#I NEVER REALIZED HE SAID IT IN THE VIDEO ALONG WITH MATT'S VOICE ACTING!?!?!?

[ilkkawhat]

no one will survive

[st4rgzer]

MATT BUT ITS THE AUDIO I SENT U

UNREQUITED PT. 2 matt sturniolo

summary: pt 2 of unrequited love, you make some plans that take a turn for the worse

genre: PURE angst

cw: mentions of self deprecation, flirty jokes

a/n: for my lobe, @iha8you , hope you enjoy it, sorry for what happened again, fuck him!

Its been 2 months since i started distancing myself from the triplets and anything involving them, more precisely, matt.

Of course they noticed, i have more than 11 missed called from nick, not trusting my messages saying ���im fine, just busy, ttyl” Im never like that, not with them at least. Today I’ve made up my mind, im going to put my silly feelings aside and hang out with my friends, its was i need, it’ll do me good, i know it will. They pick me up from my house, the drive to theirs being the most awkward thing in the world, worse than telling a server at a restaurant “you too!” In response to “enjoy your food”, yeah. No one said a word, that was the worst, its everyone expected someone to say something but no one dared to break the silence. I think I could see matt smirk in the rear view mirror, I scrunched my eyebrows in confusion, did he find this amusing? We arrived home a few minutes after, which felt like an eternity. I undid my seatbelt and we all went to the front door, waiting for nick to get the keys, he fiddled with them, trying to open the door

“Whenever you want nick” Chris said sarcastically, annoyance visible in his voice, as he always did when he bickered with his brother. Eventually, he got the door open and we all got set up inside, I sat on the couch with nick next to matt and chris.

“Do y’all wanna watch a movie or…?” Nick said looking around, everyone nodded, including me, I would rather just watch a movie then have to talk. I cleared my throat and crossed my legs, getting comfortable. Nick got up after putting on a scary movie and went to get some drinks and snacks

“I’ll come help you!” Chris exclaimed, he probably just wanted to make sure no one got his pepsi, but whatever. I come to the realization me and matt are alone on the sofa, the movie is paused, we glance at eachother awkwardly, even if we never argued or said anything about how i felt, we both knew something was up, he was the first one to break the silence.

“Hey you can talk to me you know, you act like you love me or something” he laughed off, my stomach dropped, did he know? No, that’s impossible. I laughed along.

“No I’ve just, just been really busy and-“ i get cut off. “C’mon don’t tell me that bullshit, I know you haven’t been THAT busy to hang out with your favorite friends” he said rolling his eyes, he hit my shoulder playfully. He touched my shoulder. I looked down, trying to find a better excuse, or hoping that he’d just let it slide.

“Well, I’m just reall-” saved by the bell. “LOVEBIRDSSS got the popcorn, drinks, and ready for another hour of edward scissorhands” Nick said placing the popcorn onto the table, crossing his legs over the couch, and grabbing the remote. I let out a sigh of relief, matt looked over at me and huffed, im sure he’ll forget. Chris put his feet over matt’s lap and sipped his soda.

After the movie ended, it was fenomenal as always by the way, we got to talking, great.

“So y/n, what have you been up to? We really haven’t seen you at all these months” Chris spoke between handfuls of popcorn. Nick nodded along

“Well i-“ I glanced over at matt, he was looking at me, of course he would, im speaking, what am i even saying? “I’ve had a heavy month of recording and editing videos, im in the middle of looking for a new editor, AND im getting my drivers license, so yeah, pretty bus- occupied…” I explained to them, half of that was true, i WAS looking for a new editor, just not actively doing so, and i AM getting my license, just not till January…but they bought it, which is the important part.

“Well we’ve all missed you around here” nick scooched next to me. I smiled in return.

“Yeah especially matt” Chris said suggestively, prolonging the word matt in a singsongy voice. Im sure he didn’t mean it that way, was he mocking me?. Matt just rolled his eyes.

“Sure, well im not the one who’s in love with me” he smirked at me, I scoffed, again? Really? Its like everyone is in on a big inside joke but me, and i hate it.

Nick notices my discomfort and diverts the attention from me.

“Hey how about we call Alanha and Madi and we go to Mcdonalds or something” he suggested. “Yeah that sounds great!” I responded, the other two agreed in unison, and we left the previous subject alone, thank god.

As we pulled up to Alanha’s house, Madi and her went out of the door and got into the backseat next to me and Nick, we squeezed in all we could, we laughed about it a bit, it was a relief to see them really, Madi was the only one, along with some other gfs, that knew about it.

“Y/n! Its so good to see you, its been forever” Alanha side hugged me, with difficulty in the cramped car.

“Yeah i know, its good to see you guys too” I smiled at both of them, the car ride to the Mcdonalds drive thru was short, thankfully. Matt lowered the music as the speaker took our order, everyone whispering theirs to him, he remembered my order. We pulled into the parking lot, sorting out all the food.

We decided to eat out in the car park, it was dark so there was no one there, so it was quiet and peacful, we were eating our food and making jokes, Matt kept on slipping little flirty remarks but I ignored them, after all, he was just making fun of me.

“Fuck arent you guys cold?” Madi shivered, rubbing her hands together, it was chilly but we all had at least a hoodie on.

“Here, im warm from all the food” Matt took off his hoodie. He handed it over to her. She put it on. “oh” i thought.

All the sounds around me kind of tuned down, furrowing my eyebrows and snapping myself out of my state, my breathing got a little heavier, i shook my head. Why was a being so dramatic? For the love of god, he just gave her his hoodie, its not like he declared his undying love for her or something, either was it still hurt a little, im lying, it hurt a lot. Madi put her hands in the pocket of Matt’s black ransom hoodie, she smiled and the conversation carried on, but I wasn’t paying attention

“Y/n? Y/n are you theree?” Nick waved a hand in front of my face.

“Sorry I just zoned out there for a sec” I laughed somehow, I didn’t know if it was really visible in my face how upset I was.

“Oh im sorry did you want my hoodie” Matt joked, everyone else laughed along, it was an innocent little joke for them, i get it. I bit the inside of my cheek, he took my feelings as a hilarious thing, as if I was the kings jester. I breathed in, trying not to let the stinging feeling of tears in my eyes win over, I didn’t wanna be the one to say they wanted to go home, so i just waited, not participating in the conversation, but laughing and nodding along at the right times to not raise any suspicions, eventually, Alanha said she had to be up early in the morning, if we could go home, so we did.

“Guys just drop me off here” I sighed, getting out of the car, waving little goodbyes to all of them. Another successful night, drained, the only comfort being my bed and being enveloped by my fluffy sheets. Another night wondering if there’s something wrong with me, and another night realizing once again that hope is, indeed, a dangerous thing for someone like me to have.

a/n: everyone say “fuck you danny!” 🙂🙂 @iha8you

should i do a taglist or something?😭 tell me if u dont wanna be on this

@dwntwn-strnlo @oneirophobic @20nugs @mettsturniolo @iha8you @lvrsparadise @gabbylovesreading

[spookyboogie3]

MY FAVORITE AH MOMENTS W/O R*an H*yw**d

Also keep in mind some of these moments i picked Bitch Face r*an may have been present for but this aint about his stupid ass. 

The straw bit on Off Topic

Fiona and Trevor’s “Look at us” “Look at us” “Look at us” in TTT

Drunk Jeremy inhaling helium, followed by Jack and Trevor on Off Topic

“Krusty KrAYAYAB!!!” TTT

Jeremy trying to slam his face through a table, followed by Michael doing the same thing

“my god…… the munchdew” “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!” Minecraft: Skyfactory

Actually all of Simple Farmer Geoff from Skyfactory

Whatever those sounds were that Jack was making in the beginning of GTA video

Alfredo screaming as he continues to fall down a steep tube in a GTA race

DESTROYING THEIR OFFICE DEAR LORD

“How did he drown though?” “UNDERWATER, MATT!”

Anytime Fiona starts to RAGE in TTT (bonus if others join in)

The time Gav was the phantom in TTT and he kept dying and being brought back and Jack spitting water and then trying to catch it

Alfredo’s Magoo moments in Minecraft

Geoff laughing in the background of a video hes not in

Lindsay fucking around with Chef Mike on Harecore Minigolf

Lindsay fucking around in general

Gavin and Fiona playing Animal Crossing and laughing at the stupidest shit

The Fish Tempura incident on Wheel of Fortune

Lindsay’s reasoning for why her and Michael should have 4 kids

Geoff’s fucking ad reads (my favorite is 23&Me)

The whole thing during Push the Button where everyone especially Michael gets mad at Fiona because she said the best candy to get while trick or treating was lollipops

Matt’s fucking desk in the corner of the room

Anytime Millie is in a video

Everyone falling off the pink ladder during TTT and dying repeatedly because of it

Alfredo “the two-time champ” Diaz dying very early in YDYD 3

Gavin and Michael fucking up almost every game they play on Play Pals

RAY OR NO and then RAY OR NAY on Off Topic

Reddit Roasts Geoff

Gavin asking if someone could kill 20 cows with their bare hands and the proceeding so say he could rip out a cow’s veins by reaching into its neck

Ify’s narration during Let’s Roll Ave Caesar

The internet losing its shit when Jeremy shaved his head years ago

“We need a knife” Gavin comes back with a hammer

Griffin chain sawing the Off Topic table up

“How do I put the boat in the water??” “Right click you animal”

As of 2020, 8 years of playing Minecraft, certain people still do not know how to play the basics of this fucking game.

Honestly it took over 200 episodes for some of them to figure out how the compass worked. You know after they decided that the sun was setting in the wrong direction. (this was in 2016??)

Flynt coal still is a joke they make

So is Day 2

Whatever happened in that GTA lets play where someone called a mugger or a hit on someone and the game glitched and 50 guys showed up and lined up on the street below from where they were playing

Anytime Gavin gets mugged, it’s an old running gag but it’s a classic

The time a mugger fucking started driving the fire truck away after mugging Gavin with Michael and Jeremy still in the truck thinking the other is driving and it takes them like 2 minutes to realize what happened while Gavin’s yelling “come back”

They got a water jug and immediately started water boarding each other

“It pinged and went dingle”

“Hey Trey-Boi” “Hey Gay-Boi” Immediately realizes what he has said

Jeremy’s website puns

(OLD) Ray jerking off in the corner during a let’s play

(OLD) the world in Minecraft never loading and everyone screaming about as Geoff says its fine for him

Jeremy’s “I AM MONSTER TRUCK”

Jack taking AH to Disney……in Minecraft

On Twitter, Gavin asked about recommendations for a computer mouse and Fiona starts sending him pictures of actual mice.

“Its not ghey, if its on the moon”

Literally anything Fiona does as Po

Jeremy saying the heterosexual flag is boring

UNO THE MOVIE!

Geoff fucking cackling the whole time.

“here’s looking at you kid”

the video was almost 3 hours long

“you know what my favorite color is? blue” “oh really? You know what my favorite hand is? Yours

They all want it to end but no one wants to lose and so they fuck each other and that prolongs the game. Also they put on more rules, so they just keep getting more cards if they don’t have a card to match the previous

Alfredo saying he won’t participate in ghost hunter because he knows what happens to people of color in horror movies

Fiona walking in on Off Topic with a protein shake and Gavin asks if shes drinking milk and she says without missing a beat “ah no that’s cum” and everyone laughed not expecting the answer

(OLD) “SURPRISE MOTHERFUCKER” *falls in hole*

(OLD) Ray and Gav running in a panel dressed as X-Ray and Vav and Ray running the whole way around the room before he got to the stage

Duck taping Jeremy to the wall

(OLD) All of Minecraft Episode 3 Plan G (This was the very first AH video I watch and why I know who they are)

Geoff and Gav creating Achievement City and giving everyone houses just to prank Jack into burning house down with lava.

Ray’s house is a dirt block with no furniture and single torch

Geoff’s giant ass house next to Ray’s tiny house

Jack tries to destroy everything with lava throughout the episode

“lets be honest, I realistically didn’t lose anything”

Michael stealing art from Gav’s house “NOO! I want nice things”

The sign to Michael’s says “Awaiting Approval, Awaiting Approval, Awaiting Approval” he runs into house and say “I’m home”

Ray also steals this sign at some point

Plan G – The failsafe.

“Oh whats this? Is this a button? Whats this? (pushes button) Yeah it was a button”

“Did you push the button?”

“Yeah”

“okay”

“wh-what does it do?”

“uh…”

Cue Achievement City beginning to explode as Michael starts screaming

Rays reaction “NO, MY SHITTY HOUSE JUST GOT EVEN SHITTIER!”

Not something funny but something VERY IMPORTANT. AH admitting that they all fucked up and how shitty their behavior was when dealing with harassment in the fanbase. People were racist, sexist, homophobic, misogynistic, and just downright horrible to a lot of the employees at RT and AH. This came up after Mica Burton left the company and talked about it publicly and how nothing was done about it. Fiona who also experiences these same things, along with Lindsay and other employees, but Fiona took the charge on the Off Topic talking about people can’t continue to get away with that behavior. She got to sound off her feelings to a group of white men who all respected her and LISTENED to what was saying and how she felt. She cried; Geoff cried. They all want to do more, so this doesn’t happen in the future and they’re not tolerating the racist and horrible comments. AH taking a mature moment to talk about how they failed to stop these comments and Geoff was right when he said the company has a long way to go.

 Outside of AH each member has more to them than just all of the comedy and laughs and dumb shit they do

Geoff helped found Roosterteeth and Achievement Hunter. He has a beautiful daughter in Millie who is awesome in her own right. He’s a recovering alcoholic. Currently doing F**k Face podcasts. Was in the fucking army. Takes accountability for every mistake he makes.  

Jack also helped start Achievement Hunter. He does so much work for charity. His twitter is full of things to help people go vote. He’s like the dad to AH, especially Fiona. He’s happily married to his wife Caiti.

Michael was an electrician and has a lot of handy man experience. He made a few videos online about him raging at games and that got the attention of RT. He’s currently married to Lindsay who he met because of RT. They have two kids together.

Gavin is an expert at high speed filmmaking and know how use and edit footage from a slow-motion camera. He has worked on actual films. One of the creators of the Slow Mo Guys. Worked his ass off to get to work for RT. Currently dating model and cosplayer Meg Turney

Lindsay flips between being the mom of the group and a complete chaos queen and we all love her for it. She started as an editor for the RT podcast and then AH stuff. She is an incredible voice actor, most known for Ruby Rose (RWBY), Space Kid (Camp Camp), Hilda (Xray & Vav) just to name a few. She also has a degree in finance

Jeremy started as a fan who made videos on the community page. He took over Ray’s place after Ray left to do Twitch full time. He is a self-published author and a skilled rapper and singer. He’s currently married to his wife, Kat.

Matt also started as a fan making videos on the community page. He actually interacted and made stuff for the guys in really early Minecraft episodes. Seriously this guy is like king of Minecraft. He has a degree in electrical engineering. He also has pretty decent singing voice.

Trevor is THE BOSS. Has a degree in aero-space engineering and is getting paid to babysit AH. Currently dating Barbara Dunkelman, RTs queen of puns.

Alfredo worked at IGN before RT and is a well-known streamer. He is the best when it comes to first person shooter games. He and Trevor look so similar.

Fiona. Po. Her majesty. Host of This Just Internet. A Twitch streamer. Baby of the bunch. Grew up in Europe. Her and Gav act like a pair of siblings. She has stated and showed time and time again she will fight for people to have safe spaces for anyone who needs them.

Ify, our new guy. He is wonderful and I want to stay forever. He’s a comedian, a writer, and an actor. Co hosts F-ing Around with Fiona. Has his own film podcast, Who Shot Ya? I look forward to more content with him in it, cause everything he’s been in so far has been great.

 Were all hurting but well make it through this

We have all these wonderful moments and a lot more that I didn’t list and this incredible team of personalities with their own accomplishments and achievements. Not to mention old team members who were also great additions and the entire crew behind the scenes editing and making videos look the best that they can.

 Here’s to Achievement Hunter and to this community. We need to be here for each other in times like these.

@theonyxranger gave me the idea for this based on their own post they made about the fans giving their favorite moments without bitch face and there were just too many. Oop. 

[iheartsunset]

Taylor headcanons?

Taylor Papa Louie HCs

(Aaaaaaaa I love this boy so much like gosh darn he’s amazing and beautiful and second only to W A L L Y in my heart)

-Taylor Morales (sorry I love into the spiderverse too much) is a 20 year old professional dancer, baseball player, and Hotdoggeria worker who lives with his foster brother, Chuck, in their Tastyville apartment. One of the sweetest guys you could ever meet, he’s become a real pillar in his community, especially after starting a foundation helping at risk children and families everywhere. He spends most of his days lovingly daydreaming about his boyfriend and girlfriend, serving sports fanatics at the stadium, and doing stupid stuff with Chuck. He’s also studying to become a graphic designer for video games.

-He’s a generous person who is always seen with a huge dorky smile on his face. Taylor loves sports and has so much energy, he can hardly sit still sometimes. He’s also very chill and is not easy to anger or sadden at all, all qualities making him very popular around most of the people he meets. Secretly, he’s a hopeless romantic (or uh, just very romantic i guess since he did end up getting the guy and the girl?) that is practically obsessed with fairytales, rom coms, and Asian drama’s happy endings. He gets very flustered with actual romance though, and is one of the worst people in the world at flirting. A disaster bi is what you could describe him as. The only thing that keeps him calm while thinking of love is his extensive musical playlists, ones he has for every emotion he could possibly have.

-Taylor grew up in Flipline’s foster care system, periodically living with multiple families until finally staying with Chuck and his mother, Alessia. Having been raised by several indifferent strangers after his struggling parents, Taylor immediately grew close with his newfound family, even though Chuck was initially cold to him out of jealousy. The two have become the closest of friends, even calling each other brothers. After Alessia passed away in an accident during work, Chuck and Taylor have opted to stay together in the meantime. Chuck is thinking of moving to Calypso Island to be with Utah, much to Taylor’s dismay, but he’s still happy for his brother.

-After moving in with the Ferrara’s, Taylor met Cooper, an older boy who lived a few apartments down from them, and fell in love. He however didn’t have the guts to say anything until 6 years later, although he had been crushing on a certain blonde attending the same night college as him (Prudence, I should’ve just said Prudence). Chuck hyped him up one night to confess his love, only for Cooper to introduce his new coworker, Prudence, to him, causing Taylor to have a huge crisis since he fell in love with them both. Well it turns out everyone was in love with each other, so now they’re all together and they’re very happy.

-He competed on Flipline’s Got Talent as a solo act singer and a dance group member on two different seasons: the 23rd season when he was 15 and the 26th season when he was 18. Even though he’s talented in both song and dance, his acts have never gotten far in the competition, even though he is one of the more well known competitors. He doesn’t really care about winning, he just wants to show off his skills somewhere that wasn’t the street or on Tik Tok. He even made friends with lots of the other contestants (Scarlett and the Shakers, Timm, Cecelia, etc.) but not Bill and Booosy, absolutely not, just no.

-I think his voice would either be like Labrinth or The Weeknd. Maybe a mix of both?

-He watched reality shows and game shows all the time, mostly The Masked Singer, Jeopardy, Flipline’s Got Talent, and Dancing With The Stars. He also enjoys shows like Lovecraft Country, Once Upon A Time, Gossio Girl, and Friends. He just has certain media bookmarked depending on his mood and what type of season it is.

-Taylor loves to dance, but he will still sing I Don’t Dance from High School Musical 2 on the baseball field whenever he can. He’s memorized all of the choreography, lyrics, and even has the dang costumes.

-He actually doesn’t have many close friends. He gets along with lots of people and all the other workers, but he pretty much hangs out all the time with his besties Koilee and Willow as they bond over their family issues. Peggy’s another one of his besties and he’s also bro’s with Utah since she’s Chuck’s girlfriend, it Drakson and Carlo are sorta cold to him cause they’re kinda jerks. Anyways, he, Willow, and Koilee are an iconic trio with such different interests, but they’ll always do stupid shit and vibe with each other. Their outfits all clash due to their different styles (Koilee’s harajuku/decora kei/delinquent style, Willow’s gothic Lolita, and Taylor’s own athletic and baggy clothes), making them quite a spectacle walking down the street.

-He can’t hear anything most of the time cause he’s always listening to music or something on his phone, so he always almost dies in accidents he doesn’t notice or gets yelled at for not paying attention.

-All of his romantic gestures often go bad, like his heart shaped pancakes nearly burning down the kitchen. To make up for this, he writes Prudence and Cooper poems with Koilee’s help and leaves them in their bags. He’ll also do a my cosplay Cooper wants and will endure 15 hour shopping trips with Prudence. They’re just a wholesome couple I 🥺

-He and Chuck use each other as both weapons and human shields. Just imagine Soul Eater except instead of turning into a weapon, they just stay the way they are. Yeah Chuck hitting you with Taylor is not an ideal situation cause I bet it hurts.

-He often streams with Tohru. He’s into any game genre really, but he’s the best at retro games and sports games. He’s fine with playing Wadanohara, Among Us, Final Fantasy 7, Welcome To The Game, and other types of games too. He’s just the perfect gaming partner and he might even start his own channel since he’s so popular with Tohru’s fan base.

-When Chuck moves out, he’ll probably get a pet rabbit since Prudence and Cooper have pets and he won’t be left out. He might name it Batter and he’s very excited at the idea of having a floppy eared rabbit. He doesn’t realize that Chuck doesn’t mind having a rabbit around, but Taylor doesn’t inconveniencing anyone really.

-He mostly lacks common sense and has little ability to read the room, often getting him into sticky situations, which isn’t bad, but it’s inconvenient. Scooter crudely calls him a himbo and he knows what that means, so he’s started studying random trivia in order to seem smarter. Little does he know, we all love him either way.

-In a Papa’s Workers poll, he ranked 6th in popularity, after all 4 members of Scarlett and the Shakers and Carlo Romano.

-His pick up lines are really bad puns. Just go on tinder and wait for people to tell you pick up lines. Find the one that makes you want to cry the most and there’s Taylor.

-I simp over Taylor and I’m kinda ashamed of that, but yeah I do and can you blame me? He’s perfection Mr. Tony and Mr. Matt did an amazing job on him I am looking I am paying attention always have been ever since 2nd grade 👀

[calligraphist-artemisia]

I’ll Take Her Place (Chapter 25)

Summary: AU. When Allura breaks the news that she is to wed Prince Lotor in order to continue the peaceful relationship between Altea and Daibazaal, Pidge knows that she has to do something to change that. And so, with a little help, she comes up with a new plan. A better plan

Pairings: Keith/Pidge (main) ; Shiro/Allura (minor) and Hunk/Lance (minor) ; one-sided Lotor/Allura

Also posted on AO3 and fanfiction.net (under the username Kishirokitsune)

Chapter 25

Katie quietly stood behind Keithir, one hand gripping the back of his chair, as the Red Lion sped through space faster than she'd ever been able to go in the Green Lion. She could hardly believe she was there in the cockpit of the missing Lion and that Keithir was the paladin they'd been searching for.

Keithir was her partner.

The right arm of Voltron, to mirror her left.

A shiver ran down her spine as she thought about the unexpected turn of events. What did it mean for them? She and Keithir were getting married because the Daibazaal council wanted to strengthen their alliance, but Keithir's role as the Red Paladin gave them exactly that. Would the council still wish for a wedding? Or would they be asked to break it off?

And which one of those did Katie want?

She watched Keithir get a feel for the controls, running his hands over the knobs and switches. By the subtle flickers of emotion on his face, she could only guess that he was figuring out how to communicate with his Lion. She knew from experience that was tricky to determine what they were trying to convey, so she stayed quiet so he could concentrate.

After a few minutes, the Red Lion began to slow.

“What? No, don't do that!” Keithir protested, reaching for the throttle to try and speed up again. “Come on!”

Red deliberately slowed more.

Keithir scowled as he sat back in his seat and glared at the controls.

Katie wondered if she should ask what was going on or wait until he told her. He seemed to be in some sort of mental disagreement with Red, which wasn't an altogether uncommon occurrence with the Lions, especially considering how new their bond was.

He took a moment to calm himself after his small outburst and then turned to Katie. “I promised you an explanation.”

“You did,” Katie agreed. Her heartbeat quickened in her chest as all of her questions came rushing back. Where should she start?

Keithir answered that for her.

“What I told you the very first time we spoke – about being half human – that was true,” he told her. “My mom was a member of the Blade of Marmora. She was sent undercover to help find and protect the Lions from anyone who wanted to use them for harm. The group she infiltrated was one determined to overthrow Emperor Zarkon. They never liked that he took an Altean wife. Said that it weakened the empire to have her as Empress and that having Lotor as prince was a threat to the Galra way of life.

