#evasive dylan is evasive

[oh-cawsh]

dylan lenivy: *microwaves a frozen pizza slice* dylan lenivy: *starts toasting the microwaved pizza slice on a frying pan* dylan lenivy: god i'm pulling out all the stops here lowkey. this is gonna be the most romantic dinner ryan's ever had in his life

#the quarry #dylan lenivy #ryan erzahler #this is canon i emailed supermassive games and they gave me this scene unedited straight from their cut content folder #takes place just after their heartfelt yet evasive dialogue in which they develop hesitant suspicions of the other's feelings scene #and right before their court hearing for their manslaughter charges scene

[obscure-song-tournament]

Obscure Song Tournament Masterpost - Round One!

Bracket images + list below the cut. (Long post)

Extremely apologies for that fucked up formatting, it was the easiest way for me to set it up & now I don’t feel like redoing it <3

BRACKETS

Matches will be updated with links when the posts go up :-) (links removed when votes finished. Link link whyyyyy </3)

A

虚に産まれた毒蟲達の選択 - Haint VS. Keep Away - Insane Driver

Manchester - Lana Wild VS. Pulp Friction - Fool Heavy

Scatterbrain - Casual Tees VS. Dopamine - The Fundementals

Angelic 2 the Core - Corey Feldman VS. Sad Hit Song - V is for Villains

Cosmos - Jawbreaker Reunion VS. Patches - Jawbreaker Reunion

John Congleton & The Nighty Nites VS. Away From You - Nicole

New Dance - DEERPEOPLE VS. Not My Good Side - Deafpony

Maple Leaf Etc. - Maxshh VS. Give Me a Moment - 2far2jump

B

Goodbye Goodnight - Eudora June VS. Mama - Eudora June

The Helper - Giannah Noelle VS. The Hummingbird - Miss E

Worm Song - Sunny Side Down VS. Victim of a Siren - Seraph Siege

There’s a Darkness (but There’s also a Light) - The Wild VS. Ray - Dylans TIE

Alive - GON VS. Red - Oh Dorian

You are Loved - David Lamotte VS. Getting Around to it(Maybe) - Ollie Oxyn

Timed Out - blockkids VS. Where U Goin? - Half In the Bag

All That I Am - Maia Grandy VS. For Me - Dearlie

C

The Hidden Word - Noe Venable VS. Echo in the Hills - Carrie Elkin TIE

Hold Onto Myself - Yendawg VS. YOUR GALAXY - ROZLYN PELL

critter song - tidepooler VS. Juliet and Juliet - Kactus Kid

Low Rent Truman Show - Marc with a C VS. Body Heat - Guard Petal

Pub Money - Bag of Cans VS. Take a Peek - Heat Above

Daddy Daedalus watched me GO DOWN IN FLAMES! - lonely carp VS. The Danger - Patricia Wallinga(twt: @ pwallinga)

Call Me Captain - Emrys Layne (tumblr: @ callmecapt) VS. Insecurity Impermanence - Ian Woodside

Deep Blue - Grapefruit VS. You’re So Hot To Me - Commuted

D

Fly Octo Fly Piano Arrangement - Original - ButterShutter VS. PIANO GAMES - Hazma Notes

Devil’s Game - Lonovve VS. Worst in the World - Uncle Outrage

Cheese (Original Mix) - Cheese VS. The Best Poop of Your Life - Squatty Potty

Сопряжение сфер - ��свена VS. Hokutoshichisei no Ichiya - Akiko Ikuina

Pink Clouds - Sammy J VS. There Will be Someone at My Funeral Who Doesn’t Want to be There - Sammy J

The Crayon Song - Class of 3000 VS. Eco - Jim Valley

Kinky Murder Machine - Slav the Dog VS. TECVM CIRCVMAMBVLARE NOLO - John Linnel

Imagination - Niel Innes VS. Me & Nikolai - Pale Young Gentlemen TIE

E

Checking My Pulse - Alix Olsen VS. Eat Your Heart Out, Sigmund Freud - Mollie Maxwell

Pink Lemonade - Kristi Krause VS. Don’t Want You - Carpark

Home(Here) - Big Tree VS. Runaways - Big Tree

Przyszłam do miasta - Ballady I Romanse VS. 10,000 Days - OK Glass

Cross My Heart - Richard Myhill VS. Hurricane - My Cat Umi

Bitches (Do as Bitches Are) - Brain’s All Gone VS. Rotten - Missouri Surf Club

Born To It - Freefonix VS. No Place Like Home - Freefonix

8:15 - 3:30 VS. last week/month/year - rain

F

Pointillize - Raccoon Fink VS. Tokyo Koya - Van

execute - ninty VS. Bloodlust - ninty

Better Red than Dead - KELChip VS. Bloodbird - KELChip

EGO - Powderpaint VS. Tax Evasion Scheme Artist - Golden Line

.. - subeteanatanoseidesu VS. Fictional Girl - cindersnow

Nighttime (I fall asleep) - SamX VS. No Time at All - MORE

GOTH BITCH DUB - 621 gecs VS. BORKYCORE - ida deerz (ft. kaj strife)

To.Get.Her - Nixis VS. Hyper Arcade - Glass Daydreams

G

Dusk and Dawn - Das Fi VS. Full of Light - Le Professeur

Between You and Me - Clementine Werchola VS. Digital Love - SilverTunes

I Wish Was Dead - Cherry and the Other People VS. Monmon_Fanmoran - Mochitsune

Splitter Girl - Weevildoing VS. Can Graze the Roof bring you back to childhood? - Anomaly Vector

Moongrains - Anomaly Vector (ft Gumi Ai) VS. Memories - Jens East (Ft Lotta Rasva) TIE

Black Plate - Profilgate VS. Ode to Janey Lou - FOE

It’s Murder - Skeleton Staff VS. The Dreaming - Marquis of Vaudeville

Best Friend - Taitoki VS. Chakra - Marnage

H

Rusalka and The Shepherd Girl - The Forgetmenauts VS. Minesweepers - Peter Bellamy

Four Tall Trees - Leslie Fish VS. Carmen Miranda’s Ghost - Leslie Fish

Butterfly/Drowsy Maggie - Double Indemnity VS. Captain Ward - Tempest

The Finchley Waltz - Robin Grey VS. The Trials Of Oscar Wilde - Alan John

Blood and Passion - Alexander James Adam VS. Winter’s Tooth - Alexander James Adam

He of Sidhe - Alexander James Adam VS. Curiosity - JTSteam

they say you see the sparrow fall - pabrizzer VS. Labyrinth - Madeline S

Star Fire - Julia Ecklar and Cynthia McQuillin VS. The Phoenix - Julia Ecklar

I

Liar and the Hound - Beneath Eden VS. Song For Sandy - Thirsty Moon

Snake in the Grass - Couch Slut VS. Bodysuit - FlooringCo

On a Walk - Fort Womb VS. Pause Button - Particle Devotion TIE

Death is a Girl - Skippocalyptic VS. Sea ll - Momoi ALLU

52 Pickup - Z. VS. Are You Underwater - The Gerbils

山谷澗 - Mysterain小雨樂隊 VS. Lately - Strip the Image

J

613 - FC the Kid VS. Never Be Famous - Hussalonia TIE

Too Hot - Jay Safari VS. Lhasa -Shapaley

We Made it - JAMIEvx VS. Collide - Harold J TIE

412 (coffin built for two) - Mollie Maxwell VS. Vampire Bop - Feel Spectres

No Bird Sing - Plastic Lines VS. Unretractable Fact - Second Person

SCARY* - EXIT ONLY VS. THREATS - ILLFIGHTYOU

Real Woman - comfort VS. Preserve - PETROLEUM! GENDERLOSS

See You in The Pit - Rotten Youth VS. No Proposals - Physical Plant

K

Rebels - Old Death Whisper VS. Maneater - Blue Eved Blondes

Candy - Joe Mama VS. la somnambule - La Femme Pendu & Damien Done

Center Stage - Howard Martin VS. Lethal Temptress - The Mendoza Line (COVER)

Gears of the Atom Man - Angels of Liberty VS. Inhuman Liberty - Dr. Arthur Krause

Wake Up Girl - Skeeter Truck VS. Pennies in my Pocket - Stamen and Pistols

Flower Gurl - Ronen VS. Dark Rip - Teen Girl Scientist Monthly

Heart of the TARDIS - Time Crash VS. Trust Me - Time Crash

The Machine - Asta Wylie VS. Not Yet - Leo and the Little Things

L

Grace - Raelle VS. Transfixed - Joss Smith, NUYD

Animal - Xisco Feijoó VS. No Me Lames - Natalia Cassis

Hyperphantasia - Fearful Earful VS. We Who Are About To Live - Le Professeur

Tonight Eternity Alone - Rene Claus VS. HEAD OF HOLOFERNES - lonely carp

Milá má - Nahore VS. Cardigan Sweater - Jasmine Kennedy TIE

Side B - Alohaha VS. Side A - Alohaha

The Binding Of Isaac - Schmekel VS. the man who wasn't there - A Fictitious Band

Let It Go - The Murder of Crows VS. Slip! - Bright Orange

M

Boy who Blocked the Sun - Demi the Daredevil VS. Rainy Day Georgia - Jayne Trimble TIE

Burn it Down with Math - Deuce of Gears VS. Camouflage - Ed's Redeeming Qualities

Reach - Rachel West VS. Haircut Song - Shannon Moser

BurnerPhone - Dirty Heathen (ft. Bittersweet Evergreen) VS. Reunion - Brent Spiner & Maude Maggart

Deadname Birthday - The Timewasters VS. Small Parts of Something Much Larger - Suns

STILL FEEL IT - caseJackal VS. Sunshine and Lollipops 2020 - Sad Snack

Smooth Operator - Supernothing VS. Say What You Want - Growth Spurt

Бетонные блоки - Truckdrivers VS. Mirèmèngies - Edona Vatoc

N

Have You Ever Seen a Duck, Like, in Real Life? - lisa the beauty queen VS. Zip Ties and SSRIs-Dinosawh

Housekeeper- Faun Fables VS. Kill the King - Rabbit Rabbit Radio

Caroline - Espers VS. Mega Mouse - Putrid Shark

Whiskey and Water - Parader VS. Tales of the Phantom Ship - Nathan

Raising the Dead! - Jessica Law VS. Lotus Eaters - Jessica Law TIE

Autism Murder Memorial- Fit to Work VS. All Cats are Beautful - Fit to Work

Moon - Feel Spectres VS. Blow Up the Moon - Feel Spectres

All For Me Grog! - Spud Bugs VS. A Place We Could Call Home (Turncoat Collective) - Spud Bugs

O

Reclaim - Porch Cat VS. Perspectives - The Cast Before the Break

Orpheus on Ice - The Small Calamities VS. Violin Concerto in the Key of Crippling Regret - The Small Calamities TIE

Paint By Numbers - From Fragile Seeds VS. Homme Offer Knee - Ben Below

Tomb Song - Nora Keyes VS. Hold My Heart - The Dune Sea

Each Time She Calls - Jessie Goslin VS. Daisies - Heather and Hay

A Catalyst - Blood Crying Twinks VS. flexible guy - clown residue

Howard - Demo - Mother Aiden VS. going thru it - teamonade

Blooming Strangely - Ginger & Pear VS. Pressed - Ginger & Pear

P

Alright! Heartcatch Precure! - Aya Ikeda VS. 恐竜あげみざわ★ - Kyouruu Friends

星の旅人 - Sayaka Senbongi & Yumiri Hanamori VS. Gyokuza no GEMINI - Eclipse

The End of the World - Fred Deakin VS. Weekend Anarchist - MEMODEMO

運命は “I" Love You - チームDEKAI VS. Endure Emptiness - Kain Vinosec

Heritage of Sampled Electronic World - KR. Palto47 VS. Ultimate Performance of Abandoned Magic Boxes ~Rack of Junks - KR. Palto47

Liminal Spaces - Logan Fredricks VS. 薔薇は美しく散る × 輪舞-revolution - okurigi66

297回の試行 - Image44 VS. 川のそばで - Image44

DiViNE - EXiNA VS. We'll make a monster of you - Freefonix

#not polls #poll related #obscure song tournament #long post

[georgecostanzaatemysoup]

I've got this headcanon that Chris used to be a counselor at Hackett's Quarry and Dylan used to idolize him when he was a kid (he may or may not have been Dylan's first crush).

