#hers; so i went to call the dps but their office hours were closed so i have to call them tmr

[kimjoongs-main]

hongjoong come pick me up pls

[ayamari-no-goshi]

Verboten 3 | (T)

ff.net | AO3

Fandom: Danny Phantom (DP)

Summary:   AU. When Danny was five years old, he went missing for 2 weeks. In the years that follow, his family tried to make sense of what happened, only for the truth to be discovered years later.

Warnings: rated T for violence, mentions of death, language. Be prepared for some very weird things

Parings: Danny/Sam

Notes: originally uploaded to Ff.net. Cross-posted to AO3 and tumblr. This fic is very heavily inspired by folklore surrounding mysterious wilderness disappearances

Chapter 3

“You heard me. They’re saying he’s dead,” Dash clarified as he watched Danny for his reaction. “And from what Kwan said, his body was really messed up.”

Danny rolled his eyes as Tucker stuttered in fear. Dash was known for trying to scare his ‘victims,’ so most likely he was just trying to get a rise out of them. “Yeah, yeah, and what’s your proof?” he asked as he sat down on his bed.

That caused the jock to back track. “Well… Kwan said…”

“Dash, I get we’re in the middle of the woods, and you’re in a prime position to tell ghost stories, but unless you have proof, this is not something you should joke about,” Danny scolded which drew a few surprised looks.

“What? It goes against your morals?”

The teen’s sneer was enough to cause uncharacteristic anger to flood through him. After taking a deep breath to calm himself, Danny glowered at him. “I’m only going to explain this once,” he warned as he tried to sound deadly serious, “I’ve seen the aftermath of what happens in a family who has someone go missing, especially when there’s no explanation as to what happened. It’s not pretty, and when it comes to people who get out here all sorts of terrible things can happen, so you shouldn’t be spreading rumors that could reach the family.”

“Wait, hold on. Fenton, you had someone in your family go missing?” one of the other jocks, Zach, asked. Danny was actually surprised he caught on to that. “Did they at least find them?”

“Luckily, they did, but that’s the reason my parents were so vocal against me going, and while I think they’re way too extreme about it, I, at least, understand their concerns.”

“But, no offense, your parents go on and on about weird creatures, ghosts, and other weird crap.”

“Well, yeah, that’s what happens when you try to rationalize what happened when nothing else makes sense. They were already involved in fringe metaphysics and stuff before that happened, so it was a logical jump for them to consider time slips and other dimensions with how bizarre everything was.”

A silence fell between them as they let Danny’s words sink in. It seemed that Zach wanted to say something else, but decided against it. Dash did eventually mumble something about how he’d drop it for now. That by itself was enough validation for Danny.

“Hey,” Tucker hesitantly spoke up after several minutes as all of them began to lay down, “do you think that kind of thing is real? I mean like falling into other dimensions and stuff.”

Danny didn’t answer him immediately. “To be honest with you, I really don’t know. I know there are a lot of legends regarding things like this, and my parents’ research at least suggests the concept of other dimensions is possible. I know the concept of wormholes are mathematically supported, and that some astronomers think wormholes could possibly bridge dimensions, but we don’t have the technology to get close to one or survive it. But random rips appearing in the woods? It sounds more like sci-fi horror movie stuff, but sometimes, as stupid as it sounds, that’s the only thing that makes sense.”

…..

“Maybe Kwan was right,” Tucker mused when he and Danny exited their cabin the next morning.

There were police officers present, and an ambulance with closed doors was on the far side of the camp. Danny briefly caught sight of an officer speaking to the driver of the ambulance until he noticed the markings on the ambulance were off. After a moment, he realized it belonged to the local Coroner. If that was the case, then there was a body retrieved.

“Well, I don’t know if it was that missing camper, but something definitely happened to someone,” Danny agreed as they made their way to the mess hall for breakfast.

The worst was confirmed as breakfast was finished. Rusty once again stood in front of them. His face was somehow bleaker than the previous day as he confirmed that the missing camper had been found deceased. After the murmurs of the teenagers quieted, he continued, “I know you’re supposed to be out here for fun, but unfortunately, this circumstance happened. We are going to do our best, after the police finish their investigation, to make sure you enjoy yourself here. However, the police have requested to interview each of you to see if anyone you may have seen or heard anything while you were out yesterday. They have also requested that no one go off by themselves while they were under investigation. Please go in groups of at least two. We rangers will also try to be with you when you’re outside of camp, but we may be stretched a little thin during the investigation.”

“I’m surprised they aren’t sending us home,” Tucker mentioned once Rusty was finished speaking and the roar of the students overtook the mess hall.

“I don’t think they can. I mean, the police need to talk to us, and since it’s an open investigation, they won’t want anyone to leave the area until they’ve determined there’s nothing else they can do here,” Sam pointed out as she checked her phone.

“Hey, are you able to get any service?” Danny asked her. “I couldn’t reach my parents yesterday.”

“It’s weird. Yesterday, I could, but I’m having trouble getting service this morning.”

“Now that you mention it, I noticed that too,” Tucker added as he brought out his PDA. “And that’s the thing, with how I modified this, that shouldn’t be the case. I wonder if there’s a disrupter somewhere nearby.”

“You mean a cell phone disrupter?”

He nodded as he leaned towards them. His voice lowered as he glanced around the room. “I’m not sure if anyone else noticed it. I think most of our classmates think it’s just because we’re in the woods, but that’s not really how it works anymore. This is something that should be brought up to the police.”

“I think you’re right,” Danny agreed as he checked his phone again. “And with everything happening, I think I won’t be able to use the ranger’s phone today either.”

….

About an hour after breakfast finished, the police began their interviews of the students. While Danny and his friends waited for their turn, they hung out near the front of the mess hall. They didn’t say much, but instead, they decided to watch the area.

A while later, a long black limousine approached from the only road fit for normal vehicles and came into the camp. A few minutes after it parked, a well-dressed man with silver hair exited. As one of the officers approached the man, Danny finally realized why he recognized him.

“Oh, that’s Vlad. I wonder why he’s here,” he mused as he watched. After a moment, he noticed his friends were gaping at him. “What’s wrong?”

“You know the Vladimir Masters?” Tucker nearly choked. “He’s one of the most influential billionaires in the world!”

“He is? I knew he had money, since he helps fund some of my parents’ experiments, but I didn’t realize it was that much. Anyways, apparently he and my parents went to college together. With how often he visited when we were younger, Jazz and I kind of view him as an uncle.”

“That’s actually pretty impressive. My parents know him due to some of the business galas they’ve attended,” Sam mentioned as a devious smirk crossed her face. “Oh, I can’t wait to tell them that Vlad is your parents’ benefactor. Mother dearest will have a conniption.”

Their conversation turned to what Danny knew of the man, and he answered the best he could. As he thought about it, he realized he didn’t know a lot of personal details about the man. Vlad tended to focus on the people around him and avoid talking about himself. He just figured Vlad was a very private person.

When Vlad finished speaking with the officer, he approached the trio. “Oh, Daniel! What a surprise! I never expected to run into you in a place like this with how protective Maddie is.” His tone was pleasant, but his exaggerated gestures almost made it seem like he was acting.

“We’re here on a school trip. I guess the PTA and teachers managed to convince her and Dad we’d be protected. But why are you here? No offense, but seeing you in the middle of the woods in a suit is weird,” Danny replied nonchalantly. He was used to Vlad’s over the top behavior.

“It’s unfortunate, really,” he explained as he glanced over his shoulder towards the officers. “The gentleman who they found dead works for one of my companies. I came out to see if the police officers required any assistance with resources, funds or otherwise, and offer my services.” As he turned back to face Danny, his eyes widened as he seemingly noticed Sam and Tucker for the first time. “Ah, you must be Daniel’s friends. Where are my manners? I’m Vladimir Masters, but you may call me Vlad.” He extended his hand towards them.

Tucker eagerly took his hand, but Sam was a little more hesitant. “I’m surprised that a big name like yourself personally looks in on their workers,” she told him.

A pleasant hum escaped the man. “I do try to keep tabs on those I employ. This particular incident, however, is extremely tragic and unusual, so I felt it was prudent to personally show my support for those investigating.”

“Yeah? I’ve also heard that killers like to inject themselves into investigations.”

“Sam!?”

“It’s quite alright, Daniel,” Vlad told him as he flashed a pleasant smile. “She does bring up a valid point, and it’s likely I will be asked a few more questions at a later time as a result. However, I can assure you that I was in my office a few states away when Mr. Aiden Jones was reported missing. Hmm, I also think I may have a word with your teacher. With a tragic event like this, it’s unwise to have you remain here when it is unclear if it is safe or not. Now, if you excuse me.”

As Vlad began to turn, Danny took a step closer as a thought crossed his mind. “Oh, Vlad, I hate to ask, but would you happen to have a phone I can use to call my parents? Mom left me a frantic message, but my phone’s not working, and I can’t use the Rangers’ phone right now…”

The man appraised him for a moment. “I don’t have a phone on me right now, but I do have one in my car. While I don’t think your teacher or the police would find it appropriate to let you in my car at the moment, I can at least give them a call for you.”

“Thank you!”

Vlad flashed him a large grin. “Anything for you, dear boy. But, I really must be off. Ta!” With that, he walked away, approached one of the nearby rangers, and struck up a conversation.

“So that’s Vlad Masters,” Tucker mentioned once he was certain the man was out of earshot. “I can’t figure out if I like him or not.”

“I don’t. It felt like everything he said and did was an act,” Sam told them as she crossed her arms. Her eyes never left the billionaire.

Danny just shrugged as he put his hands in his pockets. “He’s always been like that. I don’t really know if it’s because being involved in business, or because he lives alone.”

“He lives alone? No family or anything?”

“Nope,” he replied as he popped the ‘p’. “He’s never had anyone as long as I’ve known him. Both Dad and Mom like to ask him about whether or not he’s dating anyone whenever he’s stopped by, but he’s always answered that he’s too busy. I think Mom’s tried to hook him up with a few dates, but it never panned out.”

A frown crossed Tucker’s features as he glanced at the man. “You’d think he’d have people throwing themselves at him because of his wealth.”

“That might be why he isn’t seeing anyone. Anyways, any thoughts on what happened?”

“Not really,” Sam replied as she glanced towards some of the rangers and police. “If they thought it was just an accident, you’d think they’d come right out and tell us. I’m going to assume they aren’t sure, so they need to try to rule out a few things before they tell us anything.”

“Looks like we’ll have a chance to ask one of the officers. I guess it’s our turn to be interviewed,” Danny mentioned as one of the officers caught their attention and beckoned them.

A few minutes later, the officer took them into the mess hall. It was fairly routine. The officer, Malik, assured them they weren’t in any trouble or suspects. He just wanted to know if they had seen or heard anything while they were out on the trails the previous day. They explained that everything seemed normal, and they couldn’t recall seeing anything out of the norm. Tucker did mention that the three of them were having trouble with their cell phones.

Officer Malik made a strange expression at the new information, but did say anything regarding it. He just thanked them for their time, and sent them on their way.

Before he left the room, Danny spoke up, “Sir, do you know what happened? Should we be worried?”

He was silent for a few moments before replying. “We’re pretty sure he just had a bad accident, but, since we don’t have an official answer yet, we do have to investigate and take statements. Sorry this had to happen while you kids are on a trip.”

Danny thanked him and hurried out the door with his friends. “So, what do you think?” he asked as he checked behind him to make sure no one was paying attention to them as they walked behind one of the cabins.

“That’s pretty cut and dry, isn’t it?” Tucker asked as he scratched his head. “Accidents do happen.”

“Yeah, but the officer didn’t reassure us it was safe. Danny, you noticed it too?” When he nodded, Sam continued, “I think they’re trying to downplay what might have happened which worries me. And since our cell phones still aren’t working properly, it makes me more anxious. I guess Vlad was right. We shouldn’t be here right now.”

“Sam! Don’t say things like that!” The scared whine in Tucker’s voice almost made Danny laugh. “You’ll see, Dash and his jerk friends will use it to tell ghost stories tonight. I not going to be happy if I lose sleep.”

“And here I thought you liked scary stories.”

“Not when we’re smack dab in the middle of the beginning of a real life horror movie!”

[mosylufanfic]

Name That Tune

Inspired by the pic that DP recently posted to Instagram of her and Carlos looking like a couple of badass rockstars.

Name That Tune

Over the sound of his piano, Cisco heard the front door open and the click of familiar high heels on the tile floor of his entryway. He didn't bother to call out. He was the only one who played this piano. She'd know where to find him.

Sure enough, his manager strode in a few minutes later, ferociously stylish in skinny jeans, silk blouse, high heels, and a leather jacket that was probably too warm for the southern California weather, but still looked like a million bucks. "Surprised to see you awake," she said, setting her leather satchel down next to her usual chair.

"Why wouldn't I be?" He noodled the same chord progression again, frowning. There was something off about it, but he couldn't figure out what.

"You had a late night last night." Caitlin pulled out her phone and tablet and laid them out on the black glass coffee table, all business as always.

"Of all people, you should know better than to believe what you see online."

"I don't," she retorted, waking up the tablet and checking something. Probably her schedule, or her to-do list with its hundreds of tasks and subtasks. "Ralph texted me."

"My driver ratted me out? Fired. Out on the street."

"I cut his checks," she said calmly. "So no. Not fired. And you were getting in at four, the morning before a performance. Did you even sleep?"

It wasn't an idle question. He'd been known to pull 48-hour stretches when the music grabbed him by the throat. "Yes," he said. "A few hours." He ran his fingers over the keys. "I'm fine. I'll take a nap later.”

"See that you do." She unfolded herself from the chair and strode over to his wet bar. He ignored the various clatters and thumps and kept banging away at the chords. He was no closer to figuring them out when she set a giant mug on the music shelf of the piano, with a coaster under it.

He picked it up and took a sip. Hot tea, lemon ginger with two squeezes of honey, just the way he liked it. He would drink at least three or four more cups before tonight's show. "Thanks," he said.

She shrugged and settled herself back in her chair with her bottle of kiwi strawberry sparkling water. He had no idea why she liked it - the stuff tasted like it had heard about kiwis and strawberries on the Internet once - but she did, so he always had at least a case in the house.

"Are you working on the new album or messing around?" she asked.

"Mmm. Working." He played the chord progression again. "This phrase won't get out of my head but I'm not sure what it's about. Thoughts?"

"You know I'm tone-deaf," she said.

He shrugged. "You know what you like, though. C'mon." He played it again, all the way through.

She listened, sipping her water. "It sounds like yearning," she said. 

He lifted his hands from the keyboard and looked at her. "Yearning?"

"You know. Like there's something you want but can't have."

He lifted the tea to his lips again to hide the hard swallow he had to take then. When he was pretty sure he had himself under control, he said, "So something just out of reach?"

She looked away for a moment. "More like . . . it's within arm's length, but you're not brave enough to touch it."

He stared at her. She cleared her throat and took another sip of water. "Or, you know. Something like that."

"Hey," he said, and she looked up. He pointed at her. "I'm the singer-songwriter around here, don't you forget that."

She smiled a little.

"But I gotta admit that's . . . that was pretty good." He pulled his notebook toward him and scribbled down a few of the things she'd said. The musical phrase that had been circling his brain started to grow and expand, verses, chorus, bridge . . . He grabbed his phone and set it to record, then played a few of the threads spooling themselves out, before he forgot them. 

Caitlin listened, sipping her water, her face calm and unreadable.

"Good," he said, ending the recording and taking a deep gulp of tea. "I can work with that." He got up from the piano, taking his tea with him, and went over to kiss her cheek. "Thanks."

"It's all you," she said, and picked up her tablet. "If you're at a good stopping place, we should go over your schedule for today." 

He shrugged and dropped onto the couch, setting his tea on the coffee table. "Hit me." 

She paused to glare at his coaster-less mug until he reached over and pulled one off the little rack. Then she picked up her phone and fired away like a Gatling gun.

"I'm going from here to the venue for last-minute logistics. You're due at three for a sound check and run-through. Allegra's arranging dinner from Sushi Ten for you and the crew."

He nodded. "Including the Legends?"

She checked a text on her phone. "The bassist is allergic to soy and shellfish, so he asked for another restaurant, but everyone else is getting an order."

Shellfish, Cisco thought, filing it away. And soy.

If this group did a good show opening for him tonight, they'd come with him on tour next month.  Of course, Caitlin or her razor-efficient PA would make sure there weren't any allergens on the bus or at any of the stops, but it was good to remember anyway.

"At seven," she went on, "you've got a meet and greet with fans, including the Make a Wish kid you requested. Names and details on your calendar. The show starts at eight and you'll go on at nine-thirty. Rolling Stone wants an interview after."

"Who's the reporter?"

She checked her notes. "Iris West-Allen."

"Good. I like her. She doesn't spring shit on me."

"Yes," she said dryly, "I like that about her too. So that should be half an hour, an hour. I'll catch her on the way out and confirm any details." She tapped a few notes to herself and looked up. "Am I arranging any backstage passes tonight?"

"Yeah," he said, taking a sip of tea. "Couple of cuties I met at the bar. They follow me on Instagram."

She raised a brow. "You have over two hundred million followers on Instagram."

"They posted a pic last night. It was really nice meeting them." He smirked. "Really nice."

She picked up her phone, scrolled through his mentions, and found the post he was talking about. "These two?" she asked, holding it up to show a shot of a good-looking young couple, with him in the center, all three of them smiling brightly. Behind them the bar was dark and crowded.

"Yep. Jake and Christy . . . something. Forgot their last name." He waved a hand. "And while you're at it, bump up their seats as far as you can."

"I'll take care of it," she said, tapping a note to herself. Cool and unruffled, she continued, "Gatorade and condoms in your dressing room or back here?"

Because she was looking at her phone and not him, he allowed his eyes to narrow a little. "Let's say both," he said, pushing harder. "See where the night takes us."

She didn't react. "Okay. I'll be by tomorrow at noon. You've got another interview at two. Entertainment Weekly, they're coming here. So don't wear yourself out with your Instagram cuties tonight." 

"Hawthorne," he said. "That's it. Jake and Christy Hawthorne."

"Good, that makes my job a little easier," she said, typing the name into her phone. "I'll have those passes waiting at the box office." She flipped the cover closed on her tablet and started packing it away. "Anything else you need before I go?"

He gazed up at her, thinking, your hands, your lips, your heart.

He shrugged and drained his tea. "I'm good."

She tucked her phone in its little outside pocket. "Don't get lost in the music," she said. "Remember to take that nap."

He checked the time. "I've already asked for a sandwich in an hour, and after that I'll crash for ninety minutes or so. I'll be there in plenty of time."

"I know," she said. "Text if you need me." She was off then, heels clicking on the tiles, voice echoing in the hallway as she delegated new tasks to her PA, door thumping closed behind her.

He stayed on the couch for a moment longer, telling himself it would be maudlin beyond belief if he went to the window and stared longingly after her sapphire blue car streaking down the driveway. 

The least she could have done was look a little jealous when he'd implied he was going to have a wild threesome with a sexy couple tonight after the show. 

Not that he was actually going to do much more than kiss Christy Hawthorne's cheek. This was her birthday present, her husband had told him in the bar last night, one that Jake had scrimped and saved his teacher’s salary for.

No matter what Cisco had implied, the backstage passes and upgraded seats were just something nice for a couple of fans that had been sweet and excited when they’d recognized him at the bar last night. He hadn't gotten the sense that either of them were open to a post-concert tryst, even with their favorite rock star. 

