#i could only really tell in the 2nd half of the song. in which it sounded like the fucking Forbidden Game

[robotsafari]

i really miss that smrpg vibe from shimomura’s music.

[crystaldivination]

𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐈𝐑 𝐇𝐈𝐃𝐃𝐄𝐍 𝐅𝐄𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐘𝐎𝐔

‹ 𝑃𝑖𝑐𝑘 𝑎 𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑑 › ♥︎ 𝑂ℎ… 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑦 𝑦𝑜𝑢

⤷ Valentine’s special ⁀➷ ⤶

Hello beautiful souls ♡︎ it’s been a while. I’ve planned to go after my pick a card schedule but since it’s Valentines’ Day 💌💘 I decided to squeeze this in between. For those who have already found their other half I wish you a happy Valentine’s Day. Make romantic and beautiful memories with your lover. As for my single souls who is looking and waiting for love especially on this day, don’t worry because there is someone waiting somewhere out there for you already. When the time is right they’ll show up. For now we can find other way to celebrate love that doesn’t involve romance right? I hope you get to spend time with your loved ones on this day and do something fun. Have a beautiful time for yourselves. You deserve it ❣︎

That to be said, I hope to provide you with some lovely messages from the person of your mind or anyone who is thinking about you with this intuitive pick a card reading. In this reading we will be looking at who is secretly having feelings for you and how they feel about you. Check out the 2nd part of this Valentine’s edition here.

⭒ masterlist • paid services • tip me

How to choose a pile? Take a few deep breaths ＆ look at each piles separately. Trust your intuition to pick your pile.

The piles ┊

left ➜ right

Disclaimer ┊this is a general reading which may or may not resonate with you. Take what resonates and leave out anything that doesn’t. Feel free to choose another pile if you'd like.

𝐏𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝟏

"Oh tell me if there is anyone like her. No, there is no one like her."

This person might be someone you know or someone near your orbit. They seem to believe there is a connection between you both right before seeing or meeting you. Love at first sight. They feel something unexplainable when it comes to you. They find you captivating and attractive, not to be said, very intelligent. In their eyes you embody the person of both beauty and brain. You actually are. They are very romantic and a dreamer. They’d want you to notice them if you haven’t already. For some I guess this might be a crush who is too shy to approach you and just like to observe you from afar. They like to fantasize about you and how it’d be like if you guys were together. I heard the word "each other’s" so they might be slightly possessive or just want you guys to belong to each other. It doesn’t seem to be toxic. I just feel like they’d want a love that’s like a fairytale. They have a heart of an artist. You could even be their muse. Their source of inspiration. You literally inspire them everyday. I heard something along the line "You are so beautiful and smart that I could write a million unique poems for you". Aww pile 1 they are so sweet. It’s a shame that they’re keeping it to themself. If they could only show it to you just like how they’re willing to tell me this… I’m also getting that you occupy their mind 24/7. Sometimes you could be popping up out of nowhere and they might even see hallucinations of you in front of them. Omg. They’re that in love with you. I’d even say you are one of the rare people that they admire every bit of. They really want to cherish you with all their heart because they believe you deserve every of it. You’re so kind and just a dream person for them. They’re putting you on the pedestal fr. They wouldn’t want to come out of their dream any soon but they do know that it’s not the reality so that’s kinda sad. If they could be yours they’d want to provide and cater you with love and everything you need. Your desires are theirs to fulfill. They’d want the best out of the best for you. They really seem like a giver.

Some hints to know who they are:

Masculine energy, books, glasses, tall and brown haired, casual looks, notebook with a pen, twirl pen, might like to rest on a bench, connected to nature

The song matches the vibe of this connection from their pov ⭒۟ ׁ

Especially this part ⌵

{It's you, it's you, it's all for you}

{Everything I do}

{I tell you all the time}

{Heaven is a place on earth with you}

𝐏𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝟐

"They got me thinking about them"

This is a little bit confusing to me because the person I’m getting for this pile seems to be…how could I say…a little bit out of their mind? Maybe they’re quite oblivious in general or they don’t really care about most things. They aren’t the type to chase the high or hang out in groups to be part of something. They prefer to not be influenced by anyone and to be on their own. Not a loner or anything, they just don’t need other people or stimulations to function well or to build confidence. To them those things seem a little "superficial". They know what they enjoy and who they value so they only keep the minimum of what’s important to them and who they want to be surrounded with. Despite that they’re actually quite warm on the inside and do seek sincere connections. They usually appear detached or try to portray a cold demeanor, sometimes out of this un-/disinterest but also to shy away other people from approaching or getting to close to them. This might stem from their past but then YOU came into the picture.

You might be quite the opposite of that person. You’re social, open and friendly. You might make friends easily. For some reason I’m getting that they might be a new person for you. You guys might've met at school/courses or at some sort of work related places. You might even be a transfer student/worker etc. The first moment they saw you they don’t seem to be interested at all like their usual self but you on the contrary are always curious to meet and get to know new people which led you to approach them first. Tbh your first impression of each other wasn’t really great. They might’ve been quite sassy or even "rude" to you but something might’ve happened later on and I’m getting that it was you who showed kindness to them which made them open up to you more. Over times you guys got more comfortable with each other and seem to be quite close. They didn’t seem to even realize their feelings for you at first but they do noticed a feeling being evoked in them by you. Every time you’re near them or with every encounter with you they feel a shift. You might have recalled a feeling that was familiar to them but it seems like it’s a feeling that has been forgotten for so long that they themself might not even remember what it was. Because it feels so easy and natural with you, all they suspect was them being out of their mind or that something is wrong with them. They noticed that their heart beats faster lately whenever they’re around you, they think more often about you and every symptom one gets when being in love. They slowly realize your effect on them. I heard "Is that her…is she the one who’s making me feel this type of way?". Their close friends might’ve pointed it out to them how they have changed. They could be more lively and their behavior are much more out there. Again I heard "They changed me…?" They start to notice and pay attention to their surrounding more but mostly to catch YOU, to be exact to get your attention.

Some hints to know who they are:

Detached, appear cold and un-/disinterested, athletic style, animal lover, likes to watch birds and the sunset, analytical, great at debates, quite funny or humorous, would like to tease you for fun or to get a reaction out of you

The song matches the epiphany and how their feelings develop ⭒۟ ׁ

Especially this part ⌵

{When you're with me}

{Be honest}

{Let's just be honest}

{You got me in my feelings} …

{Never understood what it feels like}

{Like the way that you're turning me 'round}

Ps. For this pile I felt like I should give some background information since it’s a new person so that’s why it’s a little longer than the other two piles.

𝐏𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝟑

"Oh heaven please send me to her"

Pile 3, I feel like this person's heart is aching for you. It longs for you but not in a selfish way but more in a protective way. You might have gotten out of a relationship recently or broke up with someone and then heading into a new relationship maybe to ease the pain or to forget about the earlier one, either way there seems to be a third party going on. This person just want to take you in their arm and hold you until you feel okay again. They think they could be so much better than that person who’s hurt or disappointed you. They can treat you better than that. They want you to notice them because you don’t deserve that kind of connections. You should have someone by your side who cares about you, who is there for you and who will always stick with you until the end. Not half hearted or not just for a while. They are tired to see you fall down over and over again searching for the love that you need. They know that all you want and need is someone who can carefully hold your heart and held it dearly without letting it fall when it feels too heavy. That heart will loyally and obediently beat for the one who is willing to mend it. It might take a while but it’s always ready to sacrifice for you. They know all this but they’re angry and frustrated with how you could let yourself feel so worthless just for the sake of love. They just want to run to you and protect you from anyone and any danger that could harm you in anyway. You deserve so much. They are sure of it and if they could they will make sure you get all that. Pile 3, I feel so emotional rn. My heart literally pains a bit. They are really determined to get what they want for you. I’m shaking 😳. Don’t you know who I am talking about? But I feel like they can’t show themself to you rn. There might be hindrance or a distance between you guys which makes it hard for them to get to you. BUT know that they’re watching you, helping you indirectly by sending you positive energy, they really wish for you to be safe and to align with your inner self before anything. They think you’re a little out of balance and drained. Take care of yourself and try to recover first. They want you to know that you should be able to prioritize yourself, do the things you didn’t get to do before. I heard "you can love and be in love with yourself, right?". That’s so thoughtful of them, pile 3. They really care about you and your well-being. And once you’re fully yourself again, they might dare to come closer to you. This seems like a great person, don’t you think pile 3? I don’t get who they are but based on the information I guess it might be someone who is aware of you and knows a lot about you. Could be a one sided crush as well.

Some hints to know who they are:

Muscular body, feels powerless, heart ache, would fight for you, phone, take walks to ease mind, fitness studio, look a little like a "player" but is mindful, might have siblings, quite responsible, a little impulsive but knows how to hold back

The whole song matches their frustration and protectiveness over you ⭒۟ ׁ

Especially this part ⌵

{I know I can treat you better than he can}

{And any girl like you deserves a gentleman}

{Tell me, why are we wasting time}

{On all your wasted crying}

{When you should be with me instead?} …

{I'll stop time for you}

{The second you say you'd like me too}

© 2023 crystaldivination ── all rights reserved. do not copy, translate, edit, alter, or redistribute my work. Plagiarism in any form is prohibited.

I hope you enjoyed it! Likes, reblogs and follows are highly appreciated! I’d love to have some feedbacks as well! Thank you ・❥・

◛⑅·˚ Remember. You’re loved!

[fitchickfl]

Well my very young hot young neighbor asked me if you could take my out on a date like a real date besides our weekly fuck dates when he comes over to my house any time he likes since I work from home now as he will text me if he come over to give me a fill up.

He said he wants to wine & dine me, take me dancing & show me off if I'm comfortable being since out in public with me being his date as if I would be uncomfortable of being seen with a young male half his age. I told him I don't give a shit what people think who I am out with so told I would love for him to take me out on a date & fun night.

He requested me dress in a sexy short dress wearing no bra so I sent him what I was wearing under the dress & the dress I picked out.

He mentioned if I would not wear my wedding ring on the date as he knows I always wear my wedding ring as my hushand enjoys seeing the pictures & videos on me with other men my hand over the guy's cock seeing the wedding ring while sucking a nice big cock. I asked him why then he said he wants this to be a real date and wants more then being a fun fuck friend and would like to be more than that. I've asked him like gf/bf relationship? and he said yes and likes me a lot as we do talk often like daily besides having great sex. I was real flatter of him asking me and I told him that I used to a bf before when living in Dallas for 2 years before moving to Florida and miss him a lot as we were very close, went on trips together, went out a lot and hung out a lot at my house as he was still married so couldn't go over his place. LOL I told him let's go slow on that as I don't want his heart broken having a gf/bf relationship as that's all it would be cause 1st I'm married, 2nd I can't get pregant as I would totally have a babe with him if I could as he is so damn handsome, built & all. He said he doesn't care all about that & knows. He just wants to spoil me more by taking me out on real dates & trips and be a real couple. I told him let's do it as I would love him to be my bf.

He loves my jeep so he asked if we can take my jeep out on the date. So I told him I will drive over to pick up him which is only 2 blocks away. So on the way over, i sent him a picture of my hand without my wedding ring. He texted back so excited. I pull up the driveway as he is waiting for me, opened up the door, grab my hand and walked my around to the passanger's side then turns me around to plant a deep passionate kiss on me, pulling me close to his body then looks in my eyes saying how beautiful & sexy I looked and helped into the seat.

He went all out on the dinner side of the date at one of my flavorite places, had roses on the table. & all. After dinner & a few drinks, we walked down the street to bar where my favorite local country cover band was playing at and started dancing right away. Let's his the man has some moves as that's why he is so damn good fucking. We looked like love birds out on the dance floor & at the bar. Kissing, touching each other, holding hands when walking around and during the slow songs, he loved feeling up my butt over my dress as later the evening his hands were under the dress alot. He asked me next time I go to the bathroom to remove my tiny thong to be fully commando. I told him I have to go the bathroom right away. LOL Coming back meeting him at our spot on the bar, kissing him to tell him he wish has been granted, he slowly started touching on top of my knee to slowly slide up my inner thighs as I slowly started seperating my legs as his fingers felt around the outside of my pussy check for sure I saw bare. I move closer to the edge of the bar stool to give him more access of my wet pussy (yes I was really getting very turned on), he circled my clit then gliding on both sides of my pussy lips then slide his slide inside slowly as he smiled before kissing me, telling me he can't wait to take home later. As I so wanted to go at that time, we danced some more being all over each other, having a great time. The last song was played. He grab my hand firmly calling me babe, let's head out.

As we are heading as he is driving, I noticed he is not going towards where we live and I said "hey mister" with little laughing voice, "where are we going?" He turned with that sexy smile telling me he has a little suprise to end out our night. As we pulled to the hotel, I turned to him telling him that I didn't pack anything so won't be able to stay overnight & should of told me. He laughed saying let the suprise happen. As take the elevator up to the room, I turned to him, get very close, kiss him, went to his ear saying I've very happy that you have asked me out & take me out for a very fun great time and hope we do give into a gf/bf relationship. We walked down to the room at the corner as it was a suite, he slowly opens up the door smiling, I see

[kierreras]

This is my theory for the rest of the season:

5-10 will be a bellyjere snooze fest with Conrad self sabotaging himself from the sidelines and Belly gaslighting herself into thinking she is in love with Jeremiah. The girl is grieving, wants to feel closer to Susannah and Jere is the one not pushing her away. Belly is 10 feet deep in denial. Second half will push the narrative of “Jeremiah is the one who’s been there for Belly and Conrad only makes her suffer” narrative. As if Conrad isn’t legit depressed. I can see some bellyconrad flashbacks here and there to signify the connection that still ties them together.

