#he also threw random other stuff she collected too. STUFF SHE COULD HAVE SOLD TO GET MONEY IN A PINTCH!!

[its-maemain]

I'm not getting over how last night I went on a tangent about Gotham and Metropolis, and Batman lore

And very early on I say Gotham is in New Jersey. The most thick laughter came out of my father as he stirs my mothers soup and he says, “It is? Of course it is. No wonder it's so fucked up.”

I love my parents but good god, father you never hear me till I'm talking straight at ya

[talkfastromance4]

The Click-- Calum Hood (soulmate!au)

It’s here! I’ve never written soulmate stuff before so this is probably really different from what you’ve normally read, and it’s different from what I normally write but this really has a part of my heart in it.  Inspired by Lang Leav’s wonderful works (the poems up above) and some weird instances I’ve been having.

Word count: 5.6k

Warnings: none, no smut whatsoever (I know who am I?)

Son inspiration: Then I saw You by Tatiana Manois and Surrender by Natalie Taylor

donate to my ko-fi here :)

Masterlist

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. *copyright is listed at bottom*

• • • •

Two strangers both alike in mind have a book propped open with words inked in of love and heartbreak and other musings. They are alike because they mark their favorite poems by dog ears and highlights with little scrawls of their own thoughts scratched into the margins.

Late night for her, early morning for him as they’re on two different sides of the country, it’s not just miles that separate them, but the day and night. The moon comforts her and is her light as she reads of a love shared between two poets. The sun is his friend and a warm embrace as he delves deeper and deeper into the pages of the same love but tinged with an air of sophisticated provocativeness.

While on their Spotify playlists, the same artists and songs are shared between the two. Music and lyrics, words, and prose, two hearts longing for the same thing. 

A love to be written about, a love to be shared, an adventurous love that is unique because it is their own. In both their minds, that kind of love doesn’t seem tangible. To be added to their likeness, they’re both the only single ones amongst their friends and have been for a while. 

Calum showered his friends in love, giving his friends small gifts and helping in any way that he could. He was always down for a good time, sharing laughs and making memories. Rose was the same, she enjoyed being with her friends and family. 

In the daylight they appeared fine and well put together but going home to an empty house in a lonely bed is where they felt the weight of their ache. Sometimes it kept them both up, reading their poetry books or writing their own. His were songs while hers were just words but the premise was the same, dreaming of love. 

She received an opportunity of a lifetime to go to school for her writing. A quiet dream she’d held safe in the privacy of her own mind. It was thrilling yet terrifying moving to a whole new city, the city of angels. Her best friend stayed with her for a week helping her adjust in her new albeit small studio apartment.

It was a steal that was right above a coffee bookshop, a place where she’d also received a job. When she wouldn’t be in school, she’d be working to help pay for rent. While she unpacked and decorated her place, she kept pinching herself to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. 

When her classes started, she was up by 4 a.m. because of her nerves and her excitement, it bundled up inside her. She ran through her schedule three times, checked her bag that she had the right textbooks and her small laptop.

She read her favorite poems until it was time for her first class. The owner of the shop already had her coffee made to her liking with a cranberry orange muffin already in a bag. 

“Thanks Teresa,” she smiles, taking the goodies.

“Have a great first day! Do you want a picture with your bag?” Teresa is a kind, thirty-something year old woman. She’s living her dream owning a coffee bookshop and has the kindest smile. 

“I’m okay, don’t need a reminder I’m starting with kids fresh outta high school.”

“You’re not that much older, twenty-five is still young, Rose,” Teresa smiles. “Enjoy it.”

“Thank you,” she smiles then waves with her pinky. 

Her first day of classes is just how she thought they’d be, the awkward introductions that she rehearsed in her head before speaking, going through the itinerary for the semester and then reading a few chapters and taking some notes. Rose loved every minute of it. 

During lunch and her breaks, she reread through each itinerary again and bookmarks the pages in her textbook she’ll be needing. In between that, she reads her poetry book and jots down a few of her own thoughts. 

Then, the day is done and she starts her four hour shift at the bookshop that would last until closing time at 9:30. Rose quickly discovered that this would be a very easy job because it didn’t get a rush of people for dinner. 

Some other students she passed on campus would stop in with a friend and share a cup of coffee or tea. By 7:30 there were only a couple of people scattered about the shop, books, or tablets in front of them as the soft indie music played throughout. 

Rose gathers her books into her bag behind the counter before she moves to the bookshelf wall to restock the books left on the small wooden tables. She finds herself humming along to a song she knows when there’s a commotion outside.

The other guests inside turn to look as well through the windows framed in the purple and blue twilight shade to see a couple. They’re the source of the noise as both their voices rise over the other and when he throws his arms in the air that’s when Rose turns back to her task.

Clearly whatever was happening outside was a private moment and Rose couldn’t help but smile at the irony of the saying ‘outside looking in’ while she’s inside but was just looking into their outside debacle. Her mind always thinks of outlandish things like that, she calls it her circle thinking because she can run with the same thought over and over. 

It doesn’t make sense to others, but it does to her.

After a few moments, she glanced outside, and the couple was gone. The streetlights had flickered on and she could see stars poking through the darkened sky. She hopes she’ll see the moon upstairs. 

After the last guest leaves, she locks the door and sweeps up the shop, wipes down tables and locks the cash drawer in the small vault in the back. She checks that the back door is locked after tossing the garbage out quickly and runs upstairs to her studio apartment. She makes a cup of hot cocoa before bed and reads and writes into her favorite poetry book, her journal next to her. 

The hot cocoa made her sleepy and she fell fast asleep with her book atop her chest. She dreamed of someone that held a powerful connection with her, he understood her and made her smile. By morning, the dream slipped away with the stars and she started her new routine over again. 

***

Calum’s fingers tap impatiently on the laminate surface of the table as he sat through this meeting. It was mundane but necessary that he be here because the band had decided to take a year off. The world is still in recovery from the pandemic and they agreed collectively to hold off on anything until there was some decent footing again. 

He’s been in a bit of a mood since he and Zoe fought a few weeks ago after having dinner. They weren’t exclusive, only seeing each other on occasion and that night she brought up soulmates. She was almost nagging at him that he wasn’t hers and that they were wasting their time when he reminded her, she was the one to call him. 

He hasn’t heard from her since. 

His mind wandered throughout, thinking of ways he can occupy the next 365 days when he wasn’t writing music. Music is his life; it’s always been a constant and has pulled him through some tough situations and has uplifted him in joyous ones. On the TV stuck to the wall there was a news report scanning at the bottom that the university not too far from his home has the highest enrollment rate.

That piques his interest. He reads the closed caption below the broadcaster as it says open enrollment has become the new norm, welcoming students from all ages to attend. This information strikes a chord within Calum and he’s found what he wants to do with his year off. 

When the meeting had finally finished, Calum decided to head over to the university and see if he could still enroll. The semester started only a few weeks ago but with this new window of free time, he’s sure he could catch up. 

Enrolling turned out to be easy. He had a meeting with a counselor to discuss what his intentions were and if there was any specific study he wanted to get into. He selected creative writing and psychology, bought his books, got his schedule and he was officially a college student. 

The night before his first class, Calum is restless. He tosses. He turns. He stares out the window of his room, the moon winking at him through the small opening of the curtain. Duke is snoring softly to his left and Calum’s mind is racing. 

Thoughts tumble over one another, scenarios flash across his mind and then he hears a random melody in his head that sounds too familiar and it helps him drift off to sleep. 

***

Calum is racing to get to his first class, he didn’t wake up to his alarm until thirty minutes after the intended time and he blamed it all on a dream. A dream that felt so real he thought the woman in his subconscious was still speaking to him in his ear. 

He threw on the first article of clothing his fingers touched, gargled with mouthwash, and shoved a beanie on his head. Regrettably, he didn’t have time to stop for coffee and he hoped there would be some sold on campus somewhere. 

Calum just got settled into his seat at the back of the lecture when the Professor stood at the front and began to speak. Thankfully, Calum retrieved notes from the three weeks he missed and read them all weekend, so he picked up easily with what the Professor is talking about. 

He smiles to himself, maybe he is cut out for school. 

Calum is surprised how drained he feels after his first day. His head is swimming with new knowledge and he’s anxious to get home and get to work. On his walk back to the parking structure where his car is parked, he sees the coffee bookshop he and Zoe fought in front of almost a month ago. 

The sign above the bay window reads ‘CBS’ and in smaller print below that it reads ‘coffee bookshop’ and he smiles at the simple cleverness. He remembers Ashton has gone in there a few times and said the coffee is great. Calum makes a promise to himself that he’ll stop there tomorrow morning before class to grab a cup.

His night is spent reading over the homework and answering a few of the discussion questions while Duke sat in his lap. Calum tried writing down the lyrics of the song he heard this morning, but he couldn’t distinguish what they were. To wind down, he had his favorite Michael Faudet book propped on his stomach as he read through each page.

He reads through his own writing; his words transport him to that point in time when the words flowed out of him effortlessly. One poem resonates in his mind as he reads about love being compared to that of a rose and the lilting melody from this morning trickled into his ears again and he instantly relaxed. His mind quieted and his eyelids felt heavy as he replayed the same simple notes over and over. 

A beautiful melody without any words.

The loud vibration of his phone woke him up before the actual song did, but he leapt out of bed immediately. The promise of a hot cup of coffee egged him on to take a shower and dress in something nicer than a wrinkled band shirt he had on yesterday. 

Traffic wasn’t that bad, and he parked his car on the first level of the structure and he still had forty-five minutes until his first class. Today is shaping up to be the start of a good one and just as he locks his phone so he can open the door of the CBS, he collides with a body. 

Books go flying. His phone clutters to the ground and he panics at the fatality that could be evident in the million cracks of his screen. Rushed ‘sorry’s’ are exchanged between him and the stranger as they scramble to gather their things. Their bodies twist away from each other as he shoves his books and pens back into his bag. 

When he stands to apologize again, she’s already bustling away, her red scarf blowing behind her in the morning breeze. He sighs then heads inside to examine his phone, but he looks back again to try and get a glimpse of her face. She’s already gone. While they were scrambling to get their belongings, he noted how the smell of coconuts, vanilla, and something else he couldn’t put his finger on, invaded his nostrils. It made him think of the ocean.

He examines his phone to find there isn’t a scratch on it and when he unlocks it there’s a picture of the poem he read last night. Roses. The girl he bumped into smelled of roses. 

***

Rose is having an off day. Her alarm didn’t even go off and she put in a generous amount of dry shampoo in her hair but resulted in putting on a hat. She didn’t even have time to get her coffee and muffin from Teresa for she rushed out the front door and collided with some guy. 

Without her coffee it was hard for her to focus and when she got called on in class, she had to ask the professor to repeat the question because she didn’t hear it. Then her laptop crashed, and she couldn’t work on an assignment that’s due by Friday. 

By the time she made it to CBS, she didn’t want to work her shift. Customers were being needy and rude and all she wanted to do was take a hot shower and read. After eating a quick microwave dinner, Rose took a hot shower then turned on her favorite playlist titled ‘Blue’ for moments like this. 

She opens her bag to grab her poetry book, ‘The Universe of Us’ but finds its exact counterpart of Lang Leav; Michael Faudet’s book ‘Cult of Two’ lays on her table. 

Did she put that in her bag by mistake? 

