#i would say its an early celebrating tim

[rottemp]

While Tim's celebrating Rhys has a whole bamboozled expirience trying to find on ECHO-net if being happy is a normal reaction to the news that you died

[dcxdpdabbles]

ok but imagine

batman with gun tim time travels to the past but instead of trying to seduce baby tim to the dark side he,,, ignores him

after all baby tim is young and pragmatic he'll realize that company policy is ineffective and kill people gets shit done

no bwg!tim has more important things to handle

like killing the ppl who murder his boo danny

and he knows exactly who to target

bonus points if tim and danny aren't dating yet

extra bonus points if they haven't even met yet

The plan was simple really. Time travel and start the correct way to handle criminals early. Take out the people that had taken from him the only person he really loved.

His past self was still running around trying to talk the Bats down from murderous rage, and while that itched, it was a lesson he needed to learn in order to finally wake up and properly get things done.

Tim saw no reason to track him down. He's stubborn as a mule, he can admit that, and his past self heartily believes that the crazy bastards should be locked away instead of put down. It would be ages before he could get close to getting him to listen to what Tim had to say.

Time, ironically, is not something he has to waste. The machine that brought him back had preset departer times. If he missed it then Gotham in ten years would be without it's Batman.

The carefuly iron control he has over the city would be questioned, and some fools would try to make a power grab in the sudden vaccum Batman had left behind.

So while it would take years for his past self to come to his senses, it would happen on its own, and Tim was alright with waiting for it. What he wouldn't allow to repeat itself was the death of his lover.

His plan involved killing the people that killed Danny. What Tim forgot in his grief was that those very people were the ones to raise Danny.

Yes, Jack and Maddie Fenton had killed their son in an accident. The ray gun that they designed had been faulty and had exploded in wide outburst instead of shooting straight.

It was meant to paralyze the ghost for capture.

Instead, it attacked ghost cores in horrific, fast-acting disintegration. Tim remembers the blast washing over him, the green ripples doing nothing to him as a human, and for a brief second thinking it funny that their gun was just a fancy light show, only to hear Jack Fenton's cry of celebration.

Then Danny's scream of agony.

His skin had been falling off, and Tim had been rooted to the spot watching his boyfriend, his lover, his entire moral compass melt before his eyes.

He had watched Maddie's smug face break into hysterical grief when Danny's ghost form vanished, and the sluggish body that fell to the floor with a splat had been her son. The two scientists had reached Danny first, and the fools had begged him to hold on.

As if they were not the ones to have done this, indirectly or not.

Danny's last words had been "I forgive you. I love you"

and then he was gone. In seconds his Danny was lost. He had died painfully, unfairly, and all because his parents had believed in their bigotry so purely they never saw reason to change their minds, even when there were signs their son was part of the group they loath so much.

The Fentons hadn't even been charged with Danny's death. It was deemed an accident; the worst they had to do was pay a fine for their blast, knocking out the power. All because ghosts were not protected under meta laws, and Danny was no longer recognized as human.

Tim hated them more than any villain in the world, hated that they lived well, Danny did not.

His own comfort was that they couldn't live with themselves either. Jack Fenton had taken his life the night after the funeral Jassmin had planned for Danny. Maddie Fenton had lost her mind, speaking to the air as though her husband and son were still there, and was moved to an asylum by a grief-stricken daughter.

There she died of a broken heart.

Tim took care of Jazz, he felt that Danny would have wanted him to, but she was never the same again. She was one of the first to agreed with him that Batman had to stop people before they went too far.

That thinking "they'll come around" was no longer an option. She made him the bullets for the gun that killed Bruce's parents, and she was the one that watched that same gun put down the Joker.

It was the first time she smiled in years.

All that hurt because of these fools.

Tim wasn't going to let them hurt anyone anymore. He aims his gun at the shaking forms of Jack and Maddie Fenton, their pathetic attempt to fight him off, were nothing comparied to his training.

He had them on their knees, bound to hold still, and with one push of his finger, the toxic outlook on ghosts would die with them.

But foolish-loving Danny wasn't about to let him put them in the ground where they belonged. The boy had thrown himself in front of them with a cry, throwing up a shield seconds before the bullets found their mark.

The Fenton couple gasped while Danny turned to them with clear worry. "Are you alright?"

Tim felt as if though he was kicked in the chest, seeing the boy- for he was a boy. How had he forgotten that his love died so young? Now with all the years under Tim's belt, did he truly see how pre-maturely Danny had died.

He was as beautiful as the day Tim lost him, but he was far too pure and innocent now. Tim's killing was a necessary that ruined him, while Danny remained kind and forgiving till the end.

He can't stop the rush of air that threathens to burn tears into his eyes escape him. Thankfully his training kicks in and Batman is able to shut everything that was Tim in his mind.

All that remain was the mission within human shape.

Danny growls, voice as cold as his ice core "Who are you?!"

"I'm Batman"

"Liar!" The boy hisses, thin pieces of frost growing around his green shield. "Batman doesn't kill!"

Tim scoffs, "Killing is the only way to stop more death."

Danny doesn't respond. He merely shoots a blast at him, momentarily dropping his shield, and Batman rolls away. He will overwhelm the boy and get him out of the way.

Then, he will do what he came to accomplish. Danny must know that, for he sees the moment, he shuts away his own human part and melts into Phantom.

The young ghost who took on a King for his people and became the hero that supported Red Robin above all else.

Phantom leaps at him, and Batman meets him halfway, each wearing emotionless expressions that promise a fight to the bitter end.

[bad268]

hey lovely! hope your well.

I was wondering if you could do a Arvid Lindblad x reader story please?

I have a couple request if that's okay?

First

Arvid and Y/n both like each other, and Dino and the other drivers make a plan to get them together.

Second

Where the reader has curly hair and they try to show Arvid how to style his curls.

Third

Arvid and Y/n just being adorable, him being cliny, Arvid having to hold their hand, everyone bullying Arvid because of how whipped he is for Y/n

Thank you (sorry if its too much to ask!)

Love your written BTW!

Trio Shorts (Arvid Lindblad X Reader)

Fandom: RPF/F2/F3

Requested: Clearly (I did all three as shorts, I hope you like it, and thank you love <3) (Also, special gift since we're getting close to the follower celebration <3)

Warnings: None

POV: Second Person (You/your/They/them)

W.C. 1365

As always, my requests are OPEN

MASTERLIST // HITLIST

~~(^Pinterest)

First (driver! Reader)

You were a last-minute addition to Prema, moving from FRECA to F3 after Gabriele had to leave the championship. You were nervous to meet your new teammate. You had raced against Arvid before, and you loved hanging around him in the Prema factory. You two were teammates in the Italian F4 championship before you split to FRECA while he did the UAE Championship. Dino, you had only heard of, so this would be the first time you met him.

You walked into the paddock early, probably earlier than you needed. It was the first time at this track, so you were going to need all of the help you could get. You got approval from the team to do an early track walk, so you were currently about to start it.

The plan was simple, do one lap, feeling the turns. Then the second lap would actually be you memorizing changes in the tarmac and thinking about the braking zones. You did not even make it to turn one of the first lap before someone cleared their throat behind you.

“Mind if I join?” They asked, causing you to turn and see Dino standing by the pitlane exit. You found out during that lap that Dino is quite the gossip person, so you two really hit it off. That was the start of your weekly paddock gossip session.

You two talked about anything from other driver’s personal business to engineers and team personnel. You even started jokingly shipping different drivers together. One day you joked that Dino and Sebastian would be a cute couple, so he thought that you and Arvid would be a better match. You went silent because you never wanted to admit those feelings, but clearly, other people noticed them. Dino stopped walking when he noticed you not laughing it off like you had both done before.

“Do you actually like him?” Dino asked.

“Is it that obvious?” You asked back nervously. That was all Dino needed to hear. He was already forming a plan to get you and Arvid together. The rest of the walk, though, Dino played it off as a random pairing since most of the others had been completely random too.

It wasn’t until nearly a month later that it was brought up again. It was the second to last race of the season, and you were told that there was an emergency meeting in the Prema facility, so you were on your way there.

However, Dino, Sebastian, Tim, and Luke had a plan. They told Arvid that they were setting him up on a blind date.

“Oh, is it with Y/n?” Arvid laughed as Tim handed him flowers, ones he recognized as your favorites, and Dino fixed his hair. Suddenly all of the guys stopped, causing Arvid to also stop laughing.

“No keep that energy!” Sebas said as he grabbed Arvid by the shoulders. “Yes, it’s Y/n but they don’t know it’s a blind date, so think of this as a push in the right direction.”

“They may or may not have said to me that they like you, so this is the solution,” Dino concluded with a clap. 

“It’s not like they’ll say no to a date,” Tim chuckled. “They said they were lonely last week.”

“You know, I don’t think this may have been the best option,” Arvid tried to interject.

“They would never say it to your face,” Luke said with an eye roll as he sat down. “Are you doing it or not?”

“We already made your reservations for their favorite place in the area,” Dino reasoned as he had a nervous smile, trying to convince Arvid.

“Plus, they’re waiting for you, so it would suck if you backed out now,” Sebas said, trying to push Arvid out of the room. “It’s rude to keep your date waiting. Have fun and thank us at the wedding!”

There’s no way he was turning this down.

~~

Second (curly hair! Reader)

“You have a bird’s nest up there or what?” You asked as soon as soon as you saw his messy curls. They were normally all over the place, but now they were just frizzy, and they lost their form. His hair was still wet since he just got out of the shower, but even then, the curls were still crazy.

“What do you mean? This is what they’re always like,” He defended as he walked through the room, putting his clothes away. He had just returned from training in Milton Keynes, so it would make sense if he forgot to take care of his curls. Plus, you were the one to remind him most of the time, and you didn’t go.

“When you finish putting your stuff back, meet me on the bed,” You sighed as you walked into your ensuite to grab your spray bottle, curl cream, and a comb.  You made your way back to the room, setting the stuff off to the side, and putting a movie on the T.V. You sat crosslegged in the center of the bed as Arvid finally finished up and laid down down with his head in your lap. “I’m just gonna form your curls real quick, then we can go get dinner.”

“I’ll fall asleep.”

“Well, I’m not letting you leave this house looking like that.”

“Fair enough,” He chuckled as he reached to grab all of your supplies to hand them to you when you need them. “Spray first?”

“Just a little,” You said as you felt around his hair, “It’s still fairly wet, so we shouldn’t need to spray a lot.”

“Okay,” he responded as he sprayed the water around his head before handing you the curl cream. “Do you want to start mixing the cream while I comb this?”

“Look at you learning from the hundred billion times I’ve shown you how to care for your hair,” You teased as you leaned down to place a kiss on his forehead and grabbed the container. Arvid sat up a little to comb through his hair while you mixed through the cream. When Arvid was satisfied with his job, he laid back down again and handed you the comb. 

You parted a section and combed through it one more time to be sure, and then put the curl cream in it. You used your fingers to make sure the cream was evenly spread through his curls before twirling the hair between your fingers. Then, you unraveled it and moved on to the next section.

It was therapeutic for you, and for Arvid, too. You were able to mindlessly form his curls in no time. And Arvid was right. He did fall asleep.

~~

Third (established relationship!)

 “Arvid, I’m cold-” You didn’t even have to finish your sentence before he was taking his jacket off and putting it around your shoulders. You were sitting with a group of drivers outside before free practice, and it was a little colder than you prepared for. “Thank you love.”

“Anytime,” He replied, disregarding the laughs from the other drivers as he wrapped his arm around your shoulders and pulled you into his side. Then he grabbed your hand to keep your fingers warm, as he said. 

“You’re a simp, Arvid,” Dino laughed when everyone calmed down.

“Do you have a significant other?” Arvid teased, causing everyone to laugh. “Huh, didn’t think so. When you get one, you can talk shit.”

“Arvid, that was rude,” You jabbed him in the ribs immediately, “Apologize.”

“Sorry, Dino,” Arvid groaned, glaring at Dino but his eyes melted when they fell on you. “Does that work?”

“Don’t ask me,” You replied simply, “I’m not the one you’re apologizing to. Ask Dino.”

“They’ve got you on a leash,” Dino laughed, “Anyways, I guess I can forgive you.”

“See?” Arvid gestured to you, “I’m forgiven.”

“Good for you,” You teased, patting his head before standing up. “I’m gonna go get a smoothie. Wanna come with?”

“Always,” Arvid said immediately, jolting up to follow your retreating figure as you didn’t wait up for him. 

