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#Sacramento Mile
fieriframes · 1 year
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[SO HERE I AM IN LAND PARK. IT'S A COOL, LITTLE NEIGHBORHOOD IN SACRAMENTO. AND WE'RE ABOUT A MILE EAST OF JAMIE'S, YOU KNOW, WITH THE REALLY KILLER STEAK SANDWICHES? AND WE'RE HERE TO CHECK OUT A JOINT]
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mypositiveoutlooks · 6 months
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Singled dad of 6 surprised with free car after biking 16 miles to work for months
A single dad from Sacramento, California was surprised with a free car after a non-profit organization learned that he had been biking 16 miles for work in the last six months. Isaac Taylor has five daughters and one son and is taking care of his two young daughters full-time. After they lost their car in an accident, Taylor did not have a choice but to use his bike to travel to work. Every day,…
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yinx2 · 3 months
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Her Friend Dodger
by Yinx1
Chris Evans x Black plus size reader. Reader is in her mid 30s, Chris late 30s.
Chapter Warning: OOC/AU, Fluff, Angst, Language, Smutty Talk, ⛔️Talking about Death⛔️, Lemons Galore
Author’s Note: This is written and loosely edited on my phone. I own my mistakes. Not beta read. Please do not copy or repost my work. Gifs are not mine.
Catch Up: HERE
Synopsis: The more you know.
Word Count: 5400+
Chapter Fifteen 😮‍💨
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✭.・♡︎。✧.・゜Bandmates and Brother-in-laws゜・.✧。.・✭
Chris woke up rough; he always did when out of the country filming away from the norms of state side. The newness of a foreign country had worn off so had the jet lag; after the second week, homesickness sets in. No matter where he was, Christopher Robert Evans was a family man; meaning he needed to be in constant contact with with them, now you.
So when he couldn’t get you on the phone after the movie location change, he grew concerned then frustrated. Resulting to checking your friends instagrams, telling himself it was only until he got in contact with you again.
It was two in the morning where he was in Namibia, when his phone rings. Answering in a groggily tone, he doesn’t check the ID.
“I am sorry to wake you, PoohBear,” you say regretfully.
“No worries, my Butterfly.” Chris groans stretching. “You just getting me back from waking you with my kisses and cuddles, eh.”
You chuckle thinking quickly, “Now that you mentioned it, CHRIS WAKE THE FUCK UP YOU'LL BE LATE TO SET!” You scream causing your fiancé to yelp.
Nothing like a good prank to get the blood moving in the morning. You laugh to yourself.
“I can’t believe I got you from almost ten thousand miles away…” you snort. “I need to text, Scott.” You switch your phone screen and begin a text to your brother-in-law.
Calming down his sped up heart rate, “Was there a reason for your call, Wife?” Chris asked through gritted teeth.
“Yes.” You wipe a tear from your eye as you stopped laughing and pressed send on the text. “I called to tell you that Amber is doing a mini tour along the east coast and I’m going with her.”
Chris sat up quickly, turning on the side table light. “FaceTime, Y/N, now.” He pressed the button on his phone. He couldn’t help but smile as you grinned brightly at him. Happy to see you were in his bed, getting ready for the night.
“Mornin’, PoohBear, you look tired.” Your eyebrows knitted with concern as you put your braids into your bonnet.
Chris rubbed an eye, “Well it is after 2am here, Butterfly. So you going on tour?” He gives you gentle smile.
You nod, “Amber’s manager got her a five city tour starting in Portland. We play three nights in each city…, then off to Seattle, Sacramento, San Francisco and Santa Barbara.”
“Mmmm, what about work?” He inquired hearing the schedule.
“I’m doing two 80 hour weeks, then asking for my mandatory vacation time early.” You sigh getting into your shared bed, “I just finished my first three days…not feeling the affects just yet but I’m sure I will.” You lay down holding the phone so he could still see you.
You can tell by his expression before he voiced it that he didn’t like you working such long hours.
“I don’t like that you are putting in so much work, Y/N, for a hobby.” Chris grimaced voicing his concern, “If you’d just let me take care of you-” he stops as your brown eyes narrow and you interrupt him.
Closing your eyes, “Chris.” you say simply not wanting to get into another fight.
You watch him rub a hand over his face before pinching the bridge of his nose. Knowing that him wanting to take care of you would always be the one thing you disagree on.
“Fine.” He scoffs incredulously, silently hating that you wouldn’t let him provide for you, “just make sure you are getting enough rest on the weekends and drinking plenty of water…” Chris rubs a hand over his tired face again. “So how excited are you?” He asks changing the tone.
You beam, “Very. Mostly nervous…Amber says the venue in Seattle seats 500 people…” your voice trails off as a worried look takes over your face.
“My Butterfly, you will do great. If you get nervous just picture the ones you can see in their underwear.” Your fiancé tries to lift your spirits.
You chuckle with a soft smile. “I’ll try. So how’s South Africa?” .
“Namibia, location change for some desert action scenes. There’s this places call the Namib Desert where perfect sand dunes meet the Atlantic. Some of the cast and I took a helicopter ride over it. It’s breathtakingly beautiful, Y/N.” Chris fiddles with his phone and sends you a picture.
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“I’m going to bring you here one day.” Chris smiles.
You gaze at the picture, slightly jealous of his travels. “Looks like another world. I’d loved to see it.”
You wished you weren’t so limited on your own travels. First you had never been on an airplane, traveling by car, bus or train when you moved to Atlanta for college.
“Good.” Chris goes into planning mode on the hotels and the sightseeing activities he had done on his selected days off.
You give him a melancholy smile. “Before you go all five star vacation, I should tell you I have never been on a plane.”
Chris’ eyes widen with surprise then sullen sympathetically. “That’s fine we can take it slow. We can take a nice flight to Palm Springs once I’m back. Get you use to being in the air.”
“I will be squeezing your hand til it’s numb, if you don’t mind.”
“I’d never mind you, my Butterfly. Maybe we can join the mile high club.”
You snort, shaking your head in amusement, “I don’t think that’s a real thing, Poohbear.” You can feel yourself getting sleepy.
Chris shrugged as his alarm went off, signaling that he had an hour to get ready and to set. You laugh as he waggled his thick eyebrows at you.
“If not we will be the first, Butterfly.” With that he winks mischievously at you before you say your goodbyes.
Chris sighed content that he had talked and seen your face today. Not knowing how much he missed you til he answered your call. Now homesickness set in again but just for you. He needed to see you on the daily for the rest of the time he was away. But he would need your permission; getting up the courage, Chris called you again ten minutes later.
“Sorry, Wife,” he chuckled slightly marveling at how quickly you could go to sleep at you already hoarse Hello. “since you will be touring for the first time, I’d like to see it. With your permission can I look at Amber’s stream?”
You thought of it for a quick second, then remembered why he stopped following your friends. “It’s fine, Chris, Mykal and Chord will be there too. You can follow them as well as Naya; she join us for the San Francisco show.”
Cocking his head to the side in confusion, “Chord?”
“Yeah the guy I sang with at Naya’s wedding, remember, he’s my new partner. He is replacing Kenneth. Plus he has a few EPs that will help pad the show’s run time.” You say with a loud yawn.
Chris nodded, “Okay I think I remember him. Sweet dreams, my Butterfly. I love you.”
“Love you too.” He heard you reply before you hung.
He sighed getting up and stretching as he went to start his day. Looking around the small flat the studio had rented for him in central Windhoek. It had everything he needed, nice bedroom and living space with a great view of the city. The kitchen left things to be desired as he wanted to hone more cook skills while away.
Happy wife means happy life or so the saying goes.
Plus Chris wanted to make sure that you knew he was your equal and that certain household chores wouldn’t be yours alone. He did miss the wood crafting that being his newest found hobby. Not only being good at it but found it soothing and relaxing. Something he could immerse himself in while also produce something worthwhile.
Chris smiled softly as he at his breakfast of over easy eggs, toast with jam, and bacon, as he glanced at the lock screen of you kissing his cheek as both of you holding on to your dogs as your first family portrait. He couldn’t wait to get back to officially make you a part of his family.
✭.・♡︎。✧.・゜
The tour was nothing like anything you had experience ever in your life. The two 80hr work weeks prior had taken a hold so had the weekend boot camp for the tour. The show was thirty minutes longer than the weekly gigs, to accommodate some of Chord’s EPs and Amber’s new music.
“I love your harmony, Y/N. Would you consider doing a duet on my next song?” Chord asked as he walked you out of the rehearsal space to your car.
You shrug nonchalantly, “Sure. What’s the song about?”
“Unrequited love. I’m a sucker for that.”
Cocking your head to the side, you mused, “As a lyricist or just in general in life?”
Chord chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his head. “Both…Can’t catch a break.” He paused, you saw him rub his palms against the front of his jeans, “Are you still dating Evans the Avenger?”
Smiling, you nod, “Actually engaged.” You begin to think on your now fiancé who would be back in town a week after the tour ended.
“Really, umm congratulations, when is the special day?” Chord asked.
Pulling out your keys, you shrug, “Not sure…Chris has a lot of commitments so it probably won’t be for a long time, unfortunately.” You blew out an unknowingly frustrated sigh as you open your door and toss your rehearsal bag inside.
“Well…don’t put your life on hold waiting for another person to commit, Y/N. Trust I learned that the hard way.” Chord warns you. “It leads to heartbreak, and a plethora of carbs to fill the void.”
You scoff, “Is that what happened.” You poke his side, “Too many cool ranch Doritos?” Teasing his character from glee.
Chord chuckled patting a still flat but not well-defined stomach. “Those chips are heaven sent, Y/N. But yes, that and falling for the wrong girl. It really messed me up for years afterwards. Trusting others was a hard lesson to relearn.”
Amber had relayed the drama of Chord and Emma’s relationship back then and the toll it took on him and his self esteem. Your smile turned sad as you felt for your new friend’s misfortune.
“Just from getting to know you these past weeks I don’t want that to happen to you.” Chord continued. “You have a good heart, Y/N, but putting others first for so long will have a lasting negative affect that you may not be able to pull yourself out of.”
Your sad smile faded as a twinge of doubt and fear of your future with Chris began to rear its head again.
Shaking your head you pushed the thought out of your mind, but the smile that came to your lips didn’t reach your eyes. “Thanks for your concern, Chord, but Chris and I are solid. Trust me, I wouldn’t have said yes to marrying him if he didn’t check my boxes.” You take his hand in yours a give it a squeeze reassuringly.
He notices the difference of your smile but decides to change the subject. “Your box?” Chord raised an eyebrow mischievously.
You shove him playfully, “Get your mind out of the gutter, Overstreet!” You say laughing.
Chord laughs with you though you see his eyes look at you in a melancholy way. “Hope you’re right about him. Safe travels home, Y/N.” He says before turning to walk to his car.
✭.・♡︎。✧.・゜
You were lost in thought on the way back to Chris’ house. Not in your usual negative way of having second thoughts, but curious that Chris hadn’t mentioned marriage or planning one since he’d left.
