#jeremy was quick signed some stuff and then off

[dontfeeltoohot]

Your famous Eddie fic was so great! Can I ask for a a follow up one with him having allergies during an interview?

This got...longer than intended. His allergies are BAD in the fall. Oops. Was I inspired by that one JQ interview where he was basically crying? Absolutely. Enjoy!

XX

The need for allergy meds hadn't crossed his mind when he was packing for Corroded Coffin's three day trip to NYC to get some photos taken and do a few interviews. He's regretting it now, as he walks into Buzzfeed's large building, listening to his bandmates, Zack in tow.

His nose is already itching and stuffy, and his eyes are starting to feel irritated. Half of him wants to ask his friend and bodyguard to run down to the closest place and pick him up some Claritin, but decides it's not worth the hassle.

It's quick work of getting the guys signed in and sat in four chairs, two in front of the other as they wait, cameras pointing at them, lights shining down. Sniffling, Eddie runs his knuckles against his nose, as everyone checks the sound equipment over.

"Dude, you sure you're good?" Jeff asks, eyeing Eddie with a hint of worry.

"Yeah, just allergies," he shrugs off.

The guitarist is semi-good at remembering meds, but it doesn't mean they always work. It's become almost a running joke with the fans of keeping count of Eddie's sneezes.

Gareth snorts, looking at Tim with a smirk.

"Ten dollars he can't get through the interview without sneezing at least six times."

"I'll take it, Eddie's pretty good at controlling himself when he needs to. Remember that one photoshoot with all the flowers?"

"I'll get in on the bet," Jeff laughs, making Eddie narrow his eyes at them, flipping them the bird.

Four minutes later, a girl no older than the lead guitarists own twenty eight years of age is walking out and sitting with them. They all shake her hand and say hello, there's a pause, and then they start shooting.

They talk about their most recent shows- a small six city tour that had them seeing the most fans and turnouts yet. As they joke and tell little anecdotes, Eddie sniffles and tries to focus on the woman; Illiana, and her questions.

"So Eddie, you've been teasing about a new upcoming album for Corroded Coffin, but do you have anything in the works as a solo artist?"

"Nah, I mean, I've recorded a few things at home that aren't as hardcore and stuff, but Corroded Coffin is where I'm meant to be," he gives Illiana a smile. Jeff snorts, shaking his head.

"The day he does a solo album is the day this band breaks up."

"Loyalty is good," she nods, then looks back to Eddie. "But just know you have a following of fans who'd love to hear something a little more mellow," she laughs, and Eddie chuckles.

"Maybe one day."

"Speaking of having a following, lets talk about you and your boyfriend Steve. You guys seem to be taking over TikTok with your little dance videos and Twitch with all of your streams. Everyone seems to notice just how much happier you are the past couple of years."

Eddie nods, rolling his eyes fondly. It's true that Steve's gained some spotlight now, especially since he's started posting videos of he and Eddie doing silly dances and pranks to each other. It's a stark contrast from him and Jeremy, who wanted nothing to do with the fame, going as far as to make Eddie stay in for days at a time.

He goes to reply, rubbing at his nose again, a tickle winding its way through his sinuses.

"Yeah, yeah, Steve is great, he and Robin; his best friend, kind of roped me into learning one dance, and it ended up becoming a thing, since I can't dance to save my life," Eddie nods, sniffling wetly. He rubs the heel of his hand against his eye quickly.

"From what I've seen, you don't seem to bad!"

"You don't have to be nice, trust us, he sucks," Tim chimes in, making everyone laugh.

"Yeah, as kind as that it, it's absoluhhte b.s," he laughs kindly, scrunching his nose up.

The tickle doesn't recede, and as Gareth talks about his own girlfriend, Eddie turns to his right; where no one else is, and raises the neck of his black and white striped tee over his face, eyes fluttering shut.

"hih-GKtSCHuhew! ah'IKSCHhhEW! S-Sohh-IGKschEW! Sorry," Eddie sniffles and wipes his face before turning to face the woman again, rubbing his eye.

The other bandmates snicker, and Gareth mumbles 'that's three', earning a kick to his foot.

"Bless you! Now I have a few questions sent in from fans," she grabs a few cards from her lap.

It's not their favorite thing, since some fans can be a lot and vaguely intrusive, but since they've been hand picked, the guys know they can't be that awful. Eddie's already struggling against another all consuming tickle. He can feel it throughout his sinuses and nose, even the tip feels irritated. His nostrils twitch and he presses his fist tightly against them, but it doesn't help. He leans away again, brings his shirt back up.

"hh! ah'IKtSHuhEW! ihHTSHhuh!"

The long haired man turns back to apologize but turns quickly again, this time unable to pull his collar up, instead blocking his face with bent elbow.

"hih-IhKGshh'uhEW! iiKSHuhEW! Christ, sorry, my allergies have been shit the past few days," Eddie sniffles, wiping his eyes that have started becoming increasingly more teary and red.

Illiana laughs and brushes it off, continuing on.

"'CoffinCorrupter1784' asks- who in the band is the most likely to ghost everyone else?"

The four look at each other before Tim, Gareth and Eddie all turn to Jeff, who looks scandalized before laughing.

"Yeah, yeah, guess they're right."

Eddie sniffles and rubs the heel of his hand into his right eye, a few allergic tears falling and wetting his cheek as he pokes his tongue out and scrunches his nose.

"'annietheweird' asks: Do you guys pull pranks on each other during practices too? Or just during tours?"

"Oh, we definitely pull pranks whenever we get the chance," Gareth snorts. "We're all pretty g-"

"ihNGXT-tKSCHhh! h'TSHh'uhEW! hah'IHTshhEW! "

"-ood- dude shut up- about being sneaky when it comes to them," the drummer finishes, only faux-annoyed at the other man.

"Usually it's me and Jeff against Gareth and Eddie," Tim explains, nodding along. "We managed to switch their shampoo out for red hair dye a few months ago, but unfortunately it didn't really take well."

"Really? And you guys weren't mad?"

"Nah, it was jus-snf! just fuhn'd a'd ga'bes," Eddie's eyelashes are wet, and he swipes at his face.

"Are you up for a couple more questions?" It's directed at the eldest of the four, who nods, clearing his throat.

"Yeah, sorry," he gives a tight lipped half smile.

"Jeez dude, get yourself together," Jeff teases lightheartedly.

"The fans are going to have a field da-"

"hhH'KiHtSHuhEW!"

"Dude..."

"hAH'TSHHuhew!"

"Jesus Munson!"

"ahHGihKTSCH! Ugh, snfSNF! Fugck, okay, mbight ndeed a breagk," Eddie keeps the neck of his short covering half of his face. This last one had been messier than intended, and damn he needs a tissue.

Zack is suddenly there, holding out a tissue box. He snatches a few up and keeps himself turned to blow his nose, everyone around him wincing at how thick it sounds. After another blow, Eddie grabs a new tissue and wipes at his face.

"Welp, at least we get our ten dollars," Gareth smirks at Jeff.

[bands-and-hobbits]

POTO TIME!!!!! I went on the Saturday night showing (3/3-2018) with the main cast on. This was my first time seeing poto live and aside from the 25th anniv. I've only seen scenes here and there with other Phantoms (mainly theme song, motn and final lair) so I'm not well versed in which blocking is standard etc. ANYWHO, let's start with the least impressive one of the trio; Jeremy Taylor as Raoul. He was "meh". And it really saddens me, because I wanted to love him, and did during his little scene in Think of Me, but in all his scenes after, I felt like he only stood around with a bland face. Granted, Raoul isn't the deepest character, but still! I did not buy him being in love with Christine, and definetly not in love enough to go into Erik's lair to get her back. At most, this Raoul would volonteer in a search party, because he's a good guy and a girl is missing. Jeremy had a great voice, but that's unfortunately it, for me. He did have a funny moment after Madame Giry leads him down in the tunnels. She has left and he looked down with an expression that said "right. time to go and save christine" *rips shirt open clark kent style* "perfect!" I chuckled. Kelly Mathieson as Christine; OH. MY. GOD!!!! WHAT A VOICE!!! WHAT AN ACTOR!!!! WHAT A DANCER!!!! SHE HAD IT ALL!!! I kept my eyes out for her during the Hannibal scene and she did pointe. Granted, the program says she grew up as a dancer, but I didn't get a chance to look at the program until afterwards. GOD, her voice!!! So clear, so wonderful!! And she held up all parts of Christine very well, the supershy girl growing confident in Think of Me, hypnotised during the first lair, so sad at Wishing, and her breakdown during Twisted, I wanted to rush on stage and give her a hug!!! And her Aminta could've gotten this ace ass in bed with ease. The only weird thing Kelly did was that she threw her clothes around a couple times?? She did it at least 3 times, and while I can't remember what she wore the first time, the second time was during Wishing, when she had her back towards the audience. When Kelly turned around to face us again, she grabbed the side of the cloak and threw it out. Since it's so billowy, it worked. The third time tho, was with the Aminta dress. Kelly grabbed the top layer (and got some petticoat with it) and flung it around in one of those can-can moves. The result was silly rather than seductive. Speaking of dresses, that Star Princess dress is FLOOF. I love it and I want it. MOVING ONTO THE BIG GUY, BEN LEWIS. OH!!! MY!!!! GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!! He's gonna be in my top 3 forever. Partly because first Phantom-bias, mostly because HOLY SHIT MY EMOTIONS. IT WAS A SOBFEST Y'ALL. I sobbed, Christine sobbed, Erik sobbed 10 times. Ben has the deeper voice I prefer in Phantoms and although I was not impressed with him in LND (mostly because LND itself and awful camera angles) he is TENFOLDS better in poto. Ben cried twice in the first act, the first time was right after he finished Stranger than you dreamt it (and omg seeing him crawl on the floor towards Christine and Christine desperatly crawling away from him hnnnnnnng EMOTIONS!! (Ben actually grabbed Kelly's ankle and she pulled both legs up into fetal status to get away from him it was scary as heck)). The second time was on the angel and my emotions killed me. Again. Backtracking a bit to motn because there were two moments that caught my attention: the first was actually a LACK of moment, I not see the self-caress Erik's supposed to do. There were a couple of moments where Christine blocked Erik from my view, but I could still see his hands. Maybe Ben forgot? 🤷‍♀️ The second was a moment when Christine was gazing ahead/slightly to the left and Erik was creeping up on her from her right. Ben wasn't hunched per se, but he wasn't standing straight. Him creeping like that looked so predatory, but also like he was approaching with caution. I know that sounds like a paradox, but it was as if Erik treated Christine like she was something new, and extremely fragile. Like he wanted to explore her as he'd never been that /close/ to a woman before, but the simplest touch would scare her away. Back to creeping, the MOMENT Christine started turning her head towards Erik, Ben snapped his body straight and pushed out his chest and it was very intimidating especially with their height difference. Oh, and he absolutely nailed everything in motn. Such a powerhouse. Skipping forwards to Masquerade, the Red Death costume continues to creep me the fuck out. I can barely watch that part in the 25th because the skull mask gives me the hibbie jibbies. One cool thing was that Ben was exactly in tune with the beat, and for each beat he would take a step down. Small rythmic things like that gives me immence satisfaction. The managers didn't quite catch the opera sheets but that's a human mistake. And seeing Ben dead drop under the stage was cool but also terrifying and I wouldn't do it for all the money in the world. (I think it was here they used flames as a distraction and I felt that heat on row 6!!! Pity those front rowers, I know exactly how they must've felt *flashbacks to muse's the 2nd law stadium tour* Oh god, I've been writing this review for an hour 😳 soon done, i promise, as we go on to the Big Event aka Final Lair aka LET THE SOBFEST BEGIN I think the best way to describe final lair was semi-violent? Like, Erik pulled Christine around roughly when putting on the veil, and got close up in her face when he sang "an eternity with this" and when Christine was on the ground he grabbed and pulled her hair a few times. Oh, and when Erik said "you try my patience" he MEANT IT! One very interesting thing (and which I saw a youtube commentator mentioning it being unique for them) was that Ben doesn't sit up when opening and lowering the gate. He keeps his nonchalant sitting post, and as the commentator said, "it's surprisingly effective in showing that slight pettiness and sense of unwhorthiness." and I agree 100%. The blocking seemed normal, Kelly wasn't the most agressive in keeping Erik away from Raoul, but it was effective. After the big kiss things got really interesting and the sobbing began. Erik got the candle, and watching Christine the entire time, he lunged out at Raoul with the candle to see her reaction. My eyes were glued to Ben but her reaction must've shown that she was completely lost to Erik, because the next lunge cut the rope, and Ben cried doing it. And from there he doesn't stop crying and I swear to god, it sounded like Ben's voice would crack from the tears at any moment. RIGHT IN THE FEELS. AGAIN. My eyes were still glued on Ben, but when I looked over quickly to Raoul and Christine it was Raoul that did his best (and failing) to drag Christine away from the lair rather than the opposite. I read that scene and Kelly's acting as Christine not wanting to leave Erik for the mob to find, because even after all the shit he's pulled on her, he's still a living thing and doesn't deserve the fate the mob will provide. They do leave and has barely left the stage when Erik B R E A K S D O W N. COMPLETELY. Again, sounded like his voice would break any second, and again, right in them feels. AND CHRISTINE STILL HAS TO COME BACK AND LEAVE THE RING AND PLEASE LEAVE ME HERE TO DIE THANK YOU When Christine leaves again Erik went down on his knees, picked up the veil and just hugged it, still sobbing and I was digging my grave Here's a link to final lair audio with Ben and Amy Manford as Christine, skip to 8:15 and you'll also hear the first lunge Ben does towards Raoul. https://youtu.be/dPX4K6RjBu4 HAVE FUN WITH THE FEELINGS

[boop-le-snoot]

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previously on...

Chapter 5. We have stucky, we have stevesambucky friendship, we have a new place to live and strange being a good guy because tony definitely ranted at him. Also, we're beginning the creepy part of the plot. I have decided that sam will be one of the main platonic characters in this story because I love sam.

fun fact: I used to be a creepypasta writer! Going back to my roots here, hehe.

Things had stated changing, for better or worse, much sooner than I had been prepared for - but was anyone, ever, really ready for the next big step? Certainly not me - the view that greeted me after I'd finished my shift at Jeremy's was peculiar and unexpected, so I froze, eyebrows high at the two super-soldiers parked, once again, illegally, right in front of the entrance door.

"Hi, doll," Bucky was reclined against his boyfriend comfortably, his bike standing a pace behind Steve's, who nodded companionably, a sheepish grin on his face.

"G'day," I nodded, eyeing them warily. "I think I know where this is going..."

"No, no, nothing like that," both men frantically waved their hands around, Steve coming up close to approach me slowly. "You're not in trouble. I came out here to say thanks," giving a sappy look to the grouch that was his boyfriend, Steve reached into his pocket and handed me a slip of paper. "Just, uh..."

"Those are our phone numbers. Don't hesitate to give either one of us a call if someone bothers you," Bucky took over the stammering blonde, shaking his head at the soft blush that blossomed on the good captain's face. The brunette wrapped an arm around Steve's shoulders with a shy smile of his own. "Or if you, I don't know, need someone to carry your groceries or something," he snorted. "The punk wouldn't leave it alone until we came out personally to thank you, the sap."

The laughter bubbled up from my chest as I grabbed and pocketed the paper, throughly amused and at the endearing gesture. "Sure, thanks."

"And, uh," Bucky's eyes briefly looked to the side. "We'd appreciate if you keep the status of our relationship to yourself for now. We're not, like, officially out yet."

I froze in place, mouth falling open. Surely they were aware that anybody with a functional pair of eyes could see that they were much more than 'good, lifelong friends'. "No problem, guys. Lemme know if anyone gives you shit about it though, this place," I gestured to the café behind me, "is strictly paparazzi and homophobe-free."

Steve's grin grew even more genuine. "Yeah, we heard all about it from Tony and Stephen. Said 'twas the only place they go these days."

I wasn't aware of that. "It's the paps, isn't it?" I remembered Tony's remarks.

Bucky shook his head, the metals of his prosthetic arm whirring as it recalibrated. "Not only. The public hasn't had the best reaction to a man goin' out with a man," the brunette looked away to the side, where Steve's face had fallen considerably. "And Tony's an eccentric rich man. We're jus' two soldiers. The US Army won't be too happy if we... Came out," both men were crestfallen yet determined.

I had a hunch nothing would be able to separate the two - seeing as not even seventy-odd years and brainwashing and ice couldn't keep the captain and his sarge apart, I doubted that a few government weasels could successfully do the job. Even so, it was unpleasant, to say the least, to see them deny themselves something that technically was perfectly fine in the 21st century.

I chewed on my lip, gathering my wits. "I've clocked out, I can tell you this as a friend- as a person. You don't owe the army jack shit. They do not own you, you are your own person that they experimented their German knockoff steroids on. Respectfully, fuck that shit." I firmly stated my opinion, figuring that there should have been at least someone that told Steve that he is more than his star-spangled uniform and giant metal frisbee.

The blonde scrunched his eyebrows together, fingers gripping onto his belt until the knuckles went white, the hard line of his jaw set firm.

Bucky laugh took me by surprise. "Agreed, doll. I'm too old to be hiding in back alleys and shit," he clapped on his boyfriend's shoulder. "Although I'm happy enough with just not going to prison for bein' in love with this idiot."

"Jerk," Steve's responding pout was downright adorable now that I knew the circumstances surrounding their relationship.

Which wasn't exactly surprising. As a barista, I knew my fair share about my regulars' love lives, their jobs, their kids. The tea was almost always piping hot. "Bye, boys," I smiled at them warmly, throwing a glance at the time, adjusting the strap of my bag for comfort. "Stay outta trouble!"

Steve scrambled for his bike, having noticed my pointed gesture. "Sorry, didn't mean to hold you back. There, I have a spare helmet," he gestured behind him. "I'll give you a ride."

"There's no way in Hell I'm getting on that death trap!" I shouted cheerfully, walking briskly towards my second job, hiding a laugh in the warmth of my scarf as two very offended motorcycle-loving gay fossils sped past me, making truly incredible amounts of noise. Good for them.

Odette was content to let me rummage around the bodega without showing herself more than necessary, taking her appointments and doing- well, witch stuff, I guess, only coming out to poke at the various jars for ingredients.

"Star, I have a proposition for you," right before closing time, Odette's voice filled out the store with its low drawl. "A good friend of mine owns an apartment building, not far from here actually, and one tenant recently moved out. It's a safe space for those who are different," she enunciated the last word, fixing it with a pointed stare. "She's not overly fond of total strangers coming to live there. The rent is reduced and the apartment itself is slightly bigger and more fashionable than yours..."

"Where's the catch?" I found myself interrupting her. I wouldn't lie: the reduced rent and increased size of the apartment did interest me, as well as the probability of a kinder, more involved landlord. My current one was - not the best, but such was life in the NYC.

"There are a few rules to follow, rules that might seem strange at first but they'll make sense in time. And your neighbors might be also a little... Unusual," Odette carefully studied my face for any signs of displeasure.

I sighed.

And then I sighed some more as I was signing my new lease in a few days' time, having spoken with Porter, my new landlord, and his boyfriend who had claws and fangs- after so much time spent around Odette's, I didn't even blink. The couple liked me enough to extend a secure but flexible offer and some furniture to choose from the attic where they kept the spares.

I quite liked the large, vintage couch I placed next to the wide bow windows in the living room. The floors were hardboard and well-kept, the walls a nice, homely shade of green and Porter didn't mind any new holes in them that might arise from hanging up decorations. I scheduled a thrift crawl at the next possible opportunity, happy with the "good employee" bonus Odette had given me after I sealed the deal.

My stuff was boxed up, a sleepless night and a call to a begrudging Jeremy to have a couple of days off to move; I was, thankfully, not late on my schedule and all that I had left was to rent a car to move the boxes of my things and the few pieces of furniture I had decided to keep - my haul in Porter's attic had been incredibly rewarding and my new apartment had all the basics to make it look like a warm, inviting bohemian home in a while.

My phone rang suddenly, startling interruption to the romcom I was watching as I ate my last lunch in my old apartment. "Hello?" I answered the number without looking.

"Hi, doll," Bucky's voice rang out cheerful. "A little witch told me you were moving. I thought you might need a hand?"

I blanked momentarily, the thought of enlisting two very busy super-soldiers to haul ten boxes and two endtables worth of stuff not having crossed my mind at all. "Is this the moment when you stop by my house just to unattach and put your prosthetic arm somewhere and leave?" I asked, hearing distinctive snickering - several more people were with him.

The cheer in his voice blossomed into a full belly laugh. "You're funny," he teased me. "And thanks for the idea. But no, I have a room full of men that have nothing better to do but get on my nerves. Might as well make 'em useful," his accented drawl thickened the more we spoke. Muted cheers rang out in the background.

"Uh, sure," who was I to look a gift horse in the mouth? I rattled off my address and warned them I didn't have a car, after which Bucky assured me it will be taken care of. The last remaining knick-knacks packed away, I went down to take out the trash, and returned to four people standing in front of my apartment building, all except one unrecognisable in their civilian clothes. "Hello," I waved at them, side-eyeing the tallest, grumpiest man of the bunch.

Stephen Strange was there, looking around curiously, hands in the pockets of his plain grey hoodie. I had already forgotten how normal he looked without his robes, and, frankly speaking, I preferred him like that. His title and the attire that came with it were quite intimidating.

"Hey there," a dark-skinned man who I recognised to be the Falcon, raised his hand. I had not met him yet. "I'm Sam, Sam Wilson. You must be the Star we're helping?" His quick once-over and the tilt to his lips; the ease with which he flirted had me brandishing smirks of my own. I led them all upstairs, Stephen's silence being just so loud. Sam, however, had no such reservations. "So, you're a witch, right?" Wow, subtlety was his middle name.

"Yes, I'll show you my broomstick," I deadpanned, wiggling my eyebrows at him with a grim look.

"Woah woah," Sam raised his hands as the three men behind us snickered loudly. "What happened to 'how are you? let's have dinner sometime'?"