“I swear,” Dino said to the group, “They are the cutest and most insufferable couple I’ve ever seen.”

~~~~~

© BAD268 2024. DO NOT REPOST WITHOUT PERMISSION.

[buddiebeginz]

I hear what you’re saying and I love and appreciate the positivity but I’m just tired at this point. It feels like Fox all over again where its roads leading to buddie until the end of the season when it’s suddenly *storylines drive off in a random unsatisfying direction for Buck and Eddie and their LI’s* as the network goes hahah you silly shippers. You’re insane for thinking that was happening. We have no idea what you’re talking about or why you would even think that was a possibility. (But please stick around as we gaslight you into thinking it’s happening again next season before we do this all over at the end. 😜)

I understand why you'd feel that way and trust me I've been around for all of it and been burnt by the show time and time again so I get how you feel but I do believe this time is different. I think we're closer now to Buddie than we have ever been before.

If Buddie wasn't happening I truly believe Tim would have handled Buck's coming out in a way different way. He's not stupid and he knows how much people ship Buddie. Yet he made Buck's bi awakening ep all about Eddie. He's also had Buck and Eddie more connected than ever this season. There's also been very little of B/T and T*mmy. That's not the way you get an audience to become invested in a new ship. If Tim was really all about T*mmy and B/T we would have had more development with them yet they've barely had any real meaningful conversations

I also think that there would have been so much less press about Buddie. We've had more talk about Buddie by major press sites (ones that never talked about them before) like Rolling stone and People mag than we've ever had before. Tim and ABC (and the actors) could have made the decision early on this season to answer the Buddie question a couple of times to be firm and make sure people knew it wasn't in the plans. Yet not only have they not shut Buddie down but they continue to talk about it time and time again and the response is always basically that they want to take their time and do the story right. Also remember that questions are preapproved by the network and the actors team. If they didn't want to talk about Buddie they wouldn't be like in previous seasons when most of the time they didn't.

I get being scared to get your hopes up and of being let down again I'm scared about that too. More than anything I just really want to see Buck and Eddie finally be together. Not even just because I ship them but because I know how momentous and important it will be when that happens. I'm also tired of waiting for 911 to finally bring them together but I think we just have to be patient for a little longer because Tim and the rest of them only have one chance to get this right. I know a lot of us have been waiting years but considering they just moved to ABC and Tim just came back in a way it's like we're starting over again. But that's been a good thing I think for the characters and the show and everything feels like it's on a good track for Buddie to happen way more than we were after seasons 5 and 6.

Another thing is that the closer a will they/won't they ship gets to finally coming together shows will usually up the drama so we think it's not going to happen so then when it does it's more emotionally rewarding. So whatever is in store for Buddie right now even if they have a falling out (like some of the spoilers hint to) and even if B/T make things official going into s8 that doesn't meant Buddie is off the table. S7 did the most to let us know that Buck and Eddie know each other and get each other and are there for each other more than anyone else is for them and that relationship will always shine through above any other.

Try not to let the drama in fandom and whatever happens in the finale get you down. We can and always will be able to ship Buddie and celebrate that relationship regardless of whether or not they're canon. Message anytime. ❤️

[zablife]

Tachipen 7 Teaser

Author's Note: Believe it or not this series is quite dear to my heart and the lack of updates is only bc I want to get it right before sharing. I apologize for the lack of content, but to make up for the delay, I share a teaser for part 7. I hope you enjoy it! Please let me know your thoughts to keep me motivated and I promise to share more soon. I will be posting the last of my 2K celebration fics in the next few days and then my attention will be focused on finishing this chapter, I swear!!

Masterlist

1919

It had been two months since John’s marriage and you weren’t any closer to forgetting the way he woke you in the morning with a hot cup of coffee and a roguish smile. You hated the solitude of the early morning light now, the way it found you curled up against the headboard, fearful of its rays, knowing you’d been awake for hours contemplating the nightmares of the long night that came before. 

“Y/n?” A voice called through the fog, it echoed over the rolling hills toward you as you galloped toward the unfamiliar sound. A little further and you would solve the mystery of the one who called to you in the darkness. You sunk your heels into the gray mare purposefully, determined to catch up when a gunshot rang out. Suddenly you were standing over a grave, fresh dirt covering your boots. Your shivering form kept you from moving one toe toward the edge to see who it might be. “Keep away,” the voice warned, an icy hand grasping your shoulder and waking you with a start.

A sheen of sweat covered your body and you pulled yourself from the old tick mattress to dress for the day. Trying to act casually, you brushed past Polly to retrieve a mug of tea, but she turned you around to face her with a look of concern in her hazel eyes. You were gaunt these days, dark circles beneath your eyes from lack of sleep. Sometimes she wondered if it was heartbreak over John, something she’d only become aware of after the wedding. However, your trembling form convinced her this was something more. 

“I know something’s wrong, love. Won’t you tell me what it is?” she pleaded.

You gulped as you realized Polly could read you like a book and decided to confess the awful plight you’d been suffering. Within the span of a few minutes, you’d confided everything. 

“I had the same dream again last night, Pol,” you said, looking into your mug fearfully. Eyes growing wide you continued haltingly, afraid to say what you’d only heard your relatives speak of in hushed whispers. “I know what this is…Means there’s a traitor…someone who wants to do me harm,” you admitted as you brought your fingers to your mouth and viciously bit at your cuticles.

Polly looked away momentarily, eyes scanning the wallpaper over your head as she thought. Then she reached for your hand, placing hers over your bleeding fingertips with gentle reassurance. “These kinds of dreams can mean a lot of things. I wouldn’t pay them any mind,” she said softly.

You shook your head violently in response. “No, Pol. I know this means someone here is not what they seem. There’s betrayal here,” you whispered fiercely, glancing around the room with a suspicious gaze.

Polly looked at you, assessing the fear she saw clawing out of your eyes and nodded with renewed understanding. She rubbed a thumb over the back of your hand as she proclaimed slowly, “A black cat dream can mean you’re hurting yourself, betraying yourself.” Then she stared deeply into your eyes. “Are you sure there isn’t something you’re not being honest about?” 

-----------

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[quotidian-oblivion]

Wouldst THou be okay with questions???

What’s your favourite thing to do at 2am (follow up question, fic recs??????)

Love

'Course! I has puts blanket permission it on le pinned post.

Read/write fics. Unquestionably. And eat junk food (like ferrero rochers *cough cough*). If i was alone in the house at 2 am, i would probably be singing out as loud as i could.

But *sigh* I end up doing schoolwork half the time. The other half I'm laying in my bed, and sleep-deprived me takes over and magically produces a fic and its outline leaving daytime-me to write it out and expand on it.

Fic recs... hmmm... Lemme go visit my bookmarks and link the links here.

Okay, so Repletion by sardnoic-sprite is rlly good. Actually lol, im providing analyzations + some minor info and ideas on the 2.0 version of the fic to sprite rn. In this one, Uncle Edward does exist and is a certified asshole and abuser. He tries to control Tim and keep him away from the Bats and threatens to hurt Tim real bad if the Bats try to contact him.

Zugzwang by sardonic sprite is rlly good too! Very hurty. Much angst. Ra's captures the batfam and challenges Tim to a game of chess. Each move is dangerous. A small mistake puts any of the Bats at risk. And Tim has to predict which batfam member will get hurt depending on which chess piece he moves.

And the whole series of Celebrity Batwaynes by sardonic-sprite is rlly good too! It had me cracking up so much. But ofc there's angst there too, but mostly crack and i adore this series with my life. It's about the Gotham vigilantes, some rogues, and the Waynes doing internet challenges like Buzzfeed quizzes and other stuff too.

My Mummy Has Tattoos by I_is_a_fangirl_yee is v v angsty. And yes, im being prejudiced rn but what im not being prejudiced abt is the fact that i screamed out loud in class while beta-ing this fic.

Now, The Dream Of Flight by A_Canceled_Stamp is an excellent fic I will never stop yakking about. The plot is literally just Tim falling off a building. But the writing? The emotions captured within the writing, the pure act of storytelling through actions described by text is something out-of-the-world.

I adore Instead Of All The Colors I Saw by SilverSkiesAtMidnight. It deals with Tim dealing with the aftermath of Titans Tower and his relationship with Jason and oof- the angsty dialogue is PEAK.

All of Vamillepudding's works. Well, at least the Batman ones, those are the only ones i've read. But they are all. Just. So. Good. The writing and oh- the ideas especially. Definitely some of the greatest Tim joins the batfam early fics to ever have existed.

Living Dead Boy by Terranphuem. *SCREAMS*. This fic. Let me tell you, this fic. It reached into my heart, grabbed it and teared it out then bandaged it and put it back in again. It's about Tim encountering Jason from when he just rose from the grave. And Jason's catatonic and everything and Tim helps him all by himself (with special help a little later) to make him "good enough" to return back to Bruce. SUCH A GOOD READ ISTG.

untitled titan's tower fic #89268439 by Ashynarr. It's, as the title says, a TT fic, but in this one, Jason finds Tim's old fanfiction account and tortures him by rereading some stuff from there to Tim XD Doesnt get the attention it deserves imo.

come back home please by PurpleHeartsOne. Gosh, the writing in this one... it is Up There with the Greats. I love how the emotions is captured so well here and also how smoothly the progression of chapters goes! The character development and- oh! The character reveal! Ahhhhh! Please do mind, it is still incomplete 8/10 chapters rn.

sipping the piping hot tea by BlueTee. In this one, Tim sips tea and destroys Jason instead of Titans Tower happening. Gosh, i loved the nonverbal reactions so much 😂

Conference Room 2B by motelyfam. It's part of a series, but it's so good, it deserves its own special appearance. Big bro Jason Todd! And theater kid Jason Todd! They're both in here!!

of crime lords and literature by adelfie. Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh! The writing! The fucking- *slams table* THE WRITING!! It's a TT AU where Tim asks help from Jason for English h.w. There's more obviously, but that's where the plot starts. It is. so good.

don't drop the baby (i'm the baby) by Ms_Trickster. I will never ever ever shut up about this. I read this twice and both times I teared up. Both times. This fic means a lot to me on a personal level. Basically, Tim accidentally time-travels and meets a baby version of himself.

Late Night encounters by paperxcrowns. Oh gosh oh gosh oh gosh oh gosh! I adore this fic! Not only is the writing especially good, but the story line, the slow and smooth and excellent progression of events and character! Ahhhh! It's about Tim meeting Jason accidentally at a cafe and him somehow accidentally helping Tim with his homework and becoming friends.

just be there by TaraLaurel is so so good. I wrote a fic inspired by it (it's Shiver btw, the title of the inspired fic). Heck, I love all the batfam fics written by them (I haven't read the other fandom fics). This one is touch-starved tim drake and who doesn't love touch-starved tim drake! But more particularly, the writing. The fucking- writing. I'm like, the person who reads fanfics, but the ones with good fucking writing become my favorite cuz then i can kinda read it again and learn from it yk? It's like, looking up to people. And I look up to this author. How they describe emotions through nonverbal actions and verbal actions and subtle actions but also the inner monologue as well. Love it all.

Lastly, I've been saving this for the end. Rebel Without A Clause by DangerBeckett. This fic covers topics like classism and has Deep Stuff in it which is so so fun to read! I started commenting from the third chapter. Then by the fifth chapter, my two-sentence comments turned to two-page comments. As did with so many other commenters. I love the author and their writing. It is truly top tier. I love the character development going on too and the retrospection of topics and events through fiction and fandom. Truly excellent. Honestly. I can go on and on. And I have! It's about Tim meeting the batfam through galas and slowly getting adopted by them. It's in-progress still.

Those were too many fics probably lol. But I kept going through my bookmarks like "Oh! I forgot about that one! It was so fun". Happy reading! Thanks for the ask! ^^

[bronx-bomber87]

Hello all we’ve had an amazing string of Chenford and Tim/Lucy backstory goodness. S2 is very kind to us. This ep it tapers off a bit still have some Chenford but Rachel is re-introduced back into this and is the driving force of it. I mean with all the eps we just had you forget he’s even dating her tbh haha as I’ve said all season Rachel’s moments with Tim all have their purpose. Including this one. I would apologize for the lack of content but its not my fault LOL This will be much shorter than the last 4-5 have been ha but let’s get started :)

2x15 Hand-Off

Their scenes start off with the war bag room. Lucy is asking if Tim is nervous to meet Rachel’s dad? Tim doesn’t seem in the least phased by it. Lucy tells him it’s ok if he is just a hair scared. That Rachel adores her dad so much would make sense. Tim shrugs it off, thinks he has an in with him being a cop for 30 years. Lucy scoffs and says yeah but it was in a place that had 2 stoplights haha Tim doesn’t let her deter him and says a cop is a cop. LA or Mayberry.

This where it gets really adorable. First off I love his cute little smile when he says Mayberry. I think that show must be a good memory for him. One of his few in his childhood. He also seems so proud of himself for the reference. It goes way over her head sadly. Lucy is beyond confused and not getting his reference in the slightest. Cracks me up she gets him in so many ways but not this one LMAO. Tim gives up and says never mind…

They’re in the shop starting their day when Lucy asks where he’s taking her dad? Says it can’t be too fancy or he's gonna look like he is showing off. But he is visiting so a possible celebrity sighting wouldn't hurt. Tim delivers his answer proudly. Lucy approves (you know he secretly wanted that approval) He’s learned a thing or two since her birthday. Tim’s smiles when Lucy says she likes it. I love that its too cute. He seems pretty proud of his choice and the fact that she likes it. You know he's happy she isn't giving him any crap for his plans. He is a little more confident in his choice this time around than he was with her birthday gifts.

Rachel ends up calling Lucy interrupting their little moment. Tim is all cute and smiles until the phone call ends. Lucy has decided to recruit them to find her dad’s missing suitcase. Naturally they both see this situation differently. Lucy sees it as an opportunity to bond for Tim, to get off on the right foot with her dad etc. All Tim can see is the low solve rate and her father being disappointed in him cause of it.

Clearly impressing her dad is more important than he lead on…because well Tim. Lucy god love her thought she was doing it to help him. Always has his best interests at heart. Even when he so vehemently disagrees. All he can think about now is how they're not going to find it. That he will let her dad down before he can make a good impression. It’s awkward after that and Lucy goes on about their bread LMAO Her nervous rambles as Tim shakes his head. I love our girl so much.

Tim could not be cuter walking up to meet Rachel. Also his smile as Lucy and Rachel's dad get reacquainted. Then the awkwardness kicks in when they shake hands. Tim is doing his best to be respectful but is already striking out with him. The inner T.O. coming out in him. He tells Colin the chances of finding his suitcase is low. Crashing and burning fairly early into this intro.

Her dad bites back that a cop should have beat integrity and such. Tim says it’s easy to when you have 9 criminals LOL Oh Tim. Her dad says he’ll crack the case for him then by driving around. Tim's need to prove himself kicks in. He tries to fix it by inviting him into the shop. Says they can cruise around since he saw the guys face. Not doing so hot my love….

Lucy jumps in to help Tim. Invites Colin into the front seat says she can sit in the back while they drive around. Lucy makes sure to check back with Tim. She knows he isn’t happy about any of this. From being roped into it and now having to ride around with him. The need to prove himself is very real. Their body language in this scene cracks me up. Complete antithesis. She is taping her hands against her belt happily. She see's this as positive thing where all Tim is feeling is dread. You can sense his discontent.

What also cracks me up about this scene is it’s them in a moment. Lucy his sunshine human personified telling him to be positive, when literally that’s the last thing he wants to be LOL. Grumpy and Sunshine at their finest in this moment. His face in the last gif I’m dying. He’s so moody atm and her sunshine attitude about the whole thing is too funny. You can also see the panic on his face. We all know his deep rooted issues with his own father. To have to try and prove his worth on the spot to someone else’s not his idea of a good time…

The silent communication continues between these two. Just look at them above. They’re out looking with Colin and Tim says his spiel about LA. Her dad puts him in his place a little and Tim knows it. I love him checking in with her in the mirror. Lucy acknowledging him before he returns to the convo. It’s the little things I love so much with them. She does side with Tim in the fact this guy could be long gone.

Colin is strong in his resolve this guy is still around. He is so sure they're going to find him. They roll up on a taco spot where he spots the guy. Tim looks impressed. They confront the man and his partner jumps Lucy. She handles herself like a BAMF while Tim chases after the first guy. Colin clothes lines the guy fleeing impressing Tim further. It's a pretty good action sequence.

