#totally did not forget the crown and rushed to add it after i already had this ready to post no siree i definitely didnt do that

[elmmni]

hey dream smp your king is gnc as heck

[cassava-49]

Death 2

Part 1/ Part 3/ Part 4/ Part 5/Part 6/ Part 7

"Seriously? You did that to him?" Marinette asked trying to control her laughter. "Adrien's very easy to fool. He lets his guard down every time he feels like he could trust the person," Felix answered as he grinned at the girl in front of him.

It has been five days since Marinette got into a coma. The doctors said that she'll recover and would be able to wake up in soon. However, Felix's condition was slowly deteriorating. There were times when his heart would stop beating for a second or two. This caused a massive pain to those who knew and love him. Given that he's already a month in.

Although, the two ghosts seem to not mind it at all. Given that they're both just chilling at the roof. For the past three days, the two of them had been entertaining each other with their life stories, given that they know both of them were not going to live anyway.

"Hey, I saw your classmates trying to visit you again," Felix said as he stands up and goes to the ledge. "Who stopped them this time?" Marinette asked as she continues to finish the flower crown. "Security," he replied casually as he watched his mother entering his room to visit him again. "Your parents talked with the head and asked to have your classmates stopped if they're just here to visit you," he added as he faintly feels his mother's hand in his. Distracted by his mother, Felix didn't notice that Marinette had placed a flower crown on his head. "There, now you look a lot less like a creepy ghost," Marinette smiled as she looked at him with the flowers on his head. He smiled at her and adjusts her flower crown. This made him slightly jealous of his cousin for scoring a sweet, innocent girl in his life.

"Getting cozy up there you two?" a voice called from the other side. "Claude, what kept you guys?" Marinette asked as she approached the new comers, leaving Felix behind. Claude, a supposedly 17-year-old boy, who had been in a comatose state for a year already because of a car accident right after an akuma attack. "Hey, why does Felix get a flower crown?" Claude pouted. Marinette giggled and went to her pile of floor crowns. Giving each one of them a crown.

"Oh darling, it's beautiful," Allegra gawked with pride as she lined the outline of each one of the petals. Allegra is a 15-year-old who just got in a coma yesterday because of diabetes. Practically she's the one who's most likely to go first, given that was close to death's door when she arrived. "How are you feeling Allegra?" Felix inquired trying to see if she's recovering smoothly. "I feel better. I'm starting to feel the nurses whenever they touch me," she replied to him with a smile.

"Does it look good on me?" Kenya asked as she adjusted it on her brown locks. "Yup, you're totally rocking them," Allan replied with a wink. Kenya is an eight-year-old who got into an accident a week ago. Allan, on the other hand, is a soul who is trapped inside the hospital. He had been there for two years now, and he could have been 17 by now if it weren't for a rogue bullet.

"Marinette, do you like how I did my flower crown?" Lindalee asked as she showcased her new flower crown which was now in her two hair ties that held her blonde hair. Lindalee is also an eight-year-old who fell off the staircase about a month ago. "It's beautiful Lindalee. I love it," Marinette praised as she stared at it with pleasure. "You're looking great in that crown," Allan teased Felix. "For your information, I look majestic. It is, after all, made by our future fashion designer Marinette," he replied, which causes everyone to laugh.

"I really hope that you'll wake up soon, Marinette," Kenya exclaimed. "I hope that all of you would wake up," Marinette replied as she crouched down to meet the girl's eyes. "And don't forget to go to my grave when you guys all make it out," Allan reminded to them all, who nod in agreement.

"Hey guys, another one is in the emergency room," Claude called as he looked at the nurses who were rushing a young boy who seemed to have broken his leg. "Ooh, this one's interesting," Lindalee exclaimed as she examines the damage. "Is he going to be okay?" Kenya wondered in worry. "Don't worry honey, he'll be alright. It seems to be fracture, nothing as serious as death," Allegra said as she takes the little girl's hand. "It's funny how our only entertainment here is the emergency room," Felix commentt as he stood beside Marinette, who giggled in agreement. "Well, it's not like we could get out of the hospital, can we now?" Marinette replied with a smirk.

"Why can't we leave?" Allegra complained, still wondering the reason for it. "You guys are bounded to your bodies, so leaving it may become a welcoming invitation for the lost souls like me," Allan explains. "Why don't you leave?" she asked. "Why should I? My friends are all here," Allan replied with a smile. "My family moved away so I knew that I should just let them move on. From what I heard my sister's wedding was a blast and her husband is a nice, rich guy, who was her classmate in high school, and my little brother will be taking medicine for college and has a lot of achievements so far. So basically I'm not needed there, too much. They still come here on my death day so that's enough for me," he answered.

"That's so sweet of you," Lindalee cooed as she hugged him. "I'm definitely visiting your grave, first thing I'll do once I'm out," she adds. "Guys, the old man in room 404 is dying. I can see Grim waving at me," Felix said and pointed as room. "Let's go. I want to talk with Grim," Allan said as he begins to jump from the roof to the room. "Alright! Let's go!" Claude responded as he took Allegra's hand, who was still unaware of the perks of being separated from your body. They took a running start and jumped as well, aiming for the room. "Let's go Kenya!" Lindalee said as she took the girl's hand. "Yeah!" the two girls exclaim as they jumped. Marinette laughed at their reactions, since it became a game for them to jump into the room of the person who's about to die and surprise them.

"Come on Marinette, maybe today's the day," Felix said after chuckling as he sticks out his hand for her to take. She smiled and laughed as she takes it. "Let's go!" she exclaimed as the two began running towards the edge jumping through the window and landing in front of the group.

"About time, I thought that the two of you would be staying up there and make out," Grim said as he rolled his sunken eyes at the two. "What gave you an idea that we'd be doing that?" Marinette asked oblivious to the fact that they were still holding hands. The reaper, with his bony phalanges, casually pointed at their hands leaving the two teens flustered at their cluelessness. He chuckled at the two as he looked back at the old man, who was having a heart attack.

The Grim Reaper is as old as time. He wore a vanta black cloak that's tattered at the hem. His whole body is but of bones, a symbol of man's future after death. He carries a scythe to help end a person's suffering when it's too much, however he cannot use it unless the Fates allow him. But, it can also be used to transport the person's soul into the other side. Some may say that he's merciless, cruel, unforgiving and a thief. However, if they get to know him more, he's actually very nice and entertaining. He enjoys the company of ghosts, however is very sad for not being able to transport them to the other side.

"Grim, how's the number of deaths doing?" Claude inquired to pass the time. "It's the same. One person per second, we're just getting stretched too thin. Welp, better than the black plague is what I'd say," he replied. "What about the 1909 Provence quake?" Lindalee asks. "Wow, even for a kid you're really well informed with this," Grim commentt. "But yeah we had to pull out a lot of us just to accommodate all those souls before dinner or some of them decide to go haunting. And believe me the paperwork on it is not fun," he complained. "Grim Reapers have paper work?" Felix queried. "Nah, I think the right question is, Grim Reapers eat?" Claude asked. "Yeah, I guess. More or less, we kind of do," Grim replied as he gestured.

"Hey, look," Kenya pointed as the man's soul was slowly slipping away, as the heart monitor went crazy. The doctors and nurses kept on trying to revive him, but to no avail his soul finally separated. His old wife's tears continue to fall as she reached out to him. The doctor and the nurses give their sullen condolences to the woman.

For the old man, he slowly caught up on what was happening. He tried to go to his wife to comfort her, only to have his body phase through. He then turned around to find the group looking at him.

"W-who are you?" he asked pointing at Grim. This made him smirk and strike a sinister pose. "Who do you think?" he asked in a terrifyingly low voice. This made his eyes widen in horror as he made his way to the children and slowly push Grim away from them. "Stay away from them. You can't just take away children's souls!" he shouted, horrified at the thought of the young children dying. "Why not?" Grim snorted and taunted in a threatening tone. This causesy chills to go down the old man's spine as he tried to protect them. "Don't worry kids, I'm not letting this monster take any of us," he declared.

However, he turns to them when he heard a laugh coming from behind. He scowled at Allan and said, "This is not funny boy, can't you see he's going to drag us all to hell!" This caused the rest of them to look at each other and start laughing as well, confusing the man. "Well, now I know why you guys enjoy doing this," Allegra exclaimed in between laughs. "By the way Grim, I think you made that scary pose a bit too horrifying. I thought I was going to die as well," Allan added. "Who-who, what are you kids?" the old man asks with a shaky voice.

"It's alright sir, we're not demons, and Grim is just here to help you cross over," Marinette calmly told the old man. "You don't have to afraid. He's here to help," Felix reassured. The old man's features slowly relax as he looked at them all. "So, what are you?" he asked in concern, mostly looking at the two kids with worry. "Just souls of comatose victims," Claude replied casually. "Except for Allan, he's dead," he added. "Speaking of which, so do I get to crossover today?" Allan asked with hope. Grim looked him with a pitying look and shook his head no. This made the young soul frown in disappointment as his friends have him a hug for comfort.

Grim looked at them with a desolate look as he takes the old man's hand with reassurance. "Don't worry, I talked with the Fates and they said your time is near, so no need to worry about it," he says to Allan. "Easy for you to say, your dead. Time of different in your realm," Allan replied. Grim gives him a smile as he says, "Lighten up kid, at least you get to enjoy your friends company more."

He turned to the old man and offered his hand saying, "Grab on, the Fates have been expecting you, as well as your son." The man's eyes widen as tears began to fall at the mention of his deceased son. He hesitantly lookef at the hand, not trusting Grim one bit. However, he turned to his right to find Kenya holding his hand with a smile on her face. "There's no need to fear anything sir. He'll guide in your journey to the afterlife as your angel guided you in your life. Your son is waiting on the other side for you, I'm such he'd want to see you," Kenya guaranteed.

The old man's features slowly relaxed as he turned to Grim and slowly made his way to him and took his hand. "Come along sir, we're taking you home," Grim said as he placed his scythe back on the ground, which in turn encased them into a sphere of water, from the river Lethe, to help them easily crossover, forgetting of all the hurt and pain. It was always enchanting to watch souls crossover from life to the demimonde. After the event, Marinette turned her attention back to her despaired friend. She scrunched her eyebrows and looked around.

"Where's Allan?" she asked, concerned for her friend's wellbeing. This caught their attention as they began noticing his absence. "Wasn't he with you?" Lindalee pointed at Claude. "He was. He was right next to me," he replied a boy confused as well. "Let's split up and find him," Kenya suggested. They nodded at each other as they separately began their search.

"Why are we supposed to look for him?" Allegra asked. "He's a lost soul left to wander the earth and had been denied entrance to the afterlife, it's usually heartbreaking, mostly on his part," Felix replied, clearing the air. "Lost souls are more powerful than you think. They have the ability to disrupt the living world. Unlike us who just go through things, they can haunt anything and anyone. On bad days, they're the worst to deal with, and Allan hates being denied entrance to the afterlife after the 100th time," Claude answered with a hint of fear. "How many times had he been denied, including now? curiously queried. "157," Felix responded with a sigh.

With that in mind they all went forth, searching every corner of the hospital. Though they hope that he's still in the hospital.

[lluvguts]

Cool Blue ; Chapter Ten

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waiting for stars to intertwine

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☽ a/n: totally forgot to add this to the masterpost. if you've read ch ten on ao3 already than ignore this update!! there's gonna be a wip coming yall's way soon too, so be on the look out for that!! <3 love you guys

☽ warnings: blood, self-harm mention, angst

☽ fic masterlist

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Luca's heart hammered in his chest, the pain resurfacing, and no matter how hard he hugged his sides, trying to squeeze the heat  from inside of him like slippery seaweed, nothing worked. He swam past the island, to cooler, harsher waters, to his home--his actual home. Not whatever he was feeling when he was around Alberto; whatever sort of home that was.

He told Alberto. A monster. That was what he was. He wasn't human, and Alberto made quick use of that information by shoving him off his knees in one swift motion, and leaving his dried-out beach towel as a reminder of it. He told him. So why did he...let it get the best of him?

His head swam, a thick heat-haze clouding his thoughts as he neared the mossy structure, blinking in the darkening waters. Luca touched the edge of the cave entrance, and winced hearing his mother's sharp intake of breath at his presence outside the house. She appeared, followed by Lorenzo, glaring down at him.

"Uh..." Luca mumbled, his words slurred. The throbbing in his gut hadn't dissipated yet, and neither had the phantom-like trembling between his shorts. "...Hey mom? Can - Can I come in?"

Daniela assessed her son before her, the shine, the sweat from Alberto's dark skin had crept beneath his scales and made a home there in the crevices, like old sand. He breathed, and the older boy's (the human's, he corrected himself) smell came rushing back with full force. Immediate. Filling his lungs sweetly but enough that he spluttered on the bubbles slipping under his tongue.

"I told you," Daniela said sternly to Luca's father. "When am I ever wrong?"

"What are you talking about?" Luca's mind began to wander without any direction, aggressively going back to the one time when he was younger and would often forget his curfew at sunset, and Daniela had joked (or had she?) she'd send Luca to The Deep with his uncle if he didn't come home at a reasonable hour. "I know it's late, I'm sorry! I just caught up in something, I swear it won't happen again Mom!"

Lorenzo frowned from behind his wife and placed his webbed hand on her shoulder, but she shrugged it off. It was an unspoken discussion translated between the tense water.

"No, 'Renzo! Don't start with this now! You smell it too!" Daniela growled, taking her son's arm and lifting him up in the water, sniffing his crown of blue fins. "So strong, it's a damned sailor's lighthouse beam!"

"And it's land monster too..." Lorenzo commented softly, scenting the air. Daniela's eyes widened in her anger and her grip on Luca tightened.

Her tone was dangerous, venom. "You went to the land monster town? Where there's humans? In your heat??"

"Mom, no--" Luca protested, her claws beginning to hurt from where they were grasping his shoulder.

"Don't interrupt!" She snapped back. Her tail thrashed in the water, making Luca tense even though his body was already on-edge. "You...You're gonna have to wait this out someplace else! We'll send for Ugo. I can't know that my baby was out there...doing things...with some filthy land monster girl."

"Boy."

Luca and Daniela turned to see Lorenzo, who flushed in embarrassment at getting noticed.

"What?"

"It's clearly a boy, Daniela," Lorenza swam closer and examined the fevered pink scales on Luca's waist and chest. "Smell it. It's...I don't know, hun. It's stronger, I guess. I know when there's a man on those land monster boats, and that," He pointed to Luca. "Is definitely a boy. Land monster. A boy-human, whatever."

Monster. A monster. That was what he was. Luca hovered above the long sea grass of their home, in awe. He could get all of that, just by smelling him?

Daniela's flashing yellow eyes brightened and she clamped her mouth shut, words coming out quick and held back. "That...That. Doesn't. Help."

She released Luca's arm and went to Lorenzo. Luca's tail curled protectively around his leg, trying to soothe himself.

"W-Wait! You can't just leave me out here!"

"We're not leaving you," Lorenzo replied simply. "But until your heat is over, you can't be around the other kids, Lu. It's better if you stay with your uncle Ugo until the Summer season is over."

They had gone. Luca watched, but didn't truly see his parents' figures fade into the darkness of the house, where they slept, and he remained awake.

"Stupid heat! I - I hate being like this!" Luca curled in on himself, claws raking his belly, long rutted cuts chasing his fingertips. The pain burned, deeper now with the thin streams of blood billowing up above his line of vision in watery red ribbons. He averted his wavering gaze, but the blood was everywhere, seeping into his very scales. Everything simmered, a constant feeling of dread and want that was unreachable, had no low point but only one shattering crescendo all throughout his body. Constantly. Searching for relief Luca  dug his claws into the pink scales deeper, stronger...

"Luca!"

"...Alberto?"

It was just a dream--or a memory. The clean tile walls of Alberto's bathroom came into focus, half-blurred from where he was lying, curled in a ball along the water in the bathtub. Alberto rose sleepily from the floor, a blanket wrapped around his shoulders. At some point in the night bath towels were placed in the water for Luca, and though he didn't remember when it had happened, sifting through the weird reoccurrences of the day before, Luca knew Alberto had done it. He looked around in the stagnant bath water, to his abdomen, and the flakes of dry blood that floated across the shiny film of the surface like autumn leaves. He shivered.

The memories were short, hardly a scratch on Luca's conscious mind. Alberto had carried him all this way, from the boat into the house. A tiny serving dish once had peaches on it, but only smelled faintly of them now. Giulia's voice (what he could recall of it, trying to think back made his head hurt, everything hurt, really. He hardly remembered much of Giulia, except for her wild eyes and equally brazen red hair) was tender behind the door the night before, whispering and giggling to Alberto. She left to sleep, and Alberto stayed. He really, truly stayed. And the pain. The pain, the stupid sea-folk problems he couldn't just wait out or buddy up for--

"Are you okay?" Alberto put one cautious hand on the lip of the bathtub, eyeing him. Luca shook his head, as if to chase away the feeling, then realizing it actually translated as a no, Alberto I am anything but okay right now, he nodded his head with more urgency. He shifted in the water, the bath towels huddled around his body made a sort of nest, Luca noticed, even if he had been the one to do this. A nest, making a home for a mate, for love...even out of instinct. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Why did he even--

"If you say so," Alberto yawned and fell back onto the pillow he'd brought from his room, and tugged the blanket closer around his chest.

"You..." Luca tried, scanning the faded paint on the bathroom walls, the chipped mirror, the little smudge in ink over the medicine cabinet. He avoided looking at the crumpled blue tarp cast over by the toilet. "You stayed here? With me?"

"W-Well," Alberto spluttered, laughing a bit, not glancing at him. "I kinda had to. Cause, you know, no one knows you're here. And - and, my Papa had work today. Well he doesn't, not really. It's too early in the day for anyone to be open after yesterday, but he likes to be in the town with his buddies sometimes, when everyone else is asleep."

I kinda had to. Like he was...liable. He was just a...what was the word Giulia used? A little pet.

"Oh. Right, okay," Luca said absently, tracing his claw on the edge of the tub. Monster. Stupid monster. Dumb heat. Animal. Stupid, horrible, disgusting--

There was an uncomfortable silence.

"Where's Giulia?" Luca asked finally, maybe a little too quickly.

"Oh! She's uh...probably still sleeping."

"I'm sorry, Alberto."

"Do you maybe want to, um...talk about it?"

Luca put his chin on the edge of the bathtub. "About what?"

"The uh...back at the island--" Alberto wrinkled his nose and stared at his knees.

"Not yet." He felt Alberto's green eyes on his scales, whispering, prodding ever so softly. But he just wasn't ready.

"Hey, it's okay," Alberto leaned down and put his head at eye-level with Luca. "It's a sea monster thing, right?"

Luca nodded, wiping his flushed face. He couldn't cry, sea-folk weren't designed for something like that, but the burning in his eyes sure felt like he was.

"We have things like that, too. For humans, I mean." Luca hated that Alberto used that word, it was...a barrier. Human. Alberto blushed and looked away. "It's pretty embarrassing, actually. But, we go through it too, you don't have to feel so alone...It's normal."

"But..." Luca mumbled, his hands clenched beneath the water. But what I did...It was gross. Why haven't you left yet? Why aren't you turning me in? I'd be worth a lot of money above the water, I'm sure. Alberto? Are you even listening? Take me away! Send me to The Deep--

"Don't be sad."

