#GOD BASEBALL DAD ALLEN I LOVE IT

[anunvalidcritic]

INVINCIBLE: S1-EP8

(DISCLAIMER: MY OPINION IS MY OWN AND CAN BE DEEMED INVALID TO THOSE WHO DON’T CARE FOR IT.)

It’s the last episode.... Let’s dive in boys, girls, and non-binary folks!!!

                          WHERE I REALLY COME FROM

Is it just me or did this week go by really fast??? (went by to fuckin’ fast bcuz I fuckin’ forgot!)

alright so we’re starting off by staring at the grass... that’s a pretty calm start..

nvm it’s raining blood

INVINCIBLE looks sick asf

well, I’m glad that was his first reaction

“It’s me Mark, It’s just me.” - OMNI-MAN 

BRO VILTRUMITES ARE FUCKIN’ SAVAGES

DEBBIE has always been a baddie

Bro OMNI-MAN’s storyline is fuckin’ amazing

“You love me, you love Mom! I know you do.” - INVINCIBLE MARK

go ahead and that shit out now my dude

“Do you have any idea how long we live? The older we get, the slower we age. Viltrumite DNA is so pure you’re nearly full-blooded. You’ll live for thousands of years. Do you understand what that means? Everyone you know and love will be gone before you even look thirty.” - OMNI-MAN 

well damn thanks for dropping this knowledge on us, sir.

ICONIC DIALOGUE

OMNI-MAN - “I do love your mother. But she’s more like a... a pet to me.”

MARK - “A pet?”

OMNI-MAN - “This is the only way, Mark.” *as he reaches for MARK’s shoulder*

MARK - “Don’t touch me!”

NO THIS MOTHERFUCKER DIDN’T!!!!! DID Y’ALL HEAR WHAT HE JUST SAID!!!??!!?!?!?! I CAN’T DO THIS BRO!!!!!!

go off MARK, talk yo shit!

“I don’t give a shit about Viltrum. And I don’t care if I live a fuckin’ million years. This is my home and I won’t let you destroy it!” - INVINCIBLE

Bro, don’t let your daddy beat yo' ass! You are a grown man now.

dude, this title for the last episode is fucking exceptional!

those dudes in the jets are gonna lose their fuckin’ lives

You know, it’s unfortunate that they know that shit is just a distraction for him and not life threating. 

He didn’t have to demolish that man like that...

this man is ruthless

“Did seeing that man lose his life distrube you? Did it hurt you?! Well, let’s see how you handle this.” - OMNI-MAN

👁 👄 👁

Don’t you just love it when motherfuckers just stop and stare when they see a disaster happening??

Now I understand that the building is more than likely collapsing on it’s own, but I wouldn’t be surprised if his dad is pushng it from the other side. 

They’re really fuckin’ up Chi-Town right...

I could’ve told you that woman wasn’t gonna make it...

as evil as this man is... his character is amazing 

I love seeing MARK rage this dude just goes in!

“For the first time in your life, I’m telling you the truth.” - OMNI-MAN

what is he aboour.

THAT WASN’T FUCKIN’ NECCESSARY!!!!!!!!!!!!

... their suits need more than a deep dry cleaning

He didn’t have to swerve MARK like taht!

the clouds look nice...

okay, that’s enough OMNI-MAN!!

I wish they would’ve at least kept ZACHARY QUINTO’s voice because I miss the guy

See, this episode is a prime (pun intended) and I mean a PRIME example of how raising your kids with a good upbringing is important. If MARK was raised the way OMNI-MAN had intended to raise him, then he would’ve been a complete asshole... an extremely strong asshole, but an asshole. 

you know this is very triggering... RIP GLENN

“You wanna die for this planet? Fine. What’s seventeen more years? I can always start again... make another kid.” - OMNI-MAN

FLASHBACK

YOUNG MARK = LITTLE LEAGUE BASEBALL

“Look at Mark. You and I made him. He’s ours. When he feels joy, we feel joy. See that look on his face. How can you see this and not feel the same way. As we get older it’s harder to feel that.” - DEBBIE

GOD! Can Sandra Oh be my fuckin’ mom!?!?!

