#dateline diamonds

[mariocki]

RIP Kenneth Cope (14.4.1931 - 11.9.2024)

"Michael Pratt and I just gelled. We had never met previously but we got on so well. Michael wrote, and we had such a great relationship that we would just change lines, and we were both on the same wavelength. That was such a lucky, lucky thing."

[somehowmags]

64 and cater diamond! :D

i lost the passion that comes with living since i started university i took a geography course to learn the datelines and maybe use a sextant but now i just press facsimiles

cater + it's all futile! it's all pointless! by lovejoy

[nnon-but-cwnancydrew]

Secret Sleuth Exchange (@secretsleuthexchange) for @katmichail13

Merry Sleuthmas Kat! I was honoured to be your Secret Sleuth this year. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas season and I wish a wonderful 2024 for you.

I'm so sorry that the initial fanvid gift fell through. Rest assured I'm still working on it but I'm starting completely from scratch so I wouldn't have had the time to finish before the dateline. Instead, I hope you'll enjoy a Christmassy version of your icon, a playlist, a couple of mood boards depicting AUs of our favorite platonic soulmates, and a few ficlets to go along with it.

And the playlist is here

Without furthur ado, let's begin:

1) Princess and Knight

AU Concept: Nancy "Crown Princess" Drew-Hudson and Ace "First Knight" Hardy  Tropes: Forbidden Romance, Childhood Acquaintances to Lovers, Slow Burn, Princess x Body Guard Dynamic, Royal AU Theme Songs: King (Florence + The Machine), Icarus (The Crane Wives), YOUTH (Troye Sivan), False God (Taylor Swift), Afterglow (Ed Sheeran), Fool's Gold (Niall Horan), King and Lionheart (Monsters and Men), Long Live (Taylor Swift)

Plot: Growing up, Ace's father was King Carson's First Knight until a wartime injury forced him to resign lest he wanted to forfeit his life. Thom started training Ace to become a knight after that, the exercises taking up Ace's time and slowly distancing himself from his friends.

Before Thom's injury, Ace and Nancy would play together with the children inside the palace walls, including George Fan, the cook's apprentice. The children would wreak havoc all around the castle, no one was safe; servants would spring it if their way, nobles would learn to fear when things got too quiet and the kitchens gave up trying to stop them from stealing a bun or ten.

Alas, good things never last and when Thom's injury happened, the group began to disband. Ace was taught in the ways of the sword, the bow and more. When Thom taught him all he could, Ace was gifted his own horse, a dappled brown mare, which he named Florence and was sent off to squirehood.

Nancy was saddled with more responsibilities and lessons, etiquette and diplomacy, languages and conversation, politics and household organisations (who said being a princess was easy?). George worked longer hours at the kitchen to earn better wages, needing to feed three younger sisters at home.

Things started to liven up when Bess Marvin, Marchioness Diana Marvin's long lost niece turned up at their citadel. Then, Duke Ned Nickerson, a distant cousin of Queen Consort Tiffany Hudson, appeared from the far south and started to court Nancy. The crown princess, equally besotted, returned his affection. And for a while, that was enough.

Then Queen Consort Tiffany Hudson was murdered.

Nancy didn't particularly care for her stepmother, but Tiffany was always kind to her. Setting out on a harebrained journey to find Tiffany's murderer, she would soon find a trustworthy band of friends in Sir Ace Hardy, Lady Bess Marvin, Ms George Fan and Duke Ned Nickerson. They'll go in to fight witches, evil within the kingdom and anyone that wishes them harm.

Three years later, she would find something even more precious than friendship in Ace, her heart, her love. When he proposes, it as at their secret glade, hidden from the burdens of Crown Princess and First Knight, becoming just Nancy and just Ace.

"Will you solve this part of the mystery with me?" he asks, the golden light reflecting off the water into his blue eyes, Kate Drew's diamond ring in his hands.

Her voice is watery when she says, "Yes", and she moves him until he's standing again, for she doesn't want him to be kneeling to her for this part. "Always. Forever." And she hugs him and kisses him and it's like the first time all over again but it's better and she can't help but laugh with joy.

Her Ace, His Nancy, together in the song of the afternoon. She couldn't think of anything else that sounded more right.

Other Tidbits of this AU:

Nick and Nancy break it off mutually then he has a whirlwind romance with George that ends in disaster. they both do their own thing for a while as friends before coming back together because they realize there's no one else for them romantically.

Bess falls for a couple of women, including Lisbeth the castle guard (they weren't right for each other), Odette Lamar the foreign businesswoman (before she found out Odette had a wife back home named Mary), and Addy Soctomah the small town of Horseshoe Bay's elected mayor (third time's the charm).

Other Tidbits of this AU: Nick and Nancy break it off mutually then he has a whirlwind romance with George that ends in disaster. they both do their own thing for a while as friends before coming back together because they realize there's no one else for them romantically. Bess falls for a couple of women, including Lisbeth the castle guard (they weren't right for each other), Odette Lamar the foreign businesswoman (before she found out Odette had a wife back home named Mary), and Addy Soctomah the small town of Horseshoe Bay's elected mayor (third time's the charm). Ace never became a physician, but he did invest a lot into their kingdom's medical research, helping the industry prosper and saving them from an unknown plague that other kingdoms fell victim to.

And they all lived happily ever after.

2) Ice Skater and Boxer

AU Concept: Bess "Figure Skater" Marvin and George "Hockey Player" Fan

Tropes: Strangers to Lovers, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Kinda Instalove, (Just a Soft Little Fic)

Theme Songs: Silk Chiffon (MUNA, Phoebe Bridgers), Tis the Damn Season (Taylor Swift), Girls Like Girls (Hayley Kiyoko), Friday I'm in Love (Twenty One Two), Enchanted (Taylor Swift), Slow Dancing (Aly & AJ), Ashes (Celine Dion), Daylight (Taylor Swift)

Plot: Girl I'm sorry I tried but I can't really view them from a romantic lens and so for Georgess I'm just gonna leave you with the vibes. I'm thinking a soft dreamy winter love in the big city.

If anyone wants to take a crack at this AU (or any of the others) please feel free. Just tag and credit me because I would love to read it!

3) CEO and Bodyguard

AU Concept: George "Spy/Bodyguard" Fan and Ned "Businessman/Inventor" Nickerson

Tropes: Strangers to Lovers, Spies AU, Forbidden Romance, Ballroom Scene, Making Out to Avoid Being Caught

Theme Songs: I Can See You (Taylor Swift), Plastic Hearts (Miley Cyrus), Weapon (Against the Current), Teeth (5SOS), Delicate (Taylor Swift), Roman Holiday (Halsey), Perfect (One Direction), New Year's Day (Taylor Swift)

Plot: Ned Nickerson thinks he’s done well in his life. Accepted into MIT on the honors roll, top intern at tech billionaire Tom Swift’s R&D department then branching off to start a very successful tech company of his own with the help of Tom and socialite and rich heiress Tiffany Hudson; all before the age of 28. Sure, his life is a little bland and his assistant Addy Soctomah had a bit of a point when she said that he was the most vanilla Black man she ever met but boring was good in the business world.

Then, the universe remembered he existed and made him the sole witness of Tiffany’s murder (which, was very traumatic, thanks for asking) by some terrorist company called the Road Back. Now, he was on the hit list of said terrorist company and had to be assigned a bodyguard (who very clearly did not want to be his bodyguard) that was maybe sorta cute when she wasn’t ignoring him like crazy. George said it wasn’t personal but it didn’t seem like the case to him when she stared at him unblinkingly when he was trying to close a business deal.

The mantra of ‘Fuck Drew’ was all that ran through George’s head when she had to protect Mr “Call me Nick”, rags to riches wonder boy and media darling, every day. She could be out chasing the Road Back with her team right now if Nancy had pulled the pin on that grenade 5 seconds later. 5 seconds and Owen wouldn’t have died; 5 more seconds and her foot wouldn’t have gotten pinned under all that rubble, and she could have lifted that column off Owen before he suffocated to death while their friends tried to get to them in time. 

The thought that it took four minutes without oxygen for a person to sustain permanent brain damage was all that ran through her brain as she listened to the harsh wheezing from the person underneath the column slowly stop. George had never really seen the fragile process of human to corpse before, never sticking around after her bullets left their chamber, but she could swear that it took hours for Owen to flatline. 

It took three minutes. The brain damage would happen after four minutes. The team took eight minutes to get to them and they were the longest eight minutes of any of their lives. 

The team fell apart: Nancy blamed herself bitterly, Bess mourned her cousin, Ace kicked himself for sending them into a trap and George- George was numb. Then she became angry. Claw Superiors kicked their team into mandatory leave and psych eval after 2 months. Guess Carson didn’t want his only daughter to crack mentally even more than she already had. 

2 weeks in and George begged Carson for any assignment, after barely passing her psych eval. She snatched the first case he held in his hands from him, not even looking into the file and just showing up at Ned Nickerson’s company the next day. Boy did she regret not negotiating more. Turns out Nick witnessed the murder of Tiffany, the woman whose husband cheated on with George years ago, and now he was the Road Back’s No. 1 target. Talk about awkward. 

It took spending 3 days in Nick’s presence to figure out that 1) He had a ridiculously good moral compass, 2) He and Tiffany were super close and 3) Telling him about her past history with Tiffany would make him hate her. So she kept quiet and kept her walls up, not wanting to get close to another person so soon after Owen’s death, not she was just starting to bond with him. 

But it’s difficult to spend day in day out with someone and not get close to them at some point. Nick was gentle and persistent with her, prying personal details from George like she was one of the machines he was experienced with. How she was the eldest of four sisters, how she almost went into law school, how her favourite colour was green. In return, he told her about wanting to help troubled kids find a community, how he was discovered by Tom Swift (and had a brief fling with him), how his mother taught him piano because they couldn’t afford it at the time and for her last birthday he’d bought her a grand piano to play to her heart’s content. It wasn’t her favourite mission by far, but Nick wasn’t bad company, and there was little chance of her PTSD triggering in civilian bodyguard life while the rest of her team recovered. 