My fav kind of shot tall and smol in this scene. Why do I love their height difference so much? haha Whenever I see it just makes me smile. Colin is letting them know about how back in his town they didn't have partners. If you couldn't do the job alone you shouldn't be doing it. He forgets LA is crazy populated no way people could do this job solo. He really should be impressed by their dynamic together. They are alway so amazing to watch in the field together.

They look beyond adorable as they smile and look at each other after he says his partner bit. Lucy is happy she’s being called his partner and not just his rookie. (We all know she is more than just his rookie hehe) Tim is just looking proud she is his partner. God they cute.. They handled that whole takedown perfect together. They are so in sync with everything they do. From this arrest to this moment. I love them sfm. They are simpatico in the field it's a thing of beauty to behold really.

Colin finally gives Tim some praise. Something I think he wasn't expecting to get at all. He lets him know what a good cop he is. Starts listing off all the reasons why as well. Tim is all happy until he says ‘Just not for my daughter.’ Poor Tim looks crushed. I know he feels like he did all the right things and is still in the wrong with Colin. Seems like a backhanded compliment at this point. Praising him but also saying it's why he isn't right for her. What a gut punch to him. To praise him then use that as the very reason why he shouldn't be with her.

Tim defends himself and what he does passionately. Which I find very attractive. Something about the way Tim says ‘Sir, It’s every cops duty to’ *fans self* sexy af the way he wears his pride on his sleeve about his job. Yum Tum for me. Colin doesn’t chide Tim for wanting to go out into the darkness. That he was just like him. Putting the job first. Above his wife and above his daughter. The toll it took. He doesn’t want his daughter left alone in the dark. I get it but damn way to crush Tim.

This moment shows why Lucy is meant to be his person. She’ll join him in that fight in the dark. They’ll be together battling the crazy side by side. I.e. the s5 finale and the way they were a power couple in battle. Also why Rachel would not have worked out for him in that regard. The biggest take away from this scene is she’s not Lucy. Tim lays aside his career and job for her. He doesn't blink. You see in his defense he doesn’t say he would stay for Rachel instead of going out into the night. Only that it’s a a cops duty to....

I said earlier his scenes with or about Rachel has purpose. This is one of those moments. In this instance it’s to show why Lucy is his end all. The things he would be willing to do for her vs what he would do for Rachel. I mean hell look at this season. What he’s already done for Lucy while dating Rachel. Gave up a promotion to stay with her and the influence she has on his life. One of many things he does and will continue to do for her. Because when it’s the right one all the stuff Rachel's dad is posing at Tim right now doesn’t matter.

Tim tries one more shot at changing Colin’s mind. It’s then one of the main reasons her father doesn’t want her with Tim gets revealed. She might have Huntington’s disease. It’s hit his whole family. Rachel refuses to get tested to see if it’s hit her too. You can see Tim struggling really hard with this information. Clinging to the possibility it might not happen to her.

Colin then says once again that if she gets it she’ll need someone who will stay. Someone who will will give up everything to take care of her. That Tim isn’t that person. Not for Rachel he isn’t. We all know if it was Lucy he wouldn’t hesitate. There is hesitation in him during this. Can't blame him in the least. It's a lot of intense information to take in at once. This is once again the difference between Rachel and Lucy.

Tim of course goes to his safe space about this immediately. They’re talking about it at the station together. Lucy has looked up the disease and all its symptoms. I love him going right to her with this. Needing her perspective and take on this whole thing. Lucy had no idea Rachel might even have this. So she’s playing emotional catch up herself. Which unfortunately doesn't give Lucy enough time to advise him like she normally would since she is reeling herself.

Rachel meets up with them and blows up cause she finds out they both know. That her father has let them both know her secret. Lucy says how sorry she is. Tim tries to be sweet and have them talk about it. She refuses says it’s her life not his or her dads. Then takes off. Tim looking at Lucy like a wounded puppy. Hurts my heart to see him brushed off like that.

Rachel comes to find him afterwards. He drops everything to talk with her. He is incredibly sweet and understanding about why she hasn’t taken the test. Says he knows his job is unknown as well. Doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to do it every day. Tells her he’s not going anywhere when she gives him an out if he wants it. Such an honorable and good man. Ugh my heart. I adore this man so much. I loved getting this insight into him by watching how he is with her. How he is in a relationship. Pre-Lucy. When he loves he loves VERY hard. I truly love Rachel for what she did for Tim post-Isabel.

We get to see how loyal, loving and tender he is when he’s with someone. He always makes that person #1 Makes my heart happy to see him happy. It’s not with Lucy right now but it’s what he needs to get there. They both are so not ready for what is to come with them yet. So for now him being with her is tolerable haha Honestly more so than Ashley but I have my thoughts behind her as well but we will dig into that when we hit s4. The difference between Lucy and all the other women he dates is Lucy putting him first we see that in S5 and honestly in general before they're together.

It's why he continually gravitates back towards her. She gives him what he's been denied his entire life. Being put first. Her thinking of him before herself. She did that in this episode. Tim didn't see helping Rachel's dad the way Lucy did. Her saying they'd help out was her way of helping him out. To get Tim off on the right foot. Was her way of taking care of him. It's why their pre-couple time is so important before they dive into what we have in s5. Beautiful trust and love is built there long before they're a couple. Anyways before I ramble on anymore about them I'll stop haha That’s all she wrote for them in this one not a lot but enough to build a review out of it. Ha

Side notes-Non Chenford

Lopez and Grey’s SL was deep and emotional. Poor Angela her first day on the job someone dying in her arms. Grey having it be his partner. Going to a parole hearing to deny this man further freedom for what he did. Rough.

Nolan’s SL was amusing with Seth green and all.

Jackson catching a killer by accident with Smitty too funny.

Thank you all for your continue likes/comments/reblogs. Never stop thanking you all for it. Means the world to me. Shall see you all in 2x16

[just-some-random-blogger]

Hello! I feel un gran oso (shame, cringe, etc) for this, but I wanted to request a morpheus one shot hehe. I just NEED this situation to be written or something cause in my opinión its ✨✨

Based on the song Ballroom of Romance of Celtic Woman, where the reader is a human that somehow fell into morpheus grace, and as such she can enter the Dreaming every time she wants through a earring that morpheus crafted, and she wants to celebrate the Day of the Book or the day of the Librarian in honor to Lucienne, and for unknown reasons she gets permission to make a ballroom and well, a lot of dancing and a beautiful dress and Morpheus from his throne like: 🙂 (💓💓💓)

Mutual pining of course ✨

Thank you very much, have a nice day/noon/night!

Here's the song;

😊

Granny's Superstitions

Dream of the Endless x College Student!Reader

Summary: Your grandmother told you stories of how her grandmother was friends with the King of Dreams. You didn't think much of it, not even when you inherited your great-great grandmother's earrings on your 18th birthday. I mean, why would you? They did not correlate. And yet, your granny should have told you it did, so you weren't so surprised when you found yourself in the halls of the Dreaming.

Word Count: 5k+

Warnings: Dark post capture!Dream, fem!reader, themes of misogyny, exasperated college student!reader, reader has a potty mouth, angst, enemies to lovers(?), typos, etc.

A/N: this was an exciting request! I love that you even added a song <3 I enjoyed it very much!! The syncopation in the chorus, its UGH SAUR GOOD. Because of this, I made reader a music major, like me HIHI. I will say, this became quite a dark and angsty fic and for that ��� im sorry ig. ALSO I CHANGED SO MUCH ABOUT YOUR PROMPT I- ASODHASFOIAHFAHSF:HASF I do hope you still enjoy it my dear T_T [CRIES] IDK WHY I DID THIS TO YOUR REQUEST AND MYSELF IT WAS THE EARRINGS I HYPERFIXATED ON IT AND EVERYTHING JUST WENT BOOM T_T this is literally escapism PS the character Tim Henson in this fic is real, he's from a band called polyphia, which I love, and you don't have to imagine him as Tim, but I sure did LOL

I was effectively buzzed by the alcohol in my blood stream, and yet no amount of booze would make the unwanted stares from my classmates ever palatable.

Had I known making an effort in dressing up would merit the reaction I got for attending this party I didn't even want to attend in the first place, then they should all be glad that I wasn't in fashion department but in music.

Yet another rando turned to me and smiled, complimenting my outfit, to which I forced out a chuckling thank you.

I don't know why they're so upset that the guy they liked thought I was hot! It's not like it's my fault I got attention I didn't want.

I huffed as I pushed the restroom door open. I wash my hands as I stare at my face in the mirror. I behold the efforts I put on painting my face, on doing and redoing my liner, on perfecting the color on my lips.

I clench my jaw tightly at the feel of tears pricking from my eyes.

I thought they were my friends, finally I had friends, and yet all it took was one guy to ruin all that.

I close the faucet and lean on sink, releasing a sigh. I look at my reflection, watching the sapphire earrings dangle by my jaw.

I scoff at myself. I wore my heirlooms for them?

"Gosh, I miss home," I say, screwing my eyes shut as I straighten myself up. I begin to fidget with the small jewels on my lobes and head for the door. "Who cares if I leave early," I pull the door open, "no one's gonna-"

My ghost leaves me and I still when I see the dark expanse of the hall. There was no way this was the room I just exited, no way it was a dark, high-fricking-ceiling hall with marble floors, and massive stained glass windows that were broken. There was no way because there was not a single piece of furniture or intoxicated student in sight, only debris.

From my frozen stance, I push my hand behind me in an attempt to catch the knob I just let go. When I turn, my heart drops when I am faced with the fact I was in the middle of an empty hall with no door in sight.

Did they drug me?

I begin to pant as I do a 360 of the area.

I choke on my spit and go reeling back when I see a dark face in front of me. I am not nearly fast enough in my movements as the man's large strides allow him to quickly catches me in his tight grip.

"How have you come here, intruder?"

His voice is impossibly loud and deep that it seemed it was spoken by the very room itself. My hands dart up to cover my ears, but his grip on my biceps prevented that.

I open my mouth to speak, but the furrow of his brows and the tension of his jaw bring render me mute.

His darkened blue eyes widen a fraction. He scoffs, "I see. You are a thief."

My brows knit at the accusation.

He steps closer, fingers digging into my flesh, "what did you wish to achieve with those earrings?"

A shiver runs down my spine and I begin to stutter.

"What did you do to its owner?" his voice demands, going an octave lower. My eyes widen when his form begins to grow larger and the room begins to darken, "did you hurt her?"

My sight begins to blur with fearful tears when his pale skin disappears into nothingness, "I never met my her! She was dead before my mother was even born!"

"What?!" his voice echoes, seemingly endlessly.

"I NEVER MET GRANNY JOSEPHINE!" I scream, "I just inherited the earrings, I swear!"

When his form begins to revert, I decide it was do or die. I break away from his grip and manage free. However, when I pull away from him, I fall on my butt and freeze at the pain. I crawl away from him as far and as fast as I can, but as much as I didn't want to, I halt when pain shoots up from my palm. I pull my hand toward me and find blood on it.

"You are her progeny," he says.

When my eyes dart back to him, he is just a man in with black hair and a trench coat.

My pulse quickens when he walks over to me.

In an act of self preservation, I grab a concrete rock nearby and throw it to him as hard and best as I can. I goes right through his form and my eyes blow wider than they already are.

I push myself back, through the pain and blood on my palms, "STAY AWAY FROM ME! I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU WANT BUT-"

"I apologize," his voice mutters, silencing me in pure bewilderment.

I look up to the man and examine his face and his outstretched hand.

He cannot possibly believe I would take that.

I prefer the pain of pushing myself up and make sure not to break eye contact with him as I do. Once I am back to my feet, the man looks at me then the blood dripping from my fingers.

"What the fuck are you?" I shudder out, slowly backing away from him.

His eyes lift back to me and he raises his nose, "I am the King of Dreams."

My body trembles at his words. My hands shake as I chuckle in disbelief, "no way- no fucking way. My grandmother- those bedtime stories- you're-"

"Real?" he finishes for me, "as real as your blood staining my floors."

My eye twitches at his remark. I scoff, still on edge, and yet I cannot withhold the retort in the back of my throat, "you're annoyed by my blood dripping when your your filthy floor?"

The Dream king seems not to enjoy that comment and yet I could not help myself, "my blood is the least of your problems, don't you think?"

I grip my injured hand.

"Leaving unwanted traced of yourself is not good for my domain."

I raise my brows at that, "well if you didn't shapeshift and scare the living shit out of me, then maybe I wouldn't have had to crawl away from you."

"I thought you were an intruder."

"But aren't you all knowing, or some shit," I heave, "so much for a king."

"You dare insult me in my own abode right after I've scared you out of your wits?"

I dare a step forward, "well to be humbled, your majesty, for bringing me here just to intimidate me-"

"I did not bring you here," he cuts me off, diminishing the space between us.

And though my pulse was loud in my ears, I remained steadfast in my place.

His hot breath hits my face as he speaks, "you thought of the Dreaming and travelled here yourself."

I pull my face back as it contorts, "I did not think of this hellhole. I thought of home."

"Yes, and this place is a home for all who are weary."

I hum, "you mean before it crumbled to the ground."

My breath hitches at the sound of his growl, "you inherited not an ounce of congeniality from your great-great grandmother."

The way he knows how far off granny Josephine was to me really struck a chord in me. I press my lips together, "well, I'm glad to have disappointed you so soon so that you wouldn't expect anything from me."

He bellows, "mortality never loses its audacity," he brings his face down to me, making my skin rise with gooseflesh, "I would withdraw the earrings you clearly do not deserve, but out of respect to Josephine, I shall allow you to keep it," he seethes, "but for your insolence you will know how much of a king I really am."

BUZZ.

BUZZ.

BUZZ.

BUZZ.

BUZZ.

BUZZ.

BUZZ.

BUZZ.

I slam my hand on my alarm and rip my heavy lids open.

I groggily groan as I struggle out of bed.

Ten days it's been since the last time I slept properly. If falling asleep wasn't the problem, then it was trying to wakeup from the horrible nightmares that plagued me.

I slam my books on my desk, making my seatmate turn to me and watch as I sit down next to him.

"Well, good morning to you too, zombie girl," Tim greets with a shit eating grin.

"I am not in the mood, you ass," I grunt, crossing my arms as I lean back on my chair.

"You haven't been in the mood for two weeks," he says, "Don't you think you should do something about it?" he leans on the table and knits his brows in concern.

I wipe my face and give an annoyed chuckle, "what can I do when I'm literally beefing with the king of dreams," I carefully word, "and nightmares."

"Poetic," he rests his hands on the back of his tattooed hand, "a true sign of insanity."

"Go fucking annoy someone else, you rat."

"Nah, if I do, you'll be lonelier than you are."

I shoot him a dirty look as he then places something in front of me.

I look at the grey packet as he explains, "sleeping pills."

I turn back to him and push the medicine away, "don't work. I've tried."

He raises a brow, "without prescription?"

"There is such a thing a over the counter drugs, Tim."

"Spoken like a true druggie."

I scoff.

He continues, "this was why I told you not to attend that snobby party. You ever noticed that ever since then, you've gotten fucked up in the brain. It's no coincidence."

"Again, thank you captain obvious," I slam my hands on the table and turn to him, feeling my head pulse in exhaustion, "and so sorry that not everyone can be a cool and popular as you."

"Why'd you even wanna make friends with them when you-"

"SHUT UP!" I scream, making the entire class turn to me. I feel embarrassment rise up my neck, and was only lucky that our teacher wasn't here yet. I sink down into my arms and bury my face as I mutter, "Enough. Enough! I get it, Tim. 'I told you so.' Geez, just get off my ass."

He calls my name, making me groan, "I'll do something about my insomnia! Just please, shut the fuck up."

"You better," he scoffs, "or else I'll plant a pea shooter in your lawn."

And so later that day, I did what I perhaps I should have the very moment after I met the Dream King.

I called my grandmother.

"Hi, granny," I smiled, holding my phone up to my face as I waved at the harshly zoomed face of my grandmother on the screen.

"How are you there?" she excitedly answers, "I'm so glad you thought to call."

I nod and chuckle, "me too, granny."

She takes a moment before responding, "you look tired. Have you been sleeping and eating well."

"Yeah, about that..."

After explaining everything to her, her voice grills the audio of my device because of how loud it is, "HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO DREAM OF THE ENDLESS?!"

"Granny, that-"

"YOU MUST APOLOGIZE TO HIM AT ONCE-"

"I think we're past apologies. I have to do something more to make it up to him if I'm to ever sleep well again."

"Darn straight," she mutters in agreement, "now, oh goodness, let's see..." she sighs and wipes her face, "PIE!"

I raise a brow, "pie?!"

