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ceealaina · 4 years

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Title: Who Do You Want Me to Be? Collaborator Name: ceealaina Card: TSB - 4008 IHB - 2007 Link: AO3 Square Filled: TSB A1 - Tony Stark/James Rhodes IHB G3 - Guilt Ship: IronHusbands Rating: Explicit Major Tags: Friends to Lovers, Pining, Pre-Iron Man 1 Summary: It's the early 90s and Rhodey's just returned stateside with a shiny new promotion. So of course Tony turns up like a one-man USO troupe to help him celebrate. And all of a sudden Rhodey's seeing Tony in a whole new light. Word Count: 7908

Rhodey sighed and rolled his neck, trying to stave off the headache he could feel building in his skull as he listened to the hold music. After he’d come back from Kuwait there had been medals, and ceremonies, and promotions, and now he was halfway through his extended leave. He’d been excited about having three straight weeks off when they’d first offered it to him, but his family had only been able to get time off for about a week, leaving him to entertain himself for the rest of the time. Some of his Air Force buddies were here too, and the hotel they’d been put up in was really nice, and he wasn’t… not having fun, exactly. But he’d been feeling antsy and unsettled and maybe a little lonely -- especially when all his friends had brought their girlfriends along to stay.

The hold music clicked off then and a moment later there was a soft, feminine voice on the line. “Stark Industries, Tony Stark’s office. How may I direct your call?”

Rhodey rolled his eyes a little -- not at her, just at the idea of his dumbass former roommate having a personal assistant. “I’m calling for Tony, please.” (Obviously, he resisted the urge to add. Why else would he be calling Tony Stark’s office.)

“I’m sorry, I’m afraid Mr. Stane has asked that all Mr. Stark’s calls be held today. May I take a message?”

“Oh, uh…” Rhodey fought back a sigh. “It’s Captain Rhodes, calling for Tony please.”

“Oh, of course!” she said, her tone changing. “I’ll put you right through. And if I may, congratulations on your promotion, Captain.”

“Thanks,” Rhodey told her genuinely, grinning despite himself as he imagined Tony going around telling everybody in the office, down to his damn secretary. The hold music came back on but it was just a few seconds before it clicked off again.

“Hey handsome,” Tony’s voice drawled down the line. “How’s your leave going? Partying it up? Knock anyone up yet??”

“Jesus,” Rhodey muttered, laughing a little as he flopped back on his bed and scrubbed a hand over his hair. “You never stop, do you?”

“Don’t lie, you love it.”

Maybe it was Rhodey’s imagination, or maybe he was projecting, but he thought Tony sounded tired.

“Yeah, I do,” he agreed, unable to keep back a little sigh at the admission.

“Hey, you alright?” Tony’s tone was teasing. “You’re sounding awfully maudlin for somehow who just got about a metric shit ton of commendations from the Air Force.”

Rhodey huffed out a laugh. “Yeah, I’m good,” he promised, scratching at his chin; he’d skipped shaving the last few days. And then, because he’d had just enough beer with dinner to keep him honest, “It feels weird celebrating without you here, man.”

“Hey, you know I’d be there if I could, right?” Tony sounded agonized, and Rhodey felt his stomach sour with guilt. Tony’s parents had barely died a year ago, and he had a ton on his plate. Rhodey should have been checking in on him more, not making him feel guilty for not dropping everything to fly across the country and keep Rhodey company. “I’m really sorry.” Tony gave a little laugh but it sounded forced and even more exhausted than before. “I’d much, much rather be there, believe me. This is… Well it’s just that there are these deadlines looming, and Obie’s been really pushing me to come up with the next great thing, and since my parents--,” He choked on the word, cleared his throat, tried again. “Since dad died the board’s been on my ass, and everyone’s got ideas about what I should be doing and saying and how I should be behaving. I just couldn’t get away.”

“Hey, no, come on.” Rhodey shook his head, even though Tony couldn’t see him. The other man still sounded pained, like he was letting Rhodey down and it killed him, and Rhodey was gonna shut that idea down fast. “It’s totally fine, Tones, I promise. I miss you, but I can still survive without you, you twerp.”

Tony snorted. “You sure about that?”

“I’ll get by. And hey, when things settle down I’m sure I can get a couple days off. We’ll live it up like it’s 1985.”

“So… Cheap beer and terrible videos?”

“You know it baby.”

“Yeah, alright.” Tony hummed. “I miss that,” he admitted quietly. “No stakes. And I miss you too, Honeybear.”

“Obviously,” Rhodey told him. “I’m a goddamn gift, Stark.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Tony told him. And then his voice shifted, obviously talking to someone. “Yeah, I know. No, I didn’t forget Obie, I just had something come up. I’ll be right there, I promise… Just let me finish this call.”

There was a long moment of silence, long enough that Rhodey wondered if Obie hadn’t let it go, if Tony had had to hang up on him.

“Sorry,” Tony finally said, just as Rhodey was wondering if he should hang up too. He sounded completely deflated, all traces of good mood evaporated. “Board meeting. Guess I better go.”

“Man, I thought CEO meant you’d have more freedom,” Rhodey teased, trying to make Tony a little brighter. But there was no trace of humour in Tony’s voice when he replied.

“Yeah. Me too.” There was a shuffling of papers. “Shit, okay, I really better go. Obie’s gonna be pissed if he has to come back to get me again. Have, like, an entire bottle of champagne for me, yeah?”

Rhodey smiled despite himself. “Sure, Tones,” he agreed. “Don’t work too hard.”

The line was dead before he finished the words.

***

Despite everything, Rhodey woke up feeling better the next morning; talking to Tony always seemed to have that effect, even if he was a chaotic disaster child. He was still lonely -- especially after watching Mikey literally feeding his girlfriend waffles at brunch the next morning -- but it felt more tolerable after that.

And then, just as a group of them were making plans to do something for the afternoon, he heard a low whistle from behind him. “Hey sailors,” an extremely familiar voice drawled. “Enjoying your leave?”

Rhodey whipped around so fast it was a miracle he didn’t injure himself, watching as Tony sauntered into the room, wearing his sunglasses inside like a complete asshole. “I know you know it's the Air Force, you absolute jackass,” he told him, grinning wide.

Tony just shrugged, his smile just as bright, and Rhodey got up to give him a huge hug -- no delicate ‘bro’ hugs for them. He could feel Tony sink into it the way he always did when he got a proper hug and Rhodey squeezed him a little tighter, letting go just before it got weird.

“What are you doing here, man? I thought you were in LA.”

Tony rolled his eyes. “Dude, I’ve got like a fleet of private jets. What’s the point of being CEO if I don’t get to fly them at my whim.”

Rhodey just gave him a pointed look and Tony shrugged again.

“I don’t know, you sounded bummed on the phone, and I don’t trust the US of Army to be showing you boys a proper good time, so I snuck out.”

“Again, it’s Air Force, and you know that.” Rhodey was still grinning. “It’s good to see you, Tones.” He cleared his throat then, realizing he’d been staring at Tony, and steered him towards his friends. “Come on, come meet everyone.”

Tony, of course, immediately charmed everyone, making the rounds and introducing himself and laughing like they were all old friends before pulling up a chair at the table and stealing the rest of Rhodey’s waffles like he couldn’t afford his own. It felt nice, right, the way things were supposed to be. He was maybe a little worried about the sudden decision to just take off, but it wasn’t like Tony’s relationship to spontaneity was a new one. It was probably his version of sticking it to the man, or just his best friend being his normal over-the-top self when it came to showing his affection for their friendship.

Or maybe, Rhodey reconsidered when he saw the activities Tony had booked for them, he was working out his 'I'm-as-good-as-Captain-America-right-Dad?' issues.

“Jesus man,” he said, laughing as he read over a copy of itinerary that Tony’d had his secretary print out and fucking laminate for everyone. “You’ve got helicopter tours of the city on here. What are you, the one-man USO girl troupe?”

Tony just looked over from where he’d been writing down the contact info for some exclusive wedding venue for Matt’s fiancée. “That’s for later, baby,” he purred with a ridiculous, lascivious wink that had Rhodey busting out laughing. The whole thing was insane and over-the-top and ninety million percent Tony, and everyone seemed onboard so Rhodey figured, why not?

And the day was a blast. Overdone it might have been, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t a great time. Tony had won everyone over in about five seconds flat, and the more ridiculous his antics the more they seemed to like him -- not that Rhodey was surprised, since that described their entire relationship. And he loved having Tony there with him, hadn’t even realized just how much he’d missed having him by his side.

Tony had, apparently, planned some big dinner and party for them all at the hotel, so after a packed day everyone had gone back to their rooms to rest and get ready. Rhodey had had just enough time to dump his wallet and keys and strip off his shirt before there was a knock on his door. He wasn’t even surprised when he opened it and found Tony on the other side, leaning coquettishly against the frame. Rhodey snorted but didn’t acknowledge his positioning further, just left the door open and turned back into the room. He could practically hear Tony pouting at his lack of response, but he followed him in anyway, flinging himself across Rhodey’s bed.

“Hey handsome,” he purred, dragging his eyes up and down Rhodey’s bare chest.

“You’re hopeless,” Rhodey told him, throwing his t-shirt at Tony’s face.

“Wow,” Tony mumbled, words muffled from underneath the fabric. “Rude.”

Rhodey laughed, grabbing a dress shirt from the closest. “Hey,” he said, sitting on the side of the bed and smacking Tony’s leg. “How’re you doing, man? Like really. Not that I’m not happy to see you, but what are you even doing here? You okay?”

“Huh?” Tony pulled the shirt off his face, giving Rhodey a borderline-manic smile. “Fine, great, excellent.” He sat up fluttering his eyelashes at Rhodey. “Why do you ask?”

Rhodey rolled his eyes at him. “Don’t do that, Tones. Come on.”

Tony shrugged, suddenly fascinated by an invisible stray thread on his pants. “I don’t know,” he mumbled, like he was five. He looked back up at Rhodey, his eyes suddenly tired. “I’m running the company. It’s busy.”

“Busy,” Rhodey replied dryly.

Tony rolled his eyes at him. “There’s… It’s a lot. And Obie’s, I don’t know… Different, I guess, when I’m the CEO, and… I don’t know. It’s weird not having you around, and you know me, I don’t think things through so I just figured, why not? And now I’m here.”

“Mmm,” Rhodey considered this a moment and then turned to Tony with a bright grin. “Are you saying I’m your happy place, Stark?”

“You know it, Honeybear,” Tony retorted, and he was obviously going for dry and sarcastic, but there was something a little too sincere in his voice, a shy little smile unwillingly teasing across his lips.

“Hey, it’s okay, baby,” Rhodey told him. “I’ll be your happy place. I make you feel all warm and safe and squishy inside, that’s totally fine with me, man. I’m very comfortable in my masculinity.”

“You’re very stupid, is what you are,” Tony retorted, but that little smile had turned into a full-fledged grin, and the stress lines around his eyes were fading a little.

Rhodey flicked Tony’s nipple, just for the strangled wheezing noise he made and the way he clapped his hand to his chest, staring at Rhodes like he had some kind of virtue to protect. “Takes one to know one,” Rhodey informed him childishly before sobering a little. “Seriously, Tones, don’t overdo it though, alright?”

Tony blinked back at him innocently. “Overdo it? Me?”

“Yeah, yeah, I know, that’s your middle name or whatever. I mean it, though. You need a break, take it. Not that I don’t appreciate it, but this is a lot. We’ll survive without a round of helicopter paintball or whatever you have planned next.” He rolled his eyes at the look on Tony's face. “No, that’s not a suggestion.”

Tony pouted a little before he relented. “Rhodey, honey, I promise, this is a break for me. I’m having a blast.”

“Yeah, alright.” Rhodey smacked his leg. “Come on then, Captain Overdo It. Somebody said something about a party downstairs. You wanna borrow my shower? Maybe a fresh shirt? You stink, dude.”

“I don’t stink,” Tony scoffed. “I’ll have you know my cologne is imported, and very expensive.” He made a show of sniffling his own armpit and then wrinkled his nose. “Yeah, okay, maybe I’ll grab a quick shower,” he said before suddenly sitting upright so fast he nearly gave Rhodey whiplash. “Oh, no wait, I just remembered! I, uh… Left something in my room. I’ll shower there. Meet you downstairs?”

He was gone before Rhodey could actually give him an answer, leaving him shaking his head as the door fell shut behind him. “Whatever, weirdo.”

***

Rhodey occupied himself with his Air Force buddies, drinking and shooting the shit while he waited for whatever crazy surprise Tony had cooked up now. He was upstairs long enough that Rhodey was just considering going up to make sure he hadn’t gotten trapped in the shower curtain or something when Mikey’s jaw dropped, eyes going wide. “Oh my god,” he muttered as the room erupted into jeers and catcalls.

Rhodey spun around and nearly fell off his stool as Tony sauntered into the room in a vintage Captain America USO girl costume, complete with halter top, red and white flared miniskirt, and a pair of ridiculous starry blue heels. “Oh my god,” Rhodey echoed, completely able to look away.

Tony stopped a few feet away and cocked his hip, the heels and the angle making his ass even more gorgeous than usual. “Hey sailor,” he purred with a ridiculous, over-the-top wink, and Rhodey couldn’t even find it in himself to remind Tony once again that they were Air Force, not Navy. Tony just smirked at him. “Told you I was going to show you boys a good time.” He stilled then, waiting for some kind of a reaction, and there was the slightest bit of hesitation creeping into his smile.

“Jesus Christ,” Rhodey finally managed, shaking his head and laughing, and Tony relaxed again. “You are an absolute idiot.”

Tony shrugged. “That’s not what the shareholders say,” he answered, and without skipping a beat he closed the distance between them and plopped himself in Rhodey’s lap, sitting sideways and stealing Rhodey’s beer.

“Yeah, sure, help yourself,” Rhodey grumbled, signalling the laughing waitress for another. He let his hand settle on Tony’s leg since there wasn’t much room anywhere else, especially now that Tony had gotten past his skinny twink phase. The fabric was a little stiff beneath his fingers, and he peered more closely at Tony’s costume. “Wait, is this an actual USO costume?”

Tony shrugged, unphased as he stole Jake’s fries. “Dad had some weird shit in his Captain America collection. ‘S mine now.” He shot Rhodey a bright smile over his shoulder as he popped another fry in his mouth, winking at him in the process.

“Jesus,” Rhodey muttered. He shifted his legs a little, the left one starting to go to sleep. “You’re fucking heavy, man. Is there something wrong with the chairs?”

Tony just squirmed his ass a little harder on Rhodey’s thighs. “Well, you know. You’re the only one here without a girlfriend, so I figured I’d step in.”

“Just helpin’ out, huh?” Rhodey asked dryly.

“Exactly.” Tony agreed. “Just helping out.”

Rhodey shrugged and resigned himself to spending the evening like this, shifting into a slightly more comfortable position and then pinching Tony’s side hard for good measure. He yelped, loudly, and Rhodey cracked up, nearly dumping Tony on the floor in the process. He looked up a second later in time to catch the end of a look shared between Mikey and Jake and frowned a little. “What?”

“Nothing!” Mikey said quickly, Jake holding up his hands innocently. “Just, you know… This explains so much.”

“Explains what?” Rhodey asked suspiciously.

“Well, I mean… You’re very…” He trailed off, looking for the right word, and Jake snickered.

“Uptight?” he offered.

“And this explains that,” Mikey said.

Rhodey blinked back at them, not following, and Jake gestured toward Tony, distracted with talking to somebody else.

“You left all your stupid at home.”

Immediately Tony whipped around to face them. “You calling me stupid?” he asked, face lighting up. “Awesome.”

“You are stupid,” Rhodey told him.

“Awww. Love you too, Honeybear.”

The thing was, Rhodey was so used to Tony being Tony that he didn’t even give his behaviour a second thought. The constant flirting, the sexual innuendos, the way he strutted around in those ridiculous heels like he wore them every day, arching his back in ways that seemed strategically designed to draw Rhodey’s eyes to his ass… It was all the same Tony he’d known every day since he met him. And sure, as the night went on and the booze flowed his eyes drifted to Tony’s ass even without Tony’s doing everything he could to draw attention to it, but that was nothing new either. It was just… How they were.

Tony was back in his lap again, his weight oddly comforting. Rhodey hadn’t even noticed his hand snaking around Tony’s waist until it was suddenly vibrating beneath him.

“What the hell?” Rhodey yelped, voice way too high. He snatched his hand back like something had bit him and Tony nearly laughed himself sick.

“Sorry, sorry,” he said, pulling out a monster of a cell phone. He wiggled the ringing device. “Top of the line,” he told him before he glanced down at the caller id and his face fell a little. Rhodey felt his heart clench sympathetically as Tony blew out a deep sigh. “It’s Obie,” he said. “I, uh… I should take this.” He gave Rhodey a smile, but even in his half drunk state, Rhodey could tell it was a little forced. “Back in a flash.”

With Tony gone, Rhodey leaned back and let the voices and music and laughter and general sounds of the party wash over him as he sipped at his beer. He was vaguely aware of Jake wandering off too, and Mikey sliding over to the seat beside him, and he grinned when Mikey clapped him on the shoulder.

“Having a good time?”

“Uh, yeah,” Mikey agreed, gazing around at the light show and DJ that Tony had brought in from somewhere. “This is insane.”

Rhodey shrugged, vaguely aware that he was grinning. “That’s Tony.”

“Yeah…” Mikey glanced around and shifted a little closer. “Hey, Captain?”

“Mmm?”

“I’m not asking, and you’re not telling, but please god, kiss your boyfriend he explodes.” He grinned then, and while Rhodey was left blinking back at him, he gave him a wink and wandered off after Jake.

“No,” Rhodey said weakly, even though Mikey was far enough away that he never would have heard him even without the noise of the party. “He’s… I’m… We’re not…”

But the thing was, why weren’t they? If he was really, truly honest with himself, in the way that only came with a bit of a buzz, there’d always been something there, an extra side to their friendship that they’d never quite touched on. The flirting, the grand gestures… They’d been dancing around each other for years, really, and apparently hadn’t even been that subtle about it.

