#3 minutes 41 seconds long

[skelletonscloset]

simon x sick!reader

wc— 973

cw— sick fic!! reader is gender neutral. emetophobia warning!! > mention of throwing up. simon being a good boyfriend.

a/n— this is my first official addition to this page!! i’m still getting used to this whole “writing and posting” thing, so i’d love feedback and constructive criticism :3 enjoy!!

your body felt hot. the weight of your sheets on top of you was all you could feel aside from the way your eyes felt glued shut and how your clothes stuck uncomfortably to your back.

the past few days you knew you were starting to catch something, a few sneezes there and a small headache there — but you’d never guess you’d start to feel this bad.

now, it’s not like you were running to the bathroom and hurling the remains of your dinner from the past night into the toilet bowl, no. however, you did feel like the inside of your throat was being clawed at by a very angry cat and your mouth was dry from not being able to breathe clearly from your nose.

forcing your eyes open, you groan as you stir from your warm and slightly damp spot of the bed, your eyes adjusting to your dark room. you lick your lips, attempting to bring back some moisture, but they dried up again almost immediately.

“ugh… si?” you groan, looking to his side of the bed where he was. well, where he would be. you blinked your eyes, lifting your hand and placing it in his spot and feeling the warmth of his body that was left behind. huh.

you peered at the alarm clock on your nightstand. 2:41 am.

“si?” you weakly called out again, your nasally voice ringing throughout your shared bedroom. a few moments pass before you hear the heavy padding of feet approaching, a muscular forearm gently nudging the door open.

simon’s dark silhouette walked in, a mug of something in hand and a thermometer in the other. he shuffled closer, setting the mug down on the nightstand and turning on the small lamp next to the edge.

the lamp illuminated his dark eyes, which shifted from the thermometer’s buttons to you after turning it on. his short, blond locks were tousled from sleep, scratching the scruff on his jaw.

“woke up a couple minutes ago. felt ya’ start to get hot,” he grunted, holding the thermometer up to your forehead as he took your temperature. after the beep, he squinted, reading back your temperature in his gruff voice.

“99.8” he stated, setting the thermometer down and sitting on the edge of the bed, rugged body slightly facing you as one leg folded onto the sheets and the other hung off the bed.

“nothing too bad, yet.”

coaxing you to sit up, he carefully brings the cup of tea towards you, pausing when your hands don’t come up to take it. he looks up at you, watching you eye the steaming cup suspiciously. he sighs

“yes, it has enough honey.” he clarifies, watching your expression relax. he held his hand beneath yours as you took hold of the mug, softly blowing on it before you took a sip.

you hummed in satisfaction, affirming his words. “thank you, si,” you murmured, “but aren’t you going to get sick too?”

“don’t worry about that, lovie. focus on you gettin’ better,” his voice rumbled. you took a few more sips of the tea, soothing your throat little by little, before deciding you were too sweaty to finish it.

you handed the mug to him before coughing into your elbow, trying to clear out the feeling of glass in your throat but failing.

“i’m so sweaty…” you groan, watching as simon automatically puts the mug down and gets up, moving to the closet as he looks for something lighter for you to wear.

he’s back within a few seconds, one of his large t-shirts in hand and a pair of sleep shorts just in case.

“up,” he nudges your arms, helping you take off your long sleeve shirt which was slightly cold with your sweat. tossing it to the side, he rolled up the other shirt, gingerly slipping the sleeves down your arms as his shirt draped across your form.

“shorts?” he asked, noting how you already weren’t wearing pants, opting to sleep in your underwear instead. when you shook your head, he walked to the closet once more, putting the shorts away and your shirt in the hamper.

“thank you, si,” you whispered tiredly.

“none of that. need anything else? some water?”

“yes, please”

he walked out of the room.

you wondered how you ended up with such a caring man as your boyfriend. he’s practically a mind reader at this point. you looked down, eyeing the shirt he picked out for you. it was an old shirt of his, one he used to wear frequently before he became a part of your life.

the shirt was a dark gray, small holes between the seams of the sleeves. it was your favorite one, hence how worn out it was. you took the soft fabric in your hands, bringing it up to smell the familiar scent.

simon walks back into the room with a fresh glass of water, noticing you. he gently tuts to himself, setting the glass next to the mug he had forgotten to take to the kitchen with him.

he plopped back into your shared bed, your body falling towards him as the bed shifted from his weight. settling the sheets over his lower half, he handed you the glass of water, waiting patiently for you to be finished. when you were, he set the glass back down, the two of you getting comfortable once more.

he subconsciously brought you towards him as you lied back down, his strong arm pulling you into his broad, clothed chest. you sighed again, breathing him in as you tried to forget about the oncoming congestion you felt. your hand settled on his waist, your legs entangled with his.

“i love you, simon.” you exhaled, closing your eyes once more.

“love you too, sweetheart,” he grumbled into your hair.

maybe getting sick wasn’t gonna be so bad after all.

~🧸

[thisisnotthenerd]

as the fhjy premiere is upon us, i'm back with another edition of thisisnotthenerd's d20 stats. it's just the updates that are relevant, since relationship tracking is taking so long to do and i got sidetracked by polls for a few months. this will be sorted by the categories i have data for--you can look at the spreadsheet to find data for all d20 seasons. or you can read it on ao3. anyway:

player data:

runtime and episode data:

before the start of junior year, we have spent 88 hours, 40 minutes, and 14 seconds with the bad kids on-screen, including in oneshots. this is about 3 days, 16 hours, 40 minutes, and 14 seconds.

that's 41/221 d20 episodes, 22 of which were battle episodes.

we've spent 125 hours, 37 minutes, and 32 seconds in spyre as a whole, or 5 days, 5 hours, 37 minutes, and 32 seconds.

that's 57/221 d20 episodes, 32 of which were battle episodes.

cast appearances:

brennan at the top of the list, with 19 d20 appearances, 15 of those as a gm/dm.

next is lou, with 11 seasons as a player; 8 intrepid heroes seasons, 3 sidequests.

followed by ally, zac and siobhan, each with 2 different sidequests under their belts

second to last is emily, with 9, with acofaf

and in last is murph, with only 8. if aabria is in 2 of the 2024 d20 seasons, she's in the running to beat him.

seating preferences:

junior year tipped a lot of the intrepid heroes into a distinct preference, simply by setting them on one side of the table.

emily axford: strong left side preference (6/8), most commonly in L1 and L2. paired next to zac 5/8 seasons, and across from murph 5/8 seasons. fig sits in L1.

zac oyama: strong left side preference (6/8), most commonly in L2 and L1. paired next to emily 5/8 seasons, and across from ally 7/8 seasons. gorgug sits in L2.

siobhan thompson: weak left side preference (5/8), most commonly in L3 and R3. paired next to lou 7/8 seasons [doubled across 5/8], and across from emily 3/8 seasons. adaine sits in L3

lou wilson: even split preference, most commonly in R3 and L3. paired next to siobhan 7/8 seasons [doubled across 5/8], and across from murph 2/8 seasons. fabian sits in R3.

ally beardsley: strong right side preference, most commonly in R2 and R1. paired next to murph 6/8 seasons, and across from zac 7/8 seasons. kristen sits in R2.

brian ‘murph’ murphy: strong right side preference (7/8), the strongest of the intrepid heroes, most commonly in R1 and R2. paired next to ally 6/8 seasons, and across from emily 5/8 seasons. riz sits in R1.

character data:

given what the bts's have shown, there might be some changes to these that i'll update during the premiere, but as of now, this is a quick summary of the bad kids' data, including dnd race, class, level, highest stat, feats, and age. you can go through the thisisnotthenerd's d20 stats tag for my previous commentary on this data, or check out the spreadsheet.

i'm putting them at level 9 for now because that's what we left off with, but more than likely they're starting at level 10 or higher. we know about riz's respec, but there may be others that crop up during the season.

fig faeth: tiefling. lore bard 8, hexblade warlock 1. CHA. actor, lucky. 17-18

gorgug thistlespring: half-orc. berserker barbarian 8, artificer 1. STR. orcish aggression/fury. 18

adaine abernant: high elf. divination wizard 9. INT. spell sniper, war caster. 16-17

fabian seacaster: half-elf. battlemaster fighter 6, swords bard 3. DEX. sentinel. 18-19

kristen applebees: variant human. twilight cleric 9. WIS. human determination, inspiring leader. 17-18

riz gukgak: goblin. arcane trickster rogue 9. DEX. healer. 17

all of the bad kids have some magic now--the ladies are all full casters, while fabian is a split multiclass, gorgug is a 1/2 caster multiclass, and riz re-subclassed into a 1/3rd casting progression. still an even split of multiclasses and pure classes, though that may change. riz's re-spec has bumped arcane trickster up to the most common rogue subclass, with 6 arcane trickster characters, 4 of whom sit in R1.

and that's it! all of the intrepid heroes/bad kids data that i have updates for! see you all at the premiere of fantasy high: junior year tomorrow!

[saekkas]

For your Blue Haze ask game! 💙 #41 your hair is really soft - with Kaiser! Please 🙏.

prompt: "your hair is really soft." tags: f!reader, kaiser is a simp, fluff. note: i'm sorry this is so short and that it's taken me so long to write it :< writing's not coming easy to me these days. i hope you enjoy! <3

"your game is in five minutes, what are you doing here!?" you hiss, the whisper turning into a shout when kaiser runs barreling into you. "michael kaiser!"

everything is oddly silent; the birds aren't chirping, the soccer fans' shouts only a distant murmur— it's as if the world's slowed down, stopping into a freeze frame.

even your boyfriend, the renowned star player, is quiet. he leans forward to place his head on top of yours, his arms wrapping around your waist.

you can only sigh, knowing this weird outburst is caused by the petty fight you had earlier.

"i'm sorry, alright?" the words catch, his speech slightly stiff, so unlike the smooth drawl kaiser's known for. it's as if his pride has bound a leash on his words, pulling them back down into the crevices of his heart.

your lover hides his face in your hair, sniffing the scent of your shampoo every now and then. he waits for your reply, and you can feel his heart hammering against your own chest with how tight he's holding onto you.

"i know i'm an asshole for apologizing this way, and i'm sorry," he whispers, his lips moving against your forehead. "can you forgive me, liebling?"

you stay quiet, watching as he slowly moves to face you, his hair a mess and his eyes tinted red.

your eyes trail over his face, taking in his tired visage. and maybe it's the doubt swimming in your eyes, or the hesitance plastered on your expression but kaiser sighs, lifting his hand only to drop it back to his side the next second.

"i know i can't undo the things i said," he mumbles, lips downturned and eyes plastered to the ground, "but i couldn't go out there pretending like everything's fine when the person that matters most isn't cheering for me in their usual spot."

you bite your lip, trying to keep the smile that's threatening to bloom at bay. even if it's only an excuse to be let off the hook, kaiser's always been creative with his words. a closeted romantic under all that suave and charm.

"what do you say, mein liebling?" there's a hint of a smile on his face, his eyes molding into your beloved puppy eyes. the piece of resistance he always uses, knowing you can't resist. "you can hit me all you want back at home. just cheer for me, please?"

please isn't a word kaiser normally uses and when it slips past his lips, you come to understand just how desperate he really is.

"okay," you whisper, body instinctively leaning forward in search of his warmth. "but we still need to talk after your game."

kaiser nods, his expression clearing like the sun after a rainy day. he doesn't move, doesn't walk, doesn't talk, and the silence that comes after is nothing but a loving embrace.

"you didn't braid my hair this morning," kaiser says after his eyes trail from the tip of your hair to the end of your toes and back. "you skipped out on our routine."

you snort, chuckling a little when he tilts his head, indirectly asking for you to braid his hair.

"i could barely look you in the face without punching you this morning," you mumble. the strands of his hair are smooth in your hands, and your fingers pull them into braids as if weaving through the finest silk. "your hair's really soft."

"i used your shampoo," kaiser grins shyly, like a giddy schoolboy who's just confessed. there's a hint of a blush on his cheeks, the skin reddening the longer you braid and compliment his hair. "missed your scent and all that."

you laugh at his words, indirectly letting him know whatever storm was brewing has passed. you press a quick kiss on his cheek, letting his hair fall down his back in braids. "go get 'em, hotshot."

kaiser goes on to score five goals in the match, blowing multiple kisses to you after every single one.

[fappinreborn]

Hello this IS NOT the VR Anon but I wanted to say I LOVED that story! Props to you and that anon!

I have a chapter idea for it if you want to continue it? Name: you choose. Pregnancy: 41 weeks Labor: Not yet (First contraction in 2 days, 3 hours, 56 minutes ) Baby: 1 (10lbs) Current Activity: Home alone reading. Birth plan: Hospital The player see's that she's home alone and waiting for her husband to get home in about 2 hours or so, the player also see's that she's in just a tang top and a loose mini skirt, it is summer after all. The player activates her labor and speeds it up. The woman can't even get up and reach for her phone. The player get's to see her spread her legs that shows she's not wearing any underwear and starts pushing. Right as the head starts to crown the player get's a text or something that says he needs to make a call, the player not wanting to miss the birth see's the option: Would you like to pause the labor? You may un-pause at anytime. So the player hit's pause but leave's the head set on but lowers the volume and takes the call for almost two hours, once the call is done he put's the headset back on and sees the woman right where he left off, right as he hears the door unlock he hits play again and the woman gives birth.

Pregnancy Control Part 2

After a good session yesterday, I went out to seek more target. I decided to jog around the neighborhood in my morning run to see if I found my target.

Soon enough, a name popped up, and the status was perfect! Name: Sylvie. Pregnancy: 41 weeks Labor: Not yet (First contraction in 2 days, 3 hours, 56 minutes ) Baby: 1 (10lbs) Current Activity: Home alone reading. Birth plan: Hospital I took control of her pregnancy and began tinkering. Her husband's going to come home in roughly 2 hours, so I got a time to kill. Since the link can't be untethered, I decided to start it by giving her some mild labor contractions, just giving her some small start while I walk home.

When I arrived home, I can see her sitting on the yoga ball to ease her labor, wearing her tank top and loose mini skirt, with some panties underneath. She has called her husband to tell him that she's in labor, but told him to relax as it's still early.

She put the phone on the bed before waddling around the house and I saw a solitary sofa chair that's perfect for where she'll give birth. I controlled her to sat there to relax, while I prepared the acceleration.

With a single button, her labor accelerated quickly into her 2nd stage, followed by water breaking, splashing all over. I locked her in place so she couldn't move to grab the phone and unable to remove her panties.

She panicked and began pushing hard, the baby's head descending slowly since there's still time until her husband's home.

Soon enough, the head began to crown and she screamed in pain and panic as she can feel the panties are still intact, holding the baby in. Still, she persisted and kept on pushing, trying to fight her own panties. I made her struggle to even get the head to fully crown so it took her almost 1 hour just to get the head to fully crown.

I could see the panties are still holding up, so I decided to let the head out. The baby's head slipped out, making a huge bulge in her panties. She took a breather before pushing again with no avail.

This went for a long time, until her husband's just seconds away from entering the house. As soon as the husband opened the door, he saw her poor wife struggling to give birth, panicked and rushed in. At the same time, I let the mother finally push the baby out and into her panties, finally finishing off her birth.

I came hard from that. The app has proven to be really useful and I can't wait to find more targets.

[d1xonss]

Desert Rose

Chapter 41 ~ Peace

✧ Pairing : Daryl Dixon x Reader

✧ Era : Season 3

✧ Word Count : 6.4k

In this chapter ~ When the group makes a decision to fight off The Governor in a way they hadn't thought of before, they found they were successful at scaring them away. But they didn't stop there, as they wanted to make sure his men would never come back like they did before. However, a shocking death ensues, though it led to the long-awaited peace they had been craving for so long.

Last night was tough to say the least.

It took about a half hour just for Daryl to finally break away from me, but I waited patiently, holding him close the entire time. But it then took us even longer to finally get back to the prison, everyone rushing over to us and bombarding us with question after question the second we got off his bike. I attempted to calm all of them down, but Daryl had enough before I could even open my mouth to speak.

He snapped at all of them, yelling in their faces about how he had just lost his brother and they all seemed to shut up pretty quickly after that, watching him storm off with nothing else to say. My expression saddened even further as I watched him go, debating in my head whether to just let him go and have some time by himself to process this, or go after him in case he didn't want to be alone.

But ultimately I decided to just leave him be for the time being, explaining to everyone that I didn't quite know what happened, but all I knew was that Merle had turned. I informed them that the place looked like a warzone, leading me to believe that The Governor had something to do with it, potentially Merle's death as well.

The man's voice then echoed in the back of my mind, reminding me of what he told me from the start, that the man would kill him first, then only make his way down the line.

Almost the entire group stayed up for hours after what I told them, coming up with some type of plan to end all of this once and for all. Everyone was fed up, tired of having to constantly look over our shoulder and expecting something to be there waiting to kill us. We wanted this done, taken care of, and finished.

After some time passed and the sun had finally set, the plan now fully set in stone, I slowly made my way back to our cell for the night and saw Daryl laying on the bed with his back facing me. I knew he was awake from the way his breathing was steady, but I said nothing as I gently got into bed next to him. He didn't turn over, or even really acknowledge that I was there, but it didn't bother me in the slightest. He needed time and some space, and I understood that completely.