Then Nick caught wind of a Road Back operative that was gonna be at a major social function that’s being hosted by Nick’s dickhead rival companies’ CEO: Everett Hudson. George hatched a harebrained dream of capturing the person to win back the grace her team lost at their agency. Nick offered to be her date so she could sneak in and around but she has to help him find dirt on Everett about the Bonny Scott which can bring justice to 12 innocent people and send Everett to jail. George accepts, which was a horrible idea for them both because now they’re catching feelings for a colleague-ish person.

(As long as you save me a dance, Fan.

You're on, Nickerson.)

At the party, there’s a point where they’re in Everett’s office digging through his files and they hear footsteps coming so they panic. There’s nowhere to hide in the office, and George grips Nick’s arm tightly. 

‘Do you trust me?’ she says, urgency coating her words.

There’s a beat of hesitation when they look into each other’s eyes, George begging Nick to say yes. Still, looking, he nods, and she spins him around to pin him against the wall.

‘I’m sorry about this,’ she says quietly, before kissing him. 

For a moment, everything in the world narrows to his back against the wall, the girl he likes pressed up against him, her lips on his, her hands on him. Realising his hands are just hanging dumbly by his side, he moves one to run through her hair and the other to cup her cheek.

‘OI! You’re not supposed to be in here!’ A loud voice cut through the air, and he remembers why he shouldn’t be doing this. They spring apart, and he’s sheepish when he addresses the person who caught them.

‘Sorry sir. Won’t happen again.’

‘Not today anyway.’ George’s coy face and satisfied smirk makes him blush and he finds he can’t look at the security guard for more than a second without looking away in embarrassment.

‘I don’t care what you do and where you do it as long as it isn’t in here. Now get going before I change my mind.'

'Got it, sir.' He blocks George from view as she surreptitiously swipes the hard drive that had finished downloading information in the time they were caught by the guard. He repeats, 'Won't happen again.'

Outside, George apologises and they go home but there's still an air of awkwardness. She hands the drive over to Claw Agency superiors and is called back in the week to pursue Road Back members with her old team. Since the Road Back is disbanded, Nick doesn't need a bodyguard anymore and they part ways, both thinking this is the last time they'll see each other again.

Three months later, they round up the last of the Road Back members, and George hands in her resignation form. She makes her team promise to keep in touch, thanks the Claw superiors for giving her a lifeline back then, and shows up at Nick's house to confess her feelings.

'You know,' she says, after the heavy emotional talk. 'We never did get that dance.'

'Never too late,' says Nick. He holds out his hand. 'May I?'

'But there's no music,' she laughs, taking his hand anyway.

He smiles at the sound. 'Don't need music. Your laugh is the most beautiful sound of all.' And she proves him right by laughing again.

When they have their first dance at the wedding, they're laughing merrily through the whole thing, calling each other Mr Fan and Mrs Nickerson.

Other Tidbits of this AU: Everyone on the team is field cleared but George and Owen were the only true field agents so they were closer because they have to trust each other's back in the field. Ace is the Hacker, Nancy is the scientist with a focus on biochem and Bess is the pilot/driver/etc. George and Nick play chess but George is more logical and Nick is more passionate. They're equally skilled. Bess meets Addy while the team visits George and they start talking and start dating just before Fanson's wedding. Nace dance around each other for years before everyone locks them in a small room and they come with messy hair and red lips to a chorus of "Finally"s

In every universe, the Drew Crew wishes Kat Michail a very Merry Christmas and hopes that she enjoys her gift. In this universe, Shannon wishes Kat a Happy New Year too. I hope you liked your gift Kat!

[criticalbennifer]

J.Lo Gives $2.5 Million Sparkler Back to Ben

By:  Kate Stroup/ABC News

March 18, 2004

While Ben Affleck sat for interview after interview promoting his new film, Jersey Girl — and dishing on the Bennifer bust-up — Jennifer Lopez, 34, made a public statement of her own.

On March 8 in Miami, while dining on sushi at the Shore Club's Nobu, Lopez and her new leading man, Marc Anthony, 34, couldn't keep their hands, or their lips, off each other. (Interestingly, Lopez and Affleck publicly kicked off their romance with a liplock at Nobu in New York City in 2002.)

"They were making out in front of everyone," a witness tells Us. "It was impossible not to notice them."

In case there was any doubt, less than two months after her split from Affleck, 31, Lopez is making it clear she has moved on — and this time, it's final. A source tells Us that Lopez, in her ultimate farewell to the relationship, has decided to return her much-talked-about $2.5 million, 6.1-carat pink diamond Harry Winston engagement ring, closing the door on any possible reconciliation.

"She plans on quietly giving the ring back," a Lopez insider tells Us. "She's not doing this for the media. She's doing it for closure. It's the relationship's death certificate. He has demons that will never go away."

And yet, the actress — who has only communicated with Affleck via e-mail and letter since the split — isn't quite ready for a face-to-face meeting with her ex (she skipped the star-studded New York City premiere of Jersey Girl, in which she has a minor role as Affleck's doomed wife). A source tells Us now that she'll recruit a neutral intermediary to hand-deliver the bling. (It's not the kind of thing you'd UPS.) "The breakup is still really raw for her," the source says. "I wouldn't call them friends at this point." Is It Right?

So is Lopez doing the right thing? Etiquette experts say an ex-fiancée, no matter how jilted, is expected to return the ring. (Affleck, says a source, never asked for it back.)

"If a wedding is called off, she has to give back the ring," etiquette expert Peter Post, author of Essential Manners for Men, tells Us. "There isn't a good justification to keep it."

But surely there must be some leeway when the groom-to-be first carouses with strippers in Vancouver, then walks away from their relationship days after they postponed their $2 million wedding?

Certainly, few would have been surprised if Lopez had chosen to keep her cherished rock. If she were to sell it — say, for charity — experts estimate it would haul in a pretty penny.

"Because it has the Bennifer name attached to it, it would fetch above and beyond what it would go for at Harry Winston," says Constance White, style director at eBay, where Helene Eksterowicz's 2.78-carat engagement ring from The Bachelor's Aaron Buerge recently fetched $28,300. "It wouldn't be unreasonable to start the bidding at $1 million." Why Now?

It's possible she's upset that Affleck, on a blitz to promote his make-or-break role in Jersey Girl, has talked about their failed relationship to Rolling Stone and Dateline NBC and on Saturday Night Live (to name just a few). But those closest to Lopez — who waited years to discuss her P. Diddy relationship — insist it's just a sign that the world's most famous bride-to-be is ready to reinvent her life.

"She was shell-shocked, but now she's ready to move on," says a source close to the singer. "It takes time to mourn. But now she knows it's over."

To speed up the healing, Lopez has virtually abandoned Los Angeles (and the multimillion-dollar Beverly Hills estate she shared with Affleck) for Miami. While Affleck was preparing for his March 13 SNL gig, she and Anthony went shopping at Bal Harbour, a favorite retail haunt of hers in Miami.

J.Lo's public makeout with Anthony at Nobu aside, the two have been careful to avoid scenes (and photographers) together, and a source tells Us that Lopez recently fired her security staff because she feared press leaks about their romance.

A source tells Us that, to avoid scrutiny, the pair now spend most of their time at Lopez's Miami Beach mansion, where they stay up until 4 or 5 a.m. watching TV or DVDs.

"Jennifer loves to sit at the pool for hours and soak in the sun," an inside source tells Us. "She wears a bikini and he wears cut-off jeans and no shirt. They lie around the pool kissing and laughing." Not that she has gotten lazy. Lopez, who starts filming Monster in Law with Jane Fonda in May, often works out twice a day, doing ashtanga power yoga and interval training to burn off the post-breakup weight gain she (and Affleck) suffered, a source tells Us. Lopez has even been spotted jogging up and down the road in front of her house.

Affleck, for his part, lately seems to be adjusting to his post-Lopez life with aplomb. On March 6 in New York City, he spent the evening surrounded by a group of women at the nightspot G2. Now What?

"He didn't talk about J. Lo at all," a source says. Adds an eyewitness, "He was the perfect gentleman." And after his SNL gig, regarded by many as a hit, he attended the cast party with a posse of about 15 guys at Ruth's Chris Steak House until around 3:30 a.m.

"Oh, we're all laughing," said Diane Sawyer, after watching an SNL clip two days later on Good Morning America. "I guess he laughs 'til it hurts."

As for Anthony, is he more than a rebound romance? After all, his estranged wife, Dayanara Torres, 29, still lives in Miami with their two young children — and a prolonged relationship with Lopez could complicate their ongoing divorce proceedings. (Even stranger, Anthony, by some accounts, is wearing a ring on his left hand.)

Still, sources close to Lopez aren't ruling out a long-term love connection. "J. Lo wants a family," says one source. "And she has a history with Marc. We'll see."