“So when they tracked down one of the Lions, she did everything she could to try and keep it a secret. She attacked the others who were scouting the area with her and destroyed their ships, but not before one of them critically damaged hers. She crashed on the planet and that was where she met my father.”

“She crashed on Earth... the Blue Lion!” Katie realized.

Keithir nodded. “She managed to send a message to Kolivan about what happened, but refused a rescue shuttle. She stayed to continue protecting the Lion. And then she fell in love.”

“So how did you end up as a prince? Your parents...” Katie trailed off.

“There were others who came looking for the scouting party and when they found her, they weren't so forgiving.” Keithir looked away and clenched his jaw. “My mom gave her life to protect the Lion and the two people who mattered most to her.

“When he didn't hear from her again, Kolivan traveled to Earth to find out what happened. He found me instead. I didn't know I could shift until I was almost ten, so for most of my childhood I looked like this.” He gestured to his current form. “My dad knew I wouldn't have a life on Earth, so he asked Kolivan to take me. I would have been exclusively raised by the Blade of Marmora, except Kolivan knew the Emperor and Empress wanted a second cub, so they compromised.”

Katie said nothing for a moment, taking the time to process what she'd learned.

Keithir was adopted, which explained his lack of resemblance to Zarkon and Honerva. And while it was surprising that the Galra would accept a prince not of royal blood, she could faintly remember reading something about a challenge that could be issued whenever a new emperor was to be crowned. Bloodlines weren't an all-important factor to the Galra; a strong leader was.

“Do you... do you ever talk to him? Your human dad?” Katie asked.

“Twice a deca-phoeb. We video call on our birthdays. Thace and Ulaz helped me set up a special line just for that,” Keithir said with a soft smile. “We can't always get a clear connection, but it's something.”

“You should visit him while we're on Earth. I bet he'd like that,” Katie suggested.

Keithir chuckled. “You know, I haven't even told him that I'll be there. He's going to be so surprised.”

His father wouldn't be the only one. Katie realized with dawning horror that she hadn't exactly gotten around to sending a message to her mother. “Oh no,” she groaned. “Mom's going to be so mad at me.”

They met each others eyes and broke out into laughter. And from that, Katie could feel a spark of something. An emotion that wasn't her own. A burgeoning connection formed between them.

There was a flicker of guilt there and she wasn't sure which of them it originated from.

“I'm sorry I didn't give you the chance to explain earlier,” Katie apologized.

“What? Katie, that's not...” Keithir struggled to get his thoughts together, taken aback by the apology. He stood up and took her hands, keeping her attention solely on him. “Katie, you were right to be mad. The whole reason I went to find you that night was to tell you the truth, and I completely messed it up. I never should have kissed you like that. It wasn't right.”

Katie looked up at him, taking in the sincerity in his voice and expression. She didn't need the subtle nudge from her Lion in order to forgive him. “I think we've both made mistakes, but they're not so big that we can't heal and move on. I know that whatever the future brings, whatever Lotor has waiting for us when we reach the Castle, I still want to face it with you.”

The Red Lion purred in satisfaction and sped up once again.

A smile bloomed across Keithir's face. “Together,” he agreed.

In the end, they couldn't find the slightest hint to where Lotor's ship had gone. No amount of calculations or re-examining the security footage was enough to point them in a clear direction. They had to admit defeat as they flew past Pluto's orbital path and made contact with the Galaxy Garrison on Earth.

“What are we going to tell mom?” Matt worried as he paced on the bridge. There was little else for him to do and if he tried to sit still, he would drive himself crazy.

He knew he should calm down, but after three years of little hope of escape, he thought he deserved to have his whole family together and safe. How could he possibly go home without Pidge, after she refused to do so without him? All that mattered was finding her.

“We'll tell her the truth,” Sam said from where he sat. “That Katie is missing and we're doing everything we can to find her. The real question is, how much will we tell the Garrison?”

Matt looked around the room. Hunk and Lance were still seated at their stations, slumped in defeat. Kolivan stood against a far wall, silent unless one of his subordinates arrived to speak with him. Shiro stood with Allura and Coran at the helm.

“We could tell the Garrison that Pidge and Keithir took on a mission along the way, and we haven't heard back from them yet,” Shiro said.

Allura frowned. “While it is believable, they are expecting someone there to represent Daibazaal. If he truly did leave on a mission, he would have appointed someone to take his place.”

There was a moment of silence.

“Okay, this might sound like a really dumb idea. Like, really dumb. But what if we use Lotor as the representative?” Lance suggested. He was met with noisy protest from nearly everyone in the room,  but Allura looked thoughtful rather than outright dismissive.

“It's not a bad idea,” she murmured.

Shiro turned to stare at her in shock. “You're not really considering this, are you? Allura, you know Lotor can't be trusted! He knows Pidge and Keithir are on his ship and not away on mission. He'd never go along with any of our plans.”

“I know, which is why we must plan this carefully,” Allura said. “As much as I loathe to get him involved, I would feel better if he was someplace we can all keep an eye on him. I believe that he still thinks he can use me to get whatever it is that he wants. If he thinks there's still a chance for that, he won't risk turning me against him. Kolivan, you have more experience in matters like this than any of us. What do you suggest?”

Kolivan stepped forward to properly address the room. “We will let Lotor believe that is is his idea to join you. Much of our plan up until now relies on Lotor believing that he has the upper hand and we will continue to reinforce that belief.”

“How will we do that?” Sam asked.

“By letting him know we are aware of their disappearance, I believe Lotor will then come to us. He will offer to take Keithir's place, to act the part of the flawless prince, as he always has. We will let him. It must be done with reluctance-” (“No problem there,” Hunk grumbled.) “-or else he will suspect that something is amiss.”

Shiro crossed his arms over his chest. “A lot of this relies on predicting what his next move is, but that's something we've always struggled with. How can you be so sure that this will work?”

“Because it has already been set in motion. I gave Thace the order fifteen doboshes ago and he reports Lotor has already begun to make his move,” Kolivan said calmly.

Allura opened her mouth to argue that he should have said something sooner, but snapped it shut instead. They didn't have time to spare on bickering among themselves at the moment, but she would be having words with him later.

She breathed in deeply. “This will not be easy for us, but I believe we can get through it. Be diplomatic. Don't let Lotor bait you into losing your temper.”

Taking a moment to look around, Allura began to formulate a plan. For the most part, they would have to wing it, but there were a few things they could do to sway the odds in their favor; to buy more time until Keithir and Pidge returned. “I know what we need to do.”

The closer they got to Earth, the more nervous Keithir began to feel. He wasn't sure if it was his own or Katie's or if their emotions were mixing together to become even stronger. Adding to that, Red's delight at finally being free bled over to him, no matter how much he tried to keep distant until he could adjust to her constant presence.

It was almost too much.

He watched Katie from the corner of his eye, wondering how she was faring with it all. She'd just been reunited with her family, only to be torn away from them again. He couldn't help but feel like he was partly to blame.

“I'm sorry I got you involved in this,” he said.

Katie made a confused sound. “More apologies?”

“Lotor never would have targeted you if it wasn't for me.” He frowned when she shook her head. “It's the truth, Katie.”

“No, it isn't. I put a target on my back the moment I asked to take Allura's place. And honestly, I wouldn't change that for anything in the universe,” Katie said, leaving no room for argument.”The fact that he kept the Red Lion hidden proves that he only sees me and the others as a threat. You heard what he said earlier.”

Keithir knew she had a good point, but couldn't shake his reasoning that he'd only escalated it. At the same time...

“I wish you weren't put in danger like this, but I am glad you're here,” he admitted. “I don't know what I would have done if you weren't.”

Katie's gaze softened. “I know it sounds crazy, but I'm glad we went through this together. As much as we don't understand what Lotor wants, he seems to underestimate us time and time again. If he only had one threat to think about, it would be easier for him, but that's no longer the case. Maybe that's why it's taken us so long, because up until now he's only had to worry about the Blade or the Paladins and now we're working together. Now there are individuals collaborating against him.”

“You've been thinking about this for a while,” Keithir guessed.

“A little. That thought came about while I was working on trying to make sense of of his recent actions. We've proposed so many hypothetical's lately that I think it's clouding our view. I figured if we start over from what we know for certain, maybe we can get a clearer picture,” Katie said.

“Makes sense,” Keithir agreed. “What do you need from me?”

Katie eagerly passed her hand over her bracelet, bringing up the screen from earlier, and with a few practiced swipes revealed the data she'd carefully gathered. “I thought about compiling it into a timeline at first, but then I found that there's a lot I can only guess at chronologically. So instead I put everything in its own little block and drew lines if there was a connection.”

“It's colorful,” Keithir noted with some amusement. He thought it was rather cute, though he was sure she had some logical reason for it.

“Color-coded and tagged for easier reference,” Katie said proudly. “You can see that there are a lot of things that connect together, but I do have a few outliers.” She quickly highlighted the ones she was talking about and zoomed in so Keithir could see them for himself.

Lotor's insistence that he marry Allura was there, as was the attack on the Altean satellite. The unexpected alliance with the pirates who held her family captive. Shiro's first prosthetic arm. (Added on the same day as the pirates, interestingly enough.) Pidge had already added the Red Lion to that list. And the other...

“Oriande?” Keithir asked in confusion. “Lotor is looking for Oriande?”

“He's the reason Allura and Shiro went looking for it. I never told you that?”

Keithir shook his head. “I had wondered what inspired them to go look, but...”

That was strange.

The timing was strange.

Everything about it.

How convenient was it that Shiro and Allura heard of Oriande around the same time that the Blade learned the location of Sam and Matt Holt? Keithir found it hard to believe that it was only coincidence. But how were they connected?

Was Oriande a test, meant to show Lotor who the traitor was? Was it just a distraction, to split the group apart and lessen their strength? Or maybe it had been a trap, and Lotor hoped whoever went would perish in the white hole?

Keithir didn't know how Katie could stand to compile everything without driving herself crazy with theories, but it was yet another thing he admired her for.

Still, there was one connection and he was surprised she didn't see it.

“Princess Allura is the connection,” he told her. “I don't know why it's specifically her, but everything he's done lately revolves around her. It could go back even further than we know.”

Katie stared hard at the screen. “If that's true, then Allura's in more danger than any  of us. And we still don't know why!”

“Maybe we never will. I'm not sure I really want to,” Keithir said honestly. “What we need to focus on is a way to stop him. I think I know a way to do that, but I'll need your help.”

Katie looked away from the screen and met his eyes unflinchingly. “What's your plan?”

Allura stood tall and plastered the most pleasant smile she could muster on her face. Commander Iverson had proven to be surprisingly welcoming as he personally greeted the Castle of Lions and offered a tour of Garrison property. She had no illusions that he was only doing it because she and Lotor were the visiting royalty, but she appreciated it never-the-less.

At least it meant she didn't have to hold a steady conversation with Lotor.

What was that thing Shiro liked to say? Something about patience and focusing? She tried to keep that in mind whenever she felt her ire spike, as well as the fact that her plan to keep Lotor distracted was working.

And when all of that stopped helping, she thought back to the moment they landed and left the Castle. Of the pure joy in Lance's voice when he spotted his sister. Of Hunk, already crying as Lance dragged him along to see her. She remembered a woman shoving her way past Garrison officials to run into Sam's arms. It had been heartwarming to witness.

Allura smiled to herself.

“I'm glad she meets your approval, Princess.” Iverson's rough voice jolted her from her thoughts. “The IGF Atlas is the culmination of everything we've learned so far from the technology that you've allowed us to have. Perhaps she isn't as impressive as your Castle, but we'll get there in time.”

There was a gleam in his eyes that spoke of pride for all that they'd accomplished so far.

“I look forward to the day when she is ready to take to the stars,” Allura said warmly. “If there is anything you'd like my advice on while I'm here, please don't hesitate to ask.”

“I may have a few engineers who'd love to pick your brain, but that can wait for another day,” Iverson said.

And so, it was back to their tour.

Allura tuned out the Commander's chatter once again, her mind straying to thoughts of Keithir and Pidge and why they hadn't heard anything from them yet. Shiro and Coran had remained on the Castle for the express purpose of continuing their search, but so far had maintained radio silence. Allura couldn't help but worry.

She wished Shiro had joined her on the ground. She knew her whole plan of keeping Lotor distracted meant he couldn't find out about the Altean markings on Shiro's face, but she would have felt much better if he was by her side. At least she had Kolivan and Thace with her, as they had tagged along as her protection and to keep an eye on the nameless pretender who had taken the place of a true member of the Blade of Marmora.

And then she felt it.

A rippling of activity across her recent bond with the Black Lion. A wave of concern from Shiro. A flurry of excitement from all of the Lions.

Allura abruptly stopped and turned to look at the Castle of Lions just in time to witness the Green Lion shooting up into the sky. She watched the Lion until she faded from sight, her heart thumping loudly in her chest.

She glanced back at Lotor to see his lips pressed in a thin line and his eyes narrowed as he also stared up at the sky.

“Princess, the Green Lion!”

“I saw her, Coran,” Allura said. “Have you found anything? Do you think she can sense Pidge?”

Coran hesitated. “There is something, but... it can't be! We've been looking for so long!”

A shiver ran down her spine. Allura raised her eyes back to the sky, waiting. Kolivan moved closer to her, every muscle tense as he tried to prepare for whatever was coming.

Allura blinked and there was a spot of red in the distance. She watched it closely. Was it just her imagination?

No, it was getting closer.

Her breath lodged in her throat. Everything but the sound of her heartbeat faded away as she watched the unmistakable form of the Red Lion descend with Green following closely behind. As the Lion opened her mouth, all sound returned to Allura with the strength of her roar.

Iverson muttered uneasily and Lotor appeared almost paralyzed, unmoving as Red landed heavily on the ground in front of them. Green flew overhead and set down behind them with a low growl.

Coran and Shiro were both shouting so loudly in her ears that Allura had no choice but to turn off her earrings.

The Red Lion bowed her head and opened her mouth, letting Keithir and Pidge step out into the bright sunlight. Keithir's mouth was set into a hard scowl, his eyes dark with promised retribution, and Pidge's expression wasn't far off from that.

“Brother!” Lotor sounded as though the word pained him to say. “How good to see-”

“Save it, Lotor!” Keithir snapped.

“You can't talk yourself out of this. Not this time,” Pidge added.

Lotor frowned. “I haven't the faintest idea what the two of you are talking about. I merely wished to visit Earth for myself. The two of you are the ones who stole my ship and vanished without a trace!”

Iverson looked taken aback by the new information. “Now wait just a minute, you told me that the two of them took on a mission on the way here!”

“I did, and I apologize for not being truthful,” Allura said soothingly. “If you would give Prince Keithir and Pidge a moment to explain, I'm sure we can clear everything up.”

“We didn't steal Lotor's ship,” Pidge said.

“Lies,” Lotor said dismissively.

Pidge fixed him with a hard glare. “We didn't steal anything. We saw that Lotor's ship was docked on the Castle and got curious, so we boarded it to find him.”

That was a lie, Allura noted. More likely the two sneaked on board to investigate.

“The ship took off on its own while we were inside,” Keithir picked up the story. “No matter what we tried, we couldn't get it to stop or turn around. It was on autopilot and headed straight into a star, but you already knew about all of this, don't you, brother.”

There was a flicker of ugly rage across Lotor's face, but it lasted only a split second before he schooled his features into something more neutral. “I know we have our differences, but for you to blindly accuse me of trying to kill you is ridiculous. Why would I ever want such a thing?”

Pidge smirked and held out her wrist. She waved her hand over the bracelet she wore, pulling up a video of Lotor.

“At last I will be rid of the biggest obstacles to my plans. After this, there will be no hope of ever forming Voltron. There will be nothing in the universe that can stop me. It hardly matters that your precious paladins and Blade of Marmora will blame me for your disappearances. Their word means nothing if they don't have proof...”

Pidge paused it there. “I think they have all of the proof they need.”

Lotor's facade crumbled with his fury. “You cannot do this to me! I am the Crown Prince of Daibazaal!”

“And while aboard the Castle of Lions, you are under my jurisdiction and Altean law,” Allura reminded him. “You will be held in a cell while we investigate these claims against you. Kolivan, if you would?”

Kolivan inclined his head towards her and stepped forward, but Lotor backed away looking for a way out.

“Acxa, it's time!” he said, turning to the nameless pretender for help. Unfortunately for him, Thace was already a step ahead and had his blade pressed to her throat, keeping her in place.

Helplessly, Lotor looked to Allura. “You can't do this to me! We were meant to marry! We could have ruled the universe together!”

“I would never marry a monster like you,” Allura said, watching calmly as Kolivan bound Lotor's hands behind his back. Her gaze slid to Thace, who was a bit more gentle as he did the same to Lotor's associate. “Take them both back to the Castle and put them in separate cells. I will join you shortly.”

As they left, Allura turned her earrings back on, not surprised at all to hear Coran frantically trying to reach her. “Coran,” she said, interrupting whatever he was saying. “I need you to get in touch with Emperor Zarkon and Empress Honerva. Get a call set up at their earliest convenience, but no sooner than one varga. I will explain everything once I get back.”

“Understood, princess.”

Allura took a moment to breathe and then turned to Iverson with an apologetic smile. “I'm truly sorry for all of this. I promise that all of this will be explained to you, but right now there are other things I must take care of.”

Without waiting for a response, she made her way over to Keithir and Pidge.

“I can't believe it. Is it really over?” Pidge asked, sounding faint.

Allura nodded. “You have visual and audio evidence of what he tried to do. No one will be able to deny that.”

“He had the Red Lion this whole time.”

Allura blinked, unsure if she'd heard that correctly. She had assumed they'd just been close enough that the Red Lion could sense that there was a paladin in danger, but to hear that Lotor had dared to keep one of the Lions hidden from them...

“That was why I could never find her like I did the others. I doubt I could have even if we did know who her paladin is,” Allura realized.

“Speaking of,” Pidge said as she looked up at Keithir with a tiny grin. She took his hand and squeezed gently.

“Oh,” Allura breathed out as everything clicked into place. The younger prince was a paladin – the missing piece they'd been looking for. “Well that's...I am glad that there is something good that came from all of this. Welcome to the team, Prince Keithir.”

“Is it awful that I kind of want to thank Lotor for trapping us on his ship and trying to kill us? If not for that, we never would have found her,” Pidge said cheekily.

Her words got Keithir to crack a smile. “He'd hate that.”

Allura let herself relax as the two joked, taking a moment to let her stress ebb away. There was still a lot she had to do, but for a moment she could revel in their safe return and the fact that finally, all of the Lions were together again.

[bountyofbeads]

What Happens When Ordinary People End Up in Trump’s Tweets https://nyti.ms/32bCiou

🍁🏈🍂🍻🍁🏈🍂🍻🍁🏈🍂🍻🍁🏈

What Happens When Ordinary People End Up in Trump’s Tweets

By MATT FLEGENHEIMER | Published Nov. 2, 2019 | New York Times | Posted November 3, 2019 |

McCALLA, Ala. — The evening of April 29 passed like many others for Ben Rawls, a fire lieutenant in Tuscaloosa: settled in the rocking chair on his porch, amid empty beer cans and mosquito-fighting candles, tweeting to an audience of dozens until he got sleepy.

“Granted I am in Alabama,” Mr. Rawls, 45, wrote around 11 p.m., after a major firefighters’ union endorsed Joseph R. Biden Jr. for president, “but most of the firefighters I talk to are voting @realDonaldTrump.”

The morning of May 1, some 36 hours later, was less typical.

Mr. Rawls showered and took his daughters to school. He ignored his phone, until it yapped so insistently that he had to look. An ashbin of Twitter comments greeted him: Racist. Moron. “‘Toothless’ — that was a good one,” he recalled.

The most curious posts disputed Mr. Rawls’s very existence. Strangers accused him of being a bot. He replied to one with a video he recorded in his pickup. “Here I am,” he said to the camera. “No faking here.”

All told, it took about 12 hours for him to solve the mystery. Back in his rocking chair, he stared at a fellow Twitter user’s note of congratulations: Mr. Rawls had been retweeted by the president of the United States.

Along with the Republican allies, Fox News hosts and conspiracy-mongering trolls whose messages President Trump pinballs across the political arena, he has also elevated regular people whose words he finds pleasing. Perhaps no group understands the praise-seeking cyclone that is @realDonaldTrump better than these arbitrary few who have lived inside it, briefly and usually unwittingly.

Their brushes with cybercelebrity are a portal into the Twitter feedback loop powered and experienced by Mr. Trump — dark, caustic, skimpy on nuance — where the ripples of a single presidential tweet can be hard to fathom unless measured against the relative anonymity to which these users were accustomed. Mr. Rawls got 2,700 retweets and 14,000 “likes” with the boost from Mr. Trump. The reach of his tweets before and since, he estimated, was approximately zero.

For many of the retweeted, the temporary platform stands as a testament to a style of politics they have never seen before — one that has bonded the president to his followers, virtual or otherwise.

“No other president has ever done stuff like this,” said Curtis Vincent, a 35-year old in Bowling Green, Ky., who operates one of the more than 215 unverified accounts Mr. Trump has retweeted since taking office. “They’ve been on a higher pedestal.”

Mr. Rawls, Mr. Vincent and several others were retweeted by Mr. Trump on May 1 after responding to a post by a Fox News personality, Dan Bongino, about the fire union’s endorsing Mr. Biden.

Joining them in temporary Twitter fame was Joelle Palombo, 46, a Southern California resident with 11 followers, who had largely used her account to cheer on her daughter’s soccer team. But after Mr. Bongino tweeted that “NONE of the firemen” he knew were with Mr. Biden, she replied with a note of support for Mr. Trump from one “fire family” out West.

The flood of reactions so spooked Ms. Palombo that she enlisted her teenage son to help block anyone she saw in her feed. The purge took three days, she said, and included the president, who she did not realize had retweeted her until a reporter told her months later.

“I went and looked at his account, and I blocked him,” Ms. Palombo said of Mr. Trump. “That’s how scared I was. I’m just one tiny hair on a dog. Are you kidding me?”

Although her affection for the president persists, Ms. Palombo questions the value of his favored medium. “How many hours of the day do people put in to do this?” she said. “I don’t need to have a voice on this. I’ll vote.”

Others have found more purpose in the practice. Mr. Rawls described himself as a reluctant Trump voter in 2016. He preferred Ted Cruz during the Republican primary, and he winces at some of the president’s choices, including insulting John McCain well after the senator’s death.

But as the 2020 election approaches, Mr. Rawls suggests, the president’s Twitter output is a more effective galvanizer than even the slickest campaign ad. “The tweeting doesn’t bother me so much anymore,” he said. “I don’t really feel like I wasted a vote.”

And the validation of the president’s retweet has encouraged his own more quarrelsome instincts. “Before all this happened, I would type something out and say, ‘People will think I’m crazy,’” he recalled, citing prospective tweets that he scrapped.

Since May, these second thoughts have been rarer. He has called Anthony Scaramucci, the former White House communications director, a “bitter jerk.” He has shared a doctored video of Speaker Nancy Pelosi appearing to slur her words. He has weaponized a gif of Judge Judy (“Either you are playing dumb, or it’s not an act”) to mock Representative Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat promoting gun control.

“I’m a little bit less of a wallflower than I used to be,” Mr. Rawls said, crediting Mr. Trump’s retweet. “I guess you could say I was more emboldened.”

CATCHING HIS EYE

Capital letters help. Sentence structure can be disregarded. Mornings, East Coast time, are best.

Grabbing Mr. Trump’s attention on Twitter is more art than science — and, often, more fluke than art. But some who have been retweeted say there are certain flourishes that can improve the odds.

The surest path is echoing Mr. Trump’s voice. The user @fiiibuster, whose profile boasts that he has been retweeted twice by the president, has built a following of more than 38,000 accounts — and won the digital stamp of approval from a man with 66 million — through a steady offering of posts that resemble Mr. Trump’s own. Among the words in @fiiibuster’s retweeted messages: “security,” “prosperity,” “America first,” “Pathetic,” “bad reporter,” “shame!”

In other cases, Mr. Trump has gravitated toward those who share his taste in reading. A few weeks ago, he retweeted Cathy Buffaloe, 70, a retired librarian in Walton County, Ga., after she quoted a Wall Street Journal column criticizing Representative Adam Schiff, the Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

When she told her husband what had happened, he asked if she had simply dreamed it. She took screenshots to show to friends and gained about 200 followers. “It isn’t often that ‘regular’ people have an opportunity to be heard concerning national issues,” Ms. Buffaloe said in an email.

