#i hope jobby doesn’t see this

[byclairs]

is this the queer media in question

[tessiete]

Yeah, yeah, yeah another prompt fill that came from DMs. And also was my fault. @treescape​ asked for prompts and I um, offered this, and immediately took it back, and didn’t even do a very good jobby on it so. *shrug*

Anyway! A vague continuation of The Punishment of Silence, post Order 66

THE HOPE OF ORPHANS, AND UNFATHERED FRUIT

He wakes to silence. There is nothing except the sound of his own breath being scraped from his lungs like wax under fingernails, the beating of his heart against his ribs, and the creak of his bones. There is nothing else. Even his cry of terror has died upon his lips, unfledged and unrealised in this void. He is all alone.

“We’ll be coming out of hyperspace soon.” 

He hardly recognises the voice, hardly hears the words as he reaches for the only source of warmth and light in space. Beside him, tucked securely between his chest and the wall, is a heavy bundle of coarse wool, and worn linen. Within it, the weakly struggling flesh of new life.

“Hush, Luke,” he whispers, and even his voice is absent.

But Luke...Luke is here. With him. Luke is golden. Luke is the sun, and he shines so brightly that for a moment, the absence of stars is obscured by the break of dawn, and he turns his face to meet it. Luke cries, his voice wet with the sorrow of Obi-Wan’s soul, and he weeps where Obi-Wan cannot.

“Master Kenobi?” The voice calls again. It is young, too, and threaded with uncertainty as it seeks a mooring in this black new world. “Master Kenobi, I need your help.”

He must answer it.

But he is wrung dry, having wasted it all in the desert of affection.

“They’re asking for a landing code,” the boy says. “They want to search the ship.”

“Let them,” he replies. “We’ve nothing for them to find.”

He adjusts the swaddling around the babe, pulling the folds up higher until the little face is barely visible, and drawing up his hood until his own face is shadowed and obscured.

The pilot fumbles for the comm, but hesitates before he makes the call.

“Master, we haven’t got the clearance,” he says. “I tried Republic codes but they’re all invalid, and I daren’t use a - a Jedi -”

“No.”

“Master, they’re waiting.”

Outside the viewport, Tatooine looms larger, and larger, round and golden, like the husk of a burnt out star. Just endless swathes of sand and stone. A barren rock. The twin suns watch, and Obi-Wan feels his hackles rise, as though he were prey under the baleful gaze of a predator in the night. 

“Tell them whatever you must,” he sighs. His shoulders slump, and his eyes close. He is weary.

He cannot see the way his pilot stares at him, hopeful, and waiting. He doesn’t want to. The weight of his need is punishment enough. Luke is light in his arms, and he rocks him gently.

“This is the pilot of  The Slip, Corellian class YT-1300 AUX requesting permission to land.”

“Airbase to  Slip , have you got those docking permits yet?”

A single, shimmering breath, and the pilot answers, “No. But we - I  can pay you.”

Obi-Wan does not object.

“What sort of payment we talking?”

“What do you care, so long as you get your money?”

“I don’t know,” replies the man. “You bargain like a pirate, but you sound like a kid. I ain’t convinced you got anything I want.”

He can feel his eyes upon him, but he cannot tear his own away from the babe. He is preoccupied with this one last precious thing. The pilot grits his teeth, and replies with all the arrogance of his past life. “Well, how about this - if you don’t like it, you can shoot me when I get there?”

There is silence on the other end, then the comm crackles back to life. The deck officer’s voice rasps with laughter. “Alright, kid,” he says. “You got a deal. Hope you ain’t got family to miss you. We’ll see you at Dock 3, on the south side.”

“Dock 3,” says pilot. “Copy that.”

“And kid? Don’t try anything stupid.”

 --

He takes the ship in with a steady hand, but as they get closer and closer Korkie feels his breath quicken in anticipation. They haven’t got anything to pay with. They have no credits, no valuables, nothing personal which might tie them back to the Core, or worse, to the Temple. He doesn’t worry so much for himself, having no particular training in the Force, nor any distinctly Jedi affectations. His borrowed robes he discarded on Polis Massa, but his father…

Obi-Wan is unmistakably a Jedi in his sand coloured tunics, and thick, wool cloak meant for all terrains but a blazing desert. However, there is one appurtenance which may work in their favour -

Everyone knows that Jedi have no children, and he will not relinquish Luke.

“Slip  to base: Docking clamps locked, and pressure restored to atmo baseline. Please advise.”

There is sweat beading upon his upper lip. Obi-Wan rocks Luke as he fusses, awakened by the sounds of noise outside. People are waiting for them.

“This is Squaddy Redsun. Lower your ramp, and prepare for immediate boarding.”

He looks to the Jedi, and gathers himself. There is nothing on the ship, and so there is nothing to pack or take as they leave, but still, he casts one last look at the cockpit. Then, he ushers his father forward, through the main hold, and to the head of the ramp. He presses the pair to the side, leaving them just out of plain sight, and so wrapped up in the folds of Obi-Wan’s cloak and each other as to be indistinguishable from shadow. He steps back. He strikes the button to lower the ramp with an open palm. Sunlight floods the hold, and he is left blinking and blind as a rough voice calls to him.

“You the captain, then, kid?”

“Yes, sir,” he replies, a hand up to shield his eyes from the glare. He can see a man clad in worn leathers, and decorated in the gleaming white bone of some fearsome beast. Beside him, two others with wrist guards, and pikes. He makes no attempt to resist as the guards approach, and does not fight as he is grabbed by the elbow and shoved down the ramp by the first.

But the second has discovered Obi-Wan, and grabs at him with the same barbarity. The Jedi flinches away, and curls around himself. One pale hand reaches back, and Korkie can feel the air turn electric. 

“No!” he cries, startling both the guard and Obi-Wan, the warning clear in the fraught timbre of his voice. “He has a child,” he says. “He’s harmless. But there’s a child. Please. I am the pilot. This is my ship.”

“And who is he then?” Redsun demands.

“No one,” says Korkie. “A refugee of - of Mandalore.”

“He don’t look like no hunter.”

Korkie shrugs, watching closely as Obi-Wan descends untouched, the guard at his elbow. “I don’t know that he has enough left to look like anything.”

“Ha,” chortles Redsun. His men laugh, too. “Then I suppose it’s you what has my payment. Docking codes don’t come cheap.”

“No, sir,” says Korkie. “I - I haven’t any credits.”

“That Republican dross is no good out here, any way,” Redsun spits. “Now, where’s my pay?”

The guards edge closer, and Luke chokes on a feeble cry.

“Hush, dear heart,” murmurs Obi-Wan. “Hush, sweet thing. And sleep.”

“The ship!” says Korkie. “You can take the ship. It’s in fine working order, and the hyperdrive is good for your smaller jumps. I -”

His neck snaps, his teeth snap together, and he can taste blood as a fist connects with his cheek. It leaves him staggering, and spitting into the sand. Luke begins to wail. The sound rings out around him, but he struggles to place its source. Nearby, he knows. They must still be beside him. He reaches out and catches the edge of heavy wool in his grip.

“None of that banthashit, boy!” shouts Redsun, and he is near as well. He can smell the man as he comes closer, still. “That ship ain’t worth half the trouble you’ve caused. What else you got?”

“Nothing,” he pleads, struggling upright again. The guard at his side restrains him. “Nothing. But take the ship, and I can - I can work for you. You can garnish my wages -”

“Garnish your wages? What kind of -” A blaster primes. He hears the pitch rise with the charge until it disappears. “Now, we had a deal,” says Redsun. “You pay me now, or I take it out of your hide. Right? You pay me, or I shoot you.”

“Yes, sir,” whispers Korkie.

The barrel presses against his forehead. 

“So you decide,” says Redsun. “Give me my money, or I kill you where you stand. You, and that screeching brat.”

Korkie tries to swallow, but all his tastes is the sour, metal tang of blood. It roils in his stomach. He feels faint. Luke screams, and screams but Obi-Wan only tries harder to sooth him, singing some sad lullaby. A Mandalorian lullaby. 

Korkie recognises it. His...his mother used to sing it to him. He clenches his hand into a fist, tracing his thumb over the ring he wears, as a reminder. And he remembers -

“My ring,” he says, slipping the jewelry from his hand. It is a simple band, but thick and completely unblemished by age or use. “I can give you this,” he insists, holding it so that the suns set it ablaze, glittering like fire in his hand. 

“And what’s that?”

“Pure beskar,” he says. 

Redsun lowers the blaster. Korkie can see his interest pique, and greed replace fury in his cold, black eyes.

“Beskar,” he says. “And how’d you be coming by that?”

He nods at one of the guards, who swaps his pike for a techscanner. The ring is plucked from Korkie’s fingers, and the green light of the machine washes over it.

“Like I said,” says Korkie. “Mandalorian refugees. 

The guard looks up. “It’s as he says, Squaddy. Beskar.”

Redsun regards him for a moment. He shifts his jaw, and rolls his tongue over his teeth. Korkie holds his gaze, even as blood drips from his chin. At last, Redsun gives the sign, and his man lets Korkie go. 

“I’ll be taking the ring,” he declares. “And your kriffing ship, for all the good I’ll make of it. And you get off with a warning.”

“Yes, sir,” says Korkie. “Thank you, sir.”

Korkie gathers Master Kenobi in his arms, and pushes him towards the exit. Through the wide, rusted blast doors, he can see where the dockyards end, and the streets beyond begin. Their escape is at hand, but Obi-Wan is slow to move, fearful of jostling Luke who has settled tentatively once more. The guards make no move to assist, but Korkie is determined. He keeps between Redsun and the Jedi, he keeps him moving forward, and they are hardly ten steps from freedom when blaster fire rings out across the docking bay.

There is a blaze of fire along his side, and Korkie falls in a heap of fine, yellow dust. Breathing hard, he presses a hand to the source of heat, and cries out as agony is awakened by his touch. His fingers come away bloody, but he sits up, then stands, then stumbles on towards the exit, leaning on Obi-Wan, urging him to go, to move, to keep pushing forward. Step by step. He can hear the guards and Redsun laughing behind them.

“Don’t you try playing games like that round these parts, son,” shouts the man. “Not everyone’s as kind as Squaddy Redsun.”

 --

The crowds are easy enough to get lost in, and soon Squaddy Redsun and the Mos Eisley docks are far behind them, but Korkie feels their ruin is closer than ever. His side aches, and bleeds sluggishly where the bolt hadn’t instantly cauterised the wound. He is hot. He is thirsty. But worst of all, he cannot speak or read a single word of Huttese. 

“Please,” he asks of a woman hustling by with an armful of black fruits. “Please, can you tell me where to find shelter? An inn?”

She cuts him a glare, and hurries on.

“Sir, if you could - I need to find a place to stay.” 

The man flicks his lekku, and shakes Korkie off.

He cannot tell if they’ve tried this street already, or not, all the architecture looks so similar to his unfamiliar eyes, and all the people are one massive murmuration of a society he is not part of. Then suddenly, a child stands before him. A little boy, with hair the colour of the sandstone walls of the city, and eyes like the sky reaches out a grubby hand.

“We need food,” says Korkie. “And a place to sleep. Please.”

The child nods, and Korkie takes his hand, fisting his other in the folds of Obi-Wan’s robe to be sure he doesn’t lose him in the crowds. They follow the child through innumerable streets, and darkened alleys before they are abandoned in front of a low building on the outskirts of town.

“Can we stay here?” Korkie asks. The child nods. The door slides open at his touch, and he is swallowed up in warm yellow light while Korkie hesitates on the threshold.

But it is getting dark, and he can think of no other alternatives. So he knocks.

“We’re all full up.” He hears the voice first, but it is soon matched by the scowling countenance of a woman worn old by the suns. The little boy clings to her skirts, now shy and retiring after his brazen rescue. She looks at Korkie and his charges from the doorway, and nearly turns away.

“Wait, wait, gedet'ye, jatne vod, vi linibar taap at nuhoy.” He’s slipping, and he only notices when her brow crinkles in confusion. “I’m sorry,” he says. “I’m just - please, we need a place to stay. Just for the night.”

“We don’t have any more rooms,” she says.

“We have a baby.”

He clutches at Obi-Wan’s arm, until he steps forward, and the light falls across Luke’s sleeping face. The woman sighs.

“It’s five wuipui,” she says. 

“I haven’t any money,” he says.

“Then I haven’t any beds,” she replies. He catches the door before it can slide shut. 

“Please,” he says. “Please.”

And at that moment, Luke wakes and begins to weep. The woman stills, and Korkie thanks the stars for timing.

“One bed,” she says. “I won’t have a babe die on my doorstep. Bad business. Bad bly is what it is. But I can only afford to take the one of you with it.”

“Him,” says Korkie, shoving Obi-Wan forward. “He’s his father.”

“And where’s the mother?”

“Dead,” says Korkie. “It’s only - they only have each other.”

The woman nods, and reaches out to pull Obi-Wan into the shelter of her home. The wool slips from his fingers, leaving them clammy and sticky in the rapidly cooling night air. 

“Thank you,” he says, and they disappear behind the door.

At once, the strange euphoria of a desperate flight deserts him, and he collapses in the sand against the wall. His side aches, though the bleeding has mostly stopped. He supposes that is the result of dehydration as much as anything. His lips are cracked. His tongue feels thick. His own blood sits uneasily in his stomach. The streets empty, the second sun slips below the horizon as he watches, and soon he begins to shiver. It’s difficult to stay awake, but after so many hours of preternatural vigilance it feels impossible that he should sleep. There is always some danger, now. They will always be hunted. He blinks, and sees three moons. Perhaps he is concussed, but then Coruscant had four moons, and Mandalore had two, so that is no measure of his injury.

He’d travelled once to Concordia, when he was a child. It was a beautiful place, and it felt, at the time, as though he’d been transported to some ancient world. There were trees. And grassland. There was water you could swim in, and could drink, and it ran freely over rock, and silt in unpredictable patterns, like the veins on the back of his hand. Though he’d been born in Sundari, there was something about Concordia that felt viscerally his. He recognized himself in the wildness of it all, as though it were a sort of mirror, as though if one were to pull up all the grasses and the plants they might pull up all his roots as well. The moons of Tatooine are white. They shine like stars, but there is no warmth to them. He doesn’t think he’ll ever see Concordia again.

Warm light illuminates the dark, turning the sand golden again.

“Alright, none of that. Can’t have Core soft boys dying on my stoop, either.”

“‘M not from the Core,” Korkie mumbles.

“That posh accent of your father’s could’ve fooled me,” she says. He feels her prop him up against the wall, and wonders when he’d laid down. She taps his face with her hand on the cheek that isn’t hurt. Water touches his lips, and he opens his eyes. “Drink up,” she says. “Heat’ll kill you faster than a blastoh will out here, lapti wermo.”

He drinks as quickly as she lets him, and until the vessel is empty. The clay cup is cool against his skin, and he presses his swollen eye against it, grateful for the relief.

“Now,” she says, taking it from his hand, and standing it upright in the sand. “Let’s see about that blaster wound.”

“It’s not bad,” he insists. She ignores him, and tugs his jacket down one shoulder, and slides his arm free. He hisses in pain, and she cuts him a look that says she has absolutely no confidence in his ability to self-diagnose. 

Blood stains his close-fitting sark, and she draws back. 

“I’m going to get some vibroshears,” she says. “I’ll need to cut this off.”

“No,” he protests. “Just lift it. I haven’t got anything else.”

“You haven’t got this , you stupa,” she grumbles. Korkie makes no reply, but leans forward and begins to tug at the hem of his shirt. In response, she leans forward to help him, and launches into a vehement stream of Huttese that makes no sense to Korkie. He comprehends the spirit of the words just the same. “Bolla rass tata, u beggybeggy brite lapti wermo.”

“On my world, we’d say ‘slanar nek gar shabuir’,” he says, grimacing as the shirt comes off. “Or something like.”

