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butiaintgonnaloveem · 7 years ago

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Nothin’ Says Lovin’

Chapter One: Friendly

Characters/Pairing: Dean Winchester x Reader, Sam Winchester, other named minor characters

Word Count: 4k

Warnings: Language, innuendos, sexual tension, FLUFF

Square Filled: Friends to Lovers

Summary: The reader is a chef who owns a small-town gourmet kitchen shop. Sam and Dean helped the reader with a curse a few months back, and have kept in touch and visited often since. The reader isn’t sure if the feelings for Dean are mutual, until he takes her up on an offer.

A/N: This was inspired by a request from @feelmyroarrrr for the Friends to Lovers square on my @spnkinkbingo card. I also included my prompt from @klaineaholic‘s 400 followers Steven Universe celebration, which is bolded in the fic. I have no self-control, so this is a part one. Future chapters will fill other squares from my bingo card. I’ve got a lot of thanks to give to @ilsawasanacrobat and @kayteonline for being awesome betas.

Feedback and constructive criticism are both appreciated and welcomed, and if you want to have a look at my bingo card and want to send in a request, please do so!

Gif from @canonspngifs

AO3 Link to fic

You haul another box from the back to the front counter, carefully unwrapping each delicate piece from inside, checking for damage before pricing it and repacking it for storage. Just as you finish with the box, familiar voices drift in from the sidewalk outside, the deep rumble gives away their presence before they push open the door, making the bells ring. Your stomach does a quick flip, and you stare, waiting for them to enter, your mood lifting as soon as you see their figures filling up the entryway.

“Hey guys,” you call over, watching as Sam and Dean scan the store until they locate you behind the box on the counter.

Sam grins, lifting a hand from his pocket as he waves, and Dean glances down to the box in his hands, a tight smile on his face.

You step out from behind the counter, arms lifted to offer hugs to both of them. “It’s good to see you guys again. I mean, this is a good visit? Right?” You stop, cocking your head to the side as you wait for confirmation.

“As long as you don’t have anything to report to us, then yeah, just here to say hi,” Sam assures you, leaning down and wrapping his arms around you as you let out a small sigh of relief.

Trying to return to business as usual hadn’t been easy, although the construction crew and the insurance company had both been surprisingly efficient and helpful. Your property had been replaced and you’d even managed to upgrade a few things, but since then you’d been caught in a constant loop of inventory, and sales, and cleaning, and cooking, and tension.

“Sorry,” you scrunch up your face in apology, regretting the way you jump to the worst conclusions each time they enter your shop. “Yeah. So far, so good. Aside from Muriel next door. She’s still pissed about that wall that got blown out.”

“Want us to keep an eye on her? Make sure she doesn’t curse you, too?”

“No, I think we’re good. I think I can bridge the gap with a few more plates of cookies. But thanks.”

They both lift their brows, tilting their heads and sharing a look that’s gone in a flash.

“Seriously guys, it’s fine. Muriel loves my cookies.”

“The way you cook? She’d be nuts not to.”

You look up at Dean, inhaling sharply at his praise as you feel the rush of heat from your body amping up with the mixture of excitement and exhaustion that comes with restrained attraction.

“Well, thanks.” You glance past him, eyes drifting until you notice the time on the clock on the wall. “Speaking of - you guys hungry? I could close up for lunch and make you something?”

“That’d be great-”

“We were actually heading-”

They answer at the same time, talking over each other for a moment until they stop, sharing annoyed looks at one another.

“That would be great,” Sam begins softly, “But I was going to head down to a few other stores. Dean can stay with you, though.”

Dean nods his head slightly, eyes rolling a bit as he agrees, his fingers pinching the corners of the box he’s holding. His expression too hard to score. You’ve been mentally tallying the moments you spent together, trying to determine if he’s being friendly, or trying to be friendly. So far, coming up with nothing conclusive.

He’d started by blatantly flirting with you, but that turned out to be part of him working the case. It felt real enough, and you could have sworn you’d seen the same flirty look in his eyes at least a few times since then during his visits, but then again, he sometimes looked at the food you served him the same way. That’s how everything was when you tried to figure him out; tender brushes of hands and skin and long looks canceled out by ‘atta girl’ back pats and tight nods. Friendly then friendly.

“Okay,” you breathe. “If you’re sure?”

“I’m sure. I’ll see you in a bit.” Sam winks at you, flipping over the closed sign on your door as he walks through it.

“Well,” you rock a bit on your feet before sliding over to flip the lock, “Let’s eat, huh?”

“You know, you don’t have to feed us every time we come by.” Dean walks behind you, following you down the stairs to your demonstration kitchen. The quiet hum of appliances replaces the sounds from the street and the light music you had playing throughout the storefront.

“Like hell I don’t. It’s really the least I can do, considering. And anyway, what other reason would you have to keep stopping by if it wasn’t for the food?” You cringe, glad he can’t see your face as you clench your fist to keep from slapping your hand over your mouth. A quick stretch of your facial muscles and you turn to him to change the subject.

“So, what’s that?” You nod your head at his hands as you turn to the fridge, grabbing the ingredients you need.

“Oh. It’s uh, another thing I found in the kitchen. See? A reason other than the food.” Friendly.

“I’m sure it’s one of many,” you sarcastically reply around the slice of tomato in your mouth, falling back on self-deprecating humor to push back your nerves. He nibbles a bit on the inner corner of his lip, looking uncharacteristically shy. Friendly. “Alright, lemme see.”

Dean slides the box across the counter, and you notice the age of it, the corners battered and the flap close to ripping off. Delicately, you pull it open, and pull away the neatly folded, yellowing tissue paper revealing a worn wooden handle attached to a slightly bent, narrow rod, and three flower and star-shaped iron molds. You suck in a breath and your lips curve into a gleeful smile.

“It’s a rosette iron.” You pull out one of the molds, flipping it over in your fingers as you examine the intricate pattern. It’s dark and heavy in your hands, not like the newer sets made from stainless steel; this is cast iron. You remain lost in admiration for who knows how long, until Dean breaks the moment with a soft chuckle. It’s not the first time he’s interrupted your daydreaming. It’s almost become routine since he started bringing by vintage kitchen supplies for you to identify for him every other month or so. Stuff he says he finds in his kitchen. Last time it was a nut grinder, and the time before that a bean slicer. You catch his amused and curious glance as he waits for you to explain yourself.

“Sorry, this is just such a gorgeous set. It-It’s for cookies,” you tell him, returning the piece to it’s spot in the box and folding the tissue back over it. “You don’t know how jealous I am that you just have all this great stuff in your kitchen.” You slide it back to him across the counter.

“It’s only great if you know how to use it. Keep it.” He says, stopping you with his hand. Friendly.

You can’t help the look of hope and excitement in your eyes as you pretend to try to refuse his offer. “No, I couldn’t.”

“You can, and you should. Use it to make Muriel some more cookies. Or consider it my small way of trying to make things up to you after blowing out half your shop.”

You turn away, putting together ingredients and warming the pan as you finish putting together some lunch. “You know, when you said ‘Wait! I have a better idea that doesn’t involve destroying the house’ I hoped you meant there would be a lot less destruction than there was.”

“Well, witches don’t make things easy. Sorry.”

“Don’t be. It’s been months, and you did what you had to do. I’m alive, and while things are a little rough, I’m still glad.” You smile to yourself, letting the sound of the sizzling pan fill the silence.

“People really pay you sixty bucks for a plate?”

You turn to look at Dean, finding him twirling a platter between his fingers a bit too haphazardly for your liking.

“Ye-eh-esss,” you nervously sing as you skip over to grab it from him. “This is hand painted.”

“It’s a plate.”

“Well, you don’t just use it every day. It’s for special occasions, or for decoration.” You set it back on the display.

“Do people really need all this stuff? I mean, what the hell is this thing?”

You can’t help your giggle because it really is one of the more absurd items you carry. “That. Is a melon corer,” he stares at you blankly, “For like, cantaloupe. You slide it along the inside to cut some away from the rind, then use the fork part to eat it.” His expression moves from confused to pained, pulling a full laugh from you. “I know. I know, but people like giving gifts. No one needs all this stuff. It’s the thought that counts. It’s taking time to get something for a person, or making a meal and serving it with a special item that makes it useful.”

“I s’pose,” he flicks his brows; his eyes darting to the box containing the iron and then to you, one cheek rounded in a smirk. Friendly.

The conversation lulls as you cook, but you can feel Dean watching you, and keep your back to him while you work, trying to muster up the courage to make a move. God, something, anything. Since the incident with the curse, your stomach churned with the uncertainty of his intentions; or maybe more from your hope of what his intentions could be.

“That smells awesome,” he says, his head appearing right over your shoulder, making you jump.

“Thanks. It’s what we’re making in class tonight, so you get to be my guinea pig and tell me if it’s any good.”

You plate up two servings and set it before him, steam still rising from the hot food in tiny wisps. You settle on the stool next to his, watching as he digs and scoops with his fork, getting a huge bite of food ready to devour. He glances at you from the corner of his eye, amusement pulling up at the corner of his open mouth.

“What?” he asks, nervously.

“Nothing.”

“You’re watching me.”

“I know. I want to see your reaction. It’s part of the joy of being a chef.”

He remains still, dragging out the moment until you’re almost ready to push the food into his mouth yourself. You start to reach for the fork when he finally shoves it into his mouth, hissing at the temperature, before moaning at the taste. His head rolls back and his eyes close, and it’s dangerously close to what you’d consider an orgasmic reaction.

“So?”

“Fuck, that’s good.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, I could eat that everyday. This. Is. Awesome.”

You look down to your plate, happy with the way it looks and scoop yourself a bite, humming with satisfaction while critiquing yourself for not using enough herbs. You watch Dean, enjoying the way he’s digging into the food, imagining the two of you were back at your house, or at the nice little restaurant down the road with the strong brandy Old Fashioneds. You clear your throat.

“Would you ever want to…” you pause, caught in surprise by the way he fully turns his attention back to you, rich green eyes staring right back into your own. “Uhh,” you backtrack, “You should come to one of my cooking classes.”

If he notices any of your disappointment, he doesn’t show it, instead giving you a playful grin. Friendly.

“I don’t know about that. I’d hate to show up the teacher in her own class, I mean. I know my way around a kitchen.”

You play offended, “Well, then, in that case, I bet you can tell me what this is.” You hold up what looks like a comb with a long handle.

“Oh come on, that’s easy,” he waves you off. “It’s a backscratcher.”

“Cakebreaker.” You whisper.

“Yeah, like I said, a cakebreaker.”

“Just like you said.” You giggle and look back down to your food, trying to once again hide your blush and the way you swallow thickly despite his kind rejection. Friendly.

A little while and some small talk later, you hear the jingle of the bells from your shop door, eyes wide in alarm having remembered you locked it. Dean goes stiff at the sound too, his head perking up to listen.

“Hello? Dean? Y/n?” Sam calls, making you both slump in your seats again.

You roll your jaw, “Did he seriously just pick my lock?”

“Well, I wasn’t answering my phone, so probably.” He flicks out his phone showing six missed call notifications, pouting in a fake apology before sucking in a quick breath and shouting, “Yeah, Sam. Down in the kitchen!”

“You shouldn’t ignore him like that, it could have been important.”

“And let him drag me away? Not a chance,” he finishes with a wink. Friendly.

You hear Sam’s feet hurry down the stairs before you see him, his face tense for a second until he observes the scene and shifts to something resembling embarrassment.

“Ahh, sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt -”

“No, it’s fine, Sam.” You flash him a smile, “We lost track of time. There’s still some food left. Want some?” You move over to the still simmering pan, lifting it to scoop the food onto another plate before he can answer.

“Oh, Sammy, you gotta try this - “Actually, we kind of have to hit the road.”

The brothers talk over each other again, and this time there is no hiding the way your face falls. Dean let’s out a quiet ‘Oh’ as he wipes his mouth with a napkin and brings his cleared plate to the sink.

“Well, take the leftovers. You gotta eat, too.” You dig out a to-go container, packing it up as you hear them smacking one another behind your back. You plaster on a smile, turning around and gripping the container. “Now Sam, don’t you dare let Dean steal a bite of this,” you tell him sternly.

They lift their hands, waving behind themselves while they make their way out. Friendly.

You pause and nod at both of them, a sad smile drawing your lips tight, “Til next time, guys.”

Everyone was packing up, talking amongst themselves as you wrapped up the class.

“Now, on the back of your recipe cards, you’ll find some wine pairing suggestions. And remember, if you refer a friend, you get one class free,” you spoke above them.

They start to wave you off, making their way up the stairs and out of your shop as you follow, ready to lock up for the night.

“I missed it, huh?”

Your head shoots up, surprised by Dean’s voice, before you collect yourself, smiling while you shrug in confirmation.

“Good night,” one of your regulars, Janice, says with a hint of a question and a pointed eyebrow.

You flick a glance at Dean, then back to her with a nervous, restrained smile. “Goodnight, Jan.”

She smirks and ducks her head as she walks out, pulling her friend’s sleeve as she not-so-subtly checks out Dean while he leans against the counter.

You usher the rest out, chewing on your lip, your stomach doing flips as the nerves flare up again. You face the door, taking your time with the lights and the lock until you catch the figures being reflected in the window and notice Dean watching you - waiting. Just the way he leans against the furniture makes this appearance feel friendly. The blush couldn’t be stopped at he caught your look in the glass, and you quickly pulled your teeth away from your lip, straightening out and turning back to him.

“I, uhh. I thought you and Sam had to go?”

“Sammy had to go. I stuck around.”

“Everything okay?” You ask, anxiously shifting as you try to focus without staring too directly at him.

“Yeah, things are fine. Muriel checked out by the way.” He pauses as you roll your eyes. “And I just...you know I was hoping to get in on that lesson. Expand my horizons. I don’t suppose I could get a private lesson now that everyone’s gone?” Friendly, that definitely goes in the friendly column.

“Well, I hope you guys didn’t torture her too much, or else I might have to upgrade from cookies,” you smile as you walk past him toward the back stairs. He follows without having to be asked. Biting back the hopeful question you really wanted to ask, you clear your throat, “So, you’re serious? You want me to give you a lesson?”

“If you’re tired, or it’s too much trouble then-”

“No! No, it’s not a problem. Just...surprised...is all.”

“You don’t think I can?”

“I nee-ever said that,” you say as you throw your hands up in defense. “I’ve still got some food from the class if you’re hungry. That’s easy to make, probably even for you. But, mayyyybe we can give the rosettes a go?”

He grins at your teasing, before questioning you.

“You want me to help you make cookies?”

“They’re deep fried, they barely count as cookies. Unless...you don’t think you can?” You challenge. He stares you down before sliding his jacket from his shoulders.

Challenge accepted. You gather the containers for sugar and flour, “Okay, you start mixing this stuff, and I’ll get the oil started.”

You work with your backs to each other, him tossing questions about the recipe over his shoulder, and you multitasking as you tidy up while waiting for the oil to heat. You check over Dean’s shoulder, finding him mashing the ingredients like he’s trying to put a hole through your countertop. Your hands come to rest on his forearm, stopping his movements. He slumps a little, staring at you with adorable wide-eyed uncertainty.

“Here, a little lighter. It’s not gonna fight back.” You guide his arm in a circular motion, gently whisking the flour with the egg and milk mixture.

“Thanks, I got it.” He gives you a sheepish smile before pulling his posture back up.

“Sure.”

You turn back to the stove, watching the oil, wondering about watched pots while trying to think of something to fill the blaring silence.

“So? No Sam tonight then?”

You hear him push a breath through pursed lips. “Ahhmm, nope.”

“He got something against eating?”

“I wonder the same thing all the time,” he says, chuckling.

“Well, more cookies for you. Okay,” you pause to think through the recipe one more time, “We should be ready.” He sets the bowl onto the counter, standing so close he’s pushing into your side as you continue. “So, we need to get the iron nice and warmed up in the oil.”

“Always good to get warmed up,” his voice low and throaty in your ear.

You stifle a snort, looking at him, waiting for a twitch, or a wink, or anything else to let you know which column to bank that one in, but he’s got such a damn good poker face. His one eyebrow bends slightly, and you notice the corners of his mouth pulled in - pinching, just hinting at a smirk, but not even that gives away the intent of his words, and he seems to know it. The cockiness there instigates you, eyelid twitch and all, and before you can overthink it, you continue on, voice dipping into something more sultry.

“Ye-up. So after a minute or two, and while the iron’s hot, you dip it in the batter, nice and easy. Not all the way, you don’t want to just thrust it in there.”

“Oh, come on,” he groans.

“What?” You scoff.

“Really? Do you hear yourself?” He tilts his head, forehead wrinkled in disbelief.

“You got a problem with the way I teach?”

“Nope. Please continue.” The glimmer of amusement in his eyes makes you swallow hard. Friendly, with a little bit of friendly...or maybe it’s the other way around.

“Okay, so then you kind of swipe it in the hot oil, before finally plunging it in there.”

“Kind of tease it first, then dive in?” His voice wavers, and you glance at him, noticing him trying and failing to maintain a straight face. Your mind adds a tally in the column for the even more confusing friendly followed by a question mark.

“You’ve got it.” You watch as a bit of a blush creeps over his complexion. Your own heart pounds as your chest constricts, trying to keep your breathing normal instead of the adrenaline-fueled panting your body is calling for. “Okay, so now, see how the edges are puffing up and opening away from the hot iron?”

“Puffy and open, sonofabitch,” he whispers. You feel his hand on the small of your back, a little shaky, but blazing hot through the fabric of your top.

