#Wasn't sure how to include it but that moment where Julie's like 'well the other two will be missed' was like an all three of them thing

[jmrothwell]

"Weirdly, the best sleep I've ever had." / Royal Purple

This day could not get any worse, and Julie really needed to stop thinking that particular sentiment. It was like every time she thought it the universe conspired to prove just how wrong she was. 

First she couldn’t get out of this stupid haunted forest night hike activity that someone thought was a good idea. Then she wasn’t allowed to go with Flynn, because the ever so brilliant activity lead also thought it’d be brilliant to completely randomize the groups. While she didn’t have Flynn’s misfortune of being stuck with Nick and Carrie during one of their ‘off’ periods Julie was still trapped with Kayla and Reggie. 

Kayla, who rarely ever spoke to her. Almost always close to Carrie, unsurprisingly since she was practically Carrie’s number one Dirty Candi girl.  And then Reggie, who Julie had even less interaction with. Only really knowing that he and the rest of his band were as close to getting dropped out of the music program as she was. Despite how new they were, though for entirely different reasons. 

The two of them seemed friendly enough. Though, it didn’t take long before she was feeling like an awkward third wheel with how quickly they got flirty. An analogy that got all sorts of confused and mixed up when Reggie turned his attention to Julie.

“So, Julie?” He spoke her name like he wasn’t sure if he was allowed to say it, like even acknowledging her very presence would shatter her like the most fragile glass. She didn’t even have the time to feel insulted at the insinuation as he plowed on, practically shattering her apart anyway. “I think I’ve missed out on any of your performances, what do you play?”

 God maybe she was more fragile than glass. She avoided glancing towards Kayla, certain she’d be pulling some face or ready to make some snarky Carrie-like comment. Julie was not ready for this kind of attention and wished to get out of it. Only for the heavens above to open and release a sudden torrential rain pour on the three of them. 

Which is how Julie now found herself in a small dusty abandoned cabin in the woods that Kayla managed to spot. The one stroke gracious stroke of luck for the night. A fact Julie tried to remind herself as she tried her best to hold off the chills running through her veins.

“Don’t worry.” Kayla stuttered loudly enough for Reggie to hear as he explored the cabin to see if there were any blankets or firewood to help warm them. “I’m sure once they notice we’re gone they’ll send out some sort of search party.”

Sure, once they notice Kayla and Reggie were gone. The odds were slim of anyone but Flynn noticing Julie was gone. She kept her mouth shut as she tentatively sat on the creaky couch that vaguely smelled of mildew. 

“You make it sound like it’s going to rain like this all night.” Reggie laughed from the other room. 

“Who knows, maybe it could.” Kayla said, sitting on the couch beside Julie, her chilled damp arm brushing against Julie’s. “If nothing else it’d be safer to stay here. Unless either of you know how far we may have ventured from the trail, because I certainly don’t.”

Julie silently shook her head before realizing it may be too dark to be seen and quietly said her “no” out loud. 

“You got a point there.” Reggie said, his outline barely more than a silhouette as he returned to where Julie and Kayla were, sitting on Julie’s other side. She pulled her arms in tighter trying to shrink into herself when his wet flannel brushed against her. It was a bit of a surprise he was still bothering to wear it. 

“Anyway,” he continued on, leaning further into her space. “All I could find was this blanket, one the one bed this place seems to have. So unless either of you wanted to use the bed–”

Julie wrinkled her nose at that idea, given the state of the couch who knew what that mattress was like. 

“Ew. God no.” Kayla echoed, and Julie’s chest twisted uncomfortably despite how she knew Kayla was also only referencing the mattress.

“Yeah, I figured you’d say that.” Reggie laughed again, weaker and more stuttering than before.

“He should probably get out of those wet clothes” Someone said, and Julie froze as the other two fell silent and she realized that someone was her. 

Reggie bumped her with his shoulder. “Is that a come on?”

“N-no.” Julie stammered out, teeth chattering from a mixture of her growing mortification and the cold, her blush doing little to warm her up. “You’re drenched, and clearly freezing. I-I’m j-just saying, you’ll g-get sick if you do-on’t get warm and dry.”

“You’re not much b-better yourself.” Kayla replied, a distinct lack of venom or malice. 

“Sounds like we’re all in a bad shape.” Reggie stuttered out again before mournfully adding, “Too bad I didn’t find any firewood.”

“Well maybe we should just get out of these wet clothes then.” 

“What?” Julie and Reggie both snapped at Kayla’s suggestion. 

“Think about it. We’re all soaked and freezing. We have one, questionably decent, dry blanket. Plus the body heat would probably help too. Besides, if we stay in our underwear it’s basically like we’re just in swimwear.”

While Kayla’s argument added a layer of mortification Julie hadn’t felt regarding swimwear in a long while, she couldn’t deny the logic behind it all. Neither could Reggie. 

None of it alleviated the awkwardness of stripping in front of each other. The three of them turned their back to each other as they did. Silently sitting back on the couch in their earlier arrangement and Julie tried to not think too hard about the state of the couch or blanket. Nor about how smooth Kayla’s legs against hers were, or about how surprisingly toned Reggie felt against her other side. Her mind instead decided to wonder what the other two were thinking about her. Not that it mattered much, right?

Reggie quickly broke through the growing silence. “Feels like we should have had dinner, or played like strip poker first or something.”

“What?” Kayla laughed incredulously, Julie’s own confused chuckle mixing in. 

The three of them soon found themselves falling into teasing conversation similar to the one from their earlier hike. Only now Julie felt less like an awkward third wheel and more like she had a surer place between the two of them. Though it probably helped she literally was between the two of them. 

And much like before it wasn’t long before Julie found herself on the receiving end of questions she was unprepared for.

“So, Julie, you never did answer my question before.” Reggie said, though now Julie could tell it was genuine curiosity that drove his inquiry.

Julie took a deep steadying breath, bracing herself. Not so much to answer Reggie, by this point she was almost numb to the words she needed to say, a mechanical practiced speech. Rather she braced for whatever pitying response she might get in return, the unpredictability of which she could never truly prepare for. 

Before she could say anything though, Kayla’s long nails brushed Julie's hair aside as she leaned closer, warm breath ghosting across the shell of her ear. “Hey, you don’t have to answer if you aren’t ready. I’m sure he would understand, or I could distract him. If you want.”

Julie grabbed ahold of Kayla’s hand, giving it a small squeeze. Hoping it came across as the thanks it was intended to be.

“You actually haven’t missed any of my performances.” Julie quietly said.

“Oh.” Reggie’s hushed tone matched hers. “But I thought–”

“You’re not wrong.” Julie cut him off not wanting the reminder and Kayla squeezed Julie's hand again. Maybe, maybe Kayla was right about this too. At least Julie hoped she was, because Julie definitely wasn’t ready to tackle this. Not tonight anyway. 

“However.” She said, trying to infuse as much flirting teasing as he and Kayla had been using all night. Even if she could tell she was doing an extremely poor job of it, her voice cracking despite her efforts. “That’s a part of my back story you have yet to unlock.”

Reggie did her the service of laughing at her poor attempt at a joke and allowing the conversation to move to new topics. She did him the service of pretending his ‘oh so random excuse’ for a hug not even a minute later was just that, ‘a random hug.’ One that Kayla also happened to get involved in.

The next morning Julie was almost certain the whole evening had been a bizarre fever dream until she realized she’d fallen asleep sitting up. Slowly she blinked her eyes open to find herself leaning against Reggie’s pale freckled shoulder, a heavy weight leaning against her own head and against her other side. Julie shifted, trying to not wake the other two but not sure hoe to remove herself from between them. 

“Morning.” Kayla whispered, her voice slightly raspy, and making no move to get off of Julie. “We must have accidentally drifted off.” 

Julie nearly squeaked in surprise to hear her voice, and definitely did when Reggie chuckled and whispered back. “Weirdly, the best sleep I've ever had."

“Same.” Kayla giggled, both of the laughing vibrating against Julie’s chest. And though she couldn’t quite bring herself to say it with her voice caught behind her smile, Julie felt the same way too. 

#jatp Royal Purple #julie and the phantoms #julie x reggie x kayla #this is longer than I expected #not pictured: #the less awkward getting dressed and return to camp #there was a search party but of course rumors quickly start flying after people learn the found a cabin #Wasn't sure how to include it but that moment where Julie's like 'well the other two will be missed' was like an all three of them thing #like Kayla thinks only Carrie would notice because she's just a background dancer and Reggie thinks only his friends would notice #somehow all three of them miss how said friends would raise a fuss about them being missing #which 100% happened #Flynn and Carrie teaming up to threaten the camp with lawyers and bad publicity and reviews #Luke and Alex literally needing to be detained because hey would have gotten lost in the woods looking otherwise

[factual-fantasy]

26 ASKS! :DD THANK YOU! :}} 🥓

I mean, knowing me I'll come back around to it someday. I love Octonauts and tend to loop back around to that show every so often.. Its just that I've had a lot of uncomfortable experiences in the Octonauts fandom. Especially recently..

I don't really wanna go into detail, but I will say that I've encountered more upsetting situations in the Octonauts fandom, than I have in nearly every other fandom combined. Which is rather surprising considering its a kids show. And also unfortunate, since I don't really feel free to have fun in the Octonauts fandom the way I want to..

I'm hoping that at some point I can get my confidence back and find my way around that fandom and have the fun I want. But for now I'm just kind'a keeping my distance and thinking about it. I don't need any extra stress rn-

@unpopularartist14

I use FireAlpaca! :D As for how to draw injuries and bruises.. hmm.. well.. injuries are different from drawing to drawing and hard to explain.. but bruises? aaa how do I explain it--

Well, for character with pale skin. Like Wario and Waluigi.. I find I just airbrush some deep purples and reds in one spot on their face and put some dark purple/red scratches on top.. and how much purple or red you use depends on the freshness/severity of the bruise. If that makes sense..??

Like- Using this post with the Wario "bros" as an example, the bruise on Waluigi's chin/cheek is a muddy purple and has dark purple scratches on it. I feel like using purple makes the bruise look little older and likes its healed some.

Meanwhile on Wario's chin the bruise is pink/red-ish. Making it look "bloody" and fresh. I think so at least--

AGHHG- sorry, I'm not the best at explaining things. I hope you can look to that post as a reference and draw some bruises. I used the airbrush and pencil tool to draw them if that helps! <:D

@untitled-7613 (Comic in question)

Hmm.. my favorite Disney character.. I know that Disney bought Pixar and now owns all the characters. So I'm trying to think of characters that Disney made, not bought.. and I'm having some trouble remembering the older movies..

I think I liked Tarzan! Though I wouldn't say he's my favorite.. hmm.. I like Mufasa from the Lion King and I like the Genie from Aladdin! I also liked John Silver from treasure planet! (That was Disney right?) But idk if I'd say they're my favorite Disney characters.. hmm..

Now, if you're asking what my favorite Disney/Pixar character is? Well that's easy 👇

@tallchest13-blog

XDD Thank you so much! :DD I'm glad you like it! :}}}}

:x I have not seen the welcome home update-- all my info comes from MatPat/his channels. I'm way too lazy to actually go look into any welcome home stuff myself <XDD

ALTHOUGH!- I have heard that Julie has monster paws! :DD No doubt she has them for different reasons than my Julie, but still! it felt like an Apollos dodgeball moment for me! XDD

I'm not sure why you're telling me all this.. but I suppose I'll put in my 2 cents while you're here-

While some of this is true, this sounds like a rather 1 sided view of Alphys' character. I know most of the Undertale characters are beautifully complex and thought out, Alphys included. And I don't think this view is accurate to who she really is.

For example, as far as I remember she wasn't watching anime to "slack off". I'm sure she was severely depressed and extremely overwhelmed with everything going on in her life atm.

I think it would be a good idea for you to watch some character analysis videos on Alphys. Since I don't remember her very clearly, I cannot defend her very well. But I recall seeing a lot of posts/videos in defense of Alphys and explaining why she did the things she did.

Basically, I think its worth your while to actually look into Alphys and give her a chance! Who knows, after gaining some more understanding of her, you might just like her! :}

WAAAHAAG THANK YOU SO MUCH!! THAT MEANS A LOT TO MEEE!!😭💖💖😭💖

And hey, I get where you're coming from about the whole art theft thing. :( That is my biggest struggle being here on Tumblr. The constant art theft is so disheartening. In fact there were several times in the past where I almost threw in the towel and quit Tumblr all together over it.

But what's kept me around is people like you! :D There's some folks out there that really care about what I make. And are excited to see what I make next! The nice comments they leave me and the engagement with my work has really stuck with me. And it's what keeps me coming back! Maybe someday if you decide to take that first step and post some artwork, you'll find a lotta nice folks that make the art theft seem not so bad :}

Also giant watermarks. Giaaant watermarks that are just annoying to look at. That might discourage art theft <XDD

As for Jevil and Grillby.. In my AU, Jevil has this power to create mirrors and jump from timeline to timeline through them.

At some point when it was just him and Seam traveling together, they wound up in this Snowdin at night. Grillby was about to close his bar but he saw these too tired and hungry people so he let them in.

At some point while they were sitting at the counter and talking to Grillby.. Jevil could feel in his soul that this timeline they were in was about to collapse. Killing everyone in it. Jevil reacted on instinct and grabbed Seam and Grillby's arm and pulled the three of them through a mirror. The timeline was destroyed as soon as they disaapered.

What this meant is Jevil had saved Grillby's life!.. But his AU/timeline no longer existed. All of Grillby's friends and family were gone.. his home was gone.. He was now a homeless wandering traveler just like Seam and Jevil.

Deep down, Grillby doesn't really hate Jevil. He just took the grief of it all really hard and blamed it all on Jevil in response. He wished that Jevil hadn't saved him so he could have just died with the rest of his family.. and not have to experience this grief today..

Overtime he gets better.. and he understands that Jevil didn't want for any of this to happen. Eventually they talk about it a little and they end up on better terms. Maybe even becoming true friends someday. :}

@astaherussy (Recent development post on the Wario "bros") (Old Wario "bros" post) (Old King Boo/Boos post)

Thank you so much! I'm glad you like what I've made! :DD As for Wario and Waluigi.. the main changes I'm working on are visual/design changes. In their outfits especially. And I'm thinking of taking away their hats. They looked obviously very similar to Mario and Luigi's..

When it comes to their story, that is also being developed. I think I wanna keep the aspect of the Mario bros getting in some trouble and the Wario "bros" rescue them. Though with recent developments.. I don't know if the whole thing in Shy Guy woods is gonna work out-

In other news, actually no! :0 I wasn't aware that Spidercrab is so liked, but I am very glad to hear that he is! :DD

And a lot of those vibes was what I was going for! Tired, traumatized, has anxiety but is better at hiding it. Though the father figure is unexpected XD but I guess it fits! He's rather introverted and prefers quiet and space. But he is also the crews medic, and boy does he worry and care too much for his own good. He cares too much about them to spend all his time alone. He not only cares about their physical health, but he cares about them as people.

He wants to be there for his crew. He want's to be the first to notice when something is wrong or one of his crew is unwell. So he tries to participate in all their gatherings. Despite how much he'd rather just go read a book in his hammock <XDD

Though, he is still antisocial/awkward.. so there could have been many times he noticed one of the crew seemed off. But he didn't have the guts to talk to them. So he would go and tip off one of the other crew members to check up on them. Stuff like that I imagine is his way of showing he cares. :}

WAHG! I rambled a bit there didn't I? <XD Well I hope it was a fun read at least- as a thanks for taking interest in Spidercrab! It means a lot to me :}}}

Thank you so much!! And indeed he is! I'm so honored that you remembered him! :DD Though he's looking at some major re-designing and a biiiiit of lore re-structuring too <XDD 💔💔

<XD Unfortunately for many reasons I cannot/will not drink any of the things on that list. But! I can drink water! :D

@badlyblurry

<XDD I suppose so, at the very least I'm dipping my toes in and having some fun!

Hmm.. out of all the Mario games I can remember.. I think red shells from Mario kart got on my nerves the most <XDD

That, or this one very specific Zinger from Donkey Kong country. But I get that a DK game might not count XDD

📢📢SHOUT OUT TO YOU SETH!! :DD 📢📢

Thank you!! :DD

@neo-metalscottic

Ahh, I see, thank you for the info! And I'm glad you like my interpretation of them anyways! :DD

And oh yeah, his children's safety is his #1 priority. He's probably getting Kamek to create more Goomba's and rearranging his troops. Setting up a big chunk of them to just be on watch duty around his land. In case the hero's decide to come back..

He's also probably tightening the defenses around his hidden palace. (Where the Koopalings, Kamek, Kammy and the Blue paratroops all live.) Most likely by stationing more troops there and hiding out there himself. He wasn't able to beat the bros but he will still be an obstacle for them if they ever make it to the palace and try to hurt his kids. (Mario and Luigi wouldn't do that most likely but Bowser doesn't really know anything about them at this point- other than the fact they are very powerful and very scary)

I didn't think much about K rool when I made my version of DK. But that guy and his species are intended to exist and be causing problems on DK's island. Though all the details I'm unsure of.. perhaps its what you said, maybe they want the special beets and fruits that the kongs eat? Or maybe they came from another island that didn't have much to eat and now they're here to take over.?? :00

Sorry, I don't take requests! And my ability to draw rn is rather limited anyways... 😅

BUT! May I direct you to this post and point out a detail in the background? Cici only ate the frosting off her cake slice. So Bibi offered his slice so she could scrape off his cake frosting and eat that too XDD What a sweet brother he is :}

@2006-stupid-thatsme

I am not familiar with those sites.. <:0

<XD Mike was kind of a jerk though. Now don't get me wrong, his voice was killer! But I don't think he really changed as a person by the end of the movie.

If they had put him in the second movie he was gonna need a major personality change in order for me to like him <XD

@candyglumboy

I think its alright. :0 And if I have drawn one of the characters? I cant remember doing it <XD

(In relation to this post)

Aw, I'm sorry that you have to deal with all this. It doesn't sound fun that's for sure. :( But thank you for the info! :DD

@littlelightfish

XDD IM GLAD YOU LIKE HIM!! And these are all good questions! Unfortunately I haven't thought much about these things- so let me make some of it up on the fly- <XDD

I imagined he likes to mess with the crew sometimes and pull little pranks. Its all in good fun! Just a bit of goofin off. And he mostly does it to Coco XDD

Now his favorite crew member.. hmm.. I feel like that might be Ellie. Despite her cold exterior, she had a big heart and really does love her crew. Even the butthead that is Tuna <XDD I can see her getting the other crew members to lay off and give Tuna some space. She is known for cooking food to everyone's specific preference, no matter how much longer it takes to make. And she would do the same for Tuna. Cooking what ever he wants, how ever he wants it cooked.

That really means a lot to Tuna.. if he can count on anything, he can count on Ellie to cook a perfect meal just for him.

Now the crew member that understands him the most would be who ever has had similar experiences to him, right..? In that case it might be Pinwheel. Orrr Coco.. maybe Spidercrab..? Ah, I'm gonna need to do some more thinking on that one <XD

The crew member he doesn't feel so comfortable around could be Cuttlefish. She is very mysterious and some would even say untrustworthy. He is probably spooked by her and doesn't fully trust her. Though I'm also experimenting with Tuna having trouble with authority figures. So mayyybe he's less comfortable around Seafoam and Octo..?? :00

Also thank you for your enthusiasm and interest in Tuna! Its the biggest compliment to me/my OCS 🥰🥰

@raccoons-in-a-dumpster

XD Yup! Its me! And thank you! :DD

@beryl-shade

XDD Do they say that? Are there popsicles in the oceans from that game??

I'm not sure.. I'd assume so..? Keep in mind that these character were made from a game that I know next to nothing about-

Maybe? :00

@yeetmysoulintothevoid (Post in question)

No its not a sexual dimorphism thing, its all about stress, exhaustion, health,, etc.

Peach and Daisy have very thin blue markings (like their species is SUPPOSED to have) because they are well fed, well rested, and pampered as princesses.

Wario and Waluigi's blue markings are very large and puffy becuase they eat garbage, get very little to no sleep, and are fighting for their lives on the daily pretty much- if they had a saver living environment and a secure source of food, their eye bag would be much less noticeable-

Now Rosalina's blue marks are noticeable and puffy mostly due to her grief and depression. And partly because she isn't exactly.. aliiive..? Anymore..?? <:D

And yes! Everyone's ears are emotive! :}} Maybe subtly though. They can perk their ears up or droop them down, much more than a human typically can. But they cant do really fine and quick movements to improve their hearing/listen in a certain direction. Like Dogs, cats and rabbits can for example. Its all slow and mostly intentional movements.

Nope, I don't have plans to finish that comic. The writing was horrible and everyone acted super out of character all in the name of angst. 👎👎👎

If anyone wanted to know the ending, Kwazii was gonna patch Barnacle's face and the rest of the crew was gonna show up in the gups. They get him in a gup, take him to the octopod and he gets situated in the sick bay.

Then Kwazii and Peso have this stupid emotional talk about how Peso feels bad for not being there for the captain and blah blah blah. VERY out of character for Peso. The entire point of Peso's character is that he "helps any creature who is hurt or sick, no matter what." There is literally nothing on earth that could have stopped him from helping his own Captain, no, his friend in his time of need. That writing is juuuust so dumb.

Plus Kwazii was a total idiot in that comic- realistically Kwazii would have taken that situation very seriously and would have listened to anything that Peso told him to do. And even if for some reason he was being stupid and continued to approach the Captain, Peso would have stopped him.

And this is even beyond the fact that this whole comic starts with Captain Barnacles doing a series of very stupid and irresponsible things that he would not do. And then a perfect storm of "whoopsies!" happen ever so perfectly to have him wind on that island.

Over all its a veeeeery bad comic. Not my best! 0/10 would NOT draw it again! XD I don't even want to re-write it to make it good. Becuase that whole situation just wouldn't happen from the start.

Although, I am keeping the idea that Barnacles has a very sensitive nose/face. (Due to him being a polar bear with many muscles and nerves in his face) And if he ever got hit in the nose/face? It would be incredibly painful and he would be very disoriented for a time. But the rest of that comic can go down the drain XD

#my response #octonauts #undertale #deltarune #cookie run #cookie run kingdom #cookie run ocs #my ocs #super mario bros #factual fam

[mariacallous]

Until the dramatic departure of OpenAI’s cofounder and CEO Sam Altman on Friday, Mira Murati was its chief technology officer—but you could also call her its minister of truth. In addition to heading the teams that develop tools such as ChatGPT and Dall-E, it’s been her job to make sure those products don’t mislead people, show bias, or snuff out humanity altogether.

This interview was conducted in July 2023 for WIRED’s cover story on OpenAI. It is being published today after Sam Altman’s sudden departure to provide a glimpse at the thinking of the powerful AI company’s new boss.

Steven Levy: How did you come to join OpenAI?

Mira Murati: My background is in engineering, and I worked in aerospace, automotive, VR, and AR. Both in my time at Tesla [where she shepherded the Model X], and at a VR company [Leap Motion] I was doing applications of AI in the real world. I very quickly believed that AGI would be the last and most important major technology that we built, and I wanted to be at the heart of it. Open AI was the only organization at the time that was incentivized to work on the capabilities of AI technology and also make sure that it goes well. When I joined in 2018, I began working on our supercomputing strategy and managing a couple of research teams.

What moments stand out to you as key milestones during your tenure here?

There are so many big-deal moments, it’s hard to remember. We live in the future, and we see crazy things every day. But I do remember GPT-3 being able to translate. I speak Italian, Albanian, and English. I remember just creating pair prompts of English and Italian. And all of a sudden, even though we never trained it to translate in Italian, it could do it fairly well.

You were at OpenAI early enough to be there when it changed from a pure nonprofit to reorganizing so that a for-profit entity lived inside the structure. How did you feel about that?

It was not something that was done lightly. To really understand how to make our models better and safer, you need to deploy them at scale. That costs a lot of money. It requires you to have a business plan, because your generous nonprofit donors aren't going to give billions like investors would. As far as I know, there's no other structure like this. The key thing was protecting the mission of the nonprofit.

That might be tricky since you partner so deeply with a big tech company. Do you feel your mission is aligned with Microsoft’s?

In the sense that they believe that this is our mission.

But that's not their mission.

No, that's not their mission. But it was important for the investor to actually believe that it’s our mission.

When you joined in 2018, OpenAI was mainly a research lab. While you still do research, you’re now very much a product company. Has that changed the culture?

It has definitely changed the company a lot. I feel like almost every year, there's some sort of paradigm shift where we have to reconsider how we're doing things. It is kind of like an evolution. What's more obvious now to everyone is this need for continuous adaptation in society, helping bring this technology to the world in a responsible way, and helping society adapt to this change. That wasn't necessarily obvious five years ago, when we were just doing stuff in our lab. But putting GPT-3 in an API, in working with customers and developers, helped us build this muscle of understanding the potential that the technology has to change things in the real world, often in ways that are different than what we predict.

You were involved in Dall-E. Because it outputs imagery, you had to consider different things than a text model, including who owns the images that the model draws upon. What were your fears and how successful you think you were?

Obviously, we did a ton of red-teaming. I remember it being a source of joy, levity, and fun. People came up with all these like creative, crazy prompts. We decided to make it available in labs, as an easy way for people to interact with the technology and learn about it. And also to think about policy implications and about how Dall-E can affect products and social media or other things out there. We also worked a lot with creatives, to get their input along the way, because we see it internally as a tool that really enhances creativity, as opposed to replacing it. Initially there was speculation that AI would first automate a bunch of jobs, and creativity was the area where we humans had a monopoly. But we've seen that these AI models actually have a potential to really be creative. When you see artists play with Dall-E, the outputs are really magnificent.

Since OpenAI has released its products, there have been questions about their immediate impact in things like copyright, plagiarism, and jobs. By putting things like GPT-4 in the wild, it’s almost like you’re forcing the public to deal with those issues. Was that intentional?

Definitely. It's actually very important to figure out how to bring it out there in a way that's safe and responsible, and helps people integrate it into their workflow. It’s going to change entire industries; people have compared it to electricity or the printing press. And so it's very important to start actually integrating it in every layer of society and think about things like copyright laws, privacy, governance and regulation. We have to make sure that people really experience for themselves what this technology is capable of versus reading about it in some press release, especially as the technological progress continues to be so rapid. It's futile to resist it. I think it's important to embrace it and figure out how it's going to go well.

Are you convinced that that's the optimal way to move us toward AGI?

I haven't come up with a better way than iterative deployments to figure out how you get this continuous adaptation and feedback from the real end feeding back into the technology to make it more robust to these use cases. It’s very important to do this now, while the stakes are still low. As we get closer to AGI, it's probably going to evolve again, and our deployment strategy will change as we get closer to it.

[amariss-613]

재등장, bts | scene 01: memories of u

{resurfaced, bts}

summary: the biggest group in the world has their scandal resurface as the former female member the world thought was done become the best new artist of the year at the grammys.

face claim: yeri of red velvet

original is on archive of our own: amariss_0613, and wattpad: amariss_amaryllis, just decided to publish it on here~

this story mentions non-consensual things and includes some mentions of drugs, depression, and sasaengs.

. . .

scene 01: memories of u

playing: hold me tight | bts the most beautiful moment in life pt.1 | 2015

|taehyung pov| "this c-can't be real." i cried, running my hands through my black curly hair. "i-i mean, all we knew was that she was gone… b-but this is insane." yoongi hesitantly said, finally able to look back up at the TV that lit up the living room.

'FORMER MEMBER OF THE POPULAR GROUP BTS IS NOMINATED FOR NEW ARTIST OF THE YEAR AT THE 63RD ANNUAL GRAMMY AWARDS AFTER 'DISAPPEARING' FOR 3 YEARS'

'EUN 'YE-JUN' Y/N, A FORMER MEMBER OF BTS COULD POSSIBLY WIN A GRAMMY AFTER DISAPPEARING FOR 3 YEARS. COULD THIS BE A COVERUP FROM THEIR RECENTLY RESURFACED SCANDAL THAT CAUSED HER TO TERMINATE HER CONTRACT WITH HYBE ENT.? (FORMERLY BIGHIT ENT.)'

'AFTER TAKING LEGAL ACTION AGAINST THE PERPETRATORS, EUN 'YE-JUN' Y/N HAS DECIDED TO TERMINATE HER CONTRACT WITH BIGHIT ENT. AND LEAVE BTS AS OF JULY 27TH, 2017, IN THE MIDDLE OF THEIR WINGS WORLD TOUR.'

"these fucking reporters make it sound like she was forced to leave." jungkook sighed, allowing his tensed figure to relax on the couch. "seokjin, can we talk in private?" namjoon asked, seokjin slowly stood up, walking with namjoon to the other room that was connected with the one that we were currently in where the rest of us would probably have a hard time trying to figure out the topic of their discussion.

"let's get ready, we still have rehearsal for our grammy performance." jimin said, rubbing my back before standing up from his spot beside me. "yeah, it'll help take your mind off of things." hoseok agreed, grabbing the remote to the TV, turning it off. "not when she's gonna be attending too, let alone probably sit with us because big award shows like this one love the attention they get from us," yoongi said, walking toward the exit of my hotel room to start getting ready for rehearsals.

i was left soon alone, as jimin, jungkook, and hoseok joined yoongi back in their rooms. i was left with my mind as i wondered how this one scandal caused so much trauma and controversy with y/n.

i could remember the documentary so clearly. As if it wasn't released over three years ago.

"honestly, taking legal action against the people involved and attending therapy helped me." y/n laughed as tears were running down her face.

"in a way, i'm somewhat glad to be taking a break from the whole 'artist' life and focusing on my mental and physical health after five years of no break," she continued.

"are you still in a relationship with bts?" the interviewer asked behind the camera.

"sorry, but can we cut?" the female asked, rising from her seat before the video got cut to her with us walking through paparazzi as they were asking absurd questions.

"is it true that you and bighit knew about the group of saesaengs following ye-jun?"

"ye-jun, is it true that you are currently in a relationship with all seven members?"

"suga, did you cheat on your partners during your recent 'WINGS WORLD TOUR'?"

"ye-jun, will you be returning to japan or america?"

the video then cut again to y/n inside of her room in our shared apartment, and what looked to be her packing.

"well, i'm pretty sure i packed everything i need before having to go shopping for things besides furniture and appliances for the apartment." she sighed, finally able to close her suitcase.

"hey y/n! i got that extra bag for yo- oh! i forgot you were filming, sorry." jungkook yelled, running through the door, surprising the cameramen currently filming her, which in turn caused the camera to move out of focus for a couple of seconds. "thanks gukk." y/n took the bag and placed it at the foot of her bed which had all her on-hand items as jungkook bowed towards the camera, slowly leaving her room. "could you maybe remind the members not to tackle down a cameraman if they see one? I don't want the situation that happened with yoongi earlier to repeat!" she yelled. "got it!"

i could get a clear glimpse of the infinity tattoo that we all shared on our wrists. i wonder if she has gotten it removed yet? we never did, i and the rest of the guys were still all in a relationship, but did she decide to get it removed after breaking up with us?

it didn't matter though, did it?

i finally was able to stand and walk towards the bathroom to get ready as the reality of possibly meeting y/n at rehearsals after 4 years was slowly starting to cease.

|hoseok pov| me and taehyung were the last to leave the hotel for rehearsals as we shared a car. he was escorted out by one of the staff as they were concerned about him when namjoon informed them of the situation that happened.

"jagiya, you ok?" i turned my gaze towards taehyung as he grabbed my unoccupied hand, looking expectingly at me. "i should be the one asking you that." i replied back, giving a slight squeeze to his hand. "but yes tae, im fine, just worried about you and the others." taehyung took this as a chance to lift up the sleeve of my hoodie, revealing the infinity tattoo, slowly caressing it. "do you think she got it removed?" I stared at the tattoo he was referring to, "Even with all the shit that happened, I don't think she did. i mean, why do you think it's an infinity symbol." I looked up at him with a smile and he responded with a smile back, resting his head on my shoulder.

"hoseok, taehyung, we're here." one of the staff said, gathering her camera to start filming for a bangtan bomb. "Let's gather with the others, they're probably already inside." i pulled taehyung along with me towards the back entrance of where the grammys was going to be held.

. . .

Hope you enjoyed the first chapter of this new story <3

{Updates are (at least) once a month if get lucky}

#bangtan #kpop #bts x reader #bts poly

[soul-dwelling]

Still wonder if the Ashura/Kid brothers twist was planned or not. They did have simmillar hair and all but on the other hand dunno, atleast the details probably came later (like in my oppinion the whole "Madness of Order", Great Old ones, fragments of shinigami stuff came later, maybe Asura and Kid were supposed to be biologically born and not created, eh who knows)

A story doesn’t have to have everything planned from the beginning to be good. 

What makes the story good typically has more to do with the end result, including engaging with it in the order it was released. 

Even if Ohkubo planned all of this out from the beginning, it wouldn’t suddenly make the work better; what makes it better is getting a new story that retroactively makes the earlier stuff better.

And I don’t feel like the stuff that came later made the earlier stuff suddenly better. 

TL; DR: I don't think Ohkubo figured out Kid and Asura were related until after he started work on the Monotone Princess video game, around the same time he was doing the Baba Yaga arc. But even if he had the idea at that point, he didn't really do much to reveal it until the actual reveal--robbing readers of the chance to re-read the story and see how it was there all along, because it wasn't there all along.

Spoiler warnings for the ending of Soul Eater and the ending of Fire Force.

There are three moments in time that would seem to be when Ohkubo may have anticipated: 

Asura being Lord Death’s child

The Madness of Order

The Lines of Sanzu

The Great Old Ones

And Kid’s creation

And those three moments are: 

Kid’s creation

Kid finding the book checked out by “M” 

And the Lost Island / BREW arc 

When Kid was introduced, Lord Death does emphasize his three lines. I get that it is in part a gag around how Kid hates his asymmetry. And sure, this is right upon Kid’s introduction, before Soul Eater existed as anything but three one-shot stories connected only by Lord Death’s presence. But it is a Checkov’s gun: Kid dislikes asymmetry, he has the three lines, at some point he will connect those lines, then something major should happen. Whether Ohkubo knew what that “something” was remains to be seen: this is a one-shot, he may have not thought to a conclusion where Lord Death gets replaced once Kid connects those three lines. 

Kid finding the book checked out by “M,” which is supposed to set up the Book of Eibon arc. But did Ohkubo know he was ever going to introduce the Book of Eibon? 

Let’s go with the timeline on this. 

After Autumn 2003: Prologue 3 comes out, where Lord Death first mentions Kid’s three lines. 

January 2007: Volume 8 is released, the first time Eibon is named.

May 2007: Volume 9 comes out. In it, Kid finds “M” checked out a book that mentioned Eibon. Also in this volume, the gang arrives on Lost Island and get a flashback to Arachne collecting Eibon’s blueprints. 

September 2008: Monotone Princess comes out. This video game introduces Grimoire and his book (the proto versions of Noah and the Book of Eibon). 

October 2008: Volume 13 comes out. This is the first time the manga shows the Book of Eibon, at this point in Noah’s possession. 

November 2008: Episode 34 comes out. It adapts Volume 9, only now Eibon’s blueprints are designed to look like the Book of Eibon. 

July 2010: Volume 17 comes out. This is the first time the Great Old Ones are mentioned, as well as how they inspire various types of Madness--hence showing that Madness doesn’t come just from the Madness of Fear and Asura but from other Great Old Ones, such as Lord Death leading to the Madness of Order. 

December 2013: Volume 25 reveals that Asura is Lord Death’s fragment of fear, hence his child. 

February 2022: Fire Force ends with an explanation as to Kid’s creation. Just before this time, Fire Force also reveals Lord Death’s creation came about at the same time with something akin to Madness globally, which may or may not have something to do with the Evangelist with the Kishin eye. 

So, back to the question I asked: did  Ohkubo know he was going to introduce the Book of Eibon? 

Based on this timeline, I don’t think he had this figured out until the anime started showing something like the Book of Eibon. Things are not quite accurate in my timeline when referring to Monotone Princess, Volume 13, and Episode 34. Now, my dates are accurate for Monotone Princess and Episode 34, while Volume 13 was a collection of the manga chapter, so, really, Book of Eibon in Noah’s possession would have appeared before October 2008. 

But I expect making Monotone Princess would have taken another year at least to develop, so Ohkubo may have designed Grimoire’s book around September 2007 for Studio BONES to use in the game, Studio BONES modifies it to be the Book of Eibon in Episode 34 in November 2008. 

But before Studio BONES gets to show that off, Ohkubo was already revising the design of Grimoire’s book, making it into the Book of Eibon by October 2008 when it appears in Volume 13 (and even before that, since the actual chapter was months earlier before collected into that volume). 

So, we can revise this further: I doubt it wasn’t until September 2007 that Ohkubo, when designing Grimoire, that he hits upon leaning more into Lovecraftian lore. Sure, he already named Eibon (in Volume 8 in January 2007; the chapter itself was out earlier), which would naturally then lead to introducing the Book of Eibon. But naming Eibon and actually getting to the Book are two different things, and it wasn’t until after work on Monotone Princess that leads to actually showing Eibon’s manuscript notes as a book in the anime, not just as loose pages as in the manga. 

What does any of this have to do with revealing Asura and Kid as brothers? In this timeline, I have shown how Ohkubo didn’t hit upon the Lovecraftian stuff until, at earliest, Volume 8 (January 2007) with Eibon’s namedrop, and at latest whenever development started on Monotone Princess (maybe September 2007 at latest). It was the Lovecraftian angle that got the ball rolling to show different types of Madness, which further associated Asura and Lord Death as each embodying a form of Madness. 

But neither Madness is necessarily as directly connected, and any physical resemblance between Lord Death and Asura is limited, at least as limited as you could say Eibon looks like Excalibur or the Great Old One. 

What would have pushed Ohkubo to making any similarity more explicit? All that comes after, when you just flat out put Asura and Kid in juxtaposed panels and have Asura claim they are related. 

If I’m being generous, maybe you could say Ohkubo had this idea earlier, when he started having Kid link together Lines of Sanzu, chipping at Lord Death’s mask, so, around July 2010. 

However, this was also around the time we first see the Book of Eibon in the manga, so, again, this is all stumbling out of Monotone Princess and the Lovecraftian leaning. (And that’s not getting into the anime showing Kid’s lines linking, but that’s an entirely different context and continuity.) If you start linking Kid’s lines, that starts to look like the lines in Asura’s hair more, and then Ohkubo can re-design Asura to look more like Kid (...similar to how he ends up re-designing Kid yet again to look more like Shinra to force that bullshit connection…). 

To summarize all of this rambling, I don’t think Ohkubo had this planned out, at least not at the beginning, and not when Asura first escaped Death City. This would account for how little of a parent-child interaction we get with Lord Death and Asura during the latter’s escape--although, from a Watsonian point of view, we can chalk that up to 800 years of separation between a parent who is acting more like a brutal authority figure, and a child who is not about to act friendly to an abusive parent. I therefore can forgive the story for not making that apparent at the time when it happened. 

However, I can say that, by the time of the revelation, the setup is just not there. We needed foreshadowing. We needed more emotion out of Asura revealing this to Kid, and Lord Death’s anxiety about Kid learning this. It’s bothersome to me, just tossing off abruptly that Asura was fragmented from Lord Death to embody his fears, then abruptly revealing Kid was not born the same way--as bothersome to me as just as abruptly revealing at the end of Fire Force that Lord Death just summoned preschooler Kid into existence (and basing his face off of Shinra’s, which, no, Shinra and Kid do not look alike). 

To end this already: Ohkubo probably only had the idea of Kid and Asura being siblings around the time he started the Baba Yaga arc, but it’s not really clear until Asura reveals it, so I don’t think the setup and payoff were very good.

#death the kid #asura #long post #fire force spoiler #fire force spoilers

[mountainstory]

Rani Sui Lake Trek | Sour Tal Trek – Fun and Adventure

It is my intention to keep this post as focused on the Rani Sui Lake trek as possible. First of all, I should introduce myself as a professional in the IT industry with a well-known (for the wrong reasons) work-life balance. In my opinion, the best way to describe me is that people who are going through a midlife crisis will be able to relate to me most. I do enjoy traveling, but at leisure and comfortably.

Rani Sui Lake Trek / Sour Tal Trek

Known as Sour Tal, Rani Sui Lake (3700 meters ASL) is not so well known among trekking circuits. There are far more popular destinations with Manali (a popular hill station) being a good starting point.

After this trek happened in 2017, I wrote about it on my WordPress site. On May 27 this year, exactly three years later, we relived some of the summit moments on our WhatsApp group. As a result, I decided to share my experience with this community, as well as some information about this trek. I think it's better late than never to recount my experience with this community.

The Plan

As you might have noticed in my introduction, I am not an avid trekker. Far from it. I got into this because of my persuasive friend Sudhakar. This is how a typical conversation would go with him after the general chit-chat.

Friend: By the way,  we are going for a trek to rani sui lake

Me: Oh cool, so where is this place?

Friend: Describes the place, the plan, duration, etc.

Me: Sounds like a good experience, but not sure if I can join

Friend: Ok think about it and let me know if you would like to join.

Once the call ends, I never express an intention to join the trek. This has occurred so many times that slowly he stopped insisting that I join.

It was sometime in July 2016 that we spoke again. The conversation went similar to the one above, but this time he was more determined. He was also the designated trek leader for Karnataka Mountaineering Association (KMA). In his opinion, another friend of ours, Sri, was also considering participating.

Jai, my cousin, was also suggested by him. His ultimate lure – four friends together on a trek, having fun. I was getting into an unavoidable situation. I talked to my cousin, hoping to get out if he wasn't interested. Instead, he got on board. Eventually, I also accepted the idea of a trek, and we signed up on it by the due date.

The program dates were 21-05-2017 to 31-05-2017, and all meals, accommodation, and travel were included.

Trek days: 24-05-2017 to 29-05-2017.

Manali

On either side of Manali, there are mighty mountains. On the left side, the Pir Panjal ranges rise to dizzying heights of peaks like Deo Tibba, Indrasan, etc. On the right side, the Dhauladhar ranges rise to equivalent heights.

Located above the snowline, Sour Tal is located in the middle of this range. We were many first-timers who enrolled in the program as it is classified as an easy-moderate trek. As a result, we had a lot of questions about it and trekking in general. Through emails and a WhatsApp group, KMA kept us informed.

As part of the briefing, rucksacks were distributed and we were instructed to walk/run 6 km a day within an hour every day as preparation.

It was also during this time that we became acquainted with the other batch 3 members, as we did half-day treks to Kabbaladurga on 26-03-17 and Savandurga on 16-04-17 near Bangalore.

My focus will be on the trekking expedition, not the details of reaching Delhi.

Prini Base Camp (1950 meters)

The Volvo bus took us to Manali in the morning, where we were greeted by the snowcapped peaks through the panoramic windows. From there, we were transported to Prini base camp in jeeps.

This property is located around 5 km from Manali town, on the road between Naggar and Kullu. Prini Nallah, a stream that flows next to the property, is a popular base for trekking expeditions.

Upon arrival, we were introduced to the local guides - Sonu, Om, and Samir. Our tents were assigned, and breakfast was about to be served in the dining tent. As we ate breakfast in the dining tent, we were introduced to the rigid schedule:

5:30 AM – Wake up call

6:00 AM – Tea/Coffee

6:15 AM – PT (Physical Training)

7:00 AM – Breakfast (followed by (re)packing rucksack and backpack)

8:00 AM – Trek starts

1:00 PM – Trek ends, Lunch

4:00 PM – Tea/Coffee

6:00 PM – Soup

7:00 PM – Dinner (no artificial lights after sundown)

An overview of the campsite and expedition was provided. All campsites had already been established and the trail had been mapped out. After the briefing on trek days, energy packs (juice, chocolate, biscuits, etc) would be distributed. Our backpacks would be carried to the next campsite by mules, while our rucksacks would be carried on mules. Very convenient!

Getting Ready

It was also equipped with electricity, a fixed toilet structure, and bath facilities. There was a peculiarity, however, in that the men’s bath and toilets were on the other side of the stream. To reach the restrooms, we had to descend down to the stream, cross a narrow rickety wooden bridge, and climb up to the same height. The stream was a frequent hurdle for us, while the women participants were thrilled to see it.

Prini Nallah wooden bridge

It started raining during our acclimatization walk. After the rains, the sky cleared and we could feel the freshness in the air. A few of us went for a walk and spent some time here enjoying the views and just chatting.

As we were introduced to Ganga Ram, the main guide for the trek, I felt amused as I zipped myself into my tent for the very first time.

Acclimatization Walk

After breakfast, we took the acclimatization walk through apple orchards and mountain villages.

In Shuru village, we stopped at a serene temple mid-way. A further hour's walk brought us to Arjun Gufa, which was around 4 hours from base camp.

Afterwards, we went for a walk into a nearby village before returning to camp for “soup time”. We then settled in our tents and drifted off to sleep only to be awoken by outside noises.

Our group had several members who were sick and we could hear them vomiting. Even without getting out of the tent, we could recognize them. Slowly, we gave in to sleep again, hoping for tomorrow to be better.

Camp 1 – Klount (2230 meters)

Not because I was sick, but because ten-12 of the 35 members had fallen ill just as the trek was about to begin. The mood was more anxious than upbeat as everyone gathered for the briefing for the day.

We instead got a scolding from Mr. Khemraj Thakur - the proprietor of the Base Camp. A man in his 60s with mountaineering experience, he blamed stomach infections on inadequate warm clothing.

In the byllanes we walked towards the Beas valley. Then there was a steep descent towards the Bhanu bridge, where we bought some packaged drinking water so we wouldn't have to drink water from the base camp.

On the Dhauladhar side, we crossed the bridge and started climbing over a concrete path paved for villages. The paved path soon ended and we entered a pine forest. The slope was quite steep, but because of the shade, it was very cool and pleasant. Eventually, mules with our rucksacks caught up with us.

Midway, we stopped and rested – trying out all filmy photoshoots. A hike of another hour and a half brought us to the campsite. The campsite was located in a small clearing among trees. Welcome drink (of non-alcoholic nature) was being served. The cool breeze, beautiful views, and the refreshing drink took all our tiredness away.

At the Campsite

A "rope walking" activity was planned for 3:00 PM after lunch. Safety equipment was explained. Most people tried it out and enjoyed it. I acted as a spectator and encouraged them.

During tea, Mr. Sridhar had reached. We gave him a jeep ride to the village, and he also managed to climb through the pine forest.

As there was no electricity here onward, we had to take advantage of the late sunset and finish dinner around 7:30 PM. We had rasam (like a spicy and tangy soup) on the menu thanks to Mr. Raghavendra. It was just the right dish for the cool weather. We got into our tents shortly after dinner and awaited sleep.

Camp 2 – Dudu Dhog (2750 meters)

After a good night's sleep, I felt comfortable zipping into a sleeping bag and tent. Dawn was already breaking by 4:45 a.m., and the sky began to light up. It was a beautiful morning. I sat around and took in the fresh air for some time. Afterward, morning tea was served, and we prepared our rucksacks and day packs. After breakfast and the briefing, we set out for the next campsite.

After passing through cedar/pine forests until the mid-way point, the trail continued through cedar/pine forests. As we hiked higher, the density of trees diminished. The trail mostly took us through fresh, green meadows in the open sun. People who arrived earlier rested under trees while I stayed out in the sun, enjoying the breeze and warmth. We reached the mid-way point after a steady climb of a couple of hours.

Ganga Ram encouraged us to start climbing again after 30 minutes of chit-chatting. The hot water at Klount campsite was not palatable, and I was running out of water. I kept walking ahead to find some water as I zigzagged up the steep incline in a zigzag pattern. The group slowly approached a small clearing shaded by trees where there was a small stream of water.

This water was very fresh and tasty. While it quenched my thirst on one hand, it also made the ground slippery as we climbed higher. The campsite was visible at this point.

The Campsite

Upon arriving at the campsite, I received multiple servings of welcome beverages. Tents were assigned, and lunch was served shortly after. The adventure activity was rappelling. Some of us remained at the campsite to relax and refresh.

Our group gathered around the dining tent as the sunlight dimmed. After being mesmerized by Divya (Raghavan), the campsite staff prepared a campfire outside. The last rays of the Sun were fading away as everyone assembled around the fire with their dinner. Soon it was dark.

As we washed dishes with torches, our fingers were going numb. What's a campfire without songs and dance? Boring! Several people joined the party, especially the youngsters. Slowly, people began retiring to their tents.

Camp 3 – Laanga Thach (3320 meters)

We had escaped physical training at Klount campsite but not at Dudu Dhog camp. I awoke early to catch the sunrise after an uneventful night's sleep.

As if trekking wasn't enough, we had to line up after tea in a small clearing between trees with level ground. Fitting 37 people within the available space was challenging, especially for PT exercises.

After PT we packed our bags quickly and assembled for breakfast and the day’s briefing. Ganga Ram explained the terrain leading to the next camp and concluded, as always, that “We should be there in 3-4 hours”. To reach Laanga Thach, we must climb over 3000 m (another first for me).

In the morning, the trail was out in open pastures and meadows as the treeline thinned out. The climb was constant, with varying degrees of incline. We stopped for a mid-way break after about 2 hours of climbing. I felt a little lightheaded after crossing the 3000 m mark, but it was manageable.

As we continued, we could see patches of snow nearby the campsite, which was set just above treeline. It took us just over an hour to reach it.

The Hailstorm

Indrasan and Deo Tibba were formidable peaks in the Pir Panjal range. Despite the cold, I felt a sense of accomplishment already.

It was as if the icing on the cake that we were given a “deluxe” 4 men tent. As the views around me were so captivating, I didn’t realize when my dizziness faded away, and I felt just fine. Everyone was outside the tents, unlike yesterday. Perhaps they felt the same way as I did.

It started drizzling after lunch, and we scampered into our tents as it transformed into a hailstorm. We watched as pea-sized ice balls fell from the sky, some of which bounced into our tents.

After tea time, the campsite staff provided hot tea inside each tent, a very kind gesture. The skies cleared in some time, but adventure activities for the day were canceled. The atmosphere became magical as clouds began to drift through the valley.

As sunlight weakened, the temperature plummeted to 4 °C. Down jackets were readily available for those in need. I had sufficient warm clothing, so I didn't need them. At dinner, we were treated with hot rasam rice - courtesy of our trek leaders. As we retired to our tents for the night, we were looking forward to summiting the mountain tomorrow.

Summit – Rani Sui Lake / Sour Tal (3700 meters)

If you have read the posts until now, you will know that I used to have sound sleep in the night – while others complained of fitful sleep. In Laanga Thach, a little while after dozing off to sleep, I felt suffocated and woke up. As a result, Sudhakar and Jai were already awake, and they felt the same way I did.

As the wind blew outside, the tent flapped. Although the sleeping bag was lined with fleece, it was very cold, so we opened the vent window flaps despite the fact that it would make the room even colder. After a while, I fell asleep blissfully. It was only ventilation that was bothering me, not altitude or anxiety.

Our plan was to reach the summit by (late) lunchtime and descend to Camp 4 by (late) lunchtime, as we had already been informed the previous day. As a result of clubbing morning tea and breakfast, we had to eat breakfast at 5:30 a.m. You can just imagine how early in the morning the campsite staff prepared it.

Our group collected energy packs and began walking - slower members were given a headstart.

The Climb

We started climbing steeply from the campsite. After that, we walked through some ravines and cliffs. The sun was shining brightly, but the wind chill negated the heat. Mid-way break came in an hour and a half. The landscape was now a mix of grassy ridges, snowy ridges, and gentle slopes as we reached the ridge of the mountain range.

With Mt. Indrasan and Mt. Deo Tibba towering above, mighty Mt. Indrasan and Mt. Deo Tibba provide a beautiful backdrop for climbing

After walking over gentle undulations for an hour, we reached...

Initially, the impression was somewhat dissatisfying. While a small glacial lake formed in the depression was mostly frozen, spectacular scenery surrounded us from all sides here. It felt as if we were a tiny part of nature. Most of the group went down to the lake, some of us stayed behind.

Stunning scenery everywhere

The Summit

The icy breeze and pleasant warmth of the sun. The quietness and serenity. Breathing the pure, but slightly oxygen-deficient air, the breathtaking scenery all around. That time spent at this place until others returned was one of the most peaceful and blissful I have ever experienced.

Then we (Jai and I) clicked some photos, felt snow for the first time, and sat admiring the picturesque scenery. Once everyone was back, we took a few more celebratory pictures with our summit banner.

In lieu of walking on grassy meadows, Ganga Ram coaxed everyone to glissade on snow. I was given a "gentle" push, which was the fastest way to lose 100 meters of altitude.

Our descent to Mahili Thach began here. Legendary mountaineer Ed Viesturs said, "Getting to the top is optional. Getting down is mandatory.".

Also Read: Jiwa Nala Trek – A COMPLETE Travel Guide

Mahili Thach (3200 meters)

Continued from the summit day and descending to Mahili Thach.

The expedition had reached its pinnacle, so everyone was joyful. Ganga Ram looked more laid-back than usual as we traversed the ridge. The snowfields were slippery and needed to be crossed with caution. The clouds played hide-and-seek with the sun. It was a very pleasant walk. We marched forward in a jolly mood, cracking jokes and having a good time.

Returning towards camp from the summit

Among the grassy slopes, some distance ahead, a long patch of boulders appeared. Some gaps were wide and deep enough for someone to slip through.

Despite the boulder stretch, it was fun leaping over boulders and jumping across deep crevasses. We took a break midway after crossing deep crevasses.

The campsite is visible below, descending steeply

Back at the Campsite

It was visible from here that the trail dipped steeply downhill, and some time later, we could see our campsite below. We proceeded along the steep descent to Camp 4, which was also on the edge of the tree line. Like Camp 3 (Laanga Thach), Camp 4 was on level terrain. Our arrival at the campsite was close to 2 PM, when we received our much deserved welcome drink.

After getting our tents assigned, we had lunch. Most people rested after tea and skipped the ziplining adventure activity. We hiked for close to 8 hours today rather than 4 hours on other days.

After the activity, soup and dinner followed. Sudhakar was feeling uneasy, having had some sleepless nights before. I cheered the participants as usual and relaxed. Jai wanted to accompany him in his tent, so I volunteered to stay the night alone in a tent (another first). When it became quite dark by now, we settled into our respective tents. Despite my initial apprehensions about sleeping alone, I immediately fell asleep.

Also Read: Kareri Lake Trek – How to Plan a Trip to this Hidden Jewel

Malah (2190 Meters)

When we return from a trek, the excitement and enthusiasm come down right after we reach the summit. These return journeys seem mundane in comparison to onward journeys. They always seem to end faster too.

On this trek, we ascended on the mountainside facing the Beas valley, with the Pir Panjal range of mountains in clear view most of the time, while descended in a different direction with very little open views - pine forests and thick shrubbery.

Additionally, this meant fewer opportunities for photography, as well as less interest.

It was 5:30 AM when Jai came into the tent calling for me. Another good night of sleep! PT was planned after tea, and everyone gathered in the open area, doing a penguin drill.

The exercise gave the body a great workout, but it was equally hilarious to watch (and perform). Can anyone imagine asking for a repeat of physical training? That's exactly what happened!

View from Mahili Thach campsite, preparing to leave.

Walking Down

During the day, we descended from 3200 meters to 2190 meters. The trail entered pine and cedar forests, with steep slopes that descended continuously. The mid-way point, at the end of the forest, offered some relief. At this point, we could see a flat surface in the clearing. We could also see a campsite set up by another trekking group as we moved forward. From this direction, they seemed to be trying to reach the summit.

As I passed this campsite, the trail became very narrow and steep through dense shrubs. In the cedar forest, there were streams running close to the trail. Some areas of the trail were also wet, resulting in minor slips and slides. Unintentionally, I had picked up a wooden stick. As well as pushing branches away, it provided support on slippery mud.

We proceeded through this stretch slowly and very carefully. Emerging unscathed from this stretch, we reached Shangchar village. Here, we regrouped and rested for a while. We were now on much easier paved village paths and a gentle gradient. We reached Malah campsite quickly. As usual, welcome drinks were served.

A pretty bouquet of flowers adorns the courtyards of village houses

Fun on the Last Day

Our group participated in a kabaddi game that evening. The local camp caretakers, guides, and some enthusiastic members of our group took part. Unfortunately, Dr. Srinivas suffered a toe injury.

Also that day, it was Shruthi's birthday and a small celebration was announced. A special cake was baked by the camp caretakers for the occasion.

More celebrations followed the cake cutting ceremony. The mood in the camp was jubilant. Sudhakar also provided some local brew, which we all enjoyed.

We were not yet done with the trek, but this was the closest we were to finishing. Locals from the village performed a folk dance for us to enjoy.

Our dining area was illuminated here. We had a "late" dinner by 8:30 PM, and then Jai and I roamed around the campsite till about 10 PM.

 Prini Base Camp (1950 Meters)

It is said that deep sleep follows a loss of altitude. I was able to sleep well through the night as usual as I descended from 3000 meters above sea level to around 2000 meters above sea level.

The hike was relatively easy today, since the previous day's descent of around 1000 m had taken a toll on Mr. Manjunath's knees. He was unable to even walk. A jeep was arranged to take Dr. Srinivas and Manjunath back to base camp.

The day after the usual tea/coffee and breakfast, we started our hike. It was a semi-paved path connecting the village to the roadhead. We stopped by a temple courtyard for a while. A lane brought us to the Kullu – Manali road ahead, from where we boarded a bus and alighted at the Bhanu bridge.

Homestretch

Our expedition ended after 45 minutes of steep ascent. As we approached the Base Camp entrance, Khem Raj Thakur noticed us and congratulated us, and other staff members also joined in. Our stay was spent in spacious tents (6-8 men) for the remainder of the trip.

Electronic gadgets received a long-overdue recharge. There were also conveniences such as hot water baths and personal grooming, and everyone gathered for lunch in the dining tent. We returned the windcheaters and ponchos. At 3:00 PM, we held a debriefing in which everyone shared their experiences and provided suggestions for improvement.

Trekking expedition officially concluded!

At the base camp, we could spend the evening and next day as we pleased. We used this time to do the touristy activities. Until we returned home, there were several other side plans and activities.

I would like to thank everyone who liked, commented, and read up to this point.

Conclusion

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask in the comments section below. The travelog and information above should help you in planning your Rani Sui Lake trek.

#rani sui lake trek difficulty #rani sui trek #rani sui lake trek

[fanficimagery]

Misery Business pt. I

Imagine moving in with the Molina's after an incident back home. Instead of being angry, you realize this is your second chance to be truly happy and you really hope it goes better than your first attempt.

Words: 6.1K Author's Note: I'm a sucker for three idiot ghost boys which is why I'm back, only in this imagine everyone is alive. Yes that includes Rose Molina as well :) Soulmate!AU too so have fun with that. FYI, Y/N will be "musically talented" but since I can't write music to save my life then "Y/N's music" will come from a little band that goes by the name of Paramore and by James Arthur.

Julie and three of her best guy friends are in the family studio outside, writing and jamming and just having the time of their life. Alex, Reggie, and Luke are about two years older than Julie, but the boys overlooked the teeny tiny age gap because her killer voice was exactly what their band was missing. The entire high school knew exactly who the boys of Sunset Curve were so they were all surprised when they took sophomore Julie Molina under their wing and rebranded their band.

Julie's family was very supportive of her music, especially her mother Rose, and she let Julie and the boys use her studio whenever they wanted so long as they all kept up their grades. They're usually left alone when Julie and Luke are in writing mode, so it's a bit of a surprise to see Ray and Rose entering the studio.

Alex is the first to notice them, nudging Reggie and gesturing to Mr. and Mrs. Molina, and then Reggie tosses a pillow at Luke's head to get his attention. Luke's rather rude remark is on the tip of his tongue, but his eyes widen upon seeing Julie's parents.

"Jules. Julie!" He hisses. "Your mom and dad are here."

"Hmm. What?" Julie finally looks away from her journal, her eyes widening before a beaming smile breaks out. "Mami! Papi. What brings you two here?"

"Hey mija," Ray says. "Can we talk real quick?"

"Of course!"

She glances at the boys and they're quick to start packing up, but Ray gestures for them to stay put. "It's okay, boys. You can stay for this."

Rose smiles. "After all, you are family too."

Every time Rose or Ray mention that the boys are family, they can't help but smile goofily. None of the boys have the type of relationship with their parents that Julie has with hers, so they're all grateful the Molina's accept them as if they were a Molina as well. Julie smiles as the boys, who are all practically older brothers to her, gather around her and Luke to hear what's going on.

On his way further into the studio, Ray grabs a chair for Rose and she takes a seat while Ray stands behind her, gripping the back of her chair. "Okay," he exhales a little roughly, "so you know the drama your cousin went through a few months ago?"

Julie frowns. "Yeah."

"Well it seems Y/N isn't doing so well," Rose says. "Your tía thinks a change of location is what's best for her."

"Y/N wants to move here?"

"Well not exactly," Ray says. "Y/N doesn't know. If we agree to take her in, then Y/N will be told of her relocation."

Julie nods, looking thoughtful. "Okay."

"Okay?" Ray muses. "What does okay mean?"

"Well I'm assuming you're only telling me because you never make a big decision without seeing what me and Carlos think," Julie says and then smiles brightly. "I love Y/N. Carlos loves Y/N, so I know he already voted yes."

Rose chuckles. "He did. I believe his words were I will throw down for Y/N any day of the week. Bring her home."

Julie snorts. "Of course he did." Then after glancing between her mom and dad, she nods with a gentler smile. "Whatever she needs. I'll even decorate the guest bedroom for her."

"That's nice, mija." Ray then looks over the boys, eyes settling on Reggie. "No flirting."

"I- what?"

"No flirting!"

Luke and Alex snort as Reggie gasps in mock outrage, but everyone knows Reggie is the one to flirt first and ask questions later. Ray and Rose laugh as they ready to leave the studio, Rose walking over to kiss her daughter on the temple before disappearing after her husband.

As soon as the teenagers are left alone, the boys whirl on Julie.

"So who's Y/N?" Alex asks, smiling innocently.

"And what was the drama a few months ago?" Luke wonders.

Julie glances between all three boys before sighing. "I'm only telling you this because it's highly likely she'll be coming soon." She has their full attention. "Y/N is my older cousin. Last year she met her soulmate."

"Aww," Alex coos.

"Or so we thought."

His smile immediately falls. "Oh."

Julie cringes. "Yeah. Apparently some new transfer student at her school liked my cousin so much that he decided he wanted to be her one and only. Really creepy dude," she says. "So somehow he figured out what her words were and made sure those were the first words he spoke to her." Their eyes widen. "When she spoke to him in return, he memorized the words and had them tattooed on. Then he refused to let her see the words, under the guise that they were in a private spot she couldn't see until they got to know each other better, until they healed."

"What the hell," Luke breathes. "That such a-"

"Dick move," Reggie mutters.

Alex nods in agreement. "Yeah. What they said."

Julie smiles sadly at her friends. "She was with him for a year before he met his real soulmate and then he tried to juggle them both. Y/N was really torn up about it."

"Who wouldn't be?" Alex says. "That is so messed up."

"It is. But if there's one thing I know about my cousin it's that she doesn't want people to tiptoe around her." Julie grins then. "So be yourselves like you are with me, just don't flirt with her."

Alex stares down his two guy best friends until they huff and nod in agreement. "I think they can handle that."

Stepping out of the Uber in front of your tío's house, you're grateful you stopped being annoyed with your mom for making you move long enough to accept the money she transferred into your bank account. The ride from the airport to the Molina household wasn't exactly a cheap one and you regretted not letting your family pick you up when you saw what you owed.

But now you're here, one duffel bag hanging from your shoulder and a medium-sized suitcase sitting by your feet. You only have a moment to take it all in before the front door is opening, and your tío and tía are exiting the house to greet you.

"You're here!" Rose smiles and is quick to pull you into a hug. "How was your flight?"

"Decent. Just a little turbulence. I might have barfed. Twice."

Rose and Ray laugh, and then Ray's tugging you into a hug of his own. "We're so glad to have you, mija. Julie and her friends have just about finished with your room. They're really excited to have you here."

"And I'm excited to be here." Pulling out of the hug, you're met with two identical expressions that practically say Are you really?. "Well now I am." All three of you chuckle. "I was a little upset at the short notice, but I'm totally over it. I am a little tired though, so yeah."

"Oh. Of course. Just head on up, mija. You know where the guest bedroom is," Rose says. "Ray and I need to go get some groceries for tonight. Does arroz con pollo sound good?"

You groan quietly. "It sounds fantastic. My mom could never quite make it like you do."

Ray laughs. "Well my sister is not the cook she claims to be. Now go on. Rest up and we'll see you for dinner."

As Ray and Rose take their leave, you grab your suitcase and drag it inside behind you. You can hear laughter coming from upstairs so that's where you head towards, and you're not surprised to see Julie, Flynn, and who appears to be Julie's bandmate Alex tacking up some fairy lights and draping them across your headboard. The bedroom, which was usually bare except for the bed and dresser, has many of your personal things scattered about that had been shipped a little over a week ago now. However the sheer black curtains, the maroon comforter bed set, and the lights they're hanging up are all new.

"A-hem." You clear your throat, smiling when all three teens freeze and turn towards you. "Are you guys seriously having fun without me?" The blonde boy grins as the two girls squeal, you dropping your duffel bag next to your suitcase just as Julie and Flynn launch themselves at you. Your arms are spread wide as they wrap themselves around you and you bring your own arms down around their shoulders to squeeze them in return. "Did you girls miss me?"

"Uh duh!" Flynn is the first to retort.

Julie pulls back just enough to look you in the face. "We're going to have so much fun."

"So much." You can't help but chuckle, your attention then sliding to the quiet blonde. "Alex, right?"

He smiles. "Yeah. Hi. It's nice to meet you."

"You too, man. I keep up with the band on Youtube and can I just say that you absolutely kill it on the drums? I mean holy shit. You're awesome!"

Alex blushes as Julie points at him. "See! Own your awesomeness. My cousin thinks you're cool, therefore you are cool."

Both girls finally release you, Flynn stumbling back to sit on the edge of what is now your bed. Julie stays right where she's at, arm wrapped around your waist as you both stare at her bandmate. You nod and smile at him. "You really are. We definitely need to jam some time."

Alex seems to perk up then. "Y-You're into music too?"

Flynn snorts. "The Molina's are all freakishly talented. I'm almost jealous."

You roll your eyes fondly at Flynn. "Shush. You're talented in other areas." Then looking at Alex, you grin. "I sing and write. Not as amazing as Julie, of course, but I can hold my own. I like to perform-"

"Just not in front of an audience," Julie muses.

"-and just let go. The rush of it all feels good." You turn to pout at your cousin. "And yeah, not in front of an audience of strangers." You stare at Alex once more. "Friends and family is fine, just not like a legit stage. I'll projectile vomit like that one girl in Pitch Perfect." All three teens snort, that movie having been popular with all of them.

Alex then grins. "We'll definitely have to jam then once you're settled in."

A brief moment of silence descends upon the room, but Flynn is not having it. She claps her hands once, garnering everyone's attention. "So before we get comfortable, lets address the elephant in the room." You groan as she smiles broadly. "How are you holding up?"

"I'm fine, guys."

"Really? Your sudden move states otherwise."

"Flynn!" Julie scolds. Alex seems to freeze, his gaze darting between you and Flynn.

Flynn grimaces as she seems to think she's crossed a line, but you merely roll your eyes. "What exactly did my mom tell your dad?" You turn to ask Julie.

"Um," she gulps and fidgets in place. "I was just told that you weren't doing so good after everything that happened."

You snort. "Seriously?" Julie nods and you chuckle, shaking your head. "Guys, I'm fine. Honestly! I got over the heartbreak like a week after it happened and then I was just pissed off. But my friends helped me realize some things and I'm good now."

"But then why did your mom say you weren't?" Julie wonders.

"I love my mom, but she's a moron," you say. You drag Julie over to your bed, kicking off your shoes along the way and crawl to sit against the headboard. Julie does the same and you gesture for Alex to join Flynn at the foot of your bed. He does, smiling to be included. Once everyone's settled, you say, "So Jerry, who was the guy pretending to be my soulmate," you explain for Flynn and Alex, "has been trying to get in contact with me ever since I blocked him on everything I could. A couple weeks ago while I was out partying with some friends, Jerry and his soulmate were at the same party I was at. I didn't notice them, but they noticed me and they somehow managed to come up with the idea that I was stalking them."

"What a bitch," Flynn immediately blurts. Alex nods along with her.

"Anyway, Jerry's soulmate confronted me and I was completely blindsided by how angry she was with me. I mean, Jerry's the one who tricked me! Not the other way around." You shake your head in annoyance. "She made some hella stupid accusations and she threw a punch."

Julie gasps. "She didn't!?"

"She did. Now I'm not stupid, so I let her hit me a couple of times before I took my first swing. Fortunately for me, she clawed me," you pull your shirt down to show them three marks just above your cleavage, "and she was arrested when the cops got there. After giving my statement and getting statements from the witnesses, they determined I acted in self defense and let me go home. Mom took the little altercation as me spiraling and acting out, so she shipped me off."

"Jesus," Julie sighs. "That's messed up."

"It really is. But oh well. What happened, happened, and now I get to live with my favorite people."

All four of you laugh before Alex gestures towards your chest, sobering up some. "I have some cream that you can use so it'll fade the scars. My soulmate likes to skateboard and he gets pretty banged up every now and then so I keep a stash of that stuff for him."

You smile fondly at him. "Yes, please. The first time my real soulmate sees the girls," you shimmy your chest just the slightest, "I don't want him to see my battle wounds."

Julie swats you with the back of your hand and you laugh at her exasperated expression as the other two break down into giggles.

Lounging around in your room, you ask Julie about her other two bandmates but Alex tells you they had family obligations they couldn't get out of. Carlos gets dropped off by his friend's mom and he joyously jumps onto the middle of the bed when he realizes you're finally there. So that's how Ray and Rose find the five of you, laughing and joking in your new room before dinner is ready and making plans to hang out the following day when everyone could meet up.

After explaining to your tío and tía the real reasoning your mother had you sent away, it was like a weight was lifted off their shoulders and they were more at ease in your presence. You laughed at their sheepishness, at how they thought they had a rightfully heartbroken teenager on their hands with no clue how to ease said heartache. But when all was said and done, everyone seemed to be themselves around you.

Alex had shown up that afternoon, soulmate in tow, and immediately you asked to play with Willie's hair. Both boys had laughed, Willie agreed and readily sat on the floor between your knees as Julie and Alex Facetimed Flynn about any upcoming open mic nights they could book. Willie had a box of random hair supplies in his lap and you saw how he kept running his fingers over a feather and some small silver hoops. Without even asking him, you grabbed a couple of silver hoops, a feather, and set them aside. You had him tilt his head and he did so without questions, closing his eyes as you started to part and section the hair on the right side of his head. Alex smiled every time he looked over at the two of you and you happily gave Willie three thin braids about five inches long before letting the rest of his hair hang loose. The two outer braids had the silver hoops clipped in and the braid in the middle held the feather you had braided in with a thin leather cord. When you were finished and then combed out Willie's hair one last time, you told him you were done and had to bite back a laugh at the way Alex gulped. Willie eagerly went to check himself out in the mirror, beaming at his reflection before turning around and pulling you into a hug.

While your tío Ray and tía Rose worked, and Carlos spent time at his friend's house, you and Julie ordered in some pizza for yourselves, Alex, and Willie. They had no plans at all for the day so the four of you went out to Rose's studio garage when Flynn finally showed up.

Flynn has the bright idea to do karaoke, pulling out the equipment and setting up a laptop Julie had in the studio for this occasion.

Flynn killed it on Nicki Minaj's Starships, you and Julie sang Mamma Mia and were joined by a very enthusiastic Alex. Willie absolutely refused to sing, but that was okay because he knew the choreography for Backstreet Boys Everybody and you eagerly pulled him up to dance with yourself and Julie. Tío Ray and Tía Rose showed up with Carlos in tow, and you and Julie laughed joyously as her parents sang through Journey's Don't Stop Believin'.

Everyone was laughing and having a good time, but as the sun was going down the parental figures went inside to talk through dinner ideas and clean up a little.

You ask Julie if she has any originals you have yet to hear, but as she goes to go grab a journal Alex speaks up. "What about you? You said you wrote, right? I need to hear an original."

"I, uh, sure." You shrug. You turn towards Julie, eyeing the laptop. "Are my instrumentals still on there?"

She grins. "Yeah. Can I choose?"

"Go for it." You get up to go see which song of yours she's going to choose, smiling softly when you see her choice. Alex is practically bouncing in his seat, Willie is shaking his head at him in fond amusement, and Flynn looks torn between recording with her phone. When you nod at her, she beams and gets ready to hit record on her phone.

"So before Julie hits play, I just want you guys to know I wrote this song while I was Jerry. He absolutely loathed it when he first heard it because he thought I was singing about someone else." You huff a laugh. "The song was honestly about a couple on a TV show I got fixated on, but he didn't believe me. So anyway, I might be a little rusty, but Julie loves it so here goes nothing.

Julie hits play. The violin starts and you smirk when you see Alex's eyebrows raise. Then the drums, guitar, and bass kick in and his eyes widen just as his jaw drops when your attitude completely changes.

"I'm in the business of misery, let's take it from the top. She's got a body like an hourglass, it's ticking like a clock. It's a matter of time before we all run out. When I thought he was mine, she caught him by the mouth."

You keep singing, singing to Julie, but then it goes silent before the chorus kicks in and you find yourself back to back with your cousin as she joins you. "Woah, it was never my intention to brag. To steal it all away from you now. But God, does it feel so good 'cause I got him where I want him now. And if you could, then you know you would 'cause God, it just feels so.. It just feels so good."

Willie whoops and you laugh your way through the next few lines, rocking your shoulders and even throwing in a couple of head bangs for good measure.

But then the music quiets just so and you face the boys. "I watched his wildest dreams come true and not one of them involving you. Just watch my wildest dreams come true. Not one of them involving.." You head bang now, twisting your head back and forth so your hair wildly flips back and forth. Julie plays the air guitar and you're laughing, having made yourself dizzy in the process. But then as one particular part comes up, you sidle up to Julie's side, your face just inches from the side of her own face as she stares forward. "Woah I never meant to brag, but I got him where I want him now."

Your chest aches from putting your all into your own song, sweat beading at your hairline as you jump around dancing. You're exhausted by the end of the song, but it's well worth it to see Alex's gobsmacked expression.

The studio falls silent, but it's Willie and Flynn who jump to their feet. Their utter amazement and joyfulness makes you a little sheepish, but then Alex is standing to his feet. "Holy shit."

"Right?" Julie cackles. "I've been begging her to play live with us for one song, but she won't."

"Are you frickin' kidding me?!" The new voice has your head snapping in it's direction, the boy in a leather jacket and red flannel wrapped around his waist staring at you in wonder. "What is it with you Molina's and your musical talents?"

Your face flames at his praise, eyes then darting to the boy with shaggy hair and a sleeveless shirt gaping at you. You chuckle nervously and Julie wraps an arm around your shoulders, grinning as she introduces you. "And here we have Reggie and Luke. Guys, this is my cousin Y/N."

"Dude, will you marry me?" Luke's words make everyone laugh out loud, but you freeze.

Julie, having felt you tense up, stares at you. "Y/N? Are you-"

But you cut her off, eyes solely on Luke as you say, "Bro, don't call me dude." Your mocking tone makes Flynn snort.

Not only is it Luke's turn to freeze, but so do Alex and Reggie. Their eyes widen as they stare between you and Luke, your heart beating triple when you realize just who this is.

"Oh my god," Alex mutters.

"Oh my god!" Reggie exclaims, smile instantly beaming.

"OH MY GOD!" Julie shouts, arm tightening around your shoulder. "Did he just- did you just say.." You nod, your breathing becoming a little erratic. Julie notices and turns you so she grips you by the shoulders and you're staring directly into her face. "Hey, it's okay. You're fine. Luke's one of the good ones."

You gulp. "I- it's not that," you murmur. "But he said.. and I need to see-"

Before you can finish, the presence of said boy is right next to you and Julie. You startle at his appearance, but then he's holding out his arm between you and your cousin and you glance down to see the words that have been stamped into his skin since the day of his birth. There on the space just below the crease of his elbow are the words bro, don't call me dude.

You laugh, a little wetly, but no one dares to call you out on it. Instead, you turn and lift your shirt so he can see his own words stamped on your ribs. A faint touch has you flinching away and giggling, and Julie snorts as you pout at Luke who seems to realize you're ticklish.

"OH MY GOD! YOU GUYS ARE SOULMATES!" Flynn shouts. "THIS IS SO COOL!"

And just like that the tension is broken, everyone laughing and cheering. You're having trouble holding Luke's gaze, his crinkled eyes and swoon-worthy smile making you want to reach out and hug him. So when you see his fingers twitch and tap out a beat against his leg before he clenches his fists closed, you cave and pull him into a hug. He hesitates a moment before he sighs, wrapping his arms tightly around you in return.

"Hey. ¿Qué está pasando? (What's going on?) Rose wonders. Apparently the cheering had caught tía Rose and tío Ray's attention.

You and Luke break apart, but your arms remain touching as you both stare at Julie's parents like you'd been caught doing something wrong. And since the two of you can't seem to form words, Julie giggles before filling them in. "Luke and Y/N are soulmates. They said each other's words."

Ray and Rose immediately look at you in shock, and you can feel your face heating up. Slowly, you smile at your tía's concerned expression and immediately she's beaming as she makes a beeline for you. "Mija! That's wonderful news." You laugh as she hugs you and then laugh even harder when you see your tío Ray clamp a hand down on Luke's shoulder. Then releasing you and turning towards Luke, tía Rose smiles as she opens her arms wide before moving in to hug him. "I'm happy for you too, mijo. Welcome to the family." Then pulling back, she says, "Not that you weren't already part of the family, but you know."

Luke chuckles, ears turning red. "Thanks, Mrs. Molina."

"Well this is a cause for celebration," Ray says. "Anyone feeling up to pasta?" Julie, Flynn, and Reggie all whoop in unison. "You going to join us, Willie?"

Willie, never usually around for long periods of time with Julie's family, is surprised to be invited. Alex beams at his soulmate and Willie knows he can't say no. "Sure, Mr. Molina. Thanks for the invite."

"Great," Rose smiles. "Well now that that's settled, I'm going to go make a reservation so we don't give the hostess a stroke when we all walk in. Everyone has two hours before we leave."

Tía Rose and tío Ray congratulate you and Luke one last time before they take their leave. Everyone follows after them, excitingly talking outfit choices, but Reggie remains by the opened doors smiling between you and Luke. A second later, Alex returns and marches a reluctant Reggie away.

Now that it's just you and Luke, the two of you laugh nervously.

"So.."

"So.." You both laugh nervously again and then you're groaning. "This is so weird, but like I'm also really excited."

Luke loses some of his nerves and his shoulders slump. "Really? You're excited?"

"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"

He turns sheepish then, averting his gaze as he shoves his hands into the front of his jean's pockets. "Julie might have explained the shitty thing your ex did and yeah. I would understand if you weren't stoked to meet me on your second day here."

He's so genuine in his explanation that you can't help but mentally swoon at this boy before you. You're not sure where the sudden confidence comes from, but you're grateful for it when you step closer and take his face in the palm of your hands so he's staring right at you. "Okay one, my mother didn't properly explain why she moved me here. I'll fill you in later, but I'm telling you right now it's not because I'm heartbroken or anything. And two, I am stoked to meet you. You wanna know why?" Luke can only nod as he pays close attention and you grin at him. "Because the moment realization sunk in, everything just felt.. it felt-"

"Right?" He asks, voice low.

You nod. "It felt right. There was no uncomfortable feeling in the pit of my stomach, there was just elation. Like I found something I didn't know I was looking for until you uttered the words etched on my ribs."

Luke slowly smiles and you let your hands fall to your sides, leaning in and quickly kissing his cheek. "Now come on. We need to get ready for tonight."

His cheeks turn red almost immediately, but you don't say anything as you grab his arm and drag his hand from his pocket. Then clasping his hand within your own, you drag him out of the studio and up towards the house.

Dinner was quite the affair, everyone pushing you and Luke next to one another at the table and cooing over how adorable you two were. Even his parents, Emily and Mitch, had been invited along and everyone smiled throughout the entire dinner. The table was quite loud, but not a single customer nearby or the waitresses could blame you when Reggie loudly explained that they were celebrating newly found soulmates. There was even applause that had you and Luke turning red in the face and then trying to aim a kick at Reggie's shin under the table. Unfortunately, Alex took the brunt of both kicks.

When the weekend was over, Luke and the boys stood by your side on your first day of school. The band had quite the following and those fangirls of theirs were not impressed to see you and Luke hand-in-hand. It was a bit daunting navigating the hallways with a majority of the school's population looking down their nose at you, but then Julie, Flynn, and surprisingly Carrie Wilson (your cousin's arch-nemesis) came to your aide. You understood Julie and Flynn's protectiveness, but Carrie's was a shock and she merely flipped her hair over her shoulder while giving the excuse that no one should be shit on just because they found their soulmate. The girls were stunned, but shrugged it off and let Carrie do what Carrie wanted to do.

Tía Rose and tío Ray saw a lot more of Luke at their home, but didn't put up any fuss. The only thing they asked was that if they were alone in the room, then the bedroom door was to remain open at all times. And not wanting to disappoint them, you and Luke abided by their rules. Because being with Luke.. it was the complete opposite than being with Jerry. There were no nerves, no second guessing, and no jealousy. You were happy to be with Luke and vice versa, and either of you could go out with friends with no twenty questions about who you were going with and where (Jerry seriously did a number on you).

You became Julie and the Phantoms number one fan, alongside Willie and Flynn, and sat up in the loft with Willie while the band rehearsed downstairs. The times you did go downstairs after rehearsals and Luke bounded over to you like an eager puppy, you had to fight the urge to chuck something at Reggie and Julie when they cooed over how cute you were together.

Luckily for you, Luke wasn't into PDA other than hand holding or hugs. But it still didn't stop your friends from mockingly groaning for you to get a room when Luke would hug you from behind and stay there with his chin hooked over your shoulder.

Today is one of the rare days the band left Luke alone so he could spend the time with you, but you're stuck doing Algebra II homework and Luke is going through one of your old writing journals for abandoned lyrics to give him inspiration.

You've been stuck on the same problem for what feels like twenty minutes when you hear Luke sharply inhale. You glance up at him, watching him read through something that's clearly caught his attention. You can't help but grin at his look of concentration and then his expression falls and your heart suddenly aches.

Luke glances up and you gulp. "What's this?"

"What's what?"

He glances back down at the journal in his hands before looking at you once more. "Something titled Train Wreck. It looks like a completed song."

Your expression completely goes lax then. "Oh. That's, uh, I wrote that a while back when my mom and dad were going through their divorce." You close the math book in your lap and hesitantly meet Luke's gaze. "That was not a fun time for all involved. My mind was kind of.. messed up back then."

Luke gulps. "I don't want to seem inconsiderate of what clearly was a dark time for you, but this- this is really good, Y/N. Do you have a melody for it?"

You huff a laugh, shaking your head in fond amusement. Only Luke would be this invested in a song. "I do. I think it's on the laptop in a password protected file.."

His eyes light up. "Can I hear it? You don't have to, I just-"

"It's fine." You get up, heading over to the laptop and powering it up to find what you need. After a bit of searching, you find it and open it up. Letting the melody play, you look up at Luke. "I won't sing the whole thing, but I'll sing a portion of it."

He eagerly nods. "I'll take anything."

You smile at him, nervously taking a seat on a crate in the middle of the room. He finds another crate and places it close to you, wanting to be as close as possible. You close your eyes, smiling, and let the melody wash over you as the lyrics come back to you in a flash. Your heart beat is beating double, but you inhale deeply and let it out slowly.

Losing yourself to the music, you mouth the lyrics to yourself until letting your voice ring out. "Underneath our bad blood, we've still got a sanctum. Home, still a home, still a home here. It's not too late to build it back 'cause a one in a million chance is still a chance, still a chance and I would take those odds."

You open your eyes, chest aching as all those feelings from so long ago come rushing back and make your voice just that much stronger. "Unbreak the broken, unsay these spoken words. Find hope in the hopeless, pull me out of the train wreck." Luke grabs your hand and you squeeze it for all your worth as you keep looking forward. "Unburn the ashes, unchain the reactions now. I'm not ready to die, not yet. Pull me out of the train wreck. Pull me out, pull me out, pull me out."

You meet Luke's gaze then, a little surprised to see his eyes red rimmed and teary through your own blurry vision. "You can say what you like, don't say I wouldn't die for it. I'm down on my knees and I need you to be my God, be my help, be a Savior who can-"

Your voice cracks on the next word and Luke tugs on your hand, pulling you into a hug. A sob escapes your throat as you cling to Luke, but you quickly stifle it against his shoulder. As the melody plays out, you press your forehead to his shoulder before pushing back and sniffling. "I, uh, I'm sorry about that. Everything came rushing back and I-"

"Don't apologize." Luke catches your face in the palm of his hands, thumbs brushing away your tears before his lips press against your forehead. The action is so soft that your expression crumples momentarily, but you quickly mask it when Luke pulls back to catch your gaze. "That was amazing, Y/N! So amazing. And I'm sorry it brought up bad memories, but.. wow."

You huff a laugh, pulling back so you aren't hunched over. Luke, however, refuses to stop touching you and catches your hands within his own. "I should have guessed you'd be easily impressed."

"For you? Always."

You shake your head, grinning. "You're so freakin' cheesy, Luke Patterson."

He chuckles and again you're hit with a sudden boost of confidence that you lean forward, one hand finding the back of his neck so you can bring him to meet you halfway in a kiss. He smiles against your mouth, but the smile quickly falls the second you tilt your head to deepen the kiss. Unfortunately, just as the tip of your tongue flicks against his bottom lip, you're interrupted.

"Can we come in now?" Reggie's voice rings out. "I really wanna give Y/N a hug after hearing that song."

"Reggie!" Julie scolds.

You and Luke pull apart laughing. You both straighten up and look towards the door just in time to see Reggie rubbing at the back of his head as he walks in with Alex and Julie behind him. Hand in hand, you and Luke stand up and chuckle at Reggie's put out expression.

Had you known that having a soulmate felt exactly as you feel right now, you would have known something was definitely up back home with Jerry. And though you will always hate your ex for tricking you the way he did, there's an ounce of gratefulness for the misery he put you through because had he not then you wouldn't have moved and met your true soulmate.

#julie and the phantoms imagine #julie and the phantoms x reader #jatp x reader #luke patterson x reader #luke patterson #julie molina #reggie peters #alex mercer

[aliasimagines]

operation fools in love//luke patterson

requested by a lovely anon

word count: 3333(!!!)

a/n: i still don’t know how to write endings

The corridor was noisy with loud chatter, quietly whispered gossip and the sound of rushing students' shoes hitting against the floor. 

You hummed  'edge of great' as you started fishing out the books you need for class from your locker. It has been stuck in your head since yesterday evening when the guys played it for you and Flynn at band practice. 

You were about to close your locker when he poofed next to you. 

“Hi, y/n!”

“AAHHH” you screamed, earning a few side looks from passing by students. 

“Ahh, I accidentally kicked my locker, haha…”you started explaining yourself before turning back to your open locker. You sent a glare in Luke’s way.

“What did Julie and I say to you? Do not teleport randomly to us at school!”

He chuckled.

“Yeah, rules, rules, I don’t care. I just wanted to drop in and say hi!” he smiled at you with his signature Luke smile.

“Well, you did. That’s all? I kinda need to go to class.” you spot Julie in the corner of your eyes as you walk over to her locker. You quickly wave at her and soon after she comes over so you can talk to Luke without looking crazy. 

Luke mumbles something under his breath and goes to scratch the back of his head.

“No! Uhm..Hi Jules… So y/n I also kinda wanted to ask if you would come to our gig tonight? You know, we are playing not far from that food place you like? "

You smiled, appreciating that he remembered your favorite food place. 

"Well,erm.. I guess? I want to but I might have dance practice, so I am not sure." you say, wishing you'd know for sure but you won't find out till the end of your classes. 

Luke's lips formed an 'o' before his gaze fell down on his shoes. 

"Oh well.. I-okay. Bye?" he says in an unsure tone before disappearing, leaving you to face Julie. 

"Well, wasn't that adorable?"  she asks with a smug grin. 

"What? What are you talkin' bout Jules?" you ask honestly confused. She laughs and puts her hand on your shoulder. 

"Sweetheart, you two are just oblivious to each other!" 

"I don't… What?" 

"You like him. He likes you. It's not that confusing. Really it is obvious." 

"Shhh, quiet!" you shh-ed her, quickly making sure if Luke was 100 percent gone. "I.. I don't like him." 

It was unnecessary, you couldn't even fool yourself and especially not Julie. 

"Y/N, come on girl, I know you do. And he does like you too! I mean I am writing songs with him, do you know how many lovesick lyrics he has written lately? It is making me sick." she laughed. 

"Well, he might have written them about someone else. Maybe you? You two have amazing chemistry."

Julie sighed and grabbed both of your shoulders so she could look at you. 

"Y/N, honey. Believe me when I say he is head over heels for you. Why else would he want you to be at our gig so much?”

„Luke is literally so passionate about music? Of course he wants to share it with me, cause he wants to share it with everyone.”

„Ahg, girl you need glasses cuz you can't see shit. Look, if  prove he likes you too will you believe me?”

„Sure. I mean you can’t prove something that is not true but, sure go ahead, ’prove it’.” 

Julie rolled her eyes and opened her mouth to respond but luckily for you the bell rang.

“See you later, alligator!” and with that you were off to class, leaving Julie alone to work on her master plan. 

She knew she had to pull this off because the mutual pinning was unbearable but she also knew she couldn't do it alone. She'll need all the help she can get and that includes Flynn and the rest of her ghost band. 

You changed into your leggings and sweatshirt before heading into the gym where the dance practice took place. You were quite bumped. Don't get me wrong dancing is everything to you but.. You really did want to see the guys perform. 

You and the other kids were warming up, waiting for your teacher to start showing the choreography. But neither of you expected what she did next. Much to your surprise Reggie and Alex appeared next to her and started messing with her water bottle before you could even open your mouth.

For a moment no one acknowledged what was going on. Some were too busy chatting and warming up and Ms Janett was too busy with her phone. The two ghosts seemed to have noticed that and after exchanging a knowing smirk they grabbed the phone out of your teachers hands. She perked up, a mixture of anger and confusion on her face. And then… she saw her own phone floating in tin air.

“Stop!!” you whisper shouted  in the boys direction but they only gave you a smirk before Reggie started searching for the music player application. Alex pointed over Reggie’s shoulder.

“Uuu, play that one.” 

And as soon as the Lady Gaga song started playing Ms Janett let out a scream causing everyone to look up. You saw the boys dancing with the phone and the pompoms in their hand (although you have no idea where Alex got those pompoms) but everyone else just saw those items moving by themselves.

“GHOOOST!!! Everybody RUUUUUUN!” 

Some people followed the teacher, some stayed behind to take a closer look only to be scared away by a flying pompom. 

“What the heck are you two doing?” you turned to them,being  rather angry,  once you were the only living person in the gym. Seriously, what were they thinking?

“We cleared your afternooon! You can come to our concert!” Reggie exclaimed and put down the phone. 

“Do you think I would go after this fiasco you just pulled??” you were definitely angry now.

“Oh come on, if not for us then for Julie..and for Luke.”

You snapped your head in Alex's direction at the mention of Luke’s name.

“What do...No. Don’t try to divert the topic. What you did was incredebly stupid! What if.. What if someone connects the dots and figures out that Julie’s hologram band is actually a ghost band? There will be scientist and ghost busters and-”

“Shh, Y/N jeez, calm down. it will be okay. We’ll see you at the show.” 

And they poofed away. They simply left  you alone with your thoughts. You need to come up with some kind of explanation for the dance class but right now you need to go home and change. The boys were right, even if they kinda (really) caused a mess here you still like them and don’t want to miss seeing them live ((Winky face)).

Meanwhile you were sorting through your dresses and outfit options. Julie and the band arrived at the venue for rehearsal.

Usually it was Luke who hyped Julie up before shows but right now the roles were switched because Luke looked like a kicked puppy ever since he learned you wouldn’t be able to make it to their gig. Of course Julie knew you will be here, as she was the one to send the boys to scare away your teacher. It was all part of her little plan.

Like mentioned Luke wrote half a dozen songs, all centered around his feelings for you. He stated to Jules that he will definitely not play them for you because there is just no way you like him back, but now Luke thinks you won’t be there so Julie is on the next step of her genius plan. Convince Luke to play one of his love songs.

“Luke, Lukey-poo, my man.” she started getting more and more cringy. “I thought we could close with Hero and Heroine? I know you said you don’t want to play it but it is such a great song, you definitely shouldn’t let it be just another forgotten song that stays on a piece of paper. Plus it is perfect for closing, think about it!”

“Julie...I-I told you I don’t wanna play it.”

“You told me you don’t wanna play it in front of Y/N, which would be the whole point of writing love songs to her but that's besides the point right now. Pleeassee?”

Luke took a deep breath and looked at his ghost mates for...What for? Support? Advice? He is not sure. He does want to play the song, pour out his emotions through the song but the question is..should he? He knows you can’t be here which both makes him wanna play the song and not at the same time.

“I agree with Julie, dude.” Alex said, shrugging his shoulder like he knew of nothing. Reggie nodded along.

“Okay..If you all think I w-”

Julie stood up and clapped her hands together.

“Cool! It is settled. I’ll need to make a phone call, brb.”

“Barbeque?” asked Reggie confused. Which made Alex laugh.

“Brb actually means be right back. Willie told me.” the blond made his way over to Luke and gently punched his shoulder. “Really Luke, that song is great. And I know you think there is no way Y/N would like you back but I am sure if she could hear it-”

“I’m a ghost, Alex! I can’t just confess to her, how are we gonna date? We can’t even touch.”

“That is totally not the reason. You are afraid she would decline your affection, I get it, but believe me I have seen her look at you. That longing in her eyes when I mention your name. She likes you.”

Luke rolled his eyes.

“Not that it matters, she won't hear the song and that is my final say in this.”

As soon as Julie stepped out of the small, cigarette smelling backroom she dialed your number. You picked up after two rings.

“Hi, Jules.”

“Hi girl, I heard what the boys did, I am so, so sorry. You know they are idiots.”she said trying real hard not to laugh but she reminded herself of her plan and pulled on her poker face.”But..Are you coming to the show? Flynn could pick you up; she is about to get going.”

“Yeah I’ll come, tell the boys I will call my teacher and say it was a prank so they can thank me for saving their ghostbutts.”

Julie giggled and started playing with her hair.She walked up and down the small corridor that led to the stage from the backroom.

“I will, I better get back and warm up but you should call Flynn so she won’t leave without you.”

Of course Flynn wouldn’t leave without you. She was waiting in her car two blocks from your home waiting for your phone car.

She didn’t have to wait long, you called her and she pretended to not expect it. Flynn kinda became your and Julie’s driver ever since she got her driver's  license last month. 

By the time the two of you got to the venue the opening was playing their last song and the place was already packed with dancing teenagers. Flynn dragged you to the bar and asked for a cola for herself and a (favourite drink) for you. 

The two of you hung back and sipped your drinks until Julie appeared on the stage. Then you took Flynn by the hand and  started pulling her toward the stage. Only she held you back. 

"Hey, what's up? Don't we wanna go and watch them from closer?" 

"Oh, well, uhm...I'd rather hang back. The crowd kind of makes me anxious right now." Flynn said. You lifted an eyebrow at her. Flynn being anxious? In a crowd?? That did not convince you. But you didn’t argue. 

"Do you need to step outside a little or…" 

"Nah, it's good, let's just stay here in the back." 

So you did. You sang and danced along to the songs you both knew so well. You tried  your best not to stare at Luke too much but let’s be honest you failed miserably. Flynn occasionally wiggled her eyebrows at you when she caught you ‘drooling over him’ as she put it.

After they finished playing Stand Tall you expected them to bow and ‘disappear’ but much to your surprise Julie grabbed the mic and brought it to her lips.

“Hello, hello, helloo! Do y’all wanna hear one more song?” the audience erupted into a loud cheer. It was so heartwarming to watch. Julie doing what she was born to do, playing music and enchanting the crowd. Flynn seemed to have the same thought because she looked at her with such pride. You pulled her into a big hug and the two of you waited for the crowd to quiet down so Jules could go on.

“Allright, allright. Now this song will be a bit different but...I will let Luke here tell it.”

You just became more and more surprised when Luke stepped closer to the mic and spoke into it, looking kinda...nervous? 

“Ohm..Hello everyone! So uh..This song is dedicated to a special someone, the songs called-”

“What’s the special someone’s name?” your eyes travelled to Reggie who asked the question with a huge grin. Luke turned to look at the bassist. If looks could kill Reggie would be double dead. But before Luke could give a voice to his disapproval towards Reggie’s question Julie spoke up.

“Yeah! What’s the name?” she turned towards the crowd and started chanting. “What’s the name?”

Soon Reggie and Alex joined with smiles painted on their faces along with the audience. You were so freaking confused. You looked at Flynn for some explanation but how would she know about it. 

“OKAY, okay, stop!” Luke yelled before laughing a little. “All right I will tell you guys but you have to promise me you won’t tell anyone?”

All of a sudden you felt sick and wanted to get out of here. You were so not in the mood to hear Luke declare his love for someone. 

“This song is dedicated to..To Y/N. Unfortunately she wouldn't be here today but..she is an amazing person. Hope you all like the song.”

He...He couldn’t be talking about you, could he?

He started strumming his guitar and soon Reggie joined in with the bass and Alex with the drums. Jullie clapped her hands together and kept sending encouraging looks for the boy.

“It's too late baby, there's no turning around, I've got my hands in my pocket and my head in a cloud, this is how I do, when I think about you,I never thought that you could break me apart,I keep a sinister smile and a hole of my heart” he sang into the mic, his voice filling in the whole club “You want to get inside, then you can to get in line but not this time”

“'Cause you caught me off guard, now I'm running and screaming!” Julie joined in for the line“I feel like a hero and you're my heroine.”

“I won't try to philosophize, I'll just take a deep breath and I'll look in your eyes, this is how I feel and it's so so real I got a closet filled up to the brim with the ghosts of my past and the skeletons, and I don't know why, you'd even try but I won't lie” Luke sang and you finally realised what was going in. He wrote this song. For you. You looked over to Flynn who nodded towards the stage and mouthed ‘go’.

I feel like a hero and you are my heroine. Do you know that your love is the sweetest sin?

You started making your way towards the stage, slipped through the cracks between dancing people and singing fans. The further you got the harder it was to get through but you heard Luke’s voice and you kept going.

And I feel a weakness coming on, never felt so good to be so wrong. Had my heart on lock down and then you turned me around

And I’m feeling like a new born child..

You finally break through a few screaming girls and see him.

“-Every time I get a chance to see you smile. It’s not complicated, I’m so jaded.” Luke sings and looks at the audience and- He spots you. Looking up at him with eyes wide open and admiration on your face. His voice cracks because of the sudden surprise of your presence but you smile at him and that is all he needs to continue.

“And you caught me off guard...Now I’m running and screaming”

He sang the song with such passion that even if you weren’t before now you were absolutely sure this wasn’t just a simple crush. 

When they finished you didn’t waste a lot of time, you ran backstage, quickly waving your vip ticket.  You almost run into Julie on your way to the door of the backroom.

“Who- Y/N!”

“This was your doing, wasn’t it?” you smiled at her already knowing the answer. She flashed a toothy grin. 

“Well I had a great team behind me but yeah, Operation FiL was my idea.”

“Phil?” you ask back .

“No, no. F i L. Fools in Love. Now go get ‘im tiger!”

You shook your head and entered the backroom. Luke stood with his back facing you but as soon as he saw you in the mirror he spinned around. For a moment you forgot he was a ghost and ran to give him a hug. 

“Y/N, no-” he put his hands out so he could catch you, simply out of reflex but he didn’t expect to actually hold you in his arms. You both looked at each other with eyes as wide as a 6 lane highway. 

“How can I-”

“Do you care?”  you closed the little distance between the two of you and pressed your lips against his.  They were just as soft as you imagined oh, so many times before. He kissed back gently, afraid that this is just a dream. But this was definitely too real to be a dream. You unfortunately had to pull back to catch your breath but Luke looked leaned closer to press his forehead against yours.

“The song was so beautiful, I loved it.” you whisper. He just stared at you with a smile.

“If I knew you would kiss me, I would have played it a long time ago.” you giggled and brought your lips together for one more kiss. He let his hands wander this time but so did you. Your fingers ran through his brown hair, this being something you wanted to do for so long. He kept one hand on your waist and placed the other on the side of your face.

Your lips moved so in sync like you’ve been doing this all your lives. You were so drawn to each other, you felt like you couldn’t pull away in that moment even if you tried. Like this invisible magical force just glued the two of you to-

“Okay, that is enough! Get out I need to change!” Julie brusted in causing Luke to jump up and cling to you like Scooby Doo.

“Wow, you are so brave.''you laughed rolling your eyes at. “Come on, let’s leave alone Julie. We’ll meet ya at the car?”

 Jules nodded and sent a wink in your way. You walked outside, both of you grinning like idiots. 

“So uhm...Does this make us, Us?”

“Yeah. I mean if that’s what you want too.” you look at your shoes and bite your lower lip waiting for his answer.

“There’s nothing I want more.” he said. “Oh well..maybe another kiss wouldn’t be so bad either..”

#luke patterson x reader #luke patterson imagine #luke patterson oneshot #Julie and the phantoms one shot #julie and the phantoms imagine #jatp luke x reader #sunset curve imagine #aliasimagines

[julie-thefatones]

Ghost of You || Luke X Reader || Part 1

Hello everyone!! welcome to my first Fanfic pretty much.... im really nervous about posting it, and really hope you guys like it! Im going to warn you that there are some punctuation mistakes, and probably some misspelled words, and run on sentences... but nobodies perfect eh? lol anyways Enjoy! please let me know what you think, I am already writing part 2 so if this goes well ill post that soon :)

A/N: Your best friends with Julie, since the stamp was removed from the boys they are able to be seen by lifers at choice and can touch lifers at choice, but are still ghosts. You and Luke grow closer and closer starting to go from friends to more than that and everyone starts to notice, it just takes a little longer for you two to figure it out.

Word Count: 2,352

First day of school is always hard, especially senior year.... big deal or its supposed to be. You have always had a hard time with school because it was just hard for you to focus, you were always thinking about what you would rather be doing like painting, singing, taking a walk, and most recently learning guitar which Luke had been more than happy to help you with. Luke, Luke Patterson he was a member of your best friend Julies ghost band, Julie and The Phantoms, which included members Luke, Reggie, Alex, and of course Julie. You always knew they existed but it wasn't until recently that you were really able to get to know them your self because until recently only Julie could see them. Ever since they had that curse of a stamp removed from them, they pretty much can choose whenever they want to be seen or touch anything. It has been nice, because now you can really be apart of your best friends new world, you also got to make 3 new really fun and funny friends, they were just as chaotic as you and Julie. You and Luke really clicked from the moment you and him were able to actually see each other, well he has always been able to see you, but this way was much better. Since you and Luke hung out all the time, you found your self spending hours with him a day. In fact thats where you were before school, was with Luke, you guys had this little place by a lake you loved to hang out at, which caused you to be late for your first day.

So deep in your thoughts you didn't even realize you made it to your locker until you heard the all so familiar tone of your best friend calling out your name as she approached your locker "y/n!!! I didn't even see you pull in" Julie said as she now rested against the lockers next to you "Hey Jules! sorry I over slept and was late" Julie rolled her eyes "On your first day! man you really setting the bar high this year" she said laughing at you, You laugh too at the obvious sarcastic tone in her voice "alright, alright!! ms setting the bar high, we better get to class" you say punching Julie playfully in the arm before heading down the hallway to class.

As you sat in class, you started to feel really bad about lying to Julie about the real reason you were late to school today, you just didn't know how to explain how much you and Luke have been hanging out with out her asking a million questions, but its not like it was a big deal. Trying to get out of your head you try to focus on Mr. Berty who was describing the different factors of algebra which you never understood anyway, so you just write notes in hopes that when you study it later you'll understand it.... which never happens either. As you're writing notes you notice something in the window, in the corner of your eye, not really thinking anything of it until you notice that the thing is jumping up and down and no one else is noticing which could only mean one thing. You look to the side and you see Luke in his orange beanie and Rush tank top jumping up and down waving his arms in order to get your attention with the biggest smile on his face, you laugh to your self, and then realizing he must want something, looking at the clock you realized you still had 40 mins left in this class *Oh my gosh! for real its only been 20 minutes!* you thought to yourself; quickly looking from the clock to the window where Luke was still jumping, you raise your hand "Yes ms. Y/L/N" you bring your hand down faster than you want to, slightly hurting it on the desk "May I use the restroom please?" you ask hesitantly, eager to know what Luke wants, Mr. Berty sighed with annoyance "If you really need to, I suppose, but make it fast ms. Y/L/N" you stand up a little to excited "Thank you mr. Berty" you said as you scurried out the door.

When you made it outside Luke stopped jumping, but his smile remained. You loved his smile, it was contagious, you noticed you were smiling too "Luke! what are you doing here" you said punching his arm playfully, he laughed and grabbed his arm pretending that the punch hurt him "Wow the abuse Y/N" with a smirk he continued "Someone help!!! im being abused someone help!!!" you roll your eyes and smack your hand over his mouth "Not that anyone can hear you, but shut up! that did not hurt" you say with a small laugh, as he is laughing underneath your hand "What are you doing here Luke?" you say with your hand still on his mouth, you feel his smile grow bigger underneath your hand "Well, Y/N, Im here because I got something for you!! but you have to come with me to get it" he said with pure excitement, still with your hand on his mouth, then he licked your hand to get it off, you pull away in knee jerk reaction, he smiled "Sorry! as much as I love your hand on my mouth we need to go!" he said eagerly, you laughed and rolled your eyes "Luke, you do realize im at school right?" he grabbed your hand pulling you across the school field "Yeah! but if you really cared about that, you wouldn't have come outside would you" he said, still with the biggest smile on his face, you rolled your eyes even more and gave in knowing he was right "Alright! but where are you taking me" you exclaimed, speeding up to be side by side with him instead of him dragging you, he looked at you, and bit his lip still excited "aha! you'll just have to wait and see" he said and you both smiled. As you kept walking you realized never Luke never let go of your hand from when he was dragging you..... not that it meant anything, it felt nice though.

It took about 15 mins to walk to you and Lukes usual spot by the lake, still holding hands you approached the tree you guys likes to sit by, or sit in depending on if you wanted to climb, which about 90% of the time Luke did.. also doesn't help he can just teleport up there if he wants to, where as you had to do it the hard way while he just laugh at you trying to climb up. This time Luke wasn't going up the tree, he let go of your hand, which kind of made you sad, but then you saw the look on Lukes face, which was pure excitement "Stay right here Y/N!" he said firmly grasping your shoulders to make sure you stayed in place, as he hopped over to the tree "CLOSE YOUR EYES!" he yelled from behind the tree grabbing something, but you obeyed closing your eyes and before you knew it he was in front of you, you could feel it "Alright, you can open" he said softly, you opened your eyes, and there Luke was with the same smile, holding an acoustic guitar, you could tell it was a nice one, just from the shine on it and how pretty the strings looked, you didn't even realize your mouth was wide open until Luke laughed "Ya like it?" he exclaimed, and you just looked at it "Is that for me?" you asked shocked and excited, Luke laughed "Is that for me?" Luke mocked you "Yeah its for you! ya dork" he continued as he hopped over around you, to get behind you so he could place the guitar in front of you for you to hold, you could feel his arms brush against you... which you like as much as the hand holding but, a little more ... again it didn't mean anything, he was just a friend... and Julies band mate. Luke continued talking taking you out of your trance "Ya never answered me though, do you like it" He said still behind you, but now you were holding the guitar, you just looked at it in awe "Where did you get this Luke? How did you get this?" you asked still in shock, Luke just laughed "Don't worry about that!" he said with a mischievous tone, and then you got worried "Luke you didn't ?!... you didn't steal this right!" you asked with actual concern, you wouldn't put it past him, he just laughed and in a teasing tone said "Ouch! you think I would do that Y/N.... Im not that bad!" and then he continued but more serious this time "No! I didn't steal it, Since I have this new found power of choosing when to be seen and stuff, I picked up a small job at the music store downtown, thought why not earn some money.... and then when you asked me to teach you how to play guitar, I wanted to get you your own.... sooooo I have been saving up ever since" he said in a soft tone and then you felt him come closer to you from behind, but now he was putting his hands on the guitar softly playing a melody, while pretty much holding you, as he played the melody you could feel his breath on your neck.... you guys have never been this physically close before, right before you got to lost into your thought Luke continued talking "You! still haven't answered the question though!!! do you like it??" he exclaimed with a teasing tone once again, which caused you to laugh, and you turned around in his arms making the current position pretty much a hug but Lukes holding a guitar "Of course I like it you dork!!" you said excited and continued "This is the nicest thing anyone has done for me...." you looked into his eyes and with a soft tone said "Thank you" he smiled, a soft smile, and his whole face became soft as he relaxed the guitar down by both your sides and looked deeper into your eyes "Of course...." he said softly, both of you just looking deeper into each others eyes, you felt some kind of connection, and you felt like you both were getting closer and closer to each other and then a voice came from behind both of you, causing both of you to shake out of the trance you both shared "Hey! Y/N! Luke! what are you guys doing out here?

You and Luke both jump, moving away from each other as you see Reggie come out of the trees eating a meatball sub. You and Luke look at each other confused as crap as to why Reggie was there and how he knew about it "Hey Reg!" Luke said a little nervous putting his hand behind his head messing with this beanie, you looked flustered flashing your eyes from Luke to Reggie and back to Luke who continued talking "the real question is what are you doing out here buddy?" and Reggie just chuckled a little, while taking another bite off his sandwich "Well, I went to the school to see Kayla like I always do, we like to eat lunch together, then I saw you two run off and thought I would follow" Reggie said with a full mouth, you and Luke shared a look "So you have been here the whole time?" you asked, wondering how you guys didn't notice Reggie was behind you guys the whole time, Reggie smiled a meatball smile since his mouth was still full and he answered "Yeah!! but I wanted to eat my sandwich so I decided to sit down in those trees and eat it" Luke looked at Reggie with a confused look "But Reg, isn't that your sandwich?" Luke asked still confused, and Reggie looked at him, again with a meatball smile "No! this was supposed to be Kaylas sandwich but since I didn't see her, because I followed you guys... I decided to eat it!" You and Luke laughed and Luke stepped forward patting Reggie on the shoulder "Kayla is one lucky girl Reg!" Luke said teasing Reggie, you laughed in response, and then Reggie went back to his initial question "So what are you guys doing out here?" he asked taking yet another bite of the sandwich, in which Luke got nervous again and answered Reggie with a slightly nervous tone "Hey! shouldn't you be getting back to the school, Kayla is gonna be wondering where your at bud" Reggie stopped chewing and his eyes grew big and he looked at Luke "Youre right! awww man, im gonna have to go get another sandwich" Reggie answered in a high pitched nervous tone "Ill see ya guys later!" Reggie said while running away nearly tripping over his own feet. You and Luke sighed and looked at each other, Luke smiled "Well should we get you back to school as well?" Luke asked you with a soft tone added with a light chuckle at the end, you nodded "Yeah, Lunch is gonna be starting soon and Julie is gonna be wondering where I went" you responded, and then looked at your guitar and looked back at Luke "I love my guitar Luke, I really love it!" you said as you wrapped your arms around his neck and gave him a tight hug, he responded by wrapping his arms around your wait pulling you in tighter, when you guys released from the hug you shared another look, quickly shaking it off with Luke responding "I cant wait to teach you some more chords on it!" he said back to his excited state from when you first got there, skipping forward grabbing your hand again as you guys walked back to school together.

#Julie and the Phantoms #jatp #jatp fanfic #Julie and the Phantoms fanfic #Luke Patterson #Luke Patterson fanfic #Luke Patterson x y/n #Luke Patterson x reader #Luke Patterson fanfiction #Charlie Gillespie #jatp fanfiction #julie and the phantoms fanfiction #im really nervous to be posting this but here goes nothing 💜 #marys fanfic

[vanillann]

five star conversation (r.p)

a/n: i’m going to cry, i can’t believe this is the last part of my favorite mini series:(

word count:

5 star conversation masterlist

place four: a 1 star gig

Flynn was always on top of things, she always was, but when she wasn’t you didn’t want to be lodged on a tour bus with her. She had already tried to throw her phone out the window, thank God Alex was looking for his hat and he caught it.

“They canceled our reservation! That must be illegal!”

I curled closer to Julie on her bed, letting my head rest on her shoulder every time Flynn let out a line of words. Reggie had a small panic attack with the yelling and Flynn tried to apologize but he didn’t blame, he was just as mad. So now the boy walked around the gas station we had stopped at and Julie and I let Flynn rant to us, she deserved it.

“Maybe another venue will host us,” Julie spoke up when Flynn didn’t yell again, her feet had finally stopped leaving marks in the carpet from pacing.

“I’ve already called two and they said their full, which had to be a lie, and plus how do we get the word out to the fans!” Flynn reached down and grabbed my knee, looking at me with sad eyes.

I pulled my phone from my pocket, waving it in the air while I sat up.

“I can always do a live and explain everything, why don’t you get some air,” I rubbed her shoulder, hoping she would take my advice, She had always given Reggie and Alex a heart attack and maybe going to the little nature walk across the street would be good, she could throw some rocks at some trees.

“I’ll get some air, yeah okay.”

She hurried off the bus, most likely to throw or kick rocks around the parking lot as Flynn never liked nature trails, it was nice to dream. If she dented this bus, we’ll be in debt.

“I can’t believe the venue canceled, it was our last gig on tour too!” Julie stood, looking down as I laid on her bunk and played with my phone in between my fingers.

I didn’t have to heart to tell the fans that we didn’t have a venue, that we wouldn’t have a final gig that was supposed to help release the new album coming out in five months.

It might have seemed small, we were blessed we even had this opportunity but it doesn’t change the fact that the one we're most excited for now was not happening.

“I’m going to find the boys, you coming?”

I closed my eyes, the boys. Everything they worked for was now becoming a nightmare, their idea of the perfect tour was ruined with falling through plans and missed opportunities.

“No, I need to go live and get the word out anyways,” I brushed off Julie, I didn’t have the heart to look any of them in the eye and tell them. To break their heart like everyone else in their life has, I just couldn’t do it. Julie waved behind her, I waited until the bus door shut before I let my head rollback.

I looked up at the bunk above me, Flynn’s, and let my mind wander over the past few months. They were perfect. Watching the fan scream their name for hours and they showed them in their element. The pictures that have been taken, many saved in my phone of the people I would always turn to. The edits that have been made have made me laugh harder than I imagined. Before this tour, nobody knew me, not that I ever cared, but I was behind the scenes. Now, the fans want me on the stage even if I don’t contribute to the music.

The music, the music had been show-stopping. Luke has been through four journals the past few months, writing back fast food drive in’s and doing stupid things with friends, that how the new album was coming out so fast. They were all so excited, Reggie was so excited to have one of his own songs featured as a single.

Reggie.

I let my hand run over my face, feeling the embarrassment from the incident at the fair. Watching his face move closer to mine, like a slow-motion picture and then ripped away when it was ripped in half. I took a minute and tried turning it into a moment, but it was never our moment. All the giggles and inside jokes hurt my chest and I thought back to the more recent time of the tour.

The motel, the way the light shines across his face and we wondered would the world cave in around. The feeling of his hand gripping my shirt because he always felt he had to be touching someone, he said it reminds him not to act so dead.

The diner when he gave me sweet little comments and took my fork from my lips. When we laughed about food poisoning and wondered would we ever be the same people after he played with my finger from across the table.

The fair where I gave him his first horse, then named it after an artist I introduced to him too. The way the wind passed his hair like he was made to run away from the world that had disappointed him more than once.

Every one-star establishment that made me believe could kiss my butt because now we had nothing. I didn’t need any more one-star buildings and places in my life. They’re just cheap and used for people who have no other options.

I sat up quickly, so quickly my head hit Flynn bunk.

No other options and cheap, exactly what someone in our situation could use right now. I let my phone spin between my fingers, unlocking it quickly before finding my search bar. We sat in the center of California, there had to be a one-star building somewhere near, one that we could turn into a dive bar or something. I smiled when a cheap bar popped up first, the area large enough to hold people and a small stage the band could work with.

Larry’s Bar was suddenly open for business. I dialed the number quickly, praying for the first time in a week something would go my way.

“L-larry’s Bar,” the woman sounded out of breath but I couldn’t care.

“Can we rent out your bar for a band?”

“Huh?”

“We need a venue for a band performance,” I realized why Flynn handled this and not me, this was out of my comfort zone.

“Are you sure you have-”

“Incredibly sure, yes or no?”

The line went silent, for a minute I thought she hung up on me and I considered crying with Reggie’s stuffed horse for a minute.

“The bar’s yours,” the lady's voice sounds light suddenly like we finally both got some good news. She definitely made my week without knowing.

“We’ll be there in forty-five minutes,” I didn’t wait for a response, rushing out of the tour bus to find someone. When I spotted everyone leaning against an ice machine outside the gas station with sad faces, my legs couldn’t stop me from rushing. I was happy Fylnn already kicked all the rock because otherwise, I would have felt.

“Guys!”

“Hey,” Alex's voice was sad and sincere, about to place a hand on my shoulder but I was bouncing on my toes.

“Whip off your sad faces, I got us a gig!”

*

“Just got off live, the fans are going to spread the information,” I yelled throughout the bar, and Luke and Jessie, the lady from the phone, moved the last few tables around the bar to make more room. Reggie and Alex did a quick soundcheck, we were currently renting amps and such from across the street since the owner's daughter was apparently a “Luke Girl”.

“Thank God, I would hope we don’t do all this work for nobody to show up” Alex called back as he did the classic comedy drum sound, giving a smile as he grabbed the extra drumstick from his back pocket.

I rolled my eyes, hopping off the stage to the small table at the door for Flynn and me to sit at for tickets and shirts, CD including, and a special code for the single Reggie was presenting tonight.

Luke and he had been fighting over it for ten minutes because Reggie changed the one he wanted to release last minute, it must have been good if Luke was letting him get away with it.

“I can’t believe you pulled this off,” Flynn sat in her seat with her arms crossed, people would be arriving as soon as possible and we were prepared for anything.

“What can I say,” I smiled brightly, taking the seat beside her.

“What made you think of this?”

I wanted to say, Reggie, that he almost always somehow inspired my best ideas but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Almost everyone knew of the almost kiss and how awkward things have been between us, so awkward I couldn’t say his name.

“Just about what happened at the motel, how we had to make it work.”

It wasn't a lie, that was for sure.

“Well, you saved the tour,” Flynn leaned over and squeezed my shoulders, her bucket hat titled as it smashed against my face. I hugged her back, smiling into her shoulder, I saved the tour.

*

The crowd screamed as the band finished off “Bright”, sweat dripping down them as they gave wide gestures.

“Thank you! Now it’s surprise time!” Julie passed the microphone to Luke, who looked so excited for his next set of words.

“The rumors about the new album are true,” he let the mic drop until the screams died down, “and we are here to show one of the singles for the said album that will drop on March 3rd at midnight!”

The crowd went crazy again and I laughed against Flynn, we both decided to stay in our chairs for the performance as we had an amazing view and we didn’t want to push through everyone. I was scared that everyone would see the one-star and turn the other way but every ticket that was bought came.

Reggie smiled as he took the stage, his bass switched for an acoustic, which confused me but I didn’t think much about it, I knew he liked to mess with it sometimes.

“Hi everybody!”

Reggie gave a peace sign to the crowd, the few girls who wore Reggie’s face on their shirt screamed at the top of their lungs.

“This is a song I wrote a few weeks ago on tour called “Five Star conversation.”

I looked over my shoulder at Flynn, her eyes wide as she watched Reggie get situated on his stool in front of the mic.

“What song is this?”

“Uhm, this one?”

All she did was point and I decided to go back and watch him play. I could always ask later, I’d have to make merch with it anyways.

“Dingy bathrooms and motel floors, I’d never wanted you more than right now,” Reggie's voice came out rough as his voice played with the melody just right. His finger-picked at the string and I was shocked by the slow melody. This definitely wasn’t a song I’d heard.

“The city lights across your face, I swear you fell from grace. The world around me seemed to disappear the second you spoke,” that when it happened, the moment he turned his head. He looked in my eye, the words rooting themselves in my chest, tattooed across my heart.

“Our five-star conversations were softer than the pillows beneath me, I wish you could have really seen me.”

I felt myself chew on my bottom lip, feeling my eyes turn to me as his attention never left my face. He was watching me, the same way he had in every other one-star establishment, but this felt different.

“Oh, you wouldn’t know the five-star conversation I had with your soul.” The medley rang out, Julie’s soft humming joined in behind and I wondered how anyone could focus.

How could anyone think straight when someone was looking so adoring under the flashing light of a cheap bar that smelt like feet?

How could I pay attention while he looked at me like I hung the stars in the sky when he hung the moon?

“Crappy food and screaming doors, I wonder if you knew of your own grace!” His word rang back in my eye, like a bug that wouldn’t quite go away, not that I would ever want this to stop.

But it had to stop because I was suddenly the center of attention and I couldn’t handle it. I couldn't know the world more than I did. But I was rooted in place watching the boy I had fallen so hard for a look at me with his puppy eyes and wonder where we would stand after this.

“Don’t let me lose our five-star conversation in a one-star world after all,” he strummed the last bit of the song, I barely processed half the word before I let my legs go. I was walking somewhere, wherever my feet would allow me to go. I was outside, the brick wall of the bar brought me back to reality.

The same reality where I didn’t think boys wrote songs that sweet and they didn’t look at you like that. They didn’t look at you like you spun gold strings and gave them pretty smiles, but he did.

He always did, he always looked at me like I belonged next to him saving tours and making horrible plans. He looked at me like I could be his muse for the rest of his life, of death is more appropriate. He looked at me as if I was more than his because I wasn’t his, I was myself and that’s all he wanted.

He was in love with me, the same person from the motel, the same person for the diner, the same person from the fair.

I was the five-star person in the world star world, I was the extra star he was always looking for.

“(Y/N)!”

As soon as I watched his body slide out the door of the bar, I walked to him. I didn’t realize how far I walked until he started rambling.

“I’m sorry to put you on the spot but I couldn’t stop-”

My hand gripped the thin jacket material, not thinking twice and my lips smashed against his with force. He fell back slightly, his hand grabbing my wrist for a second before he was running them over my shoulder and down to my elbows. He pulled me closer if that was possible, and I let my hand touch over his heart.

The heart that wanted me, Reggie wanted me. There were girls who would wear his face on a shirt and he wanted the person that made those shirts.

I was his five stars, even if I loved him in every one-star and three-star establishment.

I felt myself pull away, our forehead resting on one another and I took a shaky breath.

“I’d give that kiss two stars.”

He smiled down at me, raising his eyebrows and letting his tongue run over the side of his cheek with a smirk.

“Give me ten minutes and I’ll make it five stars.”

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[quillsandtypos]

Our Stars Collided- Part 1

THIS IS THE SURPRISE IM WRITING A JATP SERIES AND IM SO EXCITED. This first one kinda sucks at first, but I swear it gets better the more you get into it.

Words: 2.1k

Summary: The reader has been wondering who the phantoms in the band are. But when she comes face to face with a phantom will she get her answers? (This does not follow all the events of the series)

Pairing: Luke x reader

Warnings: none, except bad writing

...........................................

You had lunch this period, you were one track minded in that moment, and b-lining for the cafeteria. But as you passed the lockers your half run nearly turned to a stop.

You had made eye contact with none other than the cute boy from Julie's hologram band. Except every single person in the hallway was acting like they couldn't see him. Which in their defense, they probably couldn't, you were probably going insane.

According to Julie they were holograms. But when everyone else had gasped in shock that they had suddenly disappeared, you continued to watch them. And yet no one else noticed. From that moment on you were convinced yourself that it had been a figment of your imagination. Until now, that was.

You figured it might raise suspicion if you continued staring into what everyone else believed to be nothing. So you hid behind a pole and watched.

Julie seemed to be just talking on the phone to everyone else. But you watched as she continued on her conversation with the supposed hologram. Their conversation wasn't anything interesting, it seemed to just be about what song they were playing in a few weeks; and the boy apologized for being somewhat difficult to work with. As you watched, another sophomore, named Nick approached. You peeked around the pole to see where the boy went and saw that he was staring right at you.

You flew back behind your hiding place. You felt your pulse quickening though you weren't sure if it was because you were afraid he'd seen you or for a different reason entirely.

After you'd calmed yourself down you opened your eyes, you saw the boy standing right in front of you, only a couple feet away. You clapped a hand over your mouth to keep yourself from screaming.

Wait, you can see me?" the boy asked. He sounded just as freaked out as you felt.

You nodded your head, with your hand still on your mouth.

The boy's eyes went wide for a moment. But then he looked like he was deep in thought. "Why can you see me?" he asked curiously.

Your expression went blank for a moment. How could you answer a question you didn't even know? Also did someone give you drugs, or was this actually happening?

"I have no idea, also are you even real?" You asked. You reached out to poke his shoulder, and you felt nothing. "Nope, I'm definitely imagining this," you said aloud to yourself.

You turned and started to walk away. "Wait!" the boy yelled.

"Yes, imaginary person who I have probably made up in my head?" you asked.

He talked as he walked to catch up with you. "I'm real, I'm very, very real. I'm just also dead."

You crossed your arms and faced him. "So you're a ghost?" you asked.

"Yes."

You crossed your arms. "So prove it, how do I know you're not a figment of my imagination?"

The boy paused for a moment to think. "Umm I know there's a student named Julie that goes here and she has fourth period dance class, and you probably don't know that, so how would a figment of your imagination know that?" After finishing his trail of thought the boy looked over at you with a hopeful smile.

You thought over it for a moment which was mildly difficult with that face looking at you. "Yeah, okay, that adds up I suppose." His smile turned into a slight smugness that he had convinced you.

"See, I told you I was real."

You pushed down the heat attempting to rise to your cheeks.

"But how?" you asked.

"Wellllllllll that's a little bit more of a complicated question," Luke explained, as he itched the back of his head.

Somehow, you were still getting more confused. "How is it complicated?"

"That's kinda a long story. But, I can explain some of it," he offered.

You gestured to him that the floor was his.

"Oh, not right now because I'm pretty sure I've made like at least five people think you're crazy already." He gestured around to people at their lockers who were staring at you.

"But I can tell you later, if you meet me at Julie's house, after school," he promised.

"Okay, yeah, I'm not doing anything, and I've been there before so I know where it is," you agreed.

"Cool! I never caught your name by the way," he mentioned.

"Oh it's y/n, and you are?"

"Luke, and I'll see you then!" He waved at you and in a poof he was gone.

It was definitely not a normal way to start your lunch. But you supposed that from the day that they had performed your life hadn't been normal.

Three hours later you found yourself standing in front of Julie Molina's house. You were silently hoping that this was the right house, because that would be a very interesting conversation if it wasn't. Luckily enough, Julie was the one who opened the door.

"Hi, um I'm here to see Luke?" you hesitantly asked.

"Oh yeah, he told me about you, come on I’ll show you where he is.” She closed the door and started leading you through a garden, as you tried not to read too deeply into what she had said. Eventually, you walked down a set of steps to some sort of studio. As she opened the wide white entrance doors you saw all three of the guys you had watched play with Julie a week ago.

You stood in shock for a moment. So you hadn’t been seeing things! You only came back to reality when you heard Julie say your name.

“Meet Reggie, Alex, and you already met Luke. So Reggie and Alex, meet y/n,” she introduced.

“Hello!” Reggie waved.

“Hi,” said Alex.

“Hi,” you responded.

“So now is your time to ask questions without someone thinking you are going insane,” Luke offered, as he sat down on a couch.

“Okay, so you guys are ghosts, right?”

The three all nodded their heads.

“But for some reason Julie and I can see you?” you observed.

“Yes, but we don’t actually know the reason for that. Or to a lot of things for that matter. But we think it might mean that you two are related to our pasts in some sort of way,” the one you remembered to be Alex, suggested.

“Okay, interesting. Do you know why people can see you when you play?” you inquired.

“No, I mean we think it’s because we are connected to Julie and that we are still connected with music, but other than that we have no idea,” Luke said.

You continued asking them questions for quite some time, until you couldn’t think of anything anymore. Granted, there was still a lot you didn’t know, but that was fine with you. Afterall, asking someone how they died felt a little too personal; even if they did make you think you were losing your mind for a week straight.

Eventually your conversation diverged into other matters like school, and music, and of course food.

“You play the guitar?” Luke asked in surprise.

You turned to him from a conversation you were having with Alex. “I mean, I’m not as good as you, but yes,” you admitted.

“Wait, you play guitar TOO?” Reggie asked in awe.

You had to laugh at the sudden fascination with you. “Yes, I do.”

Reggie seemed to be ecstatic. “You have to play something; here, use Luke’s guitar,” he offered.

Alex lightly slapped his arm and you watched the corner of your eye as Luke muttered something along the lines of what the hell Reggie.

“It’s okay, I don’t wanna steal someone else’s equipment, and I usually only play in my room by myself. Besides, you probably don’t wanna hear me anyways,” you pointed out.

“You don’t have to play, but that’s b.s. I’ve heard you’d play and you’re obviously talented,” Julie chimed in. You were slightly embarrassed but you accepted the compliment. Soon enough your conversation died down and it was decided that you should probably head back home as it was getting late. You waved goodbye to the boys and told Julie you would see her tomorrow.

As you ate supper, you realized that even though you had one of the most eventful days in history you could tell no one about it, including your family. Otherwise they would think you were just as insane as you thought you were. But you supposed there were worse problems to have then knowing a band that you couldn’t talk about.

As you got ready for bed you decided to bring out your acoustic guitar.

You started strumming before realizing there was a particular song you hadn’t played in a long while. It took you a couple attempts to remember the fingering for it, but once you did the music started to flow out of you.

“When the rain is blowing in your face, and the whole world is on your case. I could offer you a warm embrace to make you feel my love.”

You then jumped to the melody at a higher octave. You decided to go all out and sing it to your heart's content.

“I know you haven’t made your mind up yet, but I would never do you wrong. I’ve known it from the moment that we met. No doubt in my mind where you belong.”

You strummed a couple more chords before placing your guitar down. You turned around and came inches away from Luke’s face.

“Shit!” you yelled on instinct. You paused for a moment to make sure no one had heard you, but you didn’t hear anything.

“What are you two doing here?” you hissed.

Reggie was the first to open his mouth. “Well uh you see here, we actually have a very good reason for being here. Yep, and Luke’s going to tell you that reason.” He clapped his bandmate on the shoulder, and Luke glared at him.

“Y/n I’m really sorry, but he really wanted to hear you play. And I was super curious too, and we just couldn’t resist,” Luke apologized.

You took a look at them still wanting to be mad, but you couldn’t bring yourself to do it. They looked not unlike sad puppies.

You fake sighed, but you couldn’t fight the smile on your face. “I guess I can let you guys off the hook this time.”

“I swear it won’t happen again,” Reggie promised.

“Next time just knock instead of scaring the shit out of me, okay?” you asked.

“You got it, though I can’t say we won’t scare you. I mean we are ghosts,” Luke teased, with a glint in his eyes that you couldn’t figure out.

You amusedly rolled your eyes at him, “Whatever, Luke.”

The next day you couldn’t really focus on your clases. All you could think about were theories on why you could see Alex, Reggie, and Luke and why everyone else couldn’t. By the time lunch rolled around you were very thankful Julie was in the same lunch period as you.

“Hey!” she greeted you.

“What’s up?” you asked, shutting your locker.

“Just something I want to show you, follow me,” she gestured. You didn’t know where she was taking you but you just shrugged and went with it. She led you over to the next set of lockers and down a set of steps to a pretty much vacant part of the school. And once you turned the corner you heard a very loud ‘surprise!’

“Aeeehp!” you yelled in shock.

“Oh my god, you guys have got to stop doing that,” you said to the three.

“Yeah, they never do,” Julie sighed.

“But anyways, we brought you down here to tell you, drumroll please?” Julie requested.

They all started stomping their feet.

“We want you to join Julie and the Phantoms!” Alex announced.

“Wait, what?” you excitedly asked.

“Well after the little stunt that Luke and Reggie pulled, which I do not approve of by the way,” she sent a glare back at the two of them, “we had a band meeting and decided that we want you in the band, that is of course if you want to be in the band?”

You were positively beaming. “Yes of course I do! But what do you want me to do? You already have two singers and an electric guitarist.”

“Well we always have room for more singing, and I’m just lead guitar. We used to have three guitars in sunset curve, so why not in Julie and the Phantoms?” Luke questioned.

“I’m game if you guys are.”

“So you’re in?” Reggie asked.

You smiled brightly, “I’m so in.”

#quillsandtyposwrites #q&t- jatp #q&t- x reader #luke patterson #luke patterson imagine #luke patterson oneshot #luke patterson x reader #jatp #luke jatp #julie jatp #julie and the phantoms #julie and the fat ones #reggie jatp #alex jatp #luke patterson x y/n #jatp x reader #jatp netflix #jatp reader insert #reader x luke patterson #reader x luke #our stars collided

[writingsfromstarfleet]

Julian Bashir - Studies

♫ - Half the World Away - Oasis

For the lovely @fandomlover2091​, I hope you enjoy and that your studies/exams are going well! I believe in you, you got this! Thank you all for reading! Hugs! ♡

Life was full of fun and joy, but it also came with stress, and that was nothing strange to you. You always had a thirst for knowledge and loved to study, but that didn't mean it was an easy breeze. You didn't stress lightly, either; it always hit you hard and often became overwhelming. This was no exception.

You sat in your quarters, hunched over the desk, just as you had been for the past week or so. Immersed in your studies, you had failed to even acknowledge the time. You'd managed to sit through dinner, long enough that the lights had dimmed to indicate how late it was. Still, you pressed on. Your studies were more important to you, though others may disagree. This included your boyfriend.

Julian had been your boyfriend for over a year now, and he was nothing but supportive. Each time you needed him, he was there. No matter the time or the place, if you needed him, he never once told you he was busy. You could hardly have asked for a more wonderful man, you loved him unconditionally, as did he you. Julian cared, a fact he made clear to you each and every day.

Pulling yourself away from your thoughts of Julian, not affording yourself a distraction whilst you were in the swing of things, you turned your attention back to your work. So engrossed you were, you hadn't heard the door to your quarters open, nor had you noticed a certain handsome doctor enter, a concerned look etched on his face.

"Y/N," Julian spoke softly, so as not to startle you. "Where on earth have you been today?"

The worry in his voice pulled your eyes up to look at him. Julian knelt down beside your chair and placed a hand on your knee, looking to you for an answer.

"Here, I have to pass these exams, Julian.." your tone expressed some guilt, and he simply sighed. Not in annoyance, but in knowing. Julian knew that you struggled to maintain a healthy balance with your studies and self care, try as you might.

"Have you eaten?"

"Not since this morning, I had a snack before, though."

The moment you finished that sentence, you knew it wasn't going to sit well with him. Julian's brows raised and he stood, offering out a hand to you. You stared at him dubiously. Finding your eyes drifting from his outstretched hand to your work, you felt Julian place his hand under your chin and pull your head to face him, shaking his head at you.

"Not a chance, come on."

Sighing, you took his hand and allowed him to pull you from your seat. Julian took your face in his hands and pressed a kiss to the top of your head, encasing you in a hug thereafter. Taking your hand once more, he led you out to the mess hall so you could replicate some form of sustenance. Little things like this annoyed you in the moment, but ultimately Julian was never at fault to you. Little things like this made you love the sweet doctor all the more.

After sufficient nourishment and a good chat that took your mind off the stress, only then did you come to the realisation that Julian was correct; you were unhealthily going about things without knowing. You sighed.

"Hey, Juli," you started, taking his hand in yours and swinging it slightly as you walked back to your quarters. "Thank you, I don't know what I'd do without you."

Julian chuckled, smiling and looking down at the floor. His eyes met yours and you tilted your head, silently asking why he was laughing. "You, my dear Y/N, would be hunched over a desk right now, hungry and fast asleep, just as I tend to find you most nights."

While Julian was smiling and laughing, the tone suggested he was far from joking. He knew your habits, he knew the work ethic you had, and he knew it was less than adequate for you. He squeezed your hand a little tighter and you ran your thumb over his hand.

"I know, I don't mean to."

"I know that, which is why someone here has to save the day." He gestured to himself and pretended to dust himself off with righteousness, having you laughing and hitting his arm playfully. The rest of the walk was in good spirit, despite the fact you knew Julian was still worried.

Reaching your quarters doors, you stood past and asked if he'd like to come in, which he politely declined.

"No, you need some sleep." Julian emphasized the 'you', poking your chest slightly as if telling a toddler off. You swatted his hand away, raising your eyebrows in faux shock, but understanding his intentions. He was right.

"Listen," Julian started, taking both your hands in his and looking you straight in the eyes. You listened to every word he said. "You, Y/N, are so smart. You're incredibly gifted academically, and I absolutely know beyond any doubt that you will ace your studies, and every exam to come. You always do, despite the pressure you put on yourself. Please, please don't push yourself that hard, moderate your studying with your life, okay? What am I supposed to do without my favourite person should they burn out, hey?"

"I'm sure Garak wouldn't disappear on you."

It was Julian's turn for shock, and he now swatted your arm and laughed a little. Suddenly, he pulled you to him and took your face in his hands, placing his lips softly on yours. The kiss was delicate, as though if he pressed any harder, you'd break like fine china. Pulling back, though you didn't want to, you stared into his eyes and watched the twinkle you had fallen in love with; his eyes always were filled with a boyish charm and lots of love.

"You are far too quick witted, my love."

"Alas I admit it." The playfulness in your tone had slightly thrown Julian, he had hoped with best intentions you were ready to sleep.

"I'm serious, though, Y/N. You need to rest now, please."

You pulled him to you again, and gave him another kiss.

"Not without you," you started, pulling him into your quarters. Julian hesitated, but decided to comply. He never could say no to you.

"Fine, if it gets you to sleep."

Changed and under the covers, you were cuddled into Julian's right side, his arm around your shoulders. His free and traced lines on your left arm, which was draped over his torso lazily. He heard you yawn and kissed the top of your head lightly.

"I love you." His voice came quietly, not wanting to disturb the sentient atmosphere. You hadn't heard, far too emerged in the land of sleep. Letting out a relieved sigh, Julian lay and thought of you, not unusual for him. Often his last thoughts of the day were about you. He hoped you knew everything he said was true. That you were gifted, that you were smart, that you had the capability to conquer the quadrants beyond.

Whether you did, he did not know. But he was ready to be there with you, to help you, and to love you. He hoped you knew that.

#star trek #star trek imagine #star trek x reader #star trek deep space nine #star trek ds9 #deep space nine #ds9 #julian bashir #julian bashir imagine #julian bashir x reader #x reader #imagine

[bulkyphrase]

Everybody & the Avengers Team

I've got a new fic rec list for you!

The stories in the "X & the Avengers Team" tags focus on one person's relationship to the Avengers team as a whole. Courtesy of AO3's tag browse and Excel, here's a ranked list of the top 20 most popular pairings:

Tony Stark | 2470 total, 240 OTP

Peter Parker | 2255 total, 85 OTP

Steve Rogers | 602 total, 56 OTP

Loki | 387 total, 26 OTP

Natasha Romanov | 308 total, 35 OTP

Clint Barton | 268 total, 46 OTP

Bruce Banner | 244 total, 15 OTP

Thor | 209 total, 7 OTP

Avengers Team | 174 total, 24 OTP

James "Bucky" Barnes | 156 total, 7 OTP

Wanda Maximoff | 143 total, 4 OTP

Phil Coulson | 105 total, 9 OTP

Darcy Lewis | 91 total, 6 OTP

Matt Murdock | 60 total, 8 OTP

Sam Wilson | 53 total, 5 OTP

Nick Fury | 41 total, 5 OTP

Harry Potter | 40 total, 0 OTP

Pepper Potts | 31 total, 1 OTP

Vision | 29 total, 2 OTP

Stiles Stilinski | 25 total, 0 OTP

In chart form, if you like charts:

Notes:

The numbers after the names are the number of stories tagged with that ship. OTP means the number of stories where that is the only relationship tagged on the story. Numbers are accurate as of July 2021.

Story Recommendations

For your reading pleasure, included below is at least one fic rec for each pairing except the crossovers from non-Marvel fandoms (apologies to Mr. Potter & Mr. Stilinski). Most are gen fic, and even in the ones with a romantic pairing, romance is not the focus.

Tony Stark

As Subtle As Cognitive Recalibration by petroltogo (Teen, 8949) tumblr: @tonystarktogo

Standing inside his penthouse, listening to Rogers, Barton and Banner explain to Fury how they just happened to stumble over the Tesseract on a routine security check of Stark Tower’s roof and wouldn’t you know, they’ve managed to fight off the looming alien invasion before it could really start and secure the missing overpowered nightlight is one of the most surreal situations Tony has ever had the displeasure of experiencing.

Peter Parker

the worst field trip ever by shrill_fangirl_screaming (Teen, 3420) tumblr: @i-am-having-an-emotion

"We're on a field trip," Peter said. "To here. And Tony decided to be our tour guide and absolutely embarrass me, so can you please help get him under control?"

Which is how Peter Parker, architect of his own destruction, ended up with not one but two superhero pseudo-dads being annoying on his school field trip.

Steve Rogers

Do You Remember Being Happy? ('Cause I Sure Don't) by GalaxyThreads (Teen, 11022) tumblr: @galaxythreads

That seems about right. He doesn't know how he knows that, though. He does have vague memories of an annoyed fondness at finding peanut butter in some sort of jam. Thor's doing, because he doesn't see the point of using two knives when one works just as fine. He knows that. How does he know that? He knows all those little details, though, almost innately. How can he know these strangers so deeply?

Everyone else below the cut!

Loki

Proprietary by TheThirdMarauder (Teen, 7639)

No, Loki simply wants the Avengers conquered. The details of whom, how, and when matter not. Unless, of course, said details interfere with Loki's plans. Then, well, then none can fault him for protecting his own interests.

Loki has always been exceptionally good at lying to himself.

Natasha Romanov

What Girls Are Made Of by enigma731 (Teen, 4613) tumblr: @enigma731

She rolls her eyes but does as he’s indicated, using his shoulders to leverage herself up onto his back, her arms around his neck and her legs hugging his waist.

“You know,” he says blithely, “this isn’t really what I tend to picture when I think of a hot girl riding me.”

Natasha groans, deciding that if his sense of humor gets them arrested, she’ll kill him herself. “Just go.”

Clint Barton

Dear Clint Barton (circa age 7) by pollyrepeat (Teen, 4221)

With a normal person, this might count as blackmail material, but a) this is a case of mutually assured destruction if ever there was one, and b) Fury is immune to embarrassment. Not just in the regular, Tony Stark way, either, oh no. Things that could possibly end up being embarrassing to Fury get somehow warped and changed until they go from mortifying all the way over into useful and/or good for his image. It’s like a superpower.

Carrying Clint’s small child self around on his shoulders more than once has probably already hit the interagency rumour mill as an example of Fury’s innate awesomeness: good with rocket launchers and small children.

Also available as a podfic!

Bruce Banner

They're Not Wrong by Trumpeteer34 (Teen, 10163)

As Tony began to pace around the hole in the road to keep himself from shooting repulsors at the nearby buildings in a fit of rage, Thor began to study the nearby area. There was no sign of either the Hulk or Bruce Banner beyond the crater. The surrounding area, aside from the rubble of the fight, held no clue as to their friend’s location.

“Guys, he’s gone,” Tony growled into the communicator on their private line, drawing Thor out of his darkening thoughts. “Someone tranqed him and took him. He’s gone.”

Honorary mention goes to the Responsible Science series by @letteredlettered - the stories don’t have the "Avengers Team & Bruce Banner" tag, but they could, and they are amazing. The best Bruce Banner writing I've ever come across.

Thor

Fortunately, I Am Mighty by onward_came_the_meteors (General, 3062)

Steve was the first one to speak. “Are you okay?”

Thor nodded. Which was a bad idea, as it turned out, because now there were little gray lights flashing in front of his eyes. “I’m fine.” Absolutely everyone narrowed their eyes, and he added, “But, uh. Could we possibly not get back in the car just yet?”

Avengers Team

Civil Wasn't by onward_came_the_meteors (General, 7123)

"We're having an ideological conflict here," Tony stated with disbelief. "Are you telling me you still want to go out to dinner?"

"It's a standing engagement, Tony," Rhodey reminded him.

"Not you too—"

"We already had to reschedule from Friday when Natasha was..." Rhodey frowned. "What were you doing?"

The question was directed toward Natasha, who shrugged and said, "Spy stuff."

James "Bucky" Barnes

You Know How I Feel, aka, The Adventures of Bucky and Muffy the Dinosaur by ifeelbetter (Not Rated, 4511) tumblr: @ifeelbetterer

“As you may have heard, Bucky Barnes, a.k.a. The Winter Soldier, recently rescued a tiny part-robot dinosaur during the Avengers’ battle with Dr. Doom in Antarctica,” the other newscaster explained. “Pictures of Barnes and the dinosaur were posted on twitter by fellow Avenger, Clint Barton, a.k.a. Hawkeye, and immediately made Barnes’s new pet America’s sweetheart.”

“Her name’s Muffy,” said Steve."

Wanda Maximoff

and the woman was young again by Mira_Jade (General, 3669)

Tony Stark called them the Cap's Kooky Quintet, and sometimes the term amused her – causing her to lift a sardonic brow where someday a smile would truly smile. She enjoyed the presence of comrades – true comrades – and she enjoyed the way their minds wove and bound together about each other to fluctuate against her senses as one. There was something soothing about being in their midst, and even when their loud and brash ways – their painful Americaness - rubbed her raw and drained on her, it was ever the knitting of their minds that soothed those moments over, and made them inconsequential.

Phil Coulson

Coulson's First Day of School by storiesfortravellers (Teen, 3055)

Coulson looked up at him. “I like drawing pictures with Mr. Rogers. I like having tea parties with Ms. Potts. I like it when Dr. Banner reads me books, and I like it when Natasha teaches me things. And I like when you play with me. You do really good voices when we play action figures. And you’re the only one who lets me do stuff like jump off the high diving board at the pool or eat three cupcakes or play tackle with kids at the park.”

Clint didn’t realize that. He was pretty sure that meant that he was doing something wrong.

Darcy Lewis

Beginner Yoga for Dummies (Darcys) and Sad Hobos by chailover (Teen, 3434)

Darcy had a theory: crazy attracted crazy, working kind of like gravity. It was pretty much her explanation for her life after Thor. And if she had thought the type of crazy Thor attracted was bad, be it Loki or the Warrior Three and Sif, or the dark elves and the Convergence, it was still nothing against what the Avengers manage en masse.

Matt Murdock

Double Blind by smilebackwards (Teen, 2381) tumblr: @smilebackwards

Stark snaps his fingers. “You can’t see half of my inventions. This explains so much about you and why you’ve never been properly impressed by me.”

“Does it?” Matt says, ambiguously.

Sam Wilson

Bystander by scribblemetimbers (Teen, 52029)

“I just want you to know,” Sam says loudly, cautiously raising his hands, “That I’m very poor and very sleep-deprived and literally the only thing you can kill me for right now are my notes.” He pauses. Wait. On second thought: “Please don’t steal my notes.”

“I’m not—I’m not a mugger,” Not Mugger rasps out, and for all that he looks about to keel over and die, the man actually manages to sound offended.

Nick Fury

Bedtime Story by dixiehellcat (Teen, 2532) tumblr: @deehellcat

Fury snorted. “I have to check in with the duty officer. I’ll be back in, let’s say twenty minutes. I expect all of you to have whatever your pre-bedtime routines are completed, and be in here pajama’ed and ready to be read to.”

He tapped the book under his arm, then left with the usual dramatic swish of his long coat. Bruce scratched his head. “Did…he just say be ready to be read to?”

Pepper Potts

Pepper and the Avengers (Which She Knows Nothing About) by rebelmeg (General, 6696) tumblr: @rebelmeg

The Avengers, that mismatched group of hurt and heroism, was one of the most important things in Tony Stark’s life. So, naturally, Pepper had made them an important part of her life too.

Vision

039. Intoxicated by aimmyarrowshigh (Teen, 100) tumblr: @aimmyarrowshigh

It might be nice to fit in, just this once. To lose a bit of composure.

Vision floated over to the refrigerator and, with some timidity, pulled off a magnet. He stuck it to his forehead.

#marvel fic rec

[estrxlar]

The Ghost Of You

12 - Coincidence

This chapters songs:

Beach Bummer; No Vacation

Goodie Bag; Still Woozy

Sports; Beach Bunny

- Y. L. Perspective

I wasn't sure what to think when I had read the message aloud. "I want to talk." What could that possibly mean?

"Y/n, I'm sure you're just being dramatic. Maybe he just wangs to check up on how you've been doing, " Toruku suggests, sipping from his box of apple juice. The two of us sat against the brick wall on the outside of the cafeteria, discussing my issue. Giki and Hikishi couldn't join us for lunch because of school work that they had to finish up, and Suga had to meet his friends.

Ever since the party, the only thing that stuck to my mind was my situation with Koushi. But other than that, I had forgotten about certain things that happened. As an example, bumping into Oikawa. And as crazy as it was, the moment completely left my mind for a good five days. Until I got a message from him, saying, "I want to talk."

Oikawa, Toruku, Iwaizumi, and I have known each other ever since the beginning of junior high. The only reason we had separated was because of Moku's tragic death, and our schools. Toruku and I had decided to stick together and go to Karasuno, while Oikawa and Iwa felt their volleyball was more important than staying friends. But honestly, it wasn't that big of a deal. The older we grew, then we realized that we wouldn't stick with our middle school friends.

But what Oikawa had caused between the four of us is what made things awkward.

Around the summer of my first year of high school, we all subtly kept in touch with each other. But then after he had thrown a party around July a fight had broken out between him and Toruku because of me.

Oikawa was telling others cruel things in a group of people that were discussing school, lying about how I acted around him. That I had messed around with him, or how I was jealous of Moku for being with Toruku and took it out on Oikawa. But truth was that Oikawa was the one who liked me, and I never paid too much attention to him because of how guilty I felt for liking my best friend's boyfriend.

Iwaizumi, Oikawa, Toruku, and I all knew what Toru said were false claims that he only told for attention from other girls that he would talk to. Oikawa let his popularity get ahead of him, causing a ruckus to occur that day. The further he would go with these stories, the angrier Toruku and I had grown. Eventually, his mouth ran far enough to drive Toruku to punch him more than I had expected. Oikawa was all bark and no bite, therefore, he didn't fight back. That night is when Toruku and I had realized that we needed to move in from our past and find lives of our own. Ones that wouldn't have to ever run into the two obnoxious duo Oikawa and Iwaizumi.

So you could imagine my anger when seeing him at a party that didn't involve him.

"Uhm.." Toruku takes a bite out of his egg sandwich, munching while talking. "Just text him back! Say 'about what?' I bet that would get you answers."

I groan at his stupidity. Today wasn't the best day to have lunch with Toruku, but who else could relate to me as much as him? So, I do as I am suggested, texting back a simple reply and hoping it would lead me to the best possible outcome.

—

Oikawa

I want to talk

About what?

...

—

"Oh my god, he's typing," I say quickly, dropping any items in my hand to hold the phone in front of Toruku and me. He finishes his egg sandwich and crumbles the wrapper to throw into a bin not too far away from where we sat before crossing his arms in concentration.

It wasn't that I was excited to talk to Oikawa. I was nervous as to what he wanted to discuss with me. Other than school, there wasn't much to talk about with him. All I knew was that he turned into a jackass with an ego.

'What does he even wanna say?'

When my phone vibrated in my hands, I had thought my questions were answered. But only a simple reply was given to me.

—

Oikawa

I want to talk

About what?

I just want to see how you've been doing. How about lunch on Saturday?

—

Toruku frowns at the message. "Why would he want to have lunch after what happened?" He asks me. "Say you're busy." A protective tone overtakes him.

"Ok, ok."

—

Oikawa

I want to talk

About what?

I just want to see how you've been doing. How about lunch on Saturday?

I have a tight schedule, so I don't think I'm free that day.

Hmm

Sunday?

What would we talk about, Toru?

Honestly

I just wanted to see you again

You know, talk?

Mhm

But why? Soon it won't matter

Cause after I saw you on Saturday I realized I had some things to say

Please?

Okay

We'll figure something out

—

"Do you think he still likes you?" Toruku pops in.

"No, I don't think so. But I also haven't been able to see his development, so I wouldn't know," I reply to him. I could either ruin or glorify my relationship with him. That was a bet I wasn't sure I wanted to take. And not only that, but he also had beef with Toruku. Why didn't he ask him to lunch as well? Was it because he didn't run into him during the party?

Now I had yet again another thing to worry about. Right now, my current concern was my first volleyball practice this afternoon. Kiyoko had informed me that this weekend they were to have a practice game with one of the competitive teams. I wasn't sure if I would enjoy it or not, but I mine as well have given it a shot.

To be honest, I was a little bit excited. Not only would I be able to see Suga more than in the afternoon, but I could get to know the underclassman more. That was if they even liked me.

"Whatever. I don't need to be worrying about this right now," I tell Toruku as I get up from the wall to throw my trash away. He nods, tossing his trash in the basket as well, before picking up my bag and bento, handing it to me. "Thanks for having lunch with me."

"It's no issue. Just tell me how things go with texting Oikawa and have fun at practice."

"Sure thing."

-

I waited at the front of her classroom. By her, I mean the beauty herself: Kiyoko. She told me earlier that she would run through the rooms the volleyball club uses so that I could get familiar with where I'd be going every day I attended practice. I was in good hands when it came to Kiyoko, one of my very close friends.

Finally, her classroom door opens, followed by the many students held inside to flood the hallways, including Kiyoko. "Hey there!" She throws a hand over my shoulder as we begin walking to the exit of the hall. "You excited?"

"I guess. I'm more nervous than excited," I reply.

"Don't be. The boys are very sweet. If you'd like, I can try giving you a summary of what to expect!" She exclaims, her excitement practically glowing off of her skin.

Once I nod, Kiyoko begins her full explanation of the players. "Well, we have the three third years. Me, Sugawara, and Daichi! And you already know about us. And there are only four second years. There's Tanaka, Ennoshita, Kinoshita, and Narita. Tanaka is a loud person, but he's super hard working and nice to me, so I guess he's okay. As for Ennoshita, he doesn't talk very much, but I wouldn't be rough with him. He seems like the insecure type. And Narita and Kenoshita are like him, except a little more wild! They usually stay in the back of the crowd, though. Then there are the first years— man are they talented. We have this amazing pair of first years, Kageyama and Hinata. Hinata is so good at jumping, probably the best I've ever seen, and a very rowdy boy. Kageyama is usually a prick to everybody, but he's learning to be a team player. Then there is Tsukishima and Yamaguchi. They're pretty simple to predict. Tsuki just bosses around Yamaguchi all the time and they both talk crap about everybody, but they're good friends and good players."

I can't help but widen my eyes at how fast Kiyoko had explained the players. It was as if she had a lite notebook in the back of her mind where she stored every detail about them, knowing every word she wrote like the back of her hand. "...wow, so there's some personality in the team! That's good to hear," I say, taking a deep breath before we both leave the school building and make our way behind it. "I think I know about Kageyama, though. I went to middle school with him and my old friends that were on the team with him weren't very fond of him— but that's all I know. Sugawara just tells me that he's a very talented person, which doesn't say much about his persona."

"Oh yeah! How're things with Sugawara going?" Kiyoko has no hesitation to jump towards the subject. I couldn't blame her, though. It had been a while since we had a girl-on-girl chat.

Embarrassed, I chuckle, staring at the ground as we discuss. "Nothing much. I mean— he did ask me to be his girlfriend, and we made out a couple of times, but that's it!" I act as if the actions weren't such a huge thing.

Kiyoko gasped. "Y/n! You didn't tell me that you were so close to him, I would have teased you way more than I already do! You kissed him?! How many times? When—where?!"

"Shimizu, stop talking so loud!" I exclaimed, raising my brows as the girl pipes down. Kiyoko wasn't ever the type to get so rowdy about things, that is if it didn't have to do with romance. As for that, she was a downer. And if her friend was involved with it then she wouldn't stop with the blabber. "Anyway, after the party, we both spent the night in his car. We didn't do anything but make out. Still, it was so nice," I whine. "He was so gentle and confident at the same time, and I'd never had somebody want to kiss me so badly— y'know? After that, he took me home, and we both slept in my bed for a couple of hours. Once I woke up, he wasn't anywhere to be found. Only my cat and a letter were left on the pillow next to me."

"A letter?" She questions.

"Yeah, explaining his feelings—his feelings,

Shimizu! Isn't that so sweet?! He told me that he was in love with me and never felt so passionate about anybody the way he does with me. But the thing is, I'm not even sure I wanna be in a relationship. And it's hurting both of us. I think I'm just so confused about everything that I can't even make up a decision."

"Hm, that's understandable. It's a big surprise two of my friends are getting together without telling me! Especially since they're so in love with each other. But now you're saying you don't know what to say?" Kiyoko hums. "Well, from the way you talk about him, are you sure that you're not just scared? You seem like you're head over heels, Y/n. What's stopping you?"

Suddenly, a tall shadow stops us in our tracks, interrupting our conversation. "Yeah, what's stopping you?!" A deep voice says as Kiyoko nudges him.

"Daichi, you don't even know what we're talking about!" She says. It was no other than Sawamura, acting silly again.

He wore a black jumpsuit that I assumed was his volleyball uniform and white tennis shoes, topped off with his grin. "Hey, Y/n! You excited for practice?" He asks in enthusiasm, crossing his arms. If I was being honest, Daichi always scared me when confronting me, but I knew he had my back. Therefore, the goosebumps that crawled up my spine had disappeared once I settled into his smile.

"I mean... I'm a bit nervous. But yeah, I'm excited."

Daichi claps his large hands, then points towards a grey building that was only a few meters away from where we stood under the school roof. "Great! Kiyoko can lead you to the locker rooms and the team will meet you in the gym!"

I look to Kiyoko, who's nodding. "Sure thing. Let's go, Y/n." Her hand lightly pushes me towards the direction of the changing rooms.

Once we arrived at a certain locker room, Kiyoko showed me around the place. There were sixteen lockers on each side of the wall and two benches in the middle. Lots of different sports instruments were piled up in a corner, while a few bags were tossed in another. Overall, it seemed like a regular changing room.

"Here, you can use this locker here. No one ever does." Kiyoko points to an empty silver cubby. The others that surrounded it had posters and locker decor on them, telling me they were already claimed by other girls.

I open the locker, placing a few of my things in it like my bag, school vest and tie, and my shoes. After, I turn to Kiyoko, who's standing right behind me with a black bag in her hands. "Here, this is your new uniform. The team will take you more seriously if you have it on."

Taking the baggy, I pull open the zipper, revealing folded clothing inside. It was the same that Daichi had on earlier, except it didn't come with shorts and tennis shoes. Kiyoko told me that I would only need to bring some sport shoes and a white tee to wear under my sweater. "Thanks! Are you gonna be wearing one too?"

"Not today. My uniform is dirty, so I'll be using one from him. Don't worry, once the team is used to you, you'll be able to bend the rules a bit as I do. They don't care very much." She says as she makes her way towards her locker, pulling out a light lavender jumpsuit.

'Crap, does this mean I'm going to have to undress in front of other girls? That's gonna be awkward.' I tell myself, as I hid behind the door of my locker to pull down my skirt and quickly put on the black pants. I exchange my button-up for a comfortable white tee and black sweater, before taking off a few accessories that I had on and slip them into a pocket of my bag. After, I sat on the bench to trade my black long socks for some normal ones and tie on my shoes.

"Ready?" Kiyoko turns to me, fully dressed in her uniform.

"You bet."

-

I hadn't realized how awkward interrupting a practice was until the deed was done. It was sickening, embarrassing, and terrifying.

"Hi everybody," Kiyoko says in a soft tone, setting our bags down near the door while I avoided eye contact with anybody. That didn't help the fact that every one of the players was staring at us, sitting in a circle on the ground.

A loud, raspy voice echoed through the gym, interrupting the bitter silence that ate me up. "Hi, Kiyoko! How was your day today?" I glance up at the person who jogged towards us.  He had a huge smile and short buzz cut, already telling me that he was a rowdy one. "And as for you, welcome! You must be the new manager! I'm Ryonosuke Tanaka, one of the best players on this team!" He holds out a hand for me to shake.

'So this must be the second year Kiyoko told me about. Great, I like him already.' I think, bowing before shaking his hand. "I'm Y/n L/n, nice to meet you."

"Tanaka! Show some respect for your upperclassman, will you!" Daichi comments, coming up from behind him. "I'm sorry about him. He's a wild one."

"Oh, that's alright."

When Daichi realizes I'm comfortable enough to glance at the teammates, he quickly moves out of the way. "Oh—let me introduce you properly. Everybody, this is our new manager that Takeda Sensei told us about: Y/n! She's a third-year and is here to help out Kiyoko. She's friends with us third years too, so no funny business!" He looks towards Tanaka. "That means you, Tanaka!"

He yells out, "I—I was just being friendly!"

Daichi simply playfully rolls his eyes. "Why don't you first years come to introduce yourselves, hm?" He suggests as a few boys shuffle through the small crowd to get a better view of me.

"Hey! It's good to see you again, L/n! I'm Shoyo Hinata." He bows. I recognized him immediately when he approached me. The player was short for somebody on a volleyball team and had bright ginger hair that was rough and fluffy, and he practically radiated energy when I was near him. "I hope you have a great time on the team!"

After giving him a brief smile, I shift my eyes towards a pair of first-years that seemed suspicious of my presence in the club. But one of them stepped up to shake my hand and grin. He had brown yet green-tinted hair that appeared soft, and many freckles on his face. "Hi, I'm Tadashi Yamaguchi. A pleasure to meet you!" He cautiously nudges the tall boy next to him.

He rolls his eyes at the slightest, tossing the volleyball in his hands to the ground. "Hi, I'm Tsukishima." He says in a proud tone, bowing.

Then, I fixate my eyes on the boy who stood behind Hinata, staring intently at me. Once he notices that I had caught him, he began stuttering. "I—Uh...I'm Kageyama! Tobio Kageyama." The ravenette puffs up his chest, bowing towards me.

"Ah, yes! I know about you. Did you happen to go to Kitagawa Daiichi during middle school?" I ask, tilting my head to take a mental picture of him.

"Uh..yes. How did you know?"

"I used to hang around the volleyball club a lot and knew a bit about you. But I never would have thought you would go here!" I quickly realize how rude my response appeared. "Oh, crap! I didn't mean it like that."

He shakes his head violently, shutting down my apology. "It's no issue, Y/n! It's great that you know me— I mean— thank you for recognizing me," he says loudly, bowing once more. It became obvious that Kags was a bit nervous to meet me, but it wasn't anything threatening. His bright pink cheeks were more warming than scary.

"Well, Kageyama, it's great to see you again," I giggle. Then, three boys are seen in the corner of my eye, seeming eager to say their hellos. Taking initiative, I greet them. "Uh, hi guys."

"Hey!" They say, maneuvering towards me. The black-haired one shakes my hand first, squeezing it gently. "I'm Ennoshita. Pleased to meet you." Then comes the other two: one with a buzz cut, and the other with dirty blonde hair. "I—I'm Kenoshita! And this is Narita!" He points to the buzz cut boy. "We're all second years, by the way!"

Surprised by so many greetings, I can't help but hold my hands out in front of my face. "Oh— okay! Nice to meet you, too."

Somebody abruptly suggests, "Why don't you guys give her some space?" Knowing the voice too well to forget it, I grew excited. Sugawara had arrived, finally. I was looking forward to seeing him more than anybody else. "Hey, Y/n. Glad to have you," He says, secretly winking at me.

"Thank you."

-

"Let's talk positions for the practice game," Daichi commands, lifting a dry erase board to face everybody."Here's the plan I came up with."

The club was sat in a big circle on the court facing Daichi and Takeda. I accompanied them as well, pretending I knew what they were talking about.

"I'd like to have you two working as a pair." Daichi points to Kageyama and Hinata, who gave each other low growls. "And since Tsukishima is our tallest player, I think that would give us a benefit against Seijoh."

'Seijoh? Isn't that short for Aoba Johsai?' I think, raising my hand slightly. "Uh, so you guys are playing against Seijoh?"

Daichi nods. "Yes, Aoba Johsai. We have a practice game with them this week. They're a very strong team, so we need to be in our top game. Are you gonna be joining us..or?"

"Yeah, I will. I'm asking because I know a bit about the players on that team. If you'd like, I can give you guys some advice on their style."

"Wait! Why is Hinata in the one position that needs a tall guy?" Tanaka blurts, as he points towards Shoyos name that was written on the board. It stood in front of the net doodle, telling us he'd be playing as a blocker.

Hinata takes notice of this and grows annoyed. "You're saying Tsukishima and I are playing middle blockers?!" It seemed that he wasn't very fond of Tsuki.

"Timeout!" Takeda strikes the air with his hands, before reaching to his side to unfold a small handy book. "I think I need an overview of the positions.. let's start with the setter. That's the basic control tower— the ones who set people up for attacks. Then there are the wing spikers. They're the rounder that sort of.. maintains the balance between offense and defense. And middle blockers block the other teams' attacks and score points using quick attacks. They also act as a decoy to lead away from the opponent blockers! Is that right?" He asks, looking up to the team captain for reassurance.

He nods his head, putting his palms together. "There is a position that specializes in defense, but we don't need to worry about that right now. So far, that's the positions!"

"Well, Hinata should be the 'number one decoy'!" Kageyama quickly rises, looking towards the redhead. I look towards Kiyoko who is just as confused as me about what he blabbered. "Why don't we use you as a distraction to get points? We'll be using quick attacks, that way the other spikers can do some damage! You'll take down guys like Tsukishima and take them right down the garden path like the idiots they are." Kageyama spoke in a determined manner.

Yamaguchi defended the boy, saying, "Hey! Don't imply Tsuki's an idiot!" But is quickly shut down by Tsukishima, being told to shut up. "Oh.. sorry."

'These first years sure are interesting..and rude, if I'm being honest. Why is it that they're so bossy and demanding?' I say to myself, bringing my knees up and resting my head on them. Although we hadn't done anything physical, I was beginning to grow tired.

"Hinata, when we play, you better be on your best level! If you mess up even one bit, all of our attacks are gonna start to fall apart, got it?" Kageyama strikes Hinata, making him feel frightened and cornered.

"Come on, Kageyama. Hinata is already under a lot of pressure, why say things that make him feel bad?" I whisper to him, as he began to feel concerned for Shoyo.

Tanaka pats Hinatas back, attempting to calm him. "Yeah but- blocking is the most important thing here! No matter how high he can jump, he's still a shorty pants."

What he had told everybody started a riot between the players. Each of them argued about whether or not Hinata should be one of the middle blockers. As for the third years, we rubbed our foreheads in frustration. But it wasn't as if I could expect anything different from these boys.

"Don't you worry, Hinata. As long as you do your best, the team will be proud-"

"R-right! I promise I won't mess up!" Hinata perks up while his face turned a crimson color out of stress. "I'll block as much as you want me to and be the best decoy! I'll serve, I'll do attacks, I'll block! I'll do whatever you say, captain!"

Because of how anxious he grew, he dropped onto the gym floor not long after his rant, breathing heavily. Hinata had made it clear to me that volleyball was a very serious thing for him, and other players' opinions on him meant almost everything. But thank goodness, our third years reassured him that he would be just fine for the practice game.

From how much I'd seen, I thought that the club wasn't too much of an issue to attend to. That was if I wasn't helping first years get back up onto their feet after short-circuiting. Kiyoko had even told me that I did a great job on my first day at practice. So I was sure that I'd be a benefit to the team.

Now, my biggest concern was seeing Oikawa.

-

Comments and votes are super appreciated! Pls give me recognition for my chapters, I work so so so hard.

- sugawaras beauty mark☆

[forevealuna]

So, I’ve been posting about her on DeviantART— but if there are some Creepypasta kids still out there— check this shit out. She is the first Creepypasta OC I’ve made in a couple years. Her original concept was just a slasher/horror sona— but I’ve fallen into hold habits and fell back in love with the Creepypasta fandom. Lemme know what y’all think!

--The Final Girl Becomes The Slasher--

Name: Juniper Adora Villanueva

Nickname (optional): Juni-- (a nickname her family and friends name her growing up, she stuck with it since she only wants to remember that as her name).

Kill count (How many characters has your character killed? optional): about 20 people, including the slasher that failed countless times to take her life, resulting in emotional, mental and physical scarring and losing vision in her right eye. (your left-- just for verification).

Proxy for (optional, you don't need to pick a side if you wish to be neutral): she’s pretty neutral, but likes hanging out with “s-man,” as she likes to call him.

Weapon(s): a barb-wire, nail-coated, and wooden baseball bat.

Gender + Pronouns: cis-female (she/her)

Sexuality: Demisexual

Age: 19

Date of birth/death: July 8

Height + Weight: 5’2 and 154LBs

Species: human

Scent: floral, like a mix of roses and baby powder

Appearance (picture is acceptable at bottom of ref): Juni is at a whopping 5’2, making her more on the short side. She’s also a little pudgy, which isn’t a bad thing. Her natural hair is curly and black, but she dyes it and straightens it-- then throwing it into a shorter version of Sailor moon’s iconic half-bun, half-pigtails. Her hair currently is dyed a bright red, mostly to match her long cyberpunk coat. She is blind in her right eye, and there is a nasty scar around the area, making it impossible to grow back her, so she shaves her eyebrows into sideways tear drops. Her make-up is a bit clownish, having dark purple eyeshadow around her eyes, then winged, spiked eye liner in a navy blue color. Her under eye is two thin, red triangles with dots at the bottom. In the middle of her forehead, a loose “v” shape, a few small markings above that, and a dot in the center of that. She also sports wearing very messy, dark purple lipstick. Her skin color has become more dull, and pale over time-- since she rarely goes out in the sun anymore and prefers covering up her scarring by wearing a coat all the time. Under the coat is a crop top with two buckles-- one on the neck, the other one the chest. It also twists downward, being sure to show the dark mesh top underneath. Juni also has a long pencil skirt being held up by a dark, corset-like belt. Under the skirt is a pair of dark panty hose, since she wants to cover up as much as possible, and she wears platform boots to appear taller. The amount of piercings Juni has is two facial piercings, an eyebrow piercing on her left side, and a lip piercing on her left side. She has no tattoos.

Hobbies (welding, reading, gaming, etc.): reading comics, playing video games, cooking, having a collection of creepy toys

__

Personality (including flaws in personality): Juni can often be a very bold person depending on who she is with, which can be a bad thing-- meaning she can get herself and others into trouble very quickly. She’s very care-free, and will sometimes just speak her mind without thinking-- another trait that can be bad. Like a lot of people who are trouble-makers and very bold, Juni is quite the softie. Kids, troubled teens, and people similar to her in ways are what makes her heart change tone, and she’s willing to protect them like a sister/mother figure. When Juni is overwhelmed, her personality flips a switch and she becomes very reclusive and would rather be left alone or talk to people she is closer to or can relate to.

Occupation (before becoming a pasta): she was a waitress at a family-run diner

Mental disabilities (do NOT add disabilities to your characters that you know little to nothing about, it avoids stereotyping and misrepresentation): Juni suffers from C-PTSD and survivor’s guilt-- both stemmed from surviving years worth of torment from the Slasher out for her life and losing those she cared about around her. Because of her C-PTSD, Juni will often forget how to regulate her emotions or recall good things from her past--sometimes even in that moment she’s interacting with someone and/or doing something. When she does, it is immediately plagued by the guilt she has of being the only one left alive out of her highschool friend group. This will lead her to push others away, even if she’s pretty close to them, since she’s afraid she’ll get that person hurt or even killed.

Strengths (name at least 3): With her weakened vision, Juni’s sense of hearing has heightened. Juni also is pretty strong, since learning how to wield her bat (and without accidentally injuring herself). Another thing, Juni is pretty swift and can usually take down her targets with ease.

Weaknesses (name at least 3, if your character has a strong ability like super strength, its 2 flaws to the one strength.): Juni’s vision is weakened and her blind spots are bigger because of her eye. Guns, and anything that requires two eyes she can’t do. Juni has to rely on audio cues at night.

How did your character become a proxy? (third party doesn’t need to answer, proxies do): Juni spent her days hiding out in the abandoned campsite outside of town after ultimately defeating her attack, bludgeoning him with his own weapon-- being the bat. One day, while on a limited amount of food, not having showered for a long period of time, and still caked in old blood, she saw someone in a mask looking through the campsite. Still very on edge from what happened, it being dark, and suffering from poor night vision, she grabbed her bat-- prepared to bludgeon the mysterious figure lurking in her territory-- only to find out it was someone who wanted to help her. This was after she was about to swing at the figure, a little confused by the pleas and begging for mercy. She was taken in, cleaned, fed, and sadly couldn’t get her vision correct.

Backstory: Juni had a pretty normal life growing up. She had a loving supportive family, a great friend group, and an amazing boyfriend. Also, she worked a pretty decent job, being a waitress at her family’s diner, and was top of her class. Life was pretty good.. Or so she thought. Sophomore year was here soon enough, and it would be reminding some people of how much homework, essays, or studying for final exams you’d have to do-- with the addition of planning for college-- but for Juni’s situation, that wasn’t the case. On the morning of April 20th, Juni-- and everyone in the school-- got an invitation to a party. Juni happily accepted, since she already knew her friends and boyfriend were going to be there. The party led to her seeing a mysterious figure with all black clothing--except for the coat, a red eye on the mask and a jagged smile. Juni thought her drink might have been spiked, not knowing this would be the person targeting her and all her friends. The day after the party, and Juni returned to school, everything wasn't like a typical school day. People were whispering about her, looking in her direction, and everything felt to quiet. Juni still pressed on to her locker, not minding the quiet discussions going on around her. Her locker had a putrid smell, and when she opened it-- a pool of blood and an almost unidentifiable body fell out of the locker. The body barely missed Juni, but smeared her in blood. The only way Juni recognized who it was, was because of the Letterman Jacket with her High School Boyfriend's last name on it. She screamed, sobbed, and was eventually interrogated by police about it.

Months had passed, and Christmas break was around the corner. Juni, who still mourned the loss of her boyfriend’s death, didn’t want to do anything except stay home with her family for Christmas. Sadly, her friends had booked them a trip to a ski resort in the area. It was the only thing the friends could think of to cheer Juni up. She reluctantly obliged, not wanting to upset her friends. This could definitely be a turn around in her mood, since she still had her friends, right? The ski resort was packed. It began to remind Juni of the party from April… the masked figure… then her boyfriend’s body. Her heart began racing, and she began to look for an exit, a way out. It took a lot of friends to convince her no masked man was after her, her friends, or even at the resort at all. This was reassuring to Juni, at least at the moment.

After settling in the cabin they were assigned, their hostess reassured everyone that what happened at the High School wasn’t going to happen at the campsite, for the ski resort has police strolling and people checking up on the guests. Juni felt a lot better about this. She regained confidence after being told this, and planned to really enjoy Christmas break now. That night, while everyone was settling into the cabin, one of Juni’s male friends discovered the bathroom wasn’t working too well. Instead of wanting to call someone to come take a look, he decided to go out in the dead of night. The next morning, he didn’t return. This worried Juni a lot and her friends tried to reassure her that it wasn’t anything bad. They knew the guy closely, and he probably got lost or ended up sleeping in the wrong cabin. Juni still insisted they looked, becoming a little on edge about it. Everyone finally came to a decision, and began searching for their missing friend. Not too far from where they were, they found the body. The head trauma was very similar to Juni’s boyfriend. She retched and began crying, while the rest of her friends panicked and cried as well. This time, Juni saw the figure not too far from where they were, still watching, a bloodied wired and nailed bat in his hand. Calling the police was a sham, for when they arrived, the man was nowhere to be found.

It was finally the summer of her Junior year, she had lost more friends to the hands of the figure that has been tormenting her for a year now. Juni experienced a lot of sleepless nights, set up traps during the night to keep her safe, had to take medication, and keep a journal on her for when she forgot about something or even wanted to document her night terrors. It was all the same. The figure, her friends, her boyfriend, then her. The friend group was now her, and two of her friends since elementary school. They were like sisters to her. She would tell them everything that happened, her nightly rituals, and then go into paranoid ramblings or simply murmurer herself into a state of dissociation that lasted 20 minutes-- simply because it was too overwhelming or she tried to remember something and another thing hit her intrusively. After more reassurance-- and safely snapping her out of her zone, she felt better. Her friends invited her over for a sleepover, since their parents were going to be out of town for that weekend and they got the house to themselves. Juni, of course, had to be talked into it. It could be fun, right? Juni got to the house, looking around before knocking. Her friends answered, and welcomed her in. Snacks were set up, drinks, and they got the backyard to themselves, completely fenced in, a security system that would sound and contact the police if an unknown figure forced an entering. The neighborhood was also supposed to be on watch for any suspicious activity. Juni felt very safe. After deciding to go swimming and chatting outside, the soda Juni drank went through her system and she needed a bathroom bad. She got out of the pool and began wandering through the house, going upstairs, and finally finding it. After washing up, it oddly sounded too quiet downstairs. She didn’t hear music, or laughing, or indication that anyone was there. Slowly, yet quietly, she came down the stairs and began looking around. As she drew towards the living room, there was a movie playing. Oh! They must be okay! Juni reassured herself for once, but went to talk and touch the top of one of her friends’ heads, instantly pulling back. Blood.. Was on her hand. She began to walk around the couch, no noise could escape her lips as she nearly fell, her hands drawn to her face. Both of them were bashed quite brutally, then propped up on the couch to look alive. This was her breaking point. She began yelling, both in Spanish and English, calling the killer a coward and wanting her to take her next. She wasn’t afraid anymore, until he actually appeared from behind the stairs. She panicked and began running to the kitchen to find anything. The police won’t do anything or believe her. The kitchen had a rolling island counter! If she could somehow push it fast enough and get the wheels stuck, the killer wouldn’t be able to escape! She went and hid in the kitchen behind the counter, waiting for him to draw closer. It took forever, but finally.. Footsteps! Counting down mentally in her head, she jumped up and pushed the counter as hard as she could. One of the wheels broke off as it collided with the killer and pinned him against the wall. Now, time to get out of here and call the police! Before Juni could even pick up the phone, something came hurling at her eye, suddenly blacking out.

She woke up in the hospital after a few days, hooked up to a monitor. Something felt off, she couldn’t seem to see out of her.. Eye! What happened to her eye? She panicked when seeing the doctor and demanded for a mirror. The doctor asked many questions before handing it over, standing there to assure she wouldn’t do anything drastic. The right portion of her face was bandaged up, soaked a tad in blood. She whimpered, putting fingers close to the bandages. She asked how it happened, and the doctor informed her they found her unconscious, face down with a puddle of blood next to her head. He also informed her that her friends were long gone when they arrived on the scene and couldn’t find the attacker. Overwhelmed by this, Juni broke down and began screaming that the doctor and nurses leave while thrashing and throwing stuff. Juni was released a couple weeks later, since the doctors did a psych evaluation and somehow deemed Juni well enough to leave, despite still being in complete shambles. She couldn’t work, couldn’t go to school or do school work, leaving her to drop out of High School. The new medication she had to take to help with her insomnia only made it worse for her. She officially was at the edge and felt like she had nothing else to hold onto to keep her going.

Late one night, she swore she could see the figure standing at the end of her bed. She kind of laughed and shrugged it off. Her bad vision and sleeping issues were to blame. Sleep-deprived hallucinations were common after a period of time without proper sleep. That’s when she was thrown out of bed by the figure, not believing it was a hallucination anymore. She stumbled to her feet, dodging and juking the killer as he began swinging at her. Dents in the walls, stuff on her desk becoming destroyed. This really seemed like the end, or so she thought. Juni had accidentally knocked over a chair! She kicked it towards the attacker, practically knocking him over and getting scuffed on the shoulder in the process. She pulled the bat out and from the attackers weakened hands, then pulled the mask off. Her eyes widened. It was.. Her boyfriend? No..he was dead, she saw the body.. Unless.. He had a twin she didn’t know about? She demanded to know who the man was, and it was indeed a sibling of the boyfriends, but not a twin. He longed for Juni’s life and friends, being an outcast of the family, and admired Juni for still gaining friendship while also being an outcast. Juni only knew that her bf had a brother and that was it. She didn’t know what happened to him, but that he went to juvie several times. Juni’s mouth quivered into a smile before she started laughing. “Admire me?? You did all of this.. Out of admiration? You killed your own brother, my friends, took away my vision and my future, all because you couldn’t handle your emotions and can’t make friends of your own? You call that admiration?” she exclaimed, lowering the bat close to his face. “If all of this was you wanting my life and admiring me, then let me show you how much I admire you!” she said as she began bashing him with the bat. Over, and over, and over. She stopped once she became too exhausted to swing again, and spat. “It’s finally over..” she said as she slumped onto her bed. She suddenly realized what she had done. Panic sat in and she looked around, writing a quick note to her family, grabbing the bat, the jacket the man was wearing, her shoes, and climbing out the window of her home. She fled and never looked back. No one she cared about will ever hurt again as long as she’s not there.

Rp example (must at least be one paragraph, please use proper spelling and punctuation!):

Juniper sat at the edge of the couch in the lounge, caught up on a comic book, since she can’t really read novels all too well anymore. Her leg was crossed over the other, and she didn’t look too bothered by anything around her at the moment. After a few minutes, she realized someone standing in front of her. Looking up, she closed her book and set it aside “you know I can’t see well. Use an audio cue, instead of just standing there,” she grumbled. “What the hell do you want?” she added on, folding her arms over each other. It definitely was a change adjusting to the mansion, but she still hates it when people sneak up on her or not let her know anyone is there. Not like could do much though, since it was a part of a job description to be sneaky and not heard. She’ll just have to let it slide, again.

#creepypasta #creepypasta oc #Creepypasta fanart #fanart #OC #art #final girl #horroroc #horror

[valerianka-97]

Twisted, tangled, wicked, sick.

... That is how I felt when I actually finished that article. Heaven help me...

The 12th of July is the beginning of a new era for gothic rock trio from Massachusetts - PVRIS.

Last Friday the band introduced to the world their debut single "Death Of Me" from an upcoming third album. They also released a thrilling music video for the song.

New sound, same energy.

Death Of Me was supposed to be a new rock hit but surprisingly turned out to be the dance hit instead. Many fans were confused, some were in panic that the band switched to another genre, others were slightly shocked. But everyone agreed that the song with the video alongside are something out of this world.

Evolution of sound isn't surprising, the frontwoman Lynn Gunn is known to collaborate with pop and dance artists such as Seven Lions, TBMA and some others, so the electronics that fully replased live instruments is something we could see coming.

Anyways, the band is staying true to themselves, judging by the themes and overall vibe of their new song.

Death Of Me definitely has strong old-PVRIS vibes: the lyrics are still dark and sinister and the video is moody and ominous.

In the song Lynn tells us the story of obsessive love. Obsessive, passionate and dangerous love. Or dedication. It's still a mystery whether she's referring to her love relationship or to something else. Gunn likes to hide things in plane sight, so her love life would've been too easy to refer. The song kinda reminds me of Florence & The machine's Pure Feeling, in which Florence Welch speaks about her dedication to fans and vice versa. The metaphor fits just right to that theory.

Let's speak straightforward here, fans are the best promotion machine of any artist. We can suffocate or let them breath, we can literally be the death of them, because fans are the ones who put an artist on a pedestal and fans can kick them back down. It also reminds me of something else. Something more important and global. But I will leave that thoughts for later in the article.

The music video here is another story but also is an adding to that theory. I'll talk about it more below.

First, let's take a closer look at all the mysteries in the vid.

The biblical theme is the one we notice first of all, it's very simple, and there is a reason of that obviousness. While fans are building logical connections with the first visual metaphor of the seduction of Eve by the devil in a snake's appearance with the song lyrics and then enjoying passionate sequences and the cult initiation, the most interesting metaphors are carefully hidden. The devil is in the details, guys.

The storyline of the video is built on hidden metaphors. Some of them may or may not be intentional, maybe I just built logical connections where there is none but you surely will find my observations interesting.

The seduction and the forbidden fruit are not the only symbols from the Bible. We can see the new members of cult going through initiation. But have you noticed that all of them are of different races? There are black people, asians and white people. It got to me when I wondered about the symbolism of the pyramid formed by the cultists with our trio in the heart of it - which is also may be symbolic and may represent the three ascendants of Noah (or is it too complicated? It may be unintentional). Here we've got the Tower of Babel metaphor.

Next on - the red aquarium. I've already said in a comment section for the video on YouTube that aquarium represents the falling of Adam and Eve from heaven. It's a small piece but key one, keep that in mind.

Now, remember the line in the song "I'm falling, fading, and seeing angels". This line is not just the reference to Demon Limbs. Everyone has noticed that the band made a colorful music video. And the colors in it were not chosen randomly. The band and everyone in the sequence dressed in white instead of classical culty black wearing. Knowing of the falling from heaven metaphor in the video and connecting it to the line from the song we've got our "angels" Lynn talks about. And that's not all of it.

The Tower of Babel in the Bible is known to represent a kind of an act of rebellion against God. The whole cult sequense symbolizes that at some point. The initiation almost completely recreates the holy communion. This, overall, may represent the creation of the alternative religion as a counterweight to the original one and creating their own kind of heaven on Earth, which for some may look more like hell. But that's, my friends, is parallax. Another reference to song lyrics.

And my favorite metaphor, which is also pretty simple but hidden in plain sight. The whole song with its dark, seductive, even erotic, at some poin, vibes is a hint, not to count pretty obvious visualisations in the video.

Lust. The most pleasant one of all deadly sins. Tangled bodies moving rhythmically to the heartbeat and everyone's in rapture. Passionate, isn't it? I mentioned hell lately on purpose. "One man's hell is another's God, it's all about perspective, a parallax". Lynn Gunn surely knows how to play with words and the visuals.

The storyline starts at the actual end of the music video. Why not the snake sequence? You may ask. In fact, it all begun with a snake and an apple, right?

Like I've said, the colors chosen for the video are not accidental. Red color symbolizes not only passion but also hell. And it is known that Eve was in heaven at the moment of seduction. Which led me to conclusion where the story actually begins. And the pyramid sequence is an actual end (which is to be continued).

The ones, who were fallen and forbidden to come back to heaven gardens for they've sinned, united and built their own garden on Earth and they rule it like God rules heavens.

They've sinned at God's perspective, yet they see it as holy communion from theirs.

Now let's come back to my theory of the song's meaning. Why I think it may be about the fans and something more global.

The first time I've watched and listened to the music video, it kinda reminded me of Britney Spears. Let me explain this absurd. Britney's fame became hell for her in mid-2000's. We all remember that.

That's one piece.

In 2011 Spears released a music video for the song Till The World Ends.

The sequences in that video at some point are repeated in Death Of Me: it caught my attention the second I've seen tangled bodies in a rhytmic movement. In Britney's video the storyline's mostly situated underground, where everyone is dying of the hell of a heat, and the colors in both videos are similar, also the dance-y vibe in the darkness of the underground kinda the same. That's the piece no2.

And the dance with a snake was Britney's most iconic performance back in 200(5?). That's the 3rd one.

Not only the music video led me here. Lynn's "You're a cold-blooded killer only after dark but I don't mind" also reminded me of Britney's song Criminal.

Yes, that all may be just coincidence, because "why the fck Britney Spears? Nothin' in common".

And that's when the song lyrics come up and make sense of all of it. Again, the line about hell in perspective, the line about a noose around Lynn's neck or a poison, the line about danger. I've thought about Britney Spears because she is the best example of what the pressure of huge responsibility for fanbase and fame in general can do to people. Break them, suffocate and be the death of them.

We know that coincidences are not accidental, not with PVRIS. Lynn's metaphors have always been much deeper than it has seemed, so I guess that's a good and well argumented theory.

And don't you think that it's finished. There's more.

Death Of Me also wasn't chosen to be the debut single by accident. From all written above, the song is a perfect metaphor itself for the band's prevous album. All We Know Of Heaven, All We Need Of Hell. Which makes it a great bridge between what we already know and what is soon to be released. My guess is we're about to find out more about heaven and get something else from hell.

I've done pretty heavy work in analyzing everything, and trust me, it was hell. But I enjoyed every hour of it. Twisted, huh?

P. S. While writing a draft to the article I couldn't decide whose name to place in a metaphor with the snake, so at first I wrote "devil's seduction of Eve/Lynn" and accidentally found this strange reference. EVELYNN. Two names, Eve and Lynn, in one Evelynn. And Lynn as Eve in the video. And Evelynn short names are both Eve and Lynn.. Damn, I confused it even more.

Update:

My brain almost exploded yesterday while writing all this. The article is so loaded with information, so I desided not to mention some symbols. Today, as I had a good night of sleep (after very brutal insomnia issues) I realized that the analysis can't be completed without those little details.

The names puzzle above is one of them but I mannaged to put it somehow anyway.

There are several more things to say about symbolism though. One of the them is obvious and everyone noticed it from the start but not everyone is aware of the meaning of that metaphor.

Not all of us know how to read tarot cards, me included. The representation of a tarot card "Three of Swords" - the knives Lynn, Brian and Alex pierced an apple with.

The card's meaning is a heartbreak, sorrow, grief, pain caused by someone's words or actions. It also has a meaning of emotional release and a reminder that the dark clouds building above your head will disappear and take the pain away with it.

The scene of stabbing the apple by the trio most likely symbolizes their expression of that pain and releasing it the moment the apple is pierced.

There is also a colorful symbol which is not that easy to acknowledge but is also put right in front of our sight. I had this thought since the first time I watched the video but didn't bring much attention to it. I came back to it after looking in to flowers handbook.

The flowers on the table in the music video are white lenagolds. Why lenagolds? Why not roses or lilies?

The christian legends say that lenagolds turned up on Earth with the walking of messiah. The Mother's tears that fallen when Jesus carried his cross turned into lenagolds.

Basic meaning of lenagolds is love and devotion. The definition of white lenagolds is sincerity and purity of feelings, loyalty, gratitude and luck.

Note that the flowers laying on the cult's joint table, which also may symbolize the band's devotion and love for the fanbase.

There is another hidden symbol I noticed but didn't manage to solve. Maybe some of you have thoughts on that?

When the cultists stand in two rows facing one another, at first I thought they carried flowers, this scene was really glimpse, so I played it in slow motion. They carried busts.

Not sure what that means, because I can't see whose busts there are, what I'm sure of is that this scene is related to a short shot of a woman's head with bloody tear streaking. Maybe that also reffers to that legend with lenagolds?

Anyways, thank you for reading! I hope you made it down here and I didn't waste your time

If you liked it, please reblog. Would be much appreciated!

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