#for those who were here for the math boy saga you know I’m not letting this go | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

ellewritesathing · 4 years ago

Text

Faking It - VI

Summary: You’d done plenty of dumb things in your life, but the dumbest had to be picking Greendale’s latest bad-boy to pretend to be your boyfriend.

Masterlist Prev. | Part 6

Word-count: 2.6k+

A/N: truly cannot believe that this series is over!! thank you guys for all of the love and support that you’ve given it (and me) 💕💕 (also ps it’s my birthday!! so here’s a birthday gift from me to you)

Despite the numerous other times you’d gone out with him and the fact that he’d seen you in sweats more times than you could count, you were back to the age-old saga of trying on every outfit in your closet in preparation for your date with Caliban. The only difference between this time and the very first time was that this time you enlisted the advice of the most fashionable person you knew. But Roz was busy so now you were on the phone with Harvey.

“I don’t get it. How is this one different from the last one?” Harvey asked for the billionth time. You rolled your eyes at the video of him sprawled out on his bed with his maths homework to keep him company.

“The last one had stripes.”

“Oh, well, I don’t really like stripes anyway so go with this one,” Harvey said with a shrug. “You look great. So stop freaking out about it.”

“I am not freaking out. He refused to tell me where we’re going, and how am I supposed to plan for that?” you asked, taking your phone off it’s careful perch to glare at the screen. “I’ve been on dates before. I’ve dated Caliban before.”

“I didn’t say you hadn’t, I just told you to stop freaking out.”

“Whatever. Do you like my outfit or not?”

“You look great,” Harvey repeated, closing his book and taking his phone in his hands. “You’re gonna have a fun night.”

You looked away from your phone for a second as you thought of something witty to say that would change the subject. It was hard to come up with something when you were so preoccupied with your anxieties over what ‘something real’ with Caliban would be. “Yeah, well, whatever,” you said eventually. “Thanks for, you know, everything.”

“Yeah, well,” Harvey said awkwardly. Clearly, he was just as bad at this emotional stuff as you were. “What are friends for, right?”

“Right,” you repeated. Your phone buzzed and a notification scrolled across the top of the screen.

Ambercrombie: Let me know when you’re on your way x

“I gotta go if I’m gonna make it there before this adrenaline wears off,” you said. “I love you, Harv.”

“Love you too, slugger.” Harvey smiled and shifted on his side of the screen. “Oh, and tell the asshole ‘this is for the sixth grade.’”

“Okay?”

You didn’t have a lot of time to dwell on the weirdness of that last bit because soon enough you were driving over to Caliban’s and doing your best not to let your heartbeat out of your chest. It was disgusting. Though not any more disgusting than the nausea that came over as soon as you pulled into Caliban’s driveway.

The last time you were here, it didn’t end so well, and the pretty bay windows and happy plants couldn’t distract from that ... Though Isobel waving at you from the roses she was pruning did a good job of distracting you.

After a few seconds of wondering if it was too late to reverse out of the driveway, you sucked it up and got out of the car. Isobel met you halfway but held up some dirty and gloved hands to stop you when you tried to hug her.

“I’d love to, honestly,” she said with a small laugh. “But I don’t want to ruin your outfit.”

Despite your reservations, you felt yourself smiling. “This old thing? I say we ruin it.”

Isobel laughed and leaned in for a hug. She took the glove off one of her hands and squeezed yours as she pulled away. “We missed you around here.”

“Don’t tell anyone, but I missed being here,” you said.

Before Isobel had the chance to say anything else, Caliban came out of the house with a small box in his hands. He shut the door and jogged over while Isobel joked about him not wanting her to tell you about the three weeks he spent moping and eating every piece of chocolate in the house.

For probably the first time in his life, Caliban seemed nervous as he looked between you and his mom. Hesitantly, he put a hand on your back and smiled. “Hi.”

“Hi yourself,” you said with a matching smile.

“We should really be going if we’re going to make it there in time,” Caliban said.

“Well, don’t let me keep you kids from your special date,” Isobel said as she took a few steps backward. “Have fun.”

“But not too much fun?” Caliban asked.

“Not so much fun that I have to take a trip to the police station.” Isobel adjusted her glove and shook her head. “That Officer Pike keeps trying to ask me out to dinner.”

You laughed at Caliban’s disgusted face before promising Isobel you’d do your best to keep him out of trouble. The two of you only managed to walk a few feet before arguing over who was going to drive, and it was only once you were in the safety of his dumb BMW before Caliban handed you the box he’d been safeguarding.

He was quiet as you undid the little blue ribbon and lifted off the lid. Inside was a small, white corsage. The flower was beautiful but it was the last thing you were expecting, you know, because it wasn’t prom.

“You hate it,” Caliban said, turning in his seat to face the steering wheel.

“I don’t hate it. It’s really pretty.”

“I knew I shouldn’t have listened to Harvey and his stupid first date etiquette-”

“Wait, Harvey told you to get me this?” you asked. Caliban shifted awkwardly and turned back to face you. “Uh, when we were talking earlier, he said to tell you ‘this is for the sixth grade.’ I assume this is this.”

Caliban laughed and all his anxieties over the corsage seemed to melt away as he relaxed back into his seat. “My dearest cousin had a date with Elizabeth Coolidge in the sixth grade. I may have gotten it into his head to be very attentive and chivalrous.”

“You told him to baby her?” you asked, pulling a face.

“Not in those words. Those words make it sound bad.”

“That’s ‘cause it is bad, babe.” You laughed and reached a hand over to hold onto his wrist. “I love the corsage, and I still like you even though you’re a horrible cousin.”

“I think it adds to my charm.”

“I’m sure you do.”

Caliban smiled and dropped his gaze to your hand on his wrist for a moment before looking back up and leaning over the armrest to kiss you. One small, soft kiss but it still made your stomach turn over and heart speed up. Other than some forehead kisses and quick cheek kisses, this was your first kiss since that day in the hallway. That kiss had been drawn out and surprised, though it still stopped your heart - the kiss of strangers - but this one was everything that one had lacked. It was sweet, the kind of kiss between two people who cared about each other.

Your hand lifted to touch the side of his face lightly and you kissed him again. Caliban angled to get closer and accidentally pushed down on the horn in the process. After a very undignified yelp and jumping back to a straight-up sitting position, you started laughing. Caliban pressed down on the horn again, intentionally this time, and the two of you laughed a bit harder. Once you’d recovered, he interlaced his fingers with yours and brought them up to his lips for another quick kiss before reversing out of the garage and down the driveway.

Isobel gave you a very amused smile as she watched the car maneuver into the street and you gave her one last wave before disappearing into the distance.

---

Though Caliban refused to tell you where he was taking you, you caught on when you passed the third sign for the town carnival. It only happened once a year, and you’d only ever gone as a third wheel to Harvey and Sabrina. Cotton candy, fortune tellers, dumb games, and more food trucks than you thought possible for such a small town. You loved every part of it.

You started off with some popsicles and browsing through the different stalls before moving onto the bumper cars. For someone who was such a great driver, he couldn’t drive his bumper car for shit. Once Caliban got sick of the twelve-year-olds driving into him, he hopped out of his car and into yours.

After being banned from bumper cars, Caliban sought to redeem himself by winning a prize for you at one of the baseball throw games. You chose the biggest, fluffiest teddy bear from the top shelf and - after being told he’d never win it from the guy behind the counter - Caliban started throwing. He knocked down bottle after bottle until the guy behind the counter told him he’d hit enough to win the stupid bear. Now would the two of you leave him alone?

Scooping up your new child, you and Caliban made an exit for the Ferris wheel. Though you’d been on this thing at least once a year for as long as you could remember, riding it with Caliban was different - and not just because there was a giant teddy bear between you. As if you weren’t already in way over your head, he had the nerve to look pretty in the ugly fluorescent lights.

“So what are you going to name it?” he asked when he caught you staring at him again.

“Huh?”

“What are you going to name the bear?” Caliban asked with an annoyingly smug smile on his face. “You know, the one that’s currently blocking my attempts to kiss you.”

“Oh, right. That bear.” Moving to get a better look at the bear as you recovered from your embarrassment, you moved some fluff out of its eyes. “I don’t know. What do you think of Bearington?”

“Bearington?”

“Yeah, you know, like Barrington. It’s a people name,” you said. “But he’s not a people so it’s Bearington.”

“Bearington.”

“Stop saying his name like that! It’s cute.”

“Is it?”

You scoffed and pushed his hand that was draped over the back of the seat. “How dare you talk about our son like this? I want a divorce.”

“Like hell. I put the best years of my life into this marriage,” Caliban said as he turned in his seat to look at you. “I gave up that promotion at the firm so that you could open your store for your ridiculous handcrafted jewelry.”

“You said you loved my jewelry!”

“I also said I loved your cooking. You married a liar.”

“Well, you married a thief! That’s right, that priceless Faberge egg that ‘got lost in the move?’ I sold it on eBay to buy new shoes.”

“That egg was a wedding gift from my mother!”

Despite the abundance of jokes on the tip of your tongue, you couldn’t help laughing at the fake argument and how close the two of you had gotten as a result. You lifted your hand from the safety bar and grabbed some of Caliban’s shirt to pull him closer and kiss him.

After being kicked off the Ferris wheel for not following safety regulations, you went to one of the photobooths to take your first photo as a family, among a few other - far sillier - photos. You put a copy of each in your purse and Caliban put the other in his wallet before the two of you went off looking for any other trouble you could find.

Fortune teller? Check. Enough cotton candy to make you sick? Check. More carnival games for Caliban to be annoyingly perfect at? Check.

It would have been the perfect date if, while you were trying to juggle Bearington and a drink (as well as trying to get something out of your purse), someone didn’t grab your purse and take off. Luckily for you, unluckily for them, Caliban raced after them and pinned them against the wall in less than a minute.

When you caught up, the kid was sputtering an apology and begging Caliban to let go of him. Caliban handed you your purse and you checked to make sure everything was still there while the would-be thief asked if he’d let go now that you had your stuff back.

“Come on, aren’t you gonna tell your boyfriend to let me go?” he whined.

“No, I’m gonna tell him to knock your teeth out,” you said with a polite smile. You weren’t sure who looked more surprised about that; Caliban evened loosened his grip slightly in his shock.

“Seriously?” the kid asked.

“Really?” Caliban asked.

“Yeah, you tried to steal from me,” you said. “If you want, he could break your hand instead. I hear they still do that to thieves somewhere.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, seriously. So you can choose: no teeth or a broken hand? I’d go for the hand because teeth don’t grow back but-”

“You can’t listen to her,” the kid rushed out, holding onto Caliban’s hands and pleading. “Seriously, I learned my lesson. I’ll never steal again. Promise!”

“I think he's being sincere, love,” Caliban said. “What do you think?”

“I think …” The kid looked at you with terrified eyes and you figured it was time to stop messing with him. “I think you can let him go.”

Caliban did so with a smile and the kid disappeared as quickly as he’d appeared, leaving you and Caliban alone to laugh and carry on with the rest of your date.

You visited the few stalls that you hadn’t already seen and then, very slowly, made your way back to the car. Caliban buckled Bearington into the backseat and you defrosted in front of the air vents with his jacket around your shoulders. When he got into the car, Caliban took your hand in his to warm them up.

Neither of you said anything.

You soaked up the silence and did your best to commit this moment to memory. The way his hands, with their healing callouses, felt over your own. The way the street lights lit up his eyes. The sound of your racing heartbeat. His smile. You didn’t want to miss a detail, even though you knew you could never capture it again.

Maybe because you could never recapture it.

“Thanks,” you said softly.

“My pleasure,” Caliban said, equally quiet and soft.

He drove much slower on the way home than he had going to the carnival, and you almost didn’t want to say anything to ruin this perfect, not-fake bubble that the two of you existed in as you went down the highway. So, instead, you picked some music that both of you liked and turned the volume as high as it could go, only turning it down when the two of you got close to his house again.

The happy yellow house broke your heart when you saw it because that meant you’d have to burst the perfect bubble and go home. Caliban must have felt the same because he pulled into the driveway but didn’t switch the car off for a long time after that. When he did, you let out a breath that you didn’t know you were holding.

“You know, if we kept driving, I’m sure we could make it to the beach by sunrise,” Caliban said, hand still resting over the ignition.

“I’m sure we could.”

“That’s more second date material though, isn’t it?” he asked quietly.

“I don’t know,” you said. “Why don’t you ask me out and we’ll see?”

Caliban smiled and turned his head to look at you. “Would you like to go out with me again?”

“I thought you’d never ask.”

Tagged: @t-a-i-l-o-r-m-a-d-e @miss--moose @marrypuffsstuff @harryscarolinaa @igorsbby @foji2000 @mschfavngz @artaxerxesthegreat @thxmagic @strawberriesandknives @xealia @hotmessindisguise @acciomaximoff @reheated-coffee @shelby-x @perseny-blog @millie-753 @luneerius @shizzybarnaclee @lettherebelovex @throughparisallthroughrome @ietss @thebookwormlife @mechanicalanimalz @mariamermaid @nqbmf @caliban-is-my-girl @lawlesshedgehog @music-movies @luquincy @olivia-west-allen @drrramaaaqweeen @roxytheimmortal (Struck through wouldn’t tag)

#Caliban #caliban imagine #caliban x reader #Faking it #caos #Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

115 notes · View notes

suffering-and-happy-about-it · 5 years ago

Text

The Less I Know The Better (Peter Parker's iPod, Part 9.)

