#in fact it would have been the Correct Move for the kind of story Matt clearly wants to tell

[amplexadversary]

*looking at the CR tag after watching the first ep of downfall*

... ah. THAT'S why I was deeply uncomfortable with *looks up character name* Ayden the entire time.

[eponymous-rose]

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E129 (March 16, 2021)

Tonight’s guests are Matt Mercer and Taliesin Jaffe!

Matt, on DMing Luc’s Revivify: “That was weird. It’s one thing when it happens because of player action and circumstances and the choices they make. When it’s entirely on me, unintentional, and just realizing different chess pieces you’ve set up, that’s rough.” It was especially rough since this was a child NPC related to a PC. “I was hoping somebody had a spell slot left.” He kept in mind that there are two clerics in the room and that they could resurrect the next day even if the Revivify went poorly. “A good chance, since it’s his first time. Okay, okay, okay, okay, I think we’ll be okay, we’ll see how this goes. It was really stressful in the moment! I did not set out to have that happen, but when I realized what was going to happen, I tried to see it through.” He wouldn’t have prevented a chance to bring him back. “There may have been an offshoot short-run series of games to find a way to bring him back. I would have found some way to correct the circumstance so the players could feel good about moving forward with the story and there was no undue punishment beyond their control.”

Taliesin on Cad’s response: “This is a big thing if you’re a cleric. It was very much coming in like an EMT. Everything should be fine... hopefully. Just focused in and got it done. The minute things started to go south it was like, okay, that’s the next problem.”

On Yeza’s feelings: “It is a very complicated situation. I think he, much like how Veth is trying to figure out what it is that she wants, I think he’s trying to help her find that while also figuring it out for himself. I think Yeza’s also noticing that because Veth’s the more active of the two of them she also takes the weight of the responsibility and the blame for things when they go wrong, unnecessarily. Especially when he himself acknowledges that he’s partially at fault for even dragging everyone in with the Conclave. As much as he’s appreciative for them coming back for him, there’s a lot of back and forth. He’s filled with a lot of regret, too, but he’s very much trying to convince Veth that it’s a burden that she doesn’t have to keep to herself, that they can share it and work through it together.” Matt mentions that, as an actor, he really loves exploring interactions between characters first and foremost. “Especially when you don’t know where it’s going to go.” He also praises Sam as a scene partner - “I really cherish that.”

How does Caduceus feel about Revivify and Speak with Dead? “Speak with Dead is an interesting middle ground, because he knows that it’s not actually speaking with the dead. It’s really just-- it’s almost medical, really. This is just reactivating a brain at a certain point. It’s practically just a muscle twitch at this point. That doesn’t really prod him in that direction. Revivify is interesting, because it had never really come up. At first I thought of it as bending the rules, but it’s not bending the rules. You knock over a plant, you replant it, you don’t stare at it and go ‘Well, that’s over.’ This is just doing the work. No, we can bring this thing back to health. This is all part of the circle of life, that sometimes we can save something. Especially given the stress that he’s put himself through over the past year of being with these people. He’s started to think of himself a bit as a battlefield medic, and triage is just part of the deal, and it’s completely acceptable.”

Did Trent really just want to talk? “Yeah, that circumstance, as it came together, Trent would never have arrived if there wasn’t an indication that there was some kind of infiltration or attack. Even beyond that, it was Jester breaking the concentration on her charm on that one guard when she created her duplicate.” The guards’ job is to inform a member of the Cerberus Assembly, and Trent lived the closest. “He didn’t know who it was, didn’t have any expectation necessarily. The minute he saw the illusion, he knew a powerful magic user was involved.” Seeing Caleb was an unexpected surprise. “I don’t think he wanted to throw down necessarily. He was more interested in figuring out exactly what the nature of this was.” Matt had multiple battlemaps that didn’t get used. “They managed to cleverly out-maneuver him in his surprise of seeing them.” The Nein rocketed up his priority list after that very quickly. Taliesin: “We’re so fucked.”

On Cad being “Uncle Caduceus” to Luc: “It’s the thing he misses most about home, is being a juvenile shit. It’s nice to be able to express that part of him again, as opposed to the serious, life-threatening, constant intensity. I’m very at home just being a little difficult.”

Cosplay of the Week: an amazing Beau! (_rumor_king, photography by kourtyardproductions on Instagram)

On Marion: “Like a lot of people in this whole narrative from the beginning, getting swept up in things larger than her and trying to adapt. This is a circumstance she’s avoided for a long time. She’s having a rough time in some ways, but simultaneously, she’s enduring. Like a mother would. She’s adapting, she’s making it work. Without much of a choice, you just kind of do the best you can and lean on the people around you to help you where they can. Luckily she has a daughter there. She’s probably surprising herself at how well she’s doing given the circumstances.” Matt talks about how weird it is to feel proud of character he’s created. “Of the many things Marion is incredible at, she’s a studier of the human condition. She’s seen and heard the stories of so many. That gives her a very special perspective. She can see elements of that fractured individual within Caleb, and knowing the good that he’s brought to his friends, and knowing he’s possibly saved her life from bad circumstances, she couldn’t not speak up. She very easily falls into that role of maternal comforter, because it’s one of the many things she’s really good at, she enjoys it, and she can see well when people need it.” He’s been enjoying having Marion along for this (despite the difficult circumstances) because he was always a little sad that they only got to see her for short periods of time.

On the Blooming Grove’s safety: “He’s afraid that it’s a premonition. He’s not pinned it down, but he’s happy to let his imagination wander. He at the very least feels like there’s a reason he’s having these thoughts, and that there’s a reason to go there. He’s a big believer that these things don’t just happen. He’s more likely to think that there’s a good reason to go versus a danger to go. He’s had a couple of ominous warnings lately, and he’s not used to them and not a fan. He’s more likely to read something like that as, there is something there waiting for you that you have to discover. There is something that is going to be helpful to you, even if it hurts.”

On Astrid: “While maybe not as readable in overall personality as Trent is, I still want to be careful to not discuss things that are still being discussed within the game and tossed around as possibilities. Astrid is another complicated character, as anyone would be who’s been through the life she has. I can’t say too much. I can say she’s definitely legitimately happy to see Bren/Caleb after all this time.” His reemergence definitely caught her off guard. “We’ll have to see where it goes from there.”

On Cad’s successful Divine Intervention: “He’s definitely hit the ‘on a mission from god’ stage. He’s been that way for the entire campaign of, this, this is what I’ve been waiting for. Even when it sucks a lot, it’s been nice that those things have popped up to remind him, no, no, you’re doing it right, everything’s good. Probably not going to survive the next week, but you’re doing good! Not quite 1 in a 100 chance, but I forget so often to make that roll, and it’s such a great roleplaying roll. I don’t know how at level 20 you could deal with the fact that you can do that every day.” 

On Zeenoth getting his comeuppance: the kidnapping was a concept Marisha brought up for Beau’s backstory, and Matt went with it even though it was opposed to the Cobalt Soul’s philosophy because he knew rooting it out would make for an interesting story. “I felt it was an important beat to bring to her, because it was something that she was wronged by. And to show that there are still some good people out there who are trying to make things right.” After the tentative peace, dealing with this became Dairon’s next focus. “I was glad we finally got to it. So many people don’t have the opportunity in their lives to get that sort of justice and vindication, so if I can bring elements of that justice into our world, even for our own hope, I’m going to do that. Especially for my wife’s character, especially for a character that deserves that.” Taliesin points out that if it had come too early, Beau wouldn’t have believed it.

Cad’s thoughts on the Tomb Taker betrayal? “He knew it was gonna come at some point. There was no way that was gonna last. He was hoping it was gonna last a little longer. He was really hoping they had a vested interest in getting them all the way to the end. Nope, this is apparently as far as we go, and he was not prepared for that.” He was expecting the potential for de-escalation. “Caduceus is the only character in there that doesn’t have a history with Lucien. I think he sees him a little more clearly than everybody else does. They’re all looking for this person that Clay, at least, is of the opinion that he’s just not there. This is a very manipulative, very dangerous infernal human. Just smarter than all of them. Really aware that there is no calculating what the hell is going to happen. Conversation is the only way you can deal with someone like that.”

Fan Art of the Week: An amazing Caleb closeup! (rynn_birb on Twitter)

Taliesin on Lucien: “I’m excited he’s the one that’s going to kill us all. Poetic that this is how the game ends.” Matt was delighted when Taliesin handed him carte blanche to do what he wanted with Molly’s past. “I was like ‘shit... oh, wait!’ The character of Lucien was always intended to be an antagonist so that it would have been Molly being chased by the person who wanted their body back. But then it happened that he got his body back.” Taliesin: “He’s so much worse than I ever hoped.”

Matt, on the Holy Avenger: “I hadn’t thought to initially even give that sword.” The good roll was the only reason Kima handed that over. “Well, sure, you get the sword. It was very reactionary, it wasn’t my intent originally. I was like, well, I mean, there’s two avenues she can take with this.” Multiclass into Paladin, or lean into the fact that her subclass is essentially a barbarian paladin. “This really works out in a uniquely beautiful way. Let me see if I can lay out a path for her to earn it.”

On Cad’s attempt at lying blowing up in his face: “He was like that kid that had a really bad day in high school and was like, you know what? I’m going to let loose. This is it. I’m gonna dye a streak in my hair. And then tries to give himself a haircut and ends up with half bangs. Well, okay, obviously I’m not that person. I was feeling a little distraught and I didn’t handle it well. Maybe I’m going dark... no, I’m not going dark. Nope.” Matt mentions how much he relates to Caduceus.

Matt, on the Eyes: “What can I tell you? I’m enjoying the hell out of it. The moment they began to really push to read that book, I was like, okay, this is on you. I’m excited for the point in the narrative where the march continues back to Eiselcross. I am almost impatient - not really - because we’re on the cusp of getting to more of the meat. There’s so much to learn, so much to see, so much to explore. I love instilling my players with absolute terror.”

Thoughts on Jester’s Tarot reading? Taliesin cackles. “Molly made the cards, so. Did it to himself, he did, he did.” Matt: “Once again, another example of things working out unexpectedly and too perfectly for an improvised moment. Fuck.” Taliesin: “Bless the wisdom of chaos.” Matt: “I love that even at this point in the campaign, Molly continues to fuck with people. I’m just so proud. That deeply shook Lucien, for reasons.” Taliesin: “It’s the everlasting gobstopper smoke bomb.”

[nochiquinn]

lovm watch party 2: I said I wasn’t gonna do this but nobody told me it was live commentary. yes I am commenting on the commentary.

oh, liam got her

"putting laura bailey on the spot" is my favorite content

"depsite his cold exterior....he's cold all the way through"

"if you have light-up crystals, you use them"

"this is our whole relationship, right here" "now give me your money"

pickle 🖤

"don't wake the dead >:("

it's fun to say!!

changes my twitter name to "illegal immoral and fattening"

"how long have they been there and why haven't they clean"

my roommate that I finally bullied into watching dubbed grog "a big dumb puppy" immediately

update: still hate it

liam: everybody shut up my wife's on screen

none of us are over keyleth but liam o'brien is definitely not over keyleth

"don't go outside!" "that's where the bad is!"

wait no changes my twitter name to ghost skritches

nobody called out the table, I'm sad

"he pooped in a jar?!" "it's. it's complicated."

"I'm just gonna drink now."

"it wasn't THAT hard"

"somehow didn't put it a blindspot pun"

"I wanna make people cry"

so he's who I have to go after for emotional damages

oh daughter of the sea was SO GOOD

mala: moral of this story: shoot your shot

I would buy a metapigeon

"we can't joke about things here"

okay I know I said trigun but those are trigun as hell

"that's stupid and wouldn't work!" "I know! they don't!"

mala: there are too many bisexuals here, that's their problem

she didn't want to be a Big Titty Anime Girl

the fact that there are just wires going into their ears and I can't see the earpiece is bothering me for some reason

oh no undercut vax

"he's on time-out"

simon gets belts and a chain

[edna mode voice] NO BELTS

"that's my prom photo"

"we can sense each other like bats"

"you poopin?"

"we are used to screaming alone in a small room. also we record things."

"she will never move on from trinket" ask sam

"force matt to do all kinds of horrible things he doesn't wanna do" that's it that's the game

sunjin as the fandom and also liam

"why not both"

The Adventure Begins

#ithasbegin

"you gonna have fun byeeee"

their legs are made of fingers

changes twitter name to /pizza

"I'm the adult, none of you are old enough to drive" taliesin

"they're just doing what mama asked!!"

"whoops, saved us again"

"give her five seconds to think about something and it'll all go to hell" relateable

guiding arrow up the butt

JUST noticed vex pulling percy after her. this is my fifth time watching it.

"I can't believe you killed the horses!" "they had to go!"

"the vampiric energy is why we get such beautiful sunsets in whitestone"

just ten minutes of "oh noooo"

"she accidentally killed a lot of people"

laura validating my dissertation on the twins' codependency

"give matt a list of names and this is what happens"

"he needs a warm cup of cocoa and a blanket - " "AND HIS PARENTS"

"that's when we knew matt wasn't fucking around"

oh I did not catch the nails

"what do they see in each other" "she's hot" "he's hot"

"your brother's an idiot and everybody else is just goofing off"

take a nap and make a watch, maybe you'll feel better

catching the uwus

that was a hell of an analogy

I want this gifset. I'm not gonna make it but I want it

"I don't wanna murder on live television!"

flashbacks to travis and his zappy swatter

oh this is so weird without the music. like good, but weird

I love him calling out different people working on these shots

"girl u ok"

grog for scale

that is a sexy wagon tho

"wolf-abomination"

oh no bottom left I hate it

mala: instituting a 4 legs maximum

justin mcelroy talking about when they got to write for marvel: feels increasingly like a prank

"we should always talk about darin de paul" correct

we lost laura, laura has left the chat

laura beating taliesin up live on the internet

"were they body wind chimes?" "I mean not yet"

"we hired a real bird, he was excellent"

if they don't stop saying "zaddy" I'mma mcfuckin lose it for entirely unrelated reasons

"we get to keep light"

"I want this in my house"

"no one like a sober barbarian"

"this is what shooting in brooklyn is like"

"this is a beautiful show" smash cut to spitting blood

so much bass in one room

"sound design 10/10 but please stop"

dfslkd I also did not catch Reggie

Pocket Sausage

I Fell Out Of The Window

so much celery

oh THAT'S rahlia. mystery solved

"where's percy" doing hot girl shit

"percy's having therapy" that is NOT therapy taliesin

3D HORSES

"and then they burn with the house"

tallyessen jaffie

liam and laura what are you doing back there

taliesin trying desperately to get out of the accent

"percy just coming out" that ship has sailed

"I had a dream I was from california"

give us the lore taliesin

"draw me a bear riding a horse drinking beer in flowing water"

Speaking Of Nipples

"am I a bossy person" "I'm not answering that while I'm in arm's reach"

"thanks mica. ...what are you doing after this?"

"couch bros" [pours one out for Chaos Couch]

conceal don't feel

"I can fix him"

"percy at his core is still in his pajamas with his buttflap hanging out"

"how much of that is matt just torturing you"

"it was just never-ending stupid"

door episode dvd extra

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

Trees Are Stupid.

There are some things in life that people learn without ever having to experience them. For me, one of those things really should have been ‘do not sneak out of a second story bedroom window if you have a broken leg’.

In my defense, I’d never had any trouble with the window before. The peach tree in our neighbour’s backyard was broad and healthy and one of its thick, strong branches was within easy jumping distance from my room. I’d silently slid the window open, checked to be sure that I was in the poorly-disguised undercover policeman’s blind spot, and was halfway out before I realised that balancing on the sill might be a little difficult with my right foot and calf encased in plaster.

I gripped both sides of the window frame and balanced as well as I could on my left foot. I’d always been small for my age, looking closer to eleven than fourteen, so the jump wouldn’t require very much strength. The branch, barely visible in the fading light, seemed to wave in time to the gunfire and screaming wafting up from my parents’ movie downstairs.

I leapt, and smacked right into the branch. It was a jump I could normally make without thinking about it, but the broken leg had thrown me off; I smacked chest-first into solid wood and instinctively wrapped my arms around it to keep from falling. The pain rushed through my ribs all the way to my spine, then faded, lingering for an extra moment in the little scar just to the left of my breastbone that I always tried to ignore. Not that I’d be able to ignore it any more, after the accident.

No, not accident. After the attack.

The back porch light was on. Most people would take this to be an accident, but I knew it was my parents’ plausibly deniable polite concession to the undercover police officers we were all pretending not to notice. They needed a clear view of the back door to make sure I was staying in the house like a good little boy. The light clearly illuminated the word WITCH that somebody had spraypainted across the back of our house, but it didn’t reach me in the tree. After a few seconds of stillness in which I waited for someone to move or shout, I felt it was safe to continue.

Arms and knees around the branch, I slid along it over the fence bordering our yard and towards the trunk of the tree. Our neighbours were still awake; light was visible around the kitchen blinds. This wasn’t unusual. It wasn’t all that late.

Normally I’d just drop to the ground and go ring the doorbell, but there was the issue of the police. Something else gave me pause, too; the small wreath of holly and mistletoe hung on the back door. That hurt more than hitting the branch had. Contrary to myth, neither holly nor mistletoe had ever stopped me from entering a building – I wouldn’t be able to enter most shops or cafes if it did – but the Nebits weren’t to know that. They’d always made a point of not warding their doors, and the fact that they’d done so now… well. I couldn’t really blame them, could I?

I switched to another branch, one stretching towards the Nebits’ house. The window I was aiming for wasn’t all that far from my own; it seemed like an awful lot of work to reach it by treeclimbing. If we’d been on the ground floor, I’d almost be able to reach it from my own window.

I couldn’t quite reach it from the tree, though. Again, this was a jump I’d made dozens of times, but it had been hard enough jumping into the tree with a broken leg; even I wasn’t going to try to jump out of a tree at a closed window when I couldn’t even safely stand up. I could envision the result – me slamming face-first into the wall below the window, and the Nebits coming to investigate the noise and finding a broken, bleeding body under their peach tree. Not an ideal situation.

Instead, I plucked a peach from the tree and threw it at the window. A moment later, it opened.

Melissa was sihlouetted in her bedroom light, so I couldn’t see much more than the halo of brown hair she was in the process of brushing, but I knew she was glaring at me. Melissa has the kind of glare you can feel through lead walls. When she grows up and has kids, they’re going to be the most well-behaved children in the world.

“Kayden, what the hell?”

“Are you going to let me in or not?”

“You shouldn’t be here! You’re under house arrest!”

“I know, that’s why I’m in a tree. But it is Saturday.”

Apparently, Melissa couldn’t argue with this logic. She fetched the usual climbing rope from her closet and tossed one end to me. I tied it to the tree, slid my way over to the window, and climbed in.

“Are you alright?” Melissa asked, checking over my arms for scratches and bruises. I didn’t pull away; Melissa gets focused when she’s worried, and it’s generally best not to get in her way. There were dark shadows under her eyes, I noticed, and her normally rosy, freckled cheeks were pale; had she lost sleep over me?

I shrugged. “They discharged me, so nothing can be too wrong with me. It’s not the first fall I’ve taken.”

“You know what I meant.”

I shrugged again.

“We tried to visit you, you know. They had you in some kind of high security ward and Chelsea almost got caught trying to pickpocket a nurse’s keycard.”

I suppressed a chuckle. “Of course she did. She’s not here yet?”

“She was grounded after the keycard thing, so I don’t think she’ll be able to convince her mum to – ”

Just then, Melissa’s bedroom door opened. “Don’t tell my mum I’m here,” Chelsea said quietly. “I’m grounded.”

Melissa threw up her arms. “Did anyone in this neighbourhood not sneak out of their bedroom window today?”

“Um, you didn’t,” I pointed out.

“Neither did I,” Chelsea said. “I’m not an idiot. I used our bathroom window. First floor.”

“Well la-de-da, Miss Police-Aren’t-Watching-My-House,” I said, rolling my eyes.

“Kayden, did you climb a tree in your pyjamas?” Chelsea asked.

I glanced down at myself. “Maybe.”

“You’ve lost a button.”

Chelsea, unlike Melissa and I, was not in her pyjamas. She was wearing a flannel shirt that I was pretty sure was mine. Despite being a year younger than me, we were exactly the same size, and more than once she’d joked about getting me a jaw-length blonde wig and herself a shorter brown one to see how long we could pretend to be each other before someone noticed. Said jokes were getting worryingly serious.

“It’s your turn to hide the tracker,” Chelsea reminded me.

Melissa glared at her. “That stupid tracker game created this mess, and you still expect him to play?” she snapped.

“That’s pretty insensitive, Chel,” I agreed. “Especially since I’ve already hidden it. You think the school roof was a clever hiding spot? Oh, man. You are in for a wake-up call.”

She frowned. “You’re bluffing,” she said. “You haven’t had a chance to hide anything. They took you straight home from the hospi – ” She put her face in her hands and groaned. “You found the tracker before you ended up in hospital. You had it with you. And the only other places you’ve been are your house, and a high security ward in the hospital. And you know better than to hide it in your house.”

I spread my hands. “Hey, the circumstances aren’t my fault. If you want to find it, might I suggest stealing a nurse’s keycard? Oh wait.”

“You’re both crazy,” Melissa said.

“That’s a weird way to pronounce ‘incredibly awesome’,” Chelsea said. “When does the cast come off?”

“In another week and a half.”

“Just in time for school holidays!”

“I’m suspended anyway, so it’s kind of a moot point.”

We fell silent. None of us wanted to talk about the next obvious point of conversation.

Eventually, Melissa asked, “What about after the school holidays?”

I shrugged. “They haven’t set a date for the trial or anything yet, so…”

“So you’ll probably get a super long holiday before you’re found innocent and everything goes back to normal!” Chelsea threw an arm over my shoulders. “I’m so jealous.”