J. T. Lewis, a 19-year-old Republican candidate for the Connecticut State Senate whose brother Jesse was killed in the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012, was retweeted last year after writing a flattering message to Mr. Trump. When he traveled to Washington months later to meet with the president as part of a school safety event, Mr. Lewis brought a printout of the tweet.

“He smirked and signed it,” he said. “It’s in my room somewhere.”

Mr. Lewis said he hoped the president’s imprimatur would show that Mr. Trump was not in league with the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who has spread bogus claims about the Sandy Hook shooting, including asserting that the victims’ families were actors and part of a plot to confiscate guns. (In 2015, Mr. Trump appeared on Mr. Jones’s “Infowars” program and praised him.)

But Mr. Lewis is skeptical that getting through to Mr. Trump owes to any elaborate strategy. “I don’t think things are planned out the way we think they are from the outside,” he said. “I think that was literally just: Guy in pajamas, ‘Oh, this is a nice tweet.’”

THE WRONG IVANKA

“The fingers aren’t as good as the brain,” the president once explained, discussing the typos he makes on Twitter.

And those fingers have at times conferred a spotlight on unsuspecting tweeters with low opinions of him.

In a tweet one night in January 2017, just before his inauguration, Mr. Trump shared a message calling his daughter Ivanka “a woman with real character and class” and tagging @ivanka.

That Twitter handle belongs to Ivanka Majic, 45, a technology researcher in Brighton, England, who shares a first name and little else with the president’s daughter. Ms. Majic woke up to media inquiries and a dilemma.

“There’s a decision to be made,” she said in an interview. “If you’re going to say something, what are you going to say?”

Ms. Majic recognized she would probably never be handed a megaphone like this again. “He was a bit unlucky, really, that it was my Twitter account,” she said.

She settled on this: “You’re a man with great responsibilities. May I suggest more care on Twitter and more time learning about #climatechange.”

Instantly, Ms. Majic became something of a local luminary as her progressive city strained to process Mr. Trump’s victory. Days later, at the London chapter of the global Women’s March, one attendee’s sign read, “@Ivanka, loving your work!”

In the years since, Ms. Majic has celebrated an annual “Trumpiversary” to mark the occasion. But one news clipping from the time still grates.

“There was one article that said, ‘Ivanka only has 2,700 followers,’” she remembered. “I was like, ‘That’s quite good for a normal person!’”

_______

Karen Yourish and Larry Buchanan contributed reporting. Kitty Bennett contributed research. Produced by Gray Beltran and Rumsey Taylor.

🍁🏈🍂🍻🍁🏈🍂🍻🍁🏈🍂🍻🍁🏈

[bernuviels-inspiration]

Mike Shinoda's show in Zurich, 17. March 2019

I had the amazing chance to attend one of Mike’s concerts of the last Post Traumatic Tour. And it was absolutely awesome!

You can read all about my little adventure under the cut. It’s pretty long though. xD

I was very surprised when Mike announced a show in Switzerland, since we did pretty bad in the „WeDemand“ campaign and I barely knew any other Swiss fans. But I was so grateful and excited – Zurich is only about 20km from my home! In order to help make the show a success I founded a Facebook group for it. On show day we had 90 members! I had also joined the Linkin Park Street Team a while ago and they sent me some posters to put up. And I printed 1'000 flyers and distributed them around Zurich with some friends from the group. I met so many nice people from all over the world thanks to that group: Finland, Denmark, Brazil, Spain, USA, etc. And even finally some fellow Swiss fans! We planned flash mobs, painted a flag and even had a little meet up the day before the show. It was so much fun! Thank you LP Family, I love you all dearly. <3

Since I'm an LPU member, I tried my luck with the Meet & Greet contest again. And as usual when it comes to random, luck-based things, I had none. But there was another contest by the host of the event. They wanted us to tell them, why we deserve to win a Meet & Greet. Both of my sisters wrote beautiful, heartwarming comments about my commitment with the FB group and advertising, but also how I coped with Chester's death by drawing all those LP artworks and how much this band (and especially Mike) mean to me. Even complete strangers said, that they think I deserve it most. That moved me to tears! At first the tickets were given away to someone else. But one of the winners got ill and asked the host to give the ticket to someone who really wants it. And they chose me! I couldn't believe it! That was so nice of all of them. Thank you so much. <3 And so the most incredible thing happened: I got to meet my hero! The 16 lucky winners were taken into the cool London bus of a local radio station. There we all got to meet Mike one by one. It was awesome, but unfortunately also very brief. Everything happened so fast, that I didn't really have time to realize what was going on. I just remember that the first thought that went through my head when I stood in front of him was: “He is so CUTE!”. I mean, I knew that before, but he's even more adorable in real life and up close. xD I was very nervous and probably talked too much, which is very unlike me. But I could finally give Mike the Post Traumatic artwork I drew for him, which means my biggest dream came true. And he signed the second one for me. In the picture it looks as if he wanted to say something about it, but couldn't because I was blabbering too much – damn! I'm so sorry, Mike. Oh, and the hat was a gift to him from one of my friends from the group. I almost started laughing, when I realized he wore a jacket with the exact same pattern – that's so Mike! And also yay, free fluff. :D

After the Meet & Greet we were even allowed to go into the venue first! That meant front row! I've never been that close to a stage before and was super excited about it. I'm usually not the “front row type”, since I'm quite reluctant and shy. While waiting there, I saw a crew member put our Swiss flag onto Matt's keyboard. I texted the girl, who painted it and she was super happy about it. We succeeded with getting the flag to the crew through the M&G – I was damn proud of us! xD Then the “opening act” started. Well, it was more of a last minute stand in, since the original one (a local rapper) got canceled without any explanation. And so a young “DJ” was hiding behind his laptop, playing one song after another without doing any DJ-ing. They could have just turned the radio on, but it was okay. We weren't there for him anyway. And finally, showtime! Mike, Matt and Dan entered the stage with lots of applause from the crowd. They even started the set with a song that hasn't opened any sets on this tour before: When They Come For Me. I love this song, it's so much fun! I was just hoping that my parents, who I talked into coming to the show too (yes, I did that with everyone I knew xD), didn't catch a certain word. I didn't want them to think badly of Mike. xD Following was the probably most well-known (at least in Switzerland) Fort Minor song Remember The Name, also unusually early in the set. Then Mike took the first little break and welcomed the audience. That was our signal for the first flash mob! It was a very spontaneous one, inspired by a certain video, he has uploaded just a few days prior. The front row was shouting: More cowbell! Mike started laughing and walked over to Dan, who indeed had a cowbell on his drum set. Mike said “Just for you guys.” and played a hilarious cowbell intro to Ghosts, which is a kinda funny song anyway, thanks to the sock puppets. I was so happy: Another success and we even made Mike laugh! :D

Next Mike talked about a tweet from the same day, where someone was analyzing the chances of a song being played in his set. He doesn't like to be predictable, so he decided to screw up the statistics and play some extra rare songs tonight. Thank you, spreadsheet guy! xD The first song that came from this, was the hilariously sarcastic High Road. It's in my Top 3 FM songs and funnily enough, he played it last year in Cologne too – one of only 5 times on the tour! The following song had a high chance of being played and I love it very much: The emotional Roads Untraveled. During the “and if you need a friend, there's a seat here alongside me”, Mike pointed at the crowd again. That's just so nice of him! Then Mike played something super rare again, it was actually even a tour debut: Kenji! I know how much this song about the tragic history of his family means to Mike, so it was a great honor to hear it live. Some fans (including me) even made the peace sign at the end of the song, like he used to. That was really moving. And he continued with songs I love dearly, starting with the PT bonus track Prove You Wrong. Even though the melody sounds kinda sad, there is something so uplifting in those lyrics. Mike also put it into his Instagram stories and you can actually see me singing along. I sang every song as loud as I could, forgetting about my shyness for a while. It was amazing! The next song in the set was the only one that got me emotional in a negative way (but only for a second). I was prepared for In The End and his speech, but I was not prepared for Nobody Can Save Me. For a moment I was back on July 20th, sitting in the darkness of my room and singing along to the One More Light album while crying. Luckily I managed to snap out of that quickly, because I actually love this song. It's one of the best Linkin Park has ever written, in my opinion, because it has such a great message. Nobody can save us – only we ourselves can. And Mike sang so beautifully... What an honor to hear that live! Another OML song followed (luckily not OML itself, I just can't take that one): Sorry For Now. Dan played an amazing drum solo in the bridge and Mike added the demo verse of Lift Off afterwards. He then even rapped the chorus of Step Up, a super rare and old LP song! (I could tell, because barely anybody knew the answer to “Who can rock a rhyme like this?” - I swear I shouted “Like this!” as loud as I could. xD) I love Step Up! Especially in the amazing rock-hip hop medley with Nobody's Listening and It's Going Down, that LP used to play in the Meteora days. Mike then also introduced Dan, who got a lot of applause from the crowd. Later he also introduced Matt, by asking him since when he's even been there. Matt answered: “The entire tour, but sometimes I take bathroom breaks.”, which resulted in Mike laughing about his British accent. These dorks! There was also another crew member, that Mike introduced to us: Photographer Chady. Some Swiss friends of his had invited Mike to eat Raclette (melted cheese that you usually put on potatoes, pickles and pearl onions – it's very tasty!). Mike joked that eating lots of cheese before a show is really good for you. xD The set continued with PTs lead single Crossing A Line, which inspired my artwork. I just love how hopeful it is. During the song, Mike threw some guitar picks into the crowd. I wasn't trying to catch anything, since I already had that awesome signature and thought other fans deserved it more. But I guess Mike had other plans... During the bridge of the song he plays on his drum pads for a moment and then throws the sticks into the crowd blindly. Well, he tried to kill me with it! xD (Luckily I put the phone away, just a moment before the drumstick hit my hand. Damned it Mike, that hurt! xD)

He then played another PT song, which I love dearly: Hold It Together. The lyrics are pretty dark, but there is something very fun about the melody. The first mashup followed: Waiting For The End / Where'd You Go. The crowd's singing sounded amazing, especially in the outro, which is a piano version of WFTEs first verse and chorus. Mike praised us: “You guys have beautiful voices. You should sing more often, it's good for you.” Matt and Dan left the stage and Mike started this calm piano playing and speech. Time for our second flash mob! We held up signs that said: “Music Inspiration Kindness Emotion”. This time there were even more signs than for the first one. (I spent quite some time inviting every fan to join our flash mob before the show and handing out the signs I designed.) Mike noticed them, curiously asking “What are those?” Then he realized it: “That's my name! That's very kind. Thank you guys very much, that's cool.“ He seemed so happy and both of our flash mobs were a success! He then continued with his speech, saying that he doesn't want these shows to be sad, but to celebrate Chester's life instead. The crowd cheered very loudly for Chester for several minutes! And then we all sang the beautiful piano version of In The End together. After that, Mike asked us if we wanted to sing another song. Is that even a question?! xD He started to play Heavy, but stopped before the singing part, because he thought the crowd would want another song more. I already got worried during the show and it really hurt me, when I saw all the hate the Swiss crowd got on social media from people who weren't even there... As if we wouldn't know the words to Heavy... It's the most played LP song on the Swiss radio! We would have loved to sing it! (Me especially, because my father was in the crowd and he really likes that song.) But Mike decided that Numb would be a better fit, maybe even to not make everyone too sad. Numb is my favorite Linkin Park song, because it's the one that made me fall in love with the band in the first place. And it was awesome to sing it with so many people. The Swiss crowd did a great job! Video: In The End & Numb (with Mike's speech & reaction to the second flash mob) They closed the main set with my favorite medley of the tour: About You / Over Again / Papercut. Even though it reminds me a lot of Chester (About You & Over Again are the PT songs that are most about him) and it's really painful to see Mike perform Papercut's bridge alone, I could also enjoy it. Everyone was jumping around and shouting during Papercut. That song is just so great! Mike, Matt and Dan then left the stage for the encore break. The crowd started to sing “lift me up, let me go”, but not as loud as in Italy a few days before. We are just a generally reluctant nation. The hall also wasn't as full as I hoped it would be. There were probably around 2'000 people. Hopefully we did well enough for Mike to want to come back to Switzerland. After a few minutes, Mike, Matt and Dan sneaked back on stage, hiding behind their instruments. As if we wouldn't notice them anyway! Such dorks. xD They played a beautiful instrumental version of Robot Boy, which really let their skills and teamwork shine. It's so sad to think that this is the last Post Traumatic tour. Matt and Dan have really grown on me and it's hard to see them leave. Mike then sang a beautiful PT song I haven't heard live before and that wasn't even originally planned: World's On Fire. I know he wrote it for his wife Anna (and his kids), who is a wonderful person too, but it was as if the crowd was singing it for Mike. It's true, when the world's on fire, all we need is him. I'm so grateful that he shared PT with us! He led us all through the grief and darkness that followed Chester's death. And that night it was obvious, that we are in a much better place now. Following was the beautiful, consoling Castle Of Glass, one of my favorite LP songs. And then they played the second PT single Make It Up As I Go. Such an amazing song and it always reminds me of those hilarious moth memes. xD Mike encouraged us to sing his part of the chorus while directly looking at me. I was singing my heart out! He smiled and shouted “yeah!” That was an awesome moment. I rarely felt so appreciated like on that day, not just by Mike but also by the other fans. The last mashup followed: Good Goodbye / Bleed It Out (including a drunken pirate who wanted to give Mike a kiss xD) and the crowd went wild! For Running From My Shadow, the last song of the set, Mike came down to the crowd as he always does. He stood on the barricade just about two meters away from me. It was great to see him have so much fun up close! Afterwards he high-fived the front row (including me :D) and returned to the stage. He smashed one of Dan's cymbals until the end of the song and then soaked us in water. When Mike left the stage, he stopped at our Swiss flag and blew it a kiss. I loved seeing that, because it gave me hope that we didn't disappoint him and he might come back someday.

I still can't believe all of this actually happened! I made new friends from all over the world. I met my hero and finally got to give him my artwork. I got to spend the entire show in front row, super close to Mike. They played so many amazing songs and had so much fun. The flash mobs worked out and our flag made it on stage. All my hard work payed off. I really enjoyed this concert, it was a once in a lifetime experience. Thank you so much, everyone! I hope I'll see you all again soon. ;)

[pixiesstolemyapples]

Stormy Night Chapter 7

A/N: Alright guys..... this is really really long, and I really apologize, but I seriously could not stop writing. I am incredibly proud of this chapter, so I hope you all really enjoy reading this!! If you’d like to read this chapter on my FanFiction or my AO3, please click those links! Also I definitely will be putting a read more on here, like I always do, but this is especially long, so I apologize in advance if it’s really long on the mobile app, it sometimes doesn’t want to add the read more on the app and I still don’t know why.

Chapter 1/Chapter 2/Chapter 3/Chapter 4/Chapter 5/Chapter 6/Chapter 7

P.S. Is it weird that I watched someone play Resident Evil 7 Biohazard throughout the entirety of writing this? Yes right???

               After everything she'd been through, she finally found him. It took almost everything out of her, but Pidge finally found him. Her brother, Matt, she'd finally found Matt. She nearly thought she'd lost him on that planet of infinite gravestones, but thankfully enough, she remembered the deciphering book both her brother and father had studied together. All thanks to that, she finally found Matt. After all this time. She still hadn't found her father, but her brother was finally here, in the castle, directly in her eyesight. It almost felt like a dream.

               And Lance. Lance had never been so incredibly happy for Pidge. She'd been through so much, losing both her brother and her father in this same mission, both of them presumed to be dead. And yet she had stayed so strong, doing everything in her power to bring them back to her. And here Matt was, sitting next to them, eating breakfast. The night she'd brought him back, she was so happy. She'd talked and talked and talked until her eyes were drooping. But when they'd snuck off to bed finally, Lance and Pidge almost couldn't get to sleep. Pidge was smiling so hard, and yet so many tears were streaming down her cheeks as Lance held her tight, smiling in tandem at the sheer happiness he held in his heart for her.

               The next few weeks had been pretty standard. Matt did recon work with his fellow rebels, the paladins helped to strengthen the Voltron Coalition. Everything had almost been a little boring at times. Every once in a while they'd go and take out a Galra strike or blockade, but even then, Lance and Pidge mostly fought side by side, played some video games, did some training, went to sleep. It was all very... domestic at times. Not that Pidge exactly minded.

               Finally one day Allura alerted everyone to the main deck of the castle. Wondering what it could be, everyone quickly met her and Coran to find out what the important news could be. Allura was found standing in the middle of the main deck, excitedly wringing her hands together.

               "Princess?" Shiro asked inquisitively. "Are you okay?"

               "I mean she's wringing her hands together with a giant smile on her face, it's, uh, just a little unsettling," Hunk said, peering over at Shiro. "Are you sick, Allura?"

               "I am just fine, everybody, but I have amazing news!" Allura beamed, looking around at everybody as Coran pulled up a screen that showed what looked vaguely like a... party invitation?

               "What is this, some kind of party we're going to have or something?" asked Lance, putting his hand on his hip as he set his other arm atop Pidge's head.

               Pidge's eyebrows went up in realization, not even a little bit phased by Lance. "You want to have a ball commemorating all who are currently in the Voltron Coalition, I'm guessing." She wasn't asking, she figured that's what it was. Coran's and Allura's faces drooped a bit.

               "Pidge, you're entirely too smart for your own good sometimes, you know that?" Coran said, pinching his orange mustache between his fingers.

               "That is why we love her," Allura said after recovering. "That is correct though! We've been having so much success gathering members of our coalition that I believe it's time to have a show of good faith. We'll be inviting everyone from foreign dignitaries to rebel forces alike, right here to Olkarion. I want them all to know that we are here supporting them, no matter what."

               "Ahh, okay, so you want us to fly around in our lions, do a little show, form Voltron, give em the ol' razzle dazzle?" Lance said, his one arm still on Pidge, the other gesturing around wildly.

               "Um, actually, no," Coran said, putting his hands behind his back, Lance taken aback at the statement.

               "While we will still be highly alert at any security breach," Allura began to explain, "I'd actually like you all to wear formal wear when the evening comes. No paladin armor, nothing casual, none of those things you affectionately call "sneakers" despite the fact that they squeak quite often, Hunk." Hunk sadly looked down at his shoes. "Everyone will look their very best! Even Keith and Kolivan will be there briefly in support. In the meantime, we'll be sending out invitations, however the ball will be happening in five quintent's time. We shall be ready then!"

               "Plus it's a time for us to all de-stress," Coran said in his ever enthusiastic voice, "it is a party after all!"

               With that, Allura parted ways with the gang with Coran on her tail, the two of them obviously excited for the party they were throwing. Pidge was happy Allura was so excited. She certainly needed some time to wind down, act like the princess she was every once in a while.

               "Soooo, you think there will be good food at this shindig? Ohhh, you think Allura would let me help with the caterers? Have we even gotten caterers yet? Oh man now I'm excited!" Hunk was gleefully babbling, Lance and Pidge smiling as he hurried out the door after Allura and Coran. Hunk nearly screamed of fright when Allura suddenly popped her head back into the room.

               "Oh and Pidge?" she asked, Pidge quickly looking in Allura's direction. "Would you mind coming with me, please?"

               Lance and Pidge looked at each other, Pidge shrugging at Lance as she smiled and waved him goodbye. Allura somehow had an even more excited look in her pink-blue eyes as she pulled Pidge along, giving Lance one last alarmed look on her face as Lance watched her leave with Allura, maybe even more perplexed than Pidge at that point.

               Everything was set, decorations were insane, food was to die for, mostly thanks to Hunk, and most importantly, there was security at every possible entrance of not only the castle, but a beacon made by the team's resident green engineer that would send a signal to the paladins if an unauthorized ship arrived within a certain perimeter of the planet for extra security measure. They obviously did not want a repeat of what happened on Arus.

               Many foreign dignitaries, representatives from planets apart of the Voltron Coalition, rebel leaders and hopeful contenders for the VC were gathered around parts of the castle, important conversations happening in all corners of the ball room. Allura and Coran really went all out, everything around the castle had been decorated in all the colors of Voltron, music reverberating throughout the hall.

               Lance was standing at a small table over near Hunk, sipping on what he knew for sure wasn't that horrible vitamin juice he drank the last time. He had been snacking on a small hors d'oeuvre that had a crunch like a cucumber but tasted almost like avocado and shrimp topped with what he assumed was maybe something like cream cheese, but Lance didn't exactly want to pry into it. All he knew was that it tasted good.

               "Hunk, you did a really good job on all of these," Lance told him, Hunk beaming at the compliment. "I can barely even tell these aren't Earth flavors."

               "Thanks, Lance," Hunk replied with a wide smile. "I worked really hard on complimenting everything together, like the one that tastes like smoked salmon topped over what feels like Italian bread was interesting since neither of those things originally look anything like- uh, Lance? Lance?"

               Lance was no longer listening, his cup slipping from his lip, green punch dribbling out of the cup and onto the tablecloth, Hunk's voice drifting slowly from his ears. He'd spotted someone, standing next to Matt, a small smile on her face as she conversed with Ryner, her fingers linked together behind her back. Pidge looked the same as ever, however her fringe was braided down two sides, wrapped behind her head, thin green cord wrapped into the braids. Everything about her was as if she were a part of nature. Her forest green lacy dress stopped right above her knees, the skirt flaring around her legs, a thin black belt sitting softly above her hips. The collar was a short V-neck, the laced sleeves of the dress stopping at her elbows. Somehow the color brilliantly brought out her eyes, the brilliance in her eyes bringing out her freckles. He could just barely see some of the freckles still dotting around her arms where the sleeves stopped. Everything about the way she looked was so Pidge, so natural and simple yet it had such an incredible effect on him.

               Pidge was having a compelling conversation with Ryner and Matt on the integration of their tech and nature, Matt fascinated by the Olkari intellect when Pidge peered over where Lance and Hunk were eating. Lance was staring off into space in her general direction, noticing that his drink was dribbling onto the tablecloth in front of him. Pidge's eyebrow quirked up in wonder, peering behind her for a moment, seeing Allura with her hair up in a long, wavy ponytail and wearing a shimmery silver dress with long sleeves, mermaid style with an exposed back, talking to Keith and Kolivan who were wearing similar tuxedos, black with hints of purple akin to their Blade of Marmora armor. Pidge turned back around, seeing Lance striding toward them. She turned back to Ryner and Matt, assuming Lance would be passing by to speak to Allura. She nearly jumped when he stopped and spoke up to her.

               "You sure look fancy," he finally said after a silent moment. She quirked her eyebrow once again, only for a moment later a wide grin to appear on her face.

               "Thank you, Lance," she replied, pushing her glasses slightly up her nose. "Allura kind of freaked out a little bit, she wanted us so badly to pick out outfits together, but she said she didn't want to pressure me into wearing a dress because she didn't want me to feel uncomfortable, and I was like 'Allura, I've worn dresses before!'" she laughed, peering up at Lance as he chuckled.

               "Well, you look incredibly beautiful," Lance said without thinking. Pidge looked away suddenly, a small smile forming on her lips, a deep red blush painting her cheeks, trying to push her hair behind her ear despite it being braided behind her head already. Lance held the back of his head sheepishly, feeling his heart beat a little faster when he heard a quiet "thank you" leave her lips.

               Pidge looked around at all of the people surrounding them. Some were dotted around the tables, snacking on all the food Hunk almost singlehandedly planned and helped make, some were conversing with others, such as Allura talking to other leaders, and some, Pidge noticed, were dancing to the slightly upbeat tempo of the music. Pidge let out a small sigh, watching them all sway to the music.

               She felt a nudge to her elbow, looking over at Lance. "Do you want to dance, Pidge?" he asked her, a side smile appearing on his face, a sheepish blush dusting his cheeks. Pidge raised her eyebrows, couldn't help from smiling.

               "I-I don't know," she said, looking away and trying to brush her hair behind her ear again. "I'm a little too short to dance with."

               Lance laughed, holding his stomach a bit as he reached out his other hand to her. "Don't be silly, Pidge. Please?" he asked, his last statement coming out in a soft breath. "Dance with me."

               She peered up at him, looking into his deep blue eyes, the way they crinkled with his smoldering smile made her tummy flip a few times. She bit her lip, looking down and peering up at him through her eyelashes, a blush covering her freckles. She placed her hand into his, his fingers curling gently around hers, his thumb rubbing softly over her knuckles as he lead her to the dance floor.