It was a rough morning so it is possible, but she could have sworn she grabbed the book from her bedside table. Sighing, Rose takes the book to place it back on her shelf then becomes more confused when she sees the same book in her hands, perched snugly on the shelf with her other poetry books. 

Rose knows she only has one copy, so where did this one come from and where is her book? She tosses the white paperback onto her bed and empties her whole bag, checking each book twice. How could she have lost it? It’s always buried safely in the bottom of her bag and she didn’t take it out all day except--

Rose gasps. This morning when she was leaving the shop she bumped into a guy and all their belongings went flying. She must have grabbed his book by mistake, and he grabbed hers. Panic sets in, she’s written down some of her innermost thoughts in that book, personal things.

Now this random stranger has her soul in his hands, and she might never see him again. With angry tears in her eyes she crawls into bed while Lewis Capaldi’s voice thrums around her walls. Needing comfort, she opens the strangers’ book then snaps it shut just as fast because there’s handwriting on the pages. 

Just like hers.

***

Calum is reading about the red string of fate. After that run in with the girl outside CBS a month ago, he read through her book and became transfixed with those words she wrote down. He knows he shouldn’t have read her thoughts, but once he started, he couldn’t stop. Clearly the poetry captivated her, but her words captivated him.

The red string of fate is a Japanese legend meant to tie soulmates together by their pinkies. No matter the circumstance, the time or place, the two will always find each other. It may stretch and it may tangle but it will never break. He’s never heard of it before now, but he’s become obsessed with the idea of it. 

Every morning he’s stopped by CBS to see if he’ll run into her again so he can return her book, but he’s never seen her. His classes are going well and he’s learning so much, his creativity is overflowing. Much of that is because of this girl’s book. 

Its spine is overly creased from endless love of reading, some words are highlighted and circled. Pages are dog eared on what he assumes are her favorite poems. Calum smiled the first time he paged through it all because he’s written in his book as well. He wonders if she’s read any of his musings yet. 

“Bro, I haven’t seen you without that book. Where’s yours?” Ashton asks while they’re out for lunch. 

“Um, I lost it actually. I bumped into this girl outside the CBS and our things scattered everywhere. We switched books,” Calum explains flipping the pages. “She writes it in like I do.”

“You read it? Mate,” Ashton sighs exasperatedly, “that’s an invasion of privacy.”

“I know, I know! But I can’t get enough of it. She’s smart and passionate in what she writes. I wish I got a better look at her when I bumped into her so I could return it.”

“There’s no name inside?”

“Nope. She could be in one of my classes for all I know,” Calum sighs then picks away at the corner of the cover. “What was it like when you and Ruby found each other?”

Ruby is Ashton’s soulmate and they’ve been together for almost two years now. Calum remembers the change in Ashton when she came into his life, he was lighter. 

“I heard her voice in my head.”

“What did she say?”

Ashton smiles, “My name.”

“Then how did you find her?”

“I don’t know, it’s hard to explain,” Ashton’s brows crease. “It was only a few days after I heard her voice that I knew her name. It came to me out of the blue. Do you remember anything about her?”

“She had on this red scarf and smelled like a rose.” Calum suddenly felt a wave of dizziness swim in his head and he held onto his temples.

“You okay?” Ashton reaches over as if to help but he’s not sure what’s happening to his friend. 

“Woah, that was weird, I got super dizzy,” Calum says blinking a few times until he can see straight again. He removes his fingers from his temples and Ashton is giving him a funny look. “What?”

“What did she smell like again?” he leans forward.

“A rose, why--fuck!” the wave of dizziness crashes into him again and it’s like his brain is spinning in his head. When his vision returns Ashton is smiling gleefully. “Glad to see you enjoy my pain.”

“Don’t you see?! You got vertigo as soon as you said rose. That must be her name.”

“Really? Is that what happened when you said Ruby’s name?”

“Yeah basically, but it wasn’t this strong. She must be close,” Ashton looks around him as if she’ll appear out of thin air. “I suggest going to CBS morning and night, she’s gotta be there at some point.”

***

Rose is flicking through the pages of the new poetry book she acquired. Curiosity killed the cat and she just had to dig her claws between the pages because she’s sure he’s already done the same or will soon enough. 

Some of his thoughts left her breathless and with an odd familiar feeling at the way it’s structured. Some of his sentences seem more like lyrics that she’s heard before but can never find the tune that goes with it.

She hadn’t been feeling well this morning, nausea and dizziness made her skip her classes and she laid in bed all day. It would come and go throughout the day and right before bed she drew herself a bubble bath with some candles. The flickering light created the perfect ambience while she read Faudet’s words and the mysterious stranger. 

Where her notes are written in paragraphs or stanzas, his are scattered about the page. Sometimes she has to turn the book to read it upside down. The curse words make her laugh and sometimes there’s a fun little drawing. 

It isn’t until she reaches the last few pages and she’s reading about a blue angel and knocking back a shot when she stumbles on a name that is not the author. It’s a name she’s heard before, a name she’s known of and has seen floating around her social media.

“Calum Hood,” she mumbles, and she instantly becomes dizzy again. It happens so fast it startles her, and she nearly drops the book into the bubbles. Somehow in her bewilderment she managed to let it flop onto the bathroom floor. 

The bathwater and bubbles slosh over the sides as she reaches for the book again. Did she read that right? Her fingers leave dark, pudgy circles on the pages as she goes to that page again. 

“Calum,” she breathes, and the room spins again causing her to drop the book once more. “Okay, okay, okay, okay. . .”

Rose gets out of the bath quickly, letting the water drain noisily as she dries off and puts on her pajamas. The spinning has stopped, and she sits cross legged in the middle of her bed, the poetry book open to the poem and her phone opened to Instagram and Twitter.

She’s been an avid fan for quite a few years now and to think if he was the one, she bumped into? With her thumbs hovering over the keyboard she closes her eyes trying to remember anything about him from that morning. 

All she can remember is the rush to gather her things and his soft husky voice as he said sorry. She didn’t look at him once and it’s very possible she bumped into Calum Hood. Her mind racing, she texts every one of her friends that have already found their soulmates asking what and how it happened. 

She needs answers because how odd is it that she’s felt dizzy and nauseous all day then sees his name, says it, and gets dizzy all over again? Is that what’s supposed to happen? Does this mean he’s been saying her name all this time as well? 

Her friends' responses were pretty much the same. In each instance they heard his or her voice in their head say their name. Why hadn’t she heard his voice? Could he hear hers? Rose unlocks her phone and searches his name, turns out he’s gone back to school. The same school she’s attending but it doesn’t say what he’s studying, which is good because it must be annoying having everyone know what’s going on in your life. 

Rose falls back onto her pillows burrowing under the covers and shuts off the light. 

“Please let me go to school tomorrow, Calum,” she huffs then turns over to hug her pillow. 

She swears she hears a ghostly laugh in her ear before sleep consumes her. 

***

“I bite back.”

Calum still hears the soft voice from his dream, he can still feel the soft brush of her lips against his ear as she said those words. He’s staring up at the ceiling replaying the dream of sitting next to a girl. In his subconscious it felt like he already knew her, and they carried a conversation well. He doesn’t remember exactly what he was saying but he can hear those three words as if she were laying right next to him. 

He greets Duke with quick kisses before letting him outside and Calum washes his face, brushes his teeth, and gets dressed. After he brings Duke in, Calum gathers his bags making sure The Universe of Us is right at the top. 

He’s been going to CBS early each morning so he can sit and try to watch for the girl he bumped into. He has one cup of coffee and reads through her pages until it’s time to go for class. A few times he thought he recognized her, but the girl in question always turned out to be just a fan and wanted a quick chat and photo. 

They never smelled like roses, so he knew it wasn’t her.

After his final sip of coffee, he flips to a page with the title ‘The One’ and he immediately goes to the girl’s handwritten words. 

‘And I want you to be the one for me. The one who brings out my storm but also calms the waves. I want you to be my perfect counterpart. Is my red string frayed?’

Calum smiles at the last sentence. He wishes he could tell her that no, it isn’t frayed and he’s trying his damndest to find her. He gathers his things and heads out the door because his first class is starting in fifteen minutes.

Just as he walked out the door, if he would have waited one more minute, Rose came by his table and cleaned up his dishes to help Teresa out before she went on her way to class. 

“How are you feeling today Rose?” Teresa asks, taking the dirty dishes from her. 

“A little better,” Rose shrugs, “I can’t miss two days. Are you sure it’s alright I can switch my shift from tonight to tomorrow?”

“Of course. You need to catch up on what you missed, Colbie will cover for you. Take it easy, you still look a little pale,” Teresa frowns. 

“I’ll be fine, but thank you,” Rose smiles then waves. “I’ll see you later.”

***

The day runs as normal for them both. Calum has felt this growing energy within him as if something is about to happen, but he can’t quite put his finger on it. He’s been looking at every woman he passes waiting to see if there’s a connection or a siren that will go off as if to say “that’s her! That’s her!” but he comes up short. 

Rose still feels a little queasy throughout the day and she’s distracted because all she wants to do is read Calum’s poetry book to try and find another connection. 

When the school day is over, she sets up her workspace at her favorite table by the bookshelf in a large, plush chair. Her own latte sits next to her while she quickly does her homework and opens the book. From the corner of her eye a tall figure sits in the chair on the other side of the table. She pays it no mind until there’s a loud crash.

The stranger knocked her cup to the floor, and it shattered, white foam and coffee filling up the grooves in the tile. 

“Shit, I’m sorry--”

“It’s okay,” she says automatically. 

They both reach for the largest fragment of broken cup; their pinkies touch and Rose feels something click inside her. Her skin is hot where he touches her, and with her heart pounding like a thousand horses running, she looks up. 

He knew who she was before he looked into her eyes, when they came in such proximity, he smelled the roses and the coconut and the vanilla. When their pinkies touched, he felt a spark shoot up his veins, that’s the siren he’s been waiting for and when he looked into her eyes? Everything clicked into place.

“Rose?”

“Calum?”

They both laugh nervously, their pinkies still touching. Rose feels her cheeks warm and Calum can’t stop smiling at her. After their small moment, they clean up the mess of the broken cup and sit back in their respective chairs. 

“I think this is yours,” she holds out his book that she was currently reading. 

“And I believe--” he pulls out her book from his bag holding it up “--this is yours.”

Having it in her possession again makes it feel like a lost limb has been returned home. Calum flips through his own book noticing the wrinkled pages. He knows she read it and he’s so glad she’s the one who did. He watches her rifle through the pages, soft fingers tracing over words that have been printed and words she’s inked in herself. 

“You’re a wonderful writer,” he comments, and her eyes flash up to him.

“You are too, but you’re a musician so that’s no surprise,” she giggles, and Calum loves the sound. 

Talking comes easily between Calum and Rose, but how could it not when they’re soulmates? As the night gets longer and the shop is about to close, Rose invites him up for some tea and he gladly accepts. 

While she’s setting up the kettle, he examines her bookshelf, some books he’s read, and others grab his attention that he wants to ask her about. Soft music fills the room and he smiles because this is on one of his playlists as well.

“How do you like your tea?” she asks, and Calum moves back to the kitchen area. 

“Little bit of milk and honey and some sugar,” he smiles, watching her add the ingredients.

