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greenbriar-j · 3 years

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Muscle Memory, full wip, unedited 4.7k, scroll at ur own risk; tagging some people who showed previous interest @halleiswriting @chazzawrites @pe-ersona @druidx and also @pens-swords-stuff this is what I’ve been up to lately

Saint Joseph’s Catholic Church bustles with activity. It’s peculiar, for it being a weekday. More peculiar still that the bustling is being done by young men and women who could very well be engaging in… more satisfying summer indulgences.

The Youth Group’s power couple sweeps in an hour late, ever put together even when, by all rights, they ought to be melting right out of their fancy outfits. Cheers rise from the crowd when they appear, each splitting off in their own directions to their own stations.

Y Nhi beelines for the painters, flicking her sleek ponytail to make sure it’s out of the way. The girls hand her a brush while detailing what’s left to be done. Vinny bustles for the sound technicians - who, really, are already done for the day, but are staying for the social factor.

Two things to note about St. Joseph’s power couple:

Y Nhi isn’t sure she believes in God very much anymore.

They are not a couple, but it’s easier to let everyone think so than to correct it.

“Jude,” Mary says (everyone calls her Jude because she and Vinny made a big deal of it years ago), “Are you sure you can’t help out during the week?”

Y Nhi shrugs. She’s not busy or anything, but it feels wrong to shepherd children into a religion she’s falling out of - even if Vacation Bible School had been one of her favorite summer memories for her entire life. That’s where she met Vinny, after all.

Vinny, laughing with the guys at the sound booth. To be more accurate, Vinny himself is only smirking, but that’s as close to a laugh as he gets around here. Stupid smirk. Stupid boy.

“I have work. Unfortunately,” Y Nhi mutters, dragging her brush across a cardboard cutout. “Vinny’s taking the week off, so I’m picking up his slack.”

Mary grins widely at that. “I swear it’s like you’re married.”

For whatever reason, Y Nhi’s heart clenches at that. Picturing herself and Vinny in wedding attire on the altar sickens her, but putting a faceless someone in her place makes her feel worse. But it’s not like she likes him. She’s sworn to herself that she’d become a cat lady in her old age - her army has already begun with a fluffy black kitten. It’s not looking too good for her future; Toothless likes Vinny more than her. She’s already failed as a parent.

Belatedly, Y Nhi realizes she’s supposed to be engaging in a conversation, not thinking about Vinny and their co-parenting of a cat. If it can be called that.

“Don’t hold your breath. The wedding is a long way off,” she says tightly. Like. Never. Never is a long, long way off.

“I wouldn’t be too sure.”

This time, Y Nhi lets the comment slide. She paints while singing under her breath, as she always does. A long time ago, she had no qualms about belting it out, but time has weathered away her volume, reducing it to only this. No one’s noticed the change or found it strange.

The conversation turns to something - anything - else. Degrees, internships, other boys who don’t dress in all black and aren’t named Vincent Truong. Y Nhi listens, but doesn’t contribute.

By the time the call goes out for a lunch break, Y Nhi is finishing three tasks at once. One of the other girls brings her a burger, slathered with ketchup and mayo and tomatoes. Y Nhi thanks her and continues wrapping one of the white pillars in cardboard paper to simulate a palm tree.

Not long after, someone nudges her. Eyes flickering upward, she’s met with the bored eyes of her very best friend. “Bite.”

She doesn’t, not yet.

Vinny wiggles the burger he’s holding in front of her mouth. “Only half a slice of cheese. No tomatoes. Freshest patty of the batch. Eat.”

She still doesn’t take the bait, even though he’s tailored this burger to her weirdly specific tastes.

Vinny sighs. “Jude. No one’s watching you. I promise all they can see is my back.”

“That’s not what I’m worried about.” It’s true she had a complex about eating in public for a while, for reasons she’s never told anyone including him. “Just not hungry.”

“Not very Gucci of you to lie in the house of God.”

“Not very Gucci of you to breathe.”

“Jude! The fuck, man.” But he’s grinning. Not the half-assed grin he gives everyone else, but an honest, mirthful grin reserved for Toothless and Y Nhi only (usually Toothless. Damn cat).“Just eat this, okay? I’ll eat the other one.” His whole demeanor softens as he picks up the burger she had ignored - the one that is surely cold by now.

She is hungry. After all, the reason they were late is because Vinny had to coax her to every step of getting ready this morning. He even applied her eyeliner with the even strokes of a practiced hand - so practiced that even Y Nhi admits it looks like her own work. If she had a choice, she would waste away in bed for the day, but Vinny has never been much of a fan of that plan.

According to her own plan, Y Nhi had been wasting away since before yesterday’s dinner. Famished might be a better word to describe her present state.

But today is one of those days that she feels guilty cementing the married couple narrative any more than it needs to be. They’re not getting any younger, Vinny and Y Nhi, and just because she’s sworn off marriage doesn’t mean he has. How’s he supposed to get a nice girlfriend if she keeps hanging around?

