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peterparkerpatrol-deactivated · 6 years

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Mob!Tom Holland AU | Tom x Reader

Summary: Between the socialites and his parents, the incessant pressure on the future king of London’s Underground to find a serious relationship peaks during the biggest social season of the year. Tom isn’t afraid of taking drastic measures to maintain his freedom.

Chapters: | Prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 |

Chapter 2

“Mister Holland, I’m glad you could make it,” Smiled Rosalyn “Rosie” Lance, the heir to one of the most expensive vineyards in the United States. She wore a coral high-low dress that seemed to catch the slightest breeze, billowing around her dramatically. She was part of a tight-knit circle of young heiresses to the best alcohol makers in the US. She and the others in the group had practically grown up together, despite living hundreds or even thousands of miles apart. Their families were constantly going on getaways together, and they’d grown to see each other as sisters.

“It’s a pleasure to be here. You’ll tell Shannon that I’m thankful for the invitation, won’t you?” Tom said graciously, sipping on some champagne. Shannon Mastedon was hosting that night’s festivities at her family’s large mansion hidden away in the Adirondacks and had arranged for everyone to be flown in via helicopter for convenience sake. Her family business was bourbon.

“Of course,” Rosie nodded, tucking a lock of her delicately curled amber hair behind her ear. “So, your first circuit out on your own. How’s it going so far?”

“It’s been nice. It worked out so Harrison and I’s plans have a lot of overlap so I haven’t been completely on my own,” Tom laughed.

“You two seem pretty close.”

“Yeah, well, our families have been friends for ages. Hard not to get close to someone when you’re always around them, y’know?”

“I know,” Rosie nodded, “So other than him, you’re here alone? Unattached?”

“I suppose that depends,” he said, “Are you still seeing that guy from Sweden, what was his name, Elliot?”

Rosie laughed, gently nudging his shoulder, “You’re a shameless flirt, you know that Holland?”

“It’s been brought up once or twice,” He smirked, “You haven’t answered my question.”

“Yes, I’m still seeing Elliot,” she said. “But I feel like that doesn’t change your answer. No one’s made any repeat appearances next to you this whole week. You really haven’t found anyone you’re interested?”

Tom sighed, running his fingers through his hair with his free hand before taking a good sized sip of his champagne. “No one’s stood out,” he said simply.

“Well, I know a few girls who would love to meet yo-“

“Thank you, but I’m not interested,” Tom said curtly “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to get some fresh air.”

With that, Tom downed the rest of his glass and set the flute on a nearby shelf and headed for the backyard. Technically the backyard of the mansion was a couple hundred acres of Adirondack forest, but the areas near the house had amenities. A massive in-ground swimming pool and hot tub, a tennis court, and a large stone patio with a fireplace were just a few of the highlights.

Tom found his way to a quieter place on the patio where there were fewer people and pulled out a cigarette, lighting it quickly and taking a drag.

“You know your mum’ll kill you if she finds out you’re smoking,” Harrison smirked, walking over. “How come I knew you’d be out here so soon?”

“What, have you just been lurking around waiting for me?” Tom asked, offering the blue-eye’d boy a cigarette and his lighter. Harrison accepted, sitting down next to Tom as he smoked.

“Nah I was catching up with Kathy. Said she wanted to talk to me privately about something,” Harrison said “She’s got a job she needs taken care of. So I told her I’d pass the info along to dad. Then I saw you dart out here like your arse was on fire,” he chuckled.

Tom rolled his eyes and bumped Harrison’s knee with his own.

“I’m just so sick of all this already. How have our parents done this every year?” He wondered.

“You’ll get better at it mate,” Harrison said, patting his shoulder. “It’d be easier if you had a girl at your side, but-“

“Oh don’t you start on about that too,” Tom groaned “I’m sick of it. I’m not interested in any of the girls here. Everyone’s so uptight about representing their family it’s like being at a fucking business convention.”

“But with more drugs. And dancers. And actual good food,” Harrison added.

“That’s the thing, we all have to get wasted just to be able to actually talk with one another and enjoy ourselves. Do you realize how ridiculous that is? That people need to be able to have the excuse of not being sober to do anything?”