As for the finale. S2 will end similarly to how book 2 ended w bellyjere canon since some reviewers spoke about it being pretty spot on to the books but one thing a lot of reviewers also say is that even by the end of the season and without reading the books you still get the idea of who’s the endgame couple (bellyconrad) because of the narrative and soundtrack.

The necklace and motel scenes are happening because that’s the only way to justify bellyjere even being together. But I think the difference will be that they will showcase how much Conrad hates telling Belly he doesn’t want her and pushing her away and how she wants him to say that he loves her and fight for it. How much it hurts him to allow Jeremiah to be with her. I think it’s important the it showcases he does this because he thinks he can’t be what she wants right now. It still feels weird that Jeremiah will be okay dating Belly when they were in an actual relationship in the show. In the books, Belly and Conrad were undefined. So, I think both Jeremiah and Belly need to believe Conrad doesn’t care about them being together in order to move forward with that relationship hence motel scene.

I don’t think the show will end with Belly and Jeremiah in their relationship bliss. Romantic song and credits rolling type. I think we will get a montage of flashbacks between Belly and Conrad and a nod at the fact Belly is in love with Conrad and just going w the guy that wants her, not the one she wants. Belly’s narration is key to express this. Back To December being played in a montage of them by Conrad’s viewpoint is perfect and showing how he regrets everything that happened. I could see the season ending this way but:

A reviewer said there’s a cliffhanger so I think they might tease a bit of their relationship in that 2 years mark and a flash forward to Conrad 2 years later (still with the necklace). It builds anticipation for the next season and leaves both teams with a fighting stance for the next one.

And if I was Jenny, I’ll drop Season 3 in two parts (filmed as one). First part about the mess that was Belly and Jeremiah’s relationship leading up to the proposal, meeting Conrad again at Cousins and the planning fiasco. It could end on the wedding day for dramatic effect. 2nd part about the failing of the wedding, the fight, Belly leaving to Spain, reconnecting with Conrad after years, a montage of their one year relationship and finally marrying him.

sorry for the late reply, your ask message is huge and very interesting to me, so i wanted to take some time to gather my thoughts here too! thank you so much for reaching out and sharing your vision, it's really amazing! so yeah, i think that starting from the 5th episode we're going to dive more into bellyjere and how their connection together influences them both. i think we're going to actually get jere's pov in 5th or 6th episode because they should start bellyjere by showing how jeremiah handled bellyconrad when they were together. thanksgiving flashbacks, i think, are going to be shown through jeremiah's pov, which is a pity cause i can only imagine how cute belly and conrad were there. however, i think that conrad isn't going to be as harsh as he is in the books. i still think that he'll be following the natural flow and thinking that one day when he's in the right mental state him and belly can get back together. and conrad has a tendency of thinking that he is fine once something good happens, so i think he might mistaken getting to a better mental state with passing finals. i actually love your thoughts about conrad needing to actually vocalise that belly should move on because i also don't see any other way for belly and jere actually starting something in the show. how i see things in the finale - conrad passes his finals, he goes to his dorm room and collects the infinity necklace to give it to belly, goes back to the car and witnesses bellyjere kiss. i also think that before the kiss conrad could be really unaware of how close belly and jeremiah are. so yeah, after that the whole bellyjere thing unravels and i can see everything that you've mentioned happening. soundtrack should tease that the story is not over for belly and conrad, so i think it definitely could be back to december with tons of bellyconrad/bellyjere moments, but also i can see jenny choosing exile or even betty/august/cardigan because of the whole betty/james/augustine parallel. so i'm not really sure, but i also would be down for any of taylor's songs, who am i kidding? i can absolutely see the last scene in this season being a flashforward to tease the third season and maybe tease the potential reunion of belly and conrad, so your version with conrad + necklace scene is really great. i'm actually praying that it's conrad and necklace, not bellyjere wedding photos, ugh and yes to everything you said about season three. agree with every word! but also i would want to actually see an episode of belly in spain, conrad's letters and maybe even jeremiah healing process, i don't think that montage would be enough for me, a girl can dream, anyway. thank you for sharing your thoughts, that one was of the most interesting asks that i've ever received!

[otakween]

Digimon Tamers - Episode 9

Omg Growmon was so cute in this episode 🥺 Guilmon is cute already, but something about a mon that big being all baby-like and innocent is even cuter. Wanna hug him.

All that aside, I thought the 2nd half of this one was kinda weak and had a weird vibe to it.

Notes:

Notably, this was another non-battle episode (which I think is great). I saw some lame-o in the comments be like "this is boring!" I kinda think people who can't enjoy slow moments in anime are...dumb. Like the shonen-only types who need an explosion, a punch, or fanservice every five minutes for a show to be "good." Whatever, more slice-of-life for me!

The scene where Takato was afraid of Growmon and they built up suspense like Growmon was going to do something bad felt a little redundant from the end of episode 1. The reaction makes sense, but my brain was just like "aight, we know the punchline already." That said, Growmon being so sad that he made Takato scared was really sweet. Poor baby :(

^Literally me trying to figure out how Digimon works lol

I'm kind of surprised that none of Takato's methods worked because they seemed pretty logical to me. It wasn't 100% clear what allowed Growmon to finally de-digivolve, but I guess it was just time?

I really felt for Takato in this one, he's just in a constant state of anxiety about where his digimon might be and if he's safe. It's like having a child! No way I could handle that stress in elementary school lol.

Okay, but when Takato was telling his crush "my friend suddenly got bigger" I thought they were going to make a boner joke...Luckily her mind is not as dirty as mine.

When they introduced Impmon I really thought he'd have a greater purpose. For now it seems like he's just being a dick to be a dick lol. I actually find that more interesting than "I want to help my master rule the world" tho...

We got a lot of cute Terriermon moments this episode, which is always a plus. There's something about his design that reminds me of Neopets...Oh and by the way, I only recently realized he's meant to be a dog (despite the name making it obvious haha).

Once they started camouflaging Growmon and Ruki showed up just to be a jerk for no reason, that's when I felt like the episode kinda went down hill. Ruki showed up out of nowhere and was just kinda bullying Takato and Jian in a way that felt out of place to me. Then the episode ends with an extended scene of Takato crying in the rain and then the gang stares at a rainbow as Growmon de-digivolves to Guilmon. It was supposed to poignant, but it just felt stilted and awkward to me. Like...I wasn't sure what they were really going for with that one.

I feel kinda bad that the end of the episode didn't jive with me. They even played an insert song to be like "FEEL SOMETHING," but I was just like "eh..."

[skyberia]

some "behind the scenes" stuff from this comic (read as: wips and assorted thoughts)

SOME BACKSTORY: i was halfheartedly playing through strikers after finishing p5r. the fact that akechi's not even mentioned in that whole game made me sad. the fact that akechi stops being mentioned basically the moment he dies in p5 vanilla makes me sad. i had thoughts. so i decided to make a comic about it

i wrote down the entirety of the script for this while in a complete haze listening to third eye by florence + the machine on repeat for an hour straight. that song has nothing to do with anything the comic is about. or with either of the characters involved. i can't explain my thought process there.

(the 'official' title of the comic is "a ghost amongst the living (consequences of a cognitive death.)" as a sort of tribute to that song, even though it has, again, nothing to do with what the comic is about)

THE SCRIPT: the numbers correlate to text bubbles on my thumbnails (see next). i also put it on discord so i could more easily see it/edit from either my phone or computer, which i don't think is the MOST efficient or professional way to go about doing this, but

you may notice this is a little bit different from the text on the final product. this is because. i changed some things while typing it out for the final thing. i don't know what else to tell you.

i did reach a point where i had read these same words over and over so much that i started questioning if anything i wrote made sense and if i even knew how to speak english correctly. i'd like to thank my friends for reassuring me that some of my wording was ok, and also google because every time i asked "is that even a thing people say" i would just plug it on there to try to figure it out (because i was too embarrassed to ask anyone to read over it)

THE THUMBNAILS: just a rough idea of panelling and where to put text bubbles and such. this took fucking forever. comics are hard. nobody ever tells you this (<- something i said about like 10 times to the same people while making this)

THE SKETCHES: basically grabbing the thumbnails and making them into an actual thing i can draw onto. also getting all the text laid out-- i don't think that's entirely necessary at this point but i was just excited to see it all laid out and being able to read it

(shoutout to my friend sophie for making the font i used for this/use for all my longer comics. she's an icon and a legend and has really nice handwriting)

you may notice that page 9 is completely different from the thumbnails. this is because i was tired by the time i got to that part in planning and i paid for it. brainstorming & reworking that page took me an entire day. comics are HARD. I AM TELLING YOU THIS

page 6 also changed by the time i got around to lining it because i decided that it sucked and i hated it. reworking that into something more acceptable also took me about half a day. i'm happy with how it turned out though, and glad that i no longer have the issue of having a flop ass page in the middle of this

THE PROCESS: was actually quite straightforward after that, just doing the lines and the like. but i wanted to share how i did the backgrounds. i grabbed a bunch of in-game screenshots i took for reference and just plugged them through csp's "artistic > lines only" filter and just traced over that

i love you art shortcuts that make my life & ability to make yaoi comics easier

(if you're curious too here's all the screenshots i took & was keeping on the side for reference)

ETC: some miscellaneous thoughts, because if you've made it all the way through this then you probably don't have anything better to do anyway:

all in all this took two weeks. script was written on the 11th, thumbnails were done on the 14th, sketches were done on the 17th, lining on the 24th, aaand colouring took me just one day. comics are HARD and TAKE TIME. NOBODY TELLS YOU THIS!!!!!

i actually started getting wrist pain somewhere along the 2nd day of lining/3rd page. that step of the process probably took longer than it otherwise would because i had to keep taking breaks 2 ensure i wouldn't break my hand completely -_-

my sanity throughout the lining process was only ensured by listening to a frankly stupid amount of jpop. thank you wednesday campanella and mrs. green apple

i think my favourite page is page 3. i like how the panels get crooked when akechi puts the detective prince persona on, i like how akira deadpans (in a straightened panel) to cut him off. also in order to get the hand right in the first panel i did the hair twirling motion myself and ended up hitting myself in the eye with my own hair. it was worth it though

IN CONCLUSION: i think they went a bit too hard with the yaoi fanservice in persona 5 royal

[eilinelsghost]

Sounds of Atandil

I initially shared part of the playlist in response to this ask, but I've realized I should just make a main post for it that I can keep updated as the series grows. The playlist is intended to go along with the Atandil series and includes one song per installment.

1. Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis || Ralph Vaughan Williams, Hallé, Sir Mark Elder So as I mentioned in the summary, this is basically the theme for the whole series. It has such a breadth of emotion and beauty in it, and it makes me tear up almost every time. I love this piece so much. And consequently it's really fitting that it's also the primary one associated with Part 1, since that is sort of the flagship installment of the series where all the philosophical framework gets laid out.

2. Gravity || Ludovico Einaudi This piece captures so much of the movement from Grief in All Her Guises. It conjures up the movement of the river in the opening scene, the butterfly that began the Quenya lessons, the laughter around the fire at lunchtime, the sound of Finrod's voice as Balan experiences it moving through him on the hilltop, the overarching movement of the stars dancing overhead.

3. Child of the Troubles || Andrew Simon McAllister Tragically this one no longer plays on Apple Music or Spotify, but I linked to the artist's page in the song title where you can stream it. This one is the partner track to Unfriends and Belen's run-in with the Laiquendi.

4. The Fall || Hans Zimmer Just such excellent Fen of Serech vibes here, especially the 2nd half. I literally listened to this one on loop while writing Ye Shall Render Blood and it is the whole mood of that installment.

5. Solringen || Wardruna The whole piece works well as the right feelings for A Shuddering in the Air, but specifically the chunk beginning at 4:44 was the underlying inspiration for the way they deliver the "oath of parting" in the burial rites at the end.

6. Night || Ludovico Einaudi Appropriately named musical accompaniment for Here in Our Frailty, which takes place all throughout the Longest Night. Additional excellent vibes as that sometimes the warbly effect on certain notes reminds me of the haunting ice sounds that I listened to on loop for the Finrod-has-a-freakout section.

7. Flora || Ludovico Einaudi Ok so apparently half of this playlist is just Ludovico Einaudi, but that's because his stuff is great. The peaceful vibes of lying in a golden field while your crush drops a snowdrop flower on your face and flirts while completely clueless are all over this one, so it's the partner piece to A Heady Fragrance of Honey.

8. Into Dust || Mazzy Star This is my ultimate doomed mortal/immortal relationship song. The only explanation needed here is honestly to direct you straight to the lyrics. It even references fading. Absolute perfection and the correct level of abject sorrow for In Memory Untarnished.