Abruptly, Rhodey shoved his chair back from the table he was sitting at, looking around the room for Tony. He had no idea what he was going to do or say to him, but now that it had been pointed out, he couldn’t stand another second of letting this hang over them without doing something about it.

There was no sign of Tony in the bar, probably still on the phone, but Rhodey noticed a promising looking side door, half propped open. Slipping through found him in a concrete back hallway of the hotel where, more importantly, he could hear Tony’s voice bouncing off the walls. He followed the sound, and found him around a corner further down the hall. He was still on the phone with Obie, leaning against the wall with his eyes closed and a pinched, tired look on his face that Rhodey didn’t like at all. He didn’t appear to have heard Rhodey, though through some trick of acoustics Rhodey could hear Obie’s voice filtering through the tinny speakers of the phone, demanding to know when Tony was going to be back from his distraction of a vacation.

Rhodey wasn’t wasted by any means, but he was just drunk enough for it to seem like a good idea to step forward and take the phone out of Tony’s hand. Tony’s eyes snapped open, and Rhodey had the brief thought that they really were gorgeous, even when looking confused, before he held the phone up to his own ear.

“Hey Obadiah?” he said down the line, not even stumbling over the name as he cut off whatever the other man was saying. “Fuck off.”

Tony’s eyes went even wider as Rhodey punched the off button. “Rhodey… What?” His tongue flicked out against his lower lip, a nervous tic that he’d had for years, but Rhodey’s eyes focused on his lips with the motion.

Rather than speaking, he let his arm drop to his side and stepped forward, closing the distance between them. His other hand came up, curling around the back of Tony’s neck, and Tony inhaled sharply, lips parting. Rhodey couldn’t resist then, leaning in to kiss him.

It was soft and sweet at first; he’d meant it to just be soft and sweet. But then Tony made a soft noise, his hands curling in Rhodey’s shirt, and without quite meaning to Rhodey deepened the kiss. The phone dropped to the floor with a loud clatter as he pushed Tony up against the wall, having just enough presence of mind to cradle his head so it didn’t smash into the concrete. His other hand dropped to Tony’s thigh and he moaned softly into his mouth at the brush of bare skin beneath the fabric of the short skirt, pressing his own thick thigh up between Tony’s legs.

And then the press of Tony’s hands against his chest changed and he was shoving instead, enough force behind it that Rhodey staggered backwards. His balance was off and when he regained his footing Tony was staring at him, a slightly shaking hand clapped over his mouth. Rhodey couldn’t quite find the words to ask what was going on and Tony regained his composure, drawing in a deep breath before he lowered his hand again.

“What the fuck are you doing, Rhodes?” he asked, and his voice was low and cold but there was hurt in his expression, not anger.

“I mean…” Rhodey shrugged helplessly because he’d thought it was kind of obvious, but that didn’t seem to make Tony feel better, hiding his face as he stooped to pick up his phone.

“I’m not your drunk, pity, gay experiment, Rhodey,” he said quietly, before turning and striding off down the long corridor.

Rhodey sighed, and thumped his head against the wall.

His first instinct was to take off after Tony, to try and explain what he’d been thinking. But while he wasn’t drunk drunk, he clearly wasn’t sober enough to not be a total moron, and the truth was that he hadn’t been thinking, he’d just… Wanted. So instead of going after Tony, or going back to the party, he wandered through the confusing back halls until he found an exit, slipping outside into the night air.

It was cold out, but it was refreshing after the sweltering heat of the party and Rhodey’s head felt clearer almost as soon as he was outside. Still, he wandered around for a while, trying to get his thoughts together before he ambushed Tony again. Suddenly kissing him after years of supposedly being straight probably hadn’t been the best way to handle this.

He was shivering in his shirtsleeves by the time he made it back into the lobby. The party still seemed to be going strong, but he ignored it in favour of the elevators, heading up to Tony’s room on the top floor -- penthouse, of course. He drew a deep breath before knocking, and there was a long moment of silence on the other side of the door, long enough that he was worried Tony was going to ignore him entirely, before his voice finally filtered through the thick wooden door.

“It’s open.”

Rhodey let himself in, locking the door behind him, and followed the faint sounds of splashing water to the bathroom. He found Tony stretched out in the bathtub, up to his neck in a thick layer of bubbles. He was focused intently on the faucet, although his eyes flicked briefly over to Rhodey at his appearance. Not wanting to corner him, Rhodey leaned against the bathroom door frame, hands in his pockets.

“Rich guy like you leaving your hotel room unlocked while you’re in the tub? Doesn’t seem like the safest idea.”

Tony just shrugged, still not meeting his eyes, and flicked at some bubbles. “Think I’m safe. They’re supposed to have pretty good security here. Although I guess they’re letting just anyone up here now,” he added, the words void of their usual snark. Rhodey sighed.

“Hey, so, I’m an idiot.”

Tony snorted.

“First of all, are you okay? Second of all, I think I’m missing something here. Third of all, why are you hanging out in this whirlpool. You have something approaching Olympic-sized at home, I know you do.”

Tony finally looked over at him then. His hair was soft and curling from the steam and he shoved a stray strand impatiently out of his eye. “Well, you’re definitely missing something. But I guess I like this tub because it’s here.”

“Right. That makes sense.”

“... Where you are.”

“Oh.” Rhodey felt his stomach swoop. “Oh.”

“Yeah.” Tony let his eyes cut away again. “Guess we’re both idiots, huh?”

Rhodey huffed out a laugh. Tony’s cheeks were flushed, and he was pretty sure it wasn’t just because of the heat of the water. “So all of this was…?”

“For you? Yep,” Tony confirmed dryly. “You know how I am with self control.”

“So why’d you run away when I kissed you, then?”

Tony looked over at him with an arched eyebrow. “Because you were drunk.”

“Not that drunk.”

“And I didn’t want you to regret it when you sobered up,” Tony continued, ignoring Rhodey’s interruption. “And… And… Maybe I was panicking a little. Like sure, I guess I did all this to show you I liked you but then I started thinking what if you only like me because I did all this? I wanna bang you like a screen door in a hurricane, but I never expected you to know about it, you know?”

Rhodey couldn’t help it, he started to laugh, and Tony groaned, burying his face in his wet hands, soap suds dripping down his arms.

“You wanna bang me like a screen door in a hurricane, huh?”

Tony groaned louder. “Shut up,” he grumbled, words muffled by his hands.

Rhodey ignored him, moving across the room to sit on the side of the tub and pull Tony’s hands away from his face. “That all you wanna do?” he asked softly.

Tony blinked up at him with those ridiculously wide, beautiful eyes before he shook his head. “No,” he admitted hoarsely. “I want to take you out to nice dinners, and galas, and watch movies like we used to but with cuddling and making out and… I want to be the one you come home to when you’re on leave, I want to be your home and… And…” He faltered, trailing off, and shrugged. “I want it all.”

Rhodey grinned down at him. “Definitely both idiots,” he agreed. “Because I want all of that, too. I just didn’t realize how much until now.”

Tony’s breath caught and he shifted a little closer. “Yeah?” he asked, licking his lower lip. “You promise you’re not drunk?”

Rhodey planted a hand over his chest. “I swear it.”

“Good,” Tony breathed and then his wet hands were fisting in Rhodey’s dress shirt, yanking him in for a rough kiss. Rhodey yelped against his mouth as he nearly lost his balance, felt Tony’s lips curl into a smile against his before they found their rhythm, the kiss even better than the one in the hallway downstairs.

“Shit,” Rhodey breathed when they pulled back again, lips brushing against Tony’s with the motion. Tony laughed softly in return.

“Shit,” he agreed. “Is this even real?” he added, sounding absolutely delighted by the fact. Rhodey immediately reached up to pinch him hard in the arm, and Tony cried out, swatting at him in return. “What the fuck, Rhodes?”

“You asked!” Rhodey said, grinning, and got a faceful of water splashed in his face for his trouble. He had to splash Tony back in turn and the two of them ended up splashing and smacking at each other until Rhodey did lose his balance, slipping into the tub with his legs still hooked over the side. Tony nearly drowned himself, he was laughing so hard, slipping under the water and sloshing it all up over the side and onto the bathroom floor. “Stop laughing,” Rhodey grumbled, although he was laughing too. He smacked Tony’s leg under the water as he bumped up against him.

“Sorry,” Tony said, not sounding it at all. His eyes were sparkling as he pulled himself upright a little, leaning into Rhodey’s shoulder. “Guess we should get you out of those wet clothes, honey,” he added, barely getting the words out before he was snorting with laughter again, draping himself across Rhodey.

“You’re hopeless,” Rhodey told him, snaking his arm around Tony’s waist. “Don’t know what I see in you.”

“Too late,” Tony told him. “You already said you like me. Can’t take it back now.” He stilled then, suddenly very interested in the button on Rhodey’s cuff. “Uhh, you do, right? Like me, I mean? I mean, I know you’re my best friend but… This isn’t just a sex thing for you, right?”

“Tony…” Rhodey just shook his head. “You're hopeless,” he repeated, waiting for Tony to look up at him again. “It’s not just a sex thing,” he promised. “I like you, Tony. I really like you. Even more than as my best friend. I might actually be a little bit in love with you, I just haven’t had enough time to process it yet, but…” He trailed off, pretending to consider. “Yep, I’m definitely at least a little bit in love with you.”

Tony’s eyes were shining, and he cleared his throat. “I’m maybe a little in love with you too, Honeybear.”

Rhodey gazed at him a few minutes longer, his own throat feeling a little thick before he patted Tony’s leg again. “Well, if we’re all on the same page then I think that demands a celebration party.”

Tony’s nose wrinkled. “You want to go back downstairs?”

“I was thinking more along the lines of room service? Pizza, champagne, movies on TV… I think I was promised cuddles and making out?”

Tony gave him a slow, sweet smile, leaning forward to kiss him again. “Yeah,” he said, grinning against Rhodey’s lips. “That sounds perfect.”

It was a little longer before they managed to extricate themselves from the cooling water of the tub, and get dried off and dressed -- since naked cuddling seemed a little weird, when they hadn’t done anything more than kiss. Rhodey borrowed some sweats while Tony ordered the room service, which meant they ended up with the most expensive champagne the hotel had on offer.

By the time Tony was pouring a second glass for them, Rhodey was feeling loose and bubbly, partly from the champagne but mostly just from how right everything felt. They hadn’t done anything, were just sitting side by side, watching Lethal Weapon like any number of nights at MIT, but it still felt like he’d found something he hadn't even known he was missing. So when Tony passed him the refilled glass, he set it on the nightstand instead, turning back to Tony and curling a hand around his neck, drawing him in for a slow kiss.

“Oh.” Tony hummed happily against his lips, squirming closer as he kissed him back, and when they pulled apart again that flush was back on his cheeks, along with a pleased smile. “Hey.”

Rhodey snorted, kissed him again. “Hey.”

Stretched out and reclining against the pillows as they were, it wasn’t long before they shifted lower, until they were lying on their sides, facing each other. Their kissing picked up, less exploring and more intent, and Rhodey was hyper aware of everything about Tony, the way he was panting into his mouth, the soft, needy little whines that occasionally slipped past his lips, the way his ankle was rubbing between Rhodey’s own, a poor replica of what he really wanted. Tony’s ratty old t-shirt had rucked up and Rhodey’s free hand had settled on his hip, stroking over the warm skin until Tony was shivering against him.

Tony pulled back suddenly, his hair even more fluffed up and falling into his eyes. Rhodey couldn’t resist brushing it out of his face and Tony’s nose wrinkled, like he thought he could hide how pleased he was by the action.

“You’re such a sap,” he whispered, leaning in to suck at Rhodey’s lower lip. It was Rhodey’s turn to shiver, doubly so when Tony slid a hand up under his t-shirt and dragged short nails down his chest. Tony smirked and moved closer until they were pressed together head to toe. Rhodey could feel him hot and hard against his hip, and Tony moaned when the sensation had him twitching against Tony’s tip in turn. “Are we, um…” His voice was hoarse and he gave Rhodey a crooked grin. “Are we doing this?”

“Are we doing this?” Rhodey repeated, laughing when Tony groaned and ducked his head against his neck. “Is that the famous Stark charm you’re always bragging about? Christ, how do you ever get laid?”

“I hate you,” Tony grumbled, but Rhodey could feel him shaking with laughter against him. He took advantage of Tony being distracted to roll them, easily flipping Tony onto his back so he could straddle his waist and lean over him. Tony stopped laughing, staring up at him with wide, soft eyes, and swallowed hard.

Rhodey grinned, grinding down against Tony a little and grinning at the near-gasp that slipped past his lips at the sensation. “So what do you want to do?”

Tony groaned and his hands slipped down, clutching and squeezing at Rhodey’s sides. “Christ, Rhodes,” he grumbled. “You’re gonna fucking melt my brain here. I want… I want…” Suddenly his mouth dropped open, expression changing into one of disbelief. “Oh, fuck me.”

“I mean, that was what I was getting at,” Rhodey teased, laughing when Tony swatted at his shoulder blade. “Okay, okay, I’m sorry, come on. What’s wrong? You’re in a hotel room with a gorgeous man between your thighs. What more could you want?”

“Lube,” Tony muttered, sounding distraught, and Rhodey blinked.

“What?”

“I don’t have any lube,” Tony whined, his cheeks flushed again. Rhodey had never seen him blush this much in his life, and he was kind of enjoying it. This may have been an unfortunate turn, but he couldn’t help laughing anyway.

“Are you sure you’re really Tony Stark? Aren’t you some kind of self-proclaimed sex god?”

Tony huffed and squirmed. “It’s not… I didn’t… I had some, but then I… I came here to see you, asshole. I wasn’t planning to hook up.”

“I’m sorry, didn’t I just see you in a vintage USO costume with the express intent of hooking up with me?”

“I didn’t expect that to work!” Tony wailed, burying his face in his hands. “Please hand me a pillow. I need to smother myself.”

“Hey, no, come on.” Since Tony was still hiding his face, Rhodey ducked down to kiss over his neck, tonguing at a tendon that had Tony moaning. “I’m sure we can figure out something to do instead.”

“Yeah?” Tony asked, voice coming out breathy. His hand moved to scratch over the back of Rhodey’s head, and his hips rocked up against him. “You want me to put the skirt back on?”

Rhodey laughed into his skin. “Maybe later,” he hummed, lifting his head again to give Tony a wink. “Besides, it was the heels that really did it for me. Your ass is incredible, man.”

“Finally,” Tony huffed. “You know how many squats I’ve been doing, waiting for you to notice?”

Rhodey rolled his eyes. “Of course you have,” he muttered, kissing him again. Tony melted against him -- so easy -- and Rhodey took advantage to wrangle his arm between their bodies, cupping Tony’s cock through his pants. He was hot and thick even under the fabric and Tony moaned at the touch, legs falling a little further open.

“Christ,” he gasped. “Little warning.”

“Aww. Where’s the fun in that?” Rhodey asked, squeezing and then stroking up his length with his thumb.

“Fuck,” Tony choked out. “You’re a goddamn menace.” He squirmed and wriggled underneath Rhodey, hauling on his t-shirt. “Come on, I wanna see you.”

Rhodey grinned and sat back on Tony’s thighs, pulling his t-shirt off over his head. Tony made a soft, pleased, humming sound at the sight, eyes fixated somewhere around Rhodey pecs before dragging over to his biceps, and Rhodey preened at his obvious appreciation. He waited a moment before arching an eyebrow at Tony. “You gonna reciprocate there, hot shot?” he asked, flicking Tony’s nipple again. Tony made the same, hilarious sound, but this time it was followed by his eyelashes fluttering and a low moan, his hips arching up.

“Every time,” he muttered, sounding breathless. His eyes were heavy lidded and he grinned up at Rhodey from under thick eyelashes. “Every time you do that it goes right to my cock, jackass.”

Rhodey felt his cock twitch at the thought, at the idea of Tony, trying to hide how affected he was. He pulled Tony up off the mattress to kiss him again, wrestling with his shirt in the process. It took a few tries but he got it off, letting Tony fall back against the mattress again before following him down. Tony whined when their bare chests pressed together, wriggling around until he could get a leg on either side of Rhodey’s, grinding up against his hip.

“Shit, Rhodey,” he gasped. “You’re killing me. I’m gonna lose it here.”

“Yeah?” Rhodey ground down against him, doing his best to ignore the way his own cock was throbbing in his pants in favour of teasing Tony. “You that close already?”

Tony shrugged, utterly shameless. “You’re hitting all my buttons here, Honeybear. And, you know… I’ve been thinking about this for awhile. Fantasies come true. You…” His eyes fluttered again when Rhodey rubbed over his nipple. “You know how it is.”

“Mmm,” Rhodey hummed, groaning softly when Tony’s fingers scraped over a sensitive spot on his hip. “Yeah, I do.”

He kissed Tony again and wriggled his hand further down between them, shifting and pressing at the waistband of Tony’s sweats until they were sliding down over his hips, his cock popping free. Rhodey rocked back on his elbows far enough to get a look at him. He’d never really thought about men like this before, but Tony was gorgeous.

“What?” he asked, teasing him instead of saying it outloud. “No thong?”

Tony was panting, but he still managed to give Rhodey a smirk. “Maybe next time. Let’s see how good you are first.”

Rhodey narrowed his eyes and then he was curling his hand around Tony’s cock, turning whatever he’d been going to say next into a low whine. Tony rocked his hips up into Rhodey’s grip, and his hands moved to grip tightly at his biceps, hard enough that Rhodey was pretty sure he’d have little fingerprint bruises left behind. The thought turned him on more than he expected and he squeezed around Tony’s cock again, rocking down against him. There was precome beading at the tip and Rhodey dragged his thumb through it, using it to slick Tony up more and filing away the noise he made at the touch for future reference.

“Christ,” he groaned, out of breath himself now as he buried his face in Tony’s shoulder, teasing his skin with his teeth. Tony groaned. “You’re so fucking hot.”

“Could… Say the same to you,” Tony gasped, fingers squeezing harder at his arms. “Fucking come on, Rhodes.”