“Not everyone’s family is reputable enough to not have that excuse,” Harrison said pointedly, looking at Tom. “Do you realize just how much shit we can get away with because of our families? We have no one we need to impress, we just gotta show everyone that we’re still alive. Everyone here,” he gestured back towards the mansion “wants to impress us. One word and we can take away everything they’ve got in ways no one could ever trace.”

“I guess you’ve got a point,” Tom mumbled, taking a deep pull from his cigarette. The two boys sat in silence, watching the smoke dance in the breeze before disappearing into the night.

“It might do you good just to find someone for the Season,” Harrison suggested after a few minutes. “Someone you could easily leave here in America.”

“I’m not hiring an escort, Haz,” Tom said.

“Who said anything about that? Though that’s probably the easiest route. I’m just saying, find someone fit who’ll tag along and be your arm candy until you have to go back to England. Get her some nice jewelry at the end of it and call it even.”

“I’ll look into that if I get desperate enough,” Tom said. With that, the two put out their cigarettes and headed back inside.

Later that evening, Tom received a phone call. He quietly excused himself from the smoke-filled room where people were lounging around a hookah and looked at the photo of his mother taking up the screen before answering.

“Hey mum,” he said, leaning against the wall in the quiet hallway. Somewhere farther in the mansion, someone was blasting hip hop. “Is everything okay?”

“Your father and I have been talking,” She said quietly. “We’ve been hearing quite a lot about your activities in America.”

“What about them?” He asked, a small hint of nervousness in tone. As far as he knew, he hadn’t done anything that would warrant a phone call like this. Had he and other guests gotten into some stupid drunken antics? Of course, but that was practically the purpose of these parties in the first place.

“Tom, we have some… concerns,” she said. “Maybe your father should explain this.”

“Thomas?” Came his dad’s voice from the phone.

“Hi dad,” Tom said, wincing slightly. His dad only ever called him ‘Thomas’ in formal situations or when he was in trouble, and somehow he doubted this was a formal phone call.

“Son, we need to talk,” Dom said.

He’s making a point not to sound angry. Tom thought, listening to his father. This could either be very good or very bad.

“As you know, we’ve been attending our own events here on the other side of the Pond,” He explained, “And many of the people we’ve spoken with are parents of your fellow party guests in America.”

“Whats the issue, dad?” Tom sighed, this conversation already making him itch for a cigarette.

“Well, people aren’t exactly taking kindly to their perfectly eligible daughter’s being rejected by you,” Dom said patiently. “And this is causing a few issues for us.”

“I’m not interested in any of these girls. I’m not going to waste my time with people I’m not interested in,” Tom said exasperatedly.

“That’s part of the issue. It’d be one thing if you were leaving these girls alone. But some of the, ahem, activities that we’ve heard about have left these families feeling… Oh, how did they put it… ‘used’.”

“I’m not obligated to date someone just because I have sex with them!” Tom said angrily, a little louder than he should have.

“That’s the thing Tom, you don’t seem to realize that you’re in a unique position and need to act accordingly,” Dom sighed. “So your mother and I decided that if you can’t start taking your title seriously, then we need to reevaluate your ability to work in the family business when you get back to London.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means cutting back on your work responsibilities. You’ll be back to helping your brothers out with their work. Maintaining pubs and tracking finances and such.”

“Dad that’s not fair!”

“Our family doesn’t deal in ‘fair’.” Dom said coldly “We do what we have to to protect ourselves, and if that means putting you back on a training bike until you can learn to be more serious in your interactions with other important people, then that’s what we’ll do.”

“But da-“

“That’s final, Thomas,” Dom said, shutting Tom up. When his father said something is final, it’s final. Tom respected that, even though his blood was boiling. “I’ll let you get back to your evening now. But call your mother more. She misses you.”

“I miss her too. Bye dad,” Tom said.

“Goodbye Tom.”

Tom pulled the phone away from his ear as the “call ended” tone beeped, glaring down at the device that effectively ruined his entire trip. What had previously been a marathon he just had to grin and bear now felt like a stay of execution. Once he left America, he’d lose the power he had grown so accustomed to in his family business.