9. Citizen of Glass || Agnes Obel This one is just Correct for Vassal somehow. I'm pretty sure it is this line of lyrics that solidified it for me: Some let go and some hold on / There is no mistake / If I could wash all ill away / Tell me would you stay? But also it just has all the right feelings to it, if that makes sense.

10. Time Escaping || Big Thief Happy road trip music for the boys! Or. Well. Extremely depressing road trip music for the boys given the context and the song title and the mortality and um...god can't these two be happy for one second. Happiness I guess, much like the installment this goes with, is A Shifting Mirage.

11. The Path of the Fossils || Ludovico Einaudi He's back, folks! As I said - apparently half the playlist. But anyway, I love the recurring waves of impending emotion that continuously come back throughout this piece. It works so well with the barrage of feelings that both Finrod and Beren work through in Many a Dreadful Path. And in addition to that, the title plays very nicely with the shelf of memories and Beren's recollection of Emeldir telling him, “Know the path your forefathers set so that in such grounding you may see where your own should diverge.” 

12. Númenor || Bear McCreary I have...complicated feelings re Rings of Power (to put it mildly), but thankfully those have not killed how much I love this piece from the soundtrack. In fact, it's so thoroughly associated now with Balan's arrival in Nargothrond in Children of the Sun that I almost forget it very much belongs with something else.

13. Change || Big Thief So much of And Still the Light Returns is about each character navigating change in the other(s) or their circumstances that this just seemed appropriate. Also uh: Would you live forever, never die / While everything around passes? / Would you smile forever, never cry / While everything you know passes?

14. Stretch Your Eyes || Agnes Obel It took me quite awhile to land on one for In These Holy Waters. But about halfway through writing it, this song came on in an old playlist and immediately clicked. It's the movement of the water in the melody, the mingled mournfulness and defiance. The dark and the ghost / They dance so sweet and slow / Dug-out from below there / to damn the gods

15. Song with No Name || Johnny Flynn This album came out right as I was working on Darkly the Sundering Flood and I don't know that I could have found more perfect lyrics to sum up this whole installment than these: As I search for the solace the hills might give me / Heavy the tread of the dead on the way / The path in the rain, in the sun, won't gleam / And the ground is made with death and decay / And an echo of the ones who've walked before me / And joy for the ones who've walked beside me

16. Quene Note || The Henrician Consort Honestly? This one is vibes. I just really like it. It has all the tense melancholy I felt while working on No Gentler Pain.

17. Logos || Ludovico Einaudi Our guy returns again! I'm pretty certain that listening to this piece was what gave me the entire idea for this installment. The bit from 5:00 to the end is, well, no spoilers if you haven't read this installment yet, but it's the feral!Finrod bit.

18. River, Mountain and Love || Johnny Flynn & Robert Macfarlane Well this whole installment felt like a tone-break from the rest of the series, so why not also have a playlist number that feels the same? I am always and forever obsessed with this album. Won't you tumble and dance to the bluebell sea? / Won't you melt back down, won't you come home with me? / River fed all the ferns who unfurl in the old love of spring

19. Petricor || Ludovico Einaudi [Teaser for the upcoming installment.]

[eepster22]

Lockwood and Co. Headcanons: Lockwood Edition

No spoilers until 2nd half of post

He has ADHD and dyslexia

He's in love with Lucy, but like also sometimes I think he could be asexual.

High pain tolerance to physical stuff (stab wounds, burns, electrical chair torture, etc.) but is absolutely a baby when it comes to colds. Has the worst man flu anyone's ever seen

Is kinda vain tbh. If he gets injured the first thing he wants to know is if it will leave a cool scar or not

He knows when people are flirting with him but acts like he is oblivious.

He idolizes his family more than anything. This includes his current family of Lucy and George

Doesn't really have any hobbies that are unghost or unbusiness related, which is not healthy! He used to listen to his parents' research a lot though, and through them he also took an interest in historical weapons. However, since their deaths, it's been too painful for him to pursue those interests.

Related to the no hobbies thing, he'll follow Lucy and George around like a lost puppy when he's bored. George will often tell him to get lost though if he's researching something, so he'll end up following Lucy around more often. He can be a bit of an annoying puppy too, often distracting her from her sketches to get a rise out of her

He cannot cook. Dear lord he cannot cook to save his life. He is banned from the kitchen.

He also claims to be a fully qualified doctor, but he is also terrible at first aid.

He can play a musical instrument of some kind, maybe even multiple. I could see him playing piano or violin. If he plays piano, it's because his parents forced him to take lessons when he was younger. He didn't enjoy the lessons at the time, but after they passed, he found music to be cathartic. He mainly plays classical, moody songs. When George moved in, he stopped playing because he wasn't quite ready to share that vulnerable side of himself yet. He would sneak and play when he was sure both of them were out of the house. Maybe after season 1/The Whispering Skull Lucy or George could coax him to play in front of them. Same sort of thing if he plays violin.

He tells corny dad jokes. I cannot tell you why, but I just know that he does.

He can be pretty moody sometimes and that's when he'll just disappear outside for a few hours. However, he knows he's got this kind of mysterious persona, so if he hasn't disappeared in a while he'll just do it for the aesthetic 💅

He knew George from school he attended when he was younger, but he wasn't friends with him and honestly found him a bit weird. He ran into George right as he was fired from Fittes though, and recognizing his talent (and also the skull he stole) decided to let him stash the skull at his house and offered him a job where he could ask as many questions as he wanted to.

He's around 6ft tall, but he's pretty skinny so he's more agile than strong really.

Lockwood's favorite time of day is sunrise. He often has trouble sleeping, and he also needs blackout curtains to block all of the death glows of London at night. So, sometimes, he watches the sunrise in the morning. Watching the death glows fade to pure light gives him hope, but he'd never tell anyone else something so sentimental.

His friends are the only thing keeping him alive at this point. His worst fear is them dying, and his second worst fear is them leaving him. He would do anything for them.

He needs so much therapy oh my god. More than anyone else in the series

Spoilers for the books below here!!!

From the books we know he knew Flo as a young agent. She was one of the agents he looked up to, especially after she beat him in that fencing competition, but he would never tell her that until it was too late and she'd become a relic woman. They became friends once they related about the losses in their life, and she taught him a few rapier tricks for a few bags or licorice.

He feels really bad for Flo, but understands that there are some things you just can't get over, so he supports her decision to be in an illegal profession even though he thought Relic men were the scum of the earth like Lucy did when he was younger. At one point she started turning to drugs and alcohol unhealthily, so he put his foot down and basically forced her to stop because she was the only person he had in the world at that point and he couldn't stand the thought of losing anyone else.

His parents were gone on research trips a lot, leaving him in the care of Jessica, but he was so young that he still loved them even if he didn't get to see them that much. Jessica resented them some for leaving her alone to take care of Lockwood instead of raising the both of them. She was kind of a sister/mother figure for him and he loved her more than anyone.

Jessica was sweet, but she also got up to a lot of teenagery stuff that Lockwood didn't know about, like drinking and weed and boyfriends. Kipps was one of said boyfriends, and was over a lot to be with Jessica. Lockwood idolized him and complimented him lots, which kind of gave Kipps some of his ego. After Jessica died, Lockwood resented Kipps for not being there and for abandoning him too, while Kipps resented Lockwood for not protecting her. Jessica had some Touch, which allowed her to sort their parents' stuff, but otherwise she had no Sight or Listening or agent training.

He and Jessica used to make flower crowns.

He has no plans for after he loses his talent because he's basically 100% sure he won't make it that far. That is, until he learns the truth behind his parents' deaths and realize that their death wasn't meaningless and that he can live his life to make sure it wasn't. (And also he has his found family to live for)

Lockwood and Holly get along pretty well in a platonic way. Holly is his only friend that appreciates the finer things in life like he does.

I wish we knew more about Gravedigger Skyes but he's literally like. Never expounded upon except that his real name is Nigel. There was so much potential there Stroud come on. Anyways Gravedigger Skyes was a family friend who was like a cool uncle to Lockwood, so when Jess died and he had nowhere left to go Skyes took the boy in. He tried to connect with Lockwood emotionally, but Lockwood just shut him out. So, he did the only thing that made the boy happy: he trained him to kill ghosts.

If we wanted to make Lockwood's backstory super tragic, maybe Gravedigger Skyes died while protecting Lockwood on a case. However, I think it's equally likely Skyes is still alive, and Lockwood left his care when he got Portland Row back and started his own agency. Lockwood is so secretive he wouldn't even tell his friends he'd been stabbed, so I feel like it's in character for Skyes to still be alive and Lockwood just like. Doesn't mention him or invite him over.

After Lucy left in the Hollow Boy, Lockwood played whatever instrument it is that he plays moodily at night for hours on end. George doesn't even tell him to stop because his playing is beautiful and he misses Lucy too.

Ok I'm gonna stop here before this becomes too long, lemme know if you want more because I could probably come up with more for him. I also plan on doing Lucy and George too! These guys are my comfort characters and I just love them. My blorbos

[sealer-of-wenkamui]

Danzo - 12, 23, 50 for the character ask? 😊

My beautiful doll ❤️

For favorite character asks

12. If you could write effortlessly and as much as you wanted, what story (s) would you write for this character?

I wish I did have any practice with writing cause I’d want to write about her time in Shimousa directly after being repaired by Limbo, and explore her inner thoughts as he intentionally gives her orders intended to hurt her as much as he can, and messes around inside her head. Her telling herself she’s just a doll meant to be used by him but actually being bothered by his actions.

I’d also like to rewrite the middle/end of the Heian-kyo chapter to be focused on her like it should have been, and I’d definitely include a noncon scene with Limbo’s bugs cause I can’t believe they didn’t take advantage of those. It would be so easy to make it a proper conclusion to her arc and her breaking free of his control and fully coming to accept her humanity (cause she still tends to dismiss her own feelings as inconsequential cause she’s a puppet)

And the other I’ve discussed before is a scenario after she’s summoned to Chaldea where she breaks down and Limbo is the only one with the specialized knowledge required to repair her so she’s left with no choice but to let him mess with her body again

23. Has this character permanently altered or impacted your psyche in a way you won’t forget?

I’ve known her less than a year and already I think the big impact she’s had on me is she got me to fully realize just how much I love dolls? Danzou was the final push I needed to get a bjd and I’m even having my first one look like her ❤️

50. Link your fav song, playlist, aesthetic board, fan-fiction, reference pile, personal artwork, analysis post, meme, headcanon, or quote for this character. Whichever one (s) you are most comfortable with!

For fics- rhysgore's "dutch wife" (its the sole english LimDan fic and REALLY GOOD, its Danzou pov and 2nd person which I don't see much, but i find it adds to the creepiness. I love their descriptions of how her doll body works as well as her thoughts)

綻ぶ蝕甚 by 遠野ラーテル I don't know who else can actually read this one, but i can't not list it cause I constantly think about it. Great Danzou character study focused on her relationship with Limbo, the first half being in Shimousa where she's obedient but finds herself dwelling on things like the girl he mutilated for parts to use in her. And the second half is her Servant self summoned to Chaldea being haunted in daydreams by him without fully being able to remember, in contrast to the first half she's much more openly distressed. Sfw but dripping in eroticism, and they capture this very distinct unsettling atmosphere between them, and don't hold back when it comes to his cruelty and Weirdness about her.

It has a lot of great imagery too, this is a piece i did of her based on it

Okay i gotta share other great art of her like THIS that i commissioned from a friend who draws excellent gore and I adore her expression so much ❤️❤️❤️

This comic on pixiv (summary cause its in JP- after being summoned to Chaldea, Douman confesses to having all his memories from before, and Danzou confronts him, demanding to know what he's plotting, saying she does not trust him. He claims he's not and mocks her for not warning her son (who he directly threatened in her interlude) and the master of chaldea if she believes he's such a threat.)

And this piece which i think is one of the first i saw of her and I think about it a lot.. Her and Limbo's relationship summed up in one image...

WAIT how could i forget, literally anything by the artist 花たれ

[fallingforel]

Hi! Could you write for Brad with prompt 19? Like the reader is part of the vamos and brad is up writing a sad song about his feelings towards the reader because he’s scared to mess it up. I really like your writing, it’s so good!!

a/n Hi lovely I would be delighted to write this also thank you for saying you like my writing it actually brightens my day up just a tinsy bit so thank you anywhoo on with the showww

PROMPT 19:“I’m worried about you.”

words:1,417

"Have you noticed the change in Brads behaviour?" I ask Tristan from where he's sat next to me.

I'm in a band called the vamps, it's all fairly new for us we're currently on the way to record our second album . I sing alongside Brad and everyone says our chemistry on stage is unbelievable and everyone says they're surprised we're not together yet to which I reply we're just best friends which we are, but I secretly wish we were more no one knows that though.

I mean for one we don't act like we're bestfriends, we always favour to sleep in the same bed, we've shared a few kisses but apart from that we're best-friends. But recently he's been pushing back I've ended up on my own in my own bed. Brad's not speaking to me as much only matters about the band, It feels like he doesn't want me there and it pains me because if two of us aren't getting along then it could cause me to leave the band and I really don't want to do that.