With reporting by Zoe Alexander, Jennifer O'Neill, Ryan Pienciak & Shelley Reinstein in New York City; Ken Baker in Los Angeles; Jed Dreben & Linda Marx in Miami

[someotherdog]

oh. great. not a blogger, but a journalist. just what la pine needed. just what captain rick kelleher needed. the case was confusing enough, the last thing he needed was someone from the huffington post—of all newspapers!—meddling. he had to wonder how they had even gotten the attention of the media. of course the case had made the local news, even ended up on the news in a few neighboring towns, but the huffington post wasn't some local beat. they were a national newspaper. the last thing the people of la pine needed was national attention. he could instantly see the town portrayed on dateline, keith morrison's voice in his mind: a quiet town where no one locked their doors, a curious case of being in two places at once... give him a fuckin' break.

it was hard not to be irritated. did he not have the right to be irritated? some random woman was breaking into a victim's house and looking at him as if he was the stranger. the case had been stressful enough for him, for the entirety of la pine. blood had been shed and families were destroyed. journalists never met a carcass they didn't want to pick, did they? goddamn. though she had thankfully moved her flashlight so it wasn't directly into his eyes, it was still rather bright and rick lifted one hand to try and deflect it away from his face better.

then she had the audacity to ask who he was. after she broke into the house in the dark. he scoffed. "well, i'm the police captain of this town, and this is my crime scene," rick countered, narrowing his eyes, "kind of hard to trespass on my own crime scene." anyway, she was the one sneaking around in the dark! in a place she wasn't even allowed to be in! he could have her arrested for even being there if he wanted to. hm, the paperwork that would take…

"now it's my turn to ask a question. what exactly do you think you'll find here, ms. huffington, that my detectives haven't already found?" maybe she thought they were all country bumpkins, but they had torn this house apart. they had torn the johnson house apart, the baseball diamond, the van used to take the kid, just about the whole damn town. if something was there, they would've found it. maybe some small town police stations didn't care about solving crimes, but this one did. rick did. everything had ended up so fucked in the end and now that multiple were dead, he didn't know what else there was to find if he did go searching.

it wasn't as if the case didn't weigh on his mind, too. the only reason he even noticed her movements inside the house was due to the fact that he kept driving by the connors' home. there were many unanswered questions. in the eyes of the law, the case was closed. the victims were dead and so was the perpetrator. at this point, they were both just disturbing the dead. / @thedevilsbckbone

Carefully, so as not to disturb things too much within the residence since it was still a crime scene, Maité moved throughout the living room over to a wall of photos where the smiling faces of the Connor's kin all captured memories of better times for the happy family. It felt eerie now, knowing most were now deceased. A shift in the air caused a shiver to run up the brunette's spine as her mind began to move in a million directions as question after question filled her mind. It was why her editor said she was so good at her job -- it was as if Maité's brain would think up every single scenario possible and find her way towards the right path to the truth, no matter how wild and unstable some of those said paths seemed to be.

A noise behind her caused the woman to give a startle, jumping back and quickly whipping her head around towards the individual she was quickly made aware was also now sharing the space with her. Instinctively the hand that held the flash light beamed straight into the strangers face as she lifted her tape recorder up, ready to chuck it at the person if need be. Part of her knew realistically it was probably was one of the police officers in town keeping an eye on the home but that didn't stop her mind from jumping to wild conclusions seeing as this was not any ordinary crime scene.

Instead of some monster or crazy boogie man that her mind had briefly conjured up in the darkness, she was actually met by an older man she did not recognize but given the way he was speaking, it was obvious he held some kind of authority. Brows knitting together, she dropped both of her hands, moving the flashlight a bit lower so she could still see him but without outwardly blinding the man. Her gaze looked him over before returning to meet his gaze as she frowned at the assumption. She knew all things considered she shouldn't be offended for being assumed to be some kind of blogger but given how hard she worked to get where she did, the brunette couldn't stop herself before she spoke.

"Well not that I'm admitting to anything... but would it make this better or worse if I said it was actually for the Huffington Post?" She leaned back against the railing behind her, trying to be as casual as possible, not really taking the fact that she could very well get arrested for being here all that serious. After all, it wouldn't be the first, or even the tenth, time she'd spent the night in one of the local jail cells. She just didn't think it would happen on her first day back in town. Go figure.

Still eyeing the man with a bit of suspicion and curiosity, Maité couldn't stop herself yet again as she blurted out after a moment, "I'm sorry but who are you? I mean, for all I know you could be the one trespassing." She said, shrugging one of her shoulders. It had been a few years since she'd been back in La Pine but she had known most of the individuals working at the station as all had been either old vets from her younger years just counting down the days until they retired on people she went to school with who had gone into law enforcement following their family or friends who were already in the precinct. This man wasn't a local though, at least hadn't been for very long -- that much Maité was certain. Besides, if he had been from here or at least knew her like the rest of the authorities did, then this wouldn't have really been all that out of character for her and surprising for him

[9gemca]

Adorable Red Coral ring increase the self-confidence @ https://www.9gem.ca/

[paradisehoppers]

Day 63 - Welcome to the Aloha spirit — oder: Freitag zum Zweiten...

Nach diesem neunstündigen Flug landeten wir erneut Freitagmorgen in Honolulu. Da wussten wir jedoch noch nicht, dass wir noch meilenweit von unserem Frühstück entfernt waren, denn wir mussten uns für den Einwanderungsvorgang erstmal ganz hinten in der hauptsächlich von Asiaten gefüllten Halle anstellen. Nachdem wir unser Touri-Visum erhalten hatten, ging dann alles recht schnell. Wir sammelten unsere Koffer ein, die mittlerweile sogar schon neben dem Kofferband standen, und fuhren mit dem im Vorfeld gebuchten Shuttle über zahlreiche und riesig breite Highways zu unserem Hotel ins Zentrum von Waikiki.

Da wir noch nicht einchecken konnten, erfüllten wir das amerikanische Klischee und genehmigten uns unser mehr als überfälliges Frühstück - Sandwiches und leckere Blueberry Scones - bei Starbucks. Danach erkundeten wir den Strand und die Straßen von Waikiki. Unser Fazit: Waikiki hat definitiv Alpha-Spirit, ist zwar tagsüber nicht gerade eine Augenweide mit den vielen lieblosen Hotelbunkern (ausgenommen natürlich das pinke Hotel, das ist sooo pink und hat im Gegensatz zu den anderen echt Charme), dafür versprüht der Strand mit dem Diamond’s Head im Hintergrund - einem Vulkan und Wahrzeichen von Waikiki -  hawaiianisches Lebensgefühl. Und auch obwohl es von Asiaten nur so wimmelt, ist Waikiki ein riesiges Shoppingparadies, vor allem für Surferklamotten und Souvenirs.

Für abends vertrauten wir TripAdvisor und wählten das Nr. 1 Udon-Nudelsuppen-Restaurant aus, welches praktischerweise direkt neben unserem Hotel lag. Dort hatten wir mittags schon gesehen, dass die Leute dafür sogar anstanden - da muss es dann doch bestimmt sehr gut schmecken. Unsere Erwartungen wurden jedenfalls mehr als erfüllt, denn dort war es günstig und zugleich super lecker. Anschließend sahen wir der Sonne dabei zu wie diese langsam im Meer verschwand. Wir schlenderten die Strandpromenade entlang, ließen uns im Friday-Night-Trubel treiben und sahen uns das pompöse Feuerwerk an, das uns unsere Taxifahrerin empfohlen hatte und das jeden Freitag veranstaltet wird. Und so ging für uns Zeitreisende auch zum zweiten Mal dieser Freitag zu Ende.

[tinyboxxtink]

“you are terrible and awful and perfectly horrid and -- and mine.” with Vada?

I love you SO much for sending all of these!! <3

SO I kinda cheated and used this to fulfill a request AND hit a square on @storiesofsvu bingo!!

The square is New Year's Eve.

-----------------------

It was 11 o'clock on New Year’s Eve, and Nevada still wasn’t home yet. He promised this year he would be done with his “business” and home by midnight, so that you two could ring in the new year together for once. But the clock was ticking away, and you hadn’t received so much as a text since five that afternoon.

You paced Nevada’s penthouse apartment, fully decked out in a brand-new party dress, perfect hair and make-up, the works. And you were wasting it all on Chris Hansen as you were binge watching Dateline crime shows.

“estúpida madre puta…” You grumbled as you glanced at your stationary phone once more.

11:45 PM

“I swear to God, if he doesn’t…” You started to threaten the air when you heard the DING! Of the elevator to the suite. The doors open to reveal your boyfriend holding a bottle of champagne and a huge smile.

“Ah, mami,” He strolled out of the elevator with a happy tone that quickly shifted once he saw your face. “¿Qué pasa?”

“What’s up?” You repeated it in English. “What’s UP?!”

“I’m sensing you think I did something wrong,” He walked past you and placed the bottle of champagne in the freezer to chill.

“No, you DID do something wrong, Vada,” You crossed your arms in a huff.

“Well that’s imposible mami,” He smirked as he turned back to face you. “I never do anything wrong,”

“You promised!” You stomped your stiletto. “You promised we’d spend New Year’s Eve together,”

“Corrección,” He walked closer to you with the same smirk. “I said we would start the new year together, which we WILL, mami,”

“Oh you--” You made a disgruntled face as you started to bitch about semantics.

“I what, mami?” He smirked even harder as he began to pull something from his leather jacket as he approached where you were standing.

“You are terrible and awful and perfectly horrid and --” You started off on him when you saw the box he was holding. He opened it to reveal a huge diamond ring.

“.... And mine,” You stared breathlessly at the ring. Your gaze went from Vada to the rock and back to him again.

“Lo siento mi amor, I know I was late,” He finally conceded you were right. “But I had to pick this up all the way across town,”

“I…you…” You blinked in disbelief as you just stared wide eyed at the skating rink in the box.

“Marry me, Y/N?” He smiled at you. A warm, loving smile-- something nobody else got to see. "Start the new year as mi reina?"

“Si!” You squealed as you jumped into his arms. “Yes, a million times, yes!!!”

Nevada was slipping the ring on your finger when you heard the countdown going off on “Rockin’ New Year's Eve,” in the background.

“5….4…3…2…1!”

You both kissed each other while the ring sparkled in the reflection of the moon.

“Feliz Año Nuevo, Y/N,” He beamed at you while stroking your cheeks with his thumbs.

“Happy New Year, Vada,” You grinned before kissing him once more.

[kwebtv]

Joanna Barnes (November 15, 1934 – April 29, 2022) Film and television actress and writer.  She was best known for playing Vicki Robinson in the original The Parent Trap starring Hayley Mills. 

