#((i've got a theater in the next town over but i've never heard of it being haunted-but hey every theater is supposed to have a ghost!))

[invisible-storyteller]

Because you can't spell 'emissary' without Mas(on)

They eventually cornered the woman in the movie theater as the last screening of the night was coming to an end.

"What do you want?" Liam demanded in lieu of greeting.

"Excuse me?"

The woman didn't seem all that surprised to be approached by three teenage boys in the nearly empty establishment, and Mason couldn't even call her confused or intimidated. Who would she be intimidated by, anyway? Liam with his 5’6 feet, Corey with his noodle arms or Mason with his Heelys? The widening of her eyes was probably for show, as if an innocent look could distract them from the fact that she had been observing Corey in his workplace all evening without purchasing a single ticket.

"You've been following us all week," Liam cut to the chase while doing what Mason dubbed as his alpha posturing, “Who are you and what do you want?"

The woman sized the three of them up and smiled. The fact that she didn't put up a fight was the first foreboding sign.

"Eleanor," The woman introduced herself with an outstretched arm, but neither of them shook her hand.

"What do you want... ma’am?”

"I'm here out of mere curiosity."

Mason caught Liam's wary look before his friend straightened up - the new stance making him an imposing 5’7 almost.

"You're stalking three underage boys," Liam accused, "We should call the police."

"You won't," Eleanor stated confidently, and then quickly diverted back to Liam’s original question, "I heard that the true alpha left Beacon Hills and now his first beta is in charge of the territory. I had to see it for myself."

"Why?" Corey asked, simple but to the point. They had already guessed that she was in the ‘inner circle’, but the confirmation wasn't promising either way.

"To know if the town is safe," The woman replied disdainfully, "And I got my answer. This place is clearly unprotected."

"We can protect it," Liam insisted, but his voice wavered a bit higher in pitch like when he was still mutating.

"You?" The woman laughed into his face, "You're what? Fourteen?”

"Sixteen,” Mason corrected, earning a pitying grimace from the woman.

“And I'm an alpha," Liam declared, then after some thinking, added: “In theory."

"And where's your pack, alpha?" The woman taunted, to which Liam instinctively looked over his shoulders at Mason and Corey, "Those two, huh? I've never seen such a small pack."

"What do you want?" Liam repeated, his tough act visibly faltering.

"This town attracts the supernatural," The woman reminded them sharply as if they didn’t know it from first-hand experience, “When the next bad thing comes, who's gonna deal with it? Three boys still in high school with mediocre grades and a lacrosse team that only wins because there’s only one rival school in this godforsaken town?"

“My grades are good,” Mason interjected, not that the woman cared.

“You don't have an alpha, you don't have an emissary, you don't have anything a stable pack needs."

Mason put a reassuring hand on one of Liam’s shoulders, and so did Corey.

"You don't know him, and you don't know us," Mason said, looking challengingly at the woman, whose lips ticked up into a sneer.

"Then by all means, prove me wrong," She dramatized (she must have been a theater kid in her golden days), and just then, the last visitors of the day flooded out of the rooms and the woman faded into the crowd.

The three boys looked at each other in matching puzzlement as Liam voiced their unanimous thought: "What the hell was that?"

***

"And she knew about Scott leaving the territory?"

"Yes."

The face Deaton made in response was disconcerting, but honestly, coming to Deaton in the first place was a hapless move since it was always closely followed by the unavoidable Fuckening™.

"Then, I have good news and bad news."

"Bad news first," Mason asked apprehensively.

“She's probably an emissary.”

"How is that bad news?" Corey questioned aloud.

"She's here to gather intel. Often, when a territory loses its alpha, other packs will claim the territory as their own. Her pack is most likely looking to expand and they sent their emissary into town to see if there are any competitors."

"Intense,” Mason noted with feeling.

"What is the good news?" Liam asked with hope naively glinting in his eyes.

"She believes that you're weak.” If Deaton was expecting some kind of a celebration at the reveal, he had to be sorely disappointed.

“That’s your definition of good news?”

"Yes. It means she doesn't know what you're capable of,” Deaton elaborated with a blank face that could have meant anything between disapproval of their mental sluggishness or happiness at the sudden realization that he had some left-over chicken at home, “You can still surprise her. The reason why she’s been following you is because she isn't sure of your strength yet. You still have time."

"Time for what?" Liam asked back unsurely.

"To sell a lie. To make your pack seem stronger than it is."

“Is there some kind of a supernatural steroid for that?” Mason inquired, to which Deaton gave him a simple “Are you stupid?” look, which was his most frequently used expression around the pack. “Better to know.”

"Liam, she was sadly right,” Deaton continued, “Your pack currently has three members in total.”

"Four," Liam corrected, and Corey and Mason smartly shut their mouths.

"You can't fight another pack with four people, Liam."

“Depends on the size of the pack,” Mason interjected, to which Corey nodded in support.

“Do you know which pack she belongs to?”

“N-“

“She had a tattoo,” Mason recalled, which seemed to surprise everyone in the room, “On her hand. Three parallel lines and a circle.”

“The Donoghue pack," Deaton nodded pensively, "They counted thirteen members the last time I heard.”

“We’re screwed,” Corey muttered under his breath.

"And you? Can't you be our emissary, and I don't know, talk to her?" Liam asked Deaton, although he wasn't certain he could share Scott's emissary like that.

"An emissary has to be someone you trust. Someone you're close to as they will be your chief confidant. Does that description fit me?"

Liam strategically didn't answer. 

"And if it was me?" Mason suggested, earning a frown from Liam, a shocked gape from Corey and a considering look from Deaton.

"It is a big responsibility," Deaton cautioned, because out of the unholy trinity of gaslight-gatekeep-girlboss, he was at least two of those things.

"We already have a big responsibility," Mason argued, motioning to the helltown that was unfortunately protected by teenagers in the absence of capable adults, "The question is: How fast can you make me into an emissary?"

"Enough,” Deaton replied, which was approximately as much as they could hope for.

“Alright. When do we start?” Mason asked, excitement mixing with dawning trepidation.

Deaton shrugged. “Now is good for me.”

***

“We told you we could handle it!” Liam groused petulantly as Stiles parked his jeep at the preserve’s entrance.

“Yeah, and I saw right through your lying asses.”

“Scott isn’t here,” Theo pointed out with a complacent grin.

“He has too much faith in Liam,” Stiles cut back like the beta wasn’t even there, “At least now it’s not a pack of alphas invading but why does anyone want this cursed town for themselves? I tell you why. Because they are insane.”

“Wait, why don’t you have faith in me?” Liam got stuck on Stiles’s first sentence.

“I don’t have faith in any of you. Maybe Mason.”

Theo looked already bored with the conversation so he asked: “Can someone tell me why we're going to the preserve again?”

“Because that bitch is an emissary,” Stiles answered shortly as they piled out of the jeep.

“What does that mean?” Liam whispered to his best friend on their way into the woods.

“It means she’ll be looking for the Nemeton,” Mason replied while they began to search for the magical stump as well. Some teenagers spent their Friday nights getting shit-faced at a house party, Mason and his friends spent it hunting down malevolent druids and stopping them from draining semi-sentient plants. 

As their group entered deeper into the woods, Corey brought up the one crucial detail they hadn’t agreed on yet: “Guys, what’s the plan?”

"We're going to bash her head in, dig an eight-feet deep hole where we hide the body, kill a bunny and bury it five feet above it so police dogs will find the animal carcass only, and get away with the perfect murder,” Stiles outlined his plan passionately while the others looked on in bafflement.

"Or... we could just talk to her?" Mason offered, to which Corey and Liam nodded along concedingly.

Stiles acknowledged their decision with his eyes squinted judgementally, and sighed. “My idea is better but sure. Let’s play the pacifist. That worked out well in the past.”

They didn’t have to wander much around after that: all of them had (unfortunately) been to the Nemeton before, so even if not by conscious navigation, but they soon reached its vicinity and stumbled upon the foreign emissary, whose surprise only showed on her face for one fleeting second. 

“Oh, look, the middle school finally arrived,” The woman scoffed but her head tilted questioningly at Stiles’s presence, “You are new.”

"I'm the muscle man,” Stiles stated with his aluminium baseball bat cradled like an infant in his hands. With him, the whole group gained +1 skill point at being threatening, making it 2 points in total.

"Shouldn't you have muscle for that?" The woman mocked in return.

"I'm the bat man then."

"He's Batman," Liam declared assertively.

“He looks more like a Robin,” Corey mumbled off-handedly.

“Hey! I’m not Robin!”

"I’m with Stiles on this one. Can't we just slash her throat?" Theo interrupted surly, reminding the group of their original situation.

The comment made the woman straighten up, too, with a dark look in her eyes that was partially achieved by her shadowy mascara. It seemed that her hand was reaching for a small satchel at her side - no doubt containing mountain ash that she could cast around herself in a protective circle, which, in this case, would shield her from exactly one person in their group.

"You think this is going to scare me?" She smiled derisively, dragging her gaze over each member of their pack.

"I know why you want this land,” Mason spoke up, both to direct her attention to him and commence the negotiations at last, “There's a special connection that can be established between an emissary and a Nemeton, and this bond can grant incredible power to the person wielding magic. Guess what? I have that power."

"You’re not even a proper emissary,” The woman smiled condescendingly as she took a step closer. Corey instinctually stepped in front of Mason, but the woman swept him out of the way and into a nearby tree with a flick of her hand.

"The pack regards me as the human connection,” Mason countered while watching Theo pull Corey up to his feet from the corner of his eyes, “That makes me their emissary.”

“You still don’t know what being an emissary really means.”

“I’m an advisor. And now I advise you to leave our territory.”

“How are you going to fight me, boy? You might have studied the books, but you don’t have my experience.”

“True,” Mason conceded as the woman got into dangerous proximity. “But you failed to do one of the most important things when engaging in a fight.”

“Yeah?” The woman humoured him, “And what’s that?”

Mason looked around the clearing, and upon his signal, Nolan and Chris Argent emerged from the trees with arrows aimed steadily at the woman's head. Their appearance halted Eleanor’s advance as well as the air in her lungs.

“You forgot to check who you stand against,” Mason stated, and he could feel everyone gather behind him in a silent expression of their unity. “You want to cast a mountain ash circle that won’t be effective against the arrows or the chimeras in our pack. You cannot run away because you don’t know these woods like we do, and you can’t fight us all because we have you outnumbered. So what does your experience say? Is it still worth attacking?”

The woman contemplated the alternatives Mason presented with begrudging realization and wavering confidence in the face of their pack's unified spirit. Her following retreat made her last words sound pathetic and desperate rather than scary as she shouted:

"My pack is still stronger than yours! You better keep a close eye on your precious town!”

Mason looked to his side where Liam had stepped forward, the two of them standing shoulder-to-shoulder and just as undeterred as they had always been.

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Mason smiled at a proudly grinning Liam before turning back to the withdrawing woman, “I always stand by my friends, and I will do whatever to protect them. Can you say that about your pack?”

The woman huffed but didn’t waste any more words on them. She vanished from the preserve with one last feeble threat thrown over her shoulder, and Chris Argent followed her with the reassurance that he would make sure she truly left the town. Once she had disappeared from sight, the entire pack walked up to Mason to deliver their congratulations and personal remarks about the standoff ("I legit thought she was gonna kill you, man") while Mason tried to laugh off all the excess adrenaline.

“That was a really great bluff, too," Stiles complimented with one friendly slap against Mason’s arm, whose confusion must have been evident if Stiles felt the need to elaborate, "You know, about that thing with the Nemeton."

“That wasn’t a bluff,” Mason clarified as Stiles’s eyes widened into saucers.

“You’re telling me you can actually harvest the Nemeton’s power?”

“Why am I the only one who reads things?” Mason sighed indignantly at all the shocked expressions around him.

“Because you are our emissary and nobody could do it better,” Liam stated with one arm casually thrown around Mason’s shoulder, making the young emissary laugh.

“Hell nah.”

On their way back to Stiles’s jeep, everyone was talking either about whether Eleanor's threat should be taken seriously or the closest pizza place that still delivered at this time of the night, and only Mason seemed hyped about all the implications of becoming an official pack.

“Oh, hey, by the way. What is going to be our pack symbol?” Mason asked, enthused at the prospect of getting a tattoo. “I was thinking we could do little paw prints-“

“NO!” Everyone shouted as they crowded into the car and dropped the subject altogether to Mason's disappointment. 

As they pulled out of the parking lot, Liam nudged his shoulder placatingly. “I accept your advice about anything but this.”

“Okay, that's fair," Mason nodded with a bummed sigh. 

“Do you really want to be my emissary?”

The question seemed so absurd after everything that happened that Mason had to roll his eyes fondly at his friend and give a similar nudge back. “We look out for each other, remember?”

Liam's lips stretched into an ecstatic beam right as Stiles cursed loudly in the front: “Fuck, I think that bitch cut my breaks.”

(For the Mason Week held by @masonhewittappreciation, because there simply aren't enough stories with emissary!Mason.)

#mason hewitt #masonweek2024 #emissary!mason #teen wolf puppy pack

[fiberslut]

Apparently the multiverse is real

Chapter 5: Brooklyn baby

Masterlist

previous | next

Pairing: the avengers x reader

Disclaimer: English is not my first language so you may find some funny words/sentences or broken grammar in here. I'll say sorry in advance but I've tried my best.

Summary: You accidentally travel to Marvel universe(not earth-616), but luckily you've got your phone with you. You may ask what do you mean luckily, just read this fiction.

Warning: spoiler of Endgame

What am I going to do with my life? America Chavez is the only nearest possible way that I can go home. I mean I like being here don't get me wrong, but it would be great just to know that you can still go home. Now I feel lost.

Tony is still in total silence. It's like he's thinking right now.

We sit there quietly, in the car, until we arrive at the tower.

"Are you ok Y/N?" Tony asks

"I.. um I don't know Tony"

"Hey it's ok, we'll figure it out. Don't worry" I never think that I would ever see Tony Stark showing empathy. But right now that's all I really want to hear

"Thanks Tony. You would be a great dad you know that?" I try to cheer him up

"I mean, I never heard anyone tell me that I'm not good at something.. oh wait maybe cooking" Looks like he's feeling better now

"Let's get inside dad. I'm so tired right now"

"Yeah I agree" Then Tony opens the car door and I walk out and follow him inside the tower

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

The next morning

I woke up at 9 AM and felt starving. So I walk out to the kitchen, intending to find some cereal to eat, but a note on the fridge just got my attention.

'Sending some Capsicle, hope you feel better, Tony xx'

Did Tony Stark just use xx? I totally got a goosebump.

"Good Morning Miss Stark"

I got scared and almost throw a glass of milk at the source of the sound.

Oh, I got it now. CAPsicle? Damn you Tony.

There he is, Captain America, standing there in my living area. He looks so good. Better but not bulgier than in the comics.

"Hi. You must be Steve Rogers right?" I ask him

"Yes. And you must be Y/N Stark, right? Wow you look nothing like him, oh and nice to finally meet you" Steve says as he walks to me and gives me a handshake.

Oh my. His hand is so big and so strong.

No Y/N. You will not simp over a man that aged almost 100 years. It's too early for that.

"Um, what are you doing here Mr.Rogers? Are you going to have a meeting with my dad?" I ask curiously

"No. Your dad is out of town. He asked me to babysit you" He answer casually

"Did he really use the word 'babysit'? He knows I'm a fully grown woman right?" This is so embarrassing

"Unfortunately yes. But you know Tony. And you can just call me Steve. Mr.Rogers is my dad" He smiles

"And you can call me Y/N" I smile back at him

"So what's the plan for today Y/N" He asks

"I don't know, you tell me, you're here to babysit me" I tell him as I eat some grape

"Hmm I really don't know what people these days usually do, I mean I slept for 70 years, so I think my idea of hanging out would be so different from yours" He tries to come up with new plans

"Okay okay, what about I show you around? What do you say Steve?"

"Yeah that would be a good idea, but don't tell your dad that it turns out to be me who got babysat"

"Hahaha sure" I wink at him

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

The first place we go to is the theater. Because I'm super curious about movies in this universe. I mean these people have their real-life superheroes. What would they want to watch as movies?

Hmm interesting. Most of the movies are all about superheroes in the past like Phone Ranger and Frog-man.

"Whoa, I think this movie looks good" Steve point at 'The Great Kingo' Poster.

Oh boy. But I kinda wanna know what the movie's going to be about so why not?

"Yeah, let's watch it" I agree with him and buy 2 tickets for us

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

"Wow the bombing in that movie looks so real, I wonder how many TNT they used?" Steve wonders while we're walking out of the theater

"Steve it's called the special effect" This poor man really needs to catch up on a lot of things

"What? You're saying it's not real? But it looks so real" He still denies it

"Yeah, Steve. A lot of movies these days use them to create what seems impossible to make it possible

"Where should we go next?" I ask him to change the subject

"We should find someplace to eat, I'm thinking Thai food, I have a list of things people recommended for me to try and I haven't checked out Thai food yet, what do you think?" Steve proposed some ideas

"Yeah I think that would be great. I love Thai food. But can you handle spicy food?"

"Come on, I fought aliens from outer space, nothing I can't handle"

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

45 minutes later

"Oh god, I NEED more water" Steve asks for water after one bite of Somtum

"Is this the same man that lifted Mjölnir?" I giggle and pass him some water

He drinks 2 jugs of water.

"Wait, how did you know that I can lift Mjölnir?" Steve puts down a jug and asks me with knitting brows

Oh crap

"Umm. Tony told me about it"

"Hmm. That makes sense"

Phew. Lucky me that Steve Rogers in this universe can lift Mjölnir, or else I would have no excuses.

After that, we ordered more food and ate. I asked him many questions I was curious about while reading comics.

"So when you're not superheroing what do you do?"

"I workout and train a lot"

"But what do you do for a living? Do superheroes have salary?"

"Well I got my salary from the government and SHIELD"

He asked me about MIT, what's it like to attend university? So I had to make up a lot of stories to tell him. I may have to write down some of these lies in case someone asks me so I can answer the same answer.

"I have some places to show you" Steve tells me as we leave the restaurant

"Where?"

"Just follow me" He says and takes my hand

We walk hand in hand for about 10 minutes. And then I see it. We're in Brooklyn. 166 Montague St.

"I come here a lot" Steve says

"Is this used to be your apartment?" I ask

"Yeah and Bucky's too"

We look at the building that is now a management company.

"Do you miss your home, Steve?"

"I do. A lot. But I can't do anything about it Y/N. I chose my mission and that lead me here. I think God sent me here for a reason. And that reason is to help people here. I think I can do more here than I was in that time. That is how I cope with my missing home problem" He tells me and smiles

Maybe he's right. Maybe God did send me here for a reason. Now I know why Tony sent Cap to babysit me.

Taglist

@ayoelouise

@potatopfft

@welconme-notreally

@niccino-apino

@emily-roberts

@local-mr-frog

#the avengers x you #the avengers x reader #the avengers x y/n #bucky barns x reader #doctor strange x reader #imagine #peter parker x reader #steve rogers x reader #tony stark x daughter

[liskantope]

Happy Winter Sostice everyone!

On past solstices I've often posted "Happy Solstice!" and mentioned something about how one day I would find a way to attend some sort of Secular Solstice event with rationalists. Well, now that I live in reasonable driving distance from New York, it's finally happened, the weekend before last (evening of the 10th). While the experience was anticlimactic in some ways, I still think it's worth recounting at least for myself to look back on if for no one else.

The event took place in a theater in a dense part of NYC and driving there was... a mistake. This wound up overshadowing the event itself both in terms of time/energy and (almost) in terms of giving me a memorable experience and feeling of accomplishment -- given how doubtful it was at one time in my life that I was ever going to be a competent driver given some of my neurological difficulties, every additional intense driving scenario that I've managed to get through with flying colors over the past three years since I got my second car and first began to do city driving feels like a serious victory.

Long story short, I forgot to figure in parking to my timetable for arriving at the event and, although I got to the correct street at around the start of the event, finding a parking garage that wasn't full and/or going to cost me over $50 was a challenge, one which involved 5-7-point turns each time I needed to change course, with each "point" of the turn accompanied by waiting for a sequence of pedestrians or cyclists to pass in front of and behind me. In the end I found a garage that would take my car for two hours for a charge of $30, which I've heard since then is quite a bargain for parking in NYC. I rushed into the theater around 20 minutes late, but they were only just getting started, by singing "We'll Meet Again", followed by "Still Alive", so maybe they figured that others would have vehicle/transportation issues as well.

I stayed near the back and eventually spoke to the people sitting near me but only them, apart from during the intermission when I walked around and introduced myself to a few more people. My real prospect of socializing and getting to know these rationalists was the afterparty, which I knew would take place at a different location in New Jersey shortly after the main event. (There was also going to be an un-conference the next day, but I didn't want to deal with lodging and a full weekend out of town and planned to instead drive back home very late after the afterparty.) As it turned out, my experience of the afterparty never happened, again because of my car being involved. I knew I had to check it out of the parking garage before the two hours were up, and I was able to make the lengthy drive into the afterparty location, driving under the Hudson to do so (there's something that always feels very momentous and exciting about crossing the Hudson for me), but parking anywhere reasonably near it proved to be completely impossible: the only parking garage I could locate anywhere near it turned out to no longer exist, and meanwhile, circling over and over waiting for street parking to open (you really have to be there and ready to act the moment someone else leaves a street spot) wasn't getting me anywhere (in more senses than one), and meanwhile I was tired and very hungry, having still not managed to get dinner. I finally had to admit defeat, embracing the silver lining that I would only be driving home a little uncomfortably late instead of during the wee hours of the morning. So, in the end that was at least five hours of driving for an event that lasted less than two hours for me. Next time (like if I decide to attend the next solstice event in June), I'm definitely traveling by train.

Despite coming away feeling disappointed that I didn't get more out of all the trouble I went to, there's something enjoyable in basking in the freedom I have in my life now, even when I've generally preferred the idea of being more tied down by this age: I can very spontaneously decide to drive over two hours away for just an evening with total strangers and pay $65 to do so ($30 for the parking and $35 for a ticket to the event) and not have to worry terribly much about the possibility of needing to pay more if anything goes wrong. That's a level of freedom tons of people I know have never really had, that I might not have forever and may one day be looking back upon nostalgically.

Anyway, the actual event.

Complemented with the afterparty or a chance to really get to mingle with the crowd, I think it may have been a fantastic experience. As it happened, I found it an inspiring and very intriguing experience with the potential to be much more if I weren't such an outsider and if I'd had the chance to properly mingle. The crowd of people, to start with, were in some sense the first roomful of self-identifying (aspiring) rationalists I've ever met in meatspace, or at least I think to a greater extent than those I've met at SSC/ACX meetups (those crowds are united in having some medium-to-strong interest in Scott Alexander's writing, but this is distinct from being fully acquainted with or part of the rationalist community). And... I don't quite know the right words to articulate this, but... they looked and presented and behaved exactly like I always imagined a group of rationalists to come across: in terms of age (from 20's to early 40's but hardly anyone looked older than that) and degree of unconventional presentation (moderate, nothing really flashy, but many somewhat unconventional but looking very comfortable in their own skin, a great deal of variety in styles). Since I didn't do much direct interaction with them, I can't speak much to their personal mannerisms, but my general impression of that was very similar. Overall I'd feel quite comfortable socializing in a group like that.

There was no program posted anywhere that I could find (nor has there been, since), and I really didn't know much of what to expect. I had seen video footage of a Secular Solstice in the Bay Area a few years ago, which suggested that most of the event would be songs interspersed with readings, which was exactly what this event turned out to be. The readings were of parts of essays written by various prominent members of the rationalist community (one was by Scott Alexander but I didn't remember it). I believe the only person who came onto the stage to read their own writing was Zvi Mowshowitz, a name I vaguely knew as I've seen some of his articles pop up from time to time show up in my Wordpress reading feed. Apart from Zvi, I didn't encounter any figures I was familiar with (it occurred to me that Aella might be there, as I believe she lives in the area and does some socializing with the rationalist community, but I didn't notice any sign of her).

But what the event was really about was music, and that was by far the most impressive aspect of it. There was a full band on stage as well as the guy running the event and a couple of other organizers who took turns leading the singing. Some songs, like the first two plus at least one Beatles song ("Here Comes the Sun"), are fairly well known, but what really impressed me was how many songs were written by rationalist community members themselves, and they were good! As in, really good. Both in the poetry of their lyrics and in their musicality. Their general messages and turns of phrase were calibrated at just the right balance of being cerebral and beautifully moving (many about the wonders of technological progress, but also a lot of the content was about groping toward societal progress and a culture based on love and togetherness). I would love a list of the songs and where to find lyrics and recordings of them and so on, but again, nothing in the way of a program seems to be posted anywhere. Lyrics flashed on a big screen; audience participation was of course highly encouraged and really enjoyable for me. Altogether the musical aspect made me compare this experience very favorably to my recent (since 2019) experiences with Unitarian Universalist services: although my very favorite aspect of my "new" UU congregation that I had an ongoing but rocky relationship with was the amazing quality of the music at their services, I found this Solstice event a more spiritually gripping experience than probably any UU service I've ever been to. This is despite the vibe at UU being more overtly about spirituality, and being very touchy-feely (to use a term I'm not super fond of, but after someone suggested it to me it's hard for me to think of something that better describes the more recent UU vibe). Nobody at Solstice appeared to crying or in the thralls of profound emotions or anything transcendent exactly, but everyone appeared to be very earnest and serious (though having fun in the lighter parts) and compared to 2019-and-later UU, I felt a stronger sense of emotionally vibing with a community; this is despite also knowing I was a pretty big outsider who didn't actually know a single person in the room.

As a side note, whoever put the program together did an excellent job of setting it up to convey the sensation of going through a very long night but seeing the dawn ahead, which is only what's most appropriate for celebrating the winter solstice (and at an event taking place well after sunset). I like to imagine the summer solstice version having quite a different feel and hope I might get to find out in six months.

Overall, interesting and promising. Hard to say, but maybe I'll be back in June.

#personal story #rationalist community #secular solstice #driving #unitarian universalism

[gaybabything]

Nooppeee I don't have the money to go to any professionals about it atm, but I do definitely want to one day.

Also, yeah I miss high school a lot. Junior year I was in band and drama and had a bunch of really good teachers and friends. It was so fun! My... senior year was also the COVID year so it got all messed up. So, I really liked it before then? Elementary was a whole other mess- I was bullied pretty bad so that wasn't very fun.

Do you have any stories that nobody would belive unless they were there to see it? How about any place that makes you really happy/nostalgic? (The woods behind my old childhood home is full of little secrets that make me happy and remind me of my childhood ^-^)

-🌻

The RAADS Test is a free online assessment! I highly recommend taking it! My score was 211, and I make like all of my friends take it to compare scores :)

Just last week I was in our auditorium after school to help work on some props for our next show. It was me and 1 other person, and we were on the stage getting ready to leave. Then, we heard what sounded like someone running down the aisle towards the stage. But there was just no one there. All the lights were on, the entire building fully lit, and we were center stage so we could see the entire house. It sounded like someone just full on sprinting from one side of the seats to the other, then up and down the aisles, and just all over the house. And this is a VERY distinct sound. You literally can not mistake it for anything else. There was no one there. No one was in the curtains/backstage, no one was in the house, no one on the catwalk, no one in the pit, and no one was in the entry way. We were the only people in the entire building. While we were looking around and calling out for people the sound never stopped. It moved all over the house and didn't stop until another one of our classmates came in through the side door that led outside. It stopped as soon as they reached the stage. Never experienced anything like that in the 3 years I've been helping in this auditorium before. I'm just assuming it was a ghost cause we don't have another explanation for it, and theaters tend to be haunted ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Our old theater teacher was also a massive asshole who would make kids do crazy stupid things, like carrying a giant 3.5ft by 8ft solid wooden door up an actively falling apart ladder 15 feet in the air. (Yes that actually happened, we were genuinely shocked no one got killed.) And he required we put in a number of after school hours, which would lead to kids being forced to stay past 1 a.m. on school nights or he'd fail them. He once made us all stay til 2 a.m. on a school night to finish a strike because he didn't want to deal with it in the morning, and threatened to fail the kids if they left (we believed him, cause he'd done it before). I would not be surprised if he did kill someone in that auditorium and now it's haunted.

As for nostalgic places? Definitely the roller rink in my town :) Hasn't changed at all since way before I was born, and it's always really fun! And also the museum in my town! I've been volunteering there since I was little and it's kinda like a second home! The soccer fields are also nice to go to every now and then, since I grew up playing there :)

Have you ever had to go to the ER? (I've been twice, at age 3 and age 5. The only thing I really remember is that the beds were super comfortable. Also it's ok if you don't want to answer this one!)

Do you have any crazy stories? Or any stories you want to tell that are even semi interesting? I just love hearing stories 💛💛💛

#🌻

[poshtae]

Permission to Dance on Stage Day 1 Endiment

Joon: it's really time for us to say goodbye for tonight.

Hobi: it's been a long time. i've been waiting for this moment for so long. for the last two years, i learned how precious you are. i learned how grateful i am that you exist. i missed you so much, i was so frustrated. i really wanted to tell you guys on the first day we meet again.. thank you so much for today. thank you, army. i love you! (makes a heart & blows a kiss)

Jimin: (during the pandemic) i would tell myself. it will be alright.. (let's wait for the) next one, the next one, the next one.. and finally! we got to meet you today! i really missed you, army. i'll never forget this. thank you so much. thank you so much for waiting. we live for all of you here. thank you, thank you thank you, i love. you.

Jungkook: i just feel so grateful. i really missed you, and.. these moments being with you.. it's amazing/emotional to feel this again in my life. i (tried to) give you my best today.. love you all so, so much. thank you!

Seokjin: i was always laughing and happy. everyday, i thought that i was as happy as i can be, but now (that) i meet army and have a concert, i've changed my mind. being here with you right now, this is the biggest happiness of my life! i love you army, you're my happiness.

Yoongi: everyone, i almost cried when i heard ON today. i finally realized it was really happening, and i thought, this is what my work is all about! i think we are finally where we should be. i hope we can continue to be together, just as we are! thank you army!

Taehyung: sorry army, sorry bts.. holy shit! damn! listen, in korea, i remember sitting on a couch because i had hurt my leg.. but, now i'm standing! it still hurts, so i can't go 3000%, but singing and dancing makes me happy! if army is happy, i want nothing more. i see you're happy, and i'm happy. don't worry about me. i love you always. i'll be back. thank you! we purple you!

Joon: fyi, i didn't come up with any comments because i just wanted to do it freestyle. and thanks to you guys, my english got a lot better than two years. so here's what it is. this morning, i was in the bus with the brothers coming to rehearsal in so-fi stadium and i just looked out the window.. the scenery of LA, a beautiful town, was just passing by. and i just felt so strange because.. you know, i just remembered all the rage, the anger, the anxiety, the desperation for these 2 years when we released dynamite, LGO, butter, PTD. I was sad, i was so down. but as i looked out the window.. it felt like nothing! it's so strange, time's so fast.. i just couldn't believe we were actually coming, meeting you in person, face to face, eye to eye. the real (thing) that we had for that goddamn 7 years! and now here we are. you know, it was thanksgiving, and that means we're supposed to be happy, right? a lot of thanksgiving (to you). just (want to) say thank you for coming, for this historical night. on the bus, i really thought i'm definitely going to miss this moment in my 40s, my 50s my 60s. you guys are proof of our existence. of our value, our love, our peace.. you guys are our goddamn truth! we were the bullet, you guys were our proof. we're now truly bulletPROOF.

(ment before i need u)

Hobi: i'm so happy to be here with you! and it's so fun to be singing & dancing with you, army..are you having fun?!

Jimin: from now on, let's always stay together~

Seokjin: if you're happy.. make some noise!

Jungkook: but you guys, i have some sad news. this show is now almost over..

Taehyung: but hopefully, we can see each other again soon..!

Yoongi: and of course we didn't forget, our army watching in youtube theater.. did you guys enjoy the show?!

Joon: let's not hold anything back. thank you so much for coming! we are...

All of them: BTS!

Trans© btstranslation7

#TEARS UN MY EYES RIGHT NOW IM SO HAPPY AND SAD AND I DONT KNOW WHAT IM FEELING #permission to dance on stage #ptd on stage #ot7 #bts #bangtan #Taehyung #namjoon #jungkook #jimin #yoongi #seokjin #hoseok #v #rm #suga #jhope #jin #jk #bts v

[tinyboxxtink]

"Black Magic" *Part 3*

Alright y'all this took me ALL day to write [the entire rest of the story] and it took me an hour and a half to just edit this chapter. So I HOPE you like it. I had to find a breaking point it was getting too long, but the next chapter is coming like...maybe 30 minutes.

EEK!!!

Part 4

Part 2

Tag List

@wanniiieeee

@word-scribbless

@milkshqke

@gibbs274

@chasingeverybreakingwave

@aprildecker-blog

@lolliepopsicle

@stars-in-the-skies-world

@omgsuperstarg

@stars-trash-18

@objection-argumentative

@madamsnape921

-------

After saying goodbye to Maria and the kids Rafael took your hand and you both got in another Uber he had called.

“So where to now?” You asked.

“Well we're going to need somewhere to get this food,” he smiled. “So I'm taking you to my favorite place in the city,”

Soon enough the Uber pulled up in front of Central park. We both got out and walked to the front entrance.

“Central Park is your favorite place in the city?” You asked. “Kind of basic but okay,” you teased.

“Shut up,” he laughed, punching you in the arm playfully. “Wait until you see what part of Central Park.” He took your hand and you walked for a bit until you came across a fountain.

“I mean it's gorgeous but still kind of basic,” you teased some more.

“This is where we're eating lunch carino,” he told you. “The surprise comes after,”

You set up camp on the edge of the fountain and spread out the food. It was enough for a feast. Luckily Maria had included napkins, plates , silverware and sneakily enough she snuck in an old blanket that you could spread out.

“Oh my god.. this is so good,” You said in between mouthfuls of food.

“I told you,” he laughed through a mouthful of his own food.

“No like you don't understand. I've never had food this good,” You insisted.

“Oh no? The fancy lunches from work, not your style?” He smirked.

You stopped eating for a second. Had he really noticed that you took home whatever food the bigwigs never finished? It was kind of a detail that you never had guessed that he would even pay attention to.

“I have no idea what you're talking about,” You innocently replied.

“Sureee…” Rafael nodded with a smile.

“I'm sorry, please don't fire me,” You begged.

“Fire you? I think it's adorable. Trust me I would do the same thing back in my law school days when I had nothing,” He patted your shoulder.

“God do I hear that,” You agreed.

“Wait so you have nothing?” Rafael asked, concerned.

“What? No! Kind of…..I have enough.” You assured him.” It's not like I'm homeless or anything.” Oh my God this is getting worse. “I just mean like, back when I was in college I had even less than I have now.”

“Oh you went to college?” Rafael asked.

“Wow okay counselor I see where the snobbishness is coming back,” You acted offended. And you actually kind of were.

"Oh no no no, mi amor,” He put a hand on your knee, scared he had offended you. “Please don't think that I would ever think down of you. I think you are the most beautiful, smartest caring person in the world.”

He didn't even know you. That was definitely the spell. You sadly shrugged” it's fine,”

“No no what I meant.. I don't know I don't know what I meant,” He shook his head, blushing.

“Yeah you do it's fine you can say it Rafael I'm not going to get offended,” You assured him.

“I just meant... I don't know, or don't understand why somebody with a college degree would be temping, instead of using their degree for a job in their field. I seriously doubt you went to college for temping,”

“Well I don't know if you remember this since it was eons ago before you had money but living in New York is quite expensive.” You half laughed. "And when you have student loans to pay you kind of have to take what you can get even if it's not in your ‘field’,”

“I get it,” He nodded. “I totally get where you're coming from. I'm so sorry I offended you,”

“You know before today I would have stomped off and written you off as just the snob pompous asshole that I thought you were. But after seeing where you came from I know you really mean that,” You smiled.

“So…” he hoped to change the subject. “What exactly is your degree in? Something law related I assume?”

“Why do you assume that?”

“Well.. usually the people that apply to be my intern are only interested in kissing my ass and getting ahead in the lawyer corporate world. But you haven't done that.. Yet,” He raised an eyebrow with a smirk.

“Oh.. yeah.”. you look down at the ground nervously.

“What are you going to kiss my ass now? Because I'll gladly let you do it,” He smiled cheekily.

“No no!” You waved your hands. “I mean that would be nice but--I mean no, what?” You were flustered.

“You're adorable when you're flustered,” He rubbed your bright red cheeks.

“Haha,” you pushed a hair behind your ear. You thought to yourself “Well he's not going to remember any of this anyway so you might as well tell him the truth,”

“Truth is.. I may or may not have manipulated the system to beat out those other snobby law students to get this job,” You admitted, still looking down.

“Really…?” He looked at you suspiciously. “...And why’s that?

“...Because I saw your picture on the file and I thought you were gorgeous and I wanted to see that face everyday,” You blushed intensely, still looking at the ground, not able to tell him in his face..

There was a very long pause and then he put a hand on yours. You slowly looked up at him and he was smiling cutely.

“That is the most adorable thing I've ever heard in my life,” He grinned.

“Really? You think so?” Well obviously he thought so he was programmed to think whatever you did for the adorable duh.

“Yeah I don't think I've ever had a woman try that hard to get my attention. Or want to see me that much, or even think that highly of me,” He grinned.

“I mean it's not really thinking highly of you, just that you’re really attractive,” You laughed.

“Right, of course,” He was blushing even more.

“And that was even before I saw your butt!” You laughed without thinking.. But he really did have the best ass you've ever seen in your entire life. Everyday you walked into that office you just wanted to take a bite of it.

Rafael choked on his food. “I um…” His face was red hot now.. “Thank you?”

“Anyway…” He tried to steer the conversation away from his butt. “You avoided the question,”

“What question?” You asked. Completely in all honestly forgetting what you were talking about. Once you got lost in Rafael's ass your mind kind of went blank completely.

“What iis your degree in?”

“It's embarrassing,” You looked at the ground.

“What? It can't be that bad,” He shook his head.

“Well I say it's embarrassing to someone like you,” You half laughed.

“Someone like me?” He looked offended. “What iis that supposed to mean?”

“I mean I don't.. I mean the person that I thought you were before today,” You grabbed his hand.

“Well you seem to have really disliked me before today,” he nodded curiously. “It's like you don't know me at all.”

“What? Of course I know you.” You assured him. "I love you, remember? And you love me?”

“Yeah.. I do, but I don't know anything about you,” He looked away as if he was trying to figure out an equation.

Oh shit. What's happening? Was this supposed to happen? Wasn't wearing off? Oh God.

“It's a theater degree!” you blurted out, trying to change the subject. Maybe it would work. If you distracted him maybe this would take over again.

He turned his head to the side and stared off blankly, as if he was rebooting. Then he looked up and smiled at you. “A theater degree? That sounds exciting!” He was back to his “usual self''..

You let out a sigh of relief. However, you wondered if you had gotten him out of the spell, would he have freaked out? Would he have accepted it? Would he maybe start having real feelings for you? Well, it was too late now.

“Does it really though?” You rolled your eyes.

“It really does. I don't know if you would believe this, but I'm kind of a theater nerd myself,” He chuckled.

“No way. You? Nahh,” You blew a raspberry.

“Seriously! I had a bit of a theater bug when I was younger in fact. I wanted to be a big Broadway star” He admitted.

You couldn't believe what you were hearing. Raphael Barba the stuffy ADA of New York City as a big Broadway star? Yeah right!

“That's insane! You laughed. So why did you give it up?”

“Well.. as you know, being on Broadway isn't a great way to make money. It's more of a passion thing right?”

“So true,” You nodded as you were eating your empanada dessert.

“So.. I took a hard look at where I lived, and how hard my mom and abuelita were struggling and I vowed that I would get out of El Barrio. And make something of myself and be able to take care of them when I was an adult the way that I couldn't when I was a kid,”

You felt tears choking your throat once again for the millionth time that day. But this time it wasn't for you. It was for him. You really hadn't known any of this, to you he was just a pretty face. You actually had a lot in common.

“That is so sweet.” You pushed the trash between you away and moved up closer, pulling his hands into your lap and looking at him endearingly.

“Yeah?” He asked you with a half smile like a kid looking for approval.

“Yeah it really is. You gave up your passion for your family. I wish I was as selfless as that,” You said softly.

“What do you mean?”

What did you mean indeed? Did you really want to get into the story? Then once again you reminded yourself that he would have no idea no recollection of this after today, so you felt comfortable telling him your secret.

“Well….. You.... I came from nothing too. But all I could think of was getting out myself and never looking back,” You admitted in shame.

“Oh?” He looked at you curiously.

“Yeah, I was really passionate about theater and becoming a big Broadway star. With all the fame, and the money, and getting away from my small town in Jersey. So I threw myself into every activity, every theater, every play, every community theater, every performance, anything I can get my hands on. My parents were super supportive and never thought anything bad of me, even though they probably should have. They wanted me to have the world. And I took that for granted,” You began to get choked up.

“Why do you say that…?” He took your hand and squeezed it feeling like something bad was coming.

“They saved up their entire married lives to give me a college fund. I wasn't aware of it, but when I got accepted to NYU School of acting, they told me that they had enough saved for the first two years,” You continued, trying to breathe.

“Well that's good isn't it?”

“Yeah no totally, except I wasn't grateful,” You look down tears stinging your eyes thinking about how selfish you are as a kid. All I could think about and yell at them was how they didn't have enough for the full four years. How was I supposed to be a big Broadway star if I was still trying to pay student loans?”

“Oh Y/N…”.

“Yeah and that's not even the worst part,” Tears started stinging your eyes. You were lucky he was under some spell because he would definitely hate you after this under normal circumstances.

“Go on, I'm not here to judge you,” He pressed his forehead against yours. He realized how hard the story was taking its toll on you.

“One day it was my big end of semester performance and it was snowing. So my parents said that they weren't going to be able to make it. I screamed at them and told them that this was the biggest night of my life, and they couldn't be bothered to show up and what horrible parents they were and that they never cared about me and a whole huge temper tantrum like a 3 year old.”

You tried holding back sobs you had to make it through this whole thing without breaking down.

“No, honey…” He put a hand on your face.

”And so they tried…” You sniffed. They tried driving on the icy roads of Jersey to drive into the City and they served on black ice in the Jersey tunnel where they hit the wall and were killed instantly.

“Oh my god.. he whispered, “Baby I'm so sorry,” He grabbed you in a hug as you broke down. You just sat there for a minute letting him hold you while you sobbed into his shoulder.

“I just told them what shitty parents they were!” You sobbed muffled into his shirt. "And I killed them!”

“Hey,” he pulled your face from his shirt and looked you in the eyes. “No no you didn't do anything,”

“Yes I did! If I hadn't been such a brat and told them and guilted them into coming to see my stupid show then they'd still be alive!” you kept sobbing.

“No,” he took your head in his hands. “Look I didn't know you back then but I'm sure that your parents loved you and I'm sure that you loved them. That's why you wanted them there so bad. And sometimes it's just people's time. You didn't do anything wrong. Do you understand me?”

“Yeah.. I guess so,” you looked down. “I mean I was punished enough for it”.

“What does that mean?”

“Well I mean, obviously I was distraught from my parents dying. And that semester was the last one that was paid for. So kind of lied to you,” You paused to look at him apologetically.

“I had to drop out one year after that because I could only get student loans for that next year. And you had to have a certain GPA to get them to keep paying for the last year and I most certainly did not have that,”

“Oh...carino, I'm so sorry”

“Then me being me the arrogant bitch that I am, I thought well maybe I don't need a degree. Tons of actors don't have degrees. They can just make it on their own. So I just started throwing myself into auditions for about a year and a half, and I ended up living on the streets because I refused to take any kind of job. Telling myself that I was going to get my big break and be famous,”

“Oh my God”

“I know, right?” You laughed through tears. “I'm so stupid,”

“Hey you are not stupid,” Rafael grabbed your hands again.

“Yeah well, the first temp agency that I applied to had the first job as a personal assistant to a fancy lawyer. So maybe I'm not that stupid,” you smiled.

“Ah.. see? Happy ending. Maybe you went through all that to find me,”

“Yeah.. maybe,” You sadly smiled at him.

Although you knew deep down in your heart that was bullshit, because you really didn't have him. All you did was take another shortcut and be selfish and tried to take him for yourself instantly without any of the work. You were still a selfish bitch. And he didn't know that

“You know...if it makes you feel any better, you are lucky to have such loving parents,”

“What do you mean? Didn't you say you gave up your dream to take care of them?” You assumed that must have meant they were super close.

“Yeah well, for my mom and abuela..”.

You suddenly realized he hadn't mentioned a father.

"Oh? I'm.... No dad?”

“No, no dad.” He shook his head sadly. “I wasn't completely honest with you earlier YN,”

“What do you mean?” You took his hand, already knowing this wasn't going to be good.

“I was forced to give up my dream,” he replied sadly while staring at the ground.

“What?”

“When I was a kid I would watch musicals at my abuelitas house. It was the only place I was….safe,” He continued.

“Oh God.” You muttered.

“I would dance and sing all over her house. She was the only person in my life who ever supported that side of me,” he continued to stare at the ground.

“When my dad came to pick me up one day and he saw what I was doing…. “ He stopped again, you realized he was trying not to cry.

“Rafa…..”

“He tried to "beat the gay out of me.",” You saw tears dripping on the pavement.

You silently gasped.

"Not that I'm gay,' he quickly assured you.

"That was literally the last thing on my mind baby," you shook your head, tears coming to your own eyes as you pulled him into a hug. He collapsed into tears as you rubbed the back of his neck and whispered comforting words into his ear.

Finally he composed himself enough to finish his story.

“Anyway, he uh...he didn't just beat me for that. It was anything really. But I kept at it at my abuelas. She encouraged me even if she couldn't stand up to my dad. I can't blame her or my mother. When my mom caught me still pursuing it she told me to stop if I wanted to keep our dad around saying he wouldn't tolerate a….f word son,"

“Oh my god.” You whispered. You couldn't imagine your parents or any parents really, trying to discourage their kids from anything, and threatening them for being something they were so passionate about.

“Well I guess it didn't matter either way because he ended up taking off anyway. And I felt so guilty that we lost our only income, so my mom had to end up getting two jobs and my abuela moved in to help with bills that then I swore to become better so that I could atone for my sins,” He couldn’t look at you.

“Oh my god. Rafa, sweetie I…. That wasn't your fault., it wasn't your fault at all. He sounds like a grade a asshole,” You made him look at you just as he did when you told your shameful story.

“He was...is. I don't know if he's dead or alive actually. I haven't seen or heard from him since he left. I hate him so much,” he clenched his fists.

“Oh honey,” You pressed a kiss to his forehead.

“No you don't understand. My middle name is Eduardo, named after him. So he's always with me. I have always told people it's Antonio, because I want nothing about me associated with him,” He started to cry again.

After a minute, he looked back up at you very seriously. “I've never told anyone that story.”

“Really? Not even Liv?”

"Not even Liv," He stroked your hair. "I've never felt as close to her as I do with you.” He pulled you into his lap. “The truth is Y/N I have never felt safe since my abuela’s house. Until I met you,”

“Rafa…” You pulled him into a deep kiss, tears dropped down both your faces. “We can be each other’s homes now,”

#rafael barba #rafael barba x you #rafael barba x reader #rafael barba imagine #rafael barba fanfiction #black magic #law and order svu

[patt-off]

don’t read this

istfg it’s terrible and i camt

After finally finding his first class patton sat down in an empty seat in his first class and immediately turned to the kid next to him to introduce himself, “hiya i’m patton!” he exclaimed, the kid next to him stared at him blankly before taking off his headphones and responding with a dry “what?” “Oh i was just trying to say hi!'' Patton said, completely ignoring the tone of the kids voice that was silently telling him to shut up. “oh uhh hi?” the kid said slightly confused as to why this kid was talking to him before putting his headphones back on.

Patton noticed the kid stopped listening to him and tapped him on the shoulder, the kid pulled down his headphones once again and responded with a “what!” sounding clearly more annoyed this time, which Patton decided to ignore again because the kid seemed nice. “What your name?” patton asked but before the kid could respond patton heard a loud ding which he assumed was the bell, “virgil” the kid said before the teacher started introducing themself, hi everybody! i do have a last name, but you can just call me talyn!” Patton kinda chuckled to himself, he's never had a teacher go by their first name before, maybe this won't be bad he thought.

After doing role-call the teacher let the class chat with each other for a bit. “Perfect!” Patton thought, “virgil kinda has to talk to me now!” he turned to virgil who once again has his headphones on, “so… how long have you lived here? I just moved here!” Patton tried to start a conversation, and to his surprise Virgil actually said more than just “what?” “Oh uh i've lived here my whole life.” “ Uh where did you used to live?” virgil asked, clearly not truly caring but being nice anyways. “Just a few towns over, you got any friends?” Patton asked, surprised Virgil actually talked to him, “no bu-'' virgil didn't get to even finish his statement because patton cut him off and exclaimed “well now i'm your friend kiddo!” “great” virgil muttered “ wait a minute… What month are you born in?” He asked, “january?” “I'm older than you” virgil scoffed, “doesn't matter!” Patton stated before the teacher brought the class's attention back to them.

Patton scanned the lunchroom looking for virgil, who he found at an empty table in the corner (with his headphones on obviously) and went to sit down with him. Virgil wast paying attention so Patton tapped on his shoulder which made virgil jump and fall backwards out of his seat “jeez mr sunshine-and-rainbows! You nearly gave me a heart attack!” he half-yelled, which made patton laugh. “What are you even doing here anyways?” virgil asked, “were friends! remember?” Patton said right before pulling out his phone, “and speaking of friends, looks like we have the same lunch!'' Virgil looked at him confused before he realized that Patton was on a facetime call with someone. “so guys this is my friend virgil'' to which patton's friend roman says something but it kept cutting out so he couldn’t hear it.

“you know what,” patton said “the schools kinda got bad reception so i’ll call you guys this afternoon” and he hung up. “So I'm guessing those were your friends?” virgil asked unsurely, “yah, roman and logan, met them in elementary school!” Patton said, “they're really nice!” “roman’s a HUGE theater nerd, and he was my neighbor before i moved,” patton started listing off reasons he liked his friends, “oh and when we were younger he pretended he was a prince! It's even funnier because his last name is prince” patton chuckles to himself “logan is really smart, and awesome, and funny and-” virgil snorted, patton paused for a then kept going “he knows a lot of random stuff, and we use to have matching glasses which is kinda funny-” virgil interrupted “point taken, you can stop gushing over your friend now...”

When Patton got home from school he went up into his room and texted his friends, who immediately started a group call, “already making friends huh? typical pat” roman said when patton accepted the call. They talked and talked for hours like they’d normally do before he moved, and when Patton hung up he realized this is the happiest he'd been in weeks.

#sorry it sucks #patt’s writing #cliche human au but whatever i had no ideas

[nosleepuntilvacation]

Hi! I've got another Mettaton×reader request for you, if you don't mind. The setting is that Mettaton gets badly damaged, and of course his crush is worried sick. They insist on helping Alphys with the repairs, even if it's small things like handing her the right tool or something. The repairs take a week or two, and the crush just camps over at Alphys' lab the whole time. But anyway! The scenario I want you to actually write is when Mettaton is finally rebooted and wakes up. (cont.)

(cont.) So when Mettaton comes to, his crush is sitting next to whatever table/bed/thing he’s laying on. They go “Thank god!” and probably tear up a bit, smiling like a fool. Mettaton is like, touched that they’ve waited for him like that. When he asks about it, the crush gets all flustered. Mettaton ofc teases them, and as the conversation/banter goes on they accidentally mention at some point that they helped Alphys with the repairs… Que more flustering and eventually (cont. IM SORRY)

(cont.) eventually they end up telling him how much he means to them. In their nervousness, they get a bit rambly and end up confessing their romantic feelings to him. Then they hang their head and don’t look up again until Mettaton tells that he feels the same. Then they’re both awkward and happy and they smooch and stuff. // Sorry if this long, 3-ask explanation is unclear and sorry this is so dramatic. Thank you for considering this.             

…this has been sitting in my inbox for over a year hasn’t it

dishonor on me, dishonor on my miltank, etc. etc. etc.

But I guess it’s better late than never…?

Below the cut: A Storm Leads to a Rainbow

(TW: Discussions and descriptions of a car accident, and the emotional and physical injuries resulting from it; brief mention of alcohol)

Two synthetic eyes open, and their owner groans, clutching his forehead. “Ugh… what happened?”

He looks in his immediate line of sight. The space-printed sheets on the bed he currently occupies, the posters displaying different franchises he likes (his own included), the star-shaped stickers on the ceiling… yep, this is definitely his guest room in Alphys’ place.

“But why–?” He reaches down and touches his hip. Just as he suspected, his charging cable is plugged securely into there. He barely has enough time to register this before he hears a familiar voice.

“Mettaton? Thank god!”

He sits up and looks over towards the source of the voice…

…and he promptly sees you sitting in one of his pink beanbag chairs, smiling like a weight had just been lifted away. And was he seeing things, or were those tears in your eyes?

“[Y/N]? I wasn’t expecting to see you here, sweetheart.” He smirks a bit. “Have you appointed yourself the president of my fan club? I’ll have you know that you’re competing with me for that position.”

“Heh…” To you, the sound of his voice is exactly what you need right now. You pull out your phone and open your text message program. “Just gonna let Alphys know you’re awake. She’s off jogging with Papyrus.”

After a few chuckles at his own joke, his smile soon becomes more genuine. “Thank you for thinking of me, though.”

“Of course.” You put your phone away after sending a message, and your smile becomes a little more sad as you try to ward off the rock forming in your throat. “When I heard about what had happened to you, I was so worried, and I couldn’t just…” You take a few deep breaths to keep the dam from bursting.

At this point, he can’t help but frown. “If you don’t mind me asking… what did happen to me, anyway? The last thing I remember was Bryan and I driving home, and before I knew it, our car tipped sideways. My whole body was in pain, I heard Bryan calling Alphys… and then I blacked out.” His hand clenches the mattress. “Is Bryan okay, by the way?”

“Yes. He had to visit the ER, but he wasn’t hurt too badly, and they let him go home after a few days. Anyway…”

After swallowing your nerves, you begin to explain the full story.

A little over a week ago, you had been visiting Alphys and Undyne and watching a movie with them. At one point in the movie, Alphys received a panicked phone call from Bryan, an orange mammal monster who seemed to be Mettaton’s frenemy of sorts. The two had been driving together to their respective homes after a production at the local theater when a drunk driver veered into their lane and crashed into Bryan’s car. When Alphys headed out to help, the scene indeed looked grisly, with roadside assistance having to help put the car upright again - and it was clear that at least half of the car would need repairs. Paramedics were helping Bryan into an ambulance…

“…and when she brought you back, I almost couldn’t look.” You shudder. “You looked like something chewed you up and spit you back out again!”

With a sneer, Mettaton folds his arms. “Oh, come on. I don’t taste that bad! Ask anyone who’s ever had one of my world-famous face steaks!” He taps his chin in thought. “Although, maybe I shouldn’t have made them so expensive at first…”

You chuckle nervously; at the time, you definitely wouldn’t have laughed if someone had made that joke, but now that Mettaton’s awake, the whole thing feels a little easier to put in the past.

“Honestly, though…” His expression softens into concern. “…my body looked that bad when Alphys brought me in?” He holds his hands in front of his face and wiggles his fingers, before peeking under the blankets and presumably checking his feet in a similar way. Next, he grabs a handheld mirror from the nightstand and studies his face, brushing his hair out of one of his eyes.

“Yeah…” You wipe away a few tears forming near your eyes. “If Alphys and I hadn’t fixed you up right away…” A shudder takes over your spine; you’re still not entirely sure how all the intricacies of his body work, and this was one situation where experimenting was not an option.

For a moment, Mettaton is silent…

…only to give you an odd look.

“Wait a minute… you helped Alphys with the repairs?”

“Uh–! Well!” Oh god, does he already know what you think of him? “She did most of the big work! I was just there to help hold you still, or to get her the right tools, or to keep an eye on you to make sure you were still stable while she was out getting more supplies and stuff. Undyne helped, too, when she wasn’t at work. Alphys and I took turns watching over you the first couple of nights, while you were still in somewhat critical condition…”

Mettaton blinks. “You even stayed over?”

“Y-yeah… I haven’t actually been home since I heard about the crash.”

By now, you can feel the floodgates open, tears rolling down your face as you explain yourself.

“I wanted to help Alphys as much as I could… I was so scared. You could have died if we hadn’t done enough in time, and if I hadn’t helped and you ended up dying… I don’t know if I could ever forgive myself if that happened. Especially because you’re my friend, and, well…”

Despite the more reasonable side of your mind not feeling ready to say it, your emotions are in full force right now, and you just blurt it out before you can stop yourself.

“I don’t know when it started, but I really wanted to tell you I love you.”

And with that, you lower your head and finally allow yourself to let out some quiet sobs as the many emotions of the past several days swamp over you: relief from knowing that Mettaton is most likely okay now, fear and sadness from the fact that he probably wouldn’t have made it if Alphys hadn’t gotten there in time, and that hard-to-describe sensation of knowing that, in the heat of the moment, you just confessed your romantic feelings towards your longtime crush. Your body and mind are just frozen like a slow computer as you try to quell this maelstrom of emotions.

It gets to the point where you can barely register it as Mettaton whispers your name and gently takes hold of your hand.

“Shh… everything’s going to be okay, darling. It was horrifying, and I was scared, too… but I feel so much better now.” A smooth thumb strokes the top of your hand as he continues. “In fact… as of late, I’ve realized that I’m in love with you, too.”

“R-really…?” You finally look up; despite your likely looking like an emotional wreck right now, Mettaton doesn’t seem to judge you for it, instead smiling.

“Absolutely, sweetheart. I’ve wanted to tell you for a little while; you’ve been such a wonderful friend to me. And knowing that you would go this far to help save my life… honestly, I’d do the same for you.”

A cheerful laugh escapes your throat; you’re not sure what to say, but you still manage a “Thank you…”

“And thank you, beautiful.”

For a few moments, neither of you are sure of what else to say amidst the glow of relief and new love, but eventually, Mettaton has a thought.

“Darling, when all of this has blown over a little more… would you, perhaps, like to go on a date with me? I can show you a few of my favorite places in town, and you can show me your favorites, if you’d like.”

“Sure.” There are still a few tears, but they come from a much happier place now. It’ll probably take a little while for everyone’s fears to disappear completely, but what’s important is that everyone is safe right now, and a potential tragedy has been averted.

Before you know it, you wrap your arms around Mettaton in a big hug, which he soon returns in kind before leaning in close to your face. He stops himself and looks into your eyes as if asking for permission, and when you smile and nod, he presses his lips to yours. It’s not the smoothest of kisses, but most first kisses typically aren’t.

Either way, you’re definitely not complaining.

You’re so lost in the kiss that you don’t hear the sound of the front door opening and closing in the other room, nor do you hear the sound of footsteps. Shortly afterwards, though, a small eep does get your attention.

The two of you break off the kiss and look towards the doorway, where Alphys is standing, still in her jogging outfit, with wide eyes.

“Oh! Uh… am I interrupting something?”

As you wave hello to Alphys, Mettaton gently smiles. “Alphys, darling, I’m so glad to see you. And don’t worry; I think everything’s going to be just fine.”

Alphys returns the smile. “Yeah… I’m so glad you’re awake. I’ll probably want to keep an eye on you for the next day or two, though. Just to make sure I didn’t miss anything.”

“That’s all right. As long as I have everyone cheering for me, I can absolutely manage this!”

You gently squeeze his hand, and he smiles at you.

After a second or two, Alphys pulls out her phone. “So, uh, want to order some pizza or something? I can shower while we wait for it to get here.”

Mettaton rests a hand on his soul casing. “Darling, I haven’t eaten in days, so that sounds absolutely perfect right now.”

“That sounds good to me too,” you say with a nod.

“Great! Let me open the app…”

As you all begin to figure out what you want, you can already picture the delicious taste of the food in your mind. Not only that, you can also picture some of the exciting, lovely things in your and Mettaton’s future… a future that you helped to secure for him.

Sometimes, even a harsh rainstorm can leave behind a beautiful rainbow.

#Thanks for asking! #anonymous #undertale #mettaton #mettaton x reader #x reader #car accident tw // #alcohol tw //

[rndyounghowze]

An Interview With John D. Smitherman (Part 1/2)

By: Ricky Young-Howze

When you first walk up to the Broadway Theatre of Pitman in Pitman, NJ you look like you've gone back in time. Built in 1926 the palatial performance space looks like it should be either the home of flappers and men in suits dancing the Charleston or mothballs and cobwebs. Lovingly looked after by the owner and staff of the BTP (with the addition of all the new technical bells and whistles of a modern theater) this lovely building is the crown jewel of Pitman's downtown. But this wasn't always the case. Just seven years ago the theatre was on a much different path. They were looking for new leadership and they needed someone with a theatre pedigree almost as varied, if not as long as their venue, to take the helm. That just so happens to be the man who came up the stairs into the lobby to meet Dana and me. John D. Smitherman has done a little bit of everything in the theatre almost everywhere. We were graciously given the opportunity to meet with him to talk about his experience as Artistic Director over the past seven years and “My Broadway” his one man show debuting in three weeks.

The one thing I've learned over three years as a reviewer here is that there are two kinds of theatre people in New Jersey: the kind that you can never get to talk to you and the kind that can talk your ear off about anything you would ever want to know about theatre, local gossip, and the last show they saw. John happened to be part of the latter group but very quickly he honed in on one central theme: his tenure as a veteran of the stage and how he brought that experience to bear running a theatre company. The interview that follows took place across from a table in an upstairs rehearsal room down the street from the theater. It has been edited for clarity.

The first thing John talked about was a very personal subject: how his family reacted to him catching the acting bug. We could see him lean into us and this is where the next hour would disappear as he started to tell one story after another.

“I was still living at home during undergrad, my dad other than polite conversation did not talk to me for a solid year after I changed my degree. because you know he was concerned about you know ‘a music degree?!? What the? What are you going to do with that? You know a performance? What are you going to do?’ But then I started working for the local opera company and symphonies and stuff like that. My dad was a purchasing director at Memorial medical center and so I would go by there if I had a rehearsal in town. I would go by and visit him but basically eat free lunch at the hospital because the food was actually good at the cafeteria. And I remember walking in one day and this was after a year of my dad being obviously angry with my decision and a doctor came up to me a [said] ‘Hey aren't you Frank's boy’ I said ‘Yeah’. He goes ‘I hear you're uh doing Pagliacci this weekend.’ And that's how I knew that my dad was talking about it and was happy about it. Because it took me actually doing it. I know that makes sense as a parent…[I mean] I don't know if I want my kids to go into it because it's so much of a difficult and demanding and iffy profession.”

But he never stopped at just acting. Pretty soon he found he liked branching out.

“I always liked doing multiple things. I always liked just singing like in a concert or in a Cabaret type show like this coming up (His upcoming show, My Broadway). But I also liked playing characters. I liked comedy. And I eventually started liking directing and just things like that. A lot of different interests gave me more opportunities because you know the more you do the more you can do.”

This is how he describes an acting career that has taken him from Florida, Philly, the high seas of a cruise ship, and even Manhattan, to a home in Collingswood where he lives with his wife and two boys. Each thing he's done was a new interest that led to a new skill that led him further down the road. Later on he elaborates how he got to Pitman seven years ago. As he was trying to settle down into a nice neighborhood he got a call from a local theater he had never heard of even though it was really close by.

“When I got here it certainly was not like that (the way the theater is run today). When I got here it was basically a community theatre that was just friends family. Like the artistic director’s son was in all of the shows, or the daughter sometimes. And that’s why they brought me in. They wanted to improve the productions and become a professional theatre and so that’s where things went and changed. And the first thing I did was let people in Philadelphia know about the theatre. I didn’t know about it and I lived in Philly for a handful of years. And then we were going to have Asher so we decided to move to Collingswood which is right around the corner so we were there for about a year when they approached me about taking over. Well it started out as performing a show that was very similar to this [My Broadway] and during that it was to take over. And I mean that was the biggest thing. I never heard of it, my wife never heard of this place, and look at this place! Everyone and their brother should know about it.”

Dana chimed in that it seems so crazy that a lot of theater companies in NJ want to isolate themselves from these Metropolises around them. He latched right onto that.

“You draw from them. I remember working an outdoor theater in Beckley, West Virginia (see I told you he's been everywhere! I swore I was the only other person who’d heard of Beckley) , there’s nothing else around it and that was a 1,500 seat outdoor theatre and we were always packed for every show and I was thinking ‘Where are all these people coming from?’ They come in. You can get things from these other cities and Philadelphia is right there. People literally tell me that they prefer coming here because they would rather come here and park for free. They’ll pay that five dollars to come over the bridge but they get to park for free and they have these nice little restaurants and whatever and the shows, well they say they’re the same as at Walnut Street. We’re not. I can say that because our budget is a quarter of what Walnut Street’s budget is, they have a $50,000 dollar budget for the set alone and our entire production will be $50,000 but we try.

After trying as hard as he could to draw from the Philly crowd and let people know about this great area he started to see an effect on the downtown area.

“In the last five or so years I saw this town turn around, nothing against tattoo parlors and thrift stores because I like a good thrift store, but those kinda switched out and became boutiques and restaurants and that’s the sign of a good city that's starting to develop. I saw that happen over these last four or five years.”

But a theater company doesn't live on its audience alone. John had to also get actors into the area.

“I definitely dove right into the Philadelphia Theatre Alliance, which was even bigger than it is now than when I first got into it. They used to do all kinds of things and now they’re just kind of a bulletin board. But I would always put notices about auditions. ‘These are our shows’, ‘The largest professional regional theater in the area’, etc. And the actors slowly and surely started to come to the auditions and they would get cast and those people had the experience of their life and in a production that they were extremely proud of. And so then that person talked to this person and that person came to audition, etc. And after about five or six years, it took a long time, we now have this wonderful reputation and people like to come out here. We don’t pay well in comparison to some of these other theaters but they’re proud to be in the production. It’s something that they know is going to be a fun process. We try to make it as stress free as possible. I’m a fond believer of theater can be stress free as long as your production team is ahead of the game then you don’t have to have these last minute things that happen in tech week.

And the actors he gets can come from all over. But John is quick to emphasize that while they do have a small house that can house actors that come all they way from New York or across the country ninety percent of his casts come from Philadelphia and New Jersey.

That does mean that his most meaningful relationship isn't with the audience One of the biggest responsibilities of the artistic director is to be a mediator between the audience and the production team and even the owner. He’s noticed a key difference between the audiences of today and then dinner theater crowds of yesteryear.

And you'll have to wait until Part 2 to find out what it is. Check in tomorrow. But make sure you get your tickets for his one man show "My Broadway" now!

[tarisilmarwen]

Yuri/Estelle fic would be fun, since it's been ages since I've experienced Tales content! How about the idea of what each of them would consider common knowledge?

(Ahh, Yuri/Estelle, all right!  Time to sink my teeth into that one.  Dunno if this is quite what you were looking for but we’ll see.)

—

Yuri watched Estelle bustle and rush around the kitchen with a small amount of rising concern.  Ingredients were scattered haphazardly around the small counter and the pot of boiling water Estelle had on the stove was eeking dangerously close to simmering over.

It seemed, in her eagerness to try her hand at cooking him his favorite dish from his favorite hometown restaurant, she was quite forgetting all her own cooking ability.

“Uh, Estelle, that pot…” he pointed out.

She appeared right next to it in a flash, hastily turning down the heat before the scalding water could spill.  “Right!  Sorry!” she blurted, moving back to whatever it was that she had on her chopping block.

Yuri’s eyes wrinkled.  “Are you sure you don’t want any help?” he asked.  “It’s been ages since you’ve actually cooked anything, maybe you’re a little rusty?”

“I’m fine!” Estelle squeaked quickly, though her noticed her hands shaking nervously.  “I’ve got this.”

Seeing her dart a glance at him and then avert her face, burying her attention in her meal preparation, a realization dawned on him and Yuri smiled.  Ah, so she’s just anxious because it’s supposed to be a treat for me, he figured.  He was making her all flustered and jittery, so she was completely forgetting how to do things.  That made sense.

Relaxing a little in his seat, Yuri let his eyes and mind wander.  After a minute or two the concoction in the pot did start to smell absolutely wonderful.

He glanced over just as Estelle was preparing to drop a handful of small whiteish disks into the pot.

Eyes widening, Yuri lunged from his seat, grabbing her wrist to stop her before she could release.

Startled, Estelle asked, “What?”

Very gently, Yuri eased her hand out from over the pot.  “You don’t want to do that,” he said.

Estelle looked confused.  “Doesn’t the recipe call for water chestnuts?” she asked him.

Chuckling, Yuri shook his head, prying open her fingers to show her what she’d been about to drop in his favorite dish.  “Those aren’t water chestnuts.”

“They’re not?” Estelle repeated, expression turning slightly horrified.

“Nope.”  He popped one of the little disks off her palm to hold it up.  “That is in fact very nicely chopped up ginger root.  Raw ginger root.”

Estelle flushed red with embarrassment, dropping the rest of the ginger root onto her cutting board.  “I… couldn’t tell,” she admitted sheepishly.

“How do you not know what water chestnuts look like?” Yuri teased, playfully nudging her arm.  “Haven’t you been around me and my cooking long enough to pick that up?”

The young lady smiled bashfully.  “I guess not.  Maybe you could give me a few lessons?”

Sliding comfortably around behind her, winding his arms around her hips, Yuri embraced her, kissing the top of her head affectionately.  “Anytime,” he promised, genuine warmth in his voice.

Estelle’s heart fluttered.  She reached up to hold Yuri’s arms, feeling the safety and strength in his embrace.

Coughing lightly, she regained her composure.  “So, uh… where are the water chestnuts?” she asked.

Yuri laughed as he pulled them down for her.

***

About fifteen minutes later, Estelle set the plate down in front of Yuri, then took up a chair on the other side of the table.

Yuri picked up his fork and dug in, bringing a mouthful of the dish up to his lips.  The girl sitting across from him watched anxiously as he chewed and swallowed.

“Well… how it is?” she pressed.

Yuri let the mouthful drop down his gullet before he smiled and answered, “It’s perfect.”

She beamed, delighted and relieved.  “Thank goodness!”

Yuri gestured with his plate towards her.  “Well don’t let me eat all of it.  Have a taste,” he said, lifting a forkful of noodles and veggies into her mouth.

“Mmmn…” she sighed, eyes closing happily as the food hit her tongue.  “It is good!” she told him, discreetly reaching for her napkin to wipe the trailing juice off her chin.

Yuri swirled his fork around in his dish, contemplative.  “So, not that I’m complaining or anything, but what made you decide you wanted to cook me dinner today?” he asked her.

Estelle’s smile returned, and she recited, in a lilting cadence:

“Whereby a man doth think of food and drink

And by his appetites affection gives,

Thus shall I pour him wine and bring him meat

To sate his hunger and his thirst and so

Thereby his desired affection earn.”

“What’s that from?” wondered Yuri, around a mouthful of food.

She was about to reply, and then her expression shifted.  “Wait, are you serious?” she asked.

“Serious about what?”

“You’ve never heard Travis V. McWilliamshire’s ‘Treatise on Gregorio and Ellaina’?  That’s the most famous quote from it!”

Yuri felt rather dense as he responded, “Who?”

Estelle gasped.  “The playwright?  Renowned the world over?  His works regularly performed in every major and minor theater?” she prompted anxiously.

He shook his head.  “Uh… going to the theater wasn’t exactly… my thing growing up.”

Estelle straightened in her seat, slapping her palms on the table.  “That settles it!” she declared.  She relaxed back in the chair, offering him a smile.  “The next time the Travelshire Players are in town and putting on one of his productions, I’ll have to take you!”

Yuri finished a mouthful and swallowed.  “Only if I get to bring drinks,” he told her.

“Deal!“ she said, folding her chin on her hands and grinning broadly.

#askbox #prompt fics #fanfiction #yuri x estelle #tales of vesperia #help me they're cute i'm descending back into shipper hell.

[moreracquetball]

you know one of the au's i've been thinking about? a modern day au where whizzer is a professional baseball player in his late 20's, and marvin's already divorced but he has to chaperone jason's little league trip to watch a big league game, and they somehow run into each other at a bar nearby after the game/trip and marvin has no idea who he is, which intrigues whizzer to no end.

Marvin drains the first beer in almost a minute flat, desperate to get the echo of eleven loud, shrill-pitched voices out of his brain before it eventually develops further into a headache. Jesus, he was lucky that the stadium was only in the next town over—the two hours trapped on a bus with sweaty, squeaky-voiced Jewish boys still being terrible, but any minute longer than that, and Marvin would have started drinking then instead of sneaking off after checking into the hotel and “turning in for the night.”

And it's all for some stupid baseball game—not an art museum or science expedition or theater production (you know, something educational that would actually be worth the money and missing work days). Bitterly, Marvin can't help but think of Trina and Mendel enjoying their peaceful day at home, probably drinking champagne and laughing evilly about how they suckered him into chaperoning Jason's little league team for some "father-son bonding." 

Yeah right. So far, Jason has sat as far away from him as possible and looks embarrassed any time that it's even mentioned Marvin is his dad. Great bonding time, Trina, so glad you guilt-tripped me into it.

It's only the first day of the weekend-long trip, and Marvin is already over it.

He nurses his second beer slowly and flickers his gaze around the low-lit bar, trying not to linger too long at the jawline of one man or the slope of another's ass. Even though it's been two years since his divorce—two years since he stopped with the lying and suffocating self-repression, Marvin still gets nervous about being here, about being noticed and identified as something that he tried for years to suppress. He still remembers high school, with the taunt fag being a slap to the face and getting shoved into a locker when he got caught looking at a cute boy's ass during homeroom. 

The memories make Marvin hurriedly avoid all eye contact and stare down at his beer, tensed and terrified and suddenly feeling like he's fifteen-years-old all over again.

But a distraction would be nice, after all. A pretty little thing to help Marvin edge out the headache, loosen the tension coiled in his shoulders, make him just forget everything except the slapping of skin and release of pressure.

He's picked up guys before, but it never gets any easier. It's always stilted, awkward. And if Marvin didn't look so rich and have at least a pretty decent face, he’s sure he'd barely get through the torturous small talk before the your place or mine?

He polishes off his second beer for some liquid courage and finally spots someone worth the effort.

He's just Marvin's type—with a fit, lithe body and soft-looking hair and a dangerous smile easily interchangeable with a sneer. He's seated at one of the bar stools by himself, sipping on one of those fruity cocktails that change the color of your tongue and make your mouth taste of sugar. And Marvin feels a want deep in his bones, the desire coiling hot and tight in the bottom of his stomach. 

Shaking his nerves, he walks over and plops down in the seat directly beside him, ignoring the man's critical raise of eyebrow and ordering himself another drink. Marvin refuses to meet the other's expectant gaze and tries not to feel bereft by the man's clear exasperation.

"Let me guess," The man drawls out, arrogant and scathing, "You're in town for the game, right?"

The question throws Marvin off, so much so that he abandons his plan to play it aloof and look at him, "How'd you know?"

"All those empty bar stools," The man gestures with a slow loop of his finger, "And you chose the one directly next to me." The explanation doesn't really make that much sense, and Marvin feels his confusion clear on his face.

"I sat next to you to hit on you," Marvin informs him, the alcohol on his tongue making him blunt, "I wasn't going to make shitty small talk about overcompensating meat-heads with 'roid rage standing in a field for two hours."

The man's bored expression fades slightly, a slight crease forming in between his immaculately shaped eyebrows, "Well, that's a new approach. Can't say I've heard that one before."

Marvin tries his best flirtatious smile, hoping it doesn't look too much like a leer, "You've never been hit on before?" 

The man blinks at him, "You're a bold one, aren't you?"

"Not usually," Marvin admits, "I'm just trying to delay turning in for the night because when I wake up, I have to go to that boring ass baseball game."

"Boring?" The man repeats, looking almost offended, "Baseball isn't boring." And oh great, the guy's probably in town for the game too. Voluntarily. Without a son who he's desperately trying to connect with over anything at this point.

"You're not one of those super fans, are you?" Marvin asks with a groan, only half-kidding, "Because I'll be honest, that's kind of a deal breaker. I've heard enough about baseball today to save me a lifetime."

The man continues to stare at him, looking vaguely bereft and intrigued. And yeah, Marvin can work with that.

He sticks out his hand, "Marvin."

The man scoffs at the formality and ignores the outstretched hand, swishing his fruity cocktail around with one of those tiny umbrellas, "Whizzer Brown." There's an emphasis on the name, a pointed inflection. It goes over Marvin's head because he's too focused on the blue dye staining Whizzer Brown's tongue. Marvin licks his lips, waiting desperately to lean in and just taste.

"You're not a baseball fan, are you?" Whizzer Brown asks, still hung up on the subject.

Marvin tries to hide his eye roll, "Don't you want to talk about something actually interesting? Like whether or not if I kiss you, I'll be able to guess the flavor of your drink."

Finally, a smile twitches onto Whizzer Brown's handsome face. Without any response or further coyness, Whizzer leans in and kisses Marvin, filthy and deliberate. Marvin hesitates for only a few seconds—surprised that that actually worked—before reciprocating, pushing and licking into the man's mouth as his hand subconsciously goes to bury itself in the soft brown hair. When he reflexively tugs a little, Whizzer moans, breathless and surprised. 

Whizzer breaks the kiss abruptly, leaning back and cocking a challenging eyebrow.

It takes Marvin more than a few embarrassing seconds to remember what he had said, "Uh...Blueberry?”

"Cotton candy." Whizzer corrects, giving Marvin a thoughtful once over. Marvin tries not to preen nor shrink under the man's critical stare. Rather, he meets his gaze straight-on with the kind of courage that he certainly doesn't feel.

Finally, after a long moment, Whizzer Brown asks, "How far away is your hotel?" Marvin suddenly remembers Jason fast asleep in his room, finally crashing from that sugar high when Marvin was stupid enough to let the kids bring candy and snacks for the ride.

"Too far." Marvin says, which blatant lie but he can't necessarily say Actually, my son's in the bed next to mine, so we really can't. 

Whizzer doesn't question his answer, simply replying, "Bathroom it is then. Meet me there in five minutes."

Marvin snorts, "You don't seem like the type that likes to be discreet."

Whizzer fixes him with a crooked smile, saying wryly, "Well, I can't let any potential paparazzi see me lead a man into the bathroom of a gay bar, now can I?"

Marvin blinks at the word paparazzi, "That's a weird, self-absorbed thing to say."

Whizzer huffs a laugh, seemingly amused, "Five minutes."

Five minutes later, Marvin is slamming Whizzer against one of the stall doors, nipping at his neck and uncaring if he leaves bruises.

"So you're going to the game?" Whizzer says breathlessly, making small talk at a time like this, "Maybe we'll see each other there." Marvin thinks about the potential of seeing a bathroom hook-up when he's out with his twelve year old son and inwardly cringes.

Forgoing a reply, Marvin pulls harder on Whizzer's hair, effectively shutting him up.

:: - ::

In the stands, Marvin pays as little attention as possible, his legs crossed and chin propped up by his hand. Beside him, Jason seems equally as morose, though that has more to do with the fact that his team is losing rather than being bored by the whole thing in general.

"I told you, Jason," Some other kid (Kevin? Andrew? Shit, what is his name?) says with a smirk, "Nobody can't beat Brown's fast ball." Brown. Marvin is suddenly reminded of breathy moans and hands clawing at his back. Jesus, why did the guy have to have such a common last name?

"He's nothing but a head of hair. Even my dad can pitch better than him." Jason argues airily, rolling his eyes. Marvin is paying enough attention to feel a little insulted. 

"That's not what the score is saying..." Blocking out the bickering and staring down at his phone, Marvin looks anxiously at the added number, the name Whizzer glaring at him from the screen. He had been surprised when Whizzer had given it to him, even though Marvin was the one who asked for it (the sex, as rushed and crowded as it was being in a bathroom stall, was still mind-blowing—enough so that Marvin would suffer driving two hours into this town to have it again). Whizzer Brown. Weird, probably fake name, but the guy did have a tight— 

"Whizzer Brown has nothing on James Price!" Jason says, snapping Marvin out of his daydream.

"What did you say?" Because how could Jason have found out? He'd been so careful. Oh fuck, how did—

"It's true," Jason argues after a beat, looking suspiciously at Marvin for his sudden interest, "Whizzer is a great pitcher and all, but his batting average is—"

"Whizzer Brown?" Marvin repeats dumbly again, "How do you know him?"

"He's a player on the other team," Jason says exasperatedly, pointing into the field, "He's pitching, see?"

For the first time, Marvin looks onto the field, squinting and making out a familiar form with a fit, lithe body and soft-looking hair and a dangerous smile easily interchangeable with a sneer...

Oh.

"Whizzer Brown is a baseball player." Marvin says faintly, surprised he's able to get that much out.

"But we don't like him," Jason tells him hurriedly, "We're for the other team. The home team." After a pause, he squints at Marvin's stricken face, "What's wrong with you?"

I had sex with him in the men's bathroom last night.

"Nothing," Marvin persists with a cough, rubbing the back of his neck, "It's just the, uh—the pitcher's very...handsome."

Jason rolls his eyes, "Dad, come on. Gross."

"He definitely got some action last night." The other kid says, with a leer too old for him, "I bet she was smoking hot, too." Marvin follows the other kid's line of sight and sees purple bruises the shape of Marvin's mouth decorating the side of Whizzer's neck.

Marvin is torn between feeling shame for sleeping with a player from the team Jason hates, disgust at himself for sleeping with a baseball player period, and an odd sense of pride because after all, he is a celebrity, isn't he? Albeit a celebrity from a barbaric, boring sport, but. Still.

Marvin pays more attention in the last half of the game than he's ever had. He bombards Jason with questions about scoring and positions and just what the hell is happening right now, which Jason all answers with a confused but nonetheless pleased smile. Marvin doesn't have the heart to tell him that he's more interested in a certain player than the game itself.  

[theheadlessgroom]

https://lovely-lotte.tumblr.com/post/653698254246182912/theheadlessgroom-lovely-lotte-theheadlessgroom

@lovely-lotte

“Hmmm...” Randall hummed, stroking his bony chin: He did suppose there being only a handful of opera houses in the States narrowed things down a bit, but again, some opera houses (and other kinds of theaters, for that matter) were already haunted by other spirits, spirits who might not take kindly to an interloper encroaching on their territory. He supposed it was still possible he was on the move, and that whatever was happening in Tampa was the work of another ghost, but still...

Sighing softly, he looked to Christine sympathetically, saying, “I’m sorry, Miss Daae. I wish we had a way of...tracking him specifically, if we could find...I don’t know, any sort of calling card, any sort of sign of where he might go next!”

#((oh wow!! that's awesome honestly!!)) #((i've got a theater in the next town over but i've never heard of it being haunted-but hey every theater is supposed to have a ghost!)) #((so who knows!)) #outofhatboxes #lovely-lotte #V:The Wrong Phantom