, water never ceases to flow, a steady stream that the city of Newhaven can rely on.

In an affluent neighborhood tucked cosley somewhere in Downtown Newhaven lives the Darc family. With five boys and one girl the family is always bustling. Through some form of odd luck the father had created a rather successful business and the mother became a brilliant brain surgeon, allowing their family to live a lavish lifestyle. Having been born into a large family that all exhibited some sort of miraculous power, it wasn’t odd when Dimetre’s control over water manifested at a rather young age. At first his ability only appeared during strong bouts of emotion, generally temper tantrums or fits of uncontrollable giggles- even now his ability is at its strongest when he is in an emotional state- wanting their child to feel in control of his power and not fear what it could become, his parents slowly began training. It had always been simple exercises that became more tedious and time consuming as the years passed by. Dimetre learned rather quickly that water is used for everything. Fill the tub Dimetre, water the garden Dimetre, wash the car Dimetre…on and on. They were incredibly boring tasks which he thought were a lot like the movie Karate Kid, but you don’t actually get karate skills by washing a car, so there was no way he’d be able to harness his ability by doing chores- Well damn, he was wrong. It actually worked! When he turned double digits the ‘training’ stopped, he was able to manipulate water to his will and his parents were content enough with his progress that they stopped asking favors. They had other children to ensure a life of control and safety for. Although he understood that his parents had other siblings and jobs to attend to, he had gotten used to the constant attention, and being apart of such a large family would mean he’d have to put up a good fight to receive it once again. He learned rather quickly that acting out wasn’t the solution. Perhaps, he could receive positive attention from those other than his family?

At the age of fifteen he had a new ability, although not heroic still useful in his quest, his voice was something to be envied. Though the road to angelic singing was not something easy to accomplish, he would lock himself in his room and sing for hours till his throat was raw. He was absolutely thrilled when he won his first local singing competition during the winter of his fifteenth year. Riding on that high he tried out for a talent company, and perhaps it was the luck of his family that he was chosen. Recording companies and a rather terrifying manager scooped up Dimetre in a 10 year long whirlwind of showbiz. While he missed his slow but comfortable life with his parents and endless amounts of siblings in Downtown Newhaven, he blossomed under the constant adoring cheers of thousands. Hydrokinesis was useful as interesting stage effects that made him stand out from other young pop stars. If fans would ask to see his ability he would oblige, slowly he made it seem as though powers were something unique but not terrifying or supernatural. He enjoyed making that difference but knew the life of a singer had its expiration date.

He was around twenty-five when his singing career came to an end. It wasn’t abrupt or surprising, he understood there were other younger, more talented individuals who would easily slip into his place. It was a bit disappointing realizing that he wouldn’t be able to face adoring fans on the stage, but he was slowly coming to terms with the change and was ready to pursue a much more modest career in law. His manager had different future plans envisioned for him and pointed Dimetre towards a life as a vigilante. At first he wanted nothing to do with fighting criminals, it was a dangerous and thankless job and he had no plans to die anytime soon. He thought he could be more help to the city alive. Though, all his manager had to do was mention ‘becoming like Spectrum’ and Dimetre hopped onto the vigilante train faster than lightning. While his control over water worked well to quell villains, his charisma and smooth talking nature turned his hero persona into something more akin to a pop culture icon. But he doesn’t complain, the money and attention is really nice.

{{ VIGILANTE INFORMATION }}

VIGILANTE NAME: Caspian

PRONOUNS: He/Him

APPEARANCE: Dimetre debated for a long time on what Caspian should wear. He knew it had to be practical in battle and have a sort of appeal, but also simple enough to be made into Halloween costumes for kids. He jumped back and forth between a bodysuit with a cape or a bodysuit with no cape, but ultimately decided on a biker theme a bit like x-men’s Quicksilver. (I have a thing for motorcycles.) He adorns an off-white leather jacket with baby blue cuffs, and his sigil beautifully hand painted on the back. He wears a pair of dark blue skinny jeans and hightop sneakers that match the color of his jacket. To pull the outfit together he wears light blue fingerless gloves and a wavy eye mask to match. It doesn’t do much to hide his identity, but that doesn’t quite matter when everyone already knows who you are. He rides a white and blue bike into battle mostly because it alerts the press and citizens to where he is, but also slightly because he thinks motorcycles are cool.

