#musician killian

[princess-and-the-swan]

MC Fic Rec: Never Tear Us Apart

By Kjb2609 | Rating: T

Killian Jones is the frontman for a band who have not yet made the big time. He is also in love with his good friend (and the girlfriend of their manager) the unattainable Emma Swan. When their manager turns out not to be the man they thought, his friendship with Emma is threatened. Complete

Read it on AO3

[jrob64]

Silly Songs With Killian - a CS Modern AU One-shot

You can blame @sotangledupinit for this silly, but sweet, little story! She posted a prompt on Discord which caused my muse to jump to attention, and I wrote it in two days. If you're not familiar with the Veggie Tales videos, you'll still be able to enjoy this, but do yourself a favor and check out the songs on Spotify here. You don't have to be a kid to enjoy them and I guarantee they'll make you laugh!

Special thanks to Kit for making young Henry look even younger for the pic set, Mary for being my beta, and Krystal for being a second set of eyes for the Silly Songs lyrics and also for the pic set I created. It pays to have wonderful fandom friends!

Summary: After a frustrating and exhausting day, Emma Cassidy is relieved when her little boy, Henry, is entertained by a gorgeous musician at a restaurant, giving her a chance to sit back, relax, and enjoy the music (and the view!) It gets even better when the singer, Killian, sings some of Henry’s favorite Silly Songs from his favorite videos, Veggie Tales. 

Rating: T

Words: 3946

Also posted to Ao3 and ffn

*********

It’s been one hell of a day. It wasn’t supposed to be this exhausting, but of course my ex, Neal, had to complicate things.

I was looking forward to going wedding dress shopping with my future sister-in-law Mary Margaret and her other bridesmaids, sipping champagne and giving my input on each of the possibilities. It was going to be so much fun.

And then...remember the saying that was popular many years ago - shit happens? Well, Neal can be used interchangeably with shit - they’re one and the same.

It was his scheduled weekend with our three-year-old, Henry, which was one reason why Mary Margaret chose this day. Then on Friday, almost an hour after Neal was supposed to pick Henry up at my apartment, he sent me a text: Something came up. Can’t make it this weekend. Tell Henry I’m sorry.

Apparently he turned off his phone after sending it, because he didn’t answer any of my increasingly volatile texts - eighteen of them, to be exact - or phone calls. I had to sit Henry in front of the television so I could go into my bedroom to leave some choice words on Neal’s voicemail.

Fortunately (or unfortunately for my sweet little boy) Henry is used to being let down by his father. In the eighteen months since we called it quits, Neal has skipped out on more weekend visits than he’s kept. I guess being a lying piece of shit takes up way too much of his time and he can’t spare any for his son.

Also unfortunately, all of the people who usually babysit for Henry were unable to watch him. Most of them were included in the shopping trip, my brother David was busy because he was painting the living room of the house he and his fiancée just bought, and Ruby’s Granny was off bowhunting with her new beau. (Bowhunting with her beau has been a running joke ever since she left a week ago.)

So instead of enjoying a carefree day of shopping with Mary Margaret, Belle, Ruby and Elsa, I had to keep an active, inquisitive toddler entertained in one bridal shop after another. We were all relieved when he finally fell asleep in the third shop, until the manager woke him up by screeching about how he was going to drool on the green velvet upholstery. That cost her any business she might have had from us (though in all honesty, her gowns were all hideous and looked like something only the Wicked Witch of the West might wear.)

Eventually, Mary Margaret said ‘yes to the dress’ in the fifth shop late in the afternoon, then we all decided to get an early dinner at a nearby restaurant that serves kids’ meals and has outdoor seating. If Henry has to spend one more minute inside today, I think he might have a complete meltdown.

After placing my order and getting Henry situated with the provided coloring sheet and obligatory four crayons, I hear someone speaking into a microphone and look over to see a guy standing on a small stage with a guitar. A very, VERY attractive guy.

“Good evening, everyone,” he says, and my jaw drops at the sound of his British accent. “My name is Killian and I hope you enjoy the music tonight. I do take requests. Feel free to sing along or dance in this nice, open area in front of me.”

“Oh, wow!” Belle gasps. “He’s very handsome, isn’t he, Emma?”

My jaw snaps shut and I turn to look at her. Seeing her sly smile, I teasingly say, “Why are you asking me? We all have eyes, you know.”

“Yes, but we all have significant others, too,” Ruby adds, which is completely unnecessary but, sadly, also completely true.

While my self pity begins to set in, the guy - Killian - strums his guitar and launches into the Eagles classic “Take it Easy”. Henry, who by this point has scribbled all over the coloring sheet, somehow managed to break his crayon into at least four pieces and, judging by the color of his teeth, took a bite of it as well, looks up with bright eyes. Since I allowed him to kneel on a chair instead of trying to strap him into a booster seat, he takes advantage of it and hops down.

Before I can chase after him, he makes a beeline for the open space in front of the admittedly gorgeous singer and begins jumping around in what passes for a three-year-old’s version of dancing. I sigh and start to get up, but Mary Margaret stops me with a hand on my arm. “Let him go. He’s been very good all day and deserves to burn off some energy. Besides, he’s only a few feet away and we can see him clearly from here.”

It doesn’t take much convincing for me to heed her advice. If someone else can entertain Henry for a while, I’m not going to complain.

When the song comes to an end, Killian acknowledges the smattering of applause and plays the extremely recognizable first chords of “All Right Now”. Henry doesn’t miss a beat, throwing himself around like a rag doll while all of us at our table, as well as most of the other diners, laugh delightedly at his exuberance.

By the time Killian is in the middle of his third song, “Old Time Rock and Roll”, our food arrives and I face the dreaded task of dragging my son back to the table to eat. I nibble at my fish and chips until the song ends, then dash to the makeshift dance floor to cajole Henry. When he shows the expected resistance, Killian chuckles and helpfully says, “Go with your mum, lad. I’ll play a slow song that’s not as much fun for dancing.”

True to his word, he croons the song “Everything I Do, I Do It For You” as Henry acquiesces and comes back to his seat to shove French fries into his mouth as fast as possible. It might not be a good song for Henry’s style of dancing, but Killian’s smooth voice singing the beautiful lyrics is sending pleasant chills down my spine.

Another song with a slow tempo follows, during which my little man polishes off his fries. But when Killian starts “Footloose”, all bets are off and Henry is back on the dance floor with a chicken nugget squeezed into both of his chubby fists.

After we finish our meals, Belle, Ruby and Elsa leave to spend the rest of the evening with their boyfriends. Mary Margaret lingers, telling me she’ll stay to keep me company, because she’d rather not have to help David clean up his painting mess. We don’t want to take up a table, so we move to some empty seats along the edge of the patio from where we can still see my little dancing king.

“You’d think his battery would run down soon,” Mary Margaret comments.

“Are you serious? That kid is like the Energizer bunny, plus he’s been cooped up in stuffy dress shops all day. My money is on the singer wearing out before Henry.”

She’s uncharacteristically quiet for several minutes. When she finally speaks, she says quietly, “He really is very handsome and seems like a nice guy.”

Her statement is out of left field and I’m confused. “Who?”

“The singer - Killian,” she clarifies.

I narrow my eyes at her. “What’s your point?”

“No point. I was just making a comment,” she shrugs, all innocence.

I don’t believe her. Mary Margaret is the queen of set-ups and wears the crown proudly. She introduced Belle to Will, Ruby to Jefferson and Elsa, well, she introduced Elsa to Victor, but that didn’t work out very well. Elsa met Graham on her own.

“I’m not looking for someone to date, Mary Margaret. I’m still dealing with my idiot ex and trying to concentrate on raising my son not to follow in his father’s footsteps.”

“I understand, but…”

And it’s at this point I resign myself to the fact she’s going to spout some argument that’s going to weaken my resolve not to date.

“If Henry had a really good male role model in his life, it would help you in raising him to be a gentleman.”

“Seems to me David does a pretty good job of that, in case you haven’t noticed.”

“I know,” she sighs, “but between working, getting the house ready and planning the wedding, his time with Henry is very limited.”

“The house will be ready before you get married and the wedding is in less than five months. After the honeymoon, he’ll have more time.”

“Oh, but then we’ll have children of our own, and you know how much time that takes.”

“Is this your way of telling me you’re pregnant, Mary Margaret?”

‘’What?” she gasps. “No! I’m just saying…”

“I know what you’re saying and I hear you. If the right guy comes along, I wouldn’t be opposed to dating him, but I’m not gonna try to force something to happen.”

“Wouldn’t it be nice to have a date for the wedding, though?” she presses.

“Henry will be my date. He’ll be very dapper in his little tux.”

“But…”

“No buts, Mary Margaret. I don’t want to be set up with someone just so I don’t look pathetic at your wedding.”

We both fall silent as we watch Henry continue to dance in front of the bemused musician. Glancing at the time on my phone, I realize he’s been at it for well over an hour and isn’t showing any signs of slowing down. It’s beginning to get dark and I know I’ll have to wrangle him into the car before too much longer for his bath and bedtime.

I feel a little sorry for Killian, though. Nobody else has taken him up on his offer to dance, despite his repeated invitations. In fact, most of the diners aren’t paying attention to him at all. I hate to take his number one fan home, especially when I’m able to sit back and relax while listening to some seriously good music.

“I’m going to take a little break and then I’ll be back,” Killian announces, lifting the guitar strap over his head.

“Well, I guess that’s my cue to take Henry home,” I say to Mary Margaret.

“I suppose so,” she agrees. “Let me say goodbye to him and then I have to be on my way, too. According to his text, David is anxious for me to see how the living room turned out.”

We both stand up and move toward the stage, but I stop in my tracks. Killian is squatting down in front of Henry, listening to him with a huge smile on his face. I don’t know what Henry is saying, and I’m not sure Killian will be able to understand it anyway. Henry has an extensive vocabulary for a three-year-old, but I listen to him with ‘mom ears’, which means I can actually decipher what he’s trying to say.

When we reach them, Killian looks up at us and whatever I was going to say flies right out of my head. From a distance, the man is handsome. Close up, he’s nothing short of breathtaking. Carefully trimmed scruff covers a jawline sharp enough to cut glass, his cheekbones would put every male model to shame, and his dark hair is swept back from his forehead with a few rogue strands hanging down enticingly. Even his slightly pointed ears are adorable.

But it’s his eyes that shut down the functioning part of my brain. To say they are blue is like saying the sun is a tad bit warm, and the way the waning light catches them makes them shine like sapphires. I’m aware that my mouth is hanging open like a fish on dry land, but I can’t seem to make it form actual words.

“Hello, Killian. We’ve been thoroughly enjoying your music tonight, even if we haven’t been showing it as much as this little guy.”

Thank God for the natural chattiness of Mary Margaret.

Killian reaches out to ruffle Henry’s sweaty hair, then stands up. “I’m very happy to hear that,” he says in that beautiful, lilting accent. “I was just telling young Henry here that I’ll play some special songs for him after the break.”

I finally find my tongue. “Oh, but I was coming to tell Henry it’s time to go home.”

My little con artist turns his baby browns on me. “Please, Mommy. I be a good boy, I pwomise.”

That’s just great. Now if I take him home, I’ll have to forfeit my Mom of the Year award.

Mary Margaret laughs. “Well, Henry and Emma may be able to stay, but I really have to go.”

Why did she emphasize my name so much? As if I don’t already know.

She hugs Henry and me, tells Killian goodbye, and winks at me as she passes by. Even without trying to set me up, she’s setting me up.

I look back at Killian, who finishes chugging a bottle of water and grins at me. Reaching out to take my hand, he shakes it and says, “It’s nice to meet you, Emma, and little Henry.”

“Nice to meet you, too, Killian. Thanks for entertaining my son tonight.”

“It’s been my pleasure. I love how uninhibited kids are, and how joyful.”

“Well, his day certainly didn’t start out joyfully at all.” I shouldn’t have said it, but I’m still boiling about what Neal did to his own son, especially when this stranger seems so happy to spend time with him.

“No?” Killian questions. “May I ask what happened?”

I glance down at Henry, not wanting to bash his no-good father in front of him. He’s happily lining up little stones he collected along the edge of the patio, oblivious to the conversation going on above him.

“He was supposed to be with his dad this weekend, but he canceled. Again. So Henry was stuck shopping for wedding dresses with us all day.”

“I see.” He ponders for a second. “Would that wedding dress be for the lovely lass who just left…or someone else?”

