#jazz songs could last 6

[eddiesxangel]

Take Me to the Lakes | E.M x f!reader ~ 1/6

AN: Hello! This is a very overdue, completely revised version of one of the first Eddie fics I ever wrote. Hopefully I fixed all of the issues and things I didn’t like. Fingers crossed I didn’t miss anything… hope you enjoy!!

Master list

Summery: This summer was suppose to be the summer to work at your favourite place in the world with your best friend. But things take a turn when it isn’t your best friend you end up working with.

CW: camp AU, counsellor!eddie x f!camp counsellor reader, popular!reader, 18+ content, drinking, weed consumption, angst, eventual smut, fluff, reader and Eddie are in their 20’s. Part 1/?

wc: 13.4k

Finally, your last freshman year of college exam was behind you. Summer was at your fingertips, and you couldn't wait to get it started. Summer was when you could escape the pressures of college life and the expectations of the people in your hometown of Hawkins. Growing up, you were incredibly popular. You were on the student council, a competitive dancer and co-captain of the cheer team in high school. Dancing was your passion; you enjoyed all styles, from jazz and contemporary to ballet and hip-hop. Cheerleading was also important to you; you made the team in your first year of high school. Although you never set out to become part of the popular crowd, your involvement in these extracurricular activities naturally led you to that status.

“Hey! Wait up!” You turn and see your best friend Ashley running towards you as you exit the university campus doors. “I can’t believe you’re trying to sneak out on me before you’re gone for the whole summer!” She exasperated. “It’s not my fault you didn’t send your resume in time! I put a good word for you and everything.” You huffed back with an eye roll. You and Ashely were supposed to work at the sleepover camp where you’ve been a counsellor for the past two summers. Yet Ashley conveniently forgot to submit her application in time.

When you started working at Camp Murdock, nobody knew who you were. It was a fresh start, a clean slate. The camp is located about four hours north of your hometown, and people from all over come to work there for two months during the summer season. Maybe it was the natural surroundings, but you broke out of your shell during your first summer there.

You were no longer labelled as the prude-popular-teacher’s pet cheerleader; you were just you, the loud, outgoing, funny, and goofy camp counsellor. The campers loved learning silly dances to camp songs with you, and you truly felt like yourself at that camp. This summer, you were looking forward to spending time with Ashley, the one person from back home with whom you feel comfortable being yourself. Unlike yourself, Ashley is a confident and independent girl who never adhered to societal norms or cared much about what others thought of her. She was always the one to speak her mind, dress the way she wanted, and hang out with whomever she pleased. Her free-spirited nature and carefree attitude were a breath of fresh air for you, especially since you've always worried about fitting in and what others thought of you. You had hoped that this summer, you could let your guard down and be yourself, only this time with your partner in crime.

You and Ashley were like two individuals from different worlds. While you were more inclined towards mainstream activities, Ashley had a unique taste in hobbies and interests. She was a passionate photographer who loved capturing the world through her lens. Ashley was also a big fan of the Dungeons and Dragons fantasy game and punk music, and she didn't care much about conforming to social norms. Then there was Ashley's style. She was equally distinctive and rebellious. She had short hair, which was always styled in an edgy way. She loved to wear dark, smokey makeup with lots of eyeliner, which matched her punk-inspired wardrobe. She often wore baggy flannel shirts, big jeans and combat boots – a look very different from your own.

Walking together, you two were like a study in contrasts. You attracted many curious glances from the people around you, especially freshmen not used to seeing such different styles. However, over time, people got used to your strikingly different looks and learned to appreciate the uniqueness of your friendship.

“Ash, why couldn’t you submit your application on time?!” You groan as someone catches your eye, walking out of the parking lot.

Him. The guy you’ve been crushing on since the tenth grade. The upper-class man who was supposed to graduate the year you discovered who he was but was held back a few years. When he finally graduated, you saw him around town occasionally, but now you watched as he exited the corner store across the street from the school.

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me; you couldn’t have—” she cut herself off, noticing you were practically drooling at who caught your eye. “You know you could just talk to him? I always talk you up when we play DND.” she raises her brow. “And say what? Hi Eddie, I’ve been in love with you for three years now. Would you please go out with me?” Ash rolls her eyes in response. “Babe, you know you’re one of the most popular girls in Hawkins. You can have any guy you want! You need to try. Start with a ‘hello,” she said, pushing your shoulder toward his van. “Ashley Joanna Thompson, stop!”Just because you’ll never have boy problems…” you frown at her. “You’re right. I only have girl problems. Men are simple creatures, ” she states as a matter of fact. You once again roll your eyes and glance over one more time in Eddie’s direction, seeing him light up a cigarette as he drives off the lot, blasting his heavy metal. You sigh as you get into your car and drive you and Ashley back to your shared apartment.

After returning home, you took a moment to relax and celebrate your successful day with a refreshing drink. You then continued to pack your duffle bag, carefully considering which items you would need for your upcoming trip. As you packed your last-minute essentials into the bag, you couldn't help but feel a sense of nostalgia and sadness thinking about Eddie Munson. You remembered the brief encounter with him in the parking lot and realized that this would be the last time you would see him for the rest of the summer.

As the clock strikes 10:00 pm, you try to calm yourself and get some rest for the long trip tomorrow. However, your mind is preoccupied with thoughts of Eddie, and you can't seem to shake this crush off your mind. You've only had the chance to speak to him three times, and they were all brief and awkward "Heys" when you picked up Ash from the DND club. Despite the limited interactions, you find yourself constantly thinking about him and wondering what it would be like to get to know him better. The more you try to push him out of your mind, the more persistent the thoughts become, making it difficult to focus on anything else. You wonder if it's just a fleeting crush or if there could be something more to it.

When you settle into bed, you let your mind drift off to when you first saw him…. As you made your way through the labyrinthine halls of the school, your mind was preoccupied with the task of finding the drama room. You had promised Ashley that you would pick her up after cheer practice and didn't want to be late. After a few twists and turns, you finally saw the door you sought. Glancing at your watch, you realized you were already 15 minutes behind schedule, thanks to the practice running over its allotted time. Without hesitation, you reached for the door handle and pushed it open. “Hey Ash, I'm so sorry I’m late! Practice—“You stop dead, looking at the group of eyes staring up at you. Your cheeks burned, and you felt embarrassed when you realized they weren’t done yet and had interrupted. “Oh, I’m so sorry. I thought I was late.” Giving Ash a knowing look to say, “Help me.” “It’s ok, babe. We will be done in 15 minutes. Right guys?” She looks around at the rest of the club to confirm; your eyes watch each face to ensure they all nod. “Sit with me,” she smiles. You walk around the group of guys, plus Ashley, smiling meekly as they all stare with mouths open but one. As you saunter towards Ash, you notice all eyes follow your every move. When your gaze meets his, you feel a sudden and unexpected surge of fluttering in your stomach. His eyes are big, beautiful, and the colour of warm chocolate. They exude a softness and warmth that make you feel safe and secure.

His hair is longer than any other guy's at school. It falls in soft waves around his face, giving him an air of mystery and intrigue. You can't help but wonder what it would feel like to run your fingers through it. You notice the leather belt he's wearing, with handcuffs as the buckle. It's both alluring and dangerous at the same time.

His shirt is cut off at the elbow, revealing his forearm tattoos. On his upper arm, you see a group of bats, their wings spread wide as if ready to take flight. But it's the tattoo on his inside forearm that really catches your attention. It's a marionette puppet of a monster, but it was being controlled by a hand. It’s a strange and eerie tattoo, but it only adds to his mystique.

“What’s with pompoms?” One of the other guys asks, jerking you out of your trance. “Don’t be such a jerk, Jered. This is my best friend,” Ashley scowls back. Suddenly, you’re very self-conscious about the cheer practice uniform you had on. “I’m sorry to interrupt again; please continue.” You squeak, trying to keep the peace. The group of them roll their eyes, all but him.

You basically run out of there as soon as Ash is finished. “Who was that?!” You nod your head in his direction as you watch the group if them walk away. “Who? Eddie? He’s our Dungeon Master. He's really theatrical, and he makes you picture the scene,” she laughs. “Eddie,” You sigh. “Oh no, you’re joking, right? You’re a cheerleader, and you’re telling me Eddie Munson is your type?” she almost yells while they’re still in earshot. Clasping your hand over her mouth, you look at Eddie, hoping he didn’t hear anything. “Would you shut up? Why don’t you announce it to the whole town?” You spit through your teeth. “Besides, he didn’t even look at me. I’m some scrawny 10th grander. I’m probably not even his type! You see his tattoos, leather, and chains… he’s probably into rocker chics, and he’s what?” “12th grade,” she confirms, and you groan. “I’ll put in a good word,” she teased. “Would you?” You bite my fingers, giving her the best puppy eyes. “You owe me.” She rolled her eyes.

That was three years ago, and Ashley's “good word” clearly wasn’t doing anything. So you roll over in bed and finally doze off.

—

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

Your alarm clock jolts you awake, and as you groggily reach over to turn it off, you notice the bright red digits displaying 6:30 am. Your first summer day has finally arrived, but you don't get to savour it with a lazy morning. You stretch your arms and rub the sleep out of your eyes while taking a moment to appreciate the soft light filtering through your window.

As you start your day, you decide to wear your favourite camp clothes—a pair of well-worn jean shorts and last year's Camp Murdock heather grey tank top. Camp Murdock is printed in green to match the forest-green spaghetti straps. You slip on your trusty white Keds and take a moment to admire how perfectly the outfit fits you in the mirror.

Before saying goodbye to Ashley, you pack your food and prepare yourself for the long journey ahead. You have four hours of driving before you reach the camp, but you can't wait to get there. The day is filled with excitement, counsellor bonding, and cabin preparation - all in preparation for the campers' arrival in three days.

As you hit the road, you let your mind wander, thinking about all the camp activities you'll enjoy. The warm sun streams through the car window, and you can feel the anticipation building up inside you. You know the journey ahead won't be quick, but you're ready. You take a deep breath and let the adventure begin. The sweet smell of the nearby lake is in the air, adding to the excitement of being up north. It's so strong that you can almost taste the cool, refreshing water on your tongue. You can't help but feel excited as you imagine the adventures that await you at Camp Murdock.

The camp is 20 minutes from the main road, providing a sense of seclusion from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. As you inch closer, the aroma of the surrounding Birch trees fills your senses, as does the sweet scent of freshly cut grass and wildflowers. After an arduous 4.5-hour journey, you finally arrive at Camp Murdock.

Your blissful thoughts were rudely interrupted by a big van cutting in front of you, nearly hitting your front bumper. “Asshole!” You yell out the window while giving the finger. The driver gave a mocking wave as they sped off. This road only goes to one place. You’ll give them a piece of your mind. Minutes later, you arrive and pull up beside the van that had cut you off. You slammed the door as you exited your small red Ford sedan, still feeling furious. This was definitely not how you wanted to start your day. As you huffed and puffed, you noticed the van looked familiar… but no, it couldn't be the same. It was different; it had to be.

You look around the parking lot and notice other cars from past employees, but you don’t see anyone yet. You feel a small butterfly in your stomach, thinking, what if it is the van you think it is? As you take a moment to absorb your surroundings, you notice the quaint cabins, the inviting mess hall, and the mesmerizing beauty of the lake. You can't help but feel a sense of peace and tranquillity as you stand in your happy place.

The gentle waves of the lake, the rustling of the trees, and the chirping of the birds create a serene atmosphere you never want to leave. Every time you come here, you feel refreshed and renewed, ready to face whatever life throws.

“Bambi! you made it!” You whip my head around to see Robin, your best camp friend, whom you’ve worked with for the past two summers. Every year, counsellors are assigned nicknames a few days before the kids come. “Birdie!” You embrace her in a big hug, forgetting about the van and the possibility of who it belongs to. “How are you?! How did you get hotter? I didn’t think that was possible. Come, everyone’s already here! And you have to meet the newbies.” She smiles. You leave your belongings in the car and rush to the mess hall with all the other staff. “So, see any cuties so far?” You jokingly giggle. “Oh, just you wait,” she blushes, making her cheeks the same shade of pink as her tank top. Glancing around, you see our other alumni. “Hey, guys!” You wave enthusiastically. Your best camp friends, Steve, a.k.a. Moose, Nancy, a.k.a. Scout, and Billy, a.k.a. Coyote. They all embrace you in welcome hugs, and you cannot wait to catch up.

You stood scanning the vast wooden mess hall, taking in the rustic ambiance of the place. As you gazed down the rows of brightly coloured picnic tables, a sense of excitement and anticipation began to build up inside you. You were looking for new faces, hoping to meet someone interesting. But deep down, you knew that there was one particular face you were subconsciously seeking out - one that held a special place in your heart.

As you walk around up to greet more of your fellow coworkers, the memory of the van still lingers in the back of your mind. You can't shake off the ‘what if’ feeling you've been carrying since you saw it earlier. You try to push it to the back of your mind and focus on the task at hand—socializing with your colleagues.

As you make your rounds, exchanging pleasantries with familiar faces, your eyes quickly dart across the room. Out of the corner of your eye, you see a figure — a guy with long, curly brown hair dressed in all black. He seems to be in a hurry and is quickly exiting the building from the opposite side of the room.

You can't help but wonder who and what he's up to. You try to catch another glimpse of him, but he's already gone. Curiosity catches up to you, and you excuse yourself from the conversation. You ungracefully maneuver your way through the sea of people, weaving in and out of the throngs until you finally reach the red saloon doors to exit the mess hall. Taking a moment to pause and assess your surroundings, you are struck by the lake's serene beauty. The water is calm and placid; you know it will no longer remain this still for the next three months. The sun shines brightly overhead, casting a brilliant glow across the water's surface. The light is so intense that it almost blinds you, but you can't help but be awed by the breathtaking view before you. You quickly look over to the cabins and see no one. Then, looking to the left, you can see the sports field, not a soul. Where could they have gone? You think. “Bambi, where did you go?” You hear Coyote, a.k.a Billy, behind you. “I thought I saw someone… guess not.” You shrugged. “Don’t worry, you’ll meet everyone. We’re about to start introductions by the pit.” He smiles. “Ok, let’s get going!” You jump onto his back, and he piggybacks you to the fire pit. You met Billy last summer, and he became a very close friend. He and Steve were your go-to guys for anything.

As you and Billy approach the fire pit to greet the other counsellors, you can hear them chatting and catching up before sitting on the bleacher benches around the pit. “OKAY, CAMP, MURDOCK STAFF, TAKE A SEAT AND LISTEN UP!” The camp director, Carol’s voice echoed from the megaphone. You all listen, and you sit between Billy and Robin. “All right, councillors and staff. Let's review some ground rules before we get to the good stuff.” It's good to know Carol’s megaphone still works. “I know some of you are vets here at Camp Murdock, but we have some new faces, so we need a refresher.” You watch Steve roll his eyes as he sits across from you, and you stifle a giggle. Carol continues, “Basic ground rules: Staff are not to be out of their cabins after 11:30 pm, and staff are not to be in the lake alone or unsupervised by another staff member. Staff are NOT allowed to have a romantic or physical relationship with a camper... That said, staff can be with each other if it is consensual, just not during camp hours.” Carol’s eyes graze the crowd as the groans for the guys all come out in sync. This was not a new rule per se, but it was heavily enforced. Last year, Angela and Connor were caught making out in the barn while they were supposed to be on field duty, and both were fired on the spot. “We, here at Camp Murdock, value the experience of the campers and our staff; we know you want to have fun, and you can do whatever you like after camp hours, as long as it’s legal.” That got some giggles from the crowd. The staff were known to sneak in alcohol and pot from time to time on your off days between camper rotations or just in the evenings to blow off some steam. “What are camp hours? I’m so happy you asked! Breakfast is 8:00 am to Bonfire at 8:30 pm. Campers are in cabins by 9:25 pm. That allows councillors to do what they like before we all have to be in our cabins by 11:30 pm on the dot! Do I make myself clear?” Again, her gaze scans the crowd of young adults in front of her, and you see the crowd nod simultaneously. “Good,” she sighs. “Now, Each cabin will be assigned a bit differently this year. Four councillors per staff cabin instead of our usual 6, and camper cabins will be assigned with 2 councillors for 8 campers. Our ages of campers this year remain the same, eight to sixteen years of age. All cabins will be assigned randomly, and you cannot ask to switch with someone… I will assign that later, before the campers arrive, so you and your partner can set up the cabins as you see fit. Next onto the good stuff!” Carol explained the games and how she would divide the staff into six teams.

Those who had attended the event knew that having Steve and you on their team guaranteed victory. Due to your petite stature, you were small enough to blend in and navigate through the trees without being detected, while Moose, a.k.a. Steve, was the fastest kid in the state for three consecutive years. Together, the two of you were an unbeatable team.

“ALRIGHT, LISTEN UP!” Carol’s voice booms in the megaphone again. “Listen for your names to be called! First, we have the Green team…" your name is not called, “and Next is Purple…” still not called. “Okay, Red Team…” still nothing. “Fourth up, we have the Yellow team…” you hadn’t heard your name yet… “Ok Blue… Edward Munson…” At first, you don't realize it because no one at home calls him Edward, but then you lift your head abruptly when it hits you. Your eyes darted back and forth, scanning the area for a man whose name had been called.

Finally, you spotted him descending the bleachers two rows behind you. He had his brown curls tied back in a low bun, wearing a Black Sabbath shirt with the sleeves cut off, revealing his muscular arms, and his signature black skinny jeans hugged his lean legs. A cigarette dangled from his lips, adding to his rugged, rebellious appearance. You watched, transfixed, as he made his way down towards Carol. He flashed her his charming smile as he approached her and accepted his new counsellor shirt. “Edward, no smoking.” She grabs the cigarette from his mouth and puts it out with her foot. “Whatever you say, boss lady,” he smirks at her and walks to the rest of his team. You looked over to Robin, who was being called next, “Oh my god, it’s him!” You half-whisper to her as she gets up. “What?” she looks confused. “Robin Buckley,” you hear Carol call again. “From school! That’s the guy I’ve been talking to you about since last summer!” You glance in his direction. She smiled and wiggled her eyebrows as she went down so Carol would never call her again. “Miss. Buckley,” for the third time, sounding irritated. “Sorry Carol, I’m coming!” she grabbed her shirt and smiled. “OK! Last, we have the Pink team… Rebecca Dawson, Jason Adams, Connie Tilbury, Christopher Jenkins, Ashton Richards, and last but not least, Y/N.” She smiles, finishing the roll call. As you get up and walk over to Carol to collect your camp shirt, you look over to see if Eddie hears your name being called. As you stare over, he doesn’t even glance. He is too busy listening to Robin talking his ear off, pointing in your direction while standing next to Steve and the others on the Blue team.

As the day progressed, you took a lunch break and caught up with Steve and Robin in the line for food.

“That new guy is pretty badass,” Steve exclaims. “Oh, Bambi would know.” Robin winked. Your cheeks suddenly felt flush. “What am I missing?” Steve looks between the two of you. “Bambi looooooves him.” Robin smiles. “Bird, remember how we talked about you sharing too much? You’re doing it again,” you said in a singing voice to avoid sounding mean. However, your face was a dead giveaway as Steve looked down at you. “Edward? That guy is your type?” His voice was loud a little too loud “Would you shut up? Announce it to the whole camp, why don’t you?” You huffed. “No wonder Billy couldn’t get in your pants last summer,” he said half under his breath. “Hey!” you smack his chest with your empty cafeteria tray.

"Jeez Bambi, chill!" Steve defends himself.

“Coyote is just a friend, and there is no way he flirted with me last summer?” You watch, and Robin and Steve look at each other and then back at you, shaking their heads like you’re the crazy one.

“So tell us more about this, Edward.” Steve raises his eyebrows. “He likes being called Eddie.” You mumbled. You didn't enjoy discussing school and home when you were here. This was your escape, but Steve was a trusted friend. “He’s two years older, and he’s really good friends with Ashley. You know, my best friend from home? and I don’t know; I’ve had a big fat crush on him since the tenth grade.” “Billy’s not going to like this; he has competition.” Steve laughed. “No, he doesn’t because I don’t like Billy like that; now I’m not sure I even like him anymore, knowing he was only trying to sleep with me last summer.” You crossed my arms.

As you were about to continue, Billy and Nancy joined the group, and the subject changed. After finishing lunch and the last two activities, we were all called to the sports field to split into our capture-the-flag teams.

“ALRIGHT PEOPLE, LISTEN UP!” The megaphone was more ear-piercing than ever. “Remind me to bury that thing tomorrow.” You hear Eddie mumble to Steve, and you cannot help but giggle. “The teams will consist of Yellow, Red and Green as one and Blue, Pink, and Purple as the next team. However! I will split up Steve and Y/N to make things an even playing field this year.” Your head whips to Steve, and he mimics you before you both yell, “WHAT?!” in unison. “Common Carol, that’s so not fair!” Steve yells out. “Too bad, Moose. You’ll be with the Yellow, Red, and Green side this year; it's the final decision.” Your shoulders sink with disappointment as you watch Steve walk to the other team, cheering and greeting him with open arms. “Alright, I’ll give you 20 minutes to strategize, hide your flag, and devise a game plan. We meet back here at 3:00 p.m. on the dot!” She blows her whistle, and you move to our headquarters, the lifejacket shed. The group moves as one, and you notice who else is on the team. Birdie, Scout, and, most importantly, Eddie. The rest of your friends move to the front, taking on team captain rolls, while you linger behind, trying to summon the courage to speak to Eddie. This was your chance to get friendly; the universe gave you an opportunity, and you had to seize it.

Eddie lingered at the back of the group, and you slowed down just enough, pretending to tie your shoe so he could catch up with you.

“Hey, Eddie.” You smile at him. Eddie looked at you curiously and was a little caught off guard as if he wasn’t expecting anyone to talk to him. “Oh, uh, hi.” He was curious as to how you knew his name. “I didn’t think I would see you here this summer.” You giggle. “Uhh… yea…?” Eddie had no idea who you were, but he did know one thing: you sure were pretty.

Your facial expression betrays you as you attempt to force a smile, revealing the true emotions bubbling beneath the surface. He didn’t know who you were. You are only with Ashley twenty-four-seven back at home, attached at the hip, and he still has no clue. You feel a rush of heat creeping up your neck and spreading to your cheeks, a tell-tale sign of embarrassment. So you choose to give a slight nod, try to laugh it off and turn back so you can catch up to Robin and Nancy.

How could you be so stupid to think he would know who you are?! Of course, he wouldn’t know. He doesn’t care about cheerleading, pep rallies, or anything else. You reach up to touch the messy bun atop your head and yank out the white scrunchy so you can hide behind your hair, trying to make yourself feel better. As you catch up with your friends, they can see on your face that something is up.

“Oh, don’t get too upset. Bambi, we can still beat them even if Moose was forced to abandon us this year.” Nancy encourages, oblivious to the real reason as to why you’re flustered. “We saw you talking to him; how’d it go?!” Robin smiled. “I’m such an embarrassment; he didn’t even know who I was.” You bury your face in your hands. “I thought you said he’s mutual friends with your BFF,” Nancy, always the observant one, asked. “Ugh, he is! That’s why I’m so embarrassed.” You let out a groan and gazed up at the clear, blue sky. “I’m sure if you reminded him that you are friends with Ashley, he would remember?” Nancy reassured you. “I don’t want to talk about it. Let’s focus on the game." You and the girls round up the team. “Ok, we take this game very seriously here at Camp Murdock.” Nancy huddles you in. “We can still win this thing because Bambi is our secret weapon. Bambi wave so everyone knows who you are.” She smiles. You put on a fake smile and wave at everyone, avoiding one person’s set of eyes in particular. Robin then takes over, “I say we make a diversion. Everyone splits up into two, throwing off the other team. Scout and I will stand guard for our flag.” She points to herself and Nancy. “Now we need someone really fast,” you chime in. No one raises their hand but one. Oh god. “Okay, Edward, you and Bambi will be together, and we will use the same strategy she and Steve used last year.” “She can fill you in. The rest will be split into pairs, and we will point you where to go,” she finishes. “Uh, you can call me Eddie; no one calls me Edward.” He politely corrects.

After the instructions, Eddie makes his way over to your side of the huddle while the rest group off to their side on their own. You're going to kill your friends. They know what they’re doing… “Hey, Bambi? Right?” he smiles. “Uh, um. Yeah, obviously not my real name… but Bambi is fine.” Your mouth was dry, and you felt you had forgotten how to speak. “Sorry about earlier. It’s, um, you look familiar, but I’m not sure where I have seen you before… ” He scratches the back of his head, his bicep flexing as he reaches up, and you can’t help but gawk at him. “Yea!” You say a little too enthusiastically. “I’m y/n, you know…Ash’s best friend…” Suddenly it clicks, and you can see the realization in his eyes. How could he have not known? Maybe its because you’re in your natural state. You have no makeup on, and your hair isn’t all done up either. “I guess I’m not used to seeing you out of your cheer uniform or attached at the hip with Ash,” he chuckles. “So, what are you doing here anyway? I didn’t think anyone else from home would show up here.” You ask. “Well, you know, I had my side business as a dealer at school… that got me by, but after my little run-in with chief Jim Hopper a few weeks back, I decided to take a break for the summer, lay low.” He smirked as you listened. “ I thought Ash would also be working here this summer since she wouldn’t stop talking about it in Hellfire, which gave me the idea. I thought it couldn’t be that hard looking after the little twerps, it’s good money.” “Yea, she really screwed me over with that one,” You scoffed. “Same… we should get her back.” He smirks. “Yeah, totally.” “So, Bambi, huh?” He raises a brow. “Oh yeah, it’s um, just a camp thing. Don’t worry you’ll get an assigned nickname soon enough.”

