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cherrycola27 · 1 year ago

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false god

Series Warnings: Mythology!AU. Language, alcohol, drinking. Military inaccuracies. Mutual pining, unrequited love. Allusions to and eventual smut. Minors DNI. 18+. Individual chapter warnings will come as needed. Banner Credit @thedroneranger

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Chapter 6: My Type

You and Bradley were both thankful that you were at a good place again in your friendship. The two of you returned to your previous routine of your Wednesday night hangouts, and the rest of August slipped away into a moment in time. September brought you two closer together as you still danced around the line of friends or something more.

It also brought along Mickey's birthday, and after the way the last party ended, the squad was ready to have a fun night out that didn't end in chaos.

Fanboy had never outgrown his punk rock phase, and for his birthday, he asked that every attend a cover band concert La Jolla. He had gone all out and even rented a party bus to take the group to and from the venue. Unfortunately, you had plans that night and wouldn't be able to attend. You made sure to send him a nice gift, though. Mickey was over the moon when he opened the autograph Star Trek poster and immediately forgave you for missing out on the fun.

Bradley, however, was extremely disappointed in the fact that you weren't coming. He was hoping that tonight would finally be his chance to lay his feelings on the line for you, but instead, he was drinking a beer, sandwiched between Payback and Bob, while Jake and Coyote made use of the stripper poles in the bus.

When they arrived, he couldn't wait to get off and get some fresh air. He had texted you a few times, but you hadn't responded. He checked his phone again to see that his messages were still unread. He sighed in disappointment before tucking his phone away and heading inside with everyone else.

Inside, an EDM DJ was playing some throwback Coldplay while a few techs were setting up for the band. The Daggers found a section near the right side and settled in. They gave their drink orders to a waitress who winked and Mickey when she found out it was his birthday.

Moments later, she returned with drinks and the promise to come back and see if they would need anything later.

With his whiskey in hand, Bradley leaned over to Fanboy and asked, "What's the name of this band again?"

Fanboy rolled his eyes. "The Styx. They do a mix of punk rock, eighties hits, pop, and some original songs. I heard them at a festival about a year and a half ago, and I've seen them a few places here and there. I'm pretty excited to see them again, though. Their lead singer left the band about five months ago to go solo, and apparently, an old friend of the lead guitarist stepped up and has been with them. I haven't heard her, but apparently, she's way better than the old singer." Fanboy explains.

Bradley nods his head and sinks back into his chair as he and everyone else waits for the show to start.

About ten minutes later, the DJ finishes, and some filler music comes through the speakers. The owner of the bar tells everyone that the band will start shortly. More people pour in. Bradley's mind wanders to you, and what you might be doing tonight.

...............

"How's the crowd out there?" You ask Lyla as she checks over her guitar once more. "The energy is fantastic. The place is pretty packed, too." She tells you with a smile.

"Great." You sigh.

A packed house

More people to watch you fail

"Don't worry, babe, you're going to kill it like you always do!" Mariana, the drummer and Lyla's sister, tells you. "Exactly. Just relax, we've got this!" Derrick, the bass player, says to the group. "If anyone boos, I will jump off the stage and shove my keyboard down their throat." Trent, Derrick's husband tells you. You can't help but laugh. You want to say something witty back, but you hear the stage manager start to introduce the group.

You can do this

You love doing this

You're going to be great

You take a deep breath and give yourself a once over in the mirror before stepping out. You look good— really good.

Netted tights cover your legs before disappearing under your cut-off denim shorts that show off your thigh tattoos.

A cropped black vintage Bon Jovi shirt covers your torso. You've cut some of the neck out of the shirt, so the lace of your bralette underneath is visible. Layers of silver chains with charms hug your neck and cleavage. A red flannel is tied around your waist.

Heavy, black, Doc Marten boots are on your feet, and your hair is loose and wild around your face. Sultry dark makeup graces your features, and you've traded your signature cherry red pout for a sensual shade of burgundy.

Rings and bracelets adorned your fingers and wrists. You truly looked the part of a rock queen. You look like sex on legs

Maybe you should pay Bradley a visit after this was over

You were broken from your thoughts by the cheers of the crowd. You took a deep breath as the rest of the group stepped out onto the stage. It was dark, thankfully, you couldn't make any faces out, and they couldn't see you just yet.

You turned to Lyla and the rest of the band who gave you the go-ahead.

..........

The Daggers, especially Fanboy, waited with baited breath as the band set up. Bradley sat there with a fresh glass of whiskey and prayed they were as good as Fanboy had made them out to be. There was nothing worse than sitting through a shitty band.

Soon, the opening sounds of Fallout Boy's "Centuries" filled the room. The band stayed shrouded in dim lights until the opening chorus finished, and then bright lits illuminated the stage.

Fanboy screamed in excitement as he leaned over to say something to Fritz, but Bradley's eyes didn't leave the stage. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. He wasn't drunk. Surely, his mind had to be playing tricks on him.

Just as he was about to say something, it seemed like the entire group came to the realization at the same time.

"Oh my shit." Jake said. "It's that—"

"That's Hades." Bradley said before Jake could finish his question. "Holy shit." Bradley breathed out as he watched you on the stage.

You owned the space. You presses filled the room and demanded the attention of the crowd.

Bradley was captivated by you. He knew that he was attracted to you before. He'd tried so hard to keep his feelings pushed down, and when he kissed you, he knew he'd ruined his chances. But then—then you wanted to be his friend again, and he got the chance to fall for you all over again.

And this time, he fell harder.

Now, there was no denying his attraction for you. As he watched you on that stage, enthralled with your beauty and this new side of you he'd never seen before, Bradley couldn't help but let his mind wander.

The music continues, but now, it's all background noise to Bradley.

He isn't even sure what song you are singing right now. He's too busy watching the way your body moves to the beat and how he's sure you wore that outfit just to mess with him.

He knows that the last part isn't true because surely you didn't know that the Daggers would be here tonight. Fanboy had only asked if you were free tonight. He'd never told you the plans, but in the back of Bradley's mind, he likes to think that you wore that cropped Bon Jovi tee for him and the moment you'd shared months ago.

He watches the hem of your shirt catch on your fingertips as you drag your hands up your body and sway with the music. Bradley hasn't stopped staring at the patch of skin that is just visible between it and the waistband of your jean shorts. He is eager to know what you might have on under it and how it would look on his bedroom floor.

Maybe it was wrong of him to think it, but Bradley didn't care.

Haunting melodies poured from your wine colored lips. They weaved through the crowd and flooded his ears. Bradley was hanging onto every word you sang. His mind wandered as he wondered if his name would sound just as pretty as your songs did when it tumbled from your lips as he brought you to the peak of pleasure.

You were absolutely fearless in the way you put on a show. You worked the room and had everyone captivated. Bradley hoped that one day, he'd be able to find out if you would put on a show just for him in the privacy of his bedroom.

God, you were so fucking beautiful up there. And he knows he probably looks like an absolute ass because he has been ignoring the rest of your friends for almost the entire forty-five minutes you've been on the stage, but he can't help it.

He's so awestruck by you and this part of your life. It's another piece of the puzzle that makes you so unique and so amazing to him.

You're smart, witty, beautiful, funny, and talented on more than one front. Bradley loves that he's learned something new about you.

He wants to learn more new things about you. He wants to add more pieces to the puzzle until he has the whole picture.

He would give anything to spent eternity figuring you out.

You announce the final song of your set list, a rock cover of "Bad Romance," and Bradley finds it ironic because he would take any kind of romance with you. Good or bad.

With this being the last song, you go wild. You release all your inhibitions as you move about the stage and command the room, just like you command the sky.

Bradley has to discreetly adjust himself through his jeans because he gets distracted by the way your necklaces move.

The layers of silver chains of various lengths with charms scattered throughout them hugged your neck in the best way. Bradley didn't realize he could be jealous of a few pieces of jewelry, but as he grips his glass of whiskey tighter, he finds himself longing to replace them with his hands. He just knows that you'd look so fucking beautiful with his long fingers wrapped around your throat while he fucked you like the good girl he knows you would be for him.

Just when he thought you couldn't surprise him anymore, that night, you prove him wrong. When the bridge of the song comes up, you switch to singing in French. French? Since when did you know another language?

Now he wanted to know if you were fluent in it, and if you were, would you talk dirty to him in it. Fuck, you were still a mystery to him, in the best way.

As the song came to an end, you hit your knees for the final high note, and the entire crowd jumped up and screamed for you, the Daggers included. Bradley isn't embarrassed to say that he was definitely the loudest.

After you and the rest of the band thanked everyone for coming out and bidded the audience farewell, Bradley watched you disappear behind a black curtain.

More filler music started up as the squad sat down and looked at each other.

"So, Hades moonlights as a rockstar." Coyote said, breaking the silence of the group.

"Would it be weird if I asked her to get me an autograph from her band mates?" Fanboy asked.

"I don't think so. I just can't believe she didn't tell us." Phoenix said as she finished her beer.

"We all have things that we don't tell everyone about. Maybe she was afraid we'd make fun of her or something. Plus, have you met some of us? A few members of our group aren't the best at respecting other people's feelings." Bob said as he and everyone stared directly at Jake.

"For the last time, I apologized to her! Jeez!" Jake said as he threw his hands up in defense.

.............

Once off the stage, you downed a bottle of water and panted to catch your breath.

"We were amazing tonight!" Derrick cheers as he puts his bass away. "Hades, you killed it with the vocals!" Trent compliments you.

"I'm just glad you didn't have to fight an audience member, I doubt your husband would have bailed you out of jail—again." You needle Trent.

"Oh my gosh, it was one time, and they dropped the charges." Trent huffed.

Lyla and Mariana laugh as they put their things away. "You guys want to get a drink? To celebrate a successful show?" Mariana asks. "Absolutely. Hades, if you keep this up, we might not ever let you go!" Lyla tells you as she slings an arm around your shoulder.

"Lyla, I told you, I'm just helping you our until you can find someone to replace Candice." You tell her.

Lyla shakes her head as the five of you head out of the backstage area and to the bar. You take a seat with your back to the crowd. A few patrons come up and speak to all of you, but none linger too long. You've just put your pomegranate margarita to your lips when you hear a familiar voice call, "Well what do we have here? If it ain't Hades."

You set your drink down and spin on your stool. You're shocked when you turn around and see all twelve of your friends and coworkers standing in front of you.

"Oh my gods, what are you guys doing here?" You ask them.

"This is what I had planned for my birthday." Fanboy tells you.

"Oh, Mick, I had no idea. You should have told me, and I could have gotten you a front row spot!" You tell him.

"You could have told us you were a rockstar." Phoenix says.

You don't have a chance to respond before Lyla says, "Well, aren't you going to introduce us?"

"Oh, sorry. Guys, this is Lyla, we were stationed together in Lemoore a few years ago. She was my wingman until she hung up her wings to be a mechanic. And this is her sister Mariana and Derrick and his husband Trent, and they are The Styx." You say.

"We are The Styx." Lyla corrects you.

After a few polite hellos, you turn to your squadron. "And guys, this is Fanboy, Payback, Halo, Omaha, Bob, Phoenix, Yale, Harvard, Fritz, Coyote, Hangman, and—Bradley." You say as you point out each one of them.

"Bradley—er—Rooster, is my new wingman." You tell your band mates.

"You are a lucky duck to be flying with her." Lyla tells Rooster. "She saved my ass several times."

"Don't let her fool you, Lyla had my back, too." You smile.

"So, Hades, how did you end up doing—this?" Bob asks you, never failing to address the elephant in the room.

"Lyla and I lived together in the barracks. We used to do karaoke on the weekends. She always played a little and decided she wanted to do music more seriously. Unfortunately, Lyla was in a training accident and shattered her left hip." You told them. You wince at that detail. It had been the one time that you weren't flying with her because an admiral had pulled you into a meeting.

"Not too long after Lyla's accident, I was transferred. We kept in touch, and she told me to call her if I was ever back in California." You told them.

"And I couldn't get back in a plane anymore after that, so I took to fixing them and playing guitar in my spare time. At an open mic night, Mariana and I met Derrick and Trent and Candice, our former lead singer. We hit it off, and The Styx was born." Lyla explains.

"But, Candice thought she was too good for us and moved to L.A. five months ago, " Mariana adds.

"Thankfully, Hades just happened to get station in San Diego. So, when she called me to catch up, I convinced her to do a show with us, and that's kind of led us here." Lyla finishes.

"Wow, that's insane." Payback says.

"Yeah, crazy." You shake your head, suddenly feeling on edge now that your work friends new more about your personal life. It wasn't that you were trying to hide this from them, but at the same time, you liked your privacy.

Secrets kept you safe

Bradley could tell that you were getting uncomfortable, so he tapped your knee to get your attention before grabbing your wrist and pulling you away from the crowd.

"You were amazing up there, Angel." He praises you as you tuck yourselves into a corner of the club.