“Yeah, it’s for Mary Margaret. She’s engaged to my brother.”

“I’m very glad I was able to make Henry’s day better, because his dancing did the same for me.” We watch Henry play, babbling to himself. “He seems like a happy little lad,” Killian observes.

“I do my best, but as a single mom, I make a lot of mistakes.”

“Don’t be too hard on yourself, Love. All parents make mistakes. It’s a good thing kids have perfect aunts and uncles,” he says with a smirk.

“So, are you an imperfect father or a perfect uncle?” Am I really flirting with him right now?

“I have two nieces, so that would make me the latter.”

“Do you get to see them very often?”

“Aye, they live just a few miles from me, so I spoil them as often as possible. They’re my brother Liam’s girls.”

“Doesn’t sound like you’re originally from the U.S., if you don’t mind me saying.”

He chuckles again, rubbing his finger behind his right ear. “We were born in England and lived there until I was fourteen, then my father took a job here so we moved across the pond.”

“That explains the accent.”

He nods and checks his watch, blowing out a breath. “I should probably get back to my set. Will you allow young Henry to stay for a few more songs?”

I shrug my shoulders. “Sure. What’s another fifteen minutes in the grand scheme of things?”

A genuine smile splits his face. “Excellent! I think he’ll particularly like the next three or four songs I play.” He looks around and grabs a nearby chair from an empty table, setting it down beside me. “Won’t you please have a seat, Emma?”

“Such a gentleman,” I say, sinking onto the offered chair.

“Oh, I’m always a gentleman.”

Somehow I don’t mind him flirting with me.

He steps back on the stage, slips his guitar into place, and positions himself in front of the microphone. After giving me a wink, he announces in an overly accented, squeaky voice, “And now it’s time for Silly Songs with Killian. The part of the show where Killian comes out and sings…a silly song.”

I burst out laughing at the very familiar words. Henry is addicted to Veggie Tales, the wacky shows featuring talking fruits and vegetables. I love them because they teach good moral values; he loves them because they’re hilarious. His favorite part of every video is Silly Songs with Larry the Cucumber, which we watch over and over and over again. Apparently he conveyed this obsession to Killian.

Killian closes his eyes, somberly strums his guitar, and sings, “Oh, where is my hairbrush? Oh, where is my hairbrush? Oh where, oh where, oh where, oh where, oh where, oh where, oh where, oh where, oh wherrrrrrrre…is my hairbrush?”

Henry is jumping up and down like a kangaroo on a pogo stick, shouting, “Mommy! Mommy! It’s the Lawwy song! Keeyin is singin’ the Lawwy song!”

Wiping tears of laughter from my eyes, I look around at the half-dozen people at the tables, who are looking at the musician like he’s lost his damn mind. Bunch of sticks in the mud. Lighten up.

But Killian isn’t bothered by their response, or lack thereof. He smoothly transitions to another of Henry’s favorite silly songs. “Oh, everybody’s got a water buffalo. Yours is fast, but mine is slow. Oh, where’d we get them, I don’t know. But everybody’s got a water buffalo, oooooo.”

Henry is beside himself with excitement. He’s running around in a circle, waving his arms in the air in his best impression of a rabid chimpanzee.

Killian moves on to sing a few lines of “I Love My Lips” (I can’t help thinking I’m quite fond of them, too), followed by “The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything”.

By this time, the diners have relaxed, laughing and clapping along with the crazy tunes. Meanwhile, my son has finally worn himself out, collapsing in a small heap in front of the stage, looking up at Killian adoringly.

“...and we’ve never been to Boston in the falllllll,” Killian concludes with a flourish and takes a deep, dramatic bow.

I dig into my purse and pull out a twenty dollar bill. I always try to watch my budget, but I’ll skip getting a chocolate caramel latte for a few days to compensate. It’s worth it for what Killian did for Henry tonight.

Walking up to the stage, I drop the bill into the tip jar, smiling up at the singer. He’s between songs, so I say, “Thank you so much, Killian. You’re my hero for entertaining Henry tonight. It was great and he loved it, didn’t you, kid?”

Henry jumps to his feet. “I weally did, Keeyin! I love Lawwy songs!”

“What do you tell him?” I prompt.

“Thank you, Keeyin,” he says obediently.

“You’re very welcome, lad. I play here again in three weeks. Perhaps you can stop in and see me again?” He’s talking to Henry, but he’s looking at me.

“Can we, Mommy?” Henry pleads.

I know we probably can’t. This restaurant is all the way across the city from where we live, plus it’s pretty expensive. Mary Margaret footed the bill today, but twelve bucks for a kid’s meal is a little steep and I won’t pay it. I don’t want to say any of this though, because my tired son is walking a thin line between lingering happiness and an emotional collapse. So I use the parental standard, “We’ll see.”

Taking Henry’s hand, I say, “Thanks, again, Killian. Have a good evening.”

Something that looks like slight panic flashes through those gorgeous eyes of his and he speaks into the microphone, “I’ll be back in five, folks.” He slides his guitar around to his back and steps off the stage, placing himself directly in front of me. “Emma, if I may be so bold, and if you’re not already dating someone, would you consider going out with me?”

“Wh-what?” Apparently, getting asked out by the most handsome man I’ve ever laid eyes on renders me a bit stupid.

He lightly wraps his hand around my wrist and pulls me further toward the side of the patio for some privacy. “Even though we just met, I would really like to get to know you better.”

“But…but you don’t even know my last name.”

“What is it?”

“Cassidy.”

“Mine is Jones, so now we know each other a little better already.”

I stare at him, trying to think of a single reason why I should say no to him. “I…we…um…Henry and I, we…uh…we come as a packaged set.” That’s the way, Emma. Use your kid to try to scare him off. And you did it so gracefully, too.

“In case you haven’t noticed, I’m really quite fond of your son. That’s not a deal breaker,” he states firmly. He still hasn’t let go of my wrist and now he’s rubbing his thumb over it. I find I don’t mind at all.

“I…”

“Mommy, potty!” Henry announces.

Oh, geez. Killian has to get back to his set and Henry has to pee. I’m running out of time.

Dropping Henry’s hand, I rummage through my purse, trying to find a pen. “Got a piece of paper?” I ask, mid-rummage.

Killian dashes to his guitar case and pulls out a piece of sheet music, returning with it just as I locate the elusive pen. He plants his foot on a chair and slaps the paper down on his knee so I can scribble my number on it.

When I finish, I lift Henry into my arms and take off to find a bathroom. Before disappearing inside the restaurant, I glance back at Killian. He’s still standing where I left him, a broad smile on his face as he grips the paper in his hand. Raising my free hand, I give him a little wave and he returns it.

After I’ve had time to think about it, I might regret giving him my number. Right now I just have to keep my kid from peeing down the front of my dress.

*********

A year ago, Killian Jones was my hero for giving me a chance to relax while he entertained my son. Five months later, he was once again my hero by being my date to Mary Margaret and David’s wedding. Today, he’s still my hero because he’s continuously proving that not all men are incomparable asses.

On the contrary, he’s everything I dreamed a man should be, once upon a time. Killian Jones is talented, intelligent, funny, considerate, masculine, caring, loving, passionate, and a great conversationalist, not to mention drop-dead gorgeous (if I didn’t mention that, it would be a crime.) He’s the total package and I’m head-over-heels in love with him.

Oh, and he’s a fantastic role model for my little boy. I usually hate to admit when Mary Margaret is right, but in this case, she was unequivocally correct. He and Henry absolutely adore each other and it makes my heart so happy. They do everything together - read books, play Star Wars with lightsabers, build block towers, climb trees, ride bikes, you name it.

And Henry loves singing silly songs with his soon-to-be stepfather. What more could a mother want for her son? Except, perhaps, a sibling.

Killian and I are working on that…and thoroughly enjoying every second of it.

*********

Thank you for reading. I hope it brightened your day!

Tagging: @hookedmom​​​​​​ @kmomof4​​​​​​ @cs-rylie​​​​​​ @qualitycoffeethings​​​​​​ @grimmswan​​​​​​ @wyntereyez​​​​​​ @the-darkdragonfly​​​​​​ @ultraluckycatnd​​​​​​ @paradiselady19​​​​​​ @xarandomdreamx​​​​​​ @motherkatereloyshipper​​​​​​ @julesep3026​​​​​​ @courtorderedcake​​​​​​ @lfh1226-linda​​​​​​ @pawshapedheart​​​​​​ @vampcoffeegyrl23​​​​​​ @tiganasummertree​​​​​​ @captainswan4life85​​​​​​ @bluewildcatfanatic​​​​​​ @eleveneitherway​​​​​​ @elfiola​​​​​​ @kday426​​​​​​ @julieenchanted-swans​​​​​​ @gingerchangeling​​​​​​ @andiirivera​​​​​​ @djlbg​​​​​​ @jonesfandomfanatic​​​​​​ @snowbellewells​​​​​​ @huntressandlioness1​​​​​​ @anmylica​​​​​​ @booksteaandtoomuchtv​​​​​​ @pirateherokillian​​​​​​ @cocohook38​​​​​ @ilovemesomekillianjones​​​​​​ @laschatzi​​​​​​ @zaharadessert​​​​​​ @jennjenn615​​​​​​ @yasbio2015​​​​​​ @lyssapup27​​​​​​ @nachocheese-itsmycheese​​​​​​ @singersdd​​​​​​ @mie779​​​​​​ @undercaffinatednightmare​​​​​​ @winterbaby89​​​​​​ @xsajx​​​​​​ @jackieorioncat​​​​​​ @teamhook​​​​​​ @bdevereaux-blanche​​​​​​ @soniccat​​​​​​ @searchingwardrobes​​​​​​ @jarienn972​​​​​​ @apiratewhopines​​​​​​​ @softkilly​​​​​​​ @goforlaunchcee​​​​​​​ @kymbersmith-90​​​​​​​ @captainswan217-blog

[kmomof4]

Happy Birthday, Joni!!!

Today is the birthday of one of my fandom besties, @jrob64!! Joni, I love you so much and I so hope your birthday is filled with every good thing!!! You are a tremendous blessing in my life and I hope this gift tells you how much you mean to me!

Unfortunately, I didn't have an idea for a fic to write for you this year 🥺. I think it was the year before we met and became friends that I made fic rec lists for birthday presents, so I thought I'd do the same for you this year! So, in no particular order, here are my favorites of all the fics you've written.

Devastation and Healing- the fic we became friends over when I apparently yelled at you for something in it - I do not remember what that something was, because there were a lot of somethings in that fic... but you do remember what that something was, as you've occasionally reminded me. This fic will always hold a very special place in my heart, though, as the fic that brought you into my life!!! Summary: Sergeant Killian Jones has had more than his share of tragedy in his life. When he’s injured in an IED explosion, he’s assigned to a physical therapist named Emma Swan. While she tries to help him heal physically, can they help each other heal emotionally? Rated M, 24chs, almost 90k

One Thrill Ride Leads to Another Inspired while on our very first vacay together with Marta and Jen, you wrote this one for Marta's bday!! And what a ride it was!!! Just delightful in every way!!! Summary: While working at Universal’s Islands of Adventure, Killian Jones meets Emma Swan, slips his name and number into her phone, and later sends her a text asking her out. His snap decision could lead to her blocking his number, or to an adventure much more thrilling than a ride on a roller coaster. Rated M, 6chs, 42k

Rescuing the Princess This one was SUCH FUN!!! How you managed to include elements from so many fairytales is still just astounding to me!!! Summary: Twenty-eight years after Princess Emma of Misthaven is kidnapped by the Evil Queen, Pirate Captain Killian Jones attempts to rescue her in order to earn the substantial reward offered by her royal parents. A CS Fairytale Mash-up AU featuring Beauty and the Beast, Sleeping Beauty & Tangled, with a sprinkling of The Princess Bride thrown in for good measure. Rated T, 3chs, 19k

Sowing Seeds of Trust Such a BEAUTIFULLY written, tugging on the heartstrings tearjerker!!! Love this one soooo much!!! Summary: Emma Swan is a young woman without a family, friends, a home, and now a boyfriend after he tries to pin his crime on her. When she goes looking for help from a local charity at a church, she ends up meeting a group of people, including a handsome blue-eyed man, who offer her friendship...and a whole lot more. Rated M, 19chs, 120k

Silly Songs with Killian Of course you know about my Captain Cobra weakness, and this one just checks all the boxes. Too adorable for WORDS!!! Summary: After a frustrating and exhausting day, Emma Cassidy is relieved when her little boy, Henry, is entertained by a gorgeous musician at a restaurant, giving her a chance to sit back, relax, and enjoy the music (and the view!) It gets even better when the singer, Killian, sings some of Henry’s favorite Silly Songs from his favorite videos, Veggie Tales. Rated T OS, almost 4k.