A moment of more awkward silence fills the air before Eddie decides to speak again. “So, what is the master plan everyone talked about back there?” He asks. “Oh umm, uh, so, usually, uh, what happens, is um, that because I’m um smaller, I uh, hide in the tree line once one of the… uh, other team members finds where the flags are hidden, I sneak off to grab it, and then uh, I’d pass it off Moose—Steve, who’s like the fastest kid in the state, but he’s not here so I’ll be passing it to you and all you have to do is to our zone then we win.” You catch your breath. You’re totally rambling and sounding like an idiot. Why can’t you speak in front of him? “Oh…ok, sounds good.” he looks confused, like he is trying to process the jumble of words that fell out of your mouth, but he gives a reassuring smile. When he looks at you like that, your legs feel like Jello, your heart feels like it will fall into your stomach, and you hardly look him in the eyes. His smile is soft and tender compared to his rough and tough exterior.

So far, things seem to be going according to plan. You both have taken cover behind a fallen tree that has become a makeshift shelter. The tree is old and decaying, and the bark peels off in places. The silence between you and Eddie is palpable, and you can feel the tension building up. You want to break the silence and talk to him, but every time you try, your words get stuck in your throat. You can't help but feel slightly envious of Eddie's calm demeanour, which contrasts sharply with your nervousness. You wish you could be as composed as him, but your mind is racing a mile a minute. The longest ten minutes pass, and finally, you can see Robin running towards the two of you. Thank God. “Ok, the flag is by the infirmary; we just need to distract them.” You walked closely behind Robin as you both made your way through the field, with tall grass tickling your ankles as you walked. You could see the lake's shimmering waters in the distance, and the sounds of laughter and chatter from the mess hall carried towards you on the gentle breeze.

Despite the distance, Robin seemed to know exactly where she was going, her steps confident and sure. You walked closely behind Robin as you both made your way through the field, with tall grass tickling your ankles as you walked. You could see the lake's shimmering waters in the distance, and the sounds of laughter and chatter from the mess hall carried towards you on the gentle breeze.

As you walked, you couldn't help but wonder if Eddie was really as fast as he claimed. After all, if he weren't, it would be quite a defeat. In all your years at school with him, you’d never seen him doing anything physical. He was more of the theatrical, misunderstood musician type. “I hope you’re not lying about being fast.” You whisper to him, not thinking about anything else but the game. “What the freak can’t be quick?” He scoffs. “That’s not what I—” “There it is!” Robin cuts you off, but you can’t help but think about what Eddie said…Freak.

The thing about Eddie Munson is that he stood out from the crowd. He was unlike anyone you had ever met. He had a unique personality that not everyone could comprehend. He was always edgy and outspoken, and he never cared about the status quo. One day, during lunchtime, he even stood on the cafeteria table and screamed at one of the basketball players sitting at your table. It was a shocking event that left everyone in the cafeteria stunned.

However, despite his eccentricities, you always admired Eddie's courage to be himself. You didn't like how everyone at school called him a freak, and you always tried to defend him. You stood up for him whenever your so-called friends made fun of him, but they never listened to you. They would mock you for "sympathizing with the freak," and it made you feel isolated.

Despite all of this, you never gave up on Eddie… your attraction to him was too strong. You always knew that he was a kind and genuine person, and you appreciated his unique perspective on life. You hoped that one day, others would see him for who he truly was and accept him for his differences.

The neon yellow flag was posted beside the infirmary door, and you could see the guards on the lookout. Ashton was rounding the corner, and Robin approached the other side as a decoy. “Follow me,” you whisper to Eddie. You could feel his gaze on your back, burning a hole through the thin material of your shirt. “On the count of three, I’ll run over, grab it and bring it back here for you. One… two… three.” You scurry as fast as your legs can take you. You grabbed it easily, but getting back was the hard part. On the way back, you made sure to hide behind objects, making sure the coast was clear until you heard a “Hey!” Steve’s voice came from behind you, and you ran. “Eddie here!” You yell to get his attention. You should have worn your sports bra today. The straps of your tank top and bra are slipping down your shoulders. You totally forgot that you would be doing this when you got dressed this morning.

As you rush towards Eddie, you notice his eyes widen as he watched you run towards him. You hand him the flag, and he takes it from you, holding it tightly in his hands. You can tell that he is not sure what to do as he stares at you, unable to move. You watch him for a moment as he continues to gaze down at you, his wide eyes focused on your chest. “What are you doing? Go!” You give him a little shove, taking him out of his trance, and then he runs like you have never seen anyone run in your life. The guy was right; he was fast.

You can hear cheering from across the field as you try to keep up with him while running away from Steve, trying not to get tagged. “Eddie, run! He’s coming!” You yell to warn him and he looks back. His long hair getting in his eyes, but he can still see Steve on his tail. “Come on, Eddie, you can do it!” You cheer, hoping he can still hear you. You watch as he touches the team's safety zone! You did it! Your team won! “Sorry, Moosey, maybe next year.” You give him a mock pout as he bends over to catch his breath. “Congrats to the winning team!” Carol cheers. “Now you can make your way to the pit. I’ll give you your cabins, and you can set them up.”

“Hey, you were right. You are fast.” You hear Becca say as the group of you return to the pit. She batted her eyes and smiled at him. Was she flirting with him? The pit of jealousy that was forming felt like a rock in your stomach. You could not let this happen, so you marched over to them. “Hey, we make a pretty good team.” Bumping Becca out of your way. “Hey, yeah, we do.” Eddie spoke and you noticed the glint in his eye when he raised his hand for a high five. A playful smile tugged at the corners of his lips, inviting you to join in on the fun. You mirrored his action, raising your own hand to meet his. When both of your palms touched, a jolt of electricity ran through your body, making your heart skip a beat. You couldn't help but smile back at him as he beamed with delight. “I liked having you cheer for me; I finally get why those jocks have you around all the time.” He smirked, and your cheeks burned once again… maybe you can blame it on the sun. “Oh,” you giggled. Thanks…Um, you know, I don’t like it when you say you’re a freak…” The end of your sentence was hardly a whisper. “Oh, well, it was your friends who started it.” You wince at his words. You hate who he thinks you are, and it is all your fault for letting him believe that you are just like the rest of them. “I ask them not to, but they never listen.” You tuck your messy hair behind your ear. “Don’t worry, Princess. You don’t have to worry about that high school bullshit anymore. “Princess?” You scoff. “Well, you were the Princess of Hawkins High.” He says it is a matter of fact. “No, wasn't, you know nothing about me,” “Woah, sorry, didn’t mean to offend you.” he raised his hands in defence. “What’s going on?” Billy, out of all people, comes running up. “Nothing,” you say simultaneously. “Back off, man.” Billy was getting in Eddie’s face. Why was he acting so weird? “What the hell, Billy? Get away from him.” You tried to shove him, but Billy was a foot taller than you and much stronger. “Look, man, nothing happened.” Eddie backed away. “I’ll see you around, Princess.” He winked and walked off to the pit with everyone else. “That guy is-” “Billy, not now.” You huff, trying to walk away. “Come on, Bambi, what’s going on…” “Nothing, let’s get going.” You pull on his arm to get to the pit.

Eddie never meant to hurt your feelings or make you uncomfortable, but he couldn’t help himself; there was just something about you that he couldn’t resist egging you on. You were so cute when your face would scrunch up and think you looked all mean and scary, but in reality, he could compare you to the mouse from Tom and Jerry. His need to push your buttons was strong. Your perfect, cute, irresistible buttons. Eddie had an urge and wanted to see how far he could go. From the moment you first got flustered, he enjoyed it; he liked making you flustered.

At the pit, you were all lined up to get your assigned cabins. Every cabin was assigned by gender, so girl councillors were assigned with girl campers, and boy councillors were assigned with boy campers. Thankfully, you were assigned to cabin 8 with Robin, Nancy, and Cassie, a.k.a. Clover, one of the nicest girls you know. “I'm so happy we are all back together again this year!” Nancy jumped up and down. The three of you have been inseparable the past two summers. “You guys are so lucky you're bunked together; we’re with the two newbies, Eddie and Ashton,” Billy said while walking beside Steve. “At least we’re cabin neighbours!” Nancy observes, seeing that they were assigned to cabin 7. “Bambi, this is great; you have your own little spy squad,” Robin winked, and you rolled your eyes. “What are you talking about Bams?” Billy asks. “Bambi knows Eddie from home and—” You clasped your hand over Robin’s mouth, not wanting to make anything weird since Steve shared the information about Billy liking you last summer. “And nothing.” You finished her sentence. The boys looked at you confused, but you were sure Steve would tell Billy later, seeing as they’re best friends. You didn’t want anyone overhearing since Eddie and Ashton were coming your way. “Hey guys, what are we talking about?” Ashton approached the group with Eddie by his side. “Bambi was telling us how she and Eddie are from the same hometown,” Billy piped up. “Yea, Princess of Hawkins High here,” Eddie smirked. “Please don’t,” you begged. You hadn’t shared your home life with your camp friends, and you didn’t want that to follow you here. “What’s he talking about, Bams?” Nancy asked. “What? You haven’t told them about how you’re Hawkins it girl? Popular cheerleader, homecoming queen, or ringing any bells?” Eddie questioned. “So you do know who she is!” Robin gasped. “I’m more than a cheerleader.” Your eyes stinging, holding back tears. Was that how Eddie only saw you? You guess that’s the persona you were trying to give off; you cannot blame him. But that will all change; you will make it your mission to have Eddie Munson know the real you. Your friends look at you with puzzled faces. “I mean, that makes sense. Of course, you’re popular; you’re one of the best people we know.” Nancy piped up. “Thanks, Scout.” You gave a small smile.

—

Setting up Cabin 8 was a piece of cake. You took the bottom bunk, and Cassie took the top. Robin took the other bottom bunk across from you on the other bed, and Nancy took the top bunk. You got along great with your bunkmates; you were really lucky. If anything, you could have been bunked with Sarina and her group, and that would not have gone over well.

As you helped the girls unpack their bags after arriving at your cabin, you looked out of the window and noticed that you had a perfect view of cabin 7.

You took a moment to admire the lush greenery and the serene surroundings, but your attention was quickly diverted when you noticed Eddie walking in and settling down on his bunk. You could see that he had his guitar with him, and he placed it right across from your own bunk.

After helping others with their tasks, you suddenly realize you have left all your belongings in your car. You decide to inform the girls that you needed to run to the car and retrieve your duffle.

As you step outside, you hear the sound of another cabin door being opened, but you ignore it and focus on getting your stuff. You walk briskly towards the parking lot, scanning for your car. Once you locate it, you quickly unlock the door and retrieve your duffle bag. As you are bent over in the back seat of my car, grabbing your things, a voice startles you. “Could get used to the view,” Eddie smirked. “Ahhh!” You jerk up “fuck!” You turn to see Eddie getting his things out of his van parked beside your car. “Excuse me?” “The lake, God, you’re not that full of yourself, are you?” He chuckled. “Oh, right,” you say, rubbing the back of your head, knowing you will soon have a headache. “You know, I wasn’t going to say anything… but you cut me off,” you say, pointing at his van. “Wouldn’t have to if you drove faster.” “I was going 20 over as it was!” “You know, Princess, I see why Coyote likes you,” he smirked. “What? I, huh? Don’t call me that,” He just smiled and walked away carrying his duffle. His arms showed the curve of his bicep, straining to hold up the big bag, the sheen of sweat glistening on his skin, the tattoos being showed off. You bite your lip, watching him walk away. You really needed to get laid this summer.

—

After dinner, you and the girls had drinks to loosen us up before going to the bonfire. It had been a while since the last time you drank; with finals and studying the past month and a half, no one was partying.

The booze made you feel warm next to the fire, and you could see Eddie sitting on the other side of the bonfire. You couldn’t help but stare until he caught you, and you tried quickly to look away. The second time he catches you staring that night, it didn’t bother you as much as it would have if sober. That was until, the third time within half an hour, he got up. Oh god, you made him uncomfortable.

“Like what you see?” Eddie sneaks up behind you, and you jump at the sudden closeness. “I can’t see much; there's too much smoke in my eyes.” You try to play it off. “Oh, too bad, Princess, because my view was quite clear, had a great view.” he winks. “What did I tell you about calling me that?” You groan. “You’re not helping yourself by acting that way, Prince—” he stops mid-sentence, seeing that you’re giving him a side eye, but he continues on, “Princess,” “I’m not acting like a Princess.” You rolled your eyes, only further proving Eddie’s point. “Could have fooled me, ” He shrugs. “Obviously, you’re not very good on judgment of character.” “No? Enlighten me.”

“Is there a problem here?” Billy somehow appeared again out of thin air and wrapped a protective arm around you. Oh god. “No, Coyote, we’re fine.” You debated whether to take his arm off your shoulder, but you wanted to make Eddie jealous. “I’ll see you around, Princess.” Eddie turned and walked back to the newbies he was befriending. After Eddie leaves your sight, you exhale and shake off Billy, noticing that Eddie is no longer paying attention. “Next time he bothers you, you can come and tell me.” Billy was stern, serious; he had a look in his eye like he’d knock the shit out of him. “Seriously, I’m fine… I gotta go, have an early morning choreography to do.”

—

The sun was shining brightly, casting a warm glow over the campgrounds. The excitement of the upcoming campers filled the air, and you couldn't help but feel a sense of anticipation for the day ahead. As the camp's dance teacher, this was your favourite part of the summer. You loved watching the kids grow and improve their skills while helping those starting out.

As you made your way to the dance hall, you could feel the excitement building within you. The hall was empty, as expected, but you could already picture the kids dancing and laughing within its walls. You walked over to the stereo, put down your towel and water bottle, and tied your hair into a high ponytail, ready for the day ahead.

The room was stuffy and hot, with no airflow to speak of. You could feel the sweat starting to bead on your forehead, so you opened up all the windows, letting a refreshing breeze fill the air, and walked over to the standing fan, turning it up to the highest setting.

As you prepared to start your day, you reached for the mixtape you had created earlier to warm up. The tape was filled with various tracks that you thought would help get you in the right mood. You walked over to the boombox and inserted the tape, pressing play. The boombox was filled with all of your favourite songs, both new and old, from various genres. Your taste in music was eclectic, and you didn't like to limit yourself to a particular genre. You enjoyed everything from classic rock to pop, sometimes metal. If a song appealed to you, you liked it, regardless of its genre.

As the music filled the room, you felt yourself beginning to relax and get into the right mindset for the day ahead. The sweet lyrics of Whitney Huston filled the empty room, and you began getting into the movements but not really warming up anymore because the heat alone did that for you. The next song came on and you made a mental note not to use this tape when the kids came to class. The song that came on wasn’t the most appropriate.

You swayed your hips slowly, getting into it. You don’t dance like this in front of anyone unless you’re in class with friends or on stage. You typically hid your sensuality for only the dance floor or when you were having sex. You know that back at home, you are labelled as a prude, but if they only knew…

As the song progressed, so did your movments. You continued down to the floor, snaking your body before popping your hips up and down quickly before sliding back up sensually. As the music moved, you felt the need to let your hair down so you would incorporate some hair-ogropy. Deciding to get off the floor, you went to stand up but slid your hands up your inner thighs, grazing over your pussy lips, hardly being covered by your dance shorts, and continued to trail your hands up past your hips to your breasts.

You turned and swayed until you caught Eddie gawking at you in the mirror. He quickly shut his mouth when he realized you'd seen him. Honestly, if it were anyone else, you would have stopped immediately being embarrassed to expose yourself like this, but you were in your element, and this wasn’t just anyone watching. You wanted him to watch, so you continued as the song went on. Thinking of the sexiest moves you could come up with. The music suddenly stopped, and you felt thirsty. You hurried towards the sound system to turn down the volume and grabbed your water bottle. You sprinkled some water on your face and took a sip before realizing that Eddie was present in the room.

“Are you just going to continue undressing me with your eyes, or are you going to say something?” You smirked. Dance really brought out the confidence in you that normally you didn’t have. He was speechless, but you finally had the upper hand. “Uh..I…um… I thought this was the music hall.” Eddie gulped, but his mouth was dry. “No, it’s the next door over.” You smiled up at him taking one step closer so your bodies were almost touching. “You uh… you’re going to teach that to the kids?” He tried to joke, but he still sounded out of breath. “No, that’s usually reserved for a special audience.” You bite your lip. “Oh, who’s that?” His confidence coming back. You. “Wouldn’t you like to know?” You took another step closer, so close you could smell his aftershave mixed with his mint toothpaste.

His lips were plump and bright pink, probably from biting them, and his eyes were locked on your chest. You were sweating, and you could feel a bead trickle down between your breasts. He quickly looked back up to your eyes when you cleared your throat.

“I guess I was wrong about you, Princess.” He licked his bottom lip. “You don’t know the half of it.” You turn and walk back to the stereo to turn on the music again. You looked back as you turned the dial. “I’d love to continue this conversation, but I have some choreography to complete before they arrive tomorrow.” You nodded your head to the door, signalling him to leave. “Oh, uh…ok yea, I’ll just um. Thanks.” He picked up his guitar case and ran out.

-

After all the dances were complete, you headed to the communal showers. The water was always freezing, so you never wanted to stay there for long, but that cold water felt nice on your hot, sticky skin. You started to hum a random song as you ran the soap along your body.

You didn’t even realize that you actually started singing instead of humming. You must have felt comfortable enough because you only sing when you’re alone.

You're done showering by the time you’ve finished the one song; camp showers really were the quickest. You reach for your bath towel and dry off inside the stall before reaching for your clothes, but then remember that you didn’t bring clean ones. All you had was your sweaty shorts and sports bra… You quickly leave the stall, praying not too many people will see you walking back to the cabin in just your towel.

Unbeknownst to you, Eddie was walking by the communal showers when he suddenly halted because he heard one of the most beautiful voices he had ever heard singing an Ozzy Osbourne song. He couldn't resist stopping to investigate. He needed to know who was on the other side. Eddie had been hypnotized, so he didn’t notice that he had been creeping closer and closer to the door to try to hear better over the running water. He was mesmerized by that voice.

When the water turned off, the singing stopped, bringing Eddie back to reality. He realized where he was and what he was doing. Tripping over his feet, he quickly stumbled back, leaving enough space between him and the fire to not look like an absolute creep. But he decided to hang around for a minute or two, pretending to fix his guitar just so he could find out who the mysterious voice was.

As you walk out of the showers, you see Eddie looking just as surprised as you were. Just your luck; the one person you did not want to see while you looked like a wet dog was standing there as if he was waiting for you. You wrap the towel around you tighter, seeing as though you are naked, and you try to avoid him, but he starts speaking. “You know, Ozzy?” He asked, dumbfounded. Oh god, did he hear you? “Uh… yea.” “You have a beautiful voice,” he says without thinking. Of course, it was you. Was there anything you couldn’t do? Eddie thought. You’re extremely smart, athletic, kind to everyone, and you fuck with metal? Why had Eddie never noticed you before?

When you locked eyes with him, his stomach felt like a thousand butterflies had awoken simultaneously. Everything suddenly made sense when he looked at you. The feeling was foreign to Eddie; he didn’t like it. Sure, he had liked girls and had a girlfriend or two, but nothing serious; never had he experienced this strong of a crush develop in such a short amount of time. He tried to swallow it; he wanted to eliminate this feeling, especially because it was you; he was unworthy of it. You deserved someone better. Before Eddie could think his legs were bringing him close to you, he wanted to be near you.

“What?! You heard me?” “I didn’t mean to. You were loud, and I couldn’t help but listen… but not in a bad way!” he said, waving his arms in defence. Was he spying on you? “Fuck! I’m sorry you’re naked, oh god, I mean, I wasn’t looking or anything, I swear! I just needed to know who that voice belonged to! Im sorry, I'll let you go get dressed; I’m not a freak who creeps on girls, I swear!” Eddie was rambling; Eddie didn’t ramble, not like this. Eddie was cool and confident, especially with girls. Eddie was in trouble.

“Eddie, I don’t think you’re a freak. Maybe a perv if you keep walking in on me in these situations.” you giggled. “But this is Murdock, not Hawkins, clean slate for the both of us.” You gave a reassuring smile. “For the both of us?” He questioned “I’m not who you think I am back at home,” you smirked as you began to walk away.

“What does that mean?” He yelled before you were out of earshot. You looked over your shoulder and gave a wink, letting the towel slowly slip as you approached the Cabin door, but you didn’t let him see anything before you walked inside. “God, this girl is going to be my death this summer,” Eddie mumbled to himself.

—

You called Ashley as soon as you were dressed. You had to walk to the office swing as there was only one phone for the staff and campers to use.

Ring, Ring, Rong, Ri-

“Hello, Thompson residence,” Ash answered “You son of a bitch!” You laughed. “Well, hello to you too,” you can hear the smirk in her voice. “You just so happened to leave out the fact that Eddie Munson has also applied for a job here?!” “Oh yeah, did I not tell you?” “Is this why you didn’t apply?! because you knew I’d be alone with him?” You questioned. “No! I genuinely forgot! But happy accident, no?” she laughed. You twisted the cord around your finger and crossed your legs thinking about it. “I cannot believe you didn’t tell me this vital piece of information.” “I thought it would be more fun this way, ya know? I get the theatrics to keep me entertained while you’re gone.” She was such a little shit “Oh, I’m so glad that my infinite crush on Eddie entertains you,” you chuckled. “Babe, come on, you’re in such a good spot! You’re the it girl, you’ve always been; you gotta loosen up, show him the real you. You’re made for one another he doesn’t know it yet because you don’t talk to him.” she emphasized. “Don’t worry. I’ve talked to him more these past three days than I have in the past three years.” You smile. “Details now!” she screamed. “I think he flirted with me while I got my stuff from my car? And he keeps calling me Princess? He said I’m the Princess of Hawkins High. You know anything about that?” There was a clear silence. “Ash!” The slice told you everything. “Ashley” “What do you want me to say? I’m surprised you didn’t know. Everyone loves you; it’s not a bad thing…” “Whatever, I haven’t gotten to the best part!” “Finally,” she sighed, and you could picture her rolling her eyes. “So I was making my dance routines before the kids come, and I had my mixtape on, so you know I was doing my thing because I was alone, or thought I was alone…” “Stop! he walked in on you?!” She gasped. Of course, your best friend has seen the types of dance you do; she is one of the most supportive people you’ve ever met. “His jaw was on the floor! and I didn’t stop, I don’t know what came over me. I just kept going; it was like my body was on fire but in a good way, not sure how else to describe it.” “Babe, oh my god, you’re going to have him in the palm of your hand before you know it.” She reassured. “And to top it all off, he bumped into me after I got out of the shower just now and told me I have, and I quote a beautiful voice.” You sighed like a lovesick teenager. “Bitch! I repeat, you’ll have him in the palm of your hand. I know what he’s like; he’s one of my best friends.” she exclaimed. “Hey! I’m your best friend.” “What I mean is one of my best guy friends… I know how he is, what he likes; trust me, he’s going to like you.” Ash really was an amazing friend. “I just don’t know if I’m his type. That nagging feeling is in the back of my head again.” “He told me once that you’re pretty,” she said nonchalantly. “What?! You’ve never told me anything before?!” “eh, guess I forgot?” Ash shrugged her shoulders. “Forgot? Ashley, come on! Im dying here. I like him so much I feel like I’m going to explode, and that is vital information.” Why would she not tell you? Maybe you’re too annoying, always talking about your crush on Eddie? “Forget Princess of Hawkins, let’s crown you as Drama Queen,” she laughed. “Shut up, enough about me. How have you been?”

— As the new day dawned, the campers eagerly anticipated their arrival at the campsite. After settling into their cabins, they were introduced to their surroundings and felt a sense of excitement in the air. Each camper was eager to make new friends and start their adventure at the camp.

The first day was filled with the joys of getting to know one another, playing games, and indulging in meals that were prepared for them. As the dance instructor, you were given the task of planning your activities for the first week. While dance was your specialty, the campers would be exposed to other activities throughout the week to keep them engaged.

Mondays were dedicated to dance, with Tuesdays offering swimming and other water-related activities. Wednesdays were all about music, Thursdays for sports and nature, and Fridays for arts and crafts. Campers could expect to rotate these activities throughout the week to avoid getting bored with any one thing for too long.

The highlight of the week was undoubtedly Tuesdays, the day when campers could take a refreshing dip in the lake. Even though swimming was designated for Tuesdays, there was free time every day for campers to explore their interests and engage in other activities, individually and with their new friends. As the summer sun beat down, the opportunity to cool off in the lake was a welcome respite for all campers. The schedule ensured that everyone could try out different activities and make the most of their time at camp.

Nighttime was an all-around favourite. After everyone was settled in their bunks, tummy full of S’mores and smelling of bonfire smoke, you, Nancy and Robin walked together towards the mess hall to find the guys playing cards. “What are we playing, and what do I get when I win?” You asked as you opened the doors. Steve, Billy, Eddie and Ashton all turned their heads to see the three of you walking through the red saloon doors. “Don’t you have campers to look after?” Steve joked. “Could say the same to you,” Robin retorted back “Touché.” He smirked. “Well, now that you girls are here, we’re playing strip poker,” Billy laughed. “Always the charmer,” You winced. “Hey, I don’t make the rules.” He raised his hands up in defence. “Fine, I know I’ll be able to stay warm while you freeze your balls off because I’m going to win.” You stare him down. Billy seemingly always had a new way of getting on your last nerve this summer. After finding out he wanted to sleep with you, all of your fond memories of him have been tainted.

“Yeah, like some girl will beat us at poker? Right guys?” Billy chuffed. The other guys knew better than to start with you or the girls. They weren’t so blockheaded as Billy was. “Not that we are excited to see your tiny dick, but shut up and deal.” You sit down, and you hear Steve, Eddie and Ashton chuckle. Yes, you are competitive, and after that exchange, you were more than ready to beat his ass.

The game went on; Nancy, unfortunately, not the best poker face, was out first, forfeiting before she was naked. Steve, Ashton, and Billy were in their boxers, and Eddie and you were still somewhat modest. All you had left was your hoodie, bra, and underwear, where Eddie had his jeans, socks, and underwear still on.