"Thanks, maybe next time, you can join me, and we can hit them with some 'Great Balls of Fire.'" You laugh. Bradley chuckles.

A comfortable silence settles over the two of you. You both look at see the Daggers talking and drinking with your band mates.

"How did all of you get here?" You ask him.

"Fanboy got a party bus. Jake was recreating scenes from Magic Mike on the drive here when he was still half sober, I'm terrified to see what's going to happen on the way back." Bradley shutters.

"I didn't even get to have my drink, so I'm sober. I drove here, wanna ride home with me?" You offer him.

Bradley abso-fucking-lutely wanted to ride home with you. And then, when the two of you got home, he wanted to take you into his apartment, strip you down, and hear you sing for him in a different way. And he wanted you to sleep over so he could make you breakfast the next morning before he fucked you in his shower. However, he couldn't say that to you, so instead, he just said, "Yeah, Angel, that would be great."

The two of you quietly snuck out the back of the club. You had grabbed your things already. You made it to the car before Bradley, but instead of opening your door, you stood there, subconsciously waiting for him to do it. He smiled and opened the door and helped you in.

The drive back to San Diego was filled with playful banter, more singing, and flirty touches.

.............

Once you were back at your apartment complex, Bradley made sure to walk you to your door.

You wanted to invite him in, but it was late, and you were still high on adrenaline from performing, and you didn't trust yourself not to drag him to your bed. If you were going to do this with him, you were going to do it the right way.

So, you settled for a simple goodnight kiss on his cheek before tucking yourself inside your home.

After he said goodbye to you at your apartment door, Bradley bolted upstairs to his.

Tonight, he's thankful that he is your upstairs neighbor and that he has a corner unit where his bedroom doesn't share a wall with anyone.

Why? Because of the way your name sinfully falls from his lips while he touches himself and selfishly chases his release.

He's been hard for you all evening, and your flirty touches in your car on the ride home coupled with the way your soft lips felt on his cheek had him spiraling as he fists his cock.

He cums hard, spurts of it painting his hand and abs with hot white streaks. As he comes down from his high and cleans himself up, Bradley can't help but think about how his cum would look splattered on your thigh tattoo or dripping out of you. He groans, already hardening at the thought of it.

After quelling the fires of his desire with a cold shower, Bradley slips between the sheets of his bed and thinks of you and how he could make the two of you something more.

Taglist: @roosterscock @shanimallina87 @teacupsandtopgun @mayhemmanaged @wkndwlff @roosterforme @daggerspare-standingby @dakotakazansky @startrekfangirl2233 @hecate-steps-on-me @cassiemitchell @na-ta-sh-aa @katieshook02 @desert-fern @je-suis-prest-rachel @soulmates8 @sometimesanalice @diorrfairy @eli2447 @xoxabs88xox @djs8891 @roosters-girl @sebsxphia @rosiahills22 @dempy @callsign-magnolia @alchemxx @gretagerwigsmuse @withahappyrefrain @lt-spork @multifandomlover4life @beccaanne814 @bradshawsbaby @seitmai @kmc1989 @bcarolinablr @roosterisdaddy36 @itsdesiree86 @waywardhunter95 @hisredheadedgoddess28 @whatislovevavy @asshlyyyy @inkandarsenic @lillyrosenight @tomanybandstolove @jiminie-08 @dingochef @laracrofted

#cherrycola27 #top gun maverick #top gun #bradley rooster bradshaw #rooster bradshaw #bradley bradshaw #rooster top gun #tgm #lt. bradley bradshaw #bradley bradshaw x reader #bradley bradshaw smut #top gun rooster #rooster smut #rooster x reader #tgm fanfiction #tgm fic #tgm smut #false god #Spotify

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ninja-muse · 2 months ago

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September was a good month! Nothing I read was bad, which means my ranking this month was done by hairs and vibes and I definitely recommend everything. Even my DNFs were good, objectively. They just weren't for me. And my library has finally, finally, started to put June and July releases into circulation, and Seanan McGuire knocked it out of the park again, and I found out I won an ARC by getting an email that effectively said the parcel had been delayed, and I managed to read two-thirds of a book in a single day because I had public transit adventures on purpose.

My expected book haul didn't happen, though. My birthday yielded one book (the Tolkien), but also two bookish puzzles, one bookish shirt, and two bookstore gift cards. (Yes, I have already preordered something, never fear.) (No, I'm not complaining. I do not need more books. And the shirt's perfect.) And once again, I feel like I didn't read enough, but I had some freelance work come my way and that ate into my reading time. Oh, and uh, GBBO is back so there went another evening….

I managed two books off my physical TBR this month. The Trixie Belden is one I "accidentally" bought online a few months ago. I loved these books as a kid and I'm determined to one day own them all. (I think now I'm missing six.) I was pleasantly surprised by how well it held up and would love to see Trixie get a reboot or rerelease for modern kids. She is hands-down better than Nancy Drew and I'll fight people about it. The other book is a Philip Pullman short story I liberated from work and which has been sitting on my shelves for something like six years. Lee Scorsby gets his own prequel story! It's great! And definitely improved by my inability to picture him as anyone but Lin-Manuel Miranda.

And A Natural History of Dragons was exactly the sort of book I imagined it being, and I think it's going to be a near-binge series for me. I have the second book coming in for me at the library now, and I'm pretty sure I'll be requesting the third once I'm done with that.

I'm going to have work in October at reading more dark or complicated things, or striking more of a balance. Five cozyish books this month was a little much.

Oh, and one last thing: due to recent news, I've purged my library of all Neil Gaiman works I don't have a sentimental connection to. I've yet to take the stack to my favourite new used bookstore for credit, but as far as I'm concerned, they're already gone.

And now, as usual, here’s my list of everything I read this month, in the rough order of how glad I was to have read them.

Tidal Creatures - Seanan McGuire

Somebody is killing incarnations of the moon and the remaining moon gods, lead by Chang’e, must stop them before the cosmic balance is upset.

8/10

major Chinese-American POV character, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary character (lesbian), South Asian secondary character, 🏳️‍🌈 author

library book

The Disenchantments - Celia Bell

During the Affair of the Poisons, a baroness and her female lover are thrown deeper into the underworld of lies and secrets after a vicious murder.

8/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (sapphic), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary character (sapphic)

warning: domestic abuse, misogyny, beating

reading copy

A Natural History of Dragons - Marie Brennan

A memoir by Lady Trent, renowned natural philosopher and adventuress, covering her childhood, first expedition, and the troublesome dragons of the Vystrana highlands.

8/10

warning: death, murder, animal death

library book

Once Upon a Time in the North - Philip Pullman

Lee Scorsby arrives in Novy Odense and finds a conniving politician, a beleaguered captain, and a hired gun—not necessarily in that order.

7/10

warning: blood, gun violence

off my TBR shelves

Shoestring Theory - Mariana Costa

After everything goes wrong under King Eufrates, Grand Mage Cyril decides to turn back the clock and prevent disaster. Unfortunately, his plan for fixing things was “wing it” and he’s never been good at politics. Out in October

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (gay), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (multisexual), major dark-skinned characters

warning: suicide, animal death

reading copy/won

Buried Deep and Other Stories - Naomi Novik

A collection of fantasy short stories.

7.5/10

🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (achillean)

reading copy

Dreadful - Caitlin Rozakis

Gav wakes up with no memories in a dark wizard’s lab. He quickly realizes he is the dark wizard and if he doesn’t figure The Plan soon or play to type, there won’t be a Gav at all.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 secondary character (achillean)

library ebook

Trixie Belden and the Mystery at Saratoga - Kathryn Kenny

When Honey’s groom suddenly goes missing, Trixie and Honey naturally start working on the wheres and the whys and whatever else they need to bring him back.

6.5/10

warning: attempted animal cruelty

off my TBR shelves

The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society - C.M. Waggoner

When Winesap’s amateur sleuth realizes her town’s per capita death rate, she grows convinced that something supernatural is afoot. And that’s before her cat starts talking.

7/10

Black secondary character, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (gay, bi man)

borrowed from work

The Forest City Killer - Vanessa Brown

An account of a number of unsolved murders in late-1960s London, Ontario, with a bent towards there having been a serial killer.

7/10

🇨🇦

warning: murder, sexual assault

library ebook

Picture Books

The Bakery Dragon - Devin Elle Kurtz

Ember wants a gold hoard like the big dragons, but he’s too small to get one the normal way. One night, he follows a golden glow to a bakery and everything changes.

9/10

DNF

Garden of Earthly Bodies - Sally Oliver

When thick hairs begin to grow on Marianne’s back, her doctor diagnoses grief and trauma and sends her to a New Age center, where strange and unsettling things are happening.

borrowed from work

Goth - Lol Tolhurst

A history of goth music, from a musician who was there at the beginning.

reading copy

Currently reading

The Disappearing Spoon - Sam Kean

An entertaining history of chemistry and the elements of the periodic table.

library ebook

Music from the Earliest Notations to the Sixteenth Century - Richard Taruskin A history of early written European music, in its social and political contexts.

The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle Victorian detective stories

disabled POV character (limb injury), occasional Indian secondary characters

warning: racism, colonialism

Monthly total: 10 + 1 Yearly total: 92 Queer books: 2 Authors of colour: 1 Books by women: 9 Authors outside the binary: 0 Canadian authors: 1 Classics: 0 Off the TBR shelves: 2 Books hauled: 1 ARCs acquired: 1 ARCs unhauled: 3.5 DNFs: 2

January February March April May June July August

#books #booklr #bookblr #reading wrap-ups #read in 2024 #book recommendations #rec lists #life updates #my photos

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ripped-up-newspaper · 1 year ago

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a continuously updating list of books I would like to read, the crossed out titles are those I’ve finished;

Crime and punishment, fyodor dostoyeysky

Where they burn books they also burn people, marcos antonio hernandez

The mind of god, dr. jay lombard

The evolution or mortality, richard joyce

The fear of the feminine, erich neumann

The yiddish policemen's union, michael chabon

Memoirs of lady trent, marie brennan

All's well, mona awad

If we were villains, M.L. Rio

The outsider, albert camus

The metamorphosis, Kafka

Sleepless nights, elizabeth hardwick

Heaven, Mieko Kawakami

The Kites, Romain Gary

House of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski

How to Justify Torture, Alex Adams

Paradise Rot, Jenny Hval

The Man Who Watched The Trains Go By, Georges Simenon

The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Fear and Trembling, Soren Kierkegaard

Lust For Life, Irving Stone

Existentialism From Dostoevsky to Sartre, Walter Kaufmann

A Certain Hunger, Chelsea G. Summers

The Collector, John Fowles

Frankenstein, Mary Shelly

The Resurrectionist, E.B. Hadspeth

Play It As It Lays, Joan Didion

The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath

101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think, Brianna Wiest

Newsflash, Mira Grant

Seven Against Thebes, Aeschylus

Lysistrata, Aristophanes

The Wasps, Aristophranes

Smoke, Dan Vyleta

The Count of Monte-Cristo, Alexandre Dumas

Froth On The Daydream, Boris Vian

Bel-Ami, Guy de Maupassant

Howl’s Moving Castle, Diana Wynne Jones

Native Tongue, Suzette Haden Elgin

The Judas Rose, Suzette Haden Elgin

Earthsong, Suzette Haden Elgin

The Deeper The Water The Uglier The Fish, Katya Apekina

If The Body Allows It, Megan Cummings

Am I Disturbing You?, Anne Hebert

Things We Lost In The Fire, Mariana Enriquez

Nightbitch, Rachel Yoder

Parasite Eve, Hideaki Sena

The Red Market, Scott Carney

Women In The Picture, Catherine McCormack

#book list #bookish #dark academia #darkest academia #bookworm #dark academia literature #literature

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banannabethchase · 2 years ago

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Matt is bored. Bored Matt is chaos Matt. Bored Matt decides to play Truth or Dare with the roster, because apparently it's 2008 and I'm writing classic tropes out of nostalgia.

Alternate titles: 23 times Matt Jackson asked somebody "truth or dare" and the 1 time somebody asked him back Truth or dare as introspection A fictionalization of those times in high school where you dare everybody to kiss each other and you end up making out with your best friend Matt Jackson Is Bored And That Means Chaos

I hope you enjoy. This is for an old Marianas Trench lyric prompt meme for the prompts "Just spin the bottle" and "truth or dare."

Mini Playlist: Pony - Ginuwine Bad Dog - Neon Hitch Truth or Dare - Marianas Trench Wildfire - Marianas Trench

Matt is bored. And he knows that, when he’s bored, bad things happen. Well. Fun things. But bad things. Most recently he held a pie eating content, and that ended up with a $1,500 cleaning bill Tony was not pleased about.

“You’re all twitchy,” Nick says. “Why are you all twitchy?”

Matt shrugs, trying to get comfortable. It fails. “My leg has a mind of its own. I can’t make it stop.”

“Are you about to have a terrible idea?” Nick asks. He studies Matt. “Please don’t do the thing you did in TNA.”

