#i think patty is definitely a better friend for John than a partner

[felsicveins]

What was patty and Johns relationship like?

Mostly physical

[xmilenavsch]

the only exception: a pat murray x fem!reader one shot

gif credit: @hollyjollyriphunter

pairing: pat murray x reader

word count: about 2,3k

warnings: none! maybe a little angst if you may see it like that & a lot of fluff!

a/n: my first fanfiction on here and my first one after literal years, haha! (bare with me for that matter) also, keep in mind that english isn't my first language, so i'm really sorry for any mistakes!

this is mainly written for & because of one of my best friends leila - leave her some love on her insta @ angelmazzello! <3

summary: y/n is a worker at the d-back's agency, as the woman for basically everything – mostly bringing the boys snacks or drinks or just for their entertainment, considering that all of them are mad obsessed with her & never fail to show her that. but for her, there's only one: the world's most angry but soft boy, patrick murray.

enjoy this fan fiction for now & don’t forget to request me stuff in the comments or via dm!

It was a sunny and hot Saturday in August, when you, Y/N, got ready for work. The Californian sun shone into your bedroom as you were getting ready, excited for the game, and excited to see your favourite team in the world in action once again. They didn't always gain as much as they may have wanted to, but you knew that they gave their best every time and how much they lived for the game.

Leaving your appartment with fast steps, getting into your car and driving to the field, the only thing you could think about though was this one specific man, who you couldn't keep out of your mind since the minute you saw him for the first time. You never really knew if he was feeling equally, but the only thing you really always knew was that the things with him were different. For better understanding: The D-Backs team is a dysfuntional team of college allumni baseball players, who never manage to close their months and who can't go a day without insulting one another so much you might think they'd hold it against each other until the end of time. But when you see them on the next day, everything's back to normal and everyhing happens all over again. You love watching them being by themselves and also their dynamic on the field. They had some kind of magic within their group that amazed you every time. Well, maybe it was just the magic that your best friend, John „Mazz“ Mazzello always tried to point out, but you really didn't care. You loved these boys. And they loved you too.

About that: They didn't just love you, they were quite literally obsessed with you. There was never a time when they saw you where they didn't whistle after you, told you how good you looked with your tied up hair and in your jumpsuit and how well you smelled when you hugged every one of them. It didn't really bother you, you in fact found it extremely funny and always told them that – even when Vinnie sort of revealed to you that all of them had a list and a bet on the go who would get you in bed first – but you still didn't care, you also had a share on that one after all. But there was still just one of them who never really was into that whole thing – it could've been no other but Pat Murray. Mazz's childhood friend, the most enthusiastic screamer on the field, who deep down just was somebody who needed and wanted a lot of love. Which you never told him of course, because those were just thoughts in your head, and you would never dare letting those out. It was too risky for you. Because you definitely didn't want to lose him. Even though you weren't the closest friends, there was always something about your bond that was different to the ones you had with the other boys. But you never knew how you were supposed to tell him that. You just couldn't. Even though you felt his stares, his gazes, his secret attention he gave to you. The little smile he made when he heard you laugh. But he also couldn't admit to himself that there could be more between you guys. He just couldn't wrap his mind around the fact that someone so pure, beautiful, kindhearted, amazing, supportive and angelic like YOU would actually want him. HIM. The messiest person to exist. So you were stuck in your denial of wanting the other and living with it for as good as years now. And so far, this life has been really good. You were just too tired from it, which didn't make it any better. „But it is what it is! Y'know!“, something Zapata would say from time to time when they lost another game.

( OH RIGHT, Y/N is literally on her way to their next game! Back to that topic I guess. )

As you arrive on the parking lot next to the baseball field, you start your normal routine – getting out of your car and locking it, checking yourself in so you at least gain a little money from all of this, getting into the building of the D-Backs home place with their lockers and all, getting into its kitchen and getting everything they needed for the day. They had a home match, meaning they must all have been pretty nervous and maybe even scared to fail. Which is always a matter of the atmosphere within the team, which was different every time, which amazed you always. So you get their snacks and drinks, say Hi with a bright smile to everyone you cross paths with and head to your boys.

