#and I would throw up if 10s of thousands of people were singing happy birthday to me 😂

[jetskisonyourmoat]

Happy birthday Alex Turner. Here’s that video of him getting embarrassed about the crowd singing happy birthday from last year 😊

(Og video: Cat_mason on Instagram)

[princecharmingmendes]

Singing sappy love songs to each other being all lovey with each other

this is fucking adorable, i'm obsessed! i changed it up a bit and as always this got a little out of hand, as always (apparently I don't understand the concept of writing something under a thousand words).

apparently i only know how to write for this too, but they truly are one of my favorite couples i've ever written! so this is another blurb to the Hey Angel universe, but can be read separately. hope you like it, happy reading!

*Word Count: 1.2K+;

*Warnings: drinking and an overbearing amount of fluff.

-*-

Maybe Y/N shouldn’t have had that fourth glass of wine. Maybe she should’ve stayed at home.

Today was Jasmine’s birthday and she decided to celebrate it in a Karaoke bar, so she rented one of those private rooms and invited 10 of her closest friends. Y/N being Peter’s best friend and Raul being Peter’s brother, they ended up growing really close and therefore they were invited. The problem was that the idea of grabbing a microphone in front of seven practical strangers made Y/N’s heart practically beat out of her chest and her palms all sweaty.

Her boyfriend on the other hand was having the time of his life. Raul being the social butterfly he was, he loved the attention and he didn’t really care what other people would think, and sometimes she wishes she was more like him. So Y/N spent most of the celebration on the couch, nursing her glass of wine and watching everyone give the performances of their lifetimes among laughs and teasing comments. And she was happy to be there, despite not going for the whole experience, she was actually having a really nice time.

But as time flew by, and a couple of guests started leaving, only another couple she spent most of her night talking to left, and she felt slightly tipsy, the liquid courage kicking in, she started wanting to join her friends singing but still felt a bit insecure about it. So Y/N decided against it, sitting back fully on the couch as Jasmine looked for another song for her to sing.

“You know, no one’s going to judge you if you suck” Cameron, one of Jasmine’s friends, offered her with the gentle smile he’d been supporting all night.

“What?”

Cameron chuckled as he shook his head “If you want to sing, everyone sucks here to be fair, Raul is the least awful”

“Oh, I’m not the best with being an extrovert and singing in front of people does freak me out a bit” she said with a shrug, reaching for her glass to refill it.

“Well, it’s not really a crowd and I’m pretty sure Brandon won’t remember most of tonight, just go for it, if you want to leave in the middle of the song, just say you need to pee, I’ll help with the lie and no one will know” Cameron added with a small wink, making her giggle.

“Who’s singing with me?” Jasmine called from the small screen as she looked through the selection of songs.

And shocking everyone, herself included, Y/N promptly raised her hand “I will”

Raul cheered from across the room where he had been talking with Peter and stealing another slice of cake.

“There you go!” Cameron said with a smile.

“Oh God, why did I do that?” Y/N said burying her face in her hands.

Cameron patted her back encouragingly before adding “Come on, if it sucks you know what to do”

“Fine” she sighed as she joined the birthday girl to pick a song a little wobbly on her feet.

Jasmine quickly wrapped an arm around her before muttering “I’m so glad you’re doing this, hope you’re having fun”

“Oh, I am, I’m not even paying for all these private shows” she said making Jasmine throw her head back laughing “so which one did you pick?”

“Oh I haven’t picked one yet, any suggestions?”

Y/N shrugged as she scrolled through the selection, her eyes immediately settling on a specific name “this one!”

“Ooh I love this one” Jasmine said before pressing start and handing her an extra microphone.

The first notes of the song blasted through the speakers, bringing everyone’s attention to them, but Y/N decided to ignore the chill that installed itself on her stomach and have fun. So when she locked her eyes into Raul’s golden ones, looking proudly back at her, she forgot everyone else around them as the first lyrics kicked in.

You’re just too good to be true

Can’t take my eyes off of you

You’d be like heaven to touch

I wanna hold you so much

At long last, love had arrived

And I thank God I’m alive

You’re just too good to be true

Can’t take my eyes off of you

As she sang along the lyrics with Jasmine, Raul mouthed back the words, a beautiful smile gracing his features as placed the hand that wasn’t holding his drink on top of his heart.

Pardon the way that I stare

There's nothin' else to compare

The sight of you leaves me weak

There are no words left to speak

But if you feel like I feel

Please let me know that it's real

You're just too good to be true

Can't take my eyes off of you

Y/N caught in the corner of her eye, Brandon pulling Cameron into a hug as he winked at her, throwing her a quick thumbs up, before wrapping his arms around his boyfriend to prevent him from falling. She turned her attention back to Raul, who had placed his drink back on the table and was extending a hand in her direction, which she was quick to grab with slightly shaky ones.

I love you, baby

And if it's quite alright

I need you, baby

To warm the lonely night

I love you, baby

Trust in me when I say

Raul wrapped his arms around her waist, leaning his head to rest his forehead against hers as he started to sway them to the rhythm of the music, singing out loud, his voice resonating through the mic. They both had the most radiant expressions, only love and adoration on their gaze as they serenaded each other with the lyrics.

“Oh, pretty baby. Don't bring me down, I pray” Raul mumbled as he pressed a quick peck to her lips before continuing “Oh, pretty baby, Now that I've found you, stay”

Y/N only giggled in response, wrapping one of her arms around his neck and placing the mic randomly on the table to properly hugged him as he whispered the last words in her ear, before pressing a kiss to her hair.

And let me love you, baby

Let me love you

As the night ended, they took an Uber home as Raul hummed to the song she sang to him in the Karaoke as he kept her by his side with an arm around her shoulder, and she simply couldn’t stop herself from grinning, her cheeks hurting from how much she had smiled and laughed that evening.

Already on the apartment, as he watched her get ready for bed and then doing it himself, he kept humming the same song, over and over again. And as they laid down to rest, with her on top of him, their legs tangled under the sheets as he ran a hand up and down her back, he pressed a kiss to her head before whisper singing.

“Oh, pretty baby, Don't bring me down, I pray. Oh, pretty baby, Now that I've found you, stay. And let me love you, baby, Let me love you”

And she truly couldn’t be happier with her choice.

-*-

*Please reblog or like this post if you liked it so I’ll know.

*I’m sorry if there are any spelling mistakes.

*Please do not repost this without giving me the credit, this is a completely original piece and I do not give permission to copy this!

*Hope you guys enjoyed it!

*xoxo

-🌙

[strutitout]

LARRY FIC REC - recently read

1. I don't want a taste (I want it all) [3K] by  thedaggerrose (blessedfetish)

What Louis really needed was a fat fucking nap.

What Louis got instead was some hipster-looking wannabe arguing with him over the validity of avocado toast.

Or the AU where Harry tells Louis to go fuck himself, Louis tells Harry to fuck him himself, and Harry follows through.

✨ Cute and hot + they bantering over avocado tost.

2. Right Side of the Wrong Bed [10K] by  eyesofshinigami 

There, standing in a pair of ridiculously tiny briefs and wielding a frying pan in one hand, is quite possibly the prettiest boy he's ever seen. Louis scrubs a hand across his face. "I'm in the wrong goddamn flat, aren't I?"

Or, the one where Louis wakes up on the wrong couch only to meet his future husband (even if Harry doesn't know it yet).

✨ This was not the first and won’t be the last time I read this fic. It’s super fun, hot, and even though it’s “just” 10K, their connection is really well-built.

3. When Least Expected [22K] by  Rearviewdreamer

Drowning in a sea of emails and Zoom meetings in the living room, his lonely son falling more and more behind in his kitchen classroom, and crushing weight of the world being on house arrest for the foreseeable future, one fateful online interaction suddenly has everything looking up.

✨Louis’ kid is having a hard time trying to adjust to the new reality brought by COVID, until he starts having music classes with music teacher Harry, and things start looking up for both father and son. Very sweet fic and really interesting to see them falling on love over this hard times.

4. Naked Attraction #2 [29K] by reader_chic_2

“By the way, I checked you out quite a lot before your tube was raised.”

Harry smiled lustrously, “Yeah? More than Leonard? He might have been crazy, but he was sort of cute.”

Louis raised an eyebrow. “Maybe to you, Styles, but I don’t enjoy dominating in the bedroom.”

“Is that so?” Harry licked his lips. “Funnily enough, I do.”

Louis felt like his heart was going to explode out of his chest. “I’m not sure if someone as adorable as you could dish out commands.”

Harry laughed brightly, and in a second flat his hand reached out and gripped his hip so hard it made Louis gasp. His eyes darkened, boring into Louis’ with a burning intensity. “And I’m not sure someone as mouthy as you could take my commands. Want to test it out?”

. . .

Louis Tomlinson is the first openly gay football player in the Premier football League. He was outed by the paps, but he’s had to embrace it since then. To show he doesn’t have shame in it, he goes onto Naked Attraction, and all the money will go to LGBTQ+ support, but he has made some changes to the show. Incidentally, he meets a certain Harry Styles there, and that is when things get interesting...

✨ This was really really fun, loved their dynamic and found it a very original story. Fluff, fun and smut. 

✨ Additional tags: Spanking. Subspace.  

5. Hold Me Closer [36K] by  balanceds

Louis Tomlinson is one of the most promising dancers of the English National Ballet, on track to become the youngest principal dancer in the company's history. That is, until forces conspire to significantly complicate his life, including: a surprise ballet, an unfairly attractive guest choreographer, and being pushed into a rivalry with his best mate. Featuring lots of wine, dancing, pining, and a happy ending.