When his shirt came off, you almost lost your cool. Never had you seen him shirtless before, and it was just as good as you pictured him. He was toned, more than you had imagined, and he had more tattoos than you knew about previously. You had only seen what was on his arms before, but now you got to see a spider tattoo under his left collarbone and a zombie head under that. He has another small heart right above his right hip bone, directly beside when his happy trial started… Robin has to nudge you to break your stare before he notices.

Billy’s comment still burned in the back of your mind. You had to get it together; you couldn’t falter, and you only had fifteen minutes before you had to get back to the cabins. “So you want to call it a night, or are you ready to show me some more skin?” you asked, biting your lip. There were audible “ooooohs” coming from the other's mouths. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you, Princess?” The game was getting too close until you picked up on his tell. His tongue would peek out of the side of his mouth when he was bluffing. You caught it just in time; you were about to fold when you noticed. “I raised you 15… and my bra.” You run your hand under your hoodie to unclasp it and place it on the table. Thankfully, you wore the nice red lacy one and not the boring brown one.

Eddie's big brown eyes doubled in size, which you didn’t think possible when he saw what you had been hiding under the oversized sweatshirt that hit your entire figure.

“Come on, we could have seen her like that all night if one of you were better at poker.” Billy some showing his true colours of being a total douche. You try to ignore his comment. “Nancy, do me a favour and kill Coyote for me, will ya?” You asked while staring into Eddie’s eyes. You knew you had him. “I gotta hand it to your Princess. You sure know how to keep a guy on his toes.” He folds, not showing you his hand. You breathe a sigh of relief that you didn’t know you were holding. “That, boys, is how it’s done.” You clap, and the girls cheer

The rest clear out, talking about the day tomorrow and their plans. You go to reach for your winnings bra, but Eddie's fingers clap around your wrist, not hard but firm enough for you to stop. He grabs the bra by the strap and twirls it around his finger before you comprehend what is going on. “I think I’ll keep this.” He admires it. “Uh, no, I won, I get it back. You scoff. “But did you win, Princess?” He pouts down at you. “You folded.” You say, standing up to reach for your bra. “Uh-huh, not so fast.” He lifts it higher over his head so it’s out of reach. “Come on, Eds, give it back.” You jump up to grab it, but obviously miss. Eddie liked it when you got visibly flustered, especially when you called him ‘Eds’ for the first time. “I couldn’t let those guys see you topless; what kind of gentleman would I be? Especially after you took your bra off? You heard what Billy said; he’s disgusting; how do you even like him?” Eddie shows you his cards, full house; he wasn’t bluffing. “You let me win? But I caught your tell?” you said with disbelief. “And no, I do not like Billy. He likes me, that’s it. I thought he was my friend last summer, but it turns out he was only doing it to get in my pants.” Eddie was glad and relieved to hear you don’t like Billy but also annoyed and angered that he would treat you like that. “Good to know.” He smirks. “So, my bra?” You try to give him your best puppy dog eyes, but he beats you in that department. “My winning token. I think I’ll hang this trophy over my bed and have the campers see what a real woman’s bra looks like.” He winked and turned around. Eddie couldn’t wait to rub in Billy’s face that he kept it. “Hey! I better get that back by the end of the week! You don’t know how much that cost!”

Sure, you were annoyed, but you were also a little exhilarating that Eddie wanted to keep it.

—

The next morning, you thought if you could bribe Eddie, he would give back what belonged to you. You got up early to get some coffee and bring it to his cabin to negotiate.

As you returned from the mess hall, you could see three little heads peeping into the window where Eddie’s bed was. “Hey! What are you creeps looking at?” You can’t help but giggle as you watch three petrified faces turn around. “N-n-nothing, BYE!” The tallest one stuttered, and the three of them ran. By that reaction, you had a feeling it was your bra they were gawking at. You knocked on the door three times and slowly opened it up. “Hey, it’s just me. Is it safe to come in?” you asked, not looking into the cabin in case they had been changing. “All clear, Princess, just me in here,” Eddie replied. You opened the door further and almost dropped the coffee you were holding.

Eddie stood there in all his glory, in a beach towel wrapped low on his hips. He must have just showered. His hair was wet and pushed back off his face. Water droplets still ran down to his happy trail. He had more tattoos on his legs and abdomen, but you didn’t catch what they were as he pulled his forest green Camp Murdock shirt over his head.

“Take a picture; it will last longer, Princess.” He laughed, and you snapped out of it. “I uh, um, sorry, here.” You stuck out your arm out to hand him his coffee. “You trying to poison me, Princess? That’s not very regal of you.” He smirked and took the cup. “It’s a piece offering… for my bra,” you stated. “Oh, I don’t think so; you can’t just bribe me with this sad excuse they call coffee. I have my standards.” He stepped closer to the bra hanging exactly where he said it would be. “I think I won this fair and square. I’ll need something much bigger than coffee, Princess.” he tilted his head, raising his eyebrows at you. “Fine, what do you want? A pack of Camels? Weed? Beer?” “You know I already have all those things, but I’ll think about it. Maybe I’ll ask for a favour? I’ll cash it in soon, but until then, it stays with me.” He took a step closer. “You know, a real gentleman would have walked me back to my cabin last night; I was defenceless, not even my bra to support me if I was being chased.” You mimicked him, taking another step closer.

Eddie had no clue what to think. Were you filtering back? No way. Girls like you didn’t go for guys like him?

Eddie had been around the block a few times regarding dating. He was no novice in the game of love, but he had a particular type that he usually went for. The girls he pursued were nothing like you. Unlike you, they were bold and unafraid of getting down and dirty. They were rocker chicks who were not intimidated by Eddie's tough exterior. However, as much as he enjoyed the company of these girls, he knew deep down that they could never be the ones he truly desired.

“You, Sir Lancelot, are no gentleman.”You laughed, unable to keep up the act.

"Lancelot, huh? Is that name anointed camp name?" He smirks, and you nod.

“My sincerest apologies, Princess.” Eddie bowed to you and you laughed again. Eddie swore he could listen to that laugh on repeat. “I’ll consider your apology if you give me my bra back. It’s my best one.” You bat your lashes and give the biggest puppy dog eyes. Eddie didn’t know how, but you broke him with that look. Your eye colour memorized him; it was quickly turning into his favourite colour. “I-I-I” what was happening to him? Why was he blubbering like a preteen asking out his crush for the first time? Pull yourself together, Munson. “Fine, I will because you are the Princess, and I am your knight in shining armour.” Nice. “Knight in shining armour, you say? I think you’ll have to prove yourself more before I believe you.” You brave another step closer, and the tips of your toes touch. “How can I do that, M’Lady?” “I have an idea.” You slowly raise your toes until your head is up and close your eyes. “Princess? What are y—“ “Oh hey guys, oh sorry, was I interrupting something?” Stevewalked in. You let out an annoyed huff. You were so close that you were sure he was about to lean in. “It’s fine. I was just leaving.” You gave Steve a death stare that Eddie had never seen grace your face before. “What did I do?” Steve looks at Eddie. “Beats me.” Eddie shrugged before he took the first sip of the coffee you got him. To his surprise, it was exactly Eddie’s coffee order.

Next chapter

Tags: @littlexdeaths @siriuslysmoking @peachysink @nailbatanddungeon @leelei1980 @daisy-munson @taintedcigs @take-everything-you-can @strangerstilinski @bl0ssomanddie @seb-buckybarnes @chickenandsheep-blog @lokis-army-77 @ali-r3n @erinekc @impmunson @snowflowersstars246 @micheledawn1975 @princesatracionera @bells-28

#eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x you #eddie munson imagine #eddie munson au #eddie munson angst #eddie munson fluff #eddie munson smut #Eddie Munson x popular!reader #eddie munson x female reader #eddie munson x y/n #eddie munson fanfiction #eddie munson x oc #eddie munson x fem!reader smut #eddie munson x f!reader #take me to the lakes #part 1

[esmedelacroix]

24 days til' Christmas

going dancing with boyfriend!choi san on christmas eve⋆꙳•̩̩͙❅̩̩͙‧͙ ‧͙̩̩͙❆ ͙͛ ˚₊⋆

----------------------------------------------------------------------

One of the downsides of dating a K-pop idol was that there was no privacy whatsoever. Which would result in yet another Christmas Eve at home, probably watching movies. Any moment spent with San was happy, but it was Christmas for Christ's sake!

What must a girl do to go on a simple date with her famous boyfriend? you thought to yourself.

You were making some shrimp jjigae (Korean stew) for San. San was arriving at the Incheon Airport that evening after the last leg of his tour. You were excited he would be home right in time for the holidays. It was still upsetting that the two of you couldn't go on a date on Christmas Eve like you usually did.

He had gained a ton of popularity after his comeback, the two of you were spotted at an Italian restaurant and it was all over the internet after 30 minutes. In just 10 minutes the whole internet knew what the two of you were eating, drinking, and wearing.

San's company didn't have rules against dating, but the two of you decided not to be obnoxiously public about your relationship. He talked about you in interviews and attended red carpets with you occasionally but that was all the two of you were comfortable with.

On your way to the airport, San's song came on the radio. You had your sister take a video of the two of you singing along to his song so she could send it to him.

San and the guys would be arriving at a private gate. Hopefully this time the fans didn't find out somehow. You waited there anxiously for him, looking around for any fangirls in the area every two seconds. Finally, you say your handsome boyfriend steps out immediately looking around for you. You were already running towards him and the second you entered his view, he abandoned his suitcase and ran to you spreading his arms out to you.

The scene was right out of a cheesy film. Hongjoong practically died from cringe but deep down he was so happy that his Sannie had someone he loved to come home to. Wooyoung being Wooyoung was videotaping the entire moment.

"Yeobo[Sweetheart], I've missed you so much," San said as he held you tight.

"I've missed you more," you sighed as you looked up into his eyes running your fingers through his hair.

CLICK! CLICK! CLICK!

Because no lovey-dovey moment lasts forever, the two of you heard the clicks of cameras along with the footsteps and screams of an atiny stampede.

San quickly took your hand and ran through the airport with the boys and their bodyguards following you behind. The two of you couldn't contain the giggles from the adrenaline rush running from fans like you were elementary school kids playing tag at recess.

Once you got away, you went to dinner with the guys and listened to their tales from tours. Including lots of pranks from Jongho and Mingi, and lots of scolding for San and Wooyoung from Hongjoong.

After dinner, you gave the boys their Christmas gifts since you would be with San in his hometown that day. You told them to open their gifts when they were at the dorm knowing that you would be awaiting a particular text from Seonghwa about how thankful he is that you got your hand on the "Ahsoka Tano's T-6 Jedi Shuttle" Lego Star Wars set.

San would be sleeping over your place before the two of you went to his hometown. After the two of you finished watching the newest episode of Single's Inferno, you thought it would be worth a shot to ask San what he would think about going to a Live Jazz club with you for Christmas Eve.

To the inquiry, as expected he answered "I don't think so," which was his nicer way of saying, "No we're going to get caught.

Even when you told him that your sister would be playing saxophone there and that you wanted to support her and the two of you could watch from backstage he was still very hesitant.

You knew that there would be a slim chance that San would agree with you, and you noticed a glint of guilt in his eyes when he said no to you.

To San, you were his kryptonite, he was physically unable to say no. to you without wanting to gauge his heart out of his chest. You went to bed with a bit of a heavy heart after overthinking in the shower and realizing that your relationship with San would never be normal.

. . .

The morning was perfect. San had made you breakfast in bed without burning down the entire kitchen. San was a great cook, but he was also a very messy one at that.

That afternoon the two of you wrapped up gifts for San’s family and baked gingerbread cookies while cozying up together and sipping hot chocolate and eggnog. It was perfect, festive, and domestic. But San knew that you were still thinking about the Jazz club occasionally texting your sister throughout the day to ease her nerves.

"Jagiya[baby], we are going to have to go somewhere really quickly," San started as he entered the living room putting your cost on.

"But San, it's a little late. I promised my sis I'd watch the live stream of her performance," you answered.

"I know and I'm sorry but there is an emergency formal meeting at the company and I don't want to leave you home alone, I know how much you like to get ready anyway," he explained walking over to you, ushering you to get up.

You gave him an irritated glare before springing up and squealing, "You know me too well babe,"

You got up and gave him. smooch on the cheek. You didn't care if it was a formal meeting. San could see how bored you were of watching the same holiday hallmark movies. He also knew how much you loved to dress up.

You did your makeup and wore a red cocktail dress, accessorizing it with a jewelry set you had removed from your brother who was completing his military service. You put on your favorite heels, give yourself a bold bloody red lip, and throw on your favorite trench coat.

San gawks at you for what feels like minutes before checking back into reality and getting up. "You look stunning darling," he said as he pulled you into his side by your waist and kissed you on your cheek.

San had already heated the car and opened the door for you before walking over to his side and getting in. He passed you the aux and you immediately started playing your favorite holiday tunes.

As San drove he began to take unfamiliar turns. He was oddly driving away from the direction of his company. You found this strange but shook it off as nothing.

The two of you sang along to Christmas tunes before he finally pulled into a parking spot. There stood the live jazz club that your sister was performing at. The two of you were right on time. San quickly got out of the car to open the door for you, taking your hand and helping you out of the car. "San what is this?" you chuckled in surprise.

"You know I can't say no to you baby," he replied, taking your hand and leading you into the club where the two of you had great seats. No one could see the two of you since the event seating was arranged in booths and the club was dimly lit.

Everything was perfect and quite discreet. You don't know how hard he had pulled this off. But you knew he had the help of your sister. You could tell she had been lying to you about something lately; you just didn't know what.

It was amazing, the two of you enjoyed music and a great meal. Sis was playing excellently as always until your favorite Christmas song was playing, "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" Other couples had been dancing all night.

San could tell that you wanted to dance to this song with him. You were practically swaying in your seat. He was afraid of the press ruining your date but he simply did not care in the moment when he stood up and held his hand out for you to take.

You looked up at him cracking the brightest smile he had ever seen grace your lips. The two of you swayed slowly to the music. You could feel stares whisper and some flashes but you didn't care. You were too focused on each other.

You were too focused on the feeling of love and excitement enveloping the two of you as you spun. There were already articles and posts up but when the two of you got home you were too infatuated with each other to glance at your phones. The two of you slept peacefully that night as Santa dropped your gifts off and feasted on the milk and cookies you had left out for him.

taglist: @aripet22

#choi san #choi san x reader #san x reader #choi san scenarios #san scenarios #ateez scenarios #ateez x reader #ateez smut #ateez fluff #choi san fluff #choi san smut #san smut #san fluff #san angst #light angst #angst #fluff

[stars-and-the-min]

☆ the wrong way to hard launch (7) | OP81

summary : oscar's girlfriend is a walking pr problem for literally everyone (including herself) social media au

pairing : oscar piastri x zhou!fem!singer!oc

a/n switch out one shitty ex for a slightly less shitty one

masterlist | last part | part 7 | next part

ARTICLE

Revisiting 'Twelve More Days' : How Empty Bottles Spun Their Signature Sound on its Head on Tour April 12, 2024 · Written by Catherine Moore

Almost halfway through the Asian leg of their world tour, it's finally time to talk about what the pandemic-era rock band Empty Bottles has been up to. For greener artists, it's the cookie-cutter way to stick to a genre that has previously worked and give the masses what they want but instead, Empty Bottles have taken their 2022 sophomore sensation 'Twelve More Days' and tweaked the songs for their world tour.

Long-time fans of the Sydney-born band are familiar with the classic rock elements that brought Empty Bottles into the spotlight; claiming influence from fellow Sydneysiders 5 Seconds of Summer, Arctic Monkeys and other croony rock artists, so it was a rather big surprise for critics and fans alike when the album opened with a much softer, hypnotising approach.

The even bigger surprise was the creative and musical approach they took with their tour. As noted by various critics back during the album release, 'Twelve More Days' had a not-so-subtle jazz flavour to their sound, and the band seems to have embraced the jazz-rock sound by opening their tour with a speakeasy-style set, complete with the band decked out in snazzy 1930s reminiscent suits and frontwoman Selina Bui in glittery minidresses, opera gloves and a thematic vintage ribbon microphone.

Despite close to three years since she last performed in front of a live audience, Bui took to the stage like a fish to water, instantly entrancing her audience with her universally acknowledged rich sirenic vocals, drawing in the attention and sending the venue back to a 1930s speakeasy. Strangely, she performs this part of the show without her trusty guitar, leaving the grunt work on the other lead guitarist, talented Lukas Zhang, who delivers without a hiccup with no twin guitar to help cover any mistakes.

Quite a few of the sophomore album's songs are given a jazz-rock twist that nobody could have predicted. Other already jazz-influenced songs - namely deluxe track number 13 'money talks' and track 6 'typo' - have been breathed to life, as well as a couple of songs from the band's debut album 'overtime'.

Empty Bottles then returns after a brief intermission with their award-winning pop-rock sound, spending the rest of the set in much more familiar-looking leather jackets and t-shirts and a guitar returned to Bui's hand. Bui, very well known for having an interesting sense of humour, made the choice of returning to the stage with the fitting song choice of 'do you remember me?'. One thing you have to give the 22-year-old is that she really does know how to pick her moments, and the now-iconic first chords of the cocky, energetic track are enough to send the crowd screaming.

The exploration into the many subgenres of what is considered rock 'n' roll has always been a very fuzzy point of conversation, and it's been an honour seeing Empty Bottles have fun playing jump rope over that line. What makes this tour such a raving success is their perfect balance of experimentation and keeping to what is tried and true for them; the classic, hard-hitting, no-nonsense, inane-lyricism rock coupled magnetically with Bui's captivating execution on stage.

Would you find me at one of their shows again? Absolutely, there was truly nothing more thrilling than the first moments you see Selina Bui walk onto stage with her infamous cheshire cat smile. What did I personally think about the sound change? I was pleasantly surprised at how seamlessly they've adjusted the songs to fit the jazz-rock genre, I also believe that they have found the perfect sound to complement Selina Bui's voice. It's uncanny how it just clicked that she was born to sing the soft, almost lullaby-like, calming songs. If they were to release another album with a similar soft sound, I would happily eat it up.

Empty Bottles wrap up the Asian leg of the tour in Bangkok, Thailand later this month and then shortly begin the European leg in Sofia, Bulgaria.

INSTAGRAM

cameliazzz

liked by aidan_ebass and 122,394 others

cameliazzz life lately 🐾 tagged: selinabui

aidan_ebass Yes ma'am 🫡 ↳ selinabui @aidan_ebass i'm dying u are such an old man ↳ lukaszhang @ selinabui he's like barely a year older than you??

cami.png the hottest drummer ever 💜💜💜

conangray a little commotion for the drummer pls and thank you ↳ cameliazzz @ conangray stop i'm blushing 🙈

TWITTER

fiona🩷 @fififorlina · 4h i mean we can all thank tommy for one thing and that's for twelve more days lmao ↳ lina bui x2 grammy winner @urdaisea · 3h i forget that not all empty bottles fans have read this article but i think they all should: Why 'Twelve More Days' isn't a Break-Up Album, it's a Healing One

emme @flowersforcami · 1h yes twelve more days is full of t*mmy slander BUT remember that all the band members have writing credits and they ALL helped write songs so basically what i'm trying to say is that twelve more days is actually the rest of the band roasting the shit out of lina's ex ↳ emme @flowersforcami · 1h every one of those bitches rocked up to the studio and went for blood. that is a universally hated man in their group chat.

amie <3 @mieflrs · 2h it's been 3 years, i think it's time to admit that keeping tabs is absolutely not about thomas fucking howard ↳ amie <3 @mieflrs · 2h i don't care how delusional u are, where in those 3 minutes 54 seconds did you hear a single line that sounds like anything like that sorry excuse of a man??? now a certain japanese-american singer who is exceptionally hot playing the guitar on the other hand... ↳ lukas 🔛🔝 @lukiepookie28 · 2h yes i agree it's not about t*mmy but it's also not about CHRISTOPHER like WTF R U ON???

oscalina real ?! @ emptyginbottles · 32m we're in an oscalina drought and it's plain to see not all of us are coping well

MESSAGES

from the phone of selina bui

INSTAGRAM

selinabui

liked by chrisyamada, oscarpiastri and 279,384 others

selinabui now he's thinkin' 'bout me every night, oh is it that sweet? i guess so

amelia_belrose pop!lina perhaps 🫣

oscarpiastri Didn't need to call me out like that ↳ selinabui @ oscarpiastri don't tell me u miss me already

sabrinacarpenter she's working late coz she's a singer

lukaszhang woman you hate coffee what are you on ↳ selinabui @lukaszhang why are u even here

MESSAGES

from the phone of selina bui

TWITTER

Yamada Updates @chrisyamadanews · 2h 🚨| Chris spotted at the Empty Bottles 'Twelve More Days' Tour in Seoul Night 2

Yamada Updates @chrisyamadanews · 32m 🚨| CHRIS ONSTAGE WITH EMPTY BOTTLES!!!

↳ Yamada Updates @chrisyamadanews · 30m this made me break ok, i am so fucking thrown off. WDYM WE GOT SELINA BUI AND CHRISTOPHER YAMADA ON STAGE TOGETHER IN THE YEAR 2024???

mabel @ maplemabel32 · 25m i can't breathe chris and lina??? chris and lina???????? after so long??? CHRISTOPHER AND SELINA???? as in "hello it's chris" "and lina"??? MY BESTIES REUNITED???

june @linafesting · 18m sometimes, i'm convinced lina spins a wheel on how to break the internet today

↳ kat ୨୧ @yamayaps · 2m with all due respect, this stunt was NAUT selina's idea, this was a move that christopher 'no boundaries' yamada suggested

INSTAGRAM

emptybottles_official Olympic Gymnastics Arena

liked by chrisyamada and 334,294 others

emptybottles_official Nowhere as incredible as Seoul! Always special to have @chrisyamada join us on stage. tagged: chrisyamada

chrisyamada someone better return the favor later 👀 ↳ selinabui @chrisyamada u begged me to let u come what are u on ↳ chrisyamada @ selinabui ok maybe i did

pi4str1 ok someone catch me up bc i did not know chris and lina were friends??? ↳ linasgirl4 @pi4str1 it's probably best we don't get into it

✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ:✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ:✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ:

taglist @ririyulife @ashy-kit @fionaschicken @namgification @cherry-piee

#f1 #oscar piastri #oscar piastri x oc #oscar piastri x reader #oscar piastri fanfic #oscar piastri imagine #oscar piastri smau #formula 1 fanfic #formula 1 smau #f1 fic #f1 smau #f1 imagine #f1 social media au

[frankensteins-mt-dew]

Little things I loved in Haunted Mansion (2023)

I just saw Haunted Mansion for a second time, and yall,it's good. The way they were able to blend the horror with the goofy and make it feel like the ride. amazing.

(Spoilers under the cut) here's all the little things I loved about the movie

1- this ones probably not anything but a coincidence but when Ben and Alyssa first meet the streamers are placed between them. I grew up Mormon (its complicated now) and whenever we drew the veil between life and death it was always a bunch of squiggly lines, like the streamers. Idk if that's like a thing in other religions too but I just thought it was interesting.

2- Gabby straight up saying "Nah. We're out." The second she noticed the spooky shit. Its an accurate and appropriate response that's not really used in this genre.

3- on that note I love the idea that they were basically forced to come back/stay. It advances the narrative and keeps them at the setting but it's not a bottle episode. Or movie.

4- Forced 👏 proximity 👏found👏family. They're all in the same room like 90% of the time no matter where they're at. And when they split the party for too long shit goes down.

5- Ben talking about his wife and his grief. The whole scene with him telling his friends about her and how she died, and Bruce almost immediately making a probably not appropriate joke that just made everyone laugh. It felt so real, like a real conversation. And the ghost winks. I have definently had those in my life but never had a name for it

6- Also the way they talk about grief?! Howthey show different characters dealing with it. How no matter who it is its like "you're hurting.it's ok. Let's get through it together" amazing.

7- The entire cast brought their A game in this movie. They knew what kind of movie this was and totally went with it

8- They ride references were amazing. The stretching room. the doom buggy chair. The forever hallway. Constance Hatchaway. Gracey. THE HAT BOX GHOST. Crump being the last name of one of the imagineers and his manor looking like the ride in wdw.

9- The music was so good! The jazz influence. SUPERSTITION. Grim Grinning Ghosts being prominent but not overwhelming. I wish the ending song was longer though.

10- the way they showed the passage of time with the moon phases and different outifts

11- Gabby and Ben's relationship remaining undefined. Imo this was not the time for them to get together, at least not immediately, what with (gestures broadly to everything) going on. The flowers he gives her at the end could be a romantic gesture or one of friendship and gratitude. I like that whatever ishappening between them is taking its time, because its something they both need.

I know there's something I'm forgetting but I cant think of it now so if I remember it I'll add it later. I hope more people go to see it I would love to see a sequel. Maybe they explore phantom manor or mystic manor (actually I dont remember if that one actually has any ties to the other mansions/manors)

#tldr #This movie was very clearly made with love by a bunch of nerds that gave it 100% #haunted mansion 2023 #haunted mansion

[forjongseong]

dive // jay (ENHYPEN)

pairing: secretary!jay x CEO!fem!reader (minisode part 11 of the series)

genre: office!au, smut (minors dni) // warning: older reader; Jay calls reader “Boss”; oral sex (f. receiving, obviously) // wc: ~2.5k oops

previous chapters:

part 1 - carmesí part 2 - mi reina part 3 - millones part 3.5 - hasta los dientes part 4 - vente conmigo part 5 - tusa part 5.5 - apaga y vámonos part 6 - versos de placer minisode part 1 - cuando nadie ve part 6.5 - yo te quiero más minisode part 2 - la niña de mis ojos part 7 - aeropuerto minisode part 3 - falling autumn minisode part 4 - night night part 8 - ambulancia minisode part 5 - subtítulos part 9 - al caer la noche minisode part 6 - after last night part 9.5 - the way you look tonight part 10 - mon soleil minisode part 7 - daylight minisode part 8 - subside minisode part 9 - your princess, my queen part 11 - qué bonito part 11.5 - enchule minisode part 10 - meet cute

next chapters:

click here for the masterlist

summary: you've been sleeping with your dearest secretary for a while and you're dying to know how it feels when he goes down on you.

author’s notes: here's the second treat of the week--minisode part 11!!!

