#i guess it's not that weird for family restaurants to serve alcohol. it's just something about it being chuck e cheese specifically...

[wasabikitcat]

Cec still sells alcohol but it's limited to two drinks per person (although I doubt every location follows that rule)

I'd like to think that if they have a bouncer they make them dress up as Mr. Munch.

[dreamescapeswriting]

Whipped For You ~ MYG [TW] [Request]

↬↬↬Word Count: 2.3K

↬↬↬Genre: Angst with a little fluffy proud yoongi

↬↬↬Pairing: Min yoongi x reader

↬↬↬A/N: I hope this is alright for you love, I tried to keep the mentions of drug use and such to a minimum because I didn’t want it to be triggering for anybody.

↬↬↬WARNINGS: This fic contains the mentions of use of drugs, someone addicted to drugs and/or alcohol if you’re not comfortable with that please do not read the following piece of work.

As you stared down at the small portions of food that you and Yoongi were being served all that was on your mind was one thing, 

"I'm glad we made plans with the boys or I will be wasting away later." You whispered to your boyfriend as the waiter placed a glass of wine down in front of you, you thanked him and Yoongi smirked at you. He knew that this wasn't your idea of a fun night and yet he insisted you go along to it since it was in celebration of your latest promotion at work. Yoongi wanted to see who you worked with and show that he was proud of how far you had come in life, 

"Y/n! Have you told Yoongi where your office is yet?" It was your CEO that questioned you, this whole evening had been his idea since the start and you nervously shook your head while sipping on the white wine you'd been given,

"Not yet." You whispered. You hadn't told Yoongi much about the promotion since it had only happened yesterday morning and the details were still getting lost in your head.

"Ah! She has this wonderful view of Seoul right from her office. It's on the top floor, she's playing for the big dogs now." You looked down at your hands out of nerve you always hated when people gushed about you in a good way- in a bad way too, it always made you feel uneasy and on edge about everything.

"You'll have to take him up there one day, the view is to die for." Yoongi smiled at him and placed his hand on top of yours under the table he'd known you since you were kids and knew that you would get nervous about this kind of thing. He'd known you almost all of your life and he knew how to read you like a book and what the telltale signs of you getting anxious were.

"Go to the bathroom and cool off," He kissed your shoulder and without another word, you excused yourself from the table and headed in the direction of the posh bathrooms. The restaurant you were sitting in was one of the biggest ones in Seoul, Yoongi had only ever been here twice and it was with Bang PD and the boys to celebrate something, it was way too fancy for him and you. 

"You must be proud Yoongi, Y/n made her way up from being a basic receptionist to being one of the top-performing managers and now she's a CEO." Yoongi was more proud than he could ever express in front of anyone at work, they all knew the new you and not the you that you used to be. 

"She deserves it, she's a hard worker." He said to your boss who then began bosting about how hard a worker you were and how thankful he was to have you on his team. He began giving Yoongi stories he hadn't heard from you before and it only made his smile grow bigger. 

"What did I miss?" You questioned as you and Yoongi stepped into the elevator of the restaurant, his arm was linked with yours as the doors shut. 

"Your boss was just telling me how you slept your way to the top," Yoongi teased and you faked a gasp, 

"He promised me he'd keep it a secret, guess I'll have to tell his husband," Yoongi smirked kissing the top of your head as you joked along with him. He'd never fully expressed to you how proud he was of how far you'd come but he was. He thought about it all of the time, everything you went through in life and yet nothing held you back. You took it like water off a duck's back, as if it made you what you were, 'character development you called it now. 

"You alright?" You asked as you reached the ground floor, Yoongi had been staring at the door while thinking about all of the things you'd been through in your life, he rubbed your lower back and nodded.

"Thinking about life, our past and our future. The usual." You smiled at him softly and pulled him in the direction of the car, he was the driver since you'd had a drink that night. 

"Can you think and drive, I'm starving and we promised the boys take out at the dorms tonight." You reminded him, once you were inside of the car you took off the heels that felt like they were murdering your feet and then looked in the backseat. Your usual black vans were waiting on the seat along with some shorts and a baggy t-shirt you could slip into once Yoongi hit the motorway and you could change without being noticed.

"Why didn't you tell me about the view?" You looked at Yoongi from your side of the car and shrugged your shoulders, 

"It's me Yoongi, I don't brag about that kind of thing." He chuckled softly, he liked that you didn't brag about the things you had in your life. 

"You're acting weird tonight, what's up?" You questioned as you climbed into the back of his car to get changed, he focused on driving so he wouldn't kill either of you but he gripped onto the wheel. 

"Just thinking how far you've come, all you did to get away from that life-"

"Yoongi..." You whispered, you knew how much he hated the life you used to lead but it was in the past now. 

"No, I'm saying it's a good thing. You did so well to get out of it and you're still doing well now." You smiled at him as you climbed back to the front seat, he took your hand in his and held it over the gear stick so he could keep hold of you while he drove.

The meal at the dorms had been great, you were so stuffed you'd fallen asleep on the sofa with your head resting on Yoongi's lap. He was running his fingers up and down your arms while staring down at you. The others could tell by the look on his face he was proud of you and so were they, they knew a little about your past but they were still proud of you. 

"You look happy Hyung," Jungkook mentioned as he came back into the living room to look at you asleep with Yoongi, 

"I am, I'm happy for her...She went through so much trouble and it paid off." Yoongi knew you didn't mind the boys knowing your story since they already knew little bits. They had to know little details, the first time you came to Seoul you were in hiding and Yoongi took you in without hesitation because that's what best friends do. 

"She's so strong, to go and do what she did alone," Jimin whispered everyone looked over at Jimin waiting for answers. Jimin was the second one to know all of the stories, you'd told him one night when you got scared and Yoongi wasn't home to comfort you. You'd heard a huge crash in the dorms and ran straight to Jimin for help since he was the only one home at the time, and you couldn't hide it from him. 

"What happened...What did she do alone?"More curious than ever Jungkook wanted to know the full story,

"She didn't have it easy growing up..." Yoongi started as he stared down at you. 

You worked five jobs to support yourself, you'd worked five jobs since the moment you turned 16. You wanted to save up enough and get away from your family, the drugged obsessed family that used you for money or drugs runs because you looked like the innocent one. 

"One more run Y/n, one more run and we'll never ask you again." You brother stuttered as he stared down at you, you looked at him and shook your head. He was a mess, covered in bruises, cuts and needle marks from whatever new drug he was addicted to that week. You'd just turned 21 that week and no one had bothered to remember, no one except Min Yoongi who was in Seoul living his best life which is what you were trying to do. Trying to get out of the bad part of Daegu trying to make a good life for yourself instead of this one. You glanced over at the floorboard in your bedroom, you had enough money for the ticket to 2-hour journey to Seoul and you had enough evidence to get your family convicted on everything they'd been doing and growing over the years. 

"I'll do it," You told him trying not to seem overly enthusiastic about it since you didn't want to come across as suspicious. You'd always expressed your disgust for what they did as a family as far as you were concerned they weren't your family and hadn't been for a long time. Just drugged up people trying to get their latest fix, doing whatever they could to get it and not caring about anyone else in their way.

The sirens outside of your window sounded as though they were going to break the glass, you hadn’t expected it to be so loud, it was piercing your ear drums as you stared at the flashing lights as they came closer to your home - if you could even call it that. It wasn’t a home, it was a drug farm. Drugs stashed around every part of the house including the basement where they grew their own marijuana and sold it for profit making the whole entire house stink at one time.

"What the fuck?!" Your brother screamed from the living room his yell made you flinch, just the thought of him being mad put you on edge but you had to be calm about all of this, while they panicked racing around to hid everything in the house you calmly grabbed your getaway bag that was stashed by the door of your bedroom and the money which was stashed in a floorboard leaving through your bedroom window so you wouldn’t be seen by your family. A huge riot van was parked on the street and you looked around at the police for the regular one you'd been going to with all the evidence and information you had on your family. He was waiting for you near his car with a bag of his own, you’d come to an agreement with everything, if you gave him all the things he needed he would help you escape.

"That everything?" You nodded at his question and dropped the bag down in the car not wanting to look inside it any longer than you had been, inside was everything he would need to convict your entire family on drug charges. Pictures of them growing and using class A drugs, selling them, recordings of them asking you to go on drug runs and then to top it all off,

"The drugs are in my room, bottom floorboard to the left." You mumbled to him, the drug run your brother had planned to send you on that night had fallen through so the drugs were easily accessible to the police and he handed you a fake passport with a fake name on it.

"You use this only till you get to Seoul, do I make myself clear?" He handed you the passport along with some money, your brother screamed as he was dragged into the back of a van and you hide your face not wanting him to know it was you that had done this. 

"You did a good thing, get out of here." You walked around the back of your house and headed towards Daegu station with your head down, clutching your passport which was your ticket to freedom.

Yoongi held your arms as you stared down at the flames, he didn't question anything when you turned up and told him you had to burn the clothes you were wearing, the fake passport you had and the bag of items he didn't want to know what was. 

"I'm out. I'm out of that life, they're gone." You mumbled to him as he held you tighter, whatever was in the back made the flames bigger so he pulled you back. You were standing in the back garden of their dorms destroying every part of your life that was infested with your family. 

"What happened?" He whispered looking at you, he could tell already that you seemed better. The last time he'd seen you were right before he moved to Seoul, he knew about your family and he knew you were the exception to the drug-fueled family. 

"I snitched, so I need a place to hide...I'll find a hotel or something, I just needed to see you Yoongi." He turned you to face him and ran he hand over your cheek, 

"If you think I'm going to let you waste time in some dingy hotel you have another thing coming. No, you'll stay with me. I'll keep you safe and protected."

He had, he'd kept you protected even throughout your families trial where you were forced to take the stand and answer questions for a jury, he ran his hand over your cheek and you mumbled rolling over and opening your eyes to see all of the boys staring at you. 

"What happened? What did I miss?" You sat up and they all started laughing as you stared at Yoongi for answers, 

"You just missed Yoongi being totally whipped for you." Jungkook told you as he got up from the floor and went to his room, 

"What?" You asked with a nervous laugh, 

"Nothing, he's being an idiot. Let's get home, I'm tired." You nodded in agreement and got up from the sofa, saying a quick goodbye to the boys before heading out to the car with Yoongi.

Tagline: 

@writingdreamsnottragedies​ @yoongisdumplingcheeks​ @snowy-meowl​ @jooniesdarlingdimples​ @lynnthevirgo​ @fan-ati--c​ @lyoongx​ @mitzwinchester​ @callingmyangel​ @rjsmochii​ @btsiguess-kpop​ @taestannie​

[irenedonnee]

One shot

For the mood board challenge by @outlanderlush and @iamnottrisha

A/N: So that was fun! Mood board by @holdhertightandsayhername and beta by the amazing @lcbeauchampoftarth ❤️ I hope you’ll enjoy!

On December 7th, Jamie arrived to the small village on the Isle of Skye that was infamous for the tragic bus accident that had killed thirty-five tourists; one of them being his estranged brother, Willie.

Jamie didn’t even remember what had caused the feud between them, seven months prior to the bus crash. It didn’t matter. His big brother was dead and Jamie never had the chance to say goodbye.

During the year after Willie’s death, Jamie tried to find a way to remember his brother. He wrote an article about his law firm, he sent money for the education of Stella, his niece, and he drank. He knew it was not the right thing to do, but only when he was drunk would Jamie stop feeling guilty for his brother’s death.

Nothing worked. So, after kissing Sarah and wishing her a Merry Christmas at the office party, he drove to the train station and bought a ticket to Scotland.

Jamie lived in London, in a small apartment. He had no partner, no pet, no plants; only a bar filled with the finest bottles of whisky and wine. He would not get drunk on cheap alcohol.

He had a very successful career, but he found he had this emptiness inside him. It wouldn’t go away, and got even worse after Willie’s death. His family lived in Scotland and he barely saw them. He wanted nothing to do with them — he was still so bitter and angry. He had never felt loved by them.

His life was a mess.

It took hours for Jamie to reach the quaint village, but he didn’t notice the time passing by. He was lost in his head, thinking about his life, from his birth to Willie’s death. He didn’t consider the last year as living, but mostly surviving.

Jamie was left by the bus on the sidewalk, alone with his leather bag. He took a deep breath of fresh air, looking around. Gradually, Jamie felt a weird sense of serenity fill his soul. Considering the tragic history that was related to the place, the last thing Jamie had expected coming here was peace. He reasoned that he should have come earlier.

Putting his bag on his shoulder, Jamie headed to the local bar that was just on the other side of the road.

A bell rang when he opened the door, and he was surprised to find the place almost empty. There were a few men playing pool and some others drinking beer around tables. Jamie noticed a couple sitting next to each other on the same side of the table. The image of Sarah crossed his mind, but he pushed it away. They had just started seeing each other, and he didn’t want to think about where this relationship was heading just now.

Jamie sat at the bar, putting his bag on the seat next to him.

“Hey.”

He looked up at the barmaid. She was tall, with wild dark hair in a messy bun. He felt her amber eyes looking into his soul, making him feel uncomfortable. Her pink lips were curled up in a small smile.

“Hi,” he said in a breath.

“Tourist?”

He hesitated. “Yes.”

“Welcome,” she said. She stared at him without saying anything. He didn’t really know what to do, as he grew paralyzed by her beautiful eyes. “What can I get you?”

“Uh…” he swallowed, not able to look away from her face. “A whisky, please.”

She smiled and poured him a glass. “There.” She put a napkin in front of him and handed him the glass. “It’s cold outside.”

“Aye,” he smiled, taking a sip. “You’re a Sassenach.”

“Obviously,” she smiled in return, showing off her teeth.

“What are you doing here in the middle of nowhere?”

“Oh, I don’t tell my secrets that easily.” She waved her eyebrows. “What are you doing here?”

Jamie grinned, taking a long sip of whisky, emptying his glass. “Oh, I don’t tell my secrets that easily either,” he responded as he handed her the glass.

She eyed him, the corner of her mouth curled up, before refilling his glass.

“Thank ye.”

There was a cozy atmosphere in the bar that warmed his heart.

“Do you own the place?”

“Yes,” she answered proudly. “I started it almost three years ago now.” She took a glass and wiped it with a towel.

“It’s really nice.”

“Thank you,” she smiled sincerely.

She wasn’t speaking much, only giving short answers and mysterious smiles, but Jamie was mesmerized by this woman. He wasn’t thirsty anymore, but he didn’t want to leave just yet. So, he ordered another drink.

He spent the night at the bar, talking to her or simply looking at her when she was serving other clients. He noticed the crescent moon necklace and the horseshoe tattoo on the inside of her arm. There was something mystical about her, and for a moment, he wondered if she was a witch.

When it was closing time, Jamie rose and put his bag strap on his shoulder. “It was lovely to meet you. I didn’t quite get your name.”

She smiled at him. Her eyes looked tired and her hair was even messier than when he came in the bar. “Claire.”

“Claire,” he repeated with a sly smile. “I’m Jamie.”

After one last look over his shoulder, he left the bar. The cold of the winter night knocked the air out of his lungs. He closed his arms tightly around his chest and made his way to the bed and breakfast that was on the other side of the road.

There was a light on n the lobby, so Jamie made his way inside. An old woman was sitting by the desk reading a book. When he entered, she looked up at him with a smile and greeted him. He eventually booked a room for the next few days..

It was a small room with a bed that groaned loudly when he laid down, but the exhaustion of the day had him falling asleep without even taking his shoes off.

***

Jamie spent the following day wandering through the village. It was a small community, only taking fifteen minutes to walk through it. The bed and breakfast and Claire’s bar were further down towards the end of the street, in a more deserted area. In the light of day, Jamie saw that the bar was facing the sea. He sat on a bench and stared at the raging water for a few hours.

He didn’t know why he had come here, what he had expected to find. It seemed as if there was nothing to do in this village but wait for the day of your death to arrive. It was depressing, and he realized it didn’t help his state of mind much after all. The peacefulness of the place was becoming heavy.

Yet, he couldn’t stop thinking about the woman from the bar. Claire. There was something about her that made Jamie want to go back and see her. The bar opened at seven, but he didn’t want to be the first client.

The day was unending, and as the hours went by, he was growing more anxious at the idea of seeing her again.

He stopped by a tiny restaurant to eat fish and chips while reading the local newspaper. He stopped by his room to take a long shower and watch television. Finally, he put on his coat and crossed the road to Claire’s bar.

It was earlier than the previous night, so he was surprised when he opened the door to see it full of people. It was loud with the sound of people talking and laughing, but it still had the same cozy ambiance.

He immediately spotted Claire standing by a table, talking with two fishermen. Her fists were on her waist and she was laughing. Jamie was immediately taken aback by how stunning she was. Her hair was still like an aura around her head.

She saw him and smiled. He had to remind himself to breathe before smiling back and walking to an empty seat by the bar.

“You’re back,” she said, a few minutes later. She stood in front of him behind the bar.

“I am back. I told you it’s a nice place.”

She smiled and handed him a whisky. “How long are you staying here?”

“Just a few days. And since there aren’t that many things to do here,” he raised his glass in front of her.

She chuckled and went to serve another client.

It took a couple of hours before she could speak to him for more than two minutes. Once the clients were gone and just a few remained, she went to him and let out a proud sigh. “What a night.”

“Is the place always full like that at this time?” Jamie asked.

“Yeah, it usually is on the weekend. Another one?”

“Are you trying to get me drunk?”

She smirked. “Don’t take it personally,” she filled his glass, “it’s my job, after all.”

Jamie chuckled and watched her pour herself a glass. “I think I deserve it.” She clicked her glass with his and took a long sip. He watched her with the corner of his mouth curled up.

“You know I was thinking about you today?”

She raised her brow, encouraging him to continue.

“I was walking around the village and I wondered why an Englishwoman would move to a village this boring.”

“Oh, I don’t find it boring. Not at all. You see, I have my bar and a small apartment on the second floor. It has a fireplace and a big library. I have a spot right by a big bay window where I can paint. I love it. It’s calm, it’s peaceful. I used to live in London and I had a very small apartment. Even though I was surrounded by thousands of people, I felt more lonely than in this little village with 300 people.”

Jamie studied her face, wondering what kind of life she lived in London before moving here.

“That’s interesting. What did you do in London? Did you own a bar?”

She chuckled. “God, no. I was a surgeon.”

Jamie’s eyebrows raised in surprise. “A surgeon.” It was the last thing he had expected.

She grinned in her glass before taking another sip. “Surprise you?”

“Yes, not that you don’t look like you could be one. It’s just… very different than this and your art studio upstairs.”

“Yeah, well, sometimes that’s what we need. Like you, for instance. What are you doing here? Are you in some spiritual trip? Usually people go to warm places in the middle of winter.”

Jamie smiled sadly. “I guess you can call it that.” He didn’t want to talk about himself, as he was too captivated by Claire; but if he wanted her to trust him, he had to open up a bit.

“My brother died in the bus accident last year.” He saw a shadow cross her beautiful face. “We weren’t on good terms and I never had the chance to say I’m sorry, to say goodbye, to tell him I love him. I guess I’m trying to find a way to do so.”

“I’m sorry,” she said in a whisper. “That accident was tragic. I lost a friend of mine too.”

He looked up at her. “You did?”

“Yeah, my friend was also a surgeon from London. He was coming to visit me. You see, I burned the bridges to my old life, but he was my best friend. So he spent Christmas here with me and when he left, well…”

“I’m sorry. God, that’s terrible.”

She nodded. “Life is. We just need to find something to make it less terrible,” she smiled sadly.

That night, they talked until it was closing time. Unlike the day before, they talked about personal things, things they had never told anybody. It seemed so easy to do so; as if they had known each other their entire lives.

“Will you come back tomorrow?” Claire asked shyly, guiding Jamie to the door.

“Yes.”

So the day after, he was there as soon as the bar opened. He wasn’t the first customer, but this time, he didn’t care that he was there early. He had dinner while talking to Claire. As more people started to come in, he had to let her work, but he knew she wished she could be talking to him instead of working. A few hours later, when she was less busy, she came to sit next to him. She lit a cigarette and handed it to him, which he declined.

“I don’t smoke.”

She shrugged and took a long sip.

“I leave tomorrow,” he finally said.

For a split second, he thought he saw sadness in her eyes, but then it was gone.

“Oh,” she said. “I hope you enjoyed your time here and that you found what you were looking for.”

Peace, that was what Jamie was looking for. His brother was dead, there was nothing he could do to change it.

“You think my brother knows I’m sorry?”

Claire looked at him and shrugged. “Do you believe in God?”

“I used to, but now I’m not so sure.”

She thought about it for a long moment, smoking her cigarette. “I think you have to listen to your heart. It will tell you what you need to know. But siblings forgive each other, because that’s what families do. So, yes, I believe he knows.”

Jamie smiled and took her hand. “Thank you.”

She smiled back and bent to kiss him. They both were surprised by the gesture. “Sorry,” she apologized, pulling back, her cheeks turning pink. She got up and went back to work.

Jamie spent the night thinking about that kiss. Claire didn’t come to see him until the bar closed. When she did, the bar was empty, so Jamie closed his arms around her and kissed her.

They made their way to her apartment, not able to keep their hands off one another. They kissed deeply, took their clothes off, and jumped into bed. The way she kissed him, the way she touched him, healed him. And he hoped that it was the same for her.

At that moment, Jamie realized that he had found what he was looking for her. For the first time in years, he felt at peace. No weight on his shoulders, no aching heart. Everything he needed was in his arms.

He fell asleep with his head resting on her chest; and when he woke up the morning after, he left a note on the nightstand. He kissed her goodbye and went to gather his things at the bed and breakfast. As he sat on the bus, looking at the sea by the window, Jamie smiled to himself. He had found a safe haven, he had found peace, and he knew it was a feeling he was never going to let go.

He felt at peace, but he also felt as if he was living in a haze. He had drank a lot during the weekend and he wondered if this was real, or if it was just a dream. Was Claire even real?

He doubted for a moment, but never in his life had a dream made him feel so alive.

When Claire woke up, the sheets were cold. She noticed the paper on the nightstand and a smile lit her face when she read it.

To new traditions.

[whispersafterdusk]

Lost in Time - ch 11

With Stewart's list of names and locations they were able to carefully separate out who they could confidently identify and those thirteen persons were given a plot in Portia's graveyard separate from the mass grave that was being dug outside of the city gates.

Sophie had loaned them a wagon and McDonald loaned a large draft horse Eli had nicknamed Bruiser; when the big grave was dug and the headstone had been carved and placed (a joint effort between Gust, Selene, and Higgins) it then took eight trips to get all the skeletal remains out of the facility and into the ground.

Giving a eulogy wasn't something Eli had ever seen herself doing...honestly (and she had even discussed this exact topic with Darren) she'd assumed that the rest of her family would outlive her.  Being a ranger carried a lot of risk and that risk had only grown as things had started breaking down across the nations.  There were a lot of things she'd mentally filed in the "probably going to kill me" category and because of that she'd tried to approach everything with the same level of caution; it was a thought she carried with her everywhere - that her family and friends may eventually be planning her funeral, no matter how careful she was.  And now, three hundred years in the future...here she was, planning THEIRS. ((Continued below cut)))

When it came to death, sudden or otherwise, the Three decreed that the deceased's story be shared where possible; funerals were long affairs with dozens of family members and friends chosen to speak on the dead's behalf. All of existence would remember that person whether there were people gathered to remember or not but it was a comforting measure to have everyone together "sharing the pages," as it was called: sharing their memories of that person's life story.  She could do that for Darren, and for her squad mates...but everyone else were all people she didn't know, and she was the only one left alive who could speak for them.  And even if she'd known each and every one of them it would take her months to do their stories justice.  

There was also the (depressing) fact that it hadn't just been those in the facility that had died here.

There was no way to tell how many had perished in the orbital attacks, and Portia was built upon the ruins of Dubei in general. If she was going to properly put the dead to rest she should speak not only of Darren and her squad and those in the facility but of all of Dubei's residents who had died too.  And what of all the people outside of Dubei?

It was one thing to write about and remember someone you'd known and loved dearly but how could you remember a city and everyone in it?  How did you properly eulogize an entire world? What details should be included to give even a glimpse of all those lives that had existed and now lay buried somewhere beneath their feet?  Wasn't she sort of doing that already just by answering random questions?  Every answer was a part of a story of the past even if she was just giving a quick response to something as simple as a question about breakfast foods.  With everything gone wouldn't even the smallest detail be important to the whole picture?

It was confusing and painful and tiring.  And she only had two days to figure it out and get it written.

One small silver lining at the moment was Stewart had taken over answering most of the scholars's questions; with power restored his central intercom system was back online and, so long as the audio equipment (usually in the ceilings of every room) was still functional, he was able to listen in and attend to them without needing to physically be in the room.  That meant Eli, Selene, Merlin, and Petra were free to roam about and do minor repairs as well as hunt down the closets and rooms that Stewart's logs showed should still have things in it.  Depending on what they found Eli was determined to try and cobble together a couple of things (even a self-contained Hi-Def would be welcome) but also they needed to know what they had to work with if they were going to have any chance of moving Stewart out of here. If she could find a multi-screen, or even a teleportation module, and a couple of solar detectors and a battery mount...

It was a lot easier to get distracted by what she could potentially do compared to what she needed to do.

Whatever.  She needed a break.

She had a little notebook (a gift from Selene) that she'd been carrying around for most of the day; her hope had been inspiration of some sort would strike and she'd know exactly which words to use and what order everything should go in...so far though there'd been nothing, and the notebook was still in the breast pocket of her jacket when she walked into the Round Table.

"Evening there, Eli."  Django was at the front counter stacking up some dirty plates - whoever had eaten there was already gone, and the restaurant was mosty empty as well.

"Evening.  Without meaning to sound weird, what do you have for alcohol these days?"

The man chuckled and moved the plates into a small bin that he then sat behind the counter.  "Been that kind of day, huh?"

Eli nodded and settled on one of the bar stools.  "Been that kind of...however long I've been awake, if I'm being honest."

"I don't think anyone will blame you for that.  Let's see... We have some Duvos Winter Punch. It's fairly weak in both alcohol and taste - I'm not the biggest fan of it but there's a fair few here in town that love it.  I've got some plain vodka I can add to some juice or the bitter melon mix, and a couple bottles left of the Barnarock Black beer - stuff's so thick you could chew it.  Doesn't help you now but come spring I'll make a couple batches of snakeberry wine if you wanted me to save you a bottle. Portia's folks don't really drink much so it's not something I keep on hand in large quantities...usually goes bad before the entire bottle or jug gets finished."

Eli nodded - technically she wasn't much of a drinker either so she could understand the sentiment.  "Fair enough.  I'll give the Barnarock stuff a try.  What kind of meaty dish would you suggest I get with it?"

Django rubbed his chin and didn't immediately answer.  "...specifically meaty?  I'd go with my braised meat bowl - all the flavors should pair up nicely, haha."

She smiled at that.  "I shall trust the master. -- oh, and could I also get the bamboo and egg thing too?  I think that's becoming a favorite."

"Can do," was his reply.  He took the bin of dishes and disappeared into the back of the restaurant.

She watched him go; he'd mentioned before that there was a game room in the back, and she assumed behind that was the kitchen area.  Maybe a couple games of...whatever was there, would help lift her mood.  Or provide another distraction, or maybe it'd be mindless enough she could play while also thinking on the other things - any of those options seemed acceptable.