Dimetre paid to have most of his vigilante costume tailored and engineered to boost his performance in battle. While they couldn’t make his suit as flashy or powerful as Spectrums, like he requested multiple times, the fabric is thick enough to sustain quite a few blows. With ample space for arm and leg movement, it is perfect to wear during hand to hand combat if Dimetre were to ever find himself in such a situation. While the jacket, gloves, mask, and shoes are waterproof the jeans are not so Dimetre keeps a large stash of them at his apartment just in case.

SIGIL: A simple blue wave pattern in a circular shape, making it easy to put on merchandise and to create backpack patches of.

COLOUR SCHEME:

-#0C3D51 (Dark Blue)

-#53A5C6 (Light Blue)

-#EDFAFF (White Blue)

FIGHTING STYLE: He’s a long range fighter, preferring to let others get up close and personal.

CLASS TYPE: Defensive

MORAL ALIGNMENT:  Neutral Good

POWER:

Caspian has the ability to control and manipulate some forms of water. While he is able to control liquid and gas, he does not have mastery over ice, that is beyond his capabilities. He can draw water from the atmosphere, large lakes or oceans, and pipes. While he can attempt to handle the water in an individual’s body, it is much more difficult for him than say moving a visible puddle. He cannot control any liquid he pleases, only water, though he is able to separate the water from say a soft drink, only leaving the coloring and sugar left in the can.

Other than the normal applications of Hydrokinesis such as manipulating the properties of water, water attacks, and hydrokinetic surfing, Caspian is able to generate or increase the water pressure of the liquid he has control of. He generally uses this by creating a sphere around an enemy and using the pressure to crush them while inside the water, or create air embolism inside their veins, though that’s a matter of chance not skill. Other uses of manipulating water pressure would be Caspian’s ability to make pillars or objects made of water that other vigilantes and civilians can stand upon without sinking through.

He is naturally weak against Electrokinesis since he’s an excellent conductor of electricity, and gravity manipulation since that can reverse the effects of his water pressure. Large fires would render his ability useless but he isn’t naturally weak against flames.

{{ STATS }}

OBSCURITY: 1/5

CONTROL: 4/5

LUCK:  3/5

STRENGTH: 3/5

SPEED: 4/5

CHARISMA: 5/5

INTUITION: 4/5

AGILITY: 2/5

STAMINA: 3/5

INTELLIGENCE: 4/5

DURABILITY: 4/5

{{ EXTRAS }}

HEADCANONS:

-Being raised in such a large family he has a soft spot for children and he tends to win their favor rather quickly.

-He has always had a backup plan just incase this whole ‘famous’ thing didn’t work out. He has a degree in law and takes the bar exam each time it expires.

-He is such a nerd. Other than loving anime and cartoons, he probably has every piece of Spectrum merchandise known to man.

-He loves people and is upset that his lifestyle makes him almost unapproachable. Though, he understands that not everyone wants to be apart of next week’s news story.

-He has a giant Alaskan Malamute puppy named Harrison and an Akita named Oscor.

-He has a guest bedroom that is always kept prepped and tighty just incase he meets someone that needs a place to stay. Which tends to be the people the media calls his “one night stands”.

-He had his heart broken when he was rather young and has yet to recover from it. Despite that, he is still accepting of love to a degree.

-He has such a sad sense of humor, he’ll laugh at like anything.