Description: Blip was hard. Dating MJ was a pleasure in Parker’s life, so it was even harder when she told him that things aren’t working as she anticipated - one month before college. Although they remained friends. But Peter isn’t too sure if he can handle liking yet another girl.

Part Summary: As another week came by, another visit from the masked hero was granted. And this time, MJ maybe started to pick up some vibes of you being even bigger weirdo than normally.

A/N: We're feeling fierce today, my babies. Let's give this boy a taste of heaven, shall we?

Word count: 2.5 K

Tagging: @fanboyswhereare-you, @lukesbabylon, @eridanuswave

Master list: H E R E

This time, when Peter decided to come by, it was raining like crazy. The season of crazy spring thunders came by, it was just two weeks away from May. There were gallons of water pouring down every damn second. If you would like a shower or go out for a swim, you could. You just needed to count on having a cold afterward.

Peter came by your window two days earlier actually, with a rose in his hand even, being in one of his super romantic moods, but he forgot that you were about to visit Betty's place along with MJ, so he just gently opened up the window and closed the flower into the doorframe. And now, while the ice-cold water poured down on him, he watched as you laid on your bed, dressed only in a t-shirt and shorts, doing work for school on your old laptop. He could hear a tune playing pretty loudly - and he saw even the rose put in the vase on your desk, which excited him.

Carefully, he knocked on the glass, waiting before you noticed. Your eyes almost popped out when you realized who that even is - quickly, you locked the door and went to open the window.

"I'm certainly not coming on the rooftop with you today in this freaking weather, so, come on in." - You stepped aside, tugging his forearm in, and you could already tell that he's grinning under his mask. He was also insanely cold to touch. That boy was about to be sick, just because he wanted to see you. While he tried to get into your room through the window somehow, you cleaned up some mess before you turned back right at him.

"I'll let you be if you're working, I can come later or tomorrow." - Peter said when he finally got in, looking at you sitting down with your laptop again. Oh, you were playing a happy tune today. It was Vance Joy and his Mess is Mine, which was just radiating with joy and love. You looked at Spidey a bit cluelessly, showing him the math problem.

"I would use some help now. I don't have any idea what the hell am I supposed to do now. But... Are you cold? Won't you take the spandex off? I can lend you something." - You offered. Yes, you wanted to see him undressing and maybe even see more of his body, but also, you didn't want to see the boy get sick. - "And I can warm you up if you want." - You said with a devilish giggle. You, of course, didn't think anything nasty with that comment, you thought about some snuggles in the worst and best-case scenario.

That kinda caught Peter off guard. He started to blush again, for an unknown, stupid reason as he was watching you slowly looking back at the math. Did you just... Could he... Didn't you think something else..? Peter could say yes, since, for a reason, his body was missing your warmth ever since you had to wake up for school after the Twilight Saga marathon. But, let's be honest, Peter had his morals and these couldn't be crossed.

"I'm fine. I can just press a little button on the suit and it does this." - He showed you and the only thing you could see was steam coming out of him along with an intense heat since his suit had turned on the heating function. You nodded and a grin appeared on your face as you wrote down something into your math notebook.

"You could just say yes and take such a privilege, but you need to play the gentleman until the end, don't you?" - You said while looking at the numbers you had written down. Peter shook his head and sat on the chair in front of your desk while you put your blanket over your legs. Before you started to look at the problem again, the man stole your laptop, automatically doing your homework.

"Give me the paper and a calculator would be nice." - He asked you, but the only thing you could give him was the paper since you were consistent with stealing Peter's calculator. You still hadn't bought one. He just let a long inhale out, knowing there isn't any calculator coming, as he found the app in your notebook, finishing the page in the next few minutes.

"How can you be so smart? Math is a torture device, and I'm sure of it." - You mumbled when you stuck your head from behind his back as you watched him just... Finishing the whole homework off just like that. He turned his head on you and you just noticed that he had already pushed his mask a bit up, to breathe some normal, fresh, cold air.

"I'm not that smart, come on. I just like this thing. Also, instead of 3.5, you should get 4.8 here. Now you see why it wasn't working. It kinda makes sense." - Speedy pointed on the screen, showing you where you wrote the wrong number you'd know what to do the next time. - "Why aren't you freaking out? I heard stalkers do that when they have their idol in their bedroom." - He mumbled and his mouth was just flat. For a moment, you thought that maybe he's serious.

But when you opened up your mouth, that boy just started laughing out loud. You bumped his shoulder, saying him that he's a dumb frick before you send the e-mail off to your teacher's address.

"I'm joking, come on, I'm just joking." - He sat next to you on the bed, watching as your expression didn't change a single bit. You looked pissed for a reason, but to be honest, you were just concentrated so you wouldn't do that much typos in that one e-mail. - "Hey, talk to me. If anything, it's only fair to give me something for writing your homework for you, missy."

"I don't know who's the stalker. Do I knock on your windows at eight o'clock in the evening, Speedy?" - You mumbled and send the message off, closing the laptop. Then, you were looking at him. And with that, Peter had to say that you had a point. He was acting like a stalker at that point. - "But to your luck, I'm okay with having a stalker." - A whisper came out when you put that piece of technology away and leaned in to catch his chin in with your thumb as MJ just knocked on your door, making you both jump at that sound.

Jesus, what was her deal at nine p.m. when you had something more exciting going on. You shoved the Spidey boy behind your bed, going to unlock the door for her. She was standing there with her hair let down and her face was just dead from the inside. MJ was holding a cup with ice-cream in her hand, staring you down.

"What's that about?" - She asked, feeling the air in your room. It was extremely humid but pretty cold. - "Are you having a party without asking me to come?" - MJ rose her eyebrows. You smiled at her, opening the door more so she could see that you're all alone in there.

"I don't know what you're talking about, girl. I just finished my math, if you want help with that, I can send you the homework." - You mumbled and leaned your temple into your door. MJ closed her eyes a bit, noticing a rose on your desk. Why didn't she noticed anyone giving you that flower? It seemed to be pretty fresh.

"What you were talking to, then? And why did you lock the door? You never do that." - She mumbled with suspicion in her voice. With a long sigh, you told her that you had Peter on the phone and that you locked the door so the flat wouldn't get too cold since you knew she doesn't like that.

"Yeah. Right. Do you even know that locking your door doesn't help with the temperature at all? You only have to close it, dummy. Physics aren't your thing, are they?" - She mumbled and turned around to walk back to the living room, eating on the ice-cream. Her brain started working and thinking about the mysterious rose in your room. When you locked the door again, you walked to the door to close it a bit, and afterward, you rose your blanket which was hiding the boy.

"Momma Capulet is gone now, Romeo. You can come out." - You whispered, stepping away from him. You saw him looking at the door, licking his lips.

"I will have to take you out on some balcony, then." - Speedy answered, walking to the window. You seemed to be surprised to see him leaving, but he was pretty scared of MJ. - "Since, you know, you're calling me Romeo and stuff."

"What’s the matter? She hadn't seen anything, calm down." - You mumbled and closed the window just when he was reaching out to it. - "You think you're going, don't you? But there weren't any criminals misbehaving or Avengers searching for their youngest addition, so no, I don't think you're leaving."

"Miss, this is considered threatening personal space and kinda holding me as a hostage. And I know you know that I can file a lawsuit at you for that." - Spidey tried to resist, but that was when you pushed him down onto the bed. And Peter just knew that at that moment, he won't be leaving no matter what.

"Oh, you won't do a thing about that, boy." - You said confidently, leaning yourself down to sit on his lap, smiling into his face. The tone of music shifted drastically, as Tame Impala came in with his seductive base guitar.

"You seem to be sure." - The boy remarked as you hugged his outer thighs with your inner ones, leaning your lovely bottom into his knees. You moved your hair away, biting your lip while you looked down on him. When your thumb rested on the top of his chin again, he felt a bit like a little kid whos getting a lecture. Just before you finally kissed him again, he felt a gentle whisper on his lips.

"Watch and learn, boy." - That was the only smart remark you had before getting full silence from that boy. Peter couldn't get enough of your lips, those were just the fact. But there also were the small things like your grip on one of his shoulders, small whimpers before you leaned before another kiss and occasional smiles every time he opened up his eyes.

"Are you fine with this?" - You asked suddenly, making Peter look at you as he slowly tuned back into reality. He looked at you, panting, hearing the song slowly fading away, tuning Jawny’s Honeypie.

"Why? Do I look like I'm running away?" - He joked back and your eyes traveled to his hands just laying around his body. Oh, OH. Peter was just so taken by you kissing him that he forgot to touch you. That was normal for him. He was taken away by you all the time.

"I mean, do you like... Want to dance or will you participate in this activity as well? You know, I don't know if someone told you, but because you're single you might not know that... There are two people when they're making out." - You said courageously, biting your lips as you tried not to laugh. Peter closed his eyes at this and laughed out loud as well. Just seconds after, you almost let a scream out when you were thrown onto your pillows like a sack of potatoes.

"Does this count as me participating enough or what do you want me to do exactly?" - He shot back in the same tone, feeling your palms gently circling his waist again. He leaned into the bed with one of his elbows, holding your face with the other one. The song in the background was playful as well, which made him hum the tune.

"I'm quite fine with this situation going on, Gonzales." - You nodded, rising your knee to meet his hips, laughing when his lips blew air into your neck, making loud farting before he pushed you a bit closer to bring you in for another kiss. MJ intervening was long forgotten as you lost the track of the time or of what was even going on.

"Will you stay to watch a movie or you're in a rush?" - You mumbled sleepily, just having your head leaned into the funny feeling spandex, listening to his heartbeat. He was keeping you closer, having an arm over your shoulder.

"What about you'll play something and I’ll stay until you fall asleep? Hm?" - He hummed back, kissing the top of your head. For a good portion of your fourth date, you were just making out - and even if Peter knew that he won't fall asleep for a pretty long time, he could understand that you're tired. Especially when the weather was crazy outside.

You nodded, playing the first thing you found on Netflix, sniggling under the warm blanket. It felt quite nice to feel someone pressed to your back, having their hand on your waist. You fell dead asleep rather quickly, snorting lightly after just ten minutes. When Peter poked your waist and you haven't moved an inch, he slowly took the mask off, finally looking at you with his eyes only.

He knew that Karen kept on recording everything he saw, that was why could simply rewatch the two hours of you making out, but there was some intimacy about looking at you in the dark room. His face slowly leaned in until his forehead rested on your shoulder as he took a few long, deep breaths.

This maybe was beautiful and much more, but he just wanted to be Peter with you. Oh Lord, he wished you to kiss him with such an eagerness every single morning. Or he could tickle you until you'd woke up in the morning. And... With that, it hit him.

Another realization. And he just knew that he doesn't only has a huge crush on you. He felt that small impulse - as if something inside of him clicked. That feeling everyone told him about. That something which made you wanna do stuff with someone else. Not just kiss them or snuggle them. But stuff, like... Adult stuff.

How he was about to survive all of that? He didn't know. Peter just hoped that you might be able to love Peter as much as you felt affectionate toward Speedy Gonzales.

#peter parker #Peter parker x reader #peter parker imagine #peter parker mcu #michelle jones mcu #michelle MJ jones #mj mcu #ned leeds mcu #ned leeds #betty brant #betty brant mcu #marvel #spider-man #Spider-Man x reader #Spider-Man mcu

29 notes · View notes

eviesmyspiritanimal · 4 years ago

Text

Free Space

Summary: Carlos helps Jane through her mother ignoring her, and Jane finds that it’s quite nice to have someone who unconditionally listens to her. Shameless Jarlos fluff.

Jane headed down the sidewalk, sighing deeply as she couldn’t quite shake the feeling of sadness that seemed to pervade her every sense. She was headed to the coffee shop that her and Carlos were supposed to meet at for their date today, but her previous excitement for this occasion was significantly dampened by recent happenings.

It was actually an ongoing saga of events that continued to happen.

And it was all surrounding her mother.

Of course, Jane loved her mother, but Fairy Godmother, despite her seemingly perfect ways, could sometimes be severely frustrating in her way of getting caught up in things and ignoring or forgetting what was most important in life.

Like Jane.

And when it happened, no matter how used to it that Jane was, it still hurt the girl’s feelings terribly. And she knew her mother didn’t mean to, but that didn’t particularly make her feel any better. She just wished that Fairy Godmother would remember her own daughter a little more often.

Before she could contemplate this much longer, she had arrived at the coffee shop where she knew Carlos was sitting inside waiting. She took a deep breath, trying to compose herself so that she could hide most of her unhappiness.