NOLAN still ain’t shit....

~~~~~~

I like how he had that flashback while he was beating his son to a pulp

homeboy has to get dentures now...

only a narcissist would say some shit like this

“You dad, I’d still have you.” - MARK

that’s fuckin’ heartbreaking....

ik it’s not funny but MARK looks horrible..

looks like OMNI-MAN went back home cryin’

AMBER feelin’ like a complete dick as she should!! (I was rooting for y’all)

how long was he out??

DEBBIE you married an evil motherfucker, but it’s not your fault

Who tf cursed MONSTER GIRL?? She must’ve said or done some foul shit... And who tf fucked up CECIL’s face??

let it out DEBS let it out..

ik tf AMBER just didn’t!! deadass thought it was EVE...

lol the way WILLIAM saved that was hilarious!!

“We can try but it’s literally all anyone is tlking about in the world” - WILLIAM 

come on now dude

😆 I could’ve sworn DUPLI-KATE looked asian and not white like EVE. WILLIAM is trifflin’

I was gonna say during the montage clip I knew one of those species looked familiar.

MARK + ALLEN THE ALIEN = BEST BUDS

Mars is gettin’ fucked up from the ground up.

ICONIC DIALOGUE

ALLEN THE ALIEN - “What’s the plan in the meantime?”

INVINCIBLE - “Finish high school, I guess.”

ALLEN THE ALIEN - “Oh, alright good. Sounds good. What is high school?”

_____

I liked the way it ended! It’s unfortunate that we must bid ado to this lovely grotesque show of INVINICBLE, but alas we must in order to move onto greater things and the world beyond. Hopefully, they’ll get confirmed for a second season because I really don’t want them to end on such an extraordinarily high point...

List of Episodes with link :) ~

EP1 - EP2 - EP3 - EP4 - EP5 - EP6 - EP7 - EP8

EDIT: Thank god Amazon has decided to renew the series for not just the second season but a third as well!!!! FUCK YEAH!!

[sleeping-lilies]

robin era jason, dick, and babs headcanons because there’s too much comedic potential to ignore

- dick and babs were the ultimate gossip buddies. whenever dick was with the titans for long periods of time, babs always filled him in on everything

babs: dick you’ll never believe what hal said to bruce last night, i even have videos. dick, the look on his face please—

dick, immediately locking doors so his teammates don’t hear the mad shit about to be dropped on main: tell me everything

- vice versa too, dick filled babs in on everything going on with the titans and all they can say is thank god those lines are bat secured with no villains being able to listen in, imagine deathstroke hearing through bat gossip that joey’s dating who?!?! 😳

- batkids have been and always will be the holder of superhero gossip. it’s a business, you see, but we’re getting off topic 😡

- lmfao anyways this is literally how dick finds out about jason

babs: anyways, jason—

dick: who the fuck is jason

babs: ....

dick: barbara?!?!

babs: ok promise you won’t freak out

- babs and dick’s first reaction upon meeting jason being “why is he so small i wasnt that small” “dick you were literally nine when you were robin—“ “he’s tiny” it’s like those two share the same braincell

- i’m making it so that dick gave jason his number earlier because i feel like it 😡😡😡 (not that it changes much other than the fact that i want more gossip dropped in dm’s)

- when dick gave jason his number, he went to babs like “give me jason’s number” “didn’t you literally just give him your’s?” “ya but i’m gonna make sure he texts me” “ya ok that’s fair”

- whenever jason didn’t want to be in the manor (fight with bruce, boredom, etc) he went to wherever the fuck babs lived and they would facetime dick and talk mad shit. it was a thing.

- despite them all being able to drive, babs was the only one during this time with an actual, legitimate, legal license (jason was too young to have a license and dick is too lazy/busy/whatever-excuse-he-wants-to-use to take the permit and driving test) so babs drove them around everywhere and it was a mess™ consisting of a bunch of backseat drivers

- “dick omg look at this video i found from the batcave” “omg he said robin gives him magic” “robin gives him magic” they both cry about it for years to come

- babs sometimes kidnapped jason after school after telling the head of wayne manor (alfred) and took him to get ice cream, then to the library while she worked. jason was the greatest kid in the library, he even had his own throne special chair just for him whenever he came provided by library staff who adored this absolute angel.

- jason 🤝 babs 🤝 dick -> i believe in annoying yet endearing nicknames supremacy

- nicknames include (some used by some more than others or just one, or by both equally because they’re annoying pick and choose my good people)

little wing (iconic, we all know this one fellas and who uses it)

red (used for babs, absolutely fantastic, but in the future it gets confusing because some people with their goddamn hero names 😡)

boy wonder (classic, babs calls them both that)

barbie (for babs, jason uses this one and he’s the only one able to get away with it)

dickie (jason just really gets away with everything huh)

dickhead (jason’s lucky he’s cute)

baba black sheep (jeez i’m on a roll with babs’ nicknames she’s so nickname-able and that’s very cool and sexy of her)

jay z

jay allen

jay jay jay (shut up, dickhead—)

big bird

and a bunch more i’m too tired to look for them in canon or make new ones up, but you get the idea

- dick can totally bake, and babs and jason keep bugging him when he’s baking and add more chocolate chips while pretending to not notice that he can see them 😡😡😡

- headcanon that jason had hero worship for babs and dick because they’re so cool in and out of costume and it never really went away when he got older listen his older brother and pseudo sister are so cool and that’s not his fault but he’ll never admit it

- barbie movie marathons because barbie is an iconic legend and they all recognize it. they have the fucking “she’s the queen of the WA-A-A-AVES” song memorized along with all other barbie movie songs, they sing it on patrol.

- dick and jason’s sibling dynamic was and is basically “ur a little shit and i hate you but i will literally kill for you”

- dick had tension with bruce while jason was just a little shit who would totally cause drama for the sake of it, and people never take advantage of this absolute power duo for destroying bruce

- dick sending cryptid texts to jason through a burner phone because he’s dramatic jason totally knew it was him about things that drive bruce mad, like leaving the shower turned to the coldest setting before bruce got there, leaving the lights in the batcave on, etc. jason, a wise little child, totally took advantage of this. bruce came to accept his fate

- the gc names, guys the group chat names

- jason crashing into titans tower whenever he wants and dick doesn’t bat (hAH) an eye, occasionally he very sweetly asks babs to come with him and she agrees but only sometimes because some people have jobs, jason—wait dick is being flirted with by who?!?! i’ll leave it up to your imagination ;) and they totally crashed titans missions too

- one time bruce was busy with the league while alfred was on vacation and bruce absolutely could not dip (i’m imagining bruce getting a call from the headmaster during an honest to god fight and bruce just picking up while punching the daylights out of some asshole) (“mr wayne, what is that noise in the background?” “sorry, headmaster, the cat is having a seizure”), so when jason got into a “fight” (read: some jackass picking on jason before he snapped and yelled at him and the bitchass kid tried to punch him and jason’s no quitter) bruce called dick who was an adult and legally family (yes dick is adopted sometime after jason was, stay mad) like “son... son please” and dick was like “oh no need to plead with me, this is too good” but of course this bitchass doesn’t have an actual lisence yet and he was hanging out with babs anyways so he and babs rolled up to gotham academy and the kids stared at them like “holy shit they’re so cool” ya dick and babs are those power couple, whether romantic or not, that turn heads, they’re just that powerful strolled into the office, bailed jason out while intimidating the headmaster because the altercation was the result of school staff negligence of actual bullying like those cliche tropes, said “ayyy you got that brat good” and get him chili dogs or whatever the fandom made robin jason’s favorite food. omg i just made an entire fanfic in rough draft form someone please steal it and write it in full form and send me the link

- jason is very very tiny, you see. babs and dick pick him up and move him for any reason, whether because they want to sit on that chair or to just throw him out of harm’s way and take the bullet for themselves.

- jason and dick both get adorable blushes on their faces it’s genetic yes that’s how genetics work shut up meanwhile babs’ ears turn red when she’s embarrassed and all three of them clown each other for it

- i yelled about this to my mutual (cough cough @littlespaceboii) who also added to this absolute dogshit headcanon and then in the discord full of mutuals, but the basement of wayne manor is haunted. dick found it when he was a little gremlin (i stand by that dick was the original demon child) (“you see damian, before there was you there was me” the real reason he was good with damian lmfao) and was like “omg this is so cool” @littlespaceboii came up with that it was just alfred fucking with bruce and so when jason first came and dick was comfy around him he was like “so have you been in the basement” and jason was like “im literally robin i’ve been in the batcave?!?!” and dick goes “no the basement, the haunted one” and jason’s like “hAUNTED?!?!” cuz jason has at least some self preservations and knows not to fuck with the spookies until he too became a spooky and bruce was like “there’s no ghost it’s not haunted” because he’s a skeptic and a party pooper and babs is like “no go on let him finish” even though she knows full well there are no ghosts or does she? and uhhhh basically they becomes ghostbusters 2.0 but cooler and funnier

- this trio is basically baby pan/bisexual jason and two resident expert pan/bisexuals solidarity but that’s literally canon. they go to pride every year that jason’s alive what who said that?

- they all tease each other for their crushes like all siblings/family friends do, i don’t need to say it but it’s important that’s emphasized for my well being

- yelled about this in the discord to the mutuals who added onto this absolute train wreck too, but jason used to play baseball during his robin days, and dick never showed up to those games with being busy as an excuse, but babs always showed up with bruce and alfred and took pictures for dick so dick could be like “mlb players are jobless now that little wing is on the scene” babs (and sometimes bruce) always shouted loudest for jason whether he was in the field or in the dugout and jason would get this extremely adorable blush on his face (jason finds out in the future why dick never showed up (cough cough ptsd from two face’s massive baseball bat which led to everything that came after including being fired and veangance academy and nearly killing two face and omg that’s a ride) and is like oh my god my childhood is even more ruined—)

- remember when i said dick got adopted after jason did in this new absolutely fabulous canon i just created? bruce did that because “ahhh fuck that’s my kid and i want him to know i love him through every means possible since i have the ability to do so” i believe in good dad bruce supremacy and made a whole thing where he invited dick to dinner for like a week to work up the courage and bonding to ask him and show him the adoption papers and then everyone cried :) bruce decided to finally adopt dick after jason referred to dick as his brother and bruce was like “...oh” and alfred was like 👀

- dick, as the first child hero and one of the first heroes period like at least a year or two before babs, holds the “back in my day” card over literally everyone in the hero community in general and pulls it out to annoy babs and jason even tho babs literally joined the scene only a year or two after dick

jason, shaking in his panties: it’s so fucking cold

dick, standing strong in his tits out outfit, who had to wear the panties on his own decision: oh, you’re cold? back in my day—

babs, throwing her boot at his face: god shut the fuck up—

and then dick doesn’t give back her boot and it becomes a whole thing with lots of tackling and play fighting and someone nearly gets thrown off they rooftop for funsies but anyways

also on a side note, babs would take off her cape and wrap it around jason whenever she noticed his discomfort with the weather, or use the weather as an excuse whenever she saw him uneasy for whatever reason and they never mention it to each other