And a few months after the whole werewolf thing he runs into Chris randomly and after catching up he's like "yeah, they shut down Hackett's Quarry because of some weird stuff..." You know, all evasive like.

And when Chris hints at also knowing crazy they both end up spilling their weird secrets and that's how Chris finds out werewolves are real and Dylan finds out wendigos are real.

#dylan lenivy #chris hartley #until dawn #the quarry #sam and mike could have also been counselors #sam because she's the adventurous type #and mike because it looks good on a college application #i just love the idea of ud and tq being in the same universe

[if-only-angels-could-prevail]

The minute you try to grab hold of [Bob] Dylan, he's no longer where he was. He's like a flame: If you try to hold him in your hand you'll surely get burned. Dylan's life of change and constant disappearances and constant transformations makes you yearn to hold him, and to nail him down. And that's why his fan base is so obsessive, so desirous of finding the truth and the absolutes and the answers to him--things that Dylan will never provide and will only frustrate...Dylan is difficult and mysterious and evasive and frustrating, and it only makes you identify with him all the more as he skirts identity.

Todd Haynes

#makes you yearn to hold him and to nail him down

[cantseemtohide]

Dylan got his revenge for Mayor Roswell's evasive answers to some friendly small talk by signing him up for voluntary work.

#ts4 gameplay #ts4 nocc #ts4 vanilla #dylan sigworth #ted roswell #strangerville

[officermaddie23]

Into the pit in jail

Dylan: Hey Mr. Fitzsimmons 

Maurice Fitzsimmons: What did you do 

Dylan: What made you think I did something? 

Maurice Fitzsimmons: Am I wrong 

Dylan: Okay but in my defense this was a team effort 

Brooke: Mr. Fitzsimmons we got arrested and are in jail now and we need you to come get us 

Maurice Fitzsimmons: You got arrested 

Dylan: It was a big misunderstanding you see we were at the outback steakhouse and Sarah wanted to take a cardboard cutout of one of her favorite actors and the manager said no which made Sarah cry which in turn made Millie mad and long story short we burned down an Outback steakhouse 

Maurice Fitzsimmons: I don't even know how to respond to this. Your saying you 4 got arrested over a cardboard cutout of one of Sarah's favorite actors? 

Dylan: Uh actually 

Oswald: Nah uh do not tell him I'm here. He'll tell Springbonnie 

Dylan: Yeah there's more than 4 of us here 

Maurice Fitzsimmons: Dylan how many of you got arrested? 

Dylan: Well me, Sarah, Millie, and Brooke because we burnt down Outback Steakhouse 

Millie Fitzsimmons: LISTEN NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF THEY JUST LET SARAH HAVE THE CARBOARD CUTOUT 

Dylan: Cameron and Hayden because they tried breaking us out of jail 

Hayden Fitzsimmons: surprisingly digging a tunnel with spoons was not a good idea 

Dylan: Also Hannah ended up in here for some reason 

Hannah: I don't want to talk about it 

Abby: She got into a fight at the bookstore with an old lady over the last copy of one of her favorite books 

Hannah: It was the last one 

Abby: you already have 6 

Hannah: I ONLY HAVE 6 

Dylan: wait Abby why are you arrested? 

Abby: Tax evasion 

Maurice Fitzsimmons: Is everyone I know in there? 

Dylan: Uh actually Funtime Freddy isn't here 

Abby: Yes but there is a warrant out for his arrest he is currently on the run 

Maurice Fitzsimmons: UGH alright I'm coming 

#fnaf fazbear frights #into the pit #to be beautiful #count the ways

[palidan-sheep]

Ya’know, the game has a hard time showing you who the true villain is. Ya could argue that either the Hacketts or Eliza is the villain but everyone is just in the gray for me.

Asides the counselors, they were just a bunch of dumb young adults who didn’t listen to Chris advice and got themselves all wrapped up in the nights problems tho I suspect irl, they’d still get wrapped up in the problems even if they stayed inside.

Everyone seems to have a problem of not explaining their motives or why they are there in the first place which definitely does not helping in clearing the air of whether they are the villain or not.

Eliza was the mother of Silas, she knew him better then the Hacketts. We don’t know if he was constantly locked up in the cage or if he was only locked up around the times of the full moon. Plus we don’t know how Silas got the infection, could have been born with it or Eliza could’ve done some shady shit and used her son as a stepping stone. But we don’t know that, we don’t know anything about her and her sons past.

Eliza was also sorta manipulative when talking to her during the card sessions, “We are friends aren’t we?” “After all I’ve done for you!”, she could’ve been guilt tripping us and also guiding us to a more favorable outcome via the cards.

Silas just seems more like a victim, he’s a young feral boy with no control over his situation and no one to turn to. He’s constantly being hunted too. I desperately wish there was a way to save him without killing everyone.

The Hacketts seem like they genuinely what to fix what they started but are just super evasive about telling other people. If Travis had said that he was Chris’s brother and that Chris wasn’t around, then Max and Laura wouldn’t have gone threw what they did but he didn’t, he was a dick to them and helped further to paint a bad picture upon the family.

If he hasn’t locked Laura and Max up then the chances of Kaylee still being alive would be significantly higher. Not to mention that if she wasn’t there, then like none of the counselors would’ve have know about the werewolf’s weakness to sliver, granted I can see Dylan talking about silver but then Kaitlyn swoops in and asked where they can get silver from and the Abi points out her bracelet.

This could also segway into Abi transforming into a werewolf considering that she can be bit by Kaylee when Nick gets attacked. Then the group would be left without a silver bullet and completely clueless. This could make for a more difficult game, no awareness of weaknesses and no bullets, more lives at stake and toss in another werewolf too.

Enough of what I think could’ve happened in the game, back to my rant.

Mama Hackett is just a bitch but she is trying her best to pull the strings of keeping the counselors safe. Sending her husband and sons out to hunt and protect the counselors. I honestly thought she was going to play a bigger role here but I was disappointed lol.

Tho once she finds out that her granddaughter is dead she’s over trying to help them and I can see that but she didn’t tell Jed or Bobby to explain to the counselors that they were they to help and to not kill any of the wolves expect for the white one.

As a matter of fact, it’s not even any of the adults who start this whole conflict, it’s the children. Kaylee and Caleb. They saw a bit locked in a cage and took it at face value, a young boy locked up and put on display.

This could’ve been all to it but we don’t know that so who can really blame them for doing what they did? Tho they were stupid to set hay on fire, I feel like they were taught that hay goes up quick so perhaps this leaves some room to hint at something darker with the Hacketts. Maybe there were more sinister and darker motives and decided to use the kids as their escape goat. 

Everyone is in the gray here, if any of them just explained what their motives were then maybe there’s be less bloodshed and more reason to chose a side.

Hell, if ya gonna bitch bout lack of final battle or progressive conflict then how bout ya chose sides between Eliza or the Hacketts. Magic vs humans.

This could be where the true villain gets reveled. Maybe Eliza did actual mess with darker magic and used her son as a vessel and cursed him, Maybe there’s some lingering lengthy family history between Eliza’s family and the Hacketts family that shows the Hacketts being massive dicks and chasing harm and misfortune to Eliza’s family.

The whole “who’s the true villain?” Question has been super blurry to me. It all falls down to what you think happened or believe. Personally? I have no fucking clue, both sides can be classified as good and bad.

A family trying to help a caged up boy and a mother who’s trying to get vengeance upon those who kill her family.

And also a family who released a deadly curse upon the world and a mother who caged up her son and possible did something to cause him to have this curse.

What are y’all’s thoughts on who’s the villain?

#The Quarry #travis hackett #chris hackett #bobby hackett #constance hackett #caleb hackett #jedediah hackett #Kaylee Hackett #eliza vorez #silas vorez #kaitlyn the quarry #kaitlyn ka #abi blyg #abigail blyg #abi the quarry #dylan the quarry #dylan lenivy #max brinly #laura the quarry #laura kearney #max the quarry

[bazwillendinflames]

2. Crush Culture (The Quarry au)

Part One | Part Two | Part Three

Read on AO3

Maybe it was conceited but the truth was that Emma, with her charm and good looks, had never been the one doing the chasing. But after falling for cool, confident Kaitlyn, suddenly getting a date isn’t as easy.

After confiding in Ryan, who has an equally daunting crush, they decide to help each other out. After all, it can’t go any worse than facing it alone.

Ryan had hoped Emma would forget about their scheme but as soon as he woke up it was clear he had not been so lucky. As sunlight streamed through thin curtains onto his face, Ryan already had half a dozen texts from Emma. He wasn’t surprised; Emma knew how to get what she wanted. What she wanted, now obvious, was Kaitlyn. And, unfortunately for Ryan, his help in winning her. 

Ryan skimmed the texts until the barrage of pink emojis started blurring together. He turned off his phone screen again, staring at the ceiling instead as it slowly hit him exactly what he had gotten himself into. 

Ryan wasn’t even sure why he’d confided in Emma of all people. He’d been content keeping his feelings to himself for months. In fact Ryan was great at repressing his feelings (a statement that always got a frown of disapproval from Laura). He wasn’t great at expressing things, which was why he was so far out of his depth when it came to Dylan. It had worked in his favour but Emma had sussed him out immediately. Ryan blamed Dylan, who had draped into his personal safe and turned off his brain. With so little space between them, he forgot Emma was even there. Ryan blamed the beer and Dylan’s cologne in equal measures for lowering his inhabitations. 

Despite his own lingering embarrassment, a small part of him was relieved to have Emma on his side. Laura had been no help with Dylan, mostly using it to tease him. She didn’t have any good advice either. She had been dating Max since they were sixteen and asking Dylan to homecoming with a glitter covered sign wasn’t an option, even if it worked for Max. 

Emma, however, actually knew what it felt like, the sting of pining from afar. Ryan had always assumed they were complete opposites. Emma was extroverted, charming, confident. But they were stumped in the same way. 

Emma might have used her special combination of charm and persistence to draw the confession out but now she was on his side. 

Besides, Ryan assessed, unlocking his phone, it wasn’t like she could be less helpful than Laura.  

im in

Emma sent back a gif of a cat in response that made Ryan laugh a little. But her next text sent a new wave of panic through him.