She couldn't see Sonia anywhere but the pink-haired young man she usually saw her talking to was here; he was sitting with Albert and a bespectacled man she recognized from the Commerce Guild but hadn't actually met yet so she wasn't certain on his name.  As she turned back around to the counter the doors opened and Arlo and Asher came in; both of them had spent the day down in the facility helping Merlin and Petra carry around tools as well as carrying out the rest of the medical texts and manuals while Eli had been helping Selene replace a faulty speaker.  

There was a clear questioning look on Asher's face and in response she jerked her head toward the stools to her right; the man immediately accepted the invitation and sat down, and after a moment to consider Arlo followed suit but sat on the stool to her left, sandwiching her between them.

"Evening, you two."  Django had returned already and sat an amber-colored single serve bottle on the counter in front of her.  "Your order'll be up in a few moments.  What are you two having?"

"My usual," came Arlo's reply.

"No idea yet," was Asher's.  The stool creaked under him as he reached to tug a battered menu toward himself.

Eli gingerly grabbed the bottle and looked it over; it was chill to the touch and already forming condensation, and the cap was thankfully a screw-top.  It didn't take much to twist it open and she idly shuffled the bottle cap around between the fingers of her free hand as she took her first sip; it was a smooth taste - chocolatey, along with a faint nutty undertone.  Beer wasn't her usual go-to alcoholic drink but this one wasn't all that bad.

Django waited until she'd swallowed. "So I hear you've made a deal with Martha and Toby."

She sat the bottle back on the counter, chuckling a bit.  "Yeah, you could say that.  The plan is to dissuade him from the adventuring life."

"I don't think that's the result you're going to get," Django laughed.   "I'm told all he's done these last few days is talk about it."

Arlo glanced over to her curiously.  "What deal?"

"I told him if he got top grades for two quarters - or however long half a school year is nowadays - that I'd teach him a few things.  His mom is wanting to put an end to the adventuring fixation so I'll be making it as boring and difficult as possible."

Beside her Asher snorted; he didn't look up from the menu but was clearly listening in.  "Think you could teach the rest of us a thing or two in the meantime?"

"...such as?"

Asher flipped the menu closed and put it back on the pile on the counter.   "I'll have an order of the creamy noodles with bacon and a half order of the mapo tofu please."  He then turned his attention to Eli.   "Anything, really.  I know I'm not the only one curious about what it was like back then, being a soldier."

"I think I'd be interested in that too," Arlo said into the pause that followed.  "I'm always looking for better ways to train and become stronger."

Eli looked between the two of them; how was it going to look to Toby if she was teaching actual adventurers?  Maybe she could shuffle his attention to the Civil Corps instead...  "Uh.  Well.  Sure?  I guess?  Assuming you boys get top marks on your homework too."

She grinned at them, and all three men started laughing; after catching his breath Django then excused himself and headed off to take care of the orders.  Eli took another sip of the beer before continuing.  "-but in all seriousness, I can, yes.  But you're not going to like it.  I'm not sure I'm ready to torpedo any friendships yet."

"It can't be that bad, can it?" Asher asked.

"The basic training for rank and file wasn't too terrible.  The training for a ranger though...that'll probably have you cursing my name up, down, and sideways."

"I'm willing to risk it," Arlo replied.  "And I doubt there's anything you can make me do that would ruin a friendship."

"Uh huh," Asher said, chuckling faintly.  "His pride can take a stomping unlike anything you've seen."

Arlo's face flushed bright red and he let out a small huff; it was clear Asher hadn't meant anything malicious by it but whatever history he was alluding to had definitely stung.

"Right, well," Eli hurried on, trying to dispel the sudden awkward silence.  "Before I can train anyone else I need to get myself back to normal.  I'm getting there but it'll probably be a few months yet before I'm satisfied."  She glanced over to Asher again.  "How long are you out here?"

"At least another two months. Mali was wanting to rotate us out when the scholars were ready to head back to Atara for a break -- it's looking like you won't need all five of us for too much longer anyway so I'm not sure what she might be planning now.  I know if I tell her I want to stay for the long haul she won't mind though."

"Is Mali your leader, then?"

"Not officially but she's well known in the guild and has a knack for picking the right people for the right job.  And usually she's the one who runs the yearly entrance exams for prospective members."

Asher ever-so-slightly leaned forward to glance toward Arlo and Eli now had an inkling as to what the 'history' was.  "So what you're saying is she can't make you stay or go, more or less."

"Pretty much.  I'll only be paid out to the estimated end of the contract I agreed to, which ends in two months, but I could easily stay out here another four months beyond that if I wanted before I'd need to go back home to stock back up on pocket money."  He paused as Django came back with Eli's order, giving the food an appraising eye.  "...I probably should've ordered that.  Anyway - I do kind of like it out here.  And it'd be well worth the stay if I get to learn something new."

"I guarantee I will run you off in a week," Eli said, laughing a bit as she picked up her fork.  "You have no idea what you're asking for."

She picked at her food and only really tucked in once the other two had theirs brought over; for one brief moment she could imagine she was in the mess hall elbow to elbow with her squad.  It was a bittersweet thought and reminded her of what she still had to write; suddenly the beer and the food didn't taste so great.

Before her mood dipped too far though the door opened again and Adam came in; he was a short, wiry man with bushy, bright red eyebrows and a shaved head.  She could track his gaze as he scanned the room briefly before marching up to them at the counter.  "Oi, Arlo - question.  Do you Corps folks patrol at night?"

"Not always.  Why?"

"A'right, lemme rephrase: did you have any patrols scheduled for tonight?"

"What's up?" Asher asked, pushing himself back from the counter.  

"Greg's certain he saw someone at the far edge of the marsh looking 'is way.  We need to know if it's one of your folks or not."

Arlo shook his head and then stood.  "No, it's not one of ours.  Where did he see this person?"

"Said out to the east.  Cliffs."

Out to the east...from what she remembered of maps of the area there wasn't much out to the east and not really a way to get over to the far side of the lake unless you crossed the western bridge near the tree farm.   "That's not a place someone could get to easily from this side.  Has there been any sign of tracks passing through the sink hole area?"

Adam shook his head.  "Neither hair nor hide.  Only ones we've seen out there have come from us."

Arlo sighed, crossing his arms as his brow furrowed in thought.  "If this person was seen on the cliffs they probably came from the north somewhere.  Would explain why there's no new tracks."

"Whoever it was wasn't paying attention and got himself silhouetted against the moon.  Greg wouldn't have spotted 'im otherwise."

Asher shoved a forkful of tofu into his mouth and then stood, digging for gols.  "Hate to eat and run but this is something I ought to be helping with," he mumbled through the mouthful.

Django held up a hand.  "No worries - I'll bag it up and have it waiting for you.  Assuming you mean to come back."

"Yeah, that works," Asher replied.  He strode toward the door and Adam spun to follow at his heels.

Arlo also dropped money on the counter.  "Same for me - I'll be back soon."

Eli was already over halfway done with her food; the beer would go flat, but oh well.  "I may as well head out with them.  Tracking is one of my talents."

Django chuckled as she too paid and then headed out the door after the men; the moon wasn't completely full but it was bright enough in the cloudless sky that they didn't need any extra light to make it back to the sinkhole and camp.  Greg was crouched near the edge of the tent, partially hidden in the shadows near one of its corner poles, and was looking out toward the east with a pair of binoculars.

"Seen 'em again?" Adam asked.

Greg lowered the binoculars but didn't turn toward them - from Eli's point of view he was hardly more than a puffy coat and fluffy woolen cap.   "Not since I spotted them the first time.  Whoever it was backed up and disappeared over the bluff's edge."

Asher looked around.  "Where's Mali and Maddie?"

"Already headed out to have a look," was Greg's answer.  He finally turned his face toward them; he had a big, brown, bushy beard that almost blended in with fur trimming around the collar of his jacket.  "I've been keeping watch to make sure nothing jumps out at them."

With that he raised the binoculars again and trained them out toward the east.   Eli paced away from the campfire to put it at her back, squinting out into the moonlit night; she could just barely make out moving figures ahead of her and assumed that had to be Mali and Maddie.  Biting her lower lip she turned to the north to eye the cliffs; further east it became less rocky and more steep and sheer though the height of the bluffs remained about the same stretching from here to there.

"You guys got rope and pitons?" she asked, turning back around and shielding her eyes from the campfire's glow.  "A couple of us can go up on this side and cross east on the top."

"We do, and even if we didn't Adam here is part squirrel," came Greg's response (though again he didn't turn to face them).  "Second pair of eyes in the leather case in there - decide who's going up and leave one person here to keep look out for you."

"Arlo stays," Asher said immediately.  "You were pretty good at spotting trouble coming, last I saw."

Arlo simply nodded - there wasn't an indication of embarrassment this time.  "All right."  

He followed Adam into the Pigs's tent; while Asher waited Eli started heading toward the cliffs.  There were sheets of ice and icicles dotting overhangs and rock faces; it looked like melted run off from above had re-frozen when the sun had gone down.  With the thaw-melt-refreeze cycle of winter she imagined there'd be some unstable spots on their climb up the cliff.

Adam came out of the tent a few minutes later with a bag that rattled. Out of that bag came a hammer and pitons followed by two coils of rope, one of which he handed to Eli when he caught up to her; the three of them headed for the cliffs and began a slow climb up with Adam insisting he should go up first.  Asher was correct in that the man seemed to be half squirrel as he climbed quickly and with far more confidence (or recklessness) than Eli would have had for a climb in a new area and mostly in the dark.

"You guys smell that down there?"

Eli glanced above her at Adam's shout; he was almost three fourths of the way up the cliff, with Eli on the ropes behind him and Asher keeping the ropes pulled almost taut on the ground below them.  "Smell what?"

"Smoke.  And it ain't wood smoke."

Her hands were going numb but she managed to pick up the pace and get up the cliff moments after Adam had crested the top; they both drove in pitons to tie the rope off to, and then helped rapidly haul Asher up behind them before they set off together across the top of the bluffs.   There wasn't much up here; this strip of land looked like a desert and a forest had mingled together but the trees were short with barrel-like thick trunks and spindly limbs, and frozen scrub grass crunched under their feet as they walked.

Now that they were up here they could all smell smoke on the wind; it had an acrid undertone to it -- Adam was right in that it wasn't wood smoke but what it could be none of them could guess at.

"Going to be impossible to sneak up on anyone like this, unless we want to move at a glacier's pace," Asher grumbled quietly.  "And even then we're just as likely to be spotted because it's not pitch dark."

"Hush up, I hear something popping," Adam interrupted him.

They all stopped and strained their ears; Eli thought she too heard the sounds of a crackling fire but she couldn't see any firelight from where they stood.  After several moments of listening Asher gestured for them to stay put and began to creep ahead; despite how carefully he tried putting his feet he couldn't move silently on the frozen grass and his footsteps drowned out the sound of distant pops.

Eli gave their surroundings a closer look; they were on top of the cliffs and there were rocky hills and the squat trees all around.  She couldn't pinpoint the crackling noises except for knowing they were coming from ahead of them somewhere; she caught Adam's eye and pointed to herself, then jerked her head toward the north: she was going to move up and try to find a higher perch to see from.  He nodded at her and crouched with his attention moving between Asher and her.

Very carefully she made her way to the north, cautiously moving around the trees and the biggest patches of scrub grass.  Still she didn't see any sign of a fire but the sound was starting to clue her in a bit -- it was still to the northeast somewhere but it sounded like it was more north than east.   She went up another small hill and around a tall rocky outcrop; Adam was out of sight now, as was Asher.  The further north she went the more the land sloped upward and then, finally, she caught the barest flicker of orange against...something.  Rock, or maybe an especially wide tree trunk.  Whatever it was reflecting off of didn't matter too much -- all that mattered was there was a fire ahead, further up another steep hill.  And where there was fire would probably be a person.

She backtracked enough to signal to Adam, as Asher was too far away and had his back to her; when the man had joined her she wordlessly put a finger in front of his nose and then slowly moved it to point his gaze directly at where the fire was.  From here it was much, much less noticeable but after a moment he gave her a sharp nod and began to pick his way over toward it.  

Those popping noises they'd heard before were picking up in volume; as they crept closer Eli could make out a stone overhang, or maybe it was the entrance to a cave.  Next to it was another rocky outcrop that had a sheen of ice over it (which was what she'd seen the orange flickers on - that ice was reflecting the fire's light) and scattered all around was shattered rock and disturbed (but frozen) dirt as though there'd been a recent landslide here.  Adam gestured to indicate he was going to circle up to the right side - the side with the reflective ice - and pointed in a way she assumed meant he wanted her to go left.

There wasn't any reason to say no to the "plan" so she did; on the top left of the overhang was a crater made by a mostly uprooted tree whose crown was now partially buried in what definitely had to have been a landslide.  The overhang itself was a wide stone slab that had broken off from somewhere further north and tumbled down to come to a rest against another stone and this tree, and had formed a sheltered pocket that was rock, dirt, and dead wood on three sides -- inside this cozy little spot was the fire and possibly its creator.

But, she could see that Adam had already poked his head into the claustrophobic opening of the little nook. Since he wasn't yelling in alarm she assumed no one was home, and came around to join him.

Inside the recently made "cavern" was the remains of a campsite, and all of it was ablaze; she could sort of make out a firepit in front of it all, with a narrow path that wound around the pit and led to the back of the hole where an A-frame tent was pegged to the ground and also to the tree -- it was engulfed in flames and the fire was starting to spread to the tree.  At the firepit's edge she could see melting tin cans - both empty as well as several full ones - along with shiny spots that looked like melted plastic, and blowing up into the roof of the sheltered hole were flaky fragments that suggested there'd been paper tossed in here too.

There wasn't, thankfully, any sign of a person IN the fire.

Eli straightened and looked around their immediate area. The ground was too hard for there to be actual footprints but she could see a trail of scuff marks and trampled grass that led off into the night.

"Someone beat it out of here in a hurry," Adam grunted.

"Which means they, without doubt, weren't supposed to be here. Innocent people don't run - and they definitely don't run FROM people if they were looking for help for a sudden fire, but I doubt this was accidental," she said after a moment.  "And since we didn't hear anyone running off from here they must have set the fire and run off while we were climbing the cliff."

"They're not going to get far in the cold."

Eli nodded and pointed to the trail of trampled grass.  "No, they're not.  And I bet we can catch up if we start moving now."

At that Adam looked a little unsure.  "Well...yeah, true.  But what about the others?  Don't know how many were actually up here, right?"

"In a bolt hole this small it was either one person or they liked each other a lot," Eli answered.  "You can go back for Asher but I'm going to follow this trail and see where it goes."

"All right, fine - we'll catch up quick.  Be careful."

He disappeared back down the hill and Eli turned her attention to the trail on the ground.  It went almost straight to the east; following it was fairly simple - enough so that she was able to jog along and only need to periodically glance down to make sure she was still on track.   There wasn't any way to be stealthy so she was more focused on being highly aware of her surroundings and found herself looking at each rock, shrub, and tree with suspicion.  So long as the trail kept winding among them and didn't...stop...

There.  The trail went around a tree - specifically around to its far side, whereas the others had zigzagged only enough to get around them and hadn't hugged them so closely.

Eli slowed to a lumbering jog; whoever was up ahead likely knew they were being followed - she needed to decide what to do about that.  Either this was an ambush waiting to happen or whoever this was had thought they'd gotten far enough away that hiding was an option.

She decided on a direct approach. "Come on out," she called ahead.  "I know you're there and we both know you're not going to have an easy night out in the elements without shelter."

All she got was a resounding silence as an answer; she came to a stop about ten feet from the tree.  From where she stood she could tell that the trail didn't continue beyond this point -- SOMEONE was on the other side.  She wasn't overly worried about trying to apprehend one person on her own, especially since she knew exactly where this person was (and besides, Adam and Asher were coming to back her up).

"Come on.  Let's not make this harder than it needs to be."

There was a shuffling noise and then a flash of movement as the man came around the tree; she caught the briefest glimpse of something glinting in the moonlight and instinct took over -- she was moving before she'd fully registered what was in the man's leading hand and as he fully stepped around the trunk she was dashing forward to slam the palm of her hand into his chin.  Something flew out of his hand and skittered across the rocky ground; her initial blow hadn't stunned him much and Eli ducked under a clumsily swung fist that came a lot quicker than she'd anticipated.  The next fist she caught and deflected with an open palm and used the momentum to pirouette and bring her left leg around in a roundhouse kick that the man tried to dodge by twisting aside but without enough backward movement so the toe of her boot caught him in the elbow and it was accompanied with a popping noise and a shout of pain.

As he staggered back and held his arm close to his chest she set her feet and dropped into a combat stance.  "For what it's worth, I didn't mean to do that," she said.

Something whistled passed her and a split second later she saw a rock ricocheting off the man's collarbone and dropping to the earth; he stumbled backward and tripped over a tree root then fell to the ground on his back.  From either side of her came Asher and Adam hurrying forward to fall on the man before he got a chance to get his feet back under him.

"For what it's worth, I DID" she heard Asher grunt as the three men wrestled on the ground.

With only one good arm it didn't take long the subdue the man, and Asher hauled him up to his feet without much resistance; Adam was already grabbing for his wrists to tie his hands behind his back.

Eli held up a hand. "Wait, hang on - don't do that."

"Huh?  Why?"

"Because if his hands are behind him it's going to be a massive pain in the ass to get him down the cliff."

Both men paused a moment, then Asher nodded in agreement and shook the man roughly.  "Hear that?  Any trouble and down the cliff you go - we can get to the bottom gently or we can see how high you bounce."

Still the man didn't respond aside from a pained and annoyed noise.

It the moonlight he seemed to be a thin man with a leather cap on that hid his hair.  He wore a dark leather jacket and cargo pants tucked into heavy boots, and when he locked gazes with Eli she could make out the line of a strong jaw and a few missing teeth when he actually hissed at her like an animal.

"Right.  Let's get this jerk back to town - you've got a jail cell, right?"

"I...assume so?" Eli answered, looking to Asher.  "I'd hope so.  No idea where it is though.  Should also let Dr. Xu know we've got an injury."

"Eh, let him stew with it," Adam growled.  Since the injured arm was on his side he grabbed the man by the waistband instead and moved in unison with Asher as they began to roughly march the man back the way they'd come; he resisted for the first ten feet or so then gave up and walked with them, his head down.

Eli went to follow them and then remembered that there had been a weapon or something that she'd knocked out of the man's hands.  It took several minutes to find as it had slid under a nearby bush but soon she was looking over a revolver.

It only had a three-shot barrel, the caliber wasn't all that big, and the barrel had a plug of sand and rock wedged in its end from the fall - it was ugly and fairly inefficient compared to what she was used to but assuming she could get that rock loose (and that it wasn't a cheap gun that'd explode after only a few shots) she could probably make personal use of it.  Did Selene know what a reloading bench was?  If this revolver existed (it wasn't a design she knew had come from her time period) clearly guns were still around in some form or fashion.  Maybe she could engineer a rifle with Selene's help... She went to put it in her breast pocket and the muzzle of the gun scraped along the notebook's outer cover.

Oh, right -- she'd forgotten that was in there.   Since both gun and notebook wouldn't fit together in the pocket and the other pockets of her jacket weren't deep enough to securely hold the gun Eli unloaded it and stuck it in her right pocket with the three bullets going in her left and hoped neither of them would fall out on the climb back down.

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

The morning of the funerals came; it was bright and sunny but still bitterly cold.  Arlo was more than ready for spring to come back but was thankful that the weather hadn't taken a nasty turn since today was pretty important.

Eli and Gale had worked out two ceremonies - one at the mass grave and one for the thirteen that had been buried in Portia's cemetery.  He could only imagine how rough this day was going to be for Eli; Arlo had never had to bury anyone he personally knew -- both sets of grandparents had already passed on by the time he was born and both his parents were still alive but had relocated from Portia's countryside south to Tallsky for the milder weather.  He didn't have a spouse to worry about either since he wasn't married -- he wasn't even sure what to call whatever it was he had with Nora.  Were they dating?   Were they still deciding that?  He had a heart knot hidden in his room but hadn't felt especially driven to deliver it to her yet...he wasn't confident at all that she'd accept it.

Especially now, since the amount of time they'd been spending together had been decreasing since Eli had been found.  At first it was out of necessity - he HAD to stand guard at the facility - but once Mali and the Pigs had arrived he hadn't needed to spend as much time out there like before, and had mostly moved back to his usual routine... Nora had been a bit unhappy at the disruption to his schedule in the beginning but even now with it back to normal she hadn't-

No. He didn't need to be worrying over this.  Not today.

And besides, he'd be just as upset at Nora's funeral as he would at Sam's, or Remington's, or anyone else in Portia.  He didn't need to be married or related to someone to mourn them.

He left his room and, since the cell was right there, checked on their prisoner; the man had still refused to speak beyond hissing and grunting at everyone but had accepted medical attention, food, and water.  Currently the man was sitting on a stool facing the back corner of the holding cell and didn't react when Arlo asked how he was feeling today.

Mali had recognized him; he was a wanted criminal in Meidi -- for espionage and three murders.  They all were pretty certain they knew who had hired and sent him out here but with his camp in ashes they couldn't pin down just how long he'd been camped out there, and he definitely wasn't offering any answers of his own and hadn't been carrying anything useful or especially incriminating on himself either.  Gale had contacted Meidi's representatives in Atara and then had passed making transport arrangements on to Mali since she, Maddie, and Adam would be escorting the man back there to face punishment.

To all appearances it seemed Duvos was wasting no time in investigating the discovery of the facility.

Adam had volunteered to tend to their unexpected guest today so Arlo continued on and headed down to Portia's gates; benches, stools, and spare chairs had all been arranged on the road in a loose semi circle facing the large grave. Most of Portia's residents were already there but few were seated; they were standing in small clusters chatting away, and he didn't see Eli or Gale among them.  

Selene and Paulie were standing at the edge of the crowd, both studying something in a notebook Selene held in hand; he walked up and nodded to Paulie who in return clapped a friendly hand to his shoulder but didn't speak as Selene seemed to be on a roll explaining whatever she had sketched out.

"-and after that all we'd need is you to move it all in.  Easy enough, right?"

"What're you two planning now?" Arlo asked when Selene paused to take a breath.

"Our builder here is trying to plan out the carpentry and furniture needs for an expansion to the clinic," Paulie answered.  "She'll be handling the metalwork, and I'll be handling any woodwork."

"So Xu decided to expand after all?"

Selene nodded as she shut the notebook and tucked it under an arm.  "Just this morning.  At first he was worried about cost but Gale said Atara had pledged some funds to assist and of course Portia has a general fund for new construction and also a repair budget that Gale can shift money from.  Now that he knows it's not coming entirely out of his pocket he's jumping at the chance to work alongside an All Source."

"And what about security measures?" Arlo asked, raising an eyebrow.  They'd been worried about that even before they'd found their little Duvos visitor on the cliffs...

The builder huffed at him.  "You really think I'd draw up potential building plans and not think about protecting what was inside?  I need to double check space requirements with Eli and Stewart before I finalize anything but I've got more than a few ideas on how to keep people out of that building if they're not supposed to be there."

Before he could respond movement drew his attention and he watched as Eli and Gale walked up from the gates and to the edge of the grave, in front of all the chairs and benches.  The chatter died down quickly and people moved to find a seat, or else moved out of the way and to the edges of the crowd so they could see without obstructing anyone else's view.  Arlo opted to remain standing himself, as did Paulie and Selene; Gale cleared his throat and scanned the crowd.  Arlo looked over the group again as well, and it occurred to him that he didn't see Nora or Lee.

He frowned and double checked and yes, neither of them were here.  Were they running late?  He wanted to give them the benefit of doubt but knowing Lee... The man wasn't typically vindictive or disrespectful, and he hadn't gone out of his way to harass or badmouth Eli that Arlo had noticed (and if Lee had then Eli hadn't mentioned it), but to avoid a funeral felt cruel and spiteful.

With a long sigh Arlo shook his head and returned his attention to Gale.

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

Gale had offered a small explanation to the crowd - that she would be conducting the funeral according to her personal religious beliefs.   That got her more than a couple curious looks and by the time Gale surrendered the metaphorical floor to her and seated himself with the others she finally settled on what to say here, and how to say it.

She took a deep breath and clasped her hands behind her back; it was old habit to stand at parade rest and it probably wasn't entirely appropriate for a funeral but it was comfortable and familiar and she needed that at the moment.

"Good morning, everyone," she began.   "I know that, between my time period and this one, a lot of things were lost.  People, history, technology...religion.  My religion is called the Foundational Three - named such due to the three guiding forces of Fate, Balance, and Judgement.  Fate ensures every person born has a story to tell and that when they pass the cosmos itself remembers them, Balance makes certain that that story isn't too simple or too difficult to bear, and Judgement renders assistance or punishment as needed because sometimes others decide to intervene in stories they haven't been invited to.  I tell you this, before I say anything else, because I'd like you all to understand first why I choose to remember these people as I do, and also so there's no sadness when you contemplate lives lost, whether it's those that came before, those that you may have lost in recent memory, or those you know you'll lose naturally in the distant future."

She paused and glanced around to gauge the general feel of the crowd; everyone's attention was on her and she saw mostly intent faces and a few neutral ones that were hard to read.

"Portia, as you know, is built upon Dubei's ruins.  And Dubei was my home.  It was full of people - full of stories.  Millions of them, in fact.  I could try to tell those stories but I'd be talking until the heat death of the universe happened, but even then, that really wouldn't matter - it's not my voice that will persist to tell them.  That's Fate's duty, and Fate carries out that duty by speaking through the simplest of things: a howling wind, a bubbling river, the rasp of grass fields in a breeze, the drip of water, a sudden spout of laughter, a few quiet tears, the pattern clouds trace across the sky, the endless march of the passing seasons, the light of the stars.  In every aspect of existence there is a story and we hear it with conscious and unconscious ears.   These stories are in the items left behind, the whispers of legend and folklore, the written word, the spoken traditions, the family gatherings, and of course...when your life is shared with another - your pages entwine with the story of someone else.  There are countless ways Fate shares the lives of those before us with those that still remain, and in this way these people are never truly gone from us."

Again she paused, turning to regard the gigantic headstone.  It was finely polished marble with a trapezoidal base that joined into a tear drop-esque shape on top.  The names were evenly arranged in two columns that then became three that then ended in four, from top to bottom of the tear drop to the trapezoid, and had mirrored images of a flowering tree in bloom curving up either side; Gust had designed it and Eli appreciated its simple elegance.

"None of us knew these people," she went on. "I lived during the same time period and I never met any of them.  But I know that, should I choose to listen to the world around me, I will hear their stories echoing.  And not just theirs but those of the people that came before them, and then those people that came before that, and then those before that.  Fate is the Great Curator, and none of our stories will be lost to time whether we gather to share them or not.  Today, I lack the pages to share the specifics with you for these people...but, give it time, and Fate will take care of that for me.  Ours are stories that go on forever even if the people can't."

With that she went silent and stood there for a moment; finally she dipped her head and walked away from the front of the crowd and once she'd reached the road those gathered there erupted into dozens of murmured conversations.  

"This concludes this remembrance ceremony" she heard Gale announce behind her.  "If you all would like to take a moment to warm up some there's coffee and hot chocolate available, for free, at the Round Table.  The second ceremony will be in one hour's time in Portia's cemetery."