As they see you from afar, you can already just smell Palacco's grin towards you and Dells' whistles. „Well well well, look who it is! Our entertainment during our misery!“, the raven haired yelled at you. You scoff a little. „I'm also really happy to see you boys, Johnathan. And just for your reassurance: Go fuck yourself loser.“ All of them laugh at you, which just makes you roll your eyes. As you hand them their snacks, Mazz walks up to you last to get his own, giving you a kiss on your cheek. „Thanks for doing this every time Y/N, you know you're an angel“, he winks at you. You just nodd your head slightly, while looking over to the boys. After some time you just look confused at them, because one special one is missing. „Hey, has anyone seen Murray? He normally is the first one to get this snacks every time. Stress eating and all.“ Arthur just nodds at the field. „He's right there, just checking out the grass' new cut. Y'know, he likes to play specified.“ Another laugh leaves the boys' mouths. You just shake your head and walk up to him, his snacks in your one hand, the other one stuffed into the bag of your jumpsuit.

From afar you can already see his auburn hair glowing in the sun, how it matches with his red team uniform and how his light skin just looks purer than anything else you've seen in your life so far. This sight makes your heart jump into your stomach and you need some time to catch a breath, before you raise your voice a little. „Murray!“, you yell towards the man in front of you. He quickly turns around to see you and you could've sworn that there was a slight smile on his lips as he faced you. „Oh, Y/N, good afternoon. What's the matter?“ You just walk closer to him and hand him his food. „Here, you weren't with the others when I handed it out, so I just thought I'd bring it to you like this.“ He nodds his head and takes it on. „Yeah, I just wanted to check if all the lines are still on track after the grass was cut a couple of days ago. So we don't fail completely. But thanks.“ You scoff, following his eyes as they're sampling the ground. He then sighs, a sound he makes very frequently and which you were already used to hearing from him. „What's wrong Patty? You worried you guys are gonna lose today?“ He laughs a little at the nickname, but then faces you again. „Well, you know Y/N/N, I'm always worried we will. But with home matches-“ - „-it just hits different, I know“, you cut him off. „But y'know, I will be there cheering you guys on from the fence, right next to you. You guys will rock this“, you reassure him, patting his right arm a little bit with your left hand. You wouldn't be lying if you admitted that the both of you felt some type of electricity from that embrace.

He just nodds his head about what you said and actually smiles a little. „Yeah, I know that: It's always you cheering us up the most. And it's the sweetest thing ever.“ You smile hard at his words, probably harder than you should, and do you even blush a little from them or is that just the summer sun shining straight in your face? You don't really know, and maybe you don't even care. What you do care about though is when Mazz yells over to you guys so Pat comes back to the rest of the team to get ready for their game.

You know he does this every time you and Murray have a moment like this, because he doesn't want you to get hurt. Pat didn't have the best experiences when it comes to love so far in his life and because of his broken soul he sometimes makes decisions that don't only hurt him, but also his partner-at-the-time. His last relationship ended pretty bad, you were the one comforting him, already being head over heels crushing on him. But you didn't want to let your feelings in the way of him being hurt, because he was your friend and you wanted to be there for him. Now things are way different and he kind of got over the heartbreak he experienced, but you still couldn't find the guts to tell him. You just couldn't. And Mazz knew that. So every time you guys talked about it, he accepted your decision, even though he was basically the only one believing this thing between you and Murray could work. But he accepted your decision, and whatever decision Patrick would make, because you guys were his best friends and he didn't want anything bad happen to you, nor to lose either of you. So he was just there. Being the secret admirer of secret admirers.

-

As Murray and you get back to the rest of the team, you hug every single of them, wishing them the best of luck. Mazz comes last. You embrace each other the tightest, because you knew that'd give him strength. The only one you didn't hug was Pat, but you just never did that. It sort of never „fitted the vibe of your bond“, as David would say. So you just walk over behind the fence, watching the game elope.