What’s your plan? 

---

If Emma was a less optimistic person, she would have worried about the sparing details Ryan had shared. But she was feeling the opposite, lightened by sharing her secret. Besides, the silence could mean anything. Being evasive and broody was just the way Ryan was. 

Emma was a step ahead of him already. It took one text and a promise of a free caramel frappe for Dylan to meet. She started with an advantage, they were close friends already since Dylan helped with the more complicated parts of editing. They usually ended up goofing around together after, like the night where Dylan had made her watch her first ever vlog and they had laughed until they cried. 

Emma figured it wouldn’t be hard to get Dylan to talk about Ryan. He never denied his crush, wearing his heart on his sleeve and waving it around with self-deprecating jokes. (Emma, who knew all about putting on an act, understood the urge.) 

It was simple really. Once Dylan was going all moon-eyed, it would only take a little push to fulfil her part of the deal. Maybe that would motivate Ryan to keep his own, however reluctant, promise. 

Until Emma’s plan went to shit immediately. Dylan arrived right on time, bounding in with a smile. He hoovered at the door, holding it open for someone else who turned out to be Kaitlyn. Emma tightened her ponytail, plastering on a smile to smother her nerves a second before they joined her. 

“Hey,” Dylan greeted her, oblivious. 

“Hi guys,” Emma replied. 

She tried to play it cool but her eyes betrayed her, darting to Kaitlyn. How was she supposed to focus on being Ryan’s wingwoman when Kaitlyn was wearing a tank top that showed off the hint of muscle in her arms under the moon tattoo across her forearm? She was only human.  

Dylan caught her looking and shrugged. “We’re a package deal.” 

“Sad but true,” Kaitlyn said. “So do I get a free coffee too or…” She grinned cheekily at Emma, who was one wink away from swooning. 

“My treat,” Emma answered, already standing up. “What do you want?” 

“Just a green tea.” 

“Really?” Emma couldn’t help but tease. “I thought you’d be a black coffee type.” 

“No coffee for me. I’m an athlete.” 

Emma hasn’t missed a single of her hockey games - which she had to thank for Kaitlyn’s strong arms - all semester. 

“Well I’m a simple scientist and I’ll take that caramel frappe you promised,” Dylan said. 

Emma nodded, hoping it wasn’t obvious she had half-forgotten he was there. She needed to get her head in the game. 

She joined the queue, glad for the chance to think. Since he was the only one who would understand the gravity of the situation, she texted Ryan. 

SOS! Kaitlyn crashed. 

Ryan’s typing bubble appeared and then disappeared, making him basically useless. Emma had ordered the drinks by the time she finally got a reply. 

good luck 

Emma huffed, sending a middle finger emoji in response. The barista called her name and attempted to balance the three cups together. 

“Need a hand?” 

Kaitlyn appeared at her elbow. It took more effort than she was proud of to not spill the drinks down her new sweater. 

“Thanks.” 

Kaitlyn smiled, taking her tea and Dylan’s frappe, freeing up her hands. 

“No problem. Hate to see a cute outfit ruined.” 

Emma knew her outfit was cute - all her outfits were cute - but hearing it from Kaitlyn made her feel gooey. She was lucky she didn’t have Dylan;s complexion. 

“My hero,” she joked. 

“I can’t leave a lady in distress,” Kaitlyn said with a smile. 

They made it back to the table and Dylan swapped his phone for his coffee. “I love you Emma.” 

“You love coffee,” she teased. 

He considered it and nodded. “Yes.” 

Kaitlyn sipped her tea. “Ah, so I am interrupting something.” 

Emma laughed nervously. “Just a thank you for Dylan splitting a cab with me Friday.” 

“You live in the same dorm building? You always share rides.” 

“Kaitlyn stop trying to talk me out of free coffee,” Dylan hissed. 

Emma smiled a little, easing into conversation now the shock of seeing Kaitlyn wore off. She and Dylan bounced off each other easily. They really were a package deal, a KaitlynandDylan-do-not-seperate bond. She could imagine the four of them on a double date, which was sweet and ridiculous equally. 

Not that Emma had expected to actually get anywhere with her mission now Kaitlyn had crashed. But she got lucky and the conversation circled back to Jacob’s party. Emma took the opening, putting her charms to good use. 

“So, what’s with Ryan-Ryan?” She probed. 

Dylan blushed terribly - it was probably why he couldn’t get away with denying his crush. “Nothing.” 

“Don’t bother,” Kaitlyn said, nudging him with her elbow. “He won’t even tell me.” 

Dylan sighed. “It was our one, like, actual moment of connection. I want to keep it to myself.” 

Emma wondered if it was the same moment that Ryan had alluded to. Had they both been holding on to it for the past few months? They were idiots, but so was Emma when it came to this. 

“Not even a hint?” Emma asked sweetly. 

“The road trip,” Dylan answered cryptically. “That’s it.” 

Emma didn’t exactly follow. She had missed the road trip everyone took over winter break. It had been right after her breakup with Jacob and staying in a minivan with him for a week straight had seemed like hell. 

Kaitlyn leaned in, intrigued. “Really? When?” 

Dylan stood up so quickly he nearly knocked his chair over. “I’m getting a muffin.”

He all but ran to the line behind the counter, glancing back nervously at them, then pretending he hadn’t been. 

“I think I hit a nerve,” Emma said. She mentally noted to ask Ryan and see what he said. 

Kaitlyn stirred her tea. “Yeah. That whole trip was weird. You know I kissed Ryan?”

“What?” Emma asked. Ryan had suspiciously left out that detail when they had talked about crushes. 

“In a game of truth or dare,” Kaitlyn clarified. “So it doesn’t count.”

“Do you like him?” Emma couldn’t help but ask. The last thing she needed was to end up in a Shakespearean-esque love web. 

Kaitlyn hummed. “Not exactly. Dude’s hot but you can’t date someone that broody. The kiss was good but I couldn’t enjoy it knowing that Dylan liked him.” 

“Likes,” Emma corrected. She glanced over to Dylan in the line, who was looking down at his beat up Vans. “Obviously he still does?” 

Kaitlyn laughed. “You saw him flee the conversation. Duh, he has it bad.” 

“Is it still weird?” Emma blurted. “Dylan’s one of your best friends but you kissed someone he likes.” 

Emma was prying for her sake now. Getting Kaitlyn’s stance on liking someone your friend did would clear up a lot of things. How many degrees was there between kissing someone they liked to dating a friend’s ex? 

Kaitlyn looked hurt. Emma had clearly miscalculated. 

“I don’t feel good about it. But I wouldn’t date someone my friend likes. Even if I did like them - and I don’t!” Kaitlyn huffed.  

“I didn’t mean-” Emma began but Dylan returned, sitting between them before she could properly apologise. 

Kaitlyn shifted away, determinedly not looking in Emma's direction. Instead, she tried stealing his blueberry muffin, which Dylan refused to share. 

“That’s what you get for being nosey,” he said, a crumb on his cheek. 

They left soon after, Emma’s poking around leaving a tenseness around the table. Dylan had another lab and Kaitlyn had a practice to coach. They left Emma with the melting ice in her coffee as she updated Ryan. 

Whilst you were not helping I did some digging. 

do tell

Say please. 

…

please 

Emma laughed. Only Ryan could convey sarcasm in a single word text. And then she got him caught up. After all, they were a team. 

 ---

  It only took one look at Emma’s devastated face to convince Ryan to actually do his part. She arrived at his grandparent’s bungalow with puffy eyes, convinced Kaitlyn now hated her. Leaving Ryan to do damage control. 

It was only once Ryan stepped off the bus that he realised it had been a bad idea to loop Creep by Radiohead on the way. It was stuck in his head as Sarah tried to learn it on guitar. Still, now all he could think of was the line ‘I don’t belong here,’ which felt almost comically on point. 

Ryan didn’t have long to panic before he quite literally bumped into Kaitlyn, who was waiting at the bus stop, wearing too large sunglasses that slipped down her nose and her usual yellow sweatshirt. Maybe Emma had upset her because when she readjusted them Ryan caught a glimpse of her red rimmed eyes underneath. 

“Look who decided to show up,” Kaitlyn said, surprisingly cheerily. “All good dude?” 

Ryan had been late because he’d forgotten his headphones and there was no way he could take the bus without them without getting overstimulated. That, combined with the pressure of Emma’s entire love life on his shoulders, and his music choice, had left him anxious anyway. But that was too much to dump on her, so Ryan just shrugged. 

Kaitlyn didn’t comment on his lacklustre response. She just led the way and Ryan followed her across campus. He had asked for help with engineering homework as an excuse to meet up. They settled in the library and worked through their notes. 

“You know Dylan’s better at this stuff than me right?” Kaitlyn asked. Her tone was casual but Ryan knew snooping when he saw it. He was a big brother after all. 

“He’s better at physics,” Ryan replied.

“Sure,” Kaitlyn said, dragging out the word, clearly unconvinced. They went through notes - Kaitlyn’s neat and colour coded, Ryan’s scribbled in his notebook. It was Kaitlyn who broke the silence. “So I was talking to Emma and-“ 

“Emma who?” Ryan blurted. 

Kaitlyn frowned. “Emma,” she repeated slowly. “Tall, blonde, addicted to her phone?” 

“Right,” Ryan said. “I was… joking?” 

Kaitlyn laughed, although Ryan doubted it was because she actually found him funny. “Leave the jokes to Dylan dude. Anyway I was talking to Emma and she said something that reminded me of that time we kissed.” 

Emma had mentioned that yesterday, her lip stuck out in an exaggerated pout. Ryan had told her the story, which started and ended with truth and dare. 

“It’s not a secret,” he said.  

“Why did you pick me?” Kaitlyn asked. “Laura said you could pick anyone.” 

“I don’t know. She and Max are together. Nick and Jacob are straight. Abi looked super uncomfortable.” 

“But you picked me over Dylan,” Kaitlyn pushed. “Kinda harsh.” 

Ryan remembered the hurt look on Dylan’s face. It had been all he could think about when he kissed Kaitlyn, which had been short and awkward. 

“I thought it would hurt Dylan more if I kissed him and didn’t mean it,” Ryan admitted. 

It was surprisingly honest but only because Emma had coaxed the same answer out of him the day before. 

“I get you,” Kaitlyn said. “I guess we never spoke about it after.” 

Ryan realised something with a panicked jolt. “I don’t like you!” He said, slightly too loudly. The girl on the desk across from them looked up and squinted her eyes at them. 

Kaitlyn laughed. “I know. I’m not asking you out. I’m not a dick.” 

Ryan slumped down in relief. “Good. I think we work better as friends.”

“Agreed,” Kaitlyn said. “Anyway after the Emma and Jacob messiness, we don’t need anymore dating drama.” 

“What about Laura and Max?” 

 “They were together before,” Kaitlyn said. 

“Abi and Nick?” 

“Time will tell,” she answered. “Why are you pushing this?” 

Ryan realised that he may have pushed her too far. What would Emma do? Nothing useful - she had landed him in this mess. 

“Just rooting for my friends' love lives,” Ryan said, which was basically the truth. 

“Okay.” Kaitlyn checked her phone. “Shoot, I better go. I’ve got a thing with Dylan.” 