               Soft, semi slow music was playing, a song that almost sounded jazzy with an intergalactic flair to it. Lance gently placed his hand on her hip, feeling the texture of the lace of her dress under his fingers, still holding her hand in his other hand. She held his shoulder and the two began to sway to the music. At first it felt a little awkward, they swayed to the music in silence, purposefully looking in opposite directions.

               "So," he said looking back at her," is having Matt back everything that you dreamed of?"

               Pidge beamed, her white pearly teeth showing. "It's made me so happy to see him again, Lance. He's done so much since he was liberated by the rebels. And look at me. I'm the left arm of Voltron, also battling against a galactic empire. It's interesting how similar we've lead our lives, huh?"

               "Heh, the Holt siblings," Lance chuckled, spinning her around. "I'm really happy you were able to find each other, Pidge. I know how close you two are."

               "Thank you, Lance," Pidge said with a smile. She looked down, her smile faltering, and then eventually fading. "I just wish... I knew where my dad was.... a-and I'm sure my mom thinks we're all dead by now..." Her fingers curled into his suit jacket, setting her forehead against his loose aqua blue tie. His eyebrows knitted up, suddenly hearing the music get a little more upbeat than before. Lance grinned, pulling away from her for just a moment, readjusting his hands and spinning and swaying along with Pidge a little faster. She stared up at him in surprise, a laugh escaping his throat as he spun her around again. All traces of sadness had left Pidge's face as a look of astonishment replaced it all. She giggled as the two went on swaying, dancing, spinning and laughing. She forgot all her sadness after only  a couple of minutes of watching his handsome happy face.

               Finally after a short while, the two stood at the edge of the dance floor, talking about everything they could think of, Lance's niece and nephew, Pidge's taste in music (Spanish she conveniently left out), Lance getting punched when he admitted he lost her headphones again. Pidge was sharing some of her Killbot Phantasm tips as they headed towards a table where a couple plates of food were sitting. Allura and Hunk walked over, making small talk as Lance offered to go get Pidge and him a couple drinks. Pidge leaned her elbows on the table, hooking one leg behind the other, catching her breath.

               She turned to Hunk. "Am I sweating at all?" she asked him, leaning toward him a little more.

               "Uuuuuaaaahhhhhhhhmmmmm," Hunk stammered, looking her over but not wanting to embarrass her. "Yyyyeahhh, you kinda are."

               Pidge side smiled, nodding and grabbing a couple napkins from the middle of the table, slipping her glasses from her face and wiping her eyelids, nose and forehead. She wasn't embarrassed at all, she knew she had a bit of a sweating problem. But at that moment, she really did not care.

               Pidge felt a light touch on her shoulder, turning around to see Allura smiling down at her. "I hope all of you are having a grand time tonight," she said with a sweet cock to her head. Allura's pink blue eyes were sparkling with curiosity and a hint of... anticipation?

               "...Allura?" Pidge asked quietly, noticing she was twirling a strand of her wavy white hair around her finger. She looked so beautiful tonight, if that were even possible, since she was beautiful all the time. But Pidge definitely was noticing something a little off with Allura in that moment. "Are you okay?" Allura perked up when she realized Pidge was peering into her face with a perplexed look.

               "Well... Pidge..." Allura murmured. "You know that device you have, the orange one that you analyze things with and to tell the time?"

               Pidge nodded. "Sure, what about it?"

               "It's such a nice night tonight, would you please take a picture of the both of us?" Allura asked quietly, a blush creeping up her face. Pidge grinned, her shoulders rising up as she took in a deep breath of delight.

               "Of course, Allura, I'd love to!" Pidge exclaimed as she quickly pulled her device out of her skirt pocket. Pidge wrapped her arm around Allura, turning on the camera function and taking a quick picture of the two of them together. Pidge and Allura looked down at the picture, the both of them entirely delighted at the way it turned out, Allura with her shimmery dress and Pidge decked out in forest green, both of their smiles big and beautiful. They would surely cherish this picture forever.

               "Thank you, Pidge," Allura said, pulling her into a tight hug. Pidge smiled, squeezing her back in turn, a wide smile nearly splitting her face. Allura pulled away. "I just had so much fun getting ready with you today and I have so much work to do, talking with all of our guests today, I wasn't sure when I would be able to catch you. And..." she leaned in close. "You and Lance seem to be having a very nice time, wouldn't you think?" Pidge was a bit taken aback by the way Allura said that, but Pidge smiled softly, a small pink blush covering her cheeks as she gave a single nod. Allura smiled, leaning back.

               "Well, I'm afraid I must get back to it, I'll see you all later!" Allura left with a wave just as Lance was coming back balancing four small drinks in his hand, holding one out for Allura to take with a smile. He happily handed one off to Pidge, setting one down for Hunk and sipping on his as they sat and talked. Suddenly remembering something with a gasp, Lance picked up a small thick square disc and handed it to Pidge. Hunk squee'd, excited about the small piece of food.

               "We made these just for you, Pidge!" Hunk exclaimed, holding his hands together in excitement. Pidge quirked up her eyebrow, eying the little disc before popping it into her mouth. Her eyes got big, her cheeks puffing out in delight, her hands raising up in excitement.

               Peanut! Butter!! Cookies!!!

               Almost bringing tears to her eyes, Pidge slowly chewed the treat and swallowed.

               "Guys....." Pidge whispered. "That was the most amazing thing I have had in a long time."

               "Well, it certainly wasn't easy to recreate something that tasted like a peanut butter cookie," Hunk replied. "But we wanted to do something nice for you, after everything you went through with finding Matt."

               "You guys are the best," Pidge murmured. "You're my best friends."

               Hunk smiled back at her, his eyebrows knitting up in empathy. He looked into his drink, seeing that it was empty, saying that he was going to go off to refill it. As she watched him go, Pidge realized what amazing friends she had. They cared about spending time with her, her interests, taking pictures with her, knowing what her favorite foods were. She was incredibly loved and happy. She just wished her dad were here with her.

               "Hunk worked really hard on those cookies," Lance said with a smile. "I hope you liked them."

               "Of course I did," Pidge replied, popping another into her mouth, silently reminding herself to save some for later. "How did you guys know peanut butter was my favorite?"

               "Allura told us," Lance told her. Pidge looked down with a smile. She was incredibly thankful for Allura, too. "Plus," Lance added, setting his hand between her shoulder and neck, leaning his lips toward her ear, a soft whisper escaping him, "you talk in your sleep."

               Pidge's eyes fluttered, her breath catching in her throat, butterflies erupting in her tummy. Was it the whisper? The closeness? Or just Lance that made her react in that way. However she didn't have much time to dwell on it. The music shifted to a soft, achingly slow song. Lance stared back at the band for a moment, slowly turning his head again to peer down at Pidge. His face was shaded, his pupils growing as he stared down at her, a hot, smoldering look on his face. Pidge had trouble looking away from him in that moment, curling her hands into the table cloth. He held his hand out to her, an almost serious expression on his face. Without taking her eyes off his, she took his hand, Lance leading them to the middle of the dance floor once again.

               Lance held her hand, placing his other hand on her hip, a similar position they were at the beginning of the night. They swayed to the music once again, much slower this time. But there was no content talk, no Killbot Phantasm strategies to discuss, no witty remarks. They simply peered into each other's eyes. Lance had such deep dark blue eyes, like staring into the deep waters of the ocean from below the waves, looking up to see streaks of moving light in the shimmering waters. Pidge's eyes likewise were like orbs of amber, like delicate drops of honey with flecks of gold and green surrounding her pupils. With every moment passed, Lance pulled Pidge closer, his hand slowly moving from her hip, curling around the small of her back. He let go of her hand, wrapping his free hand around her, holding his hand between her shoulder blades, Pidge placing her palm to his chest, sliding her other arm to his neck, her fingers caressing the hair at the nape of his neck. She felt him suck a quick breath in at her touch, squeezing his eyes closed as he let out his breath. He opened his eyes to stare back into her infinite orbs, endless sparkling shards of luminescent drops of starlight. She could feel his heart thrumming in his chest, his arms wrapping tighter around her with every passing moment, pulling her closer and closer toward him.

               Pidge's glasses had slowly slid down her nose, but she barely noticed as the romantic music surrounded her and Lance. He finally pulled her until she was flush against his chest, the two of them feeling their hearts beat incessantly against one another. Lance moved closer and closer to her face, finally pressing his cheek to hers, feeling his cool breath against her ear, a shudder running throughout her body as she threaded her fingers through his chocolate brown hair. She felt his body shake momentarily with mirth at her reaction, at this point Lance and Pidge wrapped in each other's arms, just barely still swaying to the music.

               So many emotions were running through Pidge's mind, feeling them in her body and soul as he held her in his arms. This tall, dark, witty, kind and fun loving boy had to have been feeling the same things she was feeling in that moment; this boy who had made her laugh so hard, feel so safe, so secure, so happy, so loved.

               She moved her head back, looking into his face once more, his eyes searching her face. So loved.

               She loved him.

               Pidge loved Lance.

               It was like a ton of bricks hit her. Like a complete revelation, as if she had found the meaning to life right in front of her. Like she had the answer to every quantum physics question ever thought of.

               Pidge placed her fingers at the base of his jaw, the other still feeling his hair between her fingers. She found herself moving forward without realizing it, Lance's pupils getting bigger as they snapped from her eyes to her lips. Her lips were just a hair's breadth from his, feeling his cool breath on her lips when she stopped, her eyes scanning around at the couple guests staring at them, a deep red blush painting her cheeks, suddenly pulling away and staring down at her shoes, feeling his smiling lips against her hairline. He stepped away from her, his hands slowly running down her arms, causing another short shudder from Pidge, lacing his fingers between her own. She peered at him through her eyelashes, seeing his bright, genuine smile and hearing a short, compassionate laugh escape his throat, he too dusting a red hue across his cheeks. She loved that look. His gaze held so much gentleness, a curl in his sweet smile, a crinkle in his eyes. But a serious look crossed his face for a moment, looking around him and Pidge, letting go of one hand and suddenly pulling her behind him, eventually leaving the main hall, the music fading slowly away behind them, only faintly being heard from the castle comm system.

               Pidge quickly followed after him, her heart beating so hard and fast she could feel it in her ears. Heading up the stairs where Lance knew none of the guests would venture, he stopped, backing Pidge against the nearest wall, one hand on the wall next to her shoulder, his other forearm on the wall directly next to her head. Both Lance and Pidge were breathing hard, Pidge's hand wrapped in the collar of Lance's suit, the other snaked around the nape of his neck. Lance moved his face dangerously close to hers once more, this time no one around to interrupt what she was about to do before. Her glasses were still slipped down nearly to the tip of her nose, Lance side smiling before carefully moving them back up to where they were supposed to sit, Pidge's eyes nearly crossing at how close Lance was to her again. His hands rested upon her once again, one to the small of her back, one sitting heavily on her shoulder. Pidge's hands both were at his jaw, her heart beating so fast, flutters in her tummy never ending. He moved once again, his eyes never leaving her lips, finally moving so close that she could feel his breath on her lips.

               And finally their lips pressed against each other. Pidge breathed in quickly through her nose, feeling sparks explode in her stomach, seeing stars behind her closed eyes, her heart beating so hard she thought it would burst from her chest. She could feel him smiling against her lips before he slanted them against hers, getting a new angle and feeling her upper lip between his mouth. He slipped away from her lips with a pop, a soft chuckle escaping his throat as he pressed his lips back to hers the very next second. His arms were wrapped so tight around her, feeling his fast beating heart against her chest. Gasps and groans were reverberating from the back of his throat, Pidge's eyebrows knitting up as she felt another shudder move throughout her body. Lance moved back, removing himself from her close vicinity, his arms still around her as he looked into her deep red face, her eyes looking down as she tried to calm her breathing.

               Lance looked around once again, gently taking her hand as he moved down the hallway into one of the rooms off the hall. Suddenly Pidge realized that they were in Lance's bedroom. He closed the door, digging through one of his drawers, pulling out a couple pairs of clothing. He looked back, the dim light shading his face in a way that made Pidge's heart beat swiftly. He handed her some of the clothing in his hands, gently pushing her to the side of the room and turning her around. She could hear him removing his suit, Pidge's heart beating even faster as she unzipped her dress, slipping on her sleep shorts and sleep shirt Lance had been keeping in his drawers since they change rooms at times. She nervously looked behind her to see him slipping off his dress shirt, revealing his broad, toned, dark skinned back. She quickly turned back around, her face growing extremely hot, finishing changing into her sleep clothes. She finally looked back again to see him in his pajamas, hanging his suit on the wall,  carefully peering back at her, almost as if he still wanted to make sure she was finished changing.

               Pidge quietly padded over to the bed, laying down with her face toward the wall. She felt the mattress move, feeling Lance's hand heavy on her hip before moving his hand toward her neck, moving her hair behind her ear, pressing his lips to her neck. Pidge bit her lip, squeezing her eyes shut at the incredibly different sensation. She let out a quick breath, turning over to see Lance directly overhead, both his hands on either side of her head. He slipped the glasses from her face, setting them down gently next to the bed, turning back only to feel Pidge wrap both of her arms right around his neck, smashing her lips to his. Their lips moved against each other, slipping away from one another only to slip back like magnets. It was everything Pidge had dreamed this would feel like, how his lips would taste, the feel, his arms wrapped around her, his body weighing on top of her. Was this real? Was it a dream? Please. Please don't let this be a dream.

               One last, achingly long finishing kiss, his lips slowly parting from hers, he peered down at her, her eyes sparkling in the dim light, her hair slightly messy, her lips pink and puffy, her cheeks red as his Lion, her freckles dotted all over her face.

               "You're astonishing," he murmured, his eyes shifting between her eyes, her hair, her lips. The remark made her stomach flip, squeezing her lips together and letting out a shuddering breath. She peered back into his blue eyes, caressing his jaw line with her fingers, Lance leaning down to press his lips to her jaw, and then her cheek, her forehead, Pidge closing her eyes at the gesture. He pressed his lips once more to hers, his hands finding her hands above her head, lacing their fingers together. His lips moved against hers again, suddenly feeling his tongue swiping between her lips. She squeezed her fingers against his hands as she felt his tongue touching hers, an entirely unusual and unexpected sensation erupting from her chest. The two finally parted, barely able to catch their breaths. She could feel his breath on her mouth, feeling his palm cover her cheek, caressing under her eye with his thumb.

               Lance leaned over to lay down next to her, Pidge quickly wrapping her arms around him, their legs tangling around each other, Lance squeezing her tight to his chest, resting his cheek atop her head. Everything that happened was completely unexpected, extraordinary, remarkable. She curled her fingers into his soft sleep shirt, snuggling further into his chest, feeling him softly chuckle, holding her closer. I love him, she thought as she closed her eyes. I love him, she thought as she listened to his heartbeat. I love him, the last words she remembered thinking as she drifted off to sleep.

[theburningbright]

MONTREAL — If Xavier Dolan could direct a film about his life, he says, the opening scene would show the first encounter between his headstrong and emotional Quebecer mother and his Egyptian-born womanizing father, at a bohemian bar in Montreal where his mother had gone to hear his father sing.

This being a Dolan production, there is a good chance the mother would be overbearing, vulnerable and exquisitely made up. The camera would zoom in unforgivingly. The emotions would be volcanic, and ecstasy would soon give way to agony, accompanied by the frenetic beats of a music video.

His parents’ marriage ended when Mr. Dolan was 2 and a half years old. By the time he was 8, his mother, unable to cope with her hyperactive son, sent him to boarding school in rural Quebec, where the young gay boy was mercilessly bullied and where, in turn, he tormented others. He found refuge in Hollywood films like “Titanic” and “Mrs. Doubtfire,” along with the psychodrama of kitsch American sitcoms.

Today, Mr. Dolan — celebrated actor and director, Louis Vuitton model, voice-over artist (he provided the voice of Ron Weasley in the French Canadian versions of the “Harry Potter” movies), darling of the Cannes Film Festival, former child star and art-house cinema wunderkind — says the fuel for his art is his lost childhood. He has directed seven films. He is 29.

“I wanted to get out of childhood as soon as possible and escape it, and now that I’m making movies, I’m chasing it,” he said during an eight-hour interview that had all the intensity of a Dolan film, accented by allusions to Proust and a heavy snowfall outside. It began at Montreal’s opulent St. James Hotel before migrating to his handsome Edwardian house, which, he notes, channels the red chinoiserie of Diana Vreeland’s lush New York apartment.

“What I have been feasting on all these years is nostalgia — a nostalgia for the childhood that I didn’t end up having,” he added.

Waiflike and compact, wearing a hoodie and with a tattoo of Dumbledore(of “Harry Potter” fame) on his left arm, Mr. Dolan peppers his sentences in English with words like “prolix” and “epistolary,” and only occasionally switches into French to emphasize a point. He used part of his earnings as a child star to take Berlitz classes in English. Even early on, he said, he realized that if he was going to conquer Hollywood, he would need to speak fluent English.

In person, Mr. Dolan is at once intense and cerebral, funny and self-deprecating.

He has sometimes been pilloried as impish and arrogant, and he bristles at being labeled an “enfant terrible,” as he often is. It is perhaps an occupational hazard for a director who has been variously compared to Alfred Hitchcock, Woody Allen and the poet Arthur Rimbaud.

He made his first film, “I Killed My Mother,” a Freudian-tinged, semi-autobiographical film about a gay teenager who clashes with his mother, after he dropped out of college at 17. As one producer after the other rejected it, he scraped together money from his child-acting gigs to make the film himself, at age 20, eventually winning international acclaim. When he later noted wryly that Orson Welles, who made “Citizen Kane” at 25, was a “late bloomer,” the critics pounced, and he turned to Twitter to explain that he had been joking.

“I’m a big mouth. People can dislike me and think I’m a narcissistic brat,” he said. “But one thing no one can ever take away from me is that I’ve always spoken my mind, and I have always been true to myself.”

As we meet, he is the subject of a social media storm over his decision to cut the American star Jessica Chastain from his soon-to-be released film, “The Death and Life of John F. Donovan,” his first English-language film. The movie focuses on an 11-year-old boy and his unlikely correspondence with a closeted actor that is contorted into scandal. (When he was 9 years old, Mr. Dolan wrote a letter to Leonardo DiCaprio, requesting a meeting. He got the address wrong, and it is now framed in Mr. Dolan’s house.)

In the deeply moving film, shot in London, Montreal, New York and Prague, the boy, now a grown man, tells a hard-bitten journalist about how Donovan, torn between fame and personal fulfillment, had changed his life. The original cut of the movie, which stars Kathy Bates, Natalie Portman and Susan Sarandon, and has added cultural resonance in the #MeToo era, was more than four hours long. Eliminating Ms. Chastain, he says, was predicated solely on her character no longer fitting the story line.

“People are saying: How can you cut someone so famous?” he said. “To me, that’s an insult to her talent.”

Born in Montreal, Mr. Dolan was raised by his single mother, Geneviève, a college administrator with Irish roots. He began appearing in commercials for a drugstore chain at the age of 4, and by the time he was 6 he was a child star, appearing in movies, television shows and commercials.

Mr. Dolan’s films, a cri de coeur for tolerance, are invariably populated by outcasts and underdogs, a reflection, he says, of his own feelings of not belonging. When he was 8, he recalled, a bully on a bike plowed over him in the schoolyard. “At that moment, I decided that my world was in the movies and in the shows,” he said. “Anywhere but real life.”

Continue reading the main story

He remembered a kindly headmaster letting him escape bullies by allowing him to watch his beloved American sitcoms in an empty dormitory. Later, he added, the headmaster, who was accused of pedophilia, killed himself.

After Mr. Dolan was catapulted to cinematic fame with “I Killed My Mother,” he made a raft of French-language films, including “Laurence Anyways,” an ill-fated love story featuring a transgender schoolteacher. In his most critically acclaimed movie, “Mommy,” which shared the Jury Prize at Cannes in 2014, a mother played by his muse, the Quebecer actress Anne Dorval, tries to tame her violent son.

Unifying nearly all of his films are strong-willed but vulnerable female characters who provide succor to emotionally wounded sons. “I was brought up by women. I never had a father figure,” Mr. Dolan said. “Of course, there is a part of my mother in these strong women, and of course, there is a part of me.”

While his films can divide critics, they seldom leave the viewer indifferent. His last film, “It’s Only the End of the World,” about a gay man who comes home to his family in rural France to tell them that he is dying, was booed at Cannes in 2016, but won the Grand Prix. More than a year later, Mr. Dolan is still smarting from the eviscerating criticism (the film, with A-list French actors such as Marion Cotillard, is hard to watch, and it deals an emotional body blow, with characters who brutally turn on one another).

“I still feel scared to disappoint people and to be criticized or mocked,” he reflects. “I wasn’t like that before.”

Mr. Dolan admits that his romantic life has been largely devoid of longer-term relationships because he tends to be attracted to unattainable heterosexual men. His latest crush is Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau. In the same way, he said, he really made friends only in his late 20s, after an adolescence consumed by work.

“The love stories that I have found that are reciprocal are in movies,” he said, with more than a hint of wistfulness.

His next film, “Matt and Max,” recounts the story of two heterosexual male 20-somethings who share a kiss, and the impact it has on their lives. After a slew of thoughtful films with gay themes, such as “Call Me by Your Name” and “God’s Own Country,” Mr. Dolan said he wanted to reflect on unrequited love — his unrequited love.

As I am leaving, he suddenly stops me and looks me in the eye. “I don’t want you to think my parents were monsters,” he said. “My childhood really wasn’t that bad.”

[kdreamscenario]

Lunatic: Part XIX

BTS Mythical!AU

You X Yoongi

Rated: G More Birthday fluff

Word Count: 4328

Part XVIII

A/N:  I’m sorry it’s been so freaking long since I posted.  I was originally planning on this being the end of Lunatic but I’m going to add one more part for some more closure. So this is your warning there will only be one more.  

September 1st comes fast after your birthday.  Just as every year you’re on the evening train to Seoul.  The deja vu feeling is just a bit different than past years.  You’ve never felt so apprehensive before.  Your fingers fiddle with the dark garnet necklace while you think over all the things that have happened this past year.  Every important scene plays over chronologically right up to now.   Coming to face Yoongi again for the first time in months is making you nervous.  The texting and calling with each other has helped to fill in the gap between you.  A nice friendship was able to rekindle, but seeing each other in person is going to be much different.  You’ve been told that Yoongi has completely changed since his surgery and that you’ve no reason to fear him.  Still you’re unsure how you’ll feel even with the evidence of his change.  

Lost in thought the sight of the Seoul transfer station rolls into view faster than ever.  The last leg of the trip to the boys’ house should take just another 10 minutes.  You send Jungkook a text to let him know.  From the train station you need to walk a few blocks of residential area.  It’s not far but your bag is laden down with gifts and food from everyone back home.  

At the front gate you reach to buzz the intercom but the gate swings open seemingly on it’s own.  You give a look around before stepping through.  You’ve barely stepped in when Jungkook jumps around the corner and scares you.  Of course you scream in surprise and he laughs at you, pulling you into a crushing hug.  “I should really just go stay in a hotel and take your gifts with me.”  You tease and try to wiggle out of his grip.  

Jungkook lets you go but is quick to snatch said gifts out of your hands.  “No way I’d let either of those happen.”  He has no trouble carrying the heavy package in one arm and dragging you towards the house with the other around your shoulders.  You roll your eyes at how smug and happy he looks.  

Inside the house Jungkook is quick to lock the door, slip out of his shoes, and head straight to the kitchen with his gifts.  You’re barely out of your own shoes before the three bodies of Taehyung, Jimin, and Hoseok are attacking you from all angles.  It shouldn’t be surprising anymore but they get you every year.  Amidst their noisy greeting and squeezing you to death, they drag you away into the living room.  

“Get off me you overgrown koalas.”  You wheeze and try to escape.  Tae takes a step back.  “Y/N you know we’re more like overgrown puppies.”  He gives a playful snap of his teeth.  “Right, so get off me you mutts.”  All three look offended but Jimin most of all.  “Don’t lump me in with these two.  That’s not fair.”  He pouts but still clings to you.  “Well you act the same, how should I know?”  He looks aghast but doesn’t get a chance to defend himself because Jin sticks his head in from the kitchen.  “You mutts let her go so she can come help cook dinner.”  

The four start arguing about being disrespected and you manage to escape.  Jungkook passes you on the way out of the kitchen with his presents.  “Foods all put away.  I’m going to do my V live while you’re cooking.”  He speaks to everyone in the room but you might be the only one to catch it over the ruckus.  When they do catch on the three nuisances scurry away to Hoseok and Jimin’s room to plan how they’ll crash Jungkook’s birthday video.  