-

From the beginning the match was an intense competition, not only between the two teams, but also between the teammembers within one. But with the D-Backs, that was normal. You were used to listen to them insulting one another in the worst ways possible, with words you didn't even think were a part of the English dictionary. But you just watched and enjoyed the whole thing.

-

After a lot of time has passed and a tie has been declared, somebody had to be chosen for the last pitch to win the whole thing – this time for the D-Backs. You nervously stand on your tip toes, waiting for a decision to be made. The referee had decided to select the performer at random. So they try to find someone, everybody in the crowd is extremely tense, just like you and the rest of your boys are, when they make a decision. „Patrick Murray, 7th, centerfield!“. You gasp loudly and a shiver runs down your spine. Oh god, this can't end well. But Pat walks up to his supposed spot with a kind of confidence you've never seen before on him, with his bat, his baby, his basical everything, standing there and waiting to hit it off. As he's waiting, he turns around a little to face the crowd, finding your face and looking you straight in the eye. You just nood at him, fingers intertwined next to your mouth, and somehow, this gives him all the strength he needs.

As the ball flies up to him, he stands on his position, waiting for the right moment.

Then he hits it.

And then he gets it.

-

The crowd and the rest of the team are cheering more than ever. They really did win! The disappointment on the faces of the opposite team were probably able to be seen in a country 10,000 miles away, but you didn't care. You just were so incredibly proud of your team and especially of your man, Murray, who practically wasn't your man yet officially, but that didn't stop him from owning your heart to the fullest. You push yourself through the cheery people, ignoring the rest of the D-Backs being all over each other, walking fastly towards Patrick. As he sees you, he drops his bat and also walks up to you, hugging you tighter then ever, which gives you more and more shivers and just lets all the adrenaline overflow you that you could ever be able to. Out of the sudden, he picks you up, making you squeak a little, spinning you around for a moment. He let's you down again, looking you straight in the eyes, you just smiling at him the brightest way possible. God, he freaking loved your smile. And from all the previous events, all the strength you had given him, he finally says the one thing you've desired to hear from him for such a long time now: „Go out with me Y/N. I mean it. As a Thank you for helping me today.“ You gasp a little, holding your breath, still having your arms around his waist. „Are you sure? You know that was only you being the talent you are just a few minutes ago.“ He scoffs. „Yeah, I know, but I'm also sure. And dead serious. Just go out with me, sweetie. You won't regret it.“

You just shake your head in agreement. You would most definitely finally go out with the man who owns your heart. And then you'll see what will happen from then on.

[theprogrocker]

Fleetwood Mac - Rumours

Rating: 15/15

Best song: The Chain (or whichever song is playing at any given moment)

“Fleetwood Mac”. What comes to mind when you hear those words? Is it late 70s mainstream pop/soft-rock? The band that turned everything on the radio into soft mush way before the Police did? Stevie Nicks? Lindsey Buckingham? The other girl in the band? How about when someone says “I love Fleetwood Mac”, or “I’m a Fleetwood Mac fan”? Is it “mainstream pop sellout with no taste or artistic sensibility who should listen to King Crimson if they want to hear some TRUE art”? This is all completely understandable, but to a point, it’s also all wrong.