Though it felt like I tossed and turned throughout the whole night, not being able to stay still for more than a few minutes at least without growing uncomfortable. Maybe it was the nervousness for tomorrow, or everything all together, I wasn't sure. But it was getting harder to ignore that little voice in the back of my mind about the outcome potentially not working out for us in the end. It was what I feared most.

When I finally did fall asleep, I still woke up fairly early the next morning, turning over to see Daryl was still facing away from me, soft snores leaving him now as he got at least a little bit of sleep. I got up quietly, not wanting to wake him as I began to pack up all of our things.

The plan we had devised was that when The Governor and his men roll through here, we would pack up everything and pretend like we fled away. But we were going to trick them, mess with their heads a little bit and then attack them the second that their guard was down. It was a way to scare them, knowing that his people weren't the strongest fighters and that they were scared of us to begin with. Not wanting to come back and mess with us after the scare we were going to give them.

After I gathered all of our bags, I headed out towards the cars to load them all up with all the things I could pick up and place over my shoulders. There were only a few others awake as I made my way outside, placing all of the things in the many trunks we had lined up carefully before offering to take Rick's place where he watched the outskirts of our surroundings. He gave me a thankful nod before he made his way back in the building, making sure Carl was ready to go and doing another sweep through the place to check and see if there was anything we missed.

I didn't know how much time had passed as I looked out to the scenery, making sure they weren't paying us an early visit, but just by hearing the amount of people that were out and about behind me, I silently knew it had been a while. Maybe an hour or two of me completely disassociating and focusing on my surroundings, not really knowing or caring how many minutes passed by.

But the others seemed to be almost ready to go as I glanced back every once and a while, seeing Hershel gathering up Carl, Beth, and Judith to take them out somewhere safe. They were the ones who would take all the things we had packed up, before driving out and finding a secluded place to hide out in the woods until it was all over. The rest of us staying back to fight. I couldn't lie, I was slightly nervous about how well this would work, but it was the best chance we had.

I eventually heard faint footsteps coming up from behind me, turning back over my shoulder to see Daryl slowly making his way over towards me. I gave him a small smile before I turned back around to scan the area once more, not wanting to take my eyes off of everything because of the constant paranoia. But I felt him come up to stand next to me as he too looked out in front of us, an awkward silence filling the air.

I didn't know what to say. He looked a lot better than he did yesterday and he got more sleep than I thought he would, but that didn't mean he was okay. I knew he would put up a front that he was, not wanting anyone else to worry, but I would always know.

Clearing my throat awkwardly, I decided to speak first, "How're you holding up?"

My eyes then closed in slight embarrassment the second the question left my mouth. That was like the one thing you don't ask someone who's obviously mourning.

I opened my mouth to apologize, but his voice cut me off, "Better than yesterday." he stated as he glanced over at me, not taking the question the wrong way like I assumed.

A relieved sigh passed my lips as I nodded, "Good..."

There was another few beats of silence as we stared up ahead, before I felt him gently nudge my side, "Ya weren't there when I woke up."

I let out a soft breath as I turned to face him a bit better, "I know...I just wanted to get a head start on packing everything. Just wanted to be ready, I guess. And...I also wanted to give you some space."

He shook his head slowly, "I don't want no space. I want you."

I smiled warmly at him and nodded, "I just- I just didn't want to say the wrong thing. And I didn't want to push it-"

"Ya don't gotta walk on eggshells around me. I want ya with me, I always want ya with me. I just couldn't talk last night...it was just..." he trailed off, the emotions coming back full force the more he thought about it.

"Yeah," I nodded to show that I understood, "And now I know. I won't leave you alone unless you want to be."

He rolled his eyes playfully, "My God woman do ya ever listen to me?" he chuckled lightly, "I want ya. I ain't ever gonna tell ya to leave me alone, because I want ya with me. Always."

"Well, good to see your sarcastic smartass sense of humor is back." I laughed a bit, "But okay, I'll never leave you again."

He gently grabbed one on my hands, raising it up to his mouth to kiss the back of it lightly, "Good." he nodded.

"I'll even follow you when you have to pee." I joked.

He scoffed, "Okay, no maybe leave me alone for that." he said as he rolled his eyes again.

"No, no, I'll even come with you to shower."

"No, don't-" he began to say but stopped himself suddenly, realizing what I had said as he watched me raise my eyebrows. "Alright...maybe you can come with me for that." he said seductively.

I laughed, bringing my hand up to the back of his neck to bring him close, placing a delicate kiss on his lips, before he quickly pulled back once more as if he forgot something. "Oh, and... m' sorry for all the shit I said to ya yesterday. Ya know I just want ya safe...right?"

I shook my head, "Stop. We're okay, I promise."

He nodded, "I love you."

"I love you too." I smiled and pulled him back in for another kiss.

A few long moments passed where we were just lost in one another's touch, craving the feeling of each other as we were tucked away where no one could really see us. Using the privacy to our advantage as I truly had missed him. Even if it was only a short while.

But the moment was cut short quicker than I expected as someone suddenly cleared their throat from behind us, causing us to slightly jump apart in surprise. Michonne stood there with a small smirk on her face and her hands on her hips as she approached, "Sorry...can I just talk to Rose for a second?" she asked.

We both nodded quickly, Daryl coughing awkwardly as he tried to get away as fast as he could with the embarrassment that was creeping up the back of his neck. Michonne's gaze followed him before looking back at me to see my face a little flushed as I laughed a bit uncomfortably.

"Didn't mean to interrupt." she lightly teased as she came over to stand next to me.

I waved her off, "No, don't worry about it. What's up?" I asked.

She paused for a moment as if to collect her thoughts, "I realized never thanked you for trying to help me. And for taking me in, in the first place."

"Oh no, you don't need to thank me-"

"I do." she insisted, "So...thank you."

I gave her a soft smile, "You're welcome."

"But I also wanted to ask why? I mean you didn't know me at all, you still really don't. So...why were you trying so hard to help me?" she asked.

"Because you needed help." I said simply, "I wanted you to stay because you're a badass and I like you," I winked and she chuckled at that. "And I tried to help you because The Governor is crazy, you of all people would know that better than the rest of us. I just wanted you safe because you belong here...you're a part of this group now."

A slow smile spread across her face as she nodded at my genuine reasoning, "Well...thank you again." she spoke genuinely.

I nodded again as we stayed standing side by side, allowing the peaceful silence to take over as we watched the woods carefully for movement. I felt myself take in a small breath before exhaling it deeply, trying to mentally prepare myself now for the shit show that was about to go down here.

All I could see was darkness as I waited patiently in the tunnels, the anticipation was beginning to kill me as I had no idea what was happening. Glenn and Maggie attempted to convince me to stay with them near the hidden area outside when the time came, to shoot at their feet as they fled, but Daryl was having none of it. He truly meant it when he said he wanted me by his side when The Governor came here, to calm his nerves knowing that I was safe and within his sight. Though no one argued too much considering what he was going through.

Though a part of me wished I had taken them up on that offer regardless because at least out there I could see my own hand in front of my face. Down here, the only light shining in were through the small windows up high against the cement walls, if that at all. I began to worry the longer we sat down there that I wouldn't be able to see a damn thing when it came time to do the most important thing. Aim.

But suddenly, hushed and unfamiliar voices entering the tunnels is what snapped me out of my thoughts, confirming that they were finally here and had found nothing, luring them to search through the dark area. I began to tense up the moment their voices became clearer, their footsteps coming closer and closer to where we hid, and I quickly felt someone grasp my hand. My body jumped a little in surprise, but relaxed quickly once I felt them squeeze my hand three times in reassurance, causing a small smile to trace over my lips.

Hearing The Governor and his people finally creeping up far enough, Daryl gave my hand one more squeeze, signaling me to finally throw the flash bomb. I nodded to myself, though he wouldn't be able to see, quickly pulling the thing from my pocket and pulling the pin out of it, before throwing it around the corner and into the darkness with a small clink.

The second it exploded, they all began to scream as Rick and Carol did the same thing from the other end of the hall, hiding back behind it quickly. The sudden noise, smoke, and gunshots we began to fire near them only drew in some stray walkers into the area, causing them all to panic even more than before. They all fought them off as best as they could, firing through the dead as they rushed out of the place with their tails between their legs.

We were then only met with deafening silence, but none of us seemed to trust it yet, all of us staying quiet as we listened for anything else. There were brief and quieted gunshots coming from outside, hearing them began to scream again as Glenn and Maggie fired bullets to get them out of here faster. Once everything seemed to stop and there wasn't another sound to be heard, we finally all stood back up and headed out towards the entrance, seeing if it had actually worked the way we hoped.

We opened the door hesitantly, seeing that The Governor's men peeled it out of here with nothing left behind. I sighed in relief as Daryl wordlessly pulled me into him, walking out further to check on Glenn and Maggie. The couple looked like they were on cloud nine the second we spotted them, Maggie quickly rushing up to me to wrap me in a hug, while Glenn came around and sandwiched me in between them. We all laughed in relief and pure astonishment that our plan had worked, glancing through the trees to make sure their vehicles were nowhere in sight.

"We did it, we drove them out." Rick stated.

Michonne's eyes stayed fixated on the trees, squinting through them as she thought to herself, "We should go after them."

I almost couldn't believe I was about to agree, but I knew she was right. We couldn't just let them go as if nothing ever happened. We had to make sure they weren't coming back. "...We should finish it." I spoke.

Maggie's expression began to turn sour as she shook her head quickly, "It is finished, didn't you see them hightail it out of here?" she asked.

"They could regroup." Michonne said, "We can't take that chance, he won't just stop here."

Carol was breathless as she nodded along in agreement, "They're right, we can't keep living like this."

"So, we take the fight back to Woodbury? We barely made it back last time." Maggie stated.

"I don't care." Daryl spoke lowly, wanting to end them for good after everything that went down yesterday, grief and loss still fresh in his mind.

A tense silence fell over us, though we all knew that it couldn't just stop here no matter how much we wanted it to. We had to know it was over for good, not wanting to take any chances in case they could somehow come back from this.

Knowing that we were all somewhat in agreement about what to do next, we gave Hershel the okay for them to come back now, knowing that it was safe. They rolled back up slowly through the gates before parking the car off to the side, beginning to unload everything back into the building as we all pitched in to help in one way or another.

I attempted to busy myself with the few crates of food, bringing them back into the building and setting them down on the empty tables in the common room. My pace was somewhat fast as I moved the items we had saved up back onto the shelves, before I spotted Beth walking back inside the building safely. She bounced Judith in her arms as she approached me with a smile, seemingly just as relieved as the rest of us.

"I would hug you if I didn't have this baby in my arms." she joked as she walked up to me.

I laughed softly and kissed the top of her head, moving down to Judith's as well before I spoke, "You guys were okay out there?" I confirmed.

She looked weary, "Yeah...but uh... we sort of ran into this kid while we were waiting. We think he was with The Governor, and he ran up on us. He had a gun, but he was handing it over and... Carl just shot him."

I was taken aback, leaving it to process for a moment before I shook my head in slight disbelief, "Wait what?"

"He's changed, he's...gotten colder. Especially ever since Rick admitted to us about Michonne, he's been so angry. I'm worried about him." she said quietly, making sure no one else could hear.

"I know he hasn't been the same since his mom, and... who would be? But that makes me worry more about him too. We'll both just... keep a close eye on him, yeah?" I asked.

She nodded in agreement before Hershel called her over to help with their things, giving my arm a gentle squeeze before she walked away and back towards the cellblock. But not even a second after she left, Carl made his way back inside to drop off more food I was attempting to put away. I gave him a smile as he passed through, but he only glanced over at me somewhat distantly before walking back towards the door to carry more things.

My brows furrowed, "Hey!" I called out to him before he could fully escape.

His shoulders dropped down with a deep sigh before he turned around to face me again with an annoyed expression, "What?" he asked sharply.

"Woah okay, hi." I spoke in slight surprise at his tone, "You...doing okay? What's up with you?"

"Nothing, get off my back." he snapped as he turned around to speed walk away from me.

I scoffed, "Oh yeah, you better run with how you're talking to me." I called after him, watching as he only moved faster out the door upon hearing my tone.

I knew now wasn't the best time to be petty, but his attitude has been a nightmare. He's never dared to snap at me, leaving me to only witness the many times he's been cold and distant towards the others, but mainly the pattern continued to fall on his dad. I knew he was going through a lot, doing things a kid should never have to do, but it truly tested my patience when he acted distant toward the people who were only trying to help him.

I only sighed to myself however, watching the door he left through without making an attempt to go after him, heading in towards the cellblock instead to give him some time. Carol stood there with the many bags and people's belongings piled up, handing me mine and Daryl's with a smile. I took them from her hands before making my way up the stairs, dropping them on the cell floor for now before I began to pick through my bag for my remaining weapons.

Loading ammo into the handgun I still held onto, and making sure I had enough arrows to take with me as well as my knives, placing them all back in their regular spots around my hips as I pulled them one by one from the bag. But I stopped suddenly when I heard a shuffling sound from behind me, turning around to see Daryl standing in the doorway with an unreadable expression. But it wasn't hard to guess what was going through his head.

I sighed, "What is it?"

He stalled for a moment as he kicked the ground with his dirty boot, "Is there...any chance of convincing ya to stay here?" he finally asked somewhat hopefully.

"No." I deadpanned, causing him to sigh and hang his head while I turned back around to place the rest of my weapons on me.

"Please darlin, I don't want anything to happen out there. I don't wanna take that chance." he pleaded.

I huffed softly and stood up to face him, placing a hand on his cheek, "I thought you always wanted me by your side?" I asked ironically, "Look, The Governor could still come back here if he wanted to. So technically I'm not safe either way."

He sighed heavily again as he thought, before placing his hand over mine with a nod, "Alright."

"We'll be careful," I pecked his lips, "We always are."

He was still very unsure, but in the back of his mind he knew that I could take care of myself no matter what kind of situation we were in. So, we walked back out of the prison together, weapons in hand to place them in the cars and load everything up once more. Hopefully for the last time.

"We're staying," Glenn announced, motioning to himself and Maggie as we gathered around once more before we left. "We don't know where The Governor is, if he comes back, we'll hold him off."

Daryl turned back towards me with hopeful eyes, "No." I repeated again, watching him huff and turn back to continue to load up the car. The two seemed to have a laugh at that, before confirming that's what they really wanted to do, needing to have a watchful eye here in case of any unexpected surprises.

I pulled both of them in for a quick hug, not knowing for sure what would happen out there, before repeatedly telling them to stay safe. It was almost harder now knowing that we were leaving them here to keep the place safe, but we all silently knew it was for the best.

I turned back and made my way over to Daryl's bike. He handed his crossbow over his shoulder to me so I could place it on my back, extending his hand out to help me on before starting up his loud engine, taking off down the gravel roads. Rick and Michonne road in the car not too far behind us, looking back to see the group standing outside waving like crazy as they watched us leave.

There was a pit in my stomach for most of the drive, trying to ignore it as best as I could while the wind whipped by us quickly with how fast we were going. Although, we weren't on the road for very long, not even halfway to their community before we came across what looked like a bunch of abandoned cars parked on the side of the road. We slowed to a stop, seeing a few walkers scattered around feasting on a few fresh dead bodies that where all laying in puddles of blood.

I hopped off the bike quickly, moving to hand Daryl his weapon before pulling out my gun to aim at the dead, Rick and Michonne coming out of the car not even a second later with their weapons drawn as well, scanning the area in suspicion. We all stepped forward to kill the remaining walkers before they could even notice our presence, taking them out quietly as we looked around for anything, wondering what the hell caused this kind of disaster.

I took in the scene in front of me as I slowly backed up, seeing the handprints of blood and guts that were spilled everywhere on the pavement before my back suddenly hit something. I glanced over my shoulder to see I had backed up into a truck, glancing up at the blood that had smeared on the door of the vehicle. But my heart about fell out of my ass as I quickly jumped back upon seeing two hands coming up to the window with a loud slap.

Everyone immediately aimed their weapons towards the glass the moment they heard the noise, squinting through the tinted window to see that the woman in there was still very much alive and nearly shaking in her boots. Her brows were furrowed with fear and her hands shook violently as she glanced around at all of us, her eyes darting to the weapons we had in our hands.

I loaded my gun quickly as I backed up further, "Open the door." I said with a nod of my head, watching Rick move to place his hand over the handle.

The woman came out of the truck instantly the second the door was open, completely disregarding the weapon in my hands and threw her arms around me in a hug, "Oh thank God." she praised as she squeezed me.

I tensed up, "You have about five seconds to get the fuck off of me." I said lowly and she quickly got the message, jumping back with her hands raised.

I pointed my weapon at her head as I nodded around the area, "What the hell happened here?" I asked her.

"The Governor. He shot everyone; he killed them all." she cried.

"The Governor did this?" Rick asked.

I turned to look at him with narrowed eyes, "Did she stutter?" I asked sarcastically.