“That’s absurd. I would never do that again.”

Nick raises an eyebrow. “Except for when you did it in New Japan.”

Matt considers it. Promotion wide Spin-the-Bottle was fun, but expected. Matt lets the idea form in front of him: spin the bottle is so out of date. He’s got a better idea.

“Oh, no, don’t make that face,” Nick groans. He drops his head in his hands. “What did I do in a past life to get you as my brother?”

“Sainthood, probably,” Matt says. He’s not bored anymore. He’s excited. “I’ll be back in a minute. Maybe.”

Nick throws a shoe at his back, but it’s not one of the thumbtack ones, so Matt considers it a win.

He googles, “Truths and Dares,” and collects things he thinks might work for the particular demographic he works with. He types some in the notes app, because the wifi in this venue is notoriously weak. He feels a little bad for the first people he runs into. They’ll be the guinea pigs to determine the most interesting options.

Orange Cassidy is refilling his water bottle in the hallway when Matt slides up next to him. “Hi!” Matt gets a nod in response. “Truth or dare?”

Orange lowers his glasses, staring blankly at Matt.

“Truth or dare?” Matt asks again. Maybe he didn’t hear.

“Um. Truth?”

“Who do you think is,” Matt checks his phone, “the hottest person at work?”

“Luchasaurus,” Orange replies. He doesn’t pause. Doesn’t think. Just answers.

“Oh,” Matt says. “Okay. Not my type, but I appreciate the fact that you aren’t worried it might make you a furry.”

“The heart wants what it wants,” Orange says, sliding his glasses back on. “So does the dick.”

Matt shrugs. “Fair. You know where the rest of your buddies are?”

“Got food,” Orange answers. “Went out.”

Matt watches him walk away. “Okay,” he says. “Good question. Backup in an emergency.” He’s a little perturbed that the Best Friends clan might not be an option, but there was no guarantee Danhausen would take his dare to paint Trent’s face to match his, so he cuts his losses. He’ll hit as many people as possible, and will intentionally not think about the person who he’d like to ask a Truth the most.

While looking at his phone, he almost trips over something. “Hey!”

“Stop staring at that phone,” says Christopher Daniels, looking like a disappointed dad. “You kids…”

“I’m thirty-seven,” Matt snaps back. “Truth or dare?”

Christopher blinks. “Excuse me?”

Matt is wondering if his experience with truth or dare with his friends as a kid was a more unique experience than he’d thought. “Truth or dare,” he repeats. “Did they not have that when you were a kid?”

“One of these days I’m going to kill you,” Daniels grumbles. “Do I have to?”

“You don’t have to,” Matt says, making sure to get his eyes all big and moony, “but it’s fun.”

“Don’t – quit looking at me like that. Who do you think I am, Page?”

“It doesn’t work on him anymore!” Matt fires back. It’s only a second later that he realizes he just gave away his secret weapon. “Never mind. Are you doing it or not?”

“Dare,” Daniels says, like it’s torn out of him. “If it’ll get you to stop.”

“I dare you to go up to the first person you see and twerk on them.” He wiggles his phone. “I will provide the music of your choice.”

“Twerk?!” he half shrieks. “Matt, I am fifty-two fucking years old. I don’t twerk.”

Matt frowns. “Let me look something up.” He googles it for a while. “Okay, internet says you have to do a Truth.”

“I’m not telling you shit, because you’ll ask about upcoming contracts.”

Matt shrugs. “Fair.” He scrolls again. “Okay, if you say no to both, I think you have to kiss me.” Technically, the rule is the person is “out”. But Matt isn’t comfortable letting people have an automatic escape from his game, and if they really don’t want to kiss him, he obviously won’t make them. Plus, Daniels is a bit of a sucker for stupid dares, and Matt’s interested to see how far he can push him.

Daniels’ jaw tenses. “Fine. Tell me who I’m twerking on.”

The first room is Tony’s office, and Matt could almost skip with glee. “What song do you want?”

“I hate you,” Daniels grumbles. “Put on Pony by Ginuwine.”

“Good choice!”

Daniels walks into Tony’s room like he belongs here. Matt peeks in after him. Tony looks up from his computer. “Hi, Chris, what’s up?”

With a sigh, Daniels nods to Matt, who cues the music. In a feat of almost miserable effort, Daniels wiggles his butt in a shameful facsimile of a twerk.

“That’s enough,” Matt says, as gently as possible. He looks over at Tony. “I – I don’t want to put you through more.”

“May I ask what is going on?” Tony says. “Actually…” He pauses, pressing a button on the phone. “Okay, the call’s muted. Thanks for that, by the way.”

Matt shrugs. “I’m playing Truth or Dare. You, Tony?”

“Truth.”

Matt huffs. “Boring. Who’s your favorite wrestler on the roster?”

Tony looks at Matt like he’s a particularly pathetic street rat. “Kenny. You know that. We’ve talked about it.”

“It’s in your book,” Daniels offers.

Matt walks out of the room, defeated. He screwed himself on that one.

“Hell fucking no.”

“Please?” Matt asks, chasing after Ethan Page. “Come on!”

“No,” Ethan says. “I am not playing Truth or Dare.”

“If you say no, you have to kiss me.”

Ethan turns around. “You are a fucking demon.”

“So will you play?” Matt asks. He turns on the eyes.

Ethan laughs, directly in his face. “Truth or dare? Okay. Truth.”

“Uh,” Matt scrolls his phone, looking for something decent. “Who is your least favorite person –”

“You.”

“I didn’t finish!”

“Sucks for you,” Ethan says. He walks backward. “Thanks for the game, Matt. Hope you lose your next match.”

Matt kicks a trash can, stubs his toe, and limps off to catering, where his mood immediately turns. There’s a lot of people in here.

“Hi.” Matt sits down next to Tay and Anna. “Truth or dare?”

They turn to each other, look at each other for a moment, then turn back to him. In perfect sync. Matt is mildly terrified. “Truth,” Anna says.

Tay laughs. “Baby. I say dare.”

“Okay, Anna,” Matt looks through the list, “if you had to punch anybody in the room, who would it be?”

Anna scans the area, tapping her chin. Her eyes land on the Blackpool table. “Yuta,” she decides. “He’s too, I don’t know, pleasant. A fist to the face would make me like him more, I think.”

“Weird logic, but okay.” Matt turns to Tay. “With their consent, of course, kiss somebody in the room.”

Matt is expecting a peck on the cheek, probably for Anna. Maybe a tiny kiss for Sammy, if he comes in.

Nope.

Tay stands, grabs Matt’s face. “You?”

He should have seen this coming. “Fine.” Tay plants a kiss directly on his mouth. It’s over before he realizes, and he doesn’t even get a chance to kiss back.

“Interesting choice,” he says, trying to put his face back where it belongs. “Um, why me?”

“You were the closest,” Tay says, shrugging. “And Sammy’s on the other side of hotel, so…”

“Oh,” says Anna, interrupting, “Jack’s here.” She waves him over, and he slides in next to her, arm around her waist. “Hi. Matt’s doing Truth or Dare.”

Jungle Boy tilts his head to the side. “Dare. Obviously.”

Matt thinks about it. “I dare you to do a lap dance on somebody in the room who isn’t Anna.”

“Lame.” He looks around. “I get to choose the music?”

Matt nods. “Provided by me, of course. Just let me know what song and I’ll play it.”

Jack looks from the Blackpool table, over to The Firm’s table. It is only then that Matt realizes how much his adult life feels like high school. “Yuta!”

“What?”

“Can I give you a lap dance?”

Yuta wrinkles his nose. “No. Unequivocally no.”

“Please?”

“Still no. Let me eat my lunch.”

Jungle Boy turns back to Matt. “Well. Sucks for you.”

“What?”

“Babe,” Jungle Boy says, turning to Anna, “what’s the sexiest song?”

“Bad Dog by Neon Hitch,” she answers automatically.

Matt shrugs. He doesn’t know the song, but the title is…well, to quote Isiah Cassidy, sus. “Odd choice, but to each their own.” He chooses the song on Spotify. “Who are you lap dancing?”

“You, obviously.”

Thus begins 3 of the strangest minutes of Matt’s thirty-seven years. Jungle Boy isn’t exactly full of rhythm, and he doesn’t exactly have the ass to make this a particularly riveting lap dance. But it’s something to do, and Matt’s doing a great job of getting people to play his game, so he figures he doesn’t have anything to complain about.

The song ends, and Jungle Boy stops dancing and immediately goes stiff again. He sits back next to Anna. “Okay. I’m going to, uh, eat my dinner now.” He nods at Matt. “Later.”

Matt stands up. “Later. Uh, if they try to kill me,” he nods over to the Blackpool table, “call Nick or something, okay?”

“Sure,” Anna says, but she’s texting, and he’s pretty sure she didn’t even hear him. Oh, well.

He plops himself next to Wheeler Yuta, who pauses midchew. “Hi.”

Yuta swallows, eyeing Matt. “What are you up to?”

“Why do you think I’m up to anything?”

Yuta gestures to Jungle Boy, Anna, and Tay. “Well, for starters, Tay kissed you, and then Jungle Boy did a weird little stripper dance on you.” He shrugs. “Common denominator is you, man.”

“Okay, fine. I’m playing Truth or Dare.”

“Dare,” Yuta says automatically. Mox laughs, dropping his head, while Claudio rolls his eyes over a bowl of soup.

“Kid, you gotta stop giving Matt an open invitation. He’ll take it.” He wiggles his eyebrows at Matt. “Won’t he?”

“That was once, and we were high on adrenaline after Double or Nothing,” Matt fires back.

Mox shrugs, grinning as he shovels more pasta into his mouth. “Fun, though.”

Yuta looks between the two of them, strangely intrigued. “You guys have kissed?”

“Yes, not the point,” Matt says. He’s got to focus Yuta back so he can knock out the rest of the cafeteria before people start to leave. “Okay, dare? Um,” he searches online, but gives up quickly. The world in front of him gave a decent prompt. “I dare you to shove all of that loaf of bread in your mouth.”

“This is my bread,” Claudio grumbles.

“Tough shit,” Yuta says, and immediately shoves the whole hunk in his mouth. Like it’s nothing. Matt wonders what the hell the Blackpool Combat Club gets up to when they’re not in combat. Yuta’s chewing is a little labored, but he manages to chew and swallow it without much problem after a few moments. He swallows once more, then sticks out his tongue.

“Ew,” Matt says, wrinkling his nose. He turns to Claudio. “Truth or dare?”

“Not him yet,” Yuta says. “If Mox kissed you, can I kiss you?”

Matt blinks at him. “Um, that was back in 2019, so it’s not like a, a BCC initiation.”

“Oh, not because of that. Mox and I are in a battle to determine who is the best kisser and you’d be an impartial judge.”

Matt has the impulse to ask what in the eff that means, and also, again, what the fuck is Blackpool doing on company time, but he refocuses. He has a match soon. He can’t waste time. “I mean. I ask you for a favor, you ask me for one.” He points to the water. “Just, I don’t know, rinse your mouth out a little first.”

Yuta nods, chugs about a gallon of water and shakes his shoulders out. “Alright.” He leans down and kisses Matt gently, a sweet press. It feels almost blasphemous to call this brush of lips the same as whatever the fuck he and Moxley did behind a giant poker chip way back then.

Yuta’s smiling when he pulls away. “Good?”

“Very different from Mox,” he muses. “For instance, you don’t taste like cigarettes.”

Mox drops his fork. “That can’t count.”

“It does,” Matt says and, just to be annoying, “and Yuta’s not all sweaty.”

“I’d just made my debut on a fuckin’ lit stage! In May!”

Matt shrugs. “Yuta wins. Now, Claudio, Truth or Dare?”

“No, no, no,” Mox interrupts again. Matt’s going to get nowhere. There’s only so many hours in a day. “I get another shot. That other kiss was years ago.”

“Oh, my god, fine,” Matt says, rolling his eyes. “Kiss me, you fool, or whatever. Clock is ticking.”

Mox leans in and presses a kiss gentler than Matt’d thought him capable of. But he still wouldn’t call it gentle. Mox kisses with single minded hunger, lips demanding and firm. They don’t taste like smoke, though Mox tastes a bit like chicken soup. He pulls away. “There. Better?”

“Better,” Matt says, “but you taste like soup this time, so I’m still gonna have to give it to Yuta.”

“Hah!” Yuta barks, and straight up points a finger in Mox’s face. “Told ya!”

Mox rolls his eyes. “Asshole.”

“Claudio, truth or dare?” Matt says.

“Truth.”

Matt scrolls his phone. “What’s your favorite fantasy?”

“Winning the world title,” Claudio says, almost automatically.

“I think – well, I guess it’s answerer interpretation, isn’t it.” Matt stands. “Thank you for your time, boys, as weird as it was.” He pauses. “Uh, Claudio?”

“Yes?” He doesn’t look pleased.