Quick history lesson (feel free to skip this paragraph if you already know or if you don’t really care): Fleetwood Mac started out as a British blues band, a spinoff of John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, and consisted of Peter Green on guitar, Jeremy Spencer on slide guitar, Mick Fleetwood on drums, and Bob Brunning on bass. Green named the band Fleetwood Mac after the rhythm section, and to entice John McVie into joining, and after a few gigs, Bob Brunning (who was only ever intended as a replacement anyway) was out and McVie was in. They released two hardcore blues albums, the latter of which featured a band friend named Christine Perfect on piano. Neither of these albums really established any sort of real identity, though; however successful their singles got (“Albatross”, “Black Magic Woman” (yep, THAT one), “The Green Maralishi”), they weren’t going to make it as a blues band. Green found guitarist Danny Kirwan playing in a basement somewhere and considered it such a shame Kirwan hadn’t made it professionally that he ended up adding him to the band. This added a severely needed change to the band, as Kirwan was more of a folksy guy than anything, and this new influence created an album called Then Play On, which was dark, gloomy, folksy, and bluesy, but definitely not faceless like the band’s previous blues output had been. Green’s schizophrenia overtook him eventually, and he had to leave the band. The next album was dominated by Jeremy Spencer, and it was a 50s parody album called Kiln House. Spencer then left, and John McVie married Christine Perfect. The band found a guitarist named Bob Welch and let him in the band without audition, and Christine Perfect (now Christine McVie) officially joined the band as well. They put out a prog-influenced soft-rock album called Future Games, which is notable for having the first contributions of both Welch and Christine (but pretty boring otherwise). Kirwan had become a serious alcoholic by this time, and his behavior became erratic (smashing guitars, refusing to go on stage, etc.), so there was one more album released with him (Bare Trees, which shows Christine and Welch perfecting their styles and Kirwan finally becoming a rocker) before he was let go. Fleetwood Mac fell into total chaos at this point, and hired a guitarist named Bob Weston and a vocalist named Dave Walker. Both of these contributed one subpar song to the next album, Penguin, which was otherwise dominated by Christine’s pop songs and Welch’s prog ones. Walker was fired, and John McVie became an alcoholic. The band released Mystery to Me, where Welch was given free rein to do songs in lots of genres (no, really, it’s pretty diverse), and it spawned their biggest hit to that point, “Hypnotized” (my favorite pre-1975 Fleetwood Mac song). The album didn’t do so well aside from that, and this, combined with the fact that Bob Weston was having an affair with Fleetwood’s wife, Jenny Boyd (sister of Patti Boyd, the star of a similar love triangle with Eric Clapton and George Harrison and the subject of Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, incidentally), caused enormous tensions within the band. Weston was kicked out, the band’s manager created a band that toured as Fleetwood Mac but had nothing to do with the real band, giant legal battles ensued, the band relocated from England to Los Angeles and fired their manager, and the next album, Heroes Are Hard to Find, featured Christine and Welch fighting hard for creative direction, to subpar results. Welch finally left, and Fleetwood found Lindsey Buckingham in a studio and asked him to join on the strength of a song of his. Buckingham joined on the condition that his girlfriend and music partner Stevie Nicks could also join, and they released a mid-70s mainstream pop/soft-rock album called Fleetwood Mac (clearly a “rebooting of the franchise”- they knew this would be a New Thing), which featured three distinct songwriting personalities: Lindsey Buckingham, the Nervous Rock Guitarist of “Monday Morning” and “I’m So Afraid��; Stevie Nicks, the Mystical Balladeer of “Rhiannon” and “Landslide”; and Christine McVie, the Happy Popper of “Over My Head” and “Say You Love Me”.

Now why did I take the time to painstakingly type all of that out when you could have read it elsewhere online? For one thing, to show that “Fleetwood Mac” actually means a few different things, and that the story does not start and end with Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, especially since Christine McVie had been at least involved with the band since almost the very beginning (though I don’t blame the public for thinking that); and much of the pre-1975 Fleetwood Mac output is underrated; don’t be afraid to try it out, because there’s at least one song I totally love on every single one of those records, barring the first two and Heroes, maybe. For another, to show just how much of a mess this band had been since the dawn of time. And for one more, to show how important historical context has always been for the band; it may have been named after the trusty rhythm section, but it always depended on the actual songwriters, and the nature of the members’ personal troubles often directly affected the quality of the music.