I shrugged her off. “I’m not innocent. My victim – ”

“Victim!” Chelsea scoffed. “You know this is Matt Parker you’re talking about, right? If I’d been up there I’d have pushed him off myself, curse or no curse.”

“You’re innocent,” Melissa said. “You know the law. Accidental consequences of curses can’t be prosecuted, unless the carrier of the curse was knowledgably negligent.”

“Fourteen-year-olds shouldn’t use words like ‘negligent’,” Chelsea frowned. “You sound like my dad.”

Melissa ignored her. “You’ve had that curse stuck in your heart since before you could walk, and nobody could ever say you were negligent. It’s done absolutely nothing for fourteen years. No causing sickness, no turning things to gold, it doesn’t even sour milk. There was absolutely no way you could have predicted it to lash out here.”

“That’s the point,” I said. “I should have expected it to lash out, because I should always be expecting it to lash out. My control slipped, and now everyone knows I put that jerk in hospital. He nearly died, you know. I nearly killed him.”

“Your curse nearly killed him,” Melissa corrected.

“I would have nearly killed him if I got the chance,” Chelsea shrugged. “Don’t even need a curse. I would’ve just hit him.”

“Everyone knows that Matt’s injuries are more self-inflicted than anything,” Melissa added. “Nobody blames you for any of this.”

“Then why is there a wreath on your door?” I asked.

Melissa looked away. “My parents are idiots.”

“No, your parents are scared, and they’re right. Your family have known about my curse since I got it. Your parents never had a problem with it, or with me, until now. But now they finally see what it means, what it can do, and they want nothing to do with me. They think I could hurt you, and they’re right. I could kill both of you without warning. Doesn’t that bother you?”

The two girls stared at me, completely unimpressed. Chelsea rolled her eyes.

“Why would that bother us?” Melissa asked. “It’s not exactly new information.”

“You’ve always known about the curse, but now that it’s active and – ”

Melissa waved me silent. “Not the curse. I mean in general. We’re all capable of killing each other if we want. You don’t need a curse for that. Five minutes ago I threw you a rope to climb in my window; I could’ve untied my end and you could very easily have died. Does that bother you?”

“That’s different.”

“No, it isn’t. I’m not saying your curse doesn’t suck, I’m just saying it doesn’t make you a terrifying monster, and anybody who looks at you differently now that it’s attacked Matt is an idiot for not taking it seriously and getting over it years ago.”

“That’s easy for us to say,” Chelsea said, “but to be fair, people have been kind of freaking out. Your family and mine were the only ones around here who ever really knew about the curse. To everyone else, it kind of…” she shrugged.

“Looks like I lied to them about something really dangerous I was carrying around the neighbourhood?” I asked.

“… Kind of, yeah. But they’ll get over it.”

“What’s the internet look like? The police confiscated my phone and I haven’t been online since the whole thing happened.”

The girls exchanged a worried glance.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought. Mum turned our wi-fi off. I don’t think she wants me to see what people are saying.”

“You don’t want to see what people are saying,” Melissa said quickly.

“Don’t worry about it,” Chelsea said. “If anyone gives you trouble, point at them and babble nonsense until they run screaming.”

“Yeah, because that would help his court case,” Melissa said.

“Nobody can give me any trouble. I’m not supposed to leave the house. Actually, I should probably get back before Mum and Dad notice I’m missing.”

“Righto. Liss, do you have some rope?” Chelsea headed for the window.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Stringing a rope from the tree to your window. Or did you have another plan for getting back in with that?” She nudged my cast with her toe. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.” She took a rope from Melissa, slipped easily out the window and within seconds was walking along the tree branch outside.

“I’ll never get how you two can do that,” Melissa remarked.

“It’s easy. It’s just one foot in front of the other. Until you slip and break a leg.”

“Yeah, I think I’ll stick to the ground like a normal person, thanks.”

“Sounds boring.”

Melissa chuckled and shoved me playfully. I grinned, trying to keep the mood light. Trying not to think about the future.

Whether I was found guilty of assault or not, I was dangerous, and now the whole street and the whole school knew it. There was no going back from that.

And I didn’t know what to do.

Story continues here.

[babbushka]

These Wounds Which Need Not Heal

Triplet!Kylo x Reader ; Triplet!Ben x Reader ; Triplet!Matt x Reader 

A Vampire AU

5.5k ; Content Warnings: General vampiric activity, graphic depictions of blood (bathing in blood, having sex in blood, drinking blood), NSFW (Foursome [F/M/M/M], double penetration/double vaginal penetration, PIV, fingering, masturbation, dirty talk)

Available on AO3!

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Rain, heavy and cold.

It slams against the windows of wrought iron and stained glass, the windows of your rooms as you settle in for the night. Aches and pains in your wrists and knees throb, and you look forward to the thought of a long soak in your private tub which you have been so graciously awarded. The bed is screaming your name, and you yearn to rest your weary head – until you reach for the candlestick you leave on your nightstand, and you find it is not there.  

You freeze, for you know at once that something is wrong.

Someone has been here. Someone has touched your things. The rivulets of rain on the window cast shadows onto the floor behind the light of the moon. She is large and low in the sky, a rich red that glows sinister and deep, and you are reminded that tonight is Hallow’s Eve.

In the distance, wolves howl one by one, and you swallow hard.

The candlestick finds itself on the wrong nightstand, after a moment or two of searching in the dark. You strike a match by the heel of your shoe and cup the flame gently as it licks up the wax which burns, softly illuminating the room.

Thunder crashes and were this castle not a thousand years old, surely the sound would have shaken the foundation, lightning pealing across the sky. You cannot sleep now, you cannot think of such a thing, when this newest mystery fills you with dread.

You need to speak to him, to your boss. For the first time since you arrived at this castle, you would have to come face to face with him and hope he does not think you so insubordinate for the act.

Glad that you had not yet undressed, you take your candlestick and make your way down through the halls of this drafty castle, on the search for the Lord of the manor with whom you might address.

                                                  ----------------

He had said his name was Matthias.

An old fashioned name for an old fashioned man, it would seem, if his clothing and demeanor were to give anything away. Matthias was kind, his blonde hair curling around handsome cheeks, a bespectacled smile offering you good morrow that fateful day. You met him just one week ago, one week to the day on this evening. He had been the one to give you the job, to bring you to the castle where now you live.

There had been rumors, about the castle. They say the place is haunted, brimming with frights which terrorize the town, with shadows that cling to the cobblestone streets, with evil lurking behind false doors. Every time you went to town, the elders warned you vehemently. But ghost stories do not frighten you, for they cannot be real, and when Matthias offered you a more than generous salary for the position, you were eager to accept.

He is lonely, Matthias.

They all are.

In the week you had lived here, you had learned that much. The man rarely left the house, in fact, other than that day in town, you’ve never seen him step foot off the property. Lonely yet not alone, for he had two brothers, Benji and Kylo – the three of them a matching set, although wildly different all the same. You rarely saw them, for they had secret matters to tend to, and they were always kept so busy tending to them. However, on the occasions that you did have to observe them, they could not have been more different.

Matthias is a man of the book, and spends much of his time poured over his Torah in the temple which faces the south of the property. He gardens, and he paints; grand oils which he has hung up on the stone walls. You dust their frames, and as such you’ve become acquainted well with them. There is one oil in particular which you are most fond of, for you think it looks like you, although you know that that cannot be.

Benji is a man of sport, raucous and filled with a chaos about him as he rides his black stallion around the grounds. On one occasion he had ridden the beast through the great hall itself, and if you listen carefully, sometimes you think you can hear the echoes of the neighing as it hides up in the rafters.

And Kylo…well. You did not know what Kylo does, what he likes. Of all the brothers, you have seen Kylo the least.

You had no inkling of an idea how they lived in this place, this lavish and ancient castle on the hill. You had no idea where they earned their money which they use to pay you so handsomely, unless it was by living off the land as so many Lords have done throughout time.

But the time of Lords was coming to an end, this you knew.

Still, no one ever went in, and no one ever went out.

At least, none that you saw.

                                                ----------------

You walk through the halls, your heels on the stone and marble flooring alerting any to your approach. Matthias would not have done this. He would not have crept through the castle in the middle of the night, would not have gone through your things. And someone had most definitely gone through your things – as head maid you kept your rooms orderly, nothing out of place.

“It’s late.” A voice sneaks up behind you, and you whirl around with wide eyes, searching for him in the dark.

He does not make it easy to see him, standing in the shadows the way he does. You hold the candlestick out, and the glow casts a circle onto the floor which he carefully steps into revealing himself to be the very same man you had just been thinking about.

“Lord Organa!” You curtsy at once, worried that perhaps you had wandered down a wrong corridor and into his private chambers. “Please forgive me, I did not mean to trespass.”

“There is no cause for alarm, Miss (Y/N). This castle is your home too now, is it not? There is nowhere you could go that would be out of bounds.” He cocks his head and regards you with interest, and when he speaks, his voice is warm.

You have never heard him speak, not in the whole week you’ve been here.

“Someone has been in my room.” You announce, apropos of nothing.

“I know.” He nods with grave seriousness. “It was me.”

The admission creates more of a mystery than it solves, and you wait a while to see if he has anything further to say. The two of you stand there in the middle of the hall, candles flickering on sconces on the wall, as rain comes down in sheets against the window.

He’s handsome, you’ve always thought so, have always thought them all handsome. Proud noses and plush lips, calculating eyes and ramrod straight posture which brings them to a towering height. Kylo’s hair is the longest out of the three of them, oft tied back with a silk ribbon to keep out of his face. There is no ribbon now, and his dark waves cascade beautifully onto his shoulders.

“Lord Organa, I don’t understand, was there something you needed?” You clear your throat gently, his beauty doing nothing to assuage the confusion you now feel.

“You, Miss (Y/N), I wanted you.” Kylo says, and you frown, more confused than ever.

“I don’t understand.” Shaking your head, Kylo comes closer closer closer, stepping towards you, crowding your space. There is the urge to step away, but you ignore it. He is fascinating, this man, and you know so little about him, you do not want to pass up the opportunity to learn more.

“Have you been happy here? Have you enjoyed the castle, the work?” He whispers, eyeing your lips. It is a strange question, and you blink, not having expected it – not having expected any of this.

“Yes, although…” You keep your voice low as well.

Thunder cracks and lightning streaks and you do your best not to flinch. Kylo’s hands come up anyway, resting atop your arms to soothe you. His palms are cold, ice cold, and you take in a sharp breath at the feeling.

“Although?” He prompts, after a moment where you seem to be lost in his eyes.

“I worry that you are not happy with me, I never seem to catch you in good spirits. If there is something that I have done please tell me now so that I might correct it I – ”

“We are not angry, not at all.” He stops that train of thought in its tracks, and you breathe out a sigh of relief. Kylo’s chilled fingers carefully, ever so slowly, brush against your cheekbone, his eyes never leaving your lips. “Tonight is a special night for us, for me and my brothers. A very special night indeed. We are hoping that you might join us in the celebration.”

“I beg you to speak plainly.” Your eyes widen, heart beating harder in your chest.

A celebration? Tonight? Halloween rituals were a thing of ghost stories in the dark, were they not? The village…perhaps they had been telling the truth, those elders who eye this castle with such disdain. Perhaps they had been warning you all along, all your life.

Why had they warned you and you alone?

Kylo licks his lips and in the glow of the candlelight, he makes a daring move to lower his mouth against your pulse, places the barest hint of a kiss there. You wonder if he can feel it under his tongue, when it swipes a hot, thick stripe up your jugular.

“We’ve been watching you – I have been watching you for many moons. We believe you are the one we have searched a millennia for, the one who will bring us peace.” He murmurs against your skin, and when his other hand slides around your body and splays across your back, you nearly drop your candlestick in a strong desire to hold him. Especially when he hums, “The one who will bring us pleasure.”

Pleasure.

Pleasure.

Oh how you are familiar with such a thing – do they know? You feel dizzy at the thought, the thought that they might have heard you one night wailing into your pillow with your hand between your legs. Is that what this is about? Do they want to fuck you too? Kylo licks across your throat once more.

“This celebration, what does it entail?” You breathe, leaning into his touch, his embrace.

The most mysterious of the brothers, the most restrained, the most reserved, and here he is wrapped around you. It is your wildest dreams come true, feeling the hard length of his cock against your dress as it fills out in his linen trousers.

“A long bath…and an indulgence of the pleasures of flesh which we have been so long denied.” He guides your hand down to the line of his cock, and wish to pop open the buttons and drop to your knees, your knees which have gone weak in his presence.

“What will be expected of me?” You worry that you ask too many questions, but you are eager to know, you want it, want what you desperately hope he might be offering.

Kylo grins and kisses at your jaw, working his way up your throat to end at your lips.

“Nothing that you don’t want to give, this I promise you.” He speaks into your mouth, presses the words onto your tongue, words which you cannot hardly believe, “We have agreed we would like for you to join us, and stay with us here. If you should so desire that, wait until the bells chime three, and come to the master bath in the East Wing.”

You suck in a breath at the thought, at the promise. Three bells is only an hour away, and that seems like such a long and yet such a short time. Your mind is made up, you want to go with him now, you want it, you want him.

Kylo mistakes your silence for apprehension, you can tell by the way he pulls away and his brow furrows as he sighs.

“If not, it will be as if we never spoke of this.” Kylo’s hands leave your body, and you feel empty somehow, incomplete as he begins to step out of the light cast by the dying glow of your candlestick. “The decision is entirely yours, Miss (Y/N). But I do hope you’ll think carefully about which you choose.”

Out of the light, and into the dark, Kylo goes. Instinctively, you take a step forward, wanting to follow him, yet you do not hear anything, no footsteps in any direction to know how to find him.

The East Wing, one hour. This you could do, and for this you would be ready.

                                                  ----------------

You realize now, why Kylo was in your room. You hadn’t noticed it before, too caught up in the way that things had been changed around, touched. A garment is folded atop your dresser, with a small card resting in the very center of the thing. Handwritten in red ink, the card reads a message which makes you sweat;

Wear this, and only this. Should you join us, we do not want you to ruin the clothes which we think you so beautiful in.

Eagerly, you pick up the garment and it unfolds and unfurls as you hold it up. In the light of the candles you see it is a robe, one which goes all the way to the floor, made of the thickest and softest velvet you had ever felt. Expensive, oh it must be so expensive, and very old, you think. You do not waste any more time, removing your clothing layer by layer as instructed.

Once naked, you admire your shape in the mirror. Running your hands up and down your body, you wonder what they will think of you, how they will take you. If this is to be messy, so messy that it would ruin your clothes, then surely you were in for a long night.

But they have decided, which means they have thought about it, which means they have craved you all in their own way. It is thrilling, knowing that when the bells toll, you will find out the true extent of that hunger. You are hungry too.

You put the robe on, admire how it fits you perfectly, how it wraps around your body just so.

All there was to do now, is wait.

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The doors to the East Wing are grand, and heavy. It takes two servants to push aside each, and as such, they are rarely open. They are open now, open for you as you cross the threshold into the private chambers of the Lords of the house. Kylo had said there was to be a bath, and your joints are eager for it, they have been all night.

Doors are open for you, lit by dozens of candlesticks whose wax has dripped down for so long that you can barely see the stand through it. You follow the pathway the candles give you, not realizing, not noticing at all, that once you move past them they snuff themselves out.

There is a smell, before anything else. Copper in the back of your throat as your nose stings up high, right in the bridge. The air tastes salty as you near the sound of water running, and you wonder what they must have added to the bath for it to change the atmosphere of the room so much.

It does not take long to find out.

“You came!” Benji calls in delight, from across the bathroom.

They are there, all three of them, in the grand tub. It must have been custom made, for it looks more like that of a small pool than a tub. They are naked, you can only assume, can assume with the way they have asked you to be naked too, sitting chest deep in dark, thick, near-black liquid. It bubbles and boils and when Kylo raises his hand with a grin, you realize the liquid is not black at all.

It is red.

It is blood.

But what’s more disturbing, more harrowing, is that when Kylo grins at you, he grins with teeth which grow so long that they barely fit into his mouth, pointed fangs in his canines that glisten in the low light, glisten just for you.

With a shocked gasp, your hand flies up to your mouth, your throat. You can hear your heart hammering in between your ears, the pound pound pound of your pulse. It is that, that sound and how they purr for it with hands outstretched beckoning you to join them, that makes you realized the scope of who they are, what they are.

No, these were not mere men who stood before you and welcomed you into their home, these weren’t men at all.

“You’ve joined us!” Benji’s deep voice is loud with excitement, and you stare at his mouth as he grins too, stare at the fangs which he sports as well.

“You – you’re not human.” You blurt, blunt and dizzy. So dizzy, how could this be? How were they real?

Do you want to run?

No, you think for a moment, no you don’t. If anything, if you were to run at all, it would be towards them, not away. So you walk.

And as you walk, as you allow that velvet robe to slink off your arms and pool onto the cool marble tile of the bathroom, as you take the first hesitant steps into the tub filled with something far more sinister with water and they rejoice around you...you find that perhaps, you needn’t not be afraid.

“We won’t harm you, you have my word.” Matthias says, and that calms you, he’s always been so calming.

It is Kylo’s arms who claim you first, who wrap around you and pull you further into the tub. It is far deeper than you thought, but it must have been to accommodate these large men, these men who must be well over six heads tall. Kylo pulls you into the tub and you go, your legs straddling around his waist as he tucks his face against your neck and nuzzles his nose against your pulse just as he had in the hall.

“What do I do?” You automatically move to hold him, the blood warm and thick, inviting, enveloping you. It is opaque, you cannot see through it, cannot see anything at all, but you can feel the way they move in on you, feel how they grow ever closer. “What are you going to do to me?”

“You smell so beautiful, gorgeous girl, perfect girl, you’ve joined us.” Kylo murmurs, sounding as if he is over the moon. And maybe, for all you know, he is.

Matthias brushes your hair out of the way and his hands caress your back, smearing the blood onto your flesh, warming you. It must be fresh, and you are more impressed than you are afraid, when you think about how they must have gotten it.

“My darling, we’re going to have our fill of you.” Matthias says softly, sweetly, “If you’ll let us.”

“Let us, join us, please.” Benji’s voice rumbles quickly out of his chest, and you smile. It’s flattering, all of this is so flattering.

“Be quiet.” Kylo snaps at his brother, making the youngest scowl. Kylo pays him no mind, and sludges blood onto your cheeks when he cups your face so delicately in those big palms of his and asks, “Will you let us?”

You know what it is he’s asking.

What it is they’re all really asking.

“If I do this…do I get to be like you?” Your heart pounds pounds pounds, hoping, hoping beyond hope.

“Yes.” Matthias turns your chin so that you might look at him. You smile, fondness blooming in your chest for the way he still wears his glasses. He does not smile back, wanting to impart the finality of this act, the seriousness, when he continues, “For all eternity. There is no going back – once we start, there will never be a time where this is finished.”

“Then I ask again, what do I do?” You say.

They grin.

They move into a better position so that they all might take more advantage of the space of the tub. Kylo refuses to let go of your body. He lays back against the edge of the tub, and pulls you flush on top of him. His hair floats in a dark halo and you cannot help but thread your fingers through it. It doesn’t feel sticky, although it should, and you moan against his lips when he kisses you properly.

Kylo’s tongue is hot, so hot for someone with such cold hands. You taste the iron and copper in your mouth and realize he must have already begun to drink, must have started to lap up the sustenance around him before you had arrived. Something in you is strangely jealous, you had hoped that whatever tonight was going to be, it would be done together.

But you are here now, and Kylo kisses you so excellently, sucking and groaning softly at your bottom lip, the corner of your mouth, your teeth. Benji takes the opportunity to shift behind you, draping himself over your back while you make out with his brother. You drool into Kylo’s mouth and moan when you feel Ben’s fingers work themselves into you, stretching you, getting you open and pliant for what’s to come.

Kylo’s teeth are sharp, so sharp, that it leaves a hairline cut along your lip in its wake, enough to make you wince and hiss at the momentary pain. Your hips push back onto Ben’s hand, onto his fingers, pulling away from Kylo’s mouth just for a moment. It is good, it feels magnificent, those fingers are so thick, you can feel them plunging inside your pussy and widening, spreading spreading spreading you.

“I’m sorry, it’s just that I have dreamt of kissing you for a hundred years, it has burned behind my eyes.” Kylo says softly as he chases how you move, how you sit up to rock back onto Ben’s fingers. Kylo licks across the wound on your lip to soothe it, and that makes you moan as you think of the weight of the admission.

“The painting, is she me?” You have to know, you have to know if that smile which you have dusted so many times this week, is a smile that reflects back at you.

“Yes, oh smart girl, beautiful, yes she is you. She is you and I have so hoped you would notice, so hoped you would find out. She is you and you are here, here at last.” Kylo cannot wait any longer, and you do not want him to.

Benji holds you steady as you sink down onto Kylo’s cock. Ben’s hands grip either side of your hip and he immediately latches his mouth to your throat. You anticipate the bite, the searing pain – but none comes. No, he too merely kisses your shoulder, the junction where it becomes your neck, laving his tongue hot and heavy over it as you adjust to his brother’s hard length inside you.  

“Oh – ah, you’re big.” Moans and gasps spill out of you, and you want to move faster than they do, want it rougher than they’re going at present. “Hhnn, Lord Organa, please I – ”

“No, no titles. Just names, call us by our names.” Matthias interrupts, and you don’t even realize that he’s come to sit right next to Kylo, his hands are the hands that you feel as they come up out of the tub and cup your breasts, thumbs rubbing over your nipples.

You nod, and it’s then that you feel the brother behind you line himself up, push himself inside your cunt as well.

“Ben!” You whine, loud and high in your throat as he and Kylo compete to see who can bottom out first. It is slow, it is torturously slow, deliciously slow, and you want more, you want as much as they’re willing to give you.