“Do you have stakes in the weird kissing battle between…” He trails off, pointing to Mox and Yuta, who have gone back to eating their lunch like they hadn’t just asked Matt to settle a bet between the two of them.

Claudio sighs. “Yuta won in my final review, too.”

“I shouldn’t have asked. Alright.” He walks over to the Firm’s table, where Stokeley Hathaway looks highly displeased at his arrival. “What?”

“Truth or dare.”

“Truth.”

At least it’s moving quick than BCC. “What’s your greatest fear?”

“Being stuck in conversations with idiots my whole life,” Stokely fires back.

“I’ll take it. You,” he turns to Lee Moriarty, “truth or dare?”

“Dare.”

“Read out loud the last text message you sent.”

Lee pulls out his phone. “No, but you can if you want,” he reads. “To Big Bill, if it matters.”

“Thank you. Mr. Bill.”

“You can call me Big Bill.”

Matt nods. “Okay. Big Bill, truth or dare?”

“Truth.”

Matt scrolls the list. “Oh, this one is fun. Yell out the first word that comes to mind at the top of your lungs.”

“Potpourri!” Big Bill booms, and it staggers Matt. For just a second though.

“What the fuck goes on in that big ass head of yours?” Stokely asks, shaking his head. He turns back to Matt, somehow looking disappointed. “Alright. You finished?”

Matt nods. “Yep.” He walks to the exit, and runs right into Samoa Joe. “Oh, hi! Truth or dare?”

“Why?”

Matt shrugs. “I was bored. Truth or dare?”

Joe practically levels him with a stony star. This might have been a mistake. “I will throw you across this room.”

Matt seriously considers trying again. He has that street match later, anyway… But no. Bad idea. “Alright, suit yourself.” And he makes his way down the hallway.

He gets to his normal locker room, the one he now shares only with Nick, since Kenny came back. Since he left. “Hi.”

“Hey,” Nick says. “You seem a little less jittery than before.”

“Truth or dare is fun,” Matt says. “Speaking of which.”

Nick sighs. “Yeah, okay. Dare.”

“Ooh! You’re being fun today.” He scrolls the list, and finds the perfect one. “Oh, this is good. Show me the most embarrassing photo on your phone.”

Nick whines. “Really?”

“Yes, really. Or, I could just grab your phone and -” Matt darts out to grab Nick’s phone, but he pulls it away at the last second.

“God, okay, fine,” he whines. “Give me a sec.”

A minute so later, which Matt spends searching for other good dares and truths, Nick sighs. “Here.” He turns the phone around and shows it to Matt. It’s not that embarrassing – a photo of a particularly messy botch from the previous match with Death Triangle.

“Oh, that’s not bad.” He pats Nick on the cheek. “Thanks, baby brother.”

They gear up and walk down to Kenny’s dressing room, where he’s half asleep on the couch. “You awake, buddy?” Nick asks, reaching out to gently shake Kenny’s arm.

He wakes up slowly. “Time to get ready?”

Matt nods. “You forget your alarm again.”

“Apparently,” Kenny mumbles. “Sorry about that. Won’t be long.”

It isn’t. Kenny is ready in a couple of minutes, and they are ready for their match. Matt gets a Brutalizer, Nick gets a boot to the face, and Kenny probably breaks his ass pulling off a risky One Winged Angel. But they won. Even though Matt tapped, they still won.

“Don’t beat yourself up over it,” Kenny says, patting Matt’s shoulder a little too hard. “Oops. Sorry.”

“Nah, you’re good.” Matt rolls his shoulder. “And I tapped! I almost made us lose.”

“I had your back,” Kenny says. “Besides, all that matters is that we won. One more in two weeks.” He winces. “I think I’ll enjoy that time off, actually.”

Matt hums in agreement. The ache in his shoulder is almost completely done by the time the clock hits ten. Kenny’s ass is solid, pun intended, Nick doesn’t have anything worse than a lump in his forehead, and Matt decides that he’s allowed to turn his attention back on his own brand of nonsense now.

“Hey, I’m not gonna bother with the trainer. I’m already feeling better.” He grins. “Anybody want to come with me to play truth or dare?”

Kenny shakes his head. “I want to go monitor Rampage, make sure everything closed out Dynamite okay.” He wiggles, wincing. “And maybe sit on some ice.”

“And I,” Nick says, “will do anything in my power to avoid being involved in your weird…” He trails off, making a bizarre hand gesture. “Well, your whatever it is. So I’m going with Kenny.”

Matt shrugs. “Suit yourself. But first, Kenny,” he grins, like everything is the way they were before the injuries, “truth or dare?”

“Die in a fire.”

“Not an option,” Matt says. “Truth or dare?”

“Fine,” Kenny says, slowly lifting himself off the table. “Truth.”

“Who on the roster would you let kiss you, if they asked nicely?”

Kenny considers, wincing as he takes his first few steps. “Jesus, don’t drop ass first on a table.” He takes a few steps, and loosens, just a little. “Probably Rush,” Kenny decides. “I like his hair.”

Matt nods. “Cool. Interesting choice. Not where I would have gone with it.”

On the way to main locker room, he bumps into the Dark Order.

“Great timing,” he leans against the wall, legs out to make sure the Dark Order don’t make the mistake of thinking that they can escape this conversation. “Truth or dare. Let’s start with Silver.”

“Dare,” he says. He looks way too excited. “You gonna make me suck a dick? Lick somebody’s stinky butthole?”

Matt involuntarily scoots a little further away. “Gross, no. What in the world do you guys get up to?”

“So much,” Uno says, sounding dazed.

“Silver, I dare you to text ‘I love you’ to whoever posted most recently in your Instagram feed.”

“Don’t mind if I do,” Silver says, pulling his phone out from his trunks. Matt reminds himself to never shake his hand without Purel on hand. “Hello, Miss Grande.” He types it out, presses send and shows Matt. “Maybe she’ll pick up some tickets to the gun show and get up on this.”

“I’m pretty sure she’s married now,” Reynolds muses. “I choose truth.”

“Who’s your least favorite member of the Dark Order?”

“Oh, that’s easy.” Alex waves it away. “Five. He was the worst.” He pauses. “Actually, wait. I think my least favorite is Ten now. Because of, you know, the whole betrayal thing.”

John exhales. “I never thought I’d see the day when Five wasn’t last in something.”

“So, Uno, how about you?”

“Dare.”

“I dare you, to,” Matt checks his list again, wishing he could just memorize the whole thing, “to send a sext to the last person in your phone, alphabetically.”

“Oh, well, that’ll be,” he holds up his phone, “Wheeler Yuta.”

“This’ll be fun,” John says, “tell him you want to use his abs to do laundry.”

Uno makes an appraising noise. “Honestly, that’s better than what I was worried you’d suggest.”

“I was gonna say ‘ask him to suck your Moby dick’, but I figured that was over the line.”

“Good call,” Matt says. Uno types and sends the message. “Keep me posted. It’ll be fascinating to see where this goes next.”

He makes his way down to Death Triangle’s area, but they’re gone. No sign of them. “Hello?” he calls into the locker room. “Anybody else in here?”

“Hello hello,” says Bryan Danielson, popping out from the showers. He’s fully dressed, though, so Matt doesn’t need to have a panic attack about that. “Need something?”

“I’m playing truth or dare,” Matt says. “Which one?”

“Truth, I guess,” Bryan says, fixing his hair in the mirror.

“Who’s your favorite person on the roster?”

Bryan keeps adjusting pieces of his hair as he thinks. “Probably Mox,” he decides. “But don’t tell him I said that.”

“You’re secret’s safe with me,” Matt says, and he salutes, which he couldn’t explain if a knife was to his throat.

He walks to the other side, expecting to see it empty, but Hook is sitting there with Top Flight. “Oh – didn’t think anybody else was in here.”

“We’re trying to chill,” Dante says. His eyes are closed as he leans against the locker. “So, if you’re here to kick our ass or yell at us, wait, like, ten minutes.”

“Not any of that,” Matt says. “I’m playing truth or dare. Want to play?”

Hook takes a headphone out, considers Matt. “Truth,” he says. Matt thinks this may be the most Hook’s said directly to him. Like, ever.

“Okay, um,” he gives up on his phone, because he genuinely has a question, “favorite wrestler of all time?”

“My dad,” he answers. He doesn’t elaborate, doesn’t explain, just relaxes back against the lockers. But his eyes stay open, this time.

“Alright, Dante,” he nods to him. “Truth or dare?”

“Dare. I’m always up for something stupid.”

Matt breaks into a slow grin. “Go up to Danielson – he’s on the other side – and start dancing on him.”

Dante sighs. “Should have seen that one coming. Alright, fine. Let’s go.”

Hook grins and breaks out his phone, recording it as Dante walks over. Danielson is on his way out, but Dante catches up to him and immediately starts doing what appears to be the Dougie. Bryan is not phased, and simply walks out.

“That was anticlimactic,” Matt mutters. “Alright, Darius. What’s your poison?”

He tilts his head a little. “Truth.”

“Did you consider leaving wrestling after your accident?” But it wasn’t Matt who asked. It was Dante.

Darius’ eyes widen. “Not for a second.” He looks at Dante, who’s slumped, just a little. “Hey, bud, I promise. I wasn’t going to leave.”

“But you could have,” Dante says. “You probably should have.” His eyes are suddenly big and sad, and he looks so, so young. He remembers getting that same look from Nick all those years ago, when things weren’t going well and Matt was about to quit.

Matt stands, shuffling out, because he’s not needed for this. He hears the cheers from the Rampage taping going off, so he guesses he’s shit out of luck for anybody on that show. He ducks into the corners of the dressing rooms and the prep rooms, looks for Swerve and his guys, but nobody’s there. He peeks in catering again – no one. Everybody’s either working or back at a hotel.

He catches Wardlow on his way back toward his EVP room, and taps his shoulder.

“Hey.” Wardlow turns to him. “I like the haircut.”

Wardlow touches it, fingertips pulling at strands that are no longer there. Matt remembers doing that when he and Nick first started for TNA, when they made them Max and Jeremy. “Thanks, I guess.”

“Truth or dare?”

“Did I miss something?” Wardlow asks, looking around. “This for your vlog?”

“No,” Matt says. “I got bored and I’m asking everyone. Getting some good gossip.”

“Like what?” Huh. Matt had not pegged Wardlow for a nosy Nancy, but Matt Jackson is always willing to dish out the knowledge he obtains.

“Well,” Matt says, “I learned that Jungle Boy can’t do a lap dance to save his life.” He thinks about other interesting details. “Oh, and Hook’s favorite wrestler is Taz, which is expected, but nice. Wheeler Yuta can shove, like, a whole loaf of bread in his mouth at once.”

Wardlow nods in approval. “Okay, that one’s actually kind of impressive.”

“I know,” Matt says, “Like, I know a lot of bread is air, but a lot of bread is, well, bread.”

Wardlow laughs, something that is both confusing and comforting to Matt. He feels unlikely to be powerslammed into the wall. “Alright. I pick truth.”

“What do you think is your biggest mistake?” It’s a rough question, but Warlow seems…well, he seems like he might need it. MJF wasn’t particularly kind to him, and Samoa Joe was a giant jerk tonight. Nobody checks on Wardlow. Somebody should talk to him.

Wardlow sighs, leans against the wall. “Well,” he say, “I’d say helping MJF all that time. I made the mistake of putting money over morals.” He smiles. “Not doing that again.”

“Well, thank you for your candor,” Matt says, doing his best to be chivalrous. “I won’t share that if you don’t want to.”

“I mean, you can,” Wardlow says with a shrug. “I feel like most people can assume, at this point.”

He waves Matt off, wishing him a happy new year, and Matt makes his way back to his room. There’s only one person left from Dynamite that he really, really wishes he’d caught. And it’s only then that Matt realized this was all an excuse. His shoulders slump, like a marionette with cut strings, and he pushes into the EVP room with Nick with the energy of a dying plankton.

“You look miserable,” Nick says, a little too cheerfully. “You get punched in the face for daring somebody to, like, make out with you or something?”

“I did not dare anybody to kiss me, thank you very much.” He decidedly does not mention the thing with Jungle Boy. Or Tay. Or the little thing with Yuta. Or the thing with Mox. Which sort of wasn’t a kiss, as much as a mouth attack. “And no, it’s because it’s been a long day and I’m tired.”

“That’s not your tired face,” Nick says. “Actually. That’s, uh. That’s your weird little temper tantrum face.”

“Shut up,” Matt says, He dips his head, trying to cover whatever Nick thinks he can read there.

“Who was it?” Nick asks, too knowing as always. “Which sane person decided not to play your game?”

“Samoa Joe, but that’s not the issue,” Matt says. He can feel that Nick is going to keep pressing, kep asking. So he caves. “I couldn’t find Page.”

“Ethan?”

Matt lifts his head up. “No.”

Nick exhales, slumping against his chair. “Man, you really are a glutton for punishment.”

