#like lewis blessed him and it's the only reason why he managed to fight his way into the points

[holdmyhopeinyourhands]

That thumps up was probably the highlight of Pierre's day, don't touch me!!!

#pierre gasly #lewis hamilton #f1 #formula 1 #spanish gp 2021 #like lewis blessed him and it's the only reason why he managed to fight his way into the points #alpha tauri is shooketh #they thought they truly managed to screw him over #but by God!!!! #is that Lewis Hamilton blessings powering Pierre Gasly!!!!!

[365days365movies]

January 31, 2021: Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)

Considering this is his last film in the franchise...let’s finally talk about Mel Gibson.

There is one thing that needs to be said above all other things.

Fuck Mel Gibson. Dude’s an anti-semitic, racist douche-nozzle. These things have been PROVEN, and he sucks. But Mel Gibson movies? Ehhhhhhh, hit-or-miss. For every Braveheart and Lethal Weapon, there’s The Patriot and What Women Want. But his breakout role as Mad Max Rockatansky?

...He rules.

Yeah, I hate to admit it, but I may hate him as a person...but not really as an actor. Sure, he’s no Daniel Day Lewis or anything, but the man is good, when he’s in good movies. And Max DEFINITELY is no exception to that rule. He’s good. He’s GREAT, even. Much as it pains me, he’s kind of perfect so far.

Let’s see if he can keep that up in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome! SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Recap

We’re immediately plunged into the mid ‘80s as the credits roll, as Tina Turner sings us in. And then, of course...the Outback. And...GYRO!

Bruce Spence is back, but piloting a plane with his son, rather than the Gyrocopter. And that’s because he’s actually playing a different character, a pilot named Jedidiah. I mean...OK, sure. Not sure why you brought back Spence, but I liked Bruce Spence in the last movie a LOT, so I’m not complaining.

Anyway, they steal a wagon of supplies from a desert nomad, revealed to be none other than Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson). Max makes his way to Bartertown, where many people have come to trade items. In the case of Max, he’s come specifically to find his belongings. Through this settlement, we can see that things in Australia have gotten way...WAY worse. Like, goddamn, these movies show a clear progression from the original film to Fury Road.

After some light threats, Max is told that he may get back his belongings for “24 hours of his time.” He turns in his belongings, and is taken through the town, where Jedidiah has indeed come with his stuff. The barter master brings him up to the lady of the hour, Aunty Entity (Tina Turner). She was apparently nobody until “the Day After,” after which she seized her power. She now stands as the head of Bartertown.

Max believes that he’s been brought up to retrieve his stuff, but has instead been brought to “audition” for a position offered by Entity. This position is to kill a man, without revealing any connection to Entity. This man is MasterBlaster, a two-man unit of Master’s brain (Angelo Rossito) and Blaster’s brawn (Paul Larsson). And yeah, pretty sure there’s a Mortal Kombat based off of these two.

MasterBlaster runs the Underground, a subterranean pig farm that supplies the city’s power-supply, methane. They’re arrogant, and Entity wants them disposed of. And so, Max is sent in undercover to kill the fragment-talking unit. Down in the pig-shit (yeah, literally), Max befriends Pig Killer (Robert Grubb), a convict that killed a pig, as his name implies.

Mas also encounters the power-hungry MasterBlaster, who regularly cuts off the power to force Aunty Entity to recognize his power. This is why MasterBlaster has to go. They force Max, with his mechanical expertise, to fix a machine. While doing so, Max learns that Blaster is particularly sensitive to loud, high-pitched noises.

Max agrees to take out MasterBlaster, and Aunty and her trademaster, Collector (Frank Thring) reveals the way: challenge Blaster in the Thunderdome, an arena of combat. Max picks a fight with Blaster, and they enter the Thunderdome. Two men enter...one man leaves. So says the announcer, Dr. Dealgood (Edwin Hodgeman), and so chants the crowd. Dyin’ time’s here.

As the actual cage match begins between Blaster and Max, called the “Man with No Name,” the two are hooked up to harnesses, and weapons are provided on the ceiling. The doors are locked, and...I love this whole goddamn thing, can I just say?

However, at the end, Max can’t kill Blaster, and Master runs to his side. In the process, he reveals his deal with Entity to kill MasterBlaster. While Master claims that the methane supply will now stop. Blaster’s killed anyway, and Entity sends Max to be punished by the Wheel for defying her and “busting the deal.” 

Max is sent to the Gulag, which somehow involves Entity’s security officer Ironbar Bassey (Angry Anderson) putting a mask on him and putting him on a horse riding in the desert. I get the feeling that there is no Gulag, and Entity just sent him to die. Pretty sneaky, sis. Master, on the other hand, is put under the command of Ironbar, and forced to run Bartertown’s methane supply under penalty of death by pig (yes, really). The Pig Killer, meanwhile, sends Max’s monkey (yeah, Max had a monkey for some reason) out of the farm, with a canteen strapped to it.

Max’s horse dies, and is swallowed by quicksand in the desert. Max escapes this fate, and his monkey finds him with the water. He still collapses later on, only to be found by Savannah Nix (Helen Buday), the leader of a tribe of children living in the desert. She believes him to be a “Captain Walker,” and the tribe of kids take him back to their riverside encampment.

This tribe is fascinating, and I mean that. This is Lord of the Flies combined with an anthropological hodgepodge. They’ve essentially deified “Captain Walker,” and wait for Max to wake up. When he finally does, they confront him with some kind of chanting, and repeat what he says back to him.

More is explained as Savannah and their other leader, Slake M’Thirst (Tom Jennings) introduces them as the Waiting Ones, and explains their history. A plague wiped out much of humanity, and many of them got onto a plane, which crashed in the Outback. Their history was recorded on Viewfinders and cave painting, with the pilot of the plane memorialized as “Captain Walker.” Walker and some of his crew left the settlement and their children behind to search for help and civilization. Told to wait for him to take them home, to “Tomorrow Land,” these children are the descendants of that search party, whom they believe Max to be.

But, of course, Max isn’t Captain Walker. He instead tells them of the truth, that cities like “Tomorrow-morrow Land” are gone, and that this is not their home. He throws the hat up into the air, and a wind blows, as if to signify the passing of their God and beliefs. The children interpret this wind as a sign to leave for civilization, and a mass exodus immediately begins.

The children all head to the site of the crashed plane, believing that Max can fix it and fly them home. But Max just...leaves. He heads back to the children’s oasis, where they eventually follow, confused. Some of them, led by Savannah, believe that they can walk to Tomorrow-morrow Land, where Max must have come from. 

Max tries to prevent them from leaving into more danger, and ends up knocking Savannah out. They tie her up and keep them there, but one of the kids, Screwloos (Rod Zuanic) frees them during the night. The other kids ask Max to get them back from the desert, and he reluctantly agrees. With three children to support him, they head through the desert to rescue the kids. This works, although they do sadly lose one child to quicksand.

Now completely out of water and supplies, the group has to go to Bartertown if they have any chance of making it back. Max’s plan is to get the help of the now-imprisoned Master. With help from Pig-Killer and Master, the group manages to take out many of the guards, Ironbar Bassey included. By the time Entity finds out, the group has already hijacked a truck converted into a train.

Yes. really

This might not be a car-heavy Mad Max, but GODDAMN does this rule.

Bartertown begins to collapse, and the methane plant is destroyed. Aunty rallies the forces of Bartertown to go after them, and NOW...NOW we get our car-stuff. During the chase, we get an obligatory death by truck (Ironbar Bassey, who’s now DEFINITELY dead), and Max manages to save Master from Entity’s grasp. But Ironbar Bassey...WHO’S STILL ALIVE??

Well, he eventually goes the way of Sarah (Blessed be Her Fall), and the group reaches the end of the track, where they’re held up by...Jedidiah’s son. Been wondering where you’ve been, mate. He escapes into his father’s underground lair, where the group follows him. Max FINALLY confronts him, and they fly to safety.

They get chased further by IRONBAR BASSEY, WHAT THE FUCK

CAN HE DIE? WHAT THE HELL, MAN?

As Aunty Entity and the rest gang up on the group, they turn the plane around, and prepare to take off through the gang. Max, however, uses a vehicle to clear the way, allowing the plane enough space to take off. And I think Ironbar Bassey is FINALLY dead. Probably.

Max is captured by Entity, as the kids, Pig-Killer, and Jedidiah escape. But surprisingly...she leaves. Whether she’s leaving him for dead or not, I’m not sure, but it seems that she’s come to respect him after all of this. She bids farewell to the Raggedy Man, and leaves him in the desert.

Meanwhile, Jedidiah flies the kids through a sandstorm in the plane, and takes them to…

The kids were right. Eventually, they bring the others to the destroyed Sydney, where they pass on the tradition, and tells the story of the man that found them, lighting the city up for a night that Max will return home.

FUCK YES, HOLY SHIT, PLAY THIS MOVIE OUT TINA TURNER

...Wow. That was Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. I’m ready to talk about these movies now.

#mad max #mad max 3 #mad max beyond thunderdome #beyond thunderdome #george miller #mel gibson #mad max rockatansky #max rockatansky #tina turner #aunty entity #bruce spence #angelo rossitto #angry anderson #helen buday #savannah nix #365 movie challenge #365 movies 365 days #365 Days 365 Movies #365 movies a year #user365 #byron kennedy #mygifs #my gifs #action january

[dc41896]

Like Father, Like Daughter

Pairing: Lewis Tan x Black Reader

Warnings: Mentions of bullying, but none other than that

Training in his home gym, DaBaby blares through the speakers overhead as he hits the punching bag. Throwing his last few punches and kicks before his break, he hears the door slam across the room as your seven year old daughter, Nova, places her bag down before sitting on the mat with a huff.

“Hey little bee, you ok?,” he asks wiping the sweat from his face with a towel and pausing the music.

“Yea, well no not really. Daddy do I have to go to school? I could help around the house!”

“Sorry love, but you have to go,” he laughs sitting down on the mat across from her. “But tell me what’s going on that you don’t want to go anymore.”

“It’s this boy in my class, Ryan. Lately he’s been messing with me and pulling my hair and today he tripped me in the hallway when we were going to the library.”

Like any protective father, hearing that his baby girl was getting picked on made Lewis want to find out where he lived and talk to little Ryan himself. He knew he couldn’t do that though, unless he wanted his face plastered all over every news outlet that is.

“I’m sorry that’s been happening to you sweetie. Have you told him how that’s not nice and asked him to stop? Or told your teacher?”

“Yes! When he first started pulling my braid I told him that I didn’t like it and wanted him to stop, but he just mocked me as if I was a baby. And I would tell the teacher but I don’t want to be a tattle.”

“Well you’re not a tattle if something is bothering you, so don’t be afraid to tell someone ok?”

“Ok daddy,” she softly smiles as Lewis kisses the top of her head, getting up to fill his water bottle.

After a few moments of silence, what his daughter says next brings him close to tears.

“Can you teach me how to fight?”

The fact that she was now interested in martial arts, even if only for defending herself, made him so happy that he was sure his heart would explode from happiness. Ever since she was a toddler, he tried to sneak in moves to teach her, like kicks, or show her old fighting movies as she got older. However, nothing ever stuck and all Nova wanted to do was watch cartoons and play dress up.

Whatever she liked, he’d always support no matter what, but he did always imagine him and his child stretching and practicing moves together as sort of a bonding moment, just like he and his dad used to.

“Of course I can teach you! But there are rules though, main one being that you only use what I teach you in dangerous situations where you have to defend yourself ok? Not just whenever you like.”

“Yes sir.”

“Next rule, let’s wait a while before telling mom about this ok? We don’t want her going level 10 when she’s just getting back in town tonight.”

“Deal,” she laughs, shaking her dad’s outstretched hand.

———

“You punched your classmate in the nose?!,” you ask looking at your daughter sitting between you and your husband, dark curls covering her face as her head hung low with her hands in her lap.

You weren’t sure why you and Lewis were called to Nova’s school, but from the tone of the principal’s voice you knew it wasn’t because she made honor roll again.

“I was just as surprised to find out myself Mrs. Tan. I mean I’ve never seen her display such behavior and wonder where she learned it from,” the principal, Mrs. Winthrow, adds tucking a few loose strands of hair behind her ear.

“Huh I wonder that too,” you ask too low for her to hear as you look at Lewis. Expression clearly conveying what you were thinking from him nervously smiling. “Nova baby, why did you hit him?”

“He’s been messing with me mommy! He pulled my hair, tripped me, and today he pushed me down so when I got up I punched him.”

“Listen Mrs. Winthrow I know you guys typically frown on violence, but if someone messes with our kid, like in this situation, we want her to be able to defend herself. Especially when it seems like nothing is being done about the other person involved,” Lewis explains.

“Which is understandable, and Ryan will be dealt with later accordingly-,”

“Wait later? So you mean to tell me that Nova is here getting punished, while Ryan is back in class just going about his day when him and his parents should be in here too?,” you interrupt crossing your arms in front of you.

“Yes, but-,”

“And with that, I think we’re done here,” you reply standing up with your purse in hand and family standing by your side.

“I understand you’re upset Mrs. Tan, but just letting what Nova did slide sets a bad example for her and her other classmates,” she tries to reason only making you angrier.

“The only bad example Nova has to worry about is the one I’m gonna show if you don’t let us leave,” you snap causing the principal to sit back in her leather office chair. “And if I find out Ryan didn’t get a harsher punishment and is still messing with my child, we’re gonna have a little private conversation.”

“Daddy it’s level 10,” Nova whispers while being held in Lewis’ arms.

“No sweetie, that’s level 50,” he whispers back following you out the office.

———

Sitting in bed reading a book, both Lewis and Nova silently enter the bedroom as to not disturb you if you were still upset from the events earlier. Neither one of them had ever seen you get that angry before and were a bit nervous to say anything to you in fear of sparking an encore since they both felt that they messed up today.

“You guys gonna come keep me company or just stare at me all night?,” you laugh peeking up from your book. Patting the space next to you, Nova runs to climb into bed snuggling into your side while Lewis slides in after.

“I’m sorry I got in trouble mommy, I promise to apologize to Ryan when I go back to school.”

“That’s very nice of you to apologize to him Nova, and I want you to know that although your teacher and principal don’t agree with what you did, I think I speak for both me and your dad when saying we’re proud of you for defending yourself like you did.”

“But also next time please tell your teacher or someone when something first happens. Like we talked about earlier it’s not tattling,” Lewis adds kissing her small hands, making her giggle.

“I will. Love you,” she smiles wrapping an arm around both of you to make a group hug.

“And we love you too! Now if you don’t mind, mommy and daddy need to have a little talk,” you reply kissing her cheek as she begins climbing out the bed.

“Don’t hurt him too bad, we have practice tomorrow!”

“You still want to train love?”

“Yea, I really like it! Plus we have fun together,” she answers before leaving and closing the door behind her.

“Listen I know you’re upset and I’m sorry and promise to do better, but you heard what she just said right?!,” Lewis excitedly says, his dimples on full display from how bright he was smiling.

And just like clockwork, there he was making you laugh and thus making it difficult to be mad at him. Not that he ever did anything to make you mad really, but anytime you weren’t in the best mood he always managed to say or do the slightest thing to make you smile and forget why you were upset for the moment. Depending on the situation, it could be a blessing or curse.

“Yea I heard and that’s great, but next time our kid is having problems I’d like to know ahead of time. We’re a team remember?”

“I know and I’m sorry. I should’ve told you that same day she told me, but you were just getting back in town and I didn’t want you to be worried or think that I couldn’t handle things on my own.”

“Anything dealing with Nova is gonna make me worry in some way, as a parent I can’t help that,” you reply making him chuckle. “One thing I don’t have to worry about though is you handling everything. You’re a great dad and husband, and I honestly couldn’t do this without you.”

Leaning over, you playfully peck all over his face before finally ending on his lips.

“Aww thank you love,” he smiles, lightly pinning your body to his to kiss you again. Interrupting your sweet moment, you both hear the crash of something falling followed by your daughter’s footsteps scurrying up the stairs and entering your room.

“Um everything’s ok I promise!,” Nova innocently smiles flashing her own set of dimples before running back to her room.

“And there goes your little bee,” you laugh returning back to your book as Lewis sighs before getting up to check on his “mini me” in training.

Taglist: @crushed-pink-petals @fumbling-fanfics @honeychicana @themyscxiras @lady-olive-oil @lovelymari4 @melinda-january @felicity-x0 @ellixthea @jojolu @jnk-812 @brwn-sgr @captainsamwlsn @nina-sj @itshinothey @wildfirecracker

If anybody wants to be tagged, has asked to be tagged but don’t see your name, or only wants to be tagged for certain people I write for just let me know🤓!

#lewisxwoc #lewisxblackreader #lewisxreader #lewis tan

[eileeny]

No one talks about a PJO and HOO/Hamilton crossover, like, ever Pt. 1

Consider: 

Aaron Burr, son of Nemesis (unclaimed), as Luke 

Thomas Jefferson, son of Zeus, as Percy 

James Madison, son of Athena, as Annabeth bc he’s the other half of the friends-to-lovers trope and Grover bc he’s Awkward 

Theodosia Bartow, daughter of Tyche (unclaimed), as Grover bc she’s the third wheel and Annabeth bc she’s connected to Aaron/Luke 

Martha Wayles, daughter of Poseidon, as Thalia 

Maria Lewis, daughter of Aphrodite, as Silena 

John Laurens, son of Ares, as Clarisse 

Dolley Payne, daughter of Hades, as Nico 

Imagine: 

Aaron and Theodosia finding each other before even making it to CHB 

People saying it’s a haven, but to them it feels more like a prison, only compounded by their unclaimed status 

Aaron watching as claimed campers get quests and not understanding why he, one of the oldest and most experienced campers, doesn’t 

Theodosia doesn’t mind staying at CHB for the most part, but she chafes under the stereotypes given to unclaimed campers 

Kronos giving Aaron an opportunity to make something of himself, and Aaron accepting without telling anyone, even Theodosia 

Thomas arriving at CHB in much the same fashion as Percy, except this time it’s Poseidon’s trident that’s been stolen and his sister, not mom, that’s been taken 

Thomas having social anxiety, but forcing himself not to show it, bc children of Zeus are supposed to be confident and brave and in control 

Thomas making friends with James bc he’s the only camper willing to just talk with Thomas 

Thomas and John declaring each other as enemies basically on sight for no particular reason 

Chiron announcing the quest, and Thomas choosing James, ofc, but also Aaron bc at the very least he seems neutral enough - plus he doesn’t seem to idolize Thomas the way most of the camp does 

Aaron instead insisting that Theo should go 

Who is Thomas to refuse? 