“Relax, it’s easier if you relax.” Ben whispers against your cheek, his teeth – his fangs – grazing your earlobe. He licks and nibbles you there as you try your best to do as you’re told, but,

“It’s good, that’s – fuck you’re big.” You laugh, delirious, already consumed with lust and desire and pleasure that the hand in Kylo’s hair tightens and pulls.

Kylo hums in his chest, his cock pushed all the way up against your front walls while Ben’s fits in just behind, and he laughs, a hearty throaty sound when your eyes fly open and you shout in delight once they begin to thrust.

Blood sloshes and drips over the edge of the tub, once Ben and Kylo begin a rhythm, a steady pace to fuck you inside out. Ben’s mouth is against you ear and whispers filth that aids in your delirium, Kylo’s mouth latches onto one of your nipples, sucking and biting and moaning as they move in and out of you in tandem.

Where Ben pushes, Kylo pulls, stretching and filling your cunt with their hard cocks, leaking all over themselves, leaking onto one another as they fuck you slow and steady.

“Perfect girl, what a good pussy,” Ben grunts in your ear, “So hot, so tight. And all ours, all for us.”

“Yours! I’m yours – eternity, that’s what I want.” You’re loud, too loud, but you don’t care. The rain still plunders on outside, it drowns out anything beyond these walls, you know, and even if it didn’t you’d still be shouting, “Fuck me like this for all eternity.”

Ben’s grip on your waist turns harsher now, and your body falls forward, suffocating Kylo underneath your breasts. He doesn’t need to breathe, you realize, as he continues to massage and squeeze at your body, continues to worry your nipples even with his head pushed way under.

“She smells so good, Matt, I need – ”

“You will wait.” Matthias shakes his head, fishing for Kylo and pulling him back up.

He looks devilish like this, with the blood slipping sliding down his skin, his face slicked with red. It beads and coagulates and Kylo licks it off his lips. You find yourself mimicking the movement.

“M-mattie, do you not wish to…?” You frown, wondering where he will get his pleasure from, wondering if he would want you to wrap your tongue around the head of his cock instead of the palm he has working at himself instead.

“Thank you sweetheart,” Mattias hums and the shock of how they can read minds is almost absorbed by the way Kylo has just found your gspot. You gasp and shout out and ride their cocks, and Matthias smiles, pets back your hair, and pulls your wrist to his mouth. “But not right now, we’re thirsty, you see, and you smell so good.”

“Now?” You hiccup, cocks spitting you into pieces as you bounce and moan and they groan in time. Kylo surges up, his mouth on the other side of your throat, sandwiching you between these two brothers, and tethered to the third.

“This will not hurt, I promise.” Kylo sounds as if he’s about to weep, and you do not know how to anticipate the feeling, but you can hear their fangs grow longer longer longer, and there is pleasure all around you, hands and bodies and you are so filled, you are so warm – you barely feel it when their teeth pierce your flesh.

You do feel it, when they begin to suck.

It sends your eyes flying wide open, your entire body seizing and relaxing again and again as you come from the sensation, as orgasm rips through you. It is like you are being stimulated right from your nerves themselves, your body writhes, and they all tighten their grip on you so that you stay still, so that you simply revel in the pleasure they take, that they give.

“Oh!” You cannot help but scream their names as they suck and suck and suck, drinking from your throat and your wrist, drawing it out of you in a heady rush, “Oh Ben, Mattie – Kylo!”

It is otherworldly, and you rock back onto their throbbing aching pulsing leaking cocks inside of you, you cry, wail loudly as they feast themselves on you, as you grow lightheaded in the best way. It is draining out of you, they are taking you, each of them taking their share. You hope that when this is done, there will be marks of this evening.

You hope that you’ll have evidence of their teeth stabbed into your flesh, for there are some wounds which need not heal.

“We have been waiting for so long.” Matthias groans against your wrist as you twist your hand to caress his cheek. He nuzzles into your touch, and you think that perhaps, perhaps they will not be lonely at last.

“Where can we come?” Kylo rasps, tongue fumbling over his lips to try and catch every last drop of you.

“In me – please I beg you, come in me.” You demand, command, for now you feel invincible, you feel as though something incredible is coursing through you, licking up your spine, your veins, your nerves. Something sings inside of you and you pant, “Let me be yours, and be mine. Mark me, claim me.”

“I’ll fill you up so fucking good that you taste it in the back of your throat, taste it forever.” Ben grunts and plows hard hard hard into you, spilling his load hot and thick up into your cunt, fucking it in, deep deep deep as his mouth sinks back down into the meat of your shoulder, fangs breaking the skin and sucking.

“Forever, yes! I – oh yes, yes!” Stars explode behind your eyes, and you shake, you tremble and sob as Kylo is soon to follow, his whole body tensing underneath you before he pinches your nipples hard enough to get you to wail out loud, and he comes.

They still, all three of them, but they do not finish their meal. Your heart is still beating, you can hear it, can feel it, although it is sluggish. There is something in you, something replacing the blood which they draw out with their tonguesteethlips, but whatever it is you do not know.

All you know, is that the world is beautiful and calm, and the rain has stopped outside, and you feel better than you have ever felt before. They have latched themselves to you, like lost boys with no mother, and you want to hold them close and caress them, run your fingers through their blood sweat tear stained hair, and give them all you can.

“How do I taste?” You slur, your body slowing down. It becomes harder and harder to move your limbs, so you simply do not, giving in to allowing the triplets to hold your body up. Your head lolls to one side, and they all move slowly, time stands still, you can feel yourself freezing.

“Like the sweetest wine, so fragrant, so rich.” Matthias drinks from your wrist.

“Such a strong heart.” Kylo admires from your throat.

“Such a pretty girl.” Ben purrs from your shoulder.

“What happens now?” Your eyes are wanting so badly to close, but you worry, worry that this will be the end, worry about what you will see when you shut them.

“Now you will go to sleep, and when you wake up you will begin the first night of your eternity.” Matthias is calming, always so calming, soothing as he kisses up your forearm, as he makes more bites along the way, fangs injecting you with something that chills you down to your bones.

“With you?” You ask weakly, a blissful smile on your face as the darkness creeps in all around you and you give yourself up to it, trusting them, trusting all of them.

“With us.” They echo inside your mind, until there is nothing.

Nothing at all.

                                                  ----------------

In the morning, when the sun streams through the stained glass windows which shine down onto Kylo’s bed, you open your eyes to find he is already looking at you.

With a grin, you hold up a hand, and he meets it halfway.

And this time, he doesn’t feel so cold.

[violet-t-9]

Check in on my (not very realistic) wish list for episode 136

1. The M9 eventually find a way to catch up with Lucien and Cree (or even get in front of them) before they are able to go to the astral sea AND at least start the combat please and thanks (Bonus: Cree gets a wild magic effect that gives M9 some advantage or laughs).

OH NO an intuit charge they were ambushed! The TT were way ahead of them... They caught up though! Lucian and Cree are still there... oops never mind they got ahead AGAIN, no TT combat today. Well, astral sea here we come!

2. Caleb and Beau’s eyes come into play at some point but are helpful to them instead of being used against them (look, let me try to be optimistic).

They have true sight! They can communicate telepathically to ANYONE! Hey, at least they gained some magical abilities and SOME sort of profit from all that anxiety. The eyes were still used against them to sense their presence.

3. Some long one-on-one conversations between any characters please, I need the RP experience! Any two of them would have a great dynamic.

Welp, I mean, combat time! Combat is also good, who needs RP anyways :(

4. More wild magic effects from casting in Aeor! Jester, Essek, Caduceus, Veth I’m looking at y’all. Caleb and Fjord already had their fun, but I won’t say no to more. (Bonus: the effects are harmless and fun ones like how they have been).

Oh no Veth... Is tiny... At least it didn’t cost any hit points? CALEB IS A SHEEP THAT WALKED INTO THE PORTAL LMAO. That was one of the wild magic effects that I wanted to see the most and it was as funny as possible.

5. Even more Aeorian ruin exploration and finding clues that may help them with the city business, but no more side combats before getting to the TT.

Caleb rolled 31 arcana on the runic circle wow transmutation + dunamancy! Temporal alteration! 31 on investigation too wow Caleb, “primal artifact”? TIME TRAVEL?? So that’s why it’s called the Temporal Dock! Also, wow, they actually did not enter any other side combats before TT, using stealth and magic. They were forced into a side combat after getting to them though.

6. Beau and Yasha continue with their PDA AND have a private moment together (let’s hope for both, because why not).

“Yasha your hair looks really great” lol Beau is not wasting any time is she. Yasha’s defensive “she’s wonderful” was ooc but cute lol. “Anything for my princess” lmao stop you guys. No private moment, but close enough.

7. Jester and Fjord heal each other at some point OR have more physical contact (they were so cute last episode).

Jester healed Fjord! I’m sad it had to happen but it was a good heal too. Jester also picked up the paralyzed Fjord after the intuit charges!

8. Continuing to hope for Essek’s fancy dunamantic spells OR magical items (I felt Caleb so hard last episode, I too am attracted to power and skills).

Purple sparkling dunamancy fly wings oh YEAH. Thanks for maintaining concentration on Cad you beautiful war caster you.

9. Veth and Fjord diss each other at some point OR exhibit support for each other, I love their love-hate relationship.

“Fjord can shape water... yes you can, you got it” lol Also the discussion about Veth preparing featherfall and Fjord’s “yes thank you Veth”. The “marine layer” argument lol - sounded both supportive and like a diss.

10. Continuing to hope for Caleb to polymorph into anything really, or using polymorph on any party member (polymorph! Caleb interactions my beloved, this is just going to be a permanent feature on my wish list now).

Intelligence 2 SHEEPLEB MY BELOVED BWAHAHAHAHAH I love this so much. It’s not exactly polymorph, but he is a sheep guys, that counts.

11. Mention of Davexian/Charlie at some point in time (bonus: Veth does it).

Lmao Beau mentioned Davexian right away, and Veth gave a reaction right away. I did not expect a mention so soon but here we are.

12. Jester continuing to be the braincell holder of the team and keeps everybody on task (go queen I love you).

YEAH go get that natural 20 Jester! Keep track of what floor it is! She also urges them to keep moving.

13. Essek and Caleb have more of their deep wizard conversations and interactions OR be impressed by each other at some point (Bonus: another party member mentions/addresses whatever they’ve got going on).

YES wow the temporal dock scene. Also Jester thanks for the mention lol. “It’s complicated” sounds about right. 

14. Cad attempting to speak with the dead on the remaining TT members (there are still Otis and Zoran) and learning some useful information.

Well... it’s kind of too late for that.

15. Jester sees Artagan again and we finally find out what Caleb was seeing during that commune and that scry (I need answers please! Don’t try to distract me with everything else going on, I won’t fall for it).

IT WAS TRUE SIGHT? It was true sight and Beau was just not close enough! Sprinkle whispering in Jester’s ear?? Someone’s theory I saw here was true good for you! Arty has been sprinkle all along that’s why sprinkle is alive.

16. More discussion about dunamancy in Aeor and the Luxon (I’d love to know how Essek is feeling about their discovery and get his thoughts on it).

Well... time travel magic circles are certainly dunamancy. Essek is as excited as you would expect him to be - very.

17. A successful divine intervention from either cleric! (Bonus: that allows them to stop the TT)

Nope, but it may happen next week? Maybe?

18. Heroes’ feast and we learn more about the food/drink preferences or other fun facts from everybody (Bonus: great roll on the HP boon from the feast).

Welp well they ain’t gonna get that one extra hour. 

19. I know they are not gonna see the tower but I still kinda want to see Essek’s room look it’s going to stay on this wish list until it happens.

Yeah I mean I didn’t really expect this to come true any time soon. 

20. Somebody pushes a red button, again (Bonus: it’s someone we don’t expect to push the button).

I mean, Beau went underwater to grab the magical potions, that was kinda button-pushing, but it’s to be expected. She is an expositor! She investigates!

21. Cad continuing to be a MVP in combat as always OR have an amazing non-combat idea/discovery.

Cad got Yasha up as soon as she was down! ALSO that shield of retribution force damage was AWESOME. The invisibility was so smart!

22. You know the drill by now - everyone remains relatively happy and alive by the end of the episode except Lucien and Cree (they can perish), and the episode ends on a terrifying cliffhanger as always (Bonus: they end up in the Astral Sea and that’s where we finish the episode).

Wow that bonus part is a PERFECT PREDICTION if I do say so myself. I knew that getting into the Astral Sea would be a good cliffhanger. I’m figuring it out guys.

Seriously though please stay safe and alive M9 (and yes Essek is included) that’s all I want.

Nobody has been dead so far, so I’m as happy as I can be!

Score: 16/22 

Other highlights:

Their exploration last episode paid off with the teal keycard! I knew it even distractions can be helpful!

Essek rolled a 30! On stealth! WOO his first great roll probably, Matt sounded so proud of him too. Also that clutch war caster concentration save too, he is finally rolling better (well, slightly).

Caleb’s decisive wall of force and two correct-level dispel magic saved everybody twice, competent as always. I love him so much (also, sheepleb my beloved).

NICE SAVE VETH THANK YOU omg what a queen with the mage hand, truly a 2000 IQ move made by a genius. Jester is safe I’m so happy!!

Wow, what an episode! As always, CR cast gave me such a wonderful night of tension, humour, action and intrigue. I am so happy and thankful that I get to witness this story unfold! I cannot wait for next Thursday, already. I am nervous about their astral sea journey, but I trust in the cast and they will always deliver a great story.

(Plus, maybe they can actually save Yussa now, pretty please?) :D

[lawrenceop]

HOMILY for the Solemnity of St Dominic

Isaiah 52:7-10; Ps 95; 2 Tim 4:1-8; Matt 5:13-19

St Dominic was not really noted for healing miracles during his lifetime, unless, of course, one considers raising the dead to fall under this category – this he did at least once, and in fact it was this miracle, witnessed by many people and told to the Pope that would lead to his canonisation in 1234, only thirteen years after his death in 1221. As you know, this year we mark the 800th anniversary of St Dominic’s death, which has been termed his dies natalis, his birthday into heavenly glory. A Dominican brother, who had been prior of Brescia and later Bishop of that city, reports that on the 6th of August in 1221 he saw a vision of a Dominican friar being taken up into heaven by Our Lord and Our Lady, and when he was summoned to Bologna later that day he realised it was Dominic whom he had seen being received into heavenly glory.

And then after his death the healing miracles multiplied. Many were drawn to St Dominic’s tomb in Bologna but this disturbed the brethren’s prayers, and they remained typically sceptical until a bishop got them to move St Dominic’s body to a more accessible shrine in 1233. On that occasion, which is commemorated with a feast day on the 24th of May, a sweet aroma came from his body which was found to be incorrupt, and the healing miracles continued so that the Shrine had to be enlarged and special chapel built for the relics of St Dominic, set apart from the choir where the brethren prayed.

For Dominic was making good his deathbed promise to be of more help to his brethren than he had been in his lifetime, interceding for them from heaven and healing many people. Hence, the responsory we have been singing every day of our St Dominic Novena, the 'O spem miram' reminds us that our father Dominic did “shine illustrious by so many miracles, wrought in the bodies of the sick.”

But then the 'O spem miram' makes a challenging request of our holy father Dominic for the able-bodied friars, and indeed, for all of us. We sang: "Bring us the help of Christ to heal our sick souls”. How is a soul, which is immaterial and non-bodily made sick? What does it mean to speak of spiritual sickness? When I first encountered this phrase in this antiphon it made me uncomfortable, and I would try to soften the translation of this phrase. Certainly, the original Latin phrase refers to the unhealthiness of our moribus, our moral lives, our moral actions and choices. Nevertheless, the term “sick souls”, I think, is trying to point to the interior disposition, the movement of the will, our desiring that needs healing.

Many of us are all too familiar with the struggle to do what is right, even what we know in our minds to be correct and just and true. And yet, as even St Paul says: “I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.” (Rom 7:19) Our sins, therefore, speak truthfully about our true desires, our motivations. The motto of the Dominican Order is Veritas, truth, and so there is something salutary about allowing our sins to tell us the truth about who we are, and what we truly love. For then we can bring this truth about ourselves – our sinful selves with all our weaknesses, follies, and crooked desires – to God the Divine Healer. Only when we stand in truth before God as sinners then, without fear of recrimination or rejection or harsh judgement, we can begin to be healed of our wrong desires, our acquired bad habits and evil ways, so that our true self can be revealed. But our sins only tell part of the story, which is that our actions are sinful because our desires have missed the mark. However, our true self is what God has called us to be: “You are the light of the world” says the Lord. So “let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” What we do, therefore, reflects who we love, and indeed whose we are. Those of us who call St Dominic our father should therefore reflect him in his compassion, holiness, and love for Truth. And all of us who have been baptised into Christ are thus called to change, to be healed of our sinful ways; we’re called to desire rightly so that we will shine; so that we become more truly, more authentically the children of a God who is Love. For Christ is the Light of the World, and God is Love. So we have been called to shine with the light of our good works, our loving deeds.

This song, the O spem miram is, therefore, a prayer for continual reform, for the grace of being more authentically converted to Christ, of becoming more like St Dominic who was called the “light of the Church”. This idea of on-going conversion and reform, of moving closer to Christ animates today's Gospel. And the bar is set high – the commandments will not be relaxed – so that we will continue to turn to God for mercy and seek his grace. We call this 800th anniversary a Jubilee, and in the Bible a Jubilee is a time of liberation, of forgiving debts, and setting people free. So, for this time to be a true jubilee, we pray that we’ll be set free of our sins, that we will have the grace of repentance, and that there can be a genuine lasting change in our lives, our families, our communities. The plenary indulgence that is granted by the Pope today is yet another sign that at the heart of the celebration of St Dominic’s dies natalis is the divine act of being liberated from the bondage and burden of our sins.

The problem is that we often think that we don’t need to change; that we should be left just the way we are. We don’t have sick souls, indeed, we’re not sick at all – this is what I used to think! But because God is love, so he challenges us to become better. Because God is love, so he wants to heal us of our wounds that drive us to sin, which is a kind of self-harm. And because God is love, so he provides us with his strength, his grace, his divine life especially in the Sacraments of the Church that will restore us to health and well-being. This is what St Dominic perceived, and he spent his life steadfastly teaching, patiently preaching, and bravely doing penance for the salvation of sinners. In Latin, the word translated as ‘salvation’ is salus which also means well-being, health. Therefore, it is fitting that we ask St Dominic, the Doctor veritatis to bring us Christ’s grace to heal us in body and in soul. For Christ became our Divine Physician, assuming a human body and soul precisely in order to heal us, to save us, both body and soul.

So St Thomas Aquinas says: “Christ assumed a human nature [in order] to repair the fall of man”, showing us by his life and example, “by what he did and suffered that men should consider temporal goods or [temporary sufferings in this life] as nothing, lest a disordered love" for earthly things should hold us back from loving God and placing our hope of happiness in God alone. And then, "because not only good conduct and avoiding sins is necessary for salvation, but also the knowledge of truth so as to avoid error”, so Christ revealed divine truth about salvation to Mankind. St Dominic, therefore, was concerned for both a good and healthy moral life, and also a well-formed intellect with a healthy love for the Truth. All who knew him testified to his joy because he enjoyed this health of body and soul, and he wanted this same joy and health for us Dominicans, and we want this for you, the people we serve in our parishes and ministries. For this is the Order's mission which St Dominic left us: "preaching and the salvation of souls”.

Therefore, on this festal day, all of us are invited to turn together to St Dominic our father, and we ask him today to be useful to us now, as he said he’d be; to send help from heaven that will heal us spiritually as well as bodily, and so to bring us the lasting joy of the Holy Spirit. Hence we have sung these past nine days: "Fulfill, O holy father Dominic, what you have promised, and aid us by your prayers”. Thus we pray: Bring us, kind father Dominic, the grace of Christ that converts, reforms, and heals our lives, our communities, this parish, and our families and homes. Amen.

[ironwoman18]

We Found Love in a Hopeless Place Part 24

The end of this fic has arrived!!! Hope you like this and comments your thoughts.

Read you at the end.

Chapter 24: Family

Spencer had been working in between cases trying to understand what was going on with those emails he received a few weeks ago.

“You’re so quiet… when you read” Max said as she walked to him, holding two cups of coffee.

“My brain is working… this person is sending me weird messages and I can understand quite well what he is meaning…” he said looking at her while holding the cup of coffee “I think this person was in my seminars and got my email from there”

“Not even with your super memory?” she asked sitting next to him.

He laughed softly “the problem is that there were so many people that I can’t focus on a particular person if I don’t know who I am looking in the first place”

She nodded and checked his laptop “and what do you expect to find?”

“I think this person is dealing with someone really dangerous because the way he is talking is like he knows someone might track our communications” she nodded drinking more coffee “now… I don’t know what to do, I’m trapped” he bit his lip thinking and watching the screen.

She looked at him and closed the laptop “come on… let’s go out for a walk. It will relax you” she held his cup and put it on the table then held his hand and made him get in.

“Max… I don’t know if this case is a life or dead situation…” he said looking at his girlfriend.

“Spencer… baby… I know it is important but I learned something in my career, when you can’t have new and creative ideas, you need to do something else, like going out or listen to music” she looked up at him “if you stay here your brain won’t think correctly”

“Well that’s a good theory”

“It’s not a theory, it’s a fact” she smirked softly and he smirked back “now let’s go”

He nodded and after getting jackets the couple left the apartment for a walk. They set just one rule; they cannot mention anything about his current investigation. They ate pretzels and watched the kids playing at the park.

They spent the rest of the afternoon out of the apartment. And when they got back to the apartment she looked at him before open the door “you need to relax and think out of the box. If this person is talking with encrypted messages you need to try to figure out the meaning for them” he nodded and leaned in to kiss her.

