#rose prichard

[lithopsy]

thinking of them. what if both husband and wife were doomed by the narrative? 🤭

[dawnsbreaking]

not as smooth as we planned - chapter one

Harry and Rose get a second chance after the villa. pairing: Harry/CMC Rose chapter 1 of 4 chapter word count: 9,145 (i know) read on ao3

Despite winning a reality tv show and finding herself in a committed relationship with up-and-coming star Rafi Sayed, Rose Prichard was all too excited to go back to living a regular life after Love Island.

Rose loved her job as an event coordinator for a non-profit, despite the long hours and meager salary. After winning the prize money and moving in with Rafi, however, she no longer had to choose between a job that she loved and paying bills on time.

It had been Rafi’s idea for Rose to move in with him. He’d suggested it the night they won Love Island—before they were even technically a couple—and Rose resisted for as long as she could manage. It was far too soon, she knew that, but they’d been so close in the villa that resistance seemed futile in the end. She broke her lease and moved in with Rafi two months after the series finale.

Soon after the move, Rafi booked a breakout role and the job called him away for months at a time. In the year and a half that they’d lived together, Rafi had only been home with her for six collective months sprinkled throughout. Rose enjoyed spending her time alone or with friends in his lush flat— their lush flat—while he was away filming. It was idyllic, cooking meals in the fancy kitchen, entertaining guests in the well-decorated living room, and bringing her work home to a cozy spare bedroom turned home office. She hardly missed her boyfriend at all. That should have been the first sign that something wasn’t right.

On paper, Rose and Rafi made no sense. She was a private person, maintaining just enough social media presence to assure her distant relatives that she was still alive and, occasionally, using her fame after Love Island to promote charity events. Rafi, even before his stint on reality tv, had been a frequent purveyor of tasteful Instagram thirst traps and lifestyle vlog content. He thrived in the public eye and it was part of his career. It had been an uphill battle for him to get Rose to trust that the two of them could be compatible. 

Rafi had joined Love Island late, infatuated with the girl he’d seen on the show. Rose had been there since day one but had yet to be swept off her feet. Harry, the boy she’d been most interested in before Rafi, was indecisive and immature. Rose gave up on him before the third recoupling, ending up in a friendship match with Camilo until Rafi’s arrival.

Rafi was already committed to Rose before the two had even spoken. His beach hut interviews were convincing love letters to a woman he’d never met that charmed the audience and caused viewers to root for the couple even before their first date.

Though Rose was slightly overwhelmed by Rafi’s initial feelings for her, he was able to prove himself as a partner and deepen his feelings beyond a crush on a girl on the telly. The optics were good. Of Rafi’s crush working out so well, of Rose learning to appreciate and understand and then return his feelings. Of someone coming in so late and so quickly becoming part of a strong couple. When they won, everyone but Rose seemed to have seen it coming.

After the show, their relationship remained somewhat public, despite Rose’s protests. When Rafi got invited to red carpet movie premieres, Rose’s name was listed on the invitation. Rafi’s publicist also encouraged him to post pictures of him and Rose together. He talked about her in interviews, included short clips of her reading or working in his vlogs, and even once took a brand deal promoting an app for couples, using her name in the copy of the ad.

There weren’t fights, really. Rose expressed her need for boundaries, continued to share the bare minimum on her own socials, and declined every brand deal and interview she was offered. She’d ask Rafi for discretion and be disappointed when he could only provide so much.

Rafi was back home for a short stint between filming outside the country and a small press tour for his show when Rose hit a wall with him. He made dinner and opened a bottle of wine, she filled him in on gossip from work and her friends.

“Oh,” he said, sounding startled at his own abrupt change of subject. “I forgot to tell you. There’s a premiere for my friend’s movie in a couple of weeks. I’m gonna fly you there for the night so you can come.”

The verbiage bothered Rose the most. He wasn’t asking, he was telling. She took a sip of wine and gathered her thoughts before asking, “What are the dates?”

The charity that Rose worked for had its annual fundraising event coming up, an event that she had been working to organize for the better part of the past year. She wouldn’t be able to travel so close to that event, she’d be too busy. Rafi should know that.

“I don’t know, it’s a Friday. About a month from today.” Rafi smiled, reached to lay a hand over hers on the table. “It’s an artsy film festival thing, I think you’ll like it.”

Rose knitted her brows at him. If he was right about the day, he’d planned on attending an event outside of the country the night of her fundraising event. She gave him a moment of silence, hoping he’d remember and correct himself without her having to break the bad news.

“What’s wrong? Do you not want to go?”

“Rafi, are you messing with me?” She��d been talking about this event for months, complaining about vendors and guests and tablecloths almost every time she spoke to him about work.

“Why would I be messing with you? We’re going to a film festival. Four weeks from today. What’s wrong with that?”

“Friday, four weeks from today, is the day of my fundraising event.”

What Rose expected from this revelation was just a few meters short of overreaction. She expected a rush from Rafi to apologize, a hurried explanation. She expected him to get his manager on the phone and cancel with the film festival. Have his assistant send a fruit basket and flowers to everyone involved.

Instead, he shrugged, squeezed her hand on the table. “I’ll tell them you won’t be able to make it.” 

Rose withdrew her hand from his grasp, cradled it awkwardly in her lap as if nursing a physical injury. She frowned, giving Rafi yet another chance to self-correct. He raised a brow but kept his movie-star smile in place. Nothing. Rose hated conflict, even when it was unavoidable.

“What about my event?”

Rafi offered no solution, shrugged again. “You know I hate those things, anyway. Networking events.”

“Networking events?” Rose closed her mouth tight before she could say anything that might put her relationship in jeopardy. She was hosting a fundraising gala with a silent auction. Attendees certainly could network, but that was far from the focus of the event. Besides, his film festival certainly was a networking event. She didn’t argue, didn’t say any of this out loud. She stood, cleared her plate and his.

“Thank you for making dinner.”

Rose took the plates to the sink and started doing the washing up, her back turned to Rafi so that she didn’t have to keep her facial expressions in check. Rose was a terrible liar.

She could feel his eyes on her, though, watching her work to produce even breaths. 

“I forgot to tell you,” she said, keeping her back to him. “I have to run to the office tonight and get some last minute work done. We added a couple of new organizations to the guest list so I need to get some paperwork ready for them.” 

“Can’t it wait until tomorrow?”

Rose turned, facing him again. She decided that she didn’t care if he knew she was lying or not. “I’ve got meetings tomorrow.”

“Can’t be helped then.” Rafi shrugged. He was playing it cool, but Rose could see his shoulders tense as he took another sip of his wine.

“Thank you for dinner, again.” She kissed his cheek on her way to the door. 

-

Harry had never expected Rose to pick him in the first place, so he wasn’t surprised when she’d ended up with someone else in the end. He wasn’t surprised when she won, either. Rose Prichard probably could have won no matter who stood next to her.

If it had been anyone else, his first instinct would have been toward anger. He’d never understood the phrase, ‘if you love someone, let them go’ before. But he adored Rose. He was happy for her, despite everything.

After the show, when life swept them up in separate directions, he wasn’t surprised that they stopped talking. If her social media was any indication, she was happy and busy. Harry didn’t resent their lack of communication or push too hard to keep her in his life, he accepted her shrinking away. Eventually, he unfollowed her on Instagram.

It was hard enough seeing Rafi on movie posters, he had to draw a line in the sand and move on.

Some things were easier said than done.

Harry wasn't sure if his eyes were working properly when he saw her again. The last time he'd seen Rose Prichard had been at the taping of the 'Islander's Tell All' part of the Love Island finale. She'd been with Rafi all night, then, and had barely spoken to Harry.

But there she was, more than a year later, in the flesh. And she was walking into his office building.

Since letting Love Island and all its trappings fade into his past, Harry had continued his original life plan with some slight alterations. He’d landed a job at a tech startup, after learning that he was better suited for back end stuff, programming alone in an office rather than trying to hold the world on his shoulders.

It was rewarding, doing something he was genuinely good at. Even if his life was less glamorous than he’d once hoped, he was happier for the stability and self-assuredness that he’d earned in the pivot.

Rose scanned a key card at his building’s entrance and Harry watched in horror and confusion as his past collided with his present.

The large office building was home to multiple companies that paid to rent spaces or entire floors. It was entirely possible that Rose worked somewhere in the building.

Without thinking, Harry jogged to the door. He’d been enjoying a leisurely stroll before, early enough to work that he could enjoy walking the long way from the parking garage across the street. Seeing Rose had jump-started him like the espresso he’d planned on buying from the café next door. He scanned his badge and slowed to appear nonchalant as he walked in, he held his breath as he brushed past Rose and they stepped into the same elevator.

She looked up, eyes widening when she registered his presence and then his identity. He remembered nights by the pool, making her compete in staring contests just so he could swim in her eyes. 

“Harry?”

“Oh my god!” He tried to play it off like he hadn’t seen her, but he suspected that Rose might be able to see right through him. He found he didn’t care. Something in him wanted her to know that he cared for her, even at risk to his pride. “What are you doing here?”

“I work here,” she said. “Do you work here?”

He beamed. “I’m a programmer on the sixth floor.”

Rose’s eyes lit up and she laughed, shaking her head. Her hair had grown since Harry had last seen her and she was even prettier than he remembered.

“That’s so weird. My new office is on the sixth floor.”

She had to be joking.

“You have to be joking.”

Rose laughed again. “Nope.” She pressed the button for the sixth floor as if to prove her point.

“Huh.”

“Why haven’t I seen you before?” Rose asked, stepping out of the elevator with some hesitation.

“Ah, I’ve been working from home…” Harry adjusted his backpack strap on his shoulder. Though he’d grown more confident, Rose’s clear gaze still had a way of making him self-conscious. He waved the question away. “Do you usually come in this early?”

It was just past five in the morning and they were among the only people in the building.

Rose frowned, seeming to take a moment to think about her answer. “I’m just trying to catch up on some things.”

Harry recognized the crease in her brow and wished she wouldn’t lie to him. He nodded, though, didn’t push the issue.

Harry had thought about seeing Rose again a terribly vast, innumerable amount of times. His imaginings ranged from the dark, where she laughed at him for thinking he might have ever had a chance, to the sweet, where she told him that she’d left Rafi and wanted to be with him instead. Now, in real life, none of those fantasies served him. He had no idea how to speak to her after all this time.

“What, um, company do you work for?”

The sixth floor was home to multiple companies besides Harry’s, since half of it was dedicated to a row of self-contained offices that served as overflow for higher-ups from other floors.

“The same charity as before,” she said, hesitating to say before Love Island. Harry nodded to communicate that he understood the impulse and she continued, letting their shared history remain unspoken, “I was promoted recently, though.”

“Oh, congrats!” The elevator doors opened again, depositing them on the sixth floor. It seemed that one had been round to turn on the lights, though. It was still completely dark.

“Thank you,” Rose said. Then, “Christ, it’s dark, still.”

Harry laughed and flicked on the torch on his phone, lighting Rose’s footpath. “I’m not sure where the switches are,” he said.

She walked forward confidently, finding a switch on the wall directly opposite the elevator.

Harry turned the torch back off. “Do you come in early a lot?”

Rose shrugged. “The new job is busy.” She looked off toward the hallway and Harry got the impression that she might be trying to shut the conversation down. He missed where he was a few seconds ago, trapped in an elevator where she couldn’t leave him.

In a desperate effort to preserve the conversation, Harry asked, “What is it you do, now? For the organization.”

“I’m still in event planning, but I’m pretty much in charge of the whole gala now. They made a position just for me, hence the office down here. They didn’t have room to give me an office where everyone else is.”

“It’s cool that you’re still doing the same stuff. Like, everyone else from the villa is basically an influencer, now.”

Rose laughed, shaking off the compliment. “Not you, though.”

Harry ruffled his hair, blushing. He occasionally helped with Nicky and Seb’s podcast, but Rose was right, he preferred the path his life had been on before Love Island—computer screens and tech startups. He could do with a bit more money, but he didn’t really enjoy all the attention of reality TV long term. “You couldn’t pay me enough.”

“We have that in common, then.” Rose’s smile was as genuine as ever, radiating warmth. She was gorgeous, inside and out.

Harry almost didn’t want to ask. “How’s Rafi, by the way?”

“Oh. Things with Rafi are good,” Rose said. Harry watched her hand toying with a loose thread that sprouted from the handle of her cloth tote bag. “He just got back yesterday from a shoot in Canada.”

“That’s good, then?” Harry couldn’t help but wonder why Rose would be at work so early instead of sleeping in with her boyfriend if he’d just returned home from a long trip. He didn’t voice the question, but it hung in the air regardless.

“Yeah!” Rose dropped the loose thread, clasping her hands in front of her to keep them still. “It’s a shame I’m so busy.” She laughed again, still a little stilted, and gestured lamely down the hall. “My office is number six, by the way—has a nameplate—if you ever need anything.”

Harry took a step back, taking the hint. “Of course, it was good seeing you, Rose.” He hurried to his desk, but her name lingered sweetly on his lips.

-

Rose didn’t know what to make of seeing Harry again. It was strange enough seeing people from the show on Instagram—Harry was right, most of them were influencers, now—or occasionally hearing about them from Rafi, who was better at keeping in touch with everyone. Seeing Harry at work was beyond strange.

For almost one entire hour, she did her best to throw herself into her emails. It greatly impeded her, though, that she hadn’t yet slept. Because of the disagreement with Rafi the night before and her subsequent all-nighter, she was both incredibly tired and almost three days ahead of her normal work schedule. 

When Harry had asked her why she was in the office so early, she hadn’t had the heart nor pride to tell him that she’d been there all night, only having left the office briefly to stretch her legs and grab a spare phone charger from her car.

Sighing, she stood from her desk. It was a large rectangular glass desktop on a stained wooden frame, identical to the desk in her office at home. Both had been gifts from Rafi to celebrate her promotion since he’d been abroad when the promotion was finalized. She remembered the bittersweet feeling of receiving the gifts but wishing Rafi was there to celebrate with. 

Harry wasn’t hard to find. The majority of the sixth floor was dedicated to large tables of open-concept desks where robust computers could be given sufficient room to breathe.

Rose smiled when she saw him. He was completely absorbed in his work, wearing a pair of large blue light glasses and over-ear headphones, staring dead into his monitor.

“Hey,” Rose said, waving her hand to get his attention. He removed his headphones and grinned up at her.

“What’s up?”

“Just needed a break,” she said. “And, I mean, what are the odds of us both working here and coming in early today? I felt rude for running off earlier.”

Harry gestured toward a rolling chair opposite him and scooted his monitor to the side so that he’d be able to see her past it. “Have a seat, then.”

“I mean, if you’re not too busy.”

He laughed, shook his head. “Nah, sit down.”

Rose sat, feeling at ease already in his presence. She’d liked Harry in the villa because he wasn’t intimidating. She had been instantly comfortable around him then too.

“What are you working on?” She asked. Harry kept typing, looking back and forth from her to the screen without losing pace.

He said, “I have a coding test coming up, I’m going for a better position on the programming team here.”

“Oh yeah?”

Harry nodded, a blush spreading on his cheeks. “I’m the only person up for the position internally, so it’s pretty much a done deal.”

“I hope you get it, then.”

Harry stilled his typing and studied Rose. His face lowered into a slight frown as he asked, “Is there a reason you're here and not at home with Rafi?" He paused, catching himself, and quickly added, "I mean, not like it's really my business but if something is wrong, you can talk to me.”

Rose wasn't sure what compelled her to be honest with Harry. She hadn't spoken to him nearly since the villa. It wasn't as if she’d consider him a particularly close friend, or even a contender for becoming one, but that lack of closeness also created a lack of permanence to the conversation. If she really wanted, she could spill her guts and then avoid Harry for the rest of her life. It hadn't been so hard not to see him before now.

"I kind of ran out of the house to avoid an argument," she said, slumping in her chair. "I do actually have work to do, but..."

Harry folded his arms and leaned back, giving her his full attention. “So, you’ve been here all night.”

Rose nodded in the affirmative, caught.

“Don't you have work to do?" She asked, unsure whether she did so to dissuade him from pushing further or out of guilt at having interrupted him.

He shrugged. "I've pretty much got this in the bag."

"The confidence!" Rose giggled, feeling lighter at his easy reply. She liked that about him, too, even if it had been a little infuriating in the villa, the confidence suited him now that he'd grown up a bit.

He had grown up a bit, Rose noticed. He seemed more self-assured and quietly confident than he had before. If the villa confidence had been an act, this new attitude was completely genuine.

"So, the charity gala I've been planning, right?" Rose said, still not completely sure of her desire to vent to Harry but not unsure enough to fight the words from falling from her mouth.

"Right," Harry affirmed. He’d heard about the galas when they’d been a couple on Love Island, she’d been involved in their planning then, too. 

"It's literally all I do all year. I plan this event, it goes great, then I start over and plan the one for next year. Like, literally once a year all of my work gets to pay off."

Harry pushed his keyboard away and folded his hands in front of him, making a show of closely listening.

"So Rafi and I were having dinner and all of the sudden, he's talking about this movie premiere he wants me to go to..." Rose huffed, speaking faster as the irritation came back to her. "Which, like, fine. But it's the same weekend as my gala.”

Harry made a shocked face, covering his mouth with a dramatic flair. "No! Really?”

"Yeah!" It felt good to have someone validate her feelings, even if that someone wasn't her boyfriend. "Right? He didn't even apologize or anything. He just said that I didn't have to go and laughed it off."

"Wait," Harry said. "So, he's not even going to go with you?”

"Yes!" Rose felt more justified in her anger by the second, realizing she wasn't completely crazy for how mad she was. "At this point, I'm not even sure I want him to come."

As she said that, Rose realized that it sunk to the heart of the issue. She didn’t want Rafi at the gala if he didn’t want to be there. A small part of her, though, panged at the thought as a slideshow of her time with Rafi passed her by. The brand deals she didn't want to take part in and the press events she loathed. Rafi’s career at the cost of her privacy.

The first opportunity had come to return the favor and Rafi had fallen completely flat.

-

When Rose had coupled with Harry on their first day in the villa, Harry had felt like he'd won the lottery. He was stunned at first that she was interested in him at all, but he'd have felt that way about any of the girls. She was way out of his league, and he'd made a joke to her to that effect on the first day. But as time passed and they were able to get to know each other more, he realized just how lucky he was.

Rose was radiant and kind. She was able to keep the peace with people around her. She rose above the drama in the villa easily and always managed to come out on top of things. She was funny, too, and smart. Conversations with her were fortifying to Harry in a way that seemed rare and precious.

After just the few days they had together as a couple, he could see himself really falling for her. 

Then he'd messed it all up. He got intimidated, worried that she wasn't really as into him as she let on. He'd started to get the sense that she was further out of his league than he'd originally suspected, that she was starting to get tired of him.

When his insecurities got the better of him, Harry started entertaining other options. He flirted with girls he cared less about because they would hurt his feelings less when they moved on. It felt cliché beyond cliché, so he'd never admitted it to a soul, but he broke things off with Rose because he liked her too much.

She didn't know this, though, she thought that the breakup was mutual, that they both wanted to explore other options. If she was upset, she didn't show it, didn't even give him the satisfaction of knowing he'd made the wrong choice. He knew that she was being charitable and kind and thinking of others like always. She didn't want a disagreement, so a disagreement was avoided.

She had liked him, though, he’d realized all too late, and he'd blown it.

To add insult to injury, Rafi had stolen the show completely when he’d arrived.

Rafi made a spectacle of how much he liked Rose, throwing Harry under the bus while he was at it. Rafi was a real man, Rafi wouldn't take a diamond like Rose for granted, Rafi could show her just how made up his mind was.

It had made Harry want to leave the show early. But he’d stayed, made his bed, got nice and cozy in it.

He was happy that Rose was happy, but he’d never been Rafi’s biggest fan.

Now, hearing Rose complain about him so charitably after he'd done something so careless and needlessly mean, he had to hold back all of the harsh things he wished he could say. He’d always thought that Rose was too nice for her own good.

"Maybe he'll realize his mistake after you ran away in the middle of the night. Like, he has to, right?"

Rose shrugged, looking completely at a loss. "He doesn't pay all that much attention to my silly moods. He knows that if I really have a problem, I'll let him know."

Harry raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Really? You will?"

"Okay..." Rose blushed. "Point taken."

Harry wished that she'd be more assertive. So many mean people that didn't deserve to assert themselves so much did so all the time. People like Rose deserved to get their way more often.

“Look, maybe this isn’t my place but Rafi should already know he's fucked up. Like, you shouldn't have to tell him that the thing you've spent a whole year on means something to you." He leaned forward, speaking faster, hoping to keep Rose from interjecting before he’d convinced her of his point. He liked the feeling of having nothing to lose with Rose, being able to tell her exactly what he thought. “Like, what if he spent a year working on a movie and you wouldn't even go to see it because you had plans with a friend the night of the premiere?"

Rose blanched, seeming all at once to realize the extent of her own hurt feelings. She said nothing, let her shoulders sink with the weight of what she felt.

"Maybe someone should send him anonymous hatemail..." Harry spoke without thinking, blushing when he realized he was thinking out loud. Lucky for him, though, Rose found it funny. She shook her head at him but giggled despite incredulity.

"Please don't," she said. "Christ, though, maybe I’m more angry than I thought because I am tempted.”

"You should be! That was a dick move."

"God," she said after a moment. "You're right."

“Of course I am.” Harry chuckled, downplaying the moment to keep her from sinking again.

"You know, actually…” Rose smiled, a mischievous glint in her eyes. It was a good look on her, sweet Rosie almost never looked mischievous. "If he does decide to ditch me, I could use a date."

“Surely he won't completely ditch you," Harry said, brushing the insinuation off. He didn’t want to get his hopes up. "Come on."

"He might." Rose sighed, resting her chin in her hands, despondent. "He didn't even think twice before telling me that I could just go alone."

"God, what an ass." Harry paused, covering his mouth. "I didn't just say that."