And there is no better proof of that last point than Rumours, one of the best-selling and most critically acclaimed albums the world has ever seen, with a 99/100 on Metacritic. The context for this album (I know, more history, but we’re almost done) is this: Buckingham and Nicks were in a terrible on/off relationship, the McVies were divorcing after eight years of marriage, Fleetwood and his wife were on the verge of divorce after she’d had another affair with his best friend, Nicks became addicted to cocaine, one of Nicks’ songs was continually rejected by the others and she had multiple breakdowns about it (it was left off of the album initially, but restored to later pressings), and the tabloids loved every minute of this and blew everything up. Indeed, the album is titled Rumours in response to the stuff the press was saying, such as that Buckingham and Nicks were the parents of Fleetwood’s daughter (!). Essentially, the band had fallen apart emotionally, but their recording contract demanded a new album, and they all stopped speaking to each other except about the music and lyrics. It follows that the only album that really comes to mind as being as tremendously focused and as connected to its personal context in terms of quality that I can think of is Abbey Road.

Because the songs absolutely rule. You already know most of them from classic rock radio, probably, but if you don’t have this album, nothing I say will do it proper justice—go get it. Each of the three songwriters is at their melodic and emotional peak, which means this album goes off like a bomb. Stevie gets four songs, Christine gets four songs, Lindsey gets three songs, and there’s a collective Band Anthem as well. Describing each of these songs is a fool’s errand; most of them are so ingrained in our culture already that typing out what I think about the melodies of each of them would be like pouring a glass of water into the ocean. Suffice it to say that the whole record is unimpeachable from any technical standpoint; the production is crystal clear, the instruments all sound great, the harmonies are awesome throughout, the solo vocals are brilliant and full of personality (especially Stevie Nicks, whose voice has one of the most eerie, yet easy-to-listen-to timbres I can imagine), the instrumental melodies and playing are great (Lindsey Buckingham is one of the most underrated guitarists in the world, and his ability to depict any emotion, especially total desperation, is unparalleled; special awards for playing on this album go to the acoustic guitar playing on “Never Going Back Again”, the electric guitar soloing on “Go Your Own Way” and “You Make Loving Fun”, and John McVie’s bass solo that leads into the coda of “The Chain”), and the vocal melodies are simply among the best anybody has heard. Verses and choruses and bridges, all are brilliant on literally every song. A slight, slight exception might be Stevie’s closing “Gold Dust Woman”, whose verse melody has always been kinda hard for me to grab, but the “Well did she make you cry…” chorus is superb anyway, and besides, the song is great for other reasons I’ll get to. No, what I’d like to prattle about is the emotional content of the record, which is extremely thick, but often subtle enough so that the album doesn’t lose any accessibility.

A big way to describe this record is “Sunshine Through Tears”, the idea of putting on a happy face even when you’re completely breaking down, and this is exactly what the band was doing when creating it. Buckingham’s songs are just like that; the opening “Second Hand News” has a joyous-sounding melody, and fun acoustic strumming, and it’s a ton of fun to sing along to those “bam-bam-bam”s. But have you taken a look at those lyrics? The song is an ANGRY one, one about being replaced in a relationship and screaming to be left alone (“Won’t you lay me down in the tall grass and let me do my stuff”). Once you know that, it doesn’t take long to hear Lindsey singing this happy melody and imagining him really tearing himself up once he gets to the “I’m just second hand news, I’M JUST SECOND HAND NEWS, YEAH”. Pretty much the same things can be said for “Go Your Own Way”, perhaps Fleetwood Mac’s most famous song and deservedly so. This is also a song, however, of triumph; it may be an angry song at its core, but it’s clear that the subject going their own way will ultimately turn out to be a good thing, and Lindsey is proud enough of himself to admit that (“Loving you isn’t the right thing to do…”). His third contribution, “Never Going Back Again”, is the stripped-down acoustic one with the cute little riff and the trippy humming harmonies, and it’s got a happy folksy melody as well, but it’s a song about a lost opportunity with someone, and it can be fairly depressing if you really listen to it.