“I think that’s a great advice” he hugged her and walked in together.

After a couple of hours later they ordered dinner and decided to watch a movie, he picked Titanic. Almost at the end of the movie and a couple of tears after Jack’s dead; Max looked up at him and, as the credits started, with Celine Dion in the background she started to talk “Spencer, I had been thinking for a while about this but I knew neither of us were ready but now I think we are” she said looking his face and his reactions “I want you to move in with me. Its almost a year since we met and honestly I never had good luck with this kind of decisions but I got a feeling that it will be different with you” she bit her lip looking at him.

Spencer took a long moment to answer, making her nervous “I would love to. I know your story with your ex boyfriends and you know that I’m like an old man in a younger one but as you said… I think we are different and we love each other so I’m sure we will be perfectly fine” she hugged and kissed him.

He decided to ask for a days off to continued his investigations and to move his books and clothes to her apartment. And he was sure that he found everything he needed to know, he led a SWAT Team in a storage unit where they found the former VICAP agent Owen Quinn.

At first he thought the agent was dead but suddenly the man came back to life and they took him to check in the hospital then returned to the BAU.

“Spence… how did you find Quinn?”

“I received some emails with some encrypted information and at the end I figured them out to find him”

“Emails? Since when you… the technophobic… created an email account?”

“JJ I created one for my classes during the few months I was my hours in the field restricted, so you don’t need to worry…” he said walking to the interrogation room.

“Of course I have to… Spence, you hid information about going to New Mexico to buy a medicine for your mother, which led Catherine Adams to attack you” she said stopping him “I’m your best friend and I didn’t even know you have and email. Also I feel like you are hiding more things and I can’t tell what”

“JJ… you know I really appreciate your concern and I’m happy that you are worry but I’m not a kid or your son. I’m a grow man and I can take care of myself. I know you do it because you don’t want me to get hurt but you can’t protect me all the time” he said in a calm voice, he did not say it angry or frustrated. She just nodded and he left to start the interrogation.

It was hard to believe Quinn’s story about the marriage couple and their son keeping him hostage, so the team was trying to keep their minds open but it was hard, especially knowing his paranoia with this serial killer team.

After hours they discovered that the person who sent Spencer the emails was Theo, the son of the crazy couple, which helped them to believe in Quinn’s story. When they finally understood about the cult they led Quinn go.

The team left to Rossi’s house for a drink and maybe even dinner but Spencer and Penelope which stayed a few more time. He wanted to wait with Quinn’s son until his dad was released, and he texted Max about it, and Penelope had a few things to finished before joining the team.

But VICAP agent Mary Meadows went down with Penelope and Quinn and she killed Quinn and kidnapped Penelope.

Then took Spencer hostage with her and took them out of the FBI building.

The team thought it was Quinn’s fault at first but after watching the cameras they realized that Mary was the one who did it. Meanwhile Spencer and Penelope worked together to left breadcrumbs for the team, doing little things to lead them to the cult.

Emily recognized Mary from an old case and the team discovered their plan of killing three hundred people and Spencer was the three hundredth so they decided to leave to save him after saving Penelope.

They did not have troubles finding the Cult, and they made sure to be quiet to infiltrate and save Spencer.

On their way home and after a heartfelt conversation Emily decided to give him a little surprise to she texted Max, explained her briefly what happened and asked her to go to the FBI office. Max did not ask much, she was happy to know he was fine and on his way home so she drove to the FBI.

Emily made some calls to get her in and when they arrived to the airport, the team went to the office to see Garcia, who was crying and hugged her good friend and Comic-Con partner.

Then Emily led him to her office “I brought a surprise for you, I made sure no one see her because I know you don’t want them to know” he shook his head knowing what she did.

“Really? You brought her here?” she nodded and opened the door of her office. There was Max biting her nails waiting. She looked at him, he had some bruises and cuts on his head but he looked as handsome and perfect as usual.

She walked to him and hugged him tightly; he hugged her back and laid his head on her hair. She cried on his chest for a minute and when she calmed down he led her to a couch in the office.

“I-I got worry when you didn’t arrive but I thought you had some other things to do. T-Then Emily texted me to come here because you were kidnapped by a cult…”

“Yeah… I met them after Gidion left the team, their former leader died that day and another man took over the cult. They spent all this time killing around the country and collecting the bone that hold the tongue in place. They had two hundred ninety-nine of them and wanted there three hundred”

“And it would be yours, right?” she rubbed his cheek with tears. He nodded and his eyes were on hers “what happened to the man you found?”

“He died… the woman who kidnapped me and Garcia killed him because he recognized her” she nodded and hugged him again. She was happy to have him back but worry about what could come next “come on… I think you should meet my family” he smiled and stands up “they saved me and now I want them to know someone who saved me in another way” she smiled still with tear.

They walked out the office and there were the rest of the team. JJ looked at him then at her and she smiled, finally realizing why he was different. The rest of the team looked at them and smiled.

“Boy genius had a girlfriend?” asked Penelope watching Max close to him.

“Apparently…” said Matt looking at Luke “you own me 50 bucks” he whispered in his ear.

The Latin man signed “You are better profiler than me man…” he handed it to Matt without the others realizing.

“Guys this is Max. She is my girlfriend and the person who helped me recover after what happened with Cat” she waved at them.

“I heard so many things about you all and I’m glad to finally meet you” said Max smiling.

Each of them introduced themselves and after that Rossi invited them to go to his house for a proper dinner/ breakfast and a toast for finally meeting Spencer’s girlfriend.

Mount Pleasant Women’s Correctional Facility

Cat Adams was in her cell, bored, when one of her puppets walked in “Cat, I have information…”

“About?”

“Spencer Reid…” Cat’s bored face changed “he has a girlfriend”

“How do you know it?”

“There’s someone in the FBI that told a guard here and he told me” Cat smirked and nodded.

“Thank you Claire… I have something fun to do now” her smile grows bigger.

“The memories we make with our family is everything.” – Candace Cameron Bure.

FIN?

OOooOOooOO

I hope you liked this final chapter. Thank you again for reading and sharing your feedback. If you have plots for Maxcer let me know and I will do it.

[karajaynetoday]

everybody's got their demons, even wide awake or dreaming | part one

Photo credit: Jess Gleeson 

Hello friends! Hope you’re having a lovely day wherever you are in the world. Thank you to everyone who voted in my little Google form thing on what they’d like to see me write next. Here’s Part One of my 5SOS x music journalist story. It’s a little angsty, and as the first chapter this is a lot of introduction to the OC and her story, but I hope you like it! It’s the first time I’ve written an OC into a fic, so I’d love to know your thoughts and if you’re interested in reading more about Lizzie and her adventures interviewing 5SOS.

Shout outs to @wheniminouterspace and @calumrose​ for helping me sense-check this concept, and @spicycal for giving me feedback on it in its draft stages. You’re all gems! 

Word count: 5.1k

Warnings: Fem!OC, minor swearing

More writing here | send thoughts/feedback/suggestions here | if you’d like to be on my taglist go here

Lizzie Lawson was having a bit of a day. Her train had been late, she dropped her coffee moments after receiving it from the cute barista downstairs (and broke her favourite keep cup in the process), and her work computer had decided to run updates the moment she sat down at her desk. Maybe she shouldn’t have bothered to get out of bed this morning.

Her colleagues were tapping away at their keyboards, answering phone calls, and discussing upcoming story ideas with each other - the usual tasks, especially for a Monday morning. Lizzie, computerless and caffeine deprived, had to settle for a cup of instant coffee from the kitchenette, and had taken to tidying up her desk while her computer was restarting over and over again but still somehow not ready for use. She was on the floor, sorting through the snacks in her bottom desk drawer (crackers that were two months’ past their expiry date, some gummy worms, and what seemed like hundreds of cans of tuna) when James, the music editor, stuck his head out of his office and called for her.

“Lawson! Where are you?” James sounded confused. He could’ve sworn he’d seen Lizzie at her desk moments ago, and then suddenly she popped her head up like a meerkat.

“Jimbo! Here. What’s crack-a-lackin?” Lizzie responded, standing up and brushing herself off as she headed towards where James was standing in his office doorway.

“Got a pitch for ya. Step into my office, if you’re finished with your spring clean.” James chuckled as he stepped back inside and sat down on the couch opposite his desk. 

A number of journalism awards were displayed on the shelf above the couch, and the floor to ceiling window overlooked Sydney’s CBD and its tall, grey buildings, with a glimpse of the harbour ocean in the distance. Lizzie had to admit she’d imagined herself in James’ desk chair more than a few times; the music editor of one of Australia’s leading youth and pop culture publishing companies, regularly travelling the world to interview award-winning artists, and assigning and guiding well-crafted investigative pieces on the entertainment industry and those within in. 

But, in reality, Lizzie had only recently worked her way up to being in the music department, after a couple of years on the news desk and a series of casual internships at different publications around the place. But music journalism, and the passion she had for live performances and watching artists grow and develop their sounds and aesthetics over their careers, was where Lizzie had always wanted her career to go. She was grateful to James for having her on the team, but she also knew that he didn’t recruit just anyone - so her writing must’ve been strong enough to get her here. James was a good boss, salt of the earth, always had his team’s back, but he was also a little mysterious, and this morning’s meeting was one of those where his face was giving absolutely nothing away as Lizzie joined him on the couch in the office. 

“So, what’s up?” Lizzie said, trying to hide the nervousness in her voice.

“Well, Lawson. You’ve only been on deck for a few months, but turns out my gut instinct about you has paid off. That profile you did on the 1975 last month has gotten some good feedback and traction out and about.” James spoke in a measured tone, pulling his laptop off the coffee table and opening it.

“Oh! Well, that’s… good, right?” Lizzie still couldn’t figure out exactly why she was in James’ office. Or why she was so nervous. 

“Correct, it is good. It’s been great to see you come into your own a little bit, and develop your interview style. I also really appreciated you stepping in to cover the Matt Corby interview for Hannah the other day, when she had that stomach bug.” James continued, seemingly searching for an email or something on his laptop as he spoke. 

“No worries! Hannah’s notes were really thorough, plus I definitely had a Matt Corby phase when he was on Australian Idol back in 2006! Oof, that fringe, you know?” Lizzie cringed internally when she heard herself starting to babble. 

James snorted, before clearing his throat. “I’m sure Matt was glad the 2006 hairstyle didn’t take up too many words in the final profile piece. He was pretty happy with it though, and his management were too, according to the label. So happy, in fact, that they’re requested you to profile another one of their artists.”

James had Lizzie’s full attention now, and she still couldn’t read his expression. “Really? Me? Who’s the artist?” She asked, trying not to get too excited too soon.

“Yes, indeed, you. 5 Seconds of Summer, or 5SOS. They’ve got a new album due out in a month or so, and their publicist is keen to fly you out to LA for a few weeks to follow them around while they wrap things up in the studio, and do a profile piece on their journey to date. Are you familiar with their stuff? They’re offering us an exclusive, something about the album being linked to their homeland or something, so they wanted to go with an Australian media outlet first.” James set his laptop back down on the coffee table and angled it so Lizzie could see an email on the screen that had a few lines of text and a photo of a band onstage.

5SOS. Was Lizzie familiar? Oh yes, she was familiar. Lizzie Lawson hailed from the western suburbs, and 5SOS was the area’s biggest success story. Aussie boys made good, with millions of albums sold, billions of song streams, thousands of concerts played all around the world, that was their career to date. But for Lizzie, 5SOS were always a bit closer to home. She’d attended the same high school as three of the band members, and Michael Clifford was someone she called her best friend, once upon a time. Ashton had also befriended Lizzie’s older brother Lachlan when they’d worked together at KFC. That was years ago now, and they’d all fallen out of touch, because sometimes that’s just the way the universe works. You grow up and you move on and you don’t keep the same friends, because sometimes they move to the other side of the world and get super famous as successful musicians. Or something like that. Even if they know your deepest secrets, or biggest fears, or hopes and dreams, or you trust them more than anything, sometimes they still leave you. 

Lizzie’s previous state of intrigue quickly became panic, because what if she wasn’t actually being chosen based on the merit of her work? What if the 5SOS team knew about her connection to the band, and were going to use it to manipulate her writing in some way? What if it was all a ploy to get her and Michael in the same room so he could finally call her out on what had gone down between them all those years ago? What if - 

“Lawson! You on planet earth still, or wait?” James snapped his fingers in front of Lizzie’s face to get her attention. She shook her head to clear it, and wrung her hands together in her lap.

“Yep, I’m familiar with their work. A little fuzzy on the most recent work, but I have a bit of knowledge on a lot of their early stuff. And Youngblood, of course. Everyone knows Youngblood. ARIA song of the year, a billion streams, etc etc.” Lizzie spoke, meeting James’ gaze as he cocked his head at her curiously. He knew Lizzie had a tendency to get a little nervous when she was put on the spot, but there was something about her right now that was a little more unsettled than usual that he couldn’t quite put his finger on.

“Good. Well, if you’re down, the label will cover three weeks accommodation in Los Angeles. Labels don’t usually do that kind of thing, but their manager is super keen for you to get enough quality time with the band to build up a solid profile piece. We’ll cover your daily expenses, I’ll send you instructions for the claiming app, and then we just need your passport to get the flights booked. Sound okay?” 

“Y-yep. Yes. Okay. Right. When would I be leaving?” Lizzie pinched her thigh through her jeans to double check that she wasn’t dreaming, and that yes, this was actually happening. 

“Friday midday. We’ll put some feelers out in LA, and see if there’s any other interviews you can do while you’re there, but your focus will be on 5SOS because they’re picking up the bill for your stay. But that being said, don’t let that sway what you write. They’ve requested you because they like your deep, detailed, open style of profiling, so don’t be afraid to ask some curly questions to get the answers that will craft the right piece, you know?” James spoke firmly, looking pointedly at Lizzie who quickly nodded in response.

“Right, well, I’ll cc you into this email chain with their publicist and manager, and we’ll go from there. You can hand over your other pieces to Hannah, you’ll need to spend the next few days prepping for LA and doing whatever research you need to feel ready. You’ve got this, Lizzie. I know you can do a great job.” James was trying to be encouraging, as he stood up and opened the door to his office, but Lizzie’s heart was pounding with nerves and she barely hear his words. 

She walked back to her desk in a daze, and Hannah had to literally poke Lizzie in her side to get her attention and ask what James had said in the meeting. A few excited squeals and a bear hug later, Hannah was off and running talking about lists of things Lizzie needed to organise before her international adventure was due to begin in a few days’ time. Lizzie, on the other hand, still couldn’t believe it. What the fuck was happening?

--

The next few days flew by in a haze of emails, life admin, last minute shopping trips and a lot of deep breathing on Lizzie’s part, and before she knew it, she was wrangling her suitcase out of an Uber and into the international terminal at Sydney Airport. Lizzie, as a generally anxious person, had arrived the full three hours early for her flight, but her parents had treated her to a flight lounge guest pass (because they wanted her to know they were proud), so she was able to deal with her nerves by eating far too many complimentary croissants and hash browns. 

Soon enough, the time to board the plane arrived, and Lizzie was grateful that she ended up in an empty row of seats, by some miracle. Praise be to the airline gods, or whichever higher power had decided she’d be able to at least try and get some sleep in the next fourteen hours. She’d set her phone and watch forward to Los Angeles time, so she could try and adjust her body clock accordingly, which meant that she’d have to stay up for a few hours at least.

Lizzie tried to be productive, and tapped away at her research notes on her laptop for a little while, before she found herself opening up the band’s instagram page in her browser. The four men staring back at Lizzie through the screen seemed a million miles away from the gangly, excitable teenagers she’d known all those years ago. There was an interesting intensity about them in the photograph, steely gazes and defined bodies under carefully selected clothing, but there was also a peacefulness in their poses beside one another. Like being together, in this moment captured minutes before heading onstage, was the most natural thing in the world. Lizzie found her eyes drawn towards Michael; his dirty blonde hair swept across his forehead (not dissimilar to the style he’d had in their high school days, to be honest), and it was accompanied by some scruffy facial hair and a dangly cross earring in one ear. His grey-green eyes seemed to peer right into her soul, and Lizzie involuntarily shivered at the thought of seeing him again in person in a day or so. 

She was still anxious about whether or not this entire thing was a scam, but nonetheless, she was going to try her darndest to be a consummate professional, and write the best profile story of her life. In her research, Lizzie had reviewed some previous 5SOS interviews, and she’d cringed her way through their Rolling Stone interview from many years prior. She remembered reading it at the time it was published, unable to believe some of the words attributed to the boys she’d once called her friends, and the intense aftermath that followed. Understandably, they’d avoided in-depth profile interviews since, so Lizzie was incredibly curious as to why they’d changed their mind. Why now? Why her? She closed her laptop and drifted into sleep, curled up across three airplane seats and tucked under a thin blanket. 

Lizzie’s shoulders and neck were stiff when she awoke, an hour or so before her flight was due to land. She used the in-flight wifi to check her emails quickly, and noted a new one from 5SOS’s publicist Danielle, which welcomed Lizzie to Los Angeles and explained that she should catch a taxi to her accommodation at the address listed, and that she should give her a call once she was checked in. Right. That seemed straight forward enough.

LAX customs were intimidating as ever (god, Lizzie was so nervous), but Lizzie made it through without incident and was able to quickly make her way into a cab with a driver who seemed familiar with her accommodation address. They drove her to a boutique-looking hotel, and when Lizzie checked in and made her way up to her room, she was pleasantly surprised at how nice it was. A queen-sized bed, a good desk for working at, a nice view from her balcony of the Hollywood Hills, a small kitchenette with a fridge and microwave, and a glorious bathroom that had a very enticing bath tub in it (Lizzie’s shoulders and neck were already thankful for the idea of being able to soak in some nice hot water for a while). 

After checking the room for serial killers (better to be safe than sorry, right?) Lizzie had a quick shower and changed out of her travel trackies and oversized hoodie into a pair of jeans, a clean shirt and a blazer, before opening up her phone and scrolling down to Danielle’s contact. A few deep breaths were required before Lizzie built up the courage to press “call”.

“This is Danielle!” A cheery American accent answered on the other end of the line.

“H-hi Danielle, this is Lizzie, from Junkee Australia. You said in my email I should give you a call once I was all checked in, and I am, so…” Lizzie found herself giggling nervously and facepalmed.

“Lizzie, of course! How was your flight? Long and boring?”

“Yep, that about sums it up!” Danielle’s enthusiasm made Lizzie feel like she had to perk herself up a bit in conversation.

“Well, I’m sure you’re gagging for a nap, but we’ve got to get you adjusted to the timezone so we can make the most of your time here. I’m just finishing up something in the office, but I can swing by your hotel in about 45 minutes, and we can go over your story pitch and the band schedule for the next few weeks, and figure out your interview time slots and other things you can go along to observe, if that works for you?” Lizzie could hear Danielle’s keyboard clacking as she spoke.

“Sure, well, you have my number now, so just text me when you get here. I’ll try my best not to nap in the meantime.” Lizzie’s somewhat dry response got a laugh out of Danielle, who agreed and bid her farewell, ending the call.

Placing her phone down on the bedside table, Lizzie looked around the hotel room that was set to be her home away from home for the better part of the next month, and spotted a coffee machine on top of the mini fridge. If she was really going to keep her no-nap promise, caffeine was definitely in order. 

True to her word, Danielle arrived at the hotel within the hour, and soon Lizzie found herself sat beside Danielle on a fancy couch tucked in a corner of the hotel lobby. Danielle had opened up her laptop, and also pulled a plastic folder of documents out of her tote bag.

“Okay, so… I’m sure you’ve done your own research, but here’s a few hard copies of the band bio, album press release, and a few other tidbits from the label, along with a hard copy of the band schedule. It’s all confidential and coded, the electronic version I’ve emailed you will have the proper locations for everything, but I thought a print out might be handy anyway. The boys are recording some stuff at the studio Calum has at his house tomorrow, so I figured we could introduce you there and then after that figure out what else you’d like to get done. There’s an industry showcase for some of the new songs at the end of the week, and then they’re doing various promo and album prep things, finalising mixes, photoshoots, etc, so there’s a bit of variety for you. Any initial thoughts on how you want to do the interviews for your profile?” Danielle rattled off, gazing at Lizzie expectantly when she finished speaking.

Lizzie blinked at her a few times before collecting herself. “In my research, I found it really interesting to hear the band and some of the fans talking about how 5SOS has evolved into the collective effort of four individual artists, not just the band as one artistic music entity, so I was hoping, if possible, to interview them individually, as well as observing them as a group. Would.. Would that be okay, do you think?” 

Danielle pursed her lips, before breaking out into a smile. 

“I think that sounds exactly like something the band would be willing to do. Damn, Matt Emsell was right - you do know your stuff.” She chuckled, handing the folder of documents over to Lizzie and pulling out the schedule that was on top.

“So studio at Calum’s tomorrow from 10am, I’ll swing by and collect you so we can do introductions, I’ll stick around for a bit just to make sure you’re all good but otherwise I’m just going to let you do your thing. The band have been doing this for long enough now, they don’t need their publicist hovering.”

The curiosity was killing Lizzie. She couldn’t not ask. 

“Danielle, I’ve got to ask this, sorry. Do the band… know me? Know that I’m the one coming to interview them?” Lizzie managed to get out, avoiding eye contact.

“What do you mean?” Danielle cocked her head to one side, clearly confused at the question. “I sent them the Matt Corby piece you did, and they liked that, so that was one of the reasons we asked you out here. So they’re familiar with your work, if that’s what you’re asking?”

