#in staying up at 1-6am to watch not-racing happen

[andromedasummer]

my sister spent a lot of this summer insisting that the regs are tighter and the racing is closer and that red bull really did suffer the consequences of their cheating but this looks like another "regs decide the dominant era" rut f1 has wedged themselves into. this time featuring a bowl of angry uncooked oatmeal slop they dropped into the seat of the car 3rd time in a row

[gracieheartspedro]

I Can See You

PART 3 is HERE!

joel miller x fem! reader

Hi lovers! Sorry this took so long, life got busy and ADHD is a bitch. But here it is! My next post will probably be a different drabble/one-shot. If you have any requests, PLEASE hit me up! I am open to a bunch of different ideas!

Word count: 3k+

Warnings: MINORS DNI! 18+ pleaseeee, DBF! Joel, age gap-ish (the reader is 25, Joel is 39), joel is a bad cook, smut, unprotected p in v, oral (f receiving), fingering, pet names, tons of dirty talk.

Outline: She gets invited over for dinner and a movie night? Just a movie, huh?

PART 1 PART 2

“So Joel told me he’s coming over today,” Dad says from across the dining room table as I eat my breakfast, “With Sarah?”

I stop and chew slower, trying to hold back a smirk.

Ever since we fucked in the conference room, I’ve been texting Joel every day. Sometimes it was naughty sexts and other times it was him asking how my day was going and what my weekend plans were.

A couple of days ago, he called me instead of texting, which was odd. He asked if Sarah could come swim in our pool because she wouldn’t stop asking about it. 

So I agreed, telling him that Saturdays were the best day for me. I also told him he had to be around just in case anything happened and I wouldn't be 100% liable for Sarah’s well-being. 

“Yeah, I told her she could come over and swim in the pool. She wanted to practice her backstroke.”

He smiles, “Nice for you to have her over, but are you okay with it just being y’all? I can stay home from this conference so I can entertain Joel.”

I shake my head quickly. Maybe a bit too quickly.

“No dad, it’s fine,” I take a sip of orange juice, “They will only be here for the afternoon. It’s not worth you missing two days in Houston. You need to go.”

He takes my word for it and hurries to finish his breakfast. He should’ve left at 6am, but here we are at 10 and he’s still not left. I texted Joel under the table as soon as he took his plate to the sink. 

Pops is still here. You and Sarah are welcome as soon as he leaves.

I bring my half-finished eggs to the trash, scooping them into bin. 

“Do you need me to leave my credit card?”

I shake my head, “No, it’s fine. Joel is buying us pizza in return of allowing Sarah to use our pool.”

“You better not have told him we needed something in return of using the goddamn pool,” Dad fusses, “He is always welcome to it. God knows you hardly use it.”

I roll your eyes, “No, I didn’t say that to him.”

I actually told him that he could bend me over the kitchen counter in return for using the pool. 

I feel my phone buzz. 

From: Joel Miller

Can’t wait to see you, baby.

–

Dad left, and not even an hour later, Joel pulled up with Sarah in his truck. He was sporting some black swim trunks and gray t-shirt. Sarah giddily got out of the truck, sporting a pink one piece and flip flops. She hurried to the door, where she found me sporting the skimpiest bikini I owned. 

It was a red triangle bikini top and the cheekiest bottoms in my collection. Something very casual. 

Sarah gave me a warm smile, racing into the house and to the back sliding doors. It’s like she knew exactly where to go. Joel took his time grabbing their stuff. I lean against the door frame, taking him in. 

As soon as his eyes met mine, his eyes quickly averted down my body. He creeps closer, slinging his towel over his shoulder. 

“Evil,” He mutters walking pass me, “You can’t be doin’ this around Sarah.”

I smile, shutting the door behind him. He looms over me and I get a whiff of sunscreen. 

“Doing what?” I ask innocently.

He glances into the back yard where Sarah is already getting ready to jump into the pool. He’s making sure she’s not watching.

His arm wraps around my waist, grabbing onto my bare ass. I feel very small when I look up at him. His brown eyes bore into mine. 

“You sure are lucky that my Sarah is here, because if she wasn’t,” He pauses, “I’d take you right in front of the window here.”

He gestures to the window right by the front door. 

“But you’d like that wouldn’t you? Show the neighborhood who’s pussy this is.”

His hand rests right above the hem of my bottoms. I bite my lip. He knows what to say to make my brain melt and my words jumble together. But it’s a game.

I needed the chase, it made everything with Joel so much more satisfying and dangerous. 

I contemplate for a moment, before grabbing his chin gingerly.

“Why don’t you order those pizzas, babe?”

-

“Look at this dive, Dad!”

I prop myself up on my lounger chair, watching Sarah dive into the deep end. Joel is meandering around the pool, his skin so beautifully touched by the sun. His tan was deep and seeing it glisten with the water all over his body, was just icing on the cake. 

“Very nice, baby,” He glances my way, noticing I’ve finally risen from my spot. After stuffing myself with pizza, I knew I had to lay out and let my bloated stomach go back to normal. 

I watch him rise from the water, using the steps to make his way over to me. The weight of the water drags his shorts a bit lower and seeing his toned tummy was a sight to behold. 

I look around him to see Sarah swimming laps, making sure she was occupied. He plops down next to me in the other lounger, grabbing his aviator suns from the table between us. 

“What’s your plans while your dad is gone?” He questions, propping his sunglasses on his nose. 

I shrug, leaning towards him to whisper, “Thinkin’ I’ll go across the street and fuck that hot MILF everyone won’t stop talkin’ about.”

He shakes his head, “That poor lady has a name, ya know?”

“It’s like Susan, isn’t it?”

“Lauren.”

I groan, “She even has a hot girl name! God damn!”

He chuckles, “No but seriously, what are you doin’?”

I look over to make sure Sarah couldn’t hear me. I watch her dive into the water again, “No plans. Just hangin’ around.”

He nods, laying back onto the chair, “Why don’t you come over tonight?”

My stomach drops. He asks it so nonchalantly.

“When Sarah is home?”

“She’s going to her grandparents tonight. They are takin’ her to some baseball game.”

So we get to be alone?

“Oh, okay,” I thought for a moment, “So you want me to come over and do what?”

“I don’t know,” He mumbles, “We can watch a movie. I’ll cook.”

If you would’ve asked me a month ago, I never once would have imagined a moment where Joel Miller would even give me the time of day. Now he’s asking to hangout with me outside of work? Spend time with just me? It seemed out of the realm of possibilities.

But I love that the offer stands.

“Sure, I’d love to,” I pause, “As long as the cooking is good. If not, we are ordering out again.”

“Hey,” He grumbles, “Fuck you, I’m an excellent cook.”

It’s like Sarah got superhuman hearing all of a sudden because she quips up.

“Don’t believe him! He burns eggs every morning!”

“Hey, you eat them anyway!”

-

I arrive to the Miller’s around 7PM. I decided to walk again, trying not to tip off any of the neighbors leaving my car parked beside Joel’s truck. I decide for a black hoodie, jean shorts, and Converse. I didn’t bring a bag of things because technically, Joel didn’t say this was a sleepover. I am running on the assumption I am leaving after our… movie night?

I knock quickly, glancing back and forth between Joel’s neighbors. Both are pretty familiar with my dad, so I knew if I was spotted, they would rat me out. 

Joel swings the door open, this time, fully clothed. A casual outfit for Joel, jeans and a light grey t-shirt. 

“Come on in,” He mumbles, “Did you drive?”

I shake my head, “No. Walked. I took shortcuts, too.”

He grabs me quickly, pulling me inside. He glances around outside, making sure no one is outside. 

“I already had Mrs. Adler askin’ why I took Sarah over to your house today,” He says, shutting the door, “Hate when people are in my business.”

“What did you tell her?”

He smirks, “That I was fuckin’ my bosses’ daughter.”

My cheeks get hot. 

“Nah, just that you were givin’ Sarah time in your pool to practice her swimmin’. She stopped with the questions after that.”

I smack his chest, bringing down my hood. I take off my hoodie eventually, sporting a simple white tank top underneath. I toe off my shoes, propping them up by the door.

“We fucked once, so technically we aren’t fuckin’,” I tease, “Unless…”

He starts his way to the kitchen ignoring me.

“You hungry?”

–

Joel was a bad cook, but I wasn’t going to come in with judgment when it’s a free meal and he made it just for me. 

He stares me down from across his small dining room table, waiting for me to say something. We sit in silence for most of the meal. Not uncomfortable silence, just too in our own heads, I guess. I eat the last of my burnt brussel sprouts, trying not to let him read my mind like he usually does.

“You hate it don’t ya?”

I take one more bite, “I’m not a chef by any means either, Joel.”

He laughs, “That’s a good way to put it, little one.”

The nickname makes every hair on my legs stand up. He notices my demeanor change. He stands up, collecting our plates and brings them to the sink. I stand up to begin to help him, but he has other ideas. He stands over me as soon as I get up, his dark brown eyes raking me up and down. He reaches up to my biceps, running his warm hands up and down them. 

“You like it when I call you that?”

“What?” I croak out. I knew what he was talking about, but for some reason I wanted him to keep saying it. 

“Little one,” He whispers, “My little one.”

I swallow hard, “Y-yeah.”

“Gets you all riled up? Makes you think of the first time my face was between your thighs?”

I close my eyes, letting his hand start to run down my face, to my jawline, to my collarbones. I take in his scent. Amberwood, aftershave, and maybe a bit of cigar? It was intoxicating, his scent. 

“J-Joel,” is all I can mutter, “P-Please.”

I open my eyes finally, seeing him smirk, “What baby? What do you want?”

“Do it again,” I mumble, “I want you to do that again.”

His hand travels down to my waist, and with one arm, he hoists me up to the kitchen counter. My jean shorts ride up even more as he positions himself between my legs. 

“I need more than that, little one,” He says, “What exactly are you talkin’ about?”

He was going to make me lay it all out for him. I don’t know why I felt shy again, like I couldn’t say what I needed from him. 

Like before, he looks so tall and big standing over me. His hands feel so strong and his arms so toned. I wanted to jump his bones watching him at the pool earlier, watching him be at ease with no shirt on. His confident stride and stature was so attractive. 

“Speak up,” He demands, “Need you to say it.”

“I need you,” I drag it out, “I need you to eat me out.”

He starts hooking his fingers through my belt loops, lifting me out of my shorts, “What else?”

My mind goes blank for a second. 

“Fuck me?”

“No please?” he taunts.

“P-Please Joel,” I mutter, “Don’t make me beg.”

He chuckles lowly, “Oh I fuckin’ will.”

He doesn’t waste time completely tearing my thong off my body. I lean back, my head resting against the cabinets. The thong gets tossed across the room, now useless after being torn in two. 

He reaches up to bring my head forward, crashing our lips together. Our tongues battle instantly, both of us wanting to be dominant. He was so forceful, but it was everything I needed to be more sure in myself. I reach up, lacing my hands in his hair. 

He pulls away, his breathing fanning my already hot face, “You gonna be good for me, baby? Use those manners?” 

“Of course,” I moan, “P-Please do something.”

He takes off his shirt, his muscles highlighted differently in the low lit kitchen. I couldn’t help but stare as he gets on his knees, his face eye level with my pussy. 

God, I could never get over this view. 

He presses forward, giving my inner thighs kisses and small little love bites. 

He hooks both legs over his shoulders and dives in. He doesn’t start slow, oh no, he goes full starving-man-mode. He starts using his tongue to write the alphabet up and down my slit. When he finds my clit, he wraps his lips around and sucks. 

“Jesus fucking Christ,” I moan, “Don’t stop!”

He breaks away, only to put his index and middle finger into his mouth. He watches me as he traces my slit with his fingers, smiling as he sinks them into my hole. When he’s satisfied with my reaction, he finds his way back to my clit.

Between his fingers fucking me and his mouth working magic on my bud, I scream out not able to contain the build up I feel in my stomach. He only increases his speed, the wet lapping sounds only causing me to burst. 

He fucks me through it, as I moan his name over and over again. 

He pulls his fingers out of me, and stands up from his spot. My ass stays half on the counter and half falling off. I am basically only propped up by his leg. 

“Now that I got one out of you, little one,” He suggests, “’m going to fuck you until you can’t stand.”

I was so fucked out of my mind, I’m like jelly in his hands. He shimmies his pants off, his boxers tented by how hard he was. I just smile at the affect I had on him. 

“You okay to stand?”

I giggle, “I don’t think so, sir.”

As soon as I say it, I don’t have to worry about standing anymore. He reaches for my waist and repositions me on the counter. I stare down between us, his hard cock rubs my sensitive slit. 

“You’re so pretty, little one,” I hear him in my daze, but before I can respond, he eases himself into me. I moan out due to the glorious stretch, letting him get fully sheathed inside me. Instead of keeping me on the counter, he hooks his arms under my knees and lifts me up. In my shock, I wrap my arms around him, tucking my face into the crook of his neck. 

He sets a brutal pace, not paying much mind to my groans. It wasn’t that it was uncomfortable, it was just so much. 

My mind goes back to what he said, which only gets me more riled up. 

“God, I’m so full,” I moan into his ear, “You’re so good to me.”

I can feel his smile, ���Better than you’ll ever have, baby.”

“You’re all I want,” I say absentmindedly, “I’m all yours.”

He props me back on the counter, pulling out of me briefly. He is throwing me around almost like a ragdoll. He lifts me up and spins me so I’m facing away from him. He moves my arms, so I can actually prop myself up on the counter. He lines back up, pushing himself back inside me. From this position, he somehow hits me in different places. He readjusts my body before settling back into a faster pace. With his right hand on my covered tit, his left hand reaches up to my throat. The sounds of slapping are so overstimulating in the best way possible. I couldn’t get enough. 

“All,” Thrust, “Fucking,” Thrust, “Mine.”

I feel the warmth in my stomach again. It had to be the mixture of him calling me his and the fact that his dick was hitting me in just the right spot. As soon as I hit my tipping point, it’s like he could tell because he slows down, his hand traveling down to my clit again. I fall over the edge, my eyes rolling back into my head as I moan out his name. My entire body is tense until it’s not. I fall forward, but before my head catches the edge of the counter, he holds me up against him. 

“I’m ‘bout to cum,” he groans, still fucking into me, “Want me inside?”

“Cum inside me, Joel,” I beg, hardly able to project my voice. 

I’m at his mercy, as he spills inside of me all the while telling me what I good girl I am. I finally find my footing, as he slips his cock out of me, letting his cum drip down my legs. He releases my body, walking away from me for a moment. I try to get ahold of my bearings, but all I can think is how I never want to stop doing this. I want more. 

I need more. 

“Here, turn to me baby,” He mumbles. I turn around noting the damp rag he has. He gets on one knee, using the rag to clean up his cum off my legs. I’m still very sensitive, so when he gets close to my mound, I jolt. It makes him giggle. 

Post-orgasm clarity started to hit me. I watch him stand up and lay the rag in the kitchen sink next to our plates. He was so fucking beautiful, his body glistening with sweat. He had to be the hottest thing I’ve ever seen. 

“You okay?”

I wet my lips, “I think I need you to fuck me every day.”

His beautiful smile reappears, “Is that so?”

I nod quickly, “Yes, sir.”

He creeps closer to me, his hand lacing around my waist again. 

“I’m sure that could be arranged,” He leans down and kisses my shoulder blade, “Now, which movie should we watch?”

[coimbrabertone]

Motorsports Christmas: An After-Action Report.

May 26th, 2024 was one of the biggest days in motorsports, and it was freaking exhausting in the best ways possible.

So, everybody knows that the Monaco Grand Prix and the Indianapolis 500 are on the same day, well, the Charlotte 600 is on that day too, making for the triple. This year, the Catalan Motorcycle Grand Prix also fell on that weekend, so there was a quadruple of racing, and I was ready to watch it all.

I woke up around 5:30am - the joys of the Mountain Time zone - in time to watch MotoGP at 6am. Aleix Espargaro took pole on the factory Aprilia and Raul Fernandez on the Trackhouse Aprilia satellite bike lined up third, but it was Pecco Bagnaia in second that turned into the protagonist of the race. Bagnaia held off the likes of Jorge Martin, Marc Marquez, and Aleix Espargaro behind to take a calculated victory.

I was happy for Bagnaia, however, with Jorge Martin in second having a dominant championship lead, it did sort of feel like a pyrrhic victory. Bagnaia gives this controlled, smart victory ride but it doesn't really matter since he only scored five more points over his main championship rival. Add in the fact that Marc Marquez, who is toe-to-toe with Bagnaia in the fight for second, finished third. This means that Bagnaia leaves the Catalan Grand Prix 39 points behind Martin and just 2 ahead of Marquez.

That's not even the worst part.

Enea Bastianini - the rider I support - kinda had a meltdown this race. First, he starts eleventh, loses places off the start, and then got pushed off at turn one by Alex Marquez. Enea cuts the track to rejoin, receives a long lap penalty, refuses to serve it. He then gets gets pushed off again in a second attempt. Enea receives a double long-lap penalty for failing to serve the penalty, serves one but not the other, and then gets a thirty second penalty post race.

In his interviews, he called it a protest against unfair stewarding decisions.

On track, it led to him finishing eighteenth and out of the points.

This is particularly devastating as Jorge Martin and Marc Marquez - the guys in second and third - are fighting to take his seat for 2025. I already did a blogpost about this a few weeks ago and I have a lot to get to today, so I'll keep this brief, but yesterday was not a good day for Enea Bastianini.

The Monaco Grand Prix also happened. Swiftly moving on...

Joking. I'm joking. Monaco was actually pretty good this year. The Ferraris and McLarens qualified 1-3 and 2-4, respectively, so we got a fight between them rather than Red Bull dominance. Unfortunately, they decided to fight by going as slow as possible to prevent anyone else from pitting once they all got a free change of tyres under red following a scary first lap incident between Sergio Perez and the two Haas cars.

Still, it was a fight between Ferrari and McLaren and the top seven all put a lap on eighth place. That was as vintage F1 as you could get. It was also at vintage speeds with them running around four seconds off the pace, but hey, strategy shenanigans are fun.

Charles Leclerc won and proceeded to drop the Monegasque flag in front of the Prince of Monaco, twice. That is objectively funny and probably my favorite F1 moment of the weekend.

So, the Indianapolis 500.

Normally it would start shortly after Monaco, however, a rain front in Indianapolis delayed the 500 into the afternoon. This would wreck Kyle Larson's attempt to do the full 1100 mile double at Indy and Charlotte - more on that later - but it did actually lead to some great moments for me personally. Spending the hours in discords with other motorsports fans talking about when the rain might stop, when the track might dry out, when the race should start, whether Larson would stay or go...it all gave a very wholesome, community feel that I really enjoyed.

Then the race itself. It was amazing.

The clouds cleared, we got a partly cloudy afternoon with filled grandstands and a full 500-mile race around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. We got a little bit of everything. Crashes (where thankfully nobody was hurt), engine failures, competing fuel strategies, sixteen different leaders - that's half the field! - and a last lap, penultimate corner pass for the win.

Now, I'm an Arrow McLaren fan. Alexander Rossi was a driver who I followed in F1 because I was excited at the prospect of seeing the first American driver in a decade. Rossi's F1 hopes with Marussia didn't work out, but he went on to Indycar and won the Indy 500 in his first attempt. Between the peak Andretti years where he had the knife between his teeth bringing the fight to the likes of Josef Newgarden and Scott Dixon, to now, where he's in that beautiful #7 white and orange McLaren, bringing the fight to the likes of...Josef Newgarden and Scott Dixon.

Then there's Pato O'Ward, the exciting, young, charismatic Mexican charger in the #5, driving an awesome orange and black car. It's perfect, he and Rossi have night and day cars, and they were slingshot passing each other in the Indianapolis 500 to save fuel. That was the happiest I was during the race, watching my two favorite Indycar drivers in my favorite team leading 1-2.

Then Alexander Rossi made his final pitstop for fuel.

They were racing to keep track position, so they fueled him just a bit short, and I fear that ultimately decided the course of the race.