He fixed me a glare before turning back towards the woman, gesturing with his gun as he spoke, "We need to get to Woodbury, and finish this."

She seemed to understand, nodding frantically, "Take me with you, I can get you in."

A part of me didn't want to agree, we didn't know this woman for shit but I barely even got to open my mouth before Rick was suddenly nodding his head. He gestured for the woman to follow them to the back of their vehicle, helping her in and getting her situated while I tried to pretend like this wasn't a terrible idea.

But we needed to get in, and that's all I cared about.

Night had fallen by the time we made our way up to the familiar gates of Woodbury. It seemed oddly quiet as we slowly made our way through the abandoned cars still littered outside, ducking behind them as we approached closer. We were getting close. But suddenly there were shots coming from the top of the gate, the people on watch somehow spotting us as they fired into the metal of a car we all quickly ducked behind.

"Tyreese! Stop!" the woman yelled over the gunfire.

My mouth slightly dropped in realization as I ran a hand over my face in annoyance. If this was the same Tyreese that Rick screamed at and threatened with a gun, we should all just go ahead and walk away now.

"Karen? Karen, are you okay?!" the man yelled back, squinting through the darkness, watching as she began to stand up to her full height from behind the vehicle.

"I'm fine!" she replied.

"Where's the Governor?" he asked.

"He fired on everyone, he killed them all. These people saved me!" she informed him as her hand gestured down to all of us, giving us the chance to stand as well with raised hands.

The man didn't respond, but the sounds of him opening the gate clearly proved his curiosity, wanting to know exactly what happened. Almost as if he couldn't believe it. We all slowly began to walk up closer to meet him halfway, and my brows immediately raised. There in front of my very eyes was Tyreese and his sister Sasha, the same exact people that Rick flipped out on as he waved a gun around their faces.

I didn't even hesitate as I ducked my head down, turning on my heel to walk away in the other direction to avoid the painfully awkward tension. But I didn't get very far as Daryl caught my arm to stop me nearly the second I turned around, pulling me back to walk forward.

"Come on." I pleaded quietly, noting how close we were getting to them.

He shook his head, "Nah, we go down, we go down together."

I huffed as I ripped my arm away from him and turned to face the brother and sister once again, Rick stepping up to give them a nod, "What are you doing here?" Tyreese asked us while lowering his gun.

Rick sighed, "We came to end this, until we saw what The Governor did."

"He- he killed them?" he asked.

Rick just nodded his head, "Karen told us on the way here that Andrea hopped the wall going for the prison. She never made it." he finished.

Well shit, this was news to me. But Tyreese nodded immediately as he gestured for us to come in with the intention of finding her. Rick moved through the streets easily, not really needing any kind of direction as he assumed she could be in the same building where they held Glenn and Maggie hostage. Without all the smoke covering every inch of the buildings, it was a lot creepier here than I remembered, the uncomfortable silence lingering in the air.

As we finally made it to the familiar tall building with our weapons raised, we searched through the place cautiously but there was no one nearby in the narrowed halls. Though eventually we turned a corner to see a door we hadn't cleared, noticing blood pooling out the small crack underneath of it.

Worry was planted in all of us after seeing that, Michonne quickly taking out her sword while Rick didn't hesitate to break the lock. The door practically swung open after he had got it, peering inside quickly to see a dead body laying right in front of our feet, blood pouring from their head. I recognized the man immediately as Milton, the man we grew to know as we waited together for the meeting to end.

But shock grew on Michonne's face as she stepped in further, seeing Andrea sitting up against the wall only inches away from the man, blood covering the entirety of her body. She was still alive, breathing shakily, but looked to be hurt pretty badly. We all piled in after seeing her, Michonne dropping to her knees at her side as her eyes scanned quickly all over her body for any kind of injuries.

The rest of us seemed to stay back a little as we watched in guilt, seeing her on the brink of consciousness as she tried to keep herself from passing out, smiling the second she recognized it was really us.

"I tried to stop them." she whispered.

Michonne's hand went instinctively up towards her forehead, feeling how warm it was as she moved her hands to the sides of her face, "You're burning up."

Andrea stared at all of us for a moment, moving her hand up slowly towards her shoulder, and pulling her jacket down for us all to see. Revealing a giant bloody bite mark embedded in her skin. We all froze at the sight, Michonne letting out a breath of disbelief as she stared at the injury, not being able to take her eyes away.

"Judith, Carl, the rest of them..." Andrea started.

"Us," Rick corrected her as he slowly got down to her level, "The rest of us."

She smiled slightly upon hearing his voice say that to her, one of the last things she would ever hear was that she was truly always a part of the group no matter what. "Are they alive?" she asked.

Rick looked back towards Daryl briefly, Merle crossing his mind before glancing back towards Andrea and nodding, "Yeah...they're alive." he told her.

My hand moved down discretely to grasp Daryl's hand with my own, giving it a squeeze in reassurance at the things that were most likely still clouding his mind. He looked down to me, his expression neutral yet grateful as he gave my hand a small squeeze in return.

Andrea sighed in relief at Rick's words, glancing back towards Michonne with a smile, "It's good you found them." she told her.

Michonne only nodded her head slowly, her eyes filling with tears and her face contorting with sadness, "No one can make it alone now." Andrea hinted.

Daryl began to nod, "I never could." he stated, swallowing a bit thickly as I felt him grip my hand a little bit tighter than before.

I felt myself smile as Andrea's eyes were glued to us, laughing lightly as she shook her head, "You guys are made for each other. I'm glad you finally saw it just as much as the rest of us did back on that farm."

My eyes softened as I caught her gaze, sucking in a soft breath, "Andrea, I'm sorr-"

"Me too," she smiled slightly, "We got on each other's nerves but...I still wanted you to be okay."

In the back of my mind, so did I. Andrea got under my skin just as much as I got under hers, but deep down we were still family and I never wanted to see her go like this. It hurt all of us to witness.

"I wanted you to be okay too." I agreed.

She smiled tiredly before turning back to Rick, gesturing for the gun in his hands, "I can do it myself." she breathed.

"No." Michonne declined immediately.

"I have to. While I still can, please? ...I know how the safety works."

A chill went up my spine at her words that she said so long ago, yet it still felt so recent. Rick debated in his head for the longest time, truly not wanting her to have to do this herself, but then slowly handing her the gun. Knowing that this is what she wanted.

"Well, I'm not going anywhere." Michonne told her.

She nodded in agreement before taking on last final look at all of us, a certain sadness written in her eyes, "I tried." she spoke barely above a whisper.

"Yeah, you did. You did." Rick assured, placing one last comforting hand on her shoulder.

After saying some type of goodbye to her, it was difficult to leave the room, knowing that this would be the final time we would ever see her. But yet we all found the strength, seeing Tyreese still lingering outside of the room, sending each of us a sad and understanding look to tell us that he heard everything.

I leaned up against the wall with my arms crossed over my chest, feeling Daryl come up next to me to follow my actions, beginning to chew on his thumbnail anxiously. There was a long and agonizing silence that followed, before a single gunshot was finally heard from outside the big wooden door, only followed by more silence.

I felt the slight chill of the morning air as I rode on the back of the motorcycle back to the prison. My arms wrapped tightly around Daryl's middle as he occasionally reached to give my hand a squeeze. The long ride back gave me time to think about the things we were doing, the things that we chose to do and move forward with. Though none of us really had to think twice of the idea because all these people from the abandoned community wanted was a fighting chance. Knowing The Governor had ran like a coward, they had no one else to turn to. And we wanted to give them the opportunity they deserved.

As we finally made it back to the familiar building, Glenn and Maggie opened up the broken gates for us, not even attempting to hide the confused look on their faces as a giant bus followed in right behind us. Daryl pulled over to a stop a little further in than usual, getting off his bike while I followed his actions from right behind him. Our eyes then landed on the school bus now parking front and center, watching the many people begin to pile out of it and glance around at the new place they would call home.

The rest of the group came out of the prison in obvious shock, Rick making his way over to the rest of them to explain everything that went down in Woodbury. I knew this would all be a huge adjustment with the many new people we hardly knew moving in to stay with us, but it was an adjustment that I was willing to make. One that I for once was willing to accept.

"Ya think this is gonna work?" Daryl asked.

My eyes followed the new people for a moment, noticing a few little kids bouncing around in excitement along with a woman holding a small baby, and I felt myself smile. "Yeah." I said simply as I glanced over at him.

He smiled softly, having a certain glint in his eye that made my brows furrow, "What?" I asked with a tilt of my head.

He shrugged, "Nothin." he said simply, causing me to drop the topic as I looked back to the many people still introducing themselves as they greeted everyone with warm smiles, resting my head on his shoulder as my mind began to run with all the possibilities.

I couldn't help but think about the bright future that we could have here, together. A small smile stretched on my face as I was confident that everything was going to be okay. We didn't have to run, or fight, or live in constant fear of The Governor. We could all just finally be at peace.

But even though I looked away, I could still feel Daryl's eyes on me. And all I wanted to know is what the hell that man was thinking.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ DARYL POV *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I’m gonna marry this girl.

~ Thanks for reading! (Ahhh season 3 is done!!)

Taglist - @justareader95 @hayley1998 @welcumetomyescape @ryoujoking @sipsthecoffee

[theapangea]

Night Out

Chapter: Girls Night Out Pt.1

Pairing/Characters: Steve Harrington x Reader, Nancy, Robin, Max, Eleven

Summary: You and Steve have been dancing around each other for sometime now, neither of you wanting to make the first move. All your friends decide it is finally time for you both to confess your feelings.

A/N: This is probably my fav piece of writing to date so hope you enjoy! Read Boys Night out Part 1 first!!

*Also posted on AO3: Theapangea*

Part 3

Tick tock

Tick tock

Tick tock

The faint clicking sound of the slow moving clock above the door echoes within your body. Your eyes follow as the seconds hand makes its way around the face of the clock. Your heart beat mimicking each second that passes by, each second slower than the last. Your shift crawling to the end of the hour as you bite your cuticles to the bed, anxiously waiting for it to be over. 

The clock was crawling closer and closer and closer to 6pm, the end of your shift. The smell of freedom was inching its way to you. You could almost feel the sign of relief when you will be off of work. 

The drowning sound of Robin’s voice following you around the store for the last two hours fades as she continues to talk about this week’s crush. This interaction feeling move like torture that the shift itself. And as much as you love Robin and her daily word dumps, you couldn’t help but not want to listen today. 

Pushing yourself off of your elbows and making your way to the opposite side of the counter. Leaving Robin to finish her monologue by herself. 

She watches as you grab the last stack of VHS tapes that need to be returned to their place on the shelf. Her gaze follows as you make your way slowly around the small store, half-assing the shelving job knowing she will have to fix all your mistakes when you leave. 

Step by step. One foot in front of the other. Dragging out the simple task of your simple job. Continuing to watch the clock as you pace your movements to match the speed of the endless dial.

12 minutes 43 seconds left

12 minutes 42 seconds left

12 minutes 41 seconds left

Your eyes only leave the countdown to follow the trail of movies on the floor that lead directly to the two girls gushing over some guy on the cover of one of them. “Don’t you two have somewhere better to be?” Pushing some of the movies with your shoe to see their selection. A quiet groan exits your mouth, one that only you would be able to hear, as you realize you will have to be the one to pick up their mess.

“Nope.” Max and Eleven say in unison as they stare up at you towering over them. Their ear to ear grin engulfing their faces.

You loudly groan now, letting them know of your distaste for what they are doing and this conversation. 

“What about hanging out with your little boyfriends ?” You speak as if you are talking to a small child, kneeling down to be eye level with them on the floor. Max rolling her eyes at your remark as you continue, “I mean come on - Friday night and you two are here?”

“You’re here.” El speaks before tearing a piece of licorice with her mouth. Her comment is not meant to be a jab at you but you couldn’t help to think that Max’s sarcasm is starting to rub off of her.

“That’s because I’m forced to be here.” You specify slowly, picking up a couple of movies that they have scattered on the floor before standing up again.

“Forced but loves every moment of it because I’m here.” The voice says from behind you. Robin chiming in as she swings her arm over your shoulder. 

And she was right. You love Robin, loving hanging out with her and love having shifts with her. But today was just too long and it felt like the rest of your life was waiting for you outside those glass doors that keep you prisoner to the capitalist society that you are forced to participate in as Robin would put it. 

“Besides,” You shrug her off nonchalantly, “I’ve got plans later.” 

“You never have plans.” Robin points out as you walk back to the center counter, the three girls following behind. All of them exchange the same curious expression of what could possibly be happening tonight.

“Well I do tonight.” 

Making your way around the counter to organize the various sets of movies that you had picked up into their designated genre piles. The three girls stay on the other side, playing the part of the anxious audience waiting at the edge of their seats for your next act to begin.

“Where are you going?” El asks, resting her head on her hands. Her palms pushing her cheeks and lips together into a make-shift fish face.

Your eyes glance quickly at the clock above their heads.

9 minutes 23 seconds left

You ponder the question for a moment, wondering if you should even share the information with them. You knew they wouldn’t understand why you are going to this stupid function. But maybe this was supposed to be how you ended your final month in high school. Maybe this was supposed to be the big event that happens before you graduate. 

“Jason Carver’s party.” You feel as if you have to force the words out of your month. 

And then you wait.

“Why?” Robin questions, you can hear the disgust tones as she drags out the word.

And there it is. 

This is exactly why you didn’t want to say anything. None of them exactly like Jason and why you should have kept your mouth shut in the first place.

At that moment you didn’t have an answer for Robin. At least not a good answer. At least one that she wouldn’t instantly dismiss knowing that you were lying. High school was ending, if everything went according to plan you would be out of this small town sooner rather than later and at this moment you wanted to be young and dumb. You wanted to go to this high school party just to say that you went. Just to experience the adoslance stupidity and underage drinking one last time. Trying to savor whatever distaste you had for the town of Hawkins.

And maybe because if the basketball captain invites you to his party personally, you don’t just not go. You couldn’t bring yourself to tell her about some after school makeout sessions that you had with that specific basketball captain and that maybe you were hoping for it to develop into something more. But you couldn’t possibly let Robin know that you actually wanted to go to this party and that you and Nancy have basically been talking about it for the past two weeks. 

You stumble over the words as your thoughts become jumbled. Not knowing exactly what to say that would satisfy Robin, knowing nothing will at this point. 

Ding

All of your heads turn rapidly to see who has stepped into the retail space. The familiar girl with short brown hair coming to your rescue, saving you from the wrath that was Robin Buckley and her opinion. 

“My savior.” The whine in your tone was obvious but you didn’t care. You were just happy that Nancy was here to take you away from this conversion and this shift.

A suspicious smile rests upon her face as she comes to the small circle that you and the girls have formed. “I know something you don’t know.” She practically sings, the smile growing wider as she spreads her fingers along the counter, leaning closer to you.

“What?” Not breaking eye contact hoping that she can give it away without verbally telling the rest of the group.

“It’s about a certain boy that you like.” Her smile becomes too much to bear for her small face. You can basically see that holding in this information was visibly painful to her.

“Nancy.” You whisper in a harsh tone, you don't want anyone to know about any crushes that you may or may not have. You could feel their glancing eyes as you and Nancy share your hushed exchange.

“What boy?” El’s sweet voice echoes.

Your eyes widen as you practically beg her to remain quiet. To shut up now and forever or else . 

“A boy you know.” She says without breaking eye contact. Clearly she could tell you were bluffing as she knows you would never tell a soul about any of your private conversations. Obviously Nancy wasn’t always the best keeper of your secrets, especially when it came to spilling any crush that you may have. Her motives were more childish than sinister in nature.

“A boy I know…” El whispers to herself, trying to piece the puzzle together. Counting on her fingers all the boys she currently knows.

“It’s Steve duh.” Max interjects, lightly hitting El’s arm. El’s expression reliving as the mystery is finally solved.

You instantly object to the speculation, not saying anything that is remotely audible, but you can see Nancy shaking her head yes confirming Max’s answer. 

“Wait, how do you know anything about that?” You wonder out loud.

“Dude everyone knows that you like Steve.” Max adds, pushing herself onto the top of the counter. “Plus, Robin told me.”

Head whipping towards Robin, her name falling from your lips as loudly as a scream.

“I’m sorry , she got it out of me.” Robin mumbles under her breath, throwing up her hands as her last defense. Knowing that telling Max would have come out sooner or later but she was just hoping that it was much much later.

“Well it doesn’t matter be-because I really du-don’t like, I-I don’t like St-” Stumbling over your words again, trying to gain any sense of confidence to defend yourself. 

“Do you want to know what I know or not?” Nancy cuts your embarrassing ramble.

“Yes…” you groan knowing that none of the three girls listening intensely on the conversion are going to go away any time soon. 

“Ok,” She begins, tucking her loose hair behind her ears. “I was going into the basement to tell Mike that he needed to empty the dishwasher because I did it last time and mom always asks me to do it even though Mike is perfectly capable-”

“Nanc, the news.” Interrupting her blabbering to get back on track.

“Right, right…so…as I was walking down the stairs to the basement, I overheard Steve, Mike, Dustin and Lucas talking about you .” Enunciating the last word. The melody swirls in your head as you can only hear the words ‘Steve’ and ‘talking about you’. 