“No, um… oh god, I’ve made this super awkward now.” Lizzie laughed dryly, wringing her hands together. “I mean, I know them. Personally. Or at least I used to. I’m from Sydney, and I went to school with Luke, and Calum, and… Michael. So I was just wondering,  um, if they realised that it was me and that was part of why I was asked to come to LA for this…Not really sure why that would make them choose me, but I just wanted to make sure we were all on the same page before tomorrow.” Lizzie finally dared to look up at Danielle, whose expression was unreadable.

“Hmm, well, that is interesting. As far as I know, that wasn’t a factor at all. We all genuinely liked your writing style, so whether or not the boys made the connection, I have no idea. They’re not super keen on any irrelevant personal life stuff making it into this piece though, so if this is going to be a problem for you, we should deal with it now.” Her tone was slightly less warm than before, and Lizzie could sense the protective publicist side of Danielle kicking in.

“Definitely not a problem. I entirely intend to be fully professional, and like you said, my writing will speak for itself. Just wanted to put it all out there. Not a problem for me.” Lizzie spoke up, willing herself to sound more confident than she felt.

“Good. We have no problems here then. I’ve got to run, but text me with any questions, otherwise I’ll see you at 9.30am tomorrow for the drive to Calum’s!” Danielle’s tone was nice and bright again, as she shut her laptop and gathered her belongings, patting Lizzie’s shoulder in what she assumed was some sort of attempt at calming her nerves.

It didn’t work though. Not a problem for Lizzie? Bullshit. Not a problem for 5SOS, and Michael in particular? Seemed unlikely. 

--

Lizzie was worried she’d have a restless night’s sleep because of her overwhelming anxiety about the next day’s reunion, but the exhaustion from her travelling overtook her and she almost slept through her alarm. A quick shower and a shot of espresso later and Lizzie was downstairs waiting for Danielle to pick her up to head over to meet the band.

“Morning! How’d you sleep?” Danielle chirped as she rolled into the car park, her car window down. 

“Very deeply, thank you! The room is really comfortable. Thanks again for organising.” Lizzie mentally urged herself to keep up the small talk as a way of hiding her nerves.

The car ride over was mostly quiet, but when they pulled up outside of what Lizzie assumed was Calum’s house, she definitely felt like she was about to vomit.

“Just so you know, I flagged our conversation last night with the band. About your pitch around the individual interviews, and also about your little… connection to them. Ashton didn’t seem to think it was a problem, so it should all be fine.” Danielle mused, as she opened her car door and hopped out. All Lizzie could do was nod, because her throat was dry and she was starting to panic. She blindly followed Danielle through the front gate and around the side of the house to a building in the backyard, Lizzie strained to hear what sounded like raised, male voices floating towards them as they approached. She couldn’t make out what they were saying, but it didn’t entirely sound positive.

Danielle knocked loudly on the door and shot Lizzie a reassuring smile, before the shouting subsided and it swung open. Calum Hood stood in the doorway, and Lizzie sucked in a breath. It’d been eight years, maybe more since she’d last seen Calum, and even then, had they spoken? She couldn’t remember. 

Calum smiled at Danielle, and then his eyes flickered over to Lizzie, not quite carrying the same happiness, but not entirely losing it either.

“Morning, ladies. Welcome to casa di Calum, come on in.” He spoke with that scratchy, deep voice of his that Lizzie had reacquainted herself with when watching hours of interviews during her research. 

Danielle stepped passed Calum into the room, and she indicated for Lizzie to follow, which she did. Lizzie could feel Calum’s gaze on her as she brushed past him, but the minute she stepped inside, any sense of warmth or welcome she’d felt before vanished. 

Luke and Ashton were standing over by the sound recording panel, turning to look at Lizzie and Danielle as they entered. Lizzie thought she saw a hint of a smile on Luke’s face (they had survived Year 8 Maths together, after all… that had to count for something, right?), but Ashton was unreadable.

Entirely obvious, though, was the look of bitter disdain on Michael Clifford’s face when Lizzie finally spotted him hunched over on the couch along the wall. Those grey-green eyes were staring her down with a harsh glare. It had familiarity about it, Lizzie realised, but not in a good way. 

Danielle cleared her throat in the silence, and turned to Lizzie.

“Well, I believe introductions might not be required, but in the interest of professionalism and courtesy - “ Lizzie didn’t miss Danielle’s pointed glance towards Michael, who was still scowling silently towards everyone - “Lizzie Lawson from Junkee, I would like you to meet Calum Hood, Ashton Irwin, Luke Hemmings and Michael Clifford, also collectively known as 5 Seconds of Summer or 5SOS.” 

Lizzie waved, and then immediately cursed herself for being so goddamn awkward.  She received a nod of recognition from Ashton, and small smiles from Luke and Calum. From Michael, more scowling. This was going to be a long three weeks. 

“So, Lizzie, why don’t you go through the pitch for the profile that we discussed yesterday? The boys already have a bit of an idea, but I’m sure they’d love to hear it from you.” Danielle was being overly encouraging, but it worked, and Lizzie took a deep breath before speaking.

“Thanks, Danielle. And thank you to you guys, honestly. I know this is a little strange for all of us -”

“Fucking oath it is.” Lizzie heard Michael mutter under his breath, but she continued, undeterred. 

“But, I’m really excited to have the opportunity to interview you and pull together this story. Especially on behalf of the Australian music media. I know they haven’t always given you the recognition you deserve, but I think this piece is a chance to overcome that. Anyway, the specific pitch I’d love to go with is reflective of you as individual artists, as well as the collective band group. If it’s suitable, it’d be great to have the chance to speak to each of you one-on-one as well as a group, to give a holistic view of your journeys as people and as musicians and what you’re trying to achieve with this album. So… yeah…” Lizzie trailed off nervously, clenching her hands at her sides.

“I love it. We’re happy you’re here, Lizzie. I really loved the Matt Corby piece Danielle sent us, and like you said, it was really important for us to have the perspective of an Australian journalist for this story and where we’re at right now.” Ashton’s calm voice broke the silence, as he nodded at Lizzie in agreeance. Luke and Calum nodded too, and Lizzie tried not to look towards Michael because no doubt he was still glaring at her.

“Great! Everyone’s on the same page. I have to dash off to a meeting, but Lizzie has my number if she needs it, otherwise all of you please behave and don’t scare her off, nor say anything that means I’ll have to destroy her tape recorder. Sound good? Good!” Danielle rattled off quickly, moving out the door and shutting it behind her. 

The tension in the air was thick, and it was all seething from Michael’s direction towards Lizzie. She closed her eyes for a moment, before reaching into her bag and pulling out her phone, notebook and pen. She spotted a chair behind her, and turned back towards Luke and Ashton.

“Well, where do you want to start? A group sit down, some general thoughts on the journey so far and what the album experience has been like?” Lizzie offered, trying to make herself sound enthusiastic, but also in control and like she knew what she was doing.

Luke, Calum and Ashton all murmured in agreeance, and moved themselves over to sit by Michael on the couch, while Lizzie dragged the chair she’d spotted over to sit facing them.

“Right. All good if I audio record this?” She asked, hitting record on her voicenotes app after three heads nodded at her.

“So, the album. Where did it begin? Did anyone or anything influence or kick off the sonic direction or the start of the exploratory process?”

The conversation was flowing quite well, Lizzie though. Ashton dominated most of the responses to her questions, but Luke and Calum chipped in their perspectives throughout. Michael didn’t say a word, even when Calum poked him in the side, and instead of glaring at Lizzie he was now staring blankly at the wall over her shoulder. An improvement, sort of, but still not ideal from a journalist and interviewee perspective, let alone when the interviewee was someone who used to be Lizzie’s best friend. 

Before she knew it, an hour had past, and Ashton stood, remembering a meeting they had scheduled with the label and their management team, and bringing the interview to a close. 

As Lizzie was packing up her equipment, she cautiously brought up the topic of the one on one interviews. 

“So, does anyone in particular have free time in the next few days, so I can start on the individual profiling part of the story?” Lizzie asked, her tone hopeful.

Michael’s response was to push straight past her and walk out of the studio, muttering to himself and slamming the door as he went. The loud noise made Lizzie flinch, and she realised her heart was racing and her hands were a little shaky. 

“I’ve got time, LL Cool J. I’ll meet you at Joan’s on Third for lunch, say 1pm?”  Lizzie smiled at the pld nickname Calum slipped into his quiet response to her question. 

“Works for me, C Dizzle Swizzle. Thanks again for your time today, I really appreciate it. Not to sound like a broken record, but I’m really excited for this piece and the chance to tell your story.” Lizzie found herself grinning like an idiot as she met Calum’s warm gaze, and noted that Ashton and Luke were also smiling at her.

“We’re excited too, Lizzie. Even if… some of us might not quite be as enthusiastic as they should be. But, don’t worry. He’ll come round.” It was Luke that spoke this time, his striking blue eyes somehow staring straight into Lizzie’s soul as he looked at her. 

“Here’s hoping.” Lizzie tried not to sound too dull in her response, but it was a challenge. 

Because honestly, how the fuck was she going to do a profile on all four members of 5 Seconds of Summer, if one of them could barely stand being in the same room as her?

Time will tell, Lizzie thought to herself as she walked out of the door to Calum’s studio and into the warm California sunlight. Time will tell. 

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[sunsetinmyvein]

The Radio Station - Chapter Two - I’m So Excited

21st of August, 2013

  The email had come in from her boss about a week before the interview was scheduled – next Wednesday, Mathew Healy was going to be back on her show. A part of her felt kind of anxious about this fact. Since the last time they had met, the band had indeed taken off as she predicted. Their popularity was only snowballing and the man that she had the pleasure of knowing for a brief while was revelling in it (from what she had seen in other interviews, anyway). She tried to remind herself that he was very easy to get along with the last time, so this should be no different. And she had met some substantially larger names than The 1975 in her time at the station. So, her anxiety was therefore fairly unwarranted. Which begged the question about why she felt those nerves sitting at the pit of her stomach in the first place, just from knowing that he was coming back into the studio. However, there wasn’t any point in stewing over it, nor was there time to, because he was knocking lightly at her glass door before she knew it. His mohawk had grown out a bit since she’d last seen him eight months ago, but otherwise he looked largely the same. She had a feeling he was even wearing the same black jacket he’d been wearing before. Looking behind him, it would seem that he’d brought one of the guys with him that she had seen him with after their last interview. If she recalled correctly, he was their drummer.

 “It was Matthew, yeah?” She asked, trying to play it cool as she ushered the two of them inside. She hoped that it wouldn’t be apparent too quickly that she had been watching The 1975's movements closely since they’d met. Though, if Matthew was as clued on this time as he was the last time they’d spoke, she likely wouldn’t be able to hide it for long.

“Yeah, but Matty’s better.” He grinned. There was a short pause as he stopped for a beat and maintained eye contact, before remembering that he had someone else to introduce. “And I don’t think you guys formally met last time, but this is George. I dragged him along, hope that’s okay.” He added as he gestured to the man standing behind him.  

“Good seeing you again.” George nodded politely.

“You as well.” She replied. “Take a seat you guys, there’s still a couple of songs that have to play through before I introduce you.” She said as she gestured to the other side of the desk. Matty gladly took the usual guest spot as George dragged across the smaller chair from the corner of the room.

  “How’ve you been?” Matty asked eagerly, shuffling around in his seat as he tried to get comfortable.

“Yeah, good. Pretty much the same as usual.” She chuckled as she took a sip of her coffee.

“I’m surprised that you’re still running the lunchtime shift and they’ve not bumped you up to some prime time, peak-hour traffic slot.” He said casually, earning an incredulous laugh from her. The morning and afternoon shifts were the most coveted positions at any radio station, let alone one as big as this. She was pretty happy that she’d managed to land a job that gave her hours during the day as opposed to a midnight shift.

“Ah, I think I’d need a bit more of an audience before that happened.” She replied.

“I dunno, from what I’ve heard you seem to have a decent following.” He said with a shrug.

It was quiet for a moment as she processed that. She was pretty certain she could hear the clock hanging above the door ticking quietly as her brain tried to catch up. “You listen to the show?” She asked eventually.

“Whenever I get a chance, yeah. Or just catch a few highlights here and there on social media.”

  That truly caught her off guard. Matthew Healy was out there writing albums, playing shows, and listening to her radio show? Why? Surely, he had better things to do in his downtime? “Uh, so what about you guys?” She asked, clearing her throat and trying to change the topic before he took note of how flustered she was becoming at this knowledge. “How’s things?”

“Really good!” He grinned. “We had Glastonbury recently which was amazing, and have Reading and Leeds coming up this weekend, and-” He started rattling off, quickly stopped by George as he put a hand down on the singers’ shoulder.

“Don’t wanna give too much away before the interview starts, Matt.” He laughed softly.

“Well, no, but-“

“You have to save the stories or you’re just gonna end up repeating them.”

“I can tell different ones.”

“You’re gonna tell the same ones that you tell every time, I know you are. And you won’t wanna tell them in the interview because you already said them now.”

“You don’t know that.” Matty frowned, clearly keen to push the point.

They continued this back and forth for a while before she intervened, “Anyway,” She sensed she had to diffuse this argument before it progressed into teenage bickering. “let’s do an interview.”

  The two of them instantly tuned out of their conversation and back into the matter at hand as she began flipping switches. She pulled her headset on as she gave them one last cursory glance to make sure that they were ready.

"Hope you’re all having a pleasant afternoon out there, folks.” She spoke into her microphone. “As per usual on our Wednesday shows, I do have some special guests here in the studio with me to have a chat.” She said, nodding across to Matty to introduce himself.

“Hey! It’s Matty from The 1975.” He said with an excited grin.

“And George.” His friend added, leaning across to be closer to the mic. “Great to be here.”

“So, it’s been about nine months since you were here-”

“Entirely too long, if you ask me.” Matty chimed in casually. She pressed on, trying to ignore the charm that seemed to radiate from just about everything this man said.

“-and all of the EPs are out now, correct?” She continued.

“Yep.”

“Your album comes out in just under two weeks?”

“That sounds about right.”

  She glanced down at the notepad in front of her, but she was pretty sure that over the last week she had memorised these questions front to back. “Are you excited for the album to finally be out? You were saying last time that it was practically already written back when you started the EP concepts.”

“We're definitely excited to finally hear people's reactions after how much traction we've gained from the EPs.” George began.

“It's been sitting in our heads for so long, it was almost hard to postpone it, but we wanted it to be perfect.” Matty threw in. “We didn't really expect to have such a positive reaction so soon, so it'll be interesting to see what people do with the main event.” Matty answered with a daydreamy look flashing in his eyes for a moment.

“I’ve really been enjoying the EPs.” She added, which instantly caught Matty's attention.

“Have you?” He asked instantly.

“Yeah, they've had a fair few spins through my playlists.” She laughed, suddenly making him grin ear to ear.

  “You mentioned the positive reaction, Matty. With how fast you guys have taken off, I've heard a lot of people out there referring to The 1975 as an overnight success.” She prompted. “But you guys have been working on this since you were teenagers.”

He let out a sigh. “There is so much stuff about us being an overnight success…” He pulled a hand through his hair as he looked over at George. “It’s been ten years, actually.” He chuckled.

“Was the ten years worth it when you got the call to open for the Stones?”

“Yeah. Yeah!” He almost shouted, now letting out a full laugh. “it’s stuff like that, that really makes you appreciate it.”

George nodded along with him. “I think this whole year’s been worth it. Not just the Stones show, we’ve had a lot of great festivals and great sold out shows. It’s been strange. Surreal telling people about those events.” He elaborated.

“We didn’t mean for any of this to happen, really. So, it was a bit daunting initially.”

  “You guys are still on tour?” She asked, moving along to the next topic.

“Yeah, have been since we last spoke.” Matty said with a nod. “Not really getting off tour until...” He seemed to be counting in his head. “December next year.”

“Next year?” She asked in surprise. “That's quite a long tour.”

“We are just… constantly on the move now.” He shrugged.

“That's for sure. It’s been a big year for The 1975. You guys had Glastonbury in June.”

“Yeah! That was amazing. It was incredible to play at a festival that we all grew up going to.”

“And have Reading and Leeds coming up this weekend with some big names.” She reminded him.

“Crazy…” He agreed. “We haven’t really been in the country for a lot of it. When Chocolate went so mental, we’ve been in America and Europe and just touring. We’ve just seen each other every day, it’s not really been that different for us. But the shows are getting bigger, people are really investing in the band, so it’s an amazing time.”

  “You guys also did South by South West, which was eleven shows in five days.”

“That was mental.” George scoffed.

“Yeah! We were quite surprised to see how many people came to all of those shows. Chris Martin said the most perfect thing ever - of all people - if you throw a party and like 50 people come up, so imagine doing that for twice, three times the amount of that, every night, in cities you’ve never even really heard of. We turned up in Milwaukee and 350 people came to the show. We had a sold-out show in new York.” He rattled off, seeming slightly bewildered at the memory.

“That's pretty crazy to be making such big waves in a different country like that.” She concurred.

“I think it’s a testament to the internet, really. How far we’ve come from Manchester all the way across the world.” The drummer offered.

Matty instantly took that thought and ran with it, “God, I could talk about it for ages. It’s strange to go somewhere – when you go to places, and you realise you have a following there… your identity, your sense of self, almost feels slightly diluted? Because you’re in somewhere so unfamiliar, but witnessing the most familiar parts of your life. Your material, your art. It’s weird, man.” He said, shaking his head slightly.

  “Does it intimidate you guys at all?” She questioned.

“No.” He instantly answered. “It’s amazing, a very humbling experience. It’s just very odd, the power of the internet? It’s kind of unsettling, but not intimidating. Kind of feel like you’ve lost a part of yourself a little bit.”

“How so?” She urged him to continue.

“Well... that’s when you’re at your most honest, isn’t it? When nobody knows who your band is. Now people know who we are. I’m the protagonist in every song I write. Which means every time I put stuff out there, it's putting out a part of me. Every conversation in a song is me and a normally female counterpart.” He tried his best to explain. “But that’s a subconscious thing.” He added as an afterthought.

“So it's like you're a little too transparent putting that much of yourself out there to such a large group of people?”

“Well, yeah. Your identity becomes kind of vaguely diluted because it’s not as embedded in what you’re familiar with anymore. Your identity kind of extends to places that you don’t really understand. It’s quite an unsettling thing for me.” Matty looked like he was struggling to find the right adjectives to describe the feeling. “It’s interesting. It’s cool.” He eventually settled on.

  “Does that sort of feeling ever bother you when you're on stage?” She asked.

“Not at all. Performing is one of the only times I feel satisfied.” He laughed. “I just love it. It’s like putting on a party every night.”

“Would you guys ever do another big supporting tour like The Stones?”

“Probably not right now.” George supplied, before Matty spoke over him.

“There’s been a genuine investment from our fans. Every show we put out sells out really quickly now. We’ve not been able to meet the demands of the amount of people who want to see our band. As much as going off and playing with popstars in arenas would be fun, I think that would be an indulgent decision. It wouldn’t be for the right reasons. We need to play our own shows… we’ll have the opportunity for all that later.” He answered decisively. George seemed happy with this. “I don’t want us to get too big too quickly, you know? A lot of people feel like we’re their band. 'You’re my kinda band.' That’s how I always used to fall in love with bands. I don’t wanna lose that. I want that to remain, because it really is important to me that every single person gets the band.” It wasn't hard to believe that Matty meant what he was saying with the amount of conviction in his voice as he spoke into the mic in front of him.

“We have quite a strict door policy on our band. We don’t want idiots gettin’ in.” George threw in to try and lighten the mood.

  “Back to Reading and Leeds, then. You're playing with the likes of Fall Out Boy and Green Day. Those are some massive names that'll be bringing in big crowds.” She started her line of questioning, waiting for them to respond before she continued.

“Yeah... We haven’t played to that many people.” Matty wiped his hands down his face as he took in a deep breath. “But it’s a real validation of all you’re doing. It’s not something we’ve ever craved, but it’s something we’ve really, really embraced and something that pushes us forward as creative people. It's cemented our identity as a band.” He replied.

“Are you nervous?” She asked with a smile.

He chuckled slightly, “Yeah, a little bit, but not really. What’ve we got to be nervous of? If people are there, they’ve already made that investment in us. We’ve just gotta show up and provide what we are.” George nodded. “And we can do that, so let’s just do it, d’you know what I mean?”

  “All right, we're gonna play a couple of songs and then we'll be back with some questions you guys sent in earlier in the week.” She spoke into her microphone before cutting away.

“Fan questions?” George asked in curiosity as he took his headset off.

“Yeah. The station told people to text stuff in through the week and I've picked a few to ask.” She said with a nod as she took a swig from her cup of coffee.

“Hopefully you picked good ones.” Matty said with an eyebrow raised.

“You'll just have to see.” She shot back, earning a grin from him.

“You do brilliant interviews. I can't imagine you'd give us shitty questions.” He added. She tried her best to make sure he wouldn't see the slight blush on her cheeks at the compliment.

  “You know, you should come out to a show sometime.” He segued. She was all too happy for an out from that conversation before it progressed.

“You guys hardly ever play here.” She pointed out.

“Come see us at Reading.”

“I hardly think you guys are high enough up on the bill to be offering to get me into a major festival for free.” She tried to sound accusatory, but couldn’t stop herself from cracking a small smile.

“Ask the station to get you in.” He suggested. She noticed that he seemed… rather eager about this idea.

She sighed deeply as she mulled this over. It would be nice to see them play live. It would be nice to see Matty again. Seeing him at a show counted as work, right? She could use that as a loophole in her own rules. “I’ll see what I can do.” Matty’s eyes practically lit up at her words.

  “Okay, we're back with Matty and George of The 1975, here to answer some questions sent in by you lovely listeners.” She started, flipping over her notebook to the scribbled fan questions. “First up we have Louise who wanted to know, what's your highlight been so far?” The two men sitting across from her both let out a groan.

“So much has happened...” George mumbled.