✨ I’m not an expert but from the comments it seems the writter nailed the “dancing world” characterization (even though you don’t have to know anything about it to enjoy it). There’s some good banter and friendship; hot smut; lots of pining and not that much angst.

6. Whisper The Wind [36K] by  jacaranda_bloom

Louis’ father has political ambitions and decides it’s time for Louis to step up as the company’s Chief Financial Officer. Louis thinks this is a monumentally stupid idea. After storming off in a rage he has a chance meeting with a tall, dark, curly haired stranger. A technical glitch with their shared elevator finds Louis spending twenty minutes with the most intriguing man he’s ever met. Unfortunately the man is leaving London the very next day and moving to Australia to work at his mates surf school. Timing, as they say, can fuck right off.

Fast forward three years and Louis is miserable, a shadow of the man he once was, working in his father’s company, and hating every moment. At his thirtieth birthday party, surrounded by people he doesn’t know or doesn’t like, he decides to throw it all in and follow the impossible dream. Happiness, a fulfilling life, and someone to love. The question is, will that dream be found ten thousand miles away on a sandy beach, with a curly headed surfer dude?

---

Or the one where Louis rides an elevator that may change his life forever, Harry loves the ocean but is a terrible surfer, Liam proves not all heroes wear capes, and Niall might actually have all the answers.

✨ No angst, this is 36K of pure fluff and hot smut (read tags). They fall in love almost immediately, so they are already together most of the story.

7. King of wishful thinking [38K] by  Star_Henderson

“Don't umm don't get on the bus, come inside.” Louis blurted the words out, speaking quickly.

Harry looked startled.

“Just. Look I don't know if I want..” Louis scrubbed his face with his hand. “I'll pay for your time. Just come in.”

Harry stepped away from the bus stop and the bus sailed straight past.

“What's umm what do you guys make these days?”

Harry shuffled his feet. “Depends. Like two hundred an hour.”

Louis hummed. “Reasonable.” He gestured towards the hotel. “Come up for a drink or some room service or something.”

Harry scraped the toe of his already scuffed boots on the floor. “You don't have to do this, I feel like… like you're a nice person who feels bad but it's fine. I get it. You don't have to make it up to me.”

Louis stared at Harry. It'd been so long since he'd even spoken to a guy let alone hung out with one. He'd enjoyed the banter and the flirting.

“Come up.” Louis’ voice was soft.

Harry’s face bloomed into a smile. “Ok.”

✨This is another one that I’ve read more than once and still love. Sex worker Harry. Really sweet, very well-written and their love is really well constructed. 

8. hush. [41K] by  Wankerville

“I don't like you like that, Harry.”

“See,” Harry starts, Louis can hear the smile in his voice, “that's where I think you're lying.”

---

or an au where small towns suck, louis is losing it, and harry’s just too perfect.

✨ Read the tags! My notes on this one were: SO SO BEAUTIFULLLLL. Loved it, angst (but not a heartbreaking one), SO MUCH FLUFF, great dialogues, great banter and smut. Loved it!!! (lol)

9.  Don't Look Down [91K] by  zarah5

AU. In which Louis is a solicitor at one of London’s most prestigious law firms and Harry happens to apply for the position as his trainee. And everyone else is around, too.

✨I love everything they write and this one wasn’t different. Amazing characterization, great dialogues, great banter! Absolutely loved it! Not much smut. A bit angsty, wanted to punch Louis at times, but all ended well. 

10. Let Me Be Your Star [252K] by  lovelarry10

Harry Styles has always been a singer, but he’s never had much confidence in himself. When his idol is brought on as the new judge on The X-Factor, he figures, what the hell? He’d get to sing and meet his idol. What could go wrong?

~

Louis Tomlinson has always wanted to mentor young musicians. When he’s asked to be a judge on The X-Factor, it’s a dream come true, everything he ever wanted. What he didn’t expect was to meet a curly-headed stranger that would turn his life upside down

✨Hot smut, a lot of fluff and not that much angst. Harry seems a bit immature (which makes sense for his age) but their relatioship is really sweet. (I also enjoy that the writer included pictures of how they imagined H and L on each presentation)

[ts-unpopular-opinions]

Side Track Opinions part 5: Roman

(I’ve been saving Roman for a while now and I am PUMPED! So here’s a late birthday present to our royal lad ❤️ It’s also super nice to save the creativitwins for last because both of their playlists reference each other quite a bit 👌)

1) A Gay Disney Prince: I mean... are any of us surprised? This song is basically Roman’s anthem, so it was bound to be on his playlist. I do find it interesting that both Roman and Remus are the only sides with songs made by Thomas on their playlists. I guess it goes to show that having a big ego runs in the creative family 😂

2) Wonderboy: Only two songs in and we already have a song about Remus, or “young Nastyman, archrival and nemesis of Wonderboy” in this case. You’ll start to get the idea from Roman’s playlist that he really misses being with his bro. This song portrays Roman as almost a perfect and untouchable force. He is seperated from all of his nasty thoughts and is the perfect embodiment of what Thomas sees creativity as (“High above the mucky-muck, castle made of clouds, There sits Wonderboy, sitting oh so proudly. Not much to say when you're high above the mucky-muck.”). I like to imagine that the singer of the song is Thomas, looking to Roman for comfort. Creativity most likely split as a way for Thomas to, not very healthily, cope with his intrusive thoughts (“Wonderboy, what is the secret of your power? Wonderboy, won't you take me far away from the mucky-muck man?”). It’s also interesting to note that at the end of the song, Roman and Remus seemingly join forces very successfully (“Well, Wonderboy and Young Nastyman joined forces; they formed a band the likes of which have never been seen”). Perhaps this is hinting at either Romans want to have his bother back, or possibly foreshadowing to their relationship dynamic in the future. I know I’d love to see Roman and Remus team up together in future episodes, maybe even against Patton and Janus in the next episode?

3) Disney Princess: This song is all about Roman dreaming about being in the lives of different disney princesses. Honestly it’s not super deep, but it does show just how much Roman loves to fantasize about escaping reality and living in his ideal dream world. He wishes his life were more interesting and exciting like what you would see in a movie. Also, Roman is SO desperate for someone to love him... poor guy (“I'd be a handsome man's wife And we'd kiss and we'd kiss And we'd kiss”).

4) Broadway, Here I Come!: (tw suicide) So this song is... interesting. It can be interpreted in two different ways: one being a song about how making it on broadway is a huge leap and very difficult, and another about a person literally jumping off of a building and commiting suicide. I always think of Logic vs Passion during this song because while Roman believes he is acchieving his dreams and is willing to take risks, Logan just believes he’s setting himself up for failure. I think Logan’s view on Thomas’ life and career choice is very hard on Roman and, by the topic of the song, affects him greatly (“The people all are pointing. I bet they'd never guess, That the saint that they're anointing Is frightened of the mess”). He doesn’t know if Thomas will succeed and that makes him doubt himself and causes his work to suffer (“The pressure it increases, The closer that I get” “And the last thing I hear. As the impact grows near, Is it a scream or a cheer?”).

5) Hallelujah: This song, like the one before it, shows a lot of Roman’s insecurities. Roman has a set plan for Thomas in life, but he constantly doubts it and himself due to the comments he gets from other sides (“Somedays I don't think my mama Thinks I'm good enough to be a superstar” “Somedays I don't think my daddy Thinks I'm good enough to be a superstar”). I don’t know specifically which sides he could be talking about in these two lines, but Logan is definately one of them. I like to think he could also be talking about Patton. I mean Roman probably worries constantly about being too much like Remus and disappointing Patton. Roman probably literally thinks that Patton doesnt think hes GOOD enough. Despite all of this self doubt, Roman still seems determined to reach his dreams and prove the others wrong (“But one day I will show him I'm a diamond in the rough, I'll be a superstar” “Yeah, there's a crown covered in glitter and gold I'm gonna wear it, whether you like it or not”).

6) Holding Out for a Hero: This song is from Thomas’ perspective! Thomas DOES see Roman as his hero despite what Janus’ not at the end of the most recent episode may have you believe. Roman acts as Thomas’ protection from all of his darker and more disturbing thoughts. Thomas uses Roman, a picture perfect image of creativity to help him escape from all the bad things in life and in his head (“Where have all the good men gone And where are all the gods? Where's the streetwise Hercules to fight the rising odds? Isn't there a white knight upon a fiery steed? Late at night I toss and I turn And I dream of what I need”). Thomas literally created Roman to be a perfect knight in shining armor. The singer in the song shows this by listing off everything that they believe a hero needs to be/have, Similar to what Thomas would have done in the creation of Roman.

7) If I Dare: I’m conflicted about what this song could mean. At first glance it seems to be about Roman willing to do anything in order to get more creative control over Thomas (“If I dare to risk it, then I know that I'm willing to. If I dare to want this, to want more than I have” “I am holding out for more than what I have now”). Roman really wants to be trusted more and would seemingly take huge risks in order to get that. The part that throws me off is this line: “When the room gets dark, and I am quiet. There's a voice that's soft, like someone's silhouette Saying, "Don't let me go yet"”. To me, this sounds like its about Remus. Possibly Remus begging Roman to not get rid of him and to remain as one. What confuses me is that the line felt so out of place with the rest of the songs meaning. I’m not sure what to do with that information, but if anyone has ideas, let me know.

8) Go the Distance: Roman is so patient... and so unrealistically hopeful... He continues to lay down and let the other sides get their ways because he believes that the wait will be worth it when he finally gets his say (“I'll be there someday, I can go the distance” “I know every mile would be worth my while” “And a thousand years would be worth the wait. It might take a lifetime but somehow I'll see it through”). Despite how many times hes been ignored and let down, he continues to hope that his chance may come one day. Theres also this line: “But to look beyond the glory is the hardest part. For a hero's strength is measured by his heart, oh” which makes me think big time of SvS. He gave up his glory in favor of what Patton wanted because he thinks that it was the more heroic thing to do.

