#i think the biggest change was noah cause he looked like ME rather than how he actually looks

[milkybishop]

full colour lineup of most of the dnd characters i’ve played since i started playing ttrpgs!! ✨

from my first pc for lost mines of phandelver, to a character for a homebrewed bachalorette-style tv show, i have gotten to play alot of fun characters in alot of interesting campaigns! some of which had an ending and some that never did, i loved them all!!!

i’ve joined another dnd group since making the last of these characters originally and look forward to hopefully drawing them and adding to the squad!

[boldlyanxious]

None the Wiser 4

Masterlist

All fic masterlist

Prompts: habits and overprotection

Damian changed into his Robin gear and sought solace in the familiarity of the Gotham rooftops. It always helped him clear his head which was what he needed right now. His father and brothers were angry at him for how he had treated the bakers' daughter. Well, not Todd, he just laughed every time Damian walked into the room when the others got their tense looks. Even Alfred seemed disappointed with him, he didn't say it but Damian could feel the disapproval.

It would be his last night in Gotham for awhile so he took this habitual route, not to look for crime so much as to burn off his excess energy and frustration. He would be traveling to Paris under the guise of a Justice League mission to reassess the magical villain operating there. The Justice League International had previously stated that it would be best handled by the local heroes using the same magic but recent events had caused them to reassess.

But his father had been very clear. He intended to seek out his biological daughter once again and he expected Damian to make amends with his 'sister' so that she would be more willing to form a relationship with Bruce in the future. Alfred and his brothers were all on board and they couldn't figure out why Damian was being so difficult about it.

---

Marinette sighed in her room. Tikki flitted over to check on her. She was anxiously awaiting the results of her submission to the fashion competition. She had heard 5 others from the lycée had entered and 3 of them had heard back about their entry. It was a surprise to them that the fashion show was now part of the judging. Everyone would be presented and all would have an opportunity for their design to be seen on the runway and photographed. Two of the entries were labeled open runway and one of them had a later time and was labeled a level 2 entry.

Marinette was apprehensive waiting for her own response. She kept worrying that for some reason they would not have received her entry or that they would just tell her they didn't want to see any more from her. On top of that she had heard from Bruce again and he was returning to Paris and was hoping to see her. Her parents had suggested that if she continued seeing him when she could to appease him, he might feel less inclined to make any fuss legally.

She still hadn't told anyone but Luka about him. Marc had taken a picture of Marinette and Adrien sleeping and had shown it to her. She was fairly certain she had seen Nathaniel showing his phone to a blushing Adrien but she hadn't commented. She knew that if the picture got out his father might never let him hang out with them again. Alya had seen it too and took every opportunity to tease Marinette about it, and Adrien too, but it wasn't in front of others so it hadn't become public knowledge.

Marinette was less focused on being noticed by him because she was so worried about her entry to the competition and she was stressed anytime she thought of Bruce. She had caught her parents talking in hushed tones several times over the last few weeks. Part of her routine in the last few weeks was to race across the rooftops and sit at the Eiffel Tower not long after sunset. She didn't like to do it when there was still daylight because she worried that she would be seen or that her new habit would be noticed by those who would try to find out who she was.

This had her running into Chat Noir more frequently because he also used the rooftops as stress management. She didn't feel like she could give him details about her situation but she did mention that she was concerned about an important competition and uncertainty about a revelation involving her family. Chat Noir was always one to use his transformation as an escape. She knew his family expectations weighed on him and she really liked that they had this way to support each other especially now that she was the guardian. Sitting up on the Eiffel Tower felt like it opened up their headspace so their thinking would be more clear.

---

During school today Marinette had learned that all the other entrants for the competition had heard back about their entry. Lila took a moment between classes to taunt her suggesting that they didn't find anything in her entry worth mentioning. Usually she tried to ignore Lila but she happened to hit right on Marinette's biggest fear about it so she decided to go home for lunch for the peace and quiet and hopefully be able to find a letter in the mail today.

It would be just the soothing balm she needed that when she left the building for lunch she saw Damian standing out there. He saw her almost immediately and started walking towards her. Lila and Alya were there and asking questions about this boy they didn't recognize from the school walking up to Marinette. She waved off their questions and walked up to him rather than risk him saying things that would give away her secret before she was ready.

"What do you want?" Marinette asked him.

"I've been told you need an apology," he said.

"I'm listening," she replied.

"Listening for what?" he asked, confused.

"An apology." she said.

"That was the apology," he stated.

"Wow, that was exceptionally poor. So good to see you again."

"Well what do you want from me?"

She paused for a moment to assess him.

"Nothing," she said and then she walked away.

The mail had not arrived by the end of lunch so Marinette was still nervous about it when she returned. She should have considered more carefully who had seen her talking with Damian on her way or because apparently it had been a topic discussed by many while she was away. Alya told her that Lila was very worried about her and thought the boy was a criminal and was probably trying to drag Marinette into a life of crime.

"Marinette, he looked a lot like the boy you were trying to get away from a few weeks ago." Sabrina said.

That comment had people buzzing with renewed energy. They all wanted details about the incident from a few weeks ago and we're looking for any details they had missed when they watched Marinette talk with him outside. Sabrina was too close with Chloe to go out of her way to be concerned about Marinette.

"It's nothing," Marinette said. "I met him officially after that incident. Our parents know each other but we don't really get along."

Marinette walked away to head to class without any further comment. Alya caught up to her, clearly thinking she would get more details. She was telling Marinette all the things Lila thought she knew about him but Marinette didn't know enough about him to have a clear refutation.

"I really don't know him well, Alya. We met once. I know his name is Damian and he lives in America. I met his dad and brothers."

"He's pretty cute. You don't think there is some enemies-to-lovers energy there?" Alya waggled her eyebrows.

"No, definitely not."

Marinette was trying to keep her voice down because there was way too much interest in this from their classmates who were pulling out their books while clearly trying to hear the conversation. Adrien looked slightly concerned and Noah clearly wanted to say something. He hadn't directly talked to Marinette about his interest but he made a few comments to imply he would be interested. It was still pretty early in the first year of lycée so students from the different collèges hadn't fully gotten to know the other groups but Rochelle had made it clear to the other girls that Noah was off limits to them.

Small blessings of new teachers at lycée was that they were better at managing the group than Mlle Bustier. She was young and wanted to be friends with the students she had taught for her first 3 years as a teacher but the lycée teachers started class promptly and it saved Marinette from being the object of discussion. Of course they were still discussing genetics so Marinette's mind wandered to how her biology might have played a role in her characteristics. She had started avoiding answering any questions about her or her parents for fear that her parentage discrepancy would become obvious to others.

She looked around when she was leaving for the day to make sure Damian wasn't around. The last thing she needed was for him to appear and keep himself in the memory of her nosy classmates. Still she was surprised when Noah appeared in front of her. She made an awkward squeaking sound and then quickly covered her mouth. He smiled at her, not quite letting out a laugh.

"Can I walk to the bakery with you?" he asked.

"Uh, yeah. Did you need to get baked goods?"

"No. I live that way and I wanted to walk with you," he paused but continued when she didn't respond. "Rumor has it you entered the fashion competition."

"I did. I'm still waiting to hear back. I'm so nervous," she said.

"You shouldn't be. I think they are sending them out by level. The first people to get them back were labeled 'open' then came different levels."

She stared at him and then thought it through. He might be right. Based on the ones she had seen the first to hear back had earlier times and the other she knew had received it over the weekend. She hadn't seen it or heard any details of the latest 2 to hear back.

"Do you think?" she asked.

"I do. I bet yours will arrive soon and you will be in the highest group," he said confidently.

It was such a new experience having so many classmates that she didn't know well. It was a smaller group from collège when the schools combined and it had been 3 years ago. It was 2 schools together but for lycée they came from 6 schools several of which were larger than her old school. They felt like little ducklings leaving the safe nest into a huge pond.

When she opened the door she turned to wave Noah off but he was following her into the bakery. She felt a little weird about questioning a possible customer but also a little flustered because it felt like he was following her home. She was quickly distracted by her mother pausing helping her line of customers to lift an envelope where she could see it. She didn't realize that she had grabbed on to Noah's arm like she would one of her other friends but he didn't mind knowing how nervous she was. She pulled her hand back when she realized but asked if he wanted to stay with her while she opened it.

---

Bruce was frustrated by the Justice League meeting. It felt like it was mostly filler and introductions. He already knew everyone and he was distracted by his desire to see Marinette. He knew Damian had gone over that way while he was organizing it and he didn't say that it went well which meant it was probably a disaster. He just wanted to get the meeting over with so he could rush over to fix whatever Damian had done.

He connected with the Justice League International team because of their change in status with the shift in magic being used there. But mostly he needed a cover for continued visits without looking suspicious. Mostly they were activating younger members because of the suspected age of the magical heroes but they needed a few older members for coordinating missions and solving disputes. He wasn't sure he was the best for that particular part of the mission but since Damian, Jon, and Wally were involved he could at least be there to transport them.

He was headed towards the bakery but he saw her in the park near her house so he walked that way just in time to see her jump up and down and hug a boy her age. He walked up and waited to see if her giddiness would fade. He suspected that it would have stayed for quite awhile. She was reaching into her bag for her phone when she saw him looming nearby. She silenced herself immediately as she froze.

Noah looked up at the man watching. He thought Marinette must know him based on her reaction to his presence. If he hadn't just met her parents he would think that he would make the perfect overprotective father. Perhaps he was an uncle. He had a similar, solid build to Tom Dupain but none of his easy-going manner or corny jokes delivered with a smile.

"I thought you weren't meant to be around until later," Marinette said, addressing the man.

"I finished my meeting early so I went ahead and came by."

"I'll need to talk to my parents but I can meet you back out here in a few minutes," she said. She turned to Noah, " Thanks for being with me while I read that. Just don't tell anyone. Alya will kill me if she finds it you knew before her."

"I wouldn't dream of telling. I'll see you tomorrow," Noah replied. He waved and headed off towards his home.

Next

**hoping to get the next couple prompts out very soon. I also posted a loosely connected part for the driving prompt not long ago.

Taglist

@theymakeupfairies | @emjrabbitwolf

@laurcad123 | @redscarlet95 | @acoolspacegirl | @nerd-nowandforever | @justafanwarrior | @pawsitivelymiraculous | @vixen-uchiha | @tumbling-down-hills-and-stuff | @fusser90 | @violetfandomaddict | @catthhay | @kking13 | @cresentmo0n | @officiallydarkgeek | @mewwitch | @dast218 | @trippingovermyfeet | @pepelachanel | @ira-sairain | @user00000003 | @justarandomtumblerblog | @greatcatblaze | @roselynfey | @zeneralla

[hexlunas]

AN ‘HONESTY HOUR’ INTERVIEW WITH LUNA OF THE HEX GIRLS !

tucked away in the corner of crestle cove is an unassuming, single storey house, not exactly the sort of house one would expect to find an up and coming musician and her best friend living at. it’s the home of kim bora, better known by the public and fans as luna of the hex girls, crestle cove’s latest punk-rock, eco-goth band that’s been rapidly and loudly taking over the music charts.

when she welcomes me into her home, it’s with a cheerful smile and a warm cup of lemon ginger honey tea, a signature of hers mentioned by her bandmates – a strong lover of nature and natural herbal remedies, this is one that’s been said to cure a sore throat in a couple of hours. we bring our tea into the middle of her living room, decorated with bits and bobs of antiques and appliances incongruously thrown into the mix. it feels like we’re just two friends having a conversation over a nice cup of tea, albeit with a recorder in between. i ask if she’s heard of honesty hour, and she says she has; she promises to be as honest as she can.

let’s start with something easy. if you can have any other occupation, what would it be and why?