Now, your ears start to burn as you restrain yourself from backtracking. Your skin immediately heats up enough to draw out a light breakout of sweat, and you tremble with jitteriness as you opt to continue with the lesson that’s hopefully still tame enough to brush this all off as a joke if it goes south.

“That’s perfect, now we can take this chopstick and help push the cookie the rest of the way off the iron. Then you flip it, let the magic work while it’s face-down, and it’s finished.”

“That’s how you finish?” He sounds strained. Friendly.

“That’s - ah -,” You’re thrown off for a moment, knees weak at his implication. With how close he’s standing you can smell the mixture of sweat, and air, and whatever deodorant or body wash he used, something probably named Ocean Breeze. It’s mouthwatering and exactly what you would describe as masculine. You think you’ve got more in the fun column, but the thrill of the moment tempts you to push on. “You know, it’s not always that easy? Sometimes there’s a big mess, and then there’s the praying to god that you can actually make it to the end. But it’s worth all the effort, especially if they’re only an occasional kind of treat.” Friendly.

His eyes are bright and focused hard on you. He shifts a little as he wets his lips, “You don’t mind only having them once in awhile, even though you like em?”

Your mind races, eyes dancing back and forth between his as you search hopefully for a double meaning to his words. Head close to shaking side to side as you try to determine - cookies, or cookies?

“Nuh uh, nope. Sometimes there’s just no time, or...someone could be kind of picky, or prefers variety or something,” You struggle to find a good innuendo. Inarticulate sounds escape from you as the panicky rush constricts your chest until you finally let it spill out. “Or maybe sometimes someone has other obligations and the other person can understand that and still enjoy the cookies, even if they’re just...cookies.”

Friendly.

His mouth hangs slightly open, chest heaving as he looks you up and down. “Just,” he pauses to clear his throat after his voice shakes, “Just to be clear, we’re not just talking about cookies?”

The tension snaps within you and you giggle nervously. “No. I hope we’re not. I’m certainly not.”

“Okay, good, me neither.” He dips his head to place his lips against yours in a quick and confirming type of kiss. He pulls back, looking at you from under his brow, eyes narrowed as his expression goes back to cocky. “Can I teach you to cook sometime?”

A laugh escapes on your exhale. “Sure, what’s your specialty?”

“Well, I was thinking pancakes,” he smirks, waiting for you to take the bait.

“I only eat breakfast in the mornings, you think you’ll still be around tomorrow morning?”

“Until you kick me out,” he assures you, nose and lips brushing against yours as he leans in again.

Tag Alert: (As always, if you don’t want me to tag you, just let me know)

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#spnkinkbingo #kiri's 400 followers fics #dean winchester x reader #dean winchester fanfiction #dean winchester fluff #dean winchester x you #spn reader insert #spn fanfiction #supernatural reader insert #supernatural fanfiction #dean winchester fic #friends to lovers #nothin says lovin series #my writing

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dustedmagazine · 4 years ago

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Dust Volume 7, Number 2

Bitchin’ Bajas

The whole country is snowed in and Texas is starting to look a lot like the Terrordome, and we can see how people might not be laser focused on music right now, especially if they’re cold or sick or out of food. But music continues to pour in, in great quantities and beguiling diversity, and a fair amount of it is very, very good. So, while we encourage you to take care of your brothers and sisters first (by donating to organizations like Austin Mutual Aid, Community Care — Mutual Aid Houston, Feed the People Dallas or the Austin Disaster Relief Network), we also present another collection of short, mostly positive reviews of new-ish records that have caught our attention. Writers this time around include Ray Garraty, Jennifer Kelly, Bill Meyer, Justin Cober-Lake, Eric McDowell, Bryon Hayes, Jonathan Shaw, Tim Clarke and Mason Jones.

Babyface Ray — Unfuckwitable (Wavy Gang)

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On his new 7 song EP Unfuckwitable, thanks to his technical skills, Babyface Ray grinds through a great variety of trendy topics under a great variety of beats: from “not rap” rap to “bad bitch” rap to “we got it off the mud” rap. It’s all very professionally done, as you expect from a professional rapper, despite Ray’s claims that he’s not one. But midway through it, behind the misty fog of bouncy production and some lines catching the ear, you can clearly see at least two problems, with the EP and Babyface Ray. First, he doesn’t have anything to say (unlike some hip hop artists who ran out of things to say, he never had any in the first place). Second, he either doesn’t rhyme or goes for a lazy rhyming. The standout here is “Like Daisy Lane”, a catchy little song, with absolutely no substance behind it.

Ray Garraty

Bananagun — The True Story of Bananagun (Full Time Hobby)

The True Story of Bananagun by Bananagun

Ooh look, it’s tropicalia from Australia! The five-piece Bananagun hails geographically from Melbourne, but metaphysically from 1960s Sao Paulo or swinging London. Their first album swaggers like a long-haired hipster in wide-flared hip huggers, fingers snapping, funk bass slapping, keyboards and flutes gamboling in hot melodic pursuit. Multiple band members got their start in similarly 1960s-aligned Frowning Clouds, so the psych garage freakbeat elements are, perhaps, to be expected. But Bananagun runs hotter, wilder and considerably less Anglo. “People Talk Too Much” rattles the foundations with scorching funk percussion, big flares of brass and a vintage Afro-beat call and response chorus. “Mushroom Bomb” likewise heats up psychedelic apocalyptica with seething syncopations of bass and drums. Most of these tracks are a bit overstuffed, with a pawn shop’s worth of instruments enlisted in happy, dippy, everyone-get-in-the-jam exuberance, but am I going to complain about too much joy? I am not. Bring on the Bananagun.

Jennifer Kelly

Andrew Barker / Jon Irabagon — Anemone (Radical Documents)

Anemone by Andrew Barker + Jon Irabagon Duo

Some names tell you exactly where you stand, and others raise questions. Take the name of this record, for example; did drummer Andrew Barker (Gold Sparkle Band, Little Huey Orchestra) and tenor saxophonist Jon Irabagon (Mostly Other People Do The Killing, I Don’t Hear Nothin’ But The Blues) have the aquatic or land-lubber variety in mind? To get specific, is this record a buttercup, or a bottom-dwelling, plant-lookalike life form that waits for other aquatic species to come close enough for it to lance them, paralyze them with venom and chow down on their still-living bodies?

“Learnings,” the first of the album’s four tracks, is true to its name, being a distillation of instrumental tones and free jazz attacks that might remind you of moments from various Coltrane and Pharoah records. It feels familiar, but invigorating. The title tune comes next, and it’s a slower, more laconic performance, attractive enough to be either the sea or land variety. Then comes “Book of Knots,” which suspends an intricate percussive construction over slow-bubbling pops and barks. The record closes with “Branded Contempt,” a juxtaposition of pathos-rich blowing and restless brushwork. One can listen most of the way through this record without guessing whether it owes allegiance to Poseidon or Persephone, but the coarse intensity of Irabagon’s playing in the last minutes is the tell; this record packs a sting.

Bill Meyer

BBsitters Club — BBsitters Club & Party (Hausu Mountain)

BBsitters Club & Party by BBsitters Club

Label Hausu Mountain specializes in weird experimental electronics. Its release of a rare rock record might raise a few eyebrows. BBsitters Club, with the label's founders making up half the quartet, pulls off a tricky feat in becoming an arch rock band. BBsitters Club & Party has enough old-fashioned blues and psych-based rock to suggest a group taking itself seriously. Naming the opening track “Crazy Horse” immediately calls attention to its meta status, even if the track sounds more like Pink Floyd than Neil Young's collaborators (and there's a touch of hair metal in there, too). No group with songs called “Joel,” “Joel Reprise,” and “Joel Reprise Reprise” can take itself too seriously, and that kind of playfulness runs throughout the disc. At the same time, BBsitters Club does take its musicianship seriously. They avoid conventional forms, working in complicated structures full of surprising twists. The group can get a little proggy, but then twist it toward an Allman Brothers-style jam. If it starts to settle into the Woodstock era (see the clear nods to Hendrix and Cream), it jumps to the 1980s with an unlikely easiness. The band goes wherever they feel like rocking, with everyone invited to the party.

Justin Cober-Lake

Bitchin Bajas — live ateliers claus (les albums claus)

Bitchin Bajas - live ateliers claus by Bitchin Bajas

If we can all agree the pandemic has dealt musicians some dizzying blows, that’s hardly to say they had it easy before. Squeezed between tech platforms and spurned by a hostile federal government (speaking for the US, anyway), even on tour they had to contend with iffy financials, physical neglect and — because why not say it louder for those in the back? — literal theft. So Cooper Crain, Rob Frye and Dan Quinlivan found themselves over 4,000 miles from home in May 2018, playing Brussels’s les ateliers claus on borrowed equipment after having their gear stolen (twice) on a European tour in support of Bajas Fresh. “Um, we’re, ah, Bitchin Bajas, from Chicago ... Illinois,” one of the trio says over the set’s first tentative tones. “And thanks ... for coming. This is gonna be great, I think. Or, we’ll see.”

Perhaps it’s not a question of either/or but both/and, the cosmic “we’ll see” of COVID-19 only amplifying how truly great it is to receive this music in the unimaginable future of three years later. As ever with the Bitchin Bajas, there is pleasure in the subtleties, whether that’s an excited concert-goer whooping as “Jammu” picks up momentum or the way each turn of the musical kaleidoscope seems to bring out new hues. That the recording doesn’t represent any dramatic departure from what we hear on the studio album or during other sets on other tours is part of its appeal and part of its power as a balm. We don’t need any more startling revelations right now. In this sense, the whole live ateliers claus series is a reminder that this venue and these artists — from Michael Chapman (vol. 1) up through Will Guthrie (vol. 12) — are still here today. If we can help repay what’s been stolen from them, they’ll be here tomorrow, too.

Eric McDowell

Loren Connors & Oren Ambarchi — Leone (Family Vineyard)

Leone by Loren Connors & Oren Ambarchi

This is the first time that Loren Connors and Oren Ambarchi have collaborated, despite the myriad ties that bind the two guitarists across the global exploratory music scene. Leone offers a trio of pieces arranged like overlapping globs of paint on a painter’s palette: the two artists each perform solo with a collaborative piece in between. “Lorn” is a side-long Connors piece with the guitarist in an experimental mood, hammering the reverb-drenched strings to create a glorious cacophony. Ambarchi’s “Nor” recasts the guitar first as a church organ and then as a subaquatic communications device. When the two pair up for “Ronnel,” it is a symbiotic meeting. Connors picks out notes around which Ambarchi weaves contrails of tone. It is a mesmerizing piece, and, we hope, just the first of many joint efforts from these two.

Bryon Hayes

Buck Curran — WFMU 'The Frow Show' Live Session (Feat. Jodi Pedrali) (Obsolete Recordings)

Buck Curran: WFMU 'The Frow Show' Live Session (Feat. Jodi Pedrali) by Obsolete Recordings

When we last caught up with Buck Curran, he was hunkered down at then ground zero for the COVID epidemic, socially isolating in Bergamo, Italy while recording the lovely acoustic-guitar-and-voice album, No Love Is Sorrow. Half a year later, still deep in the grip of a worldwide pandemic, he made this record, a duet with Italian keyboard player Jodi Pederali, revisiting one song from the previous album and adding three others. The tracks with Pederali fuse Curran’s electric blues with the bright, meditative melodies of Pederali’s piano. The two players interact and overlap in intoxicating dialogue. “Deep in the Lovin’ Arms of My Babe,” reprises the finger-picked folk of Curran’s earlier album, adding a glittering sprinkle of piano to its mournful, wistful melody. The set was recorded for Jess Jarnow’s show on WFMU and released on Bandcamp, and while not as long or as weighty as No Love Is Sorrow, it’s well worth hearing.

Jennifer Kelly

Jürg Frey — l’air, l’instant - deux pianos (Elsewhere)

l'air, l'instant - deux pianos by Jürg Frey

When you put two pianos together, there must surely be a temptation to see how much sound you can get out of them. Swiss composer Jürg Frey does the opposite on the two compositions that make up this CD. Each is so sparse that an inattentive listener might think they are hearing one patient pianist, when in fact they are hearing a pair of deeply skilled interpreters. The task assigned to Reinier van Houdt and Dante Boon is to place their notes in such precise relation to each other that they can influence each other’s pitches without interfering with them. Each musician is, as the title “toucher l’air (deux pianos)” (2019) suggests, inducing a slight disturbance in the atmosphere, lightly pressing transitory shapes into the silence that absorbs each note. “Entre les deux l’instant” (2017/2018) allows the two pianists to decide how closely they will match paces as they trade the roles of melodist and accentuator. Immune to gauche temptation, Frey seems drawn instead to see how much attention and how little sound it takes to accentuate the beauty of silence.

Bill Meyer

Chris Garneau — The Kind (The Orchard)

THE KIND by Chris Garneau

Chris Garneau’s lush, stunning art-pop swoops and whirls and flutters in wild arcs of drama. In this fifth album, the New York City songwriter works in a restrained palette of guitar, piano, electronics and drums, but colors way outside the box with his vibrant, emotional-laden voice, which flies up into a falsetto register with an ease not heard since Jeff Buckley passed. “I know you loved me truly, but we don’t love one way, do we?” he croons on the gorgeous “Telephone,” lofting up into whistle range without losing the purity or the trueness of his tone. Cuts like the title song and “Now On” are prayerfully simple, just framing piano chords and Garneau’s highly charged delivery. But others like “Not the Child” are more intricately constructed with a lattice of picked strings, an antic syncopated beat and staccato vocal counterpoints that dance around the main line. The Kind’s songs are deeply personal and rooted in Garneau’s experiences as gay man, but they’ll resonate with anyone who’s ever loved or longed or regretted.

Jennifer Kelly

Gaunt Emperor — Femur (Self-released)

Femur by Gaunt Emperor

Some would-be emperors may no longer have clothes (looking at you, Trump), but Gaunt Emperor is unabashed about wearing its influences on its sleeve. Femur is the first LP by this California project, and Sunn 0))) and the first few records released by Earth are large presences, looming hugely just behind the sounds Gaunt Emperor generates. If you’re familiar with those other bands, you get the essential idea: deep (really deep) notes and long (really long) sustain from loud (really loud) guitars, and not much else. That said, Gaunt Emperor has an aesthetic vision that seems to be attempting to survey its own territory. While compositions like “Slow Submersion” and “The Birth of Obsidian” work from the playbook established by O’Malley and Anderson, the textures of Gaunt Emperor’s guitar tone have their own sort-of-subtle qualities. They’re pretty good. “Conception,” the second track on Femur, expresses a similar inclination towards melody that Earth began to demonstrate on The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull (2008), but Gaunt Emperor retains an unrestrained relation to volume; you can feel the heat inexorably building in the overdriven amplifier stack. In any case, this is suitable music for pondering massive, ongoing phenomena, like the calving of icebergs off Antarctica’s coast or the steady disappearance of the Amazonian rainforest — not that Femur will make you feel any better about that stuff.

Jonathan Shaw

Luka Kuplowsky — Stardust (Mama Bird)

Stardust by Luka Kuplowsky

Soft jazzy reveries coalesce around this Toronto songwriter’s offhand, semi-spoken melodies. Little accents of acoustic bass, slide guitar, hushed harmonies dart in and out of focus, but the songs themselves come up on you obliquely, filtering in from the vents in evocatively scented clouds. Rhythms sway in undulant, bossa nova syncopations, while chords slide into resolution from slightly off center. A half-remembered jazz flute lick lick lofts through the window. At the center of it all is Luka himself, posing, but not insisting on koan-like observations. “Perfection is a noose,” he confides amid the muted wreck and roll of massed jazz sounds in “City by the Window,” but he seems unbothered by it. Perfection is an accident, and if you look at it too hard, it disappears.

Jennifer Kelly

José Lencastre / Hernâni Faustino / Vasco Furtado — Vento (Phonogram Unit)

Vento by José Lencastre / Hernâni Faustino / Vasco Furtado

Vento is the Portuguese word for wind, and the name conveys that combination of purposeful and chance operations that converged to make this record happen. The trio of alto saxophonist José Lencastre, double bassist Hernâni Faustino and drummer Vasco Furtado didn’t book a studio with the intent to record; they just wanted a place to play for a couple hours. But the engineers had just obtained some microphones and wanted to try out their new toys. Likewise, this improvisational trio did not bring an tunes to the session, but they play with a purposefulness born of shared aesthetic values. Whether are sailing a brisk clip, as on the title track, or gradually unwinding the music at low volume and velocity, as on “Ruínas,” they operate as a real time compositional cooperative, developing their music in linear fashion. While they share a direction, they also value contrast. For example, Lencastre’s breathy tone during the latter tune’s early moments balances Faustino’s pointed twang. Since remorseless microoganisms and anti-cultural politicians are each doing their best to keep live music down, records like this serve a necessary function in reminding us of the life force that motivates improvised music.