She shoved her stuff in her bag and hurried away. “Bye weirdo,” she called. 

Ryan followed her out, his homework only half completed. Since he was already on campus he headed to Emma’s dorm building. 

She buzzed him in. Emma was lying upside down on her bed in sweatpants listening to a bittersweet Girl in Red song. 

“Good news?” She asked. 

“I think I fucked it up,” Ryan admitted. “Sorry.” 

“I fucked it too,” Emma said. “We’re just a pair of disaster bisexuals.” 

Ryan decided it was a fair assessment and sat on the floor, leaning against the bed. Emma shuffled over so her ponytail brushed against his shoulder. 

“I have some of the terrible vodka from Jacob’s party,” Emma offered. 

Ryan checked the clock, which had just passed five and nodded. “Yeah. I’ll take that.” 

They filled the rest with lukewarm orange juice from the dining hall and returned to her room. Emma sat on the floor with him, spreading out a blanket and making it the weirdest picnic ever. They passed the bottle between them as Emma’s playlist changed to a new song about pining and heartbreak. 

“What changes your mind about Dylan?” Emma asked. 

she was leaning her head against his shoulder once again. Ryan let her. He used to sit with Sarah like this, an arm around her, when their mom was yelling at their dad on the phone. 

“I haven’t told anyone this,” Ryan began. 

“Keep your secrets.” 

“It’s okay.” Maybe nostalgia or the vodka or the rotation of love songs playing made him feel comfortable. “We were setting up the bonfire for our last night of the road trip. Dylan was telling me about how the last time he went camping was some science camp in middle school and that he was a little dork back then.” 

Ryan closed his eyes, thinking back to how the tiniest sparks of the fire had cast a pretty light across Dylan’s face. They had been so close - even closer than he was sitting to Emma - that their hands kept touching. Like his feelings, Ryan hadn’t noticed until he had. Suddenly, the warmth in his fingertips and his rapidly beating heart had been all he could think of. 

“Dylan’s still a dork,” Emma said, bringing back. 

Ryan opened his eyes, looking back at the uneven brushes of beige paint on her wall. 

“There’s more. He told me how he went to college and tried to completely reinvent himself into blasé Dylan and I said…” 

“I like you best when you’re not putting on an act. Just Dylan Dylan.” 

Dylan had blushed, the now roaring fire illuminating his pinkened face. Ryan had thought: this would be a perfect moment to kiss him. Ryan had thought: oh shit. 

“It hit me all at once. I was so mad at myself for taking so long.” Ryan took another sip of the vodka. “I’m an idiot.” 

“You’re so sweet,” Emma said, her eyes big. “Ryan!” 

“Don’t laugh at me,” he groaned, although her reaction was somehow worse than laughing at him. 

“I’m not. I wish I had a cute story. I knew I liked Kaitlyn when she wiped her face with her shirt and saw her abs.” 

Ryan laughed. “Really?”

Emma smiled. “I mean she had also driven all the way down to fix my car because it wouldn’t start, even if she was mad at me about Jacob.” 

Ryan put the vodka aside. “Come on.” 

“What?” Emma stumbled a little. 

“We need to sober up and think of a better plan,” Ryan declared. “We will not let being hot idiots stop us getting our dates.” 

Emma grinned. “Hell yeah!” 

After all, it wasn't just Emma’s scheme. It was their scheme - and it was worth a second chance.

#the quarry #emma mountebank #ryan erzahler #dylan lenivy #dylan leviny #kaitlyn ka #the quarry fic

[lifeofkaze]

Coffee, Cake and Covert Secrets

A/N: Surprise! Wishing the happiest of birthdays to my favourite fellow German gal, my gaming nerd, the beloved sunshine of the best group of friends I ever had. May you have cake, cat cuddles, and may that effing Frozen Pony of Ridiculous Drop Rates finally be yours today. I love youuuu 💛💛💛

Warning: mentions of pregnancy

The rain was pouring from the grey skies in heavy curtains, drenching the ground and dripping from the trees at the edge of the forest. Lizzie hurried through it, along the last bit of the muddy pathway ending toward the tiny cottage, through the lush green front yard and found shelter beneath the porch.

She wiped the rain from her eyes and shivered; even for the end of August, it was surprisingly cold in this region of North England. She felt chilly to the bone and drew her coat, which she wore open over her loose jumper, together as best she could. She raised her hand and knocked on the door. The sound of approaching footsteps could be heard before the door opened to reveal a woman of Lizzie’s age, with a blonde ponytail and strikingly green eyes.

“Lizzie!” Samantha beamed, opening her arms and closing them around Lizzie a second later. “I’m so glad you could make it!”

“Me too,” Lizzie smiled back at her old friend. “Sorry I didn’t make it for your actual birthday. I wasn’t feeling well.”

“A stomach bug?” Samantha suggested with a sympathetic look. “People have been getting sick left, right and centre.”

Lizzie hummed in response. “Something along the lines.”

It was only now that Samantha seemed to notice the drenched state Lizzie was in. “Don’t tell me you walked?” she gasped with a mixture of incredulity and concern. “Why didn’t you Apparate?” 

“I felt a little queasy this morning, definitely not well enough to Apparate. Good thing I know how to drive, don’t I?” Lizzie nodded to the old car parked at the beginning of the dirt track leading up to the house, now barely visible through the rain.

“You could have used our fireplace.”

“I could have, I guess,” Lizzie said evasively, “but I wasn’t sure you were hooked up.”

That was a lie. Lizzie knew full well that the cottage Samantha was living in was connected to the Floo Network, but the thought of the awful spinning sensation that came with travelling by Floo powder had been enough to put her off the idea. 

“Now you know for next time.” Samantha frowned. “Is everything alright? You look pale.”

“I’m just tired. And wet,” Lizzie added, her eyebrows rising. “Can I come in?”

“Of course! Sorry,” Samantha stepped aside to let Lizzie in, colour rising to her cheeks. “No wonder you’re tired, what with a baby and all.”

Walking past the mirror in Samantha’s hallway, Lizzie had to admit that Samantha was right. She looked tired, her skin pale with dark circles under her eyes.

“How’s little Dylan? And where are your men anyway?” Samantha continued to chat over Lizzie’s silence, either not noticing or pretending not to notice. Lizzie was grateful for it.

“They’re having a boys’ day,” Lizzie smiled as Samantha led her into the living room. “The weather wasn’t as bad at home, so they’re probably doing something fun on the beach. As much fun as an eight-month-old can have on a beach, that is. In any case, I’m glad to get out of the house for a change.”

Samantha’s living room was small but cosy, with a big fireplace and fluffy carpets on the floor. The shelves were filled with trinkets and souvenirs, reminding Lizzie of her great-grandmother’s study at Fraser Hall. She sat on the sofa and reached for a colourful pillow, reminding her of the ones her friend Charlie had in his lodge at the Romanian dragon reserve. She laid it across her lap and leaned back into the cushions, feeling the tiredness tug at the borders of her mind. 

She and Samantha chatted for a while, about how Samantha had spent her birthday, their families, the weather. Lizzie was trying to focus, but the way she absentmindedly pulled on one of the tassels on the pillow across her lap wasn’t lost on Samantha.

“Do you really not want a coffee? It’s no bother to make one.”

“You don’t drink any. Please, don’t make an effort for me.”

“It wouldn’t be,” Samantha protested. “I keep some in the house for guests anyway.” A mischievous smile was forming on her face. “I could add a shot of whiskey if you like. Irish naturally.”

“No, and especially not with Irish whiskey,” Lizzie shook her head and sighed. “I’m not doing that at the moment.”

Samantha touched her forehead with her palm. “Of course, you’re breastfeeding.”

Lizzie paused. “Yeah, that.”

Their conversation drifted away from the topic. Samantha told Lizzie how much she relished her newfound freedom after the war, and how now - after more than a year since the Dark Lord had been defeated - everything had slowly but surely returned to a fragile state of normality.

“It’s like life just went on,” Samantha sighed. “We lost so many, and yet, here we are as if nothing ever happened.”

“Strange, isn’t it?” Lizzie mused. She chuckled wryly. “Though I didn’t have much choice in seeing how quickly life continues.” 

“I bet that whole pregnancy came out of nowhere,” Samantha laughed, not noticing Lizzie’s distinct lack of comment. “But now everything’s going back to normal for you, too. As normal as the life of a Quidditch player gets, that is. Are you excited to go back to playing soon? The season’s about to start, isn’t it?”

Lizzie suddenly looked uneasy. “It is. But I’m not going to return.”

Aghast, Samantha blinked several times. “Merlin’s beard, why not? I thought you were looking forward to it!”

“I was,” Lizzie sighed, picking at a loose thread on the pillow, before letting go of it with a sigh. “But I won’t be allowed to, for at least another year.”

Lizzie waited with bated breath as Samantha processed the information. When the pieces finally fell into place, Samantha’s green eyes went wide.

“Oh my goodness,” she whispered, leaning slightly forward. “You’re not pregnant again, are you?”

Feeling a mixture of relief and misery, Lizzie nodded somewhat unhappily. Samantha squealed and jumped off her seat, hugging Lizzie so tightly that she struggled to breathe for a moment. 

“That’s fantastic news! How long have you known? When are you due? Do you know what it’s going to be? Do you even want to know?”

The sheer enthusiasm Samantha was putting on display made Lizzie laugh after all. “I’ve known for a bit now, I’m due next spring, and no, we don’t know, but it doesn’t matter anyway. If the new baby is half as relaxed as Dylan, I’m perfectly happy with anything.”

“Does Orion know yet?”

“Judging by how loudly I cursed when I found out, probably all of Montrose knows. I’m surprised you didn’t hear me throw the bottle with the test potion against the wall,” Lizzie added wryly and then sighed. “Certainly wasn’t one of my stronger moments.”

“You’re not happy about it then?” Samantha asked, suddenly looking apprehensive.

“No, I am,” Lizzie hurried to reply, placing her hand onto her stomach beneath the wide sweater in an unconscious movement. “It’s just really soon after having Dylan, and it’s all a lot. And it means saying goodbye to Quidditch for another while… if not completely.”

The sad look on Lizzie’s face made Samantha reach out, lightly touching her arm. Lizzie gave her a grateful smile and visibly pulled herself together. 

“I didn’t come all the way by car to talk about myself and the consequences of being hormonal and reckless, though,” she said determinedly before breaking into a small giggle. “I’m here to celebrate a birthday, even if it’s late and only with sad, whiskey-less tea.”

Samantha’s face lit up. “Do you know what goes with tea and birthdays? Cake!”

Lizzie laughed, feeling a lot lighter now that her secret was out. “I had a feeling you were about to say this. Is it from your birthday still?”

“Obviously, I was. And no, I baked it this morning. There’s nothing better for the soul than chocolate cake,” Samantha called out as she vanished into the kitchen. Lizzie heard the clatter of plates and cutlery before she returned with two huge slices of cake, a fork sticking out of each. When she stopped to set one of the plates down in front of Lizzie, she suddenly looked worried.

“You can still do chocolate cake, right?”

Lizzie laughed and picked up her fork. “There’s only one way to find out.” 

