Regional at Best is so special because it feels so exactly like what it is, which is an album made by a young person, younger than I am now, who'd given up everything else to make this dream work and probably had no idea what the hell he was going to do if it didn't. Keep working a normal job? Go back to college? What do you do if the dream doesn't work, when you're an early-20-something who (like all early-20-somethings) has precisely nothing else figured out? What do you do if everyone's right and the art isn't worth it?
Then your bandmates leave. But actually, it turns out perfect anyway, because you end up with this other guy who also has precisely nothing else figured out and no plan B except to be in this very band with you. How rare and precious of a thing that is, to meet someone who believes in your art just as much as you do. At least if you fail you fail together, right?
I think RAB feels like the end of summer and growing pains because it exists in that same itchy, anxious space as your last summer before you graduate high school/college, when it begins hitting you that there will never be a summer like this again because next year you're supposed to be grown up. But the truth is you never figured out how to grow up and you never figured out how to stop dreaming. So many people have to learn that lesson for various reasons, but Tyler and Josh never did because they believed in it so much that I think it truly never could've failed. Even if they never got as big as they did w/ Blurryface, I think they never could've failed because they are for the dreamers.
Self-titled is complicated and beautiful and core to everything else they would do after, but RAB is the beating heart of what tøp was always meant to be imo. It's embracing the fear of getting older because you have no other choice, while acknowledging you're still a little afraid of the dark. It's a night light for the grown-ups who are still scared of long dark hallways they can't see the end of (and work email chains). You turn 23 and discover you probably don't actually want to die as much as you used to, and also that you still think pokémon cards are fucking rad, and both of those things are okay. And maybe you'll never get out of this goddamn town but it never hurts to dream
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Happy Birthday! Free space if this gets in on time, but either way birthday wishes and thank you so much for all your writings. They're really good and such a bright spot in my day.
Carlton is having a good day up until he sees what’s clearly a civilian’s motorcycle parked in one of the reserved spots. If the state of disrepair didn’t make it obvious, the ACAB bumper sticker stuck on the back certainly did. Oh, he was going to give this asshole the biggest fine he could, and get his bike towed for good measure! The good people of the SBPD are working hard everyday to keep the streets safe and this guy wants to make a mockery of that right in front of them? What a sick bastard.
He stalks inside, face set into a scowl. “McNab!” he shouts, startling the officer who turns from whoever he’d been talking to. “Who the hell’s bike is that out front?”
He looks at him, wide eyed, but then a kid in a leather jacket is stepping out from behind him and clapping him on the shoulder. He’s got on faded jeans, brown boots, and a dark blue henley. He’s a couple days off from a decent shave and Carlton’s not at all surprised when he says, “It’s mine. Sweet ride, right?”
“You can’t park there,” he snaps. “I’m writing you a ticket – McNab, write him a ticket! Now!”
“Uh,” McNab looks between them uncertainly. “But he, you know, um. He can park there, Detective.”
Carlton snarls, “Why the hell do you think that?”
“It’s okay, Buzz,” the kid says, stepping forward and offering his hand to Carlton with a smirk that has him itching for his cuffs. “I’m Shawn Spencer.”
“I don’t care who you are,” he says. “Only police personnel can park in that area.”
Spencer’s grin gets a little wider.
McNab is honest to god wringing his hands. “Um, Detective, he is. Police personnel, I mean. He’s the new head of Internal Affairs.”
Carlton stares. This has to be some sort of practical joke. “Are you even old enough to have gone through the academy?”
“My youthful appearance is due to my intense moisturizing routine, a zest for life, and my good humor,” he says. “Laughter really is the best medicine.”
“You’re out of dress code,” he says, because most of him is still refusing to believe that this is happening.
“I’ll write myself up for it later,” Spencer says, which is ridiculous, because that’s not an IA issue, it’s an HR one. Which as the head of Internal Affairs, he should know.
He opens his mouth, but whatever he was going to say is interrupted by Chief Vick swooping in, several files held in her hand. “Gentleman. Detective Spencer, my office, now.”
Spencer winks at them. “Buzz. Lassie.”
What the hell did Spencer just call him? Before he’s managed to choke back his outrage, Spencer’s in Chief Vick’s office and McNab is making a hasty retreat.
He stalks over to his desk and Lucinda glances up from her own desk at his approach. She’d left early this morning to go back to her place to shower and change and had been responsible for the good mood he’d been in up until he’d encountered Spencer and his stupid bike. “What happened to you?”
“Nothing,” he says, then, “Did you meet the new internal affairs guy?”
“Shawn? Yeah, he seems nice,” she says, already looking back down at her paperwork.
Nice? Nice?
The day’s just begun and it’s already shot to hell.
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DPXDC Prompt #53
John Constantine had a son and he knew he did. He also knew his line of work was dangerous and he didn’t want his son to get dragged into it and possibly hurt or used against him. John left him in the care of his cousin Madeline Fenton, they always wanted a son but couldn’t have anymore after Jazz, their daughter.
John made several deals in his time especially with those in the infinite realm, he wanted to get warding charms to hide his son’s presence as well as get a tracking spell, he’s approached by Clockwork the ancient of time. He’s promised a spell that allows him to tell when his son is hurt badly or dead however his son becomes the king of the infinite realms upon his death. John felt very hesitant about taking this deal but goes through with it for the sake of Danny.
no one but Clockwork knew what was to happen shortly after Danny’s 14th birthday but it does make Constantine teleport to his side where he finds him alone in a crater where his house used to be. He’s taking his son to the Watchtower med bay.
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