So he'd walk around backstage with them, make chit-chat, sign some things, and wave good-bye. And if Caitlin thought they'd done anything more in his dressing room, well then, that was her problem.

He peeled himself off the couch and went back to the wet bar to get another mug of tea going. He grabbed his phone off the piano on the way, listening to the recording he'd made. The things she'd said swirled around his head. 

Arm's length. Close enough to touch. 

That was good. That could be something there. He played a silent string of notes on the edge of the bar as his tea steeped, hearing them swim in his head, aching. Longing. 

Yearning.

If nothing else, unrequited love was great for his songwriting.

FINIS

[deniigi]

Confused anon and I found it!! I can now definitively say that one conversation is the 45th time MJ is typed and then the second conversation is typings 46-48. And now that I've found that, what thoughts/musings do you have/want to share about how Peter met Matt and when their meeting falls with respect to Pete and MJ. That was also a confusing question, sorry. But I love your writing!!

AHA.

I know what you’re talking about now. ITSV Matt and Peter’s relationship! (I was tripped up by trying to figure out which verse you were talking about, but I got it now!)

Right, so ITSV Matt (Little Red) is around 18 months older than Blondie, so they’re much closer in terms of age than other Matts and Peters, but they have reversed starting points.

Blondie became Spiderman way before Little Red became DD, so basically, Little Red starts out around 24ish as DD and runs into Blondie who’s been doing the vigilante thing for like, around 8 years by that point and so Blondie sees this new guy on the scene who’s kind of feral and very skittish and decides that they’re gonna be friends. Blondie sees Little Red, at first, as kind of a pet project–like trying to gain the trust of a stray cat. And about six months or so into this gradual trust exercise, Blondie and MJ break up after a rough patch. And that lasts about 2 years. So in that time in between, Blondie and Little Red grow pretty close, as people/friends, and start fooling around. It’s not serious until it is and about when Little Red works up the courage to ask for something a little more committed is when MJ comes back into the picture for Blondie. He makes the decision to go be with MJ and Little Red is hurt by that, like, really hurt, but does the typical Matt thing with smiling and saying, ‘no, no. that really is for the best. You absolutely should do that.’

Blondie feels really really bad about the whole thing and makes an effort to show Little Red that he is absolutely not being cut out of his life because of his and MJ’s marriage; his and Little Red’s relationship is on the mend when he gets tanked.

In Into the Multiverse, after Blondie comes back, he and Little Red kind of struggle to re-find their place with each other, trying to make a Team Red among themselves and Miles without being weird about it.

But straight up? Blondie still has major feelings there. And Little Red is still very hurt–relieved that Blondie is okay and totally willing to work with him, but hurt. Little Red has finally decided to try to move on by attempting to seduce his Foggy (I am actually calling this Foggy ‘Blue’ in my head atm, it is very cute) and Blue is starting to reciprocate and be charmed. He and Little Red have just started dancing around something a little more committed/stable around the time Blondie comes back, which is why MJ (all four, MJ, Blondie, Little Red, and Blue are friends, more or less) freaks out when she learns that Little Red is DD.

Anyways, I wrote a practice piece a while back, trying to sort through what ITSV Wade is gonna look like and in that, there is a lot of that tension between the many bodies involved here, so here’s a bit of that, below the cut.

I am very interested in this version of team red and the relationships here right now so this was great timing anon!

—-

Matt was pissed at him for havingmade him say words about emotions the day before and so refused to answer anyof Peter’s texts. But Peter had the day off and zero shame. He caught the trainto Hell’s Kitchen and opened the office door.

The place was the zoo it usuallywas, although this time, Karen the Blonde was sitting at the desk in the centerof it, directing people to chairs in front of offices.

Karen was unspeakably beautiful.Too beautiful. Peter smiled at her and said he was there to see Matt Murdockand she didn’t know his face and so told him to take a seat. Foggy came out afew minutes later to fetch his next client and his face went wide on seeingPeter.

“Hey, what’s up?” he asked.

Karen behind him went stiff inrealization that she’d made a mistake.

“Not much, just waiting for ourfavorite problem child to have a minute to chat,” Peter said.

Foggy frowned at him.

“He’s not in,” he said, “Took ahalf day, said he wasn’t feeling well.”

Yeah, sure. Of course he was.

Karen apologized for themisunderstanding and Peter waved her off with a smile and a dull throb in thebottom of his heart. She didn’t mean to be upsetting Matt. And given that Fogsdidn’t seem too worried about anything, he certainly hadn’t talked to him aboutanything yet.

“Right, well. I’ll go see if he’sat home, then,” Peter said. He left.

Foggy caught him in the hallwaybefore he could hit the stairs.

“You okay, Peter?” he asked.

“Hmm? What, no, I’m fine. Why?”

“No, it’s just. Uh. Listen, I’msorry for going off on you the other day.”

Aw.

“It’s no problem, man,” he said,“Boundaries and all that.” Foggy’s smile flickered a little. Peter made surethat he saw him notice it.

“Are you alright?” he asked.

“What? Oh, sure. Ah, you know.The usual. Matty’s been spending a lot of time out the last few weeks and I’mjust—well, you know.”

He did know.

“Has he been with you?”

Nope, but Peter had a feeling heknew who he was with now.

“I’ll go see if I can find him,”he said. Foggy was relieved, his forehead smoothed out a bit.

“Thank you.”

Uh-huh. Don’t mention it.

 –

Matt wasn’t back where thesniper’s nest had been, so Peter went and checked the other Wade’s junk-foodpoint. No one was there either. He then searched out the favorite haunts of theother versions of Murdock he’d encountered. It was getting dark when he finallypuffed out his cheeks and headed down south to Brooklyn to meet Miles. Twoheads, he thought. They needed two heads.

 —

Miles got on with Matt with acasual ease which Peter kind of envied. To be fair, those two spent more timetogether than he and Matt did these days. Matt was very concerned about Miles’sabysmal lack of fighting form and practice. He dragged the kid to half of theabandoned gyms in the city on the regular and put him through some thoroughlyunnecessary routines.

Miles, for his part, seemed toenjoy them. He also like to take the piss out of Matt when he could and Peterwas pleased to find that Matt accepted this more easily than he’d originallyaccepted Peter’s presence. They’d gotten there but it had taken some work.

Miles made a perfect sad facewhen Peter told him what was up. Then he declared that he’d find Matt, noproblem.

“I don’t doubt it,” Peter said.Miles squinted at him in suspicion.

 –

Two hours in and Peter was tryingto believe his own words.

“Maybe he went home?” Milesasked.

Maybe.

They headed south to check.

 –

No dice.

 –

Maybe Peter was fixating on this.Maybe Peter was more worried about this than necessary. Maybe Peter was stillfeeling a couple of feelings towards Matt.

He couldn’t help it, they werejust there.

“Why’re you so sad?” Miles asked.“Matt’s a ninja, he’ll be okay.”

Mmm. Okay was relative.

“You’re married, Peter.”

Fuck this kid. Peter didn’t needgremlin interference in his head. He already had anxiety interference in hishead.

“We’re just friends,” he said.

“Kay, so why’re you mad aboutKaren then?”

Dude, what? Who said he was madabout Karen?

“You keep making this face whenher name comes up.”

“No, I don’t.”

“Yeah, you do. Are you jealous?”

Aigh. It always came back tothis, didn’t it.

“I’m not jealous,” he said. “I’mjust, I dunno, protective. Matt’s one of my people, now. I don’t like anyonewho hurts him. He’s already got enough people hurting him.”

Miles cocked his head and lookedout at the twinkling lights of the city.

“Maybe that’s why he likes DP,”he said. “He doesn’t worry about him. Probably makes him feel less guilty.”

That was.

Remarkably insightful.

He waited a second and then gaveMiles a playful shove.

“You’re a smart cookie, you knowthat?” he asked.

Miles shoved him back.

“Duh.”

 –

“Matthew.”

“Jesus, Pete. Wear a bell orsomething.”

He shouldn’t have to. Matt wassupposed to have superhearing.

“MJ’s out for a thing tonight.I’m lonely. Come eat garbage with me.”

Matt laughed and shrugged on hisjacket. Loosened his tie.

“Sorry, man. I’m booked.”

Peter made sure to put on hissour-puss face.

“Fogs?” he said.

“Nah.”

“Wade?”

Matt paused and then turned hishead in his direction and cocked it.

“What’s the matter with you?” heasked.

“Nothing. I’m just being nosy.”

“Why don’t you like DP? He hasn’tdone anything to you.”

“Oooooh, well. You know. He’s amurderer, for one. And—yeah, no. Mostly because he’s a murderer.”

Matt’s face was smooth while heconsidered him. Then he finished pulling on his coat.

“Not all of us are so squeakyclean, Pete,” he said.

“You guys fucking?”

“Peter.”

“I’m just askin’, man. I thoughtyou and Fogs—”

“Can we not?”

Peter was taken aback by thetone. He recoiled without meaning to and caught himself doing it. Made himselfstand up straight.

“Sorry,” he said.

“Whatever,” Matt grumbled. “I’mheaded out. I’ll catch you around.”

Peter watched him go. When thedoor closed and locked, he ducked back out of the window and clicked it shutfrom the outside. He didn’t like this. He didn’t like quiet Wade. He didn’tlike sad Matt. The only thing going for them right now was Miles’s seeminglyendless enthusiasm.

Shit was giving him heartburn.

[fuzethehostagehater]

some fuze ships summarized

Fuze/Tachanka

T: points at picture of Fuze’s elite skin , you look just like your grandfather

F: you are my grand father

Fuze plugs his ears when he sleep because tachanka sings USSR anthem so loud while he sleep

Fuze in the morning will throw box of 7.62x54R and say, это день победы

Tachanka drives KV-2

что такое смартфон фьюз ?

wears nothing but Dp-28 mags to cover his important areas on wedding day .

they live in a nuclear bomb shelter or soviet era war bunker.

they go to a ISU-152 artillery restoration project in Volgograd together. Where tachanka was doing push ups at – 40 degrees topless so he can nail parts in  without using hammer. while fuze blows up unexploded 152 mm shells.

 is their song is белая армия, чёрный барон

Fuze/Kapkan

Fuze was driving to home from work when police officer maxim basuda stops him.

F:officer I am not drunk , I am doing 50 in 50 zone what’s the point ?

K:points speed gun at his heart , no sir you are going over 200 km/h

They go to the shooting range together :

Fuze:нож на потасовку с пушками ?

Kapkan: смотри и учись , нооб

Kapkan  drives RC/XD from black ops games

Kapkan carries a nokia 3310

Wears a Traps are not gay t shirt on wedding.

They don’t live in forest inside a army tent

F: hey kapkan why do you carry a shovel on your back?

K: so I can dig a trap when I run out of ammo

F: you mean our grave?

Прорвемся – Любэ is their song

Fuze/Glaz

G: would you like a photo realistic portrait my good sir ?, that would be 1000 rubles

F: ok…

2 hours later.

F:You Photoshop this right?

Fuze draws a plan of his APM-7 cluster charge mk2  then he left the plan on desk and went to sleep

Next day he finds out that it is coloured in rainbow because the touch of colour was out of place.

they live next to Hazine art gallery in kazan

they go to shooting range where glaz draws smiles on steel targets with his Ots-03

детали, меня друг ,детали,

Glaz drives a ОБЪЕКТ 120 ТАРАН coloured in rainbow

Glaz has a iphone X in red colour.

Shinwha – sniper is their song

Wears a Ghillie suit at wedding

Fuze/Dokkaebi

F: so what’s this again ?

D: 보신탕 (bo- shin tang)

F: Delicious

They live in yeong san district south korea.

Dokkaebi has a CIA level untrackerable phone no one knows the brand of.

F: ОППА , dokkaebi what the blin I am at funeral.

D: what? Call me noona …. You 멍청이.

F:Where were you yesterday I was worried about you !

D:니가 나를 걱정해? Wow 처음듣는 얘기

Dokkaebi drives a smart fortwo , actually it drives for her.

Fuze tries to work on crafting better cluster bombs before being bombarded by

Kaokao talk ! kkao talk! Kkao talk! And decides to throw a phone out the window which ends up hitting hostage on the head.

Wears a snap back ,hanbok and Gucci glasses on wedding day but guests don’t really give a damn as they are too busy turning their phones off.

Their song is Beep Beep by SNSD

Fuze/AK-12 (T-doll)

True gopnitsa, doesn’t give a single fuck about life much. she sleeps 80% of the time and keeps her eyes closed.

They have no chairs in their house because they squat all day

Wears Adidas on wedding day.

Calls her sister AN-94 to pick them up and drive them home after their date but she is busy working so she can’t come.  instead fuze decides to carry her on his arms bridal style back home while she raises middle fingers at other couples and gopniks that looks at them.

They go to shooting range together and this happens every time.

F: wtf 12… no aimbot!

12: гит гуд , дедушка

Drives a T-90A Vladimir

Reads girl x girl rainbow six siege smut in her free time. this is only time she opens her eyes.

uamee – AKM is their song 

Fuze/Finka

FI:Takes the 6P41 lmg from fuze, ЭТО МОЯ ПУЛЕМЕТ !

Fu: Я первый его получил.

Tachanka jumps into room while soviet union anthem playing loud and yells

HAVE YOU TWO LEARN NOTHING ABOUT SHARING ?!!!

Fu:You see lena if you hold peestol like me you never be of shoot inaccurate for afraid of shooting fingers.

Fi:you can live without few fingers debil.

Finka wanted to boost her whole spetsnaz team with adrenaline when fuze starts singing

Пацаны - наркотик КАЛ,

В школе в коробке сдавал.

Наркота - отстойней кваса

Finka wears a hazmat suit to wedding before someone tells her to get out of here STALKER.

They live near the ZONE because such is life.

She Drives a Rkhm-6.

Their song if it wasn’t obvious is bandit radio from stalker.

Fuze/Vigil

F: I don’t see anyone around …. it should be safe for me to play north Korean pop

V: ARE YOU SURE ABOUT THAT ?

They go to shooting range together but fuze always picks up and hides few spent casings inside his pocket and watch as vigil panic try desperately to  look for casings afterwards. then He acts like he found them and assures that everything is ok.

They live in meyoung dong district in south korea

V: I want to be a Korean batman

F:I ain’t gonna be your Alfred hwa chul.

Vigil fills fridge with san- nak ji where as fuze fills the fridge with холодец

Vigils wears a john cena shirt to a wedding before going you can’t see me cause my time is now!

V:되고파 너의 오빠가 될꺼야 두고봐 나의 마음이

F:what are you saying?

V:Do you know k-pop ?

Their song is Danger by taemin

Fuze/Jager

Fuze felt bad that the jager lost the acog sight which made him depressed for weeks. so he did the only right thing and gifted jager acog without magnification for him.

J: puts ADS on the ground / you can stop worrying about grenades now

F:you can start worrying about grenades now.

jager drives a T-V Panther 

they live in a aircraft hangar near Berlin

they play war thunder together but results are that fuze wins and jager complains there is so much Russian Bias is in the game where as fuze thinks it’s only historical

their song is  Rote Flieger 

Fuze/Twitch

if you have few spare hours i love to tell you how this drone is master piece of design….. and fuze lets her go on for hours and explain what she did and what kind of problems she had to out come. before fuze asks why does it always get one shotted in the droning phase i must ask ?

they live in paris their house is full of weaponized baguettes and hostage torturing devices.

T:stay two steps a head of enemy

F:but your drone can’t jump.

when they go shooting ranges fuze wears two hearing protections because her call outs when she reloads is louder than artillery going off.

i don’t know what did i just write…

pictures belong to the actual quality content creaters o7 so get lost EU.

also if you ship fuze x ying pls fite me irl

[isensmith]

Have a great holiday and we’ll see you next week.

So i just got back from the set where i did my gig as an extra. It was super fun and went even better than i hoped for!

Before Shooting:  I had a brief freak-out when i tried to tame the epic frizz in my hair with some hair oil. I made the mistake of sleeping on it wet last night and it just didn’t look good. I’ve never used hair oil before and i definitely probably should have. i used too much and my hair got over greasy. I tried blow drying and using a flat iron, but it looked worse. so with an hour to go before i had to be on set i washed it again. I quickly did my makeup and blow dried it again (since it typically takes hours to dry). I had my bag packed with my changes of wardrobe from the night before so i ran out of the house and made it to set exactly at my 1pm call time. 

At the office building location the suite number was 590 and guess what service required a keycard to work on weekends. that’s right, the elevator! so then i climbed 5 flights which was really NOT what i wanted to do before being on camera. When i finally got up there i found the tell-tail cables, sandbags, and c-stands out in the hall so i knew i’d found it. inside the suite was a long hall and lots of offices branching off and one conference room. There were sound people and a couple of lighting guys and a stressed out looking director. in the conference room were 4 other extras. We greeted each other and lamented the climb and talked about changes of clothes and what projects we’d done. 

Shortly, the extras wrangler came in and asked me if i had a jacket or something similar that i could wear over the black blouse i already had on. I said i didnt’ have a jacket exactly, but i had a silk short sleeved loose top thing (i honestly dont know what to call it, it’s open and has no fastenings and it’s flowy and pretty and goes over another shirt). I showed it to her and she said that would probably work and they were wanting me to be an ‘executive’ rather than an ‘office worker’. So i put it on and showed it to her and the director and they said that it was good. 

So then the makeup artist came in to do some touchups on the others and then they were all called away except for me. They began shooting something down the hall and walking all the way back up towards the conference room so i could see them but nothing else. Meanwhile the makeup artist came back to pay some special attention to me. He was a super sweet guy and when i told him that i was going to be an executive rather than an office worker he said “great well then you can afford to look nicer than them” lol. I had actually done some eyeshadow and eyeliner myself before i left, and and typically only do the liner, i have no idea how to do shadow. But i watched some youtube and had a go. He said it looked really good and didn’t do anything to them besides fill in my eyebrows a bit and apply some extra volume stuff to my eyelashes. He also put some peachy lip color on me which i would typically never choose, but looked really good so now i’m going to try to find some. 

While he was working i asked if he was local or maybe came down from portland. i still was thinking this was a pretty small film. he said he actually was based in LA and had been working down there for 4 years. He’s worked on Terminator 5, and X-men Days of Future Past, and Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and we talked about the tattoos for Drax that he was really involved in. He was awesome and made me feel pretty :]

The other extras came back to change their clothes and then shoot the exact same hall walking sequence again. Then they were wrapped and told they could go and it was only 1:50. And then i was alone in the conference room and waited. Two other actors showed up, one of which i found out later was actually another extra like me, but he was wearing a suit so he’d clearly been tagged for the ‘exec’ extra already. We didn’t really chat much, once the actor (a tall handsome african-american man) found out i wasn’t playing any part he turned his attention to his sides and studied his lines. The other guy was staring at his phone so i assumed he was doing the same. 

Then the actor left and there was more waiting. I began to doodle. For one thing my phone was nearly dead so i didn’t want to use it, and for another i didn’t want to get so distracted with other stuff that i wasn’t present. I filled a whole page with pen doodles. 

During Shooting:

It was close to 2:40 when i heard the director down the hall say something about extras. So i poked my head out of the conference room (the other guy had been standing in the hall watching) and sure enough they needed us to walk by the office where they were shooting a scene. Which was simple enough and yet still made me a tiny bit nervous. it’s only when you need to “walk casual” that you suddenly forget how to fcking walk at all. I didn’t look in the room while i passed of course, so i barely saw what they were doing in there. But the lighting guy was sitting on a  box just outside the room with the slate since he was on double duty. and the sound guy was sitting in front of his big sound boards rig in the office next door, and there were more cables and sandbags. 