Barnes' initial appearance on television was in the episode "The Man Who Beat Lupo" on Ford Theatre. She made guest appearances on many television series, including the ABC/Warner Bros. programs 77 Sunset Strip and Maverick, CBS's Have Gun - Will Travel, What's My Line (11/28/1965), and the crime drama Richard Diamond, Private Detective. In 1960–61, she guest-starred on The Untouchables episode "90 Proof Dame" as the wife of a French exporter of brandy.

Barnes appeared as Kate Henniger, with Bing Russell and Arthur Space in the 1958 episode "Ghost Town" of the ABC/WB Western series Colt .45, starring Wayde Preston. In 1959, she portrayed Lola in the NBC detective series 21 Beacon Street.

In the 1960s, Barnes worked for producer Martin Ransohoff and appeared in episodes of his The Beverly Hillbillies ("Elly Goes to School" and "The Clampett Look") and was billed as special guest-star. Barnes played Peter Falk's former wife on the 1965–1966 CBS series The Trials of O'Brien and was host of the ABC daytime talk show Dateline: Hollywood in 1967.

She was also a frequent panelist in the early years of the syndicated version of What's My Line?. On December 19, 1972, Barnes appeared on The Merv Griffin Show with Joan Fontaine, Zsa Zsa Gabor and Dan Martino (founder of the Dan Martino School for Men).  (Wikipedia)

[lalmohanpatnaik]

The Myth of Kalapahad

Most people in Odisha have heard about Kalapahad as the destroyer of temples, especially for his blitz on Jagannath Temple at Puri and Sun Temple at Konark after the attack on Barabati Fort.

Nonetheless, the identity of Kalapahad is shrouded in mystery as very little is known about him for sure. When he attacked Barabati Fort in 1568, it was as a general of Afghan army of the Muslim Sultan of Bengal to conquer Odisha.

What happened when he attacked Barabati Fort? The puzzle of the death of Mukunda Dev, the last independent Hindu ruler of Odisha and what followed the fall of Barabati Fort may never be solved, but were the legends about the 16 th century’s most ferocious Afghan general a myth that gained currency three centuries later?

Kalapahad attacked Barabati Fort when Mukunda Dev who was then ruling Odisha was away engaged in battle with the Sultan of Bengal Sulaiman Karrani on the banks of Ganga.The Afghan general led another wing of the Sultan’s army to Cuttack. Nothing much is known about what followed except from folklores. In one of his poems – Kalapahad - based on folktales Godavarish Mishra wrote: "Aaila Kalapahad Bhangila Luhara bada, Peeila Mahanadi pani Suvarna thalire heda parasile Mukundadevanka rani." (Then came Kalapahad, Broke the Iron gates. His army drank the waters of Mahanadi, the queen of Mukunda Deva served beef to Kalapahad in a plate of gold)This Odia couplet became well known in Odisha in the 19th century. A century later in his book Barabati Durga (The Fort of Barabati) Krupasindhu Misra wrote: “Aaila Kalapahad Bhangila Luhara bada, Peeila Mahanadi pani Suvarna thalire heera parasile Mukundadevanka rani''.

 The substituting of the word Heda (Beef) with Heera (Diamond) obscured the situation during the fall of Barabati. While the use of Heda indicated that dishonour was meted out to Mukunda Dev’s Queen by being forced to serve beef to Kalapahad, the use of Heera suggested Queen’s appeasement of Kalapahad through presentation of diamonds and preventing ransacking of the fort. 

Five years ago, an Odia play was staged on the premises of the Jagannath Temple at Ukkunagaram in Visakhapatnam. Artists of Sanskruti Vihar, Cuttack staged it. The report published on it in The Hindu on July 14, 2016 dateline said the play showed how Kalapahad managed his way to the palace destroying everything valuable on the way and tried to outrage the modesty of the Queen but she committed suicide. The play was scripted by Chandra Sekhar Nanda. But there is no historical evidence to corroborate it.

 The circumstance of the death of Mukunda Dev is also riddled with inconsistencies.  While some believe Mukunda Dev was killed by Ramachandra Bhanja, the feudatory chief of Sarangagarh who proclaimed himself as king of Odisha at Gohiritikira near the present-day Jajpur town, some say he was killed by Kalapahad.

 After the fall of Barabati Fort, Kalapahad turned to attack Mukunda Dev, who by then had been defeated by Sulaiman Karanni and taking shelter in the fort of Kotsima. As per the Khurda manuscript two agents of Mukunda Dev betrayed him. With their help Kalapahad took the jungle path and attacked his army from the rear. Mukunda Dev was defeated and killed in the battle.

 With the Afghan invaders left unchallenged after the death of Mukunda Dev, the Barabati Fort passed into the hands of the Afghan Muslims and Odisha was thus conquered by the Sultan of Bengal in 1568.

 Some believe Kalapahad was a Hindu Brahmin. His real name was Kalachand Roy. He converted to Islam after falling in love with Bengal Sultan’s daughter Dulaari. Later, he wanted to reconvert, but the priests at Jagannath Temple declined and he took out his wrath by attacking Hindu Temples. But leading historians believe he had Afghan origin.

 In his History of Bengal Ghulam Hussain Salim wrote in 1788: “Of the miracles of Kalapahar, one was this, that wherever in the country, the sound of his drum reached, the hands and the feet, the ears and the noses of the idols, worshipped by the Hindus, fell off their stone figures, so that even now stone-idols, with hands and feet broken, and noses and ears cut off, are lying at several olaces in that country”.

 Sometime in February 2016, scholars deliberated over the iconoclastic portrayal of Kalapahad at a seminar held at the National Archives of India Records Centre in Bhubaneswar.

There was by and large a consensus among the participating historians and researchers that Kalapahad attacked Odisha in 1568, but myths about him started doing the rounds three centuries later.

 In Odisha during the Odia language revolution in 19th century he was portrayed as an ardent Jagannath follower who turned vindictive when he was not allowed to enter the temple. In Bengal he was seen as standing against Brahmanical oppression in plays and novels.

Some temples were destroyed during Kalapahad’s attack on Odisha. The scholars believed that his attack on Jagannath Temple in Puri is limited to legends fraught with inventions and not corroborated by facts. The destruction of the Sun Temple at Konark is also incorrectly attributed to him.

Such stories by way of literary medium of legends created the myth of Kalapahad. Was there a method behind it?

[feverinfeveroutfic]

chapter six: in my world

New Zealand welcomed Sam and Anthrax at the stroke of sunrise and the touch of the plane wheels on the dark tarmac. The whole flight had left her disoriented and Joey assured her that it was just the crossing of the dateline that did the trick. Given it was the middle of winter there, she brought a couple of sweaters with her. She thought of surprising him with her brand new black lace underneath one of those sweaters, but then again, there was every glimpse he took at her hips from behind. She wanted to give it all to him right then and there, even on those islands.

Once they stepped off of the plane and they were greeted by a cold blast from the Antarctic, Joey took her by the hand and led her over to the center of the floor. So unlike him to do something huge such as that before a bunch of people, especially a bunch of people there in the Auckland airport, but he dropped down to one knee and showed her the ring right before everyone. The small clear diamond surrounded by a circle of red and black stones: for all she knew, they were mere false rhinestones, but she didn't care.

A small circle of people formed around them as she declared, “yes, Joey!”

A kiss planted on the dark lips and their arms around each other and they were officially engaged. It was actually happening at that point for her.

It was actually happening, albeit so fast to when they reached the hotel, she still had to take a glimpse down to her hand to ensure that it was in fact the real thing. She peered out the rear window to the vast skyline: she swore that it was New York City on steroids. Joey put his arm around her and he couldn't hardly resist the big gleeful smile upon his face.

Sam peered up at her fiance, her husband to be, her future mister and she lay her head on his chest.

In the seat in front of them, Scott took off his cap and ran a hand over the crown of his head. Right before their departure from New York and ultimately the United States, he had taken a buzzer to his head and shaved off the remainder of his hair, which had all but fallen off entirely as part of the aftermath of his relationship crumbling. Where a relationship had ended, another one took its place as the crown jewel.

She was about to be made queen of the world at the bottom of the world: their first show on that stint of the tour would be over in Wellington, but for the time being, they stayed in Auckland.

Joey held her hand as they climbed out of the back seat together and into the sun kissed parking lot. Gray clouds spanned over the sky overhead and the chill of snow hung in the air, even though their driver assured them that snow on the northern island was rare.

A cool breeze sent a shiver down her spine as they walked into the hotel together: she and Joey took the second room on the left there on the third floor, right across the hall from Scott and Dan. The first thing she did upon their entering the room together was call her parents to ensure they reached the bottom of the world in one piece and also the news. Esmé was overjoyed where Ruben had been rendered speechless. The former invited her to California at some point so they could plan the whole thing; Joey lingered right behind her with each word and they picked out a date right away: right in the middle of April, after Anthrax's tour and before the Clash of the Titans.

She then opened the drapes on the large window on the other side of the room: the glass stretched from the floor up to the ceiling so they were gifted with a panoramic view of the skyline; off in the distance stood the menacing low ridge of Mount Eden. Beyond that, out on the water was Browns Island, still lush and vibrant green despite it being the heart of winter.

To think most of this city towered right upon a dormant volcanic field.

Sam thought of Marla and her Polaroid camera: if only she had one of those herself; she wouldn't hesitate to take a series of pictures for all of them back home, as well as her parents.

“Auckland—such a beautiful city!” she declared.

“They know how to party down here, too,” Frank assured her from the doorway; she turned around right as he stuck a stick of gum into his mouth. “That's what happens when you live in a place that's all volcanic.”

“Yeah, you'll see a lot more head banging out here,” Scott added from behind him. “The crowds back in the States have been lacking lately. Not sure what's happening with it, either...”

“We've been seeing a lot of like—college kids in the crowds lately,” Frank added. “Especially last year when we came back to the States. Lotta kids wearing sweatshirts and looking like they just came there from class.”