Josef Newgarden cycled out in front at the end of the fuel cycle, Alexander Rossi attacked first, got in front, but immediately got overtaken again as he had to save a bit of fuel. Rossi would try again, but Newgarden would nose ahead, as would Pato O'Ward.

Pato O'Ward was a student of the Indy 500, so he knew he had to make the pass as late as possible to ensure that Josef Newgarden wouldn't be able to respond. Pato would lift in turn one on a number of final laps to stay second and keep the draft, before finally making the attack in turn one on the final lap...only for Josef Newgarden to come back at him in turn three.

There was nothing Pato could've done at that point.

Josef made the pass in turn three, got a good exit off turn four, and Pato didn't get enough of a draft to the finish line in order to stop him. Pato was rightfully devastated, Rossi ended up in fourth, behind the lead two in addition to third placed Scott Dixon, as a result of his fuel strategy.

It was utterly devastating.

But that's motorsport. The days that you lose are what make the days that you win more meaningful. The Indianapolis 500 happened in its entirety despite all the rain and the worries. Not only that, but NBC is saying that the preliminary ratings look to be over 5 million viewers for the race. A last lap pass, a back-to-back winner, and a ratings bump over last year. As much as I wish Pato or Rossi could've won that race, I've spent the last day making my peace with it. For now, I'll just be happy that Indycar as a sport snatched a victory from the jaws of defeat.

Then there was the Coke 600 at Charlotte.

I tuned in late thanks to the late Indianapolis 500, and I was pretty emotionally drained at this point, but a charge from Brad Keselowski at the end of the second stage got me motivated again. Brad Keselowski, the owner-driver of the #6 for the team I support in NASCAR - Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing, also known as RFK Racing - pushed his way up the field. He moved into second, and he was hunting down the leader, Christopher Bell.

I began to believe that, after a 1,113-day winless streak, Brad Keselowski would win two races in three weeks.

Unfortunately, as soon as he caught up to the back of Bell, it started raining.

To add insult to injury, Kyle Larson, who had run the Indianapolis 500 earlier that day and completed all 500 miles, finishing 18th after a pitlane speeding penalty, had just arrived at Charlotte. He was about to take over the #5 from replacement driver Justin Allgaier, only he never got the chance.

At this point, I was emotionally drained after three and a half races, so at around 8:45pm, I fully embraced my grandmother era and went to bed.

That wound up being the right decision, because despite waiting out the rain and attempting to dry the track, NASCAR would end up calling the race anyway when they hit the end of Fox's TV window. Christopher Bell would win the race, Brad Keselowski would have to settle for second.

I quite literally missed nothing by going to bed when I did.

So, I sorta got the result I wanted at Catalunya, a full-on positive result at Monaco, and narrowly had my picks finish second at both Indianapolis and Charlotte.

In the grand scheme of things, that's not a bad Motorsports Christmas.

And on June 14th and 15th, we have Motorsports New Years with the 24 Hours of Le Mans, so the Racing Holidays aren't quite over.

[vro0m]

vro0m’s rewatch - 49/301

REPOST : 2009 Singapore GP

Alright this is a repost because my review for 2009 Singapore disappeared from my blog. Nothing new if you already read it when I posted it.

Hopefully it won’t be too out of context from not being in the season anymore.

During the Italian GP we first heard about crashgate. Right there in Singapore, in 2008, Piquet was asked to crash to bring about a Safety Car so Alonso, who had started 16th on the grid because of an engine problem during quali and had refueled just before the crash, could get in the lead while the others had to pit and win. 

Piquet got fired during the summer break and then told the FIA about it, bringing to light one of the worst scandals F1 has ever known. 

We’re now told that Renault, who first denied everything, admitted in front of the FIA that they had fixed the race, but they claim the only people involved were Piquet, Briatore and the chief engineer Pat Symonds. The two latter were ultimately fired and banned indefinitely from taking part in any FIA sanctioned events (it was later overturned in court). Somehow, the FIA suspended Renault’s disqualification for 2 years, meaning they’d only get punished if they did something similar within 2 years. (I’m just thinking about the fact that McLaren got disqualified from the WCC because of spygate.) They also lost ING as a sponsor. Piquet was granted immunity as a whistle-blower and can race again if he ever finds a team (which never happened afaik).

We’re reminded of another similar scandal, in 1990, during which Senna crashed into Prost and thus won the WDC. Senna denied having done it on purpose for a full year until he ultimately admitted to it. 

Also that’s yet another scandal that implicates Alonso.

Quali report! Grosjean is 19th, Fisichella struggled in a Ferrari : 18th. Jenson is the championship leader but he was out in Q2 because the Brawn was struggling so bad. So did teammate Barrichello. Lewis set an early fastest time in Q3, but Seb and Rosberg were charging hard. Then Barrichello crashed and it was a red-flag. The session resumed but it was too late to set another fast lap, so Lewis is on pole! Seb is P2, Rosberg is P3.

Lewis says the strategy is more competitive than it’s been earlier in the year and being in the front on top of it is a blessing. He’s happy.

Mackenzie got to talk to Lewis earlier in the day. She tells him the night is setting but it’s still extremely hot how does he keep cool, calm and relaxed? He shows her he’s drinking a lot, getting as much fluids in as he can because it is hot and humid and as soon as he’ll get in his racing suit, he’ll start sweating. He thinks he’ll lose 1-2kg here. The best thing is to relax in an air-conditioned room.

She asks at what time he got to the circuit. He looks at his watch. It’s almost 7 o’clock, he got there just past 5. He did some appearances, engineer meetings, the drivers’ parade. He says the fanbase is overwhelming, the closest to the UK he’s ever seen. The support here is incredible. She asks if he stayed on european time, he says yes, but it’s been quite tricky. He goes to bed at 5-6AM and wakes up at 2PM. But the Hilton has been really taking care of them well and they’ve blacked out his windows to allow him to sleep during the day. She says he was smiling wide when she talked to him yesterday after quali but he must have been even happier when he saw the weight of the car because not only was he in the front but in what was far from the lightest car on the grid. Absolutely, he says, normally if he ends up in the front he really has his work cut out for his strategy but it appears this time they have one of the strongest strategies. He catches himself immediately and says anything can happen of course and they have to make sure to do the best job they can. “Fingers crossed it’ll be a good race, so… I really hope so”.

Jake says Lewis told him he still feels like he needs to make up for crashing in the last race and DC says he’s surprised by that, he should be over it already. (We know he tends to be very hard on himself though.) 

Renault says it might rain…

Alright it’s time. 

Formation lap

And they’re racing!

Amazing start for Lewis, Seb struggles a bit, he’s overtaken by Rosberg. A couple of laps in, Lewis is leading 1.4 seconds ahead of Rosberg. Then come Seb and Webber. Grosjean DNF.

4 laps in Lewis is told they have a possible KERS issue and to enter certain commands on his steering wheel to disable it. Now Seb sets the fastest lap… Webber is told that he needs to let Glock and Alonso past because he overtook Alonso by leaving the track and Alonso is now behind Glock. Lewis’ KERS is working again, and he’s 2.5 seconds ahead of Rosberg.

10 laps in, I’m a bit bored. We’re focused on the fight for P15 so you can tell nothing much is happening here.

Wow a marshal just ran on the track to retrieve a piece of carbon fiber.

17 laps in Seb is the first to pit. He’s out in 7th. Rosberg pits. He went wide and crossed the white line as he left the pits, he might get a penalty. Lewis also pits shortly after and Rosberg is indeed under investigation. He gets a drive-through penalty. Someone crashed? Oof yeah, Sutil spun and a car coming from behind ran over his front wing and found itself facing the wrong way. I think it’s Alguersuari. It’s a Safety Car, 20 laps in. Loads of pit stops. Sutil DNF. And the Safety Car comes in at the end of lap 24.

Go again! It’s Lewis ahead of Rosberg who hasn’t served his penalty yet, ahead of Seb. Then come Glock, Alonso, Barrichello, Kovalainen, Jenson, Webber and Kubica. Rosberg comes in and Seb is only 1.2 seconds behind Lewis.

We’re halfway through.

Lewis is pulling away a little bit again but Seb is still very close. Lewis sets the fastest lap. 25 laps to go. Seb is less than a second away! He lost one of his mirrors… He pits! He’s out in 7th, but he’s now under investigation for speeding in the pitlane!!! 20 laps to go. He gets a drive-through penalty. Lewis is now way faster than Glock in P2, he’s 10 seconds ahead. 

Oop, Webber crashed. Lewis pits. He’s out in P2, and Alonso who’s in the lead still has to pit. 15 laps to go.

Buemi and Alguersuari both retire at the same time.

Alonso pits with 11 laps to go. Lewis is back in the lead! Jenson pits. It’s critical for the WDC : will he be out behind or in front of Barrichello? In front! 5 laps to go. Lewis is still comfortably in the lead, 7 seconds ahead of Glock.

And it’s the end of the race.

Lewis WINS! Glock P2, Alonso P3.

Nicole and Anthony are celebrating in the garage. Lewis is very happy as he gets out of the car. He skips joyfully on his way to the cool down room. 

In the WDC standings, Jenson is still ahead with 84 points, followed by Barrichello with 69 and Seb with 59. 

Press conference. Lewis says it was a very tough race, the conditions were very tough. Apart from that it was pretty straight-forward for him, he had a good start and managed to make a gap and he knew he would stay out longer so he never really felt under pressure even when Seb was behind him. He thanks his team for doing as always a fantastic job and his family for supporting him. “Say hi to my brother and everyone back home!” It was a great weekend. He’s asked about the KERS issue and being pressured by Rosberg. He says he had no problem in the car with the KERS. The team said there was possibly a fault but it was still functioning at that time. He had to disengage and reengage it and it worked fine. He did have a little bit of pressure at the beginning because they were very quick through the first sector but he looked after his tyres and it paid dividends in the end. He says the track is a lot of corners and very bumpy but fantastic and the fans are amazing. He came hoping for a good result and to redeem himself after the last race and he thinks he did it, they did it, and they are very happy.

Mika Hakkinen and Jacques Villeneuve come to talk with the journalists. They say it’s normal for a driver like Jenson who started strong to have a dip at some point in the season. Jacques Villeneuve is talking about maybe coming back to F1. Mika says he would never do so because it takes complete commitment and it takes several years of working with a team and a car to get results.

Let’s hear from Lewis again. Lee Mackenzie says it looked reasonably easy out there except for the Safety Cars. He says it was absolutely not easy. It was so hot, they’re wearing thermal underwear (“you’re wearing a suit as well but thermal undies”) and it’s non-stop in the car. “It’s like doing a work-out with all your clothes on in a sauna”, he chuckles. “It was so hot!”

He was trying to drink as much as possible. He came second here last year, he came this year not expecting to be at the front, he’s very very pleased to have led from the beginning with no real threat. She says he must be delighted about how things came together, it wasn’t the season he was hoping for but the car looks so much better, two victories. He says absolutely, the guys have continued to push hard, “we have continued to push hard as a team”, he takes a deep breath in, he wasn’t happy with the end result of the last race, he’s so happy to come here and correct things. He really hopes they’re able to challenge for more wins in the last four races, they still don’t have the fastest package but they have closed the gap significantly even though they could be even faster with a better aero package. “But we’ll wait for next year’s car”.

He reiterates he personally didn’t have any problem with KERS but the team told him there was something wrong so while driving his hardest he had to do these button changes, they have enough to think about when they’re in the cars so doing that was very challenging.

He’s impatient to go to Suzuka. He looks into the camera and says hello to his family back home and sends them all his love and to his fans everywhere, the support he had was really tremendous.

[too-much-sunshine]

Fangs for the Hospitality

Chapter 7

Fic Summary: After Roman leaves his family reunion mad at Remus, his car breaks down. The huge snow storm forces him into the forest hes always been told to stay away from. Who will he meet? And why are they being so nice? Most importantly, why are his teeth so sharp?

A/N: I’m so very sorry this chapter took so long to come out…Life happens my guys gals and nonbinary pals.... Ill try and be better!

Relationship: Familial DAM, Eventual Roceit, Eventual Intrulogical

Warnings (per chapter): Roman has social anxiety, he is awkward, food (Let me know if anything else!)

Catch up!:  Master list, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6

Word Count: 2546

Read on AO3!

Patton and Virgil finished their food first; Patton grabbing both their plates from the table and bringing them into the kitchen. Little Virgil hurried off his chair to follow after him.

Roman watched the two go with a small smile. He remembers how he and his brother used to be that close. 

Flinching slightly remembering the newest memory he has of his brother, he looked down and away from the boys. He ended up staring at his plate which he had only half eaten. He was starting not to feel as hungry anymore.

“Eat up dear, we have a big day in front of us." Janus chimed in.

Roman jumped slightly and looked up to the man who spoke. Janus picked up his wine glass and took a drink. Roman just now realized that Janus never had a plate of food to begin with.

"Aren't you going to eat something too?" He enquired.

"Oh no I've already eaten. Before I fixed you guys' breakfast to make sure it all went smoothly." Janus smiled, taking another sip.

"Oh...alright.." Roman looked back down frowning at his food. He felt dumb for asking, even though it wasnt an ovious answer. His stomach was turning a bit pushing the food around. He didn't want to seem wasteful or ungrateful, but he knew that his anxiety wouldn't let him finish what he had. Luckily the decision on what to do was made for him.

An arm came around Roman and picked up his plate for him. Startled, Roman looked behind himself to see Janus standing there holding Romans plate. He was so quiet Roman didn't even realise he had gotten up.

"It's okay if you don't want the rest, sweetheart. You seem to have been through a lot."

Blushing slightly Roman just nodded his head, avoiding eye contact.

"Yeah sorry...I'm just not..okay right now." He responded weakly.

"Let's clean up a bit and I'll send the kids to play. Then we can talk a bit." Janus said over his shoulder while walking Roman's plate to the kitchen.