Their fingers brush again when he accepts the cup from her, another spark ignites but it starts a different type of warmth. Calum becomes very aware of both their actions. He’s aware of how close she sits next to him on the couch, he’s aware of the way she licks her lips and how badly he wants to kiss them. 

“So, this is . . . a little crazy, right?” she laughs awkwardly, her finger circling the rim of the mug. “How did you find me? Did you hear my voice? Because I didn’t hear yours.”

“What did you experience then?” he asks, setting his mug on the small table in front of them. 

“I was home for a whole day because I just felt really dizzy and nauseous, then when I was taking a bath and reading your book, I saw your name, said it out loud and had another dizzy spell. I think I dreamed of you, too. . .” her brows furrowed in confusion.

Calum tries not to let her small tidbit of information that she was in the bath when she said his name get to him, but he knows exactly what she’s talking about. He was at home playing with Duke when he felt another wave of dizziness hit, it came upon him so fast that he practically fell onto the couch. It felt different then when he said her name, it was stronger. 

“I’m sorry, when I discovered your name, I kept saying it,” he admits fiddling with one of his rings. 

“How’d you find out my name?” 

“I was talking with my friend, Ashton and I told him about the day we collided and how you smelled like a rose. You know what’s funny? When we said each other’s name downstairs I didn’t feel dizzy, did you?”

“No, I didn’t,” she shakes her head then looks at him, “what does that mean?”

“I--” he stops short when the song shifts, and he gasps. “I’ve had this melody stuck in my head for weeks, is this you singing?”

“Absolutely not,” Rose laughs and rises from the couch to turn it up on her phone. “It calms me down, so I play it a lot. What was--oh!”

She spun around and Calum was standing right in front of her. She didn’t realize how tall he is until right now and the scent of his cologne and laundry detergent reminds her of a home she’s come back to. 

“I have an idea as to why we didn’t hear each other’s voices,” he says, stepping even closer. 

“What’s that?” Rose licks her lips.

“We feel things, and instead of vocalizing them, we write them down or listen to it in music,” he tucks her hair behind her ear. “Even the books we read the authors are in love.”

Rose chuckles at that. “Yeah, what are the odds they’re our favorites?”

“Pretty high, since we were made for each other,” he smiles. His fingers tickle her cheek as he tilts her head up, her eyes are shining, and the smell of roses invades his senses. He inches his mouth closer to hers, “I’m ready to surrender to this, Rose.”

She nods and closes the small space between their lips and it’s as if everything stops. The only thing she can feel are his soft, warm lips on hers, the calluses of his fingers on her cheek and the way his other hand wraps around her waist. He pulls her close and she grabs hold of his shirt, kissing him is like a breath of fresh air. 

He pulls her even closer, chest against chest and she gasps at the movement but welcomes his tongue excitedly. They kiss feverishly, as if this is the only time they have. But they have many more days and many more moments to make memories of. 

They’re breathing heavily when they break the kiss, she feels him smile against her lips and gives her two soft pecks. 

“Calum?”

“Hmm?” his thumb strokes her cheek affectionately.

“You made my world stop spinning.”

• • • •

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[talesofayoungadventress]

The fact I never did a blog about this kills me. Because there was some crazy shit that went down... as always. But here we are, 3 years later post global pandemic and online teaching 💀 Home girl NEEDS this current vacation. Anyways currently sitting here in Vegas with Monica and I needed to get this up for myself than for anyone to read… #memories and whatnot.

Monica and I did a 5 week trip to Spain and Morocco. I HONEST TO GOD thought this trip was going to be normal. We were older, safe and sane, & not out doin’ risky shit like we use to. All was pretty uneventful the first two weeks in Spain. We drank a pitcher or two of sangria a day, ate, napped for siesta... and anyone thats read from while I was in Thailand knows that is Monica’s specialty 😂, went to see some floating Jesus for Monica, and that’s pretty much it. The men are 🔥, the sangria is perfect, and country wide afternoon nap time is good for the soul. 10/10 would recommend Spain.

The words “Damn Monica look at us having a safe and sane vacation like responsible adults” even left my mouth at one point. We were so proud. Mom was proud I wasn’t out doing hood rat stuff. But then came our last day in Spain. I knew it was all too good to be true...

We stayed in a port town called Tarifa. Although we both had big girl jobs at this point, we still kept it cheap and took the ferry to Tangier in Morocco rather than fly. The night at our hotel set the tone for the rest of the trip. The fire alarm went off in the middle of the night. I panicked and jumped out of bed because I wasn’t about to burn, meanwhile this bitch Monica leisurely gets up, walks to the sink, puts her sweatshirt on and starts washing her face. WASHING HER FREAKING FACE!! WTF!? I actually yelled at her and got her butt out. Thank god it was a false alarm. But moral of the story Monica would have let us burn to wash her face 😑

The ferry was mistake #1. I took Dramamine and Monica didn’t want to. You get one guess who spent the entire ferry ride throwing up in a sink.

Now I’ve only ever thought I was about to be snatched once while traveling. It was in Cambodia with Monica and our psycho drugged out tuk tuk driver. I can add our first day in Morocco as the second time.

For whatever reason Morocco doesn’t let you get money before entering the country like other places. You need to get it from ATM’s at the airport upon arrival. But we chose the cheap route (never again and this lesson will come back to haunt me later... 🐫) and came on the ferry. We asked where we could get $ and they said they had lots of ATM machines outside of the building. Well surprise surprise we didn’t see any. We stood there with no money or phone service stranded wondering what we would do.

Then, out of no where, a man came up and asked us if we wanted to get money and told us to follow him. He led us to a row of windowless rape vans like you see on Criminal Minds and told us the ATM and money exchange was inside. Should I have gone in? No. Did I? Yes. Just when I thought I chose the safe and sane life in Spain it all went out the window. As soon as they opened the back doors sure enough there was a little ATM and a man with a table. Still leery I get in and they slam the doors right behind me. At this point I thought “God damn, really! After all that I’ve gotten myself into this is how I’m being taken out!?” But all went well and I got our money.

After the creepy $ situation, we got a random Chefchaouen and it was everything I wanted it to be. It was blue. It was pretty. We were even offered cocaine instead of the crepes we wanted our first night, and Monica made my fat butt hike up a steep hill TWICE in sandals. But that hike up was so worth it watching those sunsets overlooking the city and hearing the call to prayer. Monica 1, Meghan 0.

After Chefchaouen we headed to Marrakech. I wanted all the rugs, all the vases, tiles, baskets, purses. Honestly I was the equivalent to what the grinch looks like as he’s collecting all the Christmas shit from Whoville. Put it in my bag I’ll give you all the $$. We also stayed in the best boutique hotel. Monica wasn’t a fan until we walked in and settled ourselves. Monica 1, Meghan 1.

I straight up threw down those dollars in Marrakech. I didn’t work all those night classes for nothing! I texted a random guy who sold rugs that I found from someone online. Again... another risky choice but I wanted some damn rugs! Monica was pissed I’d text and leave with a random person for rugs but I was determined and dragged her off with me. Jokes on her because he was so nice, gave us mint tea, and let me live all my Moroccan rug dreams. I got 4. Did I need 4? Hell no! BUUUT did I want 4? Yes.

Shout out to my mom for putting up with my crap and letting me ship and store those babies at her house 😏. FYI they look fab in my new house.

Now there wasn’t anything else to report until the very end of our trip. This is when the “cheap route” reared its ugly head again. Monica is no longer allowed to plan excursions. Ever. 🙅🏽���♀️ You get what you pay for.

We did a desert camping experience and took a random van 15 hours into the Sahara desert. The entire ride was sketch as usual, and they eventually dropped us off at a hotel for the night. The next day we had to give our room up and sat outside in 130° weather until our evening camel ride into the desert. My camel was NOT cooperating and it took me forever to get on. Monica was last to load up because she started crying and didn’t want to get on because “she could tell her camel didn’t want to go.” So she suggested she’d walk there… the entire 2 1/2 hour trip. The guides looked at her like she was crazy and said no and forced her on anyways. I heard her crying for a good 15 minutes before she was fine and wanted a picture.

My camel ride was 🙅🏽‍♀️. The blankets weren’t tied and my saddle was a triangle piece of wood that kept slipping off. Sitting slanted on a triangle piece of wood for almost 3 hours on a camel is the worst.

Once we got to the camp we had to walk through piles of camel poop to eat dinner in the dark. Also, no warning to us before hand, but our camp didn’t have a water bin or bottles so your girl was waterless in the Sahara desert 🥵. The bed sheets also had me shook to the core… not washed, probably ever, as there was a BODY PRINT STAIN you could see!

Despite the nastiness, the stars were pretty, we climbed to the top of the sand dunes, and I watched the sunrise because I refused to lay down on that bed.

At this point I was tired, dehydrated, and just wanted to get back. Monica still didn’t want to ride the camels (she was in her vegan phase this trip) and said she told them we’d pay to take ATVs. I used the last of $ I had left to do so, and we waited for them to arrive while everyone else loaded back up on camels.

This is where things got weird. We were left with two guys that helped run the camp. One started playing drums for us while the other just sat and glared the entire time. He eventually told us he didn’t like America’s, said we shouldn’t take pictures, and then plot twist he wanted to add us on Facebook. Shout out to Sayed for giving us creepy predator vibes.

Once the ATVs came, we got on and went on our way. While Monica took off nice and slow happy as can be, my guy guns it! I literally held on for dear life the entire 30 min ride back. He’d speed up while we’d go down the sand dunes and our ATV would literally hover down! I don’t remember anything, it all went black, and I almost died.

Once we got back to the hotel Monica was crying and told me it was because of how beautiful the sunrise was on our ride back. She asked if I saw it, but Girl NO I DID NOT because I was trying to hold on and make sure me and my backpack weren’t left in the dust.

We took a shower with a single small stream of water and then took another bus 15 hours back into Marrakech. I was next to a kid that threw up the entire time. No food, no water because I was out of money.

Now if you’ve made it this far bless you. This was the end of our trip and I ended it with picking up some bug that had me SIIIIICK the rest of the two days and entire flight home.

Which brings us to today, exactly 3 years later, and 2 canceled trips back to Thailand thanks to COVID. This road trip will be fun though! Here’s to being on home turf, accident free, not taking the cheap way out, and being responsible.

❤️ Love from Vegas 🇺🇸

[hecohansen31]

because i really fricking miss, love and cherish sojourn! michael can i please request a vvvvvvv soft fluffy moment between reader and him where she’s the one to take him home after church and just like ,,,,,,, takes care of him and washes his hair for him and helps him with any bruises and cuts and they end up just ordering food and watching some random movie whilst she consoles him 🥺🥺🥺🥺 i really am a sucker for fluff

(A/N): Hello there, sweetie!

Ahhh I honestly feel like on my blog I don’t celebrate that much Sojourn! Michael, but I honestly love and cherish him, because he is a cutie patootie, with a feral hunger I long to satisfy!

I hope you’ll like it and if you want me to change anything, please let me know!

Have a nice day!

WARNINGS; Mention of Previous Trauma, Satanism and Bringing Home a Stranger.

You didn’t go at the Satanist Church, anymore, because you believed in it, but more because it was some kind of social occurrence which had become a ritual to you.

You knew half of the people there and knew that half of them were exactly like you: standing there as unbelievers, but unable to move away and search something better to do on those nights.

