#and guess who i drew to experient with light. yeah its matt

[garlic-sauc3]

lighting study while experimenting with brushes

[pixiesstolemyapples]

Stormy Nights Chapter 5

A/N: Sooo I am simultaneously hyped and extremely nervous for S7, so I’m just gonna post this and leave!! Deep breaths, people, deep breaths. Nonetheless, please enjoy the chapter!! If you want to read this on my FanFiction or my AO3, please click the links!

Chapter 1/Chapter 2/Chapter 3/Chapter 4/Chapter 5

               Pidge was running through a dark tunnel, her legs so hot and painful she thought they would give out before she made it to the end. Almost there. I'm almost there! She was so close, so close she could almost feel it in her grasp. She had been waiting for this moment for so long, her whole purpose up to this point was only a few long strides away and-

               There he was, standing at a desk with his back to her, his messy brown hair sticking out in all directions, exactly the way hers does. She couldn't help but smile ear to ear, tears threatening to spill from her eyes. He turned around, his amber eyes on her, a wide smile appearing on his face as he opened his arms to her.

               "Matt!" Pidge cried, running towards her brother, tossing her helmet to the side and throwing her arms tight around him. Tears streamed down her cheeks, pressing her face into his shoulder as she sobbed, so happy to have her brother back in her arms.

               "I'm so happy to see you, Katie," he said, setting his hand on the back of her head. "But you're too late."

               "Wha-"

               His hand, like a blade, cut straight through her stomach. Her breathing haggard and labored, she set her hand on the forearm penetrating her abdomen, shakily looking up at her brother as blood spurt from her mouth.

               "Mm-M-Matt....." she stammered, wheezing as he yanked his arm out of her. She fell to her knees, hot tears falling over her cheeks, clutching her stomach as she felt warmth spill through her trembling fingers, slowly looking up into his dark, empty purple hued eyes.

               The sound of the witch Haggar's voice resonated from Matt's mouth, a low, sinister laugh penetrating Pidge's ears. "All is lost, Paladin. Suffer at the hands of your own flesh and blood!" the voice screeched as Matt's razor sharp hand drew back and flew right at her face.

               Pidge gasped, opening her eyes with a start, huffing as she realized it was just a nightmare. Maybe the worse nightmare she'd had yet. She'd always only ever had nightmares about her family getting killed in front of her by an enemy, but this was the first time Matt... had been the one to kill her.

               She closed her eyes, reorienting herself, opening them back up to view her dark room. Why was her room so dark? Why weren't the lights around her bed on? Finally fully waking up, she realized she was tangled in bed with another person. Literally. Tangled.

               Pidge was squeezed against Lance as close as she could be, her arms folded up to his chest. Her legs were curled around his, one of his arms under her head like a pillow as it wrapped around her head, the other arm draped over her side, his hand resting on the middle of her back. She was almost going to freak out just a little until she realized that it was her idea to sleep in the same bed as him. She also remembered that this was not her room.

               She peered up at Lance's sleeping face. He looked so calm, steadily breathing in and out, feeling his chest move against her with every breath he took. Even through the dimly lit room, her eyes adjusted enough to almost clearly see Lance's dark face. He had tiny freckles that speckled his face in random places, his lips were slightly parted as he breathed, Pidge still smelling the hint of spearmint from his toothpaste. She tentatively reached her hand to his face, cupping his cheek in her hand, gently rubbing her thumb under his eye. His skin was so smooth, likely from his hygiene regimen, Pidge carefully running her fingers down his cheek, just barely letting her thumb touch his soft, smooth... inviting... lips...

               Lance suddenly stirred, a groan escaping his throat as Pidge quickly removed her hand from his face before he cracked an eye open. His deep blue eyes stared into her amber ones for only a moment when the two quickly untangled from each other and sat up, staring away from each other. They sat in silence for who knows how long before Lance finally spoke up.

               "Soooo..." he began, pulling his leg up to his chest and setting his elbow on his knee. He wasn't exactly sure what to say. He'd woken up next to this girl several times now with little of an explanation as to why they were still doing it. "What exactly... happened last night, Pidge?"

               Pidge had a hard time looking his way, embarrassed that she could already feel a hot blush reddening her cheeks. She huffed, reaching down to grab her glasses from next to the mattress, crinkling her eyebrows in thought.

               "Well, I haven't been able to sleep properly for weeks," Pidge stammered, careful not to look in his face. "I slept fine when you, ehm... helped me during the last nights on Quaid, a-and I finally fell asleep after helping you play Killbot Phantasm a while back."

               "I remember that," Lance spoke up. "I fell asleep without even noticing not long after I beat that dungeon."

               "Y-Yeah, well..." Pidge desperately tried to find the right words to say next. "It's been weeks since then and I haven't been getting much sleep, so when you said you hadn't been able to either, I... I-I..." she trailed off, tentatively glancing toward him. His face was awash with concern, his eyes getting big for just a moment.

               "You wanted to try to... sleep with me again to see if we'd actually fall asleep this time?" he finished for her. Pidge sheepishly looked at him once more, sighing and squishing her hands to her cheeks.

               "Next to you, sleep next to you," she stammered. "I'm sorry, it was such a stupid idea, I-I didn't mean to force myself into your bed, I should have just stayed in my room and counted to one thousand or something instead of pushing you around so-" she started babbling.

               "I'm gonna stop you right there because I'll be honest, it was the best sleep I've had in weeks," Lance interrupted.

               Pidge looked up at him in shock. "Wha-What? The best what in what?"

               Lance couldn't help but laugh, nudging her with his shoulder as she stared up at him in disbelief. Finally getting his composure back, he said, "Pidge, 1. You didn't force anything. If I was gonna be even a little uncomfortable, I would have told you, 2. Even before that, if I thought you'd be uncomfortable, it wouldn't have happened in the first place, and 3. As always, you were correct."

               "C-Correct?"

               "Yeah," Lance said. "Remember, after you pushed me onto the bed, you said 'I want to try something'. This had to be it, right?"

               Her face got red as she pushed up her glasses. Well at least he listens to me. "So.... I guess my conclusion to this experiment would be..."

               ".... that we sleep better if we're.." Lance stammered, "next to each other?"

               "Well, how many times out of four have you slept better when next to me?" she asked him. At that moment her amber eyes glowed despite the dim light of the floor paneling, as if they were sparkling with both nervousness and curiosity. It made Lance's stomach flip over just a little bit.

               "Um," he said, biting his bottom lip. "Well, four, I guess. Fallen asleep faster, even."

               "I'm the same..." Pidge said quietly. She hugged her legs, setting her chin on her knees as she sat in thought a little bit more. It was ludicrous though, right? How could she possibly sleep better next to Lance of all people? Although she didn't really mean the 'of all people' part; he was an incredibly empathetic person, able to know exactly what one is feeling at any given moment. He gave amazing bear hugs, his hands were always so warm. And as awkward as it was, waking up tangled in his arms made her feel immensely secure, as if nothing could hurt her in his enveloping, protective embrace. And he smelled so incredibly good, the mixture of avocado and aloe vera making her heart almost skip two beats. Everything was an important factor in why she was able to sleep better next to him, but it still made her feel very awkward. She could remember wanting to sleep in between her parents in their bed when she was younger, so what exactly was the difference there? Besides maybe the fact that those were her parents and this was an incredibly tall, cute olive skinned seventeen year old boy sleeping next to her instead.

               Did I just admit he was cute? Pidge thought to herself. What is wrong with me lately?

               Lance spoke up, shocking Pidge out of her whirlwind thoughts when he touched her arm. "So.... what do you want to do now?" he asked her curiously.

               Pidge put her thumb to her lip in thought, a little afraid at what she was going to say next. "I guess... we could try again...?"

               A blush made its way to Lance's cheeks, looking away and scratching his cheek. "W-Well, if you want to, I mean.." he trailed off.