LUNA: another occupation? i can’t think of anything! my brothers, i’ve got five of them, y’know... i think we all ended up in different industries. and i guess, after everyone had found their footing and i was still trying to find mine, my second oldest brother brought me over to crestle for school. that was where i met yifei and daehyun – thorn and dusk, y’know, and something about us making music just clicked for me! this is such a disappointing answer, isn’t it? i don’t think i could do anything else, and i love the hex girls, after all. i suppose if i had to choose, i’d say... hmm, maybe a gardener. it’s been my hobby since high school, and i’d say i’ve got a green thumb!

i can see that, your house is blooming! if your house was burning down and you could only save one thing, what would it be?

oh my, that’s a big change from the first question! if this place was burning down... i’d have to save my housemate, if he was inside, of course. ah, is that a cop out as well? let’s see... my phone, which is a terribly millennial thing to say, but it really does have three quarters of my life stored on it. our music, my journals, photos of friends and family. everything can be bought again, but it’d be awful to lose all those important memories when i’ve got them stored on my phone. though i’d forgo all that if my housemate was inside too, definitely.

you must be close with your housemate. what quality do you most value in a friend?

loyalty. or honesty, i think? this sounds a little sad, but sometimes it does feel like people leave easily, so it means a lot to me when someone stays in touch, or makes an effort, because i definitely try to do the same! and i suppose honesty is part of that, too, i’d be hurt to be kept in the dark by a friend, and i appreciate when people be straightforward with me. i think they come together, or, well, we can’t have loyalty without honesty or vice versa in a friendship.

i see. what is your honest opinion of everyone else?

everyone else? yifei is definitely the leader amongst the three of us, she’s got the most drive and daring when it comes to her music, and what she wants! i admire that about her, the fact that she’s totally got what she wants down and she’ll stop at nothing for it. there’s been a couple of rumours between her and me, but i can promise that’s not true! we started the hex girls because we were all friends, and we definitely still are.

as for daehyun, well. he’s the youngest of us but he definitely doesn’t behave like it, can i say that? he’s been writing a lot of music for us, and not to be biased but i think it’s really good, so look out for that! dae’s just, he’s really reliable and always affectionate, and it’s really nice to be able to say we’re friends, not just bandmates.

and, if ‘everyone else’ includes the guy who escaped the house before you got here, noah’s my best friend! we knew each other when we were still kids in south korea, and i guess it was fate that brought us both to crestle. so we’ve been friends for a really long time, and we’ve shared the ups and downs of life together too! i trust him a lot, and i hope he does too.

what’s an essential childhood experience that you missed out on?

a full family vacation. my brothers are all older than me, the first and second by a lot, so when it got to me and my school holidays, they were usually working by then! i don’t think we’ve ever managed to all go on a vacation together. i used to just tag along to the different places they went to, which coincidentally is how i ended up in crestle. no one’s to blame for that, since my brothers and my parents were always busy, but i guess it would have been nice to be able to have a vacation, with all eight of us.

what advice would you tell your younger self?

breathe. calm down. we’re still growing, and learning, and it’s okay. i was the youngest, with five pairs of huge shoes to fill. so i really wanted to catch up to my brothers, be the best and, you know, perfect, like they are. it’s only been recently that i’ve learnt to take a breather and not hold myself to standards that are too high.

that’s definitely good advice. what is some advice you think everyone should hear?

be a little more environmentally conscious! i don’t think i have advice that everyone would need, but this is definitely something you can do to make yourself feel a little better, like using a reusable bag or sustainable cutlery, you know? i think it feels good to be able to do something about climate change, even if it’s small. if you feel down, at least you’ll know you’ll have made a small impact for the earth, and isn’t that comforting?

that’s true! what’s something else you do to bring your spirits up – what is your biggest guilty pleasure?

i love window shopping, and actual shopping, oops, in antique shops! there’s just something about learning all the history behind each item that’s nice, and i like finding something unique for the house, as you can tell.

what do you think people take way too seriously?

can i say echo? i’m going to say echo, i know people don’t really take tabloids seriously, but the drama it’s been causing is just silly. we’re not all out to get each other, i promise. let’s just stop reading those tabloids!

what is one thing you want to tell someone but don’t have the courage to say?

ah, there’s a lot, to many people... right now, though, i think i’d like to tell someone how i feel about them. it’s been a long time, and i – i guess it’d be nice to be honest, like i am right now, but i don’t want anything to change between us either, which is why i haven’t said anything.

i'll be rooting for you! what are your thoughts on love?

i think love is really important to me. platonic, familial, romantic, all of them. my love life hasn’t been too exciting, but i have good friends and family with me, and i really, well, love them! i try to give as much love as i’ve received, and i hope everyone around me can feel it too.

and i guess it’s inevitable that love is important to me, when that’s a staple in the music industry. i love love, i’ll admit, but finding it for myself... i’m working on it!

would you rather live without love or adventure?

without adventure, easy. i don’t think i could live without love, that’d be too isolating. i can forgo adventure if i have my friends and family around, they’re all the excitement i need.

what is your greatest fear?

it’s cliche, but failing the people i love. i think it’s true to most people, not wanting to hurt or disappoint our loved ones, and i definitely don’t want to either. i guess it’s what you get when you put a fear of failure and a fear of abandonment together, haha! 

what do you feel is the defining moment of your life?

coming to crestle cove! it’s where the biggest moments have happened in my life, where i found steadier footing for myself, met yifei and daehyun and formed the hex girls, lived almost half of my life in! none of this would have happened if i hadn’t decided to come to crestle for high school, and now i can’t imagine how my life would be if i wasn’t here. crestle really brought me to the best people and all of those important moments i’ve had, and it starts from when i first arrived.

last one. what is one quote you live by?

leave me but a little to myself – it’s a line from othello that stuck with me from high school literature. i know it isn’t the right meaning, but it reminds me that relationships are about reaching across to each other and to where the other person is, and bringing a bit of you over to them. it’s something i’ve learnt to do, in my own relationships, instead of trying to force two people into a common place, and to be generous with what i can give of myself to others. and it also reminds me to take a little break, and have some time to myself, too.

thank you so much for listening to me ramble, and share my honest thoughts!

[salvatoreschool]

Exclusive Interview with Actor and Musician Quincy Fouse

Musician and actor Quincy Fouse just dropped a new music video for his single, “I Know”. I got the chance to talk to him about how Hugh Jackman pushed him to start making and releasing music, his single “I Know”, what it was like shooting his first ever official music video for this single and so much more! Keep reading to see what he had to say!

Tell me a little bit about how you first got into making and performing music.

Okay, this is a good story. I was actually on set for my first movie Logan and I was beatboxing on set. I used to beatbox a lot in high school and I used to do a bunch of indie shows around my hometown. So Hugh Jackman hears me beatboxing and then he asked me, “Are you making anything?” And I was like, “Nah. I’m just having fun on set.” And he goes, “Well you know will.i.am produced most of the beats on the ‘I’ve Got a Feeling’ track while he was working on set with [me]. Maybe you should look into that.” We went on hiatus, I got a computer, I downloaded Logic and was looking up how to produce. So ever since then, I’ve just been producing music and then I got back into writing and rapping and it just kind of snowballed from there.

So making music and releasing it was never something you actually thought about until Hugh Jackman told you that it’s something you should consider.

Literally yes. I was just kind of chasing the feeling with acting. So I had just gotten used to the fact that acting was something that I could really live off of and then Hugh was like, “You should produce music” and I was like, “Okay�� [laughs].

That’s so funny. I know you use the stage name Soul Fro when you release your music. What made you want to use a stage name and why Soul Fro?

[laughs] Well when I was in high school, I was kind of a really shy kid and when I started beatboxing – I guess I can’t say when I started beatboxing because I had been beatboxing my whole life – but so when high school [classmates] got a whiff of what I could do, I noticed I got people’s attention and I made people feel good and people would come out and start rapping while I was beatboxing. I kind of just became this kid with an afro that beatboxed in high school. I believe there was some upperclassmen who named me Soul Fro and it just stuck. I was like, “You know what, I’m going to make this work.” Now since then, the name itself has received a lot more meaning from me just because it’s kind of one of the first markers of me coming into my own self-confidence in high school. So music Quincy will be [known as] Soul Fro.

Gotcha. Something I’m always genuinely curious about is what artists want to convey to listeners with their music. If you had to describe the music you create without using genre names, how would you describe it?

I’d describe it as love in a vibe. I think when I make the beat and I build a chord, I’m looking for this feeling of being carried by the music; then, when I write, I’m just expressing the truth that’s on my heart. And all of that, in the process of essentially writing away and being my whole self, that’s what I define to be the equation of loving oneself.

Very cool. Kind of going off of that, who are some of your musical influences?

My biggest ones – and I’ve got millions – are Childish Gambino for sure and then Erykah Badu. Growing up, I’d say beatboxing was the first thing I did to get confidence, but the sparking moment that led me to even attempt to believe in myself to do these indie shows was watching Donald Glover on Community and seeing how weird and how awkward he can be in his comedy but still have a successful and secure place in society. I’ve been listening to Erykah Badu’s music and there’s always something so comforting and something that reminded you that you’re home within this breadth of culture in her sound. So both of those things coming together just kind of really defined my vibe of inspiring the kids that were like me and then also just giving that sense of love that isn’t finite to that kid.

Gotcha. So let’s talk about this new single, “I Know”. What’s the story behind that song? What inspired it?

The story behind that song, I was just working in LA and I met this girl. She was amazing. I was in the moment of falling for her, but knowing that I didn’t really have a destination and I didn’t really have a concrete place of wanting something for us together. I didn’t necessarily want to marry her. I’m too young for that. But I wanted her; I wanted her in so many ways and I just started writing and essentially just talking to her [through the song]. “I don’t know what exactly I want but I feel like you got it, whatever it is.” Just that place of confusion and yearning.

What was your songwriting process like for this song? Was it something that came pretty easily to you or is it something you kept coming back to and working on?

I literally wrote that thing in one day. It was just that intimate conversation. That’s why there isn’t a second verse. I just kind of used my producing chops to give some color to the rest of the song because that was just really authentic. It was straight from the heart and it was a message to her.

In general, though, when you write, do you tend to write by yourself or are you someone who likes collaborating with other artists in co-writes?

Oh I mean if I’m featuring on another song, we definitely sit down together. I create with my brother Darin Blaine Wilkens and then my other brother Colah, whose name is Noah Alexander Gary. I was recently featured on their newest album, How Was Your Day?. But yeah, when I’m writing with those guys for a feature on their music, we definitely talk with each other to make sure that we have the cause of the song down. If someone writes verse and it kind of goes against the message of the song, then we will all work together to kind of alter it. But other than that, if I’m working on a standalone project or it’s my song, then I’m writing the verses myself.

So for “I Know”, were there any major changes that happened once you got into the studio, whether it be in the lyrics or something sonically?

Nah. No. It was all pretty straightforward. And because I produced the beat for “I Know” as well. So right after I made the beat, sitting there in the studio session – I like to have like my family around me as I’m making stuff just because sitting in love makes me perform better – so while I’m sitting there, I make the beat, they’re like, “Oh that’s hot” and I just started writing the song. It’s one of the perks of being the producer and the lyricist and the performer.

I know you also shot a music video for this song. What was that experience like?

It was so dope. I worked with my good friend Barry Galperin, who is the director, and he created the music video for me. I called him up after the song came out and I was like, “Look man. I know that you kind of process art the same way that I do and I know that you could hit this feeling. Can we work together?” And he was like, “Sure.” It was so great because we were so in sync the entire time, so it was a beautiful experience.

Was that your first time shooting a music video or had you shot other ones prior?

No, that’s my first music video. I’ve shot little promos before. But yeah, that was my first official music video.

Was it everything you thought it’d be or was it completely different than what you thought it be?

Oh it was amazing. I think for me, I never have a template of an expectation. I have more of a specific goal or something to accomplish rather than expecting any type of experience. So when I just got on set and saw that we were accomplishing each little goal, you look at the end product and it just kind of made sense. But it was definitely beautiful all throughout the process and that’s something I definitely take away from the experience.

In terms of new music, what’s on the horizon for you? What are you working on?

[laughs] OK. I recently just sort of hinted at this on my Instagram so I can talk about it now, but I have a single that I wrote with Kaylee Bryant and she plays Josie on my show, Legacies. I wrote a little ditty for season one and we talked to Legacies and they let me keep the rights to it so I can make a song. So I’ve just kind of like expanded upon that scene and we’ll be releasing that.

Other than that, I have a couple of other singles that I got coming out and I’m going to be re-releasing my first album Soul Space. I had to make a few little edits to that and I also wanted to add a bonus track to it. Then, after that, I have a prospective future album called Son of the Ronin and that’s the album that I’m getting ready to go work on and kind of delve into the magnum opus of sorts.

Very cool. You’ve got a lot music wise coming up.

[Laughs] Yeah, I do.

What are some of your music industry related goals for your career over the next couple of years?

Like I said, I’m very goal oriented so I kind of stay away from the template of “I want to take over the game and be the best rapper ever” blah, blah, blah. I want to be able to just do live performances where the audience knows the words to my songs. And I just want to be able to express myself honestly. That’s pretty much the one mark that I want to hit. As far as the ascension and the gears that are the entertainment business, you know we’ll deal with it when we get there.

Last question – our website is called Talk Nerdy With Us because we all have an inner nerd, so what is something you are currently nerding out about?

Something I am currently nerding out about is Miles Morales in general because that’s always been like a dream role of mine [laughs]. I fantasize about that character, man. So I’m excited to watch the new Spider-Man coming out and I wonder if you can expect like maybe he’s in there; that would be really fun to see.

