#lee appeared already and i think i saw mike

[puppy-phum]

ok but what if midnight museum is everything i ever wanted, what then

[imashoe69420]

Can I request the rise bois having a crush on a human y/n but they think y/n would never like a mutant so they use a cloaking brooch to try and ask y/n on q date, but y/n quickly recognizes them even with the brooch 👉👈

彡★Rise!Bros X Reader Headcannons★彡

Pronouns: Gender Neutral (they/them)

Relationships: Dating

Timeline: Post-Movie

Warnings ⚠️: None

===================================

Leo

• It wasn’t that Leo thought you didn’t like him as he was. He was just trying to relate to you since you had so many human friends.

• When you two were hanging out, you’d often get a message on your phone from one of your friends asking if you can hang out. More often than not, you would leave the lair to meet them, leaving Leo to think about solutions to make you more comfortable.

• Okay, maybe he was a little insecure about being a mutant rather than a human.

• When you saw him in the cloaking brooch, your first reaction was to laugh out loud.

• “Aw, Lee…!” You said in between laughs. “You look so weird.”

• Leo felt a pang of annoyance as he jumped through hoops to get a cloaking brooch and may have the Hidden City police after him.

• “C’mon, don’t this rugged good looks translate well in my human form?”

• You giggled as you neared him and gently took the brooch off of his chest, Leo turning back to the lovable turtle he was.

• “I like you just the way you are, babe. Green skin, bald head and all.”