               Pidge huffed, slapping her hands gently to her cheeks a few times before throwing her legs over the side of the bed and standing up, holding a hand out to him. "For now, let's just get up for the day and get there when we get there," she said as he took her hand, tensing her arm as she helped him up from the mattress. He side smiled and nodded, the both of them heading for the door.

               As the two walked out, a person suddenly rounded the corner, nearly bumping into the two.

               "Pidge?" Keith said, his eyebrow quirking up as he saw her walking out the door, noticing she was still in her pajamas. "What are you doing in Lance's room so early in the morning?"

               Pidge blanched, panicking to find words that don't scream 'Oh I was sleeping in his bed with him'. It wasn't like they were doing anything bad, but it still wouldn't go over well with everyone else if they found out Lance and Pidge were sleeping together.

               Next to each other! NEXT to each other!!

               "We uhm," Pidge stammered. "I, w-we..."

               "We were up late playing Killbot Phantasm," Lance said nonchalantly.

               "And you just left Pidge to sleep on the floor while you slept in your soft bed?" Keith asked, crossing his arms over his torso as he scrunched his face.

               "What, no, of course not," Lance shot back.

               "So she slept in your bed and you on the floor?"

               "No, I-"

               "In your bed with you?" Keith asked heatedly, uncrossing his arms and his hands balling into fists. Lance put his hands up in defense.

               Uh oh, Pidge thought, her eyebrows going up in shock. At that moment however, Pidge noticed something off.

               "No no!! It's not like that!!" Lance stuttered, trying to find his composure as the black haired paladin stared him down. "We just, I, we both, on the floor, both of us fell-"

               "Hey, why are you in your Blade of Marmora armor?" Pidge suddenly asked, crossing her arms and scrunching her eyebrows in irritation.

               It was Keith's turn to get defensive this time. "Oh, I..." he breathed through his nostrils, knowing that he was going to get backlash afterwards. "Kolivan has a mission for me. He notified me late last night and I was hoping to slip out before anyone woke up. Just..." he looked down, a strain in his gray eyes before looking back up to Pidge and Lance. "Just don't tell Shiro and Allura until after I've left, please." He had a pleading look in his eyes. Pidge sighed, flicking her head towards the end of the hallway. Keith smiled, relief washing over him as he started stepping down the hall once more, pulling his hood over his head. "Thank you. I'll be back soon." And with that, he was gone.

               "I wonder what he's doing on these missions," Lance said quietly to Pidge.

               Pidge sighed. "It's none of our business, apparently," she said sadly. She grasped Lance's sleeve, looking up at him shyly. "Um, so...?"

               "Just, meet me back here tonight before you go to sleep, and we'll..." he trailed off for a moment, trying to find the least embarrassing words he could for their situation. "Corroborate your theory tonight."

               Pidge laughed, holding her hand to stomach as she tried to stifle her giggle. "Yeah, we can do that," she said, walking along to her room. She stood in front of her door as it whooshed open, glancing back at him. At that moment, his dark blue eyes gazed back at her, his lips curling into a smoldering smile that set her heart on fire. Her eyes got wide, quickly stepping into her room and shutting the door as fast as she could, setting her back to it and slowly slipping down until she softly landed on the floor. She grasped at her shirt over where he heart was, feeling the frantic beating underneath. She glanced over at her two blue and green space caterpillars, sleeping and snuggling next to each other on one of her trash paladins. As visions of his olive skin, the smoothness of his cheek, his unbelievably deep blue eyes began flooding her mind. She wondered what it would be like to tangle her hands into his silky chocolate brown hair, what it would be like to press her lips to his soft, warm mouth.

               Her face was incredibly hot, pressing her hands to her fiery red cheeks.

               Oh no.

[aivaehdaevis]

The More Things Change: Ch 7

The More Things Change

by Aivaeh

Disclaimer: Familiar characters, plot elements, and settings belong to L.J. Smith, Julie Plec, and the CW. The author of this work of fanfiction has made no money from it. Summary: I have no idea how it happened, but one morning I woke up in the world of The Vampire Diaries. Which, aside from the insanity of waking up inside a television show made real, might not be so bad—if I weren't stuck in the body of vampire magnet and doppelgänger herself, Elena Gilbert. Pairing(s): OFC x Damon, OFC x Stefan, OFC x Elijah, OFC x Klaus Rating: M Warning(s): Graphic descriptions of violence on par with the show itself. References to sex and drug use. Mind control and all the issues of consent that go along with it. Character death. Master List External Links: AO3 | FF.Net | Wattpad

Chapter Seven

The chaos lasted long enough for several people to fall or run into one another. Thankfully, Matt and Caroline managed to calm everyone down. Matt came up with the idea that a few people should go to their cars for flashlights. By the time they came back, their bobbing beams carving through the darkness, most of the group had gathered around the fire. Aside from a general unease, everyone had settled.

Party over, we walked back down the trail, those with the flashlights interspersed throughout to give enough light for everyone to see. It made for a crowded exit. Jeremy, after disappearing briefly, came back and waited with me in the SUV for traffic to clear. He didn’t speak as we bounced down the gravel road. Dust kicked up by all the cars ahead of us drifted over the road as if fog floated in front of the headlights. When we reached the highway, he just turned on the stereo and leaned back into his seat, bored.

I couldn’t shake the memory of Damon attacking him. Of Jeremy on the ground, eyes slipping shut as he lost consciousness. Of blood spreading out over the dirt and between the blades of grass, drowning fallen leaves and twigs.

And if it wasn’t the attack at the forefront of my mind, it was the firming suspicion I was haunted.

I was thoroughly freaked out by the time we arrived back at the Gilbert house. Too many fears packed into my head. While Jeremy jumped out of the SUV, I took a moment, staring at the back of the garage. Someone had set up a long wooden table and a tool rack. Grayson Gilbert? I stared at the wrenches and the hammers and red plastic shelving as the car clicked and creaked as it settled and tried to do the same to my mind.

I had done what I was supposed to. I’d gone to the party and everything had still turned upside-down. Meeting Damon early must’ve thrown too big a rock into the waters of fate. The ripples were spilling over.

Vicki hadn’t been attacked. What would that change? Blowing out a breath, I rubbed my forehead. Pulling the keys out of the ignition, I climbed out of the SUV.

The grind and rumble of the garage door lifting startled me. Thinking it was Elena, fear rooted me in place as I watched the door lift. Then a pair of headlights shone from outside, and I squinted as a car rolled into the spot next to the SUV.

“Elena!” Jenna wasted no time cutting the engine and hopping out the passenger side of a Mini Cooper.

At the sound of her voice, I loosed a relieved breath. “Hey Jenna.”

“Are you alright?” she asked, worry speeding her words as she shut the car door and moved around the SUV.

My brows drew together. “Yeah. Fine.” I paused to amend, “A little tired.”

“Oh good,” Jenna breathed. Her hand flew to her purse and pulled out her phone. “I got all these texts—”

“You’re not the only one.” At her questioning look, I said, “I meant to tell you, I lost my phone. Someone must’ve found it. They’re sending out these weird messages to people in my contacts.”

The tension lifted from Jenna. I wished my own worries could’ve been so easily assuaged. “I’ll call the service tomorrow and get it shut off.” She replaced her phone in her bag.

“Thanks, Jenna.” I hit the garage door opener before exiting the side door, Jenna right behind me. “How was your day?”

That sparked a conversation that lasted through a light dinner of leftovers. When we were finished, I carried a plate of food up to Jeremy’s room. I wanted to check on him under the guise of delivering dinner. He opened the door when I knocked, but he was on the phone. He ended up taking the plate with a nod and going right back to his conversation, shutting the door behind him.

I guessed that meant he was alright. Stefan’s compulsion seemed to be holding.

Walking into Elena’s room, I steeled myself for another exploding bulb or a rotting corpse as I flicked the light switch. The room lit up, sans phantom.

I started changing into Elena’s pajamas, then remembered Stefan intended to come over. I put on a pair of sweatpants and a light cotton camisole instead. After washing off the makeup, I tied my hair up into a ponytail.