Rhodey pried his spare hand away from where he’d been clutching Tony’s side, reaching down to shove lopsidedly at the waist of his own pants. Tony picked up on what Rhodey was doing, sliding his hands down over his ass until they’d gotten his sweats pushed down too. He pulled his hand away briefly, ignoring Tony’s petulant whine at the loss, and spit in his hand, curling his hand around both their cocks, pressing them tight together. Tony gave a full body shudder at the feeling, one hand gripping hard at Rhodey’s ass, the other scrabbling over the back of his neck. Rhodey could feel him twitch against him, the feeling almost setting him off, and he closed his fist a little tighter, jerking them off hard and fast. He’d thought it might be a little weird, being with a guy -- he’d never touched a dick that wasn’t his own before. But it wasn’t weird at all, it was just… Tony. They’d always done their best to help each other feel good. This was just taking that to another level.

And it felt really good.

Tony’s body was hot against his, wound tight as he arched into Rhodey’s grip. They’d given up kissing, panting against each other’s mouth as everything spiralled higher, and Tony was making occasional little high-pitched whines that made Rhodey want to lay him out, pin him down and take his time exploring his entire body, finding every little spot that made him make that sound again.

Later, though. For all his teasing of Tony, he wasn’t going to last that much longer himself. He could feel his balls drawing up tight, Tony’s thighs tensing on either side of his hips. He moved his free hand back to Tony’s chest, more of a rough drag than the sensual slide he’d been going for, but Tony didn’t seem to mind when he pinched his nipple again, making him cry out.

“Come on, baby,” Rhodey panted against his lips. “Wanna see you come.”

Tony moaned loudly and then his back was arching, mouth falling open as he spilled over their cocks. One of his hands moved to close over Rhodey’s, squeezing tight around the two of them, and Rhodey nearly choked as he came too, the force of it taking him by surprise.

It was a long moment before he felt like he could breathe again, before he became aware of Tony panting and cursing softly beneath him. Pushing himself up on shaking arms, Rhodey pulled back far enough to collapse on his back beside Tony, sprawled out and panting. He wasn’t even surprised when Tony immediately squirmed around to cuddle up against him, head pillowed under his shoulder. Grinning, Rhodey let his arm curl around Tony, running his fingers absently over his skin.

“Shit,” Tony muttered, turning his head to place an absent kiss on Rhodey’s pec. “That was fucking…”

He trailed off, apparently out of words for the first time, and Rhodey snorted. “Technically, I haven’t fucked you yet.”

Tony made a pained noise. “Do you think there’s a 24-hour pharmacy around here somewhere?” he asked, moving like he was going to sit up, though he settled right back in when Rhodey’s hand closed over his arm.

“Jesus, Tones. Give me a chance to catch my breath, huh?”

“What, are you old?” Tony teased, though he seemed happy enough to just stay there, snuggling. They’d never turned the TV off, and whatever movie was on now was a comforting buzz in the background.

“Yup,” Rhodey agreed. “So ancient. Anyway, I think I’ve got a better idea.”

Tony shifted a little more, turning enough that he could see Rhodey’s face. “Yeah? What’s that?”

Rhodey cleared his throat, feeling absurdly nervous despite everything they’d just done. “You’re going back to California tomorrow, right?”

Tony sighed, long and tired. “Yeah,” he admitted.

“Well, I’ve got another week’s vacation left…”

He trailed off, leaving it hanging, but Tony knew exactly where he was going, pushing himself up on his elbow to grin down at him. “Yeah? Really? You wanna come with me?”

“I mean, if you’ll have me…”

“If I’ll have you, he says,” Tony was still beaming, even as he rolled his eyes, then put on his best affected ‘East Coast Wealthy’ accent. “Yes, Captain Rhodes, I would love to have you join me at the California home for the next week.” Then he waggled his eyebrows at him. “You’re on vacation? You can be my kept man.”

“I’m regretting this already.”

Tony ignored that, flopping back down onto the pillow. “I’ll get you a silk robe, you can spend your days lounging around, making yourself pretty, sunbathing in the nude… Have dinner waiting for me when I get home from the office.”

He was giggling now, and Rhodey smacked him without looking, catching him somewhere around his stomach. “I ain’t cooking for you, man.”

“That’s fine!” Tony assured him, rolling up onto his side to flutter his eyelashes. “We can order in. I am very rich. Just as long as you’re in your best heels and pearls.” He gave Rhodey a ridiculous, over-the-top wink. “Other clothing is optional.”

He looked ridiculous, and so absolutely pleased with himself, and Rhodey couldn’t believe it had taken him this long to realize he was in love with the man.

But he hadn’t gone this long without knowing that if he encouraged Tony he’d never stopped, so instead of telling him how in love with him he was, Rhodey shoved him onto his back again and kissed him until he stopped giggling.

(In retrospect, that probably didn’t have quite the dissuading effect he was going for, but Rhodey couldn’t find it in him to mind all that much.)

@tonystarkbingo @ironhusbandsbingo

#tonystarkbingomarkiv #tsbmiv #ironhusbands #tony stark #james rhodes #ironhusbandsbingo #friends to lovers #getting together #fluff and smut #light angst #pining #fic #my fic

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sparkexplosive · 4 years

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Grateful To Have You In My Life [Kirishima Eijirou]

Kirishima Eijrou X F!Reader

Word Count: 1,578

A/N: This is my writing piece for my contribution to the Konoha Simps Server Collab. You can find the rest of the amazing works by beautiful human beings right here! If you want to be involved in future collaborations or even just be in a place to meet new people and talk about anime, feel free to join us.

Konoha Simps Discord Server created by @bakubabes-hatake

Sorry for any grammar or spelling in advance.

The red haired pro hero, Red Riot couldn’t stand still patiently for you to arrive with Mina. He was standing in front of the river where the moonlight was bouncing off the water reflection. This is their special spot since they have been dating for so many years now. They would disconnect from the outside to have some peace and quiet. This location was surrounded by nature completely.

Kirishims Eijrou was pacing back and forward while reaching towards his red tie to loosen the knot. He felt so restrained. He is feeling extremely nervous and has been wanting to propose for months now. He knows you are most likely to accept his proposal but his anxiety keeps getting the better of him. What if you shut down… it ruins their relationship together.

The two of you go back to elementary school where you usually hang out with Mina and her friends. You were fairly popular among his peers and were crushed by numerous boys. He was also one of the boys that had a major crush on you. You found his quirk cool unlike everyone else.

The five year old, with [hair color] was awed over seeing the skin of his arm harden and touching his arm with pure curious eyes.

“Your quirk is so cool! Kiri!” You exclaimed loudly ignoring the surprised looks from his peers as if she was crazy considering his quirk to be cool.

But for some reason, he was always the one you would pick to be partners with you in anything classroom project with all the way through to middle school. You got restricted from partnering up with Mina, for unknown reasons other than they are close friends. Teachers restricted the two to never to be partners which earned whinnies from Mina especially. You weren’t whining as much as Mina but accept it. You were happy to work with Kirishima regardless.

However around his last year in middle school, was when the two of you got fairly close, despite his classmates hating him for getting to spend time on one of the popular girls in his grade out of school. You actually helped him to train to get some muscle into his limbs and accompany him on morning runs despite having a different dream from him. You always wanted to be a doctor since you were a kid.

Your quirk was more suited to be in the medical field.

But you insisted on helping him and continued being his morning jog buddy. When you heard the news of him being accepted into U.A. You took him off guard when you were screaming his name in the school halls.

“Eijirou!” You move smoothly without bumping into other middle schoolers, before tackling him into a bear hug You tackle him to the ground with a hard thump which out of reflex activates his quirk on his back. You hugged him tightly causing the hormonal teen to be flustered.

You pull away having the biggest grin across your lips, “A step closer to your dream! I knew you could get in! See what happens when you believe in yourself.”

Then getting your contract information despite living in the same neighborhood, at the end of the year.

“Mina reminded me. I never actually gave you my number. Here’s my number and text me anytime.” You took his hand and wrote down your number on his palm.

“Don’t forget about me. Superhero.” You kissed his cheek before running away to catch up with the girls.

He unconsciously was holding on the cheek that you peck having a giant blush to come across his cheeks. His crush kissed his cheek and started repeating it over with shock and love struck expression on his face. He immediately saved your phone number on his phone.

Never lose a contract ever since.

You were the one who helped him dye his black hair to bright red since you dye your own hair with highlights and such. You became his own hairstylist and hung out throughout the two of you busy schedules.

However, Mina is the responsible one who took upon herself to be a couple matcher. He is thankful for Mina for hooking the two together if it wasn’t for her. You would have been long gone taken by someone else, when Kirishima would have gotten the confidence to ask you out. Mina had sent you a text pretending to be Kriishima asking you out for a movie date which you accepted giving the poor boy a heart attack.

“Your welcome! You can thank me later.” Mina was smirking teasingly while Kirishima was staring at the television where his friends were playing video games. He got his character killed when Mina out of nowhere says, “You have movie night tomorrow at 7 with [Nickname]!”

Exe.Kirishima stopped working and dropped his gaming consoles to take the phone out of Mina's hands to see what you wrote back to him.

Having the longest crush on you over 8 years, was hard enough for his heart to take, but to see you actually accept the invitation gave the poor boy a heart attack. For the longest time, he thought you didn’t even see him in that sort of light, nothing more than friendship. The rest became history. The two of you made it official halfway on second year while you were attending medical field high school and he was in U.A.

Once U.A expanded on having medical field courses, Mina and you plan on surprising him when you transfer over on their 3rd year while doing an internship with a Recovery girl due to having similar quirk like her. Kirisima was thrilled to have you closer to him, but often used very excused in the book to come to visit you in the nurse office. The Recovery Girl had to restrict him from visiting so much for silly things.

Now being together through hell and back with scares on both sides, thinking Kirishima got himself killed but was only injured intensely while the hospital you worked at was attacked. Everything life throws to their relationship, they will overcome it just like the others. You support his work as a hero and celebrate with him each time when he continues ranking up in the pro hero ranks. He does the same supporting you on becoming a doctor that he would help you as best as he can with it when it comes down to studying such as holding flash cards.

But he would never change it for the world.

Being together for 4 years, you were his number one fan from the very beginning. You were the one who pushed him and walked withhim to turn in his slip in middle school. You believe in him when no else would. You thought his quirk was amazing despite what others thought.

He was playing with the ring box that was in his pocket and trying to practice his words that he wanted to tell you. He wants it to be perfect as possible. He spent time with you out to do a quest with the help of his friends for you to get a flower at each location that held special memories with each other. Mina was the last one to lead you to this exact spot where he is standing at.

This place was where the two of you first kissed each other and the place where it all began.

“Would you take the honors to make me the happiest man in the world- No its too cheesy.” Kirishima was running his fingers through his hair in frustration and continued to try. He has yet to acknowledge your presence.

Mina left you there with a smile on her face. You were holding a bunch of flowers that represented his emotions for you. You were mind blown by the sight in front of you, he had hung up Christmas lights on the trees and had a wooden bench where there was food in containers.

A soft smile crosses your lips, seeing Kirishima pacing back and forward, until he stops and takes a deep breath.

“[Nickname], will you stay beside my side to the rest of our lives as my partner, best friend?” Kirishima confidently says, before shaking his head no.

“Too simple-” He jumped and froze up when he felt your arms around his waist. “You are overthinking it. Baby. My answer will remain the same.”

He turns around with a shy smile and scratches his head nervously. “Was it too much?”

“Ask me the question.” You pulled away looking starred in his ruby red eyes.

Kirishima kneels down to his kneel before licking his lips and letting out a nervous chuckle.

“Will you marry me?”

You placed your hands on the side of his face when you answered with, “Yes, you big goof.”

A giant smile appears on top of his face revealing his sharp teeth with his vision becoming blurry. You bend down to press your lips against his softly and pull away, before hearing him.

“Thank you so much for everything.” A couple tears came down his cheeks which caused you to clean them off.

“I love you.” You whispered

“I love you too.” Kirishima hugs your waist to only jump at the sudden round of applause that could be heard behind some bushes.

“MINA! DENKI!”

“SORRY! I HAD TO GET IT ON TAPE!”

“SHE DRAGGED ME INTO THIS!”

#Eijrou kirishima x reader

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thorne93 · 4 years

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Unforeseen Chasm (Part 32)

Prompt: Two sisters fall for men that are absolute enemies. The love they have could tear all of them apart, or it could bring them together.

Word Count:2535

Warnings: Language, mentions of death

Note: This is by far the longest thing I’ve ever written (including my novels). It’s a collaboration with the amazing @mrs-dragneel-stark-solo. It started as a funny “What if…?” and it evolved and got huge. This took two years to write. We are both proud and happy and we hope you enjoy it. It follows from Thor 1 to Endgame in the MCU. Some of the timelines may be off in order to fit certain people, and some characters may show up earlier or in different ways than they have in the movie. But for the most part, it follows the MCU. It also has a bit of crossover with some other Marvel characters throughout the story.

Masterlist for Unforeseen Chasm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Some time had passed since your recapture from the Xavier Mansion. You weren’t quite sure how much time, but things were slightly better. Tony and Shannon had actually gotten you two a TV. And you still had the projection of all the different places of the world and Asgard that went on your walls. You and Loki used that feature quite a bit to try and wash away the feeling of utter isolation.

Shannon still visited you. She tried to get down to you at least once a week, but sometimes it wasn’t always that often. Sometimes even Tony visited. Hell even twice Steve came down.

You couldn’t say life had gotten better. You were still in a cell. No sign of parole. But at least you still had Loki and Shannon, and you were making a great deal of progress in the trust department. You had not left the cell since Tony had brought you back. Which meant the dark energy still lived inside you. You didn’t tell Loki he was your trigger because you did not want to add to his suffering.

But one day, a surprise visitor came down, and at first you were happy to see them… until you heard why they were here.

“Hey, Point Break,” Tony greeted happily as Thor entered the Tower. Shannon came bounding in, giving the large god a huge huge.

“Stark,” he greeted politely. “I have a favor to ask.”

“Anything, buddy, just name it,” Tony assured.

“Release Loki into my care…”

Tony and Shannon’s faces both fell. “Anything but that,” Tony said, starting to walk way.

“Tony, listen to me,” Thor began, following his friend. “I know how this sounds, but I need his help.”

“His? You need that maniac’s help? To what? Silence of the Lambs it? Trying to catch one crazy with another?”

“I have absolutely no idea what you just said,” Thor confessed, looking puzzled.

“He means, why do you need Loki?” Shannon asked gently, shooting a glare to Tony for being rude.

“Loki knows of passageways in and out of Asgard. Ways that even Heimdall does not know of. I need to do something that is not exactly legal,” Thor informed.

“Ah, so you need your insane brother to help you break Asgard’s law,” Tony summed up. “Fantastic.”

“So you’ll help me?” Thor asked, delighted.

“Hell no!” Tony responded. “I’m not breaking any intergalactic laws. Especially not with him on the loose.”

“I will have myself and the warriors three to help keep him in line. Please… Jane’s life is on the line….”

“Jane? Jane Foster?” Shannon asked, concern in her words.

Thor looked at her and nodded.

Tony sighed. “Let’s just hypothetically say I did let Reindeer Games go. How long are we talking?”

“I have no idea. I have to fight dark elves and retrieve the dark aether from them before--”

“Does five days sound like enough?” Tony asked, cutting Thor off.

“I’ll do my best with that.”

“You’ve got a deal,” Tony said, shaking his hand.

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

Thor walked up to your cell, Tony beside him.

“Thor?” you questioned, stepping up from the kitchen. In an instant, Loki was by your side. He’d been in the bedroom, cleaning.

“What are you doing here?” Loki asked of his brother.

“Mother’s died,” Thor said with a cold tone.

“Oh my god,” you responded, tears jumping to your eyes. “H--How? Thor… I’m so sorry.. Loki--” You turned to him and he turned to stone.

“Dark elves.”

“What? What do Dark Elves have to do with Asgard? Why would they kill Queen Frigga?” you questioned, grief rushing over you.

“There isn’t much time to explain. Jane has been overcome with a dark energy that is killing her and turning her dark. I need Loki to help me escape Asgard.”

“I hate to burst your dimwitted bubble, Thor, but you’re already out of Asgard,” Loki remarked.

“Midgard is the only place Heimdall can send me and it not be considered treason. I need help getting to another realm, a different realm. Now will you help me or am I wasting my time?” Thor demanded, speaking quickly and lowly, authority in his voice.

“You must be truly desperate to come to me,” Loki noted. “How do you know you can trust me?”

“I don’t. In the past I have fought you with the glimmer of hope that my brother still lie in there somewhere. That hope no longer exists. If you betray me, I will kill you. I know you seek vengeance just as I do, and I will help you get it. In return, you will help me save Jane and seek justice for our mother’s death.”

Loki stared him down a moment.

“When do we start?”

With that, a whirlwind of things happened. Tony released Loki from the cell, to which Thor brought him with him, up to the surface of Earth, where Heimdall recalled them both. From there, they stole a ship, and ventured into a realm where Dark Elves resided many years ago. According to them, there was a plot to cut off Thor’s hand, to make it look as if Loki had betrayed Thor and throw the Elves off -- It worked. The plan got Malekith to release the aether from Jane, thus allowing Thor to destroy it. Once it was gone, Loki and Thor were able to fight the elves.

In a manner of speaking, it was a victory. But for Loki, he was destined to return to Earth, return to his cell, return to his life as a prisoner.

Thor brought Loki back, where Shannon helped return him to his cell with you, a look of sorrow on her face.

“Brother, I thank you for fighting by my side once more and helping me save Jane, and in the end, saving the universe,” Thor said from outside the cell.

“All in a day's work,” he said, slightly bowing. “Besides, it was nice to get out and get some fresh air for a change.”

“I will see to it that they consider releasing you from this cell,” Thor promised.

Loki had no words. He didn’t think Thor would be so… generous. Nor did you.

“Thank you, Thor, and for what it’s worth, I truly am sorry about your mother. She was a wise, wonderful woman,” you offered, your face fallen a bit.

