#only jukebox that I've found be good

[the-cryptid-finch]

*sweating, visably shaking* yeah yeah I'm just totally normal about musicals

[iamyounicorn]

Not having to worry about depth or creatures is great I feel like I might actually win this subnautica someday

[the-silver-chronicles]

2025 Year Of The OTP January Prompts: "Our Love" [Boa Lurking In The Bliss]

Tagging @voidika @raresvtm @josephseedismyfather @noodlecupcakes @imogenkol @socially-awkward-skeleton @inafieldofdaisies @aceghosts @cloudofbutterflies92 @cassietrn @direwombat @adelaidedrubman @derelictheretic @davrinsgriffons @shallow-gravy @strangefable @statichvm @carlosoliveiraa @g0dspeeed @wrathfulrook @starsandskies @ladyoriza @la-grosse-patate @thewanderer-000 @omen-speaker @alypink @shellibisshe @josephslittledeputy @skoll-sun-eater @afarcryfrommymain @strafethesesinners @turbo-virgins @florbelles @minilev @justasmolbard @yokobai and @seedsplease

January Prompts based on this Year of the OTP fandom event. I've tackled the following prompts: First Kiss, "May I have this dance with you?" & Sharing Clothes.

Showing off my first completed January oneshot for this event, called Our Love, which can also be found on AO3 here.

This is one of the few lighter and fluffier oneshots for this event, so already starting off good. I am quite excited to do the rest, especially when it comes to the August Prompts.

Anyway, you can read the oneshot below the cut or on my AO3 above. Enjoy!:

Title: Our Love.

Series: The Silver Chronicles (Far Cry 5)

Pairing: Boa Lurking In The Bliss (Silva Omar/Faith Seed)

Prompts: January - First Kiss, “May I have this dance with you?” & Sharing Clothes.

Genre: Romantic Fluff. Light Angst (Silva tends to overthink).

Words: 3,095.

The snowstorm hadn’t let up. The flurry of white flakes relentlessly rained down on the roof of the lodge by the roaring winds, covering it in a deep powder.

Silva would have to shovel some of the snow that built up near the porch and balconies, but that would be a tomorrow problem.

At the moment she was busy pouring two mugs of chocolate caliente that she made from scratch, while Faith was getting changed into something cleaner. Silva managed to avoid most of the mess, thanks in part to the apron she wore.

The dark beige was accompanied by a steam that carried the sweet scent of the chocolate. Taking the apron off, she left it on the kitchen bench, opting to clean it up later as she carried the mugs over to the living space, placing the one on the small table in the middle while taking a seat on one side of the couch while awaiting the return of her housemate.

She could hear the jukebox inserting the next record, playing some jazz song she never cared to learn the name of. She remembered gifting it to Elsa when her younger hermana uncharacteristically complained about having to change each record personally once the song ended. Silva suspected Elsa only complained to get her to build something again, a little time for herself rather than all spent on her hermana and hija.

Not that Silva ever mentioned it. She rather enjoyed putting together that record player. She missed tinkering, especially now.

Silva blew on the steam leaving her mug, carefully bringing the chocolate caliente to her lips as she sipped on the burning, yet deliciously rich liquid.

They were near the end of the first month of being stuck in her late-hermana’s lodge, and the blizzard storming outside hadn’t let up. There were moments of calmness, sure, but that would never be enough time for either her or Faith to escape down the mountain without getting caught right back in the snowstorm once more. Again, she reminded herself.

She only hoped that the storm put a pause on the Reaping. Not that she didn’t trust her friends weren’t doing fine without her. Although, a small part of her wished she was there with them… just to make sure they were safe.

But another and more vocal part of herself was relieved by the sudden separation from the mass violence. There was guilt that gnawed at her for such a thought, but she pushed it away.

Especially when she heard the approaching steps of the only other occupant in the lodge.

When turning back to see Faith, she was immediately met with the sudden change in style from the other woman.

Instead of one of Elsa’s old dresses that better fitted the style she was used to seeing on the Seed sister, Faith instead wore a loose flannel shirt and culotte that belonged that previously belonged to Silva.

Not entirely an issue that she had in itself. It was just Faith looked good in her clothes.

Silva could not keep her gaze off of Faith, and she blamed the warmth in her cheeks on the caliente.

“Something on your mind, Silva?” Faith asked in her approach, rounding the red sofa to take her seat next to the deputy. Her green eyes lightened at the steaming chocolate caliente waiting for her on the small table.

Silva didn’t answer immediately, too busy gawking at Faith in her attire, before swallowing down her surprise and replying, “No, no, nothing much… you look good, by the way.”

Faith seemed to appreciate the compliment, her smile growing bigger as she replied, “Thanks. Just thought I’d try something else on while the dress gets washed.”

It didn’t explain why Faith went into her room for clothes, but she wasn’t complaining.

Faith turned her focus to the caliente awaiting her, and in curious anticipation, Silva observed as the light brunette lifted the mug to her lips, lightly blowing the steam like she herself had done, and sipped the scalding caliente with a pleased hum.

“This is delicious,” Faith replied with a smile, the woman’s words settling a feeling of relief on Silva’s mind, “We did a great job, wouldn’t you agree, Silva?”

Faith’s words evoked an eyebrow raise from Silva; sure, they had produced the caliente together, however Silva distinctly remembered Faith mucking about, at one point playfully attacking her with chocolate covered pastry brush.

Despite this in mind, Silva decided on agreeing with Faith, giving kudos where kudos were due, “For a first timer, you certainly did exceptionally well.”

Faith beamed at the praise, and Silva drank more of her caliente, before throwing Faith a mischievous glance in her grey eyes as she added, “Although, I don’t remember the process being so messy. Nor the part where the pastry brush would try covering my face in chocolate powder.”

Faith snickered at the memory, softly bumping against Silva’s shoulder as she pointed out, “You didn’t seem to mind. In fact, I’d go as far to say you enjoyed the trouble.”

Silva’s lips tugged into a bashful smile, feeling warmer. She remembered the surprise of the powdered pastry brush tapping her nose when she glanced over to check Faith’s progress, and the bubbling fun that resounded in her beating heart when dodging and batting away more attempts to dust her face in the delectable cocoa.

“I did,” she replied softly.

A comfortable silence filled the air, a contrast to the raging winds outside. No tension, no suspicion. Nothing but a calm trust between the two women.

Silva wanted to shift closer, close enough that her shoulder could barely brush against Faith’s, perhaps her knee leaning against the other woman’s own, too.

Though Silva held back such impulses. She couldn’t do that, not when things were… comfortable. She knew she shouldn’t overstep now. Yet, the urge remained. There was a small voice inside of her that told her that reasonably, it couldn’t hurt to try. Neither action would be anything big, and if Faith showed any sign of discomfort, then Silva would simply cease the action altogether.

However, if Faith did allow it… then how could that be interpreted? That Faith simply doesn’t mind her closeness? That she’d use it as a way to gain a better hold over her for Eden’s Gate goals?

Or… or perhaps most frightening of all, it could mean that Faith may reciprocate the same desire she does? The want to be closer, to be held, the awkward and yet not uncomfortable hot sensation that is always accompanied by the slight pace of speed in her heart. Was it implausible? Silva couldn’t be sure. While she certainly desired such an outcome under any other circumstances, it would be devastating here; the knowledge she found another who once more held a mutual feeling for a companionship no other could grant them, only for that person to be someone who’s her enemy; whom she is expected to bring down, in whatever means necessary.

Silva wanted to close the distance, to just see if there was a chance, but at the same time knew she shouldn’t, as not only would it hurt more if the time she was forced to confront Faith came, but it’d perhaps be better if she didn’t try, make it easier to do what would need to be done and avoid risking any further complications.

However, Silva doubted it could be that easy.

Silva was brought out of her storming thoughts when she and Faith heard a resounding click from across the room.

Both glanced over to the jukebox, Faith watching in interest as through the visible glass, the finished record was lifted from the spinner by the “arm clamp” and gently placed to the back of the stack. It travelled down to the next record, tenderly pulling it up and placing it flat onto the spinner, prompting the stylus to touch down on the spinning record.

Through the speakers of the jukebox, the next song began to play, starting with a sudden beat before a gentle string begins to play and the synchronized harmony of a woman vocalizing an “ooh”.

From there the lyrics began.

“There’s a girl in town/And word’s gone around she’s just fine.”

Faith tilted her head with intrigue, yet confusion. Silva couldn’t blame her lack of understanding, as the other woman wasn’t well attuned to the Spanish tongue. Silva herself was still unsure where Elsa got this particular song.

Regardless, she liked it. It brought a sense of… normalcy.

Although, she couldn’t deny that the song playing at this moment set a certain mood she wasn’t sure was appropriate… for herself and Faith that is. The timing couldn’t be any less impeccable to her earlier spiral of thoughts.

“So I don’t worry my head/’Cause I know her heart is tied to mine.”

Silva swallowed down the rest of her caliente, placing the mug on the table. Unexpectedly, Faith placed her unfinished mug down too.

Silva observed as Faith glanced to her and just as swiftly looked away, wringing her hands as she intensely narrowed her eyes down.

It was always fascinating to Silva to see the constant flux of change in the woman’s expression, especially when she was out of the Bliss.

Though Silva could tell Faith was somewhat nervous about something, thinking it over repeatedly. The deputy was ready to shift off the couch and had an excuse prepared on the tip of her tongue to give her housemate some space when Faith caught her off-guard by grasping her wrist.

“Would you like to dance?” Faith blurted out, the sudden volume making the dark-haired woman pause in her ascent from the couch.

Silva tilted her head, blinking at Faith, a little confused and a bit shocked. It was the furthest thing she’d expect of the other woman, and certainly not something Silva expected Faith to want to do with the likes of her.

There was beat of silence, and Faith looked down to her hand gripping on Silva’s wrist. She cringed, lightly letting go.

Silva flexed her hand, planting herself back onto the couch as she turned her full attention onto Faith, “Why would you want to? With me, I mean?”

Faith brushed a strand of light brown hair back behind her ear, her lips a thin line as she thought of something, anything.

“Well, it’s… it’s because it sounds like the kind of song you’d dance with a partner- or I mean someone else with, you know?” Faith played it off, rubbing at her arm, “You don’t have to, but I’d rather not dance alone…”

Silva chewed at the inside of her cheek. Faith’s excuse seemed too sloppy to be a total fabrication, so she was telling a bit more of the truth. Though Silva was hesitant to accept Faith’s request.

While a dance didn’t inherently hold a romantic inclination, it was still rather intimate. Silva knew she was growing more attached to Faith the longer they remained snowed in, a complication that would only prolong the inevitable pain or hinder the necessity of her mission entirely. She knew neither of them were willing to abandon their respective factions nor join the other’s; Silva was loyal to her friends and detested Joseph Seed and his cult’s methods, and Faith was happy within her family and thought she was doing what was necessary. Not to mention, the Resistance despised her and held no trust for the woman.

Silva sometimes wondered whether or not she should have even agreed to their temporary truce in the lodge. Faith had been vulnerable, without her Bliss and Angels to protect her, so easy to kill. And yet, Silva’s own moral compass held her back from ridding the county of Faith Seed, either because the other woman was in no position to fight back or because Silva desired to hear the other woman out now that she had come for her without any tricks open for use.

Whatever the case was, it led to them reaching a truce given their… snowy circumstances. Silva would have nothing to blame but her ironclad convictions to follow her part of her obligations to the letter when she eventually allowed Faith to return back to the Project’s awaiting arms.