Objectively, it’s a stupid reason to risk passing out in a church of all places, but something about him just makes her stupid. Always has.

The longer she ignores his peace offering, the twitcher he gets. He finishes his own burger in ten massive bites. When Y Nhi still doesn’t eat hers, he eats that whole thing too. “We’re leaving early. Say an hour? Think about what you want to eat.”

With that, he’s gone. Y Nhi is not hyper aware of his presence as it moves through the open space. She does not miss having him next to her. Not even a little.

Y Nhi writes, appetite??? in her journal when she gets home. It’s the third time something of this nature has appeared on its list which isn’t titled - but if it was it would be something like “Things About Vinny T. that Don’t Make Sense.”

Even after inhaling two burgers, he took her out for pho and Thai tea, and he ate so slow that his noodles expanded in the broth. Still, he finished a medium bowl with relative ease, and Y Nhi was content after she’d finished a small.

How does someone who eats like that look like that? It has to be some sort of stupid freaky metabolism. Genetic polymorphism, she thinks, then adds that she might be incorrectly using the term she’d heard in class about two semesters ago.

She writes freeloading on the list. It’s not technically true, but he spends enough time at her place to make it feel like it. Right this minute, he’s setting up the living room to sleep in, awaiting her delivery of the overnight bag he always leaves stocked in her apartment for emergencies.

That goes on the list too. Definition of ‘emergency.’

According to recent months, an alarming amount of things fit under this category of Vinny’s mind. It might be nearing time to stage an intervention, but who’s Y Nhi to tell him to relax when she’s the one bordering on anxiety attacks all the time? Only god knows how many times he’s clutched her shaking hands until they stopped.

Y Nhi closes the journal. Snaps the band over the cover. Shoves it under her pillow. Vinny wouldn’t dare read it to begin with, but for some reason, she doesn’t even want him to know of its existence.

Quickly divesting herself of the impeccable outfit she’d worn for the day, she slips easily into one of Vinny’s large, large shirts and the shorts she affectionately calls game day shorts. Ever since high school, she’s worn them for events that require equal amounts of comfort and courage - or just for comfort, to be honest.

“Hey, loser,” she greets Vinny, emerging from her room. He’s got her guitar in hand, and is humming some tune that she recognizes but can’t place. “Your stuff is on my bed. Have you seen Toothless?”

He nods, and keeps playing. It’s in experience, being stared at with such intense eyes while trying not to stare at the other party’s stupid pretty hands playing her guitar. Fuck him, honestly, she thinks angrily.

Leaving him there, she pours each of them a glass of water in the kitchen. A shadow looms on top of the fridge, and she jumps. “Toothless, baby. Please stop napping on the fridge.”

Toothless is not napping. He stands up, shakes his tiny body and hops to the counter, then to the floor, twining around Y Nhi’s feet before scuttling off.

Vinny is singing now. It’s a new song, she supposes, and it sounds like a love song.

Slowly, Y Nhi moves around the kitchen, making as little noise as possible while doing absolutely nothing. She just wants to listen to Vinny and his new love song without him watching her reaction.

Once she gets past the lyrics about gentle touches and midnight escapades, she realizes something. Re-entering the living room, she deposits his water on the table. “Is that my melody? Why would you steal it?”

The guitar is placed awkwardly on the floor, the neck of it leaning on the couch. “Oh, is that where it’s from? Thought it was familiar,” he says with mild disinterest. “Well, I wasn’t that attached to it anyway.”

“Are you saying it sucks?” Y Nhi settles on the floor on the other side of the table, pulling her knees into her chest. Glancing through her lashes, Y Nhi watches Vinny’s expressions.

“I’m saying I’m not taking your work, you brat.” Then he hesitates. “I mean. Can I, just for one person?”

“What the fuck.”

Vinny twitches, finally. “I… Wrote the song for someone… So I’d like to sing it for her, just once.”

Something vile rises in her throat, and she wishes Toothless would notice her distress. Hugging the cat might make her feel a little better about the fact that Vinny’s written a song about a girl using her melody - and it’s not about herself and for some odd reason, that bothers her.

“Can- Can I hear it?” Y Nhi asks in a tiny voice. It’s easier than No, you cannot take my song to sing to some other girl who will take you away from me.

“Haven’t you been hearing it?”

“Vincent.” Because that’s easier than You colossal idiot, what shit are you pulling after two years?

“Jude-”

She stands suddenly, fleeing to her room. Shutting the door, locking it, she tries to breathe. Of all people, Vinny should be the last person to push her to this reaction. She doesn’t know what to think.

Vinny knows.

Vinny knows where her hard limits are. Technically, he hasn’t passed them. But he’s pretty damn close.

Y Nhi slips into the shower, leaving it on the hottest setting to boil the emotions out.