“Really?” Robin practically taking the word right out of your mouth. Her intonation more baffled than yours would have been. Almost as if she can’t believe that Steve would actually like you in return. A small roll of your eyes before landing back on Nancy.

You watch as Nancy nods her head signaling that her story was true. The corners of your lips slightly turn upwards when the image of Steve talking about you comes to mind. The way he would push his brown locks away from his face wondering if you actually liked him. The way his lips would speak your name into the universe, with tones of hopefulness and desire. Your name hanging onto his lips by a thread as he talks about his little crush that he has on you with the younger boys. All looking to him to set the example to go chase after the girl of his dreams.

“Well what did Steve say?” Robin questions as your mind runs loose. You’re incredibly thankful for her at this moment for being your voice as no words can make their way out of your dry throat.

“Well that was really all that I heard.” Nancy’s gaze shifts downwards as her hand falls onto yours, lightly running circles with her thumbs trying to comfort you in some way from across the counter. “I kind of ran back upstairs before I could hear the full conversion.”

“So no confirmation or anything?” Max feels a bit of an anticlimax with Nancy’s story. Though it was the best thing that has happened all day so she couldn’t complain much but still nothing like coming into the store with big news and it falls flat.

And there you were. Trapped in your own skin as your mind continues to race. Only this time the darkness begins to seep in as your heart comes crashing down from the high you were just having. Deep down inside you knew that Steve liking you was too good to be true. But there was still a sliver of hope that you tried so hard to hang onto.

Nancy studies your face as she can tell you are getting too into your head. Her hand squeezes yours to get your attention, “He could like you.” Hoping that her words would be the cure to the wash of sadness that has overtaken you.

“You don’t know that.” Your voice cracking as it feels like your world begins to break. Steve now knows that you like like him and you have no idea how he feels or what he is doing. 

“Why don’t you go ask him?” The soft voice speaks again, El’s bright eyes full of a small dose of hope. 

Robin practically screams with excitement over El's comment, “El’s right. He’s at Nancy’s house right now. You could tell him how you feel.” Her hands tightly wrapped around yours and Nancy’s arms, shaking them frantically.

“And say what exactly?” Trying to clarify what exactly this group wants you to do. Trying to understand how they think this is a good situation. 

“Hey I like you, do you like me, like’s makeout.” Max says so casually while picking at the sole of her shoe.

Nancy interjects before you get a chance to speak, “You’re coming over to my house anyways so what’s the harm?”

“The harm is that he could totally reject me to my face and then I would die.” You try to explain to her but it feels as if none of them are listening. None of them are understanding how this could possibly ruin your whole life. If Steve doesn't end up liking you then the next few months are going to be absolute disaster.

“ It’s now or never.” Nancy emphasizes every syllable . “You can’t avoid him forever.” 

“Yeah, don’t you open with him tomorrow.” Robins addition hitting you like a semi-truck. This whole day and conversion totally making you forget that you would have to come face to face with him tomorrow morning. Feeling as if you don’t make the confession tonight than it will be ten times more awkward in the morning. 

The loud sound of air being pushed through your nose, nothing making you relax as the anxiety begins to build as you look back up at the ticking clock. 

2 minutes 15 seconds left

2 minutes 14 seconds left

Only this time, you didn’t want the time to run out. You didn’t want your shift to end anymore. 

“Besides,” Nancy begins, her delicate voice lacing around each spoken word, “if he’s not at the house then we just go to the party like planned, right?” 

Shaking your head in agreement as there was no going back in time to redo this day. There is no way you can avoid Steve forever is this God forsaken small town. 

Nobody said anything after that. It was almost as if the room grew colder. The small glances that were being exchanged between the small group of girls trying to come up with any sort of plan other than just simply confessing was zero to none. Obviously you were going to think of the worst possible scenario because if Steve really doesn't like you then maybe it will hurt less. You know that's not true but you try with every ounce of you body to convince yourself that it is.