“Shabuir?” she says, letting the word bubble on her lips. “I like that one. I’ll keep it.”

“It’s yours.”

The fabric lifts away, heavy with dirt and grime. She is careful not to tear it further as she lays it flat to dry in the sand, and Korkie does appreciate that. Such a small measure of care, and yet already so coveted in this drought. 

“I’ve a poultice,” she offers, withdrawing from the darkness a little bowl of sludge. “It isn’t bacta, but it’s better than nowt.”

Her fingers are cold against his side, or the wound is hot, but either way, he finds her ministrations soothing, and it’s not long before he finds his eyes slipping closed again. He fights it, and thinks he wins, but when wakes to her carefully tucking the ends of his bandages, the moons are much higher than they were before.

“There now,” she says, brushing back his hair, and giving his cheek a kind caress. “Let’s get you inside. Give you some food. Put you to bed.”

“I thought you said you had none,” he mumbles.

She smiles, and throws his arm across her shoulders. “That was before I saw how pretty you were. Now, come on.”

He grins, though it hurts, and rises to his feet when she pulls him. He staggers to the door, his feet made clumsier with exhaustion more than injury this time, and doesn’t fight when she leads him to a room, and drops him on a bed, and urges him to rest his head upon a thin pillow of sand and dry grass. The light goes out, and the door slides shut behind her. In the dark, he cannot tell if his eyes are closed, or not. But he is not alone. There is a voice.

Someone is singing a lullaby nearby. A Mandalorian lullaby. It is an old call and response. He used to sing the answers with his mother when he was very young. He hasn’t heard it in years. But when the singer gets to the end of the verse, he joins in.

“A ner kar'ta cuyir gotal ciryc, bal ni kar'tayl gar darasuum nayc or'atu...O meg, o meg, kelir ni vaabir?”

The voice answers back on a sigh, though the words are different than they ever were before.

“O, ner Kiorkicek,” it sings. “Ni kelir ratiin yaimpar bal cuyir saanyc be gar.”

A baby sniffles in the dark. There is another bed. And he recognises the voice.

“Buir Kenobi,” he says, his voice hardly more than a thought. “Cuyir gar pirusti? Cuyir gar morut'yc.”

“Yes,” Obi-Wan replies. “We are well. You have saved us. Now, sleep. We shall all begin again in the morning.”

There is a warm hand upon his brow, and the irresistible temptation of sleep, and Korkie drops off into dreams.

[rpbetter]

The problem with Raven’s server is their terrible alias and how they pretend to not be who they are but then send posts that were just on their resource blog. Or they send rants about this drama. I left for a reason LOL. Like buddy we know it’s you! It’s all good because it made me blog their roleplay blogs as well. I don’t want them screenshotting my rules and making vague posts.

Oh, my. That is...a decidedly poor execution of being covert, yes lol

It's perfectly reasonable to want to remove yourself from your RP presence(s) when in a server with people you don't know, you're modding or own the server and want to be impartial without hurt feelings, or you're running a meme/resource/help/other blog like that on here. With the risk of drama, it's really the wiser choice, among other factors. So, of course, we see that a lot, and I don't want to give anyone the hypocritical as hell impression that muns choosing that are up to something suspicious.

But I do think when muns are inclined to act on a great deal of self-interest, it all acts like an echochamber, instant support without asking for it. This is what's going on you guys, can you believe this ableism, this transphobia, it's a hobby not a jobby!!! -dama rant continues-

Ultimately, people are most comfortable disagreeing when they aren't speaking to someone directly, in something closer to real time, than when they are. Intentionally or otherwise, it puts people on the spot, especially when issuing the challenge of what is meant to be perceived as doing the right thing, being for the right things. So, of course, there's a serious reward present for taking that drama to the server, and even more so if people don't think it's you asking for that sympathy and backup.

Yet more so if the people present genuinely do not know it is you, therefore, are taking no great pains to hide from your potential wrath. Like using places on tumblr to single out muns.

Thankfully, very few people like that can help but tell on themselves for the same damn reason. It's necessary in order to receive validation.

So, at least that was the case, and could serve you in insulating yourself from them! Have to admit, a bit funny as well, since their deceit allowed you to know several places they were to block them lmao Given the cumulative pile of evidence, I think you probably made the right decision. One certainly doesn't have to ever speak to them to warrant screenshots and vagues, it seems to be much worse than that if one does have any manner of interaction.

Glad you're safer, Anon! I hope you stay that way, and I applaud your observational skills!

[eryiss]

Chapter One ~ Sunrise

Summary: When Lucius was told his father was retiring and he was to inherit the company, he was overwhelmed. Naturally, he confided in the advice of H’esper Legal Firm on what to do with his new acquisition, with the expectation of sound legal advice and nothing more. And while he gets this advice, he finds himself much more interested with the handsome intern with deep freckles and a statue of a bird sitting on his desk. [Quillucius | Modern Au]

This is my first time writing for, or interacting with, the High Rollers Fandom. But this ship has taken ahold of me and I had to write for it, so here you go. This is the first of two parts, the second will hopefully be done by friday. Hope you all enjoy.

You can read it on Archive of our Own, or under the cut. I hope you all enjoy it!

Chapter One: Sunrise

Friday; 16th August

Watching as the large doors closed before him, Lucius couldn't help but fidget.

He had never exactly been the business, corporate type of man, much favouring more creative endeavours. So having walked through the extravagant lobby of H'esper Legal Firm – one of the most respected collections of lawyers and legal advisories in the country – was intimidating to say the least. Being surrounded by so many stuffed-shirt lawyers was about as out of his depth as he could bare to be.

Still, despite how uncomfortable he felt in the unfamiliar environment, he knew that he needed to do this. He could do this, be brave for Daddy's sake. Though, he did suspect that if his father were with him, he would have advised him not to wear such an extravagant outfit.

But Daddy wasn't here, so he could wear what he wished.

The reason for his visit to the elite legal firm was a simple one. His father had recently retired from the company he had created, a successful luxury car manufacturer known for having powerful, eco-friendly engines that were unrivalled by their competitors. Deciding that he would move to Australia for the retirement years, Lucius' father had decided that it would be best to leave the company in his son's hands. An outsider may say this was an unusual choice, given Lucius' entire personality, but with his sister already living outside the country Lucius was the only member of the family who would be anywhere near the head offices and manufactories.

So, Lucius was going to sell it.

Though it sounded somewhat selfish, his father had even told him that would probably be best. Maybe if he put the effort in Lucius could keep the company afloat, but advancing it was unlikely. It was much easier to sell it to someone who knew what they were doing. That was where H'esper came into the equation, he would provide the legal advice over all possible offers Lucius was getting.

The lawyer had already asked why Lucius' father hadnt sold it himself, and Lucius had laughed it off as an oversight. He knew the actual reason, but tried not to linger on it.

With a delightful little ding from the elevator speakers, the large metal doors opened to the top floor of the skyscraper. He stepped out, hiding the slight amount of nervousness that was on his face as he walked across the hardwood floor, with his boots clicking against it softly. He held his head high and turned a corner to what he assumed was the reception of H'esper's personal office. He walked to it with as much confidence as he could portray.

That was when he first saw him.

Apparently alerted to Lucius' presence by the sound of his boots on the floor, the man sitting at the somewhat cluttered desk looked up. He had brown hair which had been slicked back and attacked with a can of hairspray; a somewhat uneven coating if Lucius wanted to be critical. He had a mess of freckles across his face and brown eyes that were a darker shade than that of his hair. It would have been unnoticeable to most, but Lucius had always made to make note of colours; a small quirk that had served him well in only a few instances.

All in all, for a stuffed-shirt lawyer type of person, he was rather cute.

"Hello," The receptionist spoke up, smiling a little. "How can I help you?"

"I'm here for an appointment with H'esper," Lucius hoped his somewhat forced confidence was believable. "Lucius Virion-Elluin Elenasto, an eleven thirty appointment I believe."

Lucius watched as the receptionist nodded and turned to his computer, clicking on a few things and typing a moment later. The blonde frowned a little when he saw that he was only typing with his right hand, something that didn't seem like it would be particularly efficient. When he looked at the man's left hand, he saw that it was made of a black plastic; or was it metal. It had a small sheen to it, so metal made sense.

"There you are," The receptionist said, looking up from the computer.

Lucius found himself snapped out of his thoughts and back into the reality of the situation, which gave him a dull sense of nervousness in his stomach. After all, the repercussions of getting the material of a prosthetic wrong wasn't nearly as bad as selling his father's company to someone who would run it into the ground.

Trying not to let it get to him, he watched as the receptionist pulled up a large leather-bound book and a pen from his desk. He quickly wrote something in the book before turning it on the desk, so it was facing Lucius. "Could you sign that please?"

With a small nod, Lucius took the pen from the receptionist. He leant down and put his signature – a beautiful and curvy symbol he was rather proud of – next to his name. That's what the receptionist must have been writing; he had rather nice handwriting. Perhaps cursive.

"Thanks," The receptionist smiled. "He should be out soon, please taking a seat."

Lucius looked to where the receptionist had motioned to, and saw a white leather sofa and coffee table made of glass. He walked to it and sat on the side closer to the receptionist's desk. His posture was perfect and his clothes lacking anything as small as a crease; he needed to make sure he looked as good as possible. In environments like this, image played a large part in how he was received. Anyone who knew the Elenasto family knew he wasn't going to be the next tycoon, so he was already wrongfooted and needed to make up for it.

Unfortunately, looking confident and feeling confident were different things entirely. And sitting in the silence of the reception area, with only his thoughts to entertain him, the ramifications of what he was going to do plagued his mind, leaving him with a sense akin to sickness in the pit of his stomach.

A thousand and one questions flashed before him. What if he sold it to someone who couldn't handle it? What if the person who brought it was a rival that he wasn't aware of? What if he couldn't sell it at all and the company went into liquidation because of his poor leadership and people lost their jobbies?

He couldn't stew like this forever though. He was here to stop all of that from happening. H'esper had been his father's personal lawyer, knew all the ins and outs of the company and would be the best person to help Lucius through the selling process. And if he needed to, he could call Daddy and ask his advice on the prospective clients; just because he was on the other side of the planet didn't meant they couldn't speak to each other.

Even if it did feel like that sometimes.

Shaking his head a little as if to reject the negativity, he looked up when he heard the sound of typing again. He assessed the man's desk with a curious expression. It was tidy enough to not look out of place in the minimalist building, but there was a small amount of clutter on it that was organised just enough to not detract the eye. It would all look very formal, if not for the small statue perched on the right side of the computer.

It was of a bird; or birdman to be more specific. It looked like something from a fantasy novel, with a single large wing – which was holding a golden spyglass in its talons – and a clear brown and yellow colour pallet going on. It should have contrasted with the room entirely, but somehow added to it. It made Lucius smile.

"Birdie," He said aloud, in a similar way that someone would point out a horse on a country road.

The receptionist looked up at the word, frowning slightly. "Excuse me?"

"Oh," Lucius' head snapped from the statue to the man. He hadnt meant to actually speak. "I just meant that I like the statue of the little birdie you've got."

"Er, thanks," The receptionist seemed a little taken aback. Still, he smiled, and it settled Lucius' stomach somewhat. "My friend made it for my birthday, I'll be sure to tell her that you like it when I next see her."

Lucius smiled a little at the unneeded admission that a friend had made it for the receptionist. It meant that either he too had been affected by the silence between them and wanted to break it by inviting Lucius into a conversation – which Lucius would love, because his own mind wasn't a playground at the moment – or simply the receptionist had heard of Lucius' impeccable style and creative judgements and knew that the praise would make his friend feel better than anything else in the world possibly could.

It was almost definitely the former, but that didn't make the latter any less true.

"It's very good," Lucius continued, walking to the desk again and looking at the statue closer. The paintwork was impeccable. "Is your friend a sculpture?"

"No, almost the opposite really. She's a robotics engineer," The receptionist laughed, looking at the statue with a small amount of fondness. Lucius frowned, certainly not expecting something so creative to come from a science person. "She doesn't like it when robots look like robots, so she's pretty good with a 3D printer. She usually uses it for casing her projects, but she wanted to make this for me as a treat."

"So you like birdies then?" Lucius probed. The content smile and soft voice the receptionist was showing relaxed his stomach further.

"They're my favourite type of animal," The receptionist smiled a little wider, having placed a hand on the statue with fondness. "I drew this guy myself though, when I was a teenager. Used him as my icon for pretty much every website I signed up to, that's why Sentry made him for me I think."

Lucius laughed a little at the admission, though had to admit that he was a little shocked. The bird's design was good, the colours complimentary and the clothing somehow fitting the design well. He knew that it was cliché to say, but he had expected all the people who worked at a law firm to be lacking any creativity, having it knocked out of their heads by all the laws and bylaws and whatever else they learned in law school. It made him feel even more comfortable in the unfamiliar environment, he wasn't the only creative in the room anymore.

"So you're an artist then?" He asked, leaning forward slightly now.

"No. Not unless you really stretch the definition," The receptionist laughed off, removing his hand from the statue. "I only used to take it seriously when I was at university, and that was because I was doing commissions."

"Then you are an artist!" Lucius insisted with a smile.

"Not really. And if I was anything, I was a cartographer," The receptionist smiled again; Lucius frowned a little. "I used to draw maps of fantasy worlds, I think people used to frame them or give them as gifts. It was fun, actually."

"You don't do it anymore then?" At Lucius' question, the receptionist shook his head. "Why not?"

Throughout their conversation, the receptionist had at least kept an eye on his monitor so he could do some kind of work, however Lucius' question had finally made him pay full attention to the blonde and look at him with a somewhat puzzled expression. Slowly he looked down to the desk, and when Lucius followed his gaze, he saw that he was motioning to the prosthetic arm resting against the table. Lucius was now sure it was made of metal; lights didn't glint off of plastic in that way.

Lucius almost tilted his head at the gesture. So the reason that the receptionist wasn't drawing was because he only had one arm; which apparently wasn't something he had been born with or that excuse wouldn't make any sense. He made his confusion known by wearing a pretty obvious frown, eyes flicking first to the keyboard and then to the large leather-bound book he had signed.

"I don't see why that should stop you," Lucius frowned, looking back to the receptionist. "You type very fast and your handwriting is very fancy, so you seem to be right-handed and still arty. So what's stopping you from making your mappies?"

The receptionist thoughts for a moment, seemingly unable to find an answer he was happy with.

"Quill," A slightly tinny voice came through a speaker on the desk, shocking both men. "Can you send in Mr Elenasto please?"

"Er," The receptionist startled slightly, leaning into a microphone and pressing a button. "Of course, sir," He turned back to Lucius. "H'esper says he's ready to see you."

"Thank you," Lucius smiled, feeling the nervousness sneak back in as he looked to the door of H'esper's office. "Make sure you think about what I said. I'm sure your mappies were very good, Birdie."

He turned towards the door, putting back his 'serious and confident' persona again, as it had slipped into something more relaxed when talking to the receptionist; he hoped the nickname hadnt offended him. Though, as he walked towards the door, he thought that maybe he should be more worried that he had offended the man by being somewhat dismissive of his lack of an arm. But Lucius just couldn't stand to think a creative soul had been hindered without good reason.

After opening the door to H'esper's office, he was first met with a large view of the city skyline and an executive looking office. Sitting at a modern desk was a man who he had met on occasion, mainly as his father's work events, who he recognised as H'esper. He wore a kind smile, which made Lucius feel more welcome than he expected.

"Mr Elenasto, a pleasure to see you," H'esper stood up and offered a hand to shake, which Lucius shook; with strength, as Daddy had taught him.

"You too," Lucius smiled, sitting in the seat opposite the desk. H'esper sat back where he had just been.

