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lilys42 · 7 months ago

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Bandmates (Josh Dun)- Chapter Four

I wake up late into the morning, unsure of whether or not I had dreamed the whole experience last night. I open my phone and go through my contacts, and sure enough, Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun are listed. I immediately think about their offer to tour with them, and a mixture of excitement and anxiety churns in my stomach. I’m torn between staying in the small town band life I’m used to and traveling around the world with a well-established and famous band. I would no longer be practicing in basements and playing in old bars, half the patrons paying attention and the other half lost in their own conversations. I wouldn’t be making sandwiches with the expired ends of a loaf of bread because I didn’t get enough tips at my last gig to afford more, wouldn’t be making my own band merchandise and drawing my own logo. But wasn’t that the life I’d always wanted?

Ever since I graduated high school and flunked out of college my first year, I knew I wanted to be a musician. Rarely do bands make it to the status of the lucky few like Twenty One Pilots, but I didn’t care that I only had the smallest possibility of making it. I’d work part time jobs to make just enough money to get by as long as I could play music. I spent all my time during the day working so that Lukas, Flynn, and I could have late nights brainstorming new song ideas. We spent a lot of time practicing drunk, which never yielded good songs, but we didn’t have a care in the world.

I pull myself from my thoughts about the past and walk to the kitchen to get some coffee and breakfast. Rhea perks up from her spot on the couch when I appear.

“Morning. Did you get some good beauty sleep?” She asks with a glint in her eye.

“Yeah, I was exhausted when we got back. How about you?”

“Have any dreams about Ohio boys?” She completely ignores my question, obviously wanting to immediately grill me about Twenty One Pilots.

“Not that I remember. But I have been thinking about their offer.” I sit down next to her with my bowl of cereal and coffee.

“Oh? Do tell.” Rhea rests her hand on her chin and smiles at me in anticipation.

“My first instinct is to say yes. Even after mulling it over, I can’t ignore how incredible of an opportunity it is.” I begin.

“But..?”

“But it does make me a little scared. A lot scared, actually. I’d have to leave the only life I’ve ever known, and I’m so used to being a starved musician that barely makes enough money to survive that jumping to a band that makes millions would be a shock. And honestly, I’m most scared of losing my creativity. Everything about the tour is already planned out: the setlist, the stage design, the venues, the dates, even the songs themselves. Maybe they already have the harmonies worked out for me to sing, and who knows if I’d get to play my bass. I’m terrified that I’d miss the freedom of starting from scratch, you know? I don’t get to write lyrics and a melody, then get my bandmates to write the drums and guitar and finish off with a bass line that brings it all together. Isn’t that the beauty of being in a band? The chance to figure it all out together and have that unmatched feeling of finally pulling a song together?” When I finish and look over at Rhea, she’s looking at me with her mouth wide open.

“Damn, and here I was thinking it’d be a simple answer. I never considered…all of that. I completely understand where you’re coming from, but wouldn’t it be fantastic to get yourself recognized? You’ll have people lined up wanting to be in a band with you after they see you’ve worked with Twenty One Pilots. You’ll get your name on the map, and it won’t be so hard to start over with new bandmates. Plus, you pretty much have the guarantee of financial security. The pros outweigh the cons, do they not?” I think for a moment, but I still can’t come to a clear decision.

“I just don’t know.” She smirks at me knowingly, and I can easily guess what she’s about to say before the words come out of her mouth.

“Do I even need to mention how you’d get plenty of unsupervised time with that hunk of a drummer?” I can’t help it, my cheeks blush. We would be spending time together on a cramped tour bus, then hotel rooms, and backstage. And when Tyler goes to spend time with his wife, and we’re left alone…

“Look, why don’t you communicate with them about this? Maybe the decision will be a little easier if you tell them what you’re feeling. They might be able to ease some of those concerns.” Rhea suggests. And it’s a great idea. I finish my breakfast and text Tyler, asking if the three of us can meet up somewhere and talk about their offer. A few minutes later, I receive a message in response: Absolutely. Do you want to come to my house? Jenna and I are out getting coffee right now, but I can get Josh to come let you in and hang until we get back. I reply to his message, saying sounds good. He sends me his address, and when I look up from my phone again, Rhea is looking at me with her eyebrows raised.

“What?” I ask.

“You’re grinning like an idiot. Come on, give it up.” I hand her my phone, and she starts to smile too once she reads through the messages.

“Alone in a house with your drummer. You’ll have to take advantage of that opportunity.” She smirks knowingly.

“Oh, stop it. Will you drive me there?”

Twenty minutes later, Rhea pulls up in front of Tyler’s house. There’s a car in the driveway that I assume to be Josh’s, and my nerves light on fire all of a sudden.

“Deep breaths, Dani. They’re people.” Rhea reassures me, easily reading my thoughts as always.

“I know. I’m just still not used to this. What if I make it awkward?” I say.

“You won’t. I know you won’t. Once you get used to being around them, the conversation will flow easily. Now go on, it’s starting to feel like I’m dropping you off for your first day at kindergarten.” I chuckle, then force myself to open the door and walk up to the house.

“Text me if you need anything. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!” Rhea drives off, and I knock on the door. The muffled sound of barking and paws scurrying across the floor comes from behind it, then footsteps. I take another deep breath, then Josh is standing in front of me. I take him in: brown hair tousled and un-styled, black t-shirt and gym shorts, and a pair of scuffed white Nikes. He gives me a wide smile, then his golden retriever, Jim, shoves his head between Josh’s leg and the doorframe to greet me.

“Hey Dani! It’s good to see you again.” He says brightly.

“It’s good to see you too. And to finally meet Jim.” Josh opens the door for me to come in, and I immediately lean down to pet the dog. His tail swishes back and forth excitedly.

“How are you doing? I know last night was…a lot.” Josh asks.

“A lot better. It really helped having you and Tyler there when I was freaking out. I will admit it was a bit embarrassing to have a panic attack in front of people. That’s why I usually hole myself off from everyone.” I explain, opening up a lot more than I initially thought I would. I’m not the type to show my true feelings around anyone when I first meet them. Maybe it’s because I’m a fan of Twenty One Pilots, so I feel like I already know them, but it’s more the way Josh looks at me. He gazes at me with his brown eyes so full of concern and interest, and I can’t help but to spew every thought I’ve ever had. He looks at me like he cares.

“There’s no need to be embarrassed. At all. Ty and I both know what it’s like to feel overwhelmed like that, so we want to help. But I understand the urge to run and hide. Did you want to talk about the tour, or would you rather wait until Tyler gets here?” I smile at how much he’s making sure I’m comfortable, and I tell him we can go ahead and discuss what I’ve been thinking. We sit on the couch side by side, maybe a little closer than necessary, and Jim hops up next to Josh, affectionately laying his head on his lap. Josh strokes his fur absentmindedly, and I can’t help but watch the prominent veins in his hand as it moves. When I look back up to meet his gaze, he’s looking at me with a slight smirk on his face, like he knows exactly what I’m thinking. I ignore the heat creeping up my neck and say,

“I’ve kind of been spiraling, to be honest. Going on tour with you guys seems like a no-brainer, but it’s a really big deal, and I’ve never performed on a scale like that before.” The moment I start talking, I can’t stop. I didn’t expect to be trauma dumping to him, given that I’ve known him for less than twenty-four hours, but here I am anyways. I relay everything I said to Rhea, all my deepest darkest fears about the slim chance of being successful in music. He listens patiently, and when I’m done, tears are trailing down my face.

“God, I’m sorry.” I wipe my face and look away from him, my cheeks flushing from embarrassment this time. Josh brushes my arm lightly, and I turn to face him again. He’s looking at me with furrowed brows and a slight frown on his face. Not out of pity, but pure understanding and concern.

“Can I give you a hug?” He says quietly.

“I’d like that.” I expect him to stand up, but he pulls me to him on the couch instead, wrapping his arms around me, holding me sure and steady. My body immediately relaxes, and I press my face against his shoulder. Then he does something I really didn’t expect: he rests his chin on the top of my head. It’s such a simple gesture, but it’s so intimate. Maybe Rhea was right. Maybe he is into me. Or maybe I’m delusional and he’s just being nice.

“Thank you for sharing all of that with me. I know it wasn’t easy. If it helps you decide, Tyler and I talked about giving you a lot of creative freedom. This would be a collaboration more than us telling you what to do onstage. Sure, it’s a job, but we want you to have fun, first and foremost. Plus, I saw your energy when you were singing. You were genuine. You felt the music deep in your soul. That’s definitely the kind of person I want to hang out with for months on end.” Josh says honestly. I can hear a smile in his words as he talks. We let go of each other, and I suggest,

“Why don’t we all play a song together? That way we can get a feel for each other musically and if this would really work.” Josh suddenly grins from ear to ear.

“So, you’re considering saying yes?”

“I guess I am.” I laugh as he jumps up from his seat on the couch, Jim getting up with him and mirroring his energy. He grabs the dog’s front paws and lifts him up onto his hind legs, dancing with him and looking like a complete fool. I laugh harder, and all traces of panic or sadness leave me.

Suddenly, the front door swings open; Tyler and Jenna take in the very odd scene before them, and Tyler says,

“Am I interrupting something?”

“As a matter of fact, you did. Jim and I were having a moment.” Josh replies in a sassy tone. The golden retriever wrangles free from his grasp and goes to greet the couple.

“Well anyways, hi Dani! This is my wife Jenna.”

“Nice to meet you. Glad you kept this one in check and didn’t let him destroy the house while we were gone.” She says, pointing to Josh. I giggle at the fact that they keep talking about him like he’s their teenager.

“It’s nice to meet you too. Your house is beautiful.”

“Well thank you. I’ll leave you three alone to work on your music.” She smiles, kisses her husband, and heads upstairs. Tyler watches after her with an expression of pure love and adoration.

“So, how’s it going?” Tyler looks mainly to me when he asks this question, presumably checking in on my anxiety level exactly like Josh did.

“Better. Josh and I talked everything through a bit before you got here.” I explain everything that I told Josh and Rhea, and Tyler listens intently. Once I’m finished, Josh brings up his proposal to play a bit together so I can make a definite decision.

“Sounds like a great idea! And Dani, your fears and anxieties are completely valid. I mean, if you’d taken me out of my parents’ basement when I was first learning to write songs to perform in front of hundreds of thousands of people, I’d freak out too. This is a big step, so let’s work through it together. Come on, let’s go downstairs.” Tyler says. I want to tear up at how good they’re being to me, but I fight back my breakdown this time. Josh scans my face and gives me a slight smile, like he can read the emotions just by looking in my eyes. He puts a reassuring hand on my shoulder as we go down to the soundproof basement. I miss every point of contact once he takes his hand away.

I feel a wave of calm wash over me as soon as I enter the room. There are a couple bass guitars lined up along the far wall, along with an electric guitar and a couple amps. Tyler has hung his ukuleles up on the wall, on full display. I recognize the instruments he plays onstage immediately, and they’re noticeably more worn down than the others, the wood and frets worn down from years of hands moving across the neck. Then, there’s Josh’s drum set. It’s a basic kit that doesn’t have all the bells and whistles like his stage drums do. They’re plain white, and he has a couple backup drums, cymbals, and piles of drumsticks tucked away in a corner. Theres also a couch across the room and a mini fridge, which I imagine is full of Red Bull, Tyler’s drink of choice.

“So, do you play any instruments?” Tyler asks as he picks up a white electric bass and plugs it into an amp.

“I play bass, actually. I tried to learn drums, but I guess I don’t have the coordination. As soon as I touched the kit, it’s like I forgot any sense of rhythm.” Both the boys laugh softly, and Josh says,

“I could teach you sometime. If you want.” His hands are stuffed in his pockets, and he looks nervous. I can’t tell if it’s because he’s about to play his music with a new person, or if he was anxious to offer drumming lessons to me. Maybe a little bit of both.

“I’d like that.” I respond, and he lets a breath out. Tyler looks between us with his eyebrows slightly furrowed, then smirks.

“What songs of ours do you know on bass?” He breaks the weird trance between Josh and I, and I falter. It’s like every time I look at him, I forget how to be a person. I forget how to breathe, how to speak. The only thing on my mind is him, and the only thing I can focus on is trying to impress him, trying to make him like me. I can hear Rhea’s voice in my mind: just be yourself. He’s a person, just talk to him. I bring myself back to the present moment, and both Tyler and Josh are looking at me expectantly.

“Quite a few. My favorite to play is Jumpsuit. I’m working on a couple from Scaled and Icy, but since the album just came out and the tab isn’t available online, I’ve had trouble picking out the bass line.” I explain.

“Jumpsuit is a fun one. I can also look at some Scaled and Icy songs too with you. I could always give you the tab for it, and you can practice it on your own. Feel free to grab a bass and mess around.” Tyler points to the instruments, and I pick up a black one. I plug it into an amp, turn it on, and mess with the settings a bit until it sounds how I want it. I feel eyes on me, but when I look over to Tyler, he’s fiddling with the knobs on his own bass. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Josh hovering near me, watching my hands as I pluck a few strings on the bass. Just like I was watching him earlier.

“Alright Dun, get situated.” Tyler says. He reluctantly turns from me and heads over to his kit, his best friend nudging him with his elbow playfully before he sits down. As soon as he’s in the stool and there’s drum sticks in his hands, he visibly relaxes.

I take a deep breath, listen to Tyler counting down, then begin the song’s low opening bass notes. He watches me for a moment, and once Josh comes in on the drums, he starts improvising some backup notes. Tyler sings the first verse, and then nods to me once the second verse comes around. I sing quietly and unconfidently at first, and Tyler walks a few steps closer so he can hear me better. I look over at Josh, and he gives me an encouraging smile. Tyler starts to sing with me again, and the three of us find a comfortable rhythm that makes me let go of my lingering nerves. I start to move around just as I would onstage, close my eyes, and feel the music. Once I’m confident enough to sing at a normal volume, albeit slightly louder so I can hear myself over the drums, I realize Tyler and I sound good together. Really good. Our voices compliment each other: mine light and airy, his more raw with emotion and feeling.

Once the final notes of the song ring out, Josh and Tyler look at each other in wonder. “You know,” I say, “I think this just might work."

#twenty one pilots #josh dun #tyler joseph

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8-bit-britt · 2 years ago

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Thoughts on Sonic Frontiers?

Oh man where do I even begin.

The wait for this game was a roller-coaster of emotions for me. I wasn't too interested in it at first and had no means to play it anyway since I didn't have my PS4 yet. But the more that was revealed, the more excited I got. I've always wanted to run around as Sonic in an open world and Frontiers kept looking more and more promising. But with hype came anxiety too. Part of me feared that the first Sonic game I've been excited for in years was gonna flop horribly and that all my hype would be for nothing. It did not disappoint.

I love this game. It's moody and atmospheric. The way the game is first presented to you through the tutorial level is perfect. Sonic starting in a dark, closed off corridor with no direction but to go towards the blinding light up ahead, slowly revealing the world to you as your eyes adjust but only a small strip of the island to get the players comfortable. I loved the somber music and the rain, it really added to Sonic's feeling of loneliness in an unknown location. Then once you get out of that tutorial area, you get this huge pan view of the actual island and the real game starts.

The funnest part of the game for me is how it encourages you to find certain landmark puzzles in order to unlock more of the map. Until then, you're running around blindly and venturing wherever your little heart desires. I love how as you progress through the story, the island theme changes with it. It gives you a sense of progress and keeps the exploration engaging in a sense. I appreciate finally having a Sonic game that has both atmospheric music that's part of the actual gameplay while still having your typical Sonic jams in the cyberspace levels. Stillness and Motion is the perfect way to summarize the feeling this game gives, coming from the title of the ost, having both high octane fighting and speeding through levels while also having a lot of downtime to just soak in the surroundings.

The bosses, good LORD. Easily the best super Sonic fights we've had in years, this is peak power. I love seeing other people's reactions to the music because it goes HARD. Metal music in a Sonic game, we love to see it. There were moments in these fights that legit gave me chills with how cinematic they are. Incredible.

Lowest point is easily the cyberspace levels. I found myself putting them off until I had to do them, they just stopped interesting me after awhile. I would much rather explore the islands than do these really short and easy levels. They just felt kinda tacked on last minute. You would think that the levels being short would be a good thing since I don't feel like playing them much but it just further makes it feel like there wasn't much time and thought put into them. Could just be me being spoiled on having played Sonic Unleashed recently but who knows.

Finally, the story. The story is great! I was excited to hear from the start that comic writer Ian Flynn was on board and I got exactly what I wanted. Uncovering the mystery of the Starfall Islands and seeing how it all connects to previous mainline Sonic games and seeing the characters written in a way that makes them feel real and fit the overall tone. Character depth that had been missing from the cast for so long. The way Sonic interacts with his friends here felt so genuine, both with it's light-hearted segments and it's more serious ones. Sonic not only helped his friends by freeing them but also helped them discover something more about themselves along the journey. In the game where we play off of Sonic being stripped of any sort of community in a foreign place, he in turn helps them realize what journey of self discovery they want to pursue and Sonic supports their decision to go their separate ways. At least for a little while. There's something so beautiful and bittersweet about that. The story arc with Tails is the best example of this, how Sonic didn't anticipate for his lil bro to grow up so quickly and is a little hesitant on seeing Tails venture out to become his own hero, but Sonic fully supports him. It makes me so excited to see the future of this series and how we can see these bonds further develope.

Also THE MODEL EXPRESSIONS, HELLO??? THEY ANIMATED SONIC'S EARS!

To try to wrap this up, I overall thoroughly enjoyed Sonic Frontiers and recommend it to anyone looking for a more engaging story within the series. It's a fun, chill game with its intense and heartfelt moments when needed.

#asks #anonymous #sonic the hedgehog #sonic frontiers

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zerolostwalks · 2 years ago

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“I bought us reindeer onesies.” for Reggie/anyone because HE WOULD

Flynn dubiously eyed the misshapen yellow pile of grainy mush that was supposed to be scrambled eggs. They knew it was a gamble, they were just hoping with the time of year the kitchen staff might splurge on some real eggs instead of this dehydrated rehydrated powdered nonsense. Hansen had been so insistent that it’d happened before.