I know, I know. I just released minisode part 10 yesterday but that's the best thing about owning a blog and writing your own series--you can post whatever you want, whenever you want!

to be honest, I had a different minisode prepared that was sfw and takes place way before yn and Jay started their thing, but I was chilling and putting Spotify on autoplay and it played this song:

go google the lyrics... maybe then you'll understand why I felt compelled to write this minisode.

taglist: @thots4hee @jayked @end-hyphen @nyanggk @yoursjaeyun @maggstar @bucketofhiros @dimplejaehyuncutie @excusememissiloveyou @shinkenprincess-oh @mochimchimo @jongseonglogy

(send an ask if you want to be added or removed)

Staying at a luxurious hotel over the weekend was one of the very few indulgences that you would let yourself have. Normally, you would never splurge on a suite for just two nights, especially when the hotel is not out of town. Fortunately, this time your suite was a complementary gesture from the event that hired you as one of the keynote speakers.

Unfortunately, though, since the event was downtown and you did not have to travel, you handled everything alone. You could not ask your staff to accompany you to do something that was not part of their job, and not when the task did not concern your company either. You even sent Mr. Lee home early the day before, claiming that you could just take the bus or ride the subway to the hotel.

The first day of the event ended right on time, and you were invited to the gala dinner in the main ballroom. You attended, ate just enough to keep your stomach satisfied, and then you excused yourself to go back to your suite. You wanted to take advantage of the huge bathtub and treat yourself to a nice hot bath, thinking that you deserved it after all the talking and walking around in heels.

Maybe because it was in your nature to do things fast, your pampering session ended quickly. Your hair was half dry, and you were already lounging on the loveseat, playing a series you already finished on Netflix. You just needed the background noise, you thought, as you scrolled through your phone. It was a Saturday night, so most of the people you followed on Instagram were posting stories of their night out.

You wondered what Jay was doing at the moment.

Your thumb stopped scrolling and you eyed the clock in the corner of your screen. It was almost eight, yet you feel bored, but it was too late to get ready to go out. Where were you going to go anyway? Taehyung’s jazz club would be way too crowded, and it’s not like any of your close friends were within reach—your two best friends lived in other countries, and it wasn’t the scheduled night for your monthly video calls.

You mindlessly opened your phone’s gallery and found pictures of documents and a couple of videos from the meetings that were held the past week. You clicked on one that showed Jay giving a short presentation, it was on the day that you were not feeling your best, so he stepped up and filled in for you. You focused on the way he was gesturing with his hands—and the way his sleeves were rolled up to his elbows. His hair was slicked back, and his jaw clenched whenever he was emphasizing a word. You then looked at the way he repeatedly licked his lips, and you noticed yourself breathing a little heavier.

Great, you thought. A little pathetic, actually, that you were sitting alone in a hotel, thirsting over your secretary whom you started sleeping with since, what, a couple of weeks ago? None of you were keeping count. This behavior of yours was a little uncalled for, and you got suspicious of yourself that you opened the app that tracked your period.

And of course, you found out that you were ovulating.

Usually, you would always take the more practical path. In this case, you could easily watch videos, or look at pictures of Jay and imagine him touching you as you touch yourself.

But why would you do that when he was literally just one call away?

“Hello?” You heard his voice as he picked up your call. “Is this an emergency? I didn’t get a text from you.”

You heard him entering a room and closing the door behind him.

“Boss?” He called for you after not hearing a reply. “Everything good?”

“I need you to come over,” you replied.

There was a brief pause before Jay answered.

“Alright,” he said as he took a deep breath. “On my way.”

“Not to my place,” you hurriedly added. “The hotel. You know my schedule.”

“In that case,” Jay said, seemingly shoving something into his pants and opening the door again, “I’ll be there in ten.”

You frowned but Jay ended the call before you could even say something back. You decided to retreat to the bedroom and check your reflection in the mirror. Your black silk camisole was tucked into your beige cotton shorts, and you still had your hair down after the bath you had. You then remembered that you had not put on any fragrance yet, so you rummaged through your makeup pouch and spritzed on the first fragrance you could get your hands on.

The bell rang and your heart almost dropped to your feet. You did not think ten minutes would go by so fast. You grabbed the satin robe from the bathroom and quickly wrapped it around your body as you made your way to the front door. When you opened it, Jay stood in front of you with a confused look on his face.

He was wearing rimless glasses, which you doubt were a fashion statement, and underneath his denim jacket, he was wearing a graphic tee of some sort of logo you had never seen before. It seemed like he was going for a comfortable look, judging from the chinos he had on in place of jeans. The Converse shoes also made him look like a regular college student going for a fun night out in town.

“I was in the area,” Jay explained without waiting for you to ask him. “Which is why I could come fast but also unprepared. Did you need your iPad?”

“Just come inside,” you said softly, holding the door wide open for him. He hesitated before taking a few steps in. “Make yourself comfortable.”

Jay frowned, but at the same time, he started looking around and admiring the suite. “This is a nice view,” he stated, gazing outside the window. “So, what do you need me for?”

“You’re really going to make me say it?” You asked back, crossing your arms in front of your chest.

Jay took off his denim jacket and set it on a lounge chair. If he had to be honest, he actually sprinted here, determined to reach you as fast as possible even though he wasn’t quite confident if the reason he thought you called him was the actual reason you had.

At the sight of his arms, you breathed out dramatically, and it just made Jay even more confused.

“I just didn’t want to be alone,” you confessed, taking your robe off and throwing it to the same spot where Jay had placed his jacket.

You boldly took the couple of steps that you needed to reach him, and when you did, you carefully took his glasses off before circling an arm around his neck, making him instinctively pull you in by your waist.

“I wanted company,” you continued, placing his glasses carefully on the table nearby. “Your company.”

Hearing your confession, you could clearly see the way Jay’s lips curled up into a smirk.

“I canceled plans with my friends to be here,” Jay spoke in a whisper, gradually leaning in towards you.

Your eyes fell to his lips. “Why would you do that?” You asked back, also in a whisper.

“Because,” Jay said, hanging his sentence so he could graze his lips against yours.

“Don’t say because I’m your boss,” you spoke, purposefully against his lips.

Jay chuckled softly, and all you wanted to do for the rest of the night was to breathe the air that he exhaled.

“Because I think I’ll like it better here,” he said before sealing your lips with a deep kiss. You had to fight back a moan to not give him the satisfaction, but you still reciprocated his kiss.

“You think?” You said as you pulled back. “You’re not sure?”

Jay squeezed your waist, turning your legs to jelly. The moan you tried hard to stifle eventually found its way out of your lips when you felt his mouth latch on to your neck. You began caressing the back of his neck, squirming as he was determined to leave marks on your skin.

“Jay,” you breathed. “Fuck.”

“Hmm,” he hummed before pulling back to look at you. “Do you want me to continue?”

You cupped his face before smashing your lips onto his, making him take a step back to keep his balance. After that, you took his hand and dragged him to the bedroom. You sat on the edge of the bed and pulled him in by his neck, and after a short fight, he finally threw his body on yours, kissing you fervently as his hands tugged your shorts down in a rush.

When you felt his fingers trace your thighs, you felt the heat rush up to your cheeks. Your lips were still pressed on his, and his tongue was still tangled with yours, yet you were desperate to feel both elsewhere. Jay’s hand managed to slip in between your legs and your body jerked the moment he palmed your clothed core.

“Jay,” you called as both your hands grabbed his shoulders.

He answered you with a look in his eyes, demanding you continue what you wanted to say.

“I want to see what your head game is like.”

You weren’t expecting Jay to laugh, resting his head in the crook of your neck as his shoulders moved up and down.

“Ask and you shall receive,” Jay said after containing himself. “You really called me over so I could go down on you?”

“Okay, can you stop being so patronizing?” You moved your hand over to his chest, pushing him away.

“Whoa, whoa.”

Jay propped himself up with his elbow as he took your hand and brought it up to his lips.

“I’m sorry if it came off that way,” Jay spoke with his lips against the back of your hand. “I will gladly show you my head game.”

The way he emphasized the last phrase made you roll your eyes. Jay chuckled lightly, kissing your cheek as you looked away from him.

You relaxed once he started peppering kisses down your jaw and to your neck. At the same time, his fingers were skillfully pulling the straps of your top down, revealing your breasts, and perfectly matching the timing of his lips. He kissed your nipple softly before circling his tongue around it and sucking it gently, only to release it with a pop.

“Close your eyes,” Jay said. You were in no position to disobey him.

He continued kissing you while pulling your camisole down, bunching it up around your waist. He planted a harder kiss to the right of your waist before pulling your panties along with the top down to your feet. You kicked it away way too enthusiastically, and Jay merely smirked at the way you were behaving.

Your eyes were still closed, but you could sense that he was tugging his shirt off, and it was proven right when you felt him settle between your legs, placing both of your thighs on top of his now bare shoulders. He kissed the inside of your thigh and you flinched, and you could feel the way your arousal dripped out of you.

“God,” Jay muttered, more to himself. “You’re gorgeous.”

He bumped the tip of his nose and you whimpered at the delicious contact. Once he placed his mouth on your cunt you moaned, feeling an overwhelming mixture of pleasure and contentment. At first, he was just kissing your folds, making loud sloppy sounds on purpose, and when you began to moan louder, he decided it would be nice to let you feel the warmth of his tongue.

“Fuck,” you sighed, jerking your hips. You could hear and feel Jay chuckle against your core, lapping up your arousal and strengthening the grip he had around your thighs.

His tongue made steady strokes against your folds and your legs were already shaking from the pleasure. You couldn’t stop thrusting your hips and grasping the sheets under you, and Jay literally had to push you back down.

“Relax,” he said as he detached his lips. He looked up at you and you looked back at him through your lashes. “Stay down.”

“Fuck you,” you replied weakly. Jay laughed and placed his lips between your legs again, making you feel the vibration of his voice against your cunt.

You began jerking your hips up again and Jay figured that he needed a new way to keep you steady. He noticed how hard you were grabbing the sheets, so very slowly, he pulled your fingers apart before placing them on his head.

“Just grab here,” Jay spoke against your folds. “I don’t mind.”

You sighed once you feel his tongue graze your clit. After placing one hand behind his head, you realized it wasn’t enough, so after a while you rested both your hands on his luscious hair, pulling only when it became unbearable.

Soon after, your grasp on his hair tightened and you became silent. Jay’s eyes flickered to your face, and he tried his best to keep his pace.

“Are you close?” He asked. You replied by nodding frantically.

Jay continued to eat you out, keeping the same pressure and pace no matter how hard you squirmed or how harshly you were pulling on his hair. He let you grind your hips into his face, careful not to let his teeth graze you, and when you finally reached your high, he groaned against your cunt, almost matching the moans that you let out.

Jay waited for you to catch your breath, gradually lowering your hips down and gently stroking your thigh to comfort you. You were breathing with your mouth open, and only when you came back down from your high you realized how dry your throat had become. You licked your lips and coughed a little, and Jay winced at the sound that you made.

“Are you okay?” He asked, his hand giving you a gentle squeeze on your hips.

You nodded slowly as you opened your eyes. When your gaze met his, his lips formed into a smile. Not a smirk, a genuine smile.

“So, what do we think of my head game?”

“Oh my God.”

At the sound of your groan, Jay laughed softly, crawling up to level with your eyes. You hesitated when he leaned in to kiss you, but he did so in such a gentle way that you couldn’t help but whimper into his mouth.

“Do I taste okay?” You asked, your eyes glowing in pure curiosity.

“You,” Jay replied, kissing your cheek. “Taste,” he kissed your jaw. “Divine,” he whispered, kissing your neck.

You closed your eyes and pulled him into an embrace, sighing in relief as you felt his skin come in contact with yours.

“There’s gonna be a round two, right?” Jay murmured against your neck.

You smiled, almost snorting from the bold question. “Only if you stay with me throughout the weekend.”

“Deal,” Jay replied, not missing a beat.

-END-

© forjongseong 2023, all rights reserved

read the next part: tus gafitas

#writtenbynana #fic: dive #enhypen #jay #enhypen jay #jay enhypen #enhypen smut #enhypen jay smut #jay enhypen smut #jay smut #enhypen hard hours #jay hard hours #jongseong hard hours #jongseong #park jongseong #jongseong park #jongseong smut #enhypen x reader #jay x reader #nana secretary!jay agenda #Spotify

[riaaanna]

Montreux Part 6: The Mixing Desk with Justin Shirley-Smith - 2 Sept 2023

One more post for the afternoon session at the QSE in Montreux! It is well-known that the studio has a mixing desk feature where you can mix your own version of two songs: Made in Heaven and Mother Love. However, for the birthday celebration, Justin Shirley-Smith (!!!) was going to be there with many other tracks to select and mix, particularly some special ones from the debut Queen album.

I have to reveal my nerdy self - this was the event that convinced me to go to Montreux that day, dissertation deadline being a couple of days away and all. I could have gone any other day if it were just for the statue and visiting QSE, but this was unmissable. So here's a look at the studio first and then the event! Long fangirling post warning.

The top left photo (📸 Richard Gray) is what it looks like when it's empty, which obviously I couldn't get on that day but it's a clear view of where everything is. My photo on the top right was the view of the console in the studio that day. The newly inaugurated bust of David Richards was placed next to the mixing desk, but now it's been moved to the casino gardens. Written description on the plate:

David Richards 20 February 1956 - 20 December 2013 Musician, Sound Engineer, and Producer in charge of Mountain Studios While his name is most often associated with the British rock band Queen or even David Bowie, his numerous artistic collaborations have made him a major figure in the history of music. in addition to his work at Mountain Studios, which he bought in 1993, David recorded the Montreux Jazz Festival over a period of 38 years, contributing to the musical archives granted UNESCO World Heritage status in 2013.

There's a circular plate on the studio floor which marks where Freddie stood to record his last vocals for Mother Love. Honestly, no words needed to describe how profound and emotional it was for me to be there on the very same spot.

There were several display cabinets in the studio. Firstly a miniature replica of Freddie's statue, designed by Irena Sedlecká. Also on display on the other side of the room are the lyrics of A Winter's Tale and Mother's love which I posted previously here. Finally, there was also this analogue 24-track recorder:

Original Struder A80 Analogue 24 Track This Swiss made Struder A80 analogue 24-track recorder is one of the two that were used in this studio from the beginning in 1975. This machine, and the rack equipment either side, have been kindly loaned to Queen: The Studio Experience by David Richards.

And now to this baby!! Now this whole thing isn't an actual working mixing desk, save some actual faders that are designed to do so (only 10 of them) but it's certainly based on the original. Here's Justin Shirley-Smith's note regarding the console:

The console at Mountain Studios was a 1975 vintage Neve 8048. The Studio Experience exhibition features a specially created faithful and full-scale representation of that desk. The main surface of this is a 2D printed image formed from over 300 separate photographs of the original Neve modules. The frame and trim were constructed with reference to the original 1974 Neve drawings. This replica console was the work of the brilliant Nigel Knight and his talented team at RMA Ltd in UK. The original Neve console is now owned by Svenska Grammofonstudion of Gothenburg in Sweden, who kindly allowed it to be photographed by Andrew Guyton for this use. The original desk was updated in the late 1980’s with Neve ‘Necam’ moving faders but the image in the exhibition shows the original 1975 manual faders … and in the spot where originally there were sixteen red group faders, we have put some real red faders so anyone can mix a Queen song there once more.

You can see above the ten red faders which are functional and set up to mix Queen songs the way you want them. It's amazing because you get to hear certain backing vocals or instruments on their own if you set them all the way up and the rest of the faders down, and I have an obsession with getting to hear those kinds of things.

You can also see four red buttons on the right. Two of them are to select songs you can mix, which are Mother Love and Made in Heaven. The other two aren't for mixing but they do play Bicycle Race and The Invisible Man in surround sound in the studio. So these are the default options available on any day.

I took pictures of the rest of the "faders", which are actually just stickers but represented the original setup when it was used back then. You can see that there are Roger's drums (BD = bass drums, SN = snares, HH = hi hats, etc, OH = overhead? AMB = ambience? I'm just smart guessing!) John's bass, Brian's AC 30 amps, everyone's mics etc. All of which add up to 24-tracks. I wish I were an actual sound engineer to deeply know more about mixing details, but for me this was already mindblowing as it is!

Now this is where it gets fun! For the celebration, Justin brought out these songs available to mix. Basically he connected his laptop to the system so he can connect these multitracks. We just come up to him and request which one we want to try!

These handwritten boards are just labels that we put on top of the faders when we select the song, as a guide to label which fader corresponds to which track. They're removable and he would just put them on according to whichever song we chose. You can see that each song has different split tracks, some of them have more guitar and vocal tracks, some of them have more piano or keys, etc.

Here's a tiny clip of me trying on A Winter's Tale. I'm not left-handed but I had to hold the camera, and idk if you can see it but I was shaking lmao. This song always sends chills down my spine and to be able to hear just the backing harmonies or just the guitars? It was incredible oh my God. I was so grateful I could go to Montreux.

This was just a snippet of what I tried, because the room was open for 4 hours and I ended up being in there for 2 hours, which nobody else did lol. It wasn't empty, it was quite crowded but most people come in and out just to try 1-2 songs. To clarify I did not hog the board to myself for two hours lmfao (wish I could!) but I was in the room to watch other people give it a try and when there's no one else then I come up and try. I got about 4-5 tries I think!

So you can see it was a small room, and I swear I tried to not look like a weirdo standing there for 2 hours watching people do their stuff, and I really was gonna try to come up to Justin and chat with him at some point. Turns out he beat me to it, he came up and said hi(!!! 😭 but that's probably because I was just stood there in the corner for ages like 🧍‍♂️ sdkjfdfk). I told him could only be there that year and made sure to express that, despite not being sound engineering expert, his event was why I came to Montreux on the celebration day, and I think he was glad to hear it!

Anyway he was sooo kind and insightful. I asked him which songs he would recommend me to try, and which parts I should turn up to hear what you wouldn't normally hear very clearly in the album.

He suggested My Fairy King, which are there in raw tracks (without effects!) and because it's from the debut album. He suggested to turn up Freddie's piano in the last verse (the super quick instrumental part) and it was incredible to hear. I also got to hear which parts of that song had acoustic guitars (you wouldn't hear it as is on the song!), isolated parts of the drums and bass, and isolated vocals (you are NOT ready for Roger's isolated backing vocals oh my GOD).

Some other highlights for me are isolated everythings of Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy, Bring Back That Leroy Brown, and A Winter's Tale. I tried to spend time on tracks that we never had stems or multitracks of, either somewhere on the internet or from the official 5.1 surround mixes (which A Night At The Opera and The Game was once released in). And that's just those four songs I mentioned. Of course I wish I could stay the whole time to try every song and put on every isolated track, but I had to keep it together lol. Might you hear bits of these somewhere later on...? You know what they say about winning lotteries, I wouldn't say a thing but there might be signs...!

I stayed for as long as I could before my Ask Phoebe session, I requested several songs enough times that Justin jokingly said "didn't you try that one already" 💀 I didn't even have it in me to be embarrassed lol it's once in a lifetime my man let me live! But yes I eventually finished, got a selfie with him, and finally felt okay enough to go.

Have a bonus mirror selfie of myself on my way out. I'm sure I don't have readers left by this paragraph but if you're here, thank you for reading my Montreux series! Just one or two more before I wrap it up, and it will be on the Official Freddie Birthday Party!

Late edit: I want to put a big thanks to Lurex B. and Dry Paint Dealer Undr. That day I couldn't properly remember which songs we already had, whether in stems or full multis, so when I panicked in the chat they were the ones standing by online and helping me prioritize. They probably don't remember it being a big deal but that virtually held my hand throughout lol, so thank you guys. ❤️

#queen band #freddie mercury #brian may #roger taylor #john deacon #multitracks #Montreux #Ri goes to UK #Ri goes to Europe

[matan4il]

Last post of good-natured silliness regarding Mile and Apo's trips! (the first can be found here and the second here)

Jul 28, Mile posted a pic from the car in Paris in the rain set to Jazz (his and Apo's fave music genre). Then he started posting from flying back to and landing in Bangkok. He was wearing the same cap with a big 'A' on it that he wore during departure on Jul 19, even though weather wise, that cap didn't make sense then and even less so now.

When he left:

And as he returned:

This is kinda similar to Apo, who wore his trinket necklace both when he departed Bangkok on Jul 19 and when he came back on Jul 25. It has two silver circle rings, joined by a heart pendant.

Apo when leaving:

And upon returning:

Back on Jul 6, when they went to Song Wat together, I noticed these joined rings and that, because most of the time the heart holds the two together, it makes them look a lot like Mile's double circle silver ring, which he has had for years, way before KPTS.

While Mile's ring is obviously not connected to Apo, I did wonder when Apo started wearing his trinket necklace which includes this pair of joined rings, and whether they might intentionally have been chosen for their similarity to Mile's (once locked together with a heart). I can't actually answer any of these questions, other than to tell you that Apo doesn't seem to have worn these rings before he re-met Mile in Oct 2020. At least I couldn't find any evidence that he did, not on his fingers and not on his necklace (though he did wear other necklaces). The first time I could find him wearing the joined rings on the trinket necklace is a pic Apo shared on Sep 13, 2021:

He's also wearing it in a pic he shared Sep 16, 2021, you can see it a bit better there (especially since on Jan 10, 2022 he posted another pic from the same occasion where the necklace with the rings and heart is even clearer). Also, as far as I can tell, Apo changes the trinkets he wears with the paired rings, but he always wears those. Make of all this what you will...

Mile posted a vid on Facebook from the plane as it approached Bangkok, captioned it with text about saving money to construct, buy and decorate a house, and added this post to his "Happiness during the day" album:

He also pasted the same text about saving money for a house onto a vid of an apartment with a view of NYC, which he shared on his personal IG, and we all know who loves that city and even lived there for 7 months...

After landing, Mile posted on IG pics and vids from the Eiffel Tower in the rain on Jul 27, and he captioned them with "Something is more romantic with rain... #LikeYou ^^". Within 13 minutes, Apo liked the post and commented, "Very romantic."

Mind you, the entire 10 days they've been apart, neither one of them used the word "romantic" in any of their captions. While Mile WAS ACTUALLY IN Paris, at the Eiffel Tower, in the rain, he didn't use the word "romantic," but he did right away after he returned to Thailand.

Apo posted on IG 15 minutes after Mile did, sharing pics from Jul 21 in China, and he captioned them "Sleep no more." Except unlike me, Apo capitalized every first letter of each word, which is what Mile always does with his own captions in English. Mile commented not long after with "Cool."

Another thing to note is the day before, Jul 28, as Mile was flying back to Thailand, Apo posted a pic from China, from Jul 23, where he's doing a half heart, and he captioned it, "Miss you."

Just as a bonus... On the same day, while Mile was flying back to Bangkok, his mom posted multiple pics and vids of herself in a green shirt (Mile's color) and yellow pants (Apo's color).

Wait, bonus #2! Mile also mentioned returning very soon. Pond replied to a photographer that he'll see him in September. The Paris Fashion Week 2023 starts on Sep 25, so we might get some more Mileapo in Paris then.

Did I miss anything? Probably, there's been a lot. But I hope this series of posts made you smile! You can find more of my Kinnporsche/Mileapo stuff under this tag. xoxox

#mileapo #mkp #mile phakphum #mile phakphum romsaithong #phakphum romsaithong #apo nattawin #apo nattawin wattanagitiphat #nattawin wattanagitiphat #man suang #man suang cast #kinnporsche #kinnporsche cast #kinnporsche the cast #kpts cast #kpts the cast #the dots i've connected them

[mimisempai]

Witness of a Growing Love

Summary

She may be nothing but metal on four wheels, but she’s listened to enough love songs to know how to recognize it... 

So when an angel and a demon can’t figure out their feelings for each other, the Bentley decides to take matters into her own hands... or wheels?

Notes

Fanfic written for @theineffablecon 4 fanzine. 

And what if this time it was the Bentley that saved the day? 

Another sort of fix-it from episode 6

On Ao3

Rating G -  2182 words

Crowley leaned back against the Bentley and waited.

He still wondered how the situation could have deteriorated so much in such a short time.

After so many years, prompted by his conversation with Maggie and Nina, he'd finally poured his heart out and... nothing.

Apparently he and Aziraphale didn't want the same thing, or didn't want it anymore.

One proposal from Metatron and it would have been over.

Yet he still waited, hoping that maybe Aziraphale would open his eyes.

But deep inside he felt that all was lost.

His gaze was drawn to the door of the bookshop as it opened and he saw Metatron and Aziraphale come out.

They seemed to be chatting naturally as they made their way to the elevator.

Metatron looked as if he said something that surprised Aziraphale, who immediately lost his smile.

The angel then regained his smile before standing in front of the elevator and time stopped for a few seconds as he slowly turned his head toward Crowley.

The demon couldn't help but feel one last surge of hope.

But no, Aziraphale straightened his shoulders, smiled, and moved toward the elevator.

All was lost.

Crowley glanced toward the coffee shop, where Nina gave him a little wave that he didn't return, then toward the record store, where Maggie slept on the counter.

He climbed into the car and immediately the radio began playing.

“A nightingale sang in Berkeley square...”

Crowley instantly turned off the radio and the Bentley took off.

The car began to drive ahead, but suddenly, instead of turning left, she lurched forward.

Crowley shouted, "Hey, what are you doing?!"

She braked in front of the elevator, whose doors were still open, and the passenger door opened wide as the radio began to play loudly.