I did my best imitation of an evil cackle as I let them through my front door. The four newcomers looked around my nearly empty apartment with muted interest before zeroing in on the pile of things in the corner: a few pieces of furniture and nearly taped boxes. Should be a walk in the park for four men.

A hand on my arm pulled me from the stupor of observing Sam, Bucky and Steve act like a well-oiled trio, bantering and teasing each other as they discussed how to best move the things.

"Look," Stephen Strange had all the appearance of a chastised puppy. "I wanted to apologize for my behaviour that day. I was out of line," the low notes in his voice made the appearance of the apology being somewhat reluctant. Tony probably put him to it after our little burger run.

Irregardless, I wasn't looking to make any enemies. "Me too, I was under stress - not that I'm using it as an excuse," to give where it's due, I nodded at the sorcerer, immediately awestruck by the easy, boyish smile that stretched on his lips.

"You are strong," he added. "If you would like to learn our ways, we would welcome you." There was a spark in his eyes, something belonging to man that respected and collected knowledge. My own respect for him grew immensely just from that one thing.

"I'll think about it," I offered amicably, however, I still leaned heavily towards a negative answer to that particular proposition. I liked my current way of life.

Strange's grin made a momentary second appearance, until Sam's voice rang loudly: "Fire in the hole, Wizard-man," causing the former to groan loudly and look at me.

"Think about your new place for a second," he spoke, briefly touching out fingertips. As soon as that was over, a golden circle with my new living room on the other side of it appeared quietly, Strange's hands immediately going back into his pockets after that. I sighed and pointed the men into it, stepping in a second after. The sorcerer wasn't far behind. "You could learn that, too, you know," he added wryly, having seen my look of mild envy directed at him.

"I think I'll be good with having the 'pissed off the sorcerer Supreme and lived' pass for now," I retorted with an eyeroll, turning around to stare him down.

He had the decency to look somewhat sheepish, at least. "I'm not like my predecessor," his words were chosen carefully. "And, to be honest, I have no clue as to why your... Boss is so hostile towards me- us," Strange looked around the room before unceremoniously beelining for the couch and plopping down on it.

"Not to be a gossip," I started, slightly intrigued. "But Odette and some lady she called ancient had mad beef," I slipped into casual language easily, trying to recall the details of Odette's, quite often jumbled, stories. "Sounded almost like territorial disputes," I shrugged. "And the apprentices Odette took on before me found themselves in all kinds of compromising situations," I chewed on my lip. "Like the Arctic."

Strange rubbed his face with a noisy groan, large hands doing nothing to mask the resignation and slight embarrassment.

I focused on the thin, red scars on his hands - they had to have been something serious, the way slight tremors betrayed the deteriorating state of the nerves in his fingers. I frowned, quickly averting my gaze before he could catch me ogling him. The fact thag Stephen kept his hands in his pockets or covered by gloves at all times didn't go over my head.

He muttered something to himself, something that sounded like he was often forced to clean up his predecessor's mess. "I see," was the only thing he'd offered me, looking slightly pitiful and apologetic.

"Well," I started, noting the last of my stuff was about to be in its rightful place, "as long as you don't toss me into the ocean, I think we can coexist peacefully."

"Tony would kill me if I'd tried," Stephen groused.

"Probably," I agreed. "Considering the fact he hit on me, for you, it would make one hell of a lover's quarrel," my hand pointed towards the kitchen as Steve and Sam carried in the boxes aptly labeled "kitchen", looking around a place to put them down.

"Tony did what now?" Stephen's tone dropped, a wry smirk decorating his lips as he eyed me through his lashes.

"Don't ask me," I raised my palms, feeling my eyes widen. "He's chaos personified and Satan only knows what he's got on his mind."

That squeezed a laugh out of the tall man, followed by a fond, sappy smile as he looked out of my large, panoramic window, probably thinking of Tony himself. There was no doubt, Stephen Strange was utterly and throughly head over heels in love with Tony Stark. Good for them, good for them.

"A-and that's it," Bucky walked in, wiping his hands on a kitchen towel I'd provided them earlier. "I took some liberties and assembled the furniture, Steve is stacking the dishes as we speak," the brunette noisily plopped down next to me, arm carelessly thrown behind me on the back of the couch.

"Oh, um," I stammered, unused to such random gestures of kindness. "Thanks a lot, you saved me a day's worth of time and a backache," I smiled, scooting over to make some room for Sam.

"No problem, not like we had anything better to do than argue which part of the Lord of the Rings is the best," Wilson rolled his eyes, elbowing Bucky none-too-gently.

Bucky elbowed back, thus starting a horsing war between the two, causing me to scoot closer to Stephen as I attempted to avoid any flailing limbs; the sorcerer and I shared an identical, perplexed sigh as to how two grown men could easily bait each other into such juvenile behaviour.

Whatever. It was kind of endearing.

Steve emerged from the kitchen dusty but smiling, having heard the commotion, and quickly herded his guys into a semblance of decent behaviour before all of three of them left, leaving me and Stephen to go back to my old apartment and give the keys to it to the guard. That was done, too, and a portal from an alley behind my old building straight into my living room had me and Strange awkwardly hovering, saying out goodbyes and waving to each other as the golden circle rapidly shrunk in size and disappeared, golden sparks scattering across my living room carpet for a short second before they fizzled out, too.

I used the brief moment of respite to find the small piece of paper containing the rules Porter had insisted I read and take seriously; figuring it might be a good idea to give them a read before beginning to unpack, I popped open a bottle of soda, holding the itemized list written in neat cursive to my face.

The further I read, the further my eyebrows rose:

"1. Keep your door locked at all times.

2. If a person knocks on your door claiming to be the mail man, do not open the door under any circumstances. You are free to ignore the knocking - it only lasts a minute or so. After the person has left, you may open the door and check for any packages.

3. If Samantha from 3B visits you and asks you to babysit, you may do so at your personal discretion. Her twins are a handful and their daily habits are not for the ones with a weak stomach, however, they mean nothin ill and will not harm you in any way.

4. Do not use the elevator between the hours of 1 and 4 AM.

5. There are no apartments under number "7". If someone claiming to be from those apartments knocks on your door and requests entry, come up with a polite excuse to decline and send me a text message. I will take care of it.

6. There is no garden on the premises of this building. If a man approaches you, claiming to be a gardener, don't interact with him and simply walk away. He will leave you alone.

7. You may meet a girl in a polka-dot dress playing in the hallways or in the stairwell. This is Lucy. Always be polite to Lucy - you won't like what will happen if you're rude to her. She does not talk but she knows limited ASL and may request to visit you. Allow her in ONLY if you have fresh meat in your fridge (beef or mutton, preferably bloody). You might want to avoid seeing her eat, however, it might be very beneficial to make friends with Lucy. She knows a lot of things.

8. If, when taking the stairs, you encounter inconsistent numeration of the floors, such as floor 2 followed by floor 5 and etc, simply walk a flight back. It will sort itself out. The building is old and sometimes it gets confused.

Important notice: these rules apply to your guests as well. Please make sure to introduce and educate them on these matters. We will help as much as we can should a situation arise but ultimately, there are fates far worse than an untimely, however swift, death.

- Porter and Lance."

A slow, creeping dread began to gnaw at my nape, curling on like a cold snake deep in chest. As if laughing at me, the warm, welcoming embrace of the green walls and the toothy, wide smiles my landlords had given me encouraged my recently found sense of adventure, all of it mixing into a cacophony of exhilaration and unease, equally steadily driving my running brain insane.

I sighed again, immediately going to the box containing my altar and the rest of the protective items. So much for peace.

Taglist: @couldntbedamned @mikariell95 @letsby @sleep-i-ness @toomanyrobins @mostly-marvel-musings @persephonehemingway @schemefrenzy @lillsxd @bluecrazedandbeautiful @slothspaghettiwrites @xoxabs88xox

[hettiesworld]

Name of fic: I Recommend a Daddy

Pairing: Sugar daddy!Chris x OFC (Addison)

Plot summary: When Addison runs out of money and is about to lose her house, her friends Auora and Sydney recommend to her a sugar daddy. Of course, there is one thing that is different to the other sugar daddy companies; there is a romantic relationship available.

Warnings: Foul language, sexual themes.

Author’s note: This is part of @donutloverxo Sugary 4k Challenge. Of course, it is not part of my Chris x Addison series fic, “Best Thing I Ever Had”, just to be clear. My OCs are not famous, neither are the celebrities in this.

Word count: 1641 words.

“Rory! Sydney! Need your help quick!” Addison called out to her friends whilst running from her spare bedroom to her own, her handbag in one hand and her purse in the other.

“What is it Addy?” Sydney asked her, trying to braid Aurora’s hair.

“I have no money! I am gonna lose my house --” She started to freak out, breathing heavily. Just like the talkative person that she was. Until Auora stood up from her sitting position.

She placed her hands on Addison’s shoulders.

“Addy. Calm down, it’s okay, just do what we did. Get a sugar daddy.” “A sugar daddy?” “Yeah.” Sydney added on, also standing up, phone in hand. “Have a look. This is my sugar daddy.”

The picture on Sydney’s phone was of a 50 year old man. She could tell by the wrinkles on his face. Addison cringed at how old he was.

“And this is mine.” Aurora beamed as she picked up her phone, showing Addison her one. He looked, at least, 30-something years old.

“How old is he?” She asked Auora. “51. And he is Syd’s brother!” Aurora exclaimed. “What? How is he one? I have met him loads of time and it looked like… no offence, but he looked like he didn’t have a lot of money.” Addison explained.

“Meh. Something about a relative having a lot of money and I didn’t get anything. So I got Jeremy to help me.” Sydney replied. “But I don’t mind if my brother didn’t help me, I got to meet --” “--Yes, you got to meet Jeremy, we know. But that doesn’t mean you get to kiss him or something…” Addison interrupted Sydney.

She out her handbag on the bedside table and sighed, collapsing onto the comfortable water bed.

“Actually…”

Addison sat up and was shocked at what Auora was going to say.

“Wait… you’re in a relationship with them?” Addison exclaimed, putting on a confused face.

Both Sydney and Auora shrugged their shoulders, basically saying that they were.

“It’s kinda complicated. It’s a polyamorous relationship. He can date other girls. That’s the business of the sugar daddy company they are part of.” Sydney explained.

Addison thought to herself, ‘Does she need a sugar daddy? She was losing her house and she didn’t have a lot of money…’ Sydney already had Addison’s laptop up, with the sugar daddy website on it, flashing in her blue eyes.

“Go on. Pick one!” Sydney encouraged, placing the laptop in her lap.

Addison sighed and looked over the website. She repeatedly denied every single one she looked at until she found a 39-year old man picture on there. Let’s just say, Addison was definitely interested in him. His name was Chris and he was from Boston, Massachusetts. 

“Ooh… He looks interesting and hot! Go on, message him!” Aurora said to her, instantly clicking on the messaging app within the website. “Rory! Why did you do that?” Addison condemned Aurora. “Look! He messaged you!” Sydney added.

Mr. Evans: Hello Addison. Are you interested in my offer of being your sugar daddy?

“Reply Addy, reply!” Sydney and Auora both exclaimed at her.

“Okay, okay. Just leave me alone. Let me message him.”

Addison: Hello, Mr Evans. I guess I am interested in your offer. Mr. Evans: Please call me Chris. Now, tell me. Why are you coming to this website? Addison: I am going to lose my job and my friends suggested this website. It could help me with my financial problems. Mr. Evans: I will gladly help with your money issues. We should meet up, but if you’re living far away, we should meet via webcam. Addison: I would like that.  Mr. Evans: Just give me your Skype details and I will contact you soon.

Sydney and Auora screamed with glee as Chris accepted the offer. Addison sighed at them before giving Chris her details.

“Now we wait.”

It was a few days afterwards and Addison was alone, in her bedroom. She was waiting for Chris to call her via Skype. Then, it happened.

“Hello?”

Addison looked up from her phone, as she was playing Candy Crush Saga.

 “Oh my… I am so sorry! I didn’t know you called me!” She yelped, making Chris laugh from the call.

“It’s alright. I’m guessing you’re Addison then?” He asked her.

“Yep. Sorry I was playing Candy Crush. And please, call me Addy. My friends call me that.” “Got it. What level are you on?” Questioned Chris, titling his head and then sipping a beer. “I’m on… level 182.” “That is cool. I’m on level 543.” “What? How?!” “Practice.”

They both laughed.

“Anyways… You have financial problems?” He then asked her, having a notebook and pen in his hands. “Yeah I do. A few days ago, I had no money in my bank account. I’m getting evicted soon cause I can’t pay my rent…” Addison rambled on as Chris nodded understandably, writing down what she was saying. “I am so sorry. Well, if you accept my offer, then you will be able to live at my place, accompanied with me and my dog, I will be able to pay everything off. All you need to do is give me company. Do some chores around the house, that sort of stuff.” He explained.

Addison thought for a while.

“I do need money. Okay, I accept.” “Great! You can start in 2 days. Just come to my address in Massachusetts and we will do the contract and important stuff. Get packed and I’ll see you then, okay?” “Okay! Thank you so much Chris!” She hung up.

2 days later, she flew from London to Boston, Massachusetts in the USA.

It was a city of wide avenues and small places to sit and eat, to relax as folk went about their day. There were the sky towers in the centre, what was once thousands of homes now took up less ground space than an old shopping mall. The rest was parks and wild spaces, a chance to walk among nature or enjoy the trails on bicycles or horseback. Yet perhaps Addison’s favourite thing was the river that flowed through the centre, crossing the bridges, pausing just to look at the view I saw every day and loved all the more.

She arrived outside a white-ish house, just outside the city.

There stood a tall man, about 6’ 0”, with short brown hair and bright blue eyes. He was wearing a Hawaiian shirt, 2 buttons undone. He also wore brown shorts and white sneakers. “Addy! You came!” Chris smiled and welcomed her with open arms. She stood out of the fancy car. She was wearing a pretty flowery dress with matching blue shoes with wedged heels. Bright red sunglasses, her blonde hair flowing in the cool wind. In her hand, a beautiful leather handbag.

Addison pranced over to Chris, trying not to fall over in her shoes.

“Chris! It is a pleasure to meet you.” Her London accent was clear as day as she gave him the usual posh greeting; an air kiss on each cheek. “You too. How was your flight?” He asked her, being a true gentleman and bowing, kissing the back of her hand. “It was luxurious!” Addison smiled at him, blushing at the gesture he gave her. “Please! Let me give you a tour!”

The house Chris lived in looked quite expensive. She was surprised that he had a drawing-room (or a living room to you guys). The drawing room had a snug and huggy feel to it. The dining room, which was next to it,  was Chris’s in-home cafe, one where all the chefs and wait staff cooked for a living.

Upstairs, the bedroom she was staying in was just tidy enough to show that she cared about the space and just messy enough to show that she was able to let her creativity roam free. It was her goldilocks zone, perfect for how she was, especially for an inspiring storyteller like her. The en-suite next to it was a place of washing, of nurturing our sanity with the sensation of warm water and aromatic soaps. For the body must feel loved and cared for, for then it feeds back these messages to the brain and begins to set up a positive cycle of wellness.

After the tour, Chris let his personal servant takes Addison’s luggage to her bedroom as they stood in the massive hallway.

“Please make yourself at home. You are staying here. Any questions?” He asked her. “No. Not that I can think of.” “Good. Let’s meet in the drawing-room to discuss the contract.”

They both walked into the drawing-room and sat next to each other, with a big pile of papers, which is basically the whole contract. It was halfway through the signing.“Okay… time for section 5, which is relationships and sex.” Addison choked as he said that. “S-sex?” She faltered, coughing as her drink went the wrong way down her throat.

“Yes… you okay?” Chris helped her by patting her back. Apparently, that doesn’t help at all but Chris didn’t know that then.

She hummed in response as she put down her drink, leaning back as if it never happened.

“You alright now?” “Yep. Carry on.” “Okay… Now, are you fine with us being in a polyamorous relationship or do you want a ‘just friends’ relationship?” Chris asked, reading off the paper. Addison pondered to herself.

“Can I think upon it? I don’t want to be in a relationship without any romantic interest in each other…” She mumbled. “Yeah, of course. It would be cool to go on a date to see if we do have a spark.” He suggested, placing the contract down back onto the table. “I like that idea.” Addison smiled at him, blushing.

[super-hero-girls-netflix]

Headcanons on disorders and illnesses (like ADHD, Anorexia, Some kind of condition or something) for both boys and girls?

ALL THE KIDS ARE DEPRESSED

It's a song by Jeremy Zucker

Lol.

Lesse. Everyone this HEADCANNON post has a mental illness. For the sake of the headcannon.

HEADCANNON CHALLENGE ACCEPTED

HEADCANNON #1- Karen

Karen had anxiety and depression. It comes hand in hand. The anxiety is not prominent and really the depression is only like a dark corner of her brain that only invades when the anxiety is high but...she has anxiety and temperamental depression.

Her anxiety is everpresent of course. Especially when she has to meet new people. But with time she wrangles her anxiety down and loosens up. It's a constant battle of 'of course they like me they're my friends' and 'am I annoying them' 'are they sick of me' 'do I matter to them as much they do to me?'.

It's exhausting. But of course..she won't let anxiety win. And neither will her friends! They makes sure to remind Karen just how special they know she is.

And that's final.

HEADCANNON #2- Kara

Kara always knew she had a bit of an anger problem. A quick temper. A psychoanalysis man told her that it was because I'm order to protect herself from being hurt she had to dismiss them.

She begged to differ. She wouldn't be so angry if people weren't so stupid. But whatever. She also had depression? Big whoop. It's not like she actually think anyway, or so she insists to the Danvers.

But the Danvers are dutiful legal guardians and got her a therapist. Of course she was super cold and prone to ignoring the man at first but somehow...over time...she told him everything.

Most of everything.

Things that pissed her off.

In fact, this is how most meetings start:

Kara, skateboarding into the room, with a smoothie in hand: Bruh, you won't believe what happened to me last night.

So...instead of stewing in anger she just spills out every single thing that makes her want to commit murder.

HEADCANNON #3- Jess

Depression. Just depression. Depression everywhere.

It isn't obvious. She's so out together and calm and collected. None of the stereotypical signs.

But you can tell when she starts to sleep less and talk less. When her words slur and her movements are slightly erratic.

When she neglects herself.

The girls make sure that Jess knows that they're there when she needs them. Jess is good at faking happiness, but they're good at detecting bullshit.

HEADCANNON #4- Diana

She is mental illness free. At least the kind that is hardwired into her brain. The kind people are born with.

But depression isn't always genetic.

And PTSD definitely isn't.

Diana has been sheltered in a pretty morally correct place but she has lived alongside monsters of Greek mythology.

She is pretty confident about most but she cannot, I repeat, she cannot, stand bears. And it might seem silly but seeing bears or any rendition of it sends Diana into gory flashbacks.

For that specific reason Babs makes sure to hide all bear themed stuffed animals when Diana comes over.

HEADCANNON #5- Zee

Being in the spotlight all her life has made Zee rather accustomed to criticism. She was always a bit above it.

Petty commentary like 'so annoying' or 'does she think she's cute?' was beneath her concern.

But one always nagged at her.

'Look at her- so chubby!' 'Haha, hamster cheeks'.

That was when the meal skipping started, what was once neglecting breakfast and avoiding extra calories was soon lying about eating and even, on some rare occasions, going as far as throwing up what her father insisted she choked down.

Yes, a kid can be depressed at the ripe age of 8 years old.

Of course she's doing better now. Not skipping any meals. And not giving the comment section the time of day.

Still, she flinches when she hears whispers of 'chubby' or 'fat'.

HEADCANNON #6- Babs

ADHD, Babs has a lower amount of dopamine so that's why she's always looking for a new thrill. Something to invest in that will give her regular amount of dopamine.

Things that lower dopamine like studying or school is of course of no interest to her so she takes no interest in learning about it.

That's why she has trouble focusing on certain aspects of school.

The BORING aspects.

Of course being forced to focus on the BORING aspects lowers her dopamine and she goes to a lapse of what looks likes depression.

It's horrid.

She still hasn't figured bout a way to be entertained with boring stuff but... she's working on it.

The BOYS

HEADCANNON #1- Carter

Carter. He doesn't have depression. At least, not depression depression.

Lol, I know.

I like to believe, in my AU, that he is a selective mute. Which comes in and as a sever anxiety disorder. He only speaks to people he feels comfortable with, or he is used to. And only when it's something he feels comfortable about.

This is just a headcannon. I strongly believe that Carter, in a another AU, doesn't think the twerps worth his time, nevermind his voice.

HEADCANNON #2- Garth

He is one with Depression. In fact him and the rude voice in head engage in daily conversation.

Before he goes to his therapist.

Who likes spraying the surprisingly self-deprecating boy with her plant waterer spray.

No one knows.

No one asks.

How can the confident water boy prince have depression.

HEADCANNON #3- Hal

Good old fashioned depression.

That's it.

He's a depressed Fuck. Who's so obsessed with feeling fine again he can't see how he's hurting others.

But he's being forced to see a therapist (thanks Jess) and he's working on it.

HEADCANNON #4- Steve

ADHD, he's constantly not happy. Dopamine less. So he just keeps his facade of pleasantness on and tries to find ways to be happy.

He figured out quick he liked war stuff. Especially pilots.

Now sometimes it's all that gets him through it all.

Looks fine is most likely silently screaming.

HEADCANNON #5- Oliver

Has anxiety.

I know.

Wouldn't expect it, right?

He's so loud and charming and confident.

Yeah, well it's a layer of confidence. Bravado to shield him from the world.

Be warned that if a single insult hits him it will most likely hit hard- and result in him working even harder to perfect a role.

He does go to therapy though. But he isn't very good at being sincere about his feelings.

HEADCANNON #6- Barry

Bipolar disorder.

This poor boy suffers through the highs of mania and lows of depression.

However since he's always at a higher speed then others they can't tell when he's lagging or acting up.

Unless- unless they pay close attention.

No one really knows....

