felixalbright

[felixalbright]

A full-bodied laugh left Felix's lips at the question. "No, but I can see why you'd think that. Honestly, it'd be better if the entire genre was just weird educational songs about math." He'd also been shit at math as a kid, but maybe some catchy songs about multiplication could've actually helped a little.

He grinned and turned to face her fully to relay his Paul McCartney story, band be damned. "He was literally the nicest person. I profiled him, and I got to spend the entire day with him. We just walked around Liverpool and he showed me all of his favorite spots. He bought me a Beatles t-shirt from a souvenir shop."

@milaxclarke

"A midwest emo? Math rock? I have no idea what that even means. Is that songs about numbers? Because I totally hate math, I was always shit at it in high school." An exaggeration peraps, she was about average — as she was with most subjects, except for English. She was a sucker for the written word. "Oh wow, you're a music writer? No way. So, does that may you like an expert on what's good and not?" She said, intrigued. When he mentioned Paul McCartney, he eyes widened and she couldn't hold back her less than formal language. "Fuck off. You met him? Oh my god, what was he like?"

@felixalbright

[felixalbright]

"Bless you," Felix said absentmindedly as he added a nice marigold to the little bouquet he was putting together to hand deliver to Blake. He looked over at the other man at the apology, waving it off easily. "You're fine, I get it. It's definitely a lot of pollen." He ooo'ed a little at the question as he plucked out a peony. "Depends on what kind of color scheme you're going for, I think, and the recipient. Someone special?"

@nick-keane

Achoo!! "...Excuse me," Nicholas sneezed for the hundredth time. It was beautiful here at the festival but spring time and all the pollen was not his favorite combination. Seeing as he was new to Aurora Bay though, he couldn't quite pass up on the event. "Sorry, I'm not great with flowers - both handling or picking nice ones. Any idea what would go together for a nice bouquet?".

@aurorabaystarter

[felixalbright]

"Yeah, yeah, I know how this goes," Felix said around a grunt of effort as he lifted the box carefully. Helping Robin move seemed like his duty as her former roommate, and it brought up a lot of fond memories of her initial move to LA. "I can't believe you chose Seabrook when you could've moved to Fisher's Cove to be near me. Seriously, the house right next to mine is renting right now... we could've put a ladder between our windows for easy access and everything."

@robinsantos

open starter @aurorabaystarter

location: coral cottage b&b

"Please be careful with that one." Robin instructed, wincing as they lifted the box labelled FRAGILE haphazardly. "It's got my camera equipment inside and that is not cheap to replace." Neither was the cost of hiring a moving company, which was why Robin had wrangled them into helping her move her belongings out of the b&b and into her new place on Seabrook Quarter.

[felixalbright]

Felix chuckled a little — he couldn't disagree with her, but he also wasn't entirely immune to that boilerplate Harry Styles attractiveness. Sue him, he liked a flopped-hair man. "Oh, really? I'd had you pegged as a midwest emo, math rock kind of person," he said teasingly. "I can definitely respect all of that, though." His head tilted a little as he thought about the question. "You know, I don't actually get asked that too often. I'm a music writer, so I just sort of go wherever the magazine sends me. But I've always had a soft spot for dad rock, to be honest. Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen. Paul McCartney. I met him once, actually," he said, unable to resist the momentary not-so-humblebrag.

@milaxclarke

"I suppose that's why they have those PR people and usually all these boy bands today look exactly the same. You know, the generalised look of attractiveness that this modern era prefers." Unfortunately, Mila liked her men wearing leather jackets and with a criminal record, but that was surprisingly hard to find in such a well-together town. Maybe she'd been stuck in the bad boy phase since high school. "Oh, genre-wise... well, I like pop, duh." She said, as if it should have been obvious, when it wasn't. "Kind of like a bit of rap, R & B now and then. I grew on the queen." She said, before doing a gesture that was reminiscent of the Single Ladies music video. "You?"

@felixalbright

[felixalbright]

"Monotonous is a good word for it," Felix agreed. "There's nothing wrong with a simple chord progression, but it's versatile for a reason. Maybe switch up the harmonies on top every once in a while, you know?" He placed his beer back down on the bar for a second to retrieve his phone, eagerly pulling up an old video of the band he'd described before sliding it over to her. "God, it was...agony, as you can probably tell." After a few moments, he took the phone back, deciding not to subject her to it any longer. "So you're not a fan, I take it?"

@ambivalenceshefelt

"Good." Nikki laughed. "Exactly! They're not..horrible but they're" she paused looking for the right term to use to describe how she felt listening to them "they're monotonous." she chose a word. "Dan-dan-dan..tan..dan-dan-dan" chanted in the most flat tone she could pull waving a hand in circles, hoping he understood her brand of crazy communication. Taking a sip from her drink, she listened to him speak before laughing "I'm suddenly too afraid to know" she shook her head. || @felixalbright

[felixalbright]

💥 - is your muse reckless? or too cautious and paranoid?