[prescxtts]

HEEYYY !! i’m so excited to be here omg.. i’m SOOO late as always but anyway.. i creeped on this before the revamp but never had the guts to join ?? i’m glad i did now tho.. anyway, hello, i’m mel.. 20, gmt+2.. so.. worst timezone probably. this is noah.. he’s a revamped character of mine under a diff name and i’m so happy to be playing him (sorta) again. i wrote a bit aobut him below and i’ll set up an actual bio page tomorrow since it’s like.. 4am.. AJSDFJKD

a HARRY STYLES lookalike just rolled into new york city in their ferrari. noah prescott just had a birthday bash for his twenty second birthday. i doubt he’ll make it here in new york city since i hear he tends to be abrasive, but on the other hand he is intrepid. ( cismale & he/him )

noah was born to a famous musician and the producer behind her success. his family was known in the entertainment industry for years and their legacy ran deep.

he obviously has a lot of responsibilities that come with having a last name like his and he has a lot to prove once he’s out in the spotlight.

his parents controlled his life growing up to a certain extent. they weren’t exactly strict .. not unless the family image was at risk. they had to ensure he’d still keep up with his school work and get the best grades while also keeping up with extracurricular activities and music lessons. in a way, they also picked out his friends for him which resulted in a lot of surface level friendships.

as long as he did everything they signed him up for, they pretty much didn’t care what his weekends were like? so they didn’t mind him going out to parties when he was old enough and coming home late or bringing girls home every night. they didn’t mind the alcohol and drug use either.. again, as long as he was sober in the morning and it didn’t affect his grades etc.. they really didn’t care. 

that eventually started affecting him when he realized he wasn’t getting any attention and his parents weren’t around for the important things. he wasn’t ever validated and he felt ignored most of the time.. like his needs and feelings weren’t a priority at all.

because of this, he started to rebel against his parents more and it’s surprising to them when it really shouldn’t be.. and it’s more so for attention and well, maybe to piss them off a little. 

like it fucks him up a little that his parents know little to nothing about him or his personality because they have a false image of him in their minds and they’re just now realizing that he’s not who they thought he was... and it just breaks his heart cause he doesn’t feel like he was ever really validated or accepted LOL.. it was always about the plan rather than what noah wanted to do/liked to do.. not once. but he’ll never say that out loud.

he kinda just changed entirely. if i had to put a label on him, it’d be the connard.

here’s another thing with his parents.. his dad cheats a lot and his mom KNOWS about all his affairs .. at first noah was confused.. didn’t know that she knew until his mom just casually brought it up in a convo and he was shook like.. u knew this whole time..

his mom loves appearing perfect and that’s why she won’t grant his dad a divorce because she wants a perfect looking family in the spotlight. 

the affair affected his mom more than his dad and so she turned a bit obsessed with noah’s career and which direction to take it in. it kinda became her next ‘project’ and she wanted to dictate everything pretty much.. down to what genre he’d go into.

that’s why he hasn’t released any music yet.. his mom wants him to do mainstream stuff but it’s truly not who he is as an artist and he wants to do what he pleases. she thinks his type of music is meaningless and obnoxious and quote on quote ‘non-profitable’ but he just wants to do something meaningful and stick to what he likes, rather than what would sell the most copies.

he still feels pressure being a prescott and deep down, it really makes him insecure.. he’s scared he won’t live up to people’s expectations and have a successful career like his parents. irrelevancy is his biggest fear basically. and though it always appears like he has it all together, he’s just exhausted from having soo much to live up to and sometimes wishes he could just step back from it all. 

he can come off as immature sometimes.. a bit incompetent even, but when he’s in the studio, he’s ready to give it his all and just overall, he’s really professional when it comes to his music. anything else? he pretty much has no interest in.. so he’ll continue to immaturely brush off.

personality wise.. he’s kinda bluster. he can be frustrating sometimes because he likes getting under people’s skin. he lives 2 provoke but hates being provoked LMAO.. will lash out if that happens.. he has a bit of a temper too.

he can be stubborn, thinking he’s right all the time etc.. even when he’s not. he says the wrong shit all the time tbh and it ends up hurting people bc he just doesn’t know how not to? sometimes he’ll do it on purpose if he’s trying to hurt someone. 

in his defense, he wants to be a better person. be kinder, softer but then again, he doesn’t know how. being an asshole has worked fine for him so far.

his parents weren’t really around for him when he was growing up when it came to important stuff and they never really discussed his feelings. they weren’t the kind of family to vent to one another or talk about their problems so he kinda just new to keep everything bottled up. that carried over to now and he just doesn’t know how to truly talk about feelings.. so he also is really bad if people come crying to him about stuff cause he’s just like .. huh.. tears make me uncomfortable .. 

ughghgh,.. my mind is all muddled rn and i have sooo much i wanna add and a lot of things to tweak in this but i’m getting tired and i have a feeling this is all over the place.. i’m sorry if it feels hectic SFJDKSJ i’m a mess.. he’s a mess ugh! whatever. if we’re plotting and i remember something suddenly i’ll let u know but for now... i guess we’ll see where he goes .

[mind-body-and-spirit]

I’m bored ignore me

Describe your current mood/feelings

I feel awful. I’m so unhappy in my current situation and I got a glimpse of what it’s like to be outside of it and I can’t wait to make that happen.

Which is your favourite country that you’ve been to?

Ireland probably.

What are the first things you notice when you look at/meet someone?

Smile and usually eyes but I haven't been great at that lately.

Have you ever been in love/are you in love currently?

I have been in love, I’m not currently.

Are you currently in a relationship?

I am not. 

Would you ever date someone online?

I’d date someone that I met online but not someone I couldn't be with in person.

Is there anyone of your friends that you would ever consider having sex with?

Yes.

Sex in the morning, afternoon or night?

Night is more my thing.

What side of the bed do you sleep on?

Left.

Have you ever taken your clothes off for money?

LOL no.

Would you choose love or money?

Right now, money probably except for one person that I would choose over that. 

When did you lose your virginity?

When I was 18.

 Do you prefer men or women?

Men usually but gender really doesn't matter to me. I’m attracted to personalities.

Do you have a sex playlist?

No but I’ve heard someone else’s and I am totally into it.

When was the last time you had sex?

Saturday 🙊

Has anyone ever gone beyond your personal line of respect sexually?

Yes.

Where is the most romantic place you would want to have sex?

When I picture romantic sex it’s usually in a bed, sooooo.

Where is the weirdest place you would want to have sex?

Balcony.

What would you do if you were ever caught having sex?

Depends who caught us.

Would you ever go to a bar just to get sex?

I’d go to a bar to flirt.

Has anyone ever tried to pick you up in a bar?

Yes.

Would you have sex in a movie theater?

YES that’s so risky I dig it.

Would you have sex outside?

I would as long as its not dirty.

Would you have sex in a bathroom?

Probably.

Does anyone have naughty pics of you or are you on film?

There’s pics of me out there.

Have you ever had sex with someone and called them the wrong name?

Not physically said it but I have thought of someone else and almost said it.

Would you ever use ‘toys’ in bed?

I would.

What would you do if your partner suggest a threesome?

I’m down.

How many people have you slept with?

5.

(1/2) If your lover/crush were in your bed right now, what would you do?

Sex probably.

(2/2) Then?

CUDDLE he’s great at that and probably talk a lot. 

What are your favorite bands? 

Set it off, Beartooth, Grayscale, As it Is, Mayday Parade.

What are your favorite singers? 

Barret Wilbert Weed, Taylor Louderman, Carrie Hope Fletcher, I’m obsessed with the Broadway stars right now.

What are your favorite albums? 

I’m LOVING the Mean Girls Cast Recording right now, also Dear Evan Hansen and Heathers. Only Human by Calum Scott is pretty good, and The Greatest Showman.

What are your favorite songs? 

Would You Be So Kind - dodie

Someone Gets Hurt, Revenge Party, World Burn, I’d Rather Be Me, and Apex Predator all from Mean Girls

Requiem, Waving Through a Window,and You Will Be Found all from DEH

And I’m gonna stop now because this list could go on forever.

What is the best concert you’ve ever been to? 

Oh gosh. Can I cheat and say Warped?

How did you first find out about your favorite band/singer?

Okay top two: I found SIO by accident at the mall in Hot Topic in 2009. Loved them ever since. And I found Barrett through Heathers.

If someone asks you what music they should check out, what are your go-to recommendations? 

Usually SIO unless were talking about musicals.

What was your first concert? if you haven’t been to one, what do you want your first concert to be? 

Omg Hilary Duff when I was like 8 probably.

How do live performances, whether they’re from your friends or professionals, tend to make you feel? 

SO HAPPY

Singing in the shower or singing in the car?  

Both but I sing in the car more. I only sing in the shower when I’m home alone, but I love that more cause acoustics and the steam is good for the voice.

If you could pick one instrument to learn how to play, what would it be? 

Trumpet!

What is your singing voice like? what singers do you remind yourself of? 

I’m a mezzo/alto. I try my hardest to be like Barrett tbh.

Have you ever been involved in any music programs? which ones and for how long?

Uh yeah like all through high school and college.

Which instruments do you know how to play? what’s your skill level? 

Flute/picc - advanced but I’m probably a bit rusty since I haven’t practiced in a while.

Piano, guitar, and ukulele - self taught/beginner

How do you feel about video game soundtracks? 

I like them if they’re super dark/edgy cause it’s fun to dance to.

What soundtracks do you enjoy listening to the most? 

Mean Girls, Heathers, DEH, Man of La Mancha, basically any musical.

How do you feel about musicals?

You’ve probably figured this out already but I live for them.

What are some songs whose lyrics you relate to? 

Would You Be So Kind - dodie

Are You There? - Bare (taken out of context, of course)

parts of Beautiful - Heathers

Breathe In Breathe Out - Tich

I’d Rather Be Me - Mean Girls

Someday - Zombies (taken out of context)

Do you prefer songs that have good melodies or songs that have good lyrics? 

BOTH. I usually really like songs that feel good to sing (good melodies) but I will download and listen to a song just for the lyrics.

Look at your country’s song charts, listen to the first unfamiliar song you can find, and share your opinion on it.

Billboard Top 100 said Psycho - Post Malone. And I hated it. 

Any cover versions that you think are better than the original? 

Chandelier - PVRIS from Punk Goes Pop

Uptown Funk - Against The Current & SIO

How often do you listen to music? 

Literally every day.

How do you feel about classical music? 

I love it.

Would you ever want to have a career in music? 

I think it would be fun but like realistically probably not.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is music to you? 

16.5 I couldn’t live without it.

How do you feel about rap music? 

Not a fan.

How has music affected you as a person?

It’s been my life since like 6th grade so it pretty much made me who I am.

What songs do you listen to when you’re sad?

I just listen to Mean Girls all the time

But sometimes Bare bc sad

What songs do you listen to when you’re in a great mood? 

Still Mean Girls.

What songs do you listen to when you’re getting ready for sports/to work out?

Anything from Mean Girls (do you see a trend here?)

What is your favorite movie?

The Kissing Booth was good, The Greatest Showman, I mostly listen to music.

What are you currently watching on Netflix/Hulu?

Skins UK (for the second time)

What shows have you finished?

13 Reasons Why, Grey’s, The Fosters, Misfits, Skins UK, Dance Academy, Degrassi, Backstage

Do you binge watch shows on Netflix or Hulu?

Netflix if I can find a good one. Hulu is for episodes that I missed when they aired.

What colour palette are you most drawn to?

Cool tones. Blues, purples, silver, but also rose gold.

What other country would you move to if you could?

Ireland or England

Which accent do you find most attractive?

IRISH

Would you rather be able to shapeshift or teleport?

Teleporting would solve a lot of my problems.

Would you do a destination wedding? where at?

Does Disney World count?

Dream honeymoon?

....Disney World.

Which celebrity’s voice do you wish you had? 

BARRETT

Would you rather live on a beach, mountaintop, on a farm, in the city, or in the forest?

The middle of a big city.

Do you still want to be what you dreamed of as a kid?

No I wanted to be a marine biologist and work at Sea World.

Would you rather live in a functional tree house, a rustic but renovated barn, and old stone cottage, a tiny house, an antique victorian character home, or an artistic cob home?

Antique victorian character home with an updated interior that's modern but still preserves the charm.

What do you want your life to look like in 1 year?

Living in a big city (preferably Baltimore or DC) and having a real job.

4 favourite youtubers?

I've really been into Shane Dawson and the squad lately. Also Soph (Sophdoesnails), Shelby’s DCP vlogs, and Sophie Lousie

What would your absolute dream partner look like?

Goofy smile, bright eyes (not necessarily in color, but like they light up when they’re excited and have life to them), taller than me, got meat on his bones

What would your absolute dream partner be like?

Sweet, an absolute nerd, adorable, knows how to charm the heck out of me, ambitious (I’m describing someone if you haven't caught on yet)

7 names that you really love?

James, Amelia, Sophie, Noah, Riley, Madison/Maddie, Samuel

Do you like your name? what would you change it to if you could?

No I hate it, I’d change it to Elizabeth which is my middle name. 

What is your biggest but most impossible-seeming dream in life?

Living in the middle of NYC

Do you collect anything? why’d you start?

Tsum Tsums because they’re cute af and I can’t resist, and I really want to start collecting pins.

When you’re hanging out in your room, do you usually sit on the bed, a chair, the floor, or somewhere else?

Bed.

How many pillows are on your bed?

6 because I bought all of the pillows for the apartment aside from the two he brought and I took them when I left.

Do you share a room with anybody? Have you ever (as in long term, not a sleep over)?

I don’t currently, but I shared with Lexi when were little, I had roommates for 3/4 years of college, and I shared with Nick in our apartment until the end.

Are there any posters or artwork on your walls? What are they?

I have an SIO poster, a One Direction poster, posters of the 5SOS boys, and a Callahan family crest from Ireland. (I really need to redecorate).

Where do you keep your clothes?

Dresser and closet (and the laundry basket of unfolded clothes that never seems to get emptied)

What color are your walls?

Purple.

Is your mattress on a frame or the floor?

On a frame.

What position do you sleep in?

On my side usually but I can sleep in all positions really.

What’s your favorite part of your room?

My bed.

What’s your least favorite part of your room?

It’s a god damn mess right now and that it heats up with the morning sun so it’s always hot.

How many hours a day on average do you spend in your room?

LOL way too many.

Have you ever been told that you spend too much time in your room/never go outside/live in your room/etc?

Yeah all the time.

Is there a desk in your room? Do you actually use it for homework?

There is and no I literally don’t but I should.

Is there a tv in your room?

Yes there’s a TV in my room.

If your bedroom could look any way you want, forgetting cost and practicality, what would it look like?

Clean and Tumblr-y

Do you put stuff under your bed?

I don’t try to but stuff ends up under there.

If you play an instrument, do you practice in your room or somewhere else?

When I was in college I rarely practiced in my room. If I do practice now (rarely) I do it in the living room.

Do you charge your phone next to your bed?

On my bed.

How many windows are in your room?

Just 1. 

Do you have a private/connected bathroom?

No I wish.

Do you keep makeup, jewelry, lotion, perfume/cologne, and hair stuff in your room or the bathroom?

It’s in my room. I keep it all in the Alex 5 drawers from IKEA.

What is your dream job?

HR but I’ve also been super interested in marketing lately? Also interior design or wedding planner.

What’s your favorite sport to watch on TV?

Baseball but also hockey? I’ve never been a hockey fan until I started watching the Preds in the playoffs this year and I’m totally into it now.