After that scene was done then they began to pick stuff up and move down the hall towards the conference room. The makeup artist said “time for your big scene” and i was a little surprised, i nearly thought that walking by might be it and i’d be all done. I waited at the other end of the hall with the makeup artist and the extras wrangler and ate some chocolates while the crew shifted the gear. Then i saw the actor had changed his suit and i thought “oh no, this is a different day. I brought a change of wardrobe but this is the nicest stuff i brought and the other stuff is more ‘office worker-y’”. So i showed my options to the extras wrangler, i had taken photos of the outfits last night to have them on my phone so it was easy for them to choose. She picked the outfit with a white collared shirt under a sky blue sweater with the sleeves pushed up. 

I went all the way down the hall passed the conference room to find an alcove and quickly change my clothes. I could tell there wasn’t time at this point to find the bathrooms. Sure enough, as i was putting on a different necklace they were already calling for me. 

In the conference room the actor guy was sitting at the head of the table, the main character actress was to his right and me and the other guy were on his left. Initially they put me between the two men, but as they were framing the shot from the far end of the table the other guy was too big and blocking me so they had us switch. which put me closer to the camera, (!!). At the far end was the director, the camera person, the boom mic operator who had brought in a ladder to get high enough, and the DP, a woman named jessica with hot pink hair. Just outside the door were the lighting guy, the makeup artist, and the extras wrangler watching. 

While they were setting up the shot i turned to the actor guy and said “hey so i haven’t read the script, can you tell me what this scene is about?” He explained that pretty much we’d just hired the main character and were closing up our meeting and congratulating her. I also really felt like i needed something on the table in front of me so i quickly got up and grabbed the pad i’d been doodling on and the pen, i tore off the top couple pages so it was blank and quickly scribbled some fake notes. Most of it was not even real words, but one whole sentence i wrote was:

“Fifty five alligators formed a posse and it was the greatest.”

I felt much better with a prop in my hand than just sitting there.

So first we did a run-through without the camera rolling. The actor did one line and then we all sat there doing nothing since we didn’t know what else to do. And the director said “there’s more right? isn’t there” and they all consulted the script. Sure enough we were supposed to shake hands and congratulate her and there was a line of dialogue. The director said “a different executive should say that since you have a line right before” but he didn’t indicate who. There was some chatter among the sound guys and the DP and the line was read from the script “Have a great holiday and we’ll see you next week.” They asked him which person should say it and he said “i don’t know, one of them”. So i said “I’ll say it” and he looked at me and said “Ok fine.” he was clearly stressed already and it was only the first day of shooting lol. 

So then they worked a bit on framing us when we stood up to shake hands, the DP asked me to take off my heels so i’d be a little shorter. and the actress asked me if i remembered and I quickly rattled off “Have a great holiday and we’ll see you next week” which pleased her a bit. When the actress and i shook hands over the table the DP said that she got caught by the light. So i asked if i should be the one to lean in more and she said “no then you’ll be caught by the light.” so i said how about we do more reach and less lean. So we tried it again and she said “that’s good that will work.”

Then it was time for a take. Someone called “rolling”, the camera person confirmed “speed”, the sound guy said “speak” which was a call i’m not familiar with, then the lighting guy did the slate and the director said “action”. The actor removed his glasses, said his line (which now i can’t remember) and then we all stood and each shook hands with her, i was last and as i shook her hand i said my line. It was great, i’ll win an oscar for sure.

We did 4 more takes of this, 5 total, each the same and i didn’t flub the line once. I felt remarkably calm doing it. The only thing that made me worry is how much of me is in frame in the shot. I’m still pretty heavy so i’m sure i’ll look pretty fluffy on screen. oh well. #large-female-executive-representation

When we were done with the last take the director said that was it for the extras so that meant i could leave. As i was packing my stuff the boom mic operator, a wiry fit older black man, approached me and said “you’ve acted before haven’t you”, i said “eh, not really”, “but you’ve been on set before” and i replied “yes i have.” he said “you had really good instincts in there, the choices you were making were really good and you had good ideas and you got your line.” i was so flattered i shook his hand and said “thank you so much!” he said “i’m sure we’ll be seeing more of you” and i said “i think that you will!”

As i was leaving i got a handshake from the main actor guy and a hug from the makeup artist. I also got a wave from the main actress and i told her “have fun!” then i made my way to the elevator, which apparently had no issues with going down. walked the long way to my car since i was really excited and enjoying walking in the fresh warm afternoon air. and now i’m home trying to decide where to go eat for celebratory dinner. 

:]

PS. i checked the box on the release form that i wanted to be listed in the film credits. If they also feel like it, they might make me an IMBD profile, which is something of a childhood dream of mine. we’ll see :]

[captainswanapproved]

Hey all. My second novel, Mr. Darcy’s Ship is now available on Kindle and it is also free on Kindle Unlimited.

You can read the first chapter below. :)

One

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a man in search of a good fortune will take to the high seas. Furthermore, if the said man is eager to strike out on his own, and prove his family wrong, he will thus be even more determined to earn his fortune by his own merits, even at the risk of rebellion. And what pray tell could drive a man to abandon the family and comfort that he had known his entire life? Some will speculate that a broken heart was the culprit, but perhaps something even more grim was the cause. For a broken heart can be healed with time and new love. But broken trust can never truly be salvaged.

William Darcy started off as a simple sailor. He abandoned the elegant garments of his previous life for much more common garb: a simple white cotton shirt, roughly hewn breeches, and a black sailor’s cap. He boarded the first vessel that would take him—the Deliverance. It was a modest ship, but its captain was a wise and gracious man. He took young William under his wing and over the next several years showed him everything he knew about captaining a ship, managing a crew, sailing, and sword play.

William Darcy proved to be an adept student, and under the captain’s tutelage he rose quickly through the ranks of the crew and eventually became the first mate. For the first time in his life, William finally felt like he was home. He savored the hard work, he cherished the respect and loyalty of his crew, and he carefully hoarded away each coin he was paid vowing that one day he would have a fortune of his very own that rivaled that of his own misguided family. Of course, it is inevitable that everything good must come to an end. For William Darcy, that day occurred on his twenty-first birthday: exactly three years after he had left home.

The wind was howling and billowing the sails of the Deliverance, and the approaching enemy ship was looming closer. The first mate shouted orders from his position at the helm. The captain assisted with preparing the cannons. William unlatched his spyglass from his belt loop and peered through the instrument. His eyes widened as he recognized the emblem on the billowing flag. Not now, please God, not now. William replaced the spyglass and returned to his command. He jerked the wheel sharply to the left, hoping to steer the Deliverance into range for the long nines. A moment later, cannon blasts confirmed that this maneuver had been a success.

The larger naval vessel seemed unfazed by the attack, and the Deliverance was now in a position to be fired upon as well. The first round of enemy cannon shots hit the port side of the ship, and the ship pitched forward. William clutched the wheel so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

“Bring her about!” shouted the captain, as the crew scrambled to balance the ship in any way they could. William turned the wheel and exhaled in relief when the ship recovered its normal position. The stability, however, did not last long as another round of cannon fire shuttered the ship. Their own crew did not even have a chance to retaliate, and all the while the enemy ship was looming closer. Within moments it would be close enough to board. Not that it mattered much. With another round of cannon fire, the ship would be doomed.

“Captain!” William shouted over the roar of the wind and the creaking of the ship, “We are no match for that ship. That is the Pemberley, pride of the Royal Navy, and she will not be outgunned.”

The captain shot him a sympathetic look as he knew what the ship meant to his young first mate, but he could not afford to surrender. He would rather go down with his ship, as any good captain would. “Would you rather surrender and be left to the mercy of the King’s men?”

William paled at the thought. No. He was not ready to face his past, but the occurrence seemed inevitable at this juncture. Another blast hit and the Deliverance rocked forward. The captain lost his footing, and it was only William’s quick grasp that saved the older man from toppling over the edge. “One more shot and we are done for, Captain. I fear surrender is our only option.”

The captain cast a grim look towards his first mate before nodding slightly. “Raise the white flag!” he called, and a member of the crew scrambled up to the crow’s nest.

William gazed out towards the first ship he had ever sailed upon as a boy. His heart sank at the thought that he might come across his father, or even worse his traitorous half-brother. Now was not the time to be a coward though. He would stand tall and face whatever foe may appear. He had come far in the three years since he left home, and today was merely a test to prove his strength.

The sound of grappling hooks scraping against the railing of the ship knocked him out of his thoughts as the ship rocked towards the Pemberley. Once the two vessels were secured together, a gangplank was lowered and six men in royal navy garb started to cross over, their swords held high.

The sailor leading the charge crossed the deck to stand in front of the captain. “Are you the captain of this godforsaken vessel?” he sneered.

To his credit, the captain kept his voice even. “Aye.”

The officer made to grab his arm, but the captain simply stepped back. The officer glowered at the man. “You are to come with me. This ship is not sanctioned to sail in these waters. As such, I am to place you under arrest until you can be dealt with accordingly. Perhaps if you cooperate, your crew will walk off this ship alive.”

“I am afraid I will not be able to do that.”

“And why not?” the officer demanded as he stepped forward and pressed the edge of his blade against the captain’s chest.

“A captain never abandons his ship: to do so would be dishonorable.”

“What is honor worth when you are staring death in the face?” countered the officer.

The captain offered the man a grim smirk. “That is the thinking of a coward. I will happily die by your sword as long as you take mercy on the rest of my crew. I am the one who set the course, and these men should not be punished for my foolishness.”

The officer considered the captain’s words for several long moments and exhaled loudly before lowering his sword and stepping back. For a moment, all seemed calm and William allowed himself to relax, thanking the heavens for the mercy of their enemy.

The calm ended though with the sound of a blade tearing through flesh. “No!” William shouted as the officer twisted the hilt of the sword, and the captain fell to his knees.

Before he knew it, William drew his sword and pressed the blade against the murderer’s throat. “You will regret that, you damn cowardly bilge rat,” he growled.

The officer only scoffed at him, “I highly doubt that,” he said. “You, however, will regret your insolence.” The officer turned to his men, “Take Mr. Darcy aboard and leave this filthy vessel to sink and rot.” William’s eyes widened at the man’s address. “How do you know who I am?” he demanded. Two men grabbed him from either side and forced him forward. The man grinned. “The Royal Navy has been searching for you since the day you left. We finally received word of your whereabouts from a tradesman who recognized you when you made port in Derbyshire. Did you really think you would never be found? Your father and Prince George will be delighted to see you.”

William struggled against the men but to no avail. “Please,” he said. “You cannot take me back.”

“George warned me you would not come willingly. Of course, my men and I are always prepared.” He nodded to one of the men holding William’s arm. The man brought a cloth soaked in a foul-smelling substance and forced it against William’s mouth. He did not have the chance to speak another word before he was knocked out cold. The men dragged him across the gangplank, tossed him in the brig, and then sailed away from the sinking ship.

***

William awakened several hours later in the dark and dank brig of the ship. His lower back was aching, and he suspected that his limp body had been carelessly tossed into the cell. The only light came from a single lit candle perched on a sconce nailed into the wall of the cell.

As a child, when he sailed on this ship, he had never been down here, and in all honesty, he never thought he would find himself in such a place. He had certainly hoped that when he made his escape it would be for good, but things rarely went the way he wanted them to. It was a simple fact that he had come to accept.

The thought suddenly occurred to him that George could be on this very vessel. His stomach twisted into knots at the thought of seeing the man who had betrayed him so severely. Thanks to George he would never again be united with what he had lost. There was a hole in his heart because of it, and he had a sinking feeling that it would never be filled again. There was little use in such a grim way of thinking. If he had to face George again, he needed to be in his best frame of mind. So, he sat there, staring into the darkness, breathing deeply, and trying to gather his strength for the inevitable encounter.

Sometime later, a trapdoor opened and a figure began to descend a narrow ladder. William straightened against the wall and braced himself. He exhaled softly when the figure was revealed to be a man by the name of Denny, one of George’s oldest compatriots, now risen to the rank of captain judging by his regalia.

“William Darcy,” said Captain Denny. “I was hoping I would get to meet you, and I must personally thank you for increasing my wealth. There is quite the price on your head.”

“Is it worth the lives of the twenty good men you just sent to the bottom of the sea?” William said tightly. “Is he here?”

“No. Unfortunately that happy reunion will not take place until we reach port. Prince George and your father have missed you. They are beside themselves with excitement that the prodigal son will return at last.”

“If that is all you have to say to me, then I suggest you leave me be,” William said. “I am in no mood to hear your taunts about my unfortunate familial connections.”

Denny crouched down so William could see his face through the bars. “If you dare to escape,” he said, “it will be the last thing you ever do.”

William was unfazed by the captain’s threat. “You would not dare deprive the royal family the pleasure of killing me themselves,” William responded evenly. Denny glowered at him knowing that his captive spoke the truth. “No foolishness will be tolerated” he said menacingly. “We will be making port in two days’ time. I will leave you to your misery. Goodnight.” The captain turned on his heel and left the brig with a sharp slam of the trapdoor.

William slumped down further. It appeared that he would not be getting any food, and to attempt an escape on anything but the last night of his voyage would be nothing short of a death wish. He would need to conserve his strength. There was already a plan forming in his head, but he would need time to mull it over. He would have to act very carefully if he was going to lead a successful mutiny.

***

William awakened after several intermittent respites with a plan fully formed in his mind. It was slim, and it largely hinged on the crew believing his words about the royal family. Words that were highly treasonous at that; moreover, if the single ally he had in mind was still the first mate of this vessel, and William firmly believed that he was, then he at least had a slight chance to succeed.

The candle had long ago been extinguished, so William searched blindly for the loose bars in the cell. While he had never been in the brig himself, his brother George had spent one night in the cell soon after his father had first taken him in, and long before George fooled him into thinking he would fall in line. George had the unfortunate habit of wreaking havoc wherever he went. After one particularly unruly day in which George tampered with the water supply and set the rowboat out to sea, his father had tossed him in the brig.

Several weeks later, George proudly revealed the story of how he had escaped the brig by lifting several loose bars in the decrepit cell. He had spent the night out on deck admiring the stars before sneaking back into the cell with his father none the wiser of his night of liberation.

George had spent his life spinning wild stories and speaking in half-truths, so William knew there was a chance that no loose bars existed, and even if there had been, surely George would have been smart enough to have them repaired with the ship under his control.

William tampered with every single bar, patiently working his way to the back corner of the cell. He was beginning to think his plan would be doomed before it even began, when mercifully, he was able to shift one of the bars upwards, and a second, and a third, and several more until he had created an opening just large enough for him to shimmy through. He thanked the heavens for his tall and wiry figure, otherwise he would have no chance at all of slipping through the opening.

Once he was free of his cell, he replaced the bars and began to climb the ladder that led to the upper deck. Pressing his ear against the trap door, he listened for several moments. There were no sounds of footsteps.

He slunk through the shadows of the ship and made his way towards what he hoped was still the first mate’s cabin. Once he arrived, he knocked softly on the door, hoping that Reynolds was still a light sleeper. He held his breath as he waited and finally exhaled in relief when the door began to creak open to reveal a sleepy Phillip Reynolds.

The man’s eyes widened when he recognized his visitor, and William had no time to utter a single word before he was engulfed in a tight embrace. “William, my boy, it is you. Forgive me for saying so, sir, but I had rather hoped I had misheard the captain, for a grim fate awaits you when we arrive at port.” At that he released William and took a step back.

“That is why I have come to you, Reynolds. I need your help to escape again, this time by way of mutiny.”

Reynolds’ face contorted into a look of unease. “I am not so sure that will work, sir. This is the flagship of your father’s navy. Each of these men were handpicked by him.”

William smiled, “That is exactly why I know this will work. Do you think for a second that any of these men will receive a share of the reward that my father promised for my capture?”

Reynolds was silent as he contemplated his answer. After a moment, he shook his head.

“Exactly, it will all go to Captain Denny, and neither my father or George will compel him to do what is right. They are not looking out for the best interests of their men. They are simply using them as pawns in their selfish game of acquisition. That is all the Royal Navy has ever been: slaves to the will of a corrupt king. That should not stand.”

“This is a dangerous game you are insisting on playing, sir, but if you believe this is the right course, I will stand by your side.”

William clasped the elder man’s hand in his. “Thank you, Reynolds. Now tell the crew what I said and instruct them to gather on deck. I shall go fetch the captain, and then we shall see where the crew stands.”

Before William turned to leave, Reynolds handed him the dagger he kept on the nightstand. “Take this—just in case.”

William tucked the knife into his belt and turned towards the Captain’s Quarters.

***

William pushed the door open to reveal a richly adorned, spacious room complete with a map table, an elegant four poster bunk that had been nailed into the side of the ship, shelves full of books and atlases, ornate sconces, and a thick embroidered rug. The captain was living in as much comfort as one could on a ship, while the crew were down in the hull sleeping on simple cots and hammocks with barely a half a dozen candles between them. Should he succeed, one of the first things William would do as captain would be to improve the living standards of his crew. For without a loyal and satisfied crew, a captain had nothing. That was a lesson he hoped Captain Denny would soon learn.

William crept into the room, holding the knife in his hand. The captain was sleeping soundly, which gave William a distinct advantage. He seized the collar of the captain’s shirt yanking him upwards as he roughly roused the sleeping man while pressing the blade of the knife tightly against his captive’s throat. “How did you escape?” Denny managed to choke out.

“I am afraid that your beloved Prince George has been remiss in maintaining his flagship. All the better for me, yet all the worse for you.”

“If you are planning a mutiny, it will not succeed. These men were handpicked by the king himself and they shall not waiver in their loyalty.”

“We shall see,” William said in a terse reply. “After all, would you sail under a captain and king that refused to fairly reward your service? I think the answer is no. Now come along. You have a crew to face.” With that, William dragged the man out of bed and repositioned the dagger to his back, forcing him forward.  

“You will pay for this,” Captain Denny said. Those were the last words he said before William bound and gagged him.

***

William and Denny stepped on deck to find the crew of the Pemberley amassed in front of them. William knew this was the moment upon which his freedom depended. He had to gain the trust of these men, and if he did not, he would surely lose his life. He locked eyes with Mr. Reynolds who gave him an encouraging smile. Thanks to him, the crew at least looked receptive.

“Gentlemen, I stand before you as a man who is looking out for your best interests while neither your captain, nor prince, nor king does. The man that stands beside me will happily take the entire reward for my capture and keep it for himself. None of you would ever see a single gold piece.”

Growls and grunts sounded through the crew as all eyes turned to William and Captain Denny. “I know better than any of you the sins of the royal family. Each of you may have been hand selected by the king and his heir, but it was not for your honor, skills, or valor but rather because you were viewed as useful pawns to a corrupt ruler. Can any of you name a single moment in your naval careers when you were justly rewarded? You just witnessed Captain Denny murder my captain and crew for the price on my head. Do you think you would fare better if Denny were to choose between you and the reward?”

William knew he had them now as nays resounded among the members of the crew. “That is neither fair nor just. Each of the men on this ship are the best sailors this realm has ever seen, yet you are treated as common deckhands. If you pledge yourselves to me, I will guarantee that you will be rewarded. We should not be forced to serve a corrupt king, but rather we should sail for ourselves and the betterment of our lives.”

William forced the captain to his knees. “This man cannot promise you a life of freedom, but I can. I propose we take this ship for ourselves and sail under the black flag, as pirates. No longer will this ship be called the Pemberley. Instead we will sail upon the Georgiana. We will go where we please and take what we deserve. No man will ever be our master! Who says aye?”