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Probably crack and a result of staying up way too late, but how do you think an AU where Peter dated and married Naomi instead of Nora would go?

This officially goes on the list of “ships I never considered before, but now that you say it I can kinda see it.”  Peter’s clearly got a competency kink, between Eva and Nora.  Naomi deserves better than Dan.  They’re both overworked single parents who try to do what’s best for their kids, and don’t always succeed.  Peter’s good at the nurturing and hug-giving and supportive side of things, not so much at the day-to-day practicalities.  Naomi’s excellent at making sure everyone is fed and sheltered and keeping up in school, not so much at the touchy-feely stuff.  Yeah, I can see it.

Anyway:

They meet through the PTA, naturally.  Naomi’s there to stage a formal protest about the high school’s suspension of late-bus service, and Peter’s there because this is the once-a-month night out of the house that Marco keeps scheduling for him.  Naomi makes a sarcastic comment about the U.S. government’s idea of “sufficient funding”, Peter jumps in with a one-liner about science grants, and four hours later they’re still companionably trashing the NSF over their third round of bake sale brownies.  Peter makes the first move, of course.  Naomi sets the time, the venue, the curfew, the transportation, and the expectations for the night, of course.

Jake thinks this is the funniest thing that has ever happened to him in his entire life.  The more both Marco and Rachel call him to complain about their respective parents, the funnier he finds it to be.

Both Naomi and Peter are pleasantly surprised at how well their kids get along.  They were both vaguely aware that Marco and Rachel knew each other through school, but neither one is prepared for the instantaneous companionable banter the teenagers fall into the moment Peter first brings Marco over to meet Naomi.

The first four or five times Marco comes around Rachel’s house for dinner, Jordan hides under her hair and watches him in enraptured silence.  After about two months’ worth of this, Rachel drags Marco aside after an Animorphs meeting and has a stern conversation with him.

Neither of them will tell the others what they talk about, even though Ax expresses concern at the brilliant red shade both their faces have taken on and Cassie gives them a knowing smile.  Technically Tobias overhears the whole thing — the others tend to get so caught up in hawk eyes that they forget all about hawk ears — but he’s nice enough to keep his silence.

The next time Marco’s over at Rachel’s house, he lets out a seven-second belch after downing an entire can of Mountain Dew in one go.  Over the next ten minutes, he insults Jordan’s favorite boy band, picks his nose in front of everyone, claims he’s going to die alone because girls are gross, and (to Rachel’s quiet shock) too-casually acknowledges his raging crush on Brad Pitt.

Anyway, it works like a charm.  Jordan gets over her crush pretty quick after that.

“You didn’t have to go quite that hard in the paint, you know,” Rachel says to Marco much later.  “Pretending to like Brad Pitt, I mean.”

Marco is lying on her bed, looking through one of her back issues of CosmoGirl with the air of a forensic anthropologist picking apart the dismembered remains of a human sacrifice.  “What?” he says, back in that too-casual tone.  “I can appreciate a good pair of lips, no matter what type of human being they grow upon.”

Rachel spins around, looking away from the mirror where she was fixing her hair.  Marco is now staring at the magazine as if trying to detect a coded message between two lines of the spread comparing different brands of eyeliner.

“No matter what type?” she asks.

Marco lifts his chin.  He doesn’t back down, and he doesn’t laugh.  There’s a defiant set to his smirk, and the careful confidence in his expression is betrayed by the slight trembling of his fingers clenched around the Cosmo.

Their parents are engaged, that’s all.  And it’s not something he’s ever told anyone... but he also thinks it’s maybe the sort of thing that one tells one’s siblings.

“So you do agree with me and Cassie about Jeremy Jason McCole!” Rachel says triumphantly.

Marco gags so hard he risks straining his own throat muscles.  “I have taste!  You, clearly, have none.”

If Jordan still has any romantic interest in Marco at all even after the you’re going to be step-siblings news broke, it disappears the instant that Naomi announces Jordan and Sara are going to be sharing a room from now on, because Marco and Peter are moving in with them.  A week later, Jake’s mother has a stern conversation with him about the extent to which he’s been running up their phone bill.  He grumbles that he didn’t ask to be everyone’s agony aunt, but that doesn’t get him out of being grounded.

Marco teases Rachel endlessly when he figures out why she leaves her window open every night, even — especially — when it’s cold or rainy outside.  But he also helps cover for her and Tobias without being asked, and one night in gorilla morph he deforms the oak tree out in the back yard so that a sheltered branch rests directly underneath her windowsill.

Rachel stops in the door of Marco’s room the day after the confrontation with Visser One outside the fake hork-bajir valley.  She doesn’t bother to knock.  He didn’t bother to shut the door.

Marco’s sitting in the narrow space between his bed and the wall, staring at the blank blue paint in front of his face.  His knees are drawn up to his chest, his hands limp at his sides.

“They didn’t find a body,” Rachel says, blunt as ever, standing over him.  “I know that’s not good news or anything.  But I also figured you had a right to know.  There’s no sign of Vis—  Of her body.”

Marco squeezes his eyes shut, hard, but still can’t stop the tears.  “Shit.”  He lets his head fall back against the bedspread.  “Shit.”

Hesitating only a second, Rachel scoots in next to him.  She doesn’t try for a hug or anything stupid like that, but she sits shoulder-to-shoulder with him.  She’s the kind of person given to stillness, but she stays put as he struggles to breathe and swipes his sleeve across his face time and time again.

“It’s never going to end, is it,” Marco says at last, when he’s got enough air for words.

Rachel shrugs.  “I’m the wrong person to ask.”

“Shit,” he whispers again.  “Shit, shit, shit.”

“You wanna play Sega?” she asks.  “Not think for a while?”

Marco shakes his head violently.  “I just need some space, okay?”

“Sure.”  She stands.  “I’ll tell my mom not to expect you for dinner.”

Their parents are downstairs cooking.  Laughing.  Arguing companionably over one of Naomi’s cases.  Every clink of dishes, every fond word, feels like a spike driven under Rachel’s fingernails right now.  And if that’s how she feels...

“Anyway, I know you think I’m a crazy psycho killer, but for what it’s worth I think you made the right call.”  She says it sharply, standing to go.  Marco doesn’t respond, not that she expected him to, and she yanks his door shut when she goes.

Peter doesn’t try to be Rachel’s dad.  But he helps her with homework and shows up to her gymnastics meets and acts more excited than she is when she aces a history test.  He asks her what she wants to study in college, not whether she’s going or how they’re expected to pay for it.  He doesn’t try, and he does pretty well anyway.

The Animorphs meet in Rachel’s room almost as often as they do in Cassie’s barn.  It’s more centrally located, even if it doesn’t have nearly the selection of morphs right at hand.  Jake and Cassie both have preexisting excuses for showing up several times a week, and Tobias and Ax never bother using the front door anyway.  Marco’s also taken the time to confirm that no one in the house is a controller, so it saves everyone a little peace of mind.

Rachel wakes up screaming in the middle of the night.  No, that’s not it; she’s screaming in her sleep, and then Marco snaps the light on and wakes her.  He sets a glass of water on her nightstand.  Tilts the alarm clock so she can see the time.  Pokes her in the arm to remind her that she’s human, at least for now.  When it becomes obvious that she’s not going to talk about it, he turns and leaves without ever saying a word.

“I need you,” Marco says into the phone, middle of the night, apparently apropos of nothing.  “They took my dad.”  He gives the address, and then he hangs up.

He and Rachel have come to a decision, without discussion, without niceties like consulting Jake, by the time they’re done fighting off the half-dozen controllers who were dragging Peter toward the portable yeerk pool.  Rachel demorphs as Peter watches.  Marco goes through the explanation the first time, then the second.

Midway through the third round of attempts to convince Peter he’s not crazy, Rachel gives up.  She herds both Peter and Marco into the backseat, and drives back to the house.  “Pack for a long trip,” she tells them both, and goes upstairs to tell her mom.

Maybe, Jake concludes, exhausted just at the thought, they could’ve kept going if it was just his parents, or just Cassie’s.  But Rachel and Marco can’t both disappear without rousing too much suspicion, and getting rid of just one of them will put the yeerks on the tail of the other.  “I guess it’s time,” he says.  “Better get ready to tell our own parents, then.”

By the end of that day, Rachel’s and Marco’s blended family is in the hork-bajir valley.  By the time two days have passed, Jake’s and Cassie’s families are there too, even if Tom is currently secured with about a half-mile of duct tape and will need to be babysat by several hork-bajir for the next three days.  A week after that, Tobias shows up with Loren in tow.  One hellish mission later, and Visser One is dead, but her host is rapidly recovering.

Naomi and Eva circle each other like a pair of housecats thrust into the same room, at first.  They’re prim and aloof and wary, unable to know what to make of each other.  Peter helps exactly nothing by retreating from the conflict entirely, busying himself with an elaborate irrigation project the hork-bajir don’t actually need his help with.  But he can’t escape them forever.

One night, all three of them get roaring drunk on some kind of regrettable fermented-bark thing, and finally have it out.  Peter makes a passionate speech or two about his love for them both before retreating into morose silence.  Naomi’s sixth drink ends in her making an elaborate attempt to draw up a timeshare contract over who will keep Peter on which night.

Eva slams a hand down on the table, and they both fall silent.  She won’t share, she announces quietly, and she won’t be with a man who cannot choose.  She’ll find her own way.

Her own way, as it turns out, is even worse than Marco could have possibly imagined.

“Why?” Marco cries, flopping on the ground in the middle of the next Animorphs’ meeting.  “Why, why, why does this keep happening to me?”

“Pretty sure we’ve been over this before, back when it was your dad, and concluded it’s not about you,” Jake says.  “Anyway, the yeerks —”

“No!”  Marco sits up.  “We have more important things to talk about than yeerks.  Tobias, back me up on this!”

«Uh, yeah.»  Tobias looks over at Rachel.  «By the way, all those times you talked about how weird it was when your mom started dating again... Sorry for not being more sympathetic.  Now that I’m in your shoes...  It’s really weird.»

Rachel sniffs.  “You only met your mom like a month ago.  It’s still worse for me.”

“And it’s worst of all for me!”  Marco has flopped back over.  He emits a noise something like a wookiee being murdered.  “Please someone acknowledge that it’s worst of all for me!”

Cassie pats him on the back of the head.  “It’s worst of all for you,” she says.

“Thanks,” he says into the grass.

“Okay!”  Jake throws up his hands.  “Marco’s mom and Tobias’s mom have a thing going.  Now do we have it out of our systems?”

«Personally, I think Loren and Eva are most compatible,» Ax says.

«Nobody asked you,» Tobias snarks.  «And Jake, just imagine for a second if it was your mom who was macking on—»

“Nope!” Rachel says loudly.  “Nobody is thinking about anyone’s mom and anyone else’s mom.  Or dad.  We are ignoring it, we are pretending it’s not happening, we are carrying on as Marco and I have been for over a year now, we are killing yeerks.”

“Yeah, like I was saying.”  Jake rolls his eyes.  “There are aliens invading the planet, remember?”

“The horror,” Marco mumbles, still facedown in the grass.  “The horror!”

Cassie gives him another sympathetic pat on the back of the head.

[notebooknebula]

Jeremy Knauff - His Inspiring Story of Surviving A Health Crisis

https://www.jayconner.com/jeremy-knauff-his-inspiring-story-of-surviving-a-health-crisis/

If you are interested in hearing and learning the most inspiring story that Jay Conner heard this year, stay tuned and watch this video.

Jay is in the Mastermind group with a gentleman who is phenomenal. His special guest today has experienced a health crisis and survived it.

In today’s episode, they are going to dive deep into the inspiring story of Jeremy Knauff.

Jeremy has become successful not because of brilliance, charm, or a superpower, but rather because he’s always learning and refuses to give up. He is a speaker, author, and founder of the digital marketing agency Spartan Media.

He is an entrepreneur, digital marketer, author, proud father, husband, and a US Marine Corps veteran. Today, he runs Spartan Media, a digital marketing agency where they provide web design, SEO, social media, and PPC marketing services.

“A lot of the people I work with come to me because they have a website but they aren’t getting enough new business out of it. Other people come to me because they’re losing business to competitors, or because they don’t think their website presents their company to potential customers very well, or even because they’re starting a company from scratch and they don’t want to screw it up and waste a ton of money. If that describes you or sounds like anyone you know, let’s connect.” – Jeremy Knauff – https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremyknauff

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Jay Conner (00:04):

If you are interested in learning and hearing one of the most inspiring stories that I've heard this year, I want you to stay tuned. I'm in a Mastermind group where the gentleman that is just phenomenal, he has taken his filter off totally. And he has made it through and survive on the other side, just a very serious health crisis. And so if you are going through a health crisis or, you know someone that is going through a health crisis, stay tuned right now, you're about to be inspired.

Jay Conner (00:45):

Well, welcome to another episode of Real Estate Investing with Jay Conner. I'm Jay Conner also known as the Private Money Authority. And on today's show, we're going to take a little bit of a detour. We're not going to dive deep into real estate per se, but we are going to dive deep into a very inspiring story that can change your life and make a difference. But before we get to my guest, I have got a gift for you. And that is if you're interested in getting funding for your real estate deals, without relying on banks, mortgage companies, any kind of institutional lenders, then here's my gift. I launched earlier this year, it's called the Private Money Academy membership. And twice a month, I go live on a private Zoom coaching call, and I interview successful students. We taught deals. Talk about how we're finding real estate deals, how we're getting them funded with private money.

Jay Conner (01:43):

Again, without relying on banks and institutional lenders. We talk about all kinds of real estate, but I want to give you a free gift. Come join us and check us out at www.JayConner.com/Trial, after the show, get right on over to www.JayConner.com/Trial, And again, if you're on a YouTube or iTunes or Google play, we really appreciate it for you to like share subscribe, rate, and review and on YouTube, be sure and tap that little bell. So you'll be notified. So you don't miss out on any of these fantastic shows and guests that I have on here. Well, as I mentioned or alluded to a moment ago, I'm so excited to have a friend, and fellow mastermind brother, come on here to the show to tell his story and make a difference in your life. So let's bring out of the green room or right on here up front. Mr. Jeremy, Jeremy, are you there?

Jeremy (02:48):

I am here. How are you doing today, man?

Jay Conner (02:49):

Scott, I lost connection. So I'm going to sign out real quick and hop right back in. I'll be right back.

Jay Conner (03:00):

There we are. Jeremy, can you hear me?

Jeremy (03:02):

I can hear you.

Jay Conner (03:03):

All right. Well, welcome to the show, Jeremy. I appreciate so much. You've taken the time to come on and join me.

Jeremy (03:10):

Thank you. It's my pleasure.

Jay Conner (03:11):

You bet you. Well, as I mentioned to everybody here in the opening you and I are in a Mastermind together and a few weeks ago, I heard you speak on stage and I just really appreciated your authenticity and et cetera. But before we jump into your story of breaking through and living through the health crisis tell her about your background story and how you gotten to where you are today and tell a little bit about Spartan Media.

Jeremy Knauff (03:44):

Yeah, so I've had kind of a, an interesting ride. You know, I finished high school joined the Marine Corps, bounced all over the world there for a while. And then started my first business, which was a colossal failure. Pretty much lost everything went into massive debt from there. Spent a few years kind of rebuilding started my second company an agency, and ran that successfully for many years until the episode that you had briefly hinted at in the beginning here, when I had a health crisis that almost killed me. And then, you know, racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars of medical expenses and bills and burn through all of our savings. Basically had to start over from zero, well from less than zero, really because we had racked up debt and, you know, then I had the additional challenge of starting over, which in the marketing world, you know, at that point, I was pretty much on my death bed for about two years. So there was no case studies, there was no examples, there was no clients. So I had to start over from less than zero at that point. And now here I am today.

Jay Conner (04:52):

Wow. So I want us to get into your health crisis story and lessons. We can learn from that, but before we do tell everybody about Spartan Media and what your company does.

Jeremy Knauff (05:04):

So Spartan media is a, basically it's a full service digital marketing agency, but what we've been focusing on lately is taking people and turning them into an authority within their industry. Right now the website doesn't really reflect that because the cobbler's kids always gets shoes last, but what we've been doing lately is taking people and turning them into an authority within their industry. So there's a particular example that I like to use. And that's this example was kind of the pivot point for me. At one point in time, me and a good friend of mine, I ran my marketing agency, he ran a printing company, a particular client together. You know, he did all the printing stuff, we did all the marketing design and all of that. Well, at some point in that relationship, he decided to sell his printing business and go work for client.

Jeremy Knauff (05:58):

And he quickly moved up to become the Chief operating officer. But then because of some things that happened with the founder the company was kind of in turmoil. And they got to a point where I think it was 19 franchisees were walking away from the organization. They were trying to organize a class action lawsuit. They had all kinds of online reputation management problems to deal with. It was just, it was a complete toxic mess from top to bottom, but what happened was because of all the things we were doing for them with the search engine optimization, the social media, the PR, all of the various marketing components. He went from basically having no experience, being nobody in the industry. I left out a piece. He, the founder had to step down and he had to step up and become the CEO because at that point, the relationships were just destroyed.

Jeremy Knauff (06:49):

So as a result of all of the things that we were doing for them, he ended up becoming so recognized. And so authoritative within his industry that last year, before all this COVID stuff happened, I was actually in DC with him. He was lobbying Congress on behalf of his industry. So he went from basically being nobody in that industry to now he's up here talking with congressmen and senators about the laws that affect that industry. So we develop that into a front end service where we basically take someone and turn them into an authority within their industry so that they can get more media coverage, get in front of more people charge more money and you know, make more profit.

Jay Conner (07:31):

So what is your like ideal client? Like what type of industries does your service work well for?

Jeremy Knauff (07:38):

Generally, it comes down to somebody in a, like a professional business services, right? So it wouldn't be necessarily good for a restaurant owner. I mean, although it, theoretically it could help them in some ways it's not going to have the same impact that it might for somebody like you, where you want to be recognized as the person to talk to when it comes to this kind of stuff, private money, hard money lending, stuff like that. So generally somebody that's in a professional business service is going to see the most impact from this.

Jay Conner (08:06):

Okay. That makes sense. Well, let's let's dive into your personal experience and your personal story.

Jeremy (08:13):

Yeah.

Jay Conner (08:13):

So I'm going to turn it over to you to tell that story, Jeremy, and I'll interrupt you when I think I need to.

Jeremy Knauff (08:19):

Okay. All right. So this one was a, this was an interesting ride. I touched briefly on the crisis itself, but basically what happened was I was kind of on top of the world, had plenty of clients had plenty of money. Everything was going great. And then out of the blue, I get hit with this, with this health crisis. And, you know, I went to every doctor under the sun. I was going to the emergency room three to five times a week. I was trying to figure this out. Nobody had any answers and it just kept getting worse and worse and worse. So, I was pretty much on my bed for the first two years of this. You know, we did all kinds of things from a pharmaceutical perspective, from a diet perspective, I was seeing all kinds of specialists. I was seeing, you know, things I would have never considered like, you know, energy healers and acupuncturists and all kinds of non-traditional approaches.

Jeremy Knauff (09:13):

And throughout the beginning of this, it was incredibly frustrating because the doctors didn't know what it was. So they just dismissed it. It was, Oh, well, you're having a, you're having a panic attack. You're having an anxiety attack. Well, I knew that wasn't the case, right? Because I had this pain from basically head to toe from the skin down to the bone and it was constant. It was 24 seven. And it was a level of pain that I have never felt in my life. It was a 10 on my chart. And to put that in perspective, I took a tattoo off with a drum sander once. All right. So I have an abnormally high pain tolerance. So I've got this excruciating pain in basically every cell of my body, no doctors have any answers. There's no idea as to when it's going to end.

Jeremy Knauff (09:58):

And there was a point where I'm walking around my house, as you know, as this stuff is going on. And I didn't mention this on stage, but I have a lot of weapons in my house. A lot of firearms I'm Marine, this shouldn't surprise anybody, but I remember walking around and I would see these weapons in various rooms. And I would be feeling this incredible pain. And I knew that there was no answer. There was no idea as to when it was going to end, how it was going to be solved? And I got to a point where I actually understood how people got to a point where they chose to take their life.

Jeremy Knauff (10:39):

And it got to the point where I actually took everything, disassembled, everything tossed in a duffel bags. And I called a friend and I was like, look, I, we don't really have anything to worry about yet, but I'm just letting you know that I may ask you to come pick these up and store them at your house for a little while. Right. So I've got all these thoughts that are just like, absolutely outrageous. Like I've never had these kinds of thoughts before. And then right around that time, one of the toughest guys I've ever met, a guy I served with, his name was Todd Grant ended up taking his life.

Jeremy Knauff (11:18):

And as Terrible as that situation was, I also feel like it was a sign, right? Like I'm going through this, this happens. And I figured at that point, this is going to be, it's a sign. And we're going to find a silver lining in this situation. And where I saw from that was, this is an opportunity to help fellow veterans. I don't know if you're aware of this, but within the veteran community, we're losing 22 roughly per day to suicide. So from that point, I made it my mission to, despite going through this insane health crisis, despite being in massive pain with no idea what the hell is causing it, or when it's going to end, or if it, if we even could fix it. I'm going to get out there. I'm going to get back on top. I'm going to serve as an example to the other veterans, to the other people who are struggling. Even non-veterans everybody, people who are struggling, people who don't know what they're going to do, they don't see a solution to their problem.

Jeremy Knauff (12:22):

And, you know, I began being very vocal about the challenges I was going through. I was very vocal about what's going on, what you know, how to overcome these things. I was just completely transparent in all of this. And at the same time, I started reaching out to people who I knew were struggling, fellow veterans, as well as civilians. And it got to a point where my number was just freely passed around. And pretty much everybody knew that if somebody was struggling, they could give out my number freely to anybody. And as a result of that, I, there are several people that I've talked to. I've probably counseled hundreds of veterans over the several years that this health crisis has gone on. I remember one particular one that was really moving for me. And that was a buddy of mine from high school, reached out to me one night and he's like, Hey, we've got this guy.