• Leo scoffed but hugged you tightly, lifting you off your feet and twirling around.

~~~~~~~~~~

Raph

• We all know that the red clad turtle is big. Like, really big. And spiky.

• You’d cut yourself on his spikes before and he always profusely apologized even though you were never mad at him.

• So one day, he thought to try out a cloaking brooch to see if he could reduce his spikes and size.

• It definitely reduced his spikes, but not his size.

• When you saw him, you loved it before he told you why he’d done it.

• “Raph, you don’t have to do that.”

• “But I keep hurting you and—”

• You grabbed his face and pulled him down to your own visage, taking the cloaking brooch off.

• “I love every part of you. Spikes and all.”

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

Mikey

• When Mikey put on the cloaking brooch, you loved the way his human form looked. Like, you’d obsessively ask him if he could put it on.

• After a while, Mikey grew to assume that you only liked him with the brooch on.

• He started to wear it more and more before you would even ask him.

• Eventually, you grew suspicious. It seemed like he would rush to get the brooch whenever you’d come into the lair.

• “Mike, you know you don’t have to wear the brooch every time I’m here, right?”

• Mikey was slightly embarrassed. “I know…! I just thought you liked it more than… my other form.”

• “No, Mikey,” you took the brooch off of his chest, turning him back into a mutant, “I love your human form. But I love your mutant form even more.”

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

Donnie

• Donnie was always insecure about your relationship. When he’d first met you, he had a cloaking brooch on, so he appeared human.

• It was only after the first date he revealed that he was a mutant.

• You didn’t care about his appearance and he was still hot anyways, but he would often put the brooch on when you two would hang out.

• One day, you thought it was a good idea to remind him again. When you arrived in his lab, he was working on another great invention. When he saw you, he quickly reached for the brooch, but you approached even faster.

• You placed a hand on the brooch and gazed up at him. “Y’know you don’t need to wear that, right?”

• He somewhat avoided your stare. “I know. I just…”

• “Donnie,” your hand went up from his hand to his bicep and you gave it a gentle squeeze, “I’ve told you already that I love you just as much as I love your human form.”

• “I know, but… you’re human. You’re used to humans. So why not look like one to make you more comfortable?”

• You sighed as you cupped his cheek. “You already make me feel comfortable, Dee.”

[canonicallyanxious]

hi! saw your last anon and sorry if this is annoying, but just wanted to ask u a question. i don’t know anything about d20 (assuming it’s like a d&d game) but i did watch all the free game changer episodes on yt and i’m lowkey obsessed and want more. is d20 the same kind of vibe, assuming it’s the same people? for someone who isn’t and has never played d&d would you reccommend starting d20? i kinda don’t want to pay for dropout, so maybe i’ll start with that :) have a nice day!

not an annoying question don't worry!! in fact i feel like i have to apologize in turn because i already know i'm going to be incapable of being normal about answering this question lol but me being verbose as hell on main, what else is new, etc. etc.

Re: whether d20 has a similar vibe to game changer -

so i'd say you're right in that d20 involves many of the people that are featured on game changer since they're both produced by collegehumor/dropout. as you might know Brennan Lee Mulligan who appears pretty often on game changer is the main DM for d20, and since d20 is an anthology show the casts rotate out every season but one of the most frequently recurring casts incudes Zac Oyama, Ally Beardsley, and Lou Wilson who are also pretty frequent guests of game changer [the others were also involved with Collegehumor at some point, can't remember if they've been on gc tho]. collegehumor folks sometimes appear in other seasons as well - for example rekha shenkar and lily du have been in multiple d20 seasons, jess ross and mike trapp have also featured, and there's even one season that's oops all collegehumor folks called Mice and Murder which is basically holmesian style turn of the century murder mystery but everyone is an anthropomorphized animal [dropout exclusive but the first ep is on the d20 yt channel]. so if you vibe with the humor and the personalities of the people who feature a lot on game changer, it's likely you will vibe with the humor and tone of d20 too!

that said, given that game changer is styled after a traditional competitive game show and d20 is an actual play show where people play tabletop rpgs together they are very different in the sense of genre. d20, while largely improvised [which believe me is a fact that will probably be hard to believe when watching it but is entirely true], is very much a collaborative storytelling effort between the people involved and makes very concerted efforts to present a tight and cohesive narrative through their seasons. so d20 is great if you like fictional narratives and fun and colorful characters, but if you want more traditionally unscripted content like gamechanger i recommend checking out:

dirty laundry [which is actually a spin-off of a gamechanger episode; hosted by Lily Du, first ep available on the CH yt channel]

make some noise [unfortunately i think right now all the make some noise eps are also dropout exclusive, here i have linked to the trailer, but it is another spinoff based on this honestly iconic game changer ep wherein Josh Ruben, Brennan Lee Mulligan, and Zac Oyama make weird sounds at each other and it's the funniest thing in the world]

Um, Actually [nerdy trivia game show hosted by Mike Trapp]

Rank Room [fyi it's an older show and they don't make it anymore but i still think it's a fun watch; hosted by Katie Marovich]

[do u see what i mean. i thought this first question would be a short answer skdfjnsdkjfnsdns so uh deep apologies for what will come after this bc i have THOUGHTS about your second question]

Re: would i recommend d20 for someone who has no experience with d&d -

short answer: yes absolutely 100%.

long answer: why do i so enthusiastically recommend d20 for people who have never played dnd? because i am a people who has never played dnd and d20 is one of my favorite shows ever! tbh i do think i am kind of biased as d20 is really the only actual play show i've ever been able to get into and i'm sure there are plenty of other shows out there that work for other people [if you're a podcast person for example you have tons of good options, i however am Not] but there are a number of reasons why I personally enjoy d20 as an actual play show:

I often struggle with other actual play shows because of how long and meandering they are. I think this is more of a personal preference thing because even when reading/watching more traditional forms of media i always tend to prefer tighter narratives with a clear ending in mind [e.g a 3 season show with a good finale is more compelling to me than an ongoing 10 season show with no ending in sight] but because d20 is an anthology show and each season is more or less a self-contained story aside from the few sequels i find it much easier to keep my attention on the episodes. to be sure the eps are still quite long, most ranging from 1.5-2 hours, but brennan + the other dms they feature on d20 do a really good job of keeping the pace moving while still giving the players freedom to explore the world and make their own narrative choices [which i think is one big appeal actual play shows has over other forms of media, the improvised and collaborative nature of the storytelling versus something that's already been fully scripted beforehand].

another thing i struggle with is how cumbersome dnd combat can be, personally i don't think it's the most accessible especially for people who have no ttrpg experience but d20's combat actually works pretty well for me because 1. they plan their combats before the season starts and especially in the earlier seasons of d20 they stuck pretty strictly to alternating between roleplay versus combat episodes so it's easier for me when i know kind of what to expect and 2. because they plan their combats in advance they are able to build INCREDIBLE custom battle sets with custom minis [shout out to Rick Perry!] and for me the visuals really help me keep my attention on the combat versus when combat is more theater of the mind [which to be clear does sometimes still happen in d20]. Tbh i still think combat can be a little clunky especially in the earlier seasons of d20 but i think the show has always gone to a lot of effort to create really creative and engaging combats for both the players and the audience and as it's gone on they've only gotten better at achieving this

in that vein i think the fact that d20 is 1. entirely filmed and 2. edited very well is VERY helpful for someone like me who has traditionally struggled with podcasts because the lack of visual context makes it hard to stay focused. as far as the editing goes i know some people prefer more of a livestream feel but just for me personally having the editing and the different camera angles and the sound cues and the music [d20 is really good at picking royalty free music for their soundtracks btw may i just say] gives me something more concrete to focus on and keeps it more visually interesting. and i do feel that they still make an effort to preserve the more natural/organic feel of ttrpgs by limiting their cuts story wise and focusing a lot on player reactions in the moment so for me it kind of hits the best of both worlds!

personally i think the choice for d20 to cast a lot of talented improv comedians is fucking inspired, especially when the show is so comedy-oriented. improv comedians are good at making bold choices on their feet, crafting rich characters while improvising their dialogue on the spot, and collaborating with each other, which are all skills that are very helpful for an actual play show context and everyone they cast on d20 is SO talented at all of these things. there are some players on d20 who also have little to no experience with dnd [notably Ally Beardsley has only ever officially played dnd on camera for d20; Rekha Shenkar and Mike Trapp in Escape From the Bloodkeep were also very new to dnd at the time] which on the one hand i think helps audience members like me who are inexperienced with dnd knowing some of the players are in the same boat but also they tend to make some of the wildest most out of the box choices as a result of being new to the game. so i think ultimately it's just a really fun combination and it's so much fun to watch in action!

and just a few more reasons why I consider d20 a favorite in a more general sense:

I mean Brennan Lee Mulligan as d20's main DM is a HUGE draw of d20 in my opinion. like if you were already a fan of him from game changer or other college humor content i think you will especially appreciate him in d20 because he is absolutely in his element here. actually last year i made a ppt for my friends about why i like d20 so much so here is a relevant excerpt:

i want to emphasize that d20 is a comedy-oriented show so tonally comedy is what it will prioritize. however i also want to emphasize that this does not mean it pulls any punches with the emotional depths it's able to reach. the themes and the worlds and the characters are SO rich and complex and compelling and I think i have experienced basically every human emotion and then some while watching this show. i also think it's incredibly character driven and does an amazing job of prioritizing character and relationship development and player agency, which is one of my favorite things to see in any kind of show!

and conceptually i just think it's so much fucking fun! it being an anthology show means there is something in here for everyone but i have enjoyed every season i have watched immensely [which is all of them except for one!] and have found it remarkably easy to become invested in every single one. you want to know what it would be like if dnd took place in a john hughes style teenage coming of age movie? or what if lord of the rings was about the bad guys but also it’s a workplace comedy? or how about an urban fantasy story set in modern day new york with a secret sixth borough hidden away in the world of dreams? you can have it all and more from d20! and this is just the seasons that are available on yt for FREE there are so many other cool and fun stories and worlds and dms to engage with!!!

tl;dr it's a good show and i like it very very much thank you for coming to my ted talk

[sparklingchan]

Stray Kids AU

Stray Kids soulmate AU

Prompt : The name of your soulmate appears on your body only after that person falls in love with you.

A/N: this was sooooo fun to write but it turned out rather long but please the whole thing,I swear it'll be worth every minute🥺

Warnings : None.

1. Bang Chan

You met him for the first time when you went to the movies one evening,alone ,trying to take your mind off the upcoming exams.

He was seated to your left,his mind completely focused on the movie . He wore a black tshirt with a black jacket and a pair of baggy pants but you couldn't help but notice how attractive he looked even in the dark.

You also subtly noticed the bandaids around his fingers and the reddened knuckles and the tired and exhausted look on his face ,which you were very familiar with because it is the same expression you see when you look into the mirror.

"Are you like a boxer or something?" You weren't the kind to go around talking to random strangers at movies but this time your curiosity got the better of you.

He looked at you ,confused ,but answered anyway. "No. I'm a musician "

"Then what's with the bruised hands?"

He looks down at his hands and laughs,shaking his head. "Let's just say I overwork myself a little too much sometimes". Fair enough.

"I'm y/n by the way " you offer your hand and he takes it,smiling from ear to ear. "I'm Chan"

You notice his lack of snacks and a cold drink and you couldn't help but offer your extra large bucket of popcorn ,which previously you were sure you could finish on your own but now, not so anymore.

He thanks you,dipping his hands in and grabbing a fistful of popcorn,a small but very noticeable blush tinting his cheeks.

That night,he offers to walk you home and you couldn't say no. You stood at your doorstep,smiling to yourself as he turns around and walks back home.

The moment he is out of your sight,you feel a sudden pain in your left forearm.

Rolling your sleeves up till your elbow,you are stunned to see "Bang Chan" cleanly written there.

2. Lee Minho

You hated Lee Minho from the bottom of your heart. He went to the same dance studio as you and ever since you guys had a minor argument about something regarding a particular step,he's felt like nothing but a nuisance.

He knew that you disliked him so he made sure to bother you even more. Sometimes he'd make fun of your frizzy hair and sometimes he'd simply grab your phone out of nowhere and run. He even ate your food without any permission.

But one day ,your dance teacher paired you two up together for a couple contemporary dance competition.

You were so close to strangling Minho everytime he looked at you with that smirk on his face as you guys practiced day and night. But you also couldn't help but acknowledge how perfect his every movement was.

It was the day before your competition when Minho fell in the bathroom and fractured his leg,forcing your duo to back out from the competition.

You honestly weren't a bit angry or sad about it since it was a small internal competition but you knew he was upset with himself so you went to visit him at his dorm.

"I'm sorry, y/n " he had said. That's the saddest you've ever seen him look and to be very honest, you hated it.

"Shut up ,idiot. It's not a big deal " you gave him the donuts you bought earlier as he looks up at you ,smiling brightly.

When you were about to leave, he asked you if you could drop by often. His eyes looked at everywhere but you.

"Why?" You giggled. He looked down shyly. "I realized you're not that bad to hang out with "

You laughed, pressing a small kiss on his cheek. "I'll come by often"

When you reached home,you felt a strong sting at your forearm.

And on observing closely at the burning area,you see "Lee Minho" written in big,bold letters.

3. Seo Changbin

You hated your job ,you really did but everything changed when your new colleague, Changbin, arrived. He was the funniest,nicest and most talented mam you'd ever met.

A few weeks into the friendship,he had already made you listen to the songs he composed. His smile when you complimented him was something to die for.

And Whenever you felt down ,he would make some silly jokes and he'd instantly brighten up your mood.

And you didn't want to deny it,you had developed a crush on him.

It was a rainy afternoon in your office when you saw Changbin walk inside your executive director's cabin. You knew that it could never mean something good.

When he came out of the office,almost half an hour later,his eyes looking down at the floor and his ears red ,you knew he had gotten a nice scolding from your shitty boss.

You knew because a few months ago you'd been in the the same position too.

But instead of coming back to his seat,you saw him walk out of the office. Mindlessly,you followed him into the terrace .

"He's a stupid asshole,don't fret yourself about it" you wrapped your arm around his. He sighed, ruffling his hair with the other hand.

"I'm going to punch that man one day " he gritted his teeth. You were so used to him being a smily ,funny man ,you were scared when you saw him this angry.

"He's not worth your attention,I'm telling you " . He only replied by shrugging.

You two decided to have dinner together that night.

"I hope there's a next time to this" he had said,shyly, His smile doing wonders to your heart. As his car disappeared around the corner,you felt your heart swell with a warm feeling.

The next morning,you woke up with a stinging pain in your forearm and when you checked it out,your heart skipped a beat on seeing 'Seo Changbin ' written there.

4. Hwang Hyunjin

You'd never seen a man as beautiful and amazing as Hyunjin. Although he probably never noticed you,you noticed him. All the girls in your college did and you were no exception to that.

You were more than excited when your teacher told you that you two were supposed to do a project together.

Initially, you were expecting him to be a brat ,given his popularity among women ( and men OFC) but he turned out to be a warm person,making you feel guilty for thinking that way about him in the first place.

He helped you all he could ,and you also realised at that time that he was not just a handsome face ,he was pretty smart too.

After working hours on the project at your house,you two would sometimes just spend time talking to each other. It wasn't even forced; you guys just clicked naturally.

On the day the project finished, you decided to bake cookies for him and even packed some for him to take home. "This is a thank you gift"

His whole face lit up as he took the jar of cookies from you. "I should be the one thanking you "

Before he left,he gives you tight hug and then a kiss on your forehead. "I'll see you tomorrow "

While you prepared dinner that evening,you felt a weird sting on your forearm,as if a bug bit you. Putting down the spoon,you checked out your forearm for any signs of a bug bite.

Your cheeks turned red when you saw that it wasn't a bug bite. "Hwang Hyunjin " was printed onto your skin in a clean and neat handwriting.

5. Han Jisung

You were the new producer intern at JYP entertainment and although unfamiliar to most people,you felt quite comfortable at home. You first met Han Jisung when he popped his head through your studio door,mistaking your studio for some else's.

His cheeks turned red with embarrassment, as he rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm sorry. I thought this room was Mike's."

You smiled shyly. "Its alright. Don't apologize please." He then slowly stepped into the studio,his hands behind his back.

"Are you new here ? Haven't seen you before " You nodded in response . He thrusted his hand towards you,his lips curving up into a smile.

"I'm Jisung. I am a trainee here" he said. "Nice to meet you ,Jisung. I'm y/n,a new intern producer"

You then proceeded to tell him that you have in fact heard about him and his team ,3racha,from other producers. He giggled,clearly embarrassed. "Yeah. I do compose a little, here and there "

Needless to say,over time you guys had developed an unbreakable bond not only through music but also the similar way that you two click with each other. It's as if you both had found a safe haven in each other.

A few months later,he told you that he wanted to show you a song he was working on. And excited, you quickly agreed to it.

For someone who was only a few months older than you,his music style was way more mature than yours. The way every beat,every chord ,every lyric sticks out beautifully, you couldn't help but clap as the song ended.

"That was amazing,Jisung. You're gonna put all us producers out of work!" You had teased.

He gave you his signature smile and shook his head . "You guys are going to be big one day, I can feel it " you told him.

He stopped for a second and stared at you ,his fingers fumbling with his laptop. "But you'll still be here right? Even if we do get big one day,you'll still be there with me right?"

You smiled ,as he took your hand in his. "Yes. I'll be there "

As soon as Jisung left the studio after a few minutes,you suddenly felt as if your arm was on fire. Alarmed ,you decided to check the area .

"Han Jisung" was written on your forearm.

6. Felix Lee

You loved swimming more than anything in the world and you were so good at it,people at your school saw you as their swimming champion.

But it all changed when Lee Felix joined your school. He was an amazing swimmer and as much as it hurt your ego to admit it,Felix was better than you .

You couldn't help but feel jealous and even though he was in the same swimming team as you ,you never bothered to acknowledge him. He did try to befriend you but your ego was too big to pay heed to him.

On his birthday, when he invited you to his house for a party,you couldn't say no to those pleading eyes. You told yourself you went out of pity but that's not entirely true.

The party wasn't half as bad as you had thought and by the time the party died down,you also realized you were being too harsh on Felix. His sunshine like smile and cheerful personality worked magic on you.

He offered to walk you home since you insisted on walking back home alone . You agreed because your houses weren't very far apart.

"Do you hate me or something?" He caught you off guard as you find the right words to answer him.

You shook your head ." I don't hate you,Felix. I guess...I was just envious"

He chuckled. " you shouldn't be" and you nodded. He was right, you shouldn't be jealous and right now,in this moment you realise how ridiculous those feelings were.

You stopped at your gate and looked up at him,smiling ,and then gave him a quick hug

But before he could say anything you ran into your house.

The moment you close the door behind you,your forearm starts hurting really bad. And when you check it out to see what's causing it ,you see the name 'Lee Felix ' written on your skin.

7. Kim Seungmin

Kim Seungmin was that one cute boy from your school who dropped by at the library you work at every day.

He always greeted you with the brightest smile on earth and often chatted with you before he left the library. You had gotten used to his positive energy.

But one evening he came in,his eyes tired and mouth pressed in a small smile. He didn't even greet you ,which broke your heart a little.

He sat on the farthest corner of the library, a book open in front of him but his eyes and mind were elsewhere . You approached him.

"What's wrong?" He looked at you with tear filled eyes. "I didn't do well in my maths paper "

You softly patted his back. " hey,it's okay . Everyone knows you're good at maths and plus it was just an internal assessment. It won't hamper your finals "

"But that's the thing,y/n. I'm not good at maths. I am fairly good at the other subjects but I suck at maths,big time "

You looked at his sorry face and realised how much his grades mattered to him unlike you who didn't give too much thought to it . "I'm good at maths. If you want ,I could tutor you "

His face broke into a smile as he placed his hand on yours.

"You would?" You nodded as his smile turned even bigger.

You walked back to the reception after Seungmin calmed down,having discussed the timings for his math tutions and making him promise you free ice cream for the rest of your life in return for your favour.

You suddenly felt a sting on your forearm and on inspecting your forearm ,you saw the name 'Kim Seungmin' written in big letters as your stomach did a backflip in anticipation of what is to come.

8. Yang Jeongin

Jeongin and you had been best friends since childhood. Your parents were friends too so naturally you grew up to be closer than anyone.

But as you both entered teenage, you started seeing him as more than just a friend . So you distanced yourself from him. Over time ,he stopped trying to earn you back and you two grew apart.

It was the last year of high school and everyone was busy preparing for the Winter Ball. You weren't going(obviously),not just because you had no date but also because you didn't want to see Jeongin with someone else.

The morning of the ball arrived and your friends had given up on trying to convince you to go with them.

You were sitting on your sofa while eating breakfast when the doorbell rang.

"I heard that you weren't coming to the ball,y/n " Jeongin looked at you with sad eyes.

You looked at your feet,embarrassed . "Yes."

He sighed,walking into your house. "Why, y/n?"

You told him that you didn't have a date but he refused to believe that to be the only reason. He grabbed your shoulders,looking into your eyes. You heart was beating so fast you were sure you might pass out any minute.

"You like me,don't you? Isn't that the reason why you stopped hanging out with me? Please tell me its true" Your forearm started hurting badly at that moment but you ignored it,there were more important things to do than worry about a sore arm .

"Yes " you didn't want to lie to him anymore . You were tired of being afraid and playing safe all the time . For once,maybe bravery might be a better option.

He smiled from ear to ear ,wrapping you in his arms and snuggling his face in the crook of your neck. "I do too ,you dumbo. "

While your heart leaped with happiness ,the pain in your arm increased so you quickly checked the area whilst still in his embrace.

'Yang Jeongin ' was written on your skin and you knew what it meant. You knew that he was the one for you.

[ucflibrary]

A fireball in the sky is no match for grievances among couples in today’s Weekend Watching.

~

Coherence (James Ward Byrkit, 2013)

The beginning of the 2010s saw a rise in modestly budgeted science fiction films. Lo-fi sci-fi as some have dubbed it doesn't have the benefit of their more mainstream brethren--expensive special effects or big-name movie stars. These movies aren't calibrated for the multiplex so much as they are aimed at the arthouse. They are more character or idea driven than they are spectacle.

One of the best of these I think is 2013's Coherence. The movie takes place over the course of one night, the same night Miller's Comet is passing over the Earth. Mike and Lee are hosting a dinner with three other couples. These are all old friends and their histories, good and bad, will eventually bubble to the surface. Kevin and Em, particularly, are at a crossroads. Kevin is leaving the country for four months for work and is trying to convince Em to come with him. She is more reluctant. Their friend Amir is bringing his new girlfriend Laurie, who just happens to be Kevin's old girlfriend.

These already fraught dynamics would be focused at an intimate dinner party, but the appearance of the comet exacerbates them even further. And really Coherence is more a chamber drama than it is a space opera. The biggest special effect is a tiny comet seen by the characters from the ground looking up at the night sky. But the comet is creating some curious activity here on Earth. All communication to the outside world is down—no internet, no cell service. Even people's cell phones themselves are physically breaking. Then the power goes out. One of the guests, Hugh, happens to have a book written by his quantum physicist brother in his car. After dissecting it, they conclude that the comet has created a split reality and that the only other house in the neighborhood that got its power back is an alternate version of their own party.

As the anxiety about this parallel existence begins to grow and the concern about them being a threat appears to be coming true, the party fractures. People have conflicting strategies, the personal dramas bleed into the existential ones, and the beauty of the movie is watching how these dual agendas unravel simultaneously, ratcheting up the dread in the final act.

Em, the closest we have to an audience surrogate, is the first to realize there are even more complications to the multiple realities. I'll leave those revelations for you to discover, but they point to fundamental questions about who we are and what we do when/if we find that out. The inciting incident of the movie might be celestial, but it has its feet planted firmly on solid ground.

Coherence (2013) is available through Alexander Street Press.

[7hyuns]

something new

mark lee x reader 

warnings; smut, the vaguest hints of angst if u squint a lot, degrading kink, rough kink, dom/sub themes, i don’t think protection is mentioned, bondage kink, swearing probably, a lil bit of bad aftercare 

word count: about 12.1k ish 

The room felt almost too hot to breathe in, even while you were uncovered completely and had every inch of your body on display to the drafts of cold night air filtering in from the open window. You wondered if you were allowed to just get up and leave immediately, or if it would be considered rude or even worse, if it would permanently damage his ego. Maybe if it was anyone else, you could have accepted that as a valid worry and let yourself over-analyse it, but it was him: you wouldn’t be able to dent his ego if you hit it with a sledgehammer. You played the conversation out over and over again in your head, thinking about each different direction it could head in, every single little development it could have, and it did nothing but give the effect of a burden against your chest.

You stopped to breathe, still lying there and staring blankly up at the ceiling of his bedroom and took a second to evaluate the situation you’d thrown myself into without thinking twice. It felt a little childish when you really thought about it; trying desperately to recreate a lingering daydream when you already knew the ending didn’t work out in my favour. Or maybe it was entirely normal to feel this empty after sleeping with someone, but that was another thing you wouldn’t know without asking someone else. And you already knew mentioning this to anyone else was off the table for you, and you hoped against logic that what had happened wouldn’t find its way back to any of your friends.

With all of that in mind, you realised that you should probably get out as soon as possible. You sat up, wondering what would happen if you just threw your legs over the side of the bed and made yourself stand up without hesitation, but that idea scared you. What would happen if you fell? Would he tell someone about that detail or leave it out when he recounted this to all of his friends as soon as the sun rose? You adjusted yourself so your legs were hanging off the bed, beginning to test the waters and see how far you could push myself before your body told you it was too tired to deal with this and gave up. You heard the light sound of shifting behind you, and you closed my eyes in a weak prayer that he’d just be turning in his sleep, but you knew it was a shout into the void when you felt his hand land on your hip.

“You leaving already?” He asked, deep voice light and teasing, and you tried as hard as you could to fight the slight flutter of your heart at him wanting me to stay. Ultimately, you failed, but you couldn’t let that stop you from getting away from this before you fell back into your position from earlier. You were pretty confident that whatever that was, it wasn’t fun, and it wasn’t what you wanted from him.

You let out a breathy laugh, more forced than anything, and glanced around the room quickly in an attempt to locate your clothes before you had to stand up and re-dress yourself in front of him. You saw your jeans first, thrown onto the desk chair by his bed, just as his arm wound itself back around your waist as tightly as it had been earlier; then your underwear, dropped right by the foot of the bed, awkwardly hanging off the edge and making you twitch in an urge to grab them straight away, and you felt his plump lips press a misplaced kiss to the back of your neck; your bra and shirt were tossed in a crumpled heap on the floor, and you began to move away from his touch as soon as you worked out an order to your next movements.

He groaned after you pulled myself away, and even as you felt a blush creeping up your neck at the feeling of his heavy eyes watching you, you kept your back turned to him as you rushed to pull every item of clothing back onto your body. “I thought we were gonna watch a movie, though,” he inquired, making something in you bubble in embarrassment. You wondered if this was normal for him, such a daily occurrence that he could just sit through a movie afterwards and not want to ask questions. A small pang of pain made itself prevalent in your stomach, making you close your eyes just as you finished untucking your hair from where it had caught in your shirt. You didn’t want to go, not really, and you really couldn’t stop the butterflies in your stomach at the idea of him wanting you to be something more to him than before. But you could already hear another voice, the same voice you’d had to listen to for years growing up, telling you that you were always too busy grasping for control over him when it was impossible for you to hold onto. The word ‘yes,’ was caught in your throat, almost painful as you tried to swallow the lump forming there.

