#matt IS in this scene i just didnt have the stones to write the part where he came in. fear not i shall not forget him.

[scattered-winter]

tw for injury + aftermath of torture etc

The room was empty save for a figure slumped against the far wall, arms stretched above his head and chained to the wall.

Shiro's heart lurched in his chest.

He didn't remember running across the cold stone floor, or dropping his shield to the ground midstride, or Keith's white, terrified face as he ran beside him.

The next thing Shiro knew, he was standing in front of Adam, breath stuttering as he got his first real look at what Zarkon had done to him.

He was slumped bonelessly in his chains, chin against his chest and eyes screwed shut. Nearly every visible inch of his body was bloodied or bruised, and one of his arms was bent at a sickening angle. His clothes were charred and tattered, and Shiro realized with a horrible, sinking feeling in his gut that there was a Grimm infection, too; raw, blackened skin surrounding deep lacerations in his torso and stomach like something had clawed him. Wisps of black smoke curled from the wounds, and the scent of decay was nearly overwhelming.

The infection was worse than anything he'd ever seen. Tendrils of black snaked down Adam's arms, curled up the sides of his neck.

It looked like Zarkon had let his Grimm use Adam as a chew toy.

Pushing away his horror, Shiro raised his hands to gently cup Adam's cheeks, lifting his head up and cradling his face between his hands.

Adam's eyes were closed, his face nearly white; his cheeks were sunken and hollow, and his eyes were ringed with dark shadows.

"Adam, baby, wake up," Shiro murmured, fighting to keep the tremble from his voice. "Come back to me."

A crease appeared between Adam's brows, a thin moan rising strangled and hoarse from between cracked lips.

Gold eyes cracked open, hazy with pain and exhaustion and gods knew what else.

Relief flooded through Shiro, and he had to hold back a strained laugh. "There you are. Can you hear me?"

The crease between his brows deepened. " 'Kashi?" Adam's voice was rough and cracked like he'd screamed himself hoarse. He probably had. There was something else there, too; pain, exhaustion, hope so raw it was painful.

Then some of the haze cleared from Adam's eyes, a touch of clarity returning. "You---you shouldn't be here," he rasped, expression showing the first signs of panic.

Shiro's thumbs brushed over Adam's cheekbones. "It's okay. We're getting out of here. All of us."

He half-expected Adam to argue, but he just leaned into Shiro's touch, eyes sliding closed as a choked, strangled sob rattled his chains.

Shiro's thumbs moved in comforting circles over Adam's cheeks; he met Keith's wide, horrified eyes over Adam's shoulder. "Let's get him down."

Keith's blade easily slashed through the chains, and Adam dropped into Shiro’s arms like a rag doll. He whined as he slumped into Shiro's arms, face going impossibly whiter as his injuries were jostled, and Shiro cursed himself.

"Sorry, sorry," he murmured, wrapping a supporting arm around Adam's waist as he shuddered against Shiro's body.

Keith looked stricken; he stepped away, holding his katar out to bear. "I'll lead the way out."

Shiro nodded and carefully slid an arm beneath Adam's knees to lift him into his arms. Adam's arm looped over Shiro's shoulders, his head dropping to loll against Shiro's chest. His breathing was ragged and shallow, rattling in his chest like something inside him was broken.

He didn't have much time. They had to move.

#WOE out of context bit from the rwby au be upon ye #only like. 3 people have the context for this. but for those that do: the song save me by noah kahan was on REPEAT #anyway i am plagued with thoughts about Them (rwby au adashatt) #matt IS in this scene i just didnt have the stones to write the part where he came in. fear not i shall not forget him. #he's an essential part of what i like to call the Polycule Of Pain #(because brother that is all that i put them through in this au) #winter writes #kphl #<- if ur new around here thats the voltron rwby au tag #voltron #adashi #adam #shiro #adashatt #<- adjacently #as if the physical injuries arent enough adam's aura has also been messed with to hell and back. so uh. #even if he survives the initial injuries + grimm infection he still has to deal with the fact that his aura (his SOUL) #has been stolen and twisted and manipulated into something evil. and somehow he has to recover from that. #lol. lmao even. #HE'S JUST MY LITTLE GUY IF ADAM AND SHIRO AND MATT ARE IN MY WRITING THEN IM MAKING THEM ALL SUFFER #sorry. (not sorry)

[winstonhcomedy]

“Dope A-F”- 1/24-1/25 - “Booed Off Stage and Reg Charity”

Sweet lord almighty. Thursday/Friday were some slobbrerknockers of shows. I’ve got three bad boys to cover so let’s hop right to it laydees.