Bill Meyer

Lilys — A Brief History of Amazing Letdowns (Frontier)

A Brief History of Amazing Letdowns by Lilys

Kurt Heasley’s Lilys made some of the most ebullient and inventive guitar music of the 1990s. The best Lilys songs sound as though they’re flying apart and being put back together as they hurtle along, killer hooks tossed aside as quickly as they start to drag you in. Though they’re perhaps best known for their Kinks-indebted breakthrough Better Can’t Make Your Life Better, this was actually a sharp turn away from the dense shoegazey atmospherics of their first couple of records. Thus far, Frontier Records has reissued their first two albums, In the Presence of Nothing and Eccsame the Photon Band, both of which are superb. The A Brief History of Amazing Letdowns EP was originally released in 1994, a transitional period when Heasley was still exploring the textural joys of distorted guitars while starting to throw down pop hooks with aplomb. Opener “Ginger” hits similar pleasure centers as Weezer’s debut, released the same year, while on “Dandy,” Heasley’s vocal sounds uncannily like Stephen Malkmus. The previously unreleased “G. Cobalt Franklin” foregrounds searing guitar tones and bulbous bass, the bulk of the melodic layers sounding like they’re bleeding through from the next room, peppered with swirling flange and voice recordings. The second half of this expanded edition comprises songs originally demoed for Eccsame the Photon Band, and later released in 2000 on a split EP with Aspera Ad Astra. They’re decent enough, though feel like they’re missing the spark of the best Lilys creations. So, while this amounts to a far-from-essential Lilys release, it’s fascinating to hear Heasley in transition, working out how to reconcile his love for melody with his immersion in guitar noise.

Tim Clarke

Fred Lonberg-Holm — Lisbon Solo (Notice)

Lisbon Solo by Fred Lonberg-Holm

As befits a guy who has also recorded a “solo” record in the company of a Florida swamp full of frogs, Fred Lonberg-Holm picks his recording locations strategically, and location has a lot to do with how this album turned out. It was done at an old and well-appointed studio in Lisbon, Portugal, where he could be sure that the microphones would catch every creak, groan and polyphonic wail he might draw out of his main instrument. But he also knew, from prior visits, that he would have access to some seriously over-the-hill pianos. While most of the album is devoted to savagely bowed attacks, the odd digressions into detuned, radiant chimes deliver just enough respite to keep you off balance and on the edge of your seat.

Bill Meyer

Dan Melchior — Odes (Cudighi Records)

'Odes' by Dan Melchior

Dan Melchior is likely a recognizable name to Dusted readers; he has made quite a string of releases over the years. This cassette/digital release, recorded in 2016, is a subdued affair, nine songs for the most part following the same blueprint: a track of strummed or lightly picked acoustic guitar with a fuzzy electric lead layered on top. The foundational guitar tracks establish a calm, repetitive cycle, giving some of these songs an almost raga-like feel, in some cases through a hazy reverb: "Tybee" feels like you're sitting in the next room listening to him play through a closed door.

Calling the overdubs "guitar leads" implies the wrong feel. While played through fuzz or distortion, the mood is a woozy one, more opiated than energetic, but in a drifting, pleasant way. There's an over-arching melancholy throughout these songs, one person alone playing to satisfy a need. Knowing Melchior was facing the recent loss of his wife Letha certainly colors it, but even a listener ignorant of that back-story would feel the emotional resonance.

These nine ramshackle, loose instrumental pieces are personal, incomplete, and like having someone entrust you with private stories in song form.

Mason Jones

Mint Field — Sentimiento Mundial (Felte)

Sentimiento Mundial by Mint Field

Mint Field, from Mexico City, filters the feedback and noise of shoegaze guitars through a pensive screen, finding an aura of nostalgia in between and among blinding walls of scree. Estrella del Sol Sánchez contributes two of the band’s signature sounds, the dreamy, delicate vocals and the swirling masses of altered guitar. She is supported by Sebastian Neyra on bass and Callum Brown on drums. The volume level varies song to song, but it’s all mesmerizing and good. “Delicadeza” breezes in on the tenderest sort of sigh, the softest, most lyrical strummed accompaniment, but “Contingencia” digs in and pounds, drums cranking, bass thudding and guitars winging out in wild arabesques of distorted sound. The easiest comparison might be the similarly hauntingly voiced Lush, but there’s something special here in the soft, keening soprano calm at the center of even the most agitated cuts.

Jennifer Kelly

Roy Montgomery — Island of Lost Souls (Grapefruit)

Roy Montgomery 40th Anniversary 2021 LP Series by Roy Montgomery

In 2021, guitarist Roy Montgomery celebrates 40 years of music-making with the release of four new LPs, beginning with Island of Lost Souls. Though 2018’s fantastic Suffuse included vocals from artists such as Haley Fohr (Circuit Des Yeux), Julianna Barwick and Liz Harris (Grouper), Island of Lost Souls is entirely instrumental, comprising four pieces, each dedicated to a late artist (actor Sam Shepard, and musicians Adrian Borland, Peter Principle and Florian Fricke). Though wordless, Montgomery’s guitar speaks volumes, flickering and flowing with the liquid grace of a player intimately familiar with both his fretboard and the effects pedals at his feet, sending waves of tone cascading with delay and reverb. Plus, on the side-long, climactic “The Electric Children of Hildegard von Bingen,” Montgomery pitch-shifts his guitar so it really ascends to the heavens, where it takes up residence for 22 minutes. Fans of Windy & Carl, Flying Saucer Attack and The Durutti Column, take note.

Tim Clarke

Jon Mueller — Family Secret (American Dreams)

Family Secret by Jon Mueller

A family secret is usually a multigenerational skeleton in the closet that is either sorrowful or sinister. For percussionist and Volcano Choir member Jon Mueller, it is the former: a series of familial rifts that became the unlikely muse for this collection of reverberating drones. Mueller employs instruments that produce multiple resonant tones, such as singing bowls and gongs, to create rich pools of complex sound. Metallic hues brighten subterranean rumblings while enigmatic dapples of condensed steam coalesce into liquid shapes. The drummer conjures ghastly creatures through extending the vocabulary of his drum kit. Cymbal scrapes become banshee wails and scoured skins emanate uncanny whispers. With Family Secret, Mueller manifests his personal demons as phantom signals. He transmogrifies emotional strife into physical actions which then become ethereal. Ironically, the resulting sounds are actually soothing. Pain has never sounded so sweet.

Bryon Hayes

Primitive Motion — Descendants of Air (Kindling)

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Primitive Motion is the Brisbane-based duo of Sandra Selig and Leighton Craig, and Descendants of Air is their seventh album, previously only available as a CD given away at live shows. You can immediately imagine what the album sounds like based on the artist name and album title alone: rustic yet cosmic, full of space and open to spontaneity. Recorded on the banks of the Enoggera Reservoir, these eight meandering pieces prominently feature the sounds of wind and leaves, plus the calls of raucous Australian birds, while Selig and Craig insinuate suggestions of melodies and chords on nylon-string guitar, woodwinds, and battery-powered keyboards, and gently massage the air with percussive patters. Though part of the appeal of the recording is its deliberate vagueness, the most affecting piece, and the shortest, is “True Orbit,” where a strident theme built around melodica, keyboard and voice seems to emerge fully formed from the aether.

Tim Clarke

Socioclast — S/T (Carbonized Records)

Socioclast by Socioclast

In heavy music’s current moment of endless genre-hopping and hybridization, it’s nice to hear a record that understands exactly what it wants to be. Socioclast is a grindcore record. Like Assück’s grindcore’s records. A lot like Assück’s grindcore records. You get all the high-velocity chugging crunch and guttural grunting — vocals so deep in the gullet that it’s pretty hard to pick up any lyrics. The song titles, however, suggest the ideological dispositions you might expect: “Surveillance, Normalization, Examination,” “Specter Signal,” “Psychodrone,” “Propaganda Algorithm.” There can be a fine line between paying tribute and being derivative, but Socioclast creates an homage rather than an outright imitation. This is 21st-century music. It sounds a lot clearer and slicker than anything Assück or the early Slap A Ham bands committed to vinyl. Like Slap A Ham, Socioclast is a California-based musical phenomenon, featuring dudes who have played in bands like Deadpressure and Mortuous; Colin Tarvin’s death-metal grooves are especially prominent on some of the record’s best tracks, including “Eden’s Tongue” and “Omega.” But this is assertively a grindcore record. Given that version of traditionalism (and yes, events have come to such a pass that grindcore has a tradition), it turns out that Socioclast isn’t all that socioclastic. So goes the strangeness of semantics. But the music is good.

Jonathan Shaw

Space Quartet — Under the Sun (Noise Precision Library)

Under the Sun by Space Quartet

Space is a persistent and multi-faceted theme in the music of the Portuguese electronic musician, Rafael Toral. And while his name is not appended to the Space Quartet’s, make no mistake, this is his band, playing his music. But it is a music derived from ideas that can’t be realized without the right people. So, while Toral has delved repeatedly into the sounds that people imagine they might make and that they actually find in outer space, and he has explored empty and variously filled spaces as starting points for his music, the point of the Space Quartet is to find the right people, and give them enough space to realize a new kind of jazz. Under the Sun is the combo’s second recording, made with a substantially different line-up than the iteration that recorded the self-titled debut for Clean Feed Records. Toral has sacrificed the all-electronic front line and switched drummers, but in doing so he may have found the right crew to take him where he needs to go. Across the album’s two 21-minute-long tracks, there are usually several ongoing dialogues taking place between the players, which manifest intriguing degrees of mutual challenge and support. But the way that Toral’s elongated feedback lines and Nuno Torres’ stuttering alto saxophone phrases flow around Hugo Antunes’ stark, elastic double bass figures and percussionist Nuno Morão’s lightly deployed, carefully modulated streams of textures and beats that extends a lineage anchored in the language that Cecil Taylor’s trio first released into the air at the Café Montmartre back in 1962.

Bill Meyer

Stinkhole — Mold Encrusted Egg (Mangel Records)

MOLD ENCRUSTED EGG by STINKHOLE

The name sort of says it all, but to clarify anyways: Stinkhole languishes in a slimy musical ditch, bottoming out somewhere between the No Wave skronk of Mars and the transgressive caterwauling of Suckdog. As was the case with both of those acts, the dissonance and the gross-out antics can obscure some interesting ideas. Clawing your way through the dense layers of yuck (or, depending on how you’re wired, enjoying it) is integral to the challenge posed by the experience. All the gagging vocalizations, primitivist drumming and semi-tuned bass whomps on Mold Encrusted Egg occupy prominent positions on the surface of songs like “Orange Juice.” But listen to Mold Encrusted Egg a little more closely: there are some rabid grooves, feral guitar breaks and a lot of impenetrably weird environments of sampled sounds, tape manipulations and unidentifiable scree. Is it fun? Does it sound good? Fuck no. The band’s name is Stinkhole. They write songs with titles like “Slippin’ on Slug Slime” and “Emancipated by Hair.” They roll with the whacko punk and noise bands that have congregated around the Berlin-based Flennen digital music zine and its accompanying label. Dig the stink. Rock has rarely been so richly rotten.

Jonathan Shaw

Styrofoam Winos — S-T (Sophomore Lounge)

STYROFOAM WINOS "S/T" by Styrofoam Winos

Stryofoam Winos brings together three old friends to swap songs in Nashville. You might recognize Lou Turner from her solo album, Songs for John Venn, a sly and subversion of the songwriter’s wholesome alt-country charm. Joe Kenkel is a kindred spirit, a folk rock singer with respect but not reverence for the certitudes of Southern life. Says Nashville Scene of his solo Dream Creator, “Kenkel, a sophisticated folk-rock songwriter, documents Music City’s idiosyncrasies on his debut LP, with acutely observant lyrics.” And Trevor Nikrant completes this anonymous all-star line-up; his 2017 debut caught the ear of Aquarium Drunkard’s J. Steel who called it “Oddball baroque psychedelia broadcasted from a basement on the east side.” The three kicked things off with a lo-fi and charming debut, Winos at Home, in 2017, but this self-titled LP takes things up a notch with songs that balance craft with eccentricity. “Stuck in a Museum” jangles and rambles in an antic, neurotically intelligent way, as the narrator finds himself entrapped amid the exhibits, staring fixedly at a teapot from the Tang Dynasty. “Roy G. Biv” turns contemplative—and twangy—as Turner sings plaintively about rainbows and colors, the way things change and how hard it can be to keep up. “Maybe More” glints with mandolin, but remains pared back, as a down-trodden singer (one of the guys, not sure which) sings about a life stuck in neutral, same book, same coat, same jokes, but beautiful. The disc has the feel of a warm, casual gathering, with friends jumping in on harmonies or picking up the bass. The songs are sharp and lovely without a lot of fuss.

Jennifer Kelly

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popatochisssp · 5 years ago

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Series: Swapfell Relationship(s): SF!Papyrus/Reader -

You carefully peer out of the curtains at the distant sound of laughter.

Oh fantastic—tweens!

Just old enough to get all cocky, and not so young that it felt mean to give them a good scare…

You hover your finger over the switch, waiting for your cue.

The kids approach, roughhousing and tough-talking each other as they come up the sidewalk and take in your whole set-up.

It’s pretty creepy, if you do say so yourself: subtle hand-painted decorations courtesy of your special someone, a hidden fog-machine, one eerily flickering porch-light…

And right below it, a carefully arranged scarecrow with a bowl of candy in its lap.

Kids are nowhere near as good at whispering as they think they are, and you can hear them talking to each other even from inside.

“‘Take Two’? Yeah, right!”

“So stupid, it’s not even scary…”

“Just dump the whole bowl, it’s the good kind, nobody’s looking.”

“What’s the deal with the skeleton scarecrow? That’s not even a thing!”

“C’mon, dude, hurry up!”

You wait for one of them to try to grab at the candy bowl and as soon as they do, you hit the switch—the porch-light turns red, a speaker blasts a clichéd lightning crash, and Papyrus sits up straight, clutching the bowl tighter in his claws.

All he says is, “dude, it says ‘take two,’” but the kids still yelp and halfway scatter before you can come outside, laughing at their startled faces.

Papyrus is laughing, too, that cute little ‘nyeheheh’ of his that you’re so fond of as you come up behind his chair.

“Sorry, kids,” you say to the wary youths on your lawn, realizing they’ve just been pranked. “Just a little Halloween trick there… Come on, come get your candy, you can have three for being good sports!”

Naturally, that smooths over any hurt feelings that may have remained.

When they’re gone, you set a hand on Papyrus’ shoulder.

“Thanks for agreeing to this,” you tell him, gratefully rubbing at the flannel of his shirt. “Probably won’t be long before the scare-factor of having real monsters around for Halloween wears off.”

“yeah…hope so,” Papyrus replies with a smile. “‘sides, this is fun.”

“Really?” That surprises you. “I kinda thought you were just humoring me, this doesn’t really seem like your kinda thing…”

“well…m’not lovin’ the burlap…” Papyrus admits, looking down at himself. Making a face, he also scratches at his chest, rustling some of the straw stuffed haphazardly into his rib-cage. “…an’ this is pretty itchy…but yeah, it’s…it’s fun.”

“Scaring children?”

“yeah. …well! no! just! it’s just fun, y’know?” he attempts to explain. “nobody… nothin’ serious, nobody’s gettin’ hurt… just a lil scare, an’ then y’get some candy for your trouble. it’s…nice.”

…Aww.

That is nice…

Distant voices start to drift over to you and you both have to get back into position—you straighten Papyrus’ hat, give him a kiss for luck, and scurry back inside as he extinguishes his eye-lights to wait for the next batch of trick-or-treaters.

You hope you’ll get some really good scares out of these ones, too, but more than that…

You hope Papyrus gets to have lots more nice, harmless Halloween fun in the years to come, just like this.

#undertale #papyrus #papyrus/reader #swapfell/fellswap #sf!papyrus #Halloween #fanfiction #myfic

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whirlybirbs · 5 years ago

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does miss turner braid sugarcube's hair? are they friends? does arthur's horse love miss turner? hate her? i need to know bc i feel like arthur morgan's whole heart would explode upon the two of them lovin' it up

a/n: ahh yes some good, wholesome miss turner + sugarcube content to start they day and warm me up for the plentiful amount of arthur x miss turner content i am about to fucking churn out -- even the horse wants these two together. this pairing is from my simpler said aloud series!

Arthur brings you into Saint Denis the next morning.

(It’s a part of the deal you’d struck -- that you’d braid his horse’s unruly mane in trade for an hour of shopping in town.)

The ride, albeit a bit long, is quiet and peaceful and both of you try your best to pay no mind to the closeness shared on the back of his horse. Your arms, wound around his waist, grip his sides tight as you wind through the peeper filled trails by the bayous and bogs of Rhodes.

Under the rising sun, Arthur Morgan’s silhouette is something soft -- it’s a welcomed sight.

“Y’ best behave yerself now, Miss Turner.”

He says it with a smile, hand offered as he helps you down from the saddle once in the town’s center.

You part ways, promising to meet him behind the grocery in an hour -- and you set off to grab a few things from the shop stalls there.

(To grab him a better journal, too, seeing as his is nearly full. You’d overheard him complaining a few days ago to Mary-Beth, those two writers. And, after using the pen he’d given you, repaying him had been on your mind ever since.)

It’s nice to be around people again, to be out and about. You’d nearly forgotten what it was like to amble around, taking in the sights of sociability. Saint Denis, despite the early morning hour, is bustling.

Arthur’s resting comfortably against the horn on Sugarcube’s saddle when you find him after an hour of shopping. His hat is tipped low, shadows from the sun obscuring his face and leaving just the sharp line of his jaw. Smoke swings from his cigarette, winding high around him like a halo. He’s certainly a sight to behold -- he sticks out like a sore thumb around all the well-to-do folks of this town.

“Ready?” he asks when he catches an eyeful of you, all summer glow and gentle smiles. He flicks his lit cigarette into the mud, annoyance at his own sweetness biting him.