I doubted Jenna and Jeremy would be going to sleep anytime soon. Since I’d already finished up her homework, I got out Elena’s laptop instead. I searched the internet for any information on hauntings.

Most of what I found had to do with popular culture’s ideas of hauntings. Unfinished business. Cold spots. Poltergeists versus ‘recorded’ memories. Haunted places. Supposed sightings. Strange electromagnetic energy. There was endless amounts of information, but no way to know what was real and what was bull. Besides, I wasn’t sure if what might be going on even counted as a haunting. This was Elena’s life.

I concentrated on possession instead. Things got even darker. Most of it revolved around demonic forces and evil spirits. Since I was pretty sure I wasn’t a demon, I concentrated on the spirit aspect.

Turns out nearly every culture has some concept of possession. I guess in this universe, it was based on more than just a grain of truth. I tried to find information that lined up with what I was experiencing, but most of it centered around the possessee’s experiences, how to ward off possession, or cast a spirit out.

The last of which sounded… kinda ominous. Not gonna lie.

I had no idea where my body was or if it was even here. What would happen if I were forced out? Maybe I’d go home.

Yeah. Sure. And I’d do it riding a frigging unicorn while eating a pint of zero calorie butter pecan ice-cream.

I was reading up on the pagan connection between Halloween and spirits when there was a light tink on the window. Beyond it was Stefan, crouched on a branch and ducking his head to look in. Shutting the laptop, I stood up and hurried over. Elena’s hair swept forward as I crawled onto the window seat and pulled the pane open. “Stefan.”

His sights traced the window frame. “You have to invite me in.”

I stared out. Stefan was a vampire. I should never, ever let him in. “I can’t.”

Stefan met my eyes and nodded. “Okay.” He held out a hand.

I assured myself that Stefan was safe as I climbed onto the window seat. I had gone with Damon, who regularly suggested he’d kill me or someone I knew, plenty of times. Stefan wasn’t like that. I put my hand into his, letting him help steady me as I stretched out the window.

The bough creaked and dipped as he moved further along to take hold of me. As soon as I was in his arms, he said, “Hold on,” and jumped. He landed in a soft crouch on the roof. Setting me on my feet, he kept hold of my hand as we navigated up the slanted gable to the join where the roof met the chimney stack. He helped me sit before crouching next to me.

I had to hand it to Mystic Falls. Even it’s ‘suburbs’ were beautiful. The neighborhood was mostly dark except for a scattering of little yellow boxes where the night owls nested inside. The trees were large shadows darker than the sky that shivered in the breeze. Wisps of clouds hid the moon and the stars, but the streetlights cast more than enough shine to see by.

We stared quietly at one another for several long seconds.

“How long have you known?” Stefan asked, voice low and soft.

How to answer that? In the months since I started streaming the show? The days since I’d gotten here? “Long enough.”

His gaze slanted to the side. “I thought Damon would have wiped your memory. I suppose he wanted you to know what he was. What I was.” His jaw clenched before relaxing.

I bent my knees higher and wrapped my arms around my legs. “I couldn’t tell anyone.”

Stefan nodded.

“I won’t tell anyone about you, either.”

Stefan frowned. “I’m not worried about that, Elena.” Before I could figure out how to warn him to be more wary—possibly bring up the fact Elena’s parents knew about vampires?—Stefan reached into his pocket. “I want you to have something.” Carefully, he lifted out a certain necklace by its chain.

The locket spun between us, the soft yellow glow of a nearby streetlight winking off the engraved silver. “Stefan,” I breathed, his name all but knocked out of my lungs by the relief I felt.

“It’s filled with an herb called vervain that protects the mind. Wear this and vampires can’t compel you.”

“I think Damon tried this morning, but nothing happened.”

He undid the clasp. “I slipped some into your drink the other night.” My surprise must’ve been clear on my face, because he explained, “I knew he’d already compelled you once. I wanted to make sure he couldn’t do it again.” His small but sincere smile made an appearance. “But it’s temporary. I’ve been trying to figure out a way to give you this that you’d accept it.”

My answering smile was much larger. “Problem solved.”

“One of them,” he muttered. He held up the necklace, chain parted. “May I?”

“Definitely.” I turned so that my back faced him. The necklace lowered, the locket winking from the streetlight as it passed before my eyes. Stefan’s hands hovered over my shoulders before moving to the back of my neck. His knuckles whispered across my soft skin. His touch rewired my body so that each brush of skin echoed throughout every inch of me.

I’d never felt the chasm of space like I did as he moved back. I wanted to lean into him, ask him to lay his hands on me again. But I didn’t. Instead, I lifted the now-secured locket up to my nose. Elena had been right. It did smell of roses. I twisted around. He watched me with lidded eyes dark from something other than bloodlust. “Thank you.”

He gave a single, short nod. Our gazes held.

The streetlight flickered.

We both lifted our sights to it. Elena. I sucked down a breath, reminded myself this body wasn’t mine to do with as I wanted.

“Do you have any idea what that’s about?” Stefan asked quietly.

In for a penny. “I think I’m being haunted.”

From the steepling of his brows, Stefan hadn’t expected that.

“You don’t believe in spirits?”

His smile took on a wry twist. “I’m a vampire, Elena. If I exist, I’m sure other things do, too.” His expression turned thoughtful. “I’ve just never run into a ghost before. I’ll make some calls. See if anyone knows anything about hauntings.”

Some of the ever-present knotwork my stomach seemed twisted up into lately loosened a smidge. “Thank you so much, Stefan. If there’s any way I can help—”

“Stay safe.” Stefan’s hand moved but stalled before it got very far. “That’s all I want.”

I thought of Damon’s eyes and snarling mouth before he attacked Jeremy. “Your brother makes that a tall order.”

Stefan was quiet. I shifted my feet, my socks catching on the abrasive texture of the roof tiles. “I think if he was going to hurt you, he wouldn’t have attacked Jeremy.”

“I don’t know, Stefan. That hurts me, too.”

Stefan bowed his head in acknowledgement. “I know. I’m not excusing what he did. But I don’t think he’ll attack you, Elena.”

“Why?”

Stefan stared into the darkness. “It’s complicated.” Before I could ask him to try me, he went on, “When we were still human, Damon fell in love.” Realizing that he was talking about Katherine, every thought quieted as I concentrated entirely on him. “You—look a lot like her.” I nearly snorted. “I think you remind him of her.”

And though I knew the answer, I thought it would be weird if I didn’t ask. “And when were you human, Stefan?”

He peeked at me from the corner of his eye. “We were turned in eighteen sixty-four.”

“Did you lie when you said you were from here?”

“No.” Stefan looked out at the houses. “We were born and grew up in Mystic Falls.”

“So you would have been around for the Civil War.”

His lips lifted in a smile. “Mister Tanner would approve.” I huffed. His smile widened before falling back to his usual line. “But, yes. I was too young to join. Not technically. They took boys younger than I was back then. Father wanted me to wait until I was eighteen.”

“Damon?”

“Enlisted. He’s never really spoken of it.”

“Is it weird, how much the world’s changed?”

Stefan’s lips pursed. “I don’t think on it much. I suppose it’s the same for us as it is for humans. The changes are so incremental, you don’t notice most of them. Not until you have a reason to stop and remember.”

“I’d think going from horses and carriages to sports cars would be weird.”

Stefan’s lips slanted into a crooked grin. “More convenient. Less odor.” He tilted his head. “The same can be said for most things.”

“What’s your favorite decade?”

Stefan blinked. “They’ve all had their good and bad moments.”

I continued asking him things about the past. Did he remember this or that? What was the first movie he ever saw (a thirty-second clip of a horse race that had come around with a vaudeville act). How had this or that worked? What had they done without x, y, or z? I peppered him with all sorts of questions, and he sat up with me, patient and willing to answer.