“She truly was. She missed you,” he informed, a bit of a fond smile touching his lips.

“She did? Me?” you asked, in disbelieving wonder.

“Oh yes. She missed your music and your singing around the palace. She missed hearing you talk of all of your physics. She missed a great deal of things about you. About both of you,” Thor stated.

You frowned slightly and offered, “Would you like to come in and talk about it… about her?”

Thor was ready to decline, but when he thought about it, he should be with family right now. He hadn’t seen Loki since the day of the imprisonment, nor you. Both of you were so close to Frigga, it hardly made sense to part ways now.

Thor nodded and made his way over to the door, where Shannon scanned her eye to let Thor in.

“I’ll leave you three alone,” she said gently. Normally, you would’ve asked her to stay, but this felt… private. These two men needed to grieve their mother, and you needed to grieve a woman who took care of you more than once.

“It is good to see you,” Thor stated as soon as he walked in. He hugged you in a big embrace. His voice was melancholy. Just as people’s are when they speak to someone at a funeral. It’s that light, airy, solemn tone.

“You too, Thor. How is Jane?”

“Much better now that the aether is gone from her. How are you?”

“I could be much worse,” you admitted. “It’s been great having Loki here. Honestly, I really only miss things like music, the internet, getting to do work every day… Seeing the outdoors. But on the bright side, I’m with my love, we have a modern, finite space to clean. I get to cook gourmet meals. We have a system that takes us anywhere in the world. Shannon is talking to me on a regular basis again…”

“That is good news. Loki, how are you fairing?”

Loki shot a look to his brother. “Oh, do you suddenly care? Now that you’ve lost one family member, starting to realize how little you might have left?” he snapped.

“Loki,” you chided, looking at him.

“He doesn’t visit me for almost two years and you want me to just accept him as if nothing’s changed?” Loki asked you incredulously.

“What did we say about forgiveness? And that Thor has changed and grown?” you reminded.

Loki stared at you another moment, his eyes swimming with a flurry of emotions before he finally looked up to his brother. “I’m doing as fine as one can in a cell, Thor.”

You nodded and smiled a bit. At least it was progress and not an insult.

“How… how were things? How was Frigga?” you asked.

“She was well. She missed both of you very much. Kept saying how one day you were going to give her grandchildren,” he noted with a bittersweet smile.

You blushed and laughed. “We weren’t courting when I was on Asgard,” you reminded.

“Oh I know… And she knew… but she kept saying it was a matter of time.”

“It would’ve been nice,” you agreed suddenly. “A family… Asgard. Frigga as a grandmother.”

“Oh, my god, no it wouldn’t have been,” Loki suddenly said, rolling his eyes.

“Loki!” you chastised, completely surprised at his words.

“You have to be joking. Frigga, a grandmother? She would spoil the kids rotten. Does that sound good to you? Children that pay us no mind. Children that run amuck all because dear Grandmother said they could?” he challenged.

With that, the three of you started to laugh, knowing full well he was right.

“He is not far from the truth. Whilst we were growing up, only one person could tell Odin no--” Thor started.

“And that was Mother,” Loki finished.

“Oh, believe me, I know. I saw the way she spoke to your father. He is a very intimidating man, but she seemed to fair just fine with him.”

“That’s because she was the real king of the palace, Father just said he was,” Loki said with a coy smile.

Thor agreed, still chuckling.

“I remember the first time she had me wear Asgardian clothes,” you recalled. “They’re very--”

“Impractical?” Loki finished.

You gave a slight laugh. “Well, yes, for women. Well, for women looking to do combat. I could hardly do anything but walk in most of the gowns she’d picked out.”

“But you did look lovely in them,” Loki declared, looking far off, as if remembering you in one.

“Well, yes, for maybe some ball or feast. But every day that I was at work, every day that I trained by all of you, the pants fit best.”

“Mother always thought that too. Wore pants one time around Father,” Thor stated.

“One time? Why just the one? She was Queen, could she not dress how she wanted?” you inquired.

Loki and Thor exchanged a look.

“Uh, father thought a woman should not wear pants… Well, he thought the Queen shouldn’t. He never had a problem with Sif wearing pants, or you, or Jane… But for some reason, his wife in pants made him absolutely mad.”

“I remember that day,” Loki agreed. “Father was shouting. He was beyond reason.”

Thor nodded in agreement. “After that day, Mother never wore anything but gowns again.”

“Wow, it must’ve really pissed him off.”

“I honestly think he’s just old fashioned,” Thor countered lightly. “Seeing a younger generation in different fashion didn’t bother him, but his wife…”

“I remember her welcoming me back so… so motherly. She accepted me as if I were her daughter. She seemed so… happy to see me again,” you said, remembering the way her eyes glossed over and she opened her arms, waiting for you to embrace her. When you finally did, she wrapped you tightly in her arms. “She said it was so good to see me again, and see the woman I had become. Of course, this was all after I found out about my parents.”

“She truly did miss you. She told me more about you after you and Loki fell. About how close she was with your parents, how it crushed her to see them go. How it broke her heart to let you go…”

“I wish I could’ve told her that it wasn’t her fault,” you said, your lip quivering. “That I wanted to thank her for caring for me for as long as she did. That by giving me away to Earth, she gave me a great life. I met amazing friends, found a field of study I love… The only thing I missed out on was you two,” you said, squeezing Loki’s hand and reaching over to pat Thor’s knee.

Solemn quietness filled the air.

“I’m really going to miss her,” you said, silent tears rolling down your cheek.

“Me too…” Thor concurred.

“As will I. She was a great mother, and never showed me anything but love,” Loki agreed. “And her magic,” he said, making the three of you laugh through tears.

As the night went on, you all reminisced. Loki and Thor told stories of Frigga. Sometimes it was a tale one of them would be hearing for the first time. The air felt heavy with grief, as the two men broke down a handful of times, but it also felt somewhat lighter. For the first time since the attack on New York, your beloved and his brother were talking, actually communicating, and you were there to help it along.

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

After that night… Loki was… well, broken. You could tell he was hurting and he tried to fight it, because… well that was his nature. He never wanted anyone to know any of his weaknesses, anything that brought him pain.

But eventually, you sat him down and implored him to grieve. He needed to do it or it would fester. After a lot of coaxing, he finally gave in. But it was as if a dam had been opened. He became angry, he became sad, he became forlorn, he became indifferent. None of it was ever at you, though. It just seemed as soon as you gave him permission, he was a tidal wave of emotion.

He cried himself to sleep a lot. When you heard him, you simply wrapped your arm around him. Sometimes he threw fits of anger about missing Frigga, about how he should’ve been there to save her. Sometimes he tried to convince himself that he shouldn’t feel sad because she wasn't his birth mother, but you knew that was just a way to maybe stop feeling so god damn broken.

You did not fault or ever try to stop anything he said or did. You knew this was all a part of the grieving process and you let it happen naturally.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tag List: @essie1876 @magpiegirl80 @letsgetfuckingsuperwholocked @iamwarrenspeace @marvel-imagines-yes-please @superwholocked527 @missinstantgratification @thejemersoninferno @rda1989 @munlis @thefridgeismybestie @bubblyanarocks3 @igiveupicantthinkofausername @kaliforniacoastalteens @feelmyroarrrr @kaelingoat @friendlyneighbourhoodweirdo @damalseer @heyitscam99 @yknott81 @sorryimacrapwriter @glitterquadricorn @xxqueenofisolationxx @little-dis-kaalista-pythonissama @bittersweetunicorm @alyssaj23 @sea040561 @princess76179 @thisismysecrethappyplace @sarahp879 @malfoysqueen14 @ellallheart @breezy1415 @marvelmayo @random-fluffy-pink-unicorn @cocosierra94 @hardcollectionworldtrash @capsmuscles @marvelloushamilton

@paintballkid711

Loki: @lostinspace33 @ultrarebelheart @lenawiinchester @esoltis280 @tngrayson @wangdeasang @harrymewmew @jayfantasyatyourservice

UC: @lokis-high-priestess

#Unofreseen chasm #loki x reader #tony stark x ofc #thor odison #mentions of jane foster #mentions of odin #mentions of frigga

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daggerzine · 4 years

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R.E. Seraphin molds tiny shapes into big songs.

Though he’s been on the scene for a while now (with different bands) I hadn’t heard the music of Bay Area musician R.E. “Ray” Seraphin until this year via a cassette called Tiny Shapes via Paisley Shirt Records (more on the label below). His first real band was Talkies, which he discusses below (and I have enjoyed), but he seems to have really come into his own this year with that cassette and a new EP, A Room Forever, which came out just a month or so ago. In his music you’ll hear influences of 80’s jangle pop as well as some deeper post-punk stuff (and for more current stuff I hear whispers of Dean Wareham and his bands and Wild Nothing). Reading below he seems very well grounded and seems to have a great attitude about everything (even not being able to play shows during a pandemic or being in a writing slump). I think once this is all over this guy will go on 5-year tour and gain lots and lots of new fans. In the meantime do check out his stuff, you won’t be disappointed.

Where did you grow up?

Berkeley, CA. The area I grew up in was filled with Victorian homes and dilapidated industrial warehouses. My family home was walking distance from a lagoon and an old, rusty set of train tracks. I felt I lived in an unremarkable college town. There wasn't much activity outside of the school. I discovered Berkeley’s storied political and musical history much later in life. Now, of course, there are many books written about Berkeley, but I thought it was a kinda nondescript city as a kid.

Do you remember what band made you fall in love with music?

Dating myself hard here, but I remember being floored by The White Stripes’ “Fell in Love With a Girl” video when I was 11. The Top 40 music making the rounds on VH1 and MTV at the time was beyond dreck — a lot of Train, Staind, Matchbox 20. The White Stripes were the first band I was exposed to that made succinct, catchy, no-frills music. I was genuinely enthralled. Plus, the Lego animation in that video still holds up.

Was guitar your first instrument?

I started on bass. My first instrument was an extremely cheap, pointy BC Rich knockoff monstrosity. I believe I was 13. I had no idea how to play and little interest in learning. For the first year, I putzed around with a Pro Co RAT, a wah pedal, and a tinny-sounding Crate practice amp. I just tried (and succeeded in) being as obnoxious as possible. When I started writing songs, I eventually graduated from playing bass poorly to playing guitar poorly.

Tell us about your first band.

My first band that played shows was called The Phil Spector Shotgun Experience. That was primarily a cover band I put together with my high school buddies and my mom. We covered Radio Birdman, the Pink Fairies, and the MC5; we also had an unwittingly hilarious original called “Nitroglycerin Man” — the first song I ever wrote (maybe I was subconsciously inspired by Wages of Fear). At some point, we kicked my mom out of the band and started playing as the Impediments. That band kicked ass — we made pridefully dumb American punk music. That was also my only band to sign a record contract, so it’s quite possibly been downhill from there!

Tell us about The Talkies (unless that was your first band mentioned above).

Talkies (no article!) was a group I started in 2014 as a vehicle for my songs. My previous bands had been more of a shared vision, so Talkies was my first foray into being the lone genius of a group. The sound was mostly drawn from what is disparagingly known as power pop. Basically, I was heavily into the band Shoes for a few years.

We released a few albums and EPs. Did a couple short tours. During that time, the project was dragged from the Bay Area to Austin and back before I finally, mercifully pulled the plug last year. It was time.

When did you transition from Talkies to the solo stuff you’re doing now? Did it feel comfortable?

Talkies had run its course, but I had a smattering of songs leftover from that project that I wanted to record. Around that time, I learned my good friend Jasper Leach (Burner Herzog) was getting ready to skip town. I had always wanted to work with him and, seizing my final opportunity to do so, we banged out my début, Tiny Shapes, last summer. The whole experience was fairly serendipitous. The stars aligned for that one.

I wouldn't say the process was comfortable. Recording the album felt necessary, urgent — almost compulsory at times. My heart was ready for a new project and I truly wanted to center myself for the first time. I’m glad I did. This is the happiest I’ve been musically in some time.

“I think therefore I am”

I love the songs on A Room Forever. How did they come together?

So glad to hear that! I got asked to contribute to a compilation back in April. With the deadline approaching and inspiration still eluding me, I took a glance at my bookshelf, noticed a particular Carson McCullers title, and whipped up “Clock Without Hands.” After my trusty collaborator Owen Adair Kelley added his parts, I felt we had stumbled upon a great sound. I tried to harness the creative spirit and pushed myself to finish a few ideas buried deep in the recesses of my Voice Memo app. I got friends Matt Bullimore (The Mantles) and Yea-Ming Chen (Yea-Ming & The Rumors) involved, and that was that. No great origin story — just pure American ingenuity and elbow grease.

Tell us about Paisley Shirt Records. Who runs it and how did you hook up with them?

Paisley Shirt Records is simply the man, the myth, the legend — Kevin Linn. He is a San Francisco-based musician and artist who records as Sad-Eyed Beatniks.

I met him when I was looking for someone to release my album, Tiny Shapes. He had just put out a tape by Hits — a great local band featuring some friends of mine — and I felt a kinship with his roster. So, I reached out to him. Foolishly, he agreed to put out my album and we’ve been inseparable ever since. Solid dude. High marks.

Have you done any solo tours? If so where and how did they go?

Ha! No. I had only notched two shows as R.E. Seraphin before the pandemic hit. Likely not doing anything beyond the odd live-stream show for a while. That said, if any tastemaking European touring agencies are reading this — give me a ring!

The latest EP

What are your top 10 desert island discs?

Ah, jeez. This question. I’ll just say these are 10 (plus one) that I come back to quite often. In no order:

Marquee Moon by Television

The Everly Brothers’ Best

Forever Changes by Love

Let it Be by The Replacements

Third/Sister Lovers by Big Star

The First Songs by Laura Nyro

16 Lovers Lane by The Go-Betweens

In a Silent Way by Miles Davis

A Different Kind of Tension by Buzzcocks

Something Else by The Kinks

Old No. 1 by Guy Clark

What are a few Bay Area bands that we should know about.

This is a golden-era for weirdo pop music in the Bay. To name just a few: Galore, Cindy, The Umbrellas, Tony Jay, Flowertown, Healing Potpourri, Latitude, Cocktails, The Reds, Pinks, & Purples, Yea-Ming & The Rumors, Anna Hillburg, the 1981, Toner, Frank Ene, Neutrals, Owen Adair Kelley, April Magazine, Telephone Numbers, Hits, Sad-Eyed Beatniks. Essentially every act associated with Paisley Shirt Records and/or Mt.St.Mtn. My bias is strong.

Do you feel that the pandemic has helped your songwriting or hindered it (if either)?

A li’l column A, a li’l column B. I’m a natural procrastinator, so I’ve definitely savored the lack of band practice and shows (things that often necessitate new material). That said, I doubt I would have finished A Room Forever had I not been quarantined at home. Without having many obligations and without being able to leave my house, music definitely became my raison d’être for the first time as an adult. I was fortunate to not be deemed an “essential” worker and to be able to focus energy on my passion momentarily. Silver lining.

What’s next ? A new record by the end of the year possibly?

Hopefully continuing to promote my music and play shows on the ol’ webiverse. A Room Forever will be receiving a small vinyl and tape pressing at the end of September via Mt.St.Mtn. and Paisley Shirt Records. So, looking forward to that.

I was creatively tapped for a few months after A Room Forever. While a new album is possible, it’s not probable. I am plugging away at a few tunes, but I tend to conceptualize albums as a thematic whole and not as a collection of songs. Haven't stumbled onto my next Big Idea yet. Don't count me out, though. I could see myself dashing off a covers album for sure.

What is one song you wish you’d written?

Too many to name! I’ll reframe that question to mean a great song I could see myself capable of writing in an alternate time, place, or dimension. Maybe one of Peter Holsapple’s songs from The dB’s — “Black & White” or “Neverland.” Also: anything by Wreckless Eric or Martin Newell.

Final thoughts? Closing comments?

Just finished reading an interview with the great James Purdy, and thought this quote summed up iur current political climate well:

“You go out into the world and no one knows you, you can be ruled because you’re programmed. Everything is stamped, put on the shelf, described, thrown out into the garbage. It’s a political process, and behind that an economic process. But to be nothing, that is the worst of all possible things.”

www.reseraphin.com

www.paisleyshirtrecords.bandcamp.com

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dustedmagazine · 5 years

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Derek Taylor 2019: Keep Going

Two words coupled by Harriet Tubman and coined into a credo essential for negotiating the human condition. It's also the title of and invocation to a sublime duo album by Joe McPhee and Hamid Drake released this year as rejoinder to their first recorded ten-years earlier. Taking stock of that decade is something we at Dusted did recently and as the New Year arrives it’s an exercise that feels all the more important, particularly in the extra-musical sense of recognizing the folly of where we’ve been as a world and where we really want to go moving forward. As always, music is both balm and adhesive in remembering that no matter how divisive and discouraging everything seems, we’re still all in it together.

Joe McPhee

Seventy-nine-years young and still a human dynamo of energy, empathy, and optimism, the Powerhouse from Poughkeepsie’s been a constant of these retrospective essays for as long as I’ve been writing them. I haven’t done a hard count, but his horns grace at least a dozen releases this year. Duos with Mats Gustaffson (Brace for Impact), Fred Lonberg-Holm (No Time Left for Sadness), and Paal Nilssen-Love (Song for the Big Chief) join the dyad denoted above in delivering dialogues as personal as they are potent. Tree Dancing assembles the super-group of Lol Coxhill, Evan Parker, Chris Corsano, and McPhee collectively and in component combinations with bassist John Edwards on board for a culminating cut, while Six Situations realizes a dream of bassist Damon Smith in teaming him with McPhee’s tenor and now dearly departed drummer Alvin Fielder. The Fire Each Time bundles six concerts of McPhee in the company of the DKV Trio from a 2017 tour that took James Baldwin and John Coltrane as lodestones. Saving perhaps the best for last, Invitation to a Dream comingles McPhee’s pocket trumpet and soprano with pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn and old confrere Ken Vandermark in a tripart colloquy delivered in crystal clear sound.