“Sure am,” you say, muscling into your bag and procuring a quick snack for Sugarcube. You freeze, though, staring at her with wide-eyes. You’re ignoring him, trying to gauge the mighty beast before you, “You?”

Arthur watches with a curious look.

It’s no small secret you’re terrified of horses.

If Jenny’s teasing hadn’t been enough to clue everyone in, you’d openly admitted it to little Jack Marston one night after he’d cried during a storm. He’d clung to Abigail, wailing as a heat storm roared in the distance, and you’d been quick to calm him --

“I’m afraid a’ lotsa things, Jackie,” you’d whispered to the young boy, a finger on his cheek as the camp watched on around the fire, “Snakes, mostly, an’ deep water scares me a lot -- I’m a bad swimmer. And! Horses -- you’re much braver than me, Jackie, I’m terrified of horses! Can you imagine? A brave cowboy like you, well... there’s nothin’ t’ be ashamed of, not when you could be afraid of horses. Storms are right scary.”

Arthur had watched on, eyes brimming with adoration. Fatherhood and other dead hopes snapped at his heartstrings.

He hops down, then, spurs landing in the dirt.

Arthur motion for you to give him your hand.

You do so, watching him with curiosity -- he gestures slowly, one hand moving to pat Sugarcube’s neck as she whinnies; Arthur, with practiced ease, takes the carrot half and raises it, rumbling out a soft:

“Like this.”

Open handed, he lets her pluck the treat.

When he blinks back at you, your smile isn’t anxious -- it’s settled into an excited wonder as you nod and take the other half. You do as he says, stepping forward and opening your palm. At the sight, Sugarcube bows her head up and down and up and down as if to laugh.

Arthur pats her neck, smiling. “Easy, easy, she’s alrigh’.”

“Here y’are, Sugarcube,” you breathe, laugh peeling high and full of happiness when she takes the treat and munches contentedly. You bounce excitedly, hands finding Arthur’s arm as the horse nudges herself your way and you accept the companionship eagerly. You squeak, eyes tightening shut as she nudges your cheek with her snout and snorts. Your hair flies and Arthur laughs, booming and honest, with eyes bright as you swipe at the wetness left from her nose.

You run your hands up and down her jaw, then, uneasiness melted away. Arthur does the same, leaning to push some of those unruly white hairs from his stead’s eyes.

“Y’ still wanna braid her mane, then, Miss Turner?” he drawls, “Now that you’ve overcome yer fear?”

Sugarcube is more than content with the new friend she’s made. It shows when you pull away, turning to look up at the towering outlaw.

Something about him, in this moment, strikes you right in the chest. The soft expression on his face is rare -- usually, he’s wearing a mask of bitterness; right now, in the Saint Denis morning sun, he’s happy. It’s a good look on him, you reason, and wonder hopelessly if it’s a product of your company.

It is -- I mean, he’d never admit that. Not with his record of broken hearts and naivete when it came to things like love. He’d settled long ago that he was destined to ride this life alone. The mere idea of you sharing the same foolish sentimentality as him was laughable at best.

You’re about to open your mouth, agree, tell him he looks mighty proud of himself when the horse nudges you forward, her forehead meeting your back, sending you straight into Arthur’s chest.

You yelp, hands finding his waist as you steady yourself in the dirt. Arthur’s hands fall along your arms, rugged smile pulled onto his face. He serves Sugarcube a look, then, over your shoulder. His brows are raised, corner of his mouth quirking.

“Really, girl,” he rumbles, “Where are yer manners?”

A whinnied clop. She digs her hooves into the dirt.

You right yourself, smoothing down your skirt before clearing your throat. Upon realization that his hands are still on you, holding you close, Arthur pulls them away fast.

The moment has passed. Back you both go to gasoline and open flame. He clears his throat.

“Best we head back, Dutch was sayin’ somethin’ about a storm rollin’ in tonight.”

“Red sky at morning --” you rumble, imitating the camp’s cook.

“Christ, woman,” he groans, “If I hear Pearson say tha’ one more damn time --”

Arthur offers you a hand then, steadying Sugarcube as your boot finds the stirrups. You hoist yourself up, hold lingering as you laugh at his bitterness. Arthur ignores the burning it stokes in his chest.

“He’s certainly something, isn’t he?” you ponder, watching Arthur swing himself up and throw his leg over the saddle. It’s graceful. Your hands find his waist again, chin leaning on his shoulder, “We should cook him up for dinner -- the stew might taste better.”

The intimacy of the moment isn’t lost on the outlaw. He blinks to the left, face close to yours. Arthur laughs loudly, trying to still his beating heart. “You’ve been with us too long.”

“What? Because I’m makin’ jokes, now?”

“No,” he rumbles, “Because you’re makin’ sense.”

Sugarcube whinnies happily and off you three go, back to camp to eat and braid and rest before the evening storm.

#simpler said aloud #arthur morgan x reader #arthur morgan x oc #arthur morgan imagine #rdr2 imagine #rdr2 x reader #arthur morgan owns my whole fucking SOUL #Anonymous

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howxforeverxfeelsxmusexinspo · 5 years ago

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Felirid Playlist Series, Set 2: The Golden Years

I'm helpless! He's mine, that boy is mine! Look into your eyes and the sky's the limit, I'm Helpless! Helpless! Down for the count, and I'm drownin' in 'em! {Helpless by Phillipa Soo, Hamilton}

You don't have to go now honey, call and tell 'em you won't be in today. Baby there ain't nothin' at the office so important it can't wait. I'm thankful for the weekend, but two days in heaven just ain't gonna do~ This is gonna take forever darlin', girl I just got started lovin' you~ {Just Got Started Lovin’ You by James Otto}

Darling you know it's true, the rumor you heard about me loving you. Well I never told a soul, so, tell me how the whole world knows? It must have been the roses and the wine or maybe this unexplainable smile. They say where there's smoke there's fire, well I hope it's true. 'Cause rumor has it you love me too~ {Rumor Has It by Clay Walker}

I didn't mean to say it out loud, but staring at your face made it fall right out. Maybe it's the baby blue in your eyes, or the sexy casual in your style, don't gotta get weird about it, scream and shout it, don't make a thing about it. I love you, so what? What? What's the big deal? Just 'cause I got all the feels~ {ILYSo What by Hannah Ellis}

In case you didn't know, baby I'm crazy 'bout you. And I would be lying if I said that I could live this life without you~ {In Case You Didn’t Know by Brett Young}

In the city, the country, the mountains or sea,wherever you are, baby, that's where I wanna be! I've been all around the world, done all there is to do, but you'll always be the home I wanna come home to~ You're a wild night with a hell of a view. There ain't no place, ain't no place like you~ {No Place by Backstreet Boys}

I know that you’r3 worth holding on to, cause I'll never find another one of you~ [...] Can't take the sugar out of sweet tea, can't take the freedom from the free, can't take the you from me! {Timeless by Home Free}

I see a mess in the mirror, but you see the girl of your dreams. I see the dark clouds rolling in, but you see the sky I can't see. I hear this melody coming out all wrong, but you hear a song... {You Hear A Song by Cassadee Pope}

Livin’ on love, buying on time, without somebody nothing ain't worth a dime~ It's like that old fashioned storybook rhyme, livin’ on love. It sounds simple, that's what you're thinking, but love can walk through fire without blinking! It doesn't take much, when you get enough, livin’ on love~ {Livin’ On Love by Alan Jackson}

And if I never get to build my mansion in Georgia, or drive a sports car up the coast of California. Well if all I got is your hand in my hand, baby I could die a happy man~ {Die A Happy Man by Thomas Rhett}

Felirid is the fictional couple of Astrid Cromwell {FC: Olivia Taylor Dudley} and Felix Beringer {FC: Jason Ralph} for thismeanswarhq {a private multi-muse roleplay}. This is playlist 2 of 5 detailing their relationship, this segment being “The Golden Years” - the happiest time of their four year relationship. Love blossoms, dreams of the future begin, and Astrid buys an engagement ring months before their graduation, intent on spending the rest of her life with the man she considers to be her soul mate. Felix can be found at @wildhcartcd and Astrid can be found at @howxforeverxfeels.

#Muse: Astrid Cromwell #character: felix beringer #couple: felirid #playlist

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heresyourchecksir · 6 years ago

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What are the 95 fics you would recommend forever? Inquiring minds want to know! (Since I recognize many on the list you posted for the anon and loved them (and saw some new ones), and now I want to know them all! ^_^ )

Are you sure? Are you really sure you want the whole list? All 95 fics?

Too late, you’re getting them now. Once again, under the cut.

First things first, I took off the 27 I posted in this post, so really you’re only getting 68 fics in this post. Secondly, if you read a fic and really like it, please leave a kudos and a comment! Comments mean a lot to authors! Thirdly, if you like a story, click on the author’s name and see if they’ve written other fics you might like! There’s a lot of great fics by these authors that I didn’t include as well. On to the fics!

Zimbits

The Canadian vs The Fourth of July and Football by @benjji2795 (General) Words: 5,896

His mama didn’t mean anything by it, inviting Jack to come to Georgia for the 4th of July. She didn’t know about his feelings for Jack or that he was trying to use this summer to put some kind of emotional distance between them. But all the same, he couldn’t help feeling irritated with her when he opened their front door to a pleased-looking Jack Zimmermann.

Hope that you don’t run by milou407 (General) Words: 3,004

Every day after school, Jack Zimmerman and the rest of the Samwell hockey team end up in the diner where Eric Bittle works. This is what happens after that on one special day.

Guns and Ships and so the Balance Shifts by NowMakeThemKiss (General) Words: 476

Jack hates it when Bitty listens to his music loudly, until one day he doesn’t mind it so much.

Catfishing for Dummies by @andquitefrankly (Teen) Words: 12,001

Eric Bittle hadn’t planned on signing up for online dating. It was just something that had happened after a drunken night with his friends. He also hadn’t planned on messaging the super obvious catfish masquerading as Jack Zimmermann. And he definitely hadn’t planned on possibly falling in love with him.

Smells like Updog by @onesaltydemon (Teen) Words: 8,764

Honestly, just read the whole Count Jackula series. This one just happens to be my fave.

Bitty can’t help but notice something strange with his d-men, especially after he asks Jack to turn him.

learn what joy means by @biblionerd07 (Teen) Words: 6,089

5 times Jack thinks I love you, +1 time he says it out loud.

Your Words on My Skin by @dizzilytwirling(Teen) Words: 8,562

Soulmate AU where markings appear on your skin after you fall in love. Sometimes it’s pictures, symbols, a name, maybe meaningful words your soulmate says to you.

Give It Thyme by IBoatedHere (General) Words: 8,635

They have an herb garden.

Maybe I’m Waking Up by @idrilka (Mature) Words: 157,904

Jack signs with the Falconers, graduates, and leaves. It’s the hardest thing he’s ever done. What comes after is even harder.

I hear sympohnies in my head by @lilbookofkell (General) Words: 14,165

Eric listens to a lot of music. Life is never so bad that it can’t be fixed with baked goods and the right soundtrack, and he’s really good at providing both, if he says so himself.

Can I get a Wingman? by @omgtrashplease (General) Words: 2,806

Jack wants to introduce Bitty to his new teammates, but fears that they won’t get along. As it turns out, he should have been worried for the opposite reason.

Alicia and Bob (I&II) by @adventuresinsuburbia (General) Words: 1,182

A short ficlet about Jack telling his parents about Bitty - the conversation mentioned in Junior Year #13 - Riverside.

Weekender by @wrathofthestag (Teen) Words: 34,075

Honestly, wrathofthestag is another author that everyone should just go and read all of their stuff. Go do it.

Jack hates conventions – the crowds, the noise, the forced socialization, but it’s a work thing that must be done. Enter Samwell Hockey Player, Eric Bittle, who attends the convention with a group of friends. Suddenly things begin to look up. Jack and Bitty meet at Falcs Fest. Flirting, shenanigans, and love ensue.

Won’t Watch You Walk Away Again by @zimmermaenner (Teen) Words: 71,59

Bitty was never friends with Jack Zimmermann at Samwell, but after he graduates, he keeps running into him.

Enchanted by @ziimmermanns (General) Words: 14,212

OMGCP Enchanted!au – When Prince Eric runs away from a wedding and falls into a magical well, waking up in a strange world of flashing lights, cars, and skyscrapers, he’s a little overwhelmed.

Take Me in Your Arms and Leave the Rest by @omgericzimmermann (Mature) Words: 15,548

After an injury takes Jack out of his short-lived NHL career, he’s left drifting. So he buys a house and decides to rebuild it. Fortunately, he’s got a cute neighbour to keep him company.

when it’s over (you’re the start) by @whoacanada (Teen) Words: 13,404

Have I mentioned that I love whoacanada and all their writing?

Jack goes to sleep in Providence next to his boyfriend and wakes up in Montréal to discover he’s been in a coma since 2009. Refusing to believe Samwell, Bitty, and the Falconers were all a dream, Jack tracks down the real Shitty, Lardo, Ransom, and Holster to find they’ve shared the same group hallucination for years. Now, they’re on a mission to find Bitty, the love of Jack’s non-existent life, and the only member of SMH they can’t seem to get in contact with.

Remembering You by @abominableobriens (Mature) Words: 8,855

Sometimes, significant events have a way of shouting their importance before they’re even over. They’re like, flashes of memory before total darkness.

Revenge is best served @ by Perpetual Motion (General) Words: 1,894

The ESPN hockey anchors take a cheap shot. Bitty takes one back.

Of Pasts and Presents by @kenthoney (Teen) Words: 4,193

Jack has a type. Which is apparently anyone related to the Bittles.

Penalty Box by QueenOfBrooklyn (General) Words: 1,468

This is what happens when Jack Zimmermann, hockey start, is left alone to babysit.

New Skin by @rransom (Explicit) Words: 6,6104

The world tells Jack that he’s been living the dream. His doctors tell him that he’s so lucky things turned out they way they did. His parents tell him that he is so happy. If only he could remember why.

Puck by runswithsourwolf (General) Words: 1,696

How Jack Zimmerman unintentionally de-throned Kitt Purrson as hockey’s favorite cat.

nothin’ says lovin’ like somethin’ from a coven by @zombizombi (General) Words: 13,474

Bitty and Jack meet for the first time under interesting circumstances. What do the cards hold for their future?

Until Your Father’s at the Table by @alphacrone (Mature) Words: 25,122

Ten years after Samwell, Eric Bittle runs into Jack Zimmermann in a sports bar in Boston and rediscovers the most important relationship of his life.

In A Crowd of Thousands by @murrayhewitt (General) Words: 1,690

Samwell was not the first time Jack and Eric’s paths crossed.

The Courtship of Eric Bittle by @gracewatsonauthor (General) Words: 2,747

Jack Zimmermann has decided that he’s going to court Eric Bittle. After reading a very informative WikiHow article and asking Shitty for advice, he feels like he’s prepared.

I Know Now by @17piesinseptember (General) Words: 5,704

A study-group is organised by several team members, the true purpose of which is to set up Jack and Bitty. Week after week, Jack and Bitty find themselves alone together at the study group. Their relationship grows.

Nursey/Dex

ENGL145, Creative Fiction Writing by i_kinda_like_writing (General) Words: 5,068

When Nursey sees the option on his list of classes, at first he doesn’t even think about it. He is a poetry guy, he likes obscure metaphors and overwhelming imagery. And he’s good at it, so he doesn’t have any reason to branch out of his comfort zone. Then he makes his schedule and realizes that all the English electives he wants to take are during practice or when he already has a scheduled class that’s fulfilling a credit. All that’s left over is Creative Fiction and Straight White Guy Novels Only (he may be paraphrasing the second one a little.) So Nursey checks the box next to ENGL145, Creative Fiction Writing. That’s the start of it, really.

You and me and me and you by @ahausonfire (Teen) Words: 3,211

Friendship with Dex was never in the cards. Just. It wasn’t an option. Not when every glance between them and every thought declared was laced with vinegar and disdain. Not when the mere thought of sharing space with Dex off the ice had Derek’s shoulders tensing up into knots. So, no. Friendship with Dex? It should be unthinkable. It should be impossible. It should be the harbinger of some kind of apocalypse or something. And yet…

Even When We’re Ghosts by @bkmarchand (General) Words: 6,400

As most things are, this is Chris Chow’s fault. He doesn’t look like an instigator for trouble, with his perpetually cheerful smile and the way he tends to drop everything so that he can try and solve problems. Even Islanders fans wouldn’t call him a troublemaker, with his reputation for waving at babies and sitting with his legs swinging on top of his goal. Only those who know him personally can see it, the sly smile when a plan starts to come together, that look of faux innocence when he sarcastically tells you he has no idea what you’re talking about. William Poindexter is currently mowing the grass shirtless, sweat dripping down his back, and it’s all Chris Chow’s fault.

A Metaphysical Inheritance by @mcbangle (Teen) Words: 2,302

When Dex discovers a strange note from former goalie John Johnson in a mysterious book, his life changes in ways he never could have predicted.

Monster Haus by @dexondefense Words: 15,186

This is technically a series, but it’s too good to not recommend. The tag for it has some things not on Ao3.

AU where everything is the same, except they’re all monsters.

wasted on you by @oluranurse (Mature) words: 20,803

Derek Nurse thinks that if he never falls in love with another redheaded asshole named William, it’ll be too soon.

Shitty/Lardo

everything I do, I do for you by ericaismeg(General) Words: 3,669

Lardo is stupid in love with Shitty, but how can she tell him that? She’s just one of the guys, and he’s her best friend in the whole world. Then he asks her to pretend to be his girlfriend for a weekend with his family. Things are about to get complicated, and she’s not sure how much longer she can hide her feelings.