You grab your coat and purse from the back and follow Nancy outside the glass doors that once kept you safe from the impending doom that is this night. 

~~~

I'll post part 3 this weekend!! Hope you are liking the story. Thank you for reading and I love YOU!!!

Tags: @orphic-musings @shireentapestry

[laracrofted]

baby, i'm high octane (v)

synopsis: on fourth of july, nora and jake dance around each other.

pairings: jake seresin x nora rogers (oc)

warnings: 18+, minors dni, swearing, alcohol consumption, existential dread, pining and yearning, kissing, no smut here but come back for the next chapter (wc: 7K)

note: i'm sorry for being so slow. i rewrote this chapter like eight times, i'm not even kidding. i also apologize in advance for where i ended this chapter, but the good news is we'll have seven chapters instead of six 😌

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tagging // @theharddeck @frenchyjuju @bioodforbiood @cursedtobe @roosterbruiser @t-nd-rfoot @bethbunnyy @filmflux @djs8891 @mayhemmanaged @sometimesanalice @eli2447 @bradshawsbitch @hangmanbrainrot @startrekfangirl2233 @kandierteveilchen @lostinwonderland314 @hangmanscoming @dempy @mlibbydp @stvrlighttsworld @bellaireland1981 @clancycucumber230 @kmc1989 @averagereader35

June slips away over the weekend, a quiet and unassuming end.

As June fades into July, Sunday becomes Monday becomes Tuesday and so on until soon enough, Fourth of July has arrived and more importantly, so has a long weekend.

God bless America.

On the morning of the Fourth, Nora sleeps in for once.

She wakes up a few minutes before 11:00 AM and refreshed – or at the very least, a little less tired than usual – and reaches for her phone, which is once again, buried under her pillows.

A slew of unread notifications are waiting for her when Nora rolls over and looks at the screen.

Two missed calls. Eleven unread messages. One unread email Nora has definitely been meaning to read for a week now. Definitely.

She ignores the email – because really, what's one more day? – and scrolls through the rest of the notifications.

Natasha, 9:40 AM: Are you awake? 

Natasha, 9:41 AM: I'm going with no because I knocked and didn't get an answer.

Natasha, 10:00 AM: We're heading out to North Coronado Beach in 10-ish. Payback is bringing his girlfriend. Come join us when you're awake if you'd like!

Bradley, 10:05 AM: Do you have any sunscreen I could borrow?

Bradley, 10:06 AM: Phoenix really wants you to come to the beach btw.

Her smile grows as Nora scrolls down and discovers a message each from the rest of the Naval aviators and even one from an unsaved number with a Louisiana area code that she has to assume is Javy.

"Oh my god," Nora laughs. A loud and delighted sound in the soft quiet of the morning. Natasha’s persistence is both amusing and very touching.

She sends Natasha a quick I'm awake, just need to get dressed as proof of life and stares at Jake's message for a solid 30 seconds, gnawing on the edge of her bottom lip.

She swears under her breath and clicks on the message.

Jake, 10:30 AM: So are you really sleeping or are you just afraid to face me in beach volleyball?

Nora, 10:58 AM: Sorry, who is this?

He responds less than a minute later.

Jake, 10:59 AM: Ha ha

Jake, 10:59 AM: Come to the beach.

Jake, 11:00 AM: Javy and I need another person. 

Nora, 11:01 AM: Have you looked on Tinder?

Jake, 11:02 AM: For volleyball, smart ass. We're playing 3 on 3. 

Jake, 11:02 AM: Everyone wants you to come.

Jake, 11:02 AM: I want you to come.

She's never been so grateful to be alone than right now. No one else should have to witness the stupidly wide smile pulling at her lips right now, uninvited. She reads the message again, feeling kind of giddy, which is actually kind of ridiculous.

Like objectively ridiculous.

She is kind of ridiculous. This is getting out of hand.

Like on Sunday morning for instance.

She had woken up in the aftermath of Bradley’s party and that damn dream and remembered the night before in such excruciatingly vivid and cinematic detail – high resolution and state-of-the-art surround sound, like the goddamn IMAX of sex dreams – that she had to deep clean the entire apartment as a distraction.

A several hour get up close and personal with the checkered blue in the bathroom, wondering whether it's ever been cleaned, and later, in a sudden panic, open all of the windows in case you've accidentally poisoned yourself with bleach fumes deep clean.

Her one goal? Don't think about Jake.

So Nora wiped down the counters and didn’t think about Jake and vacuumed the living room, between and under the couch cushions included, and didn’t think about Jake and scrubbed the shower and didn’t think about Jake so hard that Nora needed an actual shower afterward. A cold one.

"Get a grip," Nora says out loud now.

She looks out of the window and sees nothing but a clear and cloudless blue. A perfect beach day.

She'll go, of course.

She'll go because Nora loves the beach – and always has – and because Natasha was kind enough to invite her and because Nora wants to meet Reuben's girlfriend and hang out with all of them.

No other reason.

She wonders, not for the first time, not even for the first time this week, when she became so well versed in lying to herself.

She blows out a prolonged breath and responds to Natasha.

Nora, 11:05 AM: I'll be there in 30.

"Not playing, Rogers?"

Noon is bright and beautiful and clear as Nora lowers her sunglasses ever so slightly and glances up from her book at Bradley. Blinding sunlight pierces her blue eyes almost immediately, and she has to hold up a shielding hand to be able to see him.

Hand still raised, Nora shakes her head in answer.

She had definitely overpacked for the beach. She always does, wanting to be prepared.

A well-worn paperback from her nightstand. Sunscreen. A reusable water bottle. An assortment of snacks. A portable phone charger. Chapstick. A claw clip. More snacks. An old film camera, in case Nora feels inspired.

(She loves the way California looks on film. All faded blues and greens.)

After seeing Reuben serve, Nora had never been more grateful for her own overpacking. Natasha and Reuben alternated subbing in for Nora on Jake and Javy's side, and Nora found a good patch of sand on the sidelines where she can watch from a minimum safe distance.

Nora loves a good bit of healthy competition, like all Leos do, but she's nowhere near competitive enough to play with them. She's much happier here.

"I decided I don't need a concussion," Nora says simply.

"We would've gone easy on you," Bradley protests immediately. His grin is just mischievous enough that Nora doesn't believe him.

"Now I'm convinced," Nora drawls dryly.

Bradley laughs, bending over and reaching into the cooler that Reuben's girlfriend, Gracie – a pretty nurse with a deceptively powerful spike – brought. It's filled with lemonade and water and soda and at the very bottom, beer.

His hand sloshes around in the ice until Bradley pulls a couple of beers from the depths. He offers one to Nora wordlessly.

She is still drinking a can of cold brew from La Colombe so Nora waves him off. He drops the second beer back into the cooler with a faint splash and closes the lid.

"Scooch over," Bradley asks and nudges her leg with the side of his sandy foot.

A cool breeze blows in from the ocean as Nora moves over, and Bradley smells like a summery mixture of coconut sunscreen and sweat, dropping down next to her.

He had to dive for a pass in the last game, and his calves are sandy as Bradley kicks out his legs and buries his toes in the sand.

Ice cold condensation rolls down the side of Bradley's fresh can of beer and drips down his arm onto Nora's legs. She sets her book aside with a frown, not wanting him to drip water on the pages, which are already a little wrinkled from her dropping it in a pool once.

She crosses her legs. Wipes the water from her skin.

Her damp palm smears across his bare shoulder as Nora wipes the water on him. Just to be annoying. She's surprised – and kind of alarmed – by how warm Bradley's skin is, scorching.

His shoulders are already a concerning shade of pink, and Nora asks, "Did you even put on the sunscreen I brought you?"

His chin dips in a nod, and Nora can see smudges of sunscreen residue around his reddening ears. "I burn easily."

He cracks open the beer with a crisp pop and fizz sound, like a sound effect from a Bud Light commercial. A wave of foam rapidly rises, and Bradley slurps it down with a muttered curse, only barely avoiding spilling it all over his lap.

"You should put on more," Nora says. She looks at his back and grimaces. "You're like giving off heat right now."

Another sip, and Bradley lets out an exaggerated ah! sound. "Are you offering to put it on for me? If you wanted to rub my shoulders so badly, you could've asked."

"It's a spray," Nora deadpans.

He visibly holds back a grin, mustache twitching, and Nora rolls her eyes.

Bradley pulls his sunglasses down with a crooked pinky and absentmindedly watches the current game over the edges of the golden rims. Drinks his beer. Reuben, Mickey, and Gracie are facing off against Jake, Javy, and Natasha right now while Bob is refereeing.

She pulls her book back into her lap and leans her chin on her open palm, reading, interpreting his silence as the end of the conversation.

Silly her, right?

She only manages to get through another paragraph and a half when Nora is interrupted again.

"So..." Bradley cuts in casually. "What's up? I feel like I haven't seen you all week."

Her brow scrunches as Nora frowns slightly. "You've seen me."

A drop of sweat rolls down his neck as Bradley shakes his head. "Barely."

"We had lunch yesterday," Nora reminds him. Did Bradley fall on his knees or on his head during that last dive?

"You're usually around more, like in the Ready Room, but I hung out in there a few times between drills, and you were always gone."

"I was in the hangar," Nora explains, deliberately oblivious. She knows Bradley is asking after the why – not the where.

"Why?" Bradley asks, directly so Nora can't dodge him again. She makes a face.

Why, indeed.

Frankly, because Bradley happened to be paired with Jake on a lot of the same drills and so, happened to be on the ground at the same time as him.

Nora isn't avoiding Jake. Per se.

Avoiding him would be unprofessional and also, kind of impossible and not really fair to him. He hasn't done anything. It's her. She has just been a little more... scarce than usual.

Bradley is more collateral damage than anything else.

He looks over before Nora has a chance to compose her face. "Why do you look like that?"

"Like what?"

"Like..." Bradley searches for the right phrase. He seeks wisdom in another sip of beer. "...you're my bunkmate on the carrier about to ask if I can find another place to crash for the night so I can get laid.”

She stares at him blankly. "I'm confused. Are you getting laid? Or am I?"

"Don't change the subject, Rogers."

"Me?" Nora exclaims. "You're the one with the confusing analogy."

"Just..." He waves his beer around. "Tell me."

Sighing, Nora sneaks a subtle – or rather, hopefully subtle –  glance at Jake.

Shirtless, Jake is gleaming in the golden glow of the sun, glistening with an attractive sheen of sweat, all muscles and sun-kissed skin, rolling and flexing and all of those delicious words. He is wearing a backwards baseball cap, damp strands of golden hair swept across his forehead and underneath, making him look ruffled and boyish and so goddamn handsome.

And Jake's arms. His massive arms.

One of those arms wipes across his glistening forehead as Jake spikes the ball and sends Reuben and Mickey diving into the sand on the other side of the net. His cocky grin is blinding.

And even from here, Nora feels her pulse quicken. She feels like a dropped can of soda, one hard shake from bursting open.

She needs to get a grip and soon.

"You don't want to know," Nora promises.

"Tell me," Bradley nudges. "How bad can it really be?"

Well. She did warn him.

"I had a sex dream about Jake."

He chokes. A stream of beer dribbles down his chin and splashes across his bare chest, running down his abdomen in rivulets. Nora holds back a laugh, covering her mouth with her hand. 

"Why would you tell me that?" Bradley looks pained, asking the question like, What did I ever do to you? Like, Why do you hate me so much?

"You asked," Nora replies calmly.

Mopping the beer from his chest with a balled-up shirt, Bradley looks pained. He coughs into his elbow. "I did not ask about – "

"Besides," Nora continues, ignoring him. "I needed to tell someone, and I couldn't scar Natasha like this so early in our friendship. I need advice."

"What... exactly is the problem?" Bradley asks, slow and reluctant, with a comical lack of enthusiasm; like she's forced the question out of him at gunpoint.

"Well, I guess I like him." Nora draws her knees in and brushing sand from her skin, warm from the sun, rests her arms on them. "Which is probably a bad idea, I know."

"Probably," Bradley echoes. He bobs his head from side to side, weighing his words, considering. "But really, what's a good idea?"

Surprise makes Nora look at him, sharp and sudden. "What does that mean?"

His shoulder drops into a shrug. "I guess, I mean Hangman is a good enough guy. You could do worse."

Brows raised, Nora asks, "Really? When exactly did you guys kiss and make up?"

Bradley wiggles his eyebrows suggestively. "Is that what gets you hot these days?"

He laughs when Nora digs her elbow into his side. She snorts despite herself. "You're such an ass. But really, aren't you going to try to talk me out of it? I expected you to be against the idea."

His laughter cools into something more thoughtful, more contemplative as Bradley asks, "Did you know my mom took six months to agree to go out with my dad?” 

She shakes her head.

A kind of sad smile pulls at his mouth. A ghost of a smile. "Yeah. She wanted him to prove himself or something. She wanted someone who'd be serious about her. He obviously did, or I wouldn't be here."

A pause, and Nora patiently waits for him to continue.

"My birthday always brings up a lot of memories. I'm 36 now. Another year older than my dad ever got to be, which never gets any less weird. I never asked, but if she’d known how it would end, I bet she would’ve done some things differently. I know she would’ve done anything for six more months with him.” 

Bradley says, "You like him. He likes you. And you've got what? Four more weeks here?"

A cool dread pools in the bottom of her stomach at the reminder, and Nora nods with a wan smile. Her opposite fist clenches and unclenches where Bradley can't see.

"Exactly. You're not gonna be here forever. Why not see what happens?"

Her knees drop open as Nora crosses her legs. She brushes sand from her ankles, runs her thumb over the delicate bone there, a soothing back and forth motion, meditative. Contemplating.

"He'd just be so..."

Ahead, as Javy prepares to serve, abdomen rippling as the Naval aviator raises his arm high, Jake cups his large hands around his mouth and heckles Reuben and Mickey. They give him the bird in unison, and even Gracie narrows her eyes.

Jake grins widely. So damn pleased with himself.

She drops her gaze before Jake can catch her watching him.

"So smug," Nora finishes. "He'd be so goddamn smug."

Bradley laughs. "Can't argue with you there."

He winds an arm around her shoulders, sympathetic and sweaty, and Nora leans her head on his shoulder. Her own shoulders are warm from sunshine. Her cheeks are pink.

She's probably overdue for a dip in the ocean.

"Do you know where you're going after this? At the end of this project, I mean?" Bradley asks quietly, and when Nora doesn't respond right away, looks at her sidelong. His brown eyes are warm in the afternoon sun, honeyed with flecks of amber. "Or should I not ask?"

Her answering sigh is almost lost amongst the sounds of the ocean waves, gently crashing against the shore, almost but not quite. "Please don't ask."

He acknowledges her words with a hum. "Gotcha."

Soon, Bradley finishes his beer and rejoins Natasha and Bob for the next game, huddling up, and Nora can feel Jake's eyes on her like she can feel the sun on her shoulders, like a burst of warmth.

She gives up any hope of reading her book and lays down. Closes her eyes. Basks in the warmth of the afternoon; in the sounds of gulls overhead and shouts of laughter; in the rush of salt air over her skin, on her tongue.

Everything else washes away, caught in the rising tide and carried out to sea. At least, for now.

A few hours later, after Nora has gone home and rinsed the sweat and sand from her skin and dressed again, she catches a ride with Natasha and Bob to the Hard Deck to meet the rest of the Naval aviators.

Penny is hosting something of a private Fourth of July barbecue – but with more alcohol and aside from a party-sized bag of Lay's chips Nora saw on the bar, no barbecue – in the early evening before San Diego's annual firework show, which kicks off around dusk.

The Hard Deck bar is a sea of khaki uniforms and crisp denim and shades of red, white, and blue, and Penny clearly decorated for the occasion.

A paper banner of red, white, and blue stars hangs across the large windows in the back, rustling like autumn leaves in the slight breeze from the side door. And cross-legged on a barstool by the windows, a cute but highly impractical pair of pale blue suede cowboy boots on her dangling legs, Nora leans an elbow on her knee, watching Jake and Natasha's nine ball game.

Dressed in a linen button-down, which pulls deliciously over his back muscles, Jake knocks a hard-to-reach ball into a pocket with a devil-may-care smirk. Natasha visibly winces.

"Think I want a rematch, Bagman," Natasha announces with a resigned swig of beer.

"Oh, Bagman again, is it?" Jake lets out a low and mocking whistle. "Haven't heard that one in a while. You must really be pissed, huh, Phoenix?"

Brows raised, Jake flawlessly executes a series of complicated shots while holding her dark gaze, which grows progressively steelier with every click and clack.

"Nora," Natasha says in a scary calm voice. "You can probably reach him best over there. Would you mind strangling Bagman for me?"

"Happily," Nora quips.

Jake makes a whole show of clutching his chest and pretending to be deeply offended, which lasts for all of 20 seconds. "No one likes a sore loser, Trace."

And Bob – who until now has been quietly observing from a barstool on Natasha's end – carefully sweeps cracked peanut shells and popcorn residue from his lap and chimes in with some much-needed optimism.

"You can still win. You still have..."

He launches a long-winded and strategic breakdown of all the different strategies and angles Natasha has left in her arsenal, counting them off. As if Natasha is competing in some Las Vegas championship, not playing a few amicable – well, maybe semi-amicable – rounds in a dive bar.

And while Nora is a very casual enjoyer of pool and doesn't understand half of what Bob is saying, she does understand that Jake is beating Natasha. Badly. Obnoxiously so.

An argument will definitely break out if Jake wipes the floor with Natasha. Nora can feel it in the air, like a crackle of electricity, an indigo downdraft before a summer storm.

So as Jake grows closer, setting up for the coupe de grâce, Nora catches the crisp sleeve of his linen button-down, fabric pulling tight across his muscular bicep. 

He pauses. Turns. 

Forehead wrinkling, Jake looks down at Nora, expectant.

He smells... so damn good. Focus.

"Don't be an asshole," Nora says coolly.

"You'll have to be more specific, I'm afraid."

She gives him a withering look, and god, Jake definitely wants to laugh. She can see it in his eyes, bright and gleaming and green and so close.

"About the game," Nora clarifies dryly. "Don't be an asshole about the game."

His gaze drops down to where Nora is still holding his sleeve. She releases it as if burned.

Amusement creases the corners of his eyes, and Jake drawls, "No promises, sweetheart," and pulls away.

Even so, Jake's next move – one that could've easily been a game ender – is a little less precise, a little less powerful than his previous one. It’s not enough to sink the nine ball. 

And Natasha lives to see another turn. 

A Tears for Fears song comes on as Natasha openly celebrates, drawing her fist down, victorious. Bob and Mickey cheer and clap from the sidelines. Her own personal cheerleaders.

Nora's lips curl upwards.

Three Naval aviators are notably absent from the group at the back of the Hard Deck right now. Reuben is with Gracie, who wanted to get a good spot for the fireworks on Harbor Island, and Bradley had gone straight from the beach to Captain Mitchell's and is now late.

(Bradley sent her a message peppered with various emojis and general incoherence but ending in L8, which was easy enough to understand.)

Javy is around here... somewhere. He vanished into the crowd like 20 minutes ago for a refill and some snacks and never came back. He's probably catching up with some of the Naval officers who had waved at him as Javy came in.

She knows Javy would've clapped for Jake, had Javy been here.

So Nora claps for him, a light clap, catching Jake's attention with the motion, not the sound. She's rewarded with a broad grin as Jake leans on the cue.

He retrieves his half-full glass from the counter underneath the windows and tips the amber liquid in her direction. A gunslinger in an old Western, tipping his cowboy hat at the nearest woman in the saloon. 

She raises her own glass in return, and Jake grins, wide and slow and sensual and damn. He looks her up and down, gaze lingering on her cowboy boots, not saying a damn word, not needing to say a damn word.

A warm feeling rises in her chest like Nora's overindulged in champagne. Goddamn.

Jake still wins in the end, but not by as much as he could've.

As Natasha racks the pool balls, resetting the table for the next game, Nora drains the rest of her Old Fashioned, which was mostly ice now anyway, and carries her empty glass over to the bar.

Penny is busy performing her duties as hostess – meeting and greeting and mingling. She'd made her way over and said hello soon after Nora arrived – so a bartender Nora doesn't recognize is behind the bar right now.

She sets her glass down and pulls out her phone for a distraction while Nora is waiting. She opens Instagram and after scrolling, sees Natasha posted a couple of pictures from Moonlight Rollers on Sunday morning.

In one of the photos, Nora is leaning on Natasha's shoulder, lids lowered and sparkly, grin wide and drunken. Another is a group picture where Bradley has a big arm around both Natasha and Nora's shoulders, standing on either side of him, trying not to fall on his ass again.

A smile lights up her face as Nora likes the post and shares it on her Instagram story. Adding a disco ball and some confetti in the corner.