“Fuck.” He breathed, running his hand through his hair stressfully. He tucked his phone back in his pocket and walked down the hallway until he found a butler with a silver tray filled with small glasses of Mastedon bourbon. Tom grabbed two and downed them in quick succession, placing them back on the tray before wandering off through the mansion cursing angrily under his breath.

The next morning found Tom and Harrison back at the small diner ordering the same meal they’d gotten for the past several days. Harrison was doing relatively well, but Tom was still an angry mess from the night before.

“Mate, you’ve got to let this go,” Harrison said, stabbing at his french toast.

“It’s bullshit though!”

“I know it is, but if you can’t calm down then the rest of the Season’ll be fucked for you.”

Tom pressed his face into his hands, his elbows resting on the table.

“They’re basically saying that I need to start dating someone right now or I’ll lose my position,” He groaned “How could they do that?”

“Easy, they’re your parents,” Harrison said, “Doesn’t matter how old you get, you still gotta answer to them.”

Tom glared at his cup of coffee before picking it up and drinking from it. He knew his friend was right, but he really wanted some sympathy right now. Or at least one of those crazy plans he was always coming up with.

As the two ate in silence, the bell over the diner entrance jingled as Y/N walked in, taking her usual seat at the counter. The cook poured her a cup of coffee and handed it to her while she looked over the menu.

Tom had noticed her before, cursory glances at the girl with the Y/H/C hair that always seemed to be at the diner eating breakfast the same time as him and Harrison. It made him wonder what kind of situation she could be in that brought her back to this shit hole every morning. After all, this place was specifically designed to be unappealing to regular people.

While watching Y/N pour cream and sugar into her coffee and gently blow on it before taking a delicate sip, Tom got an idea.

“See that girl over there?” Tom asked Harrison, pointing at you discretely.

“What about her?” Harrison asked.

“She’s here every morning. My guess is because she can’t afford everything else.”

Harrison jokingly pretended to be offended at the jab at his family’s diner. “This is a five-star establishment, excuse you.”

“Can you be serious for a moment?”

“Okay, she’s broke, what about it?” He asked.

“That means she doesn’t have any kind of title or well-to-do family or anything.”

“… Where are you going with this.”

“What if she accompanied me to the rest of the American events.”

“Tom that’s a fucking batshit idea,” Harrison said incredulously.

“You’re the one who suggested it!”

“I said find someone just as busy as you who could go in on an apartment in Rome, not some random poor girl from Body Dump New York.”

“If my parents want me to be serious and have someone consistent by my side, then I’ll get someone.”

“Tom I think this is a bad idea,” Harrison said. “And that’s coming from me.”

“What’s so bad about it?”

“How do you think a girl like that is going to handle our party scene, hmm?” He asked, “I bet her entire wardrobe costs less than the suit I’ll be wearing tonight.”

“I think it’ll be nice. She won’t have a family to represent or anything. She can just enjoy it.”

“And if she ends up enjoying it too much and OD’s on something because she doesn’t know her limits?”

“I can handle her, that won’t happen.” Tom sighed.

“It just seems like you’re signing up to babysit this girl for the next three weeks.” Harrison mussed.

“Yeah, but it’ll show my parents,” Tom said. “And that’s more important right now.”

“Why not hire an escort?” Harrison asked after a moment. “Why go through all this trouble?”

“Escorts have their own reputations, and besides, everyone knows them.” Tom said. He ran his fingers through his hair and lightly patted his face to bring back some color in his cheeks. “How do I look?”

“Like an idiot,” Harrison mumbled “But a fine idiot. Good luck, you’re gonna need it.”

Tom picked up his now empty coffee mug and walked over to the counter, sitting down next to Y/N and motioning to the chef for a refill.

“Hello,” He said to Y/N, who looked up at him confusedly. Part of the reason she liked this diner was because no one ever tried to talk to her besides the waitstaff asking for her order.

“Hi,” She said, looking him over. He was handsome, she gave him that. And the creeps she usually had to deal with were much more dressed down than the boy in front of her was.