For the Sake of Henry Another fic featuring Captain Cobra pretty prominently that tugs on the heartstrings RELENTLESSLY!!! BEAUTIFULLY done!!! Summary: Killian Jones is a third grade teacher concerned about one of his students, Henry Cassidy. When he has to make a report to the Office of Child and Family Services about the possible neglect and abuse of the boy, the person sent to investigate is Emma Swan. While both of them have Henry’s welfare at heart, there may be other matters of the heart involved neither one expected. Rated M, 11chs, 71k.

Where Her Heart Belongs Series The first fic in this series was absolutely BRILLIANT, and then the second one for my bday was PERFECT in EVERY WAY!!! I love them both SOOOO MUCH!!!! Summary: In the Land Without Magic, Emma Swan is quietly living her solitary life. When she finds a unique storybook in the library, strange things begin to happen. A canon divergent story which started out based on the movie "Somewhere in Time", but evolved into something else entirely. Two OS, Fic 1 is rated T, 2 is M, combined word count is 15k.

The Mystery Carver of Storybook The first fic you wrote for my birthday was such fun!!! Just a glimpse of their happy beginning that made my heart sooooo happy!!! Summary: Killian finds ways to cheer Emma up after Henry leaves to seek his own adventure. In the process, he creates a huge mystery for the residents of Storybrooke. Rated M, OS, 4k

Lunch Is On Me Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know... I wasn't happy that this one had such a sad premise, but the whole thing really is just soooo sweet and beautiful! Going back to visit Liam at every stage in their relationship was just so precious, its place in my heart is cemented. Summary: Emma Swan makes a mistake when ordering a DoorDash delivery and tells the driver to keep the food for himself. The response she gets moves her to tears and has her hoping to meet the man in person someday. Rated T, OS, 3500 words.

Of course our Girls Vacay Fic Collection is a favorite... 😏😜 I'm sure you're completely surprised by that... Summary: When Emma Swan and her friends go on their annual girls’ vacation, they meet a group of guys who seem to keep turning up in the same places. Pranks, yearning looks and romance ensue.

A collaborative story by snowbellewells, jdmusiclover, kmomof4 and jrob64, based on our very own girls’ trip (without the guys, sadly). 3 fics are now in the collection, all rated T, combined WC 39k

I Loved You First I know you're so surprised about this one, too... a birthday fic for me featuring my second favorite relationship on the show... absolutely precious. Summary: Emma and her father share some special sentiments with each other before he walks her down the aisle to marry her True Love. A canon compliant missing moment for 6X20, just prior to Emma and Killian's wedding. Rated G OS, 1100 words.

Long Overdue Conversations are just long overdue and are very much canon in my mind. Summary: A series of conversations between characters of Once Upon a Time which I wish we would have seen in canon, but didn’t. Ratings will be stated in the author's note at the beginning of each part. Different ratings for each of the 4chs, almost 7800 words.

And finally, this years CSSNS fic, Ghosted, even if it's not finished yet... is SO COMPELLING, and while I pretty well know what's going to happen just from all our conversations, I am on the EDGE OF MY SEAT and SCREEEEEEEEEEAMMMMMMMMMINNNNNNNNNNG for Neal's blood now for how many chs? I can't WAIT to see how you finish it all up!! Summary: When Emma Swan’s ex-boyfriend dies, she’s haunted by his ghost. Her neighbor, Killian Jones, a ghost hunter who has a YouTube channel, realizes what’s happening and offers to help. However, there’s more at stake than simply helping the apparition move on. There’s also the matter of Killian telling Emma he’s in love with her. Rated M with 3chs posted so far, 20k.

So there we go, my friend! A birthday fic rec list of all my favorite of your fics!! All of your fics are absolutely wonderful, but these are the ones I love the most. Happiest of birthdays, my friend!! Love you!!!

[hookedonapirate]

I’ll Wait a Lifetime or Two

Summary:

At forty, Emma Swan is living her best life. She's happily single and owns a thriving art gallery with her best friend Elsa. And of course, there's the love of her life, her teenage son, Henry.

Since the divorce three years ago, her carefully curated life has been quiet, peaceful, ordinary. She couldn't ask for anything more. So why does the one guy she ends up falling for have to be the rockstar her son has a poster of on his bedroom wall, whose life is nothing short of extraordinary?

The Idea of You AU

Rated: M

AO3

Ch 1 Ch 2 Ch 3 Ch 4 Ch 5

CHAPTER FIVE

"Morning, Em.” Elsa’s voice echoes through the airy gallery as I step into work.

“Morning, Els.” Before I can even make it to my office to deposit my purse, Elsa swoops in, her eyes sparkling with curiosity. “All right, spill, already.”

“Spill what?”

“You know what.”

I continue to feign cluelessness, causing Elsa to sigh. 

“The deets about Mr. Rockstar.”

“Who, Killian?” I try to keep my tone light and nonchalant, averting my eyes to evade the impending interrogation. “There’s really nothing noteworthy to share. It was just business.”

She observes me with an arched eyebrow.

Ruby, who’s arranging a new display nearby, chimes in with a mischievous grin. “It didn’t seem like just business to me. The sparks between you two were probably visible from space.”

Rolling my eyes in mock exasperation, I scoff, hoping to downplay the significance of our encounter. “It was all just professional curiosity. You know how these musicians can be—always networking.” 

“Networking? He bought out the entire gallery,” Elsa reminds me.

“It was nothing.” Ignoring the heat rising in my cheeks, I deposit my purse on my desk and make a beeline for the kitchenette. I need coffee—desperately.

Elsa follows me, relentless in her pursuit of details. “Come on, I’m dying here,” she presses, leaning against the doorway as I pour myself a cup.

“There’s really nothing to tell,” I insist, stirring sugar into my coffee and turning around. “He was interested in art. That’s all.”

She raises an eyebrow, clearly unconvinced. “Sure, just interested in the art,” she repeats with air quotes and a smirk.

I sigh, knowing there’s no escaping this. “It was a good sale for the gallery, okay? Let’s just be happy about that.”

She doesn’t drop it, but I need a change of subject. I hate lying to her, but even if I told her I had Killian over for lunch, kissed the hell out of him and kicked him out, it wouldn’t matter, because I’ll never see him again. 

After realizing I wasn’t interested in continuing whatever it is we started, he probably moved on with some other woman who is much younger and more beautiful. I wouldn’t blame him. He could literally have any straight woman on the planet, so why on earth would he choose me?

I take a deep breath, the memory of that kiss still fresh in my mind. It lingers like the ghost of his lips on mine. His hands on my skin.

I close my eyes as if I could shut away the thoughts. It was just a kiss. One spontaneous, reckless kiss that means nothing. Well, actually it was two or maybe three kisses. The flutter in my stomach betrays me, however, mocking my attempts at denial.

But maybe meeting someone else will help me forget about him.

Ha! Like that could ever happen.

“By the way, what about that guy you wanted to set me up with? Walsh, right?”

Her eyes light up. “Yes, Walsh. He owns that cute furniture shop on Sunset Boulevard.”

As I sip my coffee, trying to listen to Elsa, my mind betrays me, wandering back to yesterday. Killian’s lips, his touch, the little noises he made as we kissed, his ragged breaths, his low groans are still implanted in my head. I can still feel his hands on my skin, taste his lips, smell his cologne. The memory sends a shiver down my spine.

“Em?” Elsa’s voice cuts through my thoughts like a well-sharpened blade, jolting me back to the present.

I look over at her and blink. “Sorry?”

“A date with Walsh? Are you up for it?”

“Uh, sure, I’ll go.”

“Great! I’ll set it up,” Elsa beams.

With the immediate interrogation dodged, I take a moment to savor my coffee and return to the front of the gallery, trying to push thoughts of Killian and the kiss from my mind.

“So, what are we going to do about the empty walls?” Elsa asks, gesturing around, her eyes dancing with amusement. “Killian’s visit sparked a whole bunch of curiosity yesterday. People have been calling and coming in, wanting to check out the art…which we currently don’t have.”

Ruby glances up from her work. “We should have new pieces arriving by the end of the week.”

“In the meantime, we can showcase some of our private collection and maybe do a feature on upcoming artists,” I add.

Elsa nods in agreement. “Sounds like a plan.”

~*~

I stand in front of the mirror, holding up a delicate black dress, my stomach full of knots. I turn around, seeking a second opinion. “What do you think about this one?” I ask Henry, who’s lounging on my bed, scrolling through his phone.

He glances up briefly, narrowing his eyes, before reverting his gaze to his screen. “It’s nice…”

“Really?”

“Yeah, if you’re going to a funeral.”

I roll my eyes but can’t help but smile at his blunt honesty. I turn the dress around and study it from Henry’s perspective. Intricate black lace adorns the fabric, the sleeves flow elegantly and it’s very modest, featuring gentle ruffles over the chest and a high collar at the neck that adds a touch of sophistication. It does look like something I would wear to a funeral.

Come to think of it—I have worn this dress to a funeral. “Alright, Mr. Fashion Critic, what do you suggest?”

He sets down his phone and gets up, rifling through my closet. After a few moments, he pulls out a red dress. “This one. It’s classy but not too serious.”

My mouth falls open as my eyes sweep over the dress I haven’t worn in years. I actually forgot it was hanging in my closet. I take the dress from him, holding it up against me in the mirror. It has a flowy, knee-length skirt and a strappy open back, adorned with a bow. The draped waist detail complements the plunging V-neck bodice beautifully. Fancy but comfortable.

I look over at him, a smile tugging at my lips. “How did you get to be so smart, kid?”

“Because I inherited my brains from you, duh.”

Now it’s my turn to narrow my eyes. “Okay, what do you want?”

His face breaks into a mischievous grin. “Can I crash at Roland’s tonight? He just got the new CyberStrike.”

“Fine, but you better be ready to go in twenty minutes.”

He cocks his brow. “Mom, we both know you take longer than that to get ready.”

I laugh and shake my head. “Just get a change of clothes around.”

After I slip into the dress and apply some red lipstick, my hair resting over my shoulders in soft waves, I turn my attention to the watch on my dresser. Killian’s watch. The memory of him leaving it behind, whether intentionally or not, sends a thrill through me.

I slip it on, the weight of it comforting in a way I can’t quite explain but, at the same time, sending butterflies in my stomach.

When I enter the living room, Henry’s ready to go, his backpack next to him on the couch as he plays on his phone again.

“Better?”

When he looks up, he gives me an approving nod and a smile. “Much better.” He stands from the couch and grabs his bag. “You look beautiful, Mom.”

“Thanks, Henry.” I give him a side hug. “What would I do without you?”

He shrugs. “Probably get sick of people coming up to you, extending their condolences for your loss.”

I roll my eyes and laugh. “Clearly, you’ve inherited your sense of humor from your father.”

He slings his bag over one shoulder, eyeing my wrist. “Nice watch.”

“Thank you, it was a birthday gift...from a friend.” God, I hate lying to Henry, especially considering Neal lied to us both while he was having a secret affair with Wendy, but how can I possibly tell him the truth?

Oh by the way, kid, I had your twenty-four-year old idol over for lunch and didn’t think to include you. Then I kissed the fuck out of him, but don’t worry, it was a one time thing. And he left his watch behind, probably hoping he’ll see me again. And I’m going on this date with another man while I’m still thinking about the rockstar.

Nope, don’t think that would go over very well.

“Ready to go to your friend’s house?” I ask, changing the subject as quickly as possible.

“So, who’s this Walsh guy again?” he asks as we head out the door.

“He’s someone Elsa set me up with. He owns a furniture shop in town,” I explain, smoothing down my dress.

Henry furrows his brows. “If he’s such a nice guy, then why didn’t he come to pick you up?”

I laugh, shaking my head. “Because I’m perfectly capable of driving myself.”

“I know you are, but I have to meet him to find out if he’s good enough for you.”

My eyes sting a little at that, a wave of emotion washing over me. I wrap my arm around his shoulders as we walk to my car. “I appreciate you wanting to look out for me, kid.”

“Just want to make sure you’re happy, Mom.”

I smile at him. “How about you meet him next time? If there is a next time.”

