#i was already working on last night's comic so i figured id finish that

[todayisafridaynight]

i miss him

[farfromsugafanfic]

Heartbreak Weather

Genre: Weatherman!Jin, Metropolis/loosely based off comic books, Rivalry, soft Enemies to Lovers

Pairing: Jin/Male Reader

Warnings: all the sexual tension lol, hurricanes

Synopsis: The rival weatherman at Channel 5 just so happens to be Kim Seokjin who you just so happened to have had a thing with in college. Sort of. When a hurricane brings the two of you back together again, the forecast calls for love and dredged up feelings.

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"Will you please turn that off?" you asked, taking a sip of your coffee. Normally, you took it with a little vanilla-flavored creamer, but much like that morning's coffee, you were bitter.

"Aw, why? Seokjin looks so cute in his turtleneck this morning," one of the writers said, fawning over the Channel 5 weatherman. "Maybe you should start wearing turtlenecks. It might boost our ratings." 

You rolled your eyes as the red light came on indicating that you would soon be on camera. You set your coffee to the side and stepped in front of the green screen. 

"Good morning, Metropolis," you said. "You can expect some light rain on your commute today. It should clear up by lunchtime though and it will be partly cloudy for the rest of the day. You watched as the map viewers saw at home shifted as you shifted the topic. "As you know, a hurricane is forming a few hundred miles off the coast. We are currently predicting landfall early next week. I will be traveling to Diamond Beach as the storm approaches to give you the most recent updates. Thanks for watching Channel 4 News, now here's Andrea with traffic."

The red light switched from you and onto Andrea's camera on the other side of the studio. You let out a sigh and walked back to your desk away from the main set. 

"You went to school with him, right?" the same writer asked, still watching Seokjin on the screen. His station gave him more screentime because he was so well loved in the city, often they pan to him coming back from commercial breaks and whenever there was a view question or poll. 

"Yeah," you said. There was only one university near Metropolis that offered a robust meteorology program and most of the city's weather people came from it. You and Seokjin had gone through together, even graduating at the same ceremony. 

"Wow, was he still so stunning in college? Like, I don't think I could've focused if he was in my classes."

"Depends on who you ask."

⋆﹥━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━﹤

5 Years Earlier

"Having trouble focusing?" you asked Seokjin as you noticed his dark eyes were no longer looking down at the computer screen. 

"Hmm, it's a bit hard when you look at the screen like that," he said, smirking and turning around to lean against the desk. "Tell me, what's a guy gotta do to get you to look at him like that?"

"Be a warm front." You watched as a warm front moved towards the city while a cold one moved simultaneously from the other direction. 

"What if I'm a hot front?" He turned to face you, his hip still leaning against the desk, but his body was close enough that it brushed yours as he moved. 

"Seokjin, stop." You clicked a few more times and turned to flip through your textbook. "It's a storm for sure. A thunderstorm or tornado. Shit, it could be anything, how are we supposed to figure this out."

"Its the weather, not heart surgery. We can be wrong fifty percent of the time and still good at our job."

"But, if we're wrong fifty percent of the time, we'll fail this class."

Jin sighed and crossed his arms as his eyes lingered down your body. "Listen, Y/N. We both know that you're going to stress about this for twenty minutes and then figure it out like you always do. Now, come on, let's take a break."

"And do what?" you asked, letting out a breath between your teeth, not tearing your eyes away from the screen.

"I don't know. I have a few ideas though" His breath was against your ear and his body heat radiated against your own. 

"Seokjin, this can't happen."

"Why not?"

"Cause I need to focus on school. I'm here on a scholarship. I can't risk distractions."

Jin sighed and looked down at the weather map on the screen. "It's a thunderstorm," he said. "The currents aren't strong enough for a tornado and based on the patterns, its the most logical." 

You quickly wrote down the answer and his reasoning, realizing that he was right. How he surmised the answer so quickly, especially when he was barely paying attention baffled you. 

"All right, now, come on," he said. "I'm taking you out for lunch and you can't deny me that. I know you're hungry."

"Fine," you said, shutting your textbooks and allowing the computer's screensaver to come on.

⋆﹥━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━﹤

Just hours later that same night, you found yourself looking up at the ceiling of Jin's bedroom. Soft cotton sheets wrapped around your torso and they felt softer than even the best sheets you'd ever owned. His shirtless form was turned away from you and you resisted the urge to reach up and run a hand through his dark hair. He'd let it grow long recently, the ends of his hair beginning to grow onto his neck.

"Stop staring at me," Seokjin said, you could hear the smirk in his voice. He turned around to face you. His eyes were calm and soft like the sheets, but you couldn't help but feel the sadness. The knowing.

"How'd you know?" Your voice was small.

"I could feel it. Your eyes hurt, you know?"

You did know. You knew how much it hurt Jin to see your eyes wander down the shape of his torso. That the way you always reached to push his ill-fitting glasses up the bridge of his nose hurt. That knowing he couldn't reach out and sneak his fingertips underneath the hem of your sweater.

"I'm sorry."

"I know, it's okay."

"It's not, Seokjin. We need to move on. Forget about each other. It's best for our futures."

"You know that's not true."

"Seokjin, we both want the same things in life. We'd be competing with each other for every job. We'd rush to get the story before the other. It wouldn't last."

"We don't know that unless we try."

"Seokjin, I don't want to give myself the chance to hate you."

You got up from the bed and buttoned your shirt, pulled on your trousers, and tied your shoes. Seokjin watched you, didn't try to stop you as you headed towards the door. Gripping the doorknob, you walked out and back down to the sidewalk below. 

Following that day, you didn't see Seokjin again. Sure, he still sat a few rows in front of you, he still presented in class, you glanced over his name in the paper when it was announced he was taking over the weather position for Channel 5. You saw him on billboards and on Reddit posts. Yet, you never met allowed your eyes to meet his again. Unless it was through the warm, freshly printed Metropolis Daily.

⋆﹥━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━﹤

Nearly no one was heading east towards Diamond Beach. Westbound traffic was full of cars heading into the city to weather the storm, while eastbound only consisted of a few cars. Mostly media and others who couldn't drop everything and run from the hurricane. 

You could just make out the Channel 5 van ahead of you. Focusing down on your laptop which was tracking the conditions minute by minute, you tried not to focus on the fact you would likely run into Seokjin. 

This certainly wasn't the first time a hurricane or tropical storm caused you and Seokjin to collide like convergent fronts. Every year you found yourself at Diamond Beach trying not to watch his broadcast from a few meters down the beach.

⋆﹥━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━﹤

Two Hours Later

"Hello, this Y/N Y/L/N reporting for Channel 4 news. Hurricane Roke is expected to make landfall later tonight. Most of Diamond Beach and the surrounding areas have been evacuated as Roke is currently a category four storm. I will be monitoring the storm and providing updates through Twitter throughout the night and I'll be back on the beach at 5am. This has been Y/N Y/L/N covering Hurricane Roke. Now, back to the studio."

You felt Jin's eyes on you as you gave your report. He was about two hundred feet down the beach. He wore a similar coat to your own and even with his hood pulled up you could feel the way his eyes cut through you. 

Once the red light on your camera went off, the one on Seokjin's came on and he began his report. It was nearly identical to yours, Seokjin adding his own flair and charm. Like you wished you could. 

Seokjin finished his broadcast and your filmographer began to pack up. "I'll see you bright and early in the morning?" she asked, her hair catching in the wind and obscuring her face. 

You nodded and helped her pack up the camera and other supplies, working quickly to prevent it from getting damaged from the wind or rain. Walking up the beach and back to the hotel felt like it took forever, especially with the heavy filming equipment. 

Your filmographer had already checked in earlier and headed to her room, carrying the camera and filming equipment. You kept the portable meteorological tools, already anxious to set it up in your room. Jin and his filmographer came in just as you got to the front desk. 

Giving them your name, you handed them your ID and the company credit card. The receptionist furrowed her brow and glanced up at you. 

"It looks like your room was accidentally double booked," she said. "I apologize, but due to the current situation, would you mind sharing?"

"Uh, sure, that's no problem. Who am I sharing with?"

The woman squinted at her computer. "Kim Seokjin."

⋆﹥━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━﹤

"You're not even going to look at me?" Seokjin asked as the two of you set up your computers. He'd let you have the desk while he took the counter of the kitchenette. 

"Not until I get this setup."

Seokjin sighed and pulled out his phone. Service was already finicky, but he managed to pull up Spotify and got music to play. It was soft, as not to disturb your neighbors in the packed hotel. 

You smiled as you heard the familiar tune "Dancing Queen". Jin was a fan of older music and the two of you used to listen to ABBA's Greatest Hits when studying together. 

"You still listen to this?"

"Of course," he said. "It makes me happy."

It made you happy too and when you finished setting up your computer you peaked out the window. The storm was still a couple of hours from landfall, but the trees were already swaying wildly. 

"It's going to be a big one," Jin said, glancing at you and catching your eye. It was the first time you'd truly looked at each other since the day you'd left him on his own. It felt like a lightning bolt skewered you in half. 

"Yeah," you said, sitting down on the bed. "It is."

You traced the seams of the comforter with your index finger. The song switched and this time it was "Can't Help Falling In Love With You". 

Jin finished setting up his computer. Your screen and his looked nearly identical showing a map of the coastline and the storm approaching. He sat down beside you, closer than you would've thought an acquaintance would sit. 

"We should go to bed. Early start tomorrow." His voice commanded you to look at him. "Let's not fight over the bed." Placing down the two extra pillows down the center of the bed, he went to the bathroom to change.

⋆﹥━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━﹤

The storm was in full force when you made your way outside. The four of you: you, Jin, and your two filmographers tried to get onto the beach, but the sand cut your skin. Various debris already littered the beach. Mostly seaweed and tree branches, although you noticed a few shoes and patio furniture from the nearby condos.

"The hotel said we could report from outside," you said. "It'd be safer."

Jin chewed on his cheek and glanced out at the beach. The two filmographers began to set up their cameras and you did you best to ensure your hair didn't fall into your face. You stood away from the wind, finding it hard to breath with it blowing onto your face. 

"Seokjin! Stop!" His filmographer yelled, abandoning his equipment, he rushed towards the other man. You turned to see that Seokjin had taken off towards the beach, seemingly want to report from there no matter the circumstances. 

You looked over at your coworker and she gave you a curt nod, ensuring that she would watch over the equipment. She dragged both cameras inside the lobby one at a time. Giving her an empathetic look, you took off running towards the beach, hoping to catch up with Seokjin before he got entirely soaked. 

When you came to the edge of the beach, you saw that Seokjin was already halfway out, his filmographer not far behind. You sighed and continued out, knowing he was determined to give the report from as close to the middle of the storm as he could.

The filmographer neared the middle of the beach, fearing going any further. When you caught up to him, you stopped to catch your breath, even though it was nearly impossible with the wind. Your breath was swept away as soon as you drew it in. 

"He's crazy," the other man said. "I have no idea why he's doing this." 

"He always has to go the extra mile," you said, rolling your eyes. "Even if it's stupid and dangerous."

Seokjin turned back to look for his camera operator, only to see him halted halfway up the beach. Seokjin was three-quarters of the way up the beach now, reaching dangerously close to the rough tide. He noticed you still running towards him and smiled before a gust of wind knocked him off his feet.

⋆﹥━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━﹤

Your chest constricted when you saw Jin get thrown off his feet. He landed a few feet away in the sand. You ran as quickly as you could, falling to your knees beside him. 

"Are you okay?" you asked, looking him over. 

His eyes looked up at you, obviously taking in your features. Yet, his lips said nothing. 

"You crazy bastard! What the hell were you thinking? Rushing out here like that? You of all people should know how dangerous that is." You could barely catch your breath between words as you placed your hands on his arms to help him sit up. He didn't budge, however, his eyes just locked on your face. 

"What are you doing?" you asked, sighing and dropping your hands from his hands, looking down to meet his eyes for the first time.

He smiled when you finally met his eyes and leaned up to connect his lips to yours. It was brief due to the circumstances, but it felt like lightning coursing through your veins. 

"I ran cause I knew you would chase me."

[emdythewriter]

A new light | chapter one (Elriel)

Summary:

Azriel Mystic has been in live with his best friend since the moment he met her three years ago. Elain Archeron has been in love with her best friend since the day she moved into his apartment building three years ago. However neither of them have told the other about their feelings. They go through a routine every single day which includes pushing their feelings to the back burner. Azriel is starting to lose his patience though, he’s done waiting and is ready to make a move. Elain however is scared to lose her best friend.

Tiny Dancer interrupted Azriel’s peaceful dream that morning, cutting off the dream he did not want to leave. It was right in the middle flirting with Elain--his best friend--when the classic Elton John song cut through his words. Grumbling he reached out for his phone, answering it without even looking at the caller ID. He knew exactly who was calling him for two reasons. One it was the way he woke up every morning for work because he never set and alarm, and two there was only one person he knew that loved Elton John more than anything.

“I was having a good dream,” Azriel answered the phone in his morning rasp. Elain’s soft chuckle came through the phone along with the slamming of cabinets as she moved around her kitchen.

“Too bad we have to get to work,” Elain answered him and he knew by the sound of her voice she was smiling. Both of them worked as personal assistants, Azriel to his friend Rhys in his law firm and Elain for an interior design company. Both buildings were on opposite sides of the street from the other so the pair of friends tended to walk or take a cab to the office.