“So hold on now just hold on a minute

This car's not leaving if you're not in it

You've no idea how lucky we are

A wound that deep would normally scar”

Crowley and Aziraphale's eyes met and time stood still.

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

She drove through the burning streets of London, fearing for her bodywork as an angel and a demon chatted quietly in her cabin.

She had grown accustomed to Crowley's eccentricities over the years, but today he had brought a new individual with him.

For the first time, she had a passenger.

Strange.

"You know... that was a very nice thing you did for me."

The stranger seemed nice, not the kind of company she'd expected to see here.

"Shut up."

Idiot, he says thank you. Just answer "You're welcome" and you're done!

The stranger insisted.

As far as she could tell - she was just a car, after all - he seemed to like her demonic driver.

"There must be something I can do for you in return."

"Forget it, will you?"

Oh, there was something else in Crowley's tone. 

A new kind of sound.

A bit like that soft jazz music he liked to listen to sometimes.

Interesting.

More interestingly, when she took them from the theater to a bookshop much later in the evening, there was something new in the air.

And when they left the bookshop much later, the demon was not his usual self.

He said really softly, "You know, Aziraphale is someone special, you'll have to get used to him, because we'll probably see each other again."

The demon sighed, "Even if I don't know when, as always."

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

The angel had just gotten into the car. 

Crowley soon arrived, just as surprised as she was.

"What are you doing here?"

The angel looked a little uncertain and replied, "I needed a word with you."

"What?"

Aziraphale replied reproachfully, "I work in Soho. I hear things. I hear that you're setting up a... caper to rob a church. Crowley, it's too dangerous."

Finally, someone with some common sense.

The angel continued in a pleading tone, "Holy water won't just kill your body. It will destroy you completely."

Crowley retorted, "You told me what you think years ago. And I haven't changed my mind."

Stubborn idiot. I don't want a new driver. I'm used to you by now.

Aziraphale replied, "But I can't have you risking your life. Not even for something dangerous. So... you can call off the robbery."

The angel handed him a thermos and continued, "Don't go unscrewing the cap."

Hey, what's wrong with this one? Both as crazy as the other!

Crowley asked, "It's the real thing?" 

"The holiest."

Crowley's voice had inflections she'd never heard before as he replied, "After everything you said. Should I thank you?"

Of course you should.

"Better not."

Ah, well, no.

Crowley asked, "Well, can I drop you anywhere?" 

Good boy, well educated.

"No, thank you." 

She didn't need to see to feel the demon's disappointment, she could feel it permeating the cabin. 

The angel had seen it too, apparently: "Oh, don't look so disappointed. Perhaps one day we could... I don't know. Go for a picnic. Dine at the Ritz."

She'd heard enough love songs to know when it was in the air, and as much as she felt the disappointment in the demon's voice, she could feel the love flowing from the angel's.

But the demon felt nothing. 

"I'll give you a lift. Anywhere you want to go."

The angel shook his head and replied softly, "You go too fast for me, Crowley."

And there it was. 

Idiot, I always told you. Or thought.

You overdid it with the gas pedal and now you've hit a wall.

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

"You're so clever. How can someone as smart as you be so stupid?"

You're one to talk.

The way these two were made for each other and unable to say it to each other.

She was a heartless piece of metal and she could see it.

"I forgive you."

Oops, apparently that didn't go over well with the demon, who replied, "Oh...I'm going home, Angel. I'm getting my stuff and I'm leaving. And when I'm off in the stars, I won't even think about you."

Idiot and liar.

For years she'd heard Aziraphale - this, Aziraphale - that over and over again, angry, amused, affectionate.

But she had no choice, so she drove him away from the angel.

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

She had never driven so fast.

Fear and panic filled the cabin.

Her tires squealed as she pulled up to the burning bookshop.

Crowley ran inside.

He returned moments later.

She had never "felt" him like this.

He got in, dropped his head on the wheel, and whispered, "Bastards. They killed him. My angel."

Then he straightened up and grabbed a new pair of glasses from the glove compartment as she drove off.

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

They had come through the flames and reached their destination, burning. 

Actually, she was the only one burning. 

Crowley hadn't done too badly.

The important thing was that he and the angel were reunited. 

She had fulfilled her mission.

It was up to them to do the rest.

She could let the flames consume her now.

She left in an explosion.

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

She was now parked in front of the bookshop.

And the silence in the cabin was really uncomfortable.

She'd been around both of them long enough to decipher their behavior.

Especially since it had been the same for years.

Aziraphale not daring to ask Crowley to stay.

Crowley not daring to ask Aziraphale if he could have a nightcap.

"See you soon."

And there it was again, ending the same way.

Crowley replied, "See you soon, Angel."

They were tiresome.

Hey, idiots, I died in the flames to bring you together, and when I'm resurrected, you can't even admit how you feel!

Makes me want to drive into a wall.

Crowley stared at the angel for a few seconds, then left.

She hadn't said her last word.

She turned on the radio.

“Tell him 

Tell him that the sun and moon 

Rise in his eyes 

Reach out to him

And whisper 

Tender words so soft and sweet”

"Change the music now!" the demon admonished.

As you wish!

“I wanna be your lover

I wanna be the only one that makes you come running

I wanna be your lover

I wanna turn you on, turn you out”

"Are you fucking kidding me? Stop it! You know nothing! You're just a car! I can't tell him. There's no way my feelings are mutual."

There... we are finally making progress. 

Monsieur at least admitted that he felt something.

Now she had to deal with the other one. ***********************

It had taken him four years to finally get the second one alone.

She had to admit that the angel had pulled off a masterstroke.

He'd managed to get the keys. 

For that alone, she was willing to indulge Aziraphale's every whim.

Even if she felt Crowley's presence all the time because he wanted to interfere.

And he had succeeded.

She'd only agreed to change back to her original color because Crowley had threatened Aziraphale's books, and she'd known all along how much the angel cared about them. 

"He's really not funny," the angel said sulkily. "Yellow is pretty, because that's the color of his eyes. But of course I couldn't tell him. He can't know."

Of course he must know, you idiot!

Well, desperate times call for desperate measures.

Let's have some music!

“I fell in love with the Devil

And now I'm in trouble

I fell in love with the Devil

I'm underneath his spell “

"No. Not this one, thank you!"

Why not? Too scared to admit the truth?

Wait, I'll bring it up again!

“I know something about love

You've gotta want it bad

If that guy's got into your blood

Go out and get him

If you want him to be

The very heart of you

Makes you want to breathe

Here's the thing to do

Tell him-”

"I prefer silence now."

If anyone was never silent, it was the angel.

He wouldn't hold it for more than 1 minute.

5,4,3,2, -

"I can't tell him anyway. He's a... and I'm a... .... No, it's not that. He's one of the nicest people I know. But you see, I have a plan. The ball. It's about trying to tell him that..."

Another one that made her want to drive herself into a wall.

Wait, she had the music.

“That certain night, the night we met

There was magic abroad in the air

There were angels dancing at the Ritz

And a nightingale sang in Berkeley Square”

This time the angel didn't ask her to stop, so the Bentley told herself that all was not lost and that maybe these two idiots would have a happy ending.

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

So what had gone wrong?

Why wasn't she driving them to the Ritz as planned?

What was the angel waiting for in the elevator, the message was clear, wasn't it?

Get in the car!

We're not leaving without you!

And you idiot, call him! 

Shall I do the job again? All right, then!

Turn it up! Let's do it!

“I may be right, I may be wrong

But I'm perfectly willing to swear

That when you turned and smiled at me

A nightingale sang in Berkeley Square.”

Aziraphale seemed to snap out of his trance and took a step forward. The old man beside him tried to hold him back, "Azi-"

But the angel broke free, shoved him back and closed the elevator doors with a gesture.

He walked forward, entered the car and closed the door.

And now?

Nothing.

Nothing?

Are you guys kidding? 

You're finally together and you're looking at each other in silence!

Don't tell me...

Okay, but this is the last time.

And this time, no subtlety.

Let's have some music.

“If you want to kiss the boy then you better kiss the boy right now

You ain't got to be afraid of the words you want to say right now

'Cause love is a game we deserve to play out loud

So you want to play then you better kiss the boy

Oh, you better kiss the boy right now”

Aziraphale and Crowley looked at each other in silence, and when they realized the lyrics of the song, they couldn't help but laugh.

Nice start.

"I'm sor-"

"I shouldn't have-"

One of them said, "There'll be time to explain later."

And finally, as in the song, they did.

Clumsily, they embraced and lost themselves in an endless kiss.

They were so lost in the kiss that they didn't notice that the Bentley had just pulled away.

Nor did they notice the new song on the radio.

“I was born to love you

With every single beat of my heart

Yes, I was born to take care of you

Every single day of my life

I want to love you, I love every little thing about you

I want to love you, love you, love you”

Even much later, as they whispered forgiveness and vows to each other, interspersed with kisses and tender touches, they didn't notice the Bentley turning onto the freeway. 

Nor did they notice the sign that read: South Downs 59 miles.

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

Songs used for the story : 

Cars Not Leaving - Gabriel Bruce 

Tell him - Barbra Streisand/Celine Dion

I wanna be your lover - Prince

I Fell In Love With The Devil - Avril Lavigne

Tell Him - The Exciters

I Was Born To Love You - Queen

_________

Still not beta'd

Still not my native language

Still hoping you'll enjoy this story  🥰

Still thanking you for bearing with me 😝

Ineffable Growing Love series : here (After season 2)

Ineffable Husbands masterlist : here (Before season 2)

#good omens #aziracrow #ineffable husbands #ineffable boyfriends #aziraphale #crowley #good omens fanfiction #aziraphale x crowley #crowley x aziraphale #GOS2Spoilers

[every-aj-needs-an-angel]

Part 6!! Steddie Vegas AU. This one is long and so so stupid. Apologies in advance.

Part 1 -- Part 2 -- Part 3 -- Part 4 -- Part 5

The drive to Rachel was perfect. Minimal traffic, clear blue skies, the wind flowing through his hair and Eddie's hand in his. Thrilling in the way Eddie played with his fingers tapping out the beat of the songs and absentmindedly twisting his wedding band as he crooned along with the gentle jazz, soul and blues of the fifties that drifted through the speakers; seemingly unaware he was even doing it until the girls joined in. 

Steve knew better than to get involved, he'd never been able to hold a tune, but good ol' Frank was infectious, and by the fourth verse all four of them were belting out My Way. He knew he must have sounded awful but his carmates didn't seem to mind, they were all beaming with unadulterated joy, the girls collapsing into the backseat giggling together at the silly car insurance advert that was on its twelfth circulation, their elation contagious. 

He couldn't help but wonder how he'd ever made it this far in life without having this kind of moment every day, couldn't stop himself from pondering how he'd ever manage to live without it because he couldn't remember ever having a more wonderful morning, and he couldn't imagine ever having one again without these beautiful people to brighten his every moment, but he couldn't stop thinking that he had to keep grounding himself; couldn't keep from reminding himself that they were on holiday that this would eventually end, and he'd have to remember how to smile without it being because Chris was making Robin's eyes light up or because Eddie's voice was floating through the air, close enough to reach his ears.

The drive felt like it took no time at all, between the tinkling of pianos and laughter and the endless beauty of landscapes, the sun was already high in the sky by the time they arrived. They hadn't been out of the car for long before he was thanking his lucky stars that he'd chosen to wear his white linen trousers and pale blue cotton shirt because it was at least doing something to stave off the blistering heat, but Robin had definitely regretted her decision to wear all black. He wasn't sure whether it just felt hotter than on The Strip or whether the temperature was actually higher, but it was definitely warmer than either he or Robin had expected it to be; he couldn't believe he'd packed jackets, he didn't think even the darkest clouds could stifle the heat of the sun scorching the desert.

She didn't last more than half an hour before she was begging Steve to "do something!" The only thing he could think to do in the middle of nowhere was to borrow Eddie's penknife to turn her dark jeans into shorts. Of course, she then bemoaned that they had been brand new and "did they not know about malaria?!" even as he spread sunscreen liberally over her pasty calves, wordlessly handing her the bug spray out of the backpack, returning her grateful smile with a reassuring one of his own.

Chrissy, as it turned out, knew a lot about malaria; her stepdad had actually had it along with a myriad of other tropical diseases from his stint in the military before he'd met Chrissy's mum and when he learned of Chrissy's desire to go into medicine he'd told her all about it. It'd swung her career path toward pathology, then to biomed, but her mother wouldn't hear of it, telling her that girls didn't belong in science. Chrissy had ended up waitressing at the country club while she was waiting to pick a career path, then like Eddie had gone into the Carver family business, selling silverware because godforbid the snooty bastards have a waitress and a mechanic in their family.

The detour conversation seemed to have its desired effect, Robin was officially distracted from her spiral down tropical disease lane and Eddie and Chrissy earned themselves some much-desired and much-deserved PDA for their hardship, not that it could actually qualify as PDA when there wasn't another soul to be seen for miles around, not a human soul anyway, although Steve was sure the local reptiles had bigger problems than four queers canoodling.

So despite the mishap with her brand-new jeans, Robin did end up having the time of her life like Steve had hoped, really getting into the Area 51 atmosphere and treating the three of them like she was their personal tour guide, taking them to rarer sights, rattling off facts and telling endless stories. In all the time they'd known each other, Steve had never seen her smile so much, especially the few times she refused to stop for breath, when Chrissy would stop her rambling with a kiss that Robin pulling away from with a dreamy far off look, completely forgetting what it was that she'd been telling them.

He was actually quite impressed with himself when he'd actually managed to capture the moment on camera, immortalising Robin's "sorry this person is unavailable, please leave a message" look on film. That, as well as a couple of hundred other photos, the many opportunities to capture their adventure permanently being a major highlight of the trip because as beautiful as Rachel was, it didn't hold a candle to his three companions; Robin overjoyed with her destination, Chrissy overjoyed with Robin and Eddie, well, Steve didn't want to presume, but he liked to hope he'd had an enjoyable experience, the beaming smile on his face suggested he did.

Steve knew his luck wouldn't last, though, and it wasn't long before Robin insisted on taking his photo; they were standing on an obscure bit of road, signposted by a random boulder that was apparently distinguishable from all the other random boulders surrounding them. Robin demanded Steve was in the photo with said boulder, and as much as he was panicking, who was he to dampen her enthusiasm? Except he quickly realised he didn't really know what to do with himself because other than school portrait photos or the odd family-style holiday-card kind his mother organised, no one had ever really taken his picture before.

He'd felt incredibly lost as he'd stood awkwardly by the rock, but his sweet Eddie, his wonderful mind-reading Eddie, quickly came to his rescue. He and Chris had been dorking around cha cha chaing on the tarmac singing to Love Is Strange, which had been the last song they'd heard on the radio before Steve had cut the Cadillac's engine. Not even breaking character or their bit, Eddie telepathically checked with Robin that it was okay, boxstepping towards Steve as Chrissy called "Sylvia!" 

Eddie paused, looking coyly over his shoulder at his best friend, "Yes, Mickey?" he asked, resuming his slow movement toward Steve.

"How'd you call your loverboy?" Chris asked, waggling her eyebrows at Steve.

Eddie paused and pretended to think of an answer before shouting, "C'mere loverboy!" grinning smugly at Steve and beckoning him with a curled finger.

"And if he doesn't answer?" Chrissy asked.

Eddie put both his hands over his heart, fluttering his eyelashes, "Oh, loverboy!" he called flirtatiously.

Chrissy was grinning so widely and so indelibly, she had to bite her lip in order to ask, "And if he still doesn't answer?"

Eddie skipped the rest of the way to Steve, wrapping his arms around Steve's waist, looking up at him through his lashes, "I simply say. Baby!" Eddie sang, wiggling his hips to the guitar only Eddie could hear, trailing his way around Steve, sticking his chin over his shoulder, "Oh baby!" he crooned. Switching to his other shoulder and kissing his flushed cheek, "My sweet baby! You're the one," Eddie finished, snuggling into Steve's back like nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

Like he was just waiting for Robin to take their photograph, like he hadn't just serenaded him and rocked Steve's world, like Steve wasn't grinning like a buffoon, like he wasn't blushing from head to toe, like Steve's heart wasn't racing faster than was probably wise out in the desert and all Steve could do was shake his head, sharing a look with a bewildered Robin that said, did that really just happen?

And Steve might've been in a state of shock, but he still couldn't help relaxing into Eddie's grasp, interlinking their fingers around his waist, because Eddie may be a ridiculous man who did weird enactments of songs that no one else could hear, but he was Steve's ridiculous man. 

Robin finally managed to come back to herself enough to bring the camera back up to her eyes, Eddie smiling infectiously in Robin's direction, yelling a drawn out "Cheeeeeese!" 

Steve heard more than saw Robin snap the picture because he was too busy just staring at the awe at the crazy, goofy man that was his husband, and he knew he must've had the gooiest eyes in the photo because Robin snapped out of her stupor enough to start faux gagging, demanding they take another she could actually stand to look at.

Of course, the next one Eddie kissed him on the cheek causing Robin to complain loudly, then he'd spun Steve around to stare lovingly into his eyes and the next one getting ruined was Steve's fault because Eddie couldn't just act like that and look at him with that look in his eyes without getting kissed senseless, Steve feeling slightly better about his reaction to Eddie's performance when Eddie looked rather dazed as Steve eventually pulled away. 

Chrissy, probably sensing Robin's frustration, stepped in at that point, before the camera got thrown at the newlyweds or Robin's head actually exploded, yelled a sharp "Eddie!" which seemed to bring him crashing back down to earth. He looked over at the girls then down at the rock and suggested, "Piggyback?" Steve shrugged and spun around, so Eddie could climb onto his back, but Eddie just called him a silly goose in the gentlest tone, hoisting Steve into his arms, holding Steve bridal style, and Steve had never in his life been so thankful to be a Disney Princess.

He spent the whole day in a general state of bafflement, Steve had never been with someone so openly affectionate before, not just in a physical sense, meaning that Steve and the girls were often covered in flurries of hugs and kisses whenever the mood seemed to strike him. But Eddie was emotionally affectionate as well, and not just with him and the girls but with perfect strangers, too. There were times throughout the day when Steve just couldn't tear his eyes away, his heart soaring, his cheeks aching with the effort of smiling for so long because Eddie was just like a walking ray of sunshine, exuding a joy that made everyone around him feel warm and elated.

Steve knew they must've taken hundreds of pictures, each of them taking their turn behind and in front of the lens, photographs taken with landscapes and bits of debris and a lizard Eddie had named Chico who Steve had to admit was a pretty cool dude; he didn't try to eat anyone's toes and when he flicked his tongue out to lick the tattoo on the back of Eddie's ear (that Steve could only assume Chico thought was a fly) Eddie pulled the cutest face Steve had ever seen. It was the same face little kids pull when a puppy licks them for the first time, and honestly, he could only hope the picture came out clear, because if not he would be buying Eddie a lizard when they got home, so they could replicate the experience.

They all took plenty of candids too, especially given Robin's hatred of posed photos, despite her forcing the other three into a mix of terrible stock photo poses, there were photos of laughter when someone said something funny, and the adorable face Chrissy pulled whenever she was listening to Robin talk, pictures of Eddie attempting a cartwheel when Chrissy inadvertently started a competition, Robin sticking her tongue out in concentration as she attempted to follow the white line in the road perfectly, the look of adoration on her face when she inevitably fell and Chrissy knelt by her side to check she was okay, photos covered in sunscreen when Steve had accidentally got a blob on Robin's cheek while he'd been rubbing it into Eddie's neck, inadvertently causing a sun lotion war.

They took best friend photos and coupley shots, Eddie even managed to get a couple of professionally posed photographs of Robin and Chrissy with both of them actually grinning or laughing down the lens. And the more Eddie made them laugh and smile, the more he used his natural ability to capture it forever without making Robin pull her grimace photo face, the more endeared Steve became. Chrissy of course took one look at Steve watching Eddie and insisted on taking their picture, and honestly, wrapped around his husband or having Eddie wrapped around him made being in front of the camera a lot less painful than it'd once been.

In the end, they ran out of films for the camera, Area 51 ran out of attractions and Robin ran out of stories to tell, and suddenly they were all just kinda hungry, Chrissy emphasising the point when her stomach rumbled loudly. And as luck would have it, the closest place was a diner that happened to be run by believers. 

Fascination was always a good look on Robin, and amazingly the owners, Betty and her husband John, had a few stories she hadn't heard before. Just the fact that she was actually sitting still told Steve she was listening intently, long before she started asking more questions than either Betty or John had time to answer.

Chrissy seemed to just be basking in the glow of a captivated Robin, only snatching her eyes away when they were joined by other people, other believers who'd heard their conversation and wanted to join in. Steve marvelled at his three companions' ability to hold three separate conversations from the same table. He knew he personally had nothing to contribute, but that was fine with him, that just meant he could sit and listen and watch their brilliance in awe. 

Eddie was grinning wildly as he chatted with an older man who looked a little like a thin Santa named Phil, and Steve couldn't tear his eyes away, he didn't think he'd seen Eddie stop smiling once all day, not that Steve was complaining of course, he was ecstatic he was having a good time and was delighted to learn that the uncle who raised him was a believer as well and that Eddie was excited to take all their new stories home to him as Phil regaled Eddie with his own personal experience with Martians.

They'd stayed late, mainly because Chrissy had this uncanny ability to make friends with anyone and everyone. Steve could've sworn they must've got to know everyone in a fifty mile radius by the time the summer sun fell below the blinds, lighting the diner in golden hues. They'd heard and shared so many stories, that these people who'd been strangers just a few short hours before suddenly felt like friends, so much so, it felt hard to leave them. 

The foursome had to be literally ushered out the door by Betty, insisting that they take the picnic she'd made for them and go down to the summit to enjoy the sunset. Steve smiled as he waved goodbye as he drove them out of the parking lot even though it brought with it an intense feeling of sadness; a few hours in the grand scheme of things was no time at all but the diner patrons had made them feel like part of the family and the fact that he knew deep down that he'd probably never see any of them ever again just dug a hole in his heart.

The drive down to Coyote Summit was as short as Betty had promised, but she had been absolutely right, it was definitely worth it. The climb to the top wasn't difficult, even laden with enough food to feed a small army and the view from the top, honestly, it was nothing short of spectacular. Just a vast nothingness for as far as the eye could see all around them, it felt like being the only people in the universe, just them and the slowly setting sun. 

Between the four of them they got organised pretty quickly, the girls had pulled the beach towel out of the backpack and laid it out on the rough surface for them to sit on, Eddie lounged against the formation, leaving room for Steve to settle into the v of his legs, the bags of food between him and Robin within easy reach for all of them. Resting his head on Eddie's shoulder, Steve sighed contentedly, it'd been a long but glorious day, and he hadn't felt peace like this in a long time, especially when Eddie wrapped his arms around his middle, pressing a distracted kiss into his temple. 

Chrissy was happily curled under Robin's arm, the two of them chatting animatedly with Eddie, retelling the stories from the diner that the other two had missed, but Steve had already heard them and between the vibration of Eddie voice and laugh, and the serenity of their surroundings, Steve's body was being lulled into a deep sense of relaxation he hadn't felt since his last spa day.

A tranquil silence settled over the four of them, as the sky lit up in stunning pastel colours, leaving them to merely observe the beauty of nature. He'd taken Nancy up Weathertop once upon a time because he thought she'd find the sunset romantic, and she had, it was one of the few times a date with her hadn't ended in a raging argument, and it was nice, but it could never compare to a Nervada desert evening. Weathertop had been like puppy love, but the Summit was something indescribable, something like joy, like peace, like love.

Steve sighed contentedly and laced his fingers with Eddie's, pulling his arms tighter around himself, Eddie quickly taking the hint and dragging Steve closer. So close, he could feel Eddie's heartbeat against his back, the steady rhythm matching his own. So close, Eddie could tuck his chin over Steve's shoulder, the bits of Eddie's hair that had strayed from their tie tickling his face and neck. So close, all he could hear and smell and taste and touch was Eddie, all intermingled with something so ordinary yet extraordinary as the setting sun. 

He knew that it was a moment he'd never be able to forget, that from then on every time he saw the sun he'd think of sitting under the desert sky with his husband.

Husband! Steve thought gleefully, distractedly kissing Eddie's cheek.

It got dark faster than Steve had expected it to, but it was a night of a new moon, so the soft pastels turned quickly to a deep indigo and then an inky black interspersed by the blanket of stars, tiny diamonds twinkling for as far as the eye could see. The majesty of the universe sat before their very eyes, making him feel simultaneously like a giant in the silence of an empty desert and like he was no bigger than a speck of dust. 

It wasn't like it didn't get dark enough in Hawkins to see the stars, he just couldn't honestly say he'd ever bothered to take the time to look, not like this. And seeing it, really seeing it, for the first time, safe in Eddie's arms, felt as close to heaven as he thought he'd ever get.

Steve wasn't sure how long they stayed there staring at the sky. They had talked for a while, Eddie pointing out constellations, murmuring mythical legends into Steve's ear. Robin eventually dragging the two boys into their quiet discussion of what the world would be like in five years time; a philosophical discussion that turned into hushed admissions of hopes and dreams for their own futures, of childhood career aspirations, of growing up with the two-point-four ideal and the realisation that that wasn't their destiny, of first kisses and heartbreaks and gay awakenings.

It was only when something howled too close for any of their liking that they gathered their things and headed home. Steve as thrilled as he was the first time to be back behind the wheel of the Cadillac with Eddie, wrapped in Steve’s hoodie, his hand grasped in his own. They were barely ten minutes into their journey, when Steve glanced in the rearview mirror to see Chrissy fast asleep on Robin's shoulder, only the depths of the darkened landscape keeping Robin alert, her hopes of seeing something stronger than her desire to nap, her denim jacket draped over them both.