“The whole thing has just become a bit of a blur, to be honest with you.” Matty answered. “It’s just loads of surreal situations strung together by doing interviews. I’d like to be in that place of having that much foresight – that much retrospect and hindsight. Everything’s happened so quick… I don’t know how I’m gonna feel about it. I can’t imagine things can continue being this intense in another year.” He paused for a moment, before pulling himself back on track. “Having a genuine connection with people who I never would’ve thought had even heard of our band every night, just that kind of…extended feeling… is the highlight of every night.”

“That's quite a nice sentiment.” She nodded.

“When we were a lot smaller in the UK, like January, a couple came up to me after a gig in London. And said that they’d fallen in love with each other through our EP – the Sex EP. They’d started speaking about it when they were out with a group of friends. They’d met and said ‘you know this band The 1975’ and they fell in love with that record and now they’re getting engaged.” He looked absolutely astounded by this, looking across to her to make sure she understood how crazy that was. “And I love that. It nearly made me cry. Because that’s it. That’s all we wanna do. For our music to affect people emotionally. If you have an artistic expression that does that… there’s nothing more beautiful, really. And if that’s your job, how can you get any better than that?” He finished with a shrug.

  “Next we have Sam who's asked could you guys imagine doing something else instead of being in the band?” She questioned, crossing it off her list.

“We can’t do anything else.” George said with a laugh, instantly making his friend do the same.

“The band is the only expression we have. That’s bought from being complacent on working for anything else, and being totally, totally narrow minded and blind. We’ve never thought of the idea of this not happening.” Matty said.

“David has asked, how do you keep going?”

“Alcohol.” Matty instantly laughed. “Not really.” He quickly corrected. “It’s been the only thing we do, y’know? It’s not like we were in a band and had other interests. As soon as we became consumed by this band, we just stuck together as individuals. I think also because our social group has always orientated around us as a four, there’s never been any reason for us to not make music. It’s almost as if someone said ‘yeah, all right’ and then we got embraced by lots of different people and institutions.” He explained.

  “Have there been any bad times?” She asked. “That was from Anna.”

“Not really?” George frowned. “I suppose when we were being wined and dined by the labels and then everything kind of fell apart? But it ended for the better, because we then signed a great deal on an indie that allowed us to have total creative control. Retrospectively we wouldn’t have had it any other way.” He answered.

“But it wasn’t that bad!” Matty chimed in. “Getting’ flirted, y’know. We were really young when all these labels were going for us. We were always quite fortunate as a band to have a lot of foresight.”

“Right, on that note, Jessica has asked how hard is it to stay true to your original ideas when speaking to labels?”

“You get really excited for the first few encounters, then you quickly learn to tame yourself and not get excited until you’re physically doing what has been said that they’ll do for you. You’ve gotta keep your head.” George answered.

“We just prided ourselves on our conviction. The only reason we wanted to do was this because it was on our terms.”

  “Okay, Brian has asked if you guys ever fall out?”

“No.” Both of them instantly answered.

“We Just avoid that stuff and let other people deal with it. It’s too much of a personal endeavour to let the small stuff get to you. It’s not like we’re four boys who started a band because we wanted to be in a band, we’re four mates who ended up in a band by accident. So, pfft, whatever.” The singer scoffed.

“We’ve not focused on the financial stuff or anything like that. The only thing we have maintained is to have the final say and total creative control, and we all agree on that so there's not been any arguments to have.” George said.

“Last serious one and then we have some quick fire stuff.” She said as she scribbled out the last question. “Brendan wanted to know what your biggest accomplishment is so far?”

“Just making the record.” Matty said with a shrug. “I don’t really care how that record’s perceived or embraced, because it’s such an honest record - it’s such an honest depiction of who we are and where we’re from. It’s so uncompromised. The fact that a band like us managed to make a record like that without compromising at all… I’m just proud of that as an idea.”

  “Okay, some short and sweet ones to end out the interview.” George and Matty sat up a little straighter in their seats. “Who's the best behaved?” She asked.

“George is tidy, I guess?” Matty seemed hesitant as he glanced at his mate. “He’s quite well behaved but we’re all quite well behaved because we’ve been in a band for a long time. This a very… kind of pursuit for music for us. A lot of our partying doesn’t actually happen when we’re on tour. We try and be as good as possible. All of us have our moments? We’re in a rock band, y’know what I mean?” He chuckled, running a hand through his mohawk.

“These are meant to be quick, Matty.” She reminded him with a smile. “If you could pick one person dead or alive to be stuck on an island with, who would it be?”

“Musically? Michael Jackson – just to go through musical ideas. But I think he’d get on my nerves after a couple of days.”

“Yeah, same.” George agreed.

  “Can you moonwalk?”

“Yes. Very well.”

“Which celebrity do you think would have the best banter at a party?”

“Anyone from Geordie Shore.”

“If you could swap wardrobes with anyone, who would you want it to be?”

“ASAP rocky. For sure.”

“Write us a poem.”

“That's not quick fire!” He scoffed with a laugh. “And that's not a question!” He added, now properly laughing. “In an interview, the idea is to ask questions that I can answer. You’re giving me all of the work.”

“Ahh, I thought you'd be able to churn out something instinctual like those people who spill the truth after a bunch of quick questions.” She grinned.

  “Well, that's all we have time for.” She sighed, leaning back a bit in her chair. “Thank you guys for coming in to the studio to have a chat.”

“It's no problem.” George smiled sweetly.

“We'll be here any time you want us on.” Matty replied.

“That was Matty and George from The 1975, and a track from them is coming up next.” She finished up as she set Chocolate up to play next. The two boys started getting up from their seats, grabbing their stuff and straightening out their jackets. As they were about to leave, she heard Matty tell George to go on ahead and he'd catch up. She spun in her chair to face him as he walked back over to her.

“I was serious , by the way.” Matty said, leaning back against the desk. “Any time you want us on the show, or if you wanna come out to see us play, just let me know.” He said as he held out a piece of paper. She took it from him, realising it had his number scrawled on it.

“Is this meant to be a subtle way of giving me your number?” She frowned up at him, but he definitely caught on to the excitement she was trying her best to hide.

“It can be whatever you want it to be.” He shrugged with a smirk as he followed after his friend.

Taglist: @imagine-that-100 @dot-writes @tooshhhy @robinrunsfiction @approved-by-dentists

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[dammitadolfnomorecake]

Once Bitten, Twice Stupid prt.35

Living with Curtis wasn’t that bad once the man settled in. Keith found he wasn’t as lonely as he had as they worked on getting Lance back into his daily routine around his changing body. Sure, the man had ridiculous taste in soap operas and wrestling, but having someone who knew the workings of the Blade meant he had a new training partner, which was great for him... The only downside was, he was starting to wonder if Lance felt left out. Catching Curtis up on Blade news had brought up more than one embarrassing story, Shiro had no filter when it came to telling the man about his younger brother, including Keith’s scrapes with the law. Lance could probably hear every word said between them as he worked away in his office, but he’d caught Lance staring at him more than once in a way that made his chest tight. He didn’t want Lance feeling on the outside because that sucked balls, and he was going through enough as it was. He also didn’t want Curtis embarrassing him any more than he’d already managed to do for himself thinking he’d been changed. Shiro had no filter, and Curtis literally had no filter. Keith didn’t have the best social graces, but now he was trying to juggle having two new friends, Lance’s feelings, and Curtis, with Shiro’s return imminent. Once his brother came home, things would change again. He wasn’t good with change. If people were leaving him behind, he’d rather be the first to leave before things got complicated. Things with Lance had gone beyond complicated. Leaving him... it’d be weird. He’d hated him. He’d hated him and wanted his head. Now they were friends and Shiro would be moving them into a new home. A new city. A new space to feel uncomfortable in as he approached his new job.

Sitting on the kitchen bench, Keith was patting Blue as he sipped his third coffee. Curtis was watching TV, Lance had introduced him to streaming on his TV and now Curtis was doing a pretty good imitation of Lance mid-wallowing. Coran really had sheltered the man

“You’re not supposed to be on the kitchen bench”

Walking into the kitchen, Lance was nursing a glass of wine, despite it only being lunch time

“Me or Blue?”

“Both of you”

Keith went to shimmy forward, only Lance decided he was going to heft himself up on the bench to sit next to him

“Isn’t it a bit early for day drinking?”

“Isn’t it a bit early for your fourth cup?”

It was never too early for a third or fourth cup

“Third cup”

“You’re slipping”

Climbing over him, Blue plopped herself down in Lance’s lap to groom her more intimate areas. Grabbing Blue by her upright leg, Blue pulled her leg down with a glare at her father

“Thanks, Blue. I didn’t need to see this. Anyway, you didn’t explain the wine”

“Felt like it. I know you don’t need a reason to be drinking your third coffee, but I thought you’d be with Curtis”

There it was... Lance feeling left out

“He’s watching TV. You introducing him to streaming really opened his world”

“He already knew how to stream, just not how to work my smart TV. Do you two have anything planned later?”

“Not really. Do you have anything planned?”

“Nope. I thought I’d check in with you...”

Lance had noticed that he’d noticed that the vampire didn’t seem to be doing okay. Keith wasn’t sure if this was Lance probing him to figure out where they stood, or if Lance actually wanted to spend time with him

“I was thinking about training, if you want to join me?”

Lance pulled a face with a shake of his head

“No. Curtis is much better suited as match for you. I’d only get in the way”

“You’re the one who promised to fight me when you felt better... You are feeling better, aren’t you?”

Lance sighed, his hand moving to wipe Blue’s drool back on her

“Yeah. I guess. I suppose so... Physically, at any rate”

“You haven’t turned into a bat again”

“No. And I don’t want to, so please don’t jinx me”

“I’ll try not to. How’s... everything else...?”

Keith didn’t want to seem to keen to know how Lance was fairing with the physical changes. He wanted his friend to feel better, but he was also curious as to how quickly Lance began feeling symptoms from the initial onset and if there was something in particular that set it off, like with him being a bat. It was all good information to have for future hunts, as well as good information to have to help Lance. If he ever encountered a breeder again, he’d be able to look for signs of pregnancy or weakness during those moments of arousal. A breeder was likely to be protected from what Coran said, so a secondary plan would need to be developed. The data Lance’s condition provided could be invaluable later on.

“Still all over the place. Curtis decided to leave his briefcase in front of my door. Tripped over the stupid thing. Blue had a great time smacking stuff around”

“Do you think that counts as using them?”

“Don’t ask me. I’m trying not to know”

“If you don’t want to use them, then don’t”

“Thank you, Captain Obvious. It’s just... I know people masturbate, but I don’t want to be putting anything up there that Curtis knows about... that’s icky”

“I guess so?”

“No. It is. Think about it, it’s like Curtis giving you a bag of dildos and telling you to forget he’s the one who bought them. He picked out what he expects you to put up your poop shoot... Nope. Don’t think I can do it”

Keith agreed with Lance when he put it that way

“Dude, that’s nasty”

“Yep... I’d rather not go there”

“You know...”

Lance shook his head

“Don’t make this weird”

Keith scrunched his brow

“I was only going to say you could always order yourself what you like”

Lance mouthed a silent “Oh”, Keith curious where his mind had been going

“What?”

“Nothing. I just didn’t think of that... it doesn’t matter anyway. Once Matt and his girlfriend get here, privacy won’t exist anymore”

“What do you mean?”

“That werewolves can hear everything. Shit, they’ll probably hear every time I have nightmare”

“I didn’t think about that...”

Matt wouldn’t just hear Lance’s nightmares, but both his and Shiro’s... and probably Curtis’s... Lance wouldn’t judge them, but Keith barely knew Matt

“Yep”

The pair sat in silence for a few moments, Keith didn’t like silence between them

“Wanna go train?”

“Sure”

They’d been training for the better part of an hour when Curtis came out to join them on the back lawn. Sure, Curtis’s curse made him faster, but that was nothing on Lance’s speed when he actually tried. Curtis posed a challenge, but Lance... Keith actually preferred training with Lance for the sheer fact he had his own person vampire trainer. Most if it was Lance fooling around, but the vampire had pointed out a few helpful tricks and corrected his stances as he slowed his speed to match with Keith’s. Tackling Lance down, the vampire laughed openly at the clumsy tackle, Keith’s heart starting to race as he realised he was straddling Lance’s lap as Lance’s cheeks reddened. His attention had been on Curtis, so Keith had plays dirty, though it was worth it to hear Lance laugh. Shoving him playfully, Keith sighed, knowing that Lance had barely worked up a sweat while Keith was literally internally grimacing at the beads rolling down his back

“That all you got?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know”

Keith couldn’t be sure entirely, but he was kind of sure Lance was flirting with him. His own cheeks were already red, so he was able to deny that he was secretly blushing over the intimacy of the position.

“You two seem to be having fun. Lance, you’re supposed to still be resting”

Lance propped himself up on his elbows, that sweet scent starting to roll off of him

“I’m fine. Keith on the other hand...”

Pushing Lance down, Keith forced himself off the vampire. Staying in Lance’s lap all but guaranteed he’d break and kiss Lance right there

“I’m fine, old man. You’re the one who got your arse handed to you by a human”

“Who cheated”

“It was your fault for being distracted”

“Not even... Help me up?”

Lance reached a hand up, Keith taking it in a show of sportsmanship, only to be pulled back down over Lance. Lance giggling as he flipped them over

“Now who’s distracted”

“That wasn’t fair”

“You started it”

“I see Lance is quite aroused. Lance, are you currently feeling arousal?”

Fucking Curtis. Lance immediately jumped back off of where he’d pegged Keith down, arms crossed self consciously

“I’m fine. Why don’t you two train while I take a shower? You’re a much better match than Keith and I”

“I don’t want to interrupt”

Lance shook his head, Keith cursing Curtis again

“No, it’s alright. I’ll get something organised for dinner... or something...”

With that, Lance left the pair of them, striding off towards the house as Keith dug the heels of his palms into his eyes

“I don’t think he likes me very much”

“Because you brought up his body again. You know he gets self conscious over it”

“I didn’t mean to make him embarrassed. I was merely trying to ascertain if physical activity brought on arousal”

“Well thanks for that. You’ve scared him off again”

“I still don’t think he likes me”

Keith snorted. Curtis had no clue

“Trust me. He hasn’t tried to kick you out, nor has he yelled at you leave. He’s trying, but you keep bringing up his body”

“He can’t help the waves of arousal”

“Which is why we don’t make a big thing out of it. How would you like it if every time you popped an accidental boner someone announced it?”

Curtis rocked on his heels as he shrugged

“Depends who I’m with”

Keith sighed at Curtis. Curtis really should know better, and thanks to thinking about a horny Lance, he was now semi hard within the confines of his jeans... His damn libido was out of control

“Lance doesn’t hate you. He probably understands being cursed better than you think. I’m going to take a shower. Training against him is a challenge”

Curtis looked disappointed. Keith couldn’t win. He’d wanted to include Lance, but that somehow meant shunning Curtis

“We should train together tomorrow. Lance has been helping me correct my stances to something more suitable when fighting vampires. It’d be good for you to practice against him”

“I don’t want to get in the way of you two. Coran was also very insistent that Lance was not push himself in the slightest. I am supposed to be assisting in his daily life”

Lance really would hate Curtis if he started babying him. The best way to get Lance to relax was to let him do his own thing

“You’re not getting in the way, and Lance was hardly using his strength. He’s just got a lot on his mind. Let’s head back in? Maybe you can find a horror movie for us all to watch tonight?”

Curtis didn’t look convinced, Keith sympathising with Lance all over again. Keeping the peace was frustrating. He didn’t like it. Fuck it. They needed to spend more time together, then Curtis would stop embarrassing Lance and Lance wouldn’t be so ashamed of the things happening to him

“Whatever. I’m heading back up to the house. Lance and I are going to watch a movie tonight, which you’re totally allowed to join in on”

*

Lance stood under the cold water, waiting for the fire in his belly to cool. He’d gone and jerked off. He couldn’t help himself. He’d been so hot and flustered after training with Keith, that he’d needed the release to bring himself back under control. Not that it felt good. He felt dirty for having to jerk off thanks to his friend. All they’d been doing was training, then Keith was in his lap and his lap was trying to be in Keith. Or rather, his lap wanted Keith in him... These stupid desires were out of control. His lip was bleeding from how hard he’d bitten down, trying to stifle his moans and not think of Keith. He was completely fucked. Curtis had called him out on being horny, now Keith was going to think he was some kind of nasty pervert. It wasn’t like he wanted to be acting like a damn wolf in heat, ready to stick his damn arse out at the first man being nice to him... He wanted... he wanted something natural, something sweet. Someone to love him without all this happening to him. He’d been so excited that Keith wanted to spend time with him. Lance wasn’t jealous of Curtis, he just... wished he had his own stories to add when Curtis was teasing Keith. Curtis was good for Keith. Curtis was mostly human. He wanted to be good for Keith. God. He had to tell him. He had to tell him that he liked him... before the others came and privacy went out the window. This going back and forth... this worrying... it was only hurting them both.

Dressing a little nicer than necessary, Lance waited on the stairs until he heard Keith come out of the shower. The vampire was nervous as fuck, but he had to do this. He had to know what came next for the pair of them. He wanted to be special to Keith, to be special to someone who saw him for what he was, and he was deep in swampy pit of feelings that some people called a crush. He was 44... and Keith made him feel more alive than ever. He liked him. He didn’t know a single thing about him, but if Keith liked him back, he hoped he’d be up for a rather impromptu date. Yes. He knew he was completely changing his tune. His body was changing and that was probably why Keith felt whatever attraction to him that he did, and he wanted to talk about that somewhere no one was going to hear. Pinned down by Keith. Laughing like an idiot. He wanted more of that. More of being the centre of Keith’s attention. He didn’t want to be the creepy friend jerking off because he was scared of rejection... which he was right now. He’d gone around in circles, and this was his dead arse’s first and only crush that he hoped maybe would be more... or maybe he was horny? Maybe this was an awful idea. Keith could say no. Keith should say no. He’d be taking his future away from him, but when it came to Keith he was as much an idiot as Hunk was for Shay. He had to man the fuck up, and face the possibly fucked up consequences like a man.

Hearing Keith swearing as he dressed brought a smile to his face. Keith had so many anger issues, that him snapping at his jeans was perfectly in line with his character. And then Keith’s phone went and rung. Lance knew he had his own phone, he’d never pressed about it. Keith would give him his number if he wanted him to have it. There was only one person who’d call him, and that was Shiro. His courage abandoned him, Lance pushing himself up and striding back to his bedroom, where he slammed his door behind him, before throwing his dramatic arse face down on his bed. What was he doing?! He couldn’t tell Keith he liked him! He’d just jerked off because of him! That wasn’t normal! He wasn’t normal. What was wrong with him?!

Lance tried not to listen to the call, he then tried to ignore the sound of Keith’s boots coming up the stairs... then he tried to ignore the way Keith knocked on his door

“Lance? It’s Keith, did you just slam your door?”

“I’m fine!”

“I’m coming in”

Nooooo. His turbulent feelings would cave all over again. Not that Keith knew that, the hunter letting himself into Lance’s room

“Lance?”

“Yes?”

“Are you okay?”

“Fine. What’s up?”

“Um... okay, well, Shiro is coming tomorrow morning. He just called, but you probably heard”

“Wasn’t listening. Good for you. You get your brother back”

Fuck. He was being such a wanker. He didn’t want to be like this

“Are you sure your okay?”

He wanted his Mami. He wanted Coran. Someone to spill these feelings too...

“I have to go to Platt”

“What do you mean?”

“I have to go to Platt. It’s Mami...”

“Is she okay? Did she have another fall? I can call Shiro and...”

He felt sick at the lie

“You know what it’s like as you get old”

“Should I tell Curtis we’re going out?”

God. Could Keith have phrased that any worse?

“I’m going. You’re staying here with Curtis”

“You can’t go alone...”

Yep. He sure could

“And your brother is coming home. I need someone I trust here”

“What if...”

What if he died in a fiery crash? He’d take one fiery crash for thirty-two thousand dollars. Climbing up, he intentionally stared at Keith’s boots, not wanting his concern

“Keith, I’m going. I’ll be in touch. Please make sure Curtis doesn’t burn the house down”

[popculturebuffet]

Reviewcaps: Amphibia: Swamp and Sensibility / Wax Museum

This week Anne tries to treat life like a ABCFamily Original Movie with predictable results while Kermit the frog cameos and the rest of the family wonder into a few possible Jordan Peele Movies. Then Anne stumbles into a Gravity Falls Homage and Frog Stan nearly murders her because that’s our boy. That’s our boy right there. Be warb under the cut. 

Wooo hoo! While this one’s a little wait both due to work on another review for a certain episode, this was a decent episode to cap off our long road trip. We’re now one week away from Marcy debuting and also Keith motherfucking David. 

I have no idea what enlisted is or what the hell is going on here but it’s keith david casually laying on a bicyle in full uniform. How could I not? 

Before we get to this week here’s last week’s recap, as tumblr ate it for reasons..  as you can also see if you click on my blog I tided up my subpages, so amphibia reviews can now be found in the general disney section along with ducktales and star vs. Now that’s out of the way our last episodes before marcy and keith, i’m a day behind, let’s a go. 

Swamp and Sensiblility

I”m also going to try going a bit looser.. still recapping what happens but not beat for beat as it’s gotten tiring and I sometimes strain for jokes especially when tired. So this week The Plantars find themselves stranded in Ribbiton, the most expensive city in amphibia after betsy breaks her reigns and, not having any other options are forced to stay with Hop Pop trying to keep the kids from getting distracted by the luxury. Thankfully they find an old friend: It’s One Eyed Wally!