A laugh slipped past Rose's lips at his serious reaction. Harry was relieved to see her laugh.

“It's totally okay, he is being an ass." She rubbed her face, collecting herself again, and added, "I'm sorry, by the way, if that would be weird... I just, I don't know."

"If what would be weird?"

"You coming to the gala with me. I didn't mean... You know."

Villa history hardly seemed like history, but Harry got her meaning. "No, not at all. I'd be honored to come.”

She smiled, radiant. Harry never realized before this that he could miss someone so much when they were right in front of him.

-

For the first time since she'd been hired at her organization, Rose left work early. She went straight home after lunch, practicing what she was going to say to Rafi the entire drive from the office. Harry was right, Rafi shouldn't have to be told how much the gala meant to Rose, it wasn't too much to ask for her to want him to be there. Or at the very least to expect some kind of remorse for not being there.

She knew he’d be home. During the weeks Rafi was off of work, he spent most of his time at the flat doing small press things over the phone and watching movies in his pajamas. Rose would almost envy all of his free time if she didn't love her job so much.

"Rose?" Rafi was standing in the kitchen, he called her name when she came in the door, surprised to hear her. "Put out all the fires?"

Rose resented the sardonic tone that crept at the edges of his voice. He had a bad habit of not taking her work seriously, of treating her just a bit like she was silly for working so hard when she didn’t need to be working at all.

She set her tote bag in a dining chair, keeping quiet. Rose didn't want to engage in an argument right away, even if she felt she had grounds to win it.

"I got a lot done," she said. "I want to talk, though.”

Rafi made a low noise in the back of his throat, a dismissive hum. “Aren’t you tired? You were out all night.”

He was right, she was exhausted. But as much as she wanted sleep, she didn’t want to do so before she’d at least attempted a resolution of the conflict. Part of her wished she'd taken a nap on the couch in her office. It wouldn't have been comfortable, but she might feel a touch more coherent if she had.

"You need your sleep, my love," Rafi said, his voice softening. He took a step toward her around the kitchen island and reached out to brush a strand of hair out of her face.

“Why don’t we talk after you get some rest? I promise it’ll go better if you’re not running on empty.”

Rose sighed, relenting almost immediately. As much as she didn’t want to have this conversation, she especially didn’t want to have it go poorly. She had a better chance of expressing herself properly if she was better rested.

“You’re right,” she said, letting him take her to bed.

-

The morning of Harry's interview, he was surprised to learn that he wasn't nervous. He was confident in the fact that he’d done good work. He deserved the job.

In his school years, working as an intern on the business side of things, Harry had always felt a little out of his depth. He’d never felt able to measure up to his coworkers or mentors, nor could he pinpoint what was missing. It was refreshing to be in a completely different position now, knowing he was the best man for his job. 

As a celebration of his newfound confidence and an indulgence in a guilty fantasy, Harry bought an extra donut and cup of coffee from his favorite café on his way to the office. He took them straight up to the sixth floor and to Rose Prichard’s office.

When he reached her door, he realized that his hands were too full to properly knock. He laughed, gently knocking his head against the glass door to get her attention.

Rose’s smile when she saw him could have launched a thousand ships.

"What's this for?" She asked, letting him in and accepting the coffee and pastry bag as he offered them to her.

"It's a good luck breakfast!"

“That’s right, your interview is today, isn’t it?”

Harry loved that she’d remembered.

"Yes! And I'm, like, not nervous at all." He'd done a lot of practicing. A lot of late night hours in the office hoping to see Rose. When she didn't show, he’d at least been able to focus his energy on acing the coding test.

"You're gonna crush it." Rose took the lid off of her coffee, blowing it gently before taking a careful sip. “I don’t know why you brought me coffee as a good luck charm, but thank you.”

"Of course." Harry blushed. He liked doing things for her. 

Harry took a seat on the small sofa opposite Rose's desk. In the time since he'd started working on her floor, he'd seen her reading or lounging on this couch just after the end of her work day. He'd wondered at first what she needed with a couch in her office, but it seemed that she got good use out of it. Her office was like a second home to her.

He wondered once or twice if she enjoyed being work more than she enjoyed being home.

"I meant to ask," Harry said, pulling Rose's attention back up from her computer monitor. She'd immediately returned to her email mid-conversation. She'd been a bit of a space case in the last couple of days, but her gala was approaching quickly and Harry knew she was constantly worrying about minor details. Harry knew she must be thinking about it all hours of the day. "How did the conversation with Rafi go?"

She gave Harry a guilty look and his heart sank. He knew what she was going to say before she said it.

“We didn’t really talk.”

“You didn’t…” Harry sounded more surprised than he felt. In the time that he’d known Rose, he’d never known her to be confrontational. She enjoyed keeping the peace, even if it meant swallowing her guts.

“I tried, but I was too tired that day to be coherent and then we only just brushed past it.” She resumed typing, keeping a level tone of voice as a show of nonchalance. “It just kept getting further and further away until it felt silly bringing it up again.”

“Are you still upset?”

She considered for a moment too long for the answer to be no, regardless of what she wanted to tell him.

“Rose.” Harry did his best impression of a stern parent. It didn’t suit him, but he persisted. “You’ve got to talk to him soon, doesn’t he leave for his trip this week?”

“Right.”

“Well there you are. He’s not going to fly back last minute if he doesn’t think this is important to you.” Harry kept what he wanted to say back. He wanted to remind her that Rafi should know better without being told. But he didn’t want Rose to think he was outright bashing her boyfriend by remaining so firmly against him. Even if Rafi objectively deserved the bashing.

“I’ll try to talk to him again,” Rose said. Harry wasn’t convinced.

“Promise?” He stood halfway to reach out to her, offering a pinky in a silly—but hopefully sincere—gesture of solidarity.

She rolled her eyes but locked her pinky with his. Her touch sparked electricity that traveled all the way to his bones. “I promise.”

-

Rose stormed into the apartment, dropping her keys and bag on the entry table with a clatter. She didn't want to lose any of the momentum she'd worked up in the car this time.

“We need to talk,” she said. Telling, not asking.

“What’s wrong, Rosie?” Rafi looked shocked, but he maintained a level voice. He was wearing nothing but a nice pair of silk pajama bottoms and had been relaxing in front of the TV when Rose barged in, flustered. All things considered, he was taking the intrusion in stride.

All in one breath, before she could even take a seat next to him on the couch,  Rose said, “I’m upset about you not coming to my gala. Like, I know you have other things going on—which is fine. But you don’t even seem sad about it or sorry you’ll miss it.”

Rose stopped speaking just long enough to sit next to him on the couch, pulling one leg up next to her so that she could face him in her seat. She continued, “It’s really hurt my feelings, Raf. I didn’t want to make a big deal of it before, but…”

She trailed off, trying desperately to blink away tears. It had been made into a joke on Love Island that Rose cried easily and often, which made her all the more self-conscious now.

“Rosie…” Rafi reached for her, pulling her to scoot closer and lean into his bare chest. He closed his strong arms around her when she complied. Rose hated how her easy tears always toppled the balance of these types of conversations. How quickly the other party stopped taking her seriously when she started crying.

She didn’t want to be coddled, she wanted to be heard.

“Rosie, come here.” Rafi smoothed her hair down as she tried to collect herself, but her efforts were very nearly in vain. She felt hysterical.

“How long have you been holding onto this?” He asked.

The tears came faster. It had been almost two weeks since he’d told her about the film festival.

“I didn’t want to make it a thing,” she whimpered, feeling pathetic.

“It’s okay.” Rafi smoothed her hair again, pressed a kiss to her forehead. “It’s alright, baby.”

The angry, frustrated part of her wondered if he was ever going to actually apologize or if he’d just continue to comfort her meaninglessly. He acted like she was upset at someone or something completely separated from him. Like he was saving her from her own sadness, detached from all meaning.

“Do you know what I mean, though?” Her rising anger kept the tears at bay long enough for her to speak again. “I feel dismissed.”

Rafi shook his head. “I know, but you’re not going to like what I have to tell you.”

Frowning, Rose said nothing. She pulled back, daring him to say what she knew was coming.

“Well, if I’d known sooner how much it meant to you I would have been able to change things but…” He trailed off. She got the gist. This wasn’t his fault anymore. He’d surely have been more considerate if she’d given him proper notice.

Rose cut him off. “So that’s it, then?” Her voice was soft, not malicious even if she deserved to be.

“I’m sorry,” Rafi said. He tried to reach for her arms again but she shook him off. “It’s out of my hands!”

Rose recoiled, sinking into herself once more. Speaking her mind hadn’t fixed anything, but at least she knew that she had a right to be angry. She stood, took quick steps towards the door. “I’m going back to work.”

“You’re not.” Rafi gave an incredulous laugh.

“I am.” She punctuated the sentence with the rattle of her keys being retrieved from the entry table. “This was my lunch break.”

“Rose, please.”

“If you can’t change anything, fine.” She opened the door, took a step outside. “Forget I said anything.”

Rose shut the door gently behind her, wishing she had the strength of conviction to slam it.

-

When Harry's interview ended and he was told that he'd be moved to the better postion, he was first thrilled, then struck by an odd desire to run directly to Rose's office to deliver the good news. He hadn’t even called his mother yet but, there he was, taking the elevator back up to the sixth floor.

He arrived to find that the lights had been turned off and Rose was no longer there. It was odd for her, to be gone this early in the day.

Harry knew that he should hope that she was talking to Rafi, finally getting the apology she deserved, but he wished despite this that she was just taking her lunch or in a meeting, that she’d be back before the end of the day.

Without Rose to share his news with, Harry went back to the first floor. He’d taken the rest of the day off for the interview, since it was scheduled after his lunch. His second instinct was to step outside and call his mom.

In front of the office building, Harry dialed his mom’s cell and took a seat on one of the large, concrete blocks that replaced actual benches in favor of a brutalist, corporate aesthetic.

“You have good news?” Harry’s mom had texted him a sweet good luck message that morning. She would be happy with him even if he hadn’t been given the job, but he was filled with pride to tell her that he had. 

“I got the job,” he said. He smiled down at the cracks in the sidewalk, warmth rising to his cheeks at getting to say the thing out loud. “I’m really excited.”

“I’m proud of you,” his mom told him. He was overjoyed. “Really, good job, son.”

“Thank’s mom.” Harry kicked his legs, feeling unusually boyish despite his grown-up accomplishment. He looked up at the sky, trying to take in the moment. So much of him had changed in the last few years. It was like he could feel his frontal lobe developing in real time.

He’d grown into a man his mother was unequivocally proud of.

Harry’s mom told him about what she was cooking for dinner and about some home-town gossip and Harry listened patiently, happy for the distraction from wondering where Rose was.

When he finally hung up the phone, he almost didn’t believe his eyes when he looked up and saw her. It was as if Rose had been conjured from his mind and placed in the street in front of him.

“Rosie!” He hopped up from the bench, waving to get her attention before she entered the office building. He wasn't sure why the nickname had come to him, but it felt comfortable, like he’d said it a hundred times before.

She turned and the corner of her mouth budged into a hint of a smile. “What are you doing out here?”

He held up his phone, shook it for emphasis. “Calling my mom.”

The realization struck her and she gasped, dropping all casual pretense for sincere excitement. “Ah! Did you get the job?”

Harry flushed, head to toe, warm with pride like he’d taken a shot of liquor. He was sure his cheeks were tinged with pink, but he didn’t entirely mind.

“I did.”

“Oh my god!” Rose beamed at him. “Harry, that’s amazing!”

He didn’t remember the last time he’d heard her say his name, but the sound of it made him dizzy. He looked down, kicked at the air in front of his foot. “Thank you,” he said. “I’m really glad.”

“I’m glad for you! Are you coming back inside?” She asked. “Or did you take time off for the interview?”

“They told me I could take the day.” Emboldened by his recent luck, he asked, “Have you eaten lunch already?”

-

Since she’d taken her lunch break to try to talk to Rafi, Rose knew that the responsible thing would be to grab something from a vending machine, go back to her office, and resume work. She found that she didn’t want that, though. In direct contrast to the last few weeks, where she had felt safest while locked away in her office, Rose didn’t want to go back to work.

She wanted to go to the Pho place Harry suggested for lunch. To stay with him for the rest of the day. She felt uncharacteristically carefree when she had his positive attitude to bask in, and a woefully neglected piece of her wanted to hold onto the feeling for as long as she could.

As a compromise—because Rose couldn’t abandon the gala as much as she wanted to—she invited Harry up to her office and they ordered Pho to be delivered.

While they waited for their food, Rose answered emails and called vendors. She had no extra time to spare away from gala preparations. Harry was patient, chatted to her about her work when she could spare the focus and played a game on his phone when she couldn’t.

Rose enjoyed Harry’s company, even if they weren’t speaking.

When the food came, they cleared space on Rose’s desk to eat. It was cramped, since she didn’t want to get hot broth too near her computer. They had to sit on the same side of the desk, elbows bumping for the fact that Harry was left-handed.

“We could switch sides,” Harry said, giggling at yet another accidental bump.

Rose shook her head, giggling as she scooted a tiny bit away. “No, it’s fine. I’m sorry my desk is only really built for one.”

“I don’t mind being cozy.” As if to prove his point, Harry bumped her elbow with his again, a playful jab. “But we wouldn’t have this problem if you traded me seats.”

“I didn’t know you were left handed.” She bumped him back. “Isn’t it weird how little we actually learned about each other? You know, on the show?”

In the nearly two weeks since they’d been reacquainted, neither of them had really mentioned the reality television shaped elephant in the room. It had been easy not to address their shared history, to let any past heartaches fade into the background. Rose wasn’t sure what made her bring it up, then.

Maybe it was getting harder to spend time with Harry without thinking about what it had been like to kiss him.

“What do you mean?” Harry asked. 

“I didn’t really know you were left-handed, to start.”

On Love Island, they hadn’t been allowed to talk about certain things early on. Their conversations were kept infuriatingly shallow until the end, manufacturing an artificial sense of closeness between the finalists and keeping drama front and center. Rose knew the basics; Harry was from York, he’d still been a student then. They’d swapped descriptions of their family dynamics and anecdotes about their studies. Harry had once bragged about how early he woke up every morning to recite positive affirmations.

Plastic kiddie pool shallow.

“To be fair, I was too busy trying to impress you to open up much,” Harry admitted. Rose stared down into her bowl, too startled by his honesty to meet his eyes. “I mean, that’s how everyone was, though.”

“Right, we didn’t get into a lot of deep conversations until the end.”

“No,” Harry chuckled. “I mean, everyone was trying to impress you.”

Rose turned, knitting her brows at him. She’d never understood this impression people had of her time on the show—that she’d been particularly well liked or desired. On some level, something like that had to be true for her to have won in the end, but she’d assumed that the popular vote had been won in large part by Rafi’s charisma, not her’s.

“Everyone was trying to impress everyone,” she told him. “But things were weird there, we had to be these silly, exaggerated versions of ourselves in order to stand out. I don’t feel like I really got to know anyone until after.”

“Does that include Rafi?”

“I think so,” Rose admitted. “Not entirely a bad thing, but... I don’t know, there’s a reason reality TV relationships don’t usually work out.”

Harry paused, a crease forming between his brows as he seemed to see through to the heart of Rose’s sudden nostalgic turn. “Did you talk to him?”

Rose sighed, nodded. She’d suspected that her feelings about the argument with Rafi would catch up to her eventually, but she’d hoped to at least finish lunch first.

“Here’s the thing,” Harry said. “If you don’t want to talk about it again, we don’t have to. But if you need to vent, I really do care for you, Rose.”

She could only bear to let the sincerity of his statement linger for a moment before it was too much. 

“It didn’t go well,” Rose said. She could start there, understated. “I mean, basically exactly what you predicted happened.”

“Meaning?”

Tears welled in her eyes already. Rose wished for the second time that day that her heart were just a touch further from her sleeve.

“He said that if he’d known sooner then he could have changed his plans, but…” Her voice cracked and she trailed off, looking away from him in an attempt to preserve her pride.

When she looked back, Harry’s face was twisted into a deep frown, barely holding back anger. Then, seeing her eyes again, his gaze softened into a look of deep concern.

“Can I offer some unsolicited advice?” He asked.

-

Harry hated to see Rose cry.

Only once in the villa had she cried in front of him, but her easy tears had been made into a running joke by the producers and the narrator on the show. Harry remembered hearing the narrator joke about it for the first time, how furious it had made him. That had been one of the first things that made him want to distance himself from the franchise entirely.

“If I grant permission I don’t think it’s unsolicited advice anymore,” Rose joked, a sad attempt at a laugh bubbling from her chest. “But go ahead.”

“I think you should consider what this means for the rest of the relationship.” He wasted no time getting to the point. In the time since Rose’s first argument with Rafi, Harry had been consumed with desire to fix things for her. But he had his reasons to hesitate to get involved. He didn’t want to seem like he was rooting for a breakup or judging Rafi too harshly, even if he suspected that Rose didn’t know he still harbored feelings for her. Here he was, though, past the point of no return.

He continued, “Like, if you think you can accept that your feelings were hurt and that he’s probably not going to fix this, then you can move on. But if you can’t…” The insinuation hung between them without Harry having to say the words. He didn’t want to tell her to break up with him outright. Even if that was objectively what he thought she should do.

He expected Rose to reel back or offer some kind of rebuttal or defense of Rafi. She didn’t, though. Instead, she twisted her hands together in silence for a moment. Then, “God, Harry, when did you get so wise?”

Harry blushed, surprised at the comment. He’d never once been accused of being wise. “Oh, you know…”

Rose took a moment, silently collecting herself, brushing her eyes with the backs of her hands. She must wear very waterproof mascara, Harry imagined, the corner of his lip twitching up at the thought.

“What are you smiling at?” She narrowed her eyes, but cracked a smile at the same time, only selling her attempt at annoyance halfway. 

“Is your mascara waterproof?” He asked.

She rolled her eyes. “Very funny. Yes it is.”

Without thinking, he reached for her arm, giving it a gentle squeeze.

“You know, I hated how they made that a thing for you. On the show.” He pulled his hand back, cradling it in his lap as if to keep himself from reaching for her again. “It made me so mad seeing them trivialize your feelings the way they did.”

Rose gave him a doe-eyed look, like she didn’t believe the words coming out of his mouth.

“Oh, um…” She wiped her eyes again then looked around the room to avoid eye contact. He remembered how she fled from moments of sincerity in the villa. How much Rafi had been required to push her to make her realize his feelings were genuine. “I appreciate that.”

-

Rose had feared conviction like this when she’d first moved in with Rafi. The conviction that she should break up with him without knowledge of where she would go if she did.

She resented the fact that the name on the lease was his. Since he paid most of the bills, it meant that she would be the one who would have to leave. Even if she’d been the one that spent the most time in the flat, making it a home.

After her lunch with Harry, Rose told him that she needed time to think and to focus on work. Even though a tiny part of her wanted him to push back and not leave her to herself, Harry absconded without protest.

Rose thought about texting Rafi and preparing him for a conversation when she got home, but she couldn’t work up the nerve. She finished her work for the day, tried not to think about the conversation ahead, drove home without a plan.

As she walked up the stairs to the front door, her phone dinged. A text from Harry wishing her luck. She walked into the flat smiling, grateful for Harry’s support.

The living room was dark, though, and Rafi was gone. Because he wasn’t in town much, he didn’t drive, so there was no way to judge whether or not he was home by a car outside the building.

Rose went to the bedroom and her office, just in case, but he was nowhere to be found. She was halfway through typing a text asking where he was when she saw the note on the kitchen counter.

Rose,

I had to catch a flight, they need me on set early. I’ll call you when I get in tonight.

Rafi

-

so sorry this was way more self indulgent and much longer than it needed to be. cheers.

tags: @starsarestars @lasswithumor

[mechs-song-tournament]

Hello! Pinned post time!

Feel free to dunk on songs you don't want to win! I will judge you silently if you decide to be mean to a song I like. You have been warned.

Please feel free to submit/send/reblog propaganda for songs and narrations! I'll either add it to the poll under a readmore or reblog it depending on weather or not I can edit the poll!

Rounds + links to polls under the cut!