"I'm not." He muttered.

"We can do something else," Alberto said back, sitting up now to straighten out his blankets. "And if you want to talk about it later, then you can. Since you're...uh...sounding a bit more present now.

"Okay...What is it?"

He watched him rise off the floor and gather the blanket and pillow to his chest, and head for the door. Alberto looked back over his shoulder, smiling now.

"As long as you don't eat it...We can paint?"

[punkpoemprose]

December 11th- A Convenient Arrangment Part 3

Universe: Canonverse Arranged Marriage AU Rating:T (mentions of sex, negative self esteem, and a brief panic attack) Length: 4095 Words

A/N: I’m behind, as always. And now I have brain rot for this AU. Will I catch up? Will I manage to write for other projects I was going to work on this Advent? Stay tuned, because I don’t even know yet! [Part 1] [Part 2]

When she showed him to his room, he was astonished to find it next door to her own. It wasn’t the room he’d been rushed into previously to prepare for the ceremony but was rather much larger. There were large windows that overlooked the Fjord, and a door that adjoined Anna’s room.

“This used to be my governess’s room. I hope you don’t mind that. It’s not as large or fancy as my room, but adjoining rooms is apparently an expectation. They wanted us to move into another part of the castle but… they were my parents’ rooms and I… I didn’t think I could bear to have them touched. Not yet. It’s been a long time I suppose, but I don’t think I could ever move into their space.”

“This is…” he looked back at Anna, who was already retreating towards the door that connected her room to his.

He didn’t know what to say, but he did know that even with the short discussion they’d had after lunch, the talk about how he didn’t feel like he belonged, more talking was going to be needed sooner than later. The rest of their day had been spent in a quiet sort of camaraderie as she showed him around the rest of the castle, keeping her hand in his the whole time. They’d had dinner alone, her sister, the Queen, taking her meal in her study. They’d eaten in the private dining room rather than in the formal one, and while they toured the palace and while they dined, they hadn’t talked much, or at least they hadn’t talked about anything that mattered.

He knew the history of some of the paintings and suits of armor and tapestries that decorated the halls, and he at least had something of a sense of where some of the important rooms in the castle were. She’d asked him about the foods he liked and supplied some information about her tastes in return, but they spoke little about her breakdown in the garden, or the fact that he still planned to leave in the morning.

“I’m sure it’s probably not really done in your tastes,” she offered as she opened the door to step into her own room, “But we can take care of that if you’d like. I received a note during dinner from my sister. She assures me that we have a week to get you settled and for us to get acquainted before we must perform any duties as a couple. I have something I need to do quickly, but I believe Kai will be arriving for you shortly as he’s taken it upon himself to be your valet until you can choose one yourself.”

“My…?”

Almost nothing about the things she’d just said made any sense to him, and it must have been evident from the apologetic look she offered him before she stepped through the door and closed it behind her. She’d seemed in a hurry to get away from him for some reason, which confused him as it was in total contrast to the way she’d spent most of the day staying close to him.

He thought about crossing the room, opening the door, and asking her if something was wrong. It was a much more appealing idea than sitting alone in his room to try to piece together what she’d just said to him, and yet he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

She deserved her space. He wanted a bit of his own, and he had to respect hers if he wanted his.

***

Anna leaned against the door as soon as it was shut behind her and focused on her breathing. She’d been struggling to feel alright since lunch, to keep up a brave face and to be a good host. She didn’t want to leave him alone, even now, but she needed a moment to calm her thoughts as they swirled in her head.

He doesn’t want to stay here.

He has to stay here and he’s going to try his best.

He wants to be my friend.

I’m the reason he’s stuck here.

It feels strange to be the one closing the door.

She closed her eyes and quieted the voices, focusing instead on recalling the way it had felt for him to hold her when she’d fallen apart earlier. While she hadn’t enjoyed the feeling of going out of control, or the emotional strain that had made it almost impossible to breathe, but the contact had been soothing in a way she hadn’t experienced since she was young. It felt wrong to her than she had made him comfort her when he clearly was under plenty of stress of his own, but the sensation of his hands on her back, pulling her close, the way he’d given her all the time she needed to breath with her head rested on his shoulder, it was not something she thought she’d ever forget.

If she really focused on the memory, she could almost feel his hands on her again. She tried to combine it with the memory of the kiss they’d shared at their wedding, but it just made her flush and open her eyes.

He’s your husband.

And still, to think of that… it’s too much.

Intimacy was something she had never experienced beyond the familial, and even that was a faded memory on the edge of her consciousness. Touching and being touched was something she wanted desperately, and yet felt afraid of in a way. She wondered what the rejection would feel like if she asked for it, to be held, perhaps even to be kissed again. She wondered too, what it would feel like if he accepted because he wanted it too.

She pushed off the door and marched herself over to her armoire, tugging out one of her summer nightgowns and putting it on quickly. She tossed layers off as quickly as she could and then slipped into the comforting light silk of the sleepwear. She didn’t want the assistance of her lady’s maid and while she was fairly certain that Kristoff wouldn’t want that of a valet either, she’d only felt comfortable to speak for herself when she spoke to a servant in the hall on their way to his room after dinner. Besides, she had a feeling that speaking to Kai might help Kristoff in some way she couldn’t explain, maybe just by showing him that he had some legitimacy.

She heard the door open and shut on Kristoff’s room next door, and the muffled sounds of conversation as she crossed the room to her writing desk and sat. She did have something that she needed to do. It hadn’t just been an excuse to breathe.

She dropped the front of the secretary desk with a thud, and pulled a piece of paper from a stack on the upper shelf. She didn’t pull out the ink well until she sat, having on many occasions knocked it to the floor after opening it because she had knocked it while sitting.

There was a stain in one of the floorboards next to her foot as proof.

It was just one of the many charms of the space that made it hers, and as she retrieved the rest of her necessary tools and set to work, she wondered idly if Kristoff would stay long enough to make his mark on the adjoining space.

Or to add his mark to my room too.

***

“My lord, do you require assistance dressing?”

The man who had walked Anna down the aisle at their wedding appeared from the other side of the door, carrying with him a tray. The opening of the door had surprised him, even with Anna’s heads up that he was to be expecting someone.

Kai, she’d said. The head butler, and temporarily his… valet?

“I… no? Why would I?”

The man gave him a confused look for a moment, but then his eyes softened and his expression became almost amused, like he’d just recalled something funny.

“Ah, well, I suppose given you’re not dressed formally you wouldn’t need the assistance. My apologies sir.”

“You don’t have to call me…”

The older man gave him a shake of his head, and Kristoff thought for a moment that he was doing something wrong, until the man closed the door behind him.

“But I do. Everyone must. At least when ears might hear. My apologies for the interruption sir, but I believe we might have much to discuss.”

He lifted the tray a bit higher, then added, “Tea?”

Kristoff wasn’t quite sure of what to be expecting, and while he was still wary of being in the castle at all, let alone with an attendant, he supposed that Anna wouldn’t have left him alone with anyone she didn’t trust. She had been acting oddly, or at least what he thought might be odd given his little knowledge of her normal moods, and yet he had to trust that she at least wouldn’t intentionally put him into any situation he might suffer from.

He had to think so anyway.

“I don’t normally drink tea…”

The butler was quick, and Kristoff could tell that he had spent many years in the service of the crown by how tactfully and speedily he crossed the room with the tray. He set it upon a small table that Kristoff hadn’t even begun to register amongst the furniture and décor of the space. It was like someone had put two of his cabins together in the room, the high ceilings he’d been focused on when the man entered only adding to the effect.

“Akvavit?” he asked, pointing to a decanter also set amongst other bottles and kettles on the tray. There had to be at least three decanters and two pots along with what he presumed were the proper serving ware for each. He wouldn’t really know. He drank his coffee, water and spirits from the same mugs in his cabin.

He mulled over the idea of a stiff drink and found that it was agreeable. He wasn’t a drunkard by any stretch of the imagination, but he did enjoy an occasional drink. Most often glogg or beer, but he wouldn’t turn down the occasional offer of something stronger.

“Just a bit. I don’t like to drink very much, and I won’t drink alone.”

The man seemed pleased to have pegged him on the second try, and nodded.

“Of course, sir. If it’s not too bold of me to say, I’m glad to hear it.”

“It’s not. No one usually minds being bold around me, so you shouldn’t either.”

The man chuckled, a quiet sound as he poured two small glasses of the light-yellow liquid into crystal glasses and gestured to one of the two chairs set around the small table.

As Kristoff approached, he placed one glass before each seat and waited, standing straight-backed, until he sat to do so himself. It struck Kristoff as odd to be treated with such respect, or at least with such pomp.  When he’d have drinks with the other ice harvesters it was all bawdy jokes, loud conversation and shoulder bumping.

There was none of that here.

These walls have probably never heard something so loud.

The older man waited for him to sip his drink before he would do the same, but after the first sip, the tension in the air around them seemed to dissipate somewhat. The burn of the drink, the licorice and spice flavors of it, were strangely comforting as the silence between them went from strained to comfortable.

“You should know that I didn’t want this for the Princess,” he told Kristoff in a voice that portrayed a kind and conversational tone, “Lady Anna has been underfoot since she was small, and while my wife and I were never so blessed, I sometimes, and perhaps improperly, think of her like my own.”

It made sense, Kristoff thought. There had been real affection in his manner when he’d walked Anna down the aisle, even if Kristoff only registered it in hindsight.

He nodded, not offended by the man’s words like he could have been. His lack of anger seemed to be expected too by the man.

He’s spent many years reading people and it shows.

“The wants of a butler, or any one person were not accounted for in this decision of course. The kingdom needed a wedding, and so there was one. I have no doubt this was also not the first choice you would have made for your future either sir.”

“It wasn’t. But as you said, ‘the kingdom needed a wedding, and so there was one.’ I didn’t have much choice in the matter, or if I did, no one told me.”

He might have been angrier about it now, knowing that he was trapped in a marriage he’d never wanted, if it weren’t for the fact that he’d held Anna in his arms in the garden. If it weren’t for the fact that he thought that maybe, just maybe, they could be friends and that she was the sort of person that he wanted to support.

“But you’re taken with her, aren’t you?”

Were he a more superstitious man, he may have believed that his mind was being read.

“The Princess…” he began, but then changed his mind, quickly, taking another sip of his drink, before correcting, “I don’t think anyone could meet my wife and not be taken with her.”

It was true. Even behind whatever dark cloud he’d seen looming over her today, there was a radiance about her that captured him. He’d never pretended to be a people person, nor would he call himself one even now, but he thought that maybe he was an Anna person.

As uncomfortable a situation as they’d managed to find themselves in, he felt comfort in her presence, in the way she kept holding his hand and refused to let go. In the way she held her head a little higher when she was passing by staff with him at her side, as if she were trying to exude enough confidence for the both of them. He thought, quietly and to himself, that she was the sort of person he could maybe see himself falling in love with.

Kai seemed to make his mind up about something, taking a drink himself, and finishing the small glass he’d poured, setting it back onto the tray without making a sound. Even his movements when he wasn’t serving were elegant, and Kristoff, with his rough hands and heavy labor muscle memory, wondered how it was possible.

“You should know then that she has not had an easy life. It’s not my place to give you the details, but I will step out of place to ask you to be gentle with her. She’s been betrayed and cheated so many times in her young life that I often wonder how she continues to carry on, let alone to do so with such warmth and kindness. She’s strong, but she needs support now, and it’s the kind that I can’t provide. So my selfish request is that you allow me to prepare you for what comes ahead, if only to protect her from the scrutiny that your marriage will be under.”

Kristoff listened to the man speak and drained his own glass, focusing on the fire as it burnt its way across his tongue, down his throat, and warmed him more than the sun had earlier in the day.

It was a lot to take in.

He knew that Anna had been through something that pained her. Something other than their impromptu wedding that had sent her into the spiral he’d watched in the garden. He wasn’t certain that he could even ask her about it yet, but he did know that despite all logic and reason, he did want her to be okay.

She’s a stranger, and she’s my wife.

If learning more about his role as her husband, and by association his role as prince consort to the crown princess of Arendelle, would help her stay away from those dark places, it was worth it. He had already decided it, from the moment that Kai walked in, he’d known somewhere in the back of his mind exactly what the man was going to ask and exactly how he was going to answer.

“Tell me what I need to do.”

The man smiled and nodded.

“Well, to start, recognize the fact that when in public you’ll be going by your title my lord. They are finalizing the peerage, I believe you’re being given a courtesy title, but regardless you would be addressed as my lord and sir as the spouse of the Princess. Once you accept that, we can move on.”

He took a deep breath and with significantly more clanking, placed his empty glass onto the tray.

“I can do that.”

***

Anna wiped a smudge of ink between her thumb and forefinger, trying to clear away the dark stain on her skin before she knocked on the door into Kristoff’s room.

Kai had gone, she’d heard him leaving, and she might have worried that Kristoff had gone to sleep if it weren’t for the fact that she could see the warm light of candles from the gaps between the door and its casing.

“You can come in Anna,” he called from the other side of the door, “I can hear your pacing.”

She had been pacing, but she flushed at being caught. She almost wanted to tell him to mind his own business for a moment, just because of the embarrassment, but she decided against it.

She needed to talk to him, and also, it had made her giggle a bit to be found out just by footfalls alone.

“Sorry,” she said, pushing the door open, “I just made something for you and I thought it might make sense to give it to you sooner rather than later.”

She held in her hand, a folded piece of parchment that she’d just finished letting the ink dry on. It was not a conventional wedding gift she thought, but they’d never given one another wedding gifts, and she was telling herself that it was better a day late than never.

He was sitting alone at a table in the center of the room when she entered, but then stood to approach her shortly after she started to walk in. She noticed that he seemed happy to see her, that there was a smile on his face and a light in his eyes that was encouraging as they met in the middle of the room.

She proffered him the sheets of parchment in her hands, watching as he looked from her hands to her face and back again.

“I hope it’s not too bold of me to say, but I hope these aren’t divorce papers.”

She wasn’t sure why she smiled, or why he made her laugh by saying something so awful, but as he took them some of the mirth that had left her earlier in the day returned.

“No, I just thought… I threw a lot at you today and I thought I’d write some notes for you, and there’s a couple little maps I drew of how to get to important places. I thought about it and it’s probably hard to remember if you weren’t born here.”

He squinted at the pages, and for a heart stopping moment she had a thought that made heat rise to her cheeks.

Can he read?

Arendelle had universal public schooling. It was something that her father had put into place as a young king, younger than she was now, in order to ensure that his people were educated and could, thereby live better lives. He’d been a good king. Beloved by the people despite many years of absence in the public eye before his death.

It didn’t mean education was compulsory though. Parents could choose whether to send their children or not, and Anna knew precious little about Kristoff’s parents, other than that they’d adopted him when he was young. She also suspected that they lived in the mountains, and while there were some small rural schools, she had no way or knowing whether her husband was educated or not.

“Sorry,” he said, squinting at the paper before handing it back to her for a moment with a flush on his cheeks, his finger pointing to the words you can always ask me for help on the sheet of notes she’d written to him, “What does that one say? I’ve never been very good with reading cursive. I just print everything.”

She flushed, “Sorry, I printed most of it. I don’t have very legible cursive anyway, my tutor hated it. I’m the only one who can ever read it anyway. That was the last thing I wrote and I think I was a little distracted when I wrote it. It just says…”

He leaned over it again, sliding his hand over hers as he lifted the paper a bit higher so they could both see it as she read.

“You can always ask me for help.”

The hand covering hers was warm, sure, like it had been at their wedding. She let her eyes drift closed for a moment, as she took a calming breath and focused on the touch. She’d been holding his hand all day, having him holding hers, even if just for a moment, felt good.

“Well that was convenient, wasn’t it?”

She smiled, “Almost like I planned it.”

He looked at her, and she met his eye. There was a look there that questioned, but then she watched in real time as he realized that she was joking with him. The smile that followed was beaming.

“We need to talk. About a lot of things, but for right now, we need to talk about tomorrow.”

She couldn’t control the way her face fell. She’d spent so many years hiding how she felt, but around Kristoff, when they were alone, she already knew that she wouldn’t be able to hold her feelings back for very long. There was an openness about him and an attentiveness that made her unwilling to hold it back, particularly because she felt like he might be able to see through it anyway.

“Not about anything bad,” he offered quickly, “I just need to go and get some things from my home, talk to my family… I’ll be back.”

She let him take the papers again, dropping her hands to her side and accepting the fact that he was going to go no matter what she said.

“Would you mind if I came with you? I’d like to see your home. I’d like to meet your family.”

He looked thoughtful for a moment.

“It’s a long trip, but it’s alright if you’d like to come. I can’t promise it would be an exciting trip or anything, and I don’t know whether my family would want…”

He paused, seemingly looking for a better way to phrase what he was saying, but it was already enough for Anna. She’d taken him from his family. They probably didn’t want to meet her, or if they did, they probably wouldn’t like her.

“They’re very private. I’d have to ask them because it’s not my place to bring someone into their home. Even if I want them to meet that person very much.”

She felt some small comfort in that. He wasn’t the sort to lie, that much she already knew. He wouldn’t have said it if he hadn’t meant it.

“I’d just go to see them quickly; you could stay at my cabin while I went. The trip would take most of the day and there’s not much to see.”

“It would give us a lot of time to talk,” she said after a moment, “I haven’t left the castle grounds very much, so I think anything would be interesting to me.”

She hoped that she didn’t seem like she was pleading too much. He’d already said that she could come, but he’d qualified it with so many concerns for the trip length and her boredom that she couldn’t help but think that maybe he didn’t want her to come. He wasn’t a liar, but she also thought that he might just be being polite.

“If you say so,” he said with a shrug, “And can’t say I wouldn’t like your company.”

[thejudgingtrash]

Percy and Annabeth would 100% do their own version of the Halloween Heist every year. Annabeth obviously wins year one but as more people are pulled in the Title of Best Demigod/Satyr/Centaur gets passed around a lot.

You know what? Fuck it! Mini Fanfic time! Annabeth winning hmmm? I’m actually busy with not going crazy during quarantine and working on my feature length Percabeth fic (coming out in 2025, I guess). And it’s way too early (or late) for Halloween. But let’s do this! One shitty fic - hot and fresh out of the oven!

The Halloween Heist

The plan was ready and set. They all would do it one last time together before their paths separated and all of them drifted apart like gusts of wind. The heroes of Camp Half-Blood reunited one last time before college hit the last of them. They wanted to relive a normal holiday together, just this once.

Annabeth and Malcom set up different routes; A, B and C throughout New York City, Manhattan specifically. Those that could, joined. And would the little kids that were on the streets going to be respected? Definitely not. Of course, it would be a competition – who would turn out to be the one most successful? Whose group would be candy lords or ladies of the night? Who looked the most horrifying?

Everyone agreed that in the last part they all lost. None of them dressed in the true horrifying manner of the Halloween tradition. The Stolls’ were dressed as super heroes, Connor as Batman and Travis as The Flash. Katie joined them as Poison Ivy. Clarisse pulled off a solid Sarah Connor and her boyfriend Chris stood proudly next to her as The Terminator. The only person that looked slightly scary was Malcom. He was dressed as a zombie and his eye bags stemming from the latest project he had been working on through the entire night added to the nature of his character.

“Well!” Percy exclaimed and tapped the floor with a wooden trident. “Let the games begin!”