Jeremy Knauff (13:20):

You know, he just got back from Iraq. He's going through all these issues. We've sent him everywhere. He's gone to all the counselors. He's gone to all the, you know, the doctors he's done everything and nothing's working. And he's like, do you mind if I give him your phone number? I was like, absolutely, have him call me. So the kid called me we were out of town visiting a friend of my wife's. And so I take the call. I go outside and I'm talking to this kid for, I don't know, probably two, three hours, get him to a point where I think he's in a good spot. Come back in the house now because of my health crisis, I've got my phone set to where at a certain time in the evening, it goes into do not disturb mode. So it's not going to ring things will still show up on the screen, but it's not going to make any noise.

Jeremy Knauff (14:06):

So, I come back in the house just a few minutes after he and I had talked and I got this little thing that dings up on the phone, no noise, just notification on the screen, it's a voicemail. So I pick it up and listen to it. Cause it was, it was him. And I'm like, well, maybe, maybe something went wrong. Maybe he's still got a problem, whatever. I listened to the voicemail and he's just sobbing uncontrollably. And he's like, I just, like, I don't know what to say. I've talked to all these counselors, nobody's had any answers. And like, I talked to you and you just, you get it. And now I'm like, I'm in a place where I see a light at the end of the tunnel and I see what's possible. And like I'm in a, such a different place than I was even before I was in the military.

Jeremy Knauff (14:45):

And he's like, you know, just thank you. And it was just such an emotional message. And that's the kind of thing that I took out of this whole experience is the silver lining here is had I not gone through this? Had I not had this pain, had this health crisis, had all this stuff happened to me, lose everything, start over and get to a point where I understood how people could take their lives. I may not have ended up on this path where I started helping other veterans and helping other people who are struggling. So that was something that I think I took out of that whole experience, just, you know, to be able to give back into the world in that way and, you know, save people who are struggling in that regard.

Jay Conner (15:28):

Wow. That's amazing. So I know you can't summarize a three hour conversation in three minutes, but what I mean? So you've council just, you know, a lot of people that have had suicidal thoughts and, you know, really, I mean, one of my best friends in the world is I mean, he actually speaks at my live events and a few years ago he took his filter off. And I mean, he had actually gotten to the point of, you know, Googling, you know, how to commit suicide. He'd actually figured out how he was gonna do it. And so he's got his story, but for people that are out there and you know, when the times are going on now, average suicide rates are just out the ceiling before, you know, as compared to historically. But what are some strategies or some therapies that you could share that maybe you have as a common thread when you're talking to people?

Jeremy Knauff (16:42):

From what perspective, as far as like somebody, for somebody who's trying to,

Jay Conner (16:47):

Yeah. Obviously you listened to them in every story is different because every person is different. But is there a way you can share, what are some ways that you get into think about to get into a better place as you?

Jeremy Knauff (17:02):

Yeah. So ultimately you have to look at the situation as an opportunity because every situation is an opportunity provided that you can allow yourself to see it that way. You know, and this was what I went through in the beginning of mine. It was like, well, why me? Why this, this is. Why should this, why should I have to deal with this? But the reality is things happen. The why doesn't really matter. It's up to us to figure out what value we can take from a situation. So what value I took from this, you know, I'm going through this particular thing. And then on top of it, a guy that I served with took his life. Well, I had to find some kind of value in that. And that was how I was able to get through this because now, I mean, think about it, what the hell happens if I decide to take my life? All these hundreds or thousands of people who have been looking up and I've got this thing, I call it the cookie jar, and this is something we'll actually touch on here shortly. Cause this is another way that can help get through these. But like, I've got various messages that I got from people over the years of, you know, how my posts have inspired them or motivated them to push through this particular challenge or that challenge or whatever. So that's a good way to do that is, is having that, what we call it cookie jar, but, had I not done this, had I not found that value in it.

Jeremy Knauff (18:22):

I would not have gone down this path. And I know I don't have the exact count in my head, but I know there's a certain number of people who would not be here today. So, let's say that I didn't, let's say that I got to a point where I took my life. What the hell is that going to show to those people? So now that that meeting is there. That's something to carry me through no matter how bad things get. So as long as we have a strong, why we're going to be able to get through anything, that's why you see, you know, the military doing things that ordinary people can't do. It's because they have a mission and it's not just the mission on paper. It's not, Hey, go kill these guys or blow that up or whatever. It's their mission is the guy to their left and their right in combat.

Jeremy Knauff (19:04):

It's their brothers and their sisters. So when we have a strong, why we have a powerful mission behind what we're doing, that allows us to go through something. And that's why people in general don't accomplish their goals because they want to do it. If it's convenient, they don't want to do it no matter what, they just want to do it when it's nice and simple. So that's, that's one aspect is having a really strong why. The second aspect is the cookie jar thing that I talked about, where you basically take things that you've overcome in your life, right? Like we've all had some pretty terrible things happen to us. So if you can go back and look at those significant challenges, those difficult times and use those as motivation. It's like, Hey, I got through this, I got through that, I got through this.

Jeremy Knauff (19:51):

Then you can use that as fuel. Well, that's just another case of this, right? So now you just, you have that, it's like, I've already done this. Let's just do it again. And the cookie jar, you can look at it in a number of ways. You can have it be something in your head. You could have it be something tangible, like the collection of messages that I've got from various people. It could be, you know, maybe you've got a what a buddy of mine in the military used to call his, I love me wall, all the awards and the recognition and the things he had accomplished. When we have this kind of thing that shows us that what we've done has prepared us for what we're going through now. And I mean, you can even purely look at that from a physical perspective, right?

Jeremy Knauff (20:32):

You know, you look at what we do in the military, or you look at what an elite athlete does, and they're not, let's say you're going to go run a three mile race. You're not going to go run three miles. Your training is going to consist of you running, you know, six, nine, maybe twelve miles. You might do a series of sprints. You might do all these different things that are larger than what you're actually trying to accomplish. So when we look back at the things that we've actually done to prepare for what we're doing in the totality, we've already overcome the thing that we're facing. We just haven't put all the pieces together to realize that.

Jay Conner (21:06):

That is wonderful. Now, you mentioned a moment ago that people you get feedback from people really being inspired and helped with your post. Where could people see your posts and, you know, the types of things that you're posting?

Jeremy Knauff (21:23):

I mean, I'm pretty active on especially on Facebook, but I'm active on most of the social media platforms. I'm not a hard guy to find considering what I do. I'm pretty public and pretty out there. So Yeah.

Jay Conner (21:36):

So Scott, let's put Jeremy's name up there. And so folks, the spelling there is, and if in case you're just listening is Jeremy, J E R E M Y. And his last name is K N A U F F as in farmer farmer. And I guess it's okay to give out your email since we've got it up there on the screen.

Jeremy Knauff (21:57):

Already out there now. It's all over the place anyway. So it's all good.

Jay Conner (22:03):

There you go. So Jeremy says it's pretty easy to find him folks if you want to start following him, I've got one curious question I have is you've talked with all these people. You've helped a lot of people that have considered taking their life. Do you think, or have you heard back and I think I know the answer to this question. Have you heard back, or do you think some of those people that you helped are now out there doing the same thing you're doing and that is helping other people with that situation?

Jeremy Knauff (22:35):

You know, that's a good question. I stay in touch with a lot of them. I don't know if anyone's doing that, but I would hope so. Right. Like, I think that that's something we all should be doing, not just this particular topic, but whatever the topic, right? Like I think we all should be putting value back into the world. And if you know that you've already struggled with the thing and overcome it, then you've got that knowledge, you've got that empathy. You can deal with it in a way that others can't. So I hope, I certainly hope they are. It's. I mean, if you've already got the background, we need to be adding value back to the world in that way. So yes, I hope they are.

Jay Conner (23:10):

Well, you know, it all comes down to serving and I mean, clearly Jeremy, you have got a servant's heart and you said it beautifully, you go through this thing, you overcame the thing and now you can help others do the same thing. I mean, in my education business, the Private Money Authority, it's the same thing I was, no, it's not the same thing. You're not the same thing. The concept is the same. I was, I mean, I've been relying on local banks to fund my deals for the first six years of investing. And this story pales in comparison to yours as far as its importance. But I was cut off from the banks. Then every way to fund my deals, I found a great way to get my deals funding with private money. And then what I started doing two years after that is just teaching other people what I know to do. So, you know, or how to fix the problem now, a mentor mindset years ago, I said, you know, Jay, if people didn't have problems, they wouldn't need us.

Jeremy Knauff (24:17):

This is very true.

Jay Conner (24:20):

And guess what? the world is your oyster because everybody's, got problems. So as we wrap up here on the show final comments Jeremy.

Jeremy Knauff (24:32):

Final comments, I just, I guess, look for ways to add value back into the world. You know, too far, far too often people look at, Hey, what can I get out of this situation or this deal, or this person or whatever. When we look at how we can make something, a win for everybody involved, it creates more value as a whole, and we all rise. So I just think more of us need to take that approach.

Jay Conner (24:57):

Excellent. So one more time folks. Jeremy's very, very easy to find all the social media and all the platforms. Again, you spell his name, J E R E M Y. Last name K N A U F F as in farmer and his company, www.jlknauff@SpartanMedia.com If you are any type of professional and you're looking to be known as the authority and expert in your space, then you definitely want to check out Jeremy and his team it's www.jlknauff@SpartanMedia.com. There you have it. Folks, another show, Real Estate Investing with Jay Conner. I'm the Private Money Authority, and I'm wishing you all the best and here's to taking your business to the next level. We'll see you on the next show.

[junker-town]

Josh Giddey is the NBA draft pick who almost slipped through the cracks

How Josh Giddey went from being cut by his Australian state team to a potential NBA draft lottery pick.

Josh Giddey knew he was down to his last chance. As he arrived at a multi-day basketball jamboree known as the East Coast Challenge, Giddey was one of 60 youth players competing from the Australian states of Victoria, New South Wales, and South Australia hoping to be selected for the prestigious state team.

State basketball is the pathway to a brighter future in the game in Australia, but it had alluded Giddey to this point. Three times he had tried out for state-level basketball, and three times he had received an email at the end of the event telling him he’d been cut. Only 16 years old and already realizing he was at a crossroads in his career, Giddey was determined not to let it happen again.

He had the benefit of a recent growth spurt this time around that taken him up to 6’8 as a point guard. The added height only accentuated the gifts that always made him stand out: his passing and playmaking, and perhaps more importantly his ability to think one step ahead of the next defensive adjustment. After shining at the camp, the anxious hours waiting to hear if he was selected turned into a quiet confidence.

“I kept promising myself I wouldn’t get cut, I wouldn’t get cut, and the last opportunity I had to make the state team I didn’t get cut,” Giddey told SB Nation. “I finally got that one email I was waiting for.”

Giddey’s life has been in overdrive ever since. After shining at a subsequent national event, he was offered a scholarship by the NBA Global Academy at the Australian Institute of Sport. Giddey moved across the country to Canberra, where he would spend the next 18 months developing his game and his body while competing against peer-aged competition around the world. The accolades he earned at the academy eventually led Giddey to become the first Australian player to be tabbed for the Next Stars program in the country’s domestic professional league, the NBL.

After one season with the Adelaide 36ers, Giddey is now on his way to the 2021 NBA Draft. The same player who couldn’t separate himself from his peers in Victoria only two years ago is now projected as a likely lottery pick.

Giddey is at once on a meteoric rise and still just scratching the surface. He’s one of the youngest players in the draft and has a case as one of the most accomplished given his production in a pro league against seasoned adults. He is still growing into his body and refining his jump shot while already possessing the type of mental processing gifts that can’t be taught. It has been a wild ride to bring him to the precipice of his NBA dreams, but Giddey isn’t the type to get overwhelmed by the moment.

“It’s just good to see the work paying off,” he said.

Photo by Kelly Barnes/Getty Images

Marty Clarke remembers the first time he identified Giddey as a future prospect to watch during his days as a college assistant coach at WCC power Saint Mary’s. A fellow Australian, Clarke was a former teammate of Josh’s dad, Warrick, who enjoyed a long professional career with the NBL’s Melbourne Tigers and had his No. 6 retired by the club. He saw the traits that could eventually make the young guard the type of player Saint Mary’s would one day want to target, but he knew it was going to be a while before they could do so. Giddey was only 12 years old.

“When I first went to St. Mary’s in 2013, I said coach (Randy) Bennett, there’s a kid I want to put on the board but it will be like seven years before we can get him,” Clarke recalls. “He can really pass with his weak hand. He can pass full court, off the dribble, or from penetration. He was kind of doing a lot of that stuff as a 12-14 year old. Now he’s a 6’8 person who can do that.”

Clarke would eventually get his chance to help develop Giddey in a way neither could have anticipated. When the NBA partnered with the Australian Institute of Sport and Basketball Australia’s Centre of Excellence in 2017 to launch the NBA Global Academy, Clarke left Saint Mary’s to take a job as its technical director. Clarke was the perfect candidate as someone who previously had experience as a coach at the Australian Institute of Sport, and now had familiarity with American college basketball.

The same place that had produced almost every Australian player to reach the NBA — Andrew Bogut, Matthew Dellavedova, Dante Exum, Joe Ingles, Luc Longley, Aron Baynes, and Patty Mills among them — was now further investing in its connection to the league. Clarke would oversee all aspects of player development and coaching for the 12 high school-aged players who were offered a scholarship to the academy.

“We have a really good blue print,” Clarke said. “The Australian academy has been here for 40 years. This is what this place has always been doing, producing Olympians and future NBA players.”

The NBA launched academies in India, Senegal, Mexico, China over the last 10 years as a year-round development initiative for elite youth prospects. Australia’s Global Academy takes teenagers from around the world. In its partnership with the AIS, players with the Global Academy live in dorms and attend classes while preparing them for life as a professional athlete. Instead of trying to win as many games as possible and compete for championships like a college team, the main goal of the academy is individual development.

The players at the Global Academy go to school and training six days per week with only Sundays off. In a typical week, players will be put through regular full team practices, as well as smaller group sessions that focus on things like connecting the bigs to the smalls by drilling pick-and-rolls and post entries. There’s shooting and skill training every morning before school, as well as weight lifting three times per week, and mindfulness training. Spliced in with all of that is education on nutrition, physiology, and personal learning like financial literacy and social media courses.

“Our goal here is when they leave here, they have lots of options,” Clarke said. “We make sure they’re eligible for universities. We want to make sure every door is open when they leave.”

The Global Academy also plays games against peer-aged teams, and that’s where Giddey continued to raise his profile. Giddey would lead the academy to the championship at the prestigious Torneo Junior Ciutat de L’Hospitalet tournament in Spain and was named MVP of the event. He followed it up with a strong showing at Basketball Without Borders during All-Star Weekend last year in Chicago.

“His development since he got here has been off the charts,” Clarke said. “Because he missed that state-level development, he skipped up to another level and had a lot to learn. He jumped a stage, really.”

Giddey’s time at the academy had given him multiple avenues to explore on what he should do next. That’s when he faced the next flashpoint decision in his burgeoning young career: Was he better off going to college in America or staying home to play in Australia?

Photo by Kelly Defina/Getty Images

Giddey had a long list of American college basketball programs who wanted him. He had standing scholarship offers from Arizona, Colorado, Rutgers, St. John’s, and more. After one college visit in particular, Giddey felt like he was ready to commit.

“I was 99 percent set on college,” Giddey said. “I took a visit to Colorado sometime in 2020, when I left there after my two-day visit, I was ready to commit there. I was about to commit there but my parents said just wait to we get home and we’ll talk about it.

“So I went home and we started talking to some people and they started talking about the NBL Next Star pathway. I met with Jeremy Loeliger, who is the CEO of the NBL, and they really sold it to me. The way they take care of their kids, the opportunity you’ll get to play against grown men at such a young age, I thought that was better for me personally than going to college to play against other kids.”

On April 16, 2020, at just 17 years old, Giddey signed with the Adelaide 36ers of the NBL. He had become the first Australian to take advantage of the league’s ‘Next Stars’ program, which was originally intended to lure top American prospects who didn’t want to play college basketball. Former McDonald’s All-Americans Terrance Ferguson and Brian Bowen were two of the first signees of the program, but it was a decision by LaMelo Ball and R.J. Hampton to sign in Australia that helped convince Giddey it was the best path for him.

“They surprised everyone with how good they were, especially LaMelo,” said Giddey. “It was good to see because it was something I wanted to do. I wanted to be an NBL player and eventually an NBA player. To see those guys come through gave me the confidence to think I could hopefully do something similar.”

Going from youth tournaments against peer-aged competition to playing against grown men was an enormous adjustment. Giddey struggled with it at first. The ambitious passes that defined his time at the youth level were often becoming turnovers in more meaningful games. He was ice cold as a shooter to start the year, hitting just 2-of-20 shots from three-point range over his first seven games. The biggest issue was playing through contact on both ends of the floor.

“I was struggling with the physicality of the league,” Giddey said of the start to his time in the NBL. “You don’t realize how physical the league is until you actually play against guys that are 35 years old and strong, athletic, and quick. It was just a completely different level to junior basketball. I was playing at a fast pace the whole time. I was rushed, I was nervous.”

He points to his second game as his initial breakthrough, when he finished with 16 points, 11 rebounds, and seven assists against South East Melbourne, and was trusted to take the final shot in regulation. Even though he missed, the 36ers would win in overtime, and Giddey started every game the rest of the season.

Giddey was masterful at times as a facilitator, firing passes to open shooters in the corner with either hand and finding unique angles to get the ball to the big man near the basket. Starting center Daniel Johnson had one of the best seasons of his career at age-33 with Giddey at the controls, and fellow teammate (and former Kentucky big man) Isaac Humphries turned into a dependable scorer, as well. Giddey’s three-point shot also started to come around eventually, hitting 36.7 percent of his shots from deep those first 20 attempts.

“The big thing for me early in the year was I was so down on confidence,” Giddey said. “I was so worried if I missed what people were going to say, what scouts were going to think. There was a point where I spoke to one of my teammates and he told me all of this doesn’t matter. Just shoot every shot like you think you’re going to make it. That was when it switched for me.”

Before season’s end, Giddey had run off three triple-doubles over a four-game stretch and had firmly established himself as a first round NBA draft pick. Given his age and the level of competition, Giddey was remarkably productive: he averaged 10.9 points, 7.4 rebounds, and a league-leading 7.5 assists per game on 51 percent true shooting.

Those numbers stack up reasonably well to what Ball did in the same league a year earlier as 6’8 playmaking guard at 18 years old. Ball scored more, but slightly less efficiently (47.9 true shooting) while their rebound, assist, and steal numbers were similar. It is worth noting that while Ball was often deemed reckless as a lead decision-maker, Giddey’s turnover rate was significantly highly at 23.7 vs. Ball’s 12.4.

Giddey isn’t as flexible and shifty as a ball handler as LaMelo, but the baseline similarities and statistical profiles in the same league, at the same age will be tempting for teams, especially following Ball’s run to Rookie of the Year after being the No. 3 pick in the 2020 NBA Draft.

“To see how (Ball’s) game translated to the NBA, it’s made me feel even better about my decision,” Giddey said.

The appeal of Giddey for NBA teams starts with his intersection of size and passing. Giddey is an impressive facilitator off a live dribble who will fire passes with either hand while on the move. Against a set defense, Giddey is able to make quick decisions with the ball, and loves to zip a two-handed, overhead pass to his big man in the paint. His interior passing is particularly impressive thanks in part to his ability to leverage his length to find creative angles in tight spaces. The big question for his offensive game will be if he can make opposing defenses respect him enough as a scoring threat to fully unlock his playmaking gifts.

There will be serious questions about Giddey’s athleticism and strength, particularly if he has enough standstill burst to beat his man and force the opposing defense into rotation. Even if Giddey can’t put enough pressure on the rim to be a primary creator, he should be custom-made as a ‘connecting’ piece who can be a secondary facilitator and floor spacer as his jump shot comes around. In Clarke’s eyes, it’s Giddey’s overarching feel for the game that will help him overcome the challenges he sees at the next level.

“He’ll often have quiet first quarters or first halves, and then he’ll have monster second halves,” Clarke said. “He can figure things out on the run, and that’s a skill a lot of players don’t have. He can fix things in game.

“It’s not just feel for the game, it’s feel for the opposition and what they’re trying to do to you. A lot of people have feel for the game when the game is mundane and vanilla. He has feel for the game when it’s chaos going on. He can figure things really quickly.”

As the NBA moves into the pre-draft process, Giddey is widely projected to be taken in the lottery. We had Giddey going No. 14 overall to the Golden State Warriors in our mock draft, while ESPN has him going No. 10 overall to the New Orleans Pelicans.

Giddey’s entrance into the league is also an achievement for the academies the NBA invested in around the world. He’ll be the first male athlete to be drafted into the league after being a full-time academy student. Clarke sees Giddey as the type of player the Australian Institute always dreamed about developing.

“He’s kind of the guy we thought of 30 years ago when we started the program,” said Clarke. “Imagine if we had a whole team of 6’8 guys who are multi-dimensional and can pass, dribble, and shoot, defend multiple positions. We’ll stick one big guy in the middle with four guys like that. Josh is kind of exactly that.

“Coaches always ponder what the future is going to be. I think Josh is what we thought about when I first came here 25 years ago.”

If Giddey embodies the dream of what the AIS always hoped to produce, he also came dangerously close to slipping through the cracks. In the course of just over two years, he has gone from a player who couldn’t make it out of his home state to a possible top-10 NBA draft pick. For a player on such a rapid rise, the next question is the most exciting: how much room to Giddey have to grow from here?

[leadpaintrose]

My Coworker Thinks I’m a Vampire

He’s getting clumsy. I’m so close now. At first, it was a fun little conspiracy theory, just the thing to occupy those long hours writing the same report over and over again. But it started to be a little too convincing, and…Well, I had to know.

I’d never been much for legends and myths and stuff, but everyone knows about vampires, right? No sun, pale, no food besides blood, sinister. Jeremy’s a nice guy sure, not really the smooth charmer you’d expect of a vampire, but he just seems off. Weird. But for the wrong reasons. Cold hands, black hair, his eyes even glow red sometimes when he doesn’t think anyone notices him.