“It’s a game!” Matt doesn’t know why he feels so defensive about this. “I didn’t want him to feel left out.”

Nick claps him on the shoulder. “You really miss him, don’t you.”

“I don’t want to,” Matt mumbles. “But yeah. I guess I miss what we all used to have, you know?”

They sit silently for a little, packing up slowly, until Matt realizes he hasn’t eaten since five.

“Catering might still be open,” he says. “I’ll bring you a cookie.”

The walk to the catering area is quiet, since anybody who isn’t working Rampage is gone or packing up, and he’s halfway through a tray full of a smattering of snacks when he hears it. The familiar tap on the tile floors.

“Hangman!” Matt scrambles to his feet, practically tripping over them to get out of the cafeteria and out to Adam. “Adam! Wait!”

He turns around slowly. Hesitantly. Matt doesn’t like it. “Matt?”

“Yeah, hi,” Matt says. He skids to a stop in front of Adam. “Hi.”

“You said that already.”

Matt can’t help but smile. “I know. Um, truth or dare?”

Adam sighs. “Not again.”

“It’s not spin the bottle this time,” Matt blurts out. “So you don’t have to kiss me.”

“I didn’t have to kiss you that time,” Adam says, leaning against his wall. “But, truth.”

Matt feels something well in him, some kind of bold tenacity. Adrenaline spikes. “Do you hate me?”

Adam slips a little bit. “What?”

Matt nods. “That’s your truth. Do you hate me?”

He’s quiet for a minute, for long enough that Matt is regretting this whole thing. Then, “No.” He adjusts his hair, tightening the bun. “No, Matty, I don’t.”

The nickname is like a kick to the heart. Or a jumpstart. Matt risks stepping closer.

“Now I get to ask you, right?”

Matt tilts his head. “You ask me?”

“That’s how the game’s played, isn’t it?” Adam asks. His fingers are pulling at his belt buckle. He’s nervous. “The last person to go always gets to ask whoever they want.”

“Nobody else has cashed in on that today, but, yeah.” Matt feels a little breathless. “Yeah, you can ask me.”

“Truth or dare?” His voice is low, breathy. Matt remembers that tone of voice. Remembers when it used to meet him in the middle of the night in a shitty hotel room, used to sweep him off his feet backstage.

“Dare,” Matt whispers.

Adam steps toward Matt. “Kiss me.”

Matt nods, feeling something tighten in his chest, something that’s been begging to get touched for years. He tilts his head up, and it’s like coming home. Adam’s fingers thread through his hair where it’s fallen out of the ponytail; he slides them against the base of his head like he always used to. Matt sighs into it, settles his hands on Adam’s hips, pulls him closer. Adam makes this little sound against him as he licks at Matt’s lips. Like Matt could ever resist that sound. He goes up onto his toes trying to get better leverage, and presses Adam up against the wall. Adam’s hands lose some of their demure hesitance, and they grip at the back of Matt’s shirt. It feels like an invitation, so Matt slides his hands up Adam’s shirt, pressing at the familiar skin there.

He's missed this. He’s missed Adam. He’s missed feeling like there was something other than the ground to anchor him.

Matt fumbles with the door and twists the knob, and he pulls Adam with him into whichever room this is. He doesn’t care where it is – he just needs to be away from any questioning eyes. He realizes with a hazy sense of stupid that this is, indeed, Kenny’s dressing room. And Matt doesn’t care.

Adam’s making those little, desperate noises again, the ones that get Matt hard in his pants so fast he gets dizzy, and Matt’s only option is to scrabble at Adam’s shirt and yank it up over his head.

“Missed you,” Adam growls, biting along Matt’s jaw. His hands have found their way up Matt’s back, under his shirt, burning a path where his fingertips skitter and scratch. “Want you.”

Matt can’t do much other than make a weird little murmur in response, and he hopes it’s enough to tell Adam that he wants him, too. He pulls back, just a little, and hears Adam make a half pathetic desperate noise.

“I’m coming back,” Matt says, and he pulls of his shirt, throwing it somewhere in the room. He grabs at the hem of Adam’s shirt, already messed up, and yanks it up. “Rawhide Kid?” he asks. “What…?”

“It’s a gay cowboy,” Adam says, with a little laugh. “Strangely appropriate for right now, huh.”

Matt nods in agreement, then steps back into Adam’s space. He goes for Adam’s belt, doesn’t know what he’s getting, but he wants anything Adam is willing to give. Adam’s belt flies across the room, Matt’s pants fall, and Adam grabs him around the waist. He hauls him up and presses him up against the door as he pulls the pants off his leg. Matt’s vision nearly whites out.

“Forgot you could do that,” Matt laughs, head tilted back as Adam bites a bruise into his skin. “And I’ve bulked up.”

“I noticed,” Adam says. He moves down to Matt’s bicep, nipping. “Been lifting?”

“Uh huh,” Matt says. He rolls his hip up against Adam, desperate for friction. He’s rewarded with Adam’s low laugh, the kind Matt only gets to hear with they’re like this. “Come on, take your pants off.”

Adam turns and, with a hand on Matt’s back, carries him to the couch. He drops Matt, and it gives Matt a truly magnificent view of Adam looming over him, undoing his belt.

“Got anything?” Adam asks. “It’s not back in our Ring of Honor days, not sure if spit’s gonna do the job.”

Matt feels a zing of heat course through him. “Uh, this is Kenny’s room, so if you go through his stuff, he’s bound to have something.”

“Right,” Adam says. “Going through my professional ex’s stuff so I can fuck my other ex. Totally normal.”

“Shut up and get in me,” Matt demands. Adam does shut up, but not without an eye roll. Matt doesn’t agree with Adam – spit’s worked fine for him the last few times – so he works himself down on his own finger while Adam searches.

“Okay, I think I found – oh, holy fuck.” Adam sounds like the breath has been punched out of him. “Oh, god, you look so pretty doing that.”

“Had to,” Matt gasps, writhing against the press of his own finger inside him. “You were taking too long.”

Adam hums in interest, then leans down, batting Matt’s finger out of the way. “Let me.” He presses a kiss to Matt’s bare thigh, then slicks his fingers. He’s always so gentle, this way. Kisses up and down Matt’s body, peppered to his lips, his chest, his legs. He starts off slow, takes a while to go rough enough, fast enough for Matt. It’s not in his brand to rush things, he thinks.

“More,” Matt gasps, “please. More.”

“Well, only ‘cause you beg so pretty.” Adam gently slides a second finger into Matt, twisting them so it sends shockwaves up Matt’s spine. He can’t help it – he grinds back down on Adam’s fingers, letting out a desperate moan. “Forgot how loud you get when I’m inside you,” Adam murmurs. He moves up Matt’s body, pressing a kiss to his lips like he’s drowning for Matt’s oxygen. “What do you want?”

“Wanna – wanna ride you,” Matt gasps, grinding down with each thrust from Adam.

Adam laughs. “I could make a cowboy joke here.” He teases a third finger around Matt’s rim, then slides it in easy, drawing out a sound of desperation from somewhere inside Matt’s chest. “But you seem otherwise occupied.”

Matt can’t speak anywhere, just lets out a bunch of vowels, and Adam laughs again. Matt will do anything to keep that there. He leans up, moaning at the way it shifts Adam’s fingers inside him, and pulls Adam to him. Adam slides his fingers out.

“Why the eff would you do that?” Matt asks, and he sounds petulant even to his own ears.

“Because you want to ride me, and that’s not gonna work if I’m stuck doing this standing crouching thing.” He flops down, hard, next to Matt, and rips open the condom, rolling it over himself. Matt’s about to die a little, when Adam pats his thighs. “Ride ‘em – ”

“Oh, no,” Matt says, throwing a leg over Adam’s. “No stupid jokes. We’re stopping that right now.”

“Just one?” God, Adam looks cute when he pouts, lips all pink and eyes shiny blue-green.

Matt decides argument is unnecessary, grabs Adam’s cock, and lowers himself down. It’s a strategy that’s never failed.

Adam drops his head backward with an audible thunk. “Christ on bike,” he hisses through clenched teeth. “I forgot how good you feel.”

Matt’s eyes flutter shut as he does his first rocking. “I didn’t forget you,” he mumbles. There’s certain things you can’t replicate on your own, no matter how hard you try. “You – oh – always fit me so good.”

Adam hums in agreement, starting with slow, tantalizing circles of the hips. Matt rocks, memorizing everything. He doesn’t know if he’ll ever have this again and, last time, he didn’t know it was the last time. This time, he’s prepared.

Adam slides a hand up to the back of his neck, into his hair. He pulls Matt down to kiss him, deep and dirty, and he picks up the speed of his thrusts. This is what Matt really missed – the way Adam just lets it go, gets a little wild with everything he gives. Matt starts by trying to lead, at least a little, but Adam’s desperate with it, and all Matt can really do is grip the back of the couch and press open mouthed kisses to Adam’s gasping mouth.

His cock is caught between their bellies, catching on Adam’s skin, and it’s too much and not enough at once. He presses his lips to Adam’s forehead. He doesn’t know how to tell him what he’s feeling. He hopes he can show it.

Adam slows down a little, one arm braced on the couch and the other around Matt’s back. Matt remembers all of this. They’ve just never had the chance to do this in such a nice room. Before he can catch himself. Matt laughs.

“What?” Adam asks, laughing along with Matt.

“Just – Kenny’s room,” Matt says. “I don’t know. It’s funny.”

Adam hums, but he must not be feeling the humor, as he speeds up and gets his hand on Matt and very suddenly Matt has other things to focus on.

It hits Matt like a train, when he comes all over Adam’s hand. Adam groans, “Fuck, you’re so, I…” But he trails off into a wordless moan as he comes, head thrown back and eyes squeezed shut. Matt forgot how good Adam looks like this.

He’s got a giant smile on his lips as he eases his eyes open. “I missed you,” Adam half slurs, reaching up to brush hair from Matt’s forehead. “God, I missed you.”

Matt shifts, hips screaming at him, and flinches when Adam slips out of him. He’ll be feeling that tomorrow, that’s for damned sure. “I missed you, too.” He’s not sure what happens next, the reality of this crashing over him when Adam stands.

“Don’t panic,” he says, looking more confident than Matt feels, “just throwing this away.” He walks into the bathroom and comes right back out. “I’m not running out on you.”

“Oh. Cool. That’s good.” Matt really, really doesn’t know what comes next, but he’s been getting yesses almost the whole day so he figures luck is on his side. He reaches out, and Adam dives into his arms, pressing Matt to the couch. Matt settles into it, feels cozy when Adam nuzzles his neck and throws his legs over Matt’s lap.

“Forgot how cute you are, after,” Matt murmurs, arms around Adam’s shoulders.

“Shut up and let me cuddle,” Adam says back, but there’s no fire behind it, no anger. They stay there for longer than they probably should, testing the silence from time to time with little nothings, comments.

Well, until they hear footsteps. Matt manages to get his jeans and boxers back on, Adam his boxers only, by the time the door opens.

“What – what the hell?” Kenny doesn’t look angry, exactly. Anger would look a lot less confused. “I really hope I don’t know what you just did.”

“Take a wild guess, Kenneth,” Matt says, pulling his jeans on over his boxers. “Not like I haven’t run in on you and, well a lot of people, come to think of it.”

“How am I being slutshamed when you two are the ones fucking on my couch,” Kenny mutters.

“I’m not shaming that you’re a slut,” Matt says, shirt back on. The neck hole is super stretched, though. Hopefully a good wash will fix it. “I’m just commenting on it.”

“Can we stop saying that word?” Adam asks. Matt turns to see him doing his belt, and it sends that zing up his spine again. “And, uh, hi, Kenny.” He puts out his hand, winces, then pulls it behind his back.

Kenny shakes his head. “I don’t need to know the details.” He walks over to his stuff. “Oh – did you.” He cuts himself off, head snapping up. “Matt, did you steal my lube?”

Sheepishly, Matt finds the lube where they’d thrown it. “Here.”

Kenny makes a strange noise as he sort of tosses it in his hands, then throws it into his bag. “Don’t give me the condom back, for the love of god.”

“Already gone,” Adam says, grinning. “Thanks for the assist by the way.” The bastard winks at Kenny, Matt’s wondering if he’s physically able to get hard again just from that.

Kenny makes that weird noise again. “I should be annoyed by this.”

“Maybe,” Matt says, “but you hate being annoyed at me. It’s inconvenient.”

In tandem, Adam and Kenny groan in frustration. The cut it off at the same time, looking at each other in surprise.

“Moving on from that,” Adam says, starting to blush. “Anybody see my shirt?”

“Back of the couch,” Matt and Kenny say at the same time.

“Alright, well, I hate that,” Adam says. “Give it to me.”

Matt snorts. “Here.” Adam takes the shirt and pulls it back on, much to Matt’s chagrin. “So,” Matt says, “I was, like, in the middle of dinner when I heard Hangman walking down the hallway, so I’m starving. Anybody want to get food?”