Annabeth rolled her eyes. He wore khaki shorts, flip flops and a Hawaii themed shirt and those stupid pink window blinds sunglasses from 2012. “That’s just purely lazy! You dress up like your father every time on Halloween.”

“And it works just fine every time,” he said after sharing a soft kiss. Not only that, his outfit was unironically super comfortable. His hair tickled her. The only good thing was that he had actually grown out a beard which hugged his handsome face very tightly.

Percy raised a black eyebrow. “What are you going for?”

Annabeth looked like she had raided Paul’s wardrobe. Light dress shirt, ugly green sweater vest, tight black jeans and goddamn Birkenstock shoes. Her blonde curls were gelled back and put into a tight bun. The dark frames of her glasses oozed sexy librarian but the expression on her face only said shhh!

“Sexy Chiron with a third eye and without the horse ass end?” Chris and Malcom grinned, Katie snorted whereas the Stolls’ and Clarisse shared a loud cackle. Annabeth looked like she wanted to murder him.

“No! I’m Cecil from Welcome to Night Vale,” she corrected him.

“Cecil?”

“You’ve got to be kidding me. We listened to the first 100 episodes together! The lore, the intricacy, the little pieces you have to put together,” Annabeth looked very adorable whenever she was nerding and ranting about her passions.

“Well, The Weather is quite nice.” That was all Percy had to add.

“That means we have to re-listen everything!” Annabeth decided. Percy simply nodded. Yes, they would re-listen.

“We?” Katie raised a red dyed eyebrow. “Don’t tell me that you’ve become a we couple.”

“Of course not!” both denied. “And don’t be so sarcastic, Percy! We will re-listen!”

Clatter. The group turned to their right. Grover appeared wearing a flower crown on top of his horns, a torn green dress shirt… and nothing further down below. “That’s just unfair!” The Stolls’ yelled and pointed at his dark hairy goat legs.

“No, this is a way of nature saying, Grover you got this. Also be nice! Me taking off time as a Lord of the Wild should be considered a blessing,” the black satyr grinned.

The brothers huffed and Malcom rolled his eyes. “Where’s Juniper?” Annabeth asked.

“Couldn’t make it unfortunately,” the Grover pouted.

“And Will and Nico? Will promised us 90s Justin Timberlake with a puka shell necklace, meanest frosted tips and Donald Trump tan!”

The satyr shrugged. “They have decided that re-watching Corpse Bride for the millionth time was more important. Anyway. Annabeth, you got the straws?”

“Of course, I do. We have three groups á three people. Red is A, blue is B and green is C. Biggest candy stash wins, got it? Ultimate bragging rights, the last prank idea on Chiron and blue cupcakes from Sally. Let the Fates decide!”

“You sure about that?”

“Percy, shut up! Let’s just do this.”

The participants nodded. Team A consisted of Percy, Clarisse and Travis. Team B were Annabeth, Chris and Malcom. Lastly Team C was made up by Grover, Katie and Connor.

“Two Athena kids in one group is just unfair,” Clarisse huffed.

“Deal with it,” Malcom grinned. “You know the routes? Let’s begin! You’ve got three hours!”

*****

Percy rang the bell. A middle-aged woman with curlers opened the door. “Yes?” she mustered him.

Percy cleared his throat. “Lord Poseidon demands all of your candy!” he said with a deep booming voice.

The woman stared at him weirdly. “Poseidon as in the god of sea? Since when does a Greek god look like homeless person wandering around the beach?”

“Uh…Since always?”

“Alright, fair enough.”

*****

A young man opened the door. Annabeth was greeted by the smell of grease, Cheetos and bleach. The meanest hotbox fumes smacked her across the face. She coughed and felt her eyes tearing up. She wanted to experience the rush of winning, not feel that kind of high just yet.

“That your Halloween costume?” She simply nodded.

“Fucking sick, dude! You look like my college professor!”

“Well in that case hand your assignments in or give me all of your candy,” she grinned.

*****

A young mother and her daughter opened up for Grover.

“Wow! I want that costume mommy!” wailed the girl.

“Ellie, you’re already a witch. But how did you create those legs? They look so real?”

“They came off pretty naturally,” Grover shrugged.

“And the horns?!”

“I can’t spill all of my secrets, I’m afraid. I am but a humble servant of nature asking you to give something sweet back to us.”

The woman giggled. “Oh, and he’s a poet as well!”

“Uhh no?” denied Grover.

“Here take some of our candy!”

“Okay! Nature won’t forget your service, ma’am! And neither yours, Ellie!”

*****

The nine gathered at the Jackson’s hours later. Each team piled their candy stock. It was a clear-cut victory. Annabeth and Malcom looked proudly at their stash.

“We did it!” Katie yelled behind them. Team Grover won, they nearly covered the entire floor with chocolates and packs of sour patches. Satyr bonus probably. The Athena siblings lost their victorious smiles immediately.

“Looks like Team Athina kids lost!” Grover exclaimed with a smirk.

Annabeth looked like she’d all of a sudden love to possess Chiron’s horse ass to give him a massive horse kick. “Wait! Do we count the total mass or the individual candy because in that sense we would have won?” she questioned.

“Everyone saying that Annabeth would never cheat can now clearly tell that that was a fucking lie!” Percy shook his head.

“Well, work smart not hard,” Annabeth stuck her tongue out.

“There can always be a next time if we coordinate! And we will crush you!”

The End

[doeeyeddarlingxo]

Myriad Misadventures - Chapter 56

The Myriad Misadventures of a Midgardian Queen-In-Training - Chapter 56

AO3 | Previous | Next

Word Count: 1661

Pairing: Loki/Reader

Rating: T

A/N: i'm posting this from the train back to school (sad reaccs only), so i'm going to keep this brief so that i can post before my connection cuts out. but i love you all! it is snowing outside, but the reactions to this story have kept my heart so warm! keep the predictions coming, and expect the daily chapter update to continue from now until (eep!) the END of the story! ahhhhh

Taglist (brand new, so lmk if you want to be added!): @lokis-girl-in-mischief

Myriad Misadventures - Chapter 56

You hadn’t realized they’d filmed the kiss.

Wedged in between Irina and Rhea on the couch, with Rosa just a pillow’s breadth away from you, you realized that none of the others have ever been portrayed as having any kind of physical relationship with Loki. Irina and Rhea tastefully avoided such questions, while Rosa...she said things, but in a joking manner. Not to be taken seriously. You, they’d left alone - it seemed like you weren’t the only one who’d thought you’d had no shot. But the day after the segment airs, you’re still wondering:

Were you the first one he kissed at all? Or just the first he kissed on camera?

********************************************

You get almost a full day’s peace and quiet before the storm begins.

"You just can't get enough, can you?"

You recognize the voice, but don't bother looking up. "I don’t know what you’re talking about, Rosa."

A soft green gel-tipped nail appears in your peripheral vision, clutching a sheaf of shiny, colorful papers. "Right. So you totally haven’t seen these.”

 “What?” You grab the magazines from her. “Where did you get these?”

She snorts, flopping onto the chair across from you. “We all have our little secrets, I guess.”

You flip through the top one eagerly. There they are - the results of the most recent poll. 

WHO DO YOU THINK WILL WIN THE CROWN?

Lady Rhea - 39%

You laugh. Is this really what Rosa’s so upset about? “Are you surprised? You know they love her.” She rolls her eyes in response, and you keep reading.

Lady (Y/N) - 38%

“What?” A few pages later - your page - there are more comments, scattered around a screenshot of Loki cradling your face in his hand. You read:

~ Lady (Y/N) is on FIRE!

~ I squealed out loud watching that kiss - soooo romantic! I honestly wasn't expecting him to kiss (Y/N) first, but now I hope he doesn't kiss anyone else! I can't imagine any of the other girls connecting with him like that.

Of course, not everyone’s opinions of you are quite so positive.

~ Everyone's talking about Lady (Y/N)'s "chemistry" with King Loki. One has to wonder though, is she even old enough to have even completed a college chemistry course? Her level of maturity would suggest not. She's nineteen, people! 

But your supporters always come through, defending you with a vengeance.

~ I see people mentioning age. Clearly, she’s more than mature enough to be able to speak up for herself. 

~ I love how Lady (Y/N) can call him on his BS and he’ll take it because he knows she’s right. Come on, I can’t be the only one who thinks she’d be a great queen! 

~ Lady (Y/N), though she does have her moments, is wise beyond her years. Wishing her the best in and out of the palace.

“You could have at least told us before we saw it on TV.” 

You wrinkle your brow. “Since when have you given me any reasons to trust you?”

“I’m kind of with Rosa on this one.” It’s Irina, closing the door quietly behind her. “This feels...wrong. We shouldn’t be keeping secrets from each other. It’s like sabotage.”

“Thank you!”

“It’s her business, though.” You look up with a start—you’d almost forgotten Rhea was in the room. She walks over, settling on the couch besides Irina.

“Thanks.” You start fidgeting with your hands. “I didn’t realize they’d gotten it on camera, anyway.” Rhea raises an eyebrow. “What?” Suddenly, you feel under as though you’re under siege. “I swear to God, I didn’t!”

“Right.” Rosa sounds thoroughly unconvinced. “Well, don’t go thinking you’re so special or anything.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I mean that you aren’t the only one in it to win it.” She turns away with a “hmph” and a flip of her hair.

“Win what? Him? Or the crown?”

She glares at you. “Alright, Little Miss Holier-Than-Thou. What about you? Do you really think you’re the only girl he talks to? The only one he sees? Kisses? You’re a game to him. A stupid little girl that he can manipulate and play around with while he figures out who he’s really going to keep around.”

You shrug. “Say what you like, Rosa. All I know is that I didn’t see you up on that screen last night.”

She gapes at that, mouth hanging open like a codfish. “You - you know, I am so sick of your act.”

“My act?”

“Yes, your act! You pretend to be so innocent, sweet little (Y/N), ‘tee hee, look at me, I’m dumb enough to flip out on the king and lucky enough to get away with it!’ I’m telling you, he doesn’t care about you.”

“You don’t know that.”

“You don’t know anything.”

“You haven’t seen - ”

“Girls,” Rhea interrupts, calm and regal as always. You and Rosa both shut up immediately. “Half of the girls we started out with aren’t here. The fact that we are makes the four of us special to begin with.” She keeps her voice low, though it carries in the quiet of the room. “Maybe we should stop fighting each other.”

Irina snorts. “Right, like that’s happening.”

“No, I’m serious. And here’s how we’ll start: we’ll go around and talk about our encounters with His Majesty.”

You and Rosa shoot each other one more glare before nodding. You feel the sting of tears as you sit back down (you hadn’t even noticed you’d stood up to begin with) - you hate being reprimanded. And some of what Rosa said hit home - what if he really doesn’t care? What if - you try to block out the image of him and Rosa, his fingers tangled in her hair, her legs around his waist as he kisses her against a wall. His lips on Irina’s, his hands circling her waist as he helps her dismount from one of her precious horses. Rhea doesn’t worry you, only because she seems far too conservative to allow such a thing to occur.

“What we speak of doesn’t have to be romantic or sexual in nature,” Rhea adds. “Anything. If you went on a date that wasn’t public knowledge. If you passed and spoke to him on the way to the stables. Things like that.”

“Oh. How far back is this going? I barely remember what I wore yesterday, forget what I said three years ago.”

Rosa rolls her eyes. “God, do you have to overthink everything?” 

Irina stares daggers at her. “Okay, then. Show us how it’s done. I’m sure you’ve got plenty of stories to tell.”

“Fine.” She takes a deep breath, and your heart sinks...until she releases it in a sigh. “I can’t even think of a good lie. Nothing, okay? Absolutely nothing happened.” 

You’re surprised to hear tears in her voice. 

After an uncomfortable moment, she speaks again. “All right, I’ve humiliated myself enough. You go, Irina.” 

Irina shrugs, shaking her head. Then she hesitates, opening her mouth as though to confess something. “Actually, I’m going home today.”

“What?”

She nods. “I wanted to tell you all. In person.” Another shrug. “But nothing happened before then, anyway.

None of you know what to say.

Until, like ripping a Band-Aid off a wound, Rosa switches her attention back to you. “How the hell did you manage it, then?”

“Me?”

She rolls her eyes again. “Well, apparently you’re the only one who’s kissed him.”

“I don’t know. What, do you want a rundown on everything he’s said to me since...I don’t know, however long?” All three of them nod. “Okay. We danced at the first ball we ever went to, the masquerade. Remember?” They nod. “We always ran into each other in the hallway after that. I don’t know. Oh, and then...well, there was the attack on the castle.” The quiet turns somber as you remember that day. The panic. Lexi. “Anyway. We ended up hiding out together. We’ve been...friends, I guess, ever since.”

“Friends?” Irina repeats incredulously. 

“And, to make a long story short, he kissed me after dinner last Saturday. And I might have yelled at him?”

“You yelled at him for kissing you?”

“...I mean, it was a little more complicated than that. Anyway, the next day he, um, invited me to dinner, and we argued again about that. During dinner he made a comment that struck a nerve. Like, on purpose, though. So I kind of went off on him for that.” You shrug. “But, um, you guys already know that part.”

“Wait, wait, wait.” Rosa holds up a hand to stop you. “So he kissed you twice? I can’t...You didn’t even want to be here!”

“I don’t exactly get to leave whenever I want!”

“Aw, (Y/N) doesn’t get her way for once. Boo freaking hoo.”

“I had a life before this!” Tears are pooling in the corners of your eyes, but the anger you feel is eating you up from the inside out and you can’t hold it in anymore. “My friends are out there worrying about final exams and spring fling plans, and I’m here. I guess I shouldn’t be complaining, though - I get to deal with court etiquette and alien attacks and everything else that’s been thrown at us. So yes, Rosa, I miss my life, and if I could have left three years ago, I would have.” You need to pause for a few moments just to compose yourself. “But that’s changed. I’m not leaving. You’re not going to just get rid of me.”

“Why?” She sticks out her lower lip in an exaggerated pout. “Because you love him?”

“Yes.” You look her dead in the eyes. “Is that what you wanted to hear?” 

For once, she doesn’t respond.

You pick up your book. “I’ll see you ladies tonight at dinner.” As you begin walking out, you hear her call out after you, but you ignore it, the blood still rushing in your ears.

[nobeliumoxygenoxygen]

Seromina || Firsts

For Sero Ship Week Day 3: Firsts at @seroshipweek​

SUMMARY: Ashido tends to overshare her personal life on social media so it’s only fitting that she shares her favourite moments on it too, right?

But this time, it’s only for one pair of eyes.

GENRE: sero hanta x ashido mina, social media au (I think?)

TEXT from your queen 💕

follow @iloveutapeboi on insta its private but dw youll be accepted start from the first post!!!!!!!!

POSTS

1

[Image: Candid of Sero taken from the side; slightly blurry, low angle as if the photographer was trying to be discreet as they took it. He’s wearing an orange hoodie with black stripes. He’s grinning at someone in front of him and he holds a bitten meat pie in one hand. In the background, there are barely visible bowling lanes.]

Caption: the first time i thought to myself “maybe seros actually cute and i actually like him in a like like way” if that make sense lol. maybe there were other times but this was the earliest memory i could think of. this was after that laser tag game we all played and you did your whole dramatic self sacrificing for me (lol quickest way to my heart - take a laser tag shot for me). 

2

[Image: Image of the city taken from inside a bus. Half the image is of the seats of the bus whilst the other half are buildings of the city. A few people are in the shot, but they’re faces are unrecognisable.]

Caption: first time I realised I was in loveeee (i love youu) how cheesy amirite. its a bus because i realised it when we were going back to ua together after a field trip and idk i just had this light bulb moment ok ugh this is too cheesy were done here ily but im cringing too hard at the cheesinesssss (two posts in and im already dying but im pushing thru!!!!)

3

[Image: 2 puppies being held by someone who is clearly Sero by the look of the arms and his orange black striped hoodie. One puppy in each arm; a white pit bull and a brown one.]

Caption: our not-so-official first date?? idk if you’d call it that but like......we were alone together so idk??? u know i was going to actually confess today but the dogs were so cute they distracted me!! so i forgot lol!!! (theyre only sliiiiiightly cuter than u dw dw!!! 🤣)

4

[Image: Sero’s silhouette inside a movie theater. He’s facing the camera but it’s too dark to see much other than the shadows of his face and the glint of his white teeth in his grin. In the far left of the photo, the Lego Movie is playing.]

Caption: our official first date (tho i guess it was kinda rushed??? considering i literally told u i liked u like an hour earlier lmao but i wouldnt have it any other way ❤️)

5

[Image: Ashido’s room, taken from the doorway. The bed is unmade; the curtains are drawn back to let the sunlight in; the desk is a mess of school books and loose sheets. Ashido’s arms are outstretched in front of the camera; she’s forming a heart with her hands.]

Caption: place we had our first kiss!!! (tho we failed like five times and kept laughing!! the movies are wayyyy too serious - they make it seem like ur not allowed to laugh!! our kisses are so much better😘)

6

[Image: Pathway leading up into a park where cherry blossom trees frame the edges. There are a few passerbys and one dog, legs a blur, running through the image.]

Caption: place i asked you to be my boyfriend because SOMEONE STILL had this WEIRD idea that?? i??? didnt?? like?? them? EVEN AFTER?? LIKE FIVE DATES?? AND FIVE KISSES???

7

[Image: UA Heights Alliance common room. Looking through the windows, it’s night and there’s no one in there but there’s food wrappers strewn across the coffee table and the floor.]

Caption: place you said your first i love you (ok i suppose i shouldnt be salty about the boyfriend asking thing because first ilys are such a milestone!!!! ps. im still sorry i panicked when u said it lmao i love how we laugh about it but i know from sources coughbakuyellingthat1tapeboiwasstressingashell that you almost cried ilyyyyyyyy ❤️❤️❤️)

8

[Image: Close up focus of Sero’s lit up face. He’s giving a close-eyed smile to someone slightly to the left of the camera. Just making it in the frame is a slice of bright blond hair. The background is blurred but it is clearly of a busy beach; the sky is blue and there’s not a cloud in sight. There are two figures, one shirtless with red hair and one wearing a wetsuit cut off at the lower thigh with what might be black or dark purple hair in the water in the far background.]

Caption: when i said my first i love you (i love you toos and i love yous on phones dont count!!! and also u are sooooooo cute in this photo!!! not that ur not always cute ofc 😋)

9

[Image: Text screenshot. (Sent) Ashido: IM SO MAD AT U SERO HANTA ANSWER MEEE (Receiving) Sero: NEVER U TRAITOR (Sent) Ashido: UR THE TRAITOR!!!!]

Caption: first fight :( one of the saddest chapters of my life i hope we never do that again ❤️

10

[Image: Rice with natto on top, chopsticks on the side. The dish is on top of pink, patterned napkins.]

Caption: first (of many!!!!!!!!) anniversaries (see??? taking pics of food is VERY important!! and u dared to make fun of my ‘attempts at being aesthetics’!!)

11

[Image 1: Necklace in shape of a crown with engraving of words “Alien Queen”.  Image 2: Necklace is flipped over with engraving of words “Ashido Mina”.]