He always comes into the office at odd hours, in the office ages before anyone else in the office, and staying super late. The only work events I’ve ever seen him at are held at night or inside a conference centre - which he always arrives at early or late.

Besides, who doesn’t like garlic bread?! Unthinkable. The perfect bread. No-one flat out hates it. It’s literally the best part of this company. But also the weirdest. Why is there always garlic bread in the kitchen? Maybe I’m not the only one hunting.

I’m going to get in early this morning. Catch him before anyone else is around to cause a problem. Or for me to cause a problem for them. I know I can’t get there before him, but I’m going to show him I know. Maybe there’s some unwritten rule that says he has to help me.

——————————————————

I’m getting clumsy. She’s getting close. I’m not supposed to be encouraging this kind of investigation, but They haven’t been in charge for a long time. It was fun to start with. She really had worked out so much, building evidence that the average person would not connect together. Besides, there are reasonable explanations for everything she noticed.

Except garlic bread. That shit is incredible. I used to be able to claim gluten intolerance, but now they even make it with gluten-free bread. Honestly, I’m glad I get to live to see this future. Even if I can’t enjoy the best thing they’ve managed to come up with.

“Hey!” Shit. It’s still dark outside. What the hell is she doing here so early in the morning? No one likes working in this company enough to want to come in early.

But here she is. Bright and early, even before the sun. And she’s got that familiar look in her eyes - scared, determined, and excited. Shit. ——————————————————

“Hey. What’s up? Awfully early for you.” Jeremy joked, but Julie could see the tension in his eyes. She took a breath and squared her shoulders. The sky was starting to lighten, and he shifted slightly back towards the centre of the office, away from the large window at his side.

“I know what you are.”

His eye visibly twitched in clear irritation. “Look, I know you’ve got this weird obsession with vampires, but using that line is really dumb.”

She winced but continued undaunted. “Look, you can pretend as much as you want, but it’s pretty dumb of you to keep pretending when it’s really obvious.” She held up a hand, counting points off on her fingers.

“You are always in the office before the sun comes up, and don’t leave until the sun goes down. You try to avoid jobs that require going to client meetings outside the office, and the few times I’ve seen you leave the office in the middle of the day, you’re bundled up like it’s snowing. And you never come to any work functions that occur during the day.”

He held up a hand of his own, forestalling further arguments.

“Look, I’m trying to be nice, but it’s not any of your business how I do my work. Frankly, it’s easier to focus in an office without everyone else yammering on the phone or to each other. And, don’t get me wrong, our colleagues are fine people, but I’d rather not spend my free time with them.”

Julie raised an eyebrow at him. “I know you fought for a private office, which always has it’s blinds drawn, and somehow managed to convince the Directors to allow you the privacy they don’t even get. You won’t even sit on the balcony for lunch when it’s sunny, but you’ll happily sit out there when the sun’s on the other side of the building.” He stared to speak, but she leaned in further. “I’ve noticed.”

The silence stretched between them as his eyes darted back and forth. Just as her confidence was starting to wane, he sighed.

“I should have just claimed a damn light sensitivity.” He muttered. She furrowed her brow, smoothing it quickly as his eyes met hers.

“So, you’re going to kill me?” he asked bluntly.

She sat down heavily in shock, finding a chair behind her, and a noticing a brief flicker of his body, as if he’d suddenly moved very quickly. She didn’t notice that there hadn’t been a chair there when she started talking.

“No! Of course not! Why would I do that?! I don’t even know how’d I’d begin to do that!”

“Then what do you want?”

“I want you to take me to The Crypt.”

He stared at her for a solid 30 seconds, looking for any sign of a joke in her serious face.

“The Crypt.” Jeremy said, incredulous.

She shifted awkwardly. “Yeah. It just seems so cool! A whole nightclub just for vampires?! That’s gotta be the fanciest place in the city.”

He just kept staring at her, and she pulled up a chair, sitting down across from him.

“But, seriously, what’s with the name? The Crypt? It’s like an edgy fourteen-year-old named it.”

It was his turn to be awkward. “Hey, it was named millennia ago! It was creative and inventive then.” “Sure. Whatever. Just...just take me there, ok? Do that and I’ll just let you be.”

He stood up, walking over to the window to close the blinds against the newly rising sun. He spoke over his shoulder to her.

“That’s it?! You just want to go to The Crypt, and you’re done?! Centuries, and that’s the weirdest request I’ve ever heard. But, uh, well. You know what kind of club this is. Aren’t you a little concerned about what might happen?”

Julie looked down at her hands, embarrassed. “Look, I... That’s why I want to go with you. You can vouch for me, right? Protect me?”

He sighed heavily. “You know what, Sure. Hang late with me at work on Friday, and I’ll take you down there.” Footsteps in the corridor outside startled both of them, and she jumped up and was out of the room before he could say anything. She stuck her head back in and winked exaggeratedly at him. “Friday. Late. The Crypt.”

She disappeared, grinning, and he slowly turned back to his desk, smiling to himself.

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

She popped into his office, Friday night finally having come. He swung around to look at her, and shook his head before pinching the bridge of his nose.

“What are you wearing?” He asked wearily.

She plucked at the red and black corset, and the long black skirt, checking her thigh high black boots for any marks. “What? I just wanted fit in.”

He sighed loudly, and stood up, walking past her, and gesturing when she didn’t immediately follow. They made their way out onto the street, alive with artificial lights and a mix of tired and energized people. She expected him to call a taxi, but he started off along the road at a quick pace. She struggled in unfamiliar heels to catch up with him.

“So, where exactly is this place? She asked a little breathlessly. He didn’t respond, just continuing to stride purposefully down the road.

Fifteen exhausting minutes later, conscious of a blister forming on her heel, Julie almost ran into Jeremy as he stopped before an unassuming office building.

“This is it?” she asked, disappointed.

"What were you expecting? Gothic gates and sconce lanterns?” Jeremy scoffed, pushing open the door, leaving her to follow, whispering an embarrassed “no” as she slid in behind him.

The interior was just a regular office lobby, and he confidently walked to the lifts at the back wall. Pulling a small piece of plastic out of his jeans pocket, he flashed it over the touch screen and selected a floor. As the two made their way into the now open lift, she shot him a glance.

“A swipe card?”

He looked affronted. “We have modernized a little.”

“But it’s still called The Crypt?” she muttered under her breath.

The doors slid open, and she managed a few steps before gaping in delighted shock. It was exactly what she was hoping for. Dark mahogany furniture, inlaid with brass detailing, rested on a polished wooden floor. Through the dim candle light, she saw glimpses of raised platforms, trimmed in plush crimson carpet. The air felt thick and dramatic, and soft music filtered through the crowd of gorgeous strangers.

He placed a hand on her back, steering her forward towards the bar. They managed to get just a few steps in before she found a new arm around her shoulders.

“Oh, darling, what morsel did you bring me this time?” He rolled his eyes. “Hi Adrienne. Looking thirsty tonight.”

Adrienne sighed dramatically. “You’re so cruel to me, gorgeous. You can’t keep this one from me. What are you here for, darling?” she asked Julie. Julie turned to look up into the winged eyes of a stunning, tall, dark-haired woman, dripping in silver jewelry and poured into a midnight blue dress. She stuttered out a response.

“Oh, I, I just wanted...I just wanted to see what is was all like.” Jeremy pushed Adrienne’s arm off Julie’s shoulder. “She’s just here to have a look around, have one drink, and then head off.”

“Nonsense!” Adrienne declared, glaring and grinning directly at Jeremy as she slipped her arm around Julie’s waist, and started to pull her off into the gloom. “Don’t worry, Jeremy, sugar, I’ll look after our little lamb. Show her around. Introduce her to a few people. Thanks, darling!” She called over her shoulder.

Julie looked back at Jeremy, shooting him a smug and self-satisfied look. Her face dropped as she saw his irritated look melt into a confident hunger, crossing his arms and leaning back comfortably. As she saw his fangs gleaming in the dim light, she frantically pushed at Adrienne’s arm, struggling to free herself. Jeremy watched her fade into the darkness, being drawn inexorably onwards by the vampiric strength of Adrienne, her shrieks swallowed by the mass of people around her.

——————————————————

It’s been a week, and the office is still talking about Julie’s weird resignation. She seemed to really enjoy her work, but everyone knew someone that seemed ok on the surface, and just suddenly quit. The email resignation was certainly weird, but it was perfectly formal, which had been very Julie.

A couple of people have asked me if I knew anything about her, as they knew I had left the office at the same time as her on that last Friday, but it hadn’t taken much to convince everyone that I had left her at the doors.

I have been making an effort to go to more events – properly shielded, of course. But, well, I feel so much stronger with a fresh supply. All the nutrients a body could want. Or, at least, that a busybody can produce

[macbookpro-hard-drive]

control [jeremy h. x squipped!reader] pt.7

wow it took 30 years didnt it. i did it, fuckers. please give me attention-

anyway, heres the final part :) do i know how to proofread? no. thats it thats all i was gonna say, i just dont know how to proofread.

warnings: uhhh none i dont think

                                                            -

              In the middle of August, the Ninja Sex Party dropped their newest album “Cool Patrol” and the two of you were in love. You were in Jeremy’s room, lying on his bed beside him sharing headphones as the album played, and it all felt so teenage rom-com that Jeremy was half-distracted the entire time by you and lost different lyrics because of that. “Orgy for One” played and you nudged Jeremy before mouthing “you” to him with a playful look in your eyes and a smile that set his heart racing. He laughed, and nudged you back just as playful before the beginning to “Danny Don’t You Know” brought the two of you back into reality. He was emotional, and so were you, and there was something about sharing an emotion with someone that was intimate enough to make his heart skip a beat. 

             Your phone buzzed after a while, and you sat up, pulling an earbud out. “Fuck, Jeremy-” You stood up quickly, scrambling to get your things together, “-my cousins were coming over to do that picture thing since we didn’t get a chance before - I gotta go, alright? I’ll text you in a bit.”

             He wouldn’t remember what he said to you, or the dumb joke you made as you were leaving his room. He would remember how the minute you left, he added “Heart Boner” onto your playlist with a devious little smile as if he were getting away with something. Just a little joke between friends. After all - you had that little moment together, how could he not not? 

                                                            -

             An hour after you left, Michael showed up with a plastic bag filled with Chinese takeout for three - eyes widening when he saw your absence. His smile fell as he looked towards the bag in his hand, frowning slightly as he began to delve into his thoughts. For what felt like minutes, the two boys just sat there in silence as Michael finally untied the bag to pass his friend his portion of their meal, frustration evident in the way he furrowed his brow and refused to look him in the eye.

             “They had a family thing,” Jeremy said. “Didn’t [y/n] text you?”

             “No,” Michael said, “they did not. I said I was coming with food and-”

             “It’s tradition,” Jeremy countered. “Y’know? It’s that little... sign-picture-thing. Some sort of family tradition their parents started when they were little.”

             Michael rolled his eyes at the sappy expression crossing his best friend’s face as he placed what had been your meal on the dresser, before collapsing back onto his bed - tilting his head back to maintain eye contact. “That’s cute and all, but what do I do with their orange chicken?”

             He shrugged, turning back to his computer to close out Spotify. “I dunno - we can go by their house later and see if they want it.”

             He heard his comforter shift and assumed that Michael rolled over onto his stomach. “But I have egg rolls for them,” he whined, voice muffled slightly by what Jeremy could only guess was Michael laying his face in his hands.

             A quick booting down of his computer. He shrugged again, chewing the inside of his cheek. “Just don’t eat them?”

             The moment of silence could have killed a man. “Jeremiah.”

             He spun to face him. “Michael.”

             They maintained eye contact for a moment, before Michael shifted so that he was now sitting up - pulling the plastic bag closer to him. “So did you two fuck yet?”

             A thousand broken words slipped past his lips as Jeremy struggled to say something - a question, a swear, something that didn’t make him look stupid. “Why would you ask that!?” he tried to ignore the way his voice raised an octave.

             Meanwhile, Michael seemed to have no problem with disregarding his panic. “So you haven’t.”

             “Uh. No? We’re just friends?”

             “You sure?” Michael asked, not even giving him the chance to answer as he looked away. “I don’t know, dude, you’ve been pining for a fuckin’ while now. Why don’t you just ask them out?”

             “I don’t like-” he paused, before shaking his head. If Michael knew, then he knew - there really wasn’t any point in denying it any further. “I don’t know, I like Christine still-”

             “You can like more than one person at a time, Jeremiah.”

             “I know, but...” “I don’t even know if they like me still.”

             “Dude. Bro. Homie. Broseidon. Buddy. They wanna fuck.”

             “Michael!” 

             “They’re at least interested in you,” he said with a mere shrug of indifference, “do you just not see how they look at you?”

             “I don’t-” Jeremy started, and then he stopped, the words he wanted to say sticky and catching in his throat like honey. “I don’t think-” He paused, shutting his eyes, “Michael, I don’t know why they’d still be into me. Like... they did the whole...” He tapped at his temple, “thing because of me.” He hesitated. That wasn’t entirely true, was it? “Or... they did it slightly because of me. I just - I don’t think they’d, uh, y’know... want anything to do with me like that.” 

             There was understanding in Michael’s eyes, lit up before he looked away to the carton in his hand. He dug through it with chopsticks, letting out a sigh, “Dude, I get that, but... they like you, dumbass.”

             Jeremy laughed it off. “Yeah, sure.”

             “I mean it!” Michael countered, before dropping the topic, “I’m gonna eat your food if you don’t.”

             “What-” Jeremy popped open his order, “fine, okay - but this conversation isn’t over, Michael.” 

             “Mhm. You’ll accept it later.”

             “That’s not what I meant!”

             “You really suck at hiding your feelings, y’know?”

             “Michael!”

                                                            -

             Two weeks later, and Jeremy wasn’t sure how to feel. 

             There were strings of these little... moments between the two of you. He realized how much time he was spending over at your house after Michael teased him over it, how often the two of you studied together and how flustered he’d get when you were close to him, how many times he found himself grabbing your favorite candy from gas stations just to make you smile. One Sunday night, he was sitting at the end of your bed with a pillow hugged to his chest, spending another night at your house while Michael was off spending time with his family (not that Jeremy wouldn’t have been there otherwise - he stayed over every now and then just because he wanted to. Movie nights were good. Dinner was good. Being around you was good). You sat at your desk, legs crossed awkwardly in your chair in a position that looked uncomfortable to him but you showed no signs of discomfort as you continued to draw. The two of you had been talking, and Jeremy had just sat there fascinated with watching you draw after years of not recognizing your progress.

             A question hit the air, heavy and loaded. “Would you have taken it?” You didn’t move to face him, the soft sound of your tablet pen tapping back against the surface as you scroll out and fumble giving away any nerves. “The... the SQUIP,” you went to clarify.

             But he understood, and he spoke quick: “no.” He shifted slightly, holding the pillow closer to himself, “not after what it did to you.”

             “But if you hadn’t known,” you said, pausing for a moment to gather your thoughts, “if... if it had been you, would you have done it?”

             “I mean... I don’t think-”

             “You can say yes, Jeremy,” you finally looked back at him. “I’m not gonna be mad or anything.”

             His shoulders slumped slightly, a bit relieved of the thought. “Okay, then... yeah. I mean, yeah - who wouldn’t?”

             You turned back to your work. “Yeah. Yeah, right? It sounds good. Like... you have a pill that’ll solve everything and tell you the right moves to make... who wouldn’t want that?”

             That’s when Jeremy realized you’d been doubting yourself. Blaming yourself for saying yes. “I think a lot of people would have taken it.” 

             “Yeah... I think so, too.” You stopped drawing after a moment, turning around fully to face him, “can I confess something?”

             He nodded slowly. “Oh. Uh. Yeah, sure?”

             “I don’t keep the Mountain Dew Red because I’m scared it’ll come back and destroy everything and leave me fucked,” you said in a rush of words, shutting your eyes for a moment. “Sorry. I just needed to get it off my chest but... I think it’s better this way.”

             “Hey, no,” Jeremy reached out, fingers brushing over your shoulder. “Michael and I would find more.” 

             You fumbled with your pen, it falling to the floor as you swore softly under your breath. Jeremy reached for it just as you did, foreheads clashing in cliche fashion as you immediately push back. A moment later, he offered your tablet pen back to you.

             He spoke after you took it. “Hey, uh, c’mere for a minute.”

             So you dropped your pen onto your desk and pulled your chair over to the bed. Uncharacteristically calm and soft, he took one of your hands in a motion less Jeremy and more... you... you weren’t sure. It wasn’t entirely Jeremy, that much was confirmed.

             “There was this stuff that mom used to way when I was a kid,” he said quietly, dragging his thumb over your knuckles. “It was this whole...thing about how the ‘loudest voice has to be yours’ when you’re doubting yourself and shit - I don’t know, it just kinda stuck with me and... I’m glad I’ve gotten to know you, because you’re... different? Like - you keep going, and, uh, you’re a big nerd who laughs at my stupid jokes and... I’m glad you’re you, I guess?” 

             You cracked a small smile as you pulled back from him. Before he can question whether he crossed a line, you answer, “I’m saving this. I can’t focus on art with your sappy ass saying shit like that.” You stood, tucking your chair under your desk as you sat on your bed. “Fuckin’ sweet dork,” you mumbled as you pulled Jeremy into a hug.

             He stiffened up for a moment, only to wrap his arms around you after a moment. He smiled into your shoulder, saying a muffled “Shut up” into it as you giggled.

             You pulled away with a smile. “Why don’t you make me, Jeremy?”

             One of his biggest regrets was not asking to kiss you right then and there.

                                                           -

            Days later, you were in his room for once, sitting on his bed beside him. You were tired, far more than he was, looking at math problems that were blurry to you as you stifled back another yawn. Jeremy had stretched out, awkwardly leaning against his headboard as he tried to stay away until you finally resigned for the night - shutting your notebook and tossing it towards your backpack with a noisy clamor. You leaned against him, mumbling words long forgotten into his shoulder - likely about hating numbers - only to whine when he sat forward a moment later. Soon enough, he returned to be your pillow once more, laughing softly as you curled into his side contently and making some joke about how you only wanted him around for this reason.

            “Nope,” you had hummed, “too bony. Bad pillow.” 

            He snorted a little, reaching up to tuck back a strand of hair out of place. “You seem happy.”

            “I am,” you hummed. “Since it’s you.”

            He reached up, gently tugging you closer to him in order to worm an arm around you. “You’re tired.”

            “Mhm.”

            “Sorry I kept you up.”

            “That’s okay,” you mumbled into his shoulder, shifting slightly to be closer to him. “Math is stupid.”

            “It’s not stupid,” he countered, “you just aren’t good at it.”

            “Thus making it stupid, Jeremiah.”

            Eventually, you went quiet. At first, Jeremy thought you’d fallen asleep, but you sat forward slightly, looking up at him and it was almost like there had been magnetism between you. You had leaned forward, and he gently reached up to guide your face to his, and the two of you kissed for a soft, quiet moment. Soon enough, you had drawn away and cuddled back up to him. He wasn’t sure if he fell asleep first, but he remembered how warm you felt against him and he remembered feeling nothing but warmth in his chest as he eventually dozed off.

            There were a few things that hit Jeremy when he woke up. The pain in his back from falling asleep half-sitting against the headboard of his bed, the weight on him that confused him for a moment for a millisecond before he felt your hot breath tickling his skin, face buried in his neck. Then the memory of the night before - of a clumsy kiss he’d been craving for so long, and the way you kissed back and maybe that was his imagination? He wasn’t sure, but the thought was enough to nearly make him jolt - but you were enough to keep him as still as he could be. He looked at how peaceful you looked, and he felt his heart swell at just how warm you were against him and the memory of your lips haunted him as he felt his skin grow hotter. If remembering kissing you was enough to make him completely flustered, anything more would probably kill him.

            Eventually, you woke up, groggy and sleep-ridden still at first as you sat forward and rubbed at your face. “Jeremy, I hate to break it to you-” You paused, yawning, “-but you aren’t a great pillow.”

            He chuckled at that, sitting forward. “Hey, uh... sorry to, uh, ask, but, uh, do... do you remember anything about last night...?”

            You stared at him, uncertain at first before you thought back on what had happened. You threw your notebook at your bag. And then... It came back to you, striking you hard and fast. “Oh.”

            “I- I’m sorry,” he stammered, “I just - I was tired and I wasn’t thinking and I shouldn’t have...” 

            And he slowly trailed off when he saw the way you were looking at him, voice caught in his throat as your gaze flickered from his eyes to his lips and then back. He heard you whisper something - “fuck it,” he was pretty sure - before you started going in for another kiss - and he leaned forward to meet you halfway, a hand sliding into your hair as you grow closer to him. The night before had been gentle, sleep-ridden and warm - and now the two of you are awake and clumsy and so wonderfully alive during this messy kiss. His teeth had clashed against yours, your forehead bumped against his, but you correct. A little less force, a little more gentleness, a changing of an angle - the tiny ways to make things better and less awkward.

            In a bold move you definitely didn’t expect, Jeremy’s hand falls to your hips, pulling you closer to him by your belt loops (a cruel reminder that you were asleep in jeans). His kisses grew slightly more frantic, more hungry, more needy - the tiniest little whimper slipping past his lips once you finally pull yourself back, breathing softly as you stared at him. His hand slipped back to your jaw, thumb grazing your jawline slowly and gentle.

            “Jeremy?” you whispered, staring at him, “wait, you-”

            “I... I know we were gonna try to be friends, but... I think I like you.”

            You stared at him, flustered as he tore his gaze away from yours - a pretty rosy hue decorating his skin, blotchy and creeping up his neck to the tips of his ears. 