He began asking me questions in return. Weirdly, his simpler questions about my past were hard to answer. I wanted to be truthful, I don’t like to lie and I’m no good at it. But I wasn’t ready to confess my fears—not until I knew more about what had happened to me and Elena. I bent the truth here and there, replaced my parents with Miranda and Grayson, my two best friends growing up with Bonnie and Caroline. He never seemed suspicious, so it must have worked.

By the time the sky began to lighten, I realized we’d talked for hours.

Stefan looked at the rising sun and frowned. “I’ve kept you up all night.”

“I don’t think I’d have slept.” Without our conversation to distract me, memories of Damon’s red eyes and gaping mouth, of Jeremy’s glazed eyes rolling back in his head crowded everything else out of my mind. As if they’d been waiting for an opening. Squeezing my eyes shut, I pinched the bridge of my nose, willing them away. They refused to go.

A soft touch on my shoulder pulled me back to Stefan. Eyes the same shade as the distant forest watched beneath the concerned furrow of his brows. Golden light shone off one side of his face, the rest laying in deeper shadow. I traced the haloed contours. “How do you stand the sun?”

He lifted a hand, a large lapis lazuli dominated his ring finger. “It’s spelled to let us walk in the daylight.”

“Spelled?” My lips twisted into a sardonic smile. “Like magic?”

He nodded.

“So witches are a thing?”

“Yes.” He laid an arm over his own bent knee. His other leg lay stretched out. The sunlight crept along the tiles as the sun peeked over the rooftops. I kept my eyes on Stefan to avoid the glare. He kept his on me.

“Bonnie’s grandmother says she’s one.”

“Sheila Bennett. I remember her.” His head tilted. “If she says so, then it’s true.”

“Bonnie doesn’t believe it.”

He hummed. “She will. Power like that doesn’t stay dormant forever.”

Quiet settled between us as night grew distant and the sky blushed with morning’s coming. As the darkness receded, I realized that since Stefan’s arrival, I hadn’t worried about a thing. It was as if his mere presence soothed all my fears and calmed my troubled mind. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt so peaceful, which was amazing considering the circumstance. I could see myself becoming addicted to it. To him.

And then the screaming started.

Already entrapped by Stefan’s gaze, we both tensed in alarm. I recognized the voice. “Jeremy!”

I stood up, trying to navigate the roof as quickly as I could, when Stefan’s hand took mine and led me to Elena’s window. “Here,” he said, reaching out with his other hand. Without hesitating I took it. He lowered me to the still open window where I was able to get a toehold inside. I let go of one of his hands to grab the frame and pull myself in, while his other kept me steady.

As soon as I was inside, I hopped off the window seat and rushed to the adjoining bathroom. Jeremy’s door was unlocked. He lay in bed, thrashing as if he were fighting an invisible opponent.

I rushed to his bedside. Sweat had beaded across his skin, his muscles gone rigid as he tried to move. “Jeremy!”

His eyes shot open, and he waved a panicked fist in my direction that narrowly missed my arm. I gasped. He focused on me, brows pinched together before he croaked, “Elena?”

“Hey,” I sighed. “I heard you yelling.”

He drew in a deep breath. “Bad dream,” he muttered before wiping his forehead with the back of his arm. “Sorry.”

“S’alright. I’m just glad you’re okay.” I would’ve stayed to make certain, or at least let him calm down more, but I was all too keenly aware there was a vampire still hanging outside my window. “If you’re alright, I’ll head back to bed.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

I was about to go when a knock sounded at the door. “Jeremy? What’s wrong?”

“He had a nightmare, Jenna.”

“Oh. Do you want to talk about it?”

“No,” Jeremy groaned, flopping back down onto his pillow. “I want to go back to sleep.”

I wondered if he’d be able to.

Without Jeremy’s shouting, I was able to take in his room on my way out. The colors were muted and dark, fairly masculine. While things were clustered together on shelves, it was clean. He had a few posters on his walls—bands and some tribal-style art. His bookshelf held a mixture of robot action figures and books.

Stepping back into the bathroom, I gently shut the door behind me and hurried through to my room. I immediately looked for Stefan and found him on the tree outside, one hand perched on the windowsill. I hurried to the seat beneath. “Nightmare.”

He nodded. Right. He would’ve heard. He looked troubled, though. “Without a regular diet of human blood,” he whispered, “the powers of persuasion don’t work as well.”

I remembered Vicki’s flashbacks on the show. “He remembers?”

“Subconsciously.” Stefan frowned. “As long as he doesn’t probe too deeply into what happened that night, the compulsion should hold.”

I frowned. Jeremy had been tenacious. “He’s stubborn. He gets an idea in his head, he doesn’t let go.”

Stefan’s expression was grim. “Let’s hope not.”

I gripped the seat cushion. Another thing to toss on the pile of worries. A pile that was probably more accurately labeled a skyscraper by now.

I missed the peace I’d found earlier.

Stefan and I fell into each other’s eyes. How long, I couldn’t say. Too long, not long enough. Eventually, he broke the quiet. “I’ll see what I can find out about hauntings. In the meantime, if something happens, call me.”

“Do I have your number?”

His eyes widened in realization. “No. Do you have anything to write with?”

“Yeah.” I stood and crossed to Elena’s desk, grabbing a pen and a post-it note. I passed them both to Stefan.

Still balanced on the limb, even though it wasn’t that large, Stefan steadied the post-it on his knee as he wrote. He handed them back. “The first one’s my cell. The second is to the house. If I don’t answer, my nephew Zach will. He knows the truth about us.”

“Or Damon,” I said softly.

His lips pressed into an unhappy line before he gave a reluctant nod. “Or Damon.” His brow cocked. “If he feels like answering the phone.” His tone implied this was unlikely.

I held the post-it and stared at Stefan. He seemed as reluctant to go as I was to see him leave. Eventually he looked aside. “I should let you get ready.”

“You too.”

He nodded and turned back. “See you at school.”

When I blinked, he was gone.

“Show off.” I looked down to the post-it. The writing was more then legible, it was beautiful. Perfectly spaced, with sharp corners and elegant curves. Realizing he’d learned to write over a hundred and sixty years before, I shook my head in wonder before sticking the post-it to Elena’s desk, next to the cordless handset.

Weary as I was, I felt good. Refreshed. Surprising, considering the events of the night before. I went through my morning ablutions, but as I shuffled through Elena’s closet trying to decide what to wear, I realized that each second was now bringing me closer to seeing Damon again.

This lowered my mood considerably.

A breakfast of sugary cereal and coffee probably didn’t help my nerves any.

“How do I look?”

I glanced up from my spoon to find Jenna posing with hands on her hips. She had a cream-colored blouse on with black dress pants. “Professional.”

She smiled. “That’s what I was going for.”

I sipped my coffee. “What’s the occasion?”

She stepped over to the small oval mirror on the dining room wall, examining her hair as she answered, “Jeremy’s parent teacher conference.”

Ouch. I was about to go back to my cereal when she twisted and asked, “Hair up,” she held it aloft over her head, “or down?” She let it flow back over her shoulders.

I shrugged. “It looks fine both ways.”

Jenna turned back to the mirror. “Down.”

“Gives you cover.”

She arched a brow at me, but before she could say anything, Jeremy appeared in the dining room.

“Morning.”

“Hey.”

She followed on his heels as he headed for the coffee pot. “Any idea what I can expect to hear from your teachers?”

He paused. “Huh?”

“Parent teacher conference,” I said nonchalantly before shoving another spoonful of cereal into my mouth. What can I say? I like the drama when it isn’t mine.

Jeremy shrugged. “Don’t know.”

“Don’t know?” Jenna’s brows flew up. “What’s that mean?”

“Means I don’t know, Jenna.” Jeremy filled up his cup and maneuvered around her for the seat next to mine.

“So I’m not going to hear singing praises?” she clarified, looking even more anxious than before.

Jeremy paused, cup halfway to his mouth. He glanced up beneath thick lashes. “Um.” He looked back down. “Don’t know.”