“Lotta kids'a your caliber,” Joey said with a smirk on his face and a step into the bathroom. But once the door was closed, and Scott called Frank for something across the hall, Sam's face fell.

It wasn't that long ago she was in college herself and yet it felt like an eternity. Though she had started school a little late, a year following high school, to think that kids who just started college were attending Anthrax's shows made her wonder where all this time had gone. She turned back to the window behind her and against the skyline, she noticed her own reflection. Still round and full with youth and yet her eyes seemed a touch deeper than she had remembered. Her blonde highlights only added to it.

The gray clouds on the far side of skyline hung heavy with an incoming winter's rain. The snow hit the southern island and yet she wondered if it was all coming for her at that point.

There was something about being on an island, on a pair of islands, and the one which she stood upon had a dormant volcanic complex.

She thought about Alex: he was getting older, too, past the age of those kids in question. Just earlier that year, she and him were with Eric near another dormant volcanic complex. The threat of eruptions and hellfire made her realize just the preciousness of her relationships, and how the fire could take them all away, the very fire that fueled her passion.

The preciousness of time itself. That time was all she had with her at that moment. The words of the mysterious man in her dreams rang true with her right at that moment: “the clock is your friend.”

And yet, it wasn't that long ago. It wasn't long ago when she met him and he had a mere pearl of gray upon the crown of his head. They were all growing up together and the ring on her finger summed it all up.

A part of her wanted to cry over that ephemeral time passed because they all seemed so young and innocent then but then again, there was no way she could bring it back for herself or for anyone. The only way out was through.

The bathroom door swung open again and she spotted Joey's lopsided grin in the dim reflection before her. She wheeled around and showed a smile to the man she was about to make her own forever.

“What'chu grinning about?” she asked him as she pressed her hands to her hips.

“Just wondering—where do you want the wedding?” Joey asked her with a soft tone of voice.

“Let's hold it in Hawai'i!” Sam declared, to which Joey burst out laughing.

“Nah, I dunno if we can, though,” he confessed.

“Why's that?”

“Have you been to Hawai'i?”

“I haven't.”

“It's crazy, such that I dunno if I can afford it to be honest wit' ya.” Sam put her arm around his lower back and they both gazed out the window to the skyline again. Even with a few pounds on his body, he still had that slender delicate waist that she had remembered from all those years ago.

“You know, we're not too far from Fiji,” she pointed out.

“A thousand miles, I think?” he recalled.

“That's still not too far from here.”

“We can do Fiji for the honeymoon, if you'd like,” he suggested.

“Well, where would you like to hold the wedding?” she kindly asked him and she ran her hand over the upper part of his back.

“I was thinking the Great Lakes,” he replied to her, “like the shores of Lake Superior or Lake Ontario. I remember how much you want to see Lake Ontario especially.”

“Oh, yeah, for sure,” she said with a smile.

“The shores of the lake before the lake effect snows come in?”

“Now, now, we do that and the wedding gets rushed,” she pointed out with a wag of her finger. “I don't really want to rush something like that, especially when there's so much to do behind it.” The mere mention of the word “rush” made her think of Testament and their new album and the regrets they had with it.

“What did Aurora and Emile do for their wedding?” he asked her.

“Oh, they spent a long time on that,” she recalled. “Like I'm sure you remember all the stress Aurora put herself through just organizing the whole thing together.”

“God, how could I forget,” said Joey with a raise of his eyebrows. “Promise me you won't turn into that.”

“No way,” she vowed with a shake of her head. He lingered closer to her and he pressed his lips onto the side of her neck: she closed her eyes and her toes curled inside of her shoes at the feeling. Like all the volcanoes she had encountered, her own magma chamber churred within her. The fire that burned for Joey burned more so for him. No way she could let go of him now.

He gave her a soft groan right into her ear.

“You know, we're not too far from Lake Taupo,” he pointed out, and he raised his eyebrows again. “Talk about volcanic.”

“You want the honeymoon there?” she asked him.

“Nah—but while we're down here in New Zealand, we ought to check it out.”

It would be a week before they would have to perform there in Auckland after all, and thus, the next day, when the clouds cleared out and things were a bit warmer, the two of them headed out for that lake to the south.

A whole week. A whole week with Joey. A whole week with her fiance, the man she chose. The man she settled on.

For some reason, even as Joey took her down to Lake Taupo, the massive crater lake right smack in the middle of the northern island, she couldn't help but think of the day she spent with Alex in West Germany. The smooth calm waters that filled up the vast valley before them.

A sign stood on the vista point that read the crater underneath the lake was responsible for the largest volcanic eruption in recent existence. Joey looked over at her with a thoughtful look on his face, but even from behind those sunglasses she knew what he was thinking upon his reading that. Twenty six thousand years ago, that volcano erupted. Mammoth erupted during that time span as well. White Island near Auckland erupted recently, as did Mount St. Helens off to the north when she was in high school.

Liquid hot magma underneath the earth, just like the heat between the two of them.

And unlike her day with Alex, this time around, they were nowhere near bakeries and things with ginger snaps. Things were sweet and spicy between the two of them.

Add to this, Alex wasn't ready to blow by the time they had reached Schweinfurt by the train, either: a cloud covered the midday sun and Joey lunged for Sam there at the vista point.

No one else around and the nearest place of civilization was the village of Taupo, several miles away from them. He put his arms around her waist and he slithered his tongue inside of her mouth like that of a snake. His hands glided up on the inside of her shirt and to the hooks on her bra.

The menacing fire underneath their feet had nothing on the fire between the two of them.

Alex lingered in the back of her mind like a phantom.

That little plume of gray upon his head like a little radio antenna. His deep eyes haunted her like the barren sockets of a skull.

But she reached down and groped Joey right between the legs. He was firm and full there—right where she wanted him.

She dared not think about another man like that, especially a man whom she saw as her best guy friend. She dared not do anything to step out of line. So paranoid of her but it was the truth to her, especially with that ring on her finger. She and Joey promised each other all the ice cream in the world before she left for California after all.

She stuck her free hand down the front of his jeans and fondled him right then and there. Joey ran his tongue along his teeth and she wondered where they would go from there out in the wild.

He brought his head down to her neck for another kiss or two, and then he ran his tongue along her skin.

All the little touches were enough to keep the fire between them to a small lava flow. She closed her eyes as he gave her a little nibble.

She couldn't help but think about the vampire bites she gave Alex down on his waist. Those were sexy the more she thought about them: they were so close to the belt of his jeans, so close to his genitals.

Joey was doing the same thing for her right there on the side of the neck where everyone could see it.

But then again, Alex was her secret. She dared not let anyone know about what went down between the two of them, not even her own father. At least Ruben met Joey and she made it known between the two of them that they had something for each other. But she and Alex were hidden away from the world, and she wanted it to be hidden between just the two of them.

She couldn't resist thinking those things anyway. All the times Alex looked at her and all the times she got close to him. The twinkles in his deep eyes. The slight raises of his dark eyebrows. All the times the tip of his bulbous nose grew bright pink with the cold wind and it looked so kissable...

Even as Joey kissed her on the chest, something that made her a little extra moist between the legs at the very feeling, she thought of when she and Alex were snuggled up to next to one another underneath the blankets.

Her hand down the front of his jeans. His hand up her shirt and underneath her breasts.

It felt so right and so wrong at the same time.

The whole week prior to the show in Wellington, Sam couldn't stop thinking about Alex.

Testament were about to head over to Europe with Megadeth and Slayer at that point. As far as she knew, just from her overhearing what Scott told the four of them, they had made the Clash of the Titans tour and were preparing on their heading overseas themselves.

At least to hear his voice again after not hearing it for such a long time after she left for New York. To hear him again after Anthrax debuted a brand new song off of their new album Persistence of Time, called “In My World”, at both shows there in New Zealand.

In my world, Sam thought to herself both times. Inside of her own world, and one that she would be a part of for months on end before that wedding, or “the big to-do” as Scott called it.

On one hand, she longed for Joey next to her on the lengthy flight back home to the United States, back to Los Angeles and then once more to New York. But then again, she could relax for a great length of time on the flight home halfway around the world given she was by herself. Almost a whole day to herself there on both planes, and both times she had her journal out for some new drawings.

Something outside of her comfort zone as well: she thought of that drawing of Medusa that she showed to Scarlett. Something a little more akin to herself like that very drawing.

Something naked.

She closed her eyes as she pictured herself naked in front of the mirror. Herself. Her body.

She was once again by herself—although she couldn't do much of anything else at that point given she was surrounded by passengers on the plane but she was by herself. She thought of Alex and Joey both all the way back home as she filled out a few pages in her sketchbook with drawings of naked women. There was nothing else she could do at that point: art was all she had at that moment.

After twenty one hours of being on a plane, she returned to her place in Hell's Kitchen. The fatigue settled over her: lucky for her, it would be next spring when she would call herself Mrs. Belladonna.

Once she stepped into her apartment, she set down her purse and her travel bag on the couch. She then walked over to the phone on the wall. She picked it up and dialed his number.

It rang twice.

“Hello?” Like how she could recognize Joey's upstate accent, she recognized his big voice that didn't seem to fit his body, even when it broke upon his answering.

“Alex?” she asked him.

“Who's this?”

“Sam. Samantha.”

“Oh, hey! I was just thinking about you. What's going on?”

“Just got home from beautiful New Zealand.”

“Aw, that's so cool! One of our first stops on our very first world tour was down in Auckland. It's really cool down there, isn't it?”

“Oh, it's gorgeous. Like a raw beauty of sorts—we went to Lake Taupo and it just makes Long Valley look tiny. I was gonna go with Anthrax to Australia and then Japan before I came home but—I couldn't.” She cleared her throat.

