#i’m so happy i pulled floyd my beloved

[starshapedpetals]

was pulling on my second twst account & this is such a good pull????

[thatwildnya]

CHAPTER 4: You Now Smell Fishy

chitters:

Wild: this chapter has been the most edited and rewritten one so far. i still might go back and change some parts but we’ll get to that later. i added the last part after Nya said this made him want some eel and octopus.

Nya: i’m craving sushi now 🗿

TW: blood, but only from Floyd being the menace he is

It turned out your uncle was very happy that you had taken in the wild and stray centaurs. He had applauded your kindness, giving permission to bring back as many as you desired. He would pay for all expenses of course, as he was so gracious. In return for his kindness, he made you responsible for all the pets you brought in. You didn’t plan on taking in anymore you were fine with what you had. However sir oh so gracious fancy pants had other plans.

About half a year after Malleus and Sebek joined the growing family your uncle showed up out of the blue with three merfolk for you to care for. At the time you had been out buying groceries, so you had no idea what you were coming home to.

“Hello my beloved nepiece!” Crowley greeted you as you came into the living room. He had just finished setting up the tank and was introducing himself to your current pets. After a quick explanation he left, saying he had business to attend to. He left a letter explaining how to properly care for your merfolk.

When you walked down the stairs to see what your new pets looked like, you found that your basement was now over three acres large (according to the letter) and filled with ocean plant life. You stared bug eyed at the sight before you, how the hell did he get this done in less than an hour.

You were so preoccupied with your thoughts you failed to notice a pair of curious eels swimming over to get a closer look at you. A fin-like hand hitting the glass jolted you out of your thoughts.

The two eelmer stared at you with big eyes filled with curiosity. From how closely they resembled each other you assumed they were related. They appeared to be about a foot long each but were still tiny. Your thumb was bigger than their head.

They followed you as you began circling the tank, curious about what you would do. At some point one of them got bored and swam away. The one that stayed kept his eyes on you, continuing to follow you on your little walk. The way his eyes studied you gave you chills. It was like he was observing you for your weak points. Creepy.

Another knock on the tank caught your attention. The little mer beckoned you forward, an innocent smile on his face. You inch closer, unsure of what he would do. He points up, and you turn your face upwards just in time to see the other mer jumping out of the tank. His body collides with your face with a wet splat. You stumble backwards and fall on your butt with a yelp. Pulling him off, you hold him by his waist. He’s laughing at you, and in the background you can see his brother also laughing.

Great, a pair of troublemakers. Just what you needed.

~~~~~~

“I was told there were three of you, where’s the third?” Jade and Floyd were their names. The twins were currently flopped over your thighs while your legs were lazily kicking in the water.

“Tako-chan? He’s shy, been hiding ever since his pot was set down.” Floyd answered, curiously fumbling with the zipper of your jacket. “He’s weary of humans,” Jade spoke up, “can’t blame him though. They were the ones who snatched us from our home.” you frown, was this how all merfolk were acquired? That’s messed up bro.

“If you wanna meet Tako-chan you’ll have to go for a swim~” Floyd chirped, tugging at your shirt, “The water’s enchanted so you can breathe without having to drink a potion. Your uncle mentioned someone needed to renew the magic sometimes, why can’t you do it yourself Shrimpy? Are you that bad at magic?~” what a little shit.

“Where’s the pot?” you ask using a finger on his forehead to gently push him off. He let out a hiss of protest, trying to cling to you by digging his claws into your pants. Jade took notice of the slight change of your mood, and let out a trill. Floyd pouted at his brother, letting go after a bit of back and forth.

Taking off your jacket, you toss it to the ground. Sliding into the water you shiver. Holy shit was it cold. You probably should have expected this to be honest though. Regretting leaving you jacket behind, you follow the twins.

~~~~~~

The proclaimed octo pot was more of a cauldron rather than a pot. Squatting down, you peek inside. Two beady gray eyes stare back at you for a moment before a cloud of black ink comes shooting out at you. Thankfully you were far away enough to where it wouldn’t hit you. You make a mental note about the ink spitting, best you don’t wear any light or nice clothing when around him.

Floyd swims into the pot as soon as the cloud clears, chittering at his housemate as he tries to pull him out. Soon distressed squeaking can be heard from inside the pot, getting progressively louder. Jade has settled himself on the top of the pot, peering in with a grin.

A particular loud squeak was suddenly heard. Floyd was tossed out of the pot by a chunky tentacle. A nasty looking bite was on it and bleeding. You grab Floyd by his torso to stop him from going back in.

“Bad!” you lightly smack him on the head, “do not bite him!” Floyd lets out an angry hiss, biting your finger and thrashing in your grip. You grit your teeth, bringing him up to your face. “Do not cause any unnecessary trouble, I was already looking after six pets before the three of you arrived. If you can’t behave I will rehome you!” Floyd growls, sinking his teeth further into your flesh. Jade quickly swims up next to his twin, grabbing him by the shoulders to pull him off. He’s letting out distressed chittering the whole time, eyes blown wide with fear. Floyd eventually lets go with a growl, still glaring at you. He speeds off as soon as you release him.

Jade grabs your hand. His eyes are shiny as he pleads, “please don’t be mad! I’ll talk to him, he’s really good I swear! Please don’t separate us!” he clutches your finger, tail wrapping around your arm desperately.

You sigh, bringing your other hand up to stroke his back. He shivers at your touch, tensing but doesn’t pull away. Guilt fills you as he continues to plead for you to not get rid of his brother. That was a bad move on your part, they had been essentially kidnapped before coming here. The only familiar things they had were each other, separating them would give them a one way ticket to depression land.

“I spoke in the heat of the moment,” you try to reassure him, “I won’t separate you… I promise.” Jade’s grip on your finger tightens, though he relaxed the rest of his body. After a few minutes he releases you, going to find his twin so you could both apologize.

Now you turned your attention back to Azul. Taking a seat, you lean back on your hands. After some thinking, you sigh. Taking a deep breath, you speak.

“You’re scared, I get it. You were yanked from your home suddenly and then treated as if you were an object instead of a living being. I can relate to what you went through. My parents got rid of me as soon as they found out I didn’t have a drop of magic. I was put into foster care but only people who needed physical labor would take me. They assumed I would be stronger to make up for my lack of magic. When they found the opposite was true, I was sent back. I have never stayed for more than a month in one home, they always found an excuse to send me back. At first I tried to make myself stand out, but now I know it’s pointless. A magicless human shouldn’t exist, it’s against the laws of nature. It’s best to keep your head low and out of the spotlight.” you stare at the ceiling, for if you didn’t you feared tears would flow. This was the first time you’d ever spoken these thoughts out loud. It felt… nice. Like a weight had been lifted from your shoulders.

Azul listened to you, slowly inching out of his sanctuary and closer to you as you spoke. When you were done, he was a few inches from you. He paused when you saw him, tense and ready to withdraw if needed. His face was round and body chubby, he looked quite squishy. You wanted to poke him if you were being honest.

You stay still and wait for him to make a move first. He ponders for a minute before coming to a decision. He crawls towards you, slowly making his way into your lap. You sit completely still, not wanting to spook him.