"Hmmm" Tristan says from beside me, clearly focusing on whatever was on T.V. more than what I was saying. "forget it I'll talk to him myself about it" I say getting up and wandering about the big mansion we were given by management for our 2nd album, to record whenever we get a new idea, mainly for Brad and I as we were the ones singing and writing but occasionally one of the others would write so it was all of us here. It was a big thing located in the heart of the L.A. suburbs and Brad and I both got our licenses so we could be able to do road trips while we were out here.

I pass all rooms on the ground floor, and there was nothing so I make my way up to the first floor and there is nothing in some of the rooms but I hear muffled noises coming from the in home studio. so I go to the end of the corridor and stand outside the room to hear whats going on

When you were mine, did I push you far away? Blame this whole weight on my shoulders Baring down on me But then I only had to see you Don't you know how good that feels? These are all the words I should've said

Did I miss my chance? Is it too late to say?

Now I'm half a world away from you But you're always on my mind There's a million words that I could've said And you might still be mine And if there's someone where I used to be I hope he tells you everyday The million words that I should've said I wish I could tell you always

It's brad singing his heart out but he sounds broken hearted, it sounds too close to the truth of how I'm feeling and it scares me. I hear rattling about in the studio so I walk away to find James. I needed some good advice and James was always the best for this,

He ended up being out on the balcony with kirstie, which surprised me I wasn't expecting her, she was my bestfriend after Brad

"KIRSTIE!, you didn't tell me you we're coming out here" "she didn't tell me either" "oh Hi James."

"Rude, didn't even acknowledge I was here. Anyway, hey y/n, whats up?" James asks making my face drop realising why I came out to the balcony in the first place "errr I came to find some advice from you" "Oh do you want me to go?" Kirstie asks "No no, I could actually do with both of your advice to be honest" I say as I'm taking a seat on the empty chair that's not occupied by one of the couple.

"So what did you need advice on?" Kirstie asks. "relationship." "Have you got in a relationship? got yourself a little boyfriend?" James asks "errr, no not quite. Do you know what I'm gonna explain the whole thing and then you can give me your advice both of you" I say flicking my eyes between where the two of them are sat.

"So as both of you know, Brad and I are best friends." I say which they both nod at. "Well, we've been sleeping in each others beds, been sharing a few drunk kisses, which I'm not sure he even remembers. So I caught feelings naturally, though I think they were already there anyway regardless what we've been up to. And then like two days ago he stopped sneaking into my bed, stopped kissing me when we were drunk, stopped talking to me about anything and everything and only specifically about band stuff. And I'm worried, so worried that it could cause one of us to leave the band and that would mess up the whole dynamic. So I went to go talk to him a minute ago and he was singing a song but it sounded dangerously close to our situation and you know Brad barely likes to sing about real situations that he goes through. That's me I like to sing about that. So what do you think I should do?"

"First off, we all kinda knew that you we're sleeping in eachothers beds because I caught brad come out in his boxers of your room. We all thought that something else was going on, If I'm honest. We knew about the drunk kisses, We literally watched it happen back in the U.K when we went out that night before we had to leave for the U.S. you and Brad had kissed but you didn't remember the next morning. As for the two days ago thing, maybe he's also realised the same feeling you're having and he doesn't think that you feel the same so he's pulling away and giving you space." James says "And the singing?" I ask. "well, he never writes and sings about situations that have happened to him. Because none have been worthy of that but what's going on with you two, is so worthy of that. It worked up enough motions in him for it to happen so don't worry about that. The best thing you can do now is talk to him don't let this drive a wedge between you two and also a wedge between the band because it will. you need to talk" "thanks I will right now."

And I'm rushing off to the studio again where Brad was. I knock on the door before I hear a hush "come in" just faint enough to hear and I'm opening the door to where Brad was sat on the sofa and sit next to him.

"Heard you're song. Are you okay?" "You weren't meant to hear that. Truth I'm not Y/n I can't keep going on like this. I can't keep not talking to you but I also can't keep acting like we're together, when we're not and you don't feel the same because It's driving me crazy because I wish we were something else." "who says I don't feel the same?" "You. two nights ago. I said I loved you and you said I don't feel the same way." "Brad that was a joke, of course I love you anyone would be blind to see that the way we act is because we love eachother not because we're just bestfriends Brad I love you and I miss you In my bed" I say standing up and crouching down to his level "You really feel that way?" "course I do. now kiss me you Idiot" and we start making out on the couch before Brad interrupts and says "Will you be my girlfriend" "yes Brad."

⋆｡°✩

yourusername

liked by jamesmcvey, bradleywillsimpson, and 30,000 others

Yourusername: think he looks pretty fit stood in the kitchen. free hugs are for girlfriends only😏

fan1: YOURE JOKING JAW IS SWINGING RN

fan 2: OMG!!! yes finally, took them long enough

thevampsfan:YOU ARE KIDDING FINALLY. NOW WE GET COUPLES MUSIC FROM BOTH OF THEM.

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⋆｡°✩

bradleywillsimpson

liked by tristanevans connorball and 67, 000 others

bradleywillsimpson: think my girlfriend looks pretty nice here @/yourusername

connorball: I think everyone was waiting for this, could've told us first though :(

↳yourusername: we did connor you seem to forget that

kirstiebrittain: happy for you two now we can have double dates

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[f1letters]

lavender haze | mv1

"I been under scrutiny, you handle it beautifully"

summary: after winning his second championship in another controversial way, max needed her by his side more than ever as the media tried to tear him apart

warning: a little bit of angst for Max, but overall fluff for the couple, swearing, suggestive language, mentions of the championship-deciding races of Abu Dhabi GP 2021 and Japan GP 2022 from Max's point of view, mentions of scrutiny from the media, Jos Verstappen lol

pairing: max verstappen x reader

word count: 2.8k

note: everything in bold are song references and in italic are thoughts, which includes memories from the past. also, I would like to point out that I didn't write this as a personal opinion/critique of Ted or anyone involved in the whole Sky Sports scandal (which is why I didn't use his name or his exact words in the story and why I only used the controversy as a reference/inspiration very loosely), but rather wrote about what I imagine were the thoughts/feelings of people on Max's side (himself, the Red Bull team, Jos, etc), regarding this matter.

dutch words used: schatje = baby; liefje = honey

and we are back! once again, thank you all for being so understanding about me skipping last weekend 💜 I hope you enjoy this little story, as always!

masterlist

Meet me at midnight

Ever since he was just a little boy, all Max dreamed of was being a Formula 1 champion.

To have his name written in the history books. To have his legacy immortalized in the records for eternity.

From then, Max spent all of his hours, days, weeks, months and years preparing for it. He gave all of his blood, sweat and tears for it.

For that exact moment: when he stood right there in Japan, tall and proud, with his trophy in hand, after being announced World Champion for the 2nd time.

Lying in bed that night, staring at the ceiling next to his girlfriend, the driver could still feel the euphoria coursing through his veins.

He couldn't believe how lucky he was to be in that position. 

He had everything he could ever want: his biggest dream came true twice, he had a successful career that so many envied, and most of all, he had the best person in the world by his side.

At the end of the day, it didn't matter all the money, the victories, the parties, the luxury if he couldn't have her there in his arms.

Y/N was everything to him, and he knew that the championship victory was as much hers as his.

Max let his hand run through the shiny strands of his partner's hair, the warm skin of their bodies pressed together, while Y/N drew random figures with her soft fingers across the man's toned chest.

The couple remained in each other's arms, not saying too much, both still over the moon and completely in awe from the unforgettable day they just had.

"I'm so proud of you, my love." Y/N broke the silence installed in the hotel room, whispering her words. "You can't imagine how happy I am for you."

Staring at the ceiling with you

Oh, you don't ever say too much

And you don't really read into

My melancholia

Max half smirked with his eyes half closed as sleep began to creep in.

With his eyes locked on the girl before him, the boy tucked the hair that covered her face behind her ear and stayed like that for a few minutes. Just living in the moment, letting her words sink in, appreciating what life had given him.

"Thanks, schatje. For everything." He placed a soft kiss on her forehead, caressing her cheek with the back of his hand. "I'm completely crazy about you, you know that?"

Y/N laughed shyly, moving her body even closer to her boyfriend's, laying down on his chest. "Stop, Max! You know I get all embarrassed when you start saying stuff like that."

"You stop! I'm just telling the truth!" Their laughter filled the room in pure harmony. Max stopped, returning to his moment of gratitude. "I just love you. So much, Y/N. This is all thanks to you."

"This is all thanks to your talent, baby." The young woman rested her cheek against the driver's bare shoulder. "Don't let anyone tell you otherwise."

Y/N knew that Max would immediately understand what she was trying to say.

The girl couldn't help but fear that the Dutchman would let all the scrutiny behind yet another championship win bring him down.

Max had a whole facade around him. Max appeared to be confident, poised, collected, unfazed by all adversity, and sometimes even self-centred and arrogant because of his posture on the track. 

But deep down, Max was nothing but a fragile little boy, still trying to seek his father's approval.

Max was obsessed with perfection. Everything he had to do had to be absolutely spot on: every corner had to be perfectly executed, his car had to be at its best at all times, any position other than the first one was simply not good enough.

Knowing him better than anyone, Y/N knew how to handle him beautifully and knew that in the back of Max's mind, the fact that this was yet another victory tainted by controversy was tormenting him, even if he tried to hide it.

I've been under scrutiny

You handle it beautifully

All this shit is new to me

Both of them could only imagine all the headlines, the comments, the criticism. All because of a loophole that was never under the driver's control.

"Don't worry about me." Max answered the unspoken question the girl posed. "I don't give a damn what people say."

The harsh words that came out of his mouth seemed to be an attempt to convince himself more than her. They both knew that.

It had been almost a year since the boy had been named champion for the first time and yet to that day he still suffered attacks due to something that (once again) was not in his power to change.

Y/N didn't push, knowing the argument was going nowhere, and instead chose to joke with her boyfriend to lighten the mood. "Well, I don't know if you know this... but you look so much hotter as a two-time world champion."

Happiness filled Max's chest as he chuckled, turning their position so that his body was on top of hers. His lips roamed over her neck, leaving soft kisses and nibbles along the way, until he strayed away to deposit an intense and passionate kiss on her mouth.

His head lifted slightly, creating enough distance between them for him to speak, though their lips were still touching. "What if I showed again how it feels like to fuck a two-time world champion, hmm?"

I feel a lavender haze creeping up on me

So real, I'm damned if I do give a damn what people say

No deal, the 1950s shit they want for me

I just wanna stay in that lavender haze

Two weeks passed until the next race, the couple trapped in their lavender haze.

The Texas sun cut through the clouds in the sky and reflected warmly on the girl's skin as she entered the circuit, side by side with Carola.

Both friends over the last few years since they met in the Red Bull garage through their partners, the young women understood each other perfectly: both were reserved, with no great desire for attention on them, just there to support their lovers.

As always, a peaceful and relaxed conversation was taking place between the two, as they strolled around the paddock with smiles on their faces. 

Carola told Y/N all about the latest incident at the Perez house, with the small sibling clashes between Checo Jr. and Carlota, and the other girl just laughed. She knew how happy those children made her friend and she couldn't wish anything else for Carola.

Suddenly the mood around them seemed to change. 

The environment that before was serene, relaxed, and enthusiastic now gave off a heavy, tense, nervous energy.

Y/N started looking into the faces of the people they passed for answers, aware that they were looking at her. What the fuck is going on, she thought to herself.

Carola sensed the discomfort on her friend, placing a concerned hand on the girl's shoulder. "Y/N, are you okay?"

"Well, I'd like to know the answer to that question too," Y/N confessed without too much thought. "I don't know, honestly. I have a feeling something is wrong."

"Maybe it's nothing," The Mexican tried to calm her down, running her hand up and down along her friend's forearm, although she was aware of the gazes in their direction too. "We're almost at the garage and we'll clear everything up."

Walking through the navy blue walls, the tension only intensified in the air. 

The faces of the team members showed worry and nervousness, and the PR team rushing back and forth relentlessly was a sign that something had gone wrong during the drivers' media duties following their practice session.

Knowing Max like the back of her hand... Y/N knew it was him.

All they keep asking me

Is if I'm gonna be your bride

The only kind of girl they see

Is a one-night or a wife

"Hey, where's Max?" Y/N asked her father-in-law, Jos, who wore an angry look on his face. Although their relationship was distant, she knew that if anyone was aware of everything that was going on in her boyfriend's career, it was his father.

"Would also like to know." The man replied dryly, running a hand impatiently through his hair. "He just walked out of here like a fucking coward, and left the others here to sort out his shit."

Y/N swallowed hard, knowing it wasn't worth wasting time trying to defend Max as all the words she would say would go in one ear and out the other. "What happened?"

"That shitty reporter, that's what happened." The older Verstappen replied, raising his tone. "That bastard had the nerve to say on live TV that Max didn't deserve any of his titles, and he panicked like a pussy. I didn't raise him like that - I raised him to be a man, not a little boy."

Without a second thought, Y/N turned her back on the man and grabbed her phone, trying to call her partner, only for her call to go to voicemail.

Unconsciously, the girl opened her Instagram and immediately came across the reporter's now-viral video.

"He doesn't seem to be capable of winning a championship without some sort of scandal. First, Hamilton was obviously ripped off in Abu Dhabi; now, they award full points in a race that wasn't even half finished because of some apparent 'loophole'?! Favouritism at its best."