“Shouldn’t this be weird?” Adam asks. “I mean,” he points between the three of them, “with everything, this should be weird.”

Kenny’s smile is more gentle than Matt would have expected. “Let’s save awkward for tomorrow. I didn’t get dinner either.”

Matt begins a spirited argument with the two of them about which is better, Denny’s or IHOP, and, for the first time in years, he feels whole.

The afterglow, though. That gets ruined fast.

“Where the eff were you?!” Nick asks, looking panicked in the hallway. “You haven’t answered your phone in, like, forty-five minutes!”

“I was busy,” Matt says, and he watches Nick get it as his eyes go to where Adam’s and Matt’s hands are linked.

“Oh, here we go,” Nick says, but he’s smiling, so Matt thinks he might be okay.

“Goin’ to IHOP,” Adam says. “Wanna come with?”

“What if we go to Cracker Barrel?” Matt asks, the idea fully formed before he was finished speaking.

Kenny puts his hands on his hips. “Huh. You know, I haven’t had Cracker Barrel in, what years.”

“Me either,” Nick adds.

Adam beams over at Matt. “Cracker Barrel. Just like old times.”

#Matt Jackson #HangMatt #There's too many people I'm not tagging anybody but the cow eyed menace #in which Sara writes #wtf i like wrestling now???

5 notes · View notes

brookston · 8 months ago

Text

Holidays 3.24

Holidays

Abracadabra Day

Billboard Pop Album Chart Day

Breakfast Club Detention Day (in “The Breakfast Club”)

Cherokee Nation Remembrance Day

Commonwealth Covenant Day (Northern Mariana Islands)

Concordia Asteroid Day

Day of Remembrance of the Victims of NATO Bombing in Servia

Exxon Valdez Spill Remembrance Day

Feast of the Trickster of Liberty

Flatmate’s Day (UK)

Golden Saxifrage Day

Great American Takeout Day

Heroes’ Day (Congo DRC)

Independent Accommodations Dat

International Day for Achievers

International Day for the Right to the Truth concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims (UN)

International Houdini Day

International Love Your Cat Day

International Right to the Truth Day

International Whistleblower Day

Kazimiras Diena (Return of the Larks; Ancient Latvia)

Lipoprotein(a) Awareness Day

National Adverse Drug Event Awareness Day

National Each Person is a Person of Worth Day

National Life Day (Poland)

National Orange Day (New York)

National Remembrance Day of Poles Saving Jews under German Occupation (Poland)

National Revolution Day (Kyrgyzstan)

National Side Boob Appreciation Day

National Stephanie Day

National Tree Planting Day (Uganda)

National Women of Color in Tech Day

The Office Day

OSX Day

See if you Can Remember How to Play Parcheesi Day

Student Day (Scientology)

Truth and Justice Day (Argentina)

Tulip Day (French Republic)

World Freedom of Thought Day

World Kabaddi Day (India)

World Tuberculosis Day (UN)

Food & Drink Celebrations

International Sauerkraut Day

National Cake Pops Day

National Cheesesteak Day

National Chocolate Covered Raisins Day

National Cocktail Day

4th Sunday in March

Black Marriage Day [4th Sunday]

Sunday League Day (UK) [4th Sunday]

Weekly Holidays beginning March 24 (4th Week)

International Peace Syndrome Awareness Week [Last week in March]

National Cleaning Week [begins 4th Sunday]

National Second-Hand Shopping Week [4th Week in March]

World Irish Dancing Week [4th Week in March]

Independence & Related Days

Commonwealth Covenant Day (Northern Marianas Islands)

Greece (Formally Declared a Republic; 1924)

New Year’s Days

Nowruz (New Year) [Day 5, Around Spring Equinox] (a.k.a. ...

Navruz (Tajikistan)

Nooroz (Iran)

Novruz (Azerbaijan)

Festivals Beginning March 24, 2024

Hilton Head Wine & Food Festival (Hilton Head, South Carolina) [thru 3.30]

Maine Maple Sunday (Maine)

Paella Challange (San Antonio, Texas)

Feast Days

Akhnaten, by Philip Glass (Ancient Egyptian Opera; 1984)

Baghwan Shree Rajneesh Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Blessings of Birch Water, The Silver Lady of the Woods (Starza Pagan Book of Days)

Catherine of Vadstena (a.k.a. Catherine of Sweden; Christian; Saint)

Dario Fo (Writerism)

Day of Blood (Ancient Rome; Everyday Wicca)

Dies Sanguines (Day of Blood, a.k.a. Bellona’s Day; Sacrifices to War Goddess Bellona; Ancient Rome)

Festival of Cybele (Fasting & Mourning Attis’ Death; Ancient Rome)

Frank Weston Benson (Artology)

Gabriel the Archangel (Christian; Saint)

Hildelith of Barking (Christian; Saint)

Irenssus of Sirmium (Christian; Saint)

John Smibert (Artology)

Komoeditsi (Celebrating Meveshii Bog, Great Bear God, including sacrifice to Great God of Honey; Asatru/Slavic Pagan)

Left-of-Field Fanciers Fortnight (Shamanism)

Mac Cairthinn of Clogher (Christian; Saint)

Morton the Beaver (Muppetism)

Orest Kiprensky (Artology)

Origen (Positivist; Saint)

Óscar Romero (Catholic Church, Anglican Communion, Lutheranism)

Pandia (Festival of Zeus; Ancient Greece)

Paul Couturier (Church of England)

Red Wine Day (Pastafarian)

Sacred Pillar-Stone Day (Celtic Book of Days)

Simon the Infant (a.k.a. Simon of Trent; Christian; Martyr at Trent)

Walter Hilton (Church of England; Martyr at Norwich)

William Morris (Artology)

William of Norwich (Christian; Saint)

Christian Liturgical Holidays

Holy Week begins [thru 3.30]

Sixth Sunday in Lent (Western Christianity) (a.k.a. ...

Branch Sunday

Jack-’o’-Lent Day (England)

Flower’s Day (Bulgaria)

Flowers’ Sunday (Duminica Florilor or Floril; Moldova, Romania)

Palm Sunday

People's Sunday

Pussy Willow Sunday (Latvia)

Semana Santa (Spain)

Sul y Blodau (Flowering Sunday; Wales)

Virpominen (Finland, Karelian custom)

Yew Sunday

Hebrew Calendar Holidays [Begins at Sundown Day Before]

Shushan Purim [14-15 Adair II]

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Butsumetsu (仏滅 Japan) [Unlucky all day.]

Fortunate Day (Pagan) [12 of 53]

Lucky Day (Philippines) [36 of 71]

Prime Number Day: 83 [23 of 72]

Premieres

Akhenaten, by Philip Glass (Opera; 1984)

...And Then There Were Three, by Genesis (Album; 1978)

The Brandenburg Concertos, by Johann Sebastian Bach (Six Concertos; 1721)

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, by Tennessee Williams (Play; 1955)

Cilly Goose (Noveltoons Cartoon; 1944)

Concerto in B Flat Minor (Color Rhapsody Cartoon; 1942)

Country Bear Jamboree (Disneyland Show; 1972)

Crazy Over Daisy (Disney Cartoon; 1950)

Dirty Work, by The Rolling Stones (Album; 1986)

Dolores Claiborne (Film; 1995)

Do The Freddie, by Freddie & the Dreamers (Song; 1965)

Funny Little Bunnies (Disney Silly Symphony Cartoon; 1934)

The Godfather (Film; 1972)

The Good Eleven (Multiplication Rock Cartoon; Schoolhouse Rock; 1973)

Hannah Montana (TV Series; 2006)

Haunted Mouse (Tom & Jerry Cartoon; 1965)

Ice Dragon: Legend of the Blue Daisies (Animated Film; 2018)

Is There a Doctor in the Mouse? (Tom & Jerry Cartoon; 1964)

John Wick 4 (Film; 2023)

No One Is To Blame, by Howard Jones (Song; 1986)

Nuthin’ Fancy, by Lynyrd Skynyrd (Album; 1975)

The Nutty Network (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1939)

The Office (US TV Series; 2005)

Rocky Horror Picture Show (Musical Play, U.S.; 1974)

The Saint Goes West, by Leslie Charteris (Short Stories; 1942) [Saint #24]

Scenario, by A Tribe Called Quest (Album; 1992)

Scent-imental Romeo (WB MM Cartoon; 1951)

Symphony No. 7 in C Major, by Jean Sibelius (Symphonic Fantasy; 1924)

Tall Tale (Film; 1995)

3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life of…, by Arrested Development (Album; 1992)

Tweet and Sour (WB LT Cartoon; 1956)

Watch the Birdie (Woody Woodpecker Cartoon; 1958)

Withering Heights (Film; 1939)

Today’s Name Days

Elias, Karin, Katharina (Austria)

Didak, Katarina, Latin (Croatia)

Gabriel (Czech Republic)

Judica, Ulrica (Denmark)

Albe, Albi, Albina (Estonia)

Gabriel, Kaapo, Kaappo, Kaapro (Finland)

Catherine, Karine (France)

Elias, Heidelinde, Karin (Germany)

Gábor, Karina (Hungary)

Attilio, Didaco, Flavio, Gabriele, Romolo, Tiberio (Italy)

Kazimirs, Spulgis (Latvia)

Daumantas, Donardas, Gabrielius, Ganvilė, Liucija (Lithuania)

Rikke, Ulrikke (Norway)

Dziersława, Dzierżysława, Gabor, Gabriel, Marek, Sewer, Sofroniusz, Szymon (Poland)

Zaharia (Romania)

Gabriel (Slovakia)

Catalina (Spain)

Gabriel, Rafael (Sweden)

Gabe, Gabriel, Gabriela, Gabriella, Gabrielle, Gigi (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 84 of 2024; 282 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 7 of week 12 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Fearn (Alder) [Day 8 of 28]

Chinese: Month 2 (Ding-Mao), Day 15 (Ding-Hai)

Chinese Year of the: Dragon 4722 (until January 29, 2025)

Hebrew: 14 Adair II 5784

Islamic: 14 Ramadan 1445

J Cal: 24 Green; Threesday [24 of 30]

Julian: 11 March 2024

Moon: 99%: Waxing Gibbous

Positivist: 28 Aristotle (3rd Month) [Plato]

Runic Half Month: Beore (Birch Tree) [Day 14 of 15]

Season: Spring (Day 6 of 92)

Week: 4th Week of March

Zodiac: Aries (Day 4 of 31)

#calendar #Holidays

0 notes

brookstonalmanac · 8 months ago

Text

Holidays 3.24

Holidays

Abracadabra Day

Billboard Pop Album Chart Day

Breakfast Club Detention Day (in “The Breakfast Club”)

Cherokee Nation Remembrance Day

Commonwealth Covenant Day (Northern Mariana Islands)

Concordia Asteroid Day

Day of Remembrance of the Victims of NATO Bombing in Servia

Exxon Valdez Spill Remembrance Day

Feast of the Trickster of Liberty

Flatmate’s Day (UK)

Golden Saxifrage Day

Great American Takeout Day

Heroes’ Day (Congo DRC)

Independent Accommodations Dat

International Day for Achievers

International Day for the Right to the Truth concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims (UN)

International Houdini Day

International Love Your Cat Day

International Right to the Truth Day

International Whistleblower Day

Kazimiras Diena (Return of the Larks; Ancient Latvia)

Lipoprotein(a) Awareness Day

National Adverse Drug Event Awareness Day

National Each Person is a Person of Worth Day

National Life Day (Poland)

National Orange Day (New York)

National Remembrance Day of Poles Saving Jews under German Occupation (Poland)

National Revolution Day (Kyrgyzstan)

National Side Boob Appreciation Day

National Stephanie Day

National Tree Planting Day (Uganda)

National Women of Color in Tech Day

The Office Day

OSX Day

See if you Can Remember How to Play Parcheesi Day

Student Day (Scientology)

Truth and Justice Day (Argentina)

Tulip Day (French Republic)

World Freedom of Thought Day

World Kabaddi Day (India)

World Tuberculosis Day (UN)

Food & Drink Celebrations

International Sauerkraut Day

National Cake Pops Day

National Cheesesteak Day

National Chocolate Covered Raisins Day

National Cocktail Day

4th Sunday in March

Black Marriage Day [4th Sunday]

Sunday League Day (UK) [4th Sunday]

Weekly Holidays beginning March 24 (4th Week)

International Peace Syndrome Awareness Week [Last week in March]

National Cleaning Week [begins 4th Sunday]

National Second-Hand Shopping Week [4th Week in March]

World Irish Dancing Week [4th Week in March]

Independence & Related Days

Commonwealth Covenant Day (Northern Marianas Islands)

Greece (Formally Declared a Republic; 1924)

New Year’s Days

Nowruz (New Year) [Day 5, Around Spring Equinox] (a.k.a. ...