She then pushed the door and walked inside. She looked around the shop, and before long, she spotted Carlos sitting at a table and waving to her. She couldn’t help but smile at him despite her feelings. He always did manage to cheer her up even when she felt terrible.

Jane headed over to join him, and before she could pull her chair out, he hopped out of his own quickly.

“Here, let me!” Carlos eagerly told her before freezing and staring at her with wide eyes as he realized how loud that came out. Jane just giggled in reply to him.

“I mean, uh… May I?” Carlos questioned, and Jane easily nodded, giving him permission. The smile returned to his face as he headed to her side of the table and pulled out her chair. She sat down carefully, and he pushed her chair in before returning to his seat.

“Thank you,” Jane expressed, and he nodded happily. However, after a moment, he looked at her somewhat strangely, narrowing his eyes. She just smiled in return, hoping to maybe throw him off track as Audrey so often discussed doing with boys.

Immediately, he returned her expression and started conversation. Jane couldn’t help but feel a small hint of confidence. She must have thrown him off. After all, she was taught by the best.

But she did feel just a bit bad for it. She hated deceiving him, but she didn’t want to upset him or make their date anything but wonderful.

“Did you get here okay?” he asked, and she nodded.

“Yeah. It’s only a little ways away from me and Mom’s place, so it wasn’t too far of a walk,” Jane returned, trying to muster some of her usual happiness that she ordinarily had when she addressed him.

“I can’t wait to be sixteen. I’ll get a real driver’s license instead of this stupid learner’s permit, and then I can pick you up and take you to our dates,” Carlos explained before stopping and looking at her somewhat shyly.

“Well… If that’s what you want, I mean…”

“Oh, yeah, it’d be wonderful to be picked up,” Jane assured him, trying to make him feel a bit better. However, she still sounded somewhat unhappy, despite her best efforts, and he looked at her strangely.

“Hey… Are you okay?” the boy asked, and Jane forced a smile, hoping her trick would work once again and that Audrey’s sound advice wouldn’t let her down.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Why?” Jane questioned, and Carlos furrowed his brow. Apparently, Audrey’s method didn’t work for Jane so well.

“Are you sure? You seem kind of strange,” Carlos expressed, before shaking his head at realizing how bad that sounded.

“No, not strange! Like weird. Wait, that sounds bad! Not weird! I meant--- oh, goodness… You seem different! Upset!” Carlos clarified, stumbling over himself, and Jane smiled softly at the boy’s diligent efforts.

After a moment, she sighed deeply, looking down. She knew she had to tell him. It wasn’t that she thought he wouldn’t understand. It was more that she just didn’t want to bother him with the problem.

But, alas, the time had come to spill her guts.

“There is something,” Jane finally admitted, and Carlos stopped in his awkwardness as he stared at her. Before she knew it, he had reached across the table, his palms open as he offered his hands.

She wasted no time in taking them, treasuring the tender gesture as he gazed at her sweetly.

“Tell me,” he gently commanded, and she shifted her gaze to meet his own. He suddenly looked a bit shy, and he added, “If you want to, of course.”

“It’s really nothing,” Jane attempted to dismiss as she reengaged her staring contest with the table. He craned his neck down to try to meet her gaze, and she glanced up at him.

“Well, it’s bothering you, so it must be something,” Carlos chuckled a bit, allowing a trace of one of those humongous grins of his to tug at the corners of his lips. She felt her heart swell with affection for the boy and he just grinned somewhat lopsidedly at her.

“And anything that’s bothering you, I definitely want to hear about,” Carlos continued, and she brought her gaze back to him swiftly. He was openly volunteering to listen to her, and he seemed to truly want to. And with the way he was looking at her, it was as if she were the only person in the room.

Which was a nice change from her and her mother’s situation.

“Well… Are you sure? I don’t want to ruin our date or anything,” Jane warned carefully, giving him a chance to back out if he wanted. He nodded without hesitation, and she felt her heart swell with affection toward him.

“Absolutely one hundred percent sure. You could never ruin our date,” Carlos resolutely told her, and Jane felt a smile tugging the corners of her lips despite her upset feelings surrounding the situation with her mother.

“Okay… I was talking to Mom this morning. Well… More like trying to,” Jane somewhat wryly added, swallowing a bit as she allowed a slightly unhappy look onto her face.

“But I was halfway into telling her all about my problems with math in school, and then she all of a sudden tells me I’m going to have to wait because Mulan was calling for some reason or another. And she never answers the phone when somebody like Mal or Ben or Adam or Belle are talking,” Jane retold the story, telling her side of the encounter, and Carlos nodded in reply.

“I mean, I know they’re the royal family and stuff, but,” Jane trailed off, finding herself somewhat hesitant to continue.

“I guess I just thought that maybe… Maybe she’d wait to answer the phone for me, too,” Jane somewhat sadly expressed, and Carlos squeezed her hands reassuringly. Jane looked at him gratefully before continuing.

“I mean, I am her daughter, so I just thought…? I don’t know,” Jane shook her head, trying to find the words, and she couldn’t help but feel bad for dumping this off on Carlos. However, he did specifically ask for it. But he also didn’t know exactly what he was getting into.

“Mom’s just so busy all the time with everything, and I know she has a very important job and she has to take care of things!” Jane informed him, almost sounding as if she had recited this exact line over and over. Of course, she had. It was actually the words that had been ingrained in her mind since she was a little girl.

“But sometimes… Well… Sometimes, I just… I feel kind of ignored? I don’t know. It’s silly, but---”

“No, no, no, it’s not silly! Not at all! I actually kind of get it,” Carlos interrupted with that adorable crooked grin as he squeezed her hands in his own gently. Jane softly smiled, feeling her heart swell a bit with his expression.

“My mom--- who was definitely and obviously not nearly as amazing as yours is usually!” Carlos quickly clarified, and Jane giggled a bit, the boy’s efforts already starting to make her feel a bit better.

“My mom usually didn’t listen to pretty much anything I had to say, and it’s pretty frustrating when you feel like nobody’s listening,” Carlos explained further, and Jane nodded understandingly.

“Yeah… It’s like, ‘My thoughts are valid, too, you know?’” Jane admitted, and Carlos nodded, his warm brown eyes boring into her own baby blue ones.

“Definitely. Like just because we’re quiet or whatever doesn’t mean we don’t have an opinion or important things to say,” Carlos added, and Jane smiled at him, feeling her heart flutter.

“Yeah,” Jane quietly agreed, marveling in the wonder that was this boy before her. He truly was amazing. He was so incredibly understanding and so amazingly sweet to her. He never made her feel bad about her feelings or about her thoughts, and he was always there to listen to her. Carlos was just perfect.

“It’s so nice to have somebody to talk to that’s on the same page,” Jane expressed after a moment of silence. In response, Carlos’s features shifted to something that was almost unidentifiable. However, it wasn’t uncomfortable in the least. It actually made her feel something strange and almost gooey inside.

It was a bit of a scary feeling, but she found she kind of liked it. And Jane had felt a lot of scary feelings before. But this one was different from the rest.

“I’m so glad I can talk to you about this stuff,” Jane told him sweetly, only a bit embarrassed with herself.

“Hey, this is free space,” Carlos expressed with a shrug accentuating his words, and Jane furrowed her brow slightly, looking at him with some confusion.

“What?” she asked, gazing at him curiously. He laughed a bit, looking down at their joined hands on the table before looking back up at her.

“Free space. That’s what me, Jay, Evie, and Mal call it when we’re together by ourselves and we’ve got something to say. It’s free space to say how you feel and for nobody to judge and everybody to listen,” Carlos explained himself, and she grinned, finding herself once again pleasantly surprised as a result of his astounding compassion and kindness that he seemed to have in overwhelming abundance.

“I like that,” Jane replied, and Carlos smiled sweetly. She felt her heart skip a beat as he gently ran his thumbs over her hands gently.

She had truly never met a boy with such a big heart and that was so willing to stop everything and listen to her. Of course, she had never dated anyone before, and she was basing her experience with boys upon her dealings with her male friends like Ben. But even Ben didn’t listen to her like Carlos did.

It was just such a nice difference from what she was used to.

“Y’know, I really like you a lot,” Jane expressed, barely holding herself back from saying what she truly felt underneath. She was worried that she might scare him off if she used the other l-word at this moment. Of course, she also wasn’t sure he felt as strongly as she did.

“I like you a lot, too,” Carlos reciprocated, and if the look on his face was anything to go by, she might could assume that he might even feel the l-word toward her as she did toward him.

But it would all be discovered in due time. Right now, they were just a boy and a girl grinning dopily at one another in a world all of their own.

18 notes · View notes

iliketowrite1996 · 5 years ago

Text

Blind Dates part 1 sneak peek

Sneak Peek Part 5/10 of Steve Rogers x Reader saga.

Part 1:https://iliketowrite1996.tumblr.com/post/614617294578089984/his-best-girl

Part 2: https://iliketowrite1996.tumblr.com/post/614969499334197248/meet-the-music-teacher

Part 3: https://iliketowrite1996.tumblr.com/post/616114724817584128/lunch-buddies

Part 4:https://iliketowrite1996.tumblr.com/post/616328582794493952/why-not

TRIGGER WARNINGS AND THEMES- Blind dates, mentions of loved ones dying, angst, mention of death of parent

‘’No, DeShawn. You are not going to see any robot butlers.’’

‘’But he is Tony Stark. He should have robot butlers!’’

Steve sighs and shakes his head good naturedly as he and the children wait for Pepper or Tony to come open the door.

It’s Saturday evening, around 5 o’clock, and Steve, Jasmine and DeShawn have arrived at Tony Stark’s place or dinner while Deshawn’s mother goes on her date.

‘’Well, now that you mention it, I do have the blueprints for one of those in my lab.’’

The trio turn to see none other than Tony himself behind them, carrying a bag of groceries, with Peter Parker trailing behind him.

‘’Y-you’re Tony Stark,’’ DeShawn gapes.

Steve and Jasmine exchange a look and a smirk, knowing that DeShawn is meeting one of his personal heroes.

‘’Tony, good to see you. This is DeShawn. He’s spending the day with us while his mom goes on her date,’’ Steve explains as Tony shifts the bag to shake DeShawn’s hand.

‘’It’s nice to meet you, DeShawn. This is my intern, Peter Parker,’’ Tony introduces the teenage boy, who waves.

‘’Nice to meet you, DeShawn. Mr. Rogers, Jazzy, always good to see you. Jasmine, you’re wearing the new sweater you told me about.’’

‘’Mhm!,’’ Jasmine beams, examining the red and blue knit sweater beneath ehr open jacket.

‘’Awesome, we almost match,’’ Peter points to his red and blue sweatshirt.

‘’Oh,’’ DeShawn narrows his eyes a bit, ‘’So you’re Peter.’’

‘’Yes, Peter is my tutor,’’ Jasmine looks at DeShawn pointedly, silently reminding him about his agreement not to spoil the fact that she has a crush on Peter.

As if Peter doesn’t already know.

‘’I hope you don’t mind the extra house guest,’’ Steve speaks up as Tony moves past them to get to his door, unlocking it.

‘’Not at all. Pepper’s on her way. And we’ll get dinner started then. I just had to run to the store, and Peter tagged along. Besides, my goddaughter will be joining us,’’ Tony insists as they enter the house.

‘’Ah, so this was your plan to set me up.’’

‘’Can’t set you up if it’s just a friendly dinner gathering,’’ Tony shrugs, the others following him to the kitchen, ‘’Jazzy and DeShawn, would you mind setting the table? Peter, can you go get the sodas out of the garage?’’

‘’Sure thing, Mr. Stark,’’ Peter shrugs, taking the key to unlock the garage.

‘’Okay, Uncle Tony. Come on, DeShawn, I’ll show you where the silverware and plates are.’’

When Tony and Steve are left alone, Steve turns to Tony.

‘’You could have confirmed that she’ll be here tonight.’’

‘’I told you she was. You're just getting nervous. Suck it up, buttercup.’’

‘’Now you know who you sound like,’’ Steve chuckles,fondly removing Petra’s catch phrase.

‘’I know,’’ Tony grins gently, ‘’Listen. Are you really okay with me setting you up? Because if not, we can always-’’

‘’No, no. I’m fine. I... I’m ready to try again. My date Thursday was awful, but that doesn’t mean that this should be, too. Jazzy understands. I actually think she’s more for me dating than I even am. But she’s a prime factor in this, you know?’’

‘’I understand. Listen, Sharon is great with kids. I really think you’ll like her.’’

‘’I don’t make promises, but I’ll try. For Jazzy’s sake at least.’’

And Steve Rogers is a man of his word.

‘’Good. Now, let’s say we get dinner started so we actually don’t have to wait an hour after they get here to eat.’’

‘’That should be Pepper and Sharon now. She picked her up from work today,’’ Tony speaks as he places the last of the dinner on the table.

It’s quite a spread- spaghetti and meatballs (with vegetarian sauce for DeShawn), garlic bread, salad. Wine for the adults, soda for the kids, water for everybody.

‘’Can I get the door, Uncle Tony,’’ Jasmine questions, springing to the front door when he nods.