As if making you his fiancée, took you off the market and secured your pussy as his…like Kenneth told you he would.
You are grateful to see Scott’s car in the driveway. Your fiancé brother could always bring you out of a funk.
You enter through the kitchen expecting your dog babies to greet you before hearing Scott say Hi from the family room. Washing your hands then head for the fridge. They were nowhere to be seen.
“Hey, Scott, how was your day?” You call out to him as you open the fridge to get leftovers from two days ago.
“Grueling. But I think I might have gotten a recurring role. Cross fingers.” He said coming into the kitchen.
“Knock on wood.” You give him a smile as you knock three times on the cabinet then start the microwave. “What show is it for?”
“Grace and Frankie on Netflix.” Scott saddled up to the bar. “Character‘s name is Oliver and he is a closeted gay trying to be straight.”
An impressed look crossed you face, “Bold storyline. I’m so proud of you, Scott.” You start for the pantry to get the dog babies’ dinner.
“Thank you. Oh, I fed the beasts already.” Scott tells you pointing outside the patio door.
Peering through the French doors to see Ahsoka frolicking while Dodger is laid out sunbathing. You smile sadly at how much you’re going to miss them when you leave next week.
Shoulders sinking, you retrieve your food from the microwave. “You sure you’ll be okay with them? I can still board them if you want me to. I can board, Ahsoka since this will be your first time with her. She can be a handful.” You sit next to your future brother-in-law. “Which reminds me I need to go grocery shopping for her food to make this weekend.” You say more to yourself than to him.
“You have nothing to worry about, Y/N, I have nothing but time. Production doesn’t start until you get back so your and my brother’s fur babies will be in safe hands, especially your fur baby.” He grinned reassuringly.
You smile as you start on your food.
“Chris, called me today,” Scott began after a moment of comfortable silence. You nodded telling him you were listening as you blew on the hot food. “to ask if I’d be his best man.”
Your heart skipped a beat as you looked over at him.
“Course I’d said yes, but he’s busy so he wanted me to ask your about your favorite places to cater food. And to remind you not everyone loves sushi.”
You chuckled, “Everyone should love sushi, and jollof rice, and dodo, and strawberry cheesecake ice cream,” you listed off your favorite things. “How’s he doing, I haven’t talk to him today.”
Scott smiled gently, “He’s been better, he’s homesick and misses you like crazy. But that’s to be expected…and he’s worried about you touring.”
Your eyes roll, “Are you going to tell me not to go too?” You raised a questioning eyebrow at your future brother-in-law.
Shifting in his chair, Scott cleared his throat, twining with his older brother as he rubbed dirty blonde beard. “No, and it’s not place to either. In all honesty, I think Chris is being unreasonable with that request.” He saw you nod your thanks as you continued eating.
“But you have to take into account his dating history. When he first started out he usually hooked up with a co-star or an extra while filming. Most of the time if he was dating his partner would too. He has commitment issues, and has been better especially when he was dating Jenny. She really helped him settle down.”
You sat quietly for a moment before asking one of your most dreaded questions, “Why do you think they didn’t work out?” You pushed the food around on your plate.
“Jenny was ready to settle down and have kids. Chris at the time, wasn’t.”
Nodding as you stare at your half eaten plate, you begin to play with your ring, “But he is now only after knowing me less than a year…” You start to slip the ring off your finger but a warm hand stopped you.
“Y/N, look at me,” Scott said gently to you. He waited patiently as you blinked back tears and did. “There is a difference between you and Jenny. Chris wears his heart on his sleeve, but that’s just physical or lust more likely infatuated. He doesn’t fall in love easily. With you it was easy. I’m not sure if it was because of how hard it was to get a hold of you after you deleted your number, or how long it took for you to say yes to a date. But I have never in my life seen my brother be that persistent with someone that will be his wife one day.”
Scott cupped your cheek and wiped away a tear you didn’t know you shed. “Chris loved you from the first time he set eyes on you; I believe, and loves you probably more than you love him.” His hand drops the squeeze both of yours. “In my opinion it’s how it should be.”
You chuckle, “I love him too. Just don’t want him to regret or resent me.”
“Why would he?”
You shake your head, silently cursing yourself for bringing it up. “Nevermind…” you shake your head, going back to your dinner.
Scott’s hand that cupped your cheek now squeezed your arm urging you to continue.
“Chris told me that had dated a couple of black women…how did those relationships go?” You ask quietly with a shaky breath then added, “in Boston.”
You felt Scott let go of your arm, and glanced his way. He looked a little bit rattled.
“Not well,” he whispered back. He seemed to be debating whether or not to tell you the truth.
“Should I be worried?”
“Not with him. Maybe with extended family and friends but Chris set a few of them right with Melody.” Now it was his turn to let out a melancholy sigh.
“Melody, was Chris’ first everything.”
You fork clattered to your plate. “Everything, everything?” You stare in shock.
Scott nodded, as a sad smile crossed his face.
“They were childhood sweethearts, and started dating in middle school. Our parents were college besties. She was the kindest, most giving person I have ever met.. even knew I was gay before I did…she was the first person I told.”
You noticed the past tense.
“At seventeen, they lost their virginity and Chris of course told mom.”
You remember a late night interview of him telling the host that.
“Everyone thought they’d end up married, but in the summer before their senior year she was in a car accident that left her brain dead.” He let out a long sigh. “Her parents blamed Chris who as at acting camp, since he normally drove them around. But they were just grieving, our parents didn’t want Chris to blame himself, and tried to forbid him from going to the wake. Chris went anyway…don’t know what happened, he never told anyone. It changed him so that he never dated longer than a couple of months until Jenny.”
Your mind raced as this explained Chris’ rules with you, and why he didn’t want you touring.
“That explains a lot,” you breathed to no one in particular. You explain Chris’ rules to Scott, leaving out how instead of spankings that your pussy was his for the next twelve hours. He didn’t need to know that part as you blushed.
The both of you sat in silence.
“With Melody, there were bigoted people that think they’re right, Chris always put them straight. With words, and if that didn’t work then with fists. He is very protective of those he loves. So you if you’re worried about that you don’t have to be.” Scott added after awhile, then smiled, “And with those six babies you’ll give him, Chris will fight to the death in a cage match for them.”
You scoff rolling your eyes, “I’m not going to give your brother six kids. You’re as bad as him.” You give a soft smile.
Scott responds likewise. “Don’t tell Chris I told you about Melody.”
“I won’t.” You say reassuringly, knowing the skeletons in your own closet you’d want to keep hidden. “I’m sorry for your loss too, Scott, Melody sounded like a wonderful person. She would have made a good sister-in-law.”
Squeezing your hand, Scott gets up, “So will you, Y/N.” He kisses your cheek. “Now finish up I want a rematch of Rainbow Road before you go to sleep.”
✭.・♡︎ No More Stage Fright゜。.・✭
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It would be your first and last tour you had decided on day five as you woke up from being jostled while riding in the rear seat of the fifteen passenger van.
“You okay?” A voice asks softly as a large hand squeezes your shoulder.
You sit up from laying your head on Chord’s shoulder absentmindedly shrugging his arm from around your shoulders.
Rubbing your eyes, you nod, “Sorry I fell asleep on you…how many times is that now?”
“Five,” Chord says placing his hands in his lap. “It’s okay, you drove most of the night, so you deserve the rest.”
You stretch to the best of your ability in the cramped quarters then look out the window. Thirty and forty foot pine trees rushed passed, peaking in between the limbs were the dark blue waters of the Pacific. The change in altitude had given you a headache that sleep didn’t wear off.
“We are about twenty miles outside of Portland.” Chord said answering the question you were about to ask. He watched as you dig in your purse for your migraine medication.
You hadn’t had a headache like this for almost two years. The pain behind the eyes was becoming blinding. You nod slightly, then leaned your head against the cool window closed your eyes again.
“You have migraines, too, huh?” Chord asked in a low soothing voice.
You nod telling him you heard his question.
“My mom and sister has them. Mom has to get spinal shots bc hers are so bad.” Chord continued.
“I have a deep seeded fear of needles, I’d rather a pill of some sort.” You reply eyes still closed. “I think it’s the altitude change that is causing this one. I’m grateful we don’t have to perform tonight; I could really do with a cold press, Excedrin, and half bottle of Zzzquil.” You sigh knowing you had none of the remedies and would need to make a store run before crashing for the night.
You weren’t looking forward to it, as you settled placing the middle of your forehead against the cool window. Feeling a soft nudge at your side, you painfully open your eyes at Chord who handed you a bottle of pain medication.
“I’m so used to carrying it around for them I just automatically pack it even if they aren’t on the trip.” He said in barely a whisper.
It still sounded like talking normally to you as you sat up taking the bottle from him a dispersing two pills.
“Thank you,” you groaned swallowing them with a gulp of water. “You’re an angel.”
That night at the hotel you wake up to your phone ringing. It’s your fiancé FaceTime you. You didn’t feel like talking as you turned over snuggling down further in the dow comforter. The phone buzzed as you had a voicemail but then rang again.
Begrudgingly you answered, “Chris, I have a headache…” you start.
“Yeah, I could tell you weren’t yourself during Amber’s livestream.” He sighed interrupting you, “I ask Amber if she can get you some Zzzquil, Excedrin, and a cold press. I was trying to see if you got them.”
Chris’ brow furrowed, you had yet to open your eyes to him; the migraine must have been extremely intense, that you wouldn’t show him your pretty brown eyes.
“Thank you, Chris.” you give a painful smile. “That was very kind of you.”
Chris nodded, though he wanted to talk more he knew you were in much pain. “It’s my pleasure, Wife,” he smiled slightly seeing the corner of your mouth turn up at your nickname. “Imma let you rest, Butterfly. I love you.” His smile grew as you opened your eyes telling him you loved him back before hanging up.
Sighing, Chris existed his trailer, then texted his brother to see how the dogs were doing. In less than three weeks he would be home with you. His negative thoughts became positive as he looked forward to spending the rest of his life with you.
✭.・♡︎。✧.・゜
It was show three in Portland as you, Amber, Annette, Jacob, Devon, and Chord did your teams warmup’s Aaliyah song blasting in the background. You had just finished your makeup when the five minute call came from the venue manager.
The show went off without a hitch. Chord opened with a couple of his songs then you joined him What’s Left Of You, and Hold On. Then Amber took the stage and showed why she is the best at what she does and how she was the best singer on that dreadful show.
She and Chord did Human Nature which earned a thunderous applause that echoed in your eardrums, which was followed by Chord and yours Way You Make Me Feel. You can’t help but smile at the enjoyment on the audience faces as the final remnants of stage fright faded away, as you sang Tamia’s Officially Missing You, and Aaliyah’s Try Again.
The weeks passed by fast as Naya joined the tour in San Francisco, and did a rendition of Girl on Fire and Back to Black. Then Amber and her did a duet of Doo Wop and you joined for Shake It Out.
Before long the tour was concluding in Santa Barbara; Amber did her monologue as you sat with the rest of the backup singers admiring the club’s decor as it was decked out for Valentine’s Day. Paper streamers, hearts, and silhouette of cupids in red, pink and white hung from the exposed rafters. You smile at the couples leaning in, hugging each other as you remember it is your first valentine day as a fiancee. A small melancholy smile spread on your lips as you hear Amber say your name.
“So my sister from another mister, just recently got engaged.” Amber beamed at you motioning for you to come forward.
Wide-eyed you reluctantly did.
“Her very handsome fiancé is out of the country and can’t be with her-” The crowd awed in sympathy. “for their first valentine’s together. But he sent word that he wanted a song sang for her.”
Devon came up starting acapella “🎵My heart's a stereo, it beats for you so listen close; hear my thoughts in every note. Make me your radio and turn me up when when you low, this melody was meant for you. Just sing along with my stereo🎶”
You couldn’t help but cheese at one of the show did it better songs. Between dancing with Devon as Chord ‘rapped’ the verses, then singing along with as the audience joined in your melancholiness evaporated as did the last ounce of stage fright.
✭.・♡︎。✧.・゜
It was a week and some change later, that you were finally home. You had went over to Chris’ to secretly pay Scott for dog sitting(you hid two hundred and sixty dollars in twenties in the pockets of his jeans, pants, jackets and hoodies, so he’d think he had found lost money) since he wouldn’t let you pay; you were family after all.
You took Ahsoka with you back to your place needing time to decompress from the whole experience which you enjoyed but had worn you out. It was like traveling for show choir times ten. Amber had understood that you were done and would only be a backup singer for her in town gigs from now on. She reminded you of the summer of glee’s world tour when the show went on tour between the second and third season and how exhausted everyone was when they only had a week break before shooting started.
You were grateful for couple of days off to get back into your routine before going back to work. Mykal had missed you so much they had come over every day after work to dish on everything you did on tour and what you missed at the office. You enjoyed it that you were looking forward to tonight as you were going to catch up on some Netflix shows and tea.
You had just put the store bought pizza in the oven and walked out back to get Ahsoka to come in. Of course she wouldn’t she had missed her backyard. Smiling as slipped your socked slippers into your clogs you went outside to play with her.
Chris turned his key into your lock and opened the door to the smell of pizza and coffee. A smile flirted on his disgruntled face. He had come home early expecting you to be at his, now your home but Scott informed him you hadn’t been back since you picked up your daughter. He had turned on his heels picking up a small package that had arrived for him. Within the next minute Chris was out the door with Dodger following in his wake. Now he had to figure out if this deserved a spanking.
Dodger ran through the house sniffing everything as if it was brand new. Chris set the package on the counter then checked on the food in the oven and turned off your coffee maker before opening the patio door.
You yelped seeing another dog chase after the beach ball you kicked for Ahsoka to go after. A couple seconds lapsed when you realized it was Dodger. A giddy smile grew as you turn around.
SMACK
Your face hits his chest and down you would have went if it wasn’t for your fiancé arms holding you securely in them.
Why am I the only one that gets hurt in this relationship.
Well that will work as your spanking for not being home when I come back from filming.
“Ow,” you cry out rubbing your nose. “Fucking brick wall…I thought you usually lose your muscle after filming.” You groan irritably.
Chris lifts your face to his; a platter size hand on either side of your face as he studied it to make sure you weren’t seriously hurt. “I do…did.” He muttered not seeing any bruises forming then crashed his lips to yours.
Moaning you realized how much you missed your man’s kisses as you wrapped your arms around his waist. Your knees wobbled as his teeth scraped your bottom lip. You felt your nether region begin to dampen as Chris hands went from your face to lovingly caressing your figure landing on your butt.
Giving it a squeeze he pulled up your nightshirt and let his hands roam over your panty clad behind.
You grab his wrists stopping him and backing out of the kiss which earned you an annoyed growl. Rolling your eyes at your kisses obsessed paramour, you spoke softly as not to get your panties confiscated. “Mykal is on their way over for a Netflix night.” You look up into his narrowed blue eyes.
Chris grunted bringing your lips back to his. “Reschedule, you’re busy.”
Backing out again earning you a pinch on your right buttcheek. “Chris, I can’t we are catching up from the weeks I’ve been gone.” You whimpered, trying to squirm out of his arms.
“I’ve been gone months, Y/N,” he countered not letting you go an inch.
Frowning, you nod side eyeing yourself, as you stopped moving letting him hold you close, “I know, I wished you’d called or texted. Bc I would have called them to reschedule…” your heart sinks as Chris lets you go and steps away crouching to pet Ahsoka.
You immediately feel cold and longed for his charcoal smoker embrace again. “It’s just they are on their way with short ribs in tow.” You finish quietly. You could feel his disappointment and it weighed heavily on the seconds before joyfulness of having him home.
The emotional rollercoaster left tears stinging your eyes.
Chris chuckled knowingly, those short ribs were that good. “A text or a call would defeat the purpose of a surprise.” He straightened looking over at you and your sad features, remembering his vow to himself. Grimacing. This wasn’t how he had imagined his first night back with you, “How far out are they?”
“About forty minutes but that was ten minutes ago.” You sniff, blinking rapidly to rid the tears. Studying him as a mischievous grin grew on his face.
Chris grabbed your wrist hauling you double time back inside the house leaving the dog babies outside.
“Chris?” You stammer as he leads you to bedroom.
Chris turns on the light and locks the door before pulling you firmly to his chest. “Not enough time to get my fill,” his grin broadens, kissing you gently. “But enough time to have a taste for rolling those perfect brown eyes at me.”
He walks you backwards to the bed, “Tomorrow after work you will be back in our house and I won’t be gentle, my Butterfly. You owe me two twelve hour No Panties House and I will be collecting them both consecutively.”
✧・゚: *✧・゚Chapter End✧・゚: *✧・゚
Tagged: @urmomsgirlfriend1 @koallii @bluskyy30 @sarahdonald87 @blucloudd @introvertllux @luckydiorxoxo
Author’s Note: Hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Sorry again for the wait😅. I had to revise some things because I thought this chapter would be getting into the heaviness of the reader’s past, but I decided that we should know why Chris’ has those specific ground rules. Next chapter will be a trigger warning will be attached as the reader’s past catches up to their happily ever after. How will things pan out with reader and Chris? 🤷🏾‍♀️Find out in Chapter 16 coming soon. As always if you like please reblog share it with others. Also please comment let me know how I’m doing. If you would like to be tagged, please let me know via a reply or message me, and I will gladly add you. Again thank you so much for reading, until next time 🤗 TTFN.
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fatehbaz · 1 year
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The Clear Lake hitch (Lavinia exilicauda chi) is a rare endemic species of minnow living only in the Clear Lake watershed of northern California, a fish that was once a “symbol of abundance” for Indigenous people. In December 2022, the Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians, Robinson Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians, Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians and the Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake ask for immediate emergency protection of the hitch. The fish is in danger of extinction as the last observed successful breeding for the species was in 2017, and the creatures only have a six-year-long lifespan. US land management agencies say hitch numbers have “fallen to near zero.” However, in the past, there were millions of hitch in the watershed each year, and the fish was important to Indigenous food systems. Local “entrepreneurs” prefer to protect the introduced non-native bass, which voraciously preys on the endangered hitch. Clear Lake hosts dozens of bass tournaments each year, events large enough to attract international visitors. There is a past-time tradition (”hitching”) of children beating the hitch to death with baseball bats in the springtime as the hitch gather in streams to try to spawn. The hitch is also threatened by pesticides, runoff, and overuse of water for the region’s prominent local vineyards. The hitch is referred to as a “trash fish,” and some feel that this insults the importance of the fish to Pomo people.
Excerpts below from: Louis Sahagun of Los Angeles Times. “As a sacred minnow nears extinction, Native Americans of Clear Lake call for bold plan.” As published at Phys.org. 6 December 2022.
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Spring runs of a large minnow numbering in the millions have nourished Pomo Indians since they first made their home alongside Northern California’s Clear Lake more than 400 generations ago. The Clear Lake hitch glinted like silver dollars as they headed up the lake’s tributaries to spawn, a reliable squirming crop of plenty, steeped in history [...].
In all that time, the hitch’s domain, about 110 miles northwest of Sacramento, had never suffered the degradation of recent years.
Now, with a growing sense of sorrow, if not anger, the Pomo Indian tribes of Clear Lake are watching the symbol of abundance and security they call chi dwindle into extinction.
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On Monday [December 2022], they took the rare and drastic step of urging Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to use her emergency powers and invoke the federal Endangered Species Act on behalf of the Clear Lake hitch. “Bringing the chi back will require a bold plan of action devised by people with the power to move mountains,” said Ron Montez, tribal historic preservation officer for the Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians. 
“I have almost zero confidence in state or federal officials to save the chi and our way of life,” Montez, 72, said. [...]
The Clear Lake hitch was designated as a threatened species under California’s Endangered Species Act in 2014. Since then, however, its numbers have fallen to near zero, according to recent surveys. 
Some causes of the hitch’s decline, however, seem extraordinarily difficult to fix: prolonged drought, mercury contamination, gravel mining, an overtaxed water distribution system, pesticides and runoff from vineyards [...], and predatory nonnative game fish. [...]
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The 2023 spring spawning season is crucial for the continued survival of the Clear Lake hitch, scientists say. That’s because the last observed successful spawning was in 2017. “Hitch have a six-year life span,” said Meg Townsend, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. [...]
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But until its fate is known for certain, Michael Fris, a field supervisor at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said his agency is unlikely to list the hitch on an emergency basis. [...] That kind of talk prompted the Center for Biological Diversity, together with the Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians, Robinson Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians, Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians and the Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake to take their request for emergency listing to Haaland.
All involved agree that seeking intervention under the federal Endangered Species Act is an act of desperation. Only two species have been emergency-listed as federally endangered over the last 20 years: the Miami blue butterfly in 2011 and Nevada’s Dixie Valley toad earlier this year. [...]
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The hitch is a 12-inch-long minnow found only in and around the oldest, largest and perhaps most polluted and wildfire-prone watershed in California. In 2020, the Lake County region was charred by six of the 20 largest wildfires in state history. [...]
It’s been the poor luck of the hitch to require adequate stream flows in February, March and April to trek from the lake to spawning beds at the same time agricultural interests need water to defrost their vineyards.
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“An emergency listing would force people to consider alternatives to the way water is used in this region,” said Sarah Ryan, environmental director for the Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians.
Beyond water flows, the prospect of emergency-listing the hitch raises other economically significant issues connected to the lake’s food chain: Zooplankton are eaten by shad, crayfish and hitch, which are favored by monster catfish and largemouth bass.
Clear Lake entrepreneurs host dozens of professional bass tournaments each year that are supported by contestants from around the world.
The most popular lures in local tackle shops are hitch replicas that cost up to $180 each. Other lures are made to resemble juvenile hitch and sold under a slogan that some people feel mocks the creature’s cultural importance to Pomo people: “The All-American Trash Fish.”
Over at [C.O.], a sporting goods store on the southern end of the lake, old-timers still talk about how local kids had a tradition of “hitching,” beating hitch to death with baseball bats for fun as they ascended streams to spawn in spring. 
They also grumble over the thought of new special protections for a nongame fish disrupting human pastimes for any reason [...].
"The reason our bass grow so big is that they love to eat hitch," mused [D.B.], owner of [C.O.]. "So, when customers ask me, 'Where can I catch the biggest bass of my life?' " he added, "I send them to places hitch hang out in."
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That kind of banter and lore suggests that unless government agencies yield to Native American concerns, they are headed for a showdown of complicated and competing values.
“The way some people ridicule hitch makes me wonder what they think about the folks who eat them,” lamented Robert Geary, cultural resources director for the Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake. [...]
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At the heart of the matter is that Pomo people [...] did not consider their native attitudes and lifestyles to be an expendable price of living in America.
Yet, their modern history is told mostly through economic hardship, rip-offs, massacres and environmental destruction.
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Headline, image, caption, and text by: Louis Sahagun of Los Angeles Times. “As a sacred minnow nears extinction, Native Americans of Clear Lake call for bold plan.” As published at Phys.org. 6 December 2022. [First paragraph in this post added by me.]
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(from IMDB)
"Born in Texas and raised in his hometown of Sacramento, Ryan Guzman never thought of becoming an actor, much less a professional dancer. At the age of seven, he developed an interest in martial arts and earned his first black belt in Tae Kwon Do by the age of ten. This led him into the octagon as a MMA fighter in Sacramento until his fighting license expired in 2010. A gifted athlete, he was also a sought-after left-handed pitcher with a fastball clocked between 87-90 miles per hour. A shoulder injury ended this career dream while Guzman was still a teenager, which transitioned later into a career in print modeling and soon after, acting."
.....When was anybody gonna tell me that Ryan Guzman apparently has ALL the skills...?!
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astranva · 1 year
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Please explain the timeline for pe!
Following October of 2022, keep an open, flexible mind to the dates and time. Here’s Chris and pe!reader’s relationship timeline.
2011
Chris first publicly spoke about having pe!reader as his celebrity crush during the NYC comic con.
2012
July - pe!reader starts filming The Spectacular Now alongside Miles Teller as the two leads.
August - pe!reader and Miles Teller are spotted on a date.
October - pe!reader and Miles are official.
2013
February - pe!reader and Miles Teller go public.
October - pe!reader and Miles’ first anniversary.
2014
March - pe!reader and Chris meet for the first time at Vanity Fair’s Oscar afterparty.
September - pe!reader and Miles break up.
November 28th - pe!reader and Chris meet again in private Interstellar release-celebratory party hosted by Christopher and Jonathan Nolan and hang out the entire night together. They exchange phone numbers.
November 30th - pe!reader and Chris go out for coffee.
December 5th - pe!reader and Chris go undercover to the movies to watch Wild.
December 7th - • Chris invites pe!reader over to cook for her, burns the meal and gets her her favorite takeout after googling it. • pe!reader and Chris were about to kiss but she stopped so they can take it slow.
December 24th - pe!reader and Chris are papped together.
December 27th - They have their own late christmas celebration at pe!reader’s New York apartment with Dakota Johnson, Jennifer Garner & Ben Affleck, Blake Lively & Ryan Reynolds, pe!reader’s best 3 best friends from theatre; Jia, Sophia, and Raymond.
2015
January - Chris realizes that he has strong feelings for pe!reader.
February - pe!reader realizes that she has strong feelings for Chris but chooses not to act on them because she wants to take more time to know him and be friends.
February 22nd - Chris and pe!reader are talked about when they greet with cheek kisses at the Oscars.
March - They frequently meet at each other’s houses as to not get papped.
April - Chris is busy with Avengers: Age of Ultron’s release.
May - First kiss and first date.
June - pe!reader is busy with Inside Out’s release.
July - They reunite with more dates and get papped once.
August - pe!reader meets Scott, and decides to stop going on talk shows and interviews unless it’s movie press.
September 21st - Chris and pe!reader make it official before she goes to Australia to start filming Hacksaw Ridge.
October - Chris watches pe!reader’s SNL monologue from the audience but it’s kept lowkey.
November - pe!reader and Chris decide to go public and are papped:
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December - Hacksaw Ridge wraps up. pe!reader hosts a bigger Christmas party where people fawn over them as a couple.
December 31st - pe!reader and Chris spend the New Year’s together.
2016
January - pe!reader and Chris go to the Bahamas for a secret one-week getaway.
February - pe!reader and Chris make their red carpet debut as a couple at the Oscars & she meets the rest of the Evans’ family.
March - Chris meets pe!reader’s family, gets interrogated by her 7-year-old sister, Madelyn, but they welcome him.
April - Chris and pe!reader’s stepdad, Marshall, are papped golfing.
May - pe!reader decides to direct Lady Bird. Captain America: Civil War premieres. They make their Met Gala red carpet debut as a couple.
June - pe!reader hosts a huge surprise birthday party for Chris, and also celebrates CACW with him. They go all the way. She starts filming Mother!
July - pe!reader is papped having breakfast with Chris’ mom, Lisa.
August - Mother! wraps up. filming Lady Bird starts, Chris is papped visiting pe!reader on set and stays for one week in Sacramento with her.
September - • pe!reader and Chris celebrate their 1st anniversary. • First big fight. • pe!reader and Chris are papped on her NY apartment’s balcony
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• pe!reader sues the photographer and their agency for violating her privacy and photographing a private property.
October - • Lady Bird wraps up, Chris hosts a celebratory party for pe!reader and the entire cast and crew. • pe!reader and Chris go on a 5-day trip to the Amalfi Coast. • pe!reader starts therapy after her role as Mother in Mother! took a toll on her mental health.
November - pe!reader moves in with Chris at his house in Boston.
December - Chris moves in with pe!reader at her NY apartment.
2017
January - • pe!reader rescues her, then, kitten, Pam and is hers and Chris’ first shared pet. • pe!reader visits Chris on Infinity War set, meets the entire cast
February - Pregnancy scare!
April - Chris adopts Dodger and he becomes their second shared pet.
September - • Second anniversary! • pe!reader wins Emmy award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her role in The Handmaid’s Tale, briefly and vaguely mentions Chris in her speech.
November - Chris buys an engagement ring and tells his mom only about it.
December - pe!reader and Chris buy a house together in Italy.
2018
January - pe!reader and Chris go together to the Golden Globes. Lady Bird wins Best Motion Picture. pe!reader gives an emotional speech and thanks Chris in it.
February - Chris takes pe!reader to Disneyland in Paris for Valentine’s day.
March - • Chris is busy with Infinity War press. • pe!reader launches her skin care brand, Bare.
April - pe!reader joins Chris for the first time as his plus one for the Infinity War movie premiere despite that she doesn’t go to other movie premieres.
May - • pe!reader sets her LA house on sale. • Chris and pe!reader buy a new house in LA together. • pe!reader buys a private island at the Bahamas. • pe!reader and Chris attend Prince Harry & Meghan’s royal wedding together.
June - Chris proposes and she says yes! They celebrate all month with family and friends.
September 21st - Third anniversary!
2019
February - pe!reader becomes an EGOT winner after winning a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album (Including Poetry, Audiobooks & Storytelling) for being the official narrator of the book, Circe.
March - • pe!reader hosts a big anniversary party for Bare. • Chris celebrates her on his own and buys her a 1967 Cadillac De Ville convertible car.
April - pe!reader joins Chris as his plus one again at the Endgame premiere and is papped crying emotionally because of Chris’ journey in Marvel coming to an end.
May - pe!reader buys Chris a yacht with ‘Property of Christopher Evans, with love, Y/N Y/L/N-Evans’ engraved on it. They’re papped.
June - They get married in Italy! They spend their honeymoon in Seychelles then went to Greece.
September - • Fourth anniversary! • They buy their farmhouse.
2020
September 21st: Fifth anniversary!
2021
March: pe!reader wins her fourth Golden Globe for Best Actress for Promising Young Woman.
April: • pe!reader receives her third Oscar for Best Actress for Promising Young Woman and thanks Chris so adorably in her speech. • They start trying for a baby!
September: • Sixth anniversary! • pe!reader wins her third Emmy award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her role in The Handmaid’s Tale.
November: pe!reader and Chris get a false-positive pregnancy test because of her fertility medications.
2022
January: • pe!reader is pregnant! • They tell their families two weeks later.
February: They tell their close friends.
June: Chris announces the pregnancy on his Instagram when she’s 6 months pregnant.
July: pe!reader joins Chris for The Gray Man LA premiere and gets seen pregnant in an event for the first time.
September 14th: River Jude Evans is born. pe!reader announces a hiatus.
October: They move to stay at their farmhouse away from all the noise to raise River there for a year.
From that time forward, time truly is an illusion. Pe!reader and Chris will have 3 more kids and unless I write about this fic until 2028, I advise you read this fic with a grain of salt. Thanks for reading!
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Outside the California State Capitol last month, a fitness trainer turned school board president fired up the crowd at a parental rights rally, telling them they were all fighters in “a spiritual battle” for their kids and must answer the call from God.
Sonja Shaw, who was elected to the Chino Valley Unified School District board of education last November with an assist from a local megachurch and its Christian nationalist pastor, didn’t equivocate in naming the enemy: state Democratic officials who are challenging her right-leaning policies—and drafting laws that hinder book bans and protect teachers from harassment.
“Today we stand here and declare in his almighty name that it’s only a matter of time before we take your seats and we be a God-fearing example to the nation, how God is using California to lead the way,” Shaw crowed, adding, “We already know who has won this battle. You will be removed in Jesus’s name! You, Satan, are losing.”
Now Shaw is in the national spotlight in wake of her Chino school board passing codes that ban pride flags in classrooms and force educators to inform parents if their children identify as transgender—the first such policy to be passed in the state.
This summer, Shaw’s school board meetings, about 35 miles east of Los Angeles, became chaotic spectacles, ones that attracted the Proud Boys and other right-wing extremists and pitted them against students and parents protesting what they’re calling anti-LGBTQ practices that endanger children. When California superintendent of schools Tony Thurmond appeared at the July meeting in opposition, Shaw unceremoniously silenced him.
Weeks after state Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a civil rights probe into Shaw’s “gender disclosure” policy, his office sued the school board. Bonta said the policy violates the California constitution and state law, and would cause LGBTQ+ students, “mental, emotional, psychological and potential physical harm,” according to a press release.
Other right-leaning school boards across the state have followed Chino Valley Unified’s lead. Shortly before filing suit against the Chino board, Bonta issued statements denouncing the Anderson Union High School District, Temecula Valley Unified and Murrieta Valley Unified school boards’ decisions to pursue “copycat” anti-trans policies.
“These students are currently under threat of being outed to their parents against their will, and many fear that the District’s policy will force them to make a choice: either ‘walk back’ their constitutionally and statutorily protected rights to gender identity and gender expression, or face the risk of emotional, physical, and psychological harm,” Bonta said.
To concerned observers in Chino, Shaw’s tack is not unlike what’s happening at school boards across the country, with brawls over curriculum, social emotional learning, and the banning of books that focus on race and LGBTQ issues. Extremist groups like Moms for Liberty have spawned a mainstream narrative that public schools are “indoctrinating” children with “woke” ideology and into believing they’re a different gender.
But in Chino Valley, the school board’s new direction appears to be spurred on by a man behind the curtain: Shaw’s megachurch pastor Jack Hibbs.
Indeed, three of the board’s five members belong to his church, Calvary Chapel Chino Hills.
At the Sacramento rally, Hibbs boasted of his congregation’s work in electing Shaw. Calling her a “true modern-day Deborah,” Hibbs said the soccer mom “heeded the call to run for the school board” and that “when churches get involved and get informed, people vote.”
God, Hibbs said, installed Shaw into her position.
“Get on your knees every night,” Shaw told the crowd. “All day I talk to him. People probably think I’m crazy, but I’m really just talking to God all day.” After reciting a Bible verse, she added, “I have looked demons straight in the eye and with God’s authority rebuked them back to hell where they belong.”
“You can do that too, trust me.”
Residents have long raised alarms about the school board’s religious bent. And Pastor Hibbs and members of his megachurch congregation appear to be more involved than ever in Chino’s public schools.
Last week, in an interview with right-wing provocateur Charlie Kirk, Hibbs said that he brought the policy language to the school board after Republican state Assemblyman Bill Essayli’s “parental notification” legislation died without a hearing.
“He came back thinking he was defeated,” Hibbs said. “What we did is that we read his bill and we took the verbiage from that bill and then introduced it to our unified school district school board and they voted and adopted the verbiage.”
“Guess what happened?” Hibbs continued. “We found out something, Charlie, that the most powerful politics is local…”
Hibbs then turned to Bonta’s lawsuit against the board, saying, “We’re going to take that on, we’re going to make sure that this goes to the U.S. Supreme Court.”
The pastor, who hasn’t returned messages left by The Daily Beast, wasn’t shy about his fight on the school board’s behalf.
Before he signed off, Hibbs told Kirk that children are “groomed” into trans ideology in the classroom and that schools want to “castrate your children” and “mutilate them.”
Ahead of the parental notification vote in July, Hibbs also urged people to flock to the fiery board meeting. “We’re asking people to show up by the thousands,” he said in a video announcement on the church’s Facebook page. “Please make it a priority.”
Meanwhile, Calvary Chapel has boasted on social media of collecting tens of thousands of ballots for state and local candidates endorsed by Hibbs. The church’s ballot collection, a practice it’s engaged in for years, is conducted with help from Hibbs’ political organization Real Impact.
A teacher in another district—who alleges she was fired for refusing to follow her school’s gender identity protocols—heeded Hibbs’ call. “I could no longer be both a Christian and a public school teacher,” she said at the board meeting. “Then I remembered what Pastor Jack Hibbs taught me, that the word of God says… that being a coward is a sin.”
Still, Shaw claims that neither she nor the school board follow Hibbs’ orders. “Absolutely not. No one has a direct line to Pastor Jack Hibbs. Pastor Jack has never said, ‘Hey, guys, I want you to bring this policy forward.’ Never ever did he do any of that,” she told The Daily Beast. She added, however, that she couldn’t speak on Hibbs’ involvement with the board of education prior to her election.
The mother of two daughters—a freshman and junior in high school—Shaw was a Bible study leader at another church before joining Hibbs’ Calvary Chapel Chino Hills about two years ago.
Last September, Shaw told the San Bernardino Sun that she wasn’t running for election on the behalf of the 10,000-member Calvary Chapel. “They keep calling me ‘the church’s choice.’ I’ve never met Pastor Jack (Hibbs). I’ve never been brought up on stage,” she said.
One month later, however, Hibbs introduced her at the pulpit, telling his Sunday service that “she’s truly going up against the machine” before leading a prayer for her victory. Shaw bowed her head as Hibbs lifted a hand in the air and declared, “She has decided, Lord, to take on the woke-ism that is attacking our children.”
Hibbs has emboldened supporters to fight progressive education bills and prop up Christian candidates. In his sermons, he has tearfully prayed on stage for Donald Trump to win the 2020 election, said COVID-19 vaccines would lead people into accepting “the mark of the beast,” and called “transgenderism” a “sexually perverted cult” and “an anti-God, anti-Christ plan of none other than Satan himself.”
On education, he’s claimed that he and his acolytes are “trying to rescue kids from a system that is sexualizing them,” that kids “come out of school questioning their gender but they don’t even know how to do simple math” and “are being raped by the public school system.”
Hibbs has also taken aim at California’s abortion protections, describing them as “Infanticidal Death Policies,” in a document circulated to his congregation in October 2022, just before Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s re-election.
“If God does not intervene in this upcoming election through His people, which has always been his MO, and, if Newsom has his way, then this will certainly be proof that judgment has begun in California if not the United States,” the document reads. It ends by encouraging followers to return their ballots to the church.
“We should be able to stand against the school board,” Hibbs said in May. “We should be able to stand against some teacher that is molesting your child—if not physically, in their minds.”
In July, Hibbs delivered a skewed history lesson claiming that some founding fathers “inherited” slaves but actually cared for them. “Before you call them rich white guys who were slave owners,” Hibbs preached, “you need to finish the sentence: They were rich white guys who were slave owners who clothed, fed, and in many cases took very good care of their slaves while at the same time juggling two worlds…”
The megachurch has also tried to meddle in Chino Valley public school classes and teachings. Calvary Chapel members once funded textbooks for an elective course in two public high schools on the Bible as history and literature and tried to alter rules for sex education curriculum.
The church also runs a Christian “Released Time” program, where public school students can duck out of class for weekly one-hour Bible lessons held in buses outfitted with tables and chairs. This program had a table at the district’s back-to-school night, and a volunteer in a Calvary Chapel Chino Hills T-shirt handed out candy and Bible coloring books.
“This is a national movement and it’s intentional,” former school board president Christina Gagnier told The Daily Beast. “I think Chino Valley is a cautionary tale.”
District parent Glory Ciccarelli condemned Hibbs’ words on slavery at the August board meeting, urging Black parents to leave his church and “wake up and realize that what our ancestors went through is slowly getting phased out of the curriculum to the point where our kids will eventually be taught that literal slaveholders were nice guys…”
Ciccarelli told The Daily Beast that her biggest issue with Chino Valley leadership is “the apathy they have for the Black kids in the district,” and that the board needs professional development training relating to race and culture and diversity in hiring.
But she believes that Hibbs’ influence over certain board members could derail any progress in the district. In addition to Shaw, two other school board members—James Na and Andrew Cruz—are also members of Calvary Chapel.
“Cruz and Na are quite literally acolytes of Jack Hibbs at this point,” Ciccarelli said. “In my opinion, everything they say and believe as it relates to the school board is basically something they have heard from him.”
Hibbs, she added, “reminds me of Jim Jones with the way he is so easily able to control so many people at the same time.”
At the July board meeting that attracted far-right extremists like the Proud Boys, some local parents pushed back against the church’s connections to the school board.
“Madam President, board, cabinet, and staff,” quipped one father of a queer child, “I didn’t know I came to church tonight. I thought it was a board meeting.”
So many citizens had signed up to speak, waiting in a line outside in 100-degree weather, that the board cut the public comment period from three minutes to one minute per person.
Lisa Greathouse, a local mom and former school board candidate, defended teachers against claims they were “indoctrinating” and “grooming” kids. “Make no mistake,” Greathouse told the auditorium, “what this board is pushing through now is just the tip of the iceberg. They are taking their cue from their megachurch…”
Outbursts from hecklers interrupted the proceeding, which had a heavy police and security presence. Speakers from out of town and from Calvary Chapel preached about God and the Devil, facing off with parents and students who warned Shaw and her board they would have blood on their hands should the “outing” policy pass.
One moment in particular was so explosive it made headlines: Shaw excoriated Tony Thurmond, California’s state superintendent of schools, who’d asked her to reconsider the policy about notifying parents if their children identified as trans. He said it might run afoul of student privacy laws and jeopardize kids who “may not be in homes where they can be safe.”
Thurmond wasn’t finished with his remarks, but Shaw cut him off for time like she did anyone else. “Tony Thurmond,” she seethed, “I appreciate you being here, tremendously. But here’s the problem: We’re here because of people like you. You’re in Sacramento proposing things that pervert children!”
After Thurmond tried to continue, Shaw yelled into her mic that she wouldn’t let him “blackmail” or “bully” her district. Video of the scene showed Thurmond exchanging words with a group of cops before walking away.
In a statement, Thurmond told The Daily Beast that a group of concerned students contacted him about Shaw’s proposal, and he rearranged his schedule to be there. “Let’s be clear about these policies—a small group of anti-LGBTQ+ politicians like Ms. Shaw believe they have the right to dictate when and how students and their families talk about their sexual orientation or gender identity,” Thurmond said. “They are trying to turn our public school educators—who are already overworked and underpaid—into the gender police.”
“Choosing when to come out and to whom is a deeply personal decision that LGBTQ+ young people have the right to make for themselves.”
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Ashlee Peters, the parent of a child in the district, watched the scene unfold. “As an educator and as a mom, you just sit there and go, ‘I can’t believe this is happening in my community,’” said Peters, who has been a public school teacher for 22 years.
Peters was also in line when far-right activist Bryce Henson, who also goes by Ben Richards, walked around trying to bait people into reacting on camera. “He would come up to you and be like, ‘I just want to talk to you, why can’t we just have a conversation about this?’” It was a sneak preview of the testimony to come.
Inside, people proselytized and spewed hatred, calling LGBTQ people “terrorists” and warning “demons are after our children.” Richards called transgender, Black Lives Matter and Juneteenth flags flying outside his San Diego school district a symbol of “systemic radical leftist indoctrination." One mother ended her speech with, “As Jason Aldean would say, ‘Well, try that in a small town.’”
When it was her turn, Peters warned that the “outing” policy would “create a hostile environment” for LGBTQIA+ students and that the board’s “reckless pursuit of personal agendas” could bring about “expensive lawsuits.”
The atmosphere was so tense that security escorted a person out who put hands on someone else, Peters said. “It seriously feels like I’m in some sort of weird dystopia,” Peters told The Daily Beast. “I don’t know how this happened because it does not feel real.”
Peters believes that what’s unfolding in Chino Valley Unified is a wake-up call to monitor school board elections. “I just didn’t think it was going to happen in my community because I live in California,” she said. “I feel relatively safe living in a blue state—that religion wasn’t going to suddenly take over my public school system, and it has.”
Even though the involvement of Hibbs and his megachuch in local public schools has been center stage in Chino Valley this year, it’s a battle that’s been brewing for at least a decade. Back in 2014, the Freedom from Religion Foundation filed a lawsuit on behalf of parents in Chino Valley over prayers and Bible readings at school board meetings, arguing these practices “constituted an establishment of religion in violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments.”
The prayers and Bible verses were being led by Calvary Chapel members James Na and Andrew Cruz, who were elected to the school board in 2008 and 2012 respectively.
According to the prayer lawsuit, Na once told spectators of a school board meeting that their “lives begin in the hospital and end in the church, and urged everyone who does not know Jesus Christ to go and find Him.” In 2013, Na sent out a letter to school district “family member[s]” that referred to Hibbs with an excerpt from “Pastor Jack’s Christmas story.”
“The community is going to rise and create a war chest to help you,” Hibbs told the board in 2016 in the midst of the legal battle, though a crowdfunding drive affiliated with the church apparently never delivered. A school board spokesperson previously said that funding was intended to bring the case to the Supreme Court.
A federal judge ultimately ruled in the parents’ favor, and the board lost its Ninth Circuit appeal, leaving the district with $282,000 in legal bills.
This apparently hasn’t stopped Cruz’s Christian commentary. In April, he went on a rant wherein he said that if he were governor, he’d mandate citizens be trained in firearms and that, “I do love one man, I really love this man, and that is Jesus Christ. It’s in my head.”
Since his election, Cruz has especially ignited parents’ ire and weathered calls to resign as a result of his offensive remarks and chemtrail conspiracy theories. In 2015, Cruz said mothers who don’t vaccinate their kids are wrongfully vilified while “illegal aliens” bring infectious disease to America. In 2018, Cruz infamously said that “it wasn’t Hitler that was bad, it was the people that follow the laws and the agenda” while discussing “parents rights.”
That year, Na and Cruz (and Hibbs) proposed that parents have the ability to opt kids out of sex-ed discussions on gender identity, sexual orientation, and discrimination—and for schools to notify parents when a transgender student uses a locker room or shower. Those measures failed.
Na is also not without controversy. Aside from his religious musings at the board, he’s also been accused of trying to recruit at least one student to Calvary Chapel.
At a June board meeting, a statement was read on behalf of Esther Kim, who was the panel’s student representative in the 2021-2022 school year. “In sophomore year, I met Mr. Na through a personal phone call where his school board role and my school were acknowledged,” Kim said. “During an unrelated conversation, he attempted to persuade me to go to his church.”
[...]
Federal law explicitly prohibits churches from engaging in political campaign activity.
Calvary Chapel Chino Hills, where Jack Hibbs is pastor and school board member Sonja Shaw is a parishioner, should immediately have its tax exempt status revoked under 501 (3)(c).
File a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service HERE. Email the completed form to [email protected].
Specific info for the IRS form:
• This church's EIN (Tax ID #) is 33-0419808.
• Address: 4201 Eucalyptus Ave, Chino, CA 91710
• Complaint Against: Jack Hibbs, Pastor
• Date Of Violation: April 19, 2023
• Description: Pastor Hibbs held a political rally outside the California State Capitol in opposition to a specific bill pending in the legislature. Also published a notice in the church newsletter soliciting attendees for this political lobbying rally under the headline, "California Lobby Day: Stop AB 2223."
• Evidence #1: Political Lobbying Violation on the church's newsletter (include link)
• Evidence #2: Archive.org snapshot of the newsletter article (include link)
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horsesarecreatures · 5 months
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THE TREK ACROSS AMERICA WITH TWO STRAIGHT EGYPTIANS
Arabian Horse World
"On April 16, 2021, Patrick Sullivan of Modern Day Horsemanship started his 2,500 mile journey from Sacramento, California to Georgetown, Kentucky, where he arrived on October 16, 2021. 
He took two Straight Egyptian Arabian horses, the black mare Gamilah MJA, sired by Bellagio RCA, out of the Thee Desperado+ daughter, Thee Bahieh, and her maternal brother, grey gelding Haleem MJA, sired by Thee Infidel, out of Thee Bahieh.
He did this incredible trek bridleless and mostly bareback, and visited 20 non-profits, local rescues, and charities while providing liberty demonstrations along the way. 
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Shawn Crews sat down with Patrick to revisit this incredible journey.
Shawn:  I’ll never forget the day when you told me your plan to do this, and honestly, Patrick, I know your whole family and I come from a very optimistic family, however, I considered your level of optimism to be triple of what I know. I’ve known you since before you were involved in horses. Your goal is so large and you have such a positive attitude, but still when you told me about this we were shocked. We are all very horse show goal-oriented, so I was curious as to why you chose to do something so different with your Straight Egyptian. 
What was the seed that led you to this tremendous adventure?  How did you come up with this plan and was was the vision you had in mind?
Patrick: You were not the only one who thought this was a bit crazy. This idea started six to seven years ago, and started when my mother told me that my great grandfather saw his first Arabian horse in the Chicago state fair in 1945 and fell in love. He ended up purchasing a few horses, however after him, they got out of Arabians until my mother got involved through Arabians Limited and you (Shawn Crews).  The idea of this ride was to honor my great grandfather and ride from Texas to the location of the Chicago State Fair where my grandfather’s love began. Slowly the ride transformed into something much bigger, hoping to inspire people to think deeper about the Arabian horse and the connection we can have with them through liberty and bridleless riding.
I have read many historical books like The Classic Arabian Horse by Judith Forbis, and the Authentic Arabian Bloodstock books about how the Arabian horses lived in the tents with the bedouins and were treated as family. I wanted to test that legend out and bring our Arabian horses into our family. I want to really feel and say that these horses are exactly what history says. For me, the way to do this was to ride across the country with them and see if it is possible.
It was a long and amazing journey, one that I will cherish forever.
Shawn: No one in our time here has proved these horses’ athletic abilities until you and Gamilah. Did Gamilah inspire your plan to do this, or did the plan come first?
Patrick: It was a little bit of both.  The reason I chose Gamilah to be the main instrument in the journey is because she was the first horse I had started under saddle. She was strong, opinionated and sassy. She is incredibly intelligent and we butted heads for years, however, the more I learned to listen to her and train her in the way she wanted to be trained, the more she wanted to give me. Once we came to that agreement, I knew there was no other soul on this planet that I would want to make this trip with than Gamilah. At the end of the day, I have always told people that I trusted her with my life. I knew she would keep me safe and keep herself safe; We went through so much together. I told her, if we are going to do this, we are going to do it together.
When I think about mares, especially the Arabian mares, I know they can be very difficult at times to earn their trust and respect, a lot more difficult than the geldings. However, when you get to reach the heart of a mare, they will do anything for you.
Shawn: How old was Gamilah when you started this ride?
Patrick: She was 10 years old. We left two days after her birthday.
Shawn: Tell me about the logistics of this trip. Nettie followed you with the trailer, so you always had a safety fall back should you need anything, and you had host farms set up along the way. However, there must have been long stretches along the way without lodging. That is a lot of miles, many of which are not civilized, explain the logistics.
Patrick: Nettie is one of my best friends in the whole world.  Initially, she was going to ride with me. However, three months before, she called and said that she was pregnant and couldn’t ride alongside. So, they decided that she would drive the truck and trailer with her camera and document the journey.
We followed HWY 50. For the most part, the highways had a large shoulder which allowed them to stay 30-40 feet off the road, while the smaller roads we were right alongside. I kept panels on the side of the trailer and each night, we would set up a 20′ x 20′ pen behind the trailer where the horses stayed while we slept in the living quarters of the horse trailer.  
So many wonderful people stopped along the way were offering assistance, and inviting us into their homes and barns to layover. It was amazing to experience the generosity of the people, stopping to be sure we were okay.
The best part of the ride, in regards to logistics, were the western states of Utah, Nevada, California, and Colorado. It was more open and had so much public land. The terrain was difficult and at one point, we rode up to 11,000 feet in Colorado. As we ventured East, the logistics became a bit more of a challenge.
We went through mountains, deserts, valleys, small towns, fair grounds, rivers. We went through it all!
Shawn: As the ride progressed and word spread, you seemed to gain momentum with the local press.
Patrick: Yes, honestly the ride was amazing, but the most important part of this ride for us was being able to give back to the Arabian horse. We ended up stopping at 19 different non-profits in 11 different states. We would educate them about liberty riding and use our horses to showcase how capable the Arabian horse is, and how powerful the horse-human connection is.
We stopped by non-profits for kids, for the mentally ill and even a prison to educate the prisoners on horsemanship. Our horses were able to teach all that we visited and that was so rewarding. These organizations helped us get through the long days, knowing that our next stop was going to help and educate the next group of people about our Arabian horses and their amazing personalities.
Shawn: You have mentioned the liberty aspect of this ride a few times, can you explain a bit about what liberty means.
Patrick: Liberty is being able to do almost anything with a horse without a halter. Express to your horse what you want it to do, without a bridle or halter. The relationship between horse and human, along with trained cues is the key to create a bond. I often relate to the movie Avatar, if you have the ability to connect with another being, in this case being a horse, they can take us to see things that we could never do on our own. Gamilah and Hal gave me this experience along our journey.
Shawn: Did you feel a bit like those pioneers that crossed the country so many years ago in their covered wagons?
Patrick: One of the main parts about the trip (possibly 1,000 miles), we followed the Pony Express Trail. The pony express was used as a form of communication across the country long before technology. I learned how incredibly strong people were back then. Their lives revolved around horseback, compasses and reading the stars. From time to time, I liked to think that we were the new generation of explorers, experiencing what our ancestors had. Hoping to push the next steps in horsemanship and prove that the Arabian horse is one of the foundation breeds of our country. 
Shawn: I have great respect for all Arabian horses, however, my life has revolved around the Straight Egyptian Arabian horse. Are there any special traits to the Straight Egyptian that you feel helped in this experience? Knowing that you have experience with other bloodlines and other breeds, what made the Straight Egyptian special?
Patrick: I’ve never met another horse that could have made that trip, and there is no other horse I would attempt to do it with. What I feel separates the Straight Egyptian is their heart. If you really look at the heart, they are old souls. They seem to be here to teach us, and I believe this comes from their ancestors. I truly believe the Straight Egyptian is the old soul of all horses. When I look in Gamilah’s eyes, I see that soul and it has taught me so much! 
There are good things and bad things said about the Straight Egyptian Arabian horse. For anyone who has ever truly gotten to know one, I think can relate to what I am saying.
Shawn: In this project, you have mentioned Nettie being an amazing support, along with your family and a group of sponsors that helped make this possible.
Patrick: I think those who supported us are what made this trip so special. There was not a bigger supporter than my mother, Malinda Passmore. she is all about the Straight Egyptian and wants to make it accessible to everyone, especially the geldings. Our other sponsors were Marah Jamil Arabians, Keri and Carolee Wright, Ann and Fred Gabrielli and The Pyramid Society, 
There was one of the biggest professionals in the horsemanship industry that I am friends with. He is not an Arabian horse person, but he told me, “I don’t have a problem with you riding across the country brideless. I don’t have a problem with the time frame or liberty. My biggest concern is that you are doing it on an Arabian!”. This comment inspired me to prove the Arabian stereotype wrong. I will keep his name anonymous out of respect for our friendship, however, I was quite proud to show the world that the Arabian horse can do anything."
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goddamnshinyrock · 1 year
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yes I got stuck in mount shasta for a night and yes flooding has derailed my camping plans entirely but I had the best birding day of my life today simply because I decided on a whim to pull off the highway at the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge “just to take a quick look” and uhhhh
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I spent three and a half hours doing both the walking paths and the 6 mile auto tour loop and got seven lifers in a single day. I had to give up on counting yellow-rumped warblers. There were so many marsh wrens I was literally counting another one every two minutes. I had to stop counting northern shovelers and american coots entirely, there were hundreds. At least 800 snow geese. I’ve never seen more than three meadowlarks in a group before but there was just a field FULL of them. I saw eight northern harriers. I was spinning in place at one point because I was trying to spot everything I was hearing and there were birds calling or singing in every direction. And this was mid-afternoon! I wasn’t even there at a good time of day!
pictured: me losing my mind to my girlfriend mid-auto loop:
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did we ever get a straight answer as to where animorphs takes place? my personal headcanon is santa cruz cause of that one time comment about jake not seeing a boardwalk from the ocean and santa cruz has a really cool boardwalk lmao
Canon clues have allowed us to narrow it down to:
Costal city (1)
Southern California (2)
Not Santa Barbara (3)
Not Los Angeles (4)
But other than that, we don't know! So Santa Cruz could fit.
1. We know it's a costal non-rural area because, like OP said, there's a boardwalk within walking distance of the kids' homes. There are also dozens of books (#4, #15, #32, etc.) that feature the kids spending their days on a public beach. We also know that there are at least a few large office buildings (#23, #30) so it's not a tiny town.
2. #54 states that Rachel’s body is flown "back to California" for the funeral, making it clear that this is their home state. #51 states that "the state capital" (so, Sacramento) is "over 200 miles north" of the hork-bajir valley, so this isn't San Francisco.
3. Jake states in #54 that "I bought my parents a house in Santa Barbara" and they "moved" there, suggesting that this is a relocation to a different city than the one he grew up in. (Setting my Animorphs fics there was artistic license; at the time, it was the only SoCal city I'd ever visited and I had cousins living there whom I could DM with questions about the area.)
4. Ruling out L.A. is mostly deduction, but it's notable that Cassie’s land backs up onto a national forest, Marco's apartment is within walking distance of the beach, and a short bike ride will take you from one to the other (#4, MM2). It's my understanding that the best bicyclist in the world couldn't get from the woods-and-canyons part of L.A. to the coast of L.A. in less than an hour, so they're probably not in the city proper.
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Catching Out: Part Two
Pairing: Spencer Reid x Female!Reader
Word Count: ~1.8k
Summary: Spencer has his suspicions about your parents but you refuse to even listen to him. There is nothing going on with your parents... right? No, they’re normal parents that are just overprotective of you. Spencer is just being paranoid.
Warnings: canon violence, canon language, canon talk of death, methods of kill
Author’s Note: So, I know in previous episodes I had mentioned the reader's birthday is in February, but I forgot that when I wrote this episode. I have decided to change it to April since I've also based some other episodes around her birthday being in April. So, from now on, the reader's birthday is now in April.
I do not own anything from Criminal Minds. All credit goes to their respective owners. If there are any warnings that exceed the normal death/kills from the show, I will list them. If you’ve seen the show, then it’s the same level of angst unless otherwise stated
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The nearest train tracks around the Modesto home are only a mile away, given it's close enough for the unsub to get off the train and watch the couple he killed for a few nights. There are freight haulers at the train station, and they are willing to talk to you, Derek, Emily, and Rossi when you arrive.
"The guy we're looking for is using freight trains to get around. He targets homes within a mile of the tracks," Derek says after he explained what's going on.
"Bulls and 'bos don't usually cross paths."
"Bulls and 'bos?"
"They call rail cops bulls. We call them 'bos, as in hobos."
"You're saying you rarely see hobos around here?" Rossi asks.
"I see them plenty. To tell you the truth, I'm nothing more than an armed scarecrow. When they see me coming, they get the hell away. Their biggest problem is with each other. If you get two of them in one boxcar, it usually gets ugly."
"So, if a 'bo jumps off one of these trains in a new town, is there someplace he goes first?"
"The jungle. That's what they call the camps. A local one's a couple of hundred yards that way," the man points to where it is.
"Do you happen to have a vending machine in here?"
"Yeah."
Rossi thinks if he has food for them, then they might be willing to tell them what they want to know. Your phone rings, and you step off to the side and answer your boyfriend.
"Where are you?" he asks.
"We're just off Highway 99. We just got done talking to the freight haulers. I think I'm going to drive back up to you and leave them down here. Though, I can tell this area is nothing but crops. There are neighborhoods on one side, and the other are all crops."
"They are farmlands. You can't see that from standard road maps."
"The railway track runs parallel to Highway 99 most of the way. I think I'm seeing a lot of what the unsub saw."
"Most of central California is one big valley. It's a flat basin surrounded by mountain ranges on all sides, supported by rivers, lakes, and aqueducts. It's ideal for farming."
"Well, I don't know what it gets us, but I think we should at least factor it into the conversation."
"I agree."
"I'll see you in about an hour." You hang up on him and approach Rossi who has a couple of candy bars in his hand. "I think I'm going to drive up to Sacramento. You two can handle it down here, right?"
"Yeah. We got it."
"I'm going to come with you," Emily says.
By the time you two get to the headquarters in Sacramento, they are ready to give the profile. Spencer told Hotch and JJ about the farmlands, so they have a better-sculpted profile to give.
"Let's get started," Hotch announces. "I'd just like to reiterate that this unsub is not getting around on Highway 99. His travels are linked near railway lines."
"He's targeted five homes and killed eight people in six weeks. We're looking for a male, indigent transient between the ages of twenty-five and forty-five. He's fit enough for the physical demands of train hopping, or 'catching out' as they call it," you inform.
"He'll be bruised from jumping on and off trains, and he might also be beaten up from just defending himself in any kind of turf war. He may look homeless, but he's taking clothing from his victims' homes. So, he'll be the only transient on the tracks in clean clothing."
"The trains and the rail yards are his home. When he gets tired of these, he chooses a house to make his own," Hotch says.
"He'll have a pronounced red, dry rash around his mouth and nose. It's what's commonly referred to as a 'sniffer's rash'."
"How do you know that?"
"He takes household cleaners and sniffs them," you explain. "We believe he's abusing them as psychoactive inhalants. He'll use nail polish remover, glue, paint thinner, lighter fluid, or whatever is the cheapest high available. They're referred to as 'tollyheads' because they derive a high from sniffing toluene, a chemical solvent. Once inhaled, the effects are felt instantaneously."
"We believe he's living out a fantasy in these homes. The fantasy is that it is his house for the night. He spends hours enjoying the comforts of his victims' homes. Upon leaving, he takes clothing, money, jewelry, and small electronics. If you get close to him, you won't miss him. He will smell like a combination of human filth and paint thinner."
"Please spread this around to the other departments in neighboring cities. Thank you."
The profile is disbanded, and you look at JJ who takes a seat tiredly. She places a hand on her stomach, and both you and Spencer walk over to her.
"Are you okay?" you ask and sit next to her.
"He's kicking a lot today," she chuckles.
"In the third trimester, there's an average of thirty fetal movements per hour. Babies kick to explore movement and strengthen muscle," Spencer explains.
"Have you ever actually felt a baby kick?" When he shakes his head, she grabs his hand and places it over the area where her son is moving. "Do you feel that?"
"Doesn't that freak you out?"
"No, not at all. Why? Does it freak you out?"
"Very much so."
"Okay, I see how it is," you nod.
Spencer looks at you with a weird expression, but you don't say anything more about it. You and JJ lock eyes, and she knows exactly what you're thinking. JJ's phone rings, and she answers it when she sees it's Penelope.
"Hey, Garica."
"Bad news alert."
"Hold on a second," you tell her. "Guys!" Hotch, the detective in charge, and Emily walk in when you call them. "Go ahead."
"Earlier, I had Garcia look into all unsolved burglary homicides in central California while paying particular attention to small farm towns."
"I found his DNA in three more cities."
"How did I miss this?" the detective sighs.
"Small towns don't always link their evidence up to state or national DNA databases. It can happen when unsubs cross jurisdictional lines."
"What are the cities, Pen?" you ask.
"Tehachapi, Vacaville, and Orange Cove. They're all farm towns, and all super far away from Highway 99."
"Thanks, Garcia. Could you look into the farm life surrounding those areas? The sales of the crops, maybe?"
"I'll hit you back when I have more."
JJ gets up and waddles over to the fan that is blasting. The air conditioner must either be out or not working well. Being pregnant is hard enough, so you want to make this as easy as possible for her. You grab some cold water and a damp cloth and approach her with a smile.
"Here. It looks like you need it."
"Thank you."
She takes the water and gulps half of it down before placing the cloth on her forehead. You kneel next to her chair and look at her stomach with a smile.
"May I?"
"Of course."
You place your hand on her stomach, and she moves it to the spot where her son is kicking. Your eyes light up at the feeling.
"I'm not going to lie. I kind of miss this. It was different before, of course, but when I felt my daughter kick for the first time... It didn't matter how old I was or what happened. At that moment, I felt pure joy."
"How is she doing?"
"She calls and texts me, but she has her own life. She knows I'm here if she ever needs me though. With your baby, though, I am going to be the best aunt ever. I'm going to spoil the shit out of him." You realize your mistake and smile shyly. "Sorry. I don't mean to cuss around him."
"Would you consider having babies with Spencer?"
You look behind you at Spencer and Emily, and you can't help the smile from forming on your face.
"In a heartbeat," you say truthfully. "I'd be very lucky to have his kids, and they'd be lucky to have Spencer as a dad. I can picture it now. He'd play chess with them, but our baby girl would want to play with her dolls instead. He'd read them bedtime stories and dance with them to the music on an old radio. He'd perform magic for them because they'd laugh and he'd never want to stop making them laugh."
"You're happy."
"I am. He makes me feel like I'm the only woman in the world. It's why this is so hard with my parents. My dad doesn't like him, and it hurts me. I know he'll come around eventually, but I just wish he'd get there sooner."
"It'll be alright. I know it."
Spencer looks behind him at you and JJ in thought. Emily sees the look he's giving you, so she nudges him.
"Are you considering it?"
"Considering what?"
"Having baby geniuses one day?" she smiles.
"With Y/N? In a heartbeat," he says truthfully. You two have been together for over two and a half years. He's not ready to be a dad, but he knows that one day, he'd love to have some with you. "I'd be very lucky to have kids with her one day."
Penelope calls Spencer back, and he calls in you, JJ, Hotch, and the detective.
"I've noticed in the cities, including the new ones we've discovered that there's a spike in the sales of certain crops during the time the unsub is there. In the last week of August, the apples in Tehachapi spiked. In the first week of September, the tomatoes in Bakersfield rose. In the second week of September, the fall squashes in Fresno were high."
"He's in town whenever there is a big harvest. If this unsub is riding trains from town to town during big harvests who doesn't have a car or permanent residence, then we're looking at a migrant farm worker."
There is news of another murder close to where you are, so you quickly head over there. The murder is still fresh, so the victims are still lying on the ground in their bedroom. You can't look at the victims without seeing the unsub beating them over and over again.
"He left a shirt on his male victim again," Hotch says.
"That's not all he left." Spencer holds up the newspaper that was printed a couple of days ago. The headline reads 'Modesto Couple Victims of Highway 99 Killer'. "This was printed before we released to the press he's using trains to get around."
"He's taunting us, telling us he's smarter than we are because we got his mode of transportation wrong. The more confident he gets, the more he's experimenting with his ritual."
"The first few murders were five to eight days apart. This one was just one day since Modesto. If we don't find him soon, he's killing another couple tonight."
"Okay, this couple is Hispanic. The previous couples were Caucasian. He switched his victim profile," you say.
"I don't think he knows or cares what race they were. I think this house was just an easy target."
Spencer's phone rings, and he places them on speakerphone.
"Yeah?"
"So, we got something," JJ says from the office. "The jewelry stolen from the home in Sacramento turned up at a pawn shop in Modesto. Garcia just sent you a picture from the security cam. The employee said he was about 5'8", slight build, late thirties, and has dark skin with a red rash around his mouth."
"Circulate the picture, JJ," Hotch says.
"I'm already on it."
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Follow my library blog @aqueenslibrary​ where I reblog all my stories, so you can put notifications on there without the extra stuff :)
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mariacallous · 1 year
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Every so often along 99 between Bakersfield and Sacramento there is a town: Delano, Tulare, Fresno, Madera, Merced, Modesto, Stockton. Some of these towns are pretty big now, but they are all the same at heart, one- and two- and three-story buildings artlessly arranged, so that what appears to be the good dress shop stands beside a W. T. Grand store, so that the big Bank of America faces a Mexican movie house. Dos Peliculas, Bingo Bingo Bingo. Beyond the downtown (pronounced downtown, with the Okie accent that now pervades Valley speech patterns) lie blocks of old frame houses - paint peeling, sidewalks cracking, their occasional leaded amber windows overlooking a Foster’s Freeze or a five-minute car wash or a State Farm Insurance office; beyond those spread the shopping centers and the miles of tract houses, pastel with redwood siding, the unmistakable signs of cheap building already blossoming on those houses which have survived the first rain. To a stranger driving 99 in an air-conditioned car (he would be on business, I suppose, any stranger driving 99, for 99 would never get a tourist to Big Sur or San Simeon, never get him to the California he came to see), these towns must seem so flat, so impoverished, as to drain the imagination. They hint at evenings spent hanging around gas stations, and suicide pacts sealed in drive-ins.
But remember:
Q. In what way does the Holy Land resemble the Sacramento Valley? A. In the type and diversity of its agricultural products.
U.S. 99 in fact passes through the riches and most intensely cultivated agricultural region in the world, a giant outdoor hothouse with a billion-dollar-crop. It is when we remember the Valley's wealth that the monochromatic flatness of its towns takes on a curious meaning, suggests a habit of mind some would consider perverse. There is something in the Valley mind that reflects a real indifference to the stranger in his air-conditioned car, a failure to perceive even his presence, let alone his thoughts or wants. An implacable insularity in the seal of these towns. I once met a woman in Dallas, a most charming and attractive woman accustomed to the hospitality and social hypersensitivity of Texas, who told me that during the four war years her husband had been stationed in Modesto, she had never once been invited inside anyone's house. No one in Sacramento would find this story remarkable. ("She probably had no relatives there," said someone to whom I told it), for the Valley towns understand oen another, share a peculiar spirit. They think alike and they look alike. I can tell Modesto from Merced, but I have visited there, gone to dances there; besides, there is over the streets of Modesto an arched sign which reads:
WATER- WEALTH CONTENTMENT - HEALTH
There is no such sign in Merced.
From "Notes from a Native Daughter" in Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion
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pickle-de-packle · 5 days
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Prompts Fluff 1 + Smut 8 - Elon Musk
Fluff Prompt 1: “I’m glad you decided to meet up with me.”
Smut Prompt 8: “Don’t be so rough. There can’t be any marks.”
A/N: First-ever prompt!!! Yay!
Word Count: 750
Tonight Elon is unveiling the second Boring Company tunnel, which stretches 75 miles from San Francisco to Sacramento and cut the travel time from 90 minutes to 25 minutes.
Your driver pulled through security and next to the staircase descended to the tunnel entrance. You thank the driver and slide over to the door but before you can open it, someone opens it and reaches out a hand to help you. You grab the hand, slip out of the car, and straighten out your dress.
Looking up to thank the person who helped you, “Kimbal!” you say hugging the man.
“Hey, how’s your evenin’ going?” he says pulling back after returning the hug.
“Good so far, your?” you ask, walking to the stairs.
“Good too. Here let me help you,” Kimbal says, giving you his hand as you both reach the stairs.
As the two of you reach the landing, you note Elon is at the tail end of an interview with Tim from Everyday Astronaut. Kimbal and you plan to stay to the side until it’s done but Tim waves you over. Elon wraps an arm around your waist as he shakes your hand.
“It’s nice to finally meet the infamous girlfriend of Elon Musk,” Tim says, “I got to ask what do you think of the tunnel?”
“I’m excited to ride in it and I think it’s a good solution to all the traffic we have,” you give a little laugh at the end.
“Oh! you’ve never been in it? Well, let me know how it is and try to convince him to let me have a ride,” Tim gestures at Elon as the three of you laugh.
“I’ll try Tim,” you chuckle out. You let them wrap up the interview. As the two walk over to the waiting Tesla, Elon kisses you.
“You look beautiful,” he whispers before kissing you again. You smile against his lips at the compliment.
“I’m glad you decided to meet up with me,” his arms wrap around your waist, pulling you against him.
After a few more kisses he finally says, “We should get going,” and he opens the door, helping you into the backseat. He slips in after you and starts the car with his phone.
The car rolls forward into the dark tunnel, the only light in the car coming from the headlights dimly reflecting from the walls. Only once you can’t see the light of the entrance from behind, do you act
You swing yourself into his lap and roughly kiss him. He lets out a sound of surprise before his hands find your hips and squeeze. Your fingers slip through his hair and roll your hips against him, already feeling some resistance.
Elon moans at the friction before lightly biting your lip in retaliation. You pull back with a giggle, before attaching your lips to his neck and grinding on him harder
“Don’t be so rough. There can’t be any marks,” he groans, hands pulling your hips flush to his so you stop moving. Your lips disconnect from his neck with a whine at the feeling of his hard cock completely pressed along your cunt.
“Fine,” you breathe onto his neck with a pout, the heat of his cock slowly making your brain fuzzy.
He kisses your hair before mumbling, “Good, and since you agreed…” trailing off he rolls your hips harder into himself. A pathetic whine comes out of your lips at the unexpected stimulation. Your arms come to wrap around his neck as you keep breathing on his neck.
Elon increases the roll of your hips, occasionally groaning along with you. As you get close he stops. You whimper as the edge of your climax fades. He captures your lips in a searing kiss as you come down.
After a minute or two of kissing, he slowly moves your hips on him building you back up to the edge. Right as you're about to go over, he stops again. You mewl his name in frustration.
“I’ll make it up to you tonight,” he promises with a kiss, “we’ll be there in a few,” pushing you back enough to see your face. You grumble as he cups your face and uses his thumb to clean up your smudged lipstick.
Defeated, you slip back to your seat and lean against his shoulder. He runs a hand through your hair before readjusting his pants. Just in time too, as the light in front of you brightens as the end of the tunnel comes into view.
“Tonight,” you whisper in his ear as the car slows to a stop.
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remembertheplunge · 3 months
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A day in the life
September 24, 2022 Saturday 9:40pm
Although I should have stayed home, cleaned and worked cases, the Ocean Goddess called and I had to answer.
I swam one half mile in Aquatic Park, at the behest of Ken, who rescued me the 2nd hypothermic shock incident that I had. For that, he said that I owe him a beer.
He said to eat oatmeal and to dink warm tea pre swim for fuel.
He also said to swim to the flag once, and then to get out of the water and see how you feel.
Hypothermia is insidious. Euphoria proceeds the crash.
Another man said to touch finger to thumb while swimming. If you can do that, you don’t have hypothermia. Hypothermia is called the claw.
Another Dolphin Club member said that my ‘Ken” episode (Second session of hypothermic shock) was posted on line as a warning on the Dolphin Club Website. My name was not mentioned.
Spent the day in part in 1988.  (Journal review)
I came out in the Modesto Gay Bars in June. A boyfriend from Mendecino was with me.
I had forgotten all that.
And, the circle Sparkler dance we did around John Hickman on his 31st and last birthday.
Naked bicyclists were just past Jefferson turnout near the Dolphine club as I returned to my car to get my swim suit today.
Aquatic Park. I Loved it!
Later, some of them were near the Twin Peaks Bar on the Castro with nothing on!
Four guys walking up Market Street to the Twin Peaks called it “the crystal coffin” which they said that the Peaks deserved.
End of entry
Note:
This entry is a “day in the life’ entry.
I’m a member of the Dolphin Club in San Fransisco. The Dolphin Club is located on Jefferson Street. It is an ocean swimming and rowing club.
Hypothermic shock occurs when , due to over exposure to cold water, your core body temperature drops below 95 degrees. Your hands can freeze in a claw position. Your heart slows and can stop. You can die. 
Aquatic Park is a small bay Across the street from Ghirardelli’s in San Francisco, Ca. There are a series of buoys across the bay. The last one has a flag. The Dolphin Club sits at the western end of the bay. A swim from the club beach to the flag and back is about one half mile.
John Hickman was a gay man that I met through Aids support Hand to Hand in Sacramento. John had Aids and eventually died of it. Most likely a group of we Hand to Hand volunteers did a circle dance around him with sparklers on his last birthday.
Before Aids, John had been an extremely good looking man. He was from Michigan.
The Twin Peaks is a bar at Market and Castro Streets in San Fransisco. It’s where I met my partner Jim in 1997. Older gay men tend to be the main clientele, thus the nick name “crystal coffin."
My Mendocino boyfriend was a little older than me and lived in Mendocino. I drove up there and stayed with him one time. He apparently came to see me in Modesto and we went out to the bars in 1988. I haven’t heard from him in decades.
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sherrylephotography · 2 years
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Sherrylephotography. May 13, 2022
Hedge Creek Falls hike Dunsmuir California. Cool easy 0.7 mile hike, path takes you behind the waterfall and then a short distance down to Sacramento River.
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“Photographer Andrew McCarthy has transformed 50,000 individual images of the night sky into one very large and detailed photo of the moon. Every crater and lunar mare on the “light” side looks like it was shot from within the natural satellite’s orbit, when the image was actually created from a telescope and two camera setup 239,000 miles away in Sacramento, California.”
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