"Can I be both reckless and paranoid? More than willing to do something stupid but immediately filled with regret about it? Not enough to actually stop doing it, though. That's basically where I live."

[felixalbright]

closed @xaviermattthews

location: all nighter

"Holy shit, man!" Felix crowed as soon as he walked into the diner and spotted X, sending heads from every corner shooting up. Disregarding them, he made a beeline toward X and clapped a hand down on his shoulder before pulling him into a hug. "It's so good to see you."

Felix was a few minutes late, as always, for their reunion dinner, but he'd managed to keep it to a cool eight minutes instead of his usual fifteen or twenty because of how excited he was. He'd promised X all-he-could-eat to make up for every time they just happened to miss each other while they were both out on the road. X was touring, or Felix was chasing some other band down, but it killed him every time they just managed to elude each other by a day or two.

He took a seat across from X before immediately launching into questions. "Dude, how was the rest of the tour? How's the album coming?"

[felixalbright]

"Definitely not," Felix replied, squinting his eyes and tilting his head as he appraised the lead singer, who looked a little like every Kurt Cobain wannabe he'd ever encountered over his many years working in music.

The look was a little incongruous with the kind of neo-ska sound they had going on, but for all he knew, it could be ironic. In his experience, these kinds of bands usually felt like they could excuse any kind of conceptual dissonance by citing irony.

"Notes, mhm. Words, yep," he agreed, looking over at her with amusement plain on his face. "That's really all you need to know. You hit the nail on the head."

The full-throated laugh he'd been holding back finally left his body when she gave up trying to salvage a compliment about what they were listening to. "Does hearing this make it more or less likely that you'll go home with the lead singer? Has this true...collection of sounds properly enticed you?"

@cricketcampbell

"I think that I matched with the lead singer on Tinder and he is not 6'2?"

Maybe 5'10, at best, which is decidedly not the worst, but if Cricket had known, maybe she'd worn some shorter heels.

Unless the man beside her was somehow a physic (not unheard of in this town, but still improbable), she realized he probably wasn't asking for the details of her steamy virtual exchange with--squinting her eyes and leaning forward to read the decal on the drummer's kit--Oyster Soda's frontman.

"They're definitely...playing instruments!" She nodded, eyes wide as she tried to rack her brain for any other commentary. "I'm, like, not an expert or anything, but those are definitely notes."

Which ones, and whether or not they were actually hitting them...that was a different story.

"Love a song with...words." Lyrics, even.

With a sigh, she eventually conceded, "fine, so they're actually awful."

@felixalbright

[felixalbright]

Felix rolled his eyes right back, inching to the side for a second to nudge Cass's shoulder with his own. "Oh my god, don't even say that." He shook his head and placed his hands over his ears dramatically, not able to bear the thought. "Sending bad, bad vibes in the universe saying shit like that. Apologize to Miss Ethel," he insisted, gesturing up to the ceiling as if she was hanging from the rafters.

"Spinal something? Old movie?" he asked incredulously, shaking his head again, less dramatically this time. "God, you're a fetus. Or maybe I'm just old. I can't believe Ez ever let you out of the house without knowing that movie by heart. I'm gonna need to have words with him, and then all three of us are getting together for a movie night." He took another sip of his beer and tilted his head, considering her idea. "You know, thinking about it as if it's a parody does make it a little more palatable. You've solved it."

@cassidyxcooke

Eyes rolled at the dry tone but she continued anyway, giving their opinion and listening to his. "Jesus, Fe, looking up like that makes it seem like she croaked or something," Cass chuckled, feigning the catholic sign of the cross. "But you're right, she didn't. I don't know who I'd compare these guys to honestly..." she trailed off, nose wrinkling as she took a swig of her drink. It was already warm in here and the liquor only made it worse. But considering the music, what else was there to enjoy?

"You would!" she shook their head, another soft laugh escaping as she clocked the drummer. He wasn't bad but comparing him to the bassist, who was not only holding the band together by literal strings, but was rocking the kinda outfit made to be taken off? Oof. Their odds in preference was more than obvious. "We'll agree to disagree on that but yeah, lyrics-- I mean, they could get away with shit lyrics if they switched things up even a little. Actually...maybe we're being punk'd or something. What's that old movie? About the fake band...Spinal something? Maybe this is like that?" || @felixalbright

[felixalbright]

FELIX ALBRIGHT

full name: felix james albright

pronouns & gender: he/him, cis man

birthday & birthplace: april 27, 1992 (31); aurora bay, ca

location: fisher's cove

time in aurora bay: born & raised, back as of a few weeks ago

sexuality: gay

occupation: music journalist/photographer at rolling stone

@aurorabayaesthetic

about.