Earlier in the week I got asked by Travis Carl if I could fill in for him at The Richmond Funny Bone hosting for the “Fresh Drunk Stoned Tour”. I of course agreed. Luckily the open mic this night was The Camel hosted by Jameson Babbowski. This was an early mic so I got to get two sets in.

I head over to The Camel right after work. I am the first comic there. The Camel always has a chill fun vibe to it. When Jameson gets there I look at the lineup and I know like half of the comics. The influx of new comedians continues. It is getting kind of insane. I feel like more and more experienced comics are either moving away/giving it up/taking a step back from standup. Which is a shame. I love the new comics, but I do miss the feeling of going to an open mic and it being filled with all the dudes I started with.

New comics are always good for a scene. As people trickle out you need more comics to trickle in. They bring audience members, and a sense of enthusiasm that is kind of gone from people who have been doing standup a while. The downside is when your scene becomes all new comics booking showcases becomes difficult. You want to give people opportunities, but at the same time a showcase full of newbies is just an open mic.

There is a family with a small child at the show. They tell Jameson they are ok with the swearing and are going to leave aft4er a quick bite. I get to see a few of my friends like Alex Castagne and Mike Engle. So that was a nice little hang.

Jameson goes up and does a quick hosting set before bringing me up. I go up and talk to the kid a little bit and get a few laughs. The crowd is interesting. Paying attention, but not really loving the comedy yet. My set goes pretty well. I need to write some new stuff because I am getting to the point where the new stuff I am working on is starting to become fully formed. The jokes go ok. Some hit pretty hard and some get nothing. All in all I was able to riff a couple new tings, and work on wording. I’d give this set a C-. I grab my stuff and run to my car to head to Short Pump to get to the Funny Bone.

It has been a while since I have been on a show here. I walk in and say hi to the staff. Every time I come by they have some new wait staff, but a lot of the people who’ve been there for years are still around. People like Cory, Derek, Buz, Brittany, and of course Jason the gm. I get to talk to everybody for a bit and shoot the shit before the comics from the “Fresh, Drunk, and Stoned” tour show up.

They were coming from VB so they had a comic down there drive them up and they gave them a guest spot. Drew Grizzly is the comedian who drove them. I have only seen him perform a couple times at clash so I don’t know much about his standup. I know the couple times at clash I wasn’t super impressed, but also that was forever ago and I think he was a super new comic at that time.

All three of the headliners were super cool. They were Tim Hanlon (LA), Matt Bellak (Chi) and Franco Harris (Chi). Very chill dudes and fun to hang with. all real professionals as well. Franco came in and had the complete run down written up ready to hand over to the sound guy Buz. I was going to be doing 10 up top, Drew was going to do 7, then each of them would do 20 each to close out the show.

They also did a great job of packing the show on a Thursday night. They didn’t sell out but they came damn close. I think there was close to about 220 people in there. Which is definitely a treat for a Thursday.

I go up first and have a super strong hosting set. I tried some material I’ve never done there before and it went over great. My “problems with China” bit hit super hard, and my “Angel/Devil” closer really got them. I’d give this set a B+. I really had them in a good place to get this show going and I bring up Drew.

I walk to the green room while he starts his set. I don’t really pay attention to it. He’s not getting a huge laugh or anything, but I don't think anything of it. I am talking in the back with the guys, and after like 2 minutes we start to hear a noise coming from the green room. I can’t really tell what the noise it, but is most assuredly not laughter.

I start to listen closer and realize it is boos. Drew is bombing so hard he is getting booed. Tim and I go out to check it out and we are just in awe. This crowd that was super into the show had now completely turned on him. Apparently he had started his set and said he had weird pubes. A woman responded, “you got a problem.” Instead of rolling with it he doubled down and started to be aggressive with the lady. He had not built up the goodwill in his set to warrant this type of response. So the crowd started to turn. He also mentioned that he doesn’t date black women (he is a black guy) which honestly is where he really lost the crowd (primarily black audience).