And because most of the people knew each other, you were able to spot a new person, next to Madeline as you entered in the church: he was a gorgeous boy of probably your age, if not slightly younger, with the most gorgeous curls you had ever seen, although they were covered in dirt as his whole body.

Moved by curiousness, you sat by him, gently smiling to Madeline, meanwhile you pushed a few dollars in the offering bucket, looking at the embarrassed boy and quickly suggesting to Madeline that a fellow Satanist was in need of help, freeing the boy of the old woman’s presence scooting lightly closer.

“Hey” he was lightly startled, and you tried to approach him carefully “… couldn’t help but notice that you are new, I am (Y/N)”.

You offered your hand as a way to test the waters and the stranger looked at it with a mixture of worry and uneasiness, as if he had come back from a long trip just to find that everything had changed, alongside his entire aspect showing he had gone through quite the trauma.

“… Michael” he didn’t accept your hand, but looked at you in the eyes, gripping his hand on his knees and you nodded.

“Is everything alright, Michael?” you asked, trying not to seem noisy, but you were definitely worried “… people don’t wander here, usually, without a specific reason”.

“Let’s just say that I am lost” he mumbled, his stare unfocused in front of him and you were even more worried.

“Everyone is lost, in this life, sadly we aren’t given an instruction manual” you explained softly and dared to reach out to grab one of his hands, managing to shift his attention to you, meanwhile you smiled softly “… it’s why life is such a beautiful trauma”.

Michael smirked sadly and looked at your joined hands, before he swiftly and surprisingly shot his eyes to meet yours and you were left dumbfounded by the intensity of his gorgeous eyes.

“And what made you wander here, (Y/N)?” he mumbled, his tone requesting only the truth and you were unable to deny it, blushing lightly and lowering your head.

“… my family has always believed in all this, I grow up to recognize this as something normal, but, between us…” you lowered your voice, and pushed yourself slightly closer to Michael, him slightly inching also closer, some part of him striving for human contact “… I am not really a believer, I haven’t sold my soul and neither I think about doing it”.

“Smart move” mumbled Michael, meanwhile his eyes shifted unfocused onto the altar, definitely trying to follow the ritual, but with no true interest “… Satan doesn’t give a fuck about us”.

“Neither does God” you replied, simply smirking sadly “… it is people that have to care for each other”.

You had always thought that, in the end, what mattered was what humans could create, on their own.

Hence why you chose to ask Michael if he needed a place to crash in.

He looked like a recently homeless person, maybe he had been thrown out of his house or maybe he had lost everything, but what was sure was that he needed somewhere to stay.

Michael shook his head lightly, again his eyes unfocused, and a slight shade of annoyance appearing in them, which changed in surprise as you proposed he actually came with you at your home.

“… you don’t have a place to stay and I have a comfortable bed and a shower, they might help you a bit, since the homeless rescues I know should be closed by now, sadly” you explained, meanwhile Michael looked at you definitely shook “… we could order pizza and watch a movie, you look like you might need a bit of comedy in your life”,

Michael looked at you, almost as if a miracle was happening in front of him, before a harsh expression appeared onto his face and he mumbled, annoyed:

“Why are you doing this?” he asked, confused, before he sat up to look at you in the eyes, searching desperately for something “… I am a complete stranger to you, and maybe a danger to you, you don’t know me!”.

“I’d like to think that if Destiny or Satan threw you at me, it is for a reason other than you being a danger to me…” and then you took a good look at his slim body “… and don’t take this as an insult, but… you look like you couldn’t even lift a penny from the ground, right now”.

“And how can I not know that you won’t take advantage of me?” this question broke your heart, because he seemed to speak from experience, not to talk about the frail shrill in his one “… all the people I have had around me did nothing more than take advantage of me”.

“… I know that swearing on something doesn’t matter much,,, but I swear I don’t want to do anything but help you, Michael”.

“It is difficult for me to believe that” he mumbled, and you were sure that you that he would have straight up refused, although it pained your heart to leave such an hurt soul “… but I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt, if you can add to that also some candies…”.

“Well then candy it is!”.

As soon as you arrived home you gave Michael some slippers you had stolen from a hotel not too long ago, which would fit him, and they were certainly more comfortable than the elegant but ruined shoes Michael wore.

Then you showed him the bathroom, explaining to him how the shower worked and where he could find some soap and other bathroom necessities, leaving him some privacy to him, as you moved away to collect some new clothes from your neighbor and tenant, Mrs. Roses, a noisy woman whose son had left her some clothes, before he went to college, for when he came back during the holidays.

She gave you quite the stare, as you moved away with a pile of clothes you hoped would fit Michael, but you simply justified that request as a ‘friend crashing in, since he had an appointment in the city, tomorrow’, a dashing and uncaring smile on your  face, meanwhile you blushed all the way back home, finding a shivering Michael wrapped loosely in a towel.

You immediately came to him, realizing that the old lady in the apartment over yours must have used all the hot water, and immediately gave Michael the fluffy clothes, warmed up by the atmosphere in your apartment.

“Oh, sweetheart, I am so so sorry! Mrs. Krystel must have washed her chihuahuas” you said, meanwhile he changed, hidden by the loosely closed door of the bathroom, his little shivers audible enough, and you were thankful that your apartment was always a bit too warm.

Thankfully dinner went better than the shower and not only the pizzas warmed up Michael a bit, but it was also an occasion to talk about some general stuff, Michael opening up a bit, explaining to you that he had lost a rather important person and his father had rejected him when he had searched for him.

Small tears escaped his eyes and you weren’t able to stop yourself from gently moving closer, with a tissue in your hand to help him collect himself, drying his tears and softly caressing his face, till his sobs quieted and he gently and loosely, hugged you, burying his face in your hair.

Although it was definitely strange and a bit unusual to hug a stranger, you weren’t able to deny him and gently cuddled him closer to your chest, softly kissing his forehead, as he clutched you closer, till you suggested to soothe his uneasiness with a bit of chocolate.

You then realized that he hadn’t been able to wash his hair and suggested you washed it for him.

“I am not going back in that shower!” he immediately shouted, as a cat scared of being given a bath.

You then proceeded to explain that he wouldn’t need to go back, and just filled a basin of hot water, making Michael immerge his hair into it, meanwhile he laid with his back to the table, a bit uncomfortable but he started basically purring as you began playing with his hair, combing them through your fingers and massaging his scalp with some hair lotion.

In the end he was putty enough in your hand, making you let out a laugh as he closed his eyes, halfway through sleeping, already.

“This is… rather enjoyable” he muttered as you smirked.

“I was sure you would feel like this… I honestly love when people play with my hair” you joked as you wrapped a towel around his hair to dry it, and as you waited you watched a movie, ‘The Holidays’ since you were feeling lightly Christmas-y and Michael giggled at the meeting between Graham and Amanda.

And meanwhile he was giggling, you heard him lightly moan in pain, something that made you turn lightly, looking at him worried, meanwhile he muttered a simply ‘everything is alright’.

But you didn’t trust him and gently touched his chest, feeling him take a deep hiss as your hand came down to a peculiar point, and Michael allowed you to raise his shirt so that you could examine it, a big bruise forming onto the right side of his lower torso, an horrible color, that made you almost wonder if the ribs under it hadn’t broken.

But Michael was adamant about not going to the hospital so the only thing you could offer him was a bit of comfort and ice, wrapped in a rag, which made him hiss, but you felt him relax, softly, even more as you again played with his damp hair.

You didn’t know what had made you take a stranger home.

Had it been his pretty eyes or the way he looked so desperate that you just felt like you had to cuddle him.

But you were glad you had, as you both fell asleep listening to each other’s breaths, on the couch.

It had been decidedly an amazing idea.

[bathroombreaks]

gg 1x02 rewatch

the questions are from @pynkhues, you can find them here.

1. What was your favourite scene of the episode? Tell us why!

that scene where ruby and stan are watching sara’s game. i love them so much!!! the look ruby gives him just ends me every time, it’s peak heart eyes. and sara answering back that no, they’re not winning is hilarious!!

2. Was there any scene that missed the mark for you? And if so, how?

no scene really missed the mark, i think?? but there’s some things that i thought were dumb and would like to talk about so i’ll just put them here: the girls should have just sold the collectibles themselves and given the gang the money. i know they didn’t remember for dumb plot related reasons but like... that’s no excuse, it’s stil dumb as hell. also the fact that annie took off her shoes because nancy wanted to keep the house clean and then immedeatly set them down on the dining room table!!!! that is not keeping things clean!!

3. This episode features Beth’s iconic! gamechanging! monologue! Do you think Rio was intending to kill the girls? And if so, at what point in Beth’s speech do you think he changed his mind?

yeah, absolutely, he was going to kill them. there was no reason not to?? i think he changed his mind when she talked about the hashtags?? it was completely dumb but also valid in a way. like, absolutely no one is going to start a hashtag because 3 women were murdered in a random home invasion but like it does bring up the point that at least the police would care about 3 suburban moms (especially when 2 are white) being murdered (way more than they would about someone who looks like him or one of his boys) and that’s more attention than he needs.

one note that doesn’t fit in anywhere else: i think maybe beth took the whole we have children thing she keeps doing from ruby?? ruby says it first when she decides they should ransom boomer and then again immediately when rio’s guys start breaking stuff. i think beth heard that and ran with it hahaha

4. This episode also introduces Marion to us! What do you think of her? And knowing how her story ends in 3.08, what do you think of her arc and her relationships with Boomer and Annie respectively?

uhhh i am conflicted. she’s a lonely old lady, i feel bad for her. but also she’s racist. i wouldn’t really condone robbing her. but also like they thought the options were rob her or die so i think beth should have taken the money. would they have gotten caught? probably, yes. but they would be alive!! but yeah coming back to marion, i really dislike the fact that annie was cool with eating with her and talking about her grandkids while ruby did all the work and then sought out a relationship with her all the while knowing she’s racist and only ended that friendship when marion personally betrayed her. it’s like that line from community, except modified, y’know: i can excuse racism, but i draw the line at lying to me. i don’t like it. and i don’t think they did enough to at least try to explore that side of it?? we got comments from ruby in 1x02 and then 3x08 but not much else, at least not that i remember. idk, i think at best it’s insensitive of annie not to consider that maybe her black best friend wouldn’t like that she’s friends with a racist woman, even if she’s a lonely old lady??

and when it comes to her dynamic with boomer. boomer really does like her and that’s sweet but he’s an asshole who was taking advantage of her and robbing her blind. it’s yet another case of a woman coddling a man. i like that in the end she stopped coddling him and forced him to do the right thing. i don’t really feel much one way or the other i guess?? we explore the mother figure coddles man-child dynamic with judith and dean too so i don’t think the show really loses anything by losing the boomer/marion dynamic.