Actually got an outside gif to work! Also hooray! But I did really like wally after his spotlight episode last season and his insane plan with the explosives that wound up paying off.. that’s some Wolverine level thinking.. no really he once cut the wires open in a sewer during a rainstorm so when the water inevitibly hit them it’d cause a blackout and hopefully help the x-men when it did if things had gone sideways.. which by the time it did, it did and they had. So good on you guys.  Anyways turns out Wally’s a rich boy but he’s gone too far because he know it don’t matter anyway.. and has been hiding his true self from his family, so the plantars showing up really dosen’t help. Thankfully he’s able tos top them from talking or correcting his father assuming their the help and our family takes lord rich asshole up on his offer to stay the night at their mansion, which in what I assume is a nod to gravity falls has peacocks on the lawn, though this being Amphibia their giant and deadly and you shouldn’t look right at them. 

Once in their fancy guest room, Anne wonders...

Wally explains, as I did he’s hiding himself. Anne sees parallels with a movie she was watching at the start of the episode from point to pop and lock which looks like my own personal hell.. aka an abc family original movie back before it became freeform, which is a more fitting name for what the network horrifcally mutated into over time so fair enough. It’s better than say keeping the names MTV or TLC long after either of those acronyms is at all accurate.. and at least with MTV they have almost 40 years of brand recognition to justify it with. But yeah it’s about a ballerina who wants to hip hop dance, you’ve seen the story a million time.. and a plot repeated here about a kid wanting to live their dreams but worrying their family won’t accept them or knowing they won’t, with wally, while not carrying for the money, not wanting to loose his family or his beloved bug... which reminds me of that Pokemon episode with James and his growlithe only without a carbon copy of jesse trying to use bdsm to make james obey which is not how that works Jessebelle. That’s not how any of that works. What.. what even was that episode.. I mean somehow it was really good and makes me question why Jesse and James never hooked up but still, what WAS that. 

Anyways, while Anne decides to interfere, the Plantars get a great montage of wondering into various creepy shit with toad saunas, rich people smashing things, and one frog in a peacock outfit among actual peacocks.. just.. yeah.. real Jordan Peele/Blumhouse “Rich white people are fucking terrifying” shit.. which is accurate. Thankfully instead of getting trapped in their own bodies or forced to star in the boy, our heroes make it back to Anne.  At dinner Anne outs wally as a frigging weirdo with predictable results. Yeah the one flaw I can find with this episode is it’s REALLY predictable up to this point: Anne watches a movie, is obviously going to encounter someone with similar problems, then tries using that movie as real life, it fails but then somehow workso ut in the end or dosen’t but the person is happy anyway. What does spice it up though is the final act, as Wally decides fuck it , he’s going to take control of his own life and issues a family challenge against his dad to do so, something Anne, and me honeslty, had forgotten about from last season as that was 30 years ago and one of the less memorable episodes. Still nice bit of continuity. But with wally lacking a mount because his dad’s a prick, Anne pitches in to fix her screw up and we get a decently shot sequence, and amontage, as Anne and Wally play rich polo against wally’s dad. Oh and of course the more notable part of this, Kermit the Frog here, if sadly the minty fresh matt vogel one instead of the sadly fired Steve Whitmire.. still not over that but oddly Vogel does a better job here than on muppets now as I genuinely could not tell it was him so it works. But yeah, it’s not Vogel doing a voice but Kermit DOING voicework for amphibia, because Muppets get wonderfully meta and Disney wanted to keep this gimmick going. yes going, as last year Fozzy did voice acting for Big City Greens... I fucking love this and hope disney keeps doing it for all their shows. Do Owl House next. 

Anywho Kermit commentates and it’s okay, they don’t do much with him but the sheer novelty of Kermit playing a thinly veiled copy of himself that still looks like a muppet still kinda works. Anyways wally ends up winning via hair accordion (”How long has that been in there?” “At least a full season”) and his dad dosen’t want Wally to leave the family.. which neither does he, he just wants to be accepted, his father accepts him, reveals he also likes music, happy end.  Final Thoughts: As you can tell I kinda breezed through this one but unlike other just okay episodes lately i’ts not half bad and while using a stock plot, it does use it cleverly, and to help flesh out a character we like.. it’s still very by thenumbers but the neat setting of the rich people mansion, the plantars journey through it’s creepy bowels and kermit the frog cameoing all really help boost what otherwise would’ve just be “the episdoe before the gravity falls homage” it still was but it was enjoyable enough. It’s just in a day where disney said gay rights and i’ts sister episode is again an homage to one of Disney’s greatst shows in it’s storied animated television history, it’s also easy to forget. If nothing else it was nice to have Wally back. I do think that helped. As you can probably also tell these road episodes have been wearing on me.. while their not BAD, and some are infact quite excellent, a few like this one, quarallers pass, and the acting and western episodes, are just.. eh. The character flaws they bring up are only one episode and they don’t really felsh out the charcters enough. Even here while it’s nice to get more dimension to wally i’ts not really by much. They just feel fairly stock in a show that while using some stock plots usually can do so creatively. I think that’s the core problem: it’s not that these are TERRIBLE it’s just I expect better form the show in a typical episode, and from the interesting setups the road brings, especially since it DOES deliver on them in other episodes and i’m kinda glad this stretch is finished next week. That being said it does go out on one hell of a note.. 

Wax Museum So after weeks of anticipation, our road trip ends on an episode that was hyped up before the season even began.. a weird move given this is week 5 and i’d of saved the interviews for closer like Disney does with ducktales, but regardless, this one was worth the wait.  First my quick, since I tend to go overboard on my thoughts on shows, thoughts on Gravity Falls: It’s fucking excellent. I stand by calling it one of disney channels best shows and while certaint hings could’ve used more time, like Dipcifica seriously I have no idea why tease that and then do nothing with it when they still had plenty of time left int he series even with Ford. But yeah a few minor quibbles aside the series was really good, left us wanting more which after seeing other shows sputter into flames at the end, hello Star Vs, I can live with. So yeah I was hyped for this one, especially since Amphibia creator Matt Braley not only worked on Gravity Falls but got Gravity Falls creator Alex Hirsch’s blessing.. and of course, Alex being a peach of a guy, just yesterday he proudly cooed over the fact Dana Terrance actually got Disney to have a bisexual lead character after he struggled to get anything remotley LBGTQ into gravity falls. He’s a good guy. And a weirdo but he’s my kind of weirdo. But being so nice, he naturally agreed to return as stan expy the curator and frog soos. While that is all we get, I do get not wanting to shohorn 80 refrences to the show in or get a ton of voice actors to come back for a cameo, nor try and include the twins due to the plot of this episode really not working with them around, thougH I WOULD have appricated frog mcgucket, but eh, you can’t get everything you want.  Said plot is again simple but really intresting: The Plantars stop in a small town and are dead broke, but Anne casually taking off her hood and being reminded she’s seen as a freak ends up as a lucrative buisness opprotunity as naturally small town yokels are fine with gawking. So with the plantars now having actual money to see the sighs Anne settles on the curosity hut, our mystery shack for the evening. The rest of the plantars, especially Polly who sees some eyes move, are utterly unverved byt he place and by it’s owner, the curator, our stan pines.. or stan ponds if you will. I mean if the series has a chuck and other normal names here an there, including Polly, then it’s not a stretch to say his first name stayed the same. Anyways, Stan shows the family around, including Air Mantis, because hell yes and some gnomes and other callbacks to gravity falls.. but I like how theirs only a handful to gravity falls monsters. There’s plenty of refrences but the episode wisely goes more for the FEEL of Gravity Falls: The creepy setting, weirder monsters (even if amphibia dosen’t shy away from weird , last episode had sheep bugs and all), and spooky vibe from the curosity hut all feel like the tone Gravity Falls went for, which is similar enough to amphibia the two mesh well. Plus the curator is basically a SLIGHTLY more evil stan pines... SLIGHTLY., and Braly naturally having worked on the show nails the character in writing while Hirsch steps back into the roll like it was just yesterday. It feels like a love letter to what the show was rather than just “hey remember this cool thing from it”, with still plenty of nice nods here and there. 

Anyways back to the actual plot, the rest of the Plantars decides to leave because this place gives them the creeps as does Stan, but once htey leave Anne finds something: A skipman! Which is a great name for a portable cd player.. seriously I had one of those early in high school, the skipping really was constant hell. If anyone ever complains about mp3s, smack em. I do not miss that era. Have a bit of nostalgia for it sure, but I do not actually MISS it. 

Anyways, yeah this is a big deal and it’s nice that even in the homage to it’s parent show, we get a rather big plot point: something else came from Earth and given Anne dosen’t recognize it as Marcies, though It still could be but I highly doubt it, it didn’t come with the three of them, meaning there were humans BEFORE.. possibly centuries in amphibia time given what we’ve seen so far. After all a great calamity had happened, it somehow invovles the box that brought anne here... no one says time travel can’t be involved. And it’ll raise even more in a minute. But first Stan offers a million coppers for it. not being made of money Anne instead bargins on her weirdness: One day of performance in exchange for the discman. Sounds good Stan. He certainly doesn’t have any evil plans. Wink... he’s telling you he’s winking because one eye’s under an eyepatch. Naturally Stan has less than good intetions and ominously plots to frog soos.. which I absolutley love how they just call him frog soos, who postulates on multiverse theroy because he’s apparently been licking himself agian. Oh that soos... I always knew he was on something. Also while he dosen’t get a high from it I don’t doubt human soos also licks himself for unrelated reasons. 

Anyways the rest of the family are skpetical of Anne meeting stan at night.. which is fair. I wouldn’t want my nieces or nephews, and one of the nephews is around anne’s age, around stan alone for any length of time. I mean he’s fine with his own family but I know i’d find them in a child size armadillo suit having been fed questionable canned meats after having to dance for gawking yokels. Plus stan has resting “Call the police fan” so HOp Pop wants to just discuss it in the morning first before remotley trusting this guy. But anne impulsively decides to just sneak out when their asleep. More on that in a bit.  Naturally trusting the strange man she just met who presumibly traffics ladypugs in this reality and constnatly looks like he wants your wallet goes poorly as Stan traps Anne and plans to incase her in wax like the other exibits. The plantars realize anne is missing and rush in with Polly trying to face her fear and ending up freeing ah orrifying monster “This is way worse’ indeed. Meanwhile Stan is annoying anne who’s praying for the wax to get her in one of the best bits of the episode.. because of COURSE stan would talk inncoently to someone he’s kdinapped while eating canned beef. To me it’s another nice touch: While the caretaker IS more of a villian than stan, for obvious reasons, given he’s put a random person behind glass just for not buying things, dressed his own grandson up in a humilating wolf suit and had soos use a fucking boiler for his employee break room, it’s not a hgue stretch to say a pre-character development, i.e. pre dipper and mabel to convince him to be slightly better, Stan would kidnap a bunch of freaky wax creatures. It’s also why i’m okay Jason Ritter and Krystin Schall didn’t return. Their great and I woul’dve loved to have dipper and mabel back.. but the episode just dosen’t work with them in it even as a cameo, and they could easily show up in a followup later if they choose to bring this character back. Probably not but hey stranger things have happend.  Stan does however reveal something important: He got the discman from newtopia.. where a bunch of OTHER artifacts are. Thankfully before that information becomes useless to Anne, Sprig and Hop Pop show up to the rescue and Stan fights them thinking their cops as he dosen’t want to go back to frog jail. And even once he finds out their not, he still wants a new attraction because this is stan and again, as good as he is by series end, or at least marginally better, I still wouldn’t put it past him to put sentient creatures in wax. This however backfires as once Polly frees the creature above sprig and hop pop free the rest, and the giant throng of monsters drags Stan off, with blood popping up.. though he assures us it’s just wax so he could show up again. Probably not. He also offers htem 10 perecent, and goes up to 11.5 but that’s as far as we go. Goodbye again stan. I’ll miss you buddy. Seriously I absolutley loved the character and even with a shifter copy it was really nice to have him back for an episode.  The family carts Anne off and back at the campsight Anne bemoans not getting the skipman.. luckily Sprig grabbed it on their way out, because h’es a good friend, but Hop Pop and Pollly are annoyed at anne for once again recklesly endangering herself without considering them and forcing them to save her (As polly pefectly puts it I”m tired of facing my fears anne) And that’s why I saved that: this episode deconsturcts anne’s tendency to act before she reallyt hinks or consult anyone else and actually has the family confront her on it, though she does genuinely apologize so hopefully it’ll stick. But yeah now newtopia offers even more promise and anne offers hop pop an accidental laser to the eye vai the skipman to close out the episode.  Final Thoughts: As you can probably tell If reaking loved this one. Instead of just apping gravity falls, as I pointed it out i more felt like a gravity falls episode in miniture, mixed with Amphibia to still feel like it belonged in amphibia, and with Stan back just slightly more evil. Slightly. Alex Hirsch was as always a massive delight and it was a treat to have him back, and it was a really damn good note to close the road trip out on after some middling episodes, toadcatcher excluded. Not much else to say, it was really damn good, easily the seasno’s second best after toadcatcher.  Next Time:  MARCY. KEITH DAVID. Ants? Good times. Until then you can find more disney reviews under the disney tab on my blog including the entire season of amphibia thus far and season 3 of ducktales thus far. Until we meet again, courage. 

[snarkymonkeyprime]

I apparently started a destiel!labyrinth!au a million years ago?  And it’s not terrible?

Also, I don’t know what a Bowman Tree is but I’m intrigued by my thought process regarding it.  

Also, I made a note of who’s who:

Sarah – Dean Winchester

Toby – Sam Winchester

Goblin King – Lucifer

Hoggle – Castiel

Inch-Worm – Balthazar

Ludo – Benny Lafitte

The Dueling Guards – Bobby Singer and Crowley

Sir Didimus – Gabriel

Everyone’s so horrendously in character that I can’t stop snickering.

     The creature stared at Dean, blue eyes wide.  “I understand now, why the Bowman took hold of you.  You’re the human,” he stated, voice deeper than Dean had expected.

     Still holding his plank, Dean nodded sharply.  “Yeah?  So?”  He inched forward, muscles tight with strain.  The thing might have pulled him out of that bloodthirsty tree but even in the short time he’d been in Lucifer’s playland, he knew he couldn’t trust it.  If he could get close enough, he could stab it and run.  Probably.  God, he hoped its skin wasn’t made from iron or something equally annoying.

     “You one of Lucifer’s dicks?”

     The winged man across from him tilted his head like a bird, narrowing his eyes a bit as he did.  “Dicks?  Lucifer has only one penis.  And it isn’t anthropomorphic.”

     Startled by the blunt answer, Dean almost dropped his makeshift weapon.  “Uh, no shit Sherlock,” he muttered, frowning. 

     “My name is Castiel, not Sherlock,” he replied bowing.  The black wings at his back flared out gracefully before tucking in once more.  “I apologize for the lack of introduction.  My brothers and sisters were most curious of news regarding humans.”  He smiled, clearly trying to appease Dean.  “We don’t often see your kind here.”

     Dean glanced around, still not lowering the wood in his hand.  “Yeah, I figured that part out when the tree tried to eat me.”

     Castiel approached him again but stopped as soon as Dean swung the stick toward him.  “Apologies,” he murmured, holding up his hands.  “I mean you no harm.  You must understand that this world feeds off the energies of its master.  Currently, that is Lucifer.”  He half turned, pointing in the direction Lucifer himself had indicated after dropping Dean in the middle of this hellhole.  “It is a living creature.  It forms based on the fears and dreams of the creatures around it.” 

     Curious despite himself, Dean half-lowered his weapon.  That … no way.  Christ, no wonder Lucifer had seemed so smug after Dean had agreed to this stupid bullshit.  “He controls it?  So, he tells it what to do?”  Five minutes ago, he’d never have asked such a question but, five minutes ago, he hadn’t almost been eaten by a tree and rescued by a man with wings.  So … fuck it.

     “Hm, no.  Not entirely.”  He pointed again toward Lucifer’s home.  “In fact, he is as much at its whim as you and I.  However, this land feeds on his presence.  The presence of an ancient angel.  As long as one of that line remains on the throne, it survives.”

     “Hold the fuck up,” he snapped, eyes wide.  “Did you say angel?”

     “Of course.” 

     Dean waited but when Castiel stayed quiet, he lifted his brows as high as he could.  “That’s … what?  How the … what?”  Seriously, his brain was going to explode.  Just … exasperated Dean all over the damn place.

     Castiel’s wings lifted, feathers fanning.  Sunlight gleamed on the blue-black color.  “I am an angel, human.  We are a limited race here but this is our home.”

    Clenching his jaw, fingers gripping his plank, Dean grunted, “Why isn’t God your leader?”

     The angel’s blue eyes were blank.  “God?  Perhaps you mean the one who created us?  Created this place?”  His visage soured for a moment as he looked away.  “Our Father left us here a long time ago.  We have no name for him.  Not one that is translatable.”

     There was sorrow in Castiel’s voice.  And anger.  Dean, strangely, understood that all too well.  “So he just up and ditched you?  Put you in charge and walked?”  Yeah, that sounded pretty damn familiar.

     Castiel nodded.  “In a way.  Lucifer has led us since we woke here.  He is our brother.”  Something in the way he phrased the statement sat wrong with Dean.  Brother wasn’t a term he wanted to use.  But why he held back now was a story better for another time.  The land was important as far as Dean was concerned; not brotherly sniping between giant winged human dicks.

     His mind whirled as he rehashed their conversation.  “Right.  That’s a bunch of shit but … fuck it.  Can’t deal with that right now.”  He took a deep breath, letting it out in a rush.  Jesus, this was tiring.  “So, if what you said is true, empty the chair, the place dies?” 

     And then there was that.  Just when he thought this place couldn’t get any weirder.  Giant life support system hooked to a massive dickhead?  Yeah, that’s a great thing to learn.

     Castiel nodded.  “To simplify it; yes.  It would take ages to die but it would cease to be, eventually.  So we keep one of the ancient blood on the throne at all times.”

     “But I’m going to kill him.  I need to get my brother back.”  He sneered.  “Isn’t it in your best interests to stop me?”

     Again the bird-head tilt.  “I suppose, it would be the right thing.”  He licked his lips.  “But, no?  There are others of ancient blood.  I, myself, am one.  We would find a replacement, if need be.”  Castiel was holding something back given the hesitation in his voice but for now, given he had helped Dean, he was willing to overlook it. 

    Great; history lesson was over.  Dean hefted the wood again.  “Fine.  So … thanks for smiting the tree back there but I’m kind of in a hurry so kindly fuck off.”

     Castiel blinked.  “I … I could help you?”

     “Are you asking or offering?” Dean tossed back.  He really didn’t need a tag-a-long in this endeavor.  He just had to hike it to that dick’s home and get his little brother back.  God only knew what Lucifer was doing to him right now.  The very idea made his shoulders tense and splinters dig into his fingers. 

     Again that broad smile.  “Offering, of course.”

     Yeah … no.  Dean shook his head.  “Nope.  Fine on my own, feathers.  I don’t need one of you bastards spying on me to His Royal Dickness.”

     “The title is highness, actually,” Castiel corrected blithely.  “Though, we don’t heed such terms here.  He’s merely considered our … leader.”  He wrinkled his nose.  “You seem quite obsessed with male anatomy.”

     Dean wanted to be annoyed but it was strangely endearing how literal the birdman was taking him.  Despite the situation, he found himself grinning a bit.  “Uh, it’s a … nevermind.  Cas, I don’t exactly care what you call him.  He has my brother and I’m getting him back.”

     He hadn’t even seen the guy move.  In less than a second, Castiel had gone from being a few feet away to less than a handful of inches.  His eyes were narrowed but it didn’t hide the brilliant blue.  He didn’t seem particularly angry; just confused. 

     “Cas?  Did you forget the rest of my name?  Did the fight with the Bowman Tree make you ill?  If you’ve forgotten, it’s Castiel.”

     “Uh, nickname, Cas.  You know … short.”  He glanced at the plank he still held.  Given the guy’s insane speed, he was fairly certain it wouldn’t be much in the way of weaponry.  With an annoyed sigh, he tossed it, noting that Castiel relaxed when he did.  His black wings fluffed once before settling again.  “It’s easier to remember.”

     “Hm.”  Castiel nodded.  “Very well.  Do you also have a name?”

     “Yeah.  Dean.”  He snorted.  “I’d say it’s a pleasure to meet you, but it kind of isn’t.  Lucifer stole my brother and then told me I have twenty-four hours to make it to his lair to get him back.”  He swallowed, new nightmares of what waited for Sam swarming his head.  “I just … this wasn’t what I wanted,” he muttered.

     “Dean.”  Castiel spoke his name as though cradling a gift.  He smiled again.  “Would you prefer to go by D?  Short, yes?”

     He did laugh then.  “Uh, no.  The short name thing is really only for longer names.  So … like Matthew?  You’d call him Matt.  That kind of thing.”

     Castiel, strangely, seemed disappointed.  “Oh.  I see.”

     “You really have never seen a human before?  Talked to one?”

     “Not myself, no.  I believe some of my brothers and sisters have.  But not for many, many years.”  He stared up into the sky, squinting.  “It is … somewhat remote here.  You have to intend to arrive.”

     Figures.  Dean scratched his head.  “Yeah, got it.”  He looked up to find Castiel watching him intently, the blue eyes tracking slowly along his face and body.  Suddenly uncomfortable, he shifted and pointed.  “So?  Do we go or what?”

     “You’ll allow me to aid you?”

     “Yeah, sure; first sign of trouble?  I take your head off, though.”  With what, he hadn’t figured out just yet.  He still had his dad’s tactical knife in his boot but that wouldn’t do much more than poke a hole in the guy; if he could even be cut.  Shit, this place officially sucked.

     Castiel’s eyebrows lifted a moment before settling again.  “You don’t trust me.  Very well.”  He took a few steps away from Dean and gestured toward the dirt road ahead of them.  “I assure you, I mean no harm.  If, however, you feel my presence is detrimental, you need only tell me and I will leave.”