#hphm #hogwarts mystery #samantha o'connell #lizzie jameson #happy birthday flare

[delphinehawthorne]

"the mirrorball" The mirrorball symbolises the performative aspect of life, where individuals may feel compelled to put on a dazzling show to navigate societal expectations. It becomes a commentary on the pressure to conform and the struggle to maintain authenticity in a world that often demands conformity. Overall, the mirrorball encapsulates the intricate dance between self-discovery, adaptation, and societal expectations, using the symbolism of the mirrorball to convey the reflective and ever-changing nature of the human experience

INTRODUCING DELPHINE HAWTHORNE

&. BASICS

Full Name: Delphine Emilia Hawthorne

Nicknames: Delphie, Del

Age: 39

Gender & Pronouns: Female, She/Her

Sexuality: Heterosexual

Date of Birth: September 18th, 1984

Place of Birth: Melbourne, Australia

Hometown: Kismet Harbor, OR

Time in Kismet Harbor: 18 years

Neighborhood: Emerald Mist

tw: infertility, miscarriage 

&. MORE BASIC INFO

Languages: English

Education: Business Management & Accounting (Bsc) from Chapman University

Occupation: Finance and accounting manager at HCP Holding

Drinks, Smokes, & Drugs: Drinks recreationally. Does not smoke or take any drugs.

Allergies: None.

&. PERSONALITY

Zodiac Sign: Virgo

Likes: Relaxing baths, reading, puzzles, spending time with family, exercising

Dislikes: Rude people, confrontation, loud noises

Love Language: Soft touches, words of affirmation

Habits: Biting nails

Hobbies: running, reading, sudoku puzzles

Fears: long corridors, snakes, losing her family 

Five Positive Traits: Intelligent, trustworthy, funny, caring, even-tempered

Five Negative Traits: Secretive, reserved, perfectionist, controlling, evasive

&. APPEARANCE

Height: 5′5″

Hair: blonde.

Eye Color: blue

Tattoos: none

Piercings: Ears

Aesthetic: here

&. FAMILY INFORMATION

Parents: Nolan & Michelle Hawthorne.

Siblings: Julian Hawthorne; Simon Hawthorne; Stevie Rivers (half sister).

Relationships: Dylan Goode (Husband; separated)

Children: None.

&. BIOGRAPHY

Delphine Hawthorne was born into greatness. The first child of Nolan and Michelle Hawthorne, wealthy business owners, she had been expected to be great from the moment she took her first breath. Still, she was immediately a disappointment, her father hoping to have a son to continue on the family name and business. Delphine’s role was to look good, whilst her brothers’ roles were to aspire to reach the highest of heights.

Trying again as soon as Delphine was born, she gained a brother a year after she was born. Julian and Delphine were immediately close friends due to their close ages and understanding of the pressure their parents put them under. They remained close up until Julian turned five, when their parents sent him to a private boarding school to ensure he received the best education. Delphine was left alone to listen to her parents’ constant criticisms and critiques.

Whilst her father was hard on her, it was Michelle Hawthorne who particularly hounded Delphine. Growing up, she was under constant scrutiny for her weight, her appearance, her grades, her social group – everything she did was never good enough for her. Still, instead of growing resentful, it just made Delphine work harder, desperate to earn her mother’s praise.

Things unraveled in the Hawthorne household when Delphine was five years old. Her father had an affair with a lower-class woman while on a business trip to America and had gotten her pregnant. At this same time, Michelle was pregnant with the third Hawthorne child. The stress and anger of the situation had resulted in a miscarriage, and Delphine watched as her seemingly perfect family began to crumble. Her parents began sleeping apart, and Delphine forced herself not to think about the sibling that existed on the other side of the world.

In an effort to patch things up, Michelle and Nolan had another child when Delphine was eight; another boy they named Simon. Just like Julian, Delphine was extremely protective over her brother and took on the motherly role. Her brothers were her closest friends, and she would do anything to protect them.

After graduating from high school, Delphine made the leap of moving to America with her parents to help establish their holding company overseas. She was a homebird at the end of the day, and she didn’t like to be far away from her family. Still, she was leaving Julian behind. The family moved to Kismet Harbor in Oregon, a small town that allowed them to establish themselves and the business. It also boasted a successful university, which Delphine enrolled in. It was here that she met her future husband, Dylan Goode. He was a family friend, and perhaps it was more her mother’s persistence which pushed them together, but they finally began to date shortly before graduating Chapman University.

Like everything else in her life, Delphine dated Dylan to please other people. He had a great social standing, came from old money and got along well with her parents. There was no real spark there, but he was a nice person and they got on well. For Delphine, that was more than enough. The two married a couple of years later when Delphine was 23, and their plan was to have children and carry on the Hawthorne legacy. Things didn’t exactly go to plan, however, as no matter how much they tried, Delphine wouldn’t get pregnant. There were a couple of hopeful false positives, but for ten years there was nothing. They tried IVF treatment, dropping hundreds of thousands of dollars, but it still did not work. In any other family, perhaps adoption would have been an option, but she knew her family would always look down on someone who was not Hawthorne blood. Delphine felt like a failure, like she had failed in her only purpose in the family. She listened to her mother’s incessant questions on why she still did not have grandchildren, and she hoped that one day a miracle would happen.

When Delphine was 37, she officially got the news she was dreading: it would never happen for her. It was like her own body had betrayed her. Her relationship with Dylan grew even further apart, and the two began fighting over small things. To her, their marriage was over, but she couldn’t imagine causing such a scandal within the family. To have no children and to divorce her husband was just too much. So, she stayed with Dylan and put on a happy face to everyone. She didn’t even tell her brothers what was happening, always wanting to seem like the perfect sister who had her life together.

Two years later, Delphine is still living in a dead-end marriage, trying her best to be there for her family in whatever way she can be. Recently, however, it is almost as if something has shifted in her. Perhaps it is the impending fortieth birthday or finally realizing that life is hers to live, but Delphine finally feels like she can start taking the reigns on her own life and make her own decisions.

And to her, that’s terrifying.

#bio

[grandhavenrp]

Who are some faces or character types you'd like to see here?

hi lovely! below are some faces we’d love to see it’s a mix of fcs so i hope this helps!!

rudy pankow, dylan o'brien, tommy martinez, jordan fisher, michael b jordan, drew starkey, gavin leatherwood, thomas doherty, elliot fletcher, taron egerton, chloe bennet, kiana lede, vanessa morgan, camila mendes, lili reinhart, antonia gentry, katie douglas, ryan destiny, yara shahidi, chloe bailey, halle bailey, maia mitchell, abigail cowan, lauren jauregui, florence pugh, tati gabrielle, harry styles, niall horan, zayn, cody christian, justin h min, felix mallard, trevor jackson, jacob elordi, alex fitzalan, ross lynch, tom holland, perrie edwards, haley lu richardson, normani, sofia carson, madelaine petsch, fracia raisa, mishti rahman, hannah simone, carlacia grant, zendaya, kathryn newton, jenny boyd.

as for character types we would lovd to see:

someone with a very nuturing, mother like personality who everyone goes to for advice/comfort, the shy but warms up to you once they get to know you type, a broody very secretive, evasive when asked questions type, a trickster type who likes to stir up trouble and create drama.

#appless rp #oc rp #town rp #new rp #beach rp

[newscinema]

Deep Fake video of Biden in drag promoting Bud Light goes viral, as experts warn of tech's risks

Deep fake videos of President Joe Biden and Republican frontrunner Donald Trump highlight how the 2024 presidential race could be the first serious test of American democracy’s resilience to artificial intelligence. Videos of Biden dressed as trans star Dylan Mulvaney promoting Bud Light and Trump teaching tax evasion inside a quiet Albuquerque nail salon show that not even the nation’s most…

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[theinternetisfulloftrash]

Dylan O'Brien NOT Answering Questions - Teen Wolf: After After Show

#dylan o'brien #dylan drinking #dylan reactions #dobedit #trashy dylan gifs #what a fucking icon #right? #I'm hoping to be able to make good use of these ;) #after after show #pass #dylan doing dylan shit #evasive dylan is evasive #face touching #b/w gifs #skeptical dylan #I THINK I FINALLY MADE SOME PRETTY GIFS GUYS! :) #It's been so long and my old software stopped being able to encode youtube shit #so... I figured something else out and I'm going back to my roots of b/w gif making #<3

[filmflowersbangtan]

Dead of Night (preview)

pairing: gang member!jungkook x reader

genre: angst, fluff 

warnings: swearing | drug mention | gangs | in the full story, there will be violence, blood, fighting, threatening 

preview word count: 4k

you meet jungkook in a diner in the early morning where it’s just the two of you in the entire place. An interesting relationship ensues, and you find out he’s not who you thought he was. He’s a prominent member of the city’s most powerful gang, surrounded by danger and trouble. But you still want him.

--

author’s note: I sincerely apologize for being gone for so long and for not updating any of my fics. To everyone waiting on IMSWY pt. ii: I am so sorry for taking so long with it. It’s still in my WIPs, and I haven’t given up on it yet, but it is on the back burner right now since I have many other ideas bubbling up that I absolutely have to write or else they will probably internally set me aflame (lol). 

I will be deleting many of my fics soon. I will be keeping “Unbound,” “I Must Still Want You,” “Heartbreaker with a Heart of Gold,” and “Lonely Planets.” Everything else I will be deleting because I have no desire to finish working on them or I simply do not like them anymore and can’t see them going anywhere.

I also will probably not be writing anymore series. Everything will most likely be one shot because every time I start a series, I get too overwhelmed with the idea of updating parts and finishing them that I just end up postponing them for too long and leaving too many people who have been looking forward to them disappointed. I do want to say that I have been going through So Much since I last posted Lonely Planets pt. ii and IMSWY, but I am in a so so so much better place now. That’s why I’m even writing this story now.

This will be a oneshot. It will not be a series. It will be very long. I am almost finished with it, but I am posting this preview just to see if you all would like to continue reading it.

Thank you all. I appreciate all the feedback and the follows and the reblogs so, so much. The feedback and the reblogs of Heartbreaker with a Heart of Gold is what really motivated me to write this one. I hope you all enjoy it. 😊

--

Being alone was like an addiction. It was fulfilling and appealing and…well, lonely. 

Two in the morning diner stops during the weekdays had become routine. The place was completely empty save for a waitress and a cook and maybe a tired trucker. You tucked yourself in a booth in the back. The vinyl seats were cracked and uncomfortable, the lighting was stark and washed everything raw. But it was comforting. Sleep was evasive and your apartment was barely unpacked, boxes stacked haphazardly in the dining area and the mattress on the living room floor. It was your idea to move to this vast city far away from home. This city swallowed everything in its incessant noise. Nocturnal and teeming with cars and neon lights. It never rested and the two of you had that in common. You took solace in that. 

The air was thick with bacon grease and bitter black coffee. Every morning you had waffles and orange juice. The refills were free and the waffles were the exact same circumference as the plate underneath it. Time was stagnant here. The city pressed against the plate glass windows, but the reflections from inside barred its entry. If you looked out, you simply stared directly at yourself. Maybe there was some kind of metaphor in that. 

The night shift waitress, Bethany, set your plate of steaming waffles on the table as well as a glass syrup dispenser. She knew you by name and you thanked her for the food. She smiled sweetly and left you be. 

