#drive in movie southern california

[taintandviolent]

Drives Me Insane ; Jimmy Darling x Reader

summary: What started off as an innocent, summer picnic at the beach turned into a naughty dalliance with the one and only Jimmy Darling. 🦞 Reader is from Southern California.

word count: 2.4K words!

w a r n i n g s: SMUT, as per usual, kissing, PDA and semi-public sex (sort of), oral sex.

a/n: I just had this brainrot idea of Jimmy Darling at the beach and I had to get it down. I hope everyone enjoys this as much as I did writing and daydreaming about it!!! not beta-read.

full fic under cut! ↓ / ao3 link here! / written to this

Your feet kicked water up towards the dry sand as you walked, hand in hand with The Lobster Boy. Outside of the circus tent, he was as normal as every other guy. Better, in fact, than most of the guys you'd tried to go steady with. From his manners to his looks, he had you wrapped around one of his conjoined fingers. And he'd done it in only a day. To be fair, you knew that he likely did this with every girl he met in every town he travelled in, but he was sure making you feel special.

Butterflies still flapped their excited little wings in your stomach from you and Jimmy's closeness in the ocean. You two had gone out just far enough, the tips of your toes still hitting sand. He had hoisted you up out of the water each time a big wave came, gripping you firmly at the waist with his big hands. You couldn't help but laugh each time, holding on tight to the curve of his shoulders. At one point, he'd pulled you in for a kiss and wrapped both arms around you, his hands just grazing the top of your ass. You shivered and blamed the cold water.

Jimmy dropped down to the blanket, lounging happily. You towelled yourself off delicately, wicking away the crystalline drops that dotted your skin. His hair was only damp at the nape of his neck, but Jimmy didn't seem to mind his body being wet. You didn't mind it either - not after seeing the way the water glistened on his abdomen. After taking your hair out of the swimcap, you shook your head lightly, your lush curls bouncing with the motion. Thankfully, your style had maintained itself. Finally, you joined him on the blanket, stretching your legs out over the edge to dip your toes into the warm sand.

A seagull sang its shrill song above you, and you watched through squinted eyes as it flew towards the horizon, gliding over the breeze. With the sand between your red-tipped toes, the briny sea air tousling your locks, and a handsome guy by your side, you were in heaven. Everything about this felt like a movie, from the cute little picnic basket he'd brought, to the way that the sun glittered, reflecting off the waves as they crashed onto the shore. You looked over, watching Jimmy Darling as he lazily watched the sea, propping himself up on his elbows. He was still shirtless and wore a pair of yellow Catalina swim trunks that complimented the tanness of his skin beautifully. His muscles were on display for you to ogle, which you did willingly. He really was handsome; an All-American Boy with his chocolatey eyes and sugar-sweet smile.

Noticing that your attention was on him, he immediately sat up, reaching for the picnic basket. "You want a sandwich or somethin'? A soda? What can I getcha', doll?"

He was so attentive to your needs – butterflies fluttered again in your stomach at the thought. With a demure, red-lipped smile, you shook your head and with the back of your hand, brushed away the strand of hair that had blown across your face. 

"No, nothing, Jimmy. I was just looking at you..." Your voice was soft, sweet, and to Jimmy, had a hint of that Southern California accent. 

"Oh yea?" He asks, shifting his weight to lean closer to you. His eyes darted to your lips and with a cheeky grin, his tongue pressed against the back of his teeth, wanting to taste you. 

"Yeah!" you said back, playfully stern. You pivoted your body to face his, daring him to counter you. And... He did, by dipping his head down to plant a quick kiss on your waiting lips. You tittered, delighted, licking the remnants of him off your lips. 

"Mmh," he hummed, kissing you again. And again. "Mmmh! Baby! You taste like a.. like a cupcake or somethin', you know that?" 

His big, strong hands roamed your body, starting at your thighs and moving up and around to the small of your back. His touch was feverish and hungry, and you watched them as they moved. He heard your breath hitch and redirected his kisses to your collarbone, suddenly hungrier. He sucked at the skin, surely leaving hickeys in his path.

"Jimmy– Jimmy!" You bowed your head, almost ducking away from him.

"Sorry, baby, I just can't keep my hands off of ya'."

"...drives me insane..." you whispered, before turning your eyes to the horizon. You were getting too turned on to think clearly, and the knot in your stomach wound tighter around itself. You wanted him. Bad.

Your eyes lifted, looking sheepishly up at the other beachy patrons as they passed, their feet leaving imprints on the sand in front of you. Some of them watched as Jimmy nuzzled into your neck, smearing hungry kisses along your skin. His hands were wrapped around you and hiding behind your back, so to most, you assumed you looked like a normal couple, happily canoodling by the seaside. You felt the sting of disapproval from some older onlookers, but the way that Jimmy was kissing and sucking on the nape of your neck was too distracting -- you couldn't find it in you to care enough to stop him a second time.

Jimmy – now Jimmy was on cloud nine. The sun was warm on his shoulders, the breeze fluffing his caramel locks, and a pretty girl was in his arms. Nothin' better in his mind. As soon as the troupe had pulled into Santa Monica, parking their caravans and setting up in an empty lot near the beach, Jimmy's radar was up. He'd heard rumours of how pretty the West Coast girls were, and after spending so much time on the East Coast, he'd been hankering to taste their sunkissed, salty skin. When he'd spotted you in line with your perfect red pout and shimmering locks, he'd made a beeline for you, schmoozing and talking about how much you were gonna' enjoy the show. He, of course, wasn't wrong and it might've been because he paid special attention to you during his musical number. Whatever the reason was, he'd asked you out on a picnic date, and much to his delight, you accepted (although perhaps a little too quickly for your liking).

"Baby," he murmured into your skin, just below your ear. The closeness sent a shiver down your spine. "Whaddya' say we go back in one of those tents and have a little fun, huh?"

You looked behind him, following his gaze. There was a row of striped changing tents near the top of the beach, some of which were unoccupied. You couldn't help but cover your mouth as a gasp escaped; what he was proposing seemed so naughty. In public? You'd never... oh, but with him? You would. You'd do anything in the world with him and all he had to do was ask.

"You promise we won't get caught?"

"I promise."

Jimmy got up first, hand extended towards you to lift you up. You took it without another thought, and after being hoisted up, he took off, running giddily towards the tents. Giggling, you followed behind Jimmy as he ran, his hands wrapped firmly around your wrist, practically dragging you up the bank.

Once you made it to the tents, you popped your head in, taking a curious peek. The rest of your body followed shortly after. There was a small stool inside, intended for people to sit on while they changed. It wouldn't be utilized for that purpose, you thought.

Jimmy stood outside the tent, casually rocking back and forth on his heels, his fingers locked behind his back. He even whistled a happy little tune until no one would suspect that he was going to pop inside with you. To any passerbys, it just looked like he was waiting for his girlfriend to exit the tent. No funny business happening there. Heck no. 

When Jimmy finally ducked into the tent, he had a starved glimmer in his eyes and headed straight for you, his hands connecting to your hips. Your mouths collided, tongues wrestling each other for dominance like two horny teenagers. He took fistfuls of your breasts through the fabric of your swim top, kneading them hungrily. Abruptly, he dug underneath the elastic and tweaked your nipple, rubbing at it with his thumb. You broke the kiss to glance down. Smiled coyly. Jimmy's yellow shorts weren't doing much to hide his erection; the thin fabric had a clear outline of his quickly hardening cock, and a wet spot grew at the tip.

The sun shone through the red and white striped fabric, casting a warm, ruddy glow on Jimmy's face. You wondered if he felt at home in this miniature circus tent. "Hang on a sec, wait..." you whispered, as you reached around his back, tying the panels of fabric shut.

"You're that worried, huh?" Jimmy's hand slipped from your top.

"I don't know what kinda' freaky stuff you're into, but I don't want anyone walking in."

With a hushed tone, he replied: ,"Nobody is gonna' walk in, dollface."

He wrapped one arm around your back, pulling you tight to his hip and kissed you again. Jimmy's other hand trailed down your bare stomach until he came to the hem of your ruched shorts, where the tips of his fingers delved behind the elastic, creeping closer and closer to your folds. Once he found your slit, he slipped in between and immediately applied pressure to your clit, teasing you. You gasped, your breath hitching in your throat. Shortly after, he started drawing small circles around the bundle of nerves, hot and swelling with each passing second. Everything he did felt so good.

Feeling confident, Jimmy teased your entrance with his fingers. His deformity certainly hadn't inhibited him from gaining experience in pleasuring women. In fact, Jimmy swore up and down it made him better. Women across the US craved his conjoined fingers with all their girth and length, moaning desperately as they hit all the right spots when he fingered them.

In fear of making you scream his name, Jimmy couldn't give you the full Lobster Boy treatment - not here. He inserted just the tips of his fingers, up to the first knuckles, pumping slowly in and out. His thumb massaged your clit still, the dual stimulation sending to the skies and back again. At this rate, it wouldn't be long before you came. You were wetter than the ocean, and he loved it. Jimmy's tongue ran along his bottom lip, watching you as you writhed in his grip.

"Feel good?"

Breathlessly, you nodded. Jimmy withdrew his slick fingers from your cunt, his weighted gaze on you. He hummed in satisfaction. The dirty, wanton look in your eyes made his cock twitch.

"Baby, you wanna'....?" His eyes scanned over your pretty red lips before dropping to his groin. With one hand, Jimmy tugged his shorts down, letting out a breathy groan as his heavy cock bobbed in front of your tummy. Velvet heat pressed into your flesh, the pre-cum that oozed from the slit sliding against your stomach as he breathed. You knew what he was asking.

You sunk to your knees, settling into the shade-cooled sand. With Jimmy's cock in front of your face, you swallowed, wetting your throat. His conjoined digits wrapped around the base of it, squeezing it tightly. Your lips parted and Jimmy smiled, ready for what came next. You leaned forward, extending your tongue over your bottom lip and carefully, Jimmy slapped the tip of his dick against it. As your fingers wrapped around the shaft, he let out a throaty groan, jerking his head back. You worked it with your hand, and closed your lips around the tip of it, sucking gently. Looking up at him with those big, bright eyes, you watched Jimmy's breaths go from even to haphazard, his chest rising and falling quickly. Your tongue massaged at the underside of his cock, taking it deeper into your mouth.

You gagged softly, quietly and Jimmy clenched his teeth, feeling your throat close around his dick. It was hot and wet and strong – he swallowed again, watching you as worked. The urges were getting too strong, and the tension in his abdomen wound tighter. Without a word, Jimmy bent down and pulled you to your feet, his cock slipping wetly from your mouth. With a grunt, he yanked your shorts down just enough to expose your cunt. 

"Sorry, I just... I gotta'..."

"We can't go all the way here, are you –"

"No-no, baby, we're not gonna', I just gotta' be closer to you, I'm gonna' –"

He swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing in his throat. With his cock still wet from your mouth, Jimmy began jerking it, right into your folds. Pre-cum dripped from the slit, providing more lubrication. The tip bumped against your puffy clit over and over again and before you could stop it, the pulsing wave rushed over you. You wrapped both arms around his neck, hanging on him as your legs quivered with the powerful orgasm that shook your core. You moaned softly into his ear, riding out the sensation by grinding against his cock. With his head filled with lewd thoughts of pushing his dick deep inside your pussy, Jimmy was fast behind you, exploding over you in hot, white ropes of ecstasy.

Finally feeling like you could stand on your own again, you rested your head against his bare chest, listening to his heartbeat as it slowed. Jimmy rested his chin atop your head, panting and pet the small of your back.

"See? No one caught us." He teased. You slapped at his bicep and disconnected from him, moving around him to exit the tent. Jimmy followed behind, this time, not putting any distance between the two of you. Thankfully, no one noticed. Everyone was too busy enjoying their beach day.

Everything was as you left it, except that the blanket had blown over slightly. You toed the edge of it back into place. Jimmy approached you from behind, wrapping his arms around your hips. He kissed your ear, nuzzling into you.

"You wanna' see the show again tonight, pretty baby?"

You nodded. You did. And you wanted whatever was going to happen after the show, too.

[tayrae515imagines]

Only Bought This Dress So You Could Take It Off.

Requested: Nope! I just love Jake Seresin.

Warnings: Language. Mentions of death. Losing a parent. Brief mentions of smut. Non-consensual  touching (on the face for about two seconds.) Poorly grieving with death. Probably grammar, spelling or punctuation errors. Just go with it. 

Pairing: Jake Seresin x Fem!Kazansky!Reader (Call Sign: Frosty)

Type: Angst with a happy ending 

Summary: Inspired heavily on Dress by Taylor Swift. 

Y/N’s relationship with the one and only Jake Seresin has always been difficult to say the least. The two banter back and forth, constantly flirting or taunting each other. They have never been more than friendenemies at best until one day they weren’t and Y/N finds herself yearning for the one man who drives her absolutely crazy. 

Authors Note:  So I have seen Top Gun Maverick about twelve+ times since it came out about a year ago now. I just love it so much. It has easily become one of my favorite movies. From the storyline to the characters and overall movie aesthetic. I have spent the past few weeks reading nothing but Jake fics and felt like writing one myself. 

I have not written anything in a very very veryyyy long time. So this honestly could be bad. But, with that being said, I am so happy with the direction this went in and it feels good to have written again. Please let me know your thoughts. :) I do also want to point out I have somewhat changed the timeline of the movie to fit my story. Thank you so much for reading!

Our secret moments in your crowded room

They got no idea about me and you

There is an indentation in the shape of you

Made your mark on me, a golden tattoo

“You know, sometimes it physically pains me to hold back my sarcastic remarks around you.”

“Don’t hold back on my account darlin’.” That sickeningly sweet, southern draw floats by Y/N’s ear, making the girl roll her eyes.

The voice belongs to none other than Jake “Hangman” Seresin. The one person who seems to always get under Y/N’s skin despite her normally unbothered demeanor. 

Frosty was the callsign Y/N had been gifted. Partly due to her cold and calm demeanor and another part due to her infamous father Tom “Iceman” Kazansky. Y/N had grown up admiring her father, wanting nothing more than to be like him one day. From a very young age the girl knew she was meant to be a pilot.

There was no denying that Y/N was given chances others weren’t but that didn’t mean the girl didn’t work just as hard as others, if not harder. Which is how she ended up back at Top Gun among the best of the best. One of which just happened to be the only man who managed to drive her mad. 

“Bagman..I mean this in the most unloving way. Fuck off.” 

“You wound me Frost.” The man put a hand over his heart in mock heartbreak. The girl rolled her eyes again as Jake leaned closer. “But if I’m going to fuck anything, it’s you.” 

Y/N could feel the smirk on Jake’s face without even facing him. The girl was used to being flirted with, Navy men could be pigs at times. Normaly, it didn’t phase her in the slightest but for some reason, when it came to Jake Fucking Seresin, she just couldn’t help the flutter she felt in her heart.

 “In your dreams Seresin.” She managed to get out, desperately trying to hide the blush rising on her cheeks. 

“Trust me darlin, it is.” He winked and walked out of the room. Leaving Y/N to let out the breath she didn’t even realize she had been holding. The only thing the girl knew for sure, is no one has ever made her heart race like he did. 

All of this silence and patience, pining in anticipation

My hands are shaking from holding back from you (ah, ah, ah)

All of this silence and patience, pining and desperately waiting

My hands are shaking from all this (ah, ha, ha, ha)

The day was hot and that was putting it mildly. When you pair the sweltering California heat with the suffocating flight suit and heavy helmet, the weather felt like hell.