All of a sudden, the air seemed to have difficulty getting into the girl's lungs, the temperature seemed to have risen dramatically, and Y/N started to feel dizzy as the media started to bring up Max's history.

Max, where are you, she asked herself, begging for a sign of his presence.

I find it dizzying

They're bringing up my history

But you aren't even listening

Y/N looked everywhere: in the garage, in his driver's room, in all the different rooms in the motorhome, in the back of the building, in the cafeteria, everywhere. 

She was starting to run out of options, but she knew he had to be around somewhere since his exit from the circuit would not be discreet at all, quite the contrary.

If I were Max where would I hide from the world, she reflected, desperate to be reunited with her boyfriend. Of course! In the place where everyone least expected to find him.

With a hurried step and depositing complete confidence in this last and risky idea, Y/N set off on her way until she came face to face with the red walls, embellished with the Prancing Horse symbol.

Deviating towards the back of the Ferrari building, Y/N felt her heart return to its normal rhythm when she set her eyes on the image of his lover.

There he was, sitting on the grass, with his vision pointed to the sky, so small and so fragile that no one else would be able to see him hiding there.

The girl slowly approached the driver, almost afraid to startle him, until he eventually noticed her presence when she was only a few inches away from him. His shoulders visibly relaxed at the sight of his girlfriend, and a small, forced smile appeared on his face.

"Of course you found me," Max whispered, placing his hand on the girl's thigh, who was now sitting on the grass next to him. "I guess you already know what happened."

Y/N laid her head on his shoulder, hugging his strong arm. "Yeah, I saw it... I'm sorry Max, you don't deserve this."

I feel a lavender haze creeping up on me

So real, I'm damned if I do give a damn what people say

No deal, the 1950s shit they want for me

I just wanna stay in that lavender haze

That lavender haze

"I don't really care," Max spoke, shaking his head. "Let them say what they want. It doesn't matter to me."

"Baby…" The young woman knew that he was doing what he always did: bottling it up inside, hiding his feelings, just like he was taught to do his whole life.

"Liefje, don't worry. I'm fine, I promise."

"Max, stop doing this." Y/N touched his face, forcing him to look at her with his noticeably teary eyes.

"Y/N-"

"Max, please." The girl begged. "You don't have to pretend to be strong with me. You can be honest; you can scream, cry, freak out, you name it, and I'll always be here to listen."

The Dutchman took a deep breath in acceptance, leaning his head back against the red wall. "I'm just tired, you know? I try and try to do my best at all times and it's never enough. Not for the media, not for my dad, or-"

"For me, it's more than enough." The girlfriend interrupted. "And it should be enough for you too. You shouldn't care what others say… Especially your father." She teased, forcing a laugh out of Max's mouth.

The boy contemplated her words for a few seconds, placing a kiss on her temple. "I love you, you're the best."

"I know," She replied, bumping his shoulder playfully. "But I'm serious, Max. No one should have enough power over you that they can make you feel inferior, or less than you are. You are Max fucking Verstappen, two-time Formula 1 world champion. And so much more to come, I don't doubt it for a second."

Talk your talk and go viral

I just need this love spiral

Get it off your chest

Get it off my desk

Talk your talk and go viral

I just need this love spiral

Get it off your chest

Get it off my desk

The girl jumped to her feet, waking the driver from his own thoughts, and reached out to him with both her hands to help him get up on his feet too. "Come on, champ! Enough sulking here and let's face the world with our heads held high, shall we?"

Much calmer after getting it off his chest, Max looked at her with eyes shining with pride and, accepting her help, he got up. Instantly, his arms found their place around her waist, as did his lips on hers.

The couple shared a calm kiss, enjoying their moment of peace in the midst of such a chaotic situation.

"Thanks, schatje." Max said, returning his mouth to hers seconds later. "I can never thank you enough for everything you've done and do for me every day."

"I would do anything for you, baby." Y/N smiled wide, the dimples in her cheeks becoming noticeable. "Anything."

I feel a lavender haze creeping up on me

So real, I'm damned if I do give a damn what people say

No deal, the 1950s shit they want for me

I just wanna stay in that lavender haze

On their way to the Red Bull garage, the two reappeared in the paddock, hand in hand, eyes only on each other.

With them, dozens of photographers and journalists emerged from the shadows, hunting the Dutchman for his comments and trying to get controversial headlines for their next articles.

But from Max, they only managed to take away the magical smile he had stamped on his face while talking to his girlfriend.

It was almost as if nothing had happened to him, such was the confident and determined posture the driver now assumed.

There was nothing like a good dose of love to make someone feel on top of the world, and Max was living proof of that in front of all those prying eyes.

Get it off your chest

Get it off my desk

That lavender haze

I just wanna stay

The world could crumble around them and they would still manage to stay on their feet.

They were a team. They had the perfect balance between them, the strength to face any obstacle together. Like two separate souls born to be reunited, in this life and all lives to come. Born to be on their lavender haze forever.

"Just you and me, liefje." Max whispered so only she could hear over the screams and camera flashes.

Y/N pulled him by the arm closer to her body in search of the comfort he conveyed to her every time, and smiled discreetly at him.

"You and me against the world, my love."

I just wanna stay

In that lavender haze

taglist: @dan3avocado @starxqt @roseinnej @spiidergirlsworld @ccloaned @hotpigeon22 @dr3lover @lovelytsunoda @primadonnasdream @luxebeautystyle @wallfloweriism @ilivefortheleague @gwynethhberdara @satellitelh @adavenus @audreyscodes @wifeoflucyboynton @th6ccnsp6cyy @classifiedsblog @flyingmushroomss @motylekrozi @claramllera @gabrielamaex @handsupforamiracle @pierre-gasssllyy @lorenaloveslewis

@idkiwantchocolatee @simpforsunwoo @kissatelier @xweirdxsceletton @micksmidnights @miniminescapist @inchidentwithmax @hopelesslyromantics-world @alwaysclassyeagle @indieclarke @capela-miranda @okokoksblog-blog @pulpfixion @sins-only33 @sainzclerc @allisonxf1 @honethatty12

@amsofftrack @flannel-cures @junkiespromise @loudoperahumanoidpanda @honeyric3 @holy-macncheese-balls @ricciardosheart @pierreverstapkin @ravenqueen27 @majkaftorek @home-of-disaster @buendiabebeta @itgirlofnowhere @roses-of-eden @thewintersunset @rubychocolatechips

(taglist continues in the comments)

thank you to everyone that asked to be tagged! please let me know if you want to be added to the next stories! 💌

[rainydaysandhappydays]

Basic creepypasta headcannons

(A/N: I am still new to the cp sphere. So feel free to drop by and tell me some things I don't know. I'll be happy to see what the community thinks!)

(2nd A/N: I know I'm spelling Maskey's name "wrong" but I've spelt it that way for years when I first heard about CPs when I was a kid. I'm not changing it now. So from now on Maskey has an e in his name.)

Basic Appearance

SlenderMan is 14'9" (~454 cm) and looks to be what can equate a real life stick figure. Just pull a normal stick figure out like taffy and you'll get Slender. He does actually have a mouth but he always has it hidden. For the simple fact that it's 1 terrifying as FUCK. And 2 because it actually kinda hurts a little having it open. As he has to tear open his face skin to open his mouth at all. And even worse is that his mouth is the size of, like, half his head. He could easily chomp a small child in half with how large his mouth is.

Laughing Jack is 9'6" (~292 cm) and is lanky af, but not nearly as much so as Slender. His arms are ridiculously long. And his nails are several inches long as well. (Think Edward Scissor Finger type hands) So if he stood completely upright with his arms by his sides, he would be nearly touching the floor with his nails. That's how long he is. (Don't worry tho. He can easily cut them to be a far more manageable length. They just grow ridiculously quickly so he will have to keep an eye on that if he ever gets into any sort of relationship where he's not harming the other.)

Eyeless Jack is 7'5" (228 cm) and is Large. Like buff, wide, and thiccc. Boi looks like he could body a car and win. Though he hides most of it under his baggy af clothes and his surprisingly bad posture.

Brian/Hoodie is 6'3". (192 cm) Compared to Tim he is on the thinner side, but still has plenty of muscles. He may seem a bit lanky at first but don't let his baggy hoodie fool you. He can still deck the halls better than any Christmas song. If you ever manage to see him without his iconic hoodie on, be prepared to see his fantastically sculpted arms. They aren't super thick or beefy, but they are dense and hard. With a few veins along them.

Tim/Maskey is 6'0", (182 cm) DILF. Straight out. Has a small belly, but it looks tasteful on his bodytype. He looks like he could pick up damn near anyone for one of the best hugs ever. Too bad he's too much of an ass to use that blessing often.

Puppeteer is also 6'0". (182 cm) He honestly looks similar to those nerds in movies. Not the ones with brick thick glasses, but the ones that look frail and thin with an odd hunch in thier backs. Yeah, he's like that. Though in what can be considered a compromise for his weak looking built, he is ridiculously flexible. He doesn't use the ability all that often, be he could rival some contortions out there.

Toby is 5'11" (181 cm) and almost looks smaller than he is. If you saw him at a distance you would probably think he was just a regular kid running about. But as soon as you see him up close he looks like a full grown German Shepard. Big, tough, and ready to snap someone in half if deemed necessary. He acts like one too, with his constant need for attention, affection, and touch. He really is a hell of a puppy.

Helen/Bloody Painter is 5'10". (180 cm) The only reason why he's so tall is because his body just wouldn't stop growing when he was a teen. The rest of him is thin and gangly. He looks to be slightly malnourished and has intense bags under his eyes. Looks damn near ready to die at any moment in time. Especially since he is naturally very stoic. (Don't let that fool you into thinking he doesn't have the emotions he just shows them in extremely subtle ways that you have to learn to understand at all.)

Jeff is 5'9" (179 cm) with the body of a swimmer. Which is odd because he doesn't swim all that often. But he does run a hell of a lot and swing his knife around even more. So he has long and hard muscles coating his entire body. He is constantly bragging that he looks better and more durable than some of the other creeps.

Basic world

The proxies can only read the minds of people that also have the mark of SlenderMan on them. Maskey's mark is on the back of the neck near the base of his skull. Hoodie's mark is on his sternum near his diaphragm. The solar plexus area. Toby's is on his spine on his lower back. Kate's is in the space between her collar bones. The mark is mostly small enough that it's not immediately noticeable, but it is still very much there and can never be hidden or removed. Like with makeup or tattoo removal surgery or anything like that. The marks are permanent. Even after death.

When Hoodie fell out of the window, he didn't actually die. He got so close that he could feel his heart beat it's last few beats before he came back. Not fully as an undead but more of someone that didn't die when they were supposed to. Sort of like those stories of people being recursitated after an extremely traumatic experience. However that gave him extreme trauma over death and the feeling of dying. He will do whatever it takes to never feel that experience again. He has night terrors about it sometimes and the only one that is ever able to calm him down after one is Maskey/Tim.

The story I'm using for EJ is that he was pulled into the cult when he was in collage and unfortunately was thought to be "the chosen one" bc he was really good at p much everything he tried. So all of his friends he made betrayed him and tied him down to an alter. Proceeded to scoop out his eyes with a burning rod, and then tear his torso open to eat his organs. And that's why his eyes now after his transformation are always leaking a hot viscous black fluid. It's the forever remains of his original eyes. Also why he can only eat human organs and nothing else. Another harsh reminder of what he went through. He was only 23 at the time.