Somewhat more depressing are Stevie’s numbers. Stevie, like I said, had grown herself a nice cocaine addiction by the time this album was being made, and oh boy, it shows. “Dreams” is an incredibly subtle song, but really listen to it and tell me you’ve heard anything like that in your life—the stripped-down sound and two-note bassline/constant IV-V alternation that never resolves to I (especially at the end) is an awesome move and it creates an atmosphere of tension and bitterness, and the weird guitar bends and Stevie’s voice give the song a psychedelic swirl, while the passive-aggressive lyrics (basically “Okay, fine, go, but you’ll realize what you’ve lost eventually”) only add to it. As much as I love “Rhiannon”, this song grinds that one’s bones to make its bread. “I Don’t Want to Know”, written way before Stevie and Lindsey joined the band, is probably the song best described by the “Sunshine Through Tears” tag; it’s all based on Stevie and Lindsey practically screaming at each other to a joyful pop melody. This may be the weakest song on the album, and it’s still awesome. “Silver Springs” is a ballad with a fantastic build into another tense, endlessly rising melody, with Stevie screaming her head off (“I will FOLLOW you DOWN ‘til the SOUND of my VOICE will HAUNT you”—her voice certainly will haunt me). Oh, more context—this was the song that was left off the album and relegated to the B-side of “Go Your Own Way” on the pretext that it was weaker than the others, and that’s frankly utter nonsense; I’m not interested in any edition of Rumours that does not include “Silver Springs”. And finally, she gets to close the album with “Gold Dust Woman”, one of the creepiest songs EVER recorded; it’s about her cocaine addiction, and it’s one of the few songs on the album that drops the happy face. The hellish ending, with Stevie and Lindsey screaming over the spooky countryish groove while it slowly intensifies is a terrifying way to end the record, and all the better for it.

The absolute key to Rumours, though, is Christine McVie. Her contributions to this record, and therefore to the world of music, cannot be understated. Over the course of her time in Fleetwood Mac (and, therefore, her marriage to John McVie, which had just ended), she had honed the craft of writing one shiny-happy pop song after another—and her hooks got so good that she should have gone into corporate songwriting. She is the only one who saves the record from drowning in its negative emotions, and does her best to balance those with songs that depict nothing but pure joy and optimism. “Don’t Stop” (one of the most famous from the album, and used in Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign; it may be one of my least favorite songs here but it still totally rules, and it’s sung in duet with Buckingham), “Songbird” (just Chris and a piano this time, a practically perfect piano ballad, and in her words, “a little hymn” to “nobody and everybody”), and “You Make Loving Fun” (her, and Fleetwood Mac’s, first run at disco, with some phenomenal vocal moves like “I’d like to belie-ie-ie-ie-ieve…”) are all happy happy songs, some of the happiest ever made. It’s only near the very end of the record that we get her fourth contribution, “Oh Daddy”, and the walls come crashing down. This song is sarcastic, dark, and just plain defeated (“If there’s a fool around, it’s got to be me”, “And I can’t walk away from you, baby, if I tried”) with a sparse musical backing that really brings to mind poor Chris sitting alone at the piano with a blank expression on her face, defeated by everything; it turns out her other songs were probably a sham, no matter how much she might deny that by saying they were about her relationship with her new boyfriend or that “Oh Daddy” was about Mick Fleetwood. Not even Happy Happy Joy Joy Christine McVie could come out of all of that emotional turmoil in one piece, and that makes this song totally devastating, probably the most devastating on the album because of that. For what it’s worth, this was the song that came closest to knocking “The Chain” off of its perch as Best Song for me.

Oh! That’s right. “The Chain” is unbelievable. All five members (yeah, even the rhythm section for which the band is named) wrote this song together, and if you don’t believe that was a feat, well, I’ll direct you back to those “Context” paragraphs. You probably already know it, and if you don’t, well, like with the whole album, nothing I can say is ever going to do it justice. It does not pretend either; it lays all of that anger out there (“DAMN your love, DAMN your lies”), and I think “the chain” keeping them together could also be said to represent the band’s recording contract forcing out the album. Everything about this song is utter perfection, lyrics to intro to verse to chorus to harmonies to bass solo to guitar solo to coda. Man.