They pushed their breakfast tray across the table with a sigh and focused all their attention on the bitterly strong coffee. Rashad had definitely brewed it this morning then, fitting that old Navy stereotype. Which in turn meant, they wouldn’t be able to flirt a free cup out of them.

Not unless they could get Reggie to do the flirting, seeing as he was more Rashad’s type. He probably would to. They wouldn’t even need to ask, simply pout at their cup before he offered.

A box landing on the table with a dull thud pulled Flynn’s attention to the very green eyed mischievous smirk they had just been thinking about. His coveralls had been tied off around his waist much like she had done with theirs. Partly for comfort, mostly for the little game the two of them liked to play around the base.

A game he was currently on the brink of getting a lead on if the subtle head turns were any indication. Thankfully, Reggie seemed too distracted cutting open the box to notice.

Flynn downed their cup with a grimace in anticipation for whatever had gotten him so excited.

“I’ve got a new challenge for us.” He chirped, as he straddled the bench beside them. He pulled the box to sit between his thighs away from any curious prying eyes.

Flynn’s eyebrow rose to her hairline. The white board with the running tally back in the shop, and their constant posturing were the results of the last challenge either of them had issued.

Without any further ceremony Reggie opened the box to reveal what looked to be a pile of tan fuzzy fabric. Which only led to more questions.

Reggie leaned over the box, his forehead practically touching theirs. Their heart stuttered loudly, a warmth spreading across their chest. That had to be the caffeine hitting their system. . .right?

They didn’t have time to think about it, or about how flushed he looked-clearly a trick of the lighting. Soon enough he whispered conspiratorially, “I bought us reindeer onesies.”

“Reindeer, onesies?” Either Flynn was missing a vital part of his plan or Rashad had slipped something into the coffee this morning.

Reggie giggled, nodding so energetically her own neck hurt. “I’m thinking we wear them instead of our usual coveralls. It should add some… intrigue,when flustering people.”

Flynn snorted at that, she knew he’d been finding their usual game a little too easy lately. The two of them had even called a truce a few times to see how badly they could fluster single targets over a single day. Until they flummoxed Julie so badly she nearly walked right off one of the taller catwalks.

However, Flynn wasn’t entirely sure how much difficulty would be added to them wearing reindeer onesies. Reggie had to be underestimating how adorable he-THEY both were. If anything it would be too easy wouldn’t it?

As if he was reading her mind Reggie continued on, “I think the key would be for neither of us to acknowledge that we’re wearing them. No acting any different or cutesier.”

Oooh. Oh now they got it.

Their own smile grew across their face, mirroring his. They picked up his hand and pulled him into a standing position. He briefly fumbled the box as they dragged him out of the dining hall and back towards the residence halls. His hand remained a warm solid presence in theirs.

“All right, let’s do this thing.” Flynn crowed as the two of them practically bolted to get changed in time to start their shift.

#julie and the phantoms #reggie peters #flynn taylor #AUs are awesome #an au of an au potentially #because it's not clear #Pacific Rim AU

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blogger360ncislarules · 3 months ago

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Filming has commenced for the eagerly anticipated third series of the hit crime drama Beyond Paradise.

Co-commissioned with BritBox International and coming to BBC iPlayer and BBC One, the new series will deliver more intriguing puzzles for the Shipton Abbott team to solve. Fans will also be thrilled to reunite with Humphrey and Martha, who nearly tied the knot last series, as they continue their heartfelt fostering journey.

As winners of Best New Drama at this year’s TV Choice Awards, the series continues to be one of the UK’s most watched dramas.

The third series will see the return of Kris Marshall as DI Humphrey Goodman, Sally Bretton as Martha Lloyd, Zahra Ahmadi as DS Esther Williams, Dylan Llewellyn as PC Kelby Hartford, Barbara Flynn as Anne Lloyd, Felicity Montagu as Margo Martins, Jade Harrison as CS Charlie Woods, and Melina Sinadinou as Zoe Williams. Jamie Bamber will also reprise his role as the charming Archie Hughes who is back following his departure from Shipton Abbott at the end of series one.

Set against the idyllic backdrops of Devon and Cornwall, there are plenty of cases to keep the team on their toes, including a body found in the river on the county border, a baffling chocolate box poisoning, a historic farming feud and a spiking incident on the water.

Away from the police station, Martha and Humphrey must overcome unexpected hurdles as foster parents, while the reappearance of Martha’s old flame Archie presents an unexpected challenge. While Esther navigates a surprise encounter in her private life, a health scare for Anne stirs up painful memories, and Kelby embarks on a journey of personal growth.

Tim Key, Executive Producer, Red Planet Pictures says: “We are delighted to be back in the beautiful South West, filming what promises to be our strongest series yet, packed full of mysteries, surprises, challenges and lots of heart. We love making the show and the audience response to it is fantastic, and it’s especially exciting to welcome back Jamie Bamber to Shipton Abbott– we can’t wait for everyone to see what we’ve been up to.”

Created by Robert Thorogood and Tony Jordan, Beyond Paradise is a co-commission between the BBC and BritBox International and is produced by Red Planet Pictures, part of the Asacha Media Group company, which was recently acquired by Fremantle. Tony Jordan, Tim Key and Belinda Campbell are executive producers for Red Planet Pictures, Danielle Scott-Haughton for the BBC and Robert Schildhouse and Stephen Nye for BritBox International. Lindsay Hughes is producer.

Beyond Paradise is internationally distributed by BBC Studios, with series one and two successfully selling to 135 territories worldwide to date.

The first and second series of Beyond Paradise are available to watch now on iPlayer in the UK, and on BritBox International in North America and the Nordic markets.

#beyond paradise

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webnewsify1 · 2 years ago

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Disney's "Moana" to Include Live-Action Reimagining, According to Dwayne Johnson

A live-action remake of Walt Disney Animation Studios' 2016 blockbuster feature film Moana is already in production, according to Dwayne Johnson, who made the announcement in a recorded message from Hawaii today. Executive Chairman Bob Iger made the disclosure during the webcast of The Walt Disney Company's Annual Meeting of Shareholders. The new movie is made by Beau Flynn through Flynn Film Co. and Johnson, Dany, and Hiram Garcia through their Seven Bucks Productions. Auli'i Cravalho, who provided Moana's voice, and Scott Sheldon of Flynn Film Co. are executive producers. The production will also include Samoan-Americans Jared Bush and Dana Ledoux Miller. Moana's screenplay was written by Bush, who also directed and co-wrote Disney's Oscar-winning Encanto and co-wrote Disney's Oscar-winning Zootopia (2016). Similar to its animated predecessor, which earned nearly $644 million at the global box office and was one of the Top 15 movies streamed in the U.S. in 2022, the live-action remake of Moana will celebrate the islands, communities, and traditions of Pacific Islanders as seen through the eyes of a young woman eager to forge her own path. Moana won admirers from all around the world thanks to her journey of self-discovery, reflection on the lives of her ancestors, and her friendship with an exiled demigod named Maui. Bringing Moana's lovely tale to the live-action big screen is an honour that leaves Johnson feeling "truly humbled and overflowing with gratitude," said Johnson, who intends to sail back into the story's imaginary world with Moana. "This narrative is part of my culture, and it exemplifies the grace and bravery of our people. The mana and spirit of my late grandpa, High Chief Peter Maivia, pushed me to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to visit Maui. I proudly carry this culture in both my body and soul. The worlds of song and dance, which are at the very core of who we are as Polynesian people, are the best mediums for us to celebrate the story of our people, our passion, and our goal. I want to express my gratitude to my Disney business partners for their exceptional commitment to this fantastic endeavour. Moana's influence is broad, according to Cravalho, a Native Hawaiian actor who played the lead in the first movie and helped mould her character. According to Cravalho, "She has had such a tremendous impact on how we conceive of Disney princesses." "Moana's tenacity and strength are an inspiration to me, to audiences throughout the world, and to everyone who worked so hard to make her a reality. I'm excited to tell her story in a brand-new way. The Little Mermaid will join a successful lineup of live-action adaptations that includes Beauty and the Beast (2017), Aladdin (2019), and the eagerly anticipated The Little Mermaid, which will hit theatres on May 26., according to Sean Bailey, president of Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production (Disney Live Action). The notion of working with these incredible collaborators to present such an important story on a live-action canvas, especially as we commemorate 100 years of storytelling at Disney, is amazing, Bailey added. Read the full article

#moana disney animation animationstudio dwaynejohnson hawaii annualmeeting disneycompany movie webnewsify

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evecolourshock · 2 years ago

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Tron didn't know what to expect, but a veritable temple was not it.

The Grid was many things, but a caring parent was definitely the most prominent. It hadn't been able to look after Clu the way it had wanted to, but it had pushed and pulled and twisted so many little things to do its best via proxies. Bending the odds so Clu survived long enough to get medical attention. Distracting Flynn (and, according to the images, no less than eight outright murder attempts). Guiding someone into positions that would thwart people's attempts at hurting Clu. Shifting entire parts of Itself closer so he always had access to energy when he needed it (so many fortuitously placed energy pools now made much more sense).

The Grid had protected and looked after Clu the way Alan One had cared for him and defied the MCP to build a relationship regardless. He didn't know how to thank It enough.

The little one uncoiled sleepily, zinging orange through his code and broadcasting eager anticipation.

Tron knelt next to Clu, noticing Beck sitting down where he could see best.

A rush of energy and data followed contact with the Mirror.

The little one's disc formed first, hovering by itself in empty space. Skeins of orange code twined around the blank white disc, settling into place from core code outwards.

The forming frame radiated mischief, but no malice, innocent and excitable and achingly young in a way Tron barely remembered being. They glowed, directives beginning to settle into place - unreadable like this, but edged with protection, kindness, curiosity, and exploration.

Wide amber eyes opened, so similar to Beck's that the beta left out a soft gasp when he saw them. Their face was soft, more like Encom than this Grid's harder angles. Tron could see Clu's cheekbones and his own wavy hair, patterns of tiny dots dusting over their nose and cheeks (Ram would have been so proud of his nephew-), and Beck's slender build.

Their Gridsuit rezzed a delicate grey, their circuits primarily white - small dots and dashes in blue and orange-yellow scattered throughout, the design somewhere between this Grid and Encom.

They took a shaky breath, their very first on their own, their outstretched hands pressed against Tron and Clu's and legs bent underneath them.

The little one smiled tentatively when their eyes focused on the two kneeling Programs facing them. "Creators?" They asked, quiet and unsure of themselves, speaking for the first time through a unique voice that was all their own.

Tron hadn't heard the voice of a true child in a very long time.

🔪 (for Clu - it's fake!)

"Act scared - there's an Occupation patrol less than a block away, I'm using a chromatic distorter to hide our circuits so we're less distinctive but neither of us wants them to catch on so for sparks' sake play along! What are you even doing here, anyway!" - Eve, System Resource Allocation Monitor

"What the-Who the frag even ARE you and what do you want with me!?" He didn't need to act, he actually was scared.

#this got so long but i do not regret it #rinz is babey

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collecting-stories · 4 years ago

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Jealous - Luke Patterson

Summary: You bring a friend to a concert with you and Luke gets the wrong idea.

A/N: this it like, alive!Luke, it’s also like 3k long 😭😭

Julie and the Phantoms Masterlist

✰ ✰ ✰ ✰

Luke pouted, leg twitching as he looked around the small venue that Alex had booked them that night. The doors had only just opened and people were beginning to stream in. They’d played shows before but Luke was still surprised watching people come through the doors. He honestly couldn’t believe anyone had bought tickets. There was no doubt in Luke’s mind that they were the greatest band ever but seeing other people agree with that sentiment always made him feel like he was on cloud nine. Hanging a little over the second-floor balcony of the venue, watching every person that walked through the door, he wanted to be excited but his nerves had nothing to do with the show tonight.

“Would you chill man?” Alex chided, tapping Luke’s arm with a bottle of water. “She’ll be here.”

“She hasn’t missed a performance yet.” Reggie pointed out, spinning on a stool that he’d nabbed from the bar.

“Yeah, I know that.” Luke insisted, standing up but glancing back over his shoulder, “she said she’d make it before doors though...”

Ever since Julie had started playing with the guys, you had started hanging around more. You were embarrassed to say but you and Julie had been little more than friendly neighbors before she’d starting renting out her garage for band practice. The first time you’d heard the loud music coming from the Molina’s yard you’d gone to inspect and found the doors open and a band rehearsing inside. Needless to say, it was that first meeting that had cemented yours and Luke’s relationship. Not exactly more than friends but certainly not just friends. The more you came around the more the two of you danced around your feelings for each other and the more you neglected your other friends.

“Just, don’t say anything to the guys-”

“You mean, don’t say anything to Luke.” Julie countered, standing at her locker with you in between classes. Tonight, was the show at the Voltage Lounge and they’d been stoked about it since they got the gig. You would’ve been equally stoked, and you were, until you realized it was also your best friend’s birthday and you had promised to get dinner together.

“Look, I’ll be there, before doors, I promise. But I’ve kinda been ditching my other friends lately and I promised Mikey that we’d get dinner for his birthday.” You replied, shutting your locker and walking with Julie toward the music room.

“Don’t you think not telling Luke you’re going out with another guy would be worse than saying you’re gonna be a little late to the show?” Julie countered. She grabbed a seat by Flynn and you sat on the other side, leaning forward to keep the conversation going.

“I just don’t want him thinking I’m ditching the performance okay, me and Mikey are just friends...as are me and Luke.” You replied, though even saying it sounded like a lie. You knew as well as Julie and Flynn that you were avoiding mentioning the dinner because you didn’t want Luke to get the wrong idea.

“You tell yourself that.” Flynn chided, pulling a face at you, clearly not believing you at all.

“We are.”

“Yeah, and anytime he sings anything even slightly romantic he looks right at you.”

“It’s true,” Julie piped up, “he’s been coming up with a lot more love songs recently. Whenever I ask him about it he just says he wants us to have a balanced song pool or something.”

“We’re not a thing.” You insisted. “I’m going to dinner and then I’ll be at the show...simple as that. Just, don’t say anything.”

Julie agreed, throwing out some lame excuse about you having to go over your grandparents’ house before the show as a reason that you weren’t going to the venue with them like you usually did. Getting booked somewhere as a headliner was still fairly new to them and you always liked to be there in the moments before the show started, an extra person to reassure them that they completely and totally deserved all of this.

While you didn’t think your absence would be felt too exponentially, it definitely was. Luke had been unusually antsy since they’d gotten there. He was always eager to get onstage but this was different, he kept looking over the railing as if he was going to hurl and rush out of the venue. Reggie tried reassuring him that everything was fine but nothing seemed to calm his nerves.

“Hey, ten minutes alright, start getting ready,” one of the crew said, scribbling something on his clipboard.

“Okay, thanks.” Julie nodded, looking back over the railing as he left, the calm she was trying to portray immediately washing away when she saw you walk into the venue. Any other time she would’ve been jumping for joy but you weren’t alone and she could only assume that the guy with you was the Mikey you had mentioned earlier in the day. “So we should-” as she turned to address them, hopefully distract Luke, Reggie caught sight of you in the crowd.

“Look!” He nudged Luke’s arm, pointing you out, “she made it.”

Julie grimaced as Luke looked over the balcony and down into the crowd. It took him a moment to find you but Julie and Alex could pinpoint the exact moment that he did. A flicker of happiness at the sight of you, quickly washed away and turned into, first confusion, and then something akin to anger. He frowned, eyebrows furrowing as he watched you get a spot on his side, talking the whole time to the guy with you.

“Who the fuck is that?” He asked.

You had told Julie that your plan was to go, get through dinner with Mikey, and then come straight to the venue for the show. A simple enough evening, and you’d expected it to go off without a hitch except Mikey got curious about who you were texting and guilted you into inviting him along.

“So, this band?” Mikey asked, looking around the small venue, “how’d you become a groupie?”

“I’m not a groupie. Julie and I are friends.” You stressed, scrunching your nose up as the lights dimmed and the people around you screamed in excitement.

The anticipation was palpable and, truthfully, you were right there with the other concert goers around you, excited by the prospect of seeing Julie and the Phantoms perform live. It wasn’t something that was new for you, a front row seat to all their rehearsals was part of your everyday life and yet, something about seeing them perform live like this, with a crowd that so responsive to them, only added to the adrenaline coursing through you.

As the guys ran out on stage, Alex, then Reggie, then Luke, and finally Julie, the noise level around you seemed to pick up. But there was something off, something that didn’t quite sync with you that settled as the first chords sounded. You frowned, realizing, as Luke purposely missed you when he scanned the crowd, exactly what it was that you were feeling. It wasn’t accidental in the slightest, Julie met your gaze more than once and so did Reggie and Alex but Luke was ignoring you. He was very intentionally ignoring you standing there in the very front row, pressed against the barricade in front of him.

It was as if someone had knocked all the air out of your chest. Somehow that loud, crowded venue where you could feel the bass pounding in your stomach, felt empty. You felt small and invisible and even when Mikey shouted in your ear that they were actually an awesome band you lacked the excitement to tell him that they were the best band ever. You just nodded. And as much as you wanted to look away from Luke, a silent “two can play at this game”, you didn’t. Instead, you just kept watching him, waiting for him to look your way and somehow explain what was going on that had him acting like you didn’t exist.

The encore ended, the boys each running off the stage before Julie, Luke standing at the side waiting for her as she waved one last time to the crowd before setting the mic back in its stand and running off. The mass of people who had been screaming lulled into a buzz, some of them leaving as others lingered, waiting for the band to come back out to sign autographs and take pictures.

You walked Mikey to the merch table while other people hung around chatting with each other, the house lights up so that you could actually see as you walked. Flynn stood behind the table and she waved when she saw you.

“I’ll catch you later, thanks for letting me tag along.” He said, hanging at the door for a minute.

“Yeah totally, thanks for coming. Happy birthday,” you hugged him and then circled back to Flynn, stepping behind the table and sitting down on the stool.

“Girl, you do not seem happy.” Flynn commented as she grabbed a sweatshirt from one of the boxes and handed it across the table to a fan.

“I’m just...” you shrugged, looking back down toward the stage, “confused?”

“Did something happen with Mikey?” She asked.