            “I, uh, I mean, I didn’t... I never planned on, uh... I just - I don’t - I, uh, I think you’re... a big nerd. You... you laugh with me and you, uh, you care about things - and you... you remember things about me - and, uh, other people do but... you’re just... you’re different.” He trailed a thumb across your skin. “You... feel like home. Even, uh, even if this... doesn’t really go anywhere, I - I’m glad that I know you and- I understand if you don’t, uh, don’t actually want this to go anywhere but-”

            And you laughed. At first his stomach dropped, anxiety taking over as he grew nervous over the thought of you rejecting him - but something about the way you laughed made his heart flutter, one hand steadying yourself on his shoulder while the other hid your face.

            “I... I don’t really know how to explain it better, but... can I, uh, can I kiss you again?”

            And you laughed again, reaching up to brush back hair from his face. “Yes, Jeremy. You can kiss me again.”

[sinnerburrito]

Jeremy's Companion Dialogue

It could have more stuff but i think it's big enough already.

- Can you tell me about yourself?

If you are up to listen the three hour long narrative of how I bravely explore the wasteland, sure why not?

I'm a courier, just like you, minus the whole "shot in the head" ordeal, used to be a prostitute too, a very good one, now I just deliver packages, read fortunes, steal, ya know, the usual.

- Fortunes?

Call it what you want, magic, lucky, madness. I know and see things... sometimes.

- And what do you see? (Answer differs based on karma/ affiliation)

You're a odd one, the cards you have is always shifting, but right now I see ...

Independent: a bright light smiles to you, thousands of wheels will guide you to freedom out a hill. The Bull don't know what's under its roves.

Legion: Blood paint the crosses, be careful with the fox, 83 is a large number and the man in gold will be not be followed.

NCR: Old laws of the old world has no place here, Shady, Sands, everything is corrupted. To others live some has to die.

MR. House: An delayed delivery, seven went and six came back, are you ready to bet all your caps in a platinum dream?

- Uh... Prostitute?

Look we all did things we are not proud of. It kept me alive and I'm thankful for that, but I'm out of this business.

-(Confirmed Bachelor) Maybe I can change your mind?

Maybe. But i think it would cost you 100 caps to try.

- Nice Tattoo.

Hey thanks. Is a family thing. And it actually goes around my body so if you're nice, I might show you one day.

-What's your thoughts on the Legion?

You're really asking me that? For real?

Okay I'll let that pass cause you got shot in the head but I'm a tribal and then a Legion slave some years ago. What the fuck you think it's my opinion.

-You don't look like a tribal.

Can't blame you. I only dance wearing my feathered headdress with paint in my body in very special occasions.

-Whats your thoughts on the BoS?

Same as the Legion, but not that bad.

I say i wouldn't beat the living shit of a Brotherhood member if they stood in a 1km radius near me.

- What's your thoughts on the White Glove Society?

They have quiet a....refined taste. Just stay away from them, trust me, better not try our luck to see if the rumors are true.

I know them seem polite but don't get fooled, I'm a fool myself and even I can can see what's up.

-What's your thoughts on the Omertas?

Oh, I'm going to be honest with you, they have a special place on my heart, there's not a single day I don't think about them what they did and keep doing.

I don't think they're a suitable sacrifice but this won't stop me to throwing every and single one of them into The Pit.

- Looks like you have something personal against them.

Is that obvious? Well, I do, and no, I won't elaborate.

- What's your thoughts on Mr. House?

Dude's a mineral and somehow still kicking everyone in the guts.

He's not so different from the Brotherhood. He only has more power.

- What's your thoughts on The Followers of the Apocalypse?

I'm on the fence about them. They're good but also not, kinda hypocritical if you want me to be honest, I think they sometimes act like everyone else is just poor lost stupid souls.

And for an anarchist group they depends an awfully lot on the NCR.

But you see, I have a talent to break bones, mine specifically, I don't know where I would be without their help. Probably alone in a shallow grave.

Oh fuck, sorry.

- What do you know about Benny?

The guys at The Tops? Head of the Chairman ? Checked train wreck?

A whole fucking lot.

If I could write it would be a hell of a book. He's an asshole as much he's ambitious.A compulsive backstabber too beautiful for his own good.

Don't underestimate him, if he have a plan for that chip of yours: Listen.

After his personal quest is completed

- So the Vipers are your family?

No No, I came out of a egg.

Yeah I guess so, I guess Ma still alive, somehow. I heard I had a sister once, ironically she didn't woke up after the Great Awakening but this was before I born.

My father....I have no idea, he was a missionary, whatever that means, i think he was sacrificed. That's all I know.

And you? Do you remember anything before the shooting?

- Yes/ No/ Just few things.

Well, maybe it's for the best, a opportunity to a fresh start.

- Let's talk about your tatics.

Constructive criticism only.

- Use a ranged weapon.

I was afraid you would say that./ Keep your distance just to be safe.

- Use a melee weapon.

No need to ask twice. / I'm already using? /Stab stab stab.

- Be agressive

Like that ever worked/ Have you noticed I'm not really an intimidating person?/ Like...angry?

- Be passive

For you? Always./ Anything for you, dear. /Oh,l I like your style.

- Wait here.

I'm not responsible for my actions from now on. / Okay I'll wait here...by myself...in this dangerous place. / Don't be long.

- let's trade equipment

These pockets are not just for Aesthetic. / If I find anything interesting I'll keep. / Be my guest.

- Overburdened

Okay, maybe it's better if my pockets just compliments my fashion sense. / Do i look like a damn Brahmin? / I knew you would break me in half but this is ridiculous.

- I would like you to go the Lucky 38.

(If his quest is not completed) The casino? At The Strip? Sorry, but I will wait for you at Freeside wandering aimlessly like a vagabond. / All those lights make me dizzy but okay / will try not steal anything there.

- Why don't go the The Strip?

Why don't you mind your own business? Sorry, it's not your fault. I just want to avoid conflict, that's all.

* In Courier's iron sight*

Do you have a death wish?/There's easier ways to get rid of me, ya know? / Of all the thing you could shove in my face, why the gun?

*Courier lays mine*

Uh...I feel like I should keep my distance./ It's a honor seeing such tatical magnificent working. / Full recovery my ass.

- It's time for us to part ways.

Awn fuck, I'm terrible with goodbyes./ I thought we had a great thing going on./ Okay, I'll go then. All by myself. In the big bad Wasteland.

*Player steals items or pickpocket*

Go, steal from the rich. / I could show you a tricky or two. / Just keep your hands off my stuff.

*Injured*

Have you seen my kidney by any chance? /Is this blood mine or yours? Nevermind. / I don't get paid enough for this.

*Crippled limb*

Quick question, bones are supposed to be inside the body, right? / It's ok, it's ok, I'm not going to cry. Not in front the mailman. / I don't think this sound is a good sign.

*Dying*

*Incomprehensible mumble* / See you in the other side. / Run...

Location

-Goodsprings

So peaceful, you can even hear the cazadores buzzing around./ Do you hear...never mind" (close to the cemitery) / Is it too much to ask to see your shallow grave?

Would you freak out if i told you never really left this grave? (By the Courier's shallow grave)

-The Strip

Can you believe a guy like *him* runs a place called The Tops?/ This place reeks of cheap cologne and bad sex. / Ugh, this lights will give me a migraine.

- Gomorrah ( unlocks completing his quest and let him in charge)

Welcome back! Thirsty? Hungry? Horny? We got you covered. / Hey if it isn't our Or Royal Highness of Vegas / Don't look in the backroom.

(If the player enter former's Clanden's secret filming room, after picking a Very Hard Lock, Claden himself will be tied up to a chair with a camera set up right before him. It's impossible to either free or kill him).

- Gomorrah / The Fort ( unlocks selling him back to The Omertas or to the Legion)

* Yawns* / Next time give me something to work with. / Already? (After the Player has sex with him in the Fort or Gomorrah)

How the hell do you still alive? / Enjoying the view, asshole? / Told you, you never left that grave.

-The Tops

Do i look presentable? / I know why we here, don't kill him, please. / I regret giving Benny that fucking gun.

- Companions

Craig Boone, why I feel a bitter taste whenever he's around?( When Boone is nearby)

Bad knees my ass, I saw him running from a cazador (when Raul is nearby)

How Grandma Lily can stand Leo? Guy's an asshole. (When Lily is nearby)

Think I have any chance? (When Arcade is nearby)

*Hums Heartaches by the Number* ( When Cass is nearby)

Don't you have to steal a child's Pib-Boy or something? (When Veronica is nearby)

[popculturebuffet]

OK KO Reviews: Back In Red Action

As you can probably tell by the fact Red Action week started 4 days ago my schedule slipped a bit, with a bunch of unexpected stuff, an expected job for a friend, and a day of laziness with the isle of armor meant I never got around to writing it. As such i’ve decided to play catchup.. all 3 reviews, HOPEFULLY all in one day. And yes 3 as I decided to cut Plaza Prom for a number of reasons: It’s not all that necessary, I was doing it more for myself, and if I find time before or after pride ends, I can easily cover it in isolation, so being done in a timely manner isn’t an issue like it is for the red action ones, or the other three pride month reviews I have planned after red action week. So witht hat dust settled let’s talk about Enid.  While I went on about Enid a LOT last time, for good reason, a LOT has happened since episode 3 as you’d probably guess, episodes I will cover in the future because enid is awesoeme. And the two episodes that built her up a bit had plaza prom as the creamy filling for that airing sandwitch, and were unsuprisingly good. But since we’re not covering them just yet Enid confronted her ex best friend and dealt with her and rad’s bumpy past, and that coupled with our previous episodes and some others have melted down her walls a bit. She’s still a bit distant, and still terrible at her job as ever, but she’s grown as a person and grown past her past. Now it’s her turn to do what K.O. has done for her, he was inttrumental in getting her to stop ignoring Elodie and confront her, for someone else. Let’s recap this.  back in red action under the cut...

We open with a normal day at the Plaza and Enid’s alone, with K.O. offscreen and Rad not in this episode so he’s not around and Gar clearly gone or else he’d be yelling at enid probably.  Enid’s checking around on her phone and after checking to see if anyone’s there, once again decides to look at Red’s social because that’s not creepy. But Enid browses it wondering why Red came here in the first place, figuring there’s probably better food, better this , better that and trips up on a picture of Red with her old girlfriend, Yellow Technique.. and yeah i’m not beating around the bush, while they never come right out and SAY IT, the episode contextualizes things as such. I Mean granted given my shipping habits on this blog, you can see i’m willing to ship plenty of kids together, and even then only in a “Awww” holding hands, maybe an awkard kiss way, and am a shipping monster who has plenty, but here i have no horse in this race, it’s just really obvious subtext. 

Anyways enough Cul De Sacs, Enid sees a new picture... Red taking a selfie with an unaware Enid.. and who probably just heard Enid’s last few sentences and at the very least dosen’t care. After a flirty “Hey Ya” and enid awkardly hiding her phone, Red buys some gum for cover then invites Enid to hang out for the afternoon then leaves.  Then KO pops up out of nowhere hilariously, and for his only scene this episode to gush about Enid’s sorta date, though Enid is paranoid it’s just a setup for some sorta joke or prank.. which given that red was willing to set a child on fire while her friend spanked him because that’s not weird at all, yeah kinda a good point, even if she’s ignoring the obvious signals that, for once, Red seems to be genuine. She WAS a bit awkward at times during asking her out, pausing or stammering, she just quickly recovered. But it also shows the downside, if breifly to red’s kind of life: If your an ass to everybody, even people who genuinely like you may worry your just messing with them. 

But when Enid goes to return the gum, she finds Red not only waiting but ninja snatching the gum.. and doing that to a NINJA takes skill. Top notch. Enid realizing this isn’t a prank holy fuck her crush really did ask her out out of nowhere, suggests a few things before Red shoots them down gently and revealz their going crusing. She also has enid turn her back and cover her ears while she summons her submarine.. using a sentai/power rangers set of poses and summon chant, as you do.  With their ride here and enid buckeled into Red’s Submarine, and Red dodging any questions Enid has about her past , you know, the oppsitie of normal first date behavior. Everyone knows your supposed to talk a lot, get them coffee, look deep in her eyes and tell her about your family, hold hands then shoot cocaine into your eyes and rock a buglarly. 

But no instead of any of that Red has something just as romantic and dangerous planned their going high into the...

Which, befiting this wonderful show, is an actual place that’s full of explosions, maurading gangs and dinosaurs.. I mean every place is full of dinosaurs but this place has extra dinosaurs. It’s like the savage land if it didn’t annoy me as a setting. So the two cruise on exotica style, though in a great bit Red keeps enid from unbuckling, and when asked about her past again Red dodges and instead takes them down thunder road, where the lightining strikes.... I.. I can’t stop waxing lyircal this review. Help.  On thunder road the two share a moment when both go up top and see how damn pretty the place is, what with all the glowing orbs, Red gets electrocuted and both look at each other lovingly at diffrent points with that faded light effect, you know the one. I”d name it jeremy but it definitely has a name. The two really bond and it’s telling that it’s those moments where things go well: Enid’s not nervously trying to ask first date questions, if not wrongfully and Red isn’t running from them. Their just two teenagers attracted to one another getting to know you getting to know all about you.. getting to know if you like me.  Anyways, enough of my nonsense that’s now clearly a medical condition, Red’s old friends show up to spoil the mood, with Red brushing them off as performance artists, and a chase insues.. and it’s really well done. I’ll get into this more in a minute. The two max max race, Enid gets into the cockpit and makes good use of it as it’s just like shooting womp rats back home. With help from red, they manage to get two of the hue troop cars to collide and the two hide behind a sign despite it telling them not to back to the future style. It’s here we get into the heart of the episode and what makes it really work for me: For most of the season, before and though not as often after this, Enid’s been standofish even to people she cares about, blunt and hard to get to open up. But the two incidents I mentoined last time that caused her to harden her heart and swallow her tears... got some closure in thos enidcentric eps. IN short Elodie returned and Enid tried to act like it didn’t bother her and Elodie throwing their relationship away like hot garbage for her own admitssion into point and then came back smug as ever, but KO once again got through to her and convinced her that she needed to face her and in a stunning action sequence, i’ll gush about it more when I review the episode eventually she whalloped her and got closure, even if Elodie was ssitll super popular. She then patched things up with rad after Cupid showed up to force her and rad on a date to deal with their sexual tension since Rad went on one with her in middle school that went terribly because rad listend to his friends and his friends are obnoxious piles of toxic masculinty who sucked and were not unsuprisngly phased out of most of season 2 aside from the one episode they were needed and only showed up in season 3 for rad to tell them off. It went poorly, Enid nearly died and Rad saved her and apologized for being a dick, taking the two from would be exes who are understandibly bitter to best friends at long last. 

So Enid’s healed some of her wounds.. sure she’s still standoffish.. but she’s finally opening up and letting the right ones in. And now it’s Red’s turn. Red has the same problem: She dosen’t hide but she does run or scream at issues, and as someone who tends to be quick to anger I totally understand that, a tendency to lash out due to some other thing bothering you even when the person did nothing wrong. But her crush, and now possible relationship with, Enid gets Red to finally stop dodging Enid’s questions and open up and we get Red, and her friends Backstory Red and Friends are The Hue Troop, a group of warriors founded by a woman who long ago found a powerful prisim that linked to the mysterious Zordon-like alien Ren-Bow, a precog who could sense oncoming disasters and thus empowered the woman and her 4 friends with attitude to  stop them. Like Minority Report meets Power Rangers but the Minioirty Report part actually works. And like civil war 2 if the leaders of both factions weren’t douchebags especially you Carol. But given the fight is eternal they pased their powers on generation after generation , and it was Red and co’s turn. But Red chafed at being part of a team, wearing uniforms, following orders from a rock, doing sily poses, which came to a boil when she accidently, truly accidently broke the Prisim and rather than face up to what she’d done, ran for it and thus ended up here, hiding from her past in the past.  It’s also revealed Enid’s one way crush on her is not one way. Red had also been stalking HER social media, like Enid too intimidated to make a move before now, though we DO have an explination for what changed things coming. She liked how unlike Red enid had her own style, moves and a disregard for authority. it also frankly explains a lot about Red.  spent her whole life probably, given we see what could be a kid version of red or red’s mom in the finale, preparing to be a hue trooper, given the whole generational thing i’m theorizing the Hue Troop we see are the kids of either the first gen hue troop or the second, the flashback also supporting this. Her whole life being what other people told her to be, following orders doing poses.. not being her own woman. So when being forced to turn fugitive meant she had to hide, it also meant she was free to do what she want, and went about it in the worst way: being rude to people and lashing out at them because she could, only spearing the girl she found cute and her two friends, who went along with the beahavior likely due to both liking red and being deeply insecure themselves as we saw last time, from her obnoxiousness. Even if it wasn’t a generational thing, I still supset the pressure of having to be part of a regimented group drained her and rather than talk about it she likely just avoided it like she tends to do.. and like ENID tends to do.. So it’s says something for Enid’s own development when she encourages Red, who also asked her out since Red figured shed idn’t have much time left, to STOP RUNNING and face her problems.. and punch them in the face.

Yellow shows up right as Red agrees, and a fight breaks out.. and a damn good one. I put a pin in this earlier, but the shows battle scenes, vechicalr and man to mand, are utterly gorgeous, well coregraphed and part of why I belive the animation style is so simplified. Besides allowing for the necessarily unique background cast, it also means that when it’s time for an action scene they can go balls out and give it everything without the episodes taking as long as say steven universe or a disney show.And it shows as even this brief fight is tense, well done and full of emotion as Red’s ex and her former friends fight Red and her new girlfriend with both sides having every reason to go at it. It’s crimnally cut short when a metor hits.. the same metor delivers the crystal. While the rest of the Hue Troop instantly realize this and run, Red dosen’t because it was in the distant past.. and in a great move Enid has to tell her dumbass girlfriend that they ARE in HER past. They run, Red is hit and we get the cover image for the shippers and to make it CRYSTAL CLEAR that yes this was a date. They didn’t steal a few picassos while on a sexy date heist but still. 

Also  Red stole the crystal, and her friends assume it was her plan all along. Red almost takes credit for it.. but a glare from Enid shoots that plan down and Red, once again genuinely opens up, apologizing for running from them and her problems,and implicitly hurting Yellow, as while they clearly aren’t together anymore, either due to this or other shenanigans, it still had to hurt what red did. She also thanks Enid for being the one to show her the error of her ways. that being said with a fresh prisim, it’s just as likely that the Hue Troop can now clone it and get a copy back to the past for Red to be her own grandma, as I theroize given the finale again and all and red still being around.. more on that nexttime, the troop have a working prisim till then. They part as friends with the rest of the troop encoourging enid to visit sometime and Yellow giving her approval and getting her own closure as the troop leaves.  And so we end as Red and Enid decide to resume their everything but saying it’s a date date and go Lava Surfing as they drive out into the sunset. THE END.

Final Thoughts: Just as good on rewatch as the first time around and a great ep, not just for the LBGTQ rep, as while I belivie we’ve seen a bi flag sticker on enid’s bike helmet at this point, and would in all future appearances of it and she’d later stick one on her flying motorcycle she gets in the last season, and there was subetext with elody and red and text with rad, this showed she was a bisexual beyond any shadow of a doubt and did everything short of having them kiss, that comes later, to confirm it. But besides being one of the series delightfully gayest episodes, it has good story, good charcter progression for enid as we see how far she’s come from those early episodes, and Red gets a good character arc that both explains her past actions and has her grows as a person. And we’ll see more of this next time as we hit 88 miles per hour and Red Action to the Future. Until then, follow for more reviews of animated shows, check my blog for more as I have pages for each show, and hit me up iwth an ask if you have a show you’d like me to review or force me to review it for 2 bucks by asking for a commission! 

[vagrantblvrd]

Concerning that post about gold cards, imagine Gavin actually being skilled enough and throwing them and just slitting someone's throat with them cause of course that's also a weapon cause fake ah crew is insane

!!! OKAY, SO.

Gavin knowing all the cool card tricks with the shuffling and sleight of hand and whatnot because it looks cool as hell, but also helps with the dexterity and thiefiness of his grubby little thief hands?

(Also, he does the coin tricks too with the rolling them over his knuckles and may or may not roll coins over his knuckles at Ryan after the infamous Coin Argument to be an asshole? Although, you know. Ryan can never prove it, because Gavin always has this set of special coins he keeps on his person at all times because distractions Hitman-style and the aforementioned thiefiness dexterity thing.

But Ryan knows, Gavin, okay. Knows that asshole would totally take one of his coins out and roll them over his knuckles at Ryan being all smug and passive-aggressive and Ryan’s not paranoid, dammit! >:((((((((( but everyone is like, “Uh-huh,” because wow, Ryan. WOW.)

Anyway.

Gavin knows there are a lot of distrustful people out there – hurtful, not being trusted – and when he sits down for these poker games with crew allies/enemies/whoever to make an impression he knows they’re going to want to check the cards are legit, right?

Expect him to be cheating or whatever because suspicious/paranoid and Gavin is like, :D at them and lets them check his gold playing cards over to their heart’s content.

Does some flashy shuffling and all that before he hands them over and again when whatever suspicious  person’s checked his cards over. Wink and a grin and some flashy shuffling/whatever and “Alright then?” before he deals the cards.

And then, friend, AND THEN.

Something goes wrong while they’re playing/discussing the particulars of a new deal or truce or whatever they’re there to do?

That One Asshole who went there with the intent to start a war with the Fakes makes their move, says something unforgivably insulting regarding the Fakes as a whole or refuses to compromise or whatever.

Their goons posturing, because hey look, they have guns and Gavin’s some smooth-talking idiot who clearly isn’t a threat, you know? Has to have the crew’s heavies with him everywhere he goes to protect him and so on because otherwise he’s nothing. (The usual.)

And Ryan or Michael or Jeremy who are leaning against the wall behind Gavin watching all this happen are just.

Watching.

Going off Gavin’s cues because he’s calling the shots here and Gavin hasn’t given them the sign to correct this asshole who’s mouthing off, right?

(Unless this is the scenario in which Gavin is there to rescue one or more of the others and is there alone, in which case he should be easy to deal with, shouldn’t he.)

Gavin looks up from his the cards he’s shuffling, and smiles, all bright and friendly and just taking these insults because this whole poker game/meeting is vital to the Fakes, right?