The door chimed, denoting the entry of another patron. You didn’t look up. Bethany greeted the person in her cheerful customer service voice. You knew she didn’t actually sound like that. Once, you glimpsed her smoking a cigarette by the dumpster at the back of the diner arguing with her boyfriend on her cell phone. She had a tired voice. You wondered if she was lonely, too.

As you ate, Bethany took the patron’s order. From where you sat, his voice was a mumble. “You got it!” Bethany said before breezing away.

You glanced up from your food at the patron. Hair dyed blond, dark brown at the roots. He had a gentle face and a mouth made for smiling or furtively suppressing them. Tattoos were stippled on his arm all the way down to his knuckles. He was staring down at his phone, his fingers were slender and embellished with many silver rings. He was impossibly handsome. A paragon of beauty. 

And he looked up. Right at you. Why was it at that moment you happened to notice him, he decided to notice you, too?

Your scalp prickled with hot embarrassment. You immediately averted your eyes back to your waffles. There was only a bite remaining. Good. You could finish, get your check, pay, and leave.

Boldly, you chanced another glimpse. He did, too. This time, a smile, broad and lovely, stretched across his face. It was endearing and intimate and you had never felt so seen. It was exhilarating. A small smile crept onto your mouth. You couldn’t help it. His smile was contagious. 

This was how the following hour went. Weighted glances and secret smiles from across the room. He received his food, and he picked up his plate and mug of coffee and…was he coming this way?

You watched him, eyes wide, as he sauntered over to your booth and set his items on your table. “May I sit?” he said. His voice was the perfect match to his face. Smooth, sonorous, soft. Crushed velvet. 

Jerkily, like you had never done it before, you nodded. He sat. “Hi,” he said.

“Hi,” you replied. 

“I’m Jungkook.”

You told him your name. He repeated it once, twice, thrice. Like he enjoyed the feel of it in his mouth, rolling it around like a piece of hard candy he didn’t want to dissolve on his tongue just yet. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.” He reached his hand over the table. You smiled and shook it. 

His plate was piled with pancakes and sausages and scrambled eggs. He dug in. In between bites, he asked, “So what brings you here at this time of night?” “I have trouble sleeping. And you?” Your chest was tight with the awkwardness of it all, but he appeared to be perfectly at ease. 

“I’m just a night owl. Or I’m a vampire.” He shrugged nonchalantly as he continued eating.

Surprisingly, laughter bubbled from you until you couldn’t help the giggles that shook you. How long had it been since you had a conversation with anyone? Your store had been a drought for the past month, only a couple of people coming in a day. You didn’t call home because your parents would ask how you’ve been, and that topic lit a fire in your skull. Bethany was just a waitress doing her job. And Nora was always busy. It was refreshing to have someone sit with you. Talk with you. Want to be near you. 

His eyes danced at the sound of your laughter. It was an innocuous expression, boyish in how pure it was. 

You covered your mouth with your hands to mask the laughter. And he gently grabbed your wrist and removed them. “I like your laugh.”

Butterflies unfurled their wings in your stomach and fluttered in a frantic cluster. He resumed his meal as if nothing happened. “So what do you do?”

You cleared your throat. “I own a used book and record store downtown. It’s small and kind of hidden from the street, but it’s there.” You chuckled nervously. You were proud of that store, but you might have to close it down soon and return to your hometown with your tail tucked in between your legs if the revenue continued as it did. 

His eyebrows shot up. “Wow. That’s super cool. I like records. Books, not so much. Where is it located?”

You told him the address. “By that bodega on the corner.”

“The one that sells the really good blue raspberry shaved ice?”

You snapped your fingers. “That’s the one.”

“I’ll definitely have to stop by.” 

This was how the next few hours went. Talking about everything and nothing. He had lived in the city his entire life, worked as a freelance artist, had an apartment not too far away. Plates had been swept away by Bethany long ago. Refills poured, drained, and poured again.

And then, “Do you maybe want to get out of here? Kick it at my place?” Jungkook asked. His expression was open and genuine. 

You didn’t know if that was a good idea. But talking to him was stimulating and you didn’t want it to end. 

He noticed your hesitation. “Turn you location on your phone, I’ll even give you my address so you can send it to your friends. Anything to make you feel comfortable.”

He was right. He didn’t live that far. It was barely past five o’ clock in the morning, the city was still awake, billboards alight. The buildings towered, dark against the predawn blue of the sky. The apartment building was modest and typical of the city. Clean and affordable but just expensive enough to be appealing to a specific demographic of college students and those with decent enough jobs. His apartment was on the third floor and was charming with brick walls and high ceilings. There was a bookshelf packed with vinyl records, even more in milk crates. A record player in pristine condition sat on an end table beside an armchair. 

“Welcome to my humble abode,” Jungkook said, shrugging off his jacket and hanging it on a hook beside the front door. 

“You said you liked records,” you replied, browsing his collection. 

“I did.”

“This isn’t liking records. This is a goddamn treasure trove.” You pushed your hair behind your ear, eager to move it from your face. “Bowie, Billie Holiday, Bob Dylan, Prince. You even have a rare version of Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland. With the naked women! This is incredible.” 

He laughed. “I see you are a woman of taste.” 

“If only my dad could see this. I’m afraid to touch anything.” 

“I’m sure you don’t have clumsy hands with records. Since you have a record store and all.”

You laughed. “I appreciate the trust.”

“So what would you like to listen to?”

You mulled it over, taking your time examining the sleeves of the records. Then you found one.

He smiled when you showed him the cover art. “Perfect.” 

Frank Ocean’s Blond. A modern classic. Perfect for the liminal hour of five AM. 

Jungkook slipped it from its sleeve, fingers on the slim rounded edges of the record. He carefully settled it on the turntable, placed the needle on the disc, and played the album. There was the classic crackle of vinyl, and then the first track emanated. It was a phantasm of sound, rich and ethereal. Light but weighted. The song was the deep blue of the sky before the sun decided to pull itself above the horizon and emblazon the sky with its myriad of colors. It was the perfect song for this liquid moment that felt like a dream. This beautiful stranger standing before you with his incredible collection. 

And then you were in Jungkook’s arms, slowly swaying to the music. You smiled up at him and him down at you. 

The album continued on in the living room, serenading to no one. You and Jungkook had moved to the bedroom, lounging on the bed. The horizon blushed peach, casting the room in half-light. You both lay on your backs, him with an arm slung casually behind his head, you with your hands folded delicately on your stomach. 

“Thank you for paying for my meal today,” you said to him meekly. 

He smiled. “Thank you for the great conversation. And having an amazing taste in music.” 

You laughed. “What made you come sit with me anyway?”

That was when he looked at you, his mouth still slung in a smile, but his eyes sincere. “Because you’re beautiful.”

Your cheeks went hot and you giggled nervously, covering it with your hands. He rolled over and carefully removed them, his eyes on yours. For a brief moment, time was still. Your breath caught in your throat. He was so close. His lips were so close. Your noses were just barely brushing. His voice was husky when he said, “I like your laugh.”

And then he kissed you. 

In the living room, Frank Ocean sang about nights and new beginnings. 

In the bedroom, you and Jungkook were breathless. Hands on thighs. Hands in hair. Teeth on collarbones. It was a innocent hunger, one that never got too peckish. He was careful with you, didn’t dare to remove your clothes. “I like you,” he breathed into your neck. You gasped at the sensation. 

You kissed until you both eventually succumbed to sleep, the morning sun pouring drowsy golden light across the room.

It was well into the afternoon when you woke to the sound of a shower running. The room was unfamiliar. Definitely not your barren apartment with the boxes strewn about the place. And you definitely weren’t on your living room mattress tangled amongst its waves of sheets. The bed you were in was the most comfortable you’ve ever experienced. Brick walls, plants, beautiful abstract canvas paintings leaning against the wall. Then you remembered. 

The diner. The vinyl collection. The sunrise. The kiss. 

Jungkook. 

He was in the shower and you were fully dressed and the night had to have been a dream. But it wasn’t. Reality settled back onto your shoulders in agonizing waves. You were hours late opening the store. But oh, you wanted to burrow into these soft, sweet-smelling sheets and dissolve into nothing. Eventually you got up. 

The door to the bathroom was open. You thought about telling him you were leaving, but instead, you drew your name and number into the mirror steam and went home to shower and change yourself.

An entire week went by and he never called. He didn’t return to the diner, either. It hurt. Every time you lay on your side, willing yourself to sleep, the phantom feeling of his hands and lips barreled you at such an unwelcome rush you would gasp. None of it was real. You had to keep telling yourself that. None of it was real. 

Life went back to normal. Jungkook was a fleeting daydream that sifted in and out of your thoughts. The store still barely got any customers, except for the same two or three crate diggers who visited like ghosts. And then Nora, your best friend, breezed through the door. She was a city girl through and through. Large sunglasses, the omnipresent iced coffee, the expensive wardrobe curated specifically for being in front of a camera. She was partly why you moved here. The two of you were from the same hometown, and she had escaped first to chase the tail of a fashion designer career. 

“Move here!” she had said during a phone call. “You’ll love it. You’re super hipster and this city eats that shit up! And you can open up that record and book store you always dreamed of.” 

She wasn’t wrong. You loved this city but this city seemed to not love you back. Now, she pushed her sunglasses up into her hair and set her iced coffee on the counter top before you. You were sitting behind the register, feet up and reading a book when she had come in. You looked up from the paperback in your hands. “And what have I done to deserve your presence, Your Highness?”

“Good morning, dork! We’re going to a party.”

You kicked your feet down. Slipped a bookmark in the book and closed it. And you simply said, “No.”

She blinked, her smile stiff. “Why not?” 

“You know I have to open this place every single morning. I can’t go to a party and get drunk and miss another opening.”

“Stop making this store your entire life.”

“It is my entire life.”

“Well, live another one. Just for one night.” She clasped her hands together and actually pouted. “Please.”

You sighed. “You don’t have anyone else to go with?”

She perked up and tossed her hair over her shoulder. “Oh, I do. I just want you to go with me. I want you to have fun for once. All you’ve done since you been here was work.”

Every single dollar and penny from your savings went to this store. It was your lifelong dream. And Nora—lovely, naïve Nora—had never needed to work for anything a day in her life. She meant well. She was never intentionally ignorant. But that didn’t make it any less frustrating. 

She also didn’t know of your time with Jungkook. It was embarrassing that he never called. It angered you that he called you beautiful and said he liked you only for it all to be false. Thank goodness you didn’t have sex with him. 

“I’ll have fun once I’m a millionaire or something,” you said to Nora.

She huffed. “I can find you someone to cover the shop for the night. You won’t even have to pay them. Please just come with me.”

“No. What if they steal something.”

She stared at you flatly. “Do you really think any of my friends—my friends—would steal? Let alone steal any of this stuff? No offense.” 

“Why do you want me to go so badly?”

“I already said. Fun. You know, music, drinks, guys.” She sang the last word and accompanied it with a little shimmy. 

“I have plenty of music and I can buy my own drinks.”

She slammed her hand against the counter top, startling you. “Stop being fucking difficult and come have some fun with me.”

So, grudgingly, you went. Albeit late because you didn’t trust anyone else to close the shop for you, but you went nonetheless. Nora did your makeup. Just glitter eyeshadow and a little eyeliner because you insisted you didn’t want much. And she picked out your outfit—a black lace bra, a crop top cardigan, and a pair of white shorts. 