"I'm sure you're aware of what services I'll provide for you, but I'll give a brief overview to be clear about it," H'esper began. "You've obviously got a lot of interest in the company, so I'm here to inform you of what legal implications there are to selling your company to certain people, as well as the expected outcomes to what will happen with whoever you choose. You father's paid for as many meetings with me as needed, so we don't need to rush this, and hopefully we can find someone that you're happy with that can bring the company forward."

"Well, with your help I'm sure we can," Lucius smiled. Buttering him up meant he was more likely to give him better services and advice.

"Thank you for trusting me," H'esper smiled. "And in the interest of trust, I should inform you your father has insisted he be kept informed about the process, so I will be reporting to him after each of our meetings."

Although he felt a little insulted about his father's lack of trust in him, he understood it. He wasn't a businessman, the company and its patents with his father's lifework and he needed to know it wasn't going to someone who would destroy that. Still, a little bit of trust would have been nice, the blonde thought.

"One more thing before we begin, I have a small request," H'esper continued. "I've been trying to get my intern into more real-world work, and I was wondering if you would mind if he sat in during our meetings so he can get some experience. It's your choice of course. His name's Quillek, I assume you met him outside."

"Quillek?" Lucius thought for a moment. "Oh, Birdie? Oh no, I don't mind that at all."

"Great," H'esper smiled, standing up. "I'll go and get him, then."

H'esper walked to the door of his office, and Lucius was almost sure he could hear the lawyer repeat his nickname for Quillek under his breath. He smiled a little, as he looked over the view of the city, then towards the unoccupied seat to his left that Birdie would probably be sitting in during their meetings. He was glad to have the opportunity to spend more time with the man, even if it was only when discussing boring company things. He liked talking to Birdie, it was relaxing and kind of fun.

A moment later, the door to the office opened again and H'esper walked in, this time followed by Birdie. He wasn't as tall as Lucius expected, but that wasn't a bad thing; and the suit wasn't a bad look on him.

He watched as Birdie walked, holding a large folder and a notebook in his right hand, the pile of papers seemingly unsteady. Lucius could see what was going to happen, and Quillek seemed to see it as well, but neither could stop it from happening. The notepad started to slip from his grasp, and by the looks of it, it was filled with loose papers that would scatter the moment it hit the ground.

Thankfully though, Lucius' reactions weren't exactly slow. His hand shot out and he managed to catch the notebook before the papers inside could scatter, smiling at Birdie and handing it back to him when he had readjusted his folder into a safer position.

"Thanks," Quillek smiled at Lucius, a small amount of redness forming under his freckles.

"Don't worry Birdie," Lucius smiled back, watching as Quillek sat beside him.

As the blonde looked over towards H'esper, who had a small smile on his face as he watched the two of them from his seat behind the desk. This wasn't nearly as corporate as he had expected, and with Birdie beside him, he felt almost comfortable in the situation. Funny; he had been dreading it for basically a week but now that it was happening, he didn't mind it all that much.

He could deal with this for a few weeks. It was actually quite nice.

-~~~-

Wednesday; 4th September

"I think that's all we need to speak about today, Mr Elenasto."

Quill looked up from his notebook, in which he had been taking notes about what had been said, as H'esper ended the meeting. He watched as Lucius relaxed in the seat behind him, something the blonde had always done when his meetings with H'esper. It was obvious that this wasn't the kind of work that Lucius enjoyed doing.

So far, Quill had sat in on all four meetings between H'esper and Lucius. He was mainly taking notes on how H'esper worked, both focusing on how he interacted with Lucius as well as how he debated and negotiated with the people interested in buying the company. It was a sight to see, and it was made clear why H'esper was seen as one of the most well-respected lawyers in the country. The way that he capitalised on the inconsistencies or called out attempts at swindling a better deal from Lucius was amazing. The intern had to wonder what the legal god – as he had been described in his most recent magazine interview – had seen in him.

Still, focusing on his insecurities wasn't going to help anything. He closed his notebook and watched as H'esper and Lucius shook hands. He wore a small smile as he looked at the blonde.

The meetings shared with Lucius had become something of a highlight for Quill, despite them only having occurred for less than a month. Lucius seemed to enjoy getting to the office with time to spare, giving the two of them the chance to talk while they waited for H'esper to finish whatever he was doing. They never talked about anything serious, and it was a nice break from the seriousness of Quill's work. Lucius was a natural born entertainer.

It made Quill a bit disappointed with the progress they were making.

Now that Lucius had been informed of who wanted to buy his company, and the expected outcome of selling to these people, it meant that their next meeting would be seriously considering who he was going to sell to. That meant that, pretty soon, his weekly trips to the office would end.

It was selfish, he knew. He was interning under one of the best lawyers in the country – and getting personal advice from him no less – so he didn't really have much room to complain about missing a certain client. But still, the blonde seemed to invigorate the room and make it brighter when he came in, most likely because of all the colours he wore, but also in his personality. So many people he worked with were drab, Lucius basically acted as a rejection of this drabness.

Quill stood up and walked out of his boss's office, going towards his desk in the reception area. Lucius held the door open for him as he walked through it, to which Quill thanked him. Lucius was also different to most of H'esper's clients as he was rich, but not obnoxious about it.

"Birdie," The man in question spoke up.

Quill smiled at the nickname as he placed his notebook and folders in his desk draw, locking it for safety; attorney client confidentiality. He looked up to the taller man with a smile on his face, seeing Lucius reciprocate it.

"Yeah, Lucius?" He asked, taking a seat at his desk.

"You wouldn't happen to have a little breaky coming up, would you?" Lucius asked, hand resting on the bird statue as it often did when he stood in-front of Quill's desk. "There's a little coffee shop down the street that my friend said has the best milkshakes. I thought you could keep me company, if you want?"

Quill found himself a little blind sighted by that. He had no qualms in admitting that spending time with Lucius outside of work would be enjoyable; he was basically silent when he was in the meetings and while he enjoyed their conversations beforehand, they were never all that long. So being able to talk to him in a more relaxed environment would be good, and the slightly hopeful expression that Lucius only made Quill want to meet him more.

"Well, that sounds nice, but my lunch break is in about an hour, so I doubt you'll want to wait for that long," Quill turned to his monitor after smiling apologetically at Lucius.

"You can take an early lunch if you wish, Quillek," H'esper said from the door to his office, apparently having listened to their conversations. "I don't have any scheduled meetings this morning, so you probably wouldn't have much to do anyway."

"Are you sure?" Quill asked, looking at his boss. He got a nod in return. "Thank you," He smiled at his boss before turning to Lucius. "Guess I can join you then. It'll be nice."

"Oh Birdie you'll love it," Lucius practically gushed.

Quill chuckled at the man's enthusiasm, standing up from his deck chair and smiling up at him. Lucius continued to grin at him, seemingly incredibly enthused by the prospect of sharing coffee with Quill. The brunette couldn't help but share his enthusiasm as they walked towards the elevators side by side.

The walk to the coffee shop didn't take long after leaving the building, and Lucius filled any potential silence by explaining how his friend Nova had visited the coffee shop once and couldn't stop talking about how good the drinks were, as well as the cupcake she had tried. Quill couldn't stop himself from laughing along at the vivid description of what the food had tasted like according to Lucius' friend; Quill was almost sure Lucius was being so absurdly descriptive just to amuse him. If so, it was working.

When they got to the coffee shop, it was incredibly colourful. When Quill glanced at Lucius, he seemed quite happy at what he was looking at and pushed the double doors open with more enthusiasm than was perhaps needed. Still, it made Quill chuckle as he followed the extravagant man.

Ordering was quick, and they soon found themselves sat at one of the tables. Quill had a large mug of mocha and a shot of espresso – it was the afternoon he reserved for admin; he needed the energy – while Lucius had what was called a Rainbow Milkshake. Quill didn't know exactly what the flavour was, as there was a spiral of different colours seen through the plastic cup, but Lucius was happily sipping it with a smile on his face.

It was pretty adorable, Quill had to admit.

"Sorry Birdie, I feel like I'm always talking over you," Lucius said after draining more of his milky drink. "So, you want to be a lawyer right, how did you get into that?"

"Well, this is probably going to sound a little stupid, but I wanted to make a difference," Quill felt his cheeks redden slightly as he spoke; he sounded like an overly idealistic TV show character. "I was never the most athletic person in the world so the more physical type jobs like police or firemen didn't seem possible, When I was a kid, went through a bit of self-doubting period," He shrugged. The lack of an arm also didn't help, but mentioning that always made people feel awkward. "But the law sort of just clicked with me, it made sense, so I looked into it and I haven't really stopped," He laughed a little.

"So you want to be Birdie the superhero of law then?" Lucius laughed, and Quill had to join him. "You must be very smart to work with H'esper. Is it exciting?"

"Definitely," Quill grinned. "And it's helping me get a better understanding of which part of the law I want to work in. H'esper certainly doesn't keep all his eggs in one basket-"

"Like a birdie," Lucius interrupted with a wide grin, clearly happy with his observation. "Whoops. Didn't mean to interrupt you again, sorry."

"Don't be. It was a good point," Quill joked, and Lucius grinned as he leant forward and sipped at his milkshake. "But yeah, working with H'esper definitely lets me see all aspects of what I could do. He's a pretty good mentor too, liked to get me as involved as possible with his clients whenever they let me. Some of them are very boring people though."

Lucius laughed a little as he sipped his drink. "Boring people? In an office?"

"I know," Quill grinned. "Wonders never cease."

The two laughed, and Quill brought his drink to his lips and took a tentative sip; Lucius' friend wasn't exaggerating by saying it was 'so much better' than Starbucks. The intern looked back to Lucius, who had taken the lid off of the plastic cup and was now spooning out the remaining whipped cream – which was covered in colourful sprinkles – and eating it with a content expression on his face. Quill had no intention of fighting back the smile on his face.

Despite being a force of extravagance and flamboyance when he wanted to be, Lucius somewhat calmed Quill. Maybe the extravagance was the reason; Lucius could stick out in a crowd and be loud and not care. It made Quill feel as though he wasn't going to be judged. It would be like a rainbow judging a box of pencils for being too colourful.

That was an odd comparison, but the point was he really enjoyed being around Lucius.

"I've been wanting to ask, Birdie," Lucius continued, putting the straw down. "Have you thought about drawing any new mappies yet?"

"Erm," Quill's voice got a little higher than normal. "I mean, I thought about it a little bit but haven't done anything about it yet," Because he was scared that he couldn't do it anymore. "Anyway, you must be pretty excited that the sale is going through. What are you planning on doing once you get the pay-out?"

Was the clear deflection obvious enough? Maybe he should have written 'I'm ignoring this question' in the foam of his drink to make it completely clear.

"Well Birdie, I'm not one to sit around and do nothing," Lucius grinned, apparently not bothered with Quill not answering him. "And now that I'll have a teensy bit of money to spare," Quill laughed, that was an understatement of the year. "I think I'm going to try and follow my dream and see if I can get a job in the theatre!"

"You want to be an actor?"

"No," Lucius grinned and leant forward, not saying anything else. This was going to be a guessing game it seemed.

"Director?"

"No."

"Producer?"

"Nope."

"Erm," Quill frowned; he didn't know much about the theatre if he was honest. "Selling the ice cream at the interval."

"No," Lucius said, beaming again. "I want to be the costume designer!"

Well that was unexpected, though sort of made sense. The idea of Lucius wanting to do something creative wasn't hard to believe; he constantly was talking about colours and vibrancy and aesthetic appeal in their conversations before the meeting. And, thinking about it, Lucius' personal style had more in common with the surreal clothes worn in fashion shows than it did with someone wearing jeans and a tee-shirt.

"That's pretty cool," Quill admitted. "Are you just now getting into making clothes, or have you done it before?"

"Birdie, everything I'm wearing I made myself," Lucius placed a hand on his chest as if offended. The smile he wore betrayed this act though "You think any store in the world would have such fantastic clothes. I'm offended Birdie, you really do wound me."

"I couldn't be more sorry. I hand my head in shame, I really do," Quill laughed, looking down at his coffee "Can I ask why the theatre though. There's probably more work in TV if you want to make costumes."

"I know there is, but all the programs right now are so gloomy," Lucius rested his head on his left hand, a small pout on his features. "Imagine being the person working on the costumes for Game of Thrones, your entire life would be surrounded by monochrome fabrics. You'd throw a party every time you got to work with a colour pallet that didn't have grey in it. I just couldn't live like that; I'd go completely insane."

Quill grinned. Such a dramatic man.

"But it's not like that in the theatre. Everything's colourful and joyful, it's like this place but with singing and acting," Lucius motioned to the colourful room they sat in. "That's my idea of heaven, Birdie."

"Well, good luck with it," Quill smiled, and Lucius grinned. "After the sale goes through, you'll be able to focus on that fully I suppose."

"Yeah, guess I will," Lucius' smile fell slightly. "Sometimes I think Daddy gave me the company instead of selling it himself so I can be safe no matter what happens."

Though Lucius let out a small laugh, it was obvious it wasn't genuine. His eyes had dropped slightly, and his posture deflated a little, and it made Quill frown. Lucius had spoken about his father a few times in their conversations, and it had always seemed to be in a positive way. But, given what Lucius had said, perhaps his father didn't trust Lucius as much as the blonde would like. It must hurt to feel like that, especially given how much Lucius seemed to idolise the man. Quill didn't comment on it.

"But you're right, Birdie," Lucius continued, his smile seemingly more genuine now. "I'll be able to make a portfolio that'll skyrocket me in costume design stardom."

With the confidence he spoke with, Quill liked to think Lucius would achieve just that.

Despite Lucius' small drop in mood, conversation picked up almost immediately and continued. Quill brought himself something for lunch, as this was his lunch break, and ate it as Lucius explained point by point what he would have done if he were in charge of the costumes in a musical that he had grown to love. The enthusiasm that Lucius showed for what he was passionate in, as well as the detail he went into about small things such as stitching and lining, made Quill listen with interest.

Lucius made sure that the conversation wasn't one sided, of course. It was free flowing and natural, and the expression Lucius wore when Quill admitted he had never seen a stage show in his adult life had left Quill laughing through his sandwich. Lucius then gave him a list of shows he needed to see, and Quill promised he would at least try one of them.

"Sorry Birdie," Lucius said, cutting himself off suddenly, reaching into his jacket pocket. "I've been trying to ignore it, but someone really wants to get ahold of me."

Quill watched as Lucius opened his phone, seeing that his notifications were filled by someone named Aila, who was texting him repeatedly; there was a fair amount of profanity in the texts, even Quill could identify that from reading upside down. Lucius chuckled, seemingly unbothered by it, and sending a quick text before pocketing his phone again.

"My personal trainer," Lucius explained, smiling. "Well, she's one of my best friends as well, but I'm meant to be in a session right now and she's annoyed I haven't turned up."

"Yeah, the swearing tipped me off that she wasn't in a good mood," Quill laughed.

"Oh she's just like that sometimes. She's a delight really," Lucius laughed a little, and Quill wondered if he was missing an inside joke of some kind. "I might have to go in a few minutes, or she'll work me really hard."

"You didn't strike me as the gym type," Quill spoke, teasing slightly.

"What on earth are you implying Birdie?" Lucius placed his hand on his chest again. "I'll have you know I'm the picture of fitness. I'll show you!"

Before Quill could stop him, Lucius shrugged off the right arm of his coat and rolled the sleeve of his black shirt. He flexed his bicep to prove his 'picture of fitness' claim and, indeed, it was pretty impressive; he was stronger than his coat gave him credit for. Quill couldn't stop himself from blushing under his freckles; having the rich man essentially flex to show off to him was bound to embarrass him a little.

"Well, looks like I stand corrected," Quill admitted.

"Thank you for being so humble in defeat, Birdie," Lucius grinned. "What time is your actual lunch break, maybe we should make this a regular thing?"

"Really?" Quill asked before he could stop himself.