You and Jin both shake your heads and move into the kitchen.  The two of you cooking together doesn’t happen often but  you easily set into a perfect rhythm.  Both of you well experienced in the kitchen helps the work flow smoothly.  Besides comments about the meal prep and the occasional noise from down the hall it’s quiet.  

The soup and rice are simmering and the other ingredients are prepped.  The two of you can take a pause.  Jin pulls out his phone and sends a group text that dinner is almost ready.  He reads through the replies then puts the device back in his pocket.  “Joon and Yoongi are almost home.  I’ll go make my important appearance if you don’t mind watching the pots.”  

Your heart skips at the mention of Yoongi.  You had wondered if he was here or not.  Usually he’s in his room when you arrive or at the studio.  “Go ahead.  I can watch the food.”  You say after swallowing down the anxious lump in your throat.

The bedroom door opens to more boisterous voices but closes soon after to seal in the sound.  You’re left alone to your own thoughts.  From your purse you take out a pocket mirror to double check how you look.  You did your makeup a little nicer than usual.  You’re glad Jungkook hadn’t noticed it.  

It’s a tense ten minutes of pointlessly stirring the soup and watching it bubble.  You hear the bedroom door open again then Jin and Jimin coming back down the hall.  Jin returns to also check the food while Jimin grabs the dishes to set the table.  It’s not long after that the front door opens.  “We’re home.”  Namjoon calls.  You jump at the sound and feel stupid a second afterward.  Namjoon comes into the kitchen moments later and the three of you welcome him.  

“Hey Y/N.”  He gives you a smile and a short hug.  “Smells great.  You must’ve done most of the work.”  He jokes.  Jin turns from the stove scowling.  “Does it smell bad when I cook?  Is that what you’re saying?”  Jin asks with his over dramatic flair.  “No it just misses a woman’s loving touch.”  “My touch is just as womanly and loving!”  Jin loudly proclaims but turns to giggles at how ridiculous that sounds.  Everyone else laughs along.    

Taehyung, Jungkook, and Hoseok come filing in to help finish putting everything on the table.  “Yoongi-hyung said he’d be right out.”  Jungkook states clearly in your directions though it was meant for everyone.   “Must be he wants to look a little less like he’s been in the studio for the last three days.”  Taehyung teases.  “Surprised he even bothered to come home.  Thanks Y/N for getting him to come out of his cave.”  Jungkook adds on.  “Don’t thank me I’m sure he’d come home for your birthday whether I’m here or not.”  You push the focus away from you as fast as you can.  They’re really just trying to get a rise out of you.  

With the table all set everyone takes a seat.  Jin starts dishing out bowls of soup and Jimin scoops rice.  You’re focusing hard on passing dishes and keeping the door in your peripheral.  You’re not sure how Yoongi is going to act or even how you’re going to act.  

The last bowls are being set in Yoongi’s empty spot when he slinks into the room.  Your eyes lock with his automatically.  Your brain gives you an intense flight response at the first sight of him.  The cup you’re being handed nearly slips from your hand.  Jimin and Jungkook on either side of you snicker.  Yoongi looks mildly surprised or perhaps startled but changes to a small smile.  

“Hello Y/N.”  He speaks easily.  You return a tight lipped smile and the greeting.  Right away you notice how worn out he looks but it’s a bit more than that.  His eyes are soft and almost dull.  There’s no spark or golden glitter to them.  Just two dark rings that fit well with the fluffy matte black of his hair.  The colour more natural looking than the silver grey you were used to.  The panic bubbling under your skin dies out like a prey animal realizing a predator is too weak to attack.  

Yoongi comes to squeeze Jungkook on the shoulder.  “Happy birthday Kook-ah.”  He mumbles and takes his seat over by Jin.  Everyone feels the awkward silence that had settled over when Yoongi came in.  “What?”  Yoongi asks looking around.  

No one answers but they all grab their utensils.  “Happy Birthday to our maknae!”  Jimin cuts in and everyone raises a cup in toast.  Thankfully that seems to settle out the issue.  The room ticks on as a normal dinner with everyone usually does.  All the tension is gone besides everyone taking notice that you and Yoongi are both avoiding any eye contact.  

The evening passes as usual.  Movies, videogames, snacks, beer, and loud rough housing.  Yoongi stays out longer than he usually does.  He gives you plenty of space the whole night.  Jin ends up pushing him off to bed when he’s fallen asleep on the couch.  All the older boys go to their rooms shortly after, leaving you, Jungkook, Jimin, and Taehyung to play Overwatch until after midnight.  When you and Jungkook finally get curled up in your usual sleep spots neither of you talk besides a mumbled goodnight before knocking out.

The smell of fresh rice and reheated soup wake you in the late morning.  Carefully you step over Jungkook’s sprawled out body and move to the kitchen.  Jin is scooping out a bowl of rice.  Hoseok and Jimin are sitting at the table over cups of tea and their own breakfast.  Two small bowls of side dishes sit in the center of the table.  They all say a quiet good morning when they see you.  

“Go sit.  I’ll bring you a bowl.”  Jin ushers you right to the table.  He sets down the two bowls in front of you.  “Coffee or Tea?”  He asks.  “Coffee”  A gruff voice replies from behind him.  Yoongi shuffles in with his eyes barely open.  He slumps into the chair beside you and drops his head down on the table.  Out of reflex your skin prickles on the side he sits by and your brain is telling you to move away.    

“I wasn’t asking you.  I don’t have to ask you.”  Jin scolds him.  Yoongi doesn’t budge. “Y/N what do you want.”  He asks.  “Tea please.”  You answer.  It’s quiet again besides the sounds of everyone eating.  You find yourself admiring just how soft and fluffy Yoongi looks.  His dark locks tousled all over the place.  You wonder if he’s fallen back to sleep right there on the table.  Only his breathing moves his body slightly.  Jimin and Hoseok share a look when they notice you staring longingly at the boy beside you.  

Jin comes back into the room in two trips.  Two mugs that he sets in front of you and Yoongi and the other are his two bowls for breakfast.  With a deep intake of breath Yoongi lifts his head just high enough to stick his nose into the coffee mug and slip his hands around the warm surface.  He takes a few long draughts, stands up, and goes into the kitchen.  He comes back with his own bowls of breakfast.  

“Did you sleep okay Y/N?”  Hoseok asks.  You stupidly jump a bit at his voice, forgetting they were even there.  “Yup, that couch is pretty nice actually.”  You answer quietly.  “That’s good.”  Hoseok says fighting back a laugh.  

Namjoon is the next to come in for breakfast.  He’s already washed and dressed for the day.  Taehyung comes shortly after with a hardly awake Jungkook draped over his shoulder.  Tae dumps him in a chair and he mimics his hyung by flopping his head down on the table.  Jin gets up and takes empty bowls from around the table to the kitchen.  He comes back with two full bowls for Jungkook.  Tae sits with his own.  

Jin has to physically pull Jungkook to sit up and look at his breakfast.  “Well Y/N we all need to go to the studio today to work but you’re welcome to come with us.”  Namjoon tells you.  “Sure that sounds nice.”  It’s been awhile since you’ve been to the studio with them.  It’s always nice to see how they work.  

It takes an hour after that for everyone to get ready to go out.  Two of the managers come in a bit before that to pick you all up.  The boys all split up at the Big Hit building.  You follow the dance line to the practice room.  They practice seriously for about 3 hours without taking much of a break.  It’s really fun to watch them so the time passes quickly.  When they feel like they’ve gotten down the dance moves they’re working on the instructor lets them take a break.

The three of them flop down around you catching their breath.  “You doing okay?”  Jimin asks you.  “Yeah.  I like watching you guys.  Don’t worry about me.”  You give them a thumbs up.  “That’s good but I think there’s someone else you need to go see.”  Jungkook looks pointedly up at you.  You glare for a second but he doesn’t back down.  “Really you should go talk to him.  I know you both want to.”  He pushes and you relent your eye daggers.  

“Do you really think so?  I know how he can be about his studio work.  I don’t want to bother him.”  You rub at your neck.  “You’re probably the best acception to that.”  Hoseok says.  “I know that he’s not going to come to you first.  He’s too scared to of approaching you and scaring you.  So you need to go or you’ll both regret it.”  Jungkook adds.  He stares at you until you finally relent.  “Fine.  I guess you’re right.”  You sigh.  “Of course I’m right.”  You stand after a well aimed smack to Jungkook’s sore calf.  

“You know where you’re going right?”  Jimin asks.  “Pretty sure yeah.”  You reassure him.  “Okay well good luck.”  He adds with a cheeky grin that the other two replicate.  Shaking your head you make your exit.  

It’s easy enough to make your way through the building to where the boys have their personal recording studios.  You stop at the door with the label Genius Lab knowing you’ve got the right spot.  After a deep breath and a whole body shake out you gently knock on the door.  You wait with baited breath but there’s no answer.  You try knocking a little harder.  There’s no answer at first so you think maybe you should text him.  The beep of the the lock opening comes a moment later.  The door swings open not even a foot.  Yoongi is shocked to see you.  

“Hello, Yoongi.  Sorry to bother you.  I just sort of wondered if we could talk but if not that’s fine.  I’m sure you’re busy.”  The words all come out in a single rushed breath.  “Uh.  No that’s fine just um hold on a minute.”  He closes the door again and you’re confused.  

A minute later the door reopens and one of their producers P.Dogg is coming out with Yoongi behind him.  He gives you a warm smile and says hello.  You bow and return the greeting.  “Let me know when I should come back Yoongi-ah but don’t be too long okay?”  P.Dogg teases before walking away.  “Yes hyung.”  Yoongi acts unaffected.  

He turns to you and opens the door for you to step inside.  “Come on in.”  You step in just far enough for him to close the door behind you.  The lock beeping closed shoots an edge of panic up your nerves.  Being in the closed space with Yoongi is affecting you more than you expected it to.  Your eyes settle on him without even looking around the room.  

Yoongi’s senses are much weaker now but he can still sense your discomfort.  He stands stock still afraid that he’ll spook you with any sudden movements.  It honestly hurts him to see you reacting this way.  “Hey.”  He tries awkwardly to start up the conversation.  You feel so stupid for being so afraid.  A squeaky hi is all you get out.  

“So how are you?”  He tries again.  You try to shake yourself out of it.  “I’m fine.  You?”  Yoongi nods a bit.  “I’m okay.”  You try a smile that probably looks really bad.  “You look really different.  But good.  You look good.”  The last part you add on quickly, realizing how rude you must’ve sounded.  It makes him smile a little.  “Thanks.  I’m still getting used to the change but it feels better.”  You nod knowing he doesn’t just mean his looks.  “That’s good.  As long as you’re happy.”  The words hit him deep  The fact that you sincerely wish for him to be happy blows him away.  He feels again that you’re much too good for him.  

“As happy as I can be I guess.”  He tries not to sound as choked up as he feels.  You catch the tone of it and finally look him in the eyes.  The broken look in his eyes melts a lot of your fears.  “Y/N, I want to apologize to you again in person.  I don’t think I can apologize enough for the things I’ve put you through.  I’m grateful that you’re even still talking to me right now.”  

Yoongi had taken a small step toward you while he spoke.  It took a lot of self control not to back away.  You nod in thought of his words.  It’s true that he can’t apologize enough but at the same time you’re ready to move on.  “Yoongi, I can’t lie.  I’m still a little weary but seeing you now I can tell you’ve changed.  I think I’m ready to try and fix this.”  Those words are much more than he had expected to get.  

Nice and slow he takes another step closer.  He wants so much to hold you in his arms now and tell you not to be afraid.  Him touching you being the very thing you’re afraid of is tearing him up.  “Thank you.  I’ll appreciate any step you’ll give me.  I know I don’t deserve it.”  He sounds so truly sad.  You’re surprised to find yourself wanting to fix that.  That feeling manages to outweigh your fears.  

You take your own brave step forward.  Only a foot of space is left between you now.  With a shaky hand you reach out to touch Yoongi’s arm.  That’s as far as you get, not sure what you really want.  Yoongi gently reaches for your hand with his other hand, afraid that you’ll back away too soon.  

“I’d like to start correctly this time.”  Yoongi’s words are barely more than a whisper.  “It will be hard with the distance but I’m willing to try and make it work.”  He moves your hand hand up to place a soft kiss on the back of it.  That simple action takes your breath away and leaves goosebumps up your arm.  The pleading look in his eyes when he lowers your enlaced hands spreads the chill through the rest of your body.  

For a long moment you’re at a loss for basic functions.  “Yes.  I’d like to try.”  You finally reply.  You both smile softly.  “So I guess for now we’re friends again?”  You asks just wanting to be clear about things.  Yoongi wishes it could be more but that’s more than enough for a start.  “Yeah friends sounds good.”  He nods.  The silence that follows let’s everything set in.  Neither of you are quite sure what to do now.  

“Would it be too forward to ask for a hug?”  The wish to embrace you in anyway possible is getting harder to resist.  Truthfully you’re wanting it more than you’d like to admit.  You nod in answer and take a shaky step closer.  Yoongi drops your hand to wrap his arms around you and close the distance.  At first it’s an amazing comfort to the both of you.  Like a relief lifting from your shoulders.  

Yoongi takes short notice of the hard object pressed between your chests.  It’s a second later a throbbing pain shoots through the scar on his chest seemingly from that hard object.  He steps back with a groan.  You look to him in a confused panic.  He clutches for his scar while the pain ebbs away.  You follow his line of sight to your own chest and put your hand to the spot.  

You feel the hard garnet stone under your clothes and getting an inkling of what’s wrong.  With a tug of the chain you slip the necklace out of your collar.  “Did it hurt you to touch this?”  You ask.  Seeing the gemstone clears Yoongi’s confusion as well.  “You really wear it?”  He asks, all concern for himself gone.  

You’re not sure why it feels like you got caught doing something embarrassing.  “Ah, yeah.  Always.  It’s really pretty honestly and makes me feel safer I guess?  I know it doesn’t really make sense.”  It really doesn’t.  Honestly you should be frightened of it.  Maybe it’s better to always have it in your sight?  Yoongi can’t help the smile that spreads across his face.  Knowing that you always wear that necklace is doing too much for his ego right now.  

“I’m glad you like it.  Strange it hurts my scar though.  Guess the bastard is still mad at me.  Can’t blame him though.”  Yoongi says giving a last rub over his chest.  “Does it hurt a lot?”  You ask.  He shakes his head.  “Nah, just makes it a little sore.”  He starts laughing to himself and you’re confused what’s funny.  “What?”  He shakes his head again.  “Nothin’ just thought that I’m kind of like Harry Potter.”  That gets a laugh out of you too.  

Right then your phone dings in your pocket.  Taking it out you see messages from Jungkook.

-Are you having make-up sex?

-Nvm don’t answer that

-Tell Yoongi that we ordered food.  It’ll be here soon

Your cheeks blaze at the first message and move on quickly glad that Yoongi can’t see these.  Jungkook really is the worst friend.  You send back a quick acknowledgment and put your phone back in your pocket.  “Jungkook said they ordered food that’s on the way.”  “Is food something to blush over?”  He asks with a quirked brow.  “Hm?  Am I blushing?”  You try to play dumb.  He definitely doesn’t buy it but let’s it go anyway.  

“Well let’s go up to the practice room then.”  He turns back to grab his phone off the desk.  He opens the door for you to step out first and follows right behind.  The two of you walk in a comfortable silence really feeling like things are working out just fine.  When you walk into the practice room together the others all turn with looks of happy surprise.  That’s as far as they take it.  Thankfully none of them say anything about it just giving you wide knowing smiles.  

Sadly the time for you to start heading home is shortly after you finish eating.  The maknae line all pout and tell you not to leave them.  With things so comfortable again you almost take them up on the offer.  One more day to work things out with Yoongi would really be nice.  Too bad you have work the next day and they’ll be out the whole day anyway.  

Each of them give you a goodbye hug.  Yoongi’s hug is noticeably longer than the others.  You had slung the necklace around to your back before he came over.  The other give curious looks to that.  “You can let go now hyung.”  Jungkook butts in.  Yoongi glares at the boy but he doesn’t care.  Jungkook puts his arm around your shoulder to walk you out to the lobby.  The others give a chorus of goodbyes as you walk through the door.  You look back, your eyes staying on Yoongi as long as they can until the door blocks your view.  

You’re barely two feet from the door before Jungkook starts his questioning.  “So.  You’ve obviously made up.  What’s the details I need to know?”  He asks with a stupid eyebrow wiggle.  “Not much.  We decided to be friends again for now.”  You says casually.  There’s not much else to tell.  “Mhm.  And how did you come to that conclusion?  You were downstairs for almost an hour.  There has to be more juicy details.”  “No juicy anything you lonely virgin boy.”  “Seriously nothing?  He didn’t kiss you or hug you or anything?”  “A hug yes and kiss if you count my hand.”  “He kissed your hand?  Wow hyung is so cheesy.”  You smack Jungkook’s chest for that.  “You could learn a thing or two from him about being romantic before you die alone.”  “Nah, being a sentimental old man isn’t really my style.”  “True.  You’re much more fuckboy style.”  “Yah!”  He nearly lets you go for that comment.  

You reach the lobby and he pulls you in for a bone crushing hug.  “Y/N I’ll miss you.  Thank you for coming for my birthday.”  He’s being loud to purposely embarrass you in front of the people around.  “Be quiet you big baby.  I’ll be back next month for Chuseok.”  You slip out of his loosened grip.  “Oh right!  I don’t know why I forgot.”  You both laugh at how silly he is.  “Well have a safe trip home.  Tells our parents I miss them.”  “Of course.  You know they miss you too.”  He smiles and squeezes your arm.  “Y/N I’m glad you and hyung are working it out.”  You nod slowly.  “Yeah.  Me too.”  

Jungkook hugs you one more times before sending you on your way.  The whole train ride home you look aimlessly out the window.  Your fingers running thoughtfully over your necklace.  All your anxieties from the trip here are gone and replaced with excitement for the future.

-E.최 

[theabominableblogger]

Rewatching “Revenge of the Sith”

Ohhhh yeahhh, I’m going there.

My apologies in advance because this post is so long...

*silently boogies out to 20th Century Fox jingle and ends up throwing popcorn everywhere*

*mouths along to opening theme*

WAR!

“Evil is everywhere.”  Dude, this is Star Wars we’re talking about...

Just a heads up, I am so freaking glad that we have The Clone Wars because honestly, it has a lot more flowing character development when it comes from jumping from “Attack of the Clones” to this movie, especially Anakin.

Lens flare!

Holy snot how many Republic ships are there?!?  Did the Separatists come with every single ship imaginable?  Is that why?

Aaaaand that’s a dead body.

The hell are those things?

“Nothing too fancy.”  Says the man [Obi-Wan] who dramatically drops his robes whenever possible.

*imitates the buzz droids*

“IN THE NAME OF-”  Finish the sentence, Obi-Wan!

R2′s taser thingy looks like the Twelfth Doctor’s sonic screwdriver.

What if they didn’t notice the shield in time?

Boom!  End of saga.  Cue end credits music.

Ohhhh this asshole.

WHAAAATTT’SS THE SITUATION, CAPTAINNNN???

*imitates the droids saying “Roger roger”*

How come Anakin and Obi-Wan aren’t getting jostled around when the elevator car first stops?

*quotes the entire “No loose wire jokes” conversation in the elevator*

Is that the same freaking chair that’s gonna pop up in “Return of the Jedi?”

Anakin and Obi-Wan fight Dooku but every time their lightsabers clash, it’s Obi-Wan going “Hello there”

Did Dooku just backwards kick Anakin away?  Oh my God...

DEW IT

 *Anakin kills Count Dooku*  Well done, prequels.  You done didn’t use your Christopher Lee effectively enough.

ALL BATTERIES FIRE, FIRE!

Wilhelm Scream!

*imitates droid saying “Reversing stabilizers...”*

Holy crap, you can actually see Grievous’s face kind of twitching with anger when he commands the droids to level out the ship.  Dang.

Freaking Obi-Wan’s little yell of horror when he wakes up...

*ugly cackles*

*quotes the entire ray shields scene*

I cannot freaking believe that the TV show took the time to make freaking sure that Anakin never met Grievous until this movie.

Actually, yes I can.  They have a goddamn script continuity department.

How come one of them didn’t take one of the electrostaffs?

The Separatist flagship just tore in half when it entered the atmosphere and yet I remain completely unfazed.

“8 plus 16...”  Pfftt, what the heck does that mean?

Guys, I think I found the origin for the Dramatic Hair Flop of Angst in TCW

Pretty sure that’s the Millenium Falcon at the bottom hangar

“Oh, I’m not brave enough for politics.”  *cough cough*

Obi-Wan gets a whole freaking bus to himself.  Chaos will ensue.

How has no one noticed Padme just hanging out next to one of the pillars?

“There were whispers... that you [Anakin] had been killed...”  Really?

Anakin’s reaction to Padme telling him that she’s pregnant is actually really good.

Wasn’t there like a deleted interaction where Anakin first accused Padme of sleeping with someone else while he was gone but then they decided that was not that great of an idea?

The music that plays when Grievous exits the shuttle is pretty sweet

*imitates Grievous saying “Yes, Lord Sidious?”*

*claps with each word*  This is not how you write romance, [George] Lucas!

Oh I didn’t realize that you could actually hear Anakin’s robotic arm move when he puts his face in his hands

“How long is it gonna take before we start being honest with each other?”  You [Padme] should have asked that before you two got hitched in the first place.

Ladies and gentlemen, the absolute worst therapy lesson in the history of Star Wars:  Yoda telling Anakin to basically get over himself and accept the sudden, incoming death of the people he loves.

“What must I do, Master Yoda?”  MOTHEREFFING IGNORE HIM!

“Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose.”  NOOO, OH MY GOD...

There’s actually a whole video by Pop Culture Detective that went into detail how terrible the Jedi Council were when it came to giving Anakin emotional support.

“Be careful of your friend Palpatine.”  And your pal, Friend-patine.

I just noticed that there are less chairs in the Jedi Council room

“The Council doesn’t like it when he [Palpatine] interferes with Jedi affairs.”  Then why the heck don’t they confront Palpatine about it?

Holy crap, I just realized that this movie came out 13 years ago.

“Hold me, like you did by the lake on Naboo...” Was that really “holding” though?

Anakin’s delivery of “At last!” sounds like Darth Maul when he said “At last we will reveal ourselves to the Jedi” in the first movie.

This entire opera scene should be a dead give away to Anakin learning about Palpatine being the Sith Lord.  The minute Palpatine even said the word “Sith” should have raised a few red flags...

This entire Darth Plaguesis explanation is so good and ominous.  Just the minute Palpatine finishes the story and tells Anakin that there are other ways to gain that sort of power, you can just gradually feel the dread setting in for the rest of the movie.  You just know something bad is gonna happen (besides Anakin becoming Darth Vader)...

Look at the way Obi-Wan’s sitting in his chair!

Oh my God... the Wookies just did a Tarzan yell...

Headcanon:  he’s [Anakin] checking for updates about the Siege of Mandalore

OK, everyone craps on the Utapau storyline with the fight scene between Obi-Wan and Grievous but I actually think this is one of the best parts in the movie.

I love the design for the Pau’ans

GUYSSS I LOVE BOGA SO MUCH YOU HAVE NO IDEA!!!

Someone get me a plush animal of her on my desk pronto!

HELLO THERE!

GENERAL KENOBIII... YOU ARE A BOLD ONE...

That pose though!

That spinning helicopter move Grievous does while stalking toward Obi-Wan was always really cool to me.  A little extra, but still cool.

ARMY OR NOT... YOU MUST REALIZE... YOU ARE DOOMED!

Oh I don’t think so!

*imitates Obi-Wan using the Force to throw Grievous*

Wait, so how many times has Cody had to hold onto Obi-Wan’s lightsaber when Obi-Wan freaking drops it?

Death Star plans?

Big question:  so how old is Anakin here?  He’s 19/20 in “Attack of the Clones” and there’s at least a one or two year time jump in S3 of TCW.

Yo, that means he was like late 30s/early 40s when he died in “Return of the Jedi.”  Well shoot, man...

Yeah, Obi-Wan, let’s freaking kick the crazy homicidal cyborg.  Great idea.

Is Grievous just covered in gasoline or something because he just went up in flames *snaps* just like that.

Ohhhh this scene with Anakin and Padme looking at the windows of their respective places is really good...

Look at freaking Anakin here! 

George Lucas deserves any and all sins for the bad dialogue for Anakin because Hayden Christensen can really act when he’s not given any dialogue and he’s just told to react. 

So, with that, henceforth, there shall be no dissing Hayden Christensen on my blog.

I AM THE SENATE!

Dramatic window break!