He grins, a mischievous glint in his eyes. “Deal. Just don’t be surprised if I give him the third degree.”

I laugh. “I wouldn’t expect anything less.”

When I drop him off, Henry gives me one last piece of advice. “Have fun tonight, Mom. Don’t overthink it.”

I smile and hug him. “Thanks, kid. I’ll try.”

He gets out, and I watch him walk into his friend’s house. I take a deep breath and head to the restaurant I’m supposed to meet Walsh at, hoping the evening will be a pleasant distraction from the thoughts invading my mind of Killian and that damn kiss. Blair’s is an Italian restaurant not too far from where I live and is close to his furniture shop, so it’s a perfect meet-in-the-middle spot.

He’s already there when I arrive, standing when he sees me, a practiced smile on his face.

“Emma, hi, I’m Walsh. It’s great to meet you.” His handshake is firm, the eye contact steady.

“Nice to meet you too, Walsh.” My voice is polite, but the words feel hollow. We sit, and the small talk begins—a volley of questions and answers bouncing back and forth.

He’s nice enough—handsome, polite, and successful. Closer to my age. In fact, he might be a little older. Yet, as he goes on and on about his furniture shop, my attention keeps drifting.

“Emma?” His voice pulls me back.

“Sorry, what was that?”

“I asked if you’d like to try the wine I picked out.” He motions to the bottle chilling beside us.

“Sure,” I answer, but the taste of red on my tongue doesn’t compare to the thrill of Killian’s lips pressed against mine, the memory sending an unwelcome warmth through me.

“...and that’s when I decided to expand into custom pieces.” Walsh’s eyes light up with enthusiasm. “You wouldn’t believe the demand for handcrafted dining tables.”

I nod, forcing a smile. “That sounds...interesting.”

He continues, oblivious to my waning interest. “And then we started sourcing wood from sustainable forests. It’s been a game-changer for the business.”

I take a sip of my wine, glancing around the restaurant. Couples are laughing, waiters are bustling and there’s a general air of warmth and excitement I just don’t feel at our table. I try to engage, but there’s no connection, no chemistry. Not even the initial first date sparks.

Walsh leans forward, his eyes earnest. “What about you, Emma? What’s your favorite kind of furniture?”

I pause, searching for a polite response. “I guess I’ve never really thought about it in detail. I like pieces that are functional and comfortable.”

“Functionality is key,” he agrees, launching into another detailed explanation about ergonomic designs.

I nod along, fidgeting with my napkin, my thoughts drifting to Killian. The excitement, the thrill, the undeniable connection we shared—it’s all I can think about. Every word Walsh says just emphasizes the stark contrast between them. Which isn’t very fair to Walsh. I mean, how can you compete with Killian? You can’t.

“...and that’s why choosing the right wood is so important,” Walsh finishes, looking at me expectantly.

“Absolutely,” I reply, though I’m not entirely sure what I’m agreeing to.

He smiles, seemingly satisfied with my response, and continues talking about his latest project. I glance at my watch discreetly, wondering how much longer I need to stay. We’ve only been here for about fifteen minutes, our food hasn’t even arrived, yet it feels like we’ve been here for an eternity and a half.

Needing a break, I excuse myself and hurry to the restroom.

As I stand in front of the sink, cursing myself for agreeing to this date, my phone buzzes in my clutch purse. I fish it out, a message lighting up the screen.

+44 7779 460726: I can’t get that kiss out of my head. I need to see you again.

My heart skitters, a smile tugging at my lips. The memory of our kiss flashes vividly in my mind, sending a chill down my spine. But here I am, on a date with Walsh, who has been nothing but kind but whom I have no interest in. Guilt twists in my gut as I type back.

Me: Who’s this?

+44 7779 460726: Ha! Cold.

+44 7779 460726: I got your number from the invoice. Hope that’s okay.

I click my tongue and sigh.

Me: Have the pieces arrived yet?

+44 7779 460726: Haven’t been home yet. Hear they look great.

+44 7779 460726: Anyway, about that kiss…

I roll my eyes and throw my phone back into my clutch purse before going to a stall and using the toilet. When I come out and wash my hands, my purse buzzes again.

+44 7779 460726: I know you read my last text. 🙂

I laugh.

Me: I can’t talk right now. I’m going to bed.

+44 7779 460726: No, you’re not.

Me: How do you know?

+44 7779 460726: Because it’s only 7.

+44 7779 460726: Also, you’re not at home.

Me: And how would you know that?

+44 7779 460726: Because I checked.

Me: You stopped by my house?

+44 7779 460726: I didn’t stop, I just happened to drive by a moment ago and notice all the lights were out.

Me: Happened to stop by? Right. 🙄

+44 7779 460726: Fine, I purposely drove by your house.

+44 7779 460726: Your turn to be honest 😁

Me: Stalker

I sigh.

Me: Okay, okay, I’m on a date. Happy?

+44 7779 460726: Am I happy you’re on a date with someone who’s not me? Not in the least. You’re really twisting the knife, love.🗡️💔 

Me: Elsa set it up. I didn’t have a choice.

Okay, I did have a choice but he doesn’t have to know I only said yes to the date to forget about him .

+44 7779 460726: Are you enjoying the date?

Me: No, not really. Our food hasn’t arrived and I’m already bored to tears.

+44 7779 460726: Where are you? I’ll pick you up.

His offer hangs in the air, tempting like a decadent piece of chocolate. My heart races at the thought of leaving Walsh sitting alone, but also at the prospect of being whisked away by Killian.

I bite my bottom lip. not even believing I’m contemplating taking him up on his offer. This is ridiculous. I’m on a date with someone and actually considering ditching him for another man. But how often do I get asked out by a rockstar?

+44 7779 460726: Do I have to beg, Swan?

Me: Only if you want to…

+44 7779 460726: Will you go on a date with me? Please?🙏 🙏🙏

I can’t believe what I’m reading. Killian Jones is actually begging me to go on a date with him.

+44 7779 460726: I promise not to bore you.

I laugh. Like that could happen. I'd be entertained simply by getting lost in his eyes. I add his number to my contacts and shoot him my answer.

Me: I’m at Blair’s, 2901 Rowena Ave.

Killian: On my way.

I am so going to hell for this. For lying and ditching a perfectly nice guy for one who is almost half my age. So irresponsible.

I take a deep breath, bracing myself for the awkward conversation ahead. I clear my throat and hurry to the table where Walsh is sitting, my heart pounding in my chest. “Hey, Walsh...” My eyes are wide, feigning panic.

He looks up, concern knitting his brows. “Everything okay?”

“My son, Henry, just called. He went out to eat with some friends and got food poisoning.” I force an apologetic smile. “I have to go, I’m so sorry.”

Walsh’s face falls slightly, but he quickly masks his disappointment. “Oh no, I hope he’s alright. Do you need any help?”

“No, but thank you,” I reply, the guilt pressing down on me. “I just need to get to him as soon as possible.”

I reach into my purse and pull out some money, placing it on the table to cover my share of the food. “This should cover my part. I’m really sorry about this.”

Walsh shakes his head, waving his hand dismissively. “Don’t worry about it, Emma. Go take care of Henry. Maybe we can do this another time?”

“Yeah, maybe. Thanks for understanding.”

Without waiting for a response, I hurry out of the restaurant, my heart pounding with guilt and excitement. I step outside, the cool evening air doing little to calm my racing heart as I scan the street for Killian. I can’t help but wonder if I’m making the right choice, but the memory of our kiss and the anticipation of seeing him again push those doubts aside.

A minute later, a sleek, Audi R8 Spyder pulls up in front of me, its engine purring smoothly.

Killian rolls down the window, his million-dollar smile showing off his brilliant white teeth. “Hop in, love.”

I can’t help but smile, the thrill of seeing him again outweighing my guilt. I open the door and slide into the passenger seat, buckling my seatbelt. The smell of luxurious leather envelops me as he shifts into gear, the vehicle gliding forward with effortless power.

It’s surreal riding in a fancy car with Killian, who looks irresistible enough to eat. He’s wearing a well-fitted black leather jacket over a crisp white button-up shirt, the top few buttons casually undone. His dark jeans are perfectly tailored, accentuating his lean frame, and he’s completed the look with a pair of polished black boots. His silver chain with the skull and crossbones peeks out from beneath his shirt, and he has a few understated rings on his fingers, adding just a touch of rockstar edge to his ensemble. His hair is tousled in that perfectly messy way, and a hint of stubble lines his jaw, making me want to grab him and kiss him and finish what we’d started on Tuesday.

“Nice car.”

“Thank you, love, but I don’t actually own it. It’s a rental.” 

I raise an eyebrow, wondering if there’s anything he does actually own. The trailer, the watch I’m wearing, the car. They’re all things given to him or loaned for temporary use. “A rental, huh? I guess being a rockstar doesn’t mean you have to own all the fancy toys.”

He chuckles. “Exactly. Sometimes it’s fun to try different things without the commitment.”

I hold up my wrist, showing him the silver timepiece. “I brought you your watch.”

He looks over and smirks. “It looks much better on you, love.”

As I lower my arm and twist the watch around my wrist, staring ahead blankly, I find myself wondering if his noncommittal approach extends to women as well. My stomach churns at the thought of this being just a fleeting experience, of him moving on to the next woman after he has his fill of me. Am I just another one of his rental toys?

I softly shake my head, thinking maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing after all. Maybe I could take a page from his book. Maybe this is exactly what I need right now—a chance to explore, to feel something new, to have this experience without any strings attached, then return to my normal life. My normal, rockstar-free life. I deserve a little excitement, a little unpredictability. And with Killian, it feels like anything is possible.

I glance over at Killian, his profile illuminated by the city lights. He seems so at ease, so comfortable in his own skin. It’s refreshing and a little intoxicating. The pull of adventure, the lure of stepping outside my routine and embracing something exciting and different.

“You look stunning, Swan, by the way. Is that a new dress?”

Heat creeps up my cheeks and I smile back at him. “Thank you, but no, it’s not new. Henry picked it out of my closet, actually. He saved me from leaving the house looking like I was going to a funeral.”

Killian laughs, a deep, rich sound that makes my heart flutter. “Smart kid. I told you, he’s got great taste.”

“Yeah, he does. He was pretty insistent about it, too.”

“Well, I’m glad he was.” His eyes briefly flick over to me again, full of warmth. “You look perfect.”

“You don’t look so bad yourself.” I grin as I reach out, touching his arm.

“Thanks, love.” He tosses me a flirty smirk, placing his hand on my leg over my dress. The touch is very much welcome, but it makes this date all the more real. Too real.

As the car sails through the streets, my pulse quickens, a familiar knot of anxiety tightening in my chest. It dawns on me with an almost physical jolt—I’m on a date with Killian Jones. My heart races, and a cold sweat forms on my palms. This isn’t just any date. It’s a date with a celebrity, someone whose life is so far removed from my own, it feels like I’m stepping into a different world.

I glance over at Kilian, his easy confidence making me feel even more self-conscious. What if I say something stupid or do something embarrassing? What if I trip over my own feet or spill my drink all over him? My mind spins with all the possible ways I could ruin this evening. What if he sees through my insecurities and decides I’m not worth the effort?

“Emma?” Kilian’s voice cuts through my spiraling thoughts, gentle yet concerned. “Are you alright?”

I swallow hard, trying to muster a reassuring smile. “Yeah, just...a little nervous, I guess.”

He pulls the car over to the side of the road, turning to face me fully. His eyes are soft, filled with understanding. “Are you sure you want to go on this date?” he asks gently. “Just say the word and I can take you back.”

I take a shaky breath, my pulse pounding in my ears. “I want this, Killian, but it’s been so long since I’ve been on a date. And now that I am, it happens to be with one of the hottest rock stars in the world, so I’m a bit overwhelmed.”

Killian smiles softly and pulls me close, cupping my cheek in his hand. “Don’t think of me as a rockstar, love,” he murmurs, his voice low and soothing. “I’m just a guy who’s incredibly attracted to you.”

I laugh. “Easy for you to say. You don’t have a kid who has a poster of me on their bedroom wall.”

He arches a brow, his blue eyes glinting with mischief. “I wish I had a poster of you on my bedroom wall.”

I snort-laugh, playfully swatting him on the shoulder.

“Just be yourself, Emma. That’s all I want.”

His words break through the haze of panic, and I take a deep breath, trying to steady myself.

“And if it makes you feel any better,” he adds, his eyes locked on mine, “I’m just as nervous as you are.”