Roman didn't respond since it didn't sound like a question. He just crossed his arms and laid his head on the table. 'This is going to be tough…' he thought as Janus came back into the room with Virgil on hip. 

~~~

Remus woke up with a startle, which was quite usual. He didn't ever really sleep that well. Constant nightmares and his lanky figure made it impossible to ever get comfortable anyway.

It also didn't help that Remy just poured a glass of cold water on his head.

"What the fuck!?" Remus shouted jumping up from the couch he was on, shivering as water dripped down his spine. Wait, couch? 

"Bitch. Wake up." He said monotone. "You were like. Twitching and shit. Not a good look."

"Yeah, thanks. I'm sure there was no better way to wake me up.” Remus pulled his shirt over his head and squeezed out as much water as he could. There wasn't much there, but it was a statement. Remy looked at Remus with disgust as he put his shirt back on. 

“Remind me where am I again? What time is it? It's not the first time I've woken up in a random apartment but it's been a while. Much less with my cousin...wrong state for that I believe..." He rambled, pushing his wet hair out of his face. He looked around for his phone while Remy went around the back on the couch to the kitchen area.

"First of all, disgusting. Never say that to me again. And second, Its around 6am. Which is usually too god damn early for anyone. But, you're lucky I like you and Roman." He said, grabbing a mug from the dark wood cabinet. "Oh also you are in my apartment so dont fuck shit up please."

Remus lifted his head from looking under the couch. He tilted his head to the side like a confused puppy, blinking around the room. He stood up and walked around a the table to the center of the room to see pretty much everything there is. 

"Your apartment? I thought you lived in like...a mansion with your parents." 

The place was actually quite small. A connected half kitchen and living room. Small tv on a small stand behind a coffee table in front of the light brown couch. There seemed to be two rooms off to the side, but the doors were closed. There was one window in the kitchen, and that was it. A few movie posters were on the wall and nick knacks but otherwise the place looked...normal. it wasn't very fancy, which is the opposite of what Remus expected.

"This is my secret apartment. The one where I go when I don't want to worry about being me. Don't tell anyone, you're lucky I let you be here!" Remy snapped.

Remus continued to look around but said nothing more, feeling that he had crossed a line somewhere.

Remy let out a long sigh and stopped making his drink. With his back turned to Remus he spoke again.

"Look.. I'm sorry. It's been a long night and now it's going to be a long day. I'm tired. Your phone is under the couch by the way."

"What? I looked there,” He said as he dropped back to his knees to check again, “ and It's fine. Just. Why are we worried ag-" and like a flip was switched, all the memories of last night flooded Remus' brain and he snapped up with his phone in hand. "ROMAN! have you found him? Where could he be!?" Remus raced into the kitchen, running into Remy. 

"Did you call anyone!? God he must be so mad! I'm the worst!" Remus continued pacing the room.

"Calm down! Of course I've called everywhere! But havent had any luck! It's only 6am so I couldn't call his work but I will when I can. I thought before then we could drive the way he went. See if he went home at all. The front desk at his apartment said they didn't see him come in last night but they could have missed him. It'll be a drive to get back to the countryside but we can make it. Here babe." He handed Remus a canister. "Its coffee. In the god awful way you like it."

"OoOooO thanks!" Remus said, taking a swig of the chocolaty, sweet coffee. "So. Are we gonna start with his apartment first?" 

"I think it's closer to here and the most likely place he is, yeah let's start there. But listen babes. He might be real mad still so don't push him alright?"

"I'm really worried, Remy. And I'm not usually like this...he's not usually mad like that either...I know I messed but ughhhhhh! Let's just go find him before I explode all over your nice, secret walls okay?"

"Gross hun... let's just go." Remy said, grabbing the keys hanging by the front door.

With that Remus followed Remy out to the hall of the building. After locking the door they took the elevator to Remy's car, but not the nice one he took last night.

"Where did this come from?" Remus asked, taking a seat on the passenger side.

"Last night I borrowed my dad's car and drove them there. But we took a carpool home. I told them I wanted to go out longer and they didn't question." Remy responded by turning the ignition key. "This car was the first I bought with only money I made. It's a piece of shit. And I love it." He finished pulling out of the parking space and turning onto the busy road.

Remus looked around the car. It seemed normal by any standard. Kinda small, a little dirty but it looked taken care of. Remus would have never have expected Remy to want to live like this. To each their own he supposed. It must be nice, he supposed, not having to keep up a facade all the time...

 "I had to do some research but I found where Roman lived. Have you ever been there? I haven't, so I might be wrong on the address." Remy broke Remus' train of thought.

Remus had to think on this question for a second, to restart his brain. Had he? He never really questioned it. He'd been to many of Romans homes before but had he been to this one? He couldn't recall..

"I don't think so but if the front desk recognized his name then he must live there."

"Yeah...that's what I thought too.." Remy said slightly nervously. He started tapping his fingers on the wheel as he drove.

"Why are you acting like that?"

"Like what?"

"Like weird.."

"I don't think I know what you mean.." Remy said ignoring Remus' tone.

"Listen dude what's up…" 

"I just...this isn't the best area of town. I live in my apartment about 75% of the time to escape my parents. I know this town, along with the areas to avoid. I was hoping I was wrong and he lived somewhere else. But let's just go there and make sure he's alright. Alright?"

"Alright.." Remus ended.

The rest of the ride was quiet as Remus just looked out the window. He had never been to this part of the main town before. He knew that there was a...not so great part of town. Every town has that. But this place looked run down. Old.

Most of the buildings seemed empty. Junk was thrown on the sidewalks, forgotten about. The road and sidewalks were cracked. The people walking around looked dull. It was hard to believe that this is the same town Remus lived in, just a different part of it. A part that Roman lived in…

Remus laid back in his seat staring forward as Remy pulled into a parking lot.

"Welp. We're here..I think. I'm actually quite surprised this place has a front desk at all if I'm being honest.. let's go. I'll ask which apartment is his." Remy encouraged.

Slowly Remus got out of the car and together they walked into the old building.

There was a front desk, surprisingly. Even more surprising was that there was a person behind it. 

There was a short lady behind the desk reading a very worn book. She had snow white hair and dark brown skin. He had both laugh and frown lines in her face. She looked as if she watched them build the whole town.

Remy took a deep breath and walked up to the desk and started to talk.

"Hi my name is Remy and I believe we talked on the phone late last night. We are looking for my cousin Roman. Do you know the apartment number?"

The woman didn't look up from her book, so, thinking she might not have heard him he awkwardly tried to speak up again. 

"Umm...excuse me…? He said a bit louder" 

Still, nothing. Remus shrugged his shoulders when Remy looked over to him.

"Don't look at me! I don't know what to do!" Remus whisper-shouted.

"Bish! You work with people! I don't! Talk to her!" He whispered back.

"Ugh! That's not how it works bitch!"

“I’m sure it helps!”

"Will you two shut up?!" Someone yelled. "This book is just getting good and you two are ruining it!"

Remy and Remus snapped their heads over the voice coming from behind the desk. The old woman was scowling at them harshly. 

"Sorry ma'am. Just looking for our friend. Which apartment is Roman Kingsleys?" Remy questioned quickly.

"Oh Roman?” The womens face opened up into a long smile. “What a sweet boy," her demeanor completely changed as if she was talking about a lifelong friend. "He didn't come home last night...probably at the theater, still. Poor boy. Always working. He's in 103 on the second floor. But I doubt he's home. I've been here all day. It wouldn't be the first time he's fallen asleep on stage" She let out a laugh that sounded like a mix between a window being wiped and a cackle.

After recovering slightly from the whiplash they just got from the woman, they thanked her and turned to walk to the stairs.

"Hold on now!" she stalked after them. They both froze in place. "Why do the likes of you want to go to his house? I can't just let anyone in!" She stopped right next to Remus. She barely came up to his shoulder, yet she was still terrifying. 

"I'm his brother! And this is his cousin! We are just here to say hi…" Remus uttered quickly. He didn't know why this woman made him so anxious. His family was 100 times scarier yet this woman shook him up. Something in the back of Remus' brain told him it was about threat vs action but he ignored that. 

"You better not be lying! That boy is the nicest person to walk in this hellhole." She sneered.

"No ma'am! Just here to see him!" Remy countered. "I-if you don't mind me asking though, how long has he lived around here?"

"Some cousin and brother you are if you don't know where he lives!" She laughed. Remy and Remus shuffled nervously in place. "He's lived here for about…. Ohh going on 3 years now? I think. He always tried to brighten this place up with flowers whenever he could. Recently though he's been  staying inside more. Poor child. I miss his humor. Tell him to come down here if he's up there! Give him a piece of my mind!" She finished as she stomped back to her desk, picking up her book and sitting in place, as if she never moved.

Remy and Remus smartly decided not to comment further. They continued their walk to the stairs. Each step was a bit wobbly but since there was no elevator, they had no choice. Though, judging by the look of things, they wouldn't have trusted the elevator anyway.

The walls had long straggling cracks going in each direction. At one point it looked like the walls might have been painted a baby blue or a similar shade. But years of no upkeep has left it looking grey at best. Cobwebs were strung up as if it was halloween decorations. The air smelled old and musty. The faint sound of dripping water could be heard from seemingly anywhere in the building. Yet it was eerily quiet as the boys approached Roman's apartment.

His door didn't stand out among the rest, which made Remus sad for some reason. He remembered when he would insist in the house that his door be painted a deep red color. Not it was just...bland. 

They both arrived at the door and stopped. They looked at each not quite knowing who should do what. Finally Remus had had enough and spoke up.

"What the fuck are we doing!? This is dumb. This trepidation is dumb! This isn't some horror fantasy bullshit! Let's go!" He shouted reaching for Roman's door handle. Slightly surprising both Remus and Remy, it opened.

Shaking the surprise off Remus busts through the door. 

"ROMAN! GET YO BITCH ASS UP!"

Taglist (ask to tag!):

@primaveradoodles @bluerosesbleedred

[justasparkwritings]

The 1: Well Enough Alone

Previous: Making It Count 

Pairing: Hoseok X Reader

Genre: Slice of Life / Angst / Strangers to Lovers / FWB

Rating: NC15

Word Count: 3.2K

Warnings: Swearing, Drinking, Mentions of Recreational Drug Use, Mentions of Consensual Sex

Summary: Hoseok returns to New York to make sense of the mess he’s made. 

Listen: the 1 by Taylor Swift

         The beginning of summer in New York was a mixture of heat and stench, the smells of the city rotting under the suns unrelenting gaze. Summer in the city was a mixture of absolute hell and immense pleasure, as rooftop parties, pool gatherings and air conditioning entangled themselves with the sweat and grime of the subway. It was your favorite season, sun dresses and eyelet shorts with chunky sandals and sunglass fashion was enough to tide you through until fall.

            It also meant that Hoseok would be returning, his first time back since your tryst in January. You decided to meet at the bar, and you hoped that you’d fall back into the ease and comfort of your first romantic escapade.

          You stepped into the bar, the summer sun illuminating the typically dark and dingy business. You turned your head, craning to see the brilliant smile of Hoseok, only to come up short.

           “Looking for someone?” A man said, arm slipping around your waist. You turned; eyes wide.

           “Hobi!” You called, wrapping your arms around him, pulling him to you. He laughed cheerfully and inhaled your shampoo, the scent bringing him back to whispers over tequila and scratches in the night. He held you tight, savoring the comfort of your familiarity.

           “I missed you, Y/N.”

           “I missed you, too,” You blushed as you pulled away from him.

           “Shall we?” He gestured towards the bar and you moved to take two seats in the corner, far from the growing crowd but close to the air conditioning. He left briefly to get drinks, and when he came back, he winked as he handed you your glass.

           “Manhattan Goes Hollywood,” He said, taking a sip, “not as good as yours.”

           “You remember that?”

           “I remember a lot of things,” He said. You blushed again. “Did you break our promise?”

           “My promise to you? No, I didn’t.” You said.

           “So tell me, what adventures did you go on?” Ho-Seok didn’t stop smiling.

           “I went to Rome,” You informed him.

           “No way,” He was surprised.

           “I did, I got lost and had to ask no less than five strangers in broken Italian how to get back to my hotel.”  

           “Did you go alone?”

           “My friends and I went, but we took a day to explore the sites we wanted to see, alone. Katie went to Verona, Emily went on an olive oil tour. I went to see the Saint Valentine skull and got lost.”

           “No!”

           “Yeah, it was awful, I had several panic attacks,” You sipped your drink, the alcohol warming your already too hot skin.

           “But you made it back,” Hoseok tipped his glass to you, humor in his eyes.

           “Yes, I made it back before dark, but barely,” You laughed, embarrassed at your blunder.

           “What else did you do?” He was egging you on, daring you to share wild escapades you’d had while he was touring, the ultimate adventure.

           “I took molly at a Kim Petras concert in Bushwick,” You were unsure how he’d respond to your foray into illicit drugs. In true Hoseok fashion, his shock came across in a raucous laugh.

           “You didn’t!”

           “I did, it was, euphoric,” You said.

           “I can imagine,” He responded, eyes veiled with an emotion you couldn’t recognize. “You didn’t text me though.”

           You bit your lip. There were unclear boundaries in your relationship, this cat and mouse, never sure what was okay and what wasn’t, putting things out into the universe to see what would stick, often coming up short as he crossed time zones and continents. By texting him, he meant purposefully seeking him out. Not the snapchats, drunken messages late at night or voice messages sent. Hoseok meant you hadn’t texted him or sought him out when you realized you’d be in Europe at the same time. He meant you didn’t reach out when you saw something that reminded you of him, or when you heard BTS in the speakers at Target. You’d written the texts, you’d almost hit send dozens of time, but each time you stopped yourself. Hoseok didn’t want a relationship. He wasn’t interested in settling down. It didn’t matter if you felt a connection to him, if your heart wanted his every day. He made it clear in January, no matter how many times you turned his words, his actions, over in your mind, you came to the same conclusion.  

           You were both playing the game, but only one of you could win.

           “I didn’t know you wanted me to,” You said, eyes unable to move from his.

           “I did,” He said.

           “You didn’t text either,” You reminded him.

           “I know,” He said, eyes darting to your lips.

           You stayed like that, unmoving, eyes trying to communicate what had happened in the months since you’d been in each other’s orbit.

           “You saved the voice messages,” You said.

           “So did you,” Hoseok countered. It was moot point. There was no upper hand.

           “Do you want to get out of here?” You asked, ice saturating your drink, the unrest in your body making you uncomfortable.

           “Your place?” He questioned.

           “You’re forward,” You forced a laugh, a poor attempt at breaking some of the tension.

           “We don’t have to-

           “I know,” You stood.

           “We can but, I’m happy just being,”

           “Together,” you finished.

           “Yes,” He nodded.

           You nodded in response before standing up and much like before, your hands found each other’s as you guided him back to the street. Hoseok looked left and right, before glancing down at you.

           “Are you trying to navigate us, or just being cute?”

           “Can’t I be both?”

           “Sure, Hoseok, sure,” You laughed again, guiding him down the familiar streets to your apartment. “How long are you here for?”

           “Four days,” He said.

           “Doing?”

           “A photo shoot, somethings for MTV, Today Summer Concert series,”

           “Holy fuck, how did I forget?” You stopped in the middle of the street, staring at Hoseok. “Friday, right?”

           “Yes,”

           “That’s so exciting! It’s going to be a fucking madhouse!” You were giddy, new BTS content? Yes, please.

           “I know, I’m excited,” He took your excitement and leveled up. Euphoria seeping through his chuckles.

           “How are the guys feeling?” You asked.

           “Good, excited to perform again,” He said, energy flowing freely between you.

           “It’s not like it’s been years since you performed.”

           “No, but you still miss it after a week or two off,” Ho-Seok said.

          Hoseok had a few weeks off… why didn’t he come to New York sooner? YOU’RE NOT HIS GIRLFRIEND, yelled the voices of Emily and Katie.

           “What are you going to perform?” You asked, pulling yourself back to him.

           “I can’t tell you that,” He laughed again.

           “Please?” You begged, bottom lip jutting out, eyes swelling.

           “What do I get in return?” Hoseok’s tone was teasing, you both knew he didn’t want anything from you.

           “What do you want?” You asked. You had reached your apartment, and as you walked up the two flights of stairs, Hobi thought about what exactly he was trying to get from you. He didn’t want anything, and yet, he felt like he wanted everything from you and with you. He had kept your voice messages and wouldn’t delete your voicemails. He had a file of screenshots of drunk texts you’d sent, confessions late at night… He couldn’t count the number of times he reached to text you… the phone calls and facetimes he’d said were an accident but were really his feeble attempt at reaching out to you. All he wanted was to talk to you, to tell you about the shows, to fly you to him, to talk to you, to be with you. But he couldn’t.

           “Come to the show on Friday,” He offered.

           “What?” Your heart stood still.

           “Come to the show, I’ll put you on the list.” He tried to brush it off like it was nothing, an innocent outing.

           “Hoseok, would the guys be okay with that? Is that allowed?” Your mind began to race with possibilities.

           “Why not? Yes, it’s allowed, we can hang out after,” He shrugged.

           “Okay,” You said hesitantly.

           “Yeah?” His smile was back.

           “Yeah!” You smiled.

           Hoseok pulled you to him, first in a hug, then his lips found yours. He missed the way you tasted, the way your fingers scrunched around his shirt, holding him to you by the thread count. He missed the sounds you made, the warmth he felt in your embrace. He’d missed you.

           Hoseok slipped out before you awoke, a kiss on your cheek and a note on your nightstand. He’d have management send a car for you on Friday morning and bring you to the Plaza to watch. You’d get brunch with the guys after, some secluded five-star restaurant that the team had arranged. You were impressed that he’d scribbled this much before 6AM, and more impressed that he’d found a sticky note in your clusterfuck of a desk.

           As you sat with your girlfriends the next day at lunch, you relegated your previous escapades.

           “He’s your international fuckbuddy,” Katie said, sipping on her espresso.

           “Isn’t that the best of all the worlds?” Emily asked.

           “I think?” You said, unconvinced.

           “You think? He fucks you when he’s in town, then it’s no strings attached the months he’s gone. What’s wrong with that?” Katie prodded.

           “Nothing’s wrong with it,” You said shrugging.

           “You’ve caught feelings,” Emily said.

           “I’m just not sure that that’s what this is,” You dipped your toe in the water of their judgement.

           “Does he call you when he’s gone?” Katie pressed.

           “Sometimes,”

           “And you text often?” Emily asked.

           “Often enough,” You said.

           “Aren’t you just strangers who fuck? I don’t understand this confusion,” Katie said, eyes narrowing.

           “I don’t know if that’s all it is,” You tried to explain.

           “What would give you an idea that you’re anything other than American pussy?” Katie asked.

           “The way he looks at me, and the things he’s says… He waxes poetic every time we’re together,” You told them.

           “To get you into bed?” Emily asked.

           “Why would an international idol fuck with me?” You questioned, more force behind your words than you’d intended.

           “You’re hot and intelligent?” Katie offered.

           “Beautiful and charismatic?” Emily added.

           “I just mean, he could be fucking anyone, right? But he’s sleeping with me on the off days he’s in New York. He says things… He doesn’t treat me like a fuck buddy,” You were growing flustered and upset. Couldn’t they understand what you were hinting at?

           “Other than only fucking you when he’s in town?” Katie laughed; disbelief written across her face.

           “And barely speaking to you otherwise?” Emily said, unlocking her phone to check her emails.

           “Never mind,” You rolled your eyes.

           “I’m just trying to understand-

           “I don’t want to talk about it,” You said, disappointment in your eyes.

           You’d shared almost every detail of your relationship with Ho-Seok. From how his hands felt on your body to the things he’d whispered to you as you laid in bed. They’d told you your relationship was nothing more than sex, that Ho-Seok was far too busy and important to want anything else from you.

           If you thought about it rationally, it made sense. But in your heart, as you looked into his eyes, or read his texts, or saw the number of missed facetime calls you shared, you knew it was more. There was something there in his gaze, in his words, in his kiss. Why else had he promised that you’d see one another again, the next time he was in New York?

           This was your mindset as you stepped out of the chauffeured car at the Today Show. The whir of the crew and BTS handlers buzzing as they prepped for the performance overwhelmed your senses as you were guided to where the men were.

           “Y/N!” Hoseok called, moving from a conversation with Namjoon to hug you. The men glanced at you, taking in your appearance as Ho-Seok spoke to you. “You’re here! It’s going to be so great.”

