#chris wood can literally play anything

[therhythmafterthesummer]

Wereroomies werewolf!chan reaction to his girl in a rabbit costume? I know that man will go insane

this ask wormed its way into my brain and made me write a drabble in record time. sorry if anything's worded weirdly, i was literally possessed while i wrote this whole thing.

Pairing: Werewolf!Chan x Human!F.Reader (one of the main pairings of my WereRoomies series). | Word Count: ~1k. | Warnings: Chris’ POV · curvy/chubby reader · primal play (can it be considered primal play when one of the parties involved is an animal already?) · breeding · unprotected penetration [piv. no barrier method, but the reader is presumed to be on birth control].

minors do not interact.

It was rare for Chris to take you to his house in the woods on your own. Typically, the entire pack would come for their monthly run, but every once in a while he needed to come check on the place to make sure everything was in order–the amount of times he’d woken up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night with the sudden thought that he didn’t turn off the lights before leaving during their last trip were too many to count at this point.

This weekend, Chris decided to take you out on a little escapade, just the two of you in his big house. You both had been working nonstop the last couple of weeks, between that and pack duties you’d hardly had any time for yourselves as a couple, so he was more than needing his alone time with you, to disconnect from everything and everyone else.

So here he was, doing the final checks on the house to make sure everything was fine before he could finally join you wherever you were in the house to lounge around and snuggle and hopefully have some delightful sex later in the evening.

“Baby, have you seen the–the…”

Walking into the living room, and seeing you all of a sudden like that, sitting on the dining table of all places, was something Chris did not expect. His mind short-circuited immediately, and the fact that you had the nerve to gasp and act surprised as soon as you spotted him wasn’t making it any better.

“Oh, my… Seems like I’ve found myself in the wolf’s lair. What am I gonna do now…” You brought your hands to your cheeks, which only squished your breasts further together, all garnished with the fakest look of concern he’d ever seen on your face.

That bra was barely even a bra, it was just a couple of pieces of fabric tied around your neck by thin straps, it did absolutely nothing to keep your breasts contained. It was white, too, practically transparent. The bottoms weren’t much better, also a barely even there piece of fabric that did incredibly poorly at covering your plump centre. But the worst pieces of all were the white and pink suspender belt, with the matching stockings over your mouth-watering thighs, and the goddamned bunny ears on your head.

Something stirred deep inside of Chris, something just so incredibly dangerous, something he just knew was exactly what you wanted to awake with this entire set-up of yours.

Prey, prey, prey, prey, prey…

What kind of boyfriend would he be if he denied you of your fun? So of course he played along. 

“Aww, poor little bunny got lost?” Chris cooed, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning on the door frame, staring you up and down.

You bit your lip, nodding. “You’re not gonna do anything bad to me, right?”

Chris took a deep breath, and he got almost winded by the scent of your arousal lingering in the air. “Well… That depends, pretty bunny…”

“On?”

A smirk made its way onto his face, and Chris could already feel himself straining in his briefs. “On how fast you can run away from me”.

You bit your lip and whimpered, looking almost scared. 

There was a moment of you staring at him, and Chris staring at you… A moment of silence that fed the tension in the air. In an instant, you were getting off of that table and bolting out of the room, letting him see the fluffy tail attached to your bottoms, and he could feel the fine hairs on his nape stand on end.

Chase, chase, chase, chase, chase…

Chris immediately ripped his t-shirt off of his body and chased after you. He was suddenly feeling incredibly warm, and he could feel his instincts further clouding his reason as he looked at your form trying to get out of his reach.

He let you off easy for a few minutes, revelling in the deep breaths you took, in the way your heart was racing inside your chest, and in the smell of your scent taking a hold of every single one of his nerve-endings. Until he just couldn’t take it anymore, he needed to catch you, to show you your place and make you submit.

After a while of running and hiding around the house, Chris finally caught up to you on the upper floor, right after climbing the stairs–his shorts had been discarded at some point during the chase, he didn’t even notice when he’d removed them, and he, honestly, also didn’t care.

With a tight hold on your waist he pushed you against the nearest wall. He would’ve felt bad by hearing the whimper that came out of your mouth as soon as your back hit the wall, but, at this point, he knew your limits, he knew how to read your body language, he knew the exact word you would use if it all became too much for you, and, especially, he knew when you were putting on an act. 

With a hand cradling the back of your head, he tilted it to the side, making himself more room to shove his face in the crook of your neck, to prod at your pulse point with the tip of his nose and get a proper whiff of that scent of yours that made him delirious, especially now with how horny you smelt, with his senses enhanced by the chase.

“What now, bunny?” Chris mumbled. He licked a stripe up the expanse of your neck, relishing the taste of your skin under his tongue, and he felt you shiver with the motion.

You swallowed, taking a deep breath. “What are you gonna do to me? I’m just a poor, innocent bunny that got lost…”

“Are you, now?” Chris brought his free hand to the ears on your head, feeling the soft fur between his fingers for a moment, only to finally move that hand to your side so he could drag it all the way from your ribs down to your hips, relishing the goosebumps that rose under his touch. “And what was a pretty bunny like you looking for so insistently you ended up lost in my lair?”

“A partner”, you replied simply, although your voice got a bit shaky when he started to toy with the string that tied your underwear in place. “I just…need to be bred so badly”.

Chris could’ve fainted with how fast blood rushed from his head to his crotch.

“Oh, sweet, sweet, bunny”, he dragged his teeth down the length of your neck, until he finally found a spot to suck the first of many love bites he was ready to leave on your skin. “I can give you exactly what you want… I’ll pump you so full, pretty. Just how you need”.

“You will?” You reached for his hips, and the warmth of your hands on his bare skin was further feeding that pool of desire in the pit of his stomach. “Is the big, alpha wolf going to put his pups inside me?”

God, he might’ve been the predator, but you certainly always had the upper hand, and Chris knew you were aware of it. You always knew what to say to get him to react, to get exactly what you wanted, and he was ready to fall for it every single time.

Chris leaned in closer, close enough he could feel your lips brush against his own when he spoke. “Only if you ask nicely”.

You moved your hands from his hips to his ass, squeezing generously. “Please… Please, I need your pups so bad. Please, breed me, alph–”

A squeal left your lips when Chris took a hold of your hips and turned you around all of a sudden. He just couldn’t take it anymore, not after all that had transpired since he spotted you on that table downstairs.

With a hand on your upper back, he pressed your chest further into the wall as you pushed your hips back towards him, giving him the delicious sight of your round bottom in that barely there piece of underwear with the fluffy tail, and the way your soft flesh dipped under the taut straps of your suspender belt that held the stockings on your legs almost made him dizzy.

Chris spat on his free hand and smeared the saliva all over his length. Pulling your underwear to the side, he got a perfect view of your soaked folds. Clearly, all the running around had been a good warm up for you, too, and he was almost trembling in anticipation.

In normal circumstances, he would’ve probably stretched you out first, even loosen you up with his mouth and his tongue. But these were no normal circumstances. He could barely think straight at this point, all he knew for sure was that he needed to be inside of you and give you the pounding of your life.

Breed, breed, breed, breed, breed…

You whined once he started to push his cock inside you. The feeling of your warm, wet, tight walls stretching over his length had him rolling his eyes to the back of his head. He might’ve worried he was hurting you, but he knew by now that when you reached back for his hip like you were doing now, almost like you were urging him to ram himself into you already, it meant you were doing just fine, so there wasn’t a single spark of worry in his hazy mind just yet.

As soon as he was fully sheathed within your warmth, he nuzzled your neck, holding the soft skin of your hips tightly in his hands. “Don’t worry, pretty bunny. I’ll give you what you need. All of it”.

© therhythmafterthesummer 2023. all rights reserved. do not repost or translate my stories.

figured i’d tag anyone that wants to be tagged in my wereroomies instalments. if you don’t want to be tagged in little ask responses like these let me know !

@raspbinniecreme · @staaa96 · @oiminho · @straylightdream · @starshine-moon · @biribarabiribbaem · @100layersofdaddyissues · @dearalice · @alexis-reads-fics · @xcookiemonsteer · @knowleeknow · @chanlovesme · @liminaldaydream · @sstarryreads · @svngiem · @notastraykid · @princelingperfect · @violetpenguinkris · @leedunno · @peepeepoopooharrie · @aestheticsluut · @skzhomiehopper · @cessixja · @mimzibee · @hipsdofangirl · @djeniryuu · @floatingcoffecup · @minnysproutgriffinteddy · @moonmooncr · @phobia0325 · @leebitsimpracha

#stray kids supernatural au #stray kids werewolf au #bang chan smut #stray kids smut #stray kids fanfiction #bang chan fanfiction #bang chan fic #bang chan x reader #chan x reader #skz fanfic #skz fanfiction #stray kids fanfic #werewolf chan #werewolf bang chan #✨🌙✏ #ask #anon #wereroomies ask #wereroomies headcanons

[wooahaes]

skz - stardew au

daisy's notes: bc i wanna have a counterpart to the svt au

for bang chan, i'm kinda torn? i can see him living with his family and being a loving big brother to his siblings. i kinda wanna give him specifically something more akin to sam where he has his music heart events. maybe he's working with changbin and jisung and later you get to see the song he wrote with your input? i think one of his heart events would have something to do with his love for dogs and another being hannah teasing chris about how often he talks about you (interpreted however you like since its a heart event you can access before dating him). maybe.. perhaps... a heart event on the beach where he talks about how much he loves it? which comes back when he confesses to you on the beach? yes. i think he'd probably just work at joja mart or something or do freelance work at home. man who will water crops and feed the animals and fix fences after marrying you tho. he just wants to help <3 also dad of the year if u have kids they will be So supported!!!

lee know... honestly, he and jisung are really good with kids, so i could see minho being the one who runs a school for the kids in town (fulfilling penny's role). probs a little quiet in the beginning as he's trying to get a better read on you as a person, but warms up quickly. at least one of his heart events is him feeding stray cats and being caught by you. he doesn't get flustered or anything but he does talk about how he likes caring for things... and for people, too. maybe a mention that he worries about coming off as mean when he just has a particular sense of humor--and he usually only makes those jokes around certain people who he knows can handle it. omg wait chris says minho's dad makes furniture or something... minho lives on the mountain with his dad, the town carpenter??? imagine romancing minho and his family just Knowing because of how often you make the trip up there for non-farm related stuff lmao. he probably confesses to you during a picnic or a walk in the woods. i love the idea of him also feeding animals after marrying you or cooking for u sometimes... what a softie!! dad of the year #2 btw

changbin kinda fits into taking alex's position in a sense? lives with his family (loves them SO much and you WILL know it), works out a lot, etc. i can honestly kinda see him talking about wanting to do something with it professionally, but in terms of opening up a gym rather than playing sports. man who is nice to begin with but will be down so fucking bad for you by the time you finish romancing him. hes just a loving dude!! i like to imagine he talks vaguely about traveling a little bit but says that he never saw himself going through w it because he doesnt like the idea of leaving his family. maybe... he has a softer side too in terms of art or writing? like the guy talks abt maybe being a writer or a tattoo artist, i could maybe see that coming up in his heart events. consider... poetry boy bc he writes lyrics and idk i think theres at least a little crossover there. he confesses with lyrics he wrote for u. also probably thrives in married life on the farm??? plenty of space to work out and go on walks... thank u.

hyunjin.... leah. he's just having a good time living in the forest and painting/drawing. i feel like he'd be a little standoffish in the very beginning, but warms up to you a lot over time. probably would ask if he can hang out on your farm and draw sometimes. his lil section behind ur house??? absolutely an easel facing toward the farm so its implied he's painting u/ur farm. honestly i kinda like to think he works at the saloon and probably voices his annoyance to you that tourists sometimes hit on him and he's not really a fan. imagine literally having a heart event where he claims ur his partner to get someone to knock it off, and later sends u something nice in the mail as thanks. probably one of the more romantic guys. i think he'd enjoy married life on the farm a bit considering it gives him plenty of space to enjoy nature and draw if he wants to, plus he has you to support him in his artistic endeavors. absolutely insists on doing some things around the farm like feeding animals because it's the least he can do to make ur life easier.