Palpatine’s lightsaber just freaking deactivated as soon as Windu kicked it out the window

Wowwww... the prosthetics on Palpatine look.. bad....

UNLIMITED.... POOWEEERRRRR!!!

I just realized that Anakin kind of walks over to Palpatine on his knees before he pledges himself to Palpatine

Why Darth “Vader” though?  Is there any special reasoning for that?

AN:  Holy crap, there’s an hour left and Anakin has just turned to the Dark Side...

Pfftttt....

THESE SHOTS THOUGH

Man, I need to download more tracks from this soundtrack...

You can tell that that’s green screen behind Cody

*in best Palpatine impression*  Execute Order 66!

Nooooooooooooo, Boga!

Aaaaand everyone dies and it sucks now!

Ughh, Aayla Secura...

NOOOOOOOOOO PLO KOONN!

What planet is that?

Here’s my question:  in Rebels, how the heck did Thrawn get Gree’s helmet?  Was there an imperial campaign out on Kashyyyk and he found it somewhere?

That small matte painting shot of the Jedi Temple burning is actually really pretty now that I see it again

Yooooo can we talk about this padawan though?

Kashyyyk has twin moons...

So what happens to Chewie after this and before the Han Solo movie?

Heeeyyyyyyy I know that kind of ship!

“Have faith, my love [Padme]...”  Uhhhh... Padme should have picked up on how... off that line was

How has NO ONE in the Senate (besides Organa and probably Mon Mothma) picked up on Padme’s pregnancy?

*imitates Palpatine*  Mustafaaarrrrr....

“Could be a trap.”  It’s Star Wars.  There’s always a trap.

What’s that planet right next to Mustafar?

Random xylophone scales!

Yoda is taking no prisoners!

Where are the lightsaber/balster holes in the younglings?  Yoda said that they were probably killed by lightsaber so where are the marks on their bodies?

Yellow eyes...

“So this is how liberty dies:  with thunderous applause.”  Best.  line.  Ever.  Someone send flowers and chocolates to Natalie Portman.

“I've recalibrated the code, warning all surviving Jedi to stay away.”  Aaaagghh and we see it in Rebels and in the Last Padawan comic!

Don’t mind me casually dying

I just noticed that gradually throughout this movie, you can see Obi-Wan get grey hairs in his sideburns

*Obi-Wan sneaks onto Padme’s ship to Mustafar*  Where did he come from?!?

“You [Darth Vader] have restored peace and balance to the galaxy.”  *in best Anakin voice*  OK... now what?

“And together, you [Padme] and I [Anakin] can rule the galaxy! We can make things the way we want them to be!”  Wow, “The Last Jedi” is just smackin’ me in the face right now

Anakin... you’re breaking my heart!

That is just extremely bad timing on Obi-Wan’s part

YOU HAVE DONE THAT YOURSELF!

Your new Empire?!?

DEMOCRACY!

“Only a Sith deals in absolutes.”  A what?

That’s a pretty nasty lisp you have there.  Might wanna do something about that.

You know how this Yoda vs. Palpatine fight could be more amazing?  Just add helium

Honestly, for the BIG DEAL fight between Anakin and Obi-Wan, it just goes on for a little bit too long.

Plus when it’s intercut with the Yoda vs. Palpatine, the latter is way more entertaining (hello, two most powerful peope going head to head with actual Force lightning being involved?)

Are they [Anakin and Obi-Wan] just kicking each other with the Force now?  Wow...

NOT EVEN HITTING EACH OTHER!

Seriously, they’re just banging their lightsabers together and calling that a fight.  C’mon... actually try to hit the opponent!

Duel of the Fates!

*Palpatine throws the Senate chairs at Yoda with the Force* So I threw the Senate at him!

Honestly, you could cut out this whole balance thing on the sinking balcony and mining buildings/walkways

Commander Fox?

ExPLOsions...

Noooo... cut this out...

“Into exile, I [Yoda] must go.  Failed, I have.”  And yet people complain about Luke doing the exact same thing in the sequel trilogy

You’re not even trying to hit each other!

FROM MY POINT OF VIEW, THE JEDI ARE EVIL!

IT’S OVER, ANAKIN!  I HAVE THE HIGH GROUND!

YOU WERE THE CHOSEN ONE!

“You were my brother, Anakin.  I loved you.”  Uuuggghhhh....

I actually read somewhere that Ewan McGregor actually asked George Lucas to change the line to past tense instead of the original present tense.  Which is sad, so thanks Ewan.

Can’t you just put out the fire with the Force?

How did 3PO and R2 get an unconscious Padme on board?

Where is this?

*Palpatine’s shuttle lands in Coruscant*  It was a dark and stormy night...

Y’know, at this point, me comparing Anakin being repaired and transformed into Darth Vader and the creation of Frakenstein’s monster is almost inevitable at this point...

Stupid question, but what’s the significance of the names “Luke” and “Leia” concerning the themes present in the movies?  Or is that up to people like me who enjoy the meta to find that out?

He [Darth Vader] just killed that medical droid next to him...

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Do not want....

“...[Qui Gon] learned the path to immortality...” In the TV show!

I like how the last line in this freaking movie is “Oh no!” and it’s from 3PO...

Triceratops rams!

The design for Padme’s funeral garb is actually Iain McCaig’s favorite concept art

How did they develop TIE fighters so quickly?

Oh my God, the dude they got to play Tarkin... oh God...

Definitely not Peter Cushing

*gasp*  Leia’s theme!

Random eopie noise!

Oh my God, “Binary Suns”...

Obi-Wan’s like “Great, now I gotta help a pair of random, separate Force-sensitive teenagers and their astromechs in the near future...”

Wait, they put Ewan McGregor in top billing?

“With Samuel L. Jackson as Mace Windu”  Thamuel El Jackthson!

Holy crap, I forgot Joel Edgerton plays young Uncle Owen

[itsfinancethings]

New story in Politics from Time: Revenge of the Never Trumpers: Meet the Republican Dissidents Fighting to Push Donald Trump Out of Office

Jack Spielman has been a Republican his whole life. But over the past four years, he has come to two realizations.

Increasingly upset by President Donald Trump’s “appalling” behavior, his cozy relationships with dictators and the ballooning national debt, Spielman says his first epiphany was that he couldn’t cast a ballot for Trump again. But for the retired Army cybersecurity engineer, the final straw was the President’s retaliation against impeachment witness Lieut. Colonel Alexander Vindman, who retired in July after Trump fired him from the National Security Council in February. Spielman decided he had to do more than just vote for presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden; he had to persuade others to do the same. So Spielman filmed a video for a group called Republican Voters Against Trump (RVAT), explaining his views. “I want to do some part,” Spielman tells TIME, “to try to correct the wrong that I did in voting for this man.”

RVAT, which launched in May, is among a growing number of Republicanled groups dedicated to making Trump a one-term President. Since December, longtime GOP operatives and officials have formed at least five political committees designed to urge disaffected conservatives to vote for Biden. The best known of these groups, the Lincoln Project, has since forming late last year gained national attention for its slick advertisements trolling the President. Right Side PAC, led by the former chair of the Ohio Republican Party, launched in late June; a few days after that, more than 200 alumni of George W. Bush’s Administration banded together to form an organization called 43 Alumni for Biden. There’s also the Bravery Project, led by former GOP Congressman and erstwhile Trump primary challenger Joe Walsh. And plans are in the works for a group of former national-security officials from Republican administrations to endorse Biden this summer.

Since 2015, pockets of the party have bemoaned Trump’s Twitter antics, his divisive rhetoric and key elements of his platform, from the Muslim travel ban to his trade tariffs to his family-separation policy at the U.S.-Mexico border. But with the President’s approval rating in the party consistently around 90%, and GOP lawmakers terrified to cross him, the so-called Never Trump faction has proven largely powerless, with a negligible impact on federal policy.

Now, in the final stretch of the President’s term, the Never Trumpers could finally have their revenge. Four years ago, Trump won the Electoral College by some 77,000 votes scattered across Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. If even a small slice of disillusioned Trump voters or right-leaning independents defect to Biden in November, it could be enough to kick Trump out of office. “They are the constituency that can swing this election,” says Sarah Longwell, a longtime Republican operative and founder of RVAT.

This constituency now appears more willing to vote for Biden than they were six months ago, in no small part because of Trump’s faltering response to the corona-virus, which has killed more than 140,000 Americans and ravaged the economy. Between March and June, according to a Pew Research poll, Trump’s approval rating among Republicans and Republican-leaning voters dropped seven percentage points, to 78%. A June 25 New York Times/Siena College survey found that Biden has a 35-point lead over Trump among voters in battleground states who supported a third-party candidate in 2016. “Any small percentage of voters who no longer support him could be critical in closely matched swing states,” says Republican pollster Whit Ayres.

It’s too early to gauge how effective the raft of Never Trump groups will be. They’re dismissed by many Republicans as self-serving opportunists profiting off the polarization Trump has exacerbated. Trump also remains hugely popular among Republicans. “President Trump is the leader of a united Republican Party where he has earned 94% of Republican votes during the primaries–something any former President of any party could only dream of,” says campaign spokes-woman Erin Perrine.

Even if the Never Trump activists are able to help oust the President, it’s unclear what will become of a party that’s vastly different from the one they came up in. Trump has transformed today’s GOP into a cult of personality rooted in economic nationalism and racial division. And while the small anti-Trump faction wants to return to the conservative ideology that reigned for decades before Trump, many Republicans believe Trump has changed the party forever.

Sitting in front of a packed book-case, Rick Wilson looked surprised as he peered over hornrimmed spectacles at an overflowing screen: “There’s 10,000 people on here,” the onetime Republican operative marveled of the Zoom audience assembled for the Lincoln Project’s first town hall on July 9.

Grant Lancaster—AM New YorkThe Lincoln Project’s ads criticizing the President’s performance have helped it raise nearly $20 million

Wilson formed the Lincoln Project in December, along with lawyer George Conway, the husband of Trump’s senior adviser Kellyanne Conway, and veteran political strategists Steve Schmidt and John Weaver, among others. The Republican stalwarts had grown disgusted with the President’s behavior and their party’s acquiescence to it. The launch met little fanfare, but in the months since, the group has demonstrated a knack for quickly producing memorable videos and advertisements that get under Trump’s skin. In early May, with the unemployment rate soaring toward 15%, the group released an ad dubbed “Mourning in America,” a play on the upbeat Ronald Reagan classic, which depicted the woes of sick and unemployed Americans under Trump’s leadership. “If we have another four years like this,” the ad’s narrator intones as dead patients are wheeled out of hospitals on stretchers, “will there even be an America?” The President took notice. “Their so-called Lincoln Project is a disgrace to Honest Abe!” Trump tweeted. “I don’t know what Kellyanne did to her deranged loser of a husband, Moonface, but it must have been really bad.”

Irritating the President is part of the point. “It’s not trolling if you get a fish in the line,” says Reed Galen, a veteran of George W. Bush’s presidential campaigns and one of the project’s co-founders. “We kept dropping a hook in the water, and eventually the President bit.” The attention has been a boon to the group’s finances. The Lincoln Project raised nearly $17 million between April 1 and June 30.

If the Lincoln Project tries to needle the President, other groups in the Never Trump ecosystem have found complementary roles. Instead of using polished editing and ominous music to make a splash online, RVAT has gathered more than 400 testimonials from disheartened Republicans like Spielman. “I did only vote for Donald Trump because I couldn’t believe someone who acted as goofy as he did on TV actually meant it,” Monica, a self-described evangelical Christian from Texas, says in one video. “Since that time, I have been riddled with guilt.”

Longwell, RVAT’s founder, believes hearing from people like Monica will show waffling conservatives that they’re not alone in their dislike of the President, and encourage them to break away. “The thing that people trusted wasn’t elites, it wasn’t Republican elites, it certainly wasn’t the media,” Longwell says of her focus-group research. “But they did trust people like them.” The group says it plans to showcase those voices in an eight-figure ad campaign in five swing states before Election Day.

RVAT identified recalcitrant Republicans through email lists Longwell had built at Defending Democracy Together, its parent organization. Founded in 2019, Defending Democracy Together created online petitions whose signatories often offered clues of their disillusionment with Trump. Petitions supporting Vindman and thanking Utah Senator Mitt Romney for voting to convict Trump of abuse of power during the impeachment trial proved especially fruitful in finding former Trump supporters, according to Tim Miller, RVAT’s political director and a veteran Republican communications strategist.

To test new video messages, Longwell held a Zoom focus group on July 15 with seven Florida voters and allowed TIME to watch. Each participant voted for Trump in 2016 but was now dissatisfied with his leadership. Several mentioned his handling of COVID-19 in the meeting, noting Florida’s dramatic spike in cases. Long-well showed the group a few of RVAT’s testimonials. “It resonates with me,” one woman who works in the travel industry in Orlando said. “It does make me feel less alone.” But while three people on the call said they’d likely vote for Biden, two said they were unsure and two said they would still vote for Trump again. “I don’t think there’s any hope for him,” the Orlando woman said. “But I don’t see Biden doing a good job either.”

Matt Borges of Right Side PAC recognizes that Republican voters’ uncertainty about Biden needs to be addressed. As the former chair of the Ohio Republican Party watched Never Trump groups roll out advertisements, he worried there was too much focus on why Trump was bad and not enough on why Biden was a good alternative. “We need these people who know they are not [going to] vote for Trump but are not sold on Joe Biden to hear some messaging from fellow Republicans that says, ‘No, it’s O.K. to vote for this guy,'” says Borges, a lifelong Republican who disavowed Trump three years ago. In an unrelated development, Borges was arrested on July 21 for allegedly participating in a $60 million bribery scheme involving top political officials that the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio decried as the biggest money-laundering effort in the state’s history.

In June, Borges teamed up with former Trump communications director Anthony Scaramucci to form Right Side PAC, which plans to spend up to $7 million targeting these voters through mailings, digital ads and phone banks. Their first focus is Michigan, where Borges commissioned a pollster to conduct research on Republican voters in swing districts. After spending more than a week in the field, the pollster delivered the results to Borges and Scaramucci on a Zoom call, which TIME observed. Support for Trump among Republican voters in Michigan’s Eighth Congressional District had dropped from 80% in January to 67%, the pollster said. The district had swung for Trump in 2016, then voted for a Democratic Congresswoman, Elissa Slotkin, two years later. Voters who ranked the coronavirus as their top concern were seen as more likely to break for Biden. While the group had planned to target all white Republican women over the age of 50 in Michigan, the pollster said the data suggested those over 65 were immovable in their support for Trump. These insights, Borges says, will form the basis of Right Side PAC’s “final sale” to voters on Biden’s behalf.

As the presidential race heads into its final months, another group of Republicans aims to help Biden in a different way. A group of more than 70 former national-security officials from GOP administrations, led by John Bellinger, the senior National Security Council and State Department lawyer under George W. Bush, and Ken Wainstein, Bush’s Homeland Security Adviser, plans to endorse Biden and publish a mission statement describing the damage they say Trump has done to America’s national security and global reputation. They will also fund-raise for the former Vice President and do media appearances in battleground states when the group launches later this summer. Some of the same people wrote an open letter denouncing Trump in 2016. But, says Wainstein, “our effort this time is going to have some staying power throughout the campaign.”

How much impact these groups will ultimately have on voters remains unclear. As they try to unseat an incumbent with a massive war chest, their first hurdle is money. Right Side PAC raised just over $124,000 in the first two weeks, disclosure filings show. The bulk of that haul came from one person, New York venture capitalist Peter Kellner, a long-time Republican donor who began giving to Democrats in 2018 and who has forked over the maximum amount to Biden’s campaign, according to Federal Election Commission filings. The group’s prospects were also clouded by Borges’ July 21 arrest. Borges did not respond to requests for comment.

43 Alumni for Biden, the group of former George W. Bush officials, announced its formation on July 1, which means it doesn’t have to file disclosure reports until October; had it announced a day earlier, it would have had to publicize its finances in mid-July. A member of the group declined to provide specific figures but said it had received contributions from more than 500 individuals. The Bravery Project officially launches July 23, and a representative declined to provide any fundraising figures.

Longwell tells TIME that RVAT has raised $13 million this year. As a 501(c)4, or political nonprofit, the group does not need to disclose its donors or exact figures. But the number she provides puts the group on par with the Lincoln Project, whose biggest donors are primarily prominent Democrats. While disclosure filings show that nearly half of the Lincoln Project’s donations were “unitemized” or under $200, it raked in $1 million from billionaire hedge-fund manager Stephen Mandel and $100,000 apiece from business mogul David Geffen and Joshua Bekenstein, the co-chairman of Bain Capital.

This influx of cash has enabled the Lincoln Project to ramp up advertisements against vulnerable Republican Senators like Susan Collins of Maine, Cory Gardner of Colorado and Steve Daines of Montana. “We made it very clear that this is not just about Trump but Trumpism and its enablers,” says Galen. “The Republican Senators we have held to account are the President’s greatest enablers.”

The strategy of going after Senators has provoked the ire of many Republicans, who say the group is prioritizing profit over party. “It’s purely grifting and making a name for themselves. It’s not based on principle at all,” says Matt Gorman, a Republican strategist who worked for Jeb Bush’s and Romney’s presidential campaigns. The Lincoln Project, he says, “is essentially meant for raising money off the resistance and lining their own pockets.”

The group’s finances have also raised some eyebrows among government watchdogs. Two consulting firms, one run by Galen and another by co-founder Ron Steslow, received nearly a quarter of the $8.6 million the group spent between January and July. While other committees use similar methods, it is “not at all standard,” says Sheila Krumholz, executive director at the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. “It raises red flags about whether the operation is taking advantage of a situation where donors are giving to what they think is supporting one effort, but there are other patterns at play.”

Krumholz notes that the Lincoln Project does not publicly disclose all of the vendors who have done work for them, which suggests they are funneling money to organizations that then hire subcontractors. This method is not unheard-of, but the lack of transparency makes it difficult to discern who is ultimately profiting. “The public doesn’t know the extent to which Lincoln Project operatives may be profiting, or if they’re profiting at all,” Krumholz says. When asked about the group’s finances, Galen says, “We abide by all reporting requirements laid down by the FEC. No one at the Lincoln Project is buying a Ferrari.”

For now, the Never Trump Republicans say they aren’t looking beyond November. “We’re all in a grand alliance to beat a very big threat,” says Miller of RVAT. “We’ll see how the chips fall after.” But regardless of the election’s outcome, Miller and his cohorts face challenges ahead. They will either be failed rebels, cast out by a party taken over by its two-term President, or facing down a Biden Administration, which would bring unwelcome liberal policies and perhaps Supreme Court vacancies.

If Biden wins, Trumpism won’t disappear with Trump. The President’s rapid rise revealed the extent to which many of the ideological pillars of modern conservatism–its zeal for unfettered free markets, its devotion to deficit reduction, its attachment to global alliances, its faith in a muscular foreign policy–were out of step with actual Republican voters. Many of the ambitious lawmakers rising in the party, like Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton, have seen in Trump’s political success an example to emulate. The next generation of Republican leaders may try to replicate his policies without the self-defeating behavior.

It’s led many to wonder whether traditional conservatives will have a home in the GOP after Trump is gone. “There is a growing feeling that we need to burn the whole house down to purify the party of Trump enablers in the Congress,” says a former White House official in George W. Bush’s Administration. Some see the prospect of a rupture, with disaffected Republicans cleaving off and either forming a new party or making a tenuous peace with the moderate wing of the Democratic Party. “There’s a very real possibility … that the party will split,” says Richard Burt, former ambassador to Germany under President Reagan.

The modern Republican Party was always an uneasy alliance in some ways, with fiscal conservatives, religious conservatives and neoconservatives jostling for influence, and a white working-class base voting for policies that often favored the wealthy. Steven Teles, co-author of Never Trump: The Revolt of the Conservative Elites, envisions a Republican Party in which Trumpism dominates but the dissenters make up a vocal resistance faction. “I don’t think anyone is going to have control of the Republican Party the way we’ve seen in the past,” he says.

The irony of the Never Trumper activists is that while they are encouraging Republicans to vote Democratic for the first time in their lives, that is bringing some Republicans back into the party by creating a community of the disaffected. Spielman, the retired Army cybersecurity engineer, had become so disenchanted with Trump that he turned his back on the party altogether, voting for Democrats in Michigan’s 2020 primaries. But the Never Trump groups are “giving me hope that there are still some people out there with some decency that want to go back and save the party,” Spielman says. “It’s allowed me to come back and say, Yeah, I’m a Republican. I’m not leaving the party, but I want to fight for what’s right for the party.”

With reporting by Leslie Dickstein, Mariah Espada, and Josh Rosenberg

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[voightsgirl]

crossfire: volume i - chapter 13

a/n hope you guys like this chapter!! i wanted to have a bit of girl power in this fic and thought i’d try writing what i imagine the crossover friendships would be like         & previous chapters can be found here

☆ been there, done that ☆

Erin didn’t take the next day off work, although she probably should have. Both Jay and Voight knew that she needed to take a step back and look after herself, but they also knew her well enough that she would never agree to leave behind the job that gave her a reason to keep going.

So she did. She worked her hardest, burying herself in alibis and leads and witness statements, scrolling through Facebook profile after Facebook profile and watching traffic cam video after traffic cam video, trying to find peace in another clue; Jay looked up at her every now and then and every single time, she seemed to be engrossed in the case, her whole body alert and poised in concentration and anticipation. But he knew her better than that: he knew that her eyes weren’t focusing on the words on the screen in front of her, the license plates were jumbling and her suspects were blurring together.

She felt numb.

“How is she?” Burgess came up behind Jay’s desk. The noise in the bullpen – keyboards typing and the coffee machine brewing and Ruzek’s voice on the phone to some person of interest – was enough that Erin’s ears didn’t quite pick up on her friends’ whispers behind her back.

Jay sighed. “She’s devastated. She says she’s fine, and I know that she’s trying to be for me, but she’s absolutely crushed.”

“I’m sorry it didn’t work out,” Burgess rested a hand on Jay’s shoulder. “But for what it’s worth, she still has you. I know that having Adam there for me back when I was going through everything with Nicole made all the difference.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Do you mind if I talk to her? I have an idea of how to cheer her up.” A smile crept onto Burgess’s face and her eyes began to light up at the idea that was formulating itself in her brain.

“By all means,” Jay said.

Burgess grinned.

☆ 

“Are you gonna be okay?” Jay asked Erin. A few days had gone by since Avery’s rejection of her offer, and Erin was still upset. Hiding it, sure, but she wasn’t quite back to her usual self. She was curled up on the couch, a pillow to her chest, flicking through television channels. Documentaries, to be precise - which was how Jay knew she needed comfort.

“Yeah! For the last time, Jay, I will be fine. Go out and have fun with your brother, for God’s sake!”

He almost laughed at her tone of voice. “Okay. Fine. I’ll be back around eleven, and I’ll text you when I’m on my way home.”

Just then, the doorbell rang.

“That’s probably Will.” He made his way to open the door. “Don’t eat all the ice cream.”

She looked mildly offended. “Shut up,” she laughed, and lobbed the cushion at his head. He ducked, but a shocked looking Burgess got a face-full.

“Well,” she said, and Erin snorted, her hand jumping to her mouth in embarrassment. 

“Sorry…”

Burgess shifted slightly in the doorway and Erin strained her neck when she saw that there were more figures behind her: Gabby and Natalie.

“What are you guys doing here?” she asked.

“We are here to cheer you up, and to make you stop feeling guilty over what happened with Avery,” Natalie said. She smiled. Her eyes were kind and her heart was warm, and Erin could feel the love radiating from her friends the second they stepped over the threshold, Jay gesturing for them to enter as he held the door open.

“It was Burgess’s idea,” Gabby explained. “She thought you could use a little pick me up, and since Matt is at a conference tonight and apparently I’m good at the whole ‘tough love’ thing, they brought me along, too.”

Erin raised an eyebrow. “Oh, really?”

Gabby grinned. “Yes, really. You did everything you could, and that girl is stupid for not seeing that. Now move over,” she tapped Erin’s legs and flopped down onto the couch next to her, pulling her friend in for a hug.

Natalie followed, carrying two purses, from one of which she pulled out a six pack of beer. At Erin’s baffled expression, Gabby snorted.

“I’m also here for the booze,” she said. “I own a bar, you know. Molly’s. You might have heard of it.”

They laughed. “Yeah, come to think of it, that does ring a bell…” Natalie grinned.

“Wait, Nat, if you’re here, and Jay and Will are going out, who’s looking after Owen?” Erin frowned.