A deal/arrangement they need for whatever reason -for business reasons or for him to rescue the others, whichever.

He keeps right on smiling as he slips a card from the deck in his hands and holds it up for a moment. Looks at it, the way the light catches it just the tiniest bit differently from the other cards in his gold deck, heavier than the rest, edges sharper, and throws it with a flick of his wrist.

Follows that up with a couple more – shock and surprise around the table because that one asshole who’s been tearing him down has a fucking playing card in his throat. Not enough to kill him, probably, but it makes for a hell of a surprise and Gavin’s a bit outnumbered here isn’t he.

The table gets kicked over and all the dramatics of the chips and cards and drinks and whatever else going flying.

And just.

Lots of Drama and Action and Gavin Gav Slitty-ing things up.

Brushing lint and whatever else off himself when everything’s said and done and sighs as he looks around because he looses more sets of cards this way, you know?

Can’t be bothered to go around picking all the cards up, and anyway, the place is a mess. All that blood and such, and just not worth it in the end.

Also, what a way to make a statement, don’t you think? Gold playing cards scattered about and one lodged in that asshole’s throat and better things to do anyway. (Besides, he can afford it.)

And then, idk, Gavin looking at what other survivors there are and getting quick agreements to whatever  terms he may have at that point or going off to rescue his crew.

Whichever.

If he’s got one of the others with him who have never seen him use his murder cards before he’s just “Oh, didn’t I mention? I had those specially made,” regarding said murder cards.

Like.

The “normal” utterly ridiculous gold playing cards? But also a handful of murder cards that he keeps on his person and slips into the deck once some suspicious asshole has verified the cards are legit?

Lets them poke and prod the cards and when they give them back to him uses that sleight of hand to tuck those murder cards in with the regular ones. So used to handling them all he can keep track of the murder cards while he deals or whatever until he needs them. (And when he doesn’t he just slips them back out of the deck and up his sleeves or wherever he hides them like nothing’s amiss.)

AND.

You know the murder cards would be jokers or the ace or spades because he’s got all these one-liners to toss out with them?

All “joker’s wild,” and “i suppose that’s why they call it the death card” and other things I’m obviously not thinking of right now?

Just.

Utterly ridiculous and probably not practical/possible at all? AND YET. I am leaning so hard on handwavy-handwaving.

Because rule of cool, and stuff. (Also reasons. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )

....I cannot help but think of Ryan being all :O and possibly “Oh, no, he’s hot,” the first time he witnesses Gavin put his murder cards to use?

And like.

“Dates” in which Ryan and Gavin go somewhere to throw knives/murder cards that is somehow not a euphemism, although eventually it turns into that and the whole crew Suffers whenever they mention that’s where they’re going and now I’ve turned this into Freewood, oops???

Also/or:

Prior to this Gavin pestering Ryan to teach him how to throw knives and somehow coming up with the idea of murder cards?

Like.

The guards will take his weapons/check him for them before letting him into some of these backroom poker games? But no one expects the murder cards. (When Gavin points that out someone’s “Is that a Monty Python reference?” because lol.)

Anyway.

Gavin has his murder cards made and no one else knows about them until Gavin’s forced to use them and Ryan is like :O  “Oh, no, that’s hot” and has to admit to himself he’s totally got FEELS for Gavin. (And while he can see why people would think it’s tied to the murder cards they’re just a lovely little bonus. Also the thing that made him realize why he’d be all *___________* at seeing Gavin with his murder cards.)

OR maybe they’ve been in a relationship since the whole knife throwing lessons and this is just unfair of Gavin because hot and Ryan would really like to try his hand at Gavin’s murder cards and everything sounds like a euphemism to me this morning, sorry. /o\)

[vnights]

A different kind of mad.

———

Ixi’s on her bull again. Come read about Aya escaping her own personal torment, and invading someone else’s! Consider this Ixi’s personal writing entirely for fun, so, things may move a bit quick, some things may not make sense, yadda yadda, crossover nonsense. Enjoy ???

———

Entertainment is just as important as education is to a child. To deprive one of that is downright cruel. This is why, with Alfred out of the picture, Maria did her best to erase all those horrible memories, and fill them in with new, more exciting ones. This was rather hard to achieve, though, as Aya’s whole world was stripped away from her in a single night, with the added trauma that her own father, the one who loved her so dearly, tried to end her life, as he did her mother. All of these damages attacked her at once, and she’s no longer that happy child she once was.

This is why today has to be special.

Without explaining why, Maria packed Aya up and boarded a plane, traveling all the way from Germany to be here in America. They got an animal-friendly hotel room, did some shopping, checked out minor attractions, but this.. This was the highlight. Standing outside the building, Maria placed a hand on the youngers shoulder to stop her for a moment, pointing to the signs taped to the windows.

“Opp- Uh oh.. Read there..”

“Uh..” Aya looked up to see a very disappointing sign. No animals allowed.. “But.. Snowball..”

“I’m afraid Snowball can’t go in.. Oh well..”

“But- We came all the way here..”

“...That’s okay. Why don’t you still go in? I can stay out here and watch your bunny. There’s a nice public park nearby where we can play, I just want you to have a good time.”

“Wh-? Are you sure? But, you’ve done everything so far! It’s all been about me, I want you to have-“

“-I’m the adult, it is my job, Mistress. Please, don’t worry about me! Go on, go have fun, we’ll be waiting for you.”

The woman held her hands out, wearing a pleased smile as Aya reached towards her, allowing the bunny in her arms to jump over. The girl was then handed a small dictionary just in case, and an envelope of US currency. Now, Aya being all set, it’s time to part from one another, something that’s reasonably tense. Nevertheless, Aya wanted to fulfill Maria’s hopes, and waved goodbye as she entered the building, all by herself.

Instantly, she was hit with a heavy smell of pizza, the sound of music and laughter, and colorful, happy sights all around. Fazbears seemed like the perfect detox for the remaining Drevis. While, it certainly isn’t to Maria’s standards of entertainment, it was cheap enough for the cash she worked tooth and nail to scrape up. It was either a nice hotel and a sub-par attraction, or a really nice movie-dinner, and sleeping in their rental cab, don’t blame her. Looking around, Aya spotted the main counter with a short line of people waiting, deciding to skip over and wait in line, herself.

Within no time, little Aya got checked in, and even has her own little wrist-band and cup of tokens as proof! Now, walking into the main area, her eyes lit up at all the games, and especially at those adoring animatronics!.. So shiny and colorful! Now, with so much to do, where to even start? She’s never even been to a public playground, being so isolated since birth..

...She got to see a show, she got to play around, she even had a good bite to eat. But, unfortunately, Aya did all this alone. She saw mothers and their kids, and she was reminded of Maria, who was waiting for her on the outside. But.. Seeing fathers with their kids, now that’s where the issues rose. Her incredibly unhealthy plate of pizza was interrupted as she looked on, watching a very small child waddle over from her mom to her dad, getting scooped up for kisses and raspberries. Immediately, Ayas stomach began to sour, feeling cramps and dirty moths fill her innards, scooting away from the table and choosing to simply walk away. Her new point of interest was the farthest corner of the room, approaching a dusty, unused table with a sloppily-placed holiday fabric laying over it.

With an arm over her stomach, she got down and crawled underneath the drape, shuffling to the corner to sit in shelter, hiding away from the rest of the world beneath this gum-stapled table. Her father was terrible, and she knows in her heart that it’s for the best he’s gone. But, that doesn’t mean everything just.. Goes away. When he was good, he was really good, and she desperately longs for those memories, despite what became of Alfred. The girl brought her knees to her chest and rested her hands atop of them, sniffing sadly as her eyes dampened, trying to shake this unfortunate tummy-ache. Before long, she found herself in a strange position..

...She opened her eyes, and everything was different. Little Aya fell asleep, and, being somewhere so mysterious, she was missed during lock-up. Rubbing her face and waking up, she shook her head and crawled out, peering out at the darkness captivating the once lively building. Shuddering, she held her hands together and began walking, carefully looking around the corners, just making absolutely sure she won’t see anything scary, this time.

Speaking of seeing something scary, not too far away, sitting back in his chair, the night-guard placed a warm cup of coffee to his lips, his eyes skimming over the not-so-active cams as he enjoyed the early moments of the night. Setting his drink aside, he flipped through the cameras, and received a major heart-attack. Jumping with a heavy gasp, the man placed a hand on his chest, and quickly moved to grab a newspaper nearby, rolling it up in a tube-like shape, and getting up from his desk to approach the hall, not leaving the room.

“Hey, uhhh.. The hell are you doin’ here?!..” Jeremy shouted through the tube, awaiting any kind of response, moving back to the cams to see the girls reaction.

Aya jumped, beginning to tug at her dress nervously as she felt a scolding coming on. He- He used a bad word!... Looking around, she tried to follow the distant voice. “I- I’m sorry-! I fell asleep, I didn’t mean too-!”

“Look- It don’t matter! Ts’fine! Just.. Can you come where I am? Can you come n’ join me? I can’t leave you there alone, and I can’t really leave my post, so!.. Y’know!..” Look, okay, Jeremy’s good with kids, but he’s not responsible with them. Expecting this to go well is like expecting a cat to bark.. Luckily, Aya was always quick to listen to adults, following along to his words. “Good job, good girl! Coooome on now, you’re doing great-“

Jeremy continued to guide the child straight to him, wasting far too much time not checking on the animatronics at the start of the night while doing so. It took quite a while, but Aya eventually stumbled down that long hallway, being able to see the man at the other end of it. He greatly rushed her to hurry, scooping her up upon first opportunity, and setting her down in the desk chair, beginning to get a look at Aya.

“There you are, there ya are, ya okay, blue-eyes? What happened? How come you’re still here?”

“I-I fell asleep under a table, I’m sorry..” Ah, the feeling of guilt. It’s a strong emotion, certainly.

Picking up on her slightly unusual accent for this area, Jeremy merely sighed, deciding against his stricter-speaking. She seems a bit more oblivious than other children.. “..Don’t worry about it, I can.. Eehh, I can drive you home, or whatever. Gotta expect this stuff workin’ at a kids place.. You just sit tight an’ lemme work, ‘kay?” As she nodded, he groaned, turning back to his station, now with the inconvenience of standing. This was gonna murder his back in the morning.. Though, despite everything, he proceeded, hoping to keep her attention kept off the animatronics strange behavior. “...So, where ya from? You live here, or.. Vacation?”

“Vacation, I think.. Maria and I flew in from Northern Germany, so..”

“Geerrrrmaaan.” Seems he was satisfied. Accent placed. Neat. “Maria? Older cousin or somethin’?” Please don’t say step-mom, that’s gonna be so awkward-

“Maria’s fathers assistant at our home. Or, she was, before he.. Um.. Passed away.. Now she’s pretty much my caretaker. My mother passed away, too, a while ago..”

“Oh. Oh, gees, uh, sorry ‘bout that. You’ve gotta be in good hands if she dropped you off here though, right? Fazbears, where friends n’ family come to life, or somethin’.”

“Yeah, she’s nice.. She’s not like mother or father, but she’s nice..”

“Hey..” Jeremy tapped her knee playfully, getting Aya to make eye contact. “Mom’s n’ dad’s aren’t everything. They take care of you, an’ play with you, and keep you fed n’ stuff, all until you’re like.. 14, then suddenly you’re a freeloader who needs to start doing somethin’ with your life.” Nnnnot what she was expecting, but, she’s intrigued.. “Your chores get harder, you need a part time job, toys you really want suddenly become special and you need to buy them yourself. Speaking of toys, you’re suddenly too old for them, but not old enough to talk back, or do anything you want. Then, you get older, and your parents expect you to move out. Get your own home, pay your own bills, move on with your life, but they also wanna keep you under their wing, so now you gotta call every Monday, and if you don’t, they call, and nag at you. Ya love em’, but they’re annoying. But.. You love em’. Stinks they’re gone, and I am sorry, but.. There’s perks, too...” The older ended with a shrug. He may have reflected a bit, but, he wanted to plant an alternative thought that’s not super depressing.

..She’s never thought about growing up like that.. Would mother really have done that? Would father? She knows growing up involves taking care of ones self, but.. The chores, the calls, the toys, that all seems like a whole lot. Not that it modified her opinion of her parents, no, not at all, but.. Maria isn’t having her do any of that, right?.. Toying with her hands in her lap, staring at them, Aya sighed somewhat sadly and tried to find a polite, proper answer.

“My, I never thought of those things.. Did your parents do that?..”

“Pff, yeah. A bit overbearing, but, I’m well on my feet. I take it your folks paid plenty’a attention to you? Seeing as you’re dressed like a lil’ Christmas angel, and all.”

“Oh, these are my play clothes, Maria said. Laundry machine and dirt safe.”

“Your wardrobe gets fancier? Jesus Christ, girl, you royalty or something? Am I in the presence of a lil’ princess?”

Aya let out a small giggle, shaking her head, and becoming rather excited to mention a.. Little quirk about her life. “No, but I did live in a castle.. Well, it was a mansion, but it was a very big one!”

“Aw man, really? I gotta dinky little apartment, that sounds amazing! You’re so small, what’d you need all that room for?”

“Father needed the space for work. We often had many guests..”

“I imagine so. So, moved after things went downhill? Where do you stay, now?”

The two continued to talk throughout the night, Aya ignoring all the oddities occurring through the nightly hours, seeing how visibly uncomfortable it made Jeremy. She ended up sleeping on floor underneath the desk, using the olders jacket as a blanket until the sun rose. And, once it had, Jeremy wasted no time to get the H out of there, taking Aya with him, and setting her gently in the backseat of his crappy car, taking her straight to the police station for assistance in finding her caretaker. Before long, Maria had been located, contacted, and beckoned down to the precinct to retrieve Aya.

But not without a word, first.

The moment that woman arrived, Jeremy was yawning, feeling this very rational anger boil up inside. Aya was still lovingly asleep, fortunately being spared from seeing this interaction. As Maria approached in panic, she looked in the car window, then turned her attention to the young man waiting. “Oh my gosh, I- I couldn’t find her, I had no idea what to do! I’m astonished, thank you, thank you s-!”

“-‘Ey, c’mon, sshh. C’mere, just.. Just c’mere a sec.” He was quick to hush the situation. “Do you know.. A.. Very special little thing about Fazbears, twin-braids?”

“A-?.. I.. I don’t, I apologize, I tried to find her-“

“-Look, I can forgive losin’ kids, they’re stupid little gremlins at all times, that’s the least of it- But, are you aware that Fazbears has a history of kids going missing? And, either turning up dead, or never turning up at all? Do you know how effing lucky you are to be able to see this baby again?..” Holding a sassy hand out towards her, he gestured out his frustrations, watching her expression sour with worry. With that, Jeremy continued. “So many families have been left hollowed and gutted, and you could’a been one of ‘em. It’s nice you wanted to give Aya a nice time to remember, but.. The city’s dangerous. It’s real dangerous. You endangered her by leavin’ her alone, and I’m actually kind of reluctant to let her back with ya, if I’m honest. I know I have too, she just fell asleep, but.. You could’a been called here for a much different reason, and I think you should appreciate that a lil’ bit. Get your kid outta my car so I can go home.”

It was difficult to process all of that. She certainly felt guilty, but now, even more so. Kids go missing there? She should have done more research, she should have been more aware, she shouldn’t have left Aya alone, but this mans temper seems to be reaching a limit, and she’d rather not push it. Instead, Maria simply nodded with a thanks, and went to wake the girl, opening the car door and peeking inside with a smile, shaking Ayas foot.

“Aya, Aya, wake up..”

With a shuffle and a grumble, she stretched and sat up, giving the older a tired smile. “Maria-! How did you get here? Wh..ere am I?”

“We’re at the police station, mistress. You were driven by-... Mmmm?...”

“Jeremy?..”

Maria, looking over for confirmation, chuckled and nodded. “Yes, he drove you, and called me, and now we’re here!.. Where on earth did you go? Did you not hear me looking for you? We’re you hiding-?”

Rubbing her eyes, Aya worked on getting out of the vehicle. “I started feeling bad, so I went under the table, and then I woke up and it was all dark..”

Through more small talk and conversation, Maria got Aya back, Aya is safe again, and Jeremy has his jacket back. Everything worked out, he was able to protect her and get her home, and everyone’s happy. Or, really so you’d think. Jeremy was left with a terrible taste in his mouth, still carrying sleepy bitterness home with him as he drove with a hand in his mouth, biting away at his already aching nails. Once at home, he unlocked his door and stepped inside, kicking his shoes off as he strolled straight to bed, working on removing his socks upon laying down. The softness of his mattress was so captivating, opening his eyes only to look over at the photos on his bedside table. His friends, his first-related family, and a family portrait he isn’t in, but a tiny girl is. This is why Ayas situation made him so mad. She’s such a sweet girl, so tiny and innocent, and yet, she was lost in the dark with a stranger and killer animatronics. Jeremy didn’t have to take care of her the way he did. But, he knows one thing to be true.

If that was his little sister, he’d want someone to do the same.

———

Random art below !

[haberdashing]

As If You Were There (2/4)

The statements from Episode 100 rewritten as regular statements, with a fair bit of creative liberty taken to fill in the missing details.

on AO3

Part 1 / Part 2

Statement of John Smith, regarding a supernatural encounter within the depths of the abandoned Aldwych Tube station. Original statement given May the 13th, 2017. Audio recording by Jonathan Sims, Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute, London.

Statement begins.

Look, I’m not giving you my name and address and birth date and goddamn blood type so you can go hand it all over to the bloody government when I’m done. Maybe you don’t do that sort of thing, maybe all that talk about confidentiality is more than just lip service, but I can’t trust you just like that. I’m not sure who I can trust, not anymore. I trusted my friend--let’s call him Jeremy, I trusted Jeremy--but that’s about it, and now he’s not here, and I don’t know what agencies will help and what agencies will just rat me out to the perpetrators. I’ve heard of your field, found a few web pages a while back, but that’s not much to go on. I just really hope you’re one of the good ones.

D’you know about Aldwych Tube station? Well, it’s not a Tube station anymore--there’s still trains running at the platform level, but the station itself isn’t running anymore, it’s been abandoned for decades now. So many of the things there are all in original condition--the original adverts are still up, things like that, never removed that stuff after they shut it all down. It’s part of London’s history, y’know, it’s public transport, it’s interesting.

But when Jeremy and I decided to break in there, it wasn’t just about about the public transport stuff and the adverts. We wanted to have a look around because we had some ideas about what else might be down there, maybe there was something worth investigating there. It’s the right kind of place for it, hiding in plain sight, unused space in the middle of London but nobody thinks twice about it because oh, it’s just an old Tube station, everybody knows that. But we figured maybe it’s not just an old Tube station, maybe there’s more to it than that.

Suppose we were right about that bit, at least. Just wish we could’ve learned it without losing Jeremy in the process.

We were in the tunnels when it happened. Already saw the adverts, the usual public transportation stuff, nothing too exciting there, but that wasn’t a surprise. We weren’t the first ones to break in there, not by a long shot, so it couldn’t be that easy. But the tunnels, they could be hiding something for sure. Jeremy and I both had torches with us--it was evening then, but it was gloomy enough in those tunnels that I doubt they’d be much lighter in the day time. It started out pretty boring, just following train tracks, no signs of anything.

Then our torches went out. Both of them, at the same time. And we’d packed them with fresh batteries, too. Can’t have been a coincidence there. Maybe the government made some kind of field down there that messes with electronics, just in case someone came poking around, getting too close to what they’re hiding down there.

Now, it was proper dark down there without the torches. Couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. But Jeremy started rambling about what he was doing, came closer and said he’d get his phone out and use it as a torch since the actual torches were a bust. I wasn’t big on his bringing the phone in the first place--too easy for the wrong people to track--but having the light from it definitely would’ve been better than nothing.  But the phone wouldn’t light up either. Thought it had died too, but then Jeremy tried to turn it on and it made a sound like it was turning off, though the screen hadn’t shown a thing the whole time.

Electronics disrupter, I’m telling you. Screwing with the EMF field. It’s gotta be.

Jeremy wanted to turn around then, just call it a bust and go home, but I figured this meant we were close to something big, exactly the sort of thing we’d come for in the first place, and I talked him into going a bit further before giving up. ‘Course I regret it now, but how could I have known?

We linked arms to make sure we each knew where the other one was in the dark, even though it made walking a little awkward, and Jeremy definitely stepped on my shoes more than once down there; to be fair, I probably paid him back in kind along the way. Tried to keep going straight, best as we could figure, but we kept bumping into the same wall over and over again. No matter how much we course-corrected, we kept bumping into this smooth, cold wall on either side, though the tunnels had seemed plenty big when we started out. No way the trains could pass through a space that small.

I pointed that out to Jeremy, actually, said we must be getting close to something then, and it was right after that that we first saw them.

Couldn’t tell you what they looked like, height, weight, gender, any of that stuff. For one thing, it was way too dark to make out any of those kinds of details, and for another, they were dressed to blend in, to hide that identifying information further. Could be some sort of military camouflage prototypes, adapted to the darkness of the tunnels. I could only see the faint snippets where their pitch-black clothes didn’t quite cover them--gaps between long sleeves and gloves, or between a turtleneck and a ski mask--and even then, they had to be pretty close first. If it really was camouflage like I thought, well, it wasn’t perfect, but it sure got the job done.

The first one I saw was off to the right, so we tried to go around, but just bumped into the wall on the left instead. Jeremy was on my left, and I think he got a few scrapes there, heard him wince in pain. Then I saw a flash of skin from another figure, and another, and my stomach began to sink.

I was sure there were five of them there. I don’t know how I was so sure, given that I only saw them in brief flashes, small snippets of skin that could’ve been the same person over and over, but I was sure. And if it was two on two, or even three on two, I might’ve been willing to duke it out, but five on two’s hardly a fair fight, is it?

I heard something in the distance, a loud, long sound that reminded me a little of a train coming, and I remembered this was a Tube station, or had been, though I didn’t think any trains were supposed to run that late. I thought maybe one was heading towards us, or coming from behind, though there were no lights to show as much, so I told Jeremy to run.