for han... honestly i could see him functioning as elliott-adjacent? the kind of guy who writes, but he's busy writing lyrics. his first heart event 100% includes chris + changbin passing by reader and jisung talking in town and they invite him to come make music w them if he wants. alternatively, i could see jisung as being the shy son of the couple who runs the ranch. i think he'd warm up to reader more and more over time, and it'd absolutely have his family sending him up to reader's farm sometimes on "errands" like delivering feed there and whatnot. wait jisung w the blue chickens. genius. either way, i feel like he also would probably open up to reader about being an introvert and how he's good with people, but that he has his limits and he appreciates having ppl in his life who don't push him to be extroverted. he does feed animals for you (and put water out for ur pet) and probably mends fences for u as well. man who is aware that sprinklers exist.

felix... ok vibe w me for a minute. felix who's family runs the general store. gamer boy who probably games with you for one of his heart events. some of his events also take place on the beach tbh where he talks about swimming in summer and going to the beach w his sisters?? maybe his heart events kinda talk about how he doesn't really know what he wants to do sometimes. he has things he likes doing, ykno? also at least one of his heart events is a lil sad and u get to comfort him and he sends you a letter saying he appreciates the kindness in ur heart. gives! you! treats! after u marry him! always says a little 'sorry i woke up early and started baking... but you like these, right?' before giving u a lil treat. also will feed the animals on your farm and mention how he likes helping you however he can <3

seungmin is mr 'its not like i like you' in the beginning where he's not mean by any means, but he is like hm. farmer :/. kinda like haley? he's nice enough to people he knows super well, but he takes a moment to warm up to new ppl in the valley. tourists? he's polite enough. a random person who moved there out of nowhere? ew. why would you come here? but he warms up to you quickly. he lives w jeongin! sometimes he'll go visit him after he marries you and they just have a friends day. anyway i think his heart events talk about him wanting to be a photographer. maybe you help him get a website together that he continues to maintain into marriage + he'll go off and take pics in the forest on some days. lovingly cooks and waters ur crops for u <3

i.n... lives with seungmin, as mentioned before, and i think he'd work at joja. openly tells you he dislikes it but he's gotta make a living somehow. he mentions that sometimes he'll help minho with teaching the kids if he needs it, but sometimes he'll also tutor any of the kids needing the extra help (minho always recommends him bc he knows jeongin wants the extra money). honestly i feel like he'd probably enjoy married life on the farm where he can explore what he wants to do in life without having to worry too heavily about other things. probably has very sweet heart events where u can really see how mature he is sometimes. one of them involves him tutoring the kids outside one day and u get to impart farmer knowledge on them (which is pulling from one of penny's but shh).

#skz stardew au #wooahaes.fic #stray kids fics #stray kids x reader #stray kids imagine #stray kids x you #thats all im tagging this with im too lazy to do any more tags sdkfhsdf #take my silly thoughts!!

[georgiapeach30513]

I'm going to counterpoint that American Psycho anon with Matt Damon's character in the Drive Away Dolls movie. I wouldn't say his role in this film (no spoilers but it is readable on the film's wiki) is particularly level with his current career. I mean he was just in Oppenheimer...lol. Can we also mention him appearing in the Dunkin commercial with Ben for the Super Bowl? But, he's Matt Damon. He can do what he wants.

Here's the thing: Actors will do the things they do because they want to or it's an opportunity or they were convinced for whatever reason. Or they just needed something on their resume. Or it could be a million other reasons.

We don't know for sure Chris is playing the Priest guy. It can be inferred because in the PR of the movie, he's listed as playing a cult leader and cult leaders are usually akin to religious leaders, and Priest Dean makes sense. However, these are simply context clues, like Jen has mentioned previously. You don't know what his entire role will be. I don't think having raunchy sex onscreen, if his character does do this, means it's downgrading his career. I think if anything it's meant to be comical, but maybe people should watch Drive Away Dolls and see what type of vibe Ethan and Tricia were going for. I think it'll be in the same realm in Honey Don't. But it could also be completely different. Who knows what's going on in that brain of Coen.

And I'm going to be dead honest...I recently tried to watch the Pam and Tommy show and I was extremely turned off by it and everyone involved. TBF, I think Seth Rogen and co are way too old to be doing something like a show about a sex tape....and the fact that they needed to put Tommy talking to his penis. To me....that was unnecessary and not something I would do if I was trying to be taken seriously. It somewhat worked for the Awards circuit, and the show and the cast got recognized. But if you asked me if on paper, a show focusing on a sextape that gets stolen of two famous people would garner Awards...I would have rolled my eyes. But you really never know. Until the finished product.

And...last controversial take. Everything Everywhere All at once. I am a huge Michelle Yeoh fan. But I did not enjoy this film. There was a butt plugs fight scene...(For anyone who hasn't seen it, well...yeah) Again, it worked out for the Academy and for viewers, but I couldn't take it seriously. But I don't hold it against the actors because this is something unexpected and out of pocket. For Michelle, I wouldn't have expected her at this point in her career to be doing a film like this but glad she did. Because it got her the Oscar. And the mainstream recognition she's deserved, in my opinion, for a very long time.

Again - I am not saying that Honey Don't is going to be some Oscar darling because I'm going to go ahead and say it's not. Lol. But it is coming from the brainchild of an auteur Oscar nominated/winning director whose made some very out of pocket and unique films in his career. I'd more like to ask Margaret Qualley what made her decide to sign onto a sequel before the first one even came out.

Whatever happens, I think this will be at the very least, an interesting role for Chris.

You do bring up a great point with Matt Damon. I feel throughout most of his career Matt has been a very respected actor, and he’s still done some raunchy comedies. Dogma, anyone?

And we don’t know, and may never know why Chris chose this role. At the end of the day, he’s going to do what is best for him and his career. And we can continue to watch, or don’t. And that’s okay. Once upon a time I was a HUGE Elijah Wood fan. I still adore him, but I don’t check out every single project he does.

Okay, so as far as the talking penis in Pam and Tommy, that was literally taken from Tommy’s memoir. And unfortunately sometimes the shock value is what people do. And Seth Rogan is one that loves a good shocking moment. And those moments can cause buzz. Buzz is what makes people want to watch something. I work with a lot of people, from a lot of different walks of life. And one of my clients, has no idea who Sebastian is, but heard enough about P&T and decided to watch it. She now is a Sebastian fan.

I have yet to see Everything Everywhere All at Once, but @nancydrewwouldnever told me I need to check it out more than once 😂 I’m currently finishing up the Fall of the House of Usher, yes, I know I’m late. And look at what it earned Michelle! So good on her!

We don’t know what Honey, Don’t will entail. We aren’t even 100% sure if Priest Dean is Chris, I think it’s a great guess. But he will be doing a panel this Saturday, and I’m going out on a limb and predicting that he will mention his upcoming projects. He has a lot of work he can talk about this time.

And what we can say for certain, is with Honey, Don’t, Chris is stepping out of his comfort zone. He’s taking a risk. And this is what I and several other people have asked for ALL last year. So I am excited to see what his future holds.

[dongpound]

i demand to know more of your oc's (also im trying to catch up on your space au fic its been so long since i last read it)

OH MY GOD IT DIDNT GET EATEN BY TUMBLR

Anon™️ I’m using your ask as like a sticky note of oc ideas specifically Tundra dude there’s SO much I’m so sorry I got into the hyper focus zone

Tundra’s name is actually Alejandra Citlali Osorio-Cruz and through the series she’s just about to turn 16 in season 1 and roughly 19-20 by Season 5 (give or take how the fuck you think time works in 2012 bc I think it takes place over 3-4 years season 5 included)

Tundra came about as a nickname when she was a kid and got super hyper-fixated on professional wrestling and like. She made an entire persona and lore. Alec started using her wrestling name as a silly nickname and it stuck.

Yes I did come up with a stupid cute reason behind the name Tundra bc I can not handle the fact I chose such a BAD oc name for a LION but like I can’t change it NOW!! I MADE HER IN LIKE 2015 SHES TOO OLD TO CHANGE IT

Xever did just think for the longest time Tundra WAS her name. He also just assumed that Alec and Chris adopted a child for fun.

Her bio parents Ixchel and Alejandro were really good friends of Alec and Chris for like. Well over a decade. Ixchel and Alec especially. Ixchel was an actress (like I would say their worlds equivalent of Selma Hayek) and Alejandro worked in music production.

They didn’t have a ton of family they kept in contact with, so Alec and Chris were named Alejandra’s legal guardians if anything happened to them. They sadly died in a plane crash when Tundra was around 1.

This feels like SOOOO edgy and silly to me now but like I literally can’t see Alec and Chris adopting a kid any other way than the guilt of losing their friends pushing them to do it. WHICH SOUNDS BAD. AND LIKE IT IS. However they still love and raise Alejandra as their own, if anything Chris is like. Somewhat distant bc he still has his career but Alec’s like “fuck yeah I get to raise a kid again” and kinda slips from the spotlight. Which is fine by them , they’re like 600 years old they can just have messy fun in the public eye another time

Tundra goes fucking THROUGH IT emotionally through the series. Like goes from would do anything for Chris and Alec (especially Chris who. Again. Was distant and she desperately wanted his approval) to the point where like. She’s yknow. Mutated, to growing resentful of them when Hachi enters the picture (especially when she has to take care of him) to like. Low key betraying the foot and joining the mutanimals in season 3. And then having to deal w Chris being resurrected temporarily in season 5 after a really chill and happy 2 years with her mom and little brother like it’s a LOT.

In season 1 she’s very much a “mean girl” stereotype and slowly evolves into Cool And Gay (but still a little better than you)(she. She gets that from her upbringing.)

Tundra and Karai are seen as like a duo/bffs up until season 2 after the whole “I’m not shredders daughter” thing happens. They grow distant (obviously) until season 4.

So like Alec and Chris are NOT the best parents and like. They did totally just let Tundra take Hachi to live w her and the Mutanimals in season 4. She’d already been in space w him for 6 months and the poor kid really didn’t want to go live in the woods. I have such a specific scene in mind for this and I want to write it out so bad. Anyway tundra basically becomes a teen mom for a little bit. Eldest daughters am I right? *plays class of 2013 by mitski*

Tundra has a modified mini van which she does haul all of her friends who can fit in. Apologies to leatherhead and slash . No she doesn’t have a license

She also has a bike. These two vehicles she did canonically find on the side of the highway and she convinced Donnie and Casey to help her fix them

Tundras in a punk (? Maybe more Pop punk ) band called The Muties (my other characters Jack and Spinstra are in it. also Mondo. Sometimes Raph fills in on drums if Spinstra can’t make it). Tundra and Jack switch off on vocals, she’s usually on bass. They started up in the down time between seasons 4 and 5. They play in Moira’s Menagerie (a mutants only bar and hall) every week on Fridays. Alec comes to nearly all of their shows and also they bring Hachi sometimes when they practice and he’ll play his DS.

Alec will also force their friends (I.e. Apep, Anton, Ivan and Xever) to come watch Tundra w the promise of drinks and she thinks it’s embarrassing every fucking time bc they’re SO LOUD and OBVIOUS and god she could just DIE (but also. Having the support makes her happy)

Alec WILL slam back 3 tequila shots and go on about how talented their daughter is.

Chris got to see her play once. And it was when he was resurrected. And Tundra, frankly, was not thrilled. Another one I wanna write

#thanks for reading all that I love Alejandra and she deserves the world #oc tag #I’m a little embarrassed by how much I wrote but I’ve been in a big tundra mood lately

[ice-mage]

My Review of Teen Wolf: The Movie

So, I watched the Teen Wolf movie when it came out, but it’s been a busy few days, so I haven’t had the chance to really share my thoughts until now. By now, I’m sure anyone who cares has either already seen the movie or has decided not to see the movie, so be warned that this will contain spoilers.

I won’t belabor my thoughts too much (knocks on wood). In looking at this movie, I think there are two questions:

Is Teen Wolf: The Movie good? No.

Is Teen Wolf: The Movie enjoyable? Yes, I thought so.