“Liar,” I muttered—and ignored the glare he shot me.

Jeremy turned to Jenna. “Elena’s dating someone older.”

I snorted, nearly blasting my spoonful of milk and flakes everywhere. Kid, you have no idea. And we weren’t really dating. He was just coercing me into doing whatever he wanted.

I was not going to say that, though.

“His name’s Damon,” I told Jenna, who now looked like she’d been told to solve a rubrics cube blindfolded or she’d fail at life. “He’s only twenty-five.”

“Twenty-five,” Jenna repeated doubtfully.

“Good thing you’re seventeen. That’s, like, a year away from jailbait,” Jeremy said with a smirk.

“Maybe I should tell Vicki Donovan that,” I sniped back.

Jenna’s brow furrowed. The cube now had ten extra colors tacked on. “Matt’s older sister?”

“Mhmm,” I hummed before taking a sip of my coffee.

“Whatever,” Jeremy declared before sliding off his seat and ambling back towards the stairs.

Jenna watched him leave, resignation in the slump of her shoulders. Her sights fell to me. “Twenty-five, Elena?”

“He’s very immature for his age,” I assured her.

She frowned.

I finished my coffee and carried the dishes to the sink. Jenna spun about, looking as if she were searching for something to say. I turned on the water and added, “Don’t worry about it. I don’t think it’s going to work out.”

She blinked. “Okay.”

Leaving Jenna looking as if she were preparing for a dismal day, I thought about taking off in the SUV before Damon had a chance to show up. Then I realized that would probably make things worse. Resigned, I carried my bag out onto the front step and settled in to wait.

But Damon never showed up.

I gave up waiting with ten minutes to spare and raced off for the SUV instead. I was still late to school. I gave a tight smile to Bonnie, but she quickly stared back down at her notes. Her attention stayed there throughout the rest of class.

She hurried out of the room just as the bell rang and was a fair way down the hall by the time I made it out the door.

Frowning, I turned instead for my next hour. As I walked the hallway, it seemed every eye followed me. I’d spent so much of the walk with my head down, I noticed the metallic flecks in the floor tiles by the time I reached English. Stefan was in the back again and Caroline had the seat next to him, leaving the one in front clear. He smiled as I sat down to claim it, and I smiled back.

Caroline leaned over her desk. “Didn’t see your boyfriend this morning, Elena.”

Stomping down the urge to say he wasn’t my boyfriend, I frowned. “Neither did I. He never showed.”

Stefan grimaced. “He’s… occupied.”

“Occupied?” I wondered.

Stefan shook his head. Apparently, The Great Gatsby became indescribably interesting at that point, because he didn’t look up from its pages again.

“I thought you two didn’t talk,” Caroline prodded.

Stefan flipped a page. “Didn’t need to.”

The class began before Caroline could probe further. Still, throughout the discussion, I wondered what he’d meant. Occupied. If it were something bad, surely Stefan would’ve come off as grimmer. Instead, it was like he wanted to avoid the subject.

As we began packing up a few minutes before the bell, I turned back to Stefan. “Is he causing trouble?”

Stefan’s brow ticked up. “Damon?” At my nod, Stefan paused. “Always.” At my narrowed eyed look, he lifted his bag and stood.

I hurried to follow, but Caroline was right there, sticking to Stefan’s side like a stubborn barnacle. Annoyed, I huffed out a breath that just made more of my hair hit my face. Before I could find a covert way to ask if he were feeding on innocent bystanders, I had to separate to head off to Biology.

I was still wondering what in the world Stefan had meant when I spotted Tyler coming from the opposite direction. He pointed a finger gun at me, saying, “Nine-one-one, what’s the emergency?” while his letter-jacketed buddy beside him laughed.

Ugh. “Funny, Tyler.”

He smirked before striding into class.

I sucked down a slow, deep breath to fortify myself for fifty minutes of Lockwood ‘humor.’ Though there probably isn’t enough air in the world.

By the time I had History, I was pretty much Done. The stares hadn’t abated. The whispers were turning to murmurs. I’d studied to be prepared for discussion but was too tired to put it to good use. I trudged into History, took one look at Tanner’s punchable face, and almost turned and walked out. Instead, I slid into the seat in front of Bonnie. “I am having the worst day,” I said before my forehead hit the desk.

Bonnie nodded, but otherwise didn’t look my way. She was leafing through the textbook. Figuring she hadn’t done the reading, I left her to it.

Stefan arrived and got the desk next to mine.

I turned to him. “So what’s occupied mean?”

He sighed. “Don’t worry about it, Elena.””

I pursed my lips. “Well, is he coming over later?”

Stefan snorted. “I highly doubt it.”

My brows flew up, and I was about to prod for more answers when—

“We’re not interrupting you, are we Mister Salvatore? Miss Gilbert?”

UGH. I turned forward, forcing myself to look up into Tanner’s stupid, smug face, and shook my head.

“No sir,” Stefan politely replied.

The rest of history I had to chew on my curiosity. Stefan obviously didn’t want to go into details, and it was driving me mad. What do you do the day after you almost kill the brother of the girl you’re stalking? I couldn’t stop wondering.

And as if he knew I’d been stewing all class, Stefan took off for lunch. Probably to hunt. It left me with a tableful of awkwardness, though. Bonnie was still quiet; she must’ve had other stuff on her mind. Maybe to do with her Grams. Or class.

Caroline reminded me about helping out with the flyers for the festival. “Right after school,” she made sure to add, pointedly. She settled into her seat and tacked on a, “At the Grill.”

“Right,” I said, holding back a yawn.

The rest of the table wanted to know about my missing phone and Damon. Two topics I didn’t feel like getting into. Luckily, Caroline took pity on me, and deftly redirected the conversation to the first practice that was coming up soon.

That I had to go to. My mood plummeted even further at the reminder.

I grudgingly attended the rest of my classes. By the time the last bell rang, and I was back at my car, I was ready to just take off and never look back. Instead I got in and drove to the Grill.

I arrived before Caroline. Not hungry, I stuck to just ordering an orange juice as I waited at one of the outside tables. Caroline turned up not long after, parking next to me. Emerging, she strode to the trunk and came back with two boxes balanced in her hands.

“We have to fold them.” She told me as she set one box beside me and the other between herself and an empty seat.

I pulled the lid off the nearest and blanched. “All of them?”

Caroline shot me a look that screamed, ‘duh.’ “Yes, Elena. All of them.”

There had to be thousands in the box. It was packed with glossy paper. Thicker than regular paper, but not by that much. I was exhausted but sucked it up as I started to pull out a stack.

Caroline stopped me. “One at a time. Otherwise a breeze might blow them away.”

Right. I plucked one free and watched carefully as Caroline folded the first. It wasn’t complicated, just tedious.

“You know you didn’t have to lie about being interested in Damon,” Caroline said as I started in on the first.

I paused and looked up. “I wasn’t lying.” I pursed my lips. “He was a genuine ass the first time we met.” Understatement.

“But he got better?”

No. “Yes.” I tried lining up the edges evenly, but I sucked at this sort of thing. And I was pretty sure Caroline was a perfectionist. Fighting the urge to grind my teeth, I tried to line them up again. “He can be charming when he wants to be.” And the crease turned out crooked. Huffing a breath, I made the next fold anyway. Whatever. She could deal.

Before Caroline could ask anything else, Bonnie pulled up. After exiting the car, she greeted us with a quiet hello. She took the seat next to Caroline and immediately set to work.

Her folds looked perfect. I decided she was cheating. Using instinctive magic or something.

“So how is he?” Caroline asked.

“Damon?” At Caroline’s nod, I shook my head. “Don’t know. I already told you, I didn’t see him this morning.”

“No, Elena. I mean the sex.”

I was really glad I wasn’t drinking my orange juice at that moment, because I was pretty sure that would’ve been a spit take. “No idea. We just started dating, Caroline.”