It's been a while since Nora's posted on Instagram. How long has it been? Since France, maybe?

She clicks on her profile and – 

"Hi. You're Nora, right?"

He's definitely around her age. Cute enough with sand-colored hair that curls around his ears and dimples. Blue eyes. He looks like a classic California surfer.

He looks vaguely familiar, but Nora can't remember his name.

"Depends," Nora says coyly. She slides her phone into her back pocket and crosses her arms. "Should I be worried?"

He's confident enough to laugh. A slightly apologetic sound.

"Not at all. I probably should've led with..." He sticks out a hand, smiling. "I'm Aidan. I'm an AM on the Naval base – an Aviation Structural Mechanic. I've seen you around."

Ah. She can place him now.

Aidan had supervised one of the camera installations last week. She'd exchanged all of five words with him. He looks different, not dressed in coveralls.

He's not the only one. She probably looks different too.

She's braided her pale hair down her back, and a vintage Born in the USA Word Tour shirt slopes over her shoulders, cropped and loose, barely grazing the denim waistband of her light wash cut-offs – which are a smidge shorter than she remembered.

"Have you?" Nora asks. "I must be pretty memorable."

Aidan flushes, and Nora bites back a smirk.

"You're, uh... We don't have a lot of civilian contractors on the base right now. It'd be kind of hard not to remember you, I think."

Her mouth opens in a smile. "I think I’ll take that as a compliment.” 

"You should," Aidan promises in a rush of breath. His blue eyes zero in on her empty glass. "What're you drinking? Maybe I could – "

"Making friends, Hollywood?"

Of course. Nora kind of wants to laugh.

She actually does laugh when 'Born to Run' by Bruce Springsteen comes on over the speakers, covering her mouth, and Jake bites back a smile, eyes sparkling, looking so damn pleased with himself.

Nora looks at him over her shoulder from under her dark lashes, blue eyes crinkling. "Wrong album, Texas."

He only grins.

Heart racing, Nora looks away. "You know Jake, right, Aidan?"

Nodding, Aidan grunts, "Hangman" with a neutral expression so practiced Nora knows all of the AMs must hate Jake. How many F-18 repairs have probably needed to be done in the months the Daggers have been stationed here?

"Howdy."

Jesus Christ. Nora rolls her eyes.

Jake regards the AM with a glued-on insufferable asshole smile until Aidan inhales – one of those sharp well, I better go inhales – and sure enough: "Well, I should get going."

"Oh, so soon?"

Nora kicks Jake in the ankle. His grin only widens.

Aidan looks between them with an unreadable expression and says, "Maybe I'll see you around, Nora. Happy Fourth," with a forced smile and leaves.

After, Nora bites down on the inside of her cheek to hold back a laugh.

"You're so irritating," Nora says.

"Am I?" Jake counters. "Why're you smiling then?"

She doesn't answer.

Grinning, Jake spots the bartender and flags him down with a quick and efficient, "I'll get another beer and another Old Fashioned for the lady here. Thanks, man."

"Presumptuous. And what if I wanted something else?"

His brows rise. "Did you?"

No but...

She could have.

“We’ll never know now,” Nora replies, stubborn, chin raised.

Jake reaches over and gives the end of her braid a gentle and light-hearted tug. So playful and casual. She gapes at him, and Jake grins down at her, shaking with suppressed laughter, eyes alight.

Her stomach does a somersault and then some. A full Olympic routine.

"Excuse me? Are you 12?"

But Nora is laughing.

Jake slides into the empty space beside her. Close enough for Nora to feel the warmth of him.

"What were you and AM Aidan chatting about over here? You know Phoenix made him cry once?" Jake asks. He sounds unbearably amused.

"Literally nothing. He was definitely about to ask me out though," Nora replies.

"Poor guy," Jake croons. His smirk is smug as all hell. "You'd eat him alive. Guy like that wouldn't even know what to do with you."

His words are drenched in implication, like Jake would know.

And against her will, Nora flushes.

He notices, of course, because Jake notices everything.

Luckily, the Hard Deck bartender chooses that exact moment to come back with their drinks. He sets them down. A beer for Jake. An Old Fashioned for Nora.

"Tab?"

"Seresin."

Nora opens her mouth, and Jake pulls on her braid again. She smacks his hand away.

"Don't be so stubborn, Hollywood. Let me buy you a drink."

She eyes him. "And what's the catch?"

A dimple carves into his cheek. "Maybe I'm just a nice guy."

"You are not a nice guy," and Nora doesn't mean for it to come out like it does, like it's a good thing, like she likes that about him.

His gaze is burning, and Jake is closer than ever before – shoe nudging between her boots, knee brushing against the inside of her exposed thigh – and Nora feels like a struck match held over a puddle of gasoline, like one wrong move, one right one will set her ablaze.

"Oh yeah?" Jake murmurs. “What am I then?” 

Her bottom lip catches between her teeth, and Jake follows the movement, gaze darkening. His fingers spasm around the neck of the beer bottle, and Nora remembers another moment, a moment in this very bar when Jake's fingers brushed the side of her neck, warm and calloused and deliberate.

A call vibrates her phone in her back pocket.

Her caught breath escapes in a rush. She doesn't even look at the ID before Nora answers.

"This is Nora Rogers."

Jake eases back, lids low, and Nora swallows against her suddenly dry mouth. Plugs her ear to better hear the person on the other end.

It's so loud in here, but Nora manages to make out a few words.

"Nora, it's Jenna."

A breath punches from her chest, and Nora freezes.

In her peripheral, Jake frowns around his beer.

"I know, I know," Jenna is saying, oblivious, even as Nora feels like a hand has clawed between her ribs and slowly squeezed. "Who calls out of the blue anymore, right? But I saw your Instagram story, and I was like, I should give Nora a call while I have a minute... Are you there? It's kind of loud. Can you hear me? Nora?"

"Oh, um..."

Nora looks up at Jake, eyes wide. He doesn't hesitate, good in a crisis like any good Naval aviator would be. He sets his drink down and pulls the phone from her unresisting fingers.

"Nora's a little busy right now. She'll have to call you back later. You have a good Fourth, ma'am."

And Jake ends the call before Nora can even breathe.

She stares at him, unblinking.

"Nora?"

Not sweetheart, not Hollywood. Nora.

She snaps out of her daze and manages, "I need some air."

And Nora lets Jake pull her though the crowd and out of the side door, into the cooling summer air.

Evening sun cools on the blue horizon of the ocean as Nora is sitting in the bed of Jake's Chevy, legs dangling and swinging restlessly over the edge, hard metal pressing into her skin.

She doesn't mind. It's kind of grounding, actually.

She breathes in the salt air. Breathes deep and out.

"What's going on?"

Ah, damn.

"Ah..." Nora blinks her eyes open and discretely wipes at the moisture under her lids. "I'm fine. Just needed a minute."

She wonders if Jake can hear the strain in her voice, the strange reediness. She can hear it. Can see right through her own words. She wonders if Jake can do the same, can see right through her like Nora is made of the sea glass that dots the shore.

Metal creaks as Jake hoists himself up and squeezes in next to Nora. He is so damn broad, pressed against her entire side. His bare arm is warm against hers.

He gets comfortable, stretching out his legs.

Leans a hand behind her back.

His arm brushes against her side again.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Jake asks, voice a gentle rumble.

She blows out an uneven breath. "About what?"

"You looked a little upset inside, is all."

"I'm not upset," Nora says. A reflex. A lie.

"Come on..." Jake coaxes with a small smile. "You're a bad liar, sweetheart. What's going on? Tell Uncle Jake."

She's surprised enough to laugh, a choked and breathless sound. "Uncle Jake? What is that, like a sex thing?"

"You're so..." He chuckles, low and warm. "No, Nora. It's not a sex thing. Ma called me earlier. Apparently, my niece caught War of the Worlds on cable the other night, even though I know Sarah would never let her watch a PG-13 movie. She's seven."

"So now," Jake continues. "She's scared of fireworks. She's convinced some Independence Day aliens are gonna burst right out of ‘em.” 

Nora cracks a small smile. "And did Uncle Jake talk some sense into her?"

"Damn straight," Jake affirms with an oh-so-serious nod. "Told her I would've seen any aliens from my plane and shot ‘em right out of the sky.” 

He kind of rolls his eyes, like Can you believe what I put up with?, but Nora can hear the unbridled affection in his voice. He loves it. He loves being this person who can calm a scared little girl down and make it all better.

And Nora's delicate heart cracks wide open.

His shoulder bumps against hers, gentle. "Got any aliens I can shoot out of the sky for you, sweetheart?” 

She sighs. "I'm not upset, exactly. I'm... frustrated with myself."

His brows furrow in question, and rather than explain, Nora offers her phone and lets him read the incoming messages for himself. It’s easier. 

Jenna, 6:58 PM: Hi! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to catch you in the middle of something.

Jenna, 7:01 PM: Are you still considering that project I talked to you about in May? Take a beat, I don’t need an answer right this second, but I do need an answer kind of soon. 

Jenna, 7:01 PM: I’m resending the pitch now. Check your email!

Jenna, 7:02 PM: (And maybe write me back for once)

Another message comes in as Jake is reading.

Jenna, 7:05 PM: Also, WHO was that guy on the phone? He has a sexy voice.

Nora snatches her phone back and locks the screen, holding her arms close.

A smirk wavers on his face, flickering on and off like an old light bulb, but Jake doesn't make a comment. His mouth settles in a line as he studies Nora.

“What’s wrong with the project? Why don’t you want it?” 

She blinks at him, surprised, and Jake shrugs.

“You would’ve given her an answer before now otherwise, right?” 

And damn if Jake doesn’t hit the nail right on the head. 

“You’re right. I don't want it," Nora says. An admission. "But I know I should. So... I'm aggravated with myself."

"Why?"

She pulls her legs up and crosses them, fiddling with a loose thread in the denim. She explains in a hush, "Because now, I only have a month left here, and I'm in the same place I was before I came here. I don't have another project lined up at the end of this one, and I haven't even been looking, really."

He is looking at her with soft attention. A breath. 

Nora continues, "I really used to love what I do, but I don't know, I've been so drained and uninspired and god, just so fucking exhausted for the past year and a half." She smooths her hands over her cheeks, still flushed from the humid bar. "I thought if I had a change of pace, maybe I could recharge and feel creative again so..."

"You came here," Jake finishes, understanding.

"So I came here," Nora repeats in a soft voice.

She came here, and now, Nora is stuck. Again.

"Documentaries have been a part of my whole... identity for so long that I don't know if I could do something else. I feel like I'd lose a part of myself if I ever stopped. And I've been this person for so long that I don't know if I could do something else. I don't know if I'd even know how."

A car pulls into the beachside lot and parks a few rows over and idles there, and over the sound of the engine and the crash of the ocean waves, Nora can make out the chorus of ‘Fade Into You’ by Mazzy Star. Her mom’s favorite song. 

It feels like a sign. 

And Nora says, “I guess I don’t want to look back a decade from now and be in the same place I am right now.” 

“Which is?”

“Wondering if I’ve made the wrong choice.” Nora watches the horizon. A sigh escapes from her lips. “Wondering if I’m too late to make the right one.” 

“Look at me,” Jake says, soft and gentle but firm. "Hey."

Nora leans her chin on her shoulder and meets his gaze, and Jake is looking at her with such intense green, open-faced and sincere. 

"You could march into Cyclone's office on Monday morning and quit right then and there and – "

"Actually, Admiral Simpson's not my – ” 

"You could..." Jake raises his voice to drown out her interruption until Nora presses her lips together. "...quit and never make another documentary ever again and still be an incredible person. I mean, hell, Hollywood, you're beautiful and clever as hell and at times, kind of mean."

A smirk brims on her lips, and Jake grins, a flash of white. 

“You could be anything.” 

She stares at him. “How could you possibly know that? You’ve only known me for like a month.” 

“I know enough.” 

He sounds so sure, so certain.

And Nora likes him. She likes him so much her chest aches. She holds a hand over her collarbone, rubbing at the sore spot over her heart, pulse racing underneath her palm.

"Thank you, Jake," Nora says softly.

His eyes are soft. "Of course, anytime."

A beat passes, and Nora could so easily let the moment fade.

She could go back inside and spend the rest of the weekend pushing him from her mind and wanting him.

Jake is so handsome in the golden glow. He's looking at her like...

No one's ever looked at her like Jake is looking at her right now.

She swallows hard and says, "You were right before."

His mouth quirks. "I usually am, but about what?"

A few strands of short hair come loose from her braid and fall in her face as Nora shakes her head.

“I do kind of like you,” Nora admits. “I kind of like you a lot.” 

His lips part in a smile. “You like me.” 

She bites down on the inside of her cheek. Hard. “Go ahead. Get it over with."

“And what exactly am I getting over with?"

“You really aren't going to be smug about this? You were right. Get it over with."

Nora waits. Drums her fingers on the surface of her thigh while Jake is quiet, suspiciously so. 

“What? Nothing?"

"Oh, I'm sure I'll find a way to be smug later," Jake promises with a slow smirk. Later oozes with suggestion. Sparks dance across her skin where Jake's arm is pressed against hers.

“You like me,” Jake repeats again, voice soft. 

Her chin dips in a nod.

“And what are we gonna do about that, sweetheart?” 

It’s all Nora can do not to squirm under his gaze. 

She replies, “Nothing. Just wanted you to know,” in a voice so paper thin, so breathless that even Nora doesn’t believe herself. 

You’re a bad liar, sweetheart, echoes in her head. 

And like he knows, a smirk kicks up the edge of Jake's mouth. 

In a movie, this would be a moment, the moment. 

A director would ask the camera to get in close and closer still, documenting every microcosm of their expressions, every glimpse of emotion in their eyes, and in the background, a delicate instrumental would build and build, a gradual swell, like an ocean wave. 

Grow louder and stronger until in a dark theater, surrounded by strangers and popcorn grease, or at home on the couch, whoever is watching catches themselves holding their breath, until the world drops out from under them, until…

He leans in close, locked and loaded with a clever countermove.

“Bull…” 

And unable to let him have the last word, even in this, especially in this, Nora closes the distance between them and kisses him.

And kisses him and kisses him, hand dipping in the open space where his linen shirt gapes from his collarbone and running her fingers over the golden skin, warm from the sun, over that damn chain. 

Hooking it around her index finger, Nora gives it an experimental pull, the smallest and slightest of tugs, and Jake reacts like Nora has reached inside his chest and pressed an on switch. 

A warm palm slides up the slender length of her neck, settling on her nape, and anchors her against him. He breathes her name against her mouth, like a prayer, like a confession.

Nora Nora Nora. 

Pulls her in and in and in until Nora is all but on top of him, impossibly close.

She wants nothing more than to crawl over him and – 

A car alarm wails from behind them.

She pulls back, breathing hard, and like a magnet, Jake follows.

He rests his forehead against her bare shoulder, catching his breath, pressing a kiss to the new freckles from the afternoon and another.

“Um…” Nora starts.

He kisses the side of her neck once, and Nora cuts herself off with a rush of breath, gripping his biceps for balance. 

“We’re…” Nora tries again. “We should…” 

He pauses. Pulls back so Nora can see his face.

His pupils are blown wide.

“Do you want to get out of here?” Nora asks, both a question and a plea. Please want to get out of here.

“Yes,” Jake breathes and kisses her again, his answer a groan against her mouth. "God, yes, Nora."

He doesn't even get his credit card from the bartender.

Less than a minute later, Jake is cutting across Coronado in his Chevy like an F-18, cutting across cooling blue skies.

Between stop signs, Jake reaches across the bench seat and laces their fingers together, pressing a firm kiss to her knuckles.

Her other hand drifts out of the open window, and for a brief moment, as the wind catches her fingers just right, Nora closes her eyes and feels like she's flying.

end note: likes are appreciated, but comments and reblogs are amazing. i'd love to hear from you! and all my love to @sometimesanalice for letting me ramble to you for months about this fic and @roosterbruiser for beta reading!

read the next chapter!

[eddie-rifff]

these are 10 of my favorite bands and what is basically my favorite song from each of them though for a few it was very hard to choose. please please please listen to like 20 seconds of any ones you dont know. realistically i know most of you wont but its worth a try lol

links to each of them below with a time you can skip to for a good idea of the song because a lot of them are 7+ minutes long <3

Machine Messiah: skip to 3:41

Entangled: skip to 1:20

Faint Heart and the Sermon: skip to 1:46 (mellotron goodness)

Great Horse: start at the beginning!

Model Man: skip to 0:51

Wise After the Event: skip to 1:00

Carrying no Cross: skip to 9:10. eddie jobson keyboard attack

Easy for You to Say: skip to 0:47

Pilgrims: skip to 2:39 but you gotta listen to 3:08 on this one. you have to i am begging you

Both Ends Burning: skip to 2:57

[cruciatusforeplay]

Hello I have Good Omens Brainrot like the rest of us, and I had a spare afternoon, so here is

Crowley and Aziraphale's Canonical Chronological History

(watching-guide with media timestamps so you can watch it all develop in order)

It's long so it's going under the cut. Let me know if there are errors beyond being out by a second or so. Also speedrunning two series of this show in an afternoon made me So Unwell (emotionally). I would absolutely recommend it.

I've broadly only included only clips that featured either one or both them as a focal point, or where the events would have informed their relationship, plus the option of the S2 finale in its entirety.

**Before the beginning, nebula** S2E1 0:00- 6:20 (up to opening credits)

**Just after the beginning, Garden of Eden, 4004BC** S1E1 1:55 (or 3:25 to skip Adam and Eve)-6:04 (opening credits)

**Noah's Ark, mesopotamia 3004BC** S1E3 0:00-2:47

**Job, 2500BC** S2E2 0:00-5:35, 22:30-40:01, 44:10-46:49 (end of episode)

**Crucifixion of Jesus, Golgotha, 33AD** S1E3 2:47-4:28 (continues directly to)

**Rome 41AD** S1E3 4:28-5:31 (continues directly to)

**Knights, kingdom of Wessex, 537AD** S1E3 5:31-7:56 (continues directly to)

**Bastille, Paris, 1793** S1E3 11:53-15:31

**The Globe Theatre London, 1601** S1E3 7:56-11:53 (continues directly to)

**Edinburgh, 1827** S2E3 8:34(post credits)-12:56, 17:38-22:10, 24:28-33:59

**St James' Park London, 1862** S1E3 15:31-17:29 (continues directly to)

**The Blitz, London, 1941** S1E3 17:29-24:07, recap can be skipped that can be skipped: S2E4 5:10(post credits)-6:14, 8:24-37:59

**Soho, London, 1967** S1E3 24:07-28:38 (opening credits)

**The M25 meeting, Hell, 1970s** S1E5 21:21-22:27

**The Antichrist, near Tadfield airbase, "11 years ago" ~2008** S1E1 7:32(post credits)-14:24, (optional baby drop off with Crowley) 19:24-20:14, 25:59-29:59, 30:14-32:24, 33:35-35:04 (continues directly to)

**Antichrist upbringing, "5 years later" ~2013** S1E1 35:04-39:30

**6 days before the end of the world, Monday, 2019** S1E1 40:45-43:19 (continues directly to)

**3 days before the end of the world, Wednesday, 2019** S1E1 43:19-44:08, 44:38-45:52, 48:01-49:11(to end credits)

**2 days before the end of the world, Thursday, 2019** S1E2 0:00-3:56, 21:16-23:33, 26:24-27:54, 31:04-32:10, 34:14-44:40, 45:36-46:21, 48:05-54:01 (to end credits)

**1 day before the end of the world, Friday, 2019** S1E3 30:07-31:14, 35:27-36:49, 38:48-41:30, 43:39-45:51, 49:41-49:53, 50:39-53:11

**The last day of the world, Saturday, 2019** S1E4 4:01-5:42, 8:15-9:28, 29:06-29:48, 33:29-42:00, 48:47-54:06 (to end credits)

**5 Hours and 48 Minutes to the End of the World, 2019** S1E5 0:00-1:32, 3:17(after credits)-4:17, 6:11-8:49, 11:01-13:25, 17:47(or 20:18 to skip the spirit of Ron)-21:00

**1 Hour and 43 Minutes to the End of the World, 2019** S1E5 21:00-21:21, 22:28-25:07, 26:49-31:43, 36:59-37:31

**17 minutes to the end of the world (and the rest ofbthat day), 2019** S1E5 46:24-49:25 (end credits), S1E6 1:53(2:35 to skip repeat section)-4:39, 8:19-9:49, 10:44-12:49, 14:02-27:10

**The very last day of the rest of their lives, 2019** S1E6 27:10- 28:07, 31:02-32:58, 0:00-1:46, 32:58-36:26, 42:33-45:45, 48:40-52:17

**London, present day (S2E1), ~2023** S2E1 7:48-13:15, 13:47-29:59, 33:00-36:13, 37:39-38:00, 38:19-42:41

**London, present day (S2E2), ~2023** S2E2 5:35-8:53 (to opening credits), 10:21-22:30, 40:04-43:28

**London/Edinburgh present day (S2E3), ~2023** S2E3 1:14-6:35, 6:47-7:07 (to opening credits), 12:57-14:36, 16:09-17:38, 22:11-24:27, 33:59-42:05(to end credits)

**London, present day (S2E4), ~2023** S2E4 0:00-3:42 (opening credits), 41:08-41:46, 42:02-43:09(end credits)

**London, present day (S2E5), ~2023** S2E5 0:48-2:57, 3:43-5:24, 7:07-8:04, 8:31-10:12, 12:29-13:32, 13:57-17:57, 19:33-29:52, 30:24-40:38

**London, present day (S2E6), ~2023** S2E6 0:00-4:52(to opening credits), 6:20-(optional 21:06-27:31 for Gabe and Muriel memories, otherwise continue to)end of ep

[lonestarflight]

Skylab Missions: Skylab 3

*

"These three men are the prime crewmen for the Skylab 3 mission. Pictured in the one-G trainer Multiple Docking Adapter (MDA) at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) are, left to right, scientist-astronaut Owen K. Garriott, science pilot; and astronauts Jack R. Lousma and Alan L. Bean, pilot and commander, respectively."