She had all the reasons to say no. To decline and say goodnight and hope the storm ended tomorrow so she wouldn’t have to wake up to make breakfast for the both of them. To cut the bud in the nip so nothing could progress further than it should have.

And yet…

“The life that we live, and the love the I give to her.”

Silva stood up from the sofa, her grey eyes glancing to Faith’s enquiring green. Faith was a very beautiful woman; inside and outside the Bliss, but Silva preferred this… someone who looked and acted real, not some fantastical visage putting on a performance.

She was wary that this was another front, some elaborate attempt to futilely get her into Eden’s Gate. Her allies didn’t call the woman a “siren” without reason. However, Silva rationalized that Faith was clever enough to understand honey trapping held unlikely success. And besides…

For the first time in nearly a decade, a gorgeous woman has expressed a desire to dance with her.

And fuck it, Silva was foolishly going to indulge in this chance.

“Each day it grows more and more, I’m sure it shows.”

Silva held out her gloved hand to Faith, the latter’s brows shot up in surprise by the action, and Silva swallowed all her nerves to softly ask one simple question against the quickened beat of her heart.

“May I have this dance with you?”

For a short minute, Faith did nothing but gape in response to Silva’s question, faltering the deputy’s confidence, worry hidden underneath her soft gaze as she wondered if she missed her chance.

All worry was dashed away when Faith’s lips widened in a delighted grin and took Silva’s hand.

“Well/Our love/Is a bubbling fountain.”

Hands held on to each other, both manoeuvred their way to the spacious area near the jukebox, light smiles reflecting off each other.

“Our love/That flows into a sea.”

Awkwardly, they try to find where exactly they want to place their hands; Silva resolves to just steady her arms below Faith’s shoulders while the other woman wraps her arms at the back of Silva’s neck, pushing them a little bit closer.

“Our love/Deeper than any ocean.”

The movements were nothing complex or special. The beats of the song didn’t intend for that, as it held more of a relaxing tempo. Not that she minded; and from the looks of it, Faith seemed content with slowly swaying.

Being so close… Silva could feel heat of Faith’s breath on her lips, their noses separated by the smallest of gaps between them. Her grey eyes could gaze into Faith’s green, see all the specks in her lively irises that no one would ever get a chance to witness.

“Our love/For eternity.”

Neither woman stopped swaying as the song played on, entranced in the other’s gaze, eyes recording each other’s feature to memory.

Be it impulsive instinct or plain brave desire, Silva gradually inched closer to Faith’s lips.

“Like Sunday/I pray our love will always stay pure/While the world turns around/He holds me down for sure.”

Though Silva didn’t reach her destination, snapping out of whatever urge she was acting on. Pause midway, her intentions clear yet uncertain of Faith’s own feelings on the matter.

With doubt on her mind, Silva was about to inch back, when she felt Faith’s hands creep from the back of her neck to hold her face.

Giving her a smile, Faith went to close the gap.

“Our love/Is a bubbling fountain/Our love/That flows into a sea.”

Upon recognizing Faith’s intentions, Silva met her approaching lips in the middle, lightly pressing against the other woman’s more eager lips. This time Silva’s hands shifted from their position, crossing behind Faith’s neck.

“Our love/Deeper than any ocean/Our love/For eternity.”

Both separated briefly, Faith giggling from their different approaches with the kiss. Silva softly chuckled too, Faith’s eagerness unexpected though not unappreciated. Tasting her own lips, Silva returned a bashful smile to Faith.

It had been certainly a while since she last kissed someone; someone she felt a connection with. It may not have been her first kiss, but it most definitely the first passionate kiss she’s had in almost a decade… since Irene.

Looking back to Faith, she wondered if this had been her first kiss… or at least a kiss she’s had in a long time.

She didn’t think it was her place to ask; perhaps later, or not at all. It wasn’t her business, and ultimately it didn’t really matter. It was Silva’s first kiss with Faith, and this would be Faith’s first kiss with her. That’s what really made it special.

Parting her lips once more, Silva went in for a second, more even kiss, matching Faith’s eagerness from before, much to the delight of the other woman. Faith wasted no time in returning the same energy.

“And after all/The rain will fall on us too.”

A deep part of Silva knew this wasn’t right. Not wrong, but not the most sensible thing to be doing. She and Faith were supposed to be enemies. And yet here, they weren’t. Faith had innocent blood on her hands, like how Silva’s own was stained with the cult’s. Something Silva would need to confront later; she knew that, but not now.

Now she wanted to feel something- something good for once, other than the guilt and shame and just shittiness in general.

Perhaps though… Silva’s trail of thought paused as she separated from their second kiss, Faith gazing at her with an adoration she’d never seen before on the woman, not out during the Reaping, and not in the Bliss either.

Her hands went from Silva’s face to her back, gripping hard like she was afraid this was some dream. And honestly, Silva shared the same sentiment, even if she should wish this was just some self-indulgent fantasy.

She felt Faith’s nose brush against the crook of her neck, burrowing her head into the space. Silva didn’t mind.

“But I’ll keep moving on/Proud and strong with you.”

Silva found herself willing to continue the scandalous thought that she’d find herself pondering on for the rest of the month they’d be stuck in the lodge for.

…perhaps there’s a way for this war to end without more piles of bodies.

[redgoldblue]

so @itwoodbeprefect tagged me in what was originally an ask game due to a chronological series of events and i wanna talk about songs so: shuffle your favorite playlist and post the first five songs that come up.

(the playlist i've listened to most is as it often is my on repeat but i'm taking 'favourite' as leave to go to my next most listened, which is:) springsteen songs that make you gay and/or trans

Racing In The Street - this is inherently a butch cassidy & the sundance kid coded song, which i don't mean in the sense that it's necessarily a ship song for butch/sundance/etta (although far be it from me to say it's not), but that it is fundamentally telling the same story. It's also one of the many songs on here that speaks to my thesis that the overlap between working-class and queer experiences is one of the major reasons Springsteen's discography resonates so much with queer people in its simultaneous disenchantment and hope. Also taking Martha & The Vandellas Dancing In The Street and making it into a melancholic ballad on living in transience and recklessness and the effect it has on your relationships and loved ones is just. there’s something gay about that whole concept. tonight my baby and me we're gonna ride to the sea / and wash these sins off our hands

Growin' Up - most of the songs on here I can classify into 'makes you gay', 'makes you lesbian', or 'makes you trans'. this is one of the few that I can only say 'makes you queer'. I do think it's underrated in general as a song, and I also think there's a full low fantasy queer found family story in there. but it's also just something about building a life in private you can't bring yourself to share, until you can. had a jukebox graduate for a first mate / she couldn't sail but she sure could sing

My Lover Man - I mean, i really don't need to say anything about My Lover Man, it says it all itself. it is quite explicitly singing to a male lover who, my interpretation, was trying and failing to perform comphet. come into my arms and fall / my lover man

Thunder Road - this one makes you lesbian. honestly i could just leave it at the Melissa Etheridge video, but the point is. he has songs that are subverting masculinity (Cover Me, also on this playlist, comes to mind, or Because The Night), and he has, somehow, songs that are subverting femininity. this is the latter. (i also wrote a wlw roadtrip romance set to thunder road quite a few years ago. it wasn't good but it is still a vibe). now i'm no hero that's understood / all the redemption i can offer lies beneath this dirty hood

Bobby Jean - oh i love bobby jean's inclusion on this playlist! this also does not fit into the aforementioned three categories, but only because as far as i'm concerned it's very firmly a wlw/mlm solidarity song. just... private but joyful teenage solidarity, and escaping for yourself, and not holding it against someone that they needed to escape for themselves. we liked the same music / we liked the same bands / we liked the same clothes

[fanaticsnail]

I remember you mentioned having a Mihawk playlist, and the way you manage to find songs that perfectly fit the vibes of your fics and enhance the reading experience is one of the things I love about your writing

So I was wondering if you could share some of the songs on your playlist? Or even some songs that you associate with certain characters/tropes/scenarios?

I always love it when you send me asks, @sexc-snail.

I absolutely DO have a Mihawk playlist. I share the playlist construction with another creator on Tumblr who I love, cherish and adore: @sordidmusings. We add to it as we write, recommend songs as they come to us to help with words in works.

I could get into a long, long rant about music so I will add a page break here ❤. Lots of song recs to follow for the OPLA cast so far.

I am a violinist; have been playing for 25 years this year (I AM GETTING OLD, JEEPERS CREEPERS). Music is a great, passionate love affair for me and I adore learning about songs and pieces new and old. Here are some recommendations for songs and vibes I associate with the characters and the tropes.

I never add lyrics to my fics so the readers can visualize their own favourite melodies where they see fit, but I do have tunes in mind when I write them. The only fic I've really centralised a song about is the "You Should Be Sad" Mihawk fic I wrote a while back and the Koby series I'm writing.

Here are some song recommendations: all songs are Spotify linked. Enjoy a peek into my madness.

For the Characters

Luffy:

Long Way Home: Walk off the Earth, Lindsay Stirling

Following the Sun: SUPER-Hi, NEEKA

La Isla Bonita: Madonna

Zoro

Work Song: Hozier

Promise: Voyager

Cold Shot: Stevie Ray Vaughan

Sanji

Love Story: Indila

Know You Girls: Franz Ferdinand

Family Line: Conan Grey

Nami (She gets four, because she's amazing and I love her)

Runaway: Aurora

My Mother Told Me: NATI, Cullen Vance, Jonny Stewart

Outside: Ellie Golding, Calvin Harris

Queen of the Kings: Alessandra

Usopp

Mechanical Instinct: Aviators

The Higher Ground: Red Hot Chili Peppers

Eastside: Benny Blanco, Halsey, Khalid

Buggy

Be Your Shadow: The Wombats

Gasoline: Halsey

I Wanna Be Your Slave: Maneskin

Shanks:

The One that Got Away: The Civil Wars

Atlantis: Seafret

Barton Hollow: The Civil Wars

Mihawk

Seven Nation Army: Postmodern Jukebox

My Heart With You: The Rescues

The Snake: Lana Lubany

Koby (He also gets four, because he deserves only good things, and because Morgan Davies is Aussie like me)

Grieve No More: Patty Gurdy

Siuil A Run: Ella Roberts

Mad World: Jasmine Thompson

Again: Flyleaf

Helmeppo

Fighter: Christina Aguilera

Torn: Natalie Imbruglia

Elastic Heart: Sia

Garp

Sharp Dressed Man: ZZ Top

Under a Violet Moon: Blackmores Night

Billie Jean: The Civil Wars

For the Tropes

Unrequitted Love (My all time favourite thing)

Wrecking Ball: Beth

Can't Help Falling in Love: Tommee Profitt, Brooke

I Found: Amber Run

Comptine d'un autre ete l'apres-midi: Yann Tierson

Derniere Danse: Indila

Only in my Mind: Kenya Grace

Over and Over: Three Days Grace

Broken Pieces: Apocalyptica Lacey

Too Close: Alex Clare

Stupid Heart: Sorana

Enemies to Lovers

FMLYHM: Sether

Closer: NIN

Hella Good: No Doubt

Play With Fire: Sam Tinnesz, Yacht Money

Why'd You Only Ever Call Me When You're High: Arctic Monkeys

For when they give into their feelings:

Surrender: Natalie Taylor

As the World Caves In: Sarah Cothran

Freeze You Out: Marina Kaye

Say Yes To Heaven: Lana Del Rey

For when they give up but feelings are still there

Lose you to love me: Selena Gomez

Liar: Camilla Cabello

Darkside: Alan Walker

Say My Name: David Guetta, Bebe Rexha, J Balvin

Only Love Can Hurt Like This: Paloma Faith

I See Red: Everybody Loves an Outlaw

If you made it this far, thank you. This was a labour of love. Happy listening ❤

[aladaylessecondblog]

#WeFoundTheHeart (Red Mountain Waffle House ch. 2)

"The fuck is that thing?" Jiub, from behind the grill, gestured at the pot that Sadara was adjusting on the front window-sill. "Looks awful."