Caption: first (of many!!!!!!!!!!) anniversary presents (I LOVE IT SO MUCH WHY R U SO NICEEEEEEE ITS SO CUTE IM WEARING IT EVERYDAY ILY)

12

[Image: From the side, Sero smiling softly, looking up at a beautiful orange sky to match his brighter orange hoodie. His eyes are wide but he’s happy. Behind are a few trees.]

Caption: I love youuuuuuuuuuuu sero hantaaaaaaaaaa and dont you forget it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *spam of heart emojis* (also u r seriously wearing the same hoodie in like five of these pics w h y)

TEXT to your queen 💕

im actualy cryin can i call u

TEXT from your queen 💕

oof  [Image: google search bar “how to comfort crying boyfriend”.] ofc u can!!

CALL TRANSCRIPT:

Sero: How long have you been planning this? I love you so muchhhhhhhh. I’m crying, can you hear my tears? How did you do it? Did you go to every place or were you planning this from the beginning?

Ashido: *laughter* You can’t hear tears dummy. And you’re not meant to cry! Its meant to be a happy thing! *more laughter*

Sero: ...Glad to know your happy about my pain. ...Its amazing I have literally no words Ashido. I love it-I love you and I love us. Thank you so much.

Ashido: Awww don’t make me blush. It was nothing!

Sero: What do you mean NOTHING? Don’t insult yourself Ashido Mina this is...I don’t know-EVERYTHING!

Ashido: Okay that’s true. I’m awesome.

Sero: I’m going to treasure this forever. You’ll never delete this account right?

Ashido: *giggling* Course not!

Sero: It’s too amazing. Seriously, and I gave you the most cliche relationship present ever.

Ashido: Eesh don’t worry! I love my present! Besides it was the final piece for the account!

Sero: If you say so. You know, I don’t think a meme war counts as a fight...in a relationship...

Ashido: Of course it does! I was soooo angry at you. How could you side with Kirishima?! It was so frustrsting! You wouldn’t BELIEVE!

Sero: ...Trust me I believe. *muffled* Especially after you taped me to the ceiling.

Ashido: What was that?

Sero: Nothing! Also how’d you take the pic of your room with your arms in front of you? Is it...*whispers loudly* sorcery?

Ashido: *giggling* You got it. I have a second quirk that I-...I kept secret. Yup. But I’m telling you because you’re my boyfriend and all.

Sero: And I will totally believe you, because you’re my girlfriend, and all. Hey, I know you need your beauty sleep but can I come over--

Ashido: Yes!

Sero: --tomorrow--wait, what?

Ashido: Oh. Well-

Sero: *muffled snort* Someone’s desperate.

Ashido: *huff* Shhh! You can come over anytime!

Sero: Would you really not mind if I came over now? At like...*shuffling* eleven?

Ashido: Is that even a question? If you come over now, I can add it to the journal!

Sero: The journal?

Ashido: The account Sero!

Sero: Okay...Why? It’s not the first time I’ve been to your house. Firsts was the theme right?

Ashido: Yep! And I can make it ‘First night spent together’ wink wink.

Sero: …*muffled laugh* Whatever floats your boat.

Ashido: But you’re getting a cab here right? You better not walk out this late at night!

Sero: I mean, we’re both training to be heroes if we can’t walk out at night then what could we do--

Ashido: Sero you butt!

Sero: --but yes I’m getting a cab.

Ashido: Good! You better stay on the phone the whole time too!

Sero: Of course. I love you Ashido Mina.

Ashido: And I love you Sero Hanta! ...Wait are you still wearing that orange hoodie?

Sero: ...*distant mumbles* Why do you hate my beloved hoodie so much?

Ashido: *equally distant mumbles* If you wear it one more time the photos will think you have one hoodie.

Sero: What would you say if I said yes?

Ashido: I’d say we’ve got our next date planned and you can guess what it is.

Sero: ...I mean, I wouldn’t say no to any time with you anyway?

Ashido: Pfft, stop being cute. Just-alright, whatever. Tomorrow? At whatever time we wake up I guess?

Sero: It’s a date.

A/N: completely forgot that they live in the same building so pretend it’s holidays or something 🤷 buuuut i hope you enjoyed this was harder than expected so im rlly sorry if they seem ooc 😳!! Thanks for reading!!

[cathygeha]

Have you discovered THE THALANIAN DYNASTY series by NYT Bestselling Author Katee Robert?

In FOREVER THEIRS an exiled prince, his bodyguard and the woman they can’t seem to leave alone, must return home to clear his mother’s name and reclaim his crown. Fans of Laura Kaye’s THEIR’S TO TAKE or Sierra Simone’s AMERICAN QUEEN will devour this cinderella-esque ménage.

Start reading the series for FREE! Download THEIRS FOR THE NIGHT, the novella that introduces you to Theo, Galen, and Meg for FREE at:

Amazon: https://amzn.to/2M3w3A9

B&N: http://bit.ly/2Jl0k7Q

Kobo: http://bit.ly/2JxT2Bg

iTunes: https://apple.co/2LtEK1L

 Add THEIRS FOR THE NIGHT and FOREVER THEIRS to your TBR pile on Goodreads then keep reading to get a sneak peek excerpt and your chance enter the giveaway to win one of TEN (10) eBook copies of FOREVER THEIRS!

  Title: Forever Theirs

Author: Katee Robert

Genre: Contemporary Romance/Thriller/Menage

Release Date: September 10, 2018

Publisher: Indie

Series: The Thalanian Dynasty

Page Count: 73K

Format: Digital

ASIN: B07DP7HT14

 Synopsis:

 Meg Sanders enjoyed her wild night with a prince and his bodyguard—but now she’s moving on. She has enough problems without borrowing the kind of trouble Theo brings just by being who he is. But no matter how determined she is to leave that night a fond memory, she hasn’t seen the last of Theo and Galen… Galen Mikos's life boils down to one goal. Keep Theo alive. But as long as Theo draws breath, he’s a threat to the powers that have taken over Thalania—and anyone they associate with runs the risk of becoming a target, too. Galen will never forgive himself if they let their selfish desire for Meg puts her in danger. But it might already be too late… Theo Fitzcharles might be an exiled prince, but he doesn’t intend to stay that way. He’s only concerned with one thing—clearing his mother’s name and reinstating himself as Crown Prince of Thalania. There’s no room in that plan for distraction, especially when it makes him forget himself the way Meg does. But after spending one perfect night with her and his best friend, Theo has no intention of leaving her alone.  Even if it damns all three of them in the process.

 Available at:  

 Amazon: https://amzn.to/2t3usho

B&N: http://bit.ly/2yiyKr9

Kobo: http://bit.ly/2JQap0k

iTunes: https://apple.co/2JBPRtb

  Enter to win one of TEN (10) eBook copies of FOREVER THEIRS!

Direct link: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/b050ef29564/?

 Forever Theirs Excerpt

Copyright © 2018 Katee Robert

 Galen stepped out of the cab and pulled Meg after him. At this time of night, there was still plenty of street traffic—plenty of opportunity for his father’s men to blend in until they were close enough to attack.

They already had attacked.

He hustled her off the sidewalk, half carrying her in his rush. She cursed at him, but she could be pissed. At least she was still alive. He didn’t believe for a second that Dorian would order her killed, not when he would see her as a tool just waiting to be used. But Galen’s father would attempt to take her, and that Galen couldn’t allow.

He didn’t relax until the elevator doors opened into their apartment and he caught sight of Theo pacing back and forth through the living room. He’s okay. Meg’s okay. They’re safe.

Except they weren’t.

Shit had hit the fan in the most fucked up way possible, and there was no cleaning up this mess.

Galen released Meg’s arm and ensured the security system was booted up and the door was locked. “Trouble?”

“Not here.” Theo rounded the couch and stopped just out of reach. He devoured Meg with his gaze, no doubt taking in her tangled hair, her torn dress, and the way she shook like a junkie in need of a fix. Adrenaline letdown. Theo cursed. “I’m sorry, princess.”

Meg crossed her arms over her chest and slid back a step, shying away from him—from them both. “I… I need a minute. A shower. Something.”

Theo gave a short nod. “Take what you need.”

She headed for the bedroom and spun at last second. “Alone.”

“No shit,” Galen growled. “Go. Take your time. We don’t touch walking wounded anyways.”

Her spine went rigid and her hazel eyes icy. “Fuck you.”

Better she be angry than terrified. He could work with angry. The scared woman in the back of the cab, looking for reassurances that he couldn’t give her… That kind of comfort wasn’t in Galen’s skillset. He preferred the harsh truth to silken lies, and there was no truth he could give Meg that wouldn’t result in her terror.

He stared until she squirmed. “Already did.”

Meg raised a shaking finger. “I swear to god—”

“Children.” Theo’s voice snapped through the room, a sharp tone that a person ignored to their peril. Meg made a sound perilously close to a snarl, but Theo ignored it. “Go shower or do whatever you need to get your head on straight. You’re fucking terrified and you’re snapping at the biggest dick in the room just to prove that you’re not helpless. It’s wasting time we don’t have.”

“His dick isn’t the biggest,” she muttered.

Galen almost laughed. Even scared out of her damn mind, Meg still had a mouth on her—and hell if he didn’t respect her more for it. “Go shower, little mouse. The adults are talking.”

She made a sound like an angry teakettle and stalked down the hallway. He waited for the sound of the door slamming, but a soft click was all he got. “Damn.”

Theo stalked into the kitchen and snagged the whiskey bottle. He took a long pull and then passed it over. “Tell me.”

“Two men. I didn’t recognize them, but they claimed Dorian sent them.” Galen drank from the bottle, letting the whiskey burn away the awful feeling in his chest when he’d walked through that door and found Meg tied to a chair with two men standing over her. He’d thought… It didn’t matter what he’d thought. He got there in time. They hadn’t done any lasting damage.

At least not the physical kind.

“She can’t go back.”

Galen stared at the bottle. He tightened his grip and put serious consideration into bashing Theo a few times with it. “You just couldn’t leave her alone, could you? It took them a grand total of three days to figure out she might matter and come after her. Fuck, Theo, this shit is on your head.”

“I know.” Theo watched him. Those blue eyes saw too much, just like always. “And yet I’m not the one who was skulking outside her work. You told me you were meeting a contact.”

Caught.

He opened his mouth, and then abandoned the lie before he gave it voice. “You put her in danger. I was ensuring she stayed safe.”

Theo’s lips quirked, but his eyes went hard. “Lie to yourself if you need to, but don’t you dare lie to me. I know why you were there—the same reason I was a week ago. You couldn’t stay away from her any more than I could.” He bracketed Galen’s throat with his hand, his thumb caressing Galen’s pulse point. Theo leaned in. “I shouldn’t have paid the tuition with my own name, and I’ll be the first to admit it. But we are both moths to her fucking flame, and you don’t get to play the beleaguered bodyguard—not right now, and not with me. You want her.”

“Yes.” The word felt ripped from him, taken despite his best efforts to stay silent.

Theo’s grip tightened and his gaze dropped to Galen’s mouth. “We can’t stay in New York. They’ll have eyes on her place.”

“They wanted to take her, Theo. There was a van illegally parked near the back door. They might have set her up to answer questions, but they were going to take her.” If they had, Dorian would use her for whatever purpose he had in mind, a lever to get Galen and Theo to dance to his tune, and then he’d discard her like yesterday’s trash. Even if he didn’t kill her, there would be scars, and she wouldn’t be the Meg they knew anymore.

Theo pressed his forehead to Galen’s, grounding them both. One breath. Two. Three. On the fourth, he stepped back and released him. “You were there in time.”

“I might not have been.” If he’d managed to resist the siren call of Meg’s presence, if he’d had more control, if he’d really gone to meet his local contact instead of doing the skulking Theo accused him of.

“You were there in time,” Theo repeated. He glanced down the hallway to the master bedroom where they could still hear the shower going. “Make the call.”

“She’s never going to forgive us for this.” For dropping a bomb on her life and leaving on destruction in their wake. The two grand was nothing compared to what came next.

Theo sighed. “I know. But better she’s pissed and alive than the alternative. Make the call, Galen. We need to be out of New York before dawn.”  

  Other books in The Thalanian Dynasty series

 Theirs for the Night

THEIRS FOR THE NIGHT is a novella. Theo, Galen, and Meg's story continues in the novel FOREVER THEIRS.

Download at:

Amazon: https://amzn.to/2M3w3A9

B&N: http://bit.ly/2Jl0k7Q

Kobo: http://bit.ly/2JxT2Bg

iTunes: https://apple.co/2LtEK1L

 About Katee Robert

New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Katee Robert learned to tell her stories at her grandpa’s knee. Her 2015 title, The Marriage Contract, was a RITA finalist, and RT Book Reviews named it 'a compulsively readable book with just the right amount of suspense and tension."  When not writing sexy contemporary and romantic suspense, she spends her time playing imaginary games with her children, driving her husband batty with what-if questions, and planning for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. 

Connect with Katee at: Website | Facebook | Twitter| GoodReads | Instagram | BookBub

  http://www.barclaypublicity.com/

[bluesfanfiction]

The Prince’s Diaries - USUK FF - Part One

Happy August birthday @gallifreyanlibertea! I know your birthday is not in August but let’s pretend it is ahahaha -cries- I’m so sorry this is so late and it’s not even finished I promise more parts will come but for now I wanted to present you with part one at least I hope you like it (u totally guessed it though i was too careless on snapchat)

Pairing: USUK Summary: guess who fucking did this lameass crossover of the princess diaries 2 movie. this is based off the movie not the books, most of the plot is similar with just a few changes to things like dialogue and stuff

Part One:

It’d been some time since Arthur had made his decision to take over the throne from his grandmother. The time when she would step down was coming soon, and then Arthur would accept the crown and take place as Queen of Spadian. He sighed once again, something he had been doing rather increasingly since arriving in the country. It was something his attendants had noticed very much as well and, in response, would cast him worrying or concerning glances. His grandmother only scolding him for taking up such an attitude in public. Arthur couldn’t help it he supposed. Despite his royalty, he hadn’t been raised as one until very recently. And living with his brothers hadn’t helped his personality very much either. He was rather crude and had too much of a fighting spirit for his grandmother’s liking. She hadn’t seen it as very proper for an omega, especially a royal omega. It had taken a lot of work from her and many others to get Arthur to present as a prince and as a future Queen to Spadian.

For the country, the gender had little to do with the titles. Arthur had been confused at first, but had learned from his lessons that all omegas who took to the throne were deemed Queen, all alphas King, and betas would be decided upon their gender. He had felt it was a rather old and outdated tradition, but it wasn’t like he had any say in it, or any power to change things. It made him shiver to think of the power and responsibility he soon would hold. It was a serious weight that pressed down on his shoulders and made him slouch too much and made his grandmother chide him too often.

“We’re here,” Berwald said from the front of the car. Arthur looked through tinted windows, the press gathered around, a guard stepping up to open the door to his car.

“Do I have to go in?” he mused, more to himself.

Berwald chuckled from the front. “Unfortunately so. It would not be a birthday party without you, would it?”

“We must tell them they’ve gotten the date wrong,” Arthur responded.

“I think you’ll find it to be less excruciating than you’re making it out to be, Prince Arthur,” he said.

“True, but princes must be ones for drama, right?” he joked a bit. Arthur smiled at Berwald as the door opened and thanked him. He wished he didn’t have to arrive to events in such a showy manner though, but this was his 21st birthday party after all. It would be rude of him in the public’s eyes to avoid them. Arthur shifted and managed to get himself out of the car without falling flat on his face. A queen never slides, his grandmother’s words rang out in his ears. Camera flashes and chatter reached Arthur. Berwald knew his dislike for this part and was quickly at his side, helping to escort Arthur inside to where the rest of the guests were.

His suit was elegant and Arthur didn’t even want to know how much money it costed. If he did he’d probably leave to take it off right away or sell it. Before, they had tried to offer him a suit the color of Santa’s clothes and Arthur had immediately turned it down. Now he and the rest of the guests could see him in his dark blue suit, aligned with a silver pattern along the collar, as he was announced to the party, his arrival made blatantly apparent. He wished he could say all the royal parties he’d attended beforehand would have made him less nervous and more used to them, but no matter how many he went to, he always got those butterflies in his stomach. It brought back memories of his first party- setting a man’s sleeve on fire, eating frozen ice cream and causing a scene, and accidentally launching food across the table. An embarrassment he would unfortunately never forget. At least, somehow, these people had still accepted him as their heir. Although he wasn’t exactly sure how much of a choice or say they really had in the matter.

Here was here now, though, descending the staircase, aware of how many eyes were on him and how many people he would have to stop to greet and make small talk with. He wasn’t paying attention as much as he should have been and mostly blamed the nerves, but found himself accidentally stepping on someone’s foot, and quite harshly too. He heard a grunt of pain and reached out to them. “I’m so sorry,” he fretted. “Is your foot all right?” he asked as he and the stranger both looked up, their eyes meeting.

“Oh that’s quite all right, your Highness…The fault was entirely my own...”

“Are you sure your foot will be all right?” Arthur asked again, the man’s polite smile charming. Arthur felt flustered. This was just another embarrassment he could add to the forever growing pile of things he wished he hadn’t done.

“I’m sure- I barely felt a thing.”

Arthur smirked a bit. “Are you holding back those tears in your eyes then because of seasonal allergies or something else, hm?”

The man laughed but the two of them were swept away from each other before they could further their conversation.

After that of course it was time for the many rounds of dancing. The dances flew by in quite a rush, Arthur being tossed about by one man like he was pizza dough, to craning his neck and back just to help guide along a child. Could nobody in this country dance decently? True, he shouldn’t be one to speak, his dancing wasn’t anything to boast about either. Still, he felt rather tired with his current partner twirling him so much he was beginning to become dizzy. He couldn’t help but think of the man he’d met earlier, wondering if he was still at the party, or if he’d already found a partner to dance with for the night. Fortunately, the world stopped turning as another person cut in to take their place as Arthur’s dancing partner.

After Arthur’s eyes stopped spinning around he looked up, finding himself in the arms of the man from before, beautiful as ever. He hadn’t noticed it earlier but now he could see in that polite smile of his a dimple on the right side, somehow making him even more charming than before. Arthur could now notice him more clearly. He could detect alpha on the man’s scent as well as other comforting and warm scents that had Arthur fighting to keep his own interest at bay. He was always a sucker for the good looks, he knew this to be true from his stupid high school crush on an alpha that only used him for the fame, and knew he had to take into account personality over appearance for the future.

“May I?” the man asked.

“Haven’t you already?” Arthur replied, the two of them beginning to dance together anyway. Arthur found his face growing hot, not necessarily because of the proximity between them, but more so at the loss of what to say. He felt his tongue was tied up. “I’m sorry for earlier…” he said, the only thing he could think of to talk about.

“And earlier I said it was really all right,” the other chuckled. “I’m Alfred, by the way.” Arthur was happy to have his name although now aware he had yet to ask for it before then.

“I’m-”

“I believe everyone here knows who you are.”

Arthur frowned a bit. “I’d rather it not be that way.”

“Not one for the crowd huh?”

Arthur shook his head. “And you?”

“I don’t mind it, I suppose. I’ve been to a lot of these events and I don’t think you have much to worry about Your Highness.”

“Please call me Arthur.”

Alfred smiled. “Arthur it is then.”

“What do you mean I don’t have much to worry about? At least you haven’t gone around and broken someone’s foot yet,” Arthur said, although feeling like he was complaining too much now.