A chorus of resounding “Ayes” rang throughout the ship.

Reynolds stepped up beside William. “For too long I have seen the men on this ship be deprived of what they rightfully deserved. I vow to sail under the command of Captain William Darcy, a man of honor and justice. Who is with me?”

A clamor of approving vows again reverberated throughout the ship as William stepped up to the helm. “Cast the former captain out to sea, and let him deliver the message to the king that we are no longer his willing pawns. We will chart a course to the open waters and see what this realm has to offer us.”

William watched with grim satisfaction as his fellow crewmen lowered the former Captain Denny down to sea in the dinghy. With any luck, the man would make his way back to George and his father as living proof that it was unwise to pursue him.

Reynolds came up and stood beside him, “So Captain Darcy, where to?” “Chart a course to the south, as far away from this wretched kingdom as we can get.”

[the-dude-of-hyrule]

What You Wish For: A Sneak Peek

So this book is actually published. It is on Amazon right now. Don’t believe me?

https://www.amazon.com/What-You-Wish-Gino-Holland-ebook/dp/B0777GSRDB/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1519349651&sr=8-1&keywords=gino+holland

Ha! So there. Anyway, my experience with this publisher was a bit sub-par. Yes, Light Switch Press did put my book out there for all to see. They put it on Amazon. They did this all for free. What didn’t they do? Well first they didn’t communicate with me one bit between me submitting my book and them publishing it. They didn’t edit, nor offer any editing. And when I suggested a cover in my first submission, they only loosely took the idea (the birthday candle was supposed to be stuck in chili cheese fries)

Despite all of this, when it first came out, I was shocked. I was at work and was checking my email looking for something completely different when I saw this. I immediately texted April to verify that I wasn’t having a hallucination of some sort. So then she saw the Amazon page and sent me a picture of it.

Not lying. I cried. It was my book, with my name on it, on one of the biggest shopping pages on the internet. Of course, I was told I had to do my own advertising, and that it was only available as an e-book until I sold 100 copies. That was roughly November 8th. As of right now, I have sold 15 copies.

I am still thrilled to death about only that. I also am thrilled that I have three 5 Star reviews on Amazon. However, I have to spread the word somehow. I tell anyone that seems remotely interested. So I guess that’s what I’m doing right now. But this way, I can also give people a glimpse into the story so they can do more than just read my pathetic begging.

So here is an excerpt from What You Wish For when Mickie is in the hospital chapel, praying her parents will survive surgery following a car accident.

She dialed and tried to hold back more tears.

“Hello?”

“Deej?” she said softly.

“I’m on a train right now. I should be there in a couple of hours.”

“They’re gone.”

“They’re what?” She could hear the panic in his voice.

“They couldn’t do anything. The doctors lost them.” The tears started to come again.

“They’re dead?”

“They tried everything.”

“They’re dead?” She could hear the tears in his voice now.

“Deej, they’re gone. I’m scared.”

“This is a joke, right? Someone’s playing a trick on us.” He knew that wasn’t true, that this was a knee-jerk reaction.

“No. The last thing I felt for them was anger at forgetting. This wasn’t supposed to happen. I don’t know… What do I do?”

“I’m coming home. We’ll do this together.”

“Yeah. Did mom and dad have wills? Was there a lawyer we’re supposed to call?”

“I don’t know.” Their parents never talked about things like this. Who would want to, honestly? They would have talked about it maybe ten years from now when they were starting to get close to retirement age.

“I’m going to call uncle Gus again. He’ll know what to do, right?”

“Maybe.” His voice was starting to sound fuzzy. He was probably going into an area with bad or no cell service.

“I’ll hang up now. Please be careful. I can’t lose you too. Call me when you’re close.”

“I promise. If it looks like the train is going to derail, I’ll jump off, I swear.” He was joking, she knew, but it was his style.

She hung up and dialed her uncle once again. He picked up on the third ring.

“Hello?”

“What am I supposed to do if they don’t make it?” She was getting ready to cry again, and while she hadn’t started, it was very evident in her voice she was going to.

“Don’t worry, sweetie. They will.” His voice sounded just like when a parent was trying to reassure someone about something that couldn’t possibly go wrong.

“They didn’t.”

“What?” That shut down his condescension quick.

“They didn’t make it. What am I supposed to do? Who do I call?”

“Listen, I’ll be there in about eight hours. Go home and get some rest. We’ll handle this together.” Now he was beginning to panic. Mickie thought the possibility of him having to bury his baby brother never occurred to him.

“I don’t want to be alone. The house is empty.”

“Do you have some friends that can stay with you?” Now the concern in his voice was genuine.

“I don’t know. I can ask. Is there a lawyer or someone I’m supposed to tell?”

“I know they had life insurance and I know they had a will. I just don’t know the name of their lawyer.” They had a will. Even if a copy of it wasn’t at home, Mickie would probably find all of the necessary information in the home office. There was a filing cabinet full of stuff that she never looked in.

She said her goodbyes, giving the same cautions to her uncle that she did to her brother, and just stood there for a moment. She still didn’t know exactly what to do. She knew she should go home and sleep, but she wasn’t sure if she could. While she knew her friends would be more than willing to stand with her, she also knew they didn’t have any better idea of what to do than she did.

“So, you’ve been struck by tragedy.” Said a voice. When she looked, she saw the chaplain.

“God took them.” At the moment, she was mad at God. No, she wasn’t mad, she was flaming pissed off. How dare God take her parents on her eighteenth birthday! Her dad would never walk her down the aisle. Her mother would never be able to give her parenting tips. They would never be able to have another Christmas together. She wasn’t worried about her immediate future, like paying the bills. She was worried about the lost memories to come.

“You have my deepest sympathies, my dear. But remember, God does not give you what you cannot handle, and if you cannot handle it yourself, he makes sure you have people willing and able to help you shoulder the burden. I believe I saw you with three people in the waiting room, and you have family coming to your aid. They will all shoulder the burden with you.”

“I know, but it was just a cruel day to do it on.”

“I know. You said it was your birthday. I know it isn’t much, but please accept this as a consolation.”

The chaplain gave her a small cupcake with a single candle in it. He quickly lit it. “May all your wishes come true.”

He walked away without another word.

That was weird she thought. She blew out the candle and took a bite of the cupcake. It was yellow. She liked yellow cake, but she was extremely depressed right now.

“I wish you were chocolate.” She said. Then she watched in amazement as the yellow cupcake slowly turned into a chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting. Even the candle turned brownish. She pulled the candle out and sniffed it. Chocolate. She actually took a nibble off the bottom end. The whole thing was a chocolate stick. She had actually wished the cupcake to become chocolate and it did.

Oh my God. What just happened? She thought.

“Probably just stress. It was probably chocolate all along.” She finished the cupcake and went in search of her friends.

[jafreitag]

Grateful Dead Monthly: Academy of Music – New York, NY 3/28/72

Before Europe ’72, there was Academy of Music ’72. Between March 21 and 28, 1972, the Grateful Dead played seven concerts at the Academy of Music in New York City.

That’s the original Academy of Music. It opened in 1854 as a 4,000 seat opera house on the northeast corner of East 14th Street and Irving Place in Manhattan. The Dead didn’t play there. They played across the street at a 3,400 seat movie palace also named the Academy of Music, which opened in 1927.

That’s the latter Academy of Music. It shifted from a cinema toward a concert venue in the mid-60s. The Rolling Stones played there on their first U.S. tour in 1965. Around the closing of the Fillmore East, some eight blocks south and east (if my dodgy NYC geography is correct), the former movie palace was a full-on rock palace, hosting the Allman Brothers Band (8/15/71), Aerosmith opening for Humble Pie and Edgar Winter (12/2-3-71), and the Band (12/28-31/71 – those shows were excerpted for the 1972 live album Rock of Ages and featured in their entirety for the 2013 box set Live at the Academy of Music 1971).

The Academy of Music was renamed the Palladium in 1976. And on 9/20/79, this happened there.

The guitar smash, not the album, obv. #paulsimononftw The venue was converted to a nightclub by Studio 54 guys Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager in 1985. In 1992, they sold it to Peter Gatien, who kept it open until 1997. The last concert at the Palladium was Fugazi on 5/1/97 (Red Medicine tour, I think). It’s now an NYU dorm with a gym in the basement.

The Dead visited the Academy/Palladium twice – once in 1972 and once in 1977. In ’72, they were workshopping material that they would soon take across the pond. In ’77, they were solidifying material that they would soon take upstate for the ne plus ultra. Fun fact, the fourth night of the ’72 run was presented by Hells Angels. Here’s the full poster.

[The lessons of Altamont ’69 apparently had been learned, then put to rest. Quick replay, tho, from less than three years earlier.]

The New York Daily News summarized the run like this: “Seven concerts in one week at the Academy of Music, every one of them sold out within hours, more by ESP than advertising… The week’s series will help finance the Dead’s traveling expenses for a two-month, seven-country tour of Europe beginning Saturday.” That quote appears in an excellent and exhaustive recap of all the shows (and their recordings) by someone called “Light Into Ashes” on the Grateful Dead Guide blog. There, LIA posits:

“Musically, this run falls midway between the honky-tonk vibe of the fall ’71 shows, and the smoother Europe ’72 tour. Probably one of the Dead’s plans for the run, aside from raising money for the Europe tour, was to hone their performances for the upcoming live-album recording – after a two-month break from playing shows together, they would need to get back in the groove! 

People who saw them at the time were probably struck by the changes in repertoire. (They only played two songs that had been on Live/Dead, one time each; few songs from Workingman’s Dead or American Beauty were played at all; and many of their newer songs were not on any albums yet.) Pigpen was also singing and playing more than he had in ’71 (singing five or six songs a night); a new piano player had altered the band’s sound quite a bit; and some unknown longhaired lady would come onstage to sing for a song or two. New Yorkers would also have noticed that the Dead no longer played til dawn, as they had done so often at the Fillmore East!

The average show length was three and a half hours, as they played through most of their repertoire each night. (Any audience members who went to several shows in the run would hear most of the same songs a LOT of times.)”

The Grateful Dead Sources blog has a 1972 newspaper review from Toronto’s Grapevine. Pretty funny, it’s worth a look.

Betty Cantor-Jackson recorded the shows, but the tapes disappeared until some guy from Northern California bought them at an auction in 1987. The tapes sat in his barn deteriorating. When Jerry died in 1995, one of the guy’s friends, who must’ve known a thing or two about the Dead, contacted Dark Star Orchestra’s Rob Eaton. Eaton cleaned and restored the tapes at his own expense, and returned them to the guy.

(^ Rob Eaton)

From LIA’s post, which quotes Eaton from an interview with Katie Harvey:

“‘The collection was really unique. Half of it was Garcia-Saunders from ’73, 74, 75. It was just nothing anybody had ever seen. And all the Academy of Music tapes from the Dead in ’72, which no one had ever heard a tape of: really bad audience tapes were the only thing [from that run], nothing was in the Vault. So I knew it was really important.’

Eaton kept DAT copies of the reels, although the buyer made him sign a contract not to copy or distribute the recordings. ‘He drew up this contract that I was liable for $100,000 in liquefied damages if I released the contents of the collection without his written authorization. And I wasn’t allowed to keep a copy according to this thing. All the copies had to be in his possession. Of course I’m keeping a DAT master of everything I’m doing. I’m not that stupid. I was a deadhead and protecting the music was my first and foremost thought. Legally, I wasn’t really that concerned with it. Because I was sort of in with the Dead office at the time, they found out that I had these. They wanted to get a hold of the guy. So I got them in touch with this guy who wanted a million dollars. They just told him to fuck himself. They came back to me and they go, “Look, we know you’re smart. We know you probably kept a set of DATs. What would it take to get that set of DATs from you?” And I said, “Well, first of all, I signed this contract.”’

But according to Hal Kantor, the Dead’s attorney, ‘He can’t claim rights to what’s on the tape. He has rights to the actual physical tapes, but what’s on the tape is our rights, not his.’ So Eaton copied his DATs (including Dead shows from 1971-76) and gave them to the Vault. And as Harvey writes: ‘They prohibited him from distributing copies because they planned to commercially release the material.'”

Parts of all seven nights in 1972 are scattered across various official releases, but the archivists have unloosed only two complete shows – 3/26 (Dave’s Picks #14) and 3/28 (Dick’s Picks #30). The latter also contains the Bo Diddley sit-in from 3/25, so ECM and I decided to focus on that one.

According to the DP#30 Wiki, the 3/25 show was a “semi-private party” billed as Jerry Garcia & Friends. In reality, it was a GD with the band backing Bo Diddley for the first set, then playing its own second set. The entire show has sound quality issues, but the first set is quite poor. The “jam” is the most notable part. It’s essentially a slower version of the “Hard to Handle” wig-out, and not super interesting.

The Dead opened their set with a couple rarities – How Sweet It is (To Be Loved by You), on which Donna Jean reaches a truly wicked level of caterwaul, and Are You Lonely for Me Baby?, from which Bobby must’ve gotten inspiration for Black-Throated Wind. Are You Lonely was later a staple of Garcia/Merl Saunders sets in ’72-74.

3/28 is better, and offers more typical Dead fare. The first set features an extremely hot China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider duo, and some funny stage banter from Phil Lesh. After the band played Mexicali Blues, some audience members chanted for Alligator. Phil responded, “Hey, for all you Alligator fans out there, we done – ah alright alright alright. We understand that there’s a lot of Alligator fans out there, but we done forgot it, see. And so ah, we’re gonna have to remember it sometime later, you know.” The second set showpiece is an extended version of The Other One that offers a preview of what the band would do in Europe.

Ed reminded me that this show was Pigpen’s last in NYC. And he added that it contains Donna’s first Playing in the Band wail. Awesome. His listening notes are more robust than mine, as usual:

The Europe ’72 tour began on April 7th, but the boys played a preparatory seven-night run at the Academy of Music in NYC in the days leading up to their flight across the pond. 

The festivities open with a rockin Truckin.’ All the first set songs are played with gusto and feeling especially the “new” songs such as Tennessee Jed, Chinatown Shuffle, BT Wind, Mr. Charlie, You Win Again and Mexicali Blues.  After Mexicali, the audience is calling out for “Alligator” and Phil tells them that “we done forgot it.” A rare, mid-set Brokedown follows and it is a pure joy. It just might be my favorite song from the entire first set. Next Time You See Me is perfectly executed. The band tears up Cumberland. Bobby is high in the mix and it is exciting to hear his guitar part. Next, Bobby introduces LLR as a “cryin’ song.” It’s a gorgeous version that has Jerry on pedal steel and Phil on backing vocals.  and China->Rider really stands out. The segue jam in China->Rider is especially interesting as the band seems to struggle at first to find the groove behind Bobby’s solo, then they just roll with it, and then Jerry locks into a cool riff before diving into Rider. The only minor complaint is that after 6 shows, Garcia’s voice is beginning to show signs of strain (You Win Again, Big Railroad Blues and China Cat). 

The setlist for Set II pretty much speaks for itself. Playing in the Band continues to progress. This performance marks the the first time that Donna lends her vocal contributions. The jam section starts off drifty like Veneta with that big psychedelic bubble. By the 6-minute mark Jerry is in full guitar psychosis mode. They cool down into drifting, mournful ribbons of sound only to bring it to another peak around the 10-minute mark before entering the reprise. A few songs later we get a high-energy Sugar Magnolia. Jerry goes nuts on the wah pedal during the coda. Donna has not yet found her way into the arrangement yet). This segues directly into a brief drum intro that leads into a 28-minute version of The Other One. The entry is surprisingly laid back as is the entire performance. By the 7-minute mark there are no traces of the song. The band has entered uncharted territory…deep space. This is pretty experimental stuff…atonal notes and peals of feedback. Things begin to become melodic again at about the 14-minute mark as the band prepares to deliver the first verse but it takes them 2 more minutes to eventually get there and after dispensing with it they return to the same misty pastures where they once were. The concert ends in fine form with their standby crowd pleasing closer of NFA>GDTRFB>NFA. The jam at the end of NFA leading into GDTRFB especially shines. 

The only version of the Sidewalks of New York is just a half-minute tuning.

Here’s the Spotify widget.

I’ll add LMA links at some point.

More soon.

JF

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[ayamari-no-goshi]

Verboten 4 | (T)

ff.net | AO3

Fandom: Danny Phantom (DP)

Summary:   AU. When Danny was five years old, he went missing for 2 weeks. In the years that follow, his family tried to make sense of what happened, only for the truth to be discovered years later.

Warnings: rated T for violence, mentions of death, language. Be prepared for some very weird things

Parings: Danny/Sam

Notes: originally uploaded to Ff.net. Cross-posted to AO3 and tumblr. This fic is very heavily inspired by folklore surrounding mysterious wilderness disappearances

Chapter 4

Later that night, it was officially announced at dinner that the camper’s death was the result of an unfortunate accident. However, what shocked all the students was the decision to finish out the remaining time at the camp. According to Mr. Lancer, he had contacted the other teachers at the different sites, and that was the mutual decision.

Tucker had surprisingly spoken up and demanded how their teacher managed to get through since the cell phone service issue remained unresolved. After their meeting with the police officer, he had checked with other students, who all said the same thing. Their service was poor, and they hadn’t been able to contact anyone. For the technophile, it was extremely frustrating, and he had put a lot of effort in attempting to solve the problem on his own device. He told Danny and Sam that it almost seemed like there was a weird electrical phenomenon causing the problem.

Lancer stumbled for a moment, but he eventually said the Park Rangers had let him use their landline. He then changed the topic and began explaining what the activities for the next morning would be.

“Alright, now I’m really sure something’s fishy,” Tucker whispered to his friends. “Wanna bet he was never able to contact the other teachers?”

“I’ll pass, because I think you’re right,” Danny told him as he stole a glance at some of the nearby Rangers. They had been closely watching the students since the beginning of dinner. “I don’t think the Rangers agree with that decision.”

“Yeah, and did you notice? They’ve been stone faced during this whole thing.” Sam leaned forward as she continued. “I really think something more serious happened to that poor man.”

Danny nodded. “I don’t have the slightest idea what might have happened. You’d think they come right out and say if it was an animal attack. But, that’s fairly uncommon in our state. I mean, the most dangerous animal here is a black bear, but they aren’t very common.”

“It could have been a mountain lion attack. While they supposedly haven’t been in this state for decades, there are still regular reports of them. That’s something that might be kept quiet. I mean, that was an issue in Pennsylvania with their coyotes and the Game Commission.”

“That would make sense, but you’d think they’d still say something like it was an animal attack and chalk it up to him doing something stupid to upset a bear if that was the case,” Tucker mentioned as he fiddled with his PDA. “I still can’t get a good signal.”

“I guess we need to just remain on guard,” Danny mused as the other students began to stand. His friends agreed with him as stood and went to grab one of the paper schedules which held the next day’s events.

…

After Danny and Tucker headed back to their cabin after then had finished freshening up for the night at the communal showers, they were met with the jocks excitedly swapping information. Dash’s grin was almost cat-like as he caught sight of the pair. “So, I guess you dweebs didn’t hear about what actually happened to that camper.”

“Other than what we were told, no,” Danny told him as he went to grab something out of his bag. “And don’t you have anything better to do than spread nasty rumors about the dead?”

Dash’s grin immediately grew larger as he continued, “It’s not a rumor. One of the band geeks was up for an early piss and saw them bring the body into camp. That guy was in pieces.”

“Wha… what!? What did you say?” Tucker stammered as he dropped his PDA.