There are only a couple more things I want to talk about with this album. One of them is the brilliant sequencing, just about as brilliant as almost any sequencing on any album (maybe The Beatles and Skylarking beat it, but maybe they don’t). Fade in with that joyful acoustic strumming for an upset song, and this creates some ironic tension. The irony becomes REAL tension on “Dreams”, which famously doesn’t ever resolve, just keeps bobbing up and down until you’re ready to scream. Short acoustic interlude follows with more ironic tension, followed by one of the most optimistic pop-rockers ever recorded, just in case you forgot you were listening to a Mainstream Pop Album, and a necessary respite before the triumphant madness-kept-in-check of “Go Your Own Way”, which is then followed by a mellow, but resplendent love ballad. Then, on the reissue, “Silver Springs” starts out sounding kind of similar to “Songbird”, but grows into a screaming frenzy, and it’s the only way to bridge “Songbird” to the (for the first time) unbridled emotional hell of “The Chain” (do you see why I can’t do without “Silver Springs”? You’d get whiplash by going directly from “Songbird” to “The Chain”!), the climax of the album. An optimistic song is the only thing that could possibly save our nerves after that one, and “You Make Loving Fun” sure qualifies. But it’s a sort of false relief, because then Stevie and Lindsey then reach a total boiling point on “I Don’t Want to Know”, the last upbeat(-sounding) song of the album, and they have a screaming match until the band totally breaks down for “Oh Daddy” and “Gold Dust Woman”, and the record fades away with a haunting country groove while a clearly agonizing Stevie wails the night away.

So how did this become such a popular, mainstream record if it’s such a downer? Simple. The answer is subtlety. Each and every song on this album (except “The Chain” and the last two songs) is catchy and friendly-sounding and either fun or relaxing to listen to, even and especially “Dreams”. “Ross, doesn’t that mean the band sacrificed their artistic integrity to make the record popular?” Well, no. Irony is the record’s greatest emotional weapon, and I think Fleetwood Mac knew that going in. This is why Rumours works on multiple levels: it can work as just a collection of catchy mainstream 70s pop/soft-rock tunes that’s great entertainment to sing along to on a car drive (I have used it many times for that), and it can work just as well as a thrill ride through the entire spectrum of human emotions and interactions (I have used it many times for that as well). It may take a while to tap into that latter one, especially if you grew up hearing the songs out of their context on the radio like I did, but with some time, some education, and some good will, you’ll be as impacted and as thrown around by this record as I am.

The original purpose for any art form is the expression of human emotion. Rumours, therefore, is of the highest art form, because not only does it express those emotions (even if they take a while to uncover), but it creates memorable experiences out of those expressions by also being the catchiest album around. How the five members of Fleetwood Mac were able to go on after this album, which was obviously incredibly taxing on everyone involved, is a Mystery to Me (of course, you could say “Well, they made MONEY off of it”, and I would pretend I hadn’t heard you), especially since Fleetwood Mac couldn’t ever keep the same lineup for two albums in a row previously. But they would never manage to top it, or even come close; Tusk and Say You Will are both great records in their own ways, but the song quality and emotional resonance of either are nowhere near the level of this masterpiece, let alone Mirage, Tango in the Night, or Behind the Mask (and certainly not Time). I frankly wonder if anyone has ever really topped this record, and I’d sure like to hear it if they had. Do I need to listen to it that often? Not really; much of it’s been ingrained in my head since I was a kid. But is it worth anything when I do? You BET it is. What a well-written, great-sounding, ironic, self-contradictory, and utterly fascinating emotional rollercoaster of a record. Unless, of course, it’s just a bunch of simplistic radio fodder for the masses. That’s cool too.

[ciceroprofacto]

23 and 37 for Martha, 8 for John (I'm curious to know what he's done with a gun before the Lee duel)

23. What does your character dislike in other people?

37. Is your character more concerned with defending their honor, or protecting their status?

Since you didn’t specify which Martha, I’m gonna take the liberty to do both during the story period (i.e. before Martha Laurens became Martha Laurens Ramsey). Also- since I haven’t read her papers, I’m gonna make assumptions based off these girls’ actions rather than their personalities as described by the men around them.