- yelled about this in the discord to the mutuals at some point too holy shit i have friends, but those three are team rocket. they went out as team rocket for halloween one year after bullying bruce to let jason out only jason because he can’t tell dick and babs what to do and jason is under his care and when they do convince him, dick and babs bully jason into being meowth. manifesting jason in a meowth onesie ARTISTS PLEASE—

- dick finally took his license seriously and took his driver’s test after babs became paralyzed.

- those were a rough few months for those three. and then another rough few months for those two

- yikes, sorry to throw angst at you (sorry (unfeeling)) anyways, in the future alfred finds those old photos and shows the rest of the fam, so dick and babs bully jason, 6’2 jason that towers way above both of them, and once again bullies him into being meowth “for tradition, little wing!” “shut up, dickhead” the rest of the batkids lose their shit over this, naturally. bruce and alfred stand in the back teary eyed reminiscing the old days when things were a little more simple.

- discowing walked so terrifying handsome squidward red hood helmet could run (even tho the ugly helmet tripped and fell and missed the mark because discowing wasn’t ugly and will always remain superior, i feel i have committed a terrible crime comparing the two)

dick: jason what the fuck is that

jason: it’s fashion

dick: it’s terrifying

jason: i’m only following in my older brother’s footsteps 😔

dick: listen here, you little shit strangles him haha just kidding that illegal wait theyre vigilantes they don’t follow the law—

- these three and cass refer to the rest of the batkids as “the kids” (if she’s older than jason, sometimes she is and sometimes she isn’t and i’m really confused but whatever)

- babs and dick’s relationship with jason pre death literally shaped how jason treats his siblings post pit madness like he literally goes “what would red and big bird do?!??” when he needs to go into big brother mode over the “little ones” (“little” because tim and steph are adults and duke is nearly an adult himself oh my god he’ll graduate from high school soon and jason never got to do that himself he’s totally going to the ceremony legally dead or not) 🥺

- holy trinity continue hanging out with each other, whether lunch or games or whatever, and just enjoy each other’s company after long, rough years

[yikestripes]

Under the Mistletoe

request: Hey, I've got a Spence request! It's Christmas at the FBI, and the team has done Secret Santa, and you got Spencer, your best friend who you have fancied since you started at the FBI 5 years ago. You all go to Rossi's to spend the evening and morning, so you can all drink & not drive home. After presents and a few drinks, you and Spence end up under the mistletoe where he declares his feelings in front of the whole team, who encouraged him to tell you how he feels, before you arrived to the party

a/n: i didn’t expect to write this much, it was 7 pages on google docs. i am pretty proud of this tho.

warnings: FLUFF

word count: 3.6k

You looked around at the lights and garland that had adorned the bullpen as you entered the BAU for the first time after arriving home from the case. You grinned from ear to ear like a child as you took in the sight. Spencer was right behind you, pausing to take in the sight beside you. He looked down at you, still in awe, and smiled. You looked so beautiful to him under all those shining lights, and you just looked happier than you had in recent weeks. Christmas was usually tough for you anyway, and this year was no exception. Nonetheless, you persevered. Rossi had been planning a BAU Christmas party for a little bit over a month, with the help of you and Garcia, to make it the most magical Christmas any of you had had in a pretty long time. Needless to say, getting home from the case was more exciting than it usually was.

You tugged your go bag back to your desk and plopped down in your chair, rubbing your eyes. It was around 7pm and you all were going to Rossi’s right from the office to start the festivities. Knowing you wouldn’t be driving home, you had a second go bag packed and ready in your car, along with Spencer’s since you guys had carpooled. When you started at the BAU around 5 years ago, you and Spencer instantly became best friends. Granted, it took him a long time to really break out of his shell of awkwardness, but even then he was very comfortable around you. It was something about you that really made him feel, for lack of a better word, special. Not in the way that he was typically treated for being a genius, but just for being Spencer. That’s what Spencer loved most about you- the way you admired him for just being him. Not because he was a child prodigy and not because he was a genius. He was just Spencer.

Not to mention you always let him ramble and spill facts without ever telling him to shut up, or even interrupting him. Nevertheless, you quickly became very close, especially when you learned your apartment was right down the street from his. That’s when you two started carpooling to the office together. You always stopped at the local coffee shop or Starbucks to feed your coffee addictions, and went home around the same time every night. Spencer always made sure you made it inside safe, and vice versa. The funny thing was, for as incredible as you both were at your jobs as profilers for the BAU, neither of you had the faintest idea that you were in love with each other. Everyone in the entire building knew except for you two. Even Hotch was rooting for you two to get together.

“Ready to go, Spence?” You asked, shooting him a huge grin. He grins back and nods, throwing his bag over his head like he always did. You followed him out the door and to your car and drove yourselves to Rossi’s mansion. The ride was relatively quiet, Spencer had whipped out the book he started on the plane because he absolutely had to know how it ended, and of course he could finish it before you made it to Rossi’s.

“Did you do the secret santa?” You asked, breaking the silence.

“Yeah. Did you?”

“Yep.” You smiled to yourself. You actually got Spencer, and you couldn’t have been more excited. Regardless of whether you had gotten him for secret santa, you were planning to get him a little something anyway. Actually, a few things. You wracked your brain for a few days, wondering what Dr. Spencer Reid would like that he didn’t already have. Of course, you started with a giftcard to his favorite bookstore, along with the newest edition of his favorite collection of Edgar Allen Poe stories. You also got him a giftcard to Starbucks, to make up for all the times he’d paid for your coffee, despite your protests. You made him your famous chocolate chip cookies and your favorite thing? The Halloween Christmas sweater you’d found and KNEW you had to get it for him. He never understood the point of an ugly Christmas sweater, so you figured you would get one that celebrates his favorite holiday with the edition of it celebrating Christmas. You could already see the look on his face when he opened his gifts later that night.

“Hey Spence, can you help me?” Spencer only brought a gift bag with the edition of his overnight bag, meanwhile you had a couple bags, along with two bottles of wine for Rossi and your own overnight bag. He grabbed your overnight bag and a bottle of wine and headed up to the door with you following behind, praying you didn’t slip on any ice.

You made it to the door unscathed, being greeted by Prentiss who was already a glass of wine deep.

“It’s party time!” She said upon opening the door. You and Spencer grinned and followed her inside, kicking the door shut behind you. Everyone was already there, starting on the spiked eggnog drinks without you guys.

“Hey, I told you guys to wait for us!” You whined as you set your presents underneath Rossi’s massive Christmas tree. The others looked away and took sips of their drinks, earning a small glare from you. You opted to start with a glass of white wine and escalate from there later. You took a long sip as you sat along the counter beside JJ. She held up her hands in mock defense.

“I told them they should wait but no one ever listens to me!” You giggled a little and patted JJ’s shoulder sympathetically.

“I hear you. They never listen to me either,” You said, shooting a look in Spencer’s direction in particular. As if he felt your eyes on his back, he turned around and looked at you. When he saw you were already looking at him, he raised his eyebrows in question. You shook your head and he shrugged, returning to his conversation with Morgan and Rossi. Penelope was doing peppermint vodka shots with Prentiss while Hotch watched, somewhat amused as Emily started choking on hers. You smiled as you watched your friends ease into the party so quickly after such a long case. It warmed your heart to see them relaxed.

“I don’t know, Rossi. What if it ruins our friendship?” Reid asked, his voice small. He only softened his voice like that when he was unsure of himself.

“Look, kid. I may be old, but I do have eyes. She loves you, Reid.” Rossi said.

“Trust me, Pretty Boy. Everyone here sees the way you look at each other.” Derek agreed, taking a sip of his beer.

Spencer chewed on his lip thoughtfully when he felt eyes on his back. He turned back to see you staring at him, where you began giggling with JJ. Spencer raised his eyebrows as if to ask, “Did you need me?” and you shook your head. He shrugged and turned back to Rossi, who was smirking. He shared a look with Derek and walked over to Hotch, who was now forcing Emily to drink more water.

“Like I said, trust me.” Derek said quietly as he left Spencer in the center of the kitchen to his thoughts. They were quickly interrupted as Rossi announced it was time for presents. Spencer grinned, this was what he was the most excited for. He had you for secret santa and he knew he really nailed his gift to you this year. He knew you better than anyone, and thanks to his eidetic memory, he knew everything that you had mentioned in passing were small things that you wanted. Including the necklace that you’d pointed out in the jewelry shop down the street from your apartments 8 months and 29 days ago, on your way to Starbucks. You gazed at it longingly every single time you passed by, but never could justify purchasing it for yourself.

“Alright kiddos, gather round.” Rossi said. Everyone made their way to the couches and sat as you helped to hand out presents.

“Morgan, these are yours. No one open anything until everyone has a gift!” You stared at Emily in particular, who grinned sheepishly. Hotch placed a hand on her leg and smiled at her, knowingly.

“JJ, this bag is yours. Hmm, Garcia this one is yours, Emily, Hotch,” You handed them out one by one. “Ah, here’s yours Spence.” You hauled a couple bags over, and his eyes widened at the sheer amount of stuff adorning both bags.

“Here’s yours, Rossi, and I just found mine!” You sat on the floor and crossed your legs out in front of you.

“Alright, how are we doing this?” Morgan asked, raising an eyebrow. “Do we all just open at the same time orrr…”

“No, someone can go first and each person who has the person opening goes next, makes sense?” Everyone nodded. “Rossi, you can go first since you oh so graciously hosted. And are letting us stay the night.” You added. Everyone laughed as David shook his head, quickly tearing into the bright wrapping paper. His jaw dropped slightly as he pulled out a box of cigars.

“I told you before, my dad was a cigar aficionado. I know what you like, Rossi.” Derek winked. Rossi rose and said a few words of excitement in Italian before kissing Derek on both cheeks and pulling him into a hug. He laughed and clapped Rossi on the back before returning to his seat, and digging into the gift bag in front of him.

“Alright, I see you secret santa!” Derek pulled out a Chicago Cubs baseball jersey, along with a few other baseball related things.

“I had to delve a bit more into the sports world than I’m used to, but i’m really glad you like it.” Emily smiled. He pulled her into a tight hug.

“Okay Em, you can go.” You wiggled your eyebrows as she fake glared, ripping her wrapping paper to shreds.

“Oh my God! I love it!” Prentiss held up a couple different books by her favorite author, Kurt Vonnegut. JJ grinned.

“Look deeper.” Prentiss dug deeper into the bag and pulled out a beautiful set of hand painted wine glasses.

“JJ, these are beautiful!” Prentiss gave her a hug and started taking them out of the box and passing them around to those that were drinking wine, or planned on it later. She disappeared into the kitchen to clean the glasses and fetch the wine.

“Alright JJ, it’s your turn!” You were especially eager for this one, knowing that Spencer would be coming up soon and you could finally see the look on his face. You’d had the gifts in your possession for 2 weeks and his turn could not come fast enough.

Finally, it was Spencer’s turn. You watched as he tore into the neatly wrapped gift box first. You knew he’d open that one first because it was the biggest box. He pulled the sweater out, seemingly confused at first, before it dawned on him.