The plant in question was definitely under the weather. The leaves were turning yellow towards the base, the red petals were looking dry, the white-ish ones weren't much better, and Sadara was hoping the nice bit of water she'd given it, combined with the nice spot at the window, might be just the thing to perk it back up. She'd considered repotting it--the pot was a bit cracked, and had some daedric-looking figure on it. 'N,' she was pretty sure, but it was faded enough that she couldn't be entirely sure.

"Google calls it a bleeding heart. I found it outside the apartment...it's not doing so well there so I thought the sun might be better for it here."

"You've got a black thumb, that thing's going to be dead inside of a week." Jiub laughed, flicked at his cigarette and went back to work on a scrambled egg, "Put it out of its misery."

"Says the man that once killed a dandelion." Sadara handed over a buoyant armiger's coffee and then looked back.

"Fuck you, it only died because my nix-hound decided that exact spot had to be where it pissed."

"Enough with the chit-chat, can I get my eggs?" a shirtless dunmer called from the table on the other side of the jukebox. Near the bathroom. Usually, Sadara was told, a problem table given the view it gave of the road. "Or are you two going to go at each other right here in front of Dagoth Ur and everybody?"

He looks like he doesn't get enough sleep, Sadara thought, Probably a tweaker. Skooma head, at the minimum.

"I've got about fifteen reasons why that'd be a bad idea," Jiub called out, and dished the eggs out and onto a plate next to the waffle.

Something told her to put on the corprus gloves, so she did, and then brought the plate over. "There you go. It's just been a slow night. People must be getting a good night's rest...unlike you. If you'd like some more coffee--"

"Coffee's the last thing I need right now. Maybe something...less...wake-y."

"We don't have any weed or we'd sell you some," Sadara replied, "And warm milk doesn't do anything except make you want to brush your teeth right that second. I could hit you over the head if you wanted."

"I've tried that. Doesn't work. All it did was give me a headache. I just...I got really bad insomnia." There was a pause, a look past her, and then, "Where'd you get the plant?"

"The plant? Oh, I found it outside my apartment. The sun's better here, so I set it up. Poor thing looks like it could use a little extra light. Better than it'll get on...well, you get the idea."

The conversation petered out and the dunmer paid his check. As she looked up he was snapping a picture of the plant with his phone, but when she was coming back with the receipt she realized he was making a grab for the plant.

"Hey, hey, that's MINE!" she snapped at him, "Fuck off, get your OWN plant!"

"It's not yours!" he snarled back as she was tugging the pot from his hands, "It's my LORD'S!"

One of the weaker blooms shed its bulb from all the motion and the shirtless dunmer moved back suddenly.

"Then tell your lord to come and get it!" she said, "And to ask politely instead of asking randos to do the job for him!"

For a moment the dunmer looked like he was going to give a really acidic reply, but when Sadara raised a hand like she was going to smack him--he stared at it just for a second, and then left.

"The fuck was that about?" Jiub called from the back.

"He says the plant belongs to 'his lord'...whatever the hell THAT means." Sadara put the plant back once she was sure the dunmer wasn't coming back.

(Within the hour #WeFoundTheHeart was trending on Morrotwitter, all accompanied by the same damn picture of the plant in the Waffle House window. Had it not been for what followed she would have been sure that she was hallucinating the whole thing.)

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

The shirtless guy wasn't the first one to try stealing the bleeding heart plant, and after the next four attempts Sadara felt it was pretty safe for her to assume he wouldn't be the last either. It wasn't just regular dunmer either, it was ash zombies, ash ghouls--It had gotten to the point where she considered telling them it died, but something always seemed to stop her doing that.

"You'd think it was moon-sugar cane, the way they're after it," Jiub said, passing her the bottle of sujamma over his shoulder, "Did you sprinkle it with skooma? Seriously, the fuck'd you do to it?"

"I didn't do anything to it! Well...I gave it some compost I got off Nibani, but...other than that, nothing."

"Heads up," Nibani said suddenly, from where she was cleaning up one of the corner tables, "Ascended sleeper. Stay polite, but don't talk to 'em much and--"

"Don't ask about his god. I know, I know." Sadara took a gulp from the bottle of sujamma and then breathed deep.

The ascended sleeper meandered in and took a seat in the middle of the dining area, right at the counter. There was a look in the direction of the bleeding heart plant. Or Sadara assumed it was a look, anyway, the damned thing didn't seem to have any eyes, what in the hell would it look WITH?

"Coffee, please."

The tone was...strange, not like any voice she'd ever heard. Like someone was putting it through an instrumental filter or something, maybe talking next to a fan.

"Dark? Any sugar, creamer?"

"Black."

"That's the best way," Sadara gave a slight smile, and moved over to the coffee maker to pour him out a cup. "You had a pleasant walk...ah...float here, I hope."

Laughter came, like an orchestra of slightly-off-key flutes. "Pleasant enough. I hear this is where I can see the Heart."

"What, the plant?"

Another couple customers came in. One was a buoyant armiger, off-duty from the look of him. He gave the ascended sleeper a strange look but went on and called for a steak with his waffle.

"Rare, medium, or get the hell out," Jiub said.

"What's wrong with well done?"

"What's wrong is it's a crime against fucking nature. A guar died to give you this meat and you want me to burn the shit out of it?" Jiub asked.

"I was going to ask for it medium anyway." A huff, and then a look back to the menu.

"Is it always like this?" the ascended sleeper asked. "I don't often come here, you see."

"That? That's nothing." Sadara laughed. "Now, what do you want to actually eat? Can you eat?"

"I can, yes. One gets the urge for something more than corprusmeat, now and then..."

"It doesn't sound like it would taste very good, but you must enjoy it or you wouldn't keep doing it."

After a short pause the sleeper said, "Some sausage and a waffle, if you don't mind."

Sadara gave a slight smile. The next fifteen minutes or so were actually rather pleasant--the ascended sleeper would glance at the bleeding heart plant now and then, but mostly he would watch her and make polite conversation. How long she had been in Morrowind, how she (disliked) the weather. All weird, unconnected questions, but she was glad to have one of them talking to her that didn't

She took a from the sujamma bottle when he'd turned his head to look at it.

"I've seen that mark a few times," the ascended sleeper said, "Strange that you should find it on a flowerpot of all things."

"Everyone likes to plant things." Sadara shrugged. "I usually have a black thumb, but..."

"But that plant seems to grow for you?"

"Yeah, it does. Strange, that. It's finally starting to look better."

It was a nice feeling, really. To have plant after plant after plant die--to the point, way back when she'd lived with Jiub the first time, he wouldn't even let her step inside the room he grew the weed in--and then to have something actually grow for her.

The sleeper gave several nods. "It means 'Neht,' if you wanted to know."

"What?"

"The symbol on the flowerpot. It means 'Neht.'"

"Huh. Interesting."

"Well--"

"Oh, come on!"

Sadara looked down the bar at the off-duty buoyant armiger. "Sir?"

"You're going to let that thing stay?"

"He's being more polite than you are," she replied curtly, "And his money spends just as well as yours."

"I spend my day defending the Ghostfence from that sort. Why does this place just--let them--"

"See previous answer. The only one being rude here is YOU, jackass."

That was when Nibani spoke up. "Either shut your mouth or leave, we don't want fighting here if we can help it."

"You two're awfully mouthy for someone who's cozying up to the Sixth House's monsters," the armiger stood and crossed the room. "Makes me think maybe you're involved with them too."

"Makes me think you're about to write a check your ass can't cash," Sadara replied. She took another sip of sujamma, and walked through the little gate at the end of the bar. "So do like the manager says, shut your mouth or leave."

"As if I'm going to let some Sixth House sympathizer--"

The buoyant armiger lunged. Sadara ducked his wild bolt of flame, and clocked him right in the jaw.

"You BITCH!"

Behind her was another shout, Jiub, who'd let out, "I JUST started that egg!"

Then, a rapid fire alarm.

Sadara sidestepped and grabbed the back of the armiger's armor, and with a great effort hauled him towards the door that she pressed open with her foot. "C'mon, I don't care if you paid or not. You're out, and if you try to come back in I'll drag you right back out again. Got it?"

The armiger did not, in fact, get it. He swung at her, got her hard in the shoulder, and found himself hit in the jaw once again, this time with the hand she wore the ring on. It left an immediate imprint, and would probably end up bruising, from what she could guess.

"Now are you going to leave, or am I going to have to kick you in the balls?"

It took the actual kick for him to figure out Sadara was serious.

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

The ascended sleeper had been very pleased with what he saw. Very pleased, indeed. He'd told them, hadn't he--those beneath him--that they could get more information if they just used their words and asked nicely. But then again, niceties weren't their strong point.

That was why HE had been sent.

Once #WeFoundTheHeart started going around, his lord had asked - discern the truth. See if what they were seeing (and hearing) was true. Don't attempt to steal the plant, it was too precious to risk in a tug-of-war situation. It was a delicate variety, after all, it couldn't hope to stand up to much of a stiff breeze this far away from its usual soil and tending.

"Well?"

His lord did not turn around, but that was usual. It was a privilege merely to be in his presence, to behold even part of his magnificence.

"It's true, lord Dagoth. The plant is there. And the one who chased off the dreamer claimed to have a black thumb, yet somehow the bleeding heart grew for her. And she was wearing...the ring."

"The ring?"

"THE ring, my lord, I saw it with my own eyes. Briefly--there was a bit of a scuffle, as a buoyant armiger decided he wanted to make trouble because I was allowed to dine there, and the one in question fought him half-drunk."

There was a pause, and then a sudden sharp intake of breath.

"Nerevar's ring, his plant that I've kept alive for these centuries...and now you tell me there was a drunken brawl."

The next breath was shakier.

"Nerevar really has returned."

[pestilentprayer]

three feet under - chapter one

hello hello! i've been working on a pre-canon different first meeting bobby & buck au for a month or so and now that 'everything has its place' has wrapped up, i wanted to give a little peek! this fic is from bobby's pov and starts a month after the fire.

(trigger warnings are abundant for 'three feet under' but for this snippet they're: child loss, substance abuse, past child abuse, and suicidal ideation)

The closest to his family that Bobby Nash can get is in warped reflections on polished granite headstones.

He’s worn down an edge of the plot: two indents for his knees to fall into as he silently prays and wordlessly begs. Mornings and nights and neither and both of graveside prostration have dug out a damned-dark and crisp-cold hole for him to fall into. When the time comes, he’ll lay himself down to sleep. He pictures the thaw as a revelation. Bones in the dust and fat melting hot-acrid in the earth; maggots and larvae and he finally found rest. His priest calls this season an act of God: as long as all the psalms and a testament unto itself. Bobby calls it evidence of God’s sense of humor.

Smoke billowed out of gaping maws in the apartment complex until steam took its place, white and grey on a white-grey sky when morning stole away the night. Cold tempered hot and hot taunted cold and cosmic cruelty lodged itself between the two; frostbite claimed scant slivers of skin not licked by flame. Bobby watched each and every one of his victims as they were freed from the pyre he lit with percocet and vodka and snarling cowardice. He named them when he could and when he couldn’t, he honored them with a sip taking him closer to his end. Winter has found forever in St. Paul. Bobby hopes he has found eternity.