Navruz (Tajikistan)

Nooroz (Iran)

Novruz (Azerbaijan)

Festivals Beginning March 24, 2024

Hilton Head Wine & Food Festival (Hilton Head, South Carolina) [thru 3.30]

Maine Maple Sunday (Maine)

Paella Challange (San Antonio, Texas)

Feast Days

Akhnaten, by Philip Glass (Ancient Egyptian Opera; 1984)

Baghwan Shree Rajneesh Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Blessings of Birch Water, The Silver Lady of the Woods (Starza Pagan Book of Days)

Catherine of Vadstena (a.k.a. Catherine of Sweden; Christian; Saint)

Dario Fo (Writerism)

Day of Blood (Ancient Rome; Everyday Wicca)

Dies Sanguines (Day of Blood, a.k.a. Bellona’s Day; Sacrifices to War Goddess Bellona; Ancient Rome)

Festival of Cybele (Fasting & Mourning Attis’ Death; Ancient Rome)

Frank Weston Benson (Artology)

Gabriel the Archangel (Christian; Saint)

Hildelith of Barking (Christian; Saint)

Irenssus of Sirmium (Christian; Saint)

John Smibert (Artology)

Komoeditsi (Celebrating Meveshii Bog, Great Bear God, including sacrifice to Great God of Honey; Asatru/Slavic Pagan)

Left-of-Field Fanciers Fortnight (Shamanism)

Mac Cairthinn of Clogher (Christian; Saint)

Morton the Beaver (Muppetism)

Orest Kiprensky (Artology)

Origen (Positivist; Saint)

Óscar Romero (Catholic Church, Anglican Communion, Lutheranism)

Pandia (Festival of Zeus; Ancient Greece)

Paul Couturier (Church of England)

Red Wine Day (Pastafarian)

Sacred Pillar-Stone Day (Celtic Book of Days)

Simon the Infant (a.k.a. Simon of Trent; Christian; Martyr at Trent)

Walter Hilton (Church of England; Martyr at Norwich)

William Morris (Artology)

William of Norwich (Christian; Saint)

Christian Liturgical Holidays

Holy Week begins [thru 3.30]

Sixth Sunday in Lent (Western Christianity) (a.k.a. ...

Branch Sunday

Jack-’o’-Lent Day (England)

Flower’s Day (Bulgaria)

Flowers’ Sunday (Duminica Florilor or Floril; Moldova, Romania)

Palm Sunday

People's Sunday

Pussy Willow Sunday (Latvia)

Semana Santa (Spain)

Sul y Blodau (Flowering Sunday; Wales)

Virpominen (Finland, Karelian custom)

Yew Sunday

Hebrew Calendar Holidays [Begins at Sundown Day Before]

Shushan Purim [14-15 Adair II]

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Butsumetsu (仏滅 Japan) [Unlucky all day.]

Fortunate Day (Pagan) [12 of 53]

Lucky Day (Philippines) [36 of 71]

Prime Number Day: 83 [23 of 72]

Premieres

Akhenaten, by Philip Glass (Opera; 1984)

...And Then There Were Three, by Genesis (Album; 1978)

The Brandenburg Concertos, by Johann Sebastian Bach (Six Concertos; 1721)

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, by Tennessee Williams (Play; 1955)

Cilly Goose (Noveltoons Cartoon; 1944)

Concerto in B Flat Minor (Color Rhapsody Cartoon; 1942)

Country Bear Jamboree (Disneyland Show; 1972)

Crazy Over Daisy (Disney Cartoon; 1950)

Dirty Work, by The Rolling Stones (Album; 1986)

Dolores Claiborne (Film; 1995)

Do The Freddie, by Freddie & the Dreamers (Song; 1965)

Funny Little Bunnies (Disney Silly Symphony Cartoon; 1934)

The Godfather (Film; 1972)

The Good Eleven (Multiplication Rock Cartoon; Schoolhouse Rock; 1973)

Hannah Montana (TV Series; 2006)

Haunted Mouse (Tom & Jerry Cartoon; 1965)

Ice Dragon: Legend of the Blue Daisies (Animated Film; 2018)

Is There a Doctor in the Mouse? (Tom & Jerry Cartoon; 1964)

John Wick 4 (Film; 2023)

No One Is To Blame, by Howard Jones (Song; 1986)

Nuthin’ Fancy, by Lynyrd Skynyrd (Album; 1975)

The Nutty Network (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1939)

The Office (US TV Series; 2005)

Rocky Horror Picture Show (Musical Play, U.S.; 1974)

The Saint Goes West, by Leslie Charteris (Short Stories; 1942) [Saint #24]

Scenario, by A Tribe Called Quest (Album; 1992)

Scent-imental Romeo (WB MM Cartoon; 1951)

Symphony No. 7 in C Major, by Jean Sibelius (Symphonic Fantasy; 1924)

Tall Tale (Film; 1995)

3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life of…, by Arrested Development (Album; 1992)

Tweet and Sour (WB LT Cartoon; 1956)

Watch the Birdie (Woody Woodpecker Cartoon; 1958)

Withering Heights (Film; 1939)

Today’s Name Days

Elias, Karin, Katharina (Austria)

Didak, Katarina, Latin (Croatia)

Gabriel (Czech Republic)

Judica, Ulrica (Denmark)

Albe, Albi, Albina (Estonia)

Gabriel, Kaapo, Kaappo, Kaapro (Finland)

Catherine, Karine (France)

Elias, Heidelinde, Karin (Germany)

Gábor, Karina (Hungary)

Attilio, Didaco, Flavio, Gabriele, Romolo, Tiberio (Italy)

Kazimirs, Spulgis (Latvia)

Daumantas, Donardas, Gabrielius, Ganvilė, Liucija (Lithuania)

Rikke, Ulrikke (Norway)

Dziersława, Dzierżysława, Gabor, Gabriel, Marek, Sewer, Sofroniusz, Szymon (Poland)

Zaharia (Romania)

Gabriel (Slovakia)

Catalina (Spain)

Gabriel, Rafael (Sweden)

Gabe, Gabriel, Gabriela, Gabriella, Gabrielle, Gigi (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 84 of 2024; 282 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 7 of week 12 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Fearn (Alder) [Day 8 of 28]

Chinese: Month 2 (Ding-Mao), Day 15 (Ding-Hai)

Chinese Year of the: Dragon 4722 (until January 29, 2025)

Hebrew: 14 Adair II 5784

Islamic: 14 Ramadan 1445

J Cal: 24 Green; Threesday [24 of 30]

Julian: 11 March 2024

Moon: 99%: Waxing Gibbous

Positivist: 28 Aristotle (3rd Month) [Plato]

Runic Half Month: Beore (Birch Tree) [Day 14 of 15]

Season: Spring (Day 6 of 92)

Week: 4th Week of March

Zodiac: Aries (Day 4 of 31)

#Holidays

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wholegrainsims · 6 years ago

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day one: welcome

sul sul everyone! looking forward to a great few weeks with you. ;)

with nothing but love, Mariana Trente

#mariana trente #mari bc #kelly franco #bilah kar #forrest ledesma #malia lake #alex reed #sandy mccarthy #kyrie anne skye

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cirrates · 2 years ago

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one of the concepts I have for monster high ocs is 2 best friends one of them is based on a vampire squid and the other is based on a cirrate octopus (glowing sucker octopus and blind cirrate octopus specifically) and one of them is half vampire and its not the vampire squid. ANYWAY im trying to develop them more as individual characters im thinking the cirrate one has been living between the deep sea and the surface for awhile theres like a joint custody arrangement going on there or something whereas the vampire squid probably has a much harder time adjusting to the surface since xe's lived in the deep sea xir whole life and such. but is still having fun with it. vamp squid is very flat and direct in terms of speech but always kind and well-meaning whereas cirrate vamp girl is always smiley and expressive but has no problem being mean. vamp squid thinks shes hilarious though. I have an idea for a third cephalopod-based character but I havent figured out anything about them yet. theyr a glass octopus. if you care.

#THATS all the cephalopods I have I have another sea creature though. deep sea monster thats a combination of a bunch of deep sea creatures.#her name is mariana trent BTW #🅿️easley rants

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dopeepidemic · 1 year ago

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Inktober #25: Dangerous

#inktober #inktober2023 #dangerous #art #theyre just standing there menacinglt #dude built like a wisdom tooth #he got a bbl #or like an amogus #i cant believe michelle really named them on a whim #brot #mariana #trent #webcomic #webseries

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ashintheairlikesnow · 4 years ago

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chimerical (adj.) - created by unchecked imagination; fantastically visionary or highly improbable

(this short drabble references events that occur in @orchidscript‘s Henry story - see her Masterlist for Henry right here for better context)

Tagging: @burtlederp, @finder-of-rings, @endless-whump, @whumpfigure, @stxckfxck, @slaintetowhump, @astrobly, @newandfiguringitout, @doveotions, @pretty-face-breaker

CW: Referenced noncon, referenced whump of a minor (description of bruises, past whump), trauma response, negative stimming

“Honestly, what were the chances?” Governor Oliver Branch had his hands folded on the desk in front of him, smiling his perfect made-for-TV smile, the hints of wrinkles around his face only adding to the impression, the image, of a man whose life had deeply amused him, from birth until his very moment.

There was a pause, and the reporter must have felt some pressure to speak, because just offscreen, a softer voice says, “Any abduction - after so long, they’re looking at recovery rather than rescue-”

“Oh, I know,” Oliver replied, smooth as silk, rotten underneath. “I do. It’s just so highly improbable, isn’t it? And yet such a miracle, a gift if you will, for Alex to have his son home at last.” If a different kind of smile twitched at the corner of Oliver’s mouth, it wasn’t clear on the screen. “Two years spent in such destitution, coming home so thoroughly injured... honestly, I was surprised Alex even took my call, I’m sure he could barely bring himself to leave his boy’s side.”

“So you did make a call to Governor Caldwell-”

“Of course I did! An hour after the news broke! Just because he and I have a bit of a, ah-... let’s call it a bit of a prickle in our working relationship - we both have lofty dreams, you see, and they conflict just a bit - it doesn’t mean I don’t always want the best for he and his lovely wife. Why, when Nicky went missing I was one of the first on the phone to send my thoughts and prayers for a swift recovery.” Oliver paused, and added, “That it took two years makes you wonder if perhaps someone upstairs didn’t think much of my thoughts and prayers.”

Oliver and the reporter both laughed - the reporter a little uneasily, as if uncertain whether or not Oliver was really joking. Oliver, though, laughed with a genuine, sparkling, charismatic good humor that came right through the screen.

“You know, when it happened, I told Alex - I swore to him - that I could just feel that he’d see his Nicky again. I was sure of it.” Oliver sat back, gave a camera-ready smile. “And sure enough, here he is, home again for good. Right where he belongs.”

The screen shifted back to a different journalist sitting at a desk, who looked at the screen with a pleasant, empty-looking smile. “That was Patricia Trent, our Senior Political Analyst here at WYFN, speaking with Governor Oliver Branch regarding the recent breaking news that Governor Alexander Caldwell’s missing son has returned in a surprise bombshell after being missing for two years.”

A photo came up next to the reporter’s head, showing a long-limbed, slightly gawky boy standing just behind two obvious politicians, the governor and his First Lady Mariana Aldersky, everyone dressed impeccably. Alexander Caldwell and Mariana were all smiles, while Nicholas looked dazed, beaten and bruised, with a hint of a crooked look to his nose that hadn’t been there before.

He was a little older than Chris remembered, but he knew the boy’s face, still. Purpled and bruising, he still knew it. He knew the wrinkle in his nose, he knew what the stone-faced boy looked like smiling and shy. He knew what Alexander’s hands felt like up his shirt and in his mouth and what his teeth felt like digging in to soft skin and leaving marks.

He knew what Nicholas looked like with flushed face and mussed-up hair giggling with him, curled up together, knew what he felt like to kiss.

He’d never stopped knowing, not since the first visit, the long one at the ski resort. Days helping Nicky cook, making beds together and cleaning up and laughing over stupid things and stealing kisses when their Sirs weren’t looking even though they didn’t care, it was nice to have just one thing that didn’t belong to them, that belonged to Baldur and Nicky alone-

“We’ll be back after the break,” The news anchor said with a bright, winning, white-toothed smile, “with more in our interview with Governor Oliver Branch. Next up, we ask the Governor about his plan to see legislation passed on-”

“Don’t watch that,” Antoni said softly from the doorway. “Chrisha, don’t. Do not watch him. It never helps.”

Chris, curled into the tiniest ball he could manage on the floor in front of the couch, only shook his head and drew further into himself. Behind his knees, safely hidden from sight, he began to tap his fingers roughly against his own stomach.

Antoni swallowed. Chris hadn’t hidden his little taps and things he did for... months now, maybe more than a year. How fast just a glimpse of the man who had held him could make him hide it again.

“It’s, it’s not his son,” Chris whispered.

Antoni blinked. “I am sorry, what?”