From where they are, Steve can hear her scream, ‘’Hi, Auntie Pepper!.’’

‘’Hey, honey! Where’s everybody at?’’

‘’In the dining room. DeShawn is here. It’s gonna freak him out seeing you outside of school, ‘’ Jasmine says, causing Steve, Tony and Peter to laugh as DeShawn face palms.

‘’Every day,’’ he sighs, shaking his head, reminding Steve of Bucky’s reactions to him when they were kids.

Speaking of which, Jasmine’s been begging to see her uncle and aunt. He really should set up a day.

‘’Hello, everyone,’’ Pepper enters, ‘’Sharon’s taking off her shoes.’’

‘’Tell her she doesn’t have to do that,’’ Tony rolls his eyes, ‘’Nobody else does.’’

‘’Now, Tony. You know Aunt Peggy literally taught both of us better than that.’’

Steve looks away from where DeShawn and Jasmine are thumb wrestling over who gets to have the biggest slice of cake to see a very familiar face.

‘’Hey you live across the hall from us,’’ he grins, glad to the woman who helped get into his apartment while he carried his sleeping daughter.

‘’You two know each other’’ Tony states.

‘’We do. Well, we met very briefly. He lives across the hall from me,’’ Sharon looks to Steve, ‘’It’s nice to meet you.’’

‘’Well, ten, introduce yourselves,’’ Tony gently nudges Steve towards the woman, who sticks out her hand as the other guests take their seats.

‘’I’m Sharon Carter.’’

‘’Steve Rogers,’’ Steve nods towards his daughter, ‘’That’s Jasmine Allen-Rogers, my daughter. And her best friend DeShawn.’’

‘’Hello. Peter, always a pleasure to see you,’’ Sharon sits across from Steve and Jasmine.

After hands are washed , prayers are said and drinks are poured, dinner conversation flows freely. Jasmine talks to Peter and DeShawn, Tony and Pepper converse amongst themselves, so Sharon and Steve are left speaking to each other.

‘’So, what do you do exactly,’’ Steve questions, handing her the bread basket.

‘’I’m a nurse,’’ Sharon informs him before thanking him, ‘’For the last seven years, eight in December. Tony tells me you’re a teacher.’’

‘’Yes, for over ten years now,’’ Steve speaks up, beginning to twirl some pasta on his fork, ‘’I started there about a year before Jazzy was born.’’

‘’And it is so nice to meet the infamous Jazzy,’’ Sharon grins brightly at the ten-year-old, ‘’Tony talks about you a lot.’’

‘’Uncle Tony says I’m his favorite ten-year-old,’’ Jasmine smiles.

‘’Tony says that you are very, very smart,’’ Sharon supplies, causing Steve to beam with pride as Jasmine thanks both Tony and Sharon.

‘’So you had to work today,’’ Steve questions, ‘’I mean, you obviously did. I guess I’m asking how work went.’’

‘’Well, I work as a nurse, so… there’s never a boring day. I imagine that I can say the same for you as a teacher?’’

‘’You could,’’ Steve agrees wholeheartedly, ‘’There never is a dull moment. What made you decide to become a nurse?’’

Dinner continues with pleasant conversation and laughter. As dessert is being cut by Pepper, Sharon and Steve clear the table.

‘’Your daughter is beautiful. So smart and funny, too,’’ Sharon tells Steve as they place the dinner dishes in Tony’s sink.

‘’Thank you so much, I appreciate it.’’

‘’Is DeShawn your son?’’

‘’’Oh, no, but his mother is a good friend of mine. I’m watching DeShawn while his mother is out for the evening,’’ Steve runs hot water to make dish water, ‘’Normally Jazzy would still be with her aunt- she spends the night over there on Friday’s and comes back on Saturday. But I have her today because, well, she wasn’t going to miss a chance to see Peter. And she just really wanted to spend time with me.’’

‘’You seem like a good dad,’’ Sharon nods understandingly, ‘’It’s clear that you two adore each other.’’

‘’She’s the apple of my eye,’’ Steve runs a hand over his head, ‘’And... you now , being her only parent…’’

‘’Tony told me about your wife. If you ever need to talk, we can,’’ Sharon gently touches Steve’s hand, ‘’Listen, I know what Tony is trying to do. I don't want you to feel pressured. I know that you think about Jasmine first.’’

Sharon is the first woman that has encouraged putting Jasmine first, and encourages him to do so. She’s smart, she’s kind, she’s beautiful.

And maybe that’s why Steve finds himself driving DeShawn and Jasmine back to his apartment with a smile on his face, excited for his date with Ms. Sharon Carter next Friday.

The next week comes, and everything goes normally. Steve makes sure that Jasmine practices for the fall concert next week, and Peter comes to tutor her on Monday and Wednesday. She gets a D on her next math test, and it's a small improvement, but Steve knows she’ll do better.

He continues to spend time with you, balancing a friendly work relationship while also trying to choke back his ever-growing attraction to you.

Friday, Steve finds himself closing the door to his car that he oh so rarely uses, going around to the other side so that he can drive to the restatuent.

‘’You look beautiful,’’ Steve tells her, glancing sideways at the long sleeved, black dress that Sharon’s waiting for in the evening.

‘’Thank you. You look very handsome,’’ Sharon chuckles, ‘’Stop being so generous, Steve.’’

‘’I just haven’t been on a date in a while that hasn’t had me regretting agreeing within the first fifteen minutes..’’

‘’Well, it’s only been about 9 and a half ,itunes, so let’s just see where this night takes us.’’

Steve laughs- genuinely laughs- at this, and, for the first time, he’s not so worried about what will happen next.

The two arrive at the restaurant, and it’s nice. Steve got the recommendation for Tony, who is friends with the chef. Now that they’re sitting at the table, Steve is lookingat the prices…

And he’s ever so grateful for the $20 that he knows Tony tried to surreptitiously slip into his wallet last weekend.

‘’So, how was your week,’’ Sharon ask later after they’ve ordered and their water is being delivered, ‘’Thank you.’’

‘’Thank you. Uh, it went well. I mean, Jasmine’s not allowed to go to glee practice until she brings her grades up. And that’s harsh, I guess, but grades are more important and it will motivate her, I hope.’’

‘’She might not appreciate it now, but she will one day. My parents were hard on me,and look how well I turn out,’’ Sharon exaggeratedly flips her hair.

‘’You are pretty great,’’ Steve takes her hand, squeezing gently, ‘’I am so glad that you agreed to go out with me this evening.’’

‘’How could I say ‘no’ to those eyes,’’ Sharon smirks, watching Steve’s face turn pink.

‘’Don’t do that.’’

‘’Why? It’s cute,’’ Sharon shrugs, and teve laughs nervously.

‘’Sorry. I’m trying here,’’Steve fixes huis collar, ‘’I haven’t really liked someone this much in a while.’’

Well, okay, that’s a lie. But, as you made it clear in your conversation this week, you're busy.

And why chase after something with you that doesn’t exist?

‘’And you’re doing well. Just relax, Steve. It’s fine,’’ Sharon gently takes his hand once more, rubbing her thumb along the back of it.

Steve does this, too…

Even if only for a minute, Steve relaxes and allows himself to enjoy his date.

But it’s the first time that he’s done that in over ten years.

And maybe it’s just what he needs.

‘’I had a great time tonight, Steve,’’ Sharon remarks as she leans against her doorway.

‘’I did, too. Would you… Do you want to maybe go out next Friday?’’

‘’I would, but my friend asked me to go with him to the Fireman’s Ball. Saturday?’’

‘’Jazzy’s recital is then and I promised I’d take her out to eat afterwards. Sunday?’’

‘’I work a double shift. Listen… I usually go to my aunt Peggy’s for Sunday dinner but she’s visiting her grandkids. How about you and Jasmine come over for dinner?’’

‘’I think he’d like that. Sounds like a plan. Well, good night,’’ Steve offers a hand for her to shake.

‘’Good night, Steve,’’ sharon smiles a bit disappointedly, half expecting a goodnight kiss.

‘’Sharon, is it alright if I kiss you?’’

So Steve leans in, Sharon’s eyes close, and…

He kisses her on the cheek.

And he doesn't know why, because He had every intention of kissing her on the lips. But he didn’t.

‘’I’m sorry, I-’’

‘’Don’t apologize, Steve. We can… if you decide that you’re interested, let’s take it slow. But for now, we can be just friends.’’

‘’Just friends. Thank you. Oh, uh, a better get into my apartment. Jazzy’s plans for the weekend fell through so I had to find a babysitter. I’ll see you on Sunday for dinner.’’

‘’See you Sunday, Steve. Good night.’’

‘’Good night.’’

And, after calling to check on Jasmine, changing into pajamas, grading some art, brushing his teeth and heading to bed…

Steve decides that it is.

@ashanti-notthesinger @destinio1 @afraiddreamingandloving @airis-paris14 @syreanne @chaneajoyyy @90sinspiredgirl @shemiahsmelanin @zillmonger @skysynclair19 @marvelpotterlove @constantlycravingtheunknown @imaginewhoever @wakanda-inspired @pocmarvelworks @theunsweetenedtruth @dreampovx @adrioola21 @supremethunda @thisiskayesworld @mcusocialimagines @priya212 @kumkaniudaku @airis-paris14 @alexundefined @fonville-designs @dramaqueenamby @mellowjellow6 @oceanscorazon @nerd-lovely @fonville-designs @akimi-youngblood @yoyolovesbucky @fd-writes @areubeingserved-too @areubeingserved

#steve rogers x reader #black reader #black reader insert #singledad!steverogers #single dad steve rogers fic #single dad steve rogers #steve rogers x black reader #reader insert #fanfic #series

4 notes · View notes

aly-kazam · 5 years ago

Note

Because never anywhere did it say I could only ask once! Lol Top 5 books! 📚😘

Okay, I see how it is. This is punishment for giving you that Top 5 Ghibli challenge. Alright then. Well… fuck…this is going to…/sigh be impossible.

Alright, so I’m going to count a series as a book in itself, delivered in parts. (Like Lord of the Rings) My rules for this are that to count as a series and thus be able to count as a book, it must be 3 or more books. Don’t argue with my book logic. Anyway, here goes:

1. Well, first off, Harry Potter because, duh. Those books… it is not an exaggeration to say that they saved my life. I found this series around the time my uncle passed away. I cannot even begin to convey the depth of my family’s despair. All I could do for the week we spent in mourning was to attempt to escape the grief by reading. I clung to Harry Potter and Hogwarts and the sure presence of Dumbledore like to a life raft. In the years that followed, whenever something went wrong, whenever I got my heart broken, whenever things got to be too much, I had Hogwarts and Harry Potter and Dumbledore and the Golden Trio. To this day, those books and that world are my refuge when I struggle with my depression and anxiety.

2. Song of the Lioness by Tamora Pierce. This woman is one of the best lesser-known writers out there. I was 11 years old when I found this. The main character, who had the same name as me, disguises herself as a boy in order to become a knight. She is utterly fearless and never gives up. I’d never had a hero like this, a girl who I could look up to. Funny thing is, it wasn’t until many years later that I was talking to my parents about how they came up with my name. My dad admits he ‘saw it somewhere’, ‘a bookstore probably’ (because he was and still is as much of a book nerd as me). The books were originally released almost exactly a year before I was born. So… it’s a good chance I was named after a character who would become my hero 11 years after the fact. The odds. The chances. I told this story on a Tamora Pierce group on Facebook and Tamora herself commented on it. My life felt as though it had come full circle and I could die happy.

3. The Old Kingdom Saga by Garth Nix. A fantasy-horror series of novels. There was a part in the first book that had me flopping back onto my bed, gasping for breath, my heart racing. The reason I love this series is the world-building. Garth builds such a rich world and he never makes you feel like you’re getting an ‘info dump’. You learn about the world as the main protagonist does, a-la Harry Potter by JK Rowling. He doesn’t wax on about the history of a place that will have no bearing whatsoever on the story (*cough cough* Tolkien! *cough* excuse me) Anyway, the best part is that there is a character, a cat who talks called Mogget. From the first moment I read that character, I imagined a specific voice for him. Tim Curry. Years later, when I discovered books on audio, I found out who narrated the series. That’s right. Tim. Fucking. Curry! I highly recommend getting the audio of the series because it’s just amazing. Unfortunately, he did not narrate the final two books as, by the time they were released (11-year gap, people! George R. Martin fans can suck it) Tim had had a stroke and could no longer narrate.

4. As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes. An autobiographical ‘account and behind-the-scenes look at the making of the cult classic film filled with never-before-told stories, exclusive photographs, and interviews with costars Robin Wright, Wallace Shawn, Billy Crystal, Christopher Guest, and Mandy Patinkin, as well as author and screenwriter William Goldman, producer Norman Lear, and director Rob Reiner.’ (Amazon) The Princess Bride is my favorite movie of all time and this book had so many little stories and wonderful anecdotes and behind the scenes information that just made it all the more rich in my mind. And in my heart. The chapter for Andre had me in tears, both from laughter and sorrow.