Thomas ignoring the glare Theodosia’s giving Aaron and him simultaneously 

Aaron giving Thomas a pair of winged shoes that he then gives to James bc he’s a son of Zeus, he can fly 

Them making the Lightning Thief trip 

Them getting the trident - James almost falls into Tartarus - and going to Olympus, Thomas getting his sister back  

Theo finally accepting that Aaron turned traitor after he attacks Thomas and extending an olive branch to Thomas and James (she’s always thought James was nice, anyways) 

John getting his own quest, finally 

Aaron poisoning Martha’s Pine, Chiron getting kicked out, Tantalus 

James being kidnapped by Aaron, and the subsequent attempt by Thomas and Theo to rescue him from the Sea of Monsters and Aaron’s ship 

Thomas and John finally figuring each other out, kinda, and while perhaps they can’t say they’re friends at the very least they have a truce with each other 

Martha waking up from being a tree; she and Thomas immediately having a rivalry as children of two of the Big Three 

Thomas, James, Theodosia, and Martha going to Westover Hall bc one of the satyrs reported two incredibly strong demigods there 

An altercation with Dr. Thorn leaving James and a Hunter missing, Thomas and Theo having to save James again, and them coming away with two daughters of Hades, Dolley and Anne Payne, 13 and 16 respectively 

Anne joining the Hunters of Artemis close after, Dolley refusing to do the same 

Zoë Nightshade taking a quest to find Artemis, and Theo joining along with Anne, Martha, and another Hunter 

Thomas taking the other Hunter’s place after sneaking away to follow them 

Anne dying in the Junkyard of the Gods 

Thomas running into Rachel Dare at the Hoover Dam 

Martha finding the Ophiotaurus again right before they climb up Mount Othrys, and Dr. Thorn trying to get Thomas to kill it 

Thomas taking Artemis’ place under the sky until she tricks Atlas into taking his burden back 

Zoë dying at Atlas’ hands 

Artemis naming Martha as her lieutenant at the winter solstice meeting on Olympus, leaving either Thomas or Dolley as the child of the prophecy, though no one knows of the latter just yet  

Thomas and James figuring out Dolley is a daughter of Hades 

Thomas choosing the prophecy 

Thomas meeting Rachel Dare, part 2 

James and Thomas discover the entrance to the Labyrinth within CHB 

John telling Thomas of the nature of the Labyrinth 

James leading the quest with Thomas, Theo, and Martha (who’s there with Artemis’ blessing) into the Labyrinth in order to find Daedalus and prevent Aaron from using it as an entrance to CHB 

Dolley trying to bargain with Hades to get Anne back in the meantime, guided maliciously by Minos 

Them going to Hephaestus, who directs them to Mount St. Helens 

James kissing Thomas right before he goes in with Martha to fight off the telekhines bc she thinks that only Big Three kids can survive the potential power outburst (she’d be right) 

Thomas ending up in Ogygia and meeting Calypso 

Him crashing his own funeral 

Them meeting Rachel Dare again and going back into the Labyrinth, this time only to get captured by Aaron’s forces 

Them managing to escape after Martha kills Antaeus 

Them finding Daedalus, before Minos and Dolley appear and Dolley sends Minos back to the Underworld 

The battle at CHB and the campers working together to beat back Aaron’s forces, with the force of three Big Three kids working together as no small factor in their eventual success  

Thomas and Theo arguing about whether or not Aaron can still be saved 

Thomas finally hearing the rest of the prophecy 

Dolley giving Thomas the choice as to whether or not he’ll bathe in the River Styx 

The Battle of Manhattan and James taking a knife for Thomas 

Martha leading the Hunters 

Maria revealing she’s a spy and regrets it 

John, who’s her best friend, going in a rage and killing the drakon 

Aaron, by this time completely hosting Kronos, managing to get to Olympus past the campers’ defenses 

Thomas, James, and Theo being the only ones with him 

Theo offering him her knife 

Aaron managing to wrest control of his body and stabbing himself with the knife, effectively ending the war 

Thomas promising to remember the unclaimed campers 

Thomas then holding the gods to their promise to claim every single one of their children, including the minor gods 

And that’s just PJO 

#look I know it's really long #this is my first post on tumblr #is this how it's supposed to look #just #hamilton characters in pjo #hamilton #pjo #percy jackson #percy jackson and the olympians #there will most definitely be a part 2 #involving many more hamilton characters #promise #anyways just bringing this very important idea to your attention

[cyn-00]

Moreid one shot, 13 - "the person I come home to"

Season 12, episode 6 "Elliott's pond" (the one where it's officially announced that Hotch is not part of the BAU anymore because Mr. Scratch - aka Peter Lewis - is stalking him and Jack, so Emily’s gonna be the new head of the team)

Reminder that in my fics based off of episodes from s. 11 ep. 18 on, I stick with Morgan leaving the bau which is canon in the show, BUT ofc Morgan and Reid are a couple and they live together at Reid's place because why not :)

I MANAGED TO PUT THE “keep reading” THINGIE! Albeit 6 months after I first started writing fics... better late than never, right?

Read it on AO3

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

Morgan opened the door of Reid's - and his - place. It was around 10 pm, so he wasn't 100% sure that Spencer would be home yet. But the small light on the dresser of the living room was on.

"Kid?" he called him, not seeing him around, while dropping his heavy bag on the floor.

"Here." he heard his gentle voice, coming from the kitchen.

He entered the small kitchen, only lit by the soft, warm light coming from the living room, and the street lights outside. Spencer was sitting at the table, looking out of the window like he was lost in his own head - it happened quite often. It wasn't always a bad symptom, though.

He was holding an almost full bottle of beer in his hand, placed on the table, his shirt was slightly unbuttoned: Derek guessed he'd come home not long before him.

Spencer wasn't a huge alcohol fan: beer was his only "comfort drink" when his mind was running too fast and he needed to slow it down a little bit. So that was the clue that made Derek understand something was kinda...off.

-

"Hey" he greeted Reid gently, approaching him and sitting on the chair right beside him.

Even though he could - barely - see only his face and the sparkle of the lampposts outside reflected on the glass bottle, he didn't turn the light on: it bothered Spencer's eyes when he was tired.

He didn't greet him back, neither move.

"Everything alright?" Morgan asked.

Spencer sighed and finally shifted his eyes to look at the bottle in his hand, his thumb toying with the corner of the half-unglued label.

"I don't know. Lot of stuff happened." he answered vaguely and with the least number of words possible - which was quite the unusual event.

Derek reached his hand forward to tuck behind Spencer's ear a lock of hair that was covering his eye, in order to see his face better.

"I'm listening." he simply said.

Silence.

Spencer rubbed the bridge of his nose with his fingers, closing his eyes like he had to funnel all of his concentration into choosing the right words.

"Hotch left."

-

Derek's heart sank deep into his chest. It was hard for Spencer to let go of the ones close to him - the team had had evidence of this many times over the years. In fact, to be fair, he was surprised that his only reaction to something like that was to casually grab a beer and sit in the dark. And Derek didn't feel quite sure that it was a good sign.

All of a sudden, he put 2 and 2 together.

"Let me guess..." Derek paused. "Peter Lewis?"

Spencer nodded, finally meeting his eyes for the first time since he came home.

"He's been stalking him and Jack for some time. So he decided it was best to go on Witness Protection." he explained further.

Derek nodded, remaining silent for a while to let Spencer feel free to get off his chest whatever he needed to, without interrupting his train of thought.

But Spencer never continued.

"...so...Rossi's the head of the team now?" he asked in the end, genuinely curious but at the same time almost certain he was right.

"No" Spencer shook his head, slightly smiling. "Emily is."

Derek's brows shot up in surprise. Knowing Emily, he wouldn't have expected her to take on such an important role - not that she didn't have the skills to do it, on the contrary, everyone thought very highly of her. Yes, she'd known the team for a long time and both Reid and JJ trusted her profoundly; but there was no denying that, in the past, everyone had seen her being kinda on and off the team, hesitant to stay in one place for long periods of time.

Morgan didn't blame her for it - not anymore: she was "wired" like that. It took him some time, but most of all it took getting over some grudges he used to hold on her, to understand this particular feature of her personality and be at peace with it. It was nothing personal.

-

Derek's faint smile faded away when he saw Spencer shifting his eyes to look outside again, taking a sip from his beer.

"Is- isn't it a good thing?" he asked apprehensively. There HAD to be something else: he was sure that Spencer was over the moon at the idea of Emily being head of their team. That couldn't be the problem.

Seeing that he wasn't about to answer any time soon, Derek inched closer to lean his elbows on his knees and placed his broad, warm hand on Spencer's leg, stroking his inner thigh with a thumb.

"Spencer. Look at me, please." he pleaded, his voice deep but gentle. He HATED seeing him like that. It made him go crazy.

Spencer finally looked straight into his eyes, like his touch had awakened him, and now he could hear him clearly.

"Tell me what's on your mind, kid." Derek subtly commanded, almost whispering at that point.

Spencer swallowed nervously, clenching his jaw.

"This job...it's continuously taking people away. And each time, it feels like...like it's taking away pieces of- of me... you know?" he paused, letting out a trembly sigh. "Elle, Gideon, Hotch, even Emily in some way... you"

Derek felt a lump in his throat. He didn't know what to answer. He couldn't guarantee that the job wouldn't take people away again - on the opposite, he could guarantee that it would. And he knew that Spencer knew it. There was nothing he could say that would make either of them less convinced of it.

-

He drew his chair as close as possible to Spencer's and took his hand, entwining his fingers with his. After a long, thoughtful silence, he spoke up.

"I can't promise you that the people around you won't keep coming and going. You know what happened with Elle, and I can't speak for Gideon, but I...I think I can safely say that Hotch wouldn't have left if it wasn't a matter of life or death...honestly after what happened with Haley I'm still surprised he didn't leave before. C'mon, he couldn't risk his son too." he gazed attentively at him. "But I think you know all this already."

Derek paused, leaning forward till their noses were 6 inches apart.

"As for me, I-" he sighed and shook his head: neither of them had the strength to fight about why Morgan had to leave anymore. "you know how things went for me but, kid..." Derek raised Spencer's chin with his index to make sure he was looking at him before going on to say what he wanted to say. "you are my family. And before you say what I know you wanna say: yes, there's my mom and my sisters but- I don't want you to think about it as blood. You are the person I come home to, and if you're not already here, I wait for you. I'm not going anywhere."

When Derek didn't receive an immediate answer, he thought he'd said something wrong, as though he had made him uncomfortable because maybe he didn't feel the same way. And, if that were the case, he couldn't blame him after all: it was STILL hard for Spencer to trust him fully, let alone considering him like family.

He had come to terms with the fact that it wasn't a symptom that Spencer didn't love him. On the contrary: Derek had understood years before, when they were still friends, that the reason why he hesitated to tell him some things, was because he was afraid of losing him - which was absolute nonsense, anyway.

-

He saw Spencer finally shifting in his seat, breaking those few seconds of complete stillness during which he didn't even blink.

He leaned closer to the edge of the chair and cupped Derek's face in his hands, sending shivers down his spine because one palm was freezing from holding the cold bottle of beer, while the other was now warm from keeping it squeezed into Derek's until just a second before.

Spencer pushed his lips softly against his, laying a single, slow kiss, realizing how much Derek had craved for it by how he immediately placed his hand on the back of his neck to draw him deeper. He didn't even know why Spencer had decided to bless him like that, out of the blue, but sure as hell he wasn't complaining.

Derek gasped into the kiss as soon as Spencer's wet and silky tongue slided into his dry mouth, spreading a faint but piercing taste of beer that made his cheeks slightly ache, akin to when you first bite into a too sour orange.

He gradually slowed down when he noticed that Spencer was struggling not to smile against his lips, and he was kissing nothing but his teeth.

"What?" Derek asked, laying one last peck at the corner of his boyfriend's mouth before pulling further to look at him; unable to avoid smiling back even though he didn't even know yet what the man was giggling about. He was so fucking pretty, Derek thought. As simple as that. Pretty.

Spencer rested his hand on Derek's bicep, stroking his smooth skin with his thumb from underneath the hem of his t-shirt. Derek secretly bit his bottom lip: he was more ticklish than one would think, in general, but God did he wish he had an answer for WHY Spencer's soft touch always did him dirty like that.

"I was- uhm..." he cleared his voice while simultaneously furrowing his eyebrows - as per usual. "My intent was to tell you the exact same thing as soon as you came home. It's- it's like you read my mind - even though, you know, I don't believe in these kind of things..." Spencer replied, stuttering in a timid way.

Derek felt his heart burst out of his chest. They'd been together for years, but hearing Spencer say things like that, made him feel like when he was a teenager acting awkward - and pathetically confident - with "chicks" every time. Crazy, he thought: it never happened with the other people he dated before, men or women.

"...yeah?" he asked, incredulous.

Spencer nodded before elaborating.

"You know, it was Rossi, he said something about our team, but actually it got me thinking about this...about us." he paused, swallowing. "he said: it's what happens when we're not on a case that has defined who we are. We stand beside one another, through good, through bad...because we're family" Spencer quoted David word for word - he didn't know any better - staring deep into Derek's eyes.

"It got me thinking that it doesn't matter if you're not on the team anymore, after all. It never mattered that much, to be honest- with you it's always been like, something more than just protecting each other from getting shot or...or kidnapped, I- I don't know how to explain it..." Spencer continued, getting stuck with his words so much that Derek had to try and hide his smile at how amusingly adorable he was.

"Well, for being a genius you gotta admit that it took you a hell of a long time to realize that we're 'something more', am I right?" Derek replied mockingly, air-quoting those two words. He always liked playing dumb, because Spencer's cute-annoyed reaction was priceless; however 9 times out of 10 he actually understood exactly what the other meant. It was just that he had this way of trying to give scientific-like explanations to things that maybe simply happen without us wanting to, or knowing how - namely: falling in love. "But love IS a 'scientific thing', Derek"; Morgan lost count of how many times he had replied to such comments with an eye-roll.

Spencer chuckled and shook his head. "Yeah, I know, but- you know, it just came to my mind that, if I think about it, it wasn't exclusively on the job that I...fell in love with you." he got more serious while saying that last bit.

Derek blushed a little - even though it was impossible for Spencer to see because of his dark complexion. Plus, SSA Derek Morgan NEVER blushed, so the thought didn't even cross Spencer's mind.

"So, let me get this straight," Derek started his teasing, looking at him with arched eyebrows and a mischievous grin "I spent years kicking down doors to impress you with muscles and stuff, and now you tell me giving you rides home or taking you to crappy diners after hard cases was what got you all adorable and flustered all along? That what you're telling me??" he asked mockingly. He loved to put him in difficult situations and see the tips of his ears flush. 

Spencer shook his head and chuckled. "Ok, ok, fine, MAYBE both."

-

Derek leaned back in his chair and stared outside, completely lost in a specific thought that popped into his head, as he mentally replayed those words.

"But the job made us meet." he said righteously, after a long-ish silence.

He slightly tilted his head and shifted his eyes to glimpse at Spencer's beer - that he had clearly forgotten about - as the cold condense coating the glass bottle melted down, dripping on the table in a small puddle.

"I can't think that we wouldn't even ever have met if it wasn't for this job." he added shaking his head in disbelief, lowering his voice like he was speaking to himself more than to Spencer.

The other raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"We wouldn't?" he asked ingenuously. Like he didn't know that two completely opposite people like them would've never met, in normal conditions. Not in a lifetime. Not even in a million years.

Derek laughed good-heartedly at him, face-palming. "We would? Where? At a chess tournament? Or maybe at a baseball game??" he said smirking.

Spencer tried to hide his smile, lightly kicking Derek's calf with his ankle and pretending to be offended.

"Don't make me smack you in front of all these people" Derek jokingly quoted himself with his finger pointed at him, trusting that Spencer would recall that "threat" from years and years before. Surprisingly, Derek remembered A LOT of those comments he was so used to tease him with when they were not together yet, because it was funny to him how he fooled around trying to hint that he was into Spencer, while the genius was COMPLETELY oblivious - he wasn't even pretending not to see it. He just, didn't see it.

Spencer looked at him with his mouth hanging open, impressed. "How-"

"You're not the only one who remembers stuff, you know?" Derek interrupted him immediately before he could ask him how he remembered it. He leaned forward and took Spencer's jaw in one hand to place a quick kiss on his lips, before standing up from the chair.

-

Derek checked his watch. "I'm starving. I'm gonna order some pizza." he stated, heading to the living room to get his phone that he had absent-mindedly left over the dresser.

He froze in spot right on the doorway and turned around, with a frown on his face.

"Wait, have you eaten?"

Spencer shook his head and bit the inside of his cheek, well aware that Derek was kind of a pain in the ass with that. It kinda bothered him, how at times he obsessively made sure he'd eaten - only when he was in an "off" period; though he couldn't say he was wrong: during those kind of periods, Spencer really forgot to eat, or simply couldn't bring himself to. Which was worrisome.

In the attempt to stop thinking about all that matter, he took another sip from his beer, not nearly as ice-cold as he had planned on drinking it, at that point.

Derek sighed heavily as he turned on his heels again, disappearing into the other room. A few seconds later he replied, raising his voice enough so that Spencer could hear him from the kitchen.

"If only your mom knew that I starve her boy. She wouldn't have no problem smacking me in front of a bunch of people, now would she?"

Spencer choked on a laugh, risking to spit out his beer.

#criminal minds #derek morgan #spencer reid #moreid #shematthew #cmtag #sperek #criminal minds season 12 #criminal minds 12x6 #moreid one shot #moreid one shot 13 #moreid fanfiction #m/m #spencer reid x derek morgan #bau #behavioral analysis unit #dr reid #criminal minds elliott's pond

[eagesoldartblog]

Pay It Forward Chapter Two: Coming Home

Lewis’s foot taps slowly, glowering at a scalding hot chocolate decorated with the most tacky orange color he’s probably ever seen.