Azul settles down in your lap, his tentacles wrapping around your legs. He took up your whole lap space, his limbs very chunky and long. Lord you wanted to squish him so much no do not that might scare resist the urge I say RESIST IT R E S I S T.

~~~~~~

Hoisting yourself out of the tank, you pause to take a sniff of your shirt and scrunch your nose, it stank of raw fish. Dropping down you head for the stairs, thinking about what you should make for lunch. Sushi immediately comes to mind.

… yeah that’s definitely not a good idea.

[twistedmusings]

hhhhiii i see requests are open... can i have azul and riddle with a taller+flirty s/o? fem s/o is much preferred but g/n is also OK!! thank youu i love your writing 😭💞

A/N: I am a very short girl. I am shorter than Riddle. So this...was hard to write. But gosh if I did not love every second of it q wq. Honestly, I feel like these two would benefit from having an S/O who is a lot more open about her love. Dammit now I want a tall girlfriend. 

All the way from the fluff section in our library, let me get that book for you! 

Warnings: None! 

--Everyone make way for the short king. 

--First, he doesn’t know how he fell in love with her. Her flirtiness was known in Heartslabyul and there was not a time that Riddle hadn’t caught one of the students trying to slide a love letter her way. Which was already highly inappropriate; they were having tea for the Queen’s sake! 

--So he scolded her for it, which only made her reply in your usual way. Which made him scold her again and she replied with another flirty comment about how adorable it was that he cared so much about who she flirted with. 

“Am I that distracting?” 

“Yes!”

“So...should I just flirt with you instead?” 

“P--Pardon?” 

--The dorm room celebrates as Riddle announces his relationship a week later, according to the rules, and smiles when his girlfriend bends down to place a kiss on his cheek. 

--And that is when he starts to get confused about how he feels about the situation as a whole. 

--Generally, he liked when people talked to him as if it was normal conversation and no comment was made about his height. Trey spoke to him normally, Cater knew better than to make any sort of comment and Deuce and Ace wouldn’t make a comment to save their lives. 

And she also didn’t make a comment either! It’s just that the more time she spent together with him the more he started to take in the height difference between them. 

--If he was trying to reach for a book in the library he would feel a hand on his back and his beloved coming up behind him and getting the book down for him. He would try and protest saying that she didn’t need to help he could have gotten a stool--! 

--But he almost bites his tongue when she leans in and places a kiss on his forehead, telling him that she just wanted an excuse to kiss him in public. Riddle wants to retort back and says something about PDA not being appropriate but he is met by a pair of lips silencing him. 

“We really shouldn’t--! And in public--!” 

“You didn’t like it?” 

“...I didn’t say that.” 

--Riddle might have a lot to say about PDA when it comes to others, but he is clearly getting spoiled on the sidelines by his girlfriend. And he lives for it. He meets her after classes and offers his arm to her so they can walk together, getting a kiss on the cheek for it. He invites her to several Unbirthday parties and has her sit by his side, which earns him a kiss on the hand. She has trouble studying? Cue tutor Riddle coming in to the rescue, which earns him a bunch of kisses that he would rather keep private as to where they were placed.

--The unspoken rule is that, as long as he is doing something to help her or she is doing something to help him, modest kisses (aka: hand, cheek or forehead) can be given out whenever the other party desires it. 

--Also forehead kisses are his favourite, prove me wrong. 

--As I am writing this I am also picturing them ballroom dancing, like an event in NRC just has dancing involved and Riddle holds out his hand to her and invites her to the dancefloor...only to realize that he kinda reaches up to her neck and he can’t do the usual thing where she would lean into his chest as they slow danced.

--But she kinda beats him to the punch when he tries to pull away, feeling he looks ridiculous. She just presses him close to her and lets him wrap her arms around her waist, smiling as she hugs him close and leans her head against the top of his. People could talk all they wanted but did they have a girlfriend? Riddle thought that probably not. 

“Surely this must not be comfortable.”

“Riddle I’m fine. Besides, I think everyone is a tad jealous right now.” 

“How so?” 

“Well...you are rather close to my chest. Not that I’m complaining, I love it actually~” 

--Riddle hates to say it...but that is a perk that he did not expect and it certainly wasn’t unwelcome. 

--Like I said, make way for our short king. 

--He loves it. 

--Azul sees no downside about not only having a flirty s/o, but having a tall s/o was also what made this relationship so wonderful to him. Why? Two words.

--Power. Move. 

--He didn’t necessarily ask for it but as he is making a deal one day she just walks in and greets him normally, Azul taking the time to lean back and kiss her hand as he usually did but stopping when the girl walks in front of the couch and makes her way into Azul’s lap sitting in such a way that she is now facing the client with her legs crossed while her lips were placed gently on Azul’s temple. 

“Just keep working, I won’t bother you~” 

--Azul normally loves your affection but seeing the student sit up straighter and get visibly more nervous as she played with his hair brought Azul a sort of euphoria he didn’t expect.

--Yes he knew not to get revenge on others for bullying him and whatnot, but the feeling of superiority that came with having an S/O who was so open about her affection with him was a power trip in its own way. 

--She sits in with him with every deal he makes now, Azul talking normally as his hands rest on her legs while playing with his hair and pressing kisses to his cheek whenever she feels like it. 

--Azul at first is a bit embarrassed at the height difference and the almost effortless flirtiness that seemed to come to her so naturally, but he does notice the looks he gets when he walks by which just...makes him hold his head up higher as he walks. 

--One thing he is surprised to like is...the cuddling. 

--As part octopus, Azul’s tentacles will latch to whatever he likes. His girlfriend had only had the pleasure to see him in his octopus form once and was more than happy when he mentioned that fact to her, but he didn’t expect his human legs to carry out the same sort of treatment. This meant that every time they cuddled together, Azul was always the little spoon wrapping himself around her. 

--A fact she never fails to mention when he does it almost without thinking. 

“You really want to keep me here, huh?” 

“Not necessarily. If you need to leave, I am not stopping you.” 

“That’s not what your legs are saying. You have me in a really tight hold, Azul~” 

--Oh my god the tentacle comments. Azul thinks that he can take the height difference between them pretty well but she just takes him by surprise when she comes up behind him and gives him a hug, Azul returning it with a side hug as he is doing his work, but stopping when she leans in close and whispers about how she wishes he would hold just a tad bit tighter. 

“Your octopus form is a lot more honest...you really held onto me tight last time.” 

--What is worse is that the tweels are there for every second of it, their teasing of Azul increasing to a maximum whenever she is around. He sends Jade and Floyd to run and errand with her and just as they are leaving she turns around to wave goodbye. 

“Anything else you want from Sam’s place, baby?” 

“Yeah Azul! Anything else, baby?” 

“Now Floyd, no reason to pester him further. We’ll be going now...baby~” 

--All three run out laughing as Azul throws a pen at the door, catching her blowing a kiss his way. 

--He is still embarrassed, but he makes a motion to catch it and wave goodbye, smiling as he thinks just how lucky he is to get someone like her. 

--And it’s not like he was short, but he certainly looked a lot more intimidating walking with a rather tall drink of water hanging from his arm~ listen I know that is a stupid line even I apologize 

[stylesberries]

Flower Field

Summary: Harry accidentally breaks his favorite guitar, which makes it an obvious choice of a present for his upcoming birthday.

Genre(s): fluff

Word Count: 2.3k

Warning(s): cuteness overload

After releasing Fine Line, Harry was preparing himself to go on a world tour with the new album. He refused to leave you, his most precious treasure, behind when going on tour. He begged you to come with him, as if you could ever turn that request down.

Couple of months before the tour Harry’s favorite guitar ended up broken. It was just another night spent in the studio with you and Mitch. Harry got a bit too excited (and a little tipsy) as he danced his precious bum off, he tripped and landed right on top of his guitar neck, snapping it in two. Watching his facial expression change from a blissful one to a mournful one, you stood up from your place to walk over to him and wrap your arm around his waist. You took a look at the body of the guitar on the floor, separated from the neck, that Harry was holding at the moment. He held it with disappointment written all over his face.

“It was a really good one, you know?” Harry stated, turning it look at you.

“I know, baby. I’m so sorry.” You pressed your body to his side and pulled him closer to you by his waist.

“It’s okay. It happens sometimes.”

Although, he tried to brush it off, you knew he was very upset. He wrote two albums on that guitar and was planning on taking it along on tour.

His birthday was just around the corner, so you knew exactly what you were going to get him as a present.

The next day you called Mitch and asked him about the guitar Harry broke and where you could get the identical one. Mitch provided you with the address of the guitar shop, that Harry mostly get his guitars from, and the name of the model.

You snuck out of the bed early in the morning, gently pushing Harry’s arm off of your body. Leaving the bed, you made sure to pull the blanket over Harry’s back, so that he’s not freezing in this mid-January situation that was going on in the northern hemisphere. You were turning to walk up to the closet to change your clothes, but you couldn’t keep yourself from turning back in your feet and bending over the bed to land a kiss on your beloved’s temple.

“Nghh, where y’goin’?” Harry surprised you by mumbling to you and tugging on your (his) T-shirt.

“Stay. Please.” How could you leave now?

Guess the guitar will have to wait for a day.

“Y/N, don’t go please. We haven’t cuddled in two days. I miss you. Come on, princess. Come here, love.” Harry whispered in your ear as you guys stood in the kitchen cooking dinner two days after you were supposed to go to the guitar shop.

“Baby, stay with me. It’s so early and you look so fucking hot in that T-shirt of mine.” Harry pressed his crotch against your thigh on the third day after you was supposed to go to the guitar shop.

“But we had to watch so many movies, sunshine. I even made us some popcorn.” Harry grinned at you, walking towards you with a bowl, while you were sitting on the couch.

As you may have already guessed - it was the forth day after you were supposed to go to the guitar shop.

On the fifth day, you told Harry that you have to do a lot of work that accumulated within those five days. He grudgingly let you go, but made sure to make you promise to spoon him when you come back.

Parking your car by the guitar store, you were relieved to see that the store was open on a Sunday.

You walked into the store and up to a shop assistant, who was wearing a Pink Floyd T-shirt. “Adds to the atmosphere.” You thought.

After telling him the name of the exact model you need, Eric, as his badge suggested, guided you to the guitars hanging on the wall. He pointed at one, that looked just like the one Harry cracked in two.

You walked out of the store with a guitar in a case and a happy smile on your face. A fucking poet you are.

Not wanting to leave the guitar plain crème, you also dropped by an art supplies shop to get some paints to decorate the guitar.

Next week you would sneakily decorate the guitar whenever Harry left the house to go to the store or the studio.

By the end of January the guitar was decorated with flowers. Chamomiles, roses and sunflowers graced the surface of the guitar, making it look like a portal to a flower field. Perfect.

On his birthday, Harry was woken up earlier than usual by your kisses. What greeted Harry was the undivided attention of his favorite person and a breakfast in bed made by said person.

At about seven in the evening you both were on your way to the party that Jeff put up for Harry and Glenne. On the way there Harry kept asking you about the mysterious present that you promised to gift him after the party.

“Is it something edible?” He asked, being visibly restless.

“No. Actually, who knows? I guess everything is edible. I think you could try to eat it but I doubt you’d like it much.”

Your answer just confused the poor guy even more. He turned his head back to the window and squinted his eyes. In a few moments, he turned his head back to you, sitting in the driver’s seat. You told Harry that as a birthday boy, he shouldn’t have to drive himself to his birthday party, which was a lame excuse, but you needed one to get him to let you drive, as you knew his attention would be on you the whole road to the place.

“Is it small enough for me to carry it around?” Harry tried his best to guess what exactly you were getting him. He’d been like this since the early morning when you wouldn’t tell him what you’ve gotten for him.

“It’s not small, but you can carry it around.” It was the first question, for which your answer wasn’t exactly a “no”, so Harry smiled, thinking he’s finally onto something. The party took place in a closed down restaurant that you all would go to once in a while. There weren’t many guests. Just the closest friends. “Knowing Harry, it’s probably hundreds of people.” You thought.

At 8:46 Jeff came up to you and Glenne and interrupted your heated discussion about the newly released albums that deserve more appreciation than they’re getting.

“Y/N.” Jeff whispered to you. “Harry’s going on and on about a present. He’s driving me insane.” Jeff started and leaned closer to you.

You know exactly what’s going on.

“What did you get him? I’m honestly intrigued myself.”

As if you didn’t know that Harry was the one who sent him over to you.

“Look, Jeff, I know Harry sent you over. I’m not telling you anything.” You turned to Harry, who was standing two tables away from you and was, apparently, engaged in a conversation with Ben.

You walked up to him and tapped him on his shoulder. He excused himself, slowly turned around and tried to hide a smile, knowing that you’ve probably figured his plan out.

“Hi, baby.” You moved your mouth up to his ear, which made him lean into it automatically.

“If you want to know what I got you, you should be patient like a good boy you are, okay?” Your voice was stern and you could feel him stiffen up next to you. As you moved away from him, you put on an innocent smile and kissed him on the lips. He froze in his place and couldn’t even move his lips against yours. Separating your lips from his, you turned to back to walk over to Glenne to continue your talk.

When you came up to Glenne and Jeff, he informed you that the cake is about to be brought out for the two Aquarians to blow the candles.

When the cake was brought out, the wishes ended up forgotten, as both Harry and Glenne had their faces covered in sweet frosting. You laughed while dragging your pouty boyfriend to the restroom to clean him off. On the way to the restroom, your fingers had already been covered in the frosting from Harry’s face, as you were getting a better taste of it.

You walked into the restroom and got napkins to clean Harry’s face off.

“Is it something we can both use?” There we go again.

“No, love. Unfortunately, it’s not. I mean it could become that but not at the moment, no.” You answered him while wiping the frosting off of the tip of his nose.

“Why is it s’complicated?” He asked with frustration written all over his face.

“It’s actually quite simple, lovie. We’ll be home soon and you’ll know what it is.” You smiled at Harry and brought your hands to cup his cheeks and kiss the tip of his nose.

“You’re so loving.” He lets you push his head into the crook of your neck.

“Of course I am. How can I not be loving to you? You’re my everything.” You cooed into his ear while drawing circles on his back.

“No. No one has ever cared f’me as much as you have. Y’make it look so easy to love me, and I know for sure - I’m not easy to love. I’m all over the place. I’m clingy and sometimes even annoying, but y’never make me feel like it bothers you.” He whispered truthfully into your ear as he relaxed in your arms.

You couldn’t bring yourself to push him away to look into his eyes. You hugged him tighter and kissed his temple.

“Because it doesn’t. I don’t make it look easy to love you. It is easy to love you. I love when you’re being clingy. Makes me feel wanted and loved. I adore everything about you, my precious. You’re so sweet, kind and attentive, sunny. I love you more than anything, do you know that?” You could feel him ready to start a debate on how annoying he is, but before he has a chance to say anything, you pull him away from your neck and look into his eyes, still holding his hands in yours.

“It’s a guitar.” You blurt.

“What?” Harry asked you confusingly.

“The present. It’s a guitar. The same as the one that you landed on. I also painted it but I want you to see it in person first.” You explained shyly. Harry looked at you with wide eyes and seemed a bit too shocked for your liking.

“Why do you look so shocked? Am I that bad that you didn’t expect me to do anything nice for you?” You jokingly asked.

Harry’s face softened and the corners of his mouth flew up. He kept looking at you with his loving green eyes and you could see tears building up in their inner corners.

“Harry, are you crying?” You asked and tried to pull him closer to yourself but he brushed your arms away. Instead, he grabbed your cheeks in his hands and smashed his lips into yours.

As his lips separated from yours, he kept holding your face in his hands and looked straight into your eyes.

“I spent my whole life thinking that I will never be able to find real love. I kept blaming myself for the fact that every relationship I’ve been in before you would fall apart because of me. When you walked into my life, I was so scared to mess everything up again, but you made it seem as if I wasn’t the one at fault. You made me feel normal for once. You make all the pain subside. M’heart and soul belong to you. Only you.“

As Harry finished his speech, Mitch bursted into the restroom.

“Guys, stop making out, we’ve been waiting for you to cut the cake. Glenne said she wanted Harry to help her make the first cut for a picture.”

Mitch walked further into the room and stood behind Harry pushing him towards the door.

“Y/N, come on. He won’t go unless you come with him. He’s like a lost puppy without you.” Mitch teased Harry, causing him to frown.

“He’s my lost puppy.” You joked and walked behind the guys.

You couldn’t see Harry’s face properly, but you were most certain that a grin on his face was impossible to miss.

Here you were now, watching Harry and the band during a sound check while biting on the takeaway food that Harry ordered for the whole team.

“Y/N!” You heard your boyfriend calling for you from the stage.

When you looked up from your feast, you took some time to chew on your food and answer.

“Harry!” You mocked your curlyhead, watching him smile at you.

“Look what Mitch just taught me.” Harry announced and positioned his hands over the strings and the fingerboard of his flower-field guitar.

As you walked closer to your excited boyfriend, you could hear him starting to play Mitch’s solo from ‘She’. The more he played, the wider your smile grew.

The crew carried on setting everything up for the concert, while Harry kept showing off his newly-learnt guitaring.

Harry kept telling you that the guitar made him play even better and was probably certain that it is exactly the case.

Knowing that it can’t be possible, as the guitars were identical, you put the blame on the fact, that he was strongly besotted with you.

© all right belong to stylesberries. do not repost or modify.

[the-crows-typist]

Hello! I recently read your azul's ficlet and i'm close to crying at how beautiful it is (its 4am emo hours). If its okay, may I request a ficlet of Jade with a gn!reader with the word 'sleep' or 'rest' (pick whichever suits better!). Thank you in advance! 💖

CW: Spoilers for the movie Your Name (Kimi no na wa), character death, body switching, angst with a happy ending, and slow burn (sort of)

Feedback in greatly appreciated!

Thank you to @opalmaplehibiscus , @jellyfishstuckinwonderland , and @raven-at-the-writing-desk for the input in the making of this fic. I greatly appreciate your help.

The Possibilities are Endless

“My name is..”

“Please remember me...!”

The crowds on the train pushed them apart, a braided bracelet was tossed towards Jade. A lifeline connecting both of them together, a connection between two souls; the face of one that was desperate to keep holding on, they yelled one last time just as the doors of the train closed and their grip on the bracelet wrap loosened.

“My name is—!”

Jade opened his eyes and he was in his room, his very dark room.  To his side was his closet and to the other a white wall. The sound of bubbling water churned behind the window of his dorm room and with one slow blink, he pulled himself up and hunched over.

The same dream, the same voice, the same bracelet tossed to him.

He craned his head to his lamp stand where the colorful wrap lay next to his earring, he doesn’t remember where he got it nor does he remember why he wanted to keep it for so long. He took the bracelet and looked at it and thought back to the voice in his dream.

“Please remember me...!”

Pushing himself off he moved to the mirror to fix his appearance, with his brush and hair gel in hand he let out a gasp when the lights of vanity shined light on a note. A note written on his cheek with a marker, a message he didn’t remember writing.

“Who are you?”