Who is your favorite athlete?

Nick Castellanos 😍

Have you ever been in love?

I have.

Do you currently love someone?

It’s unrequited and complicated so I just say no usually.

Do you want a relationship?

Not right now. In the future, yes.

How long was your longest relationship?

Over 2 years.

How long does it take for you to know you love someone?

Not long.

Is it special to you if your s/o meets your parents?

Depends on the situation. Like for my exes it wasn’t but if I started dating someone in Tennessee it would be different cause my parents live 500+ miles away.

Do you watch Game of Thrones?

I’ve watched parts of it.

Have you ever been to Michigan?

Lived here for most of the 22 years I’ve been alive.

Have you ever went on a road trip with a boyfriend?

Nick and I drove back to Michigan once but we were mad at each other the whole time so there's that.

Do you support abortion?

I have no say over what someone else does with their body.

Are you an extrovert or an introvert?

Introvert hardore.

Glitter or feathers?

GLITTER

Daisies or buttercups?

Daisies

Have you ever self harmed?

Yes.

Are you more rational or emotional?

Emotional lmao.

What’s something you love to do but feel guilty about after/during?

Inevitably someone makes me feel bad every time I have sex with someone I’m not dating. 

Have you ever had sex with someone you weren’t dating (but had feelings for) in the hopes that they would ask you out later?

Lol, not for that reason, although I would love it if he did ask me out.

Do you ever turn your phone off because you don’t want to talk?

The only time I ever did that was after Ashlyn died because I was mad at Nick because he wouldn’t stop playing video games with his friends to come over.

Have you ever been to a gay pride parade?

Not a parade but I went to the pride festival in DC this past weekend.

Would you take your dream job if it were out of the country?

More than likely. I’m in a position where I could right now.

What is your zodiac sign?

Libra

What do you like to do when you’re home alone?

Sing very loudly.

Should the guy always pay for the date?

No. I’m hella independent and most of the time I hate when other people pay for shit.

What kind of music calms you down?

Most music calms me down.

Who did you last go to a park with?

I went walking on a path/river thing with sunshine this past weekend. It’s not really a park but like idk?

Have you ever been robbed?

My iPod got stolen when I was like 12.

When was the last time you were on an airplane?

Last week.

Are you currently crushing on someone? 

Yeah.

Do you think your crush likes you back?

I actually don’t know how he feels? I know he liked me at one time and then a thing happened and we accepted that we couldn’t actually be together but then we were together and it felt really right and I don’t know how he feels now.

Is anyone currently crushing on you?

Other than him probably not.

Have you ever been in a long term relationship? 

Yes two.

Have you ever been asked out? 

Yes.

Have you ever asked someone out? 

I've pushed someone to ask me out but that’s the closest.

Have you ever kissed your crush? 

Yes.

Has your crush ever kissed you? 

Yes. 

Are you more of a flirt or a hopeless romantic? 

Both

Do you have a crush on the person you last kissed?

Yes.

Have you ever confessed your feelings knowing they were unrequited? 

Lol story of my life.

If the person you like/love was with you right now, what would you say/do?

Um we would probably be cuddling and talking or kissing honestly. 

Have you ever broken up with someone? 

Yes.

Have you ever been broken up with? 

Not officially. Only for a break and then he begged for me to take him back.

Do you like cuddling? 

I LOVE IT

Have you ever had romantic feelings for a best friend?

That’s usually how it works for me.

Tell me about your crush:

Hair color? 

Brown

Eye color? 

Brown or green(? I’m pretty sure they’re brown and I suck I know)

Age?

We’re the same age but he will not tell me his birthday so

Build? 

He’s a little bit taller than me, he’s not scrawny but he’s not big either, like the perfect dad bod.

Clothing style? 

He barely has any clothes. He wears like jeans and t shirts and shorts he can find on sale basically. 

Stereotype? 

He's a TOTAL nerd and I’m so into it.

Hobbies? 

Computer stuff. He likes techy stuff and board games.

Are they your type? 

I don’t really have a type. He's got a killer personality and he’s SO sweet and charming and that’s what gets me. 

When did you started liking them? 

Like January I think?

Do you talk to him/her everyday? 

Not everyday.

Do you talk about them to your friends? 

Yes Colby lets me talk about him all the time.

Do you like hearing their voice? 

Yeah, it’s nice.

Do you like receiving text messages from them?

Um, yeah? That seems like a weird question.

Do you like their laugh/giggles? 

His laugh is adorable. 

When you see them, are you shy? 

NO he makes me feel so comfortable. I’ve never felt so comfortable around someone I wasn’t dating.

One day will you be with him/her?

Honestly, probably not but maybe?

Do you get jealous when he/she talks to the opposite sex? 

No. This is weird, but we actually encourage each other to get out there and be with other people since we really can’t have each other and we’ve accepted that.

Will you wait for him/her, to be yours?

I honestly don't want anything right now, so I’m willing to wait for now. Once I’m settled and know what I want in life I’ll move on if were still not together. 

Are they more shy or outgoing?  

He's outgoing

Y'all have the same group of friends?

No 

Does your crush smell nice?  

I mean, yeah. He doesn’t wear cologne or body spray or anything but his normal human smell was nice?

Does your crush have a nice smile?

That goofy smile tho (yes).

Are they kind to you?  

Yes he is SO sweet it hurts.

Are y'all considered friends or acquaintances?  

We’re friends. 

When’s the last time you saw them?

Saturday.

Do you have their phone number?  

Yeah but we usually talk through snapchat.

Is your crush talkative or more of a listener?

He's a talker but he’s a good listener too.   

Can they speak more than one language?  

90% sure he can speak at least some German. 

Where did y'all meet?  

Work.

Do they live close to you?  

No. He's literally over 500 miles away.

Have you ever been to their house? How about their bedroom?

Yes and yes.

Do you even vaguely believe your crush is interested in you? 

I answered this earlier. It’s complicated.  

If given the chance, would you have sex with them?

Yes.

Have you ever hugged or kissed your crush?  

Yes.

Ever seen em naked? Do you wanna?  

I have, and I wouldn’t say no to doing it again.

Does your crush have long hair?  

No it’s super short.

Do you think you’ll lose contact with your crush within 5 years?

I hope not but maybe.

Is your crush more naughty or good/innocent?  

He can be both.

Is your crush gay/straight/bisexual/transgender?  

When I asked him he said “bi-ish” so 

Is your crush a freak? Sexually speaking…

I’d call it adventurous and experienced.

Is your crush a virgin?  

No.

Do they have any pets?

No. 

Do they have a job? If so, where do they work?

Yes he has a job at a company which I’m not going to name. 

Do you know if they have an STD or not?

If he does he hasn’t told me, and it’s kind of common courtesy to tell someone you have an STD if you sleep with them sooooo   

What kind of music are they into?  

Um, rock probably? He also likes musicals so there’s that. 

Their fave color? If you don’t know just guess

His favorite color is blue (even though he’s blue/green colorblind). 

How long have you known em?  

Less than a year.

Their fave type of food? Guess if you don’t know

I don’t know but probably like burgers cause he tried to take me to a bar for food. 

When will you see your crush again?

Quite possibly never which is literally awful to think about. Hopefully sometime in the future.

Is your crush extremely confident?

He’s pretty confident.

What’s ultimately stopping you from making them yours?

Distance.

[fakesurprise]

Bends in the Road

6.

We make it back to the hotel without any problem, heading into our rooms. Drinks, cheap food, time to think. We’re going to need to talk to the people that run the hotel too perhaps, but I have no idea who else to talk with beyond that. Some people won’t want to meet us, and splitting up so we can is the kind of stupid that makes horror movies happen. I eat two granola bars, drink Gatorade, do a few stretches, gulp a couple of Advil. I’m sore, but it’s nothing like the pain used to be so sometimes I forget about it. The Lupus is still in me, but now I know it’s held in check by part of me that’s bound to something from Outside the universe.

I don’t know details about it. I can’t ask Lia, or risk destroying her family. But knowing that has helped diminishes the pain and some of the symptoms, at least sometimes. I’m not fighting whatever is inside me anymore. I just have no idea how long I’ll remain human. I do a couple of more stretches, consider options, then knock on Wilbur’s door. No response, so I knock on Noah’s.

He opens it on the second knock, blinking owlishly, cream on his face.

“Sorry. Figured you’d be meditating or – not sure what. Need help?”

He steps back in, nods. I follow him into the bathroom. The creams Lia and Aram bought have been helping stop his acne from getting worse, preventing some of the scarring.

“I use them twice a day, and I figured we’d be busy later,” he says softly.

“Probably.” I want until he has his shirt off and rub cream into his back. “You okay?”

He thinks it over as he puts cream on his chest, puts the shirt back on. “I think so? People don’t – they don’t stare at me as much in Rivercomb as they used to. People have seen me, or they’re heard of me. And even here, people had heard of me. I’ve always been stared at. I guess I always will be, so that’s never –.” Noah finishes putting the shirt on. “That’s never what hurts? It’s the insults over things I can’t change that do. It hurts, but I’m not going to go around hating them for it.”

“I don’t have it in me to be that nice.” I think I mean it as a joke, but I’m not sure.

Noah turns back, staring at me in surprise. “It’s not about nice, though?”

“Pardon?”

“I mean, it –. If I wasn’t me, and I met me, I’d stare too. I can’t blame people for treating me the way I’d treat myself if I was them, too. It’s if people assume I’m stupid or something that hurts. Like with Wilbur? He’s fat. He knows he’s fat, and telling him that won’t hurt. But saying he’s lazy would, because projections aren’t facts. People often yell at what they’re scared they could become, and it’s not the same as hate since you can only hate what you don’t understand.”

“On that, I think we’d have to disagree,” I say. “I think sometimes understanding something can just intensify your hatred: you don’t have ignorance of the truth to hide behind anymore.”

That wins a small grin. “I’m also scared of what I might do to people if I did hate them.”

“And you think I’m not?”

“You don’t. I mean,” he adds quickly, “your talent lets you cause pain. But you’re never as evil with it as you could be.”

Part of me wants to ask what he means by that. I opt for sanity instead. “Do you need anything else?”

Noah shakes his head. “I’m just going to meditate, try to get a better feel for this town?”

I head back out, consider options, knock on Wilbur’s door.

He opens it thirty seconds later. “I was trying to rest.”

“I know. Bed. Sit.”

Wilbur walks back over, sitting on the bed. I close the door and sit beside him on the bed. “Something wrong?” he asks.

“I don’t know. You’ve been acting different. Since you really got to four hundred pounds. Slower. Not hiding the pain from your knees and back as much. I can feel it with my talent. I imagine Noah’s talent tells him things too. You’ve always been big, and technically you’re probably in better shape than me. But some thing has changed, and it’s nothing to do with becoming a ghost magician, or even maybe your weight. Way I figure it, the only way to find out is to ask, and we both know Noah won’t.”

Wilbur lets out a chuckle at that. “I won’t say it hasn’t changed anything. It’s the kind of milestone you don’t want to hit. I’ve always loved food. Trying to replicate mom’s recipes to keep her memory alive, making food for when dad was home. Finding creative ways to stretch the money he made. getting into computer coding and editing so I’d have money for more clothes. It all looped into itself. I’m the biggest kid in school. I’ve always been that, so there are.... less jokes. Some of them ran out of jokes years ago.”

“Some went the pity route,” I offer quietly.

“I know. And now I’m me. This me, and I don’t think it’s going to go away. I’ve tried diets. You know that. Dad insisted on some of them. Nothing took. Diets don’t, unless you alter you’re entire life forever. That’s never in the books even if it should be. And it’s why I am... the magician I am. I’m not sure even Mr Pickles understands that.”

“Wait. You think you’re a magician because you’re fat?”

“You don’t understand. People don’t,” Wilbur says, and there is no judgement under the words. Somehow, that makes them hurt more. “I’m a magician, yes. And obese, also yes. But I’m the only magician in the world who deals with ghosts. Other magician’s don’t. Their power is different, because their magic isn’t like mine. Magicians do things. When I come into this power, I will do things like they do. Be a power in the world.”

I know this; I wait for the rest.

“But for all this power, for all this magic within me and without, I’m never going to feel that I am more powerful than food.” His gaze flicks down to his belly, stays there for a time before he looks back to me. “Even if I diet, exercise, fight the war against caloric intake: even if I do all that, it won’t change anything. I learned that years ago. Food is always going to be stronger than me. I’m always going to want it, even more the magic wants me to be a magician. And you can’t be a magician if you want other things more than magic, not really. So instead of being a magician, I’m the ghost of a one. A magician whose power only works on ghosts.”

“I’m not sure that’s exactly it.”

“Maybe not, but it feels like it is. Magic helps magicians, as they help the world. But I don’t help this world. I help the one of ghosts, a between-world. It takes me over twenty minutes to get dressed and ready in the morning, Anya. The magic doesn’t help with that. It won’t. And it’s not the universe punishing me, nothing like that. It’s a function of the fact that I’m never going to be magician enough. Even if I had it in me to do those ruthless diets, only to do them right. Spent ten years, lost weight sensibly, I’d still be me.”

He adds nothing else. “It might not be true,” I say slowly. “You could be wrong.”

“Do you think I am?” he asks, and his voice doesn’t demand truth. Not yet. But he’s still my friend.

“No. I wish you were. I don’t know what I wish anymore, these days. I saw what wishes did to Greg Ruk. The kind of monster such desire makes people into. I don’t think we’re supposed to wish for more, when we have magic. We’ve been given a wish; it’s what we do with it that makes it something that comes true.”