It took several minutes but at last the crowd began to disperse; Eli stayed where she was at the edge of the sitting area and was surprised when the group seemed to be...queuing up to talk to her.  There were a lot of faces she knew, some she only knew by name but hadn't really talked to before today (and she also met the rest of the septuplets finally with them joking about how they'd purposely lined up from oldest to youngest for her convenience). There were also a lot of compliments on her speech and there was a young woman who introduced herself as Alice who was curious about the Three specifically.

And so concluded the easy part.  The next one was going to be a lot harder.

Most of the townsfolk moved off to share their coffees and chocolates; Selene, Paulie, Arlo, Remington, and five of the Hulu brothers (the only one she was confident she had the right name for was Dawa, because he was taller than his brothers) stayed behind to cart the benches and chairs up to the graveyard and carefully arrange them around and near the thirteen fresh graves.

"We still have some time," Selene said once they'd gotten everything in place.  "Do we want to head down to the Round Table and get a drink?"

"You guys go ahead.  I think I'll stay here," Eli replied after a moment.

"You sure?"

"I'm sure."

The builder woman didn't look convinced but headed off anyway; Paulie and Arlo followed along with her and shortly thereafter the Hulu brothers and Remington went together down the hill as well.

That left her alone with Darren, and her squad.

She edged around the chairs and benches and walked up to Darren's tombstone; Gust had designed all of these too and they all bore various designs of flowering trees, plants, and vines.  She'd been shown the designs before the tombstones were made and he'd explained that, having heard that Dubei had had so much plantlife incorporated into its structures, he wanted to embrace that detail and combine it with sweeping shapes and gentle curves and create something memorable as well as beautiful. And looking over their shapes she could see a bit of Dubei in them - everything back then might have been sleek forms, polished metal, and shining glass but you couldn't go five feet without seeing an ornamental tree or flower bed or vines cascading down every building, and he'd perfectly captured that feeling of 'wild and free' combined with modern.

She trailed her fingers over the scalloped top of Darren's stone; it wasn't supposed to have been like this, and immediately following that thought came a pang of guilt -- how selfish of her, to be wishing the roles were reversed and that HE was the one dealing with the emotional turmoil while she rested peacefully under the soil.

That particular train of thought was disrupted by the sounds of footsteps coming up the hill behind her.  As she turned her hand fell away from the tombstone and after a breath she stuck both hands into her pockets; Arlo, Selene, and Asher were walking up the hill with steaming mugs in hand, and she noted Arlo was carrying two of them.

As she was expecting that second mug was for her; from the smell it was a hot chocolate and there was a rapidly melting dollop of cream on top.   "Thanks."

"Thought you could use it," was Arlo's reply.  His mug looked untouched but he did take a sip after she'd accepted the other one from him.  "We still have about a half hour."

Eli nodded and took a tentative sip of the hot chocolate; true to its name it was VERY hot but in that brief moment between her tongue registering flavor and then being torched by the scalding liquid it was a very rich taste and the cream was only semi-sweet - not like the stuff she was used to.  She couldn't tell if it was Asher or Selene who had the coffee but it was very fragrant.

"Any confirmations from Mali yet?" Eli asked.

Asher shook his head.  "Not yet.  She's coordinating with Meidi still -- they've been having more, and worse, winter storms than usual lately and all the places she could land the plane are buried under almost a foot of ice and snow.  When the word comes that they've cleared a spot for her to land she's going to have to drop everything and leave."

She took another careful sip from her mug (it didn't burn as badly this time but that also might be because the first one had killed all sensation in her tongue). Over their shoulders she could see a few people heading toward them; at their head and moving considerably faster than everyone else, was Toby.

Seeing the kid reminded her of the agreement she'd made, and then of Asher's request.  Considering they'd caught one spy...

"Have you mentioned to anyone else yet that you want to learn some ranger techniques?" she asked, looking between Arlo and Asher.

"Not yet but I bet Sam and Remington would like to join in," Arlo answered.

"I did but the others aren't sure they could rearrange their schedules yet," Asher said.  He gestured in the general direction of the Civil Corps building.  "I know Adam mentioned he'd like to make it happen.   Both Greg and Maddie are married with kids -- uh, not to each other, but still, they can't just drop everything and stay here longer than planned."

"Understood.  The reason I ask is, with the discovery of our friend up on the bluffs, I don't think it'd be wise to wait a couple months until I'm in top shape."

Asher looked to her curiously.  "So you want to start early?"

She nodded.  "VERY early.  I was thinking tomorrow morning -- I can get back in shape while also dragging the rest of you up to my level."

Asher's eyebrows disappeared into his hairline.  "Oh, uh.  All right.  Guess I should've opted for less sugar in this then..." He peered into his mug, nose wrinkling.

"Hi Eli!" came Toby's yell then; he rushed up beside them and bounced on the balls of his feet near her elbow.

"Hey kid.  How'd the math test go?"

Toby scrunched up his face.  "It - it was fine.  I did ok.  I don't like math."

"Not many do but it's pretty important to learn.  Just do your best and ask for help where you need it.  Nothing wrong with asking for help," Eli said, nodding down at him.

The scrunched up look relaxed into a happier one and Eli moved her mug to her opposite hand so the excitable boy wouldn't accidentally jostle it.  Moving up the hill behind the kid was a larger group than Eli had initially thought - from where she stood her view was partially blocked - and she steeled herself for the next part.  It would be a longer ceremony, and more difficult to get through.

It was easy to say there shouldn't be any sadness in remembering the lost.  It was an entirely different thing to try and cling to.

[thirst-trapnhl]

Never Grew Out of This Feeling 2(charlie mcavoy)

(A/N): hi babes! sorry this took sooo long, but i’m so excited to finally put this part out into the world! hope you enjoy! (word count: 2696) (warnings: underage drinking, marijuana use, alcohol as a coping mechanism)

song of the chapter: somewhere in neverland - all time low

“We’ll talk about how your parents separated and how you don’t wanna make the same mistakes as them. I’ll say it’s all about sticking it out and trying to feel forever young.”

Fall comes and goes quicker than expected. Classes at community college keep you busy along with your job waiting tables at the small sushi restaurant a few blocks from your house, where most of your weekends are spent answering the phones and refilling the water cups of teens on their first dates. You spend a too-quick weekend in Boston with the McAvoys in October and when you come home, the aching in your chest takes you by surprise. You thought you’d been doing a good job at not missing Charlie too much, but seeing him only made the reality of life on the island without him hit you twice as hard. 

Seeing him walk through the door of the restaurant the Monday before Thanksgiving sends you into shock. You’re frozen from the second you look up after the bell rings on the door and you see him standing there in a big red BU hoodie and basketball shorts. He laughs at your reaction, head thrown back and all. It shakes you from your shock and you cross your arms in front of you, narrowing your eyes at him. “You dirty little liar! You told me you wouldn’t be home until Wednesday night!” 

He smiles smugly back at you, and takes a menu from the holder attached to the front desk. “It’s called a surprise, Numb Nuts.” He opens the menu and ignores your scoff, scanning the list of rolls as if he doesn’t basically have it memorized at this point. “Do you recommend the Angel roll or the Fashion roll?” You grab the menu from his hand and place it back into its slot. 

“Very rude of you to come in here and harass me at my workplace, and besides, you know I prefer the White Dragon roll.”  Emiko, the owner of the restaurant (and the only other waitress) comes out from the back and greets Charlie with an enthusiastic high-five and sends you home for the night, insisting she can handle closing alone after gesturing to the single table being occupied. 

Charlie slides into the passenger seat of your car and swivels sideways, squaring his shoulders towards you as you scroll through your phone to put music on. He waits patiently until you find what you’re looking for and place your phone down in the cup holder. “I have something to tell you.” You look up at him and you can tell he’s fighting a smile and it makes you a little giddy too. You nod to him, a smile crossing your face that mirrors his. “I think I have a girlfriend.” A big, toothy grin finally splits its way across his face but you can’t manage to match his enthusiasm. 

“Ok, a few things. One, we talk on the phone at least once a week. You didn’t think to mention a GIRLFRIEND? And two, what do you mean you think you have a girlfriend? Did she agree to be your girlfriend or not?” You file the sinking feeling in your gut as a reaction to Charlie keeping secrets, and definitely not anything having to do with the fact that he’s dating someone. Charlie’s dated people before anyway; girls you went to school with or who hung around the local rink, and it never bothered you much. They were always girls you knew, and who knew you, and knew how you and Charlie were with each other. Now, you don’t even know if Charlie’s mentioned you to this new girl, if she even knows your name, and there’s nothing more terrifying. 

“Welllll,” He starts, a faint flush rising in his cheeks. “I didn’t mention it because I didn’t wanna jinx it. You know how I get with girls I like. I didn’t wanna like, mention that I told my family about her and freak her out.” You breathe deeply through your nose, choosing to ignore the way a pang hits your heart when Charlie refers to you as his family. “And I haven’t asked her to be my girlfriend yet, but we’ve been hanging out for like a month and a half. I know I haven’t been seeing anyone else, and honestly, we spend so much time together; I don’t think she has any time to see anyone else either.” You nod your head slowly, attempting to process all the information while saving the feelings for later when you’re alone. “You’re not happy.” It’s not a question. Charlie can read you better than anyone and he sees right through the blank smile you’ve put on to hide your reaction.

You exhale and relax, letting your face fall a little now that you know he isn’t buying it. “It’s not that I’m not happy for you. You know I am. I just worry about you getting your heart broken if I can’t be there to fix it.” The sentiment brings a sincere, if not a little bittersweet, smile to his face and you reckon that’s the best you’ll get from the situation. You finally reverse out of your spot, driving straight to the playground. The ride is mostly silent except for Charlie’s fingers drumming against your dashboard and you both bop along to the old Blink-182 track that comes on next. 

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Meeting Katrina over Christmas break is fine, really. You can tell that if you’d met in different circumstances, you might get along but you also know how this story goes and it doesn’t end in a new best friend for either of you. You can sense the question on her tongue as soon as Charlie gets up to use the bathroom from the couch where you’re all splayed out watching tv. 

“So, did you guys ever, have you, uh,” You both draw in steadying breaths before she continues. “Tell me about how you and Charlie became friends!” She finally gets it out and you appreciate her trying to put it as delicately as possible. You rest the plastic bowl filled with popcorn and m&ms on the couch and slide into something that more closely resembles how human beings are supposed to sit. 

“Well, we met in kindergarten and we’ve been, uh, like this ever since, I guess.” She presses her lips together and nods slowly, an uncomfortable silence settling over the two of you until Charlie comes crashing back into the room, flopping back into his spot between you. He laces his fingers between Katrina’s and smiles shyly at her before turning his head to face you. 

“Mom’s doing that Italian dressing chicken you like and she’s buying cannoli as we speak. You staying?” You think about declining for a second, wishing you could run from the awkward air in the room. The thought of Charlie’s mom making your favorite dinner and the promise of cannoli keeps you in your seat though and you nod as Charlie flips through the channels again. 

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It’s spring break before you spend any actual time with Charlie again, having survived the first half of spring semester talking over FaceTime every Tuesday and texting almost every day. You’d heard less and less about Katrina as the weeks went on, but every time you asked about her, Charlie just said she was great. You didn’t want to push things. You knew Charlie would tell you details at his own pace and besides, it’s not like you hadn’t been withholding information too. 

Your dates with Brendan had been nice. The older brother of a girl you and Charlie had graduated with, he’d followed you on Instagram sometime in January. He’d replied to a story of yours and after a month of casual conversation, you’d agreed to meet him for dinner. It had been really casual, just an early dinner at the burrito place by your work that turned into a walk on the boardwalk and an ice cream cone from your favorite local soft serve place. He was just a nice guy, polite and good at keeping conversation. He wasn’t insanely funny or anything, but your dates were always light and casual and he made you feel comfortable right away. You’d kissed for the first time last week, short and sweet in his car when he dropped you off after taking you to see some comedy about a gymnast. His lips were salty from the popcorn and he texted you as soon as he got home, just like he always did. 

You knew you were going to have to tell Charlie at some point. You just didn’t think it was going to be like, right now. “What could you possibly be doing on a Sunday night that you can’t come watch Jackass on my couch with me?” You twiddle your thumbs, picking at your cuticles a little bit while you find your voice. 

You look into his eyes and know it’s time, so you just exhale heavily and let it out. “Sunday nights are usually when Brendan and I go bowling. With his parents.” Charlie’s face stays blank for a minute before his head tilts a little to the side and his brow furrows in confusion. “I know, I know, I should have said something, I’m sorry! I just didn’t really think it was going to, uh, last this long, honestly.” He still looks a little confused so you stay silent and give him a minute to catch up.

Suddenly, it clicks in his head and his eyes narrow. “Brendan Cotiletta? Like, Mia’s brother?” You nod and put on a small, closed mouth smile. “You are dating Brendan Cotiletta and it’s serious enough that you hang out with his parents?” You nod once more, and your smile begins to fall when you realize Charlie’s still looking at you with a little confusion and a little more concern. It’s then that he sees the worry on your face and he takes a deep breath before putting a hand on your arm. “If you’re happy, I’m happy. Just keep an eye on him. I’m sure he’s grown up since the last I heard, but the last things I heard about him weren’t great. Okay?” 

You spend your Sunday with Brendan as planned, explaining to him that the rest of your week would be spent with Charlie and his family. He took it well, not weirded out at all. No suspicious looks, no sly comments about how close you and Charlie were. Really, it went better than you could have hoped for, which should have been your first clue that something was going to go wrong. You and Charlie spend your Friday night baking cupcakes (that are certainly not on the team-recommended diet) and watching Jersey Shore reruns. The episode with the infamous Note is on, and during a commercial break you go to check your phone. You almost tap right past it, Brendan’s best friend’s Snapchat story until something catches your eye in the background of the video. Brendan being pulled on to the dance floor of the bar by a skinny blonde is concerning, but not something to have a meltdown over. The meltdown comes when you’re finally able to place her face. Olivia, Brendan’s high school sweetheart, had broken his heart when she’d run off to some college upstate and met a guy from the Hamptons with a blow problem.  He’d never really recovered, obvious in the way he avoided saying her name at any cost, even in casual conversation. You watch the Snapchat again and again and it doesn’t get any easier. Charlie sinks down on the couch next to you and you almost go to turn the TV off to show him. You can see through your peripheral that he’s texting Katrina, the string of emojis after her name catching your eye. You take another moment to watch him smiling as he types out his reply and the only thing you can bring yourself to do is click the lock button on your phone and return your attention to Snooki and Jwoww. 

The weekend after Charlie leaves, Brendan asks to come over on Saturday morning and you know exactly why. He tries to break it to you as gently as possible, at least. He tells you how sorry he is, how you did absolutely nothing wrong, it’s just that Olivia is his person. It’s bittersweet to hear, sad to end something that was fun and lighthearted, but you can’t be anything but happy for him that he’s got this opportunity to be so truly happy. You tell him exactly that, adding “It makes me hopeful that I’ll find that one day, my person, whoever it is.” He smiles a little at that and shakes his head before giving you a final hug. 

“I’m sure your person is closer than you think.”

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Katrina breaks up with Charlie when she finds out you were invited to the draft and she wasn’t. It’s a shame, you think to yourself, that she wasted all those months pretending to be cool about how close you and Charlie are. She seems to be forgotten about as quickly as she arrived, mostly just swept away in all the excitement. It’s truly a whirlwind weekend. From the second your mom drops you and the McAvoys off at the airport, Charlie is buzzing. His leg bounces the entire 90 minute flight and he opens his complimentary bag of pretzels but doesn’t eat a single one. During the draft, a quiet tension settles over all of you, waiting with bated breath until Charlie’s name is called. You try not to let it cross your mind, that the second Charlie gets drafted is the beginning of the end. 

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The weeks post-draft are spent just like all your summers before: mornings in the waves and afternoons napping on the sand, nights spent sat around a fire with your friends. The only difference is that Charlie’s managed to keep his drinking and smoking to a minimum, convinced that the only thing that could hold him back from making an NHL roster are a spliff and a rack of Bud Light platinums. Secretly, you might agree, so you pretend not to notice Charlie’s look of concern every time he realizes you’re drinking more heavily than ever. It’s easy when you’re like this, warm and loose from the beer and Charlie’s hand on your back guiding you home, to convince yourself nothing will change.

Somewhere around the middle of July, you’re curled into Charlie’s side on the hammock in a friend’s yard and you’re not sure how much more wear and tear your body can take from partying. You know Charlie notices it too; the circles under your eyes, the littering of bruises and scrapes on your body from god knows what. You’re running yourself ragged and you can’t bring yourself to even try to hide it. You feel him shift underneath you to get a better look at your face, but you’re not ready to look up at him quite yet. 

“Hey, bub,” he starts, quiet enough to ensure that no one else is listening in. You still can’t bring yourself to meet his eyes, knowing you won’t be able to hold in the word vomit once it starts. You reply with a “mhm?” instead, eyes glued to the wooden fence next to you. He clears his throat before speaking again and you can feel his fingertips flex into your ribs a little. “You know you can tell me anything, right? Like whatevers, uh, happening, however you’re feeling, all I wanna do is help.” The statement lights up your whole chest and you feel, honestly, kind of stupid for thinking you couldn’t bring something up to Charlie. He knew you, your anxiety and your fear and your cynicism, and nothing had ever sent him running before. 

“Don’t wanna think ‘bout you leavin’... can’t lose you,” you mumble, cheek squished against his chest. He squeezes you a little harder at that, laying his face against the top of your forehead. A few minutes pass in silence between you while the party continues across the yard. He kisses the top of your head, letting himself take in the scent of smoke in your hair. 

“You couldn’t get rid of me if you tried.”

[parkersharthook]

Twitter Interviews

Wanda & Reader friendship (slight Bucky Barnes x reader)

Warnings: adorable relationship between reader and wanda

2.5k+ words

You, an avenger, and Wanda sit down to answer some of twitter’s burning questions (and rope natasha into it at the end)

You smiled at the camera and waved slightly, “Hi I’m y/n y/l/n also known as Athena and I’m here with my great friend and coworker Wanda Maximoff aka Scarlet Witch.”

She smiled into the camera, “it was originally supposed to be us and Black Widow, but she didn’t want to do it sooo.”

You laughed slightly, “So we are here today with People Magazine to answer questions sent to them on twitter under the hashtag ‘asksuperwomen’.”

“so thousands of you guys have sent in questions about the team, us, our work, and really anything else you could think of. And we are here to answer them.”

Wanda danced slight in her chair, “I’m excited. Let’s get started.”

“So these aren’t in any particular order and we aren’t going to filter you guys however we do reserve the right to not answer anything we deem inappropriate. Oh by the way, we have Clint behind the camera reading these too us so sorry if he chooses the stupid ones.”

Wanda struggled to hide her laugh.

Why don’t you guys talk about your political beliefs.

You shrugged slightly, “well some of us are more open about our beliefs than others.” You coughed obnoxiously “—Steve Rogers—” Wanda giggled beside you, “wow… sorry guys must be coming down with something.” You laughed and tucked a stray hair behind your ear, “no in all seriousness. We, as a team, serve the people. And to keep us impartial and able to serve people without prejudice we choose not to get too political. This way we aren’t creating an even bigger divide in any nation or country. We value bringing people together, not separating them further.”

Wanda nodded, “that being said… we will stand up for what we believe in and we aren’t going to be push overs. We do vote, and we do have opinions, however we also believe that these opinions are our own personal things and we choose not to share all of them.”

Is having a tight uniform actually comfortable?

You rolled your eyes as you sipped at your iced coffee. Wanda just scoffed next to you. “Clint?”

That’s actually what was asked!

You just snorted slightly, “it’s a personal preference for anyone. Personally, I do enjoy a tighter uniform and mine is pretty comfortable, so it just feels like a second skin.”

Wanda nodded, “yeah it’s actually pretty efficient. It doesn’t get caught on anything that much and if you make it out of the right material then it has enough given so you can do really anything.”

You gestured to the camera slightly, “I mean look at a lot of athletes that do a lot of acrobatics or any of the guys on the team. I mean gymnasts, dancers –girls and boys—and performers all wear tight clothes.”

Wanda pressed forward, “And if you look at any of the guys on the team outside of Tony, all of their uniforms are pretty tight too. I mean I’ve seen Steve’s ass trending on twitter plenty of times.” You laughed heavily.

Why do some heroines wear their hair down when fighting?

Wanda shrugged again, “personal preference really. Depends on the day for me. If I do wear a ponytail, I want it to be tight, so I don’t have to worry about it again but sometimes that gives me a headache, so I’ll wear it down. And if you do a loose ponytail or up do then it might come undone and there was no point in doing it in the first place.”

You nodded and took another sip, “yeah. For me personally I only wear my hair up, so I’m used to it. And I just don’t do my ponytails that tight, but I’ll braid my ponytail as well to keep it up.”

Wanda snapped her fingers, “you know what. Bad guys also really love to grab your ponytail when fighting.”

You nodded heavily, “that is true. Sometimes it’s strategic to wear your hair down because it’s harder to get a hold of it.”

“also if you’re undercover. Someone isn’t going to show up to a gala or fancy party in a braided ponytail or sloppy bun.”

Do you ever wish that you weren’t a superhero?

“No.” Wanda’s answer came immediately and confident.

You leveled your head slightly. Wanda looked to you with a brow raised, “would you like to build on that y/n?”

“I mean I love the team and I love what I do. It’s very rewarding helping people however I’ve come home with so many injuries and I’ve gotten so many concussions that sometimes I wonder if it’s worth it.” You sighed slightly, “But I know that there’s nothing else I would want to do so I’m not gonna stop anytime soon.” You looked to Wanda, “No? You’re 100% sure about always being a superhero?”

Wanda nodded with a small smile, “I owe everything to you guys and I would not be here today without you guys. And I want to be that for someone else. I want to be someone’s inspiration that makes them want to help the world. I want to pass that on.” She looked to Clint behind the camera with a fond smile, “so yeah. 100% positive that I want to be a superhero.”

Do you guys hang out together outside of missions and fighting?

You wanted to laugh at that question. You shook your head with a sly smile, “of course we don’t hang out together! We hate each other!” Your obnoxious tone and dramatic gestures made Wanda laugh.

She shook her head, “we love each other. We are like a family.”

You nodded along with her, “I’m about to say something that might break the internet so get ready… we have team movie nights.” Wanda snorted. You continued, “yep. We all get together on off nights and hang out watching movies. There’s popcorn and candy and alcohol and pajamas. It’s adorable really.”

Wanda rolled her eyes and looked to Clint expectantly, “next one please.”

How are y’all’s relationships going? I promise this is what it says… I stan y/n and Bucky + Wanda and vision! I love love!!

You and Wanda laugh and smiled at the camera. Wanda went first, “well thank you for loving love, if only there were more people like you. Me and Vision are good. Recently celebrated our two year anniversary, actually.”

You looked at your friend, “that’s right you did! What did y’all do?”

Wanda smiled and blushed slightly, “we went out to dinner together and then Vision took me to Disney World over the weekend because I’ve never been.”

You smiled at her, “that is so adorable.”

Wanda looked to you with a sly smile, “What about you and Bucky? How are you guys?”

You rolled your eyes at her, “we are great. He’s currently on an extended mission with classified doing classified in classified.” You winked at the camera, “so I have not been able to talk to him for the past week which is slightly upsetting but I’m excited for him to come home.”

Do either of your boyfriend’s do weird things that drive you crazy?

You leaned forward towards the camera with an incredulous expression, “are you kidding me? They’re guys! Of course they do weird things that annoy us!”

Wanda threw her head back in laughter before shaking her head slightly, “no Vision is a really great boyfriend.”

“oh come on? Nothing?! I have a whole list for Bucky.” Wanda laughed again before shaking her head again.

“no not really. I mean, he’s still learning about some things but it’s never annoying.” Wanda looked to you, “why don’t we hear from this list, huh?”

You shrugged, “yeah sure. So he gets super insecure which is crazy because have you seen him? But he also overthinks things a lot and gets into his own head which is annoying because he is literally never in the wrong and has nothing to worry about.” You looked up to the ceiling in thought. “um… oh he also walks around looking like he does which really isn’t fair because he’s like a god on earth.”

“you mean Thor?”

You laughed and nodded, “yeah like Thor.”

What’s your favorite fast food chain?

“McDonald’s.” Your answer came out so fast, it was kind of amazing. “never mess with a classic.”

“I don’t really know. I don’t eat that much fast food, I prefer cooking. But I guess… what’s that one pizza place we always order from?”

“Mario’s?”

“yeah, Mario’s is pretty good.”

You leveled your head slightly, “Yeah but that’s not really fast food. It’s just one restaurant owned by a family… not really a chain.”

Wanda shrugged, “I don’t care. It’s good and I’m counting it.”

“I still say McDonald’s. Getting their fries after a long battle is literally my version of crack cocaine. Plus, their ice cream is actually so good I can’t.”

They are doing the most with their all day breakfast.

You pointed off camera, “Clint gets it.”

Wanda rolled her eyes, “children. I am surrounded by children.”

You smiled, “you’re not wrong. I do order their happy meals much too often.”

What would you’re perfect Saturday look like?

You sighed dreamily, “man I wish I could have a perfect Saturday.”

Wanda nodded, “you and me both.”

You crossed your arms and leaned back in the chair slightly. “I think my perfect Saturday would start with me sleeping in. I would wake up on my own, no mission alert, no alarm clock. Just my body naturally waking up. I could be lazy for a while around the tower. Hang out with you guys and Bucky. Maybe read a book. Then at night I would get all dressed up and you, me, Nat, Maria, pepper, maybe Sharon could all go out together. Have a girl’s night, then I could come home and have a nice relaxing bath and maybe Bucky would give me a massage or something.”

Wanda sighed, “that does sound nice.”

“What about you.”

“very similar. I think the only other thing is that I would wake up and be beach side. It’s been so long since I’ve had a beach vacation, that would be so nice to just take in the sun and have no worries and relax on the sand. But yeah… definitely sleep in, definitely have some girl time. And getting Vision to give me a massage does sound lovely.”

Okay last question… any books that you’ve read recently that you can recommend.

You nodded happily, “oh yeah! I’ve been super active with my reading lately. But it’s all poetry, so if that’s not your cup of tea… But I just re-read milk and honey by Rupi Kaur. I honestly don’t think I could tell you how many times I’ve read that, but it is so good. 10/10 highly recommend.”

Wanda nodded, “actually I’ve been catching up on a lot of the books that are considered classics that are assigned to you guys in school because I never got a chance to read them. So To Kill a Mockingbird, Romeo and Juliet, The Catcher in the Rye, The Great Gatsby, Beowulf. Those are all really good but I’m sure you’ve read those. However I did read one book that I don’t think is too well known that I really enjoyed. Darn what was it called… oh it was Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger.”

You smiled to the camera, ready to sign off when Natasha walked into the room. A shit eating grin spread across your face as you looked to the camera. “So to everyone that has been watching and will watch this later, this has been a live broadcasting as you know and guess what just happened? The Black Widow just walked in.” You looked up to Natasha to see her rolling her eyes, “Oh come on Nat… just one question.”

Wanda nodded eagerly, “Yeah come on, give the people what they want!”

“there’s nowhere to sit.” Natasha was still behind the camera, but her voice came across the microphone loud and clear. Clint’s twitter was instantly blowing up with new questions for her.