“I should probably get back home, it’s kinda late.” You reasoned quietly, turning to face him again, seeing him slouched back with his messy hair and pretty eyes, reminding you why you even hurt yourself to upkeep your friendship every day. But that’s what it was – a friendship, nothing more, and if it was anything more, it wasn’t what you wanted. You watched as he nodded, stretching his arms out and not-so-subtly flexing his muscles before he smiled brightly over at you, seemingly unperturbed by everything that had just happened in such a short space of time.

For an extremely brief moment, it almost felt like a real daydream you’d had before; with him looking at you so softly and smiling so perfectly, and a slight buzz of optimism wound its way into your veins. Until he spoke, “Alright,” he paused, his grin turning into something more like a sickening smirk as he continued, “this was fun though, right? We should do it again sometime, babe.”

So, maybe it was normal for it to be like this after you sleep with someone, and maybe it was something you would get used to like everyone else did, but that didn’t stop you from being unable to shake the almost unsatisfied feeling in your stomach. You were sure that couldn’t be it, because the way everyone spoke about it made it sound like it felt so good, but you had barely felt anything over those tense few moments. The only thing you could vividly remember was it being uncomfortable: a pressure that never seemed to go away until it was done.

You nodded, just enough for you to feel as if you were convincing both him and yourself that you would actually want to repeat this. “I’ll, um, see you tomorrow, then.” You finished, turning on your heel and walking into the hallway of his house, hearing him shout a ‘yeah, of course,’ behind you. Only when you shut the door on the dim room behind you did you let yourself breathe in properly, moving your hands up to rub your palms against your sleep-filled eyes. You remembered vaguely that you had makeup on, but you couldn’t bring any of yourself to care through the haze of strange emptiness that had begun to settle itself in your chest.

You stumbled out of his house as quickly as you possibly could, only feeling any type of relief when you finally reached the cold air in its completeness, breathing in and out heavily as you made a few failed attempts at regulating your thinking process. Your house wasn’t far from his, and you managed to stabilise yourself long enough to reach your front door.

///

Your automatic assumption was that Taeyong would be painfully angry that you had stayed out for so long and come home looking like a complete wreck; your makeup smudged on your face, your hair messed up slightly and your previously neat outfit untucked, making it painstakingly obvious that you had re-dressed yourself in a rush. But when you didn’t hear loud footsteps coming toward you as soon as you entered, you questioned his entire reaction, wondering whether or not he would even care that much that you’d been out all day and looked like you’d fallen down a hill.

You wondered through the hallway of your house, glancing into the two rooms on the bottom floor before beginning to walk as slowly and quietly as you possibly could to reach the second floor. Part of you debated calling out to Taeyong, but you imagined that would quite probably make the situation a lot worse, so you decided to keep yourself as silent as possible. When you went to move past his bedroom door, you noticed that it was cracked open slightly, the light on and music playing.

When your curiosity finally got the better of you, you worked up the courage to push the door open, knocking against the wood a couple times just in case. “Taeyong?” You questioned, seeing somebody sat on the bed with a notebook on his lap as he scrawled something onto the paper. It very clearly wasn’t Taeyong, the boy’s hair too plainly coloured and skin a little too tanned. It was even more obvious when he glanced up, eyebrows lifting in inquiry, making you shift slightly on the balls of your feet in nervousness. “Sorry, I didn’t realise he had someone over.” You immediately went to close the door, ignoring the nagging want to ask where Taeyong was.

A slightly bashful smile tugged at his lips, before his expression changed to a much softer one, and you felt yourself calm almost straight away. “It’s fine, he went out to grab something, said he’d be back soon,” he paused, observing you as you tried to be subtle with fawning over his accent, making a deep blush cover your cheeks, “he said you were with a friend, though?”

At the mention of Mike, you almost groaned aloud, fighting the urge to crawl under your duvet and sob until you fell asleep. “Yeah, well, I got tired, so I came home.”

He hummed slightly, looking you up and down before squinting at you with a small grin shaping his lips. “Right,” he let himself grin completely then, looking almost cocky as he took in your appearance. You remembered then what you looked like, making you wish you had avoided coming anywhere near his room in the first place. You wanted to laugh with him about how awkward that situation had very obviously been, but under the circumstances, you could almost cry when you re-evaluated it again.

When you looked down to focus your eyes on the ground completely, he shifted, placing the notebook down and looking toward you. “Are you okay?” He asked, and you made yourself nod right after, swallowing the lump down in your throat before looking back over at him.

“Yeah, I’m just, really tired.” He nodded a little in response, looking completely unconvinced and more than slightly curious. “Do you mind telling Taeyong I’m home and I’ve gone to bed?” You asked cautiously, hoping to switch the conversation topic before you found yourself asking questions you probably didn’t want the answer to.

His lips parted a little as he nodded, making himself smile at you in an attempt to soothe your evident nerves. “Of course.”

You took a minute to work up the nerve to ask him something else before you went to curl yourself up and sleep for as long as you possibly could before you had to face Mike again. “What’s your name?”

Another verging on smug smile placed itself on his features as he spoke again, “I’m Mark, nice to meet you.”

///

Mark was still in the house when you woke up in the morning, and it was clear on Taeyong’s face that Mark must have mentioned something about last night. You knew you were probably going to have to answer a large run of questions from him when you were left alone with one another. While you tried to eat as calmly as possible to distract yourself from how weird you’d felt as soon as  you’d woken up, Taeyong dragged the chair loudly along the floor to sit himself in. He then proceeded to drag it forward, not looking at Mark who was sat simply observing as Taeyong made his presence very well known. “Got any plans today?” He asked, narrowing his eyes at you and waiting for an answer, watching intently as you shook your head, keeping your eyes on your plate. You didn’t want to have this conversation in front of Mark, or even with Taeyong, because not only were you carrying around something that was crushing you emotionally, you’d done something embarrassingly dumb and you didn’t want to explain another one of your regrets to Taeyong.

Your phone went off next to you, a text from Mike that just said, ‘Come watch a movie with me, I miss you x.’ The flutter in your stomach was less noticeable than it had been before, and you almost sighed at how tired you were with this new situation, and it hadn’t even been an entire day yet. Taeyong looked down at your phone, but you could only feel Mark watching your reaction to the text that he could plainly see. “Is that Mike?” He pushed, staring over at you as you muted your phone and shook your head, deciding that you didn’t want to deal with what you were feeling today. For a single second, the tiniest of moments, Taeyong’s expression softened just a little, the cold exterior he was presenting to make you re-think your previous decisions melting away just a little. A phone ringing interrupted whatever he was preparing to say next, and you let yourself catch Mark’s stare, watching as he took in your appearance once again. The observance made you a little self-conscious, so you dropped the eye contact as soon as you had caught it.

You could vaguely hear Taeyong talking to someone on his phone, but you couldn’t focus enough to know what he was saying in the conversation. When he stood up from the table and grabbed at his jacket, making both Mark and you look at him with raised eyebrows. “I’m really sorry Mark, I completely forgot I had plans today.” Mark nodded, responding something about it being fine and he should probably go home anyway, and you shuffled in your seat. No matter how uncomfortable you were about to be in whatever talk you had to have with Taeyong, you didn’t want to carry it around with your for another day without getting someone else’s opinion.

Hearing the front door slamming invaded the room completely, and you stared at your plate before moving to leave the kitchen. Mark watched you as you continued to go about everything normally, but something felt different about the way he was looking at you today. “Do you feel any better today?” His voice seemed relaxed, a lot less timorous than it had been yesterday.

You realised for the first time that he probably knew a lot more about what happened last night than you had even let on to him. “I guess,” You decided to keep it as unattached as possible, hoping he would pick up the conversation so you could ask whatever questions you had bouncing around in your head.

Once again, he hummed in response, parting his lips in thought before he spoke again. He stayed silent for a few seconds, before he stood up and gestured to the living room, and you found yourself following before you could even think about what you were doing for yourself. When you had both sat down and Mark looked more confident, he opened his mouth to talk again, before pausing again and re-thinking his words and then continuing. “I’m gonna make a really big assumption, so correct me if I’m wrong,” he began, watching you the entire time so he could check to see if you looked uncomfortable. “But you had some seriously disappointing sex last night.”

When it was put like that, you couldn’t stop yourself laughing, and if you completely ignored the emotion behind it, it was an easier situation to deal with. But you knew you couldn’t answer that question, because you had nothing else to compare it to. You stopped gradually, watching as he slowed as well, staring at you as if a sign that you should continue, “I don’t know.” You answered simply, shifting in front of his intense gaze.

He raised his eyebrow again, and you felt that same timid feeling creeping back up on you as you struggled to answer his unspoken question. “It’s the only time I’ve ever done anything with anyone, so.” At this, he looked a little taken aback.

“Did you, like, enjoy it at all?” He asked, not moving uncomfortably but clearly not being entirely confident in the conversation.

You stopped yourself from rushing through an answer, thinking about everything that happened last night before responding properly. “It was a little uncomfortable, but it wasn’t horrific. It would’ve been worse if it was anyone else.”

“Anyone else?” He pushed forward.

Your stomach flipped, realising you were going to have to delve into this part of what happened. “Yeah, Mike is…I guess I’ve kinda liked him for a while.”

Mark laughed, although it sounded more like a scoff, and you were almost offended. “You like him enough to have boring sex?” You wondered passingly if that was going to end up being the case, but you didn’t have anything else to work with, realistically.

“No, but, you know. I wouldn’t know how to change that, would I?” You responded, a little uncomfortably, watching as he looked as if was seriously debating it, although he looked almost disappointed.

His eyes didn’t leave yours for a second as he finally answered, “Try out new things, have fun with it.”

You tilted my head at him, “New things?”

“Yeah, look into kinks you wanna try out with someone else.” He said, looking at you intently, watching as you blushed slightly under his un-faltering eye contact.

“What kind do you think I should try?” You asked, wondering if it was a far too personal question to ask someone who you’d only known for a small amount of time.

At this, something in him seemed to click into place, making him look much more commanding than he’d seemed before. “I mean, take it easy at first because you’re still new to this, but – and I hope you don’t think I’m being invasive – Taeyong said you’re a bit of a control freak, so maybe try and let that go.”

A bubble of nerves made itself prevalent in your stomach, and you wondered what else Taeyong could have possibly mentioned. “How would I do that?”

He closed his eyes for a moment, looking briefly affected by my question. “Ask him to be dominant with you,” he took a small pause, looking as if he was testing the waters with something, “I know Mike, I’m sure he’ll know what you mean.”

You tried not to feel as if that was an insult, but you couldn’t see it as anything other than a personal warning. Mark adjusted himself slightly, huffing in an almost annoyed manner before standing up and turning to you, “It’s been really nice meeting you,” he said, picking up his keys and phone from the coffee table in front of you, “good luck with Mike.”

///

You weren’t sure that the word ‘sometime,’ was defined by an exact number of days or weeks, but you hadn’t imagined doing something ‘sometime,’ meant doing something again a couple weeks later. But you supposed everyone had different interpretations of it, and maybe Mike’s idea of it was a shorter span of time than you thought of it. Realistically, it didn’t matter, because it was going to happen anyway, you may as well get it out of the way, so you could stop thinking about it all the time.

And you realised in that moment, with his lips pressed harshly against yours and hands moving all over your body as he pulled at different items of clothing almost too fast, if the freeze-frame moments from movies were real, it would have happened right now for you. You pulled yourself away from his mouth for a moment, moving further back as his mouth chased after yours, “Mike, wait.”

He pulled back so he could fully see your face, but his hands continued their way up into your shirt, immediately going to map over every inch of your skin. “Can we try something out?” You asked, feeling a twinge of awkwardness in your stomach when he cupped your chest in an uncomfortable position.

Judging by the look plastered on his face, you could tell he’d already figured it out, but you wanted to know that you’d had the confidence to say it. “Can you be more, you know, dominant with me?” You asked, repeating what Mark had said almost word for word. 

Thinking of Mark took you out of the moment a little, knowing he’d been lightly teasing you and offering you advice about this for the past couple weeks, however hesitantly. It almost felt as if he was withholding specifics, ignoring Mike’s personality and just saying ‘Well, a good dom would do this.’ The last few weeks hadn’t been too bad, you supposed, and you’d managed to avoid the conversation with Taeyong completely by having Mark communicate the basics of it. Because as much as you loved how supportive Taeyong had been of you since you’d met when you were seven, he got a little overbearing a thousand times over the course of your friendship. Never enough to change anything, though, you accepted, considering there’d been no second thoughts about moving in with him when you got away from your hometown.

The sound of Mike repeating a question bought you back to the moment, although part of you wished it hadn’t and that you’d been allowed to continue thinking of all the times you had spent just being yourself with Taeyong. You already knew whatever you decided to do in these moments wasn’t an active decision on your end, because you were never really yourself when you were with Mike. “Babe?” He questioned, pushing you onto your back to catch your attention, and you felt yourself become fully present again. “I said, how hard do you want me to go?”

The question added to his overly-confident facial expression worried you to the point of considering backing down from the situation ahead of you. “You decide.” You finalised, thinking that Mark had told you to give up trying to control things, and that’s what you should try and do in the moment. You also remembered vaguely that he had told you to not throw yourself into it, and he’d reiterated nearly a thousand times that you would definitely need to come down from it afterwards. Although you chose to ignore this, because you couldn’t see anything bad enough happening to make you feel that bad.

Mike had moved onto kissing down your neck, one of his large hands moving to pin both of yours above your head as he continued his movements. He paused for a moment, moving to grab something from a drawer before placing your hands on the headboard and wrapping a belt so tight around your wrists you wondered vaguely if it would cut off your blood flow and you’d end up losing both hands over a split-second decision. He didn’t ask if they were too tight, and you were too nervous to say anything, so you decided to bear with it.

The next passing few moments were void of anything other than him undressing himself and then you, giving you room to imagine what could be happening if this was done properly. From how Mark had talked about it, it sounded interesting, intriguing enough to get you curious and wondering if you would ever have the opportunity to try it out efficiently with someone. You felt Mike’s hands grab at different bits of your body, but other than that, he seemed to be focusing pretty fully on the element of dominance you’d asked him to show.

When his hand came to tighten itself around your throat, you’d felt something you hadn’t felt last time with him, a genuine excitement for this to continue and go somewhere further. But the second he started pressing down, the excitement just turned to pain and discomfort, the pressure being directly on your throat and cutting off your breathing almost completely. You worried that this wasn’t supposed to happen, that he would end up actually choking you to death, but you didn’t really understand any of this, and Mark had said he could see Mike knowing what he was doing.

By the time he released his grip on your neck you were verging on passing out, your eyes fluttering closed in what he clearly perceived to be pleasure. “It’s disgusting how much you liked that,” he began, moving to accommodate himself between your legs. You knew this had been coming, and you tried to figure out why it didn’t make you feel anything but embarrassed and apprehensive. Mark had said it was supposed to be a mix of humiliating and exciting for the person on the receiving end, and you definitely felt the humiliation, but not in any kind of exciting form.

Your mind kept drifting back to Mark, even as Mike latched his hand to your throat and placed pressure on it again, his other hand going to slap the backs of your thighs and mouth biting down on my stomach and chest. You tried to get into it, tried to think of why it was supposed to be fun, but it just felt, mediocre in comparison to everything Mark had described doing to someone. When Mike’s pace got even more bruising and you still felt next to nothing enjoyable, you found yourself reverting to thinking of Mark in an almost desperate attempt to make yourself feel better.

You tried to picture what you would be feeling if Mark was the one doing this to you instead of Mike, what it would feel like to have his hands wrapped tightly around your throat and his mouth on your chest. You could already tell that Mark knew enough about this kind of thing to know he wouldn’t be choking you half to death like Mike was currently doing. It was strange, being so bored that you changed to simply thinking about the time spent with Mark instead of the years you’d spent around Mike.

All those times Mike and you had gotten so close you were almost kissing, all the things you’d told him while you sat on his lap and had his head in the crook of your neck, every single time his touches had been teetering on the edge of blatant teasing, and now this; lying here on his bed with him above you like you’d always imagined when you’d first started fancying him all those years ago. The feeling of his hands all over you and his lips following in their path was something you had basically chased after for so long, and now that it was actually happening, you were thinking about somebody else.

All the times you’d accidentally gaped at him with a look you could never place while he spoke about activities that were impossibly mundane to him, all the times you’d been hooked onto every single word that tumbled past his lips about things you would’ve considered filthy before. In the moment after, you knew you were probably going to regret your next action, but as much as you tried, you honestly couldn’t stop yourself. “Mark,” you moaned almost obscenely, and then panic tightened itself inside you, more over the fact that you’d done that than that you were genuinely about to pass out from how strong his hold on your throat was.

“Huh?” Mike asked, head pressed against your chest as he continued to leave little nips everywhere.

Panic overtook you as you stuttered through a believable lie. “Mark me,” you said, attempting to recreate the same moan you’d emitted earlier, doing a better job than you could have first seen yourself doing.

At your answer, Mike did nothing but bite down harder, although you didn’t have to put up with it for very much longer. When his hips finally slowed to a stop and he pulled out and away from you, you just wanted to leave, despite the burning pain you were experiencing both mentally and physically. You weren’t completely sure what was hurting most in an emotional sense, losing all feeling for Mike so quick you almost felt ridiculous for pining after him for such a long time in the first place, or the fact that he’d actually hurt your feelings tonight. Or maybe it was the weird headspace you were in, like you couldn’t do anything for yourself and wanted plain instructions to follow. Maybe you were getting delirious from the burning pains in every different part of your body, and you regretted choosing to walk here and not tell anyone but Mark your plans.

The thought of Mark was what finally made you move, the embarrassment of moaning his name instead of Mike’s and the natural impulse to go and find him so he would make you feel better pulling you away from your questions. Part of you hoped uselessly that Mike would do something, literally anything, to help you or at least explain to you what you were feeling. “Can you,” you went to ask, your voice dying in your throat at how sheepish you currently sounded.

Mike got the message, undoing the belt and letting your arms fall back down. As soon as you could, you pulled yourself to sit up, going immediately to your spread around clothes and almost hissing in discontent at the pain in so many different parts of your body you weren’t sure you had time to check them all. Your arm movements felt clumsy and unnatural, the ache falling through them as blood began to circulate properly into them both again. You didn’t even say goodbye to Mike, opting instead to awkwardly wave because you weren’t entirely sure you could use your voice, or even swallow properly anymore.

When you’d finally got out of his house, you followed your usual route home, your body screeching in protest as you walked until you reached your front door, hoping that Taeyong would be out so you could clean yourself up without trying to explain to him. Your mind still felt clouded and weird, and you couldn’t see yourself being able to speak efficiently to anyone, especially not in a way that didn’t make you completely and utterly embarrass yourself.

///

You fought against your aching arms to push the front door open, closing it behind you and the stopping to sit at the kitchen table and curl yourself up for a few moments of peace. You tucked your head into your arms and scrunched your eyes closed as tightly as you possibly could, hoping this would stop the swirling about in your head or the pain in each of your limbs.

You heard a patter of steps come down the stairs, and a scalding discomfiture made itself ultimately prevalent, alongside the heaviness of your mind currently. When you felt a hand lightly brush against your shoulder instead of a voice immediately demanding to know if there was something wrong, you shifted so you could look up. You immediately wondered why Mark was here again, especially since it didn’t seem Taeyong was home, but he quickly quieted you before you had a chance to struggle to ask him anything, “We had classes, he asked me to come back here and wait for him while he did the second one, said you wouldn’t mind.”

You didn’t mind, of course you didn’t, it was even more difficult to avoid Mark if you had even wanted to, considering Taeyong seemed to have decided he liked him enough to continue his attempts at setting you up with people who weren’t Mike. You just nodded, slumping your shoulders forward as you swallowed thickly, wincing as it stung against your bruised throat. “Is everything okay?” Mark asked, moving to touch your hands from where he was stood above you, watching as you pulled your wrist away a little too anxiously for him to drop his pestering. He slowly reached over to cup your covered wrist as he pushed the sleeve of your jumper up enough to see a light bruise forming there. “So, how was Mike?” He questioned, looking like you’d slapped him when he realised you’d gone ahead with his idea.

You realised for the first time in a long time, you didn’t want to even think about Mike at the moment. At least you could definitively say that you tried to make whatever experiences you could class those as with him work, but he was just bad at it. You were sure you couldn’t fix that, and you were fairly certain it was supposed to feel better than that, because Mark made it feel better than that without even touching you.

You shrugged, feeling small under Mark’s glare, and you wished for once he was giving you that look in a different moment. “I don’t know.” You responded, feeling like a petulant child as you struggled to find a reasonable explanation for what had just happened. It was so awfully bad that it almost felt as if it had to be some big joke, but your mind was still slightly too foggy to work through the reasoning behind why Mike still had so many girls thrown all over him when it was over in two minutes.

“Did it feel good?” He pushed, and for a vague moment you had to swallow the need to say that it would have, if he would’ve done it, you could tell it would have. You wondered why he felt the need to ask these questions, if it was to check if he had been right, or if he had some kind of need to prove that Mike was the worst dom in existence. You supposed if he had that need, it would be something you could definitely fulfil.

You shook your head, hoping you could avoid speaking so he wouldn’t hear how choked up you were. Mark sighed, staring at you with a look in his eyes that he’d only ever used before when you’d burnt yourself trying to cook for him. You weren’t sure you liked that look, because it both intimidated you and interested you in something that felt so achingly untouchable: a cross between anger and something smouldering. “What did he use to tie your hands?”

You could stop this conversation at any point, you recognised, knowing you could probably make Mark back down if you told him you didn’t like it, but that would be a lie. You liked having Mark express the same interest in you that you did with him, it was a returned affection that you hadn’t ever been able to grasp before with anyone else, especially not Mike. “A belt.”

He nodded cautiously, chewing his lip lightly in the way he did before he pushed a boundary again. “What did he put on it afterwards?”

At this question, you automatically rose your eyebrows at him, almost in a disbelieving manner at the idea that Mike would care enough to even ask if you felt okay afterwards. You wanted to answer, but your throat hurt and it was clear judging by the way he looked practically disgusted that he understood perfectly.

“He did do some kind of aftercare, though, right?” He asked, completely aware that he was pushing the unspoken but clearly placed boundaries again when you had started speaking so openly about everything he was into and what he thought you should do with someone.

Mark never really talked about aftercare, he just repeated himself multiple times during those conversations that Mike would need to do something so you felt alright afterwards. You supposed it was shame on you for not thinking about it in the slightest, but you refused to accept blame for this, because you hadn’t known what you were expected to do or be afterwards. Again, you responded by shaking your head and staring almost mindlessly at Mark, understanding that you probably looked impossibly dumb in the moment; staring up at him with wide eyes and expecting him to fix everything.

You weren’t sure what was running through his mind, but he obviously had more questions before he did anything else. “He let you walk all the way home afterwards?” You nodded. “Did he ask if you felt alright?” You shook your head. “Do you feel alright?”

You wondered what your response should be; if you told him the truth and said you didn’t, he’d probably think you didn’t like the basis for what Mike and you did, which wasn’t the case; but if you told him you felt fine, you might be stuck in this weird, between headspace for an even longer time. You took a second to look down before shaking your head slightly, hoping he wouldn’t make you talk anymore.

He gently grabbed you to direct you to stand up, pulling you along behind him as if you were made of glass and about to shatter at any moment. You followed him up the stairs, even when your legs protested at the sensation, walking until you reached the bathroom and he sat you down on the closed toilet lid. He moved about for a few moments, leaving you to consider telling him everything that had happened and explaining yourself entirely before he made a set opinion of what he thought happened. When he returned in front of you, he seemed impossibly calm and soothing, rubbing cream onto your wrists and checking to make sure the skin hadn’t split. He looked back to you, observing you enough to make you shuffle in diffidence, “Does anything else hurt?”

Your brain immediately said, ‘He hurt my feelings,’ but you realised before it slipped that it was far too petty of a response to such a kind question. You gestured to your neck, making him move with a gentle haste as he tilted your chin up to better look at the bruise. He repeated the actions he’d used for your wrists on your throat, only this time he handed you a bottle of water and stopped everything until you’d drank a large portion of it. If he asked again, you would probably have to say that was it, because the others you couldn’t see him being able to do much about. What was he supposed to do about there being hickies and bite marks on your chest? Rub cream over them? Even when you didn’t feel fully in charge of yourself, you knew rationally you weren’t too into having that happen just yet.

When he’d finished his ministrations, you waited for him to tell you what to do next, sitting there patiently as you assumed he’d continue with something else. “How about, you know, emotionally?” You were always faintly intrigued to find out if he’d done something like this before, or if he’d done it loads of times, because he seemed a lot less inept with this than he came across when he scrambled to make small talk around other people.  

“My head feels, weird?” You offered, hoping he would take something away from that statement that made some form of logical sense in his mind. He nodded slowly, taking a few seconds to fully think about what he was going to do next, a small crease finding its way onto his forehead as he peered down at you with impossibly softening features, the bathroom light hitting his brown eyes and making them glow ever so slightly.

You felt an overwhelming urge pressed against your chest to tell him about what happened, having him in such a close proximity to you that you could barely breathe didn’t help you push back that impulse. “You know the whole boundary thing between us?” You asked hesitantly, attempting to do the same as he did when he was about to push a barrier down to better suit his needs. His eyes didn’t stray from yours for even a split second as he nodded his head, so slightly that it was barely visible. “I think I broke all of them today.”

He wasn’t struggling to maintain the eye contact, evidently, but he seemed to be finding difficulty in standing completely still and keeping his hands to himself. “What did you do?” He inquired, and you could feel the genuine wonder in his words, because you presumed, it would be a difficult thing to out-rightly guess.

“I couldn’t stop thinking about you when I was with Mike,” you studied his stoic expression as you tried to get a reaction, tried to get him to react on an impulsive second of passion. “I couldn’t stop thinking about how good it would’ve felt if you were doing it to me instead.” You let yourself lean into the hand that was still resting faintly at the base of your throat, feeling a kind of self-assurance you were certain you’d never felt in your entire life. “Because I bet you really do know what you’re doing, right?” You questioned, more sarcastically than anything, because you both knew you could answer that yourself. He was still watching you, but something glinted in his eyes and you could feel whatever invisible boundary he’d tried to place between us – more so for your comfort than his, you imagined – snapped. He was looking at you like you were nothing more than prey, the tender stare he previously had fixed on you gone entirely.