           Your smile faltered, you hadn’t expected a kiss, on the lips or cheek, but a brief hug? Hadn’t he been in your bed two nights ago, moaning your name, coming undone inside you? The prying eyes made you uncomfortable as you glanced around at the men trying to focus before their early show. The energy was electric, caffeine and adrenaline mixing with the vibe of an early summer morning in the greatest city in the world. It was intoxicating.

           “Guys, this is Y/N,” Hoseok called, looking at his six bandmates. “You can introduce yourselves later.”

           The men were guided to the stage, where they were introduced and began their performance. You’d never seen them this close, and were in awe of every note, every step, every movement. Ho-Seok commanded the stage, oozing talent and sex appeal as he led the group through routine after routine. You were equal parts amazed and so turned on. You recognized his hip thrust, the slight twerk of his ass, the furrow in his brow. His voice was gorgeous, clear and strong over the throngs of screaming ARMY. Who wouldn’t want something more with him?

           Your mind was hazy as they came off the stage, interview segments completed. Ho-Seok crashed into your arms, holding you tight.

           “You were so fucking good,” You said laughing. He laughed to, merriment filling the dressing room.

           “All for you,” He said, resting his sweaty forehead against yours.

           “Ew, you’re so sweaty,” You said.

           “That’s not what you said the other night when you were sticking to me.”

           “Two can play that game,” You replied, eyes squinting.

           “Oh?” He asked, daring you to say something in a room filled with his brothers.

           “Don’t think I didn’t notice your hips, or that furl of your brow,” Your words were hushed, an intimate conversation between lovers.

           “Mm, recognized them, eh?” He smirked before untangling himself from you. “Give us a bit, we’ll go to brunch.”

           “Okay,” You said, and you stood still, watching Ho-Seok walk towards the showers as his hand slowly slipped from yours.

           The other men moved around you, showering, changing, thanking staff and wrapping up their time at the Today Show. It was the highest viewed concert series, with the largest audience that the Today Show had seen since One Direction and BTS’ last foray in the summer heat.

           After thanking the hosts and signing a few merch items, BTS left, you in tow, to pile into a few vans headed for brunch. Ho-Seok insisted in taking a separate car, just the two of you, or at least it was until Jin decided he needed to chaperone.

          “Oh, yeah, I hear this place is good, I did some research,” Jin said as the car moved through Manhattan.

          “Mm, I’m starving,” Hoseok commented. His fingers were wound in yours, and your bodies were close together, shoulders touching.

          “Y/N, what are you going to get?” Jin asked.

          “Maybe eggs, but I’m kind of feeling waffles,”

          “And a mimosa,” Hoseok laughed.

          “Oh, bottomless,” You said giggling.

          “Mostly champagne,” Hoseok said.

          “With a drop of orange,” You added.

          “Your favorite,” He glanced at you, smile crinkling his eyes. He remembered.

          The three of you piled out of the car and were ushered quickly into the restaurant, Hoseok’s hand still in yours. As you sat down, Hoseok on your right, Namjoon on your left, you took in the Bangtan. Their striking beauty was blinding. How each of them had managed to find their way to Big Hit and stick it out was beyond you. There couldn’t possibly be anyone in the world more beautiful than them.  

           “Y/N, tell us, how is your friendship with J-Hope going?” Namjoon asked as he sipped on his Bloody Mary.

           “I’m impressed you stay friends with him,” Yoongi muttered.

           “I’m an excellent friend!” Hoseok exclaimed.

           “It’s going well, yeah, I’m glad we get to see each other when he’s in town,” You smiled at the men, hoping they won’t notice how flustered you’d become.  

           “He’s a good friend, always so optimistic,” Taehyung added.

           “Except when he’s blasting music, dancing at four thirty in the morning,” Yoongi commented.

           “It was one time!” Jungkook said, coming to his hyung’s defense.

           “Why were you even awake?” Jimin asked.

           “I was preparing for ��

           “You barely slept,” Yoongi said, voice serious.

           “Nervous energy,” Hoseok responded.

           “The performance was amazing,” You interjected, noting the tension between the two men. “I love how you pull out your back catalogue for every performance.”

           “We fight about it, a lot,” Namjoon said.

           “Only because some of us are wrong,” Jimin said.

           “You’re just mad because –

           “Let’s not fight when we have a guest,” Namjoon interjected.

           “Yeah, we can fight on our flight to Brazil,” Jin said. “Plenty of hours to bicker,”

           “Y/N, do your other friends like Ho-Seok?” Taehyung asked.

           “Um, they’ve never met,”

           “They haven’t? But he spends so much time with you, talking to you, about you,” Jin rambled.

           “Um, yeah, it’s just never lined up,” You took a large swig of champagne, “I’m sure they’d like him.”

           “Unless he’s dancing at-

           “Shut up Yoongi!” Jimin said through laughs.

           “So Brazil, what will that be like?” You asked.

           As the boys launched into their excitement for returning to South America, you sat and lost track of your thoughts. How many times had they called you a friend, said they were glad Ho-Seok had a friend like you, wanted to become your friend. Friend.

          Is that what you were? You grew uncomfortable as the conversation lingered on, the men laughing and Namjoon translating quickly the funny things they were saying. Hoseok kept an arm around your shoulders, eating with his non dominant hand, just to hold you close. You felt no comfort in his gesture as your anxiety grew.

           “They think we’re friends?” You asked, Hoseok’s hand in yours as the car took off towards Brooklyn.

           “Yeah, aren’t we?” He countered.

           “I don’t know, do friends know what it’s like to be inside the other?” You scoffed.

           “Y/N,” He said, cocking his head toward the driver.

           “I’m just asking,” You responded.

           “Can we talk about this at your apartment?” He pleaded.

           “I’d prefer to talk about it now,” You turned to face him.

           “We’re friends,” He was treading lightly, you could hear it in the breath he put into the word ‘friends’.

           “Aren’t we more?” Your voice betrayed your cool demeanor.

           “I, I don’t think we can be,” Hoseok said.

           You turned to face forward, hand slowly slipping out of his. You made a list of every sad song you wanted to listen to as you drank the half open bottle of Prosecco in your fridge, tears inevitable. Ho-Seok didn’t say anything, didn’t try to bring you back to him. The gravitational pull had been severed and you both were spinning.

           “Thanks for uh, making sure I got home, and for letting me spend the day with you,” You said, unbuckling your seatbelt.

           “Of course, can I walk you up?” His eyes were sad.

           “No, I don’t think that’d be a good idea,” You said opening the door to the summer heat.

           “Y/N,” He was searching for you.

           “Hoseok, have a safe flight, okay?”

           He leaned in to place a kiss on your lips, but you turned, lips landing on your cheek. Getting out of the car, you didn’t look back.

           Why couldn’t you have left well enough alone?

Next: Never Gonna Grow

[caws5749]

Ch 2 “do you think she could become one of us?”

nat x young reader. avengers x reader. next part in the Your Red-Headed Mentor series. 

Prequel

Ch 1

Ch 3

When you woke up, it was still dark out. You couldn’t fall back asleep, and decided to head to the gym and workout. It was 6am, and you hoped you would have the gym to yourself. You changed into workout clothes Wanda had lent you and headed downstairs. 

No one else was in the gym, and you began to look around for certain machines and weights. You worked all of your muscles, before heading towards a punching bag. It was 7am when Natasha wandered into the gym.

“Oh, hey,” she said, her voice still hoarse from sleep. She was clearly surprised you were here. 

“Hey,” you responded, before turning back to your punching bag. She didn’t say anything else, but instead eyed you curiously for a moment, before beginning her workout. A while later, you moved to do some stretching, and she was finishing up her short morning workout. 

“I’m heading upstairs- breakfast is almost ready. You coming?” she asked. 

“Is it okay if I run for a short while before breakfast?” you questioned. She nodded and gave you a small smile. 

“See you up there,” she responded. You nodded, and moved to the treadmill. 

Natasha didn’t head straight upstairs though. She headed to the viewing room above the training area. Steve, who had been walking down the hallway, happened to see her, and went to stand by her. 

“What are you doing?” Steve asked. 

“Watching her,” Nat said, nodding towards you. “She trains harder than I did at her age.”

“Do you think she could become one of us?” Steve questioned. Natasha nodded. They left to head to the kitchen, you oblivious to their entire conversation.

You ran for fifteen minutes, and headed upstairs. Everyone greeted you as you entered the kitchen. 

“We saved you some breakfast before Clint could eat it all,” Tony joked. You laughed as Clint acted hurt. You grabbed the plate they had saved for you and joined them at the table, sitting beside Natasha. You listened to their conversations as you ate. 

“Do you want to train with us today? We’re doing something fun,” Natasha stated to you. 

“That sounds great,” you responded. If you had a chance to prove yourself to the Avengers, and train with the best, you were going to take it. Nat smiled, before telling you that everyone was going to meet in the gym at 1030. You nodded, before going to shower. 

“Do you need another set of workout clothes?” Wanda asked. You nodded sheepishly.

“If you have another set, that would be great. Sorry, these ones are kinda sweaty,” you said. 

“That’s okay,” she laughed. “I’m glad you got a good workout in this morning,” she smiled. You followed her to her room, and she gave you another set. You thanked her and headed to your room. You took your time showering, relishing in the warm water that the compound had. The Red Room only had freezing cold water, which effectively forced you to shower quickly. The compound bathroom was also large and made of beautiful marble. You felt like royalty. 

At 1015, you began to make your way down to the gym. You were excited, but honestly, pretty nervous. Sure you knew how to train, but you were training with the Avengers, which was something completely different entirely. You walked into the gym. 

“You’re early. I like it,” Steve said. You smiled at him. He was setting things up. 

“Do you want some help?” you asked. 

“Sure,” he replied. He instructed you on where to put things, and you got to work. 

“Oh, that’s pretty heavy, I forgot, I can get that,” he said, when you began to head towards something to move it. You tried to move it, curious, and found you could. 

“It’s okay, I’ve got it,” you replied, and continued moving it. He stared at you for  a moment, impressed. Maybe Nat’s right. This one’s got the potential to be a great asset to the team. 

The rest of the team slowly filed in. At 1030 sharp, Steve began to explain how the obstacle course was going to work. 

“Am I allowed to sabotage some of the team members?” Tony questioned. 

“Absolutely not Tony,” Steve scolded. “This is individual training but it’s also a tag team effort so you need to work with your team.” Tony sighed dramatically and muttered under his breath. 

“Okay everyone. You’ve got your teams. You know what to do. 3...2...1... go!” Steve shouted. 

You were on the team consisting of Natasha, Clint, and Wanda. The other team was composed of Tony, Vision, Sam, and Bucky. (When Steve had called out the teams, Clint had been very very wise to not bring up the fact that he was on a near all-girl team.)

Natasha and Bucky were going first. Nat was ahead of him, but not by very much. They raced through the course and back, Nat tagging Clint just seconds before Bucky tagged Sam. Sam beat Clint by a second, tagging Vision. A moment later, Wanda was catching up to Vision, and they raced through the course. They reached you and Tony at the same time, and you took off. Tony was right on your tail, but you loved running, and speed was definitely one of your strengths. He was stronger, but that didn’t slow you down too much. At the halfway point, you were about two seconds ahead, and determined to keep it that way. As you got closer to your team, you saw how they were cheering you on, calling your name and screaming words of encouragement. You had never had that in the Red Room, and it gave you a huge push of motivation. You sprinted harder, using every muscle in your body to push you through the last obstacles. You reached your team a full four seconds before Tony, and they were ecstatic. 

After receiving praise from them, and several high fives from everyone, you glanced at Steve, who was still away from the course. He was staring at you, impressed with what you had done. You blushed, meeting his gaze. It was becoming a little overwhelming. You hadn’t ever received this much praise by so many people, and you started wanting to disappear back to the room you were staying in. Steve, watching you like a hawk, could tell that it was becoming a bit much.

“Okay everyone, that’s enough. Hit the showers, and then it’s lunchtime,” Steve commanded. Everyone nodded, and followed his order. 

Two weeks later, you had become accustomed to how things were run in the compound. You had begun to get to know some of the Avengers a little bit, and were a little more comfortable now. You started to learn everyone’s routines, and had begun to develop one yourself. Today though, you quickly learned that your routine was going to be changed a bit. 

You entered the kitchen after your workout for breakfast. 

“Hey Y/N, I was thinking we could go shopping today. Wanda’s things fit you, but I think it’s time you get some of your own,” Natasha said thoughtfully, throwing you a smile. You nodded.

“Yeah that sounds good,” you replied. “I... I don’t have any money,” you murmured to Natasha. 

“It’s okay,” she reassured. “Tony will be paying for it.” You hummed and thanked Tony.

“No problem kid. Can’t have you wearing the same things every day that would be a fashion nightmare. It already is,” he joked. You chuckled and finished your breakfast. 

“I’m just going to shower real quick and then I’m ready,” you told Nat. She nodded. 

“I’ll be in the living room. Just head there when you’re done.”

You quickly showered and brushed through your hair, putting on a pair of Wanda’s leggings and a sweater, before heading to the living room. 

“All set? Let’s go,” Natasha said, before standing up. You followed her downstairs to the garage, where she grabbed her keys from the hook and climbed into her sports car. 

“Wow,” you muttered. 

“I like it too,” she chuckled. 

It was a twenty minute drive to the mall, and you loved every second of it. Nat liked to drive fast, and you could tell she loved the thrill. Honestly, so did you. Once getting there, she parked perfectly, and led you inside. You hadn’t really ever shopped before, and were a little nervous about it. Natasha led you into nearly every store there was, and managed to help you pick out some things you really liked. Most of the stuff you bought was workout gear, of course, but she made sure you had two pairs of jeans, and some nice tops and sweaters. She said that Tony threw lots of parties, and had you buy a couple of dresses for those. 

You were both beginning to grow tired, and she suggested you stop at the coffee shop in the mall. You both sat down with your mugs, and you noticed something was off. She was bouncing her foot ever so slightly and her lips were pursed. 

“Nat?” you questioned, finding yourself a little concerned. She hummed, before looking you in the eyes. 

“Y/N, I would like to officially ask you to join the team. Everyone is impressed with your abilities, and thinks you would be a great asset to the team. Plus, everyone enjoys your company too.” She paused, before asking, “Do you want to be an Avenger?”

You couldn’t think. You couldn’t see straight. That can’t be right. There’s no way the team wants you to join them. You weren’t qualified, you weren’t good enough. There’s no way you-

“Y/N?” Natasha interrupted your thoughts, brows furrowing in concern. You realized you were breathing quite fast, and tried to calm down. 

“Sorry,” you murmured. “Are you sure?” you asked. She looked at you, tilting her head. 

“Yes, I’m sure,” she answered. You nodded. 

“I want to join,” you said, still not believing it. She couldn’t stop the smile from forming on her lips. 

“Well then, I think we need to go shopping for decorations for your room,” she pondered. You thought you were going to faint.

“Don’t pass out on me. I don’t want to have to carry you around,” Natasha laughed. You blushed, before you both picked up all of the bags and headed to the car, discussing where you were going to shop next. 

After finding pieces for your room, you headed back to the compound. You lugged all the bags upstairs and dumped them in your room.

“You can put them away later. Right now, the team wants to talk to their newest member,” Nat said, smiling. You both headed to the kitchen, and joined the rest of the Avengers at the table. They had been waiting for you. 

“Alright squirt, we need to talk about some rules here,” Tony said. “Oh and uh congrats by the way.” The rest of the team cheered and hollered, making you blush. 

“Hey! We’ve gotta set rules!” Tony interrupted. Everyone listened after a little bit of scolding and got serious. 

“Curfew first,” Tony stated. 

“What he means is, you’re not over 18 yet, so we just need to make sure you’re safe,” Natasha interrupted. “And we are aware that you probably wouldn’t really be going out much anyway, but we just wanted to discuss it.” Tony nodded. 

“9pm,” Tony said. Clint swatted him.

“She’s not a grandma she doesn’t go to bed at 10!” Clint exclaimed. Wanda giggled, sending you an amused look. 

“Fine, midnight,” Tony huffed. Natasha and Steve nodded, content with the time set. 

“You have to ask before borrowing any of the cars,” Tony continued. 

“I can borrow a car?” you asked, shocked. At your face, Tony’s gaze softened. 

“Of course,” he replied. “As long as you ask,” he chuckled. You nodded, still blown away by everything that was happening. 

“That’s all we can think of right now. If we need to set some rules as we go, we’ll do that,” Steve added. You nodded. 

“Oh and you’ll be training with the whole team of course, but I will also be training you additionally,” Nat said. You nodded and sent her a soft smile. 

“Okay, let’s go help her unpack all of her new things,” Wanda said. You nodded, still smiling. Natasha, Wanda, and you all got up and headed out to the room that was now yours. 

“You better keep that room clean!” Tony yelled at your retreating figures. You all laughed, before discussing how you were going to arrange your room. 

Nat and Wanda helped you set everything up and put all of the clothes away. Wanda left to watch a movie with Vision before dinner, and Natasha grabbed you one of your new workout sets. 

“I’m going to train with you before dinner, okay?” You nodded, and went to go change. She told you to meet her in the gym in 15 minutes. You headed there early after changing to warm up with a quick run. Natasha entered and hummed, looking at your curiously. 

“Warmed up?” she questioned, chuckling softly. You nodded, before following her to a large sparring mat. 

“We’re going to spar first, so that I can really get an idea of how you were trained,” she instructed. You froze a bit, before nodding. You both took your places and began. She learned that you were quick on your feet, strategic, focused, and agile, though you could be cautious. You learned what her favorite go-to moves were, how she would sometimes step a little too far, and that she was extremely good at judging what your next move would be. 

“Can you teach me your signature move?” you questioned, out of breath. She nodded, and led you over to one of the dummies bolted to the floor. She carefully explained each part of the move, and you practice it slowly on the dummy. You were having some trouble and growing frustrated quickly. Natasha was watching you carefully, waiting to see if you would give up or get too angry. She was surprised when you regulated yourself, taking a deep breath and closing your eyes, before approaching the dummy a different way. 

“Y/N, you know it took me a while to really nail the move,” she said. “I think we’ve trained enough for today. You did well,” she praised. You smiled proudly, grateful for the praise. 

“Go wash up for dinner,” she instructed, before handing you a water bottle. You nodded and thanked her for training you. She gave you a curious glance, followed by a soft smile. 

You left, passing by Clint, who gave you a high five. He went into the gym. 

“How’d she do?” he asked Natasha. 

“She’s good. And not just at the physical stuff. She listens well and tries to figure things out on her own. She’s strategic and focused. She’ll do well,” Nat replied. “I am a little concerned though- she’s hard on herself. Too hard. I feel like that might get worse unless I do something,” she continued. Clint nodded thoughtfully. 

“You’re a good mentor,” he said, bumping his shoulder into hers. She looked at the ground, a soft smile on her lips. “If anyone can help her escape the horrors of where she was raised, it’s you.” She frowned at that, knowing just how many horrors you had faced. 

“Come on, you’re not going to help her by standing there frowning,” Clint joked. “Let’s let her pick the movie for movie night tonight.” She nodded, before chuckling. 

“It’s going to take her all of dinner to look through all the movies,” she grinned. 

“Well then she better get started,” Clint replied.  

[iamaquaria]

Lando Stream

Time stamps are aproximated, can be a minute or two off

here are a list of some funny/memorable things from Lando 24hr Spa stream:

around 46 min: Max asks Lando how come he is a memelord

around 52 min: Lando is asked if he got any pubes yet and he says no

between 50/60 min: Lando dancing to ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’

around 1hr 32 min: Lando is asked what cars he have?

Lando very unamused: mclaren

around 1hr 36 min: Driver order: Max Benecke, Max Wenig, Max Verstappen, Max Norris

around 2hr 15min: Lando: GURLL

around 2hr 20min: Lunch time for MILKBOY

around 2hr 33min: he’s back eating an apple

around 2hr 34min: loud apple eating (ASMR vibes)

around 3hr: Max V. is back and asking very technical questions (he was training in a different lobby)

around 3hr 1 min: Lando rushes to rescue his food he’s forgotten about

around 3hr 4 min: Lando comes back with his food, he looks so happy — it looks like a burrito with mayo

around 3hr 9 min: lando says MILK

around 3hr 11 min: Lando plays as Carlos on F1 so he can always be behind Lando (that face)

around 3hr 17min: Lando drinks milk

around 3hr 18min: Lando is asked which drivers are best worst at sim. Apparently Seb is really bad and rarely trains on the sim while Carlos plays a lot on it and Max is the god in F1 sim

3hr 23 min: Lando “ I’m such a good chef ” — 1 min later - “ I’m pro chef Max, I got the starter pack from Testo but I have to prepare the chicken blah blah blah”

3hr 28min: Wagamama is apparently amazing

3hr 38min: Lando’s reaction to Kimi response to ‘tiny car comment’

3hr 51min: Lando texting the Milkman (he then ramble son that he is the milkman and loves milk)

3hr 53min: Lando joking pirelli tyres

4hr 7 min: Lando is asked when does his work week starts. He has no idea (has a very confused face on).

4hr 9 min: Lando’s team is blocked in the pitlane entry

4hr 10min: Max is behind the wheel now

4hr 13min: Lando to Max “Look at that! Commuting to those corners/offtrack”

4hr 15min: Max is driving like a Madman with those lines (just need to clip the banter between them in these timeframe - 20min)

4hr 19min: Lando’s laugh and angry Max (Max can’t drive without going off track)

4hr 22min: Shit Energy Car has beached on the gravel (player dc’ed mid stint)

*The off-track counter keeps going up bc of Max V being incapable of staying on the track*