Mission Duration: July 28 - September 25, 1973

Time Duration: 58 days, 15 hours, 39 minutes, 42 seconds

"The Skylab 3 mission started out as routine, but was not without in-flight high drama of its own. Shortly after docking and entering the Orbital Workshop (OWS), all three crew members experienced motion sickness, delaying the activation of OWS on-board equipment.

A more serious concern was raised on Mission Day-5 (MD-5). An apparent failure of two of the four thruster quadrants of the Command Service Module (CSM) reaction control system was detected.

Not only could an actual failure like this create an early end to the mission, it also could conceivably render the CSM incapable of supporting a safe return of the astronauts to Earth.

Launch crews at the Kennedy Space Center were placed on a 24-hour per-day, seven day per-week work schedule to prepare the Skylab 4 Saturn IB launch vehicle for flight in case an early launch was needed for a rescue operation."

The Skylab 4 Saturn IB (CSM-118/SA-208) launch vehicle is rolled to Launch Complex 39, Pad B.

"A decision was made to continue the mission, and although the Skylab 4 launch vehicle had been rushed to flight-readiness, the CSM performed flawlessly during re-entry operations.

On August 6, 1973 astronauts Garriott and Lousma performed a spacewalk which lasted 6 hours, 31 minutes. During this spacewalk, the astronauts were able to extend an external twin-pole thermal shield to replace the parasol thermal shield installed by the Skylab 2 crew. They also retrieved and replaced film from solar telescopes housed outside the OWS.

A second spacewalk by astronauts Garriott and Lousma was conducted on August 24, 1973. This one lasted 4 hours, 31 minutes. During this spacewalk, the astronauts retrieved and replaced film from solar telescopes housed outside the OWS and installed a cable for a new rate gyro package. They also performed some maintenance activities.

The third and final spacewalk of the mission was conducted on September 22, 1973. This one was conducted by astronauts Bean and Garriott and lasted 2 hours, 41 minutes. During this spacewalk, the astronauts retrieved and replaced film from solar telescopes housed outside the OWS and performed maintenance activities on other external experiment packages.

Scientific experiments, including the observation of unanticipated dynamic solar activity, continued for much of the 59-day mission. The crew participated in classroom-oriented educational demonstrations regarding weightlessness.

The Skylab 3 crew set a new manned space flight endurance record. Their in-flight health fared markedly better than the Skylab 2 crew, with the exception of the amount of bone calcium loss.

A significant demonstration of long-term space flight and the long-term viability of the OWS was successfully achieved."

* Due to a NASA management error, crewed Skylab mission patches were designed in conflict with the official mission numbering scheme.

An interesting side note, the wives created their version of the patch. I've covered the NSFW bits just so the Tumblr staff doesn't mark my blog as NSFW.

"The main feature on the second Skylab crew patch was Leonardo da Vinci's universal man, slightly retouched to make it 'G-rated'! Without their husbands knowledge, the astronaut wives also had a patch made which was a joke version of the official crew patch. The universal man figure had been replaced by a 'universal woman'. Instead of the astronauts names; Bean, Garriott and Lousma, their wives first names were shown: Sue, Helen-Mary and Gratia. The crew first became aware of the wives patch when they found stickers of them in their lockers on board Skylab."

source, source

NASA ID: S72-51123, S73-28714, 72-HC-90, SL3-108-1288, SL3-109-1345, S74-15583, SL3-111-1505, S73-34369, SL3-117-2109

[jklpopcorn]

*crawls out of the in stars and time timeloop, visibly disheveled and exhausted after spending 33 hours playing + Another 2 hours mass reblogging with friend* WE MADE IT TO THE END, OH LORD, WHO SAID THAT THE GAME WAS ONLY 21 HOURS LONG

Hiii! This is an update on my last ask pertaining to finishing Start Again and starting ISAT. It tooked another session to completed SAAPAand then over ten 3 hour sessions over the course of a month to beat but we did it!

Thank you for bring this game on my dashboard! Truly, one of the games of all time

Some highlights of those 33 hours of stars and timing.

Both of us just STARING at isat Siffrin during acts 1 and 2 because holy shit, they're so joyous and filled with whimsy and the timeloop horrors hasn't hit them yet. <--- used to saapfrin's depression

The two of us experiencing the dawning horror that is all the callbacks to Start Again in act 3+4

LOOP HANGOUT IMPLICATIONS THAT SIFFRIN HELD THE PARTY BACK BC THE PARTY WAS ABLE TO MAKE TO THE KING ON THIER OWN DESPITE HOW THERES SO MANY POTENTIAL SOFTLOCKS

I (person who knew that saapfrin is loop since the beginning and that loop is a Siffrin) had to desperately gaslight the streamer friend when they randomly joked that there could be multiple Siffrins across different timelines in act 2 (they didnt remember saying that when we were chatting at the end credits)

Destroying Odile's old women kidneys via making her drink 8+ bowls of salty broth whenever we fought the king

Yelling HOW ARE YOU STILL STANDING??? When odile froze Siffrin in time at the 5th act finale like Ma'am using timecraft even for a second is said to cause the user to turn to dust?? And you're like 80

Heartbreaks during the 'Odile stands in front of the party after Siffrin disposing of sadness too excitedly" '"We cannot trust Siffrin" clocktower act 5' and 'Odile uses papercraft against big Siffrin' because she's the oldest and logical one and she must protect everyone/make sure everyone is prepared to fight the king even if her actions seem too extreme

Got a beautiful moment at the secret loop bossfight when the streamer friend learned loop is a siffrin and I no longer had duct tape over my mouth and could finally tell them that loop is our saapfrin (been talking about what happened to saapfrin in general during the playthrough)

SBXUXBUDHXUDHCUCCU I am SO glad you enjoyed the game :DDDDD

I also thought the game would normally take 21 hours but I was prepared for it to take longer since I love to investigate more 😭😭 yeah it did take longer, 41 hours in 4 days to be more precise, twice as long 😭😭 loved every second of it 😭😭

I can imagine seeing act 1 and 2 siffrin would be such a whiplash! When I learned that sasasap may contain spoilers and reused scenes i went straight to isat so I first got used to the whimsy of the act 1 and 2 siffrin and then saw the slow descent into the poor meow meow in act 4 😭 i was actually surpised when i played sasasap that the little guy skipped all of that and is lowkey worse off than isat siffrin 😭 Loop truly did make a difference when it comes to sif's sanity (and like... actually helping him get out of the loop too ^^)

I was actually surprised they went into an actual breakdown in act 4 and 5. Didn't expect the creator to explore how a person would feel after dying and looping a hundred or so times! I was fully expecting for sif to go "well that happened :)" with no consequences like some games/movies like to do... But within the first 5 minutes of playing I could bet that the creator was a tumblr user so I had hope that our little fella could go a little feral later on <3 i was not disappointed <3 (but honestly, the game reeks of tumblr at times /pos /pos /pos <3)

I suppose that without Sif during the Loop hangout the party got both super lucky and searched even more thoroughly for keys and such since their main guy was out! Not that it really helped them in the end...

I guess it's just canon that that old woman's immortal. Speed and running are her only weaknesses 😔 and mommy issues 😔

Also her truly wanting the best for the party and also taking the least shit from siffrin the moment they could be a danger to her family 😭 violence is not always the answer odile you saw what happened to siffrin 😭

Loop..... nooooo......

[bsaka7]

only 4more weeks of this posting godbless but anyway this marathon DOES have pace groups which i didn't realize but they're for 3:50 and 4:05....idek if that's normal but neither of those times are THAT useful for me

last race i ran a 4:04 (4:03:51) splitting like 2:05/1:59 for the halves...this course has a much more downhill second half (final 9mi almost all downhill). it's not a SUPER hilly course - 989ft total of elevation but that's not nothing. my GOAL is sub-4, my secondary time goal if i had one is probably sub-3:55. my sense is that going out with the 3:50 group would be a little too fast for me -- in training, i've been operating as if my MP is 9 flat and dropping to 8:45 to run with the 3:50 just seems like there's too much possibility for error. that being said my training has gone fucking amazing so far. and i have done one 20-miler where i split 8:51/8:57/8:54/8:52/8:43/8:41/8:37 for the last seven miles and i did not check my watch once it was just by feel and i was feeling awesome

i do no intentional running at MP and all my speedwork is with my track club. so maybe like. with the taper...that WOULD be there? but i also don't want to fuck up my race plan and hit the wall. my general strategy is the same as it is for every race which is like, first third hold back, second third maintain, last third push. at the same time i like. really don't know if i'm going to have the speedwork opportunities that i did this summer for like, a while (ever?), and i feel like i'm in amazing condition so i really do want to run my fastest possible race and feel like i don't have anything left in the tank (my first marathon which was a 4:34:51 jfjfjff i was like yeah i still have juice. the last one i had SOME but not a ton). this speed worry would be SLIGHTLY alleviated if i had raced a half (or any distance) during this build (my half pr is 1:53:27 from a race in spring 2023 but i've only run...4 halfs? and that was the only road half. i was in decent shape but nothing crazy). so anyway i don't really know what i'm capable of there either

my plan will probably just be to run my own race and aim for around a 2:00 first half of the race and then hope to reverse split again by a minute or two (i've reverse split every training long run so far + there will be that downhill so not too worried about that). and if it's a bit faster awesome! tbf during my last marathon i was like oh i'll run with the 4:30 pace group and then ditched them after like 1 mile but that race had 19k runners in it lmao so there were always people to chase. this one has about 1000. my first one had uh. 300. and you know. it's not like this is going to be my last marathon. already have my eye on one for next year! (and a trail half and depending on where I'm living I'd love to run a trail marathon. etc. and you know. maybe someday. a 50k. i got years baby! )

Edit: my dad's advice (i learned he has run 3 marathons - I thought he ran more!)

[chrisevansonly]

Snowy Miracle

Chris Evans x Female Reader (no use of y/n in this one)

Summary: After a nasty winter storm cancels your flight to Boston, all hope seems to be lost to get home to your husband, but one cancelled flight won’t stop you from spending the holidays with your favourite person

Warnings: light swearing, but other than that just fluffy goodness<3

A/N: Okay, so this is my first fic in a while so bear with me while i get back into the swing of things! It’s not a super long one, but we’ll get there! Hopefully I did okay, happy holidays! ☺️

Word Count: 753

You should have known the second those big white flakes of snow started falling, flights would start to get cancelled and delayed. A last-minute business venture to New York before the holidays is what started this whole ordeal in the first place. So when the stripe of yellow indicating the last flight to Boston turned red cancelling it entirely, a sigh fell from your lips.

“Of course this has to happen now..”

Mumbling to yourself in annoyance your brain began to start figuring out alternative ways to try an salvage the trip home. Pulling out your phone out and finding a quiet spot to sit you sent a text to your husband back home

The Wife♥️: hey honey, the last flight into Boston was cancelled, I am going to figure out another way, stay tuned, I love you.

Your phone remained silent as you walked through the terminal over to grab your bags, spotting a car rental booth just near the baggage claim. It wasn’t the brightest idea you’ve ever had, but what is the harm in asking them for the most winter appropriate vehicle they have in order for you to get home. After grabbing your bags your phone chimed

Chris: fuck, I should have known that storm would cause problems…I can come get you?

The Wife♥️: it’s all good, I think I figured something out, I’ll keep you updated.

Chris: Okay, I love you, be safe

You managed to score a rental from the company to drive home, and luckily enough they had given you a big SUV with all the four-wheel drive options to make the three hour drive home. After the day you had, all you could think of was a tight hug from Chris and the comforts of your own bed.

————————————

Pulling into the long driveway just after 6:00 pm you finally let your tense shoulders relax, the drive had been nothing short of horrendous, but you finally made it, and were more than ready to get all your things inside. You pulled your suitcase behind you and up to the front door, unlocking it with your keys, the sound of Charlie Brown Christmas on the TV which made you laugh to yourself. Your husband may be 41, but that never stopped him from loving all the classic children’s holiday movies. The rattle of your keys hitting the porcelain bowl on the hallway table echoed through the lower level and soon enough Chris appeared in front of you, eyes wide in surprise but a small smile beginning to pull at the corners of his lips.

“Surprise?”

You laughed and opened your arms for a hug which Chris quickly acted on, wrapping you in his arms and squeezing you to his chest. A slight smell of firewood on his sweater knowing he’d put one on not long ago

“How the hell did you get home angel?”

Pulling back enough to look up at him you smiled

“I got a rental car and drove the three hours home, it was shitty weather, but I made it”

Chris leaned down connecting your lips for a much-needed kiss after being away from each other for a couple days before letting you come further into the house

“I’m glad you’re home in one piece, not sure I love that you drove..”

“I knew you wouldn’t like that idea, so I didn’t tell you, but I’m here now and I didn’t miss Christmas”

A smile appeared on his face again and he didn’t hesitate to pull you back in for another hug, his lips pressing a few kisses to your temple, hands rubbing up and down your back as you held each other in silence.

“How about you go shower, change and I’ll order some dinner? We can watch Home Alone and then work some more on our tree”

He looked towards your very sad looking Christmas tree and laughed; you still had a decent amount of decorating to do

“That sounds perfect, I’ll be quick”

“Take all the time you want pretty girl”

A blush crept across your cheeks before kissing him once more, happy to finally be back with your person

“I love you, I’m happy you’re home”

You smiled before crossing your arms

“I love you too, even if you started Charlie Brown’s Christmas without me.”

Chris’s boisterous laugh the last thing you heard as you made your way upstairs and towards your shared bedroom. A little snow could never get in the way of you getting home for the holidays.

[melonteee]

Story time: When I was little and first start wachting anime (not counting Pokemon and Digimon because I didnt know what anime even was when first seeing them on tv) I learned about the big three, and wanted to watch all of them. One at a time thou.

So I watched few videos like amv or top 10 lists on yt to decide which one to start with. Bleach I found pretty boring, still do, just dont think its an anime for me. Im sure its good as it has a lot of fans. But not for me. And One Piece I thought was too childish, not sure if I saw 4kidz dub or it might be before any one of the big emotional scenes (before water 7, as in genocide wasnt a plot point yet) but I thought it was a 'friendship is magic' type of show. Naruto I saw there was blood (why I think I might have seen one piece 4kidz videos) and the nine tail fox, which I thought was the cooled thing ever. So I ended up with watching Naruto first. Spoiler: Nine tails barely have any scenes so that was a huge let down.

I didnt like Naruto because he kept trying to sneak in the womens bath and transforming into a naked girl to give people nosebleeds. Little ace me, who didnt know what asexual was, didnt approve. Sasuke I thougth was an idiot, I normally like the overly emo characters but I just thought hes reasoning and actions were stupid. (Like in the end he came back like "Im going to be the new hokage". like bitch! You are a war criminal that sided with the enemy that tried to destroy the village at one point! Why the fuck would the village want you as their leader??!!) And Sakura just seemed really pointless. There was a thing that she was supposed to be the more giften one in channeling chakra but Naruto and Sasuke quickly cought or was atleast good enough that Sakura wasnt needed that often. There was some good scenes but they were few and far between.

Not liking the main characters is a bad start when watching a show.

I dont remember that much what happend in the anime because I got so mad about how long time it took for things to happen that I ended up suppressing the memories. I didnt know what filler episodes was untill after I was almost at the end of the serie. So I watched all and every filler episodes thinking they were nessesary.

Did you know 41% of the anime was filler? 91 of 220 episodes of the original anime where filler. And 203 of 500 episodes of shippuden where filler. And one point there was even 76 episode in a row that was filler. From 13 july 2005 to 1 february 2007 where just filler episodes.

I refused to watch Bleach and One Piece after thinking they had as much filler episodes as Naruto. Untill I got recommended one piece videos on yt and decided to give it a try. But looking up which episodes where filler so I could skip it. But One piece only had 10 %. I know there were someone that had counted how many minutes where filler scenes in each episode which made that procentage a lot higher.

I know its annoying that One Piece has a lot of scene filler where things are dragged out little too long. But if I had to choose I do rather have filler scenes than filler episodes. Even thou filler episodes can be fun from time to time. But not 76 in a row.

End of story time.

Love your videos~ Keep it up!

LMAO I can't speak on the Naruto stuff, but One Piece's LACK of filler surprised me too? And I say lack of filler because, shocker! Having like, 3-5 fillers per 100 EPISODES?? SOMETIMES NOT EVEN THAT?? People truly don't realise how insane that is, and how lucky we are for that?

I've said it before and I'll say it again, people really need to watch One Piece SECOND to something else - especially second to other anime. You truly see how good you have it and how good of a show One Piece is when it's the SECOND thing you watch LMAO

[frankendykes-monster]

Countdown to Halloween 2023, Ranked

43. Swamp Thing (1982)

42. Curse of Bigfoot (1975)

41. The Haunting (1999)

40. Orca (1977)

39. Teenagers Battle The Thing (1958)

38. The Beast (1975)

37. Don't Go in The House (1979)

36. Countess Dracula (1971)

35. Hillbillys in a Haunted House (1967)

34. Beware! The Blob (1972)

33. Alien Space Avenger (1989)

32. Baby Blood (1990)

31. Shriek of The Mutilated (1974)

30. The Mutations (1974)

29. Phase IV (1974)

28. Curse of The Faceless Man (1958)

27. The Sadist (1963)

26. Jennifer (1978)

25. The Wasp Woman (1959)

24. Noroi: The Curse (2005)

23. Girls Nite Out (1982)

22. The Monster of Piedras Blancas (1959)

21. The Cat and The Canary (1927)

20. Tell Your Children (Reefer Madness, 1936)

19. The Company of Wolves (1984)

18. It's Alive (1974)

17. The Wolf House (2018)

16. Michael Jackson's Halloween (2017)

15. The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963)

14. The Omega Man (1971)

13. Gamera: Rebirth (2023)

12. Student Bodies (1981)

11. Night Caller From Outer Space (1965)

10. Inhumanoids (episodes 1 - 5, 1986)

9. Blind Woman's Curse (1970)

8. Maniac (1980)

7. The Child (1977)

6. Zombie 3 (1988)

5. Return of The Living Dead (1985)

4. Spider Baby (1967)

3. Basket Case (1982)

2. Messiah of Evil (1973)

Godzilla (1954)

Woof. Okay. This has been a mostly disappointing viewing experience.

Critical difference between this year's countdown and the past two is that now that I have stable employment, there is far less time to be watching horror films. I normally begin the countdown in September but we started in July of this year and still barely managed to crack 40, with my original goal being a full 100 this year. Timing. As such a lot of my plans and possible viewings were cut short and compared to last year specifically we fell back on a lot of "seen it already" at least for the top of the list.

This year's batch of viewings were largely blah, but a step up from the shitshow I put myself through last year (watching nearly every Texas Chainsaw sequel does things to a person). As such it'll be difficult to conjure up words for a decent chunk of these mostly because yes, these movies exist, I watched them, I would not recommend that you yourself watch them. That is all. If I write briefly on a given film that's not necessarily an indictment of its quality as there a decent number of these that I saw and enjoyed it's just their impact might be a bit fleeting. You will know which ones I actively disliked. I mostly just want to write about the top five or so but I will play fair.

Our grand loser this year is Swamp Thing, the DC Comics adaptation by Wes Craven. I watched this pretty much entirely because I finally got the Alan Moore Swamp Thing run in paperback this year after quite some time of having it on my to-buy list. Longtime Rachael/Ray/Ratchet fans may recall me reading it in early 2019 alongside [REDACTED]. Still one of the best Moore comics, and a second volume of Swamp Thing wouldn't have been possible without the success of this film. For context I did read the early Swampies by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson and my general reaction to those was a'ight but there was definitely material for a serviceable film adaptation there. This is not that serviceable film adaptation. I'm not hung up on details like how Abigail has no connection to Arcane now despite being his niece in the comics, but this film is just kind of painful in how relatively unambitious it is which is saying something for Swamp Thing sword fighting another human mutation at the end of this. It's just silly and stupid and not scary or awe inspiring or anything, the Swamp Thing suit sucks, the action sucks, any sense of pathos is not there or gone, it stretches for 30 minutes too long like it's a padded TV pilot, the only highlight is being able to see Adrienne Barbeau's breasts. Fuck this it's a miserable experience to sit through. My mistake for watching a Wes Craven film that doesn't have "Scream" in the title.