"Of course. You're fun to spend time with, that's why I wanted to take you hear in the first place," Lucius spoke as if it was obvious, and Quill was shocked that 'Silly Birdie' hadnt left the man's lips. "And I'll probably be finished with selling Daddy's company soon, so I won't have an excuse to see you. But if we meet up every Wednesday then we can be friends, right?"

"Well, yeah, I guess so," Quill smiled. Meeting up with Lucius once a week would be pretty nice, actually. "That'd be fun, I'd like that."

"Oh yay, that's great," Lucius smiled, before glancing down to his phone which had lit up again. When he read the text, he pouted again and looked back to Quill. "Aw. Now she's going to make me do burpees."

"Surely someone who is the picture of fitness can deal with some little burpees," Quill teased with a smile.

"I can, I just don't want to," Lucius mumbled with a small smile. "But I should go now, or she'll make me use the rowing machine. My poor leggies haven't recovered since the last time. Sorry I have to cut this short."

"Don't worry. I would have had to go back to the office soon anyway," Quill assured him as Lucius stood up. "But this was really nice."

"Yes, it was wasn't it?" Lucius smiled. "And we'll have just as much fun next week, won't we Birdie?"

"Suppose we will."

"Great," Lucius smiled, tucking his chair under the table. "It's a date. See you Birdie."

Lucius waved and retreated to the door of the coffee shop, leaving Quill with his half-drunk mocha, the wrapper of his sandwich, the empty shot of espresso, and a single thought plaguing his mind. Lucius had said 'it's a date.' When he said that, had he simply been saying it as a phrase, or had he meant that the next time they would be meeting in the coffee shop it would be a date. Quill knew that was unlikely but, in the event that Lucius did mean that they were going to go on a date, did that also mean that this counted as a date?

It was a thought that remained in his head throughout the rest of the day. Still, at least it knocked out the image of Lucius flexing…

-~~~-

Saturday; 5th October

Lucius flittered around his large apartment with nervousness. On the marble countertops of his kitchen stood an array of luxurious finger foods – provided to him by some of the best caterers in town – sitting beside an ice bucket holding an expensive bottle of champagne. Throughout his speaker system, some mindless smooth jazz was playing from a playlist he had found of good dinner party music on the internet. Sitting on his sofa set and watching hit TV were two of his closest friends, Nova and Aila.

The reason for his borderline erratic behaviour was that he was having something of a party. It wasn't anything big, but the people who were coming were causing Lucius' stress. Aila and Nova were, of course, not to blame. But the blonde had also invited Quill and had insisted that he bring Sentry with him so they could meet.

It was a big deal. He may have developed something of a tiny little crushy on Quill, and not only was this the first time Birdie would see him at home – which was an extension of his personality – but it was also the first time he was going to meet Birdie's friend. If he messed it up, who knows what could happen?

He was especially stressed because this could be the turning point in their relationship!

The party was happening because, earlier in the week, Lucius had finally closed the deal on his father's company. Daddy had been happy with who he had chosen to sell to, the buyer had seemed like he knew what he was doing and would respect the legacy the company had behind it, and also had good ideas on what they could do with their engines. All in all, it seemed like the best outcome, but it did mean that the weekly meetings that Lucius was having with H'esper had to end, meaning his friendship with Quill was also at risk.

They had continued to spend Quill's Wednesday lunch break going to the coffee shop as they had planned, and Lucius loved every minute of it. Spending time with the adorable Birdie – he had been promoted from just cute – was something he was quickly coming to adore.

But this was the first time they were expanding their friendship further, and Lucius couldn't mess it up.

"Lucius," Nova spoke from the sofa, leaning over the back to look at him. "If you keep pacing around like that, you'll end up fainting before they even get here because you've ran out of energy."

"Yeah," Aila nodded. "How'd we make fun of you if you're asleep before your boyfriend comes."

"He's not my boyfriend," Lucius insisted.

Lucius had, of course, told his friends about Birdie. The blonde thought he only brought his new friend up on occasion, but if Nova and Aila were to be believed then he never seemed to shut up about him. Nova had claimed that it was nice that Lucius had someone he thought so well of and would happily listen to his rambles, whereas Aila simply thought it was hilarious and used it as ammunition to embarrass him whenever possible. Lucius could deal with the teasing, though he still maintained his argument that he spoke about Quill a normal amount.

"Not yet," Nova said in a slightly teasing tone. "But that doesn't mean you don't want him to be, right?"

"That," Lucius spoke, pausing for a moment. He couldn't exactly deny it. "That is neither here nor there. If today is about anything, it's celebrating the fact I don't own a company I'm unqualified to run anymore, as well as making new friends."

"With the guy you wanna bone," Aila amended, grinning.

"You know, you two are just very mean," Lucius huffed, his cheeks red from embarrassment; he certainly hoped that they would at least try to be a bit more subtle when Birdie and his friend arrived. "I paid for all of this, and it's in my apartment, and I didn't have to invite you to be here. To think you're still so cruel to me after all the nice things I do for you both. Oh-"

Lucius cut himself off from what he was saying and walked towards what would be the larger bedroom in the apartment, if he hadnt turned it into an office/workshop of sorts. He didn't bother turning the lights on as he walked towards the old-fashioned mannequin he owned, carefully removing the blue and gold coat from it. He gave it a speedy once-over to make sure all the holding pins had been removed and his stitching wasn't obvious in the places it wasn't meant to be, before returning to his open plan living room.

The coat was Nova's, one of her favourites. She had gotten a very nasty tear that made it unwearable, so Lucius had offered to fix it up for her. He didn't even request payment for his flawless work, and yet his friends were still cruel to him.

"Here you are Nova," He said, offering the coat to its owner "Good as new."

The blue haired woman looked at her fixed coat with a wide smile. "Thanks Lucius. You really can't tell what happened, can you?"

"I wouldn't be much good if you could," Lucius smiled, before looking to Aila. "See Aila, look how happy Nova is with what I've done to her special coat, that must mean I'm good. Will you please let me make something for you?"

"Don't need it," Aila shrugged, eating a handful of peanuts.

"But I'll even stick with this… lumberjack motif you like. I just want to see you wearing something other than brown," Lucius had a small frown on his face; his friend really needed new clothes.

"Keep asking and I'll hit ya, Lucius," Aila said, looking at Lucius again who pouted in response but let it go.

He went back to fretting over if he had everything needed ready, looking over the food he had ordered and making sure they were all properly labelled; he didn't want anyone getting confused about what was vegan friendly or nut free as he wasn't sure what Sentry would eat. He probably should have asked. Oh, what if either of them was gluten intolerant and all the food he'd ordered had gluten. He didn't really know what gluten was, but he didn't want to end up poisoning someone because of his oversight.

Just as he considered looking online to see if there was a gluten hotline of some kind, the rhythmic chimes of the building's buzzer system. His eyes shot to the interface that rested beside his front door, and his heartbeat increased somewhat. He rushed to it quickly.

"Elenasto residence," He spoke into the microphone, formal just in case it wasn't his guests.

"Lucius?" Quill's voice crackled through the speaker. "It's Quill, we're on time, right?"

"Of course, one second," He pressed the button that unlocked the front door. "You can come in now, you remember my apartment number, right?"

"Yeah, see you in a minute then."

"See you soon, Birdie," Lucius smiled. He then quickly turned to his friends, crossing his arms. "Now, you both have to be nice to me today. If you're not, I'll use all of Daddy's company money to buy all the bookstores, gyms and horrible lumberjack clothes shops in the city and make sure you're banned from them all."

Both women laughed at the threat, knowing it was hollow, but Lucius was pretty sure they were going to behave themselves. Well, Nova would at least, and hopefully Aila would just decide to be kind to him for a day.

It took a few minutes for there to be a nock at the door, at which Lucius let out an undignified squeak. He rushed to the door, made sure his hair looked good in the mirror, and opened it to see the final two guests in for his party. Quill caught his eye immediately, as he was wearing clothes more smart-casual than his work clothes, and his hair was more ruffled and natural looking when compared to his working look. He was smiling an annoyingly infection smile that Lucius couldn't help but match.

When the blonde glanced towards the woman standing behind Quill, he was met with a gentle smiling face of someone who might be taller than Aila. She had an expression Lucius immediately associated with kindness, and when he glanced down, he saw she was holding a… thing in her hands.

"Hi," Quill spoke, catching Lucius' attention again. "We weren't sure if we should bring anything, so here," Quill handed Lucius a bottle of red wine, which the blonde took before stepping aside so they could get into the apartment. "Oh, sorry. Lucius, this is Sentry. Sentry, this is Lucius."

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Sentry spoke in a soothing tone, shaking Lucius' hand.

"You too," Lucius smiled back. He then looked to the seating area, where both Nova and Aila had stood up so they could introduce themselves properly. "These are my friends. This is Nova and that's Aila."

"Oh, you're the one he hides the milkshakes from-"

"Birdie!" Lucius exclaimed incredulously. Such a vicious attack on their friendship already! Though Quill did look a little sheepish, so maybe it was an accident. Lucius quickly looked towards Aila before she could scold him. "I only had one," He lied. "And I only had it because Birdie said he wanted one and I didn't want him to feel left out."

Aila clearly didn't believe him but was nice enough to let it go; though Lucius expected that he would definitely be on the rowing machine next week. Maybe he really should buy the gym and burn it down before that could happen…

After placing the wine down, and making a promise to drink some of it because Birdie got it for him specially, he looked back to see how his friends were getting along. Nova had shaken both Quill and Sentry's hands and greeted them, before going back to the sofa where she probably felt more comfortable, whereas Nova was having an animated conversation with them both, and had thankfully brought up one of the two elephants in the room. Luckily for Lucius, it wasn't his huge crush on Birdie.

"So, I have to ask, what exactly are you holding?" Nova asked, looking at the thing Sentry was holding.

Lucius looked at it again, and truly couldn't identify what it was. It seemed almost as if a nest of twigs had turned into some sort of a ball. In between the twig-like ball was a small purple sphere that, at a glance, looked like a large singular eye. Lucius would almost say that it looked quite cute.

"Sorry, it's a project I'm doing at work. It's got a satellite tracking feature we need to test, and my boss insisted I take it everywhere I go," She seemed a little apologetic. "You don't have a socket I can plug it in, just to do the test, then I can put it away."

"Of course, and don't feel like you have to rush. I don't mind," Lucius reassured her, looking at the device. "Birdie's right, you are good with a 3D printer. I couldn't tell it's a robot at all."

"It's a robot!" Nova, rather predictably, shot up at that and began inspecting the machine with almost sparkling eyes.

Lucius laughed when Nova followed Sentry as she plugged the device into the wall socket, a barrage of questions that probably wouldn't end until Nova had found out the life story of both the robot and the woman who had created it. Lucius had expected that, the moment Nova knew about what Sentry did, she would be incredibly interested and would not leave her alone. That suited Lucius quite well, it meant that his friend would get along with Quill's friend and there would be less chance of her embarrassing him on purpose.

Nova's enthusiasm, and the questions that followed, seemed to have broken any ice that had been present between the five of them. While Sentry did whatever she needed to with her robot – apparently named ECHO – Lucius and Quill sat side by side in the loveseat sofa. Lucius wondered if Aila moving from the sofa to the armchair was a wing-woman act, or simply just a coincidence. Either way, the party had begun and it was all going rather well for Lucius.

They watched a movie or two, ate the food Lucius had ordered (which thankfully hadnt left anyone with glucose poisoning), and overall had a nice time. Lucius had a somewhat goofy smile on his face throughout, which Quill must have noticed. Lucius couldn't find it in himself to care, though.

"I like him," Nova commented, appearing in the kitchen nearly seemingly from nowhere.

Lucius nearly dropped the bag of popcorn that he was emptying into a bowl, glancing up from the kitchen towards the living room. It was only he and Nova in the kitchen, and Quill seemed to be busy explaining where he got the nickname 'Birdie' from to Sentry and Aila. Thankfully, he seemed too involved in that conversation to notice Nova sneak up of Lucius and nearly scare him to death. He wanted to pout at her – he could still hear them; they weren't that far away! – but instead looked at his friend with a small smile.

"You do?" He whispered, blushing a little.

"I really do," Nova smiled, nodding. "He's sweet and smart and not bad looking really. Aila likes him too, I think. And anyone who finds its funny that you call books 'bookies' is pretty much perfect for you."

"It's much more fun to say bookies," Lucius defended himself, but grinned. "But yes, he did laugh, didn't he? He even let's me talk about fabrics and colours and fashions thingies, and he seems like he's actually interested as well and not just letting me get it out of my system. And that was the first time we met outside of H'esper's office." The blonde smiled fondly at the memory.

"Maybe you should show him your studio," Nova suggested with a wide grin. "Show off what you're like in your element, as well as what you can do," Her grin widened a little. "And you'll also have a little privacy~"

She couldn't have been more obvious of what her words meant if she wiggled her eyebrows and held up an 'Ask the guy out' sign which she hit him over the head with, but he was appreciative of her non the less. While he was undoubtedly enjoying this melding of their friendship groups, it did mean that the time between he and Quill had been diluted a little. But assuming that Sentry was still entertained by Nova's questioning, showing off his studio would get them nice and alone. And when he was showing Birdie all his fancy clothes, he would sweep him off his feet like the dashing prince charming everyone knew he was.

"Birdie," He exclaimed with a grin, overly enthused by his plan. "You should see my studio!"

Quill turned, seemingly shocked by the sudden suggestion, but he smiled a moment later and stood up from the sofa. "Sure."

Now practically fizzing with excitement – Birdie hadnt even questioned why, he just agreed, so he must be at least a little interested – Lucius left the kitchen and the half-filled bowl of popcorn for Nova to deal with. He stood by the door with a larger than needed grin on his face, waiting for Quill to join him. When he did, Lucius opened the door with a large amount of flourish and flare.

Lucius was a proud man, and he was perhaps more proud of his studio than anything else.

The wall to the left of the door had a large array of different fabrics hung to the left wall, allowing Lucius to best decide what would be best in terms of colour, texture and pattern for whatever he was working on. The far wall housed his drafting table and sewing machines. The wall on the right contained a row of traditional mannequins of differing sizes, all of which were empty now Nova had taken her coat back. The wall which housed the door itself was almost entirely hidden behind a large mess of draws and cupboard, containing all the possible materials he could need.

Switching on the lights – which were spotlights aimed towards the mannequins for better lighting – Lucius couldn't stop himself from grinning as he watched Quill look around. Although he wasn't awestruck, Quill was looking around with a big smile and even running his hand across the fabrics like Lucius often did.

It made him feel all gooey inside to watch.

"This is really cool," Birdie said after looking around the room completely, and it made Lucius grin even wider. "I don't know why I expected anything else. Making clothes that fabulous," He motioned to Lucius. "I don't know why I thought you'd have anything but the best."

"Oh Birdie, you flatter me," Lucius grinned, leaning against his drafting table. Birdie sat at the vintage stool before the table. Lucius waited a few moments before speaking again. "So, are you having a nice time, then?"

"I really am," Quill smiled, leaning back. "I like your friends. They're nice."

"Sentry's nice too," Lucius smiled, tucking a long strand of blonde hair behind his ear with a slightly bashful smile. "I should have warned her about Nova though, I knew it'd happen when she found out what she does."

"Don't worry, Sentry's a patient person and she likes her work," Quill smiled.

The two sat in silence for a moment, the muted sound of the jazz playlist Lucius had put on vaguely audible through the walls. The spotlights meant that the corner of the room both men sat in was lit up softly, perhaps even romantically. Lucius got another good look at his crush in a more casual environment, and it made him smile. The slightly scruffy hair was adorable and even slightly resembled the plumage of a bird. And while Birdie looked very nice in a suit – very very nice – the softer tones of clothing he wore was much more suited to how he looked. It made Lucius feel even more gooey inside.