5. The Martian by Andy Weir. For anyone who hasn’t seen the movie, it’s about an astronaut who gets left behind on Mars when he’s thought to have died. So he has to find a way to survive. Most of the book is not just told in a first-person, journal-style narrative from the main character, but he’s also the only character for about 85% of the story. Not only that, but Andy shows you the math. He goes into detail about the science of it and it’s…not boring. This is another one where I was hooked by the very first sentence. “I’m pretty much fucked. That’s my considered opinion. Fucked.” I don’t know what it is about this story, maybe it’s the portrayal of hope for mankind's ability to come together. Maybe it’s the humor. Maybe it’s the nerdy science. I dunno, I just love it.

—————–

So, yeah, it’s mostly series books but I do prefer series rather than standalone books. I get very attached to characters and don’t like having to let go of them (case in point, my year-long devotion to Elu)

Thanks again for this, Rynnie, you demonic hell-beast. ^_^

#rynnie tag #you are evil #aly answers #ask game #top 5 lists

4 notes · View notes

towaniegaita · 5 years ago

Text

FAQs [Nozakibento, 16th October 2010]

Original post in Japanese

I collected together some of the questions I'm often asked.

Basic Information

Name: Nozakibento

Date of Birth: 28th April 1986 (Showa 61)

Height: 177.5cm (as of 2018)

Weight: approx. 60kg

Blood Type: A

Home prefecture: Hokkaido. I was born in Sapporo. I also lived in Tokachi and Kushiro.

Current location: Tokyo (I moved there from Hokkaido in the year I turned 30)

Occupation: A 33 year old amateur idol

Hairstyle: I used to wear a wig, but now I mostly go for a messy style

Visual Acuity: Both eyes are around 1.5 without glasses

Characteristics: Nozakibento

Likes and Dislikes

Favourite food: Sliced senmai (boiled tripe), vegetables in general, meat in general (especially meat sashimi), seafood in general (especially octopus and oysters), anything cherry blossom flavoured, anything yuzu flavoured, rice, miso soup, soba, udon, niboshi ramen, yakuzen herbal soup, grated yam, tofu, shiokara, sushi, sashimi, seaweed, mochi, rice flour dumplings, wheat gluten cakes, keihan rice, oyster soy sauce, slow-boiled eggs, Indian curry from Tokachi, ice cream (especially citrus, mint chocolate, watermelon and vanilla flavours), hard gums, mini Ramune candy, agar jelly, almond tofu pudding, oroblanco

Least favourite food: None.

Favourite drinks: Tea in general, kale smoothie, scented but not sweetened sparkling water, vegetable juice, tomato juice, soba water, miso soup, dashi, non-alcoholic beer, ginger ale, black coffee

Favourite alcoholic drinks: Campari-based cocktails (especially Spumoni), Violet Fizz

Favourite animals: Daring crabs, spotted garden eels, owls, sea urchins when they eat cabbage

My type: Someone with a big heart, who isn't rude and doesn't complain all the time. Decisive, speaks logically and is a fast worker

Favourite scents: Bergamot, yuzu, oroblanco, lemongrass, lemon and lime, eucalyptus, vanilla, incense, hinoki cypress, the smell of hot springs, medicinal water, struck matches

Favourite sports: Table tennis, endurance running, non-competitive swimming, walking

Favourite instruments: When I listen to bands, I tend to focus on the drums, bass and keyboard. If I go to see a symphonic orchestral concert or something, I tend to watch the percussionists. I myself can't play any instruments.

Hobbies: Gaming, listening to game soundtracks, table tennis, reading, darts, being enveloped in aromas, checking my daily electricity bill using a bill management app

Special skills: Ability to work as a librarian, can sing The Tortoise And The Hare starting from different positions, a little bit of competitive eating (can eat up to about 2kg)

Qualifications: Librarian, teacher's licence (for primary, middle and high schools), certified member of the Sports Boy Scouts (link in Japanese), Kanji Aptitude Test Level 2, driving licence (for manual cars)

Person I most respect: My mother

Favourite subjects: Japanese (especially modern Japanese), contemporary society, ethics, politics and economics

Favourite season: The shade in midsummer

Favourite phrases:

80% Preparation 20% Performance (dandori hachibu)

The early bird gets the worm (sente hisshou)

Niche business (sukima sangyou)

Information, Communication, Discussion (houkoku renraku soudan)

Easier said than done (iu wa yasuku okonau wa katashi)

Haste makes waste (tanki wa sonki)

Drink if you want, but be swallowed up (sake wa nondemo nomareru na)

The frog in the well knows nothing of the great ocean (i no naka no kawazu taikai wo shirazu)

A picture is worth a thousand words (hyakubun wa ikken ni shikazu)

Stress-free

Favourite Japanese poem:

'If I live long,

I may look back with yearning for these painful days -

The world that now seems harsh

May then appear sweet and good!'

By Fujiwara no Kiyosuke, translation by Peter McMillan

Favourite place to hang out: Inside a game

Favourite characters: Domo-kun (NHK), Moji-kun (Kotoba no Puzzle: Mojipittan), Zushi Hokki (official mascot of Hokuto city in Hokkaido), Jack Frost (Megami Tensei series), Morgana (Persona 5)

Favourite anime: Eureka Seven

Favourite manga: Love Roma by Toyoda Minoru

I Wonder If I Can Make 100 Friends by Toyoda Minoru

Yoake no Toshokan by Nonou Tao

Other manga I like: Nangoku Shounen Papuwa-kun, PAPUWA, Final Request, Yu☆Yu☆Hakusho, Revelations: Persona, Mind Assassin, Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei, Arakawa Under The Bridge, Fushigi Yuugi, Ranma 1/2, Psychometrer EIJI, The Kindaichi Case Files, Rakudai Ninja Rantarou, Soul Hunter etc.

Favourite game: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers

Other games I like: Shin Megami Tensei 1-4, Shin Megami Tensei 4 Final, Shin Megami Tensei if, Persona 1-5, Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha 1 and 2, DIGITAL DEVIL SAGA Avatar Tuner 1 and 2, Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 1 and 2, Little Magic, Jake Hunter: Let Time Pass By, LIVE A LIVE, Final Fantasy 5 and 8, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem, Secret of Mana, Trials of Mana, Schoolhouse Horror Story, Banshee's Last Cry, Jungle Wars 2, Ranma 1/2: Hidden Treasure of the Red Cat Gang, Renegade, The New Hot-Blooded Tough Guy: The Eulogy of Kunio and Co., Puyo Puyo, Puyo Puyo 2, Saga Frontier, Monster Farm, Monster Farm 2, KOF98, SAMURAI SPIRITS, vib-ribbon, Clock Tower 2, Clock Tower Ghost Head, Maria: Kimitachi Ga Umareta Wake, Double Cast, Sakura Wars 2: Thou Shalt Not Die, Kotoba no Puzzle: Mojipittan, RPG Maker Series, etc. As for social network games, I like Kuroneko no Wiz Dx2 Shin Megami Tensei Revelation, and Ensemble Stars!

What I most want right now: Time

Do I smoke? Never. But I have nothing against those who do. I don't mind if someone smokes next to me.

Things I struggle with: Exercise, exercise, exercise, exercise, English, mental arithmetic, making other people cross.

What I like about myself: Large earlobes

What I don't like about myself: The fact that I easily neglect my work if I lose focus.

Do I like nurses? I like them if they're good at giving injections.

Favourite way of heating things up in a microwave: 2 minutes at 500W

Ideal way to spend a day off: Sleep like I've melted into the bed, do the cleaning and laundry when I wake up, play games like I'm bathing in them, sleep again.

Novels I’m glad to have read and why: There's a lot, so I'll just list what I can remember off the top of my head.

★ Criss Cross - Konton no Maou by Takahata Kyouichirou, published by MediaWorks. This was the very first book that made me interested in reading novels.

★ Natsu no Niwa - The Friends by Yumoto Kazumi, published by Shinchousha. When I felt down, I read this and my heart was cleansed.

★ Rirekisho by Nakamura Kou, published by Kawade Shobou Shinsha. Because it gave me courage.

★ Tsubasa wa Itsu Made Mo by Kawakami Ken'ichi, published by Shuueisha. I simply thought that it was a really good book, and reading it made me want to read more books like it in the future.

★ Tsumetai Kousha no Toki wa Tomaru by Tsujimura Mizuki, published by Kodansha. This was the book that reminded me that I wanted to keep reading novels forever.

NicoNicoDouga and Dance covers

When did you start using NicoNico? 2007, in the earliest days of the RC version.

What kind of videos do you watch on NicoNico? Anything.

Were you learning how to dance? I've never learnt how to dance.

Why did you start dancing? I wanted to take part in the first large-scale Cirno meeting. (T/N: An event where a whole bunch of people from NND get together to dance to Cirno's Perfect Math Class. Here's the 2009 version.)

What's the average production time for a single video? It varies.

What's been the most fun thing to dance to so far? Ren'ai Hunter

Which of your own dance videos are you most satisfied with? Domo-kun's dance to MERRY GO ROUND

Where you happy to be chosen in the Geiran videos (A series where a gay man ranked dancers on NND)? I was.

Which version is your current Domo-kun?

Hokkaido and Tokyo version: Tiramisu (Original version. Mainly stays at home. On active duty)

Osaka version: Chocolat (Retired)

Fukuoka version: Fondue (Retired)

Tokyo version: Belgium (Retired)

Tokyo version: Demel (Retired)

What kind of expressions do you make and what feelings do you have when dancing as Domo-kun or in the blue full bodysuit? None

What would happen to you if you drank a strange potion? I'd become aggressive.

Aren't you going to wear a wig anymore? I'd like to wear one again some time soon.

Other

Were you in any clubs during middle school? I was in the table tennis club for all 3 years. My high school club is a secret.

Do you have a girlfriend? It'd be annoying to have to update this page if I got a girlfriend or if we broke up so that's also a secret.

What are your dreams and goals? To make the people I love happy. I want to live in a way that I can look back when I die and think that I lived a good life.

What are your habits? Looking at the ingredients and nutrition facts labels on food. Looking at the ingredients labels on shampoo. Moving around unsteadily. Clicking my tongue without any thought behind it.

What are your typical phrases? Okay (ii yo), I see (naruhodo), Why?! (nande dayo), hahahaha, hah hah hah hah, HAHAHAHA

What are your main principles? To always live calmly, and to never miss an opportunity

Does your Roomba have a name? It's called Junpei.

When did you first meet Domo-kun? A friend gave me a Domo-kun plushie for my birthday and the rest is history.

What was it that drew you to Domo-kun? His loveliness.

Where did you get such a large number of plushies from? Some of them I bought, some of them I received. A few of them I got from a crane machine.

What do you want to do right now? Sleep.

What part time jobs have you done in your life? Waiter at a sushi restaurant, library work, private tutoring.

If you have a child in the future, what book would you absolutely want them to read? You Are Umasou by Miyanishi Tatsuya, published by Poplar

Do you have any rivals? No (because no-one will compete in the same ring as me).

What's your image of the ideal human? Someone who can do fundamental things reliably.

What's your motto? Stress-free

What's the reason for your name?

Nozaki → Named after Nozaki Megumi from the idol group CHECKICCO

Bento → My inspiration

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

First published 16th October 2010, updated 1st December 2019

#blog post #nozakibento #mesemoa #musumen #blog translation #16.10.2010 #1.12.2019 #if he changes this in the future I'll try to come back and update it

3 notes · View notes

doomedandstoned · 6 years ago

Text

OLDD WVRMS REVEAL ALL

~By Billy Goate~

OLDD WVRMS. It feels like they've been eating away at my flesh and swimming in my bloodstream for a very long time, so much so that I forget to talk about how they've infected me. I was halfway through a review of their last effort when life swept me away to other places, then it was already time for a new release from the Belgian band. No, scratch that -- two new releases!

This month, the doomed instrumentalists revealed a split with Liège devotional math-prog threesome Ilydaen, just months after the release of the February five-tracker 'Codex Tenebris' (2019 - Cursed Monk Records). That's now two long-plays, two extended-plays, a compilation album, and the aforementioned split to the band's name.

The Wave & The Swell ( Split LP ) by Ilydaen & Oldd Wvrms

OLDD WVRMS is a band that seems continually tinkering and experimenting. I mean, you really have to if you're going to cross the coveted five-year mark as a band, a milestone that seems to be key long-term viability. "There is the beautiful, spacious atmosphere of Agalloch," I wrote of their last record 'Ignobilis' (2016). "All this is good news if you long for the cold, crisp air of winter, forests filled with unspeakable darkness, whispering tales of bravery, misunderstanding, and tragedy. The emotion is especially palpable and will haunt my memory for quite some time."

Ignobilis by OLDD WVRMS

I also noted at the time that Ignobilis represented "a massive turn to clean singing over previous releases." In contrast, Codex Tenebris is a reconnects with works like 'Mater Serpentium' (2015) and NØT (2015), which are also sans voix. Stylistically, you’ll find OLDD WVRMS painting from a similar tonal palate as Enslaved, even dabbling in the technical terrain of Psycroptic, though in much slower compositions.