“Are you absolutely certain that’s what he saw?” Danny demanded as he stepped in between Tucker and Dash. “The camper could have been really messed up, but if he was covered in blood, dirt, and whatever else he encountered, maybe it looked worse than it really was.”

“As much as it annoys me to admit, Fenton makes a good point,” Dash’s other friend, Lucas, mentioned as he sat on his bed. “Without seeing it for ourselves, we don’t know how bad it was, and the kid was pretty scared when he repeated it. So, let me ask you this Fenton, what do you think happened?”

“I’m surprised you care about whatever I think. But,” Danny paused for a moment, “all I know for certain is that something bad happened, and the police and rangers aren’t happy about it. But, I’m not a cop, and I’m clearly not trained in stuff like this, so my hunches are probably wrong.”

“That’s not much of an answer.”

“Unlike some people, I’m not going to jump to conclusions before I know more.” Satisfied with the stunned looks of the jocks, Danny turned to finish preparing for bed. After a moment, he realized Tucker was staring at him. “What?”

“So, where’s this Danny Fenton been all these years?” his friend whispered at him.

Danny raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“You’ve never stood up your… you know… bullies before. What changed?”

“Nothing changed, not really,” Danny replied as he climbed into bed. “It’s just I can’t tolerate people spreading rumors like this. It brings bad luck, or at least I think so, and,” he paused for a moment before lowering his voice, “you shouldn’t speak ill of the dead.”

“Did your parents drill that into you or something?”

“Not my parents, but I can’t remember who did.”

……

The next day, the students were kept close to camp. Most of the day was spent learning basic camping skills. Although there were plenty of grumbles from his classmates, Danny found it pretty interesting as his parents wanted to keep him as far away from the woods as possible. He spent most of the morning in a boyish wonder as was instructed on setting up tents, campfires, and basic traps.

Sam spent a good portion of the morning teasing him, but he largely ignored her. Like a lot of boys, he had an interest in camping when he was younger, so this was a chance to experience it, or at least a small portion of it. However, by the time lunch hit, his enthusiasm had been replaced by uneasiness.

In the shadows cast by the trees around the camp, he felt as if someone was watching him. It was possible it was just an animal, but as the hours passed and the feeling continued, he determined that couldn’t be the cause. Most animals didn’t spend that long watching people, unless they were hunting, but most predators wouldn’t dream of getting so close to so many people. Both Sam and Tucker seemed apprehensive as well.

“Hey, did either of you heard those weird bird calls earlier?” Sam asked while they were eating dinner.

“I don’t know how you had time to listen to birds with how much manual labor we did earlier. I’m exhausted,” Tucker whined in between bites of his food.

“We barely did anything too strenuous. You really need to get out more.” The amused smirk on Sam’s face was quickly replaced by a frown. “But, in all seriousness, something sounded wrong. I’m pretty familiar with the birds around here, but I’ve never heard something like that before.”

“Is it possible it was an exotic bird?” Danny questioned. “I mean, it is possible one escaped or someone let one go.”

Sam considered his words for a moment. “While it’s possible, I don’t think that’s the case.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s hard to explain.” She brought her hand to her chin as she tried to put her thoughts to words. “The sound didn’t sound natural. It was almost mechanical.”

“A mechanical bird? Come on, Sam! Even for you, that’s pretty out there. Am I right, dude?” Tucker playfully nudged Danny, only to realize he seemed deep in thought. “Hey, what’s wrong? Earth to Danny.”

“Gah!” The sudden motion of Tucker waving his hand in front of his face startled him. “Sorry about that. It’s just that… I… I think I know what she means”

“Huh?”

“I don’t remember much about what happened when I went missing, but before things go hazy, I definitely remember a strange bird call. After doing some research, my parents said that calls like that are sometimes heard before unusual missing persons cases.”

“Dude! Don’t say stuff like that! I’m already freaked out enough as it is by this whole mess. Ouch! Did you really have to kick me?”

“Keep your voice down,” Sam warned him as she motioned to the side with a head nod. Danny followed the motion and noticed some of the Rangers seemed to be watching them. “I really don’t want them to pay attention to us. They’re watching us, all of us, like we’re prisoners or something. Anyways, Danny do you know anything more about that weird call?”

“My parents said it might be a type of lure, but I have no idea if that’s true or not. But, I think it was to catch my attention than anything else.” Danny shook his head. “Sam, we wouldn’t be doing this. Whatever that call was, it could have just been some weird bird.”

“Don’t you want to know?”

“Maybe? I don’t know. Look, I’ve been uneasy since we first arrived in this forest. I already told Tucker this, but talking about weird stuff like this brings bad luck. Can we put it on hold until we get out of here?”

“But Danny!” Her argument was cut short as he glared at her. She straightened up as her eyes narrowed. “As weird as everything is, I think the bigger mystery is what exactly happened to you when you went missing when you were a kid.”

“Look, I don’t know what happened,” Danny snapped. What was her problem?

“Clearly something did. What’s every going on here might be digging up some of those memories. Maybe you have a memory that could help, but you’re getting so defensive.”

“Of course I am! Would you like it if someone kept trying to make you remember something that’s probably better left forgotten?”

“Alright, alright. Chill already.”

His only response was to huff and turn away. Her stubbornness was something he both admired and occasionally hated. Whether it was petitioning her teachers to get a menu changed, rallying a protest, or badgering her friends for information, she often wouldn’t stop until she got her way. It was a big reason why he didn’t think they’d ever be able to get together.

They had discussed it the previous year, after Tucker outed their mutual attraction. Neither of them thought it would work out. Sam was too headstrong, and Danny was too reserved for it to be a functioning relationship. There was always a spark of hope, but it was situations like this that reminded him that they hadn’t changed. For the sake of their friendship, it wasn’t something they could safely consider.

Maybe when they got a little older, a little more mature, they would be able to act on their feelings, but that would have to wait. For now, he was just going to sit in an annoyed silence as he finished his… what exact was this food supposed to be anyways?

…..

Sam actually apologized to him the next day. However, he was still too irritated to speak to her, but by the time lunch rolled around, he had forgiven her.

The morning had been spent working on more wilderness survival skills, but the Rangers surprised them by announcing that they would be leading them on a hike on the trail that surrounded the camp. It was only supposed to last a couple hours at most, but three armed Rangers would be walking with them.

Annoyed and uneasy murmurs circled through the students as they formed groups of three and four. Those groups were then lined up; one Ranger moved to the front, one went to the back, and the other moved to the center of the line. Before they began to move, the Rangers warned the entire group that, under no circumstance, was anyone to go off on their own.

Although Sam and Tucker wanted to stay away from Lancer and the jocks who were near the front of the line, Danny would not allow them to be in the very back. After everything else that happened, he would not allow himself to be in the back on the line. The warning to stay away from the very back or front still rang in his ears. Unfortunately, that didn’t last very long.

As they began their trek, several of the groups fell to the back of the line. It forced Danny and his friends to have somewhat of a distance between the few band and more nerdy students who were following close to the first Ranger and Mr. Lancer, and the popular kids and jocks who were near the back. The Ranger who was supposed to be in the middle had hung back to help keep an eye on the larger portion of students.

“I don’t like this,” Danny mentioned as Sam had them stop for a moment as she made a quick sketch of a plant off the path. “Is it just me, or is it really quiet?” He had noticed it for a while. Usually a person should be able to hear bugs, birds, leaves rustling, something, but he hadn’t noticed any noise for a while.

“These are older forests, Danny,” Sam explained as she finished her sketch. “Noises often get muffled since plants can absorb sound to some extent.”

“It doesn’t mean it’s not creepy.”

“Actually, Sam, I agree with him,” Tucker mentioned as he looked over his shoulder. “I feel like we’re being watched.”

Sam tucked her sketch book in her bag before pointing to something behind them. “I think you’re right on that, but I don’t think it’s anything out of the ordinary.”

Danny and Tucker turned to see Dash and his friends, as well as some of the popular girls approach them from down the trail. Apparently, they had been spotted as Dash wore an evil grin as he said something to Kwan as he gestured towards them. A round of laughter followed.

“Great, just our luck. Do you think we’d be able to outrun them?” Danny asked as he warily eyed the approaching group.

“Are you nuts, dude? We can’t even outrun Sam.”

“Thanks for that lovely vote of confidence, Tucker.” ==================

Notes:

The coyotes and the Game Commission was an actual thing that happened. Basically, there weren’t supposed to be any coyotes in Pennsylvania, but there were farmers saying their animals were being attacked by something. One of the farmers, who lived nearby where I grew up, got permission to take a shot at creatures and ended up killing a coyote with a Game Commission tag in its ear. Twenty years later, the Game Commission has finally admitted coyotes are back in Pennsylvania, and that they can be hunted. Coyotes can attack people. While there aren’t many documented attacks, they have happened, and Pennsylvanians aren’t very happy about them popping up in towns and parks.

Mountains Lions, also known as Nittany Lions, Pumas and Cougars, are supposedly extinct in the states east of the Mississippi River (ignore Florida – it’s an exception). However, that’s another thing under debate. There have been many sightings of them throughout the years in the east, especially in the Appalachian (app-ah-lay-shin) Mountains. There is actually a picture of one found in Ohio near its border with Kentucky that was taken in 2014. I know there are recent reports in Pennsylvania and New York as well - this includes family members.

[the-master-cylinder]

SUMMARY A small family relocates to the Sonoran Desert to be closer to the grandparents of the family. Though there are news reports of a spectacular triple supernova and the young granddaughter has seen a glowing alien construction behind the barn, the family is at ease until, one night, a UFO soars overhead and appears to land in the nearby hills. Apparently, the triple supernova has opened a rift in space and time. The family finds that their electrical appliances no longer function, and the youngest daughter of the family has a telepathic encounter with an extraterrestrial. The grandmother, too, sees one of these diminutive creatures beckoning to her, but it soon vanishes.

The grandfather, while trying to start the car, sees that a strange animal is approaching from the distance. The grandfather goes back inside and informs the family that something is coming; before long, a variety of horrific, alien monsters (all of these creatures being of a reptilian or amphibious nature) are proceeding to slaughter each other outside the house; some are trying to break in (after knocking) and kill the family. After a few moments, the UFO appears again and teleports the creatures to a different place. The family take this opportunity to escape to the barn, which is more easily defensible than the house. The family become separated from one another and each hides until sunrise, where they find that they have been launched thousands of years into the future. They meet up with the daughter, who had become separated from the family during one of the time-warp events. She knows, somehow, that everything is going to be fine now. After walking across the desert, they finally see a domed city in the distance, and decide to seek refuge there. The grandfather proclaims that there must be a purpose to all of this. The family walks off into the distance, having survived the day time ended.

Producer Paul Gentry in The Day Time Ended (1979)

PRODUCTION The film was originally conceived by script writers Steve Neill, Paul Gentry, and Wayne Schmidt. The three offered a script for another project to producer Charles Band, who thought it was too expensive to make but offered to produce a science-fiction film if it was based in one or two locations.

Steve Neill is not your everyday, run-of the-mill, bottom-of-the-barrel scraper, however. For the last four years, he’s been making a fine living off his makeup talents, designing and applying material for The Crater Lake Monster, Kingdom of the Spiders, The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover, Demon and various other film features and TV commercials. His partners in the Vortex production, Paul Gentry and Wayne Schmidt, come from the same creative background but don’t have the impressive list of credits.

“I’m a science-fiction fan,” says Schmidt, “doing the convention circuit and the whole bit while writing screenplays no one seemed to buy. Until this came up I was doing a lot of starving.”

What came up was Neill going to work for Charles Band on the young producer’s two SF efforts of last year-End of the World and Laserblast. Suddenly, Neill had found his responsive ear and took no time in exploiting it.

“Steve had the tenacity to walk into work with some spaceship models he designed,” Schmidt relates. “They subsequently caught Charlie’s eye. He grilled Steve as to what they were for and Steve told him they were for a movie he was working on. Charlie was receptive so Steve brought me into it.”

What emerged was a concept alternately titled Race for Antari or Star Racers, concerning, not surprisingly, racers in space. Band was interested not so much in the theme at that point, but the creative package he could create: Neill on makeup, Gentry on SFX and Schmidt on script. Unfortunately, the idea soon became too big for Band’s budget.

“Charlie called me into the office one day,” Neill recalls, “and said, ‘I’ve got some good news and some bad news. First, the bad news is that Star Racers has been shelved. The good news is that I still want a picture from you. I want simplicity, I want one location and I want it this week.’”

Neill accepted the challenge and one hour later came up with the concept of Vortex.

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“Basically,” Schmidt narrates, “it involves a family who moves out to the desert and builds a completely self-sufficient house out there. But due to a space occurrence it turns out that their home is built on what you might call ‘the Bermuda Triangle fault-line.’ It gets whisked into other dimensions and the family goes through all sorts of-how shall I put it?-traumatic experiences. Heh, heh, heh.”

“It seemed to work real well,” Neill takes up the story, “so we drafted it out real fast. We signed three contracts and started the picture based on a one-page synopsis!”

But one page does not a movie make. The spanking new production team of Neill, Gentry and Schmidt had to get a shooting script, they had to get a director, and they had to gather a cast. Suddenly filmmaking wasn’t fun anymore. It was still exciting, but it sure wasn’t fun.

“The scriptwriting went on and on and on,” says Schmidt. “And the film grew in scope until we wound up with a project as involved as our Star Racers. And it was to take close to as much time. It’s not the simple project we started with by any stretch of the imagination. While Charlie handled most of the casting decisions with feedback from the distributors, we started creating the ‘look’ of the film.

“We brought in Lane Liska who worked on Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica to draw up our ideas. Meantime Steve, who had worked with John Bud Cardos on The Dark, called the director and got him in on this one.”

Although a second location was added and the final shooting script called for months of post-production effects work, things were going smoothly. Band had signed Jim Davis, Dorothy Malane, Chris Mitchum, Natasha Ryan and Marcy Lafferty to play the leads, while Cardos began putting his crew together. According to their contracts, Gentry would be the director of photography and head of special effects, Schmidt would discover the wonders of producing by doing a little bit of everything and Neill would oversee it all-valiantly trying to stave off his first ulcer.

The crew descended on Apple Valley for 10 days of location shooting, then things began to get a little dusty. The crew turned out not to be entirely reliable and Gentry was removed as cinematographer.

“The problem with low-budget films,” details Neill, “is that you get crews who are experienced in only that type of film, there is a lot of hiring and firing because they’re, kind of, in-between talents. I hate the watch-watchers, though, the guys who complain all the time then quit on you. If it weren’t for guys like Greg Jein, our model maker, and Joel Goldsmith-Jerry’s son who is doing the sound, the movie wouldn’t stay together. These guys are totally dedicated. I mean, when Paul Gentry was replaced as DP he took it cool. He knew he got aced, but he worked it out smoothly and kept helping. I can’t thank these guys enough.”

Not only was Neill’s patience tried, his wallet was sorely tapped as well. In the movie business, the least little mistake can push the film thousands of dollars over the budget-a lesson the young trio learned the hard way.

“We were supposed to be on location 10 days and we were there 16,” Neill relates. “The government charged us $6500 for use of the land. Beyond that they wanted so much for each actor, so much for each camera, so much for each truck and so much for each car. It cost like $10,000 to rent a dry lake bed. And we didn’t even have to be there!

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“You see, Bud had this idea that a scene which was set to be shot with special effects could be done on location. It called for a sort-of ‘intergalactic spaceship graveyard.’ He had all these friends, he said, who had all these old planes that could be flown down for free, etc., etc. It turned out to be a nightmare. When it came time, there were no free planes. It cost $6000 to fly one plane mockup to the location. It seems that Bud would rather see his old planes out there and shoot it for himself than hand it over to special effects. That’s been a problem.”

Fortunately, the production wasn’t all problems. The stage-bound mock-ups of the house, the barn and the corral turned out better than expected and the SFX were being created with style. All in all, the production values for Vortex marked a new high for Charles Band. The young filmmakers expressed their admiration for the abilities of their youthful boss.

“I’ll give him credit,” Schmidt says. “He was willing to take a chance with three guys who had no “authorized’ experience on a film. He has a lot of courage and for that we owe him a great debt of thanks.”

Neill, while mirroring his partner’s sentiments, also points out one of the problems of low-budget filmmaking. “Charlie is incredible. He signed us for Vortex, Dave Allen for The Primevals, wrapped Tourist Trap and Auditions just before releasing Fairy Tales. And that’s just this year, practically. Our only problem is that he seems to think he’s giving us enough money but he’s not. We’re stretching as hard as we can to make this a great picture.”

The final judgment will come, of course, after Vortex is released and the money starts-or doesn’t start to roll in. Given the returns on Band’s prior contributions to the genre, the trio are confident of a decent showing. But win, lose or draw, they all feel very strongly about the lesson in life their film has taught them.

“All through the production I wanted to strangle people,” says Neill. “But as a producer I couldn’t do it. You’ve got to bite your tongue instead of blowing up. I used to have a really bad temper, but that’s gone now. I learned to smile at people, sometimes leaving a bad taste in my mouth.”

Happily, the best is yet to come for the team. The principal photography is finished and they are now deep into the SFX, their first love.

“The special effects are the nicest part of the production,” says Neill, and his associates concur. “It’s like we’re free of Bud and free of the crew and Charlie has dumped the film in our laps and said, ‘Go for it.’ We are, believe me. We’re pouring our flesh and blood into this.

“But you know what? I’m not excited. There’s too much to do. I’ll get excited the night the film opens. Then I can just sit there and shout, ‘Yeah!’ at the screen. Until then, I’ll be very serious.”

CAST/CREW Directed John Cardos

Produced Charles Band Paul Gentry Steve Neill Wayne Schmidt

Written J. Larry Carroll Steve Neill Wayne Schmidt David Schmoeller

Jim Davis as Grant Williams Dorothy Malone as Ana Williams Christopher Mitchum as Richard Williams Marcy Lafferty as Beth Williams Scott Kolden as Steve Williams Natasha Ryan as Jenny Williams Roberto Contreras as Gas Station Attendant

Visual Effects by David Allen … dimensional animation / technical advisor: Special Visual Effects Unit Beth Block … opticals: 2nd unit Dave Carson … effects art director: Special Visual Effects Unit Chris Casady … special animation crew Lyle Conway … stop-motion figures designer & creator Randall William Cook … dimensional animation (as Randy Cook) / storyboards (as Randy Cook) Jim Danforth … The “City of Light” by Paul Gentry … dimensional animation (as Paul W. Gentry) / director of special visual effects: Special Visual Effects Unit (as Paul W. Gentry) Gregory Jein … models constructed by (as Greg Jein) Laurel Klick … opticals: 2nd unit (as Laural Klick) Peter Kuran … special animation effects supervisor (as Pete Kuran) James F. Liles … opticals: 3rd unit Laine Liska … models designed by (as Lain Liska) Robin Loudon … effects production secretary Steven Nielson … effects editor (as Steve Neilson) Lori Redfern … special animation crew Wayne Schmidt … opticals: 1st unit Jerome Seven … special animation crew Tom St. Amand … stop-motion armatures (as Tom St. Armand) Rick Taylor … special animation crew Pam Vick … special animation crew Joe Viskocil … special pyrotechnic effects Garry Waller … special animation crew (as Gary Waller) Jim Danforth … matte artist (uncredited) / matte photographer (uncredited)

CREDITS/REFERENCES/SOURCES/BIBLIOGRAPHY Cinefantastique Vol 08 No 2-3 Famous Monsters of Filmland#161

The Day Time Ended (1980) Retrospective SUMMARY A small family relocates to the Sonoran Desert to be closer to the grandparents of the family.