You hopped off your chair and jumped into Wanda’s lap. You gestured to the now open seat. “there. Now come join us!” you wrapped your arm around Wanda’s shoulder as hers circled your waist. Natasha groaned slightly before adjusting her jeans and walking into frame, carefully sitting on the chair.

She gave the two of you a stern look, “one question.” She crossed her legs professionally as she looked to Clint expectantly.

Clint just smiled.

I have the perfect question. “oh no” Are you and Captain Rogers dating?

Natasha rolled her eyes, “it does not say that.” Clint turned the phone around to show her the tweet. She squinted her eyes slightly to read it before pursing her lips. She looked into the camera, “I don’t really think that’s anyone’s business. Whether we are dating or not I can promise the public that our work done in the field will not be compromised.”

You laughed slightly as you leaned against Wanda’s chair’s arm. “oh come on Natasha…” you teased her causing her to smile softly, “just give the people an answer.”

She looked to you with narrowed eyes and tucked her red hair behind her ear, “How about instead I ask the public a question of my own. Does your view of me change depending on whether or not I’m dating Captain Rogers?” She smirked at the camera and raised a brow in a silent challenge.

Wanda laughed as she shook her head. You just looked to the camera, “How about this… if this video gets to 75 million views… we’ll make another with just Natasha.”

She looked to you surprised, “only 75 million views? That many people would watch you dancing. How about 200 million?”

“150?”

“200.”

“175?”

“200.”

You sighed and dropped your head dramatically, “fine.” You looked at the camera, “you guys know what to do.”

Wanda clapped her hands once, “okay that’s the end of the video. Thank you people magazine for having us! And thank you to everyone who watched and sent in questions. We love you all!”

“Athena signing off!” You saluted obnoxiously causing both Wanda and Natasha to laugh as the screen faded to black.

~.~

“Natasha…” you sang slightly as you slid into the room on socks. “Guess what video has over 200 million views and is trending on twitter and YouTube!”

She turned away from her conversation with Steve and looked at you, “seriously? What’s the view count right now?”

“263 million.”

Steve whistled slightly. He smirked, “guess the public really does what to know who the black widow is.”

She glared at Steve for a moment, “shut up.”

You bit your lip and giggled, already getting the questions prepared.

~.~

“do I really annoy you when I get insecure?” Bucky’s strong arms tightened around you, pulling your body closer to his.

You stretched onto your toes to press a kiss to his lips. “only because I wish you knew how amazing and perfect you are.”

Bucky smiled against your lips as he kissed you again. “I’m not the perfect one here doll, you are.”

You giggled slightly, “I love you.”

“right back at ya.”

~.~

let me know if you would like the pt. 2 with just black widow or another fic similar to this one

[escapingreality1992]

Corn Maze Fun

On a cool, crisp afternoon in the compound, I sat in my room with one of my best friends, Carol Danvers. We were talking about going out for dinner when Tony popped his head inside the open doorway.

"Family meeting, five minutes. Oh and Arabella, Strange is in attendance," he alerted us.

"Really? You call a family meeting and invite Stephen? Not much of a family meeting is it? Did Thor invite Loki?" I joked, earning a frown from him.

"I can't get over the fact that you're on a first name basis with the wizard,"

"I'll take your answer as a yes. Stephen isn't too bad. He's nice to me anyway,"

"Oh, come on. You do realize the guy can be an asshole sometimes right?"

"There once was a time when you acted the same way. Give him some time. I'm positive he'll come around one day," I said.

"We'll be down in a minute. I need to discuss something with Arabella real quick," Carol interrupted us before we got into a nasty argument. Tony opened his mouth to make another statement but something about Carol's expression made him close it and disappear from sight. Once Tony was out of earshot, she turned her attention on me.

"What?" I questioned.

"We've got to talk about this crush of yours," she stated, making me cringe.

"I don't have a crush on Stephen. Everyone thinks I do but-,"

"Why are you crushing on Thor? Have you seen him lately?" Carol blurted out, a disapproving expression scrawled over her features. I narrowed my eyes at her, anger flaring up inside.

"You disapprove of it because why? Because he's chubby? You know looks have never mattered to me right? Besides he's adorable. I love Viking Thor," I snapped.

"Ara, I love you but surely there are better options than him. Even Strange would be a significant improvement. And you look cute when you're around-,"

"We're late to the meeting," I stated, cutting her off. I got off the bed and walked out into the hallway. Carol let out an exasperated sigh, giving up at the idea of convincing me I was nuts to like Thor. Sure, he had let himself go, but he hadn't changed much in personality. In fact he'd gotten funnier, more relaxed than before. We descended the steps to the lounge and I gracefully glided over to Stephen, who was sitting on one of the couches; I placed a chaste kiss on his cheek. He chuckled and stood to give me a quick hug. I returned it, releasing him a moment later and made my way to approach Thor. He truly became my favorite person in the world.

"Mind if I sit here?" I asked him, gesturing to his lap. I noticed Loki rolling his eyes and shot him a wink, waiting on Thor to answer me.

"I don't mind at all. Come, sit. Drink," he replied, holding up a beer stein filled to the brim with a bright golden ale; as tempting as it looked, I knew better. Asgardian ale took its toll on me and I no longer could tolerate its taste; it made me sick and I woke with the worst hangover I've had in my lifetime.

"No thanks. I'll take my seat though," I said, lowering myself onto his spread legs, throwing my own over the armrest, careful not to spill his beer. My back pressed into his arm and our attention turned onto Tony when he began the meeting.

"We've been invited to attend a corn maze tomorrow morning at 11 by Horror Candies, an organization that specializes in fall activities not limited to just horror shows. It sounds fun but it's adult-themed meaning alcohol will be served. We're to go in groups of five and I've assigned everyone to a specific one and in what order we go in," he announced. How intriguing. Perfect for fall though, I thought. I watched as some in the room frowned, others grinned, deeming it easy.

"There are rules. No magic, no powers or mischief," Tony continued, looking directly at Loki with utterance of the last rule. I stifled a laugh watching Loki feign surprise at the mention of it.

"Wonderful! A grand idea indeed!" Thor boomed, a ginormous grin plastered on his face.

"Drinks are served at the end of the maze. There is to be no drinking during or before the event. They're afraid of disorderly conduct of the people attending. Plus, they don't want to be liable for any accidents or injuries," Steve explained, reading from a piece of paper, my guess being the invitation for the event. Thor's smile faded from his lips, forming into somewhat of a pout.

"Don't look so glum. It'll be fun," I told him.

"Yeah, anything to get out of the compound for a few hours. At least it's not a mission this time," Natasha agreed.

"How many people to a group?" Stephen asked, making Tony continue the discussion.

"Five. I've invited a few others. They're planning on meeting us there. The groups are as follows. First group, Rhodey, Wanda, Vision, Clint and me. Second group, Thor, Lang, Sam, Strange and Bruce. Third group, Danvers, my lovely Pepper, Hope Van Dyne, Hill and Arabella. Last group, Barnes, T'Challa, Reindeer Games, Nat and Cap," he told us.

"Weird combinations of people," I commented.

"Eh, different people with a unique set of skills between them," Carol commented, shrugging her shoulders.

"Right. We'll meet down here at 7 a.m. and fly out to Roanoke, Virginia. We'll meet the rest of the crew there. Group up, do the maze and have a celebration after," Steve informed us. Most of us groaned, Thor and I included. We weren't early morning people but at least we'd get some reward out of it. Dispersing after being dismissed, Carol and I, joined by Stephen went out to grab dinner at a local sushi restaurant, washing it down with beer and returned home where I spent most of the evening playing on my phone and watching YouTube videos.

The Next Morning

My alarm blared at exactly 6 a.m. waking me from my deep sleep. I set it exceedingly early in order to take a shower and still have enough time to get dressed to meet everyone downstairs. I yelped at the cold water, it being necessary to help wake me up fully and be alert should I need to concentrate later. Cleaning rather quickly, I got out, checking the temperature in Roanoke. I dressed accordingly, putting on an outfit I didn't mind getting dirty. I exited my room, first grabbing a novel and stuffing my earbuds in my pocket for the two hour flight. I met my friends downstairs, Steve, Nat, Carol, and Tony having got up earlier than I did. Damn the 5 a.m. people. As more people filed in, Stephen arriving by portal, we started discussing the itinerary of the day's event. Scott, Hope, and T'Challa were expected to arrive a few minutes after us, followed by Hill who had demanded to travel alone. We were meeting the hosts, Sally and Jack, and have picture then we could do the maze, which only lasted an hour supposedly; each group would go in half an hour after each other.

"Ara, go get your boyfriend," Natasha told me when Thor still hadn't come down at the meeting time.

"He's not my boyfriend," I commented, heat spreading across my face.

"Not yet. Just go get him will you? We're running behind," Carol stated. The heat grew hotter and I ran down the hallway to the room at the end of the hall. I knocked and called out his name, receiving no answer. Twisting the door knob, I discovered it unlocked and let myself in.

"Thor? Are you ready? We've got...Oh my god! T-Thor! Put some clothes on!" I stated, abruptly shielding my eyes when I slammed into him and his nude body. A new heat flushed my cheeks and I turned, averting my eyesight to the plush, carpeted floor.

"Arabella! Sorry! I didn't hear you knock," he said.

"J-Just put something on and let's go. Preferably something with pants," I told him, ashamed of glancing back at him. I heard a ruffle of clothes and felt the tap of his hand against my shoulder when he was decent. We walked  out of his room and I hoped embarrassment at what I encountered had faded from my face as we entered the lounge.

"Finally! Time to go," Tony exclaimed. I caught the concerned looks of Carol and Stephen, both mouthing the words 'Are you okay?' my way. I nodded and caught up with Carol linking arms.

"You sure?" she whispered, her breath soft as a feather brushing against my skin.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I whispered back. We made it to the airport and climbed aboard, Loki and I both making tea, settling into our books for the flight. Halfway through Thor, approached me and took the empty seat next to me.

"I am sorry for what occurred earlier. You weren't meant to see me in that way," he apologized. My face burned in embarrassment and shame.

"Don't worry about it. I should've been more forceful with my knock,"

"Ara.."

"I don't want to talk about it. Please, Thor. Drop it,"

"There's nothing to be embarrassed about. I-,"

"I'm not embarrassed. Can you drop it and leave me alone," I snapped and looked at him. Instant regret flooded my mind at his expression.

"I am sorry. Truly. I know you must find me repulsive. I'll leave you to your novel," he commented, hurt clouding his blue eyes. He got up and returned to his prior seat up front beside Bruce. Nice, Arabella. You hurt his feelings, I thought.  I attempted to resume my book but his words lingered in my head for the rest of the flight and I made a note to apologize later.

Corn Maze

Since we got a late start, we arrived after the others and had a quick introduction with the hosts. We took the picture and then grouped off, Rhodey's team entering first. The area where we at was gorgeous. They had a tent beginning to be set up where drinks and food would be served. Music blared from speakers all around the maze giving it a party-like atmosphere. The maze itself was huge and reminded me of the one in Goblet of Fire except with corn and less creepy. While waiting on our turn, I tried to talk to Thor, to apologize for my outburst on the plane.

"Thor? Listen I-,"

"Look, it's my turn. Hope you have fun," he cut me off, following the rest of his group into the maze.

"Dammit," I mumbled. When it came time for my group, Carol took her place on my left, Hope on my right.

"Having a lover's spat?" Carol asked as we turned a corner and kept going along the path.

"We are not dating. I doubt we ever will. Especially since I snapped at him on the plane,"

"Yeah, I heard. What did he do? Flatten you?"

"Stop making fun of his weight. He...ranintomenaked," I answered, saying the last part quickly.

"What?" Hope asked.

"He ran into me naked. I knocked but he didn't answer. Naturally, I went in and he was in the midst of getting dressed. We collided into each other. He happened to be nude as we did so," I ground out, my face on fire. The girls around me busted out laughing.

"Shut up..." I grumbled.

"This way. So, you were embarrassed. How big was it?" Pepper stated, trying to refrain from laughing again. My skin felt so hot, I thought I'd combust.

"I...didn't notice. I turned around too fast to really see,"

"What I don't understand it...well, why do you like Thor so much? I mean he really let himself go," Maria commented.

"Give him a break. He's been through a lot. He lost his parents, Jane dumped him and then he thought Loki died for real again and half of his people abandoned him. Besides, he's very sweet and down-to-earth, you know. He's still Thor but chubbier," I answered, pulling them around another turn.

"Hey! I think I'm lost!" Thor's loud voice echoed through the maze.

"It doesn't bother you?" Hope questioned. I shook my head and soon we were out of the maze.

"Didn't he go with Strange and Bruce? Shouldn't they have...hey, there they are," Carol noted, gesturing over to the other groups that went in before us.

"Thor's not with them," I stated.

"Guys! Where did everyone go?" Thor yelled from inside the maze.

"What happened? Wasn't he with you?" I asked, concern growing in my mind.

"Yeah, but he took a left when he should have gone straight. He kept walking ahead of us. We tried getting him to come back but he seemed distracted," Bruce answered.

"Fuck! So, he's really lost then?" I said. I started pacing, worried my outburst might have messed him up. The last group joined us and they walked over to the tent with the bar that got set up when we arrived.

"Are you coming?" Stephen asked me. I shook my head, worried about Thor.

"He's going to be okay. He'll find his way out. There's probably more exits," Stephen attempted to reassure me, rubbing my shoulders in a comforting motion.

"You don't understand. I snapped at him on the plane. Told him to leave me alone. He thought I found him repulsive," I told him, my voice quaking with a mixture of fear, concern and, more importantly, guilt.

"Hello? I'm lost. Guys, I'm really starting to panic here," Thor called out again.

"Arabella! Strange! Grab a drink. What's wrong?" Tony said, walking over to us followed by Carol, Steve, Bucky and Maria.

"She's worried that she made Thor sad. She said she snapped at him earlier. Maybe somehow convinced him she didn't like him," Carol commented. I shot her a glare and looked to the sky. The sun began to set, the day getting darker by the minute.

"Help! I can't find my way out!" Thor's voice boomed over the loud music, over the crowd of people partying.

"Why doesn't he just fly out?" Tony asked.

"No flying remember. He didn't bring the hammer or Stormbreaker either to try to stick to the rules," I stated, leaving Stephen's grasp to walk into the maze so I could find Thor.

"Wait! Arabella! You can't go in there alone. We don't even know which path he took and we can't have two Avengers lost in the maze. Look..." Steve protested, releasing a huge sigh. "I brought the hammer. So just ask him to call out for it," he stated.

"Fly out, you idiot!" Tony yelled.

"I can't! It's against the rules!" Thor shouted.

"Screw the rules! You're lost! Call out for the hammer! Fly out!" Tony shouted back, facepalming himself.

"Oh, right!" A few moments of silence filled the air despite the music blaring from the speakers around us and the people talking nearby and then the silver hammer lifted and flew into the maze. Rows of corn splintered, creating a path, disappearing deep into the maze. We watched as Thor rose above the stalks, hovering high for a few seconds before being lowered, his feet brushing the top of the corn husks. Most of us struggled not to laugh, failing as he continued flying towards us, his feet still brushing the top of the husks; his weight evidently a factor of this. He landed before the group, blue eyes twinkling, cheeks flushed red from the cool temperature and the flight back to us.

"Good job big guy. Go grab yourself a drink," Carol told him, patting his shoulder.

"Yes. I must celebrate this glorious night," He walked past us, not even glancing my way; it hurt me and I tried not let anyone see the tears springing to my eyes.

"See, he's fine. You need to get a drink yourself. Relax, have fun," Stephen told me. I nodded and headed into the direction of the bar, waiting on the bartender to come to me.

"What will it be sweetheart?" she asked me, when it came to be my turn.

"She'll take a bloody Mary, extra spicy," Thor's voice ordered before I had a chance to open my mouth. He walked up beside me, beer in hand.

"Coming right up," the bartender said, walking away to mix it up.

"You know me too well," I told him, leaning forward on the bar counter as he leaned his back on it.

"All those years and you've never noticed how much I've liked you," he confessed.

"What about Jane? Surely, you must've liked her if you dated her,"

"Jane is different. She's smart and beautiful in her own way. She's nothing compared to you. I thought that after we broke up, you might consider...but then my father died and then Asgard burned, more chaos happening shortly after that. It really messed up my mind," he told me, looking out at our friends who were talking among each other.

"Then that," I gestured to his stomach. "Happened. I guess we've both been through a lot," I commented, getting my drink and proceeding to thank the bartender.

"Repulsive, I know. You made that clear this morning," he mumbled.

"No. I don't find you repulsive at all. You're still you. That's what matters most. I'm sorry I snapped at you. You were right. I was embarrassed from walking in on you," I stated, toying with my straw. He set down his mug as he turned his body to face me. Our eyes locked and his lips were on mine before I even registered his movements. His hands came to cup the back of my skull, my own reaching up to keep them there. The kiss was soft and gentle; sweet like maple syrup, even though he had been drinking beer. His thick beard scratched my skin, tickling my lips when we took a breath only to go back in for one more. I pressed closer, my fingers crawling to latch in his long Viking style hair, his arms wrapped around my waist, gripping the fabric of my hoodie. We broke apart, foreheads touching, breathing hard.

"So does this mean you accept my apology?" I asked. He chuckled and placed a kiss on the top of my head, pulling my body into his side and wrapping an arm around my shoulders.

"Yes and much more. It confirms you like me as much as I like you. Let's go join our friends. I'm sure they'd enjoy our company," he replied. We walked down, hugging each other much to the surprise of our friends. Carol gave me a thumbs up and we continued celebrating until it was time to return home.

[jjbaconsumedmysoul]

Giorno x reader

Part 1

Well. This had certainly been one hell of a night. When you signed up for a semester abroad in Italy, you were expecting a chance to relax, to decompress in the premier centre of art, culture, music, fashion, food... Not a mafia turf war. You had not asked for this.

It had been surprisingly stressful up until today. You were lagging behind in Italian class, not to mention all of your other courses. You were a bit lonely, and had no roommate with which to share your dorm room at the university. No one wanted to talk to the weird exchange student anyway. So you had decided to treat yourself to dinner, alone. You’d surfed reviews online and picked out a restaurant that seemed very nice and not too expensive. It was a bit of a hike from the campus, but you always enjoyed sightseeing along the way. After maybe 20 minutes, you finally saw the shining golden cursive spelling out “L’Osteria Aurea” on the outside. From the street, it looked like a quaint little café. However as soon as you stepped through the entryway, feeling the cool air conditioning on your hot cheeks, you realised just how spacious the interior was.

The floor was carpeted in a deep red. Large booths lined the right wall, and a large bar lined with ornate barstool, which hosted a surprising assortment Italian wines and other assorted alcohols, stood on the left. You noticed a sign near the entrance, which you roughly translated to “please seat yourself”. As you walked through the aisles, searching for a table, you realised that room was packed, though not too noisy. You saw a man in a suit with slicked back hair dining with a woman in an expensive looking floral dress, pearls draped round her neck. You saw two teenage girls in t-shirts and sweats grabbing a bite to eat. As you neared the back of the room, you saw a small family: a mother, her two sons, and a daughter. They were easily the most underdressed of all the patrons, their clothes a bit worn and slightly stained. You finally found a small table for two (though of course for your purposes it would serve as a table for one) and meekly set down your bag.

It was at that moment that you noticed a party of three entering. It seemed like a scene from Hollywood movie as the elegantly dressed dressed man sauntered into the room, flanked by his two friends on either side. Golden hair flowed in a long braid down the back of his elaborate royal blue jacket. The suit brought out his dazzling turquoise eyes, and two ladybug brooches drew your attention to the heart shaped cut out revealing and immaculately chiselled chest. His friends were just as eccentric: a woman with bright pink hair and a long pink patterned skirt, a slit up the side revealing her thigh, and a man who was wearing… well the only words to describe it would be an orange white and blue fashion disaster. The patrons seemed to cheer for their arrival, especially for the man with the golden hair, and the restaurant suddenly grew more boisterous. The lead man (you assumed he was the head of the group by his countenance and appeals to his audience) descended the rows of tables. He finally came to the small family you had noticed earlier. The leader of the group approached the mother, uttering some words in Italian that were too fast for you to even try and understand. Meanwhile, the daughter ran up to the girl, who crouched down with a smile on her face. The two boys ran up to the aforementioned fashion disaster and began excitedly showing him a small toy gun. He rubbed his neck bashfully, seeming not to know exactly how to deal with the enthusiastic children, but trying his hardest to entertain their efforts. The man with the long braid smiled gently as the woman bowed her head holding his hands in a gesture of what seemed to be thanks. He shook his head, looking away as he muttered.

“Vorrei poter fare di più,”

It was then that he caught your eye. He smiled as you gasped as you tilted your head away nervously. Your cheeks flushed as he approached you.

“Mi scusi, ma non credo che ci siamo incontrati.” You stared, dumbfounded, your basic grasp on the Italian language completely escaping you.

“Si…???” You responded. He let out a hearty chuckle. His voice was soft and warm. It wasn’t very deep, but it still seemed confident and strong.

“Is English better?” You quickly nodded with embarrassment.

“Yeah.” He smiled, and your shame seemed to dissipate as he offered his hand.

“Giorno Giovanna,” you assumed that was his name rather than just another string of Italian syllables you couldn’t understand. You stuck out your hand and muttered your name in reply.

“Signora (y/n), wonderful to meet you” You were still uncertain as you reached out to shake his hand. Holy crap. He lifted your hand gingerly to his lips, kissing your fingers. “Incantato di conoscerLa” You blinked. Should you be… flattered? Freaked out? Did Italian men purposefully try to woo every girl they saw, or was this just a charming, charismatic young man who was trying his best to be polite? He leaned against the chair opposite you “Sorry to single you out like that. It’s just that so many people here are regulars. I always make sure to greet a new face.” 

“Are you the owner?” You inquired. He laughed again and shook his head.

“I wouldn’t exactly say that.” He glanced to the back of the room, where two men sat in the corner one in a speckled black and white suit, draping his arm around the shoulder of his partner. “We’re affiliated with the Osteria, I suppose. Are you a tourist, then?” You shook your head abashedly.

“Not exactly. I’m just a exchange student.”

At this point, his female friend had noticed you as well.

“Ah, chi è questa?”

“Trish, this is (y/n). She’s an exchange student from…”

“(Your country).” You stood up as you spoke, feeling somewhat awkward now that people were crowding around your table and you were just sitting there stupidly. Trish shook your hand and smiled.

“We don’t get newcomers here very often, especially not foreigners.” She grinned, but you almost sensed that she was hiding something behind her sweet smile. “Well, enjoy your meal.” She tugged the blond man’s arm, as if to pull him away. But it was then that you heard a voice. A voice that would haunt you for a while to come.

“Well, Giorno, who is this beauty?” Giorno froze as he heard the voice. A man had snuck up behind the three of you. All you could describe him as was… well, coven more of a fashion disaster than Giorno’s comrade. His long violet hair was swept to the side, long bangs covering one eye. The side of his head was shaved to reveal several tattoos of interlocking silver gears on his scalp. He wore a tight fitting jacket, similar to Giorno’s but fabricked in silver and deep purple to contrast rather than blue and gold. in He smiled sinisterly as Giorno turned towards him, his face suddenly cold. The man who had been playing with his the two boys quickly stepped to Giorno’s side in an almost defensive stance, as if he were a bodyguard of some sort.

“Signor Arrosticini,” he hissed through gritted teeth, feigning politeness. “I believe I requested that you use the back door for our meeting today,”

“Ah, yes!” He smiled slyly, obviously lying. “I guess it just slipped my mind.” He licked his lips devilishly “Besides, if I hadn’t greeted you in the restaurant proper, I wouldn’t be able to meet this lovely friend of yours.” Your blood ran cold as he flashed a wicked grin your way. You could tell he was… well the only way to describe it was evil. You didn’t exactly believe anyone in this world was inherently evil, but this man made your blood run cold, your spine stiffen, your hairs stand on end. Giorno’s face grew red, though his silken voice just barely masked his anger.

“She’s just a customer. Now, please, let’s take this to the back room.” The atmosphere grew even more tense as the two men who had been sitting in the back approached. Giorno and his gang left your table, without even a goodbye as they exited through a door in the back.

(A/N: This fic will take place 5 years after Part 5 ends. Everyone lived happily ever after and the operate the gang out of a restaurant that Bruno and Abbacchio co-own. They’re married cause this is my fic and why tf not ^_^. Plus this is a random villain OC I created. As per tradition, he is named after an italian food dish.)

[sinhtodau]

i am you // you are me - yoonkook - 5k

some weird soulmate shit happens.

read: yoongi keeps running into this cute cashier boy. and they keep matching?