“I’ll call in sick,” Azriel said already sitting up and pushing his blankets off his body. He held his phone between his ear and shoulder as he moved around the room to get ready. Lucky for him he had decided on showering the night before after a long night out with his brothers, plus it was casual business attire for him most of the time minus court days.

“Rhys will never let you,” Elain said on the other end.

“Fake it until I make it.”

“You’ll never make it,” Elain said jokingly. Azriel laughed as he pulled out a clean pair of dress pants and a collared shirt from his closet.

“Isn’t my best friend supposed to believe in me at all times?” He teased as he wiggled his way into his pants, still managing to hold the phone in place.

“I do believe in you,” Elain said and he knew there was a “but” coming based off her hesitation. “I also know Rhys and as good as you at getting information your boss is better.” Azriel rolled his eyes even though he knew what she was saying was the truth. He had earned himself the name of “spymaster” among the law firm but it wouldn’t matter when going against his brother. Rhys had a way of knowing every little thing before everyone else, it's what made his such a sought after lawyer.

“Whatever I’ll meet you downstairs in two minutes,” Azriel hung up and finished getting dressed. Another thing about the two of them was that they lived two floors apart in the same building of their apartment complex. It was actually how they met and became friends three years ago.

They were moving in on the same day. Her boyfriend at the time was helping her move everything in while she stood back and directed him. Azriel had been walking up a flight of stairs when he caught them. Elain was smiling and happy while the boyfriend with the red hair groaned and complained the whole time. He thought it was quite comical and told Elain this when they officially met the next day.

Azriel grabbed his keys off the hook by the door. Then stuffed his wallet and phone into his pockets as he headed out of the apartment and downstairs to where Elain waited. She was wearing another sundress today. This one was a bright yellow with little daisies and butterflies spotted all over. The dress was longer than her other ones, ending just below her knee. Her sleeves were ruffled and the dress was a v-neck cut, at the center she wore the necklace she never took off.

The charm on the gold chain was a bouquet of pink lilies tied by a white bow. Azriel had gotten the necklace for the year they met as a christmas present. Since the day Elain had opened the small box and asked him to put it around her neck she had not taken it off. Azriel smiled now just thinking about the memory as he wrapped an arm around his best friend’s shoulders.

“Ready for the office?” He asked smiling down at her. She had to lean back so she could return the smile given the more than a few inches height difference between them.

“Is it bad we haven’t even left but I already wish we were coming home?” Elain asked as they began their trek down the sidewalk. The office building were a few blocks from where they lived and unless it was raining or snowing the duo always walked.

“Just a few more months and then you’ll have enough saved to open your shop,” Azriel said rubbing her shoulders in comfort. The only reason Elain had taken the job she knew she would hate was because of the money. By working with the company as long as she had and saving as much as possible she would have enough to open her business at the beginning of next spring. Elain had told Az about her dream to own a florist shop and considering how Velaris was a hot spot for weddings there would be no shortage of income.

“I think those months are during into years,” she complained as she rested her head against her friend’s shoulder.

“Years are turning into decades and decades into centuries, I’ve heard this before Elle.” She smiled as Azriel recited her go to verse of complaining. He always thought it was cute the way Elain moaned and groaned when she was unhappy, but deep down she knew he was already putting a plan together in order to cheer her up.

“Do I really complain that often that you’ve memorized it,” she was trying to sound embarrassed but truthfully Elain loved that he paid such close attention to her emotions and movements.

“You complain about your job everyday you have to go, of course I know it,” Az said like it was that obvious and considering she knew he was stating a fact she supposed it was.

“I’ll just find something new to complain about then,” Elain shrugged.

“How about we discuss something more fun.”

“Like what?”

“What show do you want to binge next now that we’ve finished Lucifer?” This was a much better topic for discussion and Elain found herself sad she hadn’t thought of it before. She hummed in thought as they reached a corner and waited for the white walking man to appear.

“Feyre told me she talked Rhys into watching Outlander with her now that it’s on Netflix,” Elain suggested remembering how her future brother-in-law was telling her about his new competition, Jamie Fraser.

“Is that the one where they’re in Scotland and she travels back in time a few centuries?” Azriel asked a puzzled look on his face like he was trying to decipher other shows in his head.

“Yeah it’s supposed to be amazing,” Elain said but she had already tried the first episode after she left her sister’s house the other night. She fell asleep halfway through the first episode and couldn’t bring herself to try again.

“How about The Flash? Cassian said a new season was just added,” Azriel countered reading her features and knowing her heart wasn’t really in the show she thought of.

“The Last Kingdom? It’s historical and full of action which is something we both love. Plus Mor has binged it a hundred times and is really pushing me to watch it.”

“Sounds perfect.” Their conversation halted as they reached the front door to the interior design company Elain worked for.

“Guess this is me,” Elain said softly really wishing she didn’t have to go through the gates of hell again. It was only Monday too.

“Keep your head up and start the timer I set on your phone so you know when to meet me for lunch,” Elain laughed at the last part feeling her chest lift slightly. Azriel always set a timer everyday so neither of them missed their lunch dates. They weren’t actually dates but Elain referred to them as nothing else but that in her head.

“Where shall we go today?” Elain asked wanting to stall the inevitable a little longer. They still had a few minutes before they needed to walk into the office anyways.

“Rita’s, I have to meet Rhys around the corner afterwards so it’ll be easier on me,” Azriel shrugged and she was one hundred percent fine with the choice. Rita’s was a bar and grill that her whole family and all her friends were obsessed with, they went every Tuesday night for trivia.

“You know I’m always down for that,” Elain smiled before looking down at her watch and realizing she needed to leave. “I have to go so wish me luck.”

“You don’t need it,” Azriel told her before turning and heading across the street to the law firm. She watched him go with a bright smile on her face. The moment his figure disappeared through the glass doors she sighed and turned on her heel, heading into her own place of work. Elain really wished it was next spring already.

(Let me know if you want to be tagged!)

[whatevenismyaestheticidk]

Things I’ve heard high schoolers say pt 2

Person 1: But air doesn’t splash Person 2: How do we know that, Im splashing the air right now.

Person: Prove me wrong. Prove fish can’t see air.

Person: I think you underestimate just how poor I am.

Person: I just invented a new thing. No Romo. Like no homo but with romance cause I’m lonely. Get it?

Person: So yah I burned my hair cooking ramen.

Person: Well I figured he wasn’t an adopted iguana.

Person: Say it. You know god is watching.

Person 1 upon heading the news of George Bush’s death: Wait he’s still alive? Person 2: No he’s dead that’s the point.

Person: I got it. *five second pause* no I don’t got it.

Person 1: My name is (name), but you can call me yours. Person 2: Okay nice to meet you yours.

Person: Don’t drink it all fool.

Person: Bruh you could literally turn in a gay fanfic and he’d give it an A.

Person: Bruh, what is this triangular accusation?

Person 1:It’s call physics. Person 2: Yah but I don’t take Physics hence they should not apply to me.

Person 1: Discreet. Person 2: No discr-yeet *dabs*

Person 1: Be impressed with my ability to bull shit. Person 2: I mean, it’s gotten you this far.

Person: Why do I feel like finals are lowkey Russian roulette? Like okay I made it through most of them but I still have a few pulls of the trigger to go and one of them might get me.

Person 1: Murder. Just do it. Person 2: I didn’t know that nike was sponsoring murder.

Person: How do mermaids reproduce if they’re just like conjoined legs?

Person 1: Frozen Yogurt Person 2: Fro yo Person 1: Frozen YOgUrt Person 2: Fro Yo Person 1: FROZEN YOGURT

Person: All I have to do to commit suicide is jump from my parents expectations to my grades.

Person 1: I mean yah I cheated on that test. Person 2: Man your love life it DOOMED!

Person: I was seeing if I was tripophobic by repeatedly stabbing my finger with my pen.

Person: You do know that crickets exist during the day right?

Person 1: Hey (person 2), we’re friends right? Person 2: ….. What do you want. Person 1: You know, that sandwich looks real good. *person 2 hand them the sandwich* OMIGOD THANK YOU SO MUCH I LOVE YOU!

Person: Omigod (person’s name) is going through puberty!

Person: If you pulled my ear I would have ripped out your nostril.”

Person 1: She’s attacking me! Person 2: No, he’s beating a woman, that’s not polite.

Person 1: I know many things! Person 2: like what? Person 1: ..... Person 2: my point.

Person: My shoes will be sparkly red stilettos. Fight me Dorothy.

Person: umm hello Christmas miracle even though I’m not Christian. Come at me 15 years from now!

Person 1: you’d make a really good baldie Person 2: yah you have a really rest head shape

Person: you know teletubbies? Yah that but compressed.

Person 1: I mean how will you become American? Person 2: paint me white, I’ll get a passport.

Person 1: I’m so funny. Person 3: it’s hard not to be when your life is a joke.

Person 1: So I’ve decided that my new career choice is to make school specific memes Person 2: That's Plan A? Yeash... at least Plan B lands you some cash

Person: I’m so small and bitter I’m like a human expresso

Person: You know what I’d name a baby kangaroo if I had one? David Jowie.

Person: I’m just saying that the orange red glitter crayon is you.

Person: I feel like a 1940’s schoolgirl who goes to an all girl finishing school where embroidery is a required class.

Person: I started high school with straight A’s, now I’m not even straight.

Person: Yeah, I’d swear by comic sans.

Person: (Persons name)stop being depressy and you’ll be more sucessy

Person: You can totally be insecure and self absorbed at the same time.

Person 1: Are you kids okay? Person 2: Besides crippling depression yeah.

Person: I don’t know it’s just giving me pig vibes.

Person: What drugs where the animators for “Pink Elephants on Parade” on?

Person: long story short I make like a semi hot guy.

Person: If I where pregnant id just be like 'you put this thing inside of me, you're helping me until it's out.'

Person: These girls asked me what type of  guys I like and being the simple gay I am, I completely blanked

Person 1: why do you read on your phone if you get carsick at 20 minutes? Person 2:Because it works for the first 19 minutes.

Person: Three Indians, a Thai, a Colombian, and an American walk into a bar. Just kidding they aren't old enough to drink. Three Indians, a Thai, a Colombian, and an American walk into a school cafeteria...

Person: I can't do alcohol cause I'm not of age but I can do drugs because they're illegal for everyone.

Person 1: you can't have a breakdown, it's the third day of school. Person 2:... so?

*Group of kids singing Bohemian Rhapsody in twelve different keys* Person: For gods sake choose a key!

Person: For gods sake that was complicated. You didn't need to send out a survey to see which episode of which season of which show to watch.

Person: Honestly I'd chose stab over dab any day.

Person 1: She said she'd throw me out of the window. Person 2: She never did. Person 1: She never did.

Person: What language is this? *pause* Oh wait it's English.

Person 1: I mean it's pretty hit or miss. Person 2 from across the courtyard: I guess they never miss, huh?

Person: Chu-chu bitch. I’m a train.

Person after loosing game of kahoots: I’m going to ka-shoot myself.

Person: So basically I need to learn Hungarian for a song.

Person: No one screams their sneeze, its not human

Person: If I where a mosquito I would bite you and you’d get malaria and die.

Person: That tide pod aesthetic.

Person: No I loved Barney, Barney was my bo.

Person: If I where my own boyfriend I’d dump me.

Person: It's already a really good song but then it's dubstep so it's extra good.

Person: No one is EVER to old for coolmathgames.com

Person 1: Why are you using a poon? Person 2:….. Person 1: WHY ARE YOU USING A POON?!

Person 1: I’ve been blonde for 16 years. Person 2: So what? I’ve been brown for 16 years and you don’t see me coloring myself white!

Person: Yes. Scrape the sweat off my hand.

Person: No one cares about a square cube of water.

Person: We’re melanin intoxicated.

Person: Well my life may be a mess, but at least I’m not doing drugs. Yet.

Person: Negative 13 out of 10, do not recommend.

Person: Yah that’s gunna have to be a no from me.

Person: Fool me once......fool me twice.......fool me as many times as you want, my first name is dumbass.

Person 1: Ya know, I think the Americans have the order of dates right JUST BECAUSE you can do 4/20/2019. Person 2: Okay but they’re still wrong though.

Person with AirPods: And where are YOUR AirPods? Thats what I thought you broke bitches.

Person: Salem witch trials bitches.

Person: La Croix, the AirPods of the soda world.

Person: Who needs a thermometer when you have… your hands!?

Person 1: It’s time to bring back SEXY MASQUERADE BALLS Person 2: It really is. I need an excuse to wear an incredibly uncomfortable dress that's so big I can't even walk through doorways. Person 1: And to wear a swan inspired mask that doesn’t cover enough of my face to deem myself totally anonymous enough to be half as bold and daring as i plan on acting that night but everyone else is on board we’ll all just forget about it the next day. Person 2: That's to specific for you to have made up on the spot, you've thought about this.

Person: It was lady Macbeth that drugged and made the guards drunk, without her Macbeth would just be like “I guess I’ll stab him???” Person: It’s like playing where’s Waldo but the page is India and I’m Waldo.3Person: Why are there so many frowny faces everywhere?

Person: This group chat is weird. It's either homework, deep philosophical conversations, or memes, there's no in between.

Person 1: Honestly, where DID it come from Person 2: The endless abyss that is the internet.

Person: Are you really blaming our generational depression on Jake Paul?