It was during breakfast that Jade began to notice the strange happenings around him, how Azul asked if he was feeling better or how Floyd said he was wearing his earring again. “What do you mean,” Jade questioned. “I always wear it.”

“You weren’t yesterday. And you looked so lost like some little guppy, you even forget how to get to class yesterday morning.” Floyd complained, eating his breakfast with a huff. “Was it a prank? Cuz’ you got me good.”

What was he doing yesterday?

He woke up, went to school...No. That wasn’t what happened. He didn’t recall anything from the previous day. In fact, he remembered being at  a different place.

In a city full of buildings and faraway from the sea, the familiar smell of white roses, the smile of an unfamiliar fellow and a bento box he had no recollection of him cooking or making.

His uniform wasn’t black but a cream with a tint of yellow, his magical pen was nowhere to be seen and was instead replaced with a pen nib brooch.  He touches his cheek, remembering the message written on his cheek. “Who are you?”

“C’mon, you gotta tell me.” Floyd pestered, his arm over Jade’s neck “Was it a prank?”

“Perhaps.” The twins laughed, Floyd pulling close but in his mind he thought of the message, his incapability to remember the previous day. He needed more answers but only questions filled his head.

His notes were a mess and full of sketches. There were sketches of Night Raven’s facade and the students, his classmates. A slew of messy messages on paper, the handwriting worrying as if the person writing was stressed beyond belief.

“The uniforms are black, the gems are pens.”

“Nothing but roses for miles.”

“Wishing well???”

“Where am I?”

“Mr Leech, please read the next line.”

“Yes, sir.”

Trein’s brow raised and he blinked. “Well, today you actually remember your name. Perhaps you were just feeling ill.” A hum of laughter passed through the class. “And your hair is fixed as well; I was beginning to think you and your brother switched places when you came into class with a messy bed head.”

Jade blinked, tilting his head. “I...see. I’ll make sure to not make that mistake again, professor.”

“Good. Continue on reading.”

“Magic transcends all meaning when twilight occurs, when the sun and the moon share the sky for a single moment.” Trein explained, using a magical pointer. “The word twilight means ‘half-light’ when the light of the sun glows and causes refraction in the atmosphere and signaling the end of the morning and welcoming of night or visa versa. At times like this does magic become unpredictable and free-forming and when realities begin to overlap each other for the time twilight occurs. This was used to the advantage of the earliest magician in recorded history.”

Trein faced his students. “Nowadays, these times of day are known as dusk and dawn as the world twilight has fallen out of favor in recent years.”

“It’s probably because of that one book.” A student yelled from the rows behind and Trein nodded his head. “Ah, yes, ten years ago was an odd time for the word ‘twilight’.” Trein blinked, shaking his head slightly. “Who would have thought the human body produced so much diamonds but that is beside the point.” The bell rang and the students began taking their books. “Be sure to read up on your lesson today, we will be having a quiz tomorrow on the topic.”

Jade stayed in his seat for some time and stared at the diagram on the board.

Twilight.

In the back of his mind, a flash of a memory comes to him. He remembers a train stopping by and the droves of people coming in and out. Jade was alone that time, buying something some seeds or fungi. The sun was setting at the time, the yellow sun turning orange and the sky dimming to a nightly violet.

“Jade.”

He didn’t know the person who called out his name nor did he remember what they looked like but he did remember the smile they had, as if they were looking for him for a long time, it was a  face relief. 

“It’s me.”

He didn’t know who this person was nor did he ever remember their face and yet, at that instant he seemed to have known them his entire life. In his heart was a feeling of warmth, of glee, of content and relief; he was confused by it all. A strike of panic pierced his heart when that smile turned into a confused and upset frown. “You don’t...remember me..?”

The next stop came and people began filing out, pushing the two of them away from each other. “Jade, please remember me!” They said as they were pushed out by the crowd. Reaching up, they pulled the braided tie from their hair and threw it out of him. “Please remember me..!”

He caught the braided tie just as the other let go and doors began to close.

“My name is—!”

“Is there something wrong, Mr Leech?” He blinked, looking to Trein with confusion. He had missed the door and stood by the wall of the classroom. “Ah—I’m sorry.” There was a hissy laugh from Lucius as Trein set him down on the table to collect his papers. “You seem to be in deep thought, is there something on your mind?”

“No, professor, I was just thinking about our topic today.” Jade lied through his teeth and Trein took it with a huff. “I know twilight is a regular phenomenon but I didn’t know that it was an important time of day for mages and magicians.” A nod came from his professor. “Many people nowadays don’t see its importance as magical materials and magic itself have grown and changed over time. With the new technology and the new breakthroughs we have, the archaic practices of the past have since then been abandoned.”

Trein looked to the window and Jade followed his gaze, the sun began to set and the color of orange and violet painted the sky. “Twilight has begun.” Picking up his beloved cat, Trein stretched his back and moved to face the student in front of him. “It’s best to get back to your dorm, you might miss the curfew.”

“Professor, have you ever experienced anything during twilight? Like the way you’ve explained it during class?” Jade asked suddenly, his professor’s eyes widened then looking to the side to think for a moment. “I have but they were more of dreams than the otherworldly claims of recording happenings. I would often see myself in another person’s shoes, seeing a world I did not know about, it wasn’t a pleasant experience but...It was interesting, for a dream at least.”

“I see. Thank you very much, professor. I’ll be on my way.”

He stared at his messy notebook unblinking, the messy handwriting and the sketches were foreign to him. He drew a few doodles but he never put any detail to it nor was he able to do sketches of his peers in movement.

“Where am I?”

Taking his pen, Jade wrote a message. What had happened to him wasn’t a dream, he knew that and he knew that what he was about to do wasn’t a sure fire guarantee that whoever wrote this will see it but the unpredictability of the situation allowed him to push through with an eagerness to see the end results.

“You are in Night Raven College. My name is Jade.”

The night loomed over the dorm, the once blue waters a dark purple and tinge of black. Twilight has ended. Jade closes his eyes for a moment and sighed, thinking back about the lesson and to the confused glances of his peers.

“Please remember me...!” The voice begged, the image of a braided bracelet flowing through the air as it flew towards him. Tugging his sleeve, the bracelet was wrapped around his wrist snugly; its design was simple and bright mix of blue, yellow, and red.

“Please remember me...!”

Jade tugs his sleeves back down, only stepping out of to his bed when he felt tired. The bracelet was removed from his wrist and sat next to him.

“My name is—!”

The voice echoed through his mind, he felt that he should remember it,  he felt like he should know who it was, and all he felt was frustration and eagerness to see this unpredictable situation through. He closed his eyes wanting to rest his eyes rather than sleep.

“So this is what Night Raven College looks like. It’s very pretty, your uniforms are very pretty too but I’m not used to the environment there. It’s probably because of the walls or the silence.”

It had been a few days since the messaging through the notebook began with Jade and his pen pal, of sorts.  It seemed that his new pen pal had been observing weird happenings to them too. Their classmates telling them of their weird behaviors, one time all they ate were mushrooms.

“I don’t even like mushrooms and because of you I ate a whole lot of them in just one day!”

It seemed that his odd dreams of seeing another world unlike his own weren’t dreams after all. The white and yellow uniforms, the sweet smell of lilies, and the pen nib brooch all pointed to Royal Swords Academy. Apparently the person he switched bodies with studied there.

“And I was told that I ate eel for lunch and it upset my brother. It seems both of us are even on this regard.”

He always wrote messages on his notebook the moment he got home and he preferred it that way rather than waking up to writings on his face and arms. The marker ink was hard to wash off, even with large amounts of sudsy soaps.

“We have a notebook to communicate for a reason, please use that.”

“I like writing on your hand, Jade.”

There were moments that he expressed frustration with them, even anger but that soon dissipated into childish antics of messages written on skin, eating disgusting foods they came to like, and a bond that transcended physical reality. They were from two different worlds and yet, here they were being friends.

All this was just like a dream to him.

“Hey, about that braided bracelet...Where did you get it? I had one just like it before it disappeared; I used to wear it on my hair.”

“I’m afraid I don’t have an answer to that. It just came with me, I suppose. I couldn’t part with it for some reason so I’ve been wearing it ever since.”

“I guess we just so happened to have the same braided tie, huh? Hehehe!”

After class, Jade went to experience the twilight hour for once and see the students filter out of school and run about. It was the end of the week and it was a time for fun, brooms flew overhead and magical swirls of dust were thrown about by fun-loving students.

“What I like about your school is that none of you are afraid to get dirty and have fun.” He remembered his pen pal writing. “I love RSA but the uniforms and the rules we live by stop us from having fun like all of you there in NRC.”

He couldn’t blame them, RSA had some rules to go by and the uniforms really stopped them from having fun too. The chaos that he saw in RSA wasn’t like those in NRC, not by a long shot but he could see the charm it had in it despite the difference in school life.

Jade wanted them to experience this first hand one day. In their own body, of course.

 He went back to his room when the sun had disappeared and the moon stood in its place. Sitting by the notebook, he took his magical pen from his pocket and began writing his response to his pen pal’s recent message. 

“RSA has beautiful scenery, there’s no doubt about it. It’s a nice change of pace from the gothic feel NRC has, I find it rather peaceful. Though the sudden music lessons do tend to throw me off but that is something I will eventually come to get used to.

He tapped his pen on his desk, humming at his short reply. He looked at his wrist; the braid coiled around his wrist and was vibrant under the yellow light of his lamp. Unlike them, he never really gave hints of what his school life was about nor did he give details of what it was like to spend a day in RSA.

“We had a lesson about the magical phenomena known as Twilight. Apparently around that time, magic becomes different and realities begin to overlap...Do you think that’s what’s causing us to switch bodies?”

 “Twilight...I’ve heard of that phenomenon too! It actually makes sense, maybe that’s what's causing it but if it’s really true then that’s some real strong magic!” 

Jade slept that late that night, the braided tie next to his forehead. For once, he didn’t dream of the train station but of a hand coming up to take his own. No, it wasn’t his hand, it was his pen pal’s hand, and it grasped softly then tugged for him to follow. 

He was on a mountain, the sky glittering with millions upon millions of stars. It was a beautiful sight, his eyes widening as the stars grew closer and closer, the heat around him rising and rising; burning his skin and singing his hair. The world around him was destroyed and the last thing he heard was the terrified scream of someone he was beginning to hold dear. 

He awoke with a gasp, his eyes tearful and his lungs out of breath. Next to him were a concerned Azul and his brother Floyd. “We could hear you gasping from the hallway.” Azul explained but Jade kicked off his covers and ran to his desk, his notebook, their means of communication was empty. The messages he had collected with them were gone and only his own remained.

His brother tugged at his shoulder. “Look at me.” He was whirled around, their foreheads touching. “Breathe. You’re gonna give yourself an attack if you don’t breathe.” 

He closed his eyes, leaning against his brother to breathe harshly. A pair of hands pats his back, Azul’s and Floyd’s, in an act of comfort but none of their touches reached Jade. He was too confused, too shaken up, too anxious. “It was just a bad dream.”

A dream...

What he had seen in the eyes of his pen pal was all a dream...?

Pen pal?

“It’s best that you get some more rest.” Azul said, pulling Jade back to his bed. “I’ll explain to the teachers what happened to you.” Floyd nudged him down and pulled the covers up until his brother’s chin. “We need you well rested, Jade. We’ll have the others check on you every once in a while.”

He forced himself to breathe slowly and carefully, his eyes screwed shut and thoughts in a whirlwind. His memories scrambling and confusing, he tries to remember the train station, the lake that was on RSA’s sloping hills and the falling meteorite.

Had there been a meteor shower? There was no news of it, no indication.

A hand caressed his head, shushing his sounds to silence. 

“Sleep, Jade.”

The next day, Jade spent all his time in the library with books about stars and meteors and sleep being the furthest thing from his mind. He poured through the articles about meteor showers, checking online news sites, and pouring through scientific documents.

Nothing.

No recent reports of a meteor shower anywhere near the area of RSA or NRC. 

A frustrated sigh left Jade’s lips and he held his head with a huff, burying his fingers into his hair when a fluffy tail rubbed and pawed against his arm. “Good to see you’re up and about, Mr Leech.” Trein stood over him as Lucius stepped over the articles to sit on one of the books. 

“I didn’t know you were taking a liking to astronomy.” The professor commented, taking an article and reading through it. “Meteor showers, eh? I haven’t seen those for some time. The last one was beautiful but also very tragic.”

“What do you mean, professor?” Jade stared up at his teacher, slightly surprised.

“You weren’t in NRC at the time this happened but there was a meteor shower that passed by Twisted Wonderland, it was a festive time...But that soon became a tragedy when a fragment broke off from one of the passing meteorites.” He sighed, closing his eyes and setting the paper down. “Though NRC and RSA have been rivals for a long time, I can’t bear to think such a catastrophic event would happen to them.”

His heart skipped a beat, eyes wide in surprise. “You mean to say...”

“A meteorite fragment fell on RSA three years ago, specifically on the field just outside the school where some students were watching the shower. Those poor children...” 

The white crystal of his magical pen glowed bright and Jade pushed himself off his chair, figure hunched forward and head hung low. Lucius let out a meow as he scrambled away from the student. “Mr Leech, what are you doing?” Trein demanded but his voice fell on deaf ears, Jade remembers his last dream, the last time he switched bodies. He remembers the falling meteorite, the scream that wasn’t his own, he remembers them.

His pen pal.

In a burst of magic, Jade disappeared from his position leaving a scared Lucius and a confused and upset Mozus Trein.

The landscape around him was heavy, the crater left by the meteorite was massive and no traces of life were seen within the impact zone. The memory of the meteorite fragment falling right on top of his pen pal, killing them instantly played again and again in his head. Jade, normally so aloof and calm, fell to his knees.

They died. 

They died where he stood.

For the first time in a long while, Jade screamed his heart out. A wail of agony loud enough to echo through the empty void that was essentially his pen pal resting place. He sunk to his knees and continued crying until his throat became hoarse and painful.

He laid on his side as the sun went down, the braided tie peeked out of his blazer. 

“Please remember me—!”

The train station...Was that a dream too? What had he been doing when he was in there? What was he there for?

Who was calling out his name.

“Jade...?”

The sun set over him, the sky turning orange and violet. It was twilight hour.

 “Jade..”

“Jade.”

 There was a touch to his shoulder and a soft shake. His head turned, his eyes widened. A student from RSA stood over him. They smelled of white lilies, uniform a mix of white and yellow, and their magical crystal a pen nib brooch. There was a familiar gleam in their eyes, a smile he came to know from the many days they had switched bodies. 

His pen pal smiled at him, offering their hand for him to take. “It’s really you, Jade. It’s actually you.” 

They laughed, pulling Jade into a hug; his tall figure dwarfing them easily as they hugged his chest. Jade sighed, returning the hug soon after and rocking each other back and forth for a few moments the sun shined in the horizon.

“I thought I lost you, y’know?” They said, looking up at him. “I just...I suddenly couldn’t reach you.” 

“I thought you had died. I saw the meteor fall on you.”

They looked at each other for a moment and a laugh was shared, their foreheads linked together soon after. “I know but...somehow, maybe...I don’t really know what happened to me. I just couldn’t reach you to tell you what happened on that day. I nearly forgot about you and I cried for days wondering why.”

Pulling away, they looked down to Jade’s wrist. “Hey, that bracelet...”

“You gave it to me in the train station.”

It was all coming back to him now. This person, his pen pal, was someone he held dear for a long time.

He felt comfort.

“Oh yeah! I did, didn’t I?”

“Do you want it back?”

“No. Keep it.”

The two held hands for some time but were immediately thwarted by them pulling out a marker. “Hey, why don’t we write our names? That way, if we ever forget each other there’ll always be a reminder. Ah, but I don’t have any paper with me...”

Jade offered his palm, his smile teasing and knowing. “You always liked writing on my skin.”

They shared another laugh and the marker’s cap was pulled off, Jade looking over the horizon as they wrote their name on his palm. “Your turn.” 

He took the pen from them and as soon as he wrote the starting strokes of his name, the marker fell from his grasp.

The twilight hour had ended and the moon took over the sky.

“Eh...? What am I...doing...?” 

Jade was found by his peers not long after, taking him in and letting him rest as they descended the crater near RSA. Mozus Trein was their chaperone, explaining to the staff of the rival school and covering his own students.

“Someone he knew died here,” He explained, looking at Jade being covered with a blanket by his brother. Jade’s eyes were closed and he leaned against him, clearly exhausted from the ordeal and exposure to the elements.

“I’m very sorry to hear that, professor.” Said one RSA’s employees, brows upturned and frowning deep. “The meteorite crash was a very tragic event for all schools. I can’t imagine how much grief that young boy has gone through knowing that a friend of his died that day.”

“I hope you can look the other way on this. I know we shouldn’t come into each other’s premises without proper—“ 

“It’s quite alright. I’ll explain the situation to the headmaster once everything has settled.”

Floyd pulled his brother to his chest and stood up, Azul placing a hand on his back. 

“Let’s go home, Jade.” 

Jade wasn’t alone that night, Floyd and Azul wouldn’t allow him to be alone. They slept next to him, keeping him company but while the two slept, he couldn’t. The moon shone against his window and gave his room a very soft blue glow. He raised his hand to his face, the message from someone he held dear was still visible but slightly smudged.

“Thank you.”

Bitterness rose in his chest and to his throat, his brows furrowed in frustration. The tears forming stung his eyes.

“You idiot,” he brought his palm to his face, sniffling. “I can’t remember you this way.”

A year had passed and the dreams stopped coming after that night. Jade had picked up the habit of sitting outside during twilight hour, watching the set and holding the bracelet that never left his wrist for more than a second. He wore it everywhere he went but when asked; he never had a proper reason for it.

“I feel complete wearing it.”

The yearly magical shift festival brought troves of customers and onlookers, Jade and his brother sat on a bench and let their legs rest after a long day. “I’m gonna go get something to eat. You want anything?”

“I’ll be fine. I’ll buy some myself.” 

“’Kay.”

Jade was left alone after that and he closed his eyes for a moment, his nose taking in the different smells of food and perfumes.

There was a familiar smell of white lilies.

“Excuse me.” 

A person stood in front of him, holding a brochure. They were a uniform of white and yellow and a pen nib brooch. They smiled at him and familiar warmth bloomed in his chest. “I don’t mean to disturb you or anything.” 

Their smile was sheepish but it felt as if he’d seen it somewhere before.

“Do we know each other by any chance?”

“I think so.” Jade’s smile was easy and suddenly their eyes began to water. “I had a feeling we did.”

“Hey,” Jade reached over and intertwined their hands, the bracelet’s colors were vibrant against his skin and theirs.

“May I…”

“Can I…”

“...Know your name?”

[thatweeboverthereisthirsty]

*kicks the monstro lounge doors open* *throws box of mint chocolates* enjoy my beloved octa trio 😘😘😘😘

Mint Chocolate - 7 minutes in heaven

Awkward as heck about it

Azul didn’t really want to play the game in the first place

But Jade and Floyd conned him into it which he is still upset about

He didn’t see the point in these games anyways

If he wanted to kiss you he would just do it

(So why wasn’t he)

Simple

This man (octopus?, octo-man?) is in complete denial about his feelings for you

There is absolutely no way he fell for such a ridiculous land dwelling creature