(music to listen: 1. belief - mabinc 2. i am you you are me - zico 3. soulmate - zico ft. iu)

man, seoul has a completely different atmosphere and air to it - way different than in daegu. literally, the air smells different here and yoongi thinks it’s not necessarily a bad thing, but the fact that he notices this small and random detail just makes him a little more depressed because he longs for his cozy home back in good ole d-town.

he’s lounging in a flimsy lawn chair on his apartment balcony and distastefully sniffs the stuffy seoul air again. his mind wanders back to old, familiar places - the bustling family restaurant, his mom’s soothing voice, his father beckoning him to taste the family’s famous galbi-jjim , his brother’s annoying method of showing affection via noogies when yoongi grudgingly accepts his chores for the day.

the fond memories in his head are juxtaposed with the outside sound and sight of the bustling nighttime atmosphere. everything in seoul is so,fast-paced , even the night life, which he can clearly see from his vantage point. he hasn’t really gotten used to it all, more like, barely tolerating it. he’s kinda stubbornly refusing to settle completely which serves to make him more homesick and then he’s stuck in this cycle of stubbornness and nostalgia and longing and stubbornness and nostalgia and longing.

yoongi breaks his nostalgic reverie when he stands up, the chair loudly scraping against the floor. if he’s going to drown himself in memories and be a sad, depressed sack he might as well do it right - with some alcohol.

he checks the fridge to grab a can of beer but fuck - he’s out. all that’s left is a pack of sliced turkey meat, a sad pile of lettuce, a lone half-empty gallon of milk, and a fully empty carton that used to hold eggs.

damn, his produce is mocking him.

just a few hours ago when he opened his fridge he saw the same turkey, lettuce, milk, and egg carton and the word minimalism smugly appeared in his head. yoongi prides himself on not being wasteful; he’s able to use each and every one of his ingredients until they’re completely gone, thank you very much.

but seeing as he’s in a less than ideal mood to be holed up at home and he has a dire need of alcohol, yoongi tears his eyes away from his sad produce, grabs his wallet and keys, and wrestles himself into a big sweater to combat the chilly night-time seoul air. he grumbles as he steps out of his apartment complex. daegu was always on the warmer side. who knows, maybe the seoul air will help clear his head. maybe.

yoongi finds himself deep in thought as he’s walking, a result of his melancholy mood and the atmosphere of night probably. as a result, he doesn’t realize that he’s actually not walking in the direction of the nearest 7-eleven. when he hears the distant sound of a car angrily honking five times - goddamn, chill - he’s shaken out of his thoughts and glances at his surroundings.

nice. he’s in a random alley.

well, way to go min yoongi. this night is just continually fucking with him and becoming more and more disappointing. he takes a minute to inwardly curse at himself for his obliviousness before he has the smart idea of grabbing his phone out his pocket. he googles the nearest convenience store. the top result is ten yards from his current location.

he rounds a corner and walks a few paces before he spots it. only a single neon sign that reads “ level” adorns its storefront and he assumes that’s what the store is called. yoongi power walks toward it, through the front door, and straight towards where he thinks they should be keeping the alcohol because dammit, he is a man on a mission.

somewhere on the other end of the store, which isn’t actually far from where yoongi stands now, the clock goes from 11:59 to 12:00.

yoongi surveys his surroundings. he’s bombarded with neon colors from every angle, which makes the store feel bigger than it actually is. from the outside, it looked cramped and dull and drab and not colorful. due to this very misleading outward appearance, yoongi immediately thinks that this is exactly the type of store that is empty seventy-five percent of the time and will most likely be out of business within the next month.

okay, it is midnight, but yoongi can tell when a store is being frequented or not, in this case: not. it’s the only possible explanation as to why his sneakers squeak so unusually loud on the unusually pristine tiles.

he strides towards the refrigerated area and for some reason, he feels a strange sense of familiarity, like he’s been here before; a type of vague awareness that comes from something like a dream.

actually, yoongi’s seen stores like this before. namjoon has a very cultured and particular sense of tumblr aesthetic and this store fits the bill perfectly.

yoongi chalks that niggling feeling as a latent reaction to all the posts he witnessed namjoon reblogging to his tumblr, as they sat on the couch on their respective phones. he’s suddenly bitter again because now, with his current situation and location , he can’t even call namjoon out for trying to be hipster because he’s too far away to even see namjoon or his stupid hipster-aesthetic-whatever tumblr in person.

yoongi spots the alcohol, finally, and grabs two - he hesitates and turns around - three bottles of the brand he likes and walks to the checkout station.

well fuck, he was hoping for a some sort of self-checkout machine - this is seoul, the largest metropolis of korea after all - but he should have known not to expect anything when he set foot inside.

god, he’s too impatient and drained and sad to deal with another human being but sucks up his feelings once again as he steps up to the counter. no one is actually there and yoongi spots a bell and rings it twice. a couple more times, more insistently, for good measure. suddenly he feels his phone buzz in his pocket. he checks and sees it’s from namjoon.

at that moment someone stumbles out of the ‘employees only’ door and utters a quick apology for making yoongi wait.

yoongi quickly glances up from the phone and sees that the cashier is a young twenty-something boy. all he sees is a mop of soft brown hair and just under it, a pair of soft brown eyes which he unwittingly makes eye contact with. but suddenly it is broken - the cashier beginning to ring up yoongi’s items, and yoongi looking back at his phone.

dance monster [12:10 am]

hyung

you’ll never guess wat happend today

me [12:10 am]

what

dance monster [12:11 am]

so u kno that tattoo i got a while back ????

me [12:11 am]

joon ur gonna have to be a little more specific

dance monster [12:11 am]

ok ok that one on my wrist !

the moon one !!1!1 !

me [12:11 am]

so...what

dance monster [12:11 am]

idek hyung like

ok fuck

this sounds so weird but like

for some reason i woke up this morning

me [12:11 am]

a goddamn miracle

dance monster [12:12 am]

shut up hyung

anyway i woke up

and now i have a new sun tattoo

me [12:12 am]

wait

what

dance monster [12:12 am]

idk !!! hyung idek wats goin on ajoer

i think it’d be better if u called me

asklejroijga

“excuse me?”

right, yoongi still needs to pay for his things. he jams his phone into his back pocket and fishes for his wallet. he awkwardly fumbles for some bills, “ah, sorry - here you go,” and all but flings them on the counter in his haste to get back to his conversation with namjoon and to go back home and avoid strangers altogether, let alone semi-attractive strangers.

it looks like his original plan of drowning in sorrow will have to be put on hold. nonetheless, he welcomes the new interruption in the form of his dear friend.

right as yoongi’s about to exit the store, the cashier calls out to him.

“um,” he pauses cutely, “nice sweater.”

yoongi looks down. it’s an old number, one that jimin got for him as a christmas present. it’s kinda not his style because it’s colorblocked - well, color in general - but it’s the first thing he found as he left his apartment and it’s oversized and it’s a gift. from jimin. so.

he looks up again and sees the exact same sweater on the cashier.

o-kay. what a coincidence.

at this moment, yoongi gets a really good look at the twenty-something cashier boy. well, as good of a look as he can seeing as half of cashier boy’s body is obscured by the counter.

the cashier is clearly taller and bigger than yoongi but the sweater still looks oversized and his fingers just barely peek out from under the sleeves. yoongi gets a good look at cashier boy’s doe eyes and button nose and his whole look just screams soft.   fuck semi-attractive. this guy is possibly the most attractive guy yoongi has ever seen. the most attractive person in seoul, by far. at least to yoongi’s standards. and this is only the visible half - yoongi gulps - doesn’t even want to think about anything lower than that.

he eloquently chokes out a word. “cool.”

real smooth, min yoongi.

well, time’s up. yoongi’s just about done with social interaction and he’s itching to get home and he wants to maybe forget this whole thing because goddamn, he’s awkward and the cashier is cute.

cashier boy blinks and fuck, yoongi can see his eyelashes from here. and then, cashier boy smiles , all twinkling eyes and soft lips, “have a nice evening, sir.”

yoongi bolts out of the door.

/

jungkook just barely managed to keep his fluster in check. he tried to not to stare at the strange man’s silvery hair, or at his sharp profile, or at his attractive piercings, three silver hoops on each ear - fuck, since when did jungkook find piercings on anyone but himself attractive?

but the thing that caught jungkook’s attention the most was the sweater. not the fact that it was so large that it swallowed the man’s entire frame but still made the entire fit scream effortless and attractive. not the fact that the color palette complimented his silver hair.

they had the same fucking sweater?

taehyung, who is privy to jungkook’s unique tastes, had carefully chosen the very sweater as a christmas present. he claims that he happened upon it in some random thrift store and thought it screamed jungkook and bought it even though christmas wasn't for another three months.

jungkook thinks otherwise. the sweater is just. so nice. taehyung probably bought it at a non thrift shop last minute, which would explain why jungkook ran into another person also wearing it. yeah. that would explain the coincidence. it’s definitely embarrassing, but people are bound to be caught wearing the same clothes, seeing as they’re mass produced for that reason - to be worn.

as he starts cleaning up, jungkook silently thanks himself for choosing the night shifts at level supermarket because 1. he likes staying up late 2. he gets to meet interesting and colorful characters like that one sweet ahjumma with cotton candy pink hair that comes in every day at 9:36 pm sharp to buy a bag of lollipops and nothing else, for example.

jungkook’s checking the inventory for the third time - it always helps to be extra thorough - but his mind begins to wander back to that silver-haired man.

a small - admittedly very small - part of him wants to never see that man again because he was a stranger, a very attractive stranger, and jungkook acted like such a freaking loser. god he’s blushing again. but the bigger- much bigger - part of him wants to see the silver-haired man again. like, he was fucking attractive. but also something about a frustrated looking man coming in a store at midnight that hardly anyone ever comes to just.

he’s like a novel jungkook is itching to read.

jungkook just wants to know.

jungkook wants to know. jungkook wants to know how this man likes his eggs cooked. does he have any tattoos? is he a morning person? okay, maybe not that because he’s up and about at midnight.

what is his opinion on soulmates? does he listen to dean? what does his smile look like? does he like smiling? is he a smiley person? is he doing okay?

because most of all, jungkook wants to tell him that things are going to be okay. something about this man seemed - lonely and jungkook has an urge to reach out and be like, me too, i understand, i hope you’re okay.

but. jungkook shakes his head to clear the thoughts. he’s doing it again. he’s getting ahead of himself and he’s doing that fantasizing thing he tends to do. at his core, jungkook is a very kind and empathetic person and the times he does feel good about himself he wants to meet people and reach out. back at his small hometown, the people were very friendly and accepting, and this made it easy for him. and with the town being so small, eventually jungkook knew everyone and everyone knew him and he was very comfortable with this.

however, this is seoul. and after making the difficult decision to leave the comfort of his town to pursue his dreams in the form of a dance degree, jungkook has learned that not everyone feels the same way in this city.

‘city people’   he thinks with distaste - but mostly - disappointment.

jungkook closes and locks the store’s front door, as well as his hopes for seeing the silver-haired man again. he’s no stranger to how this kind of thing works. nothing good happens when he gives into wishful thinking.

/

as soon as yoongi is back in the safety of his apartment he calls namjoon. “joon, what’s up?”

“okay, so. like. yeah. i don’t know, hyung!” yoongi goes to open a bottle of beer, his silence prompting namjoon to continue.

“i just woke up and now i have a new sun tattoo on my wrist! honestly, it looks pretty good paired with the one i already have of the crescent moon.”

“well, as long as you’re happy with it joon, i guess it’s cool.” yoongi takes a long gulp, “could’ve been worse. could’ve woken up with the word ‘penis’ tattooed in large letters instead.”

namjoon cackles heartily and yoongi smiles at the sound. “yeah, you’re right hyung.” he laughs again, “this is like some weird soulmate shit.

yoongi elegantly swallows some beer down the wrong airway. “yeah,” he coughs a few times to clear his throat, “come to think of it-,”

on second thought, maybe yoongi will keep cashier boy to himself. what happened earlier that night still felt - unreal. yoongi feels like he’ll break the enigmatic anonymity of the attractive cashier boy if he says anything.

“hyung?”

“no, nothing. nevermind,” yoongi changes the subject, “how’s that new track going?” and namjoon enthusiastically explains his progress.

/

the next day, yoongi finds himself slouched at his desk, pen tossed somewhere to the side. he’s looking down at what he can only call organized chaos atop his desk. this is usually how his song production process starts anyway. he scans some of the lyrics he just scribbled all over and he sees stuff like ‘ enigma and mystique ’ and ‘ eyes that hold stars ’ and ‘ deer in headlights... i’m struck by your beauty mystery loveliness- ’

uh-huh. yup.  okay. yoongi stands up and gathers all those loose leaf papers in a pile and goes to deposit them in the wastebin.

he pauses and throws them in a random drawer in his nightstand.

he needs to get out. he grabs his leather jacket draped across the back of his desk chair and power walks his way out of his apartment.

yoongi finds himself wandering the city again and wait. it’s that store again. what the fuck? did he just subconsciously make his way to back to the store and it’s attractive cashier-

shit. yoongi sees said cashier boy through the front windows, presumably stocking a shelf. he gets up and starts walking back to the counter, but as he’s doing that his body faces the front doors, which probably puts yoongi in his plain sight.

yoongi quickly backpedals, hoping he hasn’t been spotted.

he stands in place for a beat.

he refuses to acknowledge how hard his heart is hammering.

after much internal debate, yoongi decides that fuck it. he’s already here and he sees a huge jar of cheese puffs from where he’s standing and he might as well get that. because. he needs. inspiration.

he walks in, trying his best to put confidence in his steps and not looking at the cashier - who is now sitting at the counter with earphones and bobbing his head to a beat and is he humming?

yoongi walks down the chip aisle, deciding that he needs to have different flavors on hand when he gets tired of the cheese puffs.

over the top of the aisle, yoongi can see cashier boy stretching and fuck. his shoulders look good in that leather jacket too.

yoongi reaches the end of the aisle and is about to stroll into the next one, but almost trips on his shoelaces of his black converse. he kneels down and glances at the counter, seeing that the cashier is now standing. they make awkward eye contact and yoongi quickly goes back to tying his own shoelace, not before seeing a flash of black converses disappearing behind the counter.

when yoongi goes to pay for his items, cashier boy has taken off the leather jacket, leaving him in a simple white tee with a simple supreme logo. and now his incredibly toned biceps are out on display. wow. is it getting hot in here? yoongi sees the veins in cashier boy’s arms when they flex to hold the large container of cheese puffs. yoongi gulps.

it’s too hot - yoongi strips off his own leather jacket and slings it over an arm. eyes looking anywhere but the cashier, he taps his foot and waits for cashier boy to state the price and yoongi can pay and then he can leave.

except. cashier boy hasn’t said anything for a little while. yoongi chances a quick glance upwards. cashier boy is staring at - yoongi’s chest? fuck, did he wear his kumamon jammies out or something?

but like, if this boy has something against kumamon, yoongi has a serious bone to pick with him.

yoongi glances down at his own shirt. then back up at cashier boy. then back at his own shirt.

weird. yoongi’s wearing a supreme shirt. cashier boy’s wearing one too. cashier boy squints, like he’s suspicious of yoongi or something.

yoongi clears his throat, “uh - can i pay for my things?”

this seems to shake the cashier out of whatever stupor he’s in, “ah - sorry.”

yoongi pays for his things and goes to grab the bag the cashier is holding out for him to take. yoongi overshoots a little; okay, maybe he’s a little flustered and accidently knocks his hand against the cashier’s.

there’s a little clink as yoongi’s ring bumps against cashier boy’s.

okay. fuck. they’re wearing matching rings too?

they both face each other with similar looks of shock and confusion. before either of them have a chance to say anything, yoongi books it out of there real quick.

/

something weird is going on and jungkook doesn’t know what to do.

he’s just minding his own business, listening to offonoff’s new album while doing his math homework at the register to keep an eye on the store in case anyone does come in. it’s midnight but still.

then, jungkook sees movement in the corner of his eyes and realizes that someone has come in without him noticing.

it’s the silver-haired man again. and shit, he looks really good. he’s standing in front of the snack shelf, with his hands in the back pockets of his jeans and he’s wearing this large leather jacket.

jungkook does not salivate.

but wait. jungkook looks down at himself. how is he also wearing a leather jacket?

it must be another fluke. jungkook hurriedly stands up and takes his jacket off, pacing around for a bit.

he looks over at the silver-haired man again and sees him tying his right shoelace.

jungkook looks down at his shoes.

his left shoelace is untied.

a mixture of mild horror and panic starts thrumming through his body, but he refuses to tie his shoelaces and resumes his nervous pacing.

he turns around and jumps slightly. the silver haired man is right in front of him, fidgeting with his hair.

jungkook goes to ring up his purchases, which are all comprised of various family size chip bags. he goes to ring up the last item, a jumbo container of cheese puffs, and pauses. the silver-haired man has taken off his leather jacket and. why. is he wearing a supreme shirt. like jungkook.

jungkook stares dumbfoundedly at that stupid supreme logo and the man’s prominent collarbones before he clears his throat and asks for jungkook to ring up the total.

right. jungkook hurriedly bags everything and thrusts them towards the man, hoping he’ll leave quickly.

the man accidentally knocks his hand against jungkook’s and this time jungkook does not hide his shock.

you've got to be fucking kidding. they have matching rings. it's like they're a couple or something.

what. is happening.

/

the next night after his shift at the local coffee shop, yoongi actively seeks out level convenience store, as well as its resident attractive cashier. he’s wearing this ostentatious, bright yellow, furry thing. it’s so. loud. and lowkey ugly. hence the reason why he’s out at night.

however, yoongi swears his sweater is bright enough that he’s probably glowing in the dark.

but, yoongi also needs to prove a point. whatever cosmic fuckery is going on, whatever deity is fucking with him, yoongi just wants to prove to himself that this is all bullshit. running into a cute stranger repeatedly is enough, and yoongi doesn’t need any other unexplainable shit happening.

/

jungkook is tapping his foot, a habit of his that surfaces only when he’s nervous or anxious. jungkook is definitely focusing on math homework and definitely not looking out for a certain silver-haired stranger.

he rubs his nose with the sleeve of his sweater and almost sneezes. geez. jungkook had asked taehyung to lend him his craziest article of clothing at the moment, seeing as taehyung’s fashion style is overall - crazy. so, taehyung tossed him the first thing he laid eyes on in his closet, and it was this gucci sweater. gucci my ass, jungkook thinks. this sweater is just a very good excuse to cosplay as big bird.

jungkook just wants to figure out what is going on. like, he meets some cute stranger and-

holy shit. he sees said stranger standing outside on the sidewalk.

okay, somebody up there must hate jungkook because - he looks down at himself just to make sure - both of them are once again, matching.

like, how does the stranger still look striking in such an ugly sweater?

jungkook can only stare as the stranger swiftly turns around and bolts down the street.

/

yoongi slams the door of his apartment closed, breathing heavily. he looks through the peephole to make sure no one had followed him. he’s not taking any chances.

that’s it. something is up and yoongi’s solution is to - hole himself up in his apartment.

wait, can he do that? oh yeah, it’s friday. and he doesn’t have any shifts until monday.  fantastic. he can devote himself wholeheartedly to his unfinished tracks over the weekend.

yoongi wakes up saturday afternoon, but allows himself the luxury of lounging around in bed for a few more hours. this effectively brings the start of his day well into saturday evening. he fishes around for some spare instant ramen packets, and begins working as soon as he gives himself some salty sustenance.

his weekend goes by like this: immersing himself with writing lyrics and producing elementary beats for a few straight hours and then taking short naps in between. he eats if he remembers. or if namjoon reminds him.

all in all, he does a good job of not thinking about the weird stuff that’s been going on, and especially about the soft-looking cashier boy.

except.

yoongi stumbles out of his bedroom, finally succumbing to his stomach’s urges, as well as namjoon’s rapid texts.

he fumbles around for a cup of ramen - his last one, he’ll have to refill - and goes to find a scissor to cut off the plastic wrap.

his fingers slip and he ends up cutting himself.

he sighs as he looks down at his bleeding finger. he dabs at it lightly to try to clear away the blood, but it just keeps oozing out. he grabs a tissue and presses on the fresh wound, waiting for it to clot, but the blood just keeps coming.

what the heck? he didn’t cut himself that hard.

ah, shit. he doesn’t have any bandaids.

he checks his phone. 2:55 am. is there a store open at this hour-

there might be one.

before yoongi thinks about it too hard, he wraps a clean tissue around his finger and books it out of his apartment. he’s not about to hold a tissue around his finger for the rest of the night to keep it from getting infected.

as he fast-walks to level convenience store, yoongi thinks about cashier boy again for the first time in awhile (a couple days.) maybe whatever matchy-matchy curse or spell or shit is over, since yoongi hadn’t seen or even thought about the boy. wow. an achievement.

cashier boy probably isn’t even there, seeing as it’s so late.

whatever, yoongi just needs to grab some bandaids and then he’s out.

he heads into the store, notices that the register is unattended, and goes to grab a box of bandaids. while he’s at it, he stops by the ramen aisle to refill his stock.

as he makes his way to the register, he sees someone now sitting behind the counter. yoongi stops in his tracks. it’s cashier boy. he looks as stunning as ever. and he’s fiddling with one of his fingers, which happens to be bandaged. he looks up and only then does yoongi continue walking towards him.

none of them say anything as cashier boy rings up his items, but he does raise his eyebrows slightly when he notices the blood-soaked tissue around yoongi’s finger.

after he pays, yoongi doesn’t leave right away. instead, he rips open the box of bandaids and slaps one around his finger.

“how did you hurt yourself?”

holy shit, even cashier boy’s voice is attractive - what the fuck - with a soft, lilting tone to it.

“uh, i cut myself trying to get some ramen.” god he sounds stupid.

“wait, really?” cashier boy’s doe eyes widen - yoongi sees his eyelashes, - “me too! i was doing inventory and had to refill some ramen for the shelves and yeah.” he gesticulates with his injured finger.

yoongi is silent for a moment. they even have matching wounds.

“this shit is real, isn't it?”

cashier boy tilts his head. “oh. you mean the weird clothes thing-”

the lights in the store flicker and then suddenly fade out completely.

yoongi panics for a second as his eyes adjust to the darkness, but that initial shock instantly goes away as soon as he sees cashier boy’s big eyes reflecting the street lights outside.

he finishes cashier boy’s sentence. “...yeah. the weird clothes-matching thing.”

“well, my best explanation is that the universe continually derives pleasure from fucking with me.” cashier boy pauses, “n-not that it's always a negative thing! i mean, this time wasn't so bad!” he rubs the back of his neck sheepishly, “i-you - sorry! i didn't mean to make that sound like an insult to you.”

yoongi chuckles, “hey, it's fine. the universe likes fucking with me too.”

cashier boy shyly ducks his head.

yoongi looks around the store, now shrouded in complete darkness. “should we maybe find the fuse box or something..?”

cashier boy sits down on his stool. “nah, it’s fine. this happens quite often, actually. i don’t even know why you bother coming here when there are plenty of 7-eleven’s,” he sighs, “this store is pretty shitty and rundown.”

“i don’t know. i kinda like the warm, colorful vibe.” yoongi thinks, also, it’s because you’re here.  

“well, the longest the power’s been out was like, thirty minutes.” cashier boy unlocks his phone and begins scrolling through, “um - you’re free to leave..? i have everything under control.”

yoongi makes no move to leave and hops up to sit atop the counter. in doing so, he’s inevitably brought himself closer to cashier boy. when yoongi turns his head, he sees cashier boy up close, ensconced in moonlight, the contours of his face highlighted by shadows.

yoongi stares at cashier boy’s dark eyes, and at his eyelashes as they fan across his cheeks when he blinks slowly.

yoongi’s eyes are immediately drawn to his lips when he worries them between his teeth. if they begin leaning into each other’s orbit, none of them are the wiser.

suddenly, yoongi feels a sharp sting on his forearm. at the same time, cashier boy jerks away, hissing in pain.

something is etching itself into yoongi’s skin and he squeezes his arm to try to take away some of the pain.

his arm is still searing when the lights flicker back on.

“god, what the fuck was that-” yoongi looks down at his right arm, all red and puffy, and sees a tattoo.

it's a lock.

yoongi looks up in shock.

cashier boy has a similar look on his face. and on his left arm, is a tattoo of a key.

there's still specks of blood on cashier boy's fresh tattoo and yoongi grabs a nearby napkin and slowly dabs on it.

cashier boy flinches slightly, but yoongi places a hand on his upper arm to comfort him, to ground him. yoongi traces the boy’s tattoo lightly with his thumb and looks back at his own. a perfect match.

“i’m yoongi. min yoongi.”

cashier boy smiles softly. “jungkook.”

/

me [12:01 pm}

joon

quick question

so like

did anything weird happen

before ur tattoo appeared

dance monster [12:15 pm]

i mean

not that i can think of ??

hyung just cuz u and jungkook had some storybook soulmate romance doesn't mean smt like that happened to me

me [12:32 pm]

well what happened that day

dance monster [12:44 pm]

nothing really

i just had a study session with jin

me [12:49 pm]

‘study’

what exactly were u two studying

dance monster [12:50 pm]

hyung

need i remind u that jin is my metaphysics and epistemology tutor and wait wat were we studying ?

oh yea !!!

~metaphysics and epistemology~

me [1:00 pm]

you think he's cute, don't you

dance monster [1:05 pm]

im not answering that

me [1:06 pm]

im sensing a blush

dance monster [1:10 pm]

actually

now that i think about it

i came into that session late that day

as i was leaving my apartment i somehow

hit my knee on the doorframe

and fell

and dropped all my stuff

left a nasty bruise

also got a paper cut across my right palm as i was tryna pick up all the books in a hurry

me [1:16 pm]

you would

i fuckin bet smt like that happened to jin

hello

joon?

/

yoongi is rudely awakened by big bang’s ‘bang bang bang’ - why did he let his boyfriend pick his ringtone?

said boyfriend stirs in his sleep, burying his face deeper into yoongi’s shoulder and wrapping his arms tighter around yoongi’s waist. “mmph - hyung. make it stop. let’s nap more.”

yoongi turns his head and places a kiss atop jungkook’s forehead, “sorry baby. just let me take this real quick.”

he blindly grabs around for his cell phone and sees namjoon’s caller id lighting up.

“what.”

“hyung! what the fuck. what is happening.”

yoongi groans. “yes, what is happening. please enlighten me.”

“me and jin have matching bruises! even cuts and everything! i met up with him today and remember that cut i got on my palm? he had one too, and then we realized we have the same injuries!”

yoongi tries to process this information as fast as he can with a sleep-addled brain. “so, he’s a masochist?”

“no! god, no. he’s the one with the sun tattoo! remember how my sun tattoo appeared? well, he’s the one that had it, and he said that a moon tattoo appeared on him! like mine! hyung, we’re matching!”

“well, congratulations.” yoongi sounds grumpy, but he means it. “though i feel bad for jin. you’re a fucking klutz. don’t kill him before you ask him out officially.” he yawns. “i’m going back to sleep.”

with that, yoongi hangs up and turns back to wrap himself around jungkook.

“hyung, what was that about?” jungkook murmurs with his eyes still closed.

“nothing. just some weird soulmate shit.” he buries his nose in jungkook’s fragrant hair. “let’s go back to sleep.” ~

[weapon13whitefang]

Girls Helping Girls

So I got a story for you all and this happened tonight.

As many of you know I work for my local sheriff department on the night shift as a Support Service Operator. This means I handle stuff upstairs for our local jail and help citizens by transferring them to dispatch or the jail and handle exparte’s and warrants. I’m a sort of line of work for the paperwork and communication system.

My job has me wear a black sport shirt with the sheriff star ironed onto my left breast area. I’m required to wear a shirt that represents the department along with black pants and nice shoes. It’s Friday so it’s jeans and my work shirt and tennis shoes.

Friday nights are cheat nights for my weight work. I always get something I really crave on these nights. For tonight I ended up picking McDonald’s.

In the area around me there are four McDonald’s. All the McDonald’s in my area are dominated by POC workers. This is important because it wasn’t always like this. In fact it used to be only on one side of town was the “black McDonald’s” (as people would call it) and the others were “white McDonald’s” (again not what I called it but how people separated them... It’s stupid I’m aware). Well now each McDonald’s is prominently black or POC workers with the occasional older white worker or teenager. And they’re dominated by women workers with a scattering of men here and there... This is important to the story because I went through some shit

As an employee of the Sheriff’s department I have to present myself in a respectful and decent way. I can’t be seen buying alcohol in my shirt or cussing people out or fighting or anything that sheds “indecency” on the department. I have to be a model citizen basically.

Well anyway I decided I wanted McDonald’s for my cheat food tonight. So I pulled into the McDonald’s nearest my work and the line was huge. I really wanted McDonald’s so I pulled into a parking spot and walked in since I had time for it. It’s a bit crowded inside but the lines are moving quickly.

About two minutes after I enter, a black male comes stumbling in... Bringing in the smell of very potent weed. College dorm life and working with the department, I know the smell of weed and I know this man is very baked in the smell. A very cheap but strong smell at that.

The man stumbles - literally stumbles - beside me. I turn to glance at him to make sure he’s not gonna fall on me and then I looked forward. Well I guess when I turned he saw the badge on my shirt because he gets real close all of a sudden and said “well ain’t you pretty for a cop”.

It doesn’t let up. He starts saying weird and creepy shit at me and I’m getting uncomfortable. Now if I wasn’t in my uniform shirt I’d tell him to go fuck humself. But I’m in my uniform shirt and I’m the type of person that if I can not SPEAK how I’m feeling, then I start to curl in myself and get very easily intimidated. My words feel like a fist and a shield to me. Without them I don’t have the force and just a tiny shield. So I start shifting away. But he keeps getting closer... and keeps saying stuff like “oh you’re so young” and “that shirt looks good on you” and just borderline uncomfortable stuff. Nothing too bad honestly but just uncomfortable with him being so close.

Plus he smelled like alcohol along with the weed and I grew up in an alcoholic family when I was younger so while drunk people don’t bother me they do put me on edge. So I’m all edged up because I feel like I can’t defend myself and he’s in my bubble.