You handed a shirt from one of the bins to her as she rung up a sale, jumping in to ask a few people what they needed as she waited on a group of girls. When they had all finally dispersed, the line lulling for a moment, you turned back to Flynn, “no...I mean other than him inviting himself along. No, it was Luke...he was like, it sounds dumb to say it but, it was like he was ignoring me.”

“Maybe he didn’t see you?” She suggested, attempting to be reassuring.

“He saw me. Then he just, acted like he didn’t the whole rest of the night.” You replied, “I don’t know...it felt shitty.”

“You know who you should tell that to?”

“Luke?” You asked, already knowing her answer. Flynn was the queen of confrontation.

“Exactly.”

You frowned, the last thing you wanted to do was talk to Luke. If he was going to ignore you the way he had on stage, Flynn had been trying to make you feel better but you knew he was avoiding you for some reason. He always made it a point to find you in the crowd but tonight he had looked anywhere but you.

A few straggling fans shouted excitedly and you looked passed the table to see that the guys and Julie had come out from backstage for meet and greets. As they spread out to talk to people, Reggie moved toward the merch stand, parking himself close enough to you that he could chat with you without drawing too much attention. You knew it was on purpose, that was usually Luke’s spot but tonight he stayed all the way down by the stage, almost reluctant to be out on the floor.

“Hey, great job.” You mentioned, grabbing a water bottle from under the table and handing it to Reggie. He took it gratefully, taking a sip before setting it on the floor beside him and beginning to greet the group of fans that had hung back to say hello to him.

When there was a spare minute between signing and taking pictures, he moved down the table, closer to you then before, leaning against a bare patch of wood where Flynn had already cleared away shirts. “Who was that guy you came with?” Reggie asked, looking back at you as you took one of the larger hoodies out of a box and pulled it on. Without the people, the venue had started to get cold.

“My friend Mikey, it was his birthday and he’s been bugging me to hang out. He tagged along really and I didn’t wanna ditch him...” you replied, coming around the side of the table, “I didn’t really think it’d be an issue.”

“Oh, it's not with me. We need all the fans we can get right?” Reggie joked, “did he like our music?”

“Yeah, totally loved it.”

The last of the concert goers finally made it to the door, waving to Reggie one last time as they walked passed the closed down merch stand. He waved back and you turned to watch them leave, back to the stage.

“Hey, can we talk?” Luke’s voice came from behind you and you looked over your shoulder to him, standing there with his plaid jacket over a black band tee. His hair was pushed off his forehead from sweat and he was frowning already, not exactly the version of him you wanted to talk to. You couldn’t help that longing feeling for the Luke that would come off stage and wrap you in a sweaty hug guaranteed to piss of fans.

“Uh yeah, of course...I need to talk to you too.” You replied, turning fully toward him as Reggie stood up, grabbing his water and heading back down toward the stage. Flynn came around the merch stand, following after him, leaving you and Luke alone.

A beat passed between you and he ran his hand through his hair, trying and failing to fix the sweaty mess. Unable to stand the silence, you started talking, “you guys were awesome...as usual.”

“Yeah, thanks.” He had asked to talk to you but he wasn’t really sure how to start the conversation he wanted to have and he couldn’t bring himself to really meet your eyes, his gaze flickering passed you every few seconds.

“Would’ve been even better if you weren’t ignoring me all night,” you blurted.

That seemed to be the push he needed to react, “yeah well, you brought some date with you? After the other night...” he trailed off for a moment, meeting your eyes finally, “I mean, that wasn’t nothing.”

Band practice had ended earlier than usual and, while you sat on the couch trying to win a particularly difficult level of candy crush on Luke’s phone, everybody else discussed a pizza run for dinner. You raised your hand to vote for extra cheese but didn’t look up when Julie left to go and Reggie and Alex walked out onto the driveway to play basketball. You didn’t look up until Luke dropped down on the couch next to you, putting his chin on your shoulder.

“How’s it going?” He asked, keeping his eyes on his phone screen as you turned your head, so close that your nose almost brushed his cheek.

“Good?” You said, drawing the word out as you looked at him skeptically, “can I ask why you’re so close to me?”

“So, you can bask in my awesomeness?” Luke teased, wrapping his arm around your waist.

“I think the only thing I’m basking in is your post-rehearsal sweat.” You joked, shifting a little so that his chin fell off your shoulder and you were facing him. You set his phone down on the coffee table, giving your whole attention to Luke.

He smiled at you, eyes searching yours. There was no denying that very specific look that Luke seemed to get, one you could never quite name but always recognized. He would smile, a soft sort of piercing look that you couldn’t look away from on his face. And you were always hypnotized by it, feeling like maybe you should distract yourself from it but never really wanting to.

“What are we doing?” You chanced asking, meeting his gaze and holding it.

“What’da ya mean?” He asked, grin still on his face and you felt like he’d gotten closer but you didn’t move.

“You’re staring at me.”

“You’re staring at me.” He echoed.

“Luke.” You wanted to roll your eyes but you also didn’t want to look away, even for a split second.

He leaned closer, the joking air that had been dissipating completely gone now. You licked your lips, trying to keep yourself calm as Luke moved in. One second, he was looking at you and the next your eyes were closing, his lips pressed against yours and his grip on your waist tightening.

The kiss didn’t last long. The doors to the garage creaked open and you both pulled away, looking anywhere but at each other as Julie walked in with pizza. Alex and Reggie came in behind her and Luke stood up, grabbing a stack of magazines off the coffee table and moving them out of the way. You picked up his phone, unlocking it and opening candy crush again to distract yourself.

Neither of you had discussed the kiss, mostly because you were too afraid that if you brought it up he would tell you that it was just a mistake. Some spur of the moment thing that happened but that he didn’t really mean. You hadn’t even told Julie or Flynn about it.

But now you were standing at the empty merch table with him and he was acting like you had purposely tried to hurt him. A ‘date’ he had called it and all at once you realized exactly what he thought had happened.

“No, no,” you shook your head, “Mikey wasn’t a date.”

“You didn’t say you were bringing Mikey with you to our show.” Luke replied, your best friend’s name rolling off his tongue like a curse.

“He was bugging me about not hanging out recently and it’s his birthday so we were supposed to go out for dinner but I kept mentioning you…the band…and he wanted to come to the show.” You tried to explain.

“Why didn’t you just tell me?” It was stupid to ask, technically you didn’t owe him any explanation at all. You could bring whoever you wanted but he couldn’t help feeling affronted by it.

“I didn’t want you to think I was gonna ditch the show. And…I didn’t want you to think it was a date.” You replied. “The kiss wasn’t nothing and I should’ve talked to you about it sooner cause…I really like you and it felt really shitty to be ignored tonight.”

Luke rubbed the back of his neck, “I’m sorry, I was just pissed when I saw you with some other guy.”

“Mikey’s just a friend.” You replied, “I like you Luke, I like when you pretend to play the guitar badly to make me laugh and I like when we hang out without everyone else and just do nothing or go to the beach and I like going out with you at midnight to get ice cream cause neither of us can sleep and I don’t want to date anyone else…I want you.”

“I want you too.” Luke said, stepping closer to you. When he reached for your hands, you laced your fingers with his. He leaned forward, pressing his lips against yours again, the salty taste of sweat from playing a show still there on his mouth as you kissed him back.

#luke patterson x reader #luke patterson x y/n #luke patterson x you #luke patterson imagine #luke patterson fanfic #luke patterson fanfiction #luke patterson fic #jatp fanfic #jatp fic #jatp fanfiction #jatp imagine #julie and the phantoms fic #julie and the phantoms fanfic #julie and the phantoms imagine #julie and the phantoms fanfictions #collecting stories imagine

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tangledstarlight · 3 years ago

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oh all of this silence and patience (oh im pining in anticipation)

listen it’s still august in some timezones so this totally counts as posting something in august okay? okay! i hope people like this, it took me far too long to finish, but also special shoutout to the wonderful @ourstarscollided who really helped me with the whole first section of this fic, without her i truly would still be working on it, so thank you eunice, you’re the best!�� okay enjoy!

the first firefighter!luke fic for anyone who wants to read that first, though it can be read alone: ao3 / tumblr

also on ao3!

lil disclaimer: i’m still not a firefighter and i also know that they dont use fire poles anymore but lets just ✨pretend✨ for the visual okay. this takes place between part 4 and 5 in the original fic!

trigger warnings! lots of swearing, implied sexual content.

RATED T –– there’s no graphic scenes but there’s a lot of kissing and fading to black, so rating might change if anyone needs me to 😬

Word count: 6,072

“Look who it is!”

Julie feels a grin pull up on the corners of her mouth as she spots Luke’s station captain coming around the end of one of the fire trucks Julie is walking between, sending her a wave of the clipboard she’s holding. “You’re here early.”

“Yeah, class ended early and I thought I'd pop over to see if I could get some extra time with Luke,” Julie shrugs, holding up the pale grey burlap bag that Alex had packed their food into.

And there’s a sympathetic look that crosses over Harrison’s face, because she knows that the younger woman knows she’s in charge of Luke’s shifts and the reason why Julie comes over every Tuesday to have lunch with her boyfriend.

Because that’s why she was here. To have lunch with him like she did every Tuesday between her classes and when the fires of LA would allow. Sometimes Alex would text her to stop by to pick up a packed lunch for them, sometimes she made something herself, sometimes they just ordered in. The food wasn’t really the point, it was just getting to spend some time together. Julie had never really thought about it before, but there was always something, someone, somewhere, trapped or hurt or on fire. Luke was a very busy person, and it meant sometimes their lunches got interrupted by blaring alarms and him pressing a quick kiss to her lips before rushing off.

Tuesdays were apparently very busy days for a firefighter.

“What’s the master chef prepared for you this week then?” Harrison asks, crossing her arms and clipboard across her chest and lifting one brow, “Y’know Alex used to cook for us, he’d send Luke in every Saturday he was on shift with all sorts of goodies.”

Julie bites her lip to try not to laugh at the exaggerated sigh that leaves the older woman's lips as she shakes her head sadly. There was something about Vivian Harrison that just— put people at ease. The first time Julie had officially met her there had been a warm hug and teasing remarks and there was just something that had viscerally reminding Julie of her aunt Victoria that it was kind of impossible not to like the station captain after that.

“He was pretty busy so it’s just some sandwiches,” she wrinkles her nose a little before smiling, “I’ll tell him how much you’re missing his cooking though, I’m sure the blame will fall completely on Luke.”

Harrison laughs, and tilts her head slightly as she shrugs, “That boy of yours is just very easy to blame.”

She feels a sudden flush to her cheeks at ‘that boy of yours’ that she hopes can be played off by how warm it always is in the station. She can see Harrison’s lips twitching, like she’s about to say something teasing, but Julie is saved from it by two people walking past them and a change of mind.

“Morales, can you tell Patterson his lunch is here.”

“Sure thing Cap,” one of the guys says, shooting her a wide smile that Julie feels compelled to return quickly before he’s rushing off, past the fire engines and up some stairs. And Julie’s about to ask Harrison if they’ve been busy today and if she’d found time to visit the farmers market they’d talked about last time, but another voice interrupts, and Julie hadn’t even realised the other guy hadn’t followed his friend.

“So you’re Patterson’s girl, right?” The blonde asks, eyes scanning her up and down in a way that makes her want to hide behind someone. There’s something vaguely familiar about him, probably because she’s seen him in passing for the last couple of months but never talked to him. Which wouldn’t have been weird if most of the other people in the station hadn’t introduced themselves the first time Luke had invited her to one of their station parties, and made an effort to talk to her whenever she'd stopped by since.

“Yeah, I’m Julie,” she smiles politely, trying to put emphasis on her name. She doesn't mind being known as Luke's girl by people at the station who have actually made an effort to get to know her.

“Right, right, nice to meet you Julie. I’m Nick, I’m sure Luke’s mentioned me,” he grins, teeth showing and shoulders pulling back like he’s expecting her to — what? Clap? A small furrow works its way between her brows as Nick starts up a conversation without even waiting for her response and she suddenly understands what Luke means about him. Because he has mentioned the condescending, stereotypical blonde frat boy before, and never in a good way. It was mostly followed by some very creative swear words and a mumbled ‘he’s going to get either himself or one of us really hurt one day’.

She tries to follow along with the conversation, nodding politely and laughing whenever Harrison forces one out, but Nick only seems interested in talking about himself, and normally she can feign interest, but right now all she wants is to talk to one person in particular.

There’s the sound of too many voices heading in their direction and Julie turns around, eyes searching for one person, but all she’s met with is a collection of firefighters she vaguely knows and tries not to let her disappointment show too clearly on her face.

“Wow Molina, don’t look so excited to see us!” An elbow nudges her side and Julie glances up to see Carrie Wilson has appeared in the place that Nick had just stood, eyebrows raised and a blinding smile as the other blonde frowns from behind her, still trying to carry on his conversation.

“No! I am glad to see you all it’s just—” Julie starts, eyes a little wide as she looks at the other girl because Carrie had only ever been nice to her, but Luke had a lot of stories about the blonde being ruthless and rude to people she was mildly inconvenienced by.

(One of Luke’s favourite stories was about Carrie loudly telling some girl that Nick was flirting with how he had used the same lines on her two months before. Luke told it every chance he could get, sparing no details on the look of horror that has taken over Nick’s face.)

“You’re here for Patterson,” Carrie cuts her off with a wink, elbow nudging her lightly again, “Don’t worry, we all know. He should be down soon.” There’s something about how she says it that raises more questions than answers for Julie, furrow between her brows and mouth opening to comment when Carrie just nods her head behind her, and Julie turns around to spot Luke.

It’s impossible, Julie knows it’s impossible, but she could swear time slows down. Like she’s in some rom-com movie where the main character sees their love interest for the first time.

Only she’s not in a film, she’s stood next to a fire engine and trying to care about what the people around her are talking about and it’s far from the first time she’s seen the love interest. But the world still feels like it’s in slow motion all the same as she looks up as Luke calls her name from the second floor, grinning at her from over the banister and holding up one hand in that universal signal for ‘wait’.

And Julie waits, not that she could really do anything else with the firehouse blurring at the edges and Nick's voice fading into the background. Focus entirely on Luke.

She’s never seen someone slide down the pole before, didn’t even know that they still used them in firehouses, but Julie’s pretty sure it shouldn’t be as hot as it is. Though, she supposes, it could just be Luke. His hand wraps around the metal and Julie swallows as her eyes are drawn to his arms, to where his top pulls tight and his forearms are on show. If this was a film, there’d be some stereotypical song about sex playing in the background right about now. All her slightly hazy brain can supply is the chorus to Lady Marmalade on repeat. His legs wrapped around the pole, ankles crossed and thighs pressed together, comes into view as he slides down the metal, all cool and in control, and Julie's throat goes dry.

She knows how much strength it takes to slide down a pole. Her and Flynn had taken a few pole dancing classes a few years ago in an attempt to add some sort of exercise into their day. Julie can still remember how much her arms ached and the bruises that littered the insides of her thighs after even the simplest of moves.

It was hard, and Luke was making it look so easy.

His feet hit the ground, and even though she’s too far away to actually hear it, she’s pretty sure they must make some sort of thudding sound. Because that’s what happens, right? You slide down the pole and your feet hit the floor with a thud that shows you’re ready for action. Only Luke isn’t going off to put on his uniform and fight a fire or save a life.

He’s walking towards her, suspenders swaying and smile widening and eyes never leaving her face.

And look, she knows that she’s seen Luke fully naked, fresh out of a shower or panting on his back. But seeing him slide down that fucking pole in his white t-shirt, suspenders by his knees and hair a mess? Hottest thing she has ever seen. And he knows it if the way his teeth sink into his bottom lip as he gets closer is anything to go by.

“How long did it take you to practice all that, Patterson?” Carrie asks, and Julie can hear the teasing tone in her voice and would normally enjoy seeing Luke stammer and blush, but right now she’s the one feeling too warm and is pretty sure if she started speaking right now all that would come out would be a high pitched noise.

“About the same amount of time it takes you to do your hair,” is his easy reply and Julie watches as Carrie rolls her eyes, hair flipping over her shoulder, and because he’s momentarily not looking at her, Julie tries to pull her thoughts together. To get a hold of herself. This is not the first time she has seen him in his uniform, she has seen in him in far less, and she will not turn into a blushing mess right now!

“Alright you lot, back to work!” Harrison interrupts before anyone can say anything else, and everyone starts walking away, some nudging Luke as they go, some giving her a wave, and she thinks she must smile back, at least she hopes she does. Her brain is still very much focused on Luke and how his thighs probably looked coming down that pole without the heavy duty trousers. “You tell Alex I’m still a fan of the flapjack he makes,” Harrison says as she walks past, dropping an eye into a wink and giving Luke a look she doesn’t understand.

A tense smile pulls at Julie’s lips that she hopes comes across as genuine and not just her unable to speak because of her incredibly hot and infuriatingly knows it boyfriend.

“You alright, Jules? Looking a little flushed, need me to get one of the EMT’s?” Luke asks, all innocence and anything but subtle as he rocks back and forth on the balls of his feet, teeth still chewing on his damn lip.

“Just—” she clears her throat, trying to glare up at him, but already knowing it’s ruined by the heat in her cheeks and how she can’t stop staring at his arms. God, she hasn’t been this distracted by his arms since their first date. Blowing out a breath, Julie drags her eyes away from where his arms are crossed across his chest — which, she’s like, 80% sure he’s doing on purpose right now, the little shit — and up to his face just as he raises an eyebrow at her.

“It’s just a little warm,” she finally manages to get out, raising her hand that’s clutching the reusable grocery bag too tight, “Alex sent me with lunch.”

Luke’s eyes light up at the mention of Alex and food, hands dropping from his chest to eagerly reach for the bag and Julie can’t help but giggle at how quickly he can switch from cocky to cute.

“Swee-et! Alex is best,” he grins down at her, drawing out the first syllable of the word and bobbing his head at her. “You wanna eat outside?”

Julie doesn’t respond, just nods her head and links her fingers through his empty hand, letting Luke lead her out of the fire station and to the little grassy area outside. There’s already a blanket on the ground, two bottles of water and a warmth spreads through her for a different reason as Luke pulls her down to the ground and spreads out the food Alex has given them.