“Well, we're heading over to Europe on the Clash of the Titans tour in like a couple of weeks, right in the last week of September. Souls of Black drops in October right when we're in the midst of that—dreams really do come true.” He fetched up a sigh of relief and she knew things were lighter over there upon his saying that. “You know, it's funny—just yesterday, I was thinking of calling you just to tell you what's going on at that moment.”

“Aw, that's—that's so sweet of you.” She cleared her throat. She yearned for his sweetness again, even if it was just for a few minutes.

“Is everything okay? You sound kinda rough. I know I did after we went down there—had a little head cold for a bit. A lot of weird, endemic things down there that we're not used to here in the States.”

“Well, it's—” She nibbled on her bottom lip. “Can I ask you something?”

“Of course,” Alex replied. “You can ask me anything.”

“I was wondering if—you'd like to be in mine and Joey's wedding.”

“Your and Joey's wedding?” He paused. “Wait a minute. You guys are actually getting married?”

“Yeah.”

“When?”

“April fifteenth.” A hard lump emerged in her throat.

“Oh my—fucking god, when'd this happen?”

“He proposed to me right when we landed in Auckland.”

“Wow! So you guys are—are—are—”

“We're tying the knot right when they get home from their tour.”

“A month off and then they go out on the North American part of the Clash of the Titans.”

“Wait, you guys aren't gonna on that on the American part?”

“Nope—Anthrax is headlining it with Megadeth and Slayer, and they're getting supported by a little band out of Seattle called Alice in Chains.”

“And what are you guys doing?”

“Well, Eric sent out the fan club letters talking about it—I'm guessing you haven't gotten yours yet.”

“Nah.”

“We go out on our own tour afterwards 'cause of Souls of Black. It's gonna be long, Samantha—I'm just gonna admonish that onto you right now. We're gonna be with the girls, too! The Cherry Suicides.”

“Oh, cool!”

“Oh, it's the least we can do for them especially. They wanted to come with us on the Clash of the Titans, but I guess they missed the deadline or something? I don't really know, to be honest. I'll ask Zelda when I see her again.”

He cleared his throat.

“We're gonna be in Stockholm by the time that album drops, too,” he told her in a low voice.

“Sweden,” she muttered.

“Yeah. Sweden in October, too. When the snow starts falling and the black ice hits the road.”

She closed her eyes when she thought of Cliff.

“But we're not doing what Metallica were doing, though,” he assured her. “Not even close to that.”

“How so?”

“We have a few dates in Germany and then we go up to Stockholm, and then back down to Copenhagen. So we're completely bypassing that part of Sweden.”

“Well, you know...” Her voice trailed off.

“Oh, yeah. There's still the risk that things can go horribly wrong. It's something I've known for almost four years now.”

A soft clicking noise on the other end caught her attention.

“Hang on, I got someone on the other line,” she told him.

“I have things to do anyways,” he followed up.

“Alex?”

“Yeah?”

She nibbled on her bottom lip. It was so strange for her to say this to him, especially when it came out of her with such ease to Joey.

She thought of it. It was on the tip of her tongue.

She wanted to say it—

“Would you like me to send you some ginger snaps?”

“Like—right now?” he sputtered.

“Well, 'cause I think about how you guys are going to be overseas just in time for your birthday,” she told him.

“Oh. Oh, yeah, I would love that! Try to send them off within the next week, though, so I can have them with me on the tour.”

“Of course, of course!”

Yet another thing for her to do but it was something easy to do, though, especially when Esmé called her up right there, once she got off the phone with Alex, and she invited her back out to California as both a celebration and preparation for the wedding.

Later that day, she headed out and fetched a tin of ginger snaps for him for his twenty second birthday. It was the least she could do for him. And yet she couldn't stop thinking about it in the meantime. She shook her head a few more times at the lingering doubts in her mind.

It was what she wanted. It was everything that she wanted. She was sure of it and all the voices within her mind doubtful of it all were merely her own insecurity speaking. She understood what Aurora had meant by it all. She understood it all now, why her mind went sideways and she seemed like a shell of herself once she and Emile had settled down there in New York together.

She had buried the hatchet between her and Aurora anyway.

However, the thought of her behavior that night made her shake her head. She should have known. But then again, she had no idea how these things would fare for her, and also for Aurora herself and Joey.

It would take her several months in order to plot the wedding, and even from the very beginning, she was glad that they planned on holding it on the shores of Lake Ontario because she knew there was no way the boys could fly out to the Hawaiian Islands after such a grueling tour. One thing that she couldn't shake right away was that once she had returned from Auckland, and the chill of being south of the equator never left her body, she found herself in search of answers and anything else that could help her and her mother with it all. She was cold all the time for what felt like a week, even when she began eating even more hot food from the intense cold that fell so soon over Southern California.

And all the while she had trickled in the words to her father, who was still speechless given he was still rather unsure of Joey especially with everything that Esmé had told her with the other man. In the meantime, while Anthrax were on the road and Testament had gone off with Megadeth on their tour, every so often, she thought about that man. She wondered if she would ever cross paths with him at some point or if he was long gone at that point. The fact Esmé never even told her his name only made her all the more curious about him.

One other question she had about him was why did they break up, and yet her mother never completely went into that. Something happened there between the two of them and she yearned to know about it.

Maybe it would explain why Ruben was so heated about it and why they split in the first place. Maybe this man, this mysterious man, was in fact her real father and Ruben never wanted to admit that to her. She wondered about this as Esmé took her shopping for wedding dresses in Malibu: there was a dress in the back of the closet, but after Sam had tried it on for herself, the bodice barely fit over her hips and the new curves that came in with all the stress behind planning a wedding.

Of all places, she thought, and they were going to be back there in Southern California in no time before they headed back to upstate New York. The place where she knew she wanted to go. It all felt like a dream at that point.

She couldn't hardly focus on all of the filmy white lace before her, what with the thought of Joey being overseas and the fact that Cliff was overseas himself before the bus tipped over. She shook her head and she strove to shake away those thoughts.

No way Joey would end up like Cliff: no way he could, either. It was possible for sure, but she need not be left at the altar like what happened with her and Cliff.

Filmy airy white lace that hugged her hips and her waist. A slightly low neckline that accentuated her breasts and thin white lace that covered her shoulders. She gazed at herself in the mirror, now the bride herself. She thought of Testament and the fact that she had lost Chuck's trailer over Donner Pass. All of it would be rendered meaningless that April. Every last part of it.

Indeed, in the days following her twenty six birthday in January, a part of her wanted to run off with Testament again, back over to Europe with them again, but she knew there would be no point to it. She loved Joey and she wanted to marry him because the alternative was losing him, but something held her back and wanted her to head out again.

She tried on the dress every so often so it would still fit her in the days leading up to it. She twirled for Esmé each and every time, who pressed a hand to her chest at the sight of her.

The week before the fifteenth, she tried it on again, to which Esmé brushed the tears from her eyes.

“I can't believe my little girl is actually getting married,” she breathed out, “and so soon after I handed in my manuscript, too.”

“I can't believe it, either, Mom,” Sam confessed as she ran her hands down the front of the skirt.

“This is all happening so fast. So quickly. Things are really cooking up, my dear.” Esmé raised a glass to her and took a sip of that bright pink dessert wine that the two of them shared with Alex when he visited them there on Catalina.

All the while, with every trip back to upstate New York and with every word she signed on with the wedding and the official union between her and Joey, she thought of Alex still back home in California. He was out there by himself—at least he had his parents close to him, but she couldn't help but think about him out there all by himself. All the things that she had felt for him.

Indeed, when she saw him again at the rehearsal, he was already in that heavy velvet coat which he wore to Aurora and Emile's wedding, but this time, he kept the buttons on his shirt propped open to where it fully exposed his chest. All the while, his hair had grown more lush and fluffy, which everyone referred to as “the Marty Friedman”, after Megadeth's guitarist: the little sliver of gray hid away underneath his bangs, which had grown extra long with time.

“That's a look,” Dan remarked.

“Rock n' roll wedding,” Sam followed up with a nervous chuckle. Esmé was her matron of honor, where Marla and Belinda were her bridesmaids in the black and silver dresses; Alex would once again be the bridesman with his heavy coat and a black button up shirt. Marla, who had dyed her hair blonde at that point, vowed to keep a hat on the whole entire time.

“I'm not happy with it,” she confessed when Sam asked her why. “It's itchy and you've seen me with blonde hair, too, Sam—it's not a good look for me.”

“You look great!” Alex pointed out to her, but nothing could deny the fallen look on Marla's face and Sam knew what was going through her mind at that moment.

The night before the wedding, she could hardly sleep and her mother assured her it was just the nerves of her wedding that kept her awake at night. But every time she closed her eyes, she saw Alex and his bare chest. Twenty six years old and yet she still couldn't hardly shake the feeling of being surrounded by boys all the time. She was the vixen for what felt like forever and now she was about to be the wife. All so fast and so jarring that couldn't hardly think straight.

Her mind left her even when she walked down the grassy aisle with the bouquet before her and the springtime sun over her head. She was exhausted and the sight of Alex there in the bridal party, still with his shirt popped open and that coat looking hot even though the breeze from the lake kept everything cool. Her two bridesmaids looked so stylish with their black and silver strapless dresses: Marla even more so with an oversized black floppy sun hat which had a silver ribbon around the base.

They were going to sign the papers right there once Mark from Death Angel reprised his role as the minister. She was going to do it right with Alex only a few feet from her. When she walked down the aisle with Ruben at her side, she locked eyes with Alex and the forlorn expression on his face.

She gazed up at Joey and the sun at the top of his head like a crown. A prince about to make her his duchess, and Mark struggling to keep a straight face the whole time didn't help matters, either.

“Do you, Joseph Anthony Bellardini, take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?” he asked him.

“I do,” Joey said with that lopsided smile on his handsome face and he signed his name. Mark turned to Sam with a twinkle in his eye and a look of mischief on his face. She took the pen from him.