He couldn't help smiling to himself, he knew his best friend was in love, there was no other explanation for her behaviour because as much as she enjoyed affectionate she also liked her own personal space, normally Robin would’ve laid her girlfriend gently against the window of the car or the arm of the couch if they fell asleep on her, but she was perfectly content with Chris curled into her side, drooling on her new Metallica t-shirt that she'd got from the concert the night before. 

The radio was on but at a much lower volume than the drive there, the songs had changed from the fifties to the sixties, sad country songs finding their way into the soulful mix reminding him of quality time with Hop. Eddie had started off the journey singing quietly, almost to himself, which slowly transitioned to humming along, Eddie eventually going silent altogether, Steve glanced over to see why he'd stopped, wondering if he'd nodded off upright, but he was just staring out the window, silent and almost pensive, holding Steve's hand so tightly that Eddie's rings were digging into his skin, effectively cutting off the circulation to his last two fingers. 

What A Wonderful World drifted through the speakers, Steve squeezed Eddie's hand gently and began to mutter the lyrics under his breath along with the music, glad that Louis didn't make him sound too much like a squawking parrot; stealing another quick glance at his husband, pleased to see him smiling and mouthing the lyrics back at him. It didn't last though, the song changed and Steve could feel Eddie staring at the side of his face, almost like there was something on it or like he was trying to imprint it in his memory. He thought about joking that a photo would last longer but thought better of it when he glanced over and saw the look of devastation on Eddie's face, he looked like he was about to cry.

"Y'okay?" Steve murmured, squeezing Eddie's hand twice in quick succession which seemed to snap Eddie out of it because when Steve chanced another glance at him, he was grinning at Steve, but it just didn't quite meet his eyes, and it might've fooled someone else, but Steve knew something was amiss.

"Never better," Eddie muttered, lifting Steve's hand to kiss his knuckles just over his wedding ring. Steve knew it was a lie, but he didn't want to call Eddie out or start an argument after the amazing day they'd had, he just had to hope Eddie would talk to him when he was ready. All Steve could do was cling on, pulling their hands to his lips and kissing the back of his hand, and hope everything would be okay.

The drive back from a destination always seemed shorter for reasons Steve never understood, but it didn't seem to take long before they swapped the light of the stars for the lights of The Strip; the evening just barely starting in Sin City even though it had long since gone dark. Eddie asked if they could eat before heading back to the hotel; they’d enjoyed their picnic, but that had been a few hours ago and when Steve saw a shining golden M lighting up the sky, he had a sudden craving for burgers. 

Upon his carmates agreement, he pulled into the car park, already mourning the loss of driving his beloved Cadillac but enjoying the chance to finally stretch his legs, except the restaurant was loud and hectic, filled with merry revellers and being surrounded by the banality of hen dos and 21st birthday parties just felt wrong. In the fluorescent lights Steve could see how dead on her feet Robin looked, her eyes were red whether from straining or crying, he wasn't sure, but he knew the last thing she needed was idiotic chaos. Eddie didn't look much better, and Chrissy looked like she wanted to tear herself in two to take care of them both.

Crowding the other three back towards the door, Steve said, "Go back to the car, I'll get dinner." Feeling the appreciation of his companions in their grateful smiles, "What does everyone want?" Steve asked, trying his hardest to remember their muttered orders before they disappeared back outside. Steve ordered their dinner then nipped into the bathroom, washing his hands and splashing cold water on his face. He was exhausted and worried about Eddie and Robin but knew getting stressed wouldn't help any of them. Sighing heavily, he waded through the mania, collecting their food and heading back to the car, getting to enjoy the night air, being in the other's company and Elvis' soulful voice floating through the radio. Almost feels like we're back in the sixties.

Steve sat twisted in his seat, tangling his legs with Eddie's in the footwell, his arm thrown over the back of the seat, so he could keep an eye on Robin. Not that she was paying any of them any attention, she was just staring at the food in her lap, deep in thought. Steve knew better than to interrupt her, but Chrissy's concern was written across her features as she tried to stealthily catch his attention. He raised his eyebrows questioningly and when she flicked her eyes at Robin he could tell she was asking if her being so quiet was normal, which was fair, other than sleep, Robin rarely stopped speaking. Steve didn't think he'd ever known her to be quiet for two solid hours before, but they’d shared a lot back at the summit and over the years he'd found that heavier conversations tended to take it out of her. He couldn't know for sure what exactly was going on in Robin’s head, but he knew she'd let him know as soon as she had it figured out.

He smiled as reassuringly as he could at Chrissy, trying to let her know that it'd be fine, that Robin was probably just processing, and she'd be back with them when she was ready. And the spooky thing was Chrissy seemed to understand him, sighing in relief, she sagged back into her seat, letting all the tension out of her body as she glanced around, soaking in the atmosphere. Up until a few days ago the only person Steve had ever been able to wordlessly communicate with was Robin, he always assumed it was because they were soulmates, two halves of a whole, sharing one brain most of the time, but both Chrissy and Eddie had managed to understand Steve and at times he'd been able to understand them too, and it made him wonder if maybe they weren't halves at all but quarters. 

Eddie had noticed their silent conversation and smiled gratefully at Steve, taking his hand to kiss each of his knuckles, then the back of his hand, then up his arm, getting grease and salt all over his skin. Robin finally looking up and giggling at Eddie's antics, some of the sparkle coming back into her eyes, Steve pulling Eddie closer, so he could kiss him on the forehead, smiling appreciatively at the love of his life.

He'd never had a partner who cared as much as Eddie did, who made life fun, who was willing to be silly just to make someone smile, and honestly, Steve couldn't quite believe he was real sometimes. Just the amount of tiny things Eddie had been doing in the short time they'd been together that made Eddie so perfect, he just blew Steve's mind and by this point, he was under no illusions, he was already head over heels in love.

He was on the verge of freaking out about the consequences of that particular realisation when Robin broke his train of thought, "Evie!" she singsonged.

Parking his emotional crisis until later, he gave his best friend his undivided attention, "Yes, Bobs?" he asked.

Robin looked so serious, he assumed she was about to tell a joke. It was just what she did, like she had to think hard about something awful in order to get through the whole joke without bursting into hysterics. "I want a tattoo!" she declared, throwing Steve completely.

He wasn't sure where she was going, if she was joking or not, it was disconcerting. He blinked owlishly and with a nervous giggle said, "Okay?"

Of course, Robin didn't appreciate that, she scowled at Steve, "I mean now," she insisted.

Steve was surprised, it wasn't something she'd ever mentioned, and over the years they'd talked about near enough everything there was to talk about. The last thing he wanted her to do was to make a spontaneous decision on something so permanent, "Oh! Don't you have to research that kinda thing?" he asked, trying to make sure he sounded curious and not judgemental.

Robin wasn't fazed though, she just snorted, "Like you should research wedding venues?" she snarked.

Chrissy and Eddie burst into hysterics and all Steve could do was blush, fair point, "Touché!" he chuckled.

Eddie smiled gently at him, putting his hand on Steve's knee and reassuringly rubbing his thumb back and forth, "What're you after, Songbird?" he asked her.

Robin shrugged, "I dunno, lights? Stars? I want it here," she explained, showing Eddie the inside of her middle finger, "So something small, y'know?"

-----------------------------

Eddie nodded intrigued, looked excitedly at Chrissy and exclaimed, "Don't worry, I know just the place!"

Part 7

Tag list @estrellami-1 @gregre369 @adhdsummer @nerdfighteratheart @anaibis @hbyrde36 @dolphincliffs @marinarasarah @deadflowercollector @lunabookworm @a-couchpotato @wonderland-girl143-blog @ddharrington feel free to lmk if you want removing 💖

#this has been proof read to death i just suck at this i'm sorry #i love you guys for sticking with this dumb story #steddie vegas au #steddie au #steddie #background buckingham #platonic stobin #platonic hellcheer #steve harrington #eddie munson #robin buckley #chrissy cunningham #steve's pov #aj writes

[the-scarecrow-of-aus]

Chapter 3 is finally out.

(Hopefully writers block stops using my head like the log truck in final destination treats the people in the car behind it)

Chapter 3: difficult meeting's

Summary:

Jazz has had a rough time, the justice league are having a rough meeting

Notes:

*shaking myself by the collar* that's it, no more tinkering. post the darn chapter you anxious fool!

sorry about the delay, writers block. At least I got time to plan and plot out the rest of the storyline.

here's the chapter that was meant to go out late august.

Enjoy!

Gotham -the night of the Kansas storm.

In a small apartment in the narrows near crime alley a young woman sat on her bed thumbing a golden amulet with one hand, in the other she gripped a thin folder, a strange hunger in her eyes.

Her gaze snapped to the front door as voices could be heard approaching and she tucked the amulet into her jacket warily, she relaxed as she heard her room mate come in, talking over her shoulder at the neighbour "ha! Jokes on you, I'm into that shit!" She closed the door laughing and turned around freezing at seeing her room-mate sitting unmoving in the dark. "Oh shi... ancients jazz! you look terrible, you eaten lately?"

The thought of eating twisted her stomach for some reason, She shook her head and turned to the clock "he said not to eat until after the league received the files, that the meeting would be more effective if I was a 'little' off..." ember frowned before replying "that sounds creepy, *sigh* I'm sure the old man had a reason but still..." she trailed off before heading over to her room, tossing a book bag in and grabbing her guitar case "well... I have a gig at noonans Bar tonight, Baytor finally got back to me about work there. should help us for when the iceberg lounge is closed for 'urgent' repairs, You sure you don't want a feed before you go?" Jazz shook her head "I need the meeting to go right, I'll do whatever it takes to fix things".

Both their eyes glanced over at a metal thermos sat on top of the fridge, repurposed electrical wires spliced it into the fridges power supply, the outer shell of the thermos and its circuits cut open and cannibalised.

Looking through the mess of wires and circuits down to its inner layer, you could see it generating a low amount of blued mist, constantly emmited out of the shell only to be pulled back into the thermos opening as if there was a draught, in its stead it emitted a low red light from the mouth of the thermos, as if there was something else within.

Ember, eyes closed for a moment shivered, opening her eyes again and rubbing her arms like she was cold, she murmured "guess its gonna be sad songs tonight" before drawing her attention away and headed back out the front door "alright, I want you to call me if anything happens tonight, OK? No arguments!" She called not waiting for an answer as the door closed behind her.

Jazz continued to sit in the dark patiently watching the clock, she didn't get bored nowadays and that was marginally useful if a little annoying at times. She would prefer to be back home in amity with Danny though, not that that could happen anymore.

finally after time in the dark apartment the clock hit 6:15, unfolding herself from the bed she got up giving the thermos a lingering glance before leaving the apartment, it was time.

-

-

Jazz left her apartment and hailed a cab, keeping a weathered eye out for tell-tale signs of a trap, the last thing she needed was to be delayed by joker gas or fear toxin, heck even the Riddler grabbing hostages for some convoluted bomb scenario.

The trip through the dark city of Gotham didn't take long, the city was abnormally quiet tonight, minimal traffic. 'probably Gotham itself is trying to keep things quiet' jazz thought, giving silent thanks to the old spirit of the city who was willing to give her refuge.

All the rogues were supposedly in Arkham right now or laying low, as she travelled she could see the shadow of capes flick around roof corners as the vigilantes started their patrols across the rooftops guarding the city.

The taxi left the city proper climbing up to where Wayne manor resided, as the taxi driver pulled up to the gate possibly hoping to get into the manor grounds and look around jazz stopped them, thanking them for the ride and paying the fare.

As she waited for the taxi to leave disappearing down the road, she stared up at the manor then back down the path, nervously approaching the gates

"OK jazz, you got this. Just like we practiced".

-

-

Alfred pennyworth having bid all his charges good luck as they went out into the night, had just finished cleaning up after dinner and was preparing to settle down when there was a clear sharp knock at the front door, he frowned.

There had been no alert from the front gate and no sensors had gone off (nor his own personal alarms strangely).

For a moment He assumed it was Ms Cassandra forgetting something or possibly master Damien sneaking back with another stray cat he didn't want his father to find out about, but he highly doubted that, Damien would always use the back door and Ms Cassandra wouldn't need to knock.

After pinging the bat clan that something was up he answered the door, one hand holding his shotgun behind the door as it unlocked and opened.

A tall young woman with white streaked red hair, strange burns and cuts around the corners of her mouth and the look of a predator stood slightly back at the entry, hands clasped in front of her politely holding a document folder.

She smiled politely as well, not showing teeth and introduced herself. "Hello, it's Mr Pennyworth correct? My name was Jasmine Fenton, I apologise for disturbing you unscheduled but I have an urgent delivery to 'Agent A and the Batman for the Justice League', it concerns their current meeting".

She somehow spoke the names in a way the words didn't travel beyond him, he didn't know how but Alfred was certain the sound disappeared quickly without any sort of echo after it reached his ears.

Alfred, ever the consummate butler not to mention a senior member of the bat family was observant enough to see the signs of stress and nervousness hidden on her face, he smiled and opened the door wider "it will take a moment to arrange things, would you like to come inside and have a cup of tea while you wait?"

Jazz smiled slightly more, lips parting enough to show sharp teeth slotted together, her canines and the teeth next to them much longer then a normal humans.

"only if you would like me to, I'm just here to deliver the files. I can wait outside for confirmation or leave if you prefer, my contact information is in the folder if need be".

Alfred noted the teeth but chose to look at her with heartfelt concern "nonsense my dear, please come in. Perhaps I can make you something to eat, you do look hungry".

She looked sad as he invited her in and murmured "thank you, but tea is fine, I highly doubt you could feed me what I need".

---

---

The watchtower -primary meeting room, night of the Kansas storm.

It had been a week from hell for most members, everybody not doing intelligence gathering was dealing with hard nosed politicians refusing to admit any wrong doing or shady government officers who were urgently trying to destroy any evidence that they were connected to said wrong doing, sometimes it was the same people.

Attempted tracking of the two spirits who escaped the facility was vexing, originally all sightings pointed to them heading directly towards a small town in Illinois, but the moment league members got close to the town their comms completely shut off and the spirits disappeared from all media and view, this was later tracked back to another GIW facility based in the area that blacked out all outside communications within the town as part of a legal sociological experiment they had 'volunteered' for.

More investigations would have to be done on that as well.

With no way to track them physically or electronically, the league chose to switch to more magical means of tracking. More duties falling on the few JLD members there were, raven was the one currently on duty. She had last reported there was interference for the tracking of the spirits but hadn't checked back in yet.

Examination of data recovered from the facility had been just as difficult, all secure information seemed only viewable on the hardware from the building, of which very few hardware pieces survived the destruction intact. Watchtower technicians were carefully piecing together the functioning pieces into working computers.

The computer parts themselves while definitely low tech had what Constantine called ectoplasm ('heavily filtered, concentrated and refined Lazarus water' he grudgingly accepted as a description) mixed and bonded into their construction. Unfortunately attempts to recreate the pieces using the leagues limited supply of Lazarus water failed to work, simply frying the circuit boards.

As such any attempt to view it on normal or league technology resulted in either the data being unreadable or (unfortunately for the Batcomputer) tore the machine apart trying to comprehend it. Now even cyborg was wary to examine the data.

-

-

[Entry: green lantern-06, Constantine John, wonderwoman-01, superman-01, zatanna-01, flash 02, Question 00, Martian manhunter-01, green arrow-01, Dr Fate 02, captain marvel-01.

Zatanna spoke to the tower A.I "computer, please note Deadman also in attendance" the computer beeped in confirmation with her casting a spell quickly to let them communicate with Boston.

Batman studied the reports as league members involved in the case, both dark and light filed in. "How goes the containment of the facility, there are disturbing reports coming in from people near the site".

Constantine lit a cigarette glaring right back at anyone who tried to stop him. "Bad, but securely contained. I reached out to some of my more 'questionable' contacts for additional resources to help strengthen the barrier but until we find out what exactly did it and how to reverse it, all I can do is speculate on what's happening in there and how to stop it".

Green arrow spoke up "couldn't we ask those agents? What about the survivors from the lab, has there been any update?"

Constantine shook his head "I wouldn't trust a word that came out of that agency's mouths if I were you, that being said the agent that attacked the lanterns is the only lucky one, he must have been on a doughnut run or something when it happened. Either he knows nothing or is too devoted to his cause, he won't speak to us... it's that or he's just plain crazy now, but who am I to judge".

"Usually the first, since you often call me crazy" said the flash cheerily getting a glare from Constantine in return.

"Your entire family can break the sound barrier wearing sand shoes and have a habit of screwing with time, of course I think you're crazy. But for the agent, He's basically enthralled, the perfect employee".

"Care to elaborate?" Asked captain marvel

"Sure, From the medical observation it looks like he had already been systematically driven insane by something, then he latched onto his organisations beliefs to try and keep himself alive, 'probably didn't even question the surgical procedures they did to themselves...' uh, basically doubling down to anchor himself. Otherwise he probably would have had enough self control to avoid recklessly attacking the lanterns".

Batman spoke "what about those still in medical. is there any way to question them?"

Constantine looked weary at this, taking a last drag of his cigarette and stubbing it out. Breathing out the cloud of smoke he finally answered "there's no coming back for them. Their bodies might heal, those that are capable, but they won't truly live anymore"

"Oh dear, Why, what happened to them?" Asked Wonder-woman wondering what was troubling Constantine so badly.

"Mass Soul disruption" said Constantine itching for another cigarette. The answer made Wonder-woman, Zatanna, Doctor fate and even Deadman floating in the room visibly flinch.

"from what I could divine, after months of torture the agents must have broke open their captives core's and abused them. A ghost core is basically their heart, soul and mind. One of the spirits probably decided they had nothing left to lose anymore and let loose. those that were in the room got what was coming to them, for everybody outside, consider their deaths a mercy"

"What is soul disruption exactly?" Asked superman raising a hand, he and most of the non magic leaguers looked confused.

Zatanna uncomfortably gave the answer "soul disruption is a general term to explain damage to or loss of a soul" Zatanna paused and looked to where Boston floated, concern and worry plain on his face "stories say that a person without a soul is bound to become evil, but most of the time they just end up as figurative zombies, maybe over a long time period they could slowly recover. they can still perform tasks but no spark of life, empathy or creativity anymore, they're just on autopilot doing what they're told".

Lantern Simon baz spoke up "could I assume this 'Soul disruption' that caused the explosion is related to the green flames we saw on first arrival? Because I was unable to track any specific damage in the collapsed building short of the hole melted into the roof"

Constantine nodded "yes and no, the original explosion was the only attack that actually happened. In a tight underground space it reverberated around destroying anything it hit until it found a weak point and was funnelled up the elevator shaft, now concentrated, the wall of resonate sound melted through anything close by and shattering anything solid in its way. It forced itself out of the building, dispersing into the atmosphere with all the lab ectoplasm stores and debris which caught fire. more like a volcano erupting, unfortunately normal volcanic explosions don't make screaming skull shaped clouds".

Members that had been within earshot of the blast winced as they remembered the horrid sound

Constantine had finished the cigarette too fast, he definitely needed another but he held off, no sense in antagonising the bat with his habit. "Yeah… from what was recorded and reported, it sounds like a cry or scream, not an explosive blast".

Zatanna froze "scream? from a spirit... like a wail?... as in 'banshee?'... Oh gods damn it!" Hearing her curse and cover her mouth had the rest of the league concerned, Zatanna just stared blankly ahead, deep in thought without responding.

Boston gently poked her trying to snap her out of it "uh, maybe an explanation for those who don't know what a screaming lady has to do with this?"

Sighing Constantine grabbed the second cigarette, lighting up. "Ok, cliff notes on Banshee's.

-Creature's of myth from the olden days back home.

-they have an important job, which is they wail when a person is going to die.

Dramatic? Sometimes, Prophetic? Usually, supernatural? definitely.

-they do it for a very important reason though, it helps souls cross over without lingering, basically a reminder message to pack your bags and turn off the stove".

He shrugged at the assembled leaguers, some still looked confused "look, Without it the entire UK would have been overrun by the undead a millennia ago".

"Isn't England already full of ghosts and undead now anyway? I assume that's the reason we pack Nth metal weapons anytime we go over there" the flash asked, gaining an annoyed look from half the members present, including Constantine, "blame Charlemagne" He dryly replied.

"The species themselves emigrated from this plane along with a few other species like the yeti's when humanity went into their holy war's phase, mostly to avoid eradication. Smart thinking in my opinion, but that's not the issue.

A Banshee by themself isn't strong enough to do this damage, when they left earth, they all had to work together just to pass through the veil. Mostly they're human offspring of something vaguely referred to in historical records as half spirits.

So with the mounting evidence: it's dangerously possible that the GIW agents caught a progenitor of the banshee's... which would be really bad".

Mythology lesson apparently done, Batman gave Constantine a gesture to get him back on track.

"The major issue is, they did something so horrible to a creature related to a banshee, a creature who normally only warns of death.

With the use of a full strength wail, this spirit basically ruptured the fabric of reality in that area when it blasted their souls out, shredded them like a pressure washer on seafoam. The bodies in medical, they're empty vessels".

There was a priority comm beep from Batman and he excused himself to answer it quietly, Zatanna seemed to stir, while still looking deep in thought she spoke quietly "we need to prepare for what comes now".

"Prepare for what?" Asked wonderwoman.

"Prepare for whatever comes looking for the spirit that cried out and hope it's friendly not hostile".

Constantine considering a third cigarette went paler if possible "oh crap, I missed that part. Oh no, ohnonono crap! that's gonna cause problems".

Batman came back to the meeting and perhaps hoping to avoid witty remarks from the flash or arguments among the league members asked the question brewing: "what's the likely scenario, what will happen?"

Again Zatanna spoke "the creature would have left a tear in reality at the site. worse case, something notices the tear and tries to get into our world through it, knowing our enemies probably something infernal and therefore a Hellmouth may form".

Constantine, Boston and captain marvel groaned in different levels of stress "blast it, I'm definitely gonna need more resources, hey bats reckon you can stomach the bile to ask Lex for assistance? Nobody likes having a Hellmouth in their backyard"

"no, nope, I don't do hellmouths. They're uncomfortable to be near and eat at my soul"

"I can probably get some more help from the rock of eternity if needed?..."

The members broke out in various discussions like this till batman interrupted them "this meeting will need to be suspended for the moment, new information has just been brought to my attention down in Gotham and I need to personally verify it, we will pick back up in half an hour in conference room 3".

Green arrow called to batman as he got up to leave the meeting room "what kind of information?"

"An unknown woman appeared unexpectedly at Wayne manor with hard copy files pertaining to this meeting. Constantine, the first page was a letter to you, you're with me".

"Like bloody-hell I do! Most letters addressed to me are either letters of debt or the magical equivalent of letter-bombs, sometimes both. I'm not going near it!" Batman nodded not stopping, instead tapping a button on his gauntlet "the letter mentioned that".

The meeting rooms projector displayed a scanned shot of a slim stack of papers. The first page was a letter directed to Constantine:

John Constantine,

Two matters of urgent importance:

1. please come verify the authenticity of these documents or I will call in 'my' favours to Satan, Beelzebub and azrael regarding your 'shared' contracts.

2. Please summon me using the enclosed sigil for convenience, meeting room 3 will suffice. I have a matter to discuss with the league regarding the topic of your current meeting and to notify you all of destabilising incidents in the realms related.

(Batman, please be advised that Constantine will not trust this letter expecting a trap, show him a photo of this page to get him moving)

Don't keep me waiting John, you know I can't leave the realms easily 'without' consequence.

Yours in time

Clockwork (formerly Kronos)

Ghost of time

-

-

"Oh... bollocks... rutting, friggin bollocks, there's the blasted problems we were worried about" swore Constantine stalking out of the room after batman.

Boston took one look at the letter and shuddered "OK, I changed my mind. The Hellmouth it is, no way am I staying here if he's showing up"

Green arrow didn't get the chance to work with Boston often, the few times he did was through the proxy of possession so he sat and observed Boston's expression, trying to decide if it was fear or disgust... what he saw instead was envy and concern... whoever this clockwork guy was, Boston was worried about been seen by him.

The various JL members talked amongst themselves while they waited, hopefully batman wouldn't hold things up by interrogating the woman...

"Who's Charlemagne?" Captain marvel asked Zatanna quietly.

---

---

Wayne manor

Batman and Constantine zeta'd to the Batcave, immediately taking the main lift up to the manor. Constantine looked confused "uh, bats? We not taking the scenic route through to the front door?"

Batman gritted his teeth as he answered "there was an additional note attached to the letter, it was addressed to 'Bruce Wayne' and Alfred, in mine and Alfred's private security cypher, it was a warning that there was a security leak in the watchtowers systems and how to find it. Oracle is currently investigating, as for the woman, she seems aware and the note identified her as this 'clockworks' granddaughter, I need you to verify who she actually is"

"Verify if she's the grandchild of the mad titan? Are you kidding me, how am i supposed to do that? We already have Diana, and I doubt any of those Olympians could keep it together long enough to create another demigod! Can't you just look her up or did the Batcomputer explode again?"

Batman growled in answer, exiting the elevator into the manor heading straight for the kitchen. Constantine slowly grinned and held in a laugh as he followed "oh, so that's why were taking the direct path, going out the backdoor takes us past the computer! So it blew up again huh?" Batman glared at him "Yes, the same way it blew up when we tried to examine the GIW data. I need to know why it reacted to her like that".

-

Alfred was in the kitchen talking politely with Ms jasmine, she seemed insistent for him not to call her a Fenton. Apparently there was a huge falling out and jasmine was in the process of legally changing her name, a task that seemed to be more difficult then normal.

"So we get back to amity, i find out what they did to my siblings, enter the local justice department and I reach the front desk only to find those asshole agents waiting for me there like they own the place, they tried to charge me as an escaped fugitive and shoot at me again so I broke their noses and slipped back out of Illinois before they could hunt me down. Then I went off grid, planting a trail leading to my aunts place and made my way to Gotham with my friends"

"That seems rather dangerous, will your aunt be OK?"