Rainstorm, Reason to Try by @kent-parsons-cowlick (Teen) Words: 11,778

Shitty had always been Shitty and Lardo had always been Lardo even before they got to Samwell.

Others/None

Hide and Seek is a Dangerous Game by @nickbonino (Teen) Words: 3,269

Chowder suggests they play hide-and-seek. It has interesting consequences.

Twisted and Turned and Somehow Ended Up Here by@theonesyouthinkyoulove (Teen) Words: 8570

Hockey was never a thing for Alicia Zimmermann. She was a West-Coast girl from the United States – if there were any sport she would be interested in, it sure would not be hockey.

Russian Invasion by DisraeliGears (Teen) Words: 3,228

Jack comes for a visit, and has a surprise guest for Ransom.

Team Roach vs Team Attic Round Two: Battle of the Doughnuts by bellagerantalii (General) Words: 2,344

Dunkin’ Donuts may be dropping the “Donuts” from their name, and the New Englanders on SMH are shook. Obviously, this means a battle royale between Dunkin Donuts and Tim Hortons.

Diced Tomatoes by @randomoranges (General) Words: 2,406

She has always been task-driven. To-do lists are her friends. She’s always sworn by them. Always. And maybe, somewhere along the line, she’s convinced herself that if she gets every chore crossed off, Jack will get better.

A little loving in between by @welovewebseries (General) Words: 17,751

Oh, Derek, Baby, the day you were born you gave us every Valentine’s Day present we could ever ask for,“ Grandma had said. She’d reached out to touch his jaw, tilting his face up to look at hers. “Our sweet, lovely boy.”Derek had smiled, let her kiss his face and then resumed watching the people walk around with their gifts. He hoped their recipients felt as happy and loved as he did.[Derek’s birthdays through the years. My contribution to Nursey Week 2018].

Alma Mater by westernredcedar (General) Words: 1,394

No one expects Alicia Swanson to go to college. She chooses that herself.

Specific Authors

These ones are listed by author rather than ship because it was easier to rec them this way.

@geniusorinsanity

It Drops with the Gravity of Rain (Teen) Words: 16,906When Nursey calls, Dex almost doesn’t pick up the phone.

chiaroscuro (Teen) Words: 6,542“Nu, habibi,” Derek’s mother says to him gently, as they leave the registration table. “Are you sure about this? Hockey is a rough sport. It’s going to hurt, sometimes.”Derek, all of eight years old, squares his shoulders. “That’s okay, Ammi,” he says. “I’m not scared.”(They warn him that hockey hurts. They don’t warn him that depression hurts worse.)

above, beneath, betwixt, between (No Rating) Words: 6,574It doesn’t start on a dark and stormy night. Later, Dex will think: that’s what lured them into the false sense of security. It’s hard to imagine your new room being haunted when you move in on such a nice day.

heyfightme

The two that were here apparently no longer exist. Sorry folks!

heavy lightness (feather of lead) (Explicit) Words: 29,847The rivalry between the men’s hockey teams of Samwell and La Croix universities is long standing, thoroughly indoctrinated, and often bloody on and off the ice. With his future professional career at risk, La Croix captain Jack Zimmermann knows he needs to distance himself from the feud. Meeting Samwell’s undervalued winger Eric Bittle while crashing a party, definitely isn’t in his plans. Quicker than anticipated, though, it becomes clear that there’s more than just hockey on the line - for both of them.

The Road Leads Back to You (Mature) Words: 56,394Jack Zimmermann is an established hockey player. He’s three years in to his NHL career, has had the A for the Falconers for two and a half, and is ready to make winners out of the new group of rookies. He pulls one under his wing, affectionately nicknamed Poots, and it should all go as planned. But say Jack accidentally discovers that Poots has a boyfriend. And say that Poots wasn’t a very good boyfriend. And say, for arguments’ sake, Poots’ boyfriend definitely deserved better. Jack is maybe, possibly, totally fucked.

always, always, always on my mind (Mature) Words: 8,767The app is ubiquitous, a dating service that dictates the type and length of every relationship it finds for its users. For Jack Zimmermann, it hasn’t been a real problem - until he is Matched with Eric Bittle for a week-long fling, and is left feeling like he’s missing out on something bigger.

@justwritins

Mixing It Up (Mature) Words: 40,869Bakery AU!Eric Bittle, of Bitty’s Bakery, is very excited to have been chosen as a contestant for the Food Network Challenge. He’s even more excited to find out that he’s making a cake for the NHL new-Cup winners, the Falconers.

Self Reflection (Teen) Words: 29,218Bitty is in Annie’s, bent over his textbooks and wondering, not for the first time, why he decided to take French as a language (oh yes, it’s because so many old recipes are written in French, he’s going abroad there to study food history, can’t wait for the summer; half of fall and then winter semester until he goes, but that doesn’t help him now does it) , when he hears someone clear their throat.“Excuse me, is this seat taken?”Oh boy.Eric doesn’t even bother lifting up his head. “Sorry, not a girl and not interested.”

@petals42

Ethics of Journalism (Teen) Words: 9,564When Dan Erikson is assigned to write an article about Jack Zimmermann’s years in college, he thinks he knows what he’s getting into.

Shitty, Year 3 (Teen) Words: 7,786As Jack starts playing in the NHL, he hears from Shitty less and less. Which is wrong, of course. When Jack realizes, he sets about fixing it.

@porcupine-girl

Here Comes the Dreams (General) Words: 26,416Sometimes it seems like Jack can’t go anywhere in Providence without being hounded for autographs, so he’s relieved when the people who work at the coffee shop in his new neighborhood don’t seem to recognize him.

Braced Myself (Teen) Words: 24,984Jack knows better than most, how life’s biggest changes come at you hard, fast, and out of nowhere.

Sure Thing (General) Words: 10,733Five times that members of Samwell Men’s Hockey team were unusually perceptive and one time when they… weren’t.

Just Spit It Out (General) Words: 2,392Jack can’t believe he just heard the words on his soulmark from the mouth of the gorgeous new waiter at the diner he frequents. But now the pressure is on - what if he says the wrong thing back? Can you screw up meeting your soulmate?

Will Wonders Never Cease (Teen) Words: 56,840Eric has landed his dream job: social media manager for the Providence Falconers! Not only does he get paid to tweet, for an NHL team at that, but it’s a job where he’ll be able to make good use of his magic - when nobody’s looking, of course. Everyone on the Falconers is a joy to work with… with the notable exception of Jack Zimmermann. Eric understands that Jack doesn’t like social media, but he could certainly be a little more polite about it. Luckily, Eric has support from his Samwell buddies, as well as his best friend - a man whose face he’s never seen, and whose name he doesn’t know. They met on an online forum where witches can gather anonymously, since it isn’t safe for them to advertise their existence in a world where magic isn’t trusted. They’ve been friends for years now, but Eric is only just starting to realize that he might have deeper feelings for someone he can never meet face-to-face.

@tdkeh

Chicken Soup for the Bud (General) Words: 3,577Bad Bob shows up in Providence to nurse his son back to health when he hears that Jack has the flu.

The Heist (Teen) Words: 4,868Bitty uncovers the details of an elaborate (and successful) heist while searching for the missing key to the Haus basement.

badcaseofcasey

How Come Aquaman Can Control Whales? (Teen) Words: 14,035AKA a dystopian The Martian AU that literally no one asked for but I am, for some reason, committed to writing.

That Thorns Have Roses (General) Words: 5,358Jack buys Bitty a rose from one of the clubs on campus. It isn’t until later that he realizes what that might mean. So of course, he tries to cover it up by buying roses for the rest of the Samwell Men’s Hockey team.

Unknown Author

Here I am, Baby (General) Words: 35,562You’ve Got Mail- AUEric Bittle is devastated when the massive corporate bakery, Zimmermann’s, opens around the corner from his small pie and coffee shop. He vents his frustrations to the anonymous IG user he’s been talking to, and falling for, all the while waging war against Jack Zimmermann’s corporate take-over. Little does he know the face behind the anonymous IG account, and little does he know what will happen in the future.

Over Heels (General) Words: 2,552Jack’s fingers brush through Bitty’s hair and they’re quiet for a while until Jack says, “I really do wanna marry you some day, Bits.”Bitty blinks, his eyes feeling a little hot and a little wet because at no point in his life—not when he was younger, not when he left Georgia, not when he met Captain Jack Zimmermann—did he ever think he’d get something like this. “When you ask, I’m going to say yes.”

Quand On Est Tous Les Deux (Mature) Words: 16,161When he wakes up in a strange country, surrounded by a language he doesn’t speak, and no memory of the last several years, Eric Bittle isn’t sure how he’s ever going to get back to Georgia. But at the hands of the village baker, Eric finds hope in the most dreary time of his life.

A Wall Around Me (Mature) Words: 59,630When Eric Bittle’s scholarship is threatened, he doesn’t know what he’s going to do. He can’t go home, and he can’t afford Samwell on his own. Then help is offered from the most unexpected place–Hockey Legend, Bad Bob Zimmermann. Bitty knows things like this don’t come for free, he just never expected he’d have to “look after” Bob’s equally famous son, Falconers’ captain, Jack Zimmermann.

Then There Was You (Mature) Words: 56,549Thirty minutes after being traded to Pittsburgh, Jack Zimmermann’s entire life changes at the front-end of a car running a stop sign. As he recovers from his injury, and grief which is far more complicated than he wants to admit, he meets the exuberant bookshop/bakery owner, Eric Bittle. As their friendship grows, and as he waits for the go-ahead to get back to hockey, Jack is forced to evaluate his future, and what he wants from it.

#owl-librarian #omg cp #omg check please #omgcheckplease #omgcp #check please #Mine #Thanks for the ask!#anon #Fanfiction

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pinkpossibly · 7 years ago

Text

PinkPossibly’s Halloween Master Post

It’s that time of year again friends, Halloween!!! So here’s a huge list of Halloween cartoons. Be careful for popups and always make sure to click out of them right away! But other than that, these links are totally safe lol i use them all the time!

Adventure Time - The Creeps Adventure Time - From Bad to Worse Aaahh!!! Real Monsters! - The Switching Hour All Grown Up - Interview with a Campfire Almost Naked Animals - Howieween Almost Naked Animals - Hotel of Horrors Angry Beavers - The Day the World got Really Screwed Up

Alvin and the Chipmunks Meets Frankenstein Alvin and the Chipmunks Meets the Wolfman Alvin and the Chipmunks: Trick or Treason Angela Anaconda - The Haunting of Angela Anaconda Animaniacs - Scare Happy Slappy/Witch One/Macbeth Arthur - Hic or Treat Baby Looney Tunes - Log Cabin Fever/Mid Autumn Night’s Scream Beetlejuice Series Berenstain Bears - The Haunted Lighthouse

Bob’s Burgers - Full Bars Bob’s Burgers - Fort Night Bob’s Burgers - Tina and the Real Ghost Bob’s Burgers - The Hauntening Bob’s Burgers - Teen-a-Witch Winnie the Pooh - Boo to you Too! Brandy and Mr. Whiskers - Curse of the Vampire Bat/ The Monkey’s Paw Bugs Bunny’s Howl-oween Special Bunnicula Series Camp Lazlo - Hallobeanies Casper’s Halloween Special Catdog - Catdogula Catscratch - Scaredy Cat Chalkzone - Pumpkin Love/Chip of Fools/Irresistible/Please Let Me In Chowder - The Spookiest House in Marzipan/Poultrygeist Claymation Comedy of Horrors Show Codename: Kids Next Door - T.r.i.c.k.y/Transcript Coraline Corpse Bride Count Duckula Series Courage the Cowardly Dog Season 1 Courage the Cowardly Dog Season 2 Courage the Cowardly Dog Season 3 Courage the Cowardly Dog Season 4 Cow and Chicken - Halloween with Dead Ghosts/Coast to Coast Daddy, I’m a Zombie Daddy, I’m a Zombie 2 Danny Phantom - Fright Night Daria - Legends of the Mall Dave the Barbarian - That Darn Ghost/The Cow Says Moon Dear Dracula Doug - Halloween Special Duck Tales - Ducky Horror Picture Show Extraordinary Tales Fairly Oddparents - Scary Oddparents Fish Hooks - Halloween Haul Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends - Nightmare on Wilson Way Frankenweenie Freaky Stories Series Garfield in Disguise Ghost Stories Gravedale High Series Gravity Falls - Summerween Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids Season 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Groovie Goolies Series Growing Up Creepie Series Halloween is Grinch Night Disney’s Halloween Treat Hey Arnold! - Arnold’s Halloween Hey Arnold! - Ghost Bride Hey Arnold! - Headless Cabbie/Friday the 13th Hotel Transylvania House of Mouse: Villains House of Mouse - Halloween with Hades Howard Lovecraft and the Frozen Kingdom I am Weasel - I am Vampire I am Weasel - I am Franken-Weasel Inspector Gadget - Haunted Castle It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! Looney Tunes - Jeepers Creepers Jackie Chan Adventures - Chi of the Vampire Jackie Chan Adventures - Fright Fight Night Johnny Bravo - Frankenbravo Johnny Test - Johnny Trick or Treat Kid vs Kat - Trick or Threat Kid vs Kat - House of Scream Kim Possible - October 31st Lilo and Stitch Series - Spooky Little Bear: Halloween Stories Looney Tunes - Transylvania 6-5000 Looney Tunes - A Haunting We Will Go Looney Tunes - Hyde and Hare Looney Tunes - Scaredy Cat Mad Monster Party? Men In Black - Jack-o-Lantern Monster House Monster in my Pocket: The Big Scream Monsters vs Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space Moville Mysteries Series Mr. Bean - Halloween Mr. Meaty - Nightmare on Josh Street Muppet Babies - Is there a Muppet in the House? My Gym Partner’s a Monkey - The Scary Old Custodian Night of the Living Carrots Night of the Living Doo Open Season: Scared Silly Over the Garden Wall Series Pac Man - Trick or Chomp Pac Man - Pacula Paranorman PB&J Otter: A Hoohaw Halloween Pepper Ann - A Tween Halloween/Mash Into Me Phineas and Ferb - The Monster of Phineas and Ferbenstein Phineas and Ferb - One Good Scare Outta Do It Phineas and Ferb - That’s the Spirit! Pinky and the Brain - Halloween Raggedy Ann and the Pumpkin Who Couldn’t Smile Recess - Terrifying Tales of Recess Regular Show - Terror Tales of the Park 1 Regular Show - Terror Tales of the Park 2 Regular Show - Terror Tales of the Park 3 Regular Show - Terror Tales of the Park 4 Regular Show - Terror Tales of the Park 5 Rocket Power - The Night Before/Violet’s Violet Rocco’s Modern Life - Sugar Frosted Frights/ Ed is Dead Rugrats - Candy Bar Creep Show/Monster in the Garage Sabrina (1999) - Nothin’ Says Somethin’ Like Lovin’ Somethin’ From a Coven Salad Fingers Scared Shrekless Scaredy Squirrel - The Stackinator/Halloweekend Scary Godmother: Halloween Spooktacular Scary Godmother: Revenge of Jimmy Scooby Doo Where Are You? Season 1, 2, 3 Scooby Doo and the Alien Invaders Scooby Doo and the Cyber Chase Scooby Doo and the Ghoul School Scooby Doo and the Witch’s Ghost Scooby Doo meets the Boo Brothers Scooby Doo on Zombie Island Scream Street Series Season’s Greetings Shawn the Sheep - Little Sheep of Horrors Shawn the Sheep - The Visitor Shawn the Sheep - Things That go Bump Shawn the Sheep - Phoney Farmer Shrek’s Thrilling Tales Snorks - A Willie Scary Shalloween Spongebob Squarepants - The Graveyard Shift Spongebob Squarepants - Scardy Pants Spongebob Squarepants - Ghoul Fools Spongebob Squarepants - Don’t Look Now/Seance Schmeance Spookley the Square Pumpkin Spooky Bats and Scardy Cats Stoked - Penthouse of Horror Tales from the Cryptkeeper Series Tales from the Far Side Teacher’s Pet - The Tale of the Telltale Taffy The Adams Family Series (1973) The Adams Family Series (1992) The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius - Nightmare in Retroville The Buzz on Maggie - The Big Score The Buzz on Maggie - Scare Wars The Curse of the Were-Rabbit The Daffy Duck Show - The Duxorcist The Daffy Duck Show - Night of the Living Duck The Emperor's New School - Kuzcoween The Fat Albert Halloween Special The Flinstone Kids - Frankenstone The Flinstones - A Haunted House is not a Home The Flinstones Meet Rockula and Frankenstone The Flinstones New Neighbors The Garfield Show - Orange and Black/Freaky Monday The Great Bear Scare The Grim Adventures of Bill and Mandy - Billy and Mandy’s Jacked up Halloween The Halloween Tree The Haunted Pumpkin of Sleepy Hollow The Ketchup Vampires The Mask - All Hallows Eve The Mr. Men Show - Outer Space The New Archies - I was a 12 year Old Werewolf The New Super Mario World - Ghosts R Us The Nightmare Before Christmas The Pig Who Cried Werewolf The Pink Panther - Pink Panic The Pink Panther - Pink Plasma The Proud Family - A Hero for Halloween The Replacements - Halloween Spirits The Scooby Doo Show The Simpsons Tree House of Horror - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 The Smurfs: The Legend of Smurfy Hollow The Super Mario Bros Super Show - Koopenstein The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald: Scared Silly The Wild Thornberrys - Blood Sisters The Wild Thornberrys - Spirited Away The Wrong Trousers Thriller Night (Shrek) Time Squad - Every Poe has a Silver Lining Tiny Toons: Night Ghoulery Tom and Jerry Kid’s Show - The Ghost of Castle McLochjaw Tom and Jerry Kid’s Show - Doom Manor Tom and Jerry Kid’s Show - McWolfula Tom and Jerry Kid’s Show - McWolfenstein Tom and Jerry Kid’s Show - Haunted Droopy Totally Spies - Halloween Toy Story of Terror Wander over Yonder - The Pet Wander over Yonder - The Gift 2: The Giftening Witch’s Night Out Zombie Hotel Series

#halloween master post #halloween #spooky #creepy #halloween cartoon #cartoons

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notnaturalanahi · 7 years ago

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Friday Recs! Week 28

PREVIOUS WEEKS

Feel free to tag me in your SPN related fics and remember to ALWAYS LEAVE FEEDBACK AFTER YOU READ, drop and ask with a few encouraging words (why you liked the story, what your favorite part was), reblog using a reaction gif, use funny tags!! Feedback is the best way to show your love and appreciation!