Teen Wolf: The Movie is an objectively bad movie. It’s full of plot holes, inconsistencies with existing lore, and bad cgi. From the very first scene, it’s not explained why Liam is in Japan or why he has the nogitsune box. Then, he later shows up in Beacon Hills, just in time to save Derek at the high school for some reason. And this is after the nogitsune has been released and he apparently told no one. When they resurrect Allison, they show up to the Nemeton with dirt and a sword and then tree just does the magic itself. No ritual or anything, they literally just stand there and then all of a sudden magic happens. Deaton apparently could use mistletoe or something to cast the nogitsune out of Chris that he never tried with Stiles. Mr. Harris is somehow alive, but we get no explanation. Lydia somehow got enough control over her powers to no longer have premonitions of death, except that her first scene shows that she doesn’t have control. I could probably go on and on, but I’ll leave it with the biggest two. First, the nogitsune is also a werewolf. Even though it was established in the show that a wolf and a fox cannot coexist in the same body. And second, while I could be okay with Derek having a self-sacrificing death, his death didn’t make sense narratively because it wasn’t necessary. Ostensibly he dies because he has to hold onto the nogitsune so Parrish can burn it to death with hellfire, which also consumes Derek. But we see Parrish holding the nogitsune on his own when Derek pushes Scott off the Nemeton. And even though the movie reminds us earlier that Jackson has paralytic venom, he and everyone else just stands there. From start to finish, there was a lot that just didn’t make sense.

I’ve always thought that Teen Wolf at times sacrificed character development to plot. Nowhere is that more apparent than in this movie. Most of the dialogue is expository. The movie has both Liam and Mason, best friends during the show, but they don’t interact at all. The movie introduced Hikari, but she only has a handful of lines of dialogue. They had a casting announcement for Deputy Kitsune, but he was only really in one scene where he was killed off. And even still I think he had more dialogue than Hikari. We don’t see Eli interact with Peter, not even when Derek dies, even though family means a lot to Peter. And we don’t learn what most of the characters have been up to the past 15 years.

But I expected the movie to be bad, full of plot holes and all the rest going in. I never liked Teen Wolf because I thought it was good. I liked Teen Wolf because I loved the characters. And probably because I had low expectations, I was able to enjoy seeing these characters on my screen again. I loved seeing the relationship between Derek and Eli, his son. And the scenes between Scott and Allison also worked because they were character-driven. Posey has said that the movie is the best worked he’s ever done. I haven’t seen him in anything else, but I thought it was his best performance as Scott.

Jeff said in an interview that he had too many characters. And as much as I love so many of these characters, I agree. From the tier list I did before the movie came out, you know I like Jackson. But he didn’t have a purpose in this movie. And neither did many of the characters. Part of the problem was that so much of the movie was filmed without a complete script having been written. On the Return to Beacon Hills podcast, Vince Mattis, who plays Eli, said that when they started filming, they only had half a script. And in an interview with Collider, Crystal said that they didn’t have a script until the last two weeks of filming. So a lot was filmed while Jeff only had an idea, but not a story. Maybe that could have worked with a smaller cast, but not with this many characters.

The movie needed to have a more definitive focus on fewer characters. I get that Jeff wanted to bring Allison back, so Scott and Allison are one set. When he determined that he would use the nogitsune plot line to do so, he should have elevated the roles of Hikari and Deputy Kitsune. And lastly, he needed to introduce the new teen wolf, so Eli would round out the main characters of the movie. With that core five, you then figure out how your remaining characters serve their plot and character arcs. I liked the relationship between Eli and Derek, but it would have been nice to also see Eli have more interaction with the rest of his family, namely Peter and Malia. And in the movie, Eli mentions that Scott hadn’t seen him in 12 years, indicating that Scott hasn’t been in Beacon Hills in that long. And the pack seemed to not really still be in touch with each other. If the movie had focused on this more, it could have added an emotional arc for Scott that many other characters could have contributed to, even with limited dialogue, while also not detracting from the plot.

From all of the promo and social media posts, you can see that much of the cast loves Teen Wolf as much as the fans do. And it was great to see them on screen again because of that. Unfortunately, Jeff isn’t as great a writer as I think he thinks he is, and the movie suffered. So, was the movie good? No. But did i enjoy it anyway? Yes. And at least it appears to have put the fire back into the fandom a bit.

#teen wolf: the movie #teen wolf movie #tw movie #mage rants

[dreamlandforever]

@writersmonth Prompt: Day 5 - Sun

I have to be honest, this whole writing something everyday is getting harder and harder, and we haven't finished the first week yet. Either way, here's today's story:

Fandom: Teen Wolf | Sterek WC: 1.6K

AO3

V. Damsel in Distress

The sunlight coming through the window was illuminating Stiles’ notebook. He frowned slightly, unable to read some of his notes from the glare on his mechanical pencil. Before he was able to even move the notebook to avoid the glare, something covered the light and he was suddenly able to see what he had written in the notebook again. Stiles said nothing and continued reading, taking advantage of the fact that he could now read without trouble. 

When they were in middle school, Scott would sit down and play with Stiles for a few minutes without saying anything. Once the first few games were won or lost, Scott would talk a mile a minute, much too fast for just anyone to understand, getting whatever was bothering him off his chest. So, Stiles gave him a full five minutes before his impatience got the best of him. 

“You know, there’s an actual door downstairs.” He said, going for nonchalance but failing for a mile. The eagerness in his voice to find out why his best friend was there, especially entering his room via the window when he literally has a key, is more than obvious even if said best friend wasn’t a werewolf.

“You mean to tell me this isn’t one?” And the way that the joke falls flat makes Stiles turn for the first time to face his best friend.

“What’s wrong?” He asked, all business. Because if he’s learned anything the last few years is that things can go bad in an instant. 

“Why did you do it?” Scott asked softly, stepping inside the room to sit in Stiles’ bed.

And Stiles should have really seen that coming. He moved carefully, being mindful of his leg. Ever since they were kids, Scott has always been the kind of kid to try and help anyone who might be injured. Showing any kind of pain right now will only make Stiles’ situation worse.

“You were in trouble.” Stiles said simply. Because to him, it made sense.

Scott knows him enough for the answer to be enough as well. 

“Stiles, I am a werewolf.” He sounded a lot more wounded that Stiles had thought he would, but he waited him out. “I heal.” His voice was almost too low for Stiles to catch, but not quite.

“It still hurts, Scott. We are best friends. They tried to kill you.” He spoke slowly, as if he were explaining things to a child. Last night they had been attacked by hunters. They had gone after Scott, and he was distracted trying to get Liam away from the arrows and bullets, when one of them was standing right behind with a knife. Stiles did not have to think twice before standing right in the middle, taking a stab to his leg, but giving Scott and Liam enough time to get away. A wolfsbane laced stab wound would heal for him, and it might have meant something far worse for either of the wolves. Luckily for them, not much happened after that once Chris Argent had reached them and called the hunters off. 

A lot more trigger happy hunters had been coming down to Beacon Hills since Gerard died, thinking there was no one around to guard the land. They usually don’t get into situations as dire as last night, but they had been caught off guard in the middle of the woods, only Isaac, Scott, Liam, and Stiles. They had been surrounded before they had a chance to realize what was going on.

“You don’t get in the middle of that!” Scott half-yelled, exasperated. “Maybe next time I’ll just kill you myself, it will go much faster!” 

“It’s who we are!” Stiles was yelling now, but he wasn’t able to stop himself. “And I got stabbed in the leg, Scott, I wasn’t trying to hold my entrails inside. Which you have done before, might I add. You were in trouble, Scott. It’s not werewolves and humans, you know that. That doesn’t apply only to when I’m in trouble, or I speak up during a meeting. It applies all the time!” Scott’s face was enough for Stiles to know Scott knew that. 

“I know.” He mumbled. “But when the hell did a stab wound become something normal, Stiles? It isn’t. You shouldn’t have to know what that feels like. Or how to treat it. Or how to keep it hidden, Stiles.” 

“You either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain.” Stiles said solemnly. 

“Don’t you dare quote Batman at me right now.” But there was a small smile on his face, even if he was trying his best to hide it.

“We are brothers, Scott. Your fight is my fight.” 

“So you decided to be Daphne?” 

“Hey! Daphne is a great addition. And I was not a damsel in distress. I was fully aware of what was going to happen. I made sure he hit the leg and not my spleen!” 

“You’re our strategist, let me be the fighter, will you?” 

Stiles doesn’t say anything, but he just smiles sadly at Scott. They both know they will be at this point again next time. Because they always do. Stiles will do what he has to, and Scott will worry.

“Why the window?” Stiles asked finally, standing in front of it and letting the sun bathe his face. It felt good after any kind of injury to remember that he was alive. That they had pulled through.

“Your dad was at the door having words with Derek.”

“WHAT?” Stiles asked, way louder than he had expected himself to be.

“Apparently, the Sheriff does know when you are limping, and he decided to blame Derek.”

“He wasn’t even there last night!”

“Derek was indeed trying to say that.” Scott conceded. 

Stiles made a move to go downstairs, and Scott was immediately by his side acting as his crutch. Stiles just let it happen, and made it downstairs in half the time it would have taken him on his own.

The Sheriff looked at them from his position on the couch next to Derek, both with a beer in hand.

“It wasn’t Derek’s fault!” Stiles defended valiantly the moment both his feet were off the stairs.

Derek was by his side almost immediately, crouching down to check at his injury. Stiles fought him off, but Scott the Traitor moved to help Derek look while holding Stiles still.

“You'll be fine.” Derek said finally, standing back up and turning to the Sheriff. “He’ll probably limp for a few days, and it will take a few days for it to heal, but it’s mostly superficial. The hunter probably thought the wolfsbane would do the job, not the stab wound.”

The Sheriff nodded, before letting out a sigh. “Are the rest of the kids okay?”

Derek just nodded. “Chris got there in time. Stiles getting in the middle of whatever was happening was not… the worst thing. When they hurt a human it made them hesitate. Also, not having one of us be poisoned is always good.” He turned to Stiles then, brows furrowed. “That does not mean you get to pull shit like that again. Ever. You see a knife and you run the other way.” 

Stiles was about to complain, but ended up remaining silent. He nodded with a smile. This dance he was familiar with, too. Somewhere in between trying to stay alive and becoming a Pack, Derek Hale had become a friend. A friend who worried. A friend his father had just yelled at.

“Wait! Why were the two of you having words?” He asked, confused.

Derek just shook his head. “I heard what happened, wanted to make sure you didn’t get yourself killed.”

“I didn’t.” Stiles answered immediately, like it hadn’t already been established.

Derek completely ignored him. “They told me you got stabbed and that Scott was sulking.”

“I wasn’t sulking!” Scott defended himself, dragging Stiles to a nearby chair.

“You so were, bro.” Stiles said. Because if Scott could betray him then so could he. Scott shot him a look, but still sat right next to him and helped him prop his leg high on another chair. 

“I wanted to make sure you weren’t dying from gangrene and the Sheriff was on his way out. We just went over a few details of what happened.” Derek explained, the tip of his ears turning a very interesting shade of pink.

“I need you to be more careful.” The Sheriff said to Stiles, arms crossed over his chest. 

“He’s not allowed to die on us.” Scott said solemnly, arm firm and unmoving from Stiles’ shoulder. 

And the Sheriff just nodded, like that made sense. It didn’t make sense to Stiles.

But then Derek nodded too.

“He’s not.” He agreed.

“Glad we all established that?” Stiles asked nervously. “I want to go for a walk.” His leg hurt, and he was not going to spend all afternoon trying to understand what unspoken conversation and weird camaraderie thing was going on with his dad and one of the Alphas. He could focus on that when he felt no pain. 

Derek rolled his eyes, but helped Scott by acting as Stiles’ crutch on his other side.

“We'll bring him back in a few minutes, when he gets tired.” Scott said to the Sheriff, guiding Stiles towards the door.

“Hey! I can so stand a lot more than a few minutes.” Stiles defended.

“Come on, let’s see if we can get you to tan a little.” Scott said, and Stiles followed obediently. His friends were okay, and he was going to be okay, too. He could deal with some awkward conversations every now and then if it meant they were all alive at the end of day. 

#writersmonth2023 #writing prompt #jwritessometimes #teen wolf #pre-sterek #scott and stiles friendship

[dontfeeltoohot]

Would you pls pls pretty pls write Edissy with Eddie having a high fever and Chrissy looking after him?