“Jay and Will are not going out, actually,” came Jay’s voice from behind the couch where the four girls had managed to squeeze into. “I’m just going over there to chill with Will for the evening.”

Erin smiled up at him, reaching her hand to cover his, which he had laid on her shoulder. “You knew about this?” she asked.

“Yeah. You need cheering up. Spend time with your friends. They love you, and I love you, and we need you to be happy.”

“Thank you,” she whispered. Her eyes filled with tears. What had she done to deserve someone who loved her as much as Jay did?

“You girls have fun!” Jay said. “I’m gonna head out. And,” he pointed at them in mock seriousness, “Don’t eat all the ice cream.”

They laughed. Jay grabbed his keys from the mantelpiece and disappeared into the hallway.

“I’m looking at you, Gabby!” he called. “I remember...” his voice trailed off.

“Not cool, babe!” Erin yelled back.

Gabby snorted. “Still too weird?” she asked.

“Just a bit,” Erin nodded, screwing her nose up at the reminder that her boyfriend had dated one of her best friends.

Jay laughed from the other room, and they heard the door closing behind him.

“So,” Burgess said. “Where do you keep the ice cream?”

Erin chuckled, and looked around at the three outstanding women around her. Burgess and Natalie clinked wine glasses while Gabby swigged from a beer bottle; heads tossed back in laughter, eyes creased with elation as they discussed the things that needed to be discussed and laughed away all the burdens that each woman had settled on her shoulders.

☆

“So Kim,” asked Gabby in her typical way.

“Mmm-hmm?” Burgess mumbled through a mouthful of the mint choc chip ice cream that Natalie had retrieved from the kitchen a few minutes previously.

“What’s the deal with you and Ruzek?”

Burgess choked slightly on her ice cream at the suddenness of the question. “Uh,” she said, when she had regained enough dignity despite her blushing cheeks to form a coherent sentence. “There is no deal. We’re…”

“Girl, if you say you’re ‘just friends’ right now I am going to punch you,” Gabby raised an eyebrow, and Burgess blushed even harder. Erin and Natalie looked at each other and giggled slightly.

“Well, then. We’re taking things slow,” she said.

“That’s good,” said Natalie, “If it’s what the both of you want. As long as you’re being honest with each other, that is.”

Burgess sighed. “I think we both want to get back together and make things official, but we also don’t want to put any strain on our professional relationship, you know? After all the – no offense, Erin – relationship drama that Voight has had to put up with over the years, it isn’t really fair.”

Erin shrugged. “At least you don’t have to deal with him acting like an overprotective father, too.”

“Yeah, fair point,” Burgess laughed.

“Voight got over mine and Jay’s split easy enough, and then he knew that we were both pretty broken up when I left for New York, and he was practically begging us to get back together by the time I made it back home.”

Burgess just looked at her, an eyebrow raised. “Because Jay was having mental breakdowns and his PTSD was spiraling. You probably saved his life.”

Erin took a deep, shuddery breath, remembering the circumstances that had brought her back to Chicago. They were terrifying circumstances that had her clenching her fists on the flight over so hard that her knuckles turned white and her fingernails pierced the palms of her hands and left scars. Every time she opened her hands she was reminded of Voight’s voice down the phone, after he had gone to her apartment, just because he was her dad and he missed her, and had found Jay sitting in the middle of the floor with a gun in his hand and his face so pale he almost had to check him for a pulse, his forehead covered in beads of sweat so pristine they were like fresh dewdrops on an April’s morning, his entire body shaking so hard that the sergeant had dropped to his knees in front of the detective and begged him to calm down. Every time Erin looked at her hands, she remembered the way they had stroked Jay’s hair when he had been taken to the psychiatric ward of Chicago Med; the way they had wrapped around Will when he heard the news and came running to see his brother; the way they had held Jay together as they curled up on their couch together, watching David Attenborough all night, and how she watched him, without sleeping, for days on end.

Jay had his scars from Afghanistan, but some of them were on her body too.

Burgess seemed to have noticed the look that came over Erin’s face when she had been reminded of what had happened to warrant Voight’s blessing – for the second time – of their relationship. “I’m sorry, Erin. I didn’t want to bring up old wounds.”

Erin shook her head. “No, it’s okay. But Burgess, Voight gave his blessing to you and Adam once, too. I’m sure he’d do the same again.”

Burgess laughed at that. “I was shot. He didn’t really have a choice. It was give his blessing or promote me – and he chose the former.”

“As I seem to recall, he actually did both. And you were the one who turned down the Intelligence offer in the first place.”

Burgess shoved Erin’s shoulder jokily. “Okay, fine. But I still don’t think he’d be sold on the idea a second time around.”

Gabby and Natalie had been quiet, but now it was their turn to speak up. “If it makes you feel better, it took me and Casey several near death experiences before we realized our feelings for each other.”

Natalie looked slightly alarmed. “Okay, now I feel left out. Mine and Will’s story seems a bit lukewarm in comparison. You guys should sell the movie rights, I would pay to watch some of those stories.”

Gabby laughed. “Hmm, I’m not so sure. I think people would get a bit bored of just seeing Casey and I being rushed into hospital every two minutes. It’s not quite as glamorous as you might think.”

“Trust me,” Natalie laughed. “I know.”

“Well, at least neither me nor Jay has been shot, I guess,” Erin offered, slowly regaining her usual banter, “Or been trapped inside a burning building…oh, no wait. My bad. Been there, done that.”

“Shut up!” Natalie laughed.

“Also,” Gabby raised a finger. “Jay has been shot.”

Erin rolled her eyes. “Oh my God, don’t remind me. Was this before or after you guys slept together?”

Gabby snorted. “Both, actually,” she mumbled through a mouthful of ice cream, and then dodged to avoid the pillow that came hurtling through the air, aimed at her head. The girls laughed.

“Anyway,” she continued when she had returned to an upright position. “You guys are only together because of me.”

Erin scoffed. “Since when?!”

“Well, since I was the one who got Jay shot, and Jay was promoted to Intelligence because of it and because Antonio wanted to thank him for helping me out with the whole Molly’s situation, and you guys met because of this promotion, so you should really be thanking me.”

In spite of herself, Erin laughed loudly. “Mmm. Well then. Thank you. Next time maybe you could try setting people up without bullets?”

Gabby shrugged. “It’s not as dramatic, but sure.”

“So changing the subject,” Burgess tried, strategically steering the conversation towards some slightly more user-friendly topics that didn’t involve PTSD, burning buildings, bullet wounds, or anything that could lead to death, “Have you got any wedding plans that you’re willing to disclose yet, Natalie?”

“Ooh, yes!” Gabby squealed. “I love big white weddings! Tell us everything, Nat, pretty pleeeease.” She batted her long eyelashes and pouted, gazing up at her friend with her big brown eyes. Natalie chuckled.

Erin raised an eyebrow at Gabby’s enthusiasm. “You and Matt got married in your sweaty turnout gear.”

Burgess snorted, and Natalie tried to stifle a giggle.

“Um. That is so not the point,” Gabby said indignantly, but Erin was grinning.

Natalie reached over Gabby’s legs, which were draped over her lap, and grabbed her purse, from which she drew a huge wedding scrapbook.

“No way!” Burgess’s eyes lit up. “Hey guys, remember when Adam and I were engaged, and Platt gave me her old wedding planner?”

Erin laughed. “That old thing? Really?”

“Oh my God, I think she showed it to me as well. After her wedding, when me and Casey moved back in together,” Gabby said too.

“Well, hopefully this is a bit more elegant than your Sergeant’s?” Natalie chuckled, and handed her friends the book. They opened it and devoured it hungrily, letting out ‘aw’s and ‘ah’s and little gasps whenever they saw something gorgeous. Erin’s eyes met Natalie’s over Gabby and Burgess’s heads, which were buried in the book, and they smiled at each other.

Thank you, Erin mouthed. She didn’t say for what, but Natalie knew.

Just being there with her, being normal, being friends, was enough.

☆ ☆ ☆

thank you for reading!! if you’d like to be notified when it’s updated either head over to my ff.net account or message me and i’ll tag you at the end of the post :)

@allenting @sophiaxjesse @writteninthestarsandthesky@riverdaleangels@chillmydude @halsteadpd

[theworstbob]

the thing journal, 4.2.2017

scattered thoughts on the things i took in over the last seven days. this week: matt pryor, boyhood, julien baker, literally show me a healthy person, drake i guess, the goldfinch, the discovery, dave chappelle

1) Memento Mori, by Matt Pryor: i mean yeah, it's an album of acoustic folk songs? so i don't. i'm sure there's a lot that can be said about this album? but i'm so not the person to say those things, i could listen to this album again and again and try my best, but i can't be that person. this is no one's fault but my own, i'm not gonna be like "nyeh, this album sucks" because this happens to be something i don't typically dig, because i'm just not the kind of person that listens to folk. (don't you listen to country?) yeah but in country everyone's drunk and heartbroken, this is, i dunno, adult? yeah too adult for me, and i'm comfortable admitting that. (aren't you 27?) listen.

2) Boyhood, dir. Richard Linklater: So it IS possible to be absolutely dazzled by MOVIE-MAKING MAGIC yet be left kind of cold by the finished product. The story of how this film was made is cool, and you can feel the love and passion for this project oozing from the seams, but this is also a film about how a young boy grew up to become a college student with bad facial hair?, and there's a limit to how engaging I find those types of stories. So it's tough, because this is a film completely unlike anything else before it and an absolute treat to watch and think about (gosh, the pains one must have to go through to shoot a film over 14 years and make the finished product look cohesive!), but also a story I could get literally anywhere else. I thought the overall product was fantastic, but enough other people have been waving their flags hard enough and long enough that I'm okay not adding my own to it.

3) Sprained Ankle, by Julien Baker: This week, Bob! attempts to digest three quiet indie things despite not being all that into quiet indie things! For what it's worth, I know I have to give this a more attentive listen, this sort of music would pair better with list-making than it did with Mario Kart 7. I won a race where I had fewer Mario Kart points than all but one other dude in the field. I won the race with a last-turn pass and only by half a second maybe, and once I saw I took 1st, I shouted at my Nintendo 2DS, "REMEMBER THE FUCKING NAME," while alone in my apartment. The Mario Kart 7 headspace is not condusive to an album in which a young woman sings songs about death. I will say: even spending the first listen shouting at Mario Kart 7, I could still tell there was tremendous depth to be plumbed, so at least this thing was able to permeate the mania. Every now and then I'd hear a lyric ("I'm screaming at myself in public/I know I shouldn't act this way in public") and think "oh fuck, that's me, I need more time with this."

4) literally show me a healthy person, by Darcie Wilder: I don't know that any one thing has had a greater influence on my writing, if not my outlook on life, over the last year or so than the 333333333433333 Twitter account. Darcie Wilder is an absolute master of that form. I deleted my Twitter because the website is exhausting and I couldn't handle it (also real talk I'm just a fucking dude in Minneapolis, why do I need to worry about my brand), but hers is one of select few accounts I still visit on a regular basis because the Posts are just that Good, and her voice is perfectly represented in this book. Lesser writers would have published a compendium of tweets. Wilder presents something between a monologue and a short story collection, a recap of the day's thoughts, her mind bouncing from fun thoughts about rats to THIS IS SOMETHING I DID WHICH I DEEPLY REGRET like a mind actually does. It's dope as hell. It's the best thing I've ever read that I was able to knock out in three and a half bus rides. (Also, there's a passage in this book that is just a two-word sentence, "bob died," and it is my favorite instance of my name appearing in a work of art since Undertale.)

5) More Life, by Drake: I took an Intro to Film course at community college, because I like film AND I liked taking classes to help fill the art credit requirement! I took this class in 2008, so naturally, people were abuzz about some of the classics that had been released late in 2007, like There Will Be Blood. The professor DID NOT like There Will Be Blood. When pressed, he said something along the lines of: "There's no story! Daniel Plainview begins the movie as a monster, and he ends the movie as a monster. What changed? What did we spend two hours of our lives watching?" And while I don't agree with his assessment of the film, his perspective has stayed with me. Why do I bring that up? Who knows! Anyway this is the same album Drake has been making for nearly a decade and listening to it didn't enrich my life in any meaningful way because I already listened to other Drake albums. Also this was fucking 80 minutes long and even if I enjoyed Drake's whole thing, there is no excuse for a feature-film-length album, like calm down, just who the fuck do you think you are even? I spent less time reading literally show me a healthy person than I did listening to More Life. That's stupid and I hate it.

6) The Goldfinch, by Donna Tratt: This was recommended to me by a friend, so that's how I read this story about a young man who gets big into antiquing, and now I'm offering a review where, not only am I out of depth trying to proffer literary criticism, it's not even the sort of book that I'd come to on my own, so now I'm HELLA out of depth. This book is written in this elegant, austere way, and I loved the moments in the book where the author was just describing things, this book is at its best when no one is talking, but it was always somewhat jarring when a reference to modern technology was made. It felt odd and out-of-step with the rest of the novel, to have the odd reference to video games or iPods, like what's technology doing here, get out of here, I wanna read about the chairs this dude's been selling. But overall, I dug this book. It's about grief and the power of art and how decisions you make when you're 13 still influence the rest of your life, all things I’m into, and it was a welcome change of pace from what I usually read. (You mean nothing?) Again, listen:

7) The Discovery, dir. Charlie McDowell: ah just what i need a cloudy-day movie about suicide So like, I remember watching The Happening for a Bad Movie Night and thinking that the worst thing the movie did was squander an intriguing premise. There was a good movie somewhere inside The Happening, a movie about how to keep yourself believing life is still worth living, and it's not a perfect one-to-one translation of course, but The Discovery is pretty danged close to being the film I thought The Happening could be. Maybe it's a matter of scale: it takes this concept, "What would happen if science proved the existence of an afterlife?" and applies it to this small family drama, the son of the man who found the proof and their efforts to find out what the afterlife is. It has an offbeat sense of humor (I never realized how much I needed to see Jason Segel and Jesse Plemmons just hangin' out), and I appreciated the hell out of the final twist (even if I could have done without the Usual Suspectsy montage of moments from earlier which presaged the twist; "Look at all the foreshadowing we did! Aren't we such clever boys?" ugh i mean as someone who once paid enough attention to game of thrones to be able to identify every single white dude with a beard, i find that kind of shit annoying, i KNOW he said those things, i was WATCHING your FILM). I found much to enjoy about this film, even if "enjoy" is a weird word to apply to a film where a suicide counter figures prominently in the background.

8) Deep in the Heart of Texas, Dave Chappelle: I think a lot of what I said about his other Netflix thing applies here. The focus was a bit tighter, but ESPECIALLY here, it felt at times like he was telling jokes he wrote a few years ago that he just really wanted to get on television. He did a run on "Wait (The Whisper Song)." I didn't know people were still talking about that. He attributed "Wait (The Whisper Song)" to 50 Cent. One, you think people are gonna remember "Wait (The Whisper Song)," but won't remember The Yin Yang Twins? Two, you're gonna attribute it to 50 Cent? Come on, man. Say Lil' Jon. Lil' Jon is as current a reference as 50 Cent (moreso, actually, given "Turn Down for What"), that name is at least in the ballpark, and it's an easy applause line for you, like dude, shape up, I know it's not that simple but I'm pretty sure I've nailed it. But this was still more good than bad, and it still provided exquisite shots of white people in the front row who somehow didn't know who they had paid to see. Gosh, you could just smell the "well, actually" on some of those bros. That's the best part of these specials.

[revwinchester]

Special Consultant

Summary: When a friend of mine introduces me to Matt Cohen, I become friends with him and his wife and Matt brings me up to set in Vancouver where I get the opportunity of a lifetime.

Author: revwinchester

Word Count: 2653

Characters: Matt Cohen and family, Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, Richard Speight Jr., Robert Singer, oh, and Me - Rev - and my friend Paul!  No romantic pairings (apart from people who are married in real life)

Warnings: None that I can think of apart from this is RPF, which I know isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.

A/N: This was written for @iwantthedean‘s You AU Challenge (which I believe you can still sign up for if you want to join in the fun)!  It’s my first attempt at RPF so if that’s not your thing, you might want to skip this one.  It felt weird writing real people, even without any romantic entanglements, so I’m not sure it’s something I’ll try again in the near future but I’m glad I gave it a shot at least this once.  Mostly the AU part is me getting added into their world and a job that I wish was real with all of my heart because I would be a perfect fit for it...  But some of it is real - I do have 2 advanced degrees in religious studies and I’m considering (though I haven’t started) a Ph.D. focusing on angelic lore.  Also, Paul is based on a real life acquaintance who may or may not have gotten to meet Matt Cohen; I haven’t actually asked him.

Special Consultant - 

In the end, it had all been so simple.  Granted, I was fortunate to have a rather talented acquaintance who had landed a recurring role on General Hospital.  Paul’s new job put him into regular contact with Matt Cohen and the pair had become good friends and now, here I was, about to step onto the set of Supernatural.

I had followed Paul’s career from the time he was a bartender in a small Pennsylvania town, singing karaoke with me and some of the other regular patrons.  He’d done a short stint in Hollywood previously but had left for a girl.  She’d ended up dumping him and he started working harder and saving to make his way back to the west coast.  Once he’d gotten out there, he got an agent and a bartending job for some steady income while he gave acting another shot.  He’d landed a few small roles on network television shows and had even been up for a part on The Flash.  

Whenever he posted about a new audition or a potential role (always careful not to share so much information he’d get in trouble with the producers), I always made it a point to send an encouraging comment.  It was exciting to have a front row seat to someone following their dream and making strides toward achieving it.  Hollywood is a big place, though, and I’d never imagined that something like this would come of my one time karaoke partner chasing his dreams.  

After he posted a short video from his General Hospital dressing room announcing his participation in the show, I decided to send a little more than a comment.  I shot him a quick message - “Congrats on GH!  Love the show and hope you have a blast!  Following your LA adventures from afar has been awesome.”  I’d hesitated to send the message initially, would he even remember who I was?  After all, I hadn’t interacted with him outside of the bar where he had worked.  I was a regular at the bar on both trivia nights and karaoke nights and we’d sung duets together on more than one occasion, but it had been 4 years since he’d packed up and moved across the country with his dog.

In the end, I decided to send the message.  Worst case scenario, he looked at it and deleted it, I figured.  But he hadn’t done that.  The message had opened up a conversation that the two of us held sporadically over the next few months (oh, the wonders of the internet).  When I shared that I was planning a trip to California, including a stop in Los Angeles, he invited me to join him and a few friends for drinks one night.

A few friends ended up being some of Paul’s General Hospital cast mates, including one Mr. Matt Cohen and his wife.  I had hit it off with the Cohens and by the end of the night we had exchanged phone numbers and promised to keep in touch once I had flown back home.  To my surprise, we actually did.  My friendship with Matt was great but Mandy quickly became one of my closest friends.  It was her idea for Matt to bring me up to Vancouver with them the next time the show called for Young John Winchester.  Mandy would be going, too since their son would also be appearing in the episode; the writers had decided it was time for Dean to meet his toddler self.  

I figured I’d spend most of my time with Mandy and their son and I’d catch a quick glimpse of Jared and Jensen if I was lucky but Matt had other ideas.  The first day he was set to be filming, he grabbed me by the hand and pulled me over to the set.  He was the first actor to arrive and introduced me to a few of the crew members including the episode's director, Richard Speight Jr.  

After some stilted, stuttered greetings on my part and a genuine smile on his, Rich had to get back to work.  He left me with three instructions, “Just stay quiet while the camera’s rolling, if you need anything, ask a P.A., and have fun!”  With those words and a wink, he was back to talking with the D.P and the camera operators about how to get a specific shot he wanted.  

“You didn’t tell me he was directing!” I hissed at Matt who had been shaking with silent laughter during my entire interaction with Rich.  “Gabriel is, like… and Rich…”

“Are you starstruck, Rev?” Matt asked.  

I didn’t answer.  I only scowled at him.

“You are!  This is adorable!”  His laughter wasn’t so silent anymore so I glared at him harder, which only caused him to laugh harder.  “You made it through an entire evening out with Paul, me, and a bunch of other Hollywood people with no problems and have spent the better part of the last year as friends with Mandy and I.  I never expected this from you!  This is going to be so much fun.”

I balled my hand into a fist and shook it at him in an empty threat.  “Cut it out, it’s not funny,” I practically whined.

“Look, all the people on Supernatural are some of the nicest, most down to earth people you will ever encounter in this business, ok?” Matt assured me.  “Just take a deep breath and you’ll be fine.”

I nodded and did as he said.  As I released the breath, Matt’s eyes lit up and he asked, “You know, we’ve never really talked too much about Supernatural.  Are you a Sam girl or a Dean girl?”

I narrowed my eyes at him, I could tell he was up to something, but I still answered with a suspicious voice “Sam, why?”

“BOOM!” a familiar voice shouted from behind me.  “Suck it, Jensen!”

Two seconds later, my eyes went wide as I realized why I recognized the voice.  I could feel the blush rising in my cheeks as I mouthed to Matt “I hate you.”  

He leaned in and gave me a kiss on the cheek before whispering “love you too!” in my ear and grabbing my shoulders to spin me around.  “Jared, Jensen, this is my friend Rev.  Rev, Jensen and Jared.”

“H-hi,” I stammered, definitely more than a little star struck this time.  Knowing Matt was likely quietly laughing at me again I took another deep breath as Jared and Jensen greeted me and managed to engage them in a short conversation before Gabri… before Rich needed them.  

“You know, I’m pretty sure if I explained the situation to Mandy, she wouldn’t blame me for killing you,” I informed Matt in my sweetest voice.

“Now, there’s the snark I’ve come to expect!” Matt laughed.  “None of that polite crap you were giving to everyone else.”

Matt’s laughter was infectious and soon enough I was feeling back at ease.  

“Don’t you need to meet with Rich about filming?” I asked, finally feeling like I could handle being on set on my own.

“Nah,” Matt replied, “I’m not actually filming until this afternoon.  Figured I’d bring you down here to check things out this morning when I could hang out, though.”  

We spent the morning watching Jared, Jensen, and the crew work.  They were starting the day filming the B.M. scene in the bunker.  I got a little bit of information about the episode from their dialogue but not much.  And, even if I had learned anything big, I couldn’t have shared any of it anyway.  Before filming had started for the day, one of the network’s lawyers approached me with a non-disclosure agreement.  

After a quick lunch, Matt needed to head to the costume and makeup trailers and, again, he dragged me along.  While he was in makeup, I could feel eyes on me but whenever I turned around the only people there were the costume crew.  Eventually, one of the women on the crew tapped me on the shoulder.  “You’re Matt’s friend, right?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I replied, holding my hand out to shake hers.  “I’m Rev.”

“I’m Dawn, the assistant costume designer,” she told me, “and I’ve got a proposition for you.  One of our extras for today is really ill and we don’t have time to refit the costume to someone else before the scene needs to film.  We’re pretty sure the costume will fit you with minimal alterations.  Any interest in being a waitress?”

I had a quick costume fitting and was then ushered into the makeup trailer and put in a seat next to Matt who looked a little confused at the crew fluttering around me and my shell shocked expression.  I explained to him what was going on as best as I could and one of the makeup artists filled in the blanks.  

A script was thrust into my hands, apparently I had a line.  “What did I get myself into?” I asked Matt.

“You’re going to be fine, Rev,” my friend assured me, all of the teasing from earlier gone from his voice and I actually almost believed him.  

About an hour later, I found myself mic’ed up and on set dressed in a vintage looking powder blue waitress’s dress and standing behind the counter of the diner where Sam and Dean would encounter the younger version of their father. 

“Action!” Rich called.

Sam and Dean were seated at the counter and the door jingled as John walked in.  He sat a few stools down from the boys and I sauntered over to him.  “What can I get for you, John?”

John never answered because the camera focus pulled to Sam and Dean discussing their case.  “What do we know about these, what did Cas call them? Grigori?” Dean asked.

“They’re angels who were deemed too vicious to leave heaven,” Sam replied.  “Some of them got out, though because we’ve taken one out before.”

“Great.  And now there’s another one of these douche bags traveling through time to friggen kidnap me,” Dean added.

“Cut!” Rich shouted.  “You guys are doing fine,” he explained.  “There’s an issue with the sound.”

“That’s not right,” I whispered to Matt.  

He looked at me quizzically as they changed Jensen’s mic out for a new one.  “What do you mean?”

“What they were saying about the Grigori,” I explained, “it’s wrong.  The Griori were some of the first angels on Earth and they went rogue.  At least, according to the Supernatural lore.”

“Hey Rich,” Matt called over his shoulder, “can you come here for a minute?”