“Oh my God, it’s a Halloween Christmas sweater! I love it!” He grinned and took off his blazer, revealing the tshirt beneath. He threw the sweater overtop and pulled the sleeves to his elbows, grinning with the joy of a little kid. He was so excited that he almost forgot about the other presents on the floor beside him. He finally made eye contact with you and you indicated he had other things to open. He sat back down, a slight blush crossing his cheeks as he opened the book and gift cards.

“I love everything, thank you so so much, (Y/N).” He said, the look on his face screaming genuine happiness and excitement.

“Actually, there’s one more thing.” He furrowed his eyebrows as you snuck around behind the tray, retrieving the tin of cookies you’d hidden back there, fully knowing the vulchers you called friends would find them if you put them anywhere else. Spencer’s jaw dropped.

“Are those your famous chocolate chip cookies?!” He asked, incredulous. He knew they were incredibly special to you, which is why it was so rare for you to make them. You grinned and nodded. He jumped up, threw the tin on the sofa, and pulled you into a hug. He picked you up a little, causing you to giggle uncontrollably.

“Thank you endlessly, (Y/N).” He said quietly, placing a chaste kiss on your cheek. A deep blush rose to your cheeks. As you both pulled away, you noticed Spencer was blushing like crazy too.

“I guess that leaves me!” You said, noticing everyone else had opened their presents. You grinned as you dug into yours, pulling out a Starbucks gift card, a new Starbucks tumbler to replace the one you broke a few weeks back, the anniversary copy of your favorite book, (Y/F/B), and finally, a small, blue velvet box was crammed at the very bottom of the back. You furrowed your eyebrows in confusion and opened it with a gasp. You snapped your head up to meet Spencer, who was grinning at you sheepishly, his cheeks tinted bright pink.

“I-I knew you’ve been l-looking at that necklace for months, so….” He trailed off, breaking eye contact to stare at the floor. He shoved his hands in his pockets. “If you don’t like it I can take it back,” You stared at him in awe as tears threatened.

“Spence,” You said breathlessly, touching the necklace with a careful finger. “I love it, thank you so much.” Everyone in the room shared a look, fully knowing what was coming. You and Spencer were so busy with each other, that you didn’t notice when Rossi silently ushered the others out of the room and into the hallway to watch.

“Would you mind putting it on for me?” You asked quietly, handing Spencer the small box with a shaky hand.

“S-sure.” Spencer silently cursed his shaking hands as he fiddled with the clasp for a minute, before it clicked into place.

“Thanks.” You glanced up at the tall, lanky Doctor, when something a few feet above his head caught your eye. You gestured up at it, catching his attention.

“Mistletoe.” You said quietly. You got up on your tiptoes and placed a warm, soft kiss on his cheek, earning a blush from Spencer. A weird look came across his face when he suddenly grabbed your face, and crashed his lips into yours. You immediately melted into both Spencer and the kiss, forgetting where you were for just a moment as it was just you and him, alone together.

You pulled apart for air breathlessly, as you looked into the face of what used to be your best friend. That barrier had absolutely been shattered, but when Spencer broke out into a small, shy smile, you knew that it was meant to be that way.

“I…. I’ve been in love with you for the last 4 and a half years. It didn’t take me long at all to realize that you were the most beautiful girl in the world, but when I realized how smart, funny, and caring you were? I knew it was over for me. I didn’t say anything for the last few years because I was afraid.”

“Afraid of what?” You whispered, placing a hand on his cheek. He leaned into your touch, and smiled a little more.

“Losing you.”

“You’ll never lose me. Not ever.” You shook your head defiantly, and placed another kiss on his lips. This one was much quicker, but filled with all the love and words that hadn’t been spoken until just now, and any words you could ever hope to say. Your friends cheered from beside you as you buried your head in Spencer’s chest, embarrassed. There were rounds and rounds of congratulations, told you so’s, and even a few bets had apparently been placed. You glared as they exchanged money and sheepish grins. You shook your head as you followed your friends into Rossi’s kitchen to continue getting your drink on.

**

It had been a few hours since Spencer’s confession, and to celebrate, you had accidentally had a few drinks too many. You started playing a drinking game with Derek and Prentiss that you had ceremoniously named “Beerio Cart”, and played several rounds since you were the champion. You grinned proudly, Spencer placing a plastic crown you all had found the last time you were at Rossi’s on top of your head, much to Derek’s ego’s chagrin. Following that, you had a few shots with Hotch and Garcia, followed up by the peppermint schnapps Penelope had prepared. Needless to say, the entire team was pretty hammered. IN the last few hours of the evening, Spencer had opted to drink more water and sober himself up slightly in order to save himself the pain the following day.

Rossi was on the same page as Spencer, not to mention the older Italian man’s tolerance was that of a bull. He could probably drink an entire bottle of wine and still be under the legal limit. He had retired to bed around 12:30am, fully aware that he was going to have to cook breakfast for his hungover “children” the following morning. You, Spencer, Prentiss, and Derek were the last ones awake, and now Derek had decided to retire to bed.

“Goodnight, and Merry Christmas.” Derek slurred, tripping up the stairs a little bit. It was the last round of Beerio Cart with Prentiss and Hotch that had done Derek in. Hotch had gone to bed shortly after that, Emily promising him that she would be up shortly after. That was 2 hours ago, and Emily was still downstairs with you and Spencer. She looked around, seeing that everyone except you two had gone to bed, and you were quickly crashing. She shrugged and stumbled up the stairs, managing to make it to her room with Hotch relatively easily. At least it was the first one at the top of the stairs.

Spencer turned his attention to you, and smiled warmly. You were starting to fall asleep standing up. He’d seen you do this a few times before, and usually was able to coax you into either laying your head on his lap if you were on the jet or on his shoulder if you were going to be in the SUVs.

“(Y/N), are you ready to go to bed?” You opened your eyes slowly and blinked, processing his question slowly. You nodded and rubbed your eyes, smearing your makeup all over the place. Spencer smiled a little and guided you to your room, sitting you on the bed.

“Close your eyes, love.” You complied quietly as Spencer gently wiped your makeup off. He tucked you into your bed and placed a kiss on your forehead, turning to leave. He felt you grab his wrist and turned around, caught totally off guard. You were sitting up, wearing your best puppy dog eyes face.

“Stay with me?” You said in such a soft voice, that made Spencer’s heart melt. He glanced at the door, then back at you, where you were still pleading with your eyes. He gave in, took off his shoes, and climbed in beside you. He wrapped an arm around you and you laid on his chest, quickly falling asleep to the rhythmic sound of his heartbeat.

***

You began stirring when the smell of pancakes wafted up the stairs and into your room. You scrunched your face at the harshness of the light peaking through the windows, and felt the onset headache.

“Fuck.” You whispered, rubbing your temples.

“Good morning.” Spencer said quietly beside you, sitting up to lean on his elbow. He donned his glasses and his scruff was already growing slightly.

“Good morning, Spence.” You said, your voice still raspy. You looked at the bedside table in search of your phone and saw two ibuprofen tablets and some water. You gulped them down gratefully and immediately felt relief.

You and Spencer made your way downstairs, greeting by the sight of your hungover friends, and Rossi, who was flipping pancakes and bacon at the stove.

“Oh look who decided to join us! The reigning Beerio Cart champion.” He smirked. You saw the crown sitting on the kitchen table and you grabbed it, placing it on top of your head.

“I stand by that wholeheartedly.” You said, folding your arms over your chest. Rossi shrugged.

“If you say so, kid.” You took a seat beside Hotch, who was rubbing circles into Emily’s back on the other side of him. She looked about as bad as you felt, and you instantly hoped you didn’t look like that, especially not in front of Spencer. As if he could hear your thoughts, he smiled at you, and you smiled back. You glanced down at his lips and flicked your eyes back up to meet his, when he closed the gap and pecked you on the lips. You grinned and a blush rose to your cheeks, as you munched on the pancakes Rossi set before you.

“Please tell me you two aren’t always going to be that sickeningly adorable.” Garcia said, wearing her sunglasses inside. You laughed a little, feeling a pain shoot through your brain. You groaned slightly, busying yourself with your pancakes. Spencer made you a bloody mary, spouted out facts about the origin of the drink, the useful properties of it, and anything else he’d known about it. You listened as you sipped, starting to feel just a little bit better. Whether that was with the help of the bloody mary or Spencer, you already knew the answer.

It was Spencer.

[ofbennetts-blog]

*three days late without a good reason*

( froy gutierrez | cismale | he/him ) wow, gotta love bennett miranda. because they’re so generous, i trust them, but i’m not so sure, since they can be kind of quixotic. catch them blasting surprise party by hoodie allen. i hear they’re the social chair of beta kappa epsilon. the twenty year old sophomore is studying film and pre-law and i think they go by the icarian. be sure to get to know them.

↳ THE BASICS

bennett miranda, 20, BKE

he’s probably bisexual because ya girl is trash but he’s only properly dated women.

his father is the breadwinner in the family and is constantly pushing their family to appear better, to be better. he has a younger sister whom he wishes he saw more often but he also doesn’t make the effort so... his loss.

↳ THE PAST / PERSONALITY

bennett’s life has been a constant balancing act - mediating between what his father wants for him and what he wants to do. a lot of his childhood was spent doing baseball and soccer and scouts etc., just a never-ending list of things to keep him busy, to tucker him out, and to instill disciplines that his father thought here important.

he was a major momma’s boy until he turned 5 and he was blessed with a little sister but his mother became busy grooming his sister to be a proper little lady and ben was sort of... politely nudged into the arms of a nanny. 

looking back she was no older than he is now ( a college student ) who must have been a family friend who carted him from one lesson to another, to school and then practice and then home, but she wove tales of the supernatural, about aliens and mythical beasts and he was instantly hooked

his love for cryptids grew and he would often stay up all night reading about them and comparing his own theories against other people’s online and other completely nerdy shit like that. his father hated hearing about it so he turned to the internet to geek out and follow theories and maps of where bigfoot might be and all the lastest ufo sightings

in high school he mainly focused on sports because that’s what his dad wanted but now that he’s “on his own” he’s still doing pre-law for his old man but he’s investing in film for himself. he’s torn between documentaries and making movies so he’s overwhelmed his school load to dabble in both.

as soon as he got out of parent’s house and into college he’s become fully vested in his youtube channel though its mostly skits and vlog-type videos of him and whoever he can manage to agree to go exploring abandoned warehouses and the like 

personality wise he doesn’t like to be the center of attention, he loves being behind the camera. if they’ve met before he’s inevitably asked if they believed in aliens. the only people he can’t fuck with is people who don’t because... that’s just ridiculous ffs. 

he most likely got recruited for BKE because of his family’s income bracket and how generally loose he is with cash. though his father had high expectations he never had a want that wasn’t met, he’s god awful with money and budgeting and if anyone ever asked him for money he’d probably just give it to them.

he really only has a plan for right now in this moment and doesn’t bother to stress about the things he can’t control. on a scale of 1 to 5 he is a solid 6 on the chill scale. he’s up for anything because?? what’s the worst that could happen? he’ll die? tragic.