-He doesn’t get mad, he gets sassy.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Songs:

On my own- Les Mis: https://youtu.be/aQnJ4mIfT0c

Starlight- Muse: https://youtu.be/3J1YBu0gpJY

High Hopes- Panic! At the Disco: https://youtu.be/UKserM-i0_A

Blossom- Kerli: https://youtu.be/Fhu2G-207Ko

Cry me a River- Michael Buble: https://youtu.be/nh_pYXnj248

Master of Tides- Lindsey Stirling: https://youtu.be/GX9o9yqYcaM

Popular- Wicked: https://youtu.be/IXzFOHrycHg

One Knight- Wonderland: https://youtu.be/byJBNtJgiVE

This is the Best Burrito I’ve Ever Eaten- Parry Gripp: https://youtu.be/–bqFOdb6_g (I’m sorry.)

Desired Plots:

-Dimetre would like to find someone that immediately looks past the whole ‘famous’ thing, and wants to be his friend not because of his money or fame, but rather because of his personality.

-((This would entirely depend on if someone wants to play such a roll.)) A protégée perhaps? Another vigilante who wouldn’t mind sharing the limelight with Caspian and become some sort of pseudo-partner. Since everything looks better in pairs

[glamamor]

TCM Classic Film Festival 2017 - Making Us Laugh

Charlie Chaplin once said, "A day without laughter is a day wasted." If this is the case, then there was not a day wasted at this year's TCM Classic Film Festival (TCMFF). The theme was Make 'Em Laugh: Comedy in the Movies and the programming - which delivered comedies from every era and everything from the low brow to the high - brought our greater classic cinema family together once again. They did indeed make us laugh and often made us cry as well. Of course there were more than just comedies, including some of my favorites in both the Pre-Code and film noir genres. This year was extra special for me because the whole week kicked off with my own talk related to the festival - Fashion in Film of TCMFF: Sophisticated Comedies 1930s-1950s. It was held at the Annenberg Beach House, the former beachfront estate of Marion Davies and William Randolph Hearst, and many of the people I know and love from years together at the festival were there. Despite multiple accidents on the LA freeways, we still had a packed house and a wonderful evening that started with flowers and ended with a standing ovation. After my Q&A, several of us then had a chance to say hello and catch up a bit before Thursday's opening day at the festival. Opening day is always like being shot out of a cannon. It's a rush of activity at the Roosevelt Hotel, the headquarters of the festival, seeing who you can before events and screenings take all of your time. Though there were already a few events earlier that day, the first one I attended was "Remembering Robert Osborne." It was a moving tribute to the beloved TCM host who recently passed away. After a video that showed clips of him over the years, including some charming goofs behind the scenes, the heads of TCM lead a discussion about his life and legacy. Others who were close to Robert also contributed their own memories, such as his close friend actress Diane Baker. After a couple more hours of meeting and greeting friends, I was off to my first movie - 1959's Some Like It Hot. Seeing those Orry-Kelly costumes on the big screen was incredible. Since the Production Code was still technically in effect, it's remarkable to me that those illusion dresses somehow got the studio's stamp of approval. Then after that screening, I dashed to two opening night parties - one at the Roosevelt and another that was co-hosted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). This one was quite the event - held around the rooftop pool at the W Hotel in Hollywood. The heads of TCM were there, including GM Jennifer Dorian, Creative Director Pola Chagnon, and Programming head Charlie Tabesh. TCM hosts Ben Mankiewicz and Eddie Muller were there along with guest hosts like Illeana Douglas. Celebrities from Martin Landau to Ruta Lee were also there. And I got to spend time with friends Monika Henreid, Alison Martino, and Sony's restoration queen Rita Belda. I was so busy talking with everyone that you'll see I only got a picture of the pool. After about 3.5 hours of sleep -  a regular occurrence for me at this year's festival - I was up bright at early for one of my favorite movies of all time. 1941's The Maltese Falcon was introduced