“Did you say my name?” He spoke, and it was like you were finally getting some kind of relief, feeling his arms snake themselves around your waist in a manner you should have flinched away from in intimidation, but instead found yourself curling closer to. You nodded, watching as a smug smile pulled his lips upwards of their own accord, his eyes not leaving yours for a second as he proceeded. “No, use your words.”

Your breath was almost entirely too caught to form any words, but you spat out a quick, “Yes.”

“What lie did you tell him? Was he convinced you weren’t thinking about someone else’s hands on you?” His voice remained absolutely monotone as he spoke, giving away no hints to what he was feeling.

Your brain felt like it was kicking into overdrive, spinning out of control to the point where you almost couldn’t keep up with it. “I,” You were almost wholly forgetting how to speak, looking back into his darkening eyes as he stared you down. “I told him I wanted him to leave marks.”

Mark’s lips parted slightly again, a complacent appearance finding its way onto his features, giving him an overly-cocky air, but in a different way than Mike wore it. “Was he hurt? Did it burn a hole in his ego to know you were thinking about another guy?” His voice was so much more assertive than it had ever gotten with you before. You shook your head, temporarily speechless at how hot the bathroom had started to feel around you.

“He doesn’t know.” All you were able to make yourself do was feed into Mark’s behaviour, to be more open than you’d ever found yourself able to be with anyone before this minute with him.

It was like he couldn’t stop the inflation of his self-importance, and you didn’t sense any want inside of you for him to refrain from it, either. “I promised myself I wouldn’t spell it out for you, but you’re so oblivious it’s painful.” He turned you both to the side, in the direction of the closed door, walking you backwards until your back hit the wood. “You just never realise how good I can make you feel, how much better I can do everything I know you like than he could.” He wasn’t even holding you between him and the door, but you couldn’t find anything inside of you that told you that you could challenge the authority he was quite clearly holding above you.

Taeyong wasn’t good at keeping things to a strict plan, and he wasn’t good at detaching his emotions from situations that needed tough love. But you could never say he wasn’t absolutely right about everything he’d ever summarised from your personality, or that he didn’t know you better than you knew yourself sometimes. Control wasn’t something you would let go of again as quickly as you had for Mike, although the verging on alarm feeling that was making itself known inside your stomach made you doubt your ability to deny any of this. “Then prove it.” You tested, wanting to see how far you could push him when he was acting like this.

He was impossibly close to you; his hot breath fanning against you face, the smell of clean laundry blocking out all of your other rational thoughts. His eyes were heavy, thick and clouded with something you couldn’t see through as he made the space between you grow larger with every step back he took. You couldn’t stop the childish whine that tumbled past your lips as the burn of his touch was replaced with cold air. “You have to wait.” He settled, eyes flitting to the left-over marks from Mike as he pursed his lips in annoyance.

Hearing the front door open loudly and a deep voice announce that he was home, Mark went to pass you, tensing up in irritation when you gripped his forearm in the same manner he had done to you earlier. “I can wait.” You practically hissed, already knowing you were lying straight through your teeth.

At this, Mark laughed, shaking your hold off as if it was the gentlest grip he’d ever felt in his life. “You don’t have any other choice.”

///

After spending a little over a week fussing over your bruises to make them go away as fast as possible, you finally felt confident in them being dull enough that Mark wouldn’t care anymore. While explaining to Taeyong where the marks had come from was a trying task, he moved on when you finally gave in and told him the truth about Mike and everything you’d done with him. For the first time since you could remember, you were finally grateful for his parental lectures, because it really was the final nail in a coffin you should have buried years ago. But the only real thing that made the passing of the week physically painful was the lack of Mark’s presence in your company explicitly. He’d spent nearly every bit of his free time at the house, coming over on the grounds of spending time with Taeyong; watching movies with him while disappearing for bathroom breaks and coming into your room to make small talk and drop in every kind of teasing remark he could think of, ordering food and leaving touches that lingered far too long for them to be considered friendly against any bare skin he could find.

Once the Friday rolled around, you could barely contain my excitement at seeing Mark again, but your plans were thrown out into the night the second Taeyong walked through the front door. It hadn’t slipped your mind that he’d asked if it was okay for him to have friends over, but you hadn’t imagined there would be more than two. Now there were nearly seven different people sat downstairs while you pouted in your room, feeling like a grounded child. When Taeyong called for you to come downstairs, you dragged your feet with every step you took forward, wishing you could just get Mark alone for two seconds. “We’re gonna head out for the night,” He said when you reached the bottom of the stairs, the fabric of the shorter version of your pretty shorts you’d put on specifically to get Mark’s attention making you shift a little in discomfort. “What are your plans tonight?” It was bad to use a question he’d posed to check on you to get your own way, but in the end: what were best friends really for if not that exact thing?

“I might go watch a movie with Mike later.” You tested, more so for Taeyong’s immediate reaction than Mark’s, but you could feel something flip already.

Taeyong rolled his eyes, pouting his bottom lip out in disappointment as he glanced at the clock. “Take a jacket, be safe.” You softened a little, nodding at him as he proceeded to frown and glare at you as he pulled his shoes on, “We still have to talk about it later.”

As they all filed out the door, Mark looked at you like he wanted to say something, before he turned to Taeyong and said, “I think I’m gonna head home, I’m not feeling too good.” You heard Taeyong ask about dropping him off, asking him if he was ill, but it all sounded as if was being said underwater. The feeling coursing through your veins couldn’t really be separated from either panic or exhilaration, but it didn’t feel bad.

Mark took one final glance at you before he slammed the door shut behind him, leaving you stood in the middle of the hallway alone. It was like you were glued to the spot, unable to find the permission you didn’t actually need to move, listening to the cars start and leave. Less than five minutes later, a knock sounded through the house, making you move slowly toward the door, hand gripping the key before turning it. The door swung open as soon as the lock clicked to signal he could walk in, and you found yourself being pushed back by the force of it. He repeated his earlier action of slamming it shut, only this time pausing to spin the key in the lock. When he turned back to you, you tried to see if this was genuine anger or not, but all you could sense was a kind of radiating dominance, the kind he’d spoken about you looking for in someone else.

“Just when I was about to say you’d been so good for me,” he spat, pacing toward you, “You go and act like a slut in front of everyone else.” Your head felt like it was spinning, a small tremble of anticipation moving throughout your whole body. The words that left Mark’s mouth in such a commanding way had made you cringe back to just a week ago, but it seemed different coming from him, like there was something more there. He had a way of leaving you unbearably curious for what his next motion would be, for whatever he decided to do. You could see yourself stepping back, denying his advance just to see what he would do in retaliation, but you were rooted to the spot, even more so when he roughly latched his hands onto both of your wrists, holding you in place. He tilted his head down until you could feel his lips against the shell of your ear, a shiver running down your spine, “You’re only supposed to act like that for me.”

It was unfamiliar, the way you found yourself immediately clambering to find some kind of excuse without even consciously being aware you were doing it. “You’ve been ignoring me, I, I miss you.”

He scoffed, “So, you run off to Mike?”

Something inside of you was boiling, you felt like you were being scolded for something that you could feel yourself rejecting any responsibility for. “At least he’d actually fuck me.” You snapped back at him, instantly feeling your heart speed up in expectation.

Mark seemed sincerely mad, his grip tightening as he shoved you in the direction of the stairs. He didn’t speak, but you knew that he wanted you to walk up them, but with every stair you climbed, his hold seemed to grow even tighter, until it felt almost painful. He continued to direct you in silence, pushing you along in front of him until you got into your bedroom, when he shut the door with as much force as he could muster, a slam bouncing off the walls as he wrapped his arms around you and pushed you up onto the wall. “Say it again.” You rapidly shook your head, not wanting to speak ever again unless you absolutely had to. He groaned in vexation, “Tell me again why you’re running back to Mike.”

You were realising what control really meant in this moment, and you weren’t entirely sure having any type of control like this was what you’d ever wanted. “Because,” you stopped again, losing your train of thought as you remembered how disappointing everything with Mike was. “Because he’d actually fuck me.”

Mark’s hand came to curl around your throat, not applying any pressure but making it direct that he could at any moment if he wanted to. “Could he make you feel good?” He disputed, barely moving an inch as he waited for you to fall down again.

“Can you?” Within milliseconds of the words passing your chapped lips, he had yanked you off the wall and had your back pressed tightly against his chest.

“You should be more worried about whether I let you feel good.” He responded, one of his hands winding its way into your hair and tugging it forcefully. Once he had your head dragged back so he could press his lips over the shell of your ear and drop them down comfortably to the space between your jaw and neck, he began speaking again.

“When we spoke about this, you sounded like such a good girl,” His lips trailed across the expanse of your neck, your hair secured in his grip so it wasn’t creating any sort of block. “But you’re such a little brat.”

There was something about his tone and the words he was using that made you melt, made you want to adhere to everything he wanted. “I didn’t mean to be,” You offered, hoping it would be enough to get you off the hook when you already knew that was impossible.

“No?” He inquired, his mouth pausing against the skin of your neck as he spun you around to face him. You shook my head again, straining to see what his next reaction would be. “Can you prove that for me?”

You tilted your head as much as his iron hold on you would allow, “How?”

His expression changed then, noticing you had completely relinquished any form of control you wrongly assumed you had a hold of. He turned you around again, this time opting to bend you over the foot of my bed for him, making you feel like you were on display for his eyes only. “When I ask questions, you’re supposed to answer.” You went to respond that you understood, but he slammed the palm of his hand down onto your ass, “Don’t make any noise unless I tell you to.” He repeated his previous actions, gaining in roughness as you bit your lip harshly to hold back any noises threatening to spill past your closed mouth. The little stimulation this was providing felt better than anything you’d done with Mike had, and you whined again when his hand slowed to smooth over the red skin. “Listen to me, princess.”

You nodded, not really thinking about it too much, just wanting him to do more. “I don’t know how much of this you’ve done, so you need to tell me if you don’t like anything.”

Somewhere in your mind you knew you couldn’t see that happening, but you wanted to entertain his build up so he’d get to it. “How?” You asked again, it seemed to be turning into the only word you could put into something that sounded coherent.

“If you want me to stop, say red and I will.” It sounded so simple and plain that you didn’t really need to respond with anything other than a nod. The moment of tenderness was short and ended just as quickly as they began. Mark didn’t delay getting back into it, already moving away from you entirely. “On the bed, on your back.”

You practically lurched forward in the fervour of your desperation, doing everything you could so you would finally be able to see his face again. He pulled his white shirt over his head before he moved back over to you, hands attaching themselves to your shorts as he tugged them down in a slightly eager manner, leaving your underwear on as he pulled your shirt up, waiting expectantly for you to accommodate him as he tore it a little in his haste to pull it over your head. He pulled back a second to scan your near-naked body, making you alter your positioning in slight unease. His hands moved collectedly to undo your bra, stopping again to stare as he tossed it across the room somewhere. You felt too bare in front of him, while he was still mainly clothed, but you attempted to focus on not doing something that would break one of his unstated rules. Every one of his actions seemed instinctive, as if his natural reflex was to press your hands above your head while he teased his mouth further down your body.

When he broke the skin on skin contact, you felt a growing need to groan in indignation, causing you to bite down as hard as you possibly could to stop yourself on your bottom lip. He just continued to observe you as he pulled his belt off, tugging his jeans down soon after, a glow of self-assurance hovering around him in a way you hadn’t envisioned as possible when you’d first met him. The only uncertainty you could see in his face was there when he moved to attach your wrists to the headboard with his belt, but when he didn’t hear you make any noise of discontent, he continued. After repeating the same action Mike had not so long ago, you felt the thing you’d been craving every time Mike touched you, the thing that swallowed you with its absence. It was the feeling of knowing nothing but Mark, not caring what happened afterwards, not thinking about anyone else, not being able to separate yourself from what was happening around you. You hoped he felt the same, you hoped he was regarding you in the same way you were with him right in the minute, as his hands curved in the waistband of your underwear, dragging them down your legs at such a slow pace you could have cried right then.

This was when you started to concern yourself with the notion that this could get as inadequate as it was with Mike, that you would be left unsatisfied again after another painstakingly boring five minutes of your life. But you could feel the idea of that happening start to slide away as his hand slid between your legs, pushing every other thought you could even initiate distracting yourself with, away. Vaguely, you remembered that Mike hadn’t done this, even when that hadn’t felt half as fast-paced as this moment with Mark did. It was almost embarrassing how much of a mess you were becoming in front of Mark, especially when he was barely doing anything, skimming his fingertips over where you wanted him. A cold laugh passed through his lips as he examined your thirsting movements, bringing his other hand to press your hips flat down onto the mattress so you couldn’t move of your own accord anymore.

“Mark, please,” You whimpered, trying against rational logic to push harshly against his forearm that kept you steadily held down. If you were anywhere near your right mind, you would have considered the possibility that this was just getting him off more, you would have remembered the innumerable conversations that had you shifting in your seat at the idea of someone treating you like he said he would. It was hard to perceive him as anything other than complex, and you couldn’t find the mental strength to try and look into his reasoning behind his torturous actions, especially when it felt so definitive that he knew what he was doing.

The kind of relief he gave you then was unimaginable, better than anything you’d felt before, and it almost made guilt seep its way into my chest. You tried to remind yourself that you shouldn’t feel guilty, you had nothing to feel like that for, but you were quite literally giving all of yourself to Mark in a way you never even gave Mike a chance with. But the feeling of Mark dipping his head down between your legs made you remember why the circumstances were nothing alike.

Mark didn’t seem to slow himself at all, the pace he had set the second his hands had gripped your wrists in the bathroom that night still being upheld assuredly. Your stomach was turning into knots, tensing up as he didn’t give on his deliberate movements of his mouth and hands, making you tug on the belt fastened to your wrists. You wanted to run my hands through his brown hair, tug on it and grab at the hand that was currently situated across your hips. You wondered if that was still a boundary, or if was just something he was doing for fun, for the both of us.

The tightening in your stomach only got more prevalent, consuming your mind entirely, throwing every thought of anything but the way Mark’s mouth felt against your heat out the window. You knew he could tell, the dominance laced with his unhurried motions told you everything, and you trembled as he stopped after pushing you to every edge he could find. He stayed completely still except for moving his lips to press faint kisses to the flesh of the inside of your thighs, humming slightly in mock confusion when you whined and shuffled around under his grip again. “Did you want something?” He teased, barely glancing up at from where he begun to bite down on you skin, leaving large marks behind. 

With the sensation of his lips and hands no longer burning through your mind, you could feel a vague hint of embarrassment causing a flush to cover your cheeks. “You know what I want,” you complained, feeling him push your hips down cruelly onto the mattress, making you give up and lay there just staring down at him.

“I thought you would’ve realised already,” He spoke, voice holding the same authoritative tone as he’d been using all this time, but it felt thicker now, as if his voice had dropped several pitches since he’d started talking. “You don’t get what you want unless you deserve it.”

Immediately, you tried to think of what you’d done to not deserve everything he had almost given you, considering you hadn’t done anything that bad. “Do I not deserve it?” You questioned lightly, making him groan quietly before he could hold it back.

He adjusted again, hands moving back to teasing you and mouth trailing higher and higher up with every word he spoke. “Not until I’m sure you know I’m the only one who can ever make you feel this good.” He repeated his actions again then, not speaking another word or making much noise at all, making you move about in more desperation, hoping to gain some more of his attention, even if it was all currently placed on you anyway. He paused, cocking his head up at you as he licked his lips, “Stop moving or I’ll have to stop touching you.” You couldn’t even find the confidence to whine after that, chewing on your bottom lip so much you could feel blood begin to drop out after a few moments. When he drove you all the way to the edge and stopped again, you took the momentary clarity he’d allowed you to speak.

“Can I please make noise?” His head all but cracked upwards in your direction, a small noise sounding something between a groan and a hiss passing through his throat. In the less rushed atmosphere, he moved to hover above you, lips so close to yours that it burnt a blush onto your cheeks. His thumb swiped across your bottom lip, wiping away the blood on the surface before he crashed his lips onto yours. The only thing you could think or feel was his lips against yours, the taste of something you’d never had before pouring into your mouth: it was ultimately distracting, disallowing any other thought of Mike to get anywhere near you. His hand had moved to curl around your throat, only this time he pressed down on the sides of your neck so lightly you could almost beg for him to give you something more.

He pulled back, staring at you with a look you already knew you’d never be able to place. He seemed indecisive on whether he wanted to observe you or keep his lips to yours until you were both gasping for air again, but his face remained stoic as he spoke calmly again. “Make as much noise as you need to, angel.” You whimpered at the pet-name, watching as he seemed to grow impossibly more confident as he applied more pressure to your throat. Even as he started and set the pace, you knew you had the option to stop if this got too much, but it had been too much the moment he’d opened his mouth downstairs. He had you entirely wrapped around his finger, ready to throw anything away for him if he told me to. You should have been embarrassed of how loud you were being, but the only coherent thought you had in your mind was a need to repeat his name until nothing else seemed to exist. It wasn’t as if he seemed to mind, his head dropped into the crook of your neck as he bit down on the skin that wasn’t covered by his hand already. “Did he make you feel this good?” You hear him ask, voice slightly strained but otherwise as controlled as it was earlier.

“No,” You stammered, unable to think of anything else you could possibly in this moment.

Mark continued, the pace picking up as it felt bruising in the best way available, “Did you act like a slut for him, too?” He pushed, making you more than a little flustered, moving further into his grip on your throat as you desperately shook your head.

“Because you’d only act like this for me, wouldn’t you?” He wasn’t even asking questions for any reason anymore, he was just waiting and watching the flush on your face turn shades darker in excited humiliation. The nod was a natural instinct, like a lot of what Mark had done tonight, it happened because you knew it was what he wanted. “Why?”

Your mind felt almost too clouded and covered to form words, the knots forming in the pit of your stomach for the third time that night, when you hadn’t felt them ever before. The idea of not being allowed to fall off that edge this time made you let out an involuntary noise of a cross between pain and apprehension. “Only you can make me feel this good,” The hold on your throat loosened a little, as if he thought the choking sound you emitted was because of it being too tight. “It feels so good, Mark, please.” Again, the slight shame of how submissive and messy you sounded for him crept in, but it was completely devoured by the deep groan he released in response.

“It’s okay, let go,” He moaned, hips picking up the pace until everything felt like it had been thrown out of your control entirely. His hold on your throat dropped then, moving to grip your jaw and press your lips back together as you tipped over the edge. It made you understand why it was spoken about so much, why so many people did it regularly, messed with their own emotions for it. You briefly tried to wonder if other people felt so out of control for someone else when they finally reached their high, or if that was just a matter of circumstance, but you felt completely under Mark’s command, like you were nothing but his.

A slightly too painful sensitive feeling was starting to develop when Mark’s hips stuttered to a stop, head dropping back onto your shoulder as he caught his breath. You couldn’t tell how much time had passed before he was pulling out and away from you, making you whine in displeasure, unable to stop yourself the way you had when you were with Mike. You understood that Mark was probably to blame for how out of control and spiralled you felt, how absolutely powerless to stop yourself you were becoming. He was pulling his underwear back on and pressing a soft kiss to your temple, whispering a quick, “I’ll only be a minute.” Before he disappeared from the room.

You still couldn’t do anything but think about Mark and the way he made you feel, because your body was still shaking a little in the aftermath. You weren’t sure if this was a case of Mike being disappointing or Mark just being extremely good anymore, but you honestly couldn’t make yourself care if you wanted to when he re-entered the room. He undid your wrists, making you remember that you should be ashamed of how bare you were in front of him, but he didn’t seem to be bothered as he took both of your wrists into his larger hands. He smothered them both in the cream, turning his head to press it to his shoulder as he yawned, smoothing the cream over your throat and then your thighs. “Turn over for me,” he gently commanded, watching softly as you followed, wincing slightly as the cream made contact with the backs of your thighs. He gave you the water, moving around to the other side of your bed as you drank, slipping himself under the sheets after placing his shirt in front of you. You looked at him for permission before pulling his shirt over your head, liking the way it smelt of him and consumed your body shape entirely.

You flopped back onto your side then, taking to staring at Mark as he stared right back. You thought of all the questions you should ask, all the questions you didn’t ask Mike because you was too scared of the answers. You wondered if you would like any answer Mark gave you, because you were pretty sure you would accept anything he was willing to give you at this point. He reached his hand over to lazily link with yours, and you could feel yourself dropping back from wherever you were earlier. You wanted to ask if he ever dropped back down or if he was always like that, if he was just naturally that type of person. “What do we do now?” You asked dumbly, unsure of whether he would interpret that question the way you wanted him to.

“Sleep,” He groaned, pressing his face into the pillow as he tugged you closer to him, wrapping an arm around your waist sleepily. You fell into silence again, but it wasn’t long before you heard his voice invade it almost insecurely, “That thing between you and Mike, it’s over, right?”

You hadn’t really thought about where you stood with Mike, but you knew you wanted to stand somewhere further with Mark, and you supposed that answered any questions you had about lingering feelings. “If you want it to be.”

He smiled, closing his eyes again and nodding, “I want it to be.”

[mucky-puddler]

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood and reaping the rewards of research

First of all, spoilers for the film named above. Also, a disclaimer about words said - they are all mine own opinion, don’t come after me, just let me have this

So I saw my first Tarantino film recently, and I have a few thoughts. This is about to get really confusing so buckle up.

Let me give y’all an overview of the film. From the trailer, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood looked like a movie about a struggling movie star - set in 60′s, I got a lot of Texas/western vibes, regardless of the types of films we can see being produced throughout this film (told you).  Leonardo DiCaprio appears to be the lead with Brad Pitt as the brother-from-another-mother (whom I presumed would be given the romantic sub-plot, but more on that later). Oh and Margot Robbie is also there - she too plays an actor, but in a different film to DiCaprio...in the film trailer...yeah, that makes sense.

Being the terrible film studies student that I am, I decided that this will be my first Tarantino film. I’ve heard good things about him and have been recommended some of his earlier pieces of work like Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction, so I thought I would dip my toes in with the one that was in cinemas - Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.

So about 2/3 of the way through this film, with my M’n’Ms all gone and after leaving the theatre to buy some water, I had a thought come to me - nothing is happening. There is no plot. This film is made up of a series of moments that have been filmed nicely. I got bored - so bored, in fact, that my film brain kicked in and made me realise that there was no plot. Throughout the remainder of the film, I was searching - for meaning, for foreshadowing, for anything at all. I saw potential in a lot of these moments - where Brad Pitt’s (Cliff Booth) and Margaret Qualley’s (Pussycat) characters finally meet and visit an old filming location where Pussycat lives, or where Leonardo DiCaprio’s character (Rick Dalton) shares a moment with a child actor (will go into these scenes more later maybe), but there was very little connecting them together. Also, Rick and Margot Robbie’s character (Sharon Tate) never meet until the last few minutes!

Above is a diagram I have become extremely familiar with - I don’t know if it has a fancy name or anything but it essentially maps out the amount of tension as the story progresses; it can be applied to anything with a story in it, not just films, and it’s not a strict rule.

1 is exposition; now, we are often told (or I am, at least) that exposition is of the devil and should be removed as much as possible. But without exposition, how will the audience know where or when they are in the big wide universe. Authors (this is the term I will be using for the people that write stories) need exposition for setting the scene that is taking place - and that is okay. The entirety of Once In Hollywood appears to be exposition - there is so much setting up of character and relationships that nothing else seems to happen, which nicely leads on to the next point.

2 is called the inciting incident - it is an event within the story that sets off tension and invites excitement in the very souls of the audience. I did not feel that this vital point was evident in Once In Hollywood; I guess you could say that the meeting with Al Pacino’s character (Marvin Schwarz), where Rick realises that his career is over is the inciting incident, but I would argue that it doesn’t affect the rest of the narrative - Rick doesn’t change as an effect of the meeting, and therefore neither does the story.

3 is the rising action, and this is where most of the story should take place - smaller events are slowly increasing the tension up to the pinnacle (more on that later). Once In Hollywood, in my humble and potentially naive opinion, does not do this whatsoever. Everything following Rick and Marvin’s meeting remains at the same level of tension until the last twenty minutes or so. That’s not to say that I did not find some scenes interesting - the scenes I mentioned earlier were the most memorable and interesting for me (obvs everyone is different).To be completely candid, I’m surprised it took me 2/3 of a film for me to realise how uneventful that film was - perhaps I’m entertained by boring films.

4 is the climax, the part everyone looks forward to, and this can definitely be seen in Once In Hollywood - but it is a little unexpected. The murderers almost came out of nowhere, and I saw no connection between the man who ordered the kill (which I think was Damien Herrimon’s character, Charles Manson (some of you may be familiar with that name, I’ll get onto it later)) and those who actually (tried to) get their hands dirty. They did have a connection with Cliff Booth, purely on accident, mind you. The wind-up to the big climactic fight was somewhat drawn out with an unnecessary amount of shots of the murderers walking up this hill to get to Rick’s house. The actual fight was exactly what I expected from a Tarantino movie - bloody and violent and epic (although it was weird that Rick brought out the flame-thrower (from one of his earlier movies) and torched one of the murderers without knowing what was going on).

I’m going to lump 5 and 6 together because there are only a few minutes of the film left to cover and they generally happen close together anyway. So 5 is falling action, where the tension calms down a little and the adrenaline slowly leaves the audience and they can lean back in their seats once more, and 6 is the resolution where everything comes into perspective. In the context of Once In Hollywood, neither of these events are fully satisfied - the cooldown period before the credits was so short meaning it left the audience confused, and nothing was really resolved because there was nothing to resolve in the first place. I’m sure a statement can be made about the peculiarity and abruptness of life here, but I don’t want to make it because it sounds stupid.

And now about the research. I was more than happy to leave behind this film in memory and move on with my life (bad film student), but my wonderful boyfriend search for answers and found a clue to them all before the bus arrived home.

If you are familiar with the name Sharon Tate, then you already know where this is going, but I had never heard the name before - I know very little about my own history, let alone the history of another country. You may also notice that she is not mentioned a whole lot in my very very brief overview of this 2 hour and 40 minute film; that’s because she’s not really in it - she doesn’t interact with any of the other characters until the very end when she invites Rick into her home after the attack. And I have a theory about why.