Peter Brötzmann

A year younger and another fixture in my yearly firmament, Herr Brötz has always had ears attuned to the early pioneers of improvised music through the unabashed embrace of Sidney Bechet, Coleman Hawkins, and others. Those unerring affections erode some of the surprise from I Surrender Dear, an album of tenor-rendered jazz standards and originals, but also enhance the overall experience in how literally he makes good on the debt. It’s arguably his best solo album since 14 Love Poems and bolstered further by the focus on a single central member of his reed arsenal. Also of note, Fifty Years After commemorating the golden anniversary of Machine Gun with longtime confreres German pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach and Dutch drummer Han Bennink,

Rob Franken Electrification — Functional Stereo Music (678 Records)

Four-hours of Fender Rhodes heaven recorded in elite Dutch studios between 1972 and 1981 that puzzlingly never found commercial circulation until last year as a six-LP series. The 2019 edition transfers the archive to three-CDs and only rarely flags as Franken’s fonky keys front guitar, bass, drums and a revolving cast of fellow aces fielding other instruments. Economy is the informal edict as morsel-sized originals alternate with covers of tunes by Herbie Hancock, Stevie Wonder, Atilla Zoller, and even Steely Dan. The utilitarian intimations of the title aren’t just lip service. Franken originally envisioned the music as an homage to the muzak strains common to “shopping malls, hotels, elevators, department stores, and airports.” Much of it sounds far better aligned with the kinetic cop and detective pot-boilers that populated television and cinema of the decade.

Brian Groder Trio – Luminous Arcs (Latham)

Keeping a working improvising ensemble together is no minor accomplishment, yet Groder’s been able to maintain one in his name with bassist Michael Bisio and drummer Jay Rosen. This disc joins two previous albums in demonstrating both the depth of the musicians’ bonds and their shared zeal in exploring and capitalizing on them. Any novelty surrounding the particulars of a trumpet-led piano-less trio is fortunately long since lapsed. The precedence allows them to marshal their attention to shaping music that is simultaneously the sum and multiplication of the substantial parts.

V/A — Pakistan: Folk and Pop Instrumentals 1966-1976 (Sublime Frequencies)

Seattle-based Sublime Frequencies weathered a stretch where the “weirdness” quotient of their audio excavations appeared to outweigh accompanying scholarship and attention to edifying annotations. This scintillating compilation suffers no such skew in the balance of carefully sourced sounds and accompanying copy to shore up the context. Sixties rock, specifically surf, is a through-line in the preponderance of reverb-riddled guitars and buzzing Farfisa organ on many of the tracks, but indigenous melodies and rhythms are also frequent fodder for enthusiastic appropriation. Best of all, there’s a pervasive sense of fun to the sequencing that makes it a handy soundtrack for soirees of all sorts.

Jaimie Branch — Fly or Die II (International Anthem)

If her ascendant flight pattern is any indication, death, artistic or otherwise, isn’t even an option for Jaimie Branch. This follow-up to her meteoric (and long overdue) 2017 debut builds organically on previous cosmetic aspects (core quartet, cover art, etc.) while making progressive-pronged politics even more prominent. “Prayer for Amerikkka” doesn’t mince words in proffering a platform of resistance and the musical propellant to keep it confidently airborne. A robust touring schedule and well-earned media attention are only furthering Branch’s designs at getting the sounds into as many ears as possible.

Sam Rivers

The Sam Rivers Archive Series is the brainchild of producers Danas Mikailionis and Ed Hazell. A projected eight-volume celebration of the music of the eponymous composer/improviser/educator/doyen curated from a vast trove left in the care of Rivers’ daughter after his passing in 2011, it’s also probably the jazz news that most set my heart aflutter with anticipation this year. The initial pair of entries, Emanation and Zenith, certainly live up to the promise in presenting clean fidelity concerts by a high profile trio with bassist Cecil McBee and drummer Norman Conners (pre-disco) and a workshop quintet involving tubaist Joe Daley, bassist Dave Holland and the eight-limbed drums juggernaut of Barry Altschul and Charlie Persip. Both discs are essential.

Jimi Hendrix — Songs for Groovy Children (Experience Hendrix)

Not a long-lost Hendrix kids’ album despite what the jejune title might suggest. Instead, it’s four nearly complete concerts from the guitar deity’s iconic New Year’s Band of Gypsies engagement at the Fillmore East in 1969/70. Producer Eddie Kramer largely quashes his invasive impulses in mastering the tapes, leaving the only real minuses to manifest in the occasionally extra-loose interplay and Jimi’s decision to indulge Buddy Miles’ mic access to a regrettably arguable fault. Math done, there’s nothing stopping an instant trigger-pull for true believers, even folks who have it all already in bootleg form.

Ezz-thetics

Fingers remain collectively-crossed that Werner X. Uehlingher will one day decide to write an autobiography of his countless adventures as a stalwart producer of improvised music. Ezz-thetics is just the latest chapter in the future tome’s story arc that started with the founding of the Hat Hut label back in 1974. The new imprint, named after a classic George Russell composition, balances reissue and archival releases with new ones, packing them with branding that memorializes the old while consecrating the new. Discs by Jimmy Giuffre (Graz Live 1961), John Coltrane (Impressions Graz 1962), and Albert Ayler (Quartets 1964 Spirits to Ghosts Revisted) are the marquee name highlights, but the entirety of the imprint’s releases to-date have had their merits.

Stephen Riley

The tenorist is no longer my favorite under-forty plier on the instrument simply because he’s aged out of the bracket. Oleo builds on last year’s transparently veiled Sonny Rollins’ tribute Hold ‘Em Joe by adding the sturdy trumpet of Joe Magnarelli to the equation and turning the referential calendar forward to the saxophone colossus’ collaborations with Don Cherry. It’s a beaut from a brisk beginning sortie on “Ornithology” to lengthy slalom on the Ducal “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore.” Tangerine Rhapsody is technically under Dutch drummer Snorre Kirk’s leadership, but it wouldn’t be nearly the album it is absent Riley’s supple and sagacious involvement.

Milt Buckner & Jo Jones — Buck & Jo (Fremeaux & Associates)

Curious about what makes an individual improviser tick? Duo contexts are arguably the best aperture to gain edification and insight. Even better than solo or ensemble configurations, the dyad distills things down to solo and dialogue. This four-disc, four-hour-plus collection is a remarkable case in point and surprise that it even exists at all given its vintage let alone its scope. Thank French impresarios the Panassie Brothers who invited ur swing organist and ur swing drummer to indulge themselves with only the gentlest of producer-dictated strictures. The results are fascinating, whimsical, bombastic, and above all, endlessly entertaining. An epitome of intimately undertaken jazz tête-à-tête before it was anything resembling a regular thing.

Del Shannon — Two Silhouettes (Bear Family)

Preconceptions can prove obdurate edifices. Prior to my forty-eighth birthday this year I dismissed Del Shannon as one of the disposable princes of bubble gum pop on the rare occasions he entered my consciousness at all. “Runaway” remains an influential song, particularly in its use of musitron organ, but it’s hardly the makings of unassailable genius. Bear Family’s exhaustive single-disc survey levies a much more convincing appeal for the crooner’s embodiment of a nexus of odd congruencies as moonlighting jazzmen conspire with duck-tailed rockers and barbershop harmonists. Dennis Coffey and Hargus “Pig” Robbins show up as sidemen and there’s even an S&M-tinged canticle called “Torture” replete with whip cracks and a Greek chorus of moans, leaving one to wonder what Ward and June Cleaver made of it all?

Sun Ra

Cosmic Myth and Modern Harmonic continue to advance the mantle apparently abandoned by the Art Yard label in keeping Ra-related albums in circulation. The erstwhile Mr. Mystery employed numerous vocalists throughout his career, even contributing his own less-than-stellar (pun intended) pipes to the cause on occasion. None among that eclectic number could match June Tyson, who brought joie de vivre to the lyrical manifestations of Ra’s cosmic-afro-centrism that was at once wholly believable and infectious. Saturnian Queen of the Sun Ra Arkestra does right by her memory by culling an hour’s worth of highlights from a vast and varied recorded archive. Monorails & Satellites (now in three volumes!) and newly minted editions of Pathways to Unknown Worlds and When Angels Speak of Love were also welcome arrivals.

Derek Bailey/Han Bennink/Evan Parker — Topographie Parisienne: Dunois, April 3rd, 1981 (Fou)

The Topography of the Lungs trio in concert and at length with decent sound eleven-years after their initial seismic contributions to free improv. Bailey and Parker weren’t yet at irreconcilable loggerheads but there’s still a galvanizing and palpable tension that suffuses their interplay. Bennink can’t help being anything but Bennink, bashing away one moment and pattering at barely a whisper the next while keeping ears cocked with split-second focus to the contributions his compatriots. Duos combine with solos from Parker sweeten and season an already delicious aural pot.

Fred Anderson Quartet — Live at the Velvet Lounge Volume V (FPE)

Leftfield guest Toshinori Kondo and drummer Hamid Drake were one half of Peter Brötzmann’s Die Like a Dog outfit when this 1994 concert was committed to tape. That take-no-prisoners context allowed his plangent, frenetic, effects-saturated brass free and ferocious rein. Anderson’s outlets didn’t usually involve electronics and its instructive hearing the adaptations to the roiling controlled-chaos within his customary cerulean-hued improvisations. Drake and bassist Tastu Aoki maintain a stout terrestrial tether enlivened by a revolving array of undulating grooves. Extra points earned for incorporating the original Velvet Lounge wallpaper scheme into the production design. Bottom line: I miss Fred.

V/A — Hillbillies in Hell: Tribulations: Country Music’s Tormented Testament (1952-1974) (The Omni Recording Corporation)

Amusing alliterative appellation aside, this series has managed the no-meager-feat of avoiding diminishing returns while mining the same expanse of time over successive volumes. The fifth entry tilts the lens even more sharply toward the sort of fervent tent show revival circuit favored by fictional religious reprobates like Rev. Harry Powell and Elmer Gantry and comes up with a bonanza off-kilter cuts from names both famous (Hank Williams, Louvin Bros., Tex Ritter) and arcane (The Burton Family, Durwood Daily, The Sunshine Boys Quartet). Ernest Tubb’s “Saturday Satan, Sunday Saint” persuasively sums up the ecumenical ethos, but every song exudes its share of sinful charms.

V/A — Sacred Sounds: Dave Hamilton’s Raw Detroit Gospel (Ace)

As a both prolific and preternaturally talented producer, Dave Hamilton’s usual purview was left-of-center soul and funk. Urban (but not urbane) gospel offered a less-publicized commercial side outlet and he brought comparable emphasis on authenticity and creativity to the various acts he championed. This compilation comprises all-killer-no-filler assemblage that lives up to the unvarnished signifier in the title. It’s nearly eighty-minutes of jangly guitars, tambourines, and impassioned sanctifying and proselytizing of all sorts, as suited for Sunday morning as Friday or Saturday night depending on the preferred mood of your personal household. I’ve enjoyed equal fun plying it in both.

Art Pepper — Promise Kept

Laurie Pepper, like Sue Mingus and other jazz widows before her, remains a passionate arbiter and steward of her late husband’s recorded legacy. The title of this box set collecting a singular tributary of Art Pepper’s later career aspirations could just as easily serve as a signifier of that bond. In truth, it’s reflective of a pact the couple made with producer John Snyder and a string of studio sessions largely left unissued during the Pepper’s lifetime. Rivalries real and imagined are revealed across the recordings as the altoist wrestles with his insecurities and the realities of choices made and paid for as a consequence of his addictions and fictions. Straightforward and vital, the music avoids gestalt in remaining consistently strong and emotionally true.

Paul Bley/Gary Peacock/Paul Motian — When Will the Blues Leave (ECM)

The prevailing mystery behind this twenty-year-old concert rests on the reason(s) why the fine folks at ECM left it in the can for so long. I don’t have an answer but rather a simple expression of gratitude that they finally decided to rectify the error and get the sounds out into the world. Bley, Peacock and Motian were already three-decades deep in the periodic associations that quietly helped open chamber jazz to free improvisation when they took to the Swiss stage. The ensuing masterful performance manages to feel simultaneously like three old friends shooting the shit and a trio of improvisatory experts operating at peak collective capacity.

Prince — 1999 (Warner)

Residency in the Twin Cities for the better part of two decades has resulted in many boons, personal and vocational for this writer. As with any life lived, the red side of the ledger has entries, too. Folded among them is the frictional, frayed listening relationship I harbor with the region’s most famous musical export. Nearly three years after his premature passing Prince is still everywhere and everything here. That perpetual, and perpetually irksome, ubiquity is what makes this five-disc+DVD beyond-exhaustive box so refreshing to my patience-tested purview. It contains lots of impressive material from arguably his most creative and questing period. It also has plenty of songs that feel competent but quotidian by comparison. That blend of bliss and banality is as effective a corrective as I can think of to the cult of purple sainthood that persists around these parts.

And as is my habitual wont, 25 more in no hierarchical order… thank you for reading and Feliz Año Nuevo!

Josh Abrams Natural Information Society (Eremite)

Michael Formanek’s Very Practical Trio – Even Better (Intakt)

Charles Gayle/John Edwards/Mark Sanders – Seasons Changing (Otokroku)

Dudu Pukwana/Han Bennink/Misha Mengelberg – Yi Yole (ICP/Corbett vs. Dempsey)

Nat King Cole – Hittin’ the Ramp: The Early Years (1936-1945) (Resonance)

Willem Breuker & Han Bennink – New Acoustic Swing Duo (ICP/Corbett vs. Dempsey)

Whit Dickey & Kirk Knuffke – Drone Dream (No Business)

Mark Turner & Gary Foster – Mark Turner Meets Gary Foster (Capri)

J.C. Heard & Bill Perkins Quintet – Live at the Lighthouse 1964 (Fresh Sound)

Stan Getz – Getz at the Gate: November 26, 1961 (Verve)

Rita Moss - Queen Moss 1951-1959 (Fresh Sound)

Bill Frisell & Thomas Morgan – Epistrophy (ECM)

Marion Brown & Dave Burrell – Live at the Black Musicians’ Conference, 1981 (No Business)

Jon Irabagon – Invisible Horizon (Irrabagast)

Tom Rainey Trio – Combobulated (Intakt)

Joe Lovano & Enrico Rava Quintet – Roma (ECM)

Tomeka Reid Quartet – Old New (Cuneiform)

Johnny Griffin & Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis – Ow: Live at the Penthouse (Reel to Reel)

Takahashi Miyasaka – Animals Garden (Kojima/BBE)

Tiger Trio (Joelle Leandre/Myra Melford/Nicole Mitchell) – Map of Liberation (Rogue Art)

V/A – Jambu: E Os Miticos Sons da Amazonia (Analog Africa)

V/A – Put the Whole Armour On: Female Black Gospel 1940s/1950s (Gospel Friend)

V/A –Alefa Madagascar: Salegy, Soukous, & Soul from the Red Island (Strut)

Horace Tapscott with the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra and the Great Voice of UGMAA - Why Don’t You Listen? Live at LACMA 1998 (Dark Tree)

Duster – Capsule Losing Contact (Numero)

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theonyxpath · 5 years

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The Deviant: The Renegades Kickstarter launched last Thursday and we would have loved it to fund in 24 hours, but it was actually closer to 25. Possibly every backer was pranking us, but in the end it’s cool- we did fund, we’re gonna get this newest Chronicles of Darkness game into retail stores, and we’re moving into building additional books with the Stretch Goals!

So basically, the Deviant KS is doing great! Come join us!

Links for the Deviant: The Renegades and the Creature Collection for Scarred Lands 5e Kickstarters are below in the Blurbs! section.

We have had some folks, who I’m guessing have not backed any of our last few KSs, write to tell us that they’re taken aback by the listed international shipping costs. Yep, we are as miffed at those costs as you, and as I posted here a month or so back, we have chosen to go ahead and still ship internationally and post the costs, rather than stop shipping internationally as quite a few of our fellow TTRPG publishing have chosen for their KSs.

I figure it’s better to let prospective international backers know the cost upfront so they can make the informed choice that makes the most sense to them.

Usually when I explain this, I also let folks know that behind the scenes we have tried and are continuing to explore alternative shipping options. With Deviant‘s KS, we are still using our previous methodology, but with the concurrently running Creature Collection for Scarred Lands 5e Kickstarter (also doing nicely, thank you!) you can see one of the options we’re exploring.

In CC’s case, we’re working with Handiworks Games not just on the art and writing and design and Kickstarter for the book, but also with printers and fulfillment based in the EU. We’ll have a bunch of books sent over to the US for those backers, and then we hope that costs to ship from the EU for our international backers will be more reasonable.

Like I say, it’s an experiment that we think will work in a good way, but that’s never a guarantee in the rapidly shifting cost-structures of international shipping. And we’ll have to see if it is repeatable for other projects, too.

VtR2 Spilled Blood art by Michele Giorgi

But enough about Kickstarter, let’s talk about me.

Well, pretty much about how I spent my weekend, but it will circle back around to general topics about our hobby.

Have you ever had one of those time-frames where it seems that everybody you haven’t been able to get together with all want to hang out at essentially the same time? Well, that’s what happened to me, and for a twenty-four hour period I had three get-togethers (one was virtual) with old gaming buddies.

The first was an invitation from two high-school friends for dinner on Friday night which of course turned into talking about how my one buddy Johnny, aka Shithead the Dwarf, and I first met during our first D&D games as sophomores in HS. That’s the gaming club where when we started, we had the first four little D&D booklets and were waiting for the fifth booklet, Blackmoor, to be released.

It just so happened that my English class (that’s what we called Language Arts then, kids) had assigned me a journal to write, and in it I chronicled those first D&D adventures, so even now through the mists of time I can read all about how we’d stir through piles of mud with 10′ poles, and get attacked by 11 Stirges, and lose our Cleric to being swallowed by a Giant Frog.

The first few months we played with our very first DM, Robert, but then he had to get ready to graduate, and both Johnny and I stepped up as DMs. Johnny continued to run and play games until he graduated, and I did same but returned to our HS to run games for a couple of years since my art college wasn’t that far away.