For the next two days, Y Nhi doesn’t emerge from her room. Her phone dies, and she lets it. Her body self-destructs in hunger and dehydration from crying, and she lets it. She stays in bed for most of it. Whether Vinny continues to sleep on the other side of the wall for those nights, she doesn’t know. Nor care.

It’s punishment for believing she might be ready to give love another chance.

The third day, a letter slips under her door.

She almost flushes it down the toilet without reading it. Everything is in position to do so, paper fluttering in unsteady hands above the toilet bowl. But she wants to know. What can Vinny possibly say for himself?

Jude. I wrote the song for you. I didn’t mean to steal your tune - honest to god, I didn’t. But when I found out, I thought it was fitting that we’d worked on it together. (“Together”)

Jude, the song is up to your interpretation, but it’s yours. I wrote it from my core, and it’s yours. Charge your fucking phone and check the lyrics I sent you.

Take a shower, and call me when you’re ready. You have a few days’ worth of takeout in the fridge. Please take care of your health; I know you’re not right now. I mean it in the best way.

It cuts off there. Unceremonious and blunt, and so very him. She hates it very much.

Y Nhi charges her phone while she showers. Working quickly because she’s so unsteady on her feet, she does the bare minimum before stumbling into the kitchen for food.

While she nibbles on the stir fried noodles he left, she pens her own note.

Vinny,

I will not read the lyrics. I don’t want to know, and you don’t have to pretend it’s about me.

Your joke took two years to reach completion. Congratulations. I hope I was amusing and that my downfall wall be the stunning conclusion you wanted.

She tapes it on her front door so he’ll see it the next time he comes over. Soon, probably.

Momentarily, she wonders if she’s being rash. Is it so impossible to think that he could find romantic attraction to her?

Then she remembers. Y Nhi is not built to be loved, if her history is anything to go by. Even if she’s wrong, even if Vinny loves her for real, she will resist. Losing him this way is better than the alternative: watching him dissolve to some monstrosity while loving her.

Nothing changes after that. Apart from Vinny’s absence from her apartment, they interact in exactly the same way.

Vinny says something borderline rude.

Y Nhi retorts with something blatantly rude.

They laugh about it and move along.

There are no gentle touches to avoid because Vinny rarely touched her to begin with - despite the way he slings his arm around everyone else, he wasn’t like that with her. No arm around her shoulder, no hugs, not even extended contact with her hair.

Y Nhi pretends not to notice when he goes through a full dinner with an arm draped over the back of his friend Justin’s chair. He leans on it, adding the tiniest space between himself and Y Nhi. He still passes her the condiments and spices she likes before she asks for them. He takes her home at the end of it.

This should be enough. Up until now, it always had been. These tiny acts were his long distance hugs. It had always been enough, but now it isn’t, and Y Nhi doesn’t know what to do.

Isn’t this what you wanted? For him to get a life away from you?

“How’s that girl?” She asks on the way home, just because the silence is killing her and perhaps because she’s a masochist. “The one you wrote the song for?”

Vinny looks at her for a brief moment, something like grief in his eyes. It’s a confusing expression. “She hasn’t really talked to me since.”

Y Nhi tries not to sit straighter at this revelation. “Oh, really? Hm. That sucks.”

“Yeah.”

Something about the word is profoundly heartbroken. She can almost feel the emotions hurtling off him in waves, but he doesn’t lash out at her. All it does is enclose each passenger of the car in a separate bubble. This is the closest they’ve been in a long time, but Y Nhi has never felt so isolated.

Her throat constricts, and her hands start to shake. “Do you… Know why?”

Vinny thinks for a moment, tapping his fingers on the wheel. “I think she doesn’t believe me. But I don’t really think it’s me, I think she thinks that love is meant for everyone except herself. She’s pretty bent on self-destruction now, as far as I can tell - No, don’t say anything yet.”

Every girl Vinny’s talked to in the last week pops up in her mind. Which of them seems most self-destructive? If she can’t keep herself by his side, he should at least have someone who can care for him. She could talk to them, probably, if she knew who it was.

“I… She thinks this is sudden, but I’ve been in love with her since I was fifteen. Or something. Like it kind of just happened over time, and I thought she knew.”

Fifteen means Vinny’s been futilely in love with someone else while she fell for the guy who ended up cheating on her.

They were happy in high school. It was college that broke them. Distance. The communications became less frequent in an inverse relationship to Y Nhi’s alcohol intake. Her grades suffered, and she convinced herself that she was too stupid for higher education. On his birthday, she drove for hours to his dorm to surprise him, only to find him making out with another girl. Sober.

Not that any level of inebriation could excuse him, but perhaps it would’ve hurt a little less.

Vinny isn’t done. “I fucking cut fruit for her every time we hung out. I did her dishes sometimes. I don’t know, I- I thought I did everything right. My mom thought I was doing everything right.”

“You tell your mom about your love life?”