If you type ‘Sharon Tate’  into google, you will be greeted with the face of an actress that was murdered in 1969 in her home in Hollywood by the Manson family, led by Charles Manson. Prior to this research, I was guessing that the character called Manson was in charge of the potential murders within the film because his name was only brought up once and there wasn’t really anyone else it could be. Then after a simple google search, it is confirmed (to me, at least) that he is the man behind it. So my next question was this; if you have such a big story in your film, why not focus the film on that instead of a fictional character? The words ‘based on a true story’  always hit home to the audience, making them realise that their lives are not as safe as they once thought, so why leave out such an impactful tool in the hopes of making it a fictional story?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cF76gm9PdOs

Now that right there is a scene breakdown with Leonardo DiCaprio and Tarantino (who is a lot younger than I thought he would be), and Tarantino discusses how the character of Rick Dalton fits into our past, fighting for jobs alongside Steve McQueen who is also seen as a character in this film (played by Damien Lewis). On top of that, Mike Moh plays Bruce Lee, which brings our real people count up to 4 - so it’s pretty clear that this film is based in our history. But it isn’t our history, because in our history Sharon Tate dies. Therefore...alternate universe!

If you know anything about me...which you don’t...you would know that I love talking about things like this - it is my jam. I think it is interesting that a director as famous as Tarantino would employ such a trope commonly associated with science fiction.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtbJMTPi2zQ

After watching the first minute of this film by New Rockstars, I have learned that this use of the alternate realities is actually quite common for Tarantino to use, which is interesting. I have never heard anyone talk about Tarantino and his use of popular history within his work. In this video, his films are described as a fairytale re-telling of events, often ending happier than history did. 

But does all of this, the idea of an alternate, interconnected universe, the happier endings, the familiar names, does it balance out the plot-less moment montage I saw that rainy afternoon? Honestly, I don’t know. I’m kind just happy discussing films, and people always have more to say about the films they hate rather than the films they enjoy, right? I could go on more, but this post has taken days, and I mean days to write, so imma summerise - this film is okay after thinking about it a bit and after knowing a little more about Tarantino, and research pays off.

[mashitandsmashit]

America’s Got Talent: Champions 2 - Preliminaries 1

Hellooooooo, Tumblr!

So first of all, I would like to explain why I haven't moved this blog to WordPress as promised. Right now I'm not in the best position with money, which is something I will have to invest in order to open a blog there. It's not too much, but for now, I'll need to be in a more sustainable situation to start making such payments...But this site seems to still be up for the time being, and I have taken the liberty of archiving everything FrankDoc and I posted since Season 11. (Don't worry Frank, I won't post any of your stuff without your permission...It's just in case is all...)

So with that out of the way, let's talk about Champions, shall we?

To start, it seems like Julianne Hough and Gabrielle Union were too boring even for AGT! (Or some kind of behind-the-scenes drama with Simon, whatever...) So after just one season of them making so little impact on the show, they're out! Now Heidi Klum's back, and Alesha Dixon from “Britain's Got Talent” is taking the other vacant seat...Already, things seem quite a bit more lively now! And yes, I know this is just Champions, so we'll see if they keep this line-up for the main series...

So looking at this season's acts, I will admit, it's not nearly as exciting as last year's, though I suppose that's because there appears to be less American acts this time...And most of the American acts they DID bring back weren't exactly on my wishlist...

Kodi Lee is not part of this line-up, which is good, because we all know he would have won again, and every season's winner would just be whoever won the last season of AGT...The only AGT winner they're bringing back this season is Michael Grimm, who most people probably weren't dying to see again...But I for one am glad he's back!

And just to clear this up...I went ahead and read all of the spoilers for this season off of the Wiki forum, so I BELIEVE I already know how things are gonna go down...(I say “believe”, because spoilers I read for last season lied to me about who would win, as well as which acts made Fourth and Fifth, so I'm gonna follow them with caution...) Let's just say, there are gonna be some shocking advances this season, most of them in a good way...I think...We'll just see how everybody does...

Speaking of which...Let's start the countdown for Week 1!

10: Dan Naturman. I'm not gonna lie, I kinda forgot who this guy was in the five years since he competed...I guess his name sounds familiar enough, but otherwise, he kinda just blurs together with all of the other hack comedians we saw during the Howard Stern era of the show...(I guess that's what happens when the two most influential judges on the show are a Shock Jock and the guy from “Little Monsters”; We get unfunny comedians up the wazoo making actual progress in this talent competition...) Honestly, some of these jokes might have actually landed if this guy had better delivery. All that was missing was if he ended every joke by shrugging and going, “Eh? Eh?” I'd say the best part was Heidi basically roasting Howie over the low bar he sets for comedians! I guess I AM happy that she's back!

9: Jack Vidgen. It's good to see that he's overcoming the puberty curse that befalls a lot of boy singers, but that performance still doesn't even come CLOSE to what I saw from his fourteen-year-old self in those brief clips! I guess he's capable enough, but the vocals weren't all consistent, and in the end, it was just kinda dull and forgettable...

8: Paddy & Nico. This was precious! Not the first time I saw an old lady getting spun around by a man half her age, but this was arguably superior! Not enough to get my vote (not that it matters), but I'm still happy to have seen this! ...Not so happy to see a few too many shots up her skirt though...

7: Eddie Williams. If I didn't read his description on the Wiki already, this would have been a VERY amusing twist once he started singing! Now if he would sing WHILE lifting a bus, then I would vote for him in a heartbeat!

6: Mike Yung. Still one of the best singers I've seen on this show, even if the song choice wasn't the best display of his talents...

5: Hans. He's back, dahlings! And apparently Simon has suddenly lost his sense of humor with him...I guess he just BARELY made it through thanks to some troll votes (including Howie, who probably wanted him to make the Semi-Finals back in Season 13 THAT BADLY!) I will admit, this performance was a bit sloppy compared to his previous ones, and maybe THAT'S why Simon suddenly hates him now, but I'm still happy to see this guy get voted through! Let's just see how crazy and naughty it gets NEXT time...(Also, on a side note, I wonder if the judges will start picking the last act to advance out of three instead of two in the main show as well now...)

4: Junior Creative. The only shame of Hans going through is that this group had to be dropped in the process...That said, I have seen quite a few acts like this...Don't get me wrong, they keep raising the bar, and this was no exception! But knowing that this isn't the first of its kind, and surely won't be the last, it's no huge loss...Besides, there's another act in this genre performing on a later week that will HOPEFULLY live up to said bar!

3: Duo Transcend. I won't lie, I'm very happy to hear of the successful eye surgery! It always pains me to hear about people gradually losing their senses knowing that they'll have to spend the rest of their lives without it...But that still doesn't mean he isn't willing to perform without seeing! (Get it? 'Cause...the blindfolds? ...Yeah...) These were some of their best tricks, though I don't always notice because I might tune out here and there...I don't know what it is; This just isn't the most interesting act for me...But I'm still glad they advanced!

2: Dania Diaz. Not entirely original...This was pretty much a combination of things I've seen from Mat Franco, Shin Lim and MAYBE Jon Dorenbos in the past...But it was still the best magic trick I've seen in a while, especially after Eric Chien and Dom Chambers failed to live up to the hype! This lady is definitely talented enough to hold her own in this male-dominated art!

1: Angelina Jordan. Wow! Heidi actually gave the GB to a legitimately promising singer for once! We've heard “Bohemian Rhapsody” quite a few times on this show, but never performed Norah Jones style! The only pity of this selection is that due to her skipping the Semi-Finals, that means we only get to see her one more time in this game...This new format is a definite improvement over last season, but it can still use some tweaks...

This show...was okay...I guess the results were satisfying enough, though aside from Angelina and MAYBE Dania, nobody was super-exciting...Still not bad so far...

I'll talk about next week's acts once the list comes in...

Edit: It appears that next week’s acts should be quite interesting (if a bit of a sausage fest...) I’ll go ahead and rank them based on how much I’m looking forward to them...

10: Collabro

9: Oz Pearlman

8: Luke Islam

7: Spencer Horsman

6: Ben Blaque

5: Marcelito Pomoy

4: Marc Spelmann and X

3: Ryan Niemiller

2: Puddles Pity Party

1: Boogie Storm

[joealwyndaily]

Interview with British GQ (November 2018)

Joe Alwyn’s dream scenario was that just maybe after drama school he’d land a small theatre role at the Young Vic, or at best The Old Vic. Yet before he finished the course, and only a few weeks after getting an agent, he got the chance to audition for the lead role in Ang Lee’s latest film, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, about a heroic US marine reliving past trauma in Iraq. His co-stars were Kristen Stewart, Vin Diesel and Steve Martin. Before his audition tape was seen, he got a call: Lee would instead like to meet him in New York. It was the first time Alwyn had even been to America. “I literally left school and they put me on a plane.”

He wore every possible layer of clothing – partly due to the cold (it was snowing) and partly to bulk up his skinny frame to look more like a marine. It didn’t quite work: at the end of the audition they asked to see him in just his T-shirt. “You know, I was, like, skinny, long-haired, British...”

Yet two nights in the States turned into ten days. He flew to Atlanta to audition on set – the first he’d ever set foot on – and spent his 24th birthday there. They got him a cake, then Lee gave him the part. “It was... definitely unusual.”

Perhaps just as ridiculous, for the now 27-year-old, is that since Billy Lynn in 2016, Alwyn has appeared in five major films, four of which are out in the next few months. Oh, and did we mention he’s the current Mr Taylor Swift?

Not long after Billy Lynn and his role alongside Jim Broadbent and Emily Mortimer in The Sense Of An Ending, he landed The Favourite, a costume drama from the surrealist director of The Lobster, in which he says lines such as, “I should have you stripped and whipped!” to Emma Stone (Stone: “I’m waiting”). Then he plays Queen Elizabeth I’s lover in Mary Queen Of Scots – the Queen is played by Margot Robbie – written by the creator of Netflix’s House Of Cards. Next is Boy Erased with Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe playing a couple who send their son to gay conversion therapy (“Something I didn’t know a lot about and you have Mike Pence believing those insane, crazy places”) and in which Alwyn plays the son’s friend. Then Operation Finale, as the son of Sir Ben Kingsley’s Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi who masterminded the Holocaust.

All of which isn’t bad for someone whose sole acting experience before Billy Lynn was, as a child, auditioning for the part of Liam Neeson’s son in Love Actually (“I remember reading some scenes with Hugh Grant and Richard Curtis”).

Working with Kingsley, he says, was a particularly interesting experience, in that he didn’t speak to him.

“I’ve never been on set with someone who didn’t make contact with anyone else and just wanted to stay in their own mental headspace and in their own zone. It was interesting to watch... and also slightly intimidating. But it suited the film. Eichmann’s son loves him but is fearful of him, so it played into that.”

Google Alwyn’s name and you’ll fall into a Taylor Swift-shaped internet vortex, with fan theories rivalling the complexity of Roswell and QAnon picking the relationship apart. The most accepted theories floating around in the Swiftverse being: they first met at the 2016 Met Gala (fans think the track “Dress”, referring to “your buzzed cut” hair, is about his solider-short trim at the time); Emma Stone later set them up; that last year’s “Ready For It” video refers to their years of birth (the “89” and “91” spray-painted on a wall at the start); and that from her “Delicate” video earlier this year, she spells out “Joe” via dancing.

So, for the sake of internet fansites, some fresh meat: his favourite TV show (“The Bridge, but not all-time favourite”); film (“On The Waterfront... or Boogie Nights. I like Paul Thomas Anderson a lot”); and music (“I like rap music. Lykke Li I like a lot”). At school he was sporty – tennis, athletics, football, rugby – loving the latter until he ripped his shoulder muscles (“They never recovered”). He used to support Chelsea, but “I don’t care much about football any more. I’ve gone off it.”

Most telling is his choice of actor – he loves Mark Rylance and Marlon Brando, but his favourite is Ben Whishaw, who, at 37, is only ten years his senior.

“I think it’s tied to the fact I saw him on stage when he was just out of Rada,” he says. “I remember seeing him be Hamlet – I was 14 and thought, ‘I want to do that...’”

Talking of his much-noted private life, he says, “Someone’s private life is, by definition, private. No one is obliged to share their personal life”, which, of course, is fair enough.

But what, I ask, of the dual Instagram shots – on both his and Swift’s accounts of the same desert cactus at the same time? Wasn’t that sending a message?

“No. I didn’t even think of that until I was in New York and someone else mentioned it.” So it wasn’t on purpose? “No, no! It wasn’t purposeful at all!”

The Swift-centred gossip sites will tell you Alwyn still lives at home, with his parents in Tufnell Park, North London. This, he says, is no longer the case (“I mean, I still go there”). But when I ask if this means he has his own place, he demurs, simply saying his parents’ house is “not his base”. Swift, according to reports, has rented a house in the area. Does he still live in North London? “I mean, obviously I’m not going to say exactly where, but yeah.”

The attention has led, naturally, to tabloid scrutiny, with a former classmate describing Alwyn to the Daily Mail as “a quintessential panty-dropper”. What did he think when he read that?

He smiles wanly. “All I will say is that he called me after that, apologising, not realised he’d been tricked by the tabloids.”

Before I depart, I ask a final question. Favourite Swift song?

He laughs. “I’m just not even going to go into that side of the world.” That night, they’ll be snapped hand in hand on a date – fair to say, he already is.

[timeinabottle]

Joyce & Hopper meet-cute in Melvald’s over the holidays, Will & Jonathan make an appearance. Life in sleepy Hawkins before the upside-down. 

Read on AO3 {x}  Mixtape on spotify {x}

If The Fates Allow

Christmas, 1982

It was quarter to seven on December 21st, and Joyce Byers was finally coming up on the tail end of her shift at Melvald’s General Store. She was all alone, sitting at the checkout counter, chin in her hands, mindlessly flipping through the latest issue of Cosmopolitan and listening to Brenda Lee’s holiday hits on the tape deck. Nearly an hour had passed now without a single customer and the minutes were crawling by.

Busy little bee that she was, Joyce had already swept, restocked the shelves, dusted the displays at the front of the store and replaced a few worn snowflakes hanging in the windows. She even remembered to water the poinsettias. All she had left to do now was cash out, and she was gone. Her fuddy-duddy of a boss wouldn’t normally approve of such things, but Joyce decided to close out her cash register early anyway. Donald would just have to understand.

Tonight was special after-all: the Hawkins Middle School Christmas pageant began at seven-thirty sharp, and she would need to lock up the store within the next twenty minutes to get there on time. The sixth-grade students were putting on a production of A Christmas Carol, Will was playing Tiny Tim, and she couldn’t be more thrilled. She was so proud, in fact, that she had bragged non-stop all day to anyone who’d listen.

Her youngest had devoted the past two weeks to rehearsing with his brother and friends in her living room, while she sat cross-legged on the floor, reading their stage directions aloud. She knew that script word for word by that point and while he might not have the most lines like Mike or the funniest ones like Lucas and Dustin, Will’s lines were the most important of the whole play, in her opinion. She was more than excited to see her baby’s debut performance.

Jonathan had called the store shortly after six to say he was running late and might not make it to the store in time to pick up the finishing touches for Will’s costume before he needed to get his brother back to the school. Joyce still had the pageboy cap (she had finished sewing it on her lunch break that afternoon) and a crutch borrowed from the pharmacy down the street, so she absolutely, positively could. Not. Be. Late.

She was nearly done tallying up her receipts with two minutes to close when she heard the bell on the door chime behind her. Of course a customer would walk in as she was closing up tonight, the only night of the year she had somewhere important to be.

“Oh come on,” she muttered under her breath, looking up in time to see her inconsiderate shopper breeze by. The familiar face glanced her way and gave a slight nod, acknowledging her unapologetic stare. He looked like a man on a mission brushing the fresh snowflakes off his corduroy jacket with that perpetually annoyed expression on his face.

It was always a strange sight to see Hopper out of uniform.

That night, he was wearing a festive plaid flannel and jeans. His dirty blonde hair was mussed, missing it’s sheriff’s hat, and day-old whiskers shadowed his cheeks. He passed the disheveled look off like it was intentional — even though she knew that he had likely just rolled out of bed from patrol the night before and didn’t give a hoot what he looked like. That just made it all the more sexier in her opinion and she scolded herself for thinking that way. She couldn’t help herself, though. He was aging into the perfect blend of Harrison Ford and Jack Nicholson: A bit rough around the edges, handsome as hell, and cocky… like he knew it.

Her heart was creeping its way into her throat as she watched him head to the back of the store. You don’t like him like that anymore, she reminded herself sternly (even though she knew deep down it was a lie).

Bee-lining to where Donald kept the liquor, he snuck another glance back at Joyce before turning down the aisle and disappearing from view. She pretended not to notice and promptly checked her reflection in the dark windows, thanking her good sense that morning to put a bit more effort into her hair and makeup for the pageant tonight. Smoothing her new bangs in vain, she took out the cherry chapstick from her vest pocket, popping some color on her lips. Joyce was nonchalant but mentally preparing for the worst.

An unsavory exchange at the supermarket on Labor Day that year had left a sour taste in her mouth and she vividly recalled swearing to herself on the drive home that if she never saw Jim Hopper again, it would be too soon. She regretted every word she said by the time the groceries were put away and meant to apologize when she saw him again, but in spite of their small hometown, they managed to avoid each other for the rest of autumn. Joyce really couldn’t be too surprised to see him now; they were well overdue for a run-in, and it was quickly becoming apparent he was meant to play the Ghost of Christmas Past in this twisted little production of her life.

But maybe (emphasis on maybe) enough time had passed now, and Hopper wouldn’t be on the defensive with her this time. He could see for himself that she was doing good and she could let him know that she took his words of advice, got her life back on track. She could finally, properly thank him. They could both say their sorry’s and move on.

Sure, it wasn’t the greatest timing, and she had maybe less than ten minutes to follow through on this little burst of spontaneity, but she could work with what she was given and was grateful for the opportunity at a fresh start. This could be her new year’s resolution for ’83, and it was something she could get started on right now.

She had unplugged the Christmas lights in the window, turned the radio and overhead lights off and moved the open sign to ‘closed’ by the time he reappeared.

Out of all the stores in all the towns, in all of Indiana…

This had to be fates giving her the nudge she needed to make amends. Or maybe she had just listened to one too many sappy Christmas songs that day, and they rotted her brain. A hundred ways to say hello ran through her head, but any notion she had about where the conversation would take them went out the window the second he opened his mouth.

“Am I keeping you?” he called out across the darkened store, leisurely taking his time walking back, making it clear he didn’t give a shit either way… slower than molasses in January.

Despite the actual answer and her simmering annoyance at his choice of greeting, she shook her head 'no’ and peered at the contents he carried up to the checkout with wide eyes.

“You okay there?”

Hopper scowled at the question, shifting the weight in his arms. She raised an eyebrow at him, pushing for an answer.

“Yeah, what’s it to ya?” he finally muttered, looming over her on the other side of the counter now, but Joyce didn’t back down.

She looked pointedly at him. His arms were full; a 40 of Jim Beam and Stoli were both tucked into the crook of one arm, with a box of wine wedged under the other. He expertly balanced three six packs and a stack of styrofoam cups on top of two flats of beer.

“‘Lot of booze for one person. Even you.“

She meant for her comment to come off as light-hearted teasing, but it fell flat. Rolling his eyes at her concern, Hopper dropped the beer on the counter with a thud, stacking the other items around unceremoniously. One of the bottles rolled towards the edge of the counter, and Joyce thankfully caught it before it could fall, placing it gently down next to his other items.

She didn’t mean to pry, but as long as she had known him, Hopper was possibly the most stubborn man she had ever met. If he were suffering, he’d die before he’d let on, and that worried Joyce more than she cared to admit. Over the last few Christmases, she had watched him from afar, a silent witness to his inner struggles dealing with the holiday season. She could only imagine how he felt, especially since she could barely cope herself after her own divorce. But to lose your only child too? She couldn’t bear the thought.

Even if they weren’t exactly on speaking terms, and even if he drove her up the wall when they did see each other, he was still (kind of) her friend. She felt compelled to ask, if only for her peace of mind.

"It’s not all for me, Joyce. It’s the PD Christmas potluck tonight,” his irritation peaked, and he waved the sleeve of cups at her with a wry look on his face, like it should have been obvious.

“Oh, well my mistake then,“ she snapped her mouth shut, feeling stupid she didn’t think of that first and even more so for assuming. Joyce grabbed the cups from Hopper and found the price tag, focusing on the task to take her mind off the fact she could sense his eyes watching her every move.

"Gimme a pack of camels too,” he sniffed. Two twenties were flicked at her across the counter, like he was leaving cash on the nightstand. Like he didn’t even know her at all.

Joyce’s blood started to boil.

“Say please,” she snapped, glaring at him. It wasn’t what Hopper said; it was how he said it.

He locked eyes with Joyce, not budging, and now it was her turn to roll her eyes. It didn’t take long before she gave in and grabbed his pack of smokes from the drawer under the counter, adding them to the total, punching the price in with a tepid fury. So much for peace on earth and goodwill to men. Not only was he making her late, but he was ruining her mood now too.

Her cheeks smoldered, but Joyce held her tongue, fighting the burning desire to tell him off. A small part of her recalled that this is what always happened between them: she’d go out of her way to initiate the conversation, trying her best to be pleasant, if not a bit friendly (sometimes even a bit flirty). Hop would instantly go on the defense with an ignorant remark or two. She would retort to start the fight, and then they were off to the races. Both would walk away smarting, leaving all the words they shouldn’t have said hanging in the air for all of Hawkins to see. Everyone in town knew that Joyce and Hopper were on the outs and had been for a long while.

But after all the damn self-help books she had read that year, it finally clicked: They didn’t have to ride on this merry-go-round of hurt feelings anymore. She knew she could break the cycle if she really wanted to. Truth be told, she missed his companionship, and if there was one thing Joyce was in need of right now, it was a friend… maybe even something more. It drove her batty how much she wanted to console him as a friend, throttle him like a nemesis and rip his clothes off all at the same damn time.

Clearing her throat, she spoke up again, refusing to give in to his silent treatment, “Got any plans for the holidays?”

He grunted in response, making her venture a guess that was a “no,” or “none of your business,” — possibly both.

Joyce carried on, fidgeting with the box of wine. She looked for the price, instead of at him, “Well, the boys and I are planning a big breakfast on Christmas morning, um, since I work Christmas Eve. You should stop by. I mean, if you don’t have anything else going on…“ She side-eyed his reaction and set the wine aside.

Hopper’s eyes narrowed. His mouth drew tight at her words as if he was considering it for a split second, before he declined with a curt, "No, thank you.” Didn’t even bother with an excuse.

The outright dismissal took her back by surprise before she quickly recovered with a half-shrug, half-smile.

“Oh okay, maybe next year,” she said, just hoping she didn’t look as defeated as she felt.

With a sober nod, Hopper let his attention fall to the items on the counter between them. He passed them off to Joyce without another word as she rang them up, one by one. With each button pressed, the silence between them grew more and more awkward. Joyce expected some pushback from Hopper, but this was really taking the cake. Here she was, putting herself out there, doing her best to extend an olive branch during the holiday season, and he was still holding a grudge. Un-be-lievable.

She wasn’t about to give up, though. She wanted to make it clear to him that this little game they continued to play year after year had gone on long enough. They were both adults now, and it was time to put their differences aside. Forgive and forget.

Joyce would melt Hopper’s little Grinch heart, even if it killed her.

She gave him his receipt and change, slowing down to let the tips of her fingers pause over the palm of his hand. Joyce lingered for a slow, taciturn moment until she finally caught his eye, her thumb brushing over his. Hopper’s steely demeanor softened at her touch, if only for a brief moment in time, and there it was: a fleeting glimpse of the man she once knew.

Her voice was quiet when she spoke again, "Merry Christmas, Hop.”

His acknowledgment was barely there, but unmistakable. He gave a subtle squeeze back before pocketing the change.

To an outsider, it would have looked like nothing more than a momentary pause between acquaintances or perfect strangers, but to them, it was a spark of hope on the longest night of the year.

“Merry Christmas, Joy,” the words tumbled from his mouth like he didn’t want to say it, but she could tell he meant it nevertheless. And just as quickly as the moment fell over them, it passed.  

Without another word, he opened the pack of Camels and lit up, ignoring the ‘No-Smoking’ sign taped to the wall behind Joyce. She didn’t bother to say anything, watching, amused as a puff of smoke enveloped him in the dark of the store, like a magician making his grand exit. Loading up his arms, he took one last glance to make sure he got everything and was on his way. Her heart was heavy to watch him go, but what could she do? Chase after him? Beg him to talk it out? Force him to be her friend again? It was going to have to be on his terms if anything, and it was clear to her now that he wasn’t ready to make nice.

The door swung open before Hop could reach it, and Will ran into Melvald’s only to stop short, practically colliding head first into the beer.

“Chief,” Jonathan nodded politely.

“Hi uh, M-mister Hopper,” Will smiled up at the tall man he recognized as his mom’s old friend before running over to her counter to grab his hat from her outstretched hand.  

"Hi baby,” Joyce beamed at her youngest, admiring his costume. “You look great! Very Dickens!”

Will proudly donned the pageboy hat for his mother’s approval and grabbed the crutch. “Thank you! Love you! See you at school,” he called to Joyce over his shoulder, running back to where Jonathan was offering his assistance to Hopper.

“Need a hand with that, sir?” The teen didn’t bother to wait for a response from the police chief, shifting his camera bag upon his shoulder, and grabbing the bottles off the top of the stack, while Will held the door for them.

Hopper could only watch it happen; he was bombarded by the trio of Byers’ and completely caught off guard. He looked down at the two smiling boys in front of him before looking back at Joyce, who was glowing at the sight of her polite, little men.

“Fine,” he huffed. “Take these, too.”

Jonathan grabbed the six-packs without hesitation from under Hopper’s arm and started for the door while Joyce stifled a giggle, drawing the attention of all three.

“So I’ll uh, meet you boys at the school in twenty,” she told her sons before turning to Hop. “Nice to see you,” she smiled, her heart fluttering just the tiniest bit when it was returned.

It might not have been a complete reconciliation like Joyce had hoped for, but she would accept it for what it was; a Christmas armistice in their war. With it came a renewed sense of hope that 1983 could be a fresh start for the both of them.

The boys led Hopper to his marked Chevy parked out in front of the store. The snow was finally tapering off as the temperature started to drop, the tiny flakes sparkling in the soft glow of Hawkin’s street lamps wrapped up in pretty red bows. The street was empty and quiet, the fresh snowfall making it seem like they were the only ones left in town.

"You in a play or something, Tiny Tim?” Hopper called out to the younger Byers boy, who was running ahead outside the store.

“Yeah!” Will turned back to him at the truck and raised the crutch in the air as Hopper approached. “How’d you know?”

“Just a guess… Your mom’s real proud, I can tell,” Hopper smirked at the kid, despite himself. “Y’know, she used to star in all the school plays when she was your age, too.” He glanced behind the Byers boys to the storefront, where he could see Joyce locking the door behind them. The urge to go back and talk to her was pulling at him now, but he stayed firmly in place.

Jonathan opened the trunk and started to load up the back of the Blazer while the Chief was distracted, exchanging a look with his little brother. Turning back to Hopper, Jonathan grabbed the last of the load from the older man and his attention.

“We have an extra ticket, you know.”

“Oh?” Hopper mumbled, Jonathan’s words breaking him from his daze. Firing the styrofoam cups in behind the booze, he slammed the trunk hatch and took a long drag off the cigarette hanging from the side of his mouth. He glanced back, but she was gone.

“It was supposed to be for my dad but… he’s not coming,” Will was looking glum, poking holes in the fluffy snow with the end of Tiny Tim’s crutch.

Rage prickled the inside of Hopper’s chest as he took in the sad sight. He instantly wished he knocked Lonnie’s teeth in a lot sooner than he did.

“You should come,” Jonathan perked up, offering Lonnie’s ticket to the other man. “She won’t mind.”

Hopper highly doubted Joyce would agree with that statement. But then again, after her little grab at attention in Melvald’s just now… maybe the kid was right.

“Yeah! You should come,” Will perked up, echoing his brother with a sly look. It was suddenly very apparent the angle was to make him Joyce’s date for the night.

Nope, sorry boys, not happening. Maybe in another life.

“Ah thanks, I’d really like to,” he lied, fishing for the keys in his pocket and a quick excuse. “But I have to get this stuff back to the police department. People are waiting on me, important police business, y’know?” he dropped the last of his smoke to the ground and stamped it out.

“Merry Christmas boys, and thanks for the help.”

He gave the Byers boys a small salute as he climbed into the truck, frantic to get out of there and away from the barrage of emotions his little errand brought with it. The Chevy’s engine roared as it turned over in the cold, making the boys take a step back onto the curb. He didn’t mean to be a jerk, but he was walking a fine line here; he had boundaries to maintain.

Through the fogged up windows, he watched them share a look of disappointment and turn to go.

Hopper’s blackened, frozen heart tapped on his chest to remind him it was still there and he heaved a sighed. Rolling his window down, he called out to Will & Jonathan, “Hey, how about a raincheck for next year?”