ROUND 0 (pre-round)

Ulysses Dies at Dawn:

Sirens / Torn Suits

The Bifrost Incident:

Losing Track / Ragnarok IV: Jormungandr

Ragnarok V: End of the Line / Ragnarok III: Strange Meeting

Sigyn / Ragnarok I: Runaway

Tales to be Told Vol 2:

Swan Song / Alice

Narrations:

All OUaT(IS) narrations

All UDAD narrations

All HNOC narrations

All TBI narrations

ROUND 1

Once Upon a Time (In Space):

Our Boy Jack / Cinder's Song

Rose Red / Sleeping Beauty

No Happy Endings / Old King Cole

Ulysses Dies At Dawn:

Sirens / Broken Horses

Trial by Song / Riddle of the Sphinx

Favoured Son / Underwold Blues

Ties that Bind / My Name is No-One

Tales to be Told Vol. 1:

Gunpowder Tim vs the Moon Kaiser / Prometheus

Pellinore and the Beast / The Ignominious Demise of Dr. Prichard

One Eyed Jacks / Redeath

High Noon Over Camelot:

Gunfight at the Dolorous Guard / Skin and Bone

Blood and Whiskey / Hellfire

Hanged Man Rusts / Peacemaker

Holder of the Grail / Empty Trail

The Bifrost Incident:

Odin / Losing Track

Thor / Ragnarok II: The Calling

Loki / Ragnarok III: Strange Meeting

Red Signal / Ragnarok I: Runaway

Tales to be Told Vol 2:

Twisted Threads / Alice

Stranger / Pieces

Hereward the Wake / Lucky Sevens

Lost in the Cosmos / Drop Dead

Miscellaneous:

Drunk Space Pirate / Lotus Eaters

Tales to be Told / Frankenstein

Death to the Mechanisms / Homesick

Finales:

Laid in Blood / Terminus

Once and Future King / Elysian Fields

Narrations:

The Aurora Strikes / Expert Testimony

The Hermit / Sunrise

ROUND 2

Once Upon a Time (In Space)

Pump Shanty / Our Boy Jack

Sleeping Beauty / No Happy Endings

Ulysses Dies at Dawn

Sirens / Riddle of the Sphinx

Underworld Blues / My Name is No-One

Tales to be Told Vol 1

Iphis / Gunpowder Tim vs the Moon Kaiser

The Ignominious Demise of Dr Pilchard / One Eyed Jacks

High Noon Over Camelot

Skin and Bone / Blood and Whiskey

Hanged Man Rusts / Holder of the GRAIL

The Bifrost Incident

Losing Track / Ragnarok II: The Calling

Loki / Red Signal

Tales to be Told Vol 2

Alice / Stranger

Lucky Sevens / Lost in the Cosmos

Miscellaneous

Cyberian Demons / Drunk Space Pirate

Tales to be Told / Death to the Mechanisms

Finales

Laid in Blood / Once and Future King

Narrations

Expert Testimony / the Hermit

ROUND 3

UDAD winner 1 / TTBT2 winner 2

HNOC winner 2 / Misc winner 1

UDAD winner 2 / OUat(IS) winner 1

TTBT2 winner 1 / TBI winner 1

OUaT(IS) winner 2 / Misc winner 2

Narrations winner / TBI winner 2

HNOC winner 1 / TTBT1 winner 2

Finales winner / TTBT1 winner 1

ROUND 4

Round 3 winner 1 / Round 3 winner 2

Round 3 winner 3 / Round 3 winner 4

Round 3 winner 5 / Round 3 winner 6

Round 3 winner 7 / Round 3 winner 8

ROUND 5

Round 4 winner 1 / Round 4 winner 2

Round 4 winner 3 / Round 4 winner 4

ROUND 6 (Finale)

Round 5 winner 1 / Round 5 winner 2

It should end up looking something like this ^

[sidehugsnsideblogs]

FCSU#85 Restructuring

Happy New Year everybody! I finished my practicum project so now I can get back to simming. I’m 75% done my program and I could not be happier! Anyway, without further ado, the story continues...

Another faithful viewer of Higher Prospects was LeRoyce Culton. He claimed to watch so he could “be aware of the actions of our enemies” but in reality he hate-watched each episode pointing out differences between Elden’s group and his. “See? Mother Rachel, a sin! Such vile apostates!” He’d shout to his disinterested mother. The family was still separated but the time would soon be upon them. 

Royce had decreed that his young successor could now take a wife, though this kindness was not extended to any other men remaining in the FCSU. Some of the girls were on the cusp of teenhood, marking them as suitable for marriage by FCSU standards. The only problem was that they were all Cultons. “Mother Rachel, the time has come for me to take a wife!” He said plainly at one of the meetings. “Really, who?” She asked, concerned. Maybe he’d swayed a girl to come back from Elden’s church? 

“One of the girls, I shall move them into one home and select the sweetest, most obedient one.” Rachel bit down on her tongue. “LeRoyce, that is not a good idea. Those girls are your own brother’s daughters.” “Our people have married uncle to niece for generations. There are only a handful of surnames in the church anyway.” “Maybe you should take a wife from Elden’s church, that would make more of a statement?” Said Rachel, starting to sound desperate.

“Leave us alone, please.” Said Rachel, dismissing Lee and Roy. They stood up and marched outside almost robotically. Rachel drew a deep breath. “You cannot marry any of the girls in this church, they are too closely related to you!” “They are my nieces!” LeRoyce began to raise his voice. “THEY ARE YOUR SISTERS!” exclaimed Rachel, her face red with anger and embarrassment.   

By this point Rachel was shaking, she sat back down as did LeRoyce, his eyes burning with rage. “Is this an admission of adultery?” He spoke quietly. Rachel bowed her head. “No. It was for Leroy...when I was young Royce told me that to administer comfort to him was to administer strength to his father. Everything I did I did for the Prophet, for my husband.” She wept, her deepest secret released. 

There had been a rumor since the raid the LeRoyce was the child of Royce and not his father Leroy. Actually, DNA evidence collected during the raid confirmed this to townies but the FCSU members had chosen not to believe it. “Alright,” LeRoyce said calmly as he rose to his feet. “Rachel Prichard Culton, you have violated the sacred covenant of marriage and will pay dearly in this life and the next. You will stay here in repentance until summoned.” And with that he was gone. Rachel broke down, the life she had spent decades building, gone in an instant.

LeRoyce summoned the girls from all their safe houses and moved them into a cabin on a small island. The Mothers were simply told to pray and make themselves pure and if they became worthy enough, they would be reunited with their daughters. He came to each house to collect the girls himself, carefully observing their reactions as he pulled them away from the women who’d raised them for years.

All the wives were clearly worried about leaving the young girls alone with LeRoyce, all except Mother Maggie, who remained detached as usual. None of the girls were hers anyway. Emma was disciplined in her response; the sooner she proved herself worthy, the sooner she’d be reunited with her daughters. Evangeline tried to remain stoic but her eyes betrayed her and tears slid down her cheeks.

And then there was Farrah. When LeRoyce arrived at the Swamp House she greeted him properly but stood protectively in front of the children. She had been assigned some of the youngest in the group, after all. Her hesitance did not escape LeRoyce’s notice. “I have come to collect what’s mine-my pure, true followers.” He stated with a slimy edge to his voice. Farrah started hard at her sister’s son, a boy she’d done her absolute best to spoil as a child. All that special treatment must have gone to his head, she thought.

“Is there a problem here?” A voice boomed out behind them, snapping both LeRoyce and Farrah from the their staring contest. Jacob, the Farmer from next door was standing only a few feet away. “Do you need me to call the police?” He asked, his eyes fixed on this lanky stranger. LeRoyce sniffed “No need, I was just checking up on my little sisters. Goodbye, Mother Farrah.” He strode to his waiting car and took off down the driveway.

“What was that all about?” Asked Jacob as the car peeled off in the distance. “Was that your son?” “No, no.” Farrah answered exasperatedly. “He’s my stepson...and nephew...and interim Prophet I guess.” Farrah felt dizzy, she was so confused. Since when did she stand up to her leaders? Her job was to be as meek and submissive as possible. But she found herself having difficulty submitting to LeRoyce. She’d practically raised him, after all. It was Farrah who tucked him in at night while Royce and Rachel were off gallivanting. To her he was still a spoiled little boy.

[dawnsbreaking]

ugh, young love! this is so fun, i love pining bobby and how you included the S1 islanders. this definitely makes me want to write more misunderstood preppy girl Rose, it totally suits her. thank you so much for this and for organizing the exchange!! this is lovely <3

Hello! This my submission for the LITG S2 Gift Exchange! My giftee is the awesome @lucolestead .

I hope you like my take on the lovely Ms. Rose Prichard🌹

I also want to thank @sunshinejihyun and @justtuesdays for organising this event and for having me! So thank you 😊

And I would like to especially thank @justtuesdays for your advice, patience and for keeping me in the loop. Thank you 💓

Please enjoy 😉

~~~

Bobby had liked Rose Prichard for as long as he could remember.

Since secondary school, Bobby had a crush on her.

It was cliché: he, the resident class clown, had a crush on the most popular girl in school. Typical.

"Dude, she is way out of your league," Felix said, as he, Bobby, and their friend Hope sat at their regular table in the cafeteria for lunch.

Bobby rolled his eyes, "I know."

"Crap! Here they come!"

The popular rich people walked into the cafeteria in slow motion.

So typical.

Elisa Bowens was the daughter of a famous model and a famous influencer on Instagram.

Talia Lopez was the daughter of a rich attorney.

Lucas Koh, whose father owned a famous hotel chain.

Levi Garrett was the son of famous Olympic swimmers.

Jen Hart was the daughter of famous socialites.

And Rose Prichard, who was the daughter of two famous actors.

The cheerleaders and the jocks. The rich kids. Typical.

Even though they were in college now.

"Bro, seriously. She's one of those rich kids. She won't look at you twice," Felix continued. "And she's dating that Levi guy."

Bobby sighed. Of course. Rose and Levi were the power couple in the school. Couple goals and all that.

The popular students sat at their designated tables, all of them chatting to themselves.

"Geez, who are you texting anyway?" Felix asked Hope, who was on her phone as usual. "Can't you talk to us for once?"

Hope glared at him, "It's none of your business, and I talk to you two every day already."

Bobby rolled his eyes at his friends' antics.

Anyway, Bobby knew that Rose was out of his reach. He knew. He wasn't as tall as Levi and wasn't as athletic.

Still, his heart longed for Rose.

~~~

Being with Levi was hard for Rose. Being around him, it was hard for her to breathe.

Everything was about looks and status for him. Having to update their social media every second to show off their relationship. Rose knew that their dating was great for their families and for their own fame but... Rose wanted something real.

Rose knew that Jen liked Levi. She knew. And whenever she and Levi showed any PDA, she could feel the jealousy radiating from Jen. She and the other popular people weren't really friends, they were all simply playing a part in public.

She hated it.

~~~

"Alright idiots, you have an essay coming up that's taking up 30% of your grade," Bobby's Literature professor, Mr. Mitchell stated. "And don't even bother trying to choose your partner because I already did."

The whole class groaned.

Despite most of them having different majors, most of Bobby's college mates shared some classes.

"These are the groups: Talia Lopez and Mason Culhane, Marisol Hernandez and Blake George..."

"Aw man, I wanted us to be together," Felix complained.

Bobby glared at him playfully, "Just so you can sit and eat cake while I do all the work?"

"Yes!"

"Felix Cunningham and Charlotte Andrews, Lucas Koh, and Hope Biala..."

"That's my cue! See ya!" Felix got up and left to where Charlotte, also known as Lottie, was seated.

"Levi Garett and Jen Hart, and Bobby McKenzie and Rose Prichard."

Bobby's heart jumped at that announcement. He was partnered with Rose! With Rose!

Rose sighed, worry burning her heart. Levi and Jen were partners. Great. While she was partnered up with that weird bloke.

He sat next to her and Rose fought the urge to roll her eyes.

He opened his mouth to say something but she stopped him.

"Look, I just want to get this over with and done," she snapped. "Just pull your weight, get your part done, take this seriously and we'll be fine. Got it?"

Bobby nodded wordlessly, looking dumbfounded.

"Good. Give me your phone."

He obeyed and he watched in anticipation as she saved her number on his phone.

"Don't text me later than 10 pm, okay?" she told him and he nodded. "Now, are you available tomorrow afternoon?"

He nodded.

"Good. See you then."

She got up and walked away as soon as the bell rang.

~~~

When Rose caught up to Levi after school, he and Jen were talking quietly to themselves, standing very close to each other by Levi's car.

Rose walked over to them, plastering a fake smile.

"Hey!" she called to them, doing her best to keep the hostility out of her voice.

The two jumped at the sound of her voice and immediately stepped away from each other.

"Hey babe," Levi greeted her awkwardly, while Jen avoided her gaze.

"Hey sweetie, can I talk to you?" Rose asked, through clenched teeth.

"Sure," Levi nodded and glanced at Jen. "See you later, J."

Jen nodded, her cheeks pink.

Rose clenched her fists in rage. How dare she?!

The two then walked off, heading over to Levi's car.

"Is there something going on between you and Jen?" Rose asked immediately when they were alone.

"Seriously?!" Levi snapped. "Are you for real?"

"Yes, I'm for real? Are you really going to jeopardize our relationship like this?!"

"You need to trust me, okay?! You can't just go around accusing me of things like that! I know our roles in this relationship!"

Rose flinched at his shout, shame filling her heart. Okay, maybe she did jump to conclusions a bit. So far, Levi hadn't done anything to make her think he was cheating or anything. He was loving to her, for the most part.

"You're right. I'm sorry. Seeing you with her... it just-"

Levi sighed, taking her hands in his, "I know. But you have to trust me, okay?

Rose nodded. Despite Levi's reassurances that nothing was going on between him and Jen, she still felt a way about them working together.

~~~

Bobby had been excited to be working with Rose at first, but after her attitude in class, he wasn't so sure.

He didn't appreciate her rudeness at all, so he resolved to talk to her about it the next time they met.

Besides, he had to find a date for the Dance.

~~~

"So Elisa, is Lucas asking you to the dance?" Talia asked, the next day (Saturday), in Rose and Jen's room.

Rose wanted to be anywhere else, but she had to maintain her 'friendships' with Jen, Talia and Elisa sadly. Not to mention, they were living in the same sorority, and because of that, they lived in the same dorms: Elisa and Talia shared a room and unfortunately, Rose and Jen shared another.

"Gosh, I hope so. I've been hinting at it but he doesn't seem to get it."

"Maybe you can just ask him yourself," Rose stated.

Elisa glared at her, "But that's his job!"

"Yeah, Elisa can't go around asking a guy that, it'll look tacky." Talia agreed.

"It was just a suggestion," Rose rolled her eyes and grabbed her bag.

"Where are you going?!" Jen protested.

"To start my Literature project," Rose walked away, without looking back.

She heard Elisa mutter "What's going on with her?" And sighed. She was sick of this.

~~~

Rose had told Bobby to meet her at a Cafe near his apartment and near the college. She wanted to start this project as soon as possible.

Bobby arrived minutes after she did, looking tired.

"You look awful," Rose stated, as he sat across from her on the table.

"Had a long day." He snapped.

"Well-"

"Look, before we start this thing, I want you to know that I didn't appreciate how you spoke to me yesterday. I understand that you're not happy being partnered with me but that doesn't give you the right to be so mean. So I would like for you to get over yourself and let's just get this done." He stated.

Rose gaped at him, not expecting him to go off like that. Shame filled her heart. He was right. He hadn't done anything to her at all. It was all her insecurities about Levi and Jen.

"You're right and I'm sorry. I shouldn't have acted that way. Can you forgive me?"

He smiled, "Of course."

She smiled back at him, "Alright, let's get started then."

For the next twenty minutes, Rose and Bobby made plans for their project and assigned one another to different parts of the essay. Rose seemed more relaxed than before, smiling and laughing.

"So Bobby," Rose began. "What do you do for fun?"

"I love going to the arcade. It's my favourite place to go. And I absolutely adore baking and cooking."

"Oh really?" Rose laid her hand on his, making his heart race. "Would you bake something for me, Bobby?"

He blushed, "Maybe. If you're nice."

She grinned.

Later on, the two headed to the arcade nearby and they both had a blast together. Bobby felt like he was living a dream. He never thought that he would be in an arcade, playing Tekken 3 with Rose Prichard. And Rose didn't think that she would be having so much with Bobby but she was.

Being with Bobby was surreal. She hadn't been this comfortable around someone in such a long time. She didn't have to pretend or anything.

Being with Rose was awesome. He never thought that he'd be in this moment with her but he was. And he was happy.

It was not typical of them.

~~~

On Monday, during lunch, Rose invited Bobby to sit with her and her friends.

"I'm not sure about that, Rose," Bobby replied uneasily.

"I know but you're my friend. My first real friend."

"What about your popular friends? Surely you like them."

Rose shrugged, "I like you the best."

Bobby blushed again.

"Please? If they say something about it, I'll take care of it, okay?" Rose would.

She grabbed his hand, "Please."

Bobby sighed.

~~~

Talia and Elisa's jaws dropped, and Lucas blinked in confusion. Jen covered her mouth in shock and Levi's eyes narrowed.

Rose walked into the huge cafeteria, with Bobby by her side.

Felix and Hope were sitting together on their usual table, both of them gaping at Bobby in shock. And as usual, Hope started texting on her phone.

The other college students looked on, in confusion and disbelief.

Rose and Bobby walked up to the table.

"Hello everyone, This is my friend Bobby and he's going to sit with us today," Rose stated, unapologetic.

There was silence for a moment before Lucas spoke.

"Nice to meet you, Bobby," Lucas said pleasantly, much to Rose's relief.

"Thanks," Bobby felt uneasy. A part of him regretted doing this but the other part of him felt happy being close to Rose.

Rose and Bobby sat down.

Levi glared at Rose hard and Rose ignored him. Jen's eyes were on Levi, Elisa sniffed at Bobby distastefully, Lucas was on his phone and Talia looked at Bobby in interest.

"So Bobby, I heard you like to bake, is that true?" Talia asked.

"Sure. I love to bake cupcakes and brownies," Bobby answered carefully, keeping the nervousness out of his voice.

"Oh, can you bake me some?"

"Um sure, I can bake some for everyone..."

"Sorry but I don't eat sugar," Elisa stared at Bobby in disdain.

Talia side-eyed her, "Speak for yourself, honey."

"Rose, can I talk to you?" Levi hissed, through clenched teeth.

Rose sighed, got up, and followed Levi.

Jen stared after them, her eyes on Levi of course.

~~~

"What do you think you are doing with that weirdo?" Levi snapped as he and Rose stood outside the cafeteria.

"He's my friend. What's the problem?" Rose asked in annoyance.

"He doesn't belong with us, Rose and you know that."

"And? None of us belong together and yet we're still hanging out! Just let it go, Levi," Rose walked back to the cafeteria.

Levi clenched his fists in rage. He had seen the way that bloke looked at Rose and he wasn't pleased.

~~~

After school, Bobby and Felix were in the parking lot, outside the college, waiting for Hope to come out of her class.

"Bro, you sat at the popular kids' table," Felix stared at Bobby in shock. "How?!"

"Rose invited me. I don't know why but she did."

"Hey, weirdo!"

Bobby jumped at Levi's shout. The brunette boy strode over to them, his blue eyes cold.

He glared at Felix, "Scram."

Levi expected the blue-haired guy to run away but no. Instead, he glared at him, "No way."

Levi got angrier, "Excuse me? Listen here, you-!"

"Felix go."

Felix turned to his friend in shock, "But-"

"Go. I'll be fine." Bobby stared at Felix pleadingly.

Felix huffed and walked away from the scene, upset.

Bobby then gave Levi a leveled stare, "Yes?"

"Listen loser, Rose is mine. Got it?"

Bobby nodded.

"And you don't want to start something you can't finish. My family has eyes everywhere so I'll know if you do something to Rose."

Bobby nodded, "I know but Rose and I are working on our essay together so I have to talk to her."

"And?"

Bobby looked at him in confusion and anger.

"Look, I don't care if you have some little project, you will stay away from Rose!" Levi stomped off, bumping his shoulder against Bobby's shoulder, hard.

~~~

Rose stood in her dorm, fuming. Bobby had just canceled on her at the last minute. What the heck?! They had a project for goodness' sake!

"You pissed Levi off Rose."

Rose glared at Jen, "Excuse me?"

"You heard me. You made Levi angry so he went after your little friend. You should've expected something like this."

Rose smirked in disbelief, "Why exactly do you care about Levi so much, huh Jen? Do you really like him that much?"

Jen glowered, not rising to her bait.

"I know you like him. That's why you look at him so longingly and look at me with such jealousy. What, do you want him?"

Jen gave her a furious look, "You don't deserve him. You only care about yourself!"

"And? Just because I made a friend, he gets to be up in arms about it, all while he's frolicking with you?" Rose chuckled mirthlessly. "At the very least if he's going to cheat on me, do it with someone who has some dignity."

Jen stood up in a rage, "I don't have to listen to this!"

"So you don't deny it then? Some friend you are!"

Jen huffed and started walking out the door, "We were never friends Rosie."

Rose growled in fury. Jen knew very well that she hated that nickname.

I'll deal with her later. I just need to talk to Bobby.

~~~

Bobby was not good at confrontation.

When Levi stepped to him yesterday, he should've fought back but Levi's family was powerful and he was bigger, taller, and stronger than him, and because of that he froze.

He was ashamed and the fact that everyone around chuckled at his humiliation made it worse.

He canceled his plans with Rose so that he could hide away and lick his wounds for a while.

Levi had come after him to remind him of his status as the unpopular class clown and that Rose was not for him. He already knew that but it still hurt him deeply.

He texted Felix so that the bluenette would at least know that he was alright.

He then checked his watch and noticed that it was time to leave, "Crap. I'm late."

He called a taxi and headed to the hospital.

~~~

Bobby wasn't answering his phone so Rose headed to the college library where she would find Bobby's closest friend - Freddie, Felix? Anyway, he was there, studying with a blonde girl.

"Hey," Rose greeted as she walked up to them.

The blonde girl raised an eyebrow while the blue-haired guy looked annoyed.

"Yes?" He asked, clearly bothered.

"I need to know where Bobby is."

The guy looked angry now, "Haven't you caused enough trouble already?! That Levi guy totally ambushed us yesterday because of you! Are you trying to get him into more trouble?! Because he doesn't need it! Especially with-" he then stopped his rant, realising that he was going to say the wrong thing.

Rose's face fell. She didn't blame him for feeling that way about her. It was her fault that this whole thing happened. She knew that.

"You're right. It's all my fault," she said, ashamed. "But I do want to make things right with him. So please, can you help me?"