Person 1:  Oh. My. God. Guys. Keep your carbon dioxide away from my computer. Person 2: But sharing is caring. Person 1: But my computer doesn’t need this kinda of negativity in its life right now.

Person: Sweetie, if you think I’m going to stop wearing my favorite dress just because you kissed me in it, you are dead wrong.

Person with a metal straw: I don't drink broke.

Person: My whole life has become that sock on the floor. It's just there. When did life screw us over and then just ex? I’m just gonna write a book, and the last sentence will be life screwed them over and then exed. A story of the main character who gets screwed over, so I can get that 'it be like that sometimes' reaction.

Person in group chat: Positivity- I will make you feel better about being an idiot. Self Doubt- I will highlight all of your mistakes and set low standards for you so you'll never be disappointed. Me to Self Doubt- I'm listening...

Person 1: Sadly the disappointment never goes away... Person 2: Man we're a sad lot this time of year.

Person 1:It’s almost my favorite time of the year Person 2:Ahh yes. Singles awareness day, also known as chocolate sales at Walgreens eve, also known as... Valentine's Day. Person 1:... Oh... I meant rainy season.

Person: Being antivax is like swimming in shark infested waters because you're afraid the bridge could break lmao.

Person: I learned how eat a kumquat this weekend.

Person: It’s so sticky. It’s like clear cheese.

Person: Hamburger helper? More like hamburger help me pass this class.

Person 1: So I slipped on a grape… Person 2: You got K.O.’ed by a grape (person’s name), how does it feel.

Person 1: Look at me, I’m fine. Person 2: Well how many drugs did you take. Person 1: Several.

Person 1: Did you just say it’s ALMOST FEBRUARY? Person 2: Yes, it’s January 72nd.

Person: I knew your comedic standards where low, but poop jokes? Really?

Person: What? So are you insinuating the fact that reliablest isn't a word?

Person 1: [bitter old man voice] back in my day, tik tok was a kesha song. Person 2: Back in my day we had wires attached to our AirPods.

Person: There's a reason rainbows aren't straight. Just saying.

Person reading sheet music and seeing mf crescendo: I forgot that mezzo forte was a thing for a second so I thought it said mother fucker as a crescendo but mood

Person: He looks like a fine piece of toasted white bread.

Person: If life hasn't given me a fist bump by now, why should I give life one?

Person: we all died in 2012 this is hell.

Person 1: Who wants a pamphlet on condoms? Person 2: Why do you have this? Do you collect them? Person 1: Yah it’s my hobby. I have this one, one on HIV and one on teenage pregnancy.

Person: We live a society where reading about assassins and gory details is a hobby.

Person: Stop breathing so loudly on my thumb!

Person 1: I’m the comic relief. Person 2: For what? Person 1: Myself.

Person1: Who’s your valentine this year? Person 2: Me, myself and I. Person 1: Wow three valentines, you really can’t keep them away can you?

Person: Why do women gotta get their period, why not men. I wish I was born a seahorse.

Person 1: No we can’t all fit, her car is smol. Like you. Person 2:  Says you miss 5 foot nothing lmao. Person 1: Hey we’re the same hight so says you miss 5 foot nothing.

Person: No, that’s cheating no emotionally disabling people.

Person 1: Why is it that we’re talking about someone burning eggs on two different group chats. Person 2: Hey I didn’t burn them. Person 3: Cause why not?

Person 1:  That’s not how an Australian accent works. Person 2: This is why I’m not Australian, I don’t have the koala-fications.

Person 1: I’m Indian, numbers run through my blood. Person 2: That’s like saying I’m going to marry my cousin just because I’m white.

Person: So I ate veggies and hummus for lunch but then I counterbalanced it by eating a spoon full of straight Nutella.

Person: Seagulls, California Pigeons, what’s the difference?

Person 1: I humbly apologize and request your forgiveness. Person 2:  I humbly decline your request for forgiveness.

Person: I think I’m permanently stuck somewhere between “If you mess with me I’ll fight” and “If you mess with me I’ll cry.”

Person 1: It was implied! Person 2: What’s implied is your inability to accept that fact that I’m right!

Person 1: I got lazy because I was eating Pringles. Person 2: She values Pringles more than me.

Person: Yo, you be the crazy ex girls they be talking about in memes.

Person: I swear (persons name) if I hooked up with squidward in your dream your subconscious and I need to have a little talk.

Person: You get to die, and you get to die! Everybody gets to die!

Person: How do you just add a child?

Person 1: Look at this ink based pencil. Person 2: A pen?
 Person 1: This egg is all broken. Person 2: It’s like you then, you both broke under the pressure.

Lakshmi: Don’t force your opinion, voice it.

Person 1: If I where a fruit, which one would I be? Person 2: Sushi. Person 1:… Sushi isn’t a fruit.

Person: I mean it’s not straight up “Yo come here I’m gunna kill you.”

Person: Bye gays, bye (other girls name).

Person 1: No (person B) stop. Just shut up. You’re making me loose brain cells. Person 2: But… Person 1: No. Just no.

Person: Stop. That is non-consensual pizza eating.

Person 1: Cheese is not a vegetable! Person 2: Well it’s not a meat either! Person 3: Guys… It’s dairy.

Person: Idiots have priority over just regular dumb people

Person: God melted the polar ice caps just to make it rain for Noah then refroze them. I don’t know (kids name) I’m not god!

Person: You and I will go out, and leave them to their raw fish rolled in sea salad.

Person: Does anyone else get really energized when they change their room? Just me? Okay.

Person: I hope you know I will diss you guys to the end of the earth.

Person: Bruh talk to (person’s name) I don’t know sh… *notices teacher looking at her*…niahhh.

Person 1: The thing is, I don’t want to be 80 that’s rough. Person 2: Then just die at 50.

Person: You’d be scrambled eggs with hair.

Person: Seeing you two fighting, it’s like seeing a piece of light fighting a black hole.

Teacher: What can you tell me about probability? Student 1: I hate it. Student 2: Dont you mean you? Student 1: Yes both.

Person: My brain has the dumb I’m sorry

Person 1: If my first word was no, I’m assuming that’s foreshadowing for them my family disowns me after I renounce religion and systemic abuse. Person 2: Or…. You just need to make sure your last word is yes. Person 1: Yes to what though? Person 2: ‘Are you dying?’ Yes.’ Pessimism, just your style. Person 1: That’s true.

Person: My parents don’t message me, they’re the type of people who CALL. Where did I get my social anxiety from??

Person: Well guys it's been great knowing you I’m just going to drown now.

Person: I figured out a new diet regime, it’s called sleeping until noon and just not eating breakfast.

Person: The f on my birth certificate was the doctor paying their respects.

Person: Chocolates with raspberry filling are the sole reason I’m still alive.

Person 1: Isn’t Latin a dead language? Person 2: You’re a dead language!

Person: Hydrate before you diedrate.

Person 1: you have a son named Spider-Man? Person 2:  what noooo! Person 3: well don’t expose her!

Person: That awkward moment when you just really don’t care about people.

Person 1: (Person 2) and I will be over here with my virgin margarita and her water. Person 2: Hey! I want apple juice! Person 3: Why are you not drinking (Person 1)? Person 2: Because she’s to single, and also she’d strip. Person 1: Woahh! How dare you assume that I’m not drinking because I’m to single?

Person 1: Ya know, I think I’m going to have to jazz hands my way through hell. Person 2: All of us will.

Person: Brown town children, y’all find someone in India?

Person 1: Wow you have the best backup singers. Person 2: I only hire the best, at least 5 stars in yelp. Person 1: Well good because that’s  the sound they’re making.

Person: The cold kills everything, it’s like my heart.

Person 1: Remember the rolls I brought to school last year that I used to give you? The ones with paneer and the really good spices? Person 2: Yah? Person 1: This is not at all the same thing.

Person 1: What’s stevia? Person 2: It’s like sugar but no.

Person 1: Yeetus Skelettus. Person 2: Fetus Deletes? Honey, that’s called abortion.

Person: Anything for you. That’s what you said. Anything for you. But when I ask for just one bite of your pasta? No!

Person 1: I've written 1,300 words and don’t have a thesis statement or topic question Person 2: Yeah, you need to figure that out.

Person 1: you know I had a dream that you where in a romantic relationship with a toaster. Person 2:  wasn’t that your relationship with (ex’s name)? Person 1: you’d have more chemistry with a toaster.

Person: Can people read colors? Cause I am ooo.

Person: It’s like hands but medusa

Person: You look like a cardboard jellyfish that’s brown

Person 1: Two of us like boys. Person 2: We all like boys. Person 1: Two of us like ONLY boys.

Person: you’re like a reverse plant. You convert oxygen into carbon dioxide.

Person: Shhhhh. I’m not in physics, let me be dumb in peace.

Person: Why are you laying down like some greek god, get up you brown child.

Person 1: Do all of you just think you’re going to be single? Person 2: I already am why not keep the streak going to get a high score?

Person: and now cracks of light are coming out from around the sides like some sort of computer Jesus!

People 1 and 2: Rock Paper Scissors Person 3: shoot me please.

Person 1: not since 9/11 you can’t. Person 2: dang. You just tossed your whole country just to prove a point. I’ve never been so proud.

Person 1: what is an angle of depression? Person 2: it’s my life. Person 1: no it’s you because it’s not straight.

Person: Boom. Lesbians.

Person 1: Well what if two rocks just washed up at the same time and humans. Person 2: Evolution.

Person: Watermelon isn’t good anymore, I swear its just water with food coloring.

Person: You being dumb makes me want to correct you, sos too being dumb cause I’m on vocal rest.

Person: well (persons name) who have you a mouth?

Person: Teachers that grade late work deserve all the love and cookies and cake in the world.

Person 1: honestly I just want to die right now. Person 2: same. Literally same.

Person: I just feel like a single molecule lost in space.

Person: who’s gunna stop me? God? Damn him to hell.

Person: the line is not actually straight it’s like (students name)

Person 1: It’s your favorite sleep deprived gay. Person 2: But I’m my favorite sleep deprived gay. Self love. Person 1: We Stan.

Person 1: Why do you have a tool? Person 2: Because my hair is moist.

Person: eating lead was an otherworldly experience

Person 1: I have everything stolen from me 2: at least you have the tiniest bit of dignity left 3: what dignity? 1: exactly

Person 1:( holding up katsup) does this go on salad?

Person:I’m turning red! Me! A brown girl!

Person: I’m not trying argue that we should date, I’m just saying.

Person 1: what’s your biggest turn on? Person2 : a light switch Person 2: or then leaving.

Person 1: what is the most attractive retire on someone Person 2: my own face

Person: you’d be that one bar do white chocolate that just sits in the feidge because no one wants it

Person: that’s like saying I’d rather see your shirt than your face.

Person: why would I shut up when I can shut (kids name) down

Person: Subtle. Gay. Vibes. I’m telling you.

Person: just watch me write my ee on all the reasons why nick caraway is gay. Just watch me.

Person: Why are you stereotyping. What if the body doesn’t want trucks, what if he wants to be a fairy.

Person: being ace is basically just eww no but like forever.

Person: Stop trying to science your way out of being wrong.

Person: even if you did ask me out I’d still say no so then you’d even be rejected by a trash can

Person 1: you can’t read cheese color. Person 2: yellow?

Person 1: Think about  it like you’re brown Person 2: She is brown Person 1: Then act like it

Person: You’re not an ugly frog, you’re a beautiful human being. Person: I am. Very very dumb. And also. Bisexual.

Person: I was thinking of something smart but then I forgot what it was.

Person: I want to skip the crush phase and just make out with someone.

Person 1: The only way to get into the Holland family is to marry in through Paddy. Person 2: (Person 1’s name) this isn’t the royal family.

Person: Omigod you looked like the human version of squid ward.

Person: I want to be smart. Where can I learn smart stuff?

Person: But plant the seed and smoke the weed and chop the cane.

Peeeson 1: that is the definition of meter? Person 2: about 3 feet. Person 1: okay thanks America

Person 1: who’s Tom Holland? Person 2: Spider-Man you uncultured swine!!

Person: I am not a children

Person: Ohh dang yeah forgot chickens existed for a while

Person: Hey! Don’t narrate my water!

Person: I don’t read water.

Person: Think of it as a relationship. If you and your ex break up they are salty but you profit because you wanted to end it but if you end it weak, then y’all will argue back and forth and get nowhere with ending it while still exchanging insults.

Person: You know those really sexual mattress adverts?

Person: Oh please, you have the sexual appeal of an easy bake oven.

Person 1: weed is a gate way drug Person 2: YOURE A GATEWAY DRUG!

Person: (first, middle, last name), I love you to the end of the earth. But you are a daft child.

Person 1: She’s like that type of girl. She’s the long paragraph white girl. Person 2: Well that’s a niche if I’ve even seen one.

Person 1: swing you two fight is like watching two ants fight. Person 2: you friking piece of bacteria!

Person: I’m just an intellectual.

Person: I will murder your face off.

Person: that’s like a kilometer tall.

Person: It’s weird when I pet you horizontally.

Person: to be honest I thought those were rocks in a jar for the longest time. Turns out they weren’t.

Person: does she have a brother or gay tendencies

Person: I’m going to slap your hand like it’s a fricking spider.

Person: I like your face better blurry.

Person: every night at about midnight someone starts googling astrology

Person: I will kick you. I will murder your soul.

Person 1: I’m just going to marry a millionaire. Person 2: Where are you gunna finds a millionaire in this economy?