“Is my foot broken now?” Alfred asked, laughing and drawing the attention of those around them. “No what I meant was that a few years ago Duke Beilschmidt had a bit too much and by a bit I mean way too much to drink and caused a scene that everyone will never forget. So, if you don’t do worse than that…”

“It sounds like you’re daring me or at least jinxing me now.”

“If you keep dancing with me not much worse can happen right?”

Arthur flushed, pleased with the idea that Alfred had brought up the idea of continuing to dance only with him for the rest of the evening. Even if his legs grew tired he thought he wouldn’t mind it at all. He didn’t like how easily charming Alfred was and how easily taken he was. His upbringing from his brothers had always made him one to not trust alphas easily and to challenge them, to show that despite being an omega, he was just as good. But now, Alfred wasn’t trying to be an alpha, he wasn’t trying to boast or prove himself to Arthur. It was… nice.

“I could send your other foot to the hospital you know,” he prompted, wondering if Alfred would find it funny.

The smile he got told him it had been. “Would you come visit with flowers?” he asked.

“Of course. You like Rafflesias, don’t you?”

“Hey now,” Alfred said. “At least the smell would overpower the smell of my feet.”

Arthur found himself bursting out in laughter at that. “Is that something you feel you should admit aloud?” he asked, the two of them laughing at Alfred’s comment now. Arthur felt a hand on his shoulder, Alfred going a bit stiff, the two of them stopping as a woman stepped in, asking for Arthur’s hand to dance.

Alfred stepped away, allowing the woman and Arthur to dance. Arthur wasn’t able to say anything more to Alfred as he slipped away into the crowd. He felt a sense of disappointment that he didn’t let show, not wanting to offend the woman. He had wanted to speak with Alfred longer. Besides a few others, there weren’t very many people around that were close to his age. He didn’t know Alfred’s age but he had looked, acted, and seemed young enough to be close to Arthur. He wondered if he would get to see him again at the party that night, but unfortunately he wasn’t given that chance.

Back at the palace a week later Arthur was waiting for his grandmother, who was currently in session with parliament. He found himself antsy and still unable to settle down or forget Alfred. He didn’t want to ask around, not wanting to pry into Alfred’s personal life. And also he didn’t want anyone else to know why he was so curious about Alfred. He felt embarrassed to admit the attraction he’d felt at such a short meeting. Now, he was tired of being cooped up in his room any longer when he wasn’t in more lessons, and he didn’t feel like going out to the gardens even though he quite loved them so instead, he decided to explore inside the palace today.

After some walking and time he found himself in an area that appeared to be a historic part of the castle but also one not many people seemed to go to. He found books and old figure heads. He reached up to dust one off, wondering who it was, but his touch caused a switch to go off which opened a wall to his left. Arthur gasped. He should have expected a castle would have secret rooms but he didn’t think he would find one so easily and so quickly. He wondered if anyone else had been to this area before, although it didn’t appear they had for a long time. He went down the secret passageway, the stone walls dusty and old. He rounded the corners until he found a small vent in the wall that he could peer through. Voices reached his ears and as he looked longer he realized he could see and hear into the current parliament session. He could see his grandmother talking although she looked rather unhappy.

A member of the parliament spoke up. “There is another eligible to assume the throne. My nephew should take place as the rightful King of Spadian,” the man said. “We all know that under Spadian law, it states that an omega must be married before they can take the throne. This has always been the law.” Arthur’s gasp this time was louder and he immediately clapped a hand over his mouth, backing away from the vent a bit, hoping no one would think to look or check there. He seemed to be unnoticed.

“This law is old. My grandson, even as an omega, should be given the same rights as any alphas.”

A debate ensued over the laws between members of parliament and the Queen. Arthur’s grandmother stood up for him and Arthur found a sense of anger at parliament for thinking he needed to marry to be “eligible” for the throne. Ruling a kingdom was not about marriage, it was about devotion and responsibility and- and who was this nephew anyway? Who was trying to take away Arthur’s eligibility to the throne? Why was he more deserving than Arthur just because he was an alpha? Did they really find Arthur so unfit to rule?

The decision was made though. “In order for Arthur to assume the throne as Queen, he must be married within 30 days or he forfeits the throne to the Viscount’s nephew, Lord Jones.” Arthur stormed away from the vent, angry tears in his eyes at their old traditional laws that were always setting omegas back. Of course, sometime later, his grandmother came to deliver him the news he had already heard. She seemed to know though somehow that he’d been peeking in on the session and most likely she also know about the secret passageway and vent.

“It’s not fair grandmother, can’t you talk to them again?”

“Their decision is final, Arthur… I’m sorry.”

Arthur hugged a pillow to his chest, feeling miserable. He and his grandmother knew that 30 days was not long enough- not long enough to fall in love anyway. He wanted to scream into it and toss the rest of the pillows all around the room. He wanted to run away from the castle and back home to his family and cry. He wanted to do so much that he couldn’t do- but… If he wanted to become Spadian’s Queen, he would have to stay and get married. The decision caused conflict within him, tearing him between his duty to his country and between the desire he’d always had to find the perfect alpha for him that he would fall in love with and marry…

“It will have to be an arranged marriage, won’t it?” he murmured into the pillow. His grandmother hadn’t said anything but she looked at him now and nodded. Arthur sighed. He didn’t want to talk about this or think about this now… He got up, kissing his grandmother on the cheek, and headed out of the room.

About a few days or so later, when Arthur had more time to really process what had been decided and what he had to do, there was a meeting set up between him, the Queen, and the Viscount’s nephew, Lord Jones. Arthur wanted to, and didn’t want to meet the alpha responsible for trying to steal the throne from him. Who was he to come in now at such a last moment and take this from him? All Arthur could picture Lord Jones as was this old and balding man who wanted to take the throne just for the royalty and power. Arthur’s grandmother had been such a wonderful Queen and Arthur wanted to protect the Spadian royal line. He didn’t want to hand it over to someone who would easily abuse it or bring the country misfortune because of carelessness.

“Why is he staying here?” Arthur complained, following his grandmother through the palace. Lord Jones was set to arrive at any minute and despite Arthur’s desires to punch the man into the ground he had to stay polite and hospitable. “Is he just inviting himself to check out his ‘future home’?”

“I invited him,” she said, and Arthur gaped at her.

“But why?”

“Because if there’s any mischief going on, I want it to be aware of it. Having Lord Jones closer to our side is for the better. Now straighten up,” she said, patting on Arthur’s slouched back. Arthur huffed and did as she said reluctantly.

A guard came in to announce Lord Jones’s arrival. Arthur’s eyes waited on the door, trying to burn a hole into it and hopefully catch Lord Jones on fire as well. An older, short and fat man stepped into the room. Arthur felt a lump in his throat, anger boiling in him. “The Viscount,” the guard announced, as the older man stepped aside for another person to come into the room, “and his nephew, Lord Jones.”

Arthur’s chin nearly dropped to the floor. Had he known the whole time? Even back at the party? Had he been planning for this moment, to announce himself and his intentions like this? Arthur’s piercing gaze fell on Alfred and he wanted to do nothing more than march up to him and chew him out. He knew that kind of behavior would not help him in assuming the throne, and would definitely leave a bad impression on him and his grandmother, so he refrained.

The Queen stepped up to greet the Viscount and Lord Jones. Alfred. Arthur wanted to spit at him. Their eyes met but Alfred’s held no emotions. Arthur felt played by him. He felt he’d been an absolute fool for thinking such nice things about Alfred, and cursed him for being so charming. He supposed he would never learn, always falling for men who had good looks but twisted personalities.

“Lovely to meet you, I’m Alfred Jones, Your Majesty” Alfred said, bringing the Queen’s hand up for a kiss and bowing. Alfred then came over to Arthur, reaching to take his hand and bring it for a kiss. “And a pleasure to meet you too, Your Highness.”

Arthur couldn’t react for a moment, wanting to yank his hand away from Alfred. “The pleasure is mine as well, Lord Jones” he finally said, keeping his voice steady. He smiled at Alfred politely before raising his foot up and bringing it down right onto Alfred’s foot, the one he’d stepped on before. He heard the Queen and the Viscount gasp, Alfred’s face scrunching up in pain, a sound coming from his lips. Arthur hmphed at him, turned, and marched out of the room.

End of Part One

[aelin-and-feyre]

Circumstance (Part 9)

This took me all day and I’m not even that happy with it but I hope you guys like it. 

Tagging: @a-courtof-fangirls-and-fanfics @autumn03@rhysandpurred​ @crazybookladythings @readinggiraffe@devilsadvocate15 @marimarac@carolineherr15@musiccbeach @illyrian-wingspans @illyrianinterrasen@meowsekai @iwishitwasrocketscience@gavrielthelionn @throne–of-sass @2-bookmaster-2 @bluephoenix222 @daughterxofxnight @highladyofthedark @sugarcoated44 (let me know if you want to be tagged in future parts!)

Fic Masterlist

Emberlei waits by the open window as Cadewyn raises an eyebrow at her. Slowly, she is getting over her shock and regaining her confidence. And at this moment, even though she is dreadfully worried about her sister, Ember is also not above using the knowledge of their bond to her own devices. Which is why she holds her arms out for Cadewyn to pick her up.

He hesitates for a moment and Ember briefly wonders if he knows her secret - she wouldn’t put it past Brexton to tell Cadewyn about her flying abilities - but then he just shrugs and scoops her up. The sensation of his arms wrapped around her is almost too overwhelming for Ember. And she notices Cade’s hold tighten a bit around her too, pulling her closer to his chest.

He looks down at her with a slight smile on his face. Ember realizes that she is close enough to kiss him if she wanted to, the bond slightly pulling at her to just move that extra couple inches, but she doesn’t. She refuses to let the bond force her into loving a man she doesn’t even know, although she feels like she does after the last three weeks of living in his room.

“Let’s go,” She orders, back to her Crown Princess mode. As far as she can tell, Cade doesn’t know about the bond yet and until she has talked to Gusty, she isn’t going to bring it up.

Suddenly, they’re up in the air and Ember’s arms hurriedly snake around Cade’s neck. She would like to say that flying with Cade is no different than flying with Cassian or Brex. But that would be a horrendous lie.

She is desperately trying to ignore the urge to tug the the ends of his hair that tickles her fingers. Ember cannot deny that he is extremely attractive. The dark blue-black hair, defined jawline, firm chest that she is being pulled into at this very moment. And his eyes, well, she has been dreaming of his eyes for years now and still, seeing them in person makes her mind spin. The violet-blue makes Ember realize that this is real. It’s all real.

“You’re staring at me,” Cade accuses, not looking down at her as he flies over the city. 

Ember fights down her blush. “I am not.” She insists, now trying to find anything else to look at other than his face. It’s actually quite a difficult task. She settles for changing the subject. “Where are you taking me?”

“To your sister,” Cade responds like its obvious, a small smirk playing on his lips.

Ember smacks his chest, her fingers resting there for perhaps a second too long until they are once again interlaced behind his neck. “You know I meant where is she?”

“Oh,” Cade feigns like actually hadn’t realized that that was what she had been asking. Ember rolls her eyes and his smirk grows. “Calm down, duckling,” He laughs. Ember sends him a glare even over her mad blushing.

“Stop with the nicknames.” She practically growls, desperately trying to ignore the spike in her veins every time he says one. He’s making it hard not to like him.

Cadewyn pretends to think about it for a second. “I actually kind of want to try them - see if any will stick. That’s how my dad got my mom, by the way, just called her darling until she finally relented and fell in love with him.”

“That sounds fake.” Ember replies skeptically, still aware that he hasn’t answered her question.

The side glance he sends her is enough to make Ember -  future queen and royally raised princess - embarrassingly flustered. “Does it really, darling?” He asks with a wink. Ember forces her face into an unimpressed expression, no matter how difficult it is. Cade clears his throat. “I told Brex to bring Gusty to the House of Wind.”

Ember’s brows furrow. “How did you let him know that?”

Cade looks smug as he replies, “My mind.”

She is still puzzled until she remembers one of her sister’s letters. “Oh, that’s right, you’re a daymatie.”

“Daemati,” Cadewyn corrects.

The newfound knowledge provokes Ember to upraising him in a new light. “So, you can read people’s minds?” She wonders nonchalantly. If he could read her mind right now then she is definitely screwed.

Cade just shrugs. “If I want to. I never invade someone’s mind without their explicit permission, and even then I don’t go digging.” Ember feels herself visibly relax, and Cadewyn doesn’t miss it either. “Hiding something, dove?” He lightly pinches her waist and the princess gasps.

The House balcony approaches and Ember is no longer sure that her plan for him to hold her was the best idea. She had selfishly wanted to feel his arms around her but she is left feeling more confused then ever. “You’re just as inappropriate as you were when we were five.” She shakes her head as they land. Cade doesn’t set her down right away. Her eyes make their way back to his face to see a confused expression.

“What do you mean when we were five?” He asks, his gaze far away.

Just then, the balcony doors open and Gusty and Brexton rush through, the little princess squealing at the sight of her sister in Cade’s arms. Ember momentarily forgets about the male, squirming out of his hold and rushing towards her little sister. Ember envelops Gusty in a huge hug, savoring the familiar feeling of family.

She meets Brexton’s gaze over her sister’s shoulder, who’s eyes are filled with confusion. She is only able to shake her head slightly, hoping she got her meaning across; the plans have changed.

Pulling away from Gusty, Ember taps a finger on the tip of the young girl’s nose. “You have a lot to tell me, missy.” She says, turning her sister around and guiding her back through the balcony doors, not looking back to see if Cadewyn is still wearing that lost expression.

“What the heck is wrong with you, man?” Brexton exclaims as soon as the balcony doors are shut behind the princesses. Cadewyn’s mind is racing. “You came here to spend time with her! And now she’s walking away from you.”

“She’s the girl.” Is Cadwyn’s monotone response. He doesn’t even look at his cousin to say it. He just continues to stare at the door through which she disappeared. Now that she’s away from him, but still so close, the pull is back, urging him to follow her.

“She’s what girl?” Brexton’s voice is laced with confusion as he, too, turns to try and figure out what the heck Cade is looking at. “The girl from the dream? Of course she is! I thought you figured that out already.”

Cade’s head abruptly turns to look at his cousin. “Yes, of course I knew that, Brex. I was talking about how she’s the girl from the Leader’s Meeting fifteen years ago!”

Brexton doesn’t look as flabbergasted as Cadewyn had wanted him to be. “Um, yeah, Cadewyn. We all knew this.”

“Well I didn’t!” Cade exclaims, throwing his hands into the air for a little dramatic effect. “I totally forgot that she was who the dreams were connected to!” His thoughts are running in circles as he tries to comprehend what this means. He begins to pace, his fingers scraping through his hair as he tries to remember the girl from when he was little, the one who was so enticing.

Brexton pushes, “So... what?”

The question roams around Cade’s mind as he continues to think. ‘So what?’ And then, all of a sudden, the memories come flying back. His pacing halts.

“She’s my mate.” He murmurs to himself.

Brexton takes a couple steps towards him. “What did you say?”

Cade suddenly realizes that if he says it any louder, that if other people hear, it will suddenly be true. Quickly, he wonders if he wants it to be. And then he remembers the journal, and ‘Violet Eyes’, and all the things he has learned about the princess over the last few weeks. And Cadewyn knows what he wants.

“She’s my mate.” He repeats a bit louder. He expects his cousin to exclaim, to be shocked, to clap him on the back and tell him he’s being crazy or congratulate him. When he hears nothing but silence, Cade turns to find Brex smiling like a madman.

The half-Illyrian claps twice. “Haha! I was right!” He points his finger at Cade triumphantly. Suddenly, his face turns scared. “Oh no, Amren is going to be so mad that she lost the bet.”

Cadewyn is pretty sure he’s hallucinating. “Hang on a sec,” His cousin stops his victory dance. “You bet that Ember and I would be mates?”

“Yeah, of course,” He responds and upon seeing Cade’s hurt expression, he adds, “Oh don’t act so innocent, you guys did the same thing with me and Mags.” It’s true, they did, especially the first couple months that Brex and his fiancé had been dating.

“You can’t tell Amren.” He suddenly claims, realizing that he might be okay with Brexton knowing, but definitely not the rest of their family. “Or your parents or mine. Just, not the adults.”

“Why? This is fantastic, Cade, people should know!”

“No.” Cade says firmly. “I want to work this out first.” His hair is now thoroughly mussed from the amount he’s been running his hands through it. “I don’t know, maybe talk to Ember about it first?” A new fear overcomes him. “Do you think she knows?”

Brexton shrugs. “I don’t know, she might.”

Cade drags a hand down his face. “What a mess,” He groans. “I should go talk to her, before I have to leave tonight.” He starts to make his way towards the doors, the pull becoming stronger and more insistent now that he’s actually doing what it wants. Why hadn’t he realized that it was the mating bond before? He’d heard enough of his parents’ story to recognize it.

Before he could put a hand on the doorknob, however, Brexton is in front of him, a firm hand on his chest. “Hang on, Romeo. You can’t just go in there, wings up, and confront her about something like this. You gotta learn from the experience of the males around you that convincing a girl to accept the mating bond isn’t always the easiest thing. Just ask any of our family.”

Cade rolls his eyes. “Yeah, but you and Mags were fine.” He reasons, trying to get a glimpse of Ember through the door, even though the glass is fogged. He realizes that he hadn’t savored the time she was in his arms. She had been so close, pressed up against him, his mate, and he hadn’t even noticed.

“Cadewyn, stop a sec, please. Trust me, Maggie and I had our own set backs. You do not want to scare Ember. If she does know about the mating bond, and hasn’t said anything yet, it probably means she doesn’t want to, at least not yet. And if she doesn’t know about the bond, then you cannot tell her.” Brex’s finger pokes into Cade’s chest to prove his point. “You cannot push things like this or else your relationship will be built on forced love and physicality.”

Cade looked at his cousin-turned-sage. “Since when did you start spouting wisdom?”

“Since Ember and I became friends,” He responds, causing a pinch in Cade’s heart that he can’t say the same thing. Brexton is right. Cade must take this slow or risk losing her. Friends first, then lovers, then mates. Follow the example of their elders.

Cadewyn nods. “You’re right.”

Brexton’s hand retracts from Cade’s chest. “I am?” He asks, then straightens a bit. “I am. Now, you have,” He looks towards the sky. “About seven hours left until you gotta get back to Terrasen. Try to convince Ember that I’m responsible enough to take care of Gusty, and then you can spend time with Ember and try to win her over. You can do this.” Brexton pats his back supportively and steps aside.

“I can do this,” Cade echoes. Quickly attempting to smooth his hair back down, he takes a deep breath and then pushes open the door.

“Just to clarify,” Gusty finishes, holding Ember’s hands tightly in her own. She is wearing a huge smile but her eyes are sincere. “I am so happy for you, Em. You just need to take this slow, feel it out. If he doesn’t know about it yet, don’t force it on him. See if you could like him first, and then go from there. That’s how all good mated relationships start.”

“Thank you, you’re the best,” Ember squeezes her sister’s hands feeling so grateful to have someone to talk to. She had been right, Gusty had known exactly what to do.

The younger princess giggles. “I still cannot believe that Elide owes me thirty silver.” Ember is unable to push her sister off the couch as the balcony door rattles.