"Oh yeah, it was her idea. After star city aunt Alicia completely disowned Maddie, she knew it wasn't safe in that house and had been trying to get Maddie to stop and think, but... after what happened to Danny and then me... Maddie's on her own, there's no chance for her anymore".

"No I mean will your aunt be OK from those agents?" Jazz snorted "oh yeah no, she'll be fine! Aunt Alicia said if we are going to come, go through Danny's space camp trail. Everywhere else will be a kill box".

"I see... well, next time you talk to her tell her I said good hunting"

Jazz was interrupted from further talk by the dark knight and a shabby blonde man in a overcoat walking into the kitchen "oh, hello Mr Batman sir. I'd say It's nice to meet you but honestly I hoped to never meet you outside of a university lecture, in fact I was honestly expecting a robin to come get the files... aaand you are that occult guy from a few years back who tried to make my parents stop their research. Mr... continuoustein?" Jazz cocked her head in thought.

"Constantine, and your name lass?"

"Oh I'm just Jazz now, formerly Fenton"

Constantine froze and stared blankly at her "you're little jasmine? 'Jazzy-pants? From amity park's Jack and Madelyn Fenton?"

"I hate that name but Yes, why are you so confused?"

"Sorry, I just wasn't expecting you of all people to be here, weren't you a strict non-believer and studying to be a psychologist?"

Jazz stared at him hard "I was yes, then Danny had his accident and I had to face the reality of the situation, 'no matter how much I protested'" she added "As for my plans, I was still planning to be a psychologist up until a month ago, I found out Danny had been taken by the GIW and my parents took leave of their sanity since they literally sold him to them, they also tried to take me as well, and... well I'm sure the news coverage on that was kept quiet. Anyway, here's the file's 'boobytrap' free for you to examine, my job of courier is now complete!".

Batman silently took in everything she said, a simple glance showed a tired college student, if he looked closer however, things were off like an uncanny valley effect.

Alfred had mentioned her teeth but he hadn't mentioned the angular lines to her face, it was definitely a normal human skull when she turned her head but if you looked directly at her the lines of her face blurred... made it look...off, elongated even. her blue eyes also seemed off, backlit like they glowed, she looked hungry. if you looked at her perfectly normal hands from the corner of your eye they looked a lot sharper while wrapped around the tea cup, like she had hardened claws for nails.

'Not human, or not completely human' batman thought, summarised from what he could see 'definitely signs of being a predator of some sort. Priority is the information though, the threat is secondary'. He decided reigning himself back in before speaking "Jasmine, I'm sorry but i need to ask you a few urgent questions".

"Sure, Jazz is fine but go for it, I can answer a few before I have to leave, although I'm pretty certain clockwork can answer better then me".

"Who is clockwork to you, how can i trust him or you? I ask because from what I was told the infinite realms should hold a sizable grudge against the living."

Jazz stared at him smiling gently as she listed on her fingers: "he's mine and my siblings adoptive grandfather, he doesn't lie but he does like to turn things into lessons to entertain himself and to my knowledge the only ones he has a grudge against is a Doctor fate for some past incident during WWII and time travellers including the flash family for making his job more annoying. As for the realms, excluding me... most just want to be left alone or pursue their obsessions. We police the more dangerous ones like pariah, Anything else?"

He watched her for any flicker of emotion, any sign she was lying... nothing. "Do you know where the leak is or who I am?"

She didn't even blink before replying "page three of the files, they're getting in through cyborg via his star labs uplink, an update installed a blind spot they took advantage of to install spyware marked as necessary firmware. We've added a patch note to allow him to view the GIW files you have, as well as stop computers exploding around ectoplasm. As for you? you are batman, that's all I need to know outside of a psychology examination... unless you want to discuss the theories that 'the butts match' or Wayne industries does a lot more then just help 'fund' the justice league?"

With no answer given Jazz finished her tea and got up, "this has been interesting but I definitely need to head out now, things to do, late for dinner, need to feed. Thanks for the tea Mr pennyworth."

"Are you a metahuman?" Asked batman making her pause as she left the kitchen "hmm, tough question... short answer no, long answer maybe? I'm liminal like my brother, Mr Constantine can probably explain it to you more when he gets past his... apparent brain freeze" Jazz finger gunned past batman causing him to look around.

Constantine, waiting too long to ask his own questions had closed his eyes for a moment to rub at a forming headache of her previous answers, opening his eyes in confusion to batman staring at him, Batman looked back to see jazz had disappeared, the path to the front door was completely empty.

Jazz was gone.

"where did she go?" Batman asked Alfred knowing he hadn't taken his eyes off her. "She left sir, prior engagements and the like. Don't you have a meeting to get back to?"

Outside the Wayne manor The sound of a motorbike revving and driving off echoed into the night.

---

Jazz knew they would begin following her when she reached the streets, she also knew she shouldn't instigated batman by disappearing mysteriously, but her hunger was getting worse! if she stayed a moment longer she would literally dig through the floorboards to get at that faint whiff of what smelled almost like ectoplasm coming from underground... she shook her head and stopped her body from turning back around to hunt the smell, if it had been ectoplasm it would have permeated the air of Wayne manor, not travel up like a bad smell... 'it. Was. Not. Ectoplasm'. She thought hard as she dug her lengthening nails into her palm beds.

It was probably just an experiment or batman stuff, nothing relevant to her.

Jazz exited the manor to find Johnnie waiting out the front on his bike looking idly up at the mansion, he turned to her with a solemn look on his face, no smile, no jokes. she nodded to him and got on his bike, gripping him comfortably as he drove straight through the closed gates, taking her back through the winding upper society roads into Gotham proper.

She tapped him to get his attention and he pulled over to let her off a few blocks away from home, johnnie held her hand for balance as she got off and gave it a gentle squeeze before letting go, still not smiling. He seemed to be about to say something to her but clenched his jaw and looked away, a look of stressed concern or possibly anger flickered across his face before he shook it off and revved the engine.

he drove off without a word leaving her to walk the streets home.

Damn jazz was hungry.

---

---

The batfam were following their targets for the night, there was a suspected metahuman trafficker in Gotham and they were planning to hunt them down before they got a foothold.

The duress warning from Alfred however had made almost everyone try to race back to the mansion before he gave the all clear response.

Now with the city being so quiet and no leads on the traffickers they had idle time, as such they listened in on the woman named jazz's static filled conversation with Alfred in the kitchen (her words sounded like a old tape recorder message, an issue neither oracle or red robin were able to solve on their ends). She was polite and chatted about her life in a town called amity park, how proud she was of her brother for doing his best helping people around town despite their families reputation, the many peculiarities of her town with its fame for being the most haunted... then it got weirder. How Danny had to recruit the entire school to mount a rescue for all the brainwashed adults from a flying ghost ship, The time she almost got blown up by the school councillor who was feeding on the students negative emotions, her brothers creepy godfather who had him cloned resulting in a new little sister who she absolutely adored (once Danny actually thought to tell her she existed), her parents toxic obsession with the ghosts and how it had destroyed her and her siblings lives. "She's making this up, ghosts don't... aren't, capable of all that" grumbled Damien currently staked out on the manors roof, he wasn't risking Alfred being harmed because they dropped their guard.

"I'm glad you said that and not ghosts don't exist because I definitely recall your face when you first learnt about Boston and Greta!"

"That's not relevant nightwing, ghosts can rarely appear in the world let alone orchestrate physical attacks on groups of people, we have no record of these things happening, you would think someone would notify the justice league!"

Steph's giggling voice entered the channel "you know, since nobody was hurt the town probably kept it quiet to help with their most haunted town theme, that... or somebody stopped them reporting it, but that would be crazy-ridiculous and mean something larger".

Jazz's voice came through the com again, this time talking about her recent activities and they sounded even worse.

"So a few months ago I get ready to check out a few college's, waved goodbye to my parents, hugged my brother, the whole shebang. Off I go city to city checking out my preferred places, a few weeks in, hero stuff happens further up the train line and my friends and I get redirected to star city until the lines clear. A day or two in I get the odd feeling someone's stalking me, I stick to public areas and it fades... then the day the lines are clear and we're heading to the station the feelings back again and this time I see them, the freaking GIW are stalking me with their white suits and vans. My friends and I try to bail because we know, anytime they're near, there's gonna be collateral damage and friendly fire all blamed on ghosts. We almost make it before they act, blocking us in the public area and open fire".

Tim is typing away on his wrist computer looking more and more distressed till dick has to put a hand on his shoulder to draw him out "what is it RR?" Tim sends files to his siblings giving each of them chills when they read its contents. "We missed another GIW operation, it didn't turn up in our hunt because the officials who sent us the information were also our contacts with star labs in the city, we didn’t question the information, there's no record of a fire-fight but there is a record of a gas main explosion that caused quite a few casualties in star city a while ago..."

"Many casualties..." murmurs orphan staring at the list "can we confirm?"

Oracle chimed in "I found something while following a lead for 'B', a star labs I.D was used in an attempt to delete star city camera security footage which was flagged by green arrows security logs, the 'explosion' if you want to call it that was caught on a safe house security feed, and shows GIW agents shooting at people trying to cross into a train station. It's hard to be certain but it looks like 'Ms Fenton' was there... it also looks like someone took a shot meant for her!" Oracle enhanced some of the footage, a slightly staticky zoomed in clip showing an agent raise a heavy weapon and fire it at jazz, before it can hit, one of the people with jazz, a woman dived up in front of jazz and the were both blown off screen by the weapon blast.

The sound of B and Constantine entering the kitchen drew their attention, they listened to her answer B's questions when she started to leave. "Getting in position to tai..." Damien was getting up from his position on the roof ready to follow her but found himself frozen in place, unable to move the moment he locked eyes with a man on a motorbike in front of the manor. a man that hadn't been there a minute ago that was now staring directly at him on the roof, The man brought a finger up and wagged it at robin as if to chastise him.

"Robin, can you repeat, you cut out there. come in!" Spoke Grayson in his ear but he couldn't answer. Soon enough the Fenton woman exited straight through the manor door as if it wasn't there and walked up to the biker getting on. The man gave him one last glance before taking off and driving straight through the closed gates to the main road, the moment he left the property Damien could move again, he wasted no time in reporting in to the voices calling him.

"Ugh! Target left the property on a motorbike, driver is a male possibly mid to late 20's extremely pale with white hair, capable of inflicting full paralysis at a distance, may be sight based! Motorbike and riders went through closed gate as if it wasn't there, combined with appearing out of nowhere, may have matter shifting abilities similar to Martian manhunter!"

Unseen, Damien's shadow returned to its normal proportions as a patch of darkness before it flitted away after the motorbike, the woman Jazz had disappeared, gone in the darkness leaving them far behind.

---

---

A quick study of the documents and a quicker check-up of the annoyed but otherwise fine Damien was all Bruce could afford before they needed to return to the watchtower, folder and its documents in hand.

Exiting the zeta tube batman immediately contacted cyborg "cyborg, I'm sending you a file, immediately follow its instructions to remove a data breach to your systems, then head to the star labs branch in star city, bring the listed officials and workers in for questioning".

-

Conference room 3 was one of the older rooms, a sturdy work floor had been installed on top of the standard station floor for this room to allow repeated defacing of the surface without needing to constantly repair the space station section, Fortunately most magic rituals could be done with chalk these days.

Currently members of the JLD (minus Dr fate and Deadman who gave their apologies as not wanting to interact with Kronos) and a few supernatural aware JL members were surrounding a summoning circle drawn on the floor, there Constantine was grumbling under his breath while busy wrapping his hands around concoction soaked rags.

"Alright, here we go folks. Good news, clockwork is a neutral entity and is often quite reserved in his personality, that being said. Remember not to wisecrack the ancient entity of time... uh, that warnings mostly for me. So lets get this over with!" Constantine lit the rags on fire, filling the room with the smell of sulphur, clapped his hands together in prayer and began the summoning".

"venias ad me nunc aeternitatis exactor" the circle lit up before slowly turning down from a burning orange to a glowing green as he continued

"Ad te voco spiritum temporis ut det munus meum. Invoco te spiritus temporis ad dandum meum donum scientiae"

(*Come to me now driver of eternity. I call upon you the spirit of time to give my gift. I call upon you, the spirit of time, to give me the gift of knowledge.)

With barely a ripple, a being with red glowing eyes, one scarred and what looked like a grandfather clock jammed in its torso appeared floating in the circle glaring at Constantine"

"I gave you my summoning circle, yet you have the nerve to summon me like that Constantine? I'm not a damn demon. you didn't even use my name properly! if I hadn't wanted to talk to you I would have sent a hex down the line". The grizzled spirit stared at them unblinking, slowly shifting form between adult, child and elder as the sound of deep ticking echoed from him.

"I didn't think you'd really answer the summons for little old me without some kind of trouble waiting, besides, I don't speak Esperanto well, fortunately Latin works just fine".

Constantine tried to light a new cigarette but was stopped by batman nudging him to continue. "You said you had information for our case so I need to ask. I'm enquiring into two spirits we were tracking who escaped a holding facility last week" the ancient spirit glared at Constantine and replied in a mocking tone "a holding facility you say? I didn't know the justice league knew about such places capable of 'containing' spirits. Tell me John, do they just 'hold' spirits there, is that what they do?"

Constantine had the good sense to feel ashamed as Clockwork chewed him out "we didn't know they had gotten this bad, I had requested they be under more scrutiny bu-" "I don't care for excuses Constantine, the damage is done and still continues. Now! Ask what you wanted to ask so I can get back to dealing with some meddlesome intruders in my domain". "Uh right... the two spirits that escaped, they were wounded. We can't seem to track them anymore, I'd like their names so we can summon them and make sure they're alright and possible answer some questions".

If it was possible, the aura around the spirit became more dangerous.

"The spirits you are searching for no longer exist as they were" said the ancient ghost, anger clear on his face towards Constantine and the league members in the room. "Their cores begun final collapse and destabilisation this afternoon after being on the run from the humans agents called the Ghost investigative ward, those that hurt and hunted them. They didn't even get the comfort of their loved ones with them. The most we could do was shroud the area so they would not be recaptured in their final moments".

"Oh, I'm so sorry. What were their names?" Asked Zatanna "their human names? You might know them as Daniel Fenton of amity Park and his cloned half sister Danielle masters" The glare as he turned back to Constantine increased.

"Hang on! The Fenton boy? 'He was cloned?...' uh no wait, Why would he be a spirit? Aren't his parents working with the bloody GIW!" "Yes, yes they are". came the reply with a sense of finality to it.

Constantine's eyes went wide and his skin paled as he realised the implications of what jazz had said earlier, "Oh... oh no." "Oh yes" glared clockwork "my grandson Danny spent two years protecting Amity Park from both ghost attacks, his parents and the GIW without the league or outside help. He kept the human world safe from the ghosts and then had to switch to protecting the realms from the humans. Only to then get shot in the back by his parents, to have his body and core cut up piece by piece".

He watched them mutter and wince amongst themselves before continuing "it should interest you to note, His human allies and their families were also taken by the GIW and are being held by your government in rather unpleasant detainment facilities. If you would like to earn my favour I would suggest tracking them down and releasing some of them for starters".

The batman approached the circle and examined clockwork before speaking "what are their names? Do you know which facilities they are in or what they're being held for?" Clockwork seemed to contemplate something. A green sheet of parchment fell through the circle at their feet, a list of names, aliases and locations.

"You can start with Samantha Manson, she's currently booked illegally in Arkham under an alias, you should find her having tea with poison ivy since they have a lot in common. By the way, since her parents willingly helped lock her up in that 'tainted curse' of a place to avoid being incarcerated themselves, I would suggest helping her out with emancipation paperwork and bringing charges against the parents.

Next is tucker Foley, he's currently in the Cadmus lab in metropolis as a test subject, luckily he's smarter then them. You can give him a few more days before you collect him, he's having fun sabotaging their more shady work.

Last, You'll find Valerie grey residing in belle reve prison... most of the time. You will need to schedule time with Amanda Waller if you want to get her out".

Batman stared at the list "what are all these other names and locations?"

"The Foley's and the grey family are interred with students from Casper high, amity park. They're being held in detention cells throughout America" clockwork rolled his glowing eyes at that. "The students attempted to get in touch with authorities outside amity park and the GIW'S control, the agents found out about it and had them black bagged, or white bagged if you want to go by their theme, Now they're being held for breach of the anti-ecto acts. The rest of the locations are undocumented GIW facilities where captured ghosts and ecto contaminated subjects are experimented on. I would advise shutting them down soon or the GIW, if successful with their experimentation will gain enough strength to be a major problem for your entire reality".

Batman looked at the list and nodded, "it will be dealt with, how were these anti-ecto acts breached exactly?-"

[Entry: raven 02]

Their conversation was stopped by raven entering the meeting room and coming to a halt. "Oh, uh did I come at a bad time?" Clockwork shifting to a small child ghost, looked up at her and smiled "of course not Ms raven, in fact I was hoping to return something of yours, would you like it now or we can discuss later if you prefer?"

"What are you offering her?" Asked Constantine immediately suspicious, "memories" clockwork replied. Raven looked confused but nodded assuringly to Constantine "whose memories are they?" Clockwork pulled out a small clockwork gear printed in strange symbols on a glowing material and flicked it out of the circle like a coin to her. "I'd say yours, to remember in your own time" Clockwork turned back to batman shifting to an old ghost and continued explaining the anti-ecto acts and the loopholes they had used to get their way.

Diana glanced up at raven, still standing awkwardly by the door holding the cog unsure if she had been dismissed. "Raven, take a seat dear, has something happened?"

Raven sighed as she answered accepting an empty chair "I'm sorry, I was tracking the spirits down with superboy when that weird storm hit. tracking has completely failed and smallville was the last area I could locate the spirits. I've tried breaking through again but the storm is too strong, Not to mention strange reports began just before it appeared".

"Oh, what reports?"

"Public disturbance calls mostly, Magic sites across the globe that deal with spirits are reacting weirdly. shrines, graveyards even haunted houses". Diana caught clockworks grin at her and turned to look at him "what do you know about this?" She asked staring at him intently.

"Oh just the second reason for my visit, none of you would know this yet but the infinite realms is currently in a form of political turmoil" Constantine perked up "turmoil? What happened, did one of your more inane ghosts do something stupid like stealing Pandora's box again?"

"Close, due to the disappearance of phantom, who has being one of the more stabilising presences in the realms. some citizens of the realms (who may have had a hand in his disappearance) took it upon themselves to steal royal artefacts and dispense them to potential candidates for the throne, as such from tonight we are now locked into a war of succession"

"A war of succession... how? Pariah's been your king for well over a millennia!" Exclaimed Constantine. "exactly, pariah in his defeat was still wearing the crown while locked in the coffin of forever sleep. however during an incident two years ago he was temporarily freed by a greedy idiot. After a few days terrorising the realms, he was bested and re-sealed by phantom, this time without the crown. Since having been defeated in what was observed as single combat he lost the rite of control for both the crown of fire and the ring of rage. Both items at the time were stolen by Vlad masters and stored in his vault... they are gone now, and are in the hands of candidates to the throne".

Green arrows face scrunched like he'd eaten something sour, "Vlad masters? That rich, creepy mayor with a ton of shady businesses? How'd he get involved?" "The same way he got those businesses, he caused an issue then swept in taking what he wanted without the original owners being aware. You'll find files on him in those GIW computers you collected, fortunately he's not a candidate for the throne so I can sell the prat out without breaking the rules, by the way, I'd appreciate you hunting him down Constantine, he has many relics you might be interested in as payment".

"What makes a candidate? can we know who the candidates are?" Asked batman trying to bring them back on topic. "I cannot say the selection process was done by the Observants without permission of the ancients, those two relics are crafted in a way that I cannot detect or interact with them, a fail-safe pariah built into them to stop me ever trying to usurp him. They were stolen around the same time but I only discovered they were missing because another one of the stolen relics was guarded by the yeti's. That has itself brought up its own local problems. However, the earliest theft was shortly before phantom disappeared two months ago. all I can say is they are loose in this world and you will begin noticing their effects soon... or you may already have noticed these effects..." Constantine was getting irritated and really wanted another smoke " you're clear as mud clockwork, that doesn't really help things. Do us a favour and tell us what the items do to people, I mean, shouldn't they only affect ghosts?"

Clockwork grinned "how many times have you all died? Even for short periods of time because your heart stopped? Now, how many of you live in area's where there's a high amount of death energy permeating the city around them?" He looked to batman for this one with a raised eye. "The ring and crown influence those affected by death in different ways, fortunately you would need to be an actual denizen of the infinite realms to have full control of all the relics abilities".

Green arrow spoke up "so what can we expect from a non denizen who wields the relics?" A smile this time, "a good question green arrow. The crown will empower any undead that swears fealty to its wearer, the ring however will absorb the willpower from anybody targeted by it and give it to the wielder". Simon, content to just listen glanced up at clockwork who was looking at him intently as he said it.

Green arrow frowned, "so together they would allow you to both gain an obedient army and make them stronger?"

"Seems like it would be quite useful on a battlefield amongst the dead! Good thing they are currently separate".

Diana raised a hand to interrupt simply getting a smile from clockwork "we are not in class granddaughter, please go ahead" Diana hesitated at the title but pressed on "what are the requirements to become the new king? How will the succession war end, do you already know who will be victorious?" Clockwork looked sad and hesitant to answer "unfortunately the wielders for the relics are concealed from my sight and as for who the victor is I cannot say, all possible futures are laid out in front of me, futures where everything ebbs, futures where everything flows but without the present tense to follow the trails, I cannot see which is more likely to happen, all I can do is plan and prepare. For how it starts, claim the ring and crown and be acknowledged by the throne. As for how it ends, it ends when someone is foolish enough to stab the old king".

At the last part Diana saw his glowing eyes flicker to raven still holding the cog wheel "I... assume you have made your plans for the succession... should we be worried?" Clockwork chuckled loudly before answering in a bored manner "I am forbidden by ancient contracts that chain me to my domain, by their command and for the good of the realms. interfering in a war of succession is not permitted unless it risks temporal damage or destruction of the infinite realms". It sounded like he was reading off a contract he'd been forced to read countless times throughout eternity. "Are you really kronos? You are acting far too personable to be the mad titan" "No, I'm Clockwork. The ghost of time. If that doesn't answer your question ask me again next time we meet granddaughter, I will explain things better then, for now, be worried, or don't be worried. I'm sure you have many rogues and villains to confront to keep you busy, farewell".

Clockwork seemed to turn to leave before looking back "Oh and batman, the joker just escaped from Arkham, his cell has a joker gas bomb rigged to the cell door. Good luck!"

And with that he flickered out of view leaving them in the shadowed room.

---

---

It was only a few questions that had been asked, with much information being given in return. Batman had made his apologies as he stormed out of the room calling in the possible escape while the JLD members relocated back to the previous meeting room, there they were busy comparing notes on possible contenders for the throne and looking for signs of strange activity.

They needed to stay in the loop for this, while the infinite realms was definitely out of their jurisdiction, the threat of another pariah dark was enough of a threat to stay involved in the process.

Clark sighed as he looked over the footage of the spirits escape "if we could have just found them sooner, perhaps we could have saved them... or at least helped them pass comfortably" the Question, studiously looking through the green parchment of names and places, comparing them with old physical road maps replied comfortingly.

"Don't beat yourself up Kal-el, this entire situation came from a forgotten agency with no oversite, they've been keeping things off our radar, not to mention using their authority and the general public's disbelief in the supernatural... All we can do is prevent any further tragedies happening".

"Public disbelief? The public should know magic exists, including supernatural entities like ghosts!" "Yes but they're not like our ghosts are they. Deadman can only be seen by use of magic and could never interact with the physical world without possessing someone, Secret? while able to be visible she couldn't interact with the world for more then a few minutes at a time. These ghosts however are capable of feats of strength on par with you, powers that defy physics, rivalling masters of magic and superheros alike".

[Entry: cyborg 01]

They all looked up to cyborg entering the meeting room with an angry look on his face. "Oh what now?" Asked Constantine tiredly. "Three scientists. a visiting professor. 6 security guards with league clearance and the public rep for star labs are in custody, I guess the preference for white outfits should have been a sign to look out for. the security breach for the watchtower and the league in general has been closed" he gritted his teeth before continuing. "There has also been a break in at the holding facility where the GIW personnel were hospitalised. A GIW agent has been arrested but the patients are gone, nobody can find a trace of them". Simon perked up quickly looking into it "when did this happen? There's been no alert put out". "That's because none was issued, the agent rocked up to the facility with all the paperwork ordering their release, paperwork apparently signed off by us. the only reason he was caught was because I cleared the block preventing me from noticing them and ordered him arrested". Cyborgs voice became like acid "I've been running back through the watchtowers files, without the block I can now read all their data including the files from their computers, they've been tampering with us for years. Changing our logs, diverting emergency calls, even stealing equipment, research and funding!"

Diana rubbed her temples and sighed "so the government agency that has caused us so much trouble over a long time period, who has endangered this world with their recent actions just stole subjects of a priority investigation? We'll need to arrest them now, collate the data and we'll organise a priority meeting with the American government, this needs to be stopped. Any other information we should know?

Raven spoke up "I'm concerned with those GIW agents in the white vans, when we caught up with them they were tearing across Kansas after the spirits causing trouble, they destroyed a lot of peoples crops and fences. none of them seem to be magic users but somehow they can track the spirits long distance through some sort of scientific means. Fortunately it seems when the storm started they lost tracking the same time I did, unfortunately they then rounded on us accusing us of sabotaging their gear. Superboy was dealing with them and told me to head back to report, he didn't like the way they kept eyeing me and examining me with their gear".

Superman remembered the threat clockwork had mentioned and spoke looking at Constantine "-you may have already noticed it's effects-, Constantine you said the agent was driven insane previously right? He wouldn't have attacked the lanterns otherwise? Perhaps the GIW are involved in both issues. This is a new risk to watch out for, nobody approach or interact with those people by yourselves, always partner up, especially Dark members, they may decide magic is their contamination and I don't want to risk you guys getting captured by them. Send the warning out to all league members and any community's at risk. This meeting is now adjourned".