This is so soft 😩 Set in my mechanic/cheerleader coach AU.

"Eddie, are you okay?"

"Hm?"

Looking up from where he's mostly playing with his mashed potatoes, the long haired man blinks sluggishly, eyes finding Chrissy's. Is he okay? He's been exhausted for the past few hours, a little over halfway through his shift at Thatcher Tires, almost falling asleep on his way home. His muscles are achy and his skin feels sensitive. Even with his heavy black sweater on he's chilled to the bone.

"Are you okay? You're...not yourself tonight," her voice is gentle, and she looks like an angel, strawberry blonde hair framing her face perfectly, falling onto her shoulders.

"Oh, uhm, I'm beat from work I guess," he shrugs, acutely aware his usual theatrics are lacking.

They're supposed to go out to the bookstore after dinner, there's a book Chrissy wants to get, but the idea of doing anything other than showering and laying down sounds like literal torture. Chrissy watches him for another second before she slides her chair back, wood scraping against linoleum tile. Rounding the table, he watches hazily as his wife stands in front of him, then places a delicate hand on his forehead. The affect is instantaneous. Her cool skin against his makes his body act on its own accord, leaning into the touch as she hums worriedly.

"Eddie, you're burning up," the woman moves her hand from his forehead to his cheek.

"Oh."

Oh. Right. Fevers are a thing, germs are a thing. A few guys have been out the past week because of the flu, but his immune system is pretty good, so much so that he's not bat an eye over the idea of contagion. Looking at her again, he gives Chrissy a small, tired smile.

"You're pretty hot yourself."

"Alright lover boy, I think it's time we get you in bed. I'll put your plate in the fridge for when you feel hungry," she announces, holding her hands out for him to take.

He follows her moves, holding her hands as she leads them down to their bedroom, the dark blue comforter on their bed looking overwhelmingly inviting. It's then that he remembers their date again and pauses, his own lips turning downwards.

"What about the bookstore?"

"That can wait, you're way more important than any book- even the Hobbit."

"High praise."

An hour passes, and even with tylenol, Eddie's fever doesn't dissipate, it gets higher. The thermometer beeps and Chrissy slips it out from under his tongue, sitting next to him under their sheets. The digital numbers read '102.1'.

"I'll be fine," the musician assures, voice barely audible as he fights to stay awake.

"That's reassuring," Chrissy deadpans, running a hand through his hair. "Anything I can do to make you feel better?"

"Jus'be here...love you Chris."

"Love you Eddie."

#my fic #prompts #em #cc #soft

[keefwho]

September 13 - 2023 Wednesday

9:03am

I'm having the thought that I won't be able to focus on work today since I'm not streaming. I'm having the thought that I keep making things weird with people and thats a form of pushing them away. I'm having the thought that I won't be able to figure out what it is about myself that makes me believe I'm so unlovable. I'm having the thought that nothing I do today can make me feel better and lighten up.

11:00pm

This morning was the same breakfast as yesterday which was lovely. I watched the second episode of the Mia and Me show, it's pretty bad but I'm still intrigued by it. Something about it feels cozy in a way, something about it gives me PS2 vibes.

I didn't stream today, I tried to do my work alone. I did just about as bad a job as yesterday in the sense that I wasted a lot of time goofing off even though I did get it all done within the time frame I absolutely needed to. I want to get better about conforming to my schedule when conditions aren't favorable. I can do it fine if everything is perfect. I figure part of being mature means you can't wait for just the right conditions for everything. I mowed the lawn real good before lunch and also split some wood. It's one of my weekly workouts until it all gets split.

Lunch was beef stew with pasta in it. I played some HOI4 pony mod and watched some Chris Chan documentary. When work time came around I told myself I'd be better about it than I was earlier in the day and I was. I did the request and moved onto personal stuff, getting it done with much less time wasted than before. I had meant to make up for the 20 minutes I missed on commissions but I didn't do that. After work I booted up Starfield and spent an ungodly amount of time in the ship editor just to get basically nowhere. I might stick to premade ships unless I get some inspiration to build my own.

I had asked Daisy if she wanted to do something new and interesting this evening which she agreed to. When the time came to hang out we both didn't know what to do. I was down to pick literally anything as long as we've never done it or hadn't for awhile. I have the bad habit of not being able to settle on anything when I know any choice would be fine as long as I stuck to it. She seems to have the same trouble figuring out what to do sometimes. I want to overcome this so I can not only stop being bored but so I can also maybe be a sort of activity leader for those that are also stuck. Sometimes all it takes is that one person who takes the leap into doing literally anything to kickstart others.

We ended up searching around Roblox for a little bit and peaked into this horse game that we determined was pretty bad. In hindsight I wish I had tried to do some actual RP of sorts, that would have been new and interesting. I think I was too afraid to try at the time or wondered if I could even keep up with something like that. She also showed me some EPCOT posters on pinterest before she headed upstairs where we played Sky briefly. She was super tired and went to sleep while I played more Starfield which felt very cozy. It's not often I commit my attention to something like I did with Starfield tonight.

Tonight I was noticing how I try to conserve energy a lot and also try to do things in the laziest way possible while calling it "efficient". I guess in some ways it is but I was thinking about the value in deliberately putting no cap on my energy use for the sake of doing everything to the best of my ability. It also helps to keep me from overthinking because it demands a lot of mental process as well.

Today I had also forgotten all about focusing on what I'm working for rather than what I'm working against. It was helping a lot to keep my eyes on the prize but I forgot that already. Perhaps tomorrow I'll remember.

A good thing I did today was committing my attention to Starfield in my free time. I really got invested and it felt nice. Also the commitment I had to making something fresh happen tonight even if it didn't completely work out.

#journal #diary #thought

[glittergutts]

Sorry for the long post, I just need to empty my brain somewhere.

The kids are at my mom's and Chris is at work so it's just me and Loki. He can be good company, beats the hell out of being alone. I think I'm going to brush him and trim his paw fur again if it needs it.

I'm taking my alone time to read about gardening. I'm heartbroken pear trees costs almost as much as all the seeds for starting a new garden. I want to get 3 pear trees in the ground this year. They take 3-7 years to produce, so I want to do it now. It's likely I'll still be living here in 7 years. I kind of just want to stay here and turn it into everything I've dreamed.

I live on about 1 acre, and part of that is my front yard. I can't garden in or raise chickens or bees in the front yard, so that takes away some space. Legally, chickens and bees have to be in my backyard. Which is fine because the backyard is surrounded by woods mostly. I might do an herb garden in the front. There's some garden beds lining the sidewalk and front porch that just need to be weeded and filled with dirt.

My goals are to start the garden/ canning/ preserving and such this year, next year raise 2 bee colonies, and in 2 years adopt 4-6 chicks.

I think I just need things to take care of to be happy. I want to watch the earth grow. I want to get food out of my backyard. I want to save enough money on food it justifies me not working outside of the house. I'm heavily considering homeschooling both kids next year.

Which I'd a whole other topic I won't get into right now.

I want to go to the library and also buy some books to read on backyard farming. It's making me crazy how much I just want to read and not do anything else. I hate getting hyper fixated on something. At least this is like a positive thing. I'm not sucked up in the negativity that lives in my head. I feel like I need to be busy to combat the boredom and depression.

I really need to clean the house and stop reading today. I could spend 2 hours cleaning the kitchen alone. I've got some extra laundry to do so our blankets and sleeping bags are fresh for our camping trip next weekend. I'm really excited to get outside and out of my head. I'm really looking forward to playing cards and hiking with the puppy.

I have about 30 other things to do and errands to run before next weekend too. Im trying not to get overwhelmed and take it one task at a time. I want to come home to a clean house so I'm really going to try to focus and be at least somewhat productive this week. My inability to just get up and start something is absolutely killing me. I don't know if I lack ambition or wtf is wrong with my brain but sometimes I get so frustrated with myself I literally cry and I still don't feel like I can fix anything.

If I could get on top of the mess in my house, I probably wouldn't have nearly half the anxiety I feel on a day-to-day basis. I wake up stressed about incomplete chores piling up. It makes my stomach hurt. So why can't I just get up and clean? I have no idea, but I keep feeling like I'm going to snap and hopefully in a good way where I start fixing things and getting my life back together. I feel like I've been so absorbed by stress the past year that I just kind of shut down, and I'm not feeling super functional despite life being pretty good right now.

I keep hoping and even planning for a good future. I just wish it didn't feel so out of reach. I'm going to try to keep doing my best, and maybe my best will start to get better, and I'll be able to live up to some of my expectations of myself.

#long post #sorry

[bongaboi]

Southeast Missouri State: 2022-23 Ohio Valley Men's Basketball Champions

EVANSVILLE — Southeast Missouri State men’s basketball coach Brad Korn shared a teary-eyed embrace with his parents. After an emotional 89-82 overtime win over Tennessee Tech in the United Fidelity Bank Ohio Valley Conference Tournament championship, all the family could do was shed joyful waterworks. That clinched SEMO’s first NCAA Tournament berth in 23 years and the SEMO faithful showered the players and coaches with praise.

At long last, and after four games in as many days, the wait was over. A timeline concluded with a story fitting enough for tears.

“You don’t do anything on your own,” the third-year coach said. “They get to share in that moment as well. I heard a long time ago, that surround yourself with amazing people (and) you’ll be surprised how far they can take you. I know I’m extremely blessed with these guys, this university, my family.”

The emotions of the night can’t be summed by the numbers. The six lead changes and five ties don’t come close to showing why a family cried in the stands. The Golden Eagles were about one shoe size away from snapping their 60-year danceless run.

Fifth-seeded SEMO took a two-point lead with 2.2 seconds remaining in front of 1,728 fans at Ford Center, leaving TTU needing a miracle it was painfully close to achieving. Jaylen Sebree chucked a Hail Mary pass to Diante Wood, who turned and hit an off-balance shot he thought was for the win. It was a similar play to that which ended Eagles’ coach John Pelphrey’s playing career 31 years prior.

Bucket, but his foot was on the 3-point line — “buzzer tier,” Korn called it. He sent TTU to overtime instead of the dance. Korn’s tears were nearly for a loss and Tech’s wait was almost over.

SEMO players were in tears but quickly needed to dry them. There was still overtime.

“They said, ‘Hey, remember this feeling. We’ve got five minutes to not feel this way,’” Korn said of Phillip Russell, Chris Harris and Dylan Branson. “I give them all the credit in the world for that and having the perseverance and the grit and the toughness to get it done.”

Tears fell again, but for joy and accomplishment on the Redhawks’ end. Wood watched from the opposite baseline after being an inch from ending a generational waiting period.

“I wanted to soak it all in, see how it felt, the pain,” Wood said. “(I can) come back next year, know about the feeling. Don’t want to be in that position again.”

Four games in four days. Austin Peay in 2016 was the only other team to win the OVC tournament after playing on opening night. The odds were against SEMO. Korn knew it but presented a challenge to his team before departing for Evansville.

Believe they can win the championship. Pack for four days.

Those were the options, or the players were instructed not to board the bus. That resulted in a 23-year wait ending and the Redhawks heading to March Madness.

“The guys have had a calmness, a steadiness about them all week,” Korn said. “The moment was not too big.”

“Everybody always had the right attitude,” Harris said. “We don’t want to be the outlier. It’s been so long since we actually won a championship and we see other teams winning championships all the time, so figured it’s our turn to step up.

It feels good to bring a basketball championship back home.”

A daunting task lies ahead for Korn and his Redhawks. They’ll likely be paired as a 16-seed against one of the tournament favorites or in the First Four to have the chance at playing one of the top teams. But Korn has experienced the Madness, albeit as an assistant at Kansas State.

“The balls are different, the floor is different, the arena — everything is different,” Korn said. “It’s going to be different coaching in the NCAA Tournament than it was as an assistant.

“This is what we do. This is what these guys do. To be able to have that, these guys are going to be able to see and experience, it’s at a different level. You literally walk around like royalty, people treat you so well. I’m looking forward to it.”