The closest to God that Bobby Nash can get is at the bottom of a bottle, choking on dregs and memories.

He tells himself it isn’t blasphemy, isn’t divine disrespect; he tells himself a good many things as he finds truth in lies and lies in truth. The pills dull his thoughts until he makes his own peace. The booze is so cheap that he isn’t sure if it even has a name but he knows it makes him forget his own. Daysweeks pass in a haze and collect into a mass of fuzzy warmth that never gets close to the feeling of fire. He claims his punishment in the temptation of fate as he throws drugs back blindly and drinks until he can no longer see.

Tonight, he can still see.

Cheek perched on his palm, he lifts two fingers off of his glass. The bartender, too bright and young of eye, nods slowly. Everything is slow when the liquor swamps his bloodstream. He lives in a miasma of motion, taking in little and making even less sense of it. 

“This is gonna have to be your last one for today, man,” the kid says, quiet as the depths of night draw in, last-call last-chance hovering over the liminal space. 

Bobby grunts and necks the swill down. These days, he thinks he didn’t only start chasing fire to follow in his father’s fateful footsteps: he figures he’s always been chasing pain. His throat is long since numbed to the sting of cheap spirits and cheaper regrets.

Vinny’s is less of a hole in the wall and more of a slash in the ground, the dive bar’s foundation sinking into the Minnesota soil with the burden of its occupants and the demons perched cinder block-strong on their shoulders. It’s far from his usual badge haunt, halfway between his house and his home. Only his home fell to embers. His station hardened to ice and Bobby is weak. He doesn’t care to find out their opinion of him or how far the rumors have spread. All he knows is that they haven’t reached this hellish haven and he can drink himself into a stupor, sleep it off under a veil of insubstantial substances. He hopes to repeat the routine ad nauseam until his nausea consumes him and his liver realizes there’s no point in holding on.

Fifty cent songs croon from the jukebox; corpses that haven’t yet caught up to their fates drown out the noise in bottles of amber and plague-sick green. Bobby’s world is red: red bodies and red flames and the red label on a clear bottle that tastes like mangled memory clouding the nip of red blood in the air. His palms are red, too. 

The night he murdered his family wasn’t the first time he got burned. That was eight years old and a matchbox and the back of a hand across his cheek and a crick in his neck and a blistered scar shaped like Australia on his calf and— The second time was his fault (his fault, his fault, his fault; they were all his fault) when he forgot to disengage the airbags at a scene his fourth day on the job. It was fine because the blast barely scalded his skin and his father wasn’t there to say I told you so. It was fine. It was. The third time was an electrical accident but it made Marcy cry, so he swore not to do it again.

He did it again. He did it again and again and he did it worse each time; the scars he left never touched his flesh except for when they touched his flesh and blood in little flinches of fallout. The doctor said he might not regain full sensation in his hands and that’s alright, that’s okay. He deserves it. He’ll never be able to feel Brook’s hair or Robby’s hand or Marcy’s lips so it doesn’t matter anyway. The glass is slick in his grasp. He only knows that because it always is. Whiskeyvodkarum tumbles down his throat and then it’s gone; he’s empty. He closes out his tab and tugs on his coat. He leaves.

If he wanders a bit to the left then he’ll take a nice long walk off of a short riverbank and meet his maker in a chilling embrace. If he wanders a bit to the right then he’ll be able to understand what his patients felt when a bumper separated their pelvis and their shoes stayed on the ground as they fought the clutches of gravity. He keeps on his path. It’s not a lengthy trip and his destination is nothing like home; it’s everything like home for it smells of sulfur and smoke and there’s a picture of his family waiting for him, a rubber band holding it to the sun visor of his rusted-out truck. He’d lock the car if he had anything of worth inside of it other than the creased paper he stole from their memorial service. He’d lock it if a too-late part of him didn’t accept that other hands than his would hold the photo with more care than he could ever spare for his family.

Charlie brought the picture to the funeral home. He cropped it out of a Christmas card from the year before, the year before that, an in between year when Bobby’s spine was a crooked steeple and he fancied that he placed himself on the cross. Crucifixion came in the form of uppers and downers and he fell into the sepulcher of his worst impulses when a held-back shout hit harder than any fist. The tinsel border is still visible in the photo. Happy holidays, indeed. 

Tragedy—Bobby—struck in the dead of night. The city hasn’t roused from its mourning long enough to take down red lights and green lights, take back their good tidings and well wishes. It’s a locked-in-buckled-up reminder of what once was and will never be again; it’s a broken projector casting flickering shadows of a single frame that defines a people. Angels hung upon the walls of the funeral home in robes of white and gold and Bobby’s angels rotted in boxes of pine, their Sunday best churned into the earth with them.

He held it together at the service until he couldn’t and then he cried until he had no more tears. His words dried up with them and he stood, blank and numb and black-hole-wanting as Charlie took out one year, two years, tentwentythirty of Bobby’s Hell out on him in the cold-scorched courtyard of the cemetery: every stint at rehab, every squandered chance, every time he disappeared and Marcy was left to fend for herself. Bobby was and is and will be worse than Tim ever could have dreamt of; their father had the decency to die. Mom stood by silently, a statue amongst statues amongst graves.

And Bobby broke that night, not the snap of a branch but the crack-creak-whip of a whole trunk toppling over, taking out the next and the next and the next. He broke like his nails as they scrambled through the frozen soil, jealously clawing, dragon-strong and man-weak when he scored the disturbed ground so he could curl up with his family in a horde of the best he could do. He split the grafts off of his palms and watched blood melt a covering of snow far gentler than any embrace he’d ever offered. Charlie hauled him away with arms of overwrought iron, bars around the bars of his ribs.

“This is the last time I clean up your mess,” Charlie muttered and Bobby believed him, still does. Stowed in the passenger seat of his own truck, Bobby watched the bloated sky mist past as Charlie drove and drove and drove until he realized they never really drove at all, two blocks away from the cemetery, exhaust like smoke in the parking lot as the truck idled. A bar, the bar, this bar and it was close enough to the graves that Bobby stayed. Charlie left.

Bobby takes a handful of pills. He sleeps.

[helix-enterprises117]

Halo Reloaded: Puppy Eyes

In a cozy nook of New Mombasa, tucked away from the usual hustle and the occasional, unnerving peace that came after a particularly nasty Covenant invasion, was a diner. Not just any diner, but the kind with neon lights that had seen better days and a jukebox in the corner that was perpetually stuck on jazz standards from centuries past.

It was here, amidst the scent of overcooked burgers and undercooked fries, that Kelly-087 and Fred-104 decided to plant themselves for what passed as a date night in the Spartan handbook (not that such a handbook existed, but if it did, it would likely advise against anything that could result in fun).

Fred, the ever-dutiful Spartan, was halfway through a cup of coffee that could charitably be described as "motor oil chic." Kelly, on the other hand, was attacking a milkshake with the enthusiasm of a child who'd just discovered sugar was a thing. It was a rare moment of downtime, a slice of normal in lives that were anything but.

"Fred," Kelly said, sliding her milkshake aside with a look that meant trouble. Or fun. With Kelly, it was often both. "How do you feel about dancing?"Fred, whose experience with dancing was mostly limited to dodging plasma fire, nearly inhaled his coffee.

"Dancing?" he sputtered, trying to imagine himself in any scenario where that would be a good idea.

"Yeah, you know," Kelly pressed, her eyes gleaming with a mix of challenge and excitement. "Music, moving, maybe not stepping on each other's feet too much?"

Fred raised an eyebrow, putting down his coffee like it was suddenly made of live grenades. "Kelly, the last time I 'danced,' I accidentally dislocated an ensign's shoulder. You really want to unleash that on the civilian population?"

Kelly leaned back, giving him a look that was part amusement, part exasperation. "Oh, come on. I've seen you in a fight. You're all grace and lethal elegance. Just pretend it's a combat situation. Minus the actual combat."

Fred snorted, shaking his head. "Because nothing says romance like treating a dance floor like a battlefield."

But Kelly wasn't deterred. She employed the big guns: the puppy eyes. It was a low blow, and they both knew it. Those big, earnest eyes that said, "Trust me, what's the worst that could happen?" A lot, actually, but Fred found it increasingly hard to care.

"I can't say no to those eyes," he grumbled, though the fight was already leaving him. "This is going to end in disaster."

Kelly's grin could have powered the UNSC Infinity. "Disaster, adventure��it's all about perspective. Plus, it'll be fun. Promise."

Fred sighed, the weight of impending doom settling in. "You know, most couples would just go see a movie."

"And miss the chance to see you in dancing shoes? Never," Kelly shot back, her tone light, teasing.

They bantered back and forth a bit more, the diner around them fading into a comfortable backdrop. When they finally left, stepping out into the cool evening air, there was a lightness between them. It was the kind of moment that made all the chaos and destruction fade into the background, if only for a little while.

They made their way to whatever dance hall Kelly had in mind. Fred couldn't help but think that maybe, just maybe, dancing wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. After all, how hard could it be?

Famous last words, he'd think later, as he accidentally sent a fellow dancer spinning across the floor. But in that moment, with Kelly laughing beside him, it was all worth it.

@inthatfandom, @ionlymadethissoicouldleaveanask, @makowrites "I can't say no to those eyes."

[ourshadowstallerthanoursoul]

Interview to JPJ

(by Steven Rosen, Guitar Player - July 1977, Chicago)

It was shared on ultimate-guitar.com by Steven Rosen himself (link). I suggest going to read the introduction because there's a bit of angry JPJ which is quite surprising (to me at least). Enjoy!

What was the impetus behind becoming a bass player?

I used to play piano when I was younger, and there was a rock and roll band forming at school when I was fourteen, but they didn't want a piano player, all they wanted was drums or bass. I thought, I can't get the drums on the bus, bass looked easy, four strings, no chords, easy so I took it up. And it was easy; it wasn't too bad at all. I took it up before guitar, which I suppose is sort of interesting. Before I got a real 4-string, my father had a ukulele banjo, a little one, and I had that strung up like a bass, but it didn't quite have the bottom that was required. Actually my father didn't want to have to sign a guarant or to back me in the payments for a bass. He said, ‘Don't bother with it; take up the tenor saxophone. In two years the bass guitar will never be heard of again.’ I said, ‘No Dad, I really want one, there's work for me.’ He said, ‘Ah, there's work?’ And I got a bass right away.

What was your first bass?

Oh, it was a pig; it had a neck like a tree trunk. It was a solid body Dallas bass guitar with a single cutaway. It sounded all right though, and it was good for me because I developed very strong fingers. I had no idea about setting instruments up then, so I just took it home from the shop. I had an amplifier with a 10 speaker... Oh, it was awful. It made all kinds of farting noises. And then I had a converted television; you know one of those big old stand-up televisions with the amp in the bottom and a speaker where the screen should be. I ended up giving myself double hernias. Bass players always had the hardest time because they always had to cope with the biggest piece of equipment. It never occurred to me when I was deciding between that and drums that I'd had to lug a bass amp.

What kind of music were you playing in that first band?

Shadows, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis stuff. I started doubling on piano. We didn't have a drummer at first, because we never could find one. That happened to another bass player, Larry Graham, Sly Stone's bass player. He started off in a band with no drummer, which is how he got that percussive style. You've got a lot to make up for once the lead guitar takes a solo because there's only you left. You've got to make a lot of noise. We got a drummer after a while whom I taught, would you believe. I've never played drums in my life.