I heard my own breathing then, and could just barely make out Jeremy’s as we tried to head back, but I swear, I swear I didn’t hear a single breath from the five that were after us. Maybe they were robots that just looked like humans. Wouldn’t surprise me.

Whatever they were, they were after us for sure now. Even as we tried to get away, to dodge, they just kept getting closer. Tried heading to the right, but hit the wall pretty quick, even though we’d just hit the other one. Tried walking backwards but, well, that’s hard enough on your own, let alone when you’ve got your arms linked up to someone else.

So we just broke arms and ran. Every man for himself isn’t pretty, sure, and I’m far from proud of it, but sometimes that’s all you can do. If we’d stayed together, we’d prob’ly both be gone now.

At one point when I was running I saw a light back the way I came, looking like it was coming from everywhere all at once, and after being in the dark that long it hurt my eyes to see. I could see then that Jeremy was behind me, that the men in black were all gathered around him now. He was on the ground, so either he fell along the way or one of them knocked him down; probably the latter, if I had to guess. Either way, I hadn’t heard it, just that low rumble of a train that never quite arrived.

Part of me wanted to go towards the light, like it’d be safer, but I figured it had to be a trap. The only place that light could be coming from was their secret holding facility, and I wasn’t being dragged in there for the life of me. Plus, that roaring noise had only gotten louder when it showed up. So I ran the other way and made sure not to look back.

Eventually the sound faded away and I saw a sliver of light from above, managed to climb my way out of Aldwych station, but I never saw Jeremy again. I came back the next day with all the industrial torches I could buy with cash without triggering any government alarms, found the torches we’d dropped along the way--both still dead--and Jeremy’s phone--also dead, and screen way more cracked than it had been when we started--and a spot of blood on the wall, but no sign of Jeremy.

I tried going to the tabloids first, the kind that publish what they know is the truth, no matter what the authorities try to claim. I figured Jeremy’s younger, decent-looking bloke, and pretty well-off these days, so even if none of them believed the government connection--and none of them did, or at least, none of them were willing to admit it--I figured his disappearance would be a human interest story, and the details could come out later. They all turned me down and laughed me out of the room, though. A few suggested going to the police, but I knew better; at best I’d get arrested for trespassing, at worst I’d be locked up down in the tunnels with Jeremy. One of them looked to be in the middle of calling me a shrink, or worse, when I just up and left. And one mentioned your name as an alternative.

Even if you had all my details, I’m sure you wouldn’t tell me if you sent someone down into the tunnels the same way we’d gone, or got in touch with your government connections to arrange a deal, or whatever. That confidentiality agreement of yours goes both ways, I imagine. But I don’t need all those details. I just need you to get back Jeremy for me.

Or if you can’t--if he’s too far gone, if they’re already testing bioweapons on him, or they already wiped his mind, or did something else that means he isn’t coming back--make damn sure nobody else goes the same way he did.

Statement ends.

[cleverbroadwayurl]

Conspiracy (Jeremy Heere x Reader Pt. 25)

Song: Conspiracy by Paramore

Word Count: 3761

Need to Catch Up? Check out my masterlist! 

A/N: Oh my god I finally did it. I’m so sorry this took months but that’s because my courses right now are really hard and take about 8 hours a week of studying per class (aka 40 hours a week of studying total). But I’m on break right now, so please enjoy! I will try to have more out soon! 

Taglist: @macbookpro-hard-drive​ @catatonic-kuragin​ @retrogarden​ @be-more-heidi-hansen​ @scarsonthecuffsofyourjeans​ @stargirl-murphy​ @heytheredee-lilah​ 

Trigger Warnings: LANGUAGE, Angst, mentions of an abusive boyfriend, mentions of abuse, Jeremy crying, implication of stalking, implication of assault, IF I MISSED ANYTHING ELSE PLEASE LET ME KNOW

Jeremy can feel his phone vibrate, expecting a text from you, telling him that you’d made it home okay. He can feel a sense of surprise go across his face at the contact, and even more so at the message over and over again. 

Rich: We need to talk. 

Jeremy walked into his room and fell onto his bed, hands gripping his phone as he did so. Subconsciously, he’d closed the door, and was secure in his room, head still reeling, face still pale as he remembered the look you gave him on his doorstep. That wasn’t a comfort, and neither was this text from Rich, which spiked his anxiety tenfold. He didn’t think that was possible, images of you accidentally not paying attention for a split second and losing you forever plaguing his mind. He’d been so close to losing you before, but this…was a cruel act of fate as you stepped away from him again.

Laying on his bed, Jeremy got another text from Rich, his phone the only sound vibrating into the space. He reluctantly looked at his phone, the notification as haunting as the first one, each one seeming more panicked than the last. Jeremy could feel shivers crackle down his spine, hands not feeling like his own as he opened his phone with a fingerprint scanner—thank god Apple had incorporated that.

His read receipts were on, he always forgot about that. So Rich knew that he had read the last text, and now the one that came, and the ones that he assured were coming soon.

Rich: dude, can we talk? Just for a second. I promise I’ll be fast

Jeremy’s hands are already uneasy as he types, unsure how the letters are falling in place correctly. He’s seeing the motion, knows it’s happening, but doesn’t seem to place that it’s his hands doing the movement.

Jeremy: Uhh sure, what’s up?

He regrets it. Jeremy knows he’s in no state to even listen to another person’s problems right now, visions of so much passing through his brain in a flash. What if your ex texted you? What if you can’t get home safely, but were too embarrassed to tell him? What if you were parked at some gas station, just crying your eyes out? The images pass quickly, but somehow, Rich can type faster. It feels like a distraction at this point, but Jeremy didn’t need this kind of placement of focus. He needed something to relax him, something to reassure him.

Rich: Do you have a second to like…talk? On the phone? Typing is weird.

Jeremy sighs, but nothing is still. His heart is pounding so loud that Jeremy can hear its echo in his ears, legs stiff as he leans his back against the wall, sitting up to physically prepare him for this conversation that was heavily contributing to the sweat on his palms, unable to focus on anything.

Rich is quick, Jeremy is still fascinated by that. Maybe he was just moving that much slower, mind teasing daydreams turning into nightmares within frames of them starting. The phone is still vibrating, and it feels like it’s been buzzing for eternities. That was enough confirmation. Jeremy was just working through problems as if he were running in water, feet not on the ground. Finally, he feels the courage to pick up, to say something, even though he’s sure that his voice will shake. “Hello?”

“Jeremy, thank fuck. This has been on my mind for weeks and I literally don’t have anyone else who would know what the fuck is going on right now.”

Right away, Jeremy can sense that Rich is in trouble. The ramble has Jeremy’s mind resorting to nervousness, but not the healthy amount. This has been going on for days, it’s clear as Rich continues speaking, not seeming to breathe between sentences, the enhanced amount of “fuck”s, voice hoarse with each passing syllable—this is bad, even for Rich.

“What’s up?”

“Oh my god there was this girl here in Metuchen, someone you’ve never met or seen before, and I swear I didn’t do anything, but like, I don’t even know where to begin, you know? Fuck Jeremy, this is awful, I feel like I haven’t slept in days or slept too much and all I can think about is her, even though we barely even fucking talked and I have no idea what’s she’s up to or if she got home okay—”

“Get to the point, Rich.”

Jeremy didn’t mean to snap, but his eyes had glanced over his digital alarm clock, noticing that you should’ve gotten home a while ago. The reminder that Rich spit into existence didn’t help his case either. Jeremy could feel the lump in his throat form, breaths getting shaky. You had been in such trouble, in and out of reality, maybe you’d been followed home by that shitty little red speedster, which could only remind Jeremy of almost a year ago, lights flashing, nights in sterile rooms, eyes falling into sleep, FRIENDS in the background, his fucking blue sweater, and now everything is crumbling, he just lost—

“Jeremy, you good?”

“Yeah. Yeah, sorry. Can you say that again? My dad called me for something and I couldn’t focus.”

It was a lie, but an easy cover-up. He knew that his dad wouldn’t mind being the bad guy when Jeremy needed an out. He’d mentioned that when Jeremy had gone off to college if he was ever pressured into drinking or going out or some other thing.  

“Uhh yeah. So on the night of Brooke’s backyard party, I split early because…because I had previous commitments. But I was out of gas so I stopped at the Wawa off of the I-95. I went inside the Wawa to grab some stuff and I accidentally bumped into his girl—the one I mentioned who isn’t from around here. She mentioned that she was alone, her friend abandoned her at this Wawa, and I couldn’t just leave her alone, right?”

“Yeah, that makes sense.”

“Right. So, I took her home—”

“Rich”

“I promise I didn’t sleep with her! She was lonely and needed a place to stay, and I swear, I’m not like that anymore. Haven’t been for years, not since the SQUIP thing. It just brings up too many…yeah. But I got her stuff for the next day until she could get on her flight in a few days, Christine agreed to see a show with her, Waitress, I think. She posted on Instagram?”

“Christine? Yeah. I didn’t know you knew that girl.”

“Yeah. She’s my…friend. But Christine really likes her, and I think they had a really good time.”

“That’s good.” Although the conversation is going, Jeremy’s been watching time tick past, mind just blurring over each word, grazing the surface and not searching for anything deeper. He swipes down to see his notifications—nothing yet. It’s at times like these that Jeremy wished you’d let him see your location. He understood that it was absolutely an invasion of privacy, but—no that was selfish. Maybe you’d gotten caught up with someone, or maybe you’d already gotten home. Then why didn’t you text him? Jeremy’s fists ball up his comforter, the colon on his clock blinking with each second, and he’s practically counting each one. Rich becomes white noise to his worry, face still pale as the room gets darker.

“I don’t know—dude, it’s stupid, but—I think. I think I might be a little in love with her.”

Jeremy’s eyes immediately widened, and suddenly the world gets put into hyperspeed. “What?!”

“But she’s from Florida, and—”

“Rich, you’re in love with her?”

“I don’t know!”

“Shit, dude. I get it.”

“That’s what I mean. You are the only person who gets it, at least that I know of.”

“Yeah…I guess I am.”

“Exactly.”

“But now she’s so far away, and—”

“You feel like you can’t focus or sleep.”

“Yeah.”

“Rich, dude, you gotta talk to her.”

“Hypocrite.” It’s a laugh, a joke, something that Jeremy knows hasn’t happened for days. He recalls every night he spent in his dorm, Michael sleeping soundly, as Jeremy tosses and turns, mind racing and hoping for a sign that you’re okay. Dusk begins to turn into twilight, and he hopes that you’re okay. God, he’s about to be sent into that state now, just from you not being home, that something is wrong, he knows it.

“Fair.” It’s emotionless as it comes from Jeremy, realizing the reality of everything. He was going to have to cut Rich off to make sure you were okay. A life was…as much as he hated to say it, more important than this.

“But I can’t talk to her. What would I do after that?”

“You could go long distance.”

“I met her for two days, Jeremy.”

“Yeah, okay. I’ve also heard long distance is hard even for people who have been together for a year, so that might not…work.”

“Exactly.”

“You should still tell her, you know? She deserves to know, and it might feel good to get it off of your chest.”

“Yes, but she’s also in Florida.”

“Yeah, true.”

There’s another pause, and Jeremy can hear the blankets on the other end of the line shift. Rich was in bed, probably had been for days, and Jeremy’s heart sunk even more; this wasn’t like Rich. This was…bad.

But the preoccupation of you still haunted him. It was entirely possible that you’d been hunted down by your ex-boyfriend. Jeremy’s memories of “don’t drive to my house, he knows where I live—” ringing in his head. Your ex was forgetful in the way that all abusers are. They forget needs but remember the parts of your life to torment you, remember to lie in order to get you to feel crazy. He remembered where you lived after two times of ever going to your house, and that, even to Jeremy, was the most frightening thing that could be remembered. He opens messages, eyes flicking to your conversation, hoping for at least the typing symbol to appear.

Nothing. Thirty minutes, and nothing from you. His heart raced and palms began to sweat, shivers running down Jeremy’s spine. As much as Rich wasn’t himself, this wasn’t like you either. The shifting stopped, but the panic that forced Jeremy to enter a world of hurt was just beginning. He was about to end the call with Rich to see if you were okay, but then again, if you had gotten caught with your ex, and he called, that could also be bad, for reasons he didn’t want to think about. The light from the summer day drifted into nighttime, heat going down outside, but rising in Jeremy. Just as Jeremy is about to say something to Rich to get him to hang up, the line picks up.

“Hey Jeremy?”

“Yeah?” It came out harsh and rushed, but he really couldn’t help it. Panic controlled him now.

“Are you sure you’re okay? You uhh…seem really distant.”

He inhales, trying his best to maintain composure while talking to his friend. If he can’t do that, he might as well drive to your house and make sure that you got home safely, and if not, drive around town until you were found. “Oh uh, yeah. I just got back from a date with (y/n) and they uhh haven’t texted me that they got home safely. I’m starting to get really worried about it.”

“Starting? Dude, it’s been the entire time.” He pauses for a second, letting the sentence hang in open air. “But I’m sure they’re okay, it was just a what, 10-minute drive?”

Jeremy stiffened. A 10-minute drive right now could be death. You could’ve not seen a red light and collided with someone. You could have been run off of the road. The last moments you were here with distracted, unsure, and panicky. This was not just a drive home. It was a fatal quest. But he couldn’t tell Rich that, this wasn’t about Jeremy right now. This was about Rich and his Florida girl and his feelings towards her. He had to get the topic off of this. “Yeah.”

“How is everything with them, by the way? I’ve been uhh…talking a lot and I just realized that you really haven’t gotten the chance to say anything.”

“It’s going well. Just some…stuff happened on our date.” It wasn’t fair to you to go into what had happened. Yes, Rich knew, but he didn’t know everything that Jeremy had seen. He didn’t know about the sleepless nights, the apologies, the times you were so scared you could barely even make physical contact, the moments of guilt over something you had no control over. Rich knew the technicalities, Jeremy knew the truths.

“Are you okay? Do you need me to drive over there now?”

“No, it’s okay. I’m more worried about them.” It was nice of Rich to offer to drive from Elizabeth to Metuchen, but unnecessary. Plus, it would mean Jeremy would have to tell the whole truth, which was something that he wasn’t comfortable with. It was your story, one you’d mentioned in previous times that you were embarrassed about. You’d requested to not share photos with your ex, that you regretted every moment. You requested something like a restart, but this time, with a lot more boundaries, and unfortunately, experiences you’d like to forget.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Jeremy took another breath. The answer was yes, but he really wasn’t sure how to approach it. But since Rich knew, it might be better to have him on your side. You knew that Rich understood what was going on. It was in another private moment that you’d confessed when Rich witnessed your ex-boyfriend slam doors in your face, only to have Rich open them again, trying his hardest to not make it seem like he was flirting through trying to be friendly, but still be someone you could trust, even if he was just on the sidelines. It wasn’t like Rich was a stranger to you…and it might be good to spread it around that Jeremy’s partner can’t go to this grocery store. “We uhh went to that giant strip mall not too far from here.”

“That’s awesome, dude. Good date idea.”

“Yeah, and we like, both had a good time for the first part of it. But their mom wanted us to get her something from that grocery store over there. The really expensive one but has like…stuff you can’t get anywhere else?”

“At the end of the strip mall by Starbucks and Cold Stone?”

“Yeah.” Jeremy takes a shaky breath, dreading to relive the moments he’d just gone through with you and to have his mind completely blocked out by memory. Keeping calm was out of the question at this point, anger and worry boiling to Jeremy’s breaking point, tears threatening in his eyes to flood onto his face. “And their ex works there, Rich. We saw him two feet away from us. We booked it out of there after we paid, but I had to drive myself home Rich, in their car. They couldn’t even feel their hands. And now they aren’t texting me that they made it home safely and I’m—”

The text tone rings out, an apology from you finally in Jeremy’s hands.

You: Sorry about being so late, my mom wanted her groceries and I wanted to take a shower to try and calm down with some alone time with no disturbances.

Jeremy: Thank god you’re okay. You’re fine, please get some rest

Just as Jeremy sends the text back to you, a “FUCK” rings out from Rich’s side of the call. There’s an obvious door slam, but the shout still sounds distant from the phone. Rich must have gotten up.

“Rich? You okay?”

“Dude, I’m so sorry.”

“What for? I just got their text, you don’t need to leave, they just took a shower and forgot to text, which, they were really out of it, so I can’t really blame them for it.”

“Jeremy, you’re going to be really pissed.”

“What? Rich, no. I don’t have anything to be mad about.”

“Dude, no, you’re going to be mad. I don’t even know how to…explain this.”

“What do you mean?”

“Jeremy, I knew.”

“Knew? What are you talking about?”

“I knew that he worked there, Jeremy, but—”

At this point, nothing gets through Jeremy’s ears. Worry turns to anger and before he can even think, Jeremy opens his mouth and starts yelling over Rich. No excuse, none, is okay to forget something this fucking big.

“What the fuck, Rich?”

“Dude—”

“No, really! What the FUCK, Richard?! What the fuck could make you forget about something like this?”

“Jer—”

“It’s their EX, Rich! The same fucking one who—”

“I know! Fuck dude, I already feel so fucking awful for forgetting.”

“Oh, you feel awful? How do you fucking think it felt to be standing there with my partner so fucking scared they can’t even move? How do you justify that, Richard? Huh?”

The line is quiet for a second, and Jeremy can hear himself breath, heart ringing in his ears. He can feel his entire body heave with every inhale, eyes blurry, hands sweaty. This entire thing could’ve been avoided if Rich hadn’t forgotten about a very important detail. For a minute or two, Jeremy thinks Rich hung up, tired of hearing him yell about this. But it was justified. This was a big fucking deal that could’ve ended in death. Did Rich just not see that or—

“Okay, Jeremy. You gotta fucking promise me that you’re going to take a second and calm down.”

“I don’t even—”

“Jeremiah Heere.”

Initially, Jeremy removed the phone from his ear, thinking his dad had called him downstairs for “using so much foul language”. It’s quiet in the house, however, as Jeremy’s dad usually calls more than once for him. The silence is enough to tell Jeremy that it was Rich who had suddenly sounded like a parent to him, calling him by his full name, something usually only his dad does. The snap back into reality hits him hard, causing an exhale, and a step back. “Alright.”

“Okay?”

“Yeah.”

“So, Florida girl.”

“Does she have a name?”

“I’m getting there. Florida girl. She had…there was a lot that happened, okay? It’s not really…my thing to tell, but just…trust me, dude, it was a lot. There was stuff with her best frie—former best friend and…it just really got to her, which is completely understandable, and we uhh saw Christine for a bit and that uhh helped, I thought at least, and then we went to go and get groceries since Gabe asked us to.” There’s a pause here, a deep breath passes through the speaker, almost as if Rich is too afraid to talk about the next part of the explanation. “We uhh…we got back to my place…and I put the truck in park…you remember the truck…and she-she like…”

Another pause hits, this time longer and shakier than the last. A good thirty seconds goes by of nothing, before Jeremy finally says something, seeing if he’s still on the line. “Rich?”

“Yeah, uhh…we basically made out before—y’know, I uh, had to stop her since…it’s…she-she didn’t want that. She was really upset…and uh, since that happened, it…it honestly just slipped my mind, Jeremy. I’m so sorry, dude.”

As much as reality hurt, Jeremy was sent back to the past. This was a case he was somewhat familiar with. When you came over that very first time, with you being so upset, there had been shared kisses, there had been implications of moving forward, but Jeremy stopped them. The second time it happened, you had stopped them from previous trauma. He didn’t move forward because it wasn’t healthy, and with you dissociating, it wasn’t consensual, even if it was just kissing. The concept, the scenario, everything was familiar to Jeremy. The act of wanting to feel something good and being so desperate for happiness was something you’d been trying to achieve over a year ago. Jeremy could understand how something so big slipped his mind.

That being said, historically, Rich has been one to use that to his advantage. Although things seemed better now, Jeremy was still unsure that it was just…left with that; that Rich had dropped any idea of taking advantage after this encounter. Sure, the SQUIP was gone, but Rich also sounded upset, so he could’ve…done it later. He had to say something, anything, to clear the air and make sure that things ended at least somewhat okay. If they didn’t, Jeremy would hang up. If they did…that would be a discussion for later.

“So, you didn’t…?”

“Fuck dude, no way. She just slept in my room and I took the couch. I wanted her to be safe…you know? That…would not have been safe.”

“Alright.”

“Okay?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I think so.”

“Are we…are we good?”

“I think so. Uhh sorry about—”

“No, Jeremy, you had every reason to be mad. I’m mad at myself for forgetting.”

“But you had—”

“Yeah.”

There’s another pause, the conversation starting to end as both ends of the call calm down. “Hey Jeremy?”

“Yeah?”

“I should uh, go. Gabe made food, and I have stuff I have to do, but I’m so sorry. I don’t think I can say it enough.”

“I accept the apology, Rich.”

“Thanks, Jeremy.”

“Of course. Let me know when you have a day free. I feel like…we need to catch up.”

“I’ll keep you posted.”

“Bye.”

“See ya.”

The call ends with a click, an hour and a half going by easily. He’d have to tell you what Rich said, of course, but the conversation should be in person so that Jeremy can express what was happening without being too telling of the mystery girl. Night is in full swing as Jeremy pulls out his phone, texting you again.

Jeremy: Are you feeling any better?

You: Yeah. Just playing Life is Strange. I’m so sorry about dinner

Jeremy: Don’t worry about it, okay? We can make it up a different day.

You: Are you sure?

Jeremy: Positive.

You: You’re so sweet, thank you so much for being there for me and not…getting really mad that we have to postpone it.

Jeremy: You can’t control something like that. I don’t expect you to. It’s one date. We can go whenever we both feel comfortable with it.

You: Call you tomorrow?

Jeremy: Yeah. Jeremy: I care about you a lot, so please get some rest, okay? Don’t stress about today, and if anything happens, I’m here.

You: Thank you, Jer. You too.