Amidst all the celebration, cheering and jubilation, it could be easy to forget how close it was to going the other way around. An inch, a shoe size, a step — one of those things changing is the difference between SEMO going to the tournament and watching the opposition celebrate; between tears in celebration and those in agony.

In essence, it was everything college basketball is supposed to be.

“If that’s not the definition of March Madness,” Korn said, “I don’t know what is.”

#2023 #southeast missouri state #march madness #college basketball #ohio valley conference

[callistochan87]

Tonight's CS excerpt

Tumblr didn't cut this one off!!! Apparently 2700 words = Too Much, No, how dare. 2, 170 words = fine and good, okay, do it. ???

I probably won't keep this except, at least not how it is. I'm trying to aim for the concept a sort of collective unconscious group-think (and what if one person in the crowd is not a part of that), so it was more how to get that feeling across from the POV of someone in the group. If you asked any one of them to describe it, they'd say they're just a close-knit family, and they know what the others are thinking because they know them so well, and that's that. But the outsiders? Sure, they can care about them, but they can't quite 'read' them the same way...it's a little unsettling, deep down.

also I call it an except, but this is literally all I wrote tonight so uhh yeah, feeling things out here, i really just want to get to the plot stuff but also need to Establish Things so. yeah.

The Dessler house hadn’t changed much during the 35 years they’d lived there. They lived in a tidy little house that was built around the 1970s, with brightly-coloured siding that was reminiscent of the artistic character of Old Town, and shutters reminiscent of a Cape Cod style house. It didn’t look big enough to hold a couple and three children, but somehow, against all odds, it did.

The inside looked the same as it always did too. There was some godawful wood panelling in the living room, near the wood stove, that was likely original to the house. Shelby had never liked it and thought they ought to rip it out, but to Eric it brought a very familiar comfort—something warm and cozy, like a fire roaring in a little log cabin. It was there that Eric found his father Alexander, trying to teach his grandson Tucker how to play chess, while the smells of roasted chicken and mashed potatoes wafted from the kitchen.

Alexander looked very much like Eric, with greying auburn hair and skin that looked ruddy after a lifetime of flying. Eric assumed he would look similar when he was older, as did Alexander, but neither of them actually said it aloud. Eric didn’t think that far in the future.

By contrast, Tucker had little resemblance, with dark brown hair that stuck out in odd directions and dark eyes. But then again, his father looked like a completely different person. Whereas Eric and Shelby had inherited their parents’ reddish hair and pale skin, something had gone absolutely screwy with Garrett’s genetics—he had Alexander’s brown eyes, and Anne said her father had dark hair like his, but visually he was the odd duck out.

“Now these little fellers, they can only go straight—” Alexander moved the black pawn in a line to demonstrate his point, “—or diagonally.”

A ladle banged hard against metal. Tucker was clearly losing interest fast, judging by the way he fidgeted. He rubbed his eyes, ran a hand through his hair, tried moving the pieces around the board in illegal moves. It was a bit much—Tucker was only two; his father hadn’t even begun to trty and teach him chess until he’d started school. Old enough to sit still and listen. Alexander knew that—but it kept Tucker away from the kitchen for the missus to cook in peace.

“Ah, Chris, love, good to see you!” he said, delight spreading on his face when he spotted Christine. He stood, embraced her as fiercely as he’d embrace his own daughter, and kissed her on the cheek, “Sit down, sit down, I—oh hell, you didn’t need to bring anything.”

Christine had brought a dessert. Not typical of her, they both knew.

“I need to do something,” she said, moving towards the kitchen, “We had this big bag of flour we got from food rescue and it needed to be used up yesterday. There’s only so many biscuits I can make.”

“Well, I wouldn’t say no,” he said, “The kids will like ‘em.”

Inside the kitchen, they found Eric’s mother Anne at the stove top, trying to mash potatoes; Shelby, her red hair thrown into a sloppy bun, was at the kitchen table trying to braid her niece's hair into a French braid. Her eyes were narrowed in concentration.

“Hi Shel.”

“Hey Chris,” she said, “You know how to do a French braid?”

“No.”

“Damn,” she said, “I’m struggling here.”

Garrett’s other child, five year old Kenzie, squirmed.

“Aunt Shel, this is boring,” she said.

“Look kiddo, you wanted your hair braided,” she said, “It means you gotta sit there for a while.”

“No, it’s fine, you don’t have to do that,” she said. Her eyes spotted the container in Chris’ hands and her face lit up, “Aunt Chris brought cookies?!”

“Yeh’ll wait until dessert,” Anne said. Shelby took the container as Kenzie ran off. Eric looked around. The presence of his children usually meant that Garrett was there, but his car wasn’t in the driveway.

“Where’s Garrett?” Eric said.

“Hell if I know,” Shelby said, rolling her eyes, “He showed up this morning, dumped them here, then left. What are we supposed to do?”

They were sharing looks. There was a certain mood wringing itds way around the kitchen, something more than an annoyance. A deep, abiding, persistent dissatisfaction shared among all of them. Garrett knew better. Garrett needed to make an effort. Anne had spent years raising three children and that was exhausting enough without raising her two grandchildren whenever they were at their father’s place.

“Usually he shows up for a free meal,” Eric said, pulling a chair out for Christine. She sat. She looked out of place among the sea of pale, freckly red.

Alexander made a noise, barely heard over the range hood fan and the children screeching in the living room. “Ach, who knows any more?” and he abruptly changed the subject: “How’s your father doing?”

“Fine,” Christine said, “He’s planning a fishing trip in the summertime. I think at Blatchford Lodge.”

“Ah, there’s plenty to do there,” he said, “Are you and Eric going?”

“No,” she said, “Eric works that week, I think. I’m staying here.”

“No father-daughter fishing trip?” Alexander said, his voice light. Half-teasing, but half-serious. The collective mood shifted. They thought it would be nice, even necessary, for Christine and her father to spend some time alone…a couple months more and perhaps the sting would have eased…they’d both spent so much time taking care of Leslie that some time alone to get to know each other again would be good. It was a solid plan.

Certainly, Christine had never expressed much interest in fishing, while everyone who knew Joe Schumacher knew he loved it whenever he could, so it was a bit of a compromise on Christine’s part. Not that it was the first time she’d compromised on things. They found her a little hard to read. Certainly, her mother had been a bit overbearing, but she had never—when her mind was still intact, that is—forced Christine to compromise on anything, so they weren’t really sure where they’d gotten it from. Joe didn’t seem the sort to force his child into some gender-based passivity. Joe didn’t seem the sort to force anything.

They weren’t really sure what Joe was for, to be honest, but he was a nice fellow and being a little hard to figure out wasn’t cause for concern.

Christine blinked slowly, seeming distracted by the smell of food. Her eyes looked distant, as though she were mentally somewhere else.

“Oh, no no. I burned up most of my time off, and I can’t justify the cost. Plus…honestly, I don’t like fishing much. I don’t want to be the buzzkill when I know he’s looking forward to it.”

“Did you ask him?” Eric said. Eric was always one to just voice the thoughts they had, no filter, “Maybe he’s just waiting for you to ask.”

Christine gave him a look, and Shelby matched it. Really.

“If he wanted Chris there, he would’ve asked,” Shelby said, “Really, Eric, think about it for a sec.”

Hurt flashed across his face. “You don’t know—”

“It’s fine,” Christine said, “No, he didn’t ask me to come. He just asked me to check the mail while he was away and maybe mow the lawn if it looks scraggly. …why are you all being so weird about it?”

Christine was looking around at the table. They thought she couldn’t sense the collective mood, but clearly she could see by their expressions that something was off.

“Aye,” Anne interrupted, the oven door creaking as she opened it to remove the chicken, “There ain’t naught but the two of yeh left, we thought he’d like to spend more time with yeh one-on-one.”

Christine laughed humourlessly. “After five years of taking care of Mom together, I don’t know if he wants to see me ever again. It was…draining.”

“He’s your dad,” Shelby said, frowning, “Dad would sooner chew his own arm off than ignore us.”

“He’s not ignoring me, he’s just doing his own thing,” she said, “Not every family is as close as yours.”

“There’s not close and then there’s one step removed from Garrett,” Shelby said.

“Hey, come on, don’t insult Mr. S like that,” Eric said.

“Oy, would yeh stop bickering? One of yeh call the kids an tell ‘em supper’s ready,” Anne said, blowing a strand of wavy hair out of her face. It did nothing.

The table had to be very large these days, with both leaves put in, in order to accommodate Alexander and Anne, Eric and Christine, Shelby, Garrett, and Kenzie and Tucker. Not that long ago, the table would have held David Summers, when he and Shelby came up for visits, but between the cheating, the theft, and the divorce, he was persona non grata. The other chair would have been for Beth, who they held no animosity towards, but her divorce from Garrett meant they were reduced to polite hellos if they crossed paths in the grocery store, and little else. Christine was the only in-law left, and might as well have been family for how long they’d known her.

And yet, there was always a sense she didn’t quite belong. She was welcome with open arms, they loved her, but she was not Them. There was a certain unspoken Otherness about her that none of them could place—certainly Eric and Shelby didn’t want to think of it, for she was his wife and her best friend since childhood. Perhaps it was because they followed certain rhythms and patterns and behaviours that neither she nor her father shared—like how they’d grown completely distant since Leslie’s death. Perhaps it was because they couldn’t figure out what was going on in her head—worse these days, as Eric would’ve readily pointed out. She was quiet. It was odd.

Of course, they always thought that none of this mattered, that she was welcome regardless. And in her better days, she did what she could to play that role, but…never quite hit the mark. It was an unspoken feeling, but it was an aura that permeated the whole house. Eric could ignore it when it was just the two of them in their apartment, and Shelby could think she was overthinking if when they went out for coffee—if they even did that; Christine had really cut down whatever socializing she used to do. But when the whole Dessler clan got together, there was something shared in their little group that no one dared voice. Eric would be upset if they did, of course, and there was no need to be rude. But the feeling was still thick in the air, and perhaps Christine could sense it, even if she likely couldn’t put words on it, either.

Every now and then, their feeling bubbled up into words. It started out innocently; Shelby said, “Did you want to see a movie on Friday night?”

“Oh, no thanks. There isn’t anything I really want to see.”

“Me neither, but it’s a chance to go out. We can grab dinner somewhere and head over. No, Eric, girls’ night out, you can’t come.”

“No, it’s fine,” she said, “I don’t feel like dropping fifteen bucks on something I don’t really want to see.”

But the feeling was there, simmering under the surface—Eric sometimes felt as if he wanted to shake the sad out of Christine, but they all knew he couldn’t do that, so Anne picked up the thread instead: “Lord, are you going to spend the rest of your life staying in your apartment?”

Her tone wasn’t overtly rude, but the feeling saturated every word. Even Christine picked up on it, looking at a loss for words.

Eric and Alexander jumped in at almost the same time, the former with more fury in his voice, “Mom, stop it.”

“Yeh used to go out and do things,” she said, “It’d be good for yeh to get out. Sometimes yeh need to force yourself.”

“Life’s too short to watch so-so movies,” Christine said, apparently trying to laugh it off, but didn’t really laugh.

“Life’s too short and here yeh are mopin’ ‘round the place,” she said, “Yeh’re not helpin the mood here, is all.”

“Anne, that’s enough,” Alexander said sharply. Eric stood so fast that he nearly toppled his chair over; Kenzie and Tucker both jumped.

They could offer verbal protest against the collective thought, but they couldn’t disagree with the sentiment, even if the wording wasn’t how they, individually, would do it. Christine’s face had gone red with embarrassment, and she stood too.

“Well then, I’ll excuse myself,” she said, “Sounds like you’ll be much happier without me—Eric, no. I’m not going to have you get into a row with your mother, let’s just go.”

The feeling lingered in the air, pressing in on all sides. They loved her, but she wasn’t Them.

#my writing #celestial souls #nanowrimo #my stories

[leavingubehind]

You’re right. I am a liar, alright? I’m the black sheep. You know, the defective twin that nobody wanted.

#kai parker #my precious baby #chris wood can literally play anything #chris wood #the vampire diaries #vampire diaries #tvd #fav #my stuff #mine #gifset #gifs

[giorno-plays-piano]

Soft and Supple

Pairing: wolf!Bucky Barnes x bunny!reader

Warnings: dubcon, breeding, some a/b/o references, dirty talk, degradation.