That must have definitely had an influence on your playing.

I suppose it must have. I don't like bass players that go boppity boppity bop all over the neck; you should stay around the bottom and provide the end of the group. I work very closely with the drummer; it's very important.

How long did that first band last?

Not very long. I found a band with a drummer. This band also came along with really nice looking guitars, and I thought, ‘Oh, they must be great!’ They had Burns guitars so I got myself one, too. The one with the three pickups and a Tru-Voice amplifier. We all had purple band jackets and white shoes, and I thought, ‘This is it, this is the big time.’ But as soon as I got out of school I played at American Air Force bases, which was good training, plus they always had great records in the jukebox. That was my introduction to the black music scene, when very heavy gentlemen would come up insisting on Night Train eight times an hour.

What was the first really professional band you were in?

It was with Jet Harris and Tony Meehan (bassist and drummer with The Shadows). That was when I was seventeen, I suppose. And those were the days when they used to scream all the way through the show. It was just like now, really, where you have to make a dash for the limos at the end of the night make a sort of terrible gauntlet. In the days before roadies, you'd have to drag around your own gear, so we all invested in a roadie. We thought we owed it to ourselves, and this bloke was marvelous. He did everything, he drove the wagon, he lugged the gear, he did the lights... the whole thing.

What kind of bass were you using with Harris and Meehan?

Oh, I got my first Fender then. I lusted after this Jazz bass in Lewisham, and it cost me about $250, I think. It was the new one. They'd just changed the controls, and I used that bass up until last (1975) tour, and then she had to go. She was getting unreliable and rattling a lot, and I just had to leave her home this time.

What followed your working with that band?

I got into sessions. I thought, ‘I've had enough of the road’, bought myself a dog and didn't work for six months. Then I did start up again. I played in other silly bands. I remember that Jet Harris and Tony Meehan band, John McLaughlin joined on rhythm guitar. It was the first time I'd met him and it was hilarious. Here he was sitting there all night going Dm to G to Am. That was my first introduction to jazz when he came along, because we'd all get to the gig early and have a blow. Oh, that was something, first meeting him. And then I joined a couple of other bands with him for a while, rhythm and blues bands.

Do you remember the first session that you ever did?

No, I don't think so; it was in Decca Number 2 (studio in London). I was late, and I suddenly realized how bad my reading was. There was another bass player there, a stand-up bass, and I was just there to provide the click. It was nearly my last session.

Who were some of the people you were doing sessions with?

All kinds of silly people: used to do calls with Tom Jones, Cathy Kirby, Dusty Springfield.

The Rolling Stones and Donovan, too, didn't you?

I only did one Stones session, really. I just did the strings, they already had the track down. It was ‘She's A Rainbow’. And then the first Donovan session was a shambles, it was awful. It was ‘Sunshine Superman’ and the arranger had got it all wrong, so I thought, being the opportunist that I was, ‘I can do better than that’ and actually went up to the producer. He came around and said, ‘Is there anything we can do to sort of save the session?’ And I piped up, ‘Well, look how about if I play it straight?’ because I had a part which went sort of ooowooooo (imitates a slide up the neck) every now and again, and the other bass player sort of did wooooo (imitates downwards slide) down below, and then there was some funny congas that were in and out of time. And I said, ‘How about if we just sort of play it straight; get the drummer to do this and that?’

How did the session go?

The session came off, and I was immediately hired as the arranger by Mickie Most whom I loved working with; he was a clever man. I used to do Herman's Hermits and all that. I mean they were never there; you could do a whole album in a day. And it was great fun and a lot of laughs. I did all of Lulu's stuff and all his artists. I did one Jeff Beck single, and he's never spoken to me since. It was ‘Hi Ho Silver Lining’. I did the arrangement for it and I played bass. Then we had ‘Mellow Yellow’ for Donovan, which we argued about for hours because they didn't like my arrangement at all, not at all. Mickie stood by me. He said, ‘I like the arrangement, I think it's good’. It wasn't Donovan. He didn't mind either but he had so many people around him saying, ‘Hey, this isn't you.’ But he sold a couple of a million on it, didn't he?

Was the Hurdy Gurdy Man session when you first met Jimmy Page?

No. I'd met Jimmy on sessions before. It was always Big Jim and little Jim. Big Jim Sullivan and little Jim and myself and the drummer. Apart from group sessions where he'd play solos and stuff like that, Page always ended up on rhythm guitar because he couldn't read too well. He could read chord symbols and stuff, but he'd have to do anything they'd ask when he walked into a session. But I used to see a lot of him just sitting there with an acoustic guitar sort of raking out chords. I always thought the bass player's life was much more interesting in those days, because nobody knew how to write for bass, so they used to say, ‘We'll give you the chord sheet and get on with it.’ So even on the worst sessions you could have a little runaround. But that was good; I would have hated to have sat there on acoustic guitar.

How long did you do sessions?

Three or four years, on and off. Then I thought I was going to get into arranging because it seemed that sessions and running about was much too silly. I started running about and arranging about forty or fifty things a month. I ended up just putting a blank piece of score paper in front of me and just sitting there and staring at it. Then I joined Led Zeppelin, I suppose, after my missus said to me, ‘Will you stop moping around the house; why don't you join a band or something?’ And I said, ‘There are no bands I want to join, what are you talking about?’ And she said, ‘Well, look, I think it was in Disc, Jimmy Page is forming a group’, he'd just left the Yardbirds ‘why don't you give him a ring?’ So I rang him up and said, ‘Jim, how you doing? Have you got a group yet?’ He said, ‘I haven't got anybody yet.’ And I said, ‘Well, if you want a bass player, give me a ring.’ And he said, ‘All right, I'm going up to see this singer Terry Reid told me about, and he might know a drummer as well. I'll call you when I've seen what they're like.’ He went up there, saw Robert Plant, and said, ‘This guy is really something.’ We started under the name the New Yardbirds because nobody would book us under anything else. We rehearsed an act, an album, and a tour in about three weeks, and it took off. The first time, we all met in this little room just to see if we could even stand each other. It was wall-to-wall amplifiers and terrible, all old. Robert (Plant) had heard I was a session man, and he was wondering what was going to turn up some old bloke with a pipe? So Jimmy said, ‘We're all here, what are we going to play?’ And I said, ‘I don't know, what do you know?’ And Jimmy said, ‘Do you know a number called, The Train Kept A Rollin'?’ I told him, ‘No.’ And he said, ‘It's easy, just G to A.’ he counted it out, and the room just exploded, and we said, ‘Right. We're on, this is it, this is going to work!’ And we just sort of built it up from there. ‘Dazed And Confused’ came in because Jimmy knew that, but I could never get the sequence right for years; it kept changing all the time with different parts, and I was never used to that. I used to having the music there, could never remember. In fact, I'm still the worst in the band remembering anything. And the group jokes about it, ‘Jonesy always gets the titles wrong and the sequences wrong.’ Even now I have a piece of paper I stuck on top of the Mellotron which says: ‘Kashmir remember the coda!’

What were some of your early amplifiers?

I've used everything from a lousy made-up job, to a great huge top valve (tube) amp. We started off in a deal with Rickenbacker where we had these awful Rickenbacker amps; they were so bad. Our first tour was a shambles. For about a year I never even heard the bass. They said, ‘We've designed this speaker cabinet for you’, and I said, ‘Let me see it, what's it got in it?’ It had one 30 speaker! I said, ‘All right, stand it up there alongside whatever else I've got, and I'll use it.’ I plugged it in, and in a matter of five seconds it blew up. I thought the bloke was having me on; I said, ‘There's no such thing as a 30 speaker!’ And I had to take the back off because I couldn't believe it. Then we met the guy from Univox, and he came up with a bass stack, which unfortunately didn't last the night. But while it was going, it was the most unbelievable sound I've ever heard. It was at the Nassau Coliseum in New York, I remember, and the bass filled the hall. It was so big, it couldn't have lasted. I don't think I'll come across anything that sounded like that. But as I said, three numbers and wheel the Acoustics out again. I used two or three 360 standard Acoustics for quite a long time. They served me well.

You used the Jazz bass until just recently?

Yeah. Oh, I got a hold of a very nice Gibson violin bass (pictured in the little cut out wheel on the cover of Led Zeppelin III). That was nice, too, it's not stage worthy, but it gives a beautiful warm sound. I don't like Gibson basses generally because they feel all rubbery; I like something you can get your teeth into. But the violin bass was the only Gibson that was as heavy as a Fender to play, but still had that fine Gibson sound. I used it on Led Zeppelin III, and I've used it every now and again, usually when I'm tracking a bass after I've done keyboards for the main track. The one I have went through Little Richard's band and then through James Brown's band, and it arrived in England. In fact, I saw it in an old movie clip of Little Richard. It was probably about a '48 or '50 or something like that; it was the original one. Actually, I've also got an old '52 Telecaster bass. I used that on stage for a while, for ‘Black Dog’ and things like that.

Do you ever use a pick when you play?

Yes, when the situation demands it; on the 8-string it's awful messy with your fingers. On ‘The Song Remains The Same’ I use a pick to get that snap out of the instrument. It's fun, you play different. If I was just playing straight bass, I'd use fingers. When I first started I always used my fingers.

How has playing with Jimmy Page for the last nine years styled your playing?

That's hard. I play a lot looser than I used to. For instance somebody like John Entwistle is more of a lead instrument man than I am. I tend to work closer with Bonzo I think. But then again I don't play that much bass on-stage anymore, what with the pianos and the Mellotron. I'll always say I'm a bass player, though.

How do you develop a bass part?

You put in what's correct and what's necessary. I always did like a good tune in the bass. For example, listen to’ What Is And What Should Never Be’ (on Led Zeppelin II). The role of a bassist is hard to define. You can't play chords so you have a harmonic role; picking and timing notes. You'll suggest a melodic or harmonic pattern, but I seem to be changing anyway toward more of a lead style. The Alembic bass is doing it; I play differently on it. But I try to never forget my role as a bass player: to play the bass and not mess around too much up at the top all the time. You've got to have somebody down there, and that's the most important thing. The numbers must sound right, they must work right, they must be balanced.

You just picked a track from the second album, but there was something so gloriously unique about the first Zep record.

I know what people mean when they say the first Zeppelin album was the best. It was the first. I don't know what it was; we could never recreate those conditions it was recorded in. It was done in about thirty hours, recorded and mastered. There was a lot of energy in those days. But I liked (Physical Graffiti). I liked most of them actually. The funny thing was about the first album, when we got to about the third album (Led Zeppelin III) and started using acoustics everyone was saying, ‘Ahhh, Led Zeppelin has gone acoustic. They've changed their style.’ What everybody forgets is there were two acoustic numbers on the first album. Right? ‘Babe I'm Gonna Leave You’ and ‘Black Mountain Side’. The funny thing is people try to pigeon-hole you with all that heavy metal stuff. And if they ever listened to the fucking albums they'd realize it was never riff after riff after riff. It never was like that, you know? Peculiar... oh, well.

Do you practice?

In a word, no. I fool around on piano, but bass I never practice. Although again, with the Alembic, I'm beginning to feel, ‘Wouldn't it be nice to have it in the room?’ It really makes you want to play more, which is fantastic.

The band has always had a strange relationship with the press.