"Sure,” Will brightened up instantly.

Hopper choked back his smirk, “Break a leg tonight, kid.”

Jonathan chuckled, and Will waved the crutch again with a laugh, “Thanks!”

There — that could be his good deed for the Byers family this holiday season. Even if he couldn’t keep the raincheck next year, the gesture was enough. While Hopper let his diesel warm up, he watched the boys climb into Lonnie’s beat-up, old Ford.

They were good kids. It was clear Joyce had done her absolute best in raising them on her own over the last three years, even if it was only to spite the asshole who fathered them. Hop was sure Sara and Joyce’s youngest would have made great friends, too. A twinge of sorrow hit him at the realization they never even got the chance to meet.

The brothers waved to him once more as they pulled out of the parking stall, leaving just him and Joyce, the only cars parked on Main Street. Deciding it was a good a time as any to chain smoke, he lit up again and idled, getting lost in his thoughts.

Why did he have to stop there instead of the gas station or grocery store? Sure, Melvald’s was the closest store to the police station, but if he really wanted to, he could have gone out of his way to avoid her altogether. Hopper would be lying to himself if he said that he didn’t stop in to check up on her, to test the waters. He figured if he was feeling lonely, she was probably lonely too…

Turns out, he wasn’t ready. Seeing Joyce only brought the bad feelings bubbling up to the surface, making him feel worse. Now he had all these unfettered emotions to deal with, and lord knows, it would take weeks to get them back in their bottle.

With nearly twenty years of history between them, they had been through so much. Forgive and forget was easier said than done at this point. There were some words you couldn’t take back, and some things you just couldn’t forgive, and it would take a lot more than some simple pleasantries or a soft touch to make him change his mind and start rebuilding all the bridges Joyce Byers burned.

The cigarette had burned down when the chime of the bells jostled him out of his thoughts, his eyes darting to the rearview. Joyce was locking the deadbolt and hadn’t yet noticed that he was still there. He stubbed the butt out in the ashtray, watching closely as she turned around and saw his truck still parked in front of her store. There was no hiding from her now.

She paused, blinking once, twice. The corner of her lips curled.

Hopper’s eyes flicked to the passenger side mirror to watch as she began walking towards her car, head down, stifling a satisfied smirk in her purse.

Watching Joyce struggle to find her keys through the frost-bitten truck windows was a strange mix of bitter and sweet for Hopper. It was a familiar sight, almost comforting, like shaking up a snowglobe and watching it settle. A shimmer of frost and foggy breath swirled around her head like a halo, and he swore she glowed like a goddamn angel under the lamplight. He fought the impulse to roll down the window and say something, anything, knowing full well a she-devil still lurked underneath that pretty little exterior.

Danger, Will Robinson. Time to tread lightly, think logically and not let his festering feelings get the better of him.

She threw him one last look over the roof of the Pinto to let him know she saw him watching her, before climbing in and starting her car. It was the same look that she always shot him right before ripping him to shreds: exasperated, like she was tired of his shit. Hopper had grown to hate that look, yet it still wound him up all the same. She was teasing him now.

He shook his head, shaming her for playing games.

Joyce shook her head back and flipped him the bird.

Hop narrowed his eyes at her. Very mature.

She wrinkled her nose and stuck her tongue out, hesitating before finally waving goodbye. Hopper chuckled to himself as Joyce put the car in reverse, a serene sense of nostalgia settling over him then.

She must have felt it too. Glancing back to him one more time, a tiny smile played about her lips.

He nodded a simple farewell, and she returned it before driving off towards the school, retreating into the dark and silent night. Once she disappeared around the corner, he started to make his way back to the party at the station, turning the radio on to distract himself.

Hopper wasn’t quite ready to let Joyce back in just yet. Even if they could go back to being friends… Did he really think he could be open with her? Allow himself to be vulnerable? Not when it still felt like everything he ever loved had been taken away from him too soon (including her, more than once).

He’d see how the new year panned out, but he wasn’t sure if he could ever shake this feeling it might never be the same again.

But, dammit if he didn’t miss her anyway.

[formerprincess]

A tale written with fangs and claws || Chapter 44

Chapters: 44/? Fandom: Teen Wolf (TV) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Liam Dunbar/Theo Raeken, Corey Bryant/Mason Hewitt Characters: Liam Dunbar, Theo Raeken, Mason Hewitt, Corey Bryant, Nolan (Teen Wolf) Additional Tags: Alpha Liam Dunbar, Slow Build, Friends to Lovers, Dunbar Pack, Bisexual Liam Dunbar, Werewolf Theo Raeken, Alpha Theo Raeken, Canon-Typical Violence, Smut, Mates, Liam and Theo are mates, Top Theo Raeken, Bottom Theo Raeken, Top Liam, Bottom Liam Dunbar Series: Part 1 of Morning Dew Pack

Liam and Erik face off against each other. The pack goes home and something completely unexpected happens...

After last night had ended so emotional, Liam was looking forward to a fun day with his pack at the amusement park. It was a long time since he ever went to one of those parks and the childlike part of his personality was excited. He and Theo had gotten ready in the morning and then left their room to have breakfast where the other members of the pack joined them one after another.

“How is he this morning?” Mason asked Liam while they both grabbed bowls and filled them with cereal.  Liam looked over at their table where Theo sat, drank coffee, and talked to Tim and Sadie. “Better than last night. I hopefully made him understand I will not leave just because someone else tries to kiss him. But it also made me realize again how deep his fear of loss is.” “It’s kinda understandable. I mean, almost all his life he only has been used and manipulated, never had a good thing for himself. I can only imagine how hard it must be to change the mindset everything is going to fall apart again.” “Yeah.” Liam sighed softly. “I just hope I can make him see I’m not going to leave him ever again and this is not falling apart. Sometimes I worry if I’m the right person for this.” “You are definitively the right person, let me tell you. Because you have a big heart and you just care about people, if they want it or not. It’s one of your strongest qualities. Also, Theo looks at you like you hung the moon, the stars, and like you are the reason this world is turning. I highly doubt anybody or anything else could make him happier than being with you.” “Thanks, Mase.” Liam smiled at his best friend and Mason just squeezed his shoulder. “What can I say? I know you since we were kids, I know about what you excel at and at what not.” Mason returned the smile warmly. 

Liam looked over again and caught Theo looking at him. The older’s eyes lit up and he smiled at his boyfriend which made Liam’s stomach flip in happiness. They had been together for months but he was falling more and more in love with Theo every day. 

When he returned to their table after he gathered some food for himself, Theo still talked with their Betas but his hand went on Liam’s knee without even looking. Liam continued to eat but put one hand over Theo’s and gave it a soft squeeze. From the corner of his eyes, he could see Theo smiling and after last night, a happy Theo was all he wanted right now.

 “I am so excited about the amusement park. I love amusement parks!” Tim was absolutely excited and Liam believed him without any doubt. He just needed the beaming smile from his Beta and to hear his fast heartbeat and smell his chemosignals to know this was more than true. “I want to try every ride! The rollercoaster, the log flume, everything!” “I’m not going on any rollercoasters! I always puke on those things. If not from the ride alone, then after I see how my hair looks like afterward.” Sadie stroked her long blond locks to make a point. “You could cut them to contain the damage,” Mike said and gently grabbed a few strands of her hair. She raised a clawed hand in his direction. “Come near my hair with anything even remotely close to a scissor and I will slice you open.” “The only things Sadie does to her hair is dying it,” Liam smirked and she pointed at him in warning. “I can still tackle you!” “Try.” The young Alpha kept on grinning and Theo looked back and forth between them.  “This seems like an inside joke.” “It is an inside joke.” Liam smiled at his mate. “Happened while you were in Alaska.” “Hm, I missed quite a few things while being away from home, huh?” Theo smirked and then pulled Liam into a sweet kiss. “And mostly I missed being close to you,” he whispered after that and when he kissed Liam’s cheek. “But you had a great time and you can back unharmed, that’s all that matters.” “Damn, Liam, so mature. That’s sexy.” Theo laughed softly and squeezed Liam’s leg. 

****** The amusement park was on the other end of the resort, close enough so they could walk after breakfast and in case they needed to go back fastly. Liam could not think of a reason why they would have to but it was still good to know.

There were already a few people waiting in lines in front of the pay kiosks and the pack joined one of them. Behind the kiosks you saw one of the rollercoasters, heard the screams and yells coming from the people riding it, you heard the splashes of the nearby log flume, Liam was excited. The weather was also great, not too cold but not too hot, perfect for a full day outside.

“Oh, this gonna be great.” He wrapped his arms around Theo’s waist and put his chin on his mate’s shoulder.  "Yeah.” Theo smiled while he studied the rollercoaster. “This will be fun. Think they have a tunnel of horror here as well?” “Horror, really? You need more horror than our usual life?” Liam teased his boyfriend softly and gently tugged on the jeans jacket Theo wore. “It’s more the thrill of the ride, you know? I also know this is not real. Don’t make fun of me, puppy.” “Am not.” Liam shook his head and grinned and Theo rolled his eyes but smiled in the end and wrapped both arms around Liam’s waist to pull him close.  “You’re lucky you’re cute, puppy.” “I consider myself lucky, thank you very much.” 

Theo shut him up by kissing him and Liam absolutely had no problem with returning the kiss. His hands slipped under Theo’s jacket and pressed against his back to keep their bodies close together. Theo licked his lips and Liam willingly opened them before his tongue darted out and played with Theo’s.

Like always, when Theo kissed him, Liam forgot everything around himself, where they were, what they wanted to do, so when an unfriendly voice sounded up and brought him back to reality, it felt like a cold shower.

“There are other people waiting in line, can you move your asses?”

Liam’s inner wolf snarled. That voice, that annoying voice! He felt Theo tense in his arms and smelled his mate’s chemosignals turning sour. They had broken the kiss and the mated couple slowly turned their heads. Erik was sitting in the pay kiosk the pack had waited in line before and had a peeved look on his face. The people in front of them had already gotten their tickets so the pack was up next and Liam and Theo were really blocking the way but Liam would take a wild guess and say that was not the reason for Erik being pissed. He took one quick look at Theo who had visible paled, then his grip on Theo’s shirt tightened. It took all for Liam to contain himself and not punch that asshole. 

He took some deep breaths and closed his eyes, counted to ten, then he released Theo and stepped closer to the kiosk.  “You are Erik.” Erik scoffed and pointed overly dramatic at his nametag. “And you are the boyfriend.” He let his eyes travel up and down Liam’s appearance. “I can’t see how the hell I lost to you.” The way he spat it out sounded like Liam was some nasty insect or something.  “Hey!” His Betas chimed in, ready to defend their Alpha’s honor.  “Stay out of this!” Liam barked and pulled out his wallet to slam money in front of Erik. “Just give me the tickets. My boyfriend and I would like to spend a fun day with our friends.” Erik just glared but then took the money and handed Liam the tickets as well as his change. With one last glare, Liam bypassed the kiosk and finally stepped into the amusement park.

He inhaled loudly through his nose. What an asshole! “I’m sorry.” Theo stood next to Liam and rubbed his neck with an apologetic look on his face. “What are you sorry about? That guy tried to kiss you without your consent and he clearly doesn’t care about you being a taken man. It’s not your fault at all, so stop apologizing for something you had no influence on, okay?” Liam said firmly and Theo looked like a kicked puppy, insecurity clear in his eyes. Liam’s shoulders fell. “Hey.” He stepped up to Theo and took his hands in his own. “I am not mad at you, I know you didn’t tell him to kiss you. So, please stop feeling like it’s your fault. There are asshole people who do things to others without consent and that’s their fault alone. Not yours, okay? I want to have a great time at this amusement park with my mate and my Betas, I’m not allowing this douchebag to destroy this.”  Theo nodded when Liam was finished and Liam just smiled and kissed him. “Everything’s okay, baby.”

His mate tried a small smile and Liam smiled back before he addressed the rest of his pack. “Let’s have fun!” “I grabbed a map of the whole park.” Tim waved said map before he unfolded it. Corey and Nolan flanked him to also take a look at the many rides offered here.  “There are like five roller coasters. And there is an auto scooter. This is great. A stunt show happens several times a day, there is a petting zoo for small kids, guys, this will be an awesome day.” Corey was ecstatic and Mason beamed at his husband. Liam grinned and felt Theo lace their hands together. He looked at his boyfriend and they shared a loving smile. “Just for the record, guys, we don’t have to stick together all day, okay? Everyone can do whatever they want to do.” Liam saw it as his duty to remind his Betas of that and they thanked him with beaming smiles before running off. “Seriously, I became a dad at the age of nineteen.”  “Does that surprise you?” Theo asked him and the amusement was unhidden in his voice. Liam glanced at him.

“Huh?” “You’re the Alpha, that makes you the dad. You also have a very caring nature when you’re not being reckless in terms of your own safety. Basically, you were made for leading a pack.”  Liam had never thought about himself leading a pack when he had been just a Beta in Scott’s pack. But then last summer happened and it had changed everything. And then he realized: “Oh my god!” “What?” Theo looked stunned by Liam’s exclamation.  “I’m an Alpha for almost a year already!” “Seriously, Lee, I thought something serious was going on. You’re only realizing this now?”

Theo didn’t seem fazed by this and started walking towards the first ride on their way, the auto scooter. Liam hurried to keep pace with him. “Yeah, I do. You know, I’m slow.” “Stop talking about yourself like that!” Theo said harshly and Liam blinked. “Well, it’s true. I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed.” “Liam, I swear to god, if you don’t stop talking about yourself like that, I will punch you. No one talks about my mate like that, not even my mate himself.” "Uhm, okay?” Liam was at loss here. He never had expected Theo to react like that. It was true, after all. “I hate to hear you say things like that. You are smart, stop telling yourself you’re not. You do well in your classes, you are good at giving advice, all those things would not be possible if you were as dumb as you say you are.” He didn’t give Liam a chance to answer and just kissed him before pulling him along the way. “Now, let’s enjoy the rides.”

And Liam realized again, they both had their fair share of insecurities and needed each other to feel better about them, to make each other realize they were not as bad as they considered themselves to be. He smiled. “Thank you.”

****** The amusement park was awesome and even though all rides were Wild West themed, it was insanely fun to check them all out. With Liam’s rule, they didn’t have to stick together, the pack soon broke into smaller groups and explored the park. Liam was challenged by Ever, Mike and Corey to an auto scooter fight while Sadie, Mason, and Theo took many pictures and videos of them before the group switched. Mike won in the first round, Theo won the second round and laughed at the pouting Sadie. The blonde quickly ran off, however, claiming she found an awesome spot to take pictures before taking yet another ride. Mike, Corey, and Mason somehow disappeared into one of the many stores selling all kind of merch, but Liam was not in the mood for any shopping right now. He rather wandered around a bit more, with Theo by his side.

“This really nice. And we have extremely good weather, this makes it even better.” Theo held his face in the sun and Liam watched him with a smile. “Yep, a perfect day. Glad to see you happy again.”  Theo tilted his head and looked at Liam. “Last night, you acted so maturely, it was insane. I was just too drunk to really notice it and too freaked out but now that I think about it, you really were. Mature, mature little Alpha.” “Are you making fun of me?” Liam laughed. Theo just grinned innocently and then sat on a bench before he pulled Liam on his lap.  "No, I’m admiring you”, he muttered and then kissed Liam deeply.  “There are kids here at the park”, Liam reminded his lover but wrapped both arms around Theo’s neck and replied to the kiss. He felt Theo smile and could not fight his responding smile back.

Both of their phones chimed suddenly and broke them apart. That and the reason they needed to breathe after they had kissed so deeply. Liam fished his phone out of the pocket and laughed at the picture of Mason with a giant cowboy hat on his head which Corey sent to every pack member.  “They are silly.” “Hm.” Theo nodded and kissed Liam’s cheek. “Although I do have to say, I like having some time with you alone right now. I love the pack but I love you even more. Let them be silly somewhere else for a little while.” The love confession made Liam smile happily and he gave Theo a quick kiss before he pocketed his phone again. “Would you like to go on another ride? There should be a log flume nearby.” “Sure.” At Theo’s nodding, Liam got to his feet and pulled his mate up from the bench by his hand. He didn't let go while they made their way towards the log flume. 

The ride was a bit off the center so not many people were gathered there which meant Theo and Liam didn’t have to wait long until they could sit into one of the little round boats and sail down the river. It was one of those gentler rides with mechanical figures on the sides teaching a story about the Wild West. Perfect to just sit back, let the sun shine on your face, and enjoy the day. Liam stretched his legs out. “This is nice”, he said dreamily and rested his head against the padded headrest of the boat. Theo next to him hummed. Liam turned his head and watched his boyfriend with a soft smile. Theo looked at the mechanical figures left and right, seemingly lost in the story they’ve been telling. “You’re pretty calm about the Erik thing”, he suddenly said and turned his head to look at Liam.  Liam shrugged. “What can I say? I’m growing up.” Theo’s lips twitched as if he wanted to laugh but couldn’t bring himself to do so in the end. “I’m serious, Liam.” “So am I. Trust me, I want to jump him and punch that arrogant smile off his face but that would only lead to more problems. I also know I won because I have you, that’s all that matters.” Theo didn’t seem really convinced everything was good so Liam reached over and laced their fingers together. “I’m also not holding a grudge against you or think you cheated, you know that, right?” “I think so.” Theo looked unsure. “Theo, everything is fine. Stop worrying, there are no bad feelings between you and me. I am not angry at you. Everything is fine. Between you and me, I mean.” “Nothing left unsaid?” Theo asked and Liam shook his head. “Nothing left unsaid between us, all out in the open.”

He looked at their laced fingers and sighed internally. This wasn’t quite right and he knew it. In regards to the Erik situation, everything had been said, but there was something else. “Okay, no, wait, I have to tell you something. Nothing regarding Erik, so don’t start freaking out again, there is something else.” Liam couldn’t care less about the cowboys and horses left and right, he just decided to be completely honest. “It’s something I haven’t told Mason either and you have to promise you won’t be mad at me.” Theo frowned. “What happened? Did you do something?” He shook his head. “I have…How should I word this? I have the feeling something is going to happen. I don’t know what exactly this will be I just know something is coming and I have to be prepared. It’s not necessarily a threat, doesn’t feel like one, but I still want to keep both eyes open for anything that could come our way. I just decided not to tell the pack because I didn’t want you guys to worry. And now I fear like this might get between us and I want to prevent this from happening.” Theo took Liam’s words in and his frown deepened. “What do you mean, something will happen? What gives you that feeling? Another dream from your wolf?” “No, I just have this feeling. It suddenly started, like a cackle in the air. Started somewhere around Las Vegas. The only other person who knows is Ever. She feels it too. Something is shifting in the air. Maybe it’s nothing, maybe it’s a big thing, we don’t know yet but we look out for it.” “That’s why you were so distracted at the airport and constantly tried to keep us together as a group. And also the reason you’re not touching any alcoholic beverages”, Theo realized and Liam sighed. “I need a clear mind if I want to protect my pack. I’m the Alpha.” “We’re your Betas, we have the right to know.” “While you’re usually right, I have to disagree on this. I don’t want you guys to constantly look over your shoulders and live in fear. If I find out what exactly is coming our way, I will inform you asap.” Liam shook his head again. “Please don’t fight me on this and please don’t be mad. I just try to be a good Alpha and keep you all happy and safe.” His plea made Theo inhale deeply and he grunted. He pulled Liam in a tight embrace. “Stubborn little Alpha”, Theo muttered into Liam’s ear and Liam chuckled. Then he jumped and squeaked when Theo tickled him. “That’s for not telling your mate! I have to know these things, if they’re bothering you or not or if they’re dangerous, it’s my duty as the Alpha’s mate.” “You’re right, you’re right, but please stop now!” Liam laughed and tried to ward Theo off. His boyfriend showed mercy and just pulled him into a long kiss. “You’re not mad?” Liam asked after they parted again and leaned their foreheads against each other. “No. Thanks for filling me in now, I appreciate it.”

They finished their ride shortly after and Liam realized he had no idea what the story had been about but he felt lighter. Sharing his thoughts with Theo made them more bearable and he felt readier to face whatever might happen. Hand in hand the couple wandered further into the park and passed some souvenir shops where they spotted Ever kneeling in front of a rack with name key chains. “Hey, did everybody abandon you?” Theo asked lightly and smiled at her. “I’d rather say I wandered off in search for my name. The joys of having a rare one.” “Liam and Theo can totally relate.” Liam nodded solemnly and Theo smirked at his mate. “Hush you. I found Tim several times already, as well as Mike and Mason. Corey is there too, Maya seems sold out, but I have to accept the fate of never finding my name on any of those things.” She got to her feet again. “And you? Just wandering around and enjoying the company?” “We just came from one of the softer log flumes. Oh, and I told Theo about our feeling, Ever. I think you should know that.” Ever looked surprised but then smiled gratefully. “So I can talk with both of you and don’t have to watch my words when Theo’s around?” “Yeah, he knows everything we know at this point.” “What about Mason and Corey, will you tell them as well? As your consultant and your emissary they should be in the known”, Theo told Liam. Liam sighed and pushed his hands in the pockets of his jeans. “I agree but they’re newlyweds and even my brain tells me they should know, I can’t help but remember the nightmares Mason had several times back in Beacon Hills and then I can’t bring myself to taint their happiness with my worries or feelings. It just doesn’t feel right to steal this from them.” “It’s a tough decision.” Ever agreed on this and smiled supportively at Liam. “But even if you’re not telling them right away, the minute it gets more concrete, you should let them know.” “I will”, Liam stated. “Now let’s find the others. No worries for today.”

****** They had gathered at one of the many restaurants there and were waiting for their order. Mason and Liam had just filled two small bowls with salad from the salad buffet and passed the door leading outside when an obnoxious voice interrupted them. “I still don’t get what he sees in you.” Liam stopped dead in his tracks. He started to hate this voice. “Are you talking to me?” He faced Erik leaning against the door outside and taking a drag from his cigarette. “Of course I am. Are you not even able to tell if somebody is talking to you?” Liam growled lowly and took a step forward. Mason’s hand closed around his upper arm. “Liam, he’s not worth it.” Erik paid the other human no mind and let his eyes travel over Liam’s appearance. “If you were at least good-looking but you’re just normal. You’re not even tall and maybe you have muscles but that’s all you have.” Erik was right about the height, Liam would give him that. Erik was taller than him and Theo but that meant nothing. “Good thing Theo doesn’t just care about the appearance of people”, he snapped. “But you’re not even smart, to begin with. I talked to Theo and saw how eager he was to finally have somebody on is level he could talk to about movies and books. When was the last time you read?” Mason’s grip on Liam’s arm dropped but now he took a step closer to Erik. “Did you just call me best friend dumb?” “Mason, stop. You’re right, he’s not worth it. Let’s go.” Liam wanted to end this right here and leave the jerk standing there. But Erik was not having it. “I believe I did call him that. He is nothing more than a brainless idiot who doesn’t know how to say two intelligent sentences. I hope you’re at least a good fuck. Theo is missing a lot of things, which should be the minimum. Otherwise, I would pity him even more than I already do. Then again, he can’t be as smart as I thought he was since he’s still stuck with you and intends to keep it that way. A lousy life but he seemingly deserves it.”

Liam barely registered what happened next. He pushed his salad in Mason’s hand and then his fist collided with Erik’s nose. It sent him to the ground and he groaned in pain. “Fuck, are you crazy?” With another growl, Liam towered over him and grabbed him by the front of his shirt. “Say about me whatever you want but don’t you dare to insult my boyfriend! And if you ever put your filthy paws on him again I will do way more than just punch you.” His wolf was snarling inside him, angry at the guy who disrespected his mate like that, and Liam heard the familiar rush of blood in his ears, like every time his IED kicked in, and yet he heard a little voice in his head reminding him not to lash out. His fangs were not coming out, even though his jaw hurt from restraining the shift, his claws were still not out yet, his eyes were – hopefully – not flashing, Liam was reigning his anger in, guided by the little voice (which sounded a lot like his grandpa and Byron combined). He huffed out a breath and dropped Erik again.

His vision became clearer again, not as clouded as moments before, and he saw Mason staring at him and a waitress stepping out and giving a pointed look at Erik who scattered to his feet and fled the scene. Liam gulped. “Sorry.” She sure as hell didn’t like him punching her co-worker. But she giggled. “Erik had this coming. He’s an ass to most. I sure as hell aren’t mad at you punching him. He deserved that.” Liam blushed and Mason took pity on him and pulled him inside the restaurant again. “Damn, Lee.” “I know, I know.” He lowered his head in shame. “I got angry.” “Shut up, he had this coming. For what he did to Theo, for what he said. But you didn’t shift. You stayed completely human. I’ve never seen you in control like this. That was intense.” Mason shook his head in wonder. “I wanted to. Wanted to shift and rip him apart but I held myself back, thanks to the voice of reason in my head. Still, I punched him and shouldn’t have done that.” “You punched the motherfucker who tried to break you and Theo up and tried to kiss him without consent. Can’t really feel sorry for that one.” Liam was torn. He was still ashamed of his outburst but Mason was also right, he had kept control most of the time. And it had felt good to punch that asshole. He straightened his back. “Not to condone violence but it did feel good.” Mason grinned. “I bet it did.” 

He put one arm around Liam’s shoulder and laughed. “It was also funny to watch.” “Mason.” But Liam could not help and laugh himself while they walked back to their table. The pack had been chatting animatedly and had not caught glimpse of the heated exchange outside. “What are you laughing about?” Corey asked when he spotted Mason and Liam. “Liam punched Erik.” Mason giggled and slumped in his chair. “What?” Theo looked shocked and Liam shrugged, embarrassment flaring up again. He sat next to his mate and played with his salad. “He insulted you.” “He also called Liam dumb”, Mason added and Theo narrowed his eyes. “I still have to say Liam stayed amazingly in control, more than I have ever seen him. Our Alpha is really growing up. I feel like a proud father right now.” He ruffled his best friend’s hair and Liam shrieked. “The sad part is, we didn’t get to see”, Mike muttered. “Stop it. Violence is no solution and I shouldn’t have done it. It felt good, yes, but it was wrong.” Liam knew he had made a mistake and he felt kind of guilty for not really feeling sorry. Growing up was weird. He wanted to continue with his salad but then his head got pulled around and Theo kissed him. “I love you”, the Beta mumbled against his lips. “Thanks for defending me.” “Hm, I love you too. You don’t have to thank me for that, this is only natural.”

****** They had checked out before going to the park and stored their bags in the cars right after so they could enjoy a fun day and then drive home immediately after. Everyone was exhausted, but it was the good kind of exhaustion, the kind where you were happy and sated after being outside the whole day and doing lots and lots of fun activities. The day had been tiring and they all were quieter than usual when driving. Liam had taken charge of driving Theo’s truck, with Mason, Corey, and Nolan in the backseat, and Theo riding shotgun. Corey and Mason were curled up together and fast asleep, Nolan leaned against the window and slept as well. Theo had been awake for the first forty minutes into the ride but when Liam glanced over at one point, he found his boyfriend slumped against the window, breath even and calm, eyes closed. Liam smiled. That his friends fell asleep while he was driving was a great compliment to his driving skills and it also made him happy as an Alpha. He was awake while most of his pack slept, a look in the rearview mirror showed Sadie in the passenger seat of his car also sleeping while Maya was driving. The quiet made Liam’s mind wander while he kept his eyes on the road. The sun was also setting and Liam loved driving during those times. It made everything a little bit more magical and melancholically.

He thought about the last year, what happened and what he already accomplished. He came such a long way from the Beta he had been in Beacon Hills, from the angry boy who had been tossed in a world way bigger than himself. His parents knew now, he didn’t have to hide such a big part of himself anymore, he was finally having the man he loved for years by his side, he had become a leader. Liam was sure, his seventeen-year-old self would be astonished by all the changes; heck even Liam today had a hard time wrapping his head around all of it sometimes. But it was true, he had accomplished all of that, mostly with the help of others, but it had shaped him, and every encounter Liam had made down the road had given him something, sometimes positive, sometimes negative. It all made him into the person he was today and he didn’t want to miss this. Sure, there were some experiences he would have rather not made along the way, seeing his friends die for example, but overall he was okay. It made him also realize something else. He liked himself. For probably the first time in his entire life, Liam liked himself and the kind of person he was. He knew, he had a lot to learn and a long way to go still, his anger was still a thing and all, but just like he recently proved, he was getting better at managing it, and he learned to cope with difficult situations better than before. He was getting better and that alone was a boost for his spirit, it made Liam smile.