Words: 1317.

Summary: The Big Bad Wolf was going to get you this time.

P.S. Please don't even ask me why 😩😩

__________

“Where are you going, baby?”

You could feel him hovering over you from behind, his arms getting restless as he cupped your breasts, breathing in your neck - you could feel the airy touch of his lips on your gentle skin. That cocky bastard had the audacity to fondle you in broad daylight like some pervert! Desperately trying to get away from Bucky, a wolf living in the forest close to the market where you were heading to buy some food, you squirmed when he turned your head towards him to give you a heated kiss, silencing your protests.

If a stranger saw you, they would call for help, but you knew it was useless: first, no one would hear you deep in the woods; second, it wasn’t the first time Bucky was doing that to you, but he had never gone further from there, usually slapping your ass and letting you run away as fast as you could, mocking you with his whistling or yelling something dirty. It looked insane, but you felt it was his way to communicate - in the end, he was a wolf, and you were born a little, weak bunny. His instincts kicked in every time he saw you.

“I’m... I’m not y-your baby.” you mewled when he finally let go of your lips, grinning at you like a predator willing to play with its prey. “You have to stop it! We’re n-not some savages.”

“Yeah? Would you like me to eat you like a Big Bag Wolf should, baby?” his breath was warming your long bunny ear, and you giggled, unable to hide your reaction from him. “Don’t tell me you don’t wanna fuck, bunny girl. You’ve been wagging that sweet fluffy tail in front of me the whole time like a slut.”

Oh, he was really getting riled up today, you thought and glanced back at him, shaking a little: while he would manhandle you every time you passed through this part of the forest, Bucky had never forced you to have sex with him. It looked like he was barely holding on today, his long rock-hard cock rubbing against your ass.

“Bucky, please. I was just passing by.” You muttered when he lowered his lips to your neck, his sharp teeth scraping it a little and drawing a pained sigh from you.

Shit, his hand was quickly travelling down your stomach: he cupped your pussy through the fabric of your shorts, leaving a hungry kiss on your neck and making you shiver with want, your hormones raging, making it even harder to resist him. Nonono, you couldn’t do it, you couldn’t submit to that damn cocky wolf who had been harassing you for months and was really going to rape you this time. You had to get out and report him, make police issue a restriction order or something, anything to keep Bucky away...

“There are lots of paths through the forest, but every time you come to my house like a girl who can’t help herself, knowing what’s gonna happen.”

He already had you pinned against the wall, your basket dropped somewhere to the ground, but you could barely focus when the wolf grabbed your ears, pinching them between his calloused fingers and making you squirm like a pathetic little bunny you were. It’s your weak spot, those damn soft, overly sensitive ears Bucky kept massaging with his thumb, making your knees tremble. Shit, shit, shit, it’s so good when he’s doing that, it’s so good your pussy got wet in a couple of seconds.

“I’ve heard pretty bunnies like you can cum real hard from just a small tickling of their ears. That’s true, baby? You gonna cum for me?” He tainted you, his lips ghosting over yours when he stared you in the eyes, watching you giving him a cute little sob, your lower lip quivering.

You wanted to tell him to leave you alone, let you go and never do this again to you, but you couldn’t, you couldn’t say anything but mewl when he stroked your soft, fluffy ears, his rough hands playing with them so good it turned off your brain, your juices leaking to the point Bucky could see the stains on your shorts, getting hungry for more. He then massaged them harder, pressing his thumbs to the inner part of your long ears, punching them with his fingers, crumpling their ends until you let out a high-pitched moan all of a sudden and started cumming right in front of him, your eyes rolling back into your skull when you opened your mouth, showing the wolf your little bunny tongue.

“Shit. Didn’t know it was true.” He muttered at the sight of you, your knees trembling as you quickly slumped down, unable to keep yourself standing - your shorts had been so stained Bucky wondered if it were easier to just throw them away rather than make them presentable again. “Oh baby, we’re gonna have so much fun.”

He was going to knot you. Shit, he was going to get his knot so deep inside you that you’d cum just from it alone, dumb little baby who had been flaunting her pretty tail in front of him for so long, hoping he’d dick you down and fill you up real good. You didn’t even realize you had been in heat, but Bucky wasn’t angry at you: he knew his baby bunny was too dumb to admit she needed a good mate and a good fuck. Luckily, your hormones worked better than your brain, so you would pass in front of his house every time your little pussy throbbed, giving him a good look at you. Sure, you acted like you didn’t want it, a fucking tease, but Bucky knew what he needed to do.

It just took him a bit more time to reorganize the rooms: his own desperately needed a makeover since you’d share it with him soon enough, and the nursery had to be built from scratch. Dumb little bunny, you had no idea how hard it was for a wolf like him to keep calm, stopping himself from jumping at you the second you walked near his house. Bunnies like you wanted to fuck till they could no longer speak, but wolves like him had to take care of their families, providing for them so that their sweet little babies would live in a safe place and have food on the table. Bucky didn't blame you, though. You were his cute, dumb bunny who needed a strong and smart wolf like him to live a good life.

"Bu-Bucky." you squirmed when he took you in his arms, lifting your from the ground and barging in the house, getting straight up to the room he finished renovated just yesterday, a new comfy bed awaiting for you two. "We c-can't do that... What if I get pregnant?"

"Of course, you'll get pregnant after you milk my cock like a good bunny girl you are." he growled into your ear, stripping you of your clothes, watching your wet throbbing pussy asking for a cock when he started fingering you just in case your cunt wasn't loose enough to fit him all, his knot getting painfully big. "How many babies you gonna give me, huh? Three? Four? Maybe more if I knock you up well?"

When you tried talking some sense into him, putting your arm on his chest to keep him away but ending up softly caressing it, Bucky sent you a wolfish grin, bottoming you out in one thrust - he couldn't wait a second longer, his own instincts taking over him when he started fucking you into his bed, loosening your leaking cunt for his fat knot. Oh, your sweet bunny pussy was the best. He'd make sure he got you knocked up the first time he filled your cunt with his cum.

_________

Tags: @finleyjayne @alexakeyloveloki   ​@helenaeisenhower @villanellevi @hurricanerin @inlovewiththefictionalcharacters @chris-evans-indian-fanfic @navegandoaciegas @rosalynshields @brattycherubwrites @sllooney @angrythingstarlight @lookiamtrying @buckysbunny @soleil-dor @stargazingfangirl18 @dillybuggg @literate-lamb @cosicas-cuquis @sarge-barnes-sir @buckybarnesplumwhore @jaysayey @megzdoodle @gotnofucks @lux-ravenwolf @ximebebx @jeremyrennerfanxxxx123 @sourpatchspinster @iheartsebandchris

#bucky barnes #bucky barnes x reader #dark bucky barnes #dark bucky barnes x reader #yandere #winter soldier #mcu #mcu fanfiction

[there-are-many-ways-to-smile]

No one probably cares anymore but I don't understand how everyone hated Emily more than Ashley or Jessica.

The reason the plot of the game even happened was Jessica's fault, the whole prank was her idea. And she's a hypocrite for dating Mike, Emily's ex-boyfriend. If you don't remember the prank was set up to get Hannah back for trying to steal Mike from Emily.

Ashley

1. Choosing to be sympathetic to Hannah in dialogue conversations will cause Ashley's honesty stat to decrease.

2. She's in on the prank

3. She plays a big part in the reason Mike shoots Emily.

4. If Chris decides to sacrifice Ashley to save his skin during the Chris VS Ashley trap, she will be angry at Chris' decision and refuse to let him back inside the lodge when he is being chased by the Wendigos. Even though she literally told him to shoot her instead.

I loved Emily's character. She was ranked 2nd to maybe 3rd of the best characters in the game. Probably tied with Mike. She was part of the prank against Hannah but was the only participant who tried to console Hannah after she ran into the woods. Unlike Ashley, she doesn't pretend to be a good person.

1. She's quick wit when escaping the mines, and make shifting a torch.

2. She outran a wendigo.

3. She tried to create a blockade, it didn't work but ten points for trying.

4. If she has the flare gun she can headshot the wendigo, which is Hannan btw the strongest one.

5. She's so resourceful

6. she's also the smartest and quickest thinker of her cast, making her the 2nd hardest to kill off.

7. her escape from Wendigo Hannah showed how quick on the ball she can be when she's pressured.

Starting to think some of the hate might be because she's Asain. Jessica is just as a bitchy as Emily is, and she's hardly in the game doing anything, Jess has like 3 scenes and she barely remembers what even happened to her.

#emily davis #until dawn Emily #until dawn #ashely brown #until dawn ashley #until dawn Jessica #Jessica riley #Hannah Washington #samantha giddings #until dawn hannah #until dawn sam #michael munroe #until dawn mike #we love emily in this household #until dawn game #until dawn playstation 4

[musette22]

Local museum volunteer Chris explaining all the items and history facts to teacher Sebastian and his 20 kids on a school trip or to single dad Sebastian and his twins (one who is really into it and ask a lot of "but why?" And the other one who just sticks his fingers up his nose and yawns lmao)

Okay so I was just on a walk and I started thinking about this ask again (I am so so so sorry for how long it took me to reply to this, I suck wow) because I couldn’t get that new pic of Seb looking like a literal DILF out of my head, but I couldn’t remember the specifics so what came out is slightly different from what you suggested but not much – hope you still like it (I personally screamed into my fist multiples times while thinking about this – I’m furious at how cute this little scenario is, thank you so so much for this!)

Disclaimer: I literally wrote this just now so it’s unbeta’d and probably riddled with nonsense, but I hope you guys like nonetheless!  <3

*********************

“Hi, guys! Welcome to the Concord Museum. My name is Chris and I’ll be your guide this afternoon.”

Chris eyes the little family – a father and two young kids – standing in front of him in the entrance hall of the bite-sized museum, then makes a show of looking around the otherwise empty hall. “Seems like it’s a quiet one today, so you’ll have me all to yourself!”

The father smiles, his sparkling, blue-grey eyes crinkling in the corners in a way that Chris shouldn’t be thinking of as ‘adorable’, but does nonetheless.

“Fantastic,” the man says warmly. “It’s nice to meet you, Chris. This is Margot,” – he gestures to the girl of about eight standing next to him – “and this little guy here is David,” he adds, lightly bouncing the three or four-year-old, curly haired boy on his hip. David gives Chris a wide eyed look before promptly burying his face in his father’s neck. “He’s a little shy,” the dad says fondly.

“That’s fine,” Chris tells them. With a smile, he ducks his head to try and catch David’s eye. “You’re not the only one, kiddo. I’m a little shy myself sometimes, you know.”  

“I’m not shy,” Margot pipes up.

“No,” her dad agrees with a chuckle, “you certainly are not.”

Chris turns his eyes back to their father’s face. “And your name..?”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” the man says, “I’m Sebastian.” He holds out his hand for Chris to shake, warm and dry with long, elegant fingers that fit nicely against Chris’s own, studier ones.

Sebastian, Chris thinks. Perfect name for a perfect guy. The term ‘DILF’ flashes unbidden through Chris’s mind – wildly inappropriate, given the circumstances, but oh so accurate. Sebastian has a sweet, charming smile, incredible bone structure, and dark, wavy hair, swept up in a quiff-like style that manages to make him look both sophisticated and a little boyish at the same time. There’s a hint of grey at his temples as well as in his beard that has Chris placing him at maybe two or three years older than himself.

“New York?” Chris guesses, as he reluctantly lets go of Sebastian’s hand.

“That’s right,” Sebastian nods. “Well, formerly, anyway. We just moved to the area, actually.”

“Oh, really? What brought you all the way out here?”

Sebastian runs a hand through his hair; a nervous habit, perhaps. “Oh, um. My ex-wife got a job in Boston last year, and I didn’t want to be too far from her and the kids, so I decided to follow suit. Only moved down here last month. This is my first full weekend with these guys at my new place, so I thought I’d take them out to do something cultural, learn a little about the local history, y’know?”

“Well, we’ve got plenty of that here,” Chris assures him. “In fact,” he adds sheepishly, “that’s kinda all we've got.”