They get an hour.

An hour to eat lunch and curl up together to talk and giggle and try to keep their hands visible at all times. It’s both her favourite and the most tortuous hour of her week so far. And Luke’s just leaning in to whisper something in her ear, his breath against her cheek sending shivers down her spine when the alarm starts blaring from inside and his head drops to her shoulder with a sigh that mingles with her own groan.

“I gotta go,” he mutters into the fabric of her t-shirt, and she can imagine how his lips would feel brushing against her skin if they were somewhere else right now.

“I know,” she sighs and carefully moves her shoulder so he has to lift his head up, eyes apologetic as they meet hers. “Be careful?”

“Always am,” Luke smiles gently at her and then he’s getting up and leaving her on the blanket and feeling the loss. Julie watches him go, knees pulled up to her chest and blowing him a kiss when he turns around to wave one last time like he always does when the alarm inevitably ends their lunch date early.

Which normally Julie was fine with.

He was at work. He had a job. He had an important job.

Running out in the middle of lunch was fine. And it would have been fine today, if he hadn’t slid down that damn pole and filled her head with all sorts of ideas and left her fidgeting in her seat. It doesn’t help that Luke clearly knows, if the way he presses a kiss to her forehead and mutters a sorry, eyes a little wide and promises to see her later.

Which is all well and good, but Julie can’t help but feel like he did it on purpose and wonders if there’s a way for her to make him feel just as flustered as she had an hour earlier.

It takes her a while to form a plan of revenge, and then it takes a while longer for her to gather all the things she needs. And okay, maybe at some point she forgets why she’s doing all this, and then Luke mentions the pole at the station and how it makes his muscles ache sometimes as he says he’s going for a shower and Julie remembers the sight of him coming down and redoubles her planning.

The hard part comes when she has to pick a day. Because she can’t lure him to her house, not while her dad is working odd hours and her brother is home and Victoria still has a tendency to show up unannounced. Which leaves finding a time when his apartment is empty.

Not an easy feat when Reggie works from home part time, and can’t actually be trusted to stick to his word when he says he’ll be out and Alex has a weekend routine he’s hard pressed to change and likes to get home from work and relax. Plus she has to check when Luke isn’t working on a weekend, which turns out to be the easiest part, because it turns out Harrison really likes her and was happy to schedule Luke a weekend off when she asked.

Sure, she could have enacted her plan while one or both of them were home too but, well Julie knows the boys are all very close, and she knows that they’ve accepted her into the closeness with welcome arms. But she’s not sure she wants to have sex while they’re eating leftover lasagna down the hall. Feels a little too close for her liking. Plus, she has a plan that might end up involving their bath and she’s not sure they’d want to be there for that.

So Julie bides her time. Changes her mind on what clothes she wants and practices different poses on her bed at night and drops little hints about a weekend alone together.

Alex makes plans first, announces that he’s going with Willie to an out of state kids skateboarding competition to help cheer on Willie’s little proteges. He makes a big deal out telling them all the dates and how they had plans to go to some couples spa on their way back and how his restaurant would be ‘more than happy to supply any meals for two that you two might want’.

It had gone over Luke’s head, just nodding and asking about the competition. But Julie had gotten the hint.

And then a few days later Reggie said he had ‘big plans’ with her dad and brother of all people. He’d said it one afternoon when she’d stopped by to see Luke before his week of night shifts, how they were going to go camping so her dad could take some photos for a project and Reggie could teach Carlos to fish, and then he’d dropped his eye in a dramatic wink when she’d asked if that was the same weekend Alex was also away.

(Julie knew that she probably should have found it a little weird how often Reggie seemed to talk and hang out with her family, but the first time she’d gotten home to find him sitting at the dining room table, helping her dad edit photos and offering to order pizza, had felt strangely right.

Like he had always been a part of their family.

Luke had asked her once, a few weeks after they first started dating if it was okay. If she didn’t mind that Reggie had seemed to attach himself to her family. He never explicitly said anything, but she’d known him long enough by then to see the hints, the secrets she wasn’t aware of yet. Of lonely childhoods and something lacking. The hints that he’d found that with her family. And even if she hadn’t been fine with it already, she wasn’t about to stop Reggie. The Molina’s had never been shy about taking in lost souls.)

So apparently she hadn’t been quite as subtle as she thought she’d been with her hints. Both boys clearly conspiring to get her a weekend alone with their best friend. Julie’s just glad that Luke clearly hasn’t noticed. Or if he hadn’t, hadn’t teased her about it.

And that their apartment is empty when she uses her key to let herself in on Friday evening, Hotdog already waiting by the shoes for Luke, head tilted as she looks up mewling softly in disappointment.

“Sorry sweetie, he’ll be home soon though,” Julie mummers, bending down to scratch behind the cat's ears before stepping out of her shoes, which Hotdog happily moves to sit on top of instead. “Be sure to make a big fuss when he gets in so I know, alright?”

Hotdog doesn’t respond, just fixes her eyes back on the front door to wait for Luke, and Julie moves further into the apartment, laughing quietly at the plate of brownies Alex or Willie have clearly left out for them on the counter, blushing slight as she reads the short message scrawled on a post-it note,

‘Don’t mess up my kitchen ;)’

She tries not to let herself think too hard or long about how clearly they all knew about her grand plans for the night. And the next day, and hopefully the whole weekend if things went according to plan.

Picking up the plate on her way through the kitchen, Julie shrugs out of her coat to leave on the back of one of the kitchen stools, because if Luke missed her shoes in the hall, he won't miss this, and she’s really hoping he’ll get the hint to head towards his bedroom. By the time she’s made it to Luke’s room she’s lifted the cellophane off the plate and taken a bite from one of the brownies. Definitely Willie who’d baked them, he was always doubling up the chocolate content. Where Alex was experimental in the kitchen, Willie was a traditionalist who believed chocolate was the best way to set a mood. Julie couldn’t really fault his logic as she moves into Luke’s room.

His room looks the same as it had the first time she’d seen it. Only now there’s a bottle of her perfume on his dresser, and some of her clothes on his ‘laundry’ chair, and polaroids of the two of them stuck in the corners of the photo frames of him and the boys. And Julie knows if she thinks about it, that her room at her dad's house is also littered with pieces of him as well, and she knows it’s only been a few months, but it feels like years. Like her life had been full of all these little gaps she’d never noticed until they were filled with Luke.

Putting the plate down, she starts moving around his room. Pulling out the firefighting coat he’d brought home a few weeks ago because he’d found a rip in the shoulder, rooting through his wardrobe for the plain blue cut off she’d seen the last time she was over and laying them out on his bed. Tilting her head, Julie mentally puts together her outfit one more time. Shorts, suspenders, Luke’s cut-off, coat, maybe the shoes? She bites her lip and decides to come back to it, to see how everything looks on.

It’s strange, Julie thinks as she clips one side of her suspenders to her shorts, how nervous she is about this. It’s not like this is the first time they’ll have slept together, but it is the first time she’s done anything like this. Dressed up in something other than a pretty dress for dinner that he’d taken great care of taking off her.

What if he didn’t like it? What if he thought it was weird? What if he got home and was too tired to do anything? He’d been at work all day, after a long week of working, maybe she should change her plans and do it tomorrow night? What if—

She cuts her own thoughts off with a groan, sitting down on the end of Luke’s bed to take a breath and fiddle with knee high sheer socks dotted with little stars that she’d ordered online. Logically, Julie knows that Luke will like this, that he’ll look at her with those eyes of his that can’t hide a single emotion and smile at her slowly and call her beautiful.

Because he’d been complimenting her since their first date, and every day since. Little things and big changes and all the between. He really did seem to like her just as much dressed up and with make-up on as he did when she’d just woken up on a morning with her hair a mess and pillow creases still on her cheeks.

And that in itself was scary.

Because he liked her for her and didn’t need her to change. She’d never really dated anyone before who didn’t want her to be less invested in music or spend less time with her family or who didn’t like Flynn or even one guy who thought she should try a different scent of shampoo. They’d all been relationships littered with red flags, big and small.

But not even Flynn could find a real warning sign about Luke. Maybe he was a little co-dependant on his friends, but neither of them could say anything because they were a little co-dependant too. And maybe he could be a little over enthusiastic, but he also knew when to give her space. He had a stable job and good friends and was cute and lived in a nice area and he had a cat.

And, once upon a time, he had had a similar dream to her.

One of the things Flynn had managed to dig up on him during her ‘background’ check was an old low quality video on youtube of three boys in a garage playing instruments that looked too big for them but taking the whole thing seriously. Voices cracking on the cover of Summer of ‘69 they were playing, but Julie had seen the way they grinned at each other, at the way a younger Luke had bounced around the small space and Reggie had rocked on his feet and Alex had thrown a drumstick in the air and caught it again. They were kids, but they were talented and it's at that moment that Julie realises Luke was right. They could have made it.

She wonders what would have happened if fate hadn’t intervened in the form of a fire. She’s pretty sure Luke has wondered the same thing too. He doesn’t talk about it much and Julie’s never sure how much to push because he seems happy in his life and choices. And plus, if it hadn’t been for a fire in a record store, there’s a chance they wouldn’t have met.

Julie frowns a little at that thought as she rolls on her second sock over her knee and stands up, straightening out her shorts and twisting the side of Luke’s cut off up and tying it into a knot. She’s never been the biggest believer in fate since her mom died but she thinks there’s something a little like fate that’s pulled them together. And she thinks they’d have met with a fire or without a fire, with music or without.

She wrinkles her nose at herself in the mirror at that thought, rolling her eyes at how cheesy it sounds even to herself. Fate and destiny, who did she think she was? They were just two people lucky enough to find each other.

An alarm goes off on her phone to tell her she’s got half an hour before Luke is due home and this is her last chance if she wants to change her mind.

Tilting her head a slightly to the side, Julie takes in her high waisted shorts, red suspenders dangling by her thighs, the way her t-shirt cinches at her waist and reveals just a strip of skin above her shorts where she knows Luke likes to rest his hands when he pulls her close. She’d taken extra care with her curls and all she had to do was apply some lipstick and touch up her eyeliner and she’d be ready.

It’s Flynn’s voice in the back of her head as she tucks curls behind her ears to lean a little closer to her reflection and, as she pulls back, smacking her lips once before letting them rest in a pout, she can’t help but reiterate it, “I do look hot.”

The front door shuts and Julie can hear Hotdog meowing and Luke’s muffled voice down the corridor as she’s pulling his coat over her shoulders. It’s far too big for her, hanging below her knees and she has to roll the sleeves up three times to free her hands, but the collar smells like smoke and metal and Luke and his last name is written across the right hand side and his station across her back.

That was the part that Flynn had said would really get him — his name on her. Luke wasn’t exactly possessive, but she and Flynn had agreed there was just something about it that was A Lot, in a good way. (Unlike buying a pole and installing it in Luke’s room for a weekend, that was A Lot, in a bad way. Her plan had gone through many different phases before settling on this one. Luckily, it was also the cheapest.)

“Jules?” Luke calls and Julie bites her lip as she carefully climbs on to his bed, and kneels in the middle before changing her mind and crawling off the other side to stand next to it instead.

“I’m in here,” she calls back and she hears something dropping to the floor, probably his bag she guesses, and then his footsteps sounding down the hall.

Julie’s glad she opted for the shoes, just simple black heels, but they give her an extra lift and something more for Luke to look at as he opens his bedroom door. She has one knee slightly bent and resting on her toes, coat sleeves hiding the way her hands are balled up at her sides and one shoulder raised a little higher than the other as she tilts her head at him, biting her lip.

He freezes in the doorway, mouth partly open like he’d been about to say something only to get lost somewhere between his brain and vocal chords as his eyes seem to lock on to the coat she’s wearing before traveling down to her bare legs and Julie watches him swallow, adam's apple bobbing. Just as his eyes get back up to her face she moves one hand to tuck her coat behind her hip and hook her thumb under her suspenders in a way she’s seen him do countless times.

And it gets the reaction she wants, his eyes zeroing in on her hand and tracing up the line of red that covers her chest. Luke’s tongue darts out to swipe across his bottom lip as he blinks and finally drags his eyes back up to her face, pupils blown wide and she watches as he lets out a heavy breath.

“Hi,” she breathes out, and almost immediately regrets it. She's trying for sexy but thinks it just comes across as gasping. Which she hopes she’ll be eventually at some point tonight, but would at least like to be touched a little first.

“You—” Luke starts, and his voice is rough like he’s not used it in hours so he swallows again and Julie’s momentarily distracted by the way his throat moves before his speaking again, “Is that my coat?”

“Maybe,” Julie shrugs, turning slightly so she can pull at the collar of the coat to peer down at the name stitched in the fabric, “Oh look, it does say your name. Would you like me to take it off?” She blinks up at him with a soft smile.

Julie doesn’t know if it’s the smile or her words or just everything about the moment, but Luke lets out a low groan and before she can even blink he’s stood in front of her, hands on her hips and fingers brushing against her strip of visible skin, just like she knew he would. And she’s thankful for the heels all over again when it gives her the little extra height that means Luke doesn’t have to bend down quite so far to brush his lips across her cheek.

“You’re fucking gorgeous,” he mutters, lips ghosting along her jaw and Julie has to rest her hands against his chest to steady herself as her legs already feel wobbly. If she didn’t love him, she’d almost hate him for how easily he can affect her.

“Luke,” she whines as he continues to avoid her lips and trails one hand up his chest to wrap around his neck, fingers winding into his hair to tug lightly which only results in making him huff a laugh against the skin below her ear before giving in and pulling back.

“So,” he starts, press a light kiss to her cheek again again, “fucking,” he kisses the corner of her lips, “beautiful.” And he finally presses his lips to hers, soft at first and then she nips lightly at his top lip and he flexes his fingers against her hip, tugging her a closer with her suspenders to deepen the kiss.

Julie walks them backwards until the backs of her knees hit the edge of his bed and Luke takes the lead from there, lowering her down without breaking the kiss. He pulls away just enough to gasp for a breath, and she looks up at him, chest heaving and takes her chance to start her own teasing trail of kisses up his neck and across his jaw.

“Fuck,” he mutters and Julie smiles as she sucks lightly at his neck and sees the red mark her lipstick has left behind. She just hopes it lasts long enough for her full plan.

“This was because of the pole thing a few weeks ago, right?” Luke asks a few hours later as they lie in the middle of his bed, blankets half pushed to the floor and Julie’s spent the last five minutes kicking her legs back and forth to try and dislodge the reminder from covering her legs without having to turn around or sit up. She’s perfectly comfortably lying on her front, licking chocolate off her fingers from one of the brownies that Alex and Willie had been correct in leaving for them.

“Maybe,” she tries to shrug, but it’s awkward in this position and she quickly gives up to just look at him from under her lashes with a smile.

Luke laughs, his fingers trailing up and down her arm and over her shoulder a few times before he sits up slightly and leans over to press a kiss to her shoulder, “If I’d known it would cause such a reaction I would have slid down that pole in front of you months ago.”

“It might have still taken us months to get to this. Your roommates have very annoying schedules,” she shakes her head sadly and she thinks her hair has to be hitting him in the face, but he doesn’t say anything, just carefully gathers it in one hand to drape over her other shoulder, his lips still brushing soft kisses across her skin.

“Yeah. I’d get rid of them if Alex didn’t feed me for free and Reggie didn’t get us so many free tickets to stuff,” he sighs, breath blowing against her skin as his nose nudges over her shoulder blade until his lips follow and his rest his chin on her shoulder, and all she has to do is turn her head a little to find his eyes on her lips. “Though it would be so worth it for weekends like this.”

“Guess we should just make the most of this one first, huh?”

It’s a little awkward, and Luke must be uncomfortable with his torso twisted like it is, but it’s easy to kiss Luke, and to roll over until she can push him back down until his back hits the mattress and she can hover over him instead.

“You sound like you have a plan,” Luke comments, and his hands rest on her hips, fingers tapping against her as he looks up at her with those damn eyes of his. The ones that can’t hide a single thought or emotion. And all she can see is love, and okay yeah, probably a lot of lust.

“There might have been some bullet point list involved,” she shrugs one shoulder, her hair slipping over as she moves and Luke’s fingers flex against her, squeezing one hip as he lets out something that sounds halfway between a laugh and a groan.

“That shouldn’t be this hot,” he shakes his head, but his eyes are still shining and Julie loves him.

So she tells him. And kisses him. And wonders if it’s too soon to suggest they spend all their weekends together forever.

#julie and the phantoms #jatp fics #julie molina #luke patterson #jukebox #jatp #firefighter!luke au #serioulsy what else am i supposed to tag fics on here ghfj #*fics #i post this then i go to bed. enjoy and goodnight 😌

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pink-flame · 4 years ago

Text

Like You Could Love Me

So...the Angry Flower Squad was making me SO soft over gifs and @mamirugbee wanted porch fluff with kissing and I remembered that @thedeathdeelers and @missjoolee liked my idea of using this post as a Juke prompt and here we are. I wrote this from 12-2am so it’s quite possibly incoherent and I’m not checking for mistakes until tomorrow so take it for what it is, a late night labor of love. Enjoy! 💜

Julie hadn’t slept for almost 48 hours.

Her school was hosting a Los Feliz High After Dark event for the lower grades who didn’t get to attend prom. It was pitched as being just as exciting as the dance but in practice was known to be little more than a glorified sleepover in the school gym with PTA members for chaperones. Flynn had been determined that that year would be different, and had talked Julie into joining her on the planning committee.

The good news was that Flynn had a real flair for party planning and decorating when she was actually invested (see the difference between the dance they tried to forget and the way she had helped Julie’s dad throw together an epic garage party in less than 24 hours). So by the time Julie and Flynn and the other volunteers were done the gym was fully immersed in a carnival theme full of cute booths filled with potential activities and cute backgrounds to take pictures in front of. It was definitely an improvement over the year before which had been an under the sea theme which had consisted mostly of a few blue streamers and Mr. Weaver walking around in an inflatable Nemo costume.

The bad news was that it had taken a lot longer than they had anticipated and they hadn’t fallen into bed the night before the event until close to 2am. Julie hadn’t been able to sleep even after she slipped into bed next to Flynn and heard her best friend start making the small whistling noises that indicated she was out cold. Julie had been kept up with thoughts of what her bandmates were up to without her and if they had lingered a little longer on what Luke in particular was doing right then, well that wasn’t that surprising.