The blonde knew that this was as good a time as any to confess his crush. They were both happy, this was the most intimate environment they had been in together, and the champagne they'd both had a glass or two of was giving him a little push as well.

"Lucius," Quill spoke first, and Lucius looked towards him with a smile. "There's something that's been on my mind for a while. So, can I ask you something?"

"Of course Birdie," Lucius smiled; he could put off asking him out for a few moments.

"Well, it's just that when we first agreed to make the coffee shop a regular thing, you said that it was a date," Quill looked down, and Lucius frowned. Was something wrong? "I was just wondering that, well, did you just mean that in the 'see you next time' way or did you mean that it… that it was a date?"

Oh. Oh god. Lucius had no idea how to deal with that question. Did that mean that Quill was open to the idea of going to dates with Lucius? Because if so, that was great. But what if he meant he was uncomfortable having coffee now! Oh god, this could have messed everything up.

But he needed to say something. No matter what, he couldn't just sit there in silence.

"Birdie, if you were on a date with Lucius Virion-Elluin Elenasto, you would definitely know," Lucius pushed his chest out a little, forcing confidence in the same way he had when first going into H'esper's office.

The moment he said it, his confidence went away again. What if, on the odd chance that Quill had thought they had been going on dates and he had been enjoying it, Lucius saying that would hurt Quill? He didn't want Birdie to think that he didn't want to go on dates with him, because he certainly did! He wanted to go on all the possible dates with Quill. Anything from a little coffee shop to skydiving so Quill can live up to his Birdie potential.

Well, maybe not skydiving. That sounded horrible.

"Sounds like being with you would be pretty intense," Quill chuckled, seemingly not put off by what Lucius had said. He looked up and grinned at Lucius. "Interesting fact about me, I'm pretty good when things get intense."

Was that a line? A pickup line? Oh dear god was Birdie flirting?

As Lucius came to terms with what was, factually speaking, the best pickup line known to man in all of recorded history, Quill seemed to crumble in on himself. Apparently the cool, smooth side of himself could only last so long, as he buried his face in his hand and blushed red and seemed unable to look Lucius in the eye. Lucius himself wasn't doing much better, also reddening under the gentle lights while recovering from the line. Damn, Birdie could be so cool when he wanted to be!

"W-what I mean is," Quill continued, trying to recover. "Oh god I messed this up. So, basically," He still seemed to be cringing into his hands. "Wanna go on a date sometime?"

"Oh Birdie," Lucius grinned, wrapping his arms around Quill suddenly. "I'd love to!"

[jojoingjoseph]

Yo!! Ngl you're uh,,,kinda like an idol for me!! I was wondering if you have any tips for a person who really wants to get into RP/Ask-blogs but is a bit nervous and not sure how to promo and what not! Cheers, keep doing what you're doing Kuro!

( I can’t believe my old ass is an idol. Alright, pardon the wait in answering this; I wanted to get the silliness out the way before this one. Lets see.. )

( I suppose you just go for it, and have fun with it most of all! This is all a hobby and not a jobby as the saying goes. You just decide what you’re going for; an rp or ask or even both if you want~ Promos just help to get things passed around and say “ I am here, come interact “ and it doesn’t need to be fancy. I’ve seen things be like fancy ass photoshop worthy things or something as simple as ‘ Hey this is a blog for XXX. like or reblog and I’ll check you out ‘ This is big for the ask blog too, don’t stress about making everything perfect or pretty or having an artstyle right off the bat. I can assure you my style changed with time till i found something I still enjoy. NGkljgg also fff asks and drafts, try not to stress over them if you can. You can always drop things or put em off till later. Moods come and go. )

( Bein’ nervous is entirely a mood but don’t let it stop you, you’ll find people who’ll love your writing and you’ll find those who don’t but try not to get discouraged, it sucks but it is how it is. I like to think of it like people are like the elements on the periodic table; some elements react strongly with another and others don’t. Being stressed is also something you are likely to contend with but try to relax the best you can and don’t push yourself too hard. I’ve been here around 3-4 ish years with good ol Twatseph and many things have happened to shape my portrayal along with adding what I liked or particularly see in his character. What I find pleasing to write may not work for another and that’s entirely fine, having an open mind makes things funner for the long haul instead of barking over who’s interpretation is better than another’s. )

( Things will be slow at first! I’ve been here around a good long time and people recognize this Joseph I write but it was just as slow when this blog first began. Adding in your own ideas and twists isn’t bad either, experiment, find what you like to write and just go for it. ghlkgjg Thank you kindly, I hope all my heeyawin’ kinda helps but I assure you’ll do just fine.

[dfnews]

A late episode recap of "A Bachelor No More"

Season 9, Episode 12  March 29, 2019

"John and Abbie's wedding is finally here and everyone is in full wedding-mode as they get ready for the big day. At the altar, the bride and groom share their first kiss in an unexpected way. Later, a family member has a very special announcement."

I'm going to go full Jill Rodrigues on this recap and ALL CAPS random words for your utter confusion. ENJOY!

1. John and Abbie are making UNITY candles in the Duggar guest house that Turdanna now live in. They recall how they met, the engagement, and how they are marrying after only SIX months after they met. And somehow this all led up to them making their own unity candle. Jenni brings old crayons to melt and suggests they use the fragrance of "laundry" in the candles. Would that be the smell of Tide or STAINED tighty whities? The producers give Duggar couples a SMELL challenge. I love how Ben just repeats everything Jessa says and Jed doesn't know what anchovies are and none of them recognizes cinnamon. Now why didn't they DO a pickle scent? They all would have gotten that one. That would also be the perfect smell for Jobbie's unity candle. John uses a BLOW torch to clean crayons out of a pot and Abbie sarcastically refers to John as her "genius fiance" and hopes he doesn't lose his eye BROWS.

2. Jana and Laura, Janaura, lead the packing of the tour bus for the wedding. They are determined to NOT forget anything probably because they fear being fired from the family if they do...hmmmm, good plan. They even packed two scissor lifts. I guess just in case one decides to not lift they have another GASSED up with VIAGRA to go. Jana feels a little in over her DIY head with such a huge hangar to decorate but they all enjoy talking about redneck ENGINEERING. Basically redneck engineering is fixing things with duct tape OR barbed wire or chewing gum, y'all. It's also what drives everyone's medical insurance premiums up.  

3. Lauriah practice singing a song for the wedding at home and then AGAIN talk about the miscarriage. Jessa chimes in as well about the miscarriage and grief. Tears ARE shed again. Are they going to recap this loss on every episode next season? We know it happened. What's the point of bringing it UP repeatedly?

4. At the Ada Baptist Church venue Janaura's cast of REDNECK engineers begin work on the stage. It's wedding rehearsal day. After some bickering about how to assemble the arbor...on stage...Jobbie arrive to check things out. They decide to go through with the wedding anyway.

5. People start arriving at the church. It's go day! Abbie doesn't want a first look THINGY. She wants JOHN to wait until she's walking the aisle til he sees her. Rebel! Jana is still working and looking stressed. Now she's trying to organize the FLOWERS and how to successfully hide Jill and Derick and Josh and Anna from the CAMERAS. This woman needs a vacation after this insanity. Jeremy offers to help and Laura gives him the job of vacuuming the processional aisle carpet. The vacuum leaves grease stains and Jinger tells Jeremy Laura is going to have him on his knees scrubbing that mess. How about Josh LICKS the grease stains off?

6. Renee Bleached Blonde Bridal is there to...I don't know why she's there, but the girls GET ready for photos. The guys have their photos done as well with the TURD kept on the far end so the camera could cut him out. I guess the sun glare effect costs too much to do it again. The photographer tells John to use his best Zoolander look and of course all the Duggars are BAFFLED by that pop culture reference. Jeremy is aware of the movie and Ben Stiller though. I hope he's catching Jinger up on pop culture. Her form of POP "dad" culture has made her ignorant in so many ways.  Some of the guys are preparing the DRONE to fly in during the ceremony as a PRANK. The drone will deliver the ring to best man Joe. They better HOPE God has a sense of humor with all the disrespect they show in a house of God.

7. The wedding begins and you know what happens here. There are songs, lame speeches, candles lit, a drone trying not to DECAPITATE anyone and a very creepy first kiss. The personally written vows were sweet and Abbie ended hers by calling John "SUGAR MUFFIN". The producer asks the other married couple to reenact Jobbie's first multiple kiss and they all seem very embarrassed. Benessa was fun to watch though as Jessa tried to BEAT Ben off of her.

8. The hangar recepTION is next up. They ate cake and breakfast foods and fought off the wind and FALLING decorations. Abbie thanks Jana before they get in the plane to fly away to wherever. Jana BEGS to go with them. That might have only happened in a dream though.

9. Now for the big SURPRISE in which the show has been teasing since the new season started. Actually, it isn't a surprise. Jessa's pregnant again. Wow. Who'd a THUNK. Maybe some people didn't read the headlines about this weeks ago. Anyway, Jessa told Jinger and Jeremy but the producers told the rest of the family. Now that is a surprise to see the announcement done for the family through a PRODUCER. Things are getting impersonal in Duggarland.

10. The Duggar couples are asked what they are looking forward to in the coming year. Joken says building a house and having NUMBER two. I guess they want to get AWAY from Duggarland. Lauriah also wants to expand their family. Joystin wants another one soon and see Gideon start walking. JinJer just wants to watch their current baby grow. In other words, pretty much the same OLD SHIT.  

[halloweeneveryday]

Curiosity killed the cat

Not a ghost story, but a creepy story one of my buddies once told me. Here's a little context to the story. I played football with this guy in college who served in the Air Force, and he used to run security details for bases (all night jobbies where him and his squad mate would drive around in Humvees all night searching the perimeter of the base) It was a saturday night when I heard this story and we were all quite drunk at the time, so bear with me on my memory.

It was one night and Matt (my friend) and his squadmate, lets call him Craig were doing an average patrol, driving through these Kansas plains searching the area around their base. I remember Matt telling me how out in Kansas, there were tons of old abandoned houses that were left during the dust bowl and other problems... Seeing an abandoned house was a normal occurrence for these guys so they never thought anything of it. But it was this particular night that Matt's squad mate, Craig, was feeling adventurous and wanted to check one out. After a few minutes they found this old abandoned house planted in the middle of the fields and drove up to it. As they got out, Matt told us he had a very bad feeling about it. "Just one of those feelings deep in the pit of your stomach that you don't like, ya know?" he said to us, and we all knew what he was talking about.

Naturally Matt went against this gut feeling and jumped out of the humvee with Craig, who, if I remember was extremely eager about this whole situation and scoping out this old house in the middle of bumble-fuck nowhere. They parked about 30 meters from the house he said, and slowly approached it, lit only by moonlight. As they got closer Matt said that feeling in his stomach began to get worse and worse, yet he still ignored it. The two walked up to the door, porch creeking and all. Matt Said that Craig was on point, as he suggested the idea. As the two approached the door, they knocked and to everyones surprise, no answer. The two proceeded to enter the house, and began to look around. Matt said he felt uneasy so at this point he raised his Standard issue rifle and began to tactically clear this abandoned house. The one thing that Matt said that stood out was the house was completely in tact on the inside and it looked like the previous owners had just up and left one day, leaving everything behind. The table was still set and all. Upon seeing this, Matt began to feel uneasy.

As the two proceeded through the house looking around, Craig suggested they go upstairs to see what was up there, but Matt was to take lead, which feeling uneasy about, he did. He said as he crept up the stairs with weapon shouldered it began to get colder and colder. "Keep in mind, its the middle of August, so it's hotter than two rats fucking in a wool sock outside, but it began to get chilly... like creepy chilly" Matt told us. As he entered the first room he came upon, he noticed something odd. Two beds, laid out to what looked like a little girls room. What Matt told us then has stuck with me since that fall night. Matt told us that what pushed him over the edge to leave the house was that there were clothes laid out on the bed, as they were set up for school the next morning, but that morning never came... At this point, Matt wanted to get the fuck out of the house, yet Craig was still feeling adventurous. As the two were about to exit this house, Craig spotted the basement door, slightly cracked yet not fully ajar. And Matt told us he saw a glimmer in his eyes, like that "oh we're definitely doing this" look.

Matt wasn't having any of this, so he told Craig to take point. Craig eagerly did, Craig began to crack the door open, still weapon shouldered flashlight on and began to proceed down the stairs. Matt, only being a few steps behind him. But suddenly as Craig reached the bottom of the steps, he turned a corner and stopped dead in his tracks. Matt still behind the corner, not knowing what was behind it asked Craig, "well, what's down here?"... Not a word from Craig, Matt turned around to look at Craig and noticed his face had turned ghost white, with a thousand yard stare on his face. And Craig proceeded to push Matt out of the way. Nonchalantly walking up the stairs, and walking out of the house not looking back. Matt followed behind him not looking around the corner. As the two got back in the vehicle Craig said not one word for the rest of their shift. NOTHING! no matter how many times He had asked him what he saw, Craig said nothing. Till' this day, Craig will still never talk about what he saw when he turned that corner, and he is the only one who knows what was in that basement. Matt told us that whenever it is brought up, Craig turns that ghost white and quietly sits there with a blank look.

I'm sorry for all of the grammar issues guys, but It's 1:45 am and I'm really tired. I just hope this doesn't get buried. It took me a while to write this out.

source: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1m49bh/what_is_the_scariest_ghost_story_you_ever_heard/cc61288/?st=jxke6pyj&sh=d0b619d0

[keepingupwithfundies]

This is the first Duggar courtship I have been excited about since Jinger and Jeremy. I think it is because John David and Abbie both have had careers and some life experience before committing to a relationship that is very likely to lead to marriage quickly.

It is something other than teenage marriage from kids who barely held it together long enough for their homeschool diploma. Also, her sisters seem very into decorating at their weddings, so we might get to see a whole different wedding, not same old same old Ms Cindy style. And I am sure at 26 y.o. she won’t let the Duggar clan steamroll her like Kendra did who is barely out of her diapers.

YES, I read that too. @duggardata​ I am sure the whole fundie tumblr wants to know what their chances are of having twins. Unfortunately I am not sure if the girls are fraternal or paternal. From the looks of it none of the girls look identical, so my guess would be fraternal same sex twins like Jer and Jed.

Edit: I found old pics and they don’t look identical, just like normal sisters, so I’d say fraternal.

(At the Bontrager’s house:)

Mh.... nvm the more I look at them the more identical they look to me.... Back to square one.

Oh no…. let’s hope they don’t feel the need to evangelize through that….btu they probably will.

OMG halfway thorugh I realized that this post will be sooo long, I am sorry I will have to shorten it. Read more below:

Imagine the dry spell he went through since the beginning of puberty. It’s astounding that he does not have to carry his blue balls in a wheelbarrow. Sorry for the mental pic LOL

I was surprised too to see him so lively and very obviously physically into her. That’s a side he kept well hidden on CO so far.

We have yet to see a pic of Abbie wearing pants, but three of her sisters wear jeans.

I think he’ll be more chill and she’ll wear pants in the not too far future with her single sisters already wearing them.

True LOL!!

I don’t think he lurks on tumblr, but IIRC more than one news outlet picket up the sentence as well and the fundies have been known to follow their stories there.

Definitely not just you:

From reddit/FJ.

IKR? It is so unusual for a Duggar bride! 

SAME!! OMG that would be hella refreshing! But dare I say it? I think our hopes are wasted.

Nice!! Can’t wait to see how this unfolds. I am so chuffed to see a girl with a real job in the Duggar family. Let’s see how long she gets to keep it.

Ah no, I hated their dresses. I hope she gets styling advise from her younger twin sisters, Maggie especially seems quite stylish.

Abbie has 8 siblings, you can find ages and names here from an old blog entry. She was born  fourth and was homeschooled with the same ATI programm as the Duggar kids. You can find out a little more about her extended family on the fundie wikia: http://fundamentalists.wikia.com/wiki/Burnett_Family and a little more about her here: http://fundamentalists.wikia.com/wiki/Abbie_Burnett

I agree, although it seemed to me that she was slightly irritated about the whole ordeal which we couldn’t blame her for. But saying that, that’s the first ever video we have seen of her, maybe that’s just her personality.