Person: Welcome to my tea party, there isn’t any tea to drink, but we have a lot of it to spill.

Person: Yah, it was something about sex or something.

Person: You’re all uncultured swines.

Person: I’m about as straight as a sine curve.

Person 1: They’re not Oreo’s you dumb head Person 2: I know that dumber head. Person 3 :Shut up dumbest heads

Person: As an ex foetus i can say with authority that if my mother had aborted me i wouldn't have known nor would i have given a fuck

Person: I’ve just accepted I’m going to fail this test. I’ve gone through the 5 stages of grief already.

Person: Yes I’m blind that’s why I need glasses fool.

Person: what the fork do you want you little son of a biscuit.

Person: Anyway now I’m taking Tylenol PM and I’m going to actually sleep tonight that’ll be fun.

Person: I need all the hoodies. ALL OF THEM.

[supersoldiersruined-me]

And the Winner Is...

A/N: This is my entry for @mss4msu 500 celebration challenge! I’m super late on this one too, thank you for being patient! 💕It’s my second work with Zac so it’s still quite plain and simple, although I’ll be posting a smuttier part later on (following this storyline.) I just thought I’d make this a fluffy oneshot and then whoever wants to read the smut will have it in a seperate text. 🤷‍♀️ Warnings: none really, I don’t even think there’s a swear word... Word count: 2.5k Summary: After several calls to your local radio station and five good answers, you find yourself owner of a VIP pass for the New York comic con. There’s that one man in particular you wish to see, and little did you know he had planned this all along.

Main Masterlist

You’re holding the ticket in your hands, your thumb runs over the large textured letters. You’re still unable to process the euphoria surrounding the events that lead to this day. Your name is written under the New York Comic Con logo, its beautiful lanyard dangles from your hands as you twirl it around to look at the pattern. The softness of the couch has never been so welcoming as it envelopes you in your downfall from the heavens. The laminated ticket comes to your chest, followed by you giggling in excitement and tapping your feet to the ground. The phone in your pocket rings, and you hurry to pick it up.

“Hello?” You answer without reading the ID.

“Hi Y/N! How are you?” Your friend chimes from the other side.

“Oh, hey! I’m…” You ponder whether to tell or not. “I’m doing great,” you finish quickly as not to leave any suspicion.

“Riiight. Expected someone else?” You bite your lip to keep from laughing some more. She knows where you’re headed to, but not what’s actually hidden behind all this. “Well anyway, if you want me to help you pack for your trip I’m free all night.” She giggles when you stay silent. You end up accepting her offer, unsure if you could go the entire evening without combusting of joy. You figure that having her around would help you stay down to earth - but most importantly, it would keep the scenarios from playing in your mind.

You’re happy to realise that both seats next to you remain empty as the plane shakes off the ground. Once the flight is steady and you’ve lost sight of the city lights, you fold your knees over the arm rest as you get comfortable for the short flight. A variety of films is available from the on-board entertainment, including very recent titles, and some of your favourite series. So much for the book you had packed, you think. The soft vibrations help numb your mind and soon you’re well into a proper nap; an earphone securely playing the soundtrack to a Disney movie, the other hanging over your shoulder as it got pulled out not too long after.

Someone’s backpack strap is what has you jolting up at your arrival. You stretch as best you can in the confined space, reaching over to your left for the cubicle window. The rainy weather is not enough to dispirit you as you close it back and pick up your stuff, ready to have a great weekend at the convention. You’re in the last bunch out of the plane and through customs.

You set your bag onto the plushy bench at the foot of the bed - which is way too big for one person, you think - and let yourself fall on your back; the supple material has you bouncing a couple times. As you take a few deep breaths, you let your hands roam the space next to you, the silky fabric of the duvet-cover allows your fingers to glide easily, and it soon feels like you’re swimming in your own little world. The room is dark; the only thing coming in is the filtered light of the blinking advertisement panels outside. The dim ambiance of Time Square that’s just a few blocks down helps your mind drift off, and as if someone had dropped their knocked-out, fully-clothed kid on their sister’s spare bed, you lay there, content, before finally falling asleep.

A knock at the door pulls you out of your beauty sleep, and you thank the night’s unexpected crash for the fully functional outfit.

“Hi, can I-” You stop yourself when the door won’t go wider than a couple inches, the chain lock still well in place. “I’m sorry. Hi!” A familiar face waits with a white box in hand, and the same sweet smile. It’s his assistant. She had skyped you to explain what the pass included and later to explain the schedule of your plane.

“I hope I’m not too early for you. I’m just dropping this off. The convention starts at ten,” she begins, and then waits for your reaction. She smiles at your confusion. “Feel free to call me if you need a ride. I think you’ll like it. Congratulations again!” She winks as she taps on the box before walking away into the long hall. Suddenly, the furthest door down the hall opens slightly and your heart skips a beat on the spot. His tall silhouette barely makes it under the door frame as he steps out to get his special delivery of newspapers. Dark jeans held around his waist by a black leather belt. No shirt. Before he can stretch back up and see you, you squeal your way back into the room, then slam the door before leaning against it. Giggles escape your lips and you can’t help but dance around a little. Pictures surely didn’t do him justice.

The soft cardboard of the box tears slightly under your tight grip. A small cut gives you a peek at what’s hiding inside. With a slight spark of excitement you rush towards the table in the small living space and lay it on the marble. The small ribbon is easily torn away and you pull out a Nerd HQ t-shirt; the fabric is soft in your hands, the colours remind you of an 80s arcade room. The symbol is spelled out in a neon-like font, and stripes run down the side seems. You pick up the small note at the bottom of the box and gasp as you read it:

“Dear nerd,

Thank you for participating in our contest! I hope you enjoy your stay and that you have fun at the convention. But then again, you’ll get to meet me so that’s pretty rad!

I’ll see you later Y/N,

Zac ❤”

The last few words are hard to read as your eyes slowly fill with tears of joy. He’s taken the time to write a little message for you and it honestly beats getting a like from him on one of your tweets. You had been able to talk to him over the phone for a couple minutes when him and his assistant called to give you the result of the draw. He later texted you a simple hello, which stretched into a pretty deep conversation about mental health and upcoming movies. About a week later he warned you that his phone might have been hacked, and that for your privacy - and his - you had accepted to stop talking until you could meet. Knowing that you’ll be able to see him in person definitely has you nervous and shaking.

Getting back onto your feet, you trot towards the bathroom and hold the shirt up in front of your body, imagining how it would look on you. Then you go back to finish your outfit and get your small bag ready with everything you want signed.

You walk out of the elevator to the basement, where a black Mercedes awaits. A small hand waves you in through the open passenger window, and you settle next to his assistant.

“Told you you’d like it!” Her tone is friendly and she winks at you before pulling onto the street.

Small talk makes the ride down the jammed streets of Hell’s Kitchen a breeze, and with the lanyard around your neck, you walk into the busy halls of the Javits Center. The main area is packed; you wonder if everything is up to fire regulations as you strut around, being careful not to walk on anyone’s heels or break any cosplays. Marvel pretty much owns the place - or rather Disney - as Star Wars ships and maquettes are displayed here and there, comic artists and autograph booths fill the back walls. You walk down the aisles as if you were on a cloud. This is certainly the best initiation you could have gotten. Then, with an extra heartbeat per minute, you come to realise that you’re just a few feet away from the DC gate, which is ironically adorned with Shazam posters, along with Superman gear. An attroupement of people surrounds the Batmobile that roars in a corner. You sigh as the whole event becomes a bit overwhelming, and you can’t help but feel yourself go a bit weak.

You step into the little archway, and a well deserved breath escapes your lungs. You waste some time looking around at the frames and pieces of craft that creators expose proudly. And then your eyes come up to the posters hung along the black curtains behind the autograph tables, a sweet red shade tints your cheeks at the sight of Zac’s picture in the Shazam suit. A small kid bumps into you when your feet give up on their simple task; the flashes of his near-naked body resurfacing from the morning has your mind going foggy. He steps out a few minutes later, along with Asher and Jack, and they are greeted by a roar of cheers which knocks you out of a day dream. Your shoulder finds refuge on a nearby column, and you decide to wait until he has talked to a few people before you can come up with the courage to walk to his booth. He’s a little faster though and spots you from his seat, earning yourself a wink and a bright smile.

“Here comes the smolder!” Someone calls from the line in front of you, making you laugh a little. A strong hand comes to your shoulder from behind, startling you.

“Y/N?” His voice is a bit higher than you expected for someone his size. His square shoulders jump up a little when he sees your frightened face. The company shirt he has on is clearly a size too small; the sleeve bands around his biceps are screaming for their life.

“Yes. Do you need an ID?” You already have a hand in your bag as you ask the question, but he grabs your arm and politely shakes his head.

“It’s alright, love. Follow me,” he adds.

You struggle to keep up with him as he guides you through a crowded area, even though his body creates a rather smooth passage. About a minute later you find yourself alone with him in a small hallway; pipes fill the ceiling and everything is made out of concrete. Had it not been for the bright neon lights, this would certainly feel like a horror movie. You keep walking in silence, hearing the crowd cheer through the small doors you keep passing by. Then he opens a door to your right and motions you inside while holding it for you.

“If you please,” he says cordially.

You enter the room and scan your surroundings. A couch covered in dark green velvet sits by the opposing wall. There’s a barber chair sitting in front of a big mirror, where bottles of makeup and what-not fill a thin shelf. You step a little further inside and then see the fruits on the coffee table along with various snacks and bottles of Gatorade. When the bodyguard closes the door behind you and moves out of the way you see the small post on the door.

‘Zachary Levi’ written in black sharpie on the back of a random list, taped unevenly.

Your jaw slackens a little, your gaze goes back to the treats on the table and you smile at how personal this feels. The man invites you to get comfortable and take whatever you’d like, and you think he said he’d be back shortly with a warm lunch but your mind is already wandering around the subtle items and decor. You run your hands on the soft material of the couch as you let your body relax into it. It has a natural wood frame and feels very vintage. Very Zac. A small TV hangs on the wall in front of it and is already turned on and logged onto someone’s Netflix account. You grab the remote and proceed to ‘get comfortable’ as the man had said. The choice is easy when one of your favourite series is in his list as well.

The first episode is nearly done when faint voices are getting closer in the hallway, and out of panic you turn it off and sit back into the couch. The handle moves but it takes a few seconds before the door is finally pushed open. He’s standing there in the frame, still talking to someone you can’t see from your position. Although you doubt you’d be able to see anything else with Zac just shining in the room. You stand up and he sees it in his sight. He turns his head just a little and sends you another wink along with a little wave, politely asking you to wait another minute. You stand there in the middle of the room, swaying from a foot to another as you try and compose yourself. Then he turns around completely and steps inside.

“Hi Y/N!” His voice is high and bashful. You move your hand up in hopes of reaching for his, but he jerks it away gently and opens his arms instead. “Come on! Bring it in.”

You obey and move closer to him. Your arms hook behind his body but you’re too afraid to touch him. You linger there, your head against his chest that slowly rises with each breath, trying to slow your heartbeat to match his. His actions make it hard for you to actually focus. One of his hands reaches the back of your head and he runs his fingers through your hair before settling lower on your neck.

“You’re so damn beautiful,” he whispers in the crook of your neck. He only lets go when he feels you shiver and your arms fall to your side. He grabs your shoulders, pushing you back a little and looks at you, his face wincing at his clumsiness. “Did I overstep? Gosh. I’m so, so sorry!” He seems  genuinely concerned and bothered with himself until he sees you smile finally, making him shiver in return.

“You shouldn’t...I’m...I can’t lie and say I’m not enjoying this.” He breathes out when you’re done and his shoulders relax. “I guess I’m just startled. You really are so handsome and...” And I saw you half naked this morning and wanted to have my hands on you all day but… You shake your head at the thought with a laugh which seems to amuse him as well.

“What?” He grins and takes a step closer. So close your neck is about to snap from looking up at him.

“I, um…” Your hands come to your face and you lean against his chest again. His hands run down your arms and onto the small of your back, before slowly making their way back up and locking behind your neck. He pulls slightly on your hair, making you face him again. A whimper threatens to leave your throat but his lips are quick to block any sound from coming out of your mouth.