but besides that he’s still a quiet type of dorky. he loves aliens and space. he smokes and thinks about stuff like: what if all of this was all a fucking simulation? and all that useless stuff that’s fun and scary to talk about. 

das it, das all i got.

[happyslitterbox]

♕♣

♕ ━ which fictional characters are your favorites?((I’ve always been a sucker for the side character that’s primarily in the series as a sense of comic relief or the hero that falls/ bad guy who wasn’t so bad (double agent, only turned evil because they had to get their hands dirty to protect their loved ones, etc.) Those types have always been my favorite.)) 

♣ ━ share five random facts about yourself((1. Due to a falling out I have no relationship with my father’s side of the family other than civil in public if we run into each other. We don’t even make attempts to contact each other anymore and as bad as it sounds, I kind of prefer it that way. There was a lot of drama with them after my dad’s funeral so it’s easier to just let them go and not even worry about it. 2. I am an aunt/ step-aunt to 7 nieces, 1 nephew, and I have 2 god sons. 3. I’m a typically boring person to talk to. My hobbies usually include taking walks, reading poetry, word search puzzles, and other mundane activities like computer solitaire, edits and drawing. 4. I’m a fighter, I have been since birth. The doctors gave me 30 minutes to a half hour to live at birth, and that’s if I was lucky. I was never meant to walk or talk or do anything according to them, and 30 years later I’m still going. I played baseball, basketball, swimming, did chorus and theater in school, barely graduated, but did pass high school and proved everyone wrong. I want to try to go back to college, but the circumstances aren’t allowing it right now, I hope that changes soon though. 5. I’ve role played on tumblr for a few years now, this is my first experience in the FT fandom though. My first fandom was D Gray Man and my first muse, whom I still have, was Allen Walker.)) 

[coffinboard]

↣ musical artist meme

Put 💕 by artists you like Put ✔️ by artists you dont mind Put ❌ by artists you don’t like Put ❓ by artists you’ve never listened to

Run the Jewels - ❓ Tyga - ❓ The Submarines - ❓ Saint Motel - ❓ Tupac - ✔ Deuce - ✔ Tyler, the creator- ✔ Chance the Rapper - ❓ Aminé- ❓ G-Eazy - ✔️ Kanye West - ❌ XXXtentacion - ✔️ Wifisfuneral - ❓ $uicideboy$ - ❓ Odd Future - ❓ Kehlani - ❓ Logic - ❓ Kodak Black - ❓ Yo Gotti - ❓ Wiz Khalifa - ✔ Creature Feature - 💕 Mindless Self Indulgence - 💕 💕 💕 💕 Rabbit Junk - ✔ La Roux - ❓ Eels - ❓ Future - ❓ Gucci Mane -❓ Denzel Curry - ❓ Drake - ✔️ Eminem - ❌ The Weeknd - ✔ 50 Cent - ✔ Lil Yachty - ❓ 21 Savage -❓ Chief Keef - ❓ Kendrick Lamar - ❓ Rae Sremmurd - ❓ Migos - ❓ Big Sean - ✔ A$AP Rocky - ✔ Schoolboy Q - ❓ Kodie Shane- ❓ Miley Cyrus- ✔ Travi$ Scott - ❓ Kid Cudi - ❓ Young Thug - ❓ Justin Bieber - ✔ Dej loaf -❓ J. Cole - ❓ Jay-Z - ❓ Lil B - ❓ Meek Mill - ❓ Snoop Dogg - 💕 Nicki Minaj - ✔ Lil Wayne - ❌ Lupe Fiasco - ❓ 2 Chainz - ❓ Outkast - 💕 Macklemore - ✔ Ghostface Killah - ❓ Lil Uzi Vert - ❓ Childish Gambino - 💕 The Chainsmokers - ✔ KYLE - ❓ Quavo - ❓ Soulja Boy - ✔ Chris Brown - ✔ Rihanna - ✔ Beyonce - ✔ Fetty Wap - ❓ Lorde - ✔️ One Direction - ✔ 5 Seconds Of Summer - ✔ Melanie Martinez - ✔️ Ariana Grande - 💕 Iggy Azalea - ❓ Taylor Swift - ✔ Bebe Rexha - ❓ Twenty One Pilots - ✔️ Lady Gaga - ✔ Desiigner - ❓ Ace Hood - ❓ ReyCooper - ❓ Nas - ❓ Whitney Houston - ✔ Birdman - ❓ Ice JJ fish - ❓ Shatta Wale - ❓ Eazy-E - ❓ Blackbear - ❓ Imagine Dragons - ✔ Jason Derulo - ✔ Snakehips - ❓ Galantis - ❓ Pitbull - ❓ Kygo - ❓ Skrillex - 💕 💕 💕 💕 Major Lazer - ✔ Flume - ✔ Troye Sivan - ✔ The 1975 - ✔ The Neighbourhood - ✔ Marshmello - 💕 EDEN - ❓ Bryson Tiller - ❓ Ty Dolla $ign - ❓ Khalid - ❓ Post Malone - ❓ Dreezy - ❓ Jeremih - ❓ D.R.A.M. - ❓ A$AP Mob - ❓ Justin Timberlake - 💕 Skepta - ❓ Dr. Dre - ✔ Pouya - ❓ Coldplay - ✔ Ed Sheeran - ✔ gnash - ❓ Glass Animals - 💕 David Guetta - ✔ Avicii - ❓ BØRNS - ❓ Panic! At The Disco - 💕 💕 💕 💕 Frank Ocean -✔ Calvin Harris - ❓ DJ Snake - ❓ Oh Wonder - ❓ OneRepublic - ✔ LIGHTS -  💕 💕 💕 💕 Lily Allen -  💕 💕 💕 💕 Alessia Cara - ❓ Meghan Trainor - ✔ Flo Rida - ❓ Arctic Monkeys - ✔️ Sia - 💕 Lana Del Rey - ✔ Little Mix - ❓ Passenger - ✔ will.i.am -✔ Halsey - ✔️ MØ - ❓ Hozier - ✔ Maroon 5 - 💕 Mac Miller - ❓ Earl Sweatshirt - ❓ Knowmads - ❓ Adele - ❌ Bruno Mars - ✔ The Notorious B.I.G - ❓ The Game - ❓ A$AP Ferg - ❓ System of a down - 💕 💕 💕 💕 Puddle Of Mud - ✔ Drowning Pool - ✔ Wheatus  - 💕 💕 💕 💕 Metallica - 💕 The Strokes - ✔ Megadeth - 💕 Nirvana - 💕 💕 💕 💕 The unicorns - 💕 💕 💕 💕 Linda Ronstad - ❓ David Bowie - ❓ Pink Floyd - ✔ Disney songs - ✔ Queen - 💕 The Scorpions - 💕 Rammstein - 💕 💕 💕 💕 Slipknot - 💕 💕 💕 💕 Disturbed -  💕 💕 💕 💕 Salvia - ✔️ Korn - 💕 💕 💕 💕 Rob Zombie - 💕 💕 💕 💕 Jet - ❓ Paramore - ✔️ Billy Talent - 💕 💕 💕 💕 Stabilo -  💕 💕 💕 💕 Shawn Mendes -✔ Selena Gomez - ✔️ Katy Perry - ✔ Gorillaz - 💕 DNCE - ✔ Demi Lovato - ✔ M.A.G.S. - ❓ T.A.T.U. - ❓ The Veronicas - 💕 Oasis - ❓ Modest Mouse - ✔ Martin Garrix - ❓ NerdOut -❓ Lifehouse - ❓ Thirty Seconds To Mars - 💕 Three Doors Down - 💕 💕 💕 💕 Allstar Weekend -❓ Royal Deluxe -❓ Johnny Cash - ✔ Train - ✔ Us The Duo -❓ In Love With A Ghost - 💕 Lindsey Sterling - ❓ Vanessa Mae - ❓ AJR - ❓ MAX - ❓ Dwayne Johnson - ❓ Dan Bull - ❓ Jon Bellion - ❓ Hollywood Undead - 💕 💕 💕 💕 Erutan -❓ Eurielle - ❓ Secondhand Serenade - 💕 Simple Plan - 💕 💕 💕 💕 Boys Like Girls -✔ Razihel - ❓ Rootkit - ❓ Stonebank - ❓ Pegboard Nerds -❓ Taku Matsushiba - ❓ Breaking Benjamin - ✔ Aero Chord - ❓ Jhameel - ❓ Adam Lambert - 💕 Skillet - 💕 Oliver Boyd And The Remembrals - ❓ Thousand Foot Krutch - 💕 💕 💕 💕 Within Temptation - ❓ Three Days Grace - 💕 💕 💕 💕 My Darkest Days -  💕 💕 💕 💕 The Script - ✔ My Chemical Romance - 💕 💕 💕 💕 The Used - 💕 💕 💕 💕 Issues - ❓ Starset - ❓ Parachute - ❓ Five Finger Death Punch - 💕 💕 💕 💕 Shinedown - 💕 💕 💕 💕 Seether - ✔️ Two Steps To Hell - ❓ Audiomachine - ❓ The Living Tombstone - 💕 Nate Wants To Battle - ❓ Corrine Bailey Rae - ❓ Jason Mraz - ❓ Fall Out Boy - 💕 💕 💕 💕 Bullet For My Valentine - 💕 💕 💕 💕 Red Hot Chili Peppers - ✔️ Green Day - ✔️ Blink 182 - 💕 💕 💕 💕 +44 -❓ 311 -❓ Audioslave -❓ Staind -  💕 Incubus - 💕 💕 💕 💕 Marilyn Manson - 💕 💕 💕 💕 The Smashing Pumpkins - 💕 Halestorm -❓ Bring Me The Horizon - ✔️ All Time Low - ✔ Pierce The Veil - ✔️ Sleeping With Sirens - ❓ The Killers - ✔ Goo Goo Dolls - ✔ Judas Priest - ✔ Kansas - ❓ Def Leppard -✔ Fit for Rivals -❓ Falling in Reverse - 💕 💕 💕 💕 Set It Off - 💕 💕 💕 💕 Get Scared - 💕 💕 💕 💕 Escape the Fate - ✔ Motionless in White - ❓ Neck Deep - ✔️ I Prevail - ❓ Waterparks -❓ Black Veil Brides - 💕 💕 💕 💕 Jeffree Star - 💕 💕 💕 💕 BOTDF - 💕 💕 💕 💕 Slayer - 💕 The Clash -✔ Ghost Town - 💕 Clean Bandit - 💕 Area 11 - ❓ Iamjakehill -❓ Bastille - ✔ Homesafe - ❓ Front Porch Step -❓ Son Little - ❓ The Fray - ✔️ Amber Run -❓ Days N Daze -❓ Lund - ❓ Never Shout Never - ✔ Dashboard Confessional - ❓ Sam Smith - ❓ Hotel Books ❓ Emarosa - ❓ Have Mercy - ❓ Two Inch Astronaut -❓ Nothing - ❓ mansionz - ❓ The Wombats - ✔ Asking Alexandria - ✔ The All-American Rejects - 💕 The Front Bottoms - ✔ Fitz & The Tantrums - ✔ Florence + The Machine - ✔ dad. the band -❓ Birdy - 💕 💕 💕 💕 Gregory and the Hawk - ✔ Lenka - 💕 💕 💕 💕 alt-J - ✔ Alex Clare -❓ AWOLNATION - ✔ Bishop Briggs -❓ Daughter - ✔️ Marina and The Diamonds - ✔ McCafferty - ❓ Neon Trees - ✔️ Banks - ❓ Bad Suns - ❓ RHODES - ❓ Cruel Youth -❓ Robb Bank$ -❓ Bones - ❓ Beamon - ❓ Black Sabbath - ✔ Bexey - ❓ Lil peep - ❓ Ramirez -❓ Wu-Tang Clan - ✔ NF - ❓ Bone Thugs n Harmony ❓ Frank Sinatra - ❓ Tomppabeats - ❓ Saib. - ❓ Limes -❓ Muse - ❓ Daniel Caeser - ❓ Gallant -❓ Tom Misch - ❓ Sabrina Claudio - ❓ Brasstracks -❓ Summer Salt -❓ The Walters - ❓ Snails House - ❓ Jeff Bernat -❓ Jeffrey Lewis -  ✔ Max Frost -❓ Caravan Palace - 💕 Daft Punk - 💕 MGMT - 💕 Animal Collective - 💕 Osamuraisan- ❓ Mother Mother - 💕 💕 💕 💕 The Decemberists - 💕 💕 💕 💕 The Postal Service -  💕 💕 💕 💕 AJJ -  💕 💕 💕 💕 Band Of Horses - ✔ Foot Ox - 💕 Metric - ✔ Jukebox The Ghost - 💕 💕 💕 💕 Cornell - ❓ Young the Giant - ✔ Hue - ❓ Summer Heart -❓ Honne -❓ Willa - ❓ William Wild - ❓ The Antlers - 💕 💕 💕 💕 Cigarettes after sex - 💕 Turnover - ❓ Champs - ❓ Moose Blood -❓ Paradise Fears - ❓ Citizen - ❓ The History of Apple Pie - ❓ Alina Baraz & Galimatias -❓ Zedd - 💕 Mystery Skulls - ✔ Michl - ❓ Khai -❓ Little Joy -❓ Vanic - ❓ Phoenix - ❓ Witt Lowry - ❓ Grieves - ❓ Mac Demarco - ❓ Sloan -❓ Jason Reeves -❓ 2am Club - ❓ We Hold Hands And We Jump - ❓ Against Me - ✔ Boys - ❓ The Cure - ✔ Ke$ha - ✔ Stromae - ❓ Weezer - 💕 💕 💕 💕 Vampire Weekend - 💕 💕 💕 💕 Studio Killers - ✔ Foo Fighters -✔ Queens Of The Stone Age - ❓ Rage Against The Machine - ✔ The Hives - ❓ The Offspring - 💕 💕 💕 💕 Linkin Park - 💕 💕 💕 💕 Zomboy - ❓ Highly Suspect -❓ Keane - ❓ Royal Blood - ❓ In This Moment - ❓ Chevelle - ❓ Ghost - ❓ The Beatles - ✔ Depeche Mode - 💕 Duran Duran - 💕 💕 💕 💕 Franz Ferdinand - ✔ R.E.M. - ❓ U2 - ❓ HIM - ❓ Radiohead - 💕 💕 💕 💕 Modern Baseball - ❓ Aphex Twin - 💕 Grimes - 💕 💕 💕 💕 Phantogram - 💕 💕 💕 💕 Purity Ring - 💕 💕 💕 💕 FKA twigs - ❓ Wolf Alice - ❓ Teen Suicide - 💕 💕 💕 💕 The Cribs - ✔️ mewithoutyou - 💕 💕 💕 💕 Say Anything - 💕 💕 💕 💕 Salvia Palth - 💕 💕 💕 💕 Panucci’s Pizza - ❓ Manchester Orchestra - ❓ Neon Indian -❓ Unknown Mortal Orchestra -❓ Joywave -❓ Blur -❓ Catfish & The Bottlemen - ❓ Bon Iver - ✔ The Smiths - 💕 Led Zeppelin - 💕 Ocean colour scene - ❓ The Temper Trap - ❓ Blossoms - ❓ Kings Of Leon - 💕 George Ezra - ❓ Tom Odell - ❓ Jake Bugg - ❓ The Kooks - ❓ Nothing but Thieves - ❓ Mac - ❓ Keaton Henson - ❓ Noah Gunderson - ❓ Jimi Hendrix - ✔ Stevie Ray Vaughan - ❓ Michael Jackson - 💕 The Maccabees - ❓ Billy Joel - ✔ Little Comets - ❓ Milky Chance - ❓ Amy Winehouse -💕 Gabrielle Aplin - ❓ The Verve - ❓ London Grammar - ❓ The Who - ✔ The Vaccines - ❓ Joy Division - ❓ Arcade Fire -❓ Jamie T - ❓ The Coral - ❓ Tame Impala - ❓ Stereophonics - ❓ Blaenavon - ❓ Sundara Karma - ❓ Two Door Cinema Club - 💕 The Japanese HouseGromz - ❓ Cage the Elephant - 💕 The Black Keys - ✔ Mumford and Sons - ✔️ Paolo Nutini - ❓ Carole King - ❓ Van Morrison - ❓ Vance Joy - ❓ Ben Howard - ❓ The Hunna - ❓ Alicia Keys - ✔ Jack Garratt -❓ First Aid Kit -❓ Viola Beach -❓ Circa Waves -❓ Foster the People - 💕 Foals - ❓ The Velvet Underground - ❓ The Runaways - ❓ Patti Smith - ❓ X-Ray Spex - ❓ Vince Staples - ❓ Hodgy -❓ Ugly God - ❓ The Doors- ❓ Angerfist - ❓ S3RL - 💕 Dausuke tanabe -❓ sweet trip - ❓ kid606 - ❓ moeshoppost Malone- ❓ Joey bada$$ - ❓ toro y moi - ❓ tally hall - 💕 💕 💕 💕 Portugal. The Man - ❓ Lullatone - 💕 💕 💕 💕 sublime - ✔ grateful dead - ✔ king crimson - ❓ rush - ❓ frank iero andthe patience/celebration -❓ flatsound - 💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 Nothing, nowhere -❓ elvis depressedly - ✔ Cloud nothings - ❓ kimya dawson -💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 guns n’ roses -💕 social repose ❓ Arkells - ❓ July Talk - ❓ Jank - ❓ Father John Misty - ❓ Sky Ferreira - ❓ HAIM - ❓ Declan McKenna - ❓ Sean Bolton- ❓ Beach House - ❓ The xx - 💕 Transit - ❓ Knuckle puck- ❓ Trophy Eyes - ❓ Joyce manor- ❓ Boston manor - ❓ Sum 41 - 💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 Godsmack -  💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 Papa Roach - 💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 Dope -  💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 P.O.D - 💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 Trapt -  💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 Limp Bizkit - 💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 The Pretty Reckless - 💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 The wonder years - ❓ Basement - ❓ American Football - ❓ La dispute - ❓ Surf Curse - ❓ Title fight - ❓ Brand New - 💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 The Mountain Goats - 💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 The story so far - ❓ Real Friends - ❓ Balance and composure - ❓ A day to Remember - 💕 Elliot Smith - ✔ With Confidence - ❓ Our last night - ❓ AS IT IS - ❓ Senses Fail - ❓ Ween - ❓ Away days - ❓ Sorority Noise - ❓ Broken bells - ❓ Beartooth - ❓ Delta spirit - ❓ DREAMERS - ❓ The strumbellas - ❓ Neutral Milk Hotel - 💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 National Parks - ❓ Daughtry - ❓ Handsome ghost - ❓ Cold War Kids - ❓ Colony House - ❓ Dance Gavin Dance - ❓ Kodaline - ❓ Sweatshop Union - ❓ The lumineers - ❓ Of Monsters and Men - ❓ Waterparks- ❓ Foxing - ❓ Cyrberbully Mom Club - 💕 daisyhead - ✔️ The Mowgli’s - ❓ Banners - ❓ Billie Eilish - ❓ Switch Foot - 💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 Culture Club - 💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 Eurythmics - ✔️ Tears For Fears - 💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 Simple Minds - 💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 A-Ha - 💕 The Bangles - ✔️ Cyndi Lauper - ✔️ Twisted Sister - 💕 Punch Brothers - ✔️ Nickel Creek -  💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 Poets Of The Fall - 💕

Tagging: anyone !!j