“And do you, Samantha Rose Shelley, take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?”

She pursed her lips together. Joey raised his eyebrows.

The silence fell over the entire yard in such a heavy fashion that she could slice it open with one of her ink pens.

“I'm sorry, Joey,” she told him in a broken voice. “I can't do this.”

“What do you mean?” he asked her. “Of course you can do it.”

“No, I mean—” She stopped. She could see the tears in his eyes. “I can't marry you.”

She closed her eyes and bowed her head. She took off the ring and handed both it and the pen back to him. No tears of her own, but she regretted it within mere seconds.

But she stepped away from the altar with her hands down before her. That beautiful dress that she had tried out for her mother would now have to go back into the closet. She knew it would be back in the closet after the wedding, but something about it seemed so fruitless at that point. She didn't dare look at anyone in the eye in the meantime, either.

She kept on walking out of there, even when Esmé called after her and even when Marla and Belinda called after her. She headed back to the building for her purse and the key to her car.

There was one place she could go, far away from everything. The one place that she showed to Joey only once and the only place where she could be alone. The one place that she shared with the men who surrounded her in a proverbial sense.

With her wedding dress still on, she climbed in and drove off into the lush green forest of upstate New York. She kept the bouquet next to her in the front seat. With every mile there, she had dry eyes and yet a part of her wished she hadn't done that, especially since Joey looked as though he was about to cry right then and there. No way she could do that, though, even if it made her seem selfish and like a horrible person. She could already hear the accusations to her, especially after all this time and all the times she had chances to tell someone about it, but never did.

Everything that followed her out of the wedding was a blur but one thing stood out to her and that was the stunned look on Alex's face. It was a fleeting glimpse but she saw his mouth drop open and his eyebrows raise high up into his bangs. He had peeked behind her mother and Marla's big floppy sun hat accentuated the shape of his head in a way, so he was the last thing she saw as she stepped off of the altar: she didn't even look into Ruben's face given he sat right there before her.

It would be almost two hours before she spotted that ramshackle building in the trees again. Right up the street stood that familiar corridor in the trees: this time around, it had been cleared out enough to where she could walk through there without the worry of tearing her dress: it was a nice dress after all.

She walked along the soft earth until she reached the clearing that was the quiet place. She took her seat there on the rock at the edge there and she gazed up to the trees. A few songbirds made themselves known to her up there in the thick leafy branches. Not a cloud in the purest blue sky she had ever seen, either. She looked down at the little flowers that bloomed in the dark earth before her.

She thought about the road trip she had with Louie on the California coast. She thought about the trip up to Tahoe with Alex. Up the spine of California and over Donner Pass with Alex and Eric. The fact they took her to where Cliff's ashes were scattered, not once but twice.

She held Joey so close to her and yet she always found her way back to Testament, but there was no way she could readily admit that to anyone.

A beautiful day in upstate New York and one that she wanted to keep all to herself for the time being there in the quiet place.

She couldn't help it. Her heart was with another man, even with as much as she loved Joey.

Even with how much she wanted him for herself: the truth had presented itself to her there in her world.

[gone2soon-rip]

JIMMY WINSTON (1945-Died September 26th 2020,at 75),British musician and bit part actor. He was an original founding member and keyboardist of the British Mod Rock group,Small Faces,alongside Steve Marriott,Ronny Lane and Kenny Jones,but was onlky with them for a short time in 1965.when they released their hits,’Whatcha Gonna Do About It?’,’I’ve Got Mine’, and the album Dateline Diamonds,before being fired after the albums release,allegedly for his over-inflated ego. With his death in September 26th 2020,Kenny Jones remains the only surviving member of the original founding members of Small Faces.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Winston

[brooklynislandgirl]

Beth and WOD!Billy - ❤♡❥ღ💕💘💝💓💌💟💙💚💜💛

This || Not Accepting

❤: who is more affectionate in public? in private? 

In public Billy becomes a distant shore. Too far to reach no matter how hard she swims, how much sea water she ends up swallowing, how far she stretches out her fingers to reach him. To hold his hand, to press her cheek against his arm, to take umbrage in the shelter of all that he is. He reminds her there are cameras everywhere. There are covert agents like himself, there’s research assistants, Extraordinary Citizens. That are all on the Front Lines ready to devour any mistake he makes. To bring the whole thing crashing down on their heads, and that as radiant as he finds his older sister, that she is not exactly shy about flying her Deviant flag, is she?

It crushes some of her spirit and Billy regrets having to do it, but it’s for the Greater Good. He always tells himself that but alone, in his own sanctum, those beliefs are starting to crumble. One part of him wonders if this is all a test of his truest loyalties to his convention, carefully constructed in the Ivory Tower by Control. Forcing him to choose between humanity and three very high value targets. If capture and indoctrination is the plan, or eradication if he doesn’t manage to bring them over. Another part of him, the one that is still fur and fang and not quite the eidolon of his Enlightened Genius shakes its head in shame. Billy should know better. He should remember that dying light in her eyes and swear to make it up to her, no matter the cost. Maybe this is malfunction. Maybe this is what madness feels like. ♡: who is the bigger romantic openly? secretly?

There’s a movie she’s made him watch, that she’s seen a dozen times, enough that she doesn’t miss the words, doesn’t need them to flash across the screen. She curls up against him and jokingly tells him the main protagonist is clearly an Ecstatic ~one of her so called Nine Traditions~ and that she thinks the paradigm contained in it is beautiful.

He enjoys it because it makes his apartment feel less lonely, less sterile. It leaves the ghost of her as an impression against his skin. The scent of popcorn and the coconut and sandalwood and cinnamon that always clings to her skin will now linger on his. She’s soft and curved and quiet, all the things that his world is not. And he has that weird feeling that she somehow bypasses his circuitry, his implants, even though that should be impossible, to dig a place inside of him that she can fit.

But even when she’s gone, a line from the film sticks with him. One he can’t shake, so he hides it in an internal file buried so deep that even he will have trouble finding it again.

"Have you never met a woman who inspires you to love? Until your every sense is filled with her? You inhale her. You taste her. You see your unborn children in her eyes and know that your heart has at last found a home. Your life begins with her, and without her it must surely end." 

❥: who is more likely to plan something big for valentine's day?

He’s going to punch the other two dead in the face when they get back. Because it can’t be anything less than a conspiracy between the three of them that he goes to sleep in his own bed, all algorithms in suspend mode, only to wake up to the sound of waves lapping against the wood and fibreglass of the hold, the sea choppy and cold and grey. Like the sky if he bothers to look out of a porthole.

The bunk is a little cramped for his liking, not exactly built for a man of his stature and construction. The benefit of hypertech enhanced limbs is that they don’t exactly ache for the narrowed confinement. The space beside him still holds the ghost of her warmth, her scent, and it isn’t hard to imagine the sheets wrapped around her lithe frame. Hair spilling over his arm like a dark flood. But it’s her voice that teases him awake.  “So since we no can do da whole public kine,” she murmurs, “I t’ought I’d surprise ya. Ren’ned one boat for couple days. An’ bonus... my friends who helpin’ us out... says dey know of a crew a pirates dat need t’ be... how ya say it? Sanitise?” He winces at the word, and how close it is to the reality of it. He raises a brow, loath to interrupt her when her voice is still raspy from sleep, and because everyone else is used to discounting her, cutting her off. “Cause dey fangy-fangy/bitey-bitey.” She makes comical fangs with her fingers curled in front of her mouth. He slides out of bed and into a slumped seating position and she comes over, sits beside him. She presses a mug of scalding hot tea into his hands. It’s dark. Slightly sweet. It doesn’t matter when she smiles. “Happy Volentimes day. An’ good mornin’.” He presses his nose into the crown of her hair. “Mornin’ Izzy.”

ღ: who is more likely to initiate hand-holding in public?

Standing on the upper deck, face in the wind, eyes closed, Billy can hear it. The distinct creak of timbre. The whip-snap of the canvas in a gale, his hands weathered and calloused as he climbs the shrouds to secure a ratline. Everything is heavy with sea spray and the acrid smell of spent powder. The rush of having overtaken a heavy vessel. The pounding of his heart after a successful boarding action. New men aboard. Supplies and wealth taken and secured below. He can see faces and hear names that were long since dead, maybe never existed at all.  There’s a word on the tip of his tongue but when he reaches for it, it vanishes. It tells him he doesn’t really want to know because Billy doesn’t really forget, does he? He doesn’t. And so the only person standing against him is himself.

He blames her with her talk of pirates and her gift of the open sea past the international dateline. Gives him fanciful day dreams, that’s all it is.  He stiffens when he feels skin on skin. Rudimentary procedure tells him it’s her before he even opens his eyes. Which he chooses not to. Instead he curls his fingers around hers; too small, too delicate. Afraid he’ll crush them if he isn’t careful. Afraid he’ll crush her. 

💕: who is more likely to make huge declarations of love in front of other people?

“I will NOT have you shaming the family, Elizabeth!” For a moment with his voice roused in anger, Andy sounds exactly like their father. And she stands there, taking the brunt of it, doe eyes full of a shame and grief that did not come close to being able to be described. She is reduced to something less than herself, something barely more than a child the way she twists her fingers into the waist of her skirt, head tilted toward the floor where maybe that gaze could burn a hole into the wood floors. Shoulders forward and down, all of her making itself as small as possible. Perhaps protectively, perhaps because it cannot hold up the heaviness of Andy’s anger. “....m’ sorry.”  Barely two words, slurred into one.

She hadn’t meant to do or say anything wrong. She hadn’t meant to make a scene at the party. Hadn’t meant to make Billy chase her into the room. Of course, there’s a lot of things she doesn’t mean and it makes it so hard to breathe sometimes.

She can’t say she really understands why he’s mad. Why he’d waited until everyone, including Billy had left, why Baz’s half-hearted interference from the kitchen where he’s cleaning up... “Leave’r ‘lone, Andy” ... goes unheard. “May I be ‘scused?” “Go to bed. We’ll deal with damage control in the morning.” Beth decides then and there, she hates Halloween.