“Ah.” Wilbur offers up nothing else.

“It made more sense in my head. But look: we all have limits. Some of them will go away in time: Noah’s face will get better, my lupus goes further into remission, you can lose weight. But it’s nothing that happens fast, and we all need each other. Especially in places like this, so I’m not letting you take twenty minutes just to get out of bed and dressed.”

“You’re not.”

“Well. Not me. But Noah can help you, and that will help him. I think?”

He lets out a laugh, this one more rueful. “My fault for sharing.”

“Always.” I stand. “Rest. I’m going to as well. Noah is trying to meditate answers to all this. So far the Outsider hasn’t attacked us. At all. If it’s genuinely afraid of us, we might have a problem.”

Wilbur blinks. “You think so?”

“Fear might make it more desperate. I’d rather it was arrogant. But that’s me.” I head to the door, and back to my motel room. I lie down on the bed, intending to try and copy Noah but sleep takes me faster than I expected it to.

[aldero-riverside]

These are the households and the order they will be played in. I added a couple of townies into the pictures so you had faces to the names. Since there's 21 households it’s under a read me so it doesn’t clog up your dashboard.

Flores: Cecilia Flores, Natal Flores, Flint Linwood (townie), Erlene Flores, Tercero Flores, Thomas Flores.

Originally wanted to become the new mayor of Aldero Riverside by fellow residents after Mason turned it down, though honoured Cecilia turned it down in favour of being a stay at home mother whilst Thomas helps the current mayor out. Instead Erlene has made the biggest change of the family, finding a slightly older boyfriend in Flint who she met and began dating when he was still a teenager.

(Erlene’s dad Forrest and Thomas’s brother Charlie will both still be townies.)

Floris: Elonso Floris, Amaryllis Floris, Kezia Floris, Noah Floris.

Other than sticking around to help with the building of the new neighbourhood alongside the Wilburn family, nothing has dramatically changed for the Floris family... well, except for the cowplant. Kezia found it randomly as a seedling, grew with the help of Noah, and now they all fondly call it “Jupiter”...well, excluding Elonso. He swears over his dead body that it’s trying to eat him and demands a fence around the thing.

Flores-Trammell: Astrid Trammell, Quinn Trammell (townie), Marisa Flores. 

Marisa had her daughter Astrid but with a daughter to provide for she frequently asked Quinn to babysit, but thanks to it they decided to start dating. Eventually he moved in officially adopting Astrid as his daughter, changing her last name in the process as people thought she was Quinn’s child anyway thanks to her inheriting her granddad’s hair colour. Though still together Quinn currently lives in a nearby neighbourhood temporarily as the new owner of his father’s restaurant after his father’s death.

Wilchester: Tanisha Gossett (townie), Cindy Wilchester.

Cindy lived with Marisa for the longest time after the death of her parents, but when Quinn moved in she began living with friend Tanisha (that she may have a little bit of a crush on) and Tanisha’s now ex-girlfriend. But with her hometown back she moved out, became the new mayor like her father, and later a restraunt owner like her mother.

Hallowell-Webb: Zandra Hallowell, Dean Webb. 

With the death of both their significant others, best friends Dean and Zandra grew closer than ever before after Zandra’s daughter Talithia also vanished. Later Dean donated what was left of Rylie’s money to the rebuilding of Aldero Riverside leaving himself poor, and eventually they decided to live together to keep a roof over both their heads. They’re quite content being in the same house as they have company, so they still live together.

Linscott: Keith Linscott, Shelby Eld (townie).

Though Keith continued to live with his dad and later Zandra, he eventually decided to spread his wings and bought a cheap house of his own. He lost contact with Talithia like the majority did, but Shelby has stayed around. Whether they’re an item or not is still cloudy however, most think Shelby’s just waiting for Keith to “man up” and ask her out but with Talithia back in the picture she might just speed up the process...

Topaz-Opal: Tia Opal, *Teal Topaz, Raven Topaz.

With the death of both Olivia’s children, Raven and Tia became the rock holding her up, on top of it Raven was searching for the lost Talithia until she randomly re-appeared. In the midst of it all pair have still been trying for a second child together in the process but have yet to be successful. Though they’ve watched their eldest age up into a teen, who’s happy to inherit her dad’s local police station one day.

*Teal’s transition stuff:  Asp.: Family. // Turn ons: Mechanical, Creative. // Turn Off: Custom Hair // LTW: Become a Captain Hero // Sexuality: Homosexual

Topaz: Olivia Topaz, Reed Topaz the Plant Sim, Emory Topaz the Plant Sim.

Though it caused their relationship to grow stronger than ever, after the heartbreak of losing both daughters Emory and Olivia decided it was best to wait before expanding their family once again and focus on their police work. Just before moving back into Aldero Riverside, Emory finally added plant sim son Reed to the family.

Burris (Joel Ver.): Naomi Burris, Joel Burris, Jared Burris, April Burris.

With many deaths in their surrounding family and friends it’s been a tough trying to comfort them all, but amidst it all April and Joel finally had son Jared. Despite everything family life hasn’t changed all that much with the new addition. April still writes novels (recently deciding to specialise in romance), Joel’s still a high ranked chef, and Naomi has a little brother who she can happily tease.

Burris (Javan Ver.): Lunar Starr (townie), Javan Burris, Vincent Suellen the Vampire (townie).

With the death of his parents and son Javan got into constant fights with his wife Talithia and later moved in with older brother Noah requesting for a divorce, famous vampire judge Vincent being the judge of his case. After the divorce he began sleeping with Luna coincidentally re-meeting Vincent through her. Since then the three of them have become pretty much inseparable .

(When the only three bolt couple of the ‘hood decides to have absolutely no chemistry in the new ‘hood no matter what you do so you just roll with it.)

Hallowell: Talithia Hallowell the Atrociously Evil Witch, Marco Castenada (townie), Boris Gilliand (townie.)

After her son’s death and her divorce Talithia vanished. No one knows where she vanished to, how she figured out Aldero Riverside was back, or what she did exactly but some think she stayed at Marco and Boris’s shared flat. The strangest rumour is that she tried to take over the throne at the Fortress of Eternal Darkness, but considering the two boys are still hanging around her that’s probably just a fairy-tale...right?

(When you almost couldn’t save a sim but you found a way and decide “ooooh a mystery disappearance.”)

Wilburn: *Travis Wilburn, Belle Wilburn the Mean Witch, Gale Wilburn, Mason Wilburn.

Diego dead, land gone, Mason refused to let his best friend’s legacy and the kids home die. As a result he lived separately in order to obtain a new piece of land. Whilst gone Belle, the kids, and the other close by residents began learning how to build from scratch, eventually Mason reuniting with them to make the new Aldero Riverside. Though wanted to be mayor, Mason turned down the offer but still helps the current one out.

*Travis’s transition stuff: Asp.: Pleasure. // Turn ons: Robots, Red Hair. // Turn Off: Athletic // LTW: Have 50 1st Dates // Sexuality: Bisexual

Blagoy: Xanthe Blagoy.

Though still a single pringle working in the Law career, Xanthe’s enjoyed life in a different way by trying something new. Instead of buying a house, she got a trailer from her old friend and began to live in it. She’s found herself rather fond of it and dragged it back to Aldero Riverside, painting it up to look like the rest of the neighbourhood.

Chadwick: Gwen Chadwick, Fiona Chadwick, Mike Chadwick.

Mike and Fiona stayed close by as the city was being built, mostly because of Mike’s financial expertise and contacts would get their home built faster than without him. Gwen only stayed because she didn’t want to find a house, but there was benefits as she managed to sneak in some plans for a gym which she now owns and runs.

Hendrix: Shelia Hendrix, Ethan Hendrix, Marcel Hendrix, Darleen Hendrix.

Soon after the birth of their fraternal twins Ethan and Darleen, Shelia and Marcel happily married in the eyes of their close friends and family members. Marcel continued to work - and still is working - in the Law Enforcement career whilst for some time Shelia volunteered with animals, helping lots of strays find new homes.

Chadwick-Olsen: Daniel Chadwick, Judy Olsen.

After not being able to save the babies despite being a doctor Daniel went into a slump for a while, but eventually went to another town to take classes to improve his medical skills. Along the way he re-met Judy, who he found out also happened to work in the medical career, and later began dating. Though it started as after shift sleepovers originally, at some point in time Judy just moved in and hasn’t left since.

Chadwick-Widdutiz: Lake Widdutiz, Mable Chadwick.

Finding a house big enough for Mable along with her sister’s family was problematic. Though temporary, Lake offered for Mable to stay at his small apartment until they could work things out... at least that was the idea, but instead the two began dating and they’ve ditched the idea of living separately, instead getting a house for the pair of them.

Carli-Keil: Pavlo Keil, Terence Carli the Werewolf, Valko Keil, *Plamen Carli.

With Aldero Riverside gone Terence, Pavlo, and Plamen went to live on Twikii Island (Pavlo’s home land) with Pavlo’s parents. They weren’t pleased with his choice of partner for various reasons, but couldn’t do much because Pavlo was already carrying his child. Later Terence asked for his hand in marriage, which Pavlo happily accepted, and soon after gave birth to their son Valko.

*Plamen’s transition stuff: Asp.: Family. // Turn ons: Brown Hair, Swimwear. // Turn Off: Logical // LTW: Have 6 grandchildren // Sexuality: Heterosexual

Hitchworth: *Brock Hitchworth, Pearl Hitchworth, Tim Hitchworth.

Time changes everyone, and enough time has passed for Tim and Brock to have had great birthdays, but their lives haven’t really changed. Pearl’s still making pots for her pottery store, Tim’s still in the oceanography career chatting his co-workers ears off, but Brock’s been inspired by the whole situation and currently works at the town hall.

*Brock’s transition stuff: Asp.: Fortune. // Turn ons: Brown Hair, Facial Hair. // Turn Off: Grey Hair // LTW: Become a City Planner // Sexuality: Heterosexual. 

Niles: Audrey Niles, Everett Niles, Declan Niles, *Leomie Niles.

Whilst they still have rings on their fingers, marriage has been tough thanks to Everett’s secret affair with Claudia. She stopped contacting soon after they were caught (and hasn’t been seen since) though whether Everett has another child out there is questionable. Thankfully life is back to normal after a few apologies.

(I was going to let ACR decide what Everett would do next time Claudia visited so this is just what I presume ACR would’ve done eventually. Unfortunately I lost her and and her daughter.)

*Leomie’s transition stuff: Asp.: Pleasure. // Turn ons: Robots, Athletic. // Turn Off: Formal // LTW: Have 50 dream dates // Sexuality: Heterosexual.

Blackmoore-Ashby-Ludwig: Charlotte Blackmoore, Miles Ludwig, Hannah Ashby.

With Charlotte previously being a Hall of Famer she and Hannah managed to find a place to stay pretty quickly. Just before moving back to Aldero Riverside they found an abandoned toddler with a note only stating that his name was Miles Ludwig. They tried but ultimately couldn’t find his family and since have been taking care of him.

[newagesispage]

                                                                        OCTOBER 2017

 *****The beautiful dino, Sue will be moved to her own gallery in Chicago’s field museum. New to her long fixed spot will be a cast of patagotitan mayorum, the biggest dinosaur ever found.

*****Richard Thomas is selling his NY midtown coop for $2,995,000 and is located at 7th Ave. and w. 58th.

*****California is waiting for Jerry Brown to sign a bill that bans puppy mills.

*****WWF has released wild tigers back into Kazakhstan. Scimitar horned oryx were released into the Sahara desert and indigo snakes were reintroduced into Florida.

*****Toys “R” Us has filed for bankruptcy.

*****Tom Price, health and human services secretary, has resigned after hic charter flight scandal.

*****After 50 years Rolling Stone may be up for sale.

*****Doc Martin is back on Acorn for series 8.

*****As social media has been telling us, we don’t need a border wall. Tourism is down about $37 billion. Thanks Trump!

*****Trump supporters don’t seem to like him fraternizing with the Dems and waffling on DACA. They have been burning their red hats but scary clown already got the money for selling them so what does he care. Anne Coulter wonders if there is anybody left who does not want Trump impeached.** Some states are suing over DACA.

*****”Holes separate men and women.”- Billy Connolly

*****The dreamer program has been signed away. The Deferred Action for Children’s Arrival has been handed to congress for 6 months to deal with. The administration says it violates the rule of law.

*****The Peoria Blues and Heritage fest went off without a hitch. The weather was perfect and we should all be looking at the Jamiah Rogers band, these guys are fucking awesome. John Butler checked them out before his own set and was great with his fans.

*****Bill Withers has his first solo record since 1985 with a cover of (You’ve been quite a doll) Raggedy Ann.

*****In this country, a woman dies every 2 hours of cervical cancer because of improper health care.

*****Can I just say that I do not want to see reporters in the middle of hurricanes. Can they just stay safe in a room and fix a camera outside? I would much rather see different angles of the storm and see no people out there.  It was often impossible to hear then anyway.  The communication between the studio and location was fucked up and did not help anyway. It also seemed like they showed an awful lot of Shell stations. JS

*****An estimated 70 million Americans saw the fake Russian ads during the campaign.  No impact??

*****The Stones are on their No Filter tour in Europe and they brought out ‘Dancin with Mr. D’ which hasn’t been played live since 1973.

*****Trumps lawyers seem to want Jared out.

*****Steve Bannon’s Great Great Grandfather was an immigrant from Ireland who needed no papers to get in this country.

*****Montgomery , Alabama is going to open a Museum of lynching.  There is a wall lined with jars of dirt that were collected from sites of lynching’s from around the country.  Very powerful.