“Uh, who cares? Have you seen him?”

“…Yes?”

“Jump him, already!” Caroline slapped another flyer down. “I need deets.”

“You need them? What, for a vicarious thrill?” My nose crinkled. Ew.

“Yes!” she said, half-laughing. “It’s not like Bonnie or I are getting any.”

Bonnie shot an unamused glance at Caroline out the corner of her eyes.

“Right. Okay. Sure. I’ll sleep with a guy I just started seeing for your benefit.”

“Damn right you will. Look, Elena. It’s not complicated. Boy likes girl. Girl likes boy.” Caroline mashed her hands together. “Sex.”

And drinking her blood, after threatening everyone she knows. Yeah, no. “It’s complicated.”

“Bonnie, help me out here,” Caroline entreated.

Bonnie focused on the flyers as if they held the secret of immortality. “I’m with Elena.”

Caroline scoffed. “Traitors.” Caroline eyed me, suspicion all over her face. “So what’s with Damon being occupied?”

“No idea.”

“You can’t tell me you aren’t curious.”

Well, no. No I couldn’t. “You’ve got me there.”

Caroline waited several minutes for more, but when she didn’t get it, shook her head. The conversation turned to her music choices for the new routine she was planning. Bonnie was quiet the whole time. I was fighting to stay awake.

By the time I was done, I hated the comet. I hated the comet festival. I hated folding paper.

I stared at Caroline with bleary, probably red, eyes. “Can I go now?” I didn’t whine. I was too mature for that. I entreated in a higher pitch than normal. That’s all.

“Yes.” Caroline gathered up the last of the folded flyers. “Remember that tomorrow we have to pass them out before the festival.”

“Of course we do,” I sighed.

I paid for my drinks and bade them both goodbye. Then, to add to my irritation, I hit every red light on the way back to Elena’s. Irrationally, I started blaming her for it.

By the time I finally made it back to the Gilbert House, I was ready to collapse face-first into Elena’s bed and take a very long nap before confronting today’s homework. So ready I almost didn’t notice the silver car parked in the driveway until I passed right next to it. Pulling into the garage, I figured Jenna must have company.

Please, don’t let it be Logan Fell.

Walking into the kitchen, I gave a cautious glance around for any current news anchors pre-vampirism. Instead, I caught sight of Jenna sitting at the dining room table, irritation in every tensed line in her face and body.

She turned her head towards me as the door shut. “Elena. Guess who’s here?”

“Can’t begin to,” I sighed, dropping my bag near the island.

“Hello, Elena.”

My mouth dropped into a little o as John Gilbert appeared in the archway.

[hetmusic]

HumanHuman meets BBC’s Alex Rogers

As one of our newer influencers, we wanted to get to know radio all-rounder Alex Rogers, who feeds a passion for new music into his roles at BBC Introducing Kent, Roundhouse Radio and BBC Radio 1. He’s been an active part of the HumanHuman community for just three months, but he’s already used the music discovery platform to find some of the most promising new artists for radio play.

We caught up on the last day of The Great Escape under to bright lights of Komedia’s impressive entrance to talk about how radio is changing, why he loves HumanHuman so much and the key piece of advice he has for anyone thinking of entering the music industry.

For the HumanHuman community, tell me who are you and what do you do?

I'm Alex Rogers and I work in radio: I do social media for BBC Introducing in Kent, every Saturday with Abbie McCarthy and Harrison Stock. I also present on Roundhouse Radio and work at BBC Radio 1. For Radio 1, I work predominantly on the weekend shows, so Alice Levine, Dev, Matt Edmondson, Danny Howard. A few of the evening shows as well, like Friction and a little bit of Phil Taggart. I also do stuff for Annie Mac as well, so on Wednesday we did New Names, which was Weirdo! From my point of view, HumanHuman has been so big in Weirdo’s rise to Radio 1.

Oh really?

Yeah, because I spotted him on HumanHuman and thought “this is really good!” The tip from Going Solo for Weirdo on HumanHuman was why he got played on Radio 1. To see “Armanio” being played on New Names was really cool. I thought I would tell you that!

“The tip from Going Solo for Weirdo on HumanHuman was why he got played on Radio 1.”— Alex Rogers

That’s amazing! You certainly have a lot going on, but what was your very first job in music?

My very first job was… does student radio count?!

Yeah, it counts!

Well, I live in a really tiny place outside London, so when I moved to university, I was really keen to get into music and go to lots of gigs, because I’d been listening to radio and looking at blogs. My first job would technically be as a radio producer and Head of Music at the student radio in Southampton. Let me think of some highlights… oh, interviewed Pixie Lott, which was well weird! I also interviewed Lucy Rose, she’s really cool. Student radio is a really nice way to enter the industry and you get to find so much new music, because university students listen to much more of a variety of music. Southampton was also really good for having Bestival nearby on the Isle of Wight, and I cannot express how grateful I was for having a festival where I could be home in my own bed and with my own shower.

This is me with Dot to Dot in Manchester!

Oh, it’s so good!

You’ve been in radio for a whole then, so what do you think is the most significant change to radio in recent years?

I was actually thinking about this on the way over, that in the last few months to a year the music industry seems to have so got much better at making good music and putting it out there. It seems like we’re in a time now where years of work trying to make the music industry more appealing is now coming to the surface. There’s loads of developments, like streaming. It’s really kept everyone on their toes. Apple Music is competing with Spotify, and that’s keeping iTunes on its toes. Radio 1 is just getting stronger and stronger, because it’s really working on schedule changes and playlists at the moment, but really, that’s thematic rather than wanting a change. Since last year we’ve seen all these digital platforms get so much better and the listening experience has gotten better too. Radio 1 also does album listening parties, which are really cool. The Radiohead one was good and the Beyoncé’s Lemonade one with Sam Wolfson from Noisey was really, really good.

“It seems like we’re in a time now where years of work trying to make the music industry more appealing is now coming to the surface.”— Alex Rogers

That’s the first time I’m hearing of these parties, but that’s really cool!

Yeah, but the reason I’m saying that this is my favourite change is because I just love the fact that a couple of weeks ago we had all these albums dropping! It just feels like the industry has been revitalized. We had all these deservedly big releases - Radiohead, James Blake, Drake, Rihanna, Beyoncé, Kanye.

Speaking of revitalization, there’s recently been a huge influx of internet radio stations, what do you think about the music industry’s move to the online world?

I guess online radio has always been around, it’s always done great stuff, it’s just never had a big audience. It almost goes hand-in-hand with the rise of podcasts. It’s cool because they offer different stuff and it’s nice being able to listen to someone talking on the internet from their bedroom in Spain for example. You can always discover new music that way.

And a station like Radio 1 has made strides into the online world, is that to make everything more available and to compete?

Yeah, I guess the move to the Internet was always going to happen. There’s always been an evolution with format, so cassettes were taken over by CDs and they were taken over by MP3s. I personally think that it’s okay as long as radio stations are chill about it and recognise that the days are gone when people used to tune in to hear individual songs. When I was nine, I used to tune in to Chris Moyles and try to rip Jamiroquai songs from the radio - no idea why! [laughs] That doesn’t happen anymore. There’s nothing really dangerous about the move, and radio is still getting the interviews, the personalities, the passion, the curation that comes from experts. Then on the other side, there’s nothing more irritating than not being able to get a track if you really want to, so it’s a nice balance now. I know lots of people who like exclusivity on air, but for me, if you hear Annie Mac on Radio 1 play a song, then you can go buy it and stream it, but you’ll come back to radio when you’re bored of that song. Radio drives people to go and find songs elsewhere, but they come back for more. The Head of Music at Radio 1, Chris Price, did a presentation (Listomania: Justin Bieber and the Self-Perpetuating Upward Spiral) recently on streams vs. radio and he had a nice analogy with some graphics of Justin Bieber and one of his songs showing that when it went on Spotify on the first day it got 100,000 streams, then on the second day it’s on radio and that creates ten million impacts. It bubbles up and up on radio, but the streams only go up to two to five thousand, so he called it “mountains versus streams” and the two go hand-in-hand.