[cometcrystal]

monster high (2022) review

SPOILERS AHEAD OBVIOUSLY. SCROLL PAST IF U DONT WANT EM.

and don’t ask me for the movie either, i’m not gonna share it cause i made a promise to the person on reddit i got it from

i probably won’t bring up the lightwashing in the review proper much since other people have said it better than i could. but here’s my mention of it: clawdeen and cleo are both lightwashed and whitewashed, respectively. and we know it’s not like they’re not capable of hiring actors with the proper skin tones/races because bloodgood is a dark skinned black woman (and she was great tbh). so it’s just really disappointing and i will not be supporting the movie financially when it comes out because of it.

okay first off i wanna talk about the characters themselves. there’s a lot of weird things they did that aren’t Bad changes but they’re just bizarre and idk where they came from. like some people said it was like they were mixing and matching character traits and that feels pretty spot-on.

clawdeen - half human half werewolf as we already know but i’m more concerned about her personality. this clawdeen is more...generic? generic nice girl? she’s not a pushover but she also isn’t nearly as headstrong as og clawdeen. and the only hobby we see her do is skateboarding.

frankie - this frankie RULES. they are constantly bringing up which famous person their body parts belonged to and saying random weird facts. theyre a huge socially awkward weirdo. they still have the patented frankie stein friendly to a fault optimism. they probably are the most similar to their original version and are 100% the main reason to watch this film.

draculaura - she’s very dry and crabby?? not bubbly at all. and she does witchcraft which i will talk about more later. unclear if she’s still vegetarian or not: she threatens to suck the blood of frankie and clawdeen if they dont stay out of her side of their dorm room

deuce - you can see his eyes. his shades look like they’d be useless. also apparently used to be a big troublemaker and is trying to turn over a new leaf. still very chill and nice. has a bit of human hair in addition to his snakes. gorgons are apparently feared in the monster world and he’s insecure about that

cleo - she is not a character in this movie she is just a Mean Girl prop. exists to look pathetic trying to get deuce back and to be mean to the main 3 ghouls. the biggest disappointment to me, both for personal reasons (i love her) and for subjective reasons. it’s like they took every ounce of depth that every preceeding mh media gave her (her love for her friends, her trauma, her reasons for doing things, the fact that she’s not a cruel person) and put a cookie cutter in her place.

lagoona - she isn’t Blue anymore i guess but that doesn’t bug me. she only has a couple lines. other than that she just stands next to cleo. personally i think her outfits are very good but i wish they had found an indigenous australian actress to play her

abbey - i think she has like 2 lines and then she screams at something. doesn’t appear to have the same personality as og abbey, but it’s hard to tell. she seems more preppy and more influencer-type. also doesn’t have her accent and speaks fluent english

ghoulia - she speaks fluent english as well. huge L for autistics. she’s kind of the Quirky weird one who tries to scare the new students so i like that direction for her but my god i wish they had her still speak zombie.

heath - he doesn’t get to do a whole lot but he’s probably the 2nd closest to his og character. i liked him alright he was fine. comic relief guy character. nothing much more to say

now let’s talk about The Good

like i said, frankie is great. they stole every single second of their screentime. theyre an angel and i love them. had the only genuinely funny lines in the movie

bloodgood was mostly good. but we always stan bloodgood.

some of the outfits were KILLER. i will definitely be giffing a few.

a couple of the songs are boring but true monster heart and the three of us both BANG and they will be going in my playlist as soon as theyre released. if nothing else the people they hired to act in this movie can SING

speaking of the songs i loooove the lyric “i see the monsters, they look like family” especially coming from frankie. i love u.

the friendship between the main 3 ghouls is really sweet and feels organic

they/them frankie real

MONSTER HIGH THE SCHOOL IS ALIVE!!!! DO YOU KNOW HOW SICK THAT IS!!!!! I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i liked clawdeen’s dad apollo a lot he was sweet

draculaura talks to her dad thru a moving painting. im scraping the bottom of the barrel but i thought that was cool.

i LOVE getting a new universe/canon to play around with. we’re up to 4 now, possibly 5 with the new animated series, and i couldn’t be happier.

this isn’t related to the plot itself but watching the unfinished vfx version adds a layer of joy to the experience. maybe once the movie’s out it’ll be widely available for people to watch. seeing a terrible animation of png clipart spiders crawl on abbey’s cup of coffee is so so so special to me.

ok now The Bad. i’m gonna do a read more here because this is already long and the most spoilers will be in this section.

clawdeen’s supposed to be hiding the fact that she’s half monster from humans but her house has a family portrait with her and her mom’s wild ears completely out just. on the mantle in full view

i’m so confused on the status of witchcraft in this mh canon. some characters call it a filthy human hobby. then draculaura says that vampires and witches have been at war for centuries. and then later, lala is still able to use witch magic even after her vampire monster powers are taken away from her. she says witch magic is different from monster magic. but if witchcraft is a human thing, why are humans scared of monsters? what is the truth.

mr komos is the villain, surprise surprise. but just wait til you hear this: he’s hyde’s SON and is trying to get revenge on monster high for not accepting jekyll/hyde. he drinks a Monster Potion that jekyll/hyde made and turns into a big muscle version of himself with giant horns. what really gets me is that HE is the one who led the students in a song about how humans suck and thus contributed to the prejudice against human/monster hybrids. this guy is a complete dumbass. also there is no mention of jackson/holt BTW and i dont really miss them but its just a weird choice to make

for the whole movie, the school is like. reacting badly. and everyone’s like it’s because there’s someone without a True Monster Heart in the walls of monster high. and clawdeen thinks it’s her but it’s komos ofc. and hes 100% a dumbass but he had the motivation of hating the fact that mixed human/monsters weren’t allowed to attend and were hated by humans as well???? god this plot sucks.

i wasn’t expecting anything different but all the prejudice is solved by the end of the movie, both against human/monster people and against witchcraft. i just mention it because every kid’s movie does this and it never stops being funny. racism RESIGNED!

NOT A MODICUM OF CLEUCE TO BE SEEN. cleo and deuce interact twice. the first time, she tries to make him want her back by saying she’s moved on, and he calls her self-absorbed. the second time is just her telling him to get help because komos hulked out (and he ignored her 6 calls before that one). deuce gets his powers stolen by komos and TURNED TO STONE and cleo is just standing 5 feet from him watching like :///. honestly what an absolute disservice to both their characters. the reason i love both of them so much is because they’re both constantly defying what viewers expect from a popular girl/popular guy couple and this is just back to square 1. this is worse than square 1 actually.

yes, deuce/clawdeen is a thing here. i didn’t want it to be true because i thought surely NOBODY IS STUPID ENOUGH TO DO THIS but here we are. she’s the one at deuce’s side during the aforementioned stoning and he says “at least i got to stare into your eyes.” before he is Stoned. he unstones later dont worry but this scene sucked. but other than a song together + the eyes comment it doesn’t amount to much. they talk about insecurities together ig.

i mentioned this earlier but it truly feels like the writer’s room for this movie was given only pictures of the characters to work off of. nothing else. at least the lisi harrison appears to have been given character blurbs for her books. there’s so many bizarre choices in this film that it would literally make total sense if the writers had never actually watched monster high a day in their lives. they just got lucky with frankie and heath.

like i said before, ghoulia talks, and all of the characters lose the accents they had before. the only one with an accent that isn’t Generic American is lagoona. and for some of the charas it’s not the biggest deal in the world but for charas like ghoulia it takes away some important representation.

they/them frankie is CANON which is a GOOD THING!! but i’m mentioning it here again because i can’t think of a single instance where they refer to them as anything but “frankie”. it might just be my memory so correct me if i’m wrong but i don’t think it happens. the only time their pronouns are used is when they’re introducing themselves. and its like. what’s the point if youre not gonna use the pronouns lmao

bloodgood being a part of excommunicating hyde. it’s only a picture in a slideshow but it still sucks. it’s the only part of her character in this movie i don’t like.

anyway. i give it a 4/10. might skim thru it once the official release is out so i can see what the final effects look like. but if you end up watching this, do so illegally and do it for frankie

[liriostigre]

hey! I wanted to ask what your favorite poetry books are? I have a few but I want to read new and interesting stuff, and I trust your taste :D

hiii ♡

tbh i only started reading poetry collections like,, last year. i'm subscribed to poetryfoundation's newsletter (poem of the day) so i usually just read random poems

anyway, i'm not sure my recs could be considered new (cause i'm gonna start with Mary Oliver ♡) but feel free to message me if you want to know the themes, style, feeling (vibes, if you will) or anything you want to know about these collections. for now, i'm linking my favorite poems in each collection, i hope this helps you choose! ♡

here you go:

Dream Work —Mary Oliver (“Wild Geese.” “Dogfish.”)

Red Bird —Mary Oliver (“Summer Morning.” “Love Sorrow.”)

Blue Horses —Mary Oliver (“To Be Human Is to Sing Your Own Song.” “Loneliness.” “Little Crazy Love Song.”)

The Wild Iris —Louise Glück (“Sunset.” “Retreating Light.”)

Haruko/Love Poems —June Jordan (“On a New Year’s Eve.” “Mendocino Memory.” “Toward a City That Sings.” *under the cut)

Extracting the Stone of Madness —Alejandra Pizarnik (“Primitive Eyes.” “Summer Goodbyes.” *under the cut)

Ariel —Sylvia Plath (“Tulips.” “The Rival.”)

Prelude to Bruise —Saeed Jones (“Postapocalyptic Heartbeat.” *under the cut)

Absolute Trust in the Goodness of the Earth —Alice Walker (“Coming Back from Seeing Your People.” *under the cut)

I Must Be Living Twice —Eileen Myles (“Edward the Confessor.” *under the cut)

Teaching My Mother How To Give Birth —Warsan Shire (“Conversations About Home (at the Deportation Centre.”)

The Black Unicorn —Audre Lorde (“Hanging Fire.” “Sister Outsider.”)

Bright Dead Things —Ada Limón (“The Riveter.” “Glow.”)

Night Sky With Exit Wounds —Ocean Vuong (“Thanksgiving 2006.” “Logophobia.”)

Postcolonial Love Poem —Natalie Diaz (“Manhattan Is a Lenape Word.”)

Crush —Richard Siken (“Litany in Which Certain Things Are Crossed Out.”)

Once —Alice Walker (“So We've Come at Last to Freud.”)

“Toward a City That Sings” by June Jordan

Into the topaz the crystalline signals of Manhattan the nightplane lowers my body scintillate with longing to lie positive beside the electric waters of your flesh and I will never tell you the meaning of this poem: Just say, ‘She wrote it and I recognize the reference.’ Please let it go at that. Although it is all the willingness you lend the world as when you picked it up the garbage scattering the cool formalities of Madison Avenue after midnight (where we walked for miles as though we knew the woods well enough to ignore the darkness) although it is all the willingness you lend the world that makes me want to clean up everything in sight (myself included)

for your possible discovery

“Primitive Eyes” by Alejandra Pizarnik

Where fear neither speaks in stories or poems, nor gives shape to terrors or triumphs.

My name, my pronoun — a grey void.

I’m familiar with the full range of fear. I know what it’s like to start singing and to set off slowly through the narrow mountain pass that leads back to the stranger in me, to my own emigrant.

I write to ward off fear and the clawing wind that lodges in my throat.

And in the morning, when you are afraid of finding yourself dead (of there being no more images): the silence of compression, the silence of existence itself. This is how the years fly by. This is how we lost that beautiful animal happiness.

“Summer Goodbyes” by Alejandra Pizarnik

The soft rumor of spreading weeds. The sound of things ruined by the wind. They come to me as if I were the heart of all that exists. I would like to be dead, and also to go inside another heart.

“Postapocalyptic Heartbeat” by Saeed Jones

I. Drugged, I dreamed you a plume of ash, great rush of wrecked air through the towns of my stupor. And when the ocean in your blood went toxic, I thought fire was what we needed: serrated light through the skin, grenade in the chest—pulled linchpin. I saw us breathing on the other side of after. But a blackout is not night; orange-bottled dreams are not sleep. II. I was a cross-legged boy in the third lifetime, empire of blocks in my lap while you walked through the door of your silence, hunting knife in one hand, flask in the other. I waited for you until I forgot to breathe, my want turning me colors only tongues of amaryllis could answer for. It owned me, that hunger, tendriled its way into my name for you. III. In a city made of rain each door, a silence; each lock, a mouth, I walked daily through the spit-slick streets, harbingers on my hands in henna: there will be no after Black-and-blue-garbed strangers, they called me Cassandra. (I had such a body then.) Umbrellas in hand, they listened while they unlistened. there will be no no. after

the world will end no.

you are the reason it no. ends

you no. IV. I didn’t exactly mean to survive myself. Half this life I’ve spent falling out of fourth-story windows. Pigeons for hair, wind for feet. Sometimes I sing “Stormy Weather” on the way down. Today, “Strange Fruit.” Each time, strangers find me drawing my own chalk outline on the sidewalk, cursing with a mouth full of iron, furious at my pulse. V. After ruin, after shards of glass like misplaced stars, after dredge, after the black bite of frost:        you are the after, you are the first hour in a life without clocks; the name of whatever falls from the clouds now is you (it is not rain), a song in a dead language, an unlit earth, a coast broken— how was I to know every word was your name?

“Coming Back from Seeing Your People” by Alice Walker

Coming back From seeing your people You were So wonderfully Full Of yourself.

But now You have supped With vampires They have fed Feasted On you.

They arise Bright-eyed Fit.

You alone have lost Not only Your sleep But also Your glow The luster of Affection Heart welcome Your people Sent home With you.

Beloved You must learn To walk alone To hold The precious Silence To bring home And keep the precious Little That is left Of yourself.

“Edward the Confessor” by Eileen Myles

I have a confession to make I wish there were some role in society I could fulfill I could be a confessor I have a confession to make I have this way when I step into the bakery on 2nd Ave. of wanting to be the only really nice person in the store so the harried sales woman with several toned hair will like me. I do this in all kinds of stores, coffee shops xerox shops, everywhere I go. And invariably I leave my keys, xeroxing, my coffee from the last place I am being so nice. I try so hard to make a great impression on these neutral strangers right down to the perfect warm smile I get entirely lost and stagger back out onto the street, bereft of something major. It’s really leaning too hard on the everyday. My mother was the kind of woman who dragging us into stores always seemed to charm the pants off the cashier. She was such a great person, so human though at home she was such a bitch, I mean really distant. I imitate her and I don’t do it well. She didn’t leave her wallet or us in a store. I’m just a pale imitation it is simply not my style to open the hearts of strangers to my true personhood. I hope you accept this tiny confession of what I am currently going through. And if you are experiencing something of a similar nature tell someone, not me, but tell someone. It’s the new human program to be in. It would be nice for at least these final moments if we could sigh with the relief of being in the same program with all the other humans whispering in school. I can’t quite locate the terror, but I am trying to be my mother or Edward the Confessor smiling down on you with up-praying hands. I am looking down at the tips of my boots as I step across the balcony of the church excited to be allowed to say these things. Outside my church is a relationship. On 11th street this guy and this woman are selling the woman so they can get more dope. All their things are there, rags and loaves of bread and make-up. And there was— this was incredible. Two men lying by the door of the church giving each other blow-jobs. They were sort of street guys, one black one white. I said hey you can’t do that here. They jumped up, one spit come out of his mouth. If you don’t get out of here I’ll call the cops. Don’t call the cops we’ll go, we’ll leave. That was a shock. That was more than I expected to see in a day. Something about seeing the guy spit come out of his mouth. He didn’t have to do that. I guess I scared him. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I was scared too.