Well when it’s my turn to order, I look away from the guy and make eye contact with the girl at the register. She’s a tiny white girl with red hair and her jaw locks and she says “excuse me ma’am” and walks off quickly and mutters something to the guy bagging burgers for drive through. He nods and then she goes to the front window and talks to someone in a manager shirt.

Red head comes back and with her comes the manager; an older black woman. The manager proceeds to take my order. As I’m ordering, the black woman pauses and looks right behind me at the man and speaks firmly; “sir can you please back up, we’ll be with you shortly” and the man had moved closer to me again while I hadn’t noticed, being comforted by the presence of the other women having clouded my fear / stiff and alert attitude.

“Girl c’mon, ya ain’t gotta y’all to me in that tone” is what he slurs out and the manager bulks.

“Sir I ain’t your girl, I’m a woman and I’m asking you to please step back from my customer so I can serve her without you hovering over her”.

At this point I’m surprised. She didn’t seem to care she was being rather loud and firm with a customer. In fact she seemed to be trying to keep me closer to the checkout desk while watching him.

To make a long story short, the man and the manager get into it and are just going at each other before she tells him she will call the cops because he’s disturbing the peace of her restaurant. The guy - smelling of weed and alcohol- cusses everyone out and kicks the trash can over before leaving out the door.

Afterwards the manager asks if I’m okay and I promise I am then asks if I want to call the police and report him. I said no and just wanted food and to get to work. So they get my food and the manager gives her headset to the assistant manager before saying she’s gonna watch me walk out because the man still might be there. One of the older Makes goes with her as well and they watch me get to my car with no sign of the guy.

Basically this was very sweet of the manager and the checkout girl to look after me. They didn’t know anything about me but they still helped me and watched out for me and that’s just good people.

Also! I never wanna piss off an older black woman! She looked ready to throw hands with the man and jump over the counter to get at him when he was running his mouth! Like damn I was scared and she was looking after me LOL!

[the-brilliant-questioner]

This is My family part 3 ( Gotham x OC’s)

Hi guys, so I’m trying really hard to get back on my feet and this blog. As some know my life has not been cooperating, I’m going to try my hardest to push through. And despite what some of the Anons on here are saying I’m going to still write for Gotham ( or at least still try to) But anyway please enjoy this part three of This is My Family, the fanfic that I’m writing about me and my momma @high-functioning-fangirl473 . This part is a flash back that’s why there are characters that are alive.

We were getting ready to go to another head families of Gotham meeting or whatever it was called. As you can tell I didn’t quite care about it. My parents had made sure that I wore nice clothes, hair pulled up, and everything else done accordingly. “ Now Thea make sure you stay respectful, and don’t speak as open as you did last time.” My mother told me. Despite being a part of an Irish mob family none of us that accent. So my mother made sure to use proper vocabulary when we could. “ Yes Mom I know the drill, I don’t even really exist unless spoken to.” I replied smoothing my dress out. “ Don’t be an ass.” My Mom said leaving the room. I mean what I said was true, you can’t mess up unless you’re forced into a situation by someone talking to you.It was part of being polite and not getting my self in trouble. Only my Mom, Dad, and I were going. You know despite my siblings having nothing to do, they of course didn’t have to come. I know I’m the oldest which means I would one day probably run the family, but the truth is I don’t want this life. Never did, and yet I’m having trouble finding a way out.

When we arrived there were two men for weapon searches and two more people behind them inside. I don’t think that they weapon security, the female one wandered from room to room and then back. She was way different from everyone one else. While most security personnel wore all black, she wore a deep purple jumpsuit. Parts of the sides cut out, leather sleeves ( like rock n’ roll sleeves), and what was really different was that the tips of her hair were dyed purple. I know it sounds weird but I had an overwhelming feeling of comfort when I saw her. For just a moment. She seemed just as out of place as I was.

And there it was, already full of food, the dreaded table. The table we always did business on. Sometimes people die there. One time a man was shot right at the table for betraying the family’s. You betray us the penalty was death. Don Falcone is a very patient man but he does have a set of rules and expectations. And push him far enough, well that’s the end of you.

While we are the heads of the family discussed business. Most of the families owned many restaurants, bars, etc. and we had been losing a lot of money on under stocking. Everyone was taking a loss from placing our money with unrepeatable sources. I had looked in to it, a company that most of the families used had changed owners and then the managment was not as good as it was. It was to be expected it’s what happens with most businesses when the owners change. Unknowingly I had sighed loud enough for everyone to hear, because when I looked back up everyone had been staring at me. “ Do you have something you would like to add Ms. Ochoa-Burke? “ Don Falcone asked. Before I could answer my parents were ready to jump in explaining I was in short a know nothing child just trying to learn the ropes. 

They were then cut off by the Don when he said “ No. If she has something to share, I would like to hear it.” He then motioned that it was okay for me to speak. Nervously I stood up. “ Um- Well it’s really simple. Why don’t we just... does anyone have a pen or paper?” I asked. They all looked at me like I was insane. Then I felt a tap on my shoulder and the girl who I saw earlier in the purple handed me paper and a pen. I then walked over to the Don after asking for permission and laid the paper in front of him. Trying not to look awkward in how far I had to bend over to meet the table. At times like this I wish I wasn’t six feet tall, nonetheless I started scribbling my idea. “ Lets day one of our establishments doesn’t is running out of alcohol. It’s a bar so that’s of course what it’s known for. They do serve food but people don’t usually eat there. Then we have this restaurant over here has plenty of alcohol but business has been good and stocks of food have been diminishing. An idea would be just buy more and having to pay more even though it’s close to the time you order restock anyway. “

“Why can’t these just share? The bar gets 50% of the alcohol the restaurant didn’t sell and the restaurant gets an equal share of the food the bar doesn’t use. And it’s the same with other establishments we trade with each other with what the other needs. It will then put us back where we were in our stable ordering schedule and when we pay for those trades who cares? It’s all going back to the family. We help each other, a little I scratch your back you scratch mine scenario.” I finished pushing the piece of paper closer to him. He picked it up to get a better look. I stood there stiff and nervous he kept looking it over not saying anything almost emotion less. “ That’s not half bad. I’ll give your a plan a trial month to see if it works. If we regain our losses I’ll give you and your family a higher position in the family, and you a better seat at the table.” Shocked expressions fell on everyone’s faces. “ What’s your first name again?” He asked. I swallowed hard and answered “ Theadora.” He then folded the paper and placed in his suit jacket. “ Well Theodora congratulations on your first business proposal.” We shook hands and I returned to my seat so we could finish the meeting. My parents didn’t talk me as we tried walk out. As we were leaving I was stopped by a woman in gold dress stopped me. I recognized her as Fish Mooney when I saw her signature black and red hair.

“ I like you girl what was your name again?” Mrs. Mooney said coming up to me. “ Theadora Ochoa-Burke. “ I replied. “ Your businesses idea actually sounded smart, coming from someone so... young. Why don’t you come down to my club? I would love to show you the place. “ I agreed to her offer, I mean what’s the harm. My parents were being stopped as well by other heads from other families. I was getting stopped a lot as well I didn’t think a sigh and a little idea would get this much attention. Some of it Unwanted since there were some sarcastic sounding remarks of people telling us that they hoped it worked for our sake. My parents had made it to the car before me when I heard them call for me to leave. I started to leave until I felt a poke and then a hard tap on my arm which made me turn around saying loudly “ Ow!” The girl then replied “ OH MY GOD YOUR REAL! For a second your brains, height, and age combo didn’t seem to fit a normal human.” The girl said happily. Unsure how to answer “ I guess I’m just weird...” She then placed a hand on my shoulder and comfortingly said “ Hey, I like weird which means I like you.” I smiled softly at her I found it odd to have someone say they like me after two seconds. “ Names Phillipa, best bounty hunter in all of Gotham. Don’t let the bald one ever tell you differently.” She said holding out her gloves hand. I shook it introducing myself. I then heard my mother yell for me to hurry up. I apologized to Pippa for having to leave so quickly after our introductions and ran to our car.

“ What were you THINKING!” My mom yelled at me as we entered our house. “ Sorry.” I apologized knowing she would be like this when we weren’t around anyone else. “ Why are you trying to embarrass us more than we already are? We aren’t prospering as much as the other families already, and now you made a “deal” with Don Falcone that could ruin us!” She shouted as she put her coat up in the other room. I tried to slowly walk away, to keep my distance, that is until my dad grasped my wrist and squeezed it hard. I slowly followed them into the kitchen my dad still holding onto my wrist. “ I’m sorry mom, I didn’t mean to draw attention. But he asked me a question I couldn’t just say no.” I tried to explain. “ You could’ve kept that sigh in or made it quieter, but no you had to make it sound like a big production.” She retorted to me. My dad said nothing he just kept his hold on me and when my mom would start up again he gripped harder until I whimpered “ Dad please let go, that hurts... I’m sorry it just hurts stop.” I then turned to my mom once he let go. “ Mom I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make it loud, I didn’t know I was doing it loud. You know I don’t like going to these especially these ones of unimportance. Why doesn’t Shaun have to go to any of them?” I questioned. My little brother who could careless about these responsibilities always got to slack off. He always got what he wanted, I think it was just because my parents didn’t want to argue with him more than they already do. She then exasperated and continued “ This isn’t about Shaun! Your going to be head of both of our families soon. And you want to start of with this shit show of a plan?”

“ It’s going to work I promise it’s too simple not too. We’ll start I know we’ve been needing a restock and a few wines.” I tried my best to convince them to change their minds. But they wouldn’t budge. They both would going on and on about how this was a bad idea and I would ruin the families if this didn’t work. Eventually we all gave up, we had what felt like the exact same conversation with in that conversation. I headed up stairs to my room, crashed on to my bed. And started to cry, out sadness or frustration I wasn’t sure, all I knew was that I wanted to and that I had to hope they didn’t see me cry.

Back at Falcones, after everyone had left, he had called Phillipa back into his office. “ You called sir?” She asked as she entered the room. “ Phillipa you know the Ochoa- Burke’s daughter Theadora correct?” He asked her calmly as he did anytime he would talk about business. “ The smart kid?” She asked making sure she knew who he was talking about. “ Yes her, the one who spoke today. I have heard many negative rumors about her ideas and her family. I would like you to keep an eye on her for me. She can do great things, with proper guidance. She’s smart, but that can be dangerous in our time. “ He explained to her, and he knew she above all people knew that if Falcone wanted to keep an eye on you you were either were of great value to him, or great danger. Either way Pippa would be ready for both scenarios. She of all people knew what it was like to be different, so different that you could be underestimated. “ Will do sir, I’ll watch her and protect her.” She replied with a slight smile. She knew that girl was interesting. The only thing now was to decide how their new situation will turn out.

The very next day while my parents went out to some business and my brother went to go do God knows what, I was left by my self at the house. It’s been a long time since I’ve done this before and with little to do. I mostly did clean not because we didn’t have enough money to pay someone to clean, but because sometimes it gave me something to do or my parents told me it was one of my responsibilities. Which I guess made sense, I needed to learn to multitask at a high level. After I had finished I heard a knock at the door that had startled me. We never have people unexpectedly come over. “ Just a minute!” I yelled as I walked over to the door. As I looked through the peep hole I saw the girl from the meeting yesterday, the one with the purple tipped hair. Why was she here? “ Hey kiddo , what are you up too?” She asked as I opened the door. “ Nothing much, would you like to come in?” I asked cautiously. If I knew anything about the mob nothing is ever done without a reason. “ You actually have a nice house, it doesn’t look like how I thought, but that’s okay.” She said as she looked around the room. Each wall was basically painted a different color, we had nice wood furnishings, alcohol in about every room, as well as a cross in every room, and a large picture of Guadalupe over our fire place. “ Phillipa right?” I asked making sure her name was right. “ Yep! But like I said yesterday you can call me Pippa.” She said taking a seat. “Well P-Pippa would you like something to eat?” I asked trying my hardest not to sound worried, which I felt like I was failing at miserably. 

She seemed taken back by the question and then replied sure. When I returned with some food and drinks I sat next to her. Close enough to be polite but far enough that I could feel safe. I took a deep breath and let out the question “ If you don’t mind me asking why are you here?” She then just shrugged and explained “ Don Falcone wants me to keep an eye on you, keep you safe, make sure no one wants to hurt, you know basic stuff like that.” Why would he be so worried about me? A nobody. I continued asking her questions for the next few minutes and she just said that she would watch me if I ever went someplace without my family, or if I was alone with only a few guards at my house. She was basically going to be my body guard. “ Do my parents know?” She gave me this weird look like she wasn’t expecting me to ask that. “ I don’t know. It shouldn’t be a problem should it?” I shrugged and looked down at my lap.

 I don’t like doing things with out my parents knowing about them ahead of time. After a while of silence I went to grab her plate when the sleeve of the sweater I was wearing rolled up a little on my warm. “ What���s that she asked?” I instinctively pulled it down. I guess my dad held me harder than he thought. “ Would you like me to take that out of your way?” I asked completely ignoring her question. “ No I’ve got it, but what’s on your wrist?” She asked again. No matter how many times I said it was nothing but she kept pursuing. I finally raised my voice affirming I was okay, I was A. Not about to break a family rule or B. Tell this girl anything personal until I was comfortable. She stopped asking but didn’t at all believe me, she knew that she had to get close to me and make me feel safe around her to get me to talk. 

“ So what do you do for fun around here?” She asked diffusing the situation that just occurred. “ It varies, I should probably plan on what to wear and talk an when I got to Fish Mooney’s later this week.” I explained. “ Your going to Fish Mooney’s? That’s awesome! I’ll go with you, you just have to meet her umbrella boy Oswald. He’s strange but as I said before I like weird!” She exclaimed. She then helped me get things in order the rest of the day. And while we talked I realized I had a lot in common with her, we liked the same books, Netflix shows, movies, food, etc. I didn’t know how great our friendship would become at the time, but later on in life I knew we would be the best of friends.

[wineanddinosaur]

VinePair Podcast: Will Sports Bars Score Big This Fall?

As athletic stadium seats begin to fill up this fall, the drinking culture surrounding sporting events makes its return, too. For sports bars with livelihoods that largely depend on game-day drinking, it is a welcome shift toward normalcy. But will it be enough?

On this episode of the “VinePair Podcast,” hosts Adam Teeter, Joanna Sciarrino, and Zach Geballe assess the state of sports bars and how they foresee athletics impacting the scene. Sports stadiums are increasingly opting to serve alcohol at games, too — a move that may further influence how and where fans drink.

LISTEN ONLINE

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OR CHECK OUT THE CONVERSATION HERE

Adam Teeter: From VinePair’s New York City headquarters, I’m Adam Teeter.

Joanna Sciarrino: And I’m Joanna Sciarrino.

Zach Geballe: And in Seattle, Washington, I’m Zach Geballe.

A: And this is the “VinePair Podcast.” Before we start, I want to talk about something that’s a little bit of a bummer, and that is that Joanna’s in the phone booth of the office, because we still don’t have the studio set up again from Covid. I’m in my office with the door closed, and Joanna has the phone booth. It’s so weird.

J: It’s real tight in here.

A: I’m just thinking about Joanna sitting in the phone booth right now. It’s too funny.

Z: Can we blame someone for it not being set up? Maybe Keith?

J: Covid.

A: It’s Covid’s fault. Keith is here right now, figuring out how we’re going to bring in the panels and everything. We were in the process of building a full studio before Covid. We stopped, obviously. Now we’re doing this. We’re all coming back into the office.

Z: I miss being in a studio. Shout-out to our former engineer, Nick Patri.

A: Oh, yeah. Nick was a great guy.

Z: I haven’t talked to him in a while, but I’m sure he’s got lots of thoughts about hard seltzer.

A: He was a big hard seltzer person. So, how have you both been? What’s been going on? What have you been drinking?

J: I’ve been well. I had a really great weekend of drinking. I took my banana rum and made the Banana Justino cocktail. It came out really, really well. I can’t wait to do it again. It’s my new thing.

A: I love it.

Z: So it was worth whatever the effort was?

J: Yes. Absolutely worth the effort.

A: I kind of want to make this now.

J: You just need this enzyme, the Pectinex stuff that I talked about. It’s a quick order, and then you’re good to go.

A: That’s so interesting. What else did you do this weekend?

J: I went to the Dead Rabbit, which I had never been to. It was awesome. What a great place. I had the Irish Coffee there, which is incredible.

A: It’s famous.

J: It’s so good. I really want to make it at home. I also had a really delicious gin cocktail with vermouth and snap pea.

A: Interesting. Cool.

J: It was really wonderful, and I can’t wait to go back. That was the extent of my drinking this weekend. What about you guys?

Z: The thing that I had this past weekend that was really exciting for me was when we were celebrating one of my sisters’ birthdays. It was a small family gathering, and I brought a magnum of Prosecco from Adami, which is one of my favorite producers. It’s one of their higher-end bottlings from a single vineyard. Most of the time, when I drink Prosecco, it’s probably something like that. It’s a DOCG bottle. It’s so good. I used to think, “Prosecco. Yeah, sure. Whatever.” Maybe it’s something about — as has been the case with other wine regions for me — going to a place, seeing it, trying some of the wines, and meeting some of the people. Sometimes that makes you feel differently about it. I also think there is something about the balance of Prosecco and how it’s a little less intensely effervescent than a lot of other sparkling wines. It’s often a touch sweeter. It’s a little more fruit-driven. It’s not quite as much about long bottle aging and conditioning. It’s delicious. There’s a lot of mediocre Prosecco out there, but even that stuff is pretty good. The good stuff is actually really good. It reminded me that I should drink more Prosecco. What about you, Adam?

A: I had some fun adventures over the weekend. I went to the western Catskills. I think I’ve talked about this before, but we went to check out this new hotel that opened, called Callicoon Hills. It was a fun hotel. It was one of my last big weekends traveling, except for what I’m about to talk about for our subject this week. I had some delicious cocktails in the area. I went to this really great pizzeria and bar called Kaatskeller. I had a hemlock Negroni, which was really delicious.

Z: And you survived? Aren’t hemlocks poisonous?

A: Yeah, I think it’s supposed to be. Who knows? That was the name of it. It was a really good Negroni, very floral, and quite enjoyable. You’ve been before, right, Joanna?

J: I have. It’s a cool spot.

A: There’s a connection between the owner and his partner, or someone, who is the owner of Apotheke.

J: Yes, you’re right.

A: I think that’s who does the cocktails. That was really cool. Then, I continued to search for an Old Fashioned and continued to not be served an Old Fashioned with a large cube. I think I’m done searching for an Old Fashioned. I think I’m tapped out.

J: You just have to make it yourself, man.

A: I tried, multiple times, after listening to the first episode of “Cocktail College,” and every place basically did chunk ice.

Z: Did you never ask for a big cube, or did you just take it how they gave it to you?

A: Yes. Let me be clear. The first few times I just took it and thought, “I guess this is what we’re doing again.” The last time, we were at dinner at a place that was having some issues. They were newer. I think they were having some service issues, still getting their sea legs, and had only been open for a few months. They had a bottle-aged Old Fashioned on their list. I thought that was interesting, and that they had to serve it over a big cube. The server comes over. I said, “I’m looking at your cocktails and trying to choose between one thing or the bottle-aged Old Fashioned. It sounds really delicious. How do you guys serve it? Over a big cube? Orange twists?” The server was very enthusiastic about it. Then, it comes out over chunk ice. Anyways, I did have two service issues that I was curious about. One happened at the same restaurant, and another that happened later in the week. As our resident hospitality professional, I wanted to ask how to handle these situations and what you would do.

Z: OK.

A: I’m going to give you both scenarios and let you talk about both of them. In scenario one, we ordered cocktails that took forever to come out because the bar was backed up. They were having a huge party outside, which I always understand. Make that money. There was one bartender behind the bar and the dining room was full. It just totally sucks. When you first go out to eat, you’re craving that first cocktail when you sit down. We ordered cocktails and starters. We ordered our mains, and the cocktails came out. The starters still hadn’t come, so we figured we had some time. They placed the starters down and saw that our cocktails were a quarter full. They asked if we wanted wine. We ordered glasses of wine for our entrees. They walk back. The starters had just come out. Then, the entrees came out.

Z: Oh, man.

A: Naomi literally said, “Excuse me, could you please send those back to the kitchen?” They were really surprised and taken aback by that. We had literally just gotten salad and were sharing an appetizer. I could tell they were caught off guard. Then, of course, when the entrees came out, they were cold. That was really a bummer. I’m curious how we should have handled that and how you would handle it. I didn’t know what to do, because either way they were going to get cold. They were going to sit to the side of us and get cold while we ate the starters. I’m just curious what they should have done. The other question I have for you was a situation where we went out to dinner and ordered wine. There was a somm. We went to a nicer place in New York that has a Michelin star. The somm asked if we were interested in red or white, something funky. I told him what we’re looking at and mentioned a wine that was around $80. He recommends this producer and says we have to try her. I look at the list, and it’s $150. That’s a lot more than the $80 bottle I told him I was looking at. He walks away and Josh and I are looking at the menu. Both of us realized we had never had a Cabernet Franc from Anjou before.

Z: OK.

A: There’s one on the list at $85. We ordered that. He comes back and is pouring the Anjou. I taste it and say, “This is so cool. It’s such a great Cabernet Franc. I’ve never had a Cab from Anjou before.” He said, “Yeah. My favorite Cabernet Franc on the list is from Saumur. It’s amazing. It’s a better deal at $70.” He literally said that to me.

Z: After he’s already poured you the wine?

A: I was so taken aback. I was like, “What? I don’t know what to do here.” I wondered if he was pissed that we didn’t take his original recommendation? Did I do something wrong? Am I right? Was this bad behavior, or should I have done something better? What’s going on here, Zach? And, Joanna, would you be just as shocked as me?

J: Oh, my God. Yes. I think like in the first instance, I probably would have just let them give us the entrees and eaten it all together. That’s not great, though. With the second, I truly don’t know what I would have done. What a wild thing to do. He should’ve said that when you ordered. You were clearly looking for recommendations and his input on wine, if you’re ordering this Cab Franc, then he says, “Actually, this is a better deal.”

A: Maybe he thought I was very assertive. Then I thought, if you thought I was very assertive, there was no reason to say something else to me after you poured that wine.

J: Right. Just say, “This is a really great wine. You’re going to love it.”

Z: OK. Let me try to put this together. With the entree thing, I’m generally in Joanna’s camp that I would rather get the entrees, even if it’s way too early. I can try a couple of bites while it’s still warm. It’s not a great situation. Having worked service for many years, timing food out of a kitchen, especially a busy or new kitchen, is really hard. It may be the case that the server is new. It may be the case that the chef is a tyrant, and if the server goes back to say the table isn’t ready for their entrees and they need to be re-fired, the server might get screamed at. I don’t blame the server, totally. But, it is true that part of what you pay for when you go out to a meal is pacing. When I make dinner at home, all the food gets made at the same time because I want to sit down and eat it. I don’t get up and make multiple courses, generally. We all accept that as a given. When you go out to eat, you are hoping to get a lot of those things done for you, including proper coursing. That’s just a bummer, but that’s a bummer that happens, right?

A: Talking to both of you, I think we should have just let them place it. We were just so taken aback, but we should have just let them drop it on the table.

Z: You’re kind of damned if you do, damned if you don’t in that situation. If you’re at a one-star Michelin restaurant, you would reasonably expect that not to happen. I think you would be well within your right to say, “We just got our appetizers, can you hold on to these?” If they can’t keep them at peak condition, warm, then they should remake it. That’s just the reality of that kind of restaurant. I’ve certainly done that plenty of times in my career. It’s not fun, but that’s the deal. That’s how it works. If you don’t get the timing right on your end, that’s not the guest’s fault. As far as the somm goes, what blows me away here is that I don’t think it’s totally outlandish for them to have recommended a wine that’s significantly more expensive, but only if they also recommended other wines that were in your price range. If they had said, “Hey, you’re looking at this wine, so maybe you like lighter-to-medium-bodied reds. I’ve got this great Cabernet Franc from Saumur. I’ve also got this really cool other wine.” Give the cool story behind the situation with this wine. When people asked me for recommendations, or say something they’re interested in, often I would throw wines at them that were at or below their price range, and above. You never know when someone might be willing to spend $120 or more on a bottle of wine if you can give them a reason to do it. That’s the somm’s job in many cases: to upsell.

J: You can always say, “If you’re looking to splurge, here’s an option.”

Z: Exactly. Or say, “If you want something really special.” As a customer, you can say, “That sounds great, but maybe not for tonight. The thing that you were more turned off by, and understandably, is him saying that afterwards. Maybe they felt like you were really sure that you wanted this Cab Franc from Anjou, and they didn’t want to tell you no. What they could say to you is, “If you really liked this, next time you come in, there’s this other great Cabernet Franc on our list from Saumur that I think is also really good. It’s in that price range. Definitely keep your eye on that next time.” They can tell you about it and it still may be a little odd, but they wouldn’t have made you feel like an ass. Why do that? There’s just nothing in it for them, other than getting to lord it over you that you made a bad choice. That’s on them. Their job is to not let you make a bad choice, if at all possible. It sounds like you enjoyed your wine.

A: It was great. It was super cool.

Z: No harm there. If that was me — and that $70 Cab Franc from Saumur was my favorite wine on the list — and someone ordered a different Cab Franc in that price range from a nearby region, I’d let them know that this other wine is my personal favorite so they could consider that. The truth is that some somms are weird about it. They don’t want to down-sell. You already turned down the up-sell. I don’t think they have an obligation to talk you out of your $95 bottle of wine, but they do have an obligation to not make you feel like a moron for having bought it as you’re tasting it.

A: It was literally at the very beginning of the glass.

Z: I’m sorry. That’s no fun.

A: Thank you. It’s just funny. Maybe we’re just all getting our sea legs back in terms of going out to dinner. I don’t want to hold it against the somm. I was just very taken aback by it. Josh and Naomi were, too. When he walked away, they were like, “Did that just happen?”

Z: Adam, you are a weird magnet for strange interactions with sommeliers.

A: I think I just share them more.

Z: You do have a podcast. That’s true.

A: I just share them more because I’m curious about them. I also want people to know this stuff happens to all of us. I want to understand how we should handle it. That’s sort of where the intimidation comes from.

Z: For sure.

A: When you’re talking about beverage especially, it can be really intimidating. It feels easier to talk about the menu and say, “I definitely don’t want the $195 prime ribeye.”

Z: Imagine if you did order a steak, the server brings it, you take one bite, and they say, “Oh, by the way, do you know what’s way better?” The flatiron steak for two-thirds the price. It doesn’t matter the context. That’s just terrible service. That’s unfortunate.

A: Totally. So, I thought we would have a really fun conversation this week.

Z: We did have a really fun conversation. This already was one.

A: We’ll keep this one fairly brief. This weekend, I’m doing something a little bit crazy.

Z: OK?

A: I promise I’ll get a PCR test when I’m back. Those of you that are loyal listeners know that I am originally from Auburn, Ala., and I’m a huge Auburn Tigers football fan. They are playing a White Out game, primetime ABC, on Saturday night at Penn State. I have tickets. I’m going with my friend Ryan. We are going to a sporting event. I’m really curious to see what sporting events are going to start looking like as we’re coming out of Covid and the drinking around sporting events. Last weekend was the first weekend of NFL football. I know lots of people that went out to watch the games. There are lots of brands that are really hopeful that this happens. These are great entertaining occasions where people love to grab cans of seltzer, bottles of beer, make cocktails, drink wine, et cetera. I’m curious what you guys think the fall holds for drinking and sports. Right now, it feels to me like a lot of people are acting like we’re getting back to normal in that regard.