That’s really interesting to hear that radio and digital platforms are working together now. Of course, HumanHuman is an online community, so when did you first hear about it?

I’d seen it pop up quite a lot with artists, and suddenly towards the end of last year it was coming up all the time! There were all these people getting involved and finding these bands that were really good. This comes back to what I was saying about radio, when you hear something that you really like, you try to find something else about the artist - where are they playing? who they are? what are they doing? and HumanHuman was there. The first article I read ‘Women in the Music Industry’ really drew me in and I signed up straight away! Then I looked through the top ten Promising Artist when I was on a music binge and it was like Lupa J, IDER, Weirdo. Then I did some digging and found people that I was really new to, like Elle Watson was huge on HumanHuman even though she only had one song out. I saw that and was like “hang on, this is a really cool site to be on!” I even have notifications set for when you tweet, so I can see when something is Promising.

You’re obviously getting really excited about these small bands and artists, so are there any artists that you wished you had been the first to discover on HumanHuman?

It’s probably not one I would choose, but I would love to say to someone that I had discovered Let's Eat Grandma, because that would be a bonkers claim to fame! I also think Day Wave, Bayonne, Estrons, Tom Misch.

I saw Tom Misch yesterday, did you?

Yeah, he was so good!

He was bringing everyone out last night, like here’s Carmody, here’s Loyle Carner, here’s my sister!

Yeah! I always like to think of music in terms of little ecospheres where one person comes through and brings others with them. For example, Bombay Bicycle Club brought through Lucy Rose, Rae Morris, Liz Lawrence, Toothless, whatever Jack Steadman is doing, The Half Earth, Cash + David. Then there’s the Tom Misch ecosphere coming through. In the last few months, Bayonne’s “Spectrolite” and the new D.D Dumbo song have been the two biggest songs in my brain, so to discoverer one of those two would have been cool. Hopefully, both of those artists will go really far, because those songs are really emotive and fire off the joy chemicals!

I was about to ask you why people love discovering new talents so much, but maybe it is the joy chemicals?

I think that one half of it is that you want to show off to your mates, but the other half is that there is something interesting in joining the journey of artists. It’s just really cool finding someone when they’ve only got one song and watching them grow with EPs and albums until they’re at a stage where they’re really, really big. That’s why new music is great, because you can watch Ed Sheeran play Wembley, but everyone knows that it would have been cooler to watch him play in Norwich or wherever. For example, I’ve seen Lucy Rose play festival stages and big gigs, but I saw her play The Bandstand at Bestival one week after “Middle of the Bed” came out, and that was really special.

Oh, wow! You’ve mentioned festivals already and clearly we’re at The Great Escape, but do you think that festivals still have the prominence in the music industry that they used to have?

It’s a tricky one, because I think I’m not in the best position to answer that because I’m not the people booking the festivals. However, I think that on the journey that artists take they’re always looking for names to attribute themselves to, so they’ll go on tour with a bigger band for example. I think festivals are great for artists, especially if they can get on the bigger ones. The BBC Introducing stage at Glastonbury is quite cool for getting artists that would never have dreamed that they’d be able to play there. It depends what type of festival it is, because there might be people going with their mates to watch one person and get drunk or people who say “why would I go to Glastonbury when I could watch it on TV?” or “why would I got see The Killers at Bestival when I can watch them on YouTube?” That goes against everything we said earlier about streaming! I think festivals are great, but we have to encourage more people to go to them.

Is there a festival that’s always on your calendar?

Ever since I crossed the threshold between going to places like Reading Festival and going to festivals to scout stuff out, the big ones have been The Great Escape, LeeFest and Bestival. I know I mentioned that one quite a lot, but I’ve managed to convince myself that it’s a really good festival, you get really nice vibes and the last sunny weekend of the year. There’s also a costume day on the Saturday, and one year it was band themed and some people went as Noah and the Whale. There was ten of them inside this cardboard whale with water guns firing out and some guy dressed as Noah! Friendly Fire were also DJing the Wagamama stage, which was like a pop-up restaurant so people were sat around tables eating noodles and listening to a Friendly Fires DJ set. I think experiences like that are what make festivals so great. The festivals that stand out for me are the ones that have these weird things on the side, because you can’t keep throwing money at headliners.

Well, since we’re at The Great Escape, I have to ask do you have a must-see act?

Formation were great yesterday actually! I really want to see Estrons, Day Wave and Ekkah, they’re like my guilty pleasure because they’re so poppy and disco-y. Fenne Lily, Tusks, Amber Arcades and Skies were all great. I was at a Spotlight Show on Thursday for Oh Wonder, Mura Masa and Shura where I heard Shura’s album, which was really good. If I had to choose a highlight though, that would be Formation! Although I think the industry highlight for this festival would be Nimmo, the whole of Komedia were talking about Nimmo and Years and Years in the same sentence.

Awesome! So, I have one last question for you and it’s a return to radio, for anyone who is considering getting into radio, what piece of advice would you have for them?

The key piece of advice I’d give to anyone across the radio and music industry is that the difference between you and your heroes is so insignificant. If you’re in a band and you’re watching Temper Trap, for example, the difference between you and them is so small but looks massive. If you put the hard work in, you could be in the same place as them. In terms of radio, the difference between a friend being on a student station and Annie Mac is just hard work! We keep talking about the digital age that we live in, and it’s really easy to make your own podcasts or to try out student radio, community radio, hospital radio. For example, Greg James and Scott Mills both got their first break with hospital radio. The whole of radio and writing is just about communicating ideas and passion, and there’s nothing to stop you from starting your own blog or podcasts. If you’re the person in your school that talks about music and tips it to other people, then the difference between what you’re doing and what Annie Mac is doing on Radio 1 isn’t all that much. When you boil it down to basics - you’re out there, you’re passionate about music, you’re finding stuff and you’re reporting back to your mates, the difference is that Annie Mac’s mates are ten million people and yours might be four people. If you keep at it and it’s what you really want then you’ll get there. Yeah, it’s difficult, but if it was really easy then you probably wouldn’t want to do it.

“The key piece of advice I’d give to anyone across the radio and music industry is that the difference between you and your heroes is so insignificant.”— Alex Rogers

https://humanhuman.com/articles/interview-alex-rogers

[league-of-light]

2019 What’s the Weekly Challenge Rankings Week 1 Weekly Challenge What Is It IDP Flex Weekly Challenge? Rankings

What’s up YouTubers it’s the Will + Dyl show back at it again with another set of power rankings. And by Will + Dyl back at it again I mean Dylan back at it again while I incoherently ramble nonsensical garbage next to him. We’re off to a great start. Per usual, Dylan will provide his EXPERT level statistical analysis of players and teams, and I’ll pick some stupid meme to run with. This week we’re going with Super Smash Bros because Banjo Kazooie just dropped and it’s the only light in my life outside of Ace and Dairy Delight. Anyway, take it away Dylan.

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Howdy folks! It’s been a while. I’ve wanted to get back into writing Power Rankings, but it seemed like a bad idea. I haven’t followed football late in the 2017-2018 season, and honestly, I have no idea what’s going on. But Will has convinced me that it doesn’t matter, and that I can do these anyway. So without further ado, here are my power rankings, based on what I understand about the league from almost two years ago. 

11. Cleveland Browns

The Browns have been the worst organization in football for about 15 years. Last I checked, this team was losing every single game, finishing the season 0-16. And now it seems that Josh Gordon DeShone Kizer aren’t even there anymore? This team has no shot. I don’t know who this Daniel Jones fellow is, but hopefully he can help; otherwise, this team is primed for a lot of losses. 

Super Smash Bros character: Pichu. If you’ve played Smash Bros, you know that Pichu has nearly the same moveset (if not the same exact moves, sue me Evan I don’t use Pichu) as Pikachu. The only difference is, anytime Pichu attacks, it also hurts itself. Just like me, every time I look at this stupid gimmick team I decided to go with instead of actually trying to win free money.