9) Flamboyant: The title really says it all. Roman is extra™️ and he knows that all of the other sides think so too (“I'm a very flaming flammable guy. Some say my fire burns way too high. Some say they find me too hot to touch. But I, I think it's not enough”). I also think its important to note that this song feels a bit out if place with the canon Roman that we know. From what we’ve seen of Roman, he holds back a lot. He denies a great deal of his greed and wants in order to make the others happy and fill in his “hero” persona. This song portrays Roman as having no restraint and not wanting the others to boss him around (“Don't tell me what to do, Don't tell me what to say” “Turn down? I never do” “And no time for restraint”). I’d love to see more of this assertive side of Roman in canon, but right now you can tell that he is holding back. He wishes he didn’t have to, but he feels as though it is necessary to distance himself from Remus.

10) Jumpstarted: Let me set the scene. Thomas is just out an about enjoying his day, he holds open the starbucks door for the guy behind him and... omg... he’s hot... he’s the love of your life Thomas! Roman the proceeds to fanticize about marrying and starting a family with this one random guy that they’ve never talked to nor seen before (“The only one I want is you. I hear the bells and the ring and already, Four kids and the big ol' wedding Singing, You” “And how was I to make a long walk home. You got me feeling like I'm overdosed”). This whole song is just Roman singing about his head-over heals love for a guy in Thomas’ head while Thomas has to act normal and even warns the dude to run away while he has the chance (“Take my advice and run while you still can”). Roman’s quite a hopeless romantic.

11) Brave New Girl: Remember how I said Roman has been holding back and trying to be more polite in order to make himself less like Remus? Well this song is the opposite of that. This is what Roman wants. Roman wants to let lose and be his wildest self again (“She wants a good time” “She needs to really really find what she wants” “There's a brave new girl And she's comin' out tonight” “Who knew she could feel so alive” “Won't take a back seat”). I like to imagine this song taking place after the events of POF. I mean if the others are just going to accept that Janus is good now, then does that mean Remus is good too? If that the case, then what was the point of him and Remus splitting in the first place? This song makes me think that Roman and Remus could team up together in either the next episode, or future episodes to come. Roman is lost and doesn’t really know why he is who he is anymore, so he seeks out Remus, the only one who really understands what he’s going through (“So she met this man, He was kinda rough. He said, girl, what you lookin' for? She said, I don't know I go with the flow. He said, let's get on the floor”). The man in this song could also be Janus I suppose. He does compliment the singer and flatter her, but after the events of the last episode, I find it hard to believe that Roman would be willing to fall for Janus’ flattery again.

12) Every Boy: Roman wants to kiss every boy in the world... and it’s never enough. That is all.

13) Primadonna: What a bop! This song is honestly so good! Again with Roman’s songs making him out to be a lot greedier and wild than he actually has acted in canon (“You can count on me to misbehave”). This song is what I imagine Roman would act like if he had nothing to worry about other than being himself. Roman wants a lot of things and he wants everyone to adore him for the beautiful prince he is (“All I ever wanted was the world” “I can't help that I need it all” “When you give, I want more, more, more” “I wanna be adored” “I know I've got a big ego”).

14) King: You can already tell by the name what this song is about. I’m honestly shocked how obvious it is. At this point we don’t know who made the decision for creativity to split, but this song and a couple of others in the playlist seem to suggest that it was the Roman part of original creativity who decided to push Remus out. He felt as though it was the only way to successfully move forward (“I had to break myself to carry on”). The others sides (I’d like to imagine Patton) tried to convince Creativity to split and despite his not wanting to. His decision to split seemed like it was a very hard one to make and left a lot of pain in its wake (“They say it's easy to leave you behind. I don't want to try” “Is it worth the price?”). Original creativity felt powerful and strong when he was whole, so of course he didn’t want to split (“I was a king under your control”). The song seems to suggest that he tried to repress his ‘Remus’ thoughts in order to remain whole and not lose a part of himself, but this could only work for so long (“Don't wanna have to lose All that I've compromised to feel another high. I've got to keep it down tonight”). In the end, the Roman side of creativity finally won out and both Roman and Remus decided to let each other go (“I wanna feel like you've let me go, So let me go”).

15) Cheap Queen: This song really shows Roman’s struggle with his identity. He’s so quick to change for others in order to be accepted by them (“I can be good sometimes. I'm a cheap queen. I can be a what you like. And I can be bad sometimes. I'm a real queen. I can make grown men cry” “I'm gettin' too cocky since everyone wants me, It's harder to be myself”). This convices me that the way that he’s been acting in the last few episodes (not insulting anyone, very opposed to Janus) is soley him trying to prove that he is good and nothing like Remus. He’s been hiding his true self which we see a lot of in episodes before Remus was introduced. Roman doesn’t want to disappoint Patton in fear of Patton wanting him to split again.

16) Humility: ANOTHER song about Remus. This song is really interesting. It shows us that Roman is VERY confused about his opinion on Remus. He’s lonely and feels incomplete without Remus, He NEEDS Remus back (“I need you in the picture That's why I'm calling you” “I'm the lonely twin, the left hand” “I don't want this isolation” “See the state I'm in now?”). Right after Roman has these thoughts and feelings though, he instantly tries to block them out and retrain the idea that Remus is bad (“Reset myself and get back on track”). He wants Remus back so badly and feels some sort of remorse for kicking him out, but then he ignores those emotions and acts like he hates Remus another moment (“If I pick it up when I know that it's broken Do I put it back? Or do I head out onto the lonesome trail And let you down?”).

17) Aint Got it Like That: Roman is greedy and wants a lot of things, we’ve established this. Most of this song is about how Roman wants more than what he has now, but he still believes it will come if he just waits long enough (“'Cause I ain't really got it like that And one day Imma have it like that And I know that it can't stay this way And one day Imma finally get paid”).

18) Dreamer: I’m not sure whose perspective this song is from, but this feels like a comfort song to Roman. We know that he has a lot of insecurities and struggles to create things because he worries that his ideas won’t be good enough or will be too much like Remus’ ideas. But this song goes completely against that mindset. It’s what Roman wants to hear: “Dream little dreamer, Don't care what they say” “You can do anything” “Dream like you won't fail. Sing like no one's there. Dance like you don't care. Dream.” “Don't fear little dreamer, You'll get there one day” “And I know that it's scary, But you'll succeed” “You're exeptional, You're original” “You're magnificent, You're sensational”.

19) Paving the Runway: This feels like a song from Roman to Thomas and gosh it just feels so loving and sweet... Roman has such big dreams for Thomas and he has so much faith in him (“Cause I know that one day you're gonna fly”). He encourages Thomas to go for his dreams and excel, something that he is hardly told himself (“Go after your dreams, Crazy as they may seem. Go chase all the stars in the sky” “You will reach higher than I ever could”). Roman does everythig he can to set Thomas up for success and to help him reach his dreams (“Darling, stand on my shoulders” “Baby, I'll be paving the runway”).

20) Go.: Again, I’m not sure who the singer of this song is, but I can tell its exactly what Roman wants/needs to hear. Roman is very clearly holding back due to his fear of becoming too much like Remus and that is making it very hard to do his job (“The fear within Has held you hostage. Break free and live. GO.”). This is a good song to be Roman’s last song because I think it helps to show us where Roman’s character is going in the future. He is going to let lose and relax eventually. Perhaps this will lead to him creating the better relationship with Remus that he’s been hoping for throughout this whole playlist. I predict that next episode, well start to see some of this newer, less refrained creativity from Roman.

(And that’s that! If you can tell that theres some tension between Roman and Remus from this playlist, just you wait for Remus’! As usual, let me know what you thought of this ❤️ Love you guys!)

[fromtheringapron]

WWE WrestleMania XXVI

Date: March 28, 2010.

Location: University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. 

Attendance: 72,219.

Commentary: Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler, and Matt Striker. 

Results:

1. WWE Unified Tag Team Championship Match: ShoMiz (The Miz and Big Show) (champions) defeated R-Truth and John Morrison 

2. Triple Threat Match: Randy Orton defeated Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase Jr. 

3. Money in the Bank Ladder Match: Jack Swagger defeated Christian, Drew McIntyre, Dolph Ziggler, Evan Bourne, Kofi Kingston, Kane, Montel Vontavious Porter, Matt Hardy, and Shelton Benjamin. 

4. Triple H defeated Sheamus. 

5. Rey Mysterio defeated CM Punk (with Serena and Luke Gallows).

6. No Holds Barred Lumberjack Match: Bret Hart defeated Vince McMahon. Bruce Hart was the special guest referee.

7. WWE World Heavyweight Championship Match: Chris Jericho (champion) defeated Edge. 

8. Layla, Alicia Fox, Maryse, Michelle McCool, and Vickie Guerrero defeated Kelly Kelly, Beth Phoenix, Mickie James, Gail Kim, and Eve Torres. 

9. WWE Championship Match: John Cena defeated Batista (champion) to win the title. 

10. No Disqualification Career vs. Streak Match: The Undertaker defeated Shawn Michaels. Per stipulation, Michaels retired.