[alltooreid]

I Think He Knows

Y/N has a huge crush on Spencer Reid, so huge she embarrasses herself every time she tries to talk to him. She is convinced he is aware to all her pathetic attempts at flirting and just chooses to ignore it, but turns out Spencer may be a little more clueless than she thought.

A/N: Hope yall enjoy this cute fluffy fic! I’ve been having a rough couple of days so writing a fun fluff like this was really comforting :) yes it is inspired by the t swift song, but you don’t need to know the song to read and enjoy! also my requests are open so let me know what you want to see! (also sorry if this is kind of short, but i’ve been super busy and wanted to put something out :)))

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Reader

Type: a cute pining fluff fic

Word Count: 2.3K

Content Warnings: mentions of alcohol, otherwise none.

“He got that boyish look that I like in a man I am an architect, I'm drawing up the plans It's like I'm seventeen, nobody understands No one understands”

“He has to know Penelope, I’m not exactly subtle.”

You and Penelope spent the majority of your lunch breaks in her office, discussing anything and everything. Recently however, the point of contention had been a certain young genius. One who you had a huge crush on.

“Spencer Reid may be a genius, and one of the best profilers I have ever seen but he most certainly does not know,” she said, as she drizzled more dressing on her salad.

“He has to, it feels like everyone knows. . . Do you think everyone knows?”

She shrugged, “They might, I know my Chocolate Thunder hasn’t picked up on it yet.”

“You haven’t told him? It’s already been a week since I’ve told you! How did you keep it a secret for so long?”

“You asked me very nicely not to tell anyone! Plus this one seems really important to you. I don’t want to go around telling people and for Reid to hear it in office gossip.”

You smiled, “Well you Penelope Garcia are the best, best friend ever.”

“You know it, now I know you desperately want to repay me for my services, and you can by giving me those exact ranch packets you have in your bag,” she said.

“They’re all yours, now let’s discuss something other than my pathetic schoolgirl crush. Like how stupid Kevin’s sweater was today.”

“Kevin? The other internal affairs technical analyst? Yeah what the heck was he wearing?”

“You know, I’m tired of having to carry the weight of the brains, looks and fashion sense out of the two of us,” you said. “Though, that is a good way to gather attention . . . I wonder if Spencer would actually hold a conversation with me if I wore something as ugly as that.”

She laughed, “You know I think that might send you backwards.”

You stabbed your lettuce, “At this point I’ll try anything.”

Before Penelope could respond, someone interrupted your lunch, your only other friend on the BAU team, Emily Prentiss.

“Oh hi Y/N! How are you!”

“I’m good Emily, what kind of gross things are you here to deliver today?” you and Emily joined the FBI at around the same time, and found comfort in the fact that you were both total try-hards. Emily was going to eat lunch with you and your fast friend Penelope, at least on days when she was in the office for lunch, but you and her both agreed that she should eat lunch with the team so that they can get used to having her around.

“Just some paperwork, no cases yet, knock on wood. Also I just wanted to say hello! What are you guys eating?” she asked, pulling up a chair.

“Some salads from that takeout veggie place PG is always talking about. I told you I was going vegetarian right?” “You did not! That’s great Y/N! We need to talk more, like we used to when we first started here,” she sighed, then perked up, “We should have girls night! Remember how fun it was that night at the bar? With Brad the real FBI agent?”

“Yes! We should! You know, Gideon’s replacement comes tomorrow, we should celebrate!” Garcia said.

“You know, I don’t know if the best way to celebrate a new agent is by drinking without them, but I’m down. We’ll toast our girls night to agent Rossi. Someone ask JJ if she’s busy.”

JJ was not busy, but when you and Emily asked, Morgan overheard.

“So am I not invited to the party?”

“Well it was supposed to be girls night . . . but I think PG would throw a fit if I turned down her 2nd favorite person in this building, so I guess you can come,” you teased. “You should come too Spencer!”

“I don’t know, that’s not really my thing . . “

“Oh come on! I know I would love to see you there,” you then realized that you were embarrassing yourself being so forward. “And I’m sure everyone else would too!”

“Alright, I’ll come, but I’m not drinking.” he said firmly. 

Before you could respond, Penelope magically appeared. “Good, you can be completely sober when Y/N gets wasted and embarrasses herself,” she said.

“PENELOPE! I’m not the light weight here! you’ll see Spencer, she’s actually awful. Two shots in and she’ll be on the floor,” this was apparently the wrong thing to say, because Spencer grimaced. “But it’ll be so much fun! You have to be there! You already said yes!”

“I just don’t know if seeing all of my coworkers get drunk while I watch is my idea of a fun evening. . .”

“Trust me! I’ll even stay sober with you, so we can judge them together. It’ll be a blast.”

“Ok, I’ll be there . . . but for now I need more coffee,” he pulled his chair out and walked towards the office kitchen. You silently cheered, forgetting how people were still standing around you.

“Well,” you awkwardly laughed, “um, I guess I better be getting back to my neck of the woods. I’m not a hot shot profiler like the rest of you guys . . . so see you all later!” You tried to escape before anyone interrogated you about your conversation with Spencer. However, a certain profiler followed quickly behind you. 

“So. . . you and pretty boy huh?”

“Shut it Morgan.”

{⋅. ♪ .⋅}

You stayed true to your word that night, Spencer stuck to water and you enjoyed a diet soda. The bartender, who you had grown fairly used to seeing on your many nights out, was shocked to hear you didn’t want any alcohol in it. 

It’s probably a good thing that you didn’t drink, you already embarrassed yourself enough in front of Spencer fully sober.

“So Spencer, you know that new bookstore you said you were going to go to after work a couple weeks ago?”

“New bookstore . . .? Oh yeah! What about it?”

“Well after I heard you talking about it I decided to check it out . . . It’s really nice there! I go like every other night now! We should totally go together sometime.” Luckily, you were sober enough to keep a secret: the fact you were only going so much in the hopes of running into him.

“Oh really? If I’m being honest I wasn’t super impressed with their selection, it was mostly contemporary fiction. And all in English . . . Not really my thing,” when he saw the way your face dropped he quickly changed his tone, “but it’s great if that’s your thing!”

This. Is. Humiliating. The amount of times you had gone and bought books from the bookstore, you were there almost every night hoping to run into him after work and start a conversation. You felt stupid, of course he wouldn’t want to go on a book store date with you. If Spencer Reid didn’t like you so much that he wouldn’t even go to a bookstore with you, there’s no chance at a relationship.

“Oh haha, yeah you’re right it’s totally lame. . .”

“Didn’t you just say you went there all the time?”

“No! When did I say that? You must be drinking Dr. Reid,” you said, quickly hopping off your bar stool, and running towards Morgan and Garcia, not turning around to see how confused Spencer was, but only being able to imagine him as relieved. Relieved he didn’t have to make conversation with you anymore.

“I’m blowing this PG, he totally hates me.”

Morgan laughed, “Y/N, you’re acting silly, this isn’t high school, we aren’t seventeen, stop dancing around it and just go ask him out.”

“Morgan, he doesn’t want to go to a bookstore with me, no way he’s agreeing to a date.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, calm down, maybe he’s just not in the mood to go?”

“You go ask him then, 20 bucks he says yes.”

“You’re on Y/N/N.”

7 minutes later Morgan returned and without a word pulled a twenty dollar bill out of his wallet and deposited it into your hand. “Sorry, Y/N.”

Penelope then piped up, “I’m telling you Y/N, he just doesn’t know. That boy is clueless.”

You scoffed, “I think he knows Penelope. I’ve made it pretty clear.”

“Have you told him?”

You were thrown off, “Um, no but-”

“Well then you haven’t made it clear enough, have you sugar?”

You almost said something, but you couldn’t really think of a good rebuttal for the argument. So instead, you downed Penelope’s half dranken frozen margarita, and headed back over to Spencer.

“Hey!” he said as you made your way back over, “I was wondering where you went, after you left Derek came over and asked to go to that bookstore with me, isn’t that extraordinary. . .”

“Do you wanna go on a date with me?” you blurted out.

“What?”

You sighed, “I’ve had a crush on you since like, forever, and I keep planning all these ways to ask you subtly but it’s just not working so I’m asking now. Do you want to go on a date with me?”

“You like me? I didn’t know that . . .”

“You’re joking.”

“No, I’m not, I thought you were just being nice. You’re nice to everyone and I didn’t want to get my hopes up.”

You smirked, “Get your hopes up? Does that mean you’re obsessed with me too Dr. Reid?”

He laughed in response, “Yeah, you could definitely say that.”

You dug through your purse and pulled out your keys, “Ok, then let’s get out of here.”

He paled, “And do what?”

“We’re going on our first date.”

He smiled, and you both got up off your bar stools and headed out the door, ignoring Morgan’s snide remarks as you passed. 

{⋅. ♪ .⋅}

You couldn’t help but smile as you drove. Every couple of seconds you couldn’t help but look over at Spencer, getting lost in his brownish hazel eyes, which looked indigo in the night. He would smile, the kind of smile people write silly little romance songs about and spend verses to describe, and tell you to pay attention to the road before you run off of it. You would laugh, tell him to calm down. Although originally you had an idea of where you were going, now you just wanted to drive in circles, to bask in this memory. 

“So where are we going?” he asked.

“Think about it Doctor Reid . . .” you replied, teasing him in the way you’ve imagined since you met him. 

You pulled up to that little bookstore on 16th avenue, the one you couldn’t stop going to out of the sheer chance Spencer might be there, the one that was obviously closed this late at night, but was too perfect not to spend your first date at. 

“Although this is beautifully symbolic, it’s almost 2 in the morning, this place closes at 8. We’re 5 hours, 49 minutes and 17 seconds late.”

You smiled and pulled out your ring of keys, “You know, when I spent hours a night hanging around here after work, hoping that you would happen to come shop for books and see me here too, the woman who owns this store got pretty curious. So I told her why I was here, and after she got done laughing at me she offered me a key, so that if I ever had the guts to ask you out, I could take you here no matter what.” You turned the key and swung the door open, gesturing him inside and locking the door behind you, “but we have to keep the lights off, so no one comes by and tries to get in.”

You and Spencer sit in the non-fiction section, and enjoy the silence for a few seconds before you have an idea, “Read me something Reid.”

He reached up, pulling a book off of the shelf without looking, “Are you sure, A Brief History of 1491: Life in America Before Columbus, is first date material?”

“Although that book is anything but brief, anything you read to me will sound stunning coming from your pretty mouth.”

So he begins to read, attempting to slow down to a reasonable pace but still going abnormally fast. You didn’t care though, more than you listened to the history of the late fifteenth century you watched Spencer’s hands. They’re really nice hands.

His right followed the words as he read aloud and his left helped hold the book. He wiggled the fingers on his left hand unconsciously as he spoke, getting into the words of the book. 

After about 25 pages he glanced over at you, and you could almost hear the gears turning in his head. After a second he went back to the page, and continued reading. You didn’t think anything of it until a couple minutes later, when his hand made its way to your left thigh.

He held it and you leaned into him, and you both stayed like that until you fell asleep hours later, with his head resting on top of yours. 

At 8:30 Mrs. Betts, the owner of the bookstore, found you and Spencer, arms around each other, the book thrown aside. She smiled, glad to know you had taken her up on her offer. She went to go wake you up but glanced at her watch. She didn’t have to officially open until 10. 

She could definitely spare a couple of minutes. 

“I want you, bless my soul I ain't gotta tell him I think he knows”

- Thank you for reading! Please reblog and let me know what you think :))

ATR’s tiny taglist: @reidingmelodies​

[tangledstarlight]

...i said i was going to make it and well, here we are i guess. im so sorry for this.

Carlos Molina’s to Guide to Ghost Hood (title subject to change) 

welcome to the 1st edition, maybe i’ll make a 2nd if i get inspired enough but also, this is such a mess already i don’t think the world needs a part 2 dfghg

Link to the power point is in the first reblog. (i’d highly recommend watching it for the full experience dfgh)

Link to ao3 also in the first reblog. 

below the cut is the accompanying fic and description of the rules/guide.

The tape recorder lets out a low buzzing sound as Carlos presses a button on the side and stands it up between them on the dining room table. Julie shoots an amused glance at Reggie who’s taken up residence in the chair next to him, the two of them flipping open notebooks and clutching pencils. 

“Where did you even find a tape recorder?” She wonders, stretching out a finger to touch the silver rectangle only for her hand to be swatted away by Reggie.

“Found it in a box of moms stuff and dad said we could order some tapes from amazon,” Carlos replies matter of factly, straightening up in his chair once he seems to have found the page he was looking for. “Right. Let's start off easy, shall we?” 

He looks at her expectantly and Julie rolls her eyes, waving a hand at the two of them, “Lets.” 