I agree, their strict rules seem even more ridiculous in their case. Well, we will probably get another honeymoon baby with the amount of desire JD had in his eyes looking at her. (Also thanks so much for your love!!) I don’t think they will “break“ any of the usual courtship rules, maybe just stretch them like Jeremy and Jinger.

I would like to keep the double wedding theories alive please. We’ll never know, it’s possible that Jana announces a courtship tomorrow. Never forget what Anna said to Joy a few years ago: Once you are over 18 you will always be only 6 months away from a wedding.

^^ Wasn’t me previous anon, I swear!!!

Here ya go:

I don’t remember, but maybe they have been talking since then!

He is probably doesn’t know what to do with himself atm.

I agree, I love that about her. She has actually some kind of independence!

Most likely he has! You need to be our spy LOL!

Right?! If you watch fundies as a hobby you really shouldn’t have a real life. Especially with them multiplying like bunnies now.

I mean I can’t tell you you are wrong but my gut says no. In the video the way he leans into her and stares with lust at her he would have to be a real good actor.

She comes from a very fundie family but she has a real job and her sisters wear pants, so she might turn out like Whit. Remember Zach and JD are very close, so maybe JD had someone like Whit in mind when he was looking for his special woman.

Yeah I think after the scandlad it needed one male Duggar to start a relationship to get the others hooked again.

YOU are obsessed? You do know you are talking to a blog owner solely dedicated to them LOL I am happy that she is older too, maturity can be worth so much in a marriage!

She grew up in the same cirles as him but the females are allowed to wear pants even before marriage. So we will see how strictly fundie she really is. I think we will be able to tell from the wedding dress.

Longest post in history I think. Jobbie, you almost broke fundie tumblr. (Annie)

[cyrelia-j]

[Ficlet] A Gift for my Darling III (mirror Garak/Bashir/Parmak)

In all honesty I'm not quite sure why this particular story is such a compulsion right now but it is what it is I guess. Sharing on the off chance someone other than me wants to keep going with the story so far. 

Parts 1 and 2 are here and here if you read the summary and warnings and still want on board this ride...

Summary: So in this story we have terran Julian having been given to Parmak as a gift from Garak. This crazy thing details some idk how to quite phrase it… daily life stuff of the three of them including the events occurring in the DS9 eps. Except the daily life stuff is supremely twisted and dark and features at the forefront the continued erosion of Julian's free will

WARNINGS: non consensual body modification, body horror, slave fic, dark, allusions to violence, torture, and rape/non con (I’m putting the non con warning extra here because while Julian’s [unreliable] narration expresses mainly acceptance/joy about his current situation and events it’s important to note that he’s only this way because his mind/self has been altered into it not because he actually is/was able to consent to anything done to him), also kind of OOC that’s explained and it’s mirror universe but still yeah OOC although Mirror Julian is still a prick

So if anyone’s still here for this here goes…

He hears a rumor of two strange arrivals on the station, one a Bajoran woman who looks exactly like The Intendant. The other one, Garak informs him with far too much amusement, is a Terran man who looks like Julian only “even more weak and useless”. The Klingons have taking to calling the other him “Garak’s pet” amongst themselves. It makes Julian bristle angrily. He’s not Garak’s pet he’s Doctor Parmak’s pet and he hopes they punish the insolent sods who have the audacity to make such a disgusting affront. Julian hates Klingons almost as much as he hates Cardassians. They talk down to him far worse than Garak’s men do, at least Garak’s men recognize his station. Some of them even call him Doctor Parmak’s assistant. Sometimes Doctor Parmak chooses not to correct them. 

Julian has been careful to listen for any news of the intruders. Garak has explained they’re from the other world. The other world is something that Julian also hates. If it wasn’t for the Terrans from the other world fucking up The Empire they would be the ones ruling now and it would be Garak kneeling at his feet. But Julian finds himself unsettled by their presence. If there’s another him then Doctor Parmak might decide that he’d like to have two Julians. This one’s even claimed to be a doctor already. His doctor has assured him that he has little interest in such a plain boring Julian, but Julian knows that it’s only The Intendant’s fascination with her own twin keeping that one from his doctor’s clutches.

That leaves him divided on Garak’s plan to kill The Intendant and have her other self take charge. Julian doesn’t particularly care if Garak is in charge of the station. It changes little for him. But if The Intendant is gone and there’s nothing protecting that other Julian then that leaves his doctor with a temptation that Julian would rather he didn’t have. Julian decides then that he’ll be sure to kill him when the time comes. Terran bodies are weak. He doesn’t imagine it will take much. 

Doctor Parmak had showed Julian once how many times that he had died when he was first given to his doctor. “See here’s where your heart had stopped from the trauma of the electrical current. And this one is where your poor little neck had been snapped. I think you may have broken your tibia, poor thing. I’m so pleased we were able to fix you up better than that. Ah and this one here was where your insides had ripped and bled out. Oh my little Julian you used to cry so terribly when we used you. But I made sure that it doesn’t hurt anymore now didn’t I? That’s because you’re such a good kitty.” Doctor Parmak is so kind, Julian is thankful for him. They don’t deserve his doctor on this miserable hot station.

“Are you going to fuck him then?” Julian finds himself asking Garak. He tells himself he doesn’t care what Garak does. Garak is an unimaginative murderous waste of scales and Julian would just as soon push him into one of the smelters and watch him burn. But he asks anyway and feels just a little... something when Garak considers the question far too long. “Didn’t you hear me?” he asks testily. “Do I have to yell it into those dense ridges of yours?” he demands sitting up on his knees. Garak smirks at him.

“And what if I do?” Garak drawls spitefully. “It would be easy, you know. It would seem that in the other world he and my counterpart are already involved. I would say that it would take little effort on my part to have him.” Julian swallows hard. He knows Garak is just taking the piss. He really wants to bite him but Doctor Parmak had put the little metal plates in so Garak could lock his jaw. Doctor Parmak said that it was cruel to leave Julian without his arms so if Garak must do something about his biting he can turn the plates on instead. Julian doesn’t particularly care for the plates but it’s much better than losing his arms. Doctor Parmak showed him that his voice implant can still talk normally without needing to move his mouth. It’s jut an affectation that’s not necessary. Garak says it unnerves him. Julian talks to him a lot with his mouth closed when he wants to make him mad, when he wants to unnerve the Cardies on the station.

Julian scents the air to reassure himself that Garak is only trying to initiate sex and not serious about looking for that Terran. It’s there. Faintly- Garak must be holding himself back just to make him angrier- but it’s there. “If this is the part where I’m supposed to give you a jobby because I give two fucks if you want to bugger some Terran weakling you can fucking suck yourself.” He snatches the PADD back up, glancing at Garak out of the corner of his eye. He tries to be discreet but Garak catches the expression regardless.

“Perhaps I’ll have my Terran weakling do it for me then,” Garak teases from his writing. Garak, Julian has learned from things he leaves out, likes to write absolutely abysmal poetry and short stories.

“Go on then,” Julian grumbles not understanding why his sexual response is so keenly tied to Garak’s as of late. It’s always been just Doctor Parmak.

Julian watches Garak lean back smugly and he slams the PADD down. He may have broken it. It’s all Garak’s fault anyway and Doctor Parmak understands that.  

“Fine, wanker, you fucking win!” he growls standing up flipping his hair as he stalks over to the couch. Garak is beaming up at him. “Jealous, kitty?” Garak asks using the name like Doctor Parmak does. Julian can feel his eyes steel over furiously. He’s standing over Garak thinking how easy it would be to rip his throat out, teeth or no teeth. His tail swishes angrily. He still... remembers how to fight, how to attack, how to... hurt them... Garak looks up at him and calmly sets down what he was writing.

Julian lunges at him, the force and weight sending the couch backwards with both of them on it. He lands on top of Garak, seeing just a hint of fear there, blended with that arousal as he tastes the air between them both. Julian is breathing hard with excitement. He leans in, smiling for Garak prettily. He shifts, straddling him, feeling Garak’s thick body between his thighs. He hopes Garak’s uniform fucking reeks of him the next day. “Yes,” Julian says with a purr. He isn’t sure why he was trying to hurt Garak now. This feels so much better. Julian laps at his mouth just like a little kitten and feels a rush of pleasure so strong that it nearly shorts out the servos in his arms. “Yes,” he whispers again giving a long swipe of his tongue to the side of Garak’s face. 

Doctor Parmak said that he would make it nice for him if he was nice for Garak. He feels that swim in his head again and nearly drowns drunk on it. He feels Garak shiver beneath him, head going back just a bit, showing Julian his throat. It would be so easy. One bite, one good hard bite. Julian blinks. He wants to keep feeling good like this. His body agrees. Julian laps at his throat, softly, lightly, shutting his eyes deliriously. His hands move from Garak’s shoulders, pawing at the armor on his chest. He still has trouble with fine motor skills. Garak gives his ear a scratch, then tugs at it roughly. Julian purrs again. “That’s a good kitty.”

Julian still hasn’t quite formulated a plan for his escape, but they’re out of the conduit. That’s step one. They’re into the hall and Smiley is going to take him to the runabouts and they’re going to figure it out from there. He doesn’t have time to try and sort the particulars, his mind already working fast as it can to analyze probabilities, odds, but he just doesn’t have enough data. All Julian knows is that he and Kira have to escape this insanity. They have to get out of there. They have to get back. They don’t belong here in this world and every minute that Julian spends here he thinks he’ll go mad. He nearly turns the corner, the alarms blaring but Smiley holds up a hand.

“Wait.” Julian listens, hearing the footsteps, not sure how he’d missed it before with his hearing but it’s there. They aren’t the hasty heavy steps of his Klingon pursuers though, they’re... different. There’s only one of them and it’s not something he recognizes. Julian takes a cautious step back but freezes cold when he hears something that sounds like his own voice calling out to him.

“Oi! You Terran pieces of shite aren’t fooling anyone! I can already smell you both!” Of course he knew intellectually that there should be another him. Julian had just assumed... without his enhancements... a slow boy in a world like this. When he hadn’t seen himself he just assumed the worst.

“Julian?” Miles whispers fearfully next to him. “Whatever that is I swear you don’t want to see it.” Julian doesn’t understand what’s gotten into him all of a sudden. The footsteps draw closer and Julian realizes that the voice he heard was like his but it wasn’t. It was... artificial. “Julian, please, we have to go now. You said it yerself, we can’t stay here...” Miles pulls at him and he almost turns, his self preservation nearly outweighing his curiosity but then he sees it. And then he realizes that no, death wasn’t the worst possible scenario.

“Oh my god.” Those are the first words that leave his mouth as the creature steps around the corner. Creature is the first word that comes to mind. Like Frankenstein’s creature stitched together from so many imperfect parts. Julians hand comes up to his mouth shaking as he stares at it; the monster wearing his face and nearly falls to his knees. It’s... it’s him or rather it’s... something that may have once been him. Julian doesn’t know what catches his eyes first. It stalks around the corner coming closer to them, the most prominent feature are the black metal arms whirring softly as he walks. They’re... they’re soldered or something or God Julian doesn’t know how they’re attached but he can see the scar tissue heavy on his torso at both shoulder, at his chest which... which has a massive incision scar running down the center. There are stitched together skin pieces everywhere or at least what resemble various patchwork making a body. Julian can actually tell which ones were once his.

The creature is only wearing a pair of shorts, a pair of boots wrapped over the knee and Julian can see the collar around his... No... not it’s not a collar. It’s his throat. It’s his neck with a piece of metal welded? around it, the light at the center blinking and that’s when Julian realizes it... it has metal plates at the jaw that seem to be holding it shut- at least right now. It has his face. It has his face and it’s looking at him disdainfully as those arms cross.

“You get a good look, Terran?” he hears it ask, fears confirmed when he hears the voice but doesn’t see the mouth moving. His mouth his turned down in what seems a perpetual scowl but even that doesn’t all quite prepare him for the ears. They’re... they’re gray cat ears sticking out from his wild brown hair grown long to his shoulders. Julian sees a tail as well swishing and he knows his hand is trembling over his mouth as he tries to understand what it is he’s seeing.

“My god I... you’re... you’re me but what-” “I’m not you, Terran. Don’t let the talk go to your fucking head, you and are aren’t the same.” “What happened to you?!” Julian asks dropping his hand still trying to understand what he’s seeing. The slaves he worked next to... none of them looked like this. He hadn’t seen anything like this creature and he doesn’t understand. He can see his vision clouding over and blinks back the water in his eyes. “Doctor Parmak,” he hears Smiley practically spit beside him. “Jesus, Julian, I thought you were dead!” Julian turns, but Smiley isn’t talking to him. He’s talking to the creature in front of them. Julian hears a snort.

“You and them wish I was dead, Terran? You were all eager enough to let these lizard fuckers have a go at me but no, I’m not fucking dead.” It sounds angry and Julian doesn’t understand what’s going on. Dead? Was he captured? Why wasn’t he working with the rest. Julian had seen men killed but not-

“What the hell did that monster do to you, Julian?” Smiley asks, and Julian can hear his voice starting to tighten. Julian can’t imagine. It looks like it hurts. All of it looks like it hurt. He doesn’t know how those arms don’t rip off his torso. He doesn’t know how those scars don’t hurt, how his throat, how his jaw aren’t in agony. He can’t open his mouth, god he can’t... they took his arms. They... How... how could someone...

“Don’t you dare talk about Doctor Parmak, Smiley. Say what you want about the rest of these scaly bastards but you keep my doctor’s name off your tongue. He fixed me. The mines fuck up your bloody eyesight? Christ you buggers stink.” Julian sees its nose wrinkle and he sees the lights moving when it speaks. He couldn’t imagine... how many surgeries... how many months of recovery, what they would’ve had to do to him to- Those are fangs... or a cat’s teeth, he’s sure he sees a fang there and how... how does it not hurt? How does this Julian not know...

“Your doctor? Julian you... you told me...” He can hear Smiley’s voice start to break. “You told me you killed your old man cause he wanted to change you... you... you told me you were terrified of him... you couldn’t sleep without a knife cause you were afraid he’s let ‘em take ya and...”

“Don’t talk about my old man, Smiley.” It uncrosses its arms and walks over to them both, tail flicking back and forth. Julian doesn’t want to look at it closer. It hurts. It hurts him because it doesn’t...He... Julian, what the hell is wrong with you, he’s you! He’s you, he’s not a thing he’s a human being! He’s a human being some Doctor Parmak tortured and twisted and... and how could a man call himself a doctor and do that to a man? To another living creature? It... He... Julian looks at him coldly. “Garak tried to take the piss saying he was gonna have a go at you. Fuck me, mate, he’d break you so easily.” The mirror Julian laughs and Julian croaks out a sickened “Garak” in response. He thinks he’s going to vomit.

It’s almost a blessing when the Klingons find them.

(I know you all didn't think that Julian was just a cute lil' neko right. I'm way more screwed up than that lol

Anyhoo, here's Part 4)

[thelonesomequeen]

PR v PR

Let’s be honest: her PR goes HARD for her because she goes hard WITH it (w/ much less to work from). Increasingly more ppl see Jobby’s OBVIOUS hustle and PRIORITY is attention & hopeful admiration (no criticism). He & his PR, at least in comparison, is so *seemingly* lackadaisical that his camp isn’t being manipulated, it’s being BESTED. Let’s put aside her more-frequent SM presence: his NatGeo docuseries voiceover announcement came and went just days before THEEEE trailer release, whereas SOMEHOW her book deal details came after (the better timing) and were everywhere, ending the gossip week. How? Cuz her PR piggybacked HIS need for a NYC abode during HIS Broadway run and HIS just released highly-anticipated trailer. Despite a deleted tweet and nare a pic/little proof (yet) to be seen of this NYC trip, her PR worked harder, smarter, quicker, craftier, whatever, for another “win” for HER!!! 