felix was born and raised in AB, the youngest of three to two parents whose marriage was already crumbling by the time their first child was born. god knows why they stayed together or had two more kids, but they did, and they were at least decent enough people to try to keep the realities of their dissolving marriage away from their children as much as possible. they got divorced when felix was seven, and his mom moved home to london while his dad stayed home with the kids in AB.

so felix grew up being shuttled back and forth between AB and london a few times a year; he'd go see his mom for the summers and christmases and come back for the school year. his mom moving so far away did create a bit of a resentment in him that he doesn't talk about with anyone except his therapist, but it also sparked an inspiration that would carry him throughout his life.

his mom was fully stay-at-home before the divorce, but when she went back to london she started up her career again as an events coordinator for a music promotion and production company that put on shows for local up-and-coming artists. felix spent most of his summers hauling sound equipment and standing in the wings of stages with his mom, listening to music.

he picked up guitar and piano early on, but he realized easily enough that he wasn't meant to be a musician, so he started writing about it instead. when he was a kid, it started with emotions or images the music would evoke, but as he got older the writing matured and he realized that he actually had a talent for this kind of thing. his first byline appeared in a local zine in his mom's neighborhood in london when he was 14, covering a punk show he was way too young to be at and managing to score an interview with the band because they thought his precociousness was cute.

when he was home in AB, he was going out to LA to see shows as soon as he was old enough to drive. he started a blog that no one read, wrote for a little student-led music magazine that only printed 10 copies on black and white school printers (they thought it would make them seem more exclusive, but really no one had heard about it/actually wanted to read it). he used all of that to shop himself, freelance, to any publication that might have him while omitting his age. he actually got a few things in with some smaller names, and it was more than enough to keep him motivated.

his family didn't have a ton of money, so he stayed home and went to college in AB, studying english. it wasn't a perfect fit, but it gave him an excuse to stay writing all the time and to hone his voice. he kept freelancing throughout college and DJ’ed on campus radio, and his big writing break came when he was 21, with an opportunity to cover the strokes at a show in LA for rolling stone, after an editor had seen and liked his work for another site. the article, which followed the band over 24 hours, was a hit, and he got a couple more opportunities with rolling stone before he graduated college.

after graduation, he had a job offer with the magazine and took it without a second thought. he moved to LA full time but was only there for a cumulative few months out a year. his other home base was in london, but he was traveling a lot.

he loved his life for a long time, but around the nine year mark he just started to get exhausted. he was doing what he loved, but he was burnt out and not coping with it well. he didn't want to quit, but he needed a very long break, so he asked for something like a sabbatical from the magazine, which they granted given his years of dedication and the fact that he'd never once taken a sick day.

he moved back home to aurora bay about two weeks ago, where he's staying in his childhood bedroom in fisher’s cove while he gets the outline of a book together.

tidbits.

felix is excitable and talkative, and incredibly interrogative. he's always been a huge talker and has needed to stay one in his line of work. he's charming and quick with a smile, but is also nosy as fuck if his attention is captured. but that attention, though easily caught, isn't easily held. he’s often very distractible within his personal life (which means he’s terrible at returning texts or following through on plans) but is very concerned with every small detail in his work life, which makes him a good writer but not always a fun person to work or deal with.

his favorite interview so far was with paul mccartney in liverpool. they did a walking tour of the city and paul bought felix a beatles t-shirt from a souvenir store that he now has framed in his office in LA.

at his family's house in fisher's cove, his dad still has a now 18 year old cat named fred that felix picked from the shelter when he was 14.

keeps a tiny apartment in the montmartre neighborhood in paris on top of the LA and london places, which he pays way too much for considering he only uses it a few times a year. he can count the number of people he's ever brought there on one hand. it's sort of a sacred space for him

he never officially came out to either of his parents, just started casually mentioning guys he was dating in college. he's never actually talked about his sexuality with either of them.

probably polyamorous, though he doesn't know if he'd use that label. he's never cheated but has had multiple partners at once since he left AB, while being transparent about the fact that he's not a guy for just one other guy. he still thinks that he could comfortably settle into a monogamous relationship if the right partner wanted one.

connections.

childhood rivals to close friends w/ @blake-michaels

college ex-boyfriend of @atticus-cortes

pseudo older brother of @cassidyxcooke, @dancingdanvers

friend/came up with/avid fan of @xaviermattthews, @consrose

high school friends who fell out w/ @theotanaka

[felixalbright]

@xaviermattthews

ALMOST FAMOUS (2000) dir. Cameron Crowe

[felixalbright]

ten songs for felix albright.

i think we're alone now — tiffany / vienna — billy joel / o children — nick cave & the bad seeds / what's the use? — mac miller / all i want — joni mitchell / marcia baïla — les rita mitsouko / la vita nuova — christine and the queens & caroline polachek / i'm glad — captain beefheart & his magic band / los angeles — haim / sound & color — alabama shakes / bagsy not in net — the 1975 submergence

listen.