"My grandmother absolutely loved baking and everyone who ate her apple crumble pie adored-"

"Hello," a voice calls, making me turn to whom spoke. I see a woman with glasses walking over to me and I give an awkward smile as I raise the tray in my hand, "hi... is Dream here?" Once she is before me, she takes in my appearance then raises a finger, "ah, you're the one who inherited the Sapphire Dream Walk." "... do you mean my earrings?" "Yes. I-" "What are you doing here, girl?" I look over my shoulder and see the annoyed expression on the Dream of the Endless, as my grandmother put. "A peace offering," I release a sigh and hand him the tray, "my grandmother said that granny Josephine made you pie and you so enjoyed." The two of them only stare at me. "It's most definitely not as good-" "Lucienne, I don't have time for this," he says, turning to the woman who greeted me. Dream turns about and debris from the room begins to float up. Lucienne places a hand on my arm then gratefully accepts the tray from me, "I thank you on behalf of my master for your most generous gift."

"Yeah, that's not gonna work," I sigh, running my hands through my hair, "I did not inherit any homemaker skills."

My grandmother says my name gravely.

"What? It's true!" I shake my head, "if I did, then I would have been better off marrying a rich man," I dryly joke.

My grandmother ignores this as she suddenly says, "if your baking skills are that bad, perhaps just make an effort to eat with him every lunch."

I make a twisted face, "you want me to waste my precious free time on that emo prick-"

"Hi," I raise a hand, making Dream and Lucienne, who seemed to be getting into a heated argument, halt and turn to me. Dream scoffs, "you again." I awkwardly chuckle and rub my arm. "What? No bribe this time?" he narrows his eyes at me as he walks over. I purse my lips and twist to reveal my backpack, "I bought lunch for all of us..." There is a sound of thunder from the outside. I look away from the stalking man, finding there was even less debris now compared to yesterday, "it seems your efforts to liven up the place are-" "Silence."

"Oh, so you have a better idea?!" my grandmother quips.

"Granny, I can already imagine-"

"You said," I grip my earlobes tightly in my fingers, "you wouldn't take my earring back for the sake of Josephine." "But that was before," he presses close to me that our bodies were nearly touching, "you were turned out to be a meddlesome insect." "How is being friendly to someone who clearly needs friends meddlesome?" "Friends?" his deep voice darkly chuckles, "it is you who needs friends," his voice echoes, "you think I did not sift through your memories to verify your words? I know well the day you came here you were at a party on the pretense of making companionship," he leans in that his nose nearly touches mine, "but they turned you away, did they not?" My eyes glass at his words and my breathing grows jagged at the words he next spoke. "If your fellow mortals do not want you, what makes you think that I would?" "My lord!" Lucienne calls. I do not grant him the satisfaction of another moment of my time and will myself back to my room.

"-how bad it'll be-"

I hold up a cupcake in a plastic container to the man who was reading on his throne. "Your insolence knows no bounds, girl." "Actually, it's chocolate chip cheesecake." He eyes me darkly, slamming his book closed, "you think you can win me over with food?" "I can tr-" "It is by my own power than I am sustained," he stands and swats my cupcake away, "and by my mercy that you have not slipped into madness." I gulp as he adds, "not yet."

"-if I force myself-"

I try to contain my giggles as Lucienne and I sit on a picnic blanket I bought for today. "It's so weird to know that without him, Bach would've never finished his most famous piece, which is so gentle and sweet and-" I finish with a whisper, "unlike your boss." She sighs as her lips press into a soft smile, "you know... he's not actually that bad. He's just... going through something." I roll my eyes, "what puberty?" Lucienne shakes her head "he has been hurting for a long time." "Just because you've hurt doesn't justify the hurt you inflict on others," I mutter, "you don't have to keep defending your petty king." Dream, who had just finally fixed and tidied the last of the rubble, speaks up "you are aware there is no such thing as hushed whispers in my realm?" He turns to us and walks over with a storm cloud over his head, "every crude remark you've uttered as you stuff your face with your cheap, store bought snacks has echoed in my ears." I look up at him, opening my mouth, but Lucienne's hand grabbing mine silences me. "If you wish to insult me as retribution, then perhaps I should darken your mind more than I already have." "Dream! She has not-" "I've had enough of you as well, Lucienne," he quips, "you tell her things that is not yours to tell." "But you have withheld rest from her, my lord!" she says as she stands, "and for what? Because she told you the realm was in shambles, when it clearly was?!" "I shall heed none of your flippant words and continue to do so as I see fit."

"-to hang around him when he clearly doesn't like me!" I exclaim, already frustrated by the idea.

"Then, do something you like... together."

I release a sigh.

"Perform for him, you are a musician after all, and he is every musician's muse."

Lucienne claps as I release a sigh and allow my guitar to rest on my shoulder on its strap. "A splendid performance indeed," she smiles at me. I awkwardly thank her and turn to Dream beside her. "Pitiful that talents are wasted on a girl as unsavory as she." I shake my head and release a scoff, "aren't you tired of being an asshole?" His lips curl in disgust, "perhaps nightmares aren't enough. Maybe taking your voice-" "You think just because you're powerful and fucking old, all your actions are justified?" I remove the guitar strap and begin to put it back in its case, "I just want to sleep! And I've been making an effort to pacify you, but you're acting like a child." "I'm acting like a-" "THEN I'M ACTING LIKE A CHILD, DAMMIT," I heave, "and you are the perfect Dream of the Endless!" I get on my knees and bow to him mockingly, "none could defy his will."

"Granny, that's-"

"Oh! I've got it. I've got it! I remember. The king is absolutely fond of ballroom dances. Perhaps you can convince him to allow you to plan a dance for him."

"Granny, where would I even plan such a thing?"

"The dreaming of course," I press my lips into a smile, watching Dream's dark face eye me impatiently. "I've had quite enough of your games, girl," he snips, "first you bribe me with food, now you're trying to fool me into dancing with you." "What-" I whine, "is it going to take-" I huff, "for your petty ass to forgive me." He scoffs, "well perhaps you could start by dropping the unnece-" "But I have! I did! I tried being nice, but you do nothing but attack me." He scoffs, "and if that were true then you would not be sufferings still." "I JUST WANT TO SLEEP!" I scream, lunging at him as I grab his stupid collar, "you have NO idea what it feels like to be so tired but restless." "I think I would know-" "BUT YOU DON'T! Because you don't need sleep, or food, or anything! You are just an all powerful monster, devoid of emotions and any sense of compassion." He shoves my hands off him and I pull back as I heave. Dream tilts his head at my tear stained face with disdain. "Lucienne told me you were captured-" "It was not her place to tell you anything." "You would know what it feels like to be trapped!" I release a shudder, "or perhaps you are so caught up in your own self-pity that you will never believe anyone else can suffer, at your cruel hands, no less."

I slam my head on the cafeteria table repeatedly until I feel my forehead sting. I feel tears prick my eyes in frustration.

I just want to sleep.

"I just wanna sleep, you royal douche bag-" I whimper, "can you fucking hEAR ME-"

"Hey!" someone catches my forehead, mid head bang, and I crane my neck up to see the worries and breathless face of my classmate, "where have you been? I haven't seen you at lunch in forever."

I groan and straighten up, just to slump down on my chair and rub my eyes in frustration. "I'm so fucking tired, Tim."

"Yeah, no shit," he says, right as the sound of a chair being dragged back fills my ears, "you look like shit."

I let out a whimper, unable to withhold the tears from my eyes, "you think I don't fucking know that?"

I break down against my palms, incapable of keeping my emotions in anymore. Tim stiffens at the sight and lets out a string of curses before placing a hand on my shoulder, "I didn't mean to-"

"Look, if you're here to annoy me too, just leave, Tim."

"What?"

I rip my hands away and look at him with my wet eyes, "I don't know why you're here, but just leave!"

He scoffs, "you don't know why I'm here?" He crosses his arms, "well maybe because I'm worried about you?! Because we're friends?!"

"..."

His brows furrow, "how's that, asshole?"

"... we're... friends?"

Tim's face twists, "are you fucking stupid for real?"

I don't get to reply as my name is suddenly called. I turn to my side and feel my blood still at the face before me.

"You called me," Dream says, turning from me to Tim, "are you in trouble?"

I still and turn between the two, as an incredulous chuckle leaves my throat, "now hold on," I scoff, "hold on just a damn second."

Dream turns back to me and I peer up at him, "are you trying to tell me that you came here because you thought I called you and that I was in some sort of trouble."

"You did call me," he mutters, completely ignoring the rest of what I just said, "I am not one to lie."

Tim turns to me as I laugh. His face is warry as when I stand from my seat. The serious expression Dream's face disturbs me and I chuckle yet again.

"I'm so sorry," I place a hand on my chest, "where are my manners? I should introduce you two first: Tim, Dream, Dream, Tim," I turn to the latter, "you wanna know where I go at lunch? This is the Dream Lord I've been duking it out with every time."

Tim rises from his seat, grabbing my arm.

It seems, Dream does not take kindly to this and shows it by stepping close to the man. As Tim turns to the glaring Dream, I scoff and push the Endless to face me, "you're insane. Aren't you?"

Tim speaks my name softly.

"No," I turn to Tim, "he's the reason why I can't sleep because I questioned his kingliness or some shit-" I snap back to Dream, "in fact I'm so fucking tired I don't remember why you've been giving me nightmares in the first place."

"Okay, calm down," Tim tugs me towards him as he repeats my name, "we should just go to my place now and have lunch there."

"And who are you to take her anywhere?" Dream demands, making Tim's face contort in anger.

"I'm her actual friend, dipshit."

"Except she doesn't have any friends."

Tim snorts in annoyance, "as I'm sure you've been gaslighting her to believe."

With that, we walk away from Dream, even though I was so ready to lunge at him. Tim gave me an absolute earful about something, not that I actually listened. But still, even as his words entered one ear and out the other, I still cringed at the severity of his harsh but concerned tone.

Out of spite of myself, I told him I would skip the rest of my classes and sleep the entire day. After arguing about it, Tim eventually walked me back to my home and I punished myself by actually trying to go to sleep.

You have no idea how shocked I was when it worked.

I didn't realize I was sleeping because I was suddenly in a glimmering black dress.

Lucienne came running over to me with a wide smile, "You did it! You did it, dear, you did it!"

"What?"

"You've put sense into that old fool's head," she grabs my face, "and convinced him to throw a ball in honor of the reconstruction of the Dreaming."

"Wait," I shake my head, "so I'm-" I grip my earlobes and find only the smoothness of my skin, "dreaming?"

Lucienne beams at me as tears glass my eyes.

"Now, is not the time for sadness," she sighs, grabbing my hands, "today we celebrate!"

Seeing all sorts of beings dancing and making merry in the grand halls with such festive and upbeat music made it hard to resist. Of course I was reluctant and in denial. It was all happening so quickly, But when I was drawn into the middle of the room by Lucienne, who linked her arm in mine, and started spinning around, I couldn't help but laugh and dance with her.

My spirit is livened by the sound of the fiddles and the sweet voice singing to the music.

By the time the chorus comes along, I am relaxed and try to hum along with the music as Lucienne and I giggle at how poorly we were dancing.

I am promptly halted when the arm linked in mine pulls away and I slam into a firm dark chest.

I grip on a pair of biceps and tilt my head up. Dream he looks down at me with an expression I have never seen before.

I pull away quickly, but he catches my wrist, "it was your idea to have a dance," he leads me back near to him, "might you share one with me?"

I'm surprised he actually waits for my response. And so I reluctantly nod my head.

The moment I do, he does the weirdest thing. His lips curve upwards and he spins me to the beat of the music.

All the stiffness and unwillingness begins to melt away as Dream leads me to the music. Though his gaze on me is heavy and scrutinizing, I cannot bring myself to look away.

"It really took a man showing his concern for me for you to finally change your mind," I mutter.

"No," he readily denies, "it was you who made me change my mind."

I roll my eyes, "but it took Tim to set the wheels in motion."

He shakes his head, "you truly could not be farther from your great-great grandmother."

I huff, unable to understand him, "she must have meant a lot to you."

"She did," he pauses for a moment, "she was the gentleness to my indifference."

"So, what? Is this the part where you tell me you're my great-great-granddaddy?"

He spins me around and presses his chest against my back, "if Josephine were here, she would be horrified to know how filthy her daughter's lips are."

"I'm not her daughter..." I mumble, feeling my pulse rise at our proximity, "I'm her great-great-"

Dream spinning me cuts me off. When he retrieves me by my waist, he softly tells, "you were right. I have been cruel and devoid of emotion."

Our dancing comes into a stop as he willingly admits this.

"My own hurt and the unjust expectations I had of you to act like someone you are clearly not is what lead me to be so," he mutters with a solemn expression, "it does not make it right, and it is not an excuse, but I wanted to tell you this."

My brows furrow tightly at his words. I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

"I apologize for my wrongdoings. I do not enjoy what I have become, and I know I am disgracing the memory of my friend for being so brutal to her child."

I feel a shiver run down my spine. In pure disbelief, I grab his face, "are you seriously Dream of the Endless?"

His teary eyes crinkle in amusement and it causes me further bewilderment, "I am."

When he places hands on my wrists so gently, I feel goosebumps form on my arms.

"You are so familiar yet so foreign to me all at once."

I pull away from him, not knowing what to say.

Just then, the music ends and everyone but us breaks into applause.

When another song plays, I press my lips and extend my hand out to him, "how about another dance?"

Tim was lying on the other side of a cafeteria table, while I was sat opposite to him as I typed away on my laptop. He was playing on his electric guitar connected to his tiny, rechargeable amp, which was propped on the table. His nonchalance while expertly riffing made passersby stop, watch, and swoon. Typical Tim. He sits up just as I turn back when I hear my name get called. A small smile finds my lips as I greet my caller, "Dream. What are you doing here?" "It's lunch time and you have not come to the Dreaming yet." Dream catches the fact that I was not wearing my earrings, just as I chuckle, "and why would I go to the Dreaming?" Tim had already straightened up and stopped playing at this point. I shake my head and shrug, "I'm not going to pretend like I didn't go to you to convince you to stop my nightmares. And now you've gotten rid of them, I won't bother you." I examine Dream's expression, but there was nothing to examine, he was as still as a statue. "You don't have to worry about me. You can do your work in peace now," I nod and turn back to my laptop. Tim's eyes widen at what he hears and he decides to just lie back down and play again. I stop myself in the middle of typing to steal a look behind me in case Dream was still there. When I found no one, I pushed the thought of him away and finished my homework.

[pasta-in-the-pudding]

Hey I think your entrys are awesome!! Maybe give us a small scenario with Masky x fem!reader during winter season? Like what would they do, pls 🙏

Aaaa ty! 😭

Thanks for requesting!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Winter with masky

Masky hates the winter

It's his least favorite season

But lucky for you, masky gets really cuddly around this time of year

And hairer

He usually ends up growing a beard during winter, and he gets bigger too

He's also really warm, so its basically just like cuddling a huge bear

He's happy that you're happy, but he seriously can't wait for this icey death to be over

Masky also has this special jacket that he saves specifically for winter

It's like a 3xl, so its big, and it's fluffy

Steal it

Steal it now

You won't regret it

Masky likes to make hot chocolate a lot

And we aren't just talking regular hot chocolate, we're talking Flanders style hot chocolate

With the whipped cream and cinnamon and toasted marshmallow with chocolate shavings on top

It's truly heaven on earth

Christmas movie marathons happen, not just with masky, but all over the mansion

He likes to drag you with him to watch the movies, and cuddle up together, a blanket tossed over your bodies and your hands intertwined, keeping each other warm

And don't even get him started on all of the holidays

There are creeps that celebrate all sorts of things this time of year, so December is usually a pretty lively month around the mansion

And now, I give you a winter scenario with Tim <3

Scenario

"Hoonneeeyyy" your sweet voice sings. "Wake uuupp!" It's snowed 4 feet last night, meaning it's a snow day! No work for anybody, and you want to take advantage of this. Tim, however, does not seem like he wants to be up so early. He grumbles and cuddles into your chest, wrapping his big arms around your waist. "Mmh....five more minutes." He mutters, pressing lazy kisses to your shoulder. You ruffle up his hair and giggle. "No way! We only have 24 hours to enjoy this day!"

He grumbles once more and sighs, laying still for another moment before sitting up and stretching. "All right, all right. I'm up." He says with a yawn. You smile and rush to get up as well, getting undressed from your sweatpants and some band t-shirt you stole from Tim, and instead getting bundled up into some warm snow clothes. Once Tim gets himself ready, you grab his hand and drag him all the way down the stairs and into the snow.

You immediately begin making snow angels and throwing snowballs at the others who have come outside, while Tim simply stands on the porch and smokes. "Come on, you can't just smoke all day silly!" You call over to him. "Sure I can! At least I won't catch a cold like you!" He calls back with a hearty chuckle.