5. Ruby has her only (so far at least) direct interaction with Rio in this episode! What do you think of that dynamic in this episode, and where would you like to see it go in the future?

first i wanna say that it’s very dumb that he and his boys somehow managed to walk in and sit down without her noticing. and i loved that she was so brave, going up to him. i guess i don’t have much to say?? she still seemed pretty scared of him in 2x10 and i don’t think that’s changed at all in season 3. i’d love to see how they’d interact now?? but i think it’ll probably be more of that. i would love for the girls to reach a point where they realise that he’s not going to murder them, because i’d love to see what kind of whacky, “no drugs up my butt“ type comments ruby would say then lolol

6. How do you think Beth and Annie got Boomer into the treehouse?

obviously magic. or one of them got up there, threw down some ropes, which they tied around his middle and then they pulled him up the slide with their amazing combined upper body strength. i know everyone emphasises that you can’t miss leg day, but beth and annie are all about arm day, clearly

7. This episode seems ambiguous about Greg and Nancy’s roles in Ben’s life up to this point. How long do you think Greg and Nancy have been together, and how close do you think Ben is with them at this point?

i have no idea. they did not explain this at all.  i guess they must have been married for at least like 2.5-3 years now?? because if she’s doing ivf then they must’ve tried before that. enough time needs to have passed since they married that they’d want kids, which i think would be at least like a year, maybe?? and then enough time for them to try and not be able to get pregnant and then do tests and start ivf. so yeah. 2.5-3 years.

edit: realised i didn’t talk about how close ben is with them. so... i have no idea what their custody agreement is like, but i assume annie is the primary caregiver and it’s more of a seeing each other on weekends and vacation type of thing?? either way, ben likes nancy and gregg. like i said, i think they’ve been together a good while so ben is used to nancy at this point, i think. and he probably thinks she’s sweet. because she is. and i think he probably does find annie’s scathing comments somewhat funny but he mostly goes along with it because he knows annie feels lonely without him, is jealous that gregg is much more put-together and has found himself a serious relationship and finds nancy’s comments off-putting and annoying. with season 2 in mind, i really don’t think nancy means anything by them, but i mean, it’s hard not to be annoyed when someone constantly accidentaly implies you’re not clean.

8. Do you think Beth ever went back (or thought about going back) for Dean’s grandmother’s ring?

uhmmm. no. maybe when he asked about it looking all sad and stuff but after that, no. it’s done, there’s no point thinking about it. “you get what you get and you don’t get upset” and all that jazz.

9. What do you think Stan was thinking when he woke up to Ruby making all those lasagnas? What do you think he was thinking when he, Sara and Harry ate so much of it?

i actually don’t think they ate that much of it tbh?? i don’t see them wasting food. and ruby did at least like 6 trays of lasagna. i didn’t count but she had a bunch already made and then was making more so at least 6. i think at most they ate 1 between them. they might’ve given the other trays to neighbours or something i guess?? but i kind of figured it was more like a symbolic thing and that they kept the rest of the trays in the freezer or something. and i think he probably figured she was back to freaking out and not believing that they were winning. you never know what happens, she could get sick or in a car accident or something. because what else could it be?? i mean if there wasn’t a gang wanting to kill them, i feel like the logical reason why you would do that would be if you were freaking out about your own mortality for non-gang related reasons

10. Has Beth ever seen a dick pic before?

maybe?? if annie got an unasked for dick pic i think she totally would show it to beth and ruby and make fun of the guy. but i don’t think she’s ever gotten one.

11. Is Greg still in love with Annie at this point in the series? Or does he fall in love with her again later in the season? Or not at all?

i have a hard time believing that gregg is love with annie at all?? he’s very in love with the idea of her, y’know the cute eyebrows and stuff, but i don’t really buy that he loves her. and like he needs to have been with nancy for years now at this point so if he’s still in love with annie that somehow makes him even more of an asshole in my eyes?? like i know he cheated. but it’s one thing if he cheated and fell back in love with annie (or thinks so, anyway) and then that didn’t workout and his wife has his kid so they decide to try and work through it, but it’s another thing entirely if he decided to marry nancy and start trying to have a kid with her while still (thinking he’s) in love with annie.

12. That! Hook! What do you think made Rio go back to Beth’s house? What do you think made him take a chance on her?

i think he decided to give her chance because she called him an idiot and he was intrigued by that (read, got a boner). and y’know all that stuff she said about p.f. chang’s and orange slices is true. and that is much easier to ignore than a guy who looks like him. and he figured he could take advantage of that and make that particular job a little easier this time.

[daleisgreat]

20 Years of PS2: Flashback Special

October 26th this year marked the 20th anniversary of the North American launch of the PlayStation 2 (PS2) and I am ready to commemorate it with another flashback special recounting my highlighted highs and lows with the system since its launch. Like with my previous console retrospectives I have un-vaulted a few of my older podcast episodes focused on the PS2 and uploaded them to YouTube that you can check out embedded at the bottom of this piece for your listening pleasure. One of those episodes was recorded around the then-10th anniversary of the PS2 in 2010 where we brought on two hosts from the PSnation podcast and we waxed nostalgic for three hours about our favorite PS2 games and memories. The episode proved to be our most downloaded ever to the point we had to purchase more web server space to handle the downloads. Now I think the best way to start off this special on the PS2 would be to remember that leading up to its October 26th, 2000 launch, that it was impossible to ignore….. ….The Hype The PS2 was the first Sony console I purchased. I never owned a PSone because our family opted with the N64 (of which I have no regrets and many great memories of), and by the time I got my first job a decent way into 1999 where I could afford a system with my own income, it was either heavily speculated at that point or confirmed the PS2 would be backwards compatible with PSone games. This was a big deal learning of this in 1999. Up until that point in America, backwards compatibility only hit consoles (excluding handhelds) in small waves with the limited Master System library working on the Genesis with an adaptor, and the under-performing Atari 7800 having back-compat built inside the hardware so it could play 2600 games. So for having the mega-successful PSone library being guaranteed to work on the PS2 on launch day sold me on saving my money on a PSone system and waiting for the PS2.

The other big selling point for the PS2 was that it would be the first game console in America to support DVD movies. DVD players first started hitting in America in 1997, but it was a very slow growth process for them because they remained at a high price point their first few years on the market, and VHS tapes were exponentially cheaper. For you younger kids growing up with streaming tech, I feel obligated to say how big a deal was that PS2 was able to play DVDs. When I first saw what DVDs could do in 1999 at a friend’s place I was blown away with no longer having to rewind tapes, being able to pick certain scenes to jump to, interactive menus, extra bonus features and the big jump in picture quality. This is also why Dominic Toretto and his motley crew were hijacking semis in the first Fast & Furious film in 2001 for their precious DVD player cargo. With the PS2 being able to play PSone games, having guaranteed third party support from most of the PSone game publishers, being able to play audio CDs (which were still a major seller in 2000) and DVDs all for the launch price of $299 made the system garner mammoth hype leading up to the October 26, 2000 launch. The Launch After instantly getting sold on DVDs at my friend’s place in 1999, I started to collect some of my favorite movies on DVD leading up to the PS2’s launch and by launch day I believe I had roughly a dozen movies already with some of my then-recent favorite films at the time like Fight Club, Go and Detroit Rock City being early DVD favorites. The console was the first game product I remember our local Software Etc. offering to pre-order, and I was able to pre-order early enough to confirm a system for me at launch, which was a relief after hearing how Sony announced shortly before the launch they would be reducing the amount of systems available at launch by half from one million to 500,000. I pestered a co-worker at the time, Troy, a couple months before launch if he would be able give me a ride to the store that day to pick it up since the store was opening early before school started and he gave me his word. I thought it was not going to happen when he quit where I worked a few weeks before the launch, but somehow I was able to figure out where his next job was at and called him up at his other job a couple days before the PS2 launch to see if he would still honor his word and he assured me so. I showed Troy many thanks by covering breakfast for him that morning!

22 games launched with the PS2, and despite the variety, there was never a ‘killer app’ on the PS2’s launch. Despite Sony being a powerhouse of a first party publisher on the PSone, they only had one game available for the PS2 at launch with the puzzle game, Fantavision. I have always felt the PS2 launch got an unfair look over the years, as indicated in this AV Club piece. While there was never one end-all-be-all game, there were still plenty of solid ‘fans of the genre’ titles in my opinion. Racing game fans were covered with Ridge Racer V, the original Midnight Club and MotoGP. Over the years I became a fan of the three launch PS2 tag-focused fighting games Street Fighter EX3, Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore and especially putting a ton of time into the first Tekken Tag Tournament. FPS fans had a solid port of Unreal Tournament, and the heavily anticipated TimeSplitters with the gaming press at the time hyping it up to be the GoldenEye-killer since a fair amount of the development team worked on that hit FPS title. EA Sports had their latest NHL and Madden entries at launch, and the first game under their “EA Sports BIG” label with the original SSX. I think it is forgotten at that time the gaming mags and early online gaming press outlets heralding SSX as the surprise best original game out of the PS2 launch. For myself all I wanted was TimeSplitters and Madden NFL 2001. I knew my friend and former podcast co-host, Chris would be picking up TimeSplitters, so I stuck with Madden and a memory card for my pre-orders. Troy and I got there an hour before the store opened, and only one other person was ahead of us in line, so we were in and out of there in a breeze….only after the store manager jipped me out of a memory card I pre-ordered because there was a shortage on those too, but apparently the manager got first priority on the several she pre-ordered and offered to sell me one outside the store. I asked if it would be for MSRP, and she just gave me a knowing grin, and I was not having any of that and said no thanks and was fine waiting for their call when their next shipment of memory cards arrived (which was only about a week later, and for Madden it was not that much to get worked up over).

Those first few months of the PS2 launch from late 2000 into early 2001 were a memorable time during my senior year of high school. I played a plethora of Madden NFL 2001 against my neighbor friend Rich, and my brother-in-law, Shawn. I watched the hell out of those first dozen DVDs and threw in a few random PSone games I picked up too. Chris picked up several PS2 games at launch and for about two weekends a month I met up with him and the two primary games we played were TimeSplitters and Tekken Tag. The original TimeSplitters blew us away with its customization options for FPS multiplayer with being able to play against a huge variety of bots and in-depth level creation editors. We would create a map where we started in a room with all the ammo and weapon pickups, and a sea of mindless bots would march down a lengthy hallway to enter a room where we would be anticipating their entrance so they could rush into a hasty demise. I totally devoured Tekken Tag with Chris and got into its roster of characters and tag-style fighting, and especially its five star bowling mini-game, Tekken Bowl. Chris’s family had access to purchase bulk boxes of those rectangular bricks of school cafeteria pizza, and I have nostalgic memories putting away that delicious pizza while consuming the PS2 launch window games. Early-through-Summer 2001: My First Apartment Three Blocks Away From a Blockbuster Video As the months wore on after the launch window, the only early 2001 game I really enjoyed was the PS2 port of Quake III, even with its ridiculous loading times! For not having a powerhouse PC at that time, it was a fun alternative to experience the deathmatch chaos that was dominating the PC scene at the time. In the spring I got Onimusha: Warlords, and while I was digging the samurai/zombie action, the Capcom tank controls eventually got the best of me and I had to step away from it after a few hours. It was not until well into the summer of 2001 that I started experimenting more with the PS2 library when I got my first apartment with my friend Matt. We lived a few blocks away from a Blockbuster Video and so we made frequent trips there on weekends chancing random games that popped out to us. We did not have a computer at our place, and the high-speed Internet era was about another year or two from catching on, so that was one of the last years you could really just chance a game by going by the box and from whatever was available in print at the time.