They both look to it as the sound stops, and then the doors open. Cadewyn stands on the other side, looking sheepish, and the tug that had been present in Ember’s gut diminishes extensively. “It’s a pull, not a push,” The male explains, embarrassed.

“I’m so jealous, by the way,” Gusty whispers, making Ember roll her eyes. Cade saunters in, his wings disappearing, and Ember finds herself wondering if they are really as sensitive as everyone says. And, if the thing about the wingspan is true, perhaps her sister’s jealousy isn’t misplaced.

The future High Lord stands in front of them, hands behind his back and bouncing on the balls of his feet awkwardly. He opens his mouth once, and then promptly closes it. Ember shares a glance with her sister. Brexton decides to save the day then, striding towards them and offering Gusty a hand up.

“Ember, you know you can trust me. I promise not to let anything bad happen to Gusty while you and Cade... talk,” He sends a wink Ember’s way, trying to get the plan back on track. Her sister nods in agreement, glancing between Cade and her suggestively.

Ember drags a hand down her face, contemplating the pros and cons. “Fine. But I swear, Brex, if something happens to my little sister -”

“I’ll end up torched, I know, I know.” He gestures her up and towards Cade. “Now go, you two. I believe you have a lot to... talk about.” Brex offers his arm to Gusty. “Your Highness.” With a flash, her sister transforms into her blue raven, landing on Brex’s outstretched arm. Ember gawks, turning to Cadewyn to see his reaction. He doesn’t look remotely surprised.

“You told him about your bird form?” Ember exclaims. The raven only squawks back, and Cade fills in.

“She told me about yours too.” Her cheeks turn bright red. She pivots back to the male. “I understand, lots of females like when I carry them, don’t be embarrassed.”

Brexton clears his throat awkwardly. “Well, we better go... have fun!” And then he and the young princess are flying out the balcony doors together.

“So, Princess Emberlei -”

“Please,” Ember interrupts. “Just call me Ember.” She supposes that mates should be on a first name basis after all.

Cadewyn smiles. “So, Ember, I know you’ve been here for awhile now but would you do me the honor of accompanying me around the city? I have a couple places in mind that I think you would enjoy.”

Ember is about to decline, she should really stick to the plan, but truth be told, the plan is pretty much gone at this point. She remembers what Gusty had said: try it out, see if you can like him, go on from there. An unofficial date with Cade might be the best way to find that out. Grinning back, Ember loops her arm through Cade’s offered elbow. “Do your worst, darling.”

Masterlist

[iris-sistibly]

Encantadia 2016-2017: The Final Verdict (Part 2)

Part 1 here: http://iris-sistibly.tumblr.com/post/160857700329/encantadia-2016-2017-the-final-verdict-part-1

Characters and Cast Members

The Dark Horses

These are the characters and cast members who has the best development/biggest improvements in terms of narrative, performance and characterization:

1. Alena (Gabbi Garcia)- her character definitely has the biggest development throughout the entire series. Her development was probably the slowest I must say yet it was so, so worth the wait! I was disappointed at how bad her characterization was in the first book (plus Gabbi’s pabebe acting that time), but like I mentioned earlier, Book one was all about perfect timing. By the time Alena chose to let go I was like, “FINALLY!” at laaast! Encantadia did not stick to the norms of the first love never dies rule of the Filipino romance genre. Her character continued to shine for the rest of the series and I couldn’t be more proud especially at Gabbi who was my least favorite cast member of the first book. Compared to the rest of the cast, Gabbi’s performance isn’t up there, but for a lesser experienced actress like her, it was more than enough to impress me, I have seen her evolve from a pabebe actress to a more mature, serious performer. One of the few things I would rave about the show’s 10-month run is Alena being crowned as queen of Lireo. Her original counterpart’s narrative focused on romance but, I love how they changed Alena’s story in the most drastic yet exciting way possible and they turned her into a strong, independent, confidently beautiful woman with a heart. She is the perfect queen for Lireo, very much like Mine-a I must say. And yes, surprise surprise, despite of me being an Amihan fanatic, Alena is my top pick in this category.

2. Amihan (Kylie Padilla)- if you have been following the 4R’s series I have mentioned so many times before how disappointed I was at Kylie for literally bringing my favorite sang’gre down. But just like Alena, Kylie’s Amihan had her own time to shine. And ever since the Amihan’s fall arc, Kylie has been nailing her character scene after scene after scene. Never in my whole fan girl existence did I imagine that she would nail a character such as Amihan, a mother, a queen, a warrior, a woman. She and Gabbi were clearly the dark horses of the show. What I really love about Amihan’s narrative and Kylie’s portrayal was that, they made me look deeper into Amihan not just as a character but as a woman in general which is why I appreciated Amihan more than ever now. I guess my only disappointment is Kylie leaving the show because of her pregnancy but still, until her last scene, Kylie has proven that even though she can no longer be a part of the show anymore, she is and will always be Amihan 2016.

3. Ybarro/Ybrahim (Ruru Madrid)- when I first saw him, my first impression was: “hm…he’s cute, but he’s too young to play the character.” BUT, I ate every word I said. For me, Ruru and his character has one of the most beautiful transition from being Ybarro, a childish mandirigma to Ybrahim, Rehav and eventually Rama of Sapiro. I must say, his team up with Kylie really helped him become more mature and serious actor (same goes for Kylie). His closeness with Mikee helped him nail his role as a father which again, I never thought he’d nail. And I became more drawn to his character and appreciate Ruru as an actor for being consistently excellent with his performance despite of his ridiculous character narrative in book 2. Sad that his story did not focus more on him being a King of Sapiro and what will he do to rebuild his kingdom, he was ripped into pieces when his daughter died but you know, there was no clear development on how the pain of losing his loved ones turned him into a wiser and stronger persona like Alena. He became too dependent in Lireo and he babied Lira way too much and while I understand that she is his everything, I never saw his development from being an overly protective dad to a more understanding type—understanding enough to realize that Lira is no longer a little girl (pff! As if Lira matured 🙄), I wish they added some sort of conflict between father and daughter that will pave way to the maturity of both characters. Anyhoo, this guy deserves an award, this guy deserves more projects, this guy deserves to be praised. He maybe young, but when I look at Ruru, I always forget that he’s only 19 years old, I see Ybrahim, King of Sapiro, Lira and Kahlil’s dad, and Amihan’s beloved. For that, I already consider him in line with the country’s elite actors like John Lloyd Cruz, Dingdong Dantes, Piolo Pascual and so much more.

Rating: 10 out of 10💎s

The Elites

Characters who has the most complex personality and interesting narrative. Cast Members who were consistently excellent in terms of performance.

1. Pirena (Glaiza de Castro)- it’s no surprise that Glaiza is my top pick in this category, from the moment I saw that promotional photo on the internet, I knew Glaiza was the perfect choice for Pirena. From her very first appearance up to the finale, she was consistent, and that’s extremely important for me when I am rooting for a character and an actress. She nailed every side of Pirena, every aspect of her character. Pirena is one of the most complex character and very difficult to portray, but Glaiza was just so freakin’ effortless, I saw her passion for acting and Pirena’s fiery character beautifully synced in one persona, she was so snappy at shifting from one emotion to another, and for that, kudos to Glaiza for being one of the first few actors to give justice to such an iconic character like Pirena. Narrative-wise, there is a little bit rant about the part of her story with Azulan but I don’t really mind that much because I know that the second book is rushed and AzPiren’s relationship didn’t have the chance to blossom and develop like YbraMihan, but still Glaiza and Marx nailed their team up.

2. Hagorn (John Arcilla)- it was a close fight between him and Glaiza but what made him second is not his performance but his story. I’m so bummed that his character was never redeemed in this version in contrast to his original counterpart, his narrative was so good in the first book but it deteriorated at the second half of the show’s long run. There wasn’t even a closure between him, Pirena and Lila Sari for goodness’ sake! John Arcilla is no doubt a good actor, it’s like every word of compliment I use to describe him is an understatement, he’s beyond excellent and he never failed to wow me every single time he appears on TV.

3. Mira (Kate Valdez)- now this girl is definitely one of the biggest surprise in this show, this Hathorian heiress sure inherited her skills from mommy Piry and grandpa Haggy. Opposite to the original Mira, I am glad that her character played a role during the final war and contributed a lot to the development of the story especially in book 1, although I wish her role was more pivotal in the second book. I still hate the fact that she and Lira didn’t have their moment to shine and will now be forever remembered as Pirena’s baby (just like Lira), there was no transition from being a diwani to a sang’gre level kind of diwata which I am disappointed since they promised character developments for the super twins, and she never had the chance to meet her bio-dad. Still—great job bes!

4. Danaya (Sanya Lopez)- Sanya! How to be you po? Another newbie has proven that she can keep up with the likes of Glaiza and John my ghad! I am glad that the writers made us see Dany’s softer and vulnerable side, I love Sanya’s Danaya, ang chaka nga lang that they did not elaborate the DanQuil love story more, although I am happy that they made us see her struggles as queen, I would have appreciated it more if there was this balance between Danaya’s narrative as Hara and her narrative as a woman. In this version, it was more on Hara Danaya.

5. Cassiopeia (Solenn Heussaff)- She was the perfect choice for the character, I love how Solenn really made it seem like En-Chan is her mother tongue, and it’s really hard to act without talking, for me she has the most difficult role, being the only one who doesn’t talk by mouth most of the time, but I am very proud of Solenn for giving justice to Cassiopeia. BTW, I ship CassRe 😂

6. Gurna (Vaness Del Moral)- One of the most effective villains in the show! I have to say, Vaness will forever be remembered by her acting prowess, I hope she will be given more projects in the future. GMA 7 DO NOT WASTE THIS PRECIOUS GEM! She deserves to be recognized as one of the network’s A-list actresses.

7. Agane (Rochelle Pangilinan)- Ah, another rave-worthy actress! I remember my grade school self watching her dancing with the Sex Bomb girls in my favorite EB segment Laban o Bawi. Look at her now, still shining in her own way, I love how Agane’s not all baddie and also has her own story to tell which was something new. Hands down to Rochelle for being so freakin’ GOOD, her performance as Agane is EVERYTHING.

8. Ether (Janice Hung)- the queen of wushu, I personally don’t like her voice and I would have liked it if she just used her own voice and maybe add some sort of special effects on it to make her sound like a goddess bitch, but wow, just wow. Her martial arts skills is on fire, her portrayal of the character is so good, she’s very effective as a villain, and I hope to see more of her.

Rating: 10 out of 10 💎s

The Saviors

Characters with badly written narratives yet were “saved” by the actors with their impressive performances.

1. Lira (Mikee Quintos)- Disappointed that they did not tell her story in such a way that she will be remembered as Encantadia’s hero/savior, it’s a total bummer how she was reduced from being a highly respected princess to being the captain of the YA and DanQuil ship, now don’t get me wrong, I ship both YA and DQ, it’s just that I believe Lira can give so much more if they just gave her and Mira a chance. And Mikee, kudos to this girl for saving Lira’s character.

2. Avria (Eula Valdes)- Despite of me knowing the story of Avria (based on the original Etheria), I would have appreciated it if they wrote her character the way they wrote Hagorn’s. She was an all out baddie but they never narrated why, remember, a baddie will never be a baddie if they didn’t have some shitty past right? They can’t be just some psycho who wants a diwata overkill for no reason, heck even murderers have their own dark past that triggered them to do such thing.

3. Andora (Rochelle Pangilinan)- Ugh, Rochelle what will Andora do without you? They just turned her into a pawn aka Mashna when she is a Heran, HERAN! She’s supposed to play a pivotal role in this book but…sigh.

4. Emre (Zoren Legaspi)- I just feel so bad that Zoren had to work extra hard to make Emre a loveable character when clearly he’s not, his story just had too many plot holes that I just can’t appreciate it. And although it’s interesting to see a powerless Emre, it was such a failure for me.

5. Aquil (Rocco Nacino)- Man! Mas gusto ko pa ‘yung na tegi nalang si Aquil, it’s another bummer that Rocco didn’t really have the chance to contribute more to the story’s progress despite the fact that he is considered as one of the major characters in the story, he was downgraded into a love sick guy who’s all about Danaya. Dude, what about patriotism? Camaraderie? That is so unlikely of Aquil.

6. Asval (Neil Ryan Sese)- Such a waste character, there was nothing special about him, he is the most stereotype among all the villains. At least the original Asval had the chance to redeem himself in the final war unlike this shit. Thank God Neil Ryan played the character, otherwise, Asval would have been one of my biggest disappointments in the show.

Rating: 8 out of 10💎s

The Underdogs

Underrated characters and actors yet so deserving to be recognized

1. Muros (Carlo Gonzales)- Come on! The dude deserves to be recognized and he deserves to be happy!

2. Hitano (Pancho Magno)- I said this once and I’ll say it again, I love Hitano. He’s the kind of guy who will do anything for his beloved and will remain faithful to you until the end, too bad Alena and Lila Sari failed to see how incredible this guy is. Well maybe he’s just too good for them.

3. Muyak (Klea Pineda)- I am so annoyed that she died just like that, but I think Klea did a really good job at playing Muyak, her story was insipiring, too bad they focused on “plot twists” way too much that there was no character build up for her.

4. Manik (Joross Gamboa)- One of the most promising villains ever! If the Ybriana romance worked, I would have rooted for a duel between Ybrahim and Manik.

5. Wantuk (Buboy Villar)- My happy pill, never failed to make me laugh despite of him being a recurring character instead of being Ybrahim’s confidante and adviser.

Rating: 8 out of 10💎s

The Raspberry Awardees

Characters with the worst narrative and cast members with the face-palming performances.

1. Ariana (Arra San Agustin)- WORST NARRATIVE. WORST PERFORMANCE. She will always be my biggest disappointment and I will forever hate the team for choosing her to play the character. But in all fairness naman, she did pretty well in the finale, I wish she showed more of that in the previous episodes, maybe I won’t be hating on her so much, and people would have appreciated her efforts to continue Amihan’s story. It was because of her that the YA love story fucked up big time.

2. Pao Pao (Phytos Ramirez)- Narrative wise, come on, Pao was Amihan’s protégé and he was turned into a completely useless kid? Dude!

3. Deshna (Inah de Belen)- Her story would have been rave worthy, sigh, why the hell did y’all focused on the sarkosi plot?!

4. Juvila (Jinri Park)- I can’t take her seriously as a villain, she clearly struggles at speaking Tagalog and En-Chan that she always sounded like she’s reading the script. Am I the only one who thinks the baddies all have one emotion and that’s hatred? No variety or play of emotions, no story that would make people understand why they act the way the do, writers seriously!

5. Odessa (Sheree)- “Who the hell is she again?”  that’s how unmemorable she is

6. Haliyah (Valeen Montenegro)- most useless character ever.

7. Memfes (Lance Serrano)- ARC FILLERRRRRRR!

Runner-up for Rasberry Awardee: Kahlil (Avery Paraiso)- was expecting so much from him but like Lira and Mira he wasn't never given a chance (in Book 2)

Rating: Do I even have to rate this? Okay fine, 4 out of 10💎s

-Total: 8 out of 10💎s

[furederiko]

A Random-News-Digest to cap off September! Yes, the last one for the last day of the month...

Akira

A few days ago, the anime community was sent into a polarizing frenzy, when a live action Hollywood remake for Makoto Shinkai's masterpiece "Kimi no Na wa." was announced. Following "Ghost in the Shell", and "Death Note", it's a vindicative sign that Hollywood is actively turning towards Japanese titles to make their own versions. One that would usually come in one package with whitewashing controversy.

I'm not here to talk about "Your name." though, but about Katsuhiro Otomo's "Akira". Because yes, "Akira" is also one of that classic anime title that Hollywood has been itching to adapt... for soooo many years. Guess what, the title has resurfaced into the spotlight once again. After several directors have come in to develop this project, and then walked out to do other things instead, now Warner Bros is said to be in talks with the one and only... Taika Waititi. The upcoming Thor sequel has certainly put Waititi's name into every studio's attention, so it's not even surprising that WB is trying to hire him as well. After all, WB has been actively snatching Marvel Studios' directors and actors, right?

Of course, Waititi is still 'in talks', so things can always go sideway. He already has a project with Fox Searchlight that's about to enter production early next year, as well as that stop-motion animated movie about Michael Jackson's chimpanzee. If WB really wants to rush this movie into creation, I doubt Waititi will be the man to do the job. I personally would have preferred to see Hollywood simply forgeting about "Akira" all together, but that's just me and my selfish desire of not wanting another anime gets 'ruined' by American hands. Hold on, Waititi is not from US, eh! Oh well...

Tomb Raider

Having been an avid fan of this game franchise, of course I'm curious about its movie adaptations. The Angelina Jolie movies were... likeable (oh, how I was still sooo innocent when the first one came out), but they've also failed in capturing the charm of the series. Will a new version with recently crowned Oscar Winner Alicia Vikander work better?

Go ahead and check out the first official trailer (as well as its... odd accompaniment poster, both released 10 days ago LOL) to get your answer. My spontaneous response? "HUH?". Which was then followed by a frown and a "Meh...". Look, I know this one is more inspired by the 2013 game reboot, yet somehow... I don't think it gets it either. In the end, it feels like it's circling back into an Angeline Jolie's version redux. Particularly through Walton Goggins' character, who just had to be there as the evil super-villain stereotype. Had the movie followed the 2013 game's storyline more... faithfully, perhaps I would've seen it in a better light.

Much like "Assassin's Creed" that couldn't flesh out the game premise into a movie event, I seriously doubt this will do better. The video game adaptation curse is still looming large, and is already clouding this movie. But that's just me. Probably it'll work better for you? Roar Uthaug's "Tomb Raider" arrives on March 16th, 2018. So please stop expecting WB to release "The Flash" on that date...

Charlie's Angels

I did NOT see this coming. According to Deadline, Kristen Stewart is said to be one of two actresses being eyed for the "Charlie's Angels" reboot movie. The other one? Lupita Nyong'o. Before you complaint about Stewart, do remember that she's no longer the expressionless actress we saw in the "Twilight" series. She has made a better name of herself through the indie root lately. And Nyong'o is obviously that famous Oscar Winner, who's been involved with the "Star Wars" franchise and soon to hit the action genre with her upcoming Marvel Studios movie.

The fact that these two names are even attracted to the Elizabeth Banks' project is what intrigued me. I actually enjoyed those two Angels movies in the 90s, when everyone else was crying foul. It was campy and over-the-top, but it was fun and well... sexy. LOL. Hearing Stewart and Nyong'o names totally took this reboot to another level. I mean, could we be seeing a... darker and grittier (as much as I despised on using that word) version of the 70s TV show? I'd be down for that. Perhaps they can add more color with... I don't know, Asian actress Pom Klementieff, Elodie Yung, or Claudia Kim to the fray? I hope we'll be hearing more about the casting real soon, because this movie has officially gotten my attention. "Charlie's Angels" will arrive on June 7th, 2019.

Disney Animation

Disney Pixar released the latest trailer for "COCO" and accompanying poster around two weeks ago. The company also released short previews for three songs from the movie: "Remember Me", "Un Poco Loco", and "The World Es Mi Familia". Admittedly, due to my internet fiasco last week, I haven't been able to check out any of these clips. "Coco" arrives just in time for Thanksgiving, so I'm sure by then I would have seen these trailers. LOL. Of course, if you don't want any part of the movie to be spoiled in advance, then you might want to refrain from these new footages and just wait for the movie to arrive. It's your choice!