[kindar-life]

<h1>The problem with Crossing the Border (09-01-19)</h1>

The problem with Crossing the Border (09-01-19)

Or an alternate title: I have ADHD, Big Surprise Out of curiosity, anyone has border crossing stories? They don’t have to be horror stories; they can be good. I’m mainly curious how it’s been for other people. So this week could have gone great, and for one the problem wasn’t on my company’s side. We did everything right, it’s the shipper and the border who dropped the ball. So, did the delivery on Monday and as my manager is on vacation, St-Germain was the one handling it, and before they were done unloaded, I had my next assignment. a pickup, 5 hours away, for Wednesday morning. If my manager had been handling it, I wouldn’t have found out until later on Tuesday, forcing me to rush there, his justifications would be that he was looking for something better in the meantime, which is BS, since that shipper is about the only one we have in all of BC anymore. I only drove an hour, I mean, what’s the point. I’m on eastern time, so 3 hours ahead of them, and going to be a day early. Also, Hwy 3 from Hope to Grand Forks, is horrible and there is no way I want to do it in the dark. It was still dark by the time I left on Tuesday, but was light before I hit the really tight curves going up and down hills. It’s the summer, so it wasn’t as bad as it could be, and I was empty, but I’ve done them in the winter. I never look forward to driving on that road. Made it mid-morning for them, checked in, pointing out I was a day early and they said to drop it, their shunt driver would put it in a door within minutes and within a couple of hours it would be done. Which was great news for me. If I could get in the US a day early, I’d be able to take a two-day weekend. Remember that ‘IF’. The trailer is ready in three hours, but it takes another hour for me to find out because I was looking at the wrong drop lot. I decided to go in and get an update and, on the way, I saw it in the opposite drop lot. Got my papers, confirmed I was good to cross the border and headed to the Laurier crossing. I like it because it isn’t busy and the road on the US side is nice, even if it’s a 2-lane highway. No big hills, few tight curves and only a handful of towns. There is Spokane when it reaches I90, but I found a way around it. It’s a little longer, than driving through Spokane, but a lot easier. Get to the border, go inside. It’s so quiet they don’t have truck booths. I hand in the papers, the officer looked in his is system and asks. “Where’s your permit?” “I’m sorry,” I reply, “What permit?” “your permit to cross here.” Here is the thing. We’ve been crossing at this border for eight months. And we’ve never been asked for a permit. It turns out that no officer should have ever allowed us to cross there, but they weren’t doing their jobs properly. The reason we don’t have a permit is that the shipper never added us to the list of approved Carrier to cross there with their product. I did not know there was such a situation possible. So I turned around, stopped in an aside in the hopes it was an easy fix and called the shipper. Only to find out the person who deals with the border had already left for the day (it was 4pm locally, in the mood I was in, I wasn’t thinking good thing about a person who didn’t have to work until 5pm like all office workers.) I called dispatch to advise them. Drove back to the shipper to park for the night, they are only 10 minutes from the border, another reason I like crossing there. Next morning, 9am their time, noon mine, I go in and find out there’s nothing to be done about it, they can only add a carrier to their list once a year, in December. The closest crossing that is a ‘Commercial Crossing,” is in Ossoyoos, two hours west, over all those horrible hills and turns. Tell dispatch about it, get told it can’t be, we cross at Laurier all the time. I tell them, yes, but we can’t anymore, check with the shipper if you believe your driver is so determined to drive over horrible hills. By the time I bet close to Ossoyoos, I still don’t have my papers so I park at the truckstop there. Only have to wait an hour and I do. I have to drive later than I prefer but I make it to Post Falls, ID, where I like to park anytime I have to cross at that border. My 2-day weekend is gone, but I can take it easy, there’s plenty of time to get to Laredo. Or not. Friday morning my manager, the one who is on vacation, calls me to ask when I’m going to be there. I tell him something on Tuesday. I’m not concerned since it doesn’t need to be there until Friday. He starts asking why so late, it need to be there ASAP. I tell him I need to do a reset (not true, technically, but don’t tell him that) I tell him that the best I can do is be there Monday late afternoon, and he asks why? I have plenty of hours and it’s a holiday on Monday so I need to get there earlier so I can get a load. And here I need to pause. The earliest I could be there, pushing as hard as I legally can would be Sunday, and the office there is closed. If it’s closed on Monday too, what does it matter if I’m there on Monday? If there is a load there for me to pickup on Sunday, it’s still going to be there on Monday. I still don’t budge on my reset. I have stopped caring about them changing delivery times after I’ve done my pickup a long time ago. If I’m given inaccurate information, it is not my problem. He grumbles and tells me to be there Monday without fault, as if I told him I might not make it. So I had to drive a little harder but I got her on Saturday, and rested. One of the things I did while I waited for all that was get more writing done, so you get five chapters of Taking the Line, Chapters 44 to 48. If there is the usual wait time in Laredo, the last five chapters should be done next week. Chapter 16 of Blind Spot is written, and I finished book 5 of LRK’s origin story. 13 chapters. The longest one to date, I hope the longest period. So I’ve started the newest Going Home, which will explore McKannon, the industrial sector of Tiranis, as well as Eric finally making contact with one of his relatives. if you want to read all that, it's only 1$ on my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/29632610 Another thing I did is take an ADHD test. There’s a warning about how it isn’t a medical tool, but if you score about a certain point, you really should talk to a doctor because, really, you have ADHD. And I do. I didn’t go in hoping I had it, but I strongly suspected I was somewhere on that spectrum. On the lower end, but on it none the less. There someone called ADHD Alien on Tumblr, and they post comics about how ADHD affects their daily lives and quite a few of them resonated with me, but one of the reason I never looked at the condition was that I was successful in school and the stereotype of someone with ADHD as that they aren’t good at school. Things is plenty of people with ADHD are good in school because it’s fun, there’s a lot of new things to learn and we soak up that knowledge easily, so easily most of us never have to bother studying, so we never learn how to study, and then when we hit college, of in my case the last two years of secondary school(I was in Quebec, they have their own system there) things start going badly. I was able to finish Secondary, but College was a bust. I just couldn’t figure out how to study and the concept I now had to deal with were so complex I couldn’t simply absorb them. I mean, I’m bright, but not that bright. So I dropped out, hit the work force and never regretted it. I was also lucky that my parents didn’t have expectations of me going to university and becoming a BIG SHOT™. They were surprised when I dropped out, but it was my life and they let me live it as I wanted. I love them for that. I love them for letting me screw up, then offering to help me up with a “See, that didn’t work, you might want to try something else, I can offer suggestions if you want but that’s up to you.” My mom picked up quicker than my dad that the suggestions that worked best were the kick in the ass kind of things and to then let me assimilate them and proceed. My mom told me months before I did it that I should write in the morning, that’s always been when I was at my best and I snorted, yeah right, mornings, who’s functional then? Eventually I ran out of things to try and did that. When I told my mom that she was right about it she smiled and said “I know.” But yeah, back on the ADHD thing. Learning that it was possible to succeed in school because you had ADHD and then fail for the same reason realigned my thinking. And add to that, that for the few things I can focus laser like on, like my writing, there are tons of them I am incapable of staying focus on. No matter how badly I want to learn them. So, yeah, I have ADHD. Will I seek treatment? No. for me to consider treating any condition I have, it has to either affect my ability to earn a living, or my health(and to be fair, when it comes to my health the potential down side have to be bad for me to even think about talking to a doctor about it) I can do my job without problem; I can do my writing without problems. The rest? Frankly, nothing else matter to a level I am willing to put those two at risk. I don’t Suffer from ADHD, I simply have it. I built my coping mechanism even without knowing I had something. Being Scatter brain? I either write it down, or accept that I will forget about it, and if I forget about it I accept the consequences. I don’t make myself a mess over forgetting it. I fix the problem it caused and move on. I do know now why Minecraft is such a trap for me now. It pulls at my focus by giving me things to do, always more things to do until I reached the point where I’m near panic because I can’t do all of them and I push it away. Until I’ve calmed down. But Minecraft commits the Sin of interfering with my writing by taking over that mental space. It’s why I no longer play it. It’s also why the craving is always there, but me and cravings are old friends. I have no issues staring him down. Okay, this is way longer than I expected so I’m going to pass on the movie and book review this week. You' all have fun, and come on, talk to me. Ask me questions, share your stories, it gets lonely talking to the void<chuckles> And that’s it, so I’ll see you on the next one.

Posted using PostyBirb

[rekarra]

Breaking Through Shadows | Chapter 1

Plot: What has started as just a dream would end up changing the course of my life. But what else could I have expected when vampires get involved.

Genre: Fluff, angst, eventual smut.

Word Count: 3.2k+

Pairing: Leaving this blank for now, for plot reasons, or something.

Point of View: First person oc

Warnings: Language, medical talk, nothing too intense

Rating: Teen but eventually 18+

Author’s Note: Well, here’s my first chapter. I hope you all enjoy it. I’m not sure when chapter two will be up as I have some real world stuff going on in the next week, but I’m hopeful I’ll have it up by the middle of next week. A quick shout out to my beta reader, best friend, and my own personal Bunny, @xxfxckitxx, who is also my number one hype woman and my constant support. Thank you for pushing me to do this, even if I drag my feet on occasion.

| Prologue |

Reaching over to my phone, fingertips just brushing the thin piece of glass, circuitry, and metal. I silenced the obnoxious blast of my alarm with a slight thought. I knew what the time was, what the weather was going to be, how a friend from high school had posted a picture of her newborn baby to social media, and several other things from just that one brief touch of the phone. Being a technomage did have its advantages sometimes.