“Sorry, I just couldn’t help but notice this,” He said, gently touching her copy of The Secret Life of Cee Cee Wilkes that was sticking out of her bag. “Do you read a lot of Chamberlain?”

“I’ve read a bit of her work, yeah,” She nodded “I take it you’re a fan?”

“Oh definitely,” Tom said, “How are you liking it so far?”

“Well, I just started,” Y/N said, “but so far it’s good.”

The two continued to chat about the book for a little bit until Y/N’s breakfast was placed in front of her.

“I’m Tom, by the way,” Tom said, extending his hand out.

“Y/N,” she responded, shaking his hand, “Y/N Y/L/N.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Y/L/N,” Tom said. He discretely pulled out his phone and texted Harrison.

“Bring the car round front.”

Within seconds Harrison texted back.

“I’m not your chauffeur. You owe me.”

Harrison got up from his booth seat and left the diner, heading to where his Mercedes was parked discretely. As he walked, he texted his driver about the change of plans and to head home.

“Listen, Y/N,” Tom said, looking at her. She met his gaze and found herself practically hypnotized by his deep brown eyes. “I want to be honest, I have a proposition for you that you’re going to think that I’m lying about. But I can prove I’m not,”

“Okay?” Y/N said tentatively.

“My family is in charge of a large European import industry, and I’m attending an extravagant party tonight that I would like you to accompany me to.”

“Mhmm.” She said skeptically. “That sounds fun. I just have to wire some funds to a Nigerian prince who emailed me this morning but after that, my schedule is free otherwise.”

“Here,” Tom said, reaching into his wallet and pulling out a business card. It read “Thomas Holland, Chief Executive Production Manager” Along with a phone number, a fax number, and email. Y/N examined it, figuring it looked official enough. “And I have photos, but I don’t want to come off as showboating.” He smirked.

“You’re really serious about this, aren’t you?” Y/N says quietly. “Well assuming I believe this, which I don’t quite yet, why me? I’m sure you have plenty of girls throwing themselves at your feet.”

“Because you aren’t like them,” Tom said, gently touching her shoulder “And I’ve seen you in here the past few days and I’ve become more and more intrigued with you every day. This is a chance to get to know you more.”

Y/N looked down at the business card again, her gaze drifting to the expensive watch on Tom’s arm then back to look him in the eyes.

“I have work tonight,” Y/N said simply.

“I can take care of that,” Tom said, “Just let me know where and when you work and you won’t have to worry about it.”

“I don’t have anything to wear.”

“I can take care of that as well,” He smiled. “I’ll be leaving at 8 for the party. Tell me where I should pick you up and everything will be arranged accordingly.”

Y/N pursed her lips in thought before finally sighing.

“What the hell, I’ve got nothing to lose. Here’s my address and phone number,” She said, taking a pen from her bag and writing her details down on a napkin.

“I promise you won’t be disappointed,” Tom grinned. A horn honked from outside, and Harrison rolled the window down and gestured for Tom to hurry up. “I’ll see you at 8, Miss Y/L/N.”

As Tom left the diner, Y/N sighed and took a pull from her lukewarm coffee wondering what she had just gotten herself into.

[ Next chapter ]

Tags: @iaiabear @thedoctor-and-her-fallenangles @dumb-bitch-stole-my-nutella@softpetcrparker @xainabx

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theeverlastingshade · 4 years

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Spirit They’re Gone, Spirit They’ve Vanished- Animal Collective: 20th Anniversary

Years before Animal Collective became indie royalty, they were just four Brooklyn via Baltimore transplants that had begun making music with one another throughout high school. The band wasn’t defined as such until Avey Tare (David Portner), Panda Bear (Noah Lennox), Geologist (Brian Weitz) and Deakin (Josh Dibb) first joined forces together for their terrific noise/freak folk record, Ark, in 2003. But before AC was established as a creative force, the various members released a handful of records under the names of the different members playing on them. Avey Tare had written the bulk of what was initially intended to be his first solo LP, Spirit They’ve Gone, Spirit They’ve Vanished, in the first few years that he moved to Brooklyn, but he was so impressed after hearing Panda Bear drum that he recruited him to play drums on the album. Defined by a fusion of psychedelic pop, freak folk, ambient, noise, and experimental rock, STGSTV is a landmark of avant-garde pop that established the idiosyncratic patch that the duo (and later trio/quartet) would follow throughout the rest of their career.