[felixalbright]

Mint Tea : How do you relax?

"I don't know if I've been relaxed a day in my life. I definitely haven't been over the last decade, at least, so I'm still figuring this one out. I tried yoga but I kept laughing every time I had to go into downward facing dog. Tried aromatherapy — less than nothing came out of that. Long walks on the beach don't work; I just get bored. Maybe I'm just destined to be wired for the rest of my life."

[felixalbright]

💄 LIPSTICK — have you had any romantic or sexual experiences that made you realize something about yourself?

"They've all taught me plenty, in their own ways, but when I think about stuff like this, I think about Atticus. He was the first boy I ever loved, and I could've stayed for him. Part of me wanted to. Leaving Aurora Bay, leaving him, made me realize that nothing and no one can keep me from doing what I want to do. If he couldn't, no one could."

@atticus-cortes

[felixalbright]

🗡️

🗡️ DAGGER — what is something or someone you know you can't afford to lose? how far are you willing to go to make sure you don't lose it/them?

"I'd like to be able to name a person — and don't get me wrong, there are plenty of people in my life who I couldn't fathom losing — but if I'm being really honest, I couldn't lose my career. It's the only thing that really feels like it's mine, and without it, without the work, I'd just be nowhere. I've already chosen it over so many people and dedicated too much time to it. If it went away tomorrow, I don't know what I'd do."

[felixalbright]

✉ / ♀ + atticus

Send “✉” for a text that WASN’T SENT.

FELIX ⇢ ATTICUS: we broke up a year ago today and i'm in paris thinking about you. i can't even send this text because i blocked you so i'm really just rambling into the ether, but i still find myself having conversations with you in my head sometimes anyway so this isn't that different. why did i not delete this thread. FELIX ⇢ ATTICUS: what are you doing right now? are you still at home? are you okay? do you already love someone else? it's getting easier not being with you but when i realized that stopped thinking about you as soon as i woke up everyday, it was a relief but it was also sort of awful.

Send “♀” for a HEARTBREAKING text.

FELIX ⇢ ATTICUS: what the fuck was that FELIX ⇢ ATTICUS: did we really just break up FELIX ⇢ ATTICUS: i'm so fucking confused FELIX ⇢ ATTICUS: we could've made this work you just didn't want to give it a chance FELIX ⇢ ATTICUS: what the FUCK are you so afraid of?

@atticus-cortes

[felixalbright]

"I wouldn't have blamed you if had yelled," Felix reassured with a chuckle. "I think I also gave your co-worker over there at heart attack when I came in. I'll be back during work hours another day though. I want the whole 'Blake Michaels: waitress' experience."

His smile softened and became impossible fonder when she kissed his forehead, which he gladly tilted his head down to lean into for a second. He'd missed this kind of easy affection; part of why he'd needed a break from work was that he moved so often that he found it hard to make connections that were actually worth cultivating. But Blake had already been in his life for so long — for what felt like multiple different ones sometimes — that she was stuck with him. That constancy, even when they were mostly long distance friends for so long, sustained him.

"Breakfast for dinner it is," he said, nodding decisively. He directed his attention to the cutlery quickly focusing on how to optimize this whole process she was showing him. He followed her instructions and placed his first roll to the side with the rest, then quickly grabbed another one of each and looked at her challengingly. It'd taken them so long to become friends because Felix was a competitive moron — clearly, some things never died. "Race you."

He barely gave her time to reply before he was rolling, grabbing, rolling, counting up to fifteen in his head every time he set one aside.

She immediately shakes her head at the apology that drops from Felix’s mouth. “No — No! Do not apologize for taking time for you, babes.” Not with that time change, and not with all that Felix does. She would never so selfishly demand he be on her front step the moment he lands back into town.

“It’s the best surprise. I almost came over to, uh. Well, not yell at you. I don’t yell. But to kick you out before I realized who it was taking up a clean table in my section.”

It’s always a hard thing to do when a customer wanders in after close. But if the kitchen is closed, the kitchen is closed.

(Sometimes Blake will offer to UberEATs something there for any dejected customer, but that’s only when she feels bad enough.)

“It’s the best surprise.” One sweet kiss planted to his forehead later, she is going to gather the aforementioned evil silverware that keeps her trapped. “You absolutely can! I need to roll thirty more, and then I’m feeling some diner goodies.” Like eggs or pancakes after breakfast hours. “So for these, knife first right in the middle, then fork, and the spoon on top, Fold the napkin over, and roll it up.”

@felixalbright