4hr 26min: Max joking about his driving style on F1 being similar to in game (he loves driving on grass)

4hr 28min: Lando shows to the stream - Peppa Pig’s height ... (it’s 7”1’)

4hr 30min: Lando to Max “You should have gone for the outside” during Max overtake — Max “Next lap”. Lando referred to the awesome overtake of Max on Nasr back in 2015. Max actually practiced that move in iracing many times before. (thank you rosieu for pointing this out)

*Max has done over 40 off track movement in his first stint — the 4 stints before did a combined value of 50*

4hr 39min: Max has done 60 off track moves, totalling 100 in total so far (chat is really invested in this)

4hr 44min: He has a Renault car from Renault while the 570s is a “company car”

4hr 48min: Fan asks when will Lando be in a good F1 team. Lando is pissed and banned him. Lando “What do you mean a good team?” He’s very protective of McLaren bros

4hr 49min: Max V goes wide, Lando banters with Max

4hr 50min: Someone “Stop donating to a millionaire” Lando “Just bc I race in F1 doesn’t mean I’m a millionaire” (rolls eye)

5hr 1min: Someone asked “What Happened to Rich Energy?”

Lando “Dunno”

Max V “They ran out of energy”

5hr 5min: Max V did over 100 off tracks movements on his first stint 😬

*For Max V the track is the space between two barriers*

5hr 10min: Lando is asked the worst part of being an F1 driver. “The travelling, training and being away from home”

5hr 12min: Lando “IN IN IN IN” — Max V “IN IN IN IN”

*Max 2nd Stint*

5hr 14min: Lando “IN IN NO NO OUT OUT IN”

5hr 20min: Lando os AWOL, Max B told Max V “Keep on track”

5hr 22min: Maxes talking in Dutch, Lando comes in talking very rude words in dutch (tnx rosieu for pointing this out) and snacking

5hr 26min: Lando closes main race to train in another lobby (Max V created the lobby, password: redtube) b4 his stint (black screen until 32min)

5hr 38min: Lando crashes the car while training and rage quits “That’s why I practice b4 the race”

6hr 1 min: Max does 200 off track moves during his 2 stints

6hr 4min: Chat makes a joke, Lando laughts then does a self-depreciation joke. “What’s the difference between Max and a Flag”

6hr 6min: Joke from last post Version 2.0

6hr 10min: Chat “What are those racing lines?” Lando “Those are Verstappen lines”

6hr 11min: Donations Music time

6hr 12min: Lando and Max doing old grandma voice

*Lando is turning off all notifications to focus on the race*

6hr 14min: Lando “Box this lap, IN IN IN IN”

6hr 16min: Max V had 0.1 litter left of fuel, boy is on point

*Lando is driving now / Max V has taken a break “Can’t feel his feet” *

6hr 21min: Lando “I’m too focus to speak, I’m here for the team and not for twitch chat” (Someone clip this cutie plz)

6hr 28min: Lando “Lando the milkman, whassup”

6hr 32min: Lando “Now we are a bit quicker as we have less fuel but because of low temps we don’t have much degradation on the tyres”

7hr 9min: Lando makes a mistake after reading twitch chat instead of focusing on the race

7hr 11min: Lando wants a drink but “ha can’t have the drink”

*Lando is doing about as much off track moves as Max V. did during his stints*

7hr 15min: Max V. is back!! Lando is about to pit for his next stint

7hr 17min: Max V. “Good Pace” — Lando “A lot of runnoff” — Max V. “If there’s no penalty 🤷‍♂️”

7hr 19min: Lando 2nd stint

7hr 19min: Lando has his drink (water)

7hr 22min: Lando and Max banter (who has more runoffs)

*The 2 non-F1 drivers did around 15 runoffs each on a stint while Max V and Lando are doing over 100 a stint*

7hr 30min: Lando almost crashed, Max V is watching the race from the TV. Max V calls the other guy a retard

7hr 36min: Chat “Lando needs some milk” Lando “YAA man, I need some milk”

7hr 56min: Lando overtakes a lapped car and thanks him (as in, thumbs up to the camera and say “Cheers”)

7hr 58min: How is IRacing like? Lando “think of the worst car...” ... “Think of Williams guys, not McLaren” (should clip this later)

8hr 9min: Lando has made a great overtake and is amused the dude behind is flashing his lights at him

8hr 18min: Siren goes off. Lando “Is it loud?” *proceeds to make such loud sound*

8hr 20min: Lando “IN IN IN IN” “no no stay out” “are we in trouble guys”

*end of Lando 2nd stint, Lando will come back 6am UK time*

8hr 21 min: Benecke is driving, Lando is exhausted

8hr 25min: Lando is thanking all the subs he missed during racing, did a weird move with his jaw

8hr 27min: Lando “Oof, almost make 500 off track? Dissapointed”

8hr 36min: Lando panics when he sees Benecke did a runoff (he is one of the best in the server of safe driving)

8hr 37min: Lando has left to go to sleep (he said ciao ciao ☺️)

8hr 38min: Lando left a message in the middle of the stream screen

*Lando will go to sleep but leave the stream going*

around 12hr 27min: Max was finishing his stint, and the other max went IN IN IN IN

*Lando stream crashed, he started a new one, so time stamps are lower than should be*

5hr 16 min: Max will you be safe? Eyes closed safe

5hr 22min: Just had a SHOWUR

5hr 29min: Lando admits Max is amazing at FIFA and he sucks at it

5hr 31min: One Max asks who changed car settings, Verstappen says it was him laughing

5hr 38min: Verstappen almost crashes

*2 hours left of racing*

5hr 39min: Verstappen “McLaren ! McLaren!” “Lando go home”

5hr 48min: The broadcast says Verstappen did the fastest lap when it was Benecke (max v was very amused by this)

5hr 50min: The guys discussing why iracing is so nice to drive

5hr 51min: A max “you can run 2sec slower and still win” (they have a massive gap to p2) Verstappen laughs like a schoolgirl

5hr 63min: Lando “Max (V) won’t get to 1000x, he’s a pro”

6hr 5min: Lando comes back and plays with “MICROPHONE MUTED””MICROPHONE ACTIVATED” messages

6hr 6min: The Lord drinks MILK + snacking a sandwich

6hr 14min: Lando drinks milk and spills some

6hr 26min: Lando telling Max V he is the quickest. We stan a supportive friendship

6hr 27min:chat “ Is Max V drivin drivin?” Lando “Oh he’s drivin drivin”

6hr 30min: Stream down for a couple of min

6hr 38min: Lando put an audio of a meme, and then it’s just meme references between the two of them (cutie pies)

6hr 41min: Lando “Max (V) we need more offtrack to get to 1000” Verstappen “No way!”

6hr 42min: Lando “Max there’s a force india in front of you ... it’s OCON!!!”

6hr 43min: they talk about the emix of blue flag radio messages

6hr 44min: Lando plays blue flag remix song

6hr 47min: Max B “A couple of teams have around 2000 off tracks” Lando “we only have lower because you 2 (Max B and W) don’t go, it’s only me and Max” Max”Cool kids go off track”

6hr 48min: Lando singing “Blue Flag! Blue Flag! Blue Flag!” Max completing “Honestly, what are we doing?”

6hr 49min: Broadcast said that if Max does fastest lap he will win the race, no questions asked

6hr 54min: song played “SUPER MAX” Lando plays it to the Maxes in teamspeak

6hr 55min: Lando pitch’s the idea of a song called “Off-Track” by Max V feat. Lando

6hr 57min: Maxes teaching Lando how to pronounce words in Dutch correctly

7hr 8min: Lando “Would you prefer default or fail?” Max V “Fail definitely” Lando “i like more default”

7hr 10min: Chat “What was worse, driving in Paul Richard or that time you couldn’t turn your steering wheel?” Lando “Def the second, I couldn’t drive like at all”

7hr 11min: 0% Champagne is called Milk

7hr 14min: A donation “Imagine if last lap Vettel shows up and hits Verstappen” Teamspeak mic was open and Max V was like “If someone does that to me I will find his real address”

*Stream reaches 10K viewers*

7h 18min: Lando “I should be getting paid for doing as for puredriving”

7hr 20min: Maxes make a joke Lando don’t understand but most chat can as they are Dutch (max fans)

7hr 21min: Lando tells Max V to keep his head down to do a purple sector, Max V responds “My head is in my steering wheel”

7hr 22min: Max has enough fuel to make donuts at the end of the race

7hr 23min: Max V dissing Williams

7hr 25min: Max V almost crashes, Lando laughs. I mean, everyone is preoccupied

7hr 27min: Max V has a technical difficulty(his break pedal has fallen off) They panic for a couple of minutes, worth watching

7hr 30min: Lando MilkBoy is coming for the rescue, these last 30 min are golden

7hr 30min: Lando is drivin’ drivin’ now, they are very panicky

*Hectic end of the race*

7hr 32min: Lando can’t stop laughing, Max V break pedal snapped in half

*14k+ watching this burning train*

7hr 34min: Lando says they got karma for shit talking about their amazing lead and gap from P2

7hr 35min: They are just laughing at their shit luck

7hr 37min: Apparently Max V was going to change his pedals for new ones after this race (new ones already on his house), I guess he will have to swap now

*16k viewers*

I mean guys, they are just giggling the end of the stream, really recommend watching the last 30 min of the race

7hr 40min: End of the race. All of them so relieved and Lando does some donuts

7hr 43min: Lando is being a dick to the other cars, gets hit

7hr 45min: Lando and the Maxes mocks all the PEE WAN celebrations (e.g. Get in there Lewis!)

7hr 46min: Lando “I don’t want to be straight” Maxes laughs — Lando “I mean the car”

7hr 48min: Lando recaps the race

7hr 52min: Clip of the accident and then narrator is asking the drivers questions about the 20 min (man, this is golden)

Lando “It went all wrong”

7hr 56min: This interview is great, Max and Lando friendship exposed

Who was driving when:

A stint has a duration of 1 hour

1st and 2nd stint: Maximilian Benecke

3rd and 4th stint: Maximilian Wenig (he sounds eery similar to Kvyat)

5th and 6th stint: Max Emilian Verstappen

7th and 8th stint: Lando ‘Maximilian’ Norris

9th and 10th stint: Maximilian Benecke

11th and 12th stint: Max Emilian Verstappen

13th and 14th stint: Maximilian Wenig

ps: Lando will be on holidays during WTF1 event (he’s going to a different country - not saying which) (3h20m)

ps: Lando likes full fat milk, “if you’re going to drink it, go all the way”

ps: in the beginning of the stream (less than 30 min in) Max V. disses Williams: wow Williams is much better here than irl 😂

[doctor-loki-sherlock]

So with my weird work schedule DnD is always at weird times for me, either before or after work and I'm super exhausted cause I've been babysitting for my brother and sister-in-law which I usually get woken up at 6am and watch her until 1pm then go to work at 2pm and get home at 11 or 1 am depending on the day lol so for the games I'm able to attend I've stuck to making very dumb characters so I dont have to use to much of my own brain power which I dont have much of atm.

My newest character is a Bugbear barbarian named Nolk. The campaign has us starting in the Underdark and the start of the campaign is basically 'jail break from slavers' and there's these two kids that are Wererats and Nolk has taken a shine to the brother and is teaching him how to be a barbarian lol the kid got his first level last night.

Some of the funny things that have happened...we have 5 large spiders as mounts right? And we had to get down 300ft of stairs so me and another player who's character has low wis gets bored we look at eachother and go "race?" Then take off on our spiders...and almost kill ourselves in the process cause we couldn't hardly stay on the spiders.

The other character, while we were taking a short rest entertained Nolk and another barbarian NPC by teaching them the hand slap game, 'taking' their noses and switching them...as well as patty cake lol

[stereostevie]

A brutal childhood, a traumatic marriage, decades of racism: the singer has overcome it all on her way to the top. She lets rip about the people who have wronged her and the self-belief that sustains her.

It is a rainy Thursday afternoon and Mariah Carey is talking to me from her home in Los Angeles, her voice coming through my laptop. Is this the real life or is this just fantasy? (Sweet, sweet fantasy …) “Hello, good morning, good afternoon, this is a little unusual,” says a gravelly voiced Carey. You’re telling me, Mariah.

We are talking by video chat, but – as specified by Carey – without the video turned on, so it is pure chat. Despite her ability to hit the high notes, Carey has always described herself as an alto. Yet even taking that into account, her voice today sounds pretty husky. Is she feeling OK?

“It’s 6am here, and I’m awake in the bright light and it’s fabulous and I love it,” she says and makes an exaggerated groan.

I’m sorry you had to get up so early for this interview, I say.

“Well, darling, then let’s not book interviews at 6am if you’re worried! But please, it’s not you,” she says, and indeed it isn’t. The time and date of our interview have moved around so many times to accommodate Carey’s ever-shifting schedule that, for a while, it looked as if it wouldn’t happen at all. But at the last minute, it was decided we would talk at 6am her time, which I was promised would be fine because Carey is a self-described “nocturnal person”, so that would be 6pm for her. Alas, for reasons too complicated to get into, for one night only, Carey was a non-nocturnal person, so now 6am is just 6am.

“Typically I would have been working [all night] until now, but we had a situation and I couldn’t. Then I tried to get some sleep, but actually I watched the interview I did with Oprah. But it’s OK, it was just one night [of no sleep] and here I am,” she says. You don’t become one of the most successful singer-songwriters of all time – she has sold more than 200m records, and only the Beatles have had more US No 1 songs – without being a trouper.

Carey, 50, has spent lockdown with her nine-year-old twins, Monroe, named for Carey’s hero, Marilyn Monroe, and Moroccan, named partly for one of her favourite rooms in one of her houses, the Moroccan room, “where so many creative and magical moments have happened, including Nick presenting me with my candy bling”. Nick is Nick Cannon, the twins’ father, and “candy bling” is Carey’s term for her engagement ring, which Cannon hid inside a sweet before proposing. Carey liked Cannon’s proposal so much that she even wrote a song about it, called Candy Bling. The marriage proved less enduring and the couple divorced in 2016.

“Honestly, I don’t miss anyone outside, so I don’t care about lockdown,” she says with a throaty laugh. “But it’s difficult for the kids, because they’re used to three-times-a-year Disney World moments and stuff like that, and that’s just not the current state of affairs.” It is not. So Carey is conducting the promotional tour for her memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey, from her kitchen table, and if she has her way – and who would dare to argue? – this will be the last round of interviews she ever does.

“No offence to doing interviews, but what would be the point? I can’t articulate it better than I already have [in the book]. From now on, I’m like, ‘Please refer to page 29,’ you know what I mean?” she says. Carey’s deliciously shady put-downs are legend: her “I don’t know her”, when asked almost two decades ago about Jennifer Lopez is still the internet’s most beloved diss. Speaking of Lopez, her name is notably not in Carey’s memoir. Instead, when recalling the hoo-hah that led to their fallout, when a sample Carey had planned to use on her single, Loverboy, appeared on Lopez’s I’m Real, Carey refers to her as a “female entertainer (whom I don’t know).” So is her official position still that she has never heard of Lopez?

There is a pause, then stifled laughter. “Oh my gosh, can you hear that music in the background? It’s Sam Cooke! It’s fantastic!” she giggles.

Not only has Carey not heard of Lopez, she cannot even hear questions about her, it seems.

Carey’s memoir is about a lot more than score-settling (although she makes time for that, too.) “I don’t think anyone could have known where I was coming from, because I was always very, I don’t know if it was protective, but I was cryptic about the past, let’s say,” she says. No more. The youngest child of an African American father and a white mother, Carey was three when her parents split up. Her childhood was threaded through with neglect and violence, not least from her older siblings. When she was six, she says, her older brother knocked her mother unconscious; when she was 12, her older sister allegedly drugged her and left her with creepy men.

“I think my staying up all night started from having such a dysfunctional family. Oftentimes, whoever was in the house was doing whatever it was that they were doing, and that felt kinda unsafe to me, so I started staying up,” she says. Another legacy of this time is Carey’s obsessive adoration of Christmas, because her childhood Christmases were so miserable. When she wrote the monster hit All I Want for Christmas Is You, she wanted, she says in her book, “to write a song that would make me feel like a carefree young girl at Christmas”.

As a child, her biracial identity made her feel she did not belong anywhere: she was so self-conscious about not being black enough that she wouldn’t even dance, as she associated that with black culture; meanwhile, white girls at school taunted her with the N-word. In one of Carey’s – and my – favourite chapters, she describes how her mother did not know how to look after her young daughter’s textured hair, so it was often matted. Carey would look enviously at the white women in shampoo adverts on TV with their flowing hair. “I am still obsessed with blowing hair, as evidenced by the wind machines employed in every photoshoot of me ever,” she writes.

One of the most painful moments in the book comes in 2001 when Carey is having what the press described as an emotional breakdown. (Carey writes that she did not have a breakdown, but “was broken down by the very people who were supposed to keep me whole.”) During this episode, she rages at her mother, who calls the police. The police take her mother’s side: “Even Mariah Carey couldn’t compete with a nameless white woman in distress,” Carey writes. Is that how she experienced it at the time, or is that how she feels generally, that not even she is safe if a white woman complains?

There is the briefest of pauses. “Those are my words, so please refer to page 29,” Carey says.

Race is very much the running theme in Carey’s memoir. This might come as some surprise to those who know her solely from the mega pop hits such as Hero and We Belong Together, as opposed to the more revealing songs, such as 1997’s Outside, which addressed her feelings of racial ambiguity (sample lyric: “Neither here nor there / Always somewhat out of place everywhere”). “I can’t help that I’m ambiguous-looking,” she says, “and most people would assume that it’s been to my benefit, and maybe it has in some ways. But it’s also been a lifelong quest to feel like I belong to any specific group. It shouldn’t have to be such a freaking thing – and please edit out the fact that I said ‘freaking’. I’m not very eloquent right now.” I ask if she was at all influenced during the writing of her book by the rise of Black Lives Matter. She dismisses the question: “Interestingly, this book predates everything that’s happening now, and the book just happened to be very timely.” In other words, Carey hasn’t caught up to the times, the times have caught up to Carey.

Despite her omnipresence over the past three decades, it is possible that you have not thought about her ethnicity. This, Carey says, has been part of the problem: from the start, she was marketed by “the powerful corporate entities” in a way that played down her racial identity. What made this even more complicated for her was that the most powerful corporate entity in charge of her career at the beginning was her first husband, Tommy Mottola, then the CEO of Sony Music.

Carey’s discovery by Mottola is the stuff of music industry legend. The then unknown aspiring singer gave him a tape of her music at a party in 1988. Mottola tracked her down, signed her and, a few years later, married her. She was 23 and he was 44. Within just a few pages in her memoir, she goes from wearing her mother’s busted shoes to work to living in a $30m mansion with Mottola, which she decorated with enthusiasm: “Though by no stretch do I like a rustic look, I do have a preference for tumbled marble on my kitchen floors,” she writes. Adjusting to the high life was not difficult.

The hits – I’ll Be There, Emotions, One Sweet Day – were unstoppable. The Mottola-Carey marriage did not fare as well, imploding in 1997. Carey expands at some length on her previous allusions to Mottola’s controlling tendencies, claiming he would spy on her and that she was effectively a prisoner in the house. In his 2013 memoir, Mottola admits his relationship with Carey was “absolutely wrong and inappropriate” and adds: “If it seemed like I was controlling, I apologise. Was I obsessive? Yes, but that was also a part of the reason for her success.” Carey points out that she went on to have nine hit albums without Mottola’s controlling obsession. She writes that Mottola tried to “wash the urban” off her, recoiling at Carey’s increasing leaning towards hip-hop and collaborations with African American artists such as ODB. “I believe I said ‘urban, translation black,’ just in case anyone thinks I don’t know,” Carey corrects me. Does she think that was just for commercial purposes, or was something else going on with Mottola? “In my opinion there was a lot of other stuff going on there,” she says.

It must have been pretty upsetting to revisit that period during the writing, I say.

“Yes it was traumatic, but was it harder than some of the other things I’ve gone through? Maybe yeah, actually,” she says with a rueful laugh. “I don’t know if I’ll ever fully recover from the damage of that emotional abuse. But in my school of thought, you have to be a forgiving person.”

Carey is extraordinarily honest in her memoir, but the book is almost as striking for what she does not include as what she does. A lot of attention has focused on her confirmation that she did, as long rumoured, have a fling with the former baseball star Derek Jeter (“I’m not being shady, but he had on pointy shoes,” she recalls a little shadily of their first meeting.) But there is no mention of other boyfriends, such as her former fiancé, the Australian billionaire James Packer.

“If it was a relationship that mattered, it’s in the book. If not, it didn’t occur,” she says.

But you were engaged to Packer, I say.

“We didn’t have a physical relationship, to be honest with you,” she says.

And that is that.

Carey’s singing voice made her famous, but her penchant for being thrillingly, hilariously high-maintenance played its own part in shaping her legend. On an episode of MTV Cribs, she explained that she had a chaise longue in her kitchen because “I have a rule against sitting up straight”, and she has talked about bathing only in milk. Does she think she is high-maintenance – and, if so, does she think it is because she came from nothing?

“You know what? I don’t give a shit. I fucking am high-maintenance because I deserve to be at this point. That may sound arrogant, but I hope you frame it within the context of coming from nothing. If I can’t be high-maintenance after working my ass off my entire life, oh, I’m sorry – I didn’t realise we all had to be low-maintenance. Hell, no! I was always high-maintenance, it’s just I didn’t have anyone to do the maintenance when I was growing up!” she says and cackles with delight.

By now it is almost 7am for her and she is wide awake. I tell her I enjoyed all the references in her book to her enjoying “a splash of wine”.

“Oh, do you? Do you love a splash for yourself?” she asks, pleased.

I do, but I was intrigued by her description of a night out with her friends, including Cam’Ron and Juelz Santana, when they were all “high” on “purple treats”. What were these “purple treats”?

“A legal substance in California known as mari-ju-ana. It’s called purple because that’s the particular weed they liked,” she says.

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And did she like it?

“Are you enquiring for yourself or are you asking if I enjoyed it?” she says, mock coy.

I am asking if you enjoyed it, Mariah.

“No, I hated it,” she deadpans, then laughs. “I’m sorry, but it’s obvious!”

I have been interviewing famous people for a long time, but talking with Carey is the closest I have come to how I imagine it would have been to spend time with Bette Davis or Aretha Franklin. There are lots of ridiculous modern celebrities, but Carey is not like that. With her mix of slightly self-parodic ridiculousness undercut with no-messin’, true-to-herself honesty, she is a proper grande dame of the old school. A diva, in other words. It is a term she has laboured under throughout her career, and it is unlikely she will escape it, even if people now finally know where she is coming from. Does she mind the D-word?