Yet here he was, entranced by your flushed face which was only illuminated by a small sliver of light that made its way through the crack under the door

He swallowed nervously and cleared his throat

“So it’s hot in here…”

Mentally berates himself for that one

“Yeah it is.” your voice is small and soft 

“As charming as that conversation was. It’s time to get out guys.” Deuce announced from the other side of the door

“Right well�� good talk.” You said awkwardly

The door was about to open when Azul decided to just take his chance and leaned in to give you a quick kiss

Your face turned bright red as a result and before you knew it the door had swung open

He would never admit it, but Azul regretted not kissing you sooner

Ever the sly one

Jade probably rigged the whole thing so he would end up in the closet with you

The adorable blush on your face and the way you shifted nervously had him smirking with glee

“Are you alright, Y/n. You appear flushed.” sneaky devil presses a hand against your forehead and chuckles at the way you squeak

His hand slides down and cups your cheek

“Perhaps, is it too hot in here. I can take a step back.” He leans down

“Or maybe I should get closer.”

Quickly swallows your gasp as he claims your lips with his

Your body is trapped between his and the wall as you makeout fervently

He’s quick to bite your lip and seal off your mouth when any noises wish to escape

There’s sure to be people on the other side of the door, listening in to what they shouldn’t

Jade doesn’t want anyone to hear those first noises but him

If he wanted he could have taken you right then and there but he simply pulled back and smiled

“Oh dear, I appear to have made your redness worse. I’ll try stepping away instead.” 

He enjoys the way you stumble around and stutter for a moment in confusion

When you finally get your bearings and make to kiss him again a knock on the door startles you 

“Jade, Y/n, it’s been 7 minutes.”

‘Impeccable timing Azul’ Jade thinks before looking down at you again

“I do hope you feel better. If you ever need anything, my room is always open.”

Floyd has never really thought about kissing you before

If he had then he would have done it already

So it was a little strange to him how enticing the idea became now that the two of you were alone and cramped in a dark space

The way you pressed yourself against the wall and worried your lip sent flashes of desire through Floyd as he stared down at you

Such an odd sensation had him questioning what was making him feel that way

He recalled lots of butterflies in his stomach everytime he was with you

He even had them right now

Frowning, Floyd stopped himself from wasting more time with silly thoughts that could be done later after he had tasted your lips

“Shrimpy~ Can I squeeze you~?” Floyd asked with a smile

You turned bright red and his desire to kiss you grew stronger

“W-what, Fl-Floyd-” 

The teen didn’t wait for permission before picking you up and slamming his lips against yours in a bruising kiss

It was messy and forceful in an odd way but you still sank into it and wrapped your arms and legs around him to steady yourself

He continued to kiss you,  and bite your lips, and lick at your mouth till you had to push him away to breathe

He giggled dopily and squeezed you tighter

“Shrimpy, that was fun. Let’s do it again.” he said as he grazed his teeth over your neck

If he bit you would others notice

The idea of people seeing his mark and knowing you were his had him giggling with happiness

He kissed you again, a bit more organized this time but just as intense until a knock interrupted the moment

Floyd frowned and looked at the door, then back at you before shrugging and adjusting his grip on you

“I’m bored of this game. Let’s just kiss in my room instead.”

[katehuntington]

Title: In Bad Waters - part four Word count: ±2800 words Episode summary: Still in possession of the Winchesters’ belongings, Zoë meets up with the hunters on her next case. When it turns out to be a little more complicated than anticipated, she accepts their help in order to make an important deadline. Part four summary: After Dean takes a girl home, Sam goes to look for the huntress who is keeping the brothers’ belongings hostage. Episode warnings: Dark! NSFW, 18+ only! Descriptions of domestic violence/child abuse. Drug use/addiction. Angst, gore, violence, character death. Description of blood, injury and medical procedures/resuscitation. Swearing, alcoholism. Supernatural creatures/entities, mentions of demon possession. Descriptions of torture and murder, drowning. Illegal/criminal practices. Mentions of nightmares and flashbacks. Music: Shine On You Crazy Diamond - Pink Floyd Author’s note: Beta’d by @winchest09​ and @deanwanddamons​. Thanks, girls!

Supernatural: The Sullivan Series Masterlist

S1E02 “In Bad Waters” Masterlist

     The nights are mild this November. The moon is almost full and stands high in the dark blue sky. This time it’s not the sun which shines a light on the hundreds of tombstones, neither does the cemetery have a peaceful feel like it did this morning. Trees create long shadows, so black that one would be afraid to walk through its darkness. At this hour the statues of angels and other Biblical figures don’t seem sacred, the figures looming over those who dare to disturb the dead.

     Anyone who would walk around the stretched out lands of Linwood Cemetery, would be rather sure the place is deserted. Nevertheless, someone is present. Not a grieving widow or a relative who got left behind, but a person who is, quite literally, digging up some dirt.      In a steady rhythm, scoops of soil fly through the air and land on a pile next to a hole in the ground. Down in the grave, Zoë is working like a miner. Even though it’s night, all she’s wearing is a thin Lakers basketball shirt, sweat shimmering on her body as her muscles move under her skin.

     For a moment she pauses; she reckons she’s almost there. Out of breath, she listens to her surroundings and scans the area like a periscope of a submarine, popping her head just above ground level.      Not a sound, nothing to see, yet she senses something. She can’t really put a finger on it, but glances at the loaded shotgun next to her in the grave nonetheless. She picks up the shovel instead, continuing to dig. Her senses grow stronger and the huntress freezes, picking up the smallest sound. Making a split second decision, Zoë goes for her shotgun, aims on pure gut instinct and fires. The slug demolishes half a gravestone and barely misses the person hiding behind it.      “Jesus Christ!” a startled voice cries out.      “Friends call me Zoë,” she responds, skillfully discharging the empty shell and reloading her rifle.

     She stays low to the ground and focuses on the tombstone from the hole, prepared for a possible counter attack, but nothing comes.      “Show yourself,” she commands.      A tall figure rises from behind the tombstone, his hands up.      “It’s me,” he says.      The man steps into the moonlight and Zoë instantly recognizes him.      “Sam...” She scoffs, actually not that surprised to see him. “Seriously man, there will come a day that I will kill one of you fucking Winchesters if you keep sneaking up on me like this.”

     “How the hell did you even notice me?” Sam questions, disappointed with his own ambushing skills.      “Are you kidding me? I can smell you from a mile away after your dive in that septic tank,” she nags.      Sam stares at her for a moment and smells himself.      “I showered!” he exclaims.      Zoë smirks; she can’t believe he actually fell for that. Sam also realizes she is deliberately messing with him and shoots her a deadly glare.      “What if I was the night guard?” he tests.      “If the night guard enters, I’ll notice it the minute he sets foot in the cemetery.” Zoë puts away her shotgun and picks up the shovel again. Before she continues digging, she looks back up. “What the fuck are you doing here anyway?”      Sam approaches the grave. “Looking for you.”      “Well, you found me. Now get lost,” the huntress scoffs.      “I’m not going anywhere without our stuff, Zo,” Sam states.      She stops what she was doing, leaning on the handle of the shovel.      “Sure. Just a sec. I’ll just pull your laptop case out of my back pocket and I think I stuffed the two duffel bags in my bra,” she responds, smartly.      He glares at her. “Ha-ha.”      Zoë continues shoveling dirt, while Sam halts on the edge of the hole in the ground. It’s not the first open grave he has seen, but that’s not what he’s looking at. Zoë has captured his attention, and Sam can’t stop watching.      The fabric of her shirt is drenched in sweat, a darker tone between her shoulder blades and down her chest. The moonlight distinguishes hardened arms and shoulders. She might be a lean built woman of no more than 5’8, yet clearly she is well trained. Even though Zoë has been working the soil for some time now, there is no sign of fatigue and every scoop is powerful. Just like that moment in Rochester, yesterday morning, she captivates him in such a way that it seems impossible to keep his eyes off her. When she walked by naked to turn up the radio she meant to get his attention, but apparently this time she feels uncomfortable.

     “What do you think this is? BustyAsianBeauties.com?” she remarks, glancing up at the hunter annoyed.      “Excuse me?” Sam returns, puzzled.      “Don’t get all innocent with me, perv. I happened to stumble on some browser internet history on your laptop, which is full of viruses because of that shit by the way,” she notifies.      Sam stares at her staggered, then the light bulb switches on. Rolling his eyes skyward, he huffs. “Dean.”      Zoë shrugs, continuing her job at hand. “I don’t really care which of you two can’t get laid enough. Your harddrive was a fucking mess.”      “You’ve been on my computer?”      It’s not so much a question. The tall Winchester eyes her from under his brown bangs, clearly not happy with her snooping around through his stuff. Zoë has the feeling that this would be a good time to lie, but just to rile him up a bit more, she doesn’t.      “I did, actually,” she comments. “Got a problem with that, college boy?”      Sam averts his gaze and grinds his teeth, which draws a reaction from Zoë.      “Hey, don’t be mad at me. I didn’t fuck up your computer with a dozen porn sites, videos, pi--”      “- I’m gonna kill him,” Sam growls.      “Oh, don’t wanna miss that.” Zoë turns up the speed, now that she has some extra motivation to hurry up.

     The youngest of the Winchester brothers glances down at her again. “So, this is your case?”      “I’m not digging up dead people for fun,” she retorts, without pausing.      “What’s the story?”      Zoë peers at him for a moment, but doesn’t stop with what she’s doing. Not seeing any harm in it, she gives him a brief summary. “Young girl got beat up by her father. One strike killed her.”      “Let me guess, what goes around comes around for the dad?” Sam assumes.      “Yep. Died yesterday,” she confirms.

     Whoa, she’s quick, Sam realizes. It’s not often that he has run a case that fast.      “How did you figure it all out in that short period of time?” Sam asks, genuinely interested.      “You guys have your methods to pick out cases. I have mine,” Zoë responds curtly.      The younger Winchester brother knows better than to continue the interrogation. A silence follows and Sam glances over at the gravestone.

     Laura Emily Shire      Beloved daughter and sister      01.22.1995 – 09.21.2005      Rest in Peace

     “Apparently not,” Sam comments on the last sentence, before he redirects his attention to the huntress. “Need help?”      “Do I look like I need help?” she counters.      He shakes his head and goes quiet, not daring to contradict her. He should have known Zoë wouldn’t accept a helping hand. So he watches, awkwardly, not sure what to do with his hands. Not for long, though, because three swings later, Zoë hits the coffin.

     The sudden difference in sound when the steel shovel collides with the wood draws Sam’s attention. He glances over the edge as Zoë wipes the dirt away. A hardwood beech coffin is exposed once again. Zoë busts the hinges with her shovel and opens the coffin, after which she quickly backs out. It’s one thing to burn just bones, but this little girl is still in the process of decomposition.      “Argh… man, that’s bad.” Zoë covers her mouth and nose with her hand and turns at Sam, who hands over her backpack.

     Trying not to inhale as she takes out a bag of salt and a small jerry can filled with gasoline, she continues to cover the remains with both.  She climbs out of the grave and takes a matchbox out of her pocket. With a smooth strike, Zoë lights a couple of matches and drops them down the hole. Almost immediately the fire spreads out and shines an orange light on their faces as the heat reaches for them. The body burns for a while and when the fire almost dies out, she shovels the dirt back in the hole. Sam wants to help, but she only brought one shovel, so there’s not much he can do.

     “How did you find me by the way?” Zoë wonders, as they saunter back to the main gates of Linwood Cemetery twenty minutes later.      “I drove by and saw your Harley in the parking lot of the Hampton, asked for you at the desk. They called up to your room, but you didn’t answer. Since your bike was still there, I just figured you were at the cemetery across the street,” he explains.      “I could have been having a bite and a drink somewhere,” she suggests.                          “Could have, yeah,” Sam admits, a small smile on his lips.      “Lucky guess, huh?” Zoë grins as they amble through the gate.      “More like a coincidence,” he expresses.      “Let me tell you one thing, Sam.” Zoë looks over her shoulder, an all knowing grin on her lips. “There’s no such thing as coincidence.”  

     They halt in front of the Hampton Inn as Zoë shakes off the cold and shrugs on her jacket. Grave digging can be quite intense, but now that she’s not busting her ass, she’s freezing. Before the huntress moves inside, she throws her backpack over her shoulder and turns around at Sam.      “What are you doing tonight?”      “Not much, actually. Dean has a girl over at the motel,” he sighs.      “Ah, I was wondering where the fucker was. Another one, huh? Not a shifter this time?” The huntress winks, remembering the joke she pulled on him.      Sam laughs too. “Not this time.”      “You didn’t tell him that we don’t know what sex that thing was, right?” Zoë checks.      “Nope.” Sam’s eyes sparkle for a moment, in the same way Dean’s eyes do so often. It’s probably a Winchester thing.      “I bet he has nightmares about it,” Zoë grins, enjoying the idea, but then turns to Sam as her amused facial expression changes into something more serious. “You have any last night?”

     Sam looks her in the eye and the sparkle disappears. He forgot about the fact that he opened up to the huntress about the strange dreams he’s been having and for a second he feels uncomfortable. He’s happy to shake his head.      “No, I slept quite well, actually. First time in three weeks,” he returns.      “Well, I didn’t.” She yawns and quickly covers her mouth with her hand. “I’m gonna catch some sleep. Night, Sam.”

     Zoë intends to stroll inside and leave the hunter at the entrance, but he clears his throat.      “Aren’t you forgetting something?”      Sleepy and confused, Zoë halts and looks at the younger Winchester. “You’re not getting a kiss, if that’s what you’re waiting for.”      Sam eyes her. “Our stuff.”      “Oh right,” she remembers, entering the Hampton Inn, Sam in tow.

     They take the elevator up to the second floor, where the huntress turns left, expecting Sam to follow. The younger Winchester seems impressed with the luxury of the hotel; he’s used to hunters settling for a much cheaper accommodation. As she slips her keycard through the lock, she yawns again.

     “That bad, huh?” Sam chuckles.      “I haven't had much sleep lately. Too many cases,” she replies and walks directly to the bathroom. “Let me freshen up, one sec.”

     One sec turns out to be five minutes, because after that amount of time she walks out of the bathroom, fresh and showered. She’s wearing a Nirvana shirt and pajama shorts, not even bothered to put on a bra, even though she has company. She’s going to turn in for bed soon anyway, the aftermath of her high this morning seriously kicking in. She carelessly beckons at Sam, pointing at the other end of the room.      “You can find your shit in the closet.”

     Sam crosses the space and opens the double doors. He lets out a sigh of relief when he sees the duffel bags, but he can’t spot his laptop.      “It’s on the table, still hooked up to the server,” she answers before he can ask.      He walks over and notices the USB cable. “Why is it hooked up?”      “Don’t get all emotional about it, but I’m copying my supernatural database to yours,” she tells him. “Since you guys are still going on what’s in that old book.”      Sam’s eyebrows perk up, surprised. She actually did that, something nice without him asking? Maybe she’s not so bad as his brother would have him believe after all.      “Thanks,” he expresses.

     She looks aside, able to tell that his gratitude is sincere. Touching the mouse pad, she triggers the screen to light up; it’s still copying. To pass the time she opens ITunes, starts one of her favorite playlists and the first tunes of Shine On You Crazy Diamond by Pink Floyd come from the speakers.      “Don’t mention it, but I'll tell you what.” She straightens her back and walks over to her bed. “It’s still transferring files, which might take another hour or so. If you don’t have a place to stay anyway, why don’t you hang out here? You can crash on the sofa if you want.”

     Another unexpected act of kindness; she just invited him in. Not that she would want anything from him, though, or does she? For a second the Winchester wonders why she’s so interested in him all of a sudden. She’s being nice, and that’s just off.      “Sure, if you don’t mind,” Sam accepts, masking his suspicion.      “As long as you shut your piehole, I don’t mind. I really need to sleep,” she clears up as she crawls into bed and pulls the covers up till her nose. “Remote is on the TV if you want to watch anything, as long as it isn’t porn,” she mumbles, fitting her eye mask over her face.      “Thanks, I’m good,” he assures, sitting down behind the table and glancing at the screen.      He watches the bar move slowly, the percentage going up with each passing minute.      “Hey Zo, is it alright if I--”      But he doesn’t finish his sentence. Zoë is already far away, curled up in fetus-position, wrapped in her covers. She seems so peaceful and vulnerable, so unlike the Zoë Sullivan he got to know these past couple of days. He smiles at the endearing sight. She’s quite a peculiar woman.

     It only takes a moment, though, before guilt settles on his chest and memories cloud his mind. Because every time when he thinks of Zoë, his thoughts wander off to Jessica as well. As if a voice in the back of his mind is mocking him for taking an interest in the new huntress. That it’s ‘not done’ since he’s in a relationship. But he isn’t. Jess is gone forever.

     Sam swallows apprehensively and glances at his laptop again. He sees images transferring, of ghouls and werewolves, wendigos and demons. Honestly, he can’t wait to get his hands on that thing that killed his former girlfriend and his mom. Never has he felt the urge to kill something so strongly, never has he felt so much anger and hatred towards anything. Of course, he has ended the lives of creatures and burned the bones of the souls that stayed behind, but never out of hate. He did those things for opposite reasons; to save people and help spirits to move on.

     The frustrating part about his attempt to find the creature that was responsible for the death of his loved ones? He has no idea where to start. Their dad has disappeared from the face of the earth and he and his brother have no leads whatsoever. They need to get back on the road, find their father and make progress fast, before that thing disappears off the radar again. Sam is going to make sure that he and Dean leave this town tomorrow first thing in the morning.

     When the time comes, when they finally find their father, the next step is making the bastard pay that murdered Mom and Jess. That thought right there is what drives him, disturbing yet thrilling, but that’s what everyone is after. The death of that monster, the ultimate revenge.

Thank you for reading. I appreciate every single one of you, but if you do want to give me some extra love, you are free to like or reblog my work, shoot me a message or buy me coffee (Link to Kofi in bio at the top of the page).

Read part five here

[queenofnohr]

Twisted Wonderland Event: Scary Monsters - Episode 5-5

Dreamwidth link here.

Episode 5-5: I Was So Surprised

-Main Street-

Grim: Oh, Yuu! Look at the edges of Main Street! A lot of guests are all lined up and waving at us!! Guests: Trick or treat! Lilia: Here you go! Happy Halloween! Children: There’s so much candy! Hooray! Throw more! Malleus: What’s the magic word? Kalim: If you want candy, shout it loud! Rawr~~!! Ghost A: Everyone, say it with me…… Ready, go! All: Trick or Treat! Grim: We get to ride on this super mega flashy thing that looks like a huge monster! Everyone is waving at us…… Lots of yummy candy is falling from the sky…... My friends from school are next to me, wearing cool clothes, and smiling...... Halloween...... Halloween is the best!

> You seem to be having fun, Grim.

Grim: Yeah! I wish it was Halloween every day!

> Did you warm up to Halloween after all?

Grim: When we were being chased around, I thought it was gonna be a bad time, but…… Now, it’s suuuuper fun!