*****Thanks Trump administration for removing references to ‘LGBTQ’ youth from a federal program for victims of sex trafficking. It also eliminates funding to international groups that provide abortions. This comes from mostly evangelical lobbyists who are reporting that they are having more discussions  with this administration than they ever had with any President.

*****Vanity Fair has their best dressed list out which includes Harry Styles, Rihanna, Solange, Jack Schlossberg, Justin Trudeau, Janelle Monae, Dev Patel, Cate Blanchett, Zoe Kravitz, Ruth Negga, and Donald Glover. The hall of fame mentioned Lauren Hutton, Jeremy irons and Prince Phillip.

*****More police brutality against the black man with the subduing of the Seahawks Michael Bennett for no apparent reason.

*****Leslie Van Houten has again been granted parole. As last year she is waiting out the 120 days to get the word from Gov. Jerry Brown.

*****Lovin’ Greg Garcia’s The Guest book on TBS. What is not to love about seeing Charles Robinson and Carly Jibson again.  It made my day to see guest Orson Bean!!

*****The U.S. office of government ethics has changed a policy that will now allow lobbyists to donate to staffers legal defense funds.

*****Cameras have taken the first pictures of white giraffes in Kenya.

*****The Simpsons will be going to New Orleans this season!

*****The Middle is starting its last season. We will miss U!

*****Jay Pharoah has a new show on Showtime. White Famous is loosely based on the life of Jamie Foxx who is the executive producer.

*****John Davis Washington, son of Denzel may head the cast of Black Klansman. Spike Lee will direct and Jordan Peele will produce the true story of an African American who in 1978 infiltrated the KKK. Ron Stallworth used phones and his own writing to communicate with the organization. When he had to appear in person he sent a white officer in his place. They were able to sometimes sabotage cross burnings and other activities.

*****IT just had the biggest horror movie opening ever. The acting is quite nice for chapter 1 but the ending a bit long.

*****Netflix is bringing a delicious doc : Jim and Andy  The great beyond featuring a very special contractually obligated mention of Tony Clifton. Spike Jonze is producing with the hundred  hours of footage from Man on the Moon. ** Other new docs on the way look at Eric Clapton, Grace Jones and Sammy Davis Jr. It is the first time that Kim Novak will talk on camera about dating Sammy.

*****September 16 brought the Juggalos march on Washington. They have been bringing awareness about their gang designation and the harm that it has caused. The running man with a hatchet is considered a gang symbol and gives cops probable cause to search. The FBI labeled Juggalos a hybrid gang in 2011. Also marching were some of the alt right calling their march the mother of all rallies but it only produced about 500 people.

*****Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin requested use of a government jet for his honeymoon and he later withdrew that request.

*****Finally there was a confirmation from a charity that Trump claims to have given to after the Hurricanes. Direct relief received 25 thou. ** There have still been no charities that received money from the inauguration fund.

*****WGN is bringing us a new show called Bellevue.

*****Howard Buffett will be the new Sheriff of Macon county in Illinois. His father Warren had donated millions to the area.

*****Prophets of Rage are here to raise awareness with members of Cypress Hill, Rage against the Machine and Public Enemy.

*****LA summer Olympics in 2028?!

*****Sean Spicer landed on Jimmy Kimmel. Wow.. What a kiss ass whiny bitch. He tried hard to stay in Trumps good graces with compliments for the Pres and constant berating of the press. He reminded me of a ventriloquist dummy with a hand up his ass.** His cameo at the Emmy’s did not go over very well either.

***** Model Monroe Bergdorf was fired by L’oreal because of her anti- racist remarks.  She has now been hired by Illamasqua.

*****Boycott Dragon Dumps! Don’t pay your bill on time and the owner dumps garbage on your lawn.

*****It looks like Trevor Noah will stay with the Daily show until at least 2022.

*****James Woods used his twitter account to try and shame a movie about a gay romance between a 17 year old and a 24 year old. Amber Tamblyn tweeted that Woods had hit on her for real when she was only 16.

*****Scientists are trying to bring back the chelonoidis elephantopus Galopagos turtles. 80 blood samples of modern day island turtles have genetic traces of the lost species. Even though they have been extinct for 160 years, scientists think they can reproduce though not to 100%. Could they reverse the negative effects that humans cause in the environment?

***** Why do bullies feel the need to use the art of artists who want nothing to do with them? It is like using ‘You can’t always get what you want’ for Trump when there are plenty of artists who agree with you that would love for you to use their art. Now Universal music and American recordings had to send a cease and desist letter to the white supremacist site Stormfront to stop using Johnny Cash’s version of ‘I won’t back down.’ The host blames the Jews.

*****Tru tv will bring us At home with Amy Sedaris.

*****North Dakota paleontologists have been uncovering so many bones that they are inviting the public to help.  It sounds like a dream come true.

*****Paul Newman is Jake Gyllenhaal’s Godfather. JS

*****St. Louis exploded into protest with yet another acquittal of a police officer after the shooting of a black man, Anthony Lamar Smith. Peoria, Il is also dealing with the shooting of an alleged bank robber who was shot 18 times.

*****The NFL is standing together in solidarity for equality and scary clown is sniping at them like a bitch. Our leader would not know respect and maturity if it bit him in the ass.** The Packers asked their fans to stand arm in arm with them on their Thursday night game with the Bears. Respect to Aaron Rodgers and the guys for speaking out before the game on equality. Some ‘fans’ are burning their Packer stuff. ..  Why do these Trump supporters always want to burn everything? Do they have any idea how racist and ridiculous that looks?

*****Veep is going to bring us their last season while Julia is battling breast cancer. Joe Biden tweeted that us Veeps must stick together to show his support.

*****The Emmy’s with Stephen Colbert have come and gone. My best dressed were Ellie Kemper, Jessica Biel, Michelle Pfeiffer, Susan Sarandon, Leslie Jones, Matthew Rhys, Claire Foy, Evan Rachel Wood ,Gabrielle Union, Donald Glover, Emmy Rossum, Zoe Kravitz, Nicole Kidman and Julia- Louis Dreyfus. My worst dressed were Uzo Aduba, Debra Messing, Anna Farris, Tracee Ellis Ross and Prianka Chopra. I love Sarah Paulson and the back of her dress was great but …?? There was so much black fabric which was awesome. Was it mourning for the earthquake and hurricane victims or just a general sadness for the country?  Whatever the reason.. hooray black!!**Also happy that hairstyles were mostly long and loose.** I was happy to see Laura Dern win for supporting actress in a limited series or movie. ** The Handmaids tale won for show, directing and writing , for Anne Dowd who looked more shocked and appreciative than I have ever seen and Elisabeth Moss. ** I was happy for Alec Baldwin for best supporting actor but was really routing for Louie Anderson. ** When the noms came out, I could not imagine anything beating out FEUD but everything did. ** The girls from 9 to 5 stole the show with their mention of a sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot. ** Donald Glover won for directing and acting. **Alexander Skarsgard won which gave he and his brother quite a week. ** John Oliver won two and he again flew in his whole staff. ** Julia- Louis Dreyfus has now won the most Emmys for the same character in the same show. Veep got best comedy.**It was a wonderful moment when Carol Burnett and Norman Lear came out but DeNiro looked so disinterested.** Cicely Tyson has often been described as a bit of a diva and seemed a bit out of it on the broadcast but her counterpart saved the day.** So sad that Bob Odenkirk did not win but kudos to sterling K. Brown. They seemed to play him off too quickly while Nicole Kidman and big little lies had all the time in the world.

*****Bobby Moynihan stars in the new  ‘Me Myself and I’ on CBS.

*****Word is that the Trump campaign is asking supporters to contribute money to build the wall.

*****Can we pay a little more attention to Puerto Rico? Why is the Pres giving them grief? Things were tough enough before the devastation. Puerto Rico has no bankruptcy and running a business is so costly there. Companies there must buy American which we don’t have to do.  Forty percent of residents don’t have insurance. So many of the supplies sent to help are just sitting there in San Juan.

*****Angela Merkel has won a 4th term as German chancellor.

*****Singapore got their first female President, Halimah Yacob. She was the only candidate.

*****There was a settlement in a lawsuit against Club Cabaret. Dancers sued to be employees instead of individual contractors. The dancers won a million and cost of legal fees.

*****Art Garfunkel has a memoir/diary/ book of musings out called ‘What is it all but luminous.’

*****The personal account of Ted Cruz hit ‘like’ on a porn site on 9/11. He calls it a mistake by a staffer. A college roommate of Cruz said that he was not surprised.

*****After a tweet from the Pres about hitting Hil with a golf ball, Stephen King tweeted: Thinks hitting a woman with a golf ball and knocking her down is funny. Myself, I think it indicates a severely fucked up mind.

*****Brooklyn 99 is back and funnier than ever with the same great cast and opening.

*****Bill Maher and Jimmy Kimmel are rated number 1 of tv personalities based on Facebook, Instagram, twitter et al.

*****R.I.P Richard Anderson, Walter Becker, Don Williams, David Tang, Troy Gentry, Murray Lerner, Mexico’s earthquake victims, those lost to hurricane Irma, Frank Vincent, Len Wein, Grant Hart, Harry Dean Stanton, Michelle Rounds, Bonnie Angelo, Hugh Hefner, Jake La Motta, Eddie Russell Jr., Edith Windsor, Tony Booth and Monty Hall.

ȅ

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Bridge Theory

Okay, I’ve wanted to do a post about this forever! Here it is. It’s nothing groundbreaking. More just a ‘for the record" sort of thing. Let’s first go through all the instances we have of bridges, and especially people falling off them.

4x10 - Glenn is revealed to be alive at the end of the sky bridge at the prison. In this instance, he’s a major proxy to Beth (X, X), and then there’s the backward story telling. (X) He doesn’t fall off, but he came damn close, and there’s a herd/horde of walkers below him.

5x06 - The biggest one. Daryl and Carol drive the van off the bridge to, um, avoid a herd of walkers…

6x08- Abraham on the bridge. To be honest, nothing super catastrophic happened with Abraham. Rather, he received hope from his time on the bridge. He fought with a walker, but ended up with the rocket launcher. You know, a WEAPON Daryl used to save Abraham and Sasha from the Saviors? Just saying. We do get a major mindset shift from Abraham here tho. It’s after this that he’s much happier in general and first tells Sasha he’s interested in her. So this scene was the bridge between parts of Abe’s arc. I talk more about the bridge in this episode HERE.

6x14 - We don’t see a bridge here, but after Denise dies, Daryl drinks alcohol with a Danville Bridge label. This is a twin bridge, which goes along with the twin theme around Denise and her brother. (X, X)

7x03 - Dwight goes out to kill the Savior that left and along the way, a blond walker (very Beth-ish) falls off a bridge in front of him.

7x06 - When Tara is separated from Heath and discovers Oceanside, she falls off a bridge.

These are the main ones, though I’m sure there are other, smaller ones along the way. And what does it all mean? Bet you can guess. I think it represents Beth’s arc in general. I’ll illustrate. But first, let me say that I also equate other, similar symbols with this.

I think falling off the bridge represents a massive wrinkle in an otherwise pretty smooth journey.

First let’s talk about Slabtown. When Beth and Noah attempt to escape, there’s a point where Beth jumps down to where Noah is and promptly falls onto her face. Not particularly flattering for her, but totally something I would do. ;D 

She doesn’t successfully escape Grady at this part, but let’s put that aside for a minute. Especially if you compare this scene with Rick leaving the hospital in S1, getting out of the hospital and into the sunlight is a big deal. It represented escape from the hospital for Rick, and even though Beth is dragged back, she did successfully get out of the hospital. For a minute.

So if you look at the sequence, she tries to escape with Noah, falls on her face, but then successfully makes it out of the darkness and into the light (Dark Tunnel Theory). It’s kind of a mini representation of her arc.

Another thing I think goes with this, as I’ve talked about recently, is the bus crash. (And Daryl and Carol’s little bridge adventure in 5x06 was obviously a vehicle crash.) I discussed a few days ago (X) how the bus represents the big wrinkle on the journey to D.C.

After “the wrinkle” happens, there’s often a lot of redirection for TF. They end up where they originally wanted to go, but in a different way or for very different reasons than was originally true. Abe and co went back to FG’s church, and ended up in D.C. a different way. 

Obviously that’s true of Beth being shot. She’ll end up in D.C. and back with TF, but via a totally different route.  Definitely true of Tara in S7. She never expected to end up at Oceanside. She and Heath had planned to go home after one more sweep. Tara did end up back at Alexandria at the end of the episode, but only after her little adventure. And Heath still hasn’t made it back. So assuming he does, this will be true of him on a bigger scale.

Other instances are more subtle. The whole reason Beth was caught in Slabtown was because Noah was hurt (which is what caused her to fall to begin with) and she waited for him, so the plan didn’t work out as she wanted it to. 

Similar thing with Daryl and Carol. They were trying to find Grady, and eventually did, but only after the bridge fall.  So that particular plan wasn’t frustrated, but Carol was injured, and that affected what happened afterward when they ran into Noah.

Obviously Denise’s death was a major wrinkle for Daryl (and she was a proxy of Beth getting shot anyway). It lead to him leaving Alexandria which led to TF’s catastrophic encounter with the Saviors, and Glenn and Abe’s deaths.

And with Dwight, if you watch that part, it’s not major (but it’s not a major arc anyway) but it still it’s the pattern. Dwight is looking for the dude who left (in other words, who’s trying to escape Negan, just as Beth and Noah tried to escape Grady) and finds a bunch of walkers splattered on the highway below a bridge. Then a walker falls off the bridge and almost hits him. It also nearly bites him. Definitely a wrinkle in the plan. After that, his bike tire is flattened and he’s injured, so it changes what happens with the guy he’s hunting. He ends up killing him instead of taking him back like he was supposed to.