[dmmowers]

God works for good

“God Works For Good” A sermon for Trinity Episcopal Church, Baraboo, Wis. Eighth Sunday After Pentecost | Year A, Track 2 | July 30, 2017 I Kings 3:5-12 | Psalm 119:129-136 | Romans 8:26-39 | Matthew 13:31-33; 44-52

I/II.

November 3, 2016. The time was just after 1 am. I was not yet asleep. I hadn’t been awakened by a certain sleeping toddler. Actually, I hadn’t yet made it to bed. The reason I was up? That was a long story. A story of fathers and sons, of heartbreak and faithfulness. It was a story of baseball.

My great-grandfather, George Edward Mowers, born in the 1890s, had been my last ancestor to see the Chicago Cubs win a World Series. His son, my grandfather, Lawrence Allen Mowers, was born in 1922. Later in life, he had caught the disease of loving a very bad baseball team: so much so that he would record TV broadcasts with Harry Caray onto VHS tapes so that he could watch them through the long winter offseason. The Cubs at least made it to the World Series once in his lifetime, but it was in 1945. He was on a boat, somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, returning from his service in the Philippines in the Second World War. So when he died in 2006, he had missed the only time in his 84 years that the Cubs made it to the world series.

His son, my father, Ted Aaron Mowers, was born in 1954. He had the disease of Cubs fandom less than his father and his son, but he spent many afternoons in a tractor or grain truck with Pat Hughes and Ron Santo on WGN radio, the soothing sounds of baseball from the Friendly Confines of beautiful Wrigley Field giving him something to tell his oldest son about when he got home from work. When he died in 2011, he died without having seen the Cubs even make it to the World Series.

As for me, other than a two year flirtation with the White Sox as an 8 year old, I’ve been a Cubs fan all my life. Prior to November 3, 2016, my strongest Cubs memory was the heartbreaking collapse of the 2003 Cubs in their final two games of that year’s playoffs – when they were 5 outs away from going to the World Series and inexplicably blew that game and the one after it.

So as I watched Game 7 of the 2016 World Series that night last November, I watched it alone. I could not bear the thought of what would happen if they lost. With two outs to play in the 9th inning, the Cleveland Indians tied the game and much weeping and cursing ensued. But the Cubs pulled out an 8-7 victory in the 10th inning. I threw my scorebook in the air and fell on the ground and banged on the floor and cried.

Maybe it’s normal for people who cheer for more successful teams to act that way when their teams win a championship, I don’t know. What I do know was that my first thoughts in that moment of celebration were not just pure joy. They were joy, yes, but mixed with sorrow. Grandpa Larry was the first person I thought of, falling asleep in his chair with Haray Caray blaring away, of dad coming home from work and asking, “did you hear about the Cubs this afternoon?” I thought of sitting with my dad at the all too few games we went to together at Wrigley Field. I thought of announcers like Haray Caray and Ron Santo who taught me to love the game who had passed away, of people who would have lost their minds to see what I was seeing.

I think those reactions were born out of the solidarity formed between Cubs fans as they watched their lovable losers fail – and sometimes fail spectacularly – over a hundred years. Ask Cubs fans about 69 or 84 or 89 or 98 or 2003 and we have stories of being together with our loved ones, of making happy memories over our connection with the Cubs.

I never once hoped for any of those Cubs collapses, for any of those awful 95 loss clubs who had no shot at the World Series before the end of April. But that game 7 last November was so sweet in part because the drought before it had been so long, so frustrating, so endless. The suffering of generations of Cubs fans was finally, finally brought to an end.

For those of you who aren’t sports fans and have been sitting here gritting your teeth for the last few moments, I apologize. But I do have a point that transcends the Cubs. In fact, the plight of the Cubs helps us to understand something that St. Paul gets in our New Testament reading this morning from Romans chapter 8.

In verse 28, what we just heard read was this, from the New Revised Standard version of the Bible. “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” But that translation is not a correct one. The New International Version puts it this way: “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Hear the difference? In the incorrect translation, we hear, “All things work together for good.” In the correct one, we hear, “In all things, God works for good.”

The incorrect translation, “All things work together for good” is incorrect in that doesn’t give us a correct understanding of the underlying Greek this letter was originally composed in. But it is also theologically disastrous in that it claims that all things that happen to us, no matter how terrible, work together as part of a good plan for our lives. It’s only a short step from there to saying that suffering is a good thing because it is ultimately for our good, and that is monstrous.

Not long ago, a friend in another state had a baby. As often happens in labor and delivery, things did not at all work out according to this mom’s preferred plan. All of you moms out there - can I get an Amen? When Elizabeth and I visited with her and her healthy new baby sometime later, she told us the whole story. You could see in her demeanor how hard it had been and hear in her words the physical and emotional pain it had caused her. But instead of being able to acknowledge how painful it had been, all she could say was the delivery was all a part of God’s perfect plan for her and her family. She was not able to verbalize what was written all over her body language, that the delivery had been deeply painful.

Another friend once told me of a favorite uncle who had passed away. It seems that the uncle had been morbidly obese with notorious eating habits until the day he died, even though his doctors had urged him to lay off fried and processed foods. At his visitation, someone told my friend that his uncle had died because it was his time to go, because his death was a part of God’s plan for the world. My friend, a professor of theology, shot back, “No it wasn’t. It’s never part of God’s plan for people to destroy themselves.”

In both of these cases, there is a confusion about how God works in our lives. Just because something happens doesn’t mean that God wills it to happen. Just because something happens doesn’t mean that it’s a part of God’s plan for our lives. In previous sermons this summer, we’ve learned that God is at war with the power of sin. Because of Jesus’ death, sin has lost the war, but it continues to battle, and there continue to be casualties in God’s good creation.

III.

The better translation for verse 28 says this: “In all things, God works for the good of those of who love him and who have been called according to his purpose.” This is the furthest thing from denial, from papering over suffering and calling it God’s plan. God working for our good means that we can tell the truth about the real ways in which we suffer. Where evil, tragic or terrible things happen, we can acknowledge that they are evil, tragic and terrible.

But in all things, even those that are evil or tragic or terrible, God works for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose. Many of us have faced things that we did not choose, that we did not choose, that we would not wish on anyone, even our worst enemy. We have watched our young adult children develop serious mental illness. We have gotten the phone call that’s made our stomach drop. We have been the victims of abuse and domestic violence. Those events, the ones that we measure our lives in terms of “before that thing happened” and “after that thing happened”, those events are not willed by God. And yet, God works in the wake of the evil things that happen to us for our good.

Earlier this week, I helping a friend at the Washington County Fair in West Bend for a few days. He operates food trailers for a living, and so I fulfilled a lifelong dream -- well, okay, that’s not true -- I helped him sell French fries for a couple days. While there, I got to meet a friend of his, a man who, for the last 7 years, has lived with ALS. He asked what I was preaching today, and I told him about this sermon. He said that he wished that he had never been diagnosed with the disease, that it has been terrible. And yet, he said, as a part of the process of the disease, he has learned things that he never knew before: how to gracefully receive the care and concern of others. How much he is treasured by others, not because of what he could do, but because of who he is. “I have come to appreciate how valuable and beautiful this life is,” he said.

In a 2015 interview for GQ magazine, The Late Show host Stephen Colbert shared how his father and the two of his brothers closest to him in age, Peter and Paul, were killed in a plane crash when he was 10. Colbert was the youngest of 11 siblings, but his remaining older siblings were already off to school by then, leaving he and his mother alone at home. He refused to do school work, but would lock himself in his room with books. He barely graduated from high school, started at a small private college and got into theater, which became an outlet for him to share his pain with people. One thing led to another – Northwestern University’s theater program, then performing at Second City, then the Daily Show, then the Colbert Report. One day, at age 35, he was walking down the street and stopped dead in his tracks when he realized that he was where he was grateful because of what happened to him. “I love the thing that I most wish had not happened,” Colbert said. “It’s not the same thing as wanting it to have happened,” he said. “But you can’t change everything about the world. You certainly can’t change the things that have already happened.”

But what Colbert and this man with ALS help us to understand is that God is at work even in the wake of tragedy, to take the hard things that have happened to us and to make them a part of a story. That is different than them being a part of God’s plan all along. God works on our behalf in the wake of them.

IV.

I don’t want to trivialize any of the hard things that anyone has gone through, and I know that there are many of them in this room this morning, but all of that is why I chose to start this morning by telling you about my family and the Cubs. I did not choose any of the adversity that the Cubs faced on the field of play. But when the World Series victory came, it was so much different than it would have been if it had happened last year, or if it had happened at any point in the last 108 years. It was sweeter precisely because of the adversity that they had undergone. That is a game, I grant you, and it is a little silly.

But Paul is not being silly when he finishes our reading this morning with this: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword?...No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor live, nor angels, nor demons, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Some of us are still much too close to tragedy for us to see much that’s redemptive in our lives. We see only what is missing, what has been violated, what is damaged. We feel the absence of our loved ones and the presence of Alzheimer’s and cancer, and all that we can see around us is suffering. In those moments, nothing can separate us from the love of Jesus Christ our Lord. He is with us, suffering alongside us, bearing us up in the midst of hard years and hard decades. He is hearing our prayers, and he is at work within us for our good, even though things have happened that we would never have chosen.

I am convinced that God’s work for good for us never stops. When Jesus comes again to make all creation new, he will redeem all of our suffering, all our pain, all our tragedy. “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory about to be revealed in us,” Paul wrote in last week’s reading. Some of us have undergone such hard things that I don’t know how they can possibly be redeemed. But the good news of God in Jesus Christ is that our God will repair the things that our broken, will restore lost parents to their children and children to their parents, will restore sound minds to those who have lost them, will restore innocence where it has been taken, will restore life where there has only been death. We will see the love of God reach into those moments in our lives that we wish never happened and hear the love of God say “Peace, be healed.” That is a glory we cannot imagine because our hard years have been so hard, our tragedies so terrible, our suffering so long. But when it comes, we will do more than throw our scorebooks in the air and pound on the ground. We will rejoice in the wholeness of ourselves and of this good creation. We will look back on the hard roads we have traveled, the paths we went down that we did not and would never have chosen, and we will know that in all things, God worked for the good of those who loved him and were called according to his purpose.  