When Johnny came home for break, and later when he was on leave from the Navy, there was always a seat at our gaming table for him, and some of his “temp” characters lived on as famous NPCs. Which was easier because my setting, my D&D “world”, has been the same since I first stepped up to DM as a sophomore.

(I share all this about my friend both for context and because I’ve known this guy for over 40 freaking years and that amount of time boggles my mind.)

And we weren’t the only players who ran games too, most of our players did both – which makes me wonder what we could have done with Community Content sites for all of our many worlds? Getting into Dragon Magazine was some folk’s goals, but if we could have published our stuff? Wow!

Of course, we probably would have needed the internet to make it happen, and we were just getting desk-top computers at that time!

BTW I just listened to the recording of our “What’s Up With Onyx Path Community Content?” panel from Gen Con on the Onyx Pathcast from last Friday, so Community Content might be on my mind. It’s a good panel if you’re interested in exploring publishing your own material for our games, so check it out on Podbean or your favorite podcast venue.

Dark Eras 2 art by Alex Sheikman

Then, Saturday all day was board games with the old gaming crew from both HS and the college years: Elmer the Troll, Thock the four-armed well, Thock, D’Gr’Gr the Duergar, and Ish, the gender-neutral Deep Gnome jester.

Obviously, those are their character names (from one campaign I ran), but in real life they are old friends and we’ve tried to get together once a quarter to play games, or go to the movies, or whatever, and this was one of those occasions.

We played Terraforming Mars and Blackbeard, and had a fun time learning the former while grinding our teeth trying to figure out what the hell the rules were so desperately trying to say with Blackbeard. Granted, it was an old Avalon Hill game, but seriously, these things were contradictory in the same paragraph.

This is one of the reasons I take the errata phase of our Onyx Path games seriously – can the audience understand and implement your text in the way you intended when publishing it? It’s sometimes hard to tell until you get it in front of that audience, so that phase for us gives us that feedback.

Then Saturday night, after our guests left, I raced upstairs to join our ongoing D&D 5e game on Roll20. It had been quite a while since we could get our schedules to line up (and of course it had to be this self-same day), and we were shifting from Justin running it to Oscar. So big change, although they had decided to keep our current characters and storyline with Oscar stepping in to add to our ongoing saga, and Justin could join in as a player.

So I had to play if I could swing it timing-wise. Turns out I could, and did, and a good time was had by all. What’s really interesting is the contrast as I look at the playing experience Johnny and I were reminiscing about, and the one I had on Saturday night.

Still playing D&D (from 1e to 5e!), but there’s our group doing collaborative world building as DMs. Not done by me and my HS friends in those early days; everybody was more about presenting THEIR world, that melange of influences and tropes that they wanted everyone to play in. The chance to tell the stories they wanted to tell. In a way, it was very personal, and it was how we all expected was just how it was done.

I do think part of opening up how and why we create and run our settings is the ensuing decades of game design that have experimented with more innovative ways to play. Not all the avenues that have been explored have worked long-term, but the accumulation of trying different things has enriched our hobby overall.

And, of course, there’s the huge difference that we played on Roll20. We had players on the West Coast US and on the East Coast, and we’ve had players coming in from London, places in Canada, the EU, and Micronesia previously. Being able to pull your group together from all over the world is such a boon when I remember worrying if all of our group would make it just from all over Philadelphia for our weekly session.

What I’m saying with these comparisons, is it’s a great time to be a table-top RPGamer!

DR:E Jumpstart art by Sam Denmark

Final thing about me – I’m going to do Inktober again this year. That’s the challenge to do one drawing in ink every day for the entire month. Any kind of ink. Last year I depicted characters that were all from the MithraukoQuest storyline of my old game world. This time around I’ll be doing characters and creatures that are part of the world, and from different gaming groups’ adventures, that weren’t part of the years the players fought against Count Mithrauko – so look out for my drawrings on social media.

All this, all these years of playing, and the years of reading genre fiction and comic books, the years of TV and movies, of studying fine art and graphics, all go together so I can decide what games we’re publishing, and what seems like it’ll play well at the table, be characterful and immersive, will look really cool, and have visual hooks like page layout and symbols – all of it comes to together and powers up my ability to make sure you have:

Many Worlds, One Path!

BLURBS!

Kickstarter!

Our Creature Collection Kickstarter for Scarred Lands 5e is skittering on creepy-crawly legs towards the next Stretch Goal to add more monsters – that the backers vote on – to the book! The first group of creatures to be added by backer voting are:

Flay Beast

Fleshcrawler

Gray Lancer

Hellfire Bloodshark

Iron Tusker

Love-Scorned Soul

Mist Murderer

Night Tyrant

This book was designed with amazing art by our friends at Handiwork Games, and they’re running the Kickstarter for us on our brand-new Onyx Path Kickstarter page! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/339646881/scarred-lands-creature-collection-for-5th-edition-rpg

And, we’re running this Kickstarter, too!

The Deviant: The Renegades Kickstarter launched last Thursday and we funded in just a tad over 24 hours and are vengefully slamming through Stretch Goals now! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/200664283/deviant-the-renegades-a-tabletop-roleplaying-game

Onyx Path Media!

This Friday’s Onyx Pathcast features an interview with Red Moon Rising, one of our favorite actual play groups! Go to https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/ or to your favorite podcast venue!

This week should be the last one where the Onyx Path News goes directly onto YouTube, as soon, Matthew will be streaming directly to Twitch! In this week’s news, Matthew discusses Deviant: The Renegades, Scarred Lands, Vengeance of the Shunned, freelance writer tips, and more! Check out this week’s news here: https://youtu.be/Zf-YB2drW54

Speaking of Twitch, please follow our channel if you haven’t already done so! Our schedule is filled with games including Vampire, Scarred Lands, TC: Aberrant, Pugmire, Scion, Mage: The Awakening, and Hunter: The Vigil, as well as videos on Storytelling advice! Visit www.twitch.tv/theonyxpath and give us a follow, and if you have an Amazon Prime membership and haven’t already subscribed to a Twitch channel for free using it, just type Amazon Prime Twitch into Google and please use it on our channel! The first season of our Scion story is coming to a close this weekend, so thank you to David for running it, and please check out any parts you missed on our YouTube channel

Look forward to October, because we’re going for a special Character Creation Month, where every Saturday we create characters for different games, including Scarred Lands, Deviant, Scion, and more! Remember to find us on Twitch!

Remember, if you miss any content on our Twitch channel, some of it finds its way to our YouTube channel here: www.youtube.com/user/theonyxpath Don’t forget though, that some of that content is Twitch exclusive or belongs to the Storytellers running their games, so don’t miss out and remember to follow us!

The ENnie award winning Red Moon Roleplaying continue their actual play of The Sacrifice, from V5 Chicago by Night, with Klara Herbol as the Storyteller and Matthew Dawkins as a player! Please check them out on www.redmoonroleplaying.com

This week, the Story Told Podcast have created a Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition primer: http://thestorytold.libsyn.com/episode-36-geist-the-sin-eaters-2nd-edition-primer

And here’s the newest Occultists Anonymous content right here, for you Mage: The Awakening fans: Episode 45: Get Out Within the lair of the Seers, the cabal strikes while they still have an advantage. Mage-on-Mage combat! The most harrowing experience the cabal has had yet, threatening mind and body. https://youtu.be/kvTU3Wp8KEs

Episode 46: A Deal Is Struck The cabal recovers from battle and deals with the decision Wyrd made without consulting Songbird or Atratus. Emotions are ragged but there is still Mysteries residing in Lynnewood Hall.https://youtu.be/o5HR_Oj3cjk

If you’ve not been keeping up with our TC: Aberrant actual play, please do give it a look here on our YouTube channel! Collateral Damage is a superb way to introduce yourself to the Trinity Universe through an Aberrant lens: https://youtu.be/WFBBZrUZVkE

And here’s Paws & Claws, our Pugmire actual play! Lots of content for you to watch and interact with: https://youtu.be/ga7wb3ESdEA

It’s been a while since we last promoted them, but Devil’s Luck Gaming are embarking on Season 3 of their Scarred Lands pirates campaign. As one of the best actual play shows around, do yourself a favour and start watching from Season 3. You will not regret it: https://www.twitch.tv/DevilsLuckGaming

Drop Matthew a message via the contact button on matthewdawkins.com if you have actual plays, reviews, or game overviews you want us to profile on the blog!

Please check any of these out and let us know if you find or produce any actual plays of our games!

Electronic Gaming!

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is awesome! (Seriously, you need to roll 100 dice for Exalted? This app has you covered.)

On Amazon and Barnes & Noble!

You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble).

If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue from which you bought it. Reviews really, really help us get folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these fiction books:

Our Sales Partners!

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there! https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

We’ve added Prince’s Gambit to our Studio2 catalog: https://studio2publishing.com/products/prince-s-gambit-card-game

Now, we’ve added Changeling: The Lost 2nd Edition products to Studio2‘s store! See them here: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/all-products/changeling-the-lost

Scarred Lands (Pathfinder) books are also on sale at Studio2, and they have the 5e version, supplements, and dice as well!: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/scarred-lands

Scion 2e books and other products are available now at Studio2: https://studio2publishing.com/blogs/new-releases/scion-second-edition-book-one-origin-now-available-at-your-local-retailer-or-online

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

And you can order Pugmire, Monarchies of Mau, Cavaliers of Mars, and Changeling: The Lost 2e at the same link! And NOW Scion Origin and Scion Hero are available to order!

As always, you can find most of Onyx Path’s titles at DriveThruRPG.com!

On Sale This Week!

This Wednesday, we’re releasing the EX3 Dragon-Blooded Screen PDF and two more of our monthly Adversaries of the Righteous!

Conventions!

Save Against Fear: October 12th – 14th GameHoleCon: October 31st – November 3rd PAX Unplugged: December 6th – 8th 2020: Midwinter: January 9th – 12th

And now, the new project status updates!

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM EDDY WEBB (projects in bold have changed status since last week):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep)

Exalted Essay Collection (Exalted)

Dragon-Blooded Novella #2 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Exigents (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Many-Faced Strangers – Lunars Companion (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Player’s Guide to the Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

Contagion Chronicle Jumpstart (Chronicles of Darkness)

N!ternational Wrestling Entertainment (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Creating in the Realms of Pugmire (Realms of Pugmire)

Redlines

Tales of Aquatic Terror (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Kith and Kin (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

Crucible of Legends (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Contagion Chronicle: Global Outbreaks (Chronicles of Darkness)

M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Second Draft

Tales of Good Dogs – Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)

Across the Eight Directions (Exalted 3rd Edition)

One Foot in the Grave Jumpstart (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2e)

Scion: Demigod (Scion 2nd Edition)

Terra Firma (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Wraith20 Fiction Anthology (Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition)

Yugman’s Guide to Ghelspad (Scarred Lands)

Vigil Watch (Scarred Lands)

Pirates of Pugmire KS-Added Adventure (Realms of Pugmire)

Lunars Novella (Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Development

M20 The Technocracy Reloaded (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Creatures of the World Bestiary (Scion 2nd Edition)

Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)

TC: Aeon Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition core rulebook (Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition)

Masks of the Mythos (Scion 2nd Edition)

TC: Aberrant Reference Screen (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Titanomachy (Scion 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum Core)

Monsters of the Deep (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Manuscript Approval

Mythical Denizens (Creatures of the World Bestiary) (Scion 2nd Edition)

Scion: Dragon (Scion 2nd Edition)

Legendlore core book (Legendlore)

Post-Approval Development

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)

Scion LARP Rules (Scion)

Cults of the Blood Gods (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Editing

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Hunter: The Vigil 2e core (Hunter: The Vigil 2nd Edition)

City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)

Let the Streets Run Red (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

W20 Shattered Dreams Gift Cards (Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th)

Geist 2e Fiction Anthology (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition)

Oak, Ash, and Thorn: Changeling: The Lost 2nd Companion (Changeling: The Lost 2nd)

Dragon-Blooded Novella #1 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Scion Companion: Mysteries of the World (Scion 2nd Edition)

Post-Editing Development

Chicago Folio/Dossier (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

TC: Aeon Ready-Made Characters (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

W20 Art Book (Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th)

Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

Indexing

Geist 2e (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition)

Dystopia Rising: Evolution core (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)

ART DIRECTION FROM MIKE CHANEY!

In Art Direction

Contagion Chronicle

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant

Hunter: The Vigil 2e – Sam on the fulls.

Ex3 Lunars – Contracted. More sketches coming in.

TCfBtS!: Heroic Land Dwellers – LeBlanc on this.

Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed

Ex3 Monthly Stuff

Trinity RMCs – Contracted.

Cults of the Blood God (KS) – Contracted.

Chicago Folio – Sending contracts and art notes out.

Mummy 2 (KS) – Characters being worked on, fulls next.

Memento Mori – Contracted.

City of the Towered Tombs – Contracted.

In Layout

They Came from Beneath the Sea!

Dark Eras 2 – Files with Aileen

Trinity Continuum Aeon: Distant Worlds

VtR Spilled Blood – In progress.

DR:E Threat Guide – Helnau’s Guide to Wasteland Beasties

W20 Art Book

DRE Screen

Geist 2e Screen

Proofing

C20 Cup of Dreams

M20 Book of the Fallen – PDF back to Phil for review.

DR:E Jumpstart – Sent to Eschaton for approval.

At Press

Trinity Core Screen – At Studio2.

TC Aeon Screen – At Studio2.

Trinity: In Media Res – PoD proofs coming.

Trinity Core – Printing. PoD proofs ordered.

Trinity Aeon – Printing. PoD proofs ordered.

V5: Chicago – Files sent to printer.

Aeon Aexpansion – Backer PDFs out, errata.

CoM – Witch Queen of the Shadowed Citadel – Backer PDF out to backers, errata gathering.

Signs of Sorcery – PoD proofs ordered.

Today’s Reason to Celebrate!

And so we now are in Autumn! Falling into fall! Let’s celebrate the season that starts today where things get really colorful and then die! (OK, nature is just sleeping…really.) And Saturday was, I hear, Batman Day, which works well, especially if you recall the first drive in the Batmobile to the Batcave in Tim Burton’s Batman with the low angle shot up the road with swirling dead autumn leaves in the car’s wake. Lovely, just like the season.

#Onyx Path Publishing

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sharpdressedbman · 5 years

Text

A Tribute to Chester: Life, Death, Rebirth, and How He Lives on in Memory

How do you properly memorialize one of your childhood idols? Are you supposed to scream, cry, and gnash your teeth? Or do you put on noise-canceling headphones and block out the ambient noise of the outside world for a while? All of these are difficult questions to answer. I guess that’s why they’re rhetorical. It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost two years since Chester Bennington passed. So in a way, this simple little essay is how I can honor him. It feels nice to write something that isn’t fiction or related to a blog for a change[1]. Let’s see how it goes.

Part Zero: Notes from the Underground

I must confess that I was never a member of the official fan club, the LP Underground. I suppose in retrospect that’s how I could have proven I was a legit fan despite never seeing them live in concert except via live stream. But even then, that was a rare occasion. I do remember a t-shirt I got from Hot Topic when I was 12 or so – it had the faces of all of the guys gathered around the classic script font of the band’s logo.

I don’t remember what happened to it. The last time I remember wearing it was in August 2014. I supposed by then I had outgrown it. But still, buying whatever merch I could and getting all of the CDs and eagerly anticipating the next music video all had to count for something. I knew the names of all the guys, even Mark Wakefield, who was never an official member, and Phoenix Orion (Dave Farrell?), who left before Hybrid Theory but was back in time for Reanimation – more on that later.

But I digress. Let’s get on with the real meat of why we’re here. In terms of structure, I thought it would make the most sense to go album by album, discuss some memories I have associated with each, and attempt to unpack why they remain so important to me even as time has marched on since then. Growing up with the band, as I’m sure many of you did, you might feel a similar connection that you never fully grasped until the night of the tribute show in December 2017.

Part One: Hybrid Theory

#Forfeit the game/Before somebody else/takes you out of the frame and puts your name to shame/Cover up your face, you can’t run the race/the pace is too fast, you just won’t last. [HT Track 4: “Points of Authority”]

Although Hybrid Theory came out in October 2000, I think the first time I heard it was for another month or two after it came out. It’s still one of the most vivid memories I can still recall, the first time “Papercut” blared out of a cd player. I was sitting in the basement at my buddy Andre’s house and we were playing Perfect Dark with our mutual friend Alberto. It was honestly the perfect soundtrack for the game. Here’s what I said back then: “Dude, who is this? This is awesome!”

“It’s Linkin Park.”

Even then I thought the name was cool, the way that they intentional misspelled Lincoln – the rule of cool and all that. Elementary school hadn’t even ended yet, but it was still part of my formative years, musically speaking. Before then, I had never discovered any music on my own – my friends had always shown me. My parents didn’t raise me to enjoy music – I hated classical and most of the “standards” went over my head. My parents were still throwing karaoke parties. My old neighbor John showed me James Brown. That’s how I latched onto my first favorite song of all time “I Feel Good”. Then came Third Eye Blind, another early love of mine. But that’s a story for another time, as is my recollections of Limp Bizkit. This tale is about LP.

I wouldn’t realize it at the time, but Hybrid Theory would continue to be one of the most important albums to be me as I left elementary school and hit middle school. The days of Perfect Dark and WCW/nWo Revenge began to fade[2] as Diablo II and Starcraft emerged. The sound of Chester’s howls and Mike’s swagger along with the rest of the bands driving instrumentals provided a backdrop like you wouldn’t believe. “In the End” stood out in particular, although as middle school came to an end, it became clear that those reasons weren’t ones I wish to discuss here, now. Ask me again another time. It was at the end of middle school (hell, even before) that I confronted the notion of how deeply uncool I was, and probably tangled with imposter syndrome, anxiety, and depression long before I knew what any of those terms meant.

I already knew I was an introvert who was much more inclined to stay inside playing video games, reading, or writing instead of going outside to play street hockey or anything like that. That shouldn’t have meant that I was an easy target for bullying, but hey, it was the 90s and then the early 2000s, so what could you do? LP helped me cope, even if I couldn’t always express my anger in responsible ways.