My Review

WreslteMania XXVI is a difficult show to sum up. It’s a pretty good WrestleMania, but also one that happens to be all over the place in tone and focus. Perhaps its reflective of how indeterminate the future of the WWE felt at the start of the 2010s. The roster was such a mishmash of eras that you’d be forgiven of not having a clue where the hell the company was going. John Cena, Batista, and Randy Orton were at the top of the card after their rise to superstardom in the 2000s, but the spotlight was still shared guys who rose to stardom in the ‘90s like Triple H and The Undertaker. Then there was a new generation of talent—The Miz, Sheamus, Drew McIntyre, etc. — bubbling in the undercard who seemed poised to rocket into the top at any moment. But wait! Time was also given to  . . . the 13-year-old feud between Bret Hart and Vince McMahon?!? Suffice to say, with the show splintering off in so many different directions, it’s not surprising it has some misfires.

Let’s start with the good stuff, though. The main event between Undertaker and Shawn Michaels is fantastic and I’m gonna throw it out there that I like it more than their match from the previous year. The stakes feel higher, the suspense level feels higher, and there’s more of a story here than just Shawn needing to beat Taker. He puts his entire career is on the line here, for heaven’s sake! And speaking of his career, like many at the time, I didn’t have a clue this would be Shawn’s last match. Most on-screen wrestling retirements are never legit, so there was plenty of basis to believe this one would be no different. But alas, this one was different, and we get about as good a sendoff as we could’ve gotten for someone who’s been dubbed Mr. WrestleMania.

On another show, the WWE title match between John Cena and Batista would’ve been the main event. Their match here is great fun. It’s actually an end of an era for the two men who were crowned as the leaders of the next generation at WrestleMania five years earlier. Batista would move on to Hollywood shortly after this and, while certainly not his last WWE run, it would mark the end of his career as a full-timer. Interestingly enough, Batista was really coming into his own as a heel at the time of his departure, even winning over fans who previously couldn’t stand him. He would resurrect his heel run in 2014 and 2019, again only for a short spell. A shame we haven’t been able to spend much time with arrogant heel ‘Tista and his impeccable designer fashion, but then I guess that’s what makes it so special.

As for what doesn’t work, I probably don’t need to go into much detail about the Bret/McMahon clash. The basics of the story are solid — Bret gets his long-awaited revenge on McMahon, with his family right by his side. It’s just not super fun to watch in execution, however well-meaning it may be. They match is dragged out much longer than it should and it takes the crowd completely out of it. Another misfire is the Money in the Bank match. This would be the final iteration of the match at WrestleMania before it becomes its own pay-per-view. It’s clear the concept needs some rejuvenation by this point as it’s now a lazy, bloated affair where everyone gets in their allotted number of spots and there are way too many participants. To cap it all off, the ill-advised decision is made to push Jack Swagger into the main event scene, an idea which would run out of gas in a matter of months.

The show seems to have some weird pacing issues as well. In the era of the Network, I’ve grown so accustom to Manias being stretched to the point of exhaustion, so it’s always little odd to go back and watch one that feels like it doesn’t have enough time. It’s almost like it’s struggling to figure out how spread out time across a card so stacked. The tag opener and Rey Mysterio vs. CM Punk feel like abridged versions of the matches we would’ve otherwise gotten, while Bret vs. McMahon gets more time than either combined. Even Money in the Bank feels somewhat rushed. I’m definitely not a huge fan of WrestleMania becoming a seven-hour event, and WWE has proven they struggle with time management on longer Manias, but this is one show where it seems an extra hour absolutely would’ve been to its benefit.

At its best, WrestleMania XXVI is a nice sampler plate of eras, even if struggles to give you equal portions for all of them. The multi-generational makeup of the card ensures there’s a little something for everyone and even closes the books on a couple of legendary careers. You’re bound to dislike some it but for better or worse, and this is a cheeseball thing to say, it definitely puts the “showcase” in the Showcase of the Immortals.

My Random Notes

No joke, I really did not think this would be it for HBK and even seriously thought Taker’s streak was in jeopardy. Am I a fool for thinking that? Maybe, but I like that wrestling conned into believing it in a way it hardly ever does anymore.

I feel like the temple entrance set is something that should’ve been more impressive than it is in actuality. They just stacked LED screens on top of each other and just rolled with it. It looks like something from Minecraft.

Ah, this show reinvigorates my fond feelings for Matt Striker. Such a handsome chap! Not surprising at all he would appear on a Bachelor ripoff a whole decade later.

I chuckled at Bruce Hart being the special guest referee for Bret vs. McMahon. You just know he huffed and puffed his way into that one, much to Bret’s annoyance.

I also chuckled at Diana Hart-Smith walking down to the ring with her best “evil, vindictive femme fatale on the cover of a pulp novel” look. God bless her. She needs to write another book.

I know Rey singing Happy Birthday to his daughter is meant to be a heart-warming thing but if I were a kid in the same situation, I would be traumatized. Just think of how uncomfortable it is when a room full of people is signing at you and then think of enduring that in an arena filled with thousands of people. CM Punk did her a huge favor by crashing the moment, as far as I’m concerned.

Not saying anything new here, but the whole Spear thing with Edge is cringe as hell and it’s for the best that it’s been forgotten in the annals of his career.

I know some people like to mock Vickie Guerrero doing Eddie’s frog splash, but I personally thought it was a sweet moment while staying true to comedically heel Vickie.

The official theme song to this Mania is “I Made It” by Kevin Rudolf. A time-period appropriate choice, I must say. I feel like the dawn of the 2010s is the only time a Kevin Rudolf could be a success.

I identify myself as someone who will always be more embarrassed by John Cena haters than Cena himself and I gotta say him posing next to the guys in the front row hating his guts is fucking hilarious. Cena is funny sometimes when he just straight-up trolls.

On the Legacy fallout: The storytelling for this was weird as hell. Am I the only who remembers that one time on Raw where they teased Ted turning face and the crowd was actually kinda into it? Then they completely abandoned it for whatever reason and just had Randy be the breakout face (as if he needed it) and dunk on both Cody and Ted at WrestleMania. I feel like Cody’s AEW origin story more or less began here.

Awwwwe, this show has little baby Drew McIntyre. It’s so interesting watching this with the benefit of hindsight. I remember a lot of people Not Feeling It when he was anointed as the Chose One, and truthfully I wasn’t feeling it at the time either, but watching it back really makes you appreciate how much hard work he put in to get to where he’d be a decade later. A lot of folks were dreading the inevitable Drew world title run in 2010. The title run did happen, but it was much later and much more welcome than anyone back than anyone could’ve imagined.

[trickkombowerskru]

Relationship ABC’S-Nolan Rayburn

A- Anniversary

(What would they do for your anniversary?)

Nolan will switch it up but one thing's for sure the day will end with him making you candle lit dinner on the beach

B -Birthday

(How would they celebrate your birthday?)

On your birthday it is whatever you want to do, Nolan is at your service 24/7... and that includes in the bedroom ;)

C- Cook

(Do they cook? Can they cook? What food do they like to cook for you?)

OFC! I mean this boy doesn’t go to culinary school for nothing, he loves cooking for you no matter what the meal

D- Domestic

(How domestic are they? Would they clean/cook? Help you clean/cook? Or would they just mess everything up?)

Nolan obviously has the cooking front covered, but he isn’t the cleanest, he will clean up messes he makes, but enough of the cleaning falls on you

E- Effort

(How much effort do they put into your relationship?)

HE PUTS IN THE MOST HE CAN WHICH IS EVERYTHING HE HAS BECAUSE THIS BOY IS SO HAPPY TO HAVE LOVE IN HIS LIFE 

F- First Date

(Where do you go on your first date? How does it go? etc…)

You’d known Nolan for while and while he didn’t directly introduce you to Danny, Danny caught you two talking after Nolan was leaving the restaurant and could tell he liked you so he set up a free dinner for the two of you a bit before closing

G- Gifts

(What kind of gifts do they give you? What kind of gifts do they like receive? etc…)

Usually for gifts you two wing it, if you see something the other will like you’ll pick it up and it always works out great

H- Honeymoon

(Where do you go on your Honeymoon?)

He takes you to a getaway in italy

I- Intimacy

(how touchy feely are they? when would they become comfortable to be touchy feely?)

Oh yes this boy loves to be touchy feely with you

J- Jealous

( How jealous are they? How often do they get jealous? How they react? etc…)

Nolan getting jealous turns you on more than you care to admit to him, of course you don’t purposely try to make him jealous but when it happens he tends to pull you closer and tell off the guy flirting with you

K- Kids

(How are they with kids? Do they want kids? etc…)

Nolan in better with kids than he thinks he is, and he always figured if you get pregnant that he would have to step up his game to be be a great father (When in reality he is a 12/10 dad)

L- Long Distance

(How do they cope with Long Distance? How they prefer to keep in contact? etc…)

It’s nothing new for Nolan to have the people he loves comes in and out of his life so with you the only difference is that he always knows where you are, what with your constant texting and weekly sky

M-Marriage

(Do they want to get married? How do they propose to you? The wedding? etc…)

Yes Nolan wants to marry you more than anything, he does it on the night of your 6th anniversary after dinner he is such acute  nervous mess, and oh damn is this wedding beautiful it’s actually held on the beach outside the Inn with a ton of your friends, your family, and Sally and his mother there, hell his mother even sings the song you have your first dance to

N- Night’s Out

(Where do they take you on nights out? How often do nights out happen?)

When you need a night away from everything Nolan will take you on for a boat ride and just let you vent

O- Open

(When would they start revealing things about themselves? Do they say everything at once or wait to reveal?...etc)

While you never met Danny you could always tell something was off when Nolan mentioned him, it took a few months of being in a relationship for him to tell you everything about how he and his mother were hidden away from the Rayburns

P- Public Displays Of Affection

(Do they like PDA? Do they have boundaries? etc…)

This sweet boy can get flustered with anything more than a cheek kiss and it’s the cutest thing to watch him turn bright red, but aside from that he love to pull you in his lap or to throw his arm around you

Q- Quarrel

(What do you argue about most? How often fights occur?)