Star Wars

Despite various reports suggesting/speculating that Rian Johnson would take over Colin Trevorrow's directorial seat for "Star Wars: Episode IX", Lucasfilm hired a far more reasonable and 'safer' choice instead. Yep, I'm sure you have heard by now that J. J. Abrams is back for his second "Star Wars" movie. He's set to write, and direct the third and final movie in the modern era's trilogy. Sure, Abrams doesn't have a great reputation in dealing with sequels, but he's also responsible for the success of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens". Problem is, the official announcement also revealed that Chris Terrio has also been hired to write. In case the name doesn't right a bell, that's the guy who wrote Academy Award's Best Picture Winner "Argo". That's good, right? Hold on... he's also the writer to WB's infamous "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice", and the early draft of "Justice League" back when it had those unpleasant behind the scene reports. YIKES!!!

Speaking of WB, it's also another game of chicken with that company. This much-anticipated movie has been delayed to December 20th, 2019, meaning it will open just a week after WB's recently announced "Wonder Woman 2". Oh NO!!! After re-hiring the director with an exceptionally huge raise, I have a feeling WB will be forced to move their sequel away to ensure a big box office turnout. Because seriously, confronting the final entry of a "Star Wars" trilogy, one with a female lead protagonist as well, would be nothing short of a massive risk.

Hellboy

Two first looks of David Harbour's version of Hellboy has been released via the movie's official Twitter account, and also the actor's very own social media. And well... it looks, Hellboy-ish enough, I guess? I'm curious though, since this reboot will apply more conventional prothetics instead of CG, does that mean, we're looking at Harbour's very own physique here? I could've sworn his beer-belly he did NOT look like that in "Stranger Things". LOL.

The bigger news of this movie however, was the song of praises to Daniel Dae Kim taking on the whitewashed role that was supposed to go to Ed Skrein. Kim even took a photo with Skrein to make this announcement credible. Ain't this the way it should've been, casting a Korean-American actor for a Japanese-American charact... wait, hold on? Seriously?! Feel free to call me a naysayer, but while I'm grateful for Kim, didn't this simply mean that Hollywood still do NOT have a clue about the whole whitewashing issue? It's a nice gesture and all to cast an Asian actor for an Asian character. But I beg to question... why not hire someone who is not just Asian, but also ethnically approriate? Do we even have a shortage of Japanese-American actor they could hire? Names like Brian Tee (who is both Japanese and Korean), Tadanobu Asano, Hiroyuki Sanada, Paul Nakauchi (who recently appeared in Netflix's "Death Note"), and even Masi Oka (who is Kim's very own fellow cast member in "Hawai Five-O" TV Series)... all easily come to mind.

I can't help but wonder now, is Hollywood still thinking that all Asians look the same? That's STILL a problem, if you ask me. Oh well, let's just scoff this off by saying that... "It's progress". Just for the record, I don't have ANY beef with Kim, and sincerely think that he deserves a big role in the movies. But seriously though, this situation COULD have been solved in a much better way...

DC Films

WB has recruited another writer to work on "Wonder Woman 2". Dave Callaham was brought on board by director Patty Jenkins, to work on the script with DC Comics Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns. His portofolio includes the 2014 "Godzilla", "The Expendables", and also Universal's "The Wolfman" (assuming the Dark Universe project is still on-the-go despite the result of "The Mummy"). Details about the script is still kept under wraps, but it is expected to take place several decades from the first movie. Jenkins has already teased a Cold War setting for the sequel, along with the debut of Gal Gadot's Diana Prince's invisible jet. As I've stated above, it's currently unclear whether WB will keep this movie on the December 2019 schedule or not. If past moves by the studio is any indication (like how WB sped up BvS' release to avoid the third "Captain America" movie), then highly likely we could be seeing a shift of release date sooner or later. How the sequel will change James Cameron's very-public (and annoying, albeit logical, I should add) criticism about the first movie, is a different challenge on its own.

On a side note, DC Entertainment's President Diane Nelson has confirmed that there WILL INDEED be movies outside of DCEU continuity. It seems the initial plan is changing at WB, as Nelson is now singing a somewhat different tune. "Our intention, certainly, moving forward is using the continuity to help make sure nothing is diverging in a way that doesn’t make sense, but there’s no insistence upon an overall story line or interconnectivity in that universe", she stated. I certainly smell 'Plan B' here, in that if ever the DCEU (which already refers to DC Films and the various TV series, right?) gets out of control again, they could use "The Flash: Flashpoint" to basically erase it and create a whole new one. You know, "New-52" and/or "Rebirth"-style. Movies like "The Joker" origin movie, and probably "Justice League: Dark" and "Shazam" will definitely exist in their very own 'LABEL', which will be named and announced in the near future. Will this approach be better or worse for WB and DC? As I said before, this is basically another one of WB's attempt to copy Marvel (that already had multiple Universes on their own, see the next FIVE categories for direct proof), but for now, let's not judge anything too soon and see how this pans out...

X-Men Universe

Wow, it seems FOX has been infected by the braggish fever of WB. Thanks to a recent success with "Logan", the studio can now talk BIG about their next project. Someone's clearly forgetting how the studio ALMOST dropped "Deadpool", had Ryan Reynolds wasn't persistent enough to create it in R-rated format. Not just that, had the studio forced that movie to be toned down to PG-13, it wouldn't have inspired James Mangold to make "Logan" the way it is now. Thus we would only be getting another round of "The Wolverine".

Anyways, FOX Chief Stacey Snider had a really interesting comment to Dark Horizons regarding Josh Boone's "The New Mutants". She stated, "When you look at films like Deadpool or Logan or the upcoming New Mutants, you’ll see they have their own personality. Great effort has been put into making sure they’re differentiated". A peculiar statement, because one, is she trying to throw a shade towards Marvel Studios? And two, is FOX forgetting about the ultra-mediocre "X-Men: Apocalypse" ALREADY?

She then continued with a more 'shocking' remarks, "New Mutants is about these teenagers who are just coming into their powers. It’s like watching mutants go through adolescence and they have no impulse control, so they’re dangerous. The only solution is to put them in a Breakfast Club detention/Cuckoo’s Nest institutional setting. It protects the people on the outside, but it’s strange and combustible inside. The genre is like a haunted-house movie with a bunch of hormonal teenagers. We haven’t seen it as a superhero movie whose genre is more like The Shining than ‘we’re teenagers let’s save the world". Yikes!!! Okay, not only the recent Spider-Man movie was ALREADY a "Breakfast Club"-inspired movie (so... differentiated how?), comparing the movie to Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining" is a really ballsy and gutsy if not downright over-confident move. I personally shook my head upon reading this news, because the studio is setting the bar VERY high eventhough the movie is still in production. Meaning none of the bigwigs have even seen a finished product! One thing for sure, I'm going to bookmark her comment and actually judge the movie against it when it arrives. Can it actually hold up? I doubt, but we'll see...

SONY Marvel Universe

Another studio, another Marvel movie. This one's VERY interesting though, because no matter how confused people has been about Ruben Fleischer's "Venom", the fact that it's attracting big names to the project, might suggest something big. We know that Oscar Nominee Tom Hardy is onboard to play Eddie Brock, but care to guess who else is being eyed and/or in talks? The super talented Riz Ahmed who might (offensively tbh) and might not become the serial killer Carnage, and another Oscar Nominee in... Michelle Williams. Yes, Williams is currently in talks to play the female-lead and potential love interest to Hardy's Brock. It's still unclear if she will take the job or not, but if it ends up becoming real, then it gives me another good reason to actually check it out when it arrives on October 5th, 2018.

Marvel Studios

Let's start with the upcoming "Thor: Ragnarok"! As the release date of November 3rd, 2017 is rapidly approaching (with some international markets set to open in just a few weeks from now), marketing is also ramping up. We got a special Behind the Scene featurette, neat-looking IMAX poster, and also a Chinese one that came alongside an exclusive Chinese trailer containing new footages. Marvel Studios Visual Development Supervisor Andy Park also debuted the cover for "Art of Thor: Ragnarok" online, to encourage fans to pre-order their copy. This artbook will no doubt contains visual spoilers (like that particular creature from Muspelheim), so do consider that before you purchase one.

The movie also hit a somewhat negative hurdle recently. The issue however, wasn't caused by Marvel Studios, but surprisingly by the Writers Guild of America. Turns out, writer Stephany Folsom's name has been denied by the WGA to be attached to the film, eventhough Marvel Studios already gave her a "Story by" credit. A curious case to be honest, because it's usually the studio who refused to give a writer credit, not the other way around. Folsom openly expressed her dissatisfaction to the Guild that was supposed to be the one protecting her rights. On the other hand, does this mean Folsom's work was so minimum, that WGA thought it's unnecessary to add her name? Let's just hope this won't affect the movie's reception.

***The following could be considered spoilers for movies releasing in 2018 and 2019. If you're avoiding one, please skip the next paragraphs and jump over to the next category instead***

From the set of "Ant-Man and the Wasp", we got a new look for Evangeline Lilly's Wasp, Walton Goggins' Sonny Burch, as well as Hannah John-Kamen's Ghost. Burch looks pretty much like a normal human being, while Ghost has the signature white-suit design as can be seen in the comics.

Meanwhile, more and more cast members are confirmed for the UNTITLED "Avengers 4", which as I've said before, somehow serves as massive spoilers for "Avengers: Infinity War". Paul Bettany was pretty much confirmed to be in the movie thanks to a photo of him as Vision, while Mark Ruffalo was spotted alongside Robert Downey Jr. and Scarlett Johansson. Sebastian Stan and Don Cheadle have also been confirmed through interviews with several outlets. Aside from possibly hinting the possible plot of the movie, Atlanta Filming also spotted two actors on set with Johansson. The first was Captain America's Chris Evans, and the second one was... surprise, surprise... "Captain Marvel"'s Brie Larson. I know it has been common sense among fans, that from the time she was cast, she would take part in this movie. But it's always good to know that it's now confirmed.

The movie also has other intriguing parts of production that might hint further at the storyline. A recent casting call notice for extras, revealed that there will be a 1960s setting in the movie. This was inline with a photo by actress Hayley Atwell, who's dressed up as Peggy Carter with a mo-cap makeup on her face. Bearing in mind her quick cameo in the intro of "Ant-Man", could we be seeing a particular flashback to Peggy and John Slattery's Howard Stark in their early years at S.H.I.E.L.D.? A new actor has also been confirmed to become part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Japanese actor Hiroyuki Sanada, has joined the movie in an unknown role. This was strongly coincidental to that Japanese-esque setting we've seen before, so clearly the two facts are probably related somehow.

As for "Infinity War", actor Benedict Cumberbatch teased to Digital Spy that the movie will be huge, considering it's a massive storyline of ten years in the making, involving various sides of the MCU. He's also excited for the project to finally be seen by the world. Now about that, a recent rumor claimed that the D23 and San Diego Comic Con' trailer would be officially released on September 29th, along with the premiere of "Inhumans". It's a little unlikely, considering the growing gap between Marvel Studios and Marvel TV. Moreso, it's more possible that Marvel Studios will release this alongside "Thor: Ragnarok" sometime around October. That will certainly boost attention to the third "Thor" movie. Let's just wait and see.

"Captain Marvel" won't start filming until early next year, but pre-production has already begun. Andy Nicholson has joined the movie as its production designer. Nicholson was involved in "Captain America: The First Avenger" which, similar to this movie, took place in an 'earlier' era. Considering he also earned an Oscar nomination for "Gravity", his inclusion only signaled/confirmed a more interstellar aspect of the story. Here's hoping Nicholson will imbue his Academy Award charm to this movie as well!

Last but not least, That Hashtag Show reported that Marvel Studios is developing a movie for "Power Pack" as part of their next 'Phase'. Jonathan Schwartz is said to be overseeing the project, like he has done with "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2". To be honest, this source isn't particularly credible for this type of news, as their scoops VERY rarely panned out. Still, this is a somewhat plausible thing, considering "Runaways" (that have had a script since the early Phases), have since been converted into a TV series at Hulu. I won't be surprised if the Power siblings became one of the contenders to replace that now-obsolete project. Of course, do take this news with a HUUUGE grain of salt for now. It's best to just wait for an official announcement before getting too excited over something unconfirmed. Am I right?

Marvel TV

When this post goes up, Marvel's "Inhumans" should have debuted ON TV. If you're still unconvinced to see this mini-series, then perhaps the recent trailer would be able to sway you to the dark-si... er, I mean, to see and follow it. Showrunner Scott Buck Almighty apparently has envisioned this show to be at least 3 SEASONS, so you might want to put that into considerations before making one of the biggest life choices in your life. The general consensus however (including a pessimistic-sounding James Gunn), thinks that it won't even get a 2nd season. Then again, his "Iron Fist" somehow miraculously gets one, while a critically-received Marvel's "Agent Carter" did NOT. And don't forget about Marvel's "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." that apparently was ALMOST cancelled by ABC, had Disney not interfe... er, I mean stepped in as savior and paved way for the upcoming Season 5. Nothing is really certain anymore when it comes to Marvel TV, huh?

There's good on the other side though. To be precise, the Hulu side. Marvel's "Runaways" has only been getting positive responses until now, and comics creator Brian K. Vaughn has added even more excitement with his recent statement. During a book signing in New York, Vaughn revealed that not only Old Lace the Deinonychus is part of the show, showrunners Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage actually did her justice. Of course, him being an official consultant to the series can mean two things: one, his words is NOT objective; and two, the show will indeed be as faithful as possible to the source materials... which he wrote. Duh? Then again, the official images that debuted via Entertainment Weekly earlier this week, already felt and looked LEAGUES BETTER than "Inhumans". So I'm inclined to believe the good buzz might be true after all...

Netflix

Marvel's "The Defenders" burnt me out sooo bad, that I've pretty much lost any interest to see more Marvel Netflix series. Not just me though, because as it turns out, the crossover mini-series is also the lowest rating and/or least viewed of the entire Netflix Universe so far. GREAT GOODNESS!!! Regardless of the reason behind this result, a clear fatigue for a cookie-cutter Marvel TV show can easily be felt.

That's where Jon Bernthal's Marvel's "The Punisher" turned the table and broke the wall instead. Literally. The brutal and violent Rambo-esque official teaser, which was followed by a full trailer later on, seemed to be changing people's negative perception about the Netflix Universe. But is it a good indication that the series itself will be as good? Not really. If there's one positive thing I could openly praise about all Marvel Netflix series, is that they all have GREAT trailers. However, a great trailer doesn't immediately assure a great show, as proven by Marvel's "Luke Cage", Marvel's "Iron Fist", and Marvel's "The Defenders".

I admit, this was indeed a good trailer for Frank Castle's solo story. But did I like it as much as every other people? NOPE. I think it looked okay, and well... I'm still giving this show a pass. I have an odd tinkling feeling that it's going to end up as another carbon-copy of the previous shows. That it will also be a few episodes too long... but with amped-up violence to compensate. Of course, don't let this get you down, because what might not work for me, could very well be your treasure. One thing for sure, the series will be arriving pretty soon (if not November, probably earlier). So we'll definitely be reading the first reactions to it in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, the 4th season of "Voltron Legendary Defenders" is set for October 13th debut. You can even already watch the official trailer, that teases more action for both Prince Lotor and Princess Allura. It's unclear how many episodes we'll be getting though. If I had to guess, we'll probably get around 6 to 7, just like what happened to Season 3. After all, there's a possibility that both Seasons were initially intended to be one.

DC Television

I actually don't know where to put this, but since "Watchmen" is part of DC's property, I'll put it here instead. Forget about that Zack Snyder movie! Damon Lindelof is set to produce a new TV series adaptation for HBO. The network has ordered a pilot script from him (who announced it himself), so things are definitely moving forward. I'm personally not looking forward to this, as much as I disliked the Snyder's movie. But I can already sense the divide between the avid fans who are rejoicing, and the other side who thinks this is a bad idea. I have no right to give an opinion here, so let's just see how this pans out, okay!

Super Sentai

Trademark for the 2018 Super Sentai series has been registered on September 25th, and suffice to say, it brought its own twist to the fanbase. Contrary to previous rumor about fairy-tale time traveler, TOEI submitted not one, but TWO titles at the same time: "Keisatsu Sentai Patoranger", and "Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger". Nope, this wasn't April's Fool prank or a baseless rumor, because these copyrights are REAL.

There aren't any details about the two titles yet, so many fans and Tokusatsu enthusiasts have been talking and speculating about what this means. Does this mean, we will have two separate shows on the same year, perhaps separated as 25 episodes each? Could it be, one of them is the full yearly show, while the other one is a Web-Series or some sort, much like how "Kamen Rider Amazons" worked for Amazon Japan? There's also another possibility, in that both of them are part of one show. Which makes super sense, because the obvious titles alone pretty much work to 'rival' each other: Police Taskforce and Phantom Thief Squad. Get it? It's the game of cat and mouse between cops and thieves. Something like what would happen if "Persona 4" and "Persona 5" has a crossover.

Recent rumor claimed, that the two teams will indeed be regarded as the 42nd Sentai teams. Patoranger is rumored to consist of Red, Black, and White members, while Lupinranger will be Gold, Silver, and Bronze. They will start out as separate shows that will supposedly air alternately week after week, but when both shows reach episode 20, they will eventually become one solidified story. Not only that, one Lupinranger member is said to be a Patoranger spy (with Red being the most possible candidate), thus serving as the catalyst to combine both teams into one. This means the two shows will exist/intersect in the same world, so crossovers between both titles should be expected to happen more often than later on the 4th quarter.

Again, this idea makes good sense, that it's not even a surprise for me. TOEI has been doing the Versus Movies on a yearly basis ever since "Chouriki Sentai Ohranger vs Ninja Sentai Kakuranger", so this would only be their way to turn that concept into a full-blown series. This year's "Uchu Sentai Kyuranger" has even implemented this twist, by breaking its 12-members team into two units in its latest parallel arcs. Besides, don't forget one thing! TOEI seems to show high interest with what's happening in US entertainment business. And what's the current rage in Hollywood? Cinematic Universe, like the one famously built by Marvel Studios. Think of it this way, Patoranger and Lupinranger would be their own separate thing, similar to the Marvel Netflix series, or the CW "Arrow"-verse shows. But somewhere along the line, they team up into one crossover, as proven by Marvel's "The Defenders". It's highly likely, TOEI is intent on trying out this route as well, which could be a good or bad thing. Ignoring the fact that "Kaizoku Sentai Go-kaiger" have already, and very successfully I might add, served as a giant crossover show on its own.

To be honest, I've never been a fan of a Police-themed Sentai series. But this report definitely intrigued me to the core. If it is indeed valid, then I would totally check it out. It's an arguably brave and risky albeit not entirely new (remember the Versus Movies!) concept, so I'm dying to see if TOEI can pull it off. I think if TOEI is able to give both shows their own different tone, it would be even much better. I'm sure we'll be hearing more information about these shows pretty soon, so let's just wait and see...