There is an amount of professionalism which must be retained. You can't go around canceling gigs and things like that. After Robert's accident there were rumors of, ‘Oh, they're afraid to come out’ and this and that which was really hard on us because we've always tried to be as professional as possible. And we take a pride in this. We've tried to turn up on time but it gets hard moving this amount of people. And that sort of thing hurts. Robert was in a wheelchair and we had to wait until he was healed. And then we were all ready to go and he got tonsillitis on this '77 tour. And he must have felt so bad. I tell you if this band ever drops from favor with the public, a load of people are going to come down on our asses so fucking hard. They're just waiting for us to drop. I don't know why, I honestly don't know. I always remember the first review of our first album in Rolling Stone and the bloke dismissed it out of hand. I don't even think he would listen to it and said as much. Then they dismissed us as hype.

Who do you listen to?

I don't. I used to listen to a lot of jazz bass players once, but jazz has changed so much now, it's hardly recognizable. I listened to a lot of tenor sax players: Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane and all those people. Bass players? Scott La Faro, who died. He used to be with (jazz pianist) Paul Chambers. Ray Brown and Charlie Mingus, of course. I'm not too keen on the lead bass style of some players. Paul McCartney, I've always respected; he puts the notes in the right place at the right time. He knows what he's about.

Who don't you listen to?

Ian [Anderson] is a pain in the ass. We toured with Jethro Dull [sic] once and I think he probably spoke three words to Jimmy or I at any one time. The band was nice but he was such a funny fucker. His music bores the pants off me, it's awful. Page came up with the greatest line about them. He had a title for a live album when Jethro was playing in Los Angeles: ‘Bore 'Em at The Forum’. (Ritchie) Blackmore is another guy I don't like. He was supposed to have been a big session man but he must have done demos because he was never a regular session man. I'm getting out all my pet hates.

There's nothing you'd like to do outside of Zeppelin in an instrumental context?

I always get the feeling I'd like to write a symphony. I like all music. I like classical music a lot. Ravel, Bach, of course, Mozart I could never stand, though to play it on the piano is great fun. If Bach had ever come across the bass guitar, he would have loved it. Rock and roll is the only music left where you can improvise. I don't really know what's happened to jazz; it has really disappointed me. I guess they started playing rock and roll.

So you're able to continually experiment in Zeppelin and expand your playing?

Yes, absolutely. I wouldn't be without Zeppelin for the world. What's it like being in Led Zeppelin? I don't know. It is a peculiar feeling; it intrigues me.

[maniacwatchestheworld]

Took a flight to Singapore yesterday. 17 hour long flight. I managed to watch 5 movies on that flight and therefore only got about an hour and a half of sleep! I had a positively delightful time! :D And 3 of those movies were Batman-related! Lol Here are my quick reviews!

Sonic 2: It was alright. Plenty cute. But the Uptown Funk sequence made me cringe out of my skin. Of course the best part of the entire movie was everything with Stone. Stone is the best part of any of these films. Love that man. Love Stobotnik! Also I will admit. I am somewhat invested in seeing this secret agent guy getting pegged. Man deserves it after what he put his fiance through in that whole Hawaii wedding subplot! Love the bride getting to kick ass tho. She was a delight! Everything around her was less so. :p Bit always Stone! Forever! Love that man! He deserves to be put into the main Sonic franchise! I would not care if anything else from the movies makes it into the main Sonic franchise. I JUST WANT STONE!

Inside Out 2: It was pretty good! The new emotions were a good addition to the cast. Seeing how they conceptualise and show beliefs and Riley's sense of self was interesting. Also Anger being a bit of a MVP in helping Joy out. Good for him! Probably top 10 in terms of Pixar film continuation. Also Riley is nonbinary. This is what this movie has convinced me of. You cannot sway me! That is the REAL nature of Riley's BIG SECRET! Riley just doesn't know it yet!

Joker: And on a completely separate note... Joker! It was. Okay. :/ For what it was trying to do, it was okay and did it well enough. But just like... Eh. Not really my thing. And I don't really understand why it's so popular or considered to be so much of a cultural touchstone. I don't get the hype. I don't get why people relate to it so much unless they're just real sad and pathetic losers. Also the dudebros were surprised that the sequel was a musical? Did they even watch the first movie!? It was pretty much just a miserable jukebox musical. And I don't care much for jukebox musicals at the best of times. :p It was only just barely not misery porn by virtue of it not particularly lingering nor really relishing in the misery of itself. It was fine. Joaquin Pheonix just spending decent lengths of the film purely vibing to his playlist was entertaining sometimes. I found parts of the movie interesting and funny. But probably in none of the ways that it intended or meant. It was mid. But hey! At least Gary lived! Pretty much the only likable character in the film who didn't primarily exist as a hallucination. Everyone else including Arthur was a (typically ableist) dick to him, but at least he lived, so that's alright with me! 5/10

Birds of Prey: Now this was much better! A lot more fun and interesting of a movie! By far the most fun and interesting iterations I've ever seen of Black Mask and Zsasz! They are deeply nothingburger characters to me typically in the comics. I don't even really know why or how they keep getting emphasis or attention in stories. But they gay here and that's fun! Just a delightful, fun girl's night out! I don't dislike what they did with Dinah and Cass' backgrounds. I probably like the comic iterations of their backgrounds better, but they were pretty a'ight! I just hope that everything that Birds of Prey was doing wouldn't possibly be hostile or alienate people who want to get into comics from that entry point. Because that would be a shame. :p Great and fun movie! Go see it!

The Batman: Now this is a movie that FUCKS! :D I enjoyed it GREATLY! Exactly what I want out of a Batman mystery thriller type of movie! EXACTLY my type of movie! Great time! GREAT fun! I probably should have seen it earlier! I need to read the Long Halloween don't I...? >.>

[kittyball23]

Okay guys, listen up!

Got some insight to the Annecy Film Festival and some of the news it revealed! The info I found was from a posting on the YouTube channel "jstar" (if you're on Tumblr, I'd love to know 😀) from a screenshot presumably found from somewhere on social media ( A friend I speak to on Wattpad brought this channel and its postings to my attention). Here's what exactly was said:

"To be factual: after the furious madness of the second Trolls, whose psychedelic energy had something orgasmic about it, exit hard rock and welcome to the glorious era of boy bands. A retrospective choice (still) logical given the astounding popularity of Kpop today. He's Justin Timberlake's character, Branche, who was actually in a boy band with his brothers when he was little (watch out for the puns in the movie on Nsync, One Direction and the like) before being cowardly abandoned, becoming th grumpy, melancholy troll he is today. The goal of the film will be to reassemble the band to save one of them, captured by idols without talents who sniff him to become good singers. By breaking a crystal that imprisons him with the power of perfect harmony."

So I guess the brothers have to sing the 'Family Harmony' (which sounds like a special song of some sort) to save Floyd who is trapped in a crystal that Velvet and Veneer placed him in after they smell him to obtain his talent?

Um... what? XD

So I guess it kinda makes sense in a way - Bergens ate Trolls to obtain their happiness, so perhaps sniffling them means that they can get their singing abilities?? Perhaps that's why they have to keep him - maybe inhaling his talent is only temporary? Maybe each time they do it continues to turn his hair the white that we saw in the first poster? And what's the deal with the Family Harmony? How will that play out? Are their voices going to combine like a magical force and break the crystal Floyd’s trapped in? If this is all true, I've certainly got a lot of questions lol

Other postings that were made on social media stated that the first 20 MINUTES of the movie were shown.

Here is a posting regarding Broppy:

"Branch definitely has a bigger emotional hurdle to jump through in this movie and Poppy really helps him with that, kind of like in the first movie, but it's a much different issue, even though Poppy feels like it's the same kind of situation to solve."

I had a feeling that this movie would remind me of the first :) This next one is about my boyz:

"We explore the world of boy bands in the world of 90s music! We celebrate them, but with a certain irony, having a little fun with them. They are more expressive and maybe they also have problems on their side. It was fun exploring these different personalities, feeling a likeness and family connection to them. But also for each of the four brothers to find their own personality, their own voice and their own part of the family."

This last quoting is about the music:

"The composer remains Ted Shapiro and we are working with a great musical team at the moment. Justin is still the executive producer of the original music and was involved in its development early on. There are five original songs that he spearheads, as well as more jukebox songs, classic and familiar happy tunes and he calls on other producers he wants to work with to create the best song for this moment in the film."

Still don't have word on the original songs, but we do know from previous info that some of the involved songs are We Are Family, Staying Alive, Everybody (Backstreet's Back), The Hustle, You Got the Right Stuff, Sailing, Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This, and I Want You Back. I also have my own ideas for what songs I think could work for the movie, but I'll save it for another post :)

[50calmadeuce]

Ch. 9: Jake and The Hard Deck

Disclaimer: This is a work of fan fiction using characters from the Top Gun: Maverick world, trademarked by Paramount Pictures Corporation. I do not claim ownership of the characters and the world that I am borrowing.

The story and situation I am creating are a work of my imagination and I do not ascribe them to official story canon. This work is for entertainment only and is not a part of the storyline.

I also do not own the rights or copyrights of 'Mandolin Rain' by Bruce Hornsby and the Range or 'Second Chance' by 38 Special. I just happen to really like these songs.

I am not profiting financially from the creation and publication of this story, but I do hope it gives you happy thoughts.

These stories are my own, so please do not take them and use them for yourself without my permission. If you see them somewhere else, please let me know. :)

Jake sat on the couch in his apartment, gazing out of the window.

"Bro, you've got to get out. You're starting to drive me crazy," his best friend Javy 'Coyote' Machado urged. "I've never seen you come home this upset before."

Jake turned to look at him. "Have I ever mentioned Y/N to you?"

Coyote pondered for a moment. "I think I recall. High school sweetheart, right? The reason you've been steering clear of relationships since."

"Yeah, she's the one," Jake admitted, taking a moment to gather himself. "And that's also why I've been feeling this need to prove myself, to show her I'm the best for her."

Coyote perched on the armrest of the couch. "I had no idea it ran that deep."

Jake met his gaze. "I saw her."

"Wait, seriously? She was home?"

"Her mom passed away. I had no clue until her brother asked me to help bring in cattle one of the days."

"Damn. I'm really sorry to hear that."

"We shared a kiss."

Coyote's eyes widened. "That's something, man!"

"Before I found out she's engaged."

"Ouch!"

Jake's gaze fell downward. "Yeah."

Coyote sprang up, playfully smacking Jake's arm. "Come on, let's get out of here. Shoot some pool, throw some darts. Anything to take your mind off it.:

Jake met his eyes. "True and I need to clear my head."

"Good. Now go and get dressed."

You entered The Hard Deck around 8 p.m. The place was alive with pilots and women, a mix of those in Navy uniforms and others in civilian attire.

You had phoned ahead, speaking with the owner to inquire about the presence of a jukebox and specifically if they had the song 'Mandolin Rain'. The woman on the other end was pleasant and regretfully informed you they didn't have your song, but assured you she could arrange it. You took the opportunity to share a bit about yourself and the plan to surprise Jake. It didn't surprise you that she was acquainted with him, though she was taken aback to learn about his past relationship. You mentioned that you would introduce yourself when you arrived.

As you scanned the room, your gaze settled on Jake at the pool table, dressed in a khaki uniform like the others around him. He was poised to take a shot, and you found yourself unable to look away. In that moment, Leslie's words rang painfully true. You felt like a fool. For years, you had only seen Jake as, well, Jake. The boy next door, a familiar face your family had known for years, who had professed his love for you, but it had never truly registered. You really didn't understand how deep Jake really loved you.

You approached the bar, where a striking brunette locked eyes with you.

"What can I get you?" she politely inquired.