Capcom debuted two classic single player franchises in the first year of the PS2 in the forms of Devil May Cry (left) and Onimusha: Warlords (right) We rented plenty of stuff throughout the remainder of 2001. Some titles like the quirky action/adventure game, Okage, was decent, but nothing remarkable. Others we ate up like Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance, where it perfectly encapsulated the addicting hack ‘n slash, action-RPG loot-fest gameplay of the acclaimed PC Diablo series on console. We took turns passing the controller progressing away at the stylistic action title Devil May Cry, which blew us away back then. Speaking of stylistic Capcom titles, we re-busted out Onimusha and I witnessed Matt get past my hang-ups and go on to blitz through it. It recently got remastered on PS4/Xbox One and worth checking out if you have yet not. Summoner was a so-so fantasy themed action game, but we were looking at the options screen for that game and for whatever reason we decided to check out the credits from the options. After a minute of that we realized this was a waste of time and pressed the X button to proceed on out of there, and instead were bamboozled at the following bonus cinematic it unlocked. We must have watched it at least four or five times throughout the day, because we got more out of that sketch than Summoner itself. It was a radio skit that was CG animated for this game and kind of went on to have some notoriety in gaming circles, but if you are unaware than I will encourage you to click or press here to experience it for yourself. Holiday 2001: A Flurry of All-Time Classics Arrive

The fall of 2001 was a big quarter for PS2. Several classic exclusives hit that holiday season for it. Metal Gear Solid 2 was the first entry in the series I played. Matt and I rented it, but its stealth-focused gameplay was too much for us at the time and both us kept messing up sneaking through the speech scene near the end of the opening boat mission. It would be over a decade before I revisited it and finally played through it in its entirety off the PS3 HD collection of the PS2 and PSP games. I loved both Sons of Liberty and Snake Eater, but I would have to give the nudge in favor to Snake Eater with its superb origin story, nonstop 007-homages, an extraordinary ladder climb like no other, one of the best theme songs in videogame history and one of the best final boss battles in videogame history too. The first of many yearly WWF/WWE games hit in fall of 2001 with WWF Smackdown: Just Bring It. We had the multi-tap, and for that game it greatly benefitted because it became a hit with our neighbor friends where we would play a seemingly infinite amount of Royal Rumbles and Survival elimination matches. I threw it in again a few days ago to prep up for this and to relive the dozen zany created wrestlers that still lived on in my save file. The graphics have come a long way I can say for sure! Twisted Metal: Black was a big deal for Matt and I at the time. The gritty, M-rated cutscenes for each character’s opening, middle and ending cinemas that were unlocked from their story mode completions inspired Matt and I to play through the story mode in co-op with every single character. Thankfully the game saved the cinemas unlocked, because Matt and I were so impressed by how they stood out at the time that we forced them upon several friends that stopped by over the coming weeks. Gameplay-wise, it was a well-refined, straightforward Twisted Metal car combat game, but its M-rated makeover from the T-rated PSone entries struck a chord with us.

Speaking of M-rated games that were huge for us that year, that was when Grand Theft Auto III released and changed the gaming landscape as we know it. I was vaguely familiar with the first two games, but with the third one having 3D gameplay and a more expansive open world, it seemed like it would be a surefire hit, and boy was it ever. I loved SimCopter on PC (an early 3D open world game), and the gaming mag previews gave me the impression that it would be SimCopter, but with guns and violence, and it delivered on that front in spades. I dug its primary narrative for it too, but I think it is safe to say that I was like nearly everyone else and eventually wound up having more fun getting lost and immersed in Liberty City’s world and eventually causing so much mayhem just to see how long I could hold up against a five star wanted rating. 2002: Highs and Lows The early months of 2002 I recall was when I kept going back to those same fall 2001 games I just broke down, but later came around on going all in on those aforementioned PS2 fighting games. I picked up a copy of Tekken Tag for myself around this time and invested a lot of time into it. I took a chance on Street Fighter EX3 and after getting over the initial awkwardness of a 3D-based Street Fighter game I got crazy into EX3 with its devastating meteor attacks, optional tag team fighting and its colorful cast of characters such as the affable Skull-o-Mania! This was right when Guilty Gear X released too and I absolutely ate up that title with it upping the WTF quotient like no other fighter before it. Its unique roster performed all kinds of bizarre attacks, and learning its intricate control systems with complex mechanics like instant kill maneuvers and ‘roman cancels’ had me studying its manual for days!

In late spring of 2002 I moved out of my first apartment so my renting marathons with Matt were over, but shortly-thereafter I landed my first sort-of major gaming press gig. I was independently submitting reviews to GameFAQs for a few years at this point, and the management at the website Game 2 Extreme (G2X) contacted me to coming on board and said while they would not pay me, they would offer me free review copies of games. As a freshly turned 19 year-old, I looked at this as an opportunity to bigger and better things and jumped on it. I will never forget the very first review copy I received for the so-so monster truck driving game, Monster Jam: Maximum Destruction. I spent the rest of the decade jumping to different websites to write for every couple years and lost track of all the titles I got to review. I can attest for the PS2 there was a wide range in quality of titles I received to review. For some of the higher performing games like SOCOM III, Hitman 2 and Star Wars: Battlefront I was able to review, there were bottom of the barrel licensed titles like Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly and Hard Rock Casino to balance things out. Also around this time of mid-2002 my PS2 became my first console to brick on me. Worst of all, it was a gradual, painful death. First, it stopped reading blue-disc games on CD-ROMs, and then it started getting sketchy performance out of certain silver-disc games on DVD-ROMs. My brother at this time had his own PS2 that he won in a local grocery store contest a few months earlier. The PS2 network adaptor coincidentally came out in mid-2002 as well and he was freaking addicted to playing the original SOCOM online all the time. I did not want to shell out $300 for another system so I believe after testing that SOCOM still worked fine on my degrading PS2 I offered to trade my breaking-down PS2, for his newer model for $100 and the condition that if my system I was trading to him would stop playing SOCOM that I would go back on the trade. Thank goodness that never came to be, and as an impressionable 19-year-old at the time I became kind of bitter to the PS2 for a few years with it being the first system I purchased to break down on me. A few years later though after having a couple 360s and my PS3 also all brick on me, I later came to accept that sometimes these systems go bad, especially when getting the first wave of systems rushed through manufacturing in time for launch. For the last two game console generations I have since waited a couple years after each system launch to purchase it in hopes of the console’s manufacturing process being less prone to producing faulty hardware. Sports-ball Love There was a ton of sports games on PS2 and I was lucky to review a lot of them. The football titles in particular I had to plead with editors not to trim down on 3000+ word counts because I exclaimed how the readers wanted to know each and every little detail of what was improved and added in the latest game. I had fun reviewing some of Midway’s arcade sports offerings that generation with NFL Blitz 20-02 and MLB Slugfest: Loaded. Another quirky arcade baseball game was 2K endorsing Konami to release MLB Power Pros in North America. It was a cartoony, cel-shaded baseball game that saw adorable pint-sized versions of MLB players duking it out, but fleshed out with in-depth single player modes. On the PSone I was happy to see Arena Football finally receive its own videogame, and on the PS2, EA acquired the license and released two AFL games that were faithful renditions of the sport, especially the second game that added both AFL divisions. They were sadly the last games released to get the AFL branding as the long running indoor football league finally folded operations last year after a 30-year run.

Two under-the-radar sports series I recommend tracking down on the PS2 are the Power Pros and Arena Football games. I played almost all of the 2K games on Xbox, but as I mentioned above I played a lot of Madden and NCAA Football on PS2 because the PS2 versions had exclusive online support for a couple years, and additionally because of my rivalry with my brother-in-law, Shawn. This generation saw both of EA’s football games explode in popularity and it was no longer apparent the NCAA game was the NFL title slapped with college teams and rules over it. Shawn and I played a lot of Madden at first, but eventually shifted over to the NCAA games more, with the 2003 and 2004 editions we especially played to death. I liked the variety of teams and unique playbooks, and found myself picking Navy a lot because of their unorthodox playbook that focused on fullback running plays. Shawn only played the football games to the point where I could hardly compete with him. One priceless memory of mine was having an awful game full of turnovers and pick-6s, and I swear to god I am not embellishing this: we were playing five minute quarters and it got to the point I wanted a moral victory to avoid a shutout and make one score, and somehow luck struck on one play where I connected on a deep throw in the final minutes of the game and proceeded infuriate my brother-in-law as I celebrated as if I won the game. I understood his frustrations because I will forever remember the final score of that game: 100-6. A Terrific Twilight The PS2 sold so well into the 360/PS3/Wii generation that its cross-gen viability lead to a regular slate of games releasing through 2009-ish, and a handful of sports titles sneaking out after that with the final PS2 game, Pro Evolution Soccer 2013, being released in North America in 2012. If you were keeping up with release schedules, you will notice that two types of games dominated the PS2 in its cross-gen years. One were ports of PSP games from Sony, with titles like Motorstorm: Arctic Edge and the pair of Syphon Filter games getting ported up to the PS2. The Wii was technologically not that far advanced from the PS2, so a lot of cash-cow licensed games on Wii also got ported to PS2 with titles like X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Ghostbusters being completely different playing games by other developers when compared to the bigger budget versions on the 360 and PS3. Some PS2 exclusives also snuck out in this timeframe like the first two Katamari titles and the first two Guitar Hero games. I was a big fan of both games and invested serious time into both series. There are many fond holiday 2005 moments of passing the guitar around to family members trying to best each other’s high scores.

I recall being stoked that the PS2 became the first home console in North America to get an official FirePro Wrestling game with 2007’s FirePro Wrestling Returns. I remember speaking to some of the people working for its publisher, Agetec, at E3 and how excited they were that they finally got Sony to loosen up on its restrictions of releasing 2D games on the system now that the PS2 was in its waning years. Another hit stealth PS2 release from this time was Silent Hill: Shattered Memories that hit America in early 2010. I had a friend visiting from out of town that was huge into the series, but was unaware of this PS2 entry and so we stayed up all night deep diving into that unique take on the series. The first two Yakuza games hit late in the PS2’s lifecycle and I was especially eager to play them because they were being hyped as spiritual successor’s to the Shenmue games that I ranked so high. I played a good ways into the first Yakuza, but recall getting stuck at a funeral escape stage in that game, and unfortunately never got back to it. Yakuza 3 on PS3 is the only title in the series I finished, and now with the Kiwami remakes of the first two games I need to one day just dedicate a year to only playing the many Yakuza games that have since released. MISC Memories -I never got too invested into the online PS2 scene. Usually that was because my brother was always using the PS2 to play SOCOM online a lot. I would use it from time to time to test out online play for games I was reviewing, with Star Wars: Battlefront and SOCOM 3’s online play standing out the most of what I reviewed. I do recall taking up Sony on its mail-in offer for a free copy of Twisted Metal: Black – Online with purchase of the PS2 network adaptor and having fun online in that for a couple weeks. My brother got the PS2 version of Final Fantasy XI, and I briefly dabbled in that for a couple hours, and it was interesting at that time playing an MMO on a console with a controller. The original Xbox had a significantly better online interface with Xbox Live, so that became my preferred console online play option. Only exception to this was for the 2003/2004 installments of Madden and NCAA Football because EA Sports held off on implementing online play for their Xbox games for a couple years, and that was key for me opting in on their PS2 versions when both of those football titles were surging in popularity and lead to the most consistent online play I did with PS2.