Most of your arguments used to stem from him hanging out with Danny’s drug dealer friends and how the more they got him involved in Rayburn family bullshit the more danger it could put him in

R- Reunited

(What’s it like when they reunite with you after a trip?)

When the two  of you get reunited Nolan gives you a big kiss and tells you how much he missed you before filling you in on the newest Rayburn bullshit you missed while you were gone

S- Snuggling

(Do they like cuddling? How do they cuddle? etc…)

YES! Nolan may seems like a little shit, but this boy loooooves his cuddles he will hold you nice and tight or let you hold him while you stroke his hair because if I’ve said it once I’ve said it a thousands times NOLAN IS A WHORE FOR HAIR PETS

T- Text

(How often do you text? How do they speak when they text? How do they react when they receive texts from you? etc…)

Nolan gets so giddy wherever you text him it’s precious

U- Upset

(What do they do when you’re upset? What do you do when they’re upset?)

When you’re upset Nolan will do whatever he needs to make you feel better, when he’s upset you take him in his arms and stroke his hair waiting until he wants to talk about it

V- Valentine’s Day

(What would they do to celebrate Valentine’s Day?)

Nolan always surprises you for Valentine’s day you never know what the boy has cooking in that crazy of his, but every ear rest assured he gives the one red rose

W- When

(At what point do you move into together? What kind of place? etc…)

You move into together during college nto a decent sized apartment he gets the two of you with the money he got from Sally

X- XOXO

(What are their hugs and kisses like?)

Nolan’s hugs always make you fee safe and secure and his kisses are always the sweetest things

Y-You

(What do they love most about you?)

He loves how supportive of him you are like you can make him feel so good with just your love alone

Z- Zoom

(Zoom into the future, what does your future look like?)

You two are married with a pair of twins on the way and you co-own a restaurant out in Miami a few blocks away from where Danny’s place was

[keywestlou]

THE GHOST OF MARY SURRATT

Key West has ghosts. Several observed with frequency.

Key West does not have an exclusive on ghosts. One comes to mind today. Her name Mary Surratt. On this day in 1865 Mary was hung in Washington, D.C. Executed. Her crime: An alleged conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

Mary bears the distinction of having been the first woman executed by the U.S. government.

She was hung at the Old Arsenal Penitentiary in Washington. Today, the site of Fort McNair.

She went to her death wearing a long black dress. Hands and feet bound. Her head covered.

It is claimed that Mary still walks the grounds of Fort McNair. Children of soldiers stationed there claim they play with a “lady in black.” Others have seen her walking the grounds of the Fort.

There is an old wive’s tale that ghosts continue  to remain at a particular earthly place because of some unhappiness, some unfinished business. In Mary’s case it might be because her involvement with Lincoln’s assassination was questionable. She may have been innocent. Many thought her innocent. Others, the death penalty too harsh.

It was thought President Johnson would pardon her at the last moment or reduce her sentence to life in prison. Her morning scheduled hanging was held off till the afternoon in anticipation of one or the other. Neither came. She was hung.

Celebrated my 84th birthday last night with good friends Donna, Terri and Mary. Dinner at Tavern & Town.

Terri in great shape. Since she had the stent put in 2 weeks ago, she is full of energy.

When it came time to blow out the candle, my dear friends began singing Happy Birthday. Soon Terri’s voice overwhelmed them. She sings magnificently! Happy birthday like you have never heard it.

The dining room cheered her when she was done.

As we were walking out following dinner, we passed Bobby Nesbitt who was performing in the bar area. He shouted out…..Louis Petrone, Happy Birthday! He started to sing Happy Birthday. Terri joined in. At the end, the bar gave Terri another great hand.

My personal thanks to all who e-mailed and telephoned yesterday. It made me feel good.

Key West’s old City Hall sits on Greene Street. Still used for such things as community meetings. A new City Hall was opened on White Street 2 years ago. A lovely building!

KONK Life ran a photo of a Key West City Hall on Greene Street which was dedicated July 4, 1876. Sort of looks like, could be, the old City Hall still standing on Greene Street. I say maybe because it does not look like the 1876 one. Then again hard to tell. Throw a couple of small additions on a building and a staircase and it could be the same one.

Mario Sanchez is one of Key West’s famous people. An artist. He did bas relief carvings. Then painted over them in vibrant colors.

KONK Life ran another photo this morning. One of Sanchez working in his “studio” on July 7, 1962. The studio unique. In the shade outside under trees.

Cary Grant made Operation Petticoat in Key West. While here, he purchased 4 of Sanchez’s pieces. When Grant later made That Touch of Mink, the Sanchez works Grant had purchased could be seen in the film.

Sanchez’s wood paintings outstanding. Relatively small. At one point in Sanchez’s career, they were selling for $50,000 a piece.

I fear the California earthquakes of the past 2 days will be with us for another month. Experts are predicting up to 10 more. Some aftershocks, some actually new quakes. Anyone could be above the 7.1 on the rector scale recorded yesterday.

Yesterday’s quake is being described as the worst in 20 years.

Twenty years ago, my dear friend Bob Marks was working in the San Francisco area when the quake hit. He telephoned me 3 days after. He still could not get home. In order to do so, he had to cross the San-Francisco-Oakland Bridge. Big. The top section of the bridge had collapsed. Would take forever to fix. Access to the other side not yet worked out.

The earthquake a big one. Rector Scale reported 6.9. Sixty seven people killed. Thousands injured. Five billion dollars in property damage.

The ultimate cost to rebuild the bridge $6.4 billion. It is claimed the new suspension spa will withstand the strongest earthquakes that may occur in the next 1,500 years.

Hope we don’t find out the estimate is incorrect.

I thought today would be a day without Trump. Not to be.

This morning’s news report comments made by British Ambassador Kim Darroch about Trump. The comments are in memos sent to the British Foreign Commonwealth. Somehow released and verified to be so contained.

Remarks made were between 2017 and now.

Observations like “inept” and “incompetent.” “Uniquely dysfunctional.” U.S. government “divided.”

Re collusion between the Trump election team and Russia: “The worst cannot be ruled out.”

Enjoy your Sunday!

      THE GHOST OF MARY SURRATT was originally published on Key West Lou

[imwastingmylifeinhere]

Magnus Chase and the Obligatory Hogwarts AU Ch13

On ao3 

Remember back in chapter 10 when I said that their sixth year is basically Magnus singing Treat you better? I couldn't control myself, sooo... yeah. Enjoy!

For someone who had spent the night having an existential crisis, Magnus looked relatively normal when he walked into the Hall of the Slain. Sure, he yawned a bit too much and his eyes were bloodshot and tired but it was nothing that couldn’t be explained by staying up late to do homework.

So despite what he told his friends, he hadn’t stayed up late doing that Potions assignment he allegedly had forgot to start. (He had finished that already, thank you very much.) What he had been doing was lying in bed while the rest of his roommates snored away and trying to pinpoint exactly when his feelings for Alex had switched from merely platonic to something more.

He couldn’t say it was when they first met. First off, that was horribly cliché. In hindsight though, he had to admit that he had found Alex pretty when they met on the Hogwarts express. That still didn’t mean anything, because he had thought most of his friends were pretty or cute or something along those lines at some point. (He had attractive friends, okay?)

Everything else he could come up with, any other instance that might have been the moment when he fell for Alex, didn’t seem to be right either. Even with something like their dance at last year’s Halloween party didn’t seem to cut it. Alex had freaking French-dipped him and he couldn’t think of that moment and go yes, this is when I fell for him.

There wasn’t just one moment, he realized as one of his roommates snored, rolled over and fell out of bed. He couldn’t find the exact instance because there hadn’t been one. It just happened progressively, naturally, his feelings just developed into something different.

And the thing was that he couldn’t stop noticing it. It was like when you think you heard something when you were on your own in the house and suddenly every little creak sounds deafening. Now that Magnus had acknowledged his feelings, he couldn’t seem to be able to ignore them.

He’d think about Alex’s mischievous grin before he was about to pull a prank or the way he snorted a bit if he laughed too hard or how all the stupid shit he did could be very amusing and he’d feel like he was dying. His stomach did acrobatics, his heart felt like it had exploded inside his chest, his face heated up. Why did people like being in love when it made them feel like they had a bloody fatal disease?

And what was the best thing? Alex had a boyfriend. He was in a relationship and even if Magnus had the guts to tell him that he liked him and ask him out, he couldn’t do it.

When did my life turn into a YA novel?

He couldn’t say anything, he decided. No matter how grossed out he might be with Alex and Conall’s lovey-dovey behavior, they seemed happy and Magnus wouldn’t do something as petty as sabotage his friend’s joy because he had fallen for him. He had no right to do something like that.

And besides, he had thought hopefully, it’s probably a simple crush. It will go away soon.

That sounded like lying even to himself but he had no choice than believe it.

So this is where his late-night thoughts had led him to; sitting with his friends at breakfast and sleepily poking at his eggs. He busied himself with the little wobble the orange part of his fried egg did when he hit it instead of how nice Alex looked today.

He didn’t even look different! He was normal, just normal Alex with soft-looking green hair that was ruffled in an endearing kind of way and captivating eyes and strong-looking arms and—This is what Magnus meant by not being able to ignore his feelings.