[itbeajen]

Omorfos Kosmo | Haikyuu x Reader

Chapter 4 - Yachi and the Forest of Enticement

"Fortress of Seduction?" Kenma repeated softly. His eyes narrowed and he muttered, "There's a level and quest requirement for that place... Isn't your manager only level 58?"

Sugawara nodded and Daichi scans the message and whoever was near him could faintly hear him curse under his breath. He looked up and he stated, "It seems as though... Yacchan logged in there."

ID: Yacchan Main: Priest Level: 58 - EXP 79/100 Guild: Karasuno Fun Fact: Upon finding out that the Holy Light infused skills that Holy Knights used could be used as Holy Magic, she began to dabble into learning those spells in order to be a bit more useful.

The guild went silent and Kuroo waved it off, "There's no way Manager-chan could have-"

"How else could she have gotten in though Kuroo-san? The level requirement is 60 to just get the quest for that boss, and the forest area around it is teemed with high level monsters." Akaashi points out, and Bokuto nods in agreement. Tsukishima softly adds in, "Let's not forget about the moat that blocks off all entry and exit of that place... you need to collect all four pieces of the the compass in order to unlock the special pathway that teleports you into the fortress."

The bed headed male frowned and Kuroo asked, "Could you read her message to us?"

Daichi nodded, and instead of reading it, he reads the simple note that was simply, "I'm stuck at the Fortress of Seduction... I don't know how I ended up here, but the map I'm in is called Chamber L."

Kenma stares at the message that was now flashing on the Karasuno guild bulletin board, and then he paused, "She sent in a voice message with it."

"She did?" Sugawara asked and Kenma nodded, pointing at the small microphone that was flashing on and off. Daichi clicked it, and Yachi's voice was heard.

"D-Daichi-san!" her voice was shaky and soft, "If... if I'm not wrong, I think I'm stuck in a dungeon. I didn't think it was possible to log into a dungeon... is it because of this new update? The monsters here are too strong..." her voice trails off and the members could hear her trip over something, or tip something over, as the metallic noise of a hollow object rolls across the floor. "Eep! Ah! I'm sorry! I'm- Ah!"

The tone of Yachi's voice falls into a soft whimper, "I'm so scared. I'm safe so far.. I've been avoiding them using the invisibility cloak that Yamaguchi-kun and Tsukishima-kun gave me but," they can't see it, but she probably flinched at the loud noise that is recorded and her timid voice is barely audible, "I'm not sure how to get out. The room has been empty so far... is it because it's not night time yet? I heard that the special boss here spawns at midnight and- AH!! NOO!" Yachi screeches, and everyone in the room winces at the rather loud noise. The sound of her feet hitting the stone floor is heard, and then the panting and howling. There was a scratching noise and they could hear Yachi scampering away from the now closed, and hopefully, locked door.

She sighs in relief and she mutters, "Where is this...? Ah! Daichi-san!?" There was silence as Yachi was most likely inspecting the message and she sighed in relief, "Ah thank god it didn't turn off! Uhm, I'm not sure where I am now... the map says Chamber L, but there's nothing in here and..." she pauses and her footsteps go silent. Her voice is softer now, even softer than before, "I don't think I should be out in the open. My gut feeling is telling me that... something, might go wrong." Her voice quivered in fear and the guild members all frowned at how obviously scared their poor priest was. Her footsteps were light as she carried herself somewhere away from the door and towards somewhere else and there is a soft creaking noise and Yachi speaks, "I'm going to hide in this closet for the time being. I'm not sure if I can get out on my own, but I'm going to do my best to see if I can figure out this place! Uhm, I..."

They hear Yachi's voice crack, and she weakly whispers, "What if my character, I mean..." but the question she doesn't finish is left in the air, cause the voice message cuts off, only to be replaced by the slamming of Hinata's hands on the table.

"We have to save her."

"Hinata-"

"Yachi-san is scared! And she's our support priest! Her DPS isn't high enough to-" Hinata's cut off by Kenma's response, "It will take us approximately 4 hours to get there, real-time, and another 2 hours to open up the pathway to the fortress."

"We don't have that kind of luxury!" Ennoshita responded, clearly distressed that their lowest level guild member was trapped in such a high level dungeon. And Bokuto hummed, "But if we all flew there, we could get there in 2 hours minimum if we rented wyverns."

"We'd need a Thunder Dragon to get there under an hour," Akaashi added, and Tsukishima and Kenma exchanged a glance. Kenma cleared his throat and softly stated, "Tsukishima and I have thunder dragons, we can make use of the slipstream to speed up the wyverns."

"Even then, two Thunder Dragons to pull along an entire team of wyverns?" Daichi shook his head, "That's asking for too much, even if we double up."

"Some wyverns can have three riders," Kiyoko added, and then she said, "I can probably tame a Forest Dragon."

"Forest Dragons are slightly faster than wyverns, but they're so rare... and even then they'll be hard to find and that'll waste time too," Daichi muttered, his fist clenching and Tsukishima asked, "Do we even have enough to rent out wyverns? We recently upgraded our guild."

The guild members fell silent and Akaashi added, "Bokuto-san and I can contribute 3 wyverns max."

"We have thirteen people in total including you guys," Daichi counted and he continued, "3 wyverns means 9 people max and-"

"Sorry we can't afford the three rider wyverns, those are more expensive," Bokuto interjected a sad look on his face and Daichi muttered, "6... 8 people including Tsukishima and Kenma... that's not enough and-"

The door rang softly and there was a soft knock before another voice called out, "Nekoma's priest, Yaku here!"

"Yaku-san!" Lev called out as he opened the door for the shorter male.

ID: Yakool Main: Priest Level: 66 - EXP 14/100% Guild: Nekoma - Position: Officer Fun fact: Kuroo named his character, and Yaku actually really likes it, but would never tell Kuroo that

"And now we have 14," Sugawara fondly shook his head as Kuroo filled Yaku in on what just happened. Yaku furrowed his brows and then he asked, "Why not ask [L/N] to help out? She just finished her last mercenary request a few minutes ago."

"Already?!" Bokuto asked and groaned, "Akaashi!" he stretched out each syllable and he whined, "[L/N] is going to keep that rank one position again this week too!"

"Bokuto-san, this is not the time," Akaashi sighed and he turned to Yaku, "Is she in town?"

Yaku nodded, putting his staff down as he equipped his mage gear. It was much different than the other magicians and priests in the room as his gear was a simple butler-like outfit with a mage's circlet adorning his faint orange hair.

"She was at the mercenary hall helping out confused players, but she's done with mercenary jobs for today, she said that an emergency came up and-" Yaku's cut off by the door signalling another visitor. However, the correct guest passcode was entered and you stepped through, slightly out of breath and you glared at Tsukishima.

"Kei! Seriously?!"

He smirked, "We have our travel plans to the Fortress of Seduction now."

You made your way towards Daichi and you hold out five whistles and he blinked at you, confused. You sighed and a small smile is on your lips and you said, "Kei said there was an emergency, and that one of your guild members were missing. This is one of the few times he's ever lowered his pride-"

"Oi!" Tsukishima calls out, not amused at your choice of words, and you ignore him, continuing, "-enough to ask me for help. These are all Scythe Dragons, each with speeds of a Forest Dragon. they can sit up to 3 people per, but their speed drops to the speed of a wyvern if you sit 3 people. Optimal is 2."

You look around and Kenma makes eye contact with you and he mouths, "Slipstream."

"Ah, so that's what you guys were planning," you nod in approval and you said, "I can help you guys get up to the forest, but..." You scratched the back of your neck, "Where exactly is your guild member?"

"Fortress of Seduction: Chamber L."

"Ch-CHAMBER L!?" you almost shouted. The surprise on your face surprised everyone else and Kenma frowned, "Why are you so surprised you-"

"Chamber L is only accessible if you have the Key of Nightmare! And you're saying she just waltz right in?!" you practically shouted at Kenma and Daichi weakly nodded, slightly intimidated by your outburst. You reign your emotions in and you mutter, "Shit, that's an issue then. Chamber L would mean we have to finish the other 3 chambers in order to get into Chamber L... That must mean there's a raid going on and your guild member was taken into account as a member of that party by mistake..."

You paused and shook your head, "No that's not possible there's-"

You cursed underneath your breath and you mentally began to start pairing up the players based off of what you knew from Kei's stories to you, and also their job class. You cleared your throat, scanning over the members, "Okay, I'm going to form groups based off of what I think will work."

Karasuno's third years were one team. With Asahi as their tank and Daichi as their off-tank, they had a good method of breaking through the enemy's ranks as Kiyoko could support with her archery skills all while buffing the party. Suga could heal and deal DPS with his holy skills, so in general, it was a decent group. In this team, you passed Sugawara and Kiyoko a whistle each. Leaving you with three left.

"Well, this is our usual set up anyways," Daichi laughed. You blinked in response and smiled, "That's good! A team that knows how their teammates work is always good!"

You slightly frowned at the Bokuto and Akaashi duo and then saw how easily Bokuto was getting along with Hinata as Akaashi was quietly speaking with Ennoshita and you said, "You four. Team up."

Bokuto nodded and saluted you and Ennoshita stuttered, "I-I've never worked with them before and-"

"You'll be fine. Owlicious is a tank, Cashew can heal, and you and Hinata are off tanks. So while Owl over there is taking the hits as a tank, if he needs to heal, you or Hinata can draw the aggro off of him. Hinata can work as DPS as well, so it'll be fine," you easily retorted. Hinata smiled brightly to Ennoshita and cheered, "Let's do this Ennoshita-san!"

The normally quiet and reserved black haired male nodded his head, gripping his sword tightly before sheathing it again. He had to be strong, for the sake of his guild. You smiled as you saw him take up the resolve and you give Ennoshita and Akaashi a whistle each. Leaving you with one left.

You frowned as you evaluated the rest. Kei, Kenma and I all have our own dragons... although the other two dragons aren't as fast as mine... We don't need to slipstream since these scythe dragons can reach the same speed as a Thunder Dragon as long as they fly in one direction over a period of time... so they could probably be fine.

Kenma pointedly glances at you in concern as he notices what will be the two remaining teams, and before he could say anything, you quickly muttered, "I'm trying to figure out a way I can split group of 15 into 4 groups." At your words, Kenma's eyes widened, "If you're telling us to find the keys and-"

"The locations haven't changed, I was just there for a scouting report," you cut him off and you added, "The scythe dragons can reach a Thunder Dragon's speed as long as you don't make them change direction, so we can use the slipstream strategy up to the Northern tip of the Forest and then split off from there..."

And the group who has the Southern end has no choice but to fly around due to that stupid force field... It'll probably be best if I lead that team.

You sighed, "You should be with your guild Kenma," and the pudding haired male almost objects, but he understand the logic behind it. And he sighs, before turning to Lev with an intense glare. The tall Russian flinched and Kuroo and Yaku watch with amused eyes.

"Do not try to be a tank again."

"But Ken-" Lev is effectively cut off when both Yaku and Kuroo deadpan at his words and he mumbled in a whiny tone, "Fine."

"So it's going to be us three?" Tsukishima asked as Yamaguchi walks up to you guys and you nod. The blonde mage frowns and he sighs, "We have no tank."

"We don't need one Kei," you muttered and you frowned, "Besides we only have three tanks present. Those three teams are better off working with each other. If I take vanguard then-" you paused, effectively cutting your thought process as you saw the clock hit 15:00 and you cursed, "Never mind. Talk about it on the way there, we have no time to spare."

You turned to them and you said, "As of this point, I, [L/N], will take the leadership of this raid party. Kenma, Cashew, and Sawachi will be acting as my commanding officers in this raid. The plan will be sent accordingly and will adjust to how things change. All information of the key locations will be sent to your leading officer of your respective groups and-"

You took in a deep breath, and Kenma and Tsukishima smirked at the upcoming key phrase you used at the beginning of each raid. Your eyes glinted dangerously and you finished, "Bring them blood."

Current Time in Game: 15:35 Time Until Forest: 45 minutes approximately "So we have the North end huh..." Ennoshita carefully muttered into their party chat. He hears an acknowledge grunt from Akaashi and Hinata asked, "Is that bad?" "Nah, it's the easier of the four points," Bokuto calmly answered. Hinata glanced forward at the Scythe Dragon that was slightly ahead of them to the left and Akaashi continued, "It's probably because we're a newly formed team. We're not as familiar to our game styles in comparison to the other teams." "Mm.. Hinata and I both can be offensive and defensive, but Hinata's better in dodging and being a decoy," Ennoshita commented and he faintly hears Bokuto laugh, "Just like in real life eh, Chibi-chan?" Hinata nods, although he knows only Ennoshita can feel him nodding since Hinata's literally clinging onto his back and Ennoshita laughed, "Yeah basically." "Bokuto-san is a brawler tank." "I specialize in breaking thunder!" Bokuto added in and Hinata asked, "Aren't those hard to use?" "Well, if you're like Bokuto-san and you enjoy zipping around using electricity, it works fine," Akaashi dully explained and he said, "I'm simply a priest." "Akaashi can use AoE holy skills though! The area of effect holy skills!" Ennoshita's eyes widened and he asked, "Really?" "Yeah and-" "Hey guys, the slipstream is going to pick up soon," you cut their conversation short as you interrupted through the raid chat function. Everyone's grip on their Scythe Dragons reigns tightened and Tsukishima quietly asked, "Does that mean we have to pick up our pace too?" "This pace is ridiculously fast..." Kenma added in and you pouted, "Oh come on, I want us to get inside the fortress by 18:00." "You're ridiculous, we don't have enough time to find the keys then." "I already gave you the damn location of the keys, Kei." "Tch." "Uhm," Sugawara's voice cut through and he asked, "Are the keys just lying around or...?" "You have to kill the boss that spawns in the location. It's a sedimentary boss, it only ever spawns in those four spots. It's called a Rose Mantis. It comes in two forms, Rose Bud form and then Predator Form." "Either form, or it starts as one and turns into another?" Kuroo asked, and you explained, "The Rose Mantis starts off in Bud Form. You can easily one hit KO it by using any fire elemental. It's weak to fire in both forms. But especially vulnerable in its bud form. And-" you pause, "Oh, picking up now." "Drihtan: Sound Break!" you commanded, and your loyal dragon roars before extending its silvery wings to its full length, and then with one giant flap, the wind curls up beneath them and is expelled at once, blowing the dragon forward, and in its process, sweeping up whoever was making use of the slipstream along with them as they literally broke through the sound barrier. "You could have warned us a bit earlier!" Kenma complained. It was one of the rare times the pudding haired male actually raised his voice against anyone and you laughed, "But admit it, even your Thunder Dragon can't do that. Isn't that right boy?" You cooed the last part while rubbing your dragon's neck fondly and Drihtan made a roar that sounded similar to laughter. Daichi turned around in awe as he could see the ripple of the weird distorted air bubble around them as they broke the sound barrier and he whistled, "That is one impressive dragon." "I kind of wish mine can do that now," Kenma muttered. Current Time in Game: 16:19 Time Until Regroup: 1 hour 41 minutes Current Location: Northern End - Team Cashew "According to [L/N]-san's coordinates, it should be right around here.." Akaashi muttered as he lead them into an obviously hidden clearing. They had landed just outside the clearing, their Scythe Dragons cutting away the branches with their sharp talons, giving a large enough opening for their riders to jump off safely. They had returned to the skies, waiting for their whistle to call upon them again, and Akaashi muttered, "We're probably the first ones to get to our coordinates since the Northern Point is the closest to town." They all were prepared for combat, and Bokuto muttered, "Akaashi, is that the Mantis?" Bokuto's head was tilted slightly towards the center of the clearing where there sat a single pink rose and Ennoshita read the name, "Rose Mantis: Bud Form." "Well, what are we waiting for?" Hinata asked, eager to attack and Bokuto frowned, "If I charge for a bit, I can use a flaming punch on it." "Or I can severe it with a simple cut," Ennoshita responded. Hinata frowned, "Something feels off." "Akaashi?" Bokuto asked and the priest sighed and he quickly buffed them with a defense and attack buff and he muttered, "Bless." A small appearance of two fairies sprinkling their pixie dust onto them was seen around their team and Akaashi mutters a quick thanks as he watched his party's attack, defense, and status resistance slightly increase. And he muttered, "Invincible!" Light washed over the team as a small cross made of light floats up from the ground through the team mates and he swings his staff once more, "Divine Protection!" Light erupts in a circle around the feet of each party member as their status and elemental resistance went up. He nods to Bokuto and he the latter smirks, "Already set." There was the sound of thunder booming as Bokuto is suddenly right in front of the Rose Mantis, his fist encased in flames as he slams it down on the rose bud from its flower to its roots. He flips back, landing just a little in front of the team as they watch the Rose Bud open. As the petals spread, a dark fog oozed from its center as two orchid purple scythe-like arms emerge from the darkness and soon the head of the Rose Mantis is seen. "That's not a mantis," Ennoshita commented. The Rose Mantis was a humanoid monster, it's body taking on the appearance of a gravure model. Scantily clad in a deep purple outfit that seemed to be petals and poison ivy wrapping around its body. Its skin was an abnormal shade of lavendar. With black wavy hair that pooled to mid-thigh, the boys all were slightly shocked when it opened its eyes. Any usual, general, and normal eye would be white with a splash of color, but the Rose Mantis had orbs that were pure black, and two bright purple eyes stared back at them. A seductive grin took over its facial features as its Scythe like arms rubbed against each other like any normal mantis, but what shocked them the most was the next part. "So the party's begun..." it hissed. The voice was very befitting of its owner and their location, it was seductively sweet and Akaashi deadpanned, "No wonder [L/N]-san said it'd be hard if you were easily swayed. Bokuto-san, are you-" Akaashi almost wants to throw his staff at the face of his captain. Bokuto is clearly frozen in place as his jaw is dropped and his cheeks are flushed pink. He sighs and turns to see that Hinata is in the same state, Ennoshita thankfully wasn't, although the blush was obvious. Akaashi sighed and he muttered, "Holy Arrow!" He holds his staff like a bow, and the arrows of light that leave the gem on his staff are easily deflected by the scythes on the Rose Mantis and she grinned, revealing a set of jagged pearly whites. The Rose Mantis sweeps her long locks back, and sweetly cooed, "Let's have fun, shall we?"

Current Time in Game: 16:34 Time Until Regroup: 1 hour 26 minutes Current Location: Eastern End - Team Karasuno "Kiyoko!" Sugawara cried out as she almost lost her head to the scythe. Asahi tanked yet another attack as he kept the scythes busy and Daichi slices off yet another leg, causing the Rose Mantis to cry out in pain. Her previously black and purple orbs are now red and purple and she screams as she flings Asahi aside, much to their teams surprise. Her screams do not end as black petal adorned wings emerge from her back. She flitted back and forth, her screams have ended and her sight is set on Daichi and Sugawara gasped, "She isn't aggroing Asahi?!" "Arrow Burst!" Kiyoko responds as she tumbles back into the fray, immediately rendering one of the wings useless as the Rose Mantis flitted unevenly in the air. Almost immediately the Mantis turns her gaze to Kiyoko and rushes at her, scythes glowing an oddly purple and the archer is still struggling to get up after being poisoned by one of the scythes. Asahi rushes to place himself against the Mantis and Kiyoko and he cries out, "D-Divine Shield!" His sword glows brightly as he stabs it into the ground, erupting the ground in front of them with a holy barrier. Daichi jumps back behind the barrier and Sugawara mutters the holy trinity, "Bless! Divine Protection! Invincible!" After watching the buffs take effect he swings his staff into the air, "Heal!" The HP bars of his party all go back to full and he jogs over to Kiyoko, using the time Asahi bought them to Dispel the poison from Kiyoko and she gratefully nodded her head and she said, "I'm out of mana. This forest's enchantment that prevents us from using potions one after another is getting to be a bit annoying." Daichi was shocked by the honesty and he laughed, "Right? We'll buy you some time, stay with Suga and just stick to using Support Shot." She nodded and Asahi asked, "Let's go?" "Let's do this!"