-There were so many PS2 games being released in its heyday from 2001-2006 that I would take random payday visits to Best Buy when they had gargantuan videogame aisles in hopes of discovering games I never heard of from smaller label publishers. This worked out both ways in learning of little known ‘hidden gems’ of that era, and eventually finding utter trash. -One odd peripheral I received for review was the PS2 ‘Clash Pads.’ It was a pair of controllers that were connected together with a little accessory box that had switches to give your gaming partner/opponent advantages and disadvantages for gameplay. The controller was a mess to operate, and the added perks and penalties it implemented were mind-boggling. I will instead recommend Namco’s light gun for the Time Crisis games….but only if you still have a standard-def TV. -Popular in the retro gaming scene lately is HDMI cables for retro game consoles to up-convert a system’s signal to HD and provide a much improved looking display than the muddy, watered down graphics that would result when plugging in composite cables into an HDTV. I picked up the HDMI PS2 cables from Pound last year, and they worked nicely on my slim PS2. I understand there are more expensive alternatives out there that yield noticeably better results, but for $30, the Pound cables provided enough of a bump up in quality for me.

-I busted out several games over the past week to prep up for this flashback special. I was finally able to play my copy of the BMX title, Downhill Domination and regretted not trying it out sooner. I had a blast revisiting a couple old favorites in Rumble Racing and Motorstrom: Arctic Edge. Wish I could have tried out more games, but the PS2 was giving me ‘read disc errors’ with half of my attempts and I could not determine if it was the HD cables causing this or if it was the PS2 itself simply aging out. -I touched on a couple wrestling games on the PS2 already, but as a whole I would give the slate of wrestling games for the PS2 in America a hearty thumbs up. I believe I played the entirety and unlocked everything from all the first-run SmackDown games on PS2. When firing up Just Bring It again, I cracked a smile because I completely forgot Fred Durst was a playable character, complete with “Rollin’” for his entrance theme. FirePro Wrestling Returns was a long anticipated console debut for the franchise in America. Multi-platform games I played on other systems like the car-combat spinoff, WWE Crush Hour and the pair of Backyard Wrestling games were fun alternative wrestling games to take a break from the annual core WWE game. Yes, there was a car combat WWE game, and it is surprisingly halfway-decent. I picked up the PS2 version of TNA Impact, but it was a victim of the ‘disc read error’ from the past week. Ditto with the Ultimate MUSCLE-licensed Galactic Wrestling. I picked that one up long ago, but never played it all these years and was stoked to sit down with it on a couple occasions this past week to play it, but alas it was not meant to be.

-A game that was able to load on the PS2 this past week was Namco Bandai’s The Fast and the Furious. It turned out to be an ok-open world street racing game, much like Need for Speed: Underground on the PS2, but with more of a focus on drag races. Odd memory of the day I picked up this game I will never forget: I was out of town for a hockey game killing time at a pawn shop a couple hours beforehand with a buddy where I randomly bought this with a handful of other games. In a gut-punch of irony, it was later after the game while re-fueling on gas, I was catching up on my timelines when I found out earlier that day was when Paul Walker perished. -Another game I was hoping to throw in this past week was 24: The Game. I am a huge fan of the show, and I remember playing a demo of it at E3 2005 and thinking it was surprisingly alright for a licensed-based game. Sadly, that disc was also a victim of the ‘disc read error’ message, so instead I will point everyone to this highly entertaining spoof video review you can see by click or pressing here from then-GameSpot staff member, Alex Navarro.

-Speaking of PS2 games based off licensed TV properties, I want to shout out The Shield: The Game. It was a very by-the-numbers third person action game, and featured unremarkable gameplay, but having the show’s cast well represented visually and aurally in the form of voiceovers was enough to quench my fandom for that show. Despite the five out of ten I gave it in my review at the time, if you were a ardent fan of The Shield, then it was just something you had to play. -I am a big fan of the PS2 slim, but it is worth mentioning a major caveat of the slim: it does not support the PS2 multi-tap for reasons perplexing me to this very day!

-It is almost a prerequisite that I purchase faithful videogame conversions of my favorite board games and TV game shows every console generation and the PS2 was no exception. It had an adequate version of Risk with multi-tap support which was a semi-worthy substitute when we were not up for setting up the board game. Its versions of Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune had a bountiful amount of hosting video clips from Trebek and Vanna, respectively, to perfectly capture the look and feel of the show. The PS2’s version of Family Feud however is easily the worst version I have ever played. Insanely short entry response times, unresponsive button inputs and overall clunky design forever marred the Family Feud brand! Looking back at my review I am guffawed that I scored this a six out of ten. -The last fighting game I was really into on PS2 than the others previously mentioned was Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution. I first played it at Chris’s place like how he introduced me to most other fighting games, and Chris would school me at it nonstop. A short while later, I was staying over at my sister and brother-in-law’s place where they also had that game. I stayed up late after they went to bed and spent hours mastering Wolf since he was the sole pro-wrestler of the roster. Next time I met up with Chris I finally won ONE match against him, but after that he refused to play me again!

-Now while I gushed earlier of my adoration for TimeSplitters during the launch window of PS2, I would be remiss if I did not give some well-earned props to the third game in the series, TimeSplitters: Future Perfect. In the past several years, that game has remained in the rotation of go-to couch multiplayer game with my friends Derek, Brooke and Ryan. It retains the same style of FPS gameplay and creation options as the first game, but now with a ton of extra characters, weapons and levels available. My preferred playlist would be rocking the disco level with its appropriate theme music, and playing as a big bear (complete with bear claw strike!) and whamming everyone with gigantic bananas on the dance floor. Classic times! One of the Best Systems Ever? That is what hardware sales and overall critical reception trend to be when looking back at the PS2. While I now look back fondly at the PS2 as a whole, especially my first two years owning the system, I cannot deny for a few years in the system’s heyday I was not too keen on the system due to it bricking on me and preferred playing games on Xbox and GameCube instead. Like I stated above, I came around on this a few years later and had a blast with the PS2 in its cross-gen sunset years, and revisited its vast library numerous times over the years. While I cannot say it is my personal, all-time favorite console, I can safely rank it among my top tier of favorite systems.

If you want even more PS2 nostalgia coverage from me, then check out the three PS2-centric episodes of my podcast I have un-vaulted from my personal archives and embedded below. Right now I have my general all-encompassing PS2 retrospective I recorded on its 10th anniversary and the PS2/Xbox/Wii installment of the history of comic book videogames episode uploaded. Finishing it off is the PS2 installment in our history of RPG videogames series.

This episode has special guest hosts from the PSnation podcast where we deep dive for three hours of nostalgic memories of the PS2.

Matt and I spare no expense at elucidating on every major and minor comic book game on the PS2.

Just over three hours we spend breaking down nearly every RPG to hit the PS2! My Other Gaming Flashbacks Dreamcast 20th Anniversary GameBoy 30th Anniversary Genesis 30th Anniversary NES 35th Anniversary PSone 25th Anniversary PSP 15th Anniversary and Neo-Geo 30th Anniversary Saturn and Virtual Boy 25th Anniversaries TurboGrafX-16 30th Anniversary and 32-X 25th Anniversary

You’re Still Here!?

Somehow you still made it to the end of another tome of a flashback special from me, so that means I must reward you with an oddball PS2 anecdote of my past! I referenced in past specials how I attended several retro videogame conventions that took place every year in Milwaukee - The Midwest Gaming Classic. At the time the podcast known as Team Fremont Live would always host Jeopardy-style game show each year. My brother and I were picked to be contestants that year! To spice things up for the crowd and get them involved, after every few questions of trivia there would be a quick videogame challenge for extra points and prizes for the crowd and/or contestant. I got picked to play a single stage of the space shooter/shmup, Castle Shikigami 2. Two incredibly loud kids got picked from the crowd got selected to only verbally trash talk and distract me, and if I lost one life then the kids would get a game, but if I somehow overcame the odds and finished a level on a single life then I would win. Now I enjoy playing an occasional shmup, especially in March (it is intergalactic Shmuppreaction month, ya’know!), but I nowhere consider myself legitimately good at the genre and usually lose at least a couple lives a level for almost any shooter I play. Somehow the shmup gods were on my side that day, because even with one of those kids unleashing maximum effort with trash talk directly against my ear, I somehow zoned them out and unbelievably managed to finish the stage and beat the boss with one life. I was at zenith-level of goosebumps during that boss battle and had a cool-down moment of emotions as soon as let go of the arcade stick. My prize? Metal Gear Solid 2, which I would eventually give a serious effort to and finish several years later! That moment, along with the 100-6 loss in NCAA Football 2004, are my two most cherished PS2 moments I will forever remember….and now you can too, because the MGC staff record my attempt and posted it on YouTube. I have embedded it below, or you can click or press here to see it yourself.

[iamthechocobabe]

We All Have Battle Scars

HOORAY! I SSSSSSSSSSSSUCK! *snake snake, slither slither* I wanted to have our ‘lovebirds’ get to know each other for a bit before drama started, so here we are! Enjoy the smooth sailing while it lasts. >;D

AU based on: We Intertwined

We All Have Battle Scars ~Chapter 11~ SFW Word Count:2,867

A few days had gone by before Prompto could go back to the Outpost and of course, it was after the Regalia had been taken by the Empire-he, Ignis, Gladiolus and Noctis all showed up looking completely disheartened with no Regalia in sight. Prompto, who normally would have gone to the Chocobo’s, now looked like his hair, droopy and sad. However, Prompto couldn't help but perk up when he noticed Alaea brushing a Chocobo's feathers and smiled at her, though the smile didn't reach his eyes. 

"What happened?" Alaea asked as the four approached. 

"Regalia's gone," Gladiolus informed her as the four sat down at the table at the restaurant. "The Empire came and took the car-we had to walk back," 

Alaea frowned in confusion and raised an eyebrow, having a hard time believing the Empire would do something so simple and silly. "They...they impounded your car?" 

"Pretty much," Noctis said. "So, we're kind of stranded. Is there room in the caravan?" 

"Sure thing, I'll even talk to my dad about letting you guys having a discount-don't worry about food, dinner's on us," 

"You've already been too generous with your food," Ignis said but Alaea shrugged him off. 

"Please, it's the least I can do, especially after all you guys have done for us," 

Leaving to find her dad, Prompto went ahead and followed Alaea, feeling like he hadn't seen her for weeks even though it had only been a few days. Alaea looked over her shoulder and smiled brightly, completely at peace as she continued to walk. "You following me?" 

"You're just so easy to follow," Prompto said with a smile. "What can I say?" 

Alaea giggled and then stopped to face Prompto. She looked more at ease compared to their first date, when she looked too nervous to speak. Then again, he'd been just as nervous. "How long do you think you're gonna stay?" 

Prompto scratched his head and sighed, not sure about the answer. "I don't really know, to be honest. We're kind of out of luck without a car and Noctis is really reluctant to move on without the Regalia. We've got a few friends looking to see where the Empire took it, but it could be awhile," 

"It's just a car-couldn't you just rent a new car or use our handy-dandy and trusty Chocobo service?" 

"Probably," Prompto sighed and explained. "But the Regalia's really important to Noct...it was his dad's car," 

Alaea, now understanding, nodded slightly and smiled. "Well, I'm sure the Chocobos will be happy to have you," 

Leaning forward, Prompto nudged Alaea with his shoulder. "Just the chocobos?" 