"I called earlier. I'm Y/N," you explained.

Surprised, she gave you a quick once-over before nodding towards the pool table. "Jake's over there."

"I know. I just wanted to assure you that I'm real and I have no intention of hurting him."

She nodded. "I sensed that. You don't sound like the others." She extended her hand. "I'm Penny. Penny Benjamin."

You smiled and shook her hand. "Thank you, and it's nice to meet you, Penny."

"You want something to drink?"

"I'll take a beer."

"Coming right up." She swiftly wiped the bar.

You continued to watch Jake as he played pool, but something just seemed off. He didn't seem like the cheerful Jake you knew. Just then, a blonde in jean shorts and a white tank top walked up to him and whispered something in his ear, but Jake shook his head and the girl walked away sadly.

Penny came back with the beer. "Here you go."

"How much do I owe you?"

"It's on the house. Any friend of Hangman's is a friend of mine. H22 is your song."

You grabbed the beer. "Thanks." You then made your way to the juke box, grabbed some quarters out of your pocket, put them in when 'Second Chance' by 38 Special caught your eye. You pushed that button and then selected H22. You then stepped over to the table a couple of feet away. Close enough to watch him, but also far enough away to hide.

The current song finished playing and 'Second Chance' by 38 Special started to play.

[ilovewhiteroses]

We Are Not So Different After All

Pairing: Clement Mansell x GN! Con Artist Reader Genre: Smut with humour Warnings: Sexual and adult themes, cursing Rating: 18+

After you failed to rob him and had to reveal him what do you do for a living, Clement realised the opportunities and asked you to join him and Sandy in their money making shenanigans...

You were at Sweety's bar and you saw a handsome man by the jukebox, cheerfully singing. The song was familiar to you and you also started singing and approached him.

"You have good taste in music!" he praised you when the song ended and another began. "I'm Clement." he introduced himself to you and you told him your name.

"Well, Clement, now that we know each other, would you like to have a drink with me?" you asked, gently stroking his arm, to which he smiled.

"Okay!"

You went to the bar and Clement asked Sweety for two Strohs. You noticed how good the relationship between the two men was and you asked Clement about it.

"Good ol’ Sweety and I have been friends for years."

“That’s nice.” you said smiling.

The hours passed and Clement started to get more and more drunk while you stayed sober as you just pretended to drink and poured most of your drinks behind your back. At one point, he took off his black leather jacket, put it on his chair and told you that he is going to the restroom. When he was out of sight and no one else saw you, you reached into his jacket to find money or a credit card. To your annoyance, you didn't find anything and when you put the jacket back in its place, you turned around and found yourself facing Clement, who was giving you a very angry look. Suddenly you didn't know what to say and could only gulp.

"What the fuck were you looking for in my jacket? Money?” Clement asked, so angry that he sobered up immediately. He put on the garment. "Bad news for you: it's here." he said and pulled out a small wad of money from the pocket of his dark jeans, which he put in the chest pocket of his jacket. "Look, if you tell me why you did it, maybe I won't make a scene." he said menacingly.

You were so mad at yourself for being so clumsy. You were forced to tell him the truth.

"Are you a cop?" you asked before confessing.

"No."

"Okay. Well, look. I've been doing this for years. I'm nice to people, I become friends with them and when the time is right, I steal their money." you felt embarrassed for having to say all this, but Clement's reaction surprised you. Just when you thought he was going to hurt you, his face softened and he seemed to look at you with understanding.

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Hm. So you're a con artist. Looks like we are not so different after all." he said, now smiling.

"What do you mean?" you asked him confused.

"My girl Sandy and I do basically the same thing. I give the idea, she does the job. She seduces men, and when we have the chance, we steal their money together."

You felt relieved. What luck! Your evening could easily have turned out worse.

Clement's eyes lit up.

"Hey, since we both do the same thing, wouldn't you like to join us? The three of us would get more money and, of course, would divide it into three."

You thought about the offer. You were good on your own and so far everything went well, but sometimes it was quite tiring to work alone.

"Alright, I'll join!" you said enthusiastically.

"Great! Let's meet here tomorrow afternoon, I'll bring Sandy and introduce you to her, and then we'll figure out the rest together." Clement said, rubbing his palms, barely able to hide his excitement.

The next day you went to the bar at the appointed time. Clement introduced you to Sandy, his girlfriend, who was already pleasantly high from weed and offered you too, but you didn't take it.

Clement sat you down at the bar while Sweety poured you all a drink.

"Okay, I'll tell you how we gonna do this. I told Sandy about you and she said she'll get you a job at the casino, which would be good because you'd be twice as efficient together." Clement said enthusiastically.

"Really?" you asked looking at Sandy.

"Yes. There is also a guy I am “dating” now, his name is Skender Lulgjuraj. He is Albanian and a real moneybag.” she said and Clement winked.

"I see." You started thinking about how you could work with the blonde girl.

"What would you say to Sandy and I flirting with potential candidates, getting them drunk and stealing their credit cards? You have to go for the cards, because there is more money on them than what guys usually carry with themselves in cash." you told him and her your idea, which they both thought about.

"I like the way you are thinking." Clement said with narrowed eyes and a sly smile, Sandy liked the idea too. "Okay, we got this. You go to the casino with Sandy and the job can start soon. Come on, let’s drink to that!”

Few days later, you found yourself in the casino in your waiter's clothes and you were taking a few drinks to one of the roulette tables for the guests. You looked at the clothes and accessories of each of them, because they revealed a lot about their wearers. When you saw that one of the guests was wearing a presumably real, expensive watch, you approached him and started flirting with him. When he got bored of the game, you asked him seductively.

"Would you like to party with me and my friend?". The man nodded so fiercely that his head almost fell off. "Okay, but let's have a drink first."

You went to the bar, where Sandy was already waiting for you. The two of you just pretended to drink, but after a few drinks, the guy could hardly speak and his thinking seemed to slow down, so at a certain moment Sandy took out his wallet from his suit, took out his credit card, and then put the wallet back as if nothing had happened. Once you were done with that, you called him a taxi and two security guards took the drunk man away from you.

Then you carried out another such action during the evening, and after work Clement picked you up and you went to the nearest ATM. You took as much money from both cards as was enough for you then went to Clement and Sandy's apartment, where you celebrated the first successful job together.

You continued like this.

You discussed with Sandy that you would rather rob three people during the night, after you made sure that the person had money. In most cases you were good, but were not always lucky. There were times when the person didn't want to drink with you, or it turned out that he had just lost all his money, or he got so drunk that you couldn't help but slap him to come to his senses. It also happened that a guy's wife suddenly appeared, so you were forced to retreat.

After a while, you collected so much money that Clement could hardly count it.

"My darlings, Daddy is very proud of you!" he said, being in his tighty whities and kimono and gave you and Sandy a kiss on the head. You and the blonde girl sat in front of the TV eating potato chips. Her phone rang, it was Skender. While she stepped aside to make a phone call, Clement sat down next to you on the couch and put his feet up on the coffee table.

"What’s up with this Skender guy?" you asked Clement, biting into a chip.

"He supposedly has a secret hiding place or room and I think he keeps a safe full of money there, then when the time comes, Sandy and I will rob him. You can come with us if you want to." he told you.

"And how long have they been together?"

"Maybe a couple of weeks."

"And they sleep together?" at this question, Clement was silent for a moment and just looked in front of him.

"Probably." you could sense some bitterness in his voice. Sure, the money was the motivating force, but you could see in Clement that he wasn't comfortable with his girlfriend sleeping with another man, no matter how hard he tried to hide it from you. "But hopefully it won't be like this for long and then we'll go to an exotic beach where we can relax." he said and rubbed your shoulder as a sign that they would take you with them, because without you they wouldn't have managed to get so much money.

It was good for you that they took you in and that Clement treated you as an equal, not like Sandy, whom he scolded for smoking too much weed and complained to you about her.

You wanted to talk to Clement about this, but Sandy just got back.

After another couple of successful money making actions, you and Clement were alone in the apartment, and Sandy was spending time at Skender's.

You were in bed leaning against the headboard and talking. Clement was again in his tighty whities, you were wearing a T-shirt and shorts.

He told you what he was doing while you and Sandy were busy at the casino. Of course, he spent most of his time at Sweety's bar, other times he negotiated with his lawyer, Carolyn Wilder, or went to rob a few people.

"Just the usual." he said to you and smoked his cigarette. This time you lit one too. "It's good that you don't smoke weed, Sandy often takes it too far."

"I tried it once, but I almost choked on it, so I've been avoiding it if possible, but the smell doesn't bother me." you said and you also smoked your cigarette and then blew smoke rings.

"See? I’m telling you, that shit is dangerous!” Clement said and you both laughed, then he suddenly put on a serious face. "Can I ask you something?"

"Of course."

"Would you sleep with someone just to get their money?" Clement asked, looking at you with almost sad eyes. You knew what he was thinking and you were glad that he asked, because it meant that he also wanted to continue your last conversation.

"No, I would never go that far, my dignity would not allow it. I'd rather get the fuck out of there than give my body for a stranger's money. I hope you understand."

"Yes, of course, and I appreciate your honesty." he said and put out his cigarette into the ashtray on the bedside table. "Look, I love Sandy, but not like I used to. Of course, it's good that we get money together and everything, but at the same time, it bothers me that she's also sleeping with Skender. To tell the truth, sometimes I get a little bored of her and I have the feeling that I want to be with someone else too, if you know what I mean."

"Yes." you nodded and put out your cigarette, then you took his hand. You were understanding and compassionate with him.

"Unfortunately, it's like this, you can't do anything about it. Just because we steal money from others we are human too with feelings. That's why I always worked alone, so that my emotions wouldn't influence me." Clement looked at you with wide eyes.

"Wow! I don't know when was the last time I heard such sensible thoughts. You can't really talk about such things with Sandy, not to mention she doesn't like the White Stripes. How can you not love that band? They are fuckin’ amazing!"

"Really? I love them too!” you told him, and then you started singing 'I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself' by the band together, which was actually a cover. Clement had a surprisingly good voice, as you had already noticed during your first meeting.

When you finished the song, you both moved at the same time and kissed each other. You kissed like your life depended on it and you only stopped when Clement pulled off your t-shirt and shorts and you pulled off his underwear. It wasn't long before you were lying under him and caressing each other's bodies. During kissing your tongues touched gently, you playfully bit Clement's lower lip, then his neck, and you turned so that you were now on top. You reached down to Clement's cock and started stroking him.

"Hmm, look how greedy you are! You want my cock, honey? You want to feel it in yourself, right?” he asked in his sexy, deep voice and pulled you close by your neck for another tongue kiss.

"Yes!" you gasped, feeling the lust taking over your body and fog started to cover your thoughts. Clement reached into the nightstand drawer and cursed.

"Shit, I don’t have condom. What if we do it with the pull-out method?”

"Okay, just let's do it, I want you so much!"

You sat on him in a reverse riding position and put his hard cock inside you. You pulled your knees up and supported yourself with both arms behind your back. He clasped his hands at the back of his head and with a smug smile he watched you moving on him. In order to reach orgasm sooner, you touched yourself.

"Oh baby, you're so tight, ah!" Clement said, gripping your hip with one hand.

You were so consumed by desire that you didn't even care if Sandy walked in and saw you two fucking.

Your knees started to tire, so you pulled Clement out of you and lay on your stomach, raising your ass up. He took the hint and knelt behind you. He caressed your round butt with his palm, then he grabbed it and put himself back inside you.

