#and flew from seattle back home. it was nice :)

[justagalwhowrites]

New in Town - Ch. 3: First Family Dinner

Sarah comes to visit and has questions for Joel. A continuation of New in Town chapters 1-2 found on Tumblr here.

Pairing: Best Friend's Dad!Joel Miller x Female Reader

CW: Smut :D Yeah, they're horny, OK? Just expect a lot of smut in this fic. No use of Y/N. Age gap (reader is 35 Joel is 47, not a focus of the fic). Minors DNI, 18+ only

Length: 5.1k

AO3 | First Chapter | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

Joel actually felt pretty damn smart when he got to his house. He stopped at the trash bin that sat outside the garage and dropped his now empty coffee cup into it, just in case Sarah asked why he’d gone to the place with the name stamped on the side of the cup. 

He didn’t have a good fucking reason to be at a coffee shop by your apartment besides being at your apartment. And he knew he wasn’t ready to tell his daughter about the fact that you two were… whatever the fuck you were. 

What were you doing with him? What did you want with him? Why was it so hard to know and why was he so fucking afraid to ask? 

Didn’t matter now. The morning Sarah showed up to surprise him with a visit was not the morning to be having this discussion. 

“Baby Girl?” Joel called as he closed the door behind him, dropping his keys on the table in his entry way. 

“Dad!” Sarah flew around the corner and launched herself at him, just like she’d done when she was a kid. He caught her, the air knocked out of him, laughing as he caught his breath. “I missed you, old man!” 

“Missed you too, Baby Girl,” he said, setting her down and stretching out his back. “But you’re gonna have to cut me a break, think my back is gettin’ too old to be catchin’ you like that.” 

“How am I supposed to properly shower you in affection if I can’t just throw my whole body at you?” She smirked. “But fine, I guess if it’s for the sake of your health…” 

He rolled his eyes and tugged her against his side, kissing her temple. 

“Just gotta have you move back closer to home,” he gave her a squeeze. “Wouldn’t need to tackle me if I just saw you more.” 

“Yeah, I’m working on that,” she smiled. “Trying to get promoted from junior copywriter to intermediate so I can come to the Austin office sooner rather than later…” 

“That’s amazing Baby Girl!” Joel gave her another squeeze before leading her to the living room and settling on the couch. “I’m sure you’re close, they know how good you are.”

“Speaking of my grand plan,” she said. “I see you’ve been hanging out with my work wife.” 

Joel coughed to try to hide his surprise. 

“What?” He asked after a moment. 

“Well I know you didn’t do the Seattle Zombie 5K last Halloween,” she nodded at his shirt. Joel felt his stomach drop. “But I know we did.” 

Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. 

“Not doing a walk of shame are you?” She asked, her eyebrows raised. 

“You ever known me to be the walk of shame type?” He asked, scrambling for a reason that he’d have your shirt. “I just fixed her garbage disposal for her a few weeks ago, got soaked. She was nice enough to give me a clean shirt so I wasn’t drippin’ wet on the drive home. Didn’t realize it’d made it into my dresser is all. I’ll have to wash it again, give it back…” 

“But you are hanging out with her then?” She asked. “I mean, you said give it back like you were going to see her again so…”

“We went out once since I helped with the sink and shit,” he said, telling himself that it wasn’t a lie, not really. You’d only successfully made it out of the house together once. Sarah scrunched her nose. “What, Baby Girl?” 

“Nothing,” she sighed. “I was just hoping you guys would be friends is all. You’re both kind of alone down here, you know? I worry. I don’t want you doing nothing but sitting in the house doing… whatever weird old man stuff you do.” 

“I don’t do weird old man stuff…” 

“And leave her alone too long and the next thing you know she’s on the dating apps and she ends up going out with some total idiots,” she said, ignoring Joel’s protest entirely. “Really, Dad, her taste in men is shit and I’m not here to keep her busy, I was kind of counting on you here.” 

Joel frowned. 

“Not on you to protect her,” he said. Though, from what little he knew, Sarah was right. Your taste in men was shit. “And I’m sure she’s got better things to do than hang out with someone who does ‘old man things…’” 

That was something that Joel had been thinking about a lot over the past two weeks. Yes, you seemed to be about as insatiable for him as he was for you and he didn’t have any damn clue as to why. But he could think of plenty of reasons why you shouldn’t be. How long was it going to be before you realized that he didn’t offer you much? He couldn’t take you to fancy restaurants every week or on nice trips. He wasn’t interested in another child and you were still young enough that you might want to be a mother. His body was often sore and worn after decades of damn near breaking himself to make a living. How much longer would you be wanting to pull him into restaurant bathrooms and make yourself come on his leg because you just couldn’t bear to wait anymore? How much longer could he text you to bitch about work while on a break at a job site and have you respond with a gif from Sharknado because you knew it would make him laugh? How much longer could he look at the selfies you sent him and think to himself “that’s my girl,” even though you weren’t even his girl now let alone in the future?

He was already in too deep with you, way too damn deep. Someone was going to have to pry you out of him, you’d already settled inside his skin and he liked it that way. Liked thinking of you first thing in the morning and just before he fell asleep, liked that you were the first thing on his mind when he got lunch at a food truck and he stumbled on something really good, liked that you showed up with his favorite beer and some obscure snack food when you came over to his place because you said you saw it and thought of him.

“Her taste in men isn’t dangerously bad,” Sarah waved him off. “Just… she tends to go for guys who definitely don’t deserve her, you know?” 

“Yeah,” Joel sighed. “I know.” 

Fuck, did he know.

“Anyway,” she said with a dramatic eye roll that reminded him of when she was a teenager. He smiled a little. “I’m in town until Wednesday! I know you’ll have to work…” 

“I can take a few days off,” he said quickly. “Get Uncle Tommy to make sure shit doesn’t go sideways…” 

“Awesome!” She perked up at that. “Because I think there are at least two Curtis and Vipers I haven’t gotten around to seeing yet and I’m going to require a handcrafted Dad burger - preferably grilled - while I’m in town. My apartment doesn’t let me have a grill on my balcony, it’s so dumb.” 

“Probably a fire code thing, Baby Girl,” he smiled. “But I think we can swing some movies and a cookout while you’re here. Tommy’d love to see ya, Maria too.” 

“Can we start by jumping in the pool?” She asked. “Because I haven’t gotten to swim in months.” 

“Might be a bit cold…” 

“Please,” she scoffed. “This is mid-summer weather in Seattle, plenty warm enough for a swim.” 

Joel smiled. 

“Whatever you want, Baby Girl.” 

The water was definitely colder than Joel would normally jump into but, for Sarah, he’d do just about anything. 

He was still getting used to drinking with his daughter, the two of them floating around the water with beers most of the day. Joel got out for a bit to make sandwiches - he put potato chips on Sarah’s just like he had when she was a kid - and he just listened to what she’d been up to, hanging on her every word. 

Joel had always felt incredibly lucky to have Sarah as his daughter. There were the obvious reasons, of course. She was kind and thoughtful, she was smart as a whip and loved to do well in school to the point that he almost never had to tell her to do her homework, she actually liked spending time with him. But she never had a problem being open with him about damn near anything. 

It wasn’t always the most pleasant experience - hearing about boy problems when he couldn’t actually intervene was harder than Joel had expected it to be - but he was grateful for it. He never had to wonder what his daughter was up to, she just told him. 

Part of it, he was sure, was because he’d asked her to grow up too fast. He hadn’t meant to, of course, but it seemed to come with the territory of single parenthood. There was no one there to back him up when he had to work late, no one there to take over the child rearing when he was sick or just so exhausted from work that he slept through his damn alarm. Sarah fell into the role of second parent, sometimes raising herself as much as Joel had. 

He was just happy she didn’t resent him for it. She seemed to recognize how hard he’d tried to give her everything, do everything he possibly could to make her happy and give her a good life. Even if it hadn’t always worked, he’d always tried. The fact that she’d made it to college on scholarship, that she’d finished towards the top of her class, that she’d gotten a good paying job doing something she liked to do, the fact that she was happy and doing something with her mind instead of breaking her body down like Joel was every damn day of his life was the proudest he’d ever been of anything. 

Could he really risk his relationship with her for you? Yes, you made him happy. So fucking happy. You were the first thing in years that he felt like he really, truly wanted. And it had hit him hard, so fucking hard. It was like he’d saved up all his longing just for you, like it had been waiting for something powerful enough to show up and unleash it all and it had knocked him off his damn feet. 

But you were Sarah’s best friend. 

“So one thing that’s seriously lacking in the Pacific Northwest is good TexMex,” Sarah said, lounging on a pool float, her face tilted toward the sun, eyes closed. “Think we can go out for dinner tonight? I need enchiladas and tamales and I need them sooner rather than later.” 

“Only if you don’t get mad that I ask for the real spicy salsa,” Joel said. 

“How did I end up so cursed that my two favorite people love to melt their tongues off as a hobby?” Sarah sighed. “But fine, order the miserable stuff. I’ll just get the regular salsa like a normal person.” 

Joel scoffed. 

“The normal ship has sailed with you, Baby Girl. Me and Tommy around you so much? Never stood a chance.” 

Just an hour later, he and Sarah were headed into her favorite Austin restaurant. Joel added it to his mental list of places to take you. It was Sarah’s favorite for a reason, after all. 

“Table for two,” Joel held up two fingers to the hostess but Sarah cut him off. 

“It’s three, actually,” she smiled, not looking at him. 

“Three?” He frowned. She ignored him and just held up three fingers to the hostess. It took him until they were at the table to really put it together. “Sarah…” 

“I’m here to see you but I really want to see her, too,” she said as she slid into the booth. “And I do think you guys will really get along if you actually give it a shot. Please, Dad? Give her a chance?” 

A chance wasn’t the only thing he’d given you. 

“Baby Girl, I’m sure she’d rather do something besides…” 

“Besides what?” Your voice appeared over his shoulder, Joel turning toward the sound so fast it made his head spin. You smiled a little sheepishly. 

“Hi.” 

***

Well Joel clearly hadn’t been expecting you. 

That boded just so well. 

“Hey Bestie!” Sarah squealed and got out of the booth to throw her arms around your neck. You laughed and hugged her back. “Ugh, I miss you! The office sucks without you there. So does the rest of Seattle, honestly.” 

You laughed. 

“I miss you too,” you gave her a squeeze before the two of you separated. “I keep trying to convince the VP at this branch that I absolutely unequivocally need a junior copywriter on my team. He hasn’t bought it yet but I think if I just keep asking him I’ll wear him down and he’ll cave to my annoying tendencies and just give me whatever I want.”

“Oh so you’re playing hardball,” Sarah teased as she got back in the booth and you slid in beside her. 

“Clearly yes,” you nodded sagely. “I read ‘The Art of War’ and just bothering people until they give up is the best battle tactic in the world…” 

You turned to look at Joel who was watching you intently. 

You hadn’t expected Joel to show up tonight anymore than he’d expected you. Sarah was playing you both like a goddamn fiddle. You’d worn a strappy, silky slip dress with a denim jacket over it thinking you were going out with your best friend, not going to be stuck trying to keep from staring at your who-the-fuck-knows-what sitting across from you. 

Who also happened to be your best friend’s dad. 

You tried not to think about that part. 

“Figured I’d force you two to get to know each other better over margaritas,” Sarah said brightly. “I can’t let you both just sit and stare at a wall all by yourselves until I can move back to town…” 

“I don’t stare at walls!” You protested. Sarah ignored you. 

“So you can at least keep each other company,” she finished. 

“Good to see you again, Joel,” you said, trying as hard as you could to not picture him naked across the table. 

Which was really fucking hard. 

His dark button down was rolled up to his elbows and fit his damn broad shoulders so perfectly all you could think about was the way he looked as he fucked into you, the way his muscles rippled through his chest and you had to fight to not bite down on them. His hair was tamed without being sculpted or overly styled and you wanted to run your fingers through it and sink your grip into his scalp as he ate you. 

“You too,” he said. 

You’d never had this visceral of a reaction to a man you’d fucked before, never, not even when you were a stupid teenager. Of course, you’d never tried to hide your relationship before, either. 

But you had the feeling that wouldn’t matter with Joel. You’d feel this intensity toward him whether Sarah was beside you or not, whether you could be open about your affection for him or not. 

And now you were going to have to sit across from him when he looked that damn good all through dinner. 

The second the server came to the table you ordered a margarita. You had a feeling you were going to need the tequila. 

It took conscious effort to pay attention to what Sarah was saying as she tried to bring up things she thought you and Joel had in common. Almost like she was trying to launch an ad campaign for each of you. 

It felt like forever but you were sure you’d only been seated a few minutes when you gave up on not touching Joel. You carefully slid your foot out of your pump and started sliding it up his inner leg, starting near his ankle. Joel jumped a little in his chair at the contact, his eyes darting to you. You just raised your eyebrows at him as you took a drink from your margarita and slid your foot up his leg to his knee. He shifted in his seat, his eyes steadily on Sarah but you could tell he had to focus on her now, actively work to give her attention. You smirked a bit at that. 

You kept the pattern up as the three of you waited for your food, Joel’s eyes always going a little wide when your toes made it to his inner thigh. 

“Ugh, I’m starving,” Sarah groaned as a tray of sizzling fajitas passed your table. “Here, scootch out, I’m going to the bathroom. That’ll make the food come.” 

“It always does,” you agreed, quickly shoving your foot back into your shoe and getting out of the booth. 

You both watched as Sarah made her way across the restaurant, turning to Joel the second you knew she was out of earshot. 

“Did you say anything?” You were whispering anyway. 

“No,” he replied. “We hadn’t talked about it, didn’t seem like the time… Did you say somethin’?” 

“Not a word,” you said. 

“I really need you to cool it over there, Beautiful,” Joel said. Any other time, you’d think he was teasing you but his eyes looked open and earnest now. “We can’t just go into a bathroom right now and it’s already a fucking miracle I haven’t tried to rip that goddamn dress off you, Jesus Christ, you can’t just show up places lookin’ that damn good…” “You’re one to talk!” You replied, incredulous, as you looked down at his exposed, tan, muscled forearms and back up at his face. “Fucking hell, Joel!” 

He smirked a little. 

“That’s all it takes with you, huh?” He teased, leaning across the table toward you. “Just a little bit of skin and you’re outta control?”

“Oh fuck off,” you rolled your eyes but grinned a little all the same. “I know you know what the rolled up sleeves thing does to women.” 

“I promise I do not,” he said, watching over your shoulder now. “But you’ll have to enlighten me later…” 

Sarah came back to the table and her face fell. 

“Shit, that usually works,” she sighed. “Alright, scoot in, we can just trade spots.” 

You obeyed and slid over, purposely leaning over the table as you did, giving Joel full view of your bra below your dress as you did. He was all but glaring at you as you sat back in the booth. 

Consciously, you knew you shouldn’t be pushing him like this. For starters, this was not how you wanted Sarah to find out. Assuming she was ever going to find out. 

But you shouldn’t be trying to frustrate Joel. Not like this, not so early on in your… whatever the fuck this was. 

You had a tendency to do this, to bend things until they broke the second something was looking like it could get serious, the second that it looked like it’d be worth the time and the effort. You were starting to think it was something your subconscious did on purpose. If you sabotaged the relationship early, there wasn’t the same kind of risk. Push the guy too far and he’d break things off with you and you could return to the relative emotional safety of dating apps and bars. Only ever go out with someone for a few weeks and it wouldn’t hurt that bad if they left. 

And they would leave. They always left. You might be worth the time for a bit but you weren’t worth the trouble for anything real, that much had been made clear to you in the years you’d spent dating around. It had gotten you hurt when you were young and stupid, back when you were Sarah’s age. Now, you fucking knew better. 

You knew better than to get anywhere close to what you were starting to feel with Joel. 

And here you were, doing it anyway, with your best friend’s dad. 

So of course your first reaction was to push him. Push, push, push. It’s what you did. 

You stirred your melting margarita. 

You’d never been more relieved to have food brought to your table. 

“Thanks so much for coming out tonight!” Sarah hugged you goodbye in the parking lot, the awkward, hesitant conversation at the table through dinner still tense over you. 

“It was so great to see you!” You hugged her back and kissed her cheek. “Seriously, I’m wearing the bosses down, start packing now because I miss you too much.” 

She laughed. 

“I’ll be on the first plane out once I get a job offer,” she said. “Either way, I’ll be back for the holidays, we have to hang out then. Just us girls at least once, promise.” 

You smiled a little, hoping Sarah would still want to talk to you at the holidays. 

“Sounds perfect.” 

Joel gave you a tight smile and a nod. 

“Talk to you soon?” He said, his voice too open and honest to fit the shared awkwardness of your position feet apart in the parking lot. 

“Yeah,” you smiled. “Text me?” 

“Sure,” he smiled back. 

You poured yourself a glass of wine the second you were in the door, only pausing to take your shoes off as you made your way to the kitchen. You settled in on the couch without bothering to change, carrying the bottle of wine with you, and you put on some shitty Netflix reality show you could zone out and barely pay attention to. 

You were four episodes deep when your phone lit up. 

“Fuck that was hard,” Joel texted. 

You smiled a little. 

“Was that hard or were you hard?” You texted back. 

“Both,” he replied almost immediately. Your smile grew and you downed the last of the wine. 

You hadn’t had enough to drink to be drunk but you’d had enough that it made you feel… bold. Like you wanted to try something new. 

You took off your jacket and slid the straps of your dress down so your cleavage was spilling over the top of it, your breasts barely contained by it. You took a selfie, a needy look on your face, and sent him the picture. 

“Need help with that?” You asked. 

“Jesus Christ,” he texted back almost immediately. “Good thing Sarah just went to call some boy she started seeing back in Washington, can’t just send a guy shit like that and expect him to sit still.” 

You bit your lip for a second, getting an idea. You headed for your room and shimmied out of the dress before you put on the sexiest bra you owned and switched to the matching panties. You posed in the full length mirror in the corner of your room, one leg out, a hand on your hip. 

“What about shit like this?” You asked as you sent the picture along. 

“Really fucking mean for you to send that when you know I can’t come take it off you,” he texted back. 

You flopped down on your stomach on your bed, reminded of how you felt texting guys when you were younger and you had to make sure you didn’t go over your texting limit for the month. 

“You can always fight back you know,” you said. “I can’t come rip your clothes off either.” 

“You trying to get me to sext with you?” He asked. 

“Maybe.” 

It took a few minutes before he sent you a picture. He was in his room, stripped down to his boxer briefs. He fisted his cock through the fabric of them, the veins on his hand prominent. 

“Something like this?” He asked. 

You groaned, your hand sliding to your clit before you even thought about it. You rolled onto your back and took a picture of your hand slipping into your panties before sending it on. 

“Just like that,” you replied. 

“Fuck.” 

The one word was all he sent for a minute before he followed it up with a picture of his cock in his hand. You moaned at the sight of him, a pearl of pre-come leaking from his swollen head. You wanted to swallow it up, lick up and down his thick shaft, take all of him in your mouth until you were choking on him and he spilled down your throat. 

“Tried to make this last but you’re too fucking much for me,” he texted. “Couldn’t wait.” 

You took off your bra and tossed it to the floor before taking a handful of your breast in your hand, holding the phone high over your head, high enough that it could capture your needy expression and the way you were touching yourself. 

“Neither could I.” 

Usually, when you fucked yourself, you used toys. You had a few that you’d become partial to over the years of cycling through men and relationships, the fake dicks in your life lasting a whole hell of a lot longer than the real ones. 

Tonight, you didn’t need one. Didn’t think you could pull yourself away from touching your own body long enough to pull one out, not with Joel’s face and body and cock on the brain. You slid your hand down your chest, your stomach, back to your pussy. You rubbed your clit in little circles with your index finger as you stretched your middle finger down, down, down toward your dripping hole. 

When his next message came through, you dropped your phone in your rush to open it and you scrambled to pick it up with one hand, your other one too occupied to want to do anything else. 

This time, it was a video. His large hand was working his thick length, his cock still looking big even in his grasp that dwarfed your own. He worked his cock slowly, his thumb sweeping over the head and collecting the pre-come before he slid it firmly down with quiet moan. 

“Fuck, I need you,” his voice was soft, a whisper. “Need to feel that perfect fuckin’ pussy…” 

You were about to rewatch the video, your mouth watering, when he texted again. 

“Can I call you?” 

You didn’t respond. Instead, you just called him, putting the phone to speaker and setting it on your chest between your breasts. 

He answered on the first ring. 

“Hey beautiful,” he said, voice low and dark and needy. “Fuck, I gotta be quiet…” 

“I know,” you said, whispering back even though you didn’t have a reason to. “Don’t care, as long as I can hear you.” 

“Tell me what you’re doin’ to yourself,” he was almost panting. “What you’re thinkin’ about…” 

“I’m rubbing my clit,” you moaned. “Got one finger inside of myself, thinking about you eating me out last night…” 

“Fuck you tasted so good,” his voice became a little more strained. “Wanna taste you right now.” 

You moaned and fucked yourself a little harder, a little faster, your eyes closed in pleasure. 

“Add another finger,” he said. “Want you to work up to this cock, want you thinking about me deep in you when you come.” 

“Fuck Joel,” you were panting now, too, as you added another finger. 

“Tell me what you’re thinking now,” he whispered. 

“You pushing into me,” you groaned it. “Opening me up for you…” 

“Fuck, Beautiful, you’re gonna fuckin’ kill me.” 

You heard the pace of his hand increase on the other end of the phone and you worked your pussy a little harder and faster, too, whimpering as you did. 

“Can you fit a third finger?” He panted. 

“Yes,” you managed, getting desperate, your body starting to feel tight, all the heat of you drawing deep into yourself. 

“Add it,” he groaned. “Fuck yourself deep, hard. Fuck yourself like I fucked you last night, how I’d fuck you right now if I were there.” 

You obeyed, thrusting your fingers in as deep as you could reach, whimpering at the stretch that you knew had nothing on his thick cock. 

“You were so fucking deep,” your legs were restless, the tightness extending so far down that you knew your orgasm was going to make your whole body quake. “Fuck, you’re so goddamn big, Joel…” 

“And you take me so fucking well,” he panted. “Take me like you were made to take this cock, fuck!” 

“I was made to take you,” you whimpered, desperate and aching. “Made to make you come, need you to fucking come, please Joel, please come for me…” 

“Fuck, fuck, I’m coming!” It was a choking, strangled whisper and you heard him muffle his moaning in a pillow, the sound of his pleasure sending you over the edge. 

It was the hardest you’d ever come from your own hand, harder than you’d ever come with a vibrator, almost as hard as you came with Joel deep inside you the night before. Your body throbbed with it, so much that it felt like your fingers might break as they stuffed your overwrought pussy full. You all but sobbed as you kept working your clit, even as it was too much, fucking yourself through your own orgasm the way you knew Joel would if he were buried inside you instead of in his own fist. Once it was over, you slowly, gently, pulled your hand away from your dripping slit. 

“Fucking hell, Beautiful,” he said after a minute, still trying to catch his breath. You smiled and laughed a little. “Christ, I hope Sarah didn’t hear that.” 

“You stayed a lot quieter than me,” you were whispering again. It was fun to whisper into the phone with him, like you were going behind your parents’ backs with it. 

“Still,” he said before he sighed. “I gotta go clean up, you made me make a hell of a mess.” 

“You’re one to talk,” you smirked a little, looking at the slick gathered on your fingers. 

“Can I text you tomorrow while you’re at work?” He asked quietly. “Something tells me I’m gonna miss you like crazy.” 

“Course,” you smiled, settling down into your mattress. “Text me whenever you want, I always want to hear from you.” 

Maybe it was the post-orgasm haze but you didn’t care that it sounded desperate. 

“Good,” he said. “Because hearin’ from you always makes my damn day.” 

You smiled at that. 

“Miss you, Beautiful.” 

You smiled bigger. 

“Miss you, too.” 

Next Chapter

A/N: Awww doubt is creeping in and they're still fucking each other's brains out from afar.

We love to see it!

Thank you so much for following along with this story! These two are so fun to write and I hope you're enjoying their journey. Love you all!

#fanfic #joel miller x female reader #joel miller x reader #joel miller x you #smut fic #joel miller x oc #joel miller smut

[lysenfeu]

Pair Of Aces - Chapter 2. Day Two

Pair of Aces

Chapter: 2. Day Two

Rating: M

Word Count: 3.5k~

Summary: After arriving in Evergreen on Waller’s orders, the newest member of Task Force X and Vigilante head out to their first mission together. Chapter Content: Mentions of Violence/torture

A/N: Part two is finally done~ This chapter ended up a lot longer than originally planned and I hope you all enjoy it! Gotta feed my Vigilante obsession somehow.

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She had trouble sleeping in her new home, the most nondescript rental apartment she’d ever been in. It was drab, plain and boring. Nothing more than four beige walls separated the living room from the four beige walls in the medium-sized bedroom and four more off-beige walls in the small kitchen. She spent the afternoon rifling through her meagre pile of belongings, a stack of six cardboard boxes and two large black duffels that contained all her possessions. Sorting through the mix of personal and professional items she managed to grab enough clothing, toiletries and equipment for the mission. Luckily, it all fit in one of the duffel bags and her purse. 

After a quick microwave dinner, tasting just as plain as the apartment walls she now lived in, she was ready to go just before 8:00 pm. Vigilante was supposed to pick her up any minute now so she made her way downstairs. Just as she walked outside, a beat-up Sebring pulled up to a stop in front of her building. She quickly recognized the masked driver and walked over to the vehicle. Vigilante looked a little out of place behind the wheel, with his full mask on but jeans and a pullover instead of the full suit. She slung her bag in the back and settled into the passenger seat without a word, eager to get going.

The sooner this is over with, the better.

According to her GPS, the motel they were staying at was about an hour's drive outside of town. She stared out the window at the trees zipping by while the radio played top 40 hits hoping to pass the time quickly. After about fifteen minutes on the road, Vig started talking.

"Have you ever been to Evergreen before?"

She fidgeted with her phone in her lap as she reread her most recent message.

From: Blondie

Sent: 6:59 pm

I know he’s a fucking weirdo but you have to be nice to him. If you fuck this up, I’ll kill you myself. Drinks next weekend?

-Harcourt

Sighing in resignation, she answered him.

"Nope, never. I don't get out to Washington very often."

"Do you like it so far?"

She bit the inside of her cheek to stop her instinctual sarcastic response.

"It's…quaint."

Vigilante laughed at that. "It's a shithole, it's okay. You're allowed to say that."

"Definitely not my favourite place to work, that's for sure." She laughed lightly along with him.

She discovered he was much more tolerable without Peacemaker around and that he was a total chatterbox. Once he started talking, he didn't stop for the entire drive. She learned he grew up in Evergreen and had only travelled a few times. A couple of trips to Seattle as a kid and once to Wisconsin to visit family. In contrast, she told him how she barely ever stopped travelling and how exhausting life on the road can be. The pair settled into a comfortable rapport as the scenery flew by.

Before long a deserted strip of parking lot came into view up ahead. Vigilante turned at the blinking MOTEL sign and pulled into a parking spot at the far end of the empty lot.

She unbuckled her seatbelt and turned towards him. "Alright, I'll go check in and you can unload the gear."

"Why do I have to carry all the stuff?"

She leaned over and poked his masked cheek. "Because you're a weirdo who won't take this off."

"There's nothing weird about protecting my secret identity." He grumbled and swatted her hand away but dutifully retrieved the bags as she made her way to the main building.

The clerk barely acknowledged her as she checked in with the fake names Harcourt had booked them under. The place seemed ancient and cramped but was less run down than she initially expected. The motel really showed its age when the clerk handed her the physical door keys for the suite, still not looking up from their screen. She took the keys, complete with tacky keychains with “Room 109” emblazoned on them, and headed back outside to the parking lot.

She gestured towards Vigilante to follow her as she walked along the row of rooms looking for their suite. She found it at the very end of the property, furthest from both the office and the road.

Smart move Blondie.

It was a clever spot for a temporary safe house. With only one shared wall and windows on both sides, the suite backed into the Washington woodlands that surrounded them. The location would help them stay out of sight and sequestered from any other potential guests or passersby, with cover if they needed to get out quickly.

She took in the size of the units before she approached the correct door. Along with the cramped office, the rooms seemed on the small side. She didn’t have too much stuff with her, just enough clothes, personal items and equipment to last the week. She wasn’t sure what Vigilante had brought but hopefully, there would be enough space. 

Wait, is this a single or a double room? 

She felt a brief moment of panic before putting the key in the lock and turning the handle.

Please have more than one bed, for the love of god.

She breathed a sigh of relief as the pair crossed the threshold into the motel room and immediately saw two twin beds pushed along the far wall directly opposite the door. Horribly patterned linens and curtains decorated the interior and the beige walls reminded her of the rental she was staying in. A small living room area with a loveseat, coffee table and TV unit was tucked into the corner, with a mini fridge and coffee maker nearby. Ancient grey carpeting blanketed the suite, faded and worn down from years of use. A door around the corner led to a full bathroom with generic white tile that, gratefully, appeared clean.

She quickly walked inside with Vigilante trailing behind her. She grabbed her bags from him and claimed the bed furthest against the wall for herself, throwing her things on top.

“Is it okay if I take this one?” She asked in an attempt to be polite.

He nodded in agreement and chucked his own bags on the other mattress, looking around the room in interest. He began humming slightly as he wandered slowly around the room, inspecting all the lights, outlets and windows. From her place sitting on the bed, she watched him carefully for a few moments before interrupting him.

“What the fuck are you doing?”

“Checking for cameras and bugs, duh.”

She rolled her eyes. “That’s a waste of time. Basic ARGUS protocol, this place would have been scanned and cleared before we even got here.”

He turned to face her, cocking his head to the side in confusion. “Who the fuck is Argus?”

“What?” She shot him a look of disbelief. “ARGUS isn’t a person. It’s the name of the department we work for.”

“I thought it was called Task Force X?”

“No, that’s the name of our team.” She started to speak slowly as if he were a child. “The department is called ARGUS and our division is called Task Force X. Did you not read the onboarding documents?"

He awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. “Uhh … I don’t know what that is.“

She stared at him, mouth slightly open in shock. “Please tell me you at least read the contract paperwork before signing it, right?”

“... There was paperwork?”

“Oh, my god.” She sat on the edge of the bed and covered her face with her hands in frustration.

Who the fuck signs up for black ops gig and doesn’t even check who they’re working for?!

She was stunned by his lack of care about his work. “Why did you even take this job?”

“Because Peacemaker’s back in town!” He seemed so excited about his answer but it meant nothing to her.

“What does that have to do with anything?”

"Peacemaker was gone for like, ever. But now he's back and there's cool shit happening. I had to make sure he was okay, that's what best friends do because we're best friends by the way." He really needed to make sure she knew that. "He's working on whatever this butterfly shit is so now I am too!"

She was appalled by his reasoning. “So let me get this straight. You signed up for an undisclosed black ops government mission and didn’t even read anything about it before taking the fucking job … just because you want to hang out with Peacemaker?”

“Uh, yeah. Obviously. Spending time with my best friend and killing bad guys, it’s a total win-win! What more do I need to know?”

She made a disgusted face at his carefree attitude. “Fucking capes.”

He cocked his head to the side again while observing her visible distaste. “You keep saying that, what’s a cape anyways?”

Christ, does this man know anything at all?

She glared at him from across the room. “Capes means superhero garbage. Wacky costumes, dumb names, weird powers. Justice League shit. You know, capes.”

“Why do you hate them so much?” He was curious.

She sighed. “It’s just …capes make this job way harder. They always show up after everyone else, blasting shit around with laser eyes or whatever, with no regard for the infrastructure around them. They cause so much damage and then just fly off before the dust settles. They get all the press and front page photo spreads, while every other grunt on the ground is picking bodies out of the rubble for days on end.” She felt agitated and tense the more she spoke. “There’s no spotlight to grab for all the people who keep the world running every other day of the week when fucking Superman catches a car in Times Square or some insane bullshit. I just can’t stand them. No responsibility, no consequences, just glory-seeking and posturing.”

He listened to her rant patiently before offering his opinions in return. “Superman is a fucking pussy.” 

She snickered at that and tried to hide her grin while he continued.

“Batman too. That asshole doesn’t even kill people! How is that helping? Just letting Joker live, over and over! He’s just gonna do it again dude, he does it every time.”

“Right! What the hell is that shit?” She openly grinned at him this time. He may have smiled back but she couldn’t see his face under the mask.

At least we agree on something, maybe this won’t be so bad. … I wonder what his smile looks like.

She shook her head to clear that last unhelpful thought and instead watched as Vigilante moved around on his bed, still muttering insults about the Justice League. He had dumped out his bags while they chatted and was tossing clothing around as he dug out his toothbrush and toothpaste. He hadn’t noticed her staring and she quickly looked away when he turned back towards her.

“Not sure why you’re calling me a cape though. My name’s not dumb and my costume is not wacky. Also, I don’t have superpowers.”

“Wait, what?” That caught her completely off guard. “You don’t have any powers?”

“Nope!” He sounded entirely unbothered.

“No super strength? X-ray vision? Fancy gadgets or tech?”

He laughed in amusement. “Nope, nope and man, I fucking wish. That would be sick.”

She was stumped. “Then why the fuck do you dress like that?”

“Hey, my outfit is both tactical and fashionable! I don’t know what your deal with teal is but respect the suit.” He waggled a finger at her in a warning.

She scoffed at his defensive response. “What kind of hero, powers or not, wears fucking teal? Come on, name one!”

“Aquaman!” He blurted out.

She shook her head. “No way, that is sea green at best. Plus, that dude fucks fish. You don't fuck fish do you?”

“No! God no!” He jumped off the bed in a rush to defend himself again. “I fuck humans, thank you very much. Real human women.

“Very reassuring.” She nodded solemnly at him. “I definitely believe you.”

“Thank god. I don’t want any rumours going around.” He sounded relieved, clearly missing her sarcastic tone. She kept quiet and watched him head over to the bathroom to change and brush his teeth.

Wait. Is he…limping?

She paid closer attention to his feet when he finally exited in his pyjamas and walked back over to the beds. There was a subtle but noticeable drag on his right side.

“Hey, are you all good?”

He didn’t seem to understand the question so she continued. “Your right foot? You’re limping. Are you okay?”

He tensed and straightened up immediately. “I’m fine. Nothing happened.”

“Well, that’s not suspicious or worrisome at all.” She raised an eyebrow at him. 

He sighed and flopped down gently on his mattress, staring up at the ceiling.  “I … kind of got tortured last week.”

She snapped to attention, clearly not expecting that explanation. “Do you want to talk about it?” She hadn’t intended to start such a serious conversation but she knew she needed to proceed carefully.

“No.” He paused, sighed again and turned to look over at her. “...maybe?”

She studied him carefully, trying to make eye contact behind his glaring red visor. “Can you at least tell me how you’re injured? Do you need any medical assistance?”

"Why are you being so nice?" His tone was suspicious.

She paused for a moment. It wasn't exactly her own choice but she didn't hate the way they were getting along. She took a deep breath and tried to think of a good explanation.

"We officially work together now. Out in the field, it's life or death a lot of the time." She looked over at him with what she hoped was a reassuring face. "We need to trust each other. So I'm going to try and be nicer to you from now on. … emphasis on the try."

She looked away and muttered that last part under her breath.

"Oh. That makes sense." He thought for a moment. "You can still be mean sometimes if you want. It doesn't bother me much."

She laughed. "Well thanks, but I definitely won't be mean about you getting hurt, alright? Are you sure you're okay?"

He glanced down at his socked right foot and then back at her and nodded. “My foot is healing okay. Just a bit sore, I might walk funny for a bit. Goff tried to cut off my pinky toe with an unreasonably dull knife.”

She winced in sympathy at the gory mental image. Annoying or not, nobody deserved that.  

Poor guy.

After a moment, she finally registered the name he mentioned. “Wait, Goff? Royland Goff?”

Vigilante nodded again. “In the mansion basement. He had me and Peacemaker tied up.” He shifted uncomfortably on the bed, sitting up against the headboard. “He wanted information about who sent us and used me to try and force Peacemaker to talk.”

“Holy shit.” She didn’t really know what else to say. “That’s super fucked up.”

“Right?! Who does that? Honestly, I thought without my pinky toe I’d fall over all the time but apparently that’s not true. It just hurts real fucking bad for a while, which sucks but I’m glad I can still walk. Plus my balls don't hurt anymore though, so that's good."

She nearly choked on her own spit. "Excuse me? Your … balls?"

"Oh, yeah." He shrugged at her nonchalantly. "Goff also hooked jumper cables up to my balls and electrocuted me several times." 

"What the actual fuck?!"

He rushed to reassure her. "They're fine now though! Everything still works!"

"I didn't need to know that." She pulled a face at his oversharing. "That's just …wow. That's really brutal." 

"It wasn't a great time, that's for sure." His voice then perked up a bit. "I didn't break though. Not even once!"

  Well, that's impressive.

"Aw, thanks." He sounded happy at the praise.

Shit, did I say that out loud? 

It was true, most seasoned agents can't even withstand that kind of torture. But she didn't mean to say that aloud and stroke Vigilante's ego even further. She ignored him and focused on another key piece of the situation. “None of this was in the report.” 

She started fidgeting with the edge of the comforter on her bed, feeling increasingly anxious. These were extremely important details about the Goff mission that most definitely had not appeared in any of the files she had read.

He was confused. "It didn't say anything about me getting hurt? Or about my mask coming off?"

"What?!"

"Oh fuck." He sounded panicked like he really shouldn't have brought that up.

"Your mask came off too? Did anyone see your face?"

He didn't answer. She decided to try again. "Vigilante, you need to trust me. I have to know what happened, it's really important."

He sighed and looked over at her. "After Peacemaker and I were tied up, Goff took my mask off and they both saw my face. Then the torture, then the escape and then the rescue. Kind of a shitty day overall, not going to lie."

She frowned, trying to determine what to do with the new information. “The report said you were apprehended by Judomaster, taken to an underground level then incapacitated him and executed Goff before being retrieved by the rest of the team. There was nothing about torture or your identity." She tried to remember the full report but her mind was racing with revelations.

Peacemaker gave the only statement about what happened in the basement… Peacemaker lied in his report… Peacemaker saw his face…

Shit.

"You and Peacemaker are best friends right?"

"Obviously, yes!"

She sat up and looked straight at him. "I think Peacemaker lied in his report to protect you."

"Wait, really?" He was stunned.

"The report didn't even say Vigilante, just Peacemaker and unnamed accomplice. That's really unusual. If he had mentioned what you described happened in the basement, ARGUS would have dug into you further and forced him to identify you."

"Told you we were besties." A hopeful note tinged his voice but she wasn't paying much attention. She was still mentally reviewing the mission reports and muttering to herself.

"I can't believe how messy that mission actually was. You know, if Judomaster hadn't shown up, it would have been a  total sweep. In and out in under 10 minutes. That takes an exceptional level of skill and a very talented marksman.”

His voice softened. “… You think I'm skilled? And … talented?”

Shit. So much for not padding his ego.

"Hey, I'm just analyzing the report data and making observations." She threw up her hands in defence. "I don't even know anymore if that part of the report was accurate."

"Even Harcourt saw it, come on!"

She grinned at him. "All I'm saying is that first-hand experience is the only way to truly judge expertise for any skill."

“Okay,”

"Okay?" She eyed him suspiciously. "Just like that?"

"Yeah. If you  need to watch me, then I'll show you." The confidence in his voice should have been a warning but it sparked something inside her.

Yes, please .

Fuck, that wasn't out loud too right? She looked over at him quickly. He hadn't responded so thank god, that had remained an inside thought. Her brain was really not behaving this evening.

“It’s late, we should go to sleep.” She hopped quickly off the bed, grabbed her pyjamas and toiletries from her bag and rushed over to the bathroom. 

Brushing her teeth and washing her face in the tiny bathroom was quick work. She looked down at her sleepwear and froze for a second. She had just packed the first things she found that were seasonally appropriate, forgetting she’d be sharing a room. The thin tank top and tiny shorts she usually wore at home were comfortable but not exactly appropriate. She didn't really have any other options though, so it would have to do. 

She exited the bathroom and walked back across the room. She noticed the red strip of Vigilante's visor following her as she moved and climbed into her bed.

“Are you seriously going to sleep in that thing?”

“Yes. I’m not showing you my face.” His tone shifted and she realized she should probably be careful with that topic.

“Do you sleep in the mask a lot?”

He climbed under the duvet before answering. “When I have to.”

“Isn't that uncomfortable?”

“You get used to it.”

She glanced over at him. “You put a lot of effort into protecting yourself.”

“It's not about me.” He shuffled around under the covers and rearranged his pillows. “It's about everyone else.”

What a weird thing to say.

She rolled over and fluffed her own pillow before flicking off the lamp beside her. “Goodnight Vigilante.”

An indistinguishable noise sounded from his side of the room in response while she closed her eyes and managed to drift off to sleep.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

A/N: That got a lil more emotional than I originally planned but I like this vibe for these two, sassy but sweet. Also, let it be said that Peacemaker does try his best to be a bro to Vig, he's just bad at it. Let me know what you think! More to come soon.

[Read Next Chapter]

#adrian chase #vigilante #peacemaker hbo #peacemaker #adrian chase x reader #vigilante x reader #vigilante fanfiction #adrian chase fanfiction #freddie stroma #vigilante peacemaker #adrian chase fanfic #adrian chase fic #lysenfeu fics #pair of aces fic

[bubblesandgutz]

Every Record I Own - Day 812: Willie Nelson Stardust

My father-in-law passed away on February 23rd after a long battle with Parkinson’s and various other ailments. Over the last six years, my husband and I made frequent trips down to central Oregon to check in on my in-laws and help out around the house. During some visits, it seemed possible that his dad would be around for another decade or more. And on other visits, we wondered if he would be around more than a few months. Things took a rough turn around Thanksgiving of last year and his health declined considerably. My husband spent most of January in Oregon while I’ve spent 2024 fulfilling tour obligations with three different bands and making trips down to visit them during any available downtime.

My father-in-law was a great guy. He grew up in the Bay Area and was around for all the excitement of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. He was buddies with Pigpen from the Grateful Dead and attempted to go to the Altamont Free Concert but was stuck in the traffic jam when news traveled down the road about all the chaos and violence incited by the Hells Angels. He loved ZZ Top and Creedence Clearwater Revival and Tina Turner. But more than anything, he loved Willie Nelson.

Stardust, in particular, got a lot of spins around their house when I’d come to visit. In some ways, it’s odd that this was their Willie album of choice. After all, the ten songs on Stardust are all covers of old pop standards. Columbia Records was even hesitant to release it considering that Willie was riding strong on his outlaw country reputation at the time. But the album became a huge hit—a quintuple platinum album and a favorite among both fans and critics.

I won’t lie, I prefer Willie’s own songs, but the slow, sparse, and relaxed vibe of Stardust grew on me. I also appreciated how he chose songs with less conventional melodies (“Blue Skies,” “All of Me,” etc) and how his minimalist slow-hand style seemed perfectly suited to those compositions. The stretches of empty space, the chord changes that feel a little counterintuitive at first but then settle nicely into the larger song, the playful but rough-hewn quality to the vocals—it all has a hazy, late night, intoxicating vibe. I don’t even remember when I picked up my personal copy but it’s been a part of my collection for at least two decades.

Over the years, I heard less and less music at my in-law’s house. Television became the more constant companion, perhaps because the sound of people talking filled the conversational void stemming from the reclusive nature of my father-in-law’s disease. But when they began doing hospice at home back in January, they switched back to music. In his last days, we kept the stereo on throughout the day, switching between various CDs from their collection. I was occasionally tasked with picking out music, and I grappled with finding something that was familiar and comforting without running the risk of forever being tainted by the circumstances. Stardust was a family favorite but I never put it on for fear that it would render it off-limits once his father passed.

The hospice nurse called us on a Tuesday in February to say my father-in-law was near the end. He wasn’t eating or drinking and his breathing was labored. My husband and I drove all night hoping to make it to central Oregon in time to say goodbye. He was nearly unresponsive by that point, though he would squeeze your hand if you talked to him. Despite his condition, he managed to to hang in there for another week-and-a-half. In that time, I had to return to Seattle for rehearsals, then had to fly out to the East Coast for a weekend of shows, then flew back to Oregon, then had to fly back to Seattle to check in on a friend that was mentally struggling after being involved in a motor vehicle fatality involving an inebriated man that had been running across a busy highway.

The call came in the afternoon. My father-in-law passed peacefully. My husband and his mother had been listening to Stardust at the time, and he took his last breath during “September Song.”

The struggle was over. It had been a long decline and by the end it was hard to recognize the warm, witty, and vibrant man I first met nearly 26 years ago in the withered and incapacitated person we’d been tending to for the last few months. I was grateful to know my father-in-law for so many years, to have a stockpile of memories of him before things got so difficult. And in the weeks since he’s passed I’ve listened to Stardust a few times. The wistful nature of the album has an added element of sadness, but the memories of listening to it in happy moments outweigh its more recent association. If anything, “September Song” feels like an even more bittersweet reminder to savor the moment and hold your loved one’s close, because seasons change and all things must pass.

Oh, it's a long long while

From May to December

But the days grow short

When you reach September

When the autumn weather

Turns leaves to flame

One hasn't got time

For the waiting game

Oh, the days dwindle down

To a precious few

September, November

And these few precious days

I'll spend with you

These precious days

I'll spend with you

#everyrecordiown #willie nelson

[jaymzeecat]

I'm Gonna Ride This Plane Out of Your Life Again, I Wish That I Could Stay, But You Argue...

I woke up on Wednesday morning fairly early (as I usually do) and cleaned up the AirBnB apathetically. Sad and tired I just wanted to crawl back in bed but we had an early check out time (10:00 AM) so there was no chance of that. Le sigh.

It was a sad morning knowing that this was the last few hours but on the plus side we did find a nearby place to get some breakfast which was pretty good (we both had the Vegan Chorizo Hash). The staff at the restaurant seemed so nice and friendly I felt bad that there were no other customers (save for a Door Dasher who was complaining about the wait for the food). If you're ever looking for breakfast in the Montrose neighborhood of Chicago maybe hit up Breakfast House.

On the way to the train we saw a heart under the overpass which appeared to be made of smeared human feces and if that doesn't make you feel loved by a city I just don't know what does!

The long train ride to O'Hare was spent with me mostly weeping "I'd cry too if I had to go back to Portland." The Funny Bunny said. I was at least looking forward to getting back to Alzee and the cats (a life with no cats?? Who needs it?)... but I started ugly crying as soon as we parted ways at the airport. It was so bad that the security lady was like "ARE YOU OKAY???" I would've thought crying at the airport was a common occurrence but maybe I just cry like a crazy person, haha.

The wait to board wasn't too long thankfully and the plane was a little nicer than the one I flew in on. I got the impression my seat mate (a white haired older fella) was confused by what I was doing in First Class (don't let the colorful hair fool you, I'm a bougie bitch) but the flight attendant remembered me "Oh, Jaymz! Didn't I just have a flight with you?" "About a week ago, yeah." "Wonderful!" See, man? I'm famous.

I had a lot of thinking to do on the long ride home and I was a little overwhelmed. I don't know yet how to break the news to my mom that I don't think I can handle a flight over 4 hours (she wants me to come to Florida, I just don't see how). But at least I got some warm nuts and ginger ale.

The vegan meal was pretty good too. White Bean Chili and Polenta. I erred on the side of caution again and skipped the cookie since everyone got one and I assume it's not vegan. So just be aware of that if you're vegan and you fly Alaska.

I got a nice view of the mountains to welcome me home. I wish I was better at taking pictures out of plane windows, haha.

As we de-boarded my new best friend flight attendant said "Goodbye, Jaymz will we be seeing again soon?" I laughed and she turned to the other attendant and said "She's the quietest passenger I've ever had." She has not heard my cackle...

Alzee picked me up at the airport, it's really nice to live only like ten minutes away from it, haha.

All in all it was a good trip, I'm glad I finally got to see Chicago so I can cross that off my bucket list, haha. Ashley and Shelly were proud of me for stepping outside my comfort zone and going on an adventure. I'm also really thankful that the Funny Bunny was willing to show me all around because I know I wouldn't have been able to figure out the trains on my own. I also came away with a few mementos...

From left to right, Gifts from the Funny Bunny: Sue the T-Rex from the Mold-O-Rama mold machine at the Field Museum and Klondike Kat & Ricochet Rabbit figures (thanks!). Pine cone from the Botanical Garden and flat penny (DNA strand design) from the Science Museum. Mug with "The Loop" train map design I got at a souvenir shop. Precious memories.

I hope you all enjoyed reading about my own personal Adventures in Babysitting, I will try to document more adventures in the future. I have been meaning to make it up to Seattle again sometime soon and visit Arizona and California again so I should really get to planning... If you're vegan and want to show me around your city (and not murder me!) feel free to hit me up sometime. As long as it's not more than 4 hours by plane, haha.

#chicago

[skpct]

Day -2: San Diego, 2702 Miles to the Northern Terminus

I flew down to San Diego today. I wouldn’t say that I hate flying, but I don’t know anyone that likes flying. I was reminded of my vague dislike for flying today. Fortunately, I’ll be walking back to Washington, so I don’t have to deal with a second flight.

I hadn’t thought about how absurdly fast air travel is, but the plane ride from Seattle to San Diego was two and a half hours. It’ll take me somewhere between 4 and 6 months to get back home. Really made me think.

I’m staying at the Gaslamp hostel. It seems nice, but it might be more of a party place than I thought. Here’s a sign that was in my dorm room.

Speaking of the dorm, I have at least 1 roommate, possibly more. I need to buy fuel for my stove tomorrow, which I could possibly get from ace hardware. I should probably go and get dinner.

#hiking #travel

[ilyasorokinn]

“Look me in the eyes and repeat what you just said.” With burky please

STUPID FREE AGENCY

this is trade themed. let's all cry together.

TAYLOR'S AVS NIGHT!

31. "look me in the eyes and repeat what you just said." (from this prompt list, angst)

"look me in the eyes and repeat what you just said," you demanded.

"i got traded to seattle." he repeated, scratching the back of his neck nervously.

you stared at him in shock, trying to find words, "traded?"

"yeah." he winced.

"stupid free agency," you muttered.

"yeah, stupid." he laughed, "you're taking this better than i thought you would."

"i'm about ten minutes away from having a full-on mental breakdown, so just you wait."

you decided to put off moving till the end of the off-season, so you went on vacation, visited family, and got to spend your day with the cup.

when you got back to the states, instead of going back to colorado, you went to seattle instead to tour apartments. it took you about two weeks to find the perfect apartment.

after successfully signing the lease, you flew back to colorado and began packing up all your stuff. it was bittersweet. you were leaving your home for the past 3 years.

the place was fully furnished so all of that was taken care of (because you were only going to be there during the season). you walked around the city and got a feel for it.

after spending the entire day exploring, you sat down to a nice dinner, and it finally settled in that you were moving here and this would be your life now.

"it's nice here." andre broke you out of your thoughts.

"yeah." you nodded, "but it won't ever be as nice as colorado."

"i know." he smiled sadly, "but it'll be fun. starting a new life here."

"always the optimist." you smiled.

"someone has to be." he joked.

"i'm very optimistic." you defended.

"right." he laughed.

#andre burakovsky imagine #andre burakovsky imagines #andre burakovsky x reader #andre burakovsky fic #andre burakovsky blurbs #andre burakovsky #nhl imagine #nhl imagines #nhl fic #nhl #hockey imagine #hockey imagines #hockey fic #hockey blurbs #hockey #colorado avalanche imagine #colorado avalanche imagines #colorado avalanche fic #colorado avalanche blurbs #colorado avalanche #taylor writes #taylor writes: hockey #taylor's blurbs #taylor's prompt lists #taylor's avs night!

[brunchbitch]

The long awaited proposal story!

so monday august 8th 2022 was the five year anniversary of our first date. i had told A a few months ago that there was a moment on that first date as we were walking along the bike path that i looked up at him and had the thought "i'm going to marry this man". at the time, i thought it was pretty ridiculous. we had met online and this was only our first date! later, when we broke up, i thought my intuition was wrong. little did i know...

A wanted to recreate our first date, i.e. ice cream at a great local shop and then a walk along the bike path in davis square. he made dinner reservations for 5:30pm which i thought was a little weird since it was so early, but we had also had a long and busy weekend so i didn't think too much of it. we had yummy wood fired pizza and played word games (what am i thinking, wrench or rabbit, target!!). at one point, he took out his phone and looked at it. he suddenly seemed a little impatient and hurried. i was wondering if he got some bad news or something, but he didn't elaborate. it's weird bc he really doesn't look at his phone when he's with me. he's not addicted to it like i am!

we went for ice cream probably by 6:30 lol and we decided to get milkshakes that we could take with us on the walk. it was fucking HOT and humid, my least favorite type of weather, and i almost wanted to ask A if we could skip the walk and go home instead, but i thought it was sweet and nostalgic to recreate the date, so i sucked it up. at one point, i saw a photographer on the side of the path, taking a picture of some plants. i remember thinking wow that's a really nice camera. why did she come here to take pictures? lol. then A told me to give him my milkshake. i was like why?? i'm not done with it! but he took it, set them down on the ground, turned around to face me, and then got down on one knee. i don't remember everything about what he said bc i was just so happy and in shock, but i remember it was lovely and sounded like a poem. he has such a way with words!

i cried and said yes obvi and we kissed and then he pointed out the photographer and was like "so that's nina" and she waved and we all laughed a little. the early reservation was due to the fact that she wanted the pictures to be around 6:30pm so we could get the golden hour lighting. we had some extra time, so we did a few more shots. everyone on the bike path was super respectful and went out of the way to make sure they weren't in the picture. nina was saying she does shoots in boston common and people just walk right through the path of the camera lol so it was nice people were respectful! i genuinely did not notice a single thing around us once he got on one knee so i have no idea how many people there were and if they were watching, but A was really the only person who existed at that moment!

we walked back to the car and i called my mom and she put me on speakerphone (she was with my aunt, uncle, cousins, and my younger brother) and everyone was screaming and so excited. i was saying to A that i just wanted to yell it from the rooftops and tell every stranger i saw that we just got engaged. we stopped at a 7/11 briefly to grab some drinks (rip our milkshakes) and A went up to the cashier (an older indian woman) and said "guess what? we just got engaged!" and her whole face lit up and she said that it was the day of the lions gate portal, which apparently is an astrological event where certain constellations and planets line up or something? but it's a huge event for manifesting what you want in life. AND august 8th was also international cat day!!! so i feel like both of those were good luck hehe.

two days later, we flew to seattle and when we got to my parent's house, there was a surprise engagement party! my best friend was there along with several family friends and my parents. my mom got me a barbie cake that was custom made including a sharpied rose sleeve tattoo!! i felt soooo special and loved and happy. everyone was so excited to meet/spend time with A and i'm so glad he got to meet some of these really important people in my life.

ever since the proposal, almost everyone asks when the wedding will be and i'm like idk!!! literally the day of the engagement i was asked this and i'm like i don't even feel like this is real yet!!! but then i realized i've totally been guilty of that when hearing about friends' engagements. we're probably thinking about two years from now, but not totally sure. i would love to do it near seattle in the summer, but next summer would mean a lot of wedding planning during grad school and i just don't want to deal with that. my mom already has a venue in mind lolol and she's like we should get on it for september 2024 (!!!!!!). crazy. it's gonna be a whirlwind but i am so goddamn happy.

#a #proposal #engagement #personal #update

[demureclarity]

𝑻𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒎𝒆 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒎𝒚 𝒇𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓...

Chloe Robbins was raised by her mother, Rachel Allen. She married Tim Robbins and became Mrs Rachel Allen-Robbins. The two were so happy together, with the picture perfect life but there was one thing that wasn’t so perfect between them. Tim was in the army and it took a toll on their marriage.

He was constantly back and forth on tours and it left Rachel wondering if he would ever return home. The nights were the longest, waiting for that call to tell her that he was alright. It always came. Even if it was later than the last day... but then one day, that call never came in. She didn’t hear from him and she knew from that very moment that something was wrong.

Rachel hadn’t heard from Tim in a few days and her worry and fear was kicking in. She had called @withlivelycharm​, Tim’s sister, to see if she had heard anything. No success. The next few calls she made was to Barbara and Daniel Robbins - Tim’s parents. Neither of them had heard from Tim either.

Rachel was starting to panic so she went to visit her in laws to try and calm her nerves. She was hiding a big secret and wanted nothing more than to tell Tim. She was pregnant. They had spent so long trying to get pregnant, but it just never stuck and the one time it had, Tim wasn’t here to celebrate this joyous news that they had both been waiting so long for.

She was blessed with this baby she had the joys of carrying, but then she found out that Tim’s life was taken away. He was killed in action. He never knew about the baby. He never got the news that he was going to be a father and his death completely destroyed Rachel. She hardly left the house. She stayed curled up on her couch, clutching a t-shirt of his and a framed photo of their wedding day.

Despite her once close bond with Arizona, Rachel just couldn’t bring herself to talk to her anymore so she completely pulled away. She struggled through her pregnancy alone and gave birth to Chloe Jayne Robbins. Rachel and Tim had spoken about baby names before and he had said he loved the name Jayne. Rachel had made fun of him, but with his passing, she thought it was a nice way to honour him.

Having Chloe was hard. Rachel had no clue what she was doing and she was still grieving the loss of Tim. She had pulled away from his family and just needed to get away, so she packed her bags and moved to California with her daughter, cutting most contact with the Robbins family. She stayed in touch with Barbara and Daniel via letters but everything else was much too painful. 

When Chloe was five, she met another man. She worked hard to heal and Andy came into her life at just the right time. Chloe knew he wasn’t her real father, but she didn’t question it once. She enjoyed Adam’s company and he was nothing but sweet to her. Then, on her fourteenth birthday, she got to the mail before her mother could and discovered she had been hiding half of her family from her.

Chloe found a birthday card, sent from Seattle. It was addressed to her and inside it, was a letter about how they would wish she would write them back and how they would never stop writing to her. It was signed Barbara and Daniel Robbins. 

Robbins. They’re family. Chloe was so mad at her mother for hiding this from her that she locked herself in her bedroom for her whole birthday. She didn’t come out for cake or presents or anything. She stayed in her room, crying with that card clutched to her chest. Her mother had been hiding these from her. Why? Why would she hide the cards and half of her family?

The next day, Chloe confronted her mother and they argued. The subject was shut down again, until two years later. Rachel finally agreed to let Chloe meet her family in Seattle. They flew over, spent some time with Barbara and Daniel and then Rachel dropped Chloe off at the hospital to meet Arizona for the first time. 

Being in the hospital with Arizona now and talking about the butterfly clips in her hair made Chloe smile from ear to ear. As Arizona explained why she couldn’t have the clips in, Chloe nodded and took in the information as she always did with everything that everyone had told her. “Oh, okay. That makes sense. Oh! I could come in and braid the kids' hair one day?” Chloe suggested. “It might give them something to look forward to. I know hospitals can be a scary place.” She beamed a smile, that kind hearted side to her coming to the surface once again.

Chloe had been told stories about Tim by her grandparents and her mother, but she was here to hear out things that Arizona had to say. She didn’t mind if it was the same story either. She just wanted to know him and feel as close to him as possible. “I don’t have many good friends either so I know how it feels. I have some super close friends though.” Chloe added with a smile. “I want to know everything about him. I don’t mind hearing a story again. Sometimes, it’s better the second time around anyway.” Chloe giggled sweetly.

Rachel had kept Chloe from everyone because she couldn’t deal with the loss of Tim and then she waited too long and thought everyone hated her. Chloe wanted to explain that her mother wasn’t a bad person, but she had made some bad decisions. “I think she knows you would never be able to fully hate her, but you know what my Mother’s like.” Chloe rolled her eyes in a joking manner. “She wants to talk to you but she wanted me to have time with you first. Oh, did I tell you she got married?! His name is Andy. He’s pretty cool but he makes the WORST tea ever!” Chloe pulled a face at the end of her ramble. The classic Robbins thing. Rambling.        

“Oh, I saw this cute little park across from here. We could go there? They have a cute little café on the side. That way, you’re close to here if you need to be.” Chloe suggested, knowing how important time was when it was an emergency. She was very mature. Whilst Arizona went to grab some water for both of them and get her resident clued up on cases, Chloe texted her mother and let her know that she was going to spend the afternoon with Arizona. She was beyond excited to get to know her Aunt and learn more about the father she had never gotten to meet. 

[d-railtheafro-gamer]

What’s Done In The Dark (excerpt)

Rainier Beach was located on the southeastern side of Seattle. Full of houses, noise, garbage, and poor people. It was nice enough during the day, a place you could walk down the street, enjoy some street art and you likely wouldn’t be caught up in drama. Every so often, a robbery, or a flasher shakes up the neighborhood, but most often it was business as usual. During the day, it was young people coming and going from school to Rainier Beach Library, or a friend’s apartment, or a bakery, or a liquor story, or a video store, or Safeway, or the indoor pool at the community center. It was boring but relatively safe during the day.

The night, however...had become very strange in April of 2006. Rumors flew from the mouths of everyone about strange phantom screams or whispers that claimed the streets. Stranger still were the weird, disembodied limbs that seemed to follow old ladies and wayward teens that found themselves alone after the sun had set. It was especially persistent at apartments and eateries, but they could be found anywhere, and only after businesses closed or when most people had left their establishments. It had gotten that most people were jumping at their own shadows with no real proof. There was one person who actually had that proof. And that person was a young man in an eerie looking mask. A fleshy, onyx face, with eyes that sit both high and deep in their sockets, a pair of shimmering yellow marbles. Possessing a broad sloping nose that took up most of the face, only stopping as a puffy growl of a muzzle rose to meet it, there was no mistaking the mask’s imitation: a lion’s face.

He stooped low against a tree growing near the apartment known as “Barton Place.” His eyes scanned slowly before he allowed himself to draw back to full height of 5 feet and 10 inches. Whatever he was searching for, he was definitely not finding.

Aww, gee kid, it looks like you lost it. How did you lose it!? It’s 8 feet tall and looks like the ghetto equivalent of “Monster Blood?” A voice that couldn’t be, that shouldn’t be, berated the one behind the mask.

“Shhhh,” was the only response. Distant screaming came from the west. The maskbearer charged into the trees, following the shouts. He leapt out of the trees, past the Thunderbird Treatment Center and through backyards. Traveling a half mile in a couple of minutes, he arrived at his destination, the old Bruan house. He watched two girls and a guy bolting away from the condemned home. Running away from a gigantic mass of shadow. The maskbearer smirked.

Looks like you found him, kid. Now whatcha gonna do?

*****

The house was a corpse, a dwelling life has long since abandoned. Salmon paint almost completely peeled from the rotted wood underneath. The flakes in huddled agreement, have gathered on the ground. The floorboards creaked with need. Sighing and bowing under the weight of age. The wood, demanding a reprieve from father time, had moldered and darkened with rot, threatening to drop the mold covered living room couches and the moth eaten, Persian rug into the long forgotten basement. For years, this house had been silent.

BANG! The thin weak wood that made up the northern wall of the room split and splintered into the living room. Wooden boards, plaster and mortar exploded inward as a projectile was propelled through the room like a rocket, pure moonlight followed behind, bathing it like the most holy of missiles. Clipping the top of a couch and smashing directly into the far wall of the room, the offending object stopped, lodged into the wall.

A cloud of dust and smoke obscured anything in the room, the moonlight struggled to permeate the dust cloud. A cough escaped as the ballistic projectile struggled to free itself. The projectile in question, was the young man in the mask. The voice that came from behind the mask, however, was much less intimidating than the mask itself. “Welp...I’m pretty hurt now.”

Aw, c’mon, don’t be such a wimp. He didn’t even hit you that hard. 

“Uh-huh, is that why the Bruan’s old house currently has a brand new door in the middle of the living room!?” He countered, gesturing to the new opening created with his own body. Moonlight finally illuminated the room as the cloud slowly dissipated.

That was barely a love tap, Jimmy-boy. Now quit your whining and get out of this hole before that thing comes in here and finishes the job.

A deep breath before a powerful grunt of effort. The wall wrenched forward and then the maskbearer was free. He dropped to the floor and stretched his back out until he heard a series of rapid and satisfying POPs. “When are you gonna call me by my name?”

I think I just did.

“You know what I-”

GRA-OOOOOOOOHHHH!!!

An unearthly howl interrupts the squabbling, and the moonlight is obscured once more, this time by an amorphous inky blob. The mass rolled back and forth as it struggled to squeeze itself into the opening much smaller than could accommodate. Finally, the blob forced its way into the room. All the while, it growled and sputtered, speaking snatches of words, incomplete speech.

“Hey, blobbinator you can’t take up space in here, we got zoning codes here in Seattle-”

The blob suddenly rushes “Jimmy,” forcing him to dive to his right and roll past the monster. He turns to see the creature, stuffed into the same hole he had been.

You picked now to try and talk to it!? Why? Just do the punchy and kicky thing and wrap this up so we can go home!

Jimmy swung a heavy fist into the monster and got a wet, unsteady SMACK for his troubles. His hand sank into the inky blob and he struggled to free himself. “Aw damn, that’s not right-WHOA!”

The mass lurched and Jimmy found his arm tugged hard. He was being pulled in.

“NoNoNoNo!” He shouted with every tug. “Lemme go!” Closer and closer the two came, but a final strain made the blob give a bit and the arm was nearly freed. “HA!”

Before freedom, however, came a thunderous kickback of inky residue as Jimmy suddenly found himself thrown into the air. He smacked into the ceiling and then crashed into the Persian rug.

On the ground again? I don’t think I should have to remind of this Jimmy-boy, but if you die, WE DIE!

He sat up, rising to his feet. “I hear you, stop yell-”

CRACK!

“Oh shi-” The floor gave way and a couch, the rug, and Jimmy all tumbled into the darkness below.

*****

A new, dim light poured into the lowest room of the house, where it was damp and dark and quiet. Persistent water droplets dripping in a random corner, pooling in a puddle on the concrete. The couch was upended, only one of the four wooden legs left on the couch. Pieces of wood decorated the walls, strewn about the place in an exploded halo of shrapnel. Jimmy climbed to his feet and looked up. He rolled away just in time to avoid the full weight of the monster crashing to the ground. He nearly collided with one of the basement walls and slapped his palms against it to stop his momentum.

You are losing this fight.

“I liked you better as a mute.”

And I liked you better when you didn’t suck.

The blob creature expanded around Jimmy. Covering every possible escape, bubbling and quivering on it’s edges, the creature attempted to engulf its enemy and found itself knocked backward. A fierce roundhouse, and another, arcing through the creature, forcing it to the center of the basement.  Another frantic rush forward found the creature narrowly missing it’s target and colliding with the wall.

SMACK!

Sheesh, this guy’s a bigger idiot’n you are.

“Shut up.” Jimmy stared at the mass, eyes straining to make out the details in the dim moonlight. The edges of the beast’s mass reached out like vestigial tentacles struggling against the wood, insulation and drywall. The limbs were quite formless, but as they struggled, they began to take the hints of shape, a leg here, an arm there, elongated hands and stump feet. Jimmy could not tear his eyes from the creature. Had it always looked like this?

You still worried about the horror, Jimmy-boy? Well, I got bad news for you, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet! All the creepy crawlies that go bump in the night, Kill one, and there’s a hundred more to deal with!

Jimmy was still rooted to the spot. “I know, it’s just that I’ve never seen something like-”

In an instant, an elongated hand brushed onto the bridge of Jimmy’s mask. At that moment, there was no more sound, no smell, he could not see, and there were no thoughts of his own. It was just he and the monster lost in a void. Even the mask’s voice was gone. Then, like a cold hand gliding up his spine, he heard the distant, almost inaudible voices at the back of his skull. It was quiet, but the only thing that filled his mind. He tried to ignore them, but they were persistent, insistent, and growing. “Do you think he saw me? Why is she standing like that? I’m gonna go to the old train tunnel. We can try and contact Chief Sealth-” He struggled to keep up with the barrage of words. But it was too many different voices. Too much information, he tried to focus on his own sense of self so he didn’t get lost in the words. What was merely a gale of voices he was lost in, now had become an ocean. “Ifhefindsuswe’redeadIfoundthemthatwayoutifwekeeponthispathwrongwaywearelostlikethekidisnottheshooterIdon’tevenhaveagunDON’TDOIT’SNOTTHEFIRSTTIMEYOUDIDTHISISIT-”

JAMES! GODDAMN IT!

Jimmy suddenly heard the mask again and his senses had returned. He grabbed the hand crawling up his mask and threw it to the ground where it twitched and convulsed. Before he could ask about what happened, the mask spoke first.

Okay, what I said about being worried, you should be. This thing is some kind of collective, and if it gets a hold of me again, it’s gonna rip me off and eat you like a candy bar.

“What happened to, ‘I die, we die!?’” Jimmy backed away from the creature, who was still trying to recover.

Rules change, kid. It knows you’re alive. Me, it can’t make heads or tails of me, and what it can’t understand, it don’t care about. It recognizes you as food, so it’s my suggestion that we GET THE HELL OUTTA HERE!

Jimmy glanced to the far side of the basement, located the stairs and dashed toward them. He vaulted up the stairs, narrowly avoiding the creature hurtling at him, barreling into the stairs, collapsing them. He had to nearly crab walk up the rest of the sad planks that managed to hold in place, but Jimmy leapt to the basement door and smashed through it with a grunt of force, wood pieces and old dust dancing through the air. He kept running until he was out on the front lawn, bathed in moonlight, staring back into the house.

Why are you stopping!? Get a move on, this isn’t a game of tag!

“What was-what is that?”

I already told you-

“Don’t mess with me, man! I will rip you off right-!”

NO!

Jimmy froze, the genuine fear he could feel in the mask scared him.

Jimmy...James, I promise, I will tell you what that thing is, but we can’t talk about it here.

Jimmy turned back to the house, and heard...silence.

“Do you think it’s gone?”

Hell no. Way too many voices. I think we just hurt it when we broke the link…

“I don’t know what that means-”

First, walk.

Jimmy grumbled and wandered into the neighborhood behind the house. He was careful to keep to the shadows even as the sun broke the horizon.

*****

Jimmy, now maskless, stared at the glassy surface of an office building window across from Space Needle Park. His dark brown eyes were encircled with deep bags. His fade, nappy and unkempt. His umber face, caked with grime and sweat. He couldn’t deal with how he looked, but he was too exhausted to get home and grab a shower. Tearing his eyes away from the monster he had become, he stared up at the Space Needle against the dim orange clouds from the cool blue street. Would ya look at that. We survived to see another sunrise.

Jimmy sucked at the fresh air for a few gulps and then groaned, “I can’t believe we were dealing with that thing for nine hours!”

I can. You really suck at dealing with Onyinyo. Jimmy nearly reached into his backpack and tossed the mask onto the street. 

Hey, don’t get mad at the truth.

The teen sighed and walked along Broad Street past the Space Needle loop, thanking every power that there were no cars parked there so early on this Saturday morning. Nobody to see him look like a crazy person talking to himself.

Why do you talk out loud anyway? We’re mentally linked, I know your every thought.

He shrugged as he walked. “It’s a force of habit.”

Sounds like you just love the sound of your own voice. Jimmy rolled his eyes at this.

“Look who’s talking?” Jimmy’s brow furrowed in consternation.

Yeah, the mask responded with a sardonic chuckle. I love the sound of my own voice. It’s just an added bonus that it also pisses you off!

No-win situation with a dude literally in your head.

That’s right Jimmy-boy, so don’t bother, I’ve been arguing since before your great-grandparents were even thought about.

“Okay, you love to hear yourself, now explain what that was?”

Sheesh, so pushy.

“Hey! You ever want me to put you back on again?”

Alright, alright, you know about most of the Onyinyo we deal with?

Jimmy didn’t notice that he had nodded.

This thing is like a...not exactly a greatest hits. It’s just made of people, no animals, no demons. All dead, all don’t wanna be.

Jimmy eventually found a bench and sank onto it. “Okay, so how’s that any different from anything else we’ve seen?”

I told you, this thing eats people. Specifically, it eats life, the most vital lives it can find. It kills ‘em dead. Leaves nothing but husks behind.

Jimmy felt a chill that had nothing to do with the morning air.

Where we come in, is the fact that when it eats something, it gets bigger.

“It gets BIGGER!? How!? Why!? Wha-!?”

Yes, it gets bigger, now don’t interrupt! The mask snapped. As it gets bigger, it needs more to eat.

Jimmy raised an eyebrow. “So...the more it eats…”

Yup, the hungrier it gets. It drew the short straw in the genetic lottery department. But, unfortunately for us, the mask became much more smug. And by us I, really mean you-

Jimmy threw his arms up, “C’mon!”

Anyway, you let it touch us...and now it knows that we are a buffet.

Jimmy couldn’t help himself, he grabbed his backpack and tore it open to look at the ovoid plank of a mask. “What do you mean by that!?”

You recall me telling you that you aren’t the first person to wear me.

It dawned on him, “grandpa.”

Aw, now you got the hamsters turnin’ upstairs. Yeah, he wore me, but he wasn’t the first, he wasn’t even in the first hundred.

Jimmy’s mind filled with a million half-formed questions. First hundred-? How does that even-? What’s the purpose of-? Have girls worn-? Is there a manual-? Will he even tell-?

Kid!

Jimmy jerked back to reality, sitting on the bench, clutching the mask between trembling hands.

You’re doing that thing. Where you have more thoughts than I can keep up with.

“Sorry, I just...I don’t…” He struggled to form complete sentences.

Aw great, I broke him.

“...Spark Notes.”

What?

“I need a set of Spark Notes.”

Is this a video game thing?

“Answers. A cheat sheet.”

What? Nooooo, we’ve been over this-

“No, we only went over what you want me to know. Old mask of power, put on this earth to quell the wild dead, and some kind of...collection of souls. And I need to know what-”

See, this is why your grades are so average. You don’t listen, I’m an aspect of powers beyond your understanding. I’ve been worn by countless people. For power, for protection, for glory, for vengeance. And, y’know, whatever you call yourself doing.

“Superhero-ing.” Jimmy spit defiantly.

Childish and I’m pretty sure that’s not English. And what do you call what we’ve been doing?

“Suicidal?”

Good point. But, your grandpa had to believe you were worthy of donning me.

“Why do you need me for help?”

Your grandpa’s just another link in a looooooong chain, kid.

“You’re dodging the question.”

It’s an answer you’re not ready for.

Jimmy leans back and closes his eyes. The living ink is waiting there, behind his eyes, quivering, spasming, waiting for Jimmy to edge too close. For just one. More. Taste. His eyes popped open as he jerked again.

Would you quit doing that!?

He took a couple of shaky breaths. “I saw-”

I know what you saw.

“Then why won’t you tell me anything!?”

Jimmy slammed the mask down on his lap.

Kid, I’ll be honest with you. There’s rules to this shit. And I know it’s frustrating, but I will say you ain’t askin’ properly.

Jimmy felt the last four words in his core, like those words were the only real tangibles the mask have ever given him.

He stood up, crammed the mask back into his tattered, faded green backpack and continued down Broad Street to Denny Way and the number 8 bus stop. He moved past a mother, father and two small children to sit on the far end of the busport.

Fine, Jimmy had to struggle not to talk out loud. Could you PLEASE tell me what is going on with that thing?

A beat of silence. Sorry kid, that’s not how-

“Aw, c’mon!” Jimmy realized he shouted out loud and tensed up as he tried not to look at the family that was certainly staring at him.

Hahahaha, you really want to make the world think you’re crazy.

It’s not funny, Jimmy struggled to keep his thoughts in.

It’s so funny! But, seriously kid, that’s still wrong.

Jimmy’s eyes widened. “But-”

No time for your dumb teen questions. But, I’ll tell ya this, you have an objective. We have to get back to that house tonight and find a way to banish that thing, or send it to the other side, or trick it into a hellmouth or something.

“The hell!? Why?” Jimmy glared at the mask like he wanted to fight it.

Because if you don’t go to it, by nightfall, it’s comin’ to us...

*****

#D-Rail Writing #writing #short story #justataste

[anime-fyi]

Back home from Sakura-Con and beginning to get back to work on my queues and closing out the winter anime season. Spring's just about here too, needing to figure out what I'll watch for that.

Overall, had a pretty good Sakura-Con, spending most of my time going to panels.

The mainstay Zapp ones were chaotic as ever, the infamous Loveline scheduled in the middle of Friday afternoon?!?

The Art of Translating Anime was by an industry professional and went into theory around it with examples which gave some good context to why modern subs are what they are. Really fascinating

Anime That Deserve A Chance was a nice set of recommendations, a few I'd even watched myself

Anime By The Numbers wasn't at all what I expected, going more into all the stats of who's watching and what they're watching, which was a nice bit of grounding to the fandoms online

Awesome Anime Openings was ... exactly that

Let's Talk About Harems ended up being a nice comedic take/attack on the genre that felt like it met the audience pretty well. I find these kinds of panels hard, sometimes you hit the right note, other times it's just kind of dreadful to watch

Got in late on Toonami: The Era that saved Anime and was pleasantly thrown back in time. I wasn't a huge Toonami person back in the day but some of the bits sparked memories

Popped in and out of The Sega Saturn: Ojisan's Console of Choice and Oh! That's a Baseball Episode!!. Both fine panels, just wasn't the exact topics I was looking for

Winning Love By Daylight: Sailor Moon and Queerness was an interesting bit of dissection of the sexuality of characters from the series based on canon from the anime and manga. I have no familiarity with the show but am a little curious to put it on the long term list to check out eventually

Beside those, there were a few panels I bailed on that just weren't what I was looking for. I also set notifications on a few LGBT related panels that overlapped with others so unfortunately missed those. Finding myself wanting to branch out more so a miss on my part.

Looked through Artist Alley and the industry halls and saw a few things that caught my eye. I'm always reluctant to buy stuff so wishing I had caught a few more of their accounts.

Right, and there's the place called Seattle. I went to college there and miss the place terribly, so Monday served as an opportunity to go exploring before I flew out that night. This year it was sunny so it was opportune time to be outside fortunately.

On the whole, a good Sakura-Con year though I do miss the feeling of there being some central spot to catch cosplayers. On to next year.

#chris talks anime #sakuracon #anime convention

[sticker-journal]

Sticker Ver.1 2019-2020

NAMES WILL BE CHANGED FOR PRIVACY OF THE HUMANS IN THIS STORY.

In the summer of 2019, I was kicked out of a band who shall remain nameless. I wasn't good at guitar and a terrible singer. (I still think that I am lmao) Even my previous soulmate, (who shall remain nameless) would tell me to leave the house because she couldn't stand my playing. I'm sorry.

I was heartbroken and stuck working at a shitty Walmart. I hated that place. I wanted to slash myself with a box cutter and lay down in the isle just so I could go home.

However, I was more determined to start my own band, so I posted everywhere on my social media that I was looking for a drummer and a bassist. Months passed and I found nobody. Until one of my best friends, Jian. introduced me to a man named Pat.

Pat and I met briefly, on Jian's balcony at a gathering, and we smoked cigarettes, drank tea, and spoke to each other about music, humans, babies being trippy, and drugs for about 2 hours. He asked me to move to Seattle with him. I couldn't do it, thats's crazy! He said drugs were really easy to get out there and we could start a band there.

I declined politely, then he moved away to Seattle.

Focused on finding bandmates, I posted flyers that I had created by hand all around town and only got calls from people who... lol let us just say it wouldn't have worked!

Months flew by, suddenly Pat failed miserably by himself in Seattle, then suddenly moved back. He asked me to meet him at a park near his house to drink and play our guitars. He could't smoke pot because he had some mild schizophrenic episodes in the past.

When we played guitar together, it sounded beautiful. I sang along to the riffs I was playing, and he pretended that his guitar was a bass. We created some lyrics on the spot together for fun on an old tune, and we had immediately decided to start a band together.

I jumped up and danced around, and thanked the Universe for blessing me with a bass player and friend!! I laughed and cheered because I was so happy.

Myself and Pat returned to his mom's house and we drank and smoked cigarettes in his backyard. His family had a very nice backyard. I complained "I wonder why I can't find a drummer! Why is it so difficult?" He replied "I know somebody. I have a friend named Rich and he's a GREAT drummer! Let me call him! He might not answer though."

Pat called, Rich answered. Pat asked to meet the next day and Rich accepted.

The following day, we arrived at Rich's door, a well-lived in, loved, but dusty house. We waited, I sat in a chair in anticipation.

Suddenly a man opened the door, he was wearing a long black trench coat, dark sunglasses, and had very long hair. I was a little confused, startled, and mesmerized by his energy all at the same time.

He welcomed us into his home. "WOW! you have big amps? A drum kit! There's mics! There's a couch! And a radio!!" I was so happy and bouncing off the walls, I asked if I could play his kit, and he let me.

Rich went to the bathroom for what felt like forever and returned wearing a tank top and shorts. He showed me his amps and how they worked, I asked him about his life and his musical experience. Pat plugged in his bass, the mics were turned on, and then we started playing.

I began playing a simple chord progression that me and Pat had practiced. The drums kicked in, and oh shit! This was amazing! I was finally, finally jamming with a real band, as the main guitarist! Pat looked at me and mouthed "sing!" but I was way too shy LMAO. We finished the mini jam and then I asked Rich "can I try to sing a song that me and Pat have been working on?"

We started the song "He's back" and I showed him how it goes, I sang the playful lyrics and kept stopping, because I had NO idea how to sing into a mic. I felt very embarrassed, but Pat kept encouraging me to sing. I finished the song with a loud, wild, and unexperienced scream.

I felt super embarrassed but I asked him anyways. "Do you wanna be in our band?" He said yes!

We hung out many times and played and created a set of about 5 songs. We were doing shrooms a lot, and playing music and listening to music too. I was showing them parts of my journals and discussing ideas all the time.

I couldn't figure out a band name! I was trying for months to think of one, but I couldn't nail a name that fit with the music. We tried many names like: The Zebras, Tooth, Bad Luck Bois, Piss and Ass, Elemeno (like the abc song), Scenic Root.

None of it felt right. I just gave up lmao. Then one day while sitting on the couch, with no pre-meditation, no reason, without a plan, like a lightbulb flashing on above my head, the word "Sticker" came out of my mouth. Then I just kept saying Sticker, and then it stuck. That's the band name! They said they liked it too, so I was glad they didn't shoot my idea down. They never shot my ideas down.

2020 rolled around and we were finally about to play our first show! The date was scheduled for March 23rd, 2020. I was so excited. All of us were!

Covid-19 hit, then I lost my job as a Security Officer at a prestigious hotel in Las Vegas. Everyone was stuck inside. I mean, people decided to go out anyways LOL but I chose to lock myself in my room and I definitely had no issues with that! AND collecting unemployment?? LET'S GO!

Meeting with Pat, Rich, my best friend, and my ex-soulmate were my only reasons to go out. I thought, "Wow! Quarantine is a great opportunity to practice hard as fuck and then come out strong when it's over!" I continued to play relentlessly at home until the tip of my pinky would rip off and my fingertips bled.

My dream of becoming an amazing band was crumbling. Pat started introducing me to drugs i've never tried before, such as MDMA, Coke, maybe some of that shit might have been laced with meth, some of it was pure, taking larger amounts of acid, shrooms, alcohol.

I felt alone, all of my friends and loved ones, I was pushing them away without realizing it. All I cared about was getting blasted out of my mind and playing guitar.

Sometimes I would go on 5 day drug binges, alone in my room, playing guitar, watching concerts, playing games, writing, smoking cigarettes and taking long walks here and there.

One night, I had taken acid in my room, but suddenly the trip didn't feel.. fun or comforting. Something had switched in my mind. I looked at a painting on the wall that my Grandmother had passed down to me. It struck a chord, and I looked down at my hands.

I suddenly felt scared, I started panicking. I saw that my body was an explosion of particles and flesh, and it freaked me the fuck out. I stepped outside, and realized I was a human without an umbilical cord. I felt that my halo above my head was faint for a moment, and I started becoming even more scared.

I took deep breathes and lit a cigarette, the sun was rising, and when I smoked the cigarette, I was taken to the place that the tobacco had been planted and grown. I couldn't do anything without seeing the literal creation of everything inside of my mind.

I just kept hitting the cigarette and walked even farther down the road. Once I started walking back down the road, I went back home and laid in my bed. My room was in the back of the house, by the washroom, hidden, the smallest, and farthest away from all of the other rooms in the house. I was staying at a friend's house because their mother saved me after I became homeless at one point in time.

As I started drifting off, I looked at the clock and said to myself, "OH SHIT! I was supposed to take my little cousin to work like I promised! I'm gonna be late!!"

I got into my car, still slightly coming down from the acid and picked her up. We drove to her work, and once I parked I looked at her. I threw the cigarette out of the window and started crying extremely hard.

"I'm so sorry Cousin, I'm so sorry. I can't believe what I have done to myself and my mind. I don't think i'll ever be the same. I can't stop doing drugs and trying to escape reality at any costs. I used to be so kind and smart and energetic. I love you, and I want you to be able to rely on me. I'm gonna stop, I promise. I'm so sorry."

She wasn't mad at me, she didn't look at me differently, she comforted me and supported me and said that she will always love me. She headed into work, and I went back home to sleep.

I took acid again less than a week later, and then after I came down, me and my ex-soulmate decided to visit Arizona to see my father.

By the way. My ex-soulmate had NO idea that I was doing so many drugs. I was keeping secrets from her out of guilt. I'm so sorry.

Anyways, let's rewind just slightly.

During the heavy covid lockdown phase, I was hanging around Pat and Rich, and their semi-large friend group they had sucked me into. We all did drugs together. Everything revolved around drugs and Sticker.

I soon began to notice that we were doing more drugs and "partying" more than band practice. It started to piss me off. Pat started bringing women around more and more. Women came onto us, and all Pat could think about was MDMA, Coke, and having sex with men and women. I became depressed but stuck around, because this was my first band, and I didn't know that there were more possibilities in my future. I thought that this was the only version of Sticker. "Soon we'll stop fucking around and focus on music." Pat never listened to me. He would lie, and skip band practice to go do mdma at a park with women. Rich always canceled band practice.

I started losing all faith in things.

Anyways, a while after my little acid breakdown in front of my cousin, Pat, Rich, and I met at a park to have a band meeting. Pat really wanted to get something off of his chest.

"Our friend, I got really drunk with her, and we had sex. When we woke up the next morning she claimed that she didn't want to do that and was really upset. I thought she wanted to!"

I was pissed. While for a moment I was glad he came forward and had the courage to be honest, but then something didn't feel right. I felt like this was a 3/4th truth, I may be wrong though. I trust my insticts.

"What the fuck is wrong with you? Are you fucking kidding me Pat? We are NOT that kind of band! What the fuck!" I scolded him and we talked more about the situation.

I drove home, and I was so upset. Rich seemed to be upset too. This was my first time experiencing something like this.

A few days later after not talking to anybody, I met with Rich. We decided to go on a hike, we walked together up Lone Mountain. Our goal was to reach the top.

Before our quest, Rich pulled out some type of gel, and said it was an extremely powerful form of THC. He squeezed it out of a syringe type of tool onto my finger, and I rubbed it all over my gums.

We walked, and I became very high. I realized how high I was about halfway up the mountain. We reached the top, and there was a big metal disk at the edge of the cliff.

We were together, Rich was quite a few feet behind me, and I joked "HEY LOOK! It's our record deal!"

Rich responded loudly, "Whoever touches it first, gets the most money!!"

I laughed and rushed for the metal plate, but Rich passed me somehow and touched it first. I was confused at the way he ran past me so quickly.

We sat for a while, and I told him "Look Rich, we can't play with Pat anymore. I don't want to. We need a new bass player. I want to be an inspiration for the humans. I don't to be on some young kid's wall one day holding a cigarette, standing next to a man who only sees people as sex objects, constantly doing drugs, and fucking people for his own pleasure. He infects people with drugs every time they are around him. I don't want this."

"I agree." He said.

We climbed down hiked down the mountain. He drove back with me to a park. We sat down at a park bench table together.

He told me a story about a girl he once dated in high school. Her name was Jenny, and he took a blade and carved a J in his right hand. He still had the scar, the mark. He said "Now I can say, I've always got a J in my hand." Haha, pretty clever I guess.

I asked "Rich, why do you want to be in Sticker? Why did you choose to be in a band with me? Why do you do this?"

Rich then told me "Dennis I want to be in a band with you because I like your songs, I like your voice, and I think we can make money together. We are going to be so Rich. We are going to live off of this music, and I will have everything that I want."

"Is this the only reason why you want to be in a band? Money?" I asked.

"Yeah... of course."

I was turned off. I was sad. As Rich and I began to walk away, he said "Me and you should totally take acid together at my house sometime. I can show you some things and open your mind to stuff that you have never seen before."

Rich was a lot older than me, almost 17 years older. I became slightly frightened without Pat by my side as usual, and I just said "Yeah! Some time..."

I went home, still high from what he gave to me earlier on the mountain. Suddenly, I felt like lightning had struck the top of my head.

I was in a dark red room. One of my best friends was crawling towards me, he had a chain on his neck, he was naked, crawling on all fours. He was panting like a dog. He said "Come on Dennis! Come join us."

I looked up, and I saw Rich sitting at drum kit, shirtless, a ripped and muscular body, laughing hysterically, and chin pointed towards the ceiling. He cocked his head down toward me and stared. His eyes were completely black, pure evil. Pure evil. His hand was down my his crotch, and he was forcing my ex-soulmate down on himself, she couldn't breathe. I saw Pat fluttering around the room with demon wings, an adult face, with a beard, fat cheeks, but the body of an infant. He was acting similar to a cupid. Then, I saw a billboard with Rich's face on it. He was famous, alive, and smiling. He had taken my bright smile, and life. I was dead.

I jolted out of the vision and let out a small scream. I knew this was a message from above. I need to get out. Everything hit me all at once.

I started remembering when me and Rich and Pat hung out all the time and did drugs. They said things to me that I didn't think much of at the time. Pat said something like: "Yeah me and Rich actually share an ancient demon bloodline. We are the lions and you are our lamb, we will sacrifice you. You will be the final one to sit in the chair of music, and all of music will end with you."

I began to panic, I remembered that most musicians who "sold their soul" met the devil and he appeared in all black. The devil offered them everything they wanted and tricked the musicians into accepting his tempting deal. "Those are JUST stories though!! That can't be fucking real. I'm going crazy." Rich had shown me everything the day I met him. He showed me everything, he had all the gear in his house that we needed to record, he had his own practice space in his living room, all the things that amazed me that I didn't know before. I freaked the fuck out.

I was soon being kicked out of my friend's house. I think they knew I was doing a lot of drugs in secret there. I was about to become homeless, and then I told my best friend everything that had happened. We got an apartment together with some friends. I had to beg them to let me stay because I was going to be homeless again. Thank you for helping me.

The first month living there, I was doing drugs still every other day and had a shrooms trip. Shit I needed that one. I saw so many things. I met God. I was blessed. I was shown suffering and torment, and then grace and love. Thank you.

I did drugs one last time, an extremely small amount of MDMA. I felt scared because I saw a terrible vision and felt that I was abusing my beautiful mind again and God was angry. I went back home to my apartment and sat on the ground and cried because I couldn't stop fucking up.

I decided to end the band. I sent a long text to both of them after an entire day of drafting. I told them my morals did not align with them. I don't play music for sex, drugs, fame, or money. I play music because I love music. I play it for myself, the beautiful humans who need it, and God. For everything.

They were pissed.

Then, I broke up with her. I told her the truth about everything. I wanted to be honest with her. For once. I'm so sorry. Goodbye. She hates me now, and I will never blame her. I hope you're happy and loved to the fullest by everyone around you! Thank you.

One day, after crying in the shower and having a panic attack again, I stepped out, and started at myself in the mirror. I hated myself. I hated the old band. I hated everything they put me through.

Then I looked at myself and said "YOU!! FUCK YOU! You did this. It's all YOUR fault! You did this to yourself! You did. Not Pat, Not Rich, but YOU! You made those choices to lie and do drugs. YOU did. You did this to yourself! Stop blaming everyone else!"

That's the day that I grew up.

I crushed my cigarettes, threw them out the door, I didn't do drugs for a long time after that. It was really hard to quit all substances. I locked myself in my room, I played games to comfort myself. I met my cat Misty. She became my best friend, one of my soulmates. I love you Misty, you saved my life. You gave me a reason to live and stay at home.

I didn't play guitar for almost a year. I mean, I picked it up here and there, but I needed to take a break. I never thought I'd start a band ever again. I cried a lot, and I hated myself.

I began to tap into my old self again, no drugs, no smoking, consistently working out and practicing martial arts, I got a good job, and I became stronger within my Mind, Body, and Soul. My friendships and family became stronger, and life started getting better.

I have been scarred from that experience with that band, and to this day, I still struggle with sad thoughts, and fear that they tried to take my soul. I'm not dumb though. I mean maybe a little bit LMAO but not that dumb. I'm getting better though at pushing those thoughts away though. I can do it almost instantly now as soon as they try to attack me.

Anyways, that's Sticker version one for ya!

By the way, listening to old recordings from that band, WE SOUNDED TERRIBLE xD lmaooooo

There's no WAY those mfs were gonna get rich and famous LMAO they were trippin xD

sorry if theres a ton of typos lmao

#band #story #Sticker #daisy #alien #rock #true #daisies

[gellyfied]

Oh my gooooooood I'm back from my amazing incredible trip! We flew into Reno, rented a car, then drove over to Lake Tahoe. Spent the night, hiked, and drove to Quincy, CA the next day. We were going to camp at this one ground and reserved it in advance, but the hosts neglected to tell us there was going to be a controlled burn that day so we had to leave because the smoke was so overwhelming and it was only like 100 ft away. So we drove another 2.5 hours to Redding, ate $30 worth of Del Taco, and crashed at a Hilton there. The next day we hiked Shasta, had In N Out for lunch, then drove to the Coast and stayed in Trinidad in a beautiful little retro airstream in the woods. It was so cute and surrounded by nature, ugh I loved it so much. So many slugs outside. That morning I went down to the creek behind the airstream and just sat with the trees for a bit. Then we went to this INCREDIBLE Cafe and I got not one, but two cafe mieles which were so fucking delicious I wanted to explode. That day we did a short hike in the Redwoods, then drove about 7 hours up the coast of California and Oregon, all the way to Lincoln City. It was so gorgeous and misty. I always forget the mysterious vibe the pacific ocean has. We stayed in Lincoln City for two nights at this incredible resort and just chilled. Saw some really cool tide pools, and had the best meal of my life in a tiny seafood restaurant. After we checked out from that resort, we drove inland to Mt Hood and did a gorgeous waterfall hike. We saw three snakes and got sun burns. Then we made our final trek to Seattle, where we had the best sushi I've ever eaten (Pat didn't believe me at first when I told him the west coast has the best sushi).

The next day we boarded our cruise and spent 7 days cruising around Alaska! It was so beautiful it hurts, my pictures can't do it justice. We played a lot of chess and got the unlimited drink package, so we were basically tipsy the whole time. Kayaked, saw bears, more tidal pools, visited my sister who is currently pregnant with my future niece or nephew (omg!!!!!), and just generally relaxed. I haven't felt this relaxed....probably ever in my entire life. I didn't work at all. I just turned off my brain and was present in the moment. I'm so thankful I got to spend these two weeks with P before he starts residency. I'm going to miss him so much, but I love him so much and this trip was so special. I read four books, walked countless miles, slept like a rock, got seasick for the first time, and just generally had a really great experience.

All that being said, I'm so glad and ready to be home. I missed my house and my cats and my bed. I went grocery shopping yesterday and it was so nice. I am in love with my life right now. Hopefully that sentiment remains once I start work again today.....

[rainydawgradioblog]

Country Content You Didn’t Know You Needed

Dawg With a Blawg: Ed. 2

Born in California, I grew up with all types of musical influences. My dad was influenced by the SoCal scene since his parents were from Mexico, whereas my mom moved to Texas shortly after she was born in Wisconsin. My parents would always have the radio on and, of course, my siblings and I would argue over our favorite stations. Come wintertime, my mom would always play Christmas music, specifically Country Christmas music. And as the Seattle rain picks back up, I find myself listening to nostalgic songs like “Colder Weather” by the Zac Brown Band or “Hard Candy Christmas” by Dolly Parton. In an effort to Stop (unfounded) Country Slander™, I present to you the Country songs I was raised on.

Two Black Cadillacs - Carrie Underwood

Being a Gen Z’er influenced to the fullest extent by third wave feminism, songs like this were so much fun to visualize as a kid. There were many songs on this album that I beat to death, but the storytelling in this one highlights Country’s ability to relate to an audience.

A Boy Named Sue - Johnny Cash (Live at San Quentin Prison)

I remember listening to this one in the car a lot–Johnny Cash was mando for longer road trips–and the live performance adds to the comedy of the set. Written by Shel Silverstein and performed at the San Quentin prison in California, this song offers a lil’ somethin’ for nearly everyone.

Highway Don’t Care - Tim McGraw feat. Taylor Swift & Keith Urban

Knowing Taylor since her self-titled debut, the full circle on this song was a significant moment in my childhood. Each time I listen, its contents relate to something new in my life while keeping that warm nostalgia intact.

The House That Built Me - Miranda Lambert

When I was first able to retain the meaning of this song, I thought it was really sweet and beautiful. When my parents separated and we began to move around the Bay Area, it hit me that the song now was a memory of the first house I heard it in. It also can be applied to my grandparents’ previous house in Houston, the first place my siblings and I all flew to when we were born. Their old dog Willie (yes, as in Willie Nelson) is buried in that yard, like how Miranda Lambert tells us “And I bet you didn’t know– under that live oak, my favorite dog is buried in the yard.” Actual tears, y’all.

Not Ready to Make Nice - The Chicks

I love this song for its face-value and deeper layers. The female-fronted band was called the Dixie Chicks up until 2020, a response to the mass demonstrations against police brutality. Lots can be said of white feminism and privilege surrounding this, but it was the second time the band was shunned by racist sympathizers. The Chicks were blacklisted from country radio after condemning fellow Texan Pres. GWB for inciting the War on Terror in 2003. No strangers to the power of nationalist authority, The Chicks presumably weren’t phased by racist backlash to the name switch. This song was released as a response on their following album, securing them a Grammy and inspiring their Shut up & Sing documentary.

Country music is a huge part of American music and hits home for many across the board. Rejecting a genre’s impact or disqualifying Red states from modern discourse further isolates schools of thought that could be learned, shared, and absorbed. Abandoning the South leaves vulnerable people at risk of harm by those we know cause it.

Xoxo, Millie

Musical notes from a budding musician

#seattle #music #country

[kayla1993-world]

'I wrote a goodbye letter': Vancouver traveller shares terrifying poisoning experience in Bali

A Vancouver couple had a nightmare experience in Bali after they drank alcohol that was laced with methanol. Twenty-five-year-old Krauzby Rea and his fiancée, Amanda Mawdsley, traveled to the Indonesian province for a vacation in September. The couple had drinks at a resort with 4.5-star reviews and were trying to be careful about what they consumed.

Rea describes himself as an experienced traveller; he says he always tries to gather safety advice for the places he's going to. But he'd never heard of anyone experiencing methanol poisoning--particularly in a nice resort.

On their second night in Bali on Sept. 28, the couple each ordered a cocktail made with gin. They finished the drinks quickly because they wanted to watch a performance outside of the restaurant area of the resort.

"The performance lasted about 15 minutes, and immediately after it ended I was in the bathroom violently puking," Rea tells Vancouver Is Awesome. While he was feeling terrible, Rea brushed it off at first; he thought he might have a bad case of what some travellers refer to as "Bali belly": an upset stomach that travellers often get, which is caused by consuming foods, spices, and other things that aren't part of their regular diet.

After continuing to feel awful, Rea started looking into his condition online. He found a Facebook group entitled "Just Don't Drink Spirits In Bali" that described his symptoms and why he might be feeling them: methanol poisoning.

Horrified, the Canadian traveler contacted the group's administrator, Simon, for more information on how he could prevent his symptoms from worsening. While there are a host of negative reactions to consuming methanol, the most severe are blindness and death, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

Rea says Simon's advice might sound shocking, but it likely saved his life and his eyes: drink more alcohol. The following day, the couple each drank several beers in an effort to stop or delay the progression of the methanol poisoning. Mawdsley also had some negative symptoms after she consumed the drink, but they were significantly milder. Still, she says she drank the alcohol out of an abundance of caution because they weren't sure what had made her sick.

While most people would suggest visiting a hospital before hitting the bottle, the couple weren't offered a great deal of help from any of the local medical facilities. "I ended up going to the hospital because I was in really rough shape," he explains. "The first hospital didn't treat me because they weren't able to test or treat methanol poisoning."

Another hospital about an hour away also denied treating Rea for methanol poisoning, he says. While the second hospital provided him with IV fluids, vitamins, and nausea medication, Rea was very worried about his vision. Initially, he felt "completely drunk" halfway through consuming the poisoned drink. He felt drunk for roughly 15 hours after he ingested it but gradually started to feel sober, except for his eyes.

Rea describes his eyes feeling sore and having a headache, saying the pain had "gotten progressively worse." The Vancouver couple flew to Seattle on Sunday night and drove back home on Monday night, cutting their vacation short by about 10 days. An ophthalmologist told Rea that his eyes look completely fine, but they will perform some follow-up tests.

While they are both thankful they figured out what was wrong via the Facebook group, Rea says the experience was terrifying. "When I was going from the first hospital to the second one, I thought, 'That was it.' Like I didn't make it. I was feeling hopeless. I was blacking out in the vehicle, losing consciousness a lot," he describes.

"And it was to the point where I wrote a goodbye letter on my phone to send people…it was a close call, for sure." While Rea's experience was deeply traumatic, he is far from alone. In fact, instances like his aren't uncommon, with numerous people sharing their experiences of methanol poisoning online.

Tragically, many people have died from ingesting tainted alcohol. In a recent story, a 31-year-old Australian traveler was photographed in a hospital bed with a bottle of Bacardi, attempting to reverse the effects of methanol poisoning.

Between February 23 and May 2, 2020, there were a staggering 5,876 hospitalizations and at least 800 deaths as a result of a contaminated alcohol supply, according to National Geographic.

Multiple cases have also been reported in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and even the United States.

[3monthsineurope]

May 26, 2022

Sadly, it was our day to check out of the hotel and end our vacation. We were able to extend our check out until 11, so we spent the morning packing, relaxing, and having coffee. We checked out of the hotel (thanks again to Juanita for getting us a huge deal!) and then headed into the shopping area. We had had some leftover for breakfast, but then our first stop was a coffee shop on the fancy strip of stores.

We spent a few hours walking around the strip. I was on the hunt for touristy things, you know what I collect: magnets, postcards, and keychains that spin. We even asked a guy driving a free trolly around if a touristy store was there and he pointed me in the direction of two stores. Dad and Haley stayed in one store trying on jean shorts for her, while Mom and I continued down the street. The “touristy” shops were a no go for the things I wanted—the area was just really nice and fancy. Haley spent some time trying on bathing suits at a cute place, while Mom and I got Starbucks and used the bathroom. We found a place nearby for lunch, and went and met up with Dad and Haley.

The four of us walked about five minutes and ended up at a cute bistro called Sweet Basil. We sat inside and had a really nice older server. This place was mostly soup, salad, and sandwiches, so I got a French dip. It was served on naan bread and was really tasty! We wanted something kind of light, since it was so hot out, and we would be flying in a bit. We had a nice lunch! Afterwards, we ended up driving back to the hotel gift shop, because we wanted some touristy things! Dad got us all shirts which was really nice. Then it was time to hit the road, heading west.

The drive was about an hour and a half from Palm Desert to the Ontario airport. Mom booked our flight through there so then Haley didn’t have to deal with LAX again. We kept the air conditioning on low, so that Haley had some peace of mind that her car was doing okay with all of us in there, and our luggage. Dad called his long term friend, Jerold, who lives in the area and we all chatted with him for a bit. We got a little turned around at the airport, but eventually Haley dropped us off. Mom reallly had to go to the bathroom, so we didn’t have a long goodbye, but that’s okay. Haley went on her way, actually to babysit.

Mom, Dad, and I headed into the airport and found the bathroom. Ingvar and I had actually flown in and out of Ontario last August, for his cousin’s wedding. We went through security quickly and waited by our gate for a while. Mom and I got us all breakfast sandwiches to eat on the flight, and then we flew back to Seattle. The flight was easy and I even saw the Space Needle flying back into Seattle. I blogged and wrote on the flight home. Once we landed and left the airport, Mom drove us back to Camano Island. I was pretty tired, so I stayed the night then, then drove back to Bellingham the next day. It was a great vacation to celebrate Dad’s birthday! :]

[watchmegetobsessed]

Update - Harry Styles

i’ve been deep inmy harry feels and this thought just wouldn’t leave me alone so i had to write it. im thinking about starting a taglist for harry, i think i’ll write more about him in the future. let me know if you’d be interested in the taglist!

word count: ~5.9k

masterlist

Sequel: The best present

Harry is not that into YouTube videos, has never really been, which is kind of ironic seeing the number of videos on the internet that is about him. The man himself who makes everyone talk online feels weird seeing someone talking on his screen, looking into his soul as if they were right there with him. But today he felt the sudden urge to be like his peers and get lost in random rambling videos from strangers, who felt the need to put themselves out there.

He has made a mean cup of tea for himself, made himself comfortable on his couch with his laptop balancing on his thighs and now is opening up his browser to unwind in an unusual way. As YouTube opens in front of his tired eyes, he stops when he tries to type in the keywords he is searching for. What is he looking for really? He thinks to himself trying to remember what he heard from his friends when they talked about funny or interesting videos. One thing is for sure, he is trying to avoid watching videos of himself in any content. He has had enough of him for the day, it’s time to focus on someone else, even if he doesn’t know the person.

He scrolls through several pages of many different keywords until he settles for a video where a girl talks about how her latest moving day went. Starting off Harry feels weird listening to her talk about such personal things as where her bed went in her room, how she packed all her stuff to fit them in the boxes, but soon enough this feeling settles and he starts to realize it’s kind of relaxing.

It doesn’t take too long for him to fall down a rabbit hole and by the time his tea empties out from his cup he is intensely watching a guy rant about his boss at Subway while doing a mukbang. The latter is a new discovery for Harry, he has never heard of it before, but he can see why some people find it satisfying.

The video ends, Harry checks the time and sees that it’s already after midnight and he hasn’t even realized how fast time flew by.

“Alright, just one more,” he mumbles to himself scrolling down the column of the recommended videos until his eyes stop at one particular upload at the very bottom.

July update for my Sammy, ready the title and an eye-catchingly beautiful girl is smiling from the thumbnail. He finds her breathtaking, the lack of makeup, the worn out hoodie she is wearing and the many various plants in the background makes it appear she is sitting in the middle of the forest.

Harry finds himself clicking on the video before he could even decide consciously to watch it. The screen loads and the girl appears in front of him, this time in a much larger size.

“Hi Sammy, welcome back to our channel,” she starts with an angelic little laugh as she pulls her shoulders up to her ears as if the camera is making her shy. She has no reason to be shy, Harry thinks to himself. His second thought is about Sammy, he is one lucky guy to know this angel and have her think about him. “It’s Y/N here, your one and only sister,” she adds.

Sister. The word brings Harry relief and he is surprised to feel this way, but he has no time to think anything of it because she starts talking again.

“Here is my July update, I’m sorry I’m a little late, but we got back from Oregon yesterday. Aunt Ella is sending you kisses and hugs, she missed you at the barbeque, or maybe it was just your helping hand at the grill,” she chuckles to herself, probably recalling the memory.

Harry has no idea who Aunt Ella is or where she lives in Oregon, but the way she talks about it makes him feel like he is part of the family a little.

Y/N carries on and starts talking about everything that has happened in July. Painting the shed at her parents’ home, buying a new armchair, one her cat absolutely adores and refuses to sleep anywhere else now, she went to the hairdresser to get a trim, but not too much. She tells about her plans for August, how she is thinking about going to the farmers’ market more often, and she has been playing with the idea of adopting another cat.

“I think Henry has been feeling a little lonely lately. He could use a buddy,” she tells the camera, her eyes moving to the side from where a weak but moody meow can be heard as an answer. “Yeah, I think he agrees,” she chuckles and Harry finds himself smiling at the screen.

At the end of the video she asks a few questions from Sammy, how he has been doing, if his wrist feels any better, even asks about a friend called Matthew. Harry wonders if she has ever gotten the answers to her questions and where Sammy saw this video. What is he doing that made her want to do an update on YouTube?

When the video ends Harry clicks on her profile faster than he would willingly admit to anyone and it’s like he opened the gate to paradise. Tens and maybe hundreds of videos are queuing on her page, monthly updates, birthday wishes, short story times about family gatherings, news and happenings in her life.

Harry gets lost in her tales. He watches video after video, noticing the smallest details about her, almost mentally taking notes about her updates, finding anything and everything she talks about so interesting as if he knew those people and places she mentions. He comes to realization that Sammy is her older brother who is serving somewhere in the military. Y/N is making the videos to update him about her life even if she knows most of them doesn’t get to him until weeks later, but it doesn’t seem to bother her. He also learns that Sammy sends them back lengthy emails once a month and always ends them with a joke they made up with his mates at the army. Y/N loves them even when they're not even funny, she never fails to mention that she smiled reading them.

Hours pass by and the rising Sun peeks inside the window pulling Harry back to his own reality, shocked that he just spent the whole night watching her videos and didn’t even realize how deep he has gotten in her life. Lucky for him he has nothing planned until the afternoon, so shutting his laptop he sets it aside and heads straight to bed, but lying between his silky sheets he catches himself staring out the window, wondering what Y/N might be doing right now. From what he collected she lives somewhere in Spokane and has family in Seattle and Portland, which puts her quite a few time zones behind him. He finds the thought of them going to bed at the same time despite the distance a little funny. He lies in bed for quite some time before he finally drifts off to sleep with a particular girl on his mind, who doesn’t even know he is thinking about her.

 “Do you think you can fall for someone you have never met?”

Harry’s question catches Mitch a little off-guard, but he is kind of used to his random bits of thoughts. Pouring some sugar into his coffee he follows the wondering singer to a free table in the corner.

“Isn’t it what all your fans feel?” he answers with a question, earning a surprised look from Harry. He hasn’t thought about this side, now the situation is kind of ironic, he supposes.

“Y’re right,” he nods stirring his coffee around in the small cup.

“Want to let me in on your thoughts?”

Harry feels a little shy to admit how he has watched all of her videos in the past few days, 207 to be exact and now he feels an oddly deep connection to this girl he has never even seen outside of a screen. Last night he dug up her Instagam profile, and even though she is not posting as frequently as she does on her channel, it was a refreshing change to see her in different settings. Chilling at a lake, having drinks with her friends, playing with her parents’ puppy, it amazed him that she has a whole life outside that small portion she lets him see in her videos.

Hesitantly, but he tells his friend about his latest hobby, if it’s not too weird to call it that, while his friend patiently listens and nods along his words while sipping on his morning coffee.

“D’you think I’m crazy?” Harry sighs leaning back in his seat, looking at his friend and colleague for validation that he hasn’t lost his mind entirely.

“Definitely not,” he chuckles shaking his head. “It’s like falling for that girl in school you know so much about but never really met.”

“Only that I’m stalkin’ this poor girl.”

“This is not stalking. We both know it’s far from that.” Harry nods with slight relief that his situation doesn’t seem as bad as he has been feeling lately. “Have you gotten in touch with her?”

“And what am I supposed to do? Comment on her video that I think her cat’s a cutie and I watched all her videos in three days ‘cuz I think she’s beautiful and I find her voice soothing?”

Mitch lets out a soft chuckle at the oddly specific answer he just gave and finds it amusing how interested his friend has grown about someone in such a short time.

“Maybe phrase it a little different.”

“So you do think I should reach out?”

“I don’t see why you shouldn’t. Use your personal YouTube, leave her a nice comment. Maybe she’ll reply.”

“And then what?”

“I don’t know, Harry,” he chuckles. “Just go with it and you’ll see. You are obviously interested in her, it’s better than just sit and watch her videos.”

Harry agrees. It wouldn’t hurt to try to reach out to her, possibly in a not too creepy way. Maybe just a sweet comment on one of her videos and if she replies… Well, he doesn’t know what comes after, but he’ll figure it out.

 Y/N updates regularly. Usually once a week and mostly it’s Sunday when a new video gets uploaded. This next Sunday Harry finds himself checking her page occasionally through the day to see if there’s a new update, but it seems like she is missing today. Right until he is driving home and gets a notification from the app.

Y/N has just uploaded a new video! It reads and Harry’s heart beats a tad bit faster. He thinks about pulling over to see it right away, but he tells himself that would be a bit too much, so he is forced to wait until he is in the comfort of his home.

Finally sitting on his couch he opens up his laptop and clicks on the video that has the title: September update.

Y/N sits in her usual spot, Henry in her arms as she is gently stroking his head with a warm smile on her face.

“Hi Sammy! Welcome back to our channel,” she greets him with her usual words and Harry loves how she calls the channel theirs. “This is my September update, even though not much has happened,” she breathes out, eyes wandering to the window besides her and Harry wonders what she sees from her window every day. Does she live in the city? Is it an apartment or a house with a backyard? Are there any trees or does her room have a terrible view, maybe just another house next to hers?

She starts her talk about the month, which she spent mostly with working, a little shopping and meeting her friends. She tells him about her planned trip to the local shelter to see possible new kittens to add to her household and Harry feels himself growing excited about it. He even thinks about what kind of cat he can see get along well with Henry even though he has never even met him.

“Anyway, mom and dad miss you, I miss you too. I loved your joke about ducks in your latest email,” she chuckles sweetly, bringing a smile to Harry’s face as well. “Mom is excited to see you at Christmas, our cousins will come to Portland as well. Maya can’t wait to play Jenga with you, she said she’s been practicing.”

The video soon ends as Y/N tells Sammy how much she loves him and eventually turns the camera off.

He straight away moves the cursor to the beginning of the video and as she starts talking again he scrolls down to the comment section that’s entirely empty. There are only two views on her video, usually a hundred is the max, but she doesn’t seem to care about the views, it’s more about the message.

He clicks to type a comment, but his hands stop above the keyboard as he tries to think of what to write. Mitch was right about taking a chance at reaching out, but what is he supposed to write exactly? Everything that comes to his mind sounds so creepy and scary, and he knows it’s weird that he formed such a deep connection to an unknown girl online. At last he starts typing.

“Hi Y/N! I’ve stumbled across your videos the other day. Love how you keep your brother updated, it’s such a nice gesture. I hope life treats you and Sammy well, you truly deserve it. Good luck with finding a buddy for Henry! Love, an admirer of yours, H.”

He reads it back several times, deleting then retyping it again until he decides to just go with it. A rush of adrenaline washes over his body when he sends the comment and it’s officially out there. Secretly he wishes she would reply right away, but moments pass by, then moments turn into minutes and nothing happens. His comment stands there alone and he has to realize that maybe she will never even reply or even see it.

It doesn’t matter, he tells himself as he shuts the laptop down and goes on to do his things, but he finds his thoughts wander over to her from time to time.

He has a busy day ahead of him the next day, quite a few meetings and a fitting. He checks back for a reply in the morning, but it slips his mind the moment he leaves from home and his phone rings right away. Throughout the day he basically barely has time to check his emails, his other notifications are just sitting patiently on the bar, waiting for him to acknowledge them. It’s way past five in the afternoon when he finally have some time for himself after his fitting. He is sitting in his car, people walk past him without even realizing who is sitting behind the tinted windows. Scrolling down he gets rid of everything that doesn’t seem urgent until his eyes stop at one particular notification.

“Y/N replied to your comment,” he reads it out loud, just to make it real, as if he is seeing it wrong and saying it with his own mouth brings it to life. He quickly taps on it and the familiar video opens up and while Y/N starts talking again the screen jumps down to the comments where, in fact, there is a reply from her.

“Dear H! Thank you for your heartfelt comment! I always forget it’s not just my family who sees these videos, but I’m happy you found them interesting enough to watch a few of them.”

“A few?” Harry huffs to himself feeling a little ridiculous he has watched all of them.

“I hope I didn’t bore you too much. Thank you for the well wishes for me, my brother and Henry too. He is sending his love to you. Y/N xx”

The comment was posted three hours ago. The thought that she has acknowledged his existence with not only reading but also replying to his comment brings him extreme joy. He reads her words over and over again, looking for any clue that would give away that she found his comment weird, but it seems like she was more surprised and happy that someone else saw her video besides her brother. Harry starts to type his reply without hesitation.

“Bore me? You saved me from watching another “what’s in my bag” video the other day. It was a pleasant change. I love your plants, by the way. Your room always gives off the most relaxed vibes. It reminded me I should have more of them in my home. H”

Harry smiles to himself posting his comment, the fear of appearing like a stalker long gone from him, the interaction is making his inside blossom from joy. For his biggest surprise a reply appears just a few minutes away and Harry reads Y/N’s new lines with deep hunger.

“Those videos suck the life out of me every time! I might be having a problem with buying too many plants, but I can’t help myself. They truly bring peace to me just by looking at them. I’m glad you are planning on buying some more, you won’t regret it!”

Harry is dying to reply, but he doesn’t want to look too eager and needy, so he opts for just liking her comment to let her know he read it and agrees. He locks his phone and puts it aside with the widest smile on his face as he starts his car and leaves his parking spot.

Two weeks pass by. In those two weeks Y/N uploads two more videos, one about her time with her grandparents, for a change it was filmed at their home and they even said hello in it. Harry feels wholesome seeing her with her granny and grandpa, it’s clear she cares a lot about them. The other video is just a short one where she has met some of Sammy’s old high school friends and she had a check in from them, sending a sweet message to him through the video. Harry doesn’t doubt how much these little things mean to Sammy, even if he doesn’t get to see them right away. Seeing Y/N alone boosts his mood every time she uploads a new video, he can only imagine how they make Sammy feel.

He leaves comments on her videos without a second thought and she replies to all of them, a lot of the time almost immediately. These are the highlights of his days without exception. Knowing that she has anything to do with him just fascinates him and he is starting to realize what his fans feel towards him on a different level. Whenever he sees the notification that she has replied to what he wrote or that she uploaded a new video he flies right to her page to check it, no matter what he is doing. Some of their comment threads turn out pretty lengthy, almost like a chat conversation and it has Harry wonder how they could maybe move it to somewhere else from the comment section.

He wants to ask for her number, but figures it wouldn’t be the best idea. Regardless of how much he enjoys their short little conversations, the situation is still weird and complicated and he doesn’t want to forget that.

But he is pleasantly surprised when she brings it up herself, to move the conversation to somewhere else.

“Would love to discuss that more with you. Up for exchanging IG names?” her question reads and he blinks a few before he fully comprehends that she wants to talk to him more in private. However there’s no way he can send her his real Instagram profile and making a fake one would be way too suspicious. Opening up the private messages he sends her a short, but informative message.

“I don’t use Instagram, but feel free to text me,” and then his phone number.

He sits at the dinner table anxiously, waiting for his phone to light up from a new text, and just a few minutes later it finally comes.

“Hi! It’s Y/N,” he reads from the notification and he saves the number right away.

“Hello! Save me as Harry. I haven’t even told you my name yet, how rude of me!” he replies chuckling to himself.

“Will let it slip this time. Harry. What a nice name!”

“Is it what you thought about from the H?”

“It was one of my theories. The other one was Hayes, but Harry fits you better.”

“You haven’t even seen me, how do you know what name fits me?”

“I don’t know. You had a vibe. There are many great Harries in the world, you seemed to fit between them!”

Harry wonders if she is thinking about him without even knowing that… it is him. He wants to ask her, but decides not to. Instead, he is enjoying that he can now reach her immediately and not through a comment section. He never thought this would actually happen.

 The texts never stop. They have so much to talk about! Their entire life to share, millions of thoughts and so much to discuss! Harry is not proud of the time he has spent with his eyes glued to his phone, but he wouldn’t miss a chance to talk to her for anything. Their friends are not blind to the change in him, but Mitch is the only one with a guess about why he has gotten so addicted to his phone.

“Is it the girl from the videos?” he asks Harry one time when they are at the studio, having lunch break. Different food boxes are scattered around them, on the table and the couch. Harry’s phone just light up from a text and he immediately dropped his lunch to type a response.

He glances up at his friend with a shy smile nodding his head. He hasn’t talked about his newly funded friendship with Y/N yet, it feels like as if he tells it to anyone it might evaporate into just a dream.

“So you reached out, huh?”

“I did,” he nods returning to his food once his message is sent. “She’s great.”

“Does she know who she is talking to?” Harry’s lack of answer tells enough about the truth to Mitch. “You can’t hide forever, especially if you are planning on meeting her.”

“I know,” he answers shortly. “But I just don’t know how I could even bring it up to her without sounding like a mad man.”

“She’ll need proof.”

“M’not ready to show m’self to her. What if it changes everything?”

“Then it wasn’t worth it,” he simply tells him.

Deep down Harry knows it’s the truth, but he is not ready to be robbed from the joy she is bringing him. He has never felt such a deep connection to anyone before and they haven’t even met. It’s just a version of her he is seeing on the screen, not her real self. But it feels real to him and he wants to keep this reality to himself for just a little longer.

 “I wish I could hear your voice, Harry. You are one big mystery to me, you know that?”

He forgets to breathe for a moment as he reads her message, lying in bed one evening, getting ready to sleep, but he wanted to check in with her before ending the day.

“You know so much about me already,” he types back.

“Not enough, I feel like. Sometimes I’m afraid Nev and Max are about to show up at my door and tell me that I’ve been catfished.”

He chuckles at her words, though he completely understands her fear.

“What do you want from me then?”

“Send me a voice message so I know you are real. That would put my suspicion to sleep. For a while…”

Harry hesitates for a long time until he decides just one voice message couldn’t hurt. Just a short one where his voice is not that recognizable so his cover won’t be over immediately.

“Good night, Y/N,” he tells into his phone and then send the recording to her.

He watches the status change from delivered to read and a couple of minutes go by before she finally responds.

“Thank you. Now I know that you are real. I hope I’ll hear your voice in real life one day.”

“I hope that too.”

 His time spent undercover is coming to an end and he knows it’ll happen soon. It’s been weeks since they started chatting, almost an entire month and she’s been hinting her will to see his face and though he has been putting it off, he knows it has to happen.

Fate is playing under his hands, because he is traveling to Seattle for a few days, exactly when Y/N is traveling there to visit her parents.

“I hope you know you can’t leave without meeting finally,” she wrote when she found out they are going to be in the same city.

“It never even crossed my mind!” he wrote back chuckling to himself, however it brought him extreme anxiety that he is now going to be forced to come clean about who he really is.

He spends his whole flight to Seattle making up possible outcomes for their first official meeting. Not all of them end well and it’s just fueling his fear that he might lose her for not telling her the entire truth.

But she is a smart girl, she’ll see your reasoning, he tells himself, however he can’t entirely convince himself that it will be the case.

In hopes of squeezing in more than just one meeting into the weekend they agreed to meet almost first thing after he lands. So after checking into his hotel he heads into the city to finally meet her in real life in a local café she suggested for the occasion. Arriving to the place he is running a little late and she already texted him she’ll be waiting for him inside. Harry is wearing a beanie with shades to try to keep up his cover and it seems to be working, no one has approached him yet.

Stepping inside the cozy looking place his eyes roam around and immediately finds her sitting in the corner, pouring sugar into her coffee, not even paying attention to the door at the moment, but truth is she’s been intensely staring at it in the past ten minutes she has been there.

Harry takes a deep breath and nods to himself before heading in her way, hands shaking nervously as he stops at her table.

She glances up at him with innocent eyes, a smile spreads across her face as she sees that her mysterious Harry has arrived and she doesn’t recognize her until he finally takes his sunglasses off.

Harry watches her face turn from happiness to surprise then utter shock as she realizes who is standing in front of him.

“You are… my Harry?” she asks, confusion laced through her voice and Harry can’t ignore how she called him her Harry. He likes the ring of it.

“M’orry if it’s a little too much f’you, I really didn’t know how to tell ya.”

Keeping his eyes on her he pulls out the other chair at the table and takes a seat across her while she is still staring at him with a shocked and puzzled expression sitting on her face. Then she looks around in suspicion as he wiggles his coat off his arms, before her eyes settle on him once again.

“It’s not an episode of Catfish, right?” she asks making him chuckle.

“It is not, don’t worry.”

“I’m sorry if I’m being weird, but this was literally the last thing I was expecting,” she admits leaning back in her seat. “I believed things like this only happen in movies.”

“Not just there,” he smiles, slowly relieving that she is still sitting there and hasn’t ran out. It’s going way better than he expected.

She needs a little time to put the whole picture together and befriend the thought that she indeed just developed a friendship with Harry Styles through her videos for her brother. The absurdity is still shocking to her, but the more time passes by with him still sitting there, the more she finds peace with it.

Once the shock and surprise is gone they slowly realize they are seeing each other in real life finally. Harry feels overwhelmed, she is even more breathtaking than in her videos and through texts. He is mesmerized by her whole being and could listen to her talk in person forever, he wouldn’t get bored of her.

Time stops existing as they sit at the little café, talking for hours even though that’s all they’ve been doing through texts, but they just can’t get enough of hearing each other, seeing each other’s reaction and be able to see each other and not stare at a screen while talking.

Unfortunately, time never stopped just for the two of them and soon she realizes she needs to head back home. Harry doesn’t want to let go of her just yet so he offers to give her a ride, thanking himself for getting a rental for himself upon arriving. Y/N accepts the offer so the two of them head back to her parents’ home, soaking up the last minutes of their precious time spent together.

“Thank you for today, I really loved meeting you finally,” she smiles at him once they are parked on the driveway.

“I hope I didn’t shock you too much,” he chuckles scratching his chin.

“Just a little,” she admits before they both get out of the car and walking around it she stops in front of him, after a moment of hesitation she opts for a hug that he returns more than happily.

It feels as if her frame was perfectly sculpted to fit in his embrace and Harry can’t imagine how he could go this long without even seeing her in person. He knows it’s gonna be utter misery to be away from her after they leave the city.

“Will I see you before you take off?” she asks letting go of him. Harry looks down at her, the urge to kiss her growing bigger with each passing moment, but he is not sure if it would be appropriate to give it a try on their first time meeting.

“I’m free tomorrow for a lunch,” he tells her and she nods smiling.

“Then I’m free too,” she chuckles.

There’s an awkward moment where they are not sure what else should be done or said and the more they wait the weirder it’s getting so Harry clears his throat as he takes a step back, sad that he has to leave without feeling her lips on his, but he is not trying to be too greedy.

“I’ll see you tomorrow then,” he smiles walking back to his car. Y/N waves after him and sitting back to behind the wheel he takes a moment to himself to collect himself after everything that has happened today. His hands curl around the wheel and he is about to start the car when someone knocks on the window. Y/N is smiling at him through the glass and he rolls it down curiously.

“I just…” she starts hesitantly, her eyes wander down to his lips and Harry knows what’s about to happen, but it still catches him by surprise.

Y/N leans in through the window and presses her lips to Harry’s, capturing them in a sweet, long awaited first kiss they both have been dreaming of for quite a while. Harry smiles into the kiss, bringing his right hand up to cup her cheeks as they stretch the moment for as long as possible. Whenever one pulls back the other brings them back for just one more kiss that turns into two more, then three… It takes a long time for them to finally let go of each other.

“See you later, H,” she smiles backing out of the car and running up to the front door, smiling wildly as she waves in his way one last time before disappearing in the house.

 Lying in bed that evening Harry is scrolling through his Instagram feed when he finally realizes he can now follow her without a worry. He is quick to find her profile again and hit that follow button. He is happy to see she was already following him.

He is just about to put his phone aside and go to bed after such a busy but exciting day when a notification pops up on the screen.

Y/N has just uploaded a new video!

He taps on it quickly and her smiling face greets him from his phone’s screen.

“Hi Sammy! It’s me again. Welcome back to our channel,” she starts with a shy smile. The setting is new this time, he supposes it’s her parents’ home this time. “This is going to be a short video, but I wanted to tell you about something. Or someone.”

Harry’s heart skips a beat when he thinks about where it’s heading. He listens to her voice holding his breath.

“I met someone today. We’ve been talking for a while, but I could finally hug him today. His name is Harry, and he is a wonderful man. I think you two would get along well,” she says with a soft chuckle. “I love spending time with him and I hope he feels the same way. Actually…” Her eyes move up straight to the camera, something she doesn’t do often. She usually stares out the window or plays with Henry while talking. “I think he is watching it right now. Hi Harry!”

“Hello, Beautiful,” he greets her back with a smile as if she could hear him.

“I wanted to tell you how amazing you are making me feel. I hope I didn’t disappoint. I was so nervous to meet you today, I hope I lived up to what you imagined me to be.”

“You were so much better than that,” he answers again.

“Anyway… I hope you feel the same way. You are the first guy I’m talking about in an update, so appreciate it!” she tells him and he chuckles lightly. “I’ll see you soon, H. But until then… Know that I’m thinking about you.”

“M’thinking about you too, Angel.”

“Sammy, I miss you as always. I hope everything is well, can’t wait for your next email. I love you,” she smiles before the video ends.

Harry heads straight to the comments. This time he doesn’t leave a lengthy one, just a short line, but it has everything he wanted to tell her.

“I feel the same way.” The comment reads. Just a few seconds later comes the notification and he smiles sweetly at his phone.

Y/N liked the comment.

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