Despite how good Magnus would say Alex looked today, the Slytherin boy didn’t feel like that. His mind was stuck on Conall not kissing him yesterday after they came back from Hogsmeade. It seemed trivial when he put it like that and he felt a bit stupid for paying it that much attention. But the thing was that Conall seemed to have no qualms to kiss him earlier that day and that he had done something like that several other times as well. Most times, Conall was very sweet and affectionate, he took every opportunity to kiss Alex at least on the cheek. Yet some other times Alex could be flirting with him so hard and get nothing more than a hug out of him.

Maybe he was just in a bad mood? That wouldn’t explain yesterday though. He had been with Conall the whole day and nothing bad had happened. No matter what kind of excuse Alex came up with to explain his boyfriend’s behavior, nothing made sense. Nothing fit quite right and everything felt like exactly what they were- excuses.

What was more was that when he was going over everything that had happened yesterday, one of those things was that he switched to male and his mind would just not move on from that. Could it really be that Conall wasn’t as affectionate just because he was male at the time?

He pushed the thought out of his mind and tried to focus on his breakfast. He shouldn’t worry this much, Conall was a good kid, he shouldn’t get this worked up just because he didn’t get a simple kiss. It must have been a coincidence.

Alex’s eyes landed on Magnus opposite him who looked tired. He said he had stayed up late doing an assignment for Potions and it showed. He was poking at his eggs like his mind was a thousand meters away and his hair was messier than usual- not that it wasn’t messy on good days. Merlin knows that boy’s hair does not behave and always looks just a little bit puffy. It was kind of endearing, honestly, and Alex always thought it was cute.

I wonder if Magnus would have acted like Conall if we were dating, he found himself thinking absentmindedly and immediately scolded himself. What are you doing? Why are you thinking that? You have a boyfriend and it’s not Magnus.

Still, Alex’s eyes somehow found their way to Magnus’s lips. They look soft…

“Anyway, since Halfborn’s birthday is coming up, I thought we’d throw him a party!” Mallory said excitedly, snapping Alex out of his thoughts (thank Merlin for that). She was smiling widely, waving her hands around for emphasis even though she was holding a fork with food on it in one.

Halfborn, after he took a moment to admire his girlfriend, spoke. “You really don’t have to do that, guys.” Yes, the idea of a pasty sounded amazing, and normally he would be all over it, but he didn’t want his friends to get in trouble for throwing him a party. (Where would they even throw it?)

“Bullshit,” Mallory said simply. “This is your final year at Hogwarts, you deserve a birthday party and as your girlfriend I’ll throw you one whether you want it or not.” Mallory was waving the piece of sausage on her fork in front of his face and Halfborn gave into the fiery look his girlfriend was giving him.

“Alright, we can throw a party. But where will we do it? And when?”

“On your birthday, at eight, at…” Mallory trailed off, trying to come up with a place where they could have a party without anyone finding out.

“Oh, I know just the place!” T.J said. “It’s in the left corridor of the seventh floor, opposite that tapestry of someone trying to teach trolls ballet.”

“There’s nothing there,” Halfborn said. He passed by that tapestry (who would try to teach trolls ballet?) often and he didn’t remember there being a door opposite it.

“There is if you know how to look for it,” T.J said with a cheeky smile. “Mallory and I can go early to set things up. You just need to come and walk in front of the wall three times thinking ‘I want to go to Halfborn’s party’.”

The Ravenclaw didn’t stop getting questioning looks from his friends but it didn’t seem to deter his happy mood. They decided to trust in what he said- after all, they lived in a magical castle with ghosts and talking portraits. Nothing was that far off the realm of possibility.

And it wasn’t. The room was really there, just like T.J had said. On the third time Magnus walked past the spot on the wall T.J had specified a door appeared, simply fazing into existence like it had always been there.

“Okay, that’s awesome,” Percy said from behind him. Annabeth and him had offered to help Magnus carry snacks from the kitchens (the room couldn’t make food, as T.J had told them). The green-eyed boy looked at the door in wonder and Magnus couldn’t blame him; it was pretty cool.

Next to him, Annabeth was studying the door with a calculating eye. Ever the Ravenclaw, her curiosity about how the room worked was evident in her grey eyes. “I wonder if there’s something like this in Ilvermorny,” she muttered, more to herself than to either of them.

Inside, the room was a spacious living room with two L shaped couches forming a square around a coffee table. Balloons flew close to the ceiling and garlands adorned the walls. There was a small pile of presents at one corner and the rest of their group was already there.

“Put the food there and get ready, Halfborn is coming any minute now!” Mallory told them as she pointed at the coffee table. She was practically bouncing from her excitement and the moment they had put down all the food on the table she turned off the lights.

Halfborn found the room quickly enough. The door appeared on the wall again – or at least its outline, Magnus couldn’t see clearly in the dark- and he opened it. The moment it was closed behind him the lights were back on and confetti cannons went off. Everyone was yelling “Surprise! Happy birthday!”

Even if technically it wasn’t a surprise since he knew about the party but hey, the thought is what counts.  

“The birthday boy is here!” Mallory announced loudly and run over to Halfborn to put a magical party hat on his head that said ‘birthday boy’.

“Do I have to wear this?” he asked with a smile as he touched the hat experimentally.

“No hat, no kisses,” Mallory said in deathly seriousness. “Now, let’s get this part started!”

The room was filled with loud woops and yes’s as Mallory put on some music from her magically modified phone.

“Happy birthday, big guy,” Alex said as he punched Halfborn in the arm. “How does it feel being a year closer to being an old man?”

“Better than being a little shit,” the giant of a boy shot back with a laugh. He got Alex under a headlock and ruffled his hair as the Slytherin tried to escape. Halfborn was having none of that kept Alex securely trapped under his armpit. “Smell the wrath, smell the wrath!”

Mallory and Conall laughed affectionately at their significant others along with the rest of the group. Once Halfborn decided he had had enough and let Alex – who now had a rat’s nest as hair- go the rest came forward to wish him happy birthday. Their wishes ranged from polite, like Sam’s and Annabeth’s, to something a dudebro from a highschool flick would do, like T.J’s and Magnus’s.

And what better to start their party than icebreaker games? (Which they technically didn’t need to do since they were already friends, but it was fun, so who cared?) They gathered around the coffee table and munched on all the junk food Magnus had managed to get from the kitchen (a task that wasn’t so difficult given how much the house elves loved to help out). The first game they decided to play was two truths and one lie, which was… interesting to say the least. By the time they got bored of the game they were all high with sugar and had learned things about each other that they would rather not know (like, seriously, who likes eating blue food, Percy?)

A currently drunk on soda Mallory jumped up from her seat on Halfborn’s lap and announced that they should dance. She didn’t leave Halfborn much thought about it, dragging him up with her by the wrist.

“Woohoo!” she yelled as she threw her arms around Halfborn’s neck (it’s harder than it sounds with how tall he is). Magnus made a mental note to himself not to let Mallory near sugar again as he moved to the empty space of the room that they were using as a dance-floor.

Except he couldn’t dance. Like, at all. That lead to him just awkwardly swaying to the music off to the side, neither confident enough in his abilities nor high enough on sugar to go and dance likes a proper human being.

“Oh, come on, cousin!” Annabeth said as she dragged him with her to dance. “Dance!”

“You can’t dance either,” Magnus said because… he had eyes, Annabeth couldn’t dance that well either.

“Doesn’t matter. We can still be the awkward nerds at a party together!” To prove her point she took both his wrists in her hands (wow, who knew his wrists were so small?) and started randomly moving around, not seeming to care at all about the beat. Magnus felt like a child pretending to waltz after watching a Disney movie (he may be guilty of doing that) but he had to admit it was fun.

Soon enough he was taking his own liberties with their dance, twirling his cousin around and somehow working in a dab in there just to be ironic. Percy joined their little circle too and he seemed to enjoy their goofy, over-the-top dancing as much as Magnus.

“Let’s do a wave!”  he said excitedly and that’s just what they did. All of them ended up holding hands and trying to mimic a wave with varying degrees of success. Conall sucked at it, Magnus wasn’t half bad and Percy freaking owned it. Like, seriously, did he have no bones, how did he move his arms like that?

Their wave then somehow morphed into a conga line and they moved around the room like a little train, dancing the conga to ‘Shape of you’. It would have been a lot of fun if Alex didn’t happen to be walking right behind him. His hands were on Magnus’s shoulders and he would bump into his back every time someone in the front of the line would stumble. Each time Alex would let out a small ‘oof’ and an airy laugh and Magnus would feel his heart dance the conga with them.

Stop crushing on Alex, stop crushing on Alex, he kept repeating to himself. He has a boyfriend, it doesn’t matter how nice his hands feel or how good his laugh sounds or how pretty his messy hair is.

Unknown to Magnus, Alex was having a similar reaction to him. Every time he bumped into the blonde his heart would beat just a little bit too loud and it left him baffled as to why. Come on heart, why are you acting like that? And why does Magnus smell so nice?

A smaller detail Alex would only notice when thinking back to the party but he never had quite the same reaction when Conall bumped into his back.

One song later they were back to dancing separately. Mallory and Halfborn were having fun trying to shove as many couple-y dance moves into their dance as possible and bursting out laughing with everyone. Sam was, surprisingly enough, beat-boxing to T.J who was trying, and failing, to pull of some break dance move. Magnus kept dancing with Annabeth and Percy and when Percy decided to twirl him out he saw Conall and Alex dancing.

It was more like they were dancing at each other rather than with each other. They stood close but they didn’t really touch and there was a sense of awkwardness between them so thick you could cut it with a knife. Even so, Magnus and his dumb mind couldn’t help but think back to last year’s Halloween party and the dance he and Alex had shared. He felt a smile tug at his lips at the memory. They had acted so over-the-top it was ridiculous but so, so much fun. Alex had even French-dipped him at one point and Magnus could remember marveling at how he was strong enough to hold him up.