****** The arrival at home was as quiet as the ride. The Betas woke up again and gathered their things before making their way into the house and back to bed. It was late enough anyway, sleep was in order. Liam locked the front door and then walked into the kitchen to fill Koda’s and Aka’s bowls with water before he also dragged himself upstairs and into bed. Theo was already curled under the covers and just raised his arm so Liam could slip underneath when he finally came to bed. Liam smiled and kissed his cheek, then he closed his eyes and fell asleep only moments later.

Despite him being tired and falling asleep fast, Liam could not really sleep well. It wasn’t nightmares per se but images kept flashing of an injured Scott, Lori’s and Brett’s death, the sewers, Theo getting dragged to hell, the Ghost Riders, Monroe, the Berserkers, and Liam woke up every few minutes or so it seemed. His bones were aching to finally get rest but his mind would not stay silent. Liam sighed and ran his fingers through Theo’s hair. His boyfriend was cuddled close and thankfully didn’t wake up when Liam did. At least one of them could get their well-deserved rest. Liam sighed again and closed his eyes, willing to silence his mind and fall asleep for a few hours now.

Next thing he knew he was woken up again but this time not because of the things he dreamed about. It was still dark in the room and despite being an Alpha, Liam needed a moment for his eyes to get used to the darkness. Then he pondered what had woken him up this time. His first guess had been Theo having a nightmare but his boyfriend was still sleeping peacefully, head against the crook of Liam’s neck and one arm tossed over Liam’s stomach, so that was out of the question.

Liam listened. He had become quite good at making out the different heartbeats in his home and the breathing patterns of his Betas, it was easy for him to count if someone was missing or to notice if something was odd. It was then that he heard the soft footsteps on the wooden floor. Somebody was moving in his home but from the number of heartbeats, it had to be one of the pack members, not an intruder.

Well, in a house filled with that many people it wasn’t unusual for somebody to wake up late at night and go to the bathroom or have a midnight snack in the kitchen. Liam still sat up and listened where the footsteps were going. Down the hallway for sure. “Liam?” Theo woke up when his arm moved after Liam sat up. “What’s wrong?” “Shh”, Liam whispered, “somebody’s awake.” Theo blinked and then groaned. “That’s not unusual, go back to sleep. They’re probably just hungry.” Yet something stopped Liam from laying back down. He strained his ears. “But, Theo, listen.” Theo raised his head again, even though he didn’t look happy about it. Down the stairs, through the hallway, and into the kitchen. “See? Midnight snack. Please, Liam, go back to sleep.” He yawned. Liam tilted his head and his eyes flashed when he partially shifted to hear even better. “Into the kitchen but no opening of the fridge door. Why not?” Theo grunted and hid his face in his pillow. “Maybe they want fruit. Liam, please, I am exhausted.” Liam tried to listen but could not hear more suspicious sounds. Funnily that made him only more suspicious and he left the bed. “You can’t be serious right now”, Theo grumbled behind him and Liam heard him shifting but paid him no mind. “I’m going to investigate. You can come with me or stay here, I don’t care.” “I swear to god, if we walk into this kitchen and one of our Betas is sitting there, eating a fruit salad, I will put the blame entirely on you and make fun of you for the next twenty years to come!” Theo muttered but rolled out of bed and followed Liam into the hallway and down the stairs.

They entered the kitchen but found nobody there and Liam frowned but then spotted the open door to the garage. He nodded over and Theo shrugged. Slowly they inched closer to the door and looked inside the dark garage. Moonlight fell through the small windows in the garage door and Liam could make out the opened driver’s door of Theo’s truck and a person sitting behind the wheel. He knew who it was before her scent hit his nose and he frowned. “Ever? What are you doing?” She didn’t reply and kept staring at the garage door instead, almost as if she had not heard him. “Ever?” Theo tried now but also got no reply. “Is she sleepwalking?” Liam shrugged. He wasn’t aware Ever was a sleepwalker but he had seen stranger things. His dad once told him to be careful and not wake up sleepwalking people too harshly, so Liam moved slowly until he stood in the open door right next to her seat. “Ever, hey”, he said softly and gently touched her arm.

It did wake her up, though he had not intended that, and she let out a high-pitched scream Lydia would be proud of. Liam staggered backward and would have fallen on his ass had it not been for Theo keeping him up. Moments later they heard sounds from above, fast footsteps, and then the rest of the core pack burst through the door. “Where’s the attacker?” Mason yelled, swinging his baseball bat dangerously. Corey next to him was gripping his lacrosse stick while the wolves all had their claws and fangs extracted and their eyes glowed.

They all stared at each other and looked around to whatever caused Ever to scream so loudly and wake up the entire house. Sadie finally spoke up: “What is going on? Why are you screaming as if somebody wanted to murder you?” “She screamed.” Liam pointed at Ever. His heart was beating wildly and the adrenaline still rushed through his veins. Ever had scared him and his body immediately kicked into the fight reflex. Thanks to Beacon Hills for that. Ever ran a hand through her hair and looked around. “Why am I not in my bed? Why am I in Theo’s truck?” “Good question. Could you please get out?” Theo was more scared about his truck, now that everybody seemed well. “I remember going to bed. Now I’m here. Why am I here?” Ever asked while she climbed out of the truck. She seemed deeply distressed by this and Tim reached out to rub her back in a comforting manner. “Did you ever sleepwalk before?” Maya inquired and Ever shook her head. “People don’t start to sleepwalk all of sudden, right? Or only when they’re under a lot of stress and pressure. Do you feel stressed or pressured?” Mike now asked and again Ever shook her head. “Sorry for waking you up, guys”, she muttered sadly. “And for scaring you, Liam.” “Nah, it’s fine, I’m glad you are okay.” Liam gave her a warm smile and then stepped aside so he could close the door but Theo stopped him. “Wait!”

The older climbed into his truck. “You inserted an address into my navigation device.” He was right, the little display was turned on and the blue starting point was pulsing, indicating the system was ready to guide the way. “So? What’s there waiting for you? Craving some midnight ice cream or coffee?” The ex-chimera tried to joke but neither Ever nor Liam felt like joking right now. She leaned in and inspected the touchscreen. “Never heard of this address before, I don’t even know where this is supposed to be.” She shivered. “Scary.” “Nah, not scary, you were just sleepwalking. Some sleepwalkers leave their houses and go somewhere else because they dreamt of it before. Maybe you did this as well.” Mike shrugged it off. “And why didn’t she go there? Aren’t sleepwalkers working on autopilot? She could have opened the gate and drive to her destination. What stopped her?” Corey asked and narrowed his eyes while he was thinking about it. “That Ever can’t drive stick?” Nolan offered a very solid explanation. “Probably.” Ever didn’t seem really convinced and neither was Liam. There was something strange…

“We should move to the kitchen and talk there.” The young Alpha had seen Ever shiver in her thin shirt and sleep shorts. “Maybe drink some hot tea.” “Speaking of hot, I wanted to get Ever a jacket from her room.” Maya stood in the doorway to the kitchen, jacket in hand. “Ever, what did you do to your mirror?” “What are you talking about?” Ever seemingly had no idea. Liam and Theo shared a look and then they left the garage and raced upstairs to find out what this was all about.

True to Maya’s words Ever’s standing mirror had been…decorated. Several letters written in lipstick were smeared all over the glass, the lipstick lying on the floor. “Don’t get me wrong, this looks like some sort of portal.” Mason shivered as well but Tim shook his head. “Not a portal. If she had just written the letters on the frame, then maybe yes, but she also wrote them right in the middle of the mirror. That more or less works as a barricade and blocks anyone, the entrance is not free.” Everyone stared at him and he coughed in embarrassment. “What? I like to read fantasy books.” “I didn’t want to summon a portal or give someone entrance. I don’t know why I did this or when I did this. I never sleepwalked before, how am I supposed to know that?” Ever defended herself.

Liam looked at Theo. This night turned out completely different than he had expected it and it seemed like their quiet time was over faster than expected. “I’m not really sure you exactly sleepwalked, Ever”, Theo said carefully. “You mean I did this while I was awake? This is impossible, Theo!” “No, I’m not saying you were awake. What I’m trying to get at is…Having somebody in trance and doing things is not really new for the Beacon Hills gang.” Mason made a curious sound. “You’re talking about Lydia?” Theo nodded. “She had those episodes and those either led to a dead body or something equally unsettling. And she also drew something or wrote something. Maybe those letters mean a word but nor a real word itself, just the shortened version of it. Like YMCA. It’s a shortened version of the name.” “But Lydia is a banshee”, Nolan chimed in. “And Ever is a witch. Both are influenced by certain things and Ever proved more than once she has certain feelings when something is going on. You, just as Liam, know something is currently going on, right?” He gave her a meaningful look and immediately Mason caught up on it. “What’s that supposed to mean?” Liam sighed. And then he explained everything.

“I can’t believe you kept this from us!” Maya was enraged. “I didn’t want any of you to worry. We still don’t know what all this is about!” Liam argued back. He had sat next to Ever on her bed but now he got to his feet. “Where are you going?” Corey asked. “Getting dressed. And then I’m driving to the address Ever typed in.” He saw the hesitation in his pack’s eyes and ran a hand through his hair. “I’m not forcing anybody to come with me. If you want to stay here, that’s fine. I’m not mad.” “Yeah.” Mike scoffed. “We let our Alpha go there all alone.” “I’m coming with you for sure.” Ever jumped to her feet. “You’re running headfirst into the next supernatural mess”, Theo reminded them. He paused for a moment, then he continued: “Of course, we are coming with you.”

It only took some minutes for them all to get ready and then they were in the cars, with Theo’s truck taking the lead. Liam glanced at the display of the navigation device almost every second and the closer they got to the location he felt himself getting more and tenser. What would be waiting there for them? Another dangerous creature? Another something able to kill them all or make them disappear forever?

“I wrote all the letters down from Ever’s mirror but they don’t make sense.” Mason sat in the back seat and stared at the notepad he had scribbled everything down. “What letters do we have?” Liam had asked this already but maybe this time they would find a solution. “We have L, T, B, O, another T, R, I, R again, and E. I go with Theo’s explanation and say those are just a shortened term for something. Or the doubled letters are just a mistake. It doesn’t make sense.” Liam wanted to agree but Corey interrupted them. “Guys, look at that!” He pointed ahead and at the sky. The dark slowly turned into soft pink and orange light and would have been beautiful on any other day but now certain parts of the sky flickered like a candle in the wind. “What the hell is that?” Theo asked but as fast as it happened, it was gone again and the sky looked normal. “You saw that too?” Mike’s voice came from the speaker of Theo’s phone right next to the navigation system. “I have no idea what I just saw but I saw it”, Theo muttered and frankly, he was right. This got more and more mysterious the closer they got to their destination and when the system finally alerted them of their arrival, they confused.

“But, this is a forest.” They were in an empty parking lot right next to a big wooden wall showing off the different hiking paths in the area. One single street lamp cast a silver glow on the otherwise empty lot when the pack got out of their cars. “We drove here in the middle of the night, just because you needed some fresh air?” Sadie glared at Ever and she raised her hands in silent defense. “Liam wanted to drive here!” He felt the glances of his pack on his face while he stared at the dark forest. “It led us here and I think it’s for a reason. The only way to really find out is to go in there.” Liam pointed at the forest. It wouldn’t be his favorite choice but did he really have one, to begin with? Another flicker on the left side of the forest caught his eye and he pressed his jaw shut. The unknown fear of whatever was lurking there crept up on him and Liam hoped he didn’t tremble as much as he probably wanted to. “There’s another one of those things.” Tim pointed to the right. Close to the ground, nature flickered again. A little rabbit hopped towards it and when it passed the flicker it looked like his insides were turned outside. You saw his beating heart, muscles, and all the veins. Only for a split second, then it looked normal again and went on with his little bunny life, completely unharmed, and disappeared into the bushes. “None of you touches one of those things!” Liam ordered his Betas after he managed to gain control over his dropped jaw again. Just for the record, he hoped nobody actually planned on doing so anyway. “Still want to go into the forest?” Nolan glanced at Liam and sighed. “Course you do.” He had grabbed three flashlights at home which he now handed to Ever and Mason and kept one for himself.

They slowly inched towards the forest, careful to stay away from any flickers as far as possible. Liam had no idea where they were heading, they were just going in the direction those flickers were coming from. Even with their ability to see in the darkness, it was hard to make out the exact path and Liam flashed his eyes. “Keep a close eye on each other”, he instructed his pack and grabbed Theo’s hand. Theo squeezed his hand and it made Liam a tiny bit calmer to have his boyfriend by his side. “Thanks”, he mouthed at Theo and Theo squeezed his hand again to show he heard Liam.

The loud sound of screeching tires made them all jump and Sadie yelp in shock. “Was that a car?” Ever breathed out. “We’re in the middle of a fucking forest, how the hell did a car get here?” Mike hissed. “That didn’t even came from the street but somewhere out of the forest,” Maya growled. “Liam?” Mason had looked at his best friend for advice and found the young Alpha completely frozen, face pale. “Liam, are you okay?”

He was not okay. His thoughts were racing and he slowly pieced together what he knew at this point. There were so many impossible things, then again life has proved since several years nothing was impossible. But could it be? Was this real? It unfolded in front of his eyes and Liam should have probably been surprised it was him of all people who made the connection but he was too shocked at the moment. That one sound had brought so much up and suddenly it became one picture.

“Ever, the letters you wrote on the mirror, they make sense. It’s just not one word, it’s two. Names, to be exact.” Liam gulped. “What names?” The witch was surprised. Liam’s voice was shaking when he finally replied. “Brett and Lori. And the car you heard is the exact same car that ran them over. It’s what I heard when I was in the sewers.”

His reveal shocked everyone. His pack knew parts about the death of the two unknown wolves but not everything and Liam almost never talked about it. Even after three years, it was still a difficult topic. Now Liam wiped his eyes. He could not grieve right now, not when they were still figuring out was all this crazy shit was all about. “Let’s go. Feels like we’re getting closer.” He began to run deeper into the woods, not being able to walk slowly. He wanted answers and he wanted them now.

The further they ran into the forest, nature around them flickering more often. They had to dodge several times to not run right through one of those but finally, they landed on what appeared the center of the flickering. A large clearing and right in the middle a larger flicker than any of the ones before. It almost looked as if somebody had drawn a watercolor painting of the clearing and then dragged a wet brush right across the middle of it all. Colors were slowly fading into each other, flickering and waving around, and from the flicker itself came a sickly blue light. Liam narrowed his eyes to see better against the light. He could see the outline of a person but the flicker between them made it impossible to be sure. Might as well be a tree. “Liam, be careful,” Theo begged his mate and Liam nodded but slowly stepped closer. His pack stayed behind him; good that way they were safer in case of an attack. Liam. He heard his name but it sounded far away. His wolf inside him was ready to pounce, ready to come out and protect his human side in case of a new danger. Liam. He moved closer to the large rift and he thought he saw the outline on the other side move as well. His wolf snarled inside him and his eyes glowed red. The outline was moving closer, he could make this out now, and Liam raised a hand. Was this some sort of mirror? Did he see himself on the other side? The car tires sounded up again and he heard his name being whispered. Remembered the sewers, the despair to know his friends were dead. And then a sudden shockwave paired with a deafening sound sent him flying to the ground.

Liam groaned when he met with the ground so harshly. His head hurt from the sudden hit and he stayed down to get rid of the dizziness coming with the pain. He coughed at the dust the burst had stirred up. 

Suddenly two hands cupped his face. “Please be okay. Please, please, be okay!” Theo begged and Liam saw tears glistening in his mate’s eyes. The whole thing probably looked worse than it really was when Theo was so panicked. “I’m okay.” Liam felt pain blossom in his jaw when he talked like you feel after somebody punched you. Black veins sneaked up Theo’s arms and he let out a watery chuckle before he wrapped his arms tightly around Liam and pressed him against his chest. “I couldn’t feel you anymore. For a moment you were gone from our mating bond. Never do this to me again!” He finally explained his panic and Liam wrapped his arms around Theo to hug him back. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. I’m here, I’m here and I’m not leaving you.”

He hugged Theo tightly but then cast a glance over his boyfriend’s shoulder. The dust was slowly settling and he saw his pack, all unharmed and safe but looking just as perplexed and shocked as Liam felt. 

And then he saw them. 

Two more people on the clearing, sitting on the dusty ground, clothes full of dust and grime. They looked around and moved closer together, almost to protect each other from everything around them. It made them seem like scared animals huddling together, which only increased when they saw the pack there. Until their eyes landed on Liam and he was so shocked he let go of Theo and stared at them. How could he not? This was such an unexpected encounter, Liam could not do much more than just staring at the two living, breathing people a few feet away from him. It took him a while until he found his voice again:

“Brett? Lori? Oh my god!”

I’m back! I know I took my time with that one because I started another project and I also lost my motivation somewhere along those weeks for a while. But I got it back and I hope you guys are happy about the new chapter. This was one of the ideas I had for so long and I’m excited I finally reached the point in the story to make it come true. Now I’m curious what you have to say about it. Comments? Wishes? Dreams? What will happen next?

Thanks for everyone waiting so patiently for me ♥♥

[citizenscreen]

When the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Neil Simon died on August 27 he left behind a rich legacy of laughter. Arguably the most successful playwright in American history, Simon was nominated for 17 Tony Awards, he won three: for author of “The Odd Couple,” and twice for best play, for “Biloxi Blues” and “Lost in Yonkers.” More impressively, Simon ruled comedy on the Broadway stage for decades.

Simon’s move to the movies proved his work transcended mediums as well with 3 Best Screenplay Academy Award nominations to his credit for Material from (his own) Previous Source, and 1 Best Writing Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen for The Goodbye Girl (1977). He won the Pulitzer for “Lost in Yonkers” in 1991 and was bestowed many more honors throughout his storied career. Oddly, none of that came to mind when I heard the news of Simon’s death. Not the recognition, not the over 9,000 Broadway performances of his work, and not the many movies he’s penned that I am fond of. What came to mind first was how my beloved New York City died a little with him.

Neil Simon

Yes, the first thing that comes to mind when I think of Neil Simon is New York. The city has been a major player in numerous movies I never tire of. Just think of The Odd Couple, Barefoot in the Park, Brighton Beach Memoirs, The Goodbye Girl, The Out of Towners, or The Prisoner of Second Avenue. Without the flavors, the sounds, and the smells of New York they wouldn’t be as good. New York is in every line of dialogue, in every accent, and in every move of the characters. Simon, a Bronx native, wrote about what he knew and what he knew was urban family drama. He had a heightened awareness of what is funny in people even at their worst. Perhaps the best example of that is “The Prisoner of Second Avenue,” Simon’s eighth long-running play, which ran for 798 performances from 1971 to 1973.

Peter Falk and Lee Grant in the original Broadway production of Neil Simon’s The Prisoner of Second Avenue

The Prisoner of Second Avenue Playbill, 1971

The Broadway production of “The Prisoner of Second Avenue” was directed by Mike Nichols, who was a frequent Neil Simon collaborator. Nichols won four Tonys for directing Simon material – “Barefoot in the Park” in 1964, “The Odd Couple” in 1965, “Plaza Suite” in 1968, and “Prisoner” in 1972. Although most of Simon’s work is autobiographical, “The Prisoner of Second Avenue” is an exception as it is based on his first wife’s uncle who went bankrupt and had a nervous breakdown in his forties.

Mike Nichols and Neil Simon after a show rehearsal in March 1968, in New York City.

I didn’t get to see “The Prisoner of Second Avenue” on Broadway, but would have loved to. The play starred Peter Falk as Mel Edison, Lee Grant as Edna Edison, and Vincent Gardenia, who won the play’s second Tony Award, as Mel’s brother Harry. The production was also nominated for Best Play, but lost to “Sticks and Bones.”

Neil Simon wrote the screenplay to the movie version of The Prisoner of Second Avenue, directed by Mel Frank and released in 1975. Now this I’m familiar with, which is why I chose it as my back-up for The Neil Simon Blogathon. I couldn’t get my hands on my first choice, Robert Moore’s Chapter Two (1979), which is overlooked and one of his favorites. Nonetheless, I’m happy to offer my thoughts on The Prisoner of Second Avenue, perhaps Simon’s darkest comedy.

Prisoner carries a punch thanks to Mel Frank’s terrific direction, memorable performances by the film’s two leads, and Simon’s sharp dialogue. Neil Simon commented on the story’s theme saying, “I don’t think audiences expect or want me to write serious plays. Maybe I was a little more successful with ‘Prisoner’. It’s a serious play that’s very funny.” Yeah, it is. And it translates wonderfully to the screen showing a brutal New York both by happenstance and in actuality. There’s a reason why the films of the 1970s took an upswing on violence. The City was a violent place in the 1970s and although Neil Simon got a lot of slack for portraying it in such a manner – even being accused of hating New York due to Prisoner – he depicted what he saw. Simon said of this to the New York Daily News: “Who hates it? I love it. I’m writing about big city life. The problems in ‘Prisoner’ are not exclusive to New York. People are robbed everywhere. There are major strikes in London, Paris, every major city. I only single out New York because I happen to live there.”

In another interview Simon speaks of remembering a time when he got in taxi cabs and had long discussions with the drivers about baseball. Suddenly as of the early 1970s a wall was put up to protect the drivers from being robbed and the passenger couldn’t get out of the car until the driver opened the door remotely. He depicts this in a scene at the beginning of Prisoner of Second Avenue after the protagonist, Mel Edison, chases a bus in sweltering heat. This is not a pretty picture, but we’re in for an affecting, uproariously funny adventure.

Anyone who has lived in a city like New York has to know all about what happens to Mel and Edna Edison. Their story is quite simple, but fraught with problems. The married couple lives in one of them tenement buildings, as Marjorie Main’s character in Meet Me in St. Louis would say, and encounter any number of tribulations one after another until poor Mel suffers a nervous breakdown. As the movie opens the City is in its eighth consecutive day of a heat wave as its inhabitants scurry through the bustling streets. Mel Edison steps out of his building and misses his bus. It’s the first sign that this is not going to be a good day for Mel. What we don’t know is that missing his bus is the least of his problems because in the coming days he will be nagged by the noisy airline stewardesses that live next door, by barking dogs, a continuously flushing toilet, rude neighbors, and a smell of garbage so potent it reaches the Edison’s 14th floor apartment. In addition, Mel is fired from his job of 22 years and is robbed of all his belongings including his liquor! I mean, the poor guy can’t catch a break. Mel’s saving grace is his wife, Edna, who gives as good as she can take. They are perfectly suited in character as are the two actors are playing against each other. They are the ultra-talented Jack Lemmon and Anne Bancroft.

Anne Bancroft and Jack Lemmon as Edna and Mel Edison

The Prisoner of Second Avenue is the third of four appearances by Jack Lemmon in a film written by Neil Simon. The others are The Odd Couple (1968), The Out of Towners (1970) and The Odd Couple II (1998). You probably know I can go on and on about Jack Lemmon’s talent and his performance in The Prisoner of Second Avenue because I already have in previous posts so I’ll try to keep this short.

In Prisoner Jack plays one of his “everyman” characters, the kind of man he is most associated with. His performance in this is astounding. One of his best, in my opinion, and that’s something considering he could do no wrong in my eyes. As is often the case, I am blown away when Jack says absolutely nothing, when he adds his signature poignancy to the broad comedy that makes him one of the all-time best. Despite quip after quip, the funny repartee, and the incredible circumstances presented this character, the truth is that Mel is deeply disillusioned, he is at the end of his rope and there’s nothing funny about that. No one could have given such a role in such a film the depth given it by Jack Lemmon. He breaks my heart – in another comedy. That’s Jack’s gift. Neil Simon described Jack’s talent saying, “there are terrific actors today that are good at what they do, but no one could open up like Jack Lemmon, no one could surprise you like Jack Lemmon.” He does so in Prisoner time and time again.

Anne Bancroft matches Lemmon word for word and feeling for feeling in this terrific movie. Her delivery is essential Simon epitomizing exactly what draws me to his material. She is funny, she is truthful, she is broad, and she too gives you the feels when the time calls for it. Prisoner is the first of two Neil Simon written films starring Bancroft. The second is Paul Bogart’s Broadway Bound (1992).

Gene Saks, who directed the Simon-penned The Odd Couple (1968), Brighton Beach Memoirs (1986), Barefoot in the Park (1967), and Last of the Red Hot Lovers (1972) plays Mel’s brother Harry in The Prisoner of Second Avenue and does a fine job of it. Elizabeth Wilson plays Mel’s sister Pauline and Florence Stanley reprises her role as Pearl from the play. You can also see Oscar-winner F. Murray Abraham as the taxi driver in the beginning of the movie and Sylvester Stallone appears as a guy who Mel thinks pickpockets him.

As much as I admire The Prisoner of Second Avenue it’s story is not unique Simon fare. Not only does Jack Lemmon also star in The Out of Towners, but that 1970 movie has many thematic similarities with Prisoner such as the exasperation of having every conceivable thing that can go wrong go wrong to a couple. Neil Simon also wrote a play that’s a very funny take on the biblical story of Job, titled “God’s Favorite” that was produced for the stage in 1974. This one wasn’t made into a film, but I’m familiar with it because it’s included in one of his anthologies. “God’s Favorite” also centers on a family except this time they live in a Long Island mansion. The patriarch of the family is a pious man named Joe Benjamin who is pushed to the limit by one of God’s messengers when he does not succumb to temptation. Everything imaginable is thrown Joe’s way as he is tested over and over again. It’s an enjoyable piece and worth a read.

As I was watching The Prisoner of Second Avenue today I reminisced about how long I’ve been a Neil Simon fan. No doubt I didn’t get the nuances in this work when I was a much younger person, when I first became aware of his talent through movies, but the laughter was just as heartfelt. This many years later, this many more laughs enjoyed, I can say with certainty that Neil Simon is the person I would most have liked to write like. I feel deeply connected to his words despite the fact that none of the families he wrote about are like mine. In fact, had I not been exposed to Neil Simon plays for the entirety of my life I would not be the person that I am nor would New York City be the same in my mind. Both are better because of him.

Thanks, Doc.

◊

Be sure to visit Caftan Woman and Wide Screen World to read much more on the work of this memorable talent in The Neil Simon Blogathon.

Neil Simon (July 4, 1927 – August 26, 2018)

Neil Simon’s THE PRISONER OF SECOND AVENUE When the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Neil Simon died on August 27 he left behind a rich legacy of laughter.

[aion-rsa]

Disney+ UK Star Launch: Complete List of New TV Shows and Films

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We came for The Mandalorian, stuck around for WandaVision, and, as we wait for The Falcon and Winter Soldier and Loki to arrive, there’s now a huge pile of new catalogue additions to work through, courtesy of Disney Plus’ Star brand.

Star launched on the Disney Plus streaming service in territories outside of the US (where Disney already has a home for adult drama in Hulu) on the 23rd of February. It’s added over 75 TV shows and 280 feature films here in the UK, including the entirety of Lost, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The X-Files, Glee, Prison Break, Sons of Anarchy and Scrubs as well as cult favourites Firefly, Flashforward, Terriers and more. There are also some UK debuts in the form of the Star Originals listed below.

Film-wise, there’s ample reason to go back to the 90s in the form of Arachnophobia, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Con Air and a host of others, plus…well, it’s almost 300 films. Chances are you’ll find something to tickle your fancy. Households with kids should know there are new parental controls to set too, ensuring that nobody gets any unwelcome surprises.

Here’s the complete list of titles so far:

Star Originals

Big Sky

From Mr TV himself, David E. Kelley (Doogie Howser, Chicago Hope, Ally Mcbeal, Big Little Lies) comes a nine-part crime thriller starring Ryan Philippe and Vikings‘ Katheryn Winnick. Based on the 2013 novel The Highway by C.J. Box, Big Sky is the story of a series of missing girls and a private detective/cop trio with a messy personal history who team up to find them. It aired on ABC in the US last winter.

Helstrom

There’s very little fanfare for this comic book show‘s UK debut, which met with mostly negative reviews on release and was cancelled after 10 episodes, but Marvel completists will want to take a look. Tom Austen and Sidney Lemmon play the Helstrom siblings Daimon and Satana, the children of serial killers who hunt down the worst of humanity.

Love, Victor

Another Hulu original making its UK debut, this teen drama spins off from celebrated gay teen 2018 film Love, Simon. It’s narrated by Nick Robinson, who played Simon in the original film, and follows the story of a Puerto-Rican/Colombian-American teen living in Atalanta. Reviews for the 10-part first season were strong and it’s been renewed for a second.

Solar Opposites

Rick and Morty‘s Justin Roiland and Star Trek: Lower Decks‘s Mike McMahan are the creators of this adult animated comedy series about a family of aliens (pictured above) forced to seek refuge in middle America. Season one was enthusiastically received, and a second run is due to air in the US in March. Read plenty more about it here.

TV Series

According To Jim, Seasons 1 – 8 Alias, Seasons 1-5 American Dad, Seasons 1-16 Animal Fight Night, Seasons 1-6 Apocalypse World War I, Season 1 Apocalypse: The Second World War, Season 1 Atlanta, Seasons 1-2 Blackish, Seasons 1-5 Bloody Tales Of Europe, Season 1 Bloody Tales Of The Tower, Season 1 Bones, Seasons 1-12 Brothers & Sisters, Seasons 1-5 Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Seasons 1-7 Buried Secrets Of WWII, Season 1 Burn Notice, Seasons 1-7 Castle, Seasons 1-8 Code Black, Seasons 1-3 Cougar Town, Seasons 1-6 Desperate Housewives, Seasons 1-8 Devious Maids, Seasons 1-4 Drugs, Inc. Seasons 2-7 Family Guy, Seasons 1-18 Feud: Bette And Joan, Season 1 Firefly, Season 1 Flashforward, Season 1 The Fosters, Seasons 1- 5 The Gifted, Seasons 1-2 Glee, Seasons 1-6 Grey’s Anatomy, Seasons 1-15 The Hot Zone, Season 1 How I Met Your Mother, Seasons 1-9 Inside North Korea’s Dynasty, Season 1 The Killing, Seasons 1-4 LA 92 Lance, Season 1 Lie To Me, Seasons 1-3 Lost, Seasons 1-6 Mafia Confidential Maradona Confidential Mars, Seasons 1-2 Modern Family, Seasons 1-8 O.J.: Made In America Perception, Seasons 1-3 Prison Break, Seasons 1-5 Raising Hope, Seasons 1-4 Resurrection, Seasons 1-2 Revenge, Seasons 1-4 Rosewood, Seasons 1-2 Scandal, Seasons 1-7 Scream Queens, Seasons 1-2 Scrubs, Seasons 1-9 Sleepy Hollow, Seasons 1-4 Snowfall, Seasons 1-3 Sons Of Anarchy, Seasons 1-7 The Strain, Seasons 1-4 Terra Nova, Season 1 Terriers, Season 1 Trust, Season 1 Ugly Betty, Season 1-4 Ultimate Survival WWII, Season 1 Valley Of The Boom, Season 1 Witness To Disaster, Season 1 WWII Bomb Hunters The X-Files, Season 1-9 The 2000s: The Decade We Saw It All, Season 1 24, Season 1-9 24: Legacy, Season 1 The 80s: The Decade That Made Us, Season 1 9/11 Firehouse The 90s: The Last Great Decade? Season 1 9-1-1, Season 1-2