She loved Alex and Reggie but neither of them had attempted to hold her hand and remarked on their “interesting little relationship” or suddenly developed the ability to touch her and instinctively joined her in reaching out to gently cradle the other’s face.

No, Luke was different, not that she wanted to say that in front of him unless she was sure he felt the same overwhelming feelings she did Oddly enough she was much more concerned about the possibility that he didn’t than she was about the fact that he was still..well, a ghost. It wasn’t that she was unaware that his ghostly status could lead to heartache for her later on, of course she was. It just didn’t seem so important suddenly. After what had happened with her mom, what had almost happened with the guys only a couple of months ago...anything could happen at any time. Tomorrow wasn’t guaranteed anyway so why deny herself happiness now if she could have it? If she could have it. Because that was still the question.

Because Luke obviously liked her but did he like her? That sounded so juvenile but to call it anything else...well, that was really scary. Evil ghosts and the looming possibility of their return had nothing on the insecurity that came with not knowing exactly how the boy you lo...liked felt about you.

So Julie didn’t get much sleep that night, Flynn’s alarm seeming to go off only moments after she finally drifted off. She had dragged through school that day, trying to match Flynn’s excitement for the night’s upcoming festivities though her own enthusiasm had quickly drained out of her altogether along with her energy. In the end it had been as fun a night as it could be with Julie spending most of it in a semi-exhausted haze. She and Flynn had played some of the games they had set up, and danced to the music they both agreed would have been better if it had been either DJ’d by Flynn or performed by Julie’s band, and when Carrie had sneered something about how tacky the theme was even that had been half hearted and without any real bite.

So it was a pretty good night all things considered and Julie was in a good mood despite her complete exhaustion by the time Flynn’s mom dropped her off early the next morning. Ok, so maybe part of her good mood was actually because of her exhausted state by that point as she found herself feeling giddy and her mind had gone sort of pleasantly fuzzy. That was her excuse for how she found herself half-skipping up the path towards her front door, singing to herself.

We create...perfect harmony

“Somebody had a good time.”

Julie’s head snapped up to take in the figure of the boy who leaned against the pillar of the porch in front of her, a small smile bordering on a smirk tugging at his lips.

Luke.

What was he doing there?

Was he waiting for her?

She had to play it cool.

She had to be normal.

She had to not give away all the feelings that had been swirling around inside of her for the last couple of months since they first gained the ability to touch each other whenever they wanted and promptly both became too awkward to touch each other at all.

She had to…

“I missed you,” She blurted.

One of Julie’s hands flew up to cover her mouth as she took the last few steps up onto the porch, trying and failing to ignore the way Luke’s eyes widened even as that vaguely infuriating smirk grew larger.

“I didn’t mean that,” She insisted once her hand had dropped back to her side. “I mean...I didn’t not mean it but...I just meant it would have been fun if you could have come. Any of you. All of you. Um...yeah.”

Luke let her dig herself deeper, waiting until her stream of words had come to a complete stop. When they finally dried up he pushed off of the pillar with one of his signature little bounces, letting his momentum carry him to within a step of where she stood awkwardly on the porch.

“Did someone spike the punch at this dance?” He asked her, amusement clear in his tone.

Julie shook her head a little too fiercely, indignant despite the fact that she couldn’t exactly blame him for suspecting that she was drunk.

She felt a little drunk.

Not that she knew what it was like to be drunk but she was pretty sure it was similar to this.

Not the point.

“It wasn’t a dance it was a school sanctioned slumber party,” She corrected, focusing all of her energy on not slurring her words or otherwise embarrassing herself. “And nobody spiked anything. And actually nobody drinks punch anymore. Just so you know.”

Luke held up both hands as though he were surrendering but that smirk of his was impossible to deny at this point, a fact that both made Julie incredibly irritated and simultaneously fighting the urge to lean up and kiss it right off his stupid face.

Ok, that was not helpful.

“Not a dance, no punch. Got it,” Luke said, his voice just soft enough to keep her annoyance more or less at bay.

“Why are you out here anyway?”

Julie hadn’t meant to ask that but it felt like any filter her brain generally had was long gone at this point.

Luke tilted his head slightly and reached up to scratch at the back of his neck.

“Oh, you know, just taking in the view.”

Julie frowned skeptically.

“Taking in the view?”

“Yeah,” Luke said, gesturing out at the plant filled yard. “Just communing with nature you know? Honestly, I forgot you were even out last night.”

“Oh.”

Julie dipped her head a little so she didn’t have to look directly at Luke as disappointment rushed through her. She was pretty sure she was too tired to keep the evidence of that emotion from being completely visible. She was so frustrated with herself for caring at all. He wasn’t her boyfriend after all. Why would be be waiting for her?

“Julie.”

She reluctantly raised her head to meet Luke’s gaze which was fixed insistently on her. His smirk had fallen away leaving behind a look at once more open and somehow harder to read at the same time.

“I’m kidding,” He told her as he took a half-step closer to her, so close that she had to tilt her head up further to maintain eye contact. “I was waiting for you.”

“Oh,” She said again, very aware that she seemed to have lost the ability to say anything else.

She reached deep down inside and mustered up the strength to pull out one further word.

“Why?”

His eyes somehow managed to soften even more and his voice was oddly breathy when he answered.

“Because I missed you too.”

And Julie knew that the most prudent thing to do was tuck that phrase away as something warm, and happy and precious to examine more closely when she had slept and had the mental prowess to actually determine what it meant for their interesting little relationship.

She knew that.

But she was exhausted not only from lack of sleep but from months spent questioning where they stood. She was happy to hear him say that he had missed her, of course she was. But she also found herself feeling strangely...angry.

How dare he look at her with those big soft eyes and stare at her like that if he wasn’t ever planning on actually putting her out of her misery by telling her how he felt or didn’t feel?

“I wish you wouldn’t look at me like that,” The words burst out of her without her permission.

Luke was clearly taken aback by her words, his eyebrows shooting up his forehead.

“Like what?”

“I don’t know,’ She hesitated, just enough awareness seeping back in to make her realize what a truly stupid thing she was about to say. “Like you could love me.”

She watched as a whole range of emotions rushed over his face too quickly for her to decipher exactly what all of them were.

“Julie…”

“Forget I said anything,” Julie interrupted, turning towards the front door with every intention to flee the situation. “I’m just really tired.”

“Julie!”

He said her name more forcefully that time and she froze. She didn’t turn back to face him though, the pounding in her chest and the heat spreading across her face giving her all the incentive she needed to keep her head facing away.

Luke wasn’t having any of that though.

He reached out to gently tug her back towards him, one hand settling on her cheek while the other rested on her waist.

If she hadn’t been blushing before she certainly was now.

“Do you not want me to look at you like that because...because you don’t feel the same?”

Luke’s voice shook a little as he gave voice to that question, his thumb seeming to stroke across her cheek without his permission.

Julie was reeling, everything feeling surreal and dreamlike anyway because of her lack of sleep but when combined with Luke’s gentle actions it felt more and more unreal. She couldn’t help but remember the last time he had touched her face, how they had clutched at each other thinking it was the only chance they would ever have. Now they had new chances every day and they had been wasting them.

Why had they been wasting them?

“Wait...feel the same as what? Feel the same as who?” She asked as her brain finally caught up with what he had actually said.

He visibly swallowed and she took some comfort in the fact that apparently he was nervous too.

“The same as I feel,” He paused. “About you. I...I love you, Julie. And if that makes you uncomfortable I never have to say it again, ok? But it’s how I feel and I just wanted to say it. Once or whatever.”

“But…” Julie felt a giggle rising up inside of her as exhaustion and the pure absurdity of the moment settled in. “But I love you too.”

Luke’s thumb froze on her face as his eyes lit up with something close to hope.

“You do?”

Julie nodded, the giggle finally bursting out of her only to be met with a grin from Luke so radiant she wished she could capture it in a photo to look at later.

“You love me,” Luke said again as though he needed to confirm beyond any shadow of doubt.

“I love you,” Julie repeated agreeably. “And you love me?”

Luke nodded, bouncing a little on his heels as he somehow managed to step even more into her space.

“I love you.”

“Well…” Julie sighed happily. “Well, that’s great then.”

Luke let out a bark of laughter that probably would have been loud enough to bring her dad to the porch if anyone but her had been able to hear it.

Before she had time to remark on how obnoxiously loud he could be he was crowding her back until she bumped into the pillar he had been leaning against when she got home. The moment her back made contact with its firm surface he was bringing his other hand up until he was cupping both of her cheeks. She barely had time to adjust to that very much welcome sensation before he was lowering his head and aligning his lips with hers, pressing them together in a chaste peck that was still enough to send her heart racing. He started to pull back as if to gauge her reaction but she was having none of that. She had been waiting for this for so long and as previously established she had absolutely none of her usual ability to deny herself what she wanted.

And what she wanted was her hands on Luke Patterson right then.

She reached up and latched one hand on the back of his neck and the other threaded deep into his hair giving it a little tug just because she could. She had been wanting to touch him so badly ever since that night in the garage when she’d almost lost him and she’d been wanting to touch his dumb, messy hair ever since “I’m Luke by the way”. So she did.

He let out a little pleased sound that was cut off when she stretched up to press her mouth back to his, this time with twice as much force and no intention of separating anytime soon. To his credit he took the hint pretty fast, his hands dropping from her face to wrap around her waist tugging her body to press against his as he moved his lips insistently against hers. And wow...that was something, the sensation of almost all of her pressed up against almost all of him.

He wasn’t warm, not exactly, but he wasn’t cold either like she had feared he would be. It was more like his body was mirroring back exactly her own temperature, leaving it hard to determine where one of them began and the other ended when her eyes were closed as they currently were.

Or maybe that was just them.

Maybe it was like that quote she always saw floating around online about souls being made of the same stuff.

When she was well rested and thinking rationally she had always rolled her eyes a bit at stuff like that but now...she was beginning to see the appeal.

Julie massaged absentmindedly at the back of his neck as she drew his lower lip into her mouth, the sound he made in response enough to have her pulling back with a giggle.

“Come back here,” He mumbled, his lips chasing hers even as she turned her face away leaving him to press soft, wet kisses to her cheek.

“Now you sound drunk,” She told him, turning back to face him and looping both arms around his shoulders. “My dad will be up soon and I have no idea how I’d explain...this...when he can’t even see you.”

Luke groaned as he leaned down to rest his forehead against hers.

“You’re right.”

“I’m right,” Julie echoed.

It was true but that didn’t mean she was happy about it.

They stayed like that for another minute or so, just enjoying being this close to each other with nothing to hide. They might have stayed like that longer but Julie suddenly let out a yawn she couldn’t contain directly into Luke’s face.

Luke pulled back sharply but the soft smile that seemed to always be reserved just for her remained in place.

“You need to get some sleep,” He told her firmly.

She wanted to argue but all that came out was another yawn.

Ok, so there was no arguing with that.

“Goodnight,” She told him, suddenly feeling shy as she backed towards the front door wanting to keep him in her sight just a little longer.

Luke gestured around them to the soft light spilling around her yard.

“Good morning,” He corrected with a grin.

Never one to let him have the last word, certainly not when she was too tired to be embarrassed, Julie leapt forward to press one final lingering kiss on his lips, retreating before he could do more than return the pressure.

Julie backed towards the front door, the grin now firmly on her face and a rather dumbstruck one adorning his.

“Band practice later,” She reminded him. “Don’t be late.��

Then she slipped into the house and up to her bed, incredibly tired and pretty sure of exactly what she would be dreaming of.

#I blame the #angry flower squad #for this #and also my other friends who encourage me to see juke everywhere #you know you are #and I love you for it #feels so good to write dumb fluff honestly #Juke #Jatp #my fics #fanfiction

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adhd-disaster-willie · 4 years ago

Text

home is wherever you are tonight

summary: Alex and Willie are suffocating beneath their respective parental figures, so, barely 20 and scrambling to just breathe, they leave LA. And they also slow dance.

notes: this was gonna just be a like 800 word fic of them dancing but I have no self control so I ended up with this monstrosity. (also, maybe listen to apple pie by lizzy mcalpine while reading)

word count: 2,600

---

“I been runnin' 'round

Try'na find a place where I can breathe

But me oh my

I found you

Under an april sky

And you feel like

City life, apple pie baked just right

Home is wherever you are tonight”

---

The early morning tastes like coffee and Willie’s breath mints, gentle laughter lingering on his lips. And Alex has never been a morning person, but with the first rays of sun in his eyes and boxes crammed into every empty space in his car, he thinks that maybe he should wake up early more often.

The road seems to stretch endlessly ahead of them, but Alex can’t tell if the tension in his chest is anxiety or anticipation. Willie squeezes his hand in reassurance as he starts the car and they take a deep breath in unison, realizing it’s maybe the first time they’ve ever been able to truly breathe.

They’re several miles down the highway, shoved in between cardboard boxes and the dry August heat; and Alex’s car is cramped and smells of fast food and summer and Willie Willie Willie. Alex adjusts his grip on the steering wheel, mumbling the words to whatever song is playing on the clunky, staticky radio. The whole world seems softer, with the sun dipping just below the horizon, the last dregs of light sticking to the clouds and painting them pink. Alex sighs contentedly, a grin tugging at the ends of his lips. Willie has their hand stuck out the open window, giggling into the rushing air like it’s telling him the whole world’s secrets. And with their other hand gripped in his own, no reason to let go ever, Alex thinks that the secrets of the universe are laid right out on the dashboard for him to hold.

“What’s so funny?” Alex asks, although it’s less of a question and more a reason to hear Willie’s voice.

“We’re running away together,” Willie replies breathlessly. He laughs again, throwing his head back and stretching his arm farther out the window like he’s trying to touch the clouds.

“Well I wouldn’t quite say we’re running- oh okay.” The last part is in response to Willie putting their index finger over Alex’s lips and looking at him like he’s crazy.

“Yes we totally are. Buzzkill.”

Alex huffs, but it doesn’t hold any weight and is laced with a smile. “I’m driving, idiot. Stop- okay move your hand please.”

“Make me.”

“Willie.” Alex’s fixes a stern gaze on him, just long enough to send them into a fit of giggles before he turns back to face the road. It’s several minutes of comfortable, soft silence before Alex sighs in resignation. “I guess you can say we’re running away.”

“Ha!” Willie pumps his fist, narrowly avoiding smashing the ceiling. And really, considering the age of Alex’s rickety car, smashing would probably be the right word.

Alex raises their intertwined hands briefly. “Here’s to running away.”

“I’ll drink to that,” Willie cheers. They crinkle their nose and kiss Alex’s knuckles, hugging their hands to his chest.

“That’s…” Alex shakes off the crimson tint to his cheeks. “You’re not drinking anything.”

“Not yet,” Willie replies, waggling his eyebrows mischievously.

Willie falls asleep with the sun, something that’s baffled Alex for years. The sky is twinkling with stars and the horizon with city lights, and Willie’s curled up around a pillow, their cheek pressed against the window, breath fogging up the glass. Alex shifts slightly to turn down the music, maneuvering around cautiously to reach the knob without letting go of Willie’s hand. He can’t help from humming under his breath, it’s an older Queen song, one Alex remembers listening to with tangled headphones, huddled in the corner of the gym to avoid the atrocity of dodgeball.

“Love of my life…” Alex trails off, mouthing the lyrics. Beside him, Willie stirs slightly, mumbling something incoherent.

“Hmm?” Alex likes having conversations with a mostly asleep Willie, it’s incredibly entertaining.

“Love you more.” Eyes still closed, Willie pats Alex’s cheek and nods decidedly. “Mostest.”

“Is that so?”

“Love of my life!” Willie sings along loud and off-key, voice slurred with sleep. “M gonna love you forever.” They fall back, last bits of consciousness gone, and Alex blinks back surprised tears.

“And ever,” he finishes softly, squeezing Willie’s hand. Forever sounds nice.

The rest of the drive floats by like a spring breeze snaking through a field of long grass. Willie wakes up at some point, eats an ungodly amount of popcorn and screams the lyrics of American Idiot out the window at the bustling city, like it’s the last time he’ll ever get to hear the song. Alex can’t help but laugh loudly when a conservative looking old lady glares at them, utterly scandalized.

“I think you just ruined her night,” Alex quips with mock seriousness.

“As I should!” Willie flops back into the seat, adjusting their tangled seatbelt and looking at Alex with a lopsided grin.

Alex laughs for what’s maybe the millionth time today, and it hits him that this is the most he’s ever involuntarily smiled in a day. It’s half past 8 and he’s settled at the base of a tree with Willie perched on a branch just above his head, rambling on about color theory or something equally as confusing. The drive would’ve taken 4 hours without Willie pulling on Alex’s elbow and squealing for him to stop at everything mildly interesting, but Alex isn’t entirely complaining, even if his back is sore.

It’s odd, to be leaving LA, but Alex thinks that everyone knew he couldn’t stay there his whole life, not with the church on his drive to work and the streets full of too many people that know him too well. And maybe he didn’t like change, but it can’t be that much of a change if Willie is still there with him. Willie grounds him. So do Luke and Reggie and Julie and Flynn, but in a different way. His parents tied him to the floor, his friends root him, let him grow and have a place to come home to at the same time. And Willie? Willie is the ground. He is the soil and the curling grass to Alex’s timid tree. Willie is home, wherever they may be.

“2 miles,” Alex states, pulling gently on Willie’s ankle, letting them know that he wants to look at them. Willie hops down and Alex winces even when they land safe and sound on their feet.

“Why do you do that?” Alex questions huffily, crossing his arms over his chest.

Willie gives a half shrug. “ ‘S fun.”

“For you, maybe.”

“Hmm.” Willie drapes their arms around Alex’s neck, pulling him into into a gentle kiss. Kissing Willie feels like rain after months of drought, sun breaking through a canopy of trees, and Alex is sure that it always will, until they’re old and grey. Alex smiles against his lips, pulls apart and rests his forehead against Willie’s, biting his lip in a soft smile. “C’mon.” He clasps Willie’s hand and sticks it in the pocket of his hoodie, bumping their shoulders together. “Lets go home.”