A smile tugs at my lips. “Yeah, that actually does make me feel better.”

He brushes a strand of hair from my face, his touch gentle and lingering. His eyes hold mine, sparkling with desire and tenderness. Without another word, he leans in, closing the distance between us, and captures my lips with his. The kiss is electric, a surge of energy that sends shivers down my spine. My heart races, and I lose myself in the sensation, the world around us fading into oblivion.

His lips are warm and soft against mine, moving with a perfect blend of urgency and restraint. As our tongues touch, the kiss deepens, igniting a fire within me. My hands instinctively find their way to his neck, fingers threading through his hair, pulling him closer.

Just as the intensity builds, Killian pulls away, his breath ragged and uneven. He rests his forehead against mine, his eyes closed for a moment as if savoring the lingering connection. When he opens them, a playful smile tugs at his lips, a mixture of satisfaction and longing.

“If we continue like that,” he murmurs, his voice husky, “we won’t make our reservations in Malibu.”

I laugh softly, my own breath coming in short gasps. “You’re right. We should probably go.”

He gives me one last, lingering kiss on the lips before moving away.

As he pulls back onto the road, I straighten and take another deep breath, trying to focus on the moment. Maybe, just maybe, I can let myself enjoy this without overthinking it. Take it for what it is—a thrilling detour from the everyday, a chance to feel alive and desired.

Once I take a moment to recover from the kiss, I think about the last thing he said and furrow my brows at him. “Wait, you had time to make reservations? We only started texting about five minutes before you showed up at Blair’s.”

A sheepish smile spreads over his lips. “I made them earlier.”

“Oh, and you were sure I’d drop everything and go on a date with you?” I tease.

He chuckles, his cheeks pink as he scratches behind his ear. “I was hoping. I would’ve called you much earlier but we were performing at Rockville in Daytona and then tried to get some shut-eye during the four-hour flight back.”

I nod, understanding the demands of his world. “I get it. Life of a rockstar.” I smirk.

He chuckles, shaking his head. “Aye, it can get pretty hectic. But I’m here now. So, what’d you tell your date?”

“That Henry has food poisoning,” I laugh a bit sheepishly. “It was the best I could come up with on the spot.”

“Well, I’m glad you decided to come with me,” he says, reaching over to grab my hand. “I’ve been thinking about you a lot since that kiss.”

“Me too,” I admit, my heart fluttering at his touch as I thread my fingers through his. “That’s why I agreed to go on the date with Walsh.”

Killian looks at me, lifting a brow. “You were thinking of me, yet you went on a date with someone else?”

I sigh. “I know, it’s stupid, but I was trying to forget you.”

He smirks, though there’s a softness in his eyes. “Forget me, huh? How’s that working out for you?”

I laugh. “Not well, obviously.”

Kilian squeezes my hand gently, his touch warm and reassuring. “I’m glad it didn’t work.” His eyes remain focused on the road, but his thumb strokes the back of my hand in soothing circles.

A smile pulls at my lips, the nerves from earlier melting away as I whisper, “Me too.”

[starkeyisthelastname]

Thank you for the tag babe! 🌺😘 @rafesthroatbaby

Moot Appreciate Tag Game! 🥰

Music Genre: Mostly rap and R&B. (If you’d like my Apple Music or Spotify just let me know 💕)

Shows+Movies: Outer Banks, AHS, Catfish, House MD, The Chi, P-Valley, KUWTK, Hell’s Kitchen, On My Block, BMF, All American. Clue, Means Girls, Legally Blonde, House Bunny. Gossip Girl, You, Once Upon A Time (Too many to count. 😂)

Colors: Black and Pink.

Characters: Rafe Cameron, JJ Maybank, John B. Routledge, Sarah Cameron, Tiffany (The Chi), Princess Jasmine, Spooky Diaz, Emma Swan, Regina Mills, Siobhan Corbyn, Killian Jones, Nate Archibald, Gregory House, Allison Cameron. The list goes on… 🙈

Musicians: Bryson Tiller, EST Gee, Eric Bellinger, Future, Kendrick Lamar, Justine Skye, Mozzy, 6Lack, Layton Greene, Lil Durk, Leon Thomas, SZA, Nardo Wick, Moneybagg Yo, OhGeesy, PARTYNEXTDOOR, Skilla Baby. (Don’t judge this. 😅)

here a few tags: @rafecameronsgun @brioffthegrid @prettybabyyyy

[kazoosandfannypacks]

I would like you to work on the OUAT Romeo and Juliet AU’s. Both of them. Thank you, love!!!

You got it! Here's a snippet of what I got written in the Captain Swan Romeo & Juliet & Boybands AU

 Three hours passed in a manner of seconds. Instead of following through on their plans to watch a movie, they'd spent the whole time just talking and smiling and enjoying each other's presence. Killian wasn't sure which he enjoyed more: hearing Emma tell stories about her life, or the look on her face as she listened to him tell stories of his own. Either way, the time passed all too quickly.

and then here's a snippet out of the August and Belle wip, which is set in the same AU, but tells Belle's side of the story.

 Most of the Buggies' music left much to be desired, in terms of composition. She didn't mind; she was mostly just listening for the lyrics, and those lyrics were a thing of beauty. For everything they lacked in ability and charm, they more than made up for in their keyboard-playing lyricist, August Booth. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't listening for the piano track in most of their songs, that she wasn't whittling down the list of his lyrics that she'd want a tattoo of, or that she didn't consider him attractive, or, at least, closer to her type than most musicians were.

kick-in-the-pants writer's game!

[nereidaa]

intro post ˎˊ˗ 🚕

hi! i'm nana ♡

*✧˚. ❃ she/her, ukrainian, 14, cabin 7, intp/j, ravenclaw, a-spec, sagittarius, musician. percabeth & captainswan lover forever!! taytay + lana + måneskin. piper mclean's girl bestie. single taken mentally dating killian jones. regina mills' apologist. kyiv girlie. я кінню циферблат! annabeth chase #2 stan (percy is the #1 so). vinnytsia fanclub founder. in love w sirius black for my whole life. simping for dead gay witches! eng/ukr.

CURRENTLY READING: blood of olympus CURRENTLY WATCHING: once upon a time (s4); gossip girl (s5); agatha christie's poirot (s5)

check my carrd here -> nereidaa.carrd.co ★ masterlist ★ moodboards you can make a donation to ukraine here

DONATE TO CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OKHMADYT

[darerendevil]

For archive purposes: October, 2012

A lean, slight, tousled figure in a sailor-striped T-shirt and buckle-back trousers, Cillian Murphy walks into an upscale Japanese restaurant in downtown Manhattan. As he says hello, sits down, and looks around the room with his extraordinary ultramarine blue eyes, I form my first impressions: kind, gentle, sensitive, good-humoured, with no visible traces of the villains, psychopaths and other tortured souls he has played so convincingly on stage and screen. He also looks a little weary, and there is good reason for this.

“I’ve had kind of a crazy week this week,” he says in a mellifluous Irish accent with a rich grainy timbre. “I was in the Ukraine for a film festival. I’ve been all over America promoting a film called Red Lights, which I’m in with Robert De Niro. Yesterday was The Dark Knight Rises premiere here in New York, and this afternoon we fly to London for the next premiere. It’s all part of the job, I suppose, but it’s certainly not the reason why you do it.”

The waiter arrives with water and menus, and after some study, Cillian (pronounced Killian) decides on a salad of shitakes and market greens, followed by the sashimi. “I’m a vegetarian who occasionally eats meat and fish,” he says. “I like a drink too, but I won’t just now. I’ll stick with water.” I order the Kobe beef and ask the waiter to bring out a glass of red wine with it.

Some actors enjoy talking about themselves and their films, and they do it well. Cillian does not count himself among them. “I’m getting less hung about it, but when I started, the whole promotion aspect was an ordeal to be endured,” he says. “I just don’t have a great facility for it. I try to be interesting and spontaneous but it’s so hard when you get asked the question fifty or a hundred times over. You hear your little anecdotes going stale. Yes, it was fantastic to work with Robert De Niro, but you can only say it so many times, you know? I’ve always thought, just judge me on the work. What else matters? I’m an actor and that’s what I do.”

There’s an assumption in the media that actors are all competing in the same horse race for A-list stardom, and that an actor like Cillian Murphy, who seems poised on the very brink of it, with the perfect combination of looks and talent, must surely be yearning to get there. Journalists find it hard to accept when he tells them that that the only thing he cares about is the work, and the rest of it is to be endured. But this is why he avoids celebrity parties and keeps himself out of the gossip pages. He attends his own premieres, because he has to, but he won’t go to anyone else’s and he dreads the four-minute television interview on the red carpet.

Off screen, he lives a quiet, normal life that he likes to keep as private as possible. He’s married to Yvonne McGuinness, a visual artist, and they’ve been together since he was 20. They have two sons, Malachy and Aran, and shuttle between their house in North West London and the ancestral sod of County Cork.

“I’ve always felt that the less the public knows about you, the more effective you can be when you go to portray someone else,” he says.“For actors to reveal so much about themselves, and allow their personal selves to be owned by the media and the public, I find at odds with trying to lose yourself in a character. And that’s the thing I’m after. That’s what drives me. I’m 36 now, and I still have a real hunger for it.”

He thinks the desire to perform for an audience is something genetic, a personality trait that lives in the DNA, and it first expressed itself in his youthful attempts to be a rock star.“Of all the arts, music is still the one that affects me on the deepest level,” he says. “My parents were teachers, not artistic types, but there was always music in the house, and all four of us kids learned to play music. I was in a few different bands, playing guitar, singing and songwriting.”

One of those bands was called The Sons of Mr Greengenes, after the Frank Zappa song. They were offered a five-album deal by Acid Jazz records, but turned it down, because the deal was a swindle and Cillian’s parents disapproved of the music business. At the same time, Cillian recognised that he’d reached the ceiling of his musical talent, and would never be as good as he wanted to be. He went to law school in Cork “for no good reason,” and then one day he wandered into a production of Clockwork Orange staged in local nightclub.

“If your first theatre experience is a bad one, it’s unlikely you’ll go back,” he says. “But my first theatre experience was an extraordinary one. It was dangerous and sexy and electric, and just astonishing. I’ll always love music, but here was another form of live performance, just as exciting.”He pestered the theatre company, and after some starter roles, he was cast in the lead of Disco Pigs, a strange and brilliant play by Enda Walsh about a sick, twisted, obsessive relationship between a deranged boy and a slightly less deranged girl next door. The play was a huge success, touring for several years, reaching as far afield as Toronto and Copenhagen, and in 2001 it was made into a film. Pale, beautiful and androgenous, with outsized lips and impossibly blue eyes, Cillian Murphy looks as though he drifted down to earth from some other galaxy, or floated up from a cave kingdom beneath the Irish Sea. This ethereal, otherworldly quality has been a great asset to him as an actor, and many of his films have taken place in imaginary realms or the future.

His big breakthrough came in 2002 when he was cast as the lead in Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later, and required to fight his way through a post-apocalyptic London full of zombies. He went to outer space in Boyle’s Sunshine, and Gotham City for Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, in which he plays the sinister psychologist Scarerow. Nolan cast him again in Inception, as the target man for Leonardo DiCaprio’s team of dream-jackers.He’s also played a transvestite for Neil Jordan in Breakfast On Pluto, a creepy villain for Wes Craven in Red Eye, and a reluctant freedom fighter turned zealot for Ken Loach in The Wind Shakes The Barley, an epic about the Irish war of independence set in his native Cork. In all, he’s done 26 feature films, and while some of them haven’t turned out as well as he hoped, there are no bad or stupid films in his biography.

“You have to go in with good faith, and believe that this is best performance you’re ever going to give,” he says. “I’ve never done a film I didn’t believe in. I’ve never done a film for the money. Fortunately, I’ve been in some big budget films that were smart, and the money has given me the freedom to do small budget films and theatre that I’ve felt passionately about. An example is this movie Broken, which is a kind of version of To Kill A Mockingbird transposed to contemporary London. It’s a tiny, tiny budget film, and I’m just so proud of it. It’s such an emotionally brave piece of film-making.”Another example is Misterman, a one-man play that he performed earlier this year in Ireland, Brooklyn and London. Written by Enda Walsh, who got him started in Disco Pigs, and has become a close friend, it required him to play seven different characters imagined by the main character, and earned him the best reviews of his entire career. “It was incredibly exhausting and incredibly satisfying. Sometimes I was doing two performances a day. I don’t think I’ve ever been so tired, or so happy. It was very pure. It was all about the work. The commerce aspect was tiny, compared to when you make a film, and there was none of the waiting around.”