Technomages were the natural evolution of witches. It seemed that as technology advanced in the mundane world, magic needed to keep up. We were no longer bound to the stereotypes of having to brew potions. I still did, though, as a matter of practice. Most everything a magic user needed to be able to do is done through the ever-growing world of cell phones and computers. Most every human interaction, magical or not, had an element of technology to it. Everyone in the modern world either always had a cell phone on them or they are attached to their computer, both for work and pleasure. Magic had to adapt. So here I was, hand hovering over my phone as the dream I had just woken up from streamed on to my private server, just like uploading a YouTube video. It had only taken a small thought for it to happen, but I wanted to be able to reexamine this dream, just like I had the past three nights. Always the same dream. Always ending before I could see their faces. There was a reason I kept dreaming about this, and I was going to figure it out. It had that feeling of a life-changing event, like the way a major thunderstorm can be felt in the air. An almost electric feeling that set my teeth on edge and put a small buzz just behind my eyes. As if on cue, my phone rang just as the stream of my subconscious events ended. I would have known who it was in an instant, even if my magical abilities had rendered caller ID useless, just like if Chyler was not psychic, the fact that she was my soulmate would have let her know that I was awake and slightly on edge. With nothing more than a thought, I answered the phone. “You had the dream again, Mallory.” It was a statement, not a question, as Chyler’s voice drifted from the speaker. I sighed loudly. “Yeah, for the third night in a row. I just got done pushing it to online storage, but I don't have the time to go back over it now. It feels weird though, doesn't it?” I paused, considering why it felt odd. “Like, I should know who they are or something. We are never that hyped for that kind of show. Hell, we don’t even go to shows like that! When was the last time you saw that many preteens with their parents at Slipknot? We’re usually dodging guys wearing too much black leather and metal.” I racked my fingers through my hair, getting out of bed to get myself a cup of coffee, leaving my phone where it was, knowing I’d still be able to hear Chyler, and her, me, from anywhere in my apartment. I pulled a cup from the dishwasher and turned on the coffee maker, not wanting to waste the small amount of energy it would take to turn it on with my magic. “Have you been able to catch anything from it, Bunny?” I asked the girl on the other end of my phone. She didn’t have to see what I had uploaded to my private server to know what I had dreamed about. The bond between our souls and her abilities meant that she didn’t even need to be in the same room with me, let alone touch me the way she had to with others, for her to “see” my dreams. She only had to send out the conscious thought to pick out the dream. Her breathing increases for a few seconds before she let out a shuddering exhale. “No, Mal. Nothing that you haven’t already felt. But it does have a flavor of something familiar. If you could get a look at their faces....” She trails off her sentence. That is how Chyler’s powers work. She either needs to be touching someone, or she must see their face, and with a bit of concentration, she is able to know everything about them. I was the exception to those rules. We had discovered it not long after we had met. We had become friends so fast, feeling like we had known each other forever. Chyler had confessed to being a psychic and had requested to read me, wanting to know herself why we had this instant connection. Agreeing, she took both of my hands into hers and looked up at me, her normally brown eyes turned a breath-stopping shade of blue as she saw my past. And not just my past in this life because when her eyes turned back to their rightful color, she blinked back tears, asking me if I wanted to see too. I had quirked an eyebrow at her but nodded anyway. She had settled her hands in a slightly different place, her middle and ring fingers placed on the pulse points on my wrists. I had just been able to ask her what she was getting at when her eye changed again, and suddenly I was seeing what she had seen. It felt like an eternity, but it was only a few seconds. I relived my life in reverse. From sitting down in the little mom-and-pop cafe we were in, to meeting Chyler for the first time, back to high school and the insignificance it was to my life. Back to when I had learned about my abilities and I had accidentally blown up the T.V. in a fit of puberty induced anger. Back to being a small child and not having a care in the world, back to my first breath. But it did not stop there. I saw my death in my most previous past life, all the things I had carried out then. Seeing all those events, up to the first breath. Then, again, seeing my death in the life before that one, and the one before that, and before that. All of them. And in each one of them, there was one defining spark in each one. Chyler had always been with me. Always there. We had been everything to each other over our lifetimes. Friends, sisters, mother and daughter, lovers. From the moment our souls sparked into existence, the link between them became iron-bound. With tears streaming down my face, I came out of the trance and just stared at the woman sitting across from me, her hands still in mine. She searched my eyes, her own the size of dinner plates. “Well, I guess this explains why we’re so close.” I had laughed as I gently removed my hands from hers to wipe away the remaining streaks of moisture from my face, hearing her own laughter on the heels of mine. “And now you know what I am now and why I’m always so good with electronics, huh?” I had asked her while still laughing. “I’ve actually always known, Mallory. I was just waiting for you to tell me.” She smiled softly at me. “But we know why it seemed like we have known each other forever. We have. Literally! And I think that’s the first time in my life I’ve been able to use that word properly.” She was in full-out belly laughs now, doubling over on herself as she laughed with her whole body. “Mallory!” The voice over my phone snapped at me, snapping me back into the present. “Mal, your focus back with me again? Unless you can get a look at their faces, I can’t do anything other than say it tastes like something I know but can’t put my finger on what it is.” That is how she would describe it when she couldn’t see everything. It “tasted” in some way. “Well, fuck, Bunny....” I whined slightly out of frustration and the need for caffeine. “What if this is something really big? You’ve always been able to see what comes our way. Why is there a block on this?” “I don’t know, Mal, but I’ll keep going back on it and see if I can figure anything out. Also, your coffee is done, you addict,” she chuckled. “Go get ready for work and I’ll come over once you get off, okay? I know I don’t need to touch you to pick everything up, but maybe I’m missing something for some reason” I nodded before remembering that she couldn’t see me. “Sure Chyler, I’ll see you when you get here. Love you, Bun.” “Love you too, Firefly.” And with that, she hung up. I smiled softly at her pet name for me as I finished pouring my coffee, leaving just enough room for the vanilla creamer. This will be the only good cup of sweet, glorious caffeine I will get before getting to the hospital, and I intend to enjoy for as long as I can. As soon as the first sip passes my lips, I felt the buzz of the brew on my tongue, just sweet enough to cut the underlying bite of the bean’s bitterness. I took a few more sips, humming softly to myself before taking my cup with me into my bedroom. Setting the mug down on my dresser, I walked into my modest closet and set about readying for the day, picking out a scrub top that had all the Marvel comic book characters on it and matching teal scrub pants. This was the part that was so off-putting about the dream. There were aspects of it that were real to my life. I was a first-year nursing student when I had first met Chyler, and we both had received outstanding job offers when we had graduated. Outside of the concert and the seven mystery figures that were on stage, that was my life. Rolling my shoulders back, I left the closet, clothes in hand, and reached for my cup. I drained the contents before tugging my scrubs on. Another 15 minutes of getting my hair to look suitable and putting on light makeup, I was out the door. My drive to work was always a curious one, the 7pm to 7am shift means that I leave for when most people are just getting home, their workday ending as mine begins. I had just finished locking my door when my neighbor came walking up the pathway, her 2 kids in tow. She smiled at me as her little boy, who couldn’t have been any older and 6, looked at my shirt and started excited babbling over all the superheroes on my shirt. Bending down to his level, I asked him if he could name them all off, which he did with unexpected speed. I laughed as he started talking about who was his favorite and why. His mom smiled at the exchange before softly telling her son that I needed to get to work, so I could help save people who were hurt, just like all the characters on my top. She picked the small child up while he stared at me in wonder, wishing me a safe and uneventful night. I said my goodbyes and headed towards my car. The freeways heading into downtown were clear, just like they always are for me when I headed into work. It was moving out of downtown that the traffic was bad at this time of day. It would take me an hour or more to get to work if I had the normal 8-to-5 schedule that most people stuck to. As it was, I pulled into my parking stop at the hospital a mere 30 minutes after I had left my apartment complex. I walked into the building, heading to the emergency room staff locker room. As I was putting my backpack and lunch in my locker, the charge nurse for the ER, Mark, approached me. “Ms. Adams.” I cringed slightly at his use of my last name, knowing he was about to stick me with something I probably wasn’t going to like. “I hope you’re ready for this evening. We have a VIP coming in and while I normally wouldn’t assign anyone to it and let whoever gets it, take it, but you are the only nurse I have who knows multiple languages and it seems our patient and his manager only speak Korean. We won’t be able to get a translator here for some time. You don’t happen to know Korean, do you?” I didn’t actually, right now anyway. A simple touch of the phone in my pocket and a muttering of the Romanian word “Traducere” under my breath and I was a fluent as a native-born immigrant. I nod as I look up at my head nurse, confirming to him that I was able to communicate with whoever it is that will be coming in. “Who’s coming in, Mark?” I asked the middle-aged man in front of me. “I really don’t know, Mallory.” He answered. “He’s supposedly come famous rock star or something, on tour with the rest of his group. The whole thing is being treated as quiet as we can. These guys are important enough to garner full security measures. They contacted the hospital director to make sure there were enough guards in place to keep anyone who isn’t supposed to be here out.” The tension in my shoulders pulled them back a little straighter as Mark filled me in, my nerves getting to me slightly as I began to feel the weight of the situation that was about to be placed on me. Trying to relax them, I asked, “What is he coming in for, Mark? What should I be expecting and what all do I need to get prepped?” “It seems he fell off the stage during rehearsals and might have a concussion as well as potential broken bones. He’ll need x-rays as well as a CT scan and a full blood workup. We should also check for any internal bleeding, potentially broken ribs, and if there are, a scan of the lungs just to make sure there’s nothing that’s going to hinder his breathing.” My eyes widen slightly at everything Mark was telling me as we walked on the emergency room floor. “Shit, Mark. How big was this stage he fell from?” Mark sighed. “I don’t know, but the hospital administrators want everything on this guy checked. If everything goes well, this will be an amazing boost of publicity for the hospital. And I don’t even want to think about what would happen if something went wrong while this guy is under our care.” I could understand Mark’s worry. It wasn’t that long ago that an actor had died in a hospital in California and the hospital had taken a serious hit in benefactors for it. I took a deep breath, holding it for a moment in hopes it would help me calm down. Letting it out, I slipped into “work mode” where anything that was not an immediate concern about the patients who would be under my care faded away. “How long before he gets here?” My voice has gone a bit softer with a calming cadence to it. “He should be here in the next….” Mark was interrupted as an ambulance pulled up, the paramedics getting the occupied stretcher from the back, rushing inside. I glanced at Mark with a slight smirk. “You were saying?” Turning to the paramedics, I told them to take the patient into room 7 quickly, a tall man who was wearing a breathing mask following close behind them. I nodded my head slightly in his direction, hoping he would take it as a sign that I was to be the one taking care of his talent. “Well, I guess it’s time to get to work.” I said in Mark’s general direction before heading off after the group that had just passed me. The paramedics had just finished moving my patient on to the examination bed as I approached the door to the room, two security guards heading towards me. Smiling slightly, I showed the guards my badge before they had a chance to even question me. I was waiting for the paramedics to leave, with the stretcher before entering the room. Walking in, I smiled warmly at the two men who were left. “Hi there. My name is Mallory and I’ll be your nurse this evening.” I said in nearly flawless Korean, intentionally making a mistake or two to keep suspicions down. I walked over to the man lying in the bed, my calm and professional demeanor taking over me, pushing the last bits of nerves from me. “What would like for me to call you?” “You can call me Taehyung.” My patient told me in a muffled but surprisingly deep voice. I couldn’t see much of his features as he, and the man behind me, both had on masks that covered the lower half of their faces, but Taehyung’s eyes were among the most striking I’d ever seen. The mop of obviously dyed blonde hair was tousled in such a way that, even with the intensity of his eyes, he had boyish quality to him. Nodding, I quickly reached for the in-room computer so I could start filling in his information. “Okay, Taehyung. Tell me about what happened and why you came in to see me tonight.” I smiled brighter, trying to make him feel at ease so he’d tell me everything I needed to know. He started to recount the fall from the stage, looking at the man behind me as if for confirmation of the events. I turned and addressed him. “Were you present when Taehyung here fell, Mr….?” I trailed my sentence off, waiting for him to fill the bank in. “Mr. Sejin. And yes, I was there. I’m the boys' manager.” He said. “Okay Mr. Sejin, how about you tell me what happened while I start getting Taehyung’s vital signs?” I asked of the man.

Mr. Sejin began to tell the exact same story that Taehyung had started telling me as I turned away from them both to grab the cart that housed the blood pressure monitor. I closed my eyes to keep from rolling them while taking in a deep breath. They were hiding something and I wouldn’t be able to do my job unless I knew everything.

I turned back to Taehyung, reaching out to grab his arm. As soon as I made contact with his skin, I knew what it was they were hiding. My eyes widened as my fingertip touched skin that was much too cold for the ambient room temperature and as I watched, Taehyung’s eyes flashed the pure and blinding green that could only mean he was one thing. Vampire. I sucked in a sharp breath at the realization, knowing my heart rate had increased as a small pang of fear cut through me. Taehyung, however, seemed to be mesmerized by me, grabbing on to my hand with a gentleness that would only be reserved for you had spent a lifetime caring for and loving. I quickly leaned in, whispering, "I know what you are and I know you're not hurt. Why are you here?" When he spoke, it was but a breath and it held the same respect and softness with which he was holding my hand. “I found you again.”

| Chapter 2 |

[alexidewrites]

Mari

A/N: Do NOT read this story if you have any triggers that can be found in the tags. Otherwise, proceed to under the cut to start reading this short story. You have been warned.

Empty boxes lined the dining and living rooms waiting to be recycled, while Alex finished unpacking the office and Elaine the bedroom. The two had moved into their new townhouse two weeks before, but due to work and wedding planning, only the essential boxes had been unpacked, namely bathroom and bedroom supplies, kitchenware, and pet supplies. Their cat, Snickers, lay in one of the boxes, somewhere.

While Elaine remembered what was in most of the boxes she had brought with her during the move, Alex couldn’t remember which box he had packed which thing in. He thoroughly regretted not labeling them now as he moved about the office looking for the box that housed his personal collections.

“Ah,” Alex said, shuffling boxes around for a moment before stopping and standing straight up. “I guess it got moved to the bedroom. I should’ve known that.” Alex moved out of the office into the hall, spotting Snickers jumping between boxes.

He walked into the bedroom, chuckling to himself.

“Snickers jumping around again?” Elaine looked up from digging through the box that Alex had just been looking for.

He nodded, moving to help her with his mementos.

Elaine handed him a few of his trophies from high school and college. “He’s been doing that all day. And you’re sure you can carry them all?”

“Yes, I can carry them all.” He took an armful back into the office with him.

“Hey, Alex?” Elaine called, moments later, as he set them down on the desk. “Do you know what’s inside this?”

“What’s inside what?” Alex walked back into the bedroom, seeing a wooden box roughly the size of a watermelon with a lock on it in Elaine’s hands. He stopped right in front of where she sat on the ground. “Where’d you find that?”

“It was in the bottom of this box.” She set it down in front of her.

Alex pulled his keys out of his pocket. As he sat down, he flipped to the small key that would open the box. “It’s a bunch of memories from high school and college. My parents must have snuck this in while I was packing it. I don’t remember what all I put in here.”

The lock looked just as old as he remembered, one of the rusted ones he had snagged from his dad’s lock box during the summer of his freshman year of high school. It looked as though his parents had attempted to polish it, to no avail, though, due to the slight glimmer from the metal. He smiled as he opened the box, excited to see what was inside. A miniature figure of Super Saiyan Goku sat on top with a lanyard holding his high school ID on the end. He pulled them out and passed them to Elaine.

“You weren’t kidding when you said you’ve been into Dragon Ball for quite some time.” Elaine laughed, setting the figure down next to her. She looked at the photo on the ID and chuckled something along the lines of how cute he was as a fourteen-year-old.

Alex paid no attention to her. He pulled out more items: a Hatsune Miku photo, a manga that no one had ever heard of, the very first comic of Captain Marvel he had hunted down during his junior year of high school and saved up enough money to buy among other comics he’d thought he’d lost, a couple of medals from his days playing baseball, a couple letters he had kept from friends who had moved away, and an envelope with only “Al-kun” written on the front. His smile waned as he held the envelope in his hands.

Alex stood up, turning towards the door. “Can you put everything back when you’re finished looking through it, Elie?”

Elaine looked up quickly from her smiling at all of the stuff he had pulled out of the box. “Sure.” She noticed the envelope in his hand and instantly frowned. “Is everything okay?”

He nodded. “Yeah. I just remembered why I haven’t bothered looking for that box in six years.”

“It’s because of her, isn’t it?” She carefully placed the figure in her hands back inside the box. “Do you want to put that back in there, too?” She motioned to the envelope.

“No. I think I’m finally ready,” he said, giving her a wry smile.

Elaine nodded in response, a knowing smile on her face.

Alex shut the bedroom door behind him, making his way down the hall towards the living room. He looked at the envelope as he sat down on the couch. “Al-kun,” Alex read the front of the envelope again. The name in a big cursive calligraphy that the girl, no… woman, who had written it developed. She’d been the only one to use it, too, and had never let anyone else attempt it. Just like she was the only one whom Alex had ever let her call him Al. He hadn’t particularly liked the name at first but had grown accustomed to it over the years after having met her their sophomore year of high school. “Art class, if I recall correctly.”

This girl had sat at a table next to a giant window of the art room, always staring at the outside world.  Alex had sat right next to her. A book and a sketchpad always sat in front of her on the desk, so her drawing and calligraphy had caught his eye initially. It was the first time he’d seen her distinctive style, big, curly and elegant. He hadn’t been able to bring himself to talk to her in those first few weeks, only admire her work from afar.

Alex flipped the envelope open and slowly pulled the flap out. The edges of a picture and a piece of paper lay neatly inside, where he had left them. Having never read the letter due to not having the strength at the time, Alex had placed it with his most beloved picture of the two the night after their senior prom. They had laughed and danced the night away, among good friends, and family that night.

As he pulled the picture out, he smiled at it as his eyes began to water. They sat on top of the bar at his uncle’s restaurant where after-prom had been held. The girl’s amber eyes caught his attention first. Thin black eyeliner lined her upper eyelid, flowing out to a thin, but graceful wing tip. Her eye shadow faded from a deep purple along the outer edges of her eyelids to a soft lilac in the inner eyelid. They smiled back at him along with her gorgeous wide smile she was well known for. Her reddish brown hair fell in tightly kept curls barely falling past her left shoulder, still in the loose pony tail she had tied it up with. She wore a pink top with white flowers falling down the side and a pair of jeans, along with a corsage of white and pink flowers on her left wrist. He had delicately taken the corsage off later when they had chosen to taken the next step of their already two and a half year relationship, intimacy.