I also think it’s interesting that they intercut that with Daryl trying to escape the Sanctuary. This is his first attempt and it ends with Negan ordering the Saviors to beat the crap out of him. But the fact that he’s trying to escape the Sanctuary, and that’s paralleled with Beth and Grady, it’s just more evidence that the bridge stuff represents her getting shot, either on the way to D.C., or while trying to escape.

Annnd let’s not forget that with all the parallels between Grady and the Sanctuary, Beth and Daryl most likely have the same fate. Daryl escaped the Sanctuary, alive, and reunited with Rick and TF. Of course he had to figure out how to get escape on his own. Rick and TF didn’t come to save him, even if he had some help from Sherry and Jesus.

As for the bridges, if I’m right about the interpretation—that they represent a major traumatic incident followed by redirection of the character(s), that also points to Beth being alive, and arriving in D.C. by some alternate route.

Two other obvious facts to point out: 

1) Bridges connect two places or things. That’s their function. So perhaps it symbolizes connecting the two time lines or stories. 

2) Bridge can also be a musical terms. It’s the part of the song that’s used as a pause or reflection of earlier movements before proceeding to the climax or high point of the song. While in terms of musical definitions, it’s definitely different than a coda, it has a similar function in that it’s different from prior verses and choruses, and has a unique function in the song. Unlike a coda, it’s not about repeats or time skippage (totally a word). Rather, it’s about bridging two sections of the song. 

Sounds like it’ll work for Beth’s story to me. ;D

So yeah. That’s pretty much it. Nothing ground breaking, but wanted to give it its own post so we’re all the same page about the bridge symbolism and how it’s employed.

[lundeby]

The Life and Fiery Death of the World’s Biggest Treehouse

The Life and Fiery Death of the World’s Biggest Treehouse

Its dedicated, sagelike maker isn’t at all upset.

Matthew Taub

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/ministers-treehouse

May 4, 2020

For the thousands of people around the world who’d once visited and admired the world’s largest treehouse in Crossville, Tennessee, the news came as an awful shock. In October 2019, a blaze consumed the singular construction. But for Horace Burgess, the treehouse’s architect, this is just how things go. He was well acquainted with how it feels to lose your own, self-built treehouse in an angry conflagration. Heck, he’d already burned one down himself.

“It was just evil,” says Burgess of the older treehouse he built and then razed back in the 1980s. There was “no good about it.” The house had ended up serving as Burgess’s hideaway for doing drugs, which he committed to quitting after the deaths of some friends. Trouble was, the house itself had become part of the habit. A voice came to Burgess, saying that he had to burn the house down if he was going to rebuild his life. And it wasn’t just any voice.

People typically think “you’re a little bit crazy when you say that God spoke to you,” Burgess admits, “but really he’s the one that tells us to put our pants on in the morning.” Looking back, Burgess says that burning that first treehouse down—on God’s advice—was “probably the most sane moment in my life.”

Having freed himself from the demons trapped in that treehouse, Burgess, a pastor who grew up in Crossville, set about dedicating his life to religion and his community. Ironically, those commitments quickly brought him right back to building treehouses. After all, he knew he could do it well, and he understood that if he could share it with others it could serve as a positive force in the community rather than as a destructive force in his private life. “It was just something I enjoyed doing,” he says, seemingly uninterested in understanding why. As an aside, he mentions casually that he’d actually completed five or six treehouses in total by that point in time—even if people only ever seem to talk about the one that was about to come.

So, in 1993, Burgess got down to work on his family’s farm—139 acres that, according to Burgess, once contained a “zoo” with two of each animal, like a landlocked Noah’s Ark in central Tennessee. Not knowing where things would lead, he simply started by building a staircase, one he actually called the “Stairway to Nowhere.” It was more meditative than anything else. “I had totally turned my life over to the lord,” he says, and inspiration struck one day when he was actually “sitting down and praying for anything but a treehouse.” It was then that “the Spirit of God quickened me,” he says, and Horace Burgess gave in to the treehouse impulse and resolved to turn the Stairway to Nowhere into the world’s largest arboreal construct. And why not the largest? God had promised Burgess, after all, that he would never run out of material as long as he kept building, and building, and building. It sounds Old Testament stuff.

“I’m getting ready to build the world’s largest treehouse out here,” Burgess told his neighbors after the revelation. Half-informing them of his decision, half-asking for their permission, he understood that the undertaking would impact the whole community. “Someday you’ll have to watch when you pull out of your driveway,” he told them. They told him to go for it, though he suspects that “about 12 years later, they were wishing they had never agreed.”

For the next dozen years, Burgess just kept building. Higher and higher, wider and wider, until, plank by plank, nail by painstaking nail, he had single-handedly built a mansion extending 97 feet into the air. The numbers—a quarter-million nails, for example—are just one way to appreciate the scale of Burgess’s achievement. With such a monumental product at the end, it can be easy to overlook the daily grind, the unromantic resourcefulness that turned his inspiration into reality.

Burgess says he “tore down barns and outbuildings, and people would have different kinds of places that they would want me to clean up” in exchange for the dislodged materials. This ongoing bartering process allowed Burgess to state that the entire treehouse was made of recycled wood, and with other kinds of recycled materials. And, thank God for that. Burgess says that over the course of the 12 years of construction, the cost of nails more than doubled.

He never stopped, never doubted the project, never got hurt beyond small cuts from nails here and there. He says he saw it like his own personal Field of Dreams, encouraged by the conviction—“without a shadow of a doubt”—that if he built it, “they” would come. Indeed they did. Once Burgess put a roof over the treehouse and opened it to visitors, in 2005, he was quickly welcoming guests from all over the country and even the world. Many simply caught chance glimpses of the treehouse as they passed through, many others planned road-trips specifically to see it. Still others, says Burgess, flew in from as far away as England, France, and Guatemala, among other places. Couples even started lining up to get married in the treehouse, and Burgess told The New York Times that he officiated some 23 weddings there. On account of Burgess’s vocation and the elevated aura, the site came to be known as the Minister’s Treehouse.

“Just like architectural marvels of old, it was a modern-day example of human ingenuity and determination.”

Those who made it to the treehouse, even years ago, still attest to its grandeur, as if it was an icon of ancient architecture. “Looking up at it from the ground, I couldn’t get my head around the fact that one man had created this place all by himself,” says Chad Gallivanter, a videographer who visited the treehouse back in 2009, in a written message. “Just like architectural marvels of old, it was a modern-day example of human ingenuity and determination.”

Pete Nelson—a professional treehouse architect who has built more than 350 over the course of his career, and who hosts the show Treehouse Masters on Animal Planet—was similarly impressed. “As a builder,” says Nelson, “I was just really intrigued by how he managed to take what were clearly just leftover scraps and turn them into this edifice.” With first-hand knowledge of what goes into creating “something like that, and knowing it was just him,” all Nelson could say was, “Wow, this guy is the real deal.” Indeed, Nelson returned years later with a camera crew to shoot an episode of Treehouse Masters about Burgess’s creation.

And so, for years, Horace Burgess played the humble carnival barker, welcoming strangers into his mystical offroad apparition. That changed in 2012, when the authorities permanently shut down visits over safety concerns. According to Burgess, a retired engineer who had come by the treehouse wrote to the state that he “had seen some things that was unsafe,” leading to an inspection that resulted in the declaration of a public hazard. The state, says Burgess, wanted him to pay for new engineering work to be done to bring the treehouse up to code. Burgess wasn’t interested.

“Everything in it was unsafe,” Burgess admits with a laugh. “I see no way that you could make a 97-foot treehouse safe,” at least not in the legal sense. While no visitors had ever been hurt, Burgess didn’t fight the decision—just as he had done before, he simply let it go. He sold the property and returned to private life, his massive creation looming just down the road in majestic obsolescence.

Glenn Clark, the most recent owner of the property, told local television station WBIR that he had no intention of tearing the treehouse down, had no idea what caused the fire, and was upset about its destruction. Clark could’t be reached for comment.

Not everyone, however, was willing to let it go. Lindsey Turner, a graphic designer from western Tennessee, visited the treehouse years after it was formally closed, and trespassed onto the property in 2015. “I just love strange, relatively little-known, off places,” she says, likening the treehouse’s spirit to that of the “Mindfield” in Brownsville, Tennessee, a kind of physical diary documenting the life of the artist, Billy Tripp. The treehouse, she says, was “a living piece of art that was constantly changing. I just thought that’s something I’ve got to try to see”—even if that meant getting loose with the law.

She braved the condemned public hazard on her own, and wrote in a blog postthat “I felt my stomach jump up to my throat as I thought about how I was two, three, four, five floors up on wooden boards that were constructed by a man with no blueprints”—a sensation not exactly quelled by the “widely spaced floor boards” that allowed her to look down and see just how high she had climbed. Still, in yet another nod to Burgess’s amateur architectural prowess, she says it all felt “surprisingly stable.”

The musician Lilly Hiatt, who visited the treehouse just in summer 2019, felt safe for reasons beyond the building’s structural integrity. She understood that Burgess “had so much thoughtfulness in his heart when he was making this,” and she could feel that. She “felt very comforted,” she says, “by the inspiration of it all,” adding that the feeling she had in the house was more intense than any she’s gotten inside a traditional church. “It felt very loving,” she says, and in turn she “didn’t feel too guilty about the trespassing.” It was clear from standing inside that Burgess “built this because he wanted people to see it and feel inspired by it, and that’s what I came here to do.” If she were caught, she figured, “maybe he’ll pardon me.”

Each of these visitors remembers the treehouse for its sheer expansiveness and scale, physically and spiritually, the sense that it was somehow infinite unto itself. “Just when you thought you couldn’t go any further,” writes Gallivanter, “another staircase revealed itself.” Exploring it was a kind of journey through unrelated ephemera that combined to create their own world: furniture, appliances, statues of the 12 apostles, a basketball hoop, graffiti. At its center was an enormous chapel, replete with pews, a pulpit, and a large cross. “I couldn’t get over how massive this room was,” writes Gallivanter. “It was a testament to the man’s faith and what he valued in life.” Burgess thought it fitting to have a church in the trees: “There’s just something about being up above things,” he says, that makes it all “a little bit more tolerable.”

That peace of mind seems to have returned to ground level with Burgess, who met the treehouse’s demise with predictably sagelike stoicism. Fifteen minutes—that’s all it took for the flames to consign his masterpiece to memory. And we’ll probably never even know why: The weather was clear on that October night, and there was no electricity in the structure. Trevor Kerley, Chief of the Cumberland County Fire Department, says the current property owner declined to have the fire investigated.

It’s tolerable for Burgess, in part, because he had already lost something before losing the structure itself. What meant most to him about the treehouse was meeting “a lot of wonderful people” whom he would never have otherwise met—but those introductions essentially stopped when the site was closed.

Past visitors seem to be taking it harder, and in the initial weeks following the fire, Burgess says he was hearing from several people per day. “You don’t know how anything touches another person,” he says. “It’s just story after story of how people were blessed when they visited the house.” Hiatt says that her visit filled her with “a lot of hope,” with “realizing how compelled humans can be by a higher calling.” The Minister’s Treehouse didn’t charge admission, or propel Burgess to any sort of conventional fame. It just was—a defiant, aspirational, proudly strange manifestation of arbitrary inspiration. It “will now be the stuff of legend,” says Turner.

Don’t expect Burgess to tell you what, if anything, will rise in its place. “I’m just waiting,” he says, “on what God wants me to do next.”

You can join the conversation about this and other stories in the Atlas Obscura Community Forums.

[dakitcat]

Happy PRIDE 2018

Have you ever stopped to imagine what it would be like if everyone had to come out?

No matter what your sexuality happened to be. Imagine if you had to come out with it no matter what. Almost comparable to a Christening - maybe not the best choice of comparisons, but you can't sue me for it. We would all get to a certain age at which every single one of our loved ones would come to our hometown, and reunite for a special ceremony: your coming out.

There would be flowers, a pedestal, you wearing really fancy, almost angelical, clothes. Maybe there could even be added a legal part to it, for which you would need an official, and he would add you to the 'public sexuality records' or something like that. The ceremony could be carried out anywhere you wanted as long as there is a closet transported to that location. When the time arrived, you would enter the closet and when the official said the 'words', you would open the door and reveal which sexuality you have decided to go with, since it is a very important decision to take at the tender age of eighteen.

It might sound really unrealistic - because it is - but the concept is still one that I believe worthy of being explored. Because nowadays it is becoming easier to be a part of the LGBTQ+ community (despite all the social and judicial issues still being disputed). More and more people are starting to find it easy to come out, being that the topic has been discussed so much that many have come to accept it, and even normalize it as a simple other way of life - of love. Still, there is a large stigma around 'coming out'. Some people feel as if they have to do it, else they could be seen as liars to their family and friends. But are they?

The way I see it, they are just doing the same thing a heterosexual pal could be doing. They don't feel as if there is a need to announce it to the public because: 

1) the public doesn't need to know; and 2) yeah, the public doesn't need to know!

Your sexuality is a part of your identity, and it is also a part of your life, but it isn't your whole definition. You choosing to omit your sexuality (not lie about it), shouldn't be something that you get shamed for. At the end of the day, you don't owe it to anyone to announce who you want to date. Yet I still see so many people crumbling over the pressure of having to be open about the sexuality that has been deemed 'unusual'. Almost as if society has a rule that says, "Hey! If you plan to do anything out of our norm, you have to make sure that all of us know about it so we can best frame our lives with your personal information."