I think here is a good place to stop and point something out: mental illness has been something that has been immensely important to me – it affects me and I know it damn sure affects my wife and mother in law. I went through a very dark time in my life roughly five years ago that LP also helped me pull out of – but I’ll get to explaining that more in-depth later on. Right now we’re still in the HT era; I just wanted to talk a little bit more about my motivations for writing this piece.[3]

Part Two: Reanimation

#Keep that in mind/ I designed this rhyme/ when I was obsessed with time. [RA Track 3: “Enth E Nd]

Full disclosure: when I first heard Reanimation, I thought it had its moments. But it wasn’t something I could listen to end-to-end and love every single song. Heck, even HT wasn’t like that, since some of the songs had to grow on me. The video with the robots and aliens having a war while the disembodied robot heads of the band sing the remixed version of “Points of Authority” by Jay Gordon of Orgy was definitely awesome, but I don’t know, I had mixed feelings about the album that took years for it to resolve into me think of it as one of the LP’s early era classics that would culminate with Meteora and Live in Texas.

I have a very distinct memory of popping this cd into the car’s stereo while we were out in…Houston? Taiwan? The details are blurry now because it’s been too long. Seventeen years was a long time ago, and 2002 me was simpler, less refined, and yes, much dumber and naïve. On an emotional level, “p5hng me Aw*y” stood out, and even though it wasn’t actually a true Linkin Park song, “It’s Goin’ Down” stood out from this time period too.

Part Three: Meteora

#I’ll never fight again, and this is how it ends…I don’t know what’s worth fighting, or why I have to scream, but now I have some clarity to show you what I mean… [MA Track 9: “Breaking the Habit”]

Meteora is one of those albums I more clearly associate with Diablo II and Starcraft more than any other games. Just something about the overall darkness and broodiness of the album really fit both of those games. Also, this essay project is making me want to go back in time. Not really from a nostalgia standpoint – okay yeah I guess from a nostalgia standpoint. But it was during this era that I really started to enjoy their music videos. Believe it or not, for the longest time, not all of the songs on the album were rated five stars. I used to be stingier with that rating that I am now. It took a while for some of the songs to grow on me, but “Somewhere I Belong”, “Faint”, “Easier to Run”, “Breaking the Habit”. “Nobody’s Listening”, and “Numb” were instant standouts. I’m still not sure what happened to my original copy of this album. The last I checked, I had a burned copy, but not the real deal.

Part Four: Live in Texas

#When I look into your eyes there’s nothing there to see/nothing but my own mistakes staring back at me# [LIT Track 8: P5hng Me A*wy – Live]

Man, I remember this too. It must have come out six months or so after Meteora did, and grabbing it from Kmart was one of my best days. I think it was also the first LP album to have the dreaded Parental Advisory sticker on it, and this is probably the album I blame most for me disliking the edited versions of songs. Sometimes edits can be clever, but when they’re just bleeps or certain naughty words are blanked out, then it gets annoying. Then again, I probably wasn’t a stranger to this concept thanks to early exposure to Third Eye Blind and Limp Bizkit, as I mentioned before. Was this the first time I heard “live” performances of LP? I think it was, and it probably stoked my eagerness to see them live in concert. Alas, it was never to be.

Part Five: Collision Course

#Yeah/Thank you, thank you, thank you, you’re far too kind# [CC Track 4: “Numb / Encore”]

It’s fitting that as I pick this up on (7/21/19) it’s the day after the 2 year anniversary. I meant to have this finished by the 20th, but it just didn’t happen. Plus “Numb/Encore” was one of the first songs that started up on this go-through of the playlist. If you’re interested in listening to it, I can direct you to my Spotify profile! Numb is one of those songs that have taken on new meaning since his death, but out of all the collaborations on this mashup album, I think it’s the one that works the best sonically and thematically, especially with the juxtaposition between angst and bravado[4].

Part Six: Fort Minor & The Rising Tied

#So sick, if he’s gonna think/That the good lord would come take him/I’m shaking him, “Wake up, you son of a bitch!”# [TRT Track 14: “Red to Black”]

It was four years between the era of Meteora and Minutes to Midnight. In between that time, there was a sea change. First there was the mashup with Jay-Z, and then this came along in November 2005. I remember being more stoked for it than probably any other music that I discovered that year – and this was when Fall Out Boy, 50 Cent, and Coheed and Cambria dawned on me, among others. For those who don’t know, Fort Minor is/was Mike’s side project. He’s since done other solo stuff under his own name but between then and now he would bust out verses from The Rising Tied and incorporate them into existing songs. I always thought that Red to Black was the most LP-sounding song on the entire album and that for the longest time I thought Chester used Jonah Matranga as an alias and it wasn’t a separate person.

Part Seven: Minutes to Midnight

#In this farewell/There’s no blood, there’s no alibi/Cause I’ve drawn regret/From the truth of a thousand lies/So let mercy come and wash away# [M2M Track 6: “What I’ve Done”]

In the interest of time, these entries are probably going to get shorter and shorter. At this point, I just want to get the damn thing over with. “What I’ve Done”, the lead single was the one that struck me the most at first; I remember LP making a big deal about how they wanted to start a new sound after leaving their classic era behind. The music video was awesome, and I think LP was one of the best choices for the Transformers movies. I always thought that “What I’ve Done” would make a great wrestling song. Not necessarily as an entrance theme, but as a hype video for a PPV or a feud or something like that. EWR back in the day helped reinforce that belief though I can’t exactly remember what I associated it with – anyway, that’s neither here nor there. The day that I got this album was the same day the shooting at Virginia Tech happened. Finding out that the shooter was a mentally ill Asian dude spooked me. In today’s parlance, I was shook.[5] That’s something that has always stuck out even though it’s something I’ve not been fond of discussing, for obvious reasons. Still, for our purposes here, it is for once, actually relevant.

Part Eight: Dead by Sunrise and Out of Ashes

#Don’t want to lose my innocence/Don’t want the world second-guessing my heart/Won’t let your lies take a piece of my soul/Don’t want to take your medicine# [OOA Track 2: “Crawl Back In”]

The melodies that emerged on Minutes to Midnight, especially when it was Chester’s turn to take the mic, evolved. They turned into another platform for his music: the side-project Dead by Sunrise and their only album, so far as I know: Out of Ashes. I lump this album in with Welcome to the Masquerade by Thousand Foot Krutch and Dear Agony by Breaking Benjamin. All three emerged during my sophomore year of college[6], which was another difficult year for me. I think that is when I had the most trouble sleeping, either by choice or for other reasons. Out of everything LP-related, I think I have given this the least amount of attention. It’s probably time for that to change, ten years later.

Part Nine: A Thousand Suns

#Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds/I suppose we all thought that, one another# [ATA Track 2: “The Radiance”]

If Minutes to Midnight was an attempt to step out of the shadow of Hybrid Theory, then A Thousand Suns represented an aural breakaway. It was vastly different, integrating more spoken word and turning up their signature sound to 12. I can’t remember exactly if it was in 2009 or 2010 that I was meant to go see LP as they rolled into DC. Ultimately, I couldn’t go because of a lack of transport. It all ended up moot anyway because that was the show that got canceled because of Chester being sick. Trying to dig up that post on Facebook is probably beyond me now because it’s a day late. Maybe someday I’ll be able to find it again because those days were golden (at least my pathetic little eulogy for him that I wrote two years ago.)

Part Ten: Living Things

#Fly me up on a silver wing/Past the black where the sirens sing/Warm me up in a nova’s glow/And drop me down to the dream below# [LT Track 6: “Castle of Glass”]

So if LP had been striving to break away from the sound that made them famous, it was at this point where they were “Nah bro” and went full bore back around into an ouroboros[7] of awesome. While the vast majority of A Thousand Suns[8] had to grow on me over the intervening years, Living Things grabbed me by the throat and never let go. It followed the Hybrid Theory blueprint to a T. After all this time, “Castle of Glass” still stands out as my favorite from the album, but as is often the case, it’s hard to pick favorites.

Part Eleven: Recharged

#When I was young, they told me, they said/Make your bed, you lie in that bed/A king can only reign ‘til instead/There comes that day it’s off with his head# [RC Track 1: “A Light That Never Comes”]

The less said about this, the better. It had its moments, especially “A Light That Never Comes” which showed me the potential of Steve Aoki. But the memory that stands out most clearly about the day I got this album was getting a case of Hell or High Watermelon beer. I think since I got it from Record and Tape Traders, it was the day I found the TARDIS socks for Ally and sent them to her later that week. As you probably gathered from the cluster of footnotes, this was deemed my least favorite “official” LP album, and that ranking has held up in the last six years. It does to Living Things what Reanimation did to Hybrid Theory, but for whatever reason, I can’t bring myself to enjoy it more.

Part Twelve: The Hunting Party

#Cause you don’t know what you’ve got/it’s your battle to be fought/until it’s gone# [THP Track 7: “Until It’s Gone]

Ah, here we go. LP seems to follow patterns in the creation of their albums. Cause roughly a year after Recharged, there came The Hunting Party. After A Thousand Suns came and went, it seemed like LP was on a creative lull. But then we got LT, Recharged, and THP in three straight years. This came out in 2014, and it’s hard to believe that five years have passed already. To this day, I still think that my favorite part was all of the guest appearances on their album, especially from collaborators they hadn’t featured before then, like Daron Malakian and Tom Morello.

Part Thirteen: Welcome

#First time I did it, yeah I’ll admit it/I kinda hit it and quit it and left y’all hanging# [“Welcome”]

In all honesty, this should be a footnote for The Rising Tied. It came out 10 years later, as a way for Mike to tip a wink and a nod at all his fans that were still waiting for a full-fledged sequel. Fate had other plans, though. I can still remember helping to clean Tidewater while this song blared through my headphones. This probably became one of my most played songs of 2015.

Part Fourteen: One More Light

#Who cares if one more light goes out? Well I do# [OML Track 9: “One More Light”]

We’re almost to the finish line. I was super excited for One More Light because it broke a drought of no new music until 2017[9]. The song One More Light became more poignant after his passing. I hope it still makes him proud.

Part Fifteen: Afterword

So where do we go from here? Honestly, not even the remaining members of the band know. They’re not actively looking to replace Chester, and as a group, they’re still officially on hiatus. I didn’t even touch on any of the DVD or special edition releases that I’ve barely heard. I guess in a sense they’re honorable mentions, but without having listened to them, I can’t form any honest opinions or associations for them.[10]

[/mrhahn]

[1] It seems fitting that I mention that shirt I got as a twelve-year-old because that’s when I started picking up on writing as a hobby. It was a way to release my imagination and translate what I had in mind into a story, even if those early stories were embarrassingly bad. These footnotes will serve to flesh out those asides since they’ll more than likely distract from the main narrative I’m trying to spin here.

[2] Although Revenge remains iconic! Even to this day, I still long for an N64 and another copy.

[3] Chester struggled with MI too, even though hardly anyone knew it. It’s what ultimately got the best of him.

[4] My fascination with Genius Lyrics is really helping me to analyze and better understand the meanings of the words.

[5] It didn’t help that he bore an uncanny resemblance to me…

[6] 2009, how time flies!

[7] Not sure how to spell this dang word.

[8] I regarded it as my least favorite LP album until Recharged came out. More on that later.

[9] It wasn’t until that I built the playlist that inspired this essay that I learned that there were some other singles issued between The Hunting Party and One More Light. These tracks include “We Made It” with Busta Rhymes, which actually fell between Meteora and Minutes to Midnight; “Not Alone”, which was between A Thousand Suns and Living Things; and “Darker Than Blood” with Steve Aoki that was between The Hunting Party and One More Light.

[10] One was called “Frat Party at the Pankake Festival” and the other one was “Road to Revolution”, I think?

#chester bennington #Linkin Park #mental health #mental illness #make chester proud

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cdelint · 6 years

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Photo by Al Bogdan

On the first weekend in November 2018 I received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the World Fantasy Convention. Great though the honour was, initially I was reluctant to make the trip down to Baltimore to receive it in person due to the political climate in the US. But MaryAnn and various friends wore me down until I finally agreed to go. I’m glad I did.

I saw little of the pettiness and bullying that the current White House administration espouses except from one particularly obnoxious TSA agent as we were leaving the country. Most of my time was spent in the cocoon of the convention hotel where the civility and warmth of the attendees was the rule. I got to spend time and chat with so many wonderful readers and my peers—most of whom I hadn’t seen since the WFC in Saratoga Springs back in 2015.

Highlights were hanging with Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Evonne T., Charles Vess & Karen Shaffer, Ellen Klages and Leslie Howle throughout the weekend. Making music with the vastly talented Sarah Pinsker. A visit to the aquarium and the walk we took to Evonne’s recommendation of Faidley’s where we had the very best of crab cakes. Watching Greg Manchess do a live portrait of Michael Swanwick. Being surprised by Sara Felix flying up from Austin for Saturday night just to see us. Making new friends such as Linda Addison and Clarence “Zig Zag” Young. A dinner with Betsy Wolheim, another with Joe Monti. Sharing a table at the banquet with Joe & Gay Haldeman. Finally meeting Jonathan Strahan after so many years of only electronic communication. Receiving my award from my editor at The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Gordon Van Gelder. Being able to cheer for Ellen Klages when she won her award for her book Passing Strange and Greg for his win as Best Artist. The opening speech by Linda Addison and the acceptance speeches by Fonda Lee and Natalia Theodoridou.

Here’s the speech I gave when accepting my award:

First of all I’d like to thank the judges for this honour—it’s an especially good year for it to happen since I’m sharing it with Betsy Wolheim, the heart behind DAW Books. I’ve been enjoying DAW Books from when they first burst upon the scene with their distinctive yellow spines to the present day where they still publish some of my favourite writers such as Tanya Huff and Seanan McGuire.

I’d also like to send out my appreciation to the con committee for all their kindness and help.

No one wants to hear a long rambling acceptance speech—less is more, after all—but an honour such as this only comes around once in a lifetime and there are a number of people I really need to thank for their help and support in making my career what it is.

The impulse in a situation such as this to name and thank everyone who has ever been a part of this journey I embarked on back in the seventies when I stopped being the person who wrote simply for fun and the need to tell stories and became someone who still loves and appreciates his career but also wants to make a living doing it. So I do want to thank everyone who has supported me through the years. All of the editors I’ve been lucky enough to work with—and especially Tom Doherty, Patrick Nielsen Hayden and all the folks at Tor who gave my books a home for so many years. My peers and friends for their support and my agent Russ Galen who’s treated me so well and is always ready to try something new.

And of course all the readers who continue to make my career a viable possibility. I have the best readers in the world and because of them I have the best job in the world.

But I would like to specifically thank a few people who made a real difference.

My buddy Rodger Turner has been along on this journey since the very beginning. We both started out as readers. While I went on to write, Rodger has been more behind the scenes, owning an indie book store for a while, doing a little publishing, serving on the WFC executive and doing websites for the likes of World Horror, The Magazine of F&SF and authors like Tim Powers and myself. He’s been a support through all the ups and down of my career and we still get together to talk books once a week.

Terri Windling started out as my editor and became a friend who, if I get to pick a family of choice, is definitely my sister. In terms of my writing she’s the one who encouraged me to keep telling stories in a contemporary setting and, especially in the early years, gave them a home. She also taught me more about writing and my own voice than any number of writing tutorials and editors combined.

When I first started writing dinosaurs still roamed the world and we communicated by writing letters. That’s how I met Charles Vess and it’s how we knew each other for many years. We were in pretty much the same place with our respective careers and cheered each other on in amidst yakking about the books, art and music we loved. Since those early days we’ve collaborated on a number of projects but the thing I still like best is hanging around with him and his wife Karen—who I might add, is a trickster, so be careful what you wish for around her. A hundred years from now they’ll be telling Karen stories in the Virginia hills just as they tell Jack stories now.

Nina Kiriki Hoffman hasn’t been as much an influence on my writing as on my life. She lives every day to its fullest and I can assure you that you won’t go wrong in a confusing situation to ask yourself, what would Nina do? If it’s not always the right thing it’s invariably the most fun.

I also count Leslie Howle among the dear friends that came my way through my writing. I know many of you have experienced her generous hospitality and encouragement first hand. We should all have such steadfast friends cheering us on.

Lastly I want to thank my wife MaryAnn although saying thanks seems so inadequate. She should be standing up here with me. We’ve been a partnership for decades and without her participation in my career I probably wouldn’t be in front of you accepting this honour. So this one’s for you, dear heart, and may we keep making stories for many years to come. And we might even share a few of the ones that get written down.

We live in a divisive and perilous time—not simply in this country or my home province of Ontario, but all over the world. To my American friends, I hope you’ve registered to vote. And if you have I urge you to go out and exercise that right on Tuesday.

Remember that democracy is not a free ride but a responsibility.