Z: Well, Joanna is our biggest sports fan. You should go first.

J: What is a White Out game?

A: Penn State’s tradition is that, at their biggest night games of the year, every single Penn State fan wears white in the stadium that holds 80,000 people. Apparently, it’s very intimidating, because all you can see is this bright white. I think Georgia does a Black Out game. Because one of Penn State’s colors is white, it has become very famous in college sports as this thing that happens.

Z: I assume you will not be wearing white?

A: I’m going to wear orange and blue on purpose and hope that I don’t get beat up. I think we’re sitting deep in the Penn State section, so it’s going to be a little freaky. It’s going to be interesting. Joanna, what’s your opinion here? How do you feel about sports and drinking?

J: I have a few thoughts on football, specifically. I have been to a few professional sports games recently. I’ve been to a few baseball games. I actually went to the U.S. Open, which was also fun. I have a feeling that they’re tamer than what I imagine college football to be.

A: Yeah. I have a theory of why that is, but we can get to that in a second.

J: I think it’s actually going to be really interesting to see, like you were saying, Adam, the sports bars. I’m curious what that situation is like, because college football has started already. I feel like I’ve seen a lot of our local sports bars pretty packed with people watching games. I will not be participating. I do not care for football.

A: Why?

J: I think it’s so boring. I have no allegiance to any team. This is a fun fact about me. I am married to a very lovely Canadian man who, when we first met, had no interest in the NFL. He has subsequently joined a fantasy football team. It’s so dreadful because now he cares to watch the games.

Z: We’ve corrupted him.

J: Yeah. It’s horrible. He spends hours at night on his phone, setting his draft. It’s so horrible.

A: It’s so good. Naomi hates when I do that, too. Zach, how is it in Seattle? You guys have, at least, a very famous quarterback. I don’t know how the Seahawks are this year.

Z: Oh, they’re good.

A: Is it full? Are people going out to the bars and watching the games? What have you heard? What are you seeing?

Z: Really good question. The Seahawks have not played at home yet. They started their season on the road. They’ll be at home over this coming weekend, so by the time this podcast airs, that game will have happened. I was recently reaching out to a contact who works for the Seattle Mariners because I’ve been interested in what they’re doing about beverage service. My wife and I went to a Mariners game a few weeks ago. It was interesting to see how, even in the couple of years since I’ve been to a game, the product mix and how things are done at the games has changed. Some of that may be Covid-related. Some of that is just due to changes in the market. It was definitely a little different than it had been in the past. The University of Washington’s football team appears to be dreadful, but they are serving beer and wine at games for the first time in a long time. Last year the Seahawks played, but they did not play in front of fans. A huge part of the game- day profitability for these franchises are concessions, and beer in particular. Alcohol is a big driver. There’s certainly a lot of hope that things will be back to normal. Stadiums are at full capacity. There are vaccines and mask mandates here in Washington for these events. People can be in the stands drinking, obviously. To the question about sports bars, I think that what you’re seeing is a little bit of a mixed bag, from what I can gather. Around the stadiums, you’re definitely seeing bars that are game day spots being pretty busy. What I’ve heard of more, just anecdotally this year, is what you were getting to in the intro, Adam, which is that a lot more people are doing stuff at home. A lot of people have decided they may not be comfortable going out to a sports bar with strangers and spending hours eating and drinking, unmasked. They are comfortable having 10 to 15 people over in their house. People may feel a little more comfortable with their own entertaining chops because they’ve had to do so much more at home as of late. Overall, I think you’re definitely going to see a real uptick in the sales of light beer or seltzer. Those things are already doing well. If I was a sports bar owner and not near a stadium, I might be a little concerned. Those things revolve around the big NFL Sundays and college football Saturdays. They’re not necessarily super profitable on a Wednesday night. I think we will see. In Seattle, we’re just transitioning weather-wise from summer into fall. What are people going to do when it’s dark, gloomy, rainy, and cold? Do you really want to be at home again? Maybe Sunday seems like a good day to go out to a sports bar because it’s just something to do.

A: Yeah. In Seattle, are they requiring vaccination proof to come inside?

Z: Not yet for all restaurants, It’s required at all of the sporting events, including the outdoor events. Somehow, the Mariners are not implementing it until October, which is convenient for them because their season is going to be over in October. I have not been tracking it ultra-diligently, in part because we have a small child and another one due any day. We are not going out to eat much right now. If there isn’t a vaccine mandate yet, though, it will be coming soon. I think they’re just trying to get everyone on the same page, which is tricky.

A: I wonder if part of the reason there is more excitement around sports bars in New York is just because the vaccine is required. When you’re in the sports bar watching the game with people and drinking Truly, White Claw, or Bud Light, you know you’re there with other vaccinated fans. It might feel a little safer. To go back to your original point, Joanna — about college seeming crazier — I think that all has to do with the fact that college has a real problem admitting that its of-age fans drink before the game and would like to drink at the game. I think we’ve had this conversation before, Zach. There are still so few college stadiums that allow the legal sale of alcohol, so a lot of fans smuggle alcohol in and drink to oblivion before. Both are very bad. These are not things that should happen.

Z: I mentioned that the University of Washington is allowing alcohol sales at games now. One of the reasons they cited was basically that. They think they can decrease people getting blackout drunk before they even get in or smuggling stuff into the stands if the stadium can provide them with an option. Cynically, I don’t know if that’s true. It’s obviously a cash grab. There is something to the idea that, if a lot of these games are dry, people aren’t going to just be sober. That’s just not how people are going to behave.

A: I do think that it’s different when you attend a sporting event in New York or any professional sporting event. I also went to the U.S. Open this year. When I did, I got on the train and I hadn’t had a drink. I got to the stadium and had two beers.

J: You paid $40 for your drink.

A: That’s why I only had two beers. It’s cool to have a beer and watch tennis. I think if I wanted to have a beer but I couldn’t, something psychologically happens for people. There’s the mentality that “you’re not going to stop me from being less than sober for this.” That’s why I think college is crazier. More universities are starting to think the way that University of Washington is. There’s a very easy fix here: Sell alcohol and continue to ban it in the student section, because they probably should. Only one-quarter of the student section population should be of age. In the rest of the stadium, allow adults to buy beer and wine. In the places that have done it, they’ve seen some success. A lot of times, in these stadiums, the people who have the worst behavior are the older people, to be very honest. It’s really depressing to see an older person get taken away because they’re been confiscated for illegal booze. It’s never a good look.

Z: That’s one thing you can roll with when you’re 21. It’s a little harder to roll with when you’re 51, I’d imagine.

A: That’s embarrassing.

Z: All that to say, what do you anticipate drinking at this Penn State and Auburn game? Rolling Rock?

A: I don’t know. My friend Ryan, who lives in New York, too, is actually an alum of Auburn. I’m from the town and my parents are professors there, but I didn’t go to Auburn. He was invited to the alumni tailgate. I think they’re providing alcohol. It’ll be beer. I don’t know what it will be. We’ll go. He was allowed to bring a guest. I think they’re providing beer and barbecue. Then, we’ll go into the game. Normally, I’d check out one of the local bars beforehand. I’m definitely not going to do that this time. I feel pretty safe because Ryan is a doctor in New York at Mount Sinai, and he’s been very involved in Covid. If he feels safe to go, then I feel safer to go as long as we stay outside and wear our masks. But, I’m not going to go downtown, try to go into a few of the college bars, and check out what’s going on. We’ll go to this tailgate. We’ll have a few beers. We’ll go in the stadium.

Z: Give us a prediction. What’s the final score?

A: I think it’s going to be 35 Auburn, 21 Penn State. I think we’re going to run up the score. I think we have a better quarterback. We have a new coach. I think we’re the better talent. Road games are hard. Being the away team is not easy. This is why I’m a little scared, as is Ryan. This is the first home game for Penn State since Covid, and it is a White Out game. They are going to be rocking. It will be a very live crowd. This has been a great conversation. I’d love to hear what some of the listeners think. If you’re attending any sporting events this fall, tell us what sports bars in your area look like and what you think the fall holds for drinking and sports. Zach and Joanna, I’ll talk to you on Friday.

J: See you.

Z: Sounds great.

Thanks so much for listening to the “VinePair Podcast.” If you love this show as much as we love making it, please leave us a rating or review on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever it is you get your podcasts. It really helps everyone else discover the show.

Now for the credits, VinePair is produced and recorded in New York City and Seattle, Washington, by myself and Zach Geballe, who does all the editing and loves to get the credit. Also, I would love to give a special shout-out to my VinePair co-founder, Josh Malin, for helping make all this possible, and also to Keith Beavers, VinePair’s tastings director, who is additionally a producer on the show. I also want to, of course, thank every other member of the VinePair team who are instrumental in all of the ideas that go into making the show every week. Thanks so much for listening, and we’ll see you again.

Ed. note: This episode has been edited for length and clarity.

Joanna’s Take on Dave Arnold’s Banana Justino

Ingredients

1 750-milliliter bottle of rum (I used Diplomático Mantuano)

3 yellow bananas (not too green or too brown/ripe)

½ teaspoon vanilla bean paste (optional)

2 grams Pectinex Ultra SP-L

Limes

Coconut water

Whole star anise

Technique

Make the banana rum

Add the rum, bananas, vanilla bean paste if using, and Pectinex to a blender and blend for a minute or two until completely smooth. Keep the rum bottle for decanting later.

Pour the mixture into a sealable container and leave on the countertop for about a week, until the mixture has fully, visibly separated.

Slowly pour the mixture through a coffee filter (I used a Chemex) to clarify. Pour the extracted liquid (your banana rum) back into the original bottle.

Make the Banana Justino

Freeze coconut water into large ice cubes.

In an Old Fashioned glass, add an ice cube and pour over the banana rum (about 2 ounces); stir briefly.

Squeeze in a wedge of lime and garnish with a whole star anise.

The article VinePair Podcast: Will Sports Bars Score Big This Fall? appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/will-sports-bars-score-big-this-fall/

[rostamic]

Interview with the Muse

- What is your Full name? Include any maiden names, aliases, or nicknames.

Rostam Morley. The Third. Esquire.

You can shorten it if you really want, but people usually just call me by my full first name. I prefer my full name. Kerry is the only one to call me “Tammy” and she remains the only one because no one else is allowed to. When I was a kid – sometimes even now – my mom called me “Pancake” as a pet name. They said that was the first English word I spoke during breakfast one day. Not even “hello”.

- When is your birthday? Do you know where you were born and at what time?

14th of May (Ordibehesht 24, Persian calendar). Some village outside of Shiraz, Iran. Don’t know what time.

- What is your star sign? Do you know your Chinese Zodiac too?

Taurus. Explains why I’m so good at bullshitting.

- What is your earliest memory that you can remember?

Fuck if I know.

- Where was your childhood home? Was it more urban or rural?

My adoptive parents’ place was a little outside the city. I’d say it was kinda more semi-urban than suburban. No white picket fences or anything like that, just an old type of house that fit the five of us, somehow. I don’t know what type they’re called. Ranch?

(In other verses his family lived in a semi-detached row home.)

- How was your childhood in general? Did your parents treat you well? Did you have a lot of friends?

It started off weird as fuck. It wasn’t easy to get me from my country and the details are blurry at best. It might be better if I don’t know the whole story. But after I came here to my family, it got better. My parents worked hard for me and when I started talking freely they couldn’t get me to shut up. So I got a lot of friends soon enough. Between the neighborhood kids and school kids, I had no shortage of people to play with.

- How was/is school? What is your favorite and least favorite subjects? What were your grades on average?

School was school. I didn’t get perfect marks and I didn’t want to – just to pass. High school I did the worst. They were being unnecessarily hard to “prepare” us for... what exactly? I found university easier than that. That was bullshit. But, like I said, I passed.

- Did you have a best friend growing up? What was their name? Are you still in touch?

I had some best friends. There were a whole bunch in the neighborhood and I had two at school. A few of them moved away or transferred to other schools and the ones that didn’t weren’t my friends anymore as the years passed. Our interests were no longer the same. That’s fine. Shit happens.

- Were you in any cliques?

No. I talked to everybody.

- Best childhood memory you can recall?

Playing outside, throwing rocks and chasing each other with sticks. It’s not really a memory, it’s a feeling.

- Worst childhood memory you can recall?

I got trapped in an elevator once. I decided to go off exploring on a school trip. Something malfunctioned on the way up. It felt like hours I was in there but it was probably only 30 minutes at most. That wasn’t fun.

- Name an event in your childhood that has shaped you into the person you are today

I sound like a broken record and I usually don’t bring it up, but being adopted tops the list. I don’t know what my life would be like if I stayed in Iran. Thank God I wasn’t born a girl.

- What is the dumbest thing you have ever done to impress someone? Were they impressed or was it all for naught?

I’ve done a lot of dumb shit but it’s rarely to impress anyone.

- Did you ever have any sweethearts or lovers? Do you have a boy/girlfriend?

I’ve had many lovers and a handful of exclusive relationships. I’m not spoken for now. ;)

- Are you a virgin?

Ha. Not since I was 14.

- Do you ever plan on getting married in your life? Do you want kids?

I think it’ll be a long time before either of those things happens.

- Would you rather have your own kids or adopt? How many kids would you want?

Ideally both. Being adopted myself, I was very lucky to get a home that treated me well. If I had any kids at all, maybe 4 total – biologically or otherwise.

- Do you think you'd be a protective parent or a relaxed parent?

Probably a mix of them.

- How would you prefer to pass away? Surrounded by loved ones and at peace, or while doing something heroic?

If anything, I wanna die quickly.

- Generally, how healthy are you? Do you get sick or injured easily or are you fit?

I’m healthy. I don’t get sick very often. My serotonin could probably use a boost.

- Have you ever been badly injured before?

A few times. The worst was from a fight in high school. Me and some other guy were arguing over some stupid shit in retrospect. We weren’t the least bit sober and when you’ve got two angry teens rolling, shit hits the fan quick. I’m only glad fists and knives were involved and not guns.

- What is the worst injury you have ever gotten? What was it and how did it happen? Were you ever close to death?

That fight. I still have a scar on my side from it.

I’ve skirted fate once or twice. I might not be so lucky the next time.

- How many times have you been to the hospital/doctor's?

Maybe 3 times? I don’t know, I don’t count them.

- Have you ever had a concussion or brain injury? Have you ever had amnesia?

I got a mild concussion from a fist fight. I’ve also blacked out at parties once or twice. I like staying conscious so I don’t go as hard as I used to.

- What was the worst illness you ever contacted? Do you know what it was? How long were you sick?

The clap. It’s long gone now. Moral of the story: Wrap it before you tap it.

- Ever had any extended hospital stays? What for?

No.

- Have you ever had to give yourself or someone else emergency first aid? What happened?

No.

- Are you employed? Where do you work and who do you work for? What do you do?

Manta Talent Acquisitions. I’m a consultant.

- Are you happy with your current job?

It’s fine. I’ve never done anything like it so it’s been a learning experience. The pay is good and I get flexibility. There’s better jobs out there I know but so far, I’ll stick it out with this one. 

- Did you have any previous jobs? What were they and what did you do?

Lots. Did some short summer work through the years. For full time I was a restaurant host, bartender, construction worker, office aide, bookkeeper for a short stint, and now a talent consultant. 

- Most dangerous thing you have ever done?

Drug mixing + alcohol = you might die.

Shower sex is a close second.

- Do you consider yourself a more active person or a more relaxed person?

Active.

- What is your dream come true? How about your worst nightmare?

I’m not letting you use that against me.

- What is the biggest and most important goal you have set for yourself?

Be a little less temperamental.

- How persistent would you say you are? How much does it take to get you to give up on a task?

It takes forever for me to give up on anything because I don’t like to give up.

- Would you surrender yourself to your enemies or fight to the very end?

That depends on the circumstances.

- When do you usually do your shopping? What is currently on your shopping list?

Groceries I get after work or later at night when the rush is gone. I get my clothing and home things whenever I need them.

- Top three things on your wishlist?

I’ve got what I want right now.

- Currently, what is something you want but do not need?

See above.

- Do you like shopping? What is your favorite thing to shop for?

I don’t care either way. I get what I need and go.

- What is the most expensive thing you have purchased? Was it worth it?

My car. Hell yeah it was worth it.

- What would you do if you were suddenly given one billion dollars out of the blue?

What wouldn’t I do? That’s the real question.

- What would you describe your style of clothing as?

Ah... A nicer kind of casual.

- Do you have any hobbies? Name all of them if you can.

My hobbies? Just watching movies or listening to music. Socializing. Running. Whatever I find interesting at the time I guess.

- Do you like and appreciate art? What is your favorite piece of artwork?

I’ve never been a big art fan. Leonid Afremov has great stuff, though.

- Do you like music? What is your favorite style of music?

I like rock music, but I’m also a basic bitch and listen to top 40.

- Have you ever seen any musicals? What is your favorite?

No. I don’t like singing in shows. People get really angry when I say I don’t like different animated movies.

- What are your top three favorite animals? What would you say your "Patronus" or "Spirit Animal" is?

Elephants. That’s really it. 

Look. How could you not like them?

- What are your top three favorite colors?

Burgundy/maroon, grey, and... I don’t know. White? Black? Yellow? As long as I look good in it.

- What is your favorite season? Do you prefer hotter or colder weather? Do you like snow at all?

Summer. I’ll take hot weather over cold. Cold’s got its benefits, though. As for snow, it’s great to look at and play in, but I’m paying someone else to clean that up.

- What kind of flavors do you prefer: Sweet, Sour, Bitter, Spicy, Dry, or Umami (savory meat taste)?

Every taste has its place in my heart and stomach. 

- Can you cook at all?

Yeah I can cook. But for you? For a price.

- What is your favorite dish? Can you prepare it? Do you have the recipe handy?

Breaded chicken served with oven-roasted allumette-cut potatoes paired with a spiced tomato reduction sauce. I can make it, but I don’t use a recipe so it tastes a little different each time.

- What is your favorite fruit and vegetable?

I love nectarines.

- What is your favorite dessert? What is your favorite type of candy/treat?

Favorite dessert is cookie dough ice cream.

- What is the best thing you have ever had the opportunity to eat? What is the worst?

Pus-- I really love nectarines. The worst was liver. 

- Do you like to drink tea or coffee? Any favorite flavors?

I hate coffee, so I’ll always go for tea. I really like hibiscus tea but I’ll go for any kind of tea.

- Describe your sense of humor.

Situational. Bawdy. Dry.

- What is one thing you are justly proud of?

Where I am now financially. My job, where I live, the things I have. It took a long time to get here. Everything else in life is a work in progress.

- Do you have any religious beliefs? If not, have you ever been to a church service?

I don’t care what you do in your free time. I’ve only been to churches for weddings or funerals.

- What would you say is the worst thing someone has done to you? What is the meanest thing someone has ever said to you?

I had an ex-friend who almost blackmailed me into some serious crime. I’m not talking little drug runs, I mean stuff that’ll get you locked up for the rest of your life and then some. I had to get out of that before things got bad. Mean words on the other hand don’t mean anything to me. 

As for the absolute worst thing someone’s done to me, I’m not gonna talk about it.

(It’s a very sore subject for him, sorry!)

- What is the worst thing you have done to someone? What is the meanest thing you have said to anyone?

I’d never hurt a fly. Honest.

- Share the latest entry in your diary/journal.

Don’t have one. My old counselor suggested me to have one a long, long time ago but I thought it was stupid. I don’t think that as much now, but I still don’t want one.

- What is the most precious thing you own? Is it valuable at all?

A necklace with a little elephant pendant from my siblings. It has no market value but it’s priceless to me.

- Talk about someone you know. It can be someone you either like or dislike.

[proceeds to talk about himself]

[livielfinarfiniel]

I can't explain why but I thought about this a few months ago already. I guess I just love Ikea and the Feanorians. So I'm gonna try to put the notes I found into understable sentences. I'm German so please excuse any mistakes. I don't know if Ikea is the same in other countries but I'll just assume it.

All of it is from my headcanon so please don't get mad if I get something wrong or there are things that aren't really logical. Hopefully y'all enjoy what I wrote half-asleep like three months ago :)

It's mainly notes but somehow also Feanor's POV.

So, I just decided that Valinor is modern now and because the Valar kicked Feanor out of Tirion he and his family had to move to Formenos. But there's no furniture yet which means that they're gonna visit Ikea.

Feanor hates Ikea. With all of his being. He's literally never been there but still. He thinks that the first to letters stand for Ingvar Kamprad the owner. First of all: what a weird name for a Noldo. And secondly: Even in Feanor's view it's a little to much to name your company after your own name. He didn't call the Silmarilli the "Feanárilli", did he? Long story short: Feanor hates this guy. But since there is no Home Depot yet [or something like this I don't know where people buy furniture in the USA or basically any other country that isn't Germany].

The Ambarussa are excited because they'll visit Småland. They trust Maedhros and Nerdanel with choosing their furniture. Even though they're not kids anymore but grownups nobody says anything about them wanting to stay in Småland. Except Celegorm who is quickly shut up by Caranthir who doesn't want the twins to come with them. They'd just cause even more trouble. And Feanor is pretty sure that the Ikea guy he hates so much for no apparent reasons will make him pay for everything they break. (Breaking things, preferably the expensive ones. That's what the Ambarussa are experts for. Like Ulmo's favourite fishbowl. Or Fingolfin's ...well... his house. Still something Feanor - and the twins too of course - loves to remember and brings up at every family dinner. It's just a bonus that Fingolfin turns incredibly red every time. Yes, Feanor is the bestest big bro ever...)

Huan has to wait at the door. Celegorm's day is ruined already now.

Feanor really hopes that they serve wine at the Ikea Restaurant. He needs alcohol because he bumped into like five dressers in the first 10 minutes and is already pissed af...

Nerdanel and Maglor are clever enough to just leave without attracting any attention and go empty the decoration department of Ikea. They're really good at leaving without anyone noticing.

Feanor bets they took one of those weird shortcuts. Last time Feanor used one of those he got lost in Ikea so bad that an employee had to make an announcement for him. "Please fetch Noldorin crown prince Feanáro at the service point." It was so embarrassing! Nerdanel and Moryo - sharing the same dry sense of umor - laughed at him for hours after they picked him up shortly after. He swore an oath to never take a shortcut in Ikea again.

Because Nerdanel magically disappeared with Maglor Maedhros has to pick a bed for the twins. He chooses a bunk bed.

Feanor buys a safe and is already thrilled to bits about locking his Silmarilli up in it.

Because he forgets he's actually pissed for a bit Feanor lets Curufin choose the new tableware because his mini-me is just the best with knives. This could result in very dangerous forks but honestly who cares? Feanor clearly doesn't. He also likes weapons so it's most probably gonna be fun.

When Feanor asks "what f***ing cupboard" this is now for the 7th time Maedhros takes the list from him which Nerdanel made at home. So now Maedhros looks for the furniture together with Curufin who mostly makes sarcastic comments and nods interested when Maedhros mutters something like "This is Platsa, right?" or "You're a Billy, aren't you?" as if the dresser - that clearly isn't Billy - would answer.

Curufin also writes down which wardrobe belongs into which room. Letting him write is probably a very bad idea if you ask Feanor because not even Curufin himself can read his own handwriting... Luckily most of them don't care what furniture they get. That just would've caused even more chaos.

Only Curufin wants to have specific furniture fitting his very extraordinary style and doesn't trust anyone with it - not even his favourite brother Celegorm.

Feanor is very happy about not having to manage the whole situation anymore. He follows the others around and makes fun of the names of all the furniture pieces with Celegorm.

Caranthir quietly pushes the shopping cart they unfortunately had with them since they entered Ikea. At some point he strolls off to pick up the twins from Småland.

Caranthir hands the cart to Feanor and Celegorm promptly plants himself on it and makes Feanor drive him around.

Nerdanel buys LED lights for the twins. Feanor doesn't want to argue with her but he thinks it's a fatal mistake considering that the Ambarussa already like to turn the lights off and on all the time which is annoying to say the least.

Feanor nearly has a heart attack when Nerdanel and Maglor suddenly appear from behind a mirror (probably another mysterious shortcut who knows?) and empty their shopping bags into the cart which is now completely full. They're most probably gonna need more than one.

Finally at the Ikea Restaurant Feanor orders Köttbullar for all of them. The cook recognises him and puts a little flag with the Feanorian Star on it on his plate.

At the Ikea Restaurant Feanor learns four things: 1. Köttbullar are delicious. 2. Still never buy them again! 3. Köttbullar can be used perfectly with your big brother's bow he carries around all the time. 4. Next time eat before visiting Ikea. (But not at McDonald's because ChickenMcNuggets work perfectly fine as well...) The cook now regrets giving them the little flag.

When they finally arrive at the depot where you pick up your furniture boxes everyone already has their own cart filled with all the random things offered in Ikea.

Everyone makes use of Maedhros' height to get the things from the top drawer.

Curufin, Maglor and Feanor sneak their stuff onto the carts of the others who don't notice at all.

The twins buy lots of sweets. They got it from Maedhros who in contrast to them knows his limits.

Maedhros buys two tubs of ice cream. One for himself and one for Fingon. Nobody has the heart to remind him that it will melt too fast. He somehow manages to hold all the ice cream in one hand so he can use the other one to eat his hot dog. He's weirdly good at carrying things in on hand...

Celegorm is upset because the others are eating innocent puppies. Nobody dares to ask if he really thinks that there is actual dog meat in hot dogs.

The next day they start putting all the things they bought together. But at first Maedhros and Curufin need to sort all of it so they know which item belongs to which of them. Feanor is pretty sure that Curufin planned this the whole time. He just helped so willingly yesterday so he wouldn't have to carry around all the boxes to other rooms now. And then back and after that into even another room and then "for Eru's sake where does this shit belong?"

It wasn't Maedhros' fault that all of this was so messy. He only told Curufin what to write down. And he did write something down. Maybe not 100% correctly but still. But it wasn't Curufin's fault as well. It was Ikea's fault. That's for sure if you ask Feanor. But he may be a little subjective...

The whole situation only gets worse after the Ambarussa ate all of their candy at once and got sugar shock. Only Maedhros was allowed to eat from it because he looked at them with puppy eyes and later installed their LED lights. Nerdanel now regrets buying those...

When it's all sorted Feanor and Nerdanel have fun building all the shelves and wardrobes and beds. The rest of the family hands them things or holds stuff for them.

Maglor successfully talked his way out. He's really good at talking himself out of things. Now he ensures that everything is done correctly and writes down all the things they forgot. Luckily it's not that much as Feanor feared. It's still much tho.

Please someone headcanons for the Fëanorians assembling IKEA furniture???!!!

[sage-nebula]

Ketchum Family Appreciation

Delia Ketchum is, for all intents and purposes, a single mother who raised her son, Ash, all by herself. Of course Professor Oak probably helped here or there when he could, but he had his own family (and career) to take care of. So, since Ash’s dad fucked off to god knows where, Delia was left to raise her rambunctious little boy all by herself. And she did. She did that.

According to Shudo Takeshi’s novelizations, Delia was eighteen when Ash was born. So not only is she a single mother, but she’s a single mother from a teen pregnancy. I don’t know about you, but I would not have been able to raise a child by myself when I was eighteen, but Delia did. She. Did. That. 