“Home.” Willie breaks out in a grin that glows like the full moon on a clear night. “Yea.”

---

The apartment complex is wedged in between a suspicious looking butchery and a quaint little antique shop with butterflies painted on the dusty windows that Alex reminds himself to take Julie to at some point, when his friends all inevitably visit in the whirlwind that they are. The pale yellow wall paint is peeling and the stairs are much more wobbly than Alex is comfortable with, but he lets out a breathless, bubbly laugh at the sight of it. His parents aren’t there, nor is Caleb, or any of the things back in LA that were suffocating them both to the point that they booked it, half-broke and with only 2 months of warning.

Alex swings their hands, looking at a very bouncy Willie with his eyes blown wide from excitement. “Hey, we’re home.”

“We’re home!” Willie grabs Alex’s face roughly, fumbling to kiss him with their hands shaking and lips curled up in a giddy beam. They settle for holding him in a crushing hug, swaying them back and forth gleefully.

“You’re excited,” Alex chuckles, brushing at his crumpled hoodie when Willie breaks away.

Willie sticks his tongue out childishly. “So are you, admit it.”

Softening, Alex cups Willie’s cheek and exhales softly. “Of course I am.” He crinkles his nose affectionately as Willie leans up to peck his cheek. “Now-” Alex stacks as many boxes as he can fit in his arms. “Lets do this.”

---

It’s 2am and Alex is completely and utterly exhausted. Half the boxes are open, they unpacked most of it just looking for the air mattress. His record player is resting on the counter, there’s a pile of books in one corner and several trashbags of clothes in another. Willie is sitting crosslegged on the floor trying to work the portable air pump and scowling at the still deflated mattress like it stole his wallet.

“Y’know, you’d think they would provide some sort of instruction book,” Willie says poutingly. They fall back onto the wooden floor with an annoyed sigh.

Alex looks up from where his head is buried in his arms, sitting on the single bar stool they’d managed to fit in the car. “There was an instruction book, speed bump. You threw it out because you claimed that ‘everyone knows how to work an air pump!’”

“But I’m not everyone!” Willie whines. “You should’ve warned me.”

“I… okay.” Alex bows his head, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Lets blow up the mattress and call it a night, okay?” He lowers himself to the floor, hovering over Willie and tucking a strand of hair behind their ear. “Give me the pump, I’ll figure it out.”

“Hmm.” Willie hauls themself up, yawning loudly. They settle themselves in Alex’s lap, head tucked into his shoulder while Alex wraps his arms around them and fiddles with the mattress.

“M gonna fall sleep here,” Willie mumbles into Alex’s shoulder.

“Yea?”

“Mhm, g’night.” Willie burrows further into Alex, tucking his hands into his hoodie pockets.

Alex exhales, a fond smile tracing his face. He lifts one hand to card his fingers through Willie’s long hair, using the other to blow up the mattress. Willie groans in frustration at the loud noise and Alex has to fight a laugh.

“Alright get up, we have to- Willie.” Willie’s latched himself onto Alex like some sort of leech, pretending to be asleep despite the soft giggling escaping his lips.

“William,” Alex says, snickering. Willie doesn’t budge. “Pretty boy,” Alex tries. That always works.

Willie melts, lifting their head and flushing bright red. “Stop taking advantage of me,” He grumbles as he stands, pulling Alex up with him.

“Stop letting me,” Alex retorts with a teasing chuckle.

But instead of flopping unceremoniously onto the mattress like Alex expects, Willie pads tentatively to the wide window facing the flickering city and lets out a breath of awe. He hugs himself firmly, brushing his thumb over his bicep. Alex approaches them and snakes his arms around their torso, perching his chin on their shoulder and humming in question.

“I’m okay,” Willie answers the unspoken question, nudging Alex’s head lightly. “It’s just overwhelming but like…” he pauses, eyebrow furrowed in thought. “In a good way. It’s a lot, but it’s all good.”

Alex nods in understanding. “Yea, I agree.” He intertwines their fingers, rocking back and forth. “Lots of good.” He presses a kiss to the top of Willie’s head, lingering for a moment to relish in his presence.

“It’s beautiful,” Willie remarks, eyes raking over the bright city lights. It looks so distant and yet so familiar at the same time.

“You’ve seen the city a million times.”

“Ok, but this is a different city,” Willie responds. It’s true. It’s like the same puzzle with all the pieces arranged differently, except for one in the middle that the whole rest of the world revolves around.

Willie wriggles in Alex’s grip and spins around, tossing their arms over his shoulders and fidgeting with the hood of his sweatshirt. “Dance with me,” he says, voice soft and silvery, a whisper of cloud waltzing across the moon. Alex raises a doubtful eyebrow.

“You wanna dance… Willie, we’re exhausted.”

“No, no, no,” Willie shakes his head slowly, eyes squeezed shut for a moment. “Just-” They settle one hand one Alex’s shoulder and the other on his hip. Humming a gentle, lilting tune, they begin swaying side to side, drumming his fingers to a beat only in his head. “Dance with me.” He presses an idle kiss to Alex’s lips, chapped from the wind and laced with fresh apples . “Please.”

Alex hums in consideration, moving Willie’s hands to hold them in his own. “One second.” He ducks out of Willie’s arms, earning a squeak of protest.

Alex has had his record player for years now, Ray gave it to him as a Christmas present when he was 15 and he definitely cried. He’d gone through 3 boxes packing his records and Willie had looked… mildly concerned. But ha, who’s laughing now? The vinyl starts, popping occasionally in the way that makes Alex giggle with joy. Alex steps back proudly, floating back over to Willie and mimicking their previous position, one hand on their hip and the other on their shoulder. Willie smiles fondly at the song choice, Apple Pie by Lizzy Mcalpine, though he knows that nothing else would’ve fit.

“Remember the first time we listened to this song together?” Alex asks as Willie stumbles over his feet.

Willie nods. “Course I do, hotdog. You got sooo blushy.”

Alex shrugs nonchalantly. “Well, you kissed me so it worked out.”

“It did,” Willie whispers.

Alex spins them messily, laughing aloud when they slam into his chest without warning. "Very graceful," he remarks sarcastically.

Willie scrunches his face affectionately, pecking the tip of Alex's nose, singing gently as he draws back. "Home is wherever you are tonight."

It’s a tender moment, until Willie steps on Alex’s foot and snickers an apology. “Oops-”

“Ow, Willie. You don’t know how to slow dance do you?” Alex teases.

“Ok-”

Alex sighs warmly, god sometimes all the feelings were just so big and overwhelming. “Just, c'mere-” He draws Willie closer to him, embracing them like he’s the only thing in the world. And maybe, for the moment, he is. Willie tucks his head into Alex’s shoulder, breathing in his scent, lavender and dust; and Alex follows suit. His eyes flutter shut and he hums contentedly, heart giving a leap at the sheer domesticity of dancing in the empty living room in their pajamas, Willie tracing slow, sleepy circles on his back.

They’re hardly dancing anymore, really, wrapped up in each other like the sea and the shore at high tide, swaying to their synced heartbeats. The unfamiliar walls and creaky floorboards, cold beneath their socked feet, suddenly begin to look like home beneath all the strangeness and Alex can’t help but grin.

Alex’s home is in the crook of Willie’s neck and the light curve of his spine; the scent of rainstorms and cotton holding him close like he’s prone to break. And perhaps one day he will break, fall apart in Willie’s arms. But with the scratchy record humming in the background, and Willie’s body melting into his own, he thinks that their arms would be the best place to fall apart in.

---

art i made :)))

#jatp #julie and the phantoms #jatp fic #willex #willex fic #willie jatp #willie wilbur williamson #willie nolastname #alex mercer #netflixwewantjatp2 #julie molina #willow writes

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bluefirewrites · 4 years ago

Note

i gotta Juke AU story

————

this is inspired by this one filipino movie i watched “para sa hopeless romantic” but julie and luke go to the same uni and julie writes a random line of lyrics on a schools desk and luke writes the next lines when he’s in his class. the next day julie sees someone finished her lyrics and they end up having a finished song throughout the week. they obviously end up falling in love with each other’s words but one day the desks in that classroom were thrown out so julie and luke try and find the desk and run into each other only for Luke to find out it’s Julie, his crush since the beginning of school, and Julie finds out it’s Luke, they boy who she’s been eyeing ever since she’s first seen him. honestly this is all over the place. this is just another random college au. tehe

I DID NOT KNOW THIS WAS FROM A FILIPINO MOVIE!

I have much more pride in my culture now you have no idea haha! But no really, Filipino movies can be the cheesiest, silliest, most cliche things I’ve ever seen. And I mean that endearingly.

So it makes total sense that this super cute trope that I see popping up in different fandoms came from a Filipino movie.

I think I’ve seen an iteration of this on AO3 and it was super cute! (But I think it was more like leaving a piece of paper on a desk).

But yes, yes , YES.

Juke is the perfect ship for this.

Hmm... I think it would be an interesting take, because my mind went to Luke first, if it was Julie who would start it- yes I agree with you.

It is canon that Luke helped Julie finish the song that she had been working on with her mom (’Stand Tall’), so might as well run with it.

Maybe during her quiet year, where she didn’t sing or play piano, she often found herself doodling a lot. She kinda threw herself into drawing. It was her creative outlet that brought her comfort during these rough times.

She’d have trouble paying attention in class sometimes, and so she would end up doodling.

Now, I used to have a history class that frowned upon doodling in notebooks. The notebooks would be graded, and if there is a non-history, non-relevant doodle in the margins or anything- you get points docked off.

So Julie, like me, tried remedying this by doodling on post it notes to avoid getting in trouble.

But one day, Julie forgets or runs out of post it notes, and she’s only got her history notebook and textbook with her. And since she has no qualms marking up her jeans and shoes, she thought she’d be discrete and doodle on the desks.

Not like anyone would have a problem with that anyway. These desks are old af and scratched up and had doodles on them already.

She would start drawing her usual stuff- funky creatures, bubble letter-ed profanities, etc.

But then she starts thinking about her mom, she starts doodling dahlias and even a rose in one corner. Memories start flooding back and she starts absentmindedly writing down a lyric of a song they never finished, just bits of pieces figured out:

‘Don’t blink...no, I don’t want to miss it’

She didn’t think to erase it. Just grabbed her stuff and went to her next class.

The following day however, she pulls out her post-notes (after getting more) and is about to doodle when she sees a new scribble on the corner of the desk where she wrote her lyrics.

Squinting, she realizes those are words (geez, the penmanship sucks). But she was able to make it out:

‘One thing, and it's back to the beginning’

It’s written right under her line. And she reads them together-

Wow. This sounds... pretty good.

She quickly jots this mysterious new addition to the song in her post-notes, but not before giving writing another shot and provide another line. Curious, if she would get another response.

She does.

And it’s perfect.

It’s been a year, a year since she felt the urge to write, to think about music- but, when all the lyrics fall into place, Julie is suddenly inspired to continue.

She spends the entire class thinking about how to reply, how to keep the momentum of this song going.

When she gets it, she writes it down underneath the new line. And waits.

And like clockwork, next day she sits down and there’s a new addition.

First verse done- Julie couldn’t believe it.

Smiling, she records it all and had to erase everything from before to make more room.

‘Thanks’ she writes ‘Keep going?’

The reply the next day has her grinning from ear to ear:

‘I’m game :)’

And that’s how it goes: Another day, Another killer line.

Julie would rush from her next class, confusing Flynn who did not think she would be so excited going to history, smile on her face, anticipating another message from this mystery writing partner.

Sometimes, she gets too caught up in her head, eagerly thinking up new lines that she often doesn’t watch where she’s going. One time, she pretty much embarrassed herself while bumping into the cute Luke Patterson in her rush to History.

(She practically fell on him and he tried to talk to her after, but she jumped out of his arms before whatever awkward conversation that was bound to happen if she stayed).

Julie and her pen pal would keep working on the song, even came up with a system to let each other know if they’ve finished a verse.

And sometimes it’s not just lyrics. Julie draws her normal doodles next to her lines, and she’s delighted to find even more ridiculous ones waiting for her when she gets back.

There was one time when she’s had to stifle a laugh because a crude caricature of their History teacher in their corner, yelling out the next lyric:

‘I'm goin’ out of my mind!’

(Glad to know someone else shares the same sentiments about their strict history teacher.)

They finish her mom’s song and Julie’s glad... grateful even. But she couldn’t help but feel disappointed... assuming it’s over.

But come Monday the following weekend, her pen pal decided to leave another line-

‘Running from the past... Tripping on the now’

and a new comment:

‘My turn now?’

A new song, and Julie grins, already coming up with ideas...

She loves writing again, especially music. Sparked by this exchange, she eases herself back into listening to music again, looking for inspiration to use for the song she and her mysterious partner are working on.

And writing with this person... is really something else.

But Julie’s favorite part of the whole experience really is the comments written on the upper corner. Stuff like:

‘This part is killer!’

‘Mindreader, much? :P’

‘Wrecking ball at it again. So talented :)’

and her favorite:

‘You make me a better writer...’

She ducks down so no one can see her blush as she writes back:

‘I think we make each other better...’

Flynn one day tells her straight up she’s got a crush on her pen pal, to which Julie denies because how could she have a crush on someone she doesn’t even know.

But as she thinks about it.. she feels like she does. Or at least know enough to establish this sort of connection that feels like they’re in each other’s heads, know how the other person thinks, inspiring the other.

It was... special.

Flynn suggests that she needs to figure out who is leaving these notes. But it’s hard seeing as though Julie has the class in an earlier period, a bunch of other classes are held in the same room after she leaves.

(Flynn tries a sting operation, but ends up getting caught ditching class before she could solve the mystery).

Julie’s worried though. As much as she wants to figure out who this great pen pal is, she wonders if they would be disappointed to find out they’ve been writing her. And not someone as cool and as pretty as Carrie Wilson or her friend Kayla. It’s hard to live up to those expectations.

In the end, she wants to know. At least so she could maybe thank them in person, for helping bring music back into her life and for making history class the highlight of her day.

She decides this right before they break for Thanksgiving. She writes down:

‘I wanna meet you. Can we talk?’

And she’s on pins and needles the entire break, just wondering what her pen pal would say back. ‘Yes’, ‘no?’.

But what she finds when she comes back from break is so much worse than the fear of rejection.

They got new desks.

Their school finally got their shit together and replaced their old, worn down desks.

‘No, no, no, no, no’.

That means she’ll never know what her penpal end up replying...

She runs out of class and finds Flynn, panicked, she tells her what happened. And Flynn does some digging, and she’s able to find out where the janitors dumped the old desks.

Julie totally underestimates just how desperate she is in finding out the identity of her pen pal because she finds herself sneaking back to school at night with Flynn, seeking out the lot behind school where the dumpsters were piled high with the old desks.

Flynn, the ride or die she is, armed with a flashlight, starts taking out the desks along with Julie, and there are... a lot of desks.

They go at it for an hour, and the situation starts to look hopeless, especially when Flynn discovers a whole new set of dumpsters with desks that they haven’t even checked yet.

They’re about to throw in the towel-

But then they hear voices.

Quickly, they hide behind a dumpster right when three guys, with flashlights, come onto the scene.

“Dude, I can’t believe we’re here at this hour-”

“Oh my god. There’s like a boatload of stuff here-”

“Guys. Can you not? And please help me? It’s gotta be here somewhere”.

They sound... familiar. They were definitely not the custodians.

Risking it, Julie leaves her hiding spot-

“Luke?”

Luke Patterson jumps and whips around to face her, “Julie?”

Behind him are his bandmates, Alex and Reggie. Everyone looks at each other confused.

“What are you doing here?” he asks.

“I...uh, I’m-” Julie stammers, “Well-”

Flynn cuts in, “She’s looking for something,”

Luke nods, “Really? So are we.”

Alex scoffs, “Nope. Just you, dude. But we’re helping.”

“Maybe we can help you too?” Reggie offers, “What are you looking for?”

Julie sighs, “... a desk?”

“Well... you came to the right place...” Luke laughs, shining his flashlight on the dumpsters, “Funny enough that’s what we’re looking for too.”

“One in particular?”

Then the guy gets all clammed up, “Uh... yeah. I think... I might have... left something... in it. Something important.”

“How about we all look together?” suggests Flynn, “Help each other out?”

And so they exchange the descriptions on the desk, with Julie leaving out the glaring obvious detail of the note.

They’re surprised to find out that they’re looking for the same kind of desk. The ones they used in a particular building at school, the same one her history class is in.

So they break off and search. And she ends up in the same dumpster as Luke.

“So what’s in your desk?” he ends up asking.

“Huh?”

“You know... that’s so important that you’re here on a Friday night, digging through a dumpster,”

“Right... uh,” Julie scrambles for an answer, “There’s something on- I mean, in the desk... that really helped me. I was going through a hard time. Lost my mom last year-”

Luke stops his search, “Oh, I’m so sorry-”

“It’s okay. I just...” she sighs, finding another desk that looks like hers but not quite, “I just want to find it...”

“I get it. Hopefully we can find your desk.”

“Hopefully we’ll find yours too,”

After another 20 minutes searching, Julie finds it. At the very bottom of the dumpster. Luke’s face lights up once she brings it out.

“Oh my god, you found it!” He exclaims, hands gripping the edge to take it off her hands.

She tugs it back, “Yeah... I found it... my desk,”

“Your desk? But this is my-” he breaks off, eyes widening, “Wait. Are you...?”

“Am I what?”

Luke drops the desk, clears his throat, and starts reciting:

‘I believe... I believe that we're just one dream...’

Julie gasps, then continues:

“Away from who we're meant to be...”

Then together: “That we're standing on the edge of...”

“...great.” Luke finishes, in awe, “You! You’re ‘Lyric Girl’!”

“You’re my pen pal?” Julie says in disbelief.

Luke Patterson has been her pen pal this entire time? The cutie with the cutoffs? It makes total sense. He’s in a rock band and the songs she’s heard from them have amazing lyrics.

Wait... she has been lowkey crushing on Luke Patterson through his words...

“Wow, it’s you! Luke... wow...” she honestly has no words. They used to come easy to her when she talks to him via the desk, but now, after finding out that the local heartthrob is her writing partner, she’s super nervous.