The waiter sets down two beautifully presented plates, one of sashimi and one of beef, and pours me a particularly delicious glass of Bordeaux. Seeing the expression of delight on my face when I taste the wine, Cillian says, “You know what? I’ll have a glass as well then. I do like my red wine.” Then the conversation collapses into silence, grunts,and occasional exclamations, as our chopsticks deliver one morsel of culinary artistry after another into our mouths. This restaurant, 15 East, was recently named one of the best in New York, and for both of us, it’s one of the best meals of our lives. “Absolutely sensational,” says Cillian, who is finding no problem at all drinking red wine with sushi.

When the plates are empty, I ask him what it feels like to become a character. Is it a genuine transformation, or it just a matter of dressing up and pretending to be someone else? “It’s not always the same,” he says. “Some characters are just a slight adjustment, and some are a great distance away from you. I like to do research. I was playing a professional debunker in this movie Red Lights about the supernatural, so I went and hung out with physicists and professional sceptics and magicians, to understand that community. Actors tend to know a lot superficially about a great deal of things.”

I press him again: what does it feel like when you’re in character? “It’s most satisfying on the stage,” he says. “If it reaches the point of being transcendent, where you’re not actually conscious of being on stage performing, because you’re only aware of the character and his world and his needs, well, that’s what you’re always aiming for, that’s the moment that theatre people are always chasing. It’s the ultimate rush, if you will, for an actor, when the self disappears completely.”

One glass of Bordeaux leads to another. The waiter asks if we want dessert, and Cillian says no thanks, and I order something called a Shiratama parfait of red beans, matcha jelly and green tea ice cream.When it arrives, it is multi-coloured and visually spectacular with many more ingredients, and Cillian says, “Wow, look at that. My goodness, I might have to get a spoon of that.”

We both dig in, exploring an extraordinary combination of flavours and textures, with gums, jellies, brioche, red bean paste and more. “Oh man, what’s that green stuff?” he says, mining the lower layers now. “I have no idea what that is. It’s got that gummy vibe going on again. Fecking amazing.”

With a drop more wine, Cillian gets talking with great enthusiasm about books and music. Have I read the Irish writer John Banville, one of his favourites? Do I know the seminal jazz album Bill Evans Live At the Village Vanguard? Cillian found it recently on vinyl, being a great admirer of Bill Evan’s understated piano playing, and firmly convinced that vinyl is still the best way to listen to music. He loves Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, Van Morrison, Jack White, and the Irish writers Pat McCabe, Sebastian Barry and the late, great, mindbending Flann O’Brien. Cillian is signed up for the film version of O’Brien’s satirical postmodern comedy At-Swim-Two-Birds, along with Gabriel Byrne, Colin Farrell and Michael Fassbender, and he hopes it will go into production soon.

“I’m also hoping to do some telly,” he says. “The smart mid-budget movie, which has been my bread and butter, has been squeezed out quite a bit. People are very reluctant to take a chance on a smart $17 million movie. They’d much rather throw everything into a dumb $250 million movie. But you don’t find that in TV where the writing just gets better and better, and you’ve the opportunity to develop a character over many hours.”

When you’re interviewing an actor, it’s always difficult to know if you’re witnessing a performance or the real person, but I get the distinct impression that Cillian Murphy is not only a nice guy, but maybe even happy and fulfilled. Is this true? “Well, the insecurity is always there,” he says. “It’s a necessary aspect of being an actor, or a writer for that matter. You have to have that insecurity. I used to feel like a failed musician pretending to be an actor, but that’s less of a worry now. I’ve found my form, I’ve found the right outlet for my impulse to create, and yes, I’m pretty happy. I don’t believe you have to be a tortured person in order to make great art. It needn’t always come from a place of pain, although there seems to be a romantic view of that.”

When he was a boy, all he wanted to do was hang around with artists and creative people, but he was stuck in a school in Cork where rugby and academia were the only things people seemed to care about. “Now, weirdly, I’ve found myself in a position where all my friends are artists. It’s a good place to be, I think, and that’s a real source of happiness, especially when we collaborate on stuff.”His ambitions for the future are very simple. In theatre, film or television, in collaboration with the best writers and directors, he wants to make great art, and keep on making it. “I can’t remember which director said it, but he said it takes 30 years to make a good actor,” he says.

“Longevity matters. I’m 16 years in, just over the hump, and when I’m 50 I should know if I’ve mastered my trade, or failed gloriously.”When the dessert and Bordeaux are finished, I ask for the bill, and the waiter brings it with two complementary glasses of dessert wine and a tray of petit fours. “I’m a big fan of your work,” he says to Cillian.

“I’m a big fan of your restaurant,” says Cillian. “How fantastic. What a meal. I wish all interviews could be like this.”As we walk out pleasantly buzzed into the bright furnace of a New York summer afternoon, I notice that Cillian doesn’t appear to have a mobile phone. “I left it in a taxi yesterday,” he says.

“Within half an hour, someone had called my wife and made arrangements to return it. I’m going to pick it up now before I go to the airport. It gives you faith, man. My publicist has lost two wallets and a phone here, and gotten them all back, with none of the money missing. It’s not something people expect from New York, but there you have it.”

Then I see the waiter from 15 East running down the street towards us, and I wonder if he’s going to ask Cillian for an autograph. But no, by odd coincidence, the waiter is holding my mobile phone, which I must have left in the restaurant. “You see what I mean?” says Cillian. “It gives you faith. Alright, best of luck, and I’ll be off now.”

[sanityshorror]

hey!~ it's my bitrhday today, how would the hellcrew wish others a happy birthday?

Killian actually loves holidays and celebrating birthdays (plus birthdays are an excuse to take the birthday person to a strip club and get tons of coke (the drug) and hookers😭

Julius bakes a delicious birthday dinner and cake, will insist the birthday person have a self pamper day, and give only 2-3 gifts, but very meaningful ones. One of the gifts is always a really badass handmade leather jacket.

Kelly, like Killian, is a party mf. They'll contribute to making the party extra wild.

Vivi will manage to get the birthday person's favorite musician/band to put on a live and personal performance (Vivi has a lot of connections to the music industry and has played guitar in quite a few famous rock and metal bands).

Sullivan will do decorating and buy a crap ton of gifts.

Cian, he's another party mf. Prepare for extreme chaos.

Duvessa is the one to do the pampering

You'll have to ask @gracilissart about Seamus and Sera, and @scarfaxia about Devlin!

[tildeathiwillwrite]

✍️ "when did you get started writing?"

✏️ “what are your current WIPs about?”

(in response to this ask game)

✍️ When did you get started writing?

I don't have an exact year, but by my estimation I was 10 or 11 when I got a sparkly pink notebook and began what is in hindsight shitty videogame fanfiction. I never finished it, and I wanted to crawl put of my skin when I found the notebook recently. Shows how much I've grown as a writer, we all have to start somewhere!

✏️ What are your current WIPs about?

Okay so I got eight WIPs that I post about: 5 original novels, 1 original short story (that might end up being a novelette) and 2 fanfics. Listed in order of current priority. Long post incoming hehe

The Hunter, the Myth and the Cure from Tales from Valaria (Original Novel)

Valaria is in turmoil. An outbreak of lycanthropy has swept across the planet, halting trade and sending everyone into panic. The elves have closed their borders, the Draigo have barricaded themselves into their strongholds, and it is left to the humans to quell the plague before the infected kill or spread the disease to the entire population. Ten years after the outbreak, the plague is somewhat handled. Draven Cozenson is an infamous lycanthrope hunter, someone tasked with tracking down werewolves and putting them down before they can infect others. While on a job in the vast forest known as the Fells, he discovers a strange elf trapped beneath a frozen lake. Octavian de Silv has unknowingly been imprisoned for a decade, held in a magical stasis the likes of which are unheard of. Still reeling from events that concluded a decade before, he is forced to get his bearings in a world vastly different than he remembers. Reese Takari is trapped. Not just by the walls of the place where she was taken, but also by the fear of what would happen to her father if she takes any opportunity to escape. And now she's trapped by her value as a subject for unknown experiments. The search for an antidote or a vaccine against the outbreak is ongoing. Researchers are desperate, and ethics have long been tossed out the window. Magicians roam freely, no longer afraid of Draigo agents hunting them down for wrongdoing. Perhaps it will take a new---or rather, old---perspective to turn the tide. Or, more likely, perhaps not.

A Musician and a Curse (Original Short Story/Novelette)

A story that began as a one-shot about a musician cursed to have the siren affect on those who hear her music.

The Legend of Orian Goldeneye (Original Novel)

On the planet Somnia, there are two worlds, hopelessly intertwined: the physical world, and the dream. In the dream, anything is possible. ...Unless it involves black glass. The city of Saint's Shoal is in a state of unrest. A dreamshaper by the name of Azura Lazuli seeks vengeance, and she will stop at nothing to see it through. The responsibility falls to Orian Goldeneye, mythical child of balance, to stop her before her actions harm innocents. But he's only one dreamshaper, and every battle between them ends in a draw. He's getting desperate. So what happens when two strangers get tossed into a prison designed for dreamshapers? An opportunity is siezed, and it just might tip the scales in his favor. But time's running short, and Orian's new allies, Jas and Killian, may be far more than meets the eye. Will they aid him and put an end to Azura's reign of terror? Or will they bring more problems than he started with?

The Watcher and the Thief from Tales from Valaria (Original Novel)

A Watcher (glorified detective/bodyguard) seeks out a magician to reverse a curse placed upon his apprentice. A thief steals a gemstone from the Draigo that is much more valuable than it seems. And a devar messenger, tasked with an urgent message, is instead drawn into the conflict between a Stalker and her prey.

Trials of the Six (Original Novel)

A group of ragtag Mages set out to smuggle Mages out of the Permafrost and accidentally get drawn into a conflict between two countries. But not everything is as it seems, and the stakes might be bigger than any of them can imagine.

The Assassin and the Dragonlance (Dragonlance and Death Gate Cycle crossover fanfiction)

In Which Alfred accidentally causes Hugh the Hand to regenerate somewhere… different after his second death on Arianus. Not posted yet.

Forsaken: the Doomed City (Original Novel)

The story is about a group of four young adults (Rowan, Victoria, Ollie, and Sam) who are trapped in a city full of other superheroes that has had a shield put up around it to keep everyone stuck inside. The team seeks to get out of the city before a villain called Whisper kills Rowan in a Russian roulette-esq game occurring every full moon.

Defy from Demigods of the Death Gate (Percy Jackson and Death Gate Cycle crossover fanfiction)

Demigods of the Death Gate is a crossover fanfiction series with Percy Jackson and the Olympians and the Death Gate Cycle. It features characters from PJO in the setting of the Death Gate Cycle alongside the series' own characters. Annabeth has a mission: to find the fabled Sartan strongholds. To do so, she must translate journals left behind when the humans, elves and dwarves were exiled into the jungles of Pyran long ago. But when the mythological tytans resurface, Annabeth discovers another source of information, power, and problems. Join Annabeth as she translates the Sartan rune language, learns to use the Sartan rune magic, and pries answers out of a mysterious, quiet man with a dog.

[princess-and-the-swan]

Three-Shot Fic Rec: Let's Just Be Us

By @cutieodonoghue | Rating: T

Emma's an actress and Killian's a musician who are trying to keep their relationship under wraps from their fans. Complete.

Read it on AO3 or ff.net

[hannahhook7744]

'Right Where You Left Me....' Moodboards;

Enchanted Forest Name: Kiran Adil Hassan Mani Woodcock.

Storybrooke Name, if cursed: Corwin Tucker.

Nickname(s): 'Ran, Cor, Princey, K, Doctor Himbo, The Bumbling, and Kir.

Age during season 1 (minus the cursed years): 20 years old.

Enchanted Forest Job: Prince and heir to the throne.

Storybrooke Job: Medical intern.

Kingdom Name: The Kingdom of Linos.

Family: Reshmi/Vashti (Mother),

Raj (Father),

Amir/Aaron (Younger Brother),

Shahzad/Shawn (Younger Brother),

Penelope Devlin/Paisley Spinner (Fiancée).

Animal Companion(s): Shooting Star, Sunburst Heavens, and Swift Foot (Horses).

Theme Song: “Who I Am” by The Score.

Fairytale They're From: The Three Spinning Women.