Vil: Didn’t we tell you? That we’d give everyone “the best Halloween ever.” Grim: Oh, I guess you did! Vil: This year, I was selected to be the Chairman of the Organization Committee. Doing things “as usual” would be boring. So we prepared a special parade to give our guests an even more enjoyable Halloween. Of course, we just had to include the ghosts and Grim, since they were the ones who garnered the most attention this year. Grim: I was so surprised when you said, “We’re going to start the parade now!” When did you even have time to prepare such a big flashy truck? Jade: Truck……? Ah, you must mean the float. Cater: To make sure it paralleled each dorm’s decorations, we started preparing it a month ago, and have been working on it steadily ever since. In addition to preparing for the party, we got the float and sweets together for the parade, and made costumes for all the students! We were already just barely scraping by with the budget~ But thanks to Jade’s budget management skills, we were able to prepare everything without a hitch. (…...Although now that I think about it, all of this would be totally impossible to prepare with a normal budget…...) (How’d he pull it off?) Jade: I simply knew where to press the budget! So long as you know how to squeeze out every last drop, saving this amount of money is trivial. Additionally, because there were so many guests this year, the populace of the Sage’s Island were very pleased…... We received support from them as they said, “We want even more happy guests, and to maintain these numbers for next year.” Thanks to them, the parade was far more extravagant than originally planned. I also think it’s because of Cater’s expertise that the float was so beloved by the guests. Certainly, we alone couldn’t have made the decor so, as he would put it, “shining.” Vil: Right. I was so busy getting the costumes ready for everyone that I couldn’t complete work on the float. Cater: “#TruePowerOFNRC #WeGetShitDone” is how we felt♪ Vil: The other Organization Committee members also spared no effort for our guests’ enjoyment. I’m exceedingly pleased with this year’s Organization Committee members. …...They are, after all, fantastic foils to me. Cater: You’re really saying that, even in this situation~!? Jade: Fufufu. It’s an honor to be cast as a foil to the beautiful Vil Schoenheit. Guests: Trick or Treat! Epel: Boo! Instead of getting treats, maybe you’d like to play a trick? Jack: Rawr~! We still have lots of candy. Have as much fun as you want. Guests: Happy Halloween! Azul: Boo! Please, enjoy this Halloween down to your very bones. Deuce: Happy Halloween! Let’s party hard ‘till the end! Idia: ……Happy Halloween. The most important thing is that everyone is having fun. Ghost B & C: Hee hee hee hee hee. Happy Halloween! Jade: The parade is nearing its end. Grim: Huh? We’re getting off the float……? Where are we going? Vil: You already know, don’t you? Cater: What’ve you been waiting for on the final day of Halloween? Grim: Oh! Y- You mean…… Cater: That’s riiiight♪ Ghost A & Grim: IT’S PARTY TIME!!

-

*I do need everyone to note that the word Jade uses when he mentions pressing the budget and squeezing every last drop out of it...... it isn’t the same “squeeze” he and Floyd use when threatening someone (that verb means to strangle/constrict), this squeeze means “to wring out”......... but can also be used to mean “to extort” in Japanese c: Just a fun little fact.

Episode 5-4 ← → Episode 5-6

[lotusglass]

So about the ships, is it okay if I ask about headcanons about the ships and how they got together? Thank you!! The ocs are really intresting and I love the ships so I’m very intrigued lolol

 Absolutely! I live for questions like this <333 this is very long so I’ll be putting it under read more. Small warning: a little spicy in some parts ouo;;; and I do apologize if they seem out of character

Leona and Anyu 

They met during a maglift(magical shift? please correct me if I’m wrong;;) practice match, NRC against DCA(Belongs to Phoenix-Manga/phnxart!).  One of the Savanaclaw students on Leona’s team were cheating and Anyu was REALLY not having it;; so of course he confronted him about it, but afterwards it kept happening and then everything went uh...downhill;;;

Since then they became rivals and Anyu swore that she’d beat him in maglift fair and square! The again, she managed to beat him a few times when they spar?? //sigh this girl asks for too much;;;

Though, she can’t help but appeal to his cunning and arrogant behavior, but does her best to deny it when someone brings it up. Like yeah, she thinks he’s cute, but he’s mean!

no chance, no way, I won’t say I’m in love

Even if they’re not dating, they bicker a lot and argue A LOT, but they still care about each other nonetheless, it’s a matter of patience and loyalty mostly patience though

Considering how witty they both are, they subconsciously flirt each other whether it’s one the mag lift field or in their respective dorms, they always have something to say to each other. Even Ruggie can feel the tension before calling them out on it.

Anyu likes to run her hands through his hair when they cuddle, or rather whenever Leona drags her away from studying to go AND cuddle. 

Like a lot people, he calls her herbivore, but also princess while Anyu calls him a fur bag or kitty~ 

He carries her like a fucking potato sack, it makes Anyu Angry, but Leona still does it to push her buttons. 

There’s a decent amount of PDA, but behind closed doors, it’s more...ravenous ouo;;; just don’t be surprised if Leona has hickeys on him or anything 

They playfight A LOT especially after a fight and Anyu is always the one starting it

neither of them know this but their older siblings are already planning their arranged marriage due to politics 

Overall, it’s push and pull between these two!

Azul and Pearl

Ah yes Ursula and Ariel 

Pearl was actually childhood friends with Jade and Floyd so when they visited each other in their first year, she was introduced to Azul.

At first she was pretty neutral about him, but after she heard about his contracts, she had to distance herself a bit, but still remained good friends!

Out of kindness, she dotes on him lot, but Azul’s expecting something out of it, and Pearl always gets upset whenever he asks her

Although she does her best to be more understanding oh him, and ever since his overblot, she’s more doting and more open with him.

Their love is playful, tender, and surprisingly conniving! Being that Pearl is a matchmaker, she likes to ask her octo-baby for some help in pairing couples(aka getting Floyd and Jade to intervene), but in exchange she has to help him out as well whether it’s finding gems to see or sing at the mostro lounge. It’s an equal share between the two!

She lets Azul pull out scams and sometimes gets involved with them, although she pretends that she doesn’t know what’s going on when really, she KNOWS what’s going on, girl wants to make Azul look like an idiot for scamming her one time!

Pearl loves ballroom dancing and sometimes she would get Azul to dance with her, even though he tends to trip on his feet a lot hahaaaa!

They like to make inside jokes and they flirt with each other, although Pearl has a bad habit of getting too friendly with her male clients, which leads Azul having to lecture her about personal space. If it’s the male clients getting too friendly, it’s a whole different story, a scary one actually;;;

Azul tried to kiss her once in the VIP room, but alas Floyd and Jade ALWAYS cockblock him which then leads to Azul lecturing them, and Pearl scolding him for being rude to the twins. he just a kiss from his gf that’s all he asks

shalalala my oh my it’s like the boy’s too shy he’s gonna kiss the girl

Pearl knows what it’s like to be ostracized and bullied. Every so often, she pampers Azul after a hard days work and when he’s upset, she’s very patient and listens to his woe constantly, even if he doesn’t say anything, she’s there

Trey and Clarice

Met during a visit from NRC! Clarice was in the middle of sewing up her gowns on a mannequin and Trey and Cater walked in on her. Trey and her talk a lot about their crafts and of course Cater was just there to take pictures of it, not that Clarice didn’t mind!

Literally husband and wife  

Trey is the kind of guy who’s an ideal boyfriend, constantly helping her with designs and encourages her. While Clarice helps him in the kitchen and whatnot!

But most importantly. she pulls him back from overworking, being vice dorm leader is never easy. Of course she’s no better, Trey can tell when Clarice hasn’t had enough sleep, or when he fingers are sore. Thus, Trey would have to pry her hands off the sewing machine and into a comfy chair

They play around in the kitchen a lot! She purposely puts icing on his face and he chases her around for it. There was also an incident where they played around too roughly and Clarice knocked a bag of flour onto the floor. Needless to say, Riddle was NOT happy when he saw the whole mess

They tend to feed each other sometimes and go as far doing the pocky game. Of course Ace ruins the moment by telling them to get a ROOM.

PDA? They always have their hands somewhere on each other, Trey’s arm over her shoulder, and Clarice’s hand on the small of his back hood boy

Kingsley and Riddle

Kingsley met Riddle when he was a wee first year! He always so obedient and being the dick the Kingsley was, he REALLY tried to influence him. However, Riddle was stronger than that and didn’t buy into his shenanigans like the good boy he is!

Before I go on, I headcanon that Riddle is bisexual or pansexual.

As mentioned, Kinglsey does flirt a lot with Riddle, and it goes as far as calling him pet names and compliments. 

The result it either Riddle storming off with rosy cheeks, or “OFF WITH YOUR HEAD”.

He does care about Riddle’s well-being and has to remind him to take breaks. When there’s a fight going on and Riddle is too busy, he takes care of it for him. He treats his queen like no other.

If they were dating, I’d say he’s one for PDA and will deliberately fluster him in front of other people

Promised himself to tone down his playboy attitude for the sake of his beloved. The last thing he wants to upset Riddle.

They tend hedgehogs and paint teacups together, sometimes have private tea time when they get the chance!

Kingsley is also very much down to punch the daylights out of anyone who dares to hurt his Riddle, not on his watch!

Jamil and Elena

I feel they met during the school festival at DCA. She’s part of cultural dance club and happened to be performing with her dorm leader. Kalim and Jamil were both intrigued and after the performance they managed to talk to her

Elena knows when Jamil is pulling back and she LOATHES that, so often times she pushes Jamil to the point where he’s really showing his bets efforts and only then would Elena be satisfied.

Elena may be a tough girl and rougher than most, but she can be just caring as the next. She would always check on Jamil after he takes acre of Kalim, he works so hard has no acknowledged this??

They have this habit of dancing together during the more quiet hours of the dorm, whether it’s in Scarabia or Magiaoasis(Phoenix-manga/phnxart), they’re moving together. However, Kalim tends them about it, so before they do anything like that, they have to make sure the coast is all clear.

If it’s not Kalim, then Elena is always the first to taste his cooking. Also she’s a horrible cook so sometimes Jamil would help her out, even if it gets a little frustrating

PDA? It’s more private, they only hold hands or Jamil has an arm around her, nothing more or less. But in private? You can bet that Elena is showering him with lovebites and hickeys. Occasional praises, but nothing too far from it. Unless Jamil says, well you know how it goes 👀

The tension between those time is thick enough to cut through. Even if they walk past each other in the halls, their eyes says it all when they gaze at each other.

[gra-sonas]

On the Season 2 finale of The CW series Roswell, New Mexico, while most of the attendees of CrashCon survived unscathed, many of the beloved characters were faced with choices in their own lives that forced them to make decisions that could set them on very different life paths in Season 3. How any of it will ultimately play out, only time will tell, but for now, there’s plenty of time to speculate while waiting for new episodes.

And in the meantime, we got on the phone to chat 1-on-1 with showrunner Carina Adly MacKenzie about tying up all of the family threads this season, shooting the last two episodes at a carnival, the scene that had to be cut, digging deeper into Max’s alien side, which character is most content with who they are, the importance of the abortion storyline in Season 2, how the plan for Season 3 will evolve, and what fans should make of that shocking final moment.

Collider: A lot of threads get tied up in this season finale, and you really pulled together a lot of the family storylines this season, from the Ortecho family, to the aliens and their family history, to Maria (Heather Hemmens) and her mother, to the Manes men, and even Cameron (Riley Voelkel) and Charlie (Jamie Clayton). Was that something that was always a really apparent theme for this season, or was that something that just happened, along the way?

CARINA ADLY MacKENZIE: That just happened. My only experience, other than working on Roswell, was working on The Originals, which was a show about family, so I think that my storytelling inclination is always in that direction. I also think that the age of the characters, when everybody’s coming into their 30s, that’s when you start to build your family, and you start to examine where you came from and decide where you want to go, as far as the people that you surround yourself with. And so, it just came about organically. I like telling family stories. I think that there’s a complicated nature to the people that you’re stuck with and who you were put here with, and figuring out how they fit in your life and whether they fit in your life is an ongoing process.

These last episodes have a lot going on, between a carnival, a fire, and all of these big things happening. What was it like to set these last two episodes in a carnival, and what were the biggest production challenges in pulling all of that off?

MacKENZIE: Well, I’m glad that we did it when we did it because I don’t think we’d be able to do it in a post-COVID world. Honestly, it was easier than I thought it was gonna be. We had a real carnival team come in and set up the carnival. The cotton candy truck was working and you could go get a fried Oreo in the middle of work. [Michael] Vlamis and I rode the rides, during a break. It was not as hard as it seems. We did have to cut one scene that we shot on the Ferris wheel because it turns out that it’s not that easy to shoot on a Ferris wheel in the daytime. I was like, “But I’ve got so many favorite shows that have Ferris wheel scenes,” and I realized that most of those are in the night because you don’t have to worry about these massive shadows getting cast over your actors, while you’re trying to shoot. But really, it was pretty seamless. Our crew worked really hard. Everyone was in really good spirits and really good moods. We shot all night, on weekends, trying to get that done, but everybody was very happy to be there. It was cool. It was fun. It was a little detour into childhood, riding the Sizzler.

Did you have to entirely cut that Ferris wheel scene that you mentioned, or did you just have to move it to a different setting?

MacKENZIE: No, we had to cut it entirely. After it was shot, we looked at it and it didn’t look like our show. It was a scene between Kyle (Michael Trevino) and Steph (Justina Adorno), so I was sad to see it on the cutting room floor, but it’s hard to strap a camera to a Ferris wheel and send it on its way.

Having CrashCon does pay homage to the original series and their UFO Convention. Was that something that you intentionally wanted to acknowledge?

MacKENZIE: Yeah. UFO Con is a huge part of the culture in the real Roswell, so we definitely wanted to get there, eventually. It was a fun journey, deciding how to tell that story. Comic Cons tend to be inside with a lot of people standing in lines, and they’re not that pretty. So, we wanted to figure out a way to tell the story of this convention, but make it look cool and make it pretty. The carnival idea came up, as a closing night carnival, and it was super fun to film. We had a couple of very, very long, very, very late, and very, very cold nights at the fair, but it was fun for the crew. I think everyone was in super good spirits, and it was a fun way to end our run for the season.

Just when Max (Nathan Parsons) really does have everything that he’s wanted, he seemed as though he was willing to risk it all, in order to keep pushing for answers about his alien side. Why did you want to dig deeper into that, and why is he willing to put everything else on the line, right now, in order to get those answers?

MacKENZIE: When we meet with Max in Season 1, he has very much rejected his alien side. He’s got this whole never be extraordinary rule in his life. Knowing Liz (Jeanine Mason), and being in a relationship with Liz and seeing how inquisitive she is and how much she strives to solve the mysteries of the universe, has really affected him. I also think that, for a long time, he was willing to settle for a life that he was only half living, and seeing Isobel (Lily Cowles), in particular, really come into her own this season, and learn about her background and who she is and who she wants to be, has really influenced him. He’s got a curiosity that he just can’t satiate. Ironically Liz does, too, but their interests are not aligning.

By the end of this season, who would you say is most content in knowing what they need to do next?

MacKENZIE: I think a person who is most content, at the end of the season, is Alex. Losing his father, his renewed relationship with his brother, and the ongoing coming out process that he’s been experiencing, has brought him to a place where he’s figured out a way to be who he is. I think that we’re gonna see him really blossom next season.

I love that you also were able to not only have him find his voice figuratively, but literally, as well, with the song that he sang (called “Would You Come Home”).

MacKENZIE: Thank you. I’m really proud of that song. I wrote it with Leslie Powell and Charlie Snyder, who are really phenomenal songwriters. I’ve been writing songs for a long time, and this is the first time anyone’s ever actually heard one. It was really cool to put ourselves into Alex’s shoes and to direct Tyler in the performance of that, when we were in the studio. I love the way that the montage came together, and I’m very proud of it. I’m really excited for it to be out there. We’re going to release it on all of the various platforms, and all of my royalties are gonna go to the Trevor Project. Hopefully, it’ll do some good for the character and some good for the world, ultimately.

I also have to commend you on the whole abortion storyline this season. Abortion is clearly a topic that TV shows tend to avoid, and when shows do take that risk, they also tend to never say the word. Do you think that this being a sci-fi show and the character being an alien helped, in being able to explore that, or do you think that you would have been able to do that anyway?

MacKENZIE: I think I would have been able to do it anyway. I actually think that it was really important to tell that story in a very human way. The big conflict that came up was the amount of blood that we saw in the episode. There was a suggestion from the network, at one point, where they said, “Can you make the blood iridescent? Can you make it look alien and put the same effect on it that you put on the pods and on the glass?” And I dug my heels in really hard and said, “No, it needs to look bloody. It needs to look ugly. It needs to look like an act of violence. Forcing a woman to essentially perform an un-medically supervised abortion is an act of violence.” And ultimately, I’m really grateful for the studio and the network’s support in that. It was important that it felt very much like a human moment because that’s how we told it. We wanted to say, “Okay, what does this really look like? What does it really feel like, to be a woman in a desperate situation without access to the care that she needs?” I’m very, very proud of that storyline. It was hard and it was scary, but I think that we told it with a lot of love. I was very, very proud of Lily and very proud of Nathan. It was tough, but it was definitely worth it.

I’m guessing that you had a plan for Season 3, before you knew how the world would be changing. Will you be able to hold onto what you wanted to do for the third season, or are you thinking about and re-evaluating everything that you had planned to do?

MacKENZIE: Well, interestingly enough, the writers’ room took a break before George Floyd’s death. When we took a break, we had sketched out an entire season that was built around racism in the police department in this small town. And so, we are looking at that story with new eyes. We’re still gonna tell the story, but the pressure is on, more than ever, to get it right because it feels like the world is tuned into that station right now. So, we’re re-evaluating that, on our storytelling side, and obviously, we are also paying a lot of attention to how things evolve, as far as how we can tell our stories safely. We have a lot of contingency plans for how to sketch out a romance, if characters can’t be touching and kissing, as much as normal. And if we can’t pack our diner and our bar set full of extras, how do we tell stories in those spaces? One of the things that I learned, working on The Originals, from Michael Narducci, who was the showrunner over there for awhile, was that no matter what happens on set, when you’re the showrunner, even if it’s not your fault, it is your problem, and that’s how we’re approaching storytelling. The virus is frustrating. It’s not our fault and it’s annoying to have to re-evaluate the way that we tell stories, but our cast and crew’s safety is really, really important. And so, we are trying to creatively write our way out of a difficult situation, as every writer in town is trying to do right now. As an industry, we’re just gonna have to have to evolve and our audience is gonna have to evolve a little bit. We’ll manage.

Obviously, the end of the finale has a shocking moment, in regard to the aliens. What should we make of that? Is that something that will also be a big part of the next season?

MacKENZIE: Yeah, we’ve got a new character, and he’s around for the long haul, Farmer Jones. He’s gonna have some answers, and he’s gonna really take what the characters think they know about where they came from, why they’re here, and who their families were, and challenge those ideas. Jones’ story of what happened in 1948 is very different from Nora and Louise’s take on the story. We dug into Michael and Isobel’s family in Season 2, and I think it’s time that we do a little exploring with Max and make up for all of that work that Nathan was not doing, at the beginning of Season 2, and put him to work twice in Season 3.

~ CoIIider

[icyharrington]

Is It Wrong?- Part 3 (Michael Langdon X Reader)

so i got a lot of requests for michael to be put in his place, and i just gotta say... that doesn’t exactly happen in this part lmao. it will definitely happen in a future part tho!! y’all also wanted jealous!michael, which i was glad to deliver!! i really hope y’all like this part. please reblog and leave comments if u do!!! :) 