10. Honedge Heroes

Antonio Brown AND Le’Veon Bell? I’m not a fan of taking the two Steelers, who will steal touches from each other. Brandin Cooks is great, and I like Derrick Henry, but I’ve never even heard of half of this team. This team should suspend any hope they had of being a contender. 

Smash Bro: R.O.B. Rob is a robot, so is Dylan.  I am reminded about a thing I read today on Reddit about a robot. It was written by Douglas Adams. Please hold while I find the quote:

A robot was programmed to believe that it liked herring sandwiches. This was actually the most difficult part of the whole experiment. Once the robot had been programmed to believe that it liked herring sandwiches, a herring sandwich was placed in front of it. Where upon the robot thought to itself, Ah! A herring sandwich! I like herring sandwiches. It would then bend over and scoop up the herring sandwich in its herring sandwich scoop, and then straighten up again. Unfortunately for the robot, it was fashioned in such a way that the action of straightening up caused the herring sandwich to slip straight back off its herring sandwich scoop and fall on to the floor in front of the robot. Whereupon the robot thought to itself, Ah! A herring sandwich...etc., and repeated the same action over and over again. The only thing that prevented the herring sandwich from getting bored with the whole damn business and crawling off in search of other ways of passing the time was that the herring sandwich, being just a bit of dead fish between a couple of slices of bread, was marginally less alert to what was going on than was the robot.

^ This is Dylan, and the herring sandwich is the New York Mets.

9. Cursed Will

It’s tough to rank the team with the best player in football (Aaron Rodgers) this low. But Jordy Nelson is getting up there in years, so I’m not sure how good Rodgers receivers will be. 

Super Mash Potato: King K. Rool.  Dylan had a pretty fire one for this, so I’ll let him take it away:

IT’S NICE THAT AFTER YEARS OF FREELOADING IN SMASH GAMES AS A TROPHY AND A STICKER, KING K. ROOL FINALLY DECIDED TO CONTRIBUTE AND BE PART OF THE SMASH ROSTER. THIS DOESN’T HELP ALL OF THE PEOPLE WHO SPENT YEARS WITH THE EARLIER SMASH GAMES, BUT I’M SO FUCKING HAPPY THAT NOW THAT HE’S OLD AND IRRELEVANT, HE FINALLY DECIDED TO BE USEFUL.

For those who don’t know, Evan now pays rent. For those who also don’t know, Evan and King K. Rool are both thousands of years old, have leathery skin, and eat Taco Bell every other day. Also, check out this screenshot of K Rool from when Banjo was announced, it’s literally the most Evan photo on the internet.

8. Float Like a… Whine Like AB

I’m not sure why they have Alex Smith’s backup at QB. Davante Adams and Michael Thomas are great, but Mark Ingram seems to be their only competent RB. Maybe they’ll get Alex Smith and find a way to contend. Otherwise, I’m not really sure what this team is doing. 

Smush - Donkey Kong. For those of you who don't know, Donkey Kong got his name because Nintendo wanted to convey that the ape was stubborn, so they picked the most stubborn animal they could think of. Or at least that’s how the story goes. That alone would be fitting enough for Jason, but really he gets DK because of DK’s affinity to charge up a punch and wiff on it, only to CHARGE UP AGAIN LATER.

7. tbt to K88 being platonic

I’m glad to see Larry Fitzgerald is still around, and they have Andrew Luck’s long-time favorite target Eugene Hilton. Ben Roethlisberger could have a huge year with the talent on that Pittsburgh offense, and Alvin Kamara is great. Still, I’d expect Devonta Freeman to split carries again, and the Bills’ defense can’t be very good. 

Super Dunk - Young Link.  Young Link has been out of the Smash Brothers games for over a decade which is almost as long as Harnsowl has been out of America.  Also, YL can drink a seemingly endless amount of Lon Lon Milk, just like Harnsowl with alcohol. 

6. Spicy Meatballs

From what I’ve been told, James White should be the best RB in football by now. I’ll take Phil’s word for this. And Drew Brees is awesome. But I’m not sure about the rest of the team. JuJu Smith-Schuster will have trouble getting touches over the Killer B’s, and all I know about Anthony Miller is that he was a mediocre NBA player in the 90’s who had a brief cameo in Space Jam. Tough to see this team doing well if they can’t improve on that depth. 

Super Meesh Pepe - Samus. Another soulless human robot thingamabob whose only purpose is to watch the New York Mets. Dark Samus for when the Mets lose. So I guess always Dark Samus?

5. No Content

I don’t know if Kyler Murray is actually good, but I’m expecting a big year out of Eric Decker. And the Colts QB has always loved throwing to TE’s, so Eric Ebron should have a huge year. A definite sleeper who might take the league by storm.

Supper Dinner Brother - Lil Mac.  Dylan beat me to it again:

I respect the effort that they put into making Little Mac a better character. They improved his aerial gameplay and his recovery, and made a bunch of other improvements. It must have taken them, like, 12 weeks of work! But, despite all that effort, he’s still in a low tier and can’t compete with the stronger characters.

Honestly, the biggest difference here is that Lil Mac definitely never skips leg day (see photo)

But apparently Kyle has been for the past 84 days.

4. Shit Outta Luck

For some reason, their team page says that they dropped Andrew Luck, but I’m going to assume that there’s some kind of issue in the database that will be resolved shortly. I’m assuming some team that already had a franchise QB took Saquon Barkley at a completely reasonable pick in the draft, and he’s doing great there. And Mike Evans is a star. Once Andrew Luck is re-added to the roster, this team can be a real contender.

Smash Bros Character - N/A. Dylan, Who’s fuckin team is this?

3. I’m Still Here Bitches

A shockingly strong showing for Team Arielle. David Johnson, from what I recall, is the best RB in football. Julio Jones is awesome. Dak Prescott is pretty good, although honestly, I still think Tony Romo is better. Damien Williams might not get a ton of carries in KC, but I still think this team could go a long way.

Daisy. Daisy doesn’t belong in Smash (yeah, I said it Andy), and Arielle doesn’t belong in the league

2. Team Mar

The squad from the 845 is looking very strong. Two superstar WR’s in Alshon Jeffrey and Keenan Allen, a perennial MVP candidate in Matt Ryan, and two top 5 caliber RB’s in Leonard Fournette and Christian McCaffrey? I have no idea how this roster is even possible.

Mashed Potato: Joker.  I honestly know nothing about you, just like I know nothing about this anime (?) character who is in Super Smash Brothers. His name is Joker but he’s clearly not from Gotham and your instagram handle is Marisa845 and you’re clearly not from the 845 otherwise Bowers would’ve remembered seeing you at South. He knows everyone who went to South.

1. Venice Beach Hulkamaniacks 

Now here’s a team of people I recognize. A.J. Green? Trey Burton? Melvin Gordon? Shady McCoy? DION LEWIS? I honestly don’t see how things could possibly go wrong with that kind of talent. This team shouldn’t lose a single game. And there you have it. Hopefully by next week, I will have learned a little bit about the modern NFL and can take a better stab at these, but hopefully this helps get you excited for another great season of the NATIONAL! FOOTBALL! LEAGUE! Back to you Boom.

Smash Boo: King Dedede. The people’s champ. The Penguin with the Hammer.  Just like Kirby, King Dedede can suck in opponents.  Just like Bowers, if those opponents taste like carbs, he will not swallow them. King Dedede has an unrelenting hammer akin to Bowers’ unrelenting trade offers for LeShady McCoy, and had this other game where he got swol af just like Bowers is gonna be at the end of his journey. At least his 12 week journey has seen results. 

Also, I’m genuinely unsure if Bowers wrote this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jibCSdZ8xG0 

73. Andy Brown

A late addition that we had to shoehorn in here even though they don’t belong in the Power Rankings.