I have never seen this kind of shit before. It is surreal. People are losing their minds yelling at him, booing him, screaming to get him off the stage. People are standing up out of their seats. Like it had the vibe that someone was going to come up on stage and get him. Jason came out of his office wondering what was going on. It was too much for security to silence everyone. He was getting the light from the back, and he wouldn’t get off stage.

I don’t know how much time he did but it felt like a millennium in that atmosphere. It might be the worst set I've ever seen in my life. I was inching closer and closer to the stage trying to give him a hint. Also I was worried I was going to have to go on stage and take the microphone from him. The worst part is I have to go up after this. I tell Tim I am going to try my best to get the crowd back and do something before he gets on stage.

Drew finally gets off, and I go back up amidst a sea of boos. They’re still yelling and I give them a second to see if they’ll die down enough to try to get a word in. I finally grab the mic and say, “I think this is the first time in history where a room full of black people are like, ‘Thank God the white guys back’”, and it absolutely murders. People stand back up and are screaming and hollering. People are giving me high fives, and I'm really selling it leaning over with the mic stand talking to people and getting them pumped up. I bring Tim Hanlon on stage and the show is back on track. This is now one of my favorite comedy memories.

I go back to the green room and Drew is talking about it, and Franco and Matt are giving him good advice. Bombing happens, everybody does it, this is not a reflection of an entire comedians career or act. I do know that I have never in my life seen a worse set, and at least Drew knows it can’t get worse. He was in good spirits, and we all ended up having a dope rest of our night. I get a lot of compliments and I get to watch Tim, Matt, and Franco have super hot sets to end this amazing night. I also get a weekend of work from Jason in March. I love filling in dates on my calendar.

After the show I stick around, take some pictures, and meet some people. I say my goodbyes to everybody and then head to my car. I drive home enjoying the end of this awesome night.

1/25

The next day after work I took a nice nap, and then headed down to perform on Tidewater Tonight in Virginia Beach at Pinboys. This is a talkshow co-created and hosted by Roberto Lundgren Rodrigues. This isn’t a standup show. I had to create a character to be interviewed. I low-key love stuff like this, but I don’t get the opportunity to do it often.

I came up with the character several months ago when I was first asked, but I kept having to reschedule. I finally got an open Friday and was ready to unveil Reg Charity.  Basically the character idea I had was I'd be a disgraced, southern, ex PBA bowler who was banned from the sport due to my rampant alcoholism. So after my PBA career I started inventing. All my inventions are supposed to do the opposite of what they normally do (sunglasses that brighten the room, chips that help you lose weight, whiskey that sobers you up, and a toaster that turns toast into bread). It slowly becomes apparent during the interview that none of them work, and I get drunker and drunker on my “non-alcoholic” whiskey. 

I get to the venue early and am just hanging out with the people who run the show. Ryan Dix, Roberto, Laura Batty, and a few others. My buddy Nick Deez showed up also.

So after they set up for the show we wait for it to start. There is a tiny audience of maybe 5 or 6 who aren’t involved in the show. That’s ok though because everybody is super into the show. I am so excited to see how the video turns out because I am super excited about it. I improvised the entire thing. I feel like I went in and out of my accent, but I honestly don’t care. It was super fun, and I got people laughing. I had an absurd outfit on, and some great lines. I’d give it a solid B. If I get to go back I know I’ll do even better.

They do some ads, and a singing commercial. Then Donna Lewis goes up and is doing the character of an ex child star. She is having a hot one, and everyone is having a blast. The show ends and it was definitely a success.

They make several attempts to lift the couch up with me in it. We get some funny pictures of me falling out of it, and them failing to lift me. We keep chatting for about an hour, and just talk shop, and shit. It was a super dope show, and I can’t wait to do it again.

All in all this was a helluva two days of shows. A real hoot and a half. I just want to give everybody who reads this blog a million kisses. XOXO I love you and I’ll be back to recap the weekend tomorrow sweeties! GOODBYE LAYDEES!!!!

#comedy #talk show #standup #bomb #boo #epic fail #improv #jokes