The guy looked thoughtful.

~~~

"Mum, I bought you some cupcakes."

Bobby's mother, Alice smiled, as she laid in her hospital bed in the cancer ward. Bobby's father, Hector sat beside her, a book in his hands.

"Thanks, baby," Alice smiled. "I've always loved your cupcakes."

"Honey, it's not good for you," Hector protested.

"Aw, relax Hector. A cupcake is the least of my problems."

Hector sighed as Alice bit into a strawberry cupcake hungrily.

"Don't worry Dad, it's sugar-free," Bobby explained.

Suddenly, there was shouting outside the room.

Hector looked annoyed, "What in the world?"

A girl's voice rang out and Bobby knew that voice anywhere.

Why is Rose here? How is she here?

Bobby got up and opened the door.

Outside the room, two security guards and the receptionist were arguing with a disgruntled-looking Rose.

"I just need to talk to him, okay?" she protested.

The receptionist opened her mouth to argue back but Bobby stopped her.

"Hey, it's fine. I know her," he said.

The security guards and the receptionist looked surprised while Rose looked relieved.

Bobby grabbed Rose's arm, pulled her into the room, and shut the door.

"What are you doing here?!" he hissed.

"I wanted to see you! I heard about what Levi did," she whispered back. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean for that to happen."

"Look you-"

"Robert, who is this?" Alice called out, making them both jump.

Rose turned to see a red-haired woman lying on a hospital bed, looking amused. Next to her, a dark-skinned black man with dreadlocks sat beside her bed, looking confused.

"Mum, Dad, this is Rose," Bobby introduced. "Rose, these are my parents."

"I'm Alice, and this is Hector," Alice grinned, looking very pleased. "Are you my son's girlfriend?"

"Mum!" Bobby protested.

"It was just a question!"

Rose blushed, much to Bobby's surprise, "Hopefully." she said.

Bobby's jaw dropped, What?

"Oooh!! This is so exciting! Right, Hector?" Alice nudged her husband.

"Yes honey," Hector patted his wife's arm.

Bobby sighed, "Mum, Dad, I'm going to talk to Rose for a moment, okay?"

"Of course dear, you two go ahead," Alice smiled.

Bobby and Rose walked out of the room and stood in the hallway.

"Look Rose, my mother... she's been struggling with breast cancer for the past two years. It's been so hard on our family and I can't do anything to distress my family right now."

Rose looked saddened, "I'm so sorry Bobby I-"

He dug into his shirt pocket and produced a hard drive. He handed it to her.

"What's this?"

"The essay. I finished it. That way we can go our separate ways for good."

"But Bobby-"

"I can't, Rose. Levi's family is powerful and I can't afford to agitate him more. I'm sorry but this, whatever this is," He gestured between them. "It's over."

Rose looked teary-eyed, "Bobby, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean for this to happen."

He gave a small smile, "I know. See... see you around then."

He turned and walked back into the hospital room, closing the door behind him.

And she cried.

~~~

Rose drove back to her dorm in the rain with a heavy heart. She just lost someone she cared so much about. In the short time that she's known Bobby, she felt the happiest she's been in a long time. Losing him was... it was hard.

After she arrived at the dorm building and parked her car in the parking lot, she walked through the yard in the rain and entered the building.

Now when she opened that door to her room and saw Levi and Jen kissing, she was numb.

When Levi made excuses about him kissing Jen in her room and why he cheated on her, she was numb.

When Levi vehemently broke up with her and tried to blame her for what he did, she snapped.

"SHUT UP!" she screamed in rage, making both Levi and Jen jump in fright. "Just shut up! You sat here and gaslighted me when I told you that I wasn't comfortable with you and Jen being partners! You sat here and threatened my friend because you were jealous of our friendship! You're a terrible person Levi! And I want you out of my life! Both of you!"

Levi's face grew red in anger, "Fine." He grabbed Jen's arm, pulled her out of the room, and slammed the door behind them.

As soon as they left, a heavy weight lifted off of Rose's heart and mind. She could breathe again.

Finally.

~~~

On the day of the Dance, Felix dragged Bobby out of his bed, into a suit, and to the party. It was so funny and sad that Felix had a date and he didn't but it was fine. Lottie seemed like a cool chick and Felix did like her so he was glad that his friend was happy.

With everything that happened, he hadn't wanted to go to the dance at all. He didn't have a date and he felt down. But Felix had other ideas.

"Come on! Dance and get loose!" Felix called as he and Lottie danced to the music that played.

Bobby sighed and decided to dance along, just to have some fun at least.

Hope then walked up to them... with Lucas!

Bobby blinked and looked at Felix in confusion.

"Hey everyone, this is my boyfriend Lucas," Hope introduced.

Lucas smiled, "Hey."

"What?" Bobby and Felix chorused in shock.

~~~

Talia, Elisa, Jen, and Levi sat at a table. Jen and Levi talked quietly to themselves while Elisa glared daggers at Lucas and Hope who were dancing together.

Talia texted Rose, asking where she was. She didn't answer.

Jen and Levi kissed and Talia gagged.

"I can't believe this! I thought Lucas fancied me!" Elisa complained loudly.

Talia sighed and texted Rose again.

'Where are you?'

~~~

Rose stood outside the Campus Hall, where the Dance was taking place. She didn't know what would happen but she hoped for the best.

She entered the Hall, dressed perfectly: she wore a beautiful dark blue dress that highlighted her pale skin, brown hair, and grey eyes. Her hair was down and wavy, and she wore matching silver jewelry and light makeup

Everyone's jaws dropped as she walked past them and she paid them no mind. She also saw Levi and Jen glaring at her and she paid them dust as well.

She only had eyes for Bobby.

~~~

"Wow," Felix spluttered and next to him, Lottie looked shocked.

"What?" Bobby asked as Lucas and Hope looked surprised as well.

"Bobby?"

Bobby felt shivers go down his spine when she said his name. He turned and saw her.

Rose... she looked ethereal. Like a princess. Wow.

Bobby felt his heart flutter at the sight of her.

"Hello Bobby, can I talk to you? Please?"

"I-"

"Of course! Go! We'll be fine!" Felix shoved Bobby roughly towards Rose. Bobby glared at Felix for a moment before he gave Rose a small smile.

"Sure."

She led him away to a secluded table on the dance floor, feeling nervous that he would reject her. And if he did, she would be okay. She just had to let him know.

"Is everything okay?" He asked, a bit uneasily. "I mean I know you and Levi just broke up so um..."

"Yes. I just need to tell you something and please hear me out," He nodded and she continued. "Ever since I met you, my life has turned upside down. I feel like... when I'm with you, I feel like I don't have to pretend. I don't have to act. And I feel so comfortable being around you and I feel so safe." She took a deep breath. "I like you, Bobby. I do. I mean it. And Levi won't bother you again, I promise. I'll make sure of it. And I know it sounds weird but-"

He kissed her, cutting her rambling off, and kissing her felt like a dream come true - no, it was a dream come true. How many times did he fantasize about something like this? How often did he hope?

He couldn't believe it.

He pulled away and looked into her eyes. She blushed heavily, looking very pleased.

"I like you too. For a long time actually," he looked embarrassed. "Ever since I saw you in that Romeo and Juliet play in Fifth Form."

"That long?!" Rose looked aghast. "Why didn't you say anything then?!"

"I thought I wasn't good enough. That a beautiful, gorgeous, popular rich girl like you wouldn't look my way."

She grabbed his hands and stared at him in earnest, "Bobby, if you confessed to me then, I would have accepted you and dated you anyway! You're the sweetest, most thoughtful guy I know. Why wouldn't I look your way? And if you dated me back then, I wouldn't have dated Levi at all because I had you!"

He looked sheepish now, feeling embarrassed again, "Better late than never right?"

"Definitely," she kissed his cheek lovingly.

Bobby blushed and wrapped his arms around her waist, "So Rose, would you... would you be my girlfriend?"

Her face lit up, "Yes!"

He grinned, grabbed her hand, and pulled her to the dancefloor where everyone else was, with their partners. The song Saving All My Love by Whitney Houston played loudly and the song was perfect.

Bobby held Rose close, ignoring everyone's (Levi and Jen's especially) looks. He felt so joyful and ecstatic that this happened. That he liked Rose for so long only to find out that she liked him as well! It was unbelievable!

He leaned in and kissed her deeply. She kissed him back, her cheeks pink.

They continued to dance, enjoying each other's company and kissing one another all night long.

They're an odd couple yes but Bobby didn't care anymore. He was happy to be with her and with the way Rose looked at him with love in her eyes, she definitely felt the same way.