I read your story and is not on the list? IM me!

-If you tagged me and I didn’t read it, I apologize. I do my best to read everything I get taggen in, but sometimes there’s not enough time, oh and tags often get lost in the wind…

I’m so behind on my reading again. Sorry! I’m including a lot of what I was tagged in anyways!!

List bellow the cut!

Here’s what I wrote this past week, if you’re interested

Sense of Hearing [Dean x Reader] drabble

Imagine dating Sam and quarreling with Dean like siblings [Sam x Reader]

Dean

Caught Red Handed by @queen-of-deans-booty

Picture Perfect by @revwinchester

That’s Not My Name by @winchestersmolder

Brew by @kathaswings

Women Only by @kdfrqqg

Nothin’ Says Lovin’ by @butiaintgonnaloveem

Misunderstanding by @winchester-smut

Imagine Dean crying because he left you and now he realizes it was a mistake by @wilhellmine *gifs imagine*

Not All Heroes Wear Capes [Daddy!Dean] by @imagineteamfreewill

Let Me Make it Up to You by @impalapiegirl67

In These Arms by @supernaturallymarvellous

Wonderful by @whywhydoyouwantmetosaymyname

Sam

Always by @sammit-janet

Love Changes Things by @ravenangel33

Cas

Imagine meeting Cas for the first time and shamelessly flirting with him by @thegreatficmaster

Other

Death’s Door [Death x Reader] by @one-more-spn-fan-girl

Say Cheese [Sam x Reader/ Crowley x Reader] by @roxy-davenport

Who You Belong To [Balthazar x Reader] by @wayward-mirage

RPF

The Party [Jensen Ackles x Reader] by @chelsea072498

Boat Trip [Jared Padalecki x Reader] by @queencflair

Say What you Mean and Mean What You Say [Rob Benedict x OC] by @atc74

Pop Princess [Jensen Ackles x Reader AU] by @dancingalone21

Series

Mr. & Mrs. Winchester - chapter 3 [A/B/O - OC] by @winchestergirl-love

Zombie - part 2- To Wyomin by @one-more-spn-fan-girl

Invisible - chapter twenty one by @just-another-busy-fangirl

Mine & Yours - Resolution by @thinkwritexpress-official

Toil & Trouble - part 13 by @littlegreenplasticsoldier

I Still RIse - part 3 by @winchesterprincessbride

Series Rewrite - Provenance - part 5 by @queen-of-deans-booty

Heart of a Hunter - Act II - chapter 3 by @muchamusedaboutnothing

#Friday I'm in love... with your writing!#friday recs!#notnaturalanahi's rec list #week 28

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butiaintgonnaloveem · 7 years ago

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Making me feel all fluffy...

@akshi8278 reblogged your post and added:

This is refreshing

@feelmyroarrrr reblogged your post and added:

Oh god!!! Now I need more kitchen gadgets and a...

@kathaswings reblogged your post and added:

Ooo-kay. Yeah, Dean can teach me to make pancakes...

My dears, thank you for your comments. When I’m in doubt, it’s stuff like this that encourages me to push on through. So glad you enjoyed it!

#akshi8278 #feelmyroarrrr #kathaswings #tiff replies #thank you #nothin' says lovin' series

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spencereliotwinchester · 8 years ago

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Private Lives Chapter Eleven

Title: Private Lives Chapter Eleven

Author: Kat

Reader Gender: Female (Y/N Hastings)

Word Count: 1889

Series Summary: Jensen Ackles is an incredible actor. You’re taking a break from being a doctor to figure out what to do with your life. When your worlds crash together, what secrets will be revealed?

Warnings: This fic will have feels, okay? It’s going to be a drama.

Chapter Warnings: Little bit of blood, nothing too descriptive, bullying

Catch Up HERE

A/N: OMG FINALLY. I am so sorry to everyone for how long this took and also I’m sorry it’s a tad short. I ran into some writer’s block that has finally seemed to have cleared up. I hope you like this chapter. The wait was soooooo long. I’m so excited with it’s following and where it’s going. I just hope you all don’t kill me for it. Enjoy!!

Character: Jensen Ackles

---

Tags: @deans-princess-crybaby @space-cats-in-purgatory @bloodysideofhell @thing-you-do-with-that-thing @mrswhozeewhatsis @mamaimpala @timewoundsallheals1210 @the-mrs-deanwinchester @aprofoundbondwithdean @queenofhellisafangirl @anastasiarosez @ackleholic96 @mama-impala @mamapeterson @redlittlefox @sinceriouslyamellpadalecki @beautiful-disaster143 @sleepywinchester @adaisinwonderland @theweirdymcweirderson @mysaintsasinner @oh-jesus-sammy @jencharlan @blacktithe7 @winchesterforever12 @iamflanneltrash @blushingsamgirl @deandoesthingstome @mrsjohnsmith @samtomydeanwinchester @sis-tafics @ackleslaugh @fangirling-instead-of-working @eyes-of-a-disney-princess @for-the-love-of-dean @lipstickandwhiskey @skybinx-blog @loveitsallineed @purgatoan @shipping-people-writing-things @spectaculacular-sammy @superbluhoo2 @winchesterswoonathon @iwantthedean @crzcorgi @ilostmyshoe-79 @torn-and-frayed @supernatural-jackles @impalapossible @jotink78 @hillface89 @kittenofdoomage @nichelle-my-belle @percywinchester27 @whit85-blog @rizlow1 @bringmesomepie56 @atc74 @cici0507 @gemini75eeyore @girl-with-a-fandom-fettish @kristaparadowski @mayasmedberg @prncss-nefelibata @smoothdogsgirl @beachy2014 @freaksforthewin @jensen-gal @theoriginalvicki @missieb76 @vougebandit @raeganr99 @your-not-invisible-to-me @vaisabu @bakabozza @britt-spn @fernandasvaldi @silver-and-green @yaya-snowflakes @imnotalosechester @motleymoose @ruprecht0420 @iamnotsaneatall @gecko9596 @anokhi07 @tiffanycaruso @spnolivia @the-jette @boredoutofmymindstuff @lovin-ackles @dancingalone21 @laurenw1025 @tas898 @extreme-supernatural-lover @jayankles @supernatural-fan-123 @moonstonemystyk @perpetualabsurdity @frenchybell @allthatsupernaturallife @irishdoll80 @walkercauff @nerdwholikesword @supernatural508 @ledzeppelinrules @rattyretro-blog-blog @fandomsneverdie14 @anxuanpham @mysteriouslyme81 @felly-pepper @sleep-silent-angel @caityrice @ezauraemmaline @steampunkd16 @fullmetalkassie @sandlee44 @cemmia @wwecrazed2010 @winchesterhunters67 @symphony25 @oceanblue-and-forestgreen @dorky-and-i-know-it @trustnobodyshootfirst @ria132love @grace-for-sale

---

“Well, what do you think about the house that Marta showed Y/N?” Jared asked, sipping his beer.

“Oh, I don’t know, it’s not a huge house, but the yard is big and the neighborhood is great. I think I’ll make an offer tomorrow,” I said back, taking a drink from my beer.

“Oh, good, Y/N still on the fence about it?”

“A little,” I replied, pondering. Y/N was worried she wouldn’t be around enough for Gen if she lived with me, but I had assured her multiple times that everything would work itself out.

My phone began to ring from the coffee table. As I reached forward to silence it, I saw that it was Y/N. She was at work at the moment, which meant it must have been important for her to be calling during her shift. I answered the phone instead.

“Hello?”

“Jensen!” Her worried and frantic tone had me sitting straight up immediately. She began talking so fast I couldn’t understand what she was saying.

“Woah, woah, Y/N. Y/N calm down,” I tried to talk over her, but I wasn’t getting through. I heard her say ‘Thatcher’, ‘Hospital’, and began to get even more worried.

“Y/N!” I yelled. She stopped talking, but I could hear her breathing quickly. “Y/N, I can’t understand you. What’s going on?”

“Jensen, it’s Thatcher. He showed up in an ambulance with a broken nose and concussion. They have him in a trauma room right now, so I don’t know what happened!”

“I'm on my way,” I said immediately, then hung up. Jared was staring at me nervously, a questioning look on his face. “Thatcher’s at the hospital. Nothing serious, but I should probably get down there.”

“I'll go with you.”

Jared dropped me off near the ambulance entrance and went to park the car. I ran through the doors, looking around wildly. A nurse stopped me.

“My son,” I breathed. “He’s here somewhere!”

“Through the doors, stop at the nurses’ station. They’ll tell you where he is.”

I was running before she could say another word. I burst through the doors and three nurses looked up from the station. One pursed her lips at me and placed her hands on her hips. I dashed to her and her eyebrow raised in a subtle question.

“Thatcher. My son,” I gasped, slightly out of breath.

“This way,” she said, beckoning me to follow. “And please, sir, try not to cause an accident.”

I winced slightly, uncomfortable, but I followed close behind her. She opened a door, and I darted inside. Thatcher looked up from the bed, shock on his face. He was holding a bloodied towel to his face. A bruise near his eye was swelling and had already turned a dark bluish purple color.

“Aw, Jensen, I’m sorry. I told them not to call you. It’s just a bloody nose,” he said, looking uncomfortable.

“Then what is with the bruise on your face? And the hospital didn’t call me, Y/N did,” I asked evenly, trying to keep my sense like Y/N would.

He touched it lightly and looked guilty, even a little scared. Just as I was about to ask another question, a doctor walked in.

“You must be Thatcher,” he said cooly. “I’m Dr. Storz. How about we take a look at that nose, hm?”

“Don’t want you. I want Y/N,” he complained.

“Thatch, come on,” I said.

“No, Jensen. Y/N talks about this yahoo. He don’t know his ass from his elbow! Full of himself.”

I tried in vain to hide the smirk that sprang to my face. Dr. Storz gave me a withering look and I couldn’t do anything but shrug and turn my attention to the floor. The doctor stormed from the room and both Thatcher and I burst out laughing.

“Thatch,” I said between breaths, “you can’t talk to doctors like that. It’s rude!”

“S’not my fault the guy’s an idiot,” He snickered.

“Thatch,” I tried to say warningly.

At that moment, Y/N walked through the door.

“What's this about Dr. Storz?” She said, hands on her hips. I could see a flush in her cheeks and knew she must still be upset.

“Thatch called him out apparently,” I snickered.

“Jensen, you… oh who am I kidding. He annoys the hell out of me,” she said, sitting down on the bed. “Let's look at that nose. What happened, Kiddo?” She put on some gloves and sat back down next to him.

“Nothin’.” He shrugged, looking away as Y/N peeled the towel away from his nose.

“Thatch, it’s not nothing,” I said in all seriousness. “If you got into a fight, just tell me.”

“Wasn’t a fight,” he muttered as Y/N made his tilt his head back. “Or much of one, I guess.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked, knitting my eyebrows together. This kid could speak so cryptically sometimes that half the time I found myself pondering if he was actually a thirty-five year old in a fourteen-year-olds body.

“This is going to hurt,” Y/N interjected. Thatch grunted and winced as she squeezed the cartilage back into place.

“I got ganged up on, okay?” He snapped at me. A pang of shock hit me as anger crossed his features and I saw a carbon copy of Alyson.

“Why don’t you guys go back home and talk about this?” Y/N suggested. “I’ll be home in a couple hours. I’ll make some spaghetti, how ‘bout that, Thatch?”

“Really?” He asked hopefully as she placed a couple bandages on his face.

“Will do,” she promised.

“Let’s go on home, Thatch. Uncle Jared brought me. We can talk when we get home, alright?”

Without answering, Thatcher got up and followed me from the room. Jared was waiting in the waiting room for us anxiously. I made eye contact with him and shook my head slightly, silently asking him not to ask about it. He gave me a short nod in understanding.

Once we got back to Jared and Gen’s, I took Thatcher outside on the deck. It occurred to me that I needed to spend a lot more one on one time with my son. I barely knew anything about him. I told him to wait there while I went back inside to get a drink. I opened the refrigerator and saw that Gen had made some lemonade, so I poured two glasses and went back outside.

“There were six of them,” Thatcher said as I handed him his cup. He looked almost disappointed in himself. “It was just after gym. I told the office I’d taken a basketball to the face by accident. They called 911 when the bleeding wouldn’t stop and they couldn’t get hold of Y/N.”

“Do you want me to do anything? I want to call the school and rip their heads off but something tells me you don’t want me to do that,” I said, trying to keep myself calm.

“Not really. It’ll just make it worse. I can handle it. I’ve had worse.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” I asked, somewhat awkwardly. I felt so far out of my comfort zone. He straightened and met my eyes. They were just a shade darker green than mine.

“You’ve never really asked before,” he stated.

“Thatcher, I want you to talk to me. I want you to be able to ask me anything or tell me anything. I’m just still new to this father thing. You only just came to live with us three months ago and I know I’m gone a lot. I want to make up for those years your mother kept us apart. I’m just not quite sure how to do the whole parent thing.”

“You’ve been great,” he said honestly. “I have people that take care of me when you’re gone. I’m in school, there’s always enough food in the house. I have my own room and pretty soon we’ll be in our own house and I’ll be able to decorate my own room. I’d say you’re off to a good start.” He chuckled lightly.

We fell quiet for a little while, neither of us sure how to follow up the last statement. We sipped lemonade and watched the yard.

“I have my first soccer practice on Sunday,” he said.

“Yeah? You want me to drop you off?” I asked.

“That’d be great!”

“What position are you going to play?” I prompted.

“Uh, I think Coach wants me to play forward. I’m pretty good at scoring. I don’t think Myles is exactly happy about that. It drops him to half-back. Probably why he and his buddies ganged up on me.”

“Myles?”

“He’s in my grade. Real a-hole,” Thatcher explained.

We fell quiet again until Thatcher cleared his throat.

“Hm?” I asked, looking over to him. He was slightly uncomfortable now, unsure of himself. “What’s up?”

“So, uh, you’re doing better at this whole father thing and all,” he squirmed in his seat, trying to come up with the right words to say. I waited patiently for him to continue. “Should I call you ‘Dad’?”

I choked on my lemonade. Coughing, I waved my hand at him as he tried to get up to help. I caught my breath and tried to gather my thoughts into some semblance of order.

“Thatch,” I said, clearing my throat again. “You can call me whatever you want.”

He nodded in understanding. Y/N poked her head out the door and greeted us.

“I’m going to start the spaghetti, you boys want to come help?” She asked.

As Y/N started the hamburger for the sauce, Thatcher gathered the spices she would need from the shelves and I laid out the bread on trays to put in the oven. I didn’t have much cooking skill, so Y/N usually left the easy stuff to me. After I did that, I’d start putting the salad together. Thatcher, as it seemed, thoroughly enjoyed learning how to cook from Y/N.

“Remember to season the hamburger while it’s cooking, so it soaks up the onion and garlic,” she said, flipping the hamburger.

“Is this your recipe?” He asked.

“My mother’s,” she responded. “Most of my recipes are hers.”

“Will I ever get to meet her?” He asked. Y/N glanced back at me as I was tipping salad into a bowl to serve. I grinned.

“Of course, Thatch. We’ll go sometime this year or next.”

“So, can I ask for something?” He asked, attempting to sound casual. Y/N and I both stopped what we were doing and looked at him.

“What is it, Bud?” I asked.

“Well, we’re moving soon, and we’ll have a house and a yard all to ourselves, right?”

“Right,” Y/N said happily.

“Well, I’ve always wanted- I just thought maybe- I dunno, it’s probably stupid.”

“Thatch, what do you want?” I asked firmly.

“Can I get a dog?” He blurted out, then he looked between us hopefully.

I got ready to tell him that we’d need to talk it over and discuss this, but before I could-

“Of course you can!” Y/N said.

“Really? Thanks, Mom!” He darted to her and pulled her into a hug. We looked at each other, shocked.

Please Please PRETTY PLEASE, tell me what you think?

Chapter Twelve

#Private Lives #paging dr y/n #jensen x reader #Jensen Ackles #Jensen x Y/N Hastings

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daesungindistress · 8 years ago

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Carnivores - Additional Notes & Thoughts

Alright, I said I’ve been wanting to write a blog post expanding on a few things in the Carnivores series (with a heavy focus on Dream Likes Ashes Float Away), so here it is! Most of this is stuff I’ve waited to get off my chest since DLAFA.