Once the fun festivities are over, you are sad to find that some snow did in fact, seep into your underlayer of clothes, and you did in fact, catch a cold.

Tim takes care of you, yes, but that is another story for another time <3333

[mister-mickey]

Tim x Darry headconnons plz (like if they can get married or what is it like if they have an adopted child) SORRY TO ASK SO MUCH I just love this ship and its really my favorite one

THANK YOU🙏🏻

Omg tarry is my favorite pairing, I have made these little ship headcanons as well (tarry hcs)

BUT onto these ones

They mostly bond over being both the leaders of their respective gangs and over taking care of their younger siblings ❤️

They are terrible with emotions, communication between them is like pulling teeth 😭

They also have a hard time with each others siblings. Darry CANT STAND curly and is scared of Angela. Tim gets along with both pony and soda but anytime he gets them into trouble darry gets mad at him.

He’s really rather not piss his beau off

They’ve known each other since they were kids (thanks to living in the same area) but were never friends. It was only really after Darry got more involved in greaser stuff that they got along lol

Tim can’t cook for shit. He tries but it sucks so bad. Darry keeps trying to help him but Tim is unhelpable.

Darry is aware that Tim can handle himself, but still gets protective when ppl talk about him. Tim gets mad every time (but also does the same thing)

And omg I’m all the way into this list realizing that I did not answer the other part of the question so I’ll do that now

So for marriage (not legal for homos in the 60s sadly, so I’m sure it’s just a celebration among friends and family) it probably takes them awhile. I can’t imagine either of them really wanting to settle straight away. Maybe they’re in their late twenties/early thirties

Tim probably moves into Darry’s house after pony and soda move out (and after angie and curly are well off enough to be alone)

Tim probably stops gang life in his twenties, just because he gets older and more mature (and not cool anymore) darry stops once the others stop.

For the wedding, again, family and friends. Probably in the form of a cookout at their house. They get rings but I don’t think either of them wear them (they don’t seem like jewellry wearers. They probably keep them on chains around their necks)

Pony officiates lol. Idk I just feel like he would. Soda cries the whole time (Steve has to physically pull him off of darry)

I imagine dally and curly pulling some sort of nonsense at the wedding to piss Tim off (yes I’m choosing to keep dally and Johnny alive)

Tim’s gang isn’t really his family, at this point in his life, he probably doesn’t even know them anymore. So it’s just curly and Angela at the wedding for him.

Darry ofc is the one that people came to see (mr star of the show)

As for a kid, I’d like to say they probably wouldn’t have one, at least not for a while. They both raised their little siblings, they aren’t eager to do it again.

BUT it’s also cute to imagine them having a baby (especially because of how tim is canonically good with babies)

Idk where they got it. Maybe it was left in their doorstep, idk. Fact is, they have a child

Tim wants to be the cool dad but darry has taken that spot without even trying.

Baby adores darry because he’s strong and can throw it in the air ❤️

Tim is jealous ofc. He’s way cooler than darry, the baby just isn’t smart enough to see that yet

Baby still loves him a lot though 🌸

They’re good dads. Not perfect ofc, but they love the baby and the baby loves them.

Now as for the baby’s one million uncles and one aunt.

Angela LOVES the baby. Like, darry is worried she will steal it. She’s always trying to get the baby to say her name (baby calls her “Ana”)

Twobit is next on people taht are obsessed with the baby. I’m sure he has his own kids (seems like the type tbh) but the baby is DARRYS kid. He can’t wait until it’s old enough to be a bad influence on

Dallas is not allowed near the baby because Tim refuses to put the baby down when he’s around (he thinks dally will somehow corrupt his >1 year old and make it dally jr)

Soda is the best uncle by far. He and Johnny are very soft with the baby. Soda is, however, guilty of dropping the baby. He is no longer allowed to hold the baby.

Johnny is scared to hold the baby, but once it’s walking he will play (very gently)

Steve, curly, and pony are the babies worst enemies. Baby fucking hates them so much and it breaks their hearts.

Baby bites steve any chance it gets. Hits him, grabs his nose (which everyone else thinks is adorable but Steve sees it for the attack that it is) Steve has no clue what he did but the baby is his #1 hater

Baby doesn’t like pony. Wont even look at him. Pony adores the baby and this rejection hurts.

Curly and the baby tussle quite often. Baby loves yanking his curls (getting its grubbing fingers tangled in, as someone with baby experience, ow ow ow) if the baby pulls his hair, he pulls the baby’s hair right back. They are sworn enemies.

He loves the baby ofc but keeps a careful distance.

Baby grows up to be an okay kid. Can’t do anything without darry or tim finding out since they both know EVERYONE.

Idk someone name the baby my brain is mush

[pumpkinsy0]

Hello sorry to bother!

But can you do... Tim showing kindness to his younger siblings for the first time. Curly and Angela are like really weirded out about it, cause he's never nice😭🙏🏻 (Take your time no rush! THANK YOU)😭

dw anon ur not a bother i love ask!!!!

BUT YES!!!tim being oddly sweet to curly and angela WOO

before i start to b clear, this isnt a quince, im not saying it is, while they r latino, they arent hispanic and quince’s r celebrated among hispanic ppl (anyone whos hispanic feel free to correct me🙏🏽)

•ok so its angela and curlys 15th bday!!!!woo!!!!! and tim sees that as a milestone bc considering where they live and what theyve been through and what theyve lost this is surely is something to celebrate!!!

•also bc i feel like he does see 15 as a general milestone so theres that

•usually for their bday, curly doesnt rlly go that all out cause hes a #busybusyman but he still tries, he makes them cake n what not but they dont rlly spend it as a family but not this year☝🏽☝🏽

•so tim wakes up like rlly early in the night to make them breakfast of cultural haitian food, which is different cause usually he’d just make em eggs, pancakes, and pour them juice n call it a day and when its time calls em down

•they come down sleepy as hell and BOOM a lot of food on the table and tims goin “happy birthday!!!!WOO👐🏿” and curly and angela is standing there like “🧍🏿‍♀️🧍🏿” absolutely confused

•they know its their bday but tim????being THIS happy????unheard of, their brother had to b replaced by aliens

•they eat slowly cause theyre still cautious and think tim is about to deliver news but NOPE breakfast is goin swell, they WERE gonna leave and head to school but tim had 2 (two) surprises for them

• 1) he has jewlery for em, a ring for curly and a necklace for angela 2) they aint goin to school today YEAAA

•now curly and angela dont rlly get jewelry, the ones they already have is like ones their parents gave em and they never rlly got new ones, and curly and angel already skip school but like its RARE tims the one to not let them go voluntarily

•they jewelry could either b bought or handed down to em from tim bc he was an only child for 3 years so his parents did just buy shit only for him at some point in time

•anywho, nothing too eventful rlly happens until the actual celebration of their bday, curly and angela is just chillin but kinda wondering wtf got i to tims drink or food for him to b actin THIS jolly

•tims just down stairs settin up the balloons, the cake, his card, man hes just rlly happy to have his lil siblings man, he basically raised them and is glad they came this far

•at some point he DID pour them some champagne since idk bout yall but drinking a LIL bit is common for caribbean kids during celebrations i would know😭😭

•also its the first time in a while curly and angela actually saw tim smiling, usually he has a smirking kinda smile but today hes like SMILING smiling, a lil weird to see but it actually rubbed off on curly and angela a lil bit

•generally speaking the rest of the bday was just, a regular bc day, well regular for us but for curly and angela it was a special bday cause they never celebrated it like that

•maybe when tims 20 or 19 curly and angela try making tim his own bday party

[ncisfranchise-source]

Heading into its 21st season, NCIS has a tough job: properly paying tribute to David McCallum, who died at the age of 90 in September, and his character, Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard, who was first introduced in the backdoor pilot episodes of JAG in 2003.

Season 21 Episode 2, airing on February 19, 2024, is the one tasked with doing just that, and it will be cowritten by the actor whose character we first met as Ducky’s assistant, Brian Dietzen. (Jimmy Palmer is now a doctor himself and the chief medical examiner.) Dietzen is once again collaborating with Scott Williams, with whom he wrote Season 19’s “The Helpers” and Season 20’s “Old Wounds.”

“In the episode, the team will learn of Ducky’s passing and reflect on their memories of him as they grieve,” co-showrunners/executive producers Steven D. Binder and David North told TVLine. “And true to Ducky’s meticulous and compassionate nature, even after he’s gone, he still manages to solve one last crime with the team.” They also promised “a very touching and special moment you won’t want to miss.”

But what moments need to be in what is sure to be one of the most powerful, touching episodes of the series? We suggest just those below.

An episode worthy of David McCallum and Ducky

Listen, this should go without saying and it’s more likely than not that we’ll get it, but it’s the only way to kick off this list. Whatever the tribute ends up being, it should be one that would make McCallum proud and properly reflects what both his and Ducky’s legacies mean for the show and franchise. That, of course, would include flashbacks to significant moments over the past 20 seasons.

Major returns — or at least mentions

While Dietzen and Sean Murray (who plays Tim McGee) have both been part of the show since Season 1, they were both introduced (and recurred) then. But Gibbs (Mark Harmon) has a long history with Ducky — the 400th episode detailed its origins — and Tony (Michael Weatherly), too, was part of the JAG episodes. We also saw what Ducky meant to characters who have since left like Ziva (Cote de Pablo) and Abby (Pauley Perrette) over the years. (Gibbs, Tony, Ziva, and Abby are also characters Dietzen told TV Insider in February he “would be ecstatic to write for.”) At least one major return would be great — especially from Harmon, given Ducky and Gibbs’ friendship — but if that doesn’t happen, these characters need to at least be mentioned in a significant way.

At least one flashback with Young Ducky

Adam Campbell has appeared in four episodes since Season 12, including the 400th, as young Ducky, and from his first, it was clear he was perfect casting. And if Mark Harmon isn’t in the episode, his son Sean Harmon could always return as young Gibbs for a flashback highlighting the early days of that friendship.

Palmer sharing an anecdote about Ducky...

… just like Ducky did all the time. He’s the perfect person to deliver it, and it would be especially fitting if that is what helps the team solve its case, given Binder and North’s tease in their statement.

Heartfelt emotion, grief, and joy

It’s going to be a heartbreaking hour. We already know that. But there needs to be (at least a little) joy as well as Ducky’s life is celebrated. Not only could that work, but it could also fit the bill of what Dietzen previously told us he wanted to tackle when it came to writing his next episode: “I would love to do a lighter show, for sure. … But that said, if I could dig into some darker stuff with any one of these characters, that would be a joy to do as well.” Ducky lived a long life. There are some stories still to be told. Those could certainly bring some laughs.

Acknowledgement of what Ducky meant to NCIS beyond the team (and their memories)

Sometimes it’s easy to forget about the rest of the agency, but Ducky didn’t just work with this one team. And he continued to mean quite a deal to NCIS as its historian after he left the chief ME position. There could be some sort of gathering — outside of a funeral, if that’s shown — or not, but what there definitely needs to be is something permanent in the building that serves as a reminder of the legacy Ducky has left behind.

It ends in the morgue

Empty, lights out.

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Is It Really That Bad?

I feel this film needs absolutely no introduction.

Look, I get it. You’ve seen everyone and their mother talk trash about this movie since it dropped in 1999. You’ve seen every single show in the universe take cracks at this film, you’ve seen all the parodies and mockery of it in movies, you may have even seen that  movie Fanboys. Maybe you’ve even watched some massive YouTube review of the movie. The point is, this movie has been done to death.

But this series is about covering poorly received and infamous movies to see if their reputation is deserved, and I’d be remiss to ignore this film. And hey, these days the film has gotten something of a reappraisal by younger generations and older fans alike! After 20 years of scorn, a combination of the poorly received episodes VIII and IX, other works like The Clone Wars building off of and fleshing out the themes, Lego making really fun levels based off this movie for its Star Wars games, and Weird Al dropping one of the best songs of his career based entirely around recapping this film, a lot of people have come around to saying they unironically like this film. Even as early as 2008, the film made it on to Empire magazine’s list of the 500 greatest films of all time, scoring higher than Tim Burton’s Batman, Unbreakable, Full Metal Jacket, Halloween, The Crow, and Enter The Dragon (not by a huge margin though since it only got to 449). So there’s something there to love, right?

Well, let’s find out as I ask the question everyone else has already asked a million times before: Is The Phantom Menace really that bad?

THE GOOD

Let’s get the obvious stuff out of the way: The action and John Williams’ score.

The prequel trilogy really shines in how absolutely bonkers it makes lightsaber battles. Sure, one could argue the original trilogy made them more realistic, like actual swordfights… But I don’t want realism in this series about magical alien samurai monks using telekinesis and fighting armies of clones and robots. I want to see someone do a million backflips and then slice a dude in half with their laser sword. This film delivers heartily on that front, especially in the epic final duel between Maul, Qui-Gon, and Obi-Wan.

Speaking of which, Darth Maul is a highlight of this film despite barely doing or saying anything. A lot of it is his striking visual design, which is actually toned down from the original concepts. It makes him look cool, creepy, and mysterious, always a good look for any Star Wars character. Ray Park doesn’t get to show off Maul’s dialogue much, but he certainly shows off his battle prowess with a bunch of sick flips and the iconic dual-bladed lightsaber. This appearance here served as an excellent foundation for the guy, because The Clone Wars would take him from an iconic but underutilized character to perhaps one of the greatest villains in the series.

And then the score. Oh lord, the score! Has Williams ever missed, even once? This movie has some really fantastic music, stuff like the celebration music at the end of the film, but it’s quite obvious that the standout is “Duel of the Fates,” one of the best pieces of music in any Star Wars film.

A lot of the characters introduced here are pretty fun and great additions to the universe. Natalie Portman is actually pretty solid as Padme; Liam Neeson’s Qui-Gon is just such an aggro dick it’s hard not to love him and his underhanded ways; Boss Nass is an amusing yet underutilized gungan played by BRIAN BLESSED of all people, once more adding his trademark ham to a campy sci-fi movie inspired by Flash Gordon; Mace Windu drops in for a brief appearance to set him up for better ones down the road; and that Chancellor Palpatine guy is really cool, I hope we get to see more of him!

Then we have the pod race which, while a bit overly long, is a lot of fun and features some crazy vehicular madness, and there’s the practical effects, the creative design of the aliens and monsters, and there’s the practical effects and costumes mixed together with the CGI.... When this movie is fun, it’s a lot of fun, and when this movie is putting in the effort by god is it putting in the effort.

Oh yeah, and E.T.’s species has a cameo. No wonder he seemed to recognize Yoda in his movie.

THE BAD

Have you guys ever wanted a cool laser sword sci-fi epic to be constantly interrupted by long, boring scenes of trade negotiations, council meetings, and bureaucracy? Well boy oh boy will you love this film! There are so many stupid, dull, tedious scenes where characters are just talking about this boring trade embargo plotline, one that can’t even be ignored because it’s driving the whole plot. And sure, it leads to some really cool action scenes, but you’ve gotta sit through boring galactic council political bullshit to get to them.

This film is also the one that establishes the Jedi as a bunch of out of touch assholes. Every scene with the Jedi council (and especially if you have to look at the weird ugly Yoda puppet this film gave us before it was mercifully replaced with CGI) has the Jedi acting as a bunch of obstructive assholes who seem to go out of their way to be dicks to a literal child. Add onto this that this film reveals the Jedi essentially train kids to be child soldiers, yeah, no, maybe these guys did deserve Order 66 after all.

There is the writing, but it’s really not too strange for Star Wars to have clunky writing. The issue here is said writing is in service to really banal plots, and when the movie is getting good dialogue is usually not the thing making the scenes good. These things here may not seem like a lot when it comes to problems especially when I was praising this film so much, but the few problems are spread far and wide across this two hour movie.

THE UGLY

As you may have noticed, I didn’t mention two of the film’s most hated aspects above: Jar Jar and Anakin. There is a good reason for that.

Literally every mean thing you can imagine has already been lobbed at Ahmed Best and Jake Lloyd, and quite frankly I’m not keen on contributing to that. Anything negative I could say has already been said, and at this point it doesn’t even matter. Jake Lloyd was bullied over his performance to the point where he hated the franchise for years, and Ahmed Best nearly killed himself over the sheer blistering hatred Jar Jar received. Do I think Jar Jar is funny? Do I think Lloyd was a good actor? Does it even fucking matter at all when people harassed them to such lengths that it traumatized them?

I’ll be honest: I’m not a huge fan of Jar Jar’s antics. But they really aren’t the worst thing in this movie, and he’s not even remotely the most annoying Star Wars character. We now have people like Hux, the Knights of Ren, Snoke, Clone Palpatine, Holdo… The sequel trilogy was a buffet of characters that are infinitely worse than Jar Jar. And as is often the case, The Clone Wars went a long way towards making him a good character.