Y Nhi doesn’t. Her parents don’t care enough to know anything about it beyond that she let go of a future doctor and that she’ll never find another because she’s past her prime. That’s what it feels like, anyway.

She’s literally twenty four. She has time.

“Not really. But they’ve met.” Vinny parks the car in front of her apartment, but he makes no move to get out or to let Y Nhi get out. “Jude, listen to me.”

“I’m listening,” she says. Training her eyes on her kitchen window, she thinks about the dishes she hasn’t done yet, the fruit she hasn’t cut yet, and how she hates thinking about it because it reminds her Vinny is fading.

Human adaptability is a remarkable thing. One more week, and this new normalcy will cement itself.

“The girl I love is you. Okay? I’ve walked around the topic for years, and I understand if you’re still not ready for it. But I know you’re getting the wrong idea in that head of yours. It’s you, and it’s always been you, and I’ll spend the rest of my life proving it if you let me. I’ll also bow out forever if that’s what you need from me. But I need you to talk to me. I-”

Holy shit, is he about to cry? With wild eyes, she glances at him. If she’s made him cry, he’ll return the favor five-fold. No, she backtracks. That’s not Vinny. That’s the behavior of her second ex, the one that reduced her to a stiff puppet of a girl.

“Come back to me,” he says in a small, strangled voice. “I don’t even care if you break me in the process, but please come back to me. You can do whatever you want, as long as you do it by my side.”

For the longest moment, they say nothing. Then Y Nhi opens the car door. “Can you cut my strawberries for me? They taste better when you cut them.”

Vinny washes her dishes and her strawberries and quarters the already small fruit for her. He deposits the snacks in front of her and watches her eat - slowly, since they’ve just come back from dinner, after all.

“So it’s me?”

“Always has been.”

“And you never said anything.”

“I did. You ignored it on purpose.”

“No, I’m just a stupid hoe.”

“You’re not stupid. Or a hoe.”

“You’re always calling me stupid.”

“Not like that, stupid.”

“You’re going to have to undo a lot of damage if we date.”

“I know. I’ve been working on it already, didn’t you notice?”

“Yeah, but it’s gonna get worse if we date.”

“Have you considered therapy?”

“Vinny, I’ll be a pariah.”

“A happy one, maybe.” Hesitantly, he reaches for one of her hands. Halfway, he flips the palm up and waits for her to complete the gesture on her own. “You don’t have to decide right away. It’s just a thought.”

She puts her hand in his a little too eagerly, then pulls back a little too harshly. It feels like touching the flame of a candle.

A defeated look momentarily crosses Vinny’s eyes, but Y Nhi barely has the time to look at it before she steels her nerves and takes hold of his hand again. The coldness of his rings grounds her somehow. “We need a list,” Y Nhi says, “of things. First, you’re going to Google touch starvation.”

Her best friend jerks in a little victorious motion, jamming his knee unceremoniously on the table leg as he does. “Fuck, that hurt.”

“What was that about?”

“I wasn’t sure if you were actually touch starved or if you didn’t like men touching you.”

“And you didn’t ask?” Y Nhi is incredulous.

“How am I supposed to ask? ‘Jude, when I touch you, does it remind you of your sleazy ex boyfriends?’ You’d say no. Like a liar. Or so I thought.” He pauses. “Anyway, this means I can hug you now, right? 24/7.”

“If you ease into it.”

“And you’ll stop wearing those gigantic shirts that literally drown you.”

“...No. What?”

“Okay, never mind, nothing. What else? What other boundaries do we have?”

Of all questions she’s been asked today, this one is probably the most confusing. Her previous relationships are no help; she hasn’t exactly had the best exposure to “healthy relationships.” She’s aware that the bare minimum counts as decadence for her, so the question has her a little frozen.

After watching her face flicker through whatever emotions it’s displaying, Vinny rubs a thumb over her knuckles. “How about this: I have a specific thing I want your help with, and when things come up, we can talk about it.”

Y Nhi nods, though they both know she won’t talk about shit. But perhaps watching Vinny sort out whatever issue he needs sorted will give her inspiration on how to approach this. “Can we-?” She starts and stops abruptly.

Vinny blinks, then feeds her a strawberry slice. “Go ahead.” It’s a tactful move. Putting food in her mouth means she has to chew, meaning she has a few more seconds to gather herself and her thoughts, or at the very least, the desire to continue speaking.

“Can we not label this?” She finishes. “Whatever is between us.”

To her surprise, Vinny nods and acts like she hasn’t asked the bitchiest question of the night. “Sure.” You can do whatever you want, he’d said, as long as you do it by my side.

“And… Get rid of Jude.”

“What?”

“Jude. You remember why I picked that name?”

“Because of some fictional fairy queen that had the same name? You thought she was a conniving boss ass bitch and-”

“Shut up. Saint Jude. Patron saint of?”

Technically speaking, he hasn’t been wrong about the fairy queen bit. Unlike the suckers who fell for Cardan Greenbriar, Y Nhi’s wimpy ass was all in for Jude Duarte, mortal queen of the fae. And it was easier to admit that than to admit the truth that was dawning on Vinny’s face in 3… 2...

“Hopeless causes,” Vinny answers easily. Then his expression sobers. “Oh.”

Y Nhi nods. “But the me with you isn’t a hopeless cause. I don’t want her to be, anyway.”

There’s a lot that goes unsaid, but she’s certain Vinny hears it. Logically, she can’t keep relying on whatever instinct says, He’ll understand because he’s Vinny, but up to this point, it should work out okay.

Gently, he says, “Y Nhi,” reacquainting himself with the syllables of her given name. “Y Nhi.”

“Yes, Vinny?” She says just as gently.

He lowers his voice to a husky whisper, “You’ve never been a hopeless cause. You were a cause for hope.”

Vinny’s request is this: that Y Nhi teach him to be soft again.

The request makes her question if she and Vinny exist in the same dimension because who the hell convinced him he wasn’t soft? Hardened, prickly souls don’t master winged eyeliner for the sake of their loved ones. They don’t volunteer extra hours at Vacation Bible School while working graveyard shifts at the hospital. Don’t do the dishes because as much as they hate them, their roommate hates them more.

Vinny is soft, and Y Nhi is out for blood. “I need names, Vincent. And addresses if you have them.”

“My ex,” he says.

An awkward sound emerges from Y Nhi’s throat.

He raises an eyebrow at her. “What? I dated around. Didn’t think I should be hung up on you, but nothing ever went as planned. Anyway, my one ex did a really good job making me become someone I wasn’t. I didn’t like the person she made me, but it was kind of too late to turn around.”

Again, Y Nhi is confused. The narrative is promising, though, so she lets him continue in hopes that it’ll clear something up.

“If you don’t know me, how would you describe me?”

“Vinny.” She doesn’t have an answer, she just doesn’t want to say it. It’s not all good, and they just came back from an awkward fight. Was it a fight?

They’ve slipped back into their normal existence so easily. Nothing has changed, but at the same time, everything has.

“Just- The rings and the black and the tattoos. You’d think I drove a motorcycle or something, right?”

“You drive a Lexus. It’s the same in terms of your fuck boy vibes.”

“Y Nhi!”

“BMW would’ve sealed the deal. How many Hennessys do you drink a night, again?”

A pout settles on his face. She likes this version of him. “I see you get my point. I look like a baddie.”

“Yeah. Bad at life.”

“I swear to god.”

“Don’t do that, that’s a sin. Don’t use the lord’s name in vain and all.”

“Anyway. You of all people know I am soft, actually. She didn’t like that. And so I gained a second personality and-”

It’s rude, the way Y Nhi interrupts, but Vinny doesn’t seem to mind at all. “So if you’re always soft, what’s left for me to help you with?”

“You’ll see,” he says. “Actually. No, I’m going to tell you. I get embarrassed about my relationships. So if it ever looks like I’m pushing you away… I’m just really fucking embarrassed, at least for this first stage. Do what you will with that.”

- bonus/epilogue -

They return home for Y Nhi’s mom’s birthday. They’ve always rode home together, since they are neighbors no matter where they are. No one finds it odd that they hold hands more than before, that Y Nhi is still averse to touching everyone but him.

They appear at social events hanging on each other’s arms. Commentary about their status as a “married couple” breeze over their heads, but they never confirm nor deny anything. In public, they remain aloof to each other. They show tenderness in only the smallest of gestures.

In private, they are as they ever were. Vinny still does her eyeliner on her bad days, but now she cuddles him on the couch on his bad days. Between the two of them, there are a lot of bad days, days when they almost threw in the towel.

But they didn’t. Instead, they’ve introduced all manner of pet names (Vinny’s favorites to use are love, darling, and lately, em. Y Nhi’s favorites are Vinny and anh). They write songs to each other, for each other, with each other. Every morning, they make the choice to keep loving each other the way they have since they were fifteen - and while they joke that they wasted so much time, it was a necessary time for them to spend apart to learn how to exist together and how to choose each other even when it’s the harder choice than letting go.

Even I get lonely too

It’s not hard

Every question’s got an answer

And mine is you

Where you go then I will follow

All my life

You’re the name that I will whisper to the night

#musclememory.wip #it turned out differently than planned #but I hope you enjoy it!

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wineschool-blog · 3 years

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Beer Reviews

https://j.mp/3pZn1GD Beer Reviews https://j.mp/3pZn1GD Table of contentsBeer ReviewsPhilly Beer School Kenzinger Brasserie Dupont Duvel Schlenkerla Rauchbier Marzen. Brasserie Cantillon Lou Pepe Kriek Avery Maharaja Imperial IPA Sly Fox Pikeland Pils Stoudt’s Karnival Kolsch Russian River Supplication Wine ReviewsWine School of PhiladelphiaSimi Chardonnay, Russian River ValleyBaumard SavennieresDomaine Hauts Chassis “Les Galets” Crozes HermitageWirra Wirra “Catapult” Shiraz Viognier, Mclaren ValeCims de Porrera 2005 “Solanes” Priorat Beer Reviews Philly Beer School Check out our upcoming Beer Brewing courses and tasting classes! Kenzinger What? Wait…I am drinking a Kenzinger right now. Life is good. Forget the Geek-isms sometimes, a beer needs to be straightforward and refreshing, and I don’t often sit down for just one, so the low alc content on Philly’s favorite session beer is right up my alley. 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Below all that sour fruit is earthy and peppery funk and a sturdy body. Summertime perfection. Avery Maharaja Imperial IPA Taking hops to the next level, Adam Avery is a serious man. Subtlety be damned, the Mahraja is a grapefruit and pine BOMB. Hops for the sake of hopping. At a beasty 10.2%, this beer shouldn’t be a quencher on a hot day, as you’ll be seeing sideways in no time. A perfectly smooth mouthfeel and hearty finish puts this brew in my current top 5. Sly Fox Pikeland Pils The beer in the can that could. A Gold Medal winner at GABF, no one does delicious canned beer better than Brian O’Reilly at local brewery Sly Fox. This is a refresher of the highest order with a hefty amount of bitterness and big leafy grains on the nose. With a glut of great pilsners in our area, Sly Fox can swing with the best of them. The portability and convenience of the can put this one over the top. Stoudt’s Karnival Kolsch Before closing the brewery, Carol Stoudt was known as the Queen of Hops and is the first female brewer since the lift of Prohibition. The woman can brew a beer. None is better than their Karnival Kolsch offering, which is new this year but used to be part of the Brewer’s Reserve series. Luckily, we can get it all the time now. In an area teeming with Germans, this beer is the German-est. Smooth like a lager due to colder fermentation temperatures; there’s a touch of sweetness upfront, thanks to red wheat malts peeking through. Also, a GABF winner. Delicious! This beer (and the brewery) will miss it. Russian River Supplication Ahhhh yeah, Russian River. Super brewer Vinnie Cilurzo makes delicious and rare beers that Philly can’t get enough of. The best of the best is not Pliny The Younger. No, my friend, the best is Supplication. A tasty brown ale is barrel-aged in Pinot Noir barriques, with three separate strains of wild yeast added to the brew. Very barnyard funky and sour cherry on the nose, but quite vinous and silky in mouthfeel. For as deep a color as it presents, this beer is surprisingly refreshing and, as such, falls into my top 5. Forget that. It kicks and uppercuts its way into my top 5. Wine Reviews Wine School of Philadelphia Check out our upcoming wine tastings! Simi Chardonnay, Russian River Valley Classic Cali style Chardonnay. Melon and cream with a core of cinnamon stick and a splash of apple cider. For lovers of this style, its worth every penny of the $14.99 the state is charging. Baumard Savennieres Steely acidity and popping apple notes give way to cool chalk and ripe apricot and just a hint of forest fire: a complex and beautiful wine that will develop over the next five years. If a marble fireplace was edible, it would taste like this. 23.99 Domaine Hauts Chassis “Les Galets” Crozes Hermitage It is rare to find a very good Northern Rhone wine for $20. That makes this delicious syrah a great find. Drinks more like an Hermitage than its often lesser Croze neighbor. With classic mineral and tobacco notes leading into a mess of blood and tar. Only in a wine could that be good, and here it is amazing. $20.99 Wirra Wirra “Catapult” Shiraz Viognier, Mclaren Vale This wine goes for the smooth and rich style that is expected of an Aussie Shiraz. However, this one goes much deeper, with a smoky aroma tinged with floral and white fruit notes. On the palate, behind the big juicy fruit lurks a charred but bloody tenderloin. $17.99 Cims de Porrera 2005 “Solanes” Priorat Priorat is Priorat is Priorat, and this is PRIORAT. Earthen clay aromas peppered with iron and black fruits. On the palate, there is good depth and tannic grip. Flavors of black cherry and dry spices dominate. Very good now, but expect it to mature well for another 4 years. $19.99 More Wine Reviews

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dr-dean · 7 years

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ABO Fic Rec List

In honor of ABO Appreciation day I am doing a NEW ABO Fic Rec List! You can check out the Original ABO Fic Rec List here. So if it was included in that one, it won't be on this one.

Just a disclaimer for all my reader insert buddies: I have been having some “issues” with reader inserts as of late so this list will be ships only. (Again, Destiel is my OTP so the list is 100% that this time) Sometimes I like some pretty ‘weird’ shit and YMMV, so always heed the tags on these. But they all have happy endings as that's what I like in a fic! (The show gives us enough unhappy endings and cliffhangers, I just want my boys to be happy! Is that too much to ask?)

It's my list so I can start with me! Check out my new fic Bringing Home the Bacon with art by @vinnie-cha for @deancastielbigbang

Omega Dean was doing just fine. He had an apartment, a good job, and a great family. But he didn’t have an alpha. When Castiel starts as his company’s new CEO everything changes. Alpha Cas becomes family, and Dean takes care of his family.

ABO office AU with Fluff, Smut and a happy ending

Also check out my short fic The Billionaire's Pregnant Mistress for @destielharlequinchallenge

Lingerie Model Dean is pregnant with his Billionaire's Alpha's pup and he doesn't know what to do. They just broke up and he doesn't want to be where he's not wanted. Spoiler Alert: Happy Ending and minimal angst.

Gravity vs Velocity by PaperAnn @paperannxo

Newton's law of universal gravitation states that any two bodies in the universe attract each other with a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the two bodies.

Dean swears he feels an honest-to-goodness gravity (not any scent-true-mates-bullshit) pulling him to a mysterious omega and makes the worst mistake of his career... he only has one thing to say...

Fuck science.

Dean is a detective and Cas is part of a mob family. They get in and out of a lot of trouble together. A must read!

A Story for Every Corner by thepinupchemist @scarlettshazam

Dean's a late bloomer. When he presents as an omega, everyone is surprised, and everything changes. Only a few months into omegahood, Dean decides to book it. A couple of truck rides and a state later, Dean's in Apple Springs, Colorado at a bed & breakfast called The Snoozing Squirrel. The off-beat omega owner is just the beginning.

The hard part is the offbeat brother of the offbeat omega, an alpha named Castiel.

Gabe is the best, and I really love him in this fic.

For Science! by pm_lo

Selected transcripts and supporting materials from Dr. Castiel Williams and Dean Winchester’s seminal study on physiological and psychological sexual response by gender designation.

This is a crossover of Supernatural and Masters of Sex, it doesn’t use any characters from Masters of Sex, just the plot and the whole set up so you don’t need to know anything about Masters of Sex to enjoy it. It is written very differently than most fanfic (it's not lying when it says “transcripts”) but it's totally worth a read! (And go watch Masters of Sex! It's important sexual history!)

Arranged by Miss_Lv @the-miss-lv

Dean Winchester is the omega chosen to marry Castiel's son. The arranged marriage is as awkward and lackluster has Castiel expected it would be.

What he didn't expect was what would develop between himself and his new son-in-law.

So I think this one qualifies as ‘weird’ but I’ve read it at least 4 times and love it. Don’t let the infidelity bother you as (*SPOILER*) Dean never has a relationship with Castiel’s son and only has a sexual relationship with Cas.

Obsession by Miss_Lv

SPN kink meme: Castiel is John's friend and becomes fixated with his son Dean. The main thing is that as Castiel spirals into obsession Dean isn't scared but rather likes it and encourages it.

Big age difference, but Dean knows what he wants and that is Cas. Very different way of mating.

A Hole in the World by AnnelieseMichel

Dean Winchester never wanted to go home again. Going back to Lawrence meant people who knew what he was, who didn't buy into the lie. But with a tragic accident, he's back and dealing with the death of his father, the social stigma and objectification of being an out Omega, and the lingering aftermath of a long-ago crime.

This is a super long fic with lots of sexual violence against omegas. About halfway through the tone really changes and it gets super political. So if you like you ABO with a good helping of civil rights, this is the fic for you!

Take On Me by Powerfulweak

Alpha Dean Winchester figured the closest he’d get to the apple pie life and fatherhood was a one-shot, “wham-bam-thank-you-mam” trip to a sperm bank. That is, until he comes face-to-face with the omega carrying his pup on a fateful trip to the grocery store. When the the omega runs off without a word, though, Dean learns the situation is far more complicated than he expected. Can an anonymous sperm donation and the favor of a lifetime help two complete strangers find everything their life was missing?

Super cute hijinks and happy ending. What more can you want?

Violator by MooseFeels

Dean's fifteen, and his knot doesn't pop. Part 1 of Revelation

You need to read the entire series, not just the first one. It starts out dark (and Dean has a lot of issues to work through) but it has a happy ending.

No Righteous Path by jupiter_james @jupiterjames

On his 40th birthday, Dean Winchester suddenly begins to worry that he may have lost his chance for a real mate. He's been so focused on his business as a 24-hour roofing and repairman, that he's never taken the time to date properly, or even make any lasting friendships outside of his family. Beginning in their late 30's, alphas and omegas start to lose their mating and bonding hormones, making it more difficult - and often impossible - to mate or bond with anyone past a certain age. But as a modern Alpha, Dean would be content with a companion, at least. Blood bonds aren't the be-all, end-all. However, after a late night emergency roofing repair call from Castiel Novak, Omega, Dean starts to hope. Yearn. The only hangup is that Castiel admits to being as old-fashioned as the books he teaches. Nervous to go against his religious upbringing by being with someone who he can't bond properly, as alphas and omegas are intended to do. But he can't deny his attraction to Dean, and despite his sensibilities, he thinks that, just maybe, he can change for the man he's falling in love with.

Totally LOVE this fic! Super fluffy and has a happy ending!! All the (totally necessary for plot) angst gets resolved. Its everything you (ok fine, *I*) could want in a fic. (GIVE ME ALL THE FLUFFY ABO SMUT LONG FICS!!!)

Mulder and Scully by teller_of_tales_and_hero_of_songs

Castiel Novak is an undercover FBI agent working to take down a white collar criminal named Azazel, but Castiel finds himself way out of his depths when the case takes a dangerous turn and Azazel gets involved in an omega trafficking deal. With the help of an OPA agent named Dean, the Bureau and the Omega Protection Agency take down Azazel and his seller, Dick Roman.

As it turns out, that case wasn't the last Castiel would see of Dean Winchester, and it isn't long at all before Castiel finds himself falling in love with the fiery, strong-willed omega.

Dean is quite the kickass Omega. This story is really good, and it has THE BEST first “I love you”s that I have ever read in any fic. I still laugh thinking about it!

Best Laid Plans by Persephoneshadow @ibelieveinthelittletreetopper

Things are going well for Dean: he's landed the biggest design job of his architectural career and is about to get final approval on the project despite how difficult the development company, personified by Castiel Novak, has made it. It's not bad for a moody omega...except things are also going terribly for Dean because he has to get in a plane and fly to a meeting, and course ends up in heat a few hours before. Luckily, Castiel is there to help and both men discover the good that can come when nothing goes quite as intended.

This fic is great! Dean and Cas work together but don’t meet in person until Dean has to travel for a meeting.

Get Knocked Down, Get Back Up by Unforth @unforth-ninawaters

With an over-sensitive sense of smell, omega Dean Winchester finds the scent of most potential mates to be, frankly, nauseating. Enter alpha Castiel, who smells fracken *perfect* but has problems of his own.

As someone who in general finds most fake scents awful instead of pleasing I kinda relate to this. If my sense of smell was as good as most ABO fics I could totally see Dean being me. I love how unforth plays with sexuality and gender expectations in her fics.

Like Cats and Dogs by sweetdean

Dean Winchester, Alpha, lead Hunter for the Pack, is in need of a mate. His wolf is out of control, he's on edge, and nothing seems to be doing the trick. Dean is convinced that he'll never find a mate, but when the Pack's Council forces him to figure it out before he ends up going rogue, Dean doesn't have much of a choice. Problem is, Dean isn't interested in what the members of his pack have to offer; and that means looking elsewhere.

Dean knew his mate would have to be different. He just didn't know what "different" would really mean, and how "different" would bring his whole world crashing down on top of him.

I love werewolves! And this has a lot of weres in it!

Caribbean Wonderland by LittleAngelCassie

Dean Winchester has spent his life working towards his dream: to teach and care for omega students. But a genetic mutation from birth has kept him from his field of choice. After years of hiding under the protection of his Uncle Bobby and his younger brother Sam, Dean has finally been given a chance.

He accepts the position to care for a young orphan who needs more than just a teacher but also a fellow omega to help her traverse the changes ahead. There is always a hitch, however, and in Dean’s case it’s a hot billionaire alpha with piercing blue eyes. This remote island paradise has the opportunity to give Dean everything he’s wanted, but will he be able to rise above his own fears and the stigmas associated with his unique biological designation?

Throw away what you know about alpha/ beta/ omega dynamics because this is a brand new adventure in wonderland.

So this one is really great and it has a “new” gender designation within ABO. Super original and I totally love it.

Gray Matter by PaperAnn

It should have been a night like any other night, but for Dean Winchester this evening was different.

Tonight was his last on Earth.

The omega finally snapped; the weight of his kills moonlighting as an assassin were too heavy to carry. So he decided to set out to numb the pain with whiskey and the white noise of whatever seedy bar he randomly ambled into. Although he’d intended to drown his sorrows alone, a bold alpha (who introduced himself as Castiel) wormed his way into his party-for-one, but more importantly: his story.

After brazenly announcing that Dean’s plan to shoot himself in the head was “unoriginal,” the alpha lured him out into the bar to prove there are much more interesting and creative ways to go.

A bizarre, deranged game turns into a night of passion, and leads Dean into introspective questions he never would've asked before. Maybe everything wasn’t as black and white as he thought, maybe there’s more to his own story that he, himself, didn’t even know. The stupid fucking alpha had transformed his world into shades of gray and made him doubt everything.

You need a dark sense of humor for this one, but if you have that, this is fantastic!

#abo fic rec list #a/b/o appreciation day #abo fic recs #abo fic rec #supernatural fanfiction #spn fanfic rec list #fic rec list #destiel #destiel fanfic #abo #a/b/o #destiel fic rec list

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brieflyuniversallyfun-blog · 7 years

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Drinking My Brains

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