“No! Who the fuck cares?” she laughs. “Honestly! ‘Oh my God, they’re calling me a diva – I think I’m going to cry!’ You think in the grand scheme of things in my life that really matters to me, being called a diva? I am, bitches, that’s right!”

The Meaning of Mariah Carey (Macmillan, £20) and The Rarities (Sony Music) are out now.

• This article was amended on 5 October 2020 to clarify that it is in the United States where Mariah Carey is second only to the Beatles in terms of having the most No 1 singles.

[imagineseclipse]

Your Character Development Imagine

Season 1 Part 2

You really were not planning on waking up super early the next morning, even though you had school you intended on staying in bed for the entire day.

But apparently mother nature had different plans for you.

You awoke abruptly to what sounded like stones being thrown at your window, at first you buried yourself further into your covers mumbling to yourself inaudibly not even being able to understand your own words. You felt really out of place, something felt weird and it was lowkey starting to freak you out. 

The noise got louder and louder until it was too much to bear. Once again you threw the warm duvet from your body, exposing your body to the cold air almost instantly. Leaving you with terrible goosebumps as you trudged over to your window, peering out of it curiously. 

Turning back to face your bed you noticed a white shimmering dust, scattered all over your bed sheets.

The events from the night before had been forgotten up until that moment unfortunately, it was like you were having a really bad hangover, when you watched out of your window the banging stopped.

Rolling your eyes as you suddenly turned your back to the glass. That’s when it started again. Quickly you rushed back to the window ledge eager to see what causing such a racket at 6am.

As you pulled your curtains apart you came face to face with a small robin bird. Tapping it’s beak against the double sided frame. You continued to gaze as the bird for a minute wondering how such a small animal could make so much noise.

To your surprise one more small robin joined the first, tapping persistently at your big window. Your eyebrows furrowed together with confusion as yet another bird flew to the outside of your bedroom. Mimicking the actions of its fellow friends.

You took a step back from your window growing increasingly worried while a number of birds appeared, all knocking at the same time making the sound almost deafening.

You threw your curtains back together backing away from the assemble of feathered creatures. Your heart was beating so hard in your chest you thought you were going to have a heart attack.

Retreating into your bathroom you slammed the door closed behind you, shutting out the commotion that continued to make your ears bleed.

You let out a sigh relief, reaching for the bottom of your t-shirt so that you could finally assess the scratches.

Your heart finally stopped when you checked the area that you had previously bandaged. The deep wound had vanished it had disappeared leaving no trace that it actually existed.

To say that you were confused would be an understatement, inside you honestly believed that you were going insane. There was no sign of blood, no grazed skin, no scratches.

You could have sworn it happened.

Letting your t-shirt fall back down by your sides you turned on the cold tap reaching down and splashing water over your face. Waking you up properly.

When you brought your head back up you reached for your towel attempting to dry your face. You froze suddenly noticing that your skin was so pale, you looked different. You felt abnormal. It had taken you a minute or two to notice that your eyes had gone from y/e/c to a bright silver.

How was that even possible?!

You stared for what seemed like forever, it had to be a dream it had to be. You stood looking dumbfounded at your reflection. your new grey eyes never leaving your own face as you continued to inspect the change.

The consistent tapping making your mind warped. It was as if it was echoing throughout your brain, suddenly causing you to break down.

“Please just stop, i want it to stop”you cried as you slumped down on your cold bathroom tiles.

A second later and the persistent drumming in your mind had come to a halt as if the birds had listened to your wishes.

You waited for a moment before deciding that it was safe for you to leave your bathroom. When you entered back into your room everything was hushed, and there was no sign of the small dainty animals.

Maybe you were finally going crazy stuck in that room, maybe you were seeing things. You’d come to the conclusion that you needed fresh air so going to school was your only option.

You carelessly threw the first hoodie in sight, making your way down the kitchen. You were pleased to see a note from your mother taped to the fridge explaining that she had gone to work already and that there was money on the counter for your lunch.

You didn’t know how you were going to explain the silver eyes. It then occurred to you that you hadn’t used your phone since the night before. In fact you didnt even know where your phone was.

The realisation then hit you, you’d left it behind in the woods.

Swiping your car keys angrily from the table you made your way out to your car, speeding away from your house with only one objective.

As you approach Beacon Hills High you searched the crowd for your victims, ready to unleashed your newly found anger. Once you had safely parked your car you stomped towards Scott and Stiles.

Scott could hear your heart racing from miles away, he didn’t know how but he could. He could also feel the anger radiating from your body.

Stiles noticed you after Scott had, his eyebrows raising at you a smile forming on his face. It was if he was happy to see you.

“Y/n, you’re alive i couldn’t find you yesterday in the woo-

“Yeah i am alive, but you won’t be for much longer”you growled, cutting stiles off as you approached the two boys, dragging each of them by their bags to an area where nobody hung out. Nobody would be able to hear their screams.

“Oh! My god, wow”Stiles yelped as you pushed Scott into him with some force backing them both into a corner folding your arms and tapping your foot impatiently.

“Woah y/n, nice contact lenses your eyes look so cool”Stiles complimented you unaware of the consequences.

You lunged forwards picking him up by the scruff of his shirt.

“They aren’t contact lenses dumbass, you think this is funny?!”you started to raise your voice.

Stiles gawped at you “I don’t know what you’re talking ab-

You scoffed, letting Stiles go a little too quickly making him stumble backwards into Scott. A look of hurt flashed across his face before you opened your mouth to rant again.

“You two nerds did this to me, what you wanted me to come into the woods so that you could put some weird chemicals into my body for your stupid little experiments don’t think for one second that your weird projects go unnoticed i see you two sneaking around all the time!”you exclaimed not really making any sense.

Scott and Stiles exchanged confused glances.

“Whatever you did to me, change it back before i ruin your lives”you hissed.

“We didn’t do anything to you y/n”Scott explained quickly.

“Look i really don’t need this right now, last night when you left me alone i was attacked”Scott added, his head dropping so he was looking at the floor.

“What?”you grimaced. You’d been having brief flashbacks to when you were knocked to the ground by the unseeable force in the forest.

“He thinks a werewolf bit him”Stiles continued the story.

You let out a menacing laugh.

“Don’t be stupid, werewolves don’t exist”you shook your head as if it was the most ridiculous thing in the world.

“Show her Scott, show her the bite”Stiles nudged his best friend. Scott hesitated before lifting up his shirt showing you a white gauze covered with tape that resembled your own.

There were small spots of blood covering the bandage as he peeled the tape from his skin to reveal nothing. 

“What i could have sworn there was something there”Scott mumbled to himself, the same thing had happened to you and you were one hundred percent baffled by it all.

Narrowing your eyes at Scott, you found yourself unintentionally reaching up to rub the area of your own wound, only to feel discomfort. Stiles watched you shuffle around for a few seconds he watched closely as you rubbed the side of your body nervously. Stilinski frowned slightly, cocking his head to the side deep in thought.

You could feel Stiles’ eyes on you, raising your head in his direction immediately making eye contact. Your eyes bored into his wondering if he had seen your previous actions. 

“What makes you think it was a werewolf”you asked turning to Scott, trying to change the atmosphere. 

“I heard a wolf howling in the woods after i was attacked”Scott answered.

“Impossible, there have been no sightings of wolves in California for like 60 years”Stiles shook his head.

“Well i found the body aswell” Scott announced.

The conversation had started to bore you so you found yourself walking away not wanting to talk to them anymore than you had to, you obviously weren’t getting the answers you needed from them so there was no point in hanging around. You decided that you would catch them out later so that they could fix you eyes because you were convinced that they did something to you.

You were only a few footsteps away from the teens when you were barged to the side by the queen bee herself Lydia Martin. She carried on strutting past as if nothing had happened whereas you turned around ready to confront her about her attitude. 

She may have gotten away with walking over everyone else but you were not ‘everyone’. You were just about to give her a piece of your mind when you were cut short by the sound of Stiles Stilinski shrieking about the dead body Scott had come across the night before.

“Oh god that is freaking awesome. I mean this is seriously gonna be the best thing that’s happened to this town since-

Stiles’ eyes landed on Lydia mid conversation, and suddenly he was in a trance. You rolled your eyes dramatically before listening in on the conversation, entertained by the fact that Lydia didn’t even know that Stiles existed.

“Since the birth of Lydia Martin. Hey Lydia, you look...like you’re gonna ignore me”

You watched the one sided exchange with a uninterested expression on your face.

“Pathetic”you whispered, tutting to yourself as you hugged your hoodie tighter around your body. The winds were picking up rapidly and you were regretting your life decisions. You were better off staying in your bed.

Luckily for the boys, they didn’t see you for the rest of the school day. You figured that after lessons had finished you would go back to the woods to try and locate your phone.

It was comforting that you were visiting during the day time, you really didn’t want to run into whatever had attacked you the previous night.

 A small part of you wondered if the creature that had attacked Scott was the same animal that had attacked you, however you shook away the thought.

You kicked the leaves from your shoes, scanning the ground for your phone. You cursed under your breath remembering that your battery had been quite low the night before so it was most probably dead. You’d never find it.

Whilst you were roaming the woods on your phone search and rescue you noticed that you felt at peace, as if you were meant to be there. You could breath and you didn’t feel pressure on your chest like you normally would. You weren’t suffocating. Then the thought of returning back to reality hit you like a brick.

 Just when you thought that your day couldn’t get any worse you heard two male voices approaching you.

“Y/N? Is that you?”Stiles jogged over to you.

“No, it isn’t”you deadpanned.

“What are you doing here?”Scott asked.

“Not that it’s any of your business but i lost my phone here last night”you spoke out, not even attempting to make eye contact. You were terrified that Stiles was going to become suspicious.

“I’m trying to look for my inhaler”Scott stated.

“I didn’t ask”you replied expressionless.

“We could help eachother”Scott offered.

You let out a deep audible breath before turning to face the two. Yet another burst of anger made it’s way out of your mouth.

“If it wasn’t for you and that stupid animal thing attacking me then i wouldn’t have lost my phone in the first place!”you shouted as you pressed your hands into Scott’s chest accusingly.

“What did you just say?!”Stiles edged closer to you. Of course he had perfect hearing, you had realised that you had basically told them everything unintentionally and you decided that muting yourself and controlling your anger would be best in the future.

You sighed, pinching the bridge of your nose. Inhaling sharply. If you didn’t tell them now they really wouldn’t leave you alone.

“I said i wouldn’t have lost my phone in the first place if it wasn’t for Scott”you repeated yourself quietly.

“No about the animal”Stiles said folding his arms.

This time an aggressive groan of frustration left your lips.

“After i left Scott last night, i dropped my phone and i was trying to find it and something tried to attack me. It kind of did and kind of didn’t now don’t come up with any of those bullshit theories about how i’m a freaking werewolf”you warned.

Stiles looked as though he was conflicted for a couple of seconds before turning to Scott who was sniffing the air like a dog.

“What is that smell?”Scott asked as he continued to stick his nose in the air.

“It smells like mint, like an old mint and it stinks”you shook your head in disgust as it wafted towards you.

“Guys i can’t smell it”Stiles frowned.

“See this is what i mean, like earlier i had all the time in the world to catch the balled during lacrosse and that’s not the only weird thing. I can hear stuff i should not be able to hear. Smell things”Scott explained, growing increasingly stressed.

You really didn’t want to explain that you were going through the same thing, especially to two strangers.

“Smell things? Like what?”Stiles questioned.

“Like that damned Mint Mojito gum in your pocket, please it reeks throw it away”you pinched your nose.

“Y/N you can smell it aswell?!”Scott asked, his eyes assessing you. He had noticed your appearance had changed drastically overnight. Stiles had noticed aswell.

“I guess”you mumbled taking your attention away from the conversation once again, searching for your phone.

“What actually happened to you last night?”Stiles asked as he watched you.

“Nothing”you lied.

“Y/n please-

“I’ve already told you i got attacked okay? i don’t know what it was but it scratched me really badly”you raised your voice, losing all sanity.

“Show me the scratch”Scott and Stiles yelped in unison.

“No point, it’s not there anymore”you mumbled walking ahead humming to yourself.

Stiles’ mouth dropped open, and he threw his arms around in the air behind you when you had your back to him, frustrated that you didn’t mention it earlier in the day. You spun around as Scott started to speak, Stiles’ arms falling back down to his side quickly.

“Y/n, what if it’s like an infection that had different effects on us i mean look at you suddenly you have grey eyes and your skin has gone so pale it’s almost like it’s glittering”Scott’s head cocked to the side.

“Stop with all these theories seriously, the scratch must’ve just healed overnight maybe it wasn’t as deep as i thought, and as for my pale skin wow thankyou for the insult loser”you exclaimed.

“What about your eyes, how can you explain that?”Stiles interrupted you. You would have come back with something witty but you just didn’t know what to say. You just couldn’t explain it.

“Do you know what, i’m perfectly fine without my phone”you hissed before spinning on your heel, walking away.

Again you didn’t get too far before a hand on your shoulder pulled you backwards gently.

“Y/n, wait stop”Stiles said quietly.

You shrugged his hand from your body before looking up to see an older male, he stood staring at the three of you. His green eyes piercing through your bodies.

“What are you doing here? Huh? This is private property”The handsome man approached you all.

Scott and Stiles stood closer together, frightened but you remained still. Your head tilted to get a closer look at the man, you could’ve sworn you recognised him from somewhere.

Stiles stepped forward, ready to grab your hand and pull you back away from the stranger.

“Uh sorry man, we didn’t know”Stiles explained.

“Yeah we were just looking for something but uh forget it. Uhm. Alright come on i gotta get to work”Scott ran his hands through his hair awkwardly.

Derek’s gaze fell onto you, it was as if you couldn’t move, he was fixated on you the only one who hadn’t said a word. You were stuck. Your lips pressed into a thin line.

Stiles watched the two of you in confusion.

The Hale’s hand lifted from his side, tossing Scott his inhaler, he then proceeded to throw your phone towards you.

But you didn’t move to catch it, in fact you let it drop into the leaves in front of you as you continued staring at Derek. Stiles rushed forwards to pick up your phone for you.

Finally you managed to snap out of the trance, sending Derek a glare before walking off in the opposite direction. Scott and Stiles started to job so they could catch up with you.

There was no way you were going to get rid of them.

“Guys that was Derek Hale, you remember right? He’s only a few years older than us?”Stiles spoke out before yelping as you plucked your phone from his grasp.

“Remember what?”Scott asked.

“His family, they all burned to death in a fire, like ten years ago”

Your heart dropped, you were very familiar with the hale fire... In fact you had witnessed it, you must’ve been 7 when you were playing in the woods not too far from the Hale residents.

You had seen the whole thing so that where you had recognised Derek from.

“I wonder what he’s doing back”Scott noted, continuing to walk towards the car park.

A/N:Part two is finally out, i’m sorry for the layout and the dodgy paragraphs but tumblr is hating on me because i have been away for a while, i’m still editing it to make it better but for now here is part two:) x

[hey-hamlet]

BNHA AU Ideas : Choir Group

Also on AO3! 

TL;DR:  Sometimes a family is 2 adults and 2 kids. But sometimes a family is a choir full of hero hopefuls.

(aka, what if everyone knew eachother from a choir group? what soft musical stuff can i cram into this au?) 

yagi does the allmight on the down-low

he had to leave broadway cause all for one ruined his organs

everyone in 1 a knows that yagi is all might but hes trying so hard to keep his secret so they just ignore it

izu wants to be a hero but hes scared of people so he joined a choir when he was smol

bakugou joined cause he wanted to beat izuku, they bonded a bit n its a more friendly rivalry

all of 1a was in the choir before ua, they are all shook that their class is just other choir kids

big three are the current choir leaders n izu was so proud they are the us big three too because he knew them when he was smol, baku n izu are the youngest in the top level

todoroki joined to spite his dad hes really good tho

mina lives for the dance group

iida is a baritone he sing low n hes a good boy, they are very proud of him cause hes one of the youngest in baritone, hes v proud too

ochako is an alto and I love her

monoma is a tenor n katsuki wants to kick him out of his section

tsuuyu is an alto too because i want someone to be a soprano but tsuuyu its too nice to be

jirou is a blessed alto

yaomomo is a soprano the poor girl

izuku is a soft alto boy! He had such a good upper range they thought hes be wasted in tenor

shinso is a soft tenor boy and has a singers crush on izuku

"oh my god hes just so fucking good he can dance too what the fuck guys. hes the only male alto im fucking shook he has the range of a god"

in their final year todo is the choral leader, bakugo is dance leader and izu is choir leader

villains are too scared to attack when they sing

aizawa was in the top level when izu joined

he was dance leader while in ua too because it was "only logical" he have a physical hobby (mic loved choir n aizawa loved seeing him that happy)

izu thought he was fucking amazing n thats why he wanted to join

n then he sees erazerhead n mic on tv when hes 8

yells to his mum "mama!!! thats zashi!! n shouta!! he had the dance solo when i joined" n inko doesnt know if izuku is right or not but she nods along and smiles anyway

first day of ua izu sees shouta n just gasps

"iTs HIm"

bakugo looks over

"oh my fuck it is isnt it"

aizawa is shook and confused

bakugo just sighs "its your fault deku is a fucking choir gay i hope you know that. you just had to be fucking competent didnt you"

all 1a student know each other from choir n they all have a big hug fest before the quirk test

"oH mY god its a soprano without a stick up her ass what are the chances" "jirou be nice to momo i know you hate sopranos but they have done nothing to you"

mineta exists in this au, as the only one not in choir. hes confused and then expelled the first day

aizawa is glad he was terrible because now he has his lil choir class, not that hed ever fucking admit it

1a harmonizes their bus songs and they learn all their choir repertoire on the bus trips around as  aizawa conducts

durring the usj izu n tsuuyu hum together to stay calm

izuku n todoroki are actually singing together durring their big fight, everyone in the audience is shook

its just because they are trying not to cry

because izu n todo have the "its your power" convo before the fight cause they are already friends, so izu is just trying to make him feel better about the argument he had with his dad

todoroki feels a lil more comfy so he brings up his flames n izu weeps n gives him a hug before they keep fighting

they sing stronger than you jokingly at the end of their fight

izu wins but only justttt. him n todo hug n laugh as they leave the field. yagi cries a lil for his boys.

izu n baku’s fight n it ends in a draw because they blow eachother out of the ring n they are both salty as

they have a dance battle refed by aizawa later (baku wins, izuku gives him soul custody of the medal)

enji would have a stroke

yamada was singing along the whole time other the speaker. Aizawa muted him but he just used his quirk

tenya had lots of good friends n doesnt hunt down stain, he n 1a go to hatsume about leg braces for tensei

tenya teaches tensei his choir choreography so he can get used to his braces

the boys do run into stain but they were minding they own business

they singing while they fight to stay in time n stay brave

stain is very confused but hes bopping along

todo starts it cause it made him feel better during the sports festival cause izu is crying

"you guys are true heros im so sorry about this but i really need to kill native"

"thanks i guess? but we gon fucking boop to you drop bitch"

"ToDorOkI nO"

"iida hes trying to kill us we can call him a bitch"

stains huming the song they were singing as he carted away to fucking jail

"what a goddamn boop, they heros of music"

training camp is the same time as choir camp n 1a is shook n they are conflicted. aizawa gets training camp moved back a week

(the villains still attack but they tried to assault an empty camp first n thats funny)

the fight through the earth beasts is just 1a singing literally every song they know theyd finish a song, n theres a second wait while everyone races to think of something they all know before they scream out the title n start them all off

they sang bohemian rhapsody 5 times

1a arrives at traing camp like

"we just had fuck choir camp you dont scare us"

1a wasnt joking they arent phased by the summer camp. 1b is crying

bakugo gets kidnapped n just hums softly

shinso made it in after the festival because aizawa thought he was promising n it was another choir boy zawa has to protect them no hes not going soft zashi shut up

"bitch you villains have nothing on ms king fuck she had me shook"

the bakugo rescuse is the same but its more of 1a n no one was trying to talk them out of it very well

"its dangerous, dont get hurt" "we wont" "yeah ok"

they hold hands while they watch the allmight fight cause they are too scared to let go