💘: who developed a crush on the other first?

It’s called the Westermarck Effect. A psychological hypothesis that people who live in close domestic proximity during the first few years of their lives become desensitised to sexual attraction with one another. And when a brother and sister, for example, are brought up separately, never meeting until they reach adulthood or adolescence they might find one another highly sexually attractive. The science clearly bears out.

But he wants to hear it from Andy’s own mouth.  The source of his bitterness, his distance, the rage that has him lifting hands and laying them on his little brother. Panting, he looks up from where he’s crouched. Jaw hard. Back of his hand swiping at the lick of blood on his lip. He hitches himself to his feet and reaches out a hand, waits until Andy reaches back and helps pull the other man to his feet. An honest dust up that’s gotten most things out of the way so that they can actually talk. “So tell me, Andrew, is it that she’s makin’ eyes, or that it’s not at you?”

💝: who spends more time (possibly overthinking) what presents to get the other?

The adverts on the telly and radio and every bit of media give off suggestions. Every kiss begins with Kay. De Beers A Diamond is Forever. It’s all part of the carefully cultivated stratagems of the Syndicate. A means to control the economy based on the products it chooses to endorse, and which they decide to bury.  But the problem isn’t his fellow conventions, but rather the fact that Beth isn’t that kind of woman. She doesn’t want for material things, not in the way that can be neatly wrapped up in a box with a bow. She wants for the sea in her soul. She wants for a quiet acceptance. She wants for the soft kisses and hands pressed to hearts vowing forever at the end of the fairy tale. She wants an end to the War or at least an escape from it. She wants all of humanity to achieve this mystical Ascendance of hers, that reminds him of a song from the 70s or something What can you give a woman like that? You don’t exactly. You can’t. It means switching sides. It means becoming a traitor to your own. Not that she’s ever asked. Not that she has to, what with everything that is changing within him. She’s shown him things that he never contemplated before, things he’s never hoped to experience. For the first time, he’s starting to question the party line. And that’s dangerous. “Let me see the other one. The one with the pearls.”

💓: who initiates most physical contact?

She tucks her feet under his leg when they’re cold. Which is always. Her fingers find a home intertwined with his the moment he stops typing. Even if there’s a mile of couch, she tries to climb into his lap at every opportunity. She talks with her hands and smiles with her eyes and her lips at once. Small kisses on the back of his neck. Somehow she’s always brushing against him as she walks by. She’s always been the physical type. It’s a language as well as a form of affection and he thinks he’s starting to figure it out. Or at least he thinks he has, but then she changes the rules.

Suddenly she doesn’t quite meet his eyes. How she finds a way to not be in the same room even if they are seated right next to him. When she dances with him it feels like they’re on other planets.

For all that he wants to give chase, he doesn’t. Gives her space. Hopes that’s enough to bring her back around because he’s starting to miss the little things. Teeth has other things to say about it but you don’t always listen to your not so imaginary weasel.

💌: who is more likely to send cutesy texts to the other?

Sheryl from R and D eyes him when he laughs out loud. He waves a hand and recites the pithier parts of an Onion article he’d read weeks before. All while staring at the face she’s making, rubber glove on her head like a cockscomb. She’s always sending him little things. A picture from the ER. Something silly she saw on the way to or from work, depending on what shifts she’s taken. Corny little jokes he knows has taken her weeks to come up with. Things he memorises and deletes because he doesn’t want a single trace of her that can be caught by the higher ups. But that doesn’t mean that he wants her to stop. In a lot of ways it speaks volumes that she cares enough about him, that she thinks about him as much as he does her, that she sends them. His favourite so far is the Giraffe prodding a duck with one enormously long leg. He normally doesn’t send anything back, no channel completely secure, but he does make a point to mention it when he gets back to his place. Which reminds him, she’s been spending an awful lot of time there.

💟: who spends time reading their zodiac compatibility?

She sits sprawled on the floor. There’s books and charts, some ancient and some new, all around her. She has graph paper, pencils and pens, a compass and slide rule, all the trappings of higher mathematics. But she’s not solving complex equations or a new hypothesis for string theory. “It’s complete rubbish!” he laughs, stirring the garlic green beans around the wok with a touch of sesame oil. “The stars aren’t even in the same position as they were back then, some have burnt out, the gravitational axis of-” “Nu-uh!” she counters, just as amused, just as passionate. “Astrology one of da very firs’ sciences, William. In fact, ya very own Celestial Mastahs-” Void Engineers, Beth. They’re called the Void Engineers. “-spoke wide an’ advocated it in academic circle. Related it t’ astronomy, alchemy, me-meat- “Meteorology.” “Yeah, dat. An medicine. Da Greek, Chinese, Mayans, Egyptians, Macedonians. All’a da big civilisation. Even in da political circles of literature, li’dat Dante Alighieri an’ Chaucer, Shakespeare, Lope De Vega, Calderon de la Barca, who I don’ t’ink was related t’ Hannibal but mebbe. No was til da nineteen century when you guys edged forward wi’ da Sleepahs-” “Beth?” “Yeah?” “Could you come here a second?” She rises like a very strange Polynesian Venus from her sea of pseudoscience and pads her way over to him. He leans down and kisses her gently on the lips. She pulls back from him and shakes her head, flashing him her shark-smile. “See? See dat? Spoken li’ true Libra.”

💙: who is more protective?

He watches her from near the treeline, crouched down low, one set of knuckles in the deep loam offering himself balance. She rabbit runs and for a moment he is consumed more in her motion than watching the surroundings. Shapely legs and perfect little feet fleet, flashing their tawny hue in the sun. Braids bouncing down her back. Go, girl, go. She almost makes it. But on her blind side there’s a blur. Taller than her. Near twice as broad. Intends to take her down like a lion on the Savannah. Billy sees red. Literally. And he springs. Primium laced muscles and bone primed and pumping at optimal levels. Gives him a deceptive speed and the length of his stride eats up the earth at his feet. He clips the body at the waist, drives him to the ground. Makes him drop the weapons at hand that break harmlessly open. There’s a struggle. Of course there is. Half-powered punches that gain his victim no leverage, a rolling tussle where he keeps coming on top, shoulder crashing into chest until he turns and coughs. Gasping for air. Body changing to something harder than flesh, but slow. He gets in one more good punch.

“Billy.” He looks up. Andy’s standing there. Pinning her in his arms. Her feet dangle off the ground, her eyes wild. One of his hands wrapped around her throat. A short jerking twist and she’d-- ”Let him go.” He blinks. Looks down at Baz, sees him for the first time. Realises the weapons are water balloons. And Beth? She still has the football in hand, because she’d crossed the finish line. Their point, then. He still doesn’t understand all the rules to this combination flag {American} football and water balloons and trivia game. Billy hitches to his feet. Offers an apologetic hand to Baz who declines. Politely. When Baz crosses over to Andy’s side, Riley lets her go. Gives her a little shove toward Billy. There’s a fading hand-print around her neck, but she smiles and kneads her head into his chest. He puts an arm around her and glares at the other two who are checking each other over.

Riley will learn one of these days that he’ll keep his hands off her. And he’ll learn it a broken bone at a time, his or someone else’s.

💚: who tends to get sick more often? who is better at taking care of the other?

She stitches his skin. He feeds her soup. They sleep like the dead.  She tends to his scars the way he shepherds her dreams. They work.

💜: who said "i love you" first? or, if neither has said it yet, who is more likely to say it first?

He said once, the first time. She rejected it out of turn. She repeats it later. They never speak it again. But they do everything to make it manifest. Every touch and every look everything they do for one another.  But the words sit in their throats. Haunt their eyes. Loud. Shrieking. How the rest of the world doesn’t hear it, he’ll never know. She’s asleep now, and his fingers trail through her hair. She looks so innocent, so untouched by anything, even him as her chest rises and falls with quiet breathing.

How many times are they going to spiral around each other?  As many as it takes. Until they can howl down the heavens.

💛: who believes in soulmates?

Nails dig into the back of his neck as he holds her fast. One arm around her hips. One climbing the trellis of her ribs like ivy, fingers resting in the space between her shoulders as she arches back. His face pressed into the wide valley between her breasts. The harsh echo of his panting breaths, the sweeter song of the guttural moan he’s dragged out of her throat, her throat exposed, mouth parted in a rictus of pleasure-pain. She calls it the Lotus position, the way she’s seated in his lap, and he’s buried to the hilt. Legs wrapped like chains around him as the last twitches and jerks bleed him dry inside of her. She calls this tantric. Finishing together. Raising power. He calls it love and his is hers and hers alone. And there’s only one way that will ever end. “Death first, Izzy.” He writes the words across her sweat soaked skin. “Always.” She answers and swans her neck into his shoulder where her teeth draw blood.

[valleywitch]

So this mom on dateline gave her wedding ring to her daughter (it was the ring her father gave to her) it was understood that it would be passed to her, one of the reasons the dad bought the ring.

Then her favorite son was getting married so the mom stole the ring back took the diamonds out and gave them to her son. Then the son replaced the diamonds. Of course the daughter found out and was upset.

According to her mom, she wasn't using it.

That is how you start shit. The daughter had every right to be pissed.

[9gemca]

Beautiful pair of Pearl Diamond Earrings

@ https://www.9gem.ca/

[cawamedia]

Diamonds & Champagne Ferrari Atelier

Diamonds & Champagne Ferrari Atelier

Ferrari Atelier, an Italian company, invited around 30 women arranged by Annalisa Spinelli from IWC and ASA to a fantastic experience with Diamonds. This was a collaboration between International Women Club and Ambassador Spouses Association’s who invited for this event,All the guests received complimentary a natural ruby stone and a a special bouncer with 30% of discount for one year dateline.…