When it came to coming out, it took me a good amount of time, and a humoungous fight with my own insecurities to finally do it. Coming out to people my age has always been easy since I went to school with them, we're from the same generation, and they are not related to me by blood. I believe the first person I came out to was my great friend Noah. Keep in mind that at the time I went with the term 'Queer' because I did not feel comfortable with labeling myself. Then soon followed my most intimate group of friends at school, whom would have found out either way since I was dating my best friend. Everyone was super accepting. To this day, I think only one of my friends had a negative reaction to it, and it had to do with his religion (and I think a little bit of man-pride getting hurt since he liked me for a bit).

For the next year, I did not come out to anyone else. They were the only ones who knew. I took this time to really figure out 'where I fell into'. Because if I were to approach any of my parents, or other adults in my life, with "I'm open minded," I would have instead gotten the label of 'confused phase.'

I did a lot of soul searching; read up on the things that before I thought were prohibited due to the heteronormative life I was used to; really dug deep into my earliest memories of having the feeling of attraction, or jealousy for people.

I came out of the deep dive a lesbian. And it took a lot out of me to be able to comfortably say it to myself. I didn't doubt it because it made sense. It was like a part of my life had always been in a haze, and all of a sudden it became sparkling, crystal clear. Like seeing in color for the first time. All the confusion you remember having in those moments far behind, now fit neatly into the puzzle of who you are.

I told my oldest sister - she was incredibly supportive of me; then my brother on my mom's side - he didn't even get why I thought it would be a big deal; then my older sister - she was surprised but thought it was cool and vowed to be there for me; then my oldest brothers found out in a game of truth or drink - one had a feeling already, and the other thought it was completely fine.

Just like that, the siblings were covered. The parents would soon be the next ones to come. My oldest sister was so dedicated to my cause that she even came out as bisexual at the dinner table to see how my parents would react. I still didn't feel ready to say anything, so I let some more time pass by. The only thing I was waiting for was for it to feel like I was doing it for myself, rather than for the public, or a specific person. And once that moment came, I went for it!

My dad was the first one to know, because he had always been very chill and accepting. We went out so I could practice for my driver's license, and the entire time I would be looking at him, and asking him if there could ever be something that would make him be mad or disappointed at me. He assured me endless times that there could never be anything capable of doing that. So while we were driving back home, and said it, "I'm gay." He had the biggest smile on his face. He said, "Really?" To which I responded yes, and he was like, "I knew it!!! This entire time, you were always saying no to any boyfriends, and already saw it coming. I mean, in six kids, at least one of you had to be gay, I was finding it strange for all of you to be straight." In between laughs he told me that he had my back no matter what, and that nothing could change his love for me. He then lit a cigarette and we went for keebabs. What we both agreed on at the end of the ride was that my mom could be the only possible challenge for me.

It took over a month for me to finally get the guts to open up to my mom. I had already been cornering her for some days, and she already felt like there was something that I wanted to say (since she's psychic with me). While she was out in the balcony having a smoke, I sat there with her. We were talking about happiness and honesty, and at some point it fell into the love talk. She was saying something about being honest to yourself and others is the best way to lead a life free of worries, and I said, "In all honesty, I think I really like girls." Her face didn't show much of a reaction, which made me shit my pants. Then she proceeded to ask, "Is that really how you feel?" And I nodded my head. "Why didn't you tell me earlier? Did you think I would be mad?" And I said, "Of course! - at this point I'm in tears of joy and relief - You always wanted me to marry a rich doctor, and have a huge mansion. I was afraid to ruin that picture in your head." And then what she said next was literally the best. She said, "Well, you could marry a rich, female doctor." To which I almost had a laugh attack over, because of how adorable it sounded. My mom accepted me, yet she only held reservations upon the fact that this could change how some people behave towards me, and somehow she felt as if I would be in danger because of it.

Coming out to my family made it easier to be around them, because I didn't constantly have this huge secret stuck in my mind. Also, I was relieved to have revealed it while I was not in a relationship because then it wouldn't be a huge surprise, and a pickle to process. I wanted it to be a preparatory heads up. The best way to not make people uncomfortable is to not put them on the spot.

I know what I mean when I say that I am extremely lucky. This happy turn out to coming out is not a story many of us share. For those of you who don’t have the luxury to be in an environment where it is okay for you to be yourself, I want you to know that you will be okay. Many other people will love you. Your sexuality does not define you, it is simply a subtle complement to the amazingness that you already possess within you. Never let yourself be shamed, never let yourself be doubted. You are AWESOME! And I LOVE YOU for all that you are, and all that you have yet to become. Don’t give up, please. 

[mystlnewsonline]

New Post has been published on https://www.stl.news/indycar-unveils-2018-race-car-at-auto-show-in-detroit/68557/

IndyCar unveils 2018 race car at auto show in Detroit

DETROIT /January 16, 2018(AP)(STL.News) — IndyCar unveiled its 2018 race car — and Mario Andretti is evidently a fan.

“I hear a lot of positives, and there is a negative in all this,” the 77-year-old Andretti said playfully. “I don’t have a ride yet.”

Andretti’s talk of getting behind the wheel again was a light moment during IndyCar’s upbeat presentation Tuesday at the North American International Auto Show. Josef Newgarden, the defending series champion, described the new car at length, saying he hopes it will be a step in the right direction in terms of safety, aesthetics and racing excitement. IndyCar CEO Mark Miles sounded confident as well.

“It’s almost eerie because we are having trouble finding criticism. I’d rather have it up front than after the fact,” Miles said. “I’d literally call most of the drivers after they’ve tested and gotten out of the car and say, ‘Give me the off-the-record, unvarnished view. What do you really think?’ They believe that the design ideas have materialized and they will be able to get closer, there should be more passing and more compelling racing.”

Newgarden said the sleek cars with universal aero kits will challenge drivers while also being “more friendly in traffic.”

“It doesn’t act like a winged car as much,” he said. “You can follow a lot closer.”

Then there’s the car’s look — Newgarden said it’s like a throwback to the 1980s and ’90s.

“Maybe we lost our identity a little bit before, so now we’ve got our identity back. The car has a very historical feel, but it’s very forward-looking,” said Jay Frye, IndyCar’s president of competition and operations. “When we tested it at the speedway, and the cars left pit road for the first time, the tires looked huge. … They’re the same tires we’re running before, you just couldn’t see them.”

IndyCar last changed cars in 2012, shortly after Dan Wheldon‘s death in a race in Las Vegas. It was billed as the safest-ever Indy car, and the series has had just one fatality since, when Justin Wilson was hit in the head with debris in 2015.

The car unveiled Tuesday did not include anything covering the driver cockpit. Newgarden said there’s still work to be done in figuring out how any sort of protective screen might be most beneficial.

“I feel like rushing it would be a mistake,” he said. “If we put something on that’s not fully ready, maybe it causes more issues than good.”

Miles sounds optimistic that there will be more progress in protecting drivers’ heads.

“There’s some curvature to the material, so you don’t want distortion to the driver, and is the side-view mirror in front of it or looking through it to get to it? All those things — extraction, temperature, the right amount of durability versus weight, so all those things have to come together,” he said. “The reports I get are that it keeps getting improved, and I’m hopeful that we’re close.”

One safety improvement on the new car is that the side pods have been moved forward, leaving the driver a bit less exposed.

“There’s more crushability here, so there’s more that has to go through this side pod now to get to the driver, so we’re really happy about that,” Newgarden said. “Really that’s the biggest safety improvement that we’re going to get from this new aero package.”

By NOAH TRISTER by Associated Press, published on STL.NEWS by St. Louis Media, LLC (US)

[packernet]

New Post has been published on http://www.packernet.com/blog/2017/03/05/packers-meet-prospects-dalvin-cook/

Packers Meet Prospects - Dalvin Cook

I was a little upset that I wouldn’t be able to feature Cook in my Top 3 running backs series. Cook is considered by many to be the top back in the class and has even been considered the 2017 version of Ezekiel Elliot. With all the high regard, it wouldn’t make much sense to feature the guy since it’s very unlikely the Packers will have a chance to draft him.

The Packers, however, don’t seem to share my concerns. As of March 3rd, I’ve only been able to track down one player the Packers have met with and it’s Mr. Dalvin Cook. Could it be? Could Cook actually fall to 29? Would the Packers consider trading up if he slid within a few picks?

About Dalvin Cook

Dalvin got his start at Miami Central High School where he was named Mr. Football for the state of Florida. Dalvin was also a track and field star for the state as one of Florida’s top sprinters.

Coming out of high school, Cook was considered a 5 star recruit by Rivals, and committed briefly to Clemson before deciding to play for the University of Florida. After Florida went 4-8, Cook made the decision to change his allegiance, and committed to Florida State.

As a Freshman, Cook became the first back to break the 1,000 yard mark in his first year. He also tacked on 8 touchdowns and 203 receiving yards.

As a sophomore he seriously upped his game. In 12 games he notched 1,691 yards on 229 carries for a 7.9 ypc average and 19 touchdowns. He added 24 catches for 244 yards and a touchdown.

In 2016 he showed no signs of slowing down rushing for 1,765 yards and 19 touchdowns. He caught 33 passes for an additional TD.

Blocking

Easily in the asset column, Cook is a great overall blocker. He does a great job shuffling his feet and squaring up with even the biggest rushers. His reaction time is also impressive as he quickly finds a player that slips passed the line, readjusts, and puts a hit on the blocker giving the quarterback at least a few extra seconds to escape.

It might seem sort of strange to pick a play in which he gives up a sack but I put that on the quarterback.  Dalvin not only squares up and hits the linebacker, he holds his block until eventually getting ripped to the side.

The linebacker, by the way, is All-ACC honorable mention and division I All-New England Team Connor Strachan. Not typically the kind of guy a RB can stand up and brawl with.

Protecting the quarterback isn’t the only evidence we have on film of Cook’s blocking ability. He is also pretty talented when tasked with downfield blocks.

The play above is actually pretty remarkable. He makes it look easy as he finds his mark, sprints toward him, squares up, and drives him straight back as though it’s a blocking bag.

Receiving

Overall Cook can destroy you in a lot of different ways. That will be a common theme as we progress. Below I’ll outline three different ways Cook can hurt you as a receiver.

The first two show Cook out of the backfield.

The first of the two shows Cook release into the flat. The art of these plays is to be able to make people miss. Although I’m going to list that as a liability later on, when standing still or moving slowly, like in the play above, he has some shiftiness and can get up the field in a hurry.

Above, Cook  runs a similar route but rather than sitting in the flat, burns down the field. Cook is uncovered in the play but his speed is still on display. As the ball is under thrown, causing Cook to slow down, Miami players are sprinting full speed toward him. Cook is able to turn his body and get up to speed in time to not only beat the Miami defenders, but leave them in a cloud of dust.

In the final example, Cook splits out wide. He’s at the top of the screen.

In the very unfortunate event that a linebacker gets manned up on Cook, you had better hope he doesn’t split out wide.

Such is the case in the clip above. 6-4 242 pound linebacker Mike McCray is playing man to man with Dalvin Cook. It was over before it started. Cook immediately gets behind him and is even able to slow down to make the catch.

Rushing

Something that came as a bit of a surprise to me was the fact that Dalvin Cooks bread and butter wasn’t between the tackles but was around the edge.

Yes it was a touchdown. Look how cook not only has the speed to beat everyone around the edge but flies past the corners and safeties as though they are standing still. Cook’s official 4.49 40 time in the combine is certainly an asset and it won’t be the last time we see Cook take it to the house from around the edge.

Another massive asset of the thick 213 pound Cook is his thump on the goal line. Although he’s much better around the edge than between the tackles, if you need a couple yards don’t be afraid to feed the man.

Never is there a better example than against Michigan. Although the 5’11 Cook gets lost in the pile, it’s not hard to guess where he is by the bodies flying through the air on his way to the end zone. Specifically, you may notice one poor man that decides to go toe to toe with Cook and gets his head taken off. That monster of a man is 6-5 238 pound linebacker, Noah Furbush, may he rest in peace.

Between the tackles is where we get to the good/bad part of Cook. I think a good description of Cook is a freight train. The good part of being a freight train is that if you find space and can get up to speed in a hurry you can do some damage.

Above, Cook finds a hole, is able to make a quick move and get north and south. Once he gets going he’s a wrecking ball. Cook is able to turn an 8 yard play into a 13 yard play using raw power.

Negatives

One things I learned about trains I learned from my grandfather when he found out my brother and I were playing by the train tracks. He told us that even if a train sees us, it can take up to a mile to bring the train to a stop. Do you get what I’m saying?

I took a lot of flack among my college analyst friends when I repeatedly knocked Cook for his inability to change direction. In fact, it’s one thing that he is constantly praised for. Here is an excerpt from Cook’s NFL.com draft profile.

“Keeps feet under him and is able to make lateral cuts at a moment’s notice.”

Ultimately my issue with Cook was vindicated during the combine. Cook’s 3 cone drill (agility test) and 20 yard shuttle (change of direction test) were one of the worst in a very long time and shocked just about everyone… Just about.

In a sense, Cook can make people miss. You can see in the previous play he at least has some ability to jump laterally and get north and south. The issue for Cook comes when he is moving at full speed.  I went on to name his disorder “clumsy feet”. Here are just a few examples of clumsy feet.

I think I’ve made my point. Cook has great ability as a blocker, a receiver, and has incredible burst, straight line speed, and power. Those things coupled together make him lethal and a guy that demands perfection from your defense.

Although his clumsy feet are troubling, I have little doubt he will be tormenting NFL defenses in 2017.  I would be very happy to see him in green and gold next year.