SHE *appears* willing to give up more/go all out (= thirstier), whereas his PR can really only do so much for their client w/o his own more (pro-)active participation (HE almost immed undid his own PR’s-generated “dating around” statement w/ HIS OWN goofy tweets). She WANTS AND DOES play “the game.” He does so, too, but casually at best, and he doesn’t even have to try too, too hard (for now, IT’S PRETTY, MALE, MIDDLE-AGED, WHITE CHRISES’ TIME IN HW!!). I doubt *this* particular on-off cuffing season grlfrnd is gonna stand or wait behind him when it comes to career. She’s efficiently using his A-List superhero status before its gone, and he’s allowing her…

In other words: before the over-the-top Disney “candids” happens, WHAT’S THE PROPER FLAVORED POPCORN FOR THIS MESS?!? An XMas themed one…? Is there a red wine-n-cheese flavor out there…? Ooo! DOES POPCORN SHRIMP COUNT…?!? 😆

There is a popcorn shop near my house that makes Bloody Mary popcorn and i’m telling you it’s AMAZING! It seems like an appropriate snack for this mess...

Pascal

[tanyaodebra]

You 2.1: A Fresh Start – The Bitch Is Back

Confession: I fucking LOVED Season One of You – so much so that I decided to write recaps of Season Two! What does this say about my feminism? JUST LET ME LIVE, OKAY??? Let it be known that absolutely no one asked me to do this. I recently moved back to Brooklyn full-time after finishing my degree in Northampton, MA, so I’m using my (hopefully brief) interval sans a jobby-job (please hire me) to write about a show that my partner detests, so now I “have” to watch it. Should I be working on my play or screenplay? Duh. Should you be doing your job or otherwise improving your own life right now? Duh. Let’s call a truce and just enjoy ourselves. Cheers to me and You.

This first episode is a very strong start to the season, and I’m genuinely psyched to watch the rest of the show. Right from the jump we can see that Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) is back on his bullshit. A Class-A manipulator, Joe crafts the recap of his Season One misdeeds into a cozy quilt of blame and white knighthood under which he can forever smother the memory of his former lover/victim Guinevere Beck (Elizabeth Lail). At the end of Season One, I wasn’t sure if the reappearance of Candace (Ambyr Childers) was a figment of his imagination or the result of too many blows to the head, and to be honest I’m still not totally sure since dear Joe is so deeply delusional, but real or not, Candace has incited a cross-country move. If we can trust the public locale in the Candace flashbacks, it appears that she is real, and she is super pissed that not only did he tried to kill her, but he succeeded in killing someone else. Of course, Joe would rather be anywhere other than Los Angeles. A perpetual proctor for the purity test of life, Joe detests the vapidity he equates with LA, which is why it’s the perfect selection for his illicit hideaway. But even Joe Goldberg isn’t immune to the seductive qualities of LA in that perhaps even he might be given a fresh start. Wait… Did he just say his name is Will Bettelheim? Squeaky clean credit, no social media presence -- this will be a very fresh start indeed. And yet… whoever lived in the apartment before Joe/Will seems to have left under some duress – all the furniture is still there. I already have that no-so-fresh feeling. Also, am I sniffing glue or is Lonely Boy meeting cute with the landlady (Carmela Zumbado)? Do we have our next victim? Maybe, maybe not. But what I am sure about is that perv-y Joe shipped himself a huge fucking telescope, and he’s allowed himself ten minutes a day to creep. So, we’re definitely not turning over a new leaf. We’re just turning that very same leaf over and over in our dirty little hands.

This new season of You is a series of inversions and remixes of the life Joe had in New York. On the sunny left coast, Joe/Will has a new child sidekick in Ellie (Jenna Ortega), but instead of acting as the mentor, Joe appears to be the mentee. Unlike Paco (Luca Padovan) from Season One, Ellie has a guardian who cares, a fact Delilah makes crystal clear with her delicious threat to “vivisect” Joe’s “individual balls” if he lays a finger on Ellie. (If that was a hint at Joe’s future, I will be so happy.) And though he slips back into a job at a bookstore like a pig on a shit-hill, it’s at a joint with a backwards name: Anavrin (Nirvana). Here we have the first of the literary Easter eggs, the almost too symbolically on-the-nose copy of Crime and Punishment that lands him his gig. On his first day, Joe shelves books about chakra-clearing and the Akashic Record. Does this mean his karma will finally catch up with him? Perhaps it does in the sense that Joe’s new boss, Forty (James Scully), is basically a reanimated Benji. After a weird vegan showdown about Carl Jung, Lonely Boy once again has trouble separating real life from fantasy. He appears to be having a very steamy encounter with the actual meet-cute from the previous scene, but it’s all a very vivid day dream. In real life he commits the very fire-able offence of beating off in the stock room. (Let me just say – and I’ve been seeing your shit online, so I know you’re out there – I don’t know how any of you hoes think this guy is doable. He is the definition of a skeezeball.) Joe is a hetero-normative, lackluster Dr Frankenfurter, creating his own world where he can be a sexual king. He’s determined to not just dream it, but to be it. Make no mistake, both will kill to make their dreams come true.

Let’s talk about Love. Not the state of being, but the female character who seems positively manufactured to capture the attention of one Joe Goldberg. Is it me, or is she a honey pot working for Candace? Is Candace’s game so good that she set all this up before even meeting with Joe at the bookstore? Love (Victoria Pedretti) has the girl-next-door look he loves, and she seems to exist in order to fulfill his every whim. She appears out of nowhere to give him a hippy sunburn cure, she reads books he’d approve of had he read them, she takes him on what is basically the best date ever, a hunt to discover his favorite LA dishes, and ultimately she cooks a meal tailor-made for him. And then there’s her backstory. Her baggage is not a series of shitty exes. Oh, no. She’s a widow, which means she’s perfect in that her love can only be snuffed by death itself. Love is exactly who Joe is looking for. Or… Is she the karmic repayment this episode has been hinting at? Is Joe about to get a taste of his own medicine? She gifts him Joan Didion’s Play it As It Lays, which, according to Wikipedia, is a novel about an LA transplant from New York who goes crazy. But Love had only established at the beginning of the night that Will had never read Didion. When did she get this book? How could she have known ahead of time that he hadn’t read it? Come to think of it, what, precisely, killed her husband? We have nine more episodes to find out.

Even in the face of Love, I am so nervous about Joe’s relationship with Ellie, who is, frankly, a teen so cool I would be honored if she just gave me dirty looks all day. After a very gross exchange where he causes her phone to go careening off a rooftop, Joe apologizes with an expensive bouquet of flowers otherwise known as an iPhone. Men: do not, and I can’t stress this enough, give expensive gifts to teenaged girls. If you fucked up her phone, figure out how to replace it through her legal guardian. Ellie, savvy as she seems, is still just a materialistic child who doesn’t know better, and who is satisfied with the transactional token of being owed a favor in return for her social media tutorial. It sure looks like Ellie has got Lonely Boy’s number when she claims that the only reasons to post online are love and revenge. But Joe/Will does what he always does and lies, lies, lies, claiming those are not his motives. Later, Joe gives off very strong Humbert Humbert vibes when Ellie tells him to blow on her toenail polish. Lo and behold, captured using the very gift Joe gave her, an image of an obviously unwanted guest rests in Ellie’s hot little hands. Thus begins the final twist of A Fresh Start.

Rewind a clip. In an even more Jungian display than the junk pile jerk-off, Joe dreams of his mother leaving him alone at the beach. This is the first glimpse the audience has gotten of Joe’s childhood besides his time with old man Mooney. She is a mash-up of Candace, Beck, and Love – beautiful, charismatic, and a bit of a manic pixie dream girl. Here we find the origin of “you” as a moniker for Joe’s love interests; it’s what his mom calls him during a guilty turn of maternal love mixed with abandonment. She asks young Joe to build her a sandcastle, and in a sense that is exactly what he has done with his life – just don’t dig too deeply underneath, because that’s where all the bodies are buried. I hope we get a little more nuance if these flashbacks continue. It would be a real bummer if the audience ends up neatly being able to blame Joe’s mother, when Joe is actually the criminal.

Back to the final chapter of this episode. Creepy Joe is up to no good, as evidenced by the baseball cap he only wears when he’s creepin’. Turns out you can take the boy of the secret locked room in the basement, but you can’t take the secret locked room out of the boy. Everyone, meet the real Will Bettelheim. So, it wasn’t an identity Joe invented after all. And there was no real meet-cute with Love – he has been stalking her from the get-go. Neither was there a coincidence at the job interview – he planted Crime and Punishment in his backpack to land a job where Love works. The new Joe is the old Will, who just happened to be Love’s neighbor conveniently in telescope-shot of Love’s apartment. And just who is Will? I’ll never tell. XOXO, Gossip Girl. Not really. I’m totally going to tell as soon as I know. See You next time!

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #410

Top Ten Things to Look Forward to in 2020

Well we’re about five minutes into 2020 and already the world’s on fire, World War III is breaking out, and that rough beast Brexit is finally shuffling towards Bethlehem to be born. How crap can you get?

Fortunately – and maybe it’s still the Christmas booze talking – but I remain flushed with optimism. Yes there’s a lot of crap in the world, and the crap will keep on piling up like that Triceratops shit in Jurassic Park, but rather than dwell in filth I have decided to look to sunnier horizons. Because I believe a better world is possible, and I also believe that everyone is allowed to have some fun on their all-to-brief whirl around this mad world (apart from Boris Johnson, he’s a big racist toolbag and I hope he never has another satisfying poo in his entire life).

So with this in mind, here are the ten things I’m most looking forward to in the coming year, politics, work, and familial jobbies notwithstanding.

A Bold New Era: The Infinity Saga is complete, so what next for the MCU? It’s kind of a weird one this year, with two films – the relatively-slimmed-down Black Widow and the god-only-knows-ness of The Eternals – as well as the prospect of Disney Plus shows Falcon and Winter Soldier and the utterly-demented-looking WandaVision. I am really excited by what comes next, and the fact that we don’t know – that this could be going anywhere, Secret Invasion, Secret Wars, Galactus, the X-Men – makes it utterly enticing. Bring it on. I am ready.

Make it So: I’m sorry, Star Wars, really I am. You’ll always be my first love. And I doubt many things will match The Last Jedi in the near future. But you’ve dropped the ball a few times and, quite frankly, you don’t have Patrick Stewart on your side. Absolutely the most exciting TV show of 2020 is Star Trek: Picard, because The Next Generation is my Trek, and seeing it continued, seeing what happened next, is really super double exciting. And it happens this month, too!

Long Have I Waited: Yes, at long last, Disney Plus arrives at the end of March, and brings with it The Mandalorian, the 2019 TV show I most wanted to see. Disney Plus in general looks like being a worthwhile bet, with loads of classic shows and movies to watch, which will please my kids no end, as well as the aforementioned Marvel stuff, and – in 2021 – Big Ewan returning to the Star Wars universe in Obi-Wan. Hello there!

A Series-ous Business: I could talk about how excited I am for Halo Infinite specifically, or how I hope Fable IV might be out this Christmas too, but let’s keep it more general: Xbox Series X. I’ve been mostly very happy with my launch Xbox One these past few years, but a sexy new box that will let me play in 4K, and a slew of new games to go with it, and Game Pass, and xCloud, and Christmas at least looks like being very, very Xbox-flavoured in this house.

I Feel Pretty and Witty and Bright: I’ll always find time for Spielberg, but the fact he’s finally making a musical, and that musical is West Side Story, gives me something not Xbox-shaped to look forward to at the end of the year. But it’s not just Spielberg; there are a few musicals coming out, from the really exciting In the Heights, to Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, and the frankly-could-go-anywhere The Prom.

Wonder Women: The DCEU, or whatever we’re calling it, has not been as interesting or exciting or – frankly – good as the MCU, and I say that as someone more invested in the DC characters than their Marvel counterparts. But I’d say my most anticipated superhero movies this year belong to DC, with Wonder Woman 1984 continuing their golden goose (eagle?), and Margot Robbie hopefully being allowed to be Harley Quinn in a genuinely great movie with Birds of Prey. Female-focused fun at the flicks, more so if you include Black Widow.

Bill and Ted's Triumphant Return: Excellent! Keanu Reeves – who had a great 2019 – and Alex Winters return to their iconic roles of Ted “Theodore” Logan and Bill S. Preston in a long-awaited third movie, which hopefully will be as good we all remember the previous films to be. Hopefully with age we can add a touch of melancholy to the dumb fun, but mostly I just want the good-natured friendly vibes to continue for a new generation. Station!

Ponyville: The Next Generation: My kids love My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Hell, what am I on about; I love My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Although we’ve not seen all the episodes yet (when exactly are the final two seasons coming to Netflix/Amazon Prime?!) it is, now, officially ended. 2020 will see the debut of the successor series, My Little Pony: Pony Tails, which to my untrained eye sounds a bit like Teen Titans Go! to Friendship is Magic’s Teen Titans (if that makes sense). Regardless, I’m looking forward to seeing what the new series is like, and seeing how my kids cope with their first real franchise reboot.

Tim Nook Owns my Soul: We got a Switch for Christmas, and although the main thing I want right now is The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the Nintendo game I’m most looking forward to this year is Animal Crossing: New Horizons. The quiet, sublime joys of Animal Crossing are perfect for whiling away quiet evenings, and the prospect of sharing a community with not just my wife but my two kids as well fills me with happiness, Tom Nook’s outrageous mortgages be damned.

Big Giant Stompy Robots: For various reasons I skipped all the usual conventions last year, but this time round the sun I’m determined to make it to TF Nation. I love TF Nation; I love being around likeminded fans. I really love it when people are more into something than me, more knowledgeable than I am; I like their enthusiasm and I like to learn. I also, of course, flippin’ love Transformers. I like to think I’ve made friends now with some of the creators whose work has meant so much to me over the years, and it’s great to catch up. And this year, Optimus Prime himself will be there in the guise of Peter Cullen. How great is that? Five-year-old me is in tears.

Well that all sounds lovely doesn’t it? For what it’s worth I couldn’t mention Doctor Who or Dracula because, well, they’ve already started, but I really think that they could end up on my “best of 2020” list at the end of the year. I wasn’t expecting too much from Who and Dracula could have gone anywhere, but really, blimmin’ ‘eck, they are both fab. What a great start to 2020! It all bodes very, very well!

Be excellent to each other!