ARIKA

It's a little baffling to think that ARIKA still hasn't made up their mind about their "Mysterious Fighting" game. Why? Because they showed up in Tokyo Game Show 2017, and actually released a new trailer for the event. Hmmmmm. Not long after, the company also expanded the game's roster with a returning fighter, in Doctrine Dark. At this point, I'm pretty sure EVERY original character from "Street Fighter EX" would be included... so why not just call the game, "EX Fighters" or some sort? *sigh*

Pocket Monsters

The Pokemon Company released a new trailer for "Pokemon Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon" last week, and well... it offered some of its new content. Aside from confirming that the cover Pokemon is none other than 'Ultra Beast' Necrozma in his Dusk Mane/Dusk Wings forms (it's unclear how it will possess the powers to resemble Solgaleo or Lunala), several mini games like "Mantine Surf" and "Alola Photo Club" have been added to the game. Characters like Hau, Lillie, and the Trial Captains are confirmed to be returning. In the case of the last, some will even be bringing new Island Challenges. You can read the details on Gematsu. Both games will be launched worldwide on November 17th, 2017.

Dynasty Warriors

KOEI Tecmo was present at the Tokyo Game Show 2017, and of course they delivered a new trailer for "Dynasty Warriors 9" while confirming that it will be released in early 2018. So far, this new iteration has been creating conflicting reactions from the franchise's fanbase. Many, including yours truly, is feeling rather mixed about the game in general. Mainly due to the redesign and additional changes (weapons, costumes) given to the returning characters. While it's commendable that the game is trying to be more realistic and historically accurate, unfortunately, it comes at the expense of some of the title's bizarre but fun elements. On the bright side, the open world concept is still an intriguing aspect that I would totally love to try out. Even if to see whether KOEI Tecmo can pull it off or not. LOL.

[coldsoupy]

The Deadly Desert - Interview Transcript, December 2016

The following is an interview transcript with Chris Stern of The Deadly Desert and The Sterns for an upcoming feature in Providence Monthly. He said some great stuff in great length and I wanted to let his full words and thoughts be heard. Enjoy.

The Deadly Desert

Providence Monthly: There's so much going on with your new album in terms of instrumentation, percussion and vocal arrangements, what was your writing process like? How do you compose your music?

Chris Stern: Songs, for me, always start with a melody or a lyric. Some people write at the piano or with their guitar and actively ‘work’ at a tune by fiddling with chords until something happens. I get easily frustrated if I sit down to write and I can’t connect all the dots right away. Great songs sound effortless, so if you’re pulling your hair out to write something magical, the effort shows and the song suffers. The best tunes come when you’re not expecting them, so melodies and lyrics arrive throughout the day. I might start humming something in the car. If I’m still humming it the next day, I know it’s a tune worth working on. If a melody or a lyric is really special, I’ll rush to the piano to start mapping it out immediately.

Home recording is where the bulk of ‘composing’ happens. Once I have a melody and a few chords, I’ll record a demo with just acoustic guitar and vocal to the 8-track. I might do 3 takes or a dozen, and every take, I’m changing the chords, editing the lyrics and fixing the structure. Once there is a solid form, the fun part begins: I’ll add keyboard drums, vocal harmony stacks, lead guitars, piano or organ, maybe a bass line. While I’m building the arrangement I’m evaluating the song and editing, mostly just ditching stuff that doesn’t work. After maybe 10 hours recording and rerecording parts, I’ve seen what’s possible within the song and I can be confident it’s finished.

I am a sucker for big, bold arrangements. Give me horns and strings and back-up singers, 4 pianos, triple-tracked guitars and 3 tambourines and I’m happy. In The Sterns, I was notorious for over-arranging and over-producing. Our third album ‘Savage Noble Steals The Ancient Riffs,’ had a few songs in excess of 100 tracks in pro-tools, which can give you a certain sound, or it can be an awful mess, especially in the mixing process. Tambourine is my favorite instrument, so almost every song has that jangle. Most of the songs were written on piano instead of guitar so I challenged myself to play all the keyboards, which is a joke because I am a terrible keyboard player. I set out to make this album ‘stripped down’ and almost completely failed. ‘Sob Story’ has female vocals, a horn section, vibraphone, timpani and 3 pianos to give it the Phil Specter ‘Wall of Sound’ so ‘stripped down’ went out the window but it’s probably my favorite song on the album and the most fun to record, so go figure.

Chris Stern

PM: There's a big range of influences on your album as well, I hear some Bell & Sebastion, Weezer, some Brit-pop...who inspires you?

CS: I worship the crazy geniuses: the guys who literally drove themselves insane and ruined their lives in pursuit of music like Brian Wilson, Daniel Johnston, Andy Partridge, Sly Stone and Syd Barrett etc. There is something so romantic and relatable about that obsession. I am a disciple of The Beatles and The Beach Boys specifically because those guys wrote songs designed for the studio. All the innovation and all those classic albums happened because they were writing music that didn’t have to be performed in concert. 4 guys on stage can’t play ‘A Day in the Life’ and do it justice. Andy Partridge of XTC quit touring due to crippling stage fright while XTC was still up and coming. They never got the fame they deserved, but they wrote ‘Skylarking’ which is my all-time favorite album. So that ethos of limitless studio creativity and crafting albums that are lush and carefully orchestrated with a broad palette of sounds and colors is important.

Lyrics are so crucial and I think they’re overlooked by a lot of musicians. My favorite artists combine a beautiful melody with meaningful and resonant words. Most lyrics in pop music are garbage; I’ve always been a bit of a snob about this. Some of my favorite songs have dumb or dull or lazy lyrics. Maybe they are bubble gum or just undercooked, I can still love the song. But great lyrics make a song three-dimensional and it’s that intersection of compelling melody and meaningful words that birth real emotions. Some of favorite lyricists are Paul Simon (my musical hero), Ray Davies of The Kinks, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Morrissey, Michael Stipe of REM, Jarvis Cocker of Pulp and Stuart Murdoch of Belle & Sebastian. Belle & Sebastian is my favorite current band, maybe my all time favorite band. Morrissey, in spite of his obvious faults, is unparalleled as a lyricist.

Films and books are a big inspiration. David Lynch, Woody Allen, Hal Hartley, Stephen King and Kurt Vonnegut spring to mind. 2 songs on this album even have lyrics ripped from television comedies, but I won’t divulge which songs or which shows. Many songs on this album were actually inspired by specific musicians and I name them in the songs: ‘The Best of The Dead Composer’/Morrissey, ‘Flames’/Daniel Johnston, ‘Stay Out of The Sunshine’/REM, ‘Are You Staying The Night?’/Bruce Springsteen. ‘The Assassination of Love’ is actually a murder ballad about me killing Mike Love of The Beach Boys. Mike Love is, honestly, the greatest villain in pop music history, if you’ve followed the saga between him and Brian Wilson that started in the 60’s. The song is upbeat and tongue-in-cheek, but I’m dead serious, Mike Love is the worst person. Total Trump voter. I’d love if he heard the song and hated it.

Jarod Cournoyer

PM: Tell me about The Sterns, I noticed some "Sterns" appear in the credits. You were featured on Rock Band? What have your other musical endeavors been?

CS: In high school, all I wanted to do was play jazz saxophone. In 1998 friends asked me to join a ska band called Shanty Sounds, which was my first introduction to the Providence Music scene. We played The Met, Lupo’s, The Living Room, The Ocean Mist etc. and did pretty well for a bunch of 16 and 17 year old white French kids from Woonsocket. Our finest hour was playing the final Providence Payback, which was a mini festival that The Amazing (Royal) Crowns hosted every year. I still think The Crowns are the best Providence band of the last 30 years. That show was a really big deal for me. After Shanty Sounds broke up, I saw Westbound Train at a Slackers show at The Wetlands in NYC and was blown away. They were based in Boston and when their sax player quit I was asked to audition. It’s hard to forget because I auditioned on September 12th 2001. They hired me and I spent over 2 years with Westbound Train. We toured with The Mighty Mighty Bosstones and I learned how to sing and front a band.

Westbound Train released an album and our guitarist was robbed of all his gear so Alex Stern was hired to replace him for a three week tour. We hit it off almost immediately. I had just started trying to write songs and Alex already had a full-length album with his ska band Mass.Hysteria and his songs were just brilliant. We were both obsessed with British pop. We wrote our first song together on that tour. Later that year, I joined Mass. Hysteria on sax so Alex and I were now in 2 touring bands together and we were basically joined at the hip. By the end of 2003 we had a bunch of songs we were really proud of. We formed The Sterns with Emeen Zarookian (Spirit Kid), Andrew Sadoway (Bent Shapes) and Michael Gagne. I took the stage name Stern because I wasn’t fond of my dull very French last name and Alex and I wanted to show Ramones-esque brotherly solidarity. (Adam please don’t use Brunelle. I am using Stern, you can say it’s a stage name but just don’t use Brunelle to avoid confusion )

We self-released our first album ‘Say Goodbye to the Camera’ in 2005 and shockingly, it cracked the CMJ top 100 albums chart which was sort of unheard of for an unsigned band. We started getting a lot of good press around Boston. Music writers liked the album. We weren’t going to succeed on our looks; we were a critics band. All my favorite bands were critics darlings, so we were in good company. The Boston Herald included the lead-off track from our album, ‘This Will Only Hurt for a Minute’, in a round robin reader’s choice of the top 100 Boston songs of ALL TIME! We had no business being in there, but amazingly, we made it through the first round but lost in the second round to ‘Hangin’ Tough’ by New Kids on the Block. I still think that is fucking hilarious.

This Will Only Hurt For A Minute by The Sterns from the album, "Say Goodbye to the Camera"

We were courting some record labels when we started recording album 2. A local startup media company and label approached us while we were in the studio. They had a lot of money and they were going to focus on us and one other artist exclusively. We needed tour support and a van and we were swept off our feet really, but we signed our first record contract in the summer of 2006 and the label released our second album, ‘Sinner’s Stick Together’ in March of 2007. We were nominated for 2 Boston Music Awards (we didn’t win, but I did meet Bobby Brown at the ceremony) and AllMusic.com called the album “a pop masterpiece” which was very flattering. After that, it was touring, for what seemed like forever. Some highlights were opening for Apples in Stereo at SXSW and a string of tour dates with Meat Puppets, who are best known for playing 3 of their songs with Nirvana on the legendary ‘Unplugged’ album.

Touring became exhausting and we came off the road and went right back into the studio to start album number 3. Our record deal turned out to be too good to be true: they were very generous and gave us tons of tour support but they were very controlling in the recording process. Alex and I started to fight and I hated it, because I was living out every rock and roll cliché, and I saw it happening, but there was nothing I could do to stop it. They hired an outside producer for the sessions. Alex and I had produced the first 2 albums alone with Richard Marr and I was skeptical. I was constantly at odds with the label because they weren’t giving us the freedom we earned in the studio. I didn’t like how the album was shaping up at all. I refused to record the lead vocals until we resolved our issues with the label, but the band was falling apart. I was under contract but I was miserable and I thought about quitting the band. This was the hardest decision of my life and I went slightly nuts in the process. The longer I refused to sing and continued to postpone recording sessions, the worse things got. In March 2008, I tried to bargain with the label; I would record the vocals and release the album but I needed 6 months off from touring. I was burnt out, completely, and my health, mental and physical was suffering. Alex and I were barely speaking. After a show in Boston, Alex and I had words that escalated into the lamest fist fight that you’ve ever seen. Bouncers pulled us apart. I quit The Sterns that night via email and I didn’t speak to Alex for nearly 3 years. Album cancelled, band broken up, Rock and roll cliché complete. The kicker, of course, was that we didn’t know there was already a deal to include our song ‘Supreme Girl’ on Rock Band 2. Millions of people were going to know our song and our name but now there was no band.

Alex and I reconciled in 2011 and we were both haunted by the unfinished album. The record contract had expired but the label still owned the work we started in 2007 so we went back to Galaxy Park and started the whole album from scratch. Life had pointed us in different directions, so we weren’t back as a full time band but we chipped away the album in 2012 and 2013. We finished album 3, ‘Savage Noble Steals The Ancient Riffs’ in the spring of 2013 and that is when my mom got sick. My mother was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer in late June of 2013. A few weeks later in July, my girlfriend of 7 years left me amidst all the stress and turmoil of my mom’s illness. My Mom died unexpectedly on August 2nd , 7 weeks after diagnosis. So The Sterns were back but everything else in my life collapsed at once. That is the story of ‘Poor Me and The Pity Party…’ This was the darkest time in my life and I started writing music again for the first time since the Sterns breakup in 2008. I needed music to deal with the grief, the depression and the anger. I listened to all the great records about breakups and death and loss: ‘Rumours’, ‘Sea-Change’, ‘Automatic for the People’, ‘The Queen is Dead’, ‘Armed Forces’ etc. Most of my favorite music is somber or melancholy anyway, I am sort of a closet goth. But I found that during this horrible time, I didn’t really want to hear the sad songs that would let me wallow. I was seeking out upbeat music. And I found the self-consciously gloomy stuff that I loved (The Smiths, The Cure, Joy Division etc.) to be almost comical. As I wrote tunes, some were very heavy emotionally but there was something almost lighthearted about writing something so gut-wrenching, so I was sort of laughing at my own misery as a way of coping. 

As the songs started happening, I knew I had the makings of a great breakup record, a great death record but weirdly, also an upbeat pop record. The music was too personal to bring it to the Sterns and attempt to resurrect that band. So that was the first time I thought about a “solo” project. I hate the term “solo project”, nothing about it is solo except that it’s my first full-length apart from my established band. The original idea was to record 3 ep’s, each on a theme and create fictional bands for each of the ep’s. The darker, heavy tunes were going to be released under the name “Poor Me and The Pity Party”, a dig at the self conscious gloom rock bands, but also at myself. But after recording commenced, I started feeling like all the songs would work together really well as an album. So instead of releasing them cryptically under false names, I decided I was ready to start an actual band again and that is The Deadly Desert. Ryan Tremblay and Jarod Cournoyer deserve a lot of credit for making this band a reality, because at the outset when we went in the studio, I had no real designs of coming out of musical retirement, but they loved the songs and gave constant support and we loved playing music together, so hats off to them. We have Kathleen Dona-Zavalia playing drums, so now the band is a real thing, and I’m still not quite sure how it happened.

Ryan Tremblay

PM: What brought you to PVD? What attracts you to the scene?

CS: Providence has always been home. Growing up in Woonsocket was rather dull from a creative standpoint. I love my hometown but as a teenager there were no all ages music venues, no bookstores, no cinema, no ethnic food, no decent record stores or music stores so it was very isolating and if you wanted to see a show or buy a certain record, you hopped on 146 and came to Providence. By the time I graduated high school, I was spending most of my time in Providence, working at an east side record shop and going to school at URI downtown. I think we’re all incredibly lucky to live here and most of the time we don’t realize it. Culturally, we have the best features of

Boston or New York without the hassles of big city life. I lived in Boston for 3 years and it’s a beautiful city, but personally, Providence is more my speed.

I think one benefit of the compactness of Rhode Island and Providence specifically is that the music scene is very incestuous. Everyone knows everyone else so I think it helps foster a stronger sense of community without the competition. The music scene is Boston for example is more fractured and there are so many musicians vying for the attention of a dwindling live music audience that it becomes a competition. And I don’t think art should ever be competitive. A band that gets a buzz in Boston starts thinking nationally very early because Boston, like Austin, New York, Seattle, Nashville and L.A. is viewed as one of the big music towns where young bands are plucked from obscurity and vaulted to stardom. So there is a lot of posturing and jockeying for status within the music scene. There is none of that pretense in Providence, it’s more about the show, the record, the song. The focus is on the audience, not starting a career as a pop star.

PM: Where did you record the album? What was the process like? Are you very hands on?

CS: The album was recorded at Galaxy Park studios in Watertown, Massachusetts by my close friend and collaborator Richard Marr. He recently relocated the studio to downtown Salem. This is the fifth full length album I have recorded with Richard so we have a process in the studio that revolves around a lot of goofing around, drinking coffee and gossiping and then gradually we get down to work. He recorded all 3 of the Sterns albums so we communicate by osmosis because he knows what sounds I like and which sounds I don’t like, so we are able to skip a lot of hand wringing and debating because he instinctively knows what I’m hearing. It helps that he was raised on gloomy 80’s British guitar rock that I love because if I tell him, “You know that guitar tone on ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’?”, he’s already twisting knobs and dialing in the sound we need.

I am a control freak in the studio. Richard and I have been making records together since 2003 so he gives me free reign, like any good engineer or producer should. Most of what I know about recording comes from Richard anyway, so I am intimately involved in every part of the process. Richard runs pro-tools because I am somewhat computer illiterate when it comes to recording. It’s necessary, but it’s my weakness, so I focus on the sounds and we limit the use of digital tricks. We will spend a few hours finding the perfect combination of room sound, amp, microphone and analog effect rather than fishing around the computer for a digital plug in. I insisted that we record to tape, because, apparently, I like burning studio time and money. Richard hesitated but we did it, putting drums, bass, some acoustic guitar, piano and even some vocals to the tape machine. This only works because all the parts, including overdubs, are mapped out in advance. There is no composing or arranging in the studio. All the parts exist on the home demo, so when I’m behind the fancy studio mics, it’s about executing the parts and finding the sounds I can’t get in my bedroom with my 8 track and one mic. There is some improvisation, but not much. I pushed myself to learn theremin because I was fascinated by it and I wanted to use it on 2 tracks. I practiced for a few weeks before the session, went in and recorded theremin tracks for 6 or 7 hours. We ended up using maybe 10 seconds of theremin on the entire album, mostly because I performed it terribly. So ideas don’t always pan out, but we don’t experiment with parts, just sounds.

PM: Where would you like to see this album go? Why record it now? How will you translate the lush instrumentation live?

CS: I would be lying if I didn’t admit that I would love to sell a million copies of an album. That’s not going to happen. I always thought that The Sterns were sort of a cult band. We had a very small audience, but maybe 10 or 15 years later people would rediscover the albums and we’d be the great lost indie band that time forgot. I think anyone who is serious about music and works hard at it craves the validation and adoration of an audience, whether that’s 50 people at a concert or 1000 downloads on iTunes. But there is really no point doing the real work of writing, recording and releasing records if you don’t absolutely love to do it. If only 20 people hear this album, that’s alright, I’ll make another one. If we play shows and only 5 people come, that’s ok, we’ll book another show. So the album doesn’t have to go anywhere, it can just exist. On the other hand, I know it’s very trite, but in 2016, you can name your life a success if you can make a living doing what you love. So, of course, there is still that elusive dream of doing ONLY music and still paying my bills. I haven’t figured out that trick yet, but if I do, I’ll let you know.

I can live without playing live. I enjoy it, but it’s temporary. And honestly, as an introvert, playing live can be utterly exhausting. A recording lasts forever. I have great memories of my favorite concerts, but there is nothing like putting on your favorite song or album when you NEED to hear it. After years of touring, playing 100-150 shows a year, I realized the writing and recording process was my greatest strength. I don’t need “success” to spur me on. We started recording this album in September of 2014 and finished it in October. It took over 2 years, not because I was unmotivated or scrambling for ideas, but because the studio is expensive and I would work my day job, save up and then schedule a block of sessions every 6 weeks or so. I self-funded the recording because I love being in the studio and building the songs. Nothing for me is more fulfilling than starting with a tiny notion of a song and watching it blossom over time. So regardless of how this album is received, I already have another albums worth of songs that I am slowly working out. I’ll save up and when we’re ready we’ll go back into the studio and do it again and always try to improve on what came before.

-Cold Soup