If getting lost in the memories wasn’t enough, Magnus was stupid enough to imagine the same dance in a world in which they dated. Alex lead him during their dance, giving him small smiles, and when he French-dipped him he leaned in closer and Magnus could feel his breath on his lips and then he—

Nope, nope, stop. Stop thinking about it Magnus, it’s not gonna happen. Alex was in a relationship and even if they broke up, Magnus felt bad wanting it to happen. It’s just a crush, just get over it.

“You like him, don’t you?” Perry asked, bringing Magnus crashing back to the present. The taller boy had linked all their arms together and they were doing a weird shuffle-dance.

“What? No, no, why would you think that?” Magnus instantly denied the accusation and, to his defense, it would have sounded much more convincing if Magnus wasn’t blushing redder than the Gryffindor banner and if his voice was an octave higher.

“Well, Annabeth told me,” Percy started and twirled Annabeth around. “Plus, you’re even more obvious than Nico and he completely ignored Will for a week because he couldn’t get a word out around him.”

“Who’s Nico?”

“Percy’s younger cousin,” Annabeth explained when she twirled back and took Magnus’s hand again.

“Okay, but even if I,” Magnus dropped his voice so no one would hear what he was about to say (not that they had a chance to over the music), “like him, he has a boyfriend. I can’t do something even if I was brave enough to make a move. So please don’t bring it up again.”

The couple frowned (huh, even their expressions were similar), probably with pity at Magnus’s situation. Thankfully, they dropped the topic and started a random discussion about how Percy’s younger cousin managed to get in a fight with a student in Ilvermorny, end up in the infirmary and get a crush on a student who was helping out there because he wanted to be a healer. According to Percy “Nico’s idea of flirting was to get into as many fights as possible so he could talk to Will in the infirmary”.

After they danced for a bit more until their legs felt way too sore, they sat back down on the two couches. It didn’t take long before whatever conversation they were having was disrupted by T.J loudly asking “Who wants to play truth or dare?”

So, naturally, they ended up playing truth or dare. Eight teenagers on a sugar-rush and truth or dare shouldn’t mix. Halfborn dared Percy to sing an ‘I want’ Disney song believing that the other boy would be too embarrassed or mess up a lot. The joke was on Halfborn because Percy sang a beautiful ‘How far I’ll go’ from Moana.

“And it seems like it’s calling after me so come fiiiiiind me! And let me knoooow, what’s beyond that line, will I cross that line?” Percy had decided to jump onto the coffee table and pretend it was his boat as he held a bottle of soda instead of an oar. “The line where the sky meets the sea, it caaaaaaals me! And no one knoooows how far it goooes! If the wind in my sail on the sea stays behiiiiind me, someday I’ll knooow how far I’ll goooooooo!”

T.J was dared to chug down a full bottle of Coca Cola and quickly made the loudest burp Magnus had ever heard in his life. Mallory was made to sit on Halfborn’s lap for three rounds by a smug T.J and the group learned that Conall slept with a nightlight until fifth grade. Sam was to put a pillow under her shirt and pretend to be Quasimodo (she slipped in some Disney songs too). Halfborn had to sit still as Mallory made him French-braid his hair.

“Magnus,” Halfborn turned to him with an evil glint in his eye. “Truth or dare?”

“Dare.”

A smug smile spread across Halfborn’s face. “I dare you to sing ‘Treat you better’.”

Magnus’s first thought about that was that it was way too easy for a dare that came from Halfborn. Normally the seventh-year would have him eat owl droppings or run around the school butt-naked – singing a song seemed pretty anticlimactic.

That thought was tossed out of the window when Magnus realized what the song was about and cursed internally. Of course Halfborn would tease him about having a crush.

Knowing that there was no way to get out of it, Magnus got up with a heavy sigh and climbed up on the coffee table, which had apparently become their singing stage.

“I won't lie to you. I know he's just not right for you,” Magnus starts singing, looking very much like a lifeless scarecrow than an actual person singing.

“Boo!” Halfborn yells from the couch. “If you’re going to sing do it properly! With passion!”

Magnus sighed once more and picked up a bottle from the table to use as a microphone. He rubbed the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath to prepare himself for the singing he was about to do.

“I won’t lie to you. I know he’s just not right for you.” This time Magnus sang like he was alone in the shower; loud, overly dramatic and far off key. It didn’t seem to deter his audience that started cheering him on.

“And you can tell me if I’m off, but I see it on your face when you say that he’s the one that you want.”

Alex was more than ready to hear Magnus sing some weepy (if nice) pop song but it was when Magnus sang that particular line that it hit a bit too close to him. Conall came to his mind immediately along with all the doubts about his boyfriend that he had tried to shove down and forget.

He… liked Conall. He was fun to hang around with even if he could be a bit nervous at times. He liked kissing him too, it was nice, although there were much less fireworks than YA authors would have you believe, which made sense. Kissing Conall wasn’t the end of the world but it wasn’t bad either. It was…okay.

But there had obviously been an awkward air with their relationship lately and Alex wasn’t sure if it just meant that had gotten out of the honeymoon stage or if there was something actually wrong with their relationship.

The kiss Alex had been expecting but never got came back to him along with every other time Conall had left him hanging, the overwhelming majority of them when Alex was a ‘he’. Could Conall feel differently about him as a boy? Was he even attracted to boys?

Alex was brought out of his train of thought by Magnus’s loud singing as he reached the chorus. By this point, they had all joined in with the blonde, singing the parts of the song that they all knew.

“I know I can treat you better. BETER THAN HE CAN!” As their whole group sang that line, heads thrown back to be more dramatic and huge dumb smiles on their faces, Alex’s eyes fell on Mallory still sitting on Halfborn’s lap. In a moment of inspiration, Alex moved to sit on Conall’s lap as well. The boy halted in his singing in surprise but continued quickly, though much calmer.

It should have calmed Alex worries that Conall didn’t seem awkward about his sitting on his lap, except it was wrong. Alex had sat on Conall’s lap plenty of times, he knew Conall’s response by heart. Conall would put his arms around his waist and give him a kiss, whether it was on the lips, the cheek or the neck didn’t matter. Conall would do the same thing time and again without fail. He had done the same thing when they had breakfast before heading to Hogsmeade!

Yet now he didn’t. Now his arms stayed by his side, he didn’t pull him closer, he did nothing. He felt stiff underneath Alex, and not in the way you’d expect a young boy whose significant other was sitting on them to be stiff. He felt nervous, weird. Alex knew that even if he had sat on someone who was purely a friend, like Mallory or T.J or even Annabeth, they wouldn’t have been this uncomfortable.

Unwilling to admit to himself that something was wrong, Alex allowed himself hope and leaned in to kiss Conall. He could taste the snacks they had eaten on his lips and smell the shampoo he used.

Alex’s heart sank to his stomach. Conall had barely kissed back, even when Alex kissed more eagerly.

On top of the table, Magnus felt a sharp pain in his heart when he saw Alex kiss Conall, sitting comfortable in his lap. “Tell me why are we wasting time on all your wasted crying when you should be with me instead. I know I can treat you better, better than he can.”

Always the stubborn one, Alex had kept on pretending nothing was wrong. Conall’s cold demeanor hadn’t changed and he still seemed stiff around her. Coincidently, Alex had a lot of male days lately and she couldn’t stop herself from making the connection between the two things.

It had been a few days since Halfborn’s party and Alex was female today. She arrived at the Hall of the Slain and found most of her friends already there. Her pink skirt (that probably went against school regulations) shifted against her legs as she walked to their table and sat down.

“Morning, guys. She/ her today,” she greeted them. Maybe the skirt would had been enough to tell her gender but she had worn a skirt plenty of times when she was male too (some days you just couldn’t wear pants).

Things went by normally, just friendly banter and T.J’s story about a dream he had where a goldfish with a beard, an eye-patch and a captain’s hat drove a steampunk submarine that flew. Conall didn’t take long to come and he sat down with a happy greeting.

“Good morning! She and her?” he asked as he smiled at her.

“Yep!” Alex answered, praying she sounded natural. What happened next would prove or disprove her suspicions.

Then Conall leaned in and did what Alex had wanted him to do these past few days. He leaned closer and kissed Alex on the lips and it was natural and sweet and like every other time Conall had kissed her, if a bit stiff.

Alex kissed back and did her best to act like everything was normal, like her heart hadn’t sank to the depths of her stomach when Conall kissed her like he always did.

Or, well, like he always did whenever Alex wasn’t a boy.

She went through the rest of the day laughing and joking with her friends and holding hands with Conall. She ruffled Magnus’s hair and whispered with Mallory at History of Magic and threw food at Halfborn at lunch.

Yet, needless to say, she felt horrible. The knowledge that Conall acted different around her when she was a ‘he’ made her feel like she worms in her stomach that constantly moved around and made her sick. She wanted to throw up and curl up in a ball under her blankets and never come out again.

Every time Conall kissed her, every time he did what she had wanted him to do these past days, she was reminded that he wouldn’t do the same thing if Alex was a boy that day. The thought that he didn’t like a part of her brought back memories of how Alex had felt when she was still living at with her parents and a part of her was something to be ashamed of.