then they run back onto the field to allmight after the fight n they hug n cry a lot

they go with yagi to the hospital n sing dumb songs together while he gets a checkup

izuku doesnt have to stop to wipe his nose, n bakugos voice doesnt shake n todoroki is pitch perfect of course (kiri and momo are ugly crying unabashedly. tenya is trying to find tissues)

bakugo totally doesnt hide his tears n growl that thy need a shitty nerd to lead them so they dont get to good

he yells at everyone cause he was scared but he can’t make himself be too mean cause they are his smol kids

mic smiles n mutters that aizawa has really gone soft on this class n aizawa just hides his face in mics shoulder n pretends he wasnt scared out of his mind for them

all of them grab his hand

izuku hugs bakugo saying they all need the future dance leader, after all no one else is as good as him

aizawa wants to be mad but hes proud that his kids didnt get hurt and were smart n improved so much

in the dorms they draw up a birthday list n anyone whos birthday has already been gets a new birthday

they wake them up at 6am you sing happy birthday n they birthday kid gets to pick the music on the bus n in the kitchen

bakugo n sato bake

iida, shinso n izuku are harmonizing while trying to eat breakfast but its bean 5 minutes n they havent eaten anything

bakugo shoves toast into izus mouth as he walks past to make himself some coffee

izuku sings around the toats

bakugo groans n sings over him

"i Just wanTed Coffee"

"BitcH we gOttA hArmoNiZe"

ochako, mina n tsuuyu are going over their dance infront of the couch, satou n tokoyami are gently sparring around bowls of oats and fruit

aizawa is humming as he cuts up some fruit for him and mic

sero sticks sheetmusic to the walls with his quirk so they can go over it as they do other stuff

shinso plays the goddamn switch piano as a backing track n bakugo is mad that hes impressed

yagi visits n tells them all hes so proud of them n listens to their sing their favourite songs with them n listens to izuku gush about new musicals almost as much as he talks about heroes

bakugo saltily adds on little bits of info

shinso n izuku dramatically reinact musicals together as they spar, (obedient servant is their fave beat eachother up song)

they get out musical soundtracks n people call dibs on the songs they want to fight to, aizawa mans the speakers and acts as the ref as bakugo n izuku fight to alexander Hamilton

ochako n todoroki fight to my shot cause it means a lot to both of them

the kids not fighting are singing the song on the sidelines. aizawa sings along too but he wont admit it

( he n izuku sing a lil duet for the room where it happens, mic claps n yagi cries)

no one fights for the last song cause everyone is busy singing n crying. - aizawa only cried cause he had dry eye ok nothing more

bakusquad always fights over the jefferson n layfette parts, they all wanna sing them solo

izuku starts with history has its eyes on you, looks at yagi n then starts to cry

yagi starts to cry too

he n yagi hug n leave training for a min to get icecream

izu grabs yagi n full cowl jumps to get icecream, makes yagi carry the icecream n jumps back

they eat icecream as 1a finishes up the musical sparring n they try not to cry some more

todoroki is still 100% conviced yagi is izus dad, hes just also conviced neither of them know it

yagi is very proud of his boy and very proud he didnt cough blood over his icecream

mic was his section leader when he was still in choir n zawa was the dance leader n they made the best duo

they were low on time due to hero training to they learnt their songs as they fought, w mic playing them through his phone as they beat up villains

they wouldnt let midnight practise with them because the fights finished too quickly so they didnt get a chance to sing

yagi wasnt in that particular choir, or any choir really but he loved to sing, would hum to victims to make them feel better and sung on tv for fans and charity

he starts teaching at the choir after the retires from hero work because he misses working and he really thinks the kids are delightful

yagi is a good choir dad n cries at all the concerts, n at the gigs, n when ever they do well really

they get nicknamed the hero course choir because so many ua students go/have gone

there are normal highschoolers of course but the ua students wont be outdone and are the best in the class

aizwa tells vlad they sing during sparring for breath support and stamina, and then decides thats actually a good reason n makes that the official reason, ignoring "it makes them smile" and "these kids have had enough intense fights"

[uruhabuns]

it’s all about the foundation (fem!makeup artist!reader x ruki) (part 1)

A/N: so i’ve been toying with this idea for a while, and after reading true beauty i finally had the guts to write it out LMAO also this is my first dot-point scenario, so I tried to keep it as to-the-point as possible. I hope you guys enjoy!!

_________

(Part 2) / (Part 3)

You were an assistant makeup artist at DeepEnd, and you usually work with KPOP idols when they have promotions in Japan

You were an expert at everything to do with idol makeup (especially glitter, gradients, and dewy looks)

Since you were younger than the senior makeup artists and stylists, you had to stick with being an assistant and helping them

If you were to do makeup, you were never allowed do a full face; either base or eyes or lips

One day kaolu frantically called into management saying that his assistant was deathly sick and needed someone QUICK.

Because guess what

That day was GazettE’s tour final

And coincidentally it was your day off

So your phone went berserk at 6am while you were sleeping

WHAT THE HELL DO THESE GUYS WANT

“H--”

“Sorry to wake you up so early, ______-san, but Kaolu urgently needs an assistant today. Can you help out?”

You wanted to throw your phone away and say no, but that extra cash sounded v tempting, so you accepted.

You knew of Kaolu and that he works with bands and some idols, but you never talked to him because he was always busy, and the assistants don’t usually talk to other makeup artists and stylists who weren’t on their team

So when you got to the company building at 8am with all your gear, you waited nervously for Kaolu, and not knowing who you were going to work on that day

When he arrived, the two of you greeted each other formally before getting into the car to take you to the venue

Which ended up being Shin Kiba Studio Coast

During the car ride, the two of you got to know each other more, and talked about each other’s makeup styles

When you told him you usually work with kpop idols and that you usually use korean makeup brands, he literally made the 😬 face

Welp guess i brought all my stuff for nothing

So then Kaolu showed you his portfolio, so you knew what you were up for

You saw ruki and uruha’s makeup, which looked slightly intimidating because it was so smokey and heavy, and you’ve never worked with this kind of style before

Since korean makeup probably doesn’t have as much impact on the face as western brands, you probably had to use twice as much product as you usually would use

Seeing your reaction, Kaolu told you not to worry bc he would be doing most of the work, and that Ruki and Uruha’s features make it easier to do this type of makeup

When you guys arrived at the venue, he lead you to the makeup room where all the GazettE members and the other makeup artists were waiting

“Sorry we’re late, my assistant called in sick last minute so we had to get another one”

They understood and began to work

You tagged along behind Kaolu to wait for his instructions

“______-san, this is Ruki and Uruha,” he introduced, “Don’t be shy~”

As soon as Ruki saw someone unfamiliar who wasn’t their usual assistant, he immediately noticed how cute and pretty you were

Judging from your makeup and style, he guessed that you probably never worked with visual kei before

You saw the two males, who were already in costume, and bowed, greeting them shyly, to which they returned the greeting.

Kaolu then instructed you to start with Ruki’s base makeup, and to use his makeup products rather than yours, because he felt that yours wouldn’t last as long as his

You had to comply, so you nodded, and took a bottle of hand sanitiser and some hair clips from your duffle bag to start

You sat down in front of Ruki, taking a small breath to calm yourself down

Ruki only smirked softly when he saw how shy you were

He observed the slight blush on your cheeks, the soft brown that coloured your eyebrows, and the glitter on your aegyosal and eyelids that complimented your pinkish coral gradient lips; your makeup style was exactly how he preferred on girls -- fresh and pretty, rather than dramatic and heavy.

You applied the sanitiser onto your hands, rubbing it dry

You brushed his bangs to each side of his face, and clipped them back with the hair clips

When you did so, Ruki couldn’t help but notice the subtle sweet scent of your perfume, and feel how soft the back of your fingers were when they brushed against his forehead

That’s when he decided to start talking. “So...are you new here?”

You nodded. “To visual kei, I am. But I usually work with kpop idols when they come to Japan.”

“Sorry, I meant to DeepEnd.”

“Oh! No, I’ve been here for a year.”

“A young one, then, huh?”

You smiled shyly, and tucked your hair behind your ear, something you usually do when you get shy. “I graduated beauty school last year, but I like to do my own styles too.”

As you reached for the primer that was next to Kaolu as he was working on Uruha, Ruki smirked at how cute you were.

You then asked him if he applied anything before coming to the venue

He said only moisturiser

You then told him you had to refresh his skin because it might have accumulated dust and dirt while he travelled to the venue, so you took out a cotton pad and a bottle of Etude House skin freshener, and sprayed it onto the pad.

Just as you were about to put it on Ruki’s face, Kaolu immediately fREAKED as he was working on Uruha’s base makeup

“______! I said to just do the base!”

His reaction caught the attention of the other members too

You froze in your seat. “W-we usually do this with idols before doing their make-”

“He already applied skincare, don’t try to wipe anything off.”

You chewed on your lower lip and nodded. “I understand. I’m sorry.”

You put the bottle back into your bag and threw the cotton pad into the bin.

“Yo, it’s her first time doing makeup for us. You don’t have to be so hard on her.” Ruki defended you.

He couldn’t help but feel bad for you for being scolded during your first time doing visual kei makeup

You grabbed the MAC makeup base, and pumped it a few times onto the back of your hand.

“Thank you...” you said quietly, careful to avoid eye contact with Ruki.

“It’s nothing. I know it’s hard, but for now just do what your senpais tell you, even if you have better ways to do things. I’ve been there before.”

You nodded and dabbed some primer onto your ring finger, applying it by delicately tapping it evenly across Ruki’s face -- a new technique that he hadn’t come across with Kaolu before that didn’t make his skin feel like it was pulled on

Ruki felt the awkwardness in the air, so he decided to make a conversation with you to make you more comfortable working.

“I guess idol makeup technique is different to visual kei technique, huh?”

You nodded softly. “Y-yes...”

“How so?”

“Everything has to look fresh and clean and flawless. That’s why I needed to clean your face first. After that I would apply essence and moisturiser anyway...”

“Ah...”

You took out your trusty beauty blender and freshening mist from your gear bag, and sprayed the mist onto the sponge.

You squeezed the sponge a few times to let it absorb the mist before spraying again. You repeated this until the sponge was damp enough to be able to blend without absorbing product.

Ruki watched you as you did so, observing your delicate hands, before you began to blend out the primer on his face

After that, you applied Kaolu’s concealer and matte foundation in the same way; spread by tapping with the ring finger, then gently blending out with the beauty blender

Ruki couldn’t help but feel his heart race a bit more every time you came close to him

The smell of your perfume, the feel of your gentle touch, and the sight of your flushed cheeks kicked his senses up several notches

NO THIS CAN’T BE HAPPENING!!!

Before he knew it, you were already done with Ruki’s foundation makeup

His skin looked flawless and perfectly matte, and felt fresher with less layers of foundation and powder than how Kaolu would usually do it.

Huh...must be idol technique...Ruki thought, She is really good.

“Kaolu-san, I’m done.”

He went over to Ruki to check your work

“Perfect, _______-san. You did well.”

“She did a great job,” Ruki added, “My face doesn’t feel like a cake, either.”

You couldn’t help but blush slightly at the compliments, feeling accomplished since you’ve never worked with these guys before.

“Great. _______, you can take a break, just come back in half an hour.”

“Thank you. I will.” you said, beginning to make your way out of the room with your handbag.

“Also, I’d hate to ask, but is it okay if you could grab a coffee for me on your way back? There’s a Starbucks nearby the venue. I’ll pay you back.”

You nodded, half-reluctantly. “Of course.”

Once you left the room, Uruha began to tease Ruki.

“I see you.”

“What?”

“Are you really trying to play dumb?”

“Says the actual dumb one. What are you even talking about?”

“You like her, don’t you?”

Ruki flinched at the assumption. “What? Are you out of your mind? You out of all people should know I don’t do love at first sight.”

“RUKI LIKES SOMEONE?!” Reita yelled from the other side of the room, causing his makeup artist to scold him to sit down and stay still.

“Wait, since when did Ruki have crushes on people?” Aoi added.

“I never said I liked anyone!! Geez!”

Uruha smirked in amusement. “It’s been a while since someone made you feel this way, huh? I saw the way you looked at her. I didn’t know you were into the cute girls now.”

“Doesn’t his type always change?” Kai asked with amusement. “How old is she, anyway?”

“Too young for him, obviously.” Aoi replied with a laugh.

“WOAH, HE LIKES THE YOUNG ONES NOW?!” Reita exclaimed, “Why don’t you ever tell us these kinds of things?”

By then, Ruki had enough. “SHUT UP!! You guys are talking fucking nonsense. I have no time for girls or relationships.”

The other members only snorted to contain their laughter.

Uruha lightly poked Ruki’s arm. “Sure, keep telling that to yourself. But if you do end up dating her, or someone like her, don’t break her heart. She seems too innocent for someone like us.”

For the first time in what felt like forever, Ruki felt something spark inside him - a feeling he had learnt to forget.

[takeeachdayonebookatatime]

Flashpoint fanfiction 

wet with pneumonia part 2

Staring  Jam

In the morning at 6am I called Dr Burkett and told him Jules was coughing last night. And the day before yesterday at 3am I was called into work because Bill from team 4 got shot and Jules lied to Greg so she could come in.  He said because her lungs are not 100% since she was exposed to the anthrax to bring her in earlier today than her appointment. Sam got Jules ready; she was not happy at all. A nurse called her name and took us back to a room. Dr Burkett checked her vitals which were elevated and she was warm. Her oxygen levels were on the low side even though I had been giving her oxygen. The Dr said she has pneumonia. He will prescribe her some medicine and to keep her on the oxygen until he says so and to monitor her heart rate because pneumonia puts stress on her heart and the tylenol should help bring her fever down. Once home I called Greg and gave him an update. I gave her the medicine and put the oxygen mask and monitors on which made her angry. She went back to bed and fell asleep. I noticed her heart rate was elevated. But then again the Dr said that would happen at 11:30 she woke up and said she felt funny. Lunch was soup at 1:45 in the afternoon. I gave her the second pill then she went to shower. She said she didn't feel right; it felt like her heart was racing. I  had her lay down and she was very lethargic. I put the monitor and oxygen on her while I called Steve and her Dr and talked to him about it and told him Steve was coming over while on shift to check on her. If he thinks she needs to be seen at the Er then he will take her in the ambulance. Steve said he used the lights to get here quickly. Jenny came into the room to help out. He rolled her onto her side to see if it helped which it did not. He massaged her neck to see if that helped at all; she was still a little warm. Steve suggested she go to the Er to get medicine to help with the arrhythmia.

Jules was starting to come around and did not want to go but she had no choice Jenny switched her to their monitors and loaded her into the ambulance I called Dr Burkett on the way. Once there Dr Jeff came over and Did an EKG and a heart Echo on Jules he said there was no further damage and everything looked okay. He gave her some meds for the arrhythmia. Dr Burkett changed her medicine and gave us a nebulizer to use . He got her a room in the icu. She slept until dinner and her fever was almost gone. Jules wanted to go home so bad I  talked to Greg and gave him an update. I called Steve and asked if he was busy tomorrow he said no why. I said Jules won't stay in the hospital because she wants to go home. He said so you want me to come over to monitor her I said sort of and he said sure I will pick you up tomorrow morning. Her Dr agreed to it. She had new pills to take and ones for the arrhythmia. Once the pneumonia was gone she would see Dr Scott, her cardiologist to get checked to make sure everything was okay.

At 8 in the morning Steve arrived and took us home. He set alarms for her pills and hooked her up to the monitor and oxygen. He had her use the nebulizer. He also put some pillows around her so she could sleep on her side. Her cough was still bad. At 11am Jules threw up on the bed Steve managed to sit her up quickly so she would not choke on her barf.  I cleaned the bed and then made lunch. She was not hungry. She took her pills and he hooked her back up to the oxygen and heart monitors then she went back to bed. Steve said throwing up was common for this medicine. He made a list of things for me to get at the store. I got home as quickly as I could. I called Greg and updated him. Steve gave her the nausea stuff and told me stuff to watch out for since she had no incident today besides throwing up. Dinner was good. I made more soup. She used the nebulizer 6 times today. Steve had work tomorrow so he slept in the guest bed room just in case something happened he left at 6 in the morning. Lunch was oatmeal. I gave her the meds on time at 6 in the evening. The team was coming by after shift. I got Jules showered and back in bed she wanted to sit on the sofa when the team came by so I moved all her equipment which made her mad. There was a knock at the door on time. Jules was wearing a tank top the Dr suggested, It would Be better for her fever. Spike was shocked to see her so frail and hooked up to the machines. I told him it was okay she did not want to stay in the hospital so this is what she gets. I ordered food for everyone and we ate. Jules had to pee so I unhooked her from the monitor and oxygen machine. After I hooked her back up and she fell asleep. Me and the guys talked for a while. I could tell she was having a nightmare so could the team, her monitor was showing her heart rate was elevated and her breathing was labored. I managed to wake her up and calm her down. I switched her to the nebulizer for 30 minutes then the team left and we went to bed. Today she had a one week check up with Dr Burkett he said everything was looking better, keep up the work for one more week and she should be cleared for duty the team came over every night for dinner. The next week went by fast Dr Scott cleared her to use a lower dose of the arrhythmia medicine. He also cleared her for duty. Dr Burkett did the same he said her pneumonia is gone but if she has trouble breathing use the inhaler. Tomorrow was her first day back in like 2 weeks. The end…...

[sunshinechii-scenarios]

Day With Mingyu

Happy (late) Valentines Day! What does Mingyu have in store for you? TBH who knows? He would sneeze into he flowers before giving them to you on accident. I spent the 13th baking for five hours!! and I don’t even have a Valentine lol it was an excuse for me in bake! Anywayyyy, enjoy reading!

✿ Seventeen’s Mingyu x Gender Neutral Reader ✿ Fluff  ✿  1.5K words ✿  Not Requested ✿ Written by Chii ✿ 

Warnings: None!

Btw my masterlist is up now!!!!!!!! Find it here!

Mingyu would arrive at your house actually because the boys finally had a day off and didn’t want the boys to have their beauty sleep interrupted.

But neither did you, you weren’t a morning person so when he called you at 6AM you swore to hit him once you let him in.

No one should look so good at 6 but here was Kim Mingyu that looked like he was well rested and ready to conquer the day.

“You need to chill,” you said as you closed the door once Mingyu entered in.

You tried to get cozy on your couch while Mingyu was taking off his shoes but he finished sooner than you thought, his arms extended and you know what that meant.

“MINGYU NO! OH MY-  GET OFF!”

He was on your body and was as stiff as a board on top of you. You hit his back in attempts to get him off.

“Get up I’m sacrificing my healing time to be with you today,” Mingyu singsonged. 

“No one asked for you to be here, I’m trying to heal also!”

He mumbled some stuff about you being a bad friend and waited for your response. You never responded and he got tired of waiting.

In the end, Mingyu got off and tried to pry your body from the couch.

Eventually he literally picked you up by hooking his arms under yours and pushed you into the bathroom.

"I hate you,” you said to him as you started to brush your teeth.

“I love you.” He said those words so often you’ve grown so accustomed to it but it never failed to make you blush every time.

//Let me tell you something about Mingyu that I so greatly want to believe, he’s clingy and refuses to ever let go the minute he puts his hands on you.

You finish getting ready in the bathroom and expected him to get his hands off of you but no.

His arms are wrapped around your waist as you inspected your hair and fixed anything out-of-place.

You walked all the way to your room with Mingyu still latched onto you.

“I need you to let me go, I’m going to change.” He let go and you saw him made his way to the living room.

You went and picked out a nice outfit that fit the weather for today.

You got ready fairly quick and walked out of your room to find Mingyu lazily scrolling through his phone on the very couch he dragged you off of.

“Are you ready to go?” 

You saw his eyes lit up and honestly you thought it was really cute.

“You look amazing.”

It was hard to accept compliments coming from Mingyu and you wouldn’t know how to respond.

“You’re a dork, let’s go,” you grab your stuff and made your way for the door.

He offered to take you to go watch a movie of your choice. While you bought the tickets he went ahead and ordered tons of snacks and food.

//Mingyu wanted to make sure you were full ♡

You got into your seats while the ads in the beginning were running.

He nervously put his arm around your shoulder, you wouldn’t see it as much and lean into his chest for a few reasons.

1. He was so cuddly and you took the chance to cuddle with him any time you could.

2. The theater was blasting the AC and you got cold regardless of what you had on.

Since it was a movie you chose, you were intrigued the entire time. Mingyu would feed you popcorn and other food items while your eyes stayed glued to the screen.

You started to notice this when he tried to get the straw of your drink into your mouth. You looked up at him and giggled before taking the drink out of his hand and drinking it yourself.

You feed him some popcorn as well before going back to the movie. His face was red and he was glad you couldn’t see it in the darkness of the theater.

The movie ended and you got out of his arms to stand and stretch a bit. He did the same and took the drinks and empty food trays to throw them out.

“Do you want to go out and get food or order something at home?” You asked him as you two started to walk out the theater.