“Because I can’t dress myself?” you grumbled, sliding on the clothes. 

“Exactly that. You dress too…hipster-y. You need to be hot for tonight.” 

You hadn’t worn that bra since you dated Namjoon. He was pretentious and arrogant and such a city boy it made you lightheaded. You met when he waltzed into the store shortly after you moved here. He smiled at you and you practically melted. The books were what he came for. He bought a Russian classic novel and at checkout, he discussed with you the allegory of sharing fruit in literature. He was eloquent and intelligent and so damn gorgeous you fell for him in that same moment. He scribbled his number on the receipt and told you to keep it. 

The relationship lasted for four months. He suggested you move into his high rise apartment downtown with him. It was a modern edifice, all glass and steel and money. He was the wealthiest person you had ever met in your life. And, stupidly, you were in love. 

And then you saw his text messages with some unfairly beautiful girl he followed on social media about how good she looked in his bed . He said he was lonely, that you worked too much, what else was he supposed to do? Needless to say, you left him. And you hadn’t seen him since. 

Now, Nora said to you, “And don’t think about wearing those fucking platform boots.”

“Why not?” you said, frowning. “They’re cute.”

“They look ridiculous. Like those boots that one goth girl from that cartoon you like wore.” 

You grinned, mischievous. “That’s exactly why I bought them.”

To Nora’s dismay, you wore the fucking platform boots. 

The party was in an underground venue. It wasn’t all red wine and an elaborate excuse to brag about money, like the gatherings Namjoon liked, it was edgy. A live band played pop punk on a stage, the lights in the place were dim save for the spotlights and the white Christmas lights behind the bar. Greasy pizza and liquor and neon lights. You brushed elbows with someone smoking a joint, and you were pretty sure someone was doing coke in the bathroom. 

Nora pulled you to the bar where she ordered herself a cocktail and you a craft beer. She knew you so well. 

There were so many people here. You mentally kicked yourself for not bringing flyers for your store. 

And then you saw him. Nora was talking your ear off about how hot the frontman for the band was and you almost choked on your beer. 

“Are you fucking kidding me?” you spat.

Nora blinked rapidly. “What? What happened?”

“This is why you brought me here. You cunt.” You didn’t mean to call her that. It wasn’t a word worn with frequent use in your vocabulary. In fact, you hated the word. But it was deserved in this situation. 

Namjoon. He was standing near the stage with a craft beer of his own in his hand, bobbing his head to the music. He didn’t like places like this. They were tacky to him. He didn’t even listen to this genre of music. What the hell was he doing here? 

The girl standing next to him turned to him and smiled. She was wearing lipstick as red as murder and her bob was so black it reflected the lights with an envious luster. She had a septum piercing, the two silver balls glittering in the low light like two tiny stars. That’s when it clicked. He was here because of her. She was that unfairly beautiful girl in his text messages. Your skin felt incandescent. 

“He had to see how hot you are. I thought you would enjoy shoving that in his face.” Lovely, naïve Nora. You wanted to slap her. 

You stood from the bar stool and set your craft beer on the bar. “I’m leaving now.”

Her face was slack with regret. Before she could form an apology, you turned and walked away. 

You were a few moments from the door when you heard your name. It wasn’t Nora. You stopped and your breath hitched. Your turned slowly, preparing to see Namjoon with that girl by his side but instead—

“Jungkook?”

His hair was black now and almost as shiny as that girl’s bob. It hung past his ears in gentle waves. He stood there in a baggy black shirt and jeans, his thumbs tucked into the front pockets. Silver bracelets draped from both wrists. In this lighting, he looked ethereal. Infernal. This couldn’t be the same man you shared a chimerical morning with. He looked like he had been created by the darkness of the city’s nights. 

Maybe it was just the hair. 

“Hi,” he said in the same way he did when he sat your table at the diner. It could’ve been mistaken as sheepishness, but his eyes were not meek. Besides the hair, you couldn’t figure out what was so different about him. 

Breathlessly, you said, “Hi.”

“You look nice.” 

Over his shoulder, you noticed Namjoon go to the bar. Nora scowled at him. He smiled amicably at her and his mouth moved, saying something. She froze, and her eyes immediately darted to you. Namjoon turned and saw you. And he started your way. 

“Are you okay?” Jungkook asked.

You should’ve ran out of the venue. There were a million other things you should’ve done, but instead you grabbed Jungkook and kissed him. 

Initially, he went rigid with shock, but he melted into the kiss. You felt him smile against your mouth. “Miss me that much?”

You pulled away. “I did not.” A glance over his shoulder and Namjoon was gone. You audibly exhaled. 

“What happened?” 

You ran a hand over your face. “Ex.”

“Ah,” he said. “Is that why you were leaving?”

“Yes. And now I’m going. Goodbye.” You whirled around, shoulders tense with embarrassment and headed for the stairs. 

“Wait.” He caught up to you on the stairs. “Can I go with?” There were small white string lights strung in the stairwell and the glow reflected in his eyes. They were so brown. 

“Don’t you have friends to be with?” Your phone buzzed in your back pocket with an incoming text message. Most likely your own friend dying to know who the guy you just kissed was. You ignored it. 

“They’ll be fine.” He grinned. 

“Okay,” you said, feeling yourself smile as well.

There was no destination, but you ended up at a park, sitting beside each other on a swing set. Your feet dragged in the wood chips as you pushed yourself back and forth slowly. He looked up at the night sky and sighed. “Do you want to know why I hadn’t called?”

You just looked at him. 

“This may sound like a corny excuse, but… I was afraid of what you would think of me.”

Your eyebrows furrowed. “What do you mean?”

He hesitated before saying, “If we continued seeing each other, you would eventually find out that I’m not a freelance artist. I do paint, but that’s not what I do.”

You could feel your heartbeat gradually speeding its pace. “What do you do?” His eyes fell down to his hands. He turned them over, studying the lines in his palms. His hair slipped over his eyes. He was a portrait of affliction. “I’m a Lost Boy.”

You didn’t understand. He noticed your silence and looked up at you. “The Lost Boys. This city is practically run by them.” He corrected himself, “Ran by us.” He stopped, closed his eyes, and sighed. “I’m in a gang.”

Your voice was a whisper. “What?”  

He quickly added, “If you no longer want to associate with me, I understand. They’re—we’re—dangerous. I mean, even if you haven’t heard of us, you know us. The leather jackets, the vandalism, the fights. That venue is owned by us. The drugs at that event were supplied by us. That band playing is in our pockets. My apartment is paid by dirty money.” He laughed quietly to himself then, almost pityingly. 

The night air around you was thick with your own dread. “Is being around you dangerous?” You hadn’t meant for your voice to sound so small.

“I won’t hurt you, if that’s what you’re asking.” You could hear the unsaid “but” in his tone. 

“But what?” you prompted.

He chewed on his lip. A dimple in his left cheek appeared. “I won’t hurt you, but I can’t promise your safety. If you do decide to be around me.”

--

#bts #jeon jungkook #jungkook #jungkook fanfic #jeon jungkook fanfic #kpop #bts fanfic #kpop fanfic #bts jeon jungkook

[onlydylanobrien]

Dylan O'Brien - NME Magazine Interview

Dylan O’Brien: “I was in this transitional phase – close to a quarter-life crisis”

From YA heartthrob to legitimate leading man – how the 'Maze Runner' star hit his stride after a whirlwind decade

Definitely!” hoots Dylan O’Brien when NME asks if he still has to audition. “I’m not Tom fucking Hanks, bro.” He’s clearly amused by our question, but forgive us for thinking the 29-year-old actor gets cast on reputation alone. A decade into his career, and he’s making an impressive transition from teen TV star and YA franchise hero to charismatic leading man.

New York-born O’Brien cut his teeth on MTV’s hit Teen Wolf series, before landing the lead in the Maze Runner film trilogy based on James Dashner’s hugely popular novels. Leading a band of bright young things that included ex-Skins tearaway Kaya Scodelario, Game Of Thrones’ Thomas Brodie-Sangster and Will Poulter, he honed his craft while racking up nearly a billion dollars at the box office. “My career is a constant acting class,” says O’Brien. “To be able to do the Maze Runner movies simultaneously with Teen Wolf was amazing in terms of getting in reps and working my [acting] muscle.”

Now for the sometimes tricky bit. Many actors struggle with the post-breakout period, but O’Brien is making it look easy so far. This year’s Netflix hit Love and Monsters proved he can carry an old-school family adventure, and new film Flashback (out next week) reveals an appetite for weirder, more cerebral work. He stars as Fred Fitzell, a young man reluctant to buckle down to life as a nine-to-fiver with a boring corporate job and a long-term girlfriend (Mindhunter‘s Hannah Gross). When he runs into a freaky-looking acquaintance from his teenage years, Fred becomes obsessed with finding an old high-school friend he used to drop a mind-bending experimental drug called Mercury with. It’s difficult to say any more without entering spoiler territory, but Flashback is a wild ride underpinned by the idea that we can exist in several realities at once. Even if you follow every plot twist, you might not fully understand the end. “Oh, it’s definitely a headfuck,” O’Brien agrees. “There’s not totally an answer to figure out. There’s a lot of different things that people can take from it.”

Speaking over Zoom from his LA home, O’Brien is bright, thoughtful and really good fun to talk to, especially when he relaxes into the interview, but he clearly knows where his line between public and private lies. When he first read the Flashback script, written by the film’s director Christopher MacBride, his “mind was blown” by just how much he related to Fred. “I felt like I was in this transitional phase of my life that was, you know, sort of close to a quarter-life crisis type thing,” he says. “For whatever reason, it was like me and this script were meant to be. I remember reading it and thinking: ‘I am this guy right now.'”

“There were a lot of things in my personal life that were neglected for a while”

When we ask why O’Brien felt as though he had reached a “transitional phase”, he gives an answer that’s vague but not exactly evasive. For understandable reasons, he doesn’t mention the incredibly traumatic motorcycle accident he sustained while shooting the final Maze Runner film in March 2016. O’Brien suffered severe trauma to the brain and said in 2017 that he underwent extensive facial reconstructive surgery after the accident “broke most of the right side of my face”. Tellingly, he’s never really revealed what happened on set or how it affected him.

Today, O’Brien dances around the details of the accident and other issues he was dealing with at the time, but doesn’t shy away from discussing his inner conflict. “You know, it was a lot of personal things combined with at-a-point-in-my-career things,” he says after a brief pause. He says he’d have been going through some of this stuff anyway, simply because of his age, but it sounds as though success intensified it all. “It was like this whole fucking storm of shit,” he continues. “I was simultaneously so fulfilled and happy about these, like, otherworldly and surreal things that I had experienced in terms of where my career had brought me. I had all this confidence and fulfilment and beautiful people [in my life] – such amazing things to experience at a young age. But at the same time, there were a lot of things in my personal life that were unchecked and sort of neglected for a while.”