Current Time in Game: 16:40 Time Until Regroup: 1 hour 20 minutes Current Location: Western End - Team Nekoma "LEV FOR THE LAST TIME!" Yaku cried out in irritation as he shot yet another Angel Ray at the nearly dead Lev. The brawler was now stuck in a tree, his body limp as Yaku desperately kept the HP bar out of deadly. He glanced over at Kenma and Kuroo. Kenma was still a ways off from the battlefield that was marred with slashes from both Kuroo and the Mantis, but also filled with trenches and littered with holes from his and Kenma's holy skills. The Rose Mantis was teetering at around 15% HP, but even with Kuroo keeping the aggro on him and away from the rest of his team mates, Lev's desire to be a tank and a DPS brawler at the same time was starting to get out of hand. He gritted his teeth as he braced yet another dual scythe slash and he calls out, "Anytime now Kenma!" "I know," the pudding haired boy muttered before raising his wand in the air. The skies above them cleared out and he commanded, "Genesis." Towers of light erupted from the sky and the ground as they pierced the Rose Mantis in all directions. A strangled scream erupted as the Mantis' body dissipated into the light. The light erupted into EXP as they heard their EXP bar raise. Kuroo felt his strength and vitality rush back into him as he leveled and he smirked, "We're the same level now Kenma." Kenma slightly huffs and leans down to pick up the gnarled wooden key. On it was a vibrant purple gem and he muttered, "We need to meet up at the broken Southern bridge now." "Do you think the rest of them are done?" Yaku asked as he nonchalantly pulls on Lev's leg until his body slips over to one side of the tree branch. Yaku promptly yanks it hard once and then steps aside, letting go in the process as Lev falls onto the ground. "Yaku-san!" "Oh for the love of god, Lev," Kuroo muttered, "Not now."

Current Time in Game: 16:45 Time Until Regroup: 1 hour 15 minutes Current Location: On the way to the broken Southern Bridge - Your Team "I never realized how useful Lullaby was," Yamaguchi admitted as the three of you traversed towards the bridge. You laughed and Tsukishima dryly commented, "Our only bard only uses Battlefield Overture anyways." "Mm, the one called Kags?" you asked, clearly interested at the idea of another support that had a similar build to yours. Yamaguchi nodded and he said, "But he's not a grandmaster bard like you, who would've thought that you completely maxed out your music skill tree." "I think a bard is super useful," you continued strumming your mandolin to keep up Colorful Melody that healed your party. And you continued, "Sure we're not great at dealing damage with just the music alone, but the amount of damage you guys do increases." Tsukishima glanced at you in his peripheral and he asked, "How come you don't use your bow anymore?" "I do! Just not often. I didn't feel the need to earlier, the Rose Mantis isn't that strong anyways." you shrugged, and suddenly your fingers stop strumming and you command, "Lullaby!" Two bats drop at the sound of the haunting melody and Tsukishima raises a brow, "You barely noticed them now?" "E-Eh?! Were they following us the entire time?!" Yamaguchi asked. You scratched the back of your head, "I thought it was the wind at first.. but it was too steady and I figured it was probably a lower level monster." You frown, "If they're already starting to appear, that's not a good sign." Yamaguchi mumbled, "The sun hasn't started to set yet." "Yeah but... I think this Forest has other stuff planned for us," you muttered as your grip on your mandolin tightens and Tsukishima continues walking, "We'll be fine." "Tsukki?" You and Yamaguchi looked at him, slightly confused and Tsukishima smirks, "Right [F/N]?" You almost smile at the situation and you smirked, "But of course Kei."

Current Time in Game: 16:40 Time Until Regroup: 1 hour 20 minutes Current Location: Northern End - Team Cashew "Hinata watch out!" Ennoshita calls out as he stumbles to get up after taking a direct hit to the stomach. Hinata's eyes widen and his two swords are immediately brought in front of him in an x and he grunts, "Damn it!" The Rose Mantis was at 10% HP, but every time Bokuto had hit it with any of his typical Thunder Breaking skills, he could only stun it and not deal damage. It was the first time throughout this entire battle that his moves did nothing for him. The brawler cursed and Akaashi quickly muttered, "Calm down Bokuto-san." "I am calm!" Ennoshita and Akaashi deadpanned and the priest turned back to Ennoshita, casting a Dispel as a preventive measure against poison and then Healing him. Ennoshita sighed, "Thanks Akaashi-san." "You're needed back on the field before Bokuto-san does something stupid," Akaashi responded, before turning to the owl haired captain. Hinata was parrying, each of his own dual swords matching each slice and slash of the dual scythes. He managed to push the Mantis away, and flipped backwards to increase the distance. He easily landed on his feet and brought the swords in front of him, one held vertically and the other held horizontally and he muttered, "Flash Storm!" A burst of light washes over Hinata as the orange haired, dual-wielding boy begins a frenzy of slices and slashes at every direction possible, and in the process, severing an entire wing off and incapacitating a scythe arm. His swords danced in a frenzied swirl around the Mantis and by the time his performance was over, Hinata was spent of his MP and stamina, and the Mantis was almost dead. There was nothing more than speck of hp left. The Mantis raised an arm, prepared to slash Hinata as the boy could no longer move, but Bokuto and Ennoshita had prepared for this impromptu decision. Bokuto rushed before Hinata and cried out, "Assault Wave!" He punched the ground in front of him, and a flurry of earth raised into the air, connected by static as they blocked the attack. From behind the Mantis, Ennoshita had rushed in with his sword and he cried out, "Sol Rush!" His two-handed sword gleamed with light, upon seeing whisps of light leave trails in the air with every slight movement, he charged forward, piercing the Rose Mantis dead center. The strangled cry of the mantis is heard as it erupted into light and EXP and all four boys sighed in relief. Bokuto turned around to Hinata and grinned brightly, "Good job Hinata!" "Th-Thanks Bokuto-san!" he happily responded. Waves of heal washed over the party and Akaashi muttered, "We should meet up with them. They're probably waiting for us."

Current Time in Game: 17:00 Time Until Regroup: 60 minutes Current Location: Broken Southern Bridge "Oya?" Kuroo called out, grabbing the attention of everyone present. All three groups, save for Nekoma, were seated around a small campfire as you strummed your instrument, still keeping up the Colorful Melody. You were playing a random song and Yaku asked, "Did you guys wait long?" "Not really," Daichi responded and he asked, "What took you guys so long though? You guys finished pretty early from what your chat responses showed." All three Nekoma members turned to glare at Lev and the Russian turns away, whistling and Kuroo sighed, "First he gets poisoned and almost KOs against the Rose Mantis. Then he gets led away by a Werecat. And then he decided he was going to try to find the moat so we could just follow it to the bridge, when we were next to it the entire time." "Don't forget about how Lev almost got eaten up by the Carnivorous Flowers," Yaku chuckled and Lev pouted, "Bullies." You laughed, and turned to Kenma who was approaching you. "Did you guys grab the key?" you asked. Kenma drops it in your palm as he takes a seat beside you and you inspect the key and you said, "Yup, right one. Good job." "What's that supposed to mean?" he muttered softly. You don't respond and instead spread the four keys out in front of you. Everyone turns to look at you and you completely stop playing your tune and you say, "So as you know, this dungeon started the moment we entered the Forest. This whole raid is typically called the Vampire Raid since this is what this whole place is, but it's split into three parts." You grab a stick and begin drawing on the dirt ground in front of you. It was a simple and very undetailed drawing of three circles and you point at the larger circle. "This is obviously the forest. And we're currently located right here." You poke at the southern most part of the perimeter of the second circle that was within the bigger circle. This second circle encircled a smaller circle in the center. "The Forest of Enticement is the first part. And honestly it's not that hard as long as you know where the Rose Mantis' spawn and can defeat them," you explained, you draw a line connecting the middle sized circle and the smaller circle and you continue, "The bridge here reforms, but it also creates a teleportation circle. But here's the catch, the teleportation circle immediately transfers whoever is standing on it to the center garden of the fortress." "Immediately?" Sugawara asks and you nod, "So the team in charge of the keys will be left behind." "Wait, a whole team will be left behind?" Asahi asks. You nod and you said, "A minimum of two people will be left behind, we need two people at the least to activate the bridge and the teleportation circle." "So who's staying behind?" Kenma asked, and you said, "My team." "Wait, but-" "Kenma and I ran this before on a different characters, so we both know the layout of the fortress. It hasn't changed. The fortress is shaped as an 8 point star and it has 16 towers at each point. The four main towers are located at North East, North West, South East, and South West." you explained as you erased the circular diagram to replace it with the fortress. At the bottom floor of those towers, there should be a pattern of bricks that doesn't match the rest of the tiles. Stand on them and then have one person tap quickly three times and then twice slowly. This works for all of them and should teleport the entire team into one of the general Chambers." "A general chamber?" Ennoshita asked, and you frowned, "General chambers will hold a mini boss, much like the Rose Mantis. But if I remember correctly, there are Maid Succubi down there instead. And then the uhm," you pause, and a faint blush is visible on your cheeks and Kenma continues for you, "The Lust chambers, or Chambers L, U, S, and T, are the ones in which you can only enter through beating a Maid Succubus and obtaining the key." "Wow [L/N]," Tsukishima teased and you muttered, "Shut up." The rest of the boys were all awkwardly coughing and you sigh, "This is why men are such a problem to deal with in this dungeon... Anyways," you emphasized each syllable in the last word and you continued, "Just know that you're in for a hell of a ride in this dungeon. The halls are lurking with vampire bats and Hellhounds." Kenma added, "Don't forget the garden." "Oh gods, right." you shook your head, embarrassed you forgot and you sighed, "Do not, in any way, shape or form, do not ruin the black roses." "I've never experienced it personally, but apparently if even one of them falls off that rose bush a special event is triggered. I've only heard rumors of it so I don't know what exactly it is. But just... just don't. okay?" Everyone nodded and then you stood up and you said, "Well then, Operation Save Yacchan officially begins now!" Current Time in Game: 17:15 Time until Midnight: 6 hours 45 minutes

[authorjulieseedorf]

My dad’s shoe store in the 50’s

Main Street during our 2019 Car Show weekend Ptotography by Dp Photography

It’s Friday, the end of the week. The world is spinning around us with reports of strife, bad news and so on and so forth, and if you don’t know what so on and so forth means, look it up. Yes, that might be a little snarky. I had someone tell me once I don’t write enough snark. On another note, I am plunking this out with one finger because I have an injury on my right-hand ring finger and though it is a small handicap to deal with, it does hamper my words. I  downloaded a new speech to text program but I haven’t mastered it yet, maybe I never will,  the one plunk method takes more time.

Now that you have an idea about the attitude you might get the direction this post is going.

In my latest mystery, #ASmallTownCanBe #Murder, I write not only a murder mystery but about the nuances of small towns. I live in a small town. I have been a small-town girl all of my life but there are some changes that make me sad. Communities in rural areas have to fight for their identity and survive with ambiance and coziness in a world sacrificed to ideas of people in offices far away that have no idea adding us to their growing number of generic businesses is not only bad for the survival of the community but for their own bottom line as well.  When you become a number in the line your identity ceases to exist. At that point, even the line may disappear. When we don’t seem as profitable as the big city we are like the baby thrown out with the bathwater, and as residents, we have to fight harder for our mainstreets to survive.

We do survive in my community. We reinvent ourselves, pick up the pieces and move on. What brought about these thoughts is a couple of recent experiences. A few weeks ago an editorial in a Twin Cities newspaper mentioned that Mike Bloomberg, the presidential candidate, visited a farm outside of our community. The writer lamented that Bloomberg should have taken the time to stop in town and visit with the rest of us to get a good picture of the joys and struggles of rural America’s main streets. It mentioned what we had lost in the past years. The writer had a good point as we have lost to the changing worldly ambitions of businesses. I took a small issue with it because I felt we also gained so much and are alive and well, moving forward.

This past week I had experience with a corporation that has been contracted to pick up garbage in our city. That is the other thing that brought this column on. You see I wanted to discontinue their service in favor of a local business. A year ago when I called to cancel they lowered their rate so I stayed. In the meantime, I found a neighbor that was paying almost $30.00 higher than what I was paying. Their service kept going up and they didn’t know if they called and complained their bill might be lowered. It was then I realized none of us are probably paying the same amount for the same service. This year my bill went up and I decided to go local and not with the service the city contracts with. My surprise was how much it was going to cost me to discontinue that service and have them pick up my container. However, I wouldn’t have known this until I got the bill as it was not readily given to me in a dollar amount until I asked. It was almost as much, save for a $2.00 difference, as my three-month bill. This shouldn’t have surprised me as many of the big corporations such as cable and telephone charge you a disconnect charge, This is how I knew I grew up in the small-town world when hidden charges were not part of the small-town landscape.

It goes farther than that. A nationwide chain came into town and our dry-goods store closed. One of our banks that were in our community as long as I can remember was sold to a larger bank. The old bank employed many people and the new bank cut most of the staff, and if we need support we have to call another state. A larger chain bought our hometown’s bustling drug store that was also a gift shop and had the original old fashioned soda fountain still serving treats.  The drug store hours have been cut so much that the working person cannot get in there with those hours. And the soda fountain is shut down along with the gift department greatly minimized. It is no longer about the consumer.  We used to have more than one gas station. An Iowa chain came in, bought land, bought the other stations and closed them down. Those are only a few of the changes that happened when big businesses try to change the landscape of a small town. They haven’t looked into the faces of their consumers because we are a number on their chart instead of a face that is familiar.

Now that is the bad news of my rant. I and I imagine you, get tired of sitting on the phone to get service. I think we get discouraged because we feel we are not heard. I am telling you if you want to be heard, shop in a small community at a locally owned business. You will be heard. You will experience what customer service really is.

In my community when we needed a new school we built one. Our meat processing plant closed down. Our city worked hard to get a new one in place and it has provided employment and good wages. You will find it hard to get a parking place downtown on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays as our local thrift shop entice people in town and out of town to shop. They might take time to visit one of our locally owned eating places or the coffeehouse or take in a movie at our theater. The library is always busy with readers, speakers and different project days and evenings. Moving on down the street our locally owned hardware store has reasonable prices and the flowers at our locally owned flower shop will make you ooh and ah.

Our liquor store is building new. Our new industrial park is starting to fill up and our craft and quilt store is in the process of moving to a bigger building. You can have your choice of different denominations of churches and if you need to pick up a gift the local funeral home also has a room of unique items by local artisans. Locally owned for generations, there is no better place to let them take care of the loved one you have lost. There is so much more to our community with a grocery, beauty shops,  newspaper, exercise facilities,  depot museum,  veteran’s memorial, parks. golf course and a swimming pool along with senior care facilities and senior housing, trucking firms, plumbing, electrical businesses, car repair and I could go on. Yes, we have more.  And yes, we still have another locally run bank. And our local window company can make your house warmer with the right windows.

The best part of a small town is its people. They care about each other. The business owners care about their customers. We don’t give up, we regroup and move on. Did I mention we are a community somewhere around 2200 people? It is not the numbers it is the heart of the community. When one hurts we all hurt. It is what makes a community unique.

Large corporations don’t understand that our bottom line is people and that is what makes a business in a small community a success. We have to tolerate the changing business climate in the larger world. We don’t have a choice with some things. I will admit to ordering online, usually things I can’t get in town but it isn’t the same.

My long rant is done. I might also add we have our local utility too and that too is a blessing. We know them and they know us. The same can be said for our local emergency services such as fire and ambulance. And for the garbage company that seems to be playing with our heads and finances — I wish I would have known your garbage bin was such an expensive object I would have painted it gold to match its value.

If anyone knows Mike Bloomberg, tell him to come back and see a successful, small community. We are the heart of America. He missed out but don’t you. Come for a day. come for a season, we will give you a reason to come back.

P.S. We have building lots available if you want to stay for a lifetime.

  Julie Seedorf is a former columnist and now is an author of eleven cozy mysteries. To find out more about her books visit  julieseedorf.com

I’m On A Rant! It's Friday, the end of the week. The world is spinning around us with reports of strife, bad news and so on and so forth, and if you don't know what so on and so forth means, look it up.

[mysteryshelf]

AUTHOR GUEST POST - Nancy Boyarsky

  Welcome to

SHANNON MUIR’S THE PULP AND MYSTERY SHELF!

DISCLAIMER: This content has been provided to SHANNON MUIR’S THE PULP AND MYSTERY SHELF by the author. No compensation was received. This information required by the Federal Trade Commission.

About LIAR, LIAR

“Tough and likeable” (Foreword Reviews) Nicole Graves finds herself in the crosshairs when she reluctantly agrees to babysit a witness in a high-profile rape trial. Mary Ellen Barnes is suing her university’s star quarterback for rape when the authorities won’t act. In the court of public opinion, Mary Ellen appears to be the quintessential, pious, good girl. But her lies and mysterious comings and goings lead Nicole to suspect that she’s not what she seems.

It isn’t just Mary Ellen who’s acting suspiciously. No one wants to own up to the truth in Liar Liar, not even Nicole, whose fiancé begs her not to look into the case. But when the witness goes missing during the trial, Nicole is caught up in a tangle of lies that turns deadly. After the investigator assigned to the case fails to do his job, Nicole is determined to find the killer on her own, no matter the risks.

Guest Post by the Author

A Visit from the Bomb Squad: A Mystery Writer’s Mysterious Adventure

I was reading the paper one morning in our breakfast room, a round, domed curious feature of our 1929 Spanish-style house. This room, with its five windows, catches the morning sun and is lovely for reading the paper while eating breakfast. I happened to glance out at our front courtyard and noticed something odd sitting in the center: a battered brown paper bag with something inside it.

How odd, I thought. Had I dropped a grocery bag on my way in from the store the day before?

I went out to look. I didn’t pick it up. Something warned me to be careful. The bag was obviously recycled, its top bent inward, so I couldn’t see what was inside. I remembered airport warnings about unattended bags. So, feeling a bit alarmed, I used my toe to spread open the top of the bag so I could see what was inside. It looked like an old-fashioned doctor’s valise, but made of cheap, somewhat worn imitation black leather. I stepped back, alarm bells ringing in my head.

You have to understand. We live in Los Angeles, paranoia central. To add to this, my husband writes for several political news outlets. Politics is a fairly incendiary topic. Understandably, whether its from the left or right, he’s gotten his share of hate mail over the years — varying from insults to veiled death threats. He never takes these seriously, although I’ve worried about several of the more scary ones. He even had one framed and hung it on his office wall: “Boyarsky,” it said. “You have shit for brains.” He thought it was hilarious. I wasn’t so sure.

A more recent message really did scare me. It was from someone who seemed to have known us in our youth. It mentioned his father’s car, in which we’d gone on dates many years ago, and a lovers lane in our old home town, where some people— but not us—used to park at night. This particular message ended with a hope that throngs of people would gather around our car, set it on fire and listen with satisfaction to our screams as the car went up in flames.

OK. Back to me and the mysterious package in our courtyard. My husband was out playing tennis, and I was alone in the house, completely stumped about what action to take.