Enchanted Forest Name: Penelope Guinevere Devlin.

Nickname(s): Pen, Penny, P, Pais, 'Ley, Lazy, and The Lazy Spinner.

Storybrooke Name, if cursed: Paisley Spinner.

Age during season 1 (minus the cursed years): 19 years old.

Enchanted Forest Job(s): Spinner (formerly),

Princess Consort/Queen to be.

Storybrooke Job(s): Seamstress.

Kingdom Name: The Kingdom of Linos.

Family: Gwenllian Devlin/Jean Spinner (Mother),

Ferdinand (Father),

Klotho/Karen (Adoptive Aunt),

Atropos/Annabelle (Adoptive Aunt),

Lachesis/Loretta (Adoptive Aunt),

Kiran Adil Hassan Mani Woodcock/Corwin Tucker (Fiancé).

Animal Companion(s): Flax (Cat).

Theme Song: "Everything I wanted" by Billie Eilish.

Fairytale They're From: The Three Spinning Women.

Enchanted Forest Name(s): Rowena Elladora Jones (Formerly Blithe).

Storybrooke Name, if cursed: None. She wasn't cursed.

Nickname(s): Ro, 'Wen, Winnie, The Forsaken Child, The Princess Who Never Smiled, R.J, Little Jones, The Queen of Strife, The Mother of Monsters, The Queen of Monsters, The Chaotic Sorceress, The Queen of Clumsiness, The Wild Sorceress, The Forbidden Child, R, Kid Pirate, Queen of the Outcasts, Queen of tbe Rejects, and The Pirate Queen.

Age during season 1 (minus the cursed years): 19 years old.

Enchanted Forest Job(s): Princess (Formerly),

Queen (Formerly),

Pirate/Fugitive (Formerly).

Storybrooke Job(s): Writer,

Mail Sorter at Storybrooke Post Office.

Kingdom Name: Rally (Formerly),

Strife (Formerly),

Storybrooke.

Family: Queen Pandora Blithe of Rally (Mother),

King Adam Blithe of Rally (Father),

Killian Jones/Captain Hook (Adoptive Brother),

Tempest Banks (Fiancée),

Warren Scarlet (Fiancé).

Animal Companion(s): Sweetpea (A Skeletal Moss Monster).

Theme Song: "Try" by Pink.

Fairytale They're From: The Princess Who Never Smiled.

Enchanted Forest Name(s): Warren Artemis Scarlet.

Storybrooke Name, if cursed: None. He wasn't cursed.

Nickname(s): Scout, Tree Climber, The Animal Whisperer, The Woodland Bard, The Tree Bugger, Tree Hugger, King Scout, The King of Monsters, The Father of Monsters, The Unlucky Boy, Scout Scarlet, Cuddlebug, The Hard Worker, Animal Boy, The Jack of All Trades, Tree Boy, Scouter, and The Honest Worker.

Age during season 1 (minus the cursed years): 21 years old.

Enchanted Forest Job(s): Thief (Formerly),

Handyman (Formerly),

Farmhand (Formerly),

Musician,

King-to-be/second in command of Strife.

Storybrooke Job(s): Storybrooke Pet Shelter Worker,

Musician.

Kingdom Name: Sherwood (Formerly),

Kingdom of Strife (Formerly),

Storybrooke.

Family: Lamia Scarlet (Mother),

Alaric Scarlet (Father),

Will Scarlet (Older Brother),

Penelope Scarlet (Older Sister)(Deceased),

Tempest Banks (Fiancée),

Rowena Jones (Fiancée).

Animal Companion(s): Shadow (Shapeshifting Cat Fish that can only turn into a cat/cat fish of varying sizes),

Rover (Beetle),

Ridden (Mouse).

Theme Song: “I tried to be perfect” by Sum 41.

Fairytale They're From: The Princess Who Never Smiled.

Enchanted Forest Name(s): Sylvester Boris Lucas.

Storybrooke Name, if cursed: Boris Lucas.

Nickname(s): Silver, S, Wolfie, Fangsie, Fang, Silv, Moondust, Starboy, Bongo Boy, and Spaceboy.

Age during season 1 (minus the cursed years): 21 years old.

Enchanted Forest Job(s): Defense guard.

Storybrooke Job(s): Waiter.

Kingdom Name: Misthaven (Formerly),

Kingdom of Strife (Formerly),

Storybrooke.

Family: Granny Lucas (Grandmother),

The Wolf (Grandfather),

Antia Lucas (Mother),

The Big Bad Wolf (Father),

Graham Humbert (Adoptive Brother),

The Dwarves (Pack),

Tiny (Pack),

The Charmings (Pack),

Quinn (Former Pack),

Adair (Former Pack),

Adalyn (Former Pack),

Adalyn's sister (Former Pack),

Tempest Banks (Pack),

Penelope Guinevere Devlin (Pack),

Kiran Adil Hassan Mani Woodcock (Pack),

Warren Scarlet (Pack),

Rowena Jones (Pack).

Animal Companion(s): None.

Theme Song: ‘Running With the Wolves’ by Aurora.

Fairytale They're From: Boy Who Cried Wolf.

Enchanted Forest Name(s): Tempest Atlantica Banks.

Storybrooke Name, if cursed: None. She wasn't cursed.

Nickname(s): Undine, Treasure, and Siren.

Age during season 1 (minus the cursed years): 20 years old.

Enchanted Forest Job(s): Siren Vigilantee,

Singer,

Queen of Strife.

Storybrooke Job(s): Storybrooke Canner,

Singer.

Kingdom Name: Atlantica (Formerly),

Kingdom of Strife (Formerly),

Storybrooke.

Family:

Nereida Banks (Mother),

Tidal Banks (Father),

Nereida (Maternal Aunt),

Myrddin (Maternal Uncle-Via-Marriage),

Melusine (Maternal Cousin),

Warren Scarlet (Fiancé),

Rowena Jones (Fiancée).

Animal Companion(s): None.

Theme Song: 'Drunken Sailor' by Aeseaes.

Fairytale They're From: Undine.

[mousetopia]

peaky blinders is so sad cause you have all these talented actors and set designers and musicians but the script was done by a 15 year old who thinks having killian murphy hold a gun to his head 20 times in one episode is the deepest shit imaginable

[ouatnextgen]

Right Where You Left Me Moodboards

These are my versions of the moodboards for the OUAT fanfiction I'm co-writing with @hannahhook7744! Her version is here (https://www.tumblr.com/hannahhook7744/743787303227604992?source=share)

Name: Prince Kiran Adil Hassan Mani Woodcock of Linos

Cursed Name: Corwin Tucker

Other names: 'Ran, Cor, Princey, K, Doctor Himbo, The Bumbling, Kir (nicknames)

Age: Twenty

Face Claim: Karan Brar (young)

          Rahul Kohli (old)

Species: Human

Father: King Raj Woodcock of Linos (deceased)

Mother: Queen Reshmi Woodcock of Linos

Sibling(s): Prince Amir Woodcock of Linos

      Prince Shahzad Woodcock of Linos

Other Family: Penelope Devlin (Fiancée)

Occupation: Crown Prince (EF), medical intern (Storybrooke)

Home: The Kingdom of Linos, The Kingdom of Strife, Storybrooke

Favorite Color: Dark Blue

Song: Who I Am- The Score

Powers: None

Weapons: Sword

Name: Penelope Guinevere Devlin

Cursed Name: Paisley Spinner

Other names: Pen (primary nickname)

            Penny, P, Pais, ‘Ley (other nicknames)

Lazy (by her mother)

Age: Nineteen

Face Claim: Dakota Blue Richards (young)

          Daisy Ridley (old)

Species: Human

Father: Lord Ferdinand Fitzroy

Mother: Gwenllian Devlin

Sibling(s): None

Other Family: Kiran Woodcock (Fiancée)

Occupation: Spinner (EF), seamstress (Storybrooke)

Home: The Kingdom of Linos, The Kingdom of Strife, Storybrooke

Favorite Color: Light Blue

Song: Everything I Wanted- Billie Eilish

Powers: None

Weapons: Slingshot

Name: Rowena Elladora Jones

Cursed Name: None

Other names: Ro, 'Wen, Winnie, R.J, Little  Jones, R, Kid Pirate (nicknames)

             The Forsaken Child, The Princess Who Never Smiled, The Queen of Strife, The Mother of Monsters, The Queen of Monsters, The Chaotic Sorceress, The Queen of Clumsiness, The Wild Sorceress, The Forbidden Child, Queen of the Outcasts, Queen of the Rejects, The Pirate Queen (titles)

Age: Nineteen

Face Claim: Hailee Steinfeld

Species: Human

Father: King Adam Blithe of Rally

Mother: Queen Pandora Blithe of Rally

Sibling(s): Killian Jones (adoptive)

Other Family: Tempest Banks and Warren Scarlet (Fiancées)

Occupation:Princess (EF, Formerly), Queen (Strife), Pirate/Fugitive (EF, Formerly) Writer (Storybrooke), Mail Sorter (Storybrooke)

Home: The Kingdom of Rally (formerly), The Kingdom of Strife, Storybrooke

Favorite Color: Teal

Song: Try- Pink

Powers: Magic

Weapons: Cutlass

Name: Warren Artemis Scarlet

Cursed Name: None

Other names: Scout, Tree Climber, Scout Scarlet, Cuddlebug, Tree Hugger (nicknames)

  The Animal Whisperer, The Woodland Bard, The Tree Hugger, King Scout, The King of Monsters, The Father of Monsters, The Hard Worker, Animal Boy, The Jack of All Trades, Tree Boy, Scouter, The Honest Worker, The Unlucky Boy (titles)

Age: Twenty-One

Face Claim: Lou Wegner (young)

           Lucas Till (old)

Species: Human

Father: Alaric Scarlet

Mother: Lamia Scarlet

Sibling(s): William ‘Will’ Scarlet 

      Penelope Scarlet (deceased)

Other Family: Tempest Banks and Rowena Jones (Fiancées)

Occupation: Thief (EF, Formerly), Handyman (EF, Formerly), Farmhand (EF, Formerly), King-to-be/second in command (Strife), Pet Shelter Worker (Storybrooke), Musician (all).

Home: Sherwood (formerly), The Kingdom of Strife, Storybrooke

Favorite Color: Green

Song: I Tried to Be Perfect- Sum 41

Powers: Animal Magic

Weapons: Daggers

Name: Sylvester Boris Lucas

Cursed Name: Boris Lucas

Other names: Silver (primary nickname)

                         S, Wolfie, Fangsie, Fang, Silv, Moondust, Starboy, Bongo Boy, and Spaceboy (other nicknames)

Age: Twenty-One

Face Claim: Tom Taylor (young)

Jake Abel (old)

Species: Werewolf/ Vampire hybrid

Father: The Big Bad Wolf

Mother: Anita Lucas

Sibling(s): Graham Humbert (adoptive)

                    Red Lucas

Other Family: Granny Lucas (maternal grandmother)

Occupation: Defense Guard (EF), Waiter (Storybrooke)

Home: Misthaven (formerly), The Kingdom of Strife, Storybrooke

Favorite Color: Spacey Colors

Song: Running With the Wolves- Aurora

Powers: Wolf transformation, super strength, super hearing, super smell 

Weapons: None

Name: Tempest Atlantica Banks

Cursed Name: None

Other names: Undine, Treasure, Siren (nicknames)

Age: Twenty

Face Claim: Bethany Levy

Species: Siren

Father: Tidal Banks

Mother: Nereida Banks

Sibling(s): None

Other Family: Nerissa Banks (maternal aunt)

Myrddin Banks (uncle-in-law)

                          Melusine Banks (cousin)

Occupation: Siren Vigilante (EF, formerly), Queen (Strife), Cannery Employee (Storybrooke), Singer (all)

Home: Atlantica (formerly), The Kingdom of Strife, Storybrooke

Favorite Color: Bronze

Song: Drunken Sailor- Aeseaes

Powers: Mermaid transformation, hypnotic singing voice

Weapons: Harpoon, abalone dagger

[sinterhinde]

Haraway, 1985

Donna Haraway’s concept of the cyborg is a radical archetype for emancipatory self-construction that models conscious reshaping of socially imposed identities. The cyborg represents the plasticity of our socially constructed identities: our ability to transcend the limits of prefabricated identities and overwrite oppressive, socially imposed roles. Understanding social construction through this lens gives social workers and clients the conceptual tools to deconstruct rigid identities—particularly those of gender identity—imposed by society. These identities are the subject of active political contestation; they are the product of economic, social, and cultural relations and institutions. The concept of the cyborg provides an emancipatory model that denaturalizes and destabilizes rigid essentialist binaries and instead recognizes the chimeric multiplicity of the individual.