This whole situation made her feel like a fourteen-year-old child again, kicked out of home because she wanted to be a girl sometimes. Vulnerable, alone, helpless. She shouldn’t have been scared to comfort Conall about this, she should have been straightforward and blunt, but…

So this is how she ended up here, waiting outside a Transfiguration classroom. The lesson ended soon enough (thank Merlin or else she might have just left) and Magnus’s blonde head walked out of the classroom. Alex swiftly dove into the sea of students and tugged at Magnus’s sleeve. The Hufflepuff turned to her in surprise, jumping up a little in a kind of adorable fashion because he was startled. Alex pulled him with her as she walked down the corridor and took a left turn.

When they were finally in a quiet place that not a lot of people came by, Alex let him go. It must have been pretty obvious in her face how distraught she felt because Magnus went straight to the point.

“Alex? Are you okay? Is something wrong?”

Alex nodded and sighed deeply. Her arms were wrapped around her front as if she was hugging herself and the effect was rather jarring for Magnus. It made the otherwise brave and energetic girl look small and scared, uncertain. “Yes. I…need to talk to you about something important. A… about Conall.”

Oh, BOI, the next chapter is going to be good! I'm going to give you a clue about what;s going to happen because I like torturing you *starts singing and dancing Kiss Kiss Fall in Love* Okay, wow, I'm not good at being subtle.

[ohioontourrpg]

Congratulations, KIT! You have been accepted for the role of KY FABRAY. Please make your account and refer to the post-acceptance checklist.

OOC INFORMATION:

NAME: Kit.

AGE & TIMEZONE: 18.

ACTIVITY LEVEL: Prob like 7/10. Depends on how much i’m working per week.

PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE: RFP

SHIPS: Ky/Chemistry

ANTI-SHIPS: Ky/No Chemistry.

ANYTHING ELSE?: RFP

IC INFORMATION

DESIRED CHARACTER’S NAME: Kiyoshi ‘Ky’ Seiichi Ito [Fabray] [FC: Josh Dun]

GENDER: male.

AGE: 17, junior.

BIRTHDAY: october 3rd.

SEXUALITY: homoseual.

SHIPS: ky/chemistry

ANTI SHIPS: ky/forced

ROLE IN TOUR: band drummer.

PERSONALITY TRAITS:

✔ - open minded, outgoing, optimistic ✖ - hyperactive, impulsive, naive

TWITTER FEED:

@kynvxd: i’ve drank so much redbull i don’t know how i can stand @kynvxd: if vodka is made from potatoes does that mean it’s a vegetable @kynvxd: show choir nerds everywhere rip me

BIOGRAPHY:

Kiyoshi Ito was never planned, but not necessarily unwanted. He was born in Kitakyushu where his grandparents had met while serving in the war. His grandfather was American, his Grandmother a native who bore his Mother. She would go on to meet his Father while they were students– he too, an American from a military family residing in the same city. They fell in love in an instant, and they were only 17 years old when Kiyoshi came along.

Though young, Kiyoshi was their bundle of joy and they decided to raise him, rather than give him up for adopted as their parents tried to pressure them too. Without their support, the small family had to make it on their own, with his Mother working long days, and his Father working nights.

Kiyoshi didn’t have a lot, but he was a gracious child. Even though other kids had new gadgets, he wasn’t jealous, or bitter. He was happy with what he had, and the attention from his parents when they could give him it. By the age of 6, he understood why they were gone for such long hours, and what they did for him, and he took every opportunity he could to show them how much he loved them.

His mini drum kit was his favourite toy. Though nothing special, Kyoshi would spend hours playing with it. Discovering he had a knack for it, his parents encouraged his play, until he was learning basic tunes rather than making it up as he went along. Despite his struggles in other areas, this was where he shined.

When he was 8 years old, his world turned upside down. When an accident at work took his Mother’s life, his Father fell into a deep depression, and lost the person who Kyoshi knew him as, turning into someone completely new. Using the savings they’d kept to try and build up a college fund for their son, he relocated them to Lima, Ohio, where his family originally came from. He found them a crappy apartment, and another job working through the day. Rather than enroll Kyoshi in school, he made him stay at home all day to fend for himself, and into the evening while he would go and waste money at a local bar, coming home with the smell of liquor on his clothes and breaths.

Drunk, upset, often angry, Joshua began to take out his frustrations on his 9 year old son. It wasn’t too bad at first, Joshua would throw words at Kyoshi, blaming him, telling him it was his fault his Mother was gone, that if he’d never come along, she wouldn’t be working herself to the bone in the first place. When he would defend himself, Joshua would shove him, push him against walls or onto the floor. Shoves started to turn into punches, or kicks, until Kyoshi would run and hide under his head, both tears and beads of blood running down his cheeks. But there was no one he could tell. He didn’t have teachers, or friends or family. He just had to keep quiet. With no one to talk to, it got to the point where he never spoke at all.

He got his reprieve when he was 11 years old. He rarely left the apartment, unless he needed to make a run to the store, but he didn’t where he could help it. He didn’t like the way people looked at him– dirty, tatty clothes, with bruises and cuts on his face and hands, he looked homeless, and whether people looked at him with pity, or like he had the plague, he felt uncomfortable, incredibly so, and he’d often end up running their and back so it was over as soon as possible. The one place he could feel at least a little comfortable was a local music store, where he could hide out for a couple hours in the back, using one of their drum kits to vent his frustration.

One night, after getting waylaid by a group of thugs that had corned him, he’d eventually gonna back to the apartment, crying, without his money and without what he was supposed to bring back. The shouting from Joshua, the screaming from Kiyoshi and the thuds when he collided against walls had worried neighbours, and when the police showed up, Joshua was taken away in handcuffs, and Kyoshi was taken away by child services. He cried, he tried to run, but he was merely bundled into the back of a car, and taken away to somewhere safe, away from his Father and their home.

He was in the system for a year, monitored closely. He still wouldn’t speak, was weary of physical contact, and would simply sit and squirm on the spot. He lacked the knowledge and skills that other kids his age had, unable to write, struggling to read in English. He was in a home with other kids that didn’t have families, but he kept to himself. Though they tried to send him to school, he was often sent home in fits of tears, post-panic attack, and in the end he was given tutors instead. Other than for learning, he would only leave his room for meal times, or for Church on Sundays. He wasn’t religious, but those that ran the establishment were, and he found it was the one thing he had no choice on.

And that was where he met the Fabray family. Russell and Judy were devoted Christians, volunteering at Churches in and around Westerville. The children from the home were introduced to them and many other members of the Church, but Judy took a shining to the silent boy upon learning his story, and after a discussion with Russell, approached him about bringing him into their family, to give him a better life.

Though Kiyoshi wasn’t overly pleased about being brought into an religious family, he wasn’t given much choice, and just before his 13th birthday, he was moved to Westerville, and into their home.

His name was shorted to Ky, his hair cut and styled, an attempt to give him a new start. He was cherished, given constant devoted attention, fed and cared for. They got him the best tutors, the best clothes, a phone, a computer, a big room all to himself, decorated how he wanted. The attention was new, unfamiliar, and he didn’t react well at first. He ran away on multiple occasions, he was nervous, unable to sit still, keeping his head down and avoiding eye contact. He didn’t like physical affection, and wouldn’t be seen without so much as a sweatshirt when anyone was around. Even on his own, he didn’t like to look at himself.

He eventually started to settle in after 6 months. He would smile, he would maintain eye contact, and though he wouldn’t speak, he would take an interest in what others would say to him. But even though he improved in this aspect, Judy noticed that he still struggled to learn. He could barely concentrate on what he was doing, and when he did, he struggled to pick up what was easy for other children. She believed it was all because of his past, but even as he started his freshman year of high school when his 15th birthday approached, being in a learning environment with other kids didn’t help.

When school didn’t improve his ability to learn, he was taken to a specialist to understand if there was an underlying issue as to why. But, being silent, it was hard to engage with him about how he felt about learning. Communication was key, but you didn’t get that with Ky. He was different to Frannie and Quinn in many ways. He had no filter where it came to his choices, and acted upon impulse instead of weighing up the consequences, and when he never told you what was going through his head, he was dangerously unpredictable.

Two month in though, after countless sessions and attempts, he finally spoke. Nothing elaborate, the boy simply muttered ‘it’s hard’. But that was a start, and with more sessions, and more encouragement to speak, he was diagnosed with ADHD and a mild form of ID, too. Knowing why he struggled, Ky was given tutors that understood, and would be better help given his disorders.

Speaking minimally, but more nonetheless, the Fabrays finally learned more about who Ky was. They learned that he liked punk rock, he really liked sour candy, and that he liked to play the drums. With that in mind, Russell set him up a brand new drum kit in the garage, and Judy even allowed him to dye his hair pink on his 16th birthday, like he really wanted to. He began to thrive, his sparkling personality finally shining through. He was bubbly, accepting, full of energy and helpful to all. He still didn’t speak very much, but his bright smile would speak a thousand words. Though the memories of his childhood were still there, they didn’t hold him back like before.

He made his first friend since leaving Japan when he was 15 years old. Ace was a year above him in school, but they bonded over their love for music— while Ky excelled on the drums, Ace could sing and rap, as well as play the piano. They made unique music together, and after finding their sound, Ace began to work on writing a song of their own. They called themselves INVXD (— invade) and after making their first song, another 5 would follow.

Ace encouraged Ky to get himself out a bit more, make other friends around school. He joined the band, sitting in on the rehearsals of the McKinley High New Directions, and joined the soccer team. And he did make friends, regardless of how awkward or closed off he could be at times. For the most part, he was friendly and wanted to become friends with everyone, and though he didn’t speak much, people felt the same away about him.

Judy was the one who encouraged him to sign up for the Ohio On Tour program. Though he didn’t like the idea of being away for so long, it was a good opportunity to really make good friends with people who shared his interests and aspirations, all the while getting to play, which is his favourite thing in the world.