After some thought, I called the LAPD police department’s non-emergency line. I described the package and asked what to do. There was a hesitation on the part of the non-emergency operator. Finally, she passed me on to 911 emergency. A male voice came on and told me, “We’ll be there as soon as we can. Please exit your house, preferably by a back door, and come out to the sidewalk.”

There is a police station close to our house, and it was only a minute or two before I heard sirens approaching.

The cops asked me to walk to the far corner of our block and wait. I watched as police officers knocked on the door of my neighbors, evacuating the entire block. We stood crowded at the end of the block, waiting for the bomb squad.

There must be a lot of bomb threats in L.A. because it was two hours before the bomb squad arrived. Meanwhile, my husband had returned and was waiting —with all our neighbors— to get home. Since we were the owners of the house and possibly targeted with a bomb, one of cops asked if we’d received any threats.

My husband admited, somewhat modestly, that, yes, he wrote political columns for several websites. People of opposing views sometimes took exception to what he wrote. And, yes, sometimes he received threats. But, he insisted, they weren’t serious. These people were just venting. He didn’t mention the guy who’d fantasized about watching us burn alive in his father’s car. But it was certainly on my mind.

Finally, after another long wait. A member of bomb squad walked to our end of the block and asked if we knew someone named (I’ll spare her the embarrassment of actually naming her here). Sure enough, she was someone I knew from the Botanical Artists’ Guild. Instead of a bomb, the package contained photo images of flower paintings.

I was completely humiliated, even though none of my neighbors seemed to hold it against me. To them, perhaps, it had been an adventure. I don’t know. I turned the bag of art over to a friend who was still active in the guild (which I no longer was, that chapter of my life having closed). And I suppose it eventually ended up where it belonged.

I never did figure out why the woman chose to leave the package in the middle of our courtyard without calling first, or why she put her note of explanation at the very bottom of the bag. I guess some people (like me) have a more highly developed sense of danger than others (like her).

About the Author

Nancy Boyarsky is the international best-selling author of the Nicole Graves Mysteries. Her third installment of the series, Liar Liar will be published September 25, 2018 by Light Messages Publishing. The first book in the series, The Swap, received the Eric Hoffer Book Award.

  Nancy coauthored Backroom Politics, a New York Times notable book, with her husband, Bill Boyarsky. She has written textbooks on the justice system and contributed to anthologies, including In the Running about women’s political campaigns and The Challenge of California. She has also written for the Los Angeles Times, West magazine, Forbes, McCalls,  Playgirl, Westways, and other publications. She was communications director for political affairs for ARCO.

  Nancy is a graduate of UC Berkeley with a major in English literature. She lives in Los Angeles. She can be contacted at nancyboyarsky@roadrunner.com. Her website is nancyboyarsky.com. She is currently working on a fourth book in the Nicole Graves series.

More information about the books and me as an author:

https://www.lightmessages.com/nancy-boyarsky

https://www.nicolegravesmysteries.com/

  Purchasing links:

ibooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/liar-liar/id1335396642?mt=11

amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0788BBL57?tag=lighmess-20

barnes & noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/liar-liar-nancy-boyarsky/1127685241;jsessionid=2FE45E32FEB40603192A37C7879552A7.prodny_store01-atgap03?ean=9781611532531&st=AF&2sid=CJ_8091507_NA&sourceId=AFCJM000409

kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/liar-liar-26

AUTHOR GUEST POST – Nancy Boyarsky was originally published on the Wordpress version of Shannon Muir's The Pulp and Mystery Shelf

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Danger hits when least expected…so does love.

Border Patrol Officer, BROOKE HUDSON, is assigned to Brownsville, Texas on the Mexican border. She’s troubled by sending all undocumented immigrants back. She seeks guidance from God in all things.

DARIEN MCKEE is reassigned to Brownsville from Yuma after he almost kills a driver who left a truckload of undocumented immigrants to die in an isolated area. Darien has given up on God.

Brooke and Darien are assigned as partners. A relationship starts to develop when a bomb destroys headquarters and bombs target other government offices. Brooke and Darien are assigned new partners, but continue to share meals. The attraction grows.

Brooke’s new partner, Alonzo, has trouble following protocol and gets them both shot while on duty.

Darien hears about it and rushes to the area where officials are investigating. Brooke is missing. They learn she was taken across the border. Darien is determined to find her. In desperation, he turns back to God. Then continues his search. He goes across the border on his own.

Together they face trouble and triumph over it. Brooke and Darien realize that love through God can provide strength to go on despite adversity.

  Reviews: Border Love by Alice Wootson

“This was an intense read! From the moment I picked this book up, I was hooked. A wonderful blend of romance, action and inspiration. The setting too was unique, the border agent angle was a clever twist on the classic romantic suspense. Great characters, well written, fantastic story. What else is there to say?” –Read R.J.

  “Alice Wootson writes a compelling page turner in Border Love. The two main characters, Brooke and Darien, are Border Patrol Agents in Brownsville, Texas. They each come from other assignments and want to do a good job regardless of being haunted by their past.” –Reader V.

  Excerpt: Border Love by Alice Wootson

Chapter One

Brooke Hudson drew her gun and crouched behind a thick bush, grateful for the tropical climate of Brownsville, Texas. She pressed her face so close to the ground, she could smell the musty odor of the rotting leaves that covered this section of land.

The footsteps that caused her to take cover came closer. Birds scattered from the ground into the air announcing the path of the person coming. The steps were slow, but the person didn’t try to keep them quiet. Brooke frowned and shifted softly until she was facing the sound. Even illegals who got lost knew to move quietly. Unless they were armed and didn’t care if they encountered somebody.

She thought of a week ago when an officer’s body was found thirty miles north of where she was now. She pulled her mind back to the sounds and shifted further back into the brush until she was behind a vine-covered tree. She waited.

When the noise was almost on top of her, she stood, back against one tree and behind another, and aimed her gun at the noise moving closer. She waited and watched. A final thrashing through a thick clump in front of her sent a ground squirrel scampering across the tiny clearing and brought the person almost out of cover.

“Dente! Halt! No te mueve! Don’t move!” Brooke ordered just as a young woman stepped into view. “Are you alone?” Brooke quickly scanned the area surrounding the woman then looked back at her, frowned and shook her head slightly. This wasn’t a woman. This was a girl. She’s not even in her teens.

Brooke quickly moved in front of the tree providing her cover and pressed even harder against it. Again she checked the surrounding area, slowly this time. Mexico was only a few hundred yards on the other side of the road, but nobody this young would be crossing alone. Somebody was with her. How many? And where were they?

She took a deep breath, then slowly released it. Next she went to the girl, quickly secured her hands behind her back, then stepped away, again using the tree to protect her from behind.

From that position, she threw questions at the girl in Spanish and in rapid succession. She slowed her interrogation when the girl’s eyes filled with fear as she kept her gaze glued to Brooke’s gun.

Brooke tried again. No matter how she worded the questions, the answers were the same. The girl got separated from her family when they heard somebody coming as soon as they came through the opening in the fence separating the countries. Her mother and father told her to run across the road and she did. Then she couldn’t find them and her little sister and brother. The girl sobbed and Brooke controlled the twinge that poked at her.

She had her prisoner sit on the ground while she once again stood with her back against a tree. No unusual sounds reached her. She waited a little longer. Satisfied that they were alone, Brooke moved the girl to the road. Once there, she scanned the area again. Then she called for pick-up as per procedure. They were too far from her vehicle for her to chance moving through the brush with a prisoner; even a young prisoner. Brush could provide cover for others just as it did for her. Moving along the road could be even more dangerous.

She had the girl sit beside a bush. As Brooke waited, she tried to ignore the girl’s soft sobs. The quiet woods did nothing to hide the sound, but Brooke felt she would have heard it in the middle of Fourth of July fireworks. She wished the patrol car would hurry. She wished the girl were older. She wished somebody else had caught this prisoner. It was only her imagination that made the waiting seem like hours.

Once the car came, the girl’s crying got louder. It only took a few minutes to put her in the backseat and for Brooke to get in front with the driver, but time seemed to crawl. It continued moving in slow motion during the ride back to Brooke’s car. During the ride, she avoided looking at the girl. She wished she’d parked a few feet away rather than several miles from where they were picked up.

She drove to headquarters, reported for debriefing as per procedure, filed her detailed report, then went to get cleaned up. During it all the image of the girl’s face stayed with her.

Forty minutes later Brooke still sat on a bench in the empty locker room. Agents coming on duty for the second shift had reported to their assignments long ago. Those going off duty as she was, were gone, too. Still she sat.

Maybe I’ve been doing this too long, she thought. Maybe I’ve just burned out. A pair of large brown eyes, haunted look deep within, came back to her mind. She shook her head. I’ve only been at this for six years, but today it seems like thirty. She leaned forward and placed her elbows on her knees, then leaned her head down. Maybe even forty.

( Continued… )

© 2017 All rights reserved. Book excerpt reprinted by permission of the author, Alice Wootson. Do not reproduce, copy or use without the author’s written permission. This excerpt is used for promotional purposes only.

Purchase Border Love by Alice Wootson Genre: Inspirational Romantic Suspense https://www.amazon.com/Border-Love-Alice-Wootson-ebook/dp/B00KGLIMSA/

  About Alice Wootson Alice Greenhowe Wootson is a retired teacher and award-winning author of thirteen novels. She is also a prize-winning poet. She’s a member of The Philadelphia Writers Conference, Mad Poets Society, Romance Writers of America and The Authors Guild. She meets with book clubs and readers.

Alice is a member of several ministries at her church: Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church in Philadelphia.

She uses any spare time she can find reading, traveling and spending time with her husband, her sons and grandchildren. She is always working on her latest novel or piece of poetry.

Border Love by Alice Wootson Danger hits when least expected…so does love. Border Patrol Officer, BROOKE HUDSON, is assigned to Brownsville, Texas on the Mexican border.

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‘Lady Bird’ DP Sam Levy on Working with Greta Gerwig, Harris Savides, and More

  by Adam Chitwood,November 3, 2017              

source: http://collider.com/sam-levy-interview-lady-bird/#greta-gerwig

I know that you worked with Greta on a couple of Noah Baumbach’s films but I was curious, how did you first come to be involved in this?

SAM LEVY: Greta and I did three movies together. Frances Ha and Mistress America with Noah Baumbach and Maggie’s Plan with Rebecca Miller. We’ve worked together a lot and knew each other for many years before she offered me Lady Bird. She actually first mentioned it to me at a premiere party for Mistress America and she was extremely humble in the way that she brought it up. She said, “I wrote this thing that I’d like to direct and I’d love to show it to you but if you don’t want to look at it, it’s totally fine. If you do look at it and you don’t want to shoot it, that’s totally fine.” I was like, “Oh, just can I please read it?” I knew she was working on something. It’s like, “First of all thank you for thinking of me because I know it’s going to be amazing and yeah, I’d love to read it.” I read it. It’s such an amazing screenplay and that was it. It was probably a couple days after that we met at the Noho Star restaurant in the East Village and just started talking about it.

That was another one of my questions was what were your early conversations like in terms of the visual approach to this film? What were some of those early ideas?

LEVY: One of the first things Greta said to me was that she wanted the movie to look like a memory, which immediately got my attention and made me excited. When she said that I knew exactly what she meant, but despite knowing what she meant, the thing was, how do we do that? How do we create something that looks like memory? Something that’s dynamic that isn’t just using commonplace methodology that everyone uses nowadays in motion pictures like making things sepia or just crude black and white or diffusion. It’s not about that. It’s more of an organic and internal sensibility. We talked about it some more. I said, “I know what you mean but let’s keep talking about it.” She said, “Yeah, at a visceral level it should feel like the movie is over there.” She extended her arm and held up her palm as if to say, you’re connected to the movie but my palm, which is the screen, is slightly removed from the viewer, but not overly so. We talked about it some more and then together, both of us equally came up with … I think she said, “It almost should be plain. It should almost look plain,” and I said, “But luscious.” She said, “Yeah, plain and luscious.” We started saying that a lot. Plain and luscious. Plain and luscious. It should be beautiful but not distractingly graphic, so that you can engage but have a nice aesthetic bed to fall into and luxuriate in but not distract from the story or the performances or the words.

Did you guys shoot this on film or digital?

LEVY: We shot it with an Alexa. Digital.

That’s surprising, honestly. Because it has that feel that you’re talking about where it’s somewhat—I feel like sometimes with digital it’s too lifelike, too realistic, and you don’t have that sheen of watching a movie.

LEVY: I think Greta’s first thought was it shouldn’t be too real. It should be a little removed. It should feel like a memory. The way that a memory looks when you envision it. From there after we had these great allegorical conversations where we started to get at the technique of memory and cinematography. A photographer that we were looking at a lot was Lise Sarfati, who’s this brilliant French photographer. She’s done a lot of amazing work. She’s done these amazing portraits of young women about the age of Saoirse’s character and they’re very sensitive and soulful. We were just looking at different photos from the era. A lot of high school yearbooks. It’s a high school movie. High school yearbooks from the early 2000s and we started to notice, especially in high school yearbooks, photos have this quality of—they look crappy and distressed. It’s like a color Xerox or it’s taken with a point-and-shoot 35mm camera. By the time they make it into the yearbook, it’s like several generations have been removed from the initial image.

We happened on this technique in the production office. I took a photography book we were looking at and I made some color copies of some different photos because I wanted to tack them up on the wall so Greta and I could look at them and be inspired. Just have things to look at while we were shot-listing and digesting all the location photos we were taking. I started to notice when making these photocopies, it distressed the image much like the yearbook photos, and sometimes you could take the photocopy and re-copy it and it’d lose another generation and you could lose another generation still and distress it to the point that it really looked like these yearbook photos but it was a technique we could utilize in our own way, in this professional context but still bearing in mind the youth who create their yearbooks.

That really cinched that it was this aesthetic of memory that we’d been talking about and then it got us talking about a lot of different things. The early 2000s was a time when high school kids, college kids, would go to Kinko’s and make copies of different things. Term papers or photos to decorate their rooms or their apartments or their dorms. It just seemed to evoke the era in all these different ways. Then we used these distressed images as a reference for how to photograph the movie using the Alexa. Meaning that the color photocopier has its own sensor that scans the image just like the Alexa has a sensor that captures the images in front of the lens. How can we emulate these multiple photocopied images using the Alexa? The quest then came to be, playing digitally which is totally appropriate but how can we create something within this aesthetic of memory that is unique and of its own and not just taking scans of film grain and overlaying them, calling it a day? Which is very commonplace now.

I think it works. I’m 30 so I came of age around the same time and something that really struck me about the film is that it feels of that time but it’s not dripping with nostalgia. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it but it feels like you pulled off a magic trick where it felt like I was transported there without feeling like the frame was loaded with “remember this” references or like you said, covered in sepia tone or something like that. I think that the memory aspect that you guys did, I think you really pulled it off.

LEVY: Oh, thanks. I’m glad you responded that way.

Were there any other discussions about that specific technique of transporting the viewer to that world without dripping in nostalgia?

LEVY: There was a lot of discussion about it. Much of it was grounded in the shot-listing process. Greta and I had the benefit of a lot of lead time and we also both live in New York and we liked hanging out with each other so we would get together on weekends or whenever we were both off and we could find a few hours here and there, and we just started going through the movie. I would sit at my computer and I would read the script to her so she could hear her dialogue and then we would just mark down, “This one, we can try and do this all on a wide. We’ll move around, we’ll follow Lady Bird. This scene, she’s in the car with her mom, we’ll probably want some additional close-ups.” We’d try to anticipate editorially where she would want to cut in and out and especially the transitions from scene to scene. We shot-listed the movie twice. We managed to get a pass done before the official prep for the movie started and when the official prep started we went through it again and this time I added all kinds of photos and stuff to each scene. I’d always diagram the blocking. I had a piece of graph paper and I would diagram, “Lady Bird’s going to be here by the door and then she’s going to move to the kitchen, then she’s going to move back to the door and Laurie Metcalf is going to stand still. Tracy’s going to be following,” and so on. Where appropriate I put maybe a reference photo of Lise Sarfati or the Sacramento painter Wayne Thiebaud.

Then during prep what I started doing a lot of was I had location photos, especially once we’d locked locations. I’d put them in. When it was all said and done the shot list was 110 pages, which is about the length of the script. Greta and I pretty much had that thing memorized by the first morning of our first shoot day. We had a brilliant First AD Jonas Spaccarotelli. The three of us really had that thing down and we distributed it to everybody, to everyone on my team, everyone on the AD team, production design, costumes, sound, everybody. Everybody had a sense of “Here’s what we’re going to try and do.” Of course we’d shift and change some things, as happens, but never drastically. Greta and I would know right away if we’d look at a blocking, maybe one of the actors had an idea or we’d just glance at each other and we’d know we need to do less. Usually it was we need to do less than what we’d anticipated.

To answer your question, the planning of the character blocking, the camera blocking, really informed creating the aesthetic of memory. Even though you don’t sit there and be like, “When she’s walking through the parking lot how can we make that like a memory?” Not really about that. It’s just designing everything to be as dynamic and lively as possible with the best possible transitions. Then with that we used the technique of distressing the image just up to the point where—when we were doing tests and especially when we were timing the movie, we’d push things in lighting the movie, photographing the movie, push things up to a point where it was like, “That’s too much. Now it’s too luscious. It needs to be more plain.” We’d always know the moment something was too luscious or would override the story or what people were saying. Really it’s that the design of the image needed to fit alongside the tempo of the work. The musicality of the dialogue and the music itself, the score by John Bryant. The editing by Nick Houy and then Chris Jones’s design, April’s costumes.

What really struck me about the film was that there’s this confidence and this assuredness behind the camera without the pretension or pomposity, which was refreshing given that Greta isn’t some veteran director. It feels like she’s been doing this for years and the way she handles the characters is just brilliant. What was your working relationship like on the set with her as a director?

LEVY: It was amazing. As good as it gets. It was absolutely what you dream about. As I mentioned we had this exhaustive amount of prep. Everybody really put in a lot of work making a blueprint and designing things to be just how we wanted them and then when we got to the shoot, of course everyone has butterflies before the first couple of days. You just really have to stay on the ball, stay focused, make sure everything’s fitting together with the schedule. There’s a lot of pressure. We want to create something transcendent and in order to do so we have to be very responsible to the schedule, to our budget, to our producing team who are amazing, very supportive, and positive. Greta was just so in her element on set. Working with the actors, working with us. Being a great collaborator, giving us room. She played music. She had all these great playlists that she’d made. A lot of songs from the era, from the early 2000s, all kinds of different songs. She knew exactly when to play music. When we were setting something up and the actors were maybe off preparing their lines or something. It just really created a great atmosphere. Then just about at the time we were wrapping up she’d slowly fade it out and then we’d get to work and start shooting.

That was indicative of the attitude towards the whole. She was just highly focused, highly efficient but not prone to pulling all-nighters and working recklessly hard. She’s just very engaged. It’s inspiring. She was constantly inspiring all of us. Then she has wonderful taste. She loves great films, great music, she’s a voracious reader. In that way she’s inspiring to all of us also. All of us, we’d do anything for her. She just got us to a point where you want to move heaven and earth for that kind of person.

That’s so great to hear and I definitely see much more from her to come as a filmmaker, because again as I said it feels like she’s been doing this for years.

LEVY: It does. The fact is, she has. She hasn’t actually directed a movie on her own but she’s worked with amazing people, actors. Written, co-directed. She’s done so many things on great movies with great cinema personalities. She certainly absorbed a lot of that but the fact is she’s her own cinematic being. I knew that the moment she said, “I’ve got this thing, would you read it?” It’s like, “This is going to be amazing.”