Sebastian laughs, causing Chris’s brain to glitch, which is probably why the next thing that comes out of his mouth is – “Divorce, huh? I’m sorry, that must’ve been tough.”

When Sebastian doesn’t answer straight away, Chris wants to kick himself for running his big, stupid mouth. As usual. “I’m sorry,” he apologizes hastily. “That’s none of my business. Just tryin’ to make small talk, but I always seem to forget I’m really bad at that. Just forget I said anything.”

“No, no, it’s fine,” Sebastian assures him, flashing Chris a quick smile. “Thank you. These things are never easy, but it’s better this way, you know?”

“They’re not fighting or anything,” Margot chimes in again, from a few feet below. “Mommy and daddy only got divorced because mommy’s a girl and daddy likes boys better than girls. Right, daddy?"

Well. Chris tries not to be too obvious about glancing at Sebastian’s face to see his reaction to that bombshell his daughter just dropped, but he’s not sure how well he manages.

Sebastian closes his eyes for a moment as if praying for strength. “That's right, sweetheart,” he says with a grimace. “But I'm sure Chris doesn't need to hear about all that."

Chris begs to differ – he’s actually extremely interested in hearing about all this, but before he has a chance to say anything in reply, Margot squares her jaw and crosses her football jersey-clad arms.

“Why not?” she asks defiantly. “There’s nothing wrong with that. Some girls just like girls and some boys like boys, it’s totally normal. It’s not prola- probu –" She sighs in frustration, looking up at her dad, who’s watching her with something like pride on his handsome face.

“Problematic?”

“Yeah,” Margot concurs, “not probametic.”  

Chris hums in agreement. “It’s not, you’re absolutely right. I’ll tell you what,” he tells her conspiratorially, “I happen to like boys better, too.”

Margot’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise. “You do?”

“I do.”

Suddenly, Margot’s little face lights up, her shrewd eyes flitting to her dad’s face for a second, then back to Chris. “Do you like my dad?”

“Margot,” Sebastian cuts in, a hint of exasperation in his tone. “That’s enough, honey.” When he tuns back to Chris to give him an apologetic look, Chris can’t help but notice the slight blush coloring his cheeks. “I’m sorry about that. She’s gotten it into her head that she needs to find me the perfect man ASAP, or I’ll waste away or something.”

Chris laughs, throwing back his head in genuine mirth. “Don’t worry about it. It’s fine,” he assures them, then claps his hands together to change the precarious subject. “So, who’s ready to learn a little bit about what living in Concord was like over a hundred years ago?”

******

Chris always enjoys volunteering at the museum – it’s nice to give something back to the community that’s been his home for his entire life, and to chat to visitors from all over who have come to visit the land of Little Women, among other things – but what Chris likes best is when he gets to show kids around the place. Some of them need to be won over (after all, a dusty old museum isn’t quite as exciting as a trip to Disney World), but others are instantly captivated by the strange objects and old-timey atmosphere – Sebastian’s kids, fortunately, seem to fall in the latter category.

There’s one room in particular that’s an invariably a favorite with kids – the one that houses the old children’s toys. Trains, dolls and dollhouses, most of them made from wood, all arranged in a colorful parade, with a few screens set up in front of the glass display cases on which kids can watch animations of the toys being used. To Chris’s delight, Margot and David are both immediately taken with the display, David pressing his nose against the glass while Margot fires off question after question that Chris answers patiently and to the best of his ability.

“You sure know a lot about them,” Sebastian remarks, not without a hint of admiration, once Chris has finished explaining the mechanics of the miniature train set.

“Ah.” Chris rubs the back of his neck. “Yeah, I guess you could say I’m something of a toy enthusiast myself. I’ve actually got a carpentry workshop – that’s my real job,” he explains. “I’m just a volunteer here – and I dabble in some toy making sometimes, too.”

Sebastian’s eyes widen. “You’re kidding. I used to want to be a toy maker when I was a kid, you know,” he says wistfully. “Probably just saw Pinocchio one too many times, but it just seemed like the best job in the world to me, at the time.”

“It kinda is,” Chris grins at Sebastian, getting lost in his dancing grey eyes for a moment. “So what did you end up doing for a living, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“I’m a journalist. I love it, don’t get me wrong. It’s enriching, challenging. But there’s just something about working with your hands, creating something tangible, something useful…”

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” Chris nods. He bites his lip, hesitating for just a moment before deciding to bite the bullet. “Hey, I don’t know if you guys have plans after this, but my shift ends in a few minutes. I live pretty close, maybe a ten minute drive – if you want, I could show you my workshop? Maybe the kids can try out some of the things I’ve been working on, see if they’re actually any fun to play with?”

There’s an excited collective gasp from the kids, both of them immediately turning big, hopeful eyes on their father. “Oh, daddy,” Margot pleads, tugging on his sleeve. “Can we go see the workshop, pleaaase?”  

Chris tries to ignore the way his stomach drops when Sebastian visibly hesitates.

“I don’t know, guys.” Sebastian looks back at Chris. “I don't want to intrude. It’s almost dinner time on a Saturday. I’m sure you’ve got plans, maybe with your partner..?”

Oh, Chris thinks, chest expanding with hope. He shakes his head. “No partner,” he says, holding Sebastian’s gaze. “Just a dog.”

“A dog?” Margot squeals. “Oh my god, daddy, he’s got a dog. We have to go.”

Sebastian chuckles, rolling his eyes. "They've been hounding me about a dog for months, excuse the pun. I want one too, but I'm just not sure I'm home enough.”

Chris nods sympathetically. “Yeah, it can be tricky if you work full-time, but there’s usually a solution for this kind of thing, in my experience.”

“What’s your dog’s name?” Margot interrupts, bouncing excitedly on the balls of her feet.

“He’s called Dodger,” Chris tells her, unable to keep the pride out of his voice as he talks about his beloved, four legged-rescue.

From Sebastian’s other side, a small voice suddenly joins in. “Like the one from Oliver?” asks David. His big, brown eyes are wide as he stares up at Chris.

“That’s right,” Chris confirms, dropping to his haunches to level the playing field a little. “Exactly like the one from Oliver. You like that movie, huh?”

David nods, looping one arm around one of his dad’s long legs while clearly fighting the urge to hide behind him completely. “It’s my favorite,” he mutters, then quickly sticks his thumb in his mouth to signal the end of the conversation.

“Really?” Chris asks, beaming at him. “It’s my favorite, too!”

David actually smiles at that, doing an excited little wiggle on the spot. “Daddy, can we go see Dodger, please?” he asks his dad, not bothering to remove his thumb from his mouth.

From his spot on the floor, Chris looks up Sebastian too, probably looking just as hopeful as the kids are – maybe even more so.

Smiling, Sebastian shakes his head. “Sure, buddy,” he laughs, ruffling David’s hair. “How could I resist all these cute little faces, huh?”

There’s a chorus of cheers from the kids that gives Chris a much-needed moment to recover from the euphoria of hearing Sebastian call him cute. Well, sort of.

“Alright,” Chris says, getting to his feet again. “I’ll just go grab my things. Meet you guys in the parking lot?”

“Sounds good.”

Chris nods and is about to head in the direction of the staff room, when Sebastian halts him with a hand on his arm. Chris stops in his tracks, swallowing as he tears his gaze away from Sebastian’s elegant hand on his bicep, back to his face.

“Thank you,” Sebastian says, giving him a look from under his eyelashes that can only be described as coy. “I really appreciate this, you know.”

Holding Sebastian’s gaze, Chris lifts a hand to cover Sebastian’s with his own, giving it a quick squeeze. “It’s my pleasure,” he replies honestly. “Trust me.”

Smiling, Sebastian bites his lip, no doubt noticing the way Chris’s eyes flicker down to his mouth when he does. “I do.”

Chris’s foolishly romantic heart can’t help but skip a beat.

“See,” Margot says suddenly from beside them, breaking the moment and sounding awfully smug about it, too. “Not prolametic at all.”

Chris barks out a laugh while Sebastian covers his eyes with his hand. “Whatever you do, never have kids.”  

“Oh, I dunno,” Chris chuckles, giving Margot a wink and David’s hair a quick ruffle. “I kinda like yours.”

Sebastian clears his throat. “Alright, guys. Let’s go find your jackets and we’ll go see what Chris has in store for us, huh?”

#evanstan #rpf #kid fic #minnie answers #my fic #my writing #Anonymous

[dustedmagazine]

Slept Ons: The Records We Wish We’d Gotten to Earlier

We missed out on Chime School because he was off in the woods.  

Every year, great records slip right by us, no matter how much music we listen to or how frantically we try to stay in the loop.  Here Dusted contributors right the balance at bit by celebrating the albums that we discovered late or never got around to.  Contributors include:  Ian Mathers, Michael Rosenstein, Jennifer Kelly, Andrew Forell, Jonathan Shaw, Chris Liberato, Bill Meyer, Patrick Masterson and Bryon Hayes.

Aeon Station — Observatory (Sub Pop)

[Ed. Note: We didn’t entirely sleep on this one, see our November Dust.]  

The whole point of this feature, of course, is that every year no matter how you try some things slip through the cracks. But at least personally, there’s never been a record that’s felt as destined for my entry in a round up like this and yet at the same time that feels premature to include even here the way Aeon Station’s Observatory does. It’s not just that this record possibly signals the end of the wait (stretching close to 20 years now!) for the Wrens to return after 2003’s The Meadowlands, itself a fraught and delayed installment. Or that more sharply, something like five or six songs here (reports have differed) were basically finished and part of that follow up before Kevin Whelan — moved to action by a pandemic, by the death of his father, by his experience raising his neurodivergent son, by the feeling that "It’s a betrayal that I let a decade of my life go by and did nothing" — took them and wrote some more songs and played them with fellow Wrens Greg Whelan and Jerry MacDonald and told Sub Pop they had something to release. This has led to the kind of conflicting narratives and bad feeling you might expect from Whelan and fellow Wrens front man Charles Bissell, and it’s not just that there isn’t a Wrens record. It’s not just that Bissell hasn’t put out the album that will come from his own Meadowlands follow-up tracks. He hasn’t even released an apparently forthcoming statement (estimating on twitter it’s anywhere from 6.5k to 8k words long) about this album coming out and the narrative around that. Observatory sounded great on first listen, but to me it didn’t sound particularly like the Wrens (despite Whelan long being half of the band’s voice, literally and figuratively) and it took actually going over the band’s work back to back with Aeon Station’s before things started to fall into place. But it was impossible to do so without also looking further into exactly the kind of thing that can make one’s head and heart hurt about the situation. All else being equal you’d imagine most Wrens/Aeon Station listeners, even more than wanting to hear what’s next from Whelan and Bissell, would rather 30-year-plus relationships not get strained and possibly torched in order to bring us anything (or, pointedly, in order for either or both or all band members to be able to express themselves). I slept on Observatory partly because it came out late in the year and I didn’t have the time to give it before I was drawing up lists of albums, yes, but also because I knew to give any genuine response was going to take the kind of time and effort that I just wasn’t looking forward to. So now I know I love it, and also that it’s maybe the record from 2021 that causes me the most conflicting emotions, that makes me the saddest but also maybe the happiest. If you thought Whelan was trying to do that deliberately, it would be its own weird genius that he’s done so ‘about’ an album so bittersweet and so about the things we do and do not get, that we do and do not go after, in life. But I don’t think that sometimes painful resonance is a marketing ploy, or personal dig, or aesthetic gambit: I think it, too, is just life, in all its infinite disappointments and glories. One thing seems clear: This is not what any of us had planned. 