As for Lloyd, he was an actual fucking child. He was being directed by an absolute dork who wrote the goofiest dialogue imaginable for him, was there ever even a chance? A “bad” child performance is never the fault of a child, I feel; it’s the fault of a director who doesn’t bother to guide them. I’m a George Lucas apologist most of the time, but he absolutely let Lloyd down here.

Oh, and I guess I should address the other element in the room: Watto.

This guy has often come under fire as a huge negative Jewish caricature. I… don’t necessarily see it. Upon rewatching I was expecting something on the lines of the goblins in Harry Potter, but I don’t know. I think a lot of it comes from mishearing his accent; if you listen to it, he actually has some sort of weird, vague Italian accent as opposed to that stereotypical old Jewish man voice. I guess if anything, Watto is a negative stereotype of Italians, though he is far less of a hate crime than casting Chris Pratt as Mario.

...Okay, and one more thing: Midichlorians. People have this weird idea that they cause the force. The movie literally states their presence is just an indication of a proclivity towards the force. It’s basically the Star Wars version of Pokerus. This was such a stupid thing for people to get mad about, but 90% of the hate for this film is just getting mad at stupid things anyway.

IS IT REALLY THAT BAD?

The answer to this question was always going to be pretty obvious: No. Absolutely not. The sheer vitriolic backlash to this film was built off the bizarre emotional attachment adults in the 90s had to a campy sci-fi series from the 70s and 80s; the toxicity of the fandom meant there was never any doubt that upon revisiting this film I’d find the hatred overblown. And really, we’ve had over twenty years of other Star Wars stories now, a lot of them building off the foundation this laid to give us great stories in their own rights. As I mentioned above, Darth Maul, this film’s awesome yet underutilized villain, has gone on to become one of the franchise’s most iconic characters thanks to The Clone Wars. There are great ideas here in this film, but it took other people to polish them and make them shine.

The real question is, even if the backlash is overblown… is the film actually good at all? And that’s a complicated question. This film has a lot of serious, glaring flaws, but at its heart it’s still the fun, campy sci-fi series we all know and love. When this film gets good, it gets really good, but when it’s bad it’s downright boring and even a little cringey. But being a bit cringey is just an important building block of Star Wars, so in my eyes, it gets a pass in that regard.

For my part, I like it. It is far, far away from my favorite Star Wars film, but I like it more than two of the sequel trilogy at least. I think whether anyone else likes it really boils down to how much corny, campy dialogue and boring bureaucratic drama one is able to tolerate. Regardless, I think that 6.5 is a perfect score for this film. It definitely reflects the mellowing public opinion towards it, and shows that it’s not really that bad after all. It’s just not exactly great, either.

But hey… This song more than justifies this movie existing:

If nothing else, you can watch this instead of the movie for your Machete Order marathon and all you’ll miss is some great action and music mixed into boring bureaucracy. Whether that’s worth it or not is up to you!

[lsdunesarchive]

L.S. Dunes Is The Post-Hardcore Anti-Supergroup Born Out Of Memes And Friendship

The band features members of Thursday, My Chemical Romance, Circa Survive and Coheed and Cambria

September 28, 2022

Photos by Jose Arvizu

Written by Josh Chesler

L.S. Dunes is wholly uninterested in the word "supergroup."

L.S. Dunes don’t sound like a supergroup, and they certainly don’t want to be called a supergroup. But when they took to the Rise Stage early on a Friday afternoon to effectively kick off Riot Fest, one could be forgiven for mistaking them for that.

While other stages saw audiences in the dozens under the midday Chicago sun, the debuting quintet amassed thousands of onlookers.

As vocalist Anthony Green pointed out from the stage, it was a bigger crowd than just about any other band would have for their first show (including all of his so far), but that’s to be expected when the Circa Survive/Saosin/The Sound of Animals Fighting frontman joined forces with guitarists Frank Iero (My Chemical Romance) and Travis Stever (Coheed and Cambria) and the rhythm section from Thursday (drummer Tucker Rule and bassist Tim Payne).

Hundreds in the audience wore their My Chemical Romance gear, while a smattering of Circa Survive, Thursday, and Coheed and Cambria shirts could be found throughout the crowd.

On the stage and their upcoming album, Past Lives, L.S. Dunes sound like they’ve been playing together for far longer than they have been. While they might not have been in the same bands together (except for Rule and Payne), the groupmembers have been friends for longer than many other acts have been around. Rather than focusing on being a “supergroup,” they’re content to exist as a bunch of buddies who people just happen to be interested in seeing perform music.

“During the pandemic, we had a lot of time on our hands,” Green tells SPIN a couple of hours after the set. “It was tough for everybody, but this was just something that I needed so badly. I was looking for people to make music with and to start something that I can put my energy into. This just came to me when I needed it the most.”

“The pandemic was just so rough because music is all we know how to do,” Iero adds (a handful of hours before he’s scheduled to be on stage with My Chemical Romance). “That’s all we’ve ever done. To have that be fucking yanked from you — granted, in the grand scheme of things, it was the least awful thing that happened during the pandemic — but for us, our whole worlds crumbled. This was our lifeline of getting to make music from home, send it back and forth, and immediately get an email response back with another part to work on. It kept us creative and kept our minds off the idea that our world was falling apart.”

Of course, L.S. Dunes wasn’t the only COVID project for virtually any of its members. Iero released a solo EP, Green formed a psychedelic vocal group with members of Taking Back Sunday and Grouplove called Fuckin Whatever, and everyone else’s bands put an emphasis on livestreams and other forms of pandemic entertainment. But no one was busier than Rule, who (in addition to Thursday duties celebrating the 20th anniversary of Full Collapse) ended up drumming on a multitude of other releases, including Iero’s EP and Jim Ward’s solo album.

“We didn’t know how we were going to make a living for our families or if I was ever going to play music for anybody again without being on a screen,” Rule says. “So I bought a whole recording thing for my house and built a studio in my garage to record drums. Then these dudes just kept sending these thirsty riffs, so it was very easy to bounce ideas back and forth. We would go to bed thinking about parts and wondering who was going to send something in the morning. It became almost like an addiction. I was addicted to writing music with these dudes.”

“I think all five of us got to that point where we were just really itching to do something,” Payne adds. “We had all this energy pent up and, miraculously, all of the people that we wanted to work with were having that same experience.”

“And we were all super prone to collaborating, which is rare,” Stever adds. “In other positions, it’s not as easy to just collaborate the way we have. We just started communicating, and there was no expectation of what it was. It was just like ‘Hey, here’s a fucking blank canvas. Let’s all throw paint at the wall and bring the best out of each other.’”

Beyond their shared musical sensibilities, the five members get a child-like thrill from playing with friends outside of their day jobs. Standing between the trees in Riot Fest’s lush press area, L.S. Dunes looks like a t-shirt-clad group of dads excited for a boys’ trip together compared to the heavy makeup and elaborate outfits of the younger acts around them. While plenty of bands might say that playing the nation’s biggest punk rock festival was “the time of their lives” or something along those lines, the guys in L.S. Dunes look like they’re having a blast just cracking jokes and comfortably hanging out with their friends.

L.S. Dunes performing on Friday afternoon at Riot Fest.

“It felt a lot like when you’re in high school and you start a band with just the people that play instruments in your school who you’re friends with,” Iero says.

“We were all fucking texting each other memes and bullshit anyway, so we might as well start a band, right?” Rule laughs.

“I used to dream about how cool it would be to have time to play with Tucker, Frank, Tim and Travis,” Green adds. “I’ve worked with all these guys, and I just admire them so much. To be asked to be a part of a group with them was a no-brainer. It was the most confidence-boosting thing for me.”

While L.S. Dunes may be a dream come true for Green, the singer didn’t even know who was in the band when he began recording the vocals for Past Lives. The band had fully formed and individually recorded their parts before they’d landed on a vocalist, and Rule sent Green some instrumental tracks. But instead of revealing the lineup of the mysterious group, Rule told him that they were just “from some guys in my neighborhood” who needed his voice.

“I was like ‘Dude, your neighbors are good!’” Green exclaims to an outburst of laughter. “If you would have told me that it was all of our friends, I probably would have freaked out.”

“I was doing what was best for you,” Rule deadpans.

In all likelihood, L.S. Dunes will never be a full-time thing. There are just too many moving parts, primary bands and familial obligations that would need to be pushed aside for the anti-supergroup to hit a six-week tour across the States and a month to cover Europe. But it’s equally clear that L.S. Dunes isn’t just intended to be a one-off that people won’t be able to see in concert.

In support of Past Lives’ release on Nov. 11, L.S. Dunes is touring on both coasts, Canada and Mexico as part of their dozen scheduled live shows. While nine headlining dates isn’t exactly a full tour for the career musicians, it does show the value that they put on performing live whenever possible. Hell, even for their debut at Riot Fest (which was only the band’s fifth time physically playing together), Stever and Payne flew to Chicago exclusively for the show, while Iero was happy to essentially open the same show he was headlining.

“Just being up on a stage again and playing music for people, that’s the dream,” Iero says. “I don’t know if I speak for everybody, but that’s all I ever wanted to do in life. I always felt like if I can’t be in a band, then I want to make monster movies. But if I can’t make monster movies, then I have to be in a band. Those are the only things I’ve ever wanted to do, and I don’t know how to do anything else. I played my first show at 13 and went on my first tour at 17. I’ve never not done this. To finally be back in your element, it feels like that weight is lifted off your chest, like ‘Alright, thank God. Things are going to be OK. We can do this.”

All of the live shows and friendship in the world wouldn’t be enough if there wasn’t a legitimate musical connection between the bandmembers. On the first tracks released from Past Lives, like “Permanent Rebellion” and “2022,” there’s cohesion among the five players that flows as well as any of their other bands. While the classic “supergroups” out there often sound like an unbudging mashup of its members’ sounds, Green’s signature post-hardcore combination of melodies and screams fits perfectly over Stever’s shredding leads and Rule’s pounding rhythm — and no one is trying to force the sound of another act where it doesn’t belong.

For Green (who’s been in no shortage of various bands and collaborative projects), working with collaborative partners who gel right off the bat is arguably more important than simply being able to play in a band with friends.

“Finding like-minded people who work so well together is just really rare,” Green says. “I’ve tried to collaborate with people — and I’ve had some good experiences — but it’s tough enough finding one person that you vibe with so much that you make something magical together. So the fact that it’s five of us and we just happened to be in this whirlwind where it was like ‘Oh my God, that’s so sick! Holy shit!’ That’s just how it’s been going since the beginning. I can compare it to when you start dating somebody, and you just start falling in love with everything they do in the beginning. Everything that happens is just this serendipitous fucking magical thing that’s just there to bond you to them.”

Every member of L.S. Dunes contributes their unique world-class abilities to the melting pot of the band, all pushing each other to new heights in the process. As fans saw at Riot Fest and the world can soon hear on Past Lives, the five members make for a musical act as tight as their friendship. But no matter how superb the group may be, none of them will ever be comfortable with calling L.S. Dunes a “supergroup.”

“The word ‘supergroup’ gets thrown around a lot, but we don’t look at it like that,” Rule says. “It’s a real rock band, and it just so happens that we’re all friends from different bands. We weren’t trying to take people from the biggest bands…”

At this point, Green quickly interrupts with a smile. “People like Frank.”

[molsons112000]

When are movie theaters going to come out with holiday traditions?????

Just like TV has holiday traditions like the Christmas story, it's a wonderful life and another Christmas from Connecticut...

They run these every year!!!

So Coco can be annual Halloween tradition movie. Theaters have it available every halloween...

Nightmare Before Christmas, I love Tim Burton god rest his soul... they can run this related to Christmas during December. It's a little bit early, but it is Halloween-ish. But I think I went to this for the first time on Christmas Eve... I think I went to this with my brother John in Vernon Hills... still I saw this on christmas eve....

The film made its world premiere on the opening day celebration of the New York Film Festival on October 9, 1993, and was given a limited release on October 13, 1993, before its wide theatrical release on October 29, 1993.

https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › T...

The Nightmare Before Christmas - Wikipedia

No, The Nightmare Before Christmas was released in October 1993, not on Christmas Eve: 

Release dates

The movie premiered at the New York Film Festival on October 9, 1993, had a limited release on October 13, and was released widely in theaters on October 29. 

Studio

The movie was released under Touchstone Pictures, Disney's more adult-oriented label. 

Inspiration

The movie was inspired by a satirical poem that Tim Burton wrote in 1981, which was a parody of "The Night Before Christmas". 

Setting

The movie is set in Halloween Town, but Jack Skellington visits Christmas Town early in the movie and becomes enamored with the holiday. 

Theme

Some say the movie is more of a Halloween movie because of its spooky theme and the amount of fright and disgust in the movie. Others say it's more of a Christmas movie because the title includes the word "Christmas" and Jack Skellington plans to take over Christmas. 

Wikipedia

The Nightmare Before Christmas - Wikipedia

The Nightmare Before Christmas premiered at the New York Film Festival on October 9, 1993, and was given a limited release on October 13, before its wide theatr...

It is never too late to start. Holiday traditions and the reason for them is to keep the family close and strong!!! Creating these shared memories over and over again.Bring the family closer and closer together!!!!

We used to go to the Christmas carol. Every year in Chicago..

We used to go pumpkin picking for Halloween pumpkins. You can do both and go to the pumpkin farm. Pick a pumpkin, experience it, and then you can buy additional in the store... but do you think stores would offer and promote this option? Selling tickets to go to pumpkin picking farms around the United States. Yes, grocery stores selling tickets to go pumpkin picking... So they can have haunted corn mazes... And grocery stores can sell tickets to go pumpkin patch, and picking, as well as to corn mazes.. they can also sell tickets to go cut down a Christmas tree. We used to go to the farm to cut down Christmas trees. As an annual Christmas event. This is how grocery stores can further promote farming and support farmers.....

And yes, corn mazes can have spooky corn mazes for halloween....

strawberryshortcake.com

https://www.strawberryshortcake.com › ...

The most popular pumpkin patches and corn mazes across ...

Linvilla Orchards, Lyman Orchards, Bishop's Pumpkin Farm, Washington Farms and Battleview Orchard are some of the most popular pumpkin farms in America ...

local Pumpkin Patches

https://www.pumpkinpatches.com

Find Pumpkin Patches Near You

... of the ... Check out our directory to easily find a local pumpkin patch nearest you and choose your ideal pumpkins to put to use this Fall and

Going back to building the family with family traditions...

Like mine was also going. To church for every good Friday. Going on Christmas Eve to feed my starving children... But I don't want any more starving people, but there are other things you can do...

Developing holiday traditions within a family is important because it creates a strong sense of connection, belonging, and shared memories, helping to keep the family close together by providing a consistent ritual that reinforces their bond across generations; essentially acting as an anchor that ties family members to one another through shared experiences and positive emotions. 

Key points about the importance of holiday traditions:

Building positive memories:

Traditions create lasting, positive memories that people can look back on fondly, drawing them closer to each other year after year. 

Sense of identity:

Family traditions contribute to a family's unique identity, allowing members to feel a sense of belonging and connection to their heritage. 

Passing down values:

Traditions can be used to pass down important values and cultural practices from older generations to younger ones. 

Quality time together:

Holiday traditions often involve activities that require family members to spend quality time together, fostering deeper connections. 

Stability and comfort:

In times of change, consistent traditions can provide a sense of stability and comfort. 

Creating anticipation:

Knowing that certain traditions will occur each year can build anticipation and excitement for the holidays. 

Examples of family holiday traditions: 

Decorating the Christmas tree together

Baking cookies for gifting

Watching a favorite holiday movie

Attending a religious service

Sharing family stories and anecdotes

Volunteering together

Creating a holiday-themed craft 

Youth First

The Importance of Family Traditions - Youth First