It was not typical of them.

~~~

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this!

[blueonwrestling]

nxt 2.0 is like it’s written by a horny teenager, which honestly, vince/bruce/johnny act like horny teenagers still.

why is toxic attraction like this, why does elektra lopez suddently have the horn for xyon quinn? why has raquel lost all her muscle mass and now is some leather biker chick? why is grayson waller using tinder so much?

this show was suppose to be reborn as a show with characters, but all it is is a way for vince and his goons to get their worst possible storylines on tv.

[horsfields]

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[mjfass]

Johnny Ace and Bruce Prichard have to go.

Ever since Bruce Prichard became executive director for Raw and Smackdown, the women's divisions have looked noticeably different and not for the better. Match times getting shortened on a general basis, going back to the pretty girl/barbie doll gimmicks (i.e Carmella, Mandy Rose/Dana Brooke when they were a team, Eva Marie, etc), careless booking, and more.

Ever since Johnny Ace returned, things have noticeably became even worse

On night 1 of the Queen of the Ring tournament, you had Toni Storm job to perhaps the biggest loser (booking wise) in the women's division in 2 minutes with ease. The same Toni Storm who's a former NXT UK Women's Champion, won the 2018 Mae Young Classic tournament, and has pinfall wins over women like Io Shirai and Rhea Ripley. Also on night 1, they had Liv Morgan once more take a loss in a match that she could've benefited from advancing in. The same Liv Morgan who's been improving in the ring and who fans for the last year have audibly been vouching for to win a big match of some sort whether it was Money In The Bank, a Women's Tag Team Championship match, or the QOTR tournament.

If the careless booking of the QOTR tournament doesn't open people's eyes that WWE doesn't give a fuck about women's wrestling, I'm afraid nothing will

And to make things even worse, all the QOTR matches amount up to 8 minutes....8 MINUTES.

This is absolutely disrespectful and the women deserve better

Toni vs Zelina: Ok, calling Zelina “the biggest loser” is exactly why I actually don’t mind seeing her beat Toni. Why not giving her an opportunity? Toni is technically new on the main roster, she has so many ahead of her. Zelina had a losing streak; it was refreshing seeing her win something. I actually think she will win the tournament.

Liv: I definitely agree. I think Liv was the person who needed to win, actually. She is a gem.

It’s time to change the people who are in charge of women’s storylines. No more white, old dudes who have the exact same mentality.

[dawnsbreaking]

AND THEY WERE ROOMMATES. oh i’m jealous i haven’t thought of this dynamic myself, if you see a Bobby and Rose fic where they are roommates in the future, please mind your business. this is so cute, thank you!!

Overheard

For @lucolestead

Bobby x MC

God, they were roommates.

It was a thought that entered Bobby’s head often, usually because he had to correct people that thought Rose was his girlfriend. Good lord, did he wish. But no. They were only roommates.

There were so many things about Rose that he adored. She didn’t fight, always playing peace maker when someone had a problem. She was funny, always making him laugh about the dumbest things that probably wouldn’t have made sense to other people, like they had a million different inside jokes. She laughed at his jokes just as much. She took care of their flat. He wasn’t messy, refused to be a hard to live with kind of roommate, but she would clean up anything he might have forgotten about or do his baking dishes when he was running late even though she knew he would get to them as soon as he got home. She was always honest. Even when her best mates would wear a dress that was a color that washed out their skin tone, he would see her gently suggest a dress she owned that she thought would suit them better. If they did go for it, she was okay with letting them keep it. If they didn’t, she hyped them up in what they were wearing.

But it was her honesty that led to his undoing on his stance of just roommates.

Bobby had just gotten through the front door, hadn’t even shut it behind him yet, when he heard Priya’s voice echoing with her heels, “Okay, babes, I need to get back to designing this gown, but I love you and I’ll see you tonight.”

“Love you, too, babe. Send me pics when you finish! I know it’ll be gorgeous!”

The heels faltered for a second, “Babes, can I ask you an odd question?” Silence, Bobby set his things down quietly, he didn’t want to disturb them, “Why do you only ever say ‘love you’?”

“What do you mean?” He could hear the shift in Rose’s voice, the tone changing like she knew she’d been caught.

“All of us, when we exchange affections. It’s never ‘I love you’. It’s always ‘love you’. For all of us except-“

“Shh!” He heard the shuffle of heels and light skin smacking, assuming Rose shoved her hand over Priya’s mouth. “He could come home any second.”

Priya giggled, “Just explain it to me, babes. I promise no one’s offended, I’ve just been curious! Honestly, I think I’m the only who’s noticed.”

He could almost picture her shrugging, “You know I adore all of you guys. I’ve just always said that I would only say that to the person I fell for. You know how I feel about Bobby already.”

“So…when are you going to tell him how you feel?”

“Never. He’s made it clear, we’re friends. We’re roommates. I can get my feelings out this way for now, and eventually I’ll be able to move on.”

“Oh honey, we both know that won’t help you move on. You should just tell him.” He heard the heels clicking again, heading his way, so he made a show of shutting the door and letting his keys clack to the counter.

“I’m home, Lass!”

He heard a quickly muttered ‘fuck!’ before the two of them appeared from down the hall, “Hey, Bobs! How’s the bakery doing?”

“Busy as always.” He smiled, letting her ignore the awkwardness of thinking he’d overheard, even though he knew he had. “Hey, Priya.”

“Hey, Bobby,” she grinned, maybe a little widely, “I gotta get going, but you two have a good night!”

She scurried out as Rose tried to stop her, sending her a cheeky wink instead of slowing down. As soon as the door behind her, Bobby blurted out, “I’m not gonna pretend I didn’t hear you.” He watched as her face paled, hurrying to continue, “I didn’t want to say anything in front of her, but I- yeah, I heard all of that. And I’m not- Lass, I always called you my roommate and shut down those comments because I thought you didn’t want that. Not because I didn’t.” He could see the way she was processing, unsure if she should be happy or upset that he’d heard. He could see her mind working through it.

“So…you like me?” Her tone was hopeful, but tentative, like she was afraid he’d say it was a prank. God, he wished she could see how perfect she was.

“Little more than like you, Lass.” Bobby offered, “I’m not sure when I fell, but it’s been a bloody long time. Just didn’t want to be one of those daft mingers that made you uncomfortable living with me if you didn’t feel the same way.”

When her smile finally blossomed, Bobby could feel his heart thumping against his ribs. “We gonna do this then, Bobble? Proper date?”

He laughed, “Lass, I’ll do the proper wine and dine if that’s what you want. I’ll do anything for you.”

Her face scrunched, “That’s neither of our style. How about the arcade and a couple’s baking class?”

He took the few steps to be in front of her, hands reaching out carefully for her waist, “See how perfect you are? That sounds mint, Rose. Let’s do it. Tomorrow. Tonight is our weekly movie night, and I am not about to miss out on making up on lost cuddle time.” She giggled happily as he tugged her over to the couch, telling her to settle in while he changed out of his work clothes. But she refused to let go of him, stating that she’d missed far too much of her Bobby time already, even though he argued he was sweaty from being in the kitchen all day.

She won in the end.

Masterlist

@justtuesdays @sunshinejihyun

[dalekofchaos]

WWE has gone back to the Divas era of booking their women’s division

Sasha Banks, the Smackdown Women's Champion, got around a minute of screen time tonight during the Road to Wrestlemania. One of the most popular stars they have right now.

The anticipated Sasha Bianca feud tonight got a stare down and an attempted attack. That's it. Nothing else.

Shayna Baszler vs Natalya lasted around a minute.

Bayley, the longest reigning Smackdown Women's Champion and the women who helped carry the PC Era is again nowhere to be found.

The longest women's segment was a cluster of women put together because they don't know really what to do with them in all honesty. Sound familiar?

It should because this is pretty much the Divas Era. This entire Road to Wrestlemania for the women has been nearly as bad as they were during the Divas Era. It seems that after the women main evented Wrestlemania, creative said we don't really care anymore. The women are not called divas anymore, but they have the exact same booking minus the focus on their looks.

I have never seen such an anticipated feud like Sasha vs Bianca be so lazily built up. Laziness is the word to describe how wwe sees the women's division now and let's be honest, for the most part since Mania 35.

Becky Lynch, the woman who won in the main event of Wrestlemania, struggled for screen time compared to mid card men. On Raw Reunion in 2019, where many more eyes were on Raw, she was in a short talk show segment with Alexa. The winner of the main event of Mania was in a talk show segment in one of the biggest Raws of that time that could have showed returning viewers how things have changed. Constant under booking throughout her reign.

Now Sasha...her reign has been abysmal with little to no story or time at all. Sometimes not even appearing on smackdown. One of the most popular stars getting less than 5 minutes a night usually. While the mid card women are bunched up together like the divas tag matches back when all the divas were in one match to get them on the show. Hell, they won’t even mention her role in The Mandalorian

This is in large pretty much what the divas era was and I'm tired of it.

The women's division right now is just like how the divas division was, minus the focus on their looks and I'm tired of it.

Honestly, the women's division has been on a decline for a while. At first it started out very very slowly with women like Ember Moon taking clean submission losses to people like Lacey Evans in under 5 minutes. But ever since Bruce Prichard became the executive director of Raw and Smackdown, the women's division has taken such a huge step back to the days of the divas at a terrifyingly rapid pace. For the latter part of 2020 on Raw, Lana was getting more TV time than Asuka, ya know, the Raw Women's Champion. There were even a lot of weeks when Asuka wasn't on Raw at all. At no point in time should Lana--unarguably the weakest and most inexperienced women's wrestler in the company, EVER get more ring time than your Women's Champion.

Dana Brooke and Mandy Rose are the most generic makeshift team ever. They legitimately look like the blonde barbie diva team you'd have seen on Raw back in 2007. The Sasha/Bianca build (if you can even call it that) stinks horribly of diva era booking. For nearly a month, they argued over that geek Reginald and in recent weeks, they've given such low effort to building the match that all the excitement fans had for the match back in Janaury is practically nonexistent. And that's ashame and something neither Sasha nor Bianca deserve.

Before she got pregnant, Lacey Evans, Ric Flair, and Charlotte were engaged in a cringy weird love triangle that was getting no one over and was very reminisce of the Torrie/Al/Dawn angle in 2002. I'm not a Charlotte fan by any means, but the woman is a 12x Women's Champion and main evented Wrestlemania. The best non-title feud you can put her in consists of her quarreling with her horny, perverted, viagra pilled up father? And again, why was this getting more TV time than Asuka--who was the Raw Women's Champion...just in case WWE wasn't aware.

Add that in with the Riot Squad pretty much being the punching bags for the Smackdown women's locker room and the shortened matches. It's become quite evident to me that Bruce Prichard really doesn't care about women's wrestling and only sees them as eye candy for him to get 5 minutes of pleasure off of. And considering all the hard work that was done to get the women to a prominent role in WWE, it's just sad and pathetic to see.

[luc606]

hello besties i took a lil break from writing for my birthday so i thought i'd share an intro to my cmc Rose in the meantime (chapter 2 of At Your Side will be out soon though <3)

🌀🌀you care about my cmc you care so much about my cmc🌀🌀

Rose Prichard is 23 years old and has been living in South Korea for just over a year. She is from the US and was raised by her parents who are both professors. Rose has a twin brother who is more interested in the arts and is a musical actor, whereas Rose has always been an academic. She speaks English, Japanese, and Korean fluently, and majored in linguistics with a minor in science communication. During her last two years of college, she studied abroad in Japan and then in South Korea before graduating at age 22. She is a freelance translator/interpreter, mostly working in science communication and for international nonprofits. Because I'm not a fan of the canon timeline in all aspects, I imagine Rose was a colleague of or at least familiar with Rika through her nonprofit work, so she was offered the job by V because it's not dissimilar from work she'd already be doing.

I'm a big fan of the webcomic, so Rose's story with the RFA is sort of a mix between canon and the webcomic. She does her party planning both over a longer period of time and from an office at C&R where she is able to see all of the RFA members in person.

Rose is also (like me) a reform Jew, so she keeps Jewish holidays when possible, which I think would be interesting for the RFA to learn about and participate in idk idk.

Saeyoung and Rose are fast friends, but nothing more for a while. They have a similar sense of humor, one that is both obscure and absurd, which makes Saeyoung fall for her quickly. Rose, however, is enamored with Zen and caught up in an intense possibly-more-than-friendship with Jaehee. Once Mint Eye begins to threaten the RFA, Saeyoung is forced to move into the apartment and Rose realizes that she may have been displacing her feelings for Saeyoung all along.

Saeyoung and Rose have their first kiss at the apartment after the RFA party. It's late and they're both exhausted, but it feels right. They sleep in the same bed, passed out still in their party clothes. The next morning, Saeyoung resolves to leave the agency and head up an investigation into Mint Eye with C&R backing him. He recruits Vanderwood to help him with this, and together they form an intelligence unit under C&R's umbrella. They are able to find Mint Eye headquarters and rescue Saeran and Rika, but V does still die in the conflict. Saeran is rehabilitated and eventually Rose moves into the bunker with Saeran.

some random hcs:

Saeyoung speaks fluent English, and speaks to Rose in English either to make her more comfortable or to annoy the other RFA members, depending on the situation.

Rose curses in English pretty frequently and listens to songs in English that are explicit sometimes it goes unnoticed, but occasionally Zen will overhear her singing along to explicit lyrics or cursing on the phone with her brother and he will fall apart "a beautiful lady like you shouldn't talk like that!!!", etc. Saeyoung finds it just SO funny.

Rose is a great driver, having been taught to drive as a teenager in America, and it surprises Zen that she has a license. Saeyoung even lets her drive his babies on occasion <3

After Saeran is out of the hospital and starts seeing a therapist as an outpatient, Rose will offer to drive him to appointments. At first it's awkward and hard for both of them, but Saeran appreciates Rose's ability to sit in silence that is comfortable. She's much less on edge with Saeran than Saeyoung can be.

Being a twin herself, Rose understands the bond that Saeyoung and Saeran share, and understands how best to help them communicate. Also, when Saeyoung and Rose visit Rose's family in the US, they eventually bring Saeran along and find that Saeran and Rose's twin brother are actually very similar and get along quite well.

Since Rose is an interpreter and in science comm, there are several videos of her speaking on the internet, and Saeyoung has seen every single one many times over.

One of Rose's hobbies is gardening, so she helps Saeran make a garden outside the bunker after moving in.

Rose's other hobby is cooking and baking, she auctions off fancy baked goods at future parties and is always inviting the RFA over for dinner.

Saeyoung and Rose would have kids in the future, but I will do another post about this if anyone is interested >:)

thx for reading lov u xoxo

[doubleattitude]

NUVO Dance Convention, Detroit, MI: RESULTS

High Scores by Age:

NUbie Solo

1st: Stella Brinkerhoff-’Fly’

2nd: Penelope LeMieux-’These Boots’

3rd: Sylvie Win Szyndlar-’Rainbow Connection’

4th: Naomi Harper-’Speechless’

5th: Hadlee Young-’Mr. Sandman

6th: Kora Jacobs-’Papa’

7th: Ariceli Huembes-’Queen Bee’

Mini Solo

1st: Ellary Day Szyndlar-’Light Gathers’

2nd: Zoe Swope-’That Face’

3rd: Annabelle DeWitt-’Tears of an Angel’

4th: Annabel Schoolmeesters-’Broken’

5th: Mya Lanigan-’Halo’

6th: Brooklyn Ward-’Here I Am’

6th: Addison Prichard-’Swing It Like Roger’

7th: Kinley Barnes-’Like That’

8th: Madeleine Shen-’The Bridge’

9th: Azarrah Fair-’B.E.A.T’

9th: Madelyn Nicholson-’Clay’

10th: Ella Palmer-’Somewhere Only We Know’

Junior Solo

1st: Mya Tuaileva-’Can’t Unhear’

2nd: Daniela SanGiacomo-’Infinite’

2nd: Maura Matuska-’LJ’

3rd: Lacie Mollahan-’All Cried Out’

3rd: Victoria Johnson-’Genius’

3rd: Eliza Mercer-’Goetia’

3rd: Vivienne Mitchell-’Metamorphosis’

4th: Ariel Cai-’Clear Water’

4th: Blakely Bell-’Shifting’

5th: Nily Samara-’Dot 2 Dot’

5th: Campbell Clark-’I’ll Be Seeing You’

5th: Bree Curtis-’One Grain’

6th: Campbell Bas-’Alice’

6th: Joli DuQuenne-’Found’

6th: Preslie Lopez-’Freezing Point’

6th: Londyn LeMieux-’Human Touch’

7th: Haydyn Jackson-’Dex’

7th: Claire Wise-’Listen’

7th: Piper Leddell-’Sunrise Sunset’

7th: Julianna Harris-’The Mask’

7th: Marlow Makarewicz-’Tomorrow’s Song’

8th: Gabby Donaldson-’It’s About That Walk’

8th: Morgan Schwarze-’Runaway’

8th: Madison Music-’Two Thousand & Two’

9th: Dani Sherman-’Broken Prayers’

10th: Raeka Martonez-’I Have Never Loved Someone’

10th: Paige Lenard-’Like You Used To’

Teen Solo

1st: Peyton Price-’All We Know’

1st: Cydney Heard-’I’m Going In’

1st: Hailey Bills-’You’

2nd: Macy Orvis-’Look At Me’

2nd: Isabella Pinkston-’Speaking Of The End’

2nd: Benjamin Graham-’Straighten Up and Fly Right’

2nd: Chance Phelps-’The Garden’

3rd: Zoe Ridge-’A Thousand Eyes’

3rd: L.A Gee-’Botn’

3rd: Brianna Hicks-’Epilouge’

3rd: Kendall Best-’For Loving You’

3rd: Cambry Bethke-’How Insensitive’

3rd: Brielle McCoy-’Twist’

4th: Camryn Lanigan-’False Confidence’

4th: Caris Beurkens-’Human Nature’

4th: Mikaela Zarsky-’Lullaby’

4th: Lainey Bliss-’Orange’

4th: Lynlie Ferrin-’Visnaga’

4th: Mya Imbrock-’You’re Mine’

5th: Carlee Alicea-’Crazy’

5th: Samantha Grana-’Fragment Me’

5th: Kieran Holmes-’Hear The Bells’

5th: Addison Gutow-’Without You’

6th: Evelyn Shymanski-’33 God’

6th: Emersyn Dickson-’Plans We Made’

6th: Alexis Schueller-’Somebody’

6th: Macy Such-’What Dreams Are Made Of’

6th: Kimberly Sigloch-’Years of Suffering’

7th: Olivia McIntyre-’Thinking About You’

8th: Marissa Brunner-’On Then and Now’

8th: Shanyce Washington-’Sunday Kind of Love’

9th: Violet Lopiccola-’#88′

9th: Lily Poynter-’Cellophane’

9th: Jiya Janwani-’Nemesis’

9th: Marin Akkashian-’Shotgun’

10th: Emily Ferguson-’Cellophane’

10th: Dilyn Bray-’Faced’

10th: Alexia Munger-’Miss Kiss’

Senior Solo

1st: Kamryn Funk-’5,6,7,8′

2nd: Anna Miller-’Godspeed’

2nd: Zoe Carpenter-’Opus 22′

3rd: Peyton Winsett-’Distortion’

3rd: Jonah Tran-’Involution’

3rd: Madison McDonald-’Shining’

4th: Chase Phelps-’All I Have Left’

4th: Christian Whan-’It’s Still Rock & Roll’

4th: Alyssa Griffith-’Voyage’

4th: Kaityln Babich-’You’re My Thrill’

5th: Seanna DeWitt-’Consequence of Sound’

5th: Trinity Malgay-’Somthing Short and Sweet’

5th: Isabella Nixon-’Stand Alive’

5th: Kendall Schmidt-’Take Me To The River’

5th: Ashley Smith-’The First Time’

5th: Jessica Babich-’Ubiquitous’

5th: Jessica Welch-’Whoever You Are’

6th: Bria Mayes-’Angel By The Wings’

6th: Lily Freebery-’A Wish’

6th: Madison Harvell-’Getting Older’

6th: Quinn Davis-’Like’

7th: Brianna Haith-’Alarm’

7th: Zoey Cappatocio-’Another Lifetime’

7th: Isabelle Ranger-’Leave A Light On’

7th: Kate McCollum-’Now That I’m Older’

7th: Anjali Petrucci-’Satellite’

7th: Cade Person-’Skalbrekka’

7th: Emily Popa-’Vienna’

8th: Kendra Fereshetian-’I Don’t Know Anything Yet’

8th: Camryn Humpert-’Supermarket in California’

9th: Jadyn Terry-’Must Change’

9th: Olivia Papa-’The Lakes’

10th: Kacey Howley-’Doomed’

10th: Leah Rieger-’Memories’

NUbie Duo/Trio

1st: Haja Dance Company-’You Better Work’

2nd: Nye Dance Productions-’Diamonds’

Mini Duo/Trio

1st: Just Off Broadway-’I Will Carry You’

1st: Poirier Productions Dance Studio-’The Forest Queen’

2nd: Body Language Dance Company-’A Shine On Your Shoes’

3rd: Haja Dance Company-’Fall On Me’

Junior Duo/Trio

1st: Haja Dance Company-’I’ll Stay’

2nd: Studio 4-’Slights and Trespasses’

3rd: Spotlight Dance Works-’When I Grow Up’

Teen Duo/Trio

1st: Center Stage Performing Arts Studio-’Not That News’

2nd: The Dance Kollective-’Sax’

2nd: Haja Dance Company-’Together Again’

3rd: Dean/Black School of Performing Arts-’The Show’

Senior Duo/Trio

1st: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Get Happy’

2nd: Spotlight Dance Works-’Back, Baby’

2nd: Haja Dance Company-’Static’

3rd: Haja Dance Company-’The Turning Page’

3rd: Academy of Dance Arts-’Words Are Not Enough’

NUbie Group

1st: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Bon Appetit’

2nd: Dean/Black School of Performing Arts-’Friend Like Me’

3rd: Nye Dance Productions-’Dancing Fool’

Mini Group

1st: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Quake’

2nd: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’HSKT’

3rd: Body Language Dance Company-’Bei Mir Bist Du Schon’

3rd: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Let The River Run’

Junior Group

1st: Spotlight Dance Works-’Distant Sures’

2nd: Spotlight Dance Works-’Solace’

3rd: Spotlight Dance Works-’Marathon (In Roses)’

Teen Group

1st: Kim Massay Dance Productions-’Can You Hear That’

2nd: Spotlight Dance Works-’Laura’

2nd: Haja Dance Company-’These Women’

3rd: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’I’m Rising’

Senior Group

1st: Kim Massay Dance Productions-’Minus 60′

2nd: Kim Massay Dance Productions-’Herd of Defense’

3rd: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Fancy’

3rd: Spotlight Dance Works-’Ricochet’

NUbie Line

1st: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Reflection’

Mini Line

1st: Haja Dance Company-’First Class’

2nd: Spotlight Dance Works-’Gonna Catch You’

3rd: Spotlight Dance Works-’Above The Clouds of Pompeii’

Junior Line

1st: Haja Dance Company-’For A Second’

2nd: Spotlight Dance Works-’Forget You’

3rd: Spotlight Dance Works-’Danke Schoen’

3rd: Spotlight Dance Works-’Shine’

Teen Line

1st: Spotlight Dance Works-’Pa’lante’

2nd: Spotlight Dance Works-’Beacon’

3rd: Powerdance Company-’Freedom’

Senior Line

1st: Spotlight Dance Works-’Night’

2nd: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Hallucinations’

NUbie Extended Line

1st: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Can You Feel It’

2nd: Spotlight Dance Works-’Ordinary Miracle’

Junior Extended Line

1st: Haja Dance Company-’Haven’t You Heard’

2nd: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Trust’

Teen Extended Line

1st: Haja Dance Company-’We Are Nothing’

2nd: Haja Dance Company-’Start Walkin’

3rd: Haja Dance Company-’Don’t Cry’

Senior Extended Line

1st: Haja Dance Company-’That Stuff’

Mini Production

1st: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Steam Heat’

Teen Production

1st: The Turning Pointe-’Earth Girls’

High Scores by Performance Division:

NUbie Jazz

1st: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Can You Feel It’ 2nd: Dean/Black School of Performing Arts-’Friend Like Me’

NUbie Tap

1st: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Bon Appetit’ 2nd: Nye Dance Productions-’Dancing Fool’

NUbie Contemporary

1st: Spotlight Dance Works-’Ordinary Miracle’

NUbie Lyrical

1st: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Reflection’

Mini Jazz

1st: Haja Dance Company-’First Class’ 2nd: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Quake’ 3rd: Spotlight Dance Works-’Gonna Catch You’

Mini Tap

1st: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Big Band Sound’ 1st: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’HSKT’ 2nd: Body Language Dance Company-’Bei Mir Bist Du Schon’

Mini Contemporary

1st: Spotlight Dance Works-’Above The Clouds of Pompeii’ 2nd: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’You’ve Got A Friend’

Mini Lyrical

1st: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Let The River Run’

Mini Musical Theatre

1st: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Steam Heat’

Junior Jazz

1st: Haja Dance Company-’Haven’t You Heard’ 1st: Spotlight Dance Works-’Danke Schoen’ 2nd: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Trust’ 3rd: Haja Dance Company-’The Glow’

Junior Hip-Hop

1st: Dean/Black School of Performing Arts-’Throwin It’

Junior Tap

1st: Spotlight Dance Works-’Forget You’ 2nd: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’My Blue Heaven’

Junior Contemporary

1st: Spotlight Dance Works-’Distant Sures’ 2nd: Haja Dance Company-’For A Second’ 2nd: Spotlight Dance Works-’Solace’ 3rd: Spotlight Dance Works-’Marathon (In Roses)’

Junior Lyrical

1st: Haja Dance Company-’Unbroken’

Junior Musical Theatre

1st: Dean/Black School of Performing Arts-’Forget About The Boy’

Teen Jazz

1st: Kim Massay Dance Productions-’Spell’ 2nd: Haja Dance Company-’Start Walkin’ 3rd: Spotlight Dance Works-’One Night Only’ 3rd: The Turning Pointe-’Babylon’

Teen Ballet

1st: Body Language Dance Company-’Scheharazade’ 2nd: Dean/Black School of Performing Arts-’Le Chance’

Teen Hip-Hop

1st: The Turning Pointe-’Earth Girls’ 2nd: Spotlight Dance Works-’Ransom’ 3rd: Artflux Dance Lab-’Screenagers’

Teen Tap

1st: Spotlight Dance Works-’Try A Little Tenderness’ 2nd: Body Language Dance Company-’For All We Know’ 3rd: Body Language Dance Company-’Another Sad Love Song’

Teen Contemporary

1st: Kim Massay Dance Productions-’Can You Hear That’ 2nd: Spotlight Dance Works-’Pa’lante’ 3rd: Haja Dance Company-’We Are Nothing’

Teen Lyrical

1st: Haja Dance Company-’Don’t Cry’ 2nd: Haja Dance Company-’Change Will Come’

Teen Musical Theatre

1st: Nye Dance Productions-’Wizard of Oz’

Teen Specialty

1st: Powerdance Company-’Freedom’ 2nd: Powerdance Company-’If I’ 2nd: Powerdance Company-’Run’ 3rd: Powerdance Company-’The Chain’

Senior Jazz

1st: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Fancy’ 2nd: Haja Dance Company-’That Stuff’ 3rd: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’That’s Life’

Senior Tap

1st: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Superstitious’

Senior Contemporary

1st: Kim Massay Dance Productions-��Minus 60′ 2nd: Kim Massay Dance Productions-’Herd of Defense’ 3rd: Spotlight Dance Works-’Ricochet’

Best NU Groups:

NUbie

Spotlight Dance Works-’Ordinary Miracle’

Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Can You Feel It’

Mini

Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Quake’

Spotlight Dance Works-’Gonna Catch You’

Haja Dance Company-’First Class’

Junior

Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Trust’

Haja Dance Company-’For A Second’

Spotlight Dance Works-’Distant Sures’

Teen

The Turning Pointe-’Earth Girls’

Powerdance Company-’Freedom’

Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’I’m Rising’

Haja Dance Company-’We Are Nothing’

Spotlight Dance Works-’Pa’lante’

Kim Massay Dance Productions-’Can You Hear That’

Body Language Dance Company-’For All We Know’

Senior

Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Fancy’

Spotlight Dance Works-’Ricochet’