“Question one,” Carlos taps his pencil at the top of his page before squinting at her, “Did you conduct any séance related activities before the ghosts showed up?” 

Julie blinks at him, wondering if he’s joking but the pair of them just look back at her, heads both slightly tilted and it’s at that moment that she realises how serious they’re going to be about this. It was going to be a long afternoon of questioning apparently. 

“No, I didn’t conduct any séance related activities. I just put on their CD and they y’know, fell out of the sky.” 

“Interesting, interesting,” Carlos mutters as he looks at Reggie’s notebook as the older boy writes her answer down, underlines something and taps it with his pencil that makes Carlos let out a small hm. “So you don’t know anything about the dark room? Didn’t make any wishes?” 

“No,” Julie shakes her head, watches Reggie write something else down and tilt his notebook to Carlos. It’s weird, watching them communicate like that, like they’ve created a shorthand between them and don’t even require her presence to have a conversation. Which is obviously true because they’ve clearly discussed all this beforehand. 

“You walked through Luke right? What did that feel like to you?” Reggie’s question catches her off guard and she looks between them, but Carlos is already looking at her, waiting for her answer. 

“It was um cold? But also not. I--” she frowns, trying to think back to that first night in the kitchen when she’d turned around and walked through him. Back when she’s barely known any of them and was more annoyed by their presence then comforted. “It was weird. The first few seconds after I walked through him I just felt cold but then it was like a rush of warmth? You know when you get one of those random shivers that runs through your whole body? It feels all weird and tingly but also kinda nice? Like that.” 

“Did it feel like you got a feel of Luke?” Carlos asks and Julie shrugs, a slight blush on her cheeks and somehow, despite the fact they can’t see each other, the two of them share a look. 

“What’s the next question,” anything to move off the topic of walking through Luke and how it felt. 

//

“Oh Julie is gonna be so pissed at you guys,” Alex mutters but makes no move to step in and stop the ‘experiment’ currently going on. He watches as Reggie tries to put a hand on Carlos’ shoulder, fingers phasing through the younger boy's jacket with a frown. 

“She won't be pissed if it works,” is all Reggie says, face morphing into one of concentration as he slowly lowers his hand on to Carlos’ shoulder again. 

For his part, Carlos bounces slightly on his toes, eyes fixed on the notebook in Alex’s hand in case they need to tell him something. And okay, Alex might not fully agree with the way the two of them are going about this whole thing, but he can’t say he’s not on board with it. Their whole stint as ghosts has been nothing but confusion after confusion that not even Willie has answers for. Does he think Reggie and Carlos are going to uncover some fundamental thing that makes them the way they are? Probably not. Will they maybe get him some kind of answer? God he hopes so. 

Especially since there’s been small moments in the last few weeks where Ray and Carlos have been able to hear them even without them playing music or Julie nearby. Which had scared all of them. Thought it was nothing compared to Ray’s reaction when he’d apparently walked into the kitchen to find Julie and Luke hugging, only for him to vanish when they suddenly let go. It was a hell of a way to find out they could be seen if they were touching her. 

“Oh!” Carlos suddenly exclaims, head whipping to look at his shoulder where Reggie’s hand is resting solidly on the fabric of the jacket. Alex feels his eyes widen a fraction and watches Reggie’s smile widen as he squeezes slightly on Carlos’ shoulder. “Oh my god! I can feel that!” 

“Holy shit,” Alex whispers, grip on the pencil in his fingers growing. 

“Hey! I heard that too! Quick! Write it down! 30 minutes and- and however many attempts it took!” Carlos grins, face turning towards him and Alex doesn’t even have time to feel guilty about swearing before he’s scribbling in Reggie’s notebook.

//

“Thanks again for taking me,” Carlos says as he pulls his seat belt across his chest and clicks it in, eyes drifting from his tia in the front seat to the little notebook resting on the back seat and the pencil that’s hovering just a few inches off the paper. Subtly he sees it tap on the page, once, twice, and he bites down on his grin, tucking his hands under his thighs to stop from bouncing in his seat. They’re ready. 

“Of course mijo,” Victoria smiles over at him as she turns on the engine, fingers already messing with the buttons on the radio to find her favourite station. “I have to say I’m impressed. Planning ahead for your dad's birthday.” 

“Mhm,” he agrees, his eyes on the notebook that he can just see in the rearview mirror. The pencils resting between the creases in the pages and he holds his breath as the radio jumps to a different station. 

Victoria frowns slightly, her eyes darting from the road to the radio and back, hand reaching out to change it back. When it jumps to another station. And another. Carlos feels his eyes widen a little, legs bouncing on top of his hands as he watches the radio cycle through station after station, only lingers for a few seconds on each before moving on. 

Finally it stops, the words of Despacito ringing through the car and it’s lucky they’re at a red light he thinks, because when Victoria tries to change it it jumps right back. 

“What the f-” she starts, the furrow between her brows growing deeper and the knuckles on her hand that’s still gripping the wheel turning white. 

“Can we leave it? I like this song,” he looks over at her with a smile, blinking in what he hopes is a completely innocent way. He’s pretty sure she’s too distracted by the radio to question it. 

“Sure, sure,” she mutters, not even looking at him, eyes going from the road to the radio. 

The song ends and from the corner of his eye he can see the pencil in the back moving, Reggie or Willie writing something down and he has to stop himself from turning around to see what it is. Instead he watches as tia starts changing the radio station again, her fingers never leaving the touch screen as if that was the problem. But the second she lands on her favourite 80’s classics station and is moving her fingers away it changes. Skipping through stations again until Despacito is once again filling the car. 

It’s probably lucky that they’re at another red light and that there’s no one behind them because her eyes widen and she’s suddenly saying words in Spanish that he knows he shouldn’t know and is pulling over to the side of the road. 

“We have to get out! The car is being possessed! Out, out Carlos! Come on!” Her seat belt is off and her door is open before Carlos even has a chance to process what’s happening. The notebook from the back is pushed in front of his face and he tilts his head a little to side to read Reggie’s familiar handwriting, 

Too far? 

“Maybe,” he whispers back, taking the notebook out of the ghost's hand as he starts to get out of the car, plucking the pencil out of the metal spirals and making a note about not pushing tia in a moving vehicle and to wait until after they’ve gone shopping first. 

She’s got her phone pressed to ear when he joins her on the sidewalk, pacing up and down. Carlos is pretty sure there’s going to be a family dinner story time in their near future. 

//

Luke watches as Carlos sets his tape recorder up, idly plucking out a half finished tune on his guitar in order to be seen and heard. He doesn’t really get the other boys interest in figuring out their ghostly state of being. The same way he doesn’t really care about finding answers to all of Alex’s questions. 

They ate some bad street dogs. They died. Julie brought them back and then she saved them a second time. They can play music and sometimes be seen. He already has all the answers he needs and it’s two words: Julie Molina. 

Would it be nice to know what the black room was? Sure. Did he sometimes wonder why they could be seen but other ghosts couldn't? Sometimes. Did he want answers? Only if someone was going to give them to him without having to do the work. Was he going to sit here and answer all of Carlos’ questions because it was important to him and to the others? Fuck yeah he was. 

“Does that think pick up our voices even if we’re not playing and not near Julie?” He nods at the recorder on the table after Carlos hits a button. 

“Yeah! It’s so cool too. You sound like, all static-y and I have to listen really hard sometimes because your voices fade in and out but they’re there!” 

Okay, Luke can admit that is pretty cool, “That’s wicked. Maybe we should start using that to communicate instead of writing.” He was really sick of people commenting on his handwriting. 

“Dude that’s genius! It would be like leaving each other voice notes!” He gestures in the air with his pencil the same way Julie does when she’s realised the issue with a verse and Luke smiles softly. He doesn’t know what voice notes are, but he’s glad he could contribute to the communication issue. 

“What questions have you got for me then little dude?” He raises an eyebrow at Carlos as he flips through his notebook. 

//

When he’d first knocked Alex down Willie never thought it would lead to him sitting in the Molina’s family living room, a whiteboard resting on his knees as a twelve year old shows him bar graphs and pie charts of information on ghosts. 

There was probably some kind of domino-butterfly effect going on that had led him here. But he’s too busy trying to fit all his know ghost knowledge onto a whiteboard so Carlos can fill in the gaps in his knowledge. 

Over the years Willie has met a lot of lifers, has interacted with a handful at the HGC but he’s never met a family like the Molina’s. Who found out ghosts were real and instead of running, or trying to profit off of them, had just...welcomed them into the family. Arms wide and hearts open. 

And more than that, here was Carlos trying to get answers to questions that none of them really had an answer too. 

“Black room, yes or no?” Carlos asks, holding up a flash card and a clothes peg, ready to add it to the line of string stretching across the room. It was already littered with other cards in an order that Willie really didn’t understand but seemed to make perfect sense to the younger boy and Reggie. 

Not for me, or anyone I asked at the club, he scribbles down, turning to the board around. 

“Just like we thought,” he nods to himself, taking two steps to the left and reaching up to attach the card, “An anomaly.” he whispers it to himself and Willie has to bite his lip to stop from smiling before remembering that Carlos can’t actually see him. 

“Hey,” Alex’s voice from the doorway drags his gaze away from the lifer and the smile he’d been trying to stop spreads across his face, “How’s it going?”

“I don’t think we’re even half way through,” he chuckles, gesturing with one hand at the stack of flashcards and the charts he hasn’t even seen yet. “Do you understand this system?” 

The exasperated laugh that leaves Alex’s lips is answer enough before he’s even shaking his head, strands of blonde hair dipping into his eyes and Willie wants to reach to move away, “Not a clue. They’ve tried to explain it to us but it makes zero sense to anyone but them.”  

“Hey, Alex, stop distracting him, we’re working here!” Carlos’ voice makes him jump, head turning back to where he’s standing with his arms crossed and shaking his head in disappointment in the vague direction of where Alex is standing. 

“Wait, can he see you?” Willie frowns, mind trying to remember if he knew this or not. 

“No, he’s just really good at sensing us these days,” Alex sighs, but there’s a fond look in his eyes as he looks at Carlos, “He says it’s his ghost powers kicking in from how often he hangs out with Reggie and from all the failed teleportation experiments.” 

“The failed what now?” 

“Oh, you’ll find out. I think it’s section 7?” Alex grins, pushing off from where he’d been leaning against the doorway and waving.

Willie turns back to Carlos feeling a little more confused than he had minutes ago but also much more intrigued about teleportation experiments. And if he could help get some answers for any of the many questions Alex had, that was cool too.

//

Carlos Molina’s Guide to Ghosting. So you became a ghost, huh?

 (working title, subject to change)

By Carlos Molina, with special thanks to Reggie Peters and Willie Skateboard. 

1st Edition. 

Dedicated to Alex Mercer, so he can stop asking so many questions. We’re working on it buddy.

1. Tangibility 

They can walk through anything (except my sister now, reasons still unclear). 

Works especially well with walls, doors and locked vaults (see exhibit a) 

When they walk through people it “allows them to get a feel for the person” – Reggie Peters. “It’s weird” – Alex Mercer. No comment from Luke Patterson as he was too busy staring at Julie. 

2. Souls

Objects can be attached to their souls. 

Still unclear if it has to be an object that they were close to in life, or if they can attach their souls to any object once a ghost. 

Experiments with Reggie Peters are still ongoing. Updates will follow.

3. Being Seen

Can be seen by “lifers*” when they play music with Julie. 

This is the first rule which only applies to our ghosts. 

They can be heard when they play music without Julie. This is also unclear as to why, working theory is “Our music is just so awesome it transcends deaths!” – Luke Patterson.

Mr Willie Skateboard was quick to point out it’s “weird” and “ghosts aren’t supposed to be seen by lifers.”

4. Touching

Our ghosts can now touch Julie. The biggest change in their afterlife. 

Still no explanation for it. Experiments are ongoing (see exhibit b) 

Have witnessed Julie hugging the air many times only for Alex or Willie to appear. Same with hand holding. (see exhibit c for dads reaction) 

5. Magic

Some ghosts have powers and abilities. 

Willie* can control different types of technology. Appears to work best with cars. This we believe correlates with who a ghost dies. 

In our expedition to test his skills he skipped through 15 different radio stations of Tia’s car until he found one playing despacito. Test was a success. Tia does think her car is haunted now however.

6. ???

There was a dark room. 

All other ghosts interviewed had never heard of it before. 

All our ghosts agreed it was weird and creepy. 

We are choosing to pretend it didn’t happen. 

Working theory: a hole in time that they fell through. Must find a way to test.

7. Teleporting

part 1)

Ghosts can teleport wherever they want in the world. 

Only the most powerful can teleport a lifer with them (will keep attempting)

part b) 

Our ghosts can pinpoint Julie’s exact location wherever she may be in the world. 

Will be helpful if she is ever kidnapped, Julie however wishes they would stop using said power to find her in gym class.

“I already have find my friend activated” – Flynn had to say on the matter. 

part c) 

Julie can summon the boys to her if she concentrates hard enough. Came in handy when an evil magician tried to kidnap them.

Also possibly how they escaped the dark room, no way to prove or deny this as dad won’t let me eat a bad hotdog to become a ghost.

Working theory: magic of music and family 

See Exhibit d 

See Exhibit e