His name is Arthur Kingsmen.

Counting down from ten, he calculates each breath. Each puff giving away more of the bubbling anger threatening to explode.

He’s a mechanic, the head mechanics nephew.

Thick, sweet smells muse around him. Hands tightly laced together, shaking lightly.

A generous person, he paid off your car with the blink of an eye. Grinding his teeth, the tap tap taping quickens faster and faster, relentless and angry.

And I don’t have the cash or ability to pay him back. Chewing on his cheek, he finally lets out a strained sigh.

“Are you going to keep pouting, or what?” Vivi’s voice snaps Lewis from his trance, dampening his anger at once, “Or are you still pissy mcpisserton?”

Lewis blushes, shoulders sinking, “Is it that obvious..?”

Vivi slides the tray across the table and tears into her own croissant, shrugging, “Yeah, you’re brooding again.”  

Lewis glares at her, rolling his eyes and sipping from his hot chocolate, “A bit on the nose, don’t ya think?”

“On the nose is my middle name,” Vivi smirks, gulping back her own coffee, “But legit, what’s with the sour attitude? Arthurs chill, he would have done it anyway.”

He shoots her a look, scoffing, “He would have? Are you kidding me-?”

“Wow,” Vivi interrupts him, grinning, “Didn’t take you for a financial advisor, Lewis. Or better yet, you lookin’ for a sugar daddy to help pay off your loans?” Lewis- mid sip- chokes on his hot chocolates, face burning and eyes wide.

“No. That’s no-”

“Either way you’re out of luck, he owed me a favor,” Vivi smirks, “But its cute that you think that~”

Lewis huffs, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms. Keeping it up for... who knows how long, Vivi wasn’t counting and wasn’t about to. She leans forward, a smirk twisting across her face.

“You’re blushing, Lew Lew~”

He was. The darkened warmth across his face made it entirely noticeable that he either drank too much of his drink too quickly, or was fixated on a certain someone. Vivi was willing to bet at this point.

“I’m- I- it’s cold outside.” He tries.

“It’s actually a Mild-day.”

“There was a draft breeze.”

“And we’re no where near a window, so that was probably you~” Vivi teases, wholly expecting the less than rough warning tap against her shin.

“I mean, if it is about Artie, who can blame ya? The guys a golden ticket in disguise of a man. Plus, he’s hot-“

Lewis could blows steam from his ears with how heated his face was, “Vivi, please. It’s not a crush, I wouldn’t have a crush on someone after one meeting.” He hisses, pointing his finger at her gruffly.

Vivi could only laugh, kicking her feet onto Lewis’s lap, “You did before.”

“That was different!” Lewis snaps back desperately, “Besides, Xavier was a one time thing. I know it was funny when I fancied them-”

That guy-! Vivi burst out laughing, “Oh man, I wonder how he’s going to feel when he catches wind of you falling for a different tradesmen~”

Lewis halts, frozen in place before slapping his palms against his face. ”I’ve had enough, let’s stop talking.”

“You should fill me in on why you’re still mad.”

Lewis pops up, frowning and glaring at her, “I am still aggravated, for a few reasons. But I’m still annoyed about Arthur if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“Because-?”

”Because he paid all of it.”

“Well-?” Vivi shrugs, clearly confused as she takes an obnoxious bite from her hash brown, “At least you don’t have to worry about it. That was a blessing, and then…” she trials off, shrugging, “you can probably work and pay him back if you want? Hell i'm sure Uncle Lance will hire you if you want.”

Lewis blinks, confusion consuming his features as he stares at her, “I- I’m sorry? Lance?” He says, momentarily released from his out of emotional crisis.

Vivi nearly flicks her straw- just to watch his expression turn sour when he gets hit- but decides against it, “The boss? Short mechanic, Arthur's uncle, he was under the hood while we were there-“

“Okay, yes, but- why are you calling him uncle?”

Vivi crosses her arms and stares at him.

Clattering of other people eating fills Lewis’s ears uncomfortably, and he stares at Vivi quietly.

Sweat soon beads down his face from their staring contest.

Sighing, Vivi takes a long sip of her coffee, “I’m still astounded how you managed to know no one in this town despite living here.”

Lewis thumbs his fingertip harshly, considering her words carefully, “I lived on the other side of town. Besides, my mother homeschooled me and my sisters for a little while and I started working not too long after.”

“Didn’t you also join a few sports and clubs?”

Lewis nodded weakly, realizing he completely lied, “I- yes, I did. Mostly in the summer! Or... whenever I found time.”

That's right, they bonded over their affinity for going above and beyond in every field.

No wonder she remembers what information you’ve shared. His thoughts hiss and bite, giving him the faint throb of a headache. “Now it's your turn, you didn’t answer my question.”

Vivi waves him off, “Don’t get snippy it’s bad for your skin, I was getting there.” Back to a calmer state of mind, Vivi relaxes and continues, “I’ve known Arthur a good portion of my life, and he was the smart kid in high-school, so I obviously leeched off him for support.”

she takes a long sip, somehow emitting more steam than previously. As she pulls it from her lips, the haze drifts around her face like smoke, framing it well. “We hung out most days after school and I got into Lance's good graces, he’ll warm up to you after a bit.”

Interesting, they’re friends.... maybe that’s why he paid it all off? He may fancies her- but wait, didn’t she say he owed her?

“Will he take kindly to the fact that his nephew paid off the damages?”

Vivi shrugs, “I dunno, explain it to him. He might give you the bill, or not, who knows.” She says curtly, stretching her shoulders.

Lewis nods, taking more than a moment to consider the information. But he very quickly makes his judgement on his actions over the course of the coffee date. That was wildly inappropriate! Apologize this instant.

He shouldn’t ever let his emotions run wild like that, never let them take control when control wasn’t needed.

He needed to calm down.

Taking the cup, Lewis takes a sip of the remaining hot chocolate, and swallows it slowly. Focusing on the warm nutty base and the cream of the milk, how it all accentuate one another. The lingering smooth liquid soothes the burn in his throat and Lewis releases a heavy sigh, “Thank you Vivi, I appreciate it immensely.”

And yet, his mind is stuck in the meticulous fingers combing through, followed by the stench of car oil and caked in dirt.

Stop thinking of him.

A hand falls on his bicep, and Lewis jumps up in response, eyeing her suspiciously, “Don’t worry, Lew. Just let this go, because I promise you... you won’t ever be able to pay him back.” She smiles, an edge of sadism lacing her voice and Lewis can see the tempting claws trying to ensnare him.

Don’t take the bait! His mind warns, recognizing this challenging tone that always had him off and doing the strangest of things. And yet his curiosity fights against his and demands to know every secret she has hidden behind those pink glasses. You sure are getting a kick out of this, aren’t you Vivi? “I’m sorry?”

Vivi holds her hands in surrender, but her eyes speak legions if snakes, “Arthur's really difficult to pay back, I’ll have you know. So be careful with what you do for it.”

“I don’t see how this is necessary-“ he saw where she was going and he didn’t want to be the target of her tricks.

“It’s because of your thing,” she says, referring to it like it was something forbidden from speaking aloud but all so tempting, “I know how you feel about it, but it’s really a losing battle. I would suggest you just pay it forward to someone else.”

That... was not something he is capable of doing. Lewis wanted to argue. Wanted to explain that it would rip into his skull for days if he didn’t clear his debt the instant if had been set. This man would be the death of him. Lewis figures, mentally ringing his palms to release the stress.

Lewis, noticeably more agitated and determined, looks up at her starkly, “How?”

“How what?”

“How can I get back at him?” Lewis asks, owning every amount of bitterness laced in his voice. Quirking an eyebrow, Vivi sighs and rests back, “Yeesh...” she sighs, as if it only now just occurred to her that she was friends with someone who will have the best credit score no matter what. She lets out a sigh, relenting, “Okay fine. Maybe like.... invite him over to your house for dinner? That’s the only way I can really see you getting away with it. Arthurs a serious philanthropist.”

“Dinner?” Lewis considers it, going over it in his head about three times before he steels himself with a nod, “Ah! Okay, I can probably do that.”

He could do it, which is what really mattered there. It didn’t cost much and he knows how to cook, surely he can surprise and delight the pesky mechanic.

“Just a warning, though,” Vivi begins, smirking, “Don’t let him see what your making him, or let him know how much it would cost.”

This should be interesting... “Why?”

“Because, I’m ninety percent sure he will simply forward you the dollar amount of the meal.” She shrugs, knowingly however, a story must have been brewing in her stomach, and most likely about him.

Could anyone fault Lewis for thinking that?

“Such as...?”

“To put it simply,” Vivi starts, moving through her purse for her wallet, “I once brought him over and made him this typically really traditional but kinda expensive Japanese meal. He loved it, but he looked up how much it would cost and wound up giving back the cash.” Trailing off, she hums forlorning, “By the way, want me to pay...?”

”No.” Lewis says sternly, glaring almost in his response, switching to a sweet and gentler tone in the next, “I’ll pay for it, this time, okay?”

Vivi nods, standing up and stretching, “Alrighty~ try not to go bankrupt with your tip!” She jokes.

Just because she mentioned it, Lewis made sure the tip was double the amount of the bill. Walking down the street, Lewis kept his gaze glued to the pavement. Drifting from the cracks and weeds in the sidewalk and its progression into a finer and cleaner white concrete. Freshly cut grass tickles his nose, bringing his attention to the stained glass he spent most of his life peering through. 

Finally, Lewis hums, lips pulling into a wide smile as his steps quicken into a jog, and then a run, joyfully bounding down the sidewalk. Instead of rushing in through the front and through the restaurant- something his parents made explicitly clear- he side stepped into the ‘backyard’. The dumpster is a good distance away, and lacking the usual foul smell most other disposal units had. Strange the difference his home had to the inner city restaurants Lewis notes, scanning the area quickly for any active workers, or even employees on their break. No one else was present.

Anxiously excited, Lewis skips up the back porch, taking half a second to admire the freshly blooming flowers of the surrounding gardens. 

“Mama!” Lewis eagerly opens the door, ducking through the door frame and stepping inside, he examines the kitchen. Glancing over the familiar surfaces, decorated and covered with various objects- from the mail divider over the bin to the dishes drying in the rack, to the pictures taped to the fridge with sprawled crayon from Paprika. 

“How cute,” Lewis’s hums, fingertips drifting from surface to surface. Taking note of various new magnets mixed in with the old. Such as a new addition of star magnets- which Lewis can only assume was meant to encourage them. Along the walls was a new collection of scenic imagery, such as snowy lakes and spectacular sunsets. The girls had been showing an interest in painting before he left, hadn’t they? He’s only glad they decided to pursue it.

A bubbling draws his attention to the stove. Ah, someone must be here then, Lewis smiles, lifting the lid and peering into the boiling pot. 

A gasp, “Lewis?”

Papa flies into view, head jutting past the wall, a tired but excited look in his eye. A basket of ripe fruits and veggies is quickly discarded on the table, just before Lewis is pulled into a hug. Hard kisses pressed against his face all over, a squeal rupturing in his ear.

“Lewis! I’m so glad to see you!”

To say he didn’t expect this would have been a bold faced lie. Wrapping both arms around him, Lewis hoists his father up.

“I miss you too,” he says, gaze drifting to the basket of freshly picked veggies and back to the pot, “Is Mama here?”

Papa draws back, lips tight and panic drawing over his face, “She left a moment ago, to go see where you were-!”

Oh no. Its Lewis’s turn to panic, “Ah- is this about the car…?” he tries, wary.

And he was right to be, Papa’s expression shifts, a grimace etched into his face. He steps back, both hands on his hip, and stares at Lewis expectantly, “Not exactly, we were more concerned on why you had taken so long to come back.” Oh, yes that would explain the frequent calls the past few days, only received in remote parts of the area. Lewis stiffens, seeing more just on the brink of his fathers tongue, “But, while we’re on the subject, I would like you to explain yourself.

Lewis sighs, “Vivi and I were taking turns driving, and she fell asleep behind the wheel. We didn’t want to keep you all waiting another night…”

The grimace grows tenfold, “We could understand if you needed to stay the night somewhere, Lewis.” His tone is even more so irate, closer to exasperation. Before Lewis could apologize again, Papa fished his phone from his back pocket, “Give me on sec- Hello darling!”

Lewis watches him trail out of the kitchen, smiling cheerfully and speaking clearly to Mama- “Yes, he just arrived.. yes, it was a sleeping accident.”

Resigning to the night of scolding he will most likely receive, he sighs. Just as a smaller presence creeps up behind him.

“Hi Lewis,” shove, Lewis stumbles a small bit, head whipping back to see a slightly taller version of-

“Belle!” His arms open to scoop her up in a hug- but her arm waved him away.

“Give me a minute.” She hisses under her breath, “Mom’ll be home soon, I gotta make sure this gets done.” Coughing into her arm, she sends Lewis a look, “Uh.. how was school?”

The twinge of awkwardness that seems to completely surround him makes Lewis hesitate. His mouth opens for a short moment, but quickly closes, “It went well. I’ll elaborate more later, would you like some help?”

“No, I’m fine.” He’s shut down faster than he thought he would. Huh, since when did she become so irritable? Perhaps teenage hormones..? He remembered being bad when he was small, … for the most part.

Shifting away, Lewis shuffles out of the kitchen, not wanting to give himself a chance to dwell on the ambiguous and faulty memories he always had, “Alright, I’ll leave you to it then. If you need anything, I’ll be here.” Barely getting a mhm in response, Lewis sighs and slinks off to his room.

His room is clean, completely dusted and the bed made perfectly. Everything was in it’s perfect place - Surely his mother’s doing. Taking it in, Lewis could hardly tell that it was still his, considering the one he had in the dorm rooms- plain white walls with two crosses, while his desk took the brunt of his anxiety and stress.

But here? It seemed as if it was just as carefree as he was before he left. Leaving Lewis with a ball of awkwardness welling inside his stomach. That, or anxiety, considering his Mother will be home soon. With enough scoldings to boot.

Grimacing, Lewis falls against his bed, collapsing against the pillow. He missed them a lot.

In retrospect, driving like that was far from safe, and it would have been much better to stay the night somewhere. He would’ve come home the next day to hugs and kisses and an attempted pat on the head, and then he would be able to focus on what was truly important.

Not… Arthur.

Scowling, Lewis twists himself over and folds the pillow over his head. Squeezing wouldn’t do a thing at all, he knew that! Repeating to himself that he needs to pay more attention to his family, his studies, and not a mechanic who shamelessly paid off his entire car bill an-

Gosh… darnit. Sighing, Lewis shoves the pillow aside, biting his lip and sagging even more. He missed them, dearly even. A pang of guilt hitting him. How on earth did he forget about his parents, his family? He was thinking of them the entire way back and for a majority of the semester, and then they slip his mind from a single encounter with him-

Lewis physically cringes.

Perhaps he should make something, as an apology for them. At the very least his parents. That car was under their name, and yet he went and smashed it.

And yet, for one reason or another, he offered to help. And then did, with no input from him on the matter.

Who was he…?

There’s a tornado of thoughts swarming his brain, each one revolving around him. The one person he didn’t want to think about anymore.

Arthur Kingsmen, a mechanic working under the head- who in turn was his uncle. He has a reputation of extreme charitability and generosity, doing things that astounded others in how much it helped, with little self benefit. An admirable trait, he’d admit. A trait that grew increasingly more infuriating for Lewis. Even if that hardly made sense.

Even more nonsensical- Arthur claimed it was because he came from a good family. What did that mean? Was he well acquainted buddy of his parents that he missed? Someone new who spent a lot of time with them while Lewis was away? A stalke- No. That’s just ridiculous, Lewis. Don’t demonize him for helping you. The angel on Lewis’s shoulder yelled.

He’s just a nice guy.

Laying back, Lewis mindlessly stares at the ceiling. Going back and forth on what was wrong with him right now? He doesn’t normally get so fixated on people, and never really for anything that made him angry! Small crushes, fascinating professors- even Vivi was the apple of his eye when he first met her. So why Arthur? Because he essentially took a huge debt of his shoulders? …. Anyone would be thrilled for this, and yet it detested him. Preposterous!

Just be thankful that you’re home, Lewis. When mom comes home, you and her will have a talk, and then you can spend as much time as you want with your little sisters. Father and Belle must have missed him, and yet he’s holed up in his room.

Sliding off his bed, Lewis creeps closer to the door, hyper aware of the creaks of the floor, and even more aware of the small sounds outside of his bedroom door. You shouldn’t be this nervous. Lewis reminds himself again and again, resisting the urge to press his ear to the door to listen for anything out of the ordinary. Lacing his extraordinarily large fingers around the doorknob, he gently opens it and steps out, padding down the hall to the living room.

Belle is lounging on the couch, engrossed in the documentary on physics she was watching (How interesting!) whilst glancing to the kitchen every few seconds.

Furrowing his eyebrows, Lewis glances up to the clock, and back down at her. A thought bubbling suspiciously, “Belle, what are you doing home? Shouldn’t you be in school?”

Belle flinches at his voice, a similar attribute she kept over the year, and twists around to look at him. Hm, and he thought Cayenne was the only one with an attitude.

She responds bluntly, “I had a fever last week, so they haven’t let me leave the house.” With that, she stands up and stretches dramatically, adding, “I’m only cooking because I’m hungry. I managed to convince Papi to let me buy some ramen~ so I’m going to enjoy trashing my stomach.”

“Huh, and I thought I had a drop in diet quality.”

Belle spins on her heel, the smallest pout in her face as she walks in, “Ya, sure. Makes sense that the good and holy Lew- Lew only made sure to get the HEALTHIEST of food. And Horton hears a bitch-ass liar.” the last of it comes out in a flurry of a whisper.

Gasping, Lewis spins his head around to see if his Papa was standing over their shoulders, just in case. Although for her to be saying that, they had to be in the clear. “I could smack you, Belle.”

”Do it.”

There was no way he could simply go and smack his little sister.

But he can to a brat.

He follows after her, ducking under the archway, and quickly bops her cheek. Not enough to hurt badly, but similar enough time show that he isn’t accepting of those words out of her mouth. Belle, not turning away from her pot of instant garbage noodles, slams her elbow back into him- tries to at least.

“Hey-!”

Lewis smirks back at her, filling a glass with water and sipping lightly, “What? You earned it.”

Face twisted, Belle opens her mouth like she was about to retaliate, but slumps with a huff, “I was hoping college would eradicate your third parent syndrome. That’s suppose to be my thing.”

“The only reason it wasn’t was because I didn’t want you to grow up too quickly,” Lewis admitted, shrugging, “Besides, I still am your older sister.”

“Sometimes,” Belle points out, and it looked like she was ready to point something else out before Lewis patted her head in a completely patronizing way.

“On weekends and some Wednesdays,” Lewis chuckles, “regardless, I have a guilty conscious if I don’t ever help out.”

“Well you took away our jobs around the house.” Belle says, tearing open the packet of powdered broth, “You want bratty sisters, Lewis? That’s how you get em.”

“Well, Mama will be there to ensure that doesn’t happen.” Lewis takes another sip of his drink to hold up the air of “sophistication” as Belle rolls her eyes.

And right on cue, the door opens, familiar footsteps walking in and an air of dread slamming Lewis directly in the stomach. “Mama-!” He rushes past Belle, who he faintly heard mention that he’s in trouble~ as he went in and faced the beast.

The piercing gaze is the only that stops Lewis in his tracks, and any apology he had in his throat, now uncomfortably sitting in his throat.

“Good morning, Lewis,” She hangs up her purse, expression stony, only shifting to a soft smile as she wrapped his arms around him, “I missed you.”

Frozen, Lewis took a moment to adjust to the sweet gesture, wrapping his arms around her shoulders, “I missed you too, Mama.”

“Now sit down,” Her expression turns a silvery cold, and Lewis knew in the way she distances herself that he was in trouble. Complete with folded arms and a signature glare.

Any apology he had suddenly felt inadequate.

“Would you like to have this conversation in your room?” His mother asks coldly, and Lewis barely notices that her knuckles were almost bulging from how tense they were.

“Uh-“ he stumbles, more stiff than he has been in his entire life, meekly murmuring, “my room, please.”

“Follow me.”

Lewis could have sworn he was walking to his death bed. The walk was nearly a blur, and he could only imagine what she would say when they finally closed his bedroom door.

“Sit down, let me get a proper look at you.”

… That wasn’t exactly it, but close enough.

Lewis ungracefully plops down on his bed, ruffling the blankets and clenching his knees tightly together. Hands unsurely moving from squeezing the fabric or his own fingers. Eventually he settled for clasping his hands together. Slouched- until Mama gave him a look.

Hands press against his cheek, fingers drifting from his cheekbones to his forehead to his chin in a way that’s both intensive and gentle. One of her palms holds his jaw and face steady, while she scanned every part of him delicately.

He was expecting a stern talking to, not… not this. Surely he earned a punishment for his irresponsibility, and yet she’s looking him over like she looked over Cayenne and Belle whenever they took a tumble in their earlier years. The shock must have been evident when she began prodding his knee. Mama quirks an eyebrow.

“Yes, Lewis? Is something the matter?”

Lewis stumbles over his words, “A-.. I just- I didn’t think you..”

The corner of her mouth curls into a smirk, and she pays his hair, “One of my children got into an accident- a severe one at that. I’m only doing what is right,” Her face softens a tad, before taking a seat beside him, “Since you haven’t been escorted to the hospital, I wanted to make sure nothing else was wrong. No pulled nerves? Any sprains? I would like to know now so that way we can ensure you live happily.”

He shouldn’t be as moved (and confused) as he was. Of course. Of course she wanted to make sure he was okay! A twang of regret and guilt for doubting her twitches in his stomach, along with a plethora of unsavory emotions.

Then, with a sigh of what Lewis can only assume is relief, she continues, “Your father informed me what had happened. That you came home sleep deprived to see us faster. Is that correct?”

No matter what he said, the guilt burrowing in his stomach would worsen. He nods, haphazardly, “That’s partially true. Vivi was sleeping a majority of the way and she offered to drive home. But while I was asleep, she had fallen asleep behind the wheel.” The more and more he recounts this, it feels like he was accusing her more and more. With that in mind, he quickly tacks on, “Of course- she did suggest that we stop and sleep, but I figured it would have been easier to drive the final stretch-“

Mama nods solemnly, pressing her fingers against her lip- something she did when she was lost in thought- “I see. If that is the case then I’m glad to know that only that car was damaged and neither of you two.”

Gripping the sheets, he waits for her eventual added answer, there always was one. Something to reaffirm her suspicions or what Lewis could do as “punishment”.

Finally, she stands up, not before turning to him, and he faintly recognizes the glimmer in her eye, “I’d like to hear that this never happens again. And while it is being graciously handled by Arthur, I’d like you to extend your help to him for the remainder of your break.”

”What-?” he says breathlessly, shoving himself up. Wait- how did she-?

Mama quirks the smallest smile, “Well, considering he is going out of his way to ensure you will still have a vehicle before you return to school, I believe it is the least you can do to make it up to him.”

He stands there dumbfounded, hands hovering in front of him like he was about to grab something. Unamusedly, Mama watches him carefully.

“Yes? Is there an issue, Lewis? Offering your assistance for the summer is a suitable enough repayment, even more so now that he is helping you like this.”

“How-? How did you kn-“ she must have spoken to him, of course she would know that he is both paying off his car bill, as well as- “I mean.. you’re- you’re okay with him doing that?” He asks finally, tripping over his words.

“Of course I am,” she said matter of factly, flicking her finger to have him follow her out, “I figured he would have done something like this when he called. He’s always been this way.”

“Yes- but he’s a total str-“

“Speaking of Arthur,” she either didn’t catch what he was about to say, or elected to ignore it, turning to him pointedly, “You have thanked him for his generosity, correct?”

“Well- I-“ Lewis’s head swam with more thought than he could tread through, “Of course I did, but-“

She nods curtly, making her way to the kitchen, “Perhaps you can do so again when he comes over later.”

Coming over when? Lewis freezes, eyebrows knitting anxiously, “What?”

“Yes,” she responds smoothly, brushing a hand over Belles head and going into the kitchen, “I was going to bake him something for him. Have him over tonight. We were all planning for you to be home tomorrow, so nothing is fully prepared yet. However, it would be nice to have a friend over before that.”

A friend? Since when? He wanted to ask, but his words catch in his throat, and she’s already positioned in the kitchen beside the sink, clearing away the dirty dishes that had accumulated.

She glances over at him, nodding to the covers, “Please pull out the flour and eggs for me?”

Lewis did as he was told, blankly as he combs through his thoughts for an excuse- or anything that would soothe the anguish rushing over him in pounding torrents.

“... I’m still concerned on why he did it..” he admits, pulling out a large bowl to pour the necessary materials, “I don’t know why! He just- said he would pay it off..” he bites his lip, unsure if he had the mere right to say this after his mother sung the mans praises, “I’m honestly peeved over it.”

Mama straightens as he said that, pursing her lips, “Why is that?”

“I just.. I don’t know why he did! It was far from necessary.” Arthur wasn’t his friend. The two didn’t know each other. Although it was apparent his parents knew him, all the more startling. Mama didn’t respond, humming.

Glancing over his shoulder, Lewis chews on his lip, knowing fully well that she was aware of his peculiar issues.

“Perhaps prepare him something. Cake.”

“Cake?” Would he even like that..?

“In fact,” his mother continues, maybe having noticed his odd and troubled expression, “I’m sure he would appreciate anything from you, even if it was a rock.”

Lewis frowns, picking through his thoughts, “Then-.. what flavor do you think he’d like?” He asks, only to get a shrug in return- something his mother never did.

“It’s been a long while, so I’m unsure.” She said, turning to him with a faint smile decorating her face, with the smallest hint of mischief, “Would you like to take over preparations?”

Three seconds pass, but Lewis had to take one look at her face to know that she wanted him to make it. Sighing, he nods, “Sure. I can do that. Any idea what time he would arrive..?”

Mama smiles, and steps past him, pulling vanilla extract from the covers, “He gets off work at around six, so I wouldn’t doubt it that he’d arrive anywhere from half after until eight.”

Glancing at the clock, Lewis nods. He had plenty of time. At least he could make up for the damage.. in the little ways he could.

What sort of cake should he make then..? Lewis runs over the various types of cake, humming to himself. Vanilla, chocolate, banana, pumpkin, red velvet, carrot, marble, coffee..

Carrot, popping into his mind like the mechanic himself, Lewis could only frown at how the thought refused to settle. Imagining how well it seemed to match the pesky mechanic.

He better like it. Lewis nearly hisses, Or so help me god.

A laugh pulls Lewis out of his thoughts, drawing him back to his mother leaving the kitchen, “You’re lucky your father hadn’t begun preparing anything with the oven, Lewis. Now while you’re doing that, I’ll be leaving to pick up your sisters.” For barely a minute, he wondered if Vivi would taunt him for his apparent lie of his sisters needing to be picked up from “school.” But before he could think of an ‘excuse’, (more like explanation that his abuela was their teacher)

But with the shut of the front door, Mama was gone. Leaving him with his task.

Taking a deep breath, Lewis set off to work.

#mystery skulls animated #msa #mystery skulls fanfic #msa fanfic #Lewis pepper #Mrs pepper #belle pepper #Pay it forward #Genderfluid lewis #trans lewis #My work #My fanfic #eage fanfic

[thiswomanshouldbewriting]

A Tale of Magic - Chapter 4 (Sons)

In the past, Belle has to deal with an unexpected development. In Storybrooke, father-son relationships will move things forward.

As always, thanks to my wonderful beta @galactic-pirates.

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Ao3 link. 

As the weeks passed, life found a new, pleasant rhythm inside and around the Evil Queen’s castle. Snow and David were doing a great job at organizing things so that everyone’s skills were put to good use; camps were cultivated under Tiny’s expert supervision, Marco coordinated the construction of new houses, and Regina’s magic was turning out to be a real blessing, especially when Blue refused to offer help with some issues. It was Regina who had to turn Archie back into a human when the fairy refused to do so.

“I turned him into a cricket to give him another chance at being free and, most importantly, being good. To turn him back would mean taking away the lesson he learned on that day,” was her only explanation.

Blue also resented the fact that several dwarves, beside Snow’s seven old friends, had decided to help around the castle rather than go back to the mines. The decrease in the production of fairy dust only seemed to irritate her more, making it even harder to obtain help from her, but aside from Blue’s sour mood things were going nicely.

Even Belle had been assigned to her dream occupation. She was now in charge of Regina’s old library, with the added duty of collecting and recording all of the knowledge that they had acquired through their cursed memories. She had been given a list of every person who had come to the castle, and she had noted beside everyone the fields in which they were knowledgeable. It was a pity that Whale had gone back to his old world, and not just because Ruby missed him terribly; medical knowledge had been way more advanced in the Land Without Magic, and it was definitely one of their highest priorities. Thankfully, a bunch of nurses had come over, giving her a place to start.

She went to talk to the first one early one morning, bringing parchment and ink down to the infirmary, so that nurse Lewis, Charlotte, could still be available if there was an emergency. Everything was going nicely, and Belle already had three sheets of parchment full of notes, when the other woman started cleaning something with alcohol. The pungent smell went straight to Belle’s stomach, and a second later she was fighting the need to throw up.

“I’m sorry,” she said as soon as she was able to talk again. “I haven’t been feeling well these past few weeks, and strong smells really don’t help.”

There was a curious look on the nurse’s face.

“For how long exactly? Why didn’t you say something sooner?” she asked.

“I don’t know, I guess since shortly after we came back to the Enchanted Forest. I just didn’t pay much attention at first because, well… my True Love had just died. Feeling sick was basically a constant state for me,” Belle explained. God, it still hurt so much to say it.

“My condolences,” Charlotte said immediately. “Look, I know this might be too blunt and possibly a shock for you, but have you considered the possibility that you might be pregnant?”

It took Belle several seconds to fully grasp the meaning of her words.

“No,” she said instinctively, without even thinking. “No, I can’t be, it’s not possible…”

But it was. Her voice trailed off as the realization hit her. She had been so caught up in her grief that she had missed all the signs: the sickness, her missing period, even her sudden and strange craving for lemon cakes. Her head started spinning, and she sat down heavily on the closest bed.

“I mean, it’s just a thought, you’re not certainly pregnant,” Charlotte said, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder.

Belle shook her head. She might not have considered the possibility until then, but now she felt in her heart that it was the truth. She was pregnant. She was going to have Rumplestiltskin’s child, and she didn’t know if that made her feel better or worse. Now a part of Rumplestiltskin would always be with her, and their love would live on in the new life they had created together. Yet their child would never know its father, nor would she ever see Rumplestiltskin’s eyes lit up as he held his child for the first time. Images of the life they could have had flashed before her eyes, and knowing that they’d never become real felt like losing Rumplestiltskin all over again.

Neal was the first person she told about it. He was very surprised, then sympathetic, and eventually he managed to make her laugh by quipping about having always wanted to be a big brother. She had lost Rumple, but his children were still here, and she’d do her damnedest to take care of them as Rumple would have. Even though she had no idea where to start.

**********

By the time Neal and Henry arrived in Storybrooke, they had been attacked two more times. Emma and Regina were waiting for them at the townline, ready to fight off any other monkeys. Zelena’s beasts tried to keep anyone from leaving town, but coming back in was easier, as Emma herself had seen. Better safe than sorry, Emma thought, even though her magic was still quite unreliable. Regina was trying to teach her, but Emma was turning out to be quite a difficult student. She was full of potential, but she had trouble channeling her emotions into her spells. Emma would never admit it, but she suspected that part of her struggle was due to the fact that, deep down, she still hadn’t accepted all this magic craziness. She had started to after Henry ate that poisoned turnover, but he was the believer in the family, not her. After nine months back in the real world, with its normal problems, Storybrooke felt like nonsense. Dangerous nonsense. Back in New York, bills were her major problem. Now that magic was back in her life, the stakes had risen so much; she wasn’t struggling to make ends meet anymore, she was fighting to keep her family alive. Even though she knew this was technically her world, a part of her couldn’t help but long for the calm of her old life.

Henry rushed to hug her as soon as the car was safely across the townline, immediately making her mood lighter. Magic or not, she felt infinitely better with Henry in her arms. Neal came to hug her next, while Henry awkwardly shook hands with Regina. Emma could see the pain in her eyes at not being recognized by her own son, but there was nothing she could do about it. As much as it pained Regina to admit it, even she had agreed that it wasn’t wise to tell Henry that he’d actually been abandoned as a newborn. His world had just been turned upside down, and the last thing he needed was another shock, especially now that he knew he was in danger.

Neal decided to go back to his father’s house, to check on Belle and hopefully get some sleep. To Emma’s surprise, Henry hugged him before saying goodbye, even if he was somewhat awkward.

“I’ll see you tomorrow Neal… I mean dad, I mean… what do you want me to call you?” Henry asked, confused. Every word felt wrong on his tongue.

“It’s alright, you can still call me Neal if you want,” Neal reassured him immediately. “But should you feel like it, then call me ‘Papa’. It’s what I always called my father.”

Henry nodded, clearly more at ease, and Emma burned with curiosity. She wanted to know more about this sudden change in Henry and Neal’s relationship, but she didn’t want to pressure her son. She was pretty sure he wouldn’t keep silent about it for long anyway.

“I hit that monkey in the face, you know? Twice!” Henry said enthusiastically after they had parted from Regina as well.

“I hope the monkey didn’t do the same to you,” Emma replied, torn between pride and worry.

“Nope. It did try, but Neal always stopped it. He saved me, more than once. Not that I wasn’t able to take care of myself, but Neal helped. A lot,” Henry babbled, still high on adrenaline.

“I’m glad that you two are on better terms now. I’m sorry I had to leave you with him, especially when you didn’t trust him, but things have a tendency to go downhill pretty quickly in Storybrooke,” Emma explained.

“Because of magic?” Henry asked, still not quite able to believe it. “It’s all true then? Fairytale characters are real and a curse brought them here?”

“Yes. Crazy, right?” Emma said, smiling as she remembered the time when she had been the skeptical one.

“Neal said there are things from the past that we don’t remember. That our memories were erased and that we had met him before. That’s why you changed your mind about him?” he asked her. He didn’t think Neal could have come out with such an absurd explanation just to trick him, but he needed confirmation that his story and his mother’s matched.

“Yes. When we met him again, in the months you have forgotten, I discovered that there was a reason why he had left me alone. Not a great reason, but still better than him just wanting to run away with the money. He has been trying very hard to make it up to us, and he loves you very much,” Emma confirmed.

“I think he loves you as well. He gets emotional whenever he talks about you,” Henry said, curious at what his mother’s reaction would be.

“Maybe he does, but right now we don’t have time for that,” Emma brushed the matter off. “I’m more focused on getting your memory back and keeping you safe. We still don’t know what exactly that witch wants from all of us.”

Her attempt to change the subject was way too obvious to be missed. Henry wasn’t sure of what he thought of that, but he would surely keep a closer eye on his parents from now on. There was definitely a lot going on there.

**********

Ever since she had told the others that she was pregnant, Belle had hardly been left alone for a moment. There was always someone fussing over her, even more so than when she was ‘just’ grieving. She appreciated it, she truly did, but from time to time she felt the need to be alone with her thoughts, and the night was perfect for that. When she woke up from a nightmare - which was a common occurrence for her - she often saw no point in lying awake in the dark when there was no one to calm her and hold her as she fell back to sleep. So she got dressed and wandered through the castle, oftentimes ending up in the courtyard; she loved the flowers that grew there, and there was something bittersweet and soothing in looking up at the sky and wondering if Rumple was looking down at her from wherever he was.

That night, however, the courtyard wasn’t empty when she reached it. Regina was already sitting on one of the benches, and she turned around with a start when she heard Belle approaching.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you,” Belle apologized immediately, already turning her back on the other woman to walk away. She didn’t feel like talking, especially not with Regina.

“No, wait, I actually wanted to talk to you,” Regina said after a second, as if she had been debating whether to speak or not.

Belle sighed, her back still turned to the queen. She could simply walk away; they weren’t friends by any means, after all, and she was tired. Yet being so rude really went against her nature, and she supposed she could just hear what this was about and leave if the whole thing got uncomfortable. She walked towards the bench, reminding herself that this wasn’t the same woman who had imprisoned her and erased her personality at least twice.

“What do you want, Regina?” she asked, her voice coming out just a tad more annoyed than she had meant it to. If Regina noticed, she didn’t let it show.

“I just want you to know that I’m sorry for all that you’re going through. I didn’t say it before, but I really mean it,” Regina said somewhat awkwardly. “Losing your True Love is terrible, and you didn’t deserve this. Probably nobody does.”

Belle could see the honesty in Regina’s eyes, and she really wished she could simply accept her condolences and walk away, but something about her choice of words really set her off. She had been building up tension, grief and anger for so long, and suddenly something inside of her snapped.

“Then why did you do your damnedest to put me and Rumplestiltskin through that kind of pain over and over again?” she asked, her voice already cracking with tears. “Why should I listen to you when your scheming took away so much of the limited time I had with Rumple? You’ve done nothing but mentally and physically torture me ever since we’ve known each other!”

Regina was taken aback by her outburst, but the quick flash of indignation in her eyes died straight away to be replaced by guilt.

“I’m sorry,” she said after a beat of silence. “I truly am. I know I did horrible things to you, and you didn’t deserve them.”

She was a new person now, or at least she was trying to be, but it was so much harder in the Enchanted Forest, where everything and everyone seemed to remind her of her past.

“Thank you,” Belle deadpanned. “Look, I had to let this out sooner or later, but I really don’t want to fight. You’ve hurt me, and this apology was long overdue, but I’m willing to try and move past that now that you’re changing,” she added, her tone turning more conciliating.

“You know, in a way I actually admire you,” Regina blurted out, surprising even herself for having said it out loud. Belle looked quizzically at her, so she went on.

“I admire you because you have a strength I never had. You are willing to forgive people no matter how much they’ve hurt you, and despite everything that life - or I, for that matter - threw at you, you didn’t let it change you. Darkness is a slippery slope, and you’ve always managed to keep yourself away from it,” Regina explained.

“Is it truly a big deal if I’ve never even been tempted?” Belle asked, a small smile finally forming on her face. Try as she might, she had never truly seen the appeal of darkness. When things went south, she was prone to blaming herself, and that was something that no amount of dark magic could fix. “Maybe it’s people like you and Rumplestiltskin who deserve the most praise,” she went on “Those who were tempted and fell into the pit, and then fought tooth and nail to get out of it.”

Regina looked even more shocked by her understanding than she had been by her accusations, and flashed Belle a bittersweet smile.

“That child is very lucky to have you as its mother. Motherhood is Rumplestiltskin’s last gift to you, and believe me when I say it’s the best gift you’ll ever receive. It surely was for me,” Regina said, then she stood up and teleported away, vanishing into the night before Belle even had the time to wish her goodnight.

Belle sat on that bench for several more minutes, pondering the other woman’s words, one hand on her still flat belly. She hadn’t expected Regina to apologize, let alone to compliment her. If only she felt as strong as the other woman had said; as far as she could tell, Belle had merely been a spectator in her own life recently. From being used and tossed around as a pawn by everyone who wanted to get back at Rumple, to being literally frozen in place as her True Love died, to finally this pregnancy, which was wanted but definitely unplanned; she hadn’t chosen anything. That was the first thing she needed to fix if she wanted to give her child their best chance; she needed to be stronger, to stand up for herself like she had done today with Regina. She needed to do it, no matter how hard it was, because now it wasn’t just herself that she needed to protect.

**********

Neal was exhausted after the long drive from New York to Storybrooke, and he was glad that the situation in town was still calm enough to allow him to get some sleep. The peace, however, was short lived. When he woke up, Belle informed him that there had been strange sightings in the woods during the night.

“A cloaked figure was spotted by several people on patrol duty, and those that tried to get closer to it were either teleported away or thrown to the ground with magic,” she said over breakfast, pushing her food around her plate. “No one was seriously hurt, but everyone thinks that this is a sign that Zelena is moving. They are trying to find out who is under the cloak, but not even Ruby seems able to follow its trail.”

“Do you think it’s my father under the cloak?” Neal asked cautiously.

Belle sighed, setting her plate aside altogether. “I think it’s very likely. This cloaked figure isn’t even attacking us, it’s just going around ominously. I think it’s just a diversion, and what better diversion than to have us chase someone only to discover we can’t and won’t hurt him?”

“Have you told Snow about this?”

“Yes, I have, but she still thinks we ought to track it down, and I agree. If it’s not Rumple, maybe we can learn something more about the witch’s plan. If it’s him… at least we can know how he’s doing,�� she said, twisting her napkin in her hands.

Under any other circumstances, she would have been out there looking for him herself. Zelena was controlling him through the dagger, but she already knew that her and Rumple’s love was stronger than his curse; if there was someone who could help him break free of the dagger’s hold, it was her. Maybe Neal could as well, but while she was sure that there was True Love between Rumple and his son, she also thought that their relationship was still too tentative to fight such powerful dark magic. Yet she couldn’t go trek in the woods this far along in her pregnancy, especially not when she knew that Zelena was coming after her baby.

“What really worries me isn’t that Snow and the others are tracking him down,” Belle added after a moment. “It’s that I don’t know what kind of orders that witch is giving him. What if she forces him to do something horrible, something he’ll have trouble forgiving himself for?”

Rumplestiltskin had been her prisoner for months now, and Belle only had the faintest idea of what she had been forcing him to do in that time. Every extra minute he spent under her control could be the one in which she made him cross the line, assuming she hadn’t already.

“Hey, he hasn’t had to cause any real harm so far, let’s focus on that. We will free him, I promise,” Neal reassured her.

“If only we had more time…” Belle murmured, caressing her large belly. Her son could be born any moment now, and Zelena would come for him. She had no idea of what would happen next, and she hoped she’d never find out.

“I know, and that’s why I’m going out to help Emma search the woods. I promise I’ll do anything to protect you and my little brother,” he said, smiling reassuringly at her.

He hugged her, then he left the pink mansion, stopping by his father’s shop to retrieve his old saber. Then he called Emma and they agreed to meet at the townline.

“Henry gave me hell this morning. He realized that something was wrong and kept insisting on coming with me. I left him with Granny, at least I know that someone is keeping an eye on him and he isn’t sneaking around and putting himself in harm’s way,” Emma told him as they started trekking through the woods.

“Yes, he definitely has a talent for that. I guess he takes after both of us,” Neal said, preferring to focus on the comical aspect of the whole thing rather than dwell on how much danger their son was in.

“It must run in your family. After all, your father is the one who decided to break into your apartment when we came looking for you in New York,” Emma observed.

“Are you telling me I should get my baby brother some lock-picking tools already?” Neal asked, chuckling.

Emma laughed with him, but their hilarity was short-lived. A shadow moved amidst the trees to their right, and they immediately ran after it. The cloaked figure waved a hand; Emma was engulfed by purple smoke and disappeared. Neal looked at the spot where she had been until a moment before, paralyzed by fear.

She has just been poofed away, he told himself. She’s fine, probably on the other side of town, but unharmed. He turned back, anger making him bold.

“What did you do to her?” he screamed, then launched himself at the cloaked figure, determined to find out who it really was, and possibly get some answers.

He shouldn’t have bothered; his opponent, instead of trying to run away as he’d expected, slowly raised his arms to lower his hood. When Neal saw who he was fighting against, Neal stopped dead in his tracks, his stomach in knots.

Belle had been right. The mysterious figure was indeed Rumplestiltskin, but only in part. There was very little of his papa in the deranged eyes of the imp in front of him. There was no fondness in his gaze, no torment over being controlled, no sign that he even realized who he was fighting against. His skin was once again covered in scales, his eyes reptilian and inhuman, and Neal felt as though one of his nightmares had just come to life.

The imp giggled maniacally as a sword materialized in its hands, and Neal wiped his clammy hands on his trousers as he realized that he’d have to fight the worst incarnation of his father. He didn’t know what had happened to him; his hope was that Zelena was simply forcing him to be like this to upset her enemies, but a part of Neal couldn’t help but fear that, after being imprisoned for so long, his father had simply succumbed to the curse.

He was so lost in his own fear that he almost failed to block Rumplestiltskin’s first attack. His instinct kicked in at the last moment, and the fight began. Even without using magic, Rumplestiltskin proved himself a great swordsman, and Neal soon found himself struggling against him, fatigue starting to slow down his movements while his father seemed unaffected, the curse providing him an unfair advantage. The situation was made even more difficult by the fact that Neal just wasn’t thinking clearly. Seeing his father like this had brought him back to his fourteenth birthday, awakening a fear he had thought long gone, and that was making it hard to concentrate on the fight. He felt despair starting to creep in; he couldn’t win this fight, he couldn’t stop Rumplestiltskin, he couldn’t run away. He was alone and alone he’d die. He thought of Henry, who was just starting to let him in again, and who didn’t deserve to grow up without a father. He thought of Rumplestiltskin, who would never forgive himself for harming his son while he was under the dagger’s influence. He thought of Belle, who had already gone through so much, and who would be devastated at losing him. Lastly, he thought of Emma, and of how he would leave her alone again.

Rumplestiltskin attacked him, and the sheer force of his blow was enough to make the saber fly out of Neal’s hands. Disarmed and defeated, Neal took a step back, his back colliding with a tree. That was it then. He would be killed by his own father, by the man he had loved and feared the most. Rumplestiltskin roughly grabbed him by the neck, and Neal closed his eyes, bracing himself for the worst.

It was in that moment that an anguished scream echoed through the forest.

“Papa NO!” Henry yelled, bursting out from behind the trees, Emma, Regina and Granny trailing right behind him.

Papa. Papa. Papa. The word kept bouncing around Rumplestiltskin’s brain, becoming louder and louder, drowning out the voices in his head. He doubled over, cradling his head in his own hands and letting Neal go.

Neal rushed to hug his son, both terrified and relieved to have him here.

“Rumplestiltskin teleported me back to the loft,” Emma explained. “Henry refused to let me come back alone, and I didn’t have time to argue. I called Regina and she poofed us back here.”

Neal nodded in understanding, then he turned around to look at his father again. Rumplestiltskin looked confused, even more deranged than before, but there was something human in his distress, something that hadn’t been there before. He had dropped his sword to the ground, and  was eyeing them curiously. After a beat of silence, a single word escaped his lips.

“Bae.”

Neal stood paralyzed for a moment, almost not daring to believe it.

“Papa? You remember me?” Neal asked, taking a few tentative steps in his father’s direction.

That word again. Papa. Images flashed before Rumplestiltskin’s eyes, making the present more confusing but the past more clear. The tiny hand of a newborn touching his nose. A thin, fragile kid asking him why his mother wasn’t coming home. A boy screaming at him that he was a coward. A grown man hugging him and telling him he was nothing like Peter Pan. And above all, that word repeated over and over again: Papa. Rumplestiltskin staggered forward, towards the man he had been fighting until a few moments ago. He didn’t want to hurt him anymore. He couldn’t. He shouldn’t.

But you have to, another voice resonated in his head, a vicious whisper that made his skin crawl. Fight him, scare him, be his nightmare, the voice went on, and Rumplestiltskin watched in horror as his hands moved against his own volition, working magic he didn’t want to perform. Everyone but Neal was paralyzed, and Rumplestiltskin grabbed his sword again, as Neal hurried to retrieve his saber. This time, however, there was no fear in Neal’s eyes.

“I know you’re in there. I know you can hear me. I don’t want to hurt you,” Neal said as his father attacked him again. Rumplestiltskin’s movements were slower now, his hands trembling; Neal hoped it was a sign that he was trying to stop himself.

“I know you’re being forced to do this. I know you’d never try to hurt me, as I know you’re not the monster I once feared you were turning into. I’m not scared of you anymore, I’m not scared of the darkness anymore,” Neal insisted, as his father walked backwards, blocking his attacks with increasing difficulty.

Rumplestiltskin looked relieved when his sword finally slipped from his grip, falling to the ground. He looked at his son, struggling to quiet all the voices in his mind, to clear the fog just long enough to say something. He knew there was something important he needed to tell him, many important things actually, but he couldn’t for his life make out what those were.

“I’m sorry,” was all he managed to murmur in the end. Then he vanished in a puff of smoke, Neal’s saber disappearing with him. Emma and the others were freed from his spell, and Neal rushed to their side.

“I was so scared for you,” Henry screamed, all but jumping in his arms.

“It’s okay, I’m alright,” Neal reassured him. “I don’t like the idea of you running around and putting yourself in harm’s way, but I have to admit that I probably wouldn’t have made it without you. Hearing you call me ‘Papa’ gave me strength.”

“Hey, I think I showed you on our way here that we work better as a team; plus I just found you, I’m not going to let some crazy monster take you away right now,” Henry said,  almost embarrassed by his own display of affection. Just yesterday he had barely tolerated Neal’s presence, and now here he was, already calling him Papa. True, they had spent several hours just saving each other over and over again, but there was more to it. He knew that they had met during the months that he couldn’t remember, and he was sure that some part of those memories had been preserved; nothing else could explain the deep, visceral trust that he now felt towards his father, together with a great sense of belonging. He might not remember the time they’d spent together, but that didn’t make it any less real, and some part of him knew it.

Neal’s emotional rollercoaster wasn’t over yet. He had been utterly terrified, then conquered one of his greatest fears, and now his son was beaming up at him in pride, and he felt almost giddy with happiness. He leaned down to press a kiss on Henry’s forehead, hoping that he wasn’t overstepping, just desperate to let his son know how much he meant to him.

That’s when a burst of magic rippled from his lips, sweeping over the town in the form of a rainbow. The curse was broken, and Neal looked flabbergasted at his son while Henry staggered under the flood of memories.

“Papa!” he screamed again, wrapping his arms tighter around Neal. “I remember everything!”

Then he spotted Regina looking almost disbelievingly at him.

“Mom!” he said, running over to her.

Regina felt as though her heart had finally started beating again. She wrapped Henry in her arms, immediately noticing how much taller he had grown during the past nine months. Tears welled up in her eyes, but for once she didn’t mind; she had her son back, and for a moment Zelena didn’t look like much of a threat. So long as Henry was by her side, she felt she could do anything.

**********

Rumplestiltskin poofed back into the cabin, his head still swirling in confusion as his aspect turned human again.  

“You did a great job,” Zelena complimented him as he staggered back into his cage, shying away from the dagger that she held against him. “I got everything I wanted, and even more.”

She had sent Rumplestiltskin out to collect a token of Neal’s courage, and the saber with which he defeated his greatest fear fit the description perfectly. What she hadn’t expected was a clue on how to get Rumplestiltskin out of his madness.

“Soon enough you’ll be fully sane again, and then you’ll see how wrong you were all those years ago. I want to see the despair in your face when you realize you should have chosen me,” she hissed at him, watching with satisfaction as fear glimmered in his eyes.

Zelena cackled as she walked away: like everyone else, Rumplestiltskin had just no idea of how much worse things were going to get.

#Rumbelle #Swanfire #Rumbelle fic #Ouat AU #Rumbelle AU #A Tale of Magic #Sara writes #Sara talks

[ellie-mayflower]

How did Vettel throw away the WDC in Baku when he was still leading, as you yourself said, in September?

I said that he threw it away in Baku and Singapore and there’s no question that Singapore was the more obviously costly blunder, but you don’t lose a big lead all at once and like in any sport there’s often a chain reaction. Heading into Baku Vettel had a 12-point lead over Lewis.

Lewis was leading the race and Vettel was right behind him when he decided to bump into him from behind and then sideswipe him, managing to only damage his own car in the process and pick up a 10-second penalty. But what happened to Lewis later in the race with the headrest was always going to happen since the mechanic who made the mistake did so before the race started. If Vettel had kept his head and had either managed to overtake Lewis (which he definitely looked like he was about to attempt and given his pace had a good chance of doing) or had kept running in P2 and then inherited the lead when Lewis’ headrest came loose, then he would have left Baku with a 27-point lead instead of 14.

One of my favorite sporting terms that gets used in football a lot but not so much in F1 is ‘dropping points.’ Points that you essentially had in your hand but then you needlessly lost them for reasons that were more about you than the competition.

I’ll put aside the impact of the distraction of everything that happened after Baku and how it affected their mindsets, though I think that it definitely had a bigger impact on Lewis. I think it gave him a huge mental boost because now the fight was personal, now he was fighting someone who he was angry at.

Crucially though, if Vettel hadn’t done what he did in Baku he wouldn’t have lost the championship lead at Monza and would have arrived in Singapore with a 10-point lead.

Would he have been less desperate, less panicked, less likely to squander his pole position and leave empty handed instead of with at least 18 points even if he’d been overtaken by Max like Lewis was in Malaysia? Even with just a 2nd or 3rd place finish and even if Lewis had managed to climb to 3rd or 4th it would have meant just 6 measly points between them going into Japan and a 31-point deficit for Vettel post-Japan with 100 points still on the table instead of a 59-point one.   

No will ever know obviously and a million and one other things might have been completely different if X and Y hadn’t happened.

But here’s why it’s important. The narrative of this title race is already being changed and it’s total and utter bullshit. Or rather horseshit. Lewis is where he is not because he’s lucky and somehow rode a #blessed wave of golden success while gosh darn it Vettel was let down by luck and reliability and ‘never had a chance’ to compete and other choice phrases going around. 

Lewis kept his head about him and inherited the win in Singapore just like Vettel would have done in Baku.

He made a strategic decision not to try to squeeze Max in Malaysia and picked up 18 perfectly good points just like Vettel would have in Singapore.

We would have been going into the US GP with 31 points between them and 100 available for the taking and that would likely have taken it down to the wire. Why not when in 2012 Vettel picked up 100 points in four consecutive races and went from 4th in the standings with Fernando, Lewis, and Kimi ahead of him to 1st with a 6-point lead. 

#Anonymous #lewis hamilton #f1

[ramblingthoughtsofayoungadult]

Meet the Parents-Marlon Brando Imagine

Requested: Yes

Warnings: Fluff

    Marlon was known for being one of the toughest, most macho men in Hollywood as well as one of the finest actors around. However, no one would have believed me if I told them he was a nervous wreck days before meeting my parents. Honestly, I almost couldn’t believe it either. In my eyes, my parents weren’t intimidating at all: my mother was a children’s book author and my father was in advertising. In spite of these facts, Marlon got extremely nervous when I told him that they wanted to have dinner with the two of us.

   “What if they don’t like me?” Marlon asked.

  “Impossible, everyone likes you...I think.”

  Marlon narrowed his eyes at me in response and I laughed. Making fun of everything was second nature to me since it’s what MGM paid me to do.    “This isn’t funny, Y/N.”

  “Just do us both a favor and breathe before you turn blue,” I said, resting my hands on his shoulders.

   He huffed before shrugging my hands off him. “I need a drink.”

   “Yes, because alcohol definitely helps clear everyone’s head.”

   Marlon didn’t say anything as he walked over to the bar in his living room and poured some expensive whiskey into a crystal tumbler. I reclined on the couch and watched him sip the liquor. It was extremely endearing that he was getting so worked up about meeting my parents. Marlon could be tender at times, but there were other moments where he could be downright cold and unemotional. Watching him get so anxious showed that he really did care for me.

   “Isn’t it too soon for them to be meeting me anyhow?”

   “We’ve been going steady for three months and my parents don’t believe every headline they read. They want to see the real Marlon Brando who has won their daughter’s heart.”

    Marlon smirked. “So, I won your heart?”

   I rolled my eyes. “Don’t get cocky.” I slipped off the couch and grabbed my bag. “I have to head over to the studio now but dinner’s at eight so swing around to my place at seven thirty.”

  “All right.”

  Swiftly, I pressed a quick peck to his cheek before slipping out of his house, thankful that the paparazzi were too busy with a different movie star to camp outside of Marlon’s home. Marlon had been hounded by the paparazzi practically since his first picture, but it only got worse when we were open about our relationship. In a way, I understood why people were so intrigued by our relationship since I was simply a funny girl who somehow got the attention of a bona fide Hollywood hunk. To be honest, I sometimes wondered why Marlon and I stayed together since I had a unique talent for irritating him and pushing his buttons.

   The next night, Marlon seemed a bit more relaxed and calm when he came to pick me up. He was wearing one of his cool dark gray suits and a matching fedora. He gave me that weird grin of his when I opened the door for him.

    “You better hurry inside, Mister, my boyfriend will be here soon,” I teased.

    “He’s an idiot if he left a girl like you all by her lonesome,” Marlon said.

    I chuckled and stepped aside to let him in. “You seem calm.”

   “I’m an actor.”

   “That explains it.” I cinched my pearl bracelet on my wrist and straightened out the skirt of my deep blue dress. “Well, what do you think?”

    “You look good, Y/N, you always look good.” 

    I grinned and kissed him quickly. Marlon seemed to have different plans because when I pulled away, he grabbed my shoulders and pulled me closer. I smiled further into the kiss. “Marlon, stop, we have to leave.” 

    “We have time,” he muttered.

    I managed to pry myself away from him and he reluctantly followed me to his shiny red car. It took all of ten minutes to get to my parents’ modest house in Los Angeles. The ivory white fence in front of the house as well as the perfectly manicured green lawn and yellow rose bushes flanking the front steps made it look like a stereotypical suburban home. 

   “So, this is where you grew up?”

   “Glamorous, I know.” 

   Marlon parked on the curb, got out of the car, and opened the door for me. I placed my hand on his arm and we walked up to the front door together. I rang the high-toned doorbell before turning to Marlon.

   “Don’t forget to breathe now.” 

   “I won’t.”

   His curt tone was enough to make me burst into giggles, but I rubbed his arm for comfort as I suppressed my laughter. A short moment later, my mom opened the door, her eyes were as wide as saucers when she saw Marlon and she wiped her hands on her pink apron quickly.

    “Mr. Brando,” she whispered dreamily.

    “Hello, Mrs. Y/L/N,” Marlon said politely.

    “Mom, I’m here too, you know.”

    Mom blinked and turned to me. “Oh, Y/N, of course!” She pulled me into a hug. “Come in, come in!”

   We walked into the cool house, the smell of roast chicken, potatoes, and green beans thick in the air. Dad was sitting in the parlor area, smoking a pipe and looking thoughtfully at a copy of the Times.

   “Y/D/N, they’re here!” Mom said.

   Dad glanced up, placed the newspaper on the coffee table, and stood to greet us. “Hello, Y/N, how are you doing?”    “I’m doing great, Dad,” I said as we hugged.

   When we pulled away, Dad turned to Marlon. “So, you must be Marlon.”

   “Yes, it’s nice to meet you, Mr. Y/L/N,” Marlon said.

  “Please, call me Y/D/N.”  Dad maintained strong eye contact with Marlon as they shook hands. “Strong handshake you got there, Marlon.”

   “Thank you, Y/D/N,” Marlon said.

  “You can call me Y/M/N, as well. Dinner’s almost ready, Y/N, won’t you help me with it?” Mom asked.

   Marlon shot a glance at me that communicated all his fear of being left alone with my father. I smiled warmly in return as I agreed to join Mom in the kitchen.

   “He’s even more handsome than he is in the pictures! Why didn’t you tell me?” Mom whisper-hissed.

    “I thought it would be a nice surprise. You could be a little more subtle about your crush on him.”

    “Oh, honey, he should be used to that kind of attention. Isn’t it his job?”

    I rolled my eyes but laughed as we started bringing the food to the dining room. Once it was all set up, we called Marlon and Dad into the dining room and it seemed as though they bonded over boxing.

   “Joe Lewis front and center, impressive,” Dad noted while taking his seat at one head of the table.

   “It was----had to dodge out of the way to avoid getting blood on me. If you’d like, I could take you to the next fight.”

  Dad’s eyes widened. “You’re serious?”

  “Of course.”

  “Besides, it’s not like I was interested in watching two men try to beat each other to death,” I said as I took my seat across from Marlon.

   “It’s an art, Y/N, you wouldn’t understand,” Dad said. “Am I right, Marlon?”

   “Yes, Y/D/N.”

   Mom was too busy admiring Marlon’s good looks to catch my annoyed glance and I almost had to laugh. We started eating dinner and as we ate, I could tell Marlon was getting more and more relaxed.

   “Y/N, you never told us how the two of you met,” Mom said.

  “It’s exactly as the magazines put it: he romanced me while we were on the French Riviera a few months ago.”

   Marlon chuckled while Mom narrowed her eyes at me.

   “Y/N, answer your mother,” Dad said.

   “We ran into each other at the studio----literally.”

   “Actually, you ran into me, Y/N.”

   “I was running late to set and our pictures just happened to be filming on the same lot. Unfortunately, I ran straight into Marlon while trying to get to my set and nearly knocked him over.”    “You were running pretty fast, but you did apologize about fifty times.”

   “Because I was sincere!”

   My parents chuckled over their meals. 

   “For some reason, I found your sincerity quite charming and decided to look for the girl in the crazy wig who ran into me after I was done filming for the day,” Marlon said.

   “We started talking and that was pretty much it.”

   “Such a charming story,” Mom said.

   “It’s one of the better ways Y/N’s met a beau,” Dad said with a chuckle.

   “What do you mean, Y/D/N?”    “Dad, please don’t, I’m too old to be embarrassed by you,” I whined.

   “Come on, Y/D/N, Marlon doesn’t want to hear any of those stories,” Mom said.

   “Actually, I am very interested to hear about who Y/N dated before me,” Marlon said.

   I wanted to smack that grin off his face but refrained myself by playing with the green beans on my plate. 

  “Well, at the ripe age of five, Y/N had her first beau because he apologized for biting her on the first day of school,” Dad said. “What was his name?”

   “Richard Collins,” I muttered.

   “Oh, Richie! He was a sweet boy,” Mom exclaimed.

   “Until he broke up with me by shoving me into a wall,” Y/N muttered.

   “And then there was Brandon when you were thirteen. She told us he was the love of her life. They held hands and everything,” Mom said.

   “Oh?” Marlon asked. “How long did that last?”

   “About two months. We broke up because he was a bad kisser.”    “Y/N!” Mom and Dad exclaimed.

   I shrugged. “It’s the truth!”

  After we were done rehasing my dating history, Mother excused the two of us to clear off the table and to prepare coffee and dessert. Marlon and Dad went into the parlor to smoke together.

  “I would ask what you think of Marlon, Mom, but after that show, I’d be surprised if you didn’t ask him out yourself.”

  “You know I would never do that to your father, but I do think that Marlon is a very nice man and he treats you well, doesn’t he?” 

   “Yes, he does.” I smiled to myself as I set the small dishes of coffee cake on a tray.

   “Do you love him?”

   “Yes.”    “Then I hope he makes an honest woman out of you soon.”

   “Why can’t I make an honest man out of him, Mom?” 

   “Oh, you know what I mean. I saw the way he looked at you, absolutely precious it was.” Mom set the silver coffee pot in the center of the tray with the coffee cake. “Most women never get looked at that way by a man for their whole lives. You’re a fortunate one.”

   “Thanks, Mom, I’m glad we have your blessing.”

   “Of course, you do, my grandchildren are going to be beautiful.”

   “Mom.”

   At the end of the night, Marlon was extremely happy to hear that my parents were practically in love with him----specifically my mom. Fortunately for me, it seemed as though Marlon didn’t mind my weird little family. 

#marlon brando imagine #requested #old hollywood #old hollywood imagine

[backstorywithdanalewis]

Alexei Navalny poisoning Podcast link here - Share it! https://www.buzzsprout.com/1016881/5125132

bill browder: (00:00) Alexei Navalny was poisoned. I believe the poison was administered by the FSB, the Russian secret police. And I believe that the order was, was given to poison him by Vladimir Putin. Dana Lewis; Host Creator Back Story podcast: (00:20) Hi everyone. And welcome to another edition of backstory. I'm Dana Lewis. This is about Russia and an opposition figure who as we speak is in hospital fighting for his life. After an apparent poison, officially Russia says he wasn't poisoned, but the wife and spokesperson of Alexei Navalny says he was after drinking a cup of tea at an airport in comps. Nevalny was on a flight to Moscow after campaigning against Putin's Russia, United party owning the local officials. They're crooks. The airplane had to make an emergency landing at another city. They're a tug of war over the weekend between the Bellini's wife and local officials to let them be flowing out to a hospital in Germany. Finally, after a very public debate, Russia allowed Nevalny to leave in a coma bill browder: (01:10) In very serious condition. He is recovering in Germany or joining me now is William Browder. He's an American born British financier and political activists. He is the CEO and cofounder of Hermitage capital management, the investor advisor to the Hermitage fund, which at one time was the largest foreign portfolio in Russia. And bill you've been banned from Russia. Uh, your company is rated for tax fraud. That was a long time ago. You were convicted in absentia and your lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky was jailed in Russia and died in prison. Um, you, you have had a long, long fight since then for, for some kind of justice in his case. Yeah. bill browder: (01:54) bill browder: (01:54) My story is a long and ugly one where, uh, I invested in Russia. I discovered corruption in the companies I invested in. I exposed the corruption and in retaliation, uh, they expelled me from the country, declared me a threat to national security rated my offices seized all of our documents. bill browder: (02:14) My lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky investigated discovered that that, that the reason for seizing the documents was to use those documents to perpetrate a $230 million tax rebate fraud, where the Russian authorities were stealing taxes, $230 million of taxes that we paid to the Russian government from the Russian government sort of gay expose the fraud. Uh, he was then arrested by the people he exposed, put in pretrial detention tortured for 358 days and murdered on November 16, 2009. That was 11 years ago. Since then, I've been on a full time mission to get justice for surrogate Magnitsky, which has led to a piece of legislation named after him called the Magnitsky act, which imposes visa, sanctions, and asset freezes on the people who killed Sergei Magnitsky and the people who perpetrate other gross human rights abuses around the world. This is a, um, the law was first passed in the United States in 2012. bill browder: (03:14) It was then globalized in 2016 to apply not just to Russians, but to people everywhere who did terrible things. It then went to Canada, Britain, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Kosovo, and it's currently on deck to be put in place at the European union in Australia. It's something which Vladimir Putin has, has described as his single largest foreign policy priority to try to get rid of reason. He hates it so much is because he steals a lot of money. He kills a lot of people and he tries to keep that money safe abroad. And by having the Magnitsky act in place, it puts his money in the money of his cronies at risk Dana Lewis; Host Creator Back Story podcast: (03:59) Start with what's happening right now. One of the main opposition candidates in Russia, Alexei, Navalny, poisoned, it looks like, and he's fighting for his life in Germany who did it and why? bill browder: (04:11) Well, I think it's pretty obvious. You know, everybody says, well, let's wait, let's reserve judgment. There's no proof, blah, blah, blah. But how, how many poisonings coming out of Russia have to happen before? We can finally say it's obvious who did it? I mean, uh, so, so I, I believe that, uh, uh, Alexia Novotny was poisoned. I believe the poison was administered by the FSB, the Russian secret police. And I believe that the order was, was given to poison him by Vladimir Putin Dana Lewis; Host Creator Back Story podcast: (04:45) Putin. I mean, Nevani when you take a look at some of his investigations, uh, and they have been very serious corruption allegations. I mean, he is covered so many people in touch, so many different, uh, people inside bill browder: (04:59) Putin circle. That's true. However, Alexian have only is as such a high level in terms of his politics that, uh, nobody can touch him without the permission of Putin. Nobody would touch him without the permission of Putin, because if you did, uh, it would set off a political firestorm that Putin would bear the brunt of. And so Houdin would never allow that to happen. And everybody in Russia abides by these, this set of rules. So I don't believe that anyone other than Putin would have had the authority to do it. And why would they do it now? Well, this is a very, uh, pregnant moment in politics in this part of the world. Uh, you have the Belarus situation going on and all you have to do is turn on, turn on the Twitter or the internet, and look at the tens, if not hundreds of thousands of people who are standing up to the dictator Lucas Shanko right now, and Putin watches this and sees this and understands that this Bellaruse situation may be uncontainable. bill browder: (06:12) I personally think it is. I I've, I've never, it really looks to me like this thing is spiraling out of control for Lucas Shanko. And it's one thing, if you have a situation like that happening in a faraway country like Egypt or Tunisia, as far as letting recruiting is concerned, but it's another thing when it's Bellaruse, which is effectively a, uh, you know, wants to like a province of Russia. And if the Russian people see that the Belarusian people can get rid of their dictator, they're going to have a lot more confidence. So they could do the same thing in Russia. And if there was one person who is poised to lead, that movement is Alexei Navalny. And so there's a really clear, uh, timing and political motive for why Putin would have done this right now. And as we speak, Dana Lewis; Host Creator Back Story podcast: (07:06) And a lot of demonstrations inside Russia, despite Putins and the Kremlins statement all the time that he's got 80% popularity, a lot of people think he's lost a ton of popularity during COVID-19 that the referendum was rushed through because they anticipated these kinds of demonstrations and unrest as the Russian economy is collapsing in there have been demonstrations, uh, in the far East, uh, kicked off because the arrest of a, of a governor there, bill browder: (07:34) The it's a total myth that Vladimir Putin has 80% approval rating in a country like Russia, where you get arrested, you lose your job. You may even get killed for going against Vladimir Putin. Nobody is going to answer honestly, when they get called by an anonymous pollster to say, who do you support? I mean, the fact that that 20% of the people say they don't support Putin is the biggest, the only surprising thing to me about those fake polls. So, and, and you're absolutely right. You have a situation where the Russian people have given up free press free speech, the ability to elect their leader of choice. And they did all that stuff on this unwritten bargain, which was, if they give up all that stuff, they could enjoy a better standard of living. That was the deal that Putin had presented to them 20 years ago. bill browder: (08:33) But we're now in a situation where they given up all their freedoms and the economics have been stagnating and then recently collapsing. And so there's like nothing to be gained from Vladimir Putin. And at this point he's really in a, in a terrible and tough spot because it's not like he can just give up power, retire, enjoy is ill gotten gains and live a quiet life. Afterwards. He's killed people. A lot of people he's ruined the lives of many, many people he's stolen so much money. And if he were to lose power, he would have to pay the, he would have to bear the risk, the legal responsibility for that. And he understands that if he, if, if he were to lose power, he'd probably go to jail. He loses money and God knows maybe worse. And so he has no choice, but to try to hold it all together, as best as he can. And the one thing that scares him more than anything is when tens, if not hundreds of thousands of people all decide at once that they've had enough, because it's one thing to go out and in prison, all the opposition leaders, it's another thing to try to imprison everybody, which is just not possible Dana Lewis; Host Creator Back Story podcast: (09:46) Create this atmosphere if need be bill browder: (09:49) It doesn't give the wink and the nod and say yes to the area Dana Lewis; Host Creator Back Story podcast: (09:53) B or the gr you to carry out assassinations. Does he, at the very least create this atmosphere where political assassinations are thought to be in his interest and with his blessing. And I'm talking about, you know, the shooting of Boris Nimsoft, which took place within the view of the Kremlin and, and a political sky are going back a bit further, a journalist who was, would criticize Putin and what was going on in Chechnya. And she was shot outside her room. bill browder: (10:21) There, there there's, there's always this sort of undercurrent of like allowing of, of, uh, of, of giving Putin the benefit of the doubt to say, he's created this environment and everyone's doing this terrible stuff. Uh, it's clear to me that Putin was responsible for Boris Nimsoft murder. He's responsible for the poisoning of Lexi Naomi, and he was responsible for many other terrible crimes that Russia has a lot of chaos, but there's no chaos when it comes to the ordering of these crimes. And these can only be done. The high, the big political crimes can only be done with Vladimir. Putin's not just blessing, but, um, personal involvement. I would imagine that he was following every step of the process in the poisoning of Alexei Navalny and the subsequent, uh, crisis when he was hospitalized and trying to leave Russia Dana Lewis; Host Creator Back Story podcast: (11:18) Of president Donald Trump, then I'm often just kind of sidestepping the Russia issue, even inviting him in suggesting to Angela Merkel of Germany and France to invite him back into the [inaudible]. bill browder: (11:33) Well, I have my own personal experience with Donald Trump, as it relates to Putin after the Magnitsky act was passed, Putin has been trying to get me back to Russia, to effectively kill me. Like he has sort of gay Magnitsky had been sentenced twice to 18 years in Russian prison. And during the 2018 summit in Helsinki, Donald Trump had this private meeting with, um, with, uh, Vladimir Putin and at the press conference afterwards, one of the journalists asked Putin, are you going to hand over the 12 GRU officers that Robert Mueller wants for, um, interfering with the U S election and Putin said, uh, it's not so simple as that. We might very well hand them over if Donald Trump hands over bill Browder and the 11 American government officials were part of his criminal enterprise. And then the journalist Dana Lewis; Host Creator Back Story podcast: (12:26) One of them, by the way, sorry to interrupt you. I want to hear all of it. But one of them was actually an ambassador Mike McFaul, who see, he suggested Trump suggested maybe there would be some kind of swamp, bill browder: (12:38) I mean, unheard of well. So, so, so, so they ask Trump, they say, well, wait, what do you think about this? He said, I think it's a brilliant idea. And so they wanted to hand me over. They wanted to hand over, as you mentioned, Mike McFaul, the former us ambassador to Russia. They wanted him to hand over Kyle Parker, who is the chief of staff of the U S Helsinki commission who wrote the Magnitsky act. They wanted to hand over, uh, uh, special agent Todd Hyman from the department of Homeland security that was investigating Russian money laundering connected to the Magnitsky case in New York. It was absurd and it took, uh, it took the, um, it took Donald Trump four days to walk it back. And it was only after the Senate, uh, or was about to hold a vote in which they were going to vote 98 to zero, not to hand us over the Trump about 20 minutes before that issued a very unique statement saying, uh, or interesting as press, press secretaries issued a statement saying, now we've decided not to pursue this request at this time. Dana Lewis; Host Creator Back Story podcast: (13:36) Bill, can you tell me, I mean, longterm, how do we engage or deal with Russia? Maybe engagement is not something that you favor, but I mean, you know, the individual sanctions, the sanctions against Putin's inner circle have resulted in what I mean, a very debatable result in terms of probably not containing Russia very well. bill browder: (14:01) Well, you can, you've got to do it properly. You can't do it halfway. So first of all, the, uh, that the, the obvious conclusion that one needs to come to with a country like Russia is that they're a major nuclear power. And so you have to talk to them. So you can't cut off diplomatic relations. And for, for, for, not for, for Americans, but for Europeans, they're a major energy supplier. And so you can't just say, no, we can't do business with them because of the lights will go out in Europe. So those two things have to continue to happen. But at the same time, Russia is exporting, uh, assassinations in the UK. There was, they used polonium radioactive material on one person. They use Nova chalk, a chemical weapon on another set of people they're doing targeted assassinations all over Europe. They just did one in Berlin. Dana Lewis; Host Creator Back Story podcast: (14:49) We may have taken out bounties on soldiers in Afghanistan, bill browder: (14:53) Indeed. They've, um, they've shot down passenger planes with innocent people on board. They've invaded countries, redrawn the border bombing hospitals and civilians in Syria. They're a major international menace. And so you can't let that go because if you do, then they'll continue to do it and do it in greater numbers and more places. And so you have to create a punishing consequence, which, which can't be cutting off diplomatic relations, and it can't be a stopping business. And so the obvious consequence for them is targeted individual sanctions. And this is particularly powerful in a country where a few thousand people have stolen all the resources of the country and keep all those resources in the West. And it's in my line. It's not debatable at all, how powerful these sanctions are. They hate them more than anything, and probably the most powerful, all the sanctions that have been imposed on Russia, where the sanctions of the seven Russian oligarchs, which took place in 2018, uh, shortly after the, um, uh, election hacking act was passed. And those seven oligarchs were close. Trustees of Putin effectively had their financial lives ruined. And, and if we wanted to really stop Russia in its tracks, they should expand that list and expand the list of other government officials who were targeted and sanctioned because all the, and we have huge leverage here because they keep all their money in the West and they care about their money Dana Lewis; Host Creator Back Story podcast: (16:26) Is one hope that you would have to wrap this up. What would the Nevalny attempted poisoning, bill browder: (16:34) Attempted murder leaders too? Well, my, my main hope is that Alexei Navalny recovers a completely without any disabilities. And he can go on to, um, fulfill his democratic dream and the dream of the Russian people, which is to have a real democracy there. And then you, you believe that he may return stronger. Well, I think if he, if he see if he can survive this attempt, this, this assassination attempt, uh, I, I, I think it only, it only empowers him to do greater things and, and Putin, he's not a legitimate leader like Lucas Shanko and, and, um, I think it's, it's time for the Russian people to, uh, let him know that Dana Lewis; Host Creator Back Story podcast: (17:23) I should have talked to you, you know, great background information bill browder: (17:27) On what you believe has to happen. And, and, uh, probably, you know, you, you have succeeded, um, Dana Lewis; Host Creator Back Story podcast: (17:36) So much change through the Magnitsky act. You must be very proud. bill browder: (17:41) Thank you very much. Alright, Dana Lewis; Host Creator Back Story podcast: (17:50) Mark. Galeotti joins us now in London, he is a senior associate fellow at RUSI it's the Royal United services Institute. Uh, and it's a highly respected Institute. We often go there as journalists to talk to, to analysts and experts. Um, and he's also the author of a book, which I need to read, which is called. We need to talk about Putin, Mark. Let's talk about poop. Indeed. Alexina Valley, as we speak, uh, is in a hospital fighting for his life in Germany. Do you think he was poisoned and by whom? mark galeotti RUSI: (18:24) Well, the first part's easy bit. Yes. It all seems almost certain that, that he was poisoned. And that certainly also what we're getting actually out of Germany this morning, by whom that's the tricky thing. We sometimes tend to think of Russia from a distance as being a totalitarianism, where everything comes down from the top and Putin signs off on everything. He's actually in many ways of raid lazy autocrat. Um, and he's created a system whereby he often doesn't give very, very specific and explicit guidance, but sets broad areas of interest and umpteen officials, oligarchs, and such like scurry around trying to please the boss. So what we don't know is whether or not this was actually chosen, our Kremlin initiated hit. And I suspect not for reasons we can talk about if you want, or whether rather it was precisely one of these other agencies, someone who had been burned by one of Alex [inaudible] his anticorruption investigations or feared he was going to be, or some local official who somehow thought that this is exactly what the Kremlin wanted. And he will be, Dana Lewis; Host Creator Back Story podcast: (19:33) I find it, I find it hard to believe. And I think a lot of other people would too, that Alexa Nevani, who is the highest profile opposition figure in Russia, that if somebody was going to poison him, that that wouldn't have to be blessed by the Kremlin, mark galeotti RUSI: (19:48) Except that, I mean, we have other examples of form. Um, when, uh, Boris Nemtsov, again, one of the very high profile opposition figures in Russia was, was killed literally a stone throw from the Kremlin, um, that does not seem to have been approved by Putin. In fact, it created a sort of quieter, a stir and a storm in Moscow, but by, it was actually initiated by an Amazon Cordero dictator of Chechnya, who incidentally is no fan of the maleness. There are other figures who genuinely seem to be able to act. Dana Lewis; Host Creator Back Story podcast: (20:22) So for people who don't follow Russia was the, the main opposition figure in Russia, extremely liberal. Uh, but at one point he was chosen to be the successor of Boris Yeltsin. And he was, uh, a deputy prime minister. And I knew him very well. He ran for mayor in Sochi at one point to try and get a political foothold again, fighting for independence. And he was also a supporter of Ukraine. So certainly he was thought to be a full of the Kremlin. mark galeotti RUSI: (20:51) Exactly. So I think that it's often that people feel, they assume that this is what Putin would want. And in a way, the, the issue becomes not whether or not the Kremlin is innocent, but it's differently guilty. There are those hits, which clearly the Kremlin initiated. And there are those hits, which happen because the Kremlin has created a country in a system in which actually a whole variety of different agencies do use violence up to and including murder and can get away with it. And the state will still have their back. Dana Lewis; Host Creator Back Story podcast: (21:23) I want to read a paragraph from the, the editorial that you wrote for the Moscow times, because I think it's very well written in you're a great writer and it's very, it's very clear, but you can just tell me what you meant by at a state. That kills is a terrible thing, but it's red lines can generally be observed and it can ultimately be held to account. But a state that permits a whole range of actors and interest to kill with impunity is an even more uncomfortable thing. As the red lines may be invisible, intersecting and mobile. And the challenge of accountability is even greater. What do you mean by that? mark galeotti RUSI: (21:57) What I mean is precisely that the real challenge for people in Russia who are trying to still use whatever space there is for opposition politics, for civil society, for bringing this elite, this thoroughly corrupt self-interested elite to account, they may think they know what is acceptable, and it may well be that it is acceptable today. But the point is because there are so many other individuals who in a way draw their own red lines. You never really know when you're stepping over that. Let me give you one example. I mean, I work on Russian gangsters and also the Russian intelligence service. And as a result, I've, I've, I've sat down with some deeply unpleasant people from time to time. One of the few people I have absolutely been warned off looking at carefully is a man by the name of your Guinea precaution. If someone's known as Putin chef, he was a chef who is a businessman who is behind, for example, the Wagner mercenary corporation that we've seen in, in Donbass, Syria, Libya, and elsewhere, but basically as well as he knew, sort of incidentally ran the troll factory of in fame from the last presidential elections in the States. Dana Lewis; Host Creator Back Story podcast: (23:12) So the troll factories that put out information and disinformation and were largely responsible for interfering in the American election of 2016. mark galeotti RUSI: (23:21) Exactly. Now this is a guy who's basically, I mean, it's worth mentioning a guy with a criminal record, um, who's who hasn't done well, precisely by doing whatever business the Kremlin needs doing. So basically if you know, whatever it is, whether it's trolls or mercenaries or indeed setting up the kitchens to feed the army, he will do it in return for that though. He seems to have been given massive degrees of autonomy. I mean, he's been linked with the murder of Russian journalists who were looking into the activities of Wagner group in, in Africa. He's been linked with all kinds of activities and he's not unique in this. There are these figures within Russia who basically have set themselves up as almost we could think of as warlords. Now, if this was a medieval country, we'd have no trouble thinking them as warlords because they wear suits and everything else. We have trouble using the same vocabulary, but frankly, that's what they are. And this is the problem in Russia. There is a vicious and sometimes murderous state, but one which is actually in some ways relatively restrained. But then there are other figures who are unrestrained and even more vicious. Dana Lewis; Host Creator Back Story podcast: (24:28) It's interesting that when Salisbury occurred the poisoning of an ex Russian GRU, a spy and Salisbury, um, that somebody asked me on air, um, is it disturbing? The Putin would approve this. And I said, yes, but it's probably even more disturbing if he didn't, because that would tell you that the security services now we're operating off the leech. Do you think that that is occurring? Does Putin have control of the security services, the FSB, the GRU and others that are operating that may have carried out the poisoning of Nevani? If in fact he was poised, mark galeotti RUSI: (25:04) I think the answer is that Putin has the level of control that he wants to have. In other words, I think he absolutely chooses to step back from something. I mean, if we take the salt poisoning, I do believe he would have signed off on it. I think anything that has a major international implication like that, such as, you know, a murder in the UK, I think that would have to cross his desk, even though it probably would be initiated by the other people, but they would just have to get the bosses. Okay. Something like this domestically, a Russian citizen in Russia. I think the honest answer is it could have crossed Putin's desk, but it doesn't necessarily need to have done. So I think he's willing to allow these people a lot of autonomy. And then if they mess up badly, he will punish them. If they succeed, he will reward them. But the whole nature of the Putin regime is that he wants these people desperately competing for his favor. I mean, that is the true currency of Russia is not the ruble. It's not the dollar it's Putin's favor. If you have that, you can do anything. Dana Lewis; Host Creator Back Story podcast: (26:06) Why do you think now? I mean, why would they go after an event money now? Is it because of what's happening in Belarus and they fear that he is igniting potentially the same kind of fire? mark galeotti RUSI: (26:18) Well, I'll give you two answers. One of them is it could be something that's very local and very conditional. I mean, we know that he was in Tomsk in Siberia, not just meeting local activists, but also engaging in one of his extinct CDC, forensic anticorruption investigations. So it might be that literally it was a local person, someone there who didn't want their grimy D deals being exposed and therefore felt he had to do something about it. So that's a possibility, but the other one is yes, you mentioned the others. We have this explosion of people power in Belarus. At the same time, there is a mood of dissatisfaction within Russia. We've we seen it in Kabarro on the Chinese border, where for weeks now they've been protesting the, um, arrest of their elected governor. Not because they like him particularly, but because it's an example of Moscow just simply reaching in because he doesn't like the candidate. mark galeotti RUSI: (27:12) I didn't know anything about a bottle of skis. It's not that unique or unusual a city. If it can happen in Kerberos, it can happen anywhere. We have local elections that are coming up in September and Nevada only in particular was championing this notion of what he called smart vote, which is essentially that people should be encouraged to vote for whichever candidate, whatever party they come from, who is most likely to displace the government's United Russia block. So it could be the, in that situation, Nevada only who after all has generally been very, very good at knowing just how to stay on the right side of the red line. Didn't notice that that line had shifted and that a new mood or concern has arisen. And they decided no. Nevada is just too charismatic, too popular. And his smart vote system is too potentially dangerous for us to continue to allow him to operate. Dana Lewis; Host Creator Back Story podcast: (28:03) Do you think Navalny has been removed? I mean, let's say he recovers, you know, the question is, does a lot of these people never go back to Russia. And I would think that Alexei Navalny will try to go back because that's is raised on Dettra. I mean, he wants to campaign against the Kremlin and he has been fearless in doing so. And if he goes back, is he more empowered? Have they just created a kind of political opposition, martyr of sorts? mark galeotti RUSI: (28:28) Well, that's an interesting question. Um, I mean of only himself when he's asked, you know, how come he's still alive, his answer is precisely, well, actually the Kremlin realizes that I'd be more dangerous to them dead than alive. Now we'll see. I mean, obviously depends how quite, how he recovers and, and what his mood is, but he has indeed shown himself to be indomitable in the past. And he's been arrested 13 times. His brother has been sent to prison to bring pressure to bear on him. It was almost blinded when they splashed antiseptic dye on his face. And this is his second time he's been poisoned if he returns. mark galeotti RUSI: (29:05) I think, I mean, it does give him that additional status and the particularly actually slightly fanciful. But, you know, if, if one looks at kind of Russian cultural mythology, there is something about the, um, the figure who is prepared to literally put his life and everything on the line. Now that that becomes a very sort of powerful, and we see it in Russian folklore, in Russian history. And, and today now I think the other elements of this is so far not only is anticorruption and sort of anti-government movement has been very novel, only focused, understandably. Um, this might actually create your opportunity for a new rising generational activists to really come into their own. And I think that's crucial because the thing that Nevada only has always lacked not been able to properly do is institutionalize his movement. Um, turn it from just simply being, you know, one guy, one guy with, with allies and supporters and a YouTube feed into a true national movement. This might help push things right over that edge point Dana Lewis; Host Creator Back Story podcast: (30:09) Fired on whoever thought they would carry this out mark galeotti RUSI: (30:11) With the approval of the Kremlin. Absolutely. I mean, T T to be bombed. I think the, the lesson that we've seen from truly successful, awful authoritarian regimes is, you know, if you're going to do it, do it properly, don't take half measures. Um, and I think the, the notion that of only would, would be intimidated by this is of course wrong. The notion that his supporters are likely to be intimidated by this is likely to prove wrong. I do think that in this respect, it was a mistake. Dana Lewis; Host Creator Back Story podcast: (30:41) Hey Mark, Galeotti thank you so much from the Royal United services Institute and the book that I'm going to read, and I know you will, too. We need to talk about poop. My picture. Thank you. The latest is, and the Valley will recover no details yet on what his longterm prognosis will be. And the heartbeat of the Russian political opposition movement is this unpredictable as Alexa in Nevada in his own health, will we ever know of Nevada? He was really poisoned. I think we will. These things have a habit of eventually coming out in Putin's Russia, that's backstory. I'm Dana Lewis, please. We need you to subscribe to the podcast and share the link we're growing. We need your support. Thanks for listening. And I'll talk to you soon. 

#@alexeinavalny @billbrowder russia putin backstorywithdanalewis @danaslewis

[othersportsnews-blog]

Who claimed what just after the British Grand Prix

New Post has been published on https://othersportsnews.com/who-claimed-what-just-after-the-british-grand-prix/

Who claimed what just after the British Grand Prix

3:37 PM ET

ESPN Team

ESPN rounds up all the response from up and down the Silverstone paddock subsequent the 2017 British Grand Prix.

Mercedes

Valtteri Bottas (2nd): “What a race! I am definitely content for us as a group, to get the second one-2 of the year. Of system I would have preferred to get, but I am content anyway for the reason that that was absolutely one particular of my finest ever races. I had to fight hardcore out there a few of instances, but I finished up in a great position. We could in fact go for a longer time than expected in the initial stint on the Softs and the tyres have been definitely great. In the last stint the group advised me to just choose care of the tyres, for the reason that we noticed a handful of failures out there for some other teams, but for me they have been fantastic. We’re just at the fifty percent-way issue of the year and it could absolutely be worst. It is nonetheless just my initial calendar year with the group and I am nonetheless suitable in the championship fight As a group we did a definitely great job currently. The strategy suitable from the start out of the race labored definitely nicely. It was a flawless race for us and the one-2 was our prize – the group definitely should have this. We absolutely received blessed with Kimi’s puncture in the close, to choose P2, but which is racing and currently luck was on our aspect.”

Lewis Hamilton (1st): “I am so content… this has received to be one particular of my sweetest wins here. I was gunning for this victory. There was so substantially negativity ahead of the race, with men and women questioning how I geared up for the race. But this weekend has been one particular of my strongest of the weekend. I manufactured a strong start out and then just after that I managed the car and the equilibrium, and the boys did a superb pit quit. I definitely are unable to obtain a fault at the second. The group did an fantastic job this weekend and Valtteri naturally drover a stormer currently – I am happy of him. It is fantastic to have him in the group. I am shocked to see the problems the Ferrari had for the reason that I did not see any debris. I did not be expecting to appear away from this weekend just one particular issue at the rear of Sebastian. This result definitely opens up the championship – and we go to Hungary upcoming, exactly where I’ve usually gone nicely. Every time I arrived all around Convert seven, I could see the supporters cheering each solitary lap. It was definitely reminiscent of 2008, my initial Grand Prix get here. I’ve received some fantastic supporters here, not only in the group, but in the garage as nicely. I’ve received my brother here, some of my aunties and household has appear far too. There is certainly this remarkable youthful kid who’s appear from South Africa, Michael, who is fighting most cancers. It was remarkable to see him. And Billy Monger is with us, who is just such an inspiration.”

Toto Wolff, group principal: “I consider that was possibly the finest race I have been aspect of since becoming a member of the group in 2013! We are so delighted for Lewis: he geared up for the weekend in the way he realized was suitable for him, then arrived here and shipped in qualifying and the race. He received pole, led each lap, gained the race and also set the fastest lap it was a perfect general performance. And then Valtteri rounded it off for the group by climbing all the way from P9 to P2, with a minor bit of great fortune together the way but applying dependable force on each lap of the race. He picked his way as a result of the area, held the general performance in the tyres at the suitable time and he richly deserved his second position complete it was a good drive. We are now at the halfway issue of the year with 250 points nonetheless to score. There will be a whole lot of discuss about the championship standings but not in the group. We have our eyes on one particular point only and which is the upcoming race in Hungary, so we can go into the summertime split in an even much better affliction. Effectively accomplished to every person in Brixworth and Brackley for this result – it can be a true credit to the remarkable function you have accomplished so significantly this calendar year.”

James Allison, Technological Director: “This is a sport that asks so substantially of the men and women who compete in it, motorists and teams alike, and it is on days like these that it repays each very small bit of exertion one particular hundred fold. They are over and above description in the diploma of pleasure, satisfaction and pleasure that they convey us all. Lewis has all but wiped out the deficit to Vettel in one particular hammer blow and the group has taken one more significant leaps in the constructors’ race many thanks to a huge display from Valtteri, whose function this afternoon wholly erased the gearbox penalty he was compelled to choose this weekend. It feels like we are starting to make some great momentum in recent races and with any luck , we can deliver the exact form of general performance in two weeks’ time prior to heading into the summertime split. Our function in the upcoming fortnight will target on optimising each solitary depth so that we arrive in Hungary geared up for all of the challenges that race can throw at us.”

David Davies/PA Photos by using Getty Photos

Red Bull

Daniel Ricciardo (fifth): “I hope they showed a whole lot of that on Television set. I just felt like the complete race I was overtaking cars and I hope the supporters enjoyed it. We manufactured up a chunk of positions early on and then I received a bit greedy, went off track and finished up at the back once more. It was fantastic enjoyable coming back as a result of the area and I gave it anything. I caught Hulkenberg with a handful of laps to go and then Seb had his issue which handed me fifth, so danke Sebastian. I’ve been definitely content with how I’ve been putting my Sundays jointly for the last handful of races, it can be been solid and to get fifth from the back currently? I definitely couldn’t question for a lot more. Previous 7 days I was the hunted and this 7 days the hunter, I enjoy the fight of this sport and currently I felt I could definitely enjoy that. I would give this race 10 out of 10 in conditions of enjoyable. I consider you could say that in the last 6 races the Honey Badger has definitely proven up on Sunday and it can be been fantastic enjoyable.”

Max Verstappen (4th): “It is a beneficial day. I am content to complete the race and get some strong points the moment once more. We received a bit blessed with Seb’s puncture at the close and I pitted to be safe and sound as I realized I had plenty of home at the rear of me. The entrance remaining did not sense fantastic and owning viewed what transpired to the Ferrari we played it safe and sound. If I had viewed Kimi pit at the close I may possibly have stayed out to check out and get a leap on him, but we manufactured the precautionary quit to make certain we concluded. With a whole lot of rapidly rights here it takes its toll on the entrance remaining so we realized there would be problems late on. At the starting I realized I was really a bit slower than Seb so I just did my finest to stay in entrance and have some enjoyable it was the only point I could do and the good news is he did not regulate to move me on track, so just after that minor battle my race became a bit lonely. Our rate was fairly great and the car felt aggressive throughout the race – it felt much better than it did in qualifying so now we have to have to understand why we struggled yesterday. Fourth is a great result – possibly one particular position much better than we expected which is usually good. We have some updates coming in Hungary which I am hoping will make some measures towards becoming able to fight with the prime two teams.”

Image by Mark Thompson/Getty Photos

Ferrari

Sebastian Vettel (7th): “It was a tricky race. The brakes received fire on the grid and I consider this is the reason why I had no grip at the start out: they have been far too warm. Throughout the last laps, just after the trouble with the entrance remaining tire, I tried to get the car back and recuperate some points. It was tricky currently for the reason that I was caught at the starting at the rear of Max, but I am not the one particular to decide what transpired in between him and me. Following that I consider the rate was great, thinking of the simple fact that I was on the Gentle tires. Valtteri was on other compound, the Supersofts, so it was clear that he would have been solid. These days was not a fantastic day, but we will see what occurs in Hungary, on a different track.”

Kimi Raikkonen (3rd): “My race was not heading far too bad until a handful of laps prior to the close. I instantly had the trouble, my entrance remaining tire enable go with no warning the air stayed in the tire but the rubber aspect, arrived off. It is disappointing for the reason that without that issue the second position was secured, and we deserved a much better result. We had manufactured some improvements to the car and they appeared to have improved the feeling. When it can be like this you are self-assured and you can force I hope that it will be a related tale in the future races. Nevertheless, currently we have been missing a minor bit of pace towards our rivals. We did what we could but naturally you will find some function to be accomplished to capture up the Mercedes in places like this. This is absolutely not our strongest type of circuit. I am intrigued to see what occurs in the upcoming race, I guess the Hungarian track must match our car much better.”

ANDREJ ISAKOVIC/AFP/Getty Photos

Force India

Esteban Ocon (8th): “I had a good start out – it felt like 4 wheel drive and I moved up a few of positions, but I missing out to Hulkenberg at the close of the initial lap. Following that, I had a great battle with my teammate for most of the afternoon and the group enable us race – just like Canada. Sergio was rapidly and providing me force, but I was able to stay ahead. It is quite gratifying to see us score points once more with the two cars. Our consistency is our toughness this calendar year – on all tracks we are there with great pace and scoring points. We have to have to keep this up in the second fifty percent of the calendar year.”

Sergio Perez (9th): “It is been a tricky race and I have a feeling we did not get to show our true rate. We must have concluded larger, but in the close we nonetheless convey property points with the two cars. I had a weak start out and that compromised the rest of the afternoon, for the reason that I couldn’t recuperate from it. Silverstone is one particular of the most tricky tracks on which to overtake, and even while I spent all my race in DRS array of Esteban, I by no means had a real opportunity to move him. Getting so close to the car in entrance harmed my tyres and price me heaps of downforce so there was nothing I could do. You can appear back at the race and consider of things that could have been accomplished otherwise, but it can be usually easy to say this just after the race. As we get to the fifty percent-way issue in the year, I sense quite beneficial about our general performance. We have been carrying out definitely nicely as a group and I hope we can get back to our real amount in the upcoming race and just after the split.”

Dr Vijay Mallya, Workforce Principal: “It is quite gratifying to see the two our cars complete inside the points at our property race. We’ve additional 6 vital points to our tally and strengthened our fourth position in the championship. It was a uncomplicated race from our perspective with Esteban receiving the leap on Checo at the start out. From there it was line astern to the flag with the two motorists subsequent related one particular-quit techniques. Preserving up this consistency is vital and, as we get to the fifty percent-way issue of the year, I am feeling quite happy of what we have accomplished from the initial 10 races. I have similarly superior hopes for the rest of the year as we go on to acquire the VJM10.”

(Image by Tim Williams/Action Plus by using Getty Photos)

Williams

Felipe Massa (tenth): “I am absolutely content with the race just after starting 14th, owning had a quite great start out and opening lap, to complete tenth. For certain the most tricky aspect of the race was overtaking the Force Indias at the close. I was more rapidly, but maybe not quick plenty of to have the opportunity to overtake. I am nonetheless not content with the qualifying yesterday. When you start out out of position things are a whole lot a lot more tricky than they must be so currently maybe we could have fought for a lot more points. However, starting 14th did not allow for us to do that, but I am content with my race. We just have to have to make certain our starting position is much better in the upcoming race.

Lance Stroll (twelfth): “It was not a great race for us. The start out was great and I moved up to P12. The initial stint was also all right, and then also at the start out of the second stint things were not bad. But then we picked up some destruction on the car, which I consider was a damaged barge board. I begun to sense some thing was wrong, we suspected it was the tyres and so I stopped once more. Nevertheless, this was for nothing definitely as it just received worse from there. I just brought the car property but some destruction on the car wrecked our race. Now I am just seeking ahead to Hungary.”

Paddy Lowe, Main Technological Officer: “We had planned to do a one particular-quit, starting on the comfortable tyre. From 14th and 15th that appeared like the finest way to check out and get some places. The race went reasonably to system, the only issue was that the supersoft did not degrade in the way we had hoped for individuals all around us in the initial stint, as then we would have had an benefit in the closing levels. Felipe was able to obstacle the two Force Indias at the close, but couldn’t overtake. Lance drove a great, strong race, but he endured some bodywork destruction, at which issue he was losing far too substantially laptime and was degrading the rear tyres. We pitted for one more set, but it was a struggle to the complete. General, it can be a disappointing result at our property race. The car was more rapidly than our result would point out. We have to have to master from this practical experience and be much better upcoming time.”

BEN STANSALL/AFP/Getty Photos

McLaren

Fernando Alonso (DNF): “Difficult instances. A tricky weekend for us, starting last with the penalties, then in the race, when I was subsequent a group of cars, I had one more issue. Hopefully, it has not accomplished any destruction to the motor and we will be able to keep using it in the future. Stoffel was eleventh currently, so I consider we were not quick plenty of to be in the points currently and I consider I could have finished up 13th, 14th, and the retirement is a minor bit significantly less painful. Now I am seeking ahead to Hungary, which must be a much better weekend for us.”

Stoffel Vandoorne (eleventh): “It is a disgrace to the moment once more complete just exterior the points – but there are a lot of positives to choose away from this weekend. The rate we showed in the race currently was quite encouraging: to operate as close as we did to the two Force Indias and a Williams on a circuit like this is a real beneficial. Not anything went beautifully in the race – my pitstop did not go far too easily, so I arrived out aspect by aspect with Felipe and missing a position. That was a disgrace, for the reason that there was absolutely a chance to complete ahead of him for the reason that our rate was quite related to his. However, no points – but currently was quite encouraging, and I am certain our time will appear.”

Eric Boullier, McLaren-Honda Racing Director: “From the back of the grid Fernando manufactured a solid start out, carving his way as a result of the backmarkers, and was keeping a strong 14th position by one particular-third distance. Meanwhile Stoffel was keeping a regular ninth position. It was hence quite disappointing when Fernando was compelled to retire on lap 35, as a result of a fall in gas force that led to a decline of electricity. We’re nonetheless investigating the cause of that failure. With ten laps to go, Stoffel was locked in a battle for tenth position with Felipe [Massa]. In the close his hopes of scoring a world championship issue have been to appear to naught, but his was a strong and remarkable drive even so. From here we go to the Hungaroring, above whose lots of twists and turns, connected as they are by small straights, we hope to be a minor a lot more aggressive.”

Yusuke Hasegawa, Honda R&D Co. Ltd Head of F1 Undertaking & Executive Main Engineer: “This weekend finished on a aggravating observe as Stoffel just missed out on a championship issue at our property race. Up until currently, things had been seeking up and we had been demonstrating some encouraging rate. Stoffel begun his race from a great position and he showed aggressive rate in the midfield during the race. He pushed as tricky as feasible so hence it was disappointing he concluded eleventh just exterior of the points. Though Fernando had to start out from back of the grid, he improved his position throughout the initial aspect of the race, and was close to Stoffel. Sadly, he had a gas method-connected issue and had to retire from the race. We are now investigating the cause. Owning claimed this, I nonetheless consider we leave Silverstone with some positivity. We had improved rate and our competiveness has also improved above the last handful of races. Future up is Hungary which is a track that fits our deal much better, so I hope we can have a great race. We will go on our finest efforts towards scoring some points at the upcoming round.”

Tim Williams/Action Plus by using Getty Photos)

Toro Rosso

Daniil Kvyat (15th): “Even if I was able to go on just after the collision with Carlos, my race was also compromised and I am naturally not content with what transpired. I was ahead and on a soiled line, so it can be ordinary to have some understeer, and then, all of a unexpected, the crash took position. These things transpire and in some cases they’re unavoidable. It is a real disgrace, as this has harmed the two us motorists and the group, which I sense quite sorry for. There is certainly not substantially a lot more that can be accomplished now, we just have to have to master from this and move ahead.”

Carlos Sainz (DNF): “I am not heading to say substantially about what transpired currently on lap one with Daniil, the images discuss for by themselves – it can be just quite aggravating to have not concluded one more race. Of system I am let down and it can be not the way you want your race to go, but I just have to have to consider of it as a phase of my calendar year – with 20 races, you will find usually heading to be this form of scenario at some issue… Which is why I am not anxious and quite relaxed. Luckily, it can be a weekend exactly where not a whole lot of points have been on the desk, specially for the reason that we needed some tough eventualities like rain but this by no means transpired, so we did not get rid of that substantially. The only significant disgrace is that we have not scored any points once more this weekend, but we have to have to keep our heads up – I’d like to cheer the mechanics and the complete group up as they need to also be let down about this and with any luck , in Hungary we can switch it all around and have a great race weekend as a group. I am self-assured it will be much better upcoming time out.”

David Davies/PA Photos by using Getty Photos

Haas

Kevin Magnussen (twelfth): “I felt the Toro Rosso strike my tire at the start out, but nothing transpired. Luckily, there was no puncture. I just did not really get the initial lap. It was usually heading to be tricky when you start out on the reverse strategy on the harder tire. That initial stint form of held me out of the points. The rate was great in the car, I just had to do a prolonged stint on the tires and wait around for the guys in entrance to pit and then place in a whole lot of great lap instances. I arrived back a bit at the close, but it was not plenty of. When you happen to be fighting exterior of the points, it can be by no means that exciting. Even now, I will choose the positives. We have been quick and had great rate in the race.”

Romain Grosjean (13th): “Difficult day in the workplace. We did not have substantially rate currently with either tire. I received caught in website traffic originally, which killed the supersoft. I pitted for the softs, and once more, website traffic all the way. We tried a gamble at the close putting new supersofts on, hoping that some thing would transpire at the entrance, but nothing did. We just have to have to understand why our race rate was not as great as it was in qualifying and go from there.”

Guenther Steiner, Workforce Principal: “It is been an average weekend. We did not get in the points, but Kevin’s race rate was great. We missing a handful of positions at the start out and which is exactly where we finished up. All over again, we had a related race rate to all our opponents – we have been just in a worse place. I am nonetheless self-assured in our car. In the midfield, we can battle. This time we have been just at the lessen close of our group. It improvements all around each weekend. It is not what we required, but nonetheless, we concluded with the two cars. On we go to Hungary.”

Tim Goode/PA Photos by using Getty Photos

Renault

Nico Hulkenberg (6th): “We are quite content with the race result currently. P6 is a significant success for the group. We have been able to get a great lap in qualifying and then to carry it as a result of to the race. We had a solid race rate, and have been able to keep ahead of the two Force Indias, which is definitely beneficial. We missing some electricity at the close, specially down the straights, which manufactured it a lot easier for Daniel to move me, but then we attained back a position from Seb [Vettel] when he had his trouble. General this is a quite beneficial result. The new updates labored definitely nicely, we have been able to force the car and I am definitely happy for the group.”

Jolyon Palmer (DNF): “Heading out at the start out of the race is definitely aggravating. We had a hydraulic leak on the initial lap, which is fairly gutting as I consider we have been in a great position. Eleventh with new tyres, a car that was doing the job definitely nicely with heaps of different solutions on strategy: all was seeking great to get some points. I have had so substantially assist all weekend that it would have been sweet to get them here. All the exact we can see that the car has taken a phase ahead, but we just have to have to appear at trustworthiness now.”

Tim Goode/PA Photos by using Getty Photos

Sauber

Pascal Wehrlein (seventeenth): “The race did not go as we hoped it would. When the basic safety car arrived out at the starting of the race, we manufactured the decision to total the mandatory pit quit and adjust to medium tyres. I then returned to the pit one particular lap later in purchase to swap to comfortable tyres, with the target to drive on them until the close of the race. However the tyres missing a lot more and a lot more grip, owing to which I had to adjust once more. I hope that we have a much better weekend in Budapest.”

Marcus Ericsson (14th): “It was a relatively great race for me. I maximized the general performance of the car and my lap instances have been respectable, specially throughout the second fifty percent of the race. Of system we want to be larger up and fight for points, but our rate was not aggressive plenty of for that this weekend. We did regulate to make the finest of it – the group did a great job in improving upon the car set-up during our stay in Silverstone. We have to keep pushing now in purchase to have a much better weekend in Budapest.”

Clive Mason/Getty Photos

Pirelli

Mario Isola, Head of Auto Racing: “The British Grand Prix contained a sting in the tail for the two Ferrari motorists, with Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen the two regretably going through a tyre issue close to the tricky-fought complete which is a real pity and we will naturally now appear into just why this transpired jointly with the group. The race was operate at an extraordinary rate this calendar year, with the fastest lap becoming nearly 5 seconds more rapidly than the 2016 equal.”

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