Haja Dance Company-’Come Back to Me’

Artflux Dance Lab-’Akvaryum’

Kim Massay Dance Productions-’Minus 60′

Studio Pick:

Dean/Black School of Performing Arts-’An Evening I Won’t Forget’

Body Language Dance Company-’For All We Know’

Powerdance Company-’Freedom’

Spotlight Dance Works-’Ricochet’

Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Fancy’

Haja Dance Company-’We Are Nothing’

[dawnsbreaking]

set before Ch13, no spoilers pairing: Xu Mo | Lucien/Original Female Character word count: 4,002

She hadn't intended to come to the lecture today, she'd texted Lucien as much, but her morning at work had been too hectic to bear without a break. Rose had a lot to do but she thought that she could treat her visit to Loveland University like taking her work to a cafe. Lucien's soft voice would be the perfect calming soundtrack for answering emails, and the promise of getting to spend time with him after class was an inherent motivator. - Rose doesn't pay enough attention to Lucien's lecture, she tries to make up for it after class.

my goal for this was to write a lucien fic that is fun and fluffy but could be a little bit angsty with more ch13 and beyond context, and i think i did that! reblogs, comments, tags appreciated!!

read on ao3

Rose hadn't realized how commonplace her "auditing" of Lucien's lectures had become until this morning, walking into class, when one of Lucien's students greeted her by name as he held open the door for her.

"Good morning, Miss Prichard," he said, nodding his head respectfully before continuing to his seat.

Rose's eyes immediately darted to the lectern where she found Lucien, smiling knowingly. He mouthed, "Good morning, Miss Prichard."

The teasing light in his eyes filled Rose with a dizzying warmth. She felt caught, somehow, like this student had announced something precious about her to the world.

Another student's voice followed, and then another. Rose waded through a sea of good-mornings on her way to her usual seat at the back of the classroom.

"Good morning. You're all supposed to ignore me, remember?" Rose laughed, trying at an easy tone.

The first time she'd attended one of Lucien's lectures for this class, she'd introduced herself—somewhat unnecessarily—as the producer of Miracle Finder. Lucien had instructed his students not to mind her, telling them that she would be auditing lectures from time to time as a matter of personal interest. Then, she'd only expected to attend a few classes, just to better understand Lucien's style as a presenter. She thought that, in doing so, she might improve her skills in directing the professor's segments on her show. This original intention was far gone, now, as she'd been attending classes faithfully every week since her first.

Lucien's instruction to ignore was offered in vain. Rose drew attention naturally over time, by nature of the popularity of her show among Lucien's classes. The classroom rumors about Rose and Lucien's relationship certainly didn't help, either, as it was getting harder and harder to hide her familiarity with the professor from his students.

After taking her seat and unpacking her things, Rose chanced another look up at the front of the classroom. As if sensing her glance, Lucien pulled his eyes from the lectern and met her gaze at just the right moment. Again, he gave a sly smile.

She hadn't intended to come today, she'd texted Lucien as much, but her morning at work had been too hectic to bear without a break. Rose had a lot of work to do but she thought that she could treat her visit to Loveland University like taking her work to a cafe. Lucien's soft voice would be the perfect calming soundtrack for answering emails, and the promise of getting to spend time with him after class was an inherent motivator.

"Good morning, class," Lucien said, nonchalant yet effortlessly commanding of the room's attention. As his students responded in kind, he spared a quick glance at his watch, as if to subliminally call attention to the time. "I hope you've all been well.”

As Lucien eased into the lecture, Rose surreptitiously opened her daily planner and uncapped a pen. If she could respond to at least ten emails and finalize her shooting schedules for the week in the next hour and thirty minutes, she would have the rest of the afternoon free to spend with Lucien.

She read and responded to emails, checking off names and tasks in her planner as she went. Then, she moved on to the schedule, referencing notes from the emails she'd just responded to and calls she'd made that morning. The lecture faded into sweet background noise as she worked, the words hardly registering above the buzz of her thoughts.

It wasn't until Lucien mentioned Rose by name that she realized he'd been talking about an episode of Miracle Finder and returned her attention to him.

“This was when I first began working for Miss Prichard, of course,” Lucien continued, though the context for the statement was completely lost on her. She thought back to early episodes that Lucien had consulted on, trying to find a thread that connected to the topic of the lecture. Unfortunately, however, she was also drawing a blank on the topic of the lecture.

When Rose raised her head, clearly giving away her sudden shift in attention, she was met with another knowing look and teasing smile from the professor.

She gave him a sheepish grin, hoping to convey sincere apology. In response, Lucien shook his head at her as he continued speaking. To the auditorium of students, the swish of his dark hair and momentary crinkle of his eyes were surely taken as natural micro-expressions. To Rose, however, they were clear communications. He didn’t mind that she wasn’t paying attention, not really, but he was planning to tease her about it for the sake of it.

Lucien was fond of meaningless pretenses, taking advantage of any opportunity to turn a friendly conversation into a battle of wits. Rose suspected that being playfully antagonistic toward her was Lucien’s way of flirting, though calling him out on this was her trump card. She knew that she couldn’t let him see her hand until exactly the right time.

“I’m afraid I’ve gotten off topic.” Lucien chuckled as he let his eyes fall to the lectern in front of him. He was lecturing without the use of any notes, so he was purely glancing away to give Rose the mercy of broken eye-contact.

Rose felt her shoulders naturally fall as Lucien’s eyes left her. She returned, somewhat stubbornly, to her work. She was doing this for his sake, after all, working during his lecture so that she could give him her time after class.

In the back of her mind, Rose began assembling a bulleted list of counter-arguments to the jabs she anticipated. By the time Lucien had concluded his lecture—four minutes early, by the time displayed on Rose’s laptop—she’d finished enough of her work to justify a few hours away from the office and armored herself for a sparring match.

Lucien watched patiently as a line of students filtered out of the room. A few of them wished Rose goodbye, unfortunately giving Lucien more license to tease her.

Once the last student was gone, Rose stayed in her place, intentionally slow in putting away her things as she enticed Lucien to approach her first.

“I’d like to congratulate you on your perfect attendance in this class, Miss Prichard,” he said, coming to stand in front of her on the other side of the desk table, “I didn’t think you were going to be here this morning.”

Rose shrugged coolly, keeping her eyes trained on the zipper of her work bag as she pulled it closed. “Gotta keep you on your toes.”

“Hm,” Lucien hummed. “Is that what you do?”

“Well, truth be told…“ She finally stood at full height, raising her chin so that she could meet Lucien’s eyes. She found a fiery expression on the professor’s face. He was enjoying himself already. “I’ve always wondered whether you perform better with or without me watching.”

An almost imperceptible twitch at the corner of his mouth told Rose that she’d almost made him laugh, but he just managed to maintain a placid smile.

“Do you have a hypothesis?” Lucien asked.

“Not sure,” Rose said, “it could go either way, I think.”

“Well, regardless, you would be unable to test any hypothesis without paying attention to my lectures in the first place.”

There it was. Rose was disappointed at not being able to effectively distract him, but she switched gears without difficulty nonetheless.

“I brought my work with me so that I could get ahead of some things. I’ve earned at least three hours away from the office.”

Lucien frowned. “I was expecting an apology.”

“Would you accept three hours of my time as an apology?” Rose asked, drawing the connection between the two points in bold.

In response, Lucien leaned away and crossed his arms. Either his ego was bruised or he’d anticipated this point and was readying himself to deliver another cutting remark. The anticipatory silence alone was enough to make Rose waver in her resolve.

“It’s not very sincere as an apology if you were already planning on giving your time to me.” His voice took on a distant, musing quality, as if he were speaking to himself, reasoning through a difficult problem. “I’ve gained nothing for my trouble.”

“You’re right,” Rose relented on one front, no longer able to bear the worry that she might have truly hurt his feelings. She rounded the desk and came to stand in front of him. As she wedged herself in between Lucien and the table’s edge, a thought came to her. Another trump card. “I’m sorry that I didn’t pay attention to your lecture, Professor Xu.”

Her voice pitched just so, Rose sounded like a student apologizing after being pulled aside by the instructor. And, judging from the smirk on Lucien’s lips, he had gotten that impression exactly.

This did its job to break the tension, freeing them finally from the previous conceit. Lucien’s shoulders rocked with a hearty laugh as he loosened his posture and dropped his arms back to his sides.

“Alright, that’s enough,” he said. “I’m very grateful that you aren’t one of my students, please don’t ruin that by roleplaying as one.”

“Uh-huh.” Rose hopped up onto the desk behind her and reached for the lapel of Lucien’s jacket to make up for the new distance between them, only to find that he’d stepped forward already, completely in sync with her. To occupy her hands, she took hold of his lapel anyway, tugging at it before smoothing away an invisible mark. “Then, don’t call me ‘Miss Prichard’.”

“I was trying to be professional in front of my class,” Lucien answered without missing a beat. “Wouldn’t it seem odd if I called you by your first name in front of them?”

"Well, it would be much more professional if you didn’t say my name in such a sultry, gruff voice." She dropped her voice down into a lower octave and spoke in a poor impression of his gravelly tone. "Miss Prichard."

Lucien's hands found Rose's waist and squeezed slightly as he pushed even closer to her. He was fighting a smile at her teasing. "You're in rare spirits today."

"Just trying to make myself worth the trouble," she shot back.

"By being more disagreeable than usual?"

"You're pretending you don't like it." This wasn't exactly the trump card, but it was just as good. The exact diction seemed unnecessary when his hands were already on her waist and her hands were playing with his collar.

Lucien laughed, a low chuckle that reverberated physically through Rose due to their proximity. The feeling almost made her lose her nerve again.

“Furthermore,” she pressed on, the implication of his previous statement not lost on her, “I’d like you to elaborate on something for me.”

“What’s that?” Lucien’s head dipped lower, further closing the distance between them. His broad shoulders shielded her face from the sunlight that filtered in through a window, giving her a feeling like he was closing her off from the rest of the world. The thing between them was undeniable now, but she still wanted to hear him say it.

Rose dropped her hands from his collar and leaned closer, resting her wrists on either side of his neck, letting her hands fall limp behind his head. "Why wouldn't you like to have me as your student?"

The hands around Rose’s waist tightened and she could feel an intrepid thumb slip between two buttons of her blouse and brush against her bare stomach. Lucien raised an eyebrow, as if to confirm consent, and she nodded permission without thinking.

He cleared his throat and looked away, an uncharacteristically timid expression momentarily clouding his face. When his gaze returned, there was a new light of resolve in his eyes. “Do you have a hypothesis?” 

“Possibly.”

“Go on.”

“I’d rather you just tell me what you meant.” Rose almost didn’t recognize the assertiveness in her own voice. She’d reached her limit with Lucien’s game.

Lucien, unfortunately, seemed gratified by her desperation. A smug grin overtook his face.

“If you were my student, my feelings for you would be frowned upon,” he said, as matter-of-factly as if he were commenting on the weather, “as would whatever it is we’re doing now.”

“‘Whatever it is’,” Rose repeated. “What are we doing, Lucien, really?”

She realized a moment too late the weight that the question held. It was something she often wondered, an anxiety kept at a low simmer in the back of her mind. All of the flirtation and silly games and sweet moments together that amounted to nothing but gossip amongst college students did worry her. Why didn’t Lucien just ask her out? They were adults, they could just date.

It was worrisome that Lucien preferred drawing out this ambiguous flirtation.

The hands on Rose’s waist stilled, then withdrew themselves entirely as Lucien took a halting step back. Rose frowned, feeling as though she’d made a mistake, pushed him too far. Her hands fell from Lucien’s shoulders and into her lap.

Lucien didn’t look upset, necessarily, but his placid smile no longer reached his eyes. It was that faraway look he got sometimes, that Lucien-is-deep-in-thought-give-him-a-minute look that Rose occasionally teased him for. With no better option presenting itself, Rose resigned herself to wait for him to come back to her.

“It is complicated, isn’t it?” he asked, finally. He offered no other consolation or counter-argument. That was all. It was complicated, wasn’t it?

They worked together in a public capacity, they were busy people, Lucien’s students already had their rumors…

Rose felt suddenly ashamed, almost as if she had really been a student trying to seduce her professor. She looked down at her hands, trying to find the right words to undo what she’d just done. There had been a spell over them before she’d broken it. All of the flirting had almost amounting to something.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have—“

“You didn’t—“

“It’s okay, I should—“ Rose hopped down from her place on the table, wobbling a bit and instinctively taking Lucien’s offered hand to steady herself. As soon as she was right on her feet, she dropped his hand as if it could burn her.

“Rose,” Lucien said, his voice taking on a more firm tone than she was used to from him. He didn’t touch her, didn’t move, but she felt trapped there with him nonetheless, she stilled completely just at the sound of his voice.

“What?”

Lucien sighed, suddenly looking a little bit helpless. “You were going to spend the next three hours with me.”

"I..." Rose faltered, unsure what to say to this. She didn't particularly want to spend three hours pretending that she hadn't just tried to kiss Lucien in a lecture hall in a building with his name on it. "I am really busy today, maybe I should just go."

"Rose," he said her name again, more gently this time. He brought a hand to her chin, pushing her to look into his eyes. "Tell me what just happened."

Frustration shot through her unbidden and she spoke without thinking. "You stepped away. And you're right, things are complicated. I'll leave you alone."

Lucien took another step back, leaving a wide space for Rose to pass through. The frown on his face, though, gave her pause. She stayed still, a little dumbfounded at how easily he'd given up.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"You're—“ Lucien paused, then cut himself off with a laugh, further compounding Rose's confusion. "Why should you be sorry?"

"Because I..."

Before she could finish her sentence, Lucien interrupted. "You didn't do anything wrong. I was worried that I'd made you uncomfortable, which is why I stepped away. If that isn't the case, then I should be the one apologizing for confusing you."

"You didn't make me uncomfortable," Rose said, "but I was worried."

As much as it pained her to bring attention back to her earlier insecurity, Rose couldn't just move forward without addressing the root issue.

"Worried?"

Seeking physical stability that might bolster her confidence, she leaned against the table again and crossed her arms. She felt a bit safer, closed off from him as she spoke. "Sometimes it feels like you only like me when it's convenient. Or when you feel like toying with me. Sometimes I feel like a mouse being tossed around by a cat."

The look on Lucien's face made it clear that he was holding back a smile at her colorful analogy. He straightened and waited for her to continue.

"You know what I mean? The constant play-fighting and flirting and late night phone calls and walks home from work and—“ Rose shook her head, she was getting off-point. “—and nothing. It feels like you want all of this time and attention from me with none of the commitment. None of the clarity. And it's driving me completely insane, Lu."

Dappled light from the window flickered across Lucien's face as he turned away, avoiding Rose's eyes as he took in her words.

"I see." He spoke without turning back.

"Unless I'm making all of this up, in which case I really am sorry."

"No, no, I suppose I just didn't realize." It was a mercy when he encroached upon her personal space again, when his cool hands came to rest on her shoulders. It was a mercy when he looked at her with wide, clear eyes. “I’m sorry that I made you feel that way. I worried that it would be more complicated for you if our relationship were to change.”

“You’re not entirely wrong.”

It would always be more complicated for Rose if their relationship were to change. She was a woman in the entertainment industry, often scrutinized much more heavily than her male counterparts. She couldn’t even count the number of times that rumors about her had surfaced, just by nature of her proximity to the men that she worked with. Dating scandals with Kiro, rumors that she somehow pandered to Victor in order to increase her company’s funding, and the fact that gossip about her relationship with Lucien sometimes overshadowed online conversations about Miracle Finder itself.

Even still, Rose couldn’t find it in herself to push feelings for Lucien away. For one thing, she already had to deal with the gossip regardless. Being with Lucien might not actually change anything for the worse.

“But?” Lucien prodded, though the look on his face told Rose that he probably knew what she was going to say already.

“But I don’t think I’d mind. I mean, if you don’t.”

Having heard all that he needed to hear, Lucien moved his hands back to Rose’s waist and lifted her gently back onto the table. They were almost exactly as they had been, reset as if nothing had happened.

“I’d like to offer some clarification,” Lucien said, leaning even closer than before, speaking into the crook of Rose’s neck. “I feel lucky just to have you in my sight. I didn’t want to trouble you with concern for my feelings, but now I feel like a complete fool. I’m sorry to have made you feel insecure.”

“I understand the hesitation, really.” Rose smoothed Lucien’s lapel, then trailed a hand to his neck. His skin was always so cold. She felt as though she’d leave scorch marks where she touched him.

“Mm.” So close to her collarbone, Lucien’s hum reverberated pleasantly through her. He pulled away just slightly, allowing him to look her in the eyes. “Still, I apologize.”

He was stalling. Rose smiled, squinting her eyes at Lucien to let him know that she’d caught onto his game. “You know what they say about actions speaking louder than words, Professor?”

Lucien smiled back, unable to deny that he’d been teasing her. “Right.”

“Well?”

“I’d like to kiss you,” Lucien said, his voice steady and lacking intonation. The line was delivered in such a casual manner that Rose only made sense of the it second after the butterflies in the pit of her stomach.

A quick nod was all it took to grant Lucien full license with her. He kissed her jaw first, chuckling at Rose’s obvious disappointment.

“I have to be absolutely sure that you want this.” He trailed lower, pressing a soft kiss to the side of her neck. “And, besides, am I really such a tease if I deliver on the result?” He lingered just above her shirt collar, sucking gently at the base of her throat.

While Rose could easily go back and forth with Lucien in a verbal match of wits, she was completely at his mercy in her current state. She felt him continue to trail kisses back up to her jaw before finally pulling away to study her again.

“You’re absolutely a tease,” she huffed, “regardless of your final output.”

“Poor Miss Producer,” Lucien laughed, feigning a pouty voice, “you’re rarely this irritable.”

“And you rarely make your delight in my suffering so obvious.”

“Suffering?” Lucien’s words fell on her neck as he returned to suck on her throat again.

“Lucien. Please.”

He was more gentle than Rose anticipated, considering the way he’d been kissing her neck before. His lips just barely brushed hers, as if he was breathing her in.

Having had enough of his teasing, Rose threaded her hands through Lucien’s hair and deepened the kiss, feeling him smile at her taking of initiative. Tit for tat, he slid his tongue into her mouth. It was this that allowed Rose to see the new game; he was holding back, making her work for it.

She tugged Lucien’s hair, earning a gratifying, low groan, then spread her legs just slightly to rest them against the inside of Lucien’s thighs. Every point of contact between them buzzed. Every minute reaction from Lucien deepened Rose’s resolve. It was just like a fake argument or a friendly game of chess; even if she couldn’t beat him, she could make herself a formidable rival.

One of his hands travelled down from her waist to her thigh, where he traced a careful line below the hem of her skirt. Rose gasped into his mouth when he pinched her leg, finally breaking their kiss.

“Was that too much?” Lucien ducked his head lower as if to check Rose’s face for signs of duress.

Rose gave a breathy laugh. His concern was deeply endearing. “No, you just surprised me, that’s all.”

“Good.” He pecked her lips again. “You’re so…” Another quick kiss. “God.”

“We probably shouldn’t go any further,” Rose said, earning a frown from the professor. “I mean, not here.”

“If you’re worried about my reputation, let me assure you that I locked the door as soon as my students left. The windows are also too high to be seen into and tinted on the outside, besides.”

“Do you bring girls here often?” Rose giggled. “You sound very sure of yourself.”

Lucien narrowed his eyes at her and pinched her cheek. “Funny.”

“That’s not a no,” she teased in a sing-song voice.

“Hey.” Lucien threaded his fingers through her hair, suddenly looking very serious. “This isn’t just a casual encounter, is it? To you?”

“Lucien.” It ruffled Rose that he even had to ask. Of course it wasn’t.

He nodded, seeming to understand implicitly. Rose loved that about him, the way that he saw right through her, sometimes. The way they could speak without speaking.

“How much more time do you have?” He kissed her neck again, then slumped against her, resting his head on her shoulder. The emotional sincerity seemed to have momentarily exhausted him.

“I don’t know, two hours?”

“Why don’t you let me take you to lunch?”

Rose laughed. “So all that talk of high windows and locked doors…”

Another soft kiss, this time on her cheek. He was as casually intimate with her as if they’d been dating for years.

“Keep it in mind for another time,” he said. “Maybe that will help you to stay alert during my next lecture.”

-

thanks so much for reading!! <3

i've been having a hard time creatively lately and i think that it helped to write something for a fandom i've never written in before. i have played mlqc for more than three years and lucien is one of my favorite characters of all time, but i've never really gotten involved in fandom until now. i hope i was able to do lucien justice here.

if you're missing me, i've been more active on twitter lately, and have made an account specifically for mlqc, mysme, obey me, and the ssum. my username there is @/pdbutterfly

[mechs-song-tournament]

List of polls under cut because it is very long this time! Have a good round 1 week!

Once Upon a Time (In Space):

Our Boy Jack / Cinder's Song

Rose Red / Sleeping Beauty

No Happy Endings / Old King Cole

Ulysses Dies At Dawn:

Sirens / Broken Horses

Trial by Song / Riddle of the Sphinx

Favoured Son / Underwold Blues

Ties that Bind / My Name is No-One

Tales to be Told Vol. 1:

Gunpowder Tim vs the Moon Kaiser / Prometheus

Pellinore and the Beast / The Ignominious Demise of Dr. Prichard

One Eyed Jacks / Redeath

High Noon Over Camelot:

Gunfight at the Dolorous Guard / Skin and Bone

Blood and Whiskey / Hellfire

Hanged Man Rusts / Peacemaker

Holder of the Grail / Empty Trail

The Bifrost Incident:

Odin / Losing Track

Thor / Ragnarok II: The Calling

Loki / Ragnarok III: Strange Meeting

Red Signal / Ragnarok I: Runaway

Tales to be Told Vol 2:

Twisted Threads / Alice

Stranger / Pieces

Hereward the Wake / Lucky Sevens

Lost in the Cosmos / Drop Dead

Miscellaneous:

Drunk Space Pirate / Lotus Eaters

Tales to be Told / Frankenstein

Death to the Mechanisms / Homesick

Finales:

Laid in Blood / Terminus

Once and Future King / Elysian Fields

Narrations:

The Aurora Strikes / Expert Testimony

The Hermit / Sunrise

[sidehugsnsideblogs]

FCSU #57 Reunited

Farrah was so upset she couldn't eat. She wanted to stay strong for her girls but they ended up taking care of her. This raid was her worst nightmare, being plucked from her home, separated from family and to have townies delving into her deepest secrets and humiliations. While Farrah had always been meek and submissive she had become withdrawn and almost mute after her marriage to Royce.

Not even her sisterwives knew about the shame he'd inflict on her when they were alone. Royce was incensed when Penny escaped, and even more so when Teresa absconded with his brother. He couldn't take this frustrations out on Rachel, so that left Farrah to bear the shame of the Prichard name. He’d harm himself, starve and work himself into convulsions, claiming he was repenting for the sins of the Prichard family. He made sure Farrah to know how much he suffered on her behalf.

Years upon years of this treatment wore Farrah down to the point that she was terrified to say anything lest she say the wrong thing. She knew the raid was her fault somehow; that some darkness in her heart had lured the townies here. She stopped eating, her weight plummeted. Teresa tried to help her but Farrah was determined to ignore all of her relations. She had to prove herself a good Culton wife. And good Culton wives do not speak to townies, even if they shared a bedroom for sixteen years.

The media was now running almost 24 hour coverage of the raid with Charlene and Rachel acting as the spokeswomen for the cult. They gave tearful house tours showing massive, empty bedrooms, industrial-sized kitchens and living rooms stocked with sermons instead of toys. One special focused on Elden Brown’s wives reminiscing about their children while Jayne cooked a grand meal and lamented that no one was there to eat it. Strangely, none of the men were featured in any of these interviews. 

Aj and Teresa watched every interview, hearts in their throats. They hated watching their mother be exploited like this. Aj wondered how Elden was able to force the elder wives into this charade. She wondered if her mother had realized she'd left yet. She was discussing the "Old Gal's Revolution" with Teresa when Dom knocked on the door. "LADIES! You have visitors!" "Visiting hours are over" snapped Aj, she didn't want to be seen with tears streaming down her face. Who would even want to talk to her now anyway?

“No, trust me” said Dominic “You’ll want to see these ones.” Aj and Teresa looked incredulously at the door as two redheaded women sheepishly walked in. Both were dressed like townies with one sporting all kinds of tattoos and piercings, the other looked quite young and sport comfortable looking clothes. “Oh my god.” exclaimed Teresa as she and AJ rose to their feet. “Where have been?” Aj shouted as she rush to embrace her little sister for the first time in years.