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loftsteele12-blog · 5 years

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Five Steps to Begin Advertising Making Use Of Twitter

In this day as well as age, it is important to the development of a service to be linked to a dynamic on-line tool. No matter what you are promoting, you should link to your potential customer base in a way that corresponds; and also a lot more so, continuous, in order to get your message to the masses. Sites, such as Twitter, bring a fresh and also simple approach to marketing by enabling you to get to brand-new individuals by allowing them learn about every one of the interesting things that you are doing with your services or products daily. Become holiday recipes . Among the simplest means to get an adhering to on Twitter is to adhere to others. Check out new pals by utilizing search.twitter.com as well as discover fascinating contacts; those that will certainly share a mutual interest in your products. When you adhere to those people, check out their buddies and see if you would love to follow them, additionally. The end outcome will be that you will certainly have a varied pool of individuals in various areas that have actually declared their passion in your location. Update Routinely. Once you have individuals in position, what will you tell them? Sending out routine updates keeps your fans informed on what is taking place in your industry. It likewise serves to maintain them abreast of modifications quickly; in addition to requests for extra services. Keep in mind, a notified audience is a dedicated audience! Make Them Count. Besides updating your followers regularly, you need to guarantee that the info that you are providing is always interesting and relevant to the solutions that you supply. As an example, if you are an author, you would make all of your tweets pertinent to your publication signings, questions or remarks regarding your publication, or, get the opinions of your followers regarding your current projects. Usage Tiny URLS. Obtain much more info out by converting your write-ups, products or personal site into a tiny LINK. This feature gives a fantastic benefit in an Internet 2.0 environment as it is simple to send on sites such as Twitter to increase your readership. It is likewise easy to browse on gadgets such as cellphones for those who need to remain educated of your happenings while on the go! Host Conferences. Also referred to as Tweet Ups, these are meetings that are held in between persons who utilize Twitter. These are terrific networking possibilities at which to fulfill with those individuals that have actually vowed their loyalty to your following! It is additionally a chance to present brand-new ideas, in a more individual fashion; and to use the collective mental ability of the group for hunting new concepts and for added support. By employing these easy actions, you will be better furnished to reach an also majority of prospective clients and consumers. You will certainly likewise have the resources at hand, via your brand-new calls, to help you in gaining publicity for your products as well as services. By just upgrading your followers on your actions, you have actually entailed them in every element of your day; which brings about a reciprocatory partnership of devotion, loyalty as well as a lifelong collaboration; which is the dish for success! Millicent Courtney Ware https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YrE2GIoLog

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tonystarkbingo · 6 years

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Week Two fills! We have a TON of them again, so please click on the readmore to see what amazing things your fellow creators came up with this past week!

Title: The Ups and Downs of Dadhood Collaborator: rebelmeg Link: AO3 Square Filled: T5 - bathing/showering together Ship: Pepperony Rating: Gen Major Tags: fluff Summary: Tony has absolutely got this dad thing handled. One way or another. Word Count: 1415

Title: Hospitality is Overrated Collaborator: schroedingersfox Link: AO3 Square Filled: Square S2 - Snowed In Ship: Loki and Tony Rating: Gen Major Tags: canon divergence, hunting related animal death Summary: For the briefest of moments halfway between seconds, Tony was able to contemplate that, perhaps, this wasn't the smartest thing he had ever done. Ahead of him, among the trees a short distance away, a bewildered man stood staring. The man adjusted the body of a small deer on one shoulder and stepped closer. “Stark,” Loki said. His mouth quirked. “To what do I have the honor?” Word Count: 1660

Title: Tony Stark BINGO Fills Collaborator: StrangeMischief Link: AO3 Square Filled: ALL SQUARES FILLED! Ship: IronStrange Rating: Teen Major Tags: drabbles Summary: All my Tony Stark BINGO fills in one spot. Word Count: 2586

Title: I'd Thought You'd Never Ask Collaborator: yourselenite Link: AO3 Square Filled: S4 - meeting alternate universe counterparts Ship: WinterIron Rating: Gen Major Tags: dimension travel Summary: Somehow Tony jumps dimensions, but he gets to meet someone special Word Count: 514

Title: Vampires and Teenagers Have a Lot in Common Collaborator: tisfan Link: AO3 Square Filled: A5 - Writing Format: Diaries & Journals Ship: Tony Stark and Janet Van Dyne Rating: Gen Major Tags: Fluff Summary: someone appears in a vampire outfit and the others have to seriously figure out if they have actually been turned into a vampire or not Word Count: 852

Title: Inhale, Ex-sail Collaborator: justanotherpipedream Link: AO3 Square Filled: K1 - AU: Steampunk Ship: Stony Rating: Teen Major Tags: steampunk AU Summary: "Rich pirates decked out in top-of-the-line black market gear,” grumbled Tony, ”why don’t I have the budget to make those again?’ Rhodey inched back so that he and Tony were back-to-back. “We’re apparently law abiding citizens now, which means having to pay taxes.” Tony scowled. “Urg, right. Remind me why I wanted to do that again?” Rhodey rolled his eyes. “What was it you called him last time? Your sweet tart? Your apple pie in the sky? The wind beneath your wings? Hopefully he’ll fly here fast enough so we don’t get killed. Or worse, mugged.” Word Count: 1826

Title: Demon in a Bottle Collaborator: rebelmeg Link: Tumblr Square Filled: T4 - image of Tony raising his glass “to peace” in Afghanistan Ship: None Rating: Teen Major Tags: Alcoholism Summary: Moodboard for Tony and his alcoholism

Title: With Your Hands Collaborator: rebelmeg Link: Tumblr Square Filled: R3 - image of IM1 Tony wielding the Iron Man gauntlet Ship: None Rating: None Major Tags: None Summary: Moodboard for Tony and his hands

Title: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang Collaborator: FreyaS Link: AO3 Square Filled: S4 - De-Aging (Any) Ship: Stony Rating: Explicit Major Tags: Underage, explicit sexual content, high school AU Summary: “Gentlemen, might I remind you this is the library?” A voice interrupted. Tony jerked and fell backwards out of Steve’s lap and they both turned to look into the less than amused face of the librarian, Mr Coulson. “Please for the love of God, leave before I have to explain to Principal Fury why the school’s football star and resident genius both got detention,” Mr Coulson said. He had a hand over his face, as if trying to block the sight in front of him. (Or: Steve and Tony can't keep their hands off each other and everyone else suffers the consequences. Also known as that inevitable high school AU.) Word Count: 11428

Title: Just About Perfect Collaborator: 27dragons Link: AO3 Square Filled: T4 - Kink: Cock Rings Ship: WinterIron Rating: Explicit Major Tags: explicit sexual content, bondage Summary: Bucky thinks Tony can come while wearing a cock ring. Tony’s not so sure. (100% pure PWP smut) Word Count: 841

Collaborator: monobuu Link: Tumblr Square Filled: T2 - takeout/pizza Ship: None/WinterIron Rating: Gen Major Tags: Fluff, art Summary: Tiny Tony and Bucky with a chinese takeout container

Title: Browse With Confidence Collaborator: James Link: AO3 Square Filled: T5 Lost Their Powers Ship: IronStrange Rating: Gen Major Tags: none Summary: Tony might have lost his genius - or at least his computer. Word Count: 1609

Title: Tinker With That Collaborator: rebelmeg Link: AO3 Square Filled: K3 - nightmares Ship: Pepperony Rating: Gen Major Tags: nightmares, PTSD Summary: The missing scene after Tony's PTSD nightmare in IM3. Word Count: 637

Title: Lab Buddies Collaborator: darthbloodorange Link: AO3 Square Filled: K5 - Science Bros Ship: Science Bros Rating: Gen Major Tags: art Summary: Tony and Bruce are working together on a project in Bruce's lab. Tony gets himself a lab coat. Bruce... is a little less than impressed.

Title: Thinking Collaborator: darthbloodorange Link: AO3 Square Filled: R4 - robots Ship: none Rating: Gen Major Tags: art Summary: Just a usual day in the workshop. Tony is trying to think out a problem, and Dum-E and U want to play around.

Title: Tar and Feathers Collaborator: darthbloodorange Link: AO3 Square Filled: A3 - free space Ship: none Rating: Gen Major Tags: art Summary: It was just like in those old cartoons he used to watch as a kid. He just never thought it would happen to him though...

Title: Looking out into Space Collaborator: darthbloodorange Link: AO3 Square Filled: T2 - image of Tony in space Ship: none Rating: Gen Major Tags: art Summary: Off all the things he thought he would and could do when he goes to space for the first time... this wasn't it. He wouldn't have chosen this to be the way he was in space either, lost and feeling alone. He wouldn't have chosen any of this.

Title: A Monument To A Hero Collaborator: darthbloodorange Link: AO3 Square Filled: S1 - graveyard Ship: none Rating: non Major Tags: art Summary: The hero Tony Stark died fighting to save the people of Earth. The people in turn constructed a monument in his image.

Title: Tame Your Demons Collaborator: SierraNovembr Link: AO3 Square Filled: S5 - Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier Ship: WinterIron Rating: Teen Major Tags: child abuse, violence Summary: He builds his picture of Tony one detail at a time, until the flash-blindness from Tony’s brilliance starts to ease and Bucky sees things in the shifting shadows. Tony is a man of many shadows, some old and deep. Word Count: 1841

Title: Bent, Not Broken Collaborator: ShippersList Link: AO3 Square Filled: A4 - nightmares Ship: Stony Rating: Teen Major Tags: implied/referenced child abuse Summary: A momentary loss of control is all that’s needed for Tony’s world to come crumbling down. Luckily for him, Steve is there to catch him. Word Count: 2658

Title: Can we live that real life Collaborator: cutebutpsyco Link: AO3 Square Filled: R3 - Thor Ship: Tony Stark and Thor Rating: Teen Major Tags: canon divergence Summary: Canon Divergence: Instead of the short movie of Thor in Australia during Civil War, he goes back at the Compound, just while Tony is back from Berlin to recruit Peter. Word Count: 1329

Title: K5- Workshop Troubles Collaborator: thudword Link: AO3 Square Filled: K5 - workshop troubles Ship: none Rating: Gen Major Tags: fluff, bot feels Summary: All Tony wants is a chance to rest. But DUM-E has other ideas. Word Count: 1028

Title: A Very Muppet Conundrum Collaborator: SbiderSlut Link: AO3 Square Filled: S3 - Humour Ship: Tony Stark/Peter Parker Rating: Teen Major Tags: fluff, crack Summary: In which Tony Stark wakes up, and the world has become a Sesame Street set. Long story short: Everyone, including his fiancé, looks like a Muppet. Yes, it is as ridiculous at it sounds. Word Count: 1832

Title: Heroes for Oppy Collaborator: shadowgrl94 Link: AO3 Square Filled: A3 - Free Space Ship: WinterIron, Iron Dad and Spider Son Rating: Gen Major Tags: bot feels Summary: Peter was in the car with Happy on the way to the Avengers Compound when he heard this news. "What?!" He scrolls through Twitter. Then his facebook. Then his Tumblr and Insta. "No. No. No. No. No!" Word Count: 737

Title: Wanted: Mom Friend Collaborator: singingwithoutwords Link: AO3 Square Filled: S4 - AU: Sci-Fi/futuristic Ship: none Rating: Gen Major Tags: none Summary: The crew of the Starlit Spear just want their human to not accidentally kill himself. Is that really so much to ask? Word Count: 1797

Title: Open Hearts, Open Doors Collaborator: mistrstank Link: AO3 Square Filled: T1 - Marriage! Ship: WinterIron Rating: Teen Major Tags: fluff, wedding Summary: In which Tony and Bucky have a very special day, DUM-E is a regular disaster and Tony's friends are a bunch of trolls. Word Count: 6806

Title: Open Hearts, Open Doors Collaborator: TheKitteh Link: AO3 Square Filled: K3 - Never Again Ship: WinterIron Rating: Teen Major Tags: fluff, wedding Summary: In which Tony and Bucky have a very special day, DUM-E is a regular disaster and Tony's friends are a bunch of trolls. Word Count: 6806

Title: Open Hearts, Open Doors Collaborator: FeignedSobriquet Link: AO3 Square Filled: Square K3 - Day in the Life Ship: WinterIron Rating: Teen Major Tags: fluff, art, slightly lemon Summary: WinterIron art

Title: There's Always Next Year Collaborator: rebelmeg Link: AO3 Square Filled: R4 - Cheesy Ship: Pepperony Rating: Gen Major Tags: fluff, Valentine’s Day Summary: Five times Tony's Valentine's Day plans totally failed... and one time it all went perfectly. With a few successes from Pepper! Word Count: 5193

Title: Scandal Collaborator: katling Link: AO3 Square Filled: T4 - Past Tense Ship: WinterIron Rating: Teen Major Tags: canon diverget, not Team Cap friendly Summary: Tony knows the return of the Rogues is going to cause a scandal, no matter what the President's polling data says, however James decides that they'll counter a scandal with a bigger, better, more shiny scandal. Tony approves. Word Count: 1433

Title: Missing You Collaborator: Ironspider Link: Tumblr Square Filled: K4 - Missing You Ship: Tony Stark/Peter Parker Rating: M Major Tags: implied underage Summary: Moodboard

Title: Sounds Like A Plan Collaborator: katling Link: AO3 Square Filled: K3: Rocket Raccoon Ship: background Pepperony Rating: Teen Major Tags: none Summary: Tony's not sure what to make of the walking, talking raccoon in his workshop but he's tired, upset and determined that Thanos has to die. Rocket agrees and a plan is formed. Word Count: 568

Title: Coffee, Curses, Kisses Collaborator: wakandan_wardog Link: AO3 Square Filled: S4: FIRST KISS Ship: WinterIron, Clintasha Rating: Gen Major Tags: fluff, flirting Summary: Tony Stark drags himself out of his workshop on a regular Thursday morning. Well, mostly a regular morning. Except for Clint Barton lying on the breakfast bar in themed underwear. The theme is new, the rest is depressingly familiar. Ok, so maybe the rose petals are new too. (What the hell, Clint?) It's enough to make a billionaire grateful for the Avengers Alarm. Wait a minute, magic too? Fuck, this is just not Tony's day. (Until it really, really is.) Word Count: 1614

Title: Take My Heart in Sweet Surrender Collaborator: shadowgrl94 Link: AO3 Square Filled: R2 - Cheesy Ship: WinterIron, Vision/Wanda, Carol/Rhodey Rating: Teen Major Tags: none Summary: 5 Times Tony and Bucky treated each other on Valentines Day and 1 time they didn't (on valentines day that is) Word Count: 2168

Title: Ice cream Castles Collaborator: lilithenaltum Link: A03 Square Filled: K2 - holding hands Ship: Tony Stark/Shuri Rating: Teen Major Tags: Hurt/Comfort, angst Summary: He didn’t deserve you,” Tony says with a vicious edge to his voice. Neither of them did, really. Word Count: 3,186

Title: The Pull of the Past Collaborator: dracusfyre Link: AO3 Square Filled: T1 - Misunderstandings Ship: Loki/Tony Stark Rating: Gen Major Tags: PTSD, panic attacks Summary: Stephen has Tony come over to fix a sink and things go very sideways. Word Count: 2149

Title: But did you do it? Collaborator: panna-acida Link: AO3 Square Filled: A3 - Free Square Ship: WinterIron Rating: Teen Major Tags: AU no powers Summary: “But did you do it?” Minute of silence stretched in the little cell, after the other man voice, James, call me Bucky, reached his ears soft and soothing like velvet. Word Count: 557

Collaborator: lbibliophile-mcu Link: Tumblr Square Filled: K1 - Arc reactor Ship: none Rating: G Major Tags: bot feels, art Summary: DUM-E knew Valentines cards were supposed to show a heart, so that’s what he drew.

Collaborator: monobuu Link: Tumblr Square Filled: A4 - Hogwarts AU Ship: none Rating: Gen Major Tags: none Summary: Tony as the four Hogwarts Houses

Title: we can't save everyone (but we can try) Collaborator: ironspider Link: AO3 Square Filled: A4 - image of Tony zip-tied to bedframe in IM3 Ship: Tony Stark and Maya Hansen Rating: Teen Major Tags: minor character death Summary: Maya Hansen dies unable to make amends for her wrongdoings. Tony Stark watches her die. Word Count: 633

Title: Thanks Fur Everything Collaborator: calmena Link: AO3 Square Filled: S1 - Werecreatures Ship: WinterIron Rating: Mature Major Tags: shapeshifters, fluff Summary: In which Bucky begins to bond with a dog in Stark's lab, and the dog turns out to be... something else. Word Count: 2147

Title: Cold As Snow (But Just As Soft) Collaborator: Gothic_Lolita Link: AO3 Square Filled: K5: Graveyards Ship: Maria and Tony Stark, Tony Stark and Bucky Barnes Rating: Teen Major Tags: implied/referenced character death Summary: Tony hated winter and the memories that came with it. He hated visiting cold graves and dead bodies. But sometimes, it was worth the while. Word Count: 1259

Title: helluva 'vacation' Collaborator: rainbowshoes Link: AO3 Squares Filled: S1: Shipwrecked (Ch 1) R5: Desert Island (Ch 2) K3: Merpeople (Ch 3) S5: Carnival (Ch 4) A1: Arc reactor angst (Ch 5) A2: Infinity gems (Ch 6) R3: Science and Magic (Ch 7) K1: Shapeshifters (Ch 8) S2: Heat fic (Ch 9) Ship: WinterIron Rating: Explicit Major Tags: PTSD, nightmares, panic attacks, explicit sexual content Summary: Pepper and Rhodey join forces against Tony and force him to take some time away from SI after Stane and the palladium poisoning incident. So, for his vacation, Tony gets his yacht and takes it out on the open ocean all by himself. He has to get over his ‘thing’ with water, after all. Only then, there's a storm… Word Count: 19618

Title: Lights (Guiding you Home) Collaborator: mistrstank Link: AO3 Square Filled: K1 - AU: Canon Divergence Ship: IronHubands Rating: Teen Major Tags: angst, fluff, pining Summary: Rhodey's terrified of losing Tony and it seems every time he's not looking, Tony's dying or almost-dying. Or, in which the author looks at Rhodey through Tony's experiences in the MCU and cries over how many times we almost lose our boy, Tony. Word Count: 2626

Title: I’ll Show You the Darkest Parts of You Collaborator: mistrstank Link: Tumblr Square Filled: S2 - Wanda Maximoff Ship: none Rating: Gen Major Tags: fan edit gif Summary: “Ultron can’t see the difference between saving the world and destroying it. Where do you think he gets that from?

Title: Forests and Centaurs Collaborator: ceealaina Link: AO3 Square Filled: T1 - Centaurs Ship: WinterIron Rating: Mature Major Tags: mild smut, Fluff and crack Summary: Tony’s not quite sure where he is, or how he got here. And something seems just not quite right. Word Count: 1370

Title: School Time Legends Collaborator: SyoshoHiataki Link: AO3 Square Filled: T2 - Peggy Carter Ship: none Rating: Gen Major Tags: none Summary: Peggy Carter has punched Nazis, dealt with sexist military leaders and had to teach Steven Grant Rogers how to properly throw a punch. The thing she hates more than that? Stupid rich self entitled people.... Word Count: 835

#tonystarkbingo #tonystarkbingo2019 #weekly roundup #week two

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