     Dean considered it.  But then again, he was alone in this freakhole of a place.  Knew nothing about it.  Hell, the giant slimy tree had almost eaten him.  What else waited?  He stared ahead, barely able to make out the shape of Lucifer’s home.  Sammy, I’m so sorry.  I didn’t … this wasn’t what I meant.  Wasn’t what I wanted.  He sighed and began walking.  “Yeah.  Fine.  Just … let’s go, all right?  I need to get to Sam.”

[jjbakaloskaiagathos]

Once-Upon in Morioh-Cho: 1999 Summer Flashback 🚨

In the previous chapter:

Sophie has approached the house, wiping sweat from your face.

- Higashikata-san, welcome me to Morioh-Cho!

Chapter 2:

Stand name: [Mrs. Brightside]

Stand master: Marmalade Sophie

Ability: observing areas as if they are a hologram and transporting into them. Attack “Light Splash” allows to blind enemies and leaves small burns on their bodies. If Sophie is not focused, she will not control an area.

The girl is sitting at the table, putting her leg under a hip, and correcting the notes on the sheet. The room is lit up with one small lamp which stands on the chest. Sophie looks at the watch and notices that it has already been 1 a.m: the time, when many people go asleep. She has taken a glance with boredom at the crumbled paper, trying to formulate her thoughts and aims. Suddenly, the girl breaks into a tricky smile and starts write something fast.

- What will you say about that, Higashikata Josuke? It seems that our interview is turning into a quite interesting thing, is it?

Sophie has giggled and has attempted to imitate a serious face, imagining that she wears narrow glasses, a long black dress and ugly old shoes. She has begun to read out the questions and has burst out with a loud laugh, not reached the last one.

- No, no, I need to focus myself on the content. I must cross it out.

• Who inspired you to go through the police?

• How do you cope with your feelings at work?

• What is your dick size?

• Have you ever pissed at the street corner?

• What secrets do you use when you catch a criminal?

• What porn genre do you like?

• Do you want to fuck me?

That day had become a key to cope with assignment which was sent to the girl. When she used [Mrs. Brightside], she did not expect that the police and ambulance had just dealt with the cruel robbery. Sophie was struck by the officer’s great work, imagining how it would be if she interview him.

- I absolutely don’t remember his face… I guess Higashikata-san may be strong, intelligent and brave man, who devotes all the spare time to protecting Morioh-Cho. I suppose it will be gold experience, - says Sophie and with these thoughts she lays a bedsheet, grabs a blanket which covers her and has fallen asleep.

The police station is located near the center of a bed town. It is a modern two-storied building with sophisticated layout, distinguishing among various insignificant constructions. To reach this place was not a difficult mission for Sophie because the police station represents as an important part of Morioh-Cho’s protection. Standing in front of the designated point and crossing out today’s uncomfortable questions, the girl confidently has entered the large glass door.

The interior has been completely predictable: gray walls, a small number of plants on the windowsills, simple white lamps and many other things indicate that the place reflects a serious purpose. Near the entrance, Sophie sees a big metal detector and a man, representing as a security guard in the dark-blue uniform. He takes a glance at the girl and starts to come up.

- Who are you? You’re not allowed to come in.

- I’m Marmalade Sophie who works at Morioh-Cho radio station. I create an article about the police’s work of the town that’s why yesterday I reached an agreement to interview the officer Higashikata Josuke. I can show you my identification and then you let me through, do you?

- I don’t care about your personality because my work is to protect the building and people who are here. Take off any metal objects and open your bag.

- Wanker.

- What?

- Oh, never mind.

The girl has just put her earrings, bracelet and necklace, which is made of gold, on the table. When Sophie did these movements, she realized that it looks like checking before the final exams at school in Russia. The girl’s mood is gradually getting worse that is why she starts to get nervous and sweat.

- Oi, lady!

Sophie has turned around, seeing a stranger. It is a man of tall height and stocky build, wearing a dark pompadour and light hair on the sides, densely combed back. His face has small and irregular features that are complemented by two long intersecting scars. His amiable smile does not calm down Sophie that is why her armpits and hands start to sweat more. The girl is thinking about how she can reach Higashikata’s office without unpredictable meetings, but today it has turned out to be impossible.

- Mademoiselle, may I introduce myself? My name is Nijimura Okuyasu, a senior police officer. I hear that you’re a practicing student who works at Morioh-Cho radio station, and today you have come to find out some information about our work, don’t you?

- Nice to meet you, Nijimura-san. I’m Marmalade Sophie, you’re absolutely aware of my business. Don’t you help me to see Higashikata-san? I need to interview him.

- Of course! I can take you to the first floor.

Climbing up the stairs, the senior officer told Sophie some special points. It turned out that Nijimura-san has close relationships with Higashikata Josuke who remains a total mystery for the girl. Eventually, the couple has reached an important room.

- Good luck and don’t be afraid.

- Thank you!

When Sophie has opened the door, she can observe big windows which are skipping sunlight to the office, including beautiful furniture. There is a large desk which is made of real wood, a cabinet is full of books and folders, a board hangs on the wall, covered with photoshoots, a black matte sofa and a coffee table in front of it. The girl is more interested not in the interior but in the figure, sitting on the armrest of the chair.

It is a man with large features, especially his deep-blue eyes and full lips. It is funny the thick arched eyebrows match his relaxed and kind face. Sophie can only see this sitting pose but she can guess his height exactly because of the frame. Higashikata-san looks stunning: dark hair represents as a wild pompadour, gold circle-earrings get the girl’s attention and uniform with expensive decoration suits perfectly. There is no reason to doubt that he is so handsome.

- Good morning, Marmalade Sophie. Have you reached the police station without any problems? I’m waiting for you, - says the man, standing up from the armrest.

- Good morning, Higashikata-san. Yes, I have. Thank you.

- Perhaps, you want to drink, do you? If it is, I will be able to ask a secretary about a cup of tea or coffee.

- Thank you but I don’t. And now the closer: your colleague told me that you’re aware of my visit. I was really inspired by your great work when you catch a robber. It was so fantastic! Can I ask you some questions about the police? The town and Japan must know the heroes which will be described in my article.

- I ask the questions here, not you.

Instantly, there is awful silence. Sophie did not expect that she would embarrass herself like that for the first time. The girl looks at him, starting to get nervous again, choosing the right words to continue this awkward conversation. Sophie often takes everything personally that is why in the school times she was always crying about little things. One day the girl broke her leg and had a decision to visit a doctor. At hospital a haughty woman shouted at her, accusing of breaking the queue. Sophie burst into tears in front of the doctors, sobbing every minute. Now she feels the same.

- Oh, what happened to your face? It’s a joke! My stupid joke…

It does not help.

- So… You seem pretty young, you’re a student, aren’t you?

- Yes, I am. I’m a sophomore and my department… Whatever. May I start an interview?

- Of course. There is no need to stand, sit down.

The conversation started with simple questions about the police and its definition in the officer’s eyes. Higashikata Josuke told Sophie many interesting facts and accidents which had to face. He answered that the reason, why the organization operates as a single well- set mechanism, is because of industrious people who work there. The main aim of Morioh-Cho police is a protection of the town.

- You said the organization is good at coping with difficult and confusing criminal cases and that’s right: there are no unsolved ones but I have found out some information about Kosaku Kawajiri. This man vanished about ten years ago and the wife and the son still have been waiting for…

- I won’t be able to answer your question.

- Why? It’s general quest…

- I don’t like to repeat: I refuse to answer this question, - says the officer, taking his eyes off.

It is getting dark outside. From this room it can see how street lamps have started to light up a full road. The officer is sitting against the window that is why his face is covered with a mysterious shadow, which can admit only the perfect features.

- You have a secret, in which you don’t want to involve me and my readership, do you?

- Marmalade-san, you’re pushing a line.

- A true journalist never pushes a line, he tend to think real information. If I write wrong things in my texts, I will mislead many people. Please, tell me about this per…

- Do you hear me? The conversation is over.

- Higashikata… Josuke, is it your name? The part “ske” can be read like “jo”. What an interesting one, - says Sophie, teasingly looking at his face.

- What are you up to?! - asks officer, getting furious.

- Exactly, the interview is over. Goodbye, JoJo.

The girl has stood up and shut the door roughly. Sophie is thinking about how she can get an archive, where definitely there are important notes about citizens. Perhaps, can the girl use [Mrs. Brightside] to find a direction? But at this time, she is being mad at Higashikata-san and at the thought that her mind treats him as a lovely man. Suddenly, someone grabs her elbow in a sharp way.

- What’s wrong with you? No need to become Dale Cooper in a skirt.

- Harry S. Truman, immediately, let me go.

- One more move and I will speak differently with you.

Sophie sees his eyes. She cannot believe that this kind and pretty face may hurt her. The girl is not surprised that Higashikata Josuke turned out to be very tall and upper-body. Their glances have met for a couple of seconds.

- To hell with it, I'm off! It’s a torture being here! - shouts Sophie, approaching the entrance, - Just so you know, this guard made me to open my bag and show my personal stuffs! He knows that girls keep spare pants and sanitary napkins, such a pervert!

Two men are standing against the wall and watching how Sophie goes out, ignoring the metal detector.

- Higashikata-san, I can…

- You can’t. Let her go.

⬅️ To be continued

[thedreadvampy]

please keep talking abt wrestling. i've kinda fallen into this hole recently and, since you're cool af, I would love to know whatever you have to say about it

Well I mostly watch AEW although I was very into Progress before the pandemic (which is a London-based indie promotion that's also basically the feed source for NXT UK) but idk whether or in what state Progress will come back not just bc of the pandemic but bc this year's wrestling abuse scandals involved a lot of their management and core roster so they've had to really reshuffle.

anyway that's an unnecessarily grim diversion let's talk AEW (I'm a few episodes behind bc I watch on Zoom with my pals and it's easy to fall behind while trying to line up our schedules, we're gonna watch Winter Is Coming tonight)

This blog's opinions are:

Women's wrestling is severely underrated and that's the fault of the promotion not the fans, AEW has a phenomenally talented women's roster with a big fan following but consistently gives them no air time, very little space to develop plots, one match per episode that the commentators half-ignore, and only ever one plot at a time. I love Hikaru Shida, Nyla Rose and Britt Baker as characters but there's a huge women's roster of compelling characters who only ever show up on Dark or for a single bout not tied into any particular plot on Dynamite and it's very wearing. When they launched AEW they made a big deal about equal pay for the men and women's rosters and paying the same regardless of gender and fan status, purely based on card position, but that means absolutely nothing if there's only ever one women's match and it's always at the same mid-card position. Sorry to open on a negative but it makes me so mad that WWE, the company which is notoriously misogynistic and whose director had to be shown Asian schoolgirl porn to accept that the audience would find Japanese wrestlers "sexy enough" to put in the ring, is somehow a better venue for women's wrestling than AEW. like fuckkkkkkkkk just treat the women's roster like you would the men's!!!!

on which note, AEW Heels, the Paid Fanclub For Women Who Like Wrestling, is the most half-assed attempt to court the female wrestling audience I've ever seen (and I watched WWE's Revolution pay-per-view where the line was 'isn't it nice that the men have allowed women to have their own PPV thanks to all the men who made this possible'). like ok I COULD give you money to Be A Female Fan OR, wild concept, you could do more than one women's match per episode on your flagship show and not relegate the women's tag title to YouTube

Relatedly, There's Too Much Wrestling. As you can probably tell from the fact I'm 4 episodes behind on Dynamite, I struggle enough to fit 2 hours of wrestling into my week, but AEW also expected me to keep up with Dark, BTE, and sometimes other side projects? and now also Impact and NWA and sometimes NJPW. and then if I want to recognise big names they're bringing in I would also have had to watch WWE which like. there's even more WWE than AEW. idk I'm a completionist and it's simply not possible to watch All The Relevant Wrestling bc that would be like. 20 hours a week and I have a job and a life and stuff. like I watch AEW Dynamite and BTE and that does me.

this is all very negative but I love wrestling! I got into it a couple of years ago and it's absolutely incredible to me I love the artistry I love the athleticism I love the creativity and the fun people have with their characters. and the reason I gave up on WWE as soon as AEW started up is that it feels so much like the wrestlers are given space to play and to find the stories they want to tell.

MJF is a DELIGHT he's like one of my favourite heels he's so loathsome and so much fun! and there's like a really good consistent emotional core to his overall storyline of desperate insecurity I'm so into it and I'm so hype about when inevitably Wardlow's gonna turn on him. I love the resonance of his relationship with Cody vs his relationship with Wardlow and also the extremely strong gay unrequited love vibes that keep popping up here.

Hikaru Shida is AMAZING I love her. did u know she makes her own ring gear and learnt to speak English pretty much from scratch when she joined AEW a year ago and is now cutting full promos in English? also her facial acting? 😘👌👌👌👌

Sonny Kiss is phenomenal I hope they're on Dynamite more bc not only is she a phenomenal character in their own right but when she started tagging with Joey Janela their in-ring chemistry actually made me LIKE Janela for the first time. also it warms my heart that JR, despite being kind of an old fogey, is regularly correcting other commentators on their pronoun use and vocally acknowledging that Sonny is nonbinary.

honestly JR does just warm my heart in general like he visibly struggled early on with getting out of the 2000s mindset on Female Wrestlers Are Sexy Divas and he accidentally misgendered Nyla Rose one time but he's been really open to criticism and often gone to bat for the trans and queer members of the roster. he seems like a nice guy and I'm glad he's here, which I didn't think I'd be saying a year ago yk?

I know I already said this but Chris Jericho is a phenomenon. he just makes everything FUCKING FUN every story he tells is wild and hilarious. The Inner Circle gives me life (on this blog we stan Ortiz) and his beef with Orange Cassidy was pure gold.

Also Matt Hardy is here!!!! I love Matt Hardy, I think his Ultimate Deletion match with Bray Wyatt was what made me realise how fun wrestling can be and he always brings the creativity. He's been through a lot of shit in his life, I'm really happy that he's able to work with a promotion that gives him room to be as hogwild as he wants because Matt Hardy's great strength is being absolutely off-the-chain weird. I love him.

Speaking of Matt Hardy and the Inner Circle have you seen the Stadium Stampede from this summer? honestly worth buying the whole PPV just for that it's wild choice after wild choice for 45 minutes it might be the best wrestling match ever. idk if I like it better when Matt Jackson Northern Lights suplexes Sammy Guevara the entire length of a football field, when Matt Hardy chases Sammy with a golf cart, the whole bit where Adam Page just goes off and gets drunk in a bar and has a brawl with Jake Hager, the bit where Proud & Powerful try to drown Matt Hardy but every time he goes underwater he comes up in a different costume and persona - holy shit it's just amazing it's everything I love about wrestling

Moving away from AEW, the best wrestling storyline I've ever seen is Progress' story with Cara Noir and Ilya Dragonov. They're both phenomenal wrestlers but also the raw power and emotional weight of the story? it's simple but it's heartachingly beautiful I was lucky enough to be in the audience for the second of 3 matches in the story and I was nearly in tears it's so theatrical and balletic???? Check it out if you can it's in Progress' video archives (those are all pay-to-watch though. I think they're also on Amazon Prime for American viewers?)

Cara Noir is probably my favourite wrestler, although Nyla Rose, Charlotte Flair, Chris Jericho, Luchasaurus and Adam Page are all up there. He's just the most phenomenal physical performer and he really gets how much theatre is in wrestling, his facial acting is impeccable and he's not afraid to take hard bumps and really sell. also he just seems like a very sound person out of character (touch wood), he's very principled and takes his work and the wellbeing of his colleagues really seriously which is what you want in a wrestler

[mamahanu]

Damn, I wanted to insert text for the "500 words or less" fanfic ask but unfortunately Tumblr doesn't allow for that many words in an ask. Which is honestly just one of MANY fucked up things about Tumblr... Anyway it's for your story, Omertà, and is in chapter 25 halfway through - approx a 500 word segment starting with, “Shit!” Tony exclaimed, tone the complete opposite of Friday’s calm voice. “Shit, okay. Friday, can we move him?”

Curse you, Tumblr! Never fear, @dragonnan. I know the passage you’re talking about. :-) Omertà consumed me for many, many months, and I still think about it, even though it’s complete. My commentary will be in (bold.) 

“Shit!” Tony exclaimed, tone the complete opposite of Friday’s calm voice. “Shit, okay. Friday, can we move him?”

(The thing about Tony right now is he’s panicking. And prior to this he has been building up his panic reserves for days. The last time he actually saw Peter, he yelled at him and took his suit back. The reaction Peter gave him was not what he expected. His original reaction was one of the most hated moments in Homecoming for me. It made no sense. Peter doesn’t do what he does because of a fancy suit. He does it because it’s the right thing to do. Therefore, he reacted accordingly in my fic, and now Tony has a better understanding of what makes Peter tick. He’s been worrying and fretting about Peter getting into all kinds of trouble, and now it’s like a nightmare come to life, seeing Peter so injured.)

“Excuse me,” the woman said, standing up, “I am a nurse, and it would be very unsafe to move him without the correct equipment and without know the extent of his injuries—” (So this, this right here, is Claire being a BAMF. I’ve not known her to take any shit in any of the Netflix Marvel stuff I’ve seen, so she’s not taking any from Iron Man either. She is a delight, and underappreciated.) 

“Claire,” the man behind him said, “he’s got an artificial intelligence that probably just read off the injuries to him.” (probably, Matt? come on. Everyone and their dog knows you can hear it.)The woman crouched down again next to Peter, checking his pulse and muttering something very vulgar about her companion.

(I LOVE Claire. I love her and Matt and how they interact. I love her in Luke Cage. I just love her. She has no powers. She gets in terrifying, life-threatening situations and she still helps the supers. Because she knows no one else will do it, and they need her. She takes the Night Nurse gig very seriously. I knew in my heart of hearts that if Matt had come across Peter this injured, the first thing he’d do is call Claire.)

“Analyzing,” Friday said as Tony shushed the others. He heard footsteps and turned, seeing the masked man walking up to them. He held out his hands in a peaceful gesture.

“Mr. Stark,” he said, calmly. “There are some things I think you need to know—”

“Did you have anything to do with this?” Tony snarled.(So I really enjoyed writing this. This is Tony’s go-to Dad mode for me, at least when Peter’s hurt. All snarl and bite.)

The vigilante sighed heavily. “An associate of mine brought him to me, after a request of an associate of his.” (I.. worked this about 10,000 times to try to make it less confusing. And I didn’t like any of my solutions. So... it stayed the same. I was displeased.)

“Well that’s not vague and confusing at all,” Tony said, sarcastically.(Tony was also displeased.)

“This is a different world. We aren’t all Iron Man. Most of us don’t have the protection of billions of dollars, and even some of the best lawyers would have a hard time picking apart those Accords, despite how unconstitutional they are,” the other man snapped back. (Speaking from experience there, Matt?) “So forgive me for protecting the identities of those who would be quick to suffer Secretary Ross’s wrath.” (So for those of you who read this fic this far, the anti-accords speech is nothing new. Peter was spouting it. MJ was spouting it. Everyone who is enhanced in my fics do not like the Accords. As they are horrible and nothing good can come from them. Tony spent a good amount of time in the background learning some things about his guilt-ridden support of them. I’ve said this many times: Steve didn’t have to do him like that. But Tony wasn’t in the right, either.)

“Not you, too!” Tony yelled. “Look, I’m doing my best with them, okay? Nobody is going to be sent to any kind of prison until they make more sense. I’ve got mutants in high places looking them over—”

“Enhanced peoples,” the masked man corrected. Tony rolled his eyes. “Does Spidey know that no one is going to be imprisoned until they’re sorted?” he pressed. (I really like Big Brother Matt, too. I am in full support of more representation of this.) 

Tony paused. “Why—well, I mean, he’s asked and I’ve told him not to worry. But it doesn’t matter. He stops bike thieves, for God’s sake—” (The fact that Tony found him going after alien weapons’ dealers and holding together a Ferry still will not sway him from the idea that Peter only gives directions to the Churro lady.)

“He’s in something way over his head, and has been for almost a year now, if I figured out the timing right,” the masked man interrupted. (Matt is incredibly perceptive. From the moment he met Peter as Spider-Man, he knew who he was, and what he was doing. He just didn’t know the name of his employer. Peter... was in WAY over his head, and had been burned so badly by Fisk he didn’t trust anyone to help him out of it.)

“Mike,” the woman from the floor called. “Don’t be an asshole. Stark needs you to get the point.”

“Boss,” Friday chimed in. Tony held up a finger for silence. “I do not detect any fractures in Peter’s neck or possibility of damage to his spinal cord if he’s moved. As long as he is kept fairly still, it should be safe.” (I made this up. I did not google this. I took what I remembered from First Aid and hoped for the best. @kitcat992 can school me later. XD)

“Send out Mark XLII. When it gets here, we’ll load him in. Also, call Cho. Let her know we need her at the Tower ASAP.” (So, to be honest, I’m pretty sure Tony would say ‘screw it’ and throw Peter over his shoulder. But I cringed at him doing that. I thought it was a better idea for him to get one of his suits, considering the extent of Peter’s injuries.) Tony was glad he held off on actually putting the building up sale until after he started moving everything over. There was still an active medical wing there. Tony hadn’t moved the equipment or beds. He told Pepper it was because he wanted to add a certain usefulness to the aesthetic of the place for potential buyers. He was pretty sure she knew he was keeping them there in case of a spider-related emergency. (I, as the author, knew there was medical stuff in the tower. I also hadn’t said there was medical stuff in the tower prior to this point. So I just... blurted it out in a blurb here. If I ever go back and edit this, I will be sure to layer that in in previous chapters.) “Also, tell her we need the fancy meds that we use on Steve, alright?”

“Got it.”

Voila! I hope that proved satisfactory, my friend, and I’m sorry it took so long to answer! 

Fanfic Directors Cut: ask me anything.