O’Brien says that in time, he realised he had to “stop for a second” and “re-explore how I wanted my life to look going forward”. In fairness, you can see why he needed a breather: his career took off while he was still a teenager. After his family moved from New Jersey to Los Angeles County when he was 12, O’Brien contemplated a career as a sports broadcaster – his Twitter bio still bills him as a “no longer suffering Mets fan” – then began posting YouTube videos as moviekidd826. A funny, slickly edited skit titled ‘How to Prepare for the SAT in 45 seconds’, shared when he was just 17, shows he was a born performer and storyteller. YouTube success led to him getting a manager, but his breakthrough role in Teen Wolf still came out of the blue. At the time, he was treading water at a local community college and taking auditions on the side.

Still, he has since taken a rather fatalistic view of this career-making moment. “It’s totally weird because, when I think about it now, I don’t see how it could have happened any other way. I can’t picture myself doing anything else now,” he told Collider in 2011. “It was really sudden and a little random, and not provoked by anything. It was just out of nowhere. It wasn’t my intentional doing.” Today, O’Brien summarises his skyscraper career trajectory succinctly. “I guess I just graduated high school and started acting,” he says. “And then I felt like I was just flying by the seat of my pants and never got a chance to stop.” Thankfully, straight-out-the-blocks Hollywood success hasn’t taken away his sense of perspective. When I say how easy social media makes it to compare yourself unfavourably to others, O’Brien jumps in: “Yeah, that’s very true. I was watching the Billie Eilish doc the other day, and I was like, I’ve done nothing. I’m not an artist at all!”

“No one thought ‘Love and Monsters’ was going to be good!”

O’Brien is also self-deprecating when he talks about being cast in Flashback, suggesting it happened because he had such an intense connection with Fred. “I was honestly like, ‘Who is watching me right now?’ That is the best way I can describe how I was feeling when I came across this script,” he says. “Chris [MacBride, director] and I had this conversation that went so well in terms of [my] understanding this script that I think he’d sent around a lot and [that] very commonly wasn’t understood. I think Chris has even said that the night before shooting, he suddenly had this thought, like, ‘Wait, do I even think he’s a good actor?'”

Though O’Brien has firmly ring-fenced elements of his private life, he’s actually pretty frank about his acting vehicles. He readily admits he was expecting a snobbish response to Love and Monsters, a CGI-heavy hybrid of post-apocalyptic action and romcom that dropped on Netflix in April and topped the streamer’s daily most-watched list. “It means so much that Love and Monsters has gotten the response that it’s gotten,” O’Brien says. “No one thought this movie was going to be good.” His blunt honesty makes me laugh out loud. “No one did though!” he says in response. “And so, fuck that. You know, most of the people who say something to me about the movie, they’re like: ‘I watched Love and Monsters, and it was… good?’ And honestly, that just cracks me up.” For obvious reasons, we hastily decide not to share our response to the film – namely, that it was a whole lot better than expected.

In Love and Monsters, O’Brien plays Joel, a survivor of a so-called “monsterpocalypse” that has bumped humans to the bottom of the food chain. Though he’s known in his colony as a bit of a coward, Joel sets off on a treacherous 80-mile journey to find his high school sweetheart Aimee (Iron Fist‘s Jessica Henwick), which means evading the hungry clutches of various supersize grizzlies including a giant monster-frog hiding in a suburban pond. It’s a simple but pretty out-there premise that wouldn’t work if O’Brien’s performance was even slightly condescending. Instead, his unselfconscious sincerity really sells a film that has as much in common with the family-oriented Robin Williams movie Night at the Museum as darker fare like The Walking Dead.

His obvious affection for the project really comes across during our interview today. “When I read the script, I just thought it was so sweet and funny and smart and unique, but at the same time reminiscent of all these movies that don’t really get made any more,” he says. That’s a fair point: Love and Monsters is neither a fail-safe superhero movie nor a slice of classy Oscar bait. “And when they were talking about how to market this movie, it was so funny hearing all these conversations like, ‘How do we actually get people to watch it?'” he adds. “But that’s a big part of the reason I wanted to do this movie: because it felt like something I missed seeing.”

“I’m lucky to be surrounded by people who want to make something out of love”

So in a way, Love and Monsters was a risk for an actor seeking to establish himself outside of a bankable movie franchise and a hit TV show. O’Brien has only made four films since his final Maze Runner outing in 2018, and insists he hasn’t been tactical with his choices. “I don’t have anyone saying, ‘We need to get you in an Oscar vehicle’, or any of that kind of shit,” he says. “I’m really lucky to be surrounded by people who think like me: that you should do what you’re drawn to, and make something out of love.”

He’s recently finished shooting a mysterious crime thriller called The Outfit in London with Mark Rylance. Directed and co-written by Graham Moore, who won an Oscar for his screenplay to Alan Turing biopic The Imitation Game, O’Brien calls it “quite possibly one of the most special pieces of writing I’ve ever experienced”. He first read the script on a plane and says he “actually stood up and clapped” when he got to the end. Considering O’Brien probably wasn’t flying Ryanair, this reaction presumably attracted a few baffled glances.

Anyway, it must be pretty intimidating walking onto set with Rylance, a multi-award-winning actor revered by his peers – Al Pacino once said he “speaks Shakespeare as if it was written for him the night before” – but it sounds as though O’Brien took it all in stride. He says he’s confident in his abilities, but admits to having a slight wobble whenever he begins a new project. “I’m always sort of re-questioning everything – like, ‘Can I even act?'” he says. “But I think there’s something very natural about that. I think even Rylance could relate to that feeling. Acting is like starting a new year at school every single time.”

At this point in his career, O’Brien has made peace with the fact that some people will have preconceptions about him based on what he’s known for: Maze Runner and Teen Wolf. “People will put you in a box no matter what,” he says. “There was definitely a time when that would get to me, especially when it felt like somebody had a perspective on me that in my soul, I just felt wasn’t accurate.” Still, there’s no doubt he wants to show us what’s really in his soul with more films like Flashback. “If anything,” he adds bullishly, “it just makes me think: ‘Right, I’m really gonna show them now’.”

‘Flashback’ is out on digital platforms from June 4

#dylan o'brien #love and monsters press #flashback press #the outfit press

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Here’s a story of encouragement for budding cultural critics: if you sell out, you can make millions of dollars by re-purposing your academic work for capitalist consumption. At least, that’s what BuzzFeed founder Jonah Peretti has done. Back in April, 2013, we discovered that Peretti published an article in college that critiqued cultural capitalism and the MTV generation by citing the work of Gilles Deleuze, Fredric Jameson and queer theory. “Identity formation is inextricably linked to the urge to consume,” Peretti wrote, “and therefore the acceleration of capitalism necessitates an increase in the rate at which individuals assume and shed identities. The internet is one of many late capitalist phenomena that allow for more flexible, rapid, and profitable mechanisms of identity formation.” The piece, entitled “Capitalism and Schizophrenia,” later notes that the “rapid fire succession of signifiers” erodes a sense of temporal continuity, before going on to argue that advertisement “must provoke an ego formation that makes the product integral to the viewer’s identity.” While Peretti was writing then, in the 1990s, about MTV, it might as well have been about BuzzFeed. The viral site which employs GIFs, listicles and quizzes to rope in readers boasted 130 million unique readers last November. Journalist Dylan Matthews reached out to Peretti after having also discovered the academic treatise. His answer was as amusing as it was evasive. Peretti, it seems, has also read up on Barthes. Matthews, writing for Vox, also argues that Marxist theory seems to be heavily entangled with the Buzzfeed model. “Capitalism, Peretti concluded, needs to be constantly producing identities for peoples if the system is to survive,” Matthews writes. “And ten years later, he built a factory to fill that precise need. Matthews later reached out to Peretti to ask if he felt that Buzzfeed embodies the principles outlined in Peretti’s “Capitalism and Schizophrenia.” Peretti simply responded “lol.” It will be interesting to see how the conservative blogosphere will react. Will BuzzFeed join the ranks of Harry Potter and Hollywood as part of the larger liberal conspiracy to destroy America? Read Peretti’s original article here. Or, enjoy this real quote from Peretti’s article super-imposed on grumpy cat. This post is free. Most are not. Subscribe now. Let’s start with one of my favorite random internet facts: Jonah Peretti, one of the original founders of BuzzFeed, wrote a paper that foretold the site’s entire business model, and the business model of much of the internet. In 1996, as an undergrad at UC Santa Cruz, Peretti submitted a journal article titled Capitalism and Schizophrenia: Contemporary Visual Culture and The Acceleration of Identity Formation and Dissolution. In the paper, Peretti wrote that capitalism would need to create an ever-growing number of micro-identities for people to fit themselves into, so that those identities could be commodified and marketed to. It’s a really interesting and well-argued paper, in which Peretti summarizes and critiques Deleuze and Guattari’s Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, and delves into psychoanalytic theory and its relationship to consumer society. Summarizing Deleuze and Guattari, Peretti writes that capitalism breaks down codes, rules and social desires, scrambling the code of human behavior and the human mind so that it can replace these necessities with its own rules, codes and desires. “As capitalism decodes and deterritorializes it reaches a limit at which point it must artificially reterritorialize by augmenting the state apparatus,” Peretti writes. In other words, capitalism must give us things to make sense of the world because capitalism has taken all our inherent internalized senses of self and community away. In our modern era, this deterritorializing and reterritorializing happens at a rapid clip: we are asked to identify and deidentify within hours, minutes, or seconds. On TV, “the viewer is encouraged to identify with cops, thieves, surfers, businessmen, princes, paupers,

housewives, and athletes, to name but a few. Indeed, on MTV all of these characters may make an appearance in the course of a two minute video. Newspapers, movies, billboards, and video games also offer a stunning array of images. Not only does each of these mediums contain a surprisingly varied image-repertoire, but a late capitalist subject may encounter all of these mediums in a single day.” Peretti writes that we are constantly being scrambled, deidentified and made to feel isolated, and thus better subjects to be sold new identities and new relations. “In Lacanian terms, consumer capitalism needs subjects who continually reenact the infantile drama of mirror stage identifications,” Peretti writes. “These subjects must oscillate quickly between schizophrenic consciousness and idealized ego formations....Put differently, capitalism needs schizophrenia, but it also needs egos. The contradiction is resolved through the acceleration of the temporal rhythm of late capitalist visual culture.” In other words, the more capitalism wants us to feel scrambled so that we are isolated, automatonized, and susceptible to replacing our own needs with the needs of capital, the more quickly capitalism needs to sell us an ever-wider array of identities to feel secure and logical within. That Peretti wrote this, and then went on to form BuzzFeed, the company most associated with the rapid-production, hollow-identity-politics media that we’ve come to consider a normal part of internet culture, is almost too on-the-nose. It’s not unexpected that Peretti, or any other capitalist, would take these lessons from philosophers and turn them into profitable machines of identity breakdown and formation. What is more surprising (at least to me) is that we’ve not only accepted this status quo, but now argue in its favor amongst ourselves as if this selling and enforcing of micro-identity is somehow inherent to our own minds and bodies and social relations, and even worse, somehow morally right. The internet is filled today with people defending their micro-identities. We yell at each other all day on Twitter about whether any given sexual, psychological, or gender-related identity is valid. It’s not only expected to have a plethora of micro-identities you are willing to defend to the death now, it’s woke.

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#Capitalism and Schizophrenia #Jonah Peretti #Edward Bernays #Giles Deleuze #Felix Guattari #Capitalism #Postmodernism #Late stage capitalism #Buzzfeed #Ego formation #Jacques Lacan #Mirror stage