Nov 12, 2019 — In addition, family traditions enhance family and personal well-being and can also add to the family identity. ... It gives us all a chance to stay ...

We also used to always go to a movie after christmas day.Christmas night to a movie with all my nieces and nephews....

I added in a tradition that I was trying to start with my ex-girlfriend. Jennifer Kim Christmas eve with her family and Christmas with my family. You can alternate it every year. Since marriage, couples have two sides of the family. One year you spend Christmas Eve with one set and then Christmas with the other set, and then you reverse it.

Also, a tradition that I created was spending Christmas eve, whether we put a private party together or we went to a party. We went with friends...

And another tradition and my birthday, my friend Kosta used to take me to the cheesecake factory for dinner...

So you can create traditions between the family between your friends and with your church and community......

[uncle-jaskas-writings]

A Wondrous Journey - 1. Farewells

Tim stood outside the cabin. It was early morning, hours before sunrise. Why had he been here for so long? He was well enough to travel a week after he was sold to the old man. Yet he had stayed to help him and the kid. Four months he had spent in that spent in that small hut and the fields belonging to it. The beginning was not easy as the villagers were suspicious to say the least, seeing a man brought to them in chains without a mark even though he was bought. But slowly they accepted him, partly due to the respect they held towards the old man, partly because of his own calm and quiet nature. Of course, a tale of a wrongly captured bard the old man had told them helped.

 Whenever help was needed he went, be it lifting a broken wagon or treating the ill. During the celebration of beginning of the harvest season he was asked to sing any song he chose fit, perhaps to prove that he truly was a bard. He sang for the course of the whole party, a tale from faraway lands which the villagers had never heard before. After that it was not uncommon for him to be asked to sing in tavern or smaller occasions. And every time he left his audience either tear eyed from a touching song, or dying from laughter after a jolly drinking song. But when he was not singing he stayed quiet, only speaking when asked something.

A small smile rose to his lips when he thought about all the questions the kid had asked him. He was a good lad, even if some of his questions were difficult to answer. Perhaps the most difficult was when one night he had asked if he was a runesinger, since he could sing so well. The question struck him by surprise, so much that the old man had to scold the boy from asking so much. The old man himself knew, perhaps from the moment he first saw him. That much Tim guessed. But even if he truly did, never had he asked about him to show his power.

How wonderful it would be to live like them. Stay here in peace and tend to the land, only needing to worry about the turn of the seasons. But the road called to him, so strong was his need to roam. He would give one last thing as a gift to the old man and his grandson who had saved his life. Lifting his hands towards the house, he begun to sing quietly. Power flowed in his words and all other sounds seemed to quiet down and listen.

“A hovel stands on the estate, past the farmlands and fence's gate, wretched hut is so very small, fields bear fruit hardly if at all. From this hovel petite and bleak, with crooked roof and walls so weak, a sturdy cottage I will craft, the fields I shall sing full wheat's shaft, the timber I will to be strong, beams I'll set right where they belong, from now your fields always yield crop, never will they be filled with slop. Happiness I give to your part, thanks for the kindness of your heart.”

Once his song was done, he turned and left to the cold morning. Soon, the first snow of winter quietly fell over the land. Yet the old cabin withstood much in the coming years, and its field never succumbed to drought or disease.

Then the runesinger turned to travel down the road which he was dragged down what felt like only few weeks ago. He lifted the hood of his new travel cloak up. It was the only gift he had received from the villagers along with food for the journey. He gave a silent thanks to the old wife who had made it for him.

He spent his next few days alone, traveling southwards. Not that he minded being alone, there was plenty of time to listen to the world around him or deepen into thought. Sometimes he would sing to himself, the road and to the world around him. What the songs were about, no-one knows, for even if someone were there to hear, his voice was as low as a whisper. Whenever he was hungry, he ate some of the rations given to him, occasionally looking for berries in the forests near the road. The fresh snow made this a little difficult, but he found enough to stave off his hunger. For the night he set up a small lean-to and a fire to keep away the cold.

After four days he finally met another traveler, a traveling merchant hauling his wares south for the winter. After a while of arguing he agreed to let the traveler hitch a ride on top of his wagon. The pace was not much faster than walking as two oxen pulled the wagon, but after days of walking in the cold rest was a welcome change.

“What business you have in the south? I thought you farmers liked to stay indoors during the winter.” The merchant asked after few hours of traveling. He clearly didn’t like the stranger too much, but perhaps a chat could take the mind way from the cold.

“I am not a farmer, but a traveling bard. I spent some time as a farmhand though.” The other replied.

“Heh! Why’s that? People not paying enough for songs these days? Must have been a first time you’ve actually done any work. Well go on then, sing us something. Perhaps it’ll warm us a little.”

With a sigh Tim agreed to sing. A small price to pay for easier journey. It took a moment for him to think of a proper song, something he had heard travelers sing on their journeys.

“Long and tiresome is this road of mine, no fancy feasts with pork and wine, just bread and water for the weary, but one day I’ll see my deary.”

“On and on goes my road, sometimes narrow, sometimes broad. Where it leads, I don’t know, perhaps only time will show.”

“Oh how I hope to see you again, distance between us brings me pain, yet I hear the road calling to me, another time we’ll have to see.”

“On and on goes my road, sometimes narrow, sometimes broad. Where it leads, I don’t know, perhaps only time will show…”

He sang for a while before his song was reduced to humming. This way they traveled for a long time without words, the runesingers humming being the only noise besides soft crackle of snow under the wheels. Once they stopped for the night Tim finally broke the silence as they sat warming themselves by the fire.

“How long do you think until we get to the next city?”

“City? You’ll be walking a long way if you’re looking for a city. Though there is a town well be visiting on the morrow. And that’s as far as I’ll take you unless you have the coin to pay for your travel. I might be a good hearted man, but there is a difference giving to those in need and helping freeloaders.”

“I understand. Wake me up when you need help packing up the camp.”

Tim huffed, there was no reason to argue with the man aiding him, even if he thought him to be wrong. He pulled his cloak tighter around himself before falling asleep. Crackle of the flames sang a sweet lullabies to the travelers as they slept.

In the morning they packed what little they used while making camp and set back on the road. The day was well over noon when they saw other travelers, the first they had seen since meeting each other. Few farmers marching on the snow to buy and sell in the market. Their faces were rough and thin, worn from days of working in the fields. And now the cold winter would provide its own hazards for them. Tim did not envy them one bit. His way of life was definitely uncertain, but at least he was not bound to one place.

As the day went on they met more travelers. Though there wasn’t enough people to crowd the road, it was quite the chance from long solitude. Just as the merchant had said, they reached the town before evening. First small farms appeared on both sides of the road, and soon enough they could see the worn palisade protecting the town. Houses of less fortunate folk were built outside the gates, the crudest shacks resting against the palisade. Most certainly not safe in the event of an attack or a fire but the cold winters seemed more threatening than them. At least winter would always come.

“What is it called? The town I mean.” Tim asked the merchant.

“Eroka. I thought you bards travel a lot, you really haven’t been here before? It’s small, but still an important stop to travelers. Then again you probably look for big cities and not small towns.” He replied.

Thanking the other for his kindness, Tim hopped of the wagon and headed for the gate. Two men stood on guard at the gate, while four others inspected carriages and belongings of travelers. Both the men and their equipment had seen better days, their plates showing rust at places, gambesons’ hems torn. The men themselves looked like they never had seen proper battle, they leaned on their halberds like they had nothing better to do. All but the youngest of them, who on the contrary was too eager to pry people’s reasons for coming to their hometown.

They paid little attention to him only asking what was his business in the town. A moneyless bard looking for work didn’t seem like much of a threat or a troublemaker. Though he did seem to amuse them a little, small smirk appearing on their faces. In their minds there was no work for a bard, at least not in his own profession.

The town itself was nothing special, but still in better shape than the palisade was. Main street broke down to numerous smaller streets which in turn turned in to crooked little alleys, wide enough for only one man to walk them at once. The houses along the smaller streets were built less tightly than those outside and most of them had stone foundations. They were the workplaces of numerous artisans; barrel makers, bakers, smiths, tailors, butchers, carpenters along with every other profession a town needed to function. But he paid no attention to those shops, as he was looking for a place to find a job. And there was no better place for to look for a job than an inn. So he wandered the streets until he found what he was looking for.

The inn was large and wealthy looking, courtesy of the fact that it was the only one in town. A large plaque depicting a slumbering bear hanged over the door. Under the picture was the name of the inn, “Snoozing bear.” For some reason he found that name quite amusing.

It was dim inside, as the day was turning to evening. Candles had been brought out to every table and chandeliers were lit to bring more light as the day faded. A small fire played in the large fireplace at the center of the inn. The man who owned the place was standing behind the counter, cleaning glasses and serving his customers. Occasionally he instructed one of the barmaids to bring orders to the tables. He was stout man, no doubt made plump by the wealth his inn had brought him. Few strands of silver ran through his dark hair. His beard and mustache on the other hand were in perfect condition.

The other customers paid little attention to the stranger, there were plenty of folk traveling southwards out of winter’s way. Though the minstrel playing a lute was sure to make note of him, perhaps thinking about earning some coins from a song request. Tim approached the counter and the owner immediately started chatting to him.

 “Good day to you traveler, my name is Aleks! What can I do for you? I’ve got plenty of ales to choose from. This lovely dark brew came all the way from Algro couple of months back. Sure it’s a bit fancy, but it goes well with the chicken our cook makes. Or perhaps you’d like something else to eat? We’ve got a lot different meals.” The bartender said as he reached for a list of foods and drinks. However, the runesinger lifted his hand to halt him.

“I’ll have to stop you there, as good as all that sounds. I have no coin you see. I came here to look for a job. Do you know anyone who’d be willing to pay me for work? Anything goes, though I am a bard by trade.”

“Job eh? Well there’s not much work for bards around here, at least not until there’s a reason to celebrate. But I guess there is always need for spare hands.” Aleks said while stroking the sides of his mouth where his mustache became one with his beard.

“Sadly I do not need help here, I’ve got plenty of people to pay already. And as you can see I already have an entertainer for my inn. You might find job at the warehouses or as a laborer for the craftsmen.”

“I understand. Thank you for this information but there’s one more thing I’d like to ask you. Could you spare a meal for me? I’ll take anything you are willing to give.”

Aleks scratched his head for a moment before answering. “Well, I can’t go giving away free meals. I’d soon have hordes of beggars at my doorstep. But you seem like a good man… Tell you what, I’ll tell the girls to bring you whatever people leave on their plate. It might not be much or of the best kind, but I’m sure it’ll fill your stomach. Perhaps you’ll get lucky and someone leaves some of that chicken on their plate. Just don’t go around telling people I gave you something.” With that he left Tim alone and got back to his work.

He sat there for some time, occasionally taking a look around the inn to see if any of the customers left food on their plates. Few times his hopes got up when he saw a barmaid coming his way before he actually got a plate of leftovers, along with a pint of water. He gave a warm smile to the barmaid along with a thank you before starting to eat.

His meal was soon interrupted when the minstrel of the inn came to him. He was a young man of perhaps twenty summers, and as often young men are, full of himself. A smug grin rested on his powdered face when he looked down at the feasting man.

“Oh how low have the artists of this land fallen. Eating scraps left by others to survive. I heard you called yourself a bard. For a moment I were worried that my position was threatened, but now that I see there’s no way you compare to me.”

Tim continued eating, paying no attention to him which seemed to infuriate the minstrel as the corner of his mouth started to twitch. After a moment of silence he raised his voice. “Well? Aren’t you even going to defend yourself? Or are you too intimidated to see who you are up against?”

The other responded only after finishing his meal. He turned his head towards the minstrel and spoke in a calm manner as if he was explaining to a child what they did was wrong.

“I am not here to stay or to take your job. I’ll work here until I have enough coin to travel southwards, doing whatever job I am given. I have no interest in staying as an entertainer in a place like this. I am a wanderer, so your job is safe. Now could you please leave me alone?”

“A place like this?! Do you think I am in this excuse of an inn because I want to?! Years in the teaching of best singers of the wealthiest cities just to be stuck here in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by drunks!”

 The minstrel was almost yelling now, and their quarrel had caught attention of quite a few customers. He could feel their angry gazes on his back. Tim let him take in the silence he had caused for a good while before speaking.

“That’s no way to speak of your workplace. Words carry weight. Mine far moreso than yours.” Then the runesinger broke in to a song.

“Without honor you sing your songs, with no regard for rights or wrongs, only yourself do you give praise, others with insults you braze. I'll sew your mouth shut with my song, only you may know for how long, until you know how to behave, 'till that you'll be silent as grave. “

By the time he finished his song the whole inn was silent, staring at the traveler in awe. “Go now, and may you find humility in your travels.”

The minstrel tried to speak but not a sound came out. A grimace of horror rose to his face as he realized what had happened. With shaking hands he went and grabbed his lute, never letting his eyes stray away from the runesinger. On his way towards the door he hit multiple tables and chairs, almost falling over. Once his back hit the door he halted for a moment, made a gesture used to fend of curses before slipping out the door and running for his life.

Tim watched him leave before sitting back down and took a last sip from his drink. He knew well that everyone looked at him, though it didn’t seem to bother him at all.

“Thank you for the meal.” He said to Aleks as he lowered the pint. The innkeeper was unsure how to respond at first. His fingers wavered a little as the petted his beard.

“You are welcome. You… You aren’t just any traveling bard are you? I’ve seen mages cast a curse upon someone. But to sing a man mute… Is he going to stay that way? Sure, he wasn’t all that nice but we don’t have any other bard. Unless you are willing to stay that is.”

“I did not lie when I said that I do not want his job. I can’t say how long he is mute either, it depends on himself. But I think he’ll learn humility soon.” The runesinger said as he stood up. “I thank you for your hospitality. Hopefully I can pay you next time.” With that he turned to leave and left the bartender to process what had happened. Though losing an entertainer would definitely be harmful for commerce, he couldn’t help feeling that the minstrel had earned this lesson.

Tim shuddered as he stepped outside. Spending such a long time in the warmth of the inn had almost made him forget the oncoming winter and the cold it brought. Following the bartender’s advice for jobs, he asked a passer-by for directions to the warehouses. They were located on the other side of the town so he hurried through the streets in hopes of catching the warehouse master. Luckily the streets were mostly empty as daylight started to diminish.

After few wrong turns and dead ends he could see the warehouses. Four large barns stood in middle of a small square, separate from all other buildings to protect them from fires. Two guards were posted on both sides of the door on each of the barns while few others patrolled the square. The men were clearly not happy about their posts, shuddering in the cold and occasionally muttering unpleasant things about their job. As he approached the warehouses one of the patrolling guards met him halfway and stopped him.

“What business do you have here at this hour? If you are here to check on your goods you’ll have to come back in the morning.”

“No, I’m not a merchant, just a traveling bard. I’ve come to ask if there was need for a pair of hands here.”

“I don’t know about that. Go ask the owner. He went home some time ago. It’s the large house at the end of that street. You can’t miss it.” The guard said and pointed at one of the streets at the edge of the square. Tim thanked the man and headed to the street pointed to him. Hopefully the owner of the warehouses would be kind enough to give him a place to sleep. Having to sleep outside while snow covered the street was not at all a pleasant idea. Especially if he’d have to survive the whole winter on the streets.