Ian Mathers

 Amyl & the Sniffers — Comfort to Me (ATO)

Comfort To Me by Amyl and the Sniffers

It wasn’t that I was unaware of Amyl and the Sniffers. I had, after all, much enjoyed Amy Taylor in the Sleaford Mods’ “Nudge It,” where her torrid rant lights up the final minute and, to my mind, completely eclipses Billy Nomates’ guest shot. Moreover I knew people who swore by the 2019 self-titled, though life is short and busy and full of records and I’d never gotten around to it. But on the very last Bandcamp Friday of 2021 (and maybe ever), it was time to commit. I plunked down a tenner on Comfort to Me, and it almost immediately became one of my favorites. Something about the architectural spareness of the Sniffers bass-and-drums framework, its crazed explosions of guitars and, especially, its heady, foul-mouthed front-woman. She drops the f-word while asking for angelic guidance in the very first track, my kind of punk diva, for sure. “Hertz” is best of the bunch, an unhinged paean to weekend getaways (“Take me to the beach! Take me to the country!”) that brooks no lessening in tension even when describing the good life. “Maggot” blisters surfaces with its jagged guitar riff, while still putting in a bid for love, but Taylor isn’t compromising. The Ramones-times-ten fury of “Don’t Need a Cunt Like You to Love Me” snarls and stomps at warp speed. “I’m still a good girl, don’t you fucking tell me,” sneers Taylor in the next to last “Laughing,” but it’s totally on her own terms.

Jennifer Kelly

 Jeremiah M. Carter and Chelsea Bridge — The Way It Pours Into Itself (Whited Sepulchre)

The Way It Pours Into Itself by Chelsea Bridge and Jeremiah M. Carter

What with the sheer volume of limited run releases that consistently pop up within the fecund American musical sub-underground, it’s bound to happen that one or two (or many more) gems get overlooked when the year-end lists are crafted. This enigmatic CD, of which only 100 were produced, exemplifies this phenomenon. Both Carter and Mallory Linehan (a.k.a., Chelsea Bridge) have been slowly and unassumingly building their nascent discographies, which have been printed for the most part on the underappreciated cassette medium. Coming together under the Whited Sepulchre banner, a subsidiary of the Tome to the Weather Machine blog, they have created a unique work of art that for the most part managed to escape notice. To craft the three pieces of electronically manipulated acoustic drift presented here, Carter and Linehan worked apart from each other, trading sounds electronically. The Chicago-based Linehan sent violin and voice passages to Carter in Brooklyn, who then added his own sonic elements. A considerable amount of processing completed the vision. The resultant soundscapes are vast territories through which to amble. One might catch a scrambled violin melody accompanied by ghostly guitar fog banks, or an apparition of percussion beamed in from another realm altogether. A chorus of disembodied voices could be conjuring up tangled balls of scraped strings. Was that a phantom dog that just emanated the ghastliest of barks? By weaving together the best parts of their individual oeuvres, Carter and Linehan have turned the uncanny on its head, bewitching us in the process.

Bryon Hayes

Chamber 4 — Dawn To Dusk (JACC Records)

Dawn to Dusk by Chamber 4

One of my pleasures this past year has been getting better acquainted with the work of the Portuguese trumpeter, Luís Vicente. He’s both versatile and productive, so while I made it a point to attest to the merits of his spirited work in his own trio, a duo with Vasco Trilla, and a formidable quartet with John Dikeman, Hamid Drake, and William Parker, this Dawn to Dusk got past me until recently, even though it was released last summer. Chamber 4 is, as the name suggests, a quartet that improvises like a chamber ensemble. Vicente is joined by acoustic guitar-playing compatriot Marcelo dos Reis and Parisians Théo and Valentin Ceccaldi on violin and cello respectively. Dawn To Dusk, which was recorded in concert during the autumn of 2020, is their third album. While the instrumentalists do fall into roles — dos Reis generates momentum, Vicente earthy commentary, and the Ceccaldis’ fractal expansion and thorny counterpoint — their collective dynamics result in music that evolves excitingly and unpredictably.  

Bill Meyer 

  Chime School — Chime School (Slumberland)

Part of the fertile Bay Area indie scene, Andy Pastalaniec steps away from Seablite’s drum stool and grabs his 12-string guitar for ten tracks celebrating girls, cars, motorbikes and truancy on his aptly titled debut Chime School. Think Roger McGuinn via the paisley underground, indie labels Sarah, Fortuna Pop!, and, natch, Slumberland and you’re right there. Pastalaniec’s songs breeze along on ringing guitars, flourishes of organ and tight rhythms. An invigorating antidote to the miseries of 2021 and the rime of winter, Chime School doesn’t reinvent any wheels but the buoyant jangle of “Dead Saturdays” “Anywhere But Here” and “Calling In Sick” never gets old. A really good way to spend a happy half hour watching the rain and dreaming of escape.  

Andrew Forell

 consorts — distinctions (Spoonhunt)

distinctions by consorts

Over the course of 2021, bassist Dominic Lash released a slew of recordings on his Spoonhunt label from sessions by various iterations of his quartet to duos with violinist Angharad Davies to solo guitar releases to releases with collaborators like John Russell and John Butcher to realizations of Christian Wolff compositions by a jazz piano trio. One that I’ve kept going back to is distinctions, a piece by Lash for the ensemble consorts, recorded at Café Oto at his 40th birthday concert. Lash explains that “Consorts is a flexible ensemble formed in 2013 to explore the possibilities of combining sustained-tone music, improvisation (both guided and free), and the relationship between acoustic and amplified sound.” The 20-member iteration of the group here is comprised of many of Lash’s frequent collaborators, with 7 wind players, 7 string players, 3 musicians playing synthesizers and electronics, piano, harmonium and Seth Cooke credited with steel sink and metal detector. Over the course of the 46-minute piece, the musicians navigate their way through, plying extended drones, areas of spare activity and fractured lines tossed across the ensemble, all shot through with the scumbled grit of frayed overtones and burred electronic shadings. There is a patience and focus as the piece opens with the spare, timbrally rich multiplicity of instruments quietly intoning held tones, plucked notes, and textural creaks and crackles in overlapping skeins. Gradually, density mounts as layers accrue against each other, opening up to an extended section of collective, pointillistic improvisation where instruments bob in and out of the mix. The final section crescendos, caterwauling with skirling intensity shot through with insistent overblown reeds, hammered piano notes and the tectonic rumble of bass and electronics, winding down to a taut conclusion in the last moments. Listening to how the group pulls together throughout with gripping dynamism while still allowing for ensemble transparency is a tribute to their collective listening.

Michael Rosenstein    

 Louis Laurain — Pulses, Pipes, Patterns (INSUB Records/Carton Records)

Pulses, Pipes, Patterns by LOUIS LAURAIN

A string of releases in 2000/2001 seemed game-changers for solo trumpet. Within a few years, Greg Kelley, Axel Dörner and Franz Hautzinger put out solo releases, and Bill Dixon put out his monumental solo boxed set Odyssey. On each of their releases, the musicians delved into personal sonic experiments, deconstructing the elemental timbres of the brass instrument and reimagining the trumpet as a resonant sound generator. Of course, all of this has been absorbed and extended by musicians like Nate Wooley, Peter Evans, Birgit Ulher and others. But this release shows that there is still plenty of room for discovery. Twenty years on, French trumpet player Louis Laurain released this solo which captures the exploratory energy of those earlier releases. Utilizing trumpets, home-made amplification systems, resonating objects and field recordings, Laurain carves out five pieces which present his instrument as, in his words, “a resonating space.” Each zero in on a particular timbral area, building up layers of frictive hisses and burred breath, feedback projected through the instrument, looping percussive pops and clicks and objects placed against the bell which produce sympathetic resonances. Lorain modulates and controls this modular approach to sonic investigation through the subtle manipulation of the trumpet’s valves, tuning slides, spit valves and mutes, sometimes taking the instrument apart to project the sound across the stereo plane. While the technical mastery and resourceful invention of all this is engaging, it is Lorain’s keen structural sense that weaves all of this together into a release that I’ve continued to return to.

Michael Rosenstein

 Low Life — From Squats to Lots: The Agony and XTC of Low Life (Goner)

In the spirit of this feature, here is music born from being overlooked. So much so that on multiple songs on the third LP by Australian punks Low Life the narrator is asked, “How are you still alive?” The answer that frontman Mitch Tolman gives to this query is two-fold: by doing what needs to be done in order to survive, and by writing about it. To these ends, he’s gotten sober and relocated to Melbourne from Sydney, where the band formed in 2010 while living together in an Inner West squat house. In fact, I’m guilty of paying too little attention to Low Life myself, having failed to give their second album, Downer Edn, a chance after being underwhelmed by its teaser tracks. But if its songs are half the “growers” this set are, I only blame myself, which is what the characters in the band’s universe do best. Or worse, as Tolman speaks-sings about over the distinctly My Bloody Valentine-esque swells of “Epitaphs,” they make the mistake of believing that they can have it all. This isn’t shoegaze, though, the band insists in the liner notes; nor is it hardcore exactly (“this is not austere, disciplined music”), despite shades of both styles seeping through the echoey, haunted smog of these twelve tracks. Whatever you want to call it or not call it, From Squats to Lots is a damn near perfect album — and it’s only too fitting with the music’s resilient spirit how few in 2021 seemed to take notice, myself almost included.

Chris Liberato

 Akira Rabelais — 図書館 / À la Recherche du Temps Perdu (Argeïphontes)

図書館 by Akira Rabelais

À la recherche du temps perdu by Akira Rabelais

Following 2019’s self-described magnum opus CXVI, Texan-born composer, Morton Subotnick student and Argeïphontes Lyre software creator Vincent Akira Rabelais Carté retreated from grander, more formal album statements for more than two years, opting instead to do soundtrack work and small-run cassettes. That changed in October with the simultaneous releases of 図書館 (“Library,” inspired by Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore) and À la Recherche du Temps Perdu (“In search of lost time,” not surprisingly drawn directly from Marcel Proust). Though distinct in their source material and mission, those coming to Rabelais for the first time will note the unifying themes in sonic topography across the six-plus hours of music herein; The Caretaker, Stars of the Lid and William Basinski are easy reference points, though plenty of ambient and “slow music”-minded composers are likely to spring to mind beyond that. 図書館 is the more ambiguous of the two, four roughly 20-minute pieces stringing out endless piano decay that fosters an uneasy atmosphere. It’s the massive À la Recherche du Temps Perdu (fitting for an album drawing inspiration from Proust) to which I keep returning, however: 13 tracks interpolating 51 works of Belle Époque composers capped off by “Il avait eu envie de réentendre certains quatuors de Beethoven” (“He wanted to hear some Beethoven quartets again”), an hour-long quilt of beat-up Beethoven 78s from down the long hall of a gilded Viennese palace. Each album requires sustained attention and total commitment, but if you have it, you’ll be rewarded with two of 2021’s most arresting records.

Patrick Masterson

Trhä — endlhëtonëg (Self-released)

endlhëtonëg by Trhä

The project identified only by the mysterious moniker Trhä makes songs that combine the sonic aesthetics of raw black metal, a fascination with the atavisms of dungeon synth and the occasional atmospheric gestures of bands like Tardigrada or Lamp of Murmuur. That cluster of references suggests a rather singular synthesis, and Trhä’s music is as occulted as the language (untranslatable, so far as Google can tell) the project uses on its scant internet presence. The first track on this LP is titled “ihaja endlhëjëdahhe nu jahadlhjavna gjëri ha”—you figure it out. The seemingly intentional linguistic obscurity is complemented by the project’s deployment of the anti-promotional strategy of numerous Satanic black metal bands: no names, no pictures, no firm locale, no contextual info beyond what you can dope out from the music itself. All of that can feel a bit like schtick, and given the increase in hipness that dungeon synth is currently experiencing, the intrigue threatens to signal a sort of self-important preciousness. But the music is terrific: less produced than captured, by turns moody and overheated, prone to long periods of chilly, expressionistic keyboard-based tonalities and sudden explosions of shrill and clattering blackened cacophony. The record is bonkers and haunting by equal measures. The last song and title track is an epic of creation-destruction, well worth the significant investment of time and attention required. Trhä released a lot of music in 2021 (including a good split with the mopey, nutty Celestial Sword), but endlhëtonëg is the strongest and strangest record of the bunch. Which is saying something.

Jonathan Shaw

#dusted magazine #slept ons #2021 #aeon station #ian mathers #amyl and the sniffers #jennifer kelly #jeremiah m. carter #chelsea bridge #bryon hayes #chamber 4 #bill meyers #chime school #andrew forell #michael rosenstein #consorts #louis laurain #low life #Akira Rabelais #patrick masterson #Trhä #jonathan shaw #chris liberato