“Look... if you’re disappointed that it’s me... I get it. I’ll give you an out, and you won’t ever have to talk to me again-”

“Julie-”

“-like this is weird- this is weird right? But I mean what we had was nice and all-”

“Julie, can you-?”

“-we don’t ever have to talk about this if you don’t-”

“Julie!” He reaches for her hands and intertwines their fingers, shutting her up.

“Yeah...?”

He takes a deep breath before saying: “Why would I ever be disappointed that it’s you? I’ve... got like a mad crush on you since freshman year...”

Julie choked, “Wait, what?”

“Voice of an angel and wicked beauty to boot? How could I not?” he smiles, “And... finding out that you’re my mystery muse is just... you don’t know how happy that makes me.”

His smile drops and he’s all the sudden bashful, “Wait... are you disappointed that it’s me?”

She shakes her head, “No, no! That’s not why! It’s just... you’re this rockstar in the making! I didn’t think- I didn’t think you’d ever pay attention to me.”

“I do... I do pay attention,” he looks down at their desk, “Well... maybe not enough attention, otherwise we would have met sooner.”

She laughs, “Totally,”

They stand there for a while, grinning at each other like idiots.

“So...” Julie decides to jump the gun, “Do you... maybe wanna grab something to eat?”

Luke raises an eyebrow, “Are you asking me out, Julie?”

She blushes, “Maybe,”

“Interesting,”

“So what’s your answer?”

He leans in, “Might wanna look down,” he whispers.

She does, right on their desk and finally reads the reply she’s spent weeks thinking about.

‘Tell me where and when...

I’ll be there...’

Needless to say, but that from that day on- they don’t need to use their desk to talk anymore...

#this... has been sitting in my inbox #and finally I have answered!#I LOVE THIS CONCEPT #giving me the same vibes as my imaginary friends penpal juke idea #i guess this means i just... love Dash & Lily #julie and the phantoms #jatp #julie and the himbos #juke #palina #juke-box #julie x luke #luke x julie #julie molina #luke patterson #how many times am i gonna sneak in 'wicked beauty' in whatever I write?

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thebladeblaster · 3 years ago

Text

SMT4: The Legendary Adventure of Issachar

Summary: Basically what if Issachar survived with a twist

I just realized I never re-released the concept chapter as chapter 1😅. I noticed people liking chapter 2 and not chapter 1 which confused me until I realized I never put chapter 1…My bad I thought I did when I released chapter 2 I guess I forgot.

Chapter 1 The Descent

Today was the day of the gauntlet rite. The young Casualry man Issachar was excited at the prospect of becoming a samurai as he strode confidently forward in spite of the words of the Luxuror he and his best friend Flynn talked to. Issachar had brown hair in a ponytail and brown eyes. He had brown peasant clothes and an elaborate poncho that mimics the kind Luxurors wear. He had brown furry gloves as well. His friend Flynn had black hair in a more neat ponytail with triangle bangs and green eyes which has always made him stand out as much as he didn’t want to. Green eyes were quite the oddity in Mikado which naturally drew attention to him. He wore long sleeved brown peasant clothes and a much more simple poncho.

He lingered behind Issachar trying his best to avoid too much unwanted attention. There had been some gossip around the village for the longest time that his parents were formerly Luxurors though it's never been proven. The only real evidence towards the claim besides his family’s more exotic looks was the fact that they weren’t always in Kiccigiori and instead moved there when Flynn was young.

Flynn was a man who would shoulder the burden of deciding the fate of the world. He will grow through the tragedies he will face to become a legendary samurai. No matter which road he picks he is always for his enemies a man to fear…however this is not his story.

Issachar Pov

Dang, Flynn I know you're shy, but you’re acting like a mouse. If he gets chosen he’s going to have a lot of toughening up to do hopefully...no I’ll definitely be there to help!

I can’t wait to see the look on Maria’s face when we both become samurai! Oh wait, I won’t because of the duty I’ll never have to see that priss again. Up ahead he could see a crowd of people in Aquila Plaza. That must be where the gauntlet rite is!

“Those who have come for the Gauntlet Rite, form up here. You must abide to your turn”, a samurai called out.

I quickly grabbed Flynn’s arm and ran to the crowd. I could see samurai with weird white cloth on their heads which looked a bit ominous. There was a member of the church holding out a gauntlet.

“This is it...We’re finally here...Do you know, I heard a curious thing from the elders at our village. Those who pass the Rite and become samurai must live in Mikado Castle. As I heard it, they can’t even go back their hometown, unless it’s for a mission. This could be farewell for us, Flynn...”, I said.

As I said the last part Flynn squeezed my hand and smiled at me.

“We won’t let it be the end. We’ll definitely stick together when all of this is done. You’ve got to believe.”, Flynn said, which made me smile back at him.

“Definitely.”, I replied, bumping fists with him.

I could see the nervousness in his eyes though he put up a brave front. As they did, a man left complaining about the rite after failing.

“I will become a samurai...I’m definitely going to be a samurai...A samurai and a Luxuror at that…”, I assured himself.

“Next candidate, step forth!”, the samurai said.

“That’s my cue. Here I go to become a samurai! Just know, Flynn...you’ll always be my friend.”, I said.

“Always.”, Flynn said, nodding in agreement.

I am going to become the greatest samurai ever! I have been praying to God weeks in advance to be chosen! I trained so much with Flynn to get ready for this day! They sword fought everyday for years in preparation and it won’t go to waste!

My breath hitched when THE gauntlet of the samurai was placed on my arm. I honestly hardly heard what they said and in my excitement I mimicked the actions of the others before me to activate the gauntlet. I touched the glass-like part of it waiting in anticipation for it to light up with God’s light. I waited...I waited…

I waited…

“Next candidate, come forth! I’m talking to you there. Hurry up to the square. ”, the samurai said to Flynn as I grew pale.

It didn’t. I fell to my knees in despair. There’s no way after all of that work he’s going to be a farm boy forever! Me and Flynn locked eyes. I could see his nervousness soared through the roof when I wasn’t chosen. His gaze lingered on my crumpled form before obeying the samurai.

At least this way we won’t be separated.

Flynn was silent as he walked into the center of the plaza. All eyes were on him, effectively the worst nightmare of a timid person like him. He was sweating bullets as he walked past the samurai lined up.

They were definitely both going home.

“Oh……”, I walked away past Flynn wistfully.

“What’s the matter? It’s your turn next, isn’t it? Go on.”, a sharp eyed veteran samurai said, seeing Flynn’s nervousness.

He knew of his status from his white coat as opposed to the normal blue coat. He looked rather old, having short white hair and a goatee. Around his neck he wore a blue scarf. Not that it matters since he’ll probably never see this guy again.

He toned out the rest as he walked out of the crowd in disgrace waiting for Flynn to join him. He waited...and waited for Flynn to walk back to him.

“The gauntlet has accepted this man as its owner…!”, I jumped up gaping as the monk spoke those words.

“Ahh...the birth of a new samurai.”, I heard someone say.

There’s no way…! I pushed past the crowd of people to confirm it for myself .

“Congratulations, Flynn. You are now a samurai.”, the monk said.

A look of complete disbelief formed on my face. Flynn was accepted over him?! Why?! He could see a bright light radiating from the gauntlet on Flynn’s arm.

“Sir Hope, please show Flynn to the residence hall...I am sorry? Do you not understand that I am here on Abbot Hugo’s behalf?”, the monk questioned.

Flynn turned to him, noticing his presence looking guilty. He looked like he wanted to say something. My gaze was locked on the gauntlet on his arm. The mark of a samurai...Why was it on his arm? Him of all people? I can imagine Maria stomping her way down here to drag her precious little boy home. Flynn has a family that loves him! Why is God taking Flynn away from them and leaving me with a family I hate?! It’s like some cruel joke.

“There’s no need to cross. I have heard you. Follow me.”, Hope the veteran samurai replied.

“Why…!?”, slipped from my lips.

Flynn looked at Hope before looking back at me. His eyes were full of pity. I don’t need your pity, Flynn! He followed the veteran samurai out of the crowd.

What happened to sticking together, Flynn?! Always! Come back here! Come back! Don’t leave me alone in that cruel village!

This is...the worst outcome. He wasn’t a samurai and Flynn, the one bright light he had in his life till now, was gone from his life forever.

Flashback

I was never accepted back home. Between my dreams of rising above my station to become something greater and my curiosity. No one wanted you to question anything just to obey and listen like everyone else. “Shut up and tend the fields like good Casualry!” “Don’t think beyond your station!” “God put you into this life for a reason!” I heard it all. Even his own parents lectured him all the time about this.

“Issachar, you idiot boy! Cease your wickedness or I’ll beat you harder next time!”, the voice of his father growled as he whipped him.

I remember running out of the village after that particularly severe beating for being ‘wicked’. In other words, different. I was very young then. I sniffed as pain roared through my nerves. I ran into the forest as I got judging looks and whispers from the other villagers.

“He’s done it again.”

“That Issachar is seriously no good. When will he learn?”

“If he was my kid I would have disowned him by now.”

I shut my eyes trying to block out their whispers by covering my ears. I hate this place! Why does everyone treat me like a freak?

I didn’t notice at the time that I ran past a family which was moving into Kiccigiorgi. The family was made up of a man, woman, and a child around my age. He had short black hair and the same dopey triangle bangs as he does now which seemingly covered his eyes. He was wearing a simple brown shirt and shorts.

I ran into Kiccigiorgi forest to get away from everyone. I curled up leaning against a tree. I buried my head into my arms and sobbed. I raised my head as I could hear something approaching. Hopefully, it’s not a wolf! I looked around for a stick nearby to defend myself.

To my surprise it was a young boy I had never seen before. The one who I passed without noticing.

“Are you alright?”, he asked quietly, bending down and outstretching his hand to him.

I looked at the boy stunned. Who was this kid? None of the other kids ever wanted to associate with him.

“Who are you?!”, I asked, sounding like a cornered animal.

“I am Flynn. My family just moved here.”, the child Flynn replied.

I turned away from him. As soon as he knows I’m no good he’ll scorn me too like the others.

“Go away!”, I said.

I peeked back to see him still there holding out his hand.

“But, you look so sad. No one sad should be left alone. They need to be comforted. That’s what Dad says.”, Flynn replied.

My eye twitched at his stubbornness. He wore a goofy smile on his face to try and sell himself as trustworthy. If he did hang around me he would surely garner a bad reputation as well.

“I said go! Nothing good will come to you from being involved with me!”, I yelled.

“Well...you don’t do good to get anything back. You do it because it’s good.”, Flynn replied.

I gawked at the undeterred kid and started mumbling incoherently about his stubbornness.

“Flynn, where have you gone?!”, they heard a concerned voice from outside the forest.

“I’m fine.”, Flynn assured, before turning back to Issachar.

Knowing he couldn’t get through to the idiot he just took his hand.

Flashback over

That was the day he met Flynn and they have been glued to the hip ever since. He remembered all the good times they had exploring Kiccigiorgi forest, play fighting, and getting into hijinks. Despite how different they were, they got along well. I wish others could see that people can get along despite being very different. That being different isn’t bad.

I walked along the streets not having the heart to go back to Kiccigiorgi without at least saying goodbye to Flynn for the last time. I don’t think I’ll have any ounce of closure on this whole situation till I can at least do that. I wonder how Flynn’s doing as a samurai? Holding a real blade must be different from a practice sword. Has he had to slay anything? Could he with how gentle he could be?

I lingered near the area around the Aquila Plaza though I was barred from entering.

“The samurai are doing important work. A Casualry like yourself shouldn’t bother them.”, a master samurai said arrogantly.

“But, my friend is a Casualry and a samurai! He just became one today!”, I argued, holding up my fist.

“Pfft. Your friend is a samurai. So, he is a Casualry no longer. He is a Luxuror now. And as a part of his training to become a samurai he will be purged of such lowliness. As such he can’t mingle with lowborn filith such as yourself.”, the master samurai said, as he looked down at him as if he was less than garbage.

“His training?”, I questioned.

Weren’t samurai just trained to defend the people with honor?

“Of course he must be taught how to be a proper Luxuror.”, the master samurai replied.

No! No! No! They were going to make Flynn like them! An arrogant jerk who looks down on others like this guy. I...I can’t just let this happen!

I growled at the master samurai who wore an arrogant smirk.

“Now, scram filth before you pollute the air with more of your breath.”, the master samurai said, touching the handle of his blade.

My fists shook in anger. The nerve of this guy threatening a civilian that he should be protecting with violence. All Luxurors were like this! They were all arrogant jerks! I stormed off hoping for another opportunity to see Flynn.

As it started to get dark I wondered what I should do. I don’t have any money to go to an inn. Should I just sit on the streets? Where do I go? I can’t go back to Kiccigiorgi or I’ll have to make a long trek back here.

“Hoy, you lost lad?”, a baker said, looking out through his door at him.

“No...I just...It’s a long story.”, I replied.

“I quite enjoy stories. Say you shouldn’t be out in the cold like this. Want to come in?”, the baker offered.

“Thank you!”, I thanked, relieved that I wouldn't have to make another trip.

Who knows if he would have another time to come back here. Especially before those depraved Luxurors pollute pure Flynn’s soul!

“It’s nothing. We Casualry ought to stick together.”, the baker chuckled, letting him in.

I explained to him everything that happened today.

“That’s just tragic... To separate two best friends like that over something so trivial.”, the baker commented.

“Yeah, they think my presence will taint him or something. Or maybe foil their schemes to turn him into one of them.”, I replied.

“Right...things really do need to change around here. Say, have you ever heard of literature?”, the baker said.

He explained literature to him as a story unlike fairytales. They were stories of people going through great struggles. Interested, I accepted the literature he offered me.

“Oh wait...I can’t read.”, I remembered.

“No problem. You see, literature is special.”, he said as I looked down at the book astounded that I could read it despite never learning how to.

“Woah, this is amazing!”, I gasped.

All the information seemed to enter his mind like magic without even flipping the page. It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever experienced. And the words in this book make so much sense! The Luxurors were just extorting the Casualry’s for their own benefit! They were oppressing them and they needed to rise up! I’ve got to bring these back with me! So, everyone can see!

“You're welcome to keep them. I’ve been distributing these books in hopes of spreading knowledge across Mikado.”, the baker reveals.

“Really, thank you so much! The guys in my village need to see this!”, I said.

“When you return you should hold a sabbath to discuss the literature. Then hopefully you can convince the others in the village to see the truth.”, the baker replied.

This must be what God wanted me to do! I need to open up everyone’s eyes so they can see the Luxurors were lying to them! I should show this to Fl-...Oh right...One day when the Luxurors are overthrown I will show this to Flynn.

I rested at the baker’s home till the morning. I walked off to lake Mikado to think of what I’ll do next. It doesn’t seem like I can even get near Flynn. I won’t be able to rescue him until I can overthrow the whole system.

The two of them would often come here just to hang out and sometimes fish. Though, Flynn was hilariously awful at fishing. As I looked at the water I heard murmuring of people approaching.

“I would always go to this spot with-“, my eyes widened as I recognized that voice it was Flynn who gasped in surprise seeing him.

Flynn looked a lot cleaner than before. All the dirt and grime from his time tending the fields were washed away. His hair looked perfect except it still had those dopey bangs. He wore the apprentice samurai garb with a pristine white cloth tied around his neck like a bandanna. Flynn’s eyes lit up seeing him. He was stunning...He looked all fancy and proper as if he had always been a Luxuror. Looking at him now he would have never guessed he was formerly a Casualry. He even smelled good! Just like springtime rather than sweat.

With him were two other apprentices. One had unruly black spiky hair and strangely enough purple eyes. He wore his robes more loosely allowing for his toned chest to show and even piercings in his ears. So, scandalous showing that much skin... How was that even allowed by those Luxuror toads?! He was probably a Casualry like Flynn was. Around his neck was a blue cloth haphazardly wrapped around his neck. The other was much more like how he imagined a samurai all prim and proper. He had fluffy brown hair and golden brown eyes. He had a yellow cloth tied like how you would expect for a gentleman.

I locked eyes with Flynn who looked extremely surprised and relieved. I looked away from him. He looks like he belongs here. He never seemed to quite fit at the village despite the fact everyone loved him.

“Ah...Flynn…!”, I said awkwardly.

“Is this a friend of yours, Flynn?”, the proper samurai asked.

“Yes it is.”, Flynn replied, sounding a bit excited to see him which made him bashful.

Flynn still looked at him as if he was the most amazing person ever. Even though he was the samurai living the dream and he was...a nobody.

“I didn’t recognize you there at first. Which is natural, since you're in samurai garb now...”, I admitted, still stunned by his friend’s natural transition into being a samurai.

“Well, this is a happy coincidence. Why don’t you join us for breakfast?”, the unruly samurai invited.

He already has new friends now...he had a feeling it would be easy for him. He always had a charisma in him despite his normally timid demeanor. This was Flynn’s life now...They lived in separate worlds. Flynn was better off here in luxury rather than toiling away in the fields till he got sick.

“...Sorry but I have to decline…”, I said, feeling guilty as Flynn's expression dropped.

Flynn looked like a kicked puppy and he wanted to reach out to him. But...But I can’t! That samurai was right! I would only taint him now and cause him trouble by sticking around. Without me around Flynn will have an easy life. It’s what he deserves after putting up with me for so long.

“I can’t leave the fields alone forever. More than that , though, I got an intriguing gift to bring home. I want to hurry and show it to everyone.”, I replied.

We’ll be reunited one day when Mikado is liberated. For now they must be separated from each other.

“And where is home for you?”, the proper samurai asked.

“Kiccigiorgi.”, I replied.

“That’s quite a long journey.”, the Casualry? Samurai commented.

“Less than you think. If I keep walking without rest , I should reach my destination before night falls. I trained myself to be a samurai after all I’m confident these legs can make the trip. Well then... I’ll be going home. From one Kiccigiorgi boy to another...I pray that your endeavors are successful, Flynn.”, I replied.

“Issachar…?”, Flynn said, sounding so sad and pathetic…

He looked like a lost puppy still wanting to follow after me.

“Goodbye Flynn.”, I said.