"Oh baby, you're so good!" he said between moans and moved his hips in a fast rhythm, so much so that you could feel his balls slapping against your skin.

The bed started to creak from the intense movements and you were sweating like you had run a marathon. Clement waited until you reached your orgasm and then he too was getting closer to it. He pulled himself out of you and came on your back, you could feel the hot fluid dripping off you. He laid on his back next to you, and you spread your legs out and lay on your stomach, gasping.

"Should I wipe your back?" Clement asked with a chuckle, now satisfied and in a better mood.

"No need, I'm going to shower anyway. What…what are we going to tell Sandy?”

"Nothing. She doesn’t need to know about this." he said and leaned in for a kiss. "This should be our little secret." he winked at you and you smiled to yourself.

"We can do this another time." you told him teasingly. Clement raised an eyebrow, apparently liking the idea.

"When Sandy isn't at home, you and I will fuck everywhere in the apartment!"

[food-for-hungry-mtr-fans]

(Actual blog I use is pjunicornart. This is just my main account, the one that'll eventually host my Meet the Robinsons AU ask blog. Eventually.)

I've been wracking my brain trying to come up with an ask... and I finally came up with the most prodigious question!

What indie musical artists do you think the Robinsons would be into? When I mean indie, I mean indie-indie. I think because the Robinsons are so weird and idiosyncratic, they'd be all for listening to artists who aren't as well known as the main faces you hear about. Listen to new sounds, you know.

I'll start! I think Cornelius would be interested in Loveless and Mothica. Maybe a bit of carolesdaughter.

(Sorry for this ask being so poetic... I guess I was channeling my inner Rarity.)

I don’t know as many indie artists as I would like, so most of the stuff I like is popular with indie sound, so I don’t know if these really match.

Franny likes Cranes Wives - it’s probably the only music of that genre she likes. She has written literal analysis sheets on the vocals. Her favorite song is Acturus Beaming.

Laszlo has that one gay person playlist - Will Wood, Lemon Demon, Mother Mother. He unironically really likes Weird Al’s “Angry White Boy Polka”.

Wilbur likes PUP - and his favorite song is ‘Bloody Mary, Kate and Ashley. He tried to show this to Cornelius who kindly rejected it.

Gaston and Art both listen to IDKHBTFM. Gaston’s favorite song is ‘Clusterhug’, Art likes ‘Razzmatazz’. (The song).

Gaston probably also listens to some edgy rage music like 1 800 Pain or something along those lines.

Art likes Time Machine and Isle Upon Thyself from Hawaii P2 but doesn’t know any other song from the album, or the story.

Not really indie at all, but Bud likes Jukebox the Ghost. His favorite song is ‘Where are All the Scientists Now?’ He doesn’t really care about the theme of the song, but he likes the tone of the vocals and the pre-chorus.

Lucille likes ‘Dream, Ivory’ and ‘Jakob’ - who ARE really good indie artists and very different vibe from everyone else here. Her favorite song from either of these two is ‘Perfect Sweet Blue’.

Joe doesn’t share his music taste, it’s like a secret. But when he sits alone at night sometimes and watches clouds, he listens to Current Joys and Foxtide. His favorite song is probably ‘Televisions’.

Billy doesn’t listen to a lot of music, she just generally isn’t interested - but she likes listening to Joes playlist. She picked up an interest in Boy Pablo eventually, but not a strong one.

Tallulah is into Mr. Bungle! I know he’s not REALLY indie but I love him and i need to project that onto somebody. Favorite songs are ‘Ars Moriendi’ and ‘The Air-Conditioned Nightmare’.

Spike and Dimitri don’t understand music.

Lefty likes Dayglow. Nobody knows that Lefty listens to music, but he found the vinyl one day in the garage and listens to it to pass time.

[littleragondin]

I have been tagged by @sparklyeyedhimbo thank you!

rules: name seven comfort films you love, and then tag seven people

- The Lord of the Ring Trilogy

That one's an easy one. For a very long time, it was just the movie(s) I watched the most often across a year. I fell in love with The Fellowship of the Ring when I saw it at 10 in theatre, and I never came back. I know them by heart (both in French and English), and at this point putting them on just feels like coming home. It's the friendships, the hope through darkness, the love overcoming for me.

- Pride (2014)

This one's based on a true story, it's beautiful and touching and has a fantastic soundtrack of course. I watch it when I want an uplifting story but I still need to cry (usually the Bread and Roses scene or Joe and Stef sharing the bed does it, but if not? I always cry at the end), and it makes me feel better about what we can do together. I also really like the friendships in that movie, somehow they make me miss having that irl the most.

- Constantine

You know how they say the music you listen at 14/15 shapes your music tastes for life? That was the movie version for me. I was 15 when I saw it, and listen. Hear me out. Between Keanu Reeves, Rachel Weisz, and Tilda Swinton (especially looking like this) ... well. I was very into it ok. I also love horror and supernatural so you know. I love the story, there is a really good sibling relationship (if sad), it has angels and demons and cross engraved bullets... it's an easy go-to when I want some action and fantastical stuffs.

- 8 Femmes

It's a French jukebox musical about a murder, with a women-only cast for 99% of the movie. What not to love?? It's camp, the actresses are fantastic (it's an all star cast), I love the 50s feel of the whole thing, the songs are great, the characters are color coded ... I somehow always feel lighter after seeing this one, and find myself singing along all the time. (also come on, who wouldn't want to see Fanny Ardant and Catherine Deneuve make out in skirt suits?)

- Ai no Kotodama (2007)

Ootani and Tachibana have been together since high school, now in college they live together, installed in a comfortable routine until a high school classmate reappears in their life and things... become complicated. This one is just… warm, and simple, and quiet. It's just a slice of life, the conflicts can be a little silly but some feel more grounded, there is a clear and sweet happy end, it always warms me up. I've seen it for the first time 13 years ago and I still think about it regularly. Also the two songs are great and still on my playlists, and the fashion now feels delightfully out of date (Ootani's hair hello <3).

- Big Eden

I watched this one for the first time at a moment in my life where i was very lonely. I picked it up because I had seen some gifs on tumblr, I knew it had a happy ending, and I was starting to want to watch more story with adults. There are so many things to love in that beautiful movie, but usually I put it on for the warmth and acceptance of the community, for "Thing is, Pike, we want things to be nice for you, too, buddy." and the whole "Did we teach you shame?" speech and "I was just hoping you'd let yourself be found this time. I was hoping you'd let us find you. But you keep wandering and we can't." and just... yeah. This one is a comfort still when I feel lonely, or lost, removed from the people I love.

- Coraline

I was already a huge fan of the book and of Henry Selick's work when my dad took me to see it for my 18th birthday. It's a beautiful movie, visually, with an incredible score (by Bruno Coulais), and a very strong adaptation of the novel imo. It's a little creepy, but the good guys win at the end, I love Coraline as a character, and as I said it's just SO pretty to look at? I never get bored by it.

If you're into it and no one asked you yet, I'll tag @scienceoftheidiot @benkaaoi @howdydowdy @troubled-mind @gillianthecat @heretherebedork and @sauvechouris !

[lolohe12]

In honor of Good Omens Season 2 coming out I'm sharing my Very long and ever increasing Ineffable Husband's playlist

Somebody to Love - By Queen: "Take a look in the mirror and cry. Lord, what you're doing to me? I have spent all my years in believing you but I just can't get no relief, Lord... Can anybody find me somebody to love?"

2. (You're The) Devil in Disguise - By Elvis Presley: "You look like an angel. Walk like an angel. Talk like an angel. But I got wise. You're the devil in disguise"

3. Rewrite The Stars - From The Greatest Showman: "No one can say what we get to be. So why don't we rewrite the stars? Maybe the world could be ours tonight"

4. Old Devil Moon - By Frank Sinatra: "Just when I think, I'm free as a dove Old devil moon, deep in your eyes blinds me with love"

5. Earth Angel - By The Penguins: Earth angel, Earth angel, will you be mine? My darling dear, love you all the time. I'm just a fool, a fool in love with you"

6. From Eden - By Hozier: "Honey, you're familiar like my mirror years ago. Idealism sits in prison, chivalry fell on its sword. Innocence died screaming, honey, ask me I should know. I slithered here from Eden just to sit outside your door"

7. Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy - By Queen: "Dining at the Ritz we'll meet at nine precisely (One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine o'clock) I will pay the bill, you taste the wine. Driving back in style in my saloon will do quite nicely. Just take me back to yours that will be fine"

8. Take This Waltz - By Leonard Cohen: "And I'll yield to the flood of your beauty. My cheap violin and my cross. And you'll carry me down on your dancing to the pools that you lift on your wrist. Oh my love, oh my love take this waltz, take this waltz. It's yours now, it's all that there is"

9. A Thousand Years - By Christina Perri: "I have died everyday waiting for you. Darling, don't be afraid, I have loved you for a thousand years. I'll love you for a thousand more"

10. Black Wedding - By In This Moment Ft. Rob Halford: "I would've loved you for a thousand years. I would've died for you. I would've sacrificed it all my dear. I would've bled for you 'Til death do us part. You were unholy right from the start It's a nice night for a black wedding."

11. Transatlanticism - By Deathcab for Cutie: "The Atlantic was born today, and I'll tell you how. The clouds above opened up and let it out... I need you so much closer"

12. All This and Heaven Too - By Florence and The Machine: "All this heaven never could describe such a feeling as I'm hearing. Words were never so useful so I was screaming out a language that I never knew existed before"

13. Sun and Moon - By Jon Walker: "I could have been a lot of things. I could have seen the world with broken wings. You're the only one who understands. Yeah, you're the only one who understands"

14. When The Day Met The Night - By Panic! At The Disco: "When the sun found the moon she was drinking tea in a garden, under the green umbrella trees in the middle of summer"

15. Still Into You - By Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox: "Can't count the years on one hand that we've been together. I need the other one to hold you make you feel, make you feel better"

16. Come With Me - By Chxrlotte: "And after six thousand years, if the world disappears I'd fight angels and demons to find you, my dear. I hear heavenly sounds in my head when you're near. I'm alright now you're here"

17. Halo - By Ane Brun: "It's like I've been awakened. Every rule I had you breaking, It's the risk that I'm taking I ain't never gonna shut you out"

18. Like Real People Do - By Hozier: " Iwill not ask you where you came from. I will not ask you, neither should you. Honey just put your sweet lips on my lips. We should just kiss like real people do"

19. Time After Time - By Iron & Wine: "If you're lost you can look and you will find me time after time. If you fall, I will catch you, I'll be waiting time after time"

20. Longer - By Dan Fogelberg: "Longer than there've been fishes in the ocean, higher than any bird ever flew, longer than there've been stars up in the heavens, I've been in love with you"

21. The Book of Love - By Peter Gabriel: "The book of love is long and boring and written very long ago. It's full of flowers and heart-shaped boxes and things we're all too young to know"

22. Heaven in a Place on Earth - By Belinda Carlisle: "In this world, we're just beginnin' to understand the miracle of livin'.Baby, I was afraid before but I'm not afraid anymore"

23. And I Love Him - by Benjamin Gibbard: Bright are the stars that shine dark is the sky. I know this love of mine will never die. And I love him"

24. You're my Best Friend - By Queen: Oh, you're the best friend that I ever had. I've been with you such a long time. You're my sunshine and I want you to know t hat my feelings are true I really love you. Oh, you're my best friend"

25. A Nightingale Sang In Barkley Square - By Tori Amos: "There were angels dancing at the Ritz. And a nightingale sang in Berkeley Square"