Our next shitter is the two-for-one abomination that is Teenagers Battle The Thing (1958) and Curse of Bigfoot (1975); these are the same movie except Curse of Bigfoot has a 25 minute opening scene framing device that is bizarre given that "The Thing" of the original film is a Native American mummy of some sort unearthed by a group of white high school students. It's the rare personal pet project movie made for fun by some locals but the only highlights are the occasional kill scene, Curse of Bigfoot ranks lower just for making me sit through it longer. Blah.

Speedrunning through a bunch of these because theyre all varying degrees of bad and I don't want to spend any longer writing about these than you probably do reading about them: The Haunting is awful and I don't even super care for the original film so adding shitty CGI monsters and a moral lesson of "it's about family!" doesn't help. Orca is a shitty Jaws cash-in that's like a reverse Moby Dick where the sea animal hunts down the human, nice finale where the orca and shitty poacher guy are fighting it out in the Arctic but otherwise avoid. Don't Go in The House is a mysoginistic torture porn movie that really doesn't sell the "seemingly normal guy is a closet nutcase" thing even though movies made before and after have done it well (see Maniac several paragraphs below). The Beast is advertised as this really scandalous porno film but most of it is French aristocrats sitting around in stuffy rooms arguing about real estate. I think I only watched Countess Dracula for its inclusion in the "if this is her vibe I would fucking cum" meme and it's barely worth bringing up at all. Hillbillys in a Haunted House has an absolutely lovely Tennessee country soundtrack that I wish I could listen to without having to watch the actual movie which is devoid of both scares and laughs. Beware! The Blob gives off the feeling of sitting at a funeral for a family member that was just distant enough for you to be aware of them but not actually be upset but it's still a funeral so it's not like you're smiling, stick with the 1988 Blob film. Alien Space Avenger has some decent gore effects but that's all I can recall from it. Shriek of The Mutilated has one of the best titles for an otherwise uninspired yeti movie that has a needless third act twist about it being a cover for a cult and blah blah blah fuck you. Baby Blood has an alien mutant whatever crawl up a woman's vagina into her womb and she has to eat people to feed it and yeah I'm actually struggling to remember what happens here. The Mutations has a scene where a guy cuts into a tree and it bleeds, I think he's played by Donald Pleasance. Yeah, it's like Freaks except it plays to the freak show straight so you get to laugh at all the outcasts of society, no thank you.

Some odds and ends that I'd say are decent-to-pretty-good: Phase IV has some footage of ants and synth music. All you need is some footage of ants and synth music. Curse of The Faceless Man employs a rarely seen archetype of the living statue monster, it's cute. The Sadist is another starring vehicle for Arch Hall Jr., who was also the star of last Halloween's Eegah! (1962), though this film is a bold trendsetter for the 1960's with Hall being a unhinged killer holding people for ransom until they can fix his car and he can make a getaway. The film lives and dies by Hall's performance and it's mostly the latter until we get to an absolutely superb final act with him hunting down his remaining victims, it makes the whole film worth seeing. Jennifer is an oddball that plays out mostly like a character drama ("It wasn't my fault Daddy it was that stupid hillbilly bitch Jennifer") that suddenly remembers that it's supposed to be a cash-in of Carrie (1976) in the last 20 minutes and cue our titular character being able to summon and control snakes to send after her tormentors. Girls Nite Out is a plodding meandering slasher that's oddly hypnotizing considering so much of it takes place in pitch-black night and the killer is wearing a bear mascot costume with serrated knives hidden under the glove, not sure what fully to make of it. The Monster of Piedras Blancas is made up of leftover parts from the Gillman, Mole People, and Metaluna Mutant, but still manages to star in a decent enough film that gives a sense of what a series of monster attacks would do to a small seaside community. The Cat and The Canary is "cute" for lack of a better term being a horror comedy before the former genre had fully crystalized. Reefer Madness is horror adjacent more than anything but a hilariously good time about how the use of "marihuana" will drive today's youth into becoming crazed fiends and get involved in organized crime.

We can do this.

The Company of Wolves has an excellent story book like setting an atmosphere that you can't get in films nowadays and it's a shame that it's mostly remembered for its transformation sequences. it's Alive is the best Larry Cohen film by default of not sucking but it's still not "great", genius however for playing the concept of mutant newborn killer baby completely seriously without any sense of humor to the proceedings. The Girl Who Knew Too Much is almost a parody of giallo films which is interesting given those hadn't fully sprang up in 1963; absolute highlight is the main character being interviewed in bed by doctors and reporters and the like that yes she did see a murder and no she doesn't drink. I've always been fascinated and haunted by I Am Legend and while The Omega Man doesn't really capture the novel to a superb degree it's so beautifully shot that it lands high in the rankings for that alone. Night Caller From Outer Space is hilarious to me because of how it shifts halfway through from a Hammer-esque mystery about a meteorite with radioactive properties to a film about an alien that lures women in through a modeling advertisement. Blind Woman's Curse I've mentally confused with Irezumi for a while now (haha all 1960's Japanese genre films where woman have large animal tattoos on their backs are the saaame), and it's one I mostly watched for being directed by Teruo Ishii, but there's enough bloody yakuza fights and cats licking up blood for me to stick around; not the strongest Meiko Kaiji vehicle compared to Female Prisoner Scorpion or Lady Snowblood. Maniac I find mostly interesting as a precursor to American Psycho (2000) but also it's probably the only serious film to successfully pull off it's ending trope (which I will not spoil here). The Child is an absolutely lovely 1970's only-a-dozen-people-made-this-and-not-much-more-watched-it horror that oozes atmosphere, I could watch stuff like this all day. Aaand Zombie 3 is far and away the best film that Lucio Fulci has been involved with that I've ever seen. I love random scenes and set pieces of ghouls just massacring people that are shit out out of luck.

Okay, now for the ones I actually want to write about.

The Wasp Woman is one that sticks in my head way more than any other random monster movie that Roger Corman directed in the latw 1950's. I've said on here and Letterboxd that it could have served as a standard pop-feminist piece about how the cosmetology industry is built on misogyny and invariably a monster is accidentally created because of that, but this most recent viewing has made me sort of "get it" because that might be what the film is going for considering Susan Cabot's performance leads me to believe that she is aware that she is becoming a homicidal wasp monster but views it as a tragic means to an end where she still has the ability to have a new advertising campaign with her as the star. Tragic. This is why you don't wear make up.

Both Noroi: The Curse and The Wolf House are ones I didn't care for whatsoever but I put them in places on the ranking that I thought were fair given that people should probably watch them regardless of my personal thoughts. Noroi's format didn't really lend itself to the escalation of tension and reveal of information that the plot demanded and I found myself thinking it meanders quite a bit. The Wolf House was an odd one where everything that was happening onscreen bounced off of me mostly because I felt intimately aware that I was watching a movie, that someone had made something and that I was now being shown it. Blah. People like these so don't let me stop you.

Our animated offerings this year...

Michael Jackson's Halloween more than anything feels like an unlicensed creation that later had an English fan dub commissioned, not something that actually aired on CBS twice. Any laughs that I found in this thing were the unintentional type as we open up with Bubbles talking and being Jackson's chauffeur; you know exactly what you're getting into. Very little of the plot is explained but I'm assuming Jackson (who has no lines given this was made posthumously) orchestrates a dark fantasy adventure to hook two...teenagers? People in their late 20's? And convince them to follow their dreams of performing instead of working a deadend dayjob. I'm not sure who the actual audience for this was given it feels like so much of it was made for children but I will say anything that has this much of Michael Jackson's music in it can't be all bad, though I'm not sure why they didn't largely stick with tracks from the album Thriller (in the contention for best album ever, I don't care).

Gamera: Rebirth is one I feel like I'm on the outside on compared to most other tokusatsu fans because I didn't really *love* to a serious degree even though, yes, Gamera is finally back. The first three episodes are mostly just kind of a slog for me with the backhalf not doing enough to retroactively make me think highly of it, though giving off End of Evangelion vibes may make me consider that a second viewing must be in order down the line. Rebirth's strongest attribute is that it feels like it takes into consideration and influence from every prior era of Gamera, no stone is left unturned, and it's a marked contrast from how every recent Godzilla property only captures a single facet of their respective character. But that also creates unique issues like how a lot of criticism of ongoing US military presence in Japan is undercut so there can be a white kid in the main cast (because white children were always present in half of the Showa series) or having the ancient civilization that genetically engineered the kaiju now being malicious and actively sacrificing children as a means of reshaping the world gives me vaguely anti-semitic tones, I don't know, Gamera is still here, I guess.

"I was just a little twerp who liked Scooby-Doo and Smurfs, now I was viewing Cthulhu mutants ruin the Earth."

Everyday that we have Inhumanoids is a gift. Inhumanoids is another Hasbro/Sunbow production like G. I. Joe, Transformers, or Jem and The Holograms, and it is truly tragic that it never got anywhere near that level of attention compared to its siblings. The fact that a 1980's action figure tie-in cartoon is named for its antagonists is only the start; the series follows a small paramilitary outfit of scientists named Earth Core that are tasked with more or less saving the world alongside the Mutores, elemental beings, when the Inhumanoids, eldritch abominations, are unleashed. The degree of world-building beyond your typical "good guys vs. bad guys" affair is astounding with villainous humans and virtuous monsters abounding, but Inhumanoids is mostly magical and remembered for saying fuck all to any type of broadcast standards. Seeing giant monsters destroy cities, undead armies, and spelunking deep into the Earth (where nightmares begin...) are just standard fair here, as are witnessing the actual Inhumanoids such as Metlar (basically the devil) or D'Compose (giant undead entity that can zombify people by touching them and uses his ribcage like a jail cell) in action. The first five episodes here are the pilot movie of sorts for the series which only lasted thirteen overall, and they get more grissly from here on out, but maybe it's best that Inhumanoids is the short lived cartoon and no the cartoon that went soft as early as its second season. I will never not love this show, to this day it's one of my favorite animated series from any decade, much less the 1980's.

Back to our regularly scheduled live-action programming...

Student Bodies is a fascinating film for a myriad of reasons the first of which is that there were somehow enough slasher films by 1981 for there to be a comedy poking fun at all the already established genre-cliches. It's essentially Scary Movie (2000) a full 20 years ahead of the curve only actually funny in spite of the subject matter frequently being as juvenile and prejudiced; but it also reminds me quite a bit of Scream (1996) with stuff like two killers working together. All I know is I was in for a decent time when the film opens with three identical shots of a house just with different framing text: "HALLOWEEN," "FRIDAY THE 13TH," "JAMIE LEE CURTIS' BIRTHDAY" and then the killer, The Breather, calls the opening kill girl doing nothing but breathing heavily, she hangs up, he calls back with "I SAID [heavy breathing]."

Return of The Living Dead is one of those films that should have destroyed the any artifically-imposed boundaries between "high" and "low" art. Every aspect of this film is brilliantly made, it just so happens to be made for stuff like Scooby-Doo music overlaid on top of thunderstorms over graveyards where one female character is stripping to the concept of dying. Media involving ghouls is incredibly oversaturated, and this was still the case in the 1980's where a film like this had to redefine the rules to make it so killing ghouls was basically a non-option. It only recently struck me on this viewing that that's the whole purpose of removing virtually all weaknesses they have, to keep the characters as the nail instead of the hammer. Compared to the Romero films, there's never a point where anyone is in control of the situation, it just escalates further and further until there is literally no way out. Taking that into consideration, there's no way this film couldn't have been a comedy that frames people getting swarmed and eaten by ghouls as hilarious.

The soundtrack and the faux-punk sensibilities lend this a daft feeling of "you shouldn't be watching this" in spite of it not being one of the MOST gory horror films of the 1980's. I still don't get how this never broke into the mainstream. I mean somehow people know that ghouls (in this film) speak and only eat brains but I can't go down to Target and get a Tarman action figure like I can one of Michael Myers. As such Return of The Living Dead remains a criminally overlooked film regardless of its subject matter. It's made me laugh and cringe and feel disgusted and revolt at the concept at dying but mostly it's made me feel a delicious sense of joy at seeing corpses rise out of the ground to the tune of "Do you wanna party? IT'S PARTY TIIIME!" Some of you need to sit in the corner and think about your life choices for making stupid shit like Re-Animator (1985) or fucking Shaun of The Dead (2004) more popular than this, fuck you.

The act of watching Spider Baby is like discovering the missing link. For as much as 1960 gave us an explosion of horror (Eyes Without a Face, The Ship of Monsters, Psycho, Jigoku, Black Sunday, etc.) and Night of The Living Dead (1968) reins as the perennial transition point of the genre, Spider Baby is the road by which we go from The Cat and The Canary and The Old Dark House to the likes of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Eraserhead, it's magical finding an essential piece of a genre you love so much. Both the former and latter points of comparison are apt as a family of now only children [and their butler] suffering from Poe-esque hereditary illness have their condemned house set upon by distant relatives and everything slowly unravels.

Lon Chaney Jr. is an actor who for the longest time I felt never got a proper chance to shine wherein the last 25 years or so of his career was spent playing as side character actor in independent films. Spider Baby is his crowning achievement. Seeing him smile through almost tears on several occasions as he has to play bridge between worlds of sanity and madness and lie to everyone that he has some sense of control over the situation is brilliant in ways I always knew he was capable of but had never seen before this point. Bravo.

I will never not love Basket Case with everything I've got. This is the epitome of 1980's horror and my clear pick for best of the decade. It has everything from being a grungy putrid grindhouse spectacle to being an intimate character drama to everything presented through a wry ironic lense where you can't tell if any "bad" performances are all done on purpose. Between this, Brain Damage (1988), and Frankenhooker (1990), there is literally absolutely no reason why Frank Henenlotter shouldn't be more popular than Stuart Gordon, Brian Yuzna, and Lloyd Kaufman *combined*. It's tragic that the world of cinema being enclosed and captured by studios again in the late 1980's prevented us from getting more from him, but realistically could we ask anymore than what we already got from Basket Case? I could watch this every day and never grow tired of it. I will never stop making more and more people watch this.

If Basket Case is the apex of 1980's horror, then Messiah of Evil is the same for 1970's horror. This is one of the most efficient horror films ever made in how not a single frame is wasted, the opening scene is literally a guy running from unseen force, seeking refuge, getting his throat slit, cue title card with synth music that then leads us to a sunburnt hallway as our narrator descends into acceptance of complete lack of control of the situation. Every night shot in this film must be 50 - 75% completely black with whatever headlight or store front there is just making the scenery look like a dollhouse that our characters are trapped inside. There's so many shots of people running away or walking down streets that make them look tiny as the camera is so far.

Every scene is an exercise in building up dread. There's no point where the film relents, something awful is not only coming, it's already here and there's nothing anyone can do. What I love particularly is that the mystery being laid out doesn't offer any answers because there's another mystery on top of what our characters find out only too late. Layers upon layers of dread that even the titular Messiah of Evil isn't the center of. The world is a cruel fucking place where this film languishes in obscurity whilst shit like The Exorcist enjoys mainstream attention. A lot of my taste amounts to "why isn't this thing I like more popular" and cases like Messiah of Evil vindicate me.

"Godzilla is the son of the atomic bomb. He is a nightmare created out of the darkness of the human soul. He is the sacred beast of the apocalypse." - Tomoyuki Tanaka

Generally a yearly trend is that a #1 pick for Halloween is self-evident to me and this year it was Basket Case for all of 30 seconds until I picked Godzilla back up.

There's something to be said how Godzilla isn't quite a horror monster? Terrifying but not necessarily creepy, but what power do things that go bump in the night have against the destruction of everything you know? Everytime I watch Godzilla is like the very first time, when flashing lights out at sea destroy fishing ships I have no idea what happened, or at least any much of a clue as anyone in film does when we're told that the entire ocean exploded.

Godzilla is a reptile, but lacks scales and its entire body is coated in keloid scars. In 1954 Godzilla must have been the largest monster every committed to film, trains are derailed from running against its ankle and bell and radio towers are throttled for being a sensory inconvenience. Godzilla's first on-screen appearance on Odo Island is obscured by a hurricane but the impression is clear; you can't fight Godzilla in the same way you can't fight a natural disaster. When Tokyo is reduced to complete ruin amidst a sea of flames, it's an onslaught of destruction never before seen in a film of this genre. Survivors being afflicted with radiation poisoning shows that Godzilla will claim victims long after being driven back to sea.

There's a sheer apocalyptic dread to all of this sensed by all the characters. Love tries to exist on the edge of annihilation. There's nothing that can be done but persevere and maybe hope tomorrow will be better. A scene that always strikes me is when Serizawa is adamant about not using the Oxygen Destroyer until forcibly confronted with the results of one night of Godzilla making landfall in Japan. The absolute pain felt by everyone in the finale starts here, things couldn't play out any differently as the "scientist of the century" can't join in and celebrate his victory.

Godzilla is a rare perfect film. I will never tire of it.

[fiumedivita]

Sanremo 2024: how Italians go mad

You want to know why Italians are so weird and crazy? Here's how long the national song contest, the Sanremo Music Festival, was this year:

Just the 5 nights of the actual show were 26 hours and 3 minutes.

But then, if you add the pre-show, aftershow and Sunday specials you get 39 hours and 10 minutes.

It's a good thing we're famous for our espresso.

-------------------------- Here's a breakdown:

First night:

pre-show: 12 minutes

show: 5 hours 15 minutes (8:45pm - 2am)

after-show: 48 minutes

Total: 6 hours and 15 minutes

--------------------------

Second night:

pre-show: 11 minutes

show: 4 hours 45 minutes (8:44pm - 1:29am)

after-show: 45 minutes

Total: 5 hours and 41 minutes

--------------------------

Third night:

pre-show: 11 minutes

show: 4 hours 52 minutes (8:45pm - 1:37am)

after-show: 52 minutes

Total: 5 hours and 55 minutes

--------------------------

Fourth night:

pre-show: 12 minutes

show: 5 hours 14 minutes (8:45pm - 1:59am)

after-show: 61 minutes

Total: 6 hours and 27 minutes

--------------------------

Fifth night:

pre-show: 10 minutes

show: 5 hours 57 minutes (8:45pm - 2:42am)

after-show: No aftershow for the final! The host was actually co-hosting the main show.

Total: 6 hours and 7 minutes

--------------------------

Sunday specials:

Domenica In (interviews + songs): 5 hours and 54 minutes

Dietro Festival (BTS with all the drama): 51 minutes