The girls sat down to catch up. No one knew Rebecca-Dawn was out. Everyone assumed she was still in hiding. “Look at you!” exclaimed Teresa to Penny. “Look at all this metal and ink! You’re a walking art exhibit.” Penny shrugged “Well I figured since I was an evil townie skank I may as well look the part.” They swapped stories and set about rebuilding their relationship after years of no contact. Penny had only seen Abby and Andrew as babies and didn’t even know Teresa was married, let a lone had children. “I knew you’d end up leaving, you were way to logical to believe that crap.” Laughed Penny. 

The next morning Penny and Rebecca-Dawn gave their sworn statements to Dominic and Greyson. Penny’s was brief. She told them that the church kept their home in a stranglehold. Royce Culton’s whims dictated every aspect of their lives. The pressure to conform was stifling. The most important part of her testimony was her insistence that the church dealt with wayward teenage girls by marrying them off to older, more established men. “She can’t sneak out if her husband is asleep next to her.” She said. 

Everyone knew the biggest bombshell would Becca-Dawn’s story. She was taken from her family in the aftermath of their fall from grace. She spent the last days of her childhood being trained in the “wifely arts” by her older sisters. She spoke of the strange rituals Royce would perform and require his wives to perform. “I want to make myself clear. We had no choice but to participate. My sisters and sisterwives could not have protected me without putting themselves in danger.”

 Dominic showed Becca some of the evidence gathered from Royce’s computer and the files from the temple. She spoke of her thirteenth birthday, being married as soon as she aged up. She spoke of her fear, how she had to teach herself not to recoil from his touch. She spoke bravely, trying to distance herself from her own story, otherwise she would burst into tears. She was shocked to learn how much of daily life in the Culton home was secretly recorded by Royce. By the end of her testimony Dom’s eyes were welling up. “You can use whatever evidence you’d like for your case but I do not want the CCTV footage of my wedding night to be made public. Dom agreed and ended the interview.

He approached Becca-Dawn a few hours later. “Would you like to see Evangeline? She’s been giving us a bit of trouble.” Becca was terrified at the prospect of seeing Vangie again but she wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity. He led her back into the interview room where Vangie was waiting. As soon as their eyes met her voice began to falter. “No...no, you’re working with the townies now? Damning yourself wasn’t enough? You had to drag us all down with you?” Vangie wailed. 

“I didn’t do this. Royce Culton did.” Said Becca calmly. “He’s already in prison, even if he was cruel and corrupt that has nothing to do with us here. We just want to be left alone.” Said Vangie, her tone softening slightly. “I just want to raise my girls in peace.” “Girls?” Your second one was another girl?” “Yes, Veronika Dawn.” Vangie smiled slightly. This broke the ice between the two girls and they began to talk more freely. Becca was careful not to bring up the raid or any criticisms of Royce or the FCSU.

“You know” said Evangeline, dropping her voice to a low whisper. “You could come back, no one knows you left. I told them you were in another house of hiding.” Becca-Dawn let herself get caught up in a day dream of the two of them living together just as they had in the apartment only now there was no Royce to degrade them. “No, I can’t do it.” She said. “I’ve come too far, I could never go back.”

All too soon Dominic returned, bringing the crushing reality of their situation with him. “I’ll see you around.” Becca attempted “No, no you won’t.” Vangie spoke over her. Becca knew it was true but the words still stung. She wondered if this talk had accomplished anything. Was this closure? Her heart felt more like it had been ripped open.

[blackkudos]

Dwayne Johnson

Dwayne Douglas Johnson (born May 2, 1972), also known by his ring name The Rock, is an American-Canadian actor, producer, businessman, retired professional wrestler, and former professional football player. He was a professional wrestler for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) for eight years prior to pursuing an acting career. His films have grossed over $3.5 billion in North America and over $10.5 billion worldwide, making him one of the highest-grossing box-office stars of all time.

Johnson was a college football player for the University of Miami, with whom he won a national championship in 1991. He initially aspired for a professional career in football and entered the 1995 NFL Draft, but he went undrafted. As a result, Johnson signed with the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League (CFL), but was cut from the team in the middle of his first season. Shortly after, he began training as a professional wrestler.

In 1996, Johnson secured a contract with the WWF and was promoted as the first third-generation wrestler in the company's history, as he is the son of Rocky Johnson and grandson of Peter Maivia. He rose to prominence after developing a charismatic persona of a boastful trash-talking wrestler named The Rock. He subsequently won his first WWF Championship in 1998 and helped usher the WWF into the "Attitude Era", a boom period in the company's business in the latter 1990s and early 2000s which still hold professional wrestling records for television ratings. In 2004, he left the WWE to pursue an acting career and went on a seven-year hiatus before returning in 2011 as a part-time performer until 2013, before wholly retiring in 2019.

Considered to be one of the greatest professional wrestlers and biggest draws of all-time, The Rock headlined the most-bought professional wrestling pay-per-view event ever, WrestleMania XXVIII, and was featured in among the most watched episodes of WWE's television shows, WWE Raw and WWE SmackDown. He has won several championships, being a two-time Intercontinental Champion, a five-time tag team champion, and a ten-time world champion. He was also a Royal Rumble match winner and WWE's sixth Triple Crown champion.

Johnson had his first acting role in The Mummy Returns (2001), and played his first lead role in The Scorpion King (2002). He has since starred in numerous successful films, including The Game Plan (2007), Get Smart (2008), Race to Witch Mountain (2009), Tooth Fairy (2010), Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012), G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013), Hercules (2014), San Andreas (2015), Central Intelligence (2016), Moana (2016), Rampage (2018), and Skyscraper (2018). Johnson's most successful box office role has been Luke Hobbs in The Fast Saga films. He first appeared as the character in Fast Five (2011) and helped catapult the film series into one of the top-grossing movie franchises in history. He starred in the sequels, Fast & Furious 6 (2013), Furious 7 (2015), and The Fate of the Furious (2017), as well as the spin-off film Hobbs & Shaw (2019). Another notable franchise starring Johnson is Jumanji, and he has appeared in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) and its sequel Jumanji: The Next Level (2019).

Johnson starred in the HBO series Ballers, on which he was also a producer, starting in 2015. The show ran for five seasons and was ranked as HBO's most watched comedy in six years. He has also attained success as a television host, author, and producer. In 2000, he released an autobiography titled The Rock Says... which debuted at number one on The New York Times Best Seller list. In 2012, he founded the entertainment production company Seven Bucks Productions, which has since produced several films. Consistently ranked among the world's highest paid actors, Johnson made the Time 100 Most Influential People in the World list in both 2016 and 2019.

Early life

Dwayne Douglas Johnson was born on May 2, 1972, in Hayward, California, to Ata Johnson (née Maivia; born 1948) and former professional wrestler Rocky Johnson (born Wayde Douglas Bowles; 1944–2020). Growing up, Johnson briefly lived in New Zealand with his mother's family, where he attended Richmond Road Primary School in Grey Lynn before returning to the United States. He then attended Montclaire Elementary School in Charlotte, North Carolina before moving to Hamden, Connecticut, where he spent a couple of years at Shepherd Glen Elementary School and Hamden Middle School. Johnson spent his high school years at President William McKinley High School in Honolulu, Hawaii, Glencliff High School and McGavock High School in Nashville, Tennessee, and Freedom High School in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He was arrested multiple times for fighting, theft, and check fraud before the age of 17. Johnson also began playing sports, joining his high schools' gridiron football, track and field and wrestling teams.

Johnson is half-Black (African) and half-Samoan. His father was a Black Canadian, from Nova Scotia, and part of the first Black tag team champions in WWE history along with Tony Atlas. His mother is Samoan and the daughter of Peter Maivia, who was also a pro wrestler. Maivia's wife, Lia, was the first female pro wrestling promoter, taking over Polynesian Pacific Pro Wrestling after her husband's death in 1982, until 1988. Through his grandfather Maivia, Johnson is considered a non-blood relative to the Anoa'i wrestling family. In 2008, Johnson inducted his father and grandfather into the WWE Hall of Fame.

Football career

Johnson was a promising football prospect and received offers from many Division I collegiate programs. He decided on a full scholarship from the University of Miami where he mostly played defensive tackle. In 1991, he was on the Miami Hurricanes' national championship team. After suffering a number of injuries, he was later replaced in the starting lineup by future Pro Football Hall of Famer Warren Sapp.

After Johnson graduated in 1995 with a Bachelor of General Studies in criminology and physiology, he signed with the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League as a linebacker. He was assigned to the practice roster but was cut two months into the season.

Professional wrestling career

Early career (1996)

After his football career, Johnson decided to pursue a career as a professional wrestler. Veteran wrestler Pat Patterson got Johnson several tryout matches with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1996. Under his real name, he defeated The Brooklyn Brawler at a house show on March 10. and lost matches to Chris Candido and Owen Hart. After wrestling at Jerry Lawler's United States Wrestling Association as Flex Kavana and winning the USWA World Tag Team Championship twice with Bart Sawyer in the summer of 1996, Johnson signed a WWF contract. He received additional training from Tom Prichard, alongside Achim Albrecht and Mark Henry.

World Wrestling Federation/EntertainmentDebut and Intercontinental Champion (1996–1997)

Johnson made his WWF debut as Rocky Maivia, a combination of his father and grandfather's ring names, although his real name was acknowledged by the announcers. He was initially reluctant to take this ring name but was persuaded by Vince McMahon and Jim Ross. He was given the nickname "The Blue Chipper" and his lineage was played to on TV, where he was hyped as the WWF's first third-generation wrestler. Maivia, a clean-cut face character, was pushed heavily from the start despite his wrestling inexperience. He debuted on Monday Night Raw as a member of Marc Mero's entourage on November 4, 1996. His first match came at Survivor Series, on November 17, in an eight-man elimination tag match; he was the sole survivor and eliminated the final two members of the opposing team, Crush and Goldust. On February 13, 1997, he won the Intercontinental Championship from Hunter Hearst Helmsley on Monday Night Raw. Maivia then successfully defended the title against Helmsley at In Your House 13: Final Four. He had his first WrestleMania match at WrestleMania 13 where he was victorious in his Intercontinental Championship defense against The Sultan. WWF fans started to reject his character and push from the company. He defeated Bret Hart by disqualification in a title defense on the March 31 episode of Raw is War. Behind the scenes, Hart mentored Johnson for his first year in WWF and refused to be booked to take the title from him. On April 20, at In Your House 14: Revenge of the 'Taker, he lost to Savio Vega by countout but retained the title. Audiences became increasingly hostile toward Maivia, with chants of "die, Rocky, die" and "Rocky sucks" being heard during his matches.

The Nation of Domination (1997–1998)

After losing the Intercontinental Championship to Owen Hart on the April 28, 1997 episode of Raw Is War and suffering a legitimate knee injury in a match against Mankind, Maivia returned in August 1997 and turned heel for the first time in his career by lashing out at fans who had been booing him and joining Faarooq, D'Lo Brown and Kama in the stable called the Nation of Domination. He then refused to acknowledge the Rocky Maivia name, instead referring to himself in the third person as The Rock, though he would still be billed as "The Rock" Rocky Maivia until 1998. The Rock would then regularly insult the audience, WWF performers, and interviewers in his promos.

At D-Generation X: In Your House, Stone Cold Steve Austin defeated The Rock in under six minutes to retain the Intercontinental Championship. The next night on Raw Is War, Austin was ordered by Mr. McMahon to defend the title in a rematch, but forfeited it to The Rock instead, handing him the title belt before hitting him with the Stone Cold Stunner. The Rock feuded with Austin and Ken Shamrock through the end of 1997 and beginning of 1998. On January 19, 1998, at Royal Rumble, The Rock defeated Shamrock by disqualification to retain the Intercontinental title. Later that night, he entered the Royal Rumble match and lasted until the final two before he was eliminated by Stone Cold Steve Austin. On March 29, at WrestleMania XIV, he defeated Shamrock by disqualification once again to retain the title. The next night, on Raw is War, The Rock debuted a new Intercontinental Championship design and would later overthrow Faarooq as leader of the Nation of Domination to spark a feud between the two. He then successfully defended the Intercontinental title against Faarooq at Over the Edge: In Your House on May 31. The stable would then refer to themselves as simply "The Nation".

The Rock and The Nation then feuded with Triple H and D-Generation X, with the two stable leaders first meeting in the quarter-final of the 1998 King of the Ring tournament, which The Rock won. At King of the Ring, The Rock defeated Dan Severn in the semi-final match and lost to rival Ken Shamrock in the final. The Rock then resumed his feud with Triple H, as the two had a two out of three falls match at Fully Loaded: In Your House for the Intercontinental title, which The Rock retained in controversial fashion. This led to a ladder match at SummerSlam, where The Rock lost the title.

The Rock saw a big uptick in fan support during this time, causing him to be booked in a feud with fellow Nation members Mark Henry and D'Lo Brown, turning babyface in the process. Henry defeated him at Judgment Day: In Your House, after interference from Brown, effectively breaking up the stable.

WWF Champion and rise to superstardom (1998–2000)

The Rock was then entered into the "Deadly Game" tournament for the vacant WWF Championship. The finals occurred at Survivor Series, where The Rock defeated Vince McMahon's associate, Mankind, to win his first WWF Championship. A "double turn" then occurred as The Rock turned heel again after allying with Vince and Shane McMahon as the crown jewel of their stable, The Corporation, after the McMahons betrayed Mankind. On December 13, 1998, at the pay-per-view named after him, Rock Bottom: In Your House, The Rock had a rematch with Mankind for the WWF Championship. Mankind appeared to win the match when The Rock passed out to the Mandible Claw submission move, but Vince McMahon ruled that since The Rock did not tap out, he retained his title.

The Rock continued to feud with Mankind over the WWF Championship, which was traded back and forth between them. First, in the main event of the January 4, 1999 episode of Raw Is War, Mankind defeated The Rock after interference from Stone Cold Steve Austin. Then at the Royal Rumble on January 24, The Rock regained the title in a brutal “I Quit” match, a type of match that only ends if one of the combatants says “I quit” on a microphone. Intended to show a vicious mean streak in The Rock's character, this match went horribly wrong as at the end of the match The Rock hit Mankind in the head with a steel chair eleven times instead of the scripted five- five shots already being a risky amount (most wrestling matches in the Attitude Era involving steel chairs had at most 2 or 3 shots to the head). After the 5th shot, Mankind was still at ringside instead of being two-thirds up the entrance ramp where he was supposed to be, and after the eleventh shot which knocked a bloodied Mankind out, a recording of Mankind saying "I Quit" from an earlier interview was played over the PA system. On January 31, during an episode of Sunday Night Heat, The Rock and Mankind participated in an Empty Arena match, a match that took place in an arena with 22,000 empty seats where any part of the facility could be used to contest the match. After 20 minutes of chaotic brawling in the ring, the stands, a kitchen, the catering area, an office, the arena corridors and finally a basement loading area, Mankind pinned The Rock using a forklift truck to win the WWF title. This match was referred to as "Halftime Heat" as it was televised during halftime of that year's Super Bowl. The two faced off again, at St. Valentine's Day Massacre: In Your House, in a Last Man Standing match which ended in a draw, meaning Mankind retained the title. Their feud ended on the February 15 Raw Is War, when The Rock won his third WWF Championship in a Ladder Match after Big Show interfered on his behalf. The Rock then lost the WWF Championship to Stone Cold Steve Austin at WrestleMania XV.

The Rock's popularity continued to grow and audiences still cheered for him even though he was a heel. He then lost the title rematch against Stone Cold Steve Austin at Backlash: In Your House after he was betrayed by Shane McMahon, turning him face again and starting a feud with Triple H, The Undertaker and The Corporate Ministry. On April 29, 1999, WWF aired the pilot episode of SmackDown!, a term derived from one of The Rock's catchphrases. In the episode, The Rock continued his feud with The Corporate Ministry. This led to a match with Triple H, at Over the Edge, which The Rock won, and a match for the WWF Championship against The Undertaker, at King of the Ring, which The Rock lost. The Rock then lost a number one contender's match to Triple H, at Fully Loaded, after interference from "Mr. Ass" Billy Gunn. The Rock then defeated Gunn in a Kiss My Ass match at SummerSlam.

Shortly after SummerSlam, The Rock began teaming with former opponent Mankind and the two became known as The Rock 'n' Sock Connection. They became WWF Tag Team Champions for the first time after defeating The Undertaker and Big Show for the titles on the August 30, 1999 episode of Raw is War. The two performed a number of critically acclaimed comedic skits together, including one called "This Is Your Life", which saw Mankind bring parody versions of people from The Rock's past on television, such as his high school girlfriend and his high school football coach, only to have The Rock insult them. The segment earned an 8.4 Nielsen rating, one of the highest ratings ever for a Raw segment. The two lost the titles back to Undertaker and Big Show on the September 7, 1999 episode of SmackDown! and won them back from them on the September 20, 1999 episode of Raw is War. Rock and Mankind then lost the titles to The New Age Outlaws on the very next episode SmackDown!. Rock and Mankind would win the tag titles for the third and final time after beating the New Age Outlaws on the October 12, 1999 episode of SmackDown! before losing the titles to The Holly Cousins on the October 18, 1999 episode of Raw is War.

At Royal Rumble, on January 23, 2000, The Rock entered the Royal Rumble match and was one of the final two remaining, along with Big Show; In an attempt at a "false finish", Big Show intended to throw The Rock over the top rope in a running powerslam-like position, before The Rock countered the move on the ring apron, sending Big Show to the floor before re-entering the ring as the winner. However, The Rock's feet accidentally hit the floor during the reversal attempt although those watching the event on TV did not see that. This was played up in the storyline as Big Show provided additional video footage showing this fact, and claimed to be the rightful winner. The Rock's number one contendership for the WWF Championship was then put on the line against Big Show at No Way Out, which Big Show won after Shane McMahon interfered. The Rock then defeated Big Show, on the March 13 episode of Raw Is War, to regain the right to face the WWF Champion, Triple H, at WrestleMania 2000 in a Fatal Four-way elimination match, also including Big Show and Mick Foley. Each wrestler had a McMahon in his corner: Triple H had his wife, Stephanie, Foley had Linda, The Rock had Vince and Big Show had Shane. The Rock lasted until the final two but was eliminated by then-reigning champion Triple H after Vince betrayed him by hitting him with a chair.

Record-breaking world champion (2000–2002)

In the following weeks, The Rock continued his feud with Triple H and eventually won his fourth WWF Championship, which he won on April 30, at Backlash, after Stone Cold Steve Austin intervened on his behalf. The following night on Raw, he successfully defended his title against Shane McMahon in a Steel Cage match. On May 21, at Judgment Day, The Rock faced Triple H in an Iron Man match with Shawn Michaels as the special guest referee. With the score tied at five falls each, and with seconds left on the time limit, The Rock was disqualified when The Undertaker attacked Triple H, thus giving Triple H the 6–5 win and the title. The Rock won the WWF Championship for a fifth time at King of the Ring on June 25 by scoring the winning pin in a six-man tag team match, teaming with Kane and The Undertaker against Shane McMahon, Triple H and Vince McMahon, whom he pinned. The Rock successfully defended the championship against Chris Benoit, on July 23, at Fully Loaded. The next month, he successfully defended his title against Kurt Angle and Triple H at SummerSlam. The Rock had another successful title defense against Benoit, Kane and The Undertaker, on September 24, at Unforgiven.

The Rock then lost the WWF Championship to Kurt Angle, at No Mercy, in October. The next month, The Rock feuded with Rikishi and defeated him at Survivor Series. The Rock wrestled a six-man Hell in a Cell match for the WWF Championship, at Armageddon, which Angle won to retain the title. On the December 18 episode of Raw, The Rock won the WWF Tag Team Championship with The Undertaker, defeating Edge and Christian, before losing it back to them the next night at a SmackDown! taping. In 2001, The Rock continued to feud with Angle over the WWF Championship, culminating at No Way Out in February, where he pinned Angle to win the WWF Championship for a sixth time. The Rock then feuded with the Royal Rumble winner, Stone Cold Steve Austin, whom he lost the title to at WrestleMania X-Seven after Austin allied with Vince McMahon, who interfered on his behalf. On the next night's Raw Is War, during a steel cage title rematch, Triple H attacked The Rock, allying with McMahon and Austin and helping Austin retain the championship. Austin and Triple H then formed a tag team called The Power Trip, while The Rock was indefinitely suspended in storyline. Johnson used this time off to act in The Scorpion King.

The Rock returned in late July 2001, when the WWF was feuding with rival promotions, World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), during what's known as The Invasion storyline. In reality, WCW and ECW were purchased by Vince McMahon and the WWF. Many former WCW and ECW wrestlers were then brought onto WWF television and formed The Alliance to compete with WWF in storyline. The Alliance and Vince McMahon then both attempted to persuade The Rock to join their team. The Rock then aligned with McMahon and the WWF. The next month, The Rock defeated Booker T, at SummerSlam, to win the WCW Championship for the first time. He later lost the title to Chris Jericho at No Mercy. The next night on Raw, he teamed with Jericho to win the WWF Tag Team Championship from The Dudley Boyz. The two then lost the tag titles to Booker T and Test on the November 1, 2001 episode of SmackDown!. The Rock defeated Jericho on the November 5 episode of Raw for his second WCW Championship.

As part of the WWF's battle against The Alliance, The Rock wrestled in a "winner takes all" five-on-five elimination tag team match at Survivor Series where the losing team's company would be dissolved in storyline. He was a member of Team WWF along with Chris Jericho, The Undertaker, Kane, and Big Show. The Alliance's team consisted of Stone Cold Steve Austin, Kurt Angle, Booker T, Rob Van Dam, and Shane McMahon. In the end, it came down to a one-on-one between The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin. The Rock seemed to have the upper hand, until his teammate Jericho entered the ring and attacked The Rock. Austin tried to capitalize on this by pinning The Rock, but Kurt Angle revealed his true allegiance by attacking Austin. The Rock then pinned Austin, giving Team WWF the victory and forcing The Alliance to disband. The Rock's WCW Championship was renamed the unbranded "World Championship" following the Alliance's loss. At the next pay-per-view, Vengeance, The Rock lost the World Championship to Jericho, who would then unify the WWF and World titles later that night. The Rock then unsuccessfully challenged Jericho for the now Undisputed WWF Championship at Royal Rumble.

At the next pay-per-view, No Way Out, The Rock defeated The Undertaker in a singles match. The event also saw the WWF debut of the famed WCW faction New World Order, which at the time consisted of "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, and Scott Hall. This later led to a match between The Rock and Hogan at WrestleMania X8. The match was billed as "icon versus icon", with both men representing the top tier of two generations of wrestling; ultimately The Rock pinned Hogan at WrestleMania X8. Despite The Rock portraying a heroic character and Hogan a villain, a portion of the crowd attending the SkyDome was rooting heavily for Hogan. In an interview in 2013, Hogan said he and The Rock changed the style of the match on the fly based on the crowd's response. After the introduction of the first-ever brand extension, the WWF held a "draft lottery" on the March 25, 2002, episode of Raw. The Rock was the number one overall pick, going to the SmackDown brand before taking a sabbatical from wrestling.

The Rock made a surprise return on a June episode of Raw before going to his assigned brand of SmackDown. There, he was named the number one contender for the WWE Undisputed Championship, which he won for a record-setting seventh time at Vengeance, on July 21, by defeating Kurt Angle and then-champion The Undertaker in a Triple Threat match. The Rock successfully defended the title at the Global Warning event in Melbourne, Australia, against Triple H and Brock Lesnar after pinning Triple H. On August 25, at SummerSlam, after interference from Lesnar's manager Paul Heyman, The Rock lost the WWE Undisputed Championship to Lesnar along with the record for the youngest WWE Champion, which he had set in 1998. In 2018, writing for ESPN.com, Sean Coyle noted in a retrospective review of the event, that following his victory over Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania X8, The Rock "started to see a dip in fan support" and "that dip turned into a plunge" by the time Rock had his match with Lesnar at SummerSlam because fans knew he was leaving WWE to pursue an acting career. This was evident by the fact that he was met with a negative crowd response during his match against Lesnar. After the event ended, The Rock was visibly angry at the crowd reaction. When he tried to do a post-show speech for the crowd, the fans attending the Nassau Coliseum would still boo him. The Rock then took time off to kickstart his acting career.