Abstract by Nicholas D. Tolliver, 2022

https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/mar4-1k48

We are all cyborgs: How machines can be a feminist tool

By Nour Ahmad

Upon hearing the word “cyborg”, perhaps the first thing that comes to mind is a fusion of human and machine. Our imagination might even drift to an image of Frankenstein’s monster or a depiction such as Major Mira Killian in the anime Ghost in the Shell. A cyborg is actually just a hybrid — part mechanism, part organism. The cyborg, as a concept, is associated with scientist, innovator and musician Manfred Clynes, who deployed it in his 1960’s article Cyborgs and Space, where he argued for altering the human body to make it suitable for space travel.

We, thus, might perceive this concept as being in the future, far from the here and now. However, Donna Haraway, an American biologist and feminist, claims the opposite. She believes that we are all already cyborgs. More significantly, she posits that the advent of cybernetics might help in the construction of a world capable of challenging gender disparities, a proposal she made in her 1985’s essay titled A Cyborg Manifesto. 

How, then, would the notion of cybernetics make for a post-gender understanding of the world? And how would it be a tool for women to undermine the roles imposed on them by society? 

Cyborgs and human nature

The investigation into human nature has always been an essential pursuit for schools of philosophy and a basic assumption made by political ideologies. The answer to the question “what does it mean to be a human?” determines the orientation of a political movement or an ideology. Patriarchal societies have historically adopted an essentialist interpretation of human nature, so as to justify male domination over women. It makes the claim that each of the sexes has a specific role to play and, ultimately, considers the feminine to be secondary to the masculine and thus subjugates women. In such societies, predetermined sets of values and behavioural patterns are strictly enforced on both sexes.  

In A Cyborg Manifesto, Haraway explores the history of the relationship between humans and machines, and she argues that three boundaries were broken throughout human history which have changed the definition of what is deemed cultural or otherwise natural. The first such boundary was between humans and animals, and was broken in the 19th century after the publishing of On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin. As the biological connection between all organisms was discovered and publicised in this book, it served as a rejection of notions of human exceptionalism and superiority, turning the evolution of the organism into a puzzle. It also introduced the concept of evolution as necessary for understanding the meaning of human existence.  

The second boundary-breaking event relates to the relationship between machines and organisms (be they human or animal). As the industrial revolution arrived, all aspects of human life became mechanised. As human dependence on machines surged, machines became an inseparable part of what it is to be human; an extension of human capability.

As for the third boundary, it concerns the technological advancement that has produced evermore complex machines which can be miniscule in size or, in the case of software, altogether invisible. First came developments in silicon semi-conductor chips that now pervade all of life’s domains. As these machines are practically invisible, it is then difficult to decide where the machine ends and humans start. This machine thus represents culture intruding over nature, intertwining with it and changing it in the process. As a result, boundaries between the cultural and the natural became more and more intangible.

“…the advent of cybernetics might help in the construction of a world capable of challenging gender disparities.”

In this context, Haraway uses the cyborg as a model to present her vision of a world that transcends sexual differences, expressing her rejection of patriarchal ideas based on such differences. Because a cyborg is a hybrid of the machine and the organism, it merges nature and culture into one body, blurring the lines between them and eliminating the validity of essentialist understandings of human nature. This includes claims that there are specific social roles reserved for each of the sexes which are based in biological differences between them, in addition to other differences such as age or race.

You are cyborg!

Since first practicing agriculture, using tools to increase production and developing language and writing, humans have been able to boost capabilities and expand their potential. Today, the implantation of artificial organs has been a vital development in the field of medicine, while the smartphone, for example, serves as an extension of human memory, our senses and our mental functions as well. The advancements made in GPS and communication technologies allow us to be present remotely and even grant us the ability to exist outside of the limitations of our time and space frameworks. All these aspects of technology are an expansion of human beings and an augmentation of our physical and cognitive abilities.

Taking all of this into consideration, the cyborg seems present here and now. In an interview with Wired magazine, Haraway said that being a cyborg does not necessarily mean having silicon chips implanted under one’s skin or mechanical parts added to one’s body. The implication is, rather, that the human body has acquired features that it could not have been able to develop on its own, such as extending life expectancy. Indeed, in our current state, cybernetics exist around us, and in simpler forms than futuristic visions. Even maintaining our physical fitness is today cybernetic, from the use of exercise machines to the many food supplements available as well as clothing and footwear engineered for athletic activity. Moreover, the culture surrounding fitness could not have existed without viewing the human body as a high-performance machine whose performance can be improved over time.

On the other hand, a cyborg is “a creature of social reality as well as a creature of fiction” according to Haraway’s manifesto. The internet has brought about profound changes in human consciousness and human psychology. Virtual reality does not only surround us, but it also involves us in its own processes. The social dimension to technology plays a role in the construction of our identities, whether through online games, discussion forums or social media, where our identities can be as multiple as the online platforms that we use.     

Therefore, we can now say that we are all cyborgs, as technology “is not neutral. We’re inside of what we make, and it’s inside of us,” as Haraway formulates it. In modern life, the link between humans and technology has become inexorable to the extent that we cannot tell where we end and the machines begin. 

Cybernetics and feminism

Feminist issues lie at the heart of the concept of cybernetics, since the latter’s prospects erase major contradictions between nature and culture, such that it is no longer possible to characterise a role as natural. When people colloquially use the word “natural” to describe something, this is an expression of how they view the world, but also a normative claim about how it should be as well as a statement on what cannot be changed.

In this context, the cybernetics erase gender boundaries. For generations, women have been told that their “nature” makes them weak, submissive, overemotional and incapable of abstract thought, that it was “in their nature” only to be mothers and wives. If all these roles are “natural” then they are unchangeable, Haraway said. 

Conversely, if the concept of the human is itself “unnatural” and is instead socially constructed, then both men and women are also social constructs, and nothing about them is inherently “natural” or absolute. We are all [re]constructed when given the right tools. In short, cybernetics have allowed a new distinction of roles, based on neither sex nor race, as it provided humans the liberty and agency to construct themselves on every level.

“Because a cyborg is a hybrid of the machine and the organism, it merges nature and culture into one body, blurring the lines between them and eliminating the validity of essentialist understandings of human nature. This includes claims that there are specific social roles reserved for each of the sexes which are based in biological differences between them, in addition to other differences such as age or race.”

Therefore, through her notion of the cyborg, Haraway calls for a new feminism that takes into account the fundamental changes that technology brings to our bodies, to reject the binaries that represent the epistemology of the patriarchy —binaries such as body/psyche, matter/spirit, emotion/mind, natural/artificial, male/female, self/other, nature/culture. Technology is simply one of the means by which the boundaries between identities are erased. Cyborgs, in addition to being hybrids, transcend gender binaries and can thus constitute a way out of binary thinking used to classify our bodies and our machines and accordingly “lead to openness and encourage pluralism and indefiniteness.”

Haraway’s idea is based on a full cognisance of the ability of technology to increase the scope of human limitation and thus open opportunities for individuals to construct themselves away from stereotypes. And while Haraway describes A Cyborg Manifesto as an ironic political myth that mocks and derides patriarchal society, she still claims that cybernetics lay the foundation for a society in which we establish our relations not on the basis of similarity, but on harmony and accord.

(mediasupport.org)

[snowbellewells]

Happy Birthday @hollyethecurious!!! ~*~

I’m sorry this is so late in the day, but I hope your birthday has been a wonderful one @hollyethecurious - full of all the fun, celebration and love you deserve! Your writing has brought SO MUCH joy over the years, and I wanted to celebrate some of my favorites of your works. As I looked back over them though, I had a hard time narrowing them down, there were so many that have been so good, so varied, and each one has taken us on a different adventure with our pirate and princess! You’ve been so much fun to get to know in fandom, and I can’t thank you enough for sharing your writing with all of us!!! 

Without further rambling, here’s a Birthday Top Ten List of Hollye’s Fics! :)

#10) Mix of One Shots: “Huzzah!” // “Teacher’s Lounge” // “Welcome to the Show” // “Yippee Ki Yay” // “Ghost in the Void” // “A FINE Friendsmas” // “Ballet (Mis)Steps”  I love every single one of these so much! I just really couldn’t leave any of them off the list. Some are funny, some are hot and steamy, and some just lovely and heartfelt, and all of them are unforgettable. If you’ve missed any of these along the way, treat yourself and check them out. 

#9) “Some Legends are Best Kept as Legends” This fic was originally written for the @cssns and has such an eerie bit of the spooky supernatural and a lovely hint of history mixed in as well. Maybe it’s the literature teacher in me, but I loved how Holly worked “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” in there too. This is a really intriguing take on CS and you won’t be able to put it down!

#8) “A Different Kind of Fun” This version of Killian as a musician is absolutely irresistible. This is the only unfinished WIP on this list, but you can still enjoy this playful band modern AU as is. I’ve never been able to get it out of my head - it just feels like such a natural iteration of both Emma and Killian, and their friends, and you won’t be able to read without getting into it too.

#7) “A Toast to What If” I was lucky enough to get to serve as a beta for this story, and I would get so excited for each new bit I got to look over. This story just got better and better with every addition. I love the movie that inspired this one for the @captainswanmoviemarathon​, but seeing it with Emma, Killian and the rest of the OuaT gang in the roles made it all the more lovely. The setting, the plot, and all of this one will draw you in and you won’t want to stop reading until you reach the end. <3

#6) “Avowed” This one is a short little story built of interconnected prompt drabbles, but I have always had a soft spot for it. I love the setup, the action and drama it kicked off with, then the twists and turns its plot took along the way. It’s another AU version of Emma and Killian Hollye has created that I can’t get out of my head, and it’s an exciting adventure to read along.

#5) “Varcolac: A Hybrid Tale” This MC is from the inaugural summer of the @cssns event, and it is still one of my favorites from that collection. I’m a sucker for anything werewolf related, but this has its own unique twist on that supernatural genre. I loved how Emma and Killian first met here and how they banded together to face danger. The drama and action get intense in this one and I loved every second! I really can’t say enough great things about this one, and if you’ve missed it, you have to check it out now!!!

#4) “We Make Our Own Fate” This AU MC is extra lovely because it mixes a lot of less common elements into a CS fic - we get to enjoy Killian with his sweet little Alice, some lesser used enemies along with a few of the usual baddies, and a take on Colin’s movie What Still Remains, and yet it still makes use of the relationships and characters we love from OuaT. I looked forward to every new chapter as this was being written, and it is still one of my very favorites!

#3) “Conviction” This fic gave us such an affecting alternate version of Emma’s character. You couldn’t help but have your heart go out to her - just like this story’s Killian did. This one also has a bit of a historical element to it (those seem to be some of my favorites of Hollye’s works) and I love that Liam and Graham, Ruby, Granny, Belle and Will all have parts in this too, which only adds the the enjoyment of it for me (some of my favorite supporting characters who don’t always get to be present). You’re not going to be able to put this one down!

#2) “Hope is the Thing With Feathers” This story is a collaboration fic Hollye wrote some years ago, but it has never lost any of its beauty and it is hard to top. I don’t even know how many times I’ve re-read it. I love the sweet way Killian rescues a young Henry new to Storybrooke, and how in turn Henry and his mother bring life back to this version of Killian too. I love how Smee (sort of) and Belle both make important cameos in this - they’re perfect! The bittersweetness and bits of melancholy in this one make the wonderful way the ending works out all the more amazing and unforgettable. 

#1) “What Lies Beneath the Mask”  I wouldn’t be surprised if Hollye is shaking her head and laughing at my predictability right now, because there was no way any other story but this one was going to be my Number One pick. This was the first story of Hollye’s I read, and it has never been anything but my undisputed favorite. The angst, the whump, the love story, the mystery, and the suspense -- all of it is top notch! I even have a print book version of this one! I read it so much that it was an absolutely necessary investment!! There’s a bit of Hunchback of Notre Dame, and a bit of Man in the Iron Mask in this, but it is 100 percent a CS masterpiece and celebrates all the things Hollye does so brilliantly in her writing. Just talking about it makes me want to get it out and read it again. If you’ve never read this, you HAVE to - as soon as possible!

** And that concludes my list! Once again, I hope you’ve had the very best of birthdays @hollyethecurious​ !!! ***