Warning: SPOILERS for the entire series. Also it’s long (of course it is), so it’s under the “keep reading” below. Also cross-posted at AFF.

FYI: DLAFA = Dreams Like Ashes Float Away, BLTS = Bright Like the Sun

1.) Some of you might be wondering, when the heck does this fic series take place, anyway? Well, here’s your answer: I don’t know! It’s not meant to be a modern-day setting, I can tell you that much. I imagine it taking place somewhere in the early 1800’s, perhaps. It could even be a modern setting and they are just that isolated.

Look, all I know is the guys have zero exposure to modern machinery like cars, trains, planes, etc. They’ve never encountered electricity (outside of bolts of lightning during thunderstorms, lol). So certainly no electronics like phones or computers or TVs. In the city in DLAFA a man takes them to their new home in a cart pulled by a horse, and I took care to make no mention of things like running water or even in-home appliances. Nothin’. That’s not to say that they didn’t have something to work with, I just didn’t feel like doing the research to figure out exactly what...

2.) The details of the land they lived on aren’t actually super important, so you’re free to imagine the landscape in whatever way comes easiest to you. But if anyone is curious, it’s based on the Texas Hill Country (south-central Texas, United States).

3.) The beginnings of Carnivores can be seen in this entry at Tumblr from March 2016. Ultimately, it was all inspired by a single black & white photo from the MADE series collection, the one that I used as the title pic for Carnivores.

It’s funny, in the tags at the bottom of that post I said, “I wish I could write fanfic. I want to.”

4.) As I was writing Carnivores I sort of jokingly called it "watered down werewolves" since, contrary to what you would expect from werewolf fic, the guys don't actually have the ability to transform fully into wolves. Their ability to morph at all is severely restricted, limited to just teeth and claws. Meanwhile, their one other physical feature that identifies them as not-quite-human-- the wolf tail-- is always with them, unable to be hidden away (more on that later). Some of you might have wondered why I opted to take away this transformation ability. Especially considering that I LOVE that aspect of werewolf lore-- the idea of people taking on the physical form of animals. Shapeshifting, if you will. That was the "superpower" I always wanted as a kid; the ability to become whatever animal I desired for however long I wanted. Because animals are so much cooler than humans, duh (says my inner 8-year-old self).

Well, as it so happens... the primary reason I took away their "wolf form" is because I didn't want to risk venturing anywhere near the idea of animal-on-animal sex. "But you could have just avoided writing about that," you might be thinking. And yes, you'd be right, but even displays of affection from one wolf to another I just did not even want to touch. Not even cute, innocent things like wolf!Seunghyun licking all over wolf!Daesung's face in excitement, etc etc. I just thought that if I was not meticulously careful about it, the potential to squick readers beyond repair was far too high.

Because let's face it, Seunghyun in this series is going to give Daesung some lovin’ no matter what "form" he's in (same goes for Daesung regarding his attraction to Seunghyun), and given the, hmm... intensity of his devotion... I'm not confident I would have been able to steer completely, 100% clear of all types of physical intimacy between them while they were in the shape of... well, wolves. Look, when it comes to fanfic (especially this series) I'm not one to pull my punches, sugarcoat things, tone it down, etc... but even I have to draw the line somewhere!

That said, I almost didn't even give them tails. Thought it seemed a little silly, maybe a tad gimmicky. I wrestled with that one for a long time, and in the end said, "Oh, whatever," and went with it. And I'm glad I did, because the presence of their tails became something of an important plot point later on in DLAFA.

5.) Y’all might not realize how much of what happens in this series is based on or influenced by events that took place IRL, considering that it is an alternate universe. It began as a series of observations on Tumblr, various posts of mine that accumulated over time as things relating to Daesung or ToDae came up. Here are some examples below:

Hair pulling in Carnivores? That’s from the video clip of TOP pulling on Daesung’s hair until he made a pained face during the MADE tour in Japan. (1, 2, 3)

Seunghyun putting his head down and chasing Daesung around like a bull (or like a buck using his antlers to herd a doe) in BLTS? Also from a video clip from MADE tour in Japan. TOP chased Daesung around the stage like that.

Daesung’s fear of dogs and water? Based on his comments in the MADE the Movie pamphlet.

Seunghyun saying to Daesung in New Heights, “If I wanted to kill you, I could have done it so many times by now.” This comes from TOP telling Daesung at the MADE: The Movie premier, “You know I could kill you if I wanted to.” (1, 2)

Discussions of Seungri possibly leaving the pack to form his own in DLAFA? That’s based on a debate I was having with some disgruntled Seungri fans on Tumblr, fans who were upset about Seungris’ alleged mistreatment by the rest of BB and wanted him to leave the group to go somewhere he might be better appreciated. It was around that time that I wrote that bit into the fic.

Seungri’s role as the pack omega? This one should be obvious. Replace “omega” with “maknae” and there you go.

I’m sure there’s more that I just can’t remember off the top of my head anymore. Anyway, none of this should come as a surprise. It’s fanfiction, of course it’s based on what the guys do IRL…

6.) There were a lot of idiomatic expressions I couldn’t use while writing this series. It felt at times like my language options were very limited. Was an interesting challenge, for sure, but not always one I enjoyed. For example, I could never say anything that related to electronics or machinery. There was a time I wanted to describe Daesung’s body as operating on autopilot, until I suddenly realized that word wouldn’t make any sense to him in the context of his world. Keep in mind the story was always told from the perspectives of Seunghyun and Daesung, never an omniscient narrator.

So, autopilot? No way, not in their world. Cars, planes, trains… none of that existed at that time. Or if it did, the guys of BB as they appeared here didn’t know about it. That also meant I couldn’t say things like “train of thought” or “thoughts derailing”. Nothing about lightbulbs going off over one’s head, and certainly never anything “like a switch has been flipped.” I think there was even a time in Carnivores when they were weak and starving and I wanted to describe them as "running on empty"... but that's a reference to cars and fuel! It was challenging, y’all!

What I did instead was try to use a lot of nature metaphors, imagery relating to the natural world, things they would know well. I know I could have done more, especially in BLTS given that they were living fully out in the thick of it at the time... but by the end of it, trying to keep up with what imagery I had already used was honestly just starting to make me feel wiped out.

7.) Some lines that appeared in DLAFA were mirrored versions of lines from Carnivores. For example:

In DLAFA Daesung said, “Does it matter who it came from when it costs us nothing? It's good meat, and it was free.” You might have wondered why, exactly, Seunghyun was so upset that he walked out. It’s because Daesung was, without realizing it, throwing Seunghyun’s words back at him. In Carnivores Seunghyun said, as he was begging Daesung to eat, “Does it matter where the meat came from when you're dying? It’s good meat.”

Oh jeez, I just realized that all this time I thought I had written something into Carnivores but I never did… In DLAFA Seunghyun says to Daesung, “How can I help you if you won’t let me know that you’re hurting?” I thought that was mirroring a line in Carnivores where he said, “How can I provide for you when you won’t let me know that you’re hungry?” But I’ve just looked and apparently I never wrote that. Darn! Even after the fic is finished I’m still adding lines to it, even if only in my head...

8.) I feel like there are not too many good quotable lines of dialogue in this series. The best lines are not in the dialogue but in the narrative, which reflects their thoughts. The reason for this is I have always intended for them to be, hmm... simpler creatures. Their thoughts are deeper than their words. That’s partly because of what they are (part human, part animal, living very simple lives) but it’s also because I feel like that’s what’s real (especially when it comes to guys, haha). You know, we don’t always speak as eloquently as we’d like when we don’t have the time to perfectly compose our thoughts. Flowery speech is nice to read and all, but I didn’t think it would be quite right for the guys, especially as they appear here.

9.) Tags & warnings. This applies more to AO3 since AFF’s tagging system is so limited. I try to tag my fics as thoroughly as I can without getting excessive. However, there were a few important warnings I chose not to use, much as I hated to do that, because I couldn’t bear to ruin the surprise of it. In Carnivores it was cannibalism. In DLAFA it was forced sex with an animal. Honestly, I didn't want to warn for rape in Carnivores either, but I will always warn / tag accordingly for rape.

10.) DLAFA is meant to highlight the contrast between Seunghyun’s and Daesung’s personalities and unique approaches to life more than ever before. They both enter the same environment but adapt to it in vastly different ways. Daesung embraces their new lifestyle, not because he loves it but because he feels like it’s what he needs to do, and loses sight of himself along the way. Seunghyun rejects it, and though his inability to fit in keeps him feeling extremely unhappy, he refuses to give up his identity for the sake of anyone else. Both of them think they are doing the right thing. And in the process they slowly grow apart.

11.) The DLAFA soundtrack. I know most of you probably haven’t listened to the soundtrack, and that’s okay! Honestly, I probably wouldn’t have either, lol. But I would still like to talk about parts of it because, in my mind, it’s actually an important accompaniment to the fic. And up ‘til now all I’ve done is list the songs out and explain whose perspective they’re from. I’d like to take a few moments to do a little more than that.

Shadows, Feed the Machine, Faceless, Let It Burn These do not correspond to any particular scene. They’re kind of general songs that describe the guys’ mindsets as they’re developing throughout the first 4 chapters of the fic.

Take It All Away This is connected to Daesung’s rape scene toward the end of Chapter 5. It starts out slow and very subdued. In its initial stages I imagine him addressing Seunghyun, singing quietly about his internal struggles, saying, “you watched me while I slowly disappeared” and pleading with him to “take it all away.” But then he sings, very softly,

I’m breaking, I can’t do this on my own

Can you hear me screaming out, am I all alone?

After that is when he is attacked on the streets. He does “scream out,” but he is silenced before anyone who might help him can hear. And he realizes at that point that this time he is on his own. Unlike in Carnivores, the others won’t be running to his aid; this time he’ll have to save himself. From that point the music plays-- no vocals, just music that builds and swells, becoming bigger and bolder and more painful the longer it goes on.

This is… this is as it’s happening. This is as they are taking from him-- his dignity, his stability, his sense of self, his hope for an untroubled life in this new world he and his packmates have entered. By the end of it the singer is crying out, his voice growing in strength and pain the more he says it, “You take away, you take away, you take away.” By that point I don’t see Daesung speaking to Seunghyun; I see him speaking instead to his attackers after they’ve left him, shifting focus. There is a line in the fic that reflects this. It’s as they are about to take his tail:

They have taken too much from him already. They will not take this from him too.

Lie To Me This is Seunghyun all throughout Chapter 6 after Daesung has been hurt but refuses to share with him what happened and pulls away sharply. This one’s pretty good. Lines like, “All your secrets crawled inside, you keep them safe, you let them hide.” And “Lie to me, watch me bleed, but I’ll still be here when you see you’re not alone. You don’t have to run.” Because even through it all, though it hurts Seunghyun that Daesung doesn’t trust him with the truth of whatever it is that happened to him, he tries to be there for him for as long as he can stand it…

Nothing And Everything This one is important. This song is the moment Daesung finally breaks at the end of Chapter 6, and his suicide attempt that follows. The suffering throughout is subtle (unlike Take It All Away which gets very harsh at the end), and even eerie in places... it sounds not quite right. It's also as beautiful to hear as it is painful. Let me break it down:

00:00-02:32 Daesung struggling to cope through Chapter 6

Still the same, pursuing pain isn’t worth the lie I’ve gained

We both know how it will end… but I do it again

And it finds me, the fight inside is coursing through my veins

And it’s raging, the fight inside is hurting me again

02:33-03:08 The moment when he realizes Seunghyun has been unfaithful and feels like that’s it-- he’s finally lost the last thing he had left. His everything. That high-pitched squealing sound in the background? That’s something vital in him crying out one final time.

03:09-03:30 This is when he’s walking the city streets at night, on his way to the river. It’s beautiful-- just like the night sky above him-- but he’s blind to it and everything else around him.

03:31-03:50 Standing on the shore, reflecting.

The war within me pulls me under

Without you, the fight inside is breaking me again

03:51- end Daesung entering the water. It’s everything, it’s everything, oh…

Hymn For The Missing This is Seunghyun standing on the river bank as he holds Daesung’s coat and wonders what, exactly, went so wrong. He thinks, Daesung survived, Daesung is alive, but after everything, if he was so far gone as to do something like this, has he really come back to him? Will he ever be the same? Seunghyun wonders, has he lost him forever?

Where are you now? Are you lost? Will I find you again?

Are you alone? Are you afraid? Are you searching for me?

Why did you go? I had to stay. Now I'm reaching for you.

Will you wait? Will you wait? Will I see you again?

Pieces, Hold Me Now, Yours Again are all part of Daesung’s path to recovery.

The Outside This is while Seunghyun is tearing into Daesung’s attackers toward the end of the fic, taking revenge in Daesung’s stead. However, the song is sung from Daesung’s perspective.

I'm not you.

I will never be you.

Best Is Yet To Come This one is really good, y’all. It’s exactly what its title implies. This is as the five of them are leaving the city at last, once again in search of a better home for themselves. It’s so hopeful yet bittersweet, as they call on memories of all they left behind.

After all that we’ve been through, after all we left in pieces

I still believe our lives have just begun

And now the past can be outrun, and I know you are the reason

I still believe the best is yet to come

Who We Are An empowering song that I imagine would play in the credits if this fic was a movie (lol)

We can be who we are, now we are alive

We can fight, they cannot contain us

Won’t hide our faces from the light, eliminate the space between us

It’s who we are, we are forever

12.) Daesung’s suicide attempt… Look, normally I would not go anywhere near attempted suicide in fanfic, if only because I think it can be a tricky thing to portray believably. Or maybe that’s just me being overly critical. The last thing I wanted was for it to feel like it came at the readers out of nowhere. I only hope that I provided enough buildup in the chapters leading up to it-- tens of thousands of words showing how Daesung was slowly breaking down, all of which accelerated very quickly after his rape-- that it didn’t feel carelessly handled.

For the record, I also normally am not fond of that trope where a character loses their significant other for some reason or another and, deciding that they literally cannot live without, decides to end it all. But you have to understand that Daesung was already in a very fragile state of mind. Also, within the context of this AU, for Seunghyun and Daesung, given how much of their identities are found in each other… I didn’t think it would be too far-fetched that this would be the final blow for Daesung, who had already withstood so much. Their lives are not our lives. Their existence is far simpler and I would argue that they have considerably less to live for than we do. (I decided to explore this a bit in BLTS, their life-and-death attachment to each other.)

13.) In the 2015 criminal case of People v. Turner, the young woman who was sexually assaulted wrote a detailed letter to the judge about her experience, which was made public, and I took a peek at it. In it she said, after she had been given back her things and was showering at the hospital, "I wanted to take off my body like a jacket and leave it there at the hospital with everything else." While I'm still not sure I feel 100% okay about it, I drew inspiration from her account. I changed her words to 1) avoid plagiarizing her and 2) reflect the world of nature that Daesung knows so intimately and finds himself suddenly yearning for again. What I ended up with was, "He wants to shed his body like a snake sheds its skin and leave it there in the river." This is, of course, also foreshadowing, as he does return to the river later.

14.) Some of you might have wondered why Seungri didn’t suffer quite as Daesung did in DLAFA, given that he also was, to an extent, enjoying his time among humans and putting himself out there in a risky way (enough that he had his own little fanclub, lol). Shouldn’t he have been just as open to attack as Daesung?

Well, the way they presented themselves as individuals to the townsfolk in DLAFA was based on how I see them portrayed in their solo work (away from the group/pack, if you will). Seungri’s solo image is a bit strong (Strong Baby, anyone?), a bit aggressive– a man who knows what he wants and isn’t afraid to pursue it. In DLAFA, any time he was persecuted, he fought back and made sure that anyone who bothered him knew it was in their best interest to leave him alone.

On the other hand, with a few notable exceptions like Look at me Gwisoon (not meant to be taken seriously at all…) and perhaps Shut Up (not as strong as it initially sounds), Daesung’s solo image is practically harmless. It’s soft and sweet and sincere. It’s even vulnerable at times (hence why the whole "Yabai Kang" thing cracks me up). “Don’t let them lose their fear of you,” Seunghyun warned him. But that’s exactly what Daesung did. He thought he could get through to the people who picked on him through kindness alone. I don't mean to say that what happened to him was in any way his fault, only that it made him an “easier” target for hate than, say, Seungri.

At one point Daesung mused to himself that Seungri would break if he were to be assaulted in the same way. Seungri wouldn't be able to handle it, he thought. Keep in mind that those were simply Daesung's troubled thoughts, not necessarily truth. Just because he was thinking it didn't mean it was fact, especially not at that point in the story. Daesung was only trying to justify what had happened to him-- was desperately searching for that silver lining. He was attempting to make himself feel better by essentially telling himself, "It's better that it happened to me instead of him." In this way he also sought to convince himself that he was handling it just fine-- "bending" under the pressure instead of breaking-- when in fact, he really wasn't.

15.) In DLAFA, when Seunghyun went after Daesung’s attackers a part of me wanted Daesung to go with him. I wrestled with that part for awhile. I envisioned Seunghyun encouraging Daesung to-- what, give in to violence? Take his revenge for himself?

Think of it like the feeding scene in Carnivores, wherein Seunghyun took Daesung by the head and pushed his face into the animal’s carcass, practically forcing him to eat. And then there was that one force-feeding scene. Seunghyun forced a lot on Daesung in Carnivores, all in the interest of keeping him alive. Here I saw Seunghyun taking Daesung by the hand and pushing it inside the man’s ruined body, forcing him to feel just how weak and powerless he’d become. E.g., “He can’t hurt you anymore.” Seunghyun would think that a necessary part of the healing process. He would believe it’s the best thing for Daesung in that moment.