Read more

TV

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By Kirsten Howard

TV

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Films

The 13th Warrior 42 to 1 9 to 5 Adam (2009) The Air Up There The Alamo (2004) Anna And The King Annapolis Another Earth Another Stakeout Anywhere But Here Arachnophobia Australia Bachelor Party Bad Ass Bad Company (2002) Bad Company (Aka: Tool Shed) Bad Girls (1994) Bad Times At The El Royale Baggage Claim The Banger Sisters Be Water Beaches Before And After (1996) Belle Beloved (1998) The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel Best Laid Plans Big Trouble Billy Bathgate Black Nativity Borat: Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation … Boys Don’t Cry Braveheart Breaking And Entering Bringing Out The Dead Broadcast News Brokedown Palace Broken Lizard’s Club Dread Brothers In Exile Brown Sugar Bubble Boy Bulworth Bushwhacked Can’t Buy Me Love Casanova (2005) Catch That Kid Cedar Rapids Chain Reaction Chasing Papi Chasing Tyson Choke The Clearing Cleopatra (1963) Cocktail Cocoon: The Return Cold Creek Manor The Color Of Money Come See The Paradise The Comebacks Commando (1985) Con Air Conan The Barbarian Confetti Consenting Adults A Cool Dry Place Cousin Bette Crazy/Beautiful Crimson Tide The Crucible Cyrus Damien – Omen Ii The Darjeeling Limited Dark Water Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes The Day The Earth Stood Still (2008) The Day The Series Stopped Day Watch Deadpool 2 Dead Presidents Deceived (1991) The Deep End Deep Rising Deion’s Double Play The Devil Wears Prada Devil’s Due Die Hard 2 Die Hard With A Vengeance Double Take Down And Out In Beverly Hills Down Periscope Dragonball: Evolution Dreaming Of Joseph Lees Drive Me Crazy The Drop Duets The East Ed Wood The Edge Encino Man Enemy Of The State Enough Said Evita Exodus: Gods And Kings The Fab Five (2011) Far From The Madding Crowd (2015) The Fault In Our Stars The Favourite The Final Conflict Firestorm (1998) The Fly (1986) For The Boys Four Falls Of Buffalo French Connection II The French Connection From Hell Gentlemen Broncos A Good Day To Die Hard Good Morning, Vietnam The Good Son (1993) A Good Year The Grand Budapest Hotel The Great White Hype Grosse Pointe Blank Guilty As Sin Gun Shy The Happening Here On Earth High Fidelity High Heels And Low Lifes Hitchcock Hoffa Holy Man Hope Springs (2003) I Heart Huckabees I Love You, Beth Cooper I Origins I Think I Love My Wife Idiocracy In America In Her Shoes Independence Day Independence Day: Resurgence Inventing The Abbotts Jennifer’s Body The Jewel Of The Nile John Tucker Must Die Johnson Family Vacation Jordan Rides The Bus Joshua Just Married Just Wright Kingdom Come Kissing Jessica Stein Kung Pow: Enter The Fist Ladyhawke The Ladykillers (2004) Last Dance (1996) Le Divorce The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou Live Free Or Die Hard Looking For Richard Mad Love (1995) The Man From Snowy River Margaret The Marine Marked For Death The Marrying Man Martha Marcy May Marlene MASH Max Payne The Maze Runner Medicine Man Melinda And Melinda Metro Miami Rhapsody Miller’s Crossing Moulin Rouge (2001) My Father The Hero Mystery, Alaska The Namesake Nature Boy Never Die Alone The Newton Boys Night Watch (2006) No Mas Nothing To Lose Notorious Office Space One Hour Photo Oscar And Lucinda The Other Woman (2014) Our Family Wedding Out To Sea Pathfinder (2007) Phat Girlz Phone Booth Planet Of The Apes (1968) Planet Of The Apes (2001) Pony Excess The Poseidon Adventure (1972) Post Grad Powder The Preacher’s Wife Pretty Woman Primeval The Puppet Masters The Pyramid Quills Quiz Show Ravenous Rebound Renaissance Man Revenge Of The Nerds Ii: Nerds In Paradise The Ringer Robin Hood (1991) The Rocker Romancing The Stone Ruby Sparks Runaway Bride Rushmore Ruthless People The Savages Say It Isn’t So The Scarlet Letter Sea Of Shadows The Secret Life Of Bees Separate Lies The Sessions Shadow Conspiracy Shallow Hal Shining Through The Siege Signs Simon Birch A Simple Twist Of Fate The Sitter (2011) Six Days, Seven Nights Sleeping With The Enemy Solaris Someone Like You Soul Food Spy Hard Stakeout Starship Troopers Stoker Summer Of Sam Super Troopers (2002) Surrogates Swing Kids Taxi (2004) Terminal Velocity Thank You For Smoking There’s Something About Mary The Thin Red Line (1999) Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Three Fugitives The Three Stooges (2012) Titan A.E. Tombstone Toys Trapped In Paradise Tristan & Isolde Up Close & Personal V.I. Warshawski Veronica Guerin The Village (2004) Von Ryan’s Express Waiting To Exhale Waitress Waking Life The War Of The Roses The Watch (2012) The Waterboy The Way Way Back What’s Love Got To Do With It When A Man Loves A Woman White Men Can’t Jump William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet Win Win Woman On Top Working Girl (1988) The X-Files

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The X-Files: I Want To Believe

Disney+ UK, now including Star is available for £7.99 per month

The post Disney+ UK Star Launch: Complete List of New TV Shows and Films appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[ericvick]

Bitcoin is surging in 2020 and nearing its all time high — here's why

Bitcoin topped $18,600 on Friday, continuing a vertical climb that accelerated in early October. The largest digital currency by market cap is up 160% in 2020, and up 190% since March 15, following a crash in the second week of March that saw the price drop 25%.

Now it’s not far from its all-time-high of around $19,800 toward the end of December 2017.

Bitcoin (BTC) bulls are hoping this time is different. And it is, judging by the breathless media coverage and general mania: there isn’t any.

In the previous bull run, financial (and non-financial) press went into a frenzy, in many cases covering bitcoin for the first time, and the price hike became a cultural conversation around Thanksgiving dinner tables. Stories proliferated of crypto newbies buying up bitcoin on exchanges, many of whom lost their shirts when bitcoin dropped precipitously in January 2018.

This time, the coverage has been muted. Perhaps you can chalk that up to the mental toll of the pandemic or the distraction of the U.S. presidential election. (The debate feels in many ways similar to the debate around why live sports TV ratings are way down.) Or it could be a sign that the price hike is less remarkable because the public now knows about bitcoin, and it has become less of an oddity. That can be a positive indicator for its future use and mainstream acceptance.

Growing acceptance, both by consumer-facing companies and Wall Street institutions, provides much of the explanation for bitcoin’s 2020 run. Here are some of the recent news events and trends that have boosted bitcoin.

A woman stands next to a bus stop covered with Cryptocurrency electronic cash Bitcoin advertisement in Hong Kong, Sept. 24, 2020. (Photo by Budrul Chukrut/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Increasing institutional adoption

Over the past couple of years, a range of Wall Street investment firms and financial institutions have gravitated toward cryptocurrency—even if just dipping a toe in by putting a sliver of their assets into bitcoin or altcoins.

That rising interest helped Grayscale Investments, the largest crypto investment firm, top $10 billion in assets in the third quarter. (Grayscale is owned by Barry Silbert’s Digital Currency Group, the single largest investor in cryptocurrency startups, which owns the news site CoinDesk.) Grayscale offers publicly traded funds pegged to the prices of bitcoin, bitcoin cash, litecoin, ether, ethereum classic, XRP, Zcash, and others. In Q2 of this year, more than a dozen well-known Wall Street firms disclosed with the SEC new investments in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), including ARK Invest and Boston Private Wealth.

Story continues

Thanks to bitcoin prices, Galaxy Digital, the crypto investment firm of Mike Novogratz, saw profit of $44.3 million in Q3 2020, a huge turnaround from losses of $68.2 million in Q3 2019.

Reports of traditional finance embracing crypto have fueled more buying. “Bitcoin thrives off network value, so the more people who adopt it, the more parabolically the price rises,” Tom Lee of Fundstrat said on Yahoo Finance Live on Friday. “We’ve seen a pretty substantial increase in engagement this year, and I’ve been pretty surprised, because it is institutional.”

Even big banks have appeared to warm to bitcoin.

Goldman Sachs in August named a new head of digital assets, Matthew McDermott, and he reportedly plans to double the headcount of Goldman’s crypto team. (Back in 2018, then-CEO Lloyd Blankfein said it would be “arrogant” to dismiss bitcoin entirely, but more recently, on a call in May, Goldman analysts declared cryptocurrencies “not an asset class.”)

JPMorgan last year launched JPM Coin, an internal digital token for use by the bank’s institutional clients, which runs on the Quorum blockchain that JPM developed and is overseen by JPM’s blockchain unit Onyx. At the time of launch, Onyx CEO Umar Farooq wrote in a blog post, “We have always believed in the potential of blockchain technology, and we are supportive of cryptocurrencies as long as they are properly controlled and regulated.”

More recently, JPM began allowing customer transfers in and out of Coinbase and Gemini, two U.S. crypto exchange sites. All of this looks like JPM at the very least acknowledging the future viability of digital assets. (Jamie Dimon this week said bitcoin is still “not my cup of tea,” but he also said, “We will always support blockchain technology.”)

A man uses the Ethereum ATM in Hong Kong, Friday, May 11, 2018. Ethereum is one of the world’s popular virtual currencies. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

The institutional trend started well before the pandemic made bitcoin an even more appealing asset. If you ask Grayscale managing director Michael Sonnenshein, increased regulatory attention, plus the approval of bitcoin futures contracts from places like CBE and Cboe, have all served to make Wall Street feel more comfortable about crypto. “Institutional investment, regulatory clarity, futures contracts—there’s so much that has developed and solidified around the ecosystem,” Sonnenshein told Yahoo Finance in May.

Third bitcoin ‘Halving’ happened in May

Back in May, bitcoin underwent its third “halving” (or “halvening,” as some prefer), the event that happens every four years when the reward that bitcoin “miners” receive for mining bitcoin (using expensive computers to upload bundles of bitcoin transaction records to the bitcoin blockchain) gets cut in half as a built-in mechanism to slow the creation of new bitcoins and limit bitcoin’s supply. The new mining reward is 6.25 bitcoins per block; from 2016 until 2020 it was 12.5 bitcoins.

Historically, the Halving itself does not prompt an immediate spike in the bitcoin price. After the 2012 Halving, bitcoin saw a marginal increase over a few weeks, then went on a massive ride in the next months. This year, the price increased slightly in the days after the Halving, and by two weeks later had dropped below where it was before the Halving.

But as Fundstrat’s Tom Lee points out, “History says that the year that follows the Halvenings is much more important” for price than the weeks and months that follow it. The 2020 halving is not likely the chief cause of the current price rally, but it didn’t hurt, since it’s an event that reminds investors of bitcoin’s scarcity.

Wall Street figures soften their rhetoric

Bitcoin’s price swings can be very headline-driven: sometimes a single news item about a major name praising or trashing bitcoin can move the price in the short-term. Warren Buffett (“That is not investing”), Charlie Munger (“disgusting… stupid… turds”), Jamie Dimon (“fraud… worse than tulip bulbs”), and Nouriel Roubini (“mother of all scams”) are some of the big names that have trashed bitcoin in years past.

But in May, hedge fund titan Paul Tudor Jones revealed he has put nearly 2% of his portfolio into bitcoin. He called it a “great speculation… I look at it as one tiny part of the portfolio… it may end up being the best performer of all of them.”

Paul Tudor Jones, founder and chief investment officer of Tudor Investment Corporation, speaks at the Sohn Investment Conference in New York, May 5, 2014. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

And this week, another representative of a huge Wall Street name had positive things to say about bitcoin. BlackRock’s fixed income CIO Rick Rieder, speaking on CNBC, said, “I think cryptocurrency is here to stay, and I think it is durable… I think digital currency, and the receptivity, particularly millennials’ receptivity of technology and cryptocurrency, is real, digital payment systems are real. So I think bitcoin is here to stay… Do I think it’s a durable mechanism that I think will take the place of gold, to a large extent? Yeah, I do, because it’s so much more functional than passing a bar of gold around.”

More and more, the rhetoric from Wall Street types is changing. Even if these old-school investors are not exactly pumping crypto with great fervor, more of them are acknowledging that bitcoin, which has now existed for more than 10 years, is not about to collapse.

PayPal and Square buy in

PayPal (PYPL) on Oct. 21 made major waves in the payments world when it announced it will soon allow buying, holding, and trading of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, and paying with bitcoin, in its PayPal and Venmo apps. The news sent PayPal shares to an all-time-high and prompted an instant leg higher for bitcoin and some other altcoins.

Bitcoin was already on the upswing before PayPal’s announcement, but after that news the bitcoin chart line went vertical, and many attribute bitcoin’s recent price ride directly to PayPal. It is certainly a major consumer-facing name publicly showing its faith in crypto, and if the young people who use Venmo for all their peer-to-peer payments buy bitcoin once PayPal adds it (the same young people that have flocked to Robinhood to buy stocks during the pandemic), that could send the price soaring more dramatically.

Bitcoin price in 2020, through Nov. 20 at 10pm EST.

Square (SQ) is another mainstream fintech name to show love to bitcoin, stemming directly from CEO Jack Dorsey’s crypto fanaticism. In 2018, Square added the ability to buy and hold bitcoin to its Cash App, and this year the company went a step further by separately investing in $50 million worth of bitcoin as an asset for its balance sheet. Square’s bitcoin bet is paying off: its bitcoin revenue from Cash App trading was $1.63 billion in Q3, up 618% from Q3 2019, and its Q3 bitcoin profit was $32 million, up 1,500% from Q3 2019.

Finally, it’s worth mentioning Facebook’s (FB) attempt last year to launch its own cryptocurrency Libra, which, despite regulatory interference and launch delays, was seen as a major step forward for crypto since it shows that the world’s biggest social network believes in digital assets and aims to implement them on its platform.

Pandemic stimulus

One common take on bitcoin’s strong gains during the pandemic is that quantitative easing actions by the U.S. Federal Reserve and stimulus programs by governments around the world have been good for bitcoin because they underscore its scarcity. There will only ever be 21 million bitcoin created, so the supply is capped, and bitcoin has no central governing body that could step in and pump out more.

“There are so many uncertainties in this pandemic, but one thing that seems almost assured is when you print trillions of dollars more paper money, it’s going to drive up bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies,” Dan Morehead, CEO of crypto investment firm Pantera Capital, said on Yahoo Finance Live in August. “Gold’s going to go up, bitcoin’s going to go up. It is a hedge to paper currency being debased.”

Bitcoin jumped big in the days after Election Day (when a winner was still not clear) because it thrives when there is mainstream economic uncertainty—then it climbed further once it became clear Democrat Joe Biden would win, since it increased the likelihood of another imminent pandemic stimulus package. As the thinking goes, government monetary aid strengthens the appeal of bitcoin.

In 2021, a divided U.S. government, Dan Morehead wrote in a client note on Friday, “would likely result in more pressure on the Federal Reserve to expand their balance sheet. This money printing will inflate the price of things whose quantity cannot be eased—like gold, bitcoin, real assets, and even equities. It feels like bitcoin is going to melt up here.”

—

Daniel Roberts is an editor-at-large at Yahoo Finance and closely covers bitcoin and blockchain. Follow him on Twitter at @readDanwrite.

Read more:

Why bitcoin and altcoins are hot again this summer

Square’s bitcoin bet is paying off

Jamie Dimon says bitcoin is ‘not my cup of tea’ even as JPMorgan has warmed to crypto

What you need to know about Ant Financial, potentially the largest IPO in history

Amazon tells employees to delete Tik Tok, then says email was ‘sent in error’

Why Square’s embrace of bitcoin was ‘brilliant’

Jamie Dimon has questions about Facebook’s cryptocurrency Libra

Lloyd Blankfein: It would be ‘arrogant’ to dismiss bitcoin entirely

[maybeforforeverwillbeouralways]

Soulmate - Michael Lee Brown x reader

The first time you saw the writing on your arm, you were ten. You knew what it was, of course. Mandy and Brian had found out their writing matched last week and you’d had a lesson in class about what the writing meant, but your mother had told you about soulmates years ago. At the time, it excited you. A person out there who existed just to be with you! But now, looking at the writing that had appeared on your arm, you felt nervous.

Hi. That was all it said, but it definitely wasn’t your handwriting. You stared at it for a moment, trying to decide whether or not to respond. Finally, before you could lose your nerve, you grabbed a sharpie out of your pencil pouch and scribbled something in response.

Hey! I’m (y/n)!

Almost immediately you received a response. I’m Michael.

You tried to think of a question to ask Michael. The way soulmates worked, you knew that any attempts to learn where he lived or how old he was would blur out and be unreadable. Unfortunately, those were the two questions that were buzzing through your mind. Finally you wrote, Do you like superheros?

After that day, you and Michael wrote all the time. You began carrying around a thing of makeup wipes so that you could wipe your arm off when you ran out of room to write. You learned everything you could about your soulmate. He was your best friend, your confidant.

When you were sixteen you remember Michael telling you he’d gotten a job with a professional theater, something that he’d been wanting for awhile now. You were excited for him; why wouldn’t you be? But it was then that the pieces began to fall into place.   

You were a fan of Dear Evan Hansen before it hit the mainstream. You loved the cast, both the regulars and the understudies. With so many men named Michael in the cast though, it was only natural that your friends made jokes about it.

“But imagine,” teased your friend Caitlyn, “Your soulmate could be Mike Faist or Michael Lee Brown!”

“Or it could be Michael Park,” added your other friend Anna. “I never pictured you as having a thing for older men, but -”

“Shut up!” you groaned. “Please, do not put that image in my head.”

“I didn’t say anything,” Anna smirked triumphantly. “You’re the one who extrapolated -”

“Stop!”

But that conversation got you thinking. What if you were lucky enough to have one of the DEH cast as your soulmate? You tried to find out from Michael.

What show did you say you were doing? You asked.

I can’t write the title, it’s blurring out, he responded a few minutes later. But it’s about a boy who commits suicide and how it impacts the people around him.

Your heart jumped. And you’re an understudy, right?

Yeah! Why?

No reason. You replied. Just curious.

Ok. How was today? You had that job interview right?

Yeah. Funny enough, my interviewer’s name was Michael.

Lol. Did you ask him?

You and Michael had worked out a code phrase to use if you ever stumbled across people with your names. It was something only the two of you would recognize, and that way you didn’t have to deal with awkwardly asking people what their soulmate’s name was.

Nah. He was way too boring to ever be you.

Aww, babe.

After that conversation, it only solidified the idea in your head that your Michael was in Dear Evan Hansen. Specifically, that your Michael was Michael Lee Brown. But you weren’t positive until one day when he wrote to you excitedly.

(y/n)! Guess what?

You were eighteen now, and sitting in your English class. You peered up at the teacher to make sure she wasn’t watching, then pulled out a sharpie and began to scribble on your arm.

What?

They just told me that since the lead actor of the show I’m in has been having vocal problems, I’m going to get to perform the role twice a week!

Michael, that’s fantastic! I’m so proud of you, you deserve this!

“(y/n)!” said your teacher. You looked up guiltily. “What have I said about writing to your soulmate in class?”

“Sorry, Mrs. P,” you said apologetically, scribbling a quick gtg class on your arm, before capping the pen and sliding it back into your backpack.

When you got home from school that day you frantically began to check tumblr to see if there was any news about MIchael Lee Brown getting to perform  regularly in DEH. Sure enough, someone on your dash had reblogged an article about it.

Without a thought, you pulled up the Dear Evan Hansen website and purchased a ticket to the matinee. You didn’t even tell your parents, you were so eager to buy the ticket. Besides, you lived an hour from New York by train, your ticket was for a Saturday, and you were a legal adult. There wasn’t much they could do to stop you.

The day of the show you were practically vibrating with nervous energy. This was it. This was the day you’d meet your soulmate. You’d even worked out the perfect way to do it, that would result in minimal embarrassment if you were wrong.

A few weeks ago you written to Michael asking him what his ideal gift from you would be.

Why? He asked.

Idk, I was just wondering.

Honestly, you’re the best gift I could ever get :)

Michael!

As soon as he told you you bought his gift. On the day of, you packed it neatly in a bag and slid a letter in with it. The letter said two things: your name, and the phrase you two had come up with.

As soon as he appeared onstage you knew. You were sitting in the mezzanine, close enough to make out all of his facial expressions. From the moment he started talking it was like something in you clicked into place. Any doubts you’d had about Michael being your soulmate evaporated.

After the show you hurried to the stage door and fought your way to the front. Grabbing the attention of the stage door manager, you handed him the gift bag. “Can you give this to Michael Lee Brown? Tell him it’s from (y/n).”

When the door closed behind him, you began to nervously fiddle with your fingers. What if Michael didn’t read it right away? What if he read it, but thought you’d already left and didn’t come out? You were prepared to wait until after tonight’s performance if you had to, but you’d rather not.

Fortunately, you didn’t have to wait long. Not five minutes later, the stage door suddenly burst open and Michael darted out, looking around frantically. Then he locked eyes with you. You grinned hopefully, and stretched out your hand. He beamed, and bounded across the short distance to you, throwing his arms around you. “(y/n), oh my god…” he whispered into your hair.

You squeezed him back just as tightly. “Michael, I…” You were at a loss for words.

He pulled back and yanked up his sleeve, revealing where you had written Good luck! that morning. You did the same, baring the matching writing. You heard people around you gasp as they realized what was going on, but you didn’t care. You only had eyes for Michael, who’s eyes were glistening as he stared at you like you were the only thing in the world. He reached out reverently and cradled the side of your face in his palm. “You came and saw the show?” he asked quietly. When you nodded, he grinned bashfully. “How was I?”

“Wonderful, of course,” you replied, reaching out to entwine his other hand with yours. “But did you really expect me to think anything else?”

He let out a wet chuckle and then pulled you to him and kissed you. “I love you,” he whispered in between kisses. “I love you, I love you.”

You kissed him one more time and smiled. “I love you too.”

[thepatriotsandwe]

Preview: Week 17, vs New York Jets

Sitting at 12-3 on the edge of the playoffs, the Patriots have an opportunity to seize the number one seed in the AFC playoffs with a victory over their divisional rival, the New York Jets.

Recent Previous Match-Ups

The Patriots have achieved victory over the Jets in every contest since 2015, but the Jets have played the Pats tough in that time frame. Earlier this year, Josh McCown and the Jets gave the New England squad all they had and lost a close one 24-17. The contest had shades of the Jets game in MetLife Stadium last season in which a, at the time, struggling Pats offense eeks out a victory (thanks to some late heroics by Chris Long) 22-17.

Other than a week 16 absolute annihilation at the hands of the Pats last year (41-3), the Jets have always put forth solid efforts in recent times against the Pats. In fact, putting aside that blowout, the largest margin of victory the Patriots have had over the Jets since 2013 is just seven points. 

A major difference, however, is the fact the Jets are going with Bryce Petty as their starting quarterback for this upcoming contest. Petty was also the starter during the aforementioned Christmas Eve blowout last season in favor of the Patriots (though he did get injured during the game and did not return) so the Pats must be licking their chops at another shot at the inexperienced Petty.

Current Team Trends

The Jets are not the worst team that the league has ever seen. The hype (anti-hype?) prior to this season ended up about as accurate as the claims that the Pats were going 19-0. The Jets are assuredly not good team, but they’re playing much better than anyone ever gave them credit, sitting at 5-10 entering the contest, and it could have been better than that if not for the Denver game.

Josh McCown played a solid season for the New York team, but his injury in the Denver game thoroughly halted any type of momentum gained from the previous week’s shocking victory over the Chiefs. Petty has looked awful at the position since taking over. He has completed just 47% of his passes for a touchdown and three interceptions. The team has lost their last two contests with Petty starting. Perhaps he just needs longer to develop, but it’s beginning to look like the Bryce Petty experiment was a total failure for the Jets.

For the Patriots, last week was a decisive showing over the Buffalo Bills. The Pats are flying high, and the emergence of the running attack has truly added layers to the Patriots offense. Simply put, when the Patriots are able to get Dion running in open space like last week, their offense is very capable of putting up 30 or more points. The defense being as clutch as they are in terms of scoring means that not many teams will have the ability to match the Patriots scoring in that instance.

Going up against a team not as motivated or as talented as the Bills should mean an easy end to the season for the Patriots, but the threat still must be taken seriously.

Key Players

New York

Robby Anderson - The twenty four year old receiver put together a hell of a season to this point. He’s 61 yards short of cracking 1,000, and has seven touchdown catches. He was a sporadic factor in the Jets offense in the last match up against the Patriots (12 targets, four catches for 76 yards), and with Kearse working through an ankle injury the Jets may be leaning more heavily on the young receiver. The receiver has seen a bulk of the Jets targets this season, and he’ll need a big day to get the Jets offense to open up enough to beat the Pats in Foxborough.

Bilal Powell - Simply put, Bryce Petty is not good enough to beat the Patriots with a pass-first offense. Petty has not shown any signs of being able to orchestrate a consistent drive, and his abysmal completion percentage is a big factor in this. The Jets will need to utilize their leading rusher, Powell, on early downs in order to ease the difficulty of Petty’s throws. If Petty is forced into third and long situations, anticipate turnovers and plenty of three and outs. Powell missed the last match up due to an injury, and the Jets rushing attack suffered because of it, so the 29 year old running back will need to get early yardage against an ailing Patriots linebacking unit.

Demario Davis - The Jets middle linebacker has been the highlight of the defense to this point, but that’s not necessarily a good thing. He’s the sack leader (which the middle linebacker position is typically not known for) with just five sacks on the season. The Jets have struggled mightily with their pass rush, totaling only 26 sacks going into the contest. Davis’ role will be a multi-layered one as a result. It will fall on him to slow down Dion Lewis and attempt to make the Patriots offense more dimensional, and he must get to the QB on obvious passing downs. The Jets simply have to generate pressure on Brady in order to have success on that side of the ball, and Davis very well might need to be the guy to do that.

New England

Dion Lewis - This has been stated already, so I’ll leave out the obvious. Dion has been an absolute workhorse for the Patriots in recent weeks which goes against everything that we saw and heard early in the season. With Burkhead and Gillislee already being ruled out (and the possibility of White missing an additional week), Lewis and Boldin will likely be the two running backs to see serious time against the Jets. Bolden has hardly played at the position this season, so one would anticipate Dion getting the call. 

Brandin Cooks - This may be more “wishful thinking” rather than an actual critical role, but Cooks had a great game against this Jets secondary in the last match up. He hauled in 6 passes for 94 yards including a 42 yard bomb from Brady. With how much the receiver’s production has dropped in recent weeks the Patriots might be looking to try and get him involved against a weaker defense to prepare him for the playoffs. 

James Harrison - This is a bit of a flashy pick, but I’m struggling to come up with members of the Pats that absolutely *need* to have a great game to win. Harrison could be a major factor for the Patriots due to injuries and the subsequent lack of depth at the position. Everyone anticipates that Harrison will be used exclusively as a passing down rusher, and with the injury to Eric Lee it could be the case that Harrison sees a lot of the field in said situations. If Harrison can get going this early, it will bode well for the Pats in the playoffs as pass rush has been an issue at points this season.

Injuries

The Jets have ruled out offensive tackle Brandon Shell, and tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins has been given the doubtful designation. Seferian-Jenkins could be a significant loss for the Jets as he had success against the Patriots in the previous match up, and Bryce Petty needs all the short range targets he can get.

Questionable includes: Ex-Patriot defensive end Kony Ealy (who was a late addition to the injury report with a foot injury on Friday), running back Matt Forte, and running back Akeem Judd. 

Of those questionable, Forte looks to be the most significant one in doubt. He has not participated at any point this week in practice and is a significant factor in the short passing attack of the Jets.

For the Patriots, defensive lineman Alan Branch, running back Rex Burkhead, and running back Mike Gillislee have all been declared out for the game. Gillislee is a bit of a surprise as an injury was not apparent during last week’s game, but he has missed the entire week of practice with a knee injury.

Questionable includes: wide receiver Chris Hogan, defensive end Eric Lee, safety Devin McCourty, special teams gunner Matthew Slater, linebacker Kyle Van Noy, right tackle LaAdrian Waddle, and running back James White.

Eric Lee is trending towards not playing after missing practice on Friday with an ankle injury. The only other surprise is Devin McCourty, but it would appear he should be able to play after participating in practice all week (albeit limited). One would hope the Kyle Van Noy may be able to make his first start, but the Pats may elect to give him additional time off or play him in a limited capacity.

Predictions

As previously mentioned, the match ups against the Jets tend to be difficult for the Patriots, and history would tell you that this game could go down to the wire. The Patriots are battered, and may seek to sit key players working through injuries just to ensure they will be able to return in full capacity in the playoffs. However, I just don’t believe that is enough of an advantage for the Jets.

I cannot stress enough how terrible Bryce Petty has looked so far in his career, and I don’t believe Bilal Powell will be enough to make up for that. In addition, a lack of pass rush for the Jets means Brady should have plenty of time to find open targets against an already struggling secondary. I anticipate the Pats to win this one easily as they lock up the number one seed for the second straight year.

Final Score Prediction: Patriots 34 - Jets 10