Although all four members of AC didn’t begin releasing music with one another until a few years after Tare moved to Brooklyn, they’ve been playing music with each other for years beforehand. Noah and Josh met in grade school, and at some point in high school Josh introduced Noah to Dave and Brian, whom he had formed an indie rock band called Automine with. From there the four of them began swapping tapes, playing music, and expanding each other’s tastes. After high school Dave and Brian moved to Brooklyn (where Dave began work on STGSTV), and Noah and Josh moved to Boston, where Noah began work on what become his solo debut LP as Panda Bear. Panda Bear is an album comprised of Noah’s high school home recordings that include a variety of instruments including acoustic/electric guitar, a bass synth, a keyboard synth, piano, and cello (but no drums, curiously). It’s a solid first effort that established Noah’s compositional approach, but it doesn’t leave much of an impression, and is easily the most underwhelming record that he’s released as a solo act. Although they had been recording with one another for years, it wasn’t until Noah tracked drums on STGSTV that their collaborations began to manifest into music that would begin to define their artistic careers.

In contrast to Panda’s lo-fi, experimental electronic solo debut, STGSTV is a primarily analog avant-garde pop record with traces of psychedelia, freak folk, noise, ambient, and experimental rock seamlessly folded into its electro-acoustic sprawl. Avey wrote all of the songs, and played all of the instruments save for the drums, which included acoustic guitar, piano, bass synth, keyboard synth, tape loops, and his unmistakable signature shriek, which became one of the most distinctive elements of their sound. Future AC songs would be shaped by Panda’s voice as well, beginning most notably on the stellar second strictly Tare/Bear AC record, Sung Tongs, but on STGSTV it’s just Tare’s voice leading the proceedings. STGSTV is broken up into 10 songs, 2 of which are instrumentals, and the other 8 run the gamut from 3 and a half to 12 minutes, while defying easy classification at every turn.

The album begins with “Spirit They’ve Vanished” which consists of little more than shrill synth tones fluttering alongside Tare’s understated croon. It’s both tender and abrasive, and it perfectly sets the tone for everything to follow. The record balances the duo’s burgeoning avant-garde impulses against Tare’s first real forays into songwriting. There are moments of percussion-heavy propulsion, and moments of mesmerizing drone, but there aren’t any viable singles, or many songs that really even follow a verse-chorus-verse structure. Whether we’re talking about a song with that builds to a more conventional peak, like the lumbering march of the deliriously psychedelic “Penny Dreadfuls”, or something a little bit more amorphous, like the wandering noise interlude “Untitled”, the tracks that form STGSTV are bewitching and eclectic in equal measure, but they never compromise an ounce of Tare’s vision.

Although Tare and Bear would continue recording with one another (and Geologist and Deakin) throughout the next two decades, and would end up releasing many better records, there are still plenty of songs on STGSTV that rank as among the best to be released under the name AC. The record’s second song, “April and the Phantom”, brings Panda’s nimble tribal rhythms into the fold for the first time alongside Tare’s aforementioned shriek, which quickly became a staple of their sound. “Penny Dreadfuls” was written by Tare at 16, and it slowly builds into a euphoric eruption defined by twinkling keys, a barrage of cymbals, and some of Tare’s most expressive singing up to that point.

“Chocolate Girl” is broken down into two movements, the first of which alternates between Tare singing wildly over chiming synths and cymbal rolls and a soft acoustic guitar progression smothered in tape loops and synth texture as Tare begins to serenade the listener. The second movement is a jaunty acoustic guitar and kick/snare bounce with Tare’s restrained melodic delivery hovering above it all, and it’s one of the most infectious moments on the record. And on the bubbly, yet propulsive late-album highlight, “La Rapet”, Avey delivers a surprisingly anthemic vocal melody atop some of Panda’s most complex rhythms for the bulk of the song, before they transition into a waltz propelled by bright synths and Tare’s wistful delivery. The elements of AC’s sound were transparent from the start, but they were never again configured into shapes quite this unconventional while still conveying so much heart.