“Can we cook instead? There’s a recipe I’ve been wanting to try.” Mingyu perked up, he loved to cook for you and you loved his cooking.

You two stop by the supermarket for him to pick up some things he needed. Mingyu sent you home first, he didn’t want you seeing the secret ingredient. 

You walked the short distance home yourself and changed into something more casual after you washed your face to remove any grime that built up throughout the day.

He knocks on your door and asks for you to help him wash some veggies and chop up some stuff. He hides his secret ingredient out of plain sight, under your bed sheets. 

Mingyu bought you chocolates but you didn’t know that. You were busy washing veggies for his ratatouille recipe while you thought he was in the bathroom when in reality he was in your room.

After you finished helping him you asked what else you could do but he would tell you to just sit and watch him. You would be lying if you didn’t think Mingyu cooking for you was so sweet.

He rolled up his shirt and started to cut the veggies into even slices. He manned the stove better than you could ever.

Your mind started wandering off into daydreams and how lucky his future spouse would be, Mingyu was a total package. Tall, dark, handsome, a sweet personality, likes to cook and is a really good person to cuddle.

Those were cut short by Mingyu as he placed a plate in front of you, you grab for the fork but he beats you to it and feeds you for the second time today.

He treats you like a child who can’t hold a fork and a noble who can’t be dared to touch silverware at the same time. He puts it down and points to his own lips, you had food on the corner of your mouth.

You dart your tongue out to hopefully catch any food that made it’s way to the corner of your mouth. You missed completely by going to the wrong corner, Mingyu laughed as you struggled before he used his thumb to wipe it off.

“T-thanks?” You didn’t know how to feel at all. Your heart felt like it was about to race out of your chest. While you were sitting there, still in shock by what just happened Mingyu got a serving for himself.

“Rate me?” He said before he took some of the colorful veggies into his mouth.

“9.” You said, shaking yourself out of your thoughts.

“Will I ever get a 10?” He pouted and whined.

“Probably not.” You send him a smug look.

“Wow, okay.” He was hurt in a joking matter, he looked away from you and crossed his arms dramatically. You rolled your eyes and smiled, you got up to walk to the large sofa.

“Oh, come on you can’t stay mad at me,” you paused as you got comfortable on the couch, “I’ll offer up cuddles as my apology.”

“Fine.” You two giggled like kids when he sat behind you, his warmth traveling down your back and arms wrapped around you.

Feeling the food coma, you both fell asleep on the couch like that. You woke up to no Mingyu under you and a note on the table.

“Sleep in your bed, get brushed up and text me when you get into bed.” You read it out loud, rubbing your eyes you searched for your phone and read 2 am. You sighed at having your first hang out in forever be shortened by a nap. Doing what he said, you brushed your teeth in the bathroom and went to crawl into bed. You felt something as you moved your legs into the covers.

It was a box of chocolates, rather than the overly annoying red heart they usually came in, the box was sleek and topped off with a red ribbon. A note was tucked into the ribbon, taking it out you read it.

“There’s no moment I don’t think of you, I hope you enjoyed Valentines day with me. Will you be my mine?”

Your heart was gone, it ran off at the speed of light. You quickly picked up your phone and typed a message to him, hoping he was awake at this time.

You: Mingyu?

Mingyu: You saw the box?

You: Yea..

Mingyu: and?

You: Yes Mingyu, I’ll be yours.

Mingyu: I’m speechless, thank you.

Mingyu: ALSO IT TOOK YOU LONG ENOUGH. i WAs HOpIng THAT you WOULD WAKE UP EARLIER. dO YoU kNOw HoW NERvoUS I was?!?!?!

You: It all still worked out, right?

Mingyu: You’re so lucky that I love you.

I hoped you guys enjoyed this and had a great Valentines day! There’s always someone who loves you, remember that! ALSO! I’m having trouble deciding if I should keep this series as bullet points or format it as paragraphs like how I’m doing with my Day With BTS series ;/ let me know my dudes. I’ll catch you on the flip side, bye! 

AND HAPPY LUNAR NEW YEAR FOR THOSE WHO CELEBRATEEEEE!!

Please don’t claim this as your own and please don’t do anything with it without my permission. If you don’t want it happening to you, don’t do it to others.

Feb.15.18 @11:46 PM

[alliebruns-blog]

Mega Blog 4000 - London Marathon, Bad Cow Double, Dorchester Marathon, The Ox Epic and 100 miles across the South Downs Way.

Well I’m doing really well at this blogging malarky aren’t I? I haven’t posted in AGES mainly because i have been too busy doing all the actual running. So grab yourself a beer because this is a LONG one. 

My race diary for this year is what some people might call ‘busy’. At the moment I have 27 marathons and ultras booked, but me being a suggestible fool, means this number will only go up. April saw me complete my 5th London Marathon on what was possibly the hottest day of the year ever, plus a little trip to Dorset for the Bad Cow Frolic. Two very different races done in very different ways. 

London is my favourite road marathon - it’s home turf and you cannot beat the crowd and the atmosphere along the route. This year I was running solo - in past years I have had a number of first timers running with me, so it’s rarely actually “my” race, but this year I was running alone and so had high hopes of qualifying for Boston, with a sub 3.40. However, that most definitely was NOT to be. It was brutally hot as you all know, so I decided to be sensible and rein it in a bit. Watching people throwing up and falling by the road from mile 10 onwards was proof that I had made the right decision. Weirdly I found the crowds to be a little overwhelming this year. I have spent so much time running on trails that I am now more used to peace and quiet so having thousands of people cheering was lovely but kind of strangely uncomfortable. 

Here’s a picture of me NOT in running kit. 

The heat meant that I was running without a base layer for the first time in 2018, and around mile 16, I realised that the tops of my flappy little arms were chaffing on my vest, and they were stingy. I wasn’t running with my pack, so I legged it over to St Johns ambulance and asked them if they had any vaseline. They had just run out but offered me some baby oil instead. Sexy scenes follow - I am throw it all over myself, basically basting Bailey up to get mega sunburnt for the rest of the day. I finished in 3.59.40 - classic sub 4 attempt done. Was still pretty pleased - I hadn't broken myself and I felt fine - which was good because the following week saw me trotting up to Dorset for White Star Running’s Bad Cow double. 

Hot metal on London marathon day 

Bad Cow is based in Burnbake - a beautiful part of the Dorset countryside. The event is run over two days - day one is the 12 hour frolic - as many laps of the 4.5 mile course as you can do in 12 hours and day 2 is the marathon. I was entered for both and was aiming for a marathon a day. There were a lot of Do-Badders signed up for this one, so we all camped together for maximum LOLS. It’s also dog friendly, which meant that we had a total of 3 dogs to help us round the course - BONUS. 

Bad Cow Squad - Me, George, Susi, Julius and Toby

Now the thing about having a load of Do-Badders camping together is it is NOT A GOOD IDEA. We like a drink and a chat and managed to control ourselves on the first night - a few beers, nothing extraordinary and a decent bit of sleep meant getting up the next morning wasn’t the worst thing that had ever happened. To be quite honest, I was exhausted from Arran and London in the previous 3 weeks plus work had been a nightmare the week before so I decided to trot this one out with my pals and the dogs and trot it out I did. We were taking it in turns to run with dogs, look after kids and drink beers, so all in I managed about 30 miles for the day whilst having the best time ever. That night it all went pear shaped. We stayed up til about 4am yapping and drinking beer and playing with our new fire pit, which would have been fine, had we not had to get up for the Marathon at 6am. No chance of sleeping in when the race director drives up to your tent at 5am, puts a huge speaker outside and starts blasting Cotton Eye Joe at 100DB into the tent. Thanks for that Andy. The funny thing is, I still didn’t wake up. 

It shames me to say it but this was the first race that I have ever DNS’d. I was knackered, hungover and sleep deprived - all my own fault and I will make it up at East Farm in August, but I just couldn’t run it. The best thing is that I still had my number on my leg so looking at the results, I actually did it in 4 hours. Because I went too close to the mat when shouting at someone to do press ups. Classic Do-Baddery. 

Having a nice time with Toby at Bad Cow BEFORE the booze started

Next up was The Ox Epic at the start of May. Now I bloody love The Ox - I ran and won the 50 last year, so this was a key race for me - I wanted to defend my title, like the competitive tit that I am. 

I was signed up to do all 4 races - The Dark Ox on Friday night (6 miles), The Ox Ultra on Saturday (50 miles), the light Ox on Sunday (6 miles) and the Ox Half on Sunday (13 miles). Completing all the races means that you get The Ox Epic medal and are inducted into the WSR hall of fame for being a bad ass. My plan was to take it easy on the dark, smash the ultra and take it easy on the light and half. I had no intention of winning the Epic, I just wanted to win the ultra.  And then disaster struck. 

A close friend of mine went missing on the Wednesday before the race, and we were desperately worried about him. On the Friday morning it was announced that he had been found dead and my whole world collapsed. I was numb and I was overwhelmed with grief. From the minute I found out I was taken care of with Susi and Julius coming to find me to make sure I was OK. I didn’t know what I was doing from one second to the next and started questioning if I should even be running. I was fine one minute, and in floods of tears the next. I didn’t know, but from the minute they turned up, I was under the care of my running buddies - constantly being watched and monitored. 

Susi drove me onto the site on Friday - we were all camping together again and the boys put the tent up. I sat there staring at nothing. I was going to run. I couldn’t think of anything else to do rather than run. I got my number on and followed them all to the start at 9.30pm. I had the wrong number on, I had to go back to the tent and get my proper number. I was such a state. Lee and Susi ran with me - it took us 1.20 to get round a 6 mile course in the dark, but get round I did. I realised that this weekend wasn’t about winning, It was about finding sanctuary through running and just getting round would be good enough. 

No. No I didn’t. 

After a couple of beers and some crying (yay), we went to bed ready for the 50 mile race on Saturday. The Ox is a looped course that runs across the Rushmore estate. Each loop is around 6 and a bit miles, so 8 laps gives you 50 miles. I am NOT a fan of loops but strangely The Ox doesn’t bother me at all - the route is very beautiful (apart from the long drove of death) and there are hills so walking breaks are made easy. I ran with Julius for the whole day. He was brilliant. Chatting to me when I needed to be chatted to and letting me be silent when I needed to, he fed me, made sure I drank water and kept an eye on me the whole time. We gave parts of the course nicknames to make it more bearable Crisp Mountain (the hill that you can eat crisps walking up - later renamed to Peanut Mountain when we ran out of crisps) the Forest of Joy, The Droves of Death, the Hills of Despair, Lamb Kingdom  - I think most of the other people thought that we were mental, but it works for us. We came in for the 50 at around 10 hours 30 mins - over an hour slower than my 2017 time and certainly not a win for me, but again I had got round. My demons had not defeated me and I actually felt better than I had all week. Then came the news that changed the weekend for me. I was told that in the overall results from the two races, I was second lady - with only 1 minute and 14 seconds between me and the current front runner. THANKS ANDY. In a way I wish I hadn’t found out, but now the game was most certainly on. I was going to try and win it. 

Sunday morning came - game face was on, and we set out for the start of the 6 mile Light Ox. My pals were trying to find out where the first lady was, I kind of didn’t want to know. Having looked at the results, it was clear she was a fast shorter distance runner - something I am not. I had to really make the effort on this. I started at the front and shot (well, shot for me) round the course with Julius - coming in at just over an hour and five mins. The first lady had not come in yet. The minutes ticked by, 5, 10, 15 - my lead was going up and up, and then about 30 minutes after me she came in, hobbling, and that was the end of her racing weekend. The ultra had broken her and she wasn’t going to take on the half. I was in the lead. 

Now for the final slog - The Ox Half - it had got quite hot and I was physically and mentally exhausted. Plus I had added pressure on me (that I was totally putting on myself) to bring home the Ashtray Trophy of joy. I did NOT enjoy the half. My tiredness meant my brain was doing what Lee calls Vordermaths - numbers and times and numbers and times going over and over that make NO sense, and I was completely terrified that the second lady was somehow going to make up her 40 minute time difference over the half and beat me. That was never going to happen on the half course which was SO hilly and hot. I came in at around 2 and a half hours and took the win for the ladies. I was overwhelmed, exhausted and completely thrilled to be the first lady winner of The Ox Epic. 75 (ish) miles in 3 days on what could have been one of the worst weekends of my life. It taught me that the love and care of the ultra running community knows no bounds. I also just want to do a little shoutout to the 2nd and 3rd ladies - Kirsty and Debbie who were just brilliant, wonderful humans - it was Debbie’s first ultra and she smashed it. Good work team! 

YAS QWEEENS! L-R Debbie, Moi, Kirsty. Fucking badass women. 

The spoils of The Ox Epic.

A couple of much needed weekends off and it was back to Dorset again for ANOTHER WSR event - their only road race event in the form of Dorchester marathon. This is a very different type of run to the ones I am used to - there are a LOT of people and it’s entirely run on the road - it’s sold in as Britains’ prettiest road race and turns out that is actually true - it’s beautiful. 

We arrive at 8 in the morning in the worst rain ever, Thunder, lightning, rain, humidity - all the good ones. It’s raining so much that we are doing 30 mph on the dual carriageway. I am NOT looking forward to this. We park the car and walk towards the start and it’s stopped raining. Usual pants with the usual suspect at the start - I LOVE the White Star Runners so much. The race director is in a cherry picker, which rises towards the sky and, no shit, as it does the clouds part and it’s brilliant sunshine. Now I’m not saying Andy is a God, buuuut….. Oh and guess who is not wearing suntan lotion? (Clue - it’s me) 

Yeah, this is better than London

Sweaty medal picture

The atmosphere is slightly different at this race - usually you get all the LOLS at the start but there are some really tasty runners here - aiming for PB’s and aiming to win. I ran most of the race alone which was fine, and spent a great deal of time petting lambs and goats as per usual. I bumped into a few people I knew and some who I didn’t and had some great chats. The route is relatively flat with a few big old hills, and the heat made it difficult. This was never going to be a sub 4 for me - I had SDW100 to deal with in 2 weeks and didn’t want ANYTHING to go wrong for that. I reckon I’ll be back for a better crack at it next year - as far as road races go it is one of the best in the country - would defo recommend it. Fast forward 2 weeks and we are looking down the barrel of the South Downs Way 100. 

Looking fresh at the 6am start of the SDW 100

This is only my second attempt at 100 miles on one day. I have done a lot of multi day ultras - I really like them! But only one 100 miler in a day (Autumn 100 back in 2017). This is another one of my key races for 2018, and I was hoping to be able to beat my previous record of 23 hours and 38 mins. One thing I hadn’t taken into consideration was how different SDW100 is from A100. 

For a start SDW had 12,700ft of elevation across the course - that’s like climbing Snowdon 3 times. It runs from Winchester to Eastbourne through the beautiful South Downs National Park. It hadn’t rained for a while and the ground was super hard packed chalk with rocks sticking out of it for most of the way - looking back on it, I should have thought about this and worn road shoes - but I didn’t do that because I am an idiot.  I had already recce’d half the route with some of the Do Badders a few months earlier - it was the last 50 we had run which was brilliant as this was the part I would be covering in the dark. 

Making friends on the SDW100

I was extremely lucky to have 2 great pacers for this race. First up from mile 50, Lorna Spayne - a Do Badder and very tasty marathon runner - my WSR nemesis (always beating me dammit) and very good friend what I made through the internet. Lorna is a very experienced runner, and completed her first 50 on the SDW back in May, so was perfectly placed to help pace and crew me. She is the single most organised person I have ever met in my life. She is kind, patient and fiercely protective of her runner. She crewed me from early on in the race - making sure I had all the delicious food, ice, Calippos (yes really) from very early on, and then joining me at mile 51 to run 30 miles in the middle of the night to drop me off with Lee. You all remember Lee right? Lee who force fed me sandwiches on the A100. Lee who has given me PTSD every time I hear Your The Voice by John Farnham? Yeah - that Lee.  Lee was pacing me from mile 83 to the end. A highly inexperienced ultra runner (not my words) Lee knows exactly what he is doing when it comes to pace and hills - and that is exactly what I needed for the death march. 

We started the race at 6am. I bumped into a lot of Do Badders at the start which was great - nice you know you have someone to shout FUCK YOU BUDDY at on the way round. I started the race with Tania who I know through WSR and her friend Melanie. It was Tania’s first 100 and I was SO excited for her - the first 10 miles flew but chatting about running and stuff and running and stuff.  I knew that we were running to fast - doing around 9.30 min miles when I should have been doing 11. I decided at about 20 miles to pull back and let Tania go on - I couldn’t keep this pace and expect not to start breaking and it was already getting hot. It was very challenging underfoot too - the ground rock solid and a number of splendid long slow ascents. My favourite (Fuck you long, slow ascents). At around mile 25 there is the glorious Lorna and she has got ice cubes and ice lollies and I think I love her. She fills my bottles, gets my rubbish out of my bag, refills the sandwich supplies, checks me over, gives me life and off I trot. There were a lot of VERY jealous people when they saw me fishing my Calipo out of my sports bra. 

L-R: Melanie, myself and Tania off to a flying start. 

This is my “quick photographer run” face. Mel obvs finds it hilarious. 

It was at this point I reached the dead zone. Miles 35-40 were a real challenge - I was on my own and was bored. I wasn’t at half way and I was nowhere near the end. I could feel myself starting to mentally go. Then, as if by magic, Melanie is there behind me. I am SO happy to have a running pal. We trot along laughing at stupid things, hating on cyclists, and encouraging each other for 10 miles until we reach the halfway point. I now know that I am on my way to meet Lorna and my race will get better. I reach 50 mile 45 mins short of my target - it’s hotter and hillier than I thought - but I know if I want to go sub 24 then I need to put some effort in to the 50-80 mile leg.

Lorna is a dream. She chats away to me and makes me run when I don’t want to. She asks me stupid questions and distracts me from the task in hand, asking me if I have drunk enough and eaten enough and generally pushing me on. About 10 miles into this leg another Do badder emerges in the shape of Professor Russell Banks who has bough me a can of beer. NOMS! We run along with Mike - yet ANOTHER Do Badder that we have collected en route, and drink some beer and laugh at stupid stuff. It’s at this point I bump into Tania again - she’s suffering a bit so we scoop her up and run a good few miles with her in tow, leaving her at an aid station to drink coffee. I hope that she will be OK but I have to make up my time. 

Hydrating like a proper athlete around mile 55 (L-R Mike, Me, Russell)

A Fuckwittery of Do-Badders (L-R Russell, Me, Lorna, Mike)

Lorna and I trot through the afternoon and into the evening. Head torches come on, and we are running through the darkness to the 83 mile point where I will meet Lee. At some point on this leg, I lose my sense of humour completely, but she deals with it, allowing me space to eat my Peppa Pig pasta and clean my teeth and shout  “a new fucking body” when the marshalls ask if I need anything. It would have been a much sadder race without Lorna and I am so grateful for everything she did for me. Everything is hurting, but I am so close to the end now.  

Lorna disappears into the night....

At mile 83 we pull into the aid station and there is Lee. Boring the shit out of everyone with his Monarchs Way tales. I grab water and some snacks and give Lorna a hug - 16 miles to go and me and Lee set off up yet ANOTHER hill. 

Tea with Lee. 91 miles in. 

Lee’s brilliant as always and we chat about stuff, walk up hills, he lends me his cheat sticks and I start talking to him about times. He thinks I can beat my A100 time - I am not so sure. I have been eating really well on this race and it shows. I am hurting all over and my body feels bruised, but I still have petrol in the tank and I run the downs and walk the ups and we listen to Queen and debate what their best song is for about 2 hours (It’s The Show Must Go On BTW). 

Day starts to break at about 4am. The beauty of the Downs around this time - when the moon and sun are out at the same time - is astonishing. When day breaks on a 100 mile race, you know it’s over and you know you can do it. It spurred me on and I felt like I was only getting stronger. We stop for a coffee at the aid station at mile 91 and Lee is treated like royalty. I am left to wait in the wings for my coffee and water - the marshals are very apologetic when they realise he is my pacer and I am running the race. Fucking Lee, man. 

Having a moment as the sun comes up and moon goes down. Thanks for the photo Lee!

We leave the aid station and trot out the next 9 miles. It starts to become a reality that I can PB this. I can do it in a faster time than A100. I start to get faster. I feel brilliant. Lee is complaining a lot about the hills. I tell him to shut the fuck up. We keep going and eventually come off the hills and down onto the road towards the finish. The road seems to go on forever, but I want to run not walk. 

23 hours and 20 mins in the end is on sight. One loop round the athletics track,  and I am done. 23 hours, 28 minutes. 9 mins off my previous time with about 7,000ft more elevation. 

BOOM. 

I am presented with my buckle, I get the beer out of my bag and at 5 am have a delicious beer and a hot dog. I am exhausted and elated. Second time round is not easy, but it’s easier. Thank you to Lee and Lorna for everything they did for me. I won’t ever forget it. Shout out to Melanie who finished in 25 hours - this photo says it all.....

So, what’s next? Well I am back with my Rat Race pals doing The Wall this weekend - just 69 miles along Hadrians Wall , followed by a pretty exciting recce in Snowdon. I will also be attempting to not leave my blog so long. If you’ve got to this bit you’re a stronger person than most - ultra reading.