[mairzymarzipan]

More of Hat Loves Lamp

this might lead to a few subsequent bits- basically the origin of my villain’s evil and my brat’s hattiness.

“Dragon no!  No!  Stop it!”

There was a playful growling noise in the other room to go along with the yells, and Lyle looked up from the refrigerator.  It wasn’t the first time he’d heard his twin sister argue with the dog, but it was the first time he’d heard her so upset.  She sounded on the verge of years.  

“Bad dog!” She screamed, almost at the top of her lungs, and the dog’s happy growls were replaced with a yelp.  A second later a white and fawn furry blur of a collie went running past the boy.  Dragon darted under the table and hid there.  

Lyle headed for the living room, leaving the fridge door wide open.  If it had been anyone else, Lyle would have checked to see if the dog was alright, but Mabel was his twin sister and she had sounded way more upset than usual.  

She was in the middle of the living room floor crying, holding something in her hands.  Lyle stood next to her, “Mabes?  What happened?”

Unable to speak through her tears, the eleven-year-old held up the object.  It was the pinwheel- the magic one.  Only it was broken.  The stick was snapped, and the paper torn and with bite marks.

“Oh, no,” Lyle said.

“Dragon ate Rain!”  Mabel said between sobs.

“Oh Mabel, I’m so sorry!”  Lyle gently touched the pinwheel.  It- it was really rough.  The handle was splintered in the middle, hanging to itself by the single grain.  The paper in the wheel was half chewed, half melted.  Any life Rain had had in her was gone, now.

“That stupid dog!”  Mabel’s mouth twisted, “I want him dead!”

Lyle jumped a little at the force of Mabel’s proclamation.  He’d never rage in her like this before, “You don’t mean that,” he said.  Dragon was their dog.  They had chosen him together after much deliberation and kisses from the entire litter.  They’d raised him from when he was small and taught him all the tricks- sit, fetch, lay.  Dragon slept between them on the floor at night.  

“I do, I do!  I hate him!”

“He didn’t mean it,” Lyle said, “Dad says he’s still just a puppy even if he’s big.  He chews on everything.  He didn’t know Rain was alive.”

“Someone mention me?”

Mabel gasped.  The pinwheel in her hands was moving.  The wheel itself bent in her direction and spun a little.  It looked- better.  Less chewed and more whole.  Lyle couldn’t even see the break in the handle anymore.  Had he actually seen it?

“Rain?  You’re- OK?”

“I’m fine sugar, how ‘bout you?”  Now Lyle knew he hadn’t seen things- the wheel was getting itself back shape.  He didn’t know how, but the paper was unfolding and, growing back, where it had been eaten.  Pretty soon it looked like a brand new pink and yellow pinwheel, just like the day they found her.  

Mabel wiped tears from her eyes, “Oh, Rain!  I was so scared!  I thought you died.”

“Died?  Ah no- a dog can’t kill a maguffin!  That would be too kind, huh?  Sugar- dry your eyes.  I remembered another spell.”

Lyle sighed with relief but, it was strangled.  He’d feel awful if Dragon accidentally killed Mabel’s friend.  But there went the pinwheel off again about spells and magic.  Remembering spells.  Performing spells.  It was all Mabel talked about these days.  It used to be about cutting faces out of teen magazines and making her dinosaur books really bizarre, or playing Barbie house with her friends.  Now, it was just magic.

“Oh, gosh!  What’s the spell?”  Mabel was jumping on her knees now.  Tear streaks were on her face but seemed to belong to another person.  Mabel looked like a girl who had only know happiness.

“I’d tell you,” Rain said, “but-” she turned her pinwheel toward Lyle, who sighed.

What made Mabel’s new hobby worse was the Lyle wasn’t invited to these lessons.  ‘Sorry Sonny-sorcery is for girls!’  Rain had said.  Lyle wasn’t a stranger to being excluded from things- he was always told he was too young or too dumb or something.  But, Mabel was his twin sister.  They shared everything.  The hot-boy dinosaur collages, the doll tea parties, the baseball games, the bug hunts- everything.

Until now.

“Oh, Sonny?”  Rain said.  Lyle didn’t know why she called him Sonny like it was his name, “You can make yourself useful, you know.  There’s some things your sister’s going to need.”

“Hold on,” Mabel pulled a pen from behind her ear, “OK, let me write this down.”

Rain had taken to floating in the air again, and Mabel was writing down a list of plants on a pink post it pad.  It was like the pinwheel had never been devoured by a dog.  Lyle didn’t know half the plants Mabel was writing down, but he didn’t ask for a clarification.  When Rain was done, Mabel stood up and stick the list to Lyle’s forehead, and grinned, then went into the other room.  

Lyle was about to leave when he noticed her top hat on the floor.  Must have fallen off when Mabel was trying to get Dragon to cough up Rain.  He picked it up and almost raised his voice to call for her but then, promptly, changed his mind.  If Mabel wanted to send him to do stupid chores, then Lyle ‘accidently’ use her hat as a shopping bag for dirty flowers and stuff.

The front door opened before Lyle could get there, and his friends were waiting for him.  “Ly!  What’s taking you so long?  Where are our juice boxes?”

“Oh, sorry!”  Lyle smacked his head where the list was.  He and his friends had been fishing outside, and Lyle had run in to get them drinks.  “I had to help my sister,” he ran to the still-open fridge and grabbed four juice boxes.  He gave three to his friends.  

“Thanks, Ly,” Dustin said, “we’re going over to Allen’s house now, though.  His brother finally left for work so we’re gonna play on his Nintendo.”

“OK, sounds good,” Lyle pulled the sticky note off his head, “let’s look for this stuff on the way there.

Allen’s big brother hadn’t gone to work, it turned out, and the flock of boys were chased away when they got to the house.  Dustin half blamed Lyle for making them find all those flowers, but he didn’t have much of a foot to stand on.  Their plans dashed, and not wanting to be in the hot sun anymore, the boys split.

Lyle carried his plants home.  Rain hadn’t specified, so Lyle and the boys had snapped them at the stocks.  They weren’t all flowers, and those that Lyle didn’t know about had been identified by his friends.

He struggled with the lock, which meant Mom wasn’t home yet.  Mabel wasn’t in their room. Lyle dropped the flowers onto the middle of her bed unceremoniously, and that’s when he noticed Mabel’s diary, sitting wide open.  Her diary, where she had been furiously writing the stuff Rain had been telling her about lately- the super secret stuff.  The diary that actually locked, with a key that she kept on a chain around her neck, and always stashed under her pillow or in her backpack.  

Lyle realized that if there was any chance to see what Rain had been teaching his sister, the time was now.  He put the hat on the side table, crown down.

The words on the top of the page read MAGUFFIN STUFF.

Below that were words, followed by paragraphs of gibberish.  Lyle cocked his head but none of this made sense.  Lyle set his hand down on the hat, his fingertips resting just on the sweatband.  Maybe if he read this out loud, it would make more sense?  So he did that.

There was a tug from the hat.  His hand was gone into it!  His fingers and thumb weren’t visible, but his wrist stretched impossibly into the dark hole.  Before he could say anything, he elbow disappeared into it.  When the rest of his arm disappeared, his torso was tugged closer to the hat.  It pulled to hard- he couldn’t fight against it!  When he tried to push with his other hand, that just went inside too, like it was a black hole.  Too late to scream, his shoulders and head went into the hat, and then his body and legs and feet.

Lyle was in a long, black shaft.  There was a hole in front him and an empty blackness behind him.  He was falling.  The hole got smaller and smaller, and the walls around him got narrower, and narrower.  They got so narrower they pushed up against him.  They got so narrow that they squeezed him.  Lyle thought they would stop him from falling, but he fell still.  The wall got so narrow they were inside his body.  They got so narrow he didn’t have a body anymore.  He was only walls.  Walls and fabric and blackness and deepness.  And even now, he was falling, falling, falling.

Then he was on the side table.

***

Rain had sent Lyle to do busywork, she’d revealed, after the boy had left.  Mabel had objected but Lyle was already gone.  But that meant that now she and her mentor could do the real work.  For this spell, Mabel would need a perfect opal.  Might her mom have one in her jewelry?  Mabel wasn’t sure what an opal was, but she could look!

And so she’d been spending the last hour going through her mom’s jewelry case looking for opals.  She would hold a stone in front of Rain and the Rain would confirm or deny.  Mostly deny.  Once she found an opal, but it wasn’t perfect.  But at least now she knew what the right stone would look like.

She heard a scream that made her head come up and smash into one of the open shelves.  It sounded like Lyle!  Mabel ran to it right away, into their shared room.  But she didn’t see him here.  “Lyle?  Lyle?”  She looked under the beds.  She looked in the beds. There was a pile of flowers on her bed.  

Her magician’s hat fell off the table- so that’s where that thing had gone to.  “Mabel!  Something’s wrong with me!”

“Where are you?” She opened the closet door and pushed aside their shirts and looked behind them.

“I’m on the floor.”

But the only thing on the floor was her hat.  It was rolling around on it’s brim.  It rolled around a bit, then it pushed itself up with it’s ribbons.  Wait- since when had her magician’s hat had loose ribbons?  It pushed itself onto its crown, then felt itself over with its ribbons.  There was an ugly tear across the front of the hat that Mabel had never seen before.  It opened up, revealing weird, sharky teeth.

“Mabelllll!”

That was Lyle’s voice.

“Oh my god- Lyle?”

“Of course it’s me.  Mabel, something’s wrong with me!”  He reached his ribbons for her, and Mabel came to kneel in front of him.  It kind of twisted her up on the inside to look at him.  He- he wasn’t her brother right now.  He was a weird version of her hat with teeth and arms.  

She put her hands on her face and tears started to come to her eyes.  She knew right away- this was her fault.  This was her fault and she had to fix it.  Lyle had tried to warn her about using magic, but Mabel had been too caught up in it.  Now Lyle was the real one paying the price.

“Mabel?”  Lyle’s voice was soft, “What’s wrong with me?”  He put his ribbons in front of his teeth and gasped, “I’m blue!  And- my bones are gone?”

Mabel sort of hic-sobbed, “No!  Wait- Lyle, you can see?  Without eyes?”

“What?  What do you mean I don’t have eyes?!”

There was a mirror on the door of the closet, “I’ll show you,” she got up and closed the door.  The full body mirror revealed an opposite of the room.  

“I can’t see myself,” Lyle said, “I’m invisible?”

“What?  No!”  With one hand on her mouth, she knelt, then softly she rested her hand on Lyle’s brim, “Do you feel that?”

“Yeah.”

“Look in the mirror at what I’m touching.”

There was silence for a good one, two seconds.  It was- unbearable.  Then Lyle said, “You’re touching your hat.  But I’m not your hat,” he waved his ribbons, and paused when the mirror hat did the same thing, “No, I can’t be,” he waved his ribbon arms, crossed them, jumped up and down.  Lyle screamed again.

“Nooo!  I don’t want to be a hat!  Mabel!  Mabel!  Change me back!”

“I don’t-” Mabel got her diary off the bed, and gasped when she saw what page it was open to, “Lyle- did you read aloud from this page?”

“Yes,” Lyle flapped his ribbon arms wildly, “and I’m sorry.  I’m so sorry!  I’ll never read from your magic book again, just change me back!”

“I- I can’t.”

“What?”

“I’m- I’m not a good enough sorceress.”

“Then get Rain to do it!”

“She can’t either!”

“What?”

“She said that I can’t either.”

The new voice came from the doorway where Mabel’s pinwheel was floating in the middle, bobbing and her pinwheel turning slowly.  Rain floated lower, more to Lyle’s level.  

“She’s wrong though, right?”  Lyle said, “You’re a really strong sorceress.”

Two of Rain’s points folded, “Sonny, if I knew how to get people out of maguffins, do you think I’d still be in one?”

“What?”  Lyle asked.

Mabel sighed, “Rain isn’t a pinwheel- she’s a person inside a pinwheel.  What we’ve been trying to do all this time was get her out so she could teach me more stuff.”