As the sun set he started to make his way down the street. It was clearly a wealthier part of town. The street was wider than most to allow carriages to carry merchandise from the personal storages of the towns rich. Houses were built from sturdy timber, their gables ornamented with complicated patterns. Many of the houses had sheds and storages next to them, few even a man guarding them. It seemed that even the poorest of the rich were not strangers to vanity. Another indication of wealth was the fact that the street itself was kept clean. Tim wondered if he too had to settle for such a job. So far things didn’t look too good for him.

Just like the guard had said, at the end of the street stood the largest house on the whole street. Unlike the other houses, it had a small fenced in yard thanks to its position, though the fence was low enough for even a child to jump over. A chicken coop stood against the side of the building, small shed next to it. Few of the birds still roamed around, paying no attention to the stranger hopping over the fence.

Tim stood in front house for a moment. It was quite a beautiful work of craftsmanship. A large porch covered the whole front of the house, three pillars holding up its decorated roof. At the top of each pillar a head of a wolf stared down the streets. Outer walls of the house had a lacquer coating. Or at least so he thought, it was hard to tell now that the sun had set.

Suddenly the door was opened and a man stepped outside. He wore expensive looking clothes and carried a lantern. “Go chase the chickens inside, they’ll be stolen otherwise. Pah. I work hard every day and all she does is invent new chores for me to do…” The man muttered, fixing the position of his belt as his eyes happened to the trespasser.

“Oi, what business you have on my yard at this hour? Spit it out before I call the guards!” He threatened while taking a step back.

“I’ve come to ask the warehouse master for a job. A guard pointed me here.”

“A job? Hmph. I don’t think there’s a need for another laborer. Or a guard. Not that you look particularly strong.” The master said, lifting his lantern up so he could see Tim better. “What exactly do you do for a living?”

“I am a traveling bard, but I’d do any job you give me. I’m hoping to have a job for the winter and once spring comes head Southwards. If I’m not fit to be a laborer, perhaps I could keep track of inventory. I know how to write and read, quite well might I add.”

“You wish to cross the marshlands? That’s a feat without either a hefty amount of gold to bribe the locals with, or a large armed escort. Both of which you seem to lack. Not that I care what happens to you. I’ve got no job to give. I already have a bookkeeper.”

Tim sighed heavily. He’d have to look for a job with the craftsmen, but that would have to wait for the morning. A more pressing problem weighed on his mind. “I see. Sun has set and the winter nights are cold. Would you be willing to give a place to sleep for a traveler? Anywhere is better than the streets.”                

The man thought for a moment before a hint of a smile came to his lips. “Tell you what, round up the chickens to their coop and you can sleep in the shed. There’s some old pelts there. Should be enough to keep you warm for the night.”

After thanking the warehouse master Tim got to work. The simple task was made difficult by the chickens, as they did not appreciate a stranger chasing them around the yard. But one by one he managed to chase them to their coop. He made sure they couldn’t escape again before going to the shed. It most certainly wasn’t much of a place to sleep, a pile of tattered pelts on the floor next to piles of crates. He grimaced as he moved under the pelts to sleep. Their stench was horrible, though he’d rather take the smell than the coldness of the winter night. It didn’t take him long to fall asleep.

The runesinger was awoken by a sharp pain in his abdomen. Air escaped his lungs and he curled up right before another kick hit his side. He lifted his gaze to see a spear pointed at his face, and a guard behind it.

“Get up, you have visitors! And you keep that mouth of yours closed or I’ll make sure it’ll open never again!”

Tim stood up with a grunt. A bad resting place had left him stiff, and being kicked certainly didn’t help. Now that he was standing he could see a man in deep blue robes behind the guard. A mage no doubt. But what had he done to anger a mage? The guard gestured him to move outside, where this question was answered.

Behind the mage cowered a familiar face. The minstrel he had sung in to silence. He took a step back and averted his gaze as soon as he saw the runesinger. At least he had learned his lesson, the runesinger thought.

“I thought I’d never see a runesinger in my days. Your sort is rare to happen upon these days. Much less one who attacks a person. What reason did you have to sing him silent? Though he has recovered his voice already, I cannot overlook this manner of offense. Gag and chain him.”

Before Tim could resist, the guard forced his hands behind his back and slammed a pair of cuffs on to him. There no reason to try to break free. Even if he came up with a song, the mage would silence him instantly. Or kill. So the runesinger submitted to his fate. No matter where he went, he always seemed to end up in chains. The guard showed him forward and they were on their way.

Much to his surprise, they did not head towards the jailhouse. Instead they headed to a lone stone cabin near the main road. The whole building was made of stone, even the roof. It was most likely built by unnatural means as the stone was impossibly smooth, as if it was raised straight out of the streets.

“Thank you for your help. I’ll manage on my own now.” The mage said to the guard, whom nodded and left the two alone. Then his captor opened the door to the house and beckoned Tim to enter. “Why would someone leave their house unlocked?” the runesinger questioned in his mind. But then again he wasn’t a mage, so he had no idea what sort of enchantments might have been cast on that door.

Inside of the cabin was dim, only a small fire crackled in a large stone oven. That soon changed as the mage light up numerous candles with a spell. Even though he possessed similar powers, it was impressing for him to see someone do so much with few words.

Though the candles were light, many corners of the house remained dark. Now that he could see Tim noticed bookshelves, cabinets and tables lined up against the walls, all containing curious trinkets and books. A comfortable looking bed had been pushed right next to the oven. No doubt to combat the coldness of winter.

The mage pulled a chair for each of them so that they sat opposite of each other. After a moment of staring judging the runesinger with his gaze he spoke. “I have no quarrel with you, I am simply doing what is my duty. I’m supposed to protect this town and its residents from anything magical. I heard you were looking for a job so that you can travel south come spring?”

Tim responded with a nod. He understood well that he had to do something to punish him or else he’d lose the respect of the townsfolk and his livelihood with it.

“I see. In that case, here is what I propose. You’ll work for me until spring, without pay for some time as a repayment of your crimes. Then you’ll get paid so you may be on your way. It’s either this or spending few weeks in a cell, after which no-one will give you a job. Do you agree to this?”

Again the runesinger nodded. He would be a fool to turn down such an offer. “Excelled!” The mage exclaimed as he stood up and moved to remove his bindings. “My name is Darien. No need to introduce yourself, I already know your name. And I have to urge you not to use your powers unless it is needed to help someone. They are common people, easily scared. We’ll begin on the evening. Look around or have a nap, but don’t touch anything.” Once his bindings were removed Darien moved his chair in front of a table, opened the book laying on it and begun reading as if he were alone.

Tim licked his lips. For a moment he sat on his chair, unsure what to do. Then he stood up walking in front of the oven in order to warm himself. He might be indoors now but a night in the shed had left him a little chilly. As he extended his hands towards the oven a glimmer resting on top of the oven caught his eye. Curious, he leaned a little closer and stood on his tiptoes to see better.

His breath escaped him as he found himself only few centimeters away from a large adder. It was curled up to a shape of an oval, its head resting on its midsection and faced right at him. The scales of the snake were grey on black, causing it to hide well within the darkness. No wonder he couldn’t see it properly. Tim didn’t dare to move as he had seen the speed a snake could strike, even from seemingly innocent poses. He took a deep breath and quickly pulled his head down. Much to his surprise the snake did not react in any way. A sigh of relief escaped him and he sat down to calm his pounding heart.

“You…Do know there’s a venomous snake on top of your oven?” He asked from the mage once he had calmed down.

“Ah, yes, you’ve met Richard.” Darien replied without lifting his gaze from the book. “Don’t try to have a staring contest with him. You’ll lose. Snakes do not have eyelids. Besides, he is hibernating now. It’s extremely hard to wake him up. During summer he keeps the house free of mice and other rodents, whenever he’s not with me.”

“So you keep him as a pet? While you do your job? Is that not dangerous? I’ve seen what a northern adder’s bite can do to a person. It is not pretty.”

“He’s quite harmless. He knows who I am and that as long as he’s with me no-one is a threat. And he does not move much, usually he sleeps in my pocket or hood. He has saved lives, I’ve brewed antidote from his poison and given it to people bitten by other snakes. Surely that is worth keeping the oven warm all year round?”

“I…Suppose it is.” Tim replied while eyeing the resting reptile on top of the oven. Darien seemed to trust the animal but he was not quite sure. He sat on the bed, eyes still locked to Richard.

Eventually Tim relaxed and allowed his gaze to wander around the room.  The bookshelves housed a variety of books of different size. Some of them were nothing more than plainly bound notebooks, some well decorated novels. A large part were textbooks on a variety of subjects, at least judging by their names. Sons and daughters of lust, insight to demons. Animals and plants of the north. Healing brews and ointments. Such an extensive library was not a surprising find in mages house. People often joked that the only reason copiers still had a job was due to mages and their thirst for more books.

His attention moved from the books to the items on a nearby table. Multitude of bottles and containers cluttered the table, containing all kinds of peculiar things. He stood up and went to get a closer look. Everything was labeled, though the handwriting was so shoddy it was impossible to read. Tim could only guess what the contents truly were. One bottle was filled completely by a reddish sand. A box right next to it seemed to contain coal. Jar behind them had some kind of green liquid. On the center of the table was a clear space, and in the middle of it rested a mortar and a pestle.  Miraculously enough they were clean.

The contents of the table were bizarre enough to hold his attention for a good while. The urge to pick them up and take a closer look was great but he knew it would irritate the mage. That, and the ingredients might be dangerous.

On the other side of the table stood another bookshelf filled with various tomes, though this time they seemed to be fiction, prose and religious texts. Tim easily recognized the Song book by its back. He had read it time and time again until he remembered every song it contained. The Great Songs were easy, as almost everyone had heard them at celebrations. But the less known folk songs had caused him some trouble.

Other books in the selves were stranger. Life of Laghen. Stheven. Demon of Lothrus. It seemed that Darien enjoyed reading novels. Or at least these books seemed to be novels as most of the religious text were simply labeled the subject they were about along with the name of the writer. Darien didn’t seem particularly religious, but the mage of a village should be acquainted with the beliefs of his people. Or perhaps he found the topic interesting? Tim shrugged at the thought. It wasn’t his place to question the mages taste in literature. He had promised him a job and a place to stay after all.

As he was about to return to sit on the bed, one unusual book caught his eyes. It rested atop the rest of the books and was the only one to be placed like that. The books back lacked all markings and was bound with dark black leather. Tim took a peek at the mage to see if he was still reading. Once he was sure he wouldn’t notice, the runesinger reached towards the bookshelf and took the book for closer inspection.

It was a surprisingly light book in Tim’s mind. Or perhaps the dark leather made it look heavy. He ran his finger over the back of the book while looking at its cover. The Black Book Of Death written in golden letters. Quite a dark name for a book, perhaps a taste of what was written between its covers? Necromancy, deals with demons, curses and hexes of the worst kind? Tim shot a glance over his shoulder towards the mage. If he dabbled in dark arts he’d have to warn the townfolk immediately. Such mages were widely known for their madness and dangerous experiments.

Before he managed to take a look at the books content, Darien closed the book he was reading. Hastily Tim’s hand shot towards the bookcase to place the book back. It was in place only seconds before the mage turned around. He didn’t seem to have notice anything, judging by his friendly smile.

“I think it’s time we had something to eat don’t you think?” The mage asked as went to one of the cabinets. He took out some bread, dried meat and cheese. It took him a moment to set aside everything that cluttered the table. Once the food was on started to look for something in the cabinet. “Come on, where have I put them…I ought to clean these someday.” For a moment longer he muttered before letting out a huff. “Pah, these will do just fine.” He took out a two small glass jars and set them on the table. Then he went outside, returning with a bucket of water.

“It’s not the grandest of meals, but quite good nonetheless. I always get a little better spiced meats and cheese. The perks of being the town mage.” Darien said as he sat down in front of the table. Hesitantly Tim pulled a chair next to him and sat. He eyed the food, but particularly the jar. Having seen what was in those other jars, drinking from one was suspicious to say the least. Darien poured both jars full of water and took a sip from his own. “Don’t worry, they are clean. I don’t use these jars to anything dangerous. Only jam.”

The runesinger took a careful sip from his jar. He didn’t taste anything in it, which calmed his suspicions. He took a piece of bread and devoured it quickly. It had been a while since he last ate. Next he piled some cheese and dried meat on top of a bread. Either his hunger made everything taste sublime, or there was some truth to what Darien had said about his food.

“Where exactly will we be doing in the evening? If you can tell me of course. I’d like to know what to expect.” Tim asked while munching on his food.

“Ah yes, we’ll be looking for flowers called nightblooms. Do you know of them? Like the name says, they bloom at night which is when they must be harvested. They can be used to sooth pain and fever. I’m hoping we could find some of before the snow destroys them completely.” Tim nodded while emptying his jar. He knew of them and had seen many of them. Beautiful, large white pedals that shined in the night. Which is why the common folk called them ghost flowers. Though he did not know how to use them in any way. But it was hardly surprising that a mage knew more than he did.

Once their supper was over Darien went back to his book, while Tim took a nap in the bed. He woke up few hours before they were leaving. They ate lightly before leaving for the forest. It was not the most pleasant journey. On the roads feet and hooves packed the snow tightly, but the woods had little travelers. Perhaps a rabbit at most. The snow came almost to their knees yet the mage insisted they’d search for the flowers.

Both of them had a torch to light their search, and holding it properly while crouching down was quite hard. At least to Tim it was. The mage occasionally shouted to him, telling where to look for the flowers. He seemed to be perfectly happy shoveling away snow with his hands, maybe to find flowers as white as the snow itself. Tim would have left after few hours but Darien kept them working long in to the night. Near the end Tim couldn’t hold back curses under his breath. Both his hands and feet had been soaked for hours and he no longer could feel them. Yet they remained in the forest.

A sigh of relief left him when the mage finally called him over and told him they’d leave. Darien spoke throughout their trek back towards the town, telling him every use for the flowers they have found. Once he was finished with the uses of nightblooms, he continued talk about the plants related to nightblooms and their uses. Tim stopped listening even before they were out of the woods but that didn’t seem to discourage the mage. How could a man remain so happy after something so unpleasant?

Soon enough the town came to view. Journeys always seemed to be faster when a pleasant bed was waiting for the traveler. In the dark, only few trails of smokes and lights gave away that the shacks around the town walls were inhabited. The sight of the town gates gave him some strength. Soon he’d be warming by a fire, after which he’d go to bed. Guards greeted them before opening the gates. His heart went out for them. They’d have to stand around in the cold night for the following few months with naught to do. Even if his work was hard and the way to the woods long, at least he had had something to do.

Once they were back at the cabin Darien threw many logs to the embers of the oven, setting them alight with a spell. Then they both sat in front of the fire in silence. After a while he made a bed for Tim and gave him blankets and a pillow. The runesinger sat still for a long time after he had gone to bed. He simply stared in to the fire, wondering what the future might bring for him. Some months ago he had been a prisoner, after that a farmhand. Only two days earlier he had been a traveling bard, then a wanted man and now, a mages assistant. This cabin would be his home until spring, and that bubbly man his master. It would certainly be quite interesting few months. He had no idea what he would be doing for the mage. To be honest, he had no idea what he’d do after either. The only thing he knew for sure was that he needed to go south. For a while longer he stayed awake, humming a quiet tune to himself. One of the many things he had heard on his travels, a sad tune telling of lost times. Out of the corner of his eye he could see the adder staring at him. Quickly he turned his gaze to it, but it remained in the same pose it had when he first saw it. Perhaps the lack of sleep was getting to him. Lazily he fell on top of the mattress that was laid on the floor for him and pulled the blanket up to his shoulders. He quickly fell asleep to the sound of crackling fire. On top of the oven, the snake stuck out its tongue to smell the air.