“Nicholas. Nicky, the, the, the-the-the... the boy. Um. Governor’s... the one they just, just found. Governor Caldwell’s... It’s... it’s n-n-not his son. He’s not his son.”

Anyone else might have asked for further clarification, maybe. Or needed their hand held at what Chris was trying to say. Antoni, though, knew immediately what he meant. He’d seen bruises like that on someone before, after all, sitting across from him at the breakfast table, with Mr. Davies presiding over some deranged understanding of a family-

Antoni’s voice was tight, when he asked. “Platonic?”

Maybe they just wanted a son. Maybe they just couldn’t conceive, it was possible, people had said it happened sometimes-

“N-No,” Chris said, and seemed somehow to get even smaller. “Not... not that. Like me, but... with, with cleaning and cooking, too.”

“Chrisha, how do you know-”

“I, I met him. They’re friends, our Sirs are friends.” Chris began to rock, slowly, forward and back, and Antoni made no move to stop him, aware of the tension rising in the room, the way that Chris’s movements were what he used to keep it from breaking. His eyes were still locked on the screen, even though they were talking about some celebrity adopting a dog from the Humane Society now. It didn’t matter - Chris wasn’t seeing the TV, anyway. “They, they fake not liking each other but-but-but-but it’s a game. It’s a game, it’s another game, it’s a fucking game and they made us play and there’s no way to win-”

“Chrisha-”

“They, we, I met him a couple times and-... and and and-” Chris groaned and buried his head in his arms, resting them on his knees, continuing to rock back and forth more violently than before. His fingers twisted in his hair and Antoni moved without hesitation this time, dropping into a crouch next to him and drawing the redhead closer.

“I didn’t know he escaped,” Chris said, burying his face against Antoni’s neck, knocking his forehead lightly against his throat. Antoni just held on tightly - Chris needed held but he didn’t need stopped. “I didn’t, I didn’t know, I didn’t know that he escaped and I didn’t even think to look-... I didn’t-... it’s not fair, it’s not, not, not-not-not-not-... not fucking fair, Ant, it’s not fair!”

“Sssshhhh, shush-shush-shush,” Antoni tried, swallowing again, wondering how Jake did this with all of them all of the time, when Antoni felt so completely out of his depth. “I know, I know it’s not. You could not have looked, you did not know how to read to look for him-”

“I knew his name! I knew my Sir’s! I couldn’t, couldn’t tell anyone but I knew! B-but I didn’t, I-... He-he was the only, he was, he was so nice and and-and, and, and... and and and he, he should have gotten to stay gone, h-he should have-” Chris hiccuped a sob. “He wasn’t rescued, they, they recaptured-”

“I know,” Antoni cut him off, his own heart skipping a beat in sudden terror at the thought. Recapture. He couldn’t think of anything more horrifying to face than being dragged back. “I know, Chrisha. I know.”

“H-He’s the only person where it was ever oh... okay, with him it was okay,” Chris sniffled against him. “And he got away and they-they got him back and it’s not fair.”

“I know. But this won’t be his only chance. If they let him be seen, then-... then he will have another chance, Chrisha.” Antoni didn’t know if he was telling the truth or a lie but he couldn’t stand the pain in Chris’s voice, he had to say something. It was all he could think of to say. “I know it hurts-”

“I hate this! I hate it! I hate that, that it happened to... to-to-to him, too, and I hate that they took him back and and and-and-and-and I hate that my, my Sir is fucking smiling about it!”

Antoni could only hold him as he shook and raged and cried against him. He could only stay there, as still as possible, and let Chris wear out his grief and guilt, and think, I know how you feel. I wish I deserved to be so angry.

“He’ll be okay, Antoni repeated, almost numbly.

He had to hope the reassurance wasn’t a lie.

But at least Antoni could be here, someone who knew what it meant to have left someone else behind.

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misslisterkeepsajournal · 4 years ago

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1826 Wednesday 5 April

6 11 1/4

Wrote the rough draft of index from 18 March to 1 April (this month) which took me till 8 3/4 - Went out at 8 55/60 to William Keighley and his son William who have this morning begun to cut and lay the fence at the bottom of the wood, in Mitholm holm - came in at 10 5/60 - took a turn or 2 on the terrace - then came upstairs - my long expected Letter from Mrs. Barlow (Paris) 3 pages the ends and under the seal - great deal of useful information respecting our journey, and a pattern of corded muslin to match for Madame Galvani - must not travel veturino - must not go to Bordeaux - one or other will not suit my aunt at all - the livre de postes very correct - follow this and cannot go wrong - Par poste (of 6 miles)

'1/50 for each horse, that is trente sols par cheval - trente sols par postilion, to the latter you give an additional dix sols, par poste, as 'un pour boise' or etrennes for himself which brings it to 2 francs for the postboy - they will often charge you 15 sols greasing, mending etc. which you can look to'.....'Captain Droz calculates the expense of posting from 9 to 10 francs par poste'....'Mr. and Madame Droz seemed to recommend Montpelier - a great many good physicians reside there also should I be in Paris when you visit it you will call on me or not just as you please'

She then proceeds to tell me of having been at a call at Mrs Kidds her Mrs Kidds society improved etc etc. such is all the notice taken of my seeing her or of my returning her letters etc. her letter is mere chit chat and about our travelling and as cold or rather as indifferent as possible never once addresses me by my name pointedly avoids any address at all concludes with

'did Madame ever tell you that she had passed fifty six at the abbaye saint germain (military prison) with her lover and that she had spent a thousand francs per day in giving dinners to his friends etc. etc. wishing you a long continuance of happiness and prosperity and that every blessing may attend you hereafter allow me to remain your very sincere friend CMB'

What a letter her style how altered is she then going to be married that her being in Paris in the autumn is uncertain my heart misgave me as I read her pages I felt I know not what my aunt asked if I had had a letter from her she wished to speak of her I said her letter was deadly cold I knew what she meant did not blame her it was my then mind not to call on her and I turned the subject I could not speak on it my heart was full tears were almost rushing to my eyes and all my blood seemed in my head perhaps she will not write to me there will be little more intercourse between us a feeling of desolation came over me tho I thought of Pi [Mariana] she must go back to delta [Charles Lawton] we will hurry thro Paris I will see no one there my mind seemed unstrung unable to attend to anything how can she be so cold so soon

I hurried up from breakfast at eleven and a quarter said to my aunt I would write my journal it always did me good

Came upstairs at 11 1/4 - have just written all the above of today - it has done me good my mind is more calm I begin to feel as if I could care less about it I will not write to her from the impulse of the moment I begin to reason on the altered style of her letter the change is too sudden the last was all religion this all indifference I cannot help returning to my old thought she is deep she wants to catch me is it not possible the change in her manner is studied she expects and means me to notice it I will take my time and muse upon it and play cautiously I will lay my feelings aside if she really did love me as she said she cannot be really indifferent so soon I will be calm and composed I have always had flying doubts of her we shall now see and try the truth - poor Pi [Mariana] I can trust her and she will suit me best perhaps after all I have known and tried her long my journal has indeed done me good the tyrannous feeling of the moment of mortification and I know not what is passing by God be thanked oh that I was better better in the eye of heaven -

Mrs. B- [Barlow] says,

'with vetturino horses you travel ten leagues a day, neither more nor less, you are not permitted to stop where you please, and the postilions always take you where their horses can be best accommodated, and this generally proves to be the worst and dirtiest Inn for the travellers to travel post, or vetturino, will come to much about the same expense, but the latter can only be tolerated in Italy'....Travelling post 'is just once again as expensive as the diligence conveyence; besides that, you will find their charges at Inns much greater; and also, if an accident occurs to their carriage on the road, you may detained on your journey a fortnight or more to get it repaired'.....

Vide line 13 et sequiter of the last page - I am much better she answers all my questions about travelling so particularly or I should begin to feel rather indignant at 'should I be in Paris when you visit it you will call on me or not just as you please' - Mrs. B- [Barlow] met Madame de B- [Boyve] at Mrs. Kidd's - very civil to her and most attentive -

'She never pronounced your name' - 'Monsieur de Cussy said you would require 4 horses, so did Monsieur Droz - the latter calculated that it would cost you from 800 to 1000 francs to get to Montpelier or a similar distance' -

Had just finished the above of today at 12 40/60 - Whitley has sent me a wrong periodical this morning 'the Edinburgh Journal of Science', conducted by Dr. Brewter, instead of the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal conducted by professor Jameson - my father came - downstairs about an hour - gave him money to pay the men Riley and company who will have finished walling tonight at Northgate - From 2 1/4 to 3 40/60 wrote the latter 1/2 page 3, and the ends, and under the seal, very small and close, of my letter written this day week, and on Saturday and finished today - very kind letter - tell her of having hired Mc.D- [Macdonald] say today whether she suits us or not we shall always be equally obliged to her Miss Mc.L- [Maclean]

'If we like her the credit is yours; if we do not, the responsibility is our own - Never have a fear when you are good enough to do anything for us - we do not measure intentions by their success' - Bad her not fidget herself about that over which she has no control 'and if the interest of the debt does not amount to more than half your income never mind it her brothers good management may bring all round - I wish you could make over all your cares to your brother, take a certain income, be it what it might, and go, and be wherever suited your father best' - Our plans uncertain - 'we shall go to Paris in the 1st instance, and thence, I think to Montpellier - we should fix upon Florence for the winter, but I am doubtful how my aunt will be able to bear so long a journey - Dr. Scudmore says Nice' - ask her advice and to get us what information she can - 'I have not yet read Dr. Clarke on the different merits of these places - If it should turn out that my aunt is not able to go abroad (and Heaven only knows what will be the event), we must try Bath - You know it is not my custom to look on the dark side of anything; but, turn which way I will, the prospect is unclear and cheerless - Never dream of saying too much on the subject of your health to me - I think of it perpetually with much anxiety - Except on this account, you Sibbella, are the only one of my friends who has never given me a moment's uneasiness; and my regard for you is perhaps better, and steadier than you think - You will take my letters as they may be; and I will keep my promise, and write 'pretty frequently' - It is not in my heart to disappoint you in anything - 'Incomparable woman!' I write as in the person of your niece - Find fault with her and not with me - I think of you when I am happy - I think of you when I am not so - I seem to remember you only as I saw you at Esholt - Now and always, here and even where, it would delight me to see you and those who love me best, love you for my sake, till they love you for your own - I have thought more deeply than you may have fancied, on the contents of your last - I, too, have been, perhaps foolishly, plunging myself in debt by a very dear purchase which, somehow, I could not resist - but there are melancholy contingencies which seem as if they must happen, that, with economy, will clear me in 2 or 3 years after their occurrence This is not so much my reasoning, as my aunt's, whose conduct towards me is, in everything, most kind, most liberal, and most admirable - Our income will be lessened I know not how much as yet' -.....

''I will allow I am not congenial to Miss B-' this makes me smile - Poor Miss B-! she does not much suit either you or myself - I sometimes think, how nearly she had prevented all lasting intercourse between yourself and me! Sibbella! Could she have recompensed you for the loss of one whose regard for you will endure unaltered to the end? - Now that you understand me better, and know me well enough to believe me reasonable, and have forgiven me the sins of dress and address, I will acknowledge, there was, and is, and ever will be a tinge of romance in the colouring of my regard for you - But does it offend you Sibbella? or do dishonour to your judgement, or injustice to your heart? or have you even one prejudice that it would alarm? There is little, perhaps too little of romance in my feelings towards the world in general - My great regret is, that I did not know you earlier - A bulletin of your health at the end of your letter, if you please - and you, too, have dreamed of ossification! - you are right - What matters it how we leave this world, so our passage to the next be smooth? Good bye, Sibbella! May we meet there where consolation is not wanted, and, while we are here, may you believe me always very faithfully and affectionately yours AL - Tell us your opinion - Montpellier, Nice, or Florence? I think it will be Montpellier' -

Twenty minutes reading over my letter then From 4 to 4 3/4 wrote the last 41 lines of today - wrote the rough draft of the index of these 5 days of this month - wrote a note to Mr. Whitley to go tomorrow to desire him to send me the right Edinburgh Journal, and returning him the wrong one - Read over Mrs. B-'s [Barlow's] letter again - I feel quite composed about it now and quite reconciled-

Dressed - Dinner at 6 1/4 - tea and coffee at 8 1/4 - In the evening looking over and burning papers out of the cupboard opposite the door - after my aunt went to bed and to have her bath at 9 1/4, sat up looking over the top middle drawer of my uncle's bureau - burnt my uncle Samuels pocket book full of orders payments and patterns and burnt etc. etc. - Fine day, tho' a little damp and rain early in the morning and about noon and towards evening - Barometer 1/2 degree above changeable Fahrenheit 49° at 10 35/60 at which hour came up to bed - wrote the last 4 lines - hurried into bed having to curl my hair - E..O.. -

Reference: SH:7/ML/E/9/0080 - SH:7/ML/E/9/0081

#anne lister #anne lister code breaker #gentleman jack #1826 #maria barlow #sibella maclean

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