“And now you’re a being like me,” Rain said, “a maguffin: a magical object with a human soul battery.”

“But- but- I read the spell from your diary!  It was really easy!”  Lyle said.

“It’s really to make maguffins,” Mabel said, “but really hard to unmake them.”

Lyle started to hyperventilate, and and then rise from the ground.  He was now floating inches above the rug like the other maguffin.  “But I want to be a boy!  I want to be a boy!”

There was a click at the front of the house- the door being opened.  “Mom’s here!”  Lyle cried, “Mom will help me!”  He jumped for the door, lost his elevation and sort of fell in the hall.  He rolled a couple of times and landed brim-down.

“Help!  I’m upside down!”

“Mabel!”  Rain said severely, her wheel spinning, “Listen sugar- adults can’t see him.  You have to hide him.”

That seemed extremely unfair, “But he’s my brother- and my mom is his mom.”

“She can’t, Mabel.  You know what happens if adults see magic- they’ll take me away.  And they’ll take your brother away, now that he’s magic, too.”

Mabel’s insides froze up.  Having a hat-brother was bad, but having Lyle taken away was the absolute worst thing that could ever happen to her.  Lyle wasn’t just a brother.  He was a twin.  Being with him was like being with herself.  It was like the world made sense.  

She could never lose that.  Never.

“Take me away?  What?  I’m still upside down!”  

Their mom was still struggling with the door- the lock was kind of loose and they all had problems with their keys.  Mabel picked Lyle up and brought him inside the room.  She set him on his bed ‘rightside up’, and looked at him sadly.  Lyle’s strange looking mouth frowned.

“I’m a hat forever, aren’t I?”

“No,” Mabel wiped a tear from her eye, “just until Rain and I figure out how to fix it.  I will fix it.  I promise.  I’m so, so sorry.”

“It’s OK, Mabel.  You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Yes, I did,” and there was no way anyone could tell her otherwise.  She’d written down dangerous spells- spells Rain had warned her over and over not to say out loud.  And she’d done the worst possible thing- left her diary out, and open, where Lyle could find it.  

“Lyle?  Mabel?”  Their mother had gotten in the house, “You guys are being awful quiet.”

Mabel got up, and Lyle said, “I’ll hide.  What are you gonna tell mom?”

“I don’t know,” she sobbed.

“Don’t cry.  If you cry, she’ll know something’s wrong.  Tell her I’m still at Allen’s house.  And when I don’t come home…”

Mabel swallowed.  Lyle gathered his strength, “When I don’t come home, she’ll think I ran away.”

Mabel stifled a cry, failed, and tried to think of an excuse for it.  “I watched Dumbo,” she said.

Lyle nodded, “Good, good.  Now go meet her.”

“Mabel?  Lyle?  You around?”

Mabel walked into the hall, shutting the door behind her, “Lyle’s not here!  He’s still with his friend.”

[see-me-through-another-day-blog]

John

Autumn of 2013, I saw you for the first time at school. Didn’t know who you were, I just knew we always made eye contact from across the cafeteria. We had the same civics and careers block, but you had careers when  had civics, and vice versa. Sometimes, when I was waiting for first period to start, I’d sit outside of my classroom and see you walking into yours. We always made eye contact then, too, and I remember thinking you were really cute. you dressed well and you were clean kempt. Nothing happened yet.

Winter of 2013/14. I posted my number on twitter in the early evening because I was bored. Later that night, I got a prank call. Someone kept calling, screaming “SWAAAAAG” and then hanging up (real mature). I texted the number to find out who it was, but the only response I got back was, “SWAAAG.” The next morning I got a couple of my older friends to spam the number so I could find out who it was. It was you. I didn’t really know who you were that well, so I asked my best friend at the time and she told me all about you. What school you went to the year before, who you hung out with, and how you hit her up sometimes. I didn’t think much of it and went on with my life. Later on in the winter, I was on my way to Montreal and posted a snapchat story of me in my 1/4 zip blue PINK sweater. The zipper was undone, so you could see some cleavage. This was the first time you ever really made a pass at me. You made a comment about my boobs we talked for a bit, and that was that.

Spring of 2014, we got to talking a bit more. One night, while I was out babysitting waiting for the parents to get home, I got bored. I went into the washroom and sent my first booty pic ever on snapchat. I sent a bunch until I heard the parents come in, quickly got dressed and the dad drove me home. After sending messages and risky pictures to each other for a couple of weeks, my birthday was coming up. I had a dinner with a bunch of my girl friends, and my best friend slept over that night. I remember you telling me you were doing shrooms. As the night went on, my best friend got really drunk and started throwing up and passing out. I didn’t really know what to do, I was super innocent at the time, so I asked you for help. You told me what to do and assured me everything would be OK. It was. I had never made out with anyone before, and being 16, I decided it was time. A week later, I was sitting in my backyard with my friend, my parents out at a party, wen you asked me if I wanted to chill. I hesitantly said yes, as I was scared of what was to come. We decided to meet behind Hopedale, a 32 minute walk from my house at the time. My friend sat on the baseball diamond benches while I trekked over to the park to meet up with you. We talked for 15 minutes before we got to making out. Eventually, you asked me if I’d give you head. I said I would. You took 2 of my firsts from me so quickly, but I was fine with it. I was starting to really like you. After that, we hooked up like there was no tomorrow. Before class behind the bleachers, during class at your house, we had a lot of fun. But I started to learn something about you. You weren’t a relationship person. I just decided I would have to come to terms with that, as I was extremely self-conscious and naive.

Summer of 2014, my best friend and I went to SOM where we saw kids that I would call my friends now, but at the time I was very shy and kind of an outcast. My friend, however, was friends with them so we stuck with em’. Later on in the day, Faisal and Sam R., two people I hardly knew came up to me and asked, “did you suck John’s dick?” I felt all sorts of emotions. I was confused and embarrassed and didn’t know what to say, so my friend stuck up for me and played it off like it was no big deal. I saw you later that night, pupils wide and dark and sweating up a storm. I small talked with you Drew and Olivia for a while, before I left. You and I never really talked much after we started hooking up. A week later, I was sitting in the staff room at Winners when I got a text from you making me promise not to tell anyone else we hooked up. Funny thing is, I didn’t have any friends to tell in the first place.

Later that summer, I walked to your house because you had it to yourself for the day. We put on some netflix and started doing what we did best. I had never been fully naked in front of anybody before, but you stripped me down and made me feel so sexy. We made out for a bit, and you begged to fuck me. I said no, and you hesitantly accepted my answer. You asked if we could at least 69, and I eventually agreed to this compromise. The feeling was nice, I must admit you did a good job. I left your house with wobbly knees, which made it nearly impossible to walk home. We hooked up every now and again during summer, but nothing to crazy happened.

Autumn of 2014 came, and I met my current best friend Margot. We knew each other for a week, but it felt like I had known her my whole life. She Tod em she wanted to throw a halloween party when October came, and I insisted she put you on the guest list. September rolled by, and eventually came thanksgiving 20114, the day I lost my virginity. Natalie and I had a shift together at Winners until 7:30, so I missed out on dinner at my aunts house. Since nobody was home to pick me up from work Nat dropped me off and I went downstairs to watch TV. Then, I hit you up. I had been thinking about having sex for a while, and decided it was the perfect time to lose the big V card. Your sister dropped you off as soon as you were done dinner. I knew it wouldn’t be long until my family was home, so I took you on a walk to Glen Allen park, were I spent most of my childhood. It was there, on the park bench, that I whispered in your ear to fuck me, and told you it was my first time. We finished up pretty quick and then went our separate ways. From that day until February of 2015, we wouldn’t speak. Let me reiterate: you wouldn’t speak to me. In a sense, I was lucky. If it weren’t for that happening, I wouldn’t have started my relationship with my first love, who coincidentally I talked to for the first time the day after we fucked. Still, when you showed up to Margot’s party, I was hurt. You hardly even looked my way, and as revenge I had every person on the guest list at that party sign my hard hat except for you. I kept the hat for memories.

Winter of 2015 Sloane had her birthday party. You know, the one where Faisal clocked you in the head? although you took my virginity and then didn’t talk to me for 5 months, I was still worried about you and came over to check up on you. I  was told to go away by one of the moms chaperoning the event. Later that month you would pick me up in your cousins truck and drive us down to the lake for what I call our worst hook up of all time. You tasted like poppers,  burped in my mouth, and let me take care of you with no reciprocation and then drove me back home. The Abbey vs TAB hockey game happened not long after, and this is the first place I heard about you and Jenna. Now, I know I couldn’t be mad at you because you and I were never exclusive, but it still hurt a lot. I kept denying and denying and denying it. You and I kept fucking around, and the more we did the more I caught feels. I visited Chloe in auto all the time just so I could chill with you. Then, one day, you messaged me asking if Margot (my best friend) would be down to hook up. You were such a bad person, John. I don’t know why I wasted so much time around you. Nevertheless, I ignored your shitty personality and continued to fuck you, throughout spring and summer.

Then came Autumn of 2015. The last time we ever laid hands on each other. I picked you up across from Josh’s house (god forbid anyone knows we hook up, even after all of this time) and we went to Blakelock’s back parking lot. I dropped you off at home, and the next day Margot told me how Josh was telling her a random girl picked you up from his house the previous night even though you were supposed to be exclusive with a girl named Jenna. This made my heart sink into my chest. I forgot about it, and just swore I would never touch you again. But then, a week later, Rachel told me about you and Jenna. And then Natalie. And I was heart broken. This whole time you were exclusive with somebody else and I had no idea. I confronted you about it and you denied it, so there was nothing left for me to do but cut you off completely. It was so hard, after spending so much time and putting in so much energy into this thing that we had. I finally realized over the 2 years we knew each other, I meant jack shit to you. Even so, I found myself defending you to people who would talk shit.

Winter of 2015/16, New years to be exact. I’m sat at Andrews, watching everybody around me hooking up so I drunkenly shoot you a message. You say you cant hang out for another hour, but it was already 3 am and I was due home. The next day, we talked a little about the night before. You told me you would do anything to see me again, and I told you I needed a stable exclusive relationship in my life because I was tired of the random hook ups. You said you couldn’t da me, but you would stay loyal to me. I refused to believe you, and after that we just stopped talking. Sometimes there was a “hey how are ya”, but nothing serious. A couple months later, Lexi tells me all about how you and Jenna were at a party together on New Years literally swallowing each other in the bathroom. I lost my shit. I told Adrian all about your weird sex things and how you had a thing for eating ass. It got around and eventually I felt so guilty about it, that I blocked you on every social media platform. Out of sight, out of mind.

Spring 2016. Jenna comes to TAB. You guys are officially over (or so she told me), and we compare stories. You, of course, had feelings for her much more than you did for me. I got over it. All of it. How you were an asshole. How you were in love with another girl despite me giving you LITERALLY my all. I’m over it. And although this went on for 3 years of my life, I will still forever be thankful for you, John. You were a milestone in my life, and you can never take the way I felt about you away from me.