Alaea rolled her eyes and nudged him back. "Don't push your luck,"

A few weeks had gone by without word about the Regalia's whereabouts and Alaea couldn't say she was complaining. After the initial phase of nervousness ended, being with Prompto felt so easy and fun. When Prompto and the rest weren't filling requests from random citizens to fill their own boredom, Prompto was spending every possible second with Alaea and she'd be lying if she said she wasn't enjoying it. 

She also got to know Ignis, Gladiolus and Noctis pretty well, too. At nighttime, the five would sit outside the caravan, either playing cards or Prompto would teach Alaea how to play King's Knight on his phone. They all talked about their lives in the Crown City, their hobbies, etc. while Alaea talked about how she wanted to travel someday, but would always be able to come back home to her father and the Chocobo's. 

It was honestly the most fun Alaea had in years; working at the Outpost was fun and of course, Alaea loved the Chocobo’s, but even Alaea had to admit that the repetition had begun to get boring. Having the prince and his entourage stay at the Outpost was like a breath of fresh air. 

Alaea was even starting to really enjoy hanging out with Prompto...a lot. 

She realized just how much she enjoyed his presence that night, when Alaea was in her room, looking at a photo Prompto had taken of her with the rest of the group playing King's Knight. The photo showed Alaea, frowning in confusion while Gladio was showing her exactly what to do to help her win while Noctis was informing the two that they were cheating by helping each other. 

Fiddling with the gold pendant in her other hand, she folded corner of the picture gently, her mind full about how she felt about Prompto. Alaea had spent most of her life assuming that no one would ever look past her scar to want to be with her...did Prompto want to be with her? He had said so, but...

Alaea couldn't stop wondering whether or not he would stay. 

A soft knock at the door made Alaea put the picture back in the box with other mementos she liked to keep and shoved the box back under her bed.  "Come in," she said after putting the necklace away in a jewelry box on her bookshelf, figuring it was her dad. 

Alaea was shocked when Prompto himself walked in, especially since it was almost 11 o'clock at night; he put his fingers to his lips to shush her and quickly came in and shut the door quietly. 

"My dad likes you, Prompto. You want that to continue?" Alaea whispered. She was trying to contain her laughter in order to be quiet, but she was having difficulty doing so. 

"I know, I know, but I really wanted to show you this picture I just took of Noctis. He was snoring really loud and his mouth was hanging open and oh, man, the drool coming from this kid was-" Prompto stopped suddenly and began looking around the room with his eyes open wide. "Oh. my. gods." 

Alaea started blushing and got off her bed to start shoving at Prompto. "Get out, dork," 

"But...Chocobo’s! Chocobo’s everywhere!" Over the years, Alaea had collected all Chocobo related souvenirs that her dad had sold at the gift shop and decorated her room with them. Naturally, she had Chocobo related everything, pillows, sheets, etc. The yellow from the Chocobo souvenirs was complimented with bright blue curtains decorating the one window in her room and a bright blue net hung over her twin bed, so Alaea felt like she was partially hidden from the world when sleeping. Her desk had everything Chocobo related as well, with a few music books and her metronome that gathered dust over the years and silly tourist props from Altissia and Tenebrae.  

"This is the best room ever," Prompto said, playing with a stuffed baby Chocobo doll on Alaea's dresser. "No one can tell me otherwise," 

Alaea grabbed the stuffed doll from Prompto and tossed it back onto the dresser. "No one besides my dad has seen the inside of my room before," 

Prompto smiled as he continued to look around. "Not even Libby?" 

"No, but believe me, she tried when we were younger," 

Nodding, Prompto noticed the shoe box sticking out from under the bed. "What's that?" 

Alaea blushed a little, but still pulled the shoe box out and set it on the bed. "My grandma had Alzheimer's disease-my dad's a firm believer that stuff like that skips every generation, so he has me keep a box of mementos under my bed that has a bunch of stuff that I collected when I was growing up. That way, when I'm older and if I start to forget, all I have to do is look at these items and hopefully, I'll start to remember," 

Prompto smiled and sat on the bed. "Can I look?" 

Alaea glanced down, letting her hair fall on the left side of her face to cover up her shyness. Having Prompto see the memories of her life made her feel nervous, but they did agree to try and get to know each other better. What better way then to take a trip down memory lane together? 

Nodding her permission, Prompto started to sort through the items-most of them were just memories of key moments in her life, such as her school graduation tassel, some photos of music recitals, etc. Prompto pulled out a photo of her at one recital; she was ten years old in the picture, wearing her school uniform of a navy blue jumper, white blouse, white knee socks and mary-jane shoes. She was center stage and bowing to the audience after her performance, her then chin-length short hair falling in her face. 

"Is this some kind of performance?" 

Alaea nodded. "Yeah, I used to sing in school; I must not have been that bad because they let me perform at the concerts for the whole school," 

"You sing? Sing something!" 

Alaea rolled her eyes and blushed. "I haven't sang in six years, I'm out of practice," 

"Don't pull those cheesy lines from the movies out on me-why'd you stop?" 

Alaea paused before deciding to tell the truth, even though she knew it was starting to sound like a self pity-party. "I got sick of the parents who were constantly complaining to the school that they didn't want me to perform-they didn't want the girl with the scar ruining their child's perfect night," 

Prompto groaned and stood up, looking at the Chocobo figures on one of her bookshelves. "We have got to get these people around here to loosen the fuck up," 

Giggling, Alaea agreed. "No arguments there," 

Glancing behind the bookshelf, Prompoto noticed a small stack of canvases tucked neatly away with a box of paints nearby. Excited, he looked at Alaea like she was just full of surprises. "You paint, too? Now, these I have to see!" 

"Wait, no, don't touch those!" 

Too late-Prompto had pulled out one of the paintings and stared at it with wonder at first, then it slowly morphed into surprise, then confusion. "Wow...that's...uh..."

Alaea grabbed the canvas and shoved it back where it belonged. "I know it's bad," 

"No, no, it's not," Prompto argued. "I think it's a great painting of a Chocobo," 

Alaea groaned in frustration and hid her face in her hands. "It was supposed to be my dad," 

Prompto paused, looked back at the paintings and then bit his lip to stop himself from laughing. "It...it could be worse..." Alaea threw a pillow at him and he started laughing, but they were quiet laughs because he didn't want to wake Wiz up and that just made him laugh even more. "Okay, okay, they're pretty bad," 

Alaea laughed with him. "I like painting-I know I'm no good at it, but it's something I really enjoy. I think I just like turning my brain off and painting random things that come to mind. Yeah, it looks like a five year old scribbles, but it helps me de-stress," 

Prompto smiled his devilish smile and held up his camera. "Picture time," 

Alaea immediately forced herself between the portraits and Prompto. "Don't you fucking dare," 

Prompto took the opportunity to snap a photo of Alaea looking feisty, irritated, but also happy. "I'm telling your dad you owe money to the swear jar," 

"Gods, Prom!" Alaea tried to wrestle the camera from his hands, but they both wound up hitting the bookshelf and Alaea's old Chocobo jewelry box fell on the floor. They tried to hide their giggles as they picked up the jewelry spilled on the ground and put it away, Prompto, trying to be careful, found a gold pendant attached to a chain with a blue gemstone in the center and whistled softly. 

"This is pretty-where'd you get it?" 

Prompto handed her the necklace and Alaea fiddled with it gently and sat back down on the bed. "It was my mom's. The night she left, she dragged me out of bed at three o'clock in the morning and drove me to Coernix station, even though it was dangerous to travel there at night. When I was there, she told me she was gonna go to the bathroom..." Alaea stopped and took a deep breath. 

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to,"  

"No, I want to," Alaea let out her breath and continued. "She never came back. She left a four year old stranded at a gas station with no way to contact her dad, since we didn’t have a phone back then. Luckily, one of the gas station workers recognized me and was able to call my dad so he could come get me," 

Prompto looked at Alaea, filled with shock. "That's...a little fucked up," 

Alaea moved the pendant back and forth between her hands, as she often did when she knew her dad had gone to bed. She had never told anyone this before, but she felt so at ease with Prompto that it was all just...spilling out. 

"I always kept this because I've always wondered...hoped...that maybe the reason she took me with her that night was because she wanted to take me with her. Because that means...that meant maybe she wanted me, right? Something happened that obviously made her change her mind, but for awhile, she wanted to take me with her," 

Alaea glanced in the shoe box, particularly the folder that had her hospital records from when she got burned. "I guess she wouldn't want me now, right?" 

Prompto followed her gaze and noticed her looking at the hospital records. He gently pulled her hair away from the left side of her face so he could look into her eyes, showing her that there was no need to hide herself from him. "Her loss then, right?" 

Alaea felt her face flush when she saw the intense look Prompto was giving her. When Prompto looked at her, Alaea felt like he was telling her that she was the most beautiful person in Eos and she was so unused to the feeling of being beautiful that it scared her. Alaea felt her inner self panic, scared to death that Prompto was expecting her to kiss him, but she didn't have to worry about it. 

"You mentioned once that you and I met when we were younger and how I was a lot chubbier then," Prompto said. Alaea nodded, so he continued. "I was pretty overweight all growing up, actually. People would make mean remarks to me as well and I didn't have many friends, my parents were never around...junk food was really my only comfort. One day, I helped this puppy and it turned out that it was the puppy to the Oracle, Lady Lunafreya. She insisted I try to befriend Noctis, so I approached him," 

"That was brave," Alaea mumbled. "I don't know what I would do in that situation," 

"You're interuppting," Prompto teased. 

"Right, sorry. Go ahaed," 

"Anyway, I stumbled a bit and Noctis tried to help, but remarked that I was 'heavy'. I started to think that being overweight was the reason I didn't have friends and sometimes even wondered if the reason my parents were never around was because I was overweight. So, I started losing weight and by the time I was in high school, I felt confident enough to approach Noctis. You know what? I don't think he even cared," 

Prompto touched the skin above his armpit, showing it to Alaea and that was the first time Alaea noticed the faint stretch marks that were underneath his arms. It was almost private, like Prompto was showing a piece of himself that he rarely showed to anyone. "I know what it's like to be ridiculed by other people, but I realized that the reason I didn't have friends wasn't because I was overweight...it was because I became convinced that no one would like me and assume they would reject me, so I stopped trying to be accepted," 

Alaea looked up at Prompto. She was beginning to see his point-Libby was always really nice to her but for some reason, Alaea would always walk away, bitter about something that had happened when they were just kids. Was Alaea rejecting people out of fear of being rejected herself? "I think I do the same thing..." 

Prompto smiled and tapped Alaea on the tip of the nose with his finger. "I'm sure there are a lot of people who are cruel, but there are also nice people in the world...right?" 

It was as if a lightbulb was turning on-Alaea had been convinced that no one except her father liked her. But now, she was remembering people being nice to her and Alaea turning her head the other way, like Libby, even Lonnie...because she felt like she knew they would reject her without giving her a chance. But then, she wasn't giving them a chance, either. 

Alaea sat back onto her pillow and sighed deeply. "Wow-epiphany," 

"Aren't you glad you have me around?" Prompto tickled her leg, causing Alaea to giggle and kick Prompto off the bed. He landed with a soft crash, but one of the books from Alaea's desk fell over and landed with a loud thump on the ground. 

There was a small click outside Alaea's bedroom door and the light from the hallway suddenly shined in under the doorway. "Alaea? What the hell is with all that noise?" Wiz called, still half-asleep from being woke up. 

Alaea and Prompto looked at each other and spoke in unison. 

"Shit,"