“...Goodbye...but it’s not for good right? I’m sure we’ll see each other again one day.”, Flynn replied.

“I hope so…”, I replied, before leaving wearily.

Flynn looked down, seeing to not like that answer.

“Hoy, are you going to be alright?”, I heard the former Casualry samurai say.

“...I’m fine.”, Flynn replied quietly.

I tried not to look back as I left Flynn so he can become his own man and a great samurai. Now, I’m going to have to be the bearer of bad news for his parents and pray that Maria doesn’t try to shoot the messenger.

It was a long lonely walk back to Kiccigiorgi. It was indeed nightfall as I returned. I could see an ember in Flynn’s home still burning. I jumped as Maria practically jumped me as she saw me.

You see she’s Flynn’s mother. She was a woman with long golden blonde hair and the same green eyes as Flynn. She wore a simple brown dress and a white headdress.

“Where’s Flynn?! You have some serious nerve keeping him away this long!”, Maria questioned angrily.

My head sunk. Normally I would fire back fiercely about what a controlling mother she was for Flynn, but...he just didn’t feel it in him. I just felt tapped and depressed from today and yesterday’s events.

“Flynn’s not coming home...ever. He’s a samurai and by extension a Luxuror now.”, I replied, hearing his friend’s mother gasp in disbelief.

“That can’t be! My little Flynn…”, Maria said sadly realizing she was never going to see her son again.

Seeing her right now as much as I don’t like her I can’t help, but feel bad.

“Flynn’s gone? Don’t worry dear. Even if we can’t see him anymore. He’ll have a very comfortable life as a Luxuror.”, Flynn’s father, David said.

He was a rather big and burly man with tanned skin from his hard work in the fields. He had black hair like Flynn and blue eyes. He wore a simple short sleeved brown shirt and pants. He put his hand on his wife’s shoulder comforting her as she sobbed.

“This is the worst outcome…”, she mumbled, and he couldn’t help but agree.

Everyone in Kiccigiorgi would probably be very happy if me and Flynn’s positions were reversed. If Flynn stayed here and I the ‘troublemaker’ went off away from their lives forever.

“I saw him...one last time in samurai garb. Heh...I couldn’t help, but think of how perfect he looked in it...Like it was made for him. As if he was always intended to be a samurai.”, I said, warily.

Something about Flynn had always been different hadn’t it? He could feel a quality within him that was different from everyone else in the village. Rather than that difference making him ‘wicked’ it made him shine more and draw people to him. When he saw them with those two prentices it seemed as if they had always been together despite meeting only yesterday. They were to be his comrades in the future. He was to be a samurai...that was the fate God decided for Flynn. Maybe that quality was meant to draw others to him during his duty as samurai. Something that he would do a lot of good with. Perhaps it would help him change the unjust system from within?

“If it’s what God wills…”, she said solemnly, simply accepting it.

It wasn’t God’s will. It was the will of those corrupt Luxurors.

I went around the village spreading word of literature and that I’ll hold a sabbath tonight in Kiccigiorgi forest. Honestly, I didn’t expect anyone to come as I sat down on the forest floor with the books around me and a lantern to my side. To my surprise a few people came, mostly younger folk in the village.

“Don’t tell anyone I was here.”, one of them named Nathan said.

“Hoy, it looks like Flynn really is gone. He would be here with you if he hadn’t become a samurai.”, another one named Vincent said.

“Yes he would. Unfortunately, that’s not the case...we’ve been separated.”, I replied, surprised by the sympathetic look on the others face.

“I’m sorry to hear that. You two got along well. I’m sorry for giving you a hard time all these years. You know how it is, man. We can’t admit to being interested in anything beyond our station or…”, Vincent trailed off.

“You’ll be treated like me. I understand.”, I replied, never realizing others felt the way he did.

They were just too scared to speak up and believed like him they were the minority, but there were actually quite a few people here. Some shifted nervously, probably worried about being caught here like Nathan. I cracked open one of the books, passing one and a time onto the others. Out of the corner I could see an unfamiliar figure approaching in a bizarre black and red suit that covered her whole body. Her helmet had menacing red glass over the eyes.

“Hello, I am the black samurai. The one who brought literature to Mikado. I heard you were holding a sabbath here.”, the mysterious woman said.

“Yes, we are. Do you want to join us?”, I asked.

“Yes I would like that…”, the black samurai replied.

The woman gave off this eerie almost otherworldly chill. I’m not sure if it’s because I couldn’t see her face but something about her felt...inhuman. As I read more of the books everything became clearer to him.

The Luxurors were just using God as an excuse to control them. Like he thought it was their will not God’s. They abused their innocence to get their way. They were all bastards! To control them like this! To have them work while they reaped the rewards of their effort! It was their back breaking labor that turned society’s wheel! Why should they be subservient to them?!

From deep within me I could feel bile rise up within me as I read more. I need to destroy those rotten Luxurors and their whole system! All I’ve suffered till now is because of them! Even after all the pain they caused me by forcing me into this position they...they...took Flynn from me! Pain roared within me as if my insides were engulfed in flames. I heard a sickening crack as everything went black for a moment before I woke up feeling better than ever…!

One thing led to another and suddenly everyone’s bodies shifted and distorted taking on a more monstrous appearance. They had become demons and Kiccigiori burned. I heard screams from the still human villagers ringing throughout. I sniffed out the ones I wanted to kill the most for all they’ve put me through all these years. My parents…

I could smell smoke in the air as I walked through the village. My mother ran by me suddenly stopping as she saw me. She had short brown hair and brown eyes along with a brown dress and headdress.

“Where have you been? We have to leave! There’s demons everywhere!”, his mother scolded.

I turned to her as the whites of his eyes turned blood red and I smiled. Fear entered her eyes as she backed away from him.

“I-Issachar you’ve become a monster!”, she stuttered.

Hehehaha! I knew it! She believes I’m a monster! That’s right you all made me one!

“That’s right I’m a monster. You and the Luxurors made me one...now I’m going to kill you all.”, I replied, with a distorted voice smirking.

She let out a fearful gasp as with a mere swipe only using a fraction of my power she easily killed. Her body clattered to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut. Blood leaked from her fresh corpse. Humans are so fragile and pitiful. I had never noticed as a human, but now I see. I’ve become something much more!

Eventually I found him, my father stabbing one of the weaker demons with a sharp pitchfork. The man was bald and had brown eyes as well. He had a long beard and wore similar clothes with very short sleeves. He jumped as he heard someone approaching, holding out his pitchfork to strike.

“Issachar you idiot boy! What are you doing here? Run you moron! Even someone with a head as empty as yours should understand that!”, my father barked, making me snicker.

“I don’t take orders from you anymore old man! I’ve been waiting for this for so long…”, I said as I changed again to his shock.

“Y-You really were a demon this whole time?! That’s why you acted as you did?!”, my father questioned fearfully.

“No...your abuse made me a demon!”, I growled, swiping at his father as he shakily held up his weapon.

Strangely, he hesitated to stab him. What was the problem?! He never had trouble hurting him before. Due to his hesitation I easily ran him through and I felt unsatisfied. Maybe it was because there is one person left who wronged me?! Once he was dead I’ll feel satisfied! I sat in the spot I was before in the forest waiting.

“He will arrive soon. Your dear friend.”, the black samurai told him before leaving.

I wasn’t quite sure how she knew that, but like she said Flynn appeared with the prentice samurai from before along with a female one with short brown hair and brown eyes with a red scarf. Flynn looked relieved to see me alive and well not realizing what I’ve become. Still thinking I was a mere human when I’ve become something far greater! Greater than even a samurai!

“I’m so glad you’re alive Issachar! Do you know what happened to my parents? Are they around here somewhere? Arthur was saying something that implied something bad…”, Flynn said, looking down towards the end, worry evident in his voice.

“Flynn... You’re here.”, I said.

“He’s the one from that morning...”, the former Casualry samurai said.

“It’s quite a relief to see you unharmed. You must join the others at the forest entrance where it’s safe.”, the proper samurai said.

“So...you rushed to save your hometown in crisis. You’ve certainly risen to greatness, haven’t you? You who couldn’t even bait a fishhook. I, on the contrary, will forever be a Casualry in a remote village. Though it must be said, I’m not who I once was either. The black samurai’s books have opened my eyes.”, I questioned, earning a perplexed look from Flynn.

That’s right he rose while I fell! What made him different from me? Why did God choose him over me? Why? Why?

“What are you on about Issachar? You need to get out of here like Jonathan said.”, Flynn replied, still oblivious.

“Who is this ‘black samurai’...?”, the female samurai asked.

“Unfortunately, the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado belongs to the Luxuror toads. They establish practices convenient for themselves while starving us of any knowledge or learning...They use our innocence to drive us to hard work. But we don’t need the Luxurors no? After all, our backbreaking labor turns society’s wheel.”, I said, as Flynn looked more confused.

“There’s no time for this Issachar! We can talk later when it’s safe!”, Flynn replied, worriedly.

“You don’t understand Flynn! I’ve risen above humanity with this power which I’ll use to destroy those Luxuror toads!”, I replied.

“Risen above humanity…? Are you out of your mind? You don’t sound like yourself at all.”, Flynn replied.

“Sorry to interrupt this conversation...But I’m detecting a demon extremely close by. Watch out.”, a female voice said from Flynn’s gauntlet making his eyes widen.

A gasp came from Flynn as time seemed to slow down. He became notably pale after hearing those words. The look in Flynn’s eyes when he looked at him was different now. Fear was in his eyes. That’s right he should be scared! I’m way better than him now! Better than he’ll ever be as a weak human!

“No…”, Jonathan said in a low tone.

“I-Issachar?! What’s going on?”, Flynn questioned, scared and confused.

“I’m telling you this, Flynn, because you’re you. Now that I’ve seen the light…I’ve embraced the demonic.”, I said, making Flynn shake with a look of complete disbelief on his face.

“N-No!”, Flynn said, as if he wanted this to all be a dream.

I growled as the whites of my eyes turned blood red. The samurai around Flynn touched their gauntlets summoning various demons as he looked around frantically.

“Wait!”, Flynn said, looking very hesitant to fight me.

“Flynn...It was mortifying the way I was passed over to become a samurai...But the books the Black Samurai brought me were greatly cheering. It was such fun...for the first time in life. I was thoroughly absorbed in something... And then, bile rose within me. I realized that it was all the fault of the Luxurors that I turned out this way!”, I explained, my voice distorted from my transformation.

“It’s no use Flynn. Words won’t work, we need to fight him.”, the former Casualry samurai said.

“Master...you must fight.”, the voice in Flynn’s gauntlet said, drawing his attention as he shook.

Flynn reluctantly summoned his own demons: a muscular grey man with a spear and a snake tail. A woman with blue skin and white robes. And finally a dark skinned woman with strange black pottery on her head.

He shakily raised his blade to him.

“Stand down Issachar! I don’t want to fight you!”, Flynn said.

“Well that’s too bad Flynn...because I want to fight you!”, I said as I pounced on him.

Yes, I must prove I’m better than him by killing him! Flynn blocked my claws with his blade. I jumped back as various elements were hurled in my direction by the other samurai and demons. I narrowly dodged some of them with a few getting me good.

“What’s the matter, you Luxuror toads? Is this the best you can muster? Trample me underfoot like the refuse you believe me to be! Flynn...Don’t look away...Keep your eyes fixated on my pitiable state…!”, I questioned.

“Issachar, you idiot!”, Flynn said, with fire in his words the blood within me boiled from the intensity.

It felt so good! This fire! He never wanted it to stop! The thrill of this battle for their lives far surpassed their sparring matches.

I rushed at Flynn again, claws clashing with his blade. They clashed harder and faster each time.

“What made us so different? Why were you always better than me? My own parents liked you more than me!”, I growled

“That’s not true! I’m sure they love you dearly! That’s why they’re so harsh on you! And who said I was better than you?! You are better than me at tons of stuff!”, Flynn questioned.

“You were always better in everything that mattered! You were better at working the fields! Tending the sheep! Sparing! And you were loved while I was reviled! You were always just too damn perfect!”, I replied angrily.

My words seemed to very visually unnerve Flynn. They clashed against each other repeatedly till they were locked with one trying to overpower the other. As they fought he couldn’t help, but remember those matches.

“Flynn...tell me how you truly feel. Now that you are a samurai has your soul become tainted like the Luxurors? Or...do you still consider yourself to be a Casualry?”, I asked.

That’s right...you’ve become tainted too haven’t you? That’s why you're mindlessly following their orders like a dog!

“I’m a Casualry.”, Flynn replied, with the utmost seriousness as my eyes widened.

“Th-That can’t be! You’re merely saying that to assuage your conscience! But no...Then I...What have I done…?”, I questioned, before roaring in pain.

I start writing in pain. No! No! This must be a lie! The Luxurors were evil! They tainted everything they touched! Not even Flynn can be immune to that corruption?!

I was out on the back foot as more magic attacks nailed me. Flynn pushed me on the backfoot and I struggled to defend myself from his strikes. His sword cuts stung me. It hurt so much! Blood spilled from my open wounds.

“I-It hurts...The bleeding won’t stop...I’m begging you Flynn...end my pain...Won’t you put an end to me...with a samurai’s hands...your hands…?”, I begged which made Flynn shake again.

Flynn lowered his blade.

“Are you mad, Flynn? He’s not human anymore. He’s become a demon through and through...Your pretense of kindness is merely masking your unwillingness to face the truth. Wouldn’t putting him out of his misery be a far kinder act?”, the Casualry samurai questioned.

I growled in pain. Why won’t Flynn end me? He’s so indecisive! I should have been the samurai!

“Flynn...why do you prolong my suffering…!?”, I questioned, making a guilty look form on Flynn’s face.

I was puzzled as Flynn stopped attacking and held up his gauntlet.

“Please Issachar! Don’t ask me to do something like that...You can join me and redeem anything you might have done as a demon. Just please...D-Don’t make me kill you…”, Flynn begged.

“You can’t reason with him, Flynn!”, the Casualry samurai yelled at him again.

“Walter, show some compassion! I’m sure you would feel the same if it was your best friend! If this conflict can end without more lives needlessly lost we must try it!”, Jonathan yelled.

Flynn got to his knees, lowering his head and placing his sword on the ground. He held up his gauntlet to me. My eye twitched at the offer. He wanted to make him his subordinate? As if I would accept being subordinate to someone with a will as weak as his! His teammates stood close to Flynn with their weapons raised prepared to stop him if he attacked Flynn.

“I can heal you! Just agree to stop this madness, to not hurt anyone and I’ll do it!”, Flynn said.

I shook in anger as I saw pity in Flynn’s eyes once again.

“Shut up! I don’t always need your help! Or your pity! Just end me already!”, I begged.

No, I didn’t want to live with any of this. Knowing that so many of the others died because of him! Flynn’s parents even my own as much as I hated them! So, many people are dead because of my jealousy towards Flynn. The second I didn’t get what I wanted I jumped to becoming a monster! I was just as wicked as everyone thought I was!

Flynn shook at my words, but still stubbornly held his position.

“Join me.”, Flynn replied stubbornly.

“Master, I’m afraid you can’t recruit a demon of his-“, the female voice from his gauntlet said.

“Shut up! I don’t care! I’ll make it work! He’s my best friend!”, Flynn replied, taking them aback.

“Flynn, you're being foolish! You're only going to get yourself killed!”, Walter told him.

He’s so stupid! Who drops their sword in front of an enemy?! Much less a demon!?

“That’s right...we were friends. The very best of friends. But that was all in the past. You understand, yes, Flynn?”, I replied, denying him.

“No, I don’t! What happened, Issachar?! W-Why are you asking me to do this? Do you realize how cruel that is for you to ask me to kill you? After we’ve been friends since we were small. You want me to taint my hands with your blood? The blood of my best friend.”, Flynn questioned.

Maybe, asking Flynn to kill him was too much. He doesn’t understand any of this the full scope of what I’ve become or done. He was too gentle and kind to carry out such an act. I’ve become a monster so many people are dead because of me. But...carrying out such an act would undoubtedly taint Flynn’s soul. What am I to do then? End it myself? My hands shook. I wasn't sure I had it in me to end it myself...as much as I berated Flynn for his indecisiveness he couldn’t do it himself…

“He won’t listen, Flynn! If you don’t have what it takes I’ll kill him myself.”, Walter said.

“That has not been decided yet, Walter!”, Jonathan replied, angrily.

“You idiots stop fighting! Don’t you see you're making things worse?!”, the female samurai questioned, gesturing Flynn.

His head was hung low and his shoulders shook like a leaf. His bangs cast a shadow over his eyes. Unable to do anything while they were distracted...I ran. I couldn’t get Flynn to kill me and I couldn’t off myself so I ran deeper into the forest. I heard angered and distressed cries behind me as I ran.

“Come back here!!! Issachar, come back!”, Flynn yelled, running after me.

The other samurai followed him. In the distance I saw the Black Samurai who I ran to. Seeing she was obviously the Black Samurai the samurai drew their blades on her. I hid behind her as she talked to the samurai trying to convince them to her side.

“Don’t give me that knowledge nonsense! You turned people into demons…you…You did all of this!”, Flynn yelled, taking me aback especially at how low his voice got.

I have never heard Flynn sound so enraged before. It was like something inside him snapped. The pressure of everything really getting to him. Flynn readied his sword to attack the Black Samurai, his eyes full of rage. Seeing this anger made the Black Samurai chuckle eerily.

“You really want to kill me don’t you? Good...let that murderous intent in you grow and fester…”, the Black Samurai said, chilling me to the bone.

She set her hand on my shoulder making me jump.

“Get away from him you, witch!”, Flynn yelled with venom.

“If you want to fight me you're going to have to get stronger and come to the underground.”, the Black Samurai said.

Before I knew it, succubi flooded the area and they escaped leaving the samurai alone…The last thing I heard was Flynn yelling my name.

“Issachar!!!!!!!!!!”, Flynn yelled, in fury and distress.

To be continued…

#shin megami tensei #smt4 #smt iv #issachar smt #smt flynn #smt isabeau #jonathan smt #walter smt #hikaru #the black samurai #lilith #yuriko smt #toki smt #kaga smt #navarre smt #my crappy edit #my crappy writing

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