Rich made his way over to where Matt and I were waiting for filming to pick up again.  “What’s up Matty?”

“Tell him, Rev,” Matt encouraged and Rich turned his eyes to me.

“Um, so, that line, the thing they were saying about the Grigori, it’s not right,” I told the director.  “Canonically on Supernatural, they were the first angels on Earth.”

“Huh,” Rich replied, sending a P.A. off to double check.  “It’s not that I don’t trust you, I expect he’ll come back with the same info you just told me but if I change the script like that without going through the proper checks it’s my ass on the line.”

“Oh, yeah,” I agreed.  It made a lot of sense.  “And, anyway, I mean, Biblically, or really deuterocanonically, the Grigori are actually supposed to have been gentle angels but a lot of them fell when they fell in love with human women and created the first nephilim.  The Book of Enoch says that’s why the flood happened - you know, Noah and all that - it was to rid the world of nephilim.”  I was rambling, it was one thing to meet all of these guys, another to suddenly be given a part and a line on my favorite television show, but it was a completely different beast to be correcting the writing team after the script had surely gone through a series of lore checks already.  “I’m sorry, I’m babbling.  I’ll shut up now.”

Rich and Matt laughed at that.  

“It’s fine, we’re still waiting on sound.  How do you know all of this stuff?” Rich asked, his curiosity shining in his golden eyes.

“Um, I’ve got two masters degrees in religious studies and I’m working on my Ph.D. now, focusing my dissertation on angels.  Well, on an angel,” I clarified, “but I’ve read a lot on angels in general and on the different classifications in order to narrow my topic.  It’s still too broad but I’ve got another year to figure it out.”

Jared had wandered our way while the sound crew was working with Jensen.  “Ph.D. on angels?  That’s really awesome,” he chimed in.

“Yeah.  It was something I was interested in before but the final push to really study it kind of came from the show,” I admitted.  “The introduction of angels opened up some really interesting lore and that’s when I really started reading scholarly works on them, just because I was curious.”

“And you said you’ve narrowed your research down to one angel in particular?” Jared inquired.

“Uh, yeah,” I replied, feeling the heat rise to my cheeks.  “Uh, I’m going to be focusing my work on Gabriel.  He’s one of two angels named in the Biblical canon and his role as God’s messenger is really intriguing.”

“And he’s clearly the best angel,” Rich laughed and everyone else joined in.  We all fell into easy banter while you waited to be able to resume filming.  Right around the time the sound crew finished up, the P.A. returned and confirmed what I had shared with Rich.  

When filming wrapped for this scene I went back to the costumes trailer to change back into my street clothes.  Matt was still needed on set but he, Jared, Jensen, and Rich made sure to let me know that I was invited back into the wings and Rich even had a P.A. set up a seat next to his, “just in case there’s something else you need to fix,” he said with a wink.

Part way through the evening, an official looking guy with grey hair and glasses came onto the set.  “Take 5 everyone,” Rich commanded and he walked over to the man, engaging him in conversation.  The two walked back toward where I had been sitting and were now standing, chatting with Matt.  

“Robert, this is Rev,” Rich introduced me.  “She’s the one I was telling you about.”

The man extended his hand and I shook it.  “Robert Singer, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“You as well, Mr. Singer,” I replied, wondering what the hell Rich had told him about me.

“I’ve got a proposition for you.  We’re looking for a special consultant,” Robert told you.  “You could work from anywhere and we’d send you the scripts for continuity checks and lore insights before we shoot.”

“Let me make sure I understand,” I said.  “You want me to read the Supernatural scripts ahead of time, like before filming, to make sure the lore lines up with what’s already become the show’s canon as well as to offer insights on the religious lore.”  This sounded too good to be true; there was no way I had heard him right.

“It’s something we’ve been thinking about adding for a while but we hadn’t found someone who was the right fit.  We think you might be that person,” he explained.  “You’d need to familiarize yourself with religious lore from outside of Christianity and we’ll need you to fill out some paperwork and meet a few more people, but I’m hopeful this will work out.  What do you think?”

I couldn’t believe my ears.  “Mr. Singer, I didn’t realize the job of my dreams actually existed.  I think this sounds amazing.”  I replied with a grin.

ALL THE TAGS! (forevers): @deathtonormalcy56 @supernaturalyobsessed @roxy-davenport

Matt Cohen RPF Pond Tags: @manawhaat @notnaturalanahi @for-the-love-of-dean @cici0507 @quiddy-writes @jpadjackles @teamfreewill-imagine @deals-with-demons

[missizzy]

Fic: Agent Murdock, Part 11 (Daredevil)

(Read entire work on AO3)

Tommy technically lived outside Burlington, in the city known instead as South Burlington. It was a longer trip from the church than Matt would’ve liked, and by the time he was knocking on his door, it was after lunch. Tommy had eaten a spicy one; he did not find the smell pleasant.

When Matt first rang his doorbell, his initial reaction was just an annoyed mutter. But Matt knew the instant he looked through the peephole, and that he’d been recognized. “I want to talk about Pretzel,” he called through the door. “She’s going to need your help.”

“Oh, wonderful,” Tommy sighed, though at least he sounded less frightened, and he opened the door. “Get in, and if you try anything, I have a knife on me.” Matt had smelled the metal already, but didn’t say anything.

He decline an offer of a drink, causing Tommy to growl, “You think I’d spike it?”

“I’d be able to tell if you did,” Matt said coolly. “I just don’t want to drink anything right now, especially since I’ve got a bit to explain to you, and not much time, so we should just sit down.”

Tommy did so without further protest, and listened as Matt explained the situation to him as quickly as he could. When he’d finished, he said, “These days, I wish I hadn’t followed her here.”

“But you’re here now,” said Matt. “And I can tell you want to save her.” He genuinely could too; the man wasn’t hard to read at all.

“Do you really think…” Tommy started.

“I know you care for her, and that’s all I need to know. The rest isn’t important right now, not for either of us.”

“There are a lot of things that aren’t important to you,” was Tommy’s response. “Like all three of us.”

“Not true,” said Matt.

“So you’re going to claim you care so much about three random criminals in trouble?” He would never believe that.

But Matt could just reply, “No, because Pretzel is not random to me, because she’s not random to Karen.”

“Oh?” Tommy was to try to scoff. Matt had heard more successful. “Don’t tell me. She’s seeing herself in Pretzel, isn’t she?”

“Yes, she is, and honestly, if anything happened to Pretzel? I don’t know if she’d ever get over it. And anything that would do that to her, Tommy, I would do anything to prevent. You don’t have to appreciate my essentially selfish reasons, you don’t have be impressed with me at all, and you don’t have to like me, but I think you should believe me when I say that.”

“I do,” Tommy sounded surprised as he said it, but his heartbeat was steady.

“So,” said Matt. “We need to work together to get Pretzel out. I think if you’re honest with yourself, you’ll recognize she needed out even before Karen and I entered the picture.”

“Yeah,” said Tommy, he’d obviously had thoughts along those lines already. “Do you have any actual plans right now besides break into the phones and go from there?”

“We have to drop the high-tech weapon off at a certainly place tomorrow,” said Matt. “Our CIA contact asked us to do that. Other than that, we’re still reacting to events. Remember we’re not the ones laying the trap. I know that’s not easy to cope with, having to be reactive rather than active-”

“Oh, is that what fancy language you’re going to use to justify that you don’t have a plan?”

“We do have a plan,” Matt dropped his voice, let a little bit of the ice in; he didn’t have much patience at the moment. “The plan is not set up to comply with what your idea of a plan is; it is set up to give us the greatest chance at succeeding. Let me remind you that we are much more experienced than you in this sort of thing.”

“Are you really?” Tommy hadn’t been unaffected, but he was trying to hide that; he might have succeeded had Matt been able to hear only his voice. “You’re used to working for an organization, same as me and CJ. You’re not used to running and fumbling around without one. Don’t you go acting all high and mighty. Doesn’t that get people killed?”

Show no weakness, Matt knew. So he gave no indication of how Tommy’s words struck him, only increasing the ice as he said, “We’re used to being out in the field and making our own calls all the time. Your best chance of getting what you want is still to do as I say, and you ought to realize that.”

It won the argument; Tommy took another moment to admit it, but then sighed, “I can probably safely call CJ after 2. I know where your church is, and the two of us could probably get there between 4:30 and 5. We could even try to bring Pretzel with us, but that would be a lot riskier for more than one reason. I can contact her afterwards; Platzer won’t have to know.” He was more firm with those final words, and Matt believed he’d make sure he didn’t.

He was back in the bus and making his slow way back when Karen called, “Sharon’s emailed me back,” she said. “She says there’ll be backup arriving in Burlington tomorrow night, but that she can’t control the exact time of their arrival, and they might even show up in the middle of the fight.”

“You willing to go through with this anyway?” he asked. “We could call it off; even leave the city and make them aware of it, or just try to make them think we’ve left.”

A pause; she was definitely tempted. But then she said, “We’re committed to this, and there’s no way we can avoid endangering all three of them now.” There was a little guilt there, but more than that, she sounded resolute. Matt couldn’t quite get her heartbeat through the phone line, but he thought he knew what it sounded like anyway.

Later That Afternoon

Karen sat with the laptop and their other things in one of the back pews, rereading Sharon Carter’s latest missive, when Matt first climbed into the confessional and made the sign of the cross. “Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. It’s been a week and four days since my last confession.” That was the one where the fornication with Karen had been his biggest thing to confess. The priest he’d regularly confessed to in D.C. had urged him to propose when he’d finished confessing more than once.

This was a different man, of course. One who had heard many confessions already that day, but might have still been a little stunned when Matt had finished giving the one he had to give. Matt couldn’t be sure what his response would be. He’d run into a lot of priests who would refuse to be phased at all and just go through the rest of the rite, sometimes with a clear wish to just get him out of there, but also those who would urge him to turn away from his evil organization. At least none of them had ever broken the seal of confession as far as he knew.

This one, apparently, decided to start with his final admission, the one newly in his head thanks to what Tommy had said. “You seem pretty unsure about your motivations, whether they were out of pride or not.”

“Well, I only realized how arrogant a thing this was to do this afternoon. I don’t think Karen’s thought about it, but, well, she’s the one this guy hurt so badly. I mean, that’s a lot more understandable on her part. I…I don’t have that excuse.”

“You’ve just confessed to a good deal of rage yourself on her behalf.”

“And I know that’s not even entirely my place, you know. The Goldsmith told Karen for years that he was her protection. She hasn’t wanted to be anyone’s to protect since then.”

“Doesn’t mean she can’t do with the help, does it? You two are certainly involved in a dangerous game, and you’ve said you have to play it out, and your reasoning is such I can’t even urge you to reconsider.” He sounded regretful over that. Matt would’ve been sad if he hadn’t.

“And when that’s over?” Matt asked.

“I can give you penance to do, of course. But you are talking about things where you both must find your way for yourself.”

The timing was pretty good. As Matt left the confessional, he could hear Tommy outside, accompanied by another male voice he hoped was CJ, both of them talking low. “…wouldn’t even be considering this if it wasn’t for you,” he heard the new voice say.

“It’s only for a couple of days.” That was Tommy’s voice. “Then we’re out of danger, one way or another.”

“Those potential ways including us being dead or in prison.”

“Look, the asshole’s right. I can’t leave Pretzel where she is right now. Especially since I really think if this goes on much longer, the Goldsmith will turn her into his next Karina Silver. There’s a reason I made you watch that video, and we both know it wasn’t exactly to turn you on, was it?”

“No, of course not.” There was a hard sort of humor to CJ’s voice, but it softened as he said, “I do want to help her, though. I like her, you know, I really do.”

“Let’s all three of us get out of here together, then,” said Tommy. “You could come with us back to Maine.”

“No, if we’re going, we’re going south,” said CJ. “Didn’t you say you two wanted to get somewhere warm? Let’s go to Florida.”

“Florida sounds nice,” Tommy sighed. Matt could hear their steps slow down as they approached the church entrance. “You gotta let go of me, CJ. There are priests in there, and according to Murdock’s leaked profile, he was raised very Catholic.”

Well, that made the situation a bit clearer. It seemed Tommy really wasn’t in love with Pretzel, though that probably didn’t matter too much right now. It stung, though, to hear them assume he’d be judgmental. He wasn’t of others, whatever issues he’d had of parts of him he’d never really dealt with, and certainly never acted on, though he knew them to exist.

They’d found and been greeted by Karen by the time Matt joined them. CJ found him very attractive; that much was clear by the time they’d finished shaking hands. Matt was used to that, and normally it didn’t throw him. But it felt a little disconcerting now, to hear the man’s heart pick up when his boyfriend was standing right there.

It wasn’t something Karen even noticed, he thought. She relayed the latest from Sharon to them as she handed over the phones. As CJ set to work on them, Karen got Tommy talking about Pretzel, and they learned everything from the plans she’d had to major in Geography to the brief obsession she’d had with OneRepublic.

An hour or so later, CJ put down the phones loudly enough to get their attention, and said, “You people are lucky. I found something interesting.”

Karen and Tommy walked over to him; Matt thought they were looking at the phones. Tommy was, because a moment later he said, “They were all in contact with Mal Burrows?”

“Not only that, but we’ve got two people who texted with Mr. Ice.”

“Mr. Ice,” said Karen. “We know a little bit about him.” He’d been briefly mentioned in Sharon’s files. “His real name is Alex Argos, and he’s a likely Hydra operative nobody’s managed to get enough evidence against to do anything about.”

“Yeah, that’s what we’ve heard too,” said CJ. “Unfortunately, as you can see, his text messages are vague enough they’ll never prove it, but when he says here to this guy-”

“Johnny Partridge,” Karen interjected, obviously for Matt’s benefit.

“-that he’ll meet him at 6 AM tomorrow with ‘the birds’? I know that’s code for Burrows.”

“But will he do that now?” Matt asked. “They might change all their plans, since they know we might break into these phones.”

“If they can get back into contact with the two of them,” said Tommy. “That can be tricky for multiple reasons.”

“He also says,” Karen added, “that they’ll meet in ‘the courtyard.’ Is that code too?”

“Yeah,” said CJ. “That’s a specific place by the river. You know, if they’re trying right now to get in contact with Burrows or Ice, I’m actually someone Johnny might ask for help, if I can manage to bump into him this evening. There’s a good chance he’ll be in his usual watering hole. I tag along, maybe even claim I…I’ve got reason to dislike Pretzel, because I can cite ones they’ll believe, and we can probably get this set up. There’s more than one Hydra operative and more than one of his own operatives who’d love to be the ones to deliver the two of you to the Goldsmith.”

“Could we even lure more people in?” Karen. “I know we could encourage the Goldsmith to make a big party of it, won’t it? He’ll bring all his most important people with him, at least as much as is practical. Would it be if this all happened in this ‘courtyard’?”

“Place is big enough, and a lot of people could get there without attracting too much attention, but um, this is sounding like the kind of setup where at least one of you would have to allow yourself to actually get captured,” said Tommy doubtfully. “I mean, Ice would probably insist on only calling the guy in after they’ve got something to present to him.”

“I’ll do it,” said Matt immediately. “They’ll be much worse to you, Karen, you know that.”

“If it comes to that,” was Karen’s response. “Maybe if we stage this right I could even get Pretzel out of there; she’ll have served her purpose if they get you, right?” That was probably a reason for him to let himself get captured right there, though Karen would probably refuse to think that.

Fortunately, the two guys with them both would. “You can take care of yourself,” said Tommy, “right, Mr. Murdock?” He asked it a little challengingly, as if daring him to claim he couldn’t.

That kind of maneuvering was easy for Matt to ignore. “I think I’d be all right,” he said, “so long as you can tell me they wouldn’t try to kill me before the Goldsmith gets there.” With Hydra, that was a very legitimate concern.

“They won’t if they know what’s good for them,” said Karen. “The Hydra people try, the Goldsmith’s people might just kill them.” If she was saying that, it was definitely true.

“So,” said CJ. “I’ll go find Johnny, sound him out. Got a good way to get into contact with you afterwards? Any suggestions for how someone can get some sort of word to Pretzel of what’s going down? I suppose if all else fails I could try whispering it to her while we’re holding her captive…”

“I hope not,” said Tommy, very strongly.

“We’ve got an email address we can give you. Send it encrypted if you can. Right now I don’t think we plan on leaving this church today, but of course there’s always the chance we could be found here.”

“It’s a cold place to sleep,” said CJ.

“We’ll deal with it. We’ve both slept in worse.” At least they’d be out of the elements in here, which was more than could be said for the previous night. Good thing, too, because Matt had read enough in the air to be sure rain was currently imminent.

“Just one thing worries me,” said Karen when the two men had left, and they’d retreated to an out of the way corner of the church. “I didn’t think it smart to say this in front of those guys, but I wish I knew what reason he’s going to give them for turning on Pretzel.”

“It’s all right,” said Matt, quick to realize what she feared. “It won’t be a true one. He’s just going to claim he’s romantically jealous.”

And he quickly explained to her what he had overheard. When she heard about their fears of Matt’s getting upset, she chuckled slightly. “I’m wondering how many people in this world will want to assume whatever bad things about us that they can, even if they don’t believe we’re Hydra or evil or things like that. Or maybe they think that about all Catholics are like that? You wouldn’t believe some of the things about Catholics my parents claimed to be true…”

It came out so easily, and Matt couldn’t detect any signs of tension out of her. Yet she’d never before talked about her youngest years in so casual a way. Maybe being brought close to it had loosened her up, or maybe all the changes to their lives in general lately had made her feel more willing to tell him things she hadn’t before.

He could return the favor right now, he supposed. Outside the confessional, he’d never told anyone that he’d had sexual feelings for men. Karen wouldn’t care or tell anyone; it was perfectly safe. But it felt like an inappropriate time to be making such confessions, when they had so much to worry about. Maybe when the mission was over.

For now, he said, “In any case, I heard him say he liked Pretzel, and his heartbeat was steady when he did. So you don’t have to worry.”

“Good.” It had started raining out while he’d been talking, making him hope the boys caught their bus back quickly. Now it was getting loud enough for Karen to hear too. “I always liked the sound of rain on the church roof,” she commented. “Though I always dreaded then having to go out into it.” But she stopped talking suddenly there, and her heart sped up, having likely run into something she still wasn’t willing to talk about.

Matt just smiled and said, “Good thing we don’t have to then, right? Let’s get further back. The priest will be much less annoyed with us if we stay out of his eyesight, though he still won’t kick us out either way.”

That Night

After two nights of getting to bed very late, that evening Matt and Karen were asleep by eight, wrapped up in their blanket in the back of the pews. Matt was sure one of them had meant to set an alarm, but it didn’t happen. Perhaps they were getting too fatigued to go on any more missions.

Instead they woke up, as they had that morning, to find Pretzel very unexpectedly standing over them. The smell of opioids was stronger than had been either time he’d been in her company so far. The scrape of her heels on the church floor had a very faint echo in the too heavy air, and her breathing before she spoke was strange. In Matt’s sleep-addled brain, it took nearly half a minute to convince himself she wasn’t some weird dream or vision (or whatever you called those when they didn’t involving seeing anything; he wouldn’t know) and focus on what she was saying:

“…wrote it all down here and said you could read it out loud to him.” She flapped the paper about as she handed it to Karen. “He says he doesn’t care how suspicious you two showing up so quickly looks.”

“No objection to that.” Karen climbed out of the blanket, leaving behind air that felt much colder. “They’ll probably just assume we’d been tracking them already, although if he really thinks it was too dangerous to email us tonight...”

Matt moved to get to his feet as well, but was only up on his knees when Pretzel said, “I have too many questions to ask you, and is there even anywhere in this church where your boyfriend here couldn’t hear us?”

“You’d have to walk out further than is entirely safe,” said Matt, not even bothering with protesting the label. “Besides, we should go over these instructions together.” He also wanted to know what they consisted of as quickly as possible.

Pretzel dropped to her knees, then tapped the floor with both hands, obvious to make sure he knew she was there. “It’s a pretty simple deal for you. They call me at about ten tomorrow, claiming the Goldsmith wants me to come to the appropriate venue and not tell Vernon. They think I wouldn’t tell him; of course I would normally.” Matt couldn’t tell from her heart whether that was true or not; she probably didn’t even know. “They kidnap me, then send you two video.” Her shudder was loud; that was probably going to be the worst part for her.

“CJ’s going to be with them,” Karen continued. “Though he’ll have to be out of Pretzel’s company, since of course he wouldn’t want his boyfriend to know his involvement in this. That should give him plenty of opportunity to get away from the others and keep in touch with us. When we get near the courtyard, one man will bring Pretzel out the backdoor and make himself look like an easy target, with a bunch more lying in ambush. CJ says he can get one door ‘accidentally’ latched which will delay them by a couple of minutes, enough for us to overpower the guy and for the two of us to escape.”

“Here’s the interesting part,” said Pretzel. “Apparently, according to CJ, it’s not entirely inconsistent with your behavior, Agent Murdock, to stay behind and continue to hit my guard even when I’m away from him and the sensible thing would be for everyone involved to run?”

Matt had to bend his head a little as he said, “No, it’s not, that’s happened.” It was a temptation he’d been fighting from that first mission against the Goldsmith onward, and a battle that every once in a great while he had lost, usually when rescuing a victim who had been young, or egregiously abused. The devil in him getting out, and rational thought fleeing. He’d even been reprimanded for it once. “So that’s what I’m to do there? Lose control and hit the guy until the others get out and overpower me?”

“Basically,” said Karen, and he could hear her angry internal reaction, since this would probably worsen his treatment at his captors’ hands. The boys had been smart to send Pretzel to them to break the news. Either of them she wouldn’t have been nice to. “Meanwhile, according to this, Tommy’s going to spend the morning falling in with Victor Morino-that’s the Hydra agent you overheard in Ashtovka’s apartment making the original suggestion. Once Pretzel is safely away and they have you instead, CJ will call Tommy and invite him to the courtyard, saying he can share in the credit of capturing you.”

“Tommy can let Victor know about this,” Pretzel picked up, “and CJ seems convinced Morino will get mad at his idea being stolen, and come charging with most of the Goldsmith’s remaining Hydra allies with him. Though Tommy’ll have to come with him. Once he arrives, CJ’s priority becomes getting the two of them out of there. If you tell him to do anything to help you hold everyone there until the cavalry comes, he’ll do it, but he expects you to come up with the plans at that point.”

“I’ll drop the gun off for Sharon, obviously,” mused Karen. “I can leave a note with it updating her on the current situation and directing the reinforcements to the courtyard, just in case she can’t get in contact with them. I’ll then head there myself. I can email Sharon and tell her they need to be in Burlington as soon after 5 as possible, but I can lead a few men on a chase through the building to keep them in it for at least half an hour, maybe longer, depending on the building size and maybe state of repair.”

“I can draw you a diagram,” Pretzel offered, and she set to work, saying, “The courtyard is a storage facility the Goldsmith bought out a couple of years ago; most of it isn’t in use. Four floors, takes up about half the block. They’ve got a loading dock in the southwest corner; most of our activities take place pretty near it. The elevators closest to it work; I don’t know if the ones on the far side of the building still do. The rooms there might be in bad shape, I don’t know.”

An actual measurement would’ve been of much more use than “half the block,” but Matt doubt Pretzel had ever thought about how big a building was before. Meanwhile, he put his hand forward and allowed Karen to guide it, taking in what Pretzel had drawn. “If the elevators are offline, I can definitely hold out for an hour. Although, you know, Matt, if I managed to break you out to come with me, we’d likely last even longer.”

“Feel free to do that, then,” Matt grinned. “As long as I stay in running shape.” Although he was pretty sure if he was in worse condition, Karen would probably come in gun blazing, grab him, and run as much as she could do so while dragging him along, abandoning the plan.

Even now, she gripped his wrist, and growled, “You stay in it.”

There was a pause, and then Pretzel said, “I’ve been trying to know what to make of you, Agent Murdock. You make a show of being the perfect man to your girl here, but I wonder about you and your violence. I think we’ve both had experiences of violent men who insist they’re protecting us already, haven’t we, Agent Page? And if you want to point out that you don’t hit her, well, Vernon doesn’t hit me either.”

“Believe me,” Matt said, because Karen’s shocked reaction didn’t sound like it would let her speak immediately, “you’ve thought nothing about me I haven’t dwelt upon myself.” He didn’t even try to keep the neutral tone he’d always kept around her before that moment; he wanted her to hear his doubt.

He thought she did, because her voice softened a little bit as she said, “Keep thinking about it, Agent Murdock. Someone ought to besides us women.” She’d stood up while speaking, and now she turned on her heel and walked out, neither agent making any attempt to stop her.