“Mari,” Alex muttered, a tear glimmered in the corner of his eye. He set the picture down for a moment, closing his eyes. He could see her laughing that night, having found himself laughing right along with her at another stupid joke of his, one that his uncle had told him when he had helped set up the bar for after-prom party earlier in the day. A grasshopper walks into a bar and the bartender says, “Hey, we have a drink named after you.” The grasshopper says, “You have a drink named Derek?” That had been right before a friend of his had taken the photo. The scene shifted. He could feel her hair between his fingers and his in hers. They lay intertwined on his bed, laughing about how much fun the entire night had been, including the awkwardness between them for a brief moment.

As Alex look back at the photo, he found himself smiling. His hair in the photo was slicked back, as it had been an inch longer then compared to now. He also sported a school t-shirt, along with khaki shorts. He held her right hand in his, smiling back at the camera, his mouth partly open from laughing so much. That had definitely been a night to remember, and one he would never forget.

He set the picture down on the coffee table in front of him. The letter sat waiting for him to read, but he wasn’t ready yet. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath, letting memories of their time together come flooding back: the two of them moving each other’s items into their dorm rooms at college, only three rooms apart from each other; dancing to the music of the cicadas as the sun set in the park; hanging out and playing video games or watching anime at her house; splashing each other with salt water at the beach with friends the summer after high school graduation.

Alex even remembered what their first fight had been about, which universe was better, DC or Marvel. Mari had been so adamant about Marvel being better than DC, but Alex held his ground. They’d have fought over this multiple more times, if they hadn’t had other stupid and silly arguments that they’d argue about periodically, such as which Vocaloid was the most emo, and which anime adaption of the manga was better. They’d always make up and kiss, possibly more later on, laughing about how silly their fights were, but agreeing that they could manage to come to terms by agreeing to disagree.

What popped into his mind last, though, was the day he first asked her out to the homecoming dance their sophomore year of high school, only a month after he had first noticed her in their art class. Mari had been quietly reading a book at the lunch table. Alex had noticed that she wasn’t a social light, but could tell that she was friendly to those who talked to her from paying attention in the classes they shared. He had been wanting to talk to her for quite some time, but hadn’t had the nerve to ask her yet, until that particular day, one friend dared him to ask her, leaving him with no choice but to walk over to her. She had looked up from her book, as he asked her out. “Only if you can make me laugh,” she’d said with a smile on her face. So he told her the one joke he could think of.

If anyone asked him now what joke he had used to get her to laugh, he always said he didn’t remember, which he really didn’t. He only remembered that it had something to do with whatever food she had been eating for lunch that day. He could still hear her giggling slightly all these years later, which caused him to reach for the letter.

Taking another breath, he began to read the letter as he opened it up. Even though he hadn’t wanted to cry, he found himself crying from the very beginning. The amount of tears grew the farther he read. After reaching the last line, he lay down on the couch, the piece of paper on top of him.

Elaine found him that way when she finally left the bedroom and made her way out to the living room. Alex sat up for her to sit down on the couch, then laid his head on her lap. Having noticed his tears, she asked, “Are you okay?”

“I’ll be okay.” He smiled up at her. “You’re here with me.”

She smiled back at him, running a hand through his hair. “We can stop unpacking for a bit if you’d like.”

Alex closed his eyes. “That sounds nice.”

After a moment, Elaine spotted the letter and asked, “Can I read it?”

Alex looked up at her, his eyes still watering. “You’ll cry.”

“No, I won’t.”

“Trust me. You knew her, too.” He held the letter up for her to grab. “Just don’t stop with the hair, alright?”

Elaine nodded in response, giving him her understanding that it would be soothing for both of them. Taking the paper into her hands, she began to read, letting the tears fall if they were destined to fall.

To My Love, My Dear Alexander,

You will never understand why I did what I did, but I will try to explain it to you anyway. I grew up in a house where I could have anything I wanted, to an extent. I had loving parents, grandparents, extended family, etc. I was in so many extracurricular activities until I found my passion, calligraphy, and art. Eventually, everything in my life started to look dim for no apparent reason. I couldn’t understand why I felt the way I did in middle school, always feeling sad, but hiding it with a smile. This feeling grew to even greater lengths in high school, that is, until I met you, or so I thought.

You know, the first time I saw you, I couldn’t take my eyes off of you. Your dark hair and eyes caught me by surprise, even if you looked dorky in your gym clothes freshman year. (Yes, we did have gym class together, just with different PE teachers.) .) I ended up having the biggest crush on you, but you had no idea who I was, and I was okay with that. Well, maybe I was just content with that for a while because when I noticed something had changed about you, I grew excited. You started to notice me.

When you approached me sophomore year and asked me to go to the homecoming dance with you, I had to play it cool, but I was actually extremely nervous. That’s why you got the “only if you can make me laugh” response. You told a really stupid, but funny and cute joke, too. “Why did the tomato turn red?” “I don’t know. Why?” “Because it saw the salad dressing.” “I assume that’s a yes then?” I had no choice but to agree, not that I didn’t want to go to the dance with you. I’m really glad I went with you. That turned into four amazing years with you that I will never forget, especially the night of senior prom. I don’t need to explain that. I’m sure you remember.

You changed my life. You erased most of whatever it was that caused me to be depressed. You gave me a reason to live, even if I ended up with only nineteen years of life. That’s why I couldn’t tell you that some part of that feeling, the depression, was still there, still fighting over control of my mind even though I thought it had disappeared. Which is why I’m writing this letter to you now. I’m pleading with myself to stop, to not go through with this. I want to live the rest of my life with you like we’ve discussed. I want you to propose to me. I want to say yes. I want to live in a happy home. I want to have three beautiful children with you who will grow up to be wonderful human beings just like their parents. I want to pursue that double degree in psychology and psychiatry so I can help people like me, people who don’t understand why they feel the way they do, who don’t feel like they should feel this way because they have great and amazing lives. I don’t want to disappear. I don’t want to... but I don’t think I can stop this feeling.....

I need help. I know I need help. But by the time you, or anyone, find this, by the time you find me, it will be too late. I’m too far gone. I’m not even sure how to come back. I can’t stop myself, but I want you to know that I love you. I love you with every fiber of my being. Please find it in yourself to live a happy life, make some amazing girl your wife, and please know, you are perfect in every sense of the word.

I love you, my Al-kun. I will always love you.

With All My Love,

Mari

[actionfigureinsider]

Below is a column/editorial that I wrote 10 years ago after the sudden passing of my dear friend, prototype painter and pop culture enthusiast Eddie Wires.  I’ve tweaked a few things here and there for clarity, and added some additional pictures.   Eddie was such a force in the industry.  If you own any toys from Toy Biz, Palisades, early DC Direct and countless others then you probably have a little piece of Eddie in your collection.   He was self-taught and built his business from the ground up and he ran it with love, passion and integrity.  There were several in the industry that screwed him and didn’t pay or shorted him for his work, but he always gave them a second chance to do the right thing.   I’ve never met anyone that didn’t LOVE and adore Eddie after meeting him.   And even after 10 years I miss him every day.

This is a blog that I started over a month ago, that I keep putting off, because it was just too painful and finishing it would make it all the more real. Tonight at a Dave & Busters in Georgia and in a few weeks at New York Comic Con there will be gatherings of friends and family to celebrate the life of Eddie Wires. I’m not able to attend these because of other family obligations, but still wanted to participate by posting this blog:

THE FIRST AND LAST TIME I SAW EDDIE WIRES

There’s a lot of great stuff in the middle of these events with my friendship to Eddie Wires, but in this blog I’d like to talk about the very first time I met Eddie and the last time I saw Eddie.

I don’t remember exactly what year it was, but it was roughly 10 or 11 years ago, and it was in June. It was Eddie’s birthday. These days there’s always an easy way that I remember when Eddie’s birthday falls. The pants tell me so. You see there’s a little “Easter Egg” on one the Marvel Legends/Hulk Classics figures that Eddie painted. In wave 2 of Hulk classics, if you were one of the people fortunate enough to find one of the Absorbing Man figures in that wave, on his prison pants there are a string of letter and a string of numbers that are supposed to be his prison ID. The letters are “PRJFEW” That stands for “Jesse Falcon, Phil Ramirez and Eddie Wires.” The numbers are “060572” That’s Eddie’s birthday. June 5th, 1972. It’s the day before my youngest daughter’s birthday.

Back to the first time I met Eddie. This was still pretty early in my “toy journalism” career. I was a new friends with Jesse Falcon of Toy Biz (Now Marvel/Disney) and he was in LA for some meetings. I was working for Disney Animation at the time so I had free access to Disneyland for me and 3 friends. I wanted to introduce Jesse to another friend of mine, Chris Tallman, who, like Jesse, was into improvisational comedy. At that time Chris was working for Disneyland as “the Mayor of FrontierLand.” Jesse, Phil Ramirez and I headed out to Anaheim to the“Happiest Place on Earth”.

Fast forwarding past spending the day at the park riding rides, talking nerd-stuff and then having several drinks at the Anaheim House of Blues. Jesse invited Chris and I out that night to celebrate the birthday of one of their friends, who was also a painter for Toy Biz… Mr. Eddie Wires.

Before working in toys, Eddie was a bartender at “Dave &Busters” in several cities. For those of you that might not be familiar with “Dave & Buster’s” it’s like the adult version of Chuck E. Cheese; great food, lots of video games and some VR stuff thrown in.

That’s where he met the love of his life, Jennifer, who would later become his wife. Jennifer still worked for “Dave & Busters,” as a manger and helping new locations open all over the country. That’s where Eddie’s party was, at the “Dave & Busters” in the Block at Orange. That was our night; meeting Eddie and his friends, hanging out with Toy Biz guys, free food and free video games all night long. It was like we had died and gone to heaven. To this day that night is still in my top 5 greatest days of my life. Chris and I couldn’t stop grinning that night.

At the amazing center of it all was Eddie Wires. There was no weirdness about these two goons crashing his party. Any friend of Jess and Phil’s was a friend of his, and he was more than happy to talk toys and shoot the digital undead with these strangers until the sun came up. After 10 minutes it was already like we had known each other 10 years.

At the end of the night he hugged us and we exchanged emails. That was just Eddie. If he knew you, he hugged you. I think all of us have been the recipients of voice mails or emails from Eddie informing us that the next time we saw him that we could expect to have his arms around us. And he was always a man of his word.

That was the first time I saw Eddie Wires.

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Now for the last time….

This past July Eddie asked Abby and I if we wanted to share a hotel room with him at Comic Con 2010. Eddie always stayed at the Marriott next door to the con and for the past 5 years he’s always allowed the AFi team to use his room as a hub for dropping stuff off, checking email, uploading stuff or just taking a break. This year he suggested “why not just stay together?” He already had the room booked and it had 2 beds. It would be great to spend the time together. The idea made a lot of sense to us so we did, and it was great. We loved being able to spend 5 days with him, catching up, and talking about what was cool at the show, just being with Eddie for 5 days. This was the year that “The Walking Dead” trailer debuted at the con. Eddie, was a fan of ALL things Zombies, he was already a fan of the comic and he was OVER THE MOON, that it was going to be a weekly TV show. We joked about calling each other after each episode and discussing it… except I don’t think either of us were joking. We would have loved to have done a weekly “watch party” together. I’ve really missed him since he moved to the other side of the country.

We had 5 amazing days, and went out a few nights. Then it was time for the show to end. Anyone that has been to all, 5 days of the con knows that by the end of the show you are ready to go home! It’s fun, but covering the show, the late nights, the early mornings, the crowds, the walking… ugh.

Danny Neuman took this picture. This was sitting on the top of the toilet in our hotel room. This image has hung in my house for the past 10 years.

Eddie had mentioned several times in the last 2 days of the con that he really wanted to have diner with us before we got back on the road to drive back to LA. We wanted to as well, but we were tired, we still had to pack the car and unpack when we got home, and we wanted to beat the traffic of the thousands of people leaving the show. We kept debating weather to stay or go. Eddie said he was going to help the guys from Diamond Select break down their booth, so that was going to add even more time before we could go eat. But we had a lot of stuff to pack in the car… and then we came to the decision that it was Eddie. We love Eddie, we miss Eddie and we love spending time with Eddie, so we would stay. We loaded the car. He packed up DST, and then we went to eat… and we had such a lovely time. We were just in the Marriott pub in the south tower,but there was just something so… nice about that dinner. We even commented on it several times on the drive how great that was and how glad we were that we stayed.

Time really seemed to stand still that night. While it was only 2 hours at the restaurant, it seemed like we were there all night. We talked about the con, our families, TV, movies, life, his band, and friends… everything. I’ve known Eddie for about 11 years, but it’s really been the past two years that he has really opened up with Abby and I and really gone beyond “nerdy talk” into a lot of meaty stuff and this dinner continued in that vein.

It really was the perfect evening. Anyone that has ever gone out with Eddie knows that it’s damn near impossible to pay for your own drinks or a meal. Picking up the check was one of Eddie’s superpowers. That night Abby had a plan and she snuck her card to the waitress before she came over to the table so we had the last laugh and did the near impossible… we picked up HIS check!