But that has never been Daesung’s character. That might be what Seunghyun would need were he in his place; it wasn’t what Daesung needed. I honestly felt like him reaching down, reaching in and wringing the life from that man, though he had wounded and scarred him badly, would do nothing but hurt him in the end. It’s just who Daesung is-- werewolf or not. Too kind, too gentle to take pleasure in that. Inflicting pain for any reason other than self-defense (or to hunt and feed himself, of course) would not bring him healing, only more pain. And in the end I decided Seunghyun would acknowledge that by not forcing him to join him. Daesung had been forced into enough by that point.

(Someone pointed out that Seunghyun on the floor, tearing out the man’s innards, with Jiyong standing by watching, seemed like a nod to the Zutter M/V. That was pure coincidence-- or subconscious influence! I had only seen the Zutter vid once, long ago, and had completely forgotten about that part.)

16.) In each long fic in the series (Carnivores, DLAFA, BLTS) the words “I love you” are spoken only once. This stems partly from my own aversion to the phrase; I just feel like it’s overused and there are better ways to show one’s love than speaking the words all the time, especially for these two. In Carnivores and DLAFA it’s Seunghyun who says it to Daesung. In BLTS it’s Daesung who says it (although it comes out more like “I love you” as in, “It’s you I love, not him.”)

17.) In Laying Claim it was mentioned that Daesung’s neck isn’t all that marked up. Certainly not as badly as in Carnivores. Daesung’s attacker points out that he sees a “few marks here and there, nothing much.” Then, “Your so-called mate must not be too concerned about holding onto you.” Of course, in Carnivores the scars up and down Daesung’s neck and across his back and shoulders are given much attention. The implication here is that Seunghyun started marking Daesung more heavily after the events of this fic. I know it’s subtle, but eh.

18.) I hope the events of BLTS will make it clearer why Seungri was so affected by Daesung’s suicide attempt in DLAFA. When I wrote DLAFA I thought it was enough to show that he and Daesung were quite close, through the numerous scenes of the two of them out and about together. Of course, it also hurt him badly because he saw it happen firsthand, and he was the one to pull him from the water. He was there in the moment, even if he didn’t realize what he was seeing right away. And I wanted to show how when one person tries to take his life, the impact of it is never limited to just that person; it affects all their loved ones.

What made it worse for Seungri was how easily he could have missed it, how easily Daesung could have succeeded. He had trailed Daesung only “because he was bored,” he confessed later. Nothing more. He was just bored and so was curious about where Daesung was going, had nothing better to do and followed him out the door on a whim. I imagine that many times throughout the walk to the river Seungri thought about turning back. ‘This is boring too,’ he must have thought. ‘There’s nothing interesting happening here. I should just go. I should leave him alone.’ How easily things could have ended differently. How easily.

However, now, after writing BLTS, I’ve added the element of Seungri’s pre-existing abandonment issues-- issues that Daesung (and the rest of the pack, yes, but Daesung more than the rest) helped him work through in their first year together. It must have felt to him like Daesung had been aiming to leave them behind-- to leave him. In DLAFA, after pulling Daesung from the water, Seungri says, “Don’t leave us."

So yes, in BLTS Daesung saved Seungri’s life... and in doing so proved to Seungri his strength (and finally earned his respect). I think it’s appropriate that years later, in a moment when Daesung’s strength failed him, Seungri was able to return the favor.

19.) Honestly, the way I see it, the city and its human occupants in DLAFA were, objectively, not as terrible as they might have seemed. Most of the humans there were tolerant enough. Many were even kind. But it just wasn't right for BB. Their reasons for staying as long as they did were pretty simple, nothing elaborate. First being that it served as a place for them to rest and recover from the toll their travels had taken on their bodies.

Another reason for their extended stay was simply this: carrying through with the decision to pick up and leave one's current life is always much easier said than done. Too often we find ourselves in an 'okay' place with an 'okay' job, maybe in an 'okay' relationship. It's not really what we want but we convince ourselves that we're content to settle, to live an overall 'okay' existence because the fear of leaving it all and ending up somewhere worse is too great to overcome. That's what you see in DLAFA. Daesung did his best to embrace his new life there. Seunghyun hated every second of it. The other three were mostly okay with it, barring a few important drawbacks. Keep in mind that half the story was told from the perspective of Seunghyun, who with his wild nature was the worst possible candidate for adapting to a lifestyle of such restriction. His loathing for the city and everything it represented was greater than that of all his packmates' combined, and his narrative is thickly colored by that.

But when it comes down to it, their main reason for staying at length was simply... hope. Hope that they had perhaps found this wondrous place they'd only ever heard about in tales told them by others of their kind. The question is, did they find it after all? Was it indeed the city of legend that they sought, or was it another city altogether that just so happened to have a similar policy of accepting wolves inside its walls? That's up to the reader to decide.

20.) At this time I can’t imagine writing about their lives after leaving the city. Not beyond that tragically short epilogue, anyway. I just can’t imagine following up that closing line with anything. In my mind it’s the perfect end for this story of survival and, through it all, enduring love:

Life, the melody that carries them, goes on.

#carnivores #dreams like ashes #fanfic #fanfiction #my post #lots of thoughts okay #sorry it's so long #lol #bigbang #daesung #top #todae #werewolves

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newyorktheater · 5 years ago

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Before he started collaborating with Richard Rodgers on some of the most beloved musicals in Broadway history, Oscar Hammerstein II (1895-1960) had helped create some three dozen Broadway productions over a quarter of a century, most often writing both the lyrics and the libretto. Of course, he began with an in: His uncle Arthur Hammerstein produced the musical, “Furs and Frills,” for which the young Hammerstein, at age 22 in 1917, wrote his first Broadway lyrics — for a song composed by Silvio Hein entitled “Make Yourselves at Home.” Arthur wasn’t his only relative in the business. His father William Hammerstein was a theater manager; his grandfather, Oscar Hammerstein I, an impresario who helped create the theater district we know today. But if family connections helped to make Oscar Hammerstein II feel at home on Broadway from the get-go, he soon transformed the place.

“Hammerstein, first with Kern then with Rodgers, revolutionized musical theater,” his protege Stephen Sondheim wrote in the introduction to the reissue of Hammerstein’s collection of his favorite lyrics. He accomplished this, Sondheim says, “by combining the traditions of musical comedy with operetta while nudging story, character and lyrics towards the kind of naturalism that had overtaken the nonmusical stage since World War I.”

Still, there is some satisfactions in sifting through his individual songs — he reportedly wrote more the lyrics for more than a thousand of them — and realizing how many vocal artists and musicians of many stripes and many generations have interpreted them — and so so still, 60 years after his death.

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The New Moon, 1928

With composer Sigmund Romberg. Hammerstein worked on four Romberg shows.

From this one comes “Lover, Come Back To Me,” sung by Barbra Streisand, accompanied, conveniently, by a scroll of Hammerstein’s lyrics.

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Show Boat, 1927

Music by Jerome Kern, with whom Hammerstein collaborated on some half dozen musicals.

Paul Robeson sings “Ol Man River” in the 1936 movie of the musical. Hammerstein’s original lyrics were problematic in the way he referred to African-Americans. In the movie version, it’s been changed to “darkies,” which to modern ears isn’t much better than the original epithet.

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I’ll quote here just the first few verses:

Dere’s an old man called the Mississippi, Dat’s the old man dat I’d like to be, What does he care if the world’s got troubles, What does he care if da land ain’t free?

Old Man River, Dat Old Man River, He mus’ know somepin’, But don’t say nothin’ He just keeps rollin’ He keeps on rollin’ along.

He don’t plant taters, He don’t plant cotton, And dem dat plant ’em, Is soon forgotten, But old man river, He jus’ keeps rollin’ along.

You an’ me, We sweat an’ strain, Body all achin’, An’ wracked with pain, Tote dat barge, Lift dat bale, Get a little drunk, And ya lands in jail.

I gets weary, An’ sick of tryin’, I’m tired of livin’, And scared of dyin’, But old man river, He jus’ keeps rollin’ along.

After 1938, Robeson changed the lyrics to the son in his concerts, not just omitting the denigrating references but cleaning up the dialect and changing the character of the singer from resigned to empowered. Instead of ” Git a little drunk, / An’ you land in jail…”, Robeson sang ” You show a little grit / And you lands in jail..” He changed “I gits weary / An’ sick of tryin’; / I’m tired of livin’ / An scared of dyin’,” to “But I keeps laughin’/ Instead of cryin’ / I must keep fightin’; / Until I’m dyin'”

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Billie Holiday sings Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man in 1937, with Teddy Wilson on the piano.

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Fish got to swim and birds got to fly I’ve got to love one man till I die Can’t help lovin’ that man of mine

Tell me he’s lazy tell me he’s slow Tell me I’m crazy maybe I know Can’t help lovin’ that man of mine

When he goes away That’s a rainy day And when he comes back that day is fine The sun will shine

He can come home as late as can be Home without him ain’t no home to me Can’t help lovin’t dat man of mine

Sweet Adeline, 1929

Music by Jerome Kern

Helen Morgan sang “Why Was I Born” in the original production Here’s Irene Dunne singing it five years later

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Why was I born? Why am I livin’? What do I get? What am I givin’? Why do I want a thing I daren’t hope for? What can I hope for? I wish I knew. Why do I try to draw you near me? Why do I cry? You never hear me I’m a poor fool, but what can I do? Why was I born to love you?

Music in the Air, 1933

Music by Jerome Kern

Ten years later, Frank Sinatra sang “The Song Is You” which has been covered by singers as diverse as Mario Lanza and Mary Wilson

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I hear music when I look at you, A beautiful theme of every Dream I ever knew. Down deep in my heart I hear it play. I feel it start, then melt away. I hear music when I touch your hand, A beautiful melody from some enchanted land. Down deep in my heart, I hear it say, Is this the day? I alone have heard this lovely strain, I alone have heard this glad refrain: Must it be forever inside of me, Why can’t I let it go, Why can’t I let you know, Why can’t I let you know the song My heart would sing? That beautiful rhapsody Of love and youth and spring, The music is sweet, The words are true The song is you.

Very Warm for May, 1939

Music by Jerome Kern

Ella Fitzgerald sings “All The Things You Are” (accompanied by lyrics!)

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Carmen Jones, 1943

Music by Georges Bizet. Hammerstein basically supplied a new setting and new lyrics to the opera Carmen

Dorothy Dandridge sings ‘Dat’s Love’ (set to the song “Habanera) in

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Oklahoma, 1943

Hammerstein’s first collaboration with Richard Rodgers, and the musical still most credited with creating the modern Broadway musical.

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Barbara Cook sings Many a New Day

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Kristin Chenoweth sings “I Can’t Say No”

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Bette Midler sings Oklahoma!

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State Fair, 1945 film

This is the only Rodgers and Hammerstein musical written directly for film. It was brought to a Broadway stage in 1996.

Jeanne Crain sings “It Might As Well Be Spring” from the movie.(Actually her singing voice was dubbed by Louanne Hogan.) Song begins at around 2:00

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I prefer Rosemary Clooney with Harry James on horn

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I’m as restless as a willow in a windstorm I’m as jumpy as a puppet on a string I’d say that I had Spring fever But I know it isn’t Spring

I am starry-eyed and vaguely discontented Like a nightingale without a song to sing Oh, why should I have Spring fever When it isn’t even Spring?

I keep wishing I were somewhere else Walking down a strange new street Hearing words that I have never heard From a girl I’ve yet to meet

I’m as busy as a spider spinning daydreams I’m as giddy as a baby on a swing I haven’t seen a crocus or a rosebud or a robin on the wing But I feel so gay in a melancholy way That it might as well be Spring

It might as well be Spring

Carousel, 1945

Joshua Henry and Jessie Mueller perform ‘If I Loved You’

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Allegro, 1947

Part of a London production of the musical in 2016 at Southwark Playhouse, Katie Bernstein sings “The Gentleman is a Dope.”

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The gentleman is a dope, a man of many faults A clumsy Joe who wouldn’t know a Rumba from a Waltz The gentleman is a dope and not my cup of tea Why do I get in a dither? He doesn’t belong to me

The gentleman isn’t bright, he doesn’t know the score A cake will come, he’ll take a crumb and never ask for more The gentleman’s eyes are blue but little do they see Why am I beating my brains out? He doesn’t belong to me

He’s somebody else’s problem, she’s welcome to the guy She’ll never understand him half as well as I

The gentleman is a dope, he isn’t very smart He’s just a lug you’d like to hug and hold against you heart The gentleman is a dope doesn’t know how happy he could Look at me crying my eyes out, as if he belonged to me He’ll never belong to me

He’s somebody else’s problem, she’s welcome, welcome to the guy She’ll never understand him half as well, well as I

South Pacific, 1949

Mitzi Gaynor (actually) sings “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair”

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Bing Crosby sings Younger than Springtime

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You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught

In what amounts to a Public Service Announcement on Brotherhood Week, Oscar Hammerstein introduces the song, while Richard Rodgers plays the piano and while William Tabbert, who originated the role of the character Lt. Joseph Cable, sings

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Here’s Mandy Patinkin’s interpretation

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And Billy Porter

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You’ve got to be taught To hate and fear, You’ve got to be taught From year to year, It’s got to be drummed In your dear little ear You’ve got to be carefully taught. You’ve got to be taught to be afraid Of people whose eyes are oddly made, And people whose skin is a diff’rent shade, You’ve got to be carefully taught. You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late, Before you are six or seven or eight, To hate all the people your relatives hate, You’ve got to be carefully taught

Alex Newell sings “Wonderful Guy”

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The King and I, 1951

Kelli O’Hara sings “I Whistle A Happy Tune”

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Whenever I feel afraid I hold my head erect And whistle a happy tune So no one will suspect I’m afraid. While shivering in my shoes I strike a careless pose And whistle a happy tune And no one ever knows I’m afraid. The result of this deception Is very strange to tell For when I fool the people I fear I fool myself as well! And ev’ry single time The happiness in the tune Convinces me that I’m not afraid. Make believe you’re brave And the trick will take you far. You may be as brave As you make believe you are You may be as brave As you make believe you are LOUIS While shivering in my shoes I strike a careless pose And whistle a happy tune And no one ever knows, I’m afraid.

Jelani Alladin and Matt Doyle sing “We Kiss In A Shadow” in 2019 (a gorgeous version that’s part of the unfortunately named R&H Goes Pop series)

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Pipe Dream, 1955

Perry Como sings “All At Once You Start to Love Her”

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You start to light her cigarette And all at once you love her You’ve scarcely talked You’ve scarcely met But all at once you love her

You like her eyes, you tell her so She thinks you’re wise and clever You kiss goodnight and then you know You’ll kiss goodnight forever You wonder where your heart can go Then all at once you know (All at once you know)

You like her eyes (‘like her eyes) You tell her so (‘tell her so) She thinks you’re wise and clever (You’re wise an’ clever) You kiss goodnight and then you know You’ll kiss goodnight forever You wonder where your heart can go Then all at once you know

Flower Drum Song, 1958

Miyoshi Umeki sings the first song “A Hundred Million Miracles” in this long segment on the Ed Sullivan Show

This is followed by “You Are Beautiful”, “I Enjoy Being A Girl”, “Love Look Away”, and “Sunday”. sung by members of the cast Pat Suzuki, Ed Kenney, Juanita Hall, Arabella Hong, Larry Blyden, Patrick Adiarte.

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The Sound of Music, 1959

My Favorite Things

Julie Andrews sings it in the movie

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But it’s been embraced by singers the world over, especially jazz singers.

Sarah Vaughn

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Bobby McFerrin

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Tony Bennett

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Raindrops on roses And whiskers on kittens Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens Brown paper packages tied up with strings These are a few of my favorite things

Cream-colored ponies and crisp apple strudels Doorbells and sleigh bells And schnitzel with noodles Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings These are a few of my favorite things

Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes Silver-white winters that melt into springs These are a few of my favorite things

When the dog bites When the bee stings When I’m feeling sad I simply remember my favorite things And then I don’t feel so bad

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens Brown paper packages tied up with strings These are a few of my favorite things

Cream-colored ponies and crisp apple strudels Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings These are a few of my favorite things

Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes Silver white winters that melt into springs These are a few of my favorite things

When the dog bites When the bee stings When I’m feeling sad I simply remember my favorite things And then I don’t feel so bad

The Sweetest Sight

In 1939, Oscar Hammerstein spotted an old couple on the beach, and was moved to write lyrics set to a melody Jerome Kern had written several years before. Here in 1981, Isaac Stern plays the violin violin and then Mary Martin sings “The Sweetest Sight I Have Seen” Starts at around 3:00

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I have seen a line of snow-white birds Drawn across an evening sky. I have seen divine, unspoken words Shining in a lover’s eye. I hae seen moonlight on a mountaintop, Silver and cool and still. I have heard church ells fairly echoing Over a distant hill. Close enough to beauty I have been. And, in all the whole wide land, Here’s the sweetest sight that I have seen — One old couple walking hand in hand.

O is for Oscar Hammerstein II. The Lyricist Who Revolutionized Broadway, even before Richard Rodgers. Before he started collaborating with Richard Rodgers on some of the most beloved musicals in Broadway history, Oscar Hammerstein II (1895-1960) had helped create some three dozen Broadway productions over a quarter of a century, most often writing both the lyrics…

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