[sky-bluepinksunset]

All of them ya Jobbie

DELETED THIS HALFWAY THROUGH SO TAKE II BITCHES 1: My name? Bryce! 2: Do I have any nicknames? B, Kennedy when I'm in trouble, BK, babe3: Zodiac sign? Aries4: Video game I play to chill, not to win? Grand Theft Auto V5: Book/series I reread? Harry Potter but Goblet of Fire especially 6: Aliens or ghosts? Leaning more towards ghosts?? 7: Writer I trust enough to read whatever they write? Not sure? Don't really follow authors well8: Favourite radio station? 104.5, not that it means a lot to you, but it's called "The Beat of Knoxville" and plays mostly rap and hip hop 9: Favourite flavour of anything? Cinnamon 10: The word that I use all the time to describe something great? Insane lmaooo11: Favourite song? Of all time?? Either 12: The question you ask new friends to get to know them better? Favorite song usually!! 13: Favourite word? Probably 14: The last person who hurt me, did I forgive them? Yeah, you're going to be miserable if you're bitter. 15: Last song I listened to? Praying by Kesha16: TV show I always recommend? B99 as of super recent 17: Pirates or ninjas? Pirates 18: Movie I watch when I'm feeling down? I normally binge tv series I've seen before 19: Song that I always start my shuffle with/wake-up song/always-on-a-loop song? Issues by Julia Michaels because it's a BOP Also Home by Edward Sharpe20: Favourite video games? GTA, Literally NEVER ashamed to admit to Mario Super Bros, Life is Strange is pretty good! Also quite like Subnautica sue me 21: What am I most afraid of? Failure I think22: A good quality of mine? I help people?? Idk lmao 23: A bad quality of mine? Losing discipline when trying to do something 24: Cats or dogs? BOTH25: Actor/actress you trust enough to watch whatever they're in? Evelyne Brochu 26: Favourite season? Fall 27: Am I in a relationship? Nope 28: Something I miss? Band a lot29: My best friend? Ur gay ass30: Eye colour? Blue! 31: Hair colour? Currently a silver blonde 32: Someone I love? Cameron33: Someone I trust? You34: Someone I always think about? Chekov and Sulu 🙄🙄35: Am I excited about anything? Yep! 36: My current obsession? Buzzfeedblue37: Favourite TV shows as a child? Wizards of Waverly Place, iCarly, either of the Zach and Cody shows 38: Do I have someone of the opposite sex that I can tell everything to? Yeah! 39: Am I superstitious? About some things like salt over your shoulder and sweeping your feet40: What do I think about most? Again Chulu or college 41: Do I have any strange phobias? Mm I have a fear of dying or disappearing and my room being a mess 42: Do I prefer to be in front of the camera or behind it? Behind 43: Favourite hobbies? Writing 44: Last book I read? People's History of the US45: Last film I watched? Not sure? 46: Do I play any instruments? Flute, piccolo and alto flute! 47: Favourite animal? Otter, shark, pit bulls48: Top 5 blog on Tumblr that I follow?49: Superpower I wish I could have? Teleporting could be cool50: How do I destress? Watch shit or exercise 51: Do I like confrontation? NOPE52: When do I feel most at peace? Not really sure53: What makes me smile? Silly conversations 54: Do I sleep with the lights on or off? Off I'm not an ANIMAL 55: Play any sports? Nope, used to play softball and basketball 56: What is my song of the week? The Louvre57: Favourite drink? Coffee 58: When did I last send a handwritten letter to somebody? I have no idea 59: Afraid of heights? Healthily 60: Pet peeve? Oppression I guess?? 61: What was the last concert I went to see? Mary Lambert 62: Am I vegetarian/vegan/pescatarian? I want to go back vegetarian or vegan!! 63: What occupation did I want to do when I was younger? A veterinarian 64: Have I ever had a friend turn enemy? Yeah one but I just hold a grudge over nothing 65: What fictional universe would I like to be a part of? Star Trek or HP66: Something I worry about? Making wrong decisions 67: Scared of the dark? Sorta 68: Who are my best friends? U and Nicole69: What do I admire most about others? Their talents!! 70: Can I sing? Nope 71: Something I wish I could do? Lose weight easier lmao 72: If I won the lottery, what would I do? Travel! 73: Have I ever skipped school? Once74: Favourite place on the planet? Haven't found it yet 75: Where do I want to live? Scotland right now76: Do I have any pets? Yeah a bunch 77: What is my current desktop picture? Currently it's Nomi and Anaminita78: Early bird or night owl? Night owl 79: Sunsets or sunrise? Sunsets I think 80: Can I drive? Yeah! Love it 81: Story behind my last kiss? Don't wanna talk about it lmao 82: Earphones or headphones? Earphones 83: Have I ever had braces? Nope 84: Story behind one of my scars? I got rock stuck in my elbow from a bike fall 85: Favourite genre of music? Indie86: Who is my hero? I have no idea 87: Favourite comic book character? Wonder Woman atm 88: What makes me really angry? Oppression again 89: Kindle or real book? Real book but I don't mind kindles at all 90: Favourite sporty activity? Band??? Dk if that counts 91: What is one thing that isn’t tight in schools that should be? "Isn't tight" But the whole phone situation 92: What was my favourite subject at school? English 93: Siblings? 2 brothers and 3 sisters 94: What was the last thing I bought? I bought gas and dinner for the fam 95: How tall am I? 5'11 I think 96: Can I cook? Not extremely complicated 97: Can I bake? Yeah really well!98: 3 things I love? Trips, the sky, great plots 99: 3 things I hate? Shopping, restlessness trying to sleep, work atm100: Do I have more girl friends or boy friends? More girl friends 101: Who do I get on with better, girls or boys? Both equally well102: Where was I born? Maryville, TN103: Sexual orientation? Bi104: Where do I currently live? Maryville lmao 105: Last person I texted? You 106: Last time I cried? I think earlier over a video 107: Guilty pleasure? conspiracy theories 108: Favourite Youtuber? Buzzfeedblue at the moment KILL ME 109: A photo of myself. 110: Do I like selfies? Sometimes!111: Favourite game app? Don't really know 112: My relationship with my parents? Yeah could be worse 113: Favourite accents? French, Indian and Kenyan I think 114: A place I have not been but wish to visit? Anywhere in Europe 115: Favourite number? 24116: Can I juggle? Nope and don't have any desire to 117: Am I religious? Sorta 118: Do I like space? Yeah 119: Do I like the deep ocean? Yes! 120: Am I much of a daredevil? No not remotely 121: Am I allergic to anything? Nope 122: Can I curl my tongue? Yes123: Can I wiggle my ears? Nope124: Do I like clowns? I don't hate them 125: The Beatles or Elvis? Actually can't stand Elvis 126: My current project? Getting myself better in different ways 127: Am I a bad loser? Yeaaaaah128: Do I admit when I wrong? Sometimes129: Forest or beach? Forest 130: Favourite piece of advice? Breathe 131: Am I a good liar I think so? Don't love to do it 132: Hogwarts house / Divergent faction / Hunger Games district? Ravenclaw/ Amity or Erudite / No clue 133: Do I talk to myself? Yeah 134: Am I very social? Nope 135: Do I like gossip? Nope 136: Do I keep a journal/diary? I wish I had! I need to start 137: Have I ever hopelessly failed a test? Yeah lmao138: Do I believe in second chances? Yes 139: If I found a wallet full of cash on the ground, what would I do? Leave it, like I wouldn't turn it in because I don't want to be put on one of those shifty videos yk140: Do I believe people are capable of change? Always 141: Have I ever been underweight? Nope 142: Am I ticklish? Yeah I HATE it 143: Have I ever been in a submarine? Nope144: Have I ever been on a plane? Twice 145: In a film about my life, who would I cast as myself, friends and family? A bunch of my faves that don't have to look anything alike 146: Have I ever been overweight? YUP147: Do I have any piercings? Currently just the one ear hole, let the others close up 148: Which fictional character do I wish was real? Suluuuuu149: Do I have any tattoos? Not yet150: What is the best decision I have made in life so far? Not sure! Possibly college choice soon 151: Do I believe in Karma? Yes152: Do I wear glasses or contacts? Glasses but they're broken atm 153: What was my first car? Pontiac G6 2005 154: Do I want children? Yup 155: Who is the most intelligent person I know? The Spirko family 156: My most embarrassing memory? 157: What makes me nostalgic? Pictures of band 158: Have I ever pulled an all-nighter? Yeah I hate it 159: Which do I value more in others, brains or beauty? Brains 160: What colour mostly dominates my wardrobe? Teal 161: Have I ever had a paranormal experience? Yep 162: What do I hate most about myself? How I look 163: What do I love most about myself? My thought process 164: Do I like adventure? Yeah who doesn't 165: Do I believe in fate? Skeptical but yeah 166: Favourite animal? Answered above but otters and sharks and pits 167: Have I ever been on radio? Nope 168: Have I ever been on TV? Yeah 169: How old am I? 17 170: One of my favourite quotes? The stars would be proud to know they made someone like you 171: Do I hold grudges? Yeahhh172: Do I trust easily? Kinda 173: Have I learnt from my mistakes? I hope 174: Best gift I’ve ever received? Not really sure but probably Kenya 175: Do I dream? Yeah 176: Have I ever had a night terror? Yep177: Do I remember my dreams, and what is one that comes to mind? When I was 8, I had a dream my family was trying to kill me and I woke up screaming 178: An experience that has made me stronger? Taking care of Cam from a young age 179: If I were immortal, what would I do? Fuckin LIVE 180: Do I like shopping? Absolutely not 181: If I could get away with a crime, what would I choose to do? Rob a bank I need some money 182: What does “family” mean to me? Anyone who makes you feel loved183: What is my spirit animal? Probably a sloth or elephant or smth lmao 184: How do I want to be remembered? Hopeful 185: If I could master one skill, what would I choose? Cooking 186: What is my greatest failure? Not sure 187: What is my greatest achievement? Again not sure 188: Love or money? Love 189: Love or career? At the sacrifice of another, it seems pointless 190: If I could time travel, where and when would I want to go? Probably back to grandpa 191: What makes me the happiest? Being out with friends I think 192: What is “home” to me? Hard to describe but definitely where you're relaxed and motivated and I think it's more an idea?? Like you're with certain people maybe 193: What motivates me? Not wanting to be embarrassed 194: If I could choose my last words, what would they be? Probably try to quote a shit book 195: Would I ever want to encounter aliens? Absolutely BEAM ME UP 196: A movie that scared me as a child? Sweeney Todd197: Something I hated as a child that I like now? Naps 198: Zombies or vampires? Vampires probably 199: Live in the city or suburbs? City right now! Currently in the country so it'll be an experience 200: Dragons or wizards? Wizards 201: A nightmare that has stayed with me? Again the family murdering me thing 202: How do I define love? Home 203: Do I judge a book by its cover? Yeah too often 204: Have I ever had my heart broken? Yes205: Do I like my handwriting? Oddly enough, yeah? 206: Sweet or savoury? Savory 207: Worst job I’ve had? Taco Bell by default 208: Do I collect anything? Shells! 209: Item of clothing or jewellery you’ll never see me without? I wear my Kati bag because I keep my cigarettes in it 210: What is on my bucket list? Stealing yours but defo northern lights 211: How do I handle anger? Snapping and apologizing, or ignoring everyone 212: Was I named after anyone? Bryce was after a Bengals football player, and my mom and dad argue between Kennedy being after a DJ in Cincinnati or the president 213: Do I use sarcasm a lot? NOPE 214: What TV character am I most like? Mix of Gina and Rosa and Amy off b99 215: What is the weirdest talent I have? Guessing tv plots 216: Favourite fictional character? Nomi or Sulu That took a full 45 minutes

[nonempyreal]

// so idk how to phrase this but just know i’m not trying to upset anyone, be inflammatory, or point my finger at anyone bc that’s the last thing the rpc needs

but anyway. i see these posts going around about normalizing dropping threads and not always replying consistently and YES i agree with that, this is a hobby not a jobby and it’s important to have your priorities and boundaries bc this is supposed to be FUN, not stressful

but on the other end of that, speaking from personal experience, while i don’t fault individual rp partners for dropping threads (please don’t take this as me being upset at anybody bc i’m NOT!!), some of us out here are ALWAYS having threads dropped on us, only receiving asks once in a blue moon, no one replying to open starters, etc and yeah i know personally i could be more outgoing but for some of us it starts to get depressing when nobody interacts with you

so i’m NOT trying to guilt y’all into not dropping threads and i really hope it doesn’t come off as such, i’m just asking y’all to be aware that there are actual people with feelings on the other end of those threads. and idk about anyone else but i’m always super excited to write with people and it always makes my whole day when i get a reply to a thread that i’m really digging

it just feels like the rpc is dying off bc people want to write but they also don’t want to write?? if that makes sense. but to reiterate, yes this is a hobby not a jobby, but like, for some of us it’s a ~*~HOBBY~*~, y’know?

[thelonesomequeen]

So I just looked it up and it’s true. The event for her Monday show in LA has disappeared from the calendar of the venue. Wow I called it that she would do this. Pretty rude that she hasn’t released a statement letting her fans that bought tickets know. I was excited for the benefit reading but now I’m dreading it knowing she is going to be there.

[Anon2] Her cancelling her show just makes her seem like she’s riding on Chris’ coattails and taking advantage of the relationship. However, it says a lot to me that Chris is in the relationship again because her taking advantage doesn’t seem to bother him in the least or he’s really that dumb and doesn’t see it. Is that even possible to have such darkly tinted rose colored glasses that he doesn’t notice her antics? Unlikely right? I remember RDJ said Chris was shrew (prob didn’t mean dating wise lol)

[Anon3] Wow Jenny really is unprofessional (and totally selfish) for canceling her NOT solo show. The Largo loses money and currently doesn’t have an act on the 6th, her coworkers lose out on money and the fans no longer get to attend the show. Even if she’s part of the reading now it wasn’t necessary for her to. It’s such a bad move and disrespectful on all accounts that she needs to be seen with them to increase her star meter. She saw an opportunity. RDJ, SJ, etc > her coworkers.

[Anon4] It looks like her show (with the other two guys from the DC one) is cancelled and not on the Largo’s events. Even if she has a spot in the reading, it’s kind of a terrible thing to cancel the show when her two friends could have made some change from the show and probably would have liked to perform. Worse if she’s just in the audience. Oh well it is what it is and it’s all suspiciously convenient.

[Anon5] Her Largo show has been canceled. It’s no longer on the calendar. Prepare yourselves lol. She’ll of course say it’s for the charity (if she’s in the reading). If not? That’s a bad look to cancel a show.

[Anon6] I may need someone to double check it but she was supposed to have the big terrific at the largo la. No longer on calendar and not able to get tickets. I checked google and the link to the largo site was broken. Looks like she did cancel it.

[Anon7] Check the Largo at the Coronet site. The Big Terrific show is gone. Jobby really did that, I almost can’t believe it. Almost.

[Anon8] Hi ladies! I was checking the comments on the celebitchy article and someone says that her show that way supposed to happen on the same day of the charity event Chris will take part was cancelled. Not saying she cancelled on purpose, maybe they were not selling tickets. But maybe we will get another round of pics of them? Lol. If he posts something about Dodger before the event we will already know lol.

[Anon9] The Big Terrific show for the 6th has been cancelled. We all know what we can expect for that Scarjo reading event then.

[Anon10] Oh God, she’s gonna show up for the benefit reading, isn’t she? -__-

I hope everyone is sitting down, because I’m about to play Devil’s Advocate.

It wouldn’t surprise me if Jenny cancelled to be with Chris or whatever, but now that she’s in the Venom movie, there IS a chance she was needed for filming in Atlanta. There’s also a chance that it may not have even been her fault the event was cancelled. It could have been Max or Gabe or even the venue itself. Let’s not get all fangirl panicky and let’s take the wait and see approach.

-Ariel

[thelonesomequeen]

I can't wait for your review, MP! I don't want to see the film. Honestly, I wasn't curious to watch before the mess, when I was a fan girl of Chris, and for sure I won't watch it now, that my feelings for him are more of "dude, really?". But I was curious to know if there is actually all the chemistry that the articles were talking while they were dating. Thanks for taking one for the team!!!!! Happy Easter for you ladies (I don't know if you celebrate it... lol).

I was the same way. Not I’m really a kid person, and I’m not a “my ovaries exploded” type of fangirl, so I was less interested in the Chris as a daddy role, and more just hoping he would put out some better films. Don’t get me wrong, I like a number of his films, but I’ve been kind of waiting for something that was widely released (not a small indie), that was a decent role in a decent movie so he has something beyond Marvel. The way I see it, he took Cap in order to pad his resume, and get his foot in the door for bigger and better stuff, but he’s not really making it happen with stuff like Gifted, and with him taking so much time off. His talk of more work these days gives me some hope. 

Before the Jobby mess, I really wasn’t looking forward to this film, but was going to see it anyway to support him. Now that I have seen it, I’m glad I didn’t pay for it. That has nothing to do with her. Their “romance” storyline doesn’t make or break the film for me. It’s just not a very good film. 

--MP