Final feuds and first retirement (2003–2004)

The Rock returned on the January 30, 2003 episode of SmackDown! to set up another match with Hulk Hogan at No Way Out. Because of negative fan reaction during his previous couple of matches as a result of his budding acting career, The Rock turned heel again. The Rock then defeated Hogan at No Way Out before assigning himself to the Raw brand. There, he had various small feuds, including one with The Hurricane. He also began performing "Rock Concerts", segments in which he played the guitar and mocked WWE performers and fans in song.

After failing to win a number one contendership for the World Heavyweight Championship, The Rock went into another program with Stone Cold Steve Austin. This led to a match at WrestleMania XIX, which called back to their previous two WrestleMania encounters, both of which Austin had won. The Rock won after delivering three consecutive Rock Bottoms, ending their long-running rivalry in what turned out to be Austin's final match. The next night, Raw was billed as "The Rock Appreciation Night", in honor of his victory over Austin. That night, he was attacked by a debuting Goldberg. At Backlash, Goldberg defeated The Rock, who then briefly left WWE to film Walking Tall.

Throughout the rest of the year, The Rock made occasional appearances, reverting to a face character. In 2004, The Rock aided Mick Foley in his feud against Evolution, leading to a reunion of The Rock 'n' Sock Connection. They lost against Ric Flair, Randy Orton, and Batista in a handicap match at WrestleMania XX, when Orton pinned Foley after an RKO. This would be Johnson's final wrestling match until November 2011. The Rock appeared in WWE sporadically following WrestleMania XX. He made returns to provide support for Eugene against Jonathan Coachman, made a cameo in his hometown of Miami and helped Mick Foley against La Résistance. Later in 2004, he hosted a pie-eating contest, as part of the WWE Diva Search, and ended the segment by giving Coachman a People's Elbow. The Rock's contract with WWE then ended and he started his full-time acting career.

Return to WWENon-wrestling appearances (2007–2009)

On March 12, 2007, The Rock appeared on a WWE show after nearly three years, via a pre-taped promo shown during Raw. He correctly predicted that Bobby Lashley would defeat Umaga at WrestleMania 23 in Donald Trump and Vince McMahon's "Battle of the Billionaires" Hair vs Hair match. On March 29, 2008, Johnson appeared to induct his father and grandfather Peter Maivia and Rocky Johnson into the WWE Hall of Fame. Johnson's next appearance was via a pre-taped promo on October 2, 2009, during the Decade of SmackDown.

Feud with John Cena (2011–2013)

On February 14, 2011, The Rock was revealed as the host of WrestleMania XXVII, appearing live on Raw for the first time in almost seven years. During a lengthy promo, he addressed the fans and started a feud with John Cena. After numerous appearances via satellite, The Rock appeared live on the Raw before WrestleMania XXVII to confront Cena. After he and Cena exchanged insults, The Miz and Alex Riley appeared and attacked The Rock; he fended off Miz and Riley, only for Cena to blindside him with an Attitude Adjustment.

On April 3, at WrestleMania XXVII, The Rock opened the show by cutting a promo. After appearing in numerous backstage segments, The Rock came to ringside to restart the main event between Cena and The Miz as a No Disqualification match, after it had ended in a draw. As revenge for the Attitude Adjustment Cena had given him on Raw, Rock hit Cena with the Rock Bottom, allowing The Miz to pin him and retain the WWE Championship. After the match, Rock attacked Miz and hit him with the People's Elbow. The following night on Raw, The Rock and Cena agreed to a match at WrestleMania XXVIII the next year. They then worked together to fend off an attack by The Corre, which at the time consisted of Wade Barrett, Heath Slater, Justin Gabriel, and Ezekiel Jackson.

The Rock appeared live on Raw in his hometown of Miami to celebrate his 39th birthday. On September 16, WWE announced The Rock would wrestle in a traditional 5-on-5 Survivor Series tag team match, teaming with Cena at Survivor Series in November. However, on the October 24 episode of Raw, Cena instead suggested The Rock be his partner in a standard tag team match against The Miz and R-Truth, a team called Awesome Truth, which Rock agreed to the following week. On November 14, during the special Raw Gets Rocked, The Rock appeared live, delivering Rock Bottoms to Mick Foley, who had been hosting a "This Is Your Life"-style segment for Cena, and later both members of Awesome Truth. The Rock and Cena defeated Awesome Truth on November 20 at Survivor Series, when The Rock pinned The Miz. After the match, The Rock gave Cena a Rock Bottom.

Leading up to WrestleMania, The Rock and Cena had several verbal confrontations on Raw. On the March 12, 2012 episode of Raw, The Rock hosted his first "Rock Concert" segment since 2004, mocking Cena in his songs. On April 1, at WrestleMania XXVIII, The Rock beat Cena in the main event after countering Cena's attempt at a People's Elbow into a Rock Bottom. This event broke the record for biggest professional wrestling pay-per-view buyrate. The following night on Raw, The Rock praised Cena, calling their match "an honor". He then vowed to once again become WWE Champion.

On July 23, at Raw 1000, The Rock announced he would wrestle for the WWE Championship at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view. During the show, he encountered then-reigning WWE Champion CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, and John Cena, all of whom expressed a desire to face him. The Rock later saved Cena from an assault by Big Show, only to be laid out by CM Punk. On the January 7, 2013 episode of Raw, The Rock returned to confront his Rumble opponent CM Punk. On January 11, he made his first SmackDown appearance in ten years, getting into an altercation with Team Rhodes Scholars, resulting in him delivering a Rock Bottom to Damien Sandow and a People's Elbow to Cody Rhodes. The Rock closed out the 20th-anniversary episode of Raw, on January 14, with one of his "Rock Concerts", leading to a brawl with CM Punk. The following week on Raw, The Rock was attacked by The Shield. Vince McMahon then asserted that if The Shield attacked The Rock in his title match with CM Punk, Punk would be stripped of the WWE Championship.

On January 27, at Royal Rumble, CM Punk would seemingly defeat The Rock after the arena lights went out and someone attacked The Rock. Vince McMahon then came out and was about to strip Punk of the championship, however, at The Rock's request, he instead restarted the match. This culminated in The Rock defeating Punk to win his eighth WWE Championship. Punk received a title rematch with The Rock, at Elimination Chamber, with the added stipulation that if The Rock was disqualified or counted out, he would still lose the WWE Championship. The Rock would pin Punk to retain the championship. The following night on Raw, The Rock unveiled a new WWE Championship design, with a different center plate and removable customizable side-plates which had his "Brahma Bull" logo. The Rock then resumed his rivalry with John Cena, who won that year's Royal Rumble to set up a rematch of the previous WrestleMania match between the two at WrestleMania 29, only this time with the WWE Championship on the line.

On April 7, at WrestleMania 29, Rock lost the WWE Championship to Cena, ending his reign at 70 days. Despite being advertised for the Raw after WrestleMania, where it was stated that The Rock was still entitled a rematch for the WWE Championship, The Rock did not appear because of a legitimate injury sustained during his match with Cena, in which his abdominal and adductor tendons tore from his pelvis. Johnson underwent surgery on April 23 to reattach the torn tendons.

Sporadic appearances (2014–present)

In April 2014, The Rock appeared in the opening segment of WrestleMania XXX along with Stone Cold Steve Austin and Hulk Hogan. On the October 6 episode of Raw, The Rock made a surprise appearance to confront Rusev and Lana; this resulted in the Rock clearing Rusev from the ring.

The Rock appeared at the 2015 Royal Rumble event during the main event match, where he helped his relative Roman Reigns fend off Big Show and Kane after Reigns eliminated them from the match. Reigns then won the match and The Rock endorsed him in the ring. The Rock appeared at WrestleMania 31 alongside Ronda Rousey, getting into an in-ring altercation with Triple H and Stephanie McMahon. Rock and Rousey prevailed after he attacked Triple H and she overpowered McMahon. On June 27, The Rock appeared at a live event in Boston where he confronted Bo Dallas and gave him a Rock Bottom.

On the January 25, 2016, episode of Raw, The Rock was in a segment that saw him converse with The Miz, Big Show, Lana and Rusev before he and his relatives, The Usos, got into an altercation with then-WWE Tag Team Champions, The New Day. The Rock appeared at WrestleMania 32 where he announced that WWE had broken the all-time WrestleMania attendance record before being interrupted by The Wyatt Family. The Rock got into a verbal back-and-forth with Bray Wyatt before having an impromptu match with Wyatt Family member Erick Rowan. The Rock won after giving Rowan a Rock Bottom and pinning him in six seconds, which set the record for the fastest win in WrestleMania history. The Rock was then aided by a returning John Cena to fend off Wyatt, Rowan and Braun Strowman. On the February 20, 2017 episode of Raw, The Rock made an untelevised appearance after the broadcast had gone off the air, where he promoted and filmed a scene for his then-upcoming film Fighting with My Family.

On August 3, 2019, The Rock officially announced his retirement from professional wrestling. On September 30, 2019, after weeks of speculation, The Rock announced that he would be making an appearance on SmackDown's 20th Anniversary on October 4, marking his first appearance on SmackDown since October 2014 and his first televised appearance since April 2016. At the event, he would cut a promo with Becky Lynch before they were interrupted by King Corbin. After attacking Corbin, The Rock and Lynch celebrated in the ring.

Independent circuit (2009)

On September 30, 2009, The Rock appeared at a World Xtreme Wrestling (WXW) show to support the pro wrestling debut of Sarona Snuka, the daughter of his long-time friend and mentor Jimmy Snuka.

Mainstream crossover

The Rock appeared on Wyclef Jean's 2000 single "It Doesn't Matter" and in its music video. He also recorded "Pie" with Slick Rick for WWF The Music, Vol. 5.

In 1999, Johnson appeared on That '70s Show as his father, Rocky Johnson. The next year, he was on Star Trek: Voyager as an alien wrestler that used The Rock's famous moves.

In 2000, he hosted Saturday Night Live (SNL) for the first time. Fellow wrestlers Triple H, The Big Show, and Mick Foley also appeared on the show. Johnson has stated the success of that episode is the reason he began receiving offers from Hollywood studios. He has since hosted SNL another four times.

In 1999, The Rock was listed No. 5 on Entertainment Weekly's Top 12 Entertainers of the Year. In 2000, Access Hollywood ranked him number six in their list of the Top 10 Celebrities of 2000. That year, Rock was also listed in the Forbes Celebrity 100 and People Magazine's 25 Most Intriguing People.

The Rock was listed Entertainment Weekly's 101 Most Influential People in both 2000 and 2001. In 2001, he was also listed on E!'s 20 Top Entertainers. In 2002, The Rock was listed on E!'s 25 Toughest Stars. In 2003, he was listed in VH1's 200 Greatest Pop Culture Icons and was No. 13 in People Magazine's 50 Favorite TV Stars.

The Rock made a surprise appearance at the official Xbox unveiling during Bill Gates's keynote speech at the ongoing Computer Electronics Show in 2001.

Johnson's motion picture debut was as The Scorpion King in The Mummy Returns (2001). The movie broke a two-year record for the highest-grossing single day in film history by earning US$28,594,667. The movie's financial success led to Johnson's first leading role, in the spin-off The Scorpion King (2002). He received US$5.5 million for the role and Guinness World Records named him the record-holder for highest-paid actor in their first leading role.

The Rock has appeared on the covers of many magazines, including Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, Newsweek, and TV Guide. He has also appeared in, and been the cover athlete for, several video games.

As of September 2019, his Instagram account is the fourth most-followed in the world.

Legacy in pro wrestling

The Rock has been listed as one of the all-time greatest professional wrestlers as well as one of the top draws in wrestling history. Many have placed The Rock on their "Mount Rushmore of Pro Wrestling", including Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair and John Cena. In "Cable Visions: Television Beyond Broadcasting", The Rock was described as "for a long time, the WWE's biggest star and probably held the greatest international appeal". R. D. Reynolds stated in his book "The WrestleCrap Book of Lists" that The Rock was "the biggest star for WWE from 1999 until 2004".

The Rock main-evented the most bought pay-per-view worldwide in WWE history (WrestleMania XXVIII), the most bought pay-per-view domestically in WWE history (WrestleMania X-Seven), the highest rated Raw in history, the highest rated SmackDown in history, and was part of the highest rated segment in WWE history. His return in 2001 did a 7.1 rating which was the highest rated segment of the entire year. The Rock was also part of the highest rated match of the 21st century. His WWF Championship defense, on May 1, 2000, against Shane McMahon did an 8.3 rating on the regular time and a 9.1 on the overrun making this match the second most watched professional wrestling match in the United States of this millennium, only behind a 12 minute long match between The Undertaker and Stone Cold Steve Austin which drew a rating of 9.5 which is the highest rated segment in Raw history.

In 2011, The Rock's return to an episode of Raw generated an average of 4.7 million viewers in the United States, with 7.4 million tuning in during his promo. Raw 1000 was the highest rated Raw episode of 2012 and his segment with CM Punk and Daniel Bryan was the highest rated segment of the show. In 2013, the night after The Rock won the WWE Championship for the first time in over a decade, at Royal Rumble, Raw got its highest rating of that year.

Derived from one of his catchphrases "lay the smackdown", WWE introduced its second flagship program WWE SmackDown in 1999 which later became television's second longest-running weekly episodic program in history. The term "smackdown" was instituted in Merriam-Webster dictionaries since 2007.

The Rock holds the record for most Raw shows main-evented in one year (38 in 2000), most SmackDown shows main-evented in one year (36 in 2000) and tied with Stone Cold Steve Austin (in 2001) for most PPV shows main evented in one year (12 in 2000).

Film career

Johnson entered Hollywood and the film industry, becoming a star initially through his wrestling popularity and noted work ethic. Over his acting career, he has become one of the highest paid and most successful actors in Hollywood. He began his acting career on television while wrestling. In his first television acting job, in 1999, he played his own father in an episode of That '70s Show called "That Wrestling Show". Nearly a year later, he appeared in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Tsunkatse" as an alien wrestler who fought popular character Seven of Nine. While Johnson was away from WWE, the company continued to sell "The Rock" merchandise, and he continued to be featured prominently in the opening montages of their television shows.

Johnson began his theatrical career in The Mummy Returns (2001), The Scorpion King (2002) the action-comedy The Rundown (2003) and the Walking Tall (2004). He played a supporting role in Be Cool (2005) and was the primary antagonist in Doom (2005). Roles in Gridiron Gang (2006) Reno 911!: Miami (2007) Southland Tales (2007). He played a cocky famous American football player in The Game Plan (2007) and Agent 23 in Get Smart (2008). He presented the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects at the 80th Academy Awards.

Johnson became known for reinvigorating film franchises after portraying Marvin F. Hinton / Roadblock in G.I. Joe: Retaliation and reprising his role as Luke Hobbs in Fast & Furious 6; while also starring in true-story films Pain & Gain and Empire State (all released in 2013). That same year, he hosted and produced the TNT reality competition series The Hero, and won the Favorite Male Buttkicker Award at the 2013 Nickelodeon Kid's Choice Awards. In May 2013, it was announced that he would executiveproduce and star in Ballers, an HBO comedy-drama series about NFL players living in Miami, Florida. By December of that year, Forbes named Johnson the top-grossing actor of 2013, with his films bringing in $1.3 billion worldwide for the year. Forbes credited the success of Fast & Furious 6, which grossed $789 million globally, and Johnson's frequent acting work as primary reasons for topping the list.

Johnson starred as the title character in Hercules (2014) and reprised his role as Luke Hobbs in Furious 7 (2015). He hosted another reality series for TNT in 2014, entitled Wake Up Call, which saw him "lending a helping hand to everyday people who were facing enormous challenges in their lives" alongside guest experts such as Rocco DiSpirito, Jillian Michaels, and Josh Shipp. It was announced that he would executive produce and star in the horror film Seal Team 666, and is set to play Nick Schuyler in the drama film Not Without Hope. In 2016, Johnson co-starred with Kevin Hart in the action-comedy Central Intelligence and had a lead voice role in the Disney animated film Moana, in which he voiced the Polynesian demigod Maui. He reprised his role as Luke Hobbs in The Fate of the Furious, which was released in 2017. Johnson starred in two other blockbuster movies that year, Baywatch and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle as Mitchell "Mitch" Buchannon and Dr. Smolder Bravestone, respectively. In 2018, he starred in two action films, Rampage and Skyscraper.

In 2019, he produced and appeared as himself in Fighting with My Family, a comedy drama about WWE superstar Paige and her family, who are also professional wrestlers. Johnson's role within The Fast and the Furious franchise continued with Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, co-starring Johnson and Jason Statham. David Leitch directed the project from a script co-written by franchise-writer Chris Morgan, and Drew Pearce. The film began principal photography in September 2018, and was released on July 26, 2019. Though initially believed to be a part of Fast & Furious 9, Johnson has since stated that he will not appear in the film; instead, opting to begin developmen on a sequel to Hobbs & Shaw. Johnson reprised his role as Bravestone, in Jumanji: The Next Level. With the critical and financial success of Welcome to the Jungle, production on the movie began in early-2019, with a scheduled release on December 25, 2019.

Johnson will star in Netflix's upcoming Red Notice, written and directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber. It will be the third time the two collaborate, following Central Intelligence and Skyscraper. The film co-starring Gal Gadot and Ryan Reynolds, will begin production in fall of 2019. Production on Black Adam is slated to follow thereafter, in mid-to-late 2020. A film centered around Teth-Adam / Black Adam, a part of the DC Extended Universe, was announced to be in development January 2017. Originally cast in the role as early as September 2014 as the antagonist, in a film centered around the superhero Billy Batson / Shazam, his villainous role for Shazam! was re-worked into two separate films. Though Johnson would not appear in Shazam!, he served as a producer and his likeness was used through special effects in flashback scenes. Johnson will co-star with Emily Blunt in The Walt Disney Company's Jungle Cruise, as Frank and Lily Houghton, respectively. Cast in the role in August 2015, the film was announced to be based on the themepark ride of the same name. Jaume Collet-Serra serves as director, with a script by Michael Green from a previous co-written by J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay. In addition to his work on the film, Johnson assisted with re-designing the titular ride for all Disney theme parks. Jungle Cruise is scheduled to be released on July 24, 2020.

Noted for his busy schedule and for developing multiple projects at once, a sequel to the box-office hit San Andreas was announced to be in the pre-production stage with director of the first film, Brad Peyton returning as director along with the main cast (marking the fourth collaboration between the actor and filmmaker following Journey 2, San Andreas, and Rampage respectively). Though originally attached as producer and star, Johnson will now serve solely as the former on a film adaptation of The Janson Directive. John Cena will fill the leading role, with Akiva Goldsman attached as screenwriter. Additionally, he will produce and star in a Netflix exclusive film titled John Henry & The Statesmen, as the titular folklore hero. The film will be directed by Jake Kasdan, from a script co-written by Kasdan and Tom Wheeler. With the first official teaser trailer released in October 2018, the project marks Kasdan and Johnson's third collaboration, following Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Jumanji: The Next Level.

Johnson will co-produce and star in The King, a film about king Kamehameha Kūnuiākea, founder and first ruler of the Kingdom of Hawai'i. The project will be directed by Robert Zemeckis from a script written by Randall Wallace. The movie will be comparable to Braveheart in tone, given Wallace's work on both films, and will depict the king's role in resolving the wars among the islands of Hawai'i. The King will begin production in 2020. Johnson is also attached to produce/star in a sequel to Big Trouble in Little China, as well as project under development with Shane Black focusing on a new interpretation of Doc Savage. In April 2018, he announced that he is working on a film that will include Chris Pratt as his co-star. On November 14, 2019, Johnson announced a December 22, 2021 release date for the standalone Black Adam film.

Other work

In 2000, Johnson published his autobiography, titled The Rock Says..., which he co-wrote with Joe Layden. It debuted at No. 1 on The New York Times Best Seller list and remained on the list for several weeks. In 2012, Johnson founded his production company, Seven Bucks Productions.

In 2013, Johnson hosted and produced the TNT reality competition series The Hero. In 2014, he hosted another TNT reality series entitled Wake Up Call. In 2019, Johnson started hosting an NBC competition series called The Titan Games.

In March 2016, Johnson partnered with the American fitness apparel manufacturer Under Armour to release "Project Rock". The first item in his partnership with Under Armour, a gym bag, sold out in a couple of days. His second item, a black T-shirt sporting his signature "Brahma bull" sold out after being worn at WrestleMania 32. Johnson also released an alarm clock app as part of "Project Rock" that received more than one million downloads in its first week of release. Since then, they have released sneakers, headphones, and other apparel.

In 2016, Johnson started a YouTube channel titled "The Rock" with the help of online personality Lilly Singh. His first video was called "The YouTube Factory" and featured several internet stars.

In 2019, Johnson announced he would be launching his own competitive bodybuilding show, alongside business partner and ex-wife Dany Garcia, called "Athleticon" set to rival other long-standing bodybuilding shows such as The Arnold Classic and Joe Weider's Mr. Olympia. The show is set to debut October 9–11, 2020 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Personal life

Johnson married Dany Garcia on May 3, 1997. Their daughter Simone was born on August 14, 2001. On June 1, 2007, they announced they were splitting up amicably. Johnson then began dating Lauren Hashian, daughter of Boston drummer Sib Hashian. They first met in 2006 while Johnson was filming The Game Plan. Hashian and Johnson were married on August 18, 2019, in Hawaii. They have two children.

As of 2014, Johnson has a home in Southwest Ranches, Florida, as well as Los Angeles, California. He also owns a farm in Virginia. In 2009, he gained Canadian citizenship through his father. Though he was previously registered as a Republican, he voted for Barack Obama in the 2008 and 2012 United States presidential elections. He did not vote in the 2016 U.S. election, and is an independent voter as of 2017.

In recognition of his service to the Samoan people, and because he is a descendant of Samoan chiefs, Johnson had the noble title of Seiuli bestowed upon him by Malietoa Tanumafili II during his visit there in July 2004. He received a partial Samoan pe'a tattoo on his left side in 2003, and, in 2017, had the small "Brahma bull" tattoo on his right arm covered with a larger half-sleeve tattoo of a bull's skull.

In February 2020, the WWE announced that Johnson's daughter Simone had begun training at the WWE Performance Center, making her the first-ever fourth-generation WWE Superstar.

Activism and philanthropy

Johnson attended the 2000 Democratic National Convention as part of WWE's non-partisan "Smackdown Your Vote" campaign, which aimed to influence young people to vote. He also had a speaking role at the 2000 Republican National Convention that same year.

In 2006, Johnson founded the Dwayne Johnson Rock Foundation, a charity working with at-risk and terminally ill children. On October 2, 2007, he and his ex-wife donated $1 million to the University of Miami to support the renovation of its football facilities. The University of Miami renamed the Hurricanes' locker room in Johnson's honor. In 2015, Johnson donated $1,500 to a GoFundMe to pay for an abandoned dog's surgery. In 2017, he donated $25,000 to Hurricane Harvey relief efforts. In 2018, Johnson donated a gym to a military base in Oahu, Hawaii. After the 2018 Hawaii floods, he worked with Malama Kauai, a nonprofit organization, to help repair damages caused by the floods. Johnson has also worked with Make-A-Wish Foundation on a number of occasions.

Championships and accomplishments

Pro Wrestling Illustrated

United States Wrestling Association

Wrestling Observer Newsletter

WWE/World Wrestling Entertainment/Federation

Match of the Year (1999) vs. Mankind in an "I Quit" match at Royal Rumble

Match of the Year (2002) vs. Hollywood Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania X8

Most Popular Wrestler of the Year (1999, 2000)

Wrestler of the Year (2000)

Ranked No. 2 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2000

USWA World Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Bart Sawyer

Best Box Office Draw (2000, 2011, 2012)

Best Gimmick (1999)

Best on Interviews (1999, 2000)

Most Charismatic (1999–2002, 2011, 2012)

Most Improved (1998)

Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 2007)

WCW Championship (2 times)

WWE Championship (8 times)

WWF Intercontinental Championship (2 times)

WWF Tag Team Championship (5 times) – with Mankind (3), The Undertaker (1), and Chris Jericho (1)

Royal Rumble (2000)

Sixth Triple Crown Champion

Deadly Games WWF Championship Tournament (1998)

Slammy Award (9 times)

Best Actor (2014)

Game Changer of the Year (2011) – with John Cena

Guess Who's Back or: Return of the Year (2011)

LOL! Moment of the Year (2012, 2013) – insulting John Cena using the history of Boston, Massachusetts, Rock Concert on the 20th anniversary episode of Raw

Match of the Year (2013) – vs. John Cena for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 29

New Sensation (1997)

"Tell Me You Didn't Just Say That" Insult of the Year (2014) – insulting Rusev and Lana

"This is Awesome" Moment of the Year (2015) – with Ronda Rousey