by my friend Eddie Muller, who is the president of the Film Noir Foundation and also TCM's newest host with their Noir Alley series. This was my first time seeing The Maltese Falcon on the big screen and I saw so many new details in those costumes on the big screen. Interesting that these costumes were also by Orry-Kelly, but this was the style he was really known for while at Warner Brothers rather than Marilyn Monroe's risqué costumes in Some Like It Hot. Some Like It Hot was one of the movies I covered in my talk, and I was able to see several others I included at the festival. They were all something to behold on the big screen and each proved how rewarding it is to see these movies with other fans. 1950's Born Yesterday, 1934's Twentieth Century, and 1942's The Palm Beach Story, which several of us saw together at the historic Chinese Theatre, were one big party. It was also thrilling to bump into people who attended my talk that were still raving about it. I even overheard people discussing what they had learned from me and seen in those movies as a result. It doesn't get any better than that. The festival's Red-Headed Woman was another film whose backstory and costume design was included my talk, and I managed to get myself second place in line for its screening at the historic Egyptian Theatre. That 1932 Jean Harlow Pre-Code classic played to a full house and a crowd that absolutely LOVED it. It was so popular that it became one of the TBDs on Sunday - movies that TCM picks to show again that were sold out during their first run at the festival. My last hours of the festival were spent at the mighty Chinese Theatre starting Saturday night with The Graduate. Ben Mankiewicz interviewed Buck Henry before the screening, and they discussed the casting as well as the scripted and unscripted moments of the 1967 film. Of course it was stunningly beautiful on that huge screen, but I was also extremely impressed by the sound. When it started, the sound was so good it made you feel like you were inside the airport with him. 1942's The Palm Beach Story was my first film Sunday morning at the Chinese, which started in the forecourt and I was lucky enough to meet some of Mary Astor's relatives. Historian Cari Beauchamp recognized them in the audience before going on to interview Joel McCrea's grandson Wyatt on stage. Then came 1952's Singin' in the Rain at the Chinese, which was special because it was filmed on the MGM lot (where I now work, owned by Sony/Columbia Pictures) and because some of it was set at the Chinese Theatre. It was made even more special by Todd Fisher and Ruta Lee paying tribute to their mother and friend Debbie Reynolds on stage beforehand. Closing the festival this year was what many consider the best movie of all time - 1942's Casablanca. I've seen the iconic film many times, including on the big screen, but seeing it at the Chinese Theatre in celebration of its 75th anniversary was really something. I also got to sit with friend Monika Henreid, who was recognized by Ben during his introduction to the classic and the entire theater applauded her. Then it was off to the closing night party. There were even more moments and experiences of the festival - including a fascinating interview between Ben and writer/director/producer/film historian Peter Bogdanovich. I've tried to capture as many as I could to share with you here. But many times I was simply caught up in the moment of being with my TCM family and celebrating classic Hollywood. Until next year, my friends... People filing in at the Annenberg Beach House before I started my talk Fashion in Film of TCMFF 2017: Sophisticated Comedies 1930s-1950s "Always riveting, wildly entertaining, and educational, I could listen to Kimberly talk about fashion in the movies all day long." --Danny Miller The Roosevelt Hotel in its earliest days Entering the Roosevelt Hotel - the center of all festival activities - for the first day of TCMFF 2017 Two from my arrival at the Roosevelt Hotel day one with several of my TCM family -including our first group selfie (of many) at the festival More from opening day at TCMFF - "Remembering Robert Osborne" with heads of TCM and actress Diane Baker After my first festival movie Some Like It Hot, it was off to opening night party #1 at the Roosevelt -with fellow vintage lovers Beth Ann Gallagher and Karie Bible (above)and TCM's Jeremy Arnold (below) Then off to the big gala after party at the W Hotel in Hollywood including heads of TCM, friends like Monika Henreid and Sony Restoration queen Rita Belda, and celebrities that included everyone from Martin Landau to Ruta Lee Day 2 of TCMFF started bright and early with The Maltese Falcon -great intro by Film Noir Foundation founder/TCM host/friend Eddie Muller and had such fun sharing it with Noir Girl's Casey TCMFF day 2 continued with Born Yesterday -funny intro to the intro from TCM's VP of Studio Production Sean Cameron (above)and a blast seeing it with friends, including birthday girl Karin Mustvedt-Plüss (below) The Blossom Room in the Roosevelt Hotel, which was home to the first Academy Awards, was the location of Club TCM events including a great Peter Bogdanovich interview After Born Yesterday, Ben Mankiewicz spoke with Peter Bogdanovich at Club TCM  about directors like Orson Welles, Howard Hawks, John Ford, and Alfred Hitchcock Bonus was spending time (front row, no less) with friend Alison Martino of Vintage Los Angeles I love how the Getty photographer caught her taking pictures (as always) Also always love spending time with Jeff from the Larry Edmunds Bookshop (below) - Mad Men creator Matt Weiner and Daniel Selznick are right behind us At the Egyptian Theatre for the first time at this year's TCMFF Day 2 at TCMFF continues - #2 in line at the Egyptian Theatre with good buddy Kellee Pratt for the Jean Harlow Pre-Code Red-Headed Woman Thanks Gary Pratt for photos My TCMFF day 2 outfit has a Cinema Connection - when I saw it, I immediately thought of one of the Yves Saint Laurent costumes for Catherine Deneuve in 1967's Belle de Jour Day 3 started at the historic Montalban Theatre for Ben's 2-hour interview with Michael Douglas -many fans took photos of Robert Osborne's Hollywood Walk of Fame star in front of theater  Michael was charming - animated in his answers and frequently engaged with the audience Thanks Alison Martino for photo below Then I went to see Eddie Muller introduce Dan Duryea's The Underworld Story at the Egyptian -great fun watching this film noir with friends Aurora and Monica A departure for me at this year's TCMFF was checking out a more modern film in this year's comedy theme - Best in Show was made even more hilarious by cast members talking with Ben before its screening To prove how much we love this movie, Kevin and I bought our German Shepherd Ava (Gardner) a bee toy just like Parker Posey's On day 3, I saw my first movie at the mighty Chinese Theatre - you can read all about the theater's history from my past visit there for GlamAmor Closing out day 3 for me at TCMFF was the 50th anniversary screening of The Graduate -Ben talks to the always funny Buck Henry before the film (below) At the Chinese Theatre to begin day 4 of TCMFF 2017 with The Palm Beach Story - nothing better than starting the final day with good friends, including Kellee and Karin Thanks to Peter Gong and Gary Pratt for photos Mary Astor's relatives were in attendance at The Palm Beach Story - (left to right) Andrew Yang (great grandson), Krystin Nihei (granddaughter), and Michael del Campo (grandson) Thanks to Karin Mustvedt-Plüss (below left) for photos With buddies Aurora and Kellee at The Palm Beach Story -Cari Beauchamp interviewed Joel McCrea's grandson Wyatt before screening I stayed at the Chinese Theatre for much of day 4 and next up was Singin' in the Rain - Debbie Reynolds' son and Carrie Fisher's brother Todd Fisher shared stories along with family friend Ruta Lee before the movie After Casablanca at the Chinese Theatre, my final film of the festival, Monika Henreid and I walked back to the Roosevelt for the closing night party The big closing night party at the Roosevelt is always a mix of laughter and tears - Kellee's husband Gary captured us taking one of our many festival selfies With TCM's Jeremy Arnold and Sean Cameron Thanks Sara Henriksson for photo Last but not least, a moment with a couple of my favorite guys from TCM - hosts Ben Mankiewicz and Eddie Muller Thanks Aurora Bugallo and Kaci Kielmar for photos Monday morning I was back at work at my office on the former MGM lot (now Sony/Columbia) Until next year, my friends!