The sentiments expressed by Tare throughout STGSTV are entirely concerned with the death of childhood. Every song discusses some facet of growing up, and Avey sums up the record’s thematic through line best at the end of the opening track, “Spirit They’re Gone”, with “In spirit they’ve vanished/And I’ll show you why/They’ll make you take elder paths by this time/If we were just dolphins/In the sea and fly/It’s hard to kiss our/Child games goodbye”. The high-pitched frequencies, dense, lo-fi production, and engaging melodies heighten the potency of the nightmare fairy tale aesthetics, but it’s Tare’s poignant observations on the transition into adulthood that gives imbues the record with a sense of timelessness far beyond the instrumental ingenuity.

On “April and the Phantom” Tare sings about a girl named April who longs to escape into nature despite the opportunities that adulthood present “Everybody wants it/Ah, can't you see me waste it?” while on “Penny Dreadful” Tare depicts an encounter with a bully on the bus that’s cut brief when a friend intervenes “It’s a shame to hear the sound/When the penny hit the ground/And I want to go back home”. The song “Chocolate Girl” almost functions as a microcosm of the record’s themes as a whole, with Tare eventually learning to make peace with his parting from the titular character “Bell of the rain who brought the stings and dead/And who will pop the trade/’Cause I can’t see you/I’ll open up my brain again”. The lyrics are generally simple and heartfelt, but as the record progresses the sense of whimsy continues to recede, culminating in the grand epic, “Alvin Row”.

While the vast majority of the songs on STGSTV don’t stand out among their finest offerings, the astonishing 12 minute closer, “Alvin Row”, is still the most ambitious song that Avey has written to date. Throughout the course of nearly 13 minutes Avey and Panda unleash a tour de force of catharsis that begins with a harsh sheet of white noise to signify birth. From there a gentle piano melody begins to pick up steam as Avey depicts his childhood in a state of rapturous awe “Old clapper you can step inside/Accustomed to the rust your silver child”. Within a few minutes “Alvin Row” reaches the point of adolescence, with Tare repeatedly screaming “Run!” in the most devastating and expressive tone that he’s ever delivered over some remarkable cymbal rolls from Panda. After the storm subsidies, and the realities of adulthood begin to settle in, the instrumentation slowly begins to shift into a steady psych-pop shuffle and Avey adopts a contemplative but optimistic tone “I pulled the glass, it dripped too fast for second dawn/Since we passed through the maze as we unlock the stage of my other ride”. The guitars and drums continue to pick up steam until Panda begins to deliver a barrage of cymbal rolls while Tare closes the song out with a resigned acceptance in departing from childhood, vowing never to lose that spark “When I’ll say go, you say go, dear Alvin”.

STGSTV wasn’t a commercial breakthrough for the band despite lighting up the blogs (that wouldn't happen until the pair reconvened for their aforementioned 2004 freak folk classic, ST) but it was without question a creative breakthrough. There were obvious precedents for their music in the work of The Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Olivia Tremor Control, Pavement, and plenty of underground visionaries, but there’s never been a record released before or since that sounds anything like the remarkably cohesive blend of acoustics and electronics that Tare and Bear utilized on STGSTV. The four future members of AC spent the summer before its release engaged in the kind of improvised electro-acoustic jamming that would go on to become inform all of their future recordings, and all of it had a precedent here.

The band rarely returns to songs from STGSTV for their live shows, which is hardly surprising given the overwhelming emotional rawness of the sentiments expressed on it, but every once in a while AC will play various snippets of songs as a kind of tantalizing fan service. Despite the heights that they reached throughout the ensuing decade, STGSTV has continued to loom large on everything that the members of AC have done together, and as solo artists. It not only established the core/scope of their compositional approach and recording process as a band, but it showed what’s possible when two people with boundless creativity join forces under no pretense but that of discovering the boundless possibilities of sound.

Essentials: “Alvin Row”, “La Rapet”, “Chocolate Girