#anybody wants to talk about the moment during the award ceremony that looked like a weeding?! 😂

[the-jam-to-the-unicorn]

Btw, quick question to the Zecron Fandom: Are you guys okay? Have you survived the award ceremony? 😅

#macron was this🤏 close to considering to become gay to have a chance with vova #he was in full cuddle mood during the award #not to mention the very....touchy...welcoming #i laughed so hard that Scholz was basically thirdwheeling and cockblocking #macron was full in love and it was showing #mister president you are married #yes #...and so is Zelenskyy... #yes and? #...he's not gay too... #i still dont get what you want to say. but i have no time. i have to cuddle with my guy. oh vooooovaaaaa mon chere! #anybody wants to talk about the moment during the award ceremony that looked like a weeding?! 😂

[sophie-writings]

Hi! This is the Gala anon, I was wondering if you could do a follow up where bakugou gets a little too tipsy and has to spend the night at Y/N's place? He ends up gushing about how he loves them and cuddling (maybe make out?) ensues. (You did an awesome job with the first one and I saw that someone wanted a part 2!) Thank you!

☁️ Synopsis: After a long night of drinking, will Bakugou finally confess his feelings to his crush? Part 2 to this ☁️ Character: Katsuki Bakugou  ☁️ Type: Scenario. Sfw 17+ ☁️ Warning: Light cursing. Steamy but nothing too wild. Alcohol. ☁️ Note:  This was wayyy to fun to write about! It was supposed to be a small scenario but it turned into a full blown fic!! Hope you like it!

Bakugou gulped hard while you straightened his tie. He was trying his best to look as composed as ever, but having you so close to him always had this effect on him.

Things weren't always like this. Back when you both still attended UA, Bakugou saw you as another classmate, but by the time you were graduating he had actually started to respect you as a hero. He knew you were strong and capable, and that was the only reason he accepted to work alongside you all this time. Not to mention of course, that he also found you incredibly attractive, something he hadn't noticed when you went to high school together — He was far too focused on becoming a pro hero to care about it.

Now that both of you were pro heroes, he actually paid attention to your features. The way your eyes were looking up made his knees weak, and he couldn't help but stare at your lips which, in his defense, looked really kissable.

"Shall we get going?" Your voice was enough to snap him from his trance-like state. Damn, he was going to need a drink if he wanted to get through the night. "Yeah, these paparazzi are starting to really piss me off." He groaned, pulling you close by the waist and guiding you to the main hall.

And while you looked super confident, only God knows how fast your mind was racing at the moment. Bakugou's hand on your waist was driving you insane. "Why is he doing it?" "Does it mean anything?" "Is this just an easier way to pose for pictures without much effort?". These were only some of the millions of questions going through your mind at the moment.

Bakugou led you to the main hall, where all of your old classmates and co-workers were gathered, waiting for the ceremony to start.

"Kacchan, Y/n, is that you?" A familiar voice made you snap your head back, and a familiar face with the biggest and kindest eyes you know made a smile crawl to your lips almost instantly. "It's been a while."

"Izu!" You smiled, now stopping on your tracks, which caused Bakugou to stop as well. "It's been so long! How have you been?"

You and Izuku were really close during high school days. He was basically your best friend during the three years you spent at UA, besides the girls of course. He listened to you ramble on and on about how strong Bakugou was, and he always told you that you just might have a crush on his childhood friend, which you always denied. You couldn't deny it anymore, but it was pleasant to reminisce about the old days.

"I'm sorry, I kind of disappeared didn't I?" He scratches the back oh his head, laughing sheepishly. "I went on a secret mission, and I couldn't tell anybody about it until recently."

"I heard about the operation on the news! I don't even know how I haven't noticed since Bakugou went missing in action for some time as well..." You say, remembering about the recent raid made to a League of Villains hideout. Bakugou was one of the heroes chosen to go, much like Izuku. He didn't tell you a thing about it until you found out yourself.

Speaking of Bakugou — you didn't know, but he was actually silently fuming at the moment. The sudden way your eyes lit up when you saw Izuku made his eyebrow twitch, and he doesn't remember the last time you smiled this brightly when looking at him.

Bakugou snatched a drink from a waiter passing back, chugging it down in a swift movement, trying to drown out the conversation you were having with his childhood friend. He wasn't used to drinking alcohol, even when both of you would go out for drinks, he's stick to water or some juice.

But he wasn't doing that tonight.

By the time you had stopped talking to Izuku, Bakugou had already downed 3 drinks, even though you spent 10 minutes tops chatting with the green-haired hero.

"Woah there, someone's rowdy today." You giggled, grabbing a glass of champagne and taking a sip from it. "Nervous about the awards?"

"As if!" He said, downing another glass in one big gulp and moving to grab another, but you were able to grab his arm before he could. "What are you-"

"I know you can take care of yourself, but you're not used to drinking alcohol, Bakugou." You said, pulling his arm closer to your chest. Bakugou blushed at your actions but looked away before you could notice.  "Take it easy, okay?" You smiled the smile he — oh so adored and he couldn't bring himself to say no to you.

"Whatever." He grumbles, before snatching his arm from your grasp and pulling him closer to him by your waist.

The sudden motion made you slightly lean against his chest, and before you could even process what was happening, Bakugou's face was inches away from your own. His red eyes staring intensely into your own.

"You and Deku seemed pre-" Before he could even finish his sentence, Bakugou was cut off by the announcer's voice.

"Welcome to the annual Hero Gala! I am Present Mic and I'll be your host tonight!"

"Oh! It's starting..." You whisper, trying to focus on anything else but the smell of Bakugou's cologne mixed with alcohol filling your nostrils. Damn, he smelled good. "We should go!"

You grabbed the blond's hand, leading him to the main stage area, and trying your best to brush away the thoughts filling your head.

The rest of the gala went by as smoothly as possible. Izuku, Bakugou, and Todoroki won the main awards of the night and each gave speeches in their own peculiar way. Izuku, shedding some tears, Todoroki thanking everyone BUT his father and Bakugou sprouting some nonsense about beating them all next year.

You and a few others actually won awards as well, each on their own category. You couldn't be happier to be making your family and everyone else proud by taking home an award. Even Bakugou congratulated you on your win, which was rare for him.

After the award show was done, the celebration continued at the after-party. And before you knew, Kaminari and Sero were distributing tequila shots and you had lost sight Bakugou.

"Hey Mina, have you seen Bakugou around?" You asked the pink girl who looked like she had a little too much to drink as well.

"Katsuki? He's over there with the rest of the squad, I think Kaminari wanted him to try some shots."

Ah fuck.

You thanked Mina before speedwalking towards the place she pointed and finding the rest of the Bakusquad trying to hold the explosive man back.

"What's going on?" You snickered at their exasperated expressions. "Why did you think giving shots to Bakugou would be a good idea? You know he never drank this much before." You said.

Bakugou's head snapped towards you, and he finally was able to get away from Sero and Kirishima's grasp, using the opportunity to swing his arms around your body and placing his forehead on your shoulder. Your eyes widened at his actions, but you were too shocked to move, and only looked over at the other guys, who chuckled.

"I'm sorry about that Y/n." Kirishima sighed before pulling his phone out of his pocket. "I'll call for a taxi, is it okay if Bakubro sleeps over at your place? I'd take him home, but I need to take care of the rest of the squad-"

"It's okay Kiri!" You reassured. "Bakugou helped me out a bunch of times when I was the drunk one."

"Thanks, Y/n, you're the best!" He smiles. "The taxi's outside already, please take good care of him."

You nodded at Kirishima before leading Bakugou outside. He was still clinging to you, which got you a few confused stares from strangers and thumbs up from your girlfriends. Even Izuku blushed before mouthing a "use protection" to you, to which you responded by violently shaking your head in hopes he realized he got it all wrong.

The car ride was silent, as Bakugou seemed to be in a bad mood, probably because he had to go home early.

You sighed in relief as the taxi pulled over next to your complex and you helped Bakugou out of the taxi and into your condo, which was at the top of the building.

"You can have the bed, I'll sleep on the couch tonight." You whispered, helping him sit on your bed. "I'll get some fresh air and then I'll come to check on you, okay? Call me if you need anything." You got out of your room and walked to the balcony, staring at the city below.

You weren't able to confess your feelings to Bakugou tonight. Not that you didn't have the chance, you just chickened out every time he got dangerously close you. Well, it wasn't your fault he was so attractive that every time he looked at you with his red eyes you could feel your heartbeat race and your knees turn into jelly.

Being his friend was easy, and even though you wanted more, the chance of ruining the friendship you had built after so much effort was too great to ignore.

"What are you doing here all alone." Bakugou's rough voice made you jump a little. You hadn't noticed his presence since you were so deep in thought.

He got closer to you, and you could smell his cologne again. "Thinking about Deku again?" He muttered.

"Uh?" You were genuinely confused. Did Bakugou misunderstand your relationship with Izuku?

"I noticed the way your face lit up when you saw him, you ain't slick." He continued, bringing his face so close to yours, your noses were almost touching. "You like him, don't you?"

"Uh, no, that's weird." You managed to say. "Izu's my best friend, he's like a brother to me."

Bakugou tilted his head to the side in confusion. "And why did you smile at him like that back at the gala?"

"I  haven't talked to him in forever!" You said more confidently this time. "I just missed Izu."

"And why do you call him Izu, yet you keep using my last name?" Bakugou blurted out, causing you to widen your eyes at his sudden outburst. "We're close, aren't we? Yet you keep calling me Bakugou!"

"Wait, wha-"

"Fuck, I wish I didn't find you so damn attractive to the point I couldn't focus the whole night. I hate the fact your lips look as if they're begging for me to kiss them. I hate the way you call Deku by his own nickname..." He rambled.

"Bakugou..."

"There you go again." He brought one of his hands to your cheek. "I fucking hate that I like you and you haven't noticed it yet! I'm right here, dammit." Bakugou said, bringing his face closer to yours. He hesitated for a second, but you got on your tiptoes, finally connecting your lips. Using his free hand, the strong man pulled you closer by your waist, giving it a little squeeze, and you wrapped your arms around his neck.

The kiss started off slow, but it rapidly got hungrier, as Bakugou sucked on your lower lip and squeezed your waist once again, making you gasp. He used this opportunity to slip his tongue into your mouth, causing you to moan into the kiss.

His large hands went down your waist and using his strength, Bakugou held you up by the back of your tights, and you wrapped your legs around his waist, never breaking the kiss.

Bakugou carried you back to your room and sat down on your bed, you know straddling his lap.

Your arms leave Bakugou's neck and cup his face finally breaking the kiss, and you stared lovingly into his eyes which shined brighter than you've ever seen before.

"You don't know how long I've been waiting to do this." You whisper, resting your forehead on his.

"You should've told me sooner, I've also been waiting to do this for some time now." He answers, his hands still on your thighs, caressing them tenderly.

"Well, you're kinda hard to read Katsu." You giggled. "How would I know you were interested in me if all you did was frown?"

"Call me that again." He whispered, completely ignoring the rest of your sentence.

"Uh, Katsu?"

"Again."

"Katsu."

"Hell yeah, I'm Katsu." He grabbed you by the neck, pulling into a kiss once again.

He was definitely still tipsy and he knew that. There's no way the Bakugou Katsuki would let someone call him Katsu without him complaining, even though it was you, and he loved to sound of it.

But he'd leave that to "next morning Bakugou". Now he was more focused on how to find your zipper using one hand only.

#bnha #bnha x reader #bakugou x reader #bnhabookclub #mha #bnha imagine #mha imagines #bnha scenarios #mha scenarios #bnha fic #mha fic #bakugo katsuki #bakugou katsuki #bakugou headcanons #bnha bakugou #bakugou katsuki headcanons #katsuki bakugo x reader #bakugou katsuki scenarios

[yaz-the-spaz]

But I want to know your theory. :(

ok ok i guess i’ll spill…i was kinda hesitant to share just cause i’m still not all that solid in my belief in it myself but basically it seems like maybe ziam has made it a tradition to have some kind of couples trip most years (if not every year) in february ever since 2014…

(btw for future reference this ask is a continuation of this ask re ziam both being publicly in vegas earlier this year)

ugh sorry guys! hit enter by accident and posted this wayyyy before i was anywhere near finished lol…this will be updated within the hour (if it doesn’t take me too long to get my thoughts out)

narrator: she did not finish it within the hour.

…

ok so part of the reason i’ve been hesitant to share this is because a good portion of it is VERY speculative and just based on a lot of guesswork and assumptions, but also there’s the fact that it feels like this is something major that more people in the fandom (or at least someone, other than little ass me lol) would have noticed before now and it kind of freaks me out that maybe no one else has?? (unless ofc i just haven’t happened to see any other posts there are about it idk)… 

also fyi a lot of what i propose throughout this is heavily based on info from this post just to make sure i remember to site my sources before we get into it lol

alright now onto the actual theory…

SO. all this started with me scrolling through old posts from late 2013/early 2014 and being reminded of the fuckery that was zayn’s bday that year (with the douche canoe crew and everyone pretending like liam was barely there as seemingly some sort of weird over-the-top cover-up)…the same party that seemed kinda like liam’s possible “introduction” to the malik family as more than just zayn’s friend/as his possible significant other. which was also only a month after that suspicious engagement-looking ring first showed up on zayn’s ring finger in december 2013 from bts midnight memories mv footage (and which stayed around as a necklace throughout january 2014 and early febuary 2014 right before the first appearance/debut of the mandala tat in mid feb). 

bts midnight memories mv with the ring in view - dec 2013:

(suspicious?) malik family outing/celebration with the ring in view - dec (or possibly late nov?) 2013:

[putting the rest under the cut cause as per usual with me this got insanely long]

liam and aunt zileh at zayn’s bday party - jan 2014:

liam and one of the little cousins at zayn’s bday party - jan 2014:

then sometime in between late jan and early feb 2014 liam went on a trip to barbados with his whole family (and supposedly also sophia lol more on that later*) while zayn was SUPPOSEDLY still home and steadily “posting” pics of himself at home with various members of his family (with the ring on a necklace clearly visible in the pics lol), anddd as some have also pointed out his hair was suspiciously unchanged in these pics despite his claim of getting a haircut BEFORE most of the pics were posted lol

zayn in family pics with the ring on a necklace - late jan/early feb 2014 (sorry i’m not the one who cropped his fam out lol):

but yet we’re supposed to believe zayn - who had just gotten awarded the asian ambassadorship for the VERY FIRST time - mysteriously (and willingly) MISSED the ceremony on feb. 5th with absolutely no explanation. which…we all know how big a deal that was to him from the way he talked about it and how honored he was when he went in 2015…which begs the question if he was really just home not doing much of anything at the time in 2014 why in the world would he just pass/bail on that HUGE HONOR with no explanation??? mayhaps because he was actually already an ocean away with liam and fam in barbados celebrating his engagement (and getting his own “introduction” to the payne family) and literally COULD NOT ATTEND?

anyway so then, we have him getting the mandala tat around feb 18th 2014 - or at least this is the day he debuted it on his old ig, so the date may be a few days off from when he actually got it - but this still would’ve been shortly after they got back from the barbados trip when he debuted this particular tat (aka another solidification of the engagement??) 

THEN we get the very first ig ziam likes from the famous and beloved aunt zileh (!!!) in this same month (still feb for reference, but she continues steadily and heavily liking stuff all the way through april when she seems to cool down again). fast forward to the 2014 brits at the end of february where we have the infamous moment with 1) ziam giddy as fucking ever, 2) zayn whispering into and practically mawling liam’s neck in public, 3) liam talking about how it was great to “fill each other in” on what they were up to during their break while zayn’s just steady standing there smiling like a loon and then 4) liam still later being like ‘you don’t wanna know’ when asked what he got up to (and zayn still grinning like a fool)

ziam being gross at brits 2014:

so to sum up so far: 1) one of them possibly proposed around nov/dec 2013 (or that’s my best guess anyway based on the evidence lol), 2) then zayn shows up with a suspiciously-engagement-looking ring in dec 2013, 3) then all the weirdness with liam’s attendance at zayn’s bday party a month later (possibly also liam’s formal intro to the malik family), 4) then liam takes his barbados trip with his fam (and supposedly sophia lol*) just a couple weeks later while “zayn” stays home and posts family pics (but is very likely secretly on the trip with liam lol which is also possibly zayn’s formal intro the payne family and a belated celebration of their engagement), 5) and then we get the beginning of aunt zileh’s likes, 6) the debut of zayn’s mandala tat, 7) and the 2014 brits wildness…all in the space of like 3 months. and most of it happening in FEBRUARY. what a wild fucking journey right?

*side note/fun fact: liam and his fam were posting stuff regularly throughout the duration of the barbados vacay but there were literally zero pics of sophia posted from this trip until like dec 2014 or sometime around then when like ONE random pic suddenly surfaced/was posted and lots of ppl had already speculated that sophia was never there in the first place so once this one pic came up that idea got upgraded to people theorizing that they maybe had some of the fam go back a second time later in the year just to stage take photos to retroactively prove/authenticate the narrative that sophia was there lol

but anyway so back to the actual matter at hand - most of that shit happened in february right? specifically the barbados trip (aka the possible engagement celebration trip)…and when i was talking about all this to a friend we realized ZIAMI WAS ALSO IN FEBRUARY. AND SO WAS THIS YEAR’S VEGAS SHIT. AND THEN. AND THEN. My friend did some research and there was apparently this little known/barely talked about article (or at least barely talked about that i’m aware of) about liam taking a TRIP TO THE MALDIVES IN FEBRUARY 2016… which coincidentally (or not lol considering these shady ass hoes) is also around the same time he got his 4 tattoo (I believe this was the first article, or at least one of the first articles, that mentioned the tat’s debut) 

BUT WAIT. 

THE INSANE SHIT DOES NOT END THERE FOLKS.

GUESS WHICH MONTH THE CARTIER BRACELET FIRST DEBUTED?

FUCKING FEBRUARY 2016.

specifically on liam’s wrist in preparation for the 2016 brits (photo posted to his brits stylist’s ig on feb 23rd). and he didn’t take it off till like june.

so. quick timeline:

february 2016 - maldives trip and debut of liam’s 4 tattoo (around feb 21st); debut of cartier bracelet via liam (feb 23rd); (there was also that valentine’s day roses pic liam posted feb 14th of this year which was quite interesting considering he and c hadn’t even been officially announced as a “thing” yet…ofc we know it still got retroactively attributed to her anyway but whatever, we all know who it was really for lol 😏)

february 2017 - i don’t have anything on this year, partly cause i stopped paying as close attention due to heavy ramping up of stunts, although if anyone has more concrete info on this period that hints at anything please do hit me up and i will add it in, but anyway just based on a little light research there does appear to be a good period of inactivity from both of them during this time (as in both of them had quite a bit of time in february where they were pretty inactive on sm, not being papped, and essentially mia and would have potentially had time to go on a private trip) - UPDATE: HOLY SHIT I CANNOT BELIEVE I FORGOT ABOUT THIS BUT THIS IS THE YEAR LIAM SHOWED UP AT THE BRITS WITH THE MOTHERFUCKING 25 ON HIS JACKET AND FUCKED SIMON ALL THE WAY UP BY SWERVING ON HIS UGLY BITCH ASS SPEECH IN FRONT OF GOD AND ENTIRE WORLD (and i think also thanked zayn in his speech if i’m not mixing that up with another year??) - all on feb 23rd to be specific.

february 2018 - ZIAMI OBVIOUSLY (which specifically started feb 22nd, or at least that’s the day i’m counting it as ‘started’ cause it’s the day liam joined zayn in miami, can’t recall the exact day zayn arrived but pretty sure it was only a couple days before that)

february 2019 - zayn starts wearing this distinctive fishhook earring in all his ig pics, which on the surface seems like a pretty small thing, but quite possibly commemorates their famous august 2014 fishing trip (directly after which he also started wearing a fish hook pendant on a necklace back in 2014); this was also another period they were pretty quiet/mia as far as i can recall, although again if anybody has more concrete info from this time that could point to something please let me know, but anyway point being they again would have had a good chunk of time to possibly go on a private trip together

february 2020 - VEGAS BABY

ofc i’m sure you all will notice one year was left out - february 2015 they were on tour with no breaks coming anytime soon so they obviously weren’t able to go on a trip that year. BUT. february 14th 2015 (aka valentine’s day lol) is also the day liam was famously papped with some small shopping bags that looked suspiciously but precisely like the type that usually come from a jewelry store, and then later that same night they had a performance (for otra tour) where we have zayn pictured wearing a new gold bracelet (as in he hadn’t been seen wearing it ever before on tour or anywhere else) - btw the op of this linked post actually marks this day as the debut of the cartier bracelet but there’s a lot of counter speculation that it’s not and given that it doesn’t quite look like the cartier bracelet looked in later pics (it’s more round and more gold than the cartier bracelet which imo looks more angular and more kind of a two-tone/silvery-gold than this vday bracelet) i’m inclined to lean more towards it just being a regular but still very sweet vday-gifted bracelet. but anyway back to more important stuff. now considering this was literally just a little over a month before zayn left - and one of my theories for zayn leaving was that it was possible he felt it was the only way to save his relationship with liam…i mean if they were still giving each other vday presents they were clearly still VERY in love at this point. like that’s not the kind of thing you’d expect from a couple that was on the rocks and on the verge of breaking up and i know a lot of ppl (myself included for a brief minute) speculated that zayn leaving the band meant he maybe left liam too/or things weren’t working out b/t them or whatever, but given this context of the vday gifts just a few weeks before him leaving that doesn’t really line up…what does line up though is him being so in love and so sick of the bs that he might be driven to just be done with it all (as far as the stress of the band and mgmt bs is concerned at least). and ofc liam did say that zayn is the most emotionally impulsive/emotionally driven out of all them so when you think about it it really shouldn’t come as that much of a surprise…

anyway, in conclusion: 

it appears quite possible ziam has made it a couples tradition (ever since that first honeymoonish vacay in 2014) to go on some sort of trip/getaway together around the end of every february (or at least do something special together/for each other when they can’t) and in further conclusion I AM NOT OKAY AND WILL NEVER BE OVER THIS REALIZATION OKAY THANKS BYE 😭😭😭😭😭🌈🌈🌈 

#asks #anons #ziam #ziam february #ziam engagement #ziam anniversary #ziam theories #ziami #ziam vegas #(btw ziam vegas 2020 was feb 23rd but i didn't wanna ruin the aesthetic of the line by putting it in there so i just added it here lol) #ziam jewelry #ziam bracelets #cartier bracelets #aunt zileh #ziam tattoos #mandala tattoo #zayn's mandala tattoo #liam's 4 tattoo #ziam coincidences #ziam masterposts #zayn leaving #ugh i'm soooo sorry guys i did not anticipate this taking me a full 4 goddamn hours wtf #(i started this at 10:30pm and it is now 2:18am what in the actual hell is my brain whyyyy am i like this) #but anyway i really hope this gets a a good amount of notes for all the work (read: blood; sweat & tears lol) i put into #getting all this together in a coherent way lol #(cause y'all do not wanna see the mess of a convo this spawned from - honestly it is A PIPING HOT MESS lol) #anyway enjoy folks #(good lord what is wrong with me i literally just added a whole nother extra hour of work for myself by deciding to add gifs and pics #and more links...it is now past 3am...i have a PROBLEM)

[rogersradio]

bohrhap boys as dads

ben: helicopter dad

- p r o t e c t i v e

- the whole house is babyproofed by the time you were 5 months along

- if anything had a corner or a knob on it, it was proofed

- “ben the baby won’t even be crawling until a year from now-“

“better safe then sorry, y/n”

- he even had the security system checked again

- he assembled the whole nursery by himself because he didn’t trust anybody else to do it

- joe came over and “helped” but all he really did was nail in a shelf and spent the rest of the time decorating it

- he spent hours reviewing and deciding on the safest car seat when you went to register at target

- and he spent even more time assembling and securing it into his car + all the mirrors and secret stash of toys in the middle compartment incase of any meltdowns

- he’s definitely a girl dad

- he always dresses her in the morning

- it’s always dresses with stockings or pink, ruffled onesies and bows because she’s his little princess

- hand holding is a MUST

- when it’s time for preschool, ben literally googles and tours every single one you mention to him because his daughter needs the best of the best

- he picks her up on fridays if he isn’t filming

- he always plays her favorite music until she falls asleep in the backseat

- he always drives a littler slower on those days

joe: chaotic dad

- joe is literally a man child

- he cant resist himself when you’re registering for stuff

- “y/n look how cute this is”

“omg look at this shirt it has dinosaurs on it”

“he needs this, y/n, trust me i know-“

- he doesn’t start the nursery until you’re three weeks out

- yet he somehow finds a way to finish it before your due date

- your son is literally a mini joe

- his favorite nursery music quickly became the piano version of bohemian rhapsody because that’s all joe played since he was born

- joe cherished every single moment with his boy

- he got up every time in the night and switched with you as soon as he could so he could rock him to sleep

- he would always tell crazy, exaggerated stories to him when he was older

- you would come home to find them prowling around the house, ducking down behind the couches to avoid being seen by the imaginary dinosaurs that were hunting them down

- he’s the biggest cheerleader at your son’s baseball games

- he always sits behind the dugout and wears the shirt with your son’s name on the back and a dad™️ baseball hat

- “C’MON BLUE”

“that wasn’t even CLOSE to the box!”

“that’s my boy!!”

- he always takes him out for ice cream afterwards even if they lost because he was “so incredibly proud of his son”

gwilm: soft dad

- literally the softest parent

- he wants everything you want

- he paints the nursery navy and has a space theme to it because brian may

- he uses amazon for literally everything

- “you need anything? let me order it really quick”

- he invests in one of those cribs that stand right next to your bed so you don’t have to get out of bed during the night

- buys like 5 monitors so you can watch the baby from anywhere in the house

- he’ll watch the monitor like a hawk

- “he’s breathing right?”

“yes he is”

“ok wanted to make sure”

- v v gentle

- he’ll rock his son in his rocking chair at night and just stare at him because wow that’s his

- reads a lot of books to him

- you’ll come in every night for the first 5 years of his life and they’ll be reading some book about dinosaurs or space or cars

- m a t c h i n g o u t f i t s

- he always finds matching suits that are identical to his so when they go to movie premieres or award ceremonies they can look the same

- cannot scold for the life of him

- your son will throw a tantrum and he’ll come running to you

- “y/n tell him he can’t throw his toys”

“why didn’t you tell him”

“i just can’t- we’ve talked about this”

rami: natural dad

- has no idea what he’s doing at first

- “why are babies so expensive”

- after your daughter is born though he becomes a natural

- he holds her for the first time and realizes he would die for her

- spends 10 minutes getting her into her car seat because he doesn’t want to hurt her

- he looks in the rear view mirror every 10 seconds on the ride back to watch you with her and realizes how lucky he is

- makes the fact that he is a dad KNOWN

- “yeah well my daughter” becomes more frequent then “live aid on day one”

- the ultimate chef dad

- your daughter could ask for anything and he would make it

- micky mouse pancakes? done

- spaghetti with blue noodles? easy

- cereal with sprinkles? don’t tell mom

- he lets her do his makeup when you’re not home

-you’ll come home to hear laughter from your bathroom and walk into your eyeshadow kit open and rami with lipstick not even close to his lips

- he takes her on set all the time

- they even make a little actors chair for her with her name on it because she comes so much (it was a birthday gift)

- when they’re not filming she’ll come on set and play pretend for hours while rami just watches her grow up (which he is not happy about)

#borhap cast #borhap #ben hardy #ben hardy imagine #ben hardy x reader #joe mazzello #joe mazzello imagine #joe mazzello x reader #gwilm lee #gwilm lee imagine #gwilm lee x reader #ben hardy headcannons #joe mazzello headcannons #gwilm lee headcannons #rami malek #rami malek imagine #rami malek x reader #rami malek headcannons #borhap imagine

[heyyyharry]

My Girl Series: Chapter 2 - Homeward Bound

…in which childhood friends meet again, this time, at a funeral.

Series description: Y/N falls in love with the older boy next door who doesn’t feel the same, years later they meet again at a funeral.

AU: actor!harry, older!harry, younger!y/n; (4-year age gap)

Chapter 1 - Treehouse: Y/N falls in love with the older boy next door who doesn’t feel the same.

wattpad link

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Four years had gone by, and the small town called Holmes Chapel had partly faded from Harry's memories. He had his own life now, which was more than the life of any ordinary 22-year-old, and of course, he must make room in his mind for new, bigger, and better things.

Many years ago, had anybody told him he was gonna get a massive movie contract, and turn famous before graduating from university, he would've laughed and called them crazy. Now his face was everywhere on billboards, on televisions, on the internet. People followed him around and took photos of him. He had all the money to spend, got invited to exclusive parties, and won big awards with his name on them. So there was no reason for him to come back to his little house in Holmes Chapel.

His family still lived there, but he flew his mum out to stay in London for most of the time, and his sister now had her own life with a boyfriend. The Styles hadn't sold that house because it still had emotional value to them, but they were rarely there anymore. Harry couldn't even remember most details of his childhood bedroom, let alone the treehouse in his backyard, or the girl who came there every single day, waiting for him to come back.

He did come back. But it was for a different reason, one he had never expected.

A funeral.

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"Look at all of these paparazzi on the street."

Celine heaved a sigh as she peeked through the window curtains to take a look. The heavy silence in that living room was the opposite of the loud and intrusive crowd waiting in front of the house next door.

Eighteen-year-old Y/N was sitting on the bottom stair with her head in her hands, her eyes were red and swollen, while another girl was comforting her. The girl was Amala, Celine’s girlfriend. They had been dating since junior year, now both graduated from high school and were still together.

Even though Y/N wasn't the only special girl in Celine’s life anymore, she had never felt deserted, knowing her tiny best friend would always be by her side and she would also do the same. Now with Amala in the picture, the three of them were inseparable. Those two had been Y/N's rock since her mother's death, and she could never thank them enough for just being there for her.

"Why did he have to come back?" Y/N exhaled, fingers gripping her own hair. "I don't want all these people at my mother's funeral."

"Calm down, I'm sure they'll get tired and leave in no time," said Celine, who quickly exchanged looks with Amala, because they both knew those paps wouldn't leave until Harry did.

"Why couldn't he just stay gone?" Y/N mumbled, mostly to herself, and she really meant it. She wished he had never returned. She'd gone as far as avoiding all the news about him and she'd been doing so well in the last four years. But her mother's death seemed to be just the calm before the storm. With his unwanted return, he would bring a whole crowd of people with cameras to her mother's funeral.

"When is Blake gonna be here?" Asked Amala, but Celine shook her head fast to tell her girlfriend not to mention that name. It was too late since Y/N had already heard her.

"He's not coming," she replied, eyes glued to the floor. "We broke up."

The hurt was still etched in her voice when she talked about him. Even though she would never admit it, her two friends both knew she had really loved that boy.

Blake Roman was Y/N's first official boyfriend. He had treated her so well, and even though she'd lost her first kiss in the treehouse four years ago, Y/N had given all her other firsts to Blake. But two foolish teenagers fell in love at seventeen, what did they know? It wasn't until graduation and facing big decisions of futures and dreams that they realized it wasn't going to work. They weren't going to work.

Blake went to America to become a lawyer, but Y/N wasn't bitter or depressed because she also had plans of her own. Her mother had told her that everything happened for a reason, and that was what she chose to believe. Had they stayed together, a long distance relationship would tear them apart eventually. Take her parents as an example, they had lived under the same roof for that many years but they didn't make it still.

"Y/N..."

The girls turned their head to the kitchen doorway and found Y/N's father with hands in his pockets, dressed in a black suit and a tie. The last time he was that well-dressed was at his wedding, sadly now it was his wife's funeral. He told them it was time to go then grabbed his keys and walked out of the house without saying another word.

Once he had left, Celine asked Y/N how her father had been dealing with her mother's death, and to be honest Y/N didn't even know. She had never known the man well enough to give her best friend an answer, but there was one thing she knew for sure, it didn't hurt him as much as it did her.

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Y/N's mother funeral was held at a funeral home in the town central, and only those who were close to the family had been invited, so it was a very small gathering.

Though a part of Y/N didn't want Harry to show up and bring in chaos, during the ceremony her eyes still searched around the room for his face. She saw his mother Anne, and his sister Gemma, but she didn't see him. Maybe for some particular reasons, he'd changed his mind and decided not to go; or maybe he couldn't get past those paparazzi to get out of the house. But without his presence on her mother's sad day, Y/N felt awfully incomplete.

After the burial, all the guests headed back to her house for a wake. There was a small dinner, and the people at the table talked about what a lovely woman Y/N's mother had been. They told stories about her, saying she'd always been wise, and kind, and tolerant, which Y/N knew were all true. But as she stole a glance at her father, who was sitting at the end of the table, focusing on his own food rather than the stories about his late wife, she felt like none of it mattered to him, and that just broke her heart.

Thankfully, dinner was over soon, but the guests stayed for a few drinks while carrying boring conversations to keep the atmosphere indoors alive. It was getting late, a few had left and Y/N couldn't wait for the rest to follow so she could call it a day. The last thing she would expect at that moment was for a new guest to show up, but as soon as her eyes turned to the left corner of the living room by accident, she spotted a familiar face. It wasn't her imagination doing tricks on her like she'd thought at first, it was really him.

Y/N swore the moment their eyes met in the crowded living room, everything else besides them immediately faded away. The background noise was muted and the living room sank to utter silence, so silent that she could hear her blood flowing through her veins and her heart beating all out of rhythm. It almost felt like a scene in those cheesy romantic films she had watched too often.

He was there in person, dressed in a simple black suit but he looked so expensive compared to all the others. His hair was much longer than the last time she saw him, all tied up in a small bun at the back of his head. That new hairstyle almost turned him into a whole different person.

There was a strange kind of familiarity as well as ignorant in that look he was giving her. Then he pressed his lips into a smile, for a second neglecting what the white-bearded man was telling him. She didn't know what to do but smile back and instantly look away as she carried on the conversation with her relatives, acting as if she wasn't bothered at all by his presence. Deep down inside, however, the girl wasn't as calm as she was pretending to be.

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Y/N mumbled quick apologies as she grabbed Celine by her elbow and pulled her away from the unfinished conversation, to the back of the staircase.

"How did he get in here without anyone knowing?"

At first, Celine didn't know whom her friend was referring to. But a face like Harry Styles' couldn't just blend into any crowd, especially one as depressing as that. It literally took her less than a second to spot him in the far corner of the living room.

"He must've used the back door," she said, seemingly as shocked as Y/N had been. "Maybe he didn't want to cause a scene, maybe that was why he skipped the funeral."

"Maybe..." The taller girl let go of her friend's arm, keeping her stare fixed on Harry.

"Will you talk to him?" Celine asked.

"I don't know."

"What if he talks to you?"

"I...don't know," Y/N repeated the same three words, eyebrows furrowed at the boy next door.

His name was still Harry Styles, his smile still shone like the sun, and he was still the most beautiful person she had ever seen, but she didn't know him, not anymore. It had been four years since they last saw each other. She was obviously not the same fourteen-year-old girl who had begged him to be her first kiss; and he, now a famous actor, must be very different too. So instead of walking up to him and starting a conversation, Y/N chose to stay away, hoping that he would also do the same.

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As the last few guests were heading out and so were her two best friends, Y/N came to her backyard to be alone. It was a long day after all, she needed to recharge herself by spending some time with her own thoughts, and the only place that she could come to think, was the treehouse in her neighbor's backyard.

Unlike people, it never left her.

With her feet dangling in the air as she sat on the edge of her childhood fort, the girl let her thoughts wander with the summer breezes to faraway places, but mostly to the past, to the things she couldn't change, to when her mother was alive and Harry was her friend. Then she couldn't help but wonder if he was still talking to her dad in the kitchen. Was he thinking about her too? Probably not. But a tiny part of her secretly hoped that he was.

"Bambi."

The endearing sound of that nickname got Y/N's head turned in a split second. She hadn't heard it in so long. She hadn't heard that voice in so long, and her heart felt the same warm fuzzy feeling she used to feel whenever he called her that. She rushed to the other side of the treehouse, to the entrance, one hand on her heaving chest as she looked down.

There he was, standing in the middle of his backyard, eyes on her, and the scene was all so familiar yet so foreign. He was different, she was different, and their surroundings were also different.

His garden was no longer the magical place she had always fantasized about when she was a kid. Now that nobody was taking care of it, all the flowers had wilted, the grass had grown much higher, and the sprinklers didn't come on at 6AM anymore. Somehow she felt like it represented what was left between them, absolutely nothing.

He waved his hand to get her attention as if she couldn't see him, and so she did the same, not a single word was exchanged. There was a long pause when they just stood still and stared at each other like two strangers meeting for the first time, probably to take in the new appearance of the other person. She probably had changed more than he had, so she would kill to find out what he thought of her now that she wasn't a kid anymore.

It was Harry who said the first words.

"May I join you up there?"

She hesitated. Fourteen-year-old Y/N would never.

"Uhm...S-Sure," she said at last and watched him make his way towards the tree. Harry struggled to step on the rope ladder and somehow she found it quite funny. When he heard her laugh, he shot her a playful glare, and told her that she was distracting him from his climb.

"Oh God, I'm really getting old."

The man sighed in relief once he had made it to the treehouse in one piece as he took a bow, making the girl shake her head and giggle at him. Once again, they sat side by side with their bare feet dangling in the air like the night he had left. This time, however, she was staring blankly ahead and he was looking at her. He was second-guessing what she was going to say, but she remained in silence until he was once again the first to speak.

"Bambi," he said. "Are you okay?"

She turned to look at him, flashing a single smile. She didn't need to say anything else after that, since he already knew she wasn't okay. She took a deep breath, letting it all out as her eyes turned to focus on her fingers toying with the hem of her black dress.

"Bambi's mother died in the movie too, right?"

That one question shattered Harry's heart at once. He was so used to seeing her as a happy and positive little girl. Now she wasn't little anymore, and she wasn't happy either. He used to know everything about her because she had never kept a secret from him, now he had to try and read her mind because he knew there was more than she was willing to confess.

He waited for her to tell him about her plans after graduation, which university she'd got accepted in, fill in the blanks about all the things he'd missed in the last four years. However, she gave him nothing. Maybe she didn't even trust him anymore. He couldn't blame her though. He'd been gone for too long.

"The car accident happened right before my graduation. She didn't get to hear my speech." Y/N lifted one hand to wipe the tears running down her cheek though she didn't want to cry, at least not in front of him. But the girl had been holding back for too long now and that moment was her breaking point. "Had she been there...she would...she would've been so proud of me..."

Harry quickly wrapped his arms around the girl's shoulders and pulled her close to his chest. She let him hold her, drowning her in the unfamiliar scent of his expensive cologne, which made her feel as though she was in the arms of a complete stranger. But right now she needed that hug more than anything else.

"Your mother didn't have to hear your speech to be proud of you, Bambi. She'd always been proud of you," he mumbled into her hair, one hand stroking her back.

It took Y/N a moment to quiet down and pull away a bit to look at him. They were face to face again in four years, this time, in the kissing distance. She had never sat this close to him before, and he had never looked at her that way before.

The childhood best friends held each other's gaze as if trying to recollect each memory of their past, to form the complete picture of the many years they had left behind. There was a quiet moment, followed by awkward hesitation, as they both leaned in, eyes closed. Neither was thinking when their lips attached.

This time, they were really kissing.

She felt his fingers tangled in her hair as he deepened the kiss and she kissed him back with as much passion, like she had never been kissed before, like it was their first. For a second there, she wished it had been.

The sound of his ringtone broke them apart, and it was only then that they realized what they'd done. She expected silence from him, or at least something else, but instead what she received was, "I have to take this. I'm very sorry." 

Just like that, he stood up and hurried his way back to the rope ladder. The first time they kissed, she was the one to run away. This time, it was him.

He set his feet back on the ground and picked up that call as he hurried to his house, without a second look back. Y/N was still sitting there, not sure what had happened. It didn't even feel real, though she knew it was, because she could still taste his lips on hers. She didn't know who had called, and why it was so important that he couldn't stay and give her an explanation for that moment between them.

If that was revenge for that kiss she had stolen from him four years ago, when she was only fourteen, then it just wasn't fair.

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The next morning, Y/N came to Harry's house to talk to him, and once again, his mother said he had already gone back to London; but afterward, the kind woman gave Y/N his phone number and told her to give him a call.

Maybe Anne could see how much her son still meant to the girl, and that she needed his comfort now more than ever. Y/N wondered why Harry couldn't see that as well. Was it really because he was a boy? Or was he just denying everything he saw because he didn't want to believe it was real, that her feelings for him were real? There were too many questions needed answers, and Y/N couldn't be patient anymore.

That night she decided to call him and talk about that kiss. She wasn't gonna sit there and second guess his next moves like Rapunzel in the high tower, waiting by the window for her prince to come back on his white horse. Because this wasn't a fairytale with a happy ending, she was never a princess, even though in her eyes he'd always been the prince.

The girl started biting on her nails while her heart was beating in time with the beeps on the phone. It took a couple ones until someone finally picked up, and she didn't even hesitate.

"Hey, Harry, it's Y/N," she said. "Your mum gave me your number and—"

"Sorry? Who is this again?"

That wasn't Harry's voice. That was a woman. Y/N double-checked the number on the piece of paper Anne had given her, and as she was sure she had put in the correct one, her heart fell to the bottom of her chest.

As Y/N remained silent, the woman on the phone went on, "Harry's in the shower right now, is this urgent?"

"No..." Y/N faked a soft laugh. "I...uhm...Could you please tell Harry that...Y/N called and...please tell him to call me back when he's free?"

"Sure," said that woman, and it was a lie. Harry never got to find out about Y/N's call, but Y/N didn't know about that, so she waited. She waited for that entire week, and by the end of that week she'd made up her mind, this time, to give up on him for good.

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(two years later)

"Hey little girl, get up."

"No...One more!"

"Enough, time to go home," said the big fat bartender as he refused to sell the girl another pint. Normally he wouldn't care if his guests got so drunk they forgot their own names, but since that girl had come to the bar every night that week, and got wasted almost every single time, he felt like it was his responsibility to stop giving her what she thought she needed.

"I'm not a little girl" Y/N grumbled, lifting a finger as she narrowed her hooded eyes at him. "I'm turning twenty next month! You're a little girl!"

The man shook his head and took the empty glass in front of her away before she drunkenly smashed it like she had before.

"Do you even have a life, kid?" He asked.

"I do!" She shouted with her eyes closed, pointing a finger to the ceiling. "I'm a...uh...a college student...and a writer..."

The big man rolled his eyes when she said 'writer' but he hadn't got time to argue with a drunk 19-year-old that owning an emo online blog (he assumed) didn't make you a writer.

"Look, kid, this is London. There are plenty of other fun places for young people to hang, you shouldn't be spending this much time here, drinking your ass off."

"But I want some more!"

"Trust me you don't."

"I do! Now give me another..." She trailed off, then cracked a weird smile at him.

The man raised an eyebrow, waiting for her to finish that sentence, but she never did. Y/N dropped her head down on the counter and just lied there like a dead body. Of course, the bartender knew she didn't die, she was still breathing. But he couldn't just leave her there because the bar was closing soon. So he asked a waitress to search for her phone in one of her pockets and called one of her emergency numbers.

That same night, Harry received a call from a bar not so far from his home in London, telling him to pick up a girl named Y/N.

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When Y/N opened her eyes, she found herself in a room she had never seen before. At first, she thought she was dreaming, that in her dream she'd become rich and finally got a bedroom twice the size of her current flat. But everything seemed too real to be just a dream. She could actually feel the softness of the mattress she was lying on, and the pillow beneath her head was so comfortable that she didn't want to get up. But she must get up, because Y/N soon realized she wasn't dreaming and it was somebody else's bedroom.

Quickly, she kicked off the duvet, and sighed in relief to see that she was still wearing her clothes from the night before. She thought if she'd been kidnapped, then her kidnapper must be a decent man. But why would anyone want to kidnap a lonely and depressed university student, who could barely pay her own rent? If that person didn't want her or her money (which she didn't even have), what did they want?

The answer to her questions showed up at the bedroom door just as she sat up and threw her legs off the bed.

"Harry?"

Y/N blinked fast because she couldn't believe it was him. But it was, unfortunately. He was standing there, staring back at her with the same dimpled smile on his face. It'd been two years so she'd expected him to look different, yet she was still surprised. His hair was shorter and one could hardly imagine he used to have hair so long that he could put it in a man bun. Overall he still looked good, the opposite of what a mess she was at that moment.

Harry didn't wait for her to ask, he went ahead and explained the situation last night, saying he had to drive to a bar at 1:30 AM just to pick her up, and bring her to his house because she was too drunk to remember her own address. She was glad he didn't ask her why he was in her emergency contact list, because she didn't even know what had been on her mind when she put his number there. Maybe in case something bad ever happened to her, she wanted him to know as well. She just had never expected it to be like this.

"How bad was I?" She asked.

"You threw up all over my shoes." He slightly chuckled.

"I'll get you another pair, I promise!"

"It's alright. You don't have to."

"They're very expensive, aren't they?" She scoffed, and he nodded his head to confirm it was true.

"They're Gucci," Harry emphasized the brand name with a funny grimace to make her laugh, but all that he received from the girl sitting on his bed was a nervous frown. "So..." He trailed off, taking a deep breath. "Mind telling me why you drank to the point you passed out last night?"

"I don't have to tell you anything."

"You don't." He agreed. "But I'd appreciate it if you do."

The girl turned her eyes away from him and let the silence take over once again. Harry prayed that she would say something, anything. She could just start yelling at him if she wanted to, even though he knew she never would.

"Thank you for everything. But I think I should go now," Y/N finally said and rose up from the bed. But the older man didn't move out of the way for her to walk out.

"You expect me to let you go after what happened last night?" He asked, giving her a stern look as he shoved both hands into his pants pockets.

"What?" She scoffed. "So you're gonna keep me here?"

"If I must. Yes."

"Don't try to be my dad, one is enough already," said the girl as she tried to get past him, but he quickly placed both arms on the doorframe to block her path, forcing her to finally look him in the eyes.

"Bambi, talk to me," he pleaded, eyebrows knitted together, looking more serious this time.

Y/N took a step away from the older man with her head held high and her arms crossed as she told him they didn't have anything to talk about. "If you really wanted to talk, you would've done it two years ago."

Just like that, she pushed him aside to head out, but Harry was quick to grab her elbow and stop her before she left.

"I owe you an apology, I—"

To his surprise, Y/N cut him off by yanking her arm away from his grip. Then she looked up, eyes to eyes with him this time. He knew that look so well, she used to give the same one to the bigger kids who had always teased her on playground, but that was actually the first time she had ever looked at him that way.

"We don't owe each other anything. Goodbye, Harry," she said, and he knew better than to try and convince her to stay. Once Y/N had made up her mind, she wouldn't change it for anyone, not even her mother, and certainly not him.

So he had no choice but to let the girl go even though it was painful to watch her walk away like that, it hurt him even more now that he began to think about her cold look from earlier. Maybe that was the moment Harry realized the part of him in her was barely there anymore.

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Not until Y/N had walked a pretty far distance from Harry's house did she finally stop and burst into tears. She had never got so emotional that she ended up crying in public before, but now the girl was too upset to care who might be judging her. It wasn't only Harry, it was the entire series of unfortunate events, a circle, all leading back to him.

When she saw his face again, it hurt her so much because she wanted to tell him about everything, why she had been at that bar, why she had been drinking. Y/N wanted to hear him say everything was gonna be okay, and that he would be there for her through it all. But the last time he tried to comfort her, he left a bigger hole in her heart, so maybe this time she should deal with the problem on her own.

The girl told herself to stop crying, and all of a sudden, she heard the camera sound as someone had taken a photo. Y/N looked up and saw a tall man holding his camera, she assumed he was a paparazzi and had seen her walking out of Harry Styles' house.

"Did I give you permission to take pictures of me?"

Her loud voice caught the stranger by surprise, causing him to instantly lower the camera as he apologized, and swore he was just a street photographer. He probably thought that she saw him as a creep, but he didn't seem like one at all. It wasn't just the fact that he had a pretty face, but also because the look in his eyes was genuine.

Y/N's first impression of the man was that he was tall, very tall. She guessed he was the same height as Harry, but his thin build created an illusion that he was at least two inches taller. She didn't consider herself as petite, still, she felt so small standing next to this stranger.

The man, probably just a few years older than her, had smooth, dry skin with little freckles sprinkled here and there across his nose and his cheekbones. His blonde hair looked even more golden in the sunlight. It was short and unruly, yet perfectly framed his face.

Now that Y/N had made eye-contact with him, she couldn't look away anymore. Those were the bluest eyes she had ever seen. The shade resembled a cloudless sky in the spring, full on Prince Charming kind of blue. The more she looked the more prominent they became.

Maybe it was just an illusion, but Y/N swore she could see a bit of green in them.

"This is for a small project I'm working on. I'm taking photos of random scenes and people I come across," the stranger explained as she approached him, and didn't hesitate to show her the proofs on his camera. "Here's an old man feeding the birds, a cute puppy, uhm....a lady who sells flowers on the sidewalk, a kid with his new soccer ball...and a pretty girl crying on the street."

Y/N glared at the young man for what he'd just said, but his cheeky smirk remained as he shut down the camera and introduced himself. He told her his name was Isaac, and he was a professional photographer. Since he'd already shown her those photos he'd taken that day, she could confirm that he wasn't just boasting.

"I'm sorry if I offended you, Miss..."

"My name's Y/N."

"Alright, Y/N, I'm really sorry." Isaac paused to bite his lip, waiting for the girl to speak, and when he was sure she wasn't gonna say anything else, he went on, "I could just delete the photo."

"It's okay, keep it," she said, sighing. "If you wanted to take pictures of me, all you had to do was ask nicely."

"Really?"

"Sure. Why not?"

"Okay then, Y/N." His emphasis on her name made the girl smile and roll her eyes. "May I take a few more photos of you?"

Y/N actually thought twice about that offer. She had just met the guy, for all she knew he could still be a psychopath, a very charming one if that was the case. But since she had nothing else to do on that Sunday morning, and needed a distraction from reality, getting to know a good-looking stranger didn't sound like a bad idea. If he turned out to be a real psychopath, then maybe she was just very unlucky.

"Okay." She nodded, turning her face to the right. "But only on my good side, got it?"

"Got it," Isaac said with a grin, and quickly snapped a shot of the smiling girl.

#harry styles #older!harry #harry styles fanfic #harry styles fanfiction #harry styles imagine #harry styles writing #younger!y/n #actor!harry #harry styles angst #harry styles fluff #harry styles fanfics #harry styles fanfictions #harry styles imagines

[footballfangurl]

James Rodríguez - You’re My Light

Request: Can you write an imagine of James Rodriguez where he wins an award from FIFA and he dedicates his award to his wife and their children?

words: 1679

Hi guys. So it has been a while since I’ve written anything but here you go. My first one-shot in probably about 4 months. Sorry to keep you waiting this long. This is my first James Rodríguez one-shot so please let me know what you think x

I also want to thank @tumpaasaye for her support during these past few months and for giving feedback on this one-shot.

Enjoy 💕

"Baby, relax." She whispered silently, afraid of talking too loudly and interrupting the ceremony that was going on currently, but also wanting to comfort her husband who she could see was clearly freaking out from where he sat next to her. Placing her hand on his thigh soothingly, she squeezed softly in reassurance and smiled when James took her hand off his thigh and instead held it in his own, interlocking their fingers tightly. He was squeezing her hand rather tightly out of nervousness and it hurt a bit, but she didn't say anything, preferring this to the nervous leg shaking he had been doing previously.

 "If I win and I have to go up there, I'm going to start st-stuttering and embarrass myself and everybody will laugh." He whispered to her with a frightened look in his eyes and she frowned, firmly shaking her head before leaning in so he could hear her better. She softly placed her hand on his cheek and made him look at her so that her point would come across more clearly.

 "You listen to me, James. Nobody is going to laugh at you for stuttering. You can't help it so you shouldn't worry about it. And if anybody laughs, they'll have me to deal with. If you get too nervous, just look at me. Don't look at anybody else, okay? Just look at me." James nodded shakily, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath to calm himself, and she wrapped her arms around his neck to pull him close to her to assure both him and herself that everything would be okay.

 And James and she only had to wait for a few more minutes before the next award was announced. They played a video of the nominees and she grinned when she saw the images of her husband playing around with a football and scoring for Bayern. He had really grown into his own at the German club and he was happier there than he was back at Madrid. And although he did miss his teammates back in Madrid and it had been hard to adjust to life in Germany, she didn't think that he wanted to move back to Madrid if he had the option of staying.

When James' name was called, the smile on her face couldn't be wider. She was so proud of her husband and all that he had achieved. She started clapping, standing up in excitement and laughing out loud when James pulled her in a tight hug and lifted her up for a brief moment. To everyone else it seemed like he had all the confidence in the world but she knew that his heart was still beating very fast because of the nerves he had, not looking forward to having to address an entire hall of footballers, a lot of whom he had looked up to as a kid.

 "Remember, if you get nervous, just look at me." She whispered in his ear and after he put her back down on the ground, she rewarded him with a soft kiss on the lips before gently pushing him away and towards the stage. He walked over there slowly, receiving some claps on the back from teammates -both current and former ones.

 "Oh, wow. This- this is amazing." James started when he finally arrived at the stage, taking the award from the presenter and looking at it in amazement and disbelief. He glanced upwards shyly and quickly averted his gaze again when he saw all the familiar faces looking up at him. He didn't know everyone personally, of course, but he had played against most of them already and the ones he hadn't played against, he had either met at events like these or some campaign they had to do for a sports brand.

 "I uh- I want to thank my amazing wife for this. If- if it - if it wasn't for her dragging me out of my- of my bed every morning and her endless patience, I wouldn't be here. D- darling, I- I- I love you and I appreciate you, al-always." James said, looking right at where she was standing in the crowd like she had told him to do. She smiled back gently and encouragingly, and he nodded, taking a big breath before continuing. "I'm- I'm- I'm also dedicating this aw-award to our children, who- who couldn't be here tonight but who are always my- my biggest critics. They- they are the reason I do this, and I could never have achieved something like this without my- my family." Her heart swelled with happiness and pride at his speech, but she had to hold back a frown when James glanced somewhere else and saw something that completely turned his mood around. Suddenly he looked even more unsure than before and she stood up a little bit from her chair, taking care to do it subtly so that it wasn't noticeable, trying to catch whatever it had been that had taken his fragile self-confidence away from him.

What she saw made her fume with rage. How dare he? Did he think it was fun to laugh at her husband for something he couldn't help? He knew all too well that this happened to James whenever he got nervous and felt uncomfortable and he had absolutely no right to make fun of James like this. Ooooh, just wait until she got her hands on him, she'd strangle the living-

 "So- so- so, th-thanks ag-again for this aw- aw- award." James stuttered before quickly walking back off stage and towards where his wife sat boiling with rage.

 "Sorry, baby. I couldn't do it." James quietly said, sitting down and casting his eyes downwards after having picked up on her mood. He was fiddling with his trophy and her eyes softened at seeing him so down.

 "What on earth are you talking about, James. You did amazing." She assured him, placing her hand on top of his in reassurance. Gently taking the trophy out of his grasp, she placed it to the side before moving closer to him and softly leaning her head on his shoulder, taking his hand in hers to play with his fingers. They took care to whisper, not wanting to bother any of the people around them and not wanting any of them to eavesdrop on their conversation.

 "Th-then why are you upset?"

 She nodded in the general direction of Cristiano Ronaldo and James' eyes widened in realisation. He began to shake his head, trying to convince her that it didn't matter to him. She was quite protective of him when it came down to his stutter and he knew that if he let her think that it still bothered him that Cris was laughing when he began stuttering, she'd go up to his former teammate and pick a fight with him.

 "Listen, honey, that's just- just Cris. He didn't mean anything by it."

 "James, Ronaldo or no Ronaldo, I don't give a shit. I'm going to stand up for my husband."

 "Baby, p-please calm down. It's not a big deal, alright?" James murmured, twisting his hand around in her grasp to interlock their fingers so that, after the award show was finished, she wouldn't be able to escape him quickly like she surely was planning on doing. His wife could be very quick and agile when she wanted to be, even on the high heels she was wearing now. James never could understand why she wore those death traps. If he was a woman, he'd pick comfort over looks any time.

 "Fuck no, I'm not going to calm down. This was your moment and he thinks that it's okay to just do this to you? No. I'm not having it. I'm going over there to give him a piece of my mind. Just because he's won the freaking ballon d'or a couple of times doesn't mean that he can do whatever the fuck he wants."

 James was hesitant to reply, noticing that people were starting to turn around to look but he shifted his body more towards her and said, "baby, look at me".

 She picked up her head, still frowning in annoyance at what Cristiano had done but also giving James her full attention. He untangled his fingers from hers and put his thumb on her brow, smoothing out the wrinkles that were there whenever she frowned.

 "Smile, please. For me. I love it when you sm-smile." He whispered, sighing a bit when she shook her head stubbornly. James had to suppress a smile and instead bent his head forwards, putting his lips to her ear and whispering, "Just forget about it, b-baby. It's not worth it. That's just Cris, he teases me sometimes about it. No harm d-done. Please don't do anything about it."

 James looked her in the eyes imploringly, the corner of his lips twitching upwards when he saw her pout angrily.

 "Please," James said again, his lips brushing softly over hers in a feather-light kiss, "for me?"

 She huffed, rolling her eyes but nodding her head, leaning forward to press her lips more firmly against lips. The kiss lasted only a second before she pulled away.

 "Fine. But just this once, and only because you asked so nicely. Next time he does it, I'm going to go and give him a piece of my mind." His wife warned him, and James grinned, nodding his head in agreement.

 He pecked her lips once more before taking her hand in his again, intertwining their fingers and shifting in his chair so he was facing the stage again. He lifted their hands upwards, pressing another kiss to her hand and whispering, "Thank you, baby", before he tried to pay attention to the ceremony again. And as they walked out of the room later that night, he pretended not to notice when she bumped into Cristiano on purpose and didn't apologise and instead walked ahead, pulling her along by her hand to hide the fact that he was smiling.

tag list: @tumpaasaye @avsensio @leroysanei @theblxefox @no-not-with-out-you @softstonsey @rafinasmarco @kiki0kitty0queen @the-place-to-sparkle @football-laeli @del-boi @neymarlionelmessi7 @i-ship-it-okay

#james rodriguez fanfiction #james rodriguez #james rodriguez one shot #james rodriguez imagine #football fanfiction #football one shot #football imagine #real madrid #fc bayern #soccer fanfiction #soccer one shot #soccer imagine

[letterboxd]

Endgame.

“I think audiences are so smart now, so they require to not be fed the same drivel as even 20 minutes ago.” —Robert Downey Jr.

The cast and filmmakers behind the most anticipated release of the year talk to Letterboxd, without actually saying anything specific about the film. (But we don’t mind.) This article contains mild Infinity War spoilers.

Although there are going to be many, many more of them, Avengers: Endgame can’t help but feel like the climax of the grand Marvel movie experiment; the culmination of the shared universe first suggested by a delightful post-credits teaser in 2008’s Iron Man.

Since then, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has come to dominate the modern blockbuster with hit after hit, year after year. Then came last year’s Avengers: Infinity War, with its devastating cliffhanger in which many Marvel protagonists evaporated into dust. That epic act of character disintegration built an anticipation for the follow-up that allowed the filmmakers to apply incredible restraint in the film’s marketing. Indeed, all we really know about Avengers: Endgame is that we don’t know anything.

Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige announced that there would be nothing in the trailers from beyond the first twenty minutes of the film. That is unprecedented in modern blockbusters, which center their campaigns around the major action set-pieces, usually dutifully showcased in teasers and trailers to the point where we complain we’ve already seen the film.

In the modern marketing-saturated film-going environment, to go into a film of this size and not be aware of which direction the story is heading, or what the major action scenes will be, is an almost impossible task.

Feige and co-directors Joe and Anthony Russo are to be commended for using their accumulated powers for good in this regard—not since Gone Girl has a major studio film shown such restraint. Heck, they didn’t even let press see the movie before we sat down with Feige, both Russos and the (currently officially alive) cast members of the film (pretty much the original Avengers team) in downtown Los Angeles this week.

Read on for the low-down on the Avengers’ best Boggle player, Natasha Romanoff’s evolution from “sexy secretary”, and the scene that had Robert Downey Jr. “more shredded than a julienne salad”.

Front row, left to right: Danai Gurira, Jeremy Renner, co-director Anthony Russo, Chris Evans, co-director Joe Russo, Brie Larson and Mark Ruffalo. Back row, left to right: Karen Gillan, Paul Rudd, Scarlett Johansson, Marvel Studios president/producer Kevin Feige, Robert Downey Jr., Don Cheadle and Chris Hemsworth during Marvel Studios’ ‘Avengers: Endgame’ press conference in Los Angeles.

Letterboxd: Filmmakers are known to tinker with blockbusters until the very last minute, honing in on what audiences respond to in the teaser material. That’s obviously not the case here, since you held back so much in the film’s trailers. How did this lack of advance audience feedback impact the filmmaking process, if at all? Anthony Russo (co-director, the taller brother): Look, at the end of the day, my brother and I, we came to this material because we’re fans. We grew up loving the comics. We came to the MCU already fans of the MCU. So the energy we move on is our own passion and our own excitement, and that’s how we tell stories. We learned long ago that you have to tell stories for yourself. You can’t be thinking about how others might receive them.

So for Joe and me, because we have such an intimate relationship with the material, because we have so many amazing collaborators—starting with Kevin [Feige, producer]—we are able to really fashion the story around what we want to see as fans. How do we surprise ourselves. How do we excite ourselves? How do we challenge ourselves? How do we force ourselves to keep digging deeper and keep exploring this narrative and these characters in ways we never imagined? That’s sort of how we guide ourselves through the process.

And once the film is complete and we put it out into the world, we really have no idea how it is going to be received. Once that complete film is experienced and digested and responded to, I think that’s the moment where we are then filled up with a reaction. But as we’re executing, once we conceive the film and start executing, we’re not really second-guessing what we’re doing. We’re really focused on chasing the initial vision that we had for it.

On how the Russo brothers are feeling now that they are near the end of the journey: Joe Russo (co-director): This is, I think, a really unique experiment in movies, this grand mosaic. Depending on how you count it up, eleven franchises… have been interwoven into one big narrative, and I think a lot of people have invested a lot of heart and soul into the characters. When we take these movies around the world, it’s really heartwarming to see people come up to you and say “hey, I started watching this with my classmates when I was ten years old—now we’re all 21 and we’re all going to go see this together” or “my parents have taken me to every movie” or “my grandfather has taken me to every film”. It’s a real sense of community and sharing in these stories and believing in them. And I think with Endgame, we get the opportunity to finish off one of the grandest experiments in movie history and bring it to, as Kevin said, an epic conclusion. So what we’re hoping for is that people feel satisfied with the conclusion.

‘Avengers: Endgame’ co-directors Joe Russo and Anthony Russo.

On what it’s like to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe at this critical moment: Brie Larson (Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel): I mean, stressful, now that you put it like that. I’ve felt kind of chill. But now I’m scared. So I hope you guys did a good job. I came at just the most magical time I think. To come exactly at this ten-year anniversary, and really, my first introduction to everyone was the ten-year photo, which was a really remarkable and special day. And super surreal and also like not allowed to [be talked about]. So the whole thing has always felt like a dream.

This film will always be personally dear to me because it was my first time playing Captain Marvel. We shot this first. So I had to stumble and try to figure out who this character was with no script for this and no script for Captain Marvel either—and perform for the first time in front of legends. But it was incredible.

As big as it is, it still feels like a bunch of kids. Just like what I was doing over summer break, making movies in my garage. There is still this sense of wonder and play and encouragement—and of course this film deals with some heavy subject matter. So you’re bouncing in between things that feel very deep and serious, and then we’re going off and playing Boggle. Which I am very good at. Just to be clear.

There is no other word I can describe it as other than surreal. And I’m super excited for this to come out. Mostly just so that I can talk about it. I want to be able to talk about my experience, which I haven’t been able to do for a very long time.

On connection to his fellow Avengers: Mark Ruffalo (Bruce Banner/Hulk): It doesn’t feel like family to me because we all really get along well. There’s not that much drama. It does feel like family. It’s a family that you wish you had in a way. I don’t know if you could tell, but it’s a little bit different press conference than the last time. It has a little bit sort of sadness to it. We’re all talking about like we’re dead. I loved working with these guys. It was great knowing them. They were great Boggle players.

There is something very bittersweet about this moment, because as actors, we’re like vagabonds. We kind of bounce around. We have these intense relationships. And then you don’t see anybody until you get nominated for something or you’re nominated in something and you end up in an award ceremony.

Chris Evans (Steve Rogers/Captain America): What’s that like? Speak for yourself.

MR: Well. But like, this is the closest thing that any of us really have to—unless you’re in several franchises—it’s the closest thing you have to continuity and friendships and watching people grow up and have children and get married and then get divorced and then get remarried.

On how Captain America’s leadership role is affected by the presence of other leaders like Black Panther and Captain Marvel: CE: I think he tends to lean on those people who are of like mind and nature, who kind of are intrinsically selfless. I mean, all the heroes up here have their baked-in-the-cake flaws. And I think a lot of that makes for really good conflict in storytelling. That’s why my favorite stuff in this arc has been my stuff with Downey, because [there is] such a dichotomy between how we approach things. But at the end of the day, our hearts are both in the right places. It provides a lot of great friction. By introducing characters like Captain Marvel and Black Panther, people who also align very similarly to Cap’s nature, it reinforces Cap’s sense of purpose and home. It’s an environment that… feels more natural for him. It’s nice to see the certain pockets where he feels at peace and the certain pockets where he feels his buttons might be getting pushed.

On the evolution of the franchise’s female roles: Scarlett Johansson (Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow): Initially, the character really started as a sort of sexy secretary with a skill-set on the side. Posing as. And we didn’t know, or I certainly didn’t know how the audience would react to the character, my interpretation of the character. And obviously a very beloved character for a long time. Then the next time that we saw her in Avengers, she was sort of one of the boys for better or worse. And that made sense then.

I think the fans and the audiences have really pushed, certainly Marvel, but pushed all the studios and filmmakers to really throw up on the screen what represents what’s going on in the zeitgeist and wanting to see diverse films and casts that represent their own aspirations and how they feel. I feel the character has sort of grown in reaction to that. And the movies have really grown in reaction to that kind of fan encouragement.

I remember when Lizzie [Olsen, Scarlet Witch] signed on. Cobie [Smulders, Agent Maria Hill] was there. We were all clinging to each other… I felt like I had been in this testosterone fest for such a long time, it was so nice to see other female cast members. And then with Brie [Larson] coming on and Karen [Gillan, Nebula from Guardians of the Galaxy] and Danai [Gurira, Okoye from Black Panther]. I’m amongst so many wonderful actors, so many strong actors, and it’s just grown beyond my wildest dreams. I could never have imagined where this would take us. And all of us. It’s been quite a journey.

On how Robert Downey Jr. felt while filming the now-iconic scene in which Spider-Man (Tom Holland) fades away at the end of Infinity War (“Mr Stark, I don’t feel so good”): Robert Downey Jr. (Tony Stark/Iron Man): I just love the lighting in that scene. I look so shredded. I was more shredded than a julienne salad, man. No. I make a lot of faces. I need some help in the editing. It was one of those moments. “This is the most serious thing that’s happened since you were nine. Now don’t F this up.” And I remember the brothers were there. I think we re-staged it once or twice. Anyway. It was crazy to shoot it. But it was just another day. But then I think seeing it—I happened to see it with this amazing kid, this Scottish kid who couldn’t go to a theater—I saw it with him and his reaction really f’ed me up.

So I think what a lot of us are looking forward to—like Kevin always says—is that it’s a surprising, delightful experience with Endgame. It’s one of those things where you go “Wow, I think we just made a pretty serious choice here”. But I think audiences liked that. I think audiences are so smart now so they require to not be fed the same drivel as even 20 minutes ago. It’s like we need novelty. And I think that what the Russos and Kevin have been able to do that is provide that in spades.

On what’s been special about Chris Hemsworth’s journey with these films: Chris Hemsworth (Thor): Well, just to echo something you were saying before, Anthony, about the first time that the Marvel Universe came into my universe back in Australia: I was sitting there, and I would have been just straight out of high school and watching Iron Man and thinking the same thing. Thinking “Oh my god, imagine. I wish I could be a part of that world”. And then a few years on, getting cast in it as Thor and having the opportunity to embark on this thing, and at the time I thought, was this film even going to make it past DVD? Or make to the cinemas? Or was I going to be re-cast and all those sort of questions.

I think the answer to the question, what made it so special for me was just the different people I was able to work with. From Kenneth Brannagh—that first film was really sort of completely in his hands, and he was basically willing to do whatever it takes and wherever he needed me to go for the character—and then through the films with each director and each different cast member, I would learn something different from them.

And by Ragnarok, I felt like I finally had enough sort of confidence to go “Okay, what is it that I could possibly bring to this?” And then have this great collaboration with Taika [Waititi, director]. We really decided to do something different to see how we could make it unexpected and unique. And then I had been calling Joe and Anthony and saying look, I’ve got this new version of Thor that we’ve just shot. And I want to continue that version. I don’t want to do the old version. And they said we’ve got an even newer version for you.

It’s just about the people that’s made it so special and I think unique each time with any of our characters. The fact that we’re all willing to be open to what new possibilities lie ahead of these franchises and these characters. It’s been a pretty remarkable journey.

‘Avengers: Endgame’ opens in Australia and New Zealand on 24 April, and in UK, US and other regions from 25 April. Reporting by Letterboxd West Coast editor Dominic Corry.

#avengers #mcu #Marvel Studios #ironman #avengers endgame #avengers infinity war #thor #black widow #natasha romanoff #scarlett johansson #letterboxd

[dannymillerfansite]

Ryan Hawley and Danny Miller reveal all on Robert and Aaron’s wedding episode

It’s been a long time coming- when you read the scripts for this wedding, is it everything you’d hoped for? 

Ryan: It very much feels like a full stop – it’s the most definitive thing I think I’ve ever read in Emmerdale, which is really nice. It puts an end to the kind of ‘are they a couple, are they married, are they not married, is it legal, is it not legal?’ You know, no one’s going to prison, it’s over, it’s done, they are married now. 

Do you worry then that if there’s too much stability, that they’ll stop writing for you?

Ryan: It’s very possible, yeah, but you know, there are other storylines other than romantic storylines, there’s lots of things that Robert and Aaron have got into in the past, in terms of the schemes they’ve done over the years – we’ll just have to wait and see. How does it compare to the last wedding in the garage? 

Danny: It feels much more like a wedding, with all the family there and I think there’s such a big thing going on with Chas and Paddy that there’s a lot more reason to it this time – we’re not just doing it just for us, we’re going to do it for the whole family in a way. Make it official and make it a family event.

It very much feels like that, like a community coming together, doesn’t it? 

Ryan: Yeah, it’s the centre of the village, there’s loads of cast members there, the decoration is a lot more thought out, and classy. I think one of the actual things in the script is, ‘it’s a million times more classy than the last time’. (laughs) It should be a lot more of an occasion and celebratory than maybe two guys in the garage getting married hastily cause one of them’s going away to prison. 

The Queen of Robron Maxine Alderton has written the episode – do you think that adds a lot to how special this wedding is?

Ryan: I think it’s very much appealing to the people that are Robron fans; I think that it’s very much written for them. I really hope that they enjoy it because it is one of the very few occasions in the show where you get to see two people genuinely happy. Most of the time there’s always something that people are worried about, if it’s Liv, if it’s exams, if it’s someone going to prison, if it’s someone having an affair, if it’s a baby being born, there’s always something, and on this occasion it’s an episode where it’s just happiness and that’s it. And I think Maxine, she knows the relationship of the two characters better than anyone anywhere and also I think she knows how to write for the particular Robron fans very well. Hopefully it’s a success. 

It’s quite unusual for soaps for a wedding to actually go to plan and to be happy, do you think people need that bit of uplift at the moment with the world the way it is? 

Danny: I think so, that’s a good comment really. We’ve always said would it be boring if it was just a straightforward wedding with no drama and you kind of think maybe it would be but realistically they’ve been through so much that there’s not really a lot left, bar a helicopter crashing…

Ryan: Been there, done that! 

So what’s the story now going forward?

Ryan: To be honest with you I don’t really know, long term, that’s always been my personal preference of approach, I don’t really want to concentrate too far on what’s happening in the future, I’d rather just do what I’m doing right now. There’s a lot of stuff to get through in a block of soap scripts, but what’s nice at the end of this episode is that they ride off onto their honeymoon and I think we’re actually not in the next block. 

You could have got a nice jolly holiday out of that! 

Ryan: We could have got a spin off! That long lost spin off that was talked about all those years ago, that never happened! 

Danny: Yeah, the DVD in shops for Christmas! 

Ryan: Bottom of the bargain bucket! (laughs) 

How does it feel to have a new producer in charge? 

Danny: I think I’ve been in for long enough now to see producers come and go, people who have had a part in the show beforehand and people that are coming into it completely blind. I think it’s nice that you get the change in particular with Laura and Kate – they’ve got a specific route that they want to take with the show and I think each person comes in and adds a little bit, with the likes of different character groups and different storylines. For us down on the floor it never necessarily changes in that we notice much but it’s good that we get to have different people having their influence on the show, implementing their ideas into it. 

Ryan: I think the show needs it, doesn’t it, 330 episodes a year,  it needs people to come in every now and then. Different minds, different ideas. There’s always, like Danny says, a new take on it and new character groups come in or new character groups get used more and less, but it’s quite nice. 

Could you talk about the Chas and Paddy angle to the week as well? Does it make Aaron question whether he wants to have the wedding with the tragedy that’s happening?

Danny: Absolutely, yeah, it’s a lot to with the fact that it’s so soon after the events with Chas and Paddy that it feels too raw for them to be able to just do it there and then. The fact that they’ve talked about it for so long and it’s been postponed makes Chas push it through. There is always that in the back of Aaron’s mind during the ceremony that it’s difficult for his mum, it’s a few days before, it still goes ahead. It’s touching but it’s also nice that he’s doing it for the family. 

You must be proud of how they’ve tackled the storyline; it’s been really sublime, hasn’t it? 

Danny: Absolutely, yeah, both of them have got their own kids; particularly Lucy, she’s close in terms of storylines to do with babies and she has her two gorgeous twins – you can see the looks on their faces during the scenes, you can tell what they’re thinking and it’s really not nice to read and to listen to a lot of the stuff that’s been written. I’m so proud of them, they’ve just taken it on and doing one take and keeping it fresh and raw, and they’re amazing. I’ve learnt so much from them so it’s nice to see that they’ve both landed a massive story. 

They’ve both done so well. Do you think Dominic has been underrated over the years? 

Danny: It’s a shame really, especially because he’s been so so supportive of the show and supportive of individuals in the show. Whenever anybody’s won any awards he’s always been the first to congratulate them. He’s not bothered about those kind of awards, sometimes it’s kind of nice that you don’t get them, because it’s the pressure of it. He plays Paddy and he does it exceptionally well. And so does Lucy as Chas. 

Do you think the tragedy of what’s happened at the start of the week places so much more importance on this wedding which comes at the end, that there’s a need to have this really happy event?

Danny: Definitely, I think also that the fact that, it’s not that they want you to forget about it, but they want you to see that families come together. I think it’s very much a band aid for that problem, especially with Chas and Paddy. He’s their son, so they are happy, even if at the back of their minds they’re hurting. 

Ryan, when you said that it puts a full stop on certain parts of the storyline, do you think it does the same to the duplicitous side of Robert’s nature? Is he more committed that he has been? 

Ryan: It certainly feels like that for me, that’s not really written as much now. I guess I’ll have to wait and see over the next few blocks or the next year. 

Is that how you see him as yourself, as a more morally centred guy? 

Ryan: The Robert we have now is a much more morally centred guy. The function of the character is more that of being in a family unit with Liv, Aaron and Seb. That side of the duplicitous and out to get what you want, it’s not really there any more. Personally I liked that side of the character, but I’m happy to be whatever is written for me. 

Do you think it’s quite progressive of Emmerdale? It shouldn’t be in this day and age, but it does feel that soaps are leading the way and showing two gay men in a stable relationship dealing with family issues.

Ryan: I think particularly with soaps, because they are every day, there’s so many episodes, they’re watched by so many people whereas a drama can go unnoticed, maybe you wouldn’t see that relationship that you’d talk about. Whereas in this, it’s at the centre of the show, it’s watched continuously by people that faithfully tune in to the show. It is savvy to be that prevalent and that focal in a show like this. 

With the wedding episode in particular, is there a pressure on you to get this almost perfect because you’ve got the most vocal fanbase- they’ll have an image in their minds of exactly what they want it to be? 

Ryan: I think we just go with it, don’t we? It is what it is. 

Danny: To a certain degree as well, it’s not within our control. We can only do what’s written on the paper, the directors are there to do the rest of it, but there are a lot of well-known references to the couple and I think the fans will be pleased that they do get the nod of the cap. But we just like to keep it 110% like we do on everything, whether we see them at home having a cup of tea or at a big wedding. They’re just a genuine couple, they’re just best mates, in a relationship and that’s what we play. 

Ryan: The strongest relationship is when it’s relatable and when it’s two people you can relate to rather than two people that are what a certain person might hold as an ideal romantic pairing. It’s more relatable to have two genuine people with all their flaws, two human people, rather than a fantasy. 

Do you ever find it weird knowing that every look or gesture you make in your performance could be made into a GIF or a meme? 

Ryan: Yeah, thanks for that (laughs) 

Danny: I don’t know how you make them but I suppose they can make it out of anything we do. 

Ryan: I wish I knew how to make those things – WhatsApp would be very entertaining! 

Do you think they can co-parent successfully alongside Rebecca in future? 

Ryan: It’s quite difficult to talk about without giving anything away!

#emmerdale #source the metro #robron wedding 2.0 #danny miller #Aaron Dingle #robert sugden #ryan hawley #robron wedding spoilers

[clevelandstate]

Faculty Spotlight: Richard M. Perloff

Richard M. Perloff, professor of communication, political science and psychology at Cleveland State University, is a scholar of persuasion and political communication perceptions and effects. He is the author of multiple academic textbooks and journal articles on persuasion and political communication, and regularly provides comment in the local and national media on politics, communication and perception.

Earlier this month, Professor Perloff was invited by The New York Times to attend a special celebration for regular letter writers to the newspaper. Perloff also recently picked up two different Press Club of Cleveland Awards for “Best in Ohio Essay Writing” for his op-eds on Robert Kennedy, 1968, and Vietnam’s Tet Offensive 50 years later, and “Best Single Essay” for his op-ed on the 50th anniversary of Robert Kennedy’s speech at Cleveland’s City Club. Below are excerpts of an interview regarding his scholarship and recent honors.

CSU: Tell us a little bit about yourself and your background?

Perloff: In the fall, I will have been at CSU for 40 years. I have studied news, I have written books on politics and media, I have written on persuasion. I also teach multiple courses in communication, advise students and serve as the faculty adviser for the CSU student newspaper The Cauldron. I love research and teaching students, it is always gratifying so I wear a lot of hats and enjoy my scholarship here a lot.

I kind of came from a writing background in journalism…like anybody else in communication I love writing. I then started to write these opinion pieces over the last couple of years. Recently, I did a retrospective on Robert F. Kennedy coming to Cleveland and his talk and what hopes there were…and how it kind of played into the tragedy of American politics in the 1960’s.

I also wrote a couple additional op-eds on the year 1968, which encapsulate a lot of writing I have done on the Tet Offensive, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Bobby Kennedy and how they were portrayed by the media. They also included my perspectives as a person who understood, grew up and has reflected on the 60s.

CSU: What drives you to write about topics such as the Vietnam War, Martin Luther King. Jr, and Robert F Kennedy?

Perloff: That is a very good question! I was very drawn to that period when I was younger. I think people tend to be the products of the decade they were born in. For example, Generation X was shaped by the Reagan years, Madonna, and the cultural wars, while Millennials were shaped more by 9/11; the sociology behind these major events really affects our consciousness.

During that time period, I campaigned for RFK and idolized him. In the years since, I have gone back to that era many times in my scholarship to understand his strengths, complexities and his shortcomings. I wanted to encapsulate that and what he still means for people of my generation, and younger people today. I really put my heart into that piece.

The Tet offensive was another part of 1968. It became a kind of metaphor or a major cultural event because the media covered it as a North Vietnamese victory and it was not, but it was a turning point of the war. I also knew somebody who died during the offensive. For somebody who likes to write and to look at these things, I thought this was something I’d like to write about. I did some research and found a soldier in a book who had gone back to Vietnam, met up with his former enemies and broke bread with them. That inspired me to talk about what Tet meant then and what it means today.

CSU: What was your reaction when you found out you had received multiple Press Club of Cleveland Awards for this work?

Perloff: The whole thing was very gratifying. I was glad that I could represent Cleveland State and also happy that I could do something that was fulfilling for me. It was a nice way of bringing together 50 years of observation and scholarship.

CSU: Can you talk a little bit about your letter writing for The New York Times and the recent event you attended?

Perloff: I was invited to attend a ceremony hosted by The Times to honor individuals who are frequent contributors to their Letters to the Editor Section. I have had 23 letters published in The Times over the years, and given that they receive 400 submissions a day that is extremely gratifying! Hearing The Times editorial page editor talk about the sacrosanct mission of The New York Times to give truth and hold the president’s feet to the fire was so moving and memorable, as it showed how much they value good journalism.

My letters have tried to take social science research and then encapsulate it. So whether it is lynching, different perceptions people have about Bill Clinton, or the ways social media and news is changing I try to take the news of the moment and provide some context. I can share a little bit of knowledge because I have studied this stuff. It is fun to take a lot of my social science and history knowledge and throw it together into a letter. Getting the call from The New York Times that they are going to use my letter is still incredibly exciting! I see this as an opportunity to offer my perspective, put things in writing, which I love, and get a little attention for it, hopefully with people not yelling at me.

CSU: What future plans do you have regarding your writing and scholarship?

Perloff: To continue doing them as long as I can, because I love it. It is fun to sit in your office and write books, but sometimes I have a hankering to go beyond that. That is where the op-eds come in. I can reach more people and present stuff I want to say on issues that I think matter. I have been really fortunate that people have liked what I have written and that it has resonated. As a writer that is all you can really ask for.

#Cleveland State University #CSU #EngagedLearning #Richard Perloff #New York Times #Op-eds #Letters #Political Communication #Persuasion

[sarahboseman]

WHEN JEALOUSY TAKES OVER...

CHADWICK BOSEMAN X READER

Word Count: 3900

Prompt: Your relationship with Chadwick has lost some balance due to your jealousy. Will there be a way to put everything right? 

Warnings: Angs and Smut 

"Just fuck off Chad!"

"Just Fuck you! I always have to support these bullshit from you!!! every time you and I go out together?!!! Jesus!!!!”

"if only you behaved well Chadwick, you shouldn’t bear with anything!" "But what have I done? I've done nothing! Nothing at all ... FUCK, She did it all!" "Of course, naturally, she put her hand on your ... on your DICK ... and you let her do it !!!!" "No, you turned just at the wrong time, too early to see my reaction! But do you really think I would let myself be touched by the first woman I see around me??? during an evening together??? "Apparently ...."

Your evening at the club ended like this, in the usual discussion between you and him ... perhaps because of your too much jealousy. Lately everything seemed to go wrong ... After the release of Black Panther, Chadwick's popularity had increased considerably and he was always surrounded by millions of people, especially women. There were those kind, who asked for autographs and pictures, and others much more shameless having no problems touching him and making absurd, dirty proposals ... despite being in company, despite being with you.

You knew well what was the “popularity”, you worked closely with V.I.P, you know how these things work, these evenings, events ... what sometimes happens ...

And it was through your work that you met Chadwick, through your colleagues. You met him at an after party for an important Award Ceremony, you did’t accompany anyone on that occasion, you were not (just saying) in service. You were invited by your agency and you went there. You two chatted a little bit and you immediately fell in love with him, perhaps, from the moment he handed you a drink and he looked at you, mischievously, from the edge of his glass.

After a few more random meetings, he asked you for a date, for a drink ... and the magic happened.

You immediately fell in love with his soul, untouched by fame … despite when you met him at that after party, Chadwick was already famous. After “Get on Up” everybody knew who Chadwick Boseman was ... But he was the usual and simple boy of next door ...

You fell in love with each other, so deeply, and after a very short time you went to live together. Staying away from each other became something immediately unbearable, it was impossible and inconceivable not to sleep in the same bed. So you took home together and ... until recently, everything was extraordinarily good. Then, you don’t know what happened …

Your jealousy took over ... you knew it was an ugly beast. Seeing all those women around him, it was a thing that made you crazy. Not all of them, naturally, because you loved his sweet fans!

Chadwick was so extremely handsome, captivating, charming, down to earth but he also loved to be courted. 

Well, he never did something bad in front of you ... he always said sweetly: "It's my job honey, I have to be kind and gentle with everyone” ... you know that  ... of course you know, you always repeat the same thing to your clients. “Be nice to everyone, even with those you'd like to kill” At the end it was just a work attitude, you know, … let yourself be flattered and be kind to everyone ... men and women. But it was already the third time that they touched him, and it was the third time you tried to explain him how you felt, but tonight the limit has been reached. You were chatting with a former client and friends of yours, not far from him by the way. Chad was sitting at the bar with some of his old friends. He was sat with his back turned to the bar, his elbows leaning against the marble and his legs wide open. As if it were the most normal thing in the world, a beautiful girl came and placed her hand between his legs, so shamelessly, whispering something close to his ear. You turned around at that precise moment, and saw the scene. Without worrying about Chad's reaction, you took your belongings and went home by a taxi. You didn’t want to make a dramatic scene or even in front of all those people who knew you both. "You know the background, you know the business, you know what happens at these parties. You know EVEN better than me!! What the fuck can I do?”

"Nothing!! But maybe not let touch your dick by the first bitch you meet”

"But it was unexpected! I didn’t ask her! “

“I KNOW! But fuck!!!! but you didn’t even come looking for me!!!! You’ve been there with your friends!!!!”

“I know ... I'm sorry ... but they held me back”

“who held you back? your friends or one of those usual bitches? Were you so busy that you couldn’t run after your girlfriend and apologize??? maybe reassure her? No,right,… you get two hours after!!!”

"FUCK, YES! I came after two hours because I didn’t want this scene!!! I'm sick of arguing! I'm sick and tired! " “I'm also sick and tired Chad! What the hell do you think? that I like feeling this way? You think I like being sick and thinking of you with someone else?"

"But why do you think I have to be with another woman!? FUCK! You are paranoid, you're a crazy! That’s what you are ... FUCK!!!!”

His eyes were deep … he touched his hair and beard while he talked and argued with you, while you were screaming against each other at 3.am like two crazy people. And it wasn’t the first time that happened and you knew he didn’t fuck anybody else, you knew perfectly that he came back home to you after those parties, events, or whatever else. You were the fool one who thought badly and always started a fight. You were disgusted by yourself for this. He put his hands on his hips holding tight the fabric of his white T-shirt, he had pulled off his sweater as soon as this argument had begun and he had begun to stir. He was sooo damn and fucking hot even when he was angry.

The first times there were discussions between you, you remember you started laughing after few bad words, because you suddenly looked at him and told him how much sexy he was when he got angry. He approached, you burst out laughing, you kissed and apologized. But those were simple discussions, for futile reasons.

This was actually a futile reason … Jealousy darkens thought and mind. How did you become like that? How did you BOTH  become like that? Because even Chadwick wasn’t joking about being jealous. He became quite possessive as soon as some of his friend or colleague approached you, making some appreciation. You remembered what happened at the world premiere of Black Panther, during which he introduced you to some old and new colleagues. You remembered Chadwick behind you, whispering in your ear: "I do not want you to approach him again during the night ... he's a jerk, haven’t you seen how you looked inside your beautiful cleavage all the time? He has looked at your ass for hours … and this is something that is up to me and me alone. Clear? you're mine”

Nothing to say, you didn’t complain about this, it was very exciting hearing these things from your man. But often you went beyond everything, from the excitement to the discussions for uselessness … for your pride, for his ... for your ingenuity. Because you loved each other to the point of slaughtering each other. If only you could shut up your mouths and just tell you that you love each other ... and that's it. But this was not enough for the human and animal soul. Maybe that would be enough for that animal, but not for the human one. After he told you you’re crazy, you ran upstairs and slammed the bedroom door behind you starting undressing in a hurry and got into the shower. You just let the hot water flow over your body, until the pain on your skin hurts no more than the words Chad had told you… You stood under the water for a long time, crying and your tears mingled with the drops of water coming down from above. Between your sobs you didn’t even realize that Chad had entered the bathroom and had opened the door of the big shower. You turned suddenly and saw him still dressed, closing the glass door behind him coming in. He was still wearing his jeans and his white t-shirt. He was getting wet, from head to toe.

You looked at him, your eyes were too red and swollen because of the crying, they hurt. You sniffed and he moved closer to you with his eyes closed he shook his head and let the water slide on his face, on his shoulders, on his chest . Under the white shirt turned transparent thanks to the water, you could see his perfect chocolate skin and the shape of his perfect body. You rested your hands gently on his chest, closed your eyes and holding your tears back ... but your lips trembled. He said nothing, he put his hands on your shoulders looking into your eyes, slowly getting down, caressing all your body. Then he rest his strong hands on your hips and pushed you away just enough to take a look of your whole bare body. He tightened his grip and then he kissed you urgently. You let yourself be kissed in that way in which only he could kiss you. He kissed you as if to apologize. You massaged your lips with his and then his tongue with yours. He always tasted so damn good.

He knew how to make you forget everything just with a kiss ... every time. He knew how to seduce you. But this was not a kiss of seduction …It was a kiss of so many words. You stroked his face and he held you against him, his clothes were completely soaked, and while you were still kissing him you took his shirt off. He cuddled you, kissed you under the water, as if nothing had happened ...His hands on your back, on your bottom, on your breasts ... he was clutching, touching, stroking, teasing and panting ... he turned on. The kiss intensified a lot and you quickly undid his pants while his tongue licked your mouth and his lips biting yours. He moaned and gasped as you stroke his boxers on his most sensitive point. He took off his pants and his underwear tossing them into a corner of the large masonry shower to stand naked in front of you until he suddently picked you up by placing his big hands under your tights. You liked those hands, they fit perfectly on your body, they were perhaps one of the most beautiful things about him. Cured, soft, big, long fingers…. there was nothing he couldn’t do with those fingers…

"Chad … sorry, I'm so sorry" you whispered against his lips "I'm sorry too baby ... I'm sorry"  "Chadwick ...." "Forgive me baby, please ... " and with slow pace, he pushed himself inside of you, while you tied your legs to his waist for support. Your back against the wall and your hands on his toned shoulders. His hands held you close to him so as not to fall.

Yes ... you could have forgiven him everything ... always. But not for the amazing sex you did, but because you loved him so much to kill for him. you loved him so much to eclipse yourself, you loved him so much ... you loved him infinitely. You made love in the shower, under the water ... against that wall tied on him, as you usually do kind every morning ... You liked getting fucked in the shower, especially in the morning, you liked to feel his wet body against yours, while he held you up keeping your legs open while he was doing his performance. He liked it, he liked it so much. Yes ... making love with Chad was beautiful, it was beautiful in every way possible. Sweet and romantic, but also furious and wild. But your evening didn’t end there ... You dried up for good without saying a word, almost as if "it was not over there" ... as if your healing sex hadn’t healed anything. It was beautiful, magnificent as ever, but it hadn’t paid off. In silence, you dressed to go sleeping … or at least ... you got dressed to go to sleep, he didn’t come, because Chadwick sat at his desk to read his e-mails. It was very late at night and you didn’t want to start another fight when you said that fucking joke ... it was just malice ...

You started again to fight, he went furious and he scared you a lot. You said a lot of bad words to each other, crying out loudly. You told him to go away, to leave you giving him a strong slap on his cheek. You pushed him away telling him that he didn’t love you for real, and it was at that point that he stopped, shushing. He widened his eyes and took you by your wrists "never say anything like that ... never again " You looked him straight in the eyes, I was afraid to hear his words hissed like that a few inches from my face. His taken on mine wrists hurt. “Don’t you dare anymore … don’t you dare to say it. I give you my world to you, I gave you all of me " It was true ... like you to him ... and at that moment you couldn’t say anything else looking at him. You were mortified “Sorry ... sorry Chad"

He tightened his jaw and took a deep breath "Do you love me? Do you still love me Y/N? "he suddenly asked you almost shouting, still staring at you "I have always loved you, I’ve never stopped and I won’t stop." You whispered almost crying. "So why are you doing this? Why do you think I fuck all the women I meet? ... you know you’re the only one for me!!!! God! I love you so deeply, can’t you see it????” You shook your head and he shook you, yelling at you: “Stop it! Stop considering me a fucking asshole! I'm not one of those bastards you were used to date !! It's not me! You want to understand!? " He doesn’t give you time to react or to answer, he kissed you furiously and desperately ... He kissed you and talked, whispering words that you couldn’t even understand. It was an absurd situation. You really looked like two crazy to tie up. "I " kiss "LOVE " kiss on your neck "YOU" kiss on your lips "Understand???” Licked on you lips And you gasped. you nodded as he put his hands on your face, gently this time, and you stroked his cheek where you first had hit him strong. "You didn’t hurt me ... don’t be worried" You kiss again and again "But you're a fucking bitch ... woe to you, woe to you, if you still dare to pull such a slap to me" this time he laughed and kissed you again.

Your kisses were kisses of love, fervid and eager. You jumped at him and he caught you. You rubbed your hips against his when you hug him finding him excited as you had never felt him. And you were wet, soaking wet, but not for the shower

He went towards the bed, putting you on it and started to undress you, quickly. He took off your top and the pair of his boxers you used for sleeping. In a slow motion he stroked your legs and your tighs, kissing the very top of your skin becoming warmer under his touch.

You lifted you back, leaning on your elbows looking at him while he was undressing. You took the chance to get up and took him in your hand, stroking slowly all his lenght, then putting him in your mouth and licking him.

" OH ... OOOh fucking hell YES! " he cursed and moaned loudly, probably not expecting it. Finally Chad threw his t-shirt behind him and interlaced his fingers in his hair, closing his eyes and enjoying this moment of pure lust. You never get tired of seeing him naked in all his glorious beauty. He stood in front of you as you adjusted your position for sucking him better. With your mouth you sucked while one of your hand went up and down. A hand on his length and the other hand on his testicles. You licked his tip first taking away a drop of his obvious excitement. You licked it all, putting pressure on the vein that protruded behind.

"Yes … HOLY SHIT ... .you're ... you’re so good in that ... keep going ... fuck me with your mouth baby”

He was panting hard and moving his hips, coordinating the movements you was doing with your head. He was good ... so good at these things.

”Shit I’m coming baby ... fuck, fuck, fuck yes..” He slipped out of your mouth with a dirty pop, before coming and he made a mess on top of you, dripping all over your chest and breasts. He usually didn’t make any problem and you didn’t complain …"Yessss ... yes …. oh GOOOOD ..." He enjoyed and panted while you continued to massage, waiting for him to come back from Fantasy Land  . "... sorry Y/N, but If I came into that sweet and delicious mouth of you, I would faint … What the hell has gotten into you baby???!!!””And he laughed, smiled ... he liked it, a lot. You went to the bathroom to clean a little bit, then went back to him, the lights of the bedroom were off, It was all dark and you couldn’t see anything ,but you heard his voice guiding you "Here love ... I’m on the bed " You couldn’t see him, but he could see you through the light of the bathroom. You could hear him smiling as you climbed into the bed and crawled up to his side. His hands took you and pulled you towards him and then underneath him.

“can we end up fighting?” you heard him whispering on your lips . Now that your eyes had used to the darkness and to that dim light, you could see him. You could feel him, that was the important thing.

You closed your eyes and nodded putting your hands on his back and stroked down ‘till his ass ... nice, round and toned … and went up to his shoulders. He stroked your nose with yours, then came down to rub it against your lips. You kissed the tip of his nose. “Stop it love, please let's stop” he begged you, but he was right “let’s stop Chad … forgive me please” He nodded and kissed your lips "And you forgive me ... “

You returned the kiss stroking gently your face and Chad began to make love with you, slow and sensual, rocking his hips in tempting movements.  You lifted a leg, widening your entry and he pushed himself inside, over and over in a very slow pace, taking your leg on his shoulder to push himself completely deeper, as he liked the most.

You arched your back, feeling him to the core, almost touching your soul. And you were panting his name begging him to stay with you, not to leave. "Stay with me Chad ... I can’t live without you " It was true, you knew very well you couldn’t live without him. It was a thought you could not bear. "Oh babe ... say it again ... say that you love me” he asked in your ear, causing you shivers. And he pushed ... pushed ... pushed again … staying attached against you, he pushed. You spread your legs and felt his hand caressing it, going down to your ass and then to the inside of your thigh. You liked it when he touched you at that point while he was inside of you. "Yes ... yes Chad .. don’t stop” "Say you love me Y/N“ "I love you ... I love you sooo much, ooh yes … ” “Oh God, fuck ... I’m melting inside you, you so perfect for me, you fit me so good” he said all between the thrusts, every thrust a word. His voice was sensual and hoarse. Almost a whisper. He didn’t stop, you didn’t want him to stop, it was so good feeling him inside of you, after a long time you were loving each other ... not fucking. "Turn around ..." he told you ... and you did it. You laid down on your stomach and he raised your hips as he used to do to find the right angle. You felt his lips on your ass, kissing and biting a little bit while with his fingers he teased your soaking lips. He touched you in the middle then putting his perfect fingers inside. Oh God his fingers ... Then with his tongue, he traced the trail from your back to your neck, kiss after kiss until arriving to your ear. He placed one hand next to yours and with the other one he guided himself inside you again, all in one thrust, he slipped in with a hoarse groan ... straight inside your ear. He made you scream of pleasure, he filled you so damn fine. He got on all fours on you, in such a way to be able to speak to you sensually in your ear. He moved your hair behind your shoulder and kissed your lobe and just below ... pulling you mad and hungry for love . He was sending you out of mind ... as always ... he was so alcoholic ... he had the same effect on you as alcohol ... he drenched your mind and made your head spin. Clouding your sight. Your were panting and groaning with pleasure as you felt him come in and out. It was his favorite, but you were not sorry either. "Touch yourself … “ he whispered to you" touch yourself ... you know I like it baby” He didn’t need to pray, and you did as he said. while he was pushing, you touched. Then he stretched his hand over yours and he did it with you. His fingers on yours in the same rhythm. He was panting in your ear and talking to you about love. Sweet words mixed with very dirty ones. He kissed your neck and then your back ... You couldn’t take it anymore, you was about to collapse. All those feelings were unbearable. "Chad ... faster ..." He heard him chuckle, but he satisfied you. He increased his pace and you could feel his muscels stiffen. He let go your hand, you clung to the pillow as he kept pushing faster and harder. ” Love ... I can’t" he pushed hard "Live" pushed again "Without you ... TOO "and he accelerated so strong that you screamed in pleasure, you couldn’t take it anymore, you collapsed, your legs trembled, as well as your whole body underneath him. "Yes ... yes ... oh Fuck YES ... mmmm yes ... " you heard him coming a second time, this time inside you. You liked feeling his hot filling. You called his name into the pillow as he rubbed his face on your shoulder and breathed breathlessly.

Chadwick collapsed on top of you and then moved to a side, holding you close to him. You were both sweaty and still panting. You kept kissing and caressing each other as if you didn’t have enough yet.

"What should I do with you? ... tell me Y/N " he told you laughing on your lips keeping talking “You make me pissed off as few people do, indeed, like no one has ever done. And then you make me have the most amazing and divine beautiful sex in the world ... you're a such a bitch” he smiled tenderly and held you tighter. "I don’t want to piss you off anymore Chad ... sorry" "Enough to say sorry ... kiss me"

#chadwick boseman #chadwick #boseman #chadwick boseman fanfiction #Chadwick Boseman smut #smut #chadwick boseman fiction #chadwick boseman love #t'challa #t'challa x reader #t'challa smut #t'challa fanfiction #black panther #black panther smut #black panther fiction #black panther fanfiction #black panther x reader #love #mywriting #my writing #chad

[thingscometogether]

To the Class of 2021

Thank you for the privilege of being a part of this very important and momentous occasion in your lives. I’ll keep my comments brief because, let’s be honest, you’re not going to remember anything I say ten years from now. Some of you aren’t going to remember anything I say tomorrow. Some of you aren’t even paying attention right now, which is totally fine. I can’t tell you a single thing any of my commencement speakers said in my graduation ceremonies, so I’m under no illusion my words will change anyone’s life tonight. I simply want to share one piece of truth I’ve managed to glean through my years of managing what they told me would be ‘adulthood.’ I can summarize it in three words:

YOU. WILL. STRUGGLE.

I know that’s a Debbie Downer of a statement when I’m supposed to be feeding you positive platitudes about your future, but I say it because it’s something I wish someone had told me when I was young and staring down expectations of the future to ‘be successful.’ Nobody wants to talk about failure when we are a success-oriented culture, but everyone will struggle, and yes, fail at some thing some time in their lives. Really, multiple things at multiple times. Anyone who tells you differently is lying (and my guess is they’re lying because they’re afraid of looking weak in telling the truth).

When I sat at graduation, at the top of my class with all my honors cords and GPA distinction, many people breezily told me there was no doubt I would be successful. And I had ambitious goals. I wanted all the markers of what we’re told measure success: a string of academic abbreviations after my name, a salary where I’d need two hands to count the digits, the cover of a major national magazine, and a list of awards so long it would take up most of my obituary when the time came . . . And then real life laughed at my ignorance and threw me more curve balls than Sandy Koufax and Satchel Paige.

What I didn’t know when I sat in the seats where you’re sitting is that I have bipolar disorder. It took me seven years to finish college, and I had to take classes at four different institutions to do so. (My transcripts, plural, look like alphabet soup.) During this time I suffered two major breakdowns following traumatic events in my life. After I graduated and entered the professional world, I lost job after job moving to city after city trying to get control of my life until finally, at the age of 30, I moved back home to live with my parents. Talk about feeling like a failure.

The worst part was the heaviness of shame I carried around, believing that I had somehow done something wrong to cause my own defeat through a lack of will and fault of character. And I suffered in silence, too afraid of what others would think of me if I admitted how embarrassed and ashamed I felt. Which brings me to the second piece of advice I have for you:

TALK. ABOUT. IT.

To throw out the requisite commencement-speech-quote-by-a-famous-person, the author Viet Thanh Nguyen writes in his Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Sympathizer, “While pain is universal, it is also utterly private. We cannot know whether our pain is like anybody else’s until we talk about it.” (To be clear, he’s not talking about mental health in this passage of the book, but I find the words quite profound so I’m taking poetic license here.) 

When you talk about your struggles, you free yourself from the burden of carrying the weight of shame. You open up space for other people to talk about theirs and suddenly you realize you’re not the only one. You take away the paralyzing fear that others will discover ‘the worst thing about you’ and move towards a state of self-acceptance that engenders strength and power. You realize that life is not set up in terms of pass or fail; it’s a continuum where success is measured in relative terms that you create.

Speaking for myself, I learned that life was not going to be about academic and professional success for me. I had to learn to apply the same diligence, determination and focus I used in studying for tests into taking care of myself. In certain things I would have to work twice as hard to maintain success in what some people simply took for granted. I learned to create a more flexible model of achievement for myself in order to keep moving forward. 

Success isn’t about how much money you make or how much power you wield or how many accolades you have hanging on your wall. Those things are nice and worth celebrating if achieved earnestly, but they don’t mean much if there’s no life force behind them. 

Success is about doing better than yesterday. It’s about finding work that has meaning and makes a contribution to the world even if it doesn’t come with a cool title. It’s about loving people. It’s about accepting setbacks and failure as part of the process. It’s about constantly learning, adapting, growing.

So have fun tonight. Celebrate your win. Know that you can be successful in life, it just may come in different forms than you originally expect. And talk about your struggles. You’re not alone in them.

[i-am-very-very-tired]

// Google search Lainey Gossip Drake gets cut off February 11, 2019 at 3:31 PM by Kathleen Drake accepts the award for Best Rap Song for 'Gods Plan' during the 61st Annual Grammy Awards on February 10, 2019, in Los Angeles 331327 This is the Grammys. Set those words to the tune of Childish Gambino’s “This Is America.” The track won Song of the Year and Record of the Year last night, making it the first rap song in HISTORY to win those categories. In its 60-year history, the Grammys only now found a rap song they deemed worthy of two of their biggest honours. These are Grammys that Drake has never won. He’d won 3 previous to this year’s show, but all had been in the “Rap” categories. Last night, “God’s Plan” won Best Rap Song. This is the Grammys. Drake’s history with the Grammys has been tepid at best. He did not submit More Life for consideration. In 2017, he didn’t show up to the ceremony to collect his two awards, again both for rap categories. Here’s what he said then about his Grammys. “Even though ‘Hotline Bling’ is not a rap song, the only category they can manage to fit me in is a rap category. Maybe because I’ve rapped in the past, or because I’m black, I can’t figure out why… I won two awards last night, but I don’t even want them. … It feels weird for some reason.” We’ve written about this in the past in reference to Jay-Z and Beyoncé, two living legends, two artists who put out two of the greatest albums of the past decade. Jay and Bey are constantly relegated to the “urban” categories. They didn’t show up to this year’s Grammys but they did win Best Urban Contemporary Album for Everything is Love. Drake has called out the Grammys in the past for their blatant disrespect of a genre that has kept the music industry afloat for years and their lack of reverence for a genre they use to make their show more entertaining through performances but rarely through awards. Cut to last night. Drake accepts his award and calls the Grammys out to their face. He wasn’t sitting in the audience. He refused to play the ‘stand in the crowd and give you cutaways’ game. He was waiting backstage when his name was called. He walked out smiling, clearly with his own plan in place. An early shot fired: “It’s actually the first time in Grammys history I actually am who I thought I was.” I didn’t know how to interpret that line at first. It was Lainey who suggested Drake was calling out the show for constantly relegating him to the Rap column. Then, I revisited his statement above. “The only category they can manage to fit me in is a rap category.” So, what he’s sarcastically getting at is that with this song – an ACTUAL rap song – it’s the first time the Grammys gave him recognition for “who [he] thought [he] was.” That was his first jab. His next swings were more deliberate. They landed, without any need for interpretation. “All my peers that make music from their heart that do things pure and tell the truth, I wanna let you know we're playing in an opinion-based sport, not a factual-based sport. So, it's not the NBA where at the end of the year you're holding a trophy because you made the right decisions or won the games... This is a business where sometimes it's up to a bunch of people who might not understand what a mixed race kid from Canada has to say or a fly Spanish girl from New York or anybody else… But my point is you've already won if you have people singing your songs word for word, if you're a hero in your hometown. Look, if there's people who have regular jobs who are coming out in the rain, in the snow, spending their hard-earned money to buy tickets to come to your shows, you don't need this right here. I promise you, you already won." Drake tries to say more but before he can throw another punch, the Grammys cut to commercial. The producers may try to say it wasn’t deliberate but up until that point in the show, the other winners were not cut off as abruptly. And you can’t ignore that just as Drake was reading the Grammys, it was conveniently time for a commercial break. Listen, Drake could have sat out the show altogether, like he’s done before and like Childish Gambino did last night, and Frank Ocean has done before them. No, he showed up with something to say. Drake turned down performing at the Grammys this year, as did Kendrick Lamar and Childish. Hip-hop artists seem to be fed up with the Recording Academy’s bullsh-t. I’m glad that Drake showed up to say his piece. I’m glad he stood up for a genre that he currently dominates. If the charts are any indication, Drake is the most relevant artist of today. He’s been criticized in the past for not using his platform to say anything substantial. Last night, Drake stepped up and dropped the mic. FINALLY. If I’m being picky, I just wish he had really gone for the jugular. If Drake was trying to say that the Grammys don’t care about black artists, I almost wish he had just said it – with gusto. In his own words, he said the Grammys weren’t relevant. He told his peers that these awards don’t matter and that they shouldn’t be looking to this show to validate them. He’s right. He shouted out Travis Scott and Cardi B, two black artists who put out two of the most pertinent albums of the year but were still pushed into their lanes of Rap or “Urban.” (Cardi was nominated for Album of the Year but didn’t win.) If Drake had been given more time to talk, maybe he would have called these injustices out by name. But instead of letting the man have his moment, the Grammys silenced him like they’ve been doing to the biggest artists in pop culture for years. Sounds like a real solid strategy in staying relevant. The Grammys cut off DRAKE. This is the Grammys. It’s poetic that Childish Gambino’s song about racial injustice in America is the first rap song to break the Grammys’ shutout of the genre. The song is telling America about itself. It won two of the Big Four awards on a night that Drake told the show about itself. It may be my favourite thing Drake has ever done. I’ll leave you with Hannah Giorgis for The Atlantic breaking down what Drake’s chess move says for the future of this flailing show. If Drake, that goofy and algorithm-friendly genre-bender of a rapper, is no longer willing to feign appreciation for the award, then who in hip-hop will care about its future? A WORD. Photos: Kevin Winter/ Kevin Mazur/ Robyn Beck/ Getty Images Drake accepts the award for Best Rap Song for 'Gods Plan' during the 61st Annual Grammy Awards on February 10, 2019, in Los Angeles 331328Drake accepts the award for Best Rap Song for 'Gods Plan' during the 61st Annual Grammy Awards on February 10, 2019, in Los Angeles 331329Drake accepts the award for Best Rap Song for 'Gods Plan' during the 61st Annual Grammy Awards on February 10, 2019, in Los Angeles 331330Drake accepts the award for Best Rap Song for 'Gods Plan' during the 61st Annual Grammy Awards on February 10, 2019, in Los Angeles 331331Drake accepts the award for Best Rap Song for 'Gods Plan' during the 61st Annual Grammy Awards on February 10, 2019, in Los Angeles 331332Drake accepts the award for Best Rap Song for 'Gods Plan' during the 61st Annual Grammy Awards on February 10, 2019, in Los Angeles 331333  Tags: Drake , Grammy Awards 2019 , Maple Leaf , Music Smut Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston, 2004 331317 Jennifer Aniston’s two birthday exes Today is Jennifer Aniston’s 50th birthday. Her party was on Saturday, at the Sunset Tower. And as yo February 11, 2019 at 3:12 PM by Lainey meghan-thomas-11feb19.jpg 331334 Thomas Markle’s weekend dump I mean, it’s not like you weren’t expecting it, right? I was expecting it. Last week, when PEOPLE’s February 11, 2019 at 3:53 PM by Lainey Related on LaineyGossip Drake/Kanye 328675 Kanye reignites feud with Drake in Twitter rant Drake on his birthday 326175 Drake celebrates his birthday with 2000s themed party Matt Haag or “Nadeshot” and Drake 326124 Intro for October 24, 2018 drake-pusha-17oct18.JPG 325698 Pusha T brings the receipts for his side to Drake beef during Joe Budden interview Need a Distraction? Featured On LaineyGossip Rihanna joins Drake on stage in Los Angeles and he tells crowd she holds him down|Lainey Gossip Entertainment Update LaineyGossip|Drake and Rihanna reportedly stayed together at luxe rental in Malibu following LA concert Lainey Gossip Husband Illustrates Everyday Life With Wife In 19 Pictures. Try Not To Cry! Cosmo Womens | Sponsored Finally! South Africans Get Super Cheap Car Insurance Deals MzansiReview | Sponsored How To Look Amazing As An Older Woman Healthy, Sporty & Beautiful | Sponsored 30 Foods That Should Never Be Put In The Refrigerator healthyandpretty | Sponsored Featured On LaineyGossip Drake celebrates his birthday with 2000s themed party Lainey Gossip Drake's Scorpion album review Lainey Gossip Katie Holmes and Jamie Foxx attend Clive Davis' annual pre-Grammys gala together Lainey Gossip We're ready for Rihanna's new album and for more of her in 2019 Lainey Gossip Top 30 Most Beautiful Women in the World PrettyWomanMag.com | Sponsored ContactTermsPrivacyCookiesArchivesFAQsPressPartnersView Desktop SiteCookie Settings © Copyright 2004-2019, Lainey Gossip Entertainment Inc. X Contact Terms & Privacy Cookies Advertise Bios FAQ

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SIMMONS: Martin Brodeur is the slam-dunk of this Hockey Hall of Fame class

New Post has been published on https://nhlrumormill.com/simmons-martin-brodeur-is-the-slam-dunk-of-this-hockey-hall-of-fame-class/

SIMMONS: Martin Brodeur is the slam-dunk of this Hockey Hall of Fame class

On Hockey Hall of Fame Friday, Martin Brodeur stands a little taller, walks a little faster, talks a little louder and reaches beyond the crowd.

Even among the five greats being inducted alongside him.

There may have been questions about the elections of Gary Bettman and Willie O’Ree in the builders category. There may have been questions about Jayna Hefford, as there are every year about women and whether any will be welcomed. There may have been doubts about Martin St. Louis, first time eligible, who is used to being overlooked. And as for Alexander Yakushev, well, he’s been passed over for decades, so he’d probably given up any hope in getting to the Hall, if he ever believed it to be possible.

But it’s different for Brodeur. He’s different, he’s an outlier, an original: The slam dunk of this class. The slam dunk of any class.

If his vote wasn’t 18-0 among the Hall selection committee, then whomever voted against him should be asked to leave immediately.

There has never been anyone like Brodeur before, and there may never be anyone like him again. The way he played. The number of games he played. The style he played. The records he broke. The way he moved the puck.

The 2018 Inductees into the Hockey Hall of Fame during a presentation at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ont. on Friday November 9, 2018. From left – Gary Bettman, Martin Brodeur, Jayna Hefford, Willie O’Ree, Martin St. Louis and Aleksander Yakushev. Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun/Postmedia

The 2018 Inductees into the Hockey Hall of Fame during a presentation at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ont. on Friday November 9, 2018. From left – Gary Bettman, Martin Brodeur, Jayna Hefford, Willie O’Ree, Martin St. Louis and Aleksander Yakushev. Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun/Postmedia

The 2018 Inductees into the Hockey Hall of Fame during a presentation at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ont. on Friday November 9, 2018. From left – Gary Bettman, Martin Brodeur, Jayna Hefford, Willie O’Ree, Martin St. Louis and Aleksander Yakushev. Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun/Postmedia

2018 Hockey Hall of Fame Inductees Jayna Hefford, Willie OÕRee and Martin St. Louis after receiving their rings during a presentation at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ont. on Friday November 9, 2018. Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun/Postmedia

The 2018 Inductees into the Hockey Hall of Fame during a presentation at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ont. on Friday November 9, 2018. From left – Gary Bettman, Martin Brodeur, Jayna Hefford, Willie O’Ree, Martin St. Louis and Aleksander Yakushev. Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun/Postmedia

The 2018 Inductees into the Hockey Hall of Fame during a presentation at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ont. on Friday November 9, 2018. From left – Gary Bettman, Martin Brodeur, Jayna Hefford, Willie O’Ree, Martin St. Louis and Aleksander Yakushev. Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun/Postmedia

Lanny McDonald (left), Chairman of the Hockey Hall of Fame, shares a moment on the stage with 2018 Hockey Hall of Fame inductee Gary Bettman, during a presentation at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ont. on Friday November 9, 2018.. Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun/Postmedia

Lanny McDonald (left), Chairman of the Hockey Hall of Fame, presents the ring to 2018 Hockey Hall of Fame inductee Aleksander Yakushev, during a presentation at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ont. on Friday November 9, 2018.. Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun/Postmedia

Lanny McDonald, Chairman of the Hockey Hall of Fame, presents the ring to 2018 Hockey Hall of Fame inductee Martin St. Louis, during a presentation at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ont. on Friday November 9, 2018.. Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun/Postmedia

2018 Hockey Hall of Fame Inductees Jayna Hefford and Willie OÕRee after receiving their rings during a presentation at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ont. on Friday November 9, 2018. Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun/Postmedia

2018 Hockey Hall of Fame Inductees Jayna Hefford and Willie OÕRee after receiving their rings during a presentation at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ont. on Friday November 9, 2018. Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun/Postmedia

Willie OÕRee, walks past fellow 2018 Hockey Hall of Fame Inductees Gary Bettman and Martin Brodeur after receiving his ring during a presentation at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ont. on Friday November 9, 2018. Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun/Postmedia

Lanny McDonald, Chairman of the Hockey Hall of Fame, presents one of the 2018 Inductees into the Hockey Hall of Fame – Willie OÕRee – with his ring during a presentation at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ont. on Friday November 9, 2018. Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun/Postmedia

Lanny McDonald, Chairman of the Hockey Hall of Fame, presents one of the 2018 Inductees into the Hockey Hall of Fame – Willie OÕRee – with his ring during a presentation at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ont. on Friday November 9, 2018. Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun/Postmedia

Lanny McDonald, Chairman of the Hockey Hall of Fame, presents the ring to 2018 Hockey Hall of Fame inductee Jayna Hefford, during a presentation at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ont. on Friday November 9, 2018.. Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun/Postmedia

The 2018 Inductees into the Hockey Hall of Fame – Gary Bettman (left) and Martin Brodeur looks at their rings during a presentation at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ont. on Friday November 9, 2018. Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun/Postmedia

Lanny McDonald, Chairman of the Hockey Hall of Fame, presents the ring to 2018 Hockey Hall of Fame inductee Martin Brodeur, during a presentation at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ont. on Friday November 9, 2018.. Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun/Postmedia

Gary Bettman, 2018 Hockey Hall of Fame inductee looks are the ring he was just presented during a presentation at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ont. on Friday November 9, 2018.. Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun/Postmedia

Lanny McDonald (left), Chairman of the Hockey Hall of Fame, presents the ring to 2018 Hockey Hall of Fame inductee Gary Bettman, during a presentation at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ont. on Friday November 9, 2018.. Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun/Postmedia

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I never thought anybody would beat Terry Sawchuk’s mark of 103 shutouts. Brodeur ended his career with 125.

I never thought anybody could start 70 games, year after year. Brodeur did it 12 times. The giants of his day — Patrick Roy, Dominik Hasek, Ed Belfour — combined to start more than 70 games four times.

He played a style you can’t really explain. The best often do.

He wasn’t a copycat butterfly goalie the way so many NHL goalies are today.

He wasn’t a standup goalie, the way so many who came before him were. He was a little of this and a little of that.

He was something of a hybrid, a part stand-up, part-butterfly goalie who rocked back and forth on his skates. When asked on Friday what his style was, he laughed and said: “Who knows?”

New Jersey Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur hoists the Stanley Cup after beating the Anaheim Mighty Ducks in the 2003 Stanley Cup final. THE CANADIAN PRESS FILE

When he came to the end of his career — and he stayed for every last second he could in the NHL — he had more wins than any goalie who had ever played. Of all his marks — the three Stanley Cups, the four Vezinas, the rookie of the year, the two Olympic gold medals — that’s the one that matters most to him. Brodeur was pragmatic to the end of his career.

“I don’t care what you say, if your goalie isn’t stopping the puck, you’re not winning the game, said Brodeur.

It sounds both basic and simple, but it’s neither of those things. New Jersey never had to worry about who was playing goal, or what kind of goal he was going to play: He started 1,471 games, regular-season and playoffs, and he happened to be on the winning team 804 times. Hasek played in 854 games in total, and would be top-three on anybody’s list of the greatest ever. Brodeur, as always, is in the conversation.

“I was the best,” said Brodeur. “Just ask him (my dad).”

He is the Hall of Famer of Hall of Famers in this class. A son of a goalie, whose dad the wonderful photographer, passed away five years ago.

“You wish that everybody you love and who supported you could be here,” said Brodeur. “For me, I’ve lived so many experiences with my family through the Olympic games and Stanley Cup runs and the NHL awards. I know this is the biggest one. They’ll be up there and they’ll enjoy it.”

He was talking about his father Denis, the goalie-turned-photographer. He was talking about his brother Claude, who passed away not that long ago.

This is something you’d want to share with everyone and, quietly and privately and outwardly, he is sharing the weekend with those who have made it here, and those who are gone.

Of his father, who played goal for Team Canada at an Olympics, Brodeur said: “I think he lived, what he wanted to live, through me.”

Brodeur, who now works on the business side of operations for the Devils, watched the Leafs game on Friday night while sitting beside his long-time goaltending coach Jacques Caron. Lou Lamoriello, who drafted him, is coming for the ceremony on Monday, and so is former coach Larry Robinson.

It’s a time to celebrate, a time to take stock of everything that has happened, a time to reflect on who is here and who isn’t.

A time to realize how goaltending has changed, how hockey has changed, how a game that once had Brodeur, Roy, Hasek and Belfour doesn’t have a definitive best goalie anymore.

A time to take it all in, the adulation, the celebration, the once-in-a-lifetime experience.

“This is as good as it gets,” said Brodeur, flashing his brand-new Hall of Fame ring. “This is the ultimate. This is a great moment.

“And this is it, the last hurrah, the last recognition I’m going to get.”

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[duanecbrooks]

Do We Need News Regularly?     In all the hubbub concerning the Oscar presenter Warren Beatty majorly screwing up regarding announcing the winner of the Best Picture award during the recent Academy Awards telecast, you might have easily missed this ad that ran during said ceremony having to do with the New York Times. In point of fact, it was constructed by the New York Times, concentrating on the notion of "truth." The aforementioned ad began: "The truth is our nation is more divided than ever," and going on from there to quote statements from both Trump supporters ("The truth is that the media is dishonest; The truth is we have to protect our borders...The truth is all lives matter") and Trump opponents ("The truth is women's rights are human rights...The truth is we need a full investigation of Russian ties; The truth is this country was built by immigrants"). The ad ended by asserting: "The truth is hard to find. The truth is hard to know. The truth is more important now than ever."It was David Rubin, the Times's branding executive, who told CNN, concerning said ad: "The idea [of the ad] is [for the Times] to be a part of that discussion about what does it mean to find the truth...We [at the Times] wanted a high profile media moment. This felt like a great moment for people to respond and react to the spot." (True to form, Trump, along with many of his supporters, took offense to the ad, charging that it had an anti-Trump slant, with Our Prez himself tweeting: "For first time the failing @ny times will take an ad (a bad one) to help save its failing reputation. Try reporting accurately & fairly!")                   Well, well, now. What I am going to speak to is not the state of the nation--anybody who is even passably aware would say that, yes, this country is currently significantly split--nor whether or not Trump and his backers are right in their stance regarding the Times--as one who grew up following the aforementioned publication, I can say with accuracy that this is one of the scant handful of times that the Prez and his constituency are right; the Times, like my hometown newspaper the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, has and has long had an unmistakable Phil Donahue-esque hair-shirt-liberal-guilt bias. No, my purpose will be to address the entire issue of the Times--and, by extension, the Mainstream Media in general--bestowing upon themselves the mantle of "truth." The fact is, I have reached the conclusion, based on undeniable evidence, that, pace the often-overheated claims of media practitioners and cloistered academics, mainstream journalism is not and has long not been all that necessary in regard to the American landscape, that there have been many, many times that vital to us as a country.               First off, let's look at the very nature of how we consume news. For all the talk concerning "the power of the press" and all the referencing of "The Fourth Estate," the cold, hard reality is that the press has said power because...we, the public, have willfully ceded it to them. Yes, the Constitution mandates "freedom of the press," but, in truth, that is literally the only constitutionally-protected right the press has. There is nothing, nothing in the Constitution or the law that says that says that we, the public, must partake of them. In his much-talked-about media chronicle What The People Know: Freedom and the Press, the greatly-respected political reporter-writer Richard Reeves twice quoted the Nightline host Ted Koppel giving a speech at the end of a 1997 dinner of the Committee To Protect Journalists wherein Koppel aggressively urged his brother and sister newspersons to maintain their integrity and to never, ever succumb to commercial lures. But, in point of fact, we could have turned off Koppel--or, for that matter, Dan Rather or Bill Moyers or David Muir or any of their television-news brethren--at any time, even in mid-sentence, and there wouldn't have been a damned thing any of them could have done about it. And the same thing goes for the print media. During Watergate, Time magazine published the results of a poll they had taken that revealed, among other findings, that since most folks saw no way to oust Nixon without doing large-scale damage to the country, they were getting flat-out tired of the entire matter. In a later issue, said publication flatly asserted: "The public simply has no right to get tired of Watergate." Now this was an outright damned-foolish statement for them to make because--and, indeed, a later letter writer openly pointed this out--if we, the public, had wanted to fully tune out Time magazine's and all the media's Watergate coverage, we could have--and neither Time nor any of the other media could have struck back in any capacity. Indeed, it was the longtime TV anchorperson/commentator David Brinkley who freely pointed out to TV Guide, concerning the media's "power": "There are numerous countries in the world where the politicians have seized absolute power and muzzled the press. There is no country in the world where the press has seized absolute power and muzzled the politicians [emphasis mine]." Also: During the past presidential campaign there was not one newspaper, not one, that endorsed Trump--and, in fact, many publications that had never, ever endorsed a political candidate either backed Hillary or blatantly condemned Trump. Obviously, these happenings didn't make a nickel's worth of difference.             A personal note here. For quite some time now it has been a truism that virtually the only media of which I majorly, regularly partake are the Today show's Fourth Hour with Kathie Lee/Hoda Woman, the Saturday-Sunday editions of Good Morning America, theatrical films, books, the Internet, and DVDs. And frankly...I've never felt better in my life! Not only have I not for one minute felt one bit guilty about having little "curiosity," but I have never been sued, I have never had my possessions commandeered, I have never been put behind bars. And, as mentioned, I'VE FELT FANTASTIC!             That's the first point. Secondly--and I've dealt with this previously--the reality is, for all the huffing and puffing to the contrary, the Mainstream Media do not have and have never had any genuine power. As such esteemed journalist-columnists as Jimmy Breslin and Pete Hamill have pointed out, what a writer, any writer, turns out has always had little, if any, immediate impact. I know what you want to enquire here: But what about the media's role in ending the Vietnam war? Didn't all that journalistic coverage, especially on television,  play a major part in bringing that insanity to a close? And what about journalism's role in the success of the racial-equality struggle? Didn't media coverage, particularly televised media coverage, have a very large hand in enabling blacks to get on an even keel with whites? In response to these queries, I say: "Hell, no!" Concerning Vietnam, what turned us, the public, against that viciousness was, as, ironically, Dan Rather--"with" Gary Paul Gates--pointed out in his legendary first-Nixon-presidency chronicle The Palace Guard, was the simple fact that it was our brothers and our husbands and our sons who were losing their lives over there--truths that, needless to say, we already knew and didn't need the Mainstream Media to tell us about. Concerning black equality--and, again, I've taken this up before--the decisive factor here was...Barry Goldwater. When he squared off against Lyndon Johnson in the 1964 presidential campaign, L.B.J., greatly assisted by Goldwater's own rhetoric, made him out to be an unstable reactionary loon. Thus Goldwater was massively defeated, his extremism-is-no-vice style of conservatism sent other Republican public-office-seekers into the electoral toilet along with him, and, hence, with so many Democrats installed in so many public offices, the Great Society was launched, and, therefore, there were all those landmark forward strides in racial equality during the 1960s. Indeed, I shall go so far as to contend that if the Mainstream Media were, en masse, wiped out, if this nation's leading newspapers (the Times, the Washington Post, et al) went out of business, if the Big Three TV networks, along with this nation's leading newsmagazines (Time magazine, et al), stopped dealing in news altogether, confining themselves to presenting only entertainment and sports, if all--all--news were literally left to radio--which, in truth, is and always has been where most blacks get their information and their entertainment--and to the Internet and to the all-news cable-television networks (CNN, MSNBC, et al), the vast majority of us...wouldn't care a crap. As long as men continued to be able to watch their baseball games and their football games and their basketball games and women continued to be able to watch their daytime soaps and their Lifetime films and continued to be able to read their romance novels, there would, by and large, be no public outcry against this monumental reduction regarding news.               It was a reviewer of David Halberstam's much-debated media study The Powers That Be who nakedly asserted that, while it has been intensely useful in the past, much of the time we as a nation have gotten along perfectly well without mass communication. So let us not allow the Times or any other major journalistic organ to delude us into believing that it is some great conveyor of pure and unvarnished "truth." A wholly honest look at American history will very quickly lead to the conclusion that, when used in concern with the mainstream reportorial community, that word is fiercely misapplied.

#warren beatty #the academy awards telecast #The New York Times #truth #Trump #Donald Trump #the pittsburgh post-gazette #nightline #ted koppel #david halberstam #the powers that be #mass communication