With the news of Eddie’s passing just a few weeks later,that evening is priceless to us. Thank God we stayed. We wouldn’t trade that for time anything… anything except for the chance to see him and talk to him just one more time.

Eddie really was the nicest person I have ever met. It’s easy to give lip service to a phrase like that, but searching the cobwebs of my mind I really can’t think of a nicer person that I have encountered in my almost 40 years of life. He would give you the shirt off of his back, literally. And then he would secretly sneak away and buy you 10 more shirts.

Like everyone that interacted with him with any frequency we miss him like crazy every day. He’ll never be forgotten.

  Call your friends.  Chat about the stuff you love.  Celebrate your past.  And tell them that you love them.

I hope you are all safe and healthy in these trying times.

Thank you for reading this.  I love you guys.

  The First and Last Time I Met Eddie Wires – Remembrance of Eddie on the 10th Anniversary of his Passing Below is a column/editorial that I wrote 10 years ago after the sudden passing of my dear friend, prototype painter and pop culture enthusiast Eddie Wires. 

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New Post has been published on https://brandbaskets.in/how-to-design-your-own-happy-by-renee-pedro-of-crashpaddesigns/

How To Design Your Own Happy by Renee Pedro of @crashpaddesigns

by Renee Pedro | Featured Contributor

Are you happy? That shouldn’t be hard to answer, but for some of us of it is. Many of us measure our happiness based on outside factors. where we are getting it wrong. Our distorted views of happiness are influenced by what society says happiness is.

This isn’t new. It’s the story of” Keeping up with the Joneses.” A comic strip created by Arthur R. Momand in 1916. It was about the McGinis family and their struggle to keep up with their neighbors the Joneses. Today the Joneses are not only the people across the street. They are your friends and the friends of your friends in your social media news feed. Why are we wasting our lives comparing ourselves to other people? I know women are especially guilty of this. We compare ourselves to other women all the time. How are you ever going to keep up with those countless images of “Perfection” in your Instagram feed? Why do you want to?

When you scroll by a picture of a friend in her perfect living room, with her perfectly coifed toddlers, do you think, darn why can’t we take a family photo like that? What you don’t know is, on her dining room table are stacks of clean laundry, that she hasn’t put away yet. Or that two minutes before the photo the toddlers were covered in chocolate. She’s not Mrs. Jones, either. Like you, she’s trying to keep up. I’m not saying I want to see everyone’s dirty laundry in my social media feed. I just want more people to be real. I “ll go first. There’s an overflowing laundry basket in my bedroom, there are dishes in the sink, dust bunnies in the dining room, and my desk is a mess. There that feels better. I’ll let you in on a secret, perfection doesn’t exist, despite what Instagram tells you.

A long time ago, I made a decision not to be Mrs. McGinis anymore. I don’t want to keep up with Joneses. When I was comparing myself to other people, I wasn’t appreciating who I am and what I have. This is a self-defeating habit. Once we stop striving for an Instagram worthy life we can have a really happy life. On your own terms. Teddy Roosevelt, said “Comparison is the thief of joy”

Once you realize you don’t have to be better than she is. Nor do you have to be thinner, taller, smarter or richer. You can start being happy. If you are being who you want to be, how can anyone tell you, you’re doing it wrong. The only thing you have to be is your best you. To be comfortable in your own skin means being happy to let people know who you really are. I spent my twenties believing that life was a competition, it’s not. There’s no finish line and there is no finite amount of success, money or happiness. There is enough to go around. When it comes to happiness, one size doesn’t fit all. Your happy isn’t the same as my happy. Happiness is personal, and you have to design YOUR happy.

Have you ever heard anyone say, “She marches to the beat of her own drum”? It’s not usually meant as a compliment. When someone says that, people hear, she’s quirky, she doesn’t quite fit in, she likes to do things her own way. It should be a compliment, because being you, and living life on your own terms is tremendous. If you’re an entrepreneur and you’re building your brand you need to march to the beat of your own drum. You’ll never have great happiness living by someone else’s standards. You didn’t start your business to do the same things the same way they have always been done. Why bother?

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The first step should be to figure out what your happiness looks like. With all the challenges of running your own business, you should at least be doing it in a way that makes you happy? Everything about your business should reflect who you are and your personality. A few months ago I reconnected with a friend I hadn’t talk to in over fifteen years. We were very close in our twenties, then she moved back to the west coast and after a few years, we lost contact. She searched for me online and found my business Crash Pad Designs. She emailed me and said, “Pedro,(she’s always called me by my last name) as soon as I saw your website I knew it was you.” I was very happy to hear from my old friend. I was also happy and proud, to hear that my business was a reflection of my personality. What a compliment, I was marching to the beat of my own drum.

Here’s a question. What comes first success or happiness?

Every business owner wants to be successful, but if you’re not happy are you really successful? If you’ve already made the decision to be your own boss, don’t hold back now. Whatever your business, you can, of course, find inspiration from other people. Inspiration is awesome but, imitating someone else is stressful and unfulfilling. Running your own business is hard enough, no need to make it harder. So take that inspiration and do it your way. Then one day someone will find inspiration in you.

The moral of the comic strip was, the McGinnis family could never keep up with the Jones. Even back in 1916, the goal post was always moving. Trying to live a life based on other people’s standards of success and happiness, means you will always be chasing a moving goal post.

I am still active on social media and I still count how many people like my post. But I am not chasing that moving goal post. I have dirty clothes on the floor, dust bunnies, and my favorite jeans are getting tight, but I’m really happy.

So what does your happy look like?

I’m Renee Pedro, Owner /Creative Director of Crash Pad Designs a made in America modern home textiles company in Philadelphia, PA. I am a self taught textile designer and entrepreneur. It all started because of a vintage stove, I had been house hunting for a year and had seen over 100 houses. I was worried I’d never find my perfect house. At that time, I worked nights and slept until noon except on Wednesdays. Wednesdays my friend who was my realtor, picked me up at 9am, before we spoke a word to each other I had to have a sip of the 16 oz black coffee she bought for me. One Wednesday morning we entered a house through the kitchen door. First thing I saw was a beautiful yellow & white 1963 Philco electric stove. Because of that stove I bought that house, and started my business. I didn’t know anything about designing fabric, starting a business, or running a business. The one thing I knew was, “I could figure it out”, and I did. Seven years later , I still say to myself at least 4 times a day, “I’ll figure it out”and I usually do. See a picture of my stove at https://crashpaddesigns.com.

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[alienvirals]

Alien: Covenants Katherine Waterston: We live in hypersexualised yet totally prudish times

The actor following in the footsteps of Sigourney Weaver has been dubbed the new Ripley

Ripley, the indomitable action hero played by Sigourney Weaver in the Alien series, may have hung up her flamethrower for good, but the franchises latest prequel, Alien: Covenant, features a convincing replacement in the form of tough cookie Daniels, played by Katherine Waterston. The 37-year-old actor got her breakthrough role as the enigmatic Shasta Fay in Paul Thomas Andersons fuzzy comic thriller Inherent Vice and was last seen sporting a cloche hat and brandishing a wand as Tina in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

In person, she cuts a jaunty, unassuming figure. She saunters into the room in white trainers and navy trousers, red socks visible in the gap between them: a black tank-top partially conceals a white T-shirt. She is tomboyish and tall, like Ally Sheedy on stilts, so that when she folds her long legs under her chair, she looks exaggeratedly S-shaped. Dealing with the weight of expectation from Alien fans hasnt been too intense, she says, nibbling on a pain aux raisins. The way I looked at it with this and Fantastic Beasts was that it was like being recruited on to a sports team. Theres a devotion from these fans who are just excited for the next game. They arent sat there thinking: Youd better not let me down, Waterston!

Alien: Covenant trailer: Ridley Scott returns with sci-fi thriller

Rumours suggested that Daniels would be Ripleys mother and, whatever the truth, there are resemblances. Both are rational women transformed by circumstance into gun-toting warriors. Both are shown at some point in singlets, or clomping around in magnetic boots, and each has a problematic relationship with a synthetic colleague. The only shortfall comes in the area of the catchphrase, where Danielss multiple efforts (including I got you, you son-of-a-bitch and Lets kill this fucker!) are no match for Ripleys emphatic: Get away from her, you bitch!

Most strikingly, the first note Waterston has to play in the new film is outright panic when technical problems wake her prematurely from hypersleep. The second is grief. Its like slamming on the brakes before anyone has the chance to buckle their seat belts. I didnt know how I would play it or how I could get there, but thats always the most appealing thing to me. The insecurity is exciting. Maybe Im also curious about testing my ability. She widens her eyes. Seeing if its still there.

Although Daniels is treading in Ripleys footsteps, or, given that Covenant is set 20-odd years before Alien, forging the path that Ripley will follow, Waterston didnt talk to Weaver about the part. But the two women have a distant connection. When Waterston was starting out as an actor, she got her first lead role in a play at The Flea, a New York theatre co-founded by Weavers husband, Jim Simpson. Sigourney came to see it and said something like: You were good. Nothing extraordinary. But when someone like her says that, you hang on to it for years. When I got this job, I thought immediately of that moment.

Waterston is big on the idea of all actors as an extended clan, perhaps unsurprisingly for someone whose siblings are in the business, and whose father is Sam Waterston, the veteran from The Killing Fields, Crimes and Misdemeanors and the TV hit Law and Order. Her mother is the former model Lynn Louisa Woodruff. Acting is a community where you come in and out of each others lives. Im slightly envious of the golden age of Hollywood. It must have been frustrating to be owned by the studio, but it was also like being in a company, working with the same people, and that appeals to me.

Working On Alien: Covenant, she was reunited with Carmen Ejogo (Fantastic Beasts) and Michael Fassbender, with whom she shared some fraught scenes in Steve Jobs, as well as her old chum Billy Crudup. At one point during our conversation, she leaps up and yanks open the door in response to voices outside. Billy Crudup, will you shut the fuck up? she hollers down the hallway. Im trying to focus!

Crudup sidles into view. What you doing for dinner tonight, he purrs. You want to join us? Me and Danny McBride? You should be so lucky! What larks. Of course, its entirely possible that she could have put on a more vivid display of her need to cultivate actorly intimacy than bounding out of the room to accost a colleague. Possible, yes, but not likely.

She first saw Crudup when she was 15 in a Broadway production of Tom Stoppards Arcadia, which she now credits with confirming in her mind her acting ambitions. It was the thing that clicked me over to that next level of curiosity. Clicked? You know when youre going up at the start of the rollercoaster and its going click-click-click towards the summit? Id had the initial idea of wanting to act but I didnt know how I could do it.

Even though her dad is an actor? I know! Isnt that weird? On a rollercoaster, theres an inevitability about whats going to happen next.

Did acting feel that way? Yes. Even though I wasnt sure how it would come about, I knew it would.

Determined to distinguish herself from her family, she eschewed performing as a teenager. Didnt appear in so much as a school play. Photography was her bag. I loved the darkroom. Its a good place for an angsty teenager. Her favourite picture is one she took while visiting her father on location in Dublin. Its of this drunk gambler at the racetrack, totally loaded, who had climbed into a tree to get a better view of the horses. She smiles sadly. I cant imagine having the guts to do that now. I wonder sometimes if Ive got in the habit of only being courageous when someone else has written the words I have to say.

Inherent Vice trailer: watch Joaquin Phoenix in the first look at Paul Thomas Andersons Thomas Pynchon adaptation

No one who gave the sort of performance that Waterston did in Inherent Vice should be in any hurry to sell herself short. Shasta Fay appears in only a couple of scenes but her presence permeates the film; she is the personification of its riddles. Attention at the time focused disproportionately on one scene in which Waterston lies naked across the lap of her ex-lover, played by Joaquin Phoenix, and invites him to spank her. One journalist asked if Joaquin left red marks on my butt, she recalls incredulously. I wish Id said: I dont remember but Ill tell you what bend over and Ill spank you as hard as I can and well see what happens.

We live in such hypersexualised yet totally prudish times. People have this expectation about everyone elses relationship to their own bodies. Surely you must have shame about your body? Surely whats scariest for you as actor would be to stand in a room naked? Believe me, Ive been in so many more terrifying situations as a performer than that. This was working with people I trusted in a scene that was rich and complex and there was so much to do there that I hardly even thought about that thing that seems to be all everyone could talk about. Theyre just hoping Ill say: Oh, I was so scared that day and then I drank a few shots of whisky and I felt better. She gives a mighty roll of the eyes.

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After Inherent Vice wrapped, she was convinced she would become known as the first actor to be bad in an Anderson movie. That period between finishing the film and opening night is agonising. Thats part of why actors go from job to job so they dont have to live with the anxiety in the interim.

As if to prove that, she has already shot another three pictures since Alien: Covenant, including Steven Soderberghs Logan Lucky opposite Channing Tatum, and is about to start Fantastic Beasts 2.

Having likened acting to a sports team and a rollercoaster, she saves her most conflicted analogy for last. Ive heard this is how cults brainwash people, she says. You wake up and you go to conferences that go on all day and then youre so exhausted that you sleep, and then you get up and do it again the next day. Thats what its like making movies. Youre up before dawn, you collapse at night and then you do it all over again until theres no room for anything else in your brain.

Alien: Covenant is released in Australia today, in the UK on 12 May, and the US on 19 May.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us

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