Also according to Shudo’s novelizations, Delia runs a restaurant in Pallet Town. And not only does she run a restaurant in Pallet Town, but she actively works to make Pallet Town a better place by not serving alcohol after a certain time so as to cut down on domestic violence:  --- Delia spoke brightly, “Anyway, four kids left Pallet Town on a journey that day. I'm glad for them.” “I ain't.” A middle aged man at the end of the table spoke up; he was eating the onion soup Delia held pride in. “Our kid ain't on a journey.” Everyone in the shop looked at the man. “Our kid is a runaway. No idea why but he just didn't want to stay in the house.” On the same day as Ash, three other boys also left Pallet Town. Each of those children with their own reasons. Clap! Delia clapped her hands together. “Anyway, we should be happy for the kids on their journeys! Everyone, cheers! It's all on the house tonight!” Normally, you'd expect to bring out the booze at this point, but Delia was different. She didn't want her customers going home drunk and getting into fights with their wives. And so what she served to her customers before they left was cocoa au lait . . . chocolate mixed with milk.

And from that same part of the novelization, it’s revealed that she is happy that Ash is on his journey, but she is always eager to hear from him, even if it’s just a phone call: --- When the customers left, Delia cleaned out their cups, locked the shop, went upstairs to her bedroom, changed into her pajamas and noticed the blinking light on the answering machine by her bedside. Delia pressed the button. Ash's voice played. “Mom . . . I made it through Viridian Forest. Next is Pewter City . . . Mom, I'm sure you're busy, so I'll leave it at that. I'll contact you again later when I've got time.” . . . Call any time you're free . . . And if I'm free, I'll be sure to answer . . . Delia was pleased. She was able to sleep peacefully tonight. . . . So, Pewter City . . . Delia's husband (that’s Ash’s father) and Delia's father (that's Ash's grandpa), had never made any contact. “All I wanted . . . was to be contacted . . .” Delia whispered.

Delia studied under Professor Oak, alongside Spencer Hale. She was a trainer in her own right before she gave up what she was pursuing to raise Ash instead, hence the restaurant she opened (in the novelizations, at least---to be fair, we don’t see the restaurant in the anime, but I like to think it exists, because otherwise, where does their income come from??). Although her dreams were put on hold for her child, however, she doesn’t seem to resent Ash for it in the slightest. Rather, she loves him dearly, and always encourages him to pursue his dreams.

And how much does she love him? Despite how she sometimes seems more excited to see Pikachu than to see him (and how she doesn’t worry when Team Rocket kidnaps him), Delia:

Gathers a small group of people to greet Ash after he gets Pikachu, waving a banner and cheering him on. It’s a smaller crowd than what Gary had, but Delia must have gathered them in a hurry.

Gathered people for a viewing party when Ash was in the Kanto League.

Went to the Kanto stadium herself to see him battle.

When she heard that the epicenter of the apocalypse was in the Orange Islands, where Ash was, she jumped in a helicopter to go there to find him, despite not knowing which island he was on, or if he was involved (which, I mean, he was, but still), all because she was worried. She then made him promise to try to save the world closer to home next time, because “you’re my whole world.”

She makes his new clothes for him whenever he’s about to go off on a new journey.

Although she would of course love to spend more time with him, she still always encourages him to go on his journey again because she knows it’s important to him and she wants him to live his dreams.

And it’s not just one-sided. Ash is 150% a mama’s boy. The fact that he, a ten-year-old boy who uses the pronoun “ore” in the original Japanese, still calls her mama is clue enough of that, but he also:

Constantly hopes that he can make her proud, and often gives her shout-outs whenever he’s interviewed (he had weird, uncharacteristic camera shyness in Kalos, but like, in the Indigo League he was all, “HEY MOM LOOK AT ME I’M ON TV!!!!” when he was interviewed there, haha).

Very seriously considers whether he can save the world closer to home next time when she asks him to in the second movie, and---with grave seriousness---says that he will try. (He fails, but look, he didn’t say he would succeed, he said he would try.)

She was on the Queen of Hearts card in one of the AG endings, right along with Misty (two most important ladies in his life, natch)

Never fails to talk up her cooking, is always very excited to introduce her to his friends. Yeah, sure, maybe he doesn’t like it when his mom tells his friends how messy his room is, but otherwise he’s always very excited to show off his mama to his friends.

When Delia asks him where he gets his reckless streak from, he beams and proudly says, “I guess I get it from you.”  And let’s not forget the biggest one of all:

Went on a roaring rampage of revenge in the third movie when Entei kidnapped her. The boy literally chased after Entei, and when that failed, he stormed the castle and straight up picked a fight with a legendary pokémon to get his mother back. Say what you will about the dub, but I can say that in the dub version Veronica Taylor really sold the rage every time she had to be all, “Where’s my mother” at Entei. 

Basically, what I’m getting at here is that the Ketchums love each other very much. Outside of extended family that we don’t hear about, or family friends such as the Oaks and the Hales, they’re all each other had for family for the first ten years of Ash’s life. Delia was a teen mom (at least according to the novelizations, but look at how young she is; it’s not hard to believe), and a single teen mom at that, but she did her absolute best to raise Ash, and she did a damn good job. That boy did not want for love a single day in his life. And although Ash is as rowdy a boy as they come, you can tell he loves his mom with every fiber of his heart and hasn’t really felt like his life has been missing anything (aside from a equally as rowdy electric mouse, but he came along in due time ♥). And I think that, as much as we as a fandom have enjoyed angst about Ash’s missing dad over the years, we should remember that Ash has a mom who has always cherished him, has never stopped cherishing him, and will always, always be there for him, just as she always has in the past. And that likewise, Ash cherishes his mom with all his heart, and if you asked him if his life felt like it was missing something because his mom was all he had growing up, he’d look at you like you were crazy, and maybe even get a little offended. The Ketchum family may be small, but it’s not the size of a family that matters. A kid can have two parents and still be neglected. Hell, a kid could have four parents (through divorce + remarriages) and still be neglected. Just because Ash only had one parent doesn’t mean he was missing out on anything. Not when that one parent he had was Delia Ketchum.

I think they did just fine.

[johnboothus]

VinePair Podcast: Will Small Drinks Brands Survive the Covid-19 Crisis?

As the Covid-19 crisis and the associated lockdowns, quarantines, and stay-at-home orders persist, our drinking habits and purchasing opportunities are shifting. These changes are creating winners and losers in the beverage alcohol business. While sales for many of the best-known drinks brands are steady or even rising, smaller craft products can no longer rely on bars, restaurants, and taprooms to serve as access points for the consumer.

And so, small beer, wine, and spirits producers and their supporters are left wondering: What can be done to keep these vital and beloved brands alive? Can we save them with savvy purchasing, or is broader governmental action required? VinePair CEO Adam Teeter, Chief Content Officer and Editor in Chief Erica Duecy, and VinePair Podcast Co-host Zach Geballe discuss these questions in this week’s episode.

Listen on iTunes.

Listen on Spotify.

Listen online or check out our conversation here:

Adam: From Brooklyn, New York I’m Adam Teeter.

Erica: From Connecticut, I’m Erica Duecy.

Zach: And in Seattle, WA I’m Zach Geballe.

A: And this is the VinePair podcast. And guys, we are now in week five, which is crazy, almost at the end of week five. Some people were saying there’s like a light at the end of the tunnel. You know? I’m starting to hear certain dates that people are putting out there. Germany is gonna start opening up their country again next week, which is insane to think about. How are you guys holding up in your sheltering in place this week?

E: I’m actually having a pretty good week.

A: Good!

E: I have to say, I’ve gone through waves. Last week was a pretty terrible week, it was just not a great mental health week. I felt like it was pretty challenging, it was just all sort of down news. But I feel like there, you know, and I’ve talked with a lot of people on the podcast and some upcoming episodes that will be coming out and I do think that, I’m hearing a lot about innovation and ideas and silver linings and I think that, you know, I’m hoping that in the next couple of weeks we can start to have some ideas around you know turning the corner on this and some good news. But that’s to say that, you know, it’s up sometimes, down sometimes, so hanging in there.

Z: Yeah, I think that’s about as apt a description as I’m able to come up with. I would say, you know the other thing for me that’s been true over the last I don’t know maybe it’s been the last week or so is I’ve been really struck by how used to this new way of living I’ve become. In that, you know the first couple of weeks it was just like oh my God I miss all these things that I used to be able to do. I miss seeing friends and family. I miss going out to restaurants. I….you know, all these various things. And now it’s very funny, you know we just…I was just talking to my wife about, you know, this sort of like, OK, what do we do first, when like we can go do something out of the house? And it was so…such an alien thought at this point that I was like, I don’t even know what, like I guess go to a park with our kid and like see friends who have a kid and? It was just…it’s become so….you know, in this little over a month for me, it’s become this sort of thing that I’m just so…I feel so used to at this point that it’s like, it’s very weird. And I’m a very extroverted person normally and I like to go out and do stuff and it was just so strange to kind of start to think about, you know if that light at the end of the tunnel that you had mentioned is coming along like….what is that, what am I even gonna do? And I’m not sure. Like I might just stay in my house a little longer just ’cause I don’t know what else to do.

A: Oh God, well, I don’t know. It’s funny, last week I was good, this week I’m like more, just like not as good? Definitely it’s starting to weigh on me more. It was weird, like yesterday the park near my apartment was a lot less full. And like it’s never been so full that I’ve been nervous about being…like taking a walk through it with Naomi but like it was like oddly less full at the time when it usually is….like it used to be like the last few weeks people would be out there from 5:30 to like 7. So like everyone would shut off their Zooms, close their computers and like decided to go outside for like an hour and a half or so. And like this week it seemed like less and less people were in the park and the weather is still…it’s a little cooler but still nice. And we were trying to figure out like why? And we’re like….and Naomi was like, I think it’s just people are starting to be hit by this like whole weight of….the….you know we don’t….it’s been so long, you know? And maybe they’re just like fuck it, I’m just staying inside. And so that’s kind of hit me this week and I was like God I gotta get out of this. Like all I really want, like it’s really weird, the one thing I’ve been craving more than anything else – this is gonna make Cat very happy, is a draft beer.

E: Mmm.

Z: Ahh.

A: Like I can make good cocktails at home, I have a pretty good selection of wine, but like I really….I don’t have a draft system! I just wanna go to a bar and get a really good beer on draft. That’s all…you know what I mean? There’s just something about that that I’m like that’s something that I miss. And I didn’t do it like all the time before this, but like when I did it it was always great and now I’m just like… that’s all I can think about. Like all I can think about.

Z: A thing I miss is being able to tell someone else, yes I would like this. To be able to turn my attention from whatever that thing is and then to have it show up in front of me, you know two to five minutes later. And it’s like, I am the by and large the bartender in the house, the sommelier in the house and when and where appropriate I guess the person who opens the beers in the house and so it’s like…not that I mind. But it is this weird thing that I miss of like, “yeah, I’ll have a Manhattan” and instead of saying “I’ll have a Manhattan” and then going and making a Manhattan, I used to be able to say “I’ll have a Manhattan” and then a Manhattan would just magically appear in front of me.

E: Exactly.

Z: And I do miss that. I miss that sort of like….I guess if that’s my….if that’s the thing I miss I supposed I am fortunate in all of this.

E: Yeah.

A: I think you are, yeah. It is funny though, ’cause have you guys used delivery yet? I don’t know why but like we haven’t. We’ve really been cooking everything and the friends of mine who have used delivery have said at least it’s like that one like respite, just like, oh, like one night someone make the food that wasn’t me. You know? Or like did the cocktails. But we haven’t done it, have you guys?

E: Oh yeah, I’ve had….I’ve done pizza a couple of times, I mean now we’re out in Connecticut and there’s not that much delivery. So we’ve done pizza and we’ve done a barbecue night, a barbecue delivery and that I swear barbecue never tasted so good.

A: That sounds amazing.

E: Yeah, all I want is someone….I mean and I’ve got two kids too, so I’m you know cooking and my husband’s cooking, everyone is cooking all the time and the amount of dishes, shocking! Full time eaters in a house, never realized there were so many dishes.

Z: Oh yeah, I used…I’ve been running the dishwasher daily which is really, really weird for me, I’m sort of anti-dishwasher from a dispositional standpoint but it’s gotten to the point, just with two adults and a not-quite-two-year-old in the house we’re going….we’re running a load almost every day and it is wild. I haven’t done any delivery like you Adam, I’ve just sort of been like I’m gonna cook everything but it has been creeping up in the mind for both my wife and I because there are a few things, like barbecue for example that I don’t make at home, not having a smoker or whatever. So there are a few things that we’ve been craving that haven’t been able to have yet and so I think we’re probably gonna go down that road probably in the next few days frankly.

A: So….I think we’re gonna have to do it too. I mean like I don’t know what else I’m gonna do. Like at some point I’m just gonna have to get some delivery ’cause I’m getting sick of cooking dinner every night. So our, you know, subject for today’s podcast is you know, one of the groups of people that we have talked about a little bit but we haven’t focused on fully in the entire podcast since the coronavirus so probably the last five weeks and that’s the smaller producers, right? So we would call them in beer like the small craft producers, the small craft distillers, the small wine producers, and I know as we mentioned before there are a lot of the times people that are getting hit harder because a lot of their, you know, their focus has been on premise for so long. It’s…. building a brand on premise, you know seems to be a little bit easier, it’s a better spend of your dollars, right? You can get a few cases in and then it gets moved for you. You know some brands would disagree with that and say that they went off-premise and now were thinking that that was the great strategy but for the majority of like smaller brands most wind up on on-premise before focusing on off-premise. So a lot of them are hurting very badly right now. Whether that’s because kegs aren’t being purchased obviously, you know their wines aren’t being taken in and or their, you know, their spirits aren’t being used in cocktails. So we want to talk a little bit about like why….you know how we can support those brands right now. And also sort of the nature of like what could be coming next for them. Like what’s the outlook look like for a lot of these smaller brands. Zach? I know you have thoughts.

Z: I do have thoughts, yeah. So, I think this is a really fascinating question and in interviewing a few people for the Covid-19 conversation series that we’ve been doing and just talking to other people throughout the industry, I think you’re already seeing a bit of divergence between those three categories, between beer, wine, and spirits. The wine people I’ve talked to are I would say a little less concerned in general, in part because you know wine by its nature is not a particularly perishable item and while some of them are definitely concerned about cash flow and that’s obviously a real consideration, there are enough that I have spoken to who feel like, you know if worse-case scenario means that they’re stripping down their sort of staffing, you know they’re not obviously having tasting rooms open, which means that they’ve laid off or furloughed or sort of reassigned people who might be working in tasting rooms, they are probably not working, interfacing with distributors very much but they might be doing more direct-to-consumer sales, which is obviously the most profitable outlet for them. They might be doing more delivery or online ordering in general. And most of them I’ve spoken to say, well, you know, for the most part besides maybe things like rosé, which is really seasonal and very kind of needs to be consumed relatively young in most cases, their product can hold and they might in 3, 6, 9 months be O.K. sort of unloading that product they might be O.K. And if it means that they take lower margins at that point that might be O.K. for them. Beer, though, I mean beer is to me the place where we’re seeing the most issue right away.

A: Yeah.

Z: If you’re not a brand that has a strong packaging portfolio, so you’re not canning and bottling and you’re just a small craft brewery that’s relying on, you know, tap room sales or, you know, brewpub or, you know, restaurant sales you are probably already basically close to the end, unfortunately. Or you’re having to pivot really quickly. And just…you’re right, Adam. You mentioned when we were talking earlier, you know no one has an at-home draft system so it’s not even like, even if you really love a brewery, you know your capacity to really take in much of their inventory is just so limited and you can’t, you know, how many cans and bottles are you gonna buy? A lot of beer is not super long lived in terms of its shelf life, and it’s just that beer is kind of I think the most precarious, and that’s my read on it at least. I think spirits are probably closer to wine, in terms of their shelf life. But they’re also the thing that in a lot of states are much harder, you know, even still, for people to get their hands on and frankly people drink a lot more wine and beer than they do hard alcohol.

A: Yeah.

Z: It’s just, you know, most people are not going to drink a cocktail or two every single day. Some will, you know, we might. But a lot of people just won’t do that.

A: I think a lot of people are at this point.

E: Yeah.

Z: Well, maybe so.

A: But yeah….

E: I….you know, I think that actually craft distillers, you know, I’ve talked to some people and one of the episodes I have coming up is with Brian Rosen from BevStrat and that’s a company that represents a lot of small distilleries and they kind of work as a sales and marketing arm to get them placed in restaurants, retail, etc. And one of the points that he made I think is really true, which is: small distillers, you know these independent guys they are lacking the kind of financing they need to get through months of lost revenue. So, a lot of these places, you know, they’re relying on the public tastings and tours, they are expecting that they’re going to have restaurant sales and that’s a huge part of their business. And with all of that closed and liquor stores being their really only outlet at this point, that they are not able to probably a lot of them bridge this gap of many potential months of lost wages, of lost income, and a lot of them also are pivoting to help make hand sanitizer and so forth. So, it’s a huge amount of business disruption I think across the three tiers, but I think distillers will also be pretty hard hit.

A: Yeah, I think the biggest issue for a lot of them, the distillers and craft beer especially as Zach was saying is that for them too, first of all most people haven’t gotten the PPP that was supposed to come. Right? So, the money as of….as we’re recording today on April 16th has run out so we’ll wait and see if congress is able to re-up that funding. But you know what a lot of them have said to me is like all that’s doing is allowing them for two and a half months to hire people back, to do who knows what? It’s just to put people back on their payroll, but it’s not covering or helping them cover all the losses that they’re making or all the lost, you know, sales of products, food, etc. if they had a restaurant. And then if they don’t open for the next two and a half months, they’re basically back to square one which is zero revenue again and trying to figure out what the hell they do. And its…its crazy, right? So the big question becomes like, how are these people going to survive and what does the path forward look like? Because I think for a lot of these places it’s dire, because for some of these smaller producers especially on the beer and distilling side, because like you said they’re basically half…a lot of them are half-restaurants, half-tap rooms, half-small brands, right? Because a lot of times the law allows for that, and so right now they’re not able to get a lot of their products out there. I would say one of the best ways, hopefully, is for us to really lobby Congress. Right? I think like we need to basically start contacting our congressional leaders and say you need to do more to support these industries. Right? Like these are vital industries to the communities, especially in terms of the breweries, right? Like we talk about them a lot as being local gatherings for families and friends, etc. They’ve kind of become places where it’s acceptable to bring young kids at some points during the day and you can get together with people and like they need help and the only real way I can see that is through law. And so I think a lot of that is gonna have to start happening really soon is like we need to start calling our elected officials and saying, “what are you doing to help?”

Z: Yeah, and I think one of the big points to emphasize here is you know, we’ve talked a lot about, in the past on the podcast you know kind of how people are still drinking, people are still obviously having wine and beer and spirits at home. But one of the big things that’s changed, and I know we’ve talked about this and it’s as Erica mentioned it’s in upcoming episodes of Covid-19 Conversations, is a lot of that drinking has really shifted to some of the most well-known brands. I mean those were always obviously the dominant brands in the marketplace but it’s even more extreme now than it used to be, in part because as I mentioned before some of these smaller producers just have no real way to get their product in front of even consumers who want it. But a lot of it too is just so many of us are….what we do and access is so circumscribed by what the grocery store near us happens to carry or what the delivery service in our area happens to stock and we have so much less agency than we’re used to. And that’s why I think Adam’s advice on talking to your congressional representation in your state, government as appropriate is really good advice. Because unfortunately this is one of the few times that I can really think of, maybe the only time I can think of where you can’t do what I often encourage people to do in these situations otherwise, which is sort of vote with your dollars. Because a lot of the products that I might want to support, I really can’t or if I can its extremely difficult.

A: Yep.

Z: Or I have to really seek it out and I wish I could say to people, “Oh, there’s an obvious solution.” I mean, I definitely know that some smaller producers in the Seattle are looking at finding ways to kind of partner together to sell product when and where possible. They’re trying to get, you know, aligned with some of the restaurants that are still doing delivery and are offering beverage delivery as well. They’re working to get in front of local grocery store chains that are smaller. But again, think about this, right? One of the sort of advantages of being a buyer as I was for years is you taste with your representatives. You know you taste with people from distributors, from individual producers. That’s not something you do very…you can’t really do anymore, right? Like it’s not safe to be in close proximity to these people. Yes, maybe you can get a sample bottle and that’s a thing although that’s also an expense for the producer, although maybe one they’re willing to take on, but it really does encourage and has encouraged the sort of mindset of we’re not gonna make any changes to our inventory. We might re-order ’cause we’re selling through things, but we’re not gonna bring in new product, we’re not gonna change our product mix-up, we’re just gonna kinda keep doing the same things we’ve been doing to get by. And that’s fine on one level, but it really does disadvantage producers who don’t have a massive distribution chain that’s, you know, nationwide.

E: Definitely. I mean I think one of the best things that we, you know, Zach I know that it is like an additional step or two but I do think it is worthwhile, to go on social media if there’s a brand you like. You can look on their social media channels, like right now I just opened up my feed a couple of minutes ago and there’s a post from Privateer rum and Maggie Campbell who’s the distiller there, you know she’s doing “Ask me anythings,” she is doing all sorts of face-to-face kind of interactions. Whether they’re Facebook lives or what have you and I find that this moment distillers, winemakers and brewers are more available and more in front of their customers than ever before. One of the episodes we have coming up on the Covid-19 podcast is with Dan Petroski, who is a wine maker at Larkmead and Massican and Massican is a small winery that he owns. He said, you know, for the first time in his…with his newsletter he gave out his cellphone and people have been texting him and calling him and just talking with him. And while he did it out of, you know, really a sense of wanting to connect with his consumers, at the same time that has led to conversions and that has led to people literally calling him to seek out where they can find his wines and how they can buy them. So I do think it is a very useful piece of advice to check your social media feeds, any brands that you’ve had before that you like and that you want to support, they are more than willing to hop on the phone with you or to direct message you and tell you where you can find their product. Because there really is no good way that….I mean, I’ve researched, we’re doing an article on it, we are trying to research what are the best ways to support your local businesses and the best way we’ve found so far is to reach out to them directly.

A: Totally. I mean I really….it really seems to be the only way and it’s the way….even if there are other ways, it’s the way that they receive the most benefit, right? ‘Cause no one else is taking a cut, no one else is really involved at the middle man, you know, it’s just getting to them and saying like how can we help if we can? And then its supporting legislation down the road that helps people survive this. ‘Cause I think the biggest thing we need to really think about is there’s help now but there’s also help that has to come at the end, right? And so, once this is over and we’ve re-opened, what programs are we providing for people? ‘Cause like there’s a lot of breweries I love. There’s a lot of like, you know, wineries I love. I can’t buy them all once this over. You know? Like I can run and do everything at the same time, which is why, you know, I am fearful that a lot of people that do not deserve to go out of business will go out of business, just because like there’s just not gonna be enough people that are gonna come…go to every place they love right when this this is over. And so, you know, getting on your phone and calling your congressperson and calling your senator is really, really important.

E: Yeah.

A: Yeah. And it’s also the only way that you can, as Adam is saying, save this entire industry as opposed to a select few particular brands that you happen to care about, you know? I think it’s important….you know, I think look, there’s a reality that we have to face here, which is that there’s going to be, there already has been and there will be attrition that comes out of this, you know? Any incredibly traumatic, stressful period of time whether it’s a…just a purely financial crisis, a health crisis, or both is going to just inevitably cause some businesses, some producers that we dearly love to go out of business because it’s just there’s no two ways around it.

E: Yeah.

Z: But for trying to keep, you know, the previous….pre-Covid sort of landscape that I think we all really appreciated in this country, you know a really diverse set of producers of beer, wine and spirits, the likes of which we’d never seen in this country prior, we have to…yeah, it has to be a community but also a sort of national effort to keep those things alive. And it’s not just with this industry, obviously there’s lots of other industries where this is true. But obviously this is ours and the one we feel passionate about. And Adam is right, you know, buying a bottle of wine, a bottle of gin or, you know, a six-pack of beer from a local producer is one, important and maybe slightly more rewarding immediately way to support them. But it is really true, you know, taking that time to reach out to your congressional leadership, to encourage people that you know, your friends and family to do the same. You know, that’s the only way that there’s going to be programs in place to keep these industries alive not just during this crisis but as Adam mentioned afterwards because there’s gonna be a lot of you know, essentially….there’s gonna be a lot, it’s gonna be a long time before these industries really get back to full strength.

A: And I want to be clear here, like I’m not talking about just, you know, people might be listening and they might be like “Oh, Adam’s sitting here and he’s talking about like handouts,” that’s not all that I’m talking about. I’m talking about the loosening of laws as well to allow people to continue to do the things that they’re doing now, right? So, we talked about this last week but I’m talking about us lobbying our lawmakers to say: hey, let’s allow cocktail delivery to continue until people get back on their feet. Or for the foreseeable future, or maybe forever, right? Let’s allow for a lot of these restaurants to also sell their bottles to go, right? So like if I come into the restaurant, I have a great bottle of wine that night, why can’t I buy that bottle of wine to-go at a 25% reduction in price or something from the list? Why can’t I do that?

E: Yeah.

A: And then I can take it home and enjoy it down the road. Like this will allow people to bring in more revenue now. Like those are the things that we need to be talking about.

E: Yes.

A: So that these businesses can find other revenue streams in the short term in order to, you know, make more money right when they open. And if we don’t do that, if we just say, O.K., everyone has to go back to business as usual prior to Covid-19, it’s gonna be really hard and we’re gonna lose more businesses than we should.

E: Yeah, and I don’t think we can go back to business until there’s a vaccine, like we can’t…I don’t think there’s a real tangible path forward for a lot of businesses. I mean imagine how far you’ll have to be spaced-out to really meet those social distancing guidelines. A lot of businesses will not be able to accommodate that. So its…I think yeah, I absolutely agree that the congressional and the governmental responses are going to be key to this. But I think that, you know, even with that there will be a big culling of a lot of businesses that we, you know, love and support.

A: Totally. Well guys, hopefully the moral of the story here is: talk to your elected officials. ‘Cause it’s gonna be the best way…I know we talked about this a few months ago when it came to the tariffs and it’s time now again. If you listened to us then and contacted your elected officials, thank you. Please contact them now. The hospitality industry as a whole, whether its craft producers like we’ve talked about a little bit today or just, you know, restaurants and bars in general is one of the largest employers of people in the United States. So, you know, it’s really important that we support this industry so that everyone can get back to work. So please, please, please call them and tell them to support the industry, it would be….it’s vitally important.

E: Yep.

Z: 100% right.

A: So, thank you guys so much for listening as always and Zach and Erica, I’ll talk to you next week.

Z: Sounds good.

E: Hang in there!

A: Thanks so much for listening to the VinePair podcast. If you enjoy listening to us every week please leave us a review or rating on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever it is that you get your podcasts. It really helps everyone else discover the show. And now for the credits:

VinePair is produced and hosted Zach Geballe, Erica Duecy, and me: Adam Teeter. Our engineer is Nick Patri and Keith Beavers. I’d also like to give a special shout-out to my VinePair co-founder Josh Malin and the rest of the VinePair team for their support. Thanks so much for listening and we’ll see you again right here next week.

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