Codex Tenebris by OLDD WVRMS

OLDD WVRMS occupies the space between shadows, where slow, patient, penetrating riffs dwell and dark words are uttered. "La vallée des tombes" is one of the gems of the record, striking a strange balance between meditative bleakness and pounding discord. I’ve long been a fan of dissonant harmonies since I realized it was “okay” to play them as a pianist delving into the oeuvre of Franz Liszt and Alexander Scriabin. Like those composers, OLDD WVRMS utilizes dissonance no merely to jar the listener, but as a critical tactic for establishing bleak moods and a sense of the sinister. Codex Tenebris is available on Cursed Monk Records right here.

On the eve of their music video, "A l'or, aux ombres et aux abîmes," Doomed & Stoned visited with ØW guitarist and OLDD WVRMS founder Ben in hopes of getting to know this fairly low-key and mysterious doom metal trio -- rounded out by Oli and Cho on bass and drums -- just a hair or two better.

What is the meaning of the band’s name OLDD WVRMS? Is their significance to the unique spelling of your name?

It’s old Germanic to "Old Worms." There’s no particular meaning, although I’m a fan of the Dark Souls saga and it could be a reference to the primordial snakes.

I'm curious how your individual paths through life brought you three together?

We’re all from the French side of Belgium, down south. Cho and Oli have known each other for almost two decades. I was searching for bandmates to put up this new project and they were the perfect match. We all played in many bands before ØW, nothing worth naming.

There’re no guidelines. The music serves your imagination.

Why does instrumental doom appeal to you guys so much?

We tried several singers, with expectations they couldn’t achieve. It wasn’t bad, but we felt locked in restricted areas -- musically speaking, I mean. I took the mic on our previous release Ignobilis, singing just a bit, and even at that point we had the feeling that it wasn’t necessary at all, so we started writing the new album with a fully instrumental approach.

Rare is the band that can make instrumental metal stand convincingly on its own “two feet,” but OLDD WVRMS has done it. What would you say is the secret to pulling this style off successfully?

Thank you. Honestly, it’s hard to say. I guess it’s because we don’t hesitate too long on what’s good or not during the creation process. This and the fact that we blend a lot of influences from various horizons, seems to create something spontaneous. I think that’s what people like about ØW.

What instruments, amps, and gear do you find most useful in bringing your vision to life?

Cho’s setup is pretty straightforward: his beautiful DW kit with aggressive and shining cymbals -- and a ferocious need to beat the shit out of it!

Oli is using an Ampeg SVT 3 pro, SWR Goliath and Megoliath cabs with a Fender Aerodyne, plugged into a pedalboard loaded with many effects, drives, octaver, delays, reverbs, etcetera, to achieve the drones parts.

I use a Marshall JCM 800 over modified by Ruthenberg, Marshall and Orange cabs, custom guitars by Denzo Custom Guitars, and a pedalboard loaded with overdrives, delays, and reverbs.

We record in my own studio, The Pale Flame, using the exact same rig live and studio.

I don’t read French, but I’m guessing the song titles are quite important in this selection of five tracks. Can you translate them to English and tell us what you intended to express with each song? Are they meant to stand independently or are they united by a concept?

Basically, all the songs originally had lyrics -- and yes, they’re all linked, almost as a soundtrack. The atmosphere we wanted to translate through the songs titles were way more powerful in French, with a little something more poetic and dramatic.

The only concept about Codex Tenebris is the presence and absence of light and obscurity. The idea that the audience is not guided by lyrics and can travel between the songs with their own imagination and create their own stories while listening to our music is extremely satisfying. There’re no guidelines. The music serves your imagination.

So, the first track "Ténèbres" means "Darkness." It starts the record in a cold, dark place, and song expresses loneliness and fear.

Second track, "A l’or, aux ombres et aux abîmes," means "To gold, to shades, and to the abysses." It’s my personal favorite, all about deception, anger, and melancholy.

The third one is "misère & Corde," literally "Misery & Rope" -- a song about grief and loss.

Next one, "La vallée des tombes" or "The valley of tombs," is a psychoactive and hypnotic song about terror and despair.

"Fléau est son âme" is hard to translate, but it would be something like "scourged is his soul." It is about letting things go, acceptance, and abnegation.

We briefly corresponded about your EP a few years ago, when I emailed you about a sample you’d selected for the final track. I heard another sample in the final track of the latest LP that intrigued me.

It’s an Egyptian monologue taken from the movie Angel of Mossad, and it’s in correlation with "Fléau est son âme." It’s the story of The Boy Who Cried Wolf. The narration is beautiful.

What's the area of Belgium like where you OLDD WVRMS calls home?

We all live in villages -- small villages. Everything is very quiet and calm. Nothing ever happens. (laughs) Sorry, there’s just nothing much to say about it.

No worries! I've lived in my share of small towns, too, so I get it. What are some of the bands that you play with in your heavy music scene?

We shared the stage with badass bands like Hangman’s Chair, Primitive Man, -16-, Jucifer, the body, Grime, Ortega, and more -- hopefully many more to come.

When you look into your crystal ball, do you envision yourself touring?

Yeah, we’d love to. Like everyone else, we have jobs and families, but touring once or twice a year during a few choice weeks would be awesome. Only time will tell if this will happens.

Finally, what would your ideal live performance look like, if you could spare no expense?

Small venues, crowed, with our light man Chouffe and a good sound engineer. You know, keep things simple.

Follow The Band

Get Their Music

#D&S Reviews #D&S Interviews #OLDD WVRMS #Tenneville #Belgium #Doom #Progressive #Instrumental #Metal #Doom Metal #Cursed Monk Records #Doomed & Stoned

13 notes · View notes

lostinpagesblog · 5 years ago

Text

Hello, everyone! Today seemed like a good day to do a tag, and I found this one that looked like fun!

Shout out to The Book Nut for their post inspiration!

1. Do you get sick while reading in the car?

Yes, incredibly so. It’s very frustrating because I wish I could, I love road trips and reading. I could get so much read during long car rides, ugh.

2. Which author’s writing style is completely unique to you and why?

I’d say Victoria Schwab/V.E. Schwab’s writing is unique to me because in my opinion, it’s one of the best writing styles out there. She’s insanely talented at descriptions without overdoing it and crafting multidimensional characters that you fall in love with. I wish I could write half as well as she does.

3. Harry Potter Series or the Twilight Saga? Give 3 points to defend your answer.

Harry Potter even though the Twilight books hold a special place in my heart. I grew up on Harry Potter, my entire childhood basically revolved around it. I had themed birthday parties, I reread the books every year, I went to midnight showings of the movies, etc. Harry Potter is timeless, it has magic, and I will one day go to the theme park.

4. Do you carry a book bag? If so, what is it in (besides books…)?

I don’t really carry a book bag anymore. I’ve tried to downsize my purse because my shoulders would hurt from the amount of crap I’d lug around daily. I’m also afraid to transport my books very many places, even with a book sleeve.

5. Do you smell your books?

Of course, I’m not insane.

6. Books with or without little illustrations?

I don’t mind it if they don’t have illustrations. Honestly, illustrations are just an added bonus.

7. What book did you love while reading but discovered later it wasn’t quality writing?

I could be common and say Twilight because it fits so well here, but I think I might go with The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series. I haven’t read it since middle school, but I remember thinking then that they were amazing. A reread in the future might be necessary. And definitely a rewatch of the movies!

8. Do you have any funny stories involving books from your childhood? Please share!

I really can’t think of anything for this. I could go on for hours about funny stories from the bookstore I work at, but I can’t remember much from childhood.

9. What is the thinnest book on your shelf?

I’d say it’s The Grownup by Gillian Flynn. It’s only 67 pages long, so I’d say it’s definitely the shortest book I have, therefore the thinnest.

10. What is the thickest book on your shelf?

Probably The Stand by Stephen King. It clocks in at around 1153 pages, which is just insane. Will I ever read it? Maybe not. I have it on my shelf because my boyfriend’s mom told me it gave her severe nightmares when she tried reading it in college, and I became instantly intrigued.

11. Do you write as well as read? Do you see yourself in the future as being an author?

I love to write. I used to write more often than I do now, and it’s always been a goal of mine to one day be a published author. That would be endgame goals for sure. I’d love to work in publishing/editing in general, so maybe one day. I have to get over my fear of someone reading my work though, I get very self conscious about my own writing.

12. When did you get into reading?

Childhood! My mom has always been an avid reader, and I learned to read really young. I was the youngest in my elementary school to hit the “Wall of Fame” reader status, which basically meant I read and took a bunch of comprehensive quizzes based off what I read to score a lot of points. I’ve always been a reader for as long as I can remember.

13. What is your favorite classic book?

Probably The Great Gatsby. It’s the only classic book I remember reading in high school that after I finished it, I didn’t hate it.

14. In school was your best subject Language Arts/English?

It was my best one, yeah. I was also oddly good at math too, which those two subjects usually don’t coincide.

15. If you were given a book as a present that you had read before and hated…what would you do?

Thank them and secretly pass it on or return it.

16. What is a lesser known series that you know of that is similar to Harry Potter or the Hunger Games?

Honestly the only thing that comes to mind is The Raven Cycle series, but that’s in no way “lesser known”. The first book, The Raven Boys, gave me major childhood series vibes though.

17. What is a bad habit you always do (besides rambling) while blogging?

Getting distracted on my laptop. I constantly open up tabs and goof around on the Internet. Then two hours later I realize I still haven’t finished drafting my post.

18. What is your favorite word?

I always thought long odd words were the best, like effervescence or mellifluous. I do like vellichor a lot because it means “the strange wistfulness of used bookstores”, but I think it’s more of an Internet word than a real-life word.

19. Are you a nerd, dork, or dweeb? Or all of the above?

Probably more of a nerd.

20. Vampires or Fairies? Why?

Vampires, they don’t have to sleep and get to live forever.

21. Shapeshifters or Angels? Why?

Shapeshifters, who wouldn’t want to change into something else?

22. Spirits or Werewolves? Why?

Spirits, I don’t particularly care for werewolves. I blame my hatred of Jacob Black in middle school for that.

23. Zombies or Vampires?

Vampires, I think zombies are boring.

24. Love Triangle or Forbidden Love?

Forbidden love, 100%.

25. AND FINALLY: Full on romance books or action-packed with a few love scenes mixed in?

Action packed with some love scenes scattered, definitely. I’m a bigger fan of subtle romance than anything.

And that’s all, folks. Let me know some of your answers in the comments below!

Until next time,

Today I tackled the "Ultimate Book Tag"! #booktag Hello, everyone! Today seemed like a good day to do a tag, and I found this one that looked like fun!

#ama #ask #ask me anything #book #Book Tag #book tags #books #questions #reader #reader questions #ultimate book tag

0 notes

bountyofbeads · 5 years ago

Text

Jeffrey Epstein, Blackmail and a Lucrative ‘Hot List’ https://nyti.ms/2YbajVT

Exclusive: Soon after Jeffrey Epstein died, a mysterious man came forward. He said he had CCTV footage from Epstein's homes. He said it showed powerful men having sex and that Epstein used it for blackmail. THREAD by @davidenrich and article

with @davidenrich @jbsgreenberg @emilysteel @BernsteinJacob

"We spent months speaking to and meeting with the man, trying to confirm his story, authenticate his videos and establish his identity." /1

"We couldn’t. We think he is likely a conman and that his videos are fake. We don't know his motivations." /2

This is Kessler: https://t.co/yat6huSzIW

"That might have been the end, but Kessler also went to two lawyers, David Boies and Stan Pottinger. They told @nytimes they hoped to use his supposed videos to win settlements from men who appeared on them."

"A lawyer drew up a list of possible targets: "I call it our hot list.”/3 https://t.co/efhcpDf7s9

"The man went by a pseudonym, Patrick Kessler. He showed us what he said were video stills of men — including Alan Dershowitz and Ehud Barak — having sex in Epstein’s properties. He said he wanted justice for their victims.

Images deliberately blurred." /4 https://t.co/wz2cSNUYFj

"Was this ethical?"

"David Boies told us he would only seek settlements on behalf of clients with valid claims. Not extortion."/5

"Stan Pottinger, who wrote the text messages we obtained, said he had been lying to Kessler and never intended to do what he said he would." /6 https://t.co/bN88r4voCd

"This saga is the subject of a special hourlong episode of @TheWeekly, airing on @FXNetworks on Sunday night at 10pm. It will stream on @hulu starting Monday."

"You can see the lawyers and Kessler explaining what happened in their own words."/7 https://t.co/Xtv7CjBIst

"The idea was that any money from those settlements would flow to a foundation — and to lawyers, according to text messages obtained by @nytimes."

"The deals probably would have kept the videos — some supposedly showed men raping children — secret." /8 https://t.co/OSeiBtqy9A

"I’m seeing lots of questions (incl from @felixsalmon & @jbenton) about why we named some but not all of the men who appeared on the supposed videos."

"Let me explain our thinking. First of all, we doubt the videos exist, which weighs against naming people..." /9

... "We decided to name Dershowitz and Andrew because they have already been publicly accused, and Dersh is Boies’s enemy. And the supposed photo of Barak was possibly going to be used to sway an election, which is newsworthy.