Manning: 23. Martha Manning hates self-pity.  When she was about twelve years old, her father uprooted her from all her friends in St. Kitts and unilaterally decided they were moving to England where she’d know no one and have only what she could pack on their ship overseas. With her family as the only people she knew in England, and angry at them for making her move, she didn’t have time to wallow in self-pity, she had to rebuild new relationships outside her family or she’d be socially isolated.In time, she got over it and forgave her parents, but at a pretty young age, she learned that circumstances change, and wallowing gets you nowhere.  So, she doesn’t have very much sympathy when people respond to bad news by shutting down in self-pity for extended periods of time.Part of the reason she liked John in the first place was his response to his fight with Francis Kinloch was pure rage.  He didn’t sit and cry about it, he went into a fury, writing letters and burning bridges and she fed the flames, knowing he’d feel better once he’d raged about it. So, when she realized he didn’t love her the way she’d wanted, she never felt sorry for herself- or even angry about it.  She was angry with her own body for trapping her in a pregnancy she didn’t want, and over time that anger faded into the same dull acceptance.  But, she knew John felt sorry for her and she resented him for it.She’d known he loved Francis, and maybe she’d underestimated the depth of it, but she hadn’t been wrong that he cared about her too. He wasn’t good in bed, but he was happy to let her seek out other partners as long as she was discrete about it.  And, they could still be good friends once the awkwardness of the whole blunder wore off.  She knows John is a good person and a patriot, and she agrees with his revolution.37.  I’d say Martha Manning was very status-conscious.  John was always reminding his siblings to write to her, so I think she was very interested in keeping up her relationships with other people and, if not her financial status (which was discussed in a few of her father’s letters with John) definitely her social status.It’s part of why the pregnancy had the potential to be devastating, and why- knowing how much she cared about these things- pity obliged John to marry her.

Patty:23.  Patty hates diffidence.  She watched her mother dote on her father and perform all the duties of a ‘good wife’.  She always resented her for it.  She resented it more when it was expected of her, and she rebelled against that expectation. I’m pretty sure there was a letter from her uncle that described how her little sister wanted to wear boys’ clothes, and I’d bet it was largely because the Laurens girls rejected being pushed into the domestic sphere, and she couldn’t accept being held from the lessons that her brothers were being given.Which makes me think she grew up being allowed into that circle when she was really young and impressionable, allowed to think of herself as their equal, and allowed to develop a lot of love and admiration for them- especially John (knowing how John was an advocate for his siblings, he probably defended her participation with the other boys to let her join their games), but as they got older and their father’s expectations started taking precedence over John’s life, he started demanding that she behave more like a “girl should”, and she lost her best friend.  In his later letters, John complains about her to his uncle and describes pleading with her to act more ladylike, so I’m sure she loved that.Rather than pushing that anger onto John himself, she grew to hate how easily he bent to their father’s will. And, she grew to hate diffidence in other people as well- especially other women.  Especially in other women to their husbands. Partially because it reminds her of how her mother got stepped all over, and partially because she knows she would treat them better if she was their husband…(If that sounds gay it’s because it is.)37.  She’d defend her own honor first.  But very specifically her own definition of her honor which doesn’t necessarily revolve around other people’s opinions.  I mean- this is the same girl that had to have a talk from John about being diplomatic…and we know how much room he has to speak in that department, so…

8. Has your character ever fired a gun? If so, what was their first target?

Well, I know in the backwoods of the Carolinas, boys learned how to shoot a rifle before they were 5, and Charles Town is far from the backwoods, but Henry Laurens did serve as a militia soldier during the French and Indian war, and he did fight against the Cherokee nation, so he would’ve known how to fire a rifle and he would’ve wanted that to be a skill his sons would have.

I’m thinking John didn’t really get a chance to shoot before the family moved to Mepkin though.  While they were living in Charles Town proper, there wouldn’t have been much space for it.  So, once the family moved to Mepkin in ‘62, John was about 8 and Henry took him duck hunting in the backyard.