All Y/N wanted to do was get to the locker room and take a shower. The girl wanted it so bad she could imagine the shocking feel of ice cold water against her sweat covered skin. That thought alone brought a smile to her face. After a long day of stressful training, she just wanted to relax. Unfortunately for her, someone had other plans.

“We all know you are only in this program because your daddy pulled some strings. You can pretend otherwise but I know the truth.” The deep voice floats down the hall behind Y/N, causing the girl to turn around with a raised brow. 

“Do you think you are the first person to have said that to me?” The girl crossed her arms, glaring at the man standing in front of her. She recognized him from around base. She couldn’t pinpoint exactly what he did here but in her defense, she had been too busy with training and class to meet many people other than her teammates.

“Probably not but it doesn’t make it less true. You don’t deserve to be here.” 

“Listen fucker. I have had a rough day. I am hot, I am hungry, and I am tired. I do not need to stand here and justify myself to some dip shit who decided to share his opinion with the class. Just walk away.” 

The man smirked and stepped closer to Y/N, forcing her back towards the cold beige wall as she moved to step away from him. His grimy hands reached out and stroked the girl's cheek. “I think you just need to be taught a lesson, maybe put that dirty mouth to work on something else.” 

“You son of a bit-”

“Is everything alright here?” That familiar voice rings out, causing Y/N to turn her head towards the tall figure walking in her direction. 

“Yeah  man, me and my girl were just chatting.” The shorter man, Y/N had mentally nicknamed douchebag said. 

“Funny. Doesn’t look like Frost is in the mood to chat with you.” Jake walked closer, physically moving douchebags hand away from the girl. “I also heard everything you said..if you’re going to talk shit, maybe make sure you don’t have an audience. I doubt you would want admiral Simpson or captain Mitchell to find out how you treat one of your coworkers. Sounds like grounds for dismissal to me.”

At Jake's words, douchebag pales, taking another step back. “Look I’m sorry I-”

“If I ever hear you talking about my friend again, I will personally make sure you never talk again. Frost is a better pilot than most of us, hell she is a better pilot than me. Now if you ever touch her again, I will leave you so unrecognizable, your mother won’t be able to identify the body. Get the hell out of here before I show you I’m serious.” Jake growled out the words and the other man ran off. Letting out a breath, Jake  turned towards the girl and calmed down. “You alright Frosty?” 

“I could have handled that prick.”

Jake smirked at the girl and tilted his head. “You know, a thank you would suffice.”

Y/N sighed and looked up at Jake. “Thank you Hangman.” 

“Anything for you darlin. Only I am allowed to taunt you.” He trailed his green eyes down her face, taking in every feature until he stopped at her soft lips. 

“My knight in shining armor.” The girl meant to be sarcastic but the words came out in no more than a soft breath, her own gaze going to Jake’s lips. “You said I’m a better pilot than you.”

“Did I?” Jake said softly, brushing some hair out of the girl's face as the two drifted towards each other, lips almost touching until a bang of a door had them jumping away from each other. 

“There you are Frosty, I’ve been looking for you all day. Let's go get lunch.” Rooster made his way over, throwing an arm around his best friend, oblivious that he just ruined the moment. “Hangman.” He nodded at the blonde and led the girl out, talking her ear off about god knows what. 

Y/N couldn’t focus on a thing Rooster said as she glanced back at the man she left alone in the hall. Her eyes connected with his green ones, the look in them so intense and full of longing, she had to look away. 

Say my name and everything just stops

I don't want you like a best friend

Only bought this dress so you could take it off

Take it off

Carve your name into my bedpost

'Cause I don't want you like a best friend

Only bought this dress so you could take it off

Take it off

“Hangman, hottie checking you out at 12 o’clock.” Coyote said, interrupting Y/N’s thoughts as the girl stared at the cold beer in her hand. The dagger squad had decided to utilize their day off with a trip to The Hard Deck. The group hadn’t been there long before practically all of the women (and some men) in the bar started giving suggestive looks to the team. Y/N really couldn’t blame them. Everyone on her team was unnaturally attractive. 

“Oh trust me Coyote. I saw her. And I think the lady looks thirsty, maybe I should fix that.” Jake smirked and walked over to his admirer. 

Y/N tried desperately not to stare at them but she just couldn't look away. The brunette's hand, resting on Jake's arm as she gave him a flirty smile. Y/N didn’t need to see Jake's face to know he was eating this up. 

Y/N couldn’t understand why she felt a pang in her chest at seeing him flirting with someone else. It’s not much of a secret that Jake is a flirt. And it’s not like she had any sort of relationship with Jake other than friendenemies, if you can even call it that. 

“Frost there is a cutie staring at you too.” Phoenix spoke up, grabbing Y/N’s attention away from Jake. The girl followed the direction Phoenix was looking in and sure enough, a tall dark haired man shot her a wink. “Go get him to buy you a drink.” Phoenix smirked and helped the girl up. 

Sucking in a breath, Y/N put on her best confident smile and walked towards the man. 

“Hello gorgeous. Sorry for staring, I just couldn’t look away from you.” 

“Yeah, I know the feeling.” Y/N said softly.

“Can I buy you a drink?”

“Sure, I’d like that.” Y/N gave the man a genuine smile and sat down at the bar next to him. 

The conversation was pleasant enough. The man who Y/N learned was named Greg, made her laugh. But the same gnawing feeling ached within her..he was kind, funny, handsome even. But he was no Jake. 

“Would you like to dance Y/N?” Greg smiles brightly, holding his hand out while his blue eyes sparkled under the bar lights. 

“Sure.” Y/N finished off her beer and walked towards the jukebox with Greg, his hands resting on her hips while she wrapped her arms around his neck. “I’m a horrible dancer so this swaying is the most you’re getting out of me.” The girl laughed softly.

“I’ll take anything you’re willing to give me as long as I can hold you this close.” Greg smiled and pulled her closer to him, his eyes drifting down to her lips. 

Y/N could tell Greg wanted to kiss her and maybe a part of her wanted him to. But, every urge the girl felt to make a move with Greg, she felt a more intense one to run towards Jake.

 It was a stupid ache that she couldn’t shake and the most infuriating thing about it was she didn’t understand why. Most of the conversations Y/N and Jake had were them taunting each other. When did taunting turn into more for her and does Jake feel the same? She doubted it by the way he had flocked to the first pretty girl to bat her eyes at him. That thought alone made her move towards Greg and pull back from her Jake filled thoughts. 

“You can kiss me Greg.” The girl said softly, looking at his lips. Greg didn’t need to be told twice. He leaned in slowly, trying to savor the moment and right as their lips were about to touch, that familiar honeyed voice Y/N has grown to crave,  rang out next to her. 

“Frosty.” 

Y/N pulled back slowly, turning towards Jake. “I’m a little busy here Hangman.”

“Yeah, I see that.” Jake said flatly, not sparing a glance at Greg. “I was just wondering if your little dance partner knew about your extremely high risk job and the ramifications of dating a pilot. Especially a pilot like you.” 

“What is that supposed to mean?” Y/N gritted her teeth and looked up at him. 

Greg looked between you both and moved his hands off your hips. “Look, you’re great Y/N. Really great, but I don't want to get involved in the middle of this.” He motioned between the two pilots. “It was nice to meet you, thank you for a fun night.” He kissed her cheek and walked off. 

“What the hell was that?!” Y/N turned to Jake, anger burning in her eyes. 

“I was just trying to stop you from making a mistake, Frosty. You can do better than that guy.”

“You don’t know a thing about him. God, that’s not even an opinion for you to have! You just wanted to be an ass per usual and ruin my night. Well great fucking job Hangman, you succeeded so you can run back to your new lady friend and leave me the hell alone!” The girl stormed out the bar doors, anger coursing through her so strongly, she was shaking.

 Unbeknownst to her, Jake followed her right out those doors. He wasn’t about to let her leave when she was so angry. 

“Y/N.” 

“Please Jake just go inside and leave me alone.” Y/N turned away from him, wiping the tears off her cheeks that were now freely flowing from her eyes. 

Everything was just too much. Too much disappointment, too much heartbreak, and too much yearning for something she couldn’t have. 

“Y/N.” Jake gently put his hand on her shoulder, turning the girl to face him. “I’m sorry I ruined your night darlin. That was not my intention.”

“No? Then what was your intention Jake because I do not understand.” Y/N wiped the last of her tears away and looked up into Jake’s green eyes. “I don’t understand any of this.” 

“I was jealous.” 

“Jealous? Jake, what are you talking about? You are the one who went to flirt with that gorgeous girl!”

“No, I didn’t. I bought her a drink, told her I appreciate her interest but it would never work out with us because I am crazy about someone else! I told her I knew another wonderful man she would like and introduced her to Bob! They are still in there talking if you don’t believe me. I wanted to talk to you! I wanted to flirt with you!  And I wanted to dance with you but when I found you, some other guy was trying to kiss you and it drove me crazy!”

All the breath left Y/N when she saw the sincerity in Jake’s eyes. Jake gently cupped the girls cheek, wiping away any stray tears. “I only want you darlin, and it drives me absolutely mad. I can’t sleep, I can’t eat. All I can do is think about you and it has been that way since I met you.”

“Since you met me?” The girl gave him an amused smile.

“Oh yeah.” Jake flashed her his toothy grin. “Apparently you telling me to fuck off really got me hooked on you.”

Y/N laughed and moved closer to Jake. “Well apparently your asshole ways worked on me too. I didn’t want him, I just wanted a distraction from you.”

“I��m going to kiss you now Darlin.”

“Please do Jake.” 

Jake wasted no time. He pulled the girl flush against him and connected their mouths. His lips warm against hers, breathing each other in with the intensity of the kiss. At that moment, there was no such thing as enough. The couple couldn’t get close enough, couldn’t kiss hard enough. Couldn’t get enough of each other. 

Soon Jake had Y/N pressed against his truck, her dress riding dangerously high up on her thigh. Jake pulled back from the kiss just enough to whisper against the girl's now puffy lips. “I love this fucking dress on you. It’s been killing me all night.” 

“Good.” Y/N whispered back. “I bought it for you.” 

Jake groaned and played with the hemmed edge of her red sundress. “Let me take it off.”

“Fuck, yes please.” The girl groaned and moved a hand into his hair. 

Jake opened the back door to his truck and set the girl inside gently before hovering over her. He pushed the skirt up to her hips, exposing a pair of lace panties. Jake groaned when he noticed the wet spot, darkening the blue lace. “Fuck darlin, did I make you this wet?”

“Yes Jake, only you.” Y/N moaned as the man ran his finger over her clothed slit. 

Jake looked down at the girl, a smirk plastered on his face. “All mine pretty girl. You’re all mine.”

“Yours.” Y/N breathed, looking into his love filled green eyes. “I’m all yours.”

Inescapable, I'm not even gonna try

And if I get burned, at least we were electrified

I'm spilling wine in the bathtub

You kiss my face and we're both drunk

Everyone thinks that they know us

But they know nothing about

The temperature outside was getting increasingly warmer and Y/N’s father, Iceman decided to have the dagger squad over for a pool party. The older man wanted to meet her team and more importantly, the man who had stolen his daughter's heart. 

Y/N never openly told her parents about her new boyfriend but they knew her well. Especially her father. He saw the way the girl's eyes lit up whenever she talked about a certain pilot and he couldn’t help but want to know more. 

The devastating reality was that he didn’t have much time left. But, with what he did have, he wanted to make sure his daughter was putting her faith in the right people. Iceman was no stranger to the egos aviators could have and his little girl had worked her ass off to get where she was. She had proven herself to be more than just her last name. He had to make sure that this Hangman had no intention of hurting her. The other part of him was just genuinely curious. He had never seen her act this way about a boyfriend before. 

For a short time when Y/N was growing up, Iceman thought maybe her childhood friend Bradley Bradshaw could be the one. He changed his mind when he saw that the two were better in a platonic way. Sometimes even referring to each other as brother and sister. 

“Dad, can I get you another drink?” Y/N walked outside to where Iceman was sitting with Rooster. 

“No, I’m alright sweetheart.” He smiled softly at his daughter.

“If you’re offering, I’ll take another beer.” Rooster spoke up.

“I don’t remember offering you one Roos but fine. Because I’m in a good mood.” She teased and walked back to the kitchen to grab herself and Rooster a drink. 

Iceman turned to Rooster after he made sure Y/N had left. “Tell me about this Hangman I keep hearing about.”

“Hangman? Why do you want to know about him?” Rooster finished off the rest of his current beer and looked at Iceman “Wait..Hangman is Frosty’s mystery man?”

“It seems that way. I can tell by the way she talks about him.” 

“I should have seen that coming with the way those two teased each other.” Rooster leaned back in his chair and sighed. “If you asked me a few months ago I would tell you he was the worst. But he has changed. Especially around her. I thought it was just because they had been flying together more. Obviously that's not it.” Rooster pushed the aviators up his nose. “He has an ego, but, he’s kinda like young Mav from the stories you’ve told me. He likes to push limits and always be the best but he is reliable at the end of the day, if they really are together, he’d do anything for her. I know he would. You know I love Frosty and if I thought he’d hurt her, well I’d be trying to drown him in the pool when he gets here.”

“I might have just let you.” Iceman smiled slightly, sipping his iced tea. 

“Frosty can handle herself and I trust Hangman with her. I don’t think you have anything to worry about.” 

“I’m glad to hear it.” 

“Glad to hear what?” Y/N walked over, claiming one of the empty chairs at the table while she handed Rooster his beer. 

“Nothing sweetheart.” Ice smiled and looked towards the kitchen. “Does your mother need any help?” 

“Nope, Phoenix and Bob have taken over the kitchen with her. Mom also said and I quote. “If your father tries to get up and help me instead of relaxing, I will wack him on the head.” I think it’s safe to assume she wants you to stay sitting today.”

 Iceman laughed softly and nodded. “I love that woman.” 

“I know you do, dad.” Y/N smiled and put her hand over his, occasionally glancing towards the front door, waiting for that familiar blonde to show up. 

“Looking for someone?” Rooster smirked and nudged Y/N’s arm.

“No..why are you both being weird?” 

“No reason.” Rooster smirked again and sipped his beer, sharing a glance with the older man. 

“Okay you are being very cryptic today Roos. It’s weird. Knock it off..” Y/N trailed off when she heard the sweet sound of that southern draw she loved so much. “Hangman is here.” She stood quickly and walked to greet him. She thought she was being sneaky with her emotions, but her father did not miss the sparkle of absolute love in her eyes.

All of this silence and patience, pining in anticipation

My hands are shaking from holding back from you (ah, ah, ah)

All of this silence and patience, pining and desperately waiting

My hands are shaking from all this (ah, ha, ha, ha)

“You’re here.” Y/N smiled, walking into the living room where Jake stood with her mother. 

“Course I am Frost. I’d never say no to a party and I’m very eager to meet your parents.” He smiled at Y/N and turned to her mother “I brought these for you mam, as a thank you for having me in your home.” He held up the small bouquet of flowers he had meticulously picked out before coming over. 

“Oh that is so sweet! Thank you Jake. Please make yourself at home and let me know if you need anything.” She started walking towards the kitchen to put the flowers in a vase but turned back to her daughter before reaching the room. ‘I like him’ she mouthed, causing Y/N to blush and turn back to the man in front of her. 

“So you are on a first name basis with my mom already. Impressive.” 

“What can I say? Ladies find me charming. And Sarah is a peach.” He flashed her a grin and brushed his hand against hers. “I missed you.” 

“I missed you too Jake. Thank you for coming..I mean it.” 

“Honey you know I wouldn’t miss this, it’s important to you.” He took her hand and kissed it gently. “I will admit, I am slightly nervous to meet your father.” 

“Oh yeah? That’s adorable.” She smirked up at him. 

“I am adorable, it’s a known fact.” Jake smirked and pinched her hip with his free hand. “So are you going to show me your childhood bedroom? I am excited to see it..do you have boy band posters?” 

“Shut up Jake.” She laughed softly. “Rooster is outback with my dad. I think Coyote made his way out there too. I’ll grab you a beer and we can go out there?”

“Sounds perfect pretty girl.” He kissed her cheek gently and walked outback with her after stopping to get him a beverage. 

“Dad this is Jake Seresin, callsign Hangman. He’s a part of my squad and…my boyfriend.” She cleared her throat and looked around at everyone who had joined them outside. 

“Boyfriend? Since when?!” Phoenix whispered to Bob who shrugged behind them.

“Since our night at The Hard Deck Phoenix. You didn’t notice?” He whispered back.

“But that was almost a month ago…” She mumbled.

“It’s an honor to meet you sir.” Jake ignored his friends surprise and held his hand out with a smile. 

“You as well son. I have heard some incredible things about you.” Iceman took his hand and shook it, motioning to an empty chair with his other hand. 

“Are you bragging about me darlin?” Jake grinned and looked at Y/N, taking a seat at the table. 

“Absolutely not, your ego does not need to get any bigger.” Y/N playfully scoffed and took her own seat by him. 

“It’s cute that you’re impressed by me. I’m impressed by you too.” He grinned and took her hand, kissing it softly. 

Iceman watched the way Jake held her hand so tenderly and looked at Y/N with the same love sick expression the girl had shown for him earlier. It was clear to her father from that moment he truly had nothing to worry about. Jake Seresin was in love with his daughter and she was in love with him. 

Say my name and everything just stops

I don't want you like a best friend

Only bought this dress so you could take it off

Take it off

Carve your name into my bedpost

'Cause I don't want you like a best friend

Only bought this dress so you could take it off

Take it off

Only bought this dress so you could take it off

Only bought this dress so you could take it off

The bright sun had faded into warm hues of orange and pink, reflecting off the crisp blue pool water as Y/N leaned against Jake. The man’s hand played with her fingers as he held her close, absolutely at peace. 

“Jake?” 

“Yes baby?”

“Are you happy?” The girl turned in his arms gently, looking into his gorgeous green eyes. 

“Are you kidding me? Of course I’m happy. I have you.” He brought a hand up and cupped her cheek gently. “Why are you asking?” 

“I don’t know. This all just feels too good to be true. Today was great and I’m slightly convinced this is a dream. It could be all the alcohol though.”

Jake let out a soft chuckle and pinched the girl's hip, causing her to pout at him. “Not a dream darlin. This is real.” He leaned his head down and kissed her once. “This is all I have wanted for years. Even when we were stationed apart. I craved you. I knew even then that I wanted you to be mine. I plan on putting a ring on this finger someday Y/N. That is how crazy I am about you.” He took her hand again and kissed her ring finger. 

“You’re going to make me cry.” Y/N laughed softly and leaned her head on his. 

Jake chuckled and kissed the girl’s hand once more. “One day. I promise.” 

“One day.” Y/N smiled widely and kissed both of Jake’s cheeks. “I should go see if my mom needs help with the dishes.” Y/N slowly moved out of Jake's arms. “Do you want anything else to drink?”

“I’m alright darlin.” He smiled and kissed her hand before letting her go, unaware of Iceman making his way over.

“I’ve never seen her this happy before.” Iceman said and took a seat next to Jake. “Thank you for making her smile like that. It makes me feel better knowing she will have you.”

“You don’t have to thank me for loving her. I couldn’t help it even if I wanted to. She is the most wonderful woman I have ever met.”

Iceman smiled and patted Jake’s arm. “She is wonderful. But you still chose to be there for her every day. It means a lot to me and my wife. You are exactly the type of man I was hoping she would end up with.” Iceman sighed softly. “I don’t have much time left son. I know my family will be devastated which breaks my heart more than I can express, but when it comes to Y/N, I am worried. She shuts down. She pushes people away when she needs them most, she has done it since she was a child. I’m not sure if it makes her feel protected or if she thinks she needs to heal alone but I don't want that for her. Do not let her push you away. She needs you, and son, I can tell you need her too. Promise me?” 

Jake turned to Iceman and swallowed down his emotion, eyes shining with unshed tears. 

“I promise sir.” 

“Thank you. You’re a good man Jake Seresin.” Iceman smiled and patted his shoulder again. 

“I-I know this is a bit premature but I fully intend on marrying your daughter one day sir. Maybe I am a bit old fashioned but I think it is respectable to get your permission first.” 

“You have it son.” Iceman smiled warmly and stood slowly. “Now if you’ll excuse me, all this talk about love has me missing my wife.” The older man made his way inside to find his wife as Jake watched, hoping one day this would be him and Y/N.

Flashback when you met me

Your buzzcut and my hair bleached

Even in my worst times

You could see the best of me

Flashback to my mistakes

My rebounds, my earthquakes

Even in my worst lies

You saw the truth in me

And I woke up just in time

Now I wake up by your side

My one and only, my lifeline

I woke up just in time

Now I wake up by your side

My hands shake, I can't explain this ah, ha, ha, ha

Y/N has barely spoken a word since she got the news. Now, standing next to her mother and siblings, staring at her fathers casket, she feels like she may never speak again. The air around them holds solemn tension as people mourn. Tears fall but it’s nothing but quiet for the man being laid to rest. 

As the flag is being folded and the trumpets are playing, Y/N absentmindedly pinches her arm, desperately trying to wake up from this nightmare. She had just talked to her father last night, they made plans. The reality of him being gone just seemed too unreal for Y/N to fathom. 

It wasn’t fair. Nothing about this was remotely fair and it drove Y/N crazy. Her father was one of the most caring and wonderful people she had ever had the luck of knowing. He didn’t deserve this. 

Tears fell down her cheeks and Y/N let them flow freely. The girl felt numb and something as simple as wiping them away felt impossible. She felt heavy, wondering if the crowd around her could tell she was dying inside. 

“Y/N, can you hear me?” The words broke through the surface of her numbness, bringing the girl back to the present as she looked up to Maverick standing in front of her. 

“Sorry..I’m sorry.” She said softly and wiped her tears quickly. 

“Don’t apologize. You just lost your father..I know how that feels and if you need anything, you know you can talk to me.” Maverick rubbed the girl's arm gently. 

“Thank you Uncle Mav. I’m going to be okay..they need me to be.” She breathed out, looking towards her crying mother. 

“Y/N, you do not need to be strong for anyone right now.” 

“I’m fine Mav.” She snapped and sighed in regret. “I’m sorry..”

“It’s okay sweetheart.” Mav hugged her softly, only letting go when he noticed Jake and Bradley approaching. The tallest of the pair pulled Y/N into his arms tightly, whispering comforting things into her hairline while the girl stayed stiff, drifting back into the heavy waters. 

Jake noticed almost immediately and patted Bradley’s shoulder. “Can you give us a minute Rooster?”

Bradley nodded slowly and let the girl go. “I’m going to check on your mom but if you need me, just yell.” He kissed her head and led Mav over to the girl's family. 

Jake cupped the girl's face gently, wiping away some stray tears. “Hi baby”

Y/N looked up at Jake, bottom lip wobbling as she felt overwhelming tears coming. “Will you take me home? Please?” 

“Of course baby. Whatever you need.”

“I can’t have what I need.” The girl whispered out, her gaze floating towards the casket once again.

Days passed in a blur and Y/N was merely surviving. 

She stuck to her routine. Eat, when she could stomach it. Sleep, when she could turn her mind off. Work, when she wasn’t grounded, which was all the time lately. People were worried about her. From Admiral Simpson, to Maverick, to the dagger squad,  they did not want the girl in the air. 

The person who was most worried, of course, was Jake. He could see her pulling away, closing herself off and trying to heal on her own just like Iceman had warned him would happen.

He had been staying at the girl's place for over a week just to keep an eye on her. Jake didn’t push her at first. He gave her some time to digest everything while he watched from the distance, making sure she didn’t drift too far into herself. But he saw her getting pulled under the surface of those internal waves. He could see her drowning. And enough was enough. 

“Frosty, darlin, I made your favorite for dinner.” Jake called out while walking towards the living room where the girl was seated on the couch. 

“I’m not hungry Jake.”

“You haven’t eaten anything all day Y/N. Just come take a few bites. I won’t be offended if you don’t finish it all. I do have to warn you though, I am an excellent cook.” He sat on the couch by her and put a hand on her knee gently.

“I said I’m not hungry!” Y/N snapped and stood quickly, his hand falling from her knee. 

“Y/N..I’m just trying to help.”

“Well I don’t need your help Jake. I am a grown woman and I can take care of myself. Just go home. Please!” 

“No.” Jake said quickly and stood. 

“No? This is my apartment!”

“I’m well aware Y/N but I am not leaving you like this. I am not letting you push me away because you think that is easier. I promised your father I wouldn’t let that happen.”

“You w-what?” Y/N looked up at Jake, tears building up in her sore eyes. 

“He made me promise because he knew you well. I told him I would not let you self-destruct and I am keeping that promise.”

“Well you’re off the hook now, he’s dead so he’ll never know! “

“God damnit Y/N.” Jake stepped closer to her and took both her hands in his. “Even if I didn’t make that promise I would still be here taking care of you.” 

“Why?” 

“Why? Why am I here for you? Because I love you Y/N! I want to be here for you. I want to hold you and take care of you. I want to bring you back to yourself because this is not you. You are mourning and that is understandable but you are barely living right now. You haven’t called your mom back in days. Your mother who you used to talk to every damn day. Fuck, Y/n, you have Cyclone worried that is how messed up you are right now. So please, if you can’t do this for yourself, do it for everyone who loves you including your dad because I know he is watching over you. Let me help you heal.”

“I miss him.” Y/N broke down in sobs, gripping the man's shirt for support. 

“I know sweetheart. I know.” He pulled her into his arms and rubbed her back. 

“I’m sorry.” 

“It’s okay Y/N.” He kissed her head gently. 

“I love you so much Jake.” She clung to him as he let her sob. Body shaking, gut wrenching sobs. But Jake never let go. 

Say my name and everything just stops

I don't want you like a best friend

Only bought this dress so you could take it off

Take it off

Carve your name into my bedpost

'Cause I don't want you like a best friend

Only bought this dress so you could take it off

Take it off

Three months later and Y/N was feeling like her old self again. She had reconnected with her teammates, spent time with her family, and was even flying again. The pain of losing her father had not left completely. The absence of him was still very much felt, but the pain wasn’t crippling anymore. She had a life to live and she knew Iceman would want her to make the most of it. 

Tonight in particular was special. The dagger squad was currently occupying most of The Hard Deck, celebrating a successful mission. Music was loud, drinks were flowing, and the company was comforting.  

Y/N felt at home among her found family. She sang along with Rooster when he played Great Balls of Fire, like he always does. She danced with Bob, beat Javy at pool with Phoenix, and was smiling so much, her face hurt. 

After all of the sorrow and heartbreak, this was what she needed. By the end of the night, the girl was feeling lighter than she had in months. Jake noticed it too. He could see the sparkle in her eyes, the light in her smile. It pulled on his heart, just making him fall more hopelessly in love with her. 

“You’re staring at me honey. It’s getting weird now.” Y/N approached Jake and handed him a fresh beer. 

“I can’t help myself darlin. You’re stunning.” He put a hand on her lower back and pulled her to him. 

“My, my Hangman. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were smitten.”

“Baby I am hopeless when it comes to you. Head over heels, willing to do some embarrassing stuff to prove my love to you kind of hopeless.” 

The girl tipped her head back and laughed softly, the sound music to Jake’s ears. “What kind of embarrassing stuff?”

“We’ll have to find out another day.” Jake kissed her nose.

Y/N laughed again, leaning into him. “I love you Jake.” 

“I love you too Y/N.” He kissed her once and leaned his head on hers, pulling the girl ever closer than before. 

Y/N looked up at him, eyes bright and smile wide. “You still want to marry me?”

“One day” Jake smiled down at the girl, wrapping his arms around her.

“One day.” Y/N smiled up at him, completely oblivious to the diamond ring burning a hole in Jake’s pocket. 

There is an indentation in the shape of you

Only bought this dress so you could take it off

You made your mark on me, golden tattoo

Only bought this dress so you could take it off

[wheelsgoroundincircles]

The Two Most Iconic Wheel Standers of All Time.

Hurst Hemi Under Glass

Hurst Hemi Under Glass is the name given to a series of exhibition drag racing cars campaigned by Hurst Performance between 1965 and 1970 across North America and ended with the '68 model year.

Each wheelstander was based on the current Plymouth Barracuda for the corresponding model year. The car was so named because the fuel injected Chrysler Hemi engine was placed under the Barracuda's exceptionally large rear window. The result of the rearward weight transfer was a "wheelie" down the length of the drag strip.

The Hemi Under Glass was developed by Hurst Corporation to showcase their products in the A/FX class - precursor to funny cars. In 1965, George Hurst hired Wild Bill Shrewsberry of Mansfield, OH, an accomplished drag racer who had raced for both Mickey Thompson and Jack Chrisman. After helping to pioneer it into the first wheelstanding exhibition car, Shrewsberry left at the end of the season to pursue his own project.

For the 1966 season, Bob Riggle, who was also from Mansfield, OH and was involved with Hurst as a mechanic and fabricator became the second driver of the Hurst Hemi Under Glass car and campaigned the cars with Hurst as the sponsor until later years when the Hurst Company was sold to Sunbeam. At that point, the car ran without the Hurst logo and was simply known as the "Hemi Under Glass." Riggle's career ended in 1975 with a devastating accident at US 30 Dragway in Gary, Indiana.

Popular model kits of the car were produced in 1/32 scale by Aurora Plastics Corporation and in 1/25 scale by Model Products Corporation. A limited edition 1/18 scale diecast model of the 1966 car is currently available from Highway 61.[1]

Riggle returned to exhibition racing in 1992 with a 1966 injected version of the car and a 1968 supercharged version of the car.[2] The original 1965 car was stripped for its power train and parts in 1967 for the new Barracuda chassis/body style and no longer exists.[3][4]

While taping the June 26, 2016 episode of Jay Leno's Garage, Riggle, with Leno riding in the passenger seat, rolled a newly constructed '69 version of the Hemi Under Glass after turning sharply at the end of a wheelie run. Neither of the men were hurt, but the car sustained significant damage.[5] Leno was riding along to fulfill another item on his 'Bucket List.'

July, 2016, Mike Mantel of New Braunfels, TX was named as the new driver of the Hemi Under Glass. Mantel took over the '68 car which has the longest performing history of any Hemi Under Glass ever constructed and becomes the third official driver in the brand's 50+ year history.[6] Mantel was only 6 years old when the Hemi Under Glass first took to the track. He has a wide range of driving experience from drag cars, road race, and movie cars. Mantel's original hometown is the city of Hawthorne, CA.

Billy Lawrence Golden (December 31, 1933 – September 14, 2015),[1] nicknamed "Maverick", was an American drag racer. He is probably best known for driving the Little Red Wagon A/FX wheelstander pickup exhibition racer.

Little Red Wagon

Born in Shawnee Township, Illinois, Golden joined the US Marines and first became interested in drag racing while at Camp Pendleton.

Golden was given his "Maverick" nickname in the late 1950s by an announcer at a Southern California dragstrip, because he chose to drive an unconventional 361 cu in (5,920 cc)-powered Dodge Custom Royal. He started racing in AHRA Super Stock, driving Dodges for several years. He was one of the first drivers in AHRA S/S to successfully run an automatic transmission. In 1960, Chrysler offered to provide him parts, when he was driving a Dodge Phoenix, powered by a 330 hp (250 kW) 330 cu in (5.4 L) with twin Carter carburetors and cross-ram intake manifold; the car was capable of quarter-mile times of 13.7 seconds.

By 1962, he was a factory driver, driving an S/SA Dodge. At the 1962 AHRA Winternationals, driving his bright yellow hemi "Taxi Cab" Dodge 330, he scored a "stunning" victory over "Dyno Don" Nicholson's 409 cu in (6,700 cc) factory Chevrolet at Fontana Drag City, to take the Stock Eliminator title, Chrysler's only Nationals win for 1962.

In 1963, Golden worked with Jim Nelson of Dragmasters to improve the car, and won seven Super Stock races out of eight events, taking the Midwest Championship.

At the end of the 1964 season, Chrysler proposed Golden drive the Little Red Wagon A/FX pickup. which became drag racing's first wheelstanding truck.

Little Red Wagon's first outing, at the AHRA Grand American event at Lions Drag Strip, was an 11 second pass at 120 mph (190 km/h). The crowd's very enthusiastic reaction prompted Golden to turn the A/FX truck into a wheelstanding exhibition racer, which he developed a steering mechanism for himself, relying on experience from his day job at Douglas Aircraft Corporation. The wheelstander was wrecked in 1969, 1971, and 1975; the third crash was nearly fatal to Golden.

Golden retired in 2003. He died on September 14, 2015.[3]

[minustwofingers]

love is a laserquest p.1

masterlist

pairing: rockstar!ellie williams x reader

request: @thatgiraffefromtlou so kindly included me on a post about writing something inspired by these beautiful edits :) thank you !

summary: after a serious of unfortunate events, columbia grad y/n y/l/n finds herself using her hard-earned journalism degree interviewing vapid stars and writing articles that she's convinced are rotting her mind. ellie williams has just dropped the album of the year and it's all anyone is talking about, but all she wants is to be off the press train. a certain interview with a certain interviewer might change this.

warnings: no cws, but i will say that i don't know anything about this career path so i apologize if i'm totally butchering it!

a/n: see ? see? i promise i haven't forgotten about you guys/this blog/this request. this is admittedly a short installment, but you've all been so good about waiting and i had a little itch to write tonight. hopefully more of this will be posted soon. i hope you enjoy!

tags :) @intrnetdoll @dazedshoon @lovecaraya @pctcr @sariyaflowr @loser-keiji @prettyplant0 @666findgod @sawaagyapong @rystarkov @buzzybuzzsposts @addisonnie @galacticstxrdust @elliesbabygirl​ @pinkazelma @ariianelle @lu002 @blairfox04 @sparkleswonderland @elliesflower @muthafuckingstargirl @elliewilliamsissubermommyoml @eviestevie-14 @quicksilversg1rl @guacala @crtcrp @overtrred28

wc: 1.8k

enjoy!

“Hi. I’m Y/N.” 

You sit and extend your hand, smiling as diplomatically as you can manage to the girl sitting across from you. 

She ignores you.

“I said hi,” you repeat.

One painted eyebrow arches the slightest, but she doesn’t look your way. 

You grit your teeth. A question list that you’ve meticulously prepared is memorized and tucked away in your mind, but now you’re just furious that you spent so much time preparing for an interview with someone who wouldn’t even look you in the eye. 

While you wait for the camera crew to get ready, you sit and observe the room—movie posters behind both you and Lina, bright lights that are already making you sweat shone down from above, and a homey oak wood coffee table between you two to give the air of casualness. 

God, you hate this. All you want to do is go home. 

“Ready?” a cameraman says from the side. 

You send a game smile his way. “Ready.”

“We’re rolling.”

“Hi!” said the girl across from you, suddenly laser-focusing her attention on you with so much bubbly energy that it made you feel like you’d gotten whiplash. “It’s so good to meet you. I’m so glad that we were able to do this.”

“Me too,” you respond, saccharine sweet. “You have no idea how excited we are to have you, Lina! It seems like all anyone wants to talk about nowadays is your role in Ontario.”

The interview’s length is oppressive and mind-numbing. By the time you ask your last question and Lina sends you her last dazzling smile, you’re already on the brink of offing yourself on the camera for all to see.

“And cut,” said someone over your shoulder.

You relax, letting out a long breath. That was the last one for the day. You got to go home now.

But since you were a normal human being, you give Lina one last try to redeem herself.

“It was great having you,” you say in a way that you hope reads as genuine. “Thank you for coming in.” 

Lina doesn’t respond—she’s already back on her phone, intent on ignoring you. 

The drive home is awful and long and full of LA traffic. It was something you’d never quite forgive your younger self for—not advocating for yourself sooner. If you had, maybe you would’ve already been taking the subway alongside all the other New Yorkers, surrounded by serious people wearing serious clothes and carrying serious things around in their briefcase.

Instead you got the quirkiness of Southern California, all arid air full of cigarette smoke and lost aspirations. When you first came to LA, naive and blithely optimistic about your prospects as a journalist, you thought that living near Hollywood would be exciting, all the energy and dreams like firecrackers to the social scene. 

Then you got off the plane and realized it’d all been a lie. There’s no hope in a place like Hollywood. It’s the most hopeless place in the world, knowing that all your servers and Uber drivers and retail employees are all working 3 other jobs to make up their rent as they chase a dream that will never happen. 

Because no one ever makes it big. Well—no one really. One year into your life at PopNow! has made you interact with more people who have, you suppose, “made it big”, and each interaction is dependably more absurd than the last. Like Lina. God, you hate Lina. 

You reach your apartment right when the sun is kissing the horizon, the royal purple of the night descending upon the sky. That was another thing you missed—the stars. You’d missed them when you were at Columbia, but that was when you knew you went back home to the midwestern countryside. Now you’re stuck in the light-polluted hell of California, and there’s no way to know when you’re going to get out. 

You should have turned the job down, you think to yourself as you get ready for bed. The face wash you rub into your skin obediently forms into silky little bubbles. You should have just done whatever you’d had to do to stay in New York, even if it meant being unemployed and living in a broom closet with 3 other people. 

But you’re a writer. And you’re getting published, and that’s all that matters.

Or at least that’s what you tell yourself.

~

The assignment is in your inbox when you wake up the next morning at a prompt 5:30am. As you go about your normal routine, you let the words in the message sink in.

Alyssa’s in the hospital. Emergency appendectomy. 

Alyssa’s the most senior writer at PopNow!, regularly netting the juiciest recorded interviews. 

…interview today that needs to be completed…

You angrily beat your legs back into scissor kicks as you run through the motions of your favorite apartment-friendly pilates routine. Today was supposed to be your day off.

…musician Ellie Williams…

…2pm…

…great opportunity…

You have no fucking clue who Ellie Williams is. She’s never been mentioned on NPR or the New York Times, the only two news sources you bother to follow, so she can’t be that relevant. Or at least not relevant enough to warrant you losing your one day off. But that’s what it’s like to be working in showbiz. Your days don’t belong to you anymore. 

By the time that you’re in the studio, hands folded and question list memorized, you feel like you know all you need to know about Ellie. 

She’s got everything you need to be a world-wide sensation. Humble, small-town beginnings? Check. Sympathetic backstory that makes even the most hardened viewer’s heart soften? Check. Conveniently conventionally attractive features, well-placed tattoos, and a certain swagger that seems so natural it has to be somehow hard-coded into her genes? Check, check, and check.

You’ve interviewed hundreds of Ellie Williams. You’re ready for this. 

Jan from production sets out glasses of water on the table in front of you, one for you and another poised in front of the empty chair.

“You ready?” she asks, not unkindly. “Don’t be nervous. I know that this might be a bigger one than you’re used to, but there’s a reason why Stephen asked you to fill in for Alyssa. You’ve got this, honey.”

“Thank you,” you say. The smile you send her back is tense, because as much as you hate to admit it, you are nervous. It’s ridiculous how something you don’t even care about for an industry you think is bullshit is capable of getting under your skin, but you’d done very few recorded interviews. When you imagined what kind of hard-hitting journalism you’d be doing back when you were at Columbia, it was nothing like this. 

You sit and wait, bouncing your leg and hoping the rest of you looks at ease. The set is as corny and soulless as always, one tall houseplant shoved half-heartedly between the two blue cushioned chairs like an afterthought. There’s a stack of magazines on the coffee table between you two, as if you’d crack open People mid-shot.

You hate your job so much. You always feel so bad thinking this way—there are people out there who would probably actually kill for the chance to be rubbing elbows with the celebrities you did on a regular basis—but whenever you start feeling too guilty, you think of how you ended up here, your dream internship getting whisked away by fucking nepo baby Becca, and then you let yourself be angry again. 

A door slams shut, and suddenly you’re all business again. 

The first thing you notice about Ellie Williams is that she’s actually very tiny, especially in comparison to the burly camera man that she squeezes by to make her way on set. She’s looking a little preppier than she does on stage, donning a pair of wide-legged black trousers, chunky black docs, and a haphazardly buttoned forest green shirt with the sleeves rolled up just enough for you to see the entirety of her arm tattoo. 

“Hi.” You rise from your chair to offer a hand, feel the pressure of her fingers gently gripping yours. “I’m Y/N.”

Ellie blinks. “Uh, hi. I’m Ellie.” 

“Is everything alright?” 

“I thought Alyssa was going to be interviewing me,” says Ellie. She drops into the chair opposite of you, crossing a leg over the other thigh.

“Emergency appendectomy,” you supply.

The way Ellie reacts makes you regret this immediately. 

“Oh,” she says, cringing. “Shit—oh, can I swear in here?”

“We’re not rolling yet,” you say gently. 

“That’s, uh, really too bad,” she says. Her tattooed hand reaches up to scrub the back of her neck. “I’m so sorry.”

Now it’s your turn to blink and stare at her blankly. “Um, thanks? I don’t really know her.”

“Right, right.” Ellie lets out a long sigh that you take as an offense. The interview hasn’t even started, and the languid way she reclines back in the chair reads as already bored with you. “So, do we just go ahead and…”

“Yes,” you say, feeling the heat rise in your cheeks. “Uh, yeah, we’re ready.”

Brilliant start.

The interview begins in earnest, and for once in your life, you’re actually rattled by this girl, by the way she tilts her head at your questions, tongue running over the flat of her front teeth. She has freckles sprinkled across her nose that didn’t show up in any of the photos you’ve seen of her on stage. The ones where she’s awash in blue light, guitar slung over her shoulder and hair sticking to her forehead. It’s disquieting, honestly, how she could just spring a surprise like that on you. 

By some miracle, you manage to get through your list of questions without forgetting anything, but sometimes you stutter on your delivery and have to fight to keep yourself from grimacing. Nothing that she tells you is ground-breaking, nothing you don’t already know. In other interviews, you’re normally able to slip into a sort of conspiratorial voice, prying out information and digging a little deeper than your interviewees intend. But with Ellie, you’re paralyzed, stuck straight to the script that had been sent over to Ellie’s publicist for approval. 

Not like you’d get away with anything when it came to Ellie, either. She has bags under her eyes that you can see concealer creasing in. It’ll wash out post-production under the bright studio lights, but up close it’s obvious that she’s not interested in entertaining any bullshit. 

When it’s over, you’re sure your face is on fire with how hot your cheeks feel. Ellie looks just as nonplussed as ever. 

“It was nice to meet you,” you squeak out. 

She takes her time answering you, busy with draining the glass of water Jan had set out in front of you both and, once it’s empty, fiddling with the buttons on her sleeves. 

“Likewise,” she says, and then before you can think to say anything else, she’s gone. 

[cityofmeliora]

Ghost and Southern California

i'm from California, so a lot of the locations in the Ghost lore are familiar to me! i wanna use this post to show / explain Ghost being set in the Los Angeles area.

though it hadn't been explicitly stated yet then, there are actually hints that Ghost is based in Southern California as early as Chapter 4: The Accident. when Sister Imperator is driving, you can see palm trees on the hills along the road. of course, lots of places have palm trees, but the specific combination of palm trees with the rocky cliffs and sparse vegetation feels distinctly Californian to me.

the Dance Macabre music video shows Nihil met Sister Imperator at a mansion in LA (as explained by the intro). don't know the exact location, but if i had to guess, i'd place it maybe somewhere in Beverly Hills, which has a lot of mansions like this.

the Kiss The Go-Goat music video again confirms that they're in Los Angeles. it features the Whisky a Go Go, a real music venue in West Hollywood. the Mary On A Cross animated music video accurately places it on a corner along the Sunset Strip.

the Mary On A Cross lyric video shows Sister Imperator walking through the Ministry building before leaving to see the show at the Whisky a Go Go. this is another indicator the Ministry building is in the LA area since it's within driving distance of the venue. scenes in the Ministry building are filmed at a real mausoleum northeast of LA, but i'm not going to name the location because the Ministry is supposed to be a fictional building. interestingly, the lyric video also gives us the exact time of the concert.

after the events of Kiss The Go-Goat, the Mary On A Cross animated music video starts with Sister Imperator driving to her house, which is in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood near the Hollywood Sign. you can see from the road that they're in the hills looking over the city.

then Sister Imperator and Papa Nihil run from their house to the Hollywood Sign. there are hiking trails that go from the surrounding neighborhoods up to the Hollywood Sign. you can go behind it just like they do in the video.

Sister Imperator and Papa Nihil cross a body of water that is most likely the Hollywood Reservoir, although the video places the Hollywood Sign west of the lake instead of east, as in real life.

Sister Imperator and Papa Nihil make out in a cemetery (which i did not attempt to locate) and then end up at a motel. this is not a real motel, though. it's the Bates Motel movie set at Universal Studios Hollywood. i laughed so hard because recognized it instantly in Rite Here Rite now. (i've been on the same tour that the Nameless Ghouls were on.) Universal Studios Hollywood is both a theme park and an actual film studio. there are people filming when Nihil calls Mr. Psaltarian to come pick him up in the The Future Is A Foreign Land music video.

so to summarize some of the locations in those videos: the Whisky a Go Go, Hollywood Sign, and Universal Studios are highlighted in yellow. the red outline on the map shows the boundary of the Hollywood Hills neighborhood. the Hollywood Reservoir is the body of water in the middle of it.

The Future Is A Foreign Land music video and Chapter 13: The Beach Life feature Mr. Psaltarian's beach house, which is on the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu. though there are beach houses all along the SoCal coast, Malibu is closest to LA, and is pretty much the only place where houses are that close to the water without some kind of barrier. it's a real house and i've driven past it. i know the exact location but i'm not sharing it, for obvious reasons.

here is Malibu on a map relative to Los Angeles:

as a side note, it appears Cardi now drives Mr. Psaltarian's old car, a 1968 Buick LeSabre convertible. it has California license plates, of course, but the plates must have been replaced at some point, since that California license plate design wasn't in use until 1988.

lastly, Rite Here Rite Now is set at The Forum (now called KIA Forum), which is in Inglewood near the LAX airport. Inglewood is technically its own city, but it's completely surrounded by LA.

when Rite Here Rite Now released, TF said in an interview that it's "common knowledge" that Ghost is based in LA. i found it a bit funny because i've read very few Ghost fanfics that are actually set in LA, so i don't know how 'common' that knowledge really is, LOL. but i hope this post helps!

WHAT WAS BEHIND THE DECISION TO SHOOT THE FILM AT THE FORUM IN L.A.? TOBIAS FORGE: [...] There’s this common knowledge that the HQ of the band seems to be in L.A. So the Forum is not only a classic venue, but it’s sort of their home turf. Had we placed the story someplace else, we would’ve had to justify: Why are they there? Why is this show special? Revolver (June 2024)

[hi-itsanniemarie]

"Bella, however, was straight chamomile for your soul, warm and calming with just enough sweetness that always left you wanting a little bit more..."

Pairing: Bella x Reader (referred to as "You")

Word Count: 3600ish

Warnings: mild language, adult themes & fluffy thoughts :)

(Takes place during filming of TLoU2)

Your first two weeks on the job had been pretty inconsequential, which you desperately appreciated since it was your first time working in this particular setting. You had been working for the studio for a few years now, but, being on location and having a more hands on approach with a huge production was all new to you. When the email about the job found its way to your inbox, you knew that this was exactly the opportunity you had been waiting for. Ever since the world opened up again two years ago, you had been searching for something a bit more exciting. You were happy enough with your job but being the assistant to the assistant of some big wig in the legal department hadn't always been the most stimulating or rewarding. There was also the rather unimpressive matter of your love life.  That had definitely been put on the backburner over the last couple of years, not that it ever truly had been on fire so to speak. So, since there was nothing holding you back, you had come to the conclusion that a new adventure and a fresh take on life was just the thing that would solve all your problems. 

You were the first employee to reply to the inquiry and was quickly approved for the position. You figured there wasn't  a lot of interest in leaving the warm and pleasant southern California winter for whatever awaited in Vancouver, but you knew it would be exactly what you needed, plus you got to buy cute new  boots. The studio was loaning you out to help with the overwhelming scale of the show's production. You would be helping out the Assistant Director as basically a second, 2nd AD. You had to laugh, here you were trying to escape the whole helping out the assistant gig but you couldn't deny the change of scenery. The job itself wasn't very stressful which allowed you to fully adjust mentally. Your duties included handing out the next day's call sheets and shepherding the cast to and from set. This meant you got to drive a golf cart sometime if the location was far enough away from base camp and you couldn't lie, that made you feel pretty important.    

So here you were, two weeks in and making some good professional connections. The crew had been very welcoming to you and you were a little surprised at how friendly and personable the cast had been right off the bat. You knew that people had the tendency to become like family on a set and you had heard about this particular group of cast and crew being extremely close, so it was really cool that everyone had opened their arms to you. Everyone always had something to say to you and you would reciprocate with generic friendly banter while escorting them at the start and end of the day. 

You were mostly in charge of the principal cast as well as some of the supporting cast and extras. You were admittedly a bit nervous at meeting the "Big Three" but your nerves were quickly put to ease. Pedro and Gabriel would joke and ask you about your favorite movies and music and constantly kept you on your toes. It was nice to feel so included but they were like a double shot of espresso directly into your veins and their jovial whims were sometimes a lot to take in that early or late in the day. Bella, however, was straight camomille for your soul, warm and calming with just enough sweetness that always left you wanting a little bit more. They were obviously friendly but there was an air of mystery that surrounded Bella and you honestly found that very refreshing, it made it easier for you to focus on your job without having to worry about sounding cool or impressive with your small talk. You knew that you came off quiet and shy, it was something you were trying to work on. You wanted to crack open your shell more with everyone, you knew it was important to be open with coworkers, but remaining professional and keeping things light and simple was something that was important to you too. It was a fine line and you certainly knew how to awkwardly tread it.

Before you knew it, those two weeks had suddenly turned into six, leading you to completely understand the concept of production time moving differently than real time. It felt like only six seconds had passed but also as if you all had been together for six years. Each day was as new and exciting as the very first, yet you had now settled into a comfortable routine that made you feel confident and purposeful in your role on set. For example, you knew when you picked Pedro up from base camp that he would need 27 shots of espresso over ice, despite the average temperature being 45 degrees, as well as a full recap of the show you were binging at his recommendation. And thanks to Gabriel, you had learned more about hockey then you ever thought was possible and always checked the stats from the  previous day's games to throw at him as you handed over his coffee. And with Bella, well, they were a bit trickier than the others. You always handed them their drinks with the biggest of smiles which they would return immediately along with friendly interaction. No, that wasn't the complicated part. The thing was that Bella had started to take the time to ask about you. All the big and important things that kinda scared you. When they tried to get you to open up and expose a deeper part of yourself,, that shy and insecure creature would take over your brain. Friendships or any kind of connection with someone was hard for you. You knew from experience that being vulnerable and deep with someone would only end up with some sort of betrayal or heartache. That is why you found it easier to try and not get too close to anyone and just keep your work mode activated at all times. The last thing you wanted was for Bella to think you were rude and when they smiled and their eyes seemed to burn into your soul, you began to find it harder and harder to ignore their intrigue.

Over the next week you found yourself trying to  let go more when you were with Bella and to not be so concerned about what they might think of you. And soon It was almost involuntary, you didn't even have to try, everything was becoming more natural between you two. Bella was absolutely the easiest person to talk to that you had ever met. They always had the most insane eye contact with you as you spoke, and it made you a little excited, almost as if Bella thought you were the most interesting person in the world. Questions and answers were given back and forth with smiles, laughter and the occasional, "No way, me too!" and it really felt nice to laugh like that again and to feel a connection with someone. Soon the desire for the journeys to and from set to last longer were starting to occupy a good portion of your heart. 

The sun was dripping through the leaves and warming the cold ground as production wrapped for lunch. You couldn’t believe that another two weeks had passed as you deeply inhaled the fresh air around you. It had been nice to get away from the city for a bit, taking in the beauty of the Vancouver forests. It was a small location shoot this week, "Ellie's Big Birthday Adventure" as it was cited on the call sheets. The crew numbers were down  and the only cast that was needed was Pedro and Bella. The air was different out here and there seemed to be a rejuvenated sense of childlike wonder amongst the cast and crew. You were constantly  running around trying to keep an eye on your "kids'' as you and the crew affectionately referred to Pedro and Bella. It had been much easier in the city when everyone had a designated trailer to hangout and wait for you in but now you found yourself pulling them away from bug collecting and rock skipping whenever they were needed. Despite the ever changing runaround with them, you fell asleep every night with the biggest of smiles, you were loving every moment of it. 

As you were exiting the Craft service tent you noticed Pedro, Bella and another crew member waving you over. You nodded at them acknowledging the invitation and settled down on a spare seat between Bella and a camera operator. Normally you didn't join the others during their breaks, you usually tucked yourself away in one of the crew trailers with your headphones in and your eyes closed if you weren't running around collecting updated sheets or checking in with other actors. However here, bounded by the trees, there wasn't anywhere else you would rather be. 

"We're finding out what everyone's favorite field trip was when they were in school." Pedro stated after you had exchanged a communal wave to the group. You laughed softly as you popped open your drink can, you never got tired of the random conversations. 

"Mine was when my high school drama class went to the Pantages Theatre and saw Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. So. Good." Pedro continued, "and Bellie's was..."

"Beatrix Potter's house, Year 4, Mrs. Anderson's class," Bella said as they shot a finger gun in your direction. "I still have the Tom Kitten magnet on the fridge at home." 

"Niagara Falls," the camera operator added matter of factly pulling open a bag of chips. 

"All very cool," you said, shifting slightly in your seat trying to think of your answer. "Ok, well my favorite field trip was probably the time we went to this big history museum in the middle of the city," You paused for a moment, the thought not lost on you that the facade of the "Wyoming Museum of Science and History"

was peaking through the trees.

"There's just something super magical about museums when you're a little kid," Bella said

"Right?!" you agreed, "I don't know, I'm still pretty obsessed with them to be honest," you began rambling without realizing, "They are actually a really good place for a date, ya know, it's pretty low pressure but still way fun. The fact that you have to talk kinda quietly and be close to each other is a bit sexy. Oh, and I think it's really fun trying to impress each other with random facts and, yeah..." you trail off as if lost in a memory. 

"Is this coming from experience?" Pedro gently said, snapping you back to reality. 

"Yeah… that's probably a story for another time..." you said, falling silent and hoping that another time would never come. You really didn't feel like sharing your past relationship failures to everyone and you continued to sit there wishing someone would talk about something else.    After a moment or two of silence you heard, "Did you know that I went to a postcard museum once? Yeah, it was nothing to write home about..." they said in their most deadpan delivery. You bit your lip as a giggle tumbled out and joined the rest of the laughter amongst the group. You glanced over at Bella so thankful that they had sensed exactly what you had needed.

The following day shooting wasn't due to happen until later in the afternoon and a few people were getting together to go on a hike to Twin Falls Bridge. The air was much colder than usual that morning so you doubled up on your layers. It seemed like everyone from production was huddled together outside and you quickly joined them as Bella pulled you into the group. 

"Hi!" Bella beamed with their brilliant smile and  

"Hey Roo! Nice camera," you pointed out, knowing full well that they took photos of everything.  You had gotten into the habit of calling Bella, "BellaRoo” or just “Roo” and you definitely noticed them smirking whenever you used the nickname, almost as if they were proud of the fact that they had the honor of earning one. Bella shrugged, "You know me, always documenting the pretty things," They pointed the camera in your direction as you hid your face with your hands, the flush in your cheeks warming your chilled skin. 

"Oh god! That was so bad."

"Yeah, it really wasn't my best," Bella laughed in agreement. The hike was beautiful but you were so unbelievably cold. You realized that your shivering must have been more profound than you thought when Bella bounded over to you holding out a jacket. 

"I'm totally not ok with you freezing to death," they smirked coyly. 

"Oh is that so?" you said playing along, "Afraid you'll have to find someone else to bring you all your drinks or something?"

"Yeah something like that," Bella tossed you the jacket, "and plus all the paperwork is just so annoying." 

“Are you sure? Aren't you going to freeze now?”

“I’m a hundred percent sure,” they smiled, “And Pedro will probably be over here in 30 seconds offering me his jacket anyway,” they added with a slight chuckle.

“Ok, well thank you,”you chuckled. You savored the soft scent of honey and citrus that lingered on the collar as you let its warmth encase your body, “I’ll wash it tonight and get it back to you tomorrow. I promise” you added as you fiddled with the zipper and realized your hands were officially numb. 

“You can keep it. You know, so I don't have to find someone to replace your ass…” Bella said as they reached down and hooked the zipper into place and slid it up for you. They then proceeded to cup your hands in theirs and brought them to their lips, and gently used their warm breath to relieve your discomfort. 

“Really? But it’s this your favorite jacket? I mean I see you wear it all the time.” You stated, doing your best to sound normal  even though every fiber of your being had exploded into a million pieces at the intimacy of the moment. 

“I like it on you,” they said in between breaths,, “Cuz, you know it uh, it goes with your...” Bella stammered and dropped your hands as they took a step back, “...your uh, your face.” they awkwardly gestured at your face. You couldn’t tell if Bella was actually nervous or if they were just being funny with you. Either way, you felt somewhat relieved when you saw Pedro running up the trail unzipping his jacket, any awkward tension between you two was instantly swept away by your laughter and Bella’s “I told you so” look. 

You were happy to be back at base camp, a week out in nature was so nice but you had missed the coziness of the community in the city. You and Bella had put together a scrapbook full of plants and polaroid's from the past week and you couldn't help but smile at the photos, losing yourself in the memories before heading out the door for the day. 

You took your usual walk from the production apartments to base camp stopping by the local coffee shop to pick up the kid’s assorted drinks. As you rounded the final corner and crossed the security barricade you felt your phone buzzing in your pocket. You glanced down at your watch and saw the message from the AD, scenes had been moved around and they would be needing Bella  in hair and makeup sooner than planned. You stopped by the crew trailer, tossed your bag into your locker and texted Bella.

You made your way over to Bella’s trailer and sat on the steps to wait for them. You really did not enjoy when schedules were moved around at the last minute, the anxiety of reaching out and locating the required parities and potentially ruining their plans was not a fun aspect of the job. However you were glad it was Bella today, nothing ever seemed to truly inconvenience them, plus seeing them first thing in the morning always seemed to make the morning light shine a bit brighter.  You didn't have to wait long, Bella showed up right when they said they would. 

“Hi hi hi!” they exclaimed as they rushed past you up the steps and disappeared in the trailer for four seconds to drop their bag off before jumping back down, “Let’s go!” they said, grabbing their coffee with a smile as you quickly radioed over to the MUAH team to let them know Bella was on the way. On your walk over you passed by the breakfast spread that was being laid out and you snagged a couple pieces of toast and handed one over to Bella.  

“Thanks! Hey did you know in ancient Rome they used to drop a piece of toast into their wine for good health?”

“What?” you replied somewhat thrown off at the randomness of their question.

“Yeah! That’s why we call it “raising a toast”.” they said excitedly, their face eagerly waiting for your response.

“Ohhh no way! That’s pretty cool actually,” you smiled at Bella, “when did you become an expert in obscure historical facts?” 

“Oh, you know, I'm just full of interesting facts, can't help it, I was just born that way.” that cheeky grin appearing instantly across their face. 

“Ok what else you got then? Since you’re such a natural,” You smirked, egging Bella on.

“Australia is wider than the moon.” they replied instantly and matter of factly.

You nodded your head while trying your best to hold back a smile, “ Your family must be so proud of this God given talent.” Bella just shrugged and threw their hands up as entered hair and makeup and disappeared with a quick wave. 

You were going over the rest of the day’s schedule with the AD when lunch was called and everyone scattered like ants in all directions to spend their time in various ways. After grabbing a snack you found some secluded chairs and popped your buds in your ears and selected your goto playlist. You were so zoned out that it startled you when a cassette tape landed in your lap. You paused your  music as you looked over to see Bella crashing down in the seat next to you out of breath. 

“You are ok?!”

“Yeah, I just ran from my trailer and back to get that.” they said, pointing to the tape, “I made it for you and I wanted you to have it for the weekend.” 

“Um, what? You made me an actual mixed tape? I'm sorry, I was unaware that it was 1987!” you said in amusement as you glanced down at the insert covered in Bella’s handwriting and doodles.

“Oh stop it!” Bella laughed as they hit your leg in jest. “Pedro showed me how to do it! And I know they have a tape player in those ancient production flats so you have no excuse. It's just some songs that I think are vitally important for you to experience.”

“Well if it's of vital importance I will not let you down.” You promised as you slid the tape safely into the pocket of your jacket. 

“Good,” Bella replied happily as they tucked their legs up on the chair and opened their water. It felt good just having Bella around. The way they seemed to calm the air yet electrify it at the same time was something that you wished you could bottle and take with you everywhere, just to have the sense of them around at all times. 

“And thank you Roo, nobody’s ever made anything for me before, it's really cool.”

“Really?! I find that hard to believe,” 

“Oh no its absolutely the truth! To be honest, no one ever really stuck it out long enough to care I guess. After all the trying and failing that I've done, I've realized that the common factor in it all has been me and that I must just be hard to love. I’ve grown to accept the fact that I'm destined to be alone,” you glanced over at Bella who was looking at you with those eyes that seemed to know your pain and offer you comfort all at the same time, “Ah, don't look at me like that, its fine, I’m fine, I swear,” you chuckled awkwardly, “Some people just aren't special in that kind of way i guess.” 

"That's bullshit! There is totally someone out there for you and they will end up proving to everyone who made you feel unloved that they were so fucking wrong." Bella's eyes seemed to darken as they started intently into yours. You could tell that they were being serious with their words, something you only really noticed when they were working through stuff with Pedro. Just then the AD's voice bellowed out that principal actors were needed back for makeup checks. 

"And who knows, maybe they're going to be a lot easier to find than you think." Bella softly smiled as they handed you their water and slowly backed away into the crowd that was forming. "You're fucking special. In the best way. Don't forget that!" Bella shouted and smiled as they disappeared into the swarm of people. A smile burst onto your face and you quickly buried your face in your hands knowing that you were turning red despite the amused laughter. Why were they so good at this? Allowing a person to be seen and to feel understood. The feeling that was pulling in your chest was somewhat new to you, and it felt like something stronger than gravity.

[confusedfoam]

Some dndads travel headcanons, because why not it's summer and it's traveling season for lots of us. only did s1 dads because they unfortunately still own my heart.

Darryl

- He has left southern California like twice in his life, and both were just going up to northern California. once for his and Carol's honeymoon, and another time when grant was like 8ish to finally go visit Casey and see her brewery.

- Absolutely despised sleeping anywhere that's not his home. the few times he's had to stay at a hotel / families house he just can't sleep at all

- He has never been on an airplane and has absolutely no desire to do so. If he ever did go on an airplane he would be a disaster internally and externally that would come out as being extremely over prepared and way too early. also he would Suffer in airplane seats.

Ron

- Was dragged all up and down the west coast and some of the interior as a little kid before Willy got completely sick of traveling with his wife and kid and dumped them back in Stud's old house that he technically still owned but had been let sit for years.

- Good at short and long road trips, weirdly bad at anything in the 4-6 hour range. it's not long enough to him to really settle into the drive but is too long to be remotely casual.

- Deeply fond of sketchy dates motels and kitschy roadside attractions. Will absolutely buy cheesy tourist t-shirts if presented the opportunity.

- Also not really an airplane guy, never had much of an opportunity until he was grown and then had no one to travel with. But if he did fly he would be that guy who doesn't bring anything to do with him and just watches other people's movies over their shoulders. also he'd forget to take his belt off going through airport security.

Henry

- Never left the Oakvale area as a kid, so his first trip was a Big One

- Spent his early earth years road tripping around the US, hitting different national parks and such. Falling absolutely in love with the diversity of nature when you don't spend all your time in one patch of forest. He absolutely Lost His Mind at the Grand Canyon

- Continued to travel a lot as he and Mercedes got older and had the kids and everything, they loved taking the boys to different parks and camp sites and such.

- Also really enjoyed traveling internationally once he got his whole paperwork situation sorted.

- Was pretty freaked out about flying the first couple times, but now he's a pro. Unfortunately he is an incredibly chatty seat mate and also one of those people who wears sandals without socks on an airplane. so he puts his bare feet all over the floor at security

Glenn

- Traveled a very average amount as a kid, just little family vacations. Tagged along with where ever Bill was going during summer breaks as a younger teen.

- Drove all over the freaking country as an older teen / young man seeing various shows and trying catch The Glenn Close Trios big break.

- Shares Ron's fondness for weird little tourist traps and questionable attractions / restaurants

- Extremely pro car camping, if only for all the hazy memories of doing so in his youth.

- Would make sure that somehow he could block out a week or so to take a road trip with Nick somewhere during summer break.

- Flew a few times as a kid and such. Absolutely hates flying as an adult, it brings out the conspiracy theories in him hardcore and he absolutely cannot do it sober.

Jodie

- Hell does not have vacations

- Traveled many realms as a young and wild demon, having misadventures of the sort that get you trapped in a guitar

- as Jodie Foster the human cop and married man they only took incredibly basic family vacations to the stereotypical vacation spots like once a year.

- Has no feelings on airplanes in any particular direction, besides he would like more leg room.

[tellsjokes-movedbacktomulti]

CHARACTER SHEET ⋆.˚

FULL NAME. daniel 'danny' west NICKNAME. danny / chatterbox PRONOUNS. he/him SIZE. 5'5 AGE. twenty five ZODIAC. leo SPOKEN LANGUAGES. english, a lil spanish

𝐏𝐇𝐘𝐒𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐋 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐒 ―

HAIR. fluffy and curly, shortish- curls around his ears and the back of his neck. bleached blonde with visible brown roots because he doesn't get it professionally done EYES. expressive and large, framed with long dark lashes. a soft baby blue that shimmers when he talks about things he's excited about SKIN TONE. pale, with a pink undertone- his nose and cheeks turn red easily when flustered, cold, sick, or intoxicated BODY TYPE. slender, medium-sized VOICE. loud, prone to cracking- has a faint southern accent that becomes stronger when he's tired or intoxicated DOMINANT HAND. can use both hands, the right more so than the left POSTURE. has pretty bad posture and is always slouching SCARS. pink scars under his pecs from top surgery, and faint scars on his inner left arm, faded and not noticeable unless you're really looking BIRTHMARKS. birthmark that looks like mickey mouse on his neck, slight discoloration, often mistaken for a hickey MOST NOTABLE FEATURES. fluffy hair, baby face, and young features that often have him mistaken for someone younger

𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐋𝐃𝐇𝐎𝐎𝐃 ―

PLACE OF BIRTH. in a hospital HOMETOWN. lookout mountain, georgia SIBLINGS. two half-siblings; mandy and kyle. PARENTS. charlotte berkman + walter west

𝐀𝐃𝐔𝐋𝐓 𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄 ―

OCCUPATION. works at a comic book store, and does standup comedy in bars and clubs CURRENT RESIDENCE. california CLOSE FRIENDS. his best friend + favorite person (fp) Is vicky jones, a sassy yet patient girl who studies photography FINANCIAL STATUS. doesn't make a whole lot, but makes sure to spoil his cat. lives in an apartment, furnished with quirky decor DRIVER'S LICENSE. yes, has an orange volkswagen convertible beetle CRIMINAL RECORD. none, yet VICES. avoidance, sweets, weed, binge watching tv shows, self deprecation

𝐒𝐄𝐗 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄 ―

SEXUAL ORIENTATION. bisexual with a preference for men. has a very high sex drive PREFERRED SEXUAL ROLE. a bottom, but can be both dominant and submissive- a versatile bottom, I guess TURN OFFS. there's not a lot that turns him off lol other than, like, misgendering him or using feminine terms TURN ON'S. praise, degradation (yes both), manhandling, kissing, touching in general LOVE LANGUAGE. physical touch + words of affirmation RELATIONSHIP TENDENCIES. danny is a hopeless romantic who desperately wants to be loved, but at the same time thinks no one will be able to love him. his borderline personality disorder skews how he perceives love. he is devoted to his partner, often giving them cute things or showering them with praises and flirtations. he's had a few toxic exes, as he tends to draw in horrible people who use him... he's never had a good relationship. he can be clingy and touchy.

𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐂𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐄𝐎𝐔𝐒 ―

CHARACTER'S THEME TUNE.   most likely talk too much by coin, or man or muppet from that one muppets movie HOBBIES TO PASS THE TIME.   writing new material, playing roblox or Minecraft, watching horror movies or old comedies, and reading comics LEFT OR RIGHT BRAINED. left SELF-CONFIDENCE LEVEL. danny has a low self esteem because of his mother. he's very insecure and often gets jealous because of how little he likes himself. he can appear cocky and arrogant, but it's simply a farce... prone to self deprecating jokes

tagging: YOU!! say i tagged you!

[startrekfangirl2233-writes]

Okay I am in dire need of some more sweetness. Could I request “Person A stealing person B’s sweater/clothes” with Phoenix??

And big congrats too love! ❤️🎉🎊

Hi Sylvie! Thanks for the congratulations! More sweetness you say? Ask and ye shall receive. Have some more super fluffy Phoenix shenanigans! I know, I know, this isn't quite Person A stealing person B’s sweater/clothes as much as it is clothing freely given, but I thought it was too cute for words! I hope you like it!

Cardigans and Movie Nights

You’re not sure when it started, but some time after the Uranium Mission, the Dagger Squad started holding movie nights. Once a week, the entire squadron would pack up after flying, get into their cars and drive to Maverick’s hangar in the Mojave Desert. Mav has an outdoor projector and each week, one of the squadron would take a turn to pick the movie. There is always popcorn, pizza and drinks. As the squadron settled into their permanent assignment, they opened the invitation to other people on and around the base at North Island. 

You’re a communications officer working out of the air traffic control tower in North Island. It was a complete accident that you’d been assigned to manage Phoenix and Bob’s comms. You got used to hearing Phoenix’s voice through the comms and even began to chat with her. You like talking to her. It makes you smile throughout your day when you get to chat with Phoenix during those few moments before she’s taking off and after she’s landed. You weren’t ever expecting to share anything other than those fleeting chats with her, though. She’d walked up to you when you were in the mess one day, Bob behind her and pulled up a chair. That had been what sparked a beautiful friendship and your invitation to movie nights at Maverick’s.

The first couple of nights, you’d stuck close to Phoenix and Bob, smiling and laughing with them as the three of you curled up on a blanket in the warm grass. It wasn’t long, however, before you were smiling and laughing with all of the other Daggers as well. Sometimes, you still can’t believe that they are your friends. Even though you’re comfortable with all of the Daggers, and can, in fact, rebut Hangman’s flirting, you still prefer Phoenix to them all. As autumn has been creeping up on Southern California, the nights have been getting colder. This particular Friday night, it’s Mickey’s turn to pick the film. You settle into the blanket next to Natasha and wait for Mickey’s pick to come up on the screen. Knowing him, it’s probably some sci-fi flick you barely recognize. 

Of course, before the movie can even start, there are already squabbles breaking out in the crowd. You can see Hangman and Rooster chucking popcorn at each other, and Mickey’s in a deep discussion with Hondo and Payback about his movie of choice. The only place which is nearly silent is the blanket where you and Natasha sit. Bob and his girl are chatting and laughing on one of the blankets nearby. It makes you smile, seeing Bob so happy. You’re just reaching for a piece of popcorn from the bucket you’re sharing with Natasha when a gust of wind blows through the gathering. It sends shivers down your spine and goosebumps over your exposed skin. That’s what you get for wearing a sundress in the middle of October, even in California. 

“Hey, Rosie? Are you okay?” It’s Natasha who notices the shivers on your frame first.

“I’m fine, Tash!” Your cheery tone is spoiled by the way your teeth chatter lightly.

“Bullshit. Here, Rose. Take my cardigan, at least.” She shrugs her cardigan off, revealing the sensible long sleeved tee she’s wearing under the thick oversized fabric.

“I’m really, alright, Tash! That last gust of wind just caught me by surprise.” You can see her eyebrow raise skeptically, but thankfully before she can start speaking again, Mickey starts the film. Natasha pretends not to notice how you cuddle a bit closer to her as the opening credits for the movie spill forth. It looks like Mickey’s decided on Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. Soon, the movie takes up all of your focus. 

You love this movie. You’ve seen it a million times and can probably watch it a million more. It’s right in the middle of the scene when Indy and Marianne get trapped in the Egyptian ruins with the snakes that another gust of wind, this one much stronger, sends napkins and empty cartons flying. It also sends another set of shivers coursing through your system. This time, you can’t stop Natasha as she slings the cardigan around your shoulders.

“Wear the sweater, flower.” Her voice is soft as she wraps an arm around you. “Don’t even think about arguing.” You can’t, not when you’re two inches away from her and can feel her breath on your face. You feel flushed and flustered as you put your arms in the sleeves and snuggle in closer to her form. 

You don’t remember much of the rest of the night, perhaps because you’d fallen asleep curled up against Nat’s shoulder wrapped up in her thick, fluffy cardigan. You’d heard the story from Hangman, who’d picked you up and carried you to Mav’s guest bedroom, the next morning. Your face had gotten hot and you’d turned away and gone quiet hearing the Dagger’s teasing. There wasn’t anything between Nat and you, right? There couldn’t be! You were quite content to live in that delusional world and ignore everything they say, at least until the seat next to yours is suddenly filled with the woman herself.

“I’m so sorry.” You can’t even look her in the face, you’re that mortified.

“What’re you apologizing for, flower?” Her voice is that mix of chiding strictness and fond amusement that only Natasha can ever pull off.

“I fell asleep on you.” You can’t hide how you’re wringing your hands together in distress.

“Flower, I was okay with it. Frankly, you’re as light as a feather.” Her words have your head snapping up. She cups your cheek, tugging you in. “In fact, I like it when you wear my clothes. Do you want to do that again?”

“Which part? The part of the night where I was wearing your sweater? Or the part where I probably drooled while sleeping on your shoulder?” Your face feels like the surface of the sun.

“How about both?” Your eyes are wide as Tash tugs you even closer. You can’t help how your eyes flutter closed when she kisses you, once, twice, thrice. “Have dinner with me tonight?”

You can hear the rest of the squadron jeering in the background when you peck her lips one more time, flip them the bird in unison with her and giggle out, “Yes, of course. It’s a date.”

Want to request something for my 100 Follower Celebration? The guidelines are here! Please leave me a request in my inbox with your ask!

- XOXO Star

[nancypullen]

Heading to California

The mister and I are driving to California tomorrow. It's not nearly as exciting as you might think, it's just a town in southern Maryland.

We're going on a fact-finding mission. We might want to live there. It's early days yet, NOTHING is happening, but we'd like to have a look around. It would offer a lot more than what we have here in Denton (restaurants, shopping, medical care, etc) and we'd still be about an hour from the Edgewater gang. Bonus, we wouldn't have to worry about Chesapeake Bay Bridge traffic all summer. Not gonna' lie, when I google the town and see that they have everything from Belk to JoAnn's to Sally Beauty, it sounds like every convenience I left behind in Mt. Juliet. Man, do I miss that ease of living. There's a Lowe's, a Home Goods, a movie theater, a couple of malls, five grocery stores, a Target, and so on. The reason that this small town offers so much is that it's rubbing shoulders with Patuxent River Naval Air Station. Unfortunately, the closest airport is Reagan National in D.C., about 65 miles away. I think BWI (Baltimore) is 75. Not ideal, but not any worse than what we're dealing with now. I've been looking at real estate online, and at the moment it's in our price range. Before I build this up in my mind as the answer to everything that is wrong here in Caroline County, we're going to have a look around. I know the grass always seems greener elsewhere, but folks, we hardly have grass here. Literally and figuratively. If nothing else tomorrow I get to stop at a Home Goods (Halloween stuff!) and a Sally beauty (hair stuff!). I miss civilization so much. Our plan is to ditch Denton first thing in the morning and head over the bridge and turn south.

We'll explore, have a little lunch (so many restaurants to choose from!), and then head back home. Feels like the Amish on Rumspringa. I'll report our findings here on the ol' blog and let you know if it was much ado about nothing or has some potential. Our choices in Maryland seem to be dense urban or the sticks. This might be a happy medium. Scratch that, I do like Easton (here on the Eastern Shore) and really like their Talbot County property taxes. There's plenty to consider, and we're willing to explore the possibilities. We've been in Maryland just over two years, and I really think there's a better life for us outside of Denton. It's sure worth a look. On that note, I'll wrap this up. I hope that you keep your hearts and minds open to change. Don't be afraid to admit that you need to make changes. This may or may not be something we'll pursue, and if we do, it won't be right away. We're just in the talking stages. We do know that we need more than this. We also know that although we worked hard to make this house very pretty, it's not a house we can live in at 80 or 85. Ideally we'll need a one story house, or at least a home with the primary suite on the first floor. We're not at that point yet, but we also don't want to have to make that move when we're really old. Is it silly to think of that at 60? I don't think so. Better than 80. Those are the thoughts rattling around in my head, so I just dumped them all out for you. Pick through the mess and keep what you like. Sending out oodles of love tonight, I hope you feel it. If you need to make any changes, I'll be your cheerleader. Do it! Follow your dreams! Get what you need! Be brave!

There's always one.

I'll let you know how our adventure unfolds. Until then, stay safe, stay well. XOXO, Nancy

[whiteshipnightjar]

Does art make a difference?

Aw, sure. Of course there are degrees of extremity to the potential change that art can effect, depending on how many people are able to engage with it. The Beatles made a huge difference in the world. But Henry Darger, Jeff McKissack, Karen Dalton, Pauline Oliveros, Kenneth Patchen – there are so many folks who have made great art and not gotten massively famous for it, yet I think there are all sorts of ways their work informs and shapes other people’s work, and brains, and decisions.

Should politics and art mix?

Well, everything mixes, the New Statesman! That’s like asking if a knee-reflex hammer and a quadriceps tendon should “mix”.

Is your work for the many or for the few?

That’s for the many/few to say. I just crank out the hot jams.

If you were world leader, what would be your first law?

Gravity. I feel like we need to tighten up the constitutional protections that particular law enjoys. It’s a ticking time bomb, if you ask me.

Who would be your top advisers?

Cute angel on one shoulder, cute devil on the other.

What, if anything, would you censor?

Maybe we could all agree to not bust each other’s chops all cut-dang day.

If you had to banish one public figure, who would it be?

Don’t know, banishment might be a little extreme, but I’d sure like to take that Stephen Hawking dude down a notch or two. Right? Are you with me?

What are the rules that you live by?

Basically, “bros before hos”. I feel like if you stay true to that, everything else just kind of falls into place.

Do you love your country?

I love William Faulkner, Dolly Parton, fried chicken, Van Dyke Parks, the Grand Canyon, Topanga Canyon, bacon cheeseburgers with horseradish, Georgia O’Keeffe, Grand Ole Opry, Gary Snyder, Gilda Radner, Radio City Music Hall, Big Sur, Ponderosa pines, Southern BBQ, Highway One, Kris Kristofferson, National Arts Club in New York, Ruth Crawford Seeger, Joni Mitchell, Ernest Hemingway, Harriet Tubman, Hearst Castle, Ansel Adams, Kenneth Jay Lane, Yuba River, South Yuba River Citizens League, “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore”, “Hired Hand”, “The Jerk”, “The Sting”, “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”, clambakes, lobster rolls, s’mores, camping in the Sierra Nevadas, land sailing in the Nevada desert, riding horseback in Canyon de Chelly; Walker Percy, Billie Holiday, Drag City, Chez Panisse/Alice Waters/slow food movement, David Crosby, Ralph Lauren,San Francisco Tape Music Center, Albert Brooks, Utah Phillips, Carol Moseley Braun, Bolinas CA, Ashland OR, Lawrence KS, Austin TX, Bainbridge Island WA, Marilyn Monroe, Mills College, Elizabeth Cotton, Carl Sandburg, the Orange Show in Houston, Toni Morrison, Texas Gladden, California College of Ayurvedic Medicine, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Saturday Night Live, Aaron Copland, Barack Obama, Oscar de la Renta, Alan Lomax, Joyce Carol Oates, Fred Neil, Henry Cowell, Barneys New York, Golden Gate Park, Musee Mechanique, Woody Guthrie, Maxfield Parrish, Malibu, Maui, Napa Valley, Terry Riley, drive-in movies, homemade blackberry ice cream from blackberries picked on my property, Lil Wayne, Walt Whitman, Halston, Lavender Ridge Grenache from Lodi CA, Tony Duquette, Julia Morgan, Lotta Crabtree, Empire Mine, North Columbia Schoolhouse, Disneyland, Nevada County Grandmothers for Peace; Roberta Flack, Randy Newman, Mark Helprin, Larry David, Prince; cooking on Thanksgiving; Shel Siverstein, Lee Hazlewood, Lee Radziwill, Jackie Onassis, E.B. White, William Carlos Williams, Jay Z, Ralph Stanley, Allen Ginsberg, Cesar Chavez, Harvey Milk, RFK, Rosa Parks, Arthur Miller, “The Simpsons”, Julia Child, Henry Miller, Arthur Ashe, Anne Bancroft, The Farm Midwifery Center in TN, Martha Graham, Alvin Ailey, Jr., Eleanor Roosevelt, Clark Gable, Harry Nilsson, Woodstock, and some other stuff. Buuuut, the ol’ U S of A can pull some pretty dick moves. I’m hoping it’ll all come out in the wash...

Are we all doomed?

If we keep our expectations pretty low I think we might be fine. I mean, we’re definitely all dying at some point. There’s no getting around that. But between now and then, things might start looking up!

— Joanna Newsom for The New Statesman, 2008

[incorrectrawhidequotes]

Kangaroo Westerns!

Admittedly, this one is less Australian western and more American western set in Australia. But I watched this so many times growing up and it’s a good movie so I’m adding it. 

“Quigley Down Under” (1990)

Matthew Quigley (Tom Selleck) is an American sharpshooter, hired by landowner Elliot Marston (Alan Rickman) to come to Western Australia. 

Just after arriving, he gets into a fight defending an emotionally disturbed American woman named Cora (Laura San Giacomo) who attaches herself to him and believes he’s her husband, Roy. 

When they reach Marston’s land, Quigley finds out what Marston wants to hire him for is actually to kill the local Indigenous people. Quigley‘S refusal includes throwing Marston through a window.  Marston’s retaliation starts off Quigley on a one-man war.

(spoilers under the cut)

Tom Selleck is great as Matthew Quigley. He’s a very classic western hero. Kind and respectful to good people, unmerciful to villains. His growing relationship with Cora is funny, sweet and as they get closer very romantic. 

Alan Rickman is again brilliant as the villain. Marston is truly despicable, a power-hungry maniac who wishes he was an old-west gunfighter. 

It’s a very gritty and violent movie and some parts are very disturbing to watch. 

After Matthew refuses to kill for Marston, he and Cora are beaten and left for dead in the desert, where they are saved by an Indigenous group (they unfortunately aren’t referred to by name, which is annoying, but the area they’re supposed to be in is Noongar land so I’m working with that)

The Noongar family brings them to a rock shelter to recover. During this time, they become close to the family and each other. Cora opens up to Matthew that in Texas, she accidentally killed her baby during a Comanche raid (anyone who’s seen the last episode of M*A*S*H, it’s along those lines) and her husband abandoned her and sent her to Australia. 

Some of Marston’s men find and attack the family, with Matthew able to shoot most of the attackers but one gets away.  Not long after, they witness more of Marston’s men massacre another Indigenous group by chasing them off a cliff. They are unable to stop them in time but Cora finds a baby alive among the victims. 

Matthew leaves Cora and the baby at a cave shelter so he can get to the nearest town quicker with their one horse and bring back supplies and another horse.  While he’s away, Cora and the baby are attacked by a pack of dingoes. Cora mentally relives the night her own baby died and fights back, firing at the dingoes until she drives them away. This proves cathartic for her and she starts to regain her mental clarity. 

In town, Matthew befriends a German immigrant family, the Grimmelman’s, who side with the Indigenous people against Marston and help Matthew with supplies and ammunition. Matthew also finds out that word of his actions are spreading through the Noongar community, who now hold him in regard.   Matthew’s horse is spotted and Marston’s men attack, killing Mrs Grimmelman in the firefight.  Matthew leaves one of the men alive, to tell Marston he’s coming after him. 

Matthew brings Cora and the baby back to town and when a Noongar family arrives at Grimmelman’s, Cora returns the baby to them. 

The next day Matthew leaves to confront Marston, sniping off his men before defeating Marston in a quick draw gunfight. 

Soldiers arrive to arrest Matthew for murder but see that the homestead is surrounded by Noongar people ready to defend him, which causes the solders to retreat. 

Matthew returns to the harbour to leave the country. Cora finds him and calls him by his actual name. They kiss for the first time and leave for California together. 

Overall it’s a really good movie. The music is beautiful and the main cast is great with really good chemistry.   Something that makes me laugh though, is where they’re supposed to be in southern Western Australia, about 50km south of Fremantle Harbor, is still in the Darling Ranges and looks like this.

The red dirt desert in the movie is north and central Australia. 

[mykingdomforasong]

Character in Peril + Professor AU, skymandolo?

The angst part three -- [part one][part two]

cw for weed and alcohol use

[fanfiction tope mash up]

~

Furry and embarrassment tingled behind Luke's eyes as he drove home in waining light of the March afternoon. For the sake of other drivers, he willed himself not to cry until he made it to his small apartment across town. For many reasons, he loathed his choice to move to the car-crowded Southern California instead of New York, where he could have sobbed in peace on the subway, as fellow New Yorker's politely ignored him and silently thanked him for sobbing instead of throwing himself on the third rail and stalling their own trip home.

But Leia lived out here, and for that he was grateful. Before he's pealed out of Han's drive way as quickly as he could, he'd sent her a text, a simple: come over, bring drinks drink a crying face emoji.

He worried about what she might say to him as he pulled into his parking spot, and found her car already in the guest spot. She'd told him not to date Han in the first place. She's explained the logic behind it -- he was married, and Luke countered with the fact that the marriage was and always had been open. He was Luke's professor, and Luke explained "not anymore." And he wasn't an archeology or anthropology major. And it wasn't like he was some 19 year-old. He was a proper grown-up.

"Well, I still think it's a bad idea," she said.

"I think you'll like him. He's handsome." Luke pulled up his picture, and she did her best to act like she was unimpressed. But Luke saw through it. "He's not gay. He's bi. You know, if you're ever interested ..."

She kicked him gently from her spot on the other side of the couch.

Despite her (reluctantly confessed) attraction to his boyfriend, Leia had never approved of the arrangement.

With his car now in park, there was nothing Luke could do to keep himself from crying as he remembered the looked of betrayal and confusion on Din's face. Han hadn't told him they'd be there that afternoon, leaving Luke alone in their introduction. Han hadn't told Din the whole truth of who Luke was or how they'd met. Han was keeping him something of a secret. Luke had been clear with Han from the beginning that the one thing he didn't want was to be some sort of mistress or home-wrecker. It was the one thing Han promised Luke he could never be.

What a liar.

Luke brushed hot tears from his face as he climbed the steps to his apartment, but new ones just kept replacing the ones he wiped away.

Leia had let herself in and had poured them each a tequila shot and a margarita to accompany it. Luke had expected a bottle of wine or a few loose beers, but his twin sister always seemed to know exactly what any situation called for. She'd even gone through the effort of putting on The Devil Wears Prada and pausing it right at the start to wait for him.

His chest tightened with anxiety and defensiveness as he looked at her, bracing himself for the inevitable I told you so.

But Leia wasn't like their father that way -- her compassion always outweighed her need to be proven right. She stood up quickly, wordlessly, and wrapped him in a tight hug. Her long brown hair was braided loosely down her back, the hair covering the tips of her ears. So it wasn't until her chin was resting on Luke's shoulder that he noticed she'd been kind enough to tuck a joint behind her ear.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Leia asked as he pulled away.

"In a minute," Luke said, walking over to the table, taking the shot without the theatrics of the salt and lime. He chased it with sips of the margarita. "We should order a pizza or something. I don't have a lot of food here." He pressed play on the remote and the movie started playing.

"It's already on the way."

~

There was a corner in of the bedroom that was Din's alone, over by the large window. It had his bookshelf with his favorites proudly displayed -- cracked spines, a palimpsest of annotations, mismatched and disorganized post it notes all cluttering up the pages. One shelf had his private liquor collection, mostly tequilas and gins, but there was one bottle of whiskey labeled "Writer's Tears." It felt apt. Din grabbed it, opened it, and drank straight from the mouth of the bottle. He winced as he swallowed it. No doubt Han would appreciate its flavors. Han had always been the whiskey drinker between them. Han might have even bought this bottle for him, but Din couldn't remember.

Han had finally given up his pleas to be let back into their bedroom or to try and talk things out, accepting, it seemed, that Din needed time to think things over before moving into conversation and resolution.

Din stared at their bare mattress. He'd pulled all of their sheets off in a fit of rage and now he was left with the unpleasant task of getting a fitted sheet on the king-sized bed alone.

He rested the whiskey on the night stand as he stretched the sheet over one corner, tucking it under the mattress and preying it would stay. He crawled to the other side, but took the previous corner with him when he did. He flopped face down on the mattress, feeling weighed down by his own pathetic grief. He let himself lay there for a moment, before pushing himself back up to try again, this time more carefully.

As he stretched the corner of the sheet back over the mattress, he spotted a phone between the headboard and the mattress. He reached for it, worried for a moment that it was Luke's. But it wasn't. He recognized it as Han's easily enough. Han was the only man Din knew who was reckless enough to carry around his iPhone without a case.

Din rested it next to the whiskey bottle, and then returned to the sheet.

With the bed finally made, he laid down and held Han's phone in his hand in a quiet contemplation. He knew Han's passcode, but he'd never been the kind of husband to go through his phone. But, then again, Han had never been the kind of husband to have things worth hiding.

Din typed in the passcode.

Din half expected a dozen furious messages from Luke, or pleading messages, or 'I told you so's. But there was nothing. Din hoped Luke had made it home okay. That he was alright. Din certainly wasn't. He'd given up crying after a short while, then let himself panic about all the ways Han had risked their relationship and his career. Now he was just left with the emptiness of a freshly-made bed and the fullness of a whiskey bottle he never drank.

He opened Han's photos. There were only a few with Luke, ones innocent enough to deny. No kissing, intimacy, or nudity of the two of them. Just the two of them standing on a pier, or in front of a tank of jellyfish at the aquarium.

He couldn't bring himself to snoop through their texts. but as he stared at the screen looking at their most recent message -- Luke had sent "😊❤️" and nothing else -- he wondered again about how Luke was doing. Was he alone? Just as heartbroken? Or was he waiting for Han to follow him? Would Han follow him? Han's keys were out by the front door. He could easily leave and go to Luke if he wanted.

Din stood up quickly and cracked the bedroom door. He peered into the living room, and saw Han sitting on the couch, his head towards the TV, watching Breaking Bad with the volume turned low. Din closed the door before Han could turn around and spot him.

He let out a deep breath. He remembered what Han had said to him a few hours ago: "not you, never you." There was an easy pride in that for Din, to know his husband wouldn't choose the younger, prettier man over him, even though he easily could.

Maybe it was that assuredness that compelled him to unlock Han's phone again, and give Luke a call.

~

"It's Han," Luke said simply, looking at his phone as it vibrated on the table. They had a good buzz going, the both of them, and Leia had responded to Luke's recollection of events with her characteristic righteous indignation.

"Don't answer!" Leia said.

"Maybe I should. Maybe he's calling to end things officially. I might get closure," Luke countered.

"If that piece of shit is gonna break up with you over the phone after all of this --!"

"Alright! I won't answer --!"

"Let me answer it!" Leia said, reaching for the phone.

"Fine!" Luke said.

~

Din was sitting on the closed lid of the toilet, hoping the bathroom door would put an additional layer of soundproofing between him and the living room so that Han might not overhear. He'd always hated being overheard while on the phone in any circumstance, and it made him cringe whenever Han answered a call in public. And anyway, if Han could have Luke-secrets, so could he.

A very angry woman answered the phone.

"Listen you dick. I'm sure you called to try and smooth things over however you think you can, but he doesn't want to talk to you. For your own sake, you should probably leave him alone."

Din had considered calling from his own phone, but he anticipate Luke thinking it was spam and ignoring it. Calling from Han's phone had been a risky choice, he knew, but this he didn't expect.

"Uh, sorry," was all Din said.

"I bet you are!"

"I'm not Han, I'm the husband. Din. Is Luke there?"

There was silence on the other line. He imagined the woman and Luke silently trying to communicate, mouthing words or whispering to each other.

"Look, this wasn't Luke's fault and he feels bad enough as it is, so if you just called to yell at him, I suggest you hang up."

"I didn't call to yell at him," Din said. "I wanted to see if he was okay."

"... Why?"

Din shrugged, although the woman couldn't hear it. "I didn't know if he had anyone to talk to. We were both hurt today. It was my husband's fault. Just thought I'd check in."

"And where is this husband? Why didn't he call?"

"He left his phone in the bedroom. I locked him out."

"Of the house?!" He couldn't tell if she was worried or impressed.

"Of the bedroom. He's on the couch."

"Oh. Luke is desperately reaching for the phone, so I'm going to let you talk to him."

"Okay, thanks," Din said.

~

Luke took the phone and the joint from Leia. He opened his bedroom window, sat on his bed, and lit up the joint as he started his second conversation with his boyfriend's husband.

"Hello?" Luke asked. What would they even talk about? He'd had his ear close to the phone as Leia talked to him. Did he really care about how he was doing? Had Han really managed to find a guy that nice and then still screw him over?

"Luke?"

"Yeah."

They were silent again.

"I'm sorry about earlier," Luke said, "that wasn't how I wanted to meet you."

"I figured," Din said. "How are you feeling?"

"Embarassed," Luke said, "a little sad. Kind of confused about why you'd call."

"I wanted to see if you were okay. Han left his phone in the room, so he couldn't reach out to you. I thought one of us should." Well, he thought, that was nice of him. "I didn't kick him out if you were wondering. Just making him sleep on the couch tonight."

"That's good. I never wanted to come between the two of you," Luke promised.

"You haven't. None of this is your fault," Din said. Luke teared up again, and he took another hit, hoping it would cover any wavering in his voice.

"I don't understand why he'd lie to you," Luke said.

"I don't think he expected to be with you for so long." There was a bluntness to Din's tone that rattled Luke; he couldn't tell if he was being insulted. "Sorry ..." Din tried to smooth his words over. "I meant, I think he thought it would be a fling. No need to worry me about him risking his career with an undergrad --"

"I'm twenty-seven!" Luke blurted quickly. "An undergrad, yeah, but I'm not, like, nineteen."

"I know, Han told me. But still. And then I think it went on for so long, he never figured out how to tell me."

"You were going to find out eventually," Luke said.

"Maybe," Din said. The words landed heavy in Luke's chest. Maybe Din would have found out. But Luke's relationship with Han was meant to be fleeting. It occurred to Luke, and not for the first time, that Din didn't have a boyfriend or two coming to the house. There were few boyfriends in Han's stories even, mostly hook ups, friends with benefits ... you haven't come between them, Luke thought, you were never enough of a threat for that.

Luke was starting to feel threatened by the phone call. Whatever Din had proclaimed his intentions to be, it seemed obvious to Luke that the real motive behind the call was to ensure Luke understood he was temporary in Han's life where Din was not. Even if this event was not his fault, it was his one-way ticket out of love with Han.

There were tears on his cheeks again, and his weak right hand, the muscles tight with scar tissue, shook as it brought the joint to his mouth again.

"Yeah," he said. as he took a drag. "I should go," he breathed out with the smoke. His head was starting to get lighter, the chronic nerve pain in his hand starting to dull, the world starting to blur.

"Wait!" Din said as Luke reached for the end call button. "I'd still like to meet you."

Luke almost laughed. "Why?"

There was a pause and Luke imagined Din was thinking of all the ways he could kill Luke and get away with it.

"I think Han really loves you," Din said.

Luke sobbed before pulling himself together. "Well, he's never said that to me."

"Still true. And I still think this whole relationship is dangerous, but it means something to Han."

"So you want to meet me to ... what? Find a way for us to stay together? Or to find a way for Han to end things nicely?"

"I guess that's between you and Han, I'd just like to ... know you a little more. If you might stay in his life I ... don't want you to feel like a secret. Not to me, at least."

Luke thought over the offer. He didn't know what to expect from Din. But he did love Han, even if he'd never said so much to him. It might be worth the meeting. Somewhere crowded and public so Din couldn't kill him.

"There's a coffee shop a good ways away from campus that I like," Luke said. "I can send you the address if you send me your number."

"Sure," Din said. "I'll send it when we hang up."

"Are you okay?" Luke finally asked.

"No," his voice was strained, "but I will be."

Din hung up suddenly, catching Luke off-guard.

He walked back into the living room where his sister was still watching The Devil Wears Prada and sipping on a remarkably strong margarita.

"How did that go?" She asked.

"I don't know," Luke answered honestly. "He's either the nicest guy in the world, or I'm about to be killed."

~

Din stepped out of the bedroom with intention now. Han heard the door open this time and spun around to look at him.

"You're still sleeping out here tonight," Din told him. "But here's your phone. I called Luke. He's doing okay. I don't know if he'd want to hear from you."

Han's eyes were wide. "You called him?"

"I wanted to make sure he was okay," Din answered.

Han looked confused, but he still took the phone. "I'm sorry," Han offered again.

"I know," Din said, before heading back to their bedroom alone.

[cinematoast]

3 women

I've wanted to watch this one for a long time, and it did not disappoint.

a short synopsis: shy, unassuming Pinky (Sissy Spacek) becomes obsessed with her new coworker, the vain and self confident Millie (Shelley Duvall) while working at a physical rehabilitation spa. after they become roommates, Pinky's obsession with Millie becomes all consuming.

it's the 1970s, somewhere in the desert along that unclear line between sun bleached Arizona and southern California. if you've taken 10 between Phoenix and LA, you know the look.

I love the details of scene and setting: Millie's mustard Pinto and yellow outfits and how she repeatedly shuts her skirt in the door of the car as she's in a hurry to drive off somewhere. Pinky of course wearing mostly pink, her wardrobe becoming more saturated and risqué as her alternate personality emerges. the reoccurrence of water in the desert--in the echoing pools of the rehabilitation center where Millie and Pinky work, and as a rippling obstructive overlay on Billie's murals at the bottom of the motel swimming pool.

Spacek is delightfully eerie and strange and childish, Duvall ensnares both overconfidence and insecurity, and the two are a comedic odd couple sleeping next to each other in twin beds for the first half of the movie. in the second half, the story changes: the tone becomes menacing, the power dynamic between Pinky and Millie flips, and the third woman emerges. it's not the same movie as the first half, but it's still good--it raises questions, but offers no answers. while the first half of 3 Women showcases comedy and improvisation between Spacek and Duvall, the second half hones the painterly edge of the image. it feels intuitive, fluid, and ultimately unresolved.

[letters-from-the-gaps]

Home and Hearth and Hunger

A lyrical essay on growing up in the suburbs of Southern Orange County, California, and the piece that I think really solidified my love for coyotes in my writing.

I think I was off the mark when I tried to describe home. I was right in places, of course, because home wouldn’t be home without the smell of smoke, but I can’t help but feel like I missed the bullseye, like I danced around the truth of it all. Home is fire, and home is hot, and home is the choked I-5, and home is hungry. Even for all the suburban trappings, even with the over-manicured muzzle we tried to put on her, home is hungry. 

Built right against the dead and dying foothills of southern California, my town has played stomping ground to coyotes my whole life. Bane of the small dog, scourge of the outdoor cat owner, I only ever saw one in my whole seventeen years there: standing in the middle of the canyon road, eyeshine brighter than any star, staring back at me. We held like that for a few seconds, its eyes finding mine even through the glass and steel of my dad’s car, before it limped back off into the brush. I didn’t get a sense for just how hungry home was until I got older, until I could take out my wanderlust on the well-paved asphalt that connected town to town to suburb. Some streets just end, I found out. 

They don’t loop around, they don’t somehow go further than the map says. They just end. For any number of reasons, of course, but for us it was because there was nowhere else for road to go. Antonio ran right up to the hills, spat you out at the foot of a neighborhood built at the edge of home’s bound jaws. The 241 North cut through a long stretch of wild, rolling hills covered in the golden dead of spring, eager kindling swaying in the wind. I wonder, often, if that’s where I got it from. Mom and Dad moved there, transplanted themselves in favor of an understandably desirable stillness, but home was in the delivery room with me, was on the drive home, was running alongside the car when I was little, bounding from streetlight to streetlight. I wonder if my teeth aren’t hers, if that pit in my stomach that I just can’t quite fill isn’t hers. I’ve always been hungry. 

Even as a kid, I had a bottomless stomach. An unending appetite for more than just food, I came to realize: I tore my way through school libraries in my youth, ripped through tomes several magnitudes above my “expected reading level.” I rent them apart time after time and still found myself desperate for more. 

Is that home? Even when reading was hard, when the words were slippery and hard to pin down and my mind whirled and spun and thrashed in my skull, I turned my ravenous gaze to television, to animation, to movies and short films and videos about who even cares. I devoured it all. 

That must be home, right? As time wore on and my teeth began to ache with a need for new things to sharpen themselves against I started to come up short. I started to drink from wells marked “poison,” “radiation,” “anguish.” I drank greedily of my friendships and when they started to dry I drank of my own self-loathing. 

This, I am sure, is home, because I am sure that home does not love me. Why would she? Home is wild, home is hills scorched by flame, home is coyotes cackling in the canyon, home is roadkill and circling hawks and snow far, far off on the saddlebacks. 

Far away from the streets I would roam there dreamt snow on the mountainsides. 

Home has been muzzled, her rolling jaws have been bound by toll road and service street, parkway and avenue. Even in the shadows of her teeth there lie houses built in the shape of each other, cookie cutter shades of beige and brown spiraling in their gated labyrinths. Why would she love me? Maybe she cares- I can almost believe that, almost did believe it as I growled through the canyon in the still early morning- but I doubt that she loves me. It's looking out at the Sound, here in this place so vibrant and green and lush that I am affirmed in my stance: wherever home feels for me is not love because love feels like this. And home has never felt like this. 

I still see coyotes, sometimes. They seem out of place, even if this is part of their habitat, so far flung from the broiling gold of home. Why are you here, I ask one as it scampers out of the road. It asks me if I’m not hungry as it bounds away, small and thin and with eyes like molten stars, and I don’t let me foot off the gas for the rest of my drive that night. Aren’t I? Aren’t I hungry? Is that a bad thing?

[dhampiravidi]

🧥 for your muse to give my muse their jacket when it’s cold out (Pogue giving his jacket to Jayn because she's probably not as used to chilly autumn evenings as he is~)

Jayn always had mixed feelings about September. It was her birthday month (and Caleb's), and she took an odd sense of pride in being a Virgo. September meant that Spooky Season was near--but it also meant that school had already begun. And it was the month when most of the day would be a hot 85 degrees...until the sun decided to go home for the evening and drop things down to 50 degrees. The big drop hadn't happened, so Jayn hadn't brought a jacket on her date with Pogue. REGRET, her mind and all the teeny hairs on her skin screamed as she and her boyfriend left the gelateria. Mind you, the only reason they were outside was because she'd started to get sleepy, given the amount of carb-laden, delicious, perfect food in her tummy.

It was all Pogue's fault. He'd endured her griping, worrying, and (a tiny bit of) crying concerning the big Modern Greek III test Jayn had. She loved hearing Greek, but trying to conjugate the words, not to mention remember all the grammatical rules, was so confusing to her. Their group put in extra effort to help her study and just support her in general, until she finally had to confront the test on her own. Somehow, she scraped by with a B+. Pogue rewarded her with a surprise date, picking her up on his motorcycle as usual. Pastries and coffee, then a trip to a science museum (it was for Pogue's homework but they had fun), the most AMAZING Italian food, and a showing of one of Pogue's favorite movies (The Boondock Saints; Jayn liked it because she enjoyed both violence and young Sean Patrick Flanery), and finally they ended the day by picking up some gelato to go. They'd planned to stop at some of the shops, but they were both starting to get tired. As usual, they would drive back with leftovers. If either of them began to doze off, Jayn would teleport them back to Caleb's. Neither of them had anticipated how cold it would get.

Jayn yelped right as Pogue cursed under his breath. He was able to adjust in a couple of seconds, having gone through mini snowstorms in Massachusetts before. But poor Jayn was a California girl--one who had never been to Tahoe, one who loved and preferred Southern California's mid-70s to the current 50s. "Jay?"

"Hm? y-yES?" she squeaked, trying to get Pogue going with her in a brisk fast walk. In her mind, they just had to hurry. Soon enough, they'd be on the motorcycle, hopefully, surrounded by the warm winds of freedom instead of cold breezes--

Pogue was laughing. Curious, Jayn turned around. "Jay..baby, c'mere."

"What...?"

"You're freezing. C'mere." She pouted and frowned, mad that he was laughing at her discomfort. He always loved how emotive she was, even though she could be a little crazy sometimes. At least she wasn't keeping how she felt a secret from him. Pogue took off his beloved leather jacket, holding it so his girlfriend could put it on. Her eyes widened in surprise.

"Pogue! No! I can't--no. Then you're gonna be cold." Damn. The way she cared for him always made him feel special.

"Then you can warm me up when we get home." It was so easy to make her flustered, even though they'd been dating for a while now.

"Yeah, okay, fine." Jayn carefully moved the bag holding their gelato from one hand to another as he helped her put his jacket on. They both laughed--his sleeves were several inches longer than her arms, so much so that he took the bag from her hands and just let her flail around.

"Haha, alright Little Penguin Love, c'mon before you freeze."

"Little?!--my gods, Pogue--ugh, fine." He turned to go, and she stopped him by gently bumping into his side. Jayn managed to grip his sides (sort of). "Thank you. For everything: putting up with my venting, and inability to decide on food, and my--" He interrupted her with a kiss. Rude, the logical, boring part of her brain muttered, as she smiled with tired eyes. "I love you, too."

"Hey, keep those eyes open. I want a good cuddle before I go."

"No. Stay the night."

"Yeah. Okay."