please check out my masterlist for part 1 and 2, since i’ve heard that including links in posts now fucks with the tags (i don’t know if this is true, but just to be safe i’m not gonna include links). lmao

plot: michael langdon is a picture-perfect fuckboy, and, lucky for you, he’s also your stepbrother. how will you survive?

warnings: inappropriate relationships, fuckboy michael, fem!Reader, high school au, underage drinking, smoking, jealous!michael, teen angst, public (ish) sex, fingering, choking, blowjobs/facefucking, rough sex, hair pulling, degradation, spanking (both traditional and non-traditional, if yanno what i mean...), dirty talk

word count: 7k

tags: @alicecooper19 @blackfyrez @bbyduncan @sloppy-little-witch-bitch26 @satansapostle @trelaney @tickled--pinkmoodpoisoning @alexa-is-on-fire @kissydevil @langdonalien @langdonsdemon @sloppy-wrist @wroteclassicaly @langdonsinferno @duncvn @langdonsrapture @ccodyfern @starwlkers @xtheinevitableprophecyx @americanhorrorstudies @sodanova @avesatanormalpeoplescareme @divinelangdon @sojournmichael @kahhlo

i.

A month had passed since the… incident with Michael, and since that time, you’d transformed into somebody you hardly recognized.

You and Michael? Well, you and Michael had begun to get along quite well. Gone were the days of pointless arguing- if there was ever a problem, it usually wouldn’t be long before Michael’s dick was somewhere inside of you, and by the time you both were done, neither of you would have the energy to fight anymore. You still bickered, of course, and you both loved nothing more than to get on each other’s nerves, but the initial hatred you’d harbored towards your stepbrother was now, for the most part, gone.

The change was obvious and palpable. Sometimes you were surprised that your parents hadn’t caught on to something going on between you and Michael, but you figured they were just happy you were both coexisting. We’re finally like a family, your father had said, beaming, when you and Michael had shared a blanket during family movie night.

You’d exchanged a look with Michael, uncomfortable giggles passing both of your lips. If only your father had known where Michael’s hand had been placed, right that very minute, underneath the blanket.

You supposed that what he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him.

In the mornings, Michael would drive you to school without complaint. You suspected this was because of the opportunities for quick car… activities: on several occasions, he’d fingered you on the short drive to school, testing himself to see how quickly he could bring you to an orgasm, your hands clamped around his forearm as his fingers moved between your thighs, tinted lens-covered eyes focused on the road.

That boy was always in the mood, you’d come to realize.  

On this particular day, Michael seemed to be more in the mood than usual; he’d given your ass a particularly hard slap as you passed him in the hallway that morning, a cocky grin crossing his face when you’d told him, only half-seriously, to fuck off.

God, this was fucking ridiculous. You knew this was ridiculous, that this was wrong, that you should feel unclean, dirty, every time you let him touch you. It made complete sense, logically, for you to cut things off with him.

Besides the glaringly obvious fact that he was your stepbrother, he was also a total douchebag, a fuckboy, a player. He’d been balls deep in at least a quarter of your grade at some point or another. He objectified you- you (admittedly fondly) recalled a time he’d pushed you up against the sink one morning, snaking those big hands up your pajama shirt to grab a fistful of your tits before walking off like nothing had happened.

And, like the fucking idiot you were, you’d been left in a state of absolute, pathetic euphoria, your cheeks flushed and heart pounding, teeth sinking into your lower lip like a pornstar.

Sometimes you really hated yourself.

Scratch that, you hated yourself a lot more than sometimes.

When you’d finally come downstairs for breakfast, dressed in your usual jeans and sweater, you’d noticed Michael’s gaze lingering on the curves of your thighs, prominent through the form-fitting denim material. Had he always checked you out like this?

“You need a ride to school today?” Michael asked, shoveling a spoonful of your favorite cereal into his mouth. You pursed your lips disapprovingly, but decided not to mention it.

“Yeah, thanks.”

Miriam seemed pleased with this exchange, shuffling over to where Michael sat and ruffling his hair affectionately, much to his obvious dismay. “I love seeing you two finally getting along. See, isn’t it so much better being nice to your sister?”

Michael raised an eyebrow at you, hands lifting to adjust his hair back to how it’d been before Miriam touched it. “Yeah, it really is. Right, sis?”

You cut your eyes at him, leaning your elbows on the counter and checking the time on your phone. “We’re gonna be late, bro.”

Michael stood up, again leaving his bowl on the table like the entitled, spoiled brat he was. He looked good, with black jeans and his favorite, faded pair of Doc Martens, paired with a white t-shirt and his beloved leather jacket. Lately he’d been letting his hair grow out, and his soft curls were nearly reaching his shoulders now.  

When you noticed the chain that he’d attached to his belt loops, you snorted.

“Nice chain. Good luck on your Hot Topic interview.”

He looked down at the silver appendage, leveling it idly with one hand before looking back to you. “You don’t like it?”

“I’m not saying I don’t like it, I’m just saying you look like you’re about to pull up to a My Chemical Romance concert circa 2008. All you need is some eyeliner.”

He walked past you to the front door, seemingly unaffected by your comment. “Honestly, eyeliner doesn’t sound like a bad idea.”

You followed behind him until both of you were outside. It was almost admirable how little Michael cared of what other people thought of him; his confidence was probably why he was so popular, even though he didn’t necessarily fit in with the frat-boy-to-bes who were usually at the top of the high school food chain.

“So,” he said as you walked side-by-side to his car, giving you that familiar look that you knew so well. You swallowed, knowing fully well how little self-control you had when it came to Michael.

“I was thinking, maybe we should ditch first period today.”

You huffed, pretending to be opposed to this idea, even though you willingly went along with nearly anything Michael suggested no matter what it was. You got in the car, inhaling that telltale mixture of cologne and cigarettes and fast-food grease, getting yourself comfortable before answering.

“Michael, I can’t miss math again. I’ve already missed three times in two weeks.”

“So what’s one more time?” He ran his fingers through his hair before turning the key in ignition, the golden morning sun hitting his angelic features just right. Your mouth watered, and all at once your will dissolved into nothingness.

“I really hate you.”

He looked at you from the corners of his eyes with a smirk, pulling his sunglasses off the front of his shirt and putting them on.

“Fine.”

ii.

This is why I can’t fucking resist him, you thought, breath slow and heavy as Michael laid kiss after sloppy kiss across your collarbones, hand placed firmly between your thighs.

Michael had put in his favorite Pink Floyd CD once you’d arrived at the abandoned parking lot (the same one that his creepy friend had taken you to- apparently it was a popular place for teenagers to fuck). You’d both sat there for a bit, making small talk and sharing a joint that he’d pre-rolled, knowing fully well what you’d both come there to do.

I kind of wanna stretch my legs out, he’d finally said, voice low, the baby blue of his eyes accentuated by the red tinge surrounding his irises. Why don’t we go in the back?

Leave it to Michael to get straight to the action.

He’d gotten you undressed in a matter of minutes- your jeans and boots were discarded on the already cluttered floor of the car, leaving you in nothing but your sweater, socks, and pale blue underwear. He’d looked unbelievably sexy, lips red and glossed with spit, when he’d drawn back to pull off his jacket, eyes clouded with a voracious, possessive lust.  

Part of you wondered how many other girls had seen him in that exact state.

The thought dissipated, however, when he’d pushed aside the thin fabric of your underwear and promptly slipped two long fingers inside you.

“Always so fucking wet for me,” he’d murmured, playing with the hem of your sweater before pulling it off over your head. The warmth of his breath against your neck and the lewdness of his raspy words may as well have made you melt into a puddle right then.

Who’s gonna show this stranger around?

Ooh, I need a dirty woman

Ooh, I need a dirty girl

Michael’s fingers seemed to match the beat of the song playing, thumb flicking at your clit as he sucked a trail of bruises across your heaving chest, marking you, claiming you. You moaned, rolling your hips against his, feeling his hard length pressing into your thigh through the tough material of his jeans; you reached between his legs and squeezed it, making him chuckle against you, and he brought his head up to face you.

“And you’re always so eager,” he said, retreating back onto his knees. Then he slid your underwear off and tossed it amongst the rest of the clothes that had piled up, hands flying to unzip his pants once you’d been disrobed. “My baby sister is such a bad girl for me.”

You considered reminding him that he was only a month older than you, and that you were hardly a baby, but you didn’t have time to correct him before he pulled his pants and boxers halfway down his thighs, allowing his erection to spring forward.

Your legs spread instinctively for him, and he inched towards you, positioning himself on top of you while your back rested partially against the door. He aligned the head of his cock with your opening and you sighed, reaching up his shirt from behind and pressing your fingernails into the smooth skin of his back.

“Fuck,” he grunted, eyelids fluttering as he pushed inside your tight heat, your narrow walls swallowing him up. Wrapping your legs around his waist to pull him in closer, you moaned softly, heart rate increasing when he began to thrust slowly, but with just enough force to make your legs feel weak.

Every time he fucked you was like the first time; he was huge, and you weren’t sure you’d ever get used to the feeling of him stretching you out. You loved the pain, though, loved the way you couldn’t walk right when he was finished with you, even when he went as gently as he could; you liked the bruises, the scratches, the indents of his short fingernails where they’d dug into your skin.

“Michael,” you sighed, bucking your hips up to meet his rhythmic thrusts, both your sounds of pleasure becoming diluted by the drums and guitar and keyboard blaring from the stereo.

He buried his head in the crook of your neck, and you were sure he could taste the salt of your sweat, his tongue darting out to trail along your skin as he fucked into you.

You were stricken with ecstasy, shivering when Michael’s firm torso made friction on your clit, and you brought one hand up to run through his sweat-dampened golden waves.

“H-harder,” you choked out, and he sank his teeth into your shoulder before mumbling a half-hearted response to your plea.

“You want me to fuck you harder, baby? Wanna feel me for the rest of the day?”

“Mhm.” You gave his hair an urgent tug, and again he tilted his head up to look at you, his eyes so dilated they almost appeared entirely black. Placing one hand loosely around your throat, just like he knew you liked, he pulled himself all the way out of you; there was a vulgar slapping noise as he gave a hard, pointed shove of his hips, impaling you to the hilt, and you cried out at the fullness.

“Fuck, you take me so well,” he praised, eyes locked with yours while he pounded you into the leather seat, hard enough to bruise. His grip tightened around your neck as he came closer to his release, forehead slick with perspiration, perfect mouth agape.

This was everything, everything you thought about, everything you wanted: moments like this, your bodies pressed flush together, moving in perfect time. You caressed Michael’s hair so softly, one might mistake it as a loving touch, your other hand making shallow scratches up and down the expanse of skin beside his spine.

Your cunt clenched around him and you were almost there, his thrusts becoming sloppier with each passing second; there was a moment of silence, amplifying the raw sounds of sex as the song came to an end; that silence was followed by a quiet whirring, and then another song came on, psychedelic chords flooding your senses along with- fuck-

The head of Michael’s cock hit something sensitive deep inside of you, sending your lower body into convulsions, and you were sure your fingernails were drawing blood now, clawing onto Michael for dear life.

oh god-

-your thoughts weren’t coherent anymore, and then you were crying out, Michael’s cock working you open like your fingers never could, head lolling back and nearly colliding with the window, and-

“Oh god- oh fuck-“

The pads of Michael’s fingers pressed harshly into your throat, his eyes half-open in pure, fucked-out bliss, while yours rolled back into your head. It took only a few more strokes for you to cum, and then Michael was too, and you were glad you’d went on birth control for your period cramps when you were sixteen because holy shit did it feel good when he spilled his hot load inside you.

He pulled out of you, admiring the sight of his cum leaking down your inner thighs; he slid one finger up between your folds, gathering the sticky secretion and rubbing it against your pulsing clit, a self-satisfied expression crossing his face when your body twitched at the sensation.

“Ew, Michael,” you said, wrinkling your nose. He was so fucking smug every time he came inside of you, like he’d just marked his territory.

He just laughed at your reaction, moving back to pull his pants back up and refasten his jeans, reaching into the back pocket to pull out his package of cigarettes once he was finished re-dressing.

“Don’t wanna go back to school,” he grunted, retrieving a cigarette from the pack and sticking it between his teeth.

“How come? All your adoring fans are there,” you said, having found yourself in a sarcastic mood. You put your underwear back on, followed by your sweater; you decided you’d wait until later to put on your jeans, given the limited amount of space you had right now.

“I like you so much better when I’m inside you,” he said, picking up a lighter from the floor of the car and lighting his cigarette. “You’re too busy moaning my name to give me any attitude.”

You narrowed your eyes, but you were too exhausted to come up with a biting response. “Fuck you.”

“Just did.”

A trail of pale gray smoke wafted in your direction and you waved it away, coughing dramatically for good measure. “You know you can open the windows, right?”

“You know it’s my car so I can do whatever I want, right?” He took a drag of his cigarette and blew the smoke directly in your face, eating up your resulting look of disgust.

Some things would never change, and no matter how many times you let him fuck you raw, no matter how many times you brought each other to orgasm, you doubted the stepsibling rivalry would ever completely fade.

From the front seat, Michael’s phone vibrated, and he cursed under his breath as he grabbed for it.

“Hey, man,” he said once he’d accepted the call, resting his elbow against the window, flicking ash carelessly onto the floor of the car. The worry that it’d been Miriam calling to inquire about your whereabouts disappeared, and you reclined back against the seat.

“Uh, yeah, I skipped first period.” He shot you a warning look, indicating for you to stay silent, and you rolled your eyes. “Yeah, uh, I’m picking up some shit for tomorrow.”

He sucked at the end of his cigarette, waiting for a response from his friend, while you picked your jeans up and put them on, struggling slightly as you attempted to get them on in a sitting position.

“No, I told you I can’t steal my stepdad’s shit anymore. My dumb fucking stepsister ratted me out and now he has a lock on the cabinet,” he said into the phone, shooting you a contemptuous scowl from the corner of his eye.

You batted your eyelashes innocently as you worked the tight denim up your legs; you were still proud of yourself for that one.

“Yeah, I’m picking up a few cases of beer. I- yeah.” Long pause. He flicked away some more ash, this time onto the seat, and you could see an orange ember still glowing in one of the tiny piles that had landed beside you. You wriggled your hips, finally getting the waistband of your jeans up and securing the silver button in its place. “Fuck no, dude, I’m not buying any of that 4 Loko shit. You remember what happened last time?”

Another pause. You were somewhat intrigued now, and Michael could tell; he held up his hand, dwindling cigarette poised between two fingers, waving you away with an obnoxious flourish.

“Yeah, man. I’ll see you in gym, dude-“ you could hear his friend speaking on the other end of the line, and Michael laughed at whatever he’d said. “Yeah, dude, those gym shorts Zoe Benson wears shouldn’t be allowed. I don’t know how anyone expects us to focus on fuckin’ volleyball with her ass hanging out like that.”

More laughing.

“You’re such an asshole,” you muttered, and Michael held a slender finger up to his lips.

“Yep. Bye, man.” He pressed his thumb into the “end call” button, before putting his cigarette out on the door and turning to you. “C’mon, we gotta go pick some shit up.”

You grabbed your boots from the floor and pulled them on. “For what?”

“None of your business.” He slung his leather jacket over one shoulder and got out of the car, the rubber soles of his combat boots slapping noisily against the asphalt as he walked around to the driver’s side.

You followed suit, hoping Michael couldn’t see how difficult it was for you to walk as you made your way to the passenger’s side and got into the car.

“C’mon, just tell me,” you said with a pout; in all honesty, you were fairly certain of what Michael’s plans were- he did the same thing nearly every single weekend, house party-hopping with his friends until he came home past 2 am, stumbling by your bedroom with absolutely no attempt at discretion.

The difference now, though, was that you kind of sort of wanted him to invite you to come with him for once. You were a senior in high school, after all, and you’d never even once been to a high school party. So sue you for being curious!

“If you must know,” he said, putting the car into drive, “it’s for a party. You don’t go to those.”

“You don’t know that,” you snapped, crossing your arms over your chest.

“Uh, I kinda do. I’ve never once seen you at a party. And I go to a lot of them.”

Wow, Michael, you’re sooo cool, you thought bitterly.

You had to admit, though, he was right.

He noticed the look on your face and snickered, perhaps a bit too condescendingly for your liking. “Aww, what, does my baby sister want her big brother to take her to her first high school party?”

Your skin prickled, and you looked out the window to avoid his piercing stare. You couldn’t believe the number of times you’d allowed this total douchebag to cum inside you. Even worse, you couldn’t believe that you were definitely going to let him do it again. “I wouldn’t be caught dead at a party with you,” you managed through clenched teeth, thoroughly embarrassed.

“Yeah, I know you wouldn’t.”

He pulled out of the parking lot and onto the road, starting in the direction of the local gas station which was infamous for not carding underaged kids when they went to buy alcohol.

Fuck it. If he wasn’t going to invite you to come, you’d find your own way.

iii.  

Later that day, you’d asked your slightly-more-social acquaintance for a ride to the party that weekend, since your former best friend was no longer an option. She’d agreed, and you were surprised at how easy it’d been to get an ‘in’ on the high school social scene without Michael’s assistance.

You couldn’t wait to see the look on his face when you walked into the party.

You’d searched through your drawers and in your closet for something cute (and also enticing enough to catch Michael’s attention, although you’d never say that outright) to wear; eventually you’d found a little red tank top, which your best friend had always said made your tits look good, and a pair of high-waisted jeans that you’d always thought made your butt look bigger.

Turning around in the mirror, observing your exposed midriff and pronounced chest and round ass, you had to admit you felt positively mouthwatering.

On the night of the party, your acquaintance arranged to pick you up at ten, which was perfect, since Michael had headed out at 9:30. You wanted this to be a surprise, and so a fashionably-late entrance was ideal.

You got yourself ready, straightening your hair and dousing yourself in perfume with hints of cinnamon (Michael’s favorite scent, although you swore to yourself you hadn’t done this on purpose). You smudged black eyeliner under your eyes, hoping this would make you look sexy and not like a raccoon, and put on a red lipstick that you only ever wore on special occasions.

Seeing yourself like this made you wonder why you didn’t dress up more often.

Before your ride came, you found your father’s key to the liquor cabinet (just as you’d expected, he’d hidden it inside one of his steel-toed work boots, which collected dust by the front door all year long while he continued to insist that he needed them for an upcoming ‘project’, whatever that meant) and unlocked it.

With shaking hands, you’d poured yourself a few shots, holding your nose each time you threw one back, throat burning and body shuddering at the awful flavor that you figured was probably what gasoline tasted like.

By the time you got the text from your acquaintance, alerting you that she was outside, you were decently drunk. Your thoughts were clouded with a thick fog and your cheeks were hot, but you liked it, liked the way your insides felt warm and uplifted, the way your mind felt numb; holding your hand against the wall to steady yourself as you walked to the front door, you attempted to mentally prepare yourself for the night to come.

You didn’t think you’d ever been so ready for something in your life.

iv.

In less than an hour, the party had gone from decent to good to great.

You knew the girl who was throwing the party, albeit very vaguely; you’d spoken a couple of times to her about school-related things, and she’d been nice enough. From what you’d heard, her parents had gone out of town for the weekend, and she’d taken full advantage of the opportunity.

It reminded you of when Miriam and your father had gone off on their honeymoon in July, and Michael had taken it upon himself to throw 3 consecutive keg parties in your fucking house. Well, technically, your backyard. But still. You’d stayed up in your room those nights, kept awake by the thumping bass coming from outside, ranting to your (ex) best friend over FaceTime about how goddamn much you hated the newest addition to your family.

And, of course, she’d gone and fucked him.

Could you really judge her, though? You were fucking him now, too, and you had infinitely more reasons than she did not to fuck him.

But that was besides the point.

The small group of girls who’d been in the car when you were picked up immediately dispersed upon arrival, leaving you to your own devices; already intoxicated, you’d begun your search for Michael in the crowd of drunken teenagers, keeping an eye out for that impeccable, lush mop of blonde hair.

You didn’t know what you were planning to do once you saw him. You couldn’t approach him, especially not if he was with his friends, but you wanted him to see you in all your glory, wanted him to see that hey, look, I can go to parties too if I want, and I don’t need you.

Michael, however, found you first.

It was much later (though you couldn’t be quite sure how much later), after you’d given up on your search, opting instead to talk to a cute boy who you thought looked very similar to one of Michael’s friends.

Honestly, it probably was one of Michael’s friends- at this point, you were too drunk to tell, having indulged in one or two (okay, more like three or four) more shots during the time you’d spent weaving through the party.

You were in the middle of telling the boy exactly how you knew that Chuck E Cheese recycled their pizza slices when a thick, slurred voice interrupted you.

“(Y/n)?”

You turned, eyes heavy-lidded, a stupid, sloppy smile plastered across your made-up face.

That smile only slightly faltered when you saw who had spoken. It was Michael (because who else would it be?), looking stupidly beautiful like he always did, face twisted up into something you couldn’t quite decipher- maybe you were too drunk to tell, or maybe he was too drunk to properly convey his emotions; either way, you were unsure of what he was planning to say to you.

“Who did you come here with?” he asked. He was practically yelling, struggling to be heard over the shouts of teenagers and blasting rap music.

“Wouldn’t you-“ you hiccuped- “like to know?”

His line of sight suddenly dropped down to your chest, and then to your hips, and then back to your eyes, and you were 99.9 percent sure you’d just witnessed his eyes nearly bulging out of his head.

When he realized you’d noticed him looking, he made an attempt to save himself. “Huh. Looks like you actually put effort into looking good for once.”

You probably would’ve been offended at this comment, had you not been multiple shots deep.

“You think I look good?” you purred, rocking back and forth on your heels like a spoiled little girl asking for her father for a pony.

He ignored your question, focusing his attention now on the boy you’d been talking to.

“There you are, dude, we were wondering where you went.” He poised an eyebrow, not bothering to conceal his confusion with the situation at hand, which was, of course, the fact that you were mid-conversation with one of his friends. “So, um... whatcha doing?”

He dug his hands into the pockets of his jeans, a venomous smile stretching across his full lips. He wasn’t happy, that much you could tell.

The boy let out an oblivious chuckle. “Your sister was just telling me about- what was it, (y/n)?”

“Chuck E Cheese,” you said quietly, probably too quietly for Michael to hear. Not that you really believed Michael cared much about what you’d been talking about.

“Right- well, did you know that there’s like, a conspiracy, I guess? That they-“

“-Don’t fuck around with my sister, okay?” Michael interjected, his tone firm and unyielding, and you felt your face bloom with color. “It’s my fucking sister, man. I would back off if I were you.”

All at once, the boy’s smile faded, as did yours. So apparently Michael was an aggressive drunk. Noted.

“Michael, I can talk to whoever I want and there’s nothing-“ you jabbed your finger at Michael’s chest, giggling uncontrollably at the resistance of the muscular surface. “-you can do about it. So suck. My. Dick.”

The muscles in Michael’s face tightened, and you got the smallest urge to run your tongue along the sharp, angular stretch of his clenched jawline. Of course, you refrained.

“I would’ve thought you learned not to run around with my friends after the first time, but I guess I was wrong,” he said with a shrug that you could tell was meant to make him appear indifferent to the matter; it didn’t take a psychologist to tell, though, that he cared far more than you knew he’d ever admit.

“Yeah, I guess you were,” you slurred, spinning around to take hold of your new friend’s hand. “C’mon, let’s go.”

Without another word to Michael, you walked away, your new friend allowing you to guide him as you searched for somewhere else to go. Swaying your hips with each step, you hoped Michael was getting a good eyeful of your ass in those skintight jeans of yours.

God, it was like a natural high whenever you got under Michael’s skin, and right now, you were over the moon.

v.

You should’ve known that things would end up like this, because your life was one massive cacophony of clichés and this was just the way things played out in every single teen sitcom.

It felt disrespectful, somehow, being pushed up against the wall of a total stranger’s bedroom, your tongue tangling with some kid you hardly knew, the taste of liquor ripe on the back of your throat.

It felt even more disrespectful when you sat him down on the edge of the bed, sinking onto your knees so you were between his jean-clad thighs, and it felt downright indecorous when you unzipped his pants to pull his cock out of his boxers.

You shut your eyes to avoid accidentally making eye contact with any of the pictures adorning the wall, especially the family photo enclosed within a picture frame that had Family Is Everything written across the bottom in hot pink script.

What the fuck were you doing?

Taking the boy’s cock in your hand, you applied a few thoughtless licks to the head of his dick, his sighs audible even over the muffled music that spilled into the room underneath the closed door. You bobbed your head down, taking him into your mouth, his fingers gently lacing with your hair as you dipped further.

With your eyes closed, you could almost pretend that it was Michael’s dick in your mouth, and not one of his not-as-cute friend’s.

“Fuck yeah, baby,” moaned the boy, and you cringed at his dirty talk; still, you took more of him into your mouth, pressing your tongue flat against his shaft, wishing he’d put more pressure on the back of your head with his palm like Michael always did.

Fuck Michael Langdon, fuck the way you wanted him even when he was a total asshole to you, and fuck the fact that he was on your mind, nonstop, even when you had another guy’s dick in your goddamn mouth.

You brought your hand away from the boy’s shaft and instead placed it on his thigh, pushing your head down until you were gagging around him, nose nearly reaching his balls. The boy gasped, inadvertently lifting his hips and shoving himself deeper in your mouth, and you sputtered.

From out in the hallway, you heard someone talking about finding the bathroom, the voice growing louder and louder until the mystery speaker was directly outside the bedroom; it didn’t occur to you to be concerned, or at least not until it was far too late and the door had already swung open, and you heard two startled shouts- one from the boy you’d been sucking off, and one from the person who’d just barged in.

“Michael-“ exclaimed the boy, and it was then that you realized how truly fucked you were.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Michael said, and you felt a hand entangle with your hair to yank you back, painfully, so you were sprawled on your ass.

You looked up at your stepbrother, his nostrils flaring in that way that only happened when he was pissed, and silently you scolded yourself for thinking that he looked hot like this.

“Didn’t I tell you not to fuck with my sister?” he continued, grabbing his friend by the front of his shirt and jerking him to his feet. The boy looked positively terrified, lower lip trembling as Michael whirled him around and sent him catapulting out into the hallway.

“You ever touch her again and I’ll snap your fucking neck,” he yelled after him, sounding so dead serious that you thought it’d be foolish not to believe his threat.

Now it was just the two of you, and honestly, you were pretty fucking scared (though why, oh why, did you also feel something like excitement building up in your belly?). Michael slammed the door shut before coming to tower over you; you scrambled back, moving to stand up, but he stopped you.

“No. You stay down there,” he spat, voice laden with disgust. “Who knew you were such a little slut? If you wanted something to suck on, (y/n), you could’ve just asked me.”

“Mi-Michael, I-“

“-Shut the fuck up.” He reached down to take a fistful of your hair in his hand, using it to bring you roughly to your knees.

Why the fuck was this happening? And why the fuck were you so completely turned on?

“If cock in your mouth is what you wanted, then that’s exactly what you’re going to get,” he said, unzipping his pants and retrieving himself from the confines of his boxers; he was already hard, his cock springing forward so suddenly it almost hit you across the face, and you flinched.

“Aww, what’s the matter? I thought you liked having cock in your face,” he taunted, taking his thick shaft in hand and slapping you across the cheek with it. He did this a few more times until the side of your face was stinging, sadistic laughter bubbling past his lips each time you squeezed your eyes shut in utter humiliation and arousal.

When he grew bored of this, he reached down and manually unhinged your jaw, wasting no time before pushing himself into your mouth, brushing the back of your throat with his first thrust.

You gagged, drool already seeping from the corners of your lips, balling your hands into fists at your sides as you allowed your stepbrother to mercilessly use you.

He snapped his hips forward, his cock so deep in your throat that you were now face-to-face with the soft curls surrounding his pelvis.

“I bet he didn’t fuck your face like this,” he said between pants, holding your face against his balls before pulling out and fucking back into your hot mouth. “Bet he didn’t show you who you belong to like I do.”

You moaned around his stiff skin, sending vibrations up the length of his cock, and he cursed loudly; tears streamed down your face, no doubt ruining your makeup, but you were too far gone to care.

Michael pulled out of your swollen mouth, strings of saliva stretching and breaking between your mouth and his glistening cock. You took in a much-needed breath just as he took you by the front of your shirt and forced you to stand, groping your tits as he thrust you backwards onto the bed.

“Did you let him inside you?” he demanded, making quick work of removing your jeans and tossing them off the side of the bed.

“No, Michael, I swear-“

He cupped your pussy, making you squirm when he pressed two fingers against your clit through the thin material of your panties. “I better not find out that you’re lying.”

He pulled your underwear off and discarded it on the floor, leaning down to spit a thick wad of saliva onto your dripping cunt. You whimpered, wiggling slightly against the mattress, and in turn he pinned you down by your hips with a bruising hold.

“I’m gonna be as clear as I can be,” he said, flipping you onto your stomach and lifting you up by your waist so your ass was in the air. He wrapped a strand of your hair around his hand, tugging your head back, and you could feel his hard length pressing against your thigh as he brought his head down to whisper in your ear.

“This pussy?” He landed a painful slap on your cunt, and you jumped. “It belongs to me.”

You bit your lip at his words, ringing in your ears even after they’d left his mouth. He let your hair go, hooking his fingers around your cheek to push them inside your mouth, and obediently you opened up for him.

“And this pretty mouth?” He lined his cock up with your slit, pumping his fingers in and out of your gaping mouth, your eyes watering when he pushed them down on the back of your tongue. “It’s mine too.”

In one swift motion, he pushed all the way into you, not allowing you any time to adjust before he began hammering inside at a ruthless pace; you cried out, overtaken with the seamless blend of pain and pleasure that Michael had gotten you so accustomed to, more tears streaming down your cheeks and dropping onto the sheets below.

He pulled his fingers out from your mouth, using his hand instead to smack the rounded curve of your ass. You buried your face in the pillow, hoping you wouldn’t stain the case too badly with your smeared makeup, arching your back higher so you could feel every inch of Michael’s cock filling you up.

The vulgar, wet sounds of his cock slamming in and out of you were almost too much to bear, a mixture of your arousal and Michael’s spit dripping down your inner thighs in a crude display; Michael gripped your hips for leverage, undoubtedly forming five fingerprint-shaped bruises on your padded skin in the process.

“Oh fuck- Michael, please-“ It hurt, the way he was fucking you, but you would’ve sold your soul right then if it meant always being able to feel this intense, rapturous pleasure.

“Who do you belong to?” Michael barked, voice raspy, but still harsh enough to cut through your consciousness like a knife.

“Y-you, Michael, fuck,” you moaned, twisting the bedsheets in your hands until your knuckles turned white, eyes rolling back into your skull as Michael bottomed out inside you again and again and again.

For a moment, he steadied his thrusting so he could catch his breath, slowly pressing himself all the way inside so his balls rested against your ass.

“You- take me- so- well,” he said between sharp inhales, tracing one hand gingerly down the length of your spine. Your skin erupted with goosebumps at the tenderness of his touch, your hips grinding back to increase the stimulation.

It only took a few moments for Michael to recuperate himself, and once he had, he was back to his animalistic ways; behind you, you could hear him grunting, and you could only imagine how beautiful he looked back there in all his fucked-out bliss.

“I’m- I’m-“ you couldn’t get the words out, your walls clenching around him as you came unexpectedly, your juices dribbling down your inner thighs and all over Michael’s cock.

“Holy shit,” Michael laughed, coating his fingertips until they were slick with your essence and observing them in awe. You went to get up, but he turned you onto your back, kneeling over your shoulders and promptly inserting himself down your throat.  

He groaned, releasing his thick, salty load in your mouth; he was so deep in your throat that you didn’t even have to swallow.

“Fuck,” Michael said, falling back to lie beside you. You were a mess, trails of mascara staining your cheeks and red lipstick smudged, and you had no idea how you were going to leave the room without someone wondering what the hell had happened to you.

You got into a cross-legged position; you definitely weren’t in any position to get up or walk anywhere at this point in time. “So were you actually pissed that I sucked your friend’s dick? Or was that just an excuse to throw me around and fuck my face?”

It was an earnest question that you genuinely didn’t know the answer to. Why did Michael care so much anyway? Especially considering the times he’d fucked your (ex) best friend?

“Little bit of both,” he said, hoisting up his hips so he could pull up his boxers and jeans. “Look. I- I may have overreacted just a little bit. I just don’t want my douchebag friends putting their hands on my sister, you know?”

You scoffed. “We both know you don’t consider me your sister.”

“Doesn’t matter. I just- I don’t know. Forget it.” He sat up, swinging his legs over the side of the bed and rising to his feet. “I’m gonna go see if I can find makeup remover somewhere. You look like a fucking wreck.”

There was something about that statement that made your heart swell in your chest; Michael was actually doing something nice for you?

“Aww, really? Thanks, Michael,” you said with a smile.

He scrunched up his face. “Alright, calm down.”

He opened the door and disappeared into the hallway, leaving you half-naked and alone with your thoughts. You felt conflicted, like you always did after you spent time with Michael, but you couldn’t help but feel that there was something, deep down, inside the hardened, fucked-up heart of your stepbrother, that actually resembled something good.

Or maybe it was just the alcohol talking.

[harryknowsme]

Variety

Producer Jeff Bhasker faced a daunting task several months ago. After having worked with Kanye West and winning Grammy Awards for producing Mark Ronson’s “Uptown Funk,” and Fun.’s 2012 album “Some Nights,” he had to decide whether to take on a new project: the debut solo album of One Direction member Harry Styles.

“I’d just had a baby, and I was kind of like, ‘Eh, I don’t know if I’ll jump into this,'” Bhasker tells Variety. He agreed to have Styles come over to “just talk,” and proceeded to put him through the Bhasker home sniff test. “My dog tends to bite people, and he was kind of scoping Harry out,” Bhasker explains. Styles “did this move — like a little shoot the gun with his finger, and my dog walked over and started licking his finger. That’s when I was, like, ‘This guy has something special.'”

Once music came into the mix, Bhasker was sold. “He started playing references of what he wanted to do, which sounded like a cool rock band. I got it, and could see where if we pulled this off, it would be one of the coolest things ever. But he needed a buddy who plays guitar like he’s Keith Richards.” The insinuation being: Styles is the Mick Jagger in this scenario.

Adds Bhasker: “I’m so proud of the album itself, and also of Harry for being so brave, and committing 100%, and writing the kind of vulnerable lyrics that he wrote, and not pandering to what people thought he would do. People have no idea that this is what Harry Styles is like. Just like I didn’t know. He’s obviously very famous and beloved, but people don’t know the depths of what an amazing personality and artist he is.”

Variety spoke with Bhasker about the recording of “Harry Styles” ahead of the album’s May 12 release:

You went old school for the recording of the album, sequestering Harry and the band in Jamaica for a stretch. What was Harry’s main role in the sessions? Harry got to lead the room. It’s very much Harry’s album and the music he wanted to make. And he was very specific what kind of ideas turn him on. He’s pretty clear, in the coolest way, about what he likes and doesn’t like, so it really got the album off on the right foot and finished on the right foot. In the first week, they did, like, 10 songs, half of which ended up on the album.

How was the writing process? Everyone was involved in the writing. It was a really small team — Me, Tyler Johnson, Mitch Rowland, Alex Salibian, and Ryan Nasci, the engineer — and we stuck with that team all the way through the album.

Was there a lyric you were particularly impressed with? I was pleasantly surprised at how witty, clever, and well-read Harry was. He actually turned me on to some poetry and literature that I hadn’t been aware of. We dove into [Charles] Bukowski, which is some pretty gritty dark s—, so we’d say, “Let’s make sure we go that direction and stay the course; let’s not bail out and go with something safe.” I think I did push him in a lot of ways, but then I wanted him to have complete ownership of it and to sing what is really in his heart.

There have been lots of comparisons of Harry to Jagger…

I think the charisma and the energy he has is on level with that, but he’s 100% Harry. It’s easy to make a comparison early on, but as people absorb what this is and who he is, they’ll see that he’s his own thing. Obviously we’re trying to push the envelope of being a boy band, so early on, I was, like, “It has to be super edgy,” but then it was about knowing when to pull back up against the edge and be real. Which is ultimately what I think we landed on.

How is Harry as an instrumentalist? I’ll tell you this much, the first time I saw him pull out the guitar, I was, like, ‘Oh damn, he can play!’ He has a nice stroke. He has a feel and a sound and an emotion. He’s a real musician.

Clearly there are nods to Bowie and Queen on the album. Have you found his musical taste to be distinctly British? You know, we did not once go listen to Bowie or the Rolling Stones or Queen. We didn’t even mention them one time. But one thing that did come up was a song that felt a little like Led Zeppelin, and he was, like, “I never really checked them out.” So we watched [Zeppelin documentary] “The Song Remains the Same,” and he was, like, “Yeah, they’re kind of weird.” I was actually happy that we were not creating some pastiche of all these influences that he knew backwards and forwards, it was more of his gut.

Releasing “Sign of the Times,” a six-minute-long song as a single, was surprising as it breaks from pop radio norms. Who played a part in that decision? That was kind of out there. And by the way, the song was made in four hours, from writing it to tracking it. That’s part of the reason why it’s so long because Harry just freestyled it towards the end. We tracked it like that and it was kind of awesome. Once we had it, we knew it was a winner. It starts out with Harry’s voice sounding so great and then you hit them with [the next verse] and you’ve got ’em. It is a hit in that sense, but it was so long that we weren’t sure if it could be the single. Thank God, [Sony Music CEO] Rob Stringer said, “I think you go with ‘Sign of the Times.'” Then, we tried to do major surgery on it to try and make a radio edit and presented it to him and, he was, like, ‘That’s cool, but I think we should push the full-length.’ We were looking at each other, like, what planet are we on that the head of the label says, ‘Yeah, let’s release a six-minute single.'”

Do you have another track you’re especially proud of? “Meet Me in the Hallway” draws from this rich tradition of the past and of rock music but it’s totally new sounding. Nothing out right now sounds like this song, I always love when I’m a part of something like that. It’s minimal and it’s magical. It takes you to another world. When they played it for me, I was reminded of when I was a kid and first dropped the needle on a Pink Floyd album I had never heard before. I’m not a big [pop] music listener. I listen to KLOS and KCRW and maybe the hip hop station. I’m kind of a classic rock dude. And Harry made a classic rock album. But that’s hands down my favorite on the album.

One producer, one band, all cut in one studio. How did you know that going to Jamaica was the right situation for Harry? I didn’t, necessarily. He’s the one that wanted to do that. Of course, having had the experience of working with Kanye in Hawaii and experiencing the isolation, I thought it would be a good thing for us. It’s never bad thing to focus, isolate, and go a little island crazy. It wasn’t a hard call.

What was the daily routine like? It was a 24/7 music fest: wake up, do some exercise, go to the studio all day, come home, eat dinner, write songs back at the house, go try out some ideas, maybe get excited and go back to the studio at 2 a.m. It was just a nonstop flow of creative ideas, which was great.

Of the artists you’ve previously produced — be it Kanye West or the Rolling Stones — who does Harry remind you of? It’s so f—ed up, because I want to squash all these comparisons between Mick Jagger and Harry, but he really does have that energy where he’s, like, the coolest guy in the room. After working with Mick, there’s a similarity there. There’s only one Mick Jagger and there’s only one Harry Styles, but they both have that kind of charisma. It’s like what life should be — be cool, man. Love one another.”

This album is certain to appeal to the over 35 crowd. You’re a first time father, was there an intent to try and bridge the musical gap between parent and kid by going with this sound? I mean, a little bit. Of course it’s in the back of your head. Maybe daughters will be, like, “Damn dad, your music is actually kind of dope,” and fathers will be, like, “Man, that Harry Styles album is pretty great, I like that.” Maybe we’ll bring fathers and daughters together.

[alia15]

2020: Who Saw THIS Coming?

Remember when I retired from blogging?

I actually did retire, except, I consider this little corner of the Internet -- MY corner -- to be a place where I document the big stuff. I told you about my engagement and then came back several months later to recap my wedding. Remember that? The wedding that THANKFULLY occurred in late 2019 before the world turned to shit??

Yeah. You know what happened. “The pandemic.” “The virus.” “Covid.” Covid-19″ (I personally prefer the first five Covids; I feel like they really fell off after that). “CORONAVIRUS.” 

THE DUMPSTER FIRE THAT IS...2020.

Suuuuuuuuure, good ol’ Rona robbed Leo and me of our Italian honeymoon, but aside from that? We were able to squeeze in all kinds of fun things in good ol 2019 -- oh how I miss you, 2019 -- and have an unforgettable year. This year is proving to be unforgettable too -- just, ya know -- in like, a traumatizing sorta way.

Anyway, as I was saying, I have to document the big stuff on here. I imagine myself reading and looking back on this blog like an old, embarrassing diary (hell, I do it already) (the dating posts make me want to die) and who can omit THIS chapter? It’s got it all: a deadly virus, racially fueled riots and protesting, social injustice, a deranged madman in the oval office, and... MURDER HORNETS?

exactly. 

So rather than write out a whole long thing about my experience in 2020, I thought I’d break it down by month, starting in March. I’m going to be documenting the good, the BAD (there’s a decent amount of that), and anything new that transpired in that time frame. Did I take up any hobbies? Start baking sourdough? I guess you’ll find out. 

Let’s start with: 

MARCH. 

The good. There was immediately a novelty to this whole Covid-19 thing. In the first half of the month I was commuting, going to work in my NYC office, and doing my usual amount of social things on weekends. When it was decided in mid-March that we’d have to work and stay home for a “bit” (lol), there was something exciting about it. We made jokes about social distancing and masks and had cutesy puns for “quarantining.” We hit the ground RUNNING with Zoom calls/video chats. There was something fun and exhilarating about all this.

The bad. People I KNOW got this virus. People I know LOST people to this virus. My Grandma’s health took a turn and things did not look good, but I couldn’t go see her. Shit, I didn’t see ANYONE except Leo, and even he was going to work in his office every day. I had to get used to this abrupt abundance of...alone time. 

What’s new? I’ve always taken to social media as a creative outlet, but I QUICKLY started using it more -- and differently -- once things in the world got hairy. I treated my Instagram like my one gateway to the outside world, because it was: I surveyed my followers and asked how they were doing. I took silly videos talking to myself in the mirror. I wrote long captions on my photos letting everyone know what my experience was like. I tried to entertain those who were stuck at home, as I was, and needing an escape. 

Oh, and ya know... Tiger King.

APRIL.

The good. The weather was getting nicer, so Leo and I took advantage and often went for walks around our complex and even a local trail/preserve in our town. We started doing “lawn visits” to see our families from a distance, and that helped. For two people who were used to seeing their ‘people’ regularly, 3-4 weeks of not seeing them took a toll. I also started doing “Grateful April” on Instagram, where I shared a few things each day that made me happy/appreciative. Some followers of mine followed suit, which was awesome to see. 

The bad. Hmm, I think all this sitting and lack of moving is hurting my back? (#foreshadowing). Also, ENOUGH with the Zoom calls and “virtual happy hours,” for the LOVE OF GOD! Oh, and that “novelty” I mentioned in March? That wore off quickly, and a lot of us started to feel weird, sad, isolated, uneasy, unproductive and stir-crazy. Myself included.

We were also reminded that this was the month we were supposed to depart for our honeymoon. Ugh.

What’s New? I did some arts & crafts (I painted ceramic bowls I bought from Target), gave myself a mediocre pedicure, found new/creative ways to engage and interact with folks on social media (polls, asking questions like “what’s in your Amazon cart?” and “who sponsors your quarantine?”), and got to see what it was like to have a husband with hair. I also discovered my love of tie-dye and wore...a lot of it. 

Oh, and I was on CBS news talking about screen time. Iconic. 

MAY.

The good. The weather got summer-like and I definitely felt a MAJOR shift in my mood. Leo and I spent more time outside on our deck: listening to music, making margaritas, talking to neighbors. I even took work calls outside and got some much-needed Vitamin D. I had my first real “beach days” (bathing suit, chair and all). I started to FINALLY see my family in person; first, outside only -- and then eventually indoors.  

The bad. Ahmaud Arbery. George Floyd, obviously. Dumb-dumbs protesting the lock-down and demanding haircuts. CLEARLY more to come on this. (See: June)

Oh, and my back pain? WAY worse.

What’s new? Some more arts and crafts: I started painting shells I found on the beach (lol).  I bought a pair of Crocs and documented the most absurd series on social media where I paired the heinous footwear with items that rhymed (Crocs & socks, Crocs & shamrocks, Crocs & botox...you get the idea.) I experimented with a few new recipes (made lemon poppy muffins & homemade vodka sauce). I re-watched Mad Men and it made me miss my office and coworkers. 

JUNE. A rough one. 

The good. We started doing more social things with our families: BBQs, celebrating Father’s Day, our nephew’s baptism. Doing this truly felt like “normalcy” and in those moments, we’d forget about all the garbage going on around us. I also decided (yes, after 3 friggin months of lock-down) that I needed to start exercising; something I needed for my physical AND mental health. I thought it could help my back -- which, yes, was feeling worse as time went on -- and it did make me feel good to spend a little time each day walking, jogging, lifting weights and just MOVING. 

The bad. Um? Everything? For starters, the racial tension in the country came to a head and erupted in a MAJOR way -- and while the protests and all the #BlackLivesMatter movements were a positive thing, it absolutely brought out the WORST in so many others. There was rioting, looting and violence. Racism ran RAMPANT. Karens went wild. “Covidiots” were ENRAGED about being told to wear masks. There was police brutality and a President who threw fuel into the fire. Tensions and emotions were at an all-time high and we all got a harsh dose of reality that this country has SO FAR TO GO in regards to equality and civil rights and even basic human decency. I was -- and still am -- sad for this country.

Also? I finally went for an MRI on my back and found out I have two herniated discs; well THAT certainly helps explain things! Shortly after, I pull my back out entirely, and could not walk or move. The pain is excruciating; debilitating and I think, “can things get any worse?” and then...

My Grandma passes away. 

It hurts. It still does. It was inevitable -- as death is, especially given her age and health condition at the time -- but it still felt like taking a bullet. I will always be grateful that I was able to get to see her one day before she passed away to say goodbye, but it’s hard not to be resentful that she didn’t get the memorial service and send-off she so deserved because of the pandemic.

(Side note: read about my amazing Grandma HERE)

In short, June sucked.

What’s new? We got a new stationary bike and set it up outside on the deck which was awesome, and I ended the month getting some epidural shots at the spine doctor. While the (strong) meds and injections didn’t exactly *cure* my issue, they made things a LOT better. Leo and I also drove into NYC (my first time there in MONTHS!) so I could go get my migraine Botox treatment at my neurologist. 

I voted by mail (which is not fraudulent, by the way) (#eyeroll) in the NY Primary. 

I also got not one, but TWO, amazing rainbows the week my grandmother passed away. I needed those, and I’d like to think she knew that.

JULY.

The good. More beach days and some consistent amazing weather (thanks, Mother Nature!). I started seeing a chiropractor twice a week and quickly respond REALLY WELL to treatment and start feeling a lot better. I put things into perspective and realize how lucky I am to live where I do -- on the beach -- and get to enjoy all this newfound free time doing things I enjoy. We also celebrate some family birthdays and have a small family gathering in honor of our beloved Dorothy. 

Have you noticed that “seeing family” always ends up in my “good” section?

The bad. Naya Rivera died unexpectedly, John Lewis died, REGIS died. Our President remains as unhinged as ever, we desperately want to #FreeBritney, and Kanye West has a really sad, scary and concerning, uh, episode. He’s also running for President, maybe? Or not? On a personal note, Leo and I tried to eat dinner on the beach one night and LIT-rally got attacked by seagulls. Weeks later, bull sharks are spotted in the ocean RIGHT WHERE WE LIVE, and they prohibit swimming. 

What’s new? Hamilton on Disney+: need I say more? The fig tree that’s been on our deck for three summers FINALLY started to grow figs! I re-watched Broad City and it is just... *chef’s kiss* perfection. Taylor Swift releases her album ‘folklore’ and I listen on repeat for seven days straight.

AUGUST.

Well, who knows? We’re not there yet. 2020 has certainly been a ride (and it’s not over yet; dear GOD), and I still can’t believe it ended up being this insane year, unlike anything I’ve EVER experienced. And while it undoubtedly has come with its fair share of challenges, it has also come with some blessings.

I have all this extra time now and I make a point to use it productively (most days). I log off from working and go outside, I walk the beach, go in our complex pool, ride the stationary bike, catch up with friends/family on the phone, read, and watch/re-watch shows.

The commute and hustle and bustle of every day in my pre-pandemic life would make me stressed and anxious; I was constantly snoozing alarm clocks, rushing in the mornings, dealing with overcrowded/delayed trains, and getting home late each night. 

Life has become slower, in a good way, and it’s made me appreciate the simple things. I care less about material things and more about the basics: enjoying nice weather/the outdoors, my home, my husband, my family and close friends.

I genuinely stopped caring about getting my hair and nails done, going out to dinner, getting dolled up, or traveling. Don’t get me wrong: I enjoy all these things and I’ll of course do them again, but this whole situation made me realize that what I need *most* in this world are the simple joys that money can’t buy.

And for that? I’m grateful. 

*stay safe, friends.*

[awesome-shelterna-blog]

Dancing With The Stars Recap Drama: A Cocky Job Interview And The Base Couples

Donny Osmond and Kym Johnson - Much respect to Donny Osmond for dancing up a storm despite the reality that he has an insanely active schedule (his Vegas show operates four evenings a 7 days). Donny and Kim pulled off an amazing Argentine Tango and it was mirrored in their rating - an incredible 29, the highest of the period. Aaron Carter and Karina Smirnoff. you could check here has toured the globe and sold millions of information as a teen pop sensation. He is currently the youngest solo artist to have 4 Leading 40 singles. His partner Karina Smirnoff has been competing on DWTS because Period 3, and completed in second location with partner Mario Lopez. Her other partners include Billy Ray Cyrus, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Rocco DiSpirito, Mario and Steve Wozniak. Simply because of Aaron's youth, this couple might battle, but on the other hand, they might shock even the toughest critics. Their future on DWTS could go both way. Remain tuned.

I will admit to being exhausted of great dancers like Cheryl Burke, Edyta Swilinska, Jonathan Roberts, and Tony Dovolani being paired with celebrities that ensure them an early drop out. On the other hand, it's enjoyable to watch "So You Think You Can Dance" alumnus Dmitry Chaplin, Chelsie Hightower, and Lacey Schwimmer strut their substantial skills on the floor.

Aaron Carter Dancing With The Stars

Case in stage, singer Mya and design Joana Krupa. These women are undeniably great dancers and probably the leaders of the competition. But who cares? Many viewers don't know enough about them to get invested and root for them.

Hamilton's father, George Hamilton was a contestant on the second period of "DWTS". He came in fifth location. I had the chance to inquire Ashley Hamilton about his casting on this season's display. If nothing else, Ashley inherited 1 thing from his famous father, George: the smile. He did a decent job with the footwork, but it truly didn't do a lot to stand out from the group. With a four from Bruno, Ashley completed with a 15. He also was last in his team salsa. He's just not exciting, and I'm really not sure he desires to be there; for that purpose, he should be the male contestant to depart on Wednesday.

Aaron Carter Then And Now

Ashley Hamilton was happy to be there he stated, son of George Hamilton and just trying to adhere to in his father's footsteps. Partner Edyta Sliwinska wore an outfit that was extremely complementary and each seemed dapper on the flooring, but Ashley also looked very stiff. Total rating of 19. The new period of "Dancing with the Stars," is being billed as the biggest period yet. 16 celebs will be competing for the title of "DWTS" Winner. It all kicks what happened to aaron carter off with a reside 3 evening premiere beginning tonight at eight p.m. on ABC. Donny Osmond, Aaron Carter and former House Vast majority Leader Tom Hold off are amongst the contestants. The current frontrunners are: look these up, Mya, Donny Osmond adopted by Natalie Coughlin, Mark Decascos and maybe Kelly Osbourne if she can bring up the degree of her dancing again. Deb Mazar requirements to be a small softer to get over the mainly feminine audience. She finished up in the bottom two despite getting a much better performance than many of the other contestants.

Aaron Carter Albums

Mya - This singer has been the heavy preferred since prior to the competition even began. Her timing and footwork are precision-like and her partner Dmitry carries on to provide excellent choreography and routines. No way is she heading house this 7 days. I would say that I have a pop acoustic audio. And sometimes individuals say that I have an R&B vibe to my vocals when I sing. I'm truly [influenced] by John Mayer and Colbie Callait. They're my favorites!

Aaron Carter Young

Ashley Hamilton and Edyta Silwinska. Ashley Hamilton is a singer, songwriter and comic, and son of George Hamilton, who was a prior DWTS competitor. His partner Edyta Sliwinska is the only dancer to seem on all 8 seasons of DWTS. Her previous companions include: Lawrence Taylor, Jeff Ross, Jason Taylor, Cameron Mathison, John Ratzenberger, Vincent Pastore, Joey Lawrence, George Hamilton and Evander Holyfield. Her spouse is fellow dancer Alec Mazo. With no prior dance experience, Ashley's chance of successful it all is doubtful, but if anybody can whip him into shape, it's Edyta. Plus, isn't it time she took house the mirror ball trophy? Kathy Ireland and Tony Dovolani. Kathy Eire is a design, actor, Sunday college instructor and CEO. Will this well-known bikini design and corporate entrepreneur have what it takes to make it to the leading? Her companion is beloved Tony Dovolani who has arrive close to the leading of DWTS, but has never taken home the mirror ball trophy. His previous partners had been Melissa Rycroft, Susan Lucci, Marissa Jaret Winokur, Jane Seymour, Leeza Gibbons and Stacy Keibler. This team may get fingers-down in the appears division, but do they have what it requires to reach the finish line? Perhaps so. And Joanna Krupa (who)? Allow's just say the purpose she is still in the leading five is simply because of Derek Hough. Anybody who is lucky sufficient to get him as a companion is heading to adhere about for awhile. He is, by far, the best dancer on the show (as well as Mark Ballas). Derek has some of the very best choreography and should really be a great teacher because he goes a long way on every display.

[whitefeather79]

CHECKING ME OUT PART 24: A KRISTANNA FANFIC

[morewritingforourcharacters]

The long game

Today was the day- a day Flam had been preparing for a long time now, and it was all going to culminate to a resounding success or a crushing failure. He was prepared for either- but suspected that today- yes today- would be the day that he got the jump on Ophelia. It had taken some sacrifice (which he hoped would simultaneously be rectified), but as he put the finishing touches on a three tier mini anniversary cake for Joe and Pierre he felt a chill run up his arm. He had a good feeling- he just had a good feeling.

He stepped back with a sigh and a smile, looking at his handiwork like a proud father looking at his child’s first birdhouse project. It was a friendly thing- Their names in white with fondant flowers and chocolate icing, something that Joe was sure to backhandedly thank him for- at some point- if this plan worked out.

He wouldn’t know- he wouldn’t know if his planned worked for hours. He was prepared to wait. Flam turned away from his cake- then reeled back with an expressive jolt of all his fibers at the sight of his beloved Ophelia, only a few inches from him.

“Op-Ophelia!” Flam gasped, grabbing his chest. She stood like a monolith.

“I’m surprised at you, Floyd. You’re usually more careful about these things.” She said, looking casually away from him towards some uninteresting corner, the only muscle in her face moving was her discreet lips.

“P-Pardon?” He asked, smoothing the feathers on his head back down and taking a glance behind him. “Oh! My cake-” Flam frowned and looked back at her with furrowed brows.

“I’m worried that you’re going senile. I made you a doctors appointment- oddly enough it's the clock shop man, took it up after you destroyed his inventory. I think it’d do you both wonders to go see him.” She continued, casually leaning back against the counter, her spindly leg propping up on the bench.

“... What makes you say so? Where’s the cake?” He asked tentatively- suddenly going silent as he tried to search his memories for any alteration in the timeline.

“I think you know.” She said with a height of coyness that no other woman could ever hope to achieve. Flam smiled at her, his shoulders relaxing.

“Ah. You did bring it to them-” He laughed a low laugh. “You think I got the date wrong-” Ophelia, who had previously teased a smile at what she probably thought would be a surprise, suddenly went even stiller than her usual stillness.

Flam put his hands up and shrank demurely under her withering glare. “I- am very sorry, my dear Ophelia. I marked my calendar wrong on purpose- and missed their anniversary… Because I wanted to see you on ours… Today.” Ophelia’s lip tightened visibly, left eyebrow creasing in subdued fury. There was a moment of silence where neither of them said a word- then, unsurprisingly, Ophelia blipped out of existence.

Flam let out a long sigh, his hiked shoulders sinking into a sad shrug. Well, he wasn’t expecting cuddles for his antics- but-

Flam jumped at again, falling forward when something impacted his back- something soft and-

“Eugh- My cake!” Flam sputtered, pulling a gob of chocolate cake off his back with utter disgust. The confectionary had apparently appeared out of nowhere and flung itself onto him, as there was no one in the kitchen when he frantically looked around- then scoffed and shivered as the sticky icing rolled down his collar and onto his neck. He ran for his room, leaving behind a trail of chocolate. Sullen, Flam walked back to clean up the mess in the kitchen after he changed- finding that his wardrobe had somehow all turned into various tacky plaid and polka dot patterns and saw a rather unfortunate sight upon entering the room. The icing of the cake had been spread all over the cabinets, and in the sticky chocolate was written, “Happy Anniversary, Floyd. PS. I left them a slice.”