The league members quickly headed off to their tasks, there was a lot to be done.

---

---

In a GIW lab

Agent B hurried through the facility towards the high containment area, intent on ignoring the calls for help from the multitude of containment cells. In the far room was his new superior examining test results.

"Sir, the captured agents have been retrieved but agent A was apprehended by those ecto loving hero's! Permission to stage a rescue operation?"

The bald man with a pointed nose looked at the agent with disdain "why would I waste my time with that useless trash, if he got caught he got caught, bring those captured agents down to the containment labs, it's time for the 'live' trials!" He caressed a glass jar full of bright green ectoplasm and smiled. Agent B stared at his superior confused "sir, why would I bring the agents here, they need the medical wing so they can recover and get back at that damn ghos-" "-atututa" said the man shushing the agent "that's not needed, after all, the field reports indicate that the ghost in question is either destroyed or near complete ending, your wounded agents dealt it a killing blow in the lab before it's escape, you can be proud that they caused it to suffer immensely before fading. Well done, now bring them down here". The smile disappeared as the man repeated himself. "Agent B was about to object when the superior held up his hand with a green skull ring on it "I said bring them down here" the agent glowed slightly as something was drained away from him into the ring, he nodded and turned away to complete the task, the superior called to him jovially as he left "also once that's done begin recruitment to replace the fallen agents, we can't have the GIW looking too thin in numbers!" the door closed and the man added quietly "after all, a good scapegoat has to look healthy for people to buy it!"

-

---

Notes:

-that's all for this chapter, next ones back in smallville as Danni starts to find themself again.

-sorry if it got too wordy or is too close together, would you believe me if I said the last month has been me trying to figure out the last half of the JL meeting? I just couldn't put words down that stuck!

-might be a little confusing because I'm playing with time but ravens designation is because she's been reincarnated, the league would have to keep all biometrics of all people using titles in case they were temporally displaced.

-I'm keeping question ambiguous like a dread pirate Roberts because that is on character for question, so you can imagine them as Vic or Renee, it's up to you.

#dcxdp #dpxdc #best of both worlds #danny phantom #batman #long post #my writing

[heartsoulrocknroll]

Streetlife Serenade Ranked

Since this album is apparently vastly underrated, allow me to start this by saying that I absolutely love every song on this album. There isn't one that doesn't do it for me.

1) The Entertainer

I don't think I can adequately describe how much I love this song. I have always been so blown away by it. The instrumentation is so masterfully done, and each verse gradually builds on the last. There is the opening acoustic guitar, then that iconic synth riff that later repeats between verses throughout the song. The acoustic guitar continues on its own for the first verse, then the drums and bass come in on the second verse, then the steel guitar comes in on the third verse, then the banjo on the fourth verse, then the fantastic piano on the fifth verse. Then they all come together for the big crescendo of the sixth and seventh verses, while Billy absolutely goes nuts vocally. The cynical lyrics are some of the best that Bill has ever written, and I have always been obsessed with the rhyme scheme he used. It's poetic in a way that is reminiscent of Piano Man, but more impressive. Also shout out to the lost verse, which I love so much.

2) Weekend Song

This is an absolutely fantastic rock 'n' roll song, and I just love it more and more with time. I love that guitar riff, as well as the organ toward the end. I am obsessed with the gospely, bluesy piano riffs that are reminiscent of Ain't No Crime. And I think this is one of the best vocal performances Bill ever gave. I mean wtf!!!!!! He is so good, it makes me angry. I have seen this song compared to Take Me to the Pilot, but I won't go there other than to say eat your heart out, Elton. All those comparisons, but one thing Elton and Leon could definitely never do is sing like the great Billy Joel.

3) The Great Suburban Showdown

This is one of my favorite Billy Joel vocal melodies. It's one of those songs that just gets me right in my soul. The combination of the beautiful synth solos, the fantastic piano, the wistful pedal steel guitar, and the nostalgic lyrics alone would make me a little emotional, but add Billy's gorgeous vocal, and this song can easily bring me to the verge of tears.

4) Root Beer Rag

This is an incredible ragtime piano piece that sticks in my head for days after hearing it. I love everything about it, but I particularly love the part containing the dissonant, alternating major and minor seconds that comes out of nowhere and contrasts fantastically with the rest of the song. And I really love listening to live performances of this song and hearing Bill play it as fast as humanly possible, challenging the band to keep up.

5) Last of the Big Time Spenders

This is a song that I never hear anyone talk about, and I'm not sure why. I am obsessed with the piano on this song. It has a great, sort of jazz/blues flavor that provides an interesting juxtaposition to the country undertones of the pedal steel guitar. Bill has some incredible, soulful vocals here. And I think the lyrics are so clever, with the comparison of spending money and spending time. It's just a great song all around, and I think it leads really nicely into Weekend Song, which comes next on the album and has a similar feel.

6) Los Angelenos

This is an awesome rock song that goes harder than a lot of the songs on Glass Houses, with a great combination of electric piano, electric guitar, bass, excellent vocals by Billy, and some vintage, sardonic Billy Joel lyrics.

7) Roberta

I love the prominence of the piano on this song. The piano throughout the whole song is beautiful, but I especially love the intro and the piano break before the last verse. This seems to be a theme of this album, but there are more particularly great vocals from Billy here as well.

8) Streetlife Serenader

I absolutely love the classical sound of the piano in this song. The intro is just gorgeous. Billy's vocal here is great, and the rare appearance of his falsetto is delightful to me.

9) Souvenir

This song is short and sweet, but it is so good. The melody is gorgeous, the piano intro/outro is beautiful, and the wistful lyrics can really make me emotional.

10) The Mexican Connection

This is a beautiful, relaxing piece of music. I love all the piano work here and how it is complemented by the guitar, the congas, the organ, and, later on, the marimba. I especially love the big crescendo of piano chords at 2:03.

#billy joel #streetlife serenade #personal

[xsapphirescrollsx]

Forever

Written: May 6 2021 La Vie en rose · Joséphine Baker

You and Steve share a sunset.

“Do you miss being home?”

Steve lifted his eyes to you. 

You were near him but to his opposite as he straddled a short rock wall. Squinting against the last rays of the day he peered out on the vastness of the Wakandan prairie.

He titled his head in thought as he shrugged gently. “Not really,” he finally said.

The wind softly rose, brushing long strands against his forehead. He turned his he eyes back to you. Pointing with one long finger before raising the sweet sticky snack up to his mouth.

“What about you,” he said with a mouthful. “Don’t you miss the States?”

You bumped into Steve a few months ago between busy schedules. Though now, you see him far different than the once ‘star-spangled man with the plan’. There was an air about him wholly set in the present, embedded in life here beyond saving the world, he was simply living. It was inviting.

“I miss,” you rolled your eyes in thought. “-the morning commute. There was a clarinet player who always performed la vie en rose.” you laughed at the memory. 

You popped the last bits of your lunch back into the bag. “It would be a great warm day, and he would recite this sad, lonely version of it. And I always thought the song was a celebration of sorts. But not for him.”

“Life’s not that grand for a lot of people,” said Steve.

Silently, you nodded. 

Steve added the paper wrapper to your bag. With a smile on his face, he swung his leg over the wall, held out a hand to you. Easily you hopped off landing directly into his arm. 

“I think,” he said as his arms wrapped around your waist. “We could make a better memory.”

Your eyes traced the unshaven surface of his bushy beard. Another breeze brought in the fragrance of his hair, light and clean. Naturally, you ducked in closer and clasped your hands around the base of his neck as you smelled his neck. Steve hummed as he continued to fidget with his wrist behind you.

Quietly, the jazz tempo began and steadily grew into the melodious voice of a woman as the song also passed to the beads around your wrist. Piano notes trilled gently under the voice of a woman singing in French. Steve’s hands spread out over your back and down further as he began to sway with you in tow. He held you close at first. His bristly cheek pressed against yours as he hummed the song in step. 

“See that’s better isn’t it,” he pulled back and looked upon your face. A bright toothless smile spread over his lips. “Just the two of us and dusk?”

“Romantic?” you asked as he became proud of himself. He tilted his chin up, the smile grew into a grin. With a press of his fingers, he continued to encourage your hips to swing against his. 

“Sure, you could say that. But then again you love me don’t you?”

Your brows rose suspiciously and wondered where this was going. So you nodded wordlessly.

“You love me,” he pecked your lips tenderly, still smiling. “And I adore you.”

“Okay,” you mouthed quietly.

“Be my wife, be with me.”

The voice and music rose into a crowning harmonious call as your eyes widened. You finally blinked and at the same time, an honest broad smile grew across your lips, to your cheeks, to your eyes.

“We can make as many memories as we want together,” he said serenely.  “For as long as we have each other. So what’d say?”

He waited, though not for long. 

Heart thudding in your chest, “Yes!” you half laughed back.

Steve attempted a graceful spin on thick grass but only ended in a clash of giggles from you when he nearly fell on you. 

“I won’t always be that graceful,” he joked and brought you back to him. 

The song ended leaving you and Steve in the presence of chirping evening birds, and the breeze bringing in with it the smell of wild purple flowers.

“I think we can be graceful in other ways...” you lingered off.

The tops of Steve’s cheeks began to turn pink at the suggestion. Though subtle you could see behind his eyes the memory of this morning replaying in his mind.

“Let’s get out of here,” he said quickly, and grabbed the refuse of dinner. He started off toward the path as he grabbed one of your hands.

You trailed behind him smiling big.

“I want to see you do that thing again,” he added, and looked over his shoulder at you until you caught up. 

“My future wife,” said Steve.

#x black!reader #black reader #black!reader #steve rogers x black!reader #Steve Rogers

[crazycatgirl420]

First Lines

I'm not sure if this is the first line of the whole fic or the first line of the part I'm currently working on so...since I don't actually know the rules I'll just do whichever feels right for it Kay? Cool.

1) Ellie sat on a stool on the stage, a simple black dress shimmering under the light. She was supposed to sing some sad love song tonight but all she could think about was the death of Robin the Second. Looking at the crowd of Gotham Citizens she wondered if they even knew yet.

This one is still a draft but it's teenage singer Danielle in an dp×DC universe. The song that inspired the first chapter was actually a cover of the Beatles song Blackbird.

2) Sam wasn't related to her by blood, but Grandma Ida had always loved her for who she was. Sam would never truly worry about money, though she had spent most of her savings on her car and the apartment, because Grandma wouldn't let Sam go hungry or cold. A thousand dollars would be sent to Sam's bank account evey month, and had been since she was a baby.

The next chapter of Gotham's Black Rose is a bit of a struggle for me right now, it takes place after they've moved to Gotham, about them settling in and finding their footing in a new city, and Sam does some reflection on her relationship with her adopted Grandma.

3) "Father, Grandfather, Uncles," Danny greeted as he walked into the dinning room and sat down. The adults all looked at him, but Danny just smiled.

"Who let a kid in here?" - "Uncles?" - "Father?" - "Who are you?"

They all spoke at once but Danny waited for them to quiet down before he spoke up.

"Daniel Bertinelli, or Constantine if you check magical lineage, or Wayne if you ask for my mother's biological father's last name."

"I've got a kid?" The blond Constantine dropped his cigarette.

"...Helena Bertinelli is my daughter?" Bruce Wayne stared at the table as if the wood would make any of this easier.

The next part of The Fine Print where 'everyone' finds out they've had children they didn't know about.

4) Gotham was not a good city to be homeless in, Danny learned. It was cold at night, and rained at least once a week, and he never knew here he was going to sleep.

My Project R fic is not doing too well, I'm not sure why or what to do with it.

5) When Paulina imagined her Graduation from High School, she never would've pictured this for herself. She was Eighteen, turning Nineteen this summer. She thought she'd be dating Dash or Star, that she'd be taking photos and going out to dinner with either of them or maybe the cheer team would meet up.

Of course she never would've predicted Phantom. Couldn't have imagined Fenton. And you can't predict an unexpected baby. That's what makes them unexpected.

But here she was. Kneeling on the grass of the football field, blue Graduation gown the only thing protecting her JJ House designer dress from stains, and her heels starting to sink into the dirt.

"Grad-u-lates Pauli," Ellie said, carefully, with a toothy smile and her happy bright blue eyes. Her little arms went up, hands grabbing at the air. "Uppies?"

It's a Paulina/Danny raise baby Danielle in Gotham fic idk if it's going to go anywhere but I find it cute to think about.

6) Soul dreams were a safe place, at least they were usually. A neutral place where souls met to bring each other into their lives. How the soul dream took shape depended on who was asleep first, and was still asleep when the other joined them.

I hit a self doubt wall with my first soulmate fic, I wanted to analyze Jazz's sense of responsibility towards Danny and her tendency to treating him as a child even while acknowledging he's a teenager. I also wanted to analyze Dick's relationships with his own siblings once I picked him as Jazz's soulmate for this fic. I'm not sure if I should go back to my notes and try again or if I should give up on it entirely for a different soulmate fic.

7) I'm not sure if cleaning the Fenton house was a good idea anymore. Jasmine Fenton sat on the couch in front of me, her hands clasped together and a strange look on her face.

My self instert fic has hit a wall so hard I decided I am going to change it completely. I tried I struggled and I had no idea what I was doing. Here's the last I had for it as it is now though.

Okay! So there's my 7 current WIPs sorta. I haven't had the heart to actually remove anything from my list of projects even though I'm done trying to write for some of them. I did my best though! And I'm proud of what I learn every time I try something new.

I think I'm supposed to tag other people to play too so I guess I'll tag @faeriekit @im-totally-not-an-alien-2 @evandarya @spooky-fm @p0ssym1lker

Okay I'm not brave enough to tag more people in a silly game, maybe next time. I'd like to thank @weirdfishy for tagging me, sorry it took me so long to make play too! This was fun once I stopped over thinking it.

#dc x dp #tag game #writing game #first lines #my wips

[justlike-awoman]

"Dedication of John Harris" - English translation of an article published on December 23, 2020 on Queen Note, Unofficial Fanpage from Japan

Link to original article: X

(I am relying on Google Translate, so please forgive any incorrect translations!)

---

Dedication of John Harris

'The fifth queen.'

Among the many 'fifth queens', this time I think of their sworn friend John Harris.

As you all know, John Harris is the man to whom the song "I'm In Love With My Car", and the album "Jazz", are dedicated to.

Stories of early studio setups and live mixes have reached our ears. There's a connection between Queen and Harris, and not only as a band and sound engineer. I would like to summarize that dedication.

In the late 1960s, Brian, a student at Imperial College, meets Harris, a mathematics student at the same college. Brian, a serious student, and Harris, who is his exact opposite, have contrasting personalities, but they get along well and naturally become good friends. They had a common passion, music.

Harris will drop out of college in a year or two, but his friendship with Brian and his friends will not change, and the poor students will live together in places such as Burns and Ferry Road. In such a life, when it came to gigs, Harris drove an old van, transported equipment, and naturally became SMILE's well-intentioned roadie.

February 1970, a little while after that fate overlapped. Freddie was auditioned for a band called Sour Milk Sea, which he saw in a magazine ad. The shy singer asks his roommate Roger and Harris to accompany him to the audition. Young Freddie (23) appeared at the audition venue with a flashy appearance with two blonde attendants. He performed brilliantly and won the place he was aiming for. He must have needed that sense of security to be watched over by his friends.

The dissolution of Sour Milk Sea, the dissolution of Smile, the formation of Queen, the meeting with John Deacon, John Harris has seen it all. He recorded all of the performances they went to together, listened to them on the way, and used them for the next performance.

Queen's second bassist Barry Mitchell recalled in his book The Early Years:

John (Harris) was always at rehearsals. He helped the band out with their equipment and took care of the band. We didn't have a mixing desk (at the time), so we were limited in what we could do with the sound. When Freddie was in a bad mood, he played a soothing role. The band adored him, and he would sometimes try to get the band to play well. It must have been hard because the band was stubborn.

Mark Hodkinson, Queen: The Early Years, 2009, Omnibus Press

In 1972, Queen finally signed a major contract. One of the last sticking points of the band's contract was to include the hiring of Harris. Trident's John Anthony dismisses Queen's claims: "You can't do it. If you want to pay him, hire him yourself."

Strangely, after cancelling the contract with Trident, this word will be recovered in the form of direct employment of the crew by setting up an office on their own.

The environment surrounding them has changed dramatically in 5-6 years, from the poor student days to the successful musicians, contracts, breaks. Friendship and dedication remained the same. In August 1977, Harris' interview was published in a special issue of Music Life. I will introduce some excerpts:

Performing on stage requires a lot of nerves, and when it comes to concert tours, it becomes a life of travel, and every day is just going back and forth between the hotel and the airport. There were times when I hated living like this. There must have been times when the band members thought so too. However, the reason we are still living in this harsh world is because there is an irreplaceable joy. I still remember it well. The day the first Queen record came on the radio... It was "Seven Seas of Rhye", Queen's first hit single in the UK. Everyone would hit each other's shoulders and bounce around in a big dance.

Also impressive was the day Queen appeared for the first time on the popular TV show "Top of the Pops." And the day they performed in Japan for the first time last year... More than 10,000 people gathered at the Budokan concert on the first day. Until then, they had only performed in front of an audience of about 40 people in England, no matter how many people gathered, but now they will perform in front of 10,000 people in Tokyo. It was an event that I couldn't help but remember the excitement of.

I don't know how long I'll be working with Queen. As I get older, I may not want to go on tour, and then I may become an engineer for the studio. But as long as there is 'Queen', I will be with them. They are good friends to me and attractive musicians.

"Brilliant Queen" 1977, Shinko Music, Jonathan "John" Harris

Half a year after Harris' interview was published on ML, Harris collapsed at the final performance of the NOTW tour.

"On the not so good side, John Harris our sound man fell ill in California -- he's getting better though and will be back in action behing the mixing desk soon --." by Freddie Mercury, "Queen Magazine" Spring 1978 issue

The above is the words Freddie wrote in the spring 1978 issue of the fan club magazine.

Harris, paralyzed, secured a few seats in first class and returned to England. At that time, the cause of Harris' illness was unknown, and he was hospitalized for about a year. (*Diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome later in life.)

An album was dedicated to Freddie's prayers ("This album is dedicated to John Harris" - Jazz 1978 album notes). Harris returned to the Crazy Tour in 1979 with a cane. However, from the perspective of Peter Hince, who has toured with him, Harris was not feeling well enough to keep up with the world tour. How humiliating and painful that must have been for him.

The band offered Harris an engineer job at Mountain Studios, but Harris declined and left Queen.

Peter Hince said the last time he saw Harris was in the Magic Tour dressing room. It must have been a nostalgic and painful reunion between the band and Harris.

I feel that the closer people are to each other, the less pictures they take together.

Four people in the light, friends who desperately supported each other.

Queen's music contains the thoughts and dreams of various people.

Harris' recordings still lie dormant in Queen's vault.

(References under the cut:)

Mark Hodkinson, Queen: The Early Years, 2009, Omnibus Press

Rupert White 『Queen in Cornwall』 2012,Antenna

Phil Chapman, The Dead Straight Guide to Queen, 2020, Red Planet

Mark Blake, Is This the Real Life?: The Untold Story of Queen, 2011, Da Capo Press

"Brilliant Queen" (『華麗なるクイーン』) 1978, Shinko Music

『Queen Magazine』 Spring 1978 issue

#!!! NEW QUEEN INFO ALERT !!! ALSO SADNESS ALERT !!!! 😭😭😭 #john harris #queen #queen band #freddie mercury #peter hince

[smilingbuckley]

15 questions 15 friends

Tagged by @tizniz

I won't be tagging anyone because I do not have 15 friends lol

Time to overshare

1. Are you named after anyone?

Nope. But I do think they got my 2nd name from a song, but I don't remember which one. They just liked my name I guess (I don't, which is why I go by my 2nd online)

2. When was the last time you cried?

Uhh yesterday or the day before. My memory is pretty bad lately. But I'm not doing so great and I keep getting knocked down when I think I can get up, and this week was a wreck

3. Do you have kids

Does my cat count? She sure acts like a little kid sometimes. Other than that, no. And I don't think I will. Not only does pregnancy scare the crap out of me, I do not have great genetics. I already struggle with my genetic disabilities and disorders, I don't want to be the reason someone else goes through the same as me. Plus, I don't think I'd be a good parent because I already get overstimulated when my cat begs for dinner an hour early.

4. What sports do you play/have you played

I used to dance. Started with jazz balet but my body type wasn't good for it - I could not do the split and stuff. I did win 2nd place before I moved to street dance. But then my parents got divorced and I moved, never picked it up again. I've never found a sport that I like enough to do. Maybe basketball, but I'm too small and can barely run so that's not happening

5. Do you use sarcasm

I do, but people never seem to know it is sarcasm and think I'm actually serious. It's like they pull an uno reverse card because I usually don't understand jokes and take them seriously

6. What is the first thing you notice about people?

Uh, I don't know. I tend to be uncomfortable around new people. Maybe their face? Idk.

7. What is your eye color

Green, currently. For some reason they keep changing. I was born with bright blue eyes - I'm talking Luke Hemmings bright blue eyes, maybe even lighter. Then as a child they changed to green. I used to love my light green eyes, but then they got darker. Now they seem to be green but turning grey-ish as well

8. Scary movies or happy endings

Happy endings. Duh

9. Any talents?

I am the insecure type of person who would say no, but I know I'd get people to say 'no you're a talented writer', so I'm gonna go ahead and say writing

10. Where were you born

Look, the Netherlands is a small country, so I'm not gonna say the town. But I will say it was in the province Friesland (Frisia/Fryslân) and in a big town (Frisian standards) that would’ve been a city if city rights still existed in my country. Oh and it's pretty known in the sports world.

11. What are your hobbies?

Writing, reading, watching shows, listening to music, play the sims. Oh and sleeping.

Yes I am lazy and I don't care

12. Do you have any pets?

My cat and she is the love of my life. Idk how I will live once I move out because chances are I can't take her with me

13. How tall are you?

I haven't really measured since I was 16, but I think around 168 cm.

14. Favorite subject in school?

I'd say English - it's different than the English classes in the US and UK - but tbh it was pretty boring because I was always levels ahead of my class. In the end, I loved social science a lot.

15. Dream job

Published author. But it doesn't pay shit in my country. Also, I can't travel and most book deals require you to be willing to travel for promotions in the Netherlands and Belgium

So I guess the next best thing would be anything to do with English. Maybe translating work like books or subtitles for shows because those are never accurate here.

[starrystevie]

tagged by @yournowheregirl and @judasofsuburbia to show 6 characters I relate to!

here i give you the "if they can relate to mirrorball, the archer, and you're on your own kid by ms. taylor swift then they are a reflection of me" list

steve harrington (stranger things): listen if there was one character that i think truly is a perfect reflection of me, it would be steve. i don't want to bore you all with the thesis i could write about him so here are the cliffs notes: protective, people pleaser, romantic at heart, sarcastic, gifted child burnout, specifically this line from mirrorball "shimmering beautiful, and when i break it's in a million pieces"

steve rogers (marvel): ahh yes, and then the other steve that is the other side of the mirror. loyal to a fault where i would start a civil war for those i love, a leader, compassionate, stubborn, wants to dance the night away in a jazz club with my baby on my arm as we sway to the crooners, living in an idealized version of the past, not very good at taking compliments, specifically this line from the archer "i wake in the night, i pace like a ghost, the room is on fire, invisible smoke, and all of my heroes die all alone, help me hold on to you"

lorelai gilmore (gilmore girls): i knew that watching gilmore girls from such a young age would have a lasting effect on me. we both hold grudges from things in the past. both like to go back to those things thinking things will be different only to realize we still want to run away. witty, uses too many media quotes for our own good, lives off junk food and spite, crave the small town life and the smell of snow, specifically this line from you're on your own kid "from sprinkler splashes to fireplace ashes, i gave my blood, sweat, and tears for this. i hosted parties and starved my body like i'd be saved by a perfect kiss" (this whole song is lorelai coded btw choosing just one line was hard)

jo march (little women): oh man, where to start. writing as an escape from a world that feels to small, wanting to explore and see the world and the beauty that hides in it, craving love but not knowing how to give it away freely, on the other hand craving attention and soaking it in, fierce, loyal, would do anything for those she cares about no matter the consequences, specifically this line from you're on your own kid "i didn't choose this town, i dream of getting out, there's just one who could make me stay"

dean winchester (supernatural): hi hello daddy issues! but also never being able to live up to you father's expectations and dealing with the fact that your sibling is the favorite no matter how hard you try, covers everything up with a smile and joke or anger and a clenched fist, hopelessly obsessed with women but confused over sexuality because of a pretty men, loves road trips with the windows down playing classic rock, would fight god bare handed if it meant that the people i love got to live (i'll refrain from going into religious trauma but if y'all want the full essay on how much i love dean winchester, please let me know), specifically this line from the archer "combat, i'm ready for combat, i say i don't want that, but what if i do? cause cruelty wins in the movies, i've got a hundred thrown out speeches i almost said to you" (this song is so dean coded i didn't know how to just choose one line)

oikawa tooru (haikyuu): tries so hard to be perfect only to have someone more naturally gifted best you, serving cunt with a smirk, whiny baby who wants their way, kind of weird but hides it as best as they can, showing their full deck of cards to people who deserve it, specifically this line from mirrorball "i'm still on that trapeze, i'm still trying everything to keep you looking at me"

i'm not sure who all has done this so feel free to use this as me tagging you if you'd like to along with these no pressure tags!: @scoops-stevie @thefreakandthehair @buckleydiaz @vecnuthy @stevethehairington @riality-check

#bee coded #tag meme #i could literally go into all of these in way more depth but i figured i should stop it there #shoutout to all my mirrorball/the archer/yoyok trifecta girlies!!