That’s our thinking. Reasonable people may disagree." /END

Jeffrey Epstein, Blackmail and a Lucrative ‘Hot List’

A shadowy hacker claimed to have the financier’s sex tapes. Two top lawyers wondered: What would the men in those videos pay to keep them secret?

By Jessica Silver-Greenberg, Emily Steel, Jacob Bernstein & David Enrich | Published Nov. 30, 2019 Updated 10:13 AM ET | New York Times | Posted November 30, 2019 |

Soon after the sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein died in August, a mysterious man met with two prominent lawyers.

Towering, barrel-chested and wild-bearded, he was a prodigious drinker and often wore flip-flops. He went by a pseudonym, Patrick Kessler — a necessity, he said, given the shadowy, dangerous world that he inhabited.

He told the lawyers he had something incendiary: a vast archive of Mr. Epstein’s data, stored on encrypted servers overseas. He said he had years of the financier’s communications and financial records — as well as thousands of hours of footage from hidden cameras in the bedrooms of Mr. Epstein’s properties. The videos, Kessler said, captured some of the world’s richest, most powerful men in compromising sexual situations — even in the act of rape.

[Watch “The Weekly,” The Times’s new TV show on FX and Hulu A mysterious man told us he had surveillance footage from Jeffrey Epstein’s properties. Then his story took a turn.]

Kessler said he wanted to expose these men. If he was telling the truth, his trove could answer one of the Epstein saga’s most baffling questions: How did a college dropout and high school math teacher amass a purported nine-figure fortune? One persistent but unproven theory was that he ran a sprawling blackmail operation. That would explain why moguls, scientists, political leaders and a royal stayed loyal to him, in some cases even after he first went to jail.

Kessler’s tale was enough to hook the two lawyers, the famed litigator David Boies and his friend John Stanley Pottinger. If Kessler was authentic, his videos would arm them with immense leverage over some very important people.

Mr. Boies and Mr. Pottinger discussed a plan. They could use the supposed footage in litigation or to try to reach deals with men who appeared in it, with money flowing into a charitable foundation. In encrypted chats with Kessler, Mr. Pottinger referred to a roster of potential targets as the “hot list.” He described hypothetical plans in which the lawyers would pocket up to 40 percent of the settlements and could extract money from wealthy men by flipping from representing victims to representing their alleged abusers.

The possibilities were tantalizing — and extended beyond vindicating victims. Mr. Pottinger saw a chance to supercharge his law practice. For Mr. Boies, there was a shot at redemption, after years of criticism for his work on behalf of Theranos and Harvey Weinstein.

In the end, there would be no damning videos, no funds pouring into a new foundation. Mr. Boies and Mr. Pottinger would go from toasting Kessler as their “whistle-blower” and “informant” to torching him as a “fraudster” and a “spy.”

Kessler was a liar, and he wouldn’t expose any sexual abuse. But he would reveal something else: The extraordinary, at times deceitful measures elite lawyers deployed in an effort to get evidence that could be used to win lucrative settlements — and keep misconduct hidden, allowing perpetrators to abuse again.

Mr. Boies has publicly decried such secret deals as “rich man’s justice,” a way that powerful men buy their way out of legal and reputational jeopardy. This is how it works.

7 MEN AND A HEADLESS PARROT

The man who called himself Kessler first contacted a Florida lawyer, Bradley J. Edwards, who was in the news for representing women with claims against Mr. Epstein. It was late August, about two weeks after the financier killed himself in a jail cell while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges.

Mr. Edwards, who did not respond to interview requests, had a law firm called Edwards Pottinger, and he soon referred Kessler to his New York partner. Silver-haired and 79, Mr. Pottinger had been a senior civil-rights official in the Nixon and Ford administrations, but he also dabbled in investment banking and wrote best-selling medical thrillers. He was perhaps best known for having dated Gloria Steinem and Kathie Lee Gifford.

Mr. Pottinger recalled that Mr. Edwards warned him about Kessler, saying that he was “endearing,” “spooky” and “loves to drink like a fish.”

After an initial discussion with Kessler in Washington, Mr. Pottinger briefed Mr. Boies — whose firm was also active in representing accusers in the Epstein case — about the sensational claims. He then invited Kessler to his Manhattan apartment. Kessler admired a wall-mounted frame containing a headless stuffed parrot; on TV, the Philadelphia Eagles were mounting a comeback against the Washington Redskins. Mr. Pottinger poured Kessler a glass of WhistlePig whiskey, and the informant began to talk.

In his conversations with Mr. Pottinger and, later, Mr. Boies, Kessler said his videos featured numerous powerful men who were already linked to Mr. Epstein: Ehud Barak, the former Israeli prime minister; Alan Dershowitz, a constitutional lawyer; Prince Andrew; three billionaires; and a prominent chief executive.

All seven men, or their representatives, told The New York Times they never engaged in sexual activity on Mr. Epstein’s properties. The Times has no reason to believe Kessler’s supposed video footage is real.

In his apartment, Mr. Pottinger presented Kessler with a signed copy of “The Boss,” his 2005 novel. “One minute you’re bending the rules,” blares the cover of the paperback version. “The next minute you’re breaking the law.” On the title page, Mr. Pottinger wrote: “Here’s to the great work you are to do. Happy to be part of it.”

Mr. Pottinger also gave Kessler a draft contract to bring him on as a client, allowing him to use a fake name. “For reasons revealed to you, I prefer to proceed with this engagement under the name Patrick Kessler,” the agreement said.

Despite the enormities of the Epstein scandal, few of his accusers have gotten a sense of justice or resolution. Mr. Pottinger thought Kessler’s files could change everything. This strange man was theatrical and liked his alcohol, but if there was even a chance his claims were true, they were worth pursuing.

“Our clients are said to be liars and prostitutes,” Mr. Pottinger later said in an interview with The Times, “and we now have someone who says, ‘I can give you secret photographic proof of abuse that will completely change the entire fabric of your practice and get justice for these girls.’ And you think that we wouldn’t try to get that?”

A VICTIM BECOMES A HACKER

Mr. Pottinger and Mr. Boies have known each other for years, a friendship forged on bike trips in France and Italy. In legal circles, Mr. Boies was royalty: He was the one who fought for presidential candidate Al Gore before the Supreme Court, took on Microsoft in a landmark antitrust case, and helped obtain the right for gays and lesbians to get married in California.

But then Mr. Boies got involved with the blood-testing start-up Theranos. As the company was being revealed as a fraud, he tried to bully whistle-blowers into not speaking to a Wall Street Journal reporter, and he was criticized for possible conflicts of interest when he joined the company’s board in 2015.

Two years later, Mr. Boies helped his longtime client Harvey Weinstein hire private investigators who intimidated sources and trailed reporters for The Times and The New Yorker — even though Mr. Boies’s firm had worked for The Times on other matters. (The Times fired his firm.)

By 2019, Mr. Boies, 78, was representing a number of Mr. Epstein’s alleged victims. They got his services pro bono, and he got the chance to burnish his legacy. When Mr. Pottinger contacted him about Kessler, he was intrigued.

Epstein, who in 2012 hired Kessler to set up encrypted servers to preserve his extensive digital archives. With Mr. Epstein dead, Kessler boasted to the lawyers, he had unfettered access to the material. He said the volume of videos was overwhelming: more than a decade of round-the-clock footage from dozens of cameras.

Kessler displayed some pixelated video stills on his phone. In one, a bearded man with his mouth open appears to be having sex with a naked woman. Kessler said the man was Mr. Barak. In another, a man with black-framed glasses is seen shirtless with a woman on his lap, her breasts exposed. Kessler said it was Mr. Dershowitz. He also said that some of the supposed videos appeared to have been edited and cataloged for the purpose of blackmail.

“This was explosive information if true, for lots and lots of people,” Mr. Boies said in an interview.

Mr. Boies and Mr. Pottinger had decades of legal experience and considered themselves experts at assessing witnesses’ credibility. While they couldn’t be sure, they thought Kessler was probably legit.

A CHANCE TO SWAY THE ISRAELI ELECTION

Within hours of the Hudson Yards meeting, Mr. Pottinger sent Kessler a series of texts over the encrypted messaging app Signal.

According to excerpts viewed by The Times, Mr. Pottinger and Kessler discussed a plan to disseminate some of the informant’s materials — starting with the supposed footage of Mr. Barak. The Israeli election was barely a week away, and Mr. Barak was challenging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The purported images of Mr. Barak might be able to sway the election — and fetch a high price. (“Total lie with no basis in reality,” Mr. Barak said when asked about the existence of such videos.)

“Can you review your visual evidence to be sure some or all is indisputably him? If so, we can make it work,” Mr. Pottinger wrote.

Kessler said he would do so. Mr. Pottinger sent a yellow smiley-face emoji with its tongue sticking out.

“Can you share your contact that would be purchasing,” Kessler asked.

“Sheldon Adelson,” Mr. Pottinger answered.

Mr. Adelson, a billionaire casino magnate in Las Vegas, had founded one of Israel’s largest newspapers, and it was an enthusiastic booster of Mr. Netanyahu. Mr. Pottinger wrote that he and Mr. Boies hoped to fly to Nevada to meet with Mr. Adelson to discuss the images.

“Do you believe that adelson has the pull to insure this will hurt his bid for election?” Kessler asked the next morning.

Mr. Pottinger reassured him. “There is no question that Adelson has the capacity to air the truth about EB if he wants to,” he said, using Mr. Barak’s initials. He said he planned to discuss the matter with Mr. Boies that evening.

Mr. Boies confirmed that they discussed sharing the photo with Mr. Adelson but said the plan was never executed. Boaz Bismuth, the editor in chief of the newspaper, Israel Hayom, said its journalists were approached by an Israeli source who pitched them supposed images of Mr. Barak, but that “we were not interested.”

‘THESE ARE WEALTHY WRONGDOERS ’

The men whom Kessler claimed to have on tape were together worth many billions. Some of their public relations teams had spent months trying to tamp down media coverage of their connections to Mr. Epstein. Imagine how much they might pay to make incriminating videos vanish.

You might think that lawyers representing abuse victims would want to publicly expose such information to bolster their clients’ claims. But that is not how the legal industry always works. Often, keeping things quiet is good business.

One of the revelations of the #MeToo era has been that victims’ lawyers often brokered secret deals in which alleged abusers paid to keep their accusers quiet and the allegations out of the public sphere. Lawyers can pocket at least a third of such settlements, profiting off a system that masks misconduct and allows men to abuse again.

Mr. Boies and Mr. Pottinger said in interviews that they were looking into creating a charity to help victims of sexual abuse. It would be bankrolled by private legal settlements with the men on the videos.

Mr. Boies acknowledged that Kessler might get paid. “If we were able to use this to help our victims recover money, we would treat him generously,” he said in September. He said that his firm would not get a cut of any settlements.

Such agreements would have made it less likely that videos involving the men became public. “Generally what settlements are about is getting peace,” Mr. Boies said.

Mr. Pottinger told Kessler that the charity he was setting up would be called the Astria Foundation — a name he later said his girlfriend came up with, in a nod to Astraea, the Greek goddess of innocence and justice. “We need to get it funded by abusers,” Mr. Pottinger texted, noting in another message that “these are wealthy wrongdoers.”

Mr. Pottinger asked Kessler to start compiling incriminating materials on a specific group of men.

“I’m way ahead of you,” Kessler responded. He said he had asked his team of fellow hackers to search the files for the three billionaires, the C.E.O. and Prince Andrew.

“Yes, that’s exactly how to do this,” Mr. Pottinger said. “Videos for sure, but email traffic, too.”

“I call it our hot list,” he added.

A QUIET TABLE AT THE BACK OF GRAND SICHUAN

In mid-September, Mr. Boies and Mr. Pottinger invited reporters from The Times to the Boies Schiller offices to meet Kessler. The threat of a major news organization writing about the videos — and confirming the existence of an extensive surveillance apparatus — could greatly enhance the lawyers’ leverage over the wealthy men.

Before the session, Mr. Pottinger encouraged Kessler to focus on certain men, like Mr. Barak, while avoiding others. Referring to the reporters, he added, “Let them drink from a fountain instead of a water hose. They and the readers will follow that better.”

The meeting took place on a cloudy Saturday morning. After agreeing to leave their phones and laptops outside, the reporters entered a 20th-floor conference room. Kessler was huge: more than 6 feet tall, pushing 300 pounds, balding, his temples speckled with gray. He told his story and presented images that he said were of Mr. Epstein, Mr. Barak and Mr. Dershowitz having sex with women.

Barely an hour after the session ended, the Times reporters received an email from Kessler: “Are you free?” He said he wanted to meet — alone. “Tell no one else.” That afternoon, they met at Grand Sichuan, an iconic Chinese restaurant in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. The lunch rush was over, and the trio sat at a quiet table in the back. A small group of women huddled nearby, speaking Mandarin and snipping the ends off string beans.

Kessler complained that Mr. Boies and Mr. Pottinger were more interested in making money than in exposing wrongdoers. He pulled out his phone, warned the reporters not to touch it, and showed more of what he had. There was a color photo of a bare-chested, gray-haired man with a slight smile. Kessler said it was a billionaire. He also showed blurry, black-and-white images of a dark-haired man receiving oral sex. He said it was a prominent C.E.O.

Soup dumplings and Gui Zhou chicken arrived, and Kessler kept talking. He said he had found financial ledgers on Mr. Epstein’s servers that showed he had vast amounts of Bitcoin and cash in the Middle East and Bangkok, and hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of gold, silver and diamonds. He presented no proof. But it is common for whistle-blowers to be erratic and slow to produce their evidence, and The Times thought it was worth investigating Kessler’s claims.

The conversation continued in a conference room at a Washington hotel five days later, after a text exchange in which Kessler noted his enthusiasm for Japanese whiskey. Both parties brought bottles to the hotel, and Kessler spent nearly eight hours downing glass after glass. He veered from telling tales about the dark web to professing love for “Little House on the Prairie.” He asserted that he had evidence Mr. Epstein had derived his wealth through illicit means. At one point, he showed what he said were classified C.I.A. documents.

Kessler said he had no idea who the women in the videos were or how the lawyers might go about identifying them to act on their behalf. From his perspective, he said, it seemed like Mr. Boies and Mr. Pottinger were plotting to use his footage to demand huge sums from billionaires. He said it looked like blackmail — and that he could prove it.

‘WE KEEP IT. WE KEEP EVERYTHING '

Was Kessler’s story plausible? Did America’s best-connected sexual predator accumulate incriminating videos of powerful men?

Two women who spent time in Mr. Epstein’s homes said the answer was yes. In an unpublished memoir, Virginia Giuffre, who accused Mr. Epstein of making her a “sex slave,” wrote that she discovered a room in his New York mansion where monitors displayed real-time surveillance footage.

And Maria Farmer, an artist who accused Mr. Epstein of sexually assaulting her when she worked for him in the 1990s, said that Mr. Epstein once walked her through the mansion, pointing out pin-sized cameras that he said were in every room.

“I said, ‘Are you recording all this?’” Ms. Farmer said in an interview. “He said, ‘Yes. We keep it. We keep everything.’”

During a 2005 search of Mr. Epstein’s Palm Beach, Fla., estate, the police found two cameras hidden in clocks — one in the garage and the other next to his desk, according to police reports. But no other cameras were found.

If such a surveillance system did exist, nothing that Kessler told or showed The Times proved that he had access to it. The photos he shared were too grainy to establish anyone’s identity. And many other elements of his story failed to hold up under scrutiny.

Kessler claimed to have been an early investor in a North Carolina coffee company, whose sticker was affixed to his laptop. But its founder said no one matching Kessler’s description had ever been affiliated with the company. Kessler insisted that he invested in 2009, but the company wasn’t founded until 2011.

The contents of Kessler’s supposed C.I.A. documents turned out to be easily findable using Google. At one point, Kessler said that one of his associates had been missing and was found dead; later, Kessler said the man was alive and in the southern United States. He said that his mother had died when he was young — and that he had recently given her a hug. A photo he sent from what he said was a Washington-area hospital featured a distinctive blanket, but when The Times called local hospitals, they didn’t recognize the pattern.

After months of effort, The Times could not learn Kessler’s identity or confirm any element of his back story.

“I am very often being purposefully inconsistent,” Kessler said, when pressed.

A WEINSTEIN CAMEO

On the last Friday in September, Mr. Boies and Mr. Pottinger sat on a blue leather couch in the corner of a members-only dining room at the Harvard Club in Midtown Manhattan. Antlered animal heads and oil paintings hung from the dark wooden walls.

The lawyers were there to make a deal with The Times. Tired of waiting for Kessler’s motherlode, Mr. Pottinger said they planned to send a team overseas to download the material from his servers. He said he had alerted the F.B.I. and a prosecutor in the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan.

Mr. Boies told an editor for The Times that they would be willing to share everything, on one condition: They would have discretion over which men could be written about, and when. He explained that if compromising videos about particular men became public, that could torpedo litigation or attempts to negotiate settlements. The Times editor didn’t commit.

Mr. Boies and Mr. Pottinger later said those plans had hinged on verifying the videos’ authenticity and on having clients with legitimate legal claims against the men. Otherwise, legal experts said, it might have crossed the line into extortion.

The meeting was briefly interrupted when Bob Weinstein, the brother of Harvey Weinstein, bounded up to the table and plopped onto the couch next to Mr. Boies. The two men spent several minutes talking, laughing and slapping each other on the back.

While Mr. Boies and Mr. Weinstein chatted, Mr. Pottinger furtively displayed the black-and-white shot of a man in glasses having sex. Both lawyers said it looked like Mr. Dershowitz.

‘YOU DON’T KEEP YOUR GLASSES ON WHEN YOU’RE DOING THAT’

One day in late September, Mr. Dershowitz’s secretary relayed a message: Someone named Patrick Kessler wanted to speak to him about Mr. Boies.

The constitutional lawyer Alan Dershowitz in 2015.Credit...Todd Heisler/The New York Times

The two lawyers had a long-running feud, and Mr. Dershowitz returned the call from his apartment. He also recorded it. Kessler explained his Epstein story, and that he no longer trusted Mr. Boies and Mr. Pottinger.

“The problem is that they don’t want to move forward with any of these people legally,” Kessler said. “They’re just interested in trying to settle and take a cut.”

“Who are these people that you have on videotape?” Mr. Dershowitz asked.

“There’s a lot of people,” Kessler said, naming a few powerful men. He added, “There’s a long list of people that they want me to have that I don’t have.”

“Who?” Mr. Dershowitz asked. “Did they ask about me?”

“Of course they asked about you. You know that, sir.”

“And you don’t have anything on me, right?”

“I do not, no,” Kessler said.

“Because I never, I never had sex with anybody,” Mr. Dershowitz said. Later in the call, he added, “I am completely clean. I was at Jeffrey’s house. I stayed there. But I didn’t have any sex with anybody.”

What was the purpose of Kessler’s phone call? Why did he tell Mr. Dershowitz that he wasn’t on the supposed surveillance tapes, contradicting what he had said and showed to Mr. Boies, Mr. Pottinger and The Times? Did the call sound a little rehearsed?

Mr. Dershowitz said that he didn’t know why Kessler contacted him, and that the phone call was the only time the two men ever spoke. When The Times showed him one of Kessler’s photos, in which a bespectacled man resembling Mr. Dershowitz appears to be having sex, Mr. Dershowitz laughed and said the man wasn’t him. His wife, Carolyn Cohen, peeked at the photo, too.

“You don’t keep your glasses on when you’re doing that,” she said.

DATA SET (SUPPOSEDLY) TO SELF-DESTRUCT

In early October, Kessler said he was ready to produce the Epstein files. He told The Times that he had created duplicate versions of Mr. Epstein’s servers. He laid out detailed logistical plans for them to be shipped by boat to the United States and for one of his associates — a very short Icelandic man named Steven — to deliver them to The Times headquarters at 11 a.m. on Oct. 3.

Kessler warned that he was erecting a maze of security systems. First, a Times employee would need to use a special thumb drive to access a proprietary communications system. Then Kessler’s colleague would transmit a code to decrypt the files. If his instructions weren’t followed precisely, Kessler said, the information would self-destruct.

Specialists at The Times set up a number of “air-gapped” laptops — disconnected from the internet — in a windowless, padlocked meeting room. Reporters cleared their schedules to sift through thousands of hours of surveillance footage.

On the morning of the scheduled delivery, Kessler sent a series of frantic texts. Disaster had struck. A fire was burning. The duplicate servers were destroyed. One of his team members was missing. He was fleeing to Kyiv.

Two hours later, Kessler was in touch with Mr. Pottinger and didn’t mention any emergency. Kessler said he hoped that the footage would help pry $1 billion in settlements out of their targets, and asked him to detail how the lawyers could extract the money. “Could you put together a hypothetical situation,” Kessler wrote, not something “set in stone but close to what your thinking.”

Mr. Pottinger obliged — and walked into what looked like a trap. He described two hypotheticals, both of which were consistent with what had been discussed with The Times at the Harvard Club.

In one, which he called a “standard model” for legal settlements, Mr. Pottinger said the money would be split among his clients, the Astria Foundation, Kessler and the lawyers, who would get up to 40 percent.

In the second hypothetical, Mr. Pottinger wrote, the lawyers would approach the videotaped men. The men would then hire the lawyers, ensuring that they would not get sued, and “make a contribution to a nonprofit as part of the retainer.”

“No client is actually involved in this structure,” Mr. Pottinger said, noting that the arrangement would have to be “consistent with and subject to rules of ethics.”

“Thank you very much,” Kessler responded.

Mr. Pottinger later said that the scenario would have involved him representing a victim, settling a case and then representing the victim’s alleged abuser. He said it was within legal boundaries. (He also said he had meant to type “No client lawsuit is actually involved.”)

Such legal arrangements are not unheard-of. Lawyers representing a former Fox News producer who had accused Bill O’Reilly of sexual harassment reached a settlement in which her lawyers agreed to work for Mr. O’Reilly after the dispute. But legal experts generally consider such setups to be unethical because they can create conflicts between the interests of the lawyers and their original clients.

‘I JUST PULLED IT OUT OF MY BEHIND ’

The lawyers held out hope of getting Kessler’s materials. But weeks passed, and nothing arrived. At one point, Mr. Pottinger volunteered to meet Kessler anywhere — including Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia.

“I still believe he is what he purported to be,” Mr. Boies wrote in an email on Nov. 7. “I have to evaluate people for my day job, and he seemed too genuine to be a fake, and I very much want him to be real.” He added, “I am not unconscious of the danger of wanting to believe something too much.”

Ten days later, Mr. Boies arrived at The Times for an on-camera interview. It was a bright, chilly Sunday, and Mr. Boies had just flown in from Ecuador, where he said he was doing work for the finance ministry. Reporters wanted to ask him plainly if his and Mr. Pottinger’s conduct with Kessler crossed ethical lines.

Would they have brokered secret settlements that buried evidence of wrongdoing? Did the notion of extracting huge sums from men in exchange for keeping sex tapes hidden meet the definition of extortion?

Mr. Boies said the answer to both questions was no. He said he and Mr. Pottinger operated well within the law. They only intended to pursue legal action on behalf of their clients — in other words, that they were a long way from extortion. In any case, he said, he and Mr. Pottinger had never authenticated any of the imagery or identified any of the supposed victims, much less contacted any of the men on the “hot list.”

Then The Times showed Mr. Boies some of the text exchanges between Mr. Pottinger and Kessler. Mr. Boies showed a flash of anger and said it was the first time he was seeing them.

By the end of the nearly four-hour interview, Mr. Boies had concluded that Kessler was probably a con man: “I think that he was a fraudster who was just trying to set things up.” And he argued that Kessler had baited Mr. Pottinger into writing things that looked more nefarious than they really were. He acknowledged that Mr. Pottinger had used “loose language” in some of his messages that risked creating the impression that the lawyers were plotting to monetize evidence of abuse.

Several days later, Mr. Boies returned for another interview and was more critical of Mr. Pottinger, especially the hypothetical plans that he had described to Kessler. “Having looked at all that stuff in context, I would not have said that,” he said. How did Mr. Boies feel about Mr. Pottinger invoking his name in messages to Kessler? “I don’t like it,” he said.

But Mr. Boies stopped short of blaming Mr. Pottinger for the whole mess. “I’m being cautious not to throw him under the bus more than I believe is accurate,” he said. His longtime P.R. adviser, Dawn Schneider, who had been pushing for a more forceful denunciation, dropped her pen, threw up her arms and buried her head in her hands.

In a separate interview, The Times asked Mr. Pottinger about his correspondence with Kessler. The lawyer said that his messages shouldn’t be taken at face value because, in reality, he had been deceiving Kessler all along — “misleading him deliberately in order to get the servers.”

The draft retention agreement that Mr. Pottinger had given to Kessler in September was unsigned and never meant to be honored, Mr. Pottinger said. And he never intended to sell photos of Mr. Barak to Mr. Adelson. “I just pulled it out of my behind,” he said, describing it as an act to impress Kessler.

As for the two hypotheticals about how to get money out of the men on the list, Mr. Pottinger said, he never planned to do what he carefully articulated. “I didn’t owe Patrick honesty about this,” he said.

Mr. Pottinger said that he had only one regret — that “we did not get the information that this liar said he had.”

He added, “I’m building legal cases here. I’m trying not to engage too much in shenanigans. I wish I didn’t, but this guy was very unusual.”

Ronen Bergman contributed reporting. Susan Beachy contributed research.

#jeffrey epstein #epstein autopsy #trump epstein #epstein case #sex criminals #sex trafficking #sex crimes #alan dershowitz #u.s. news #top news #nyt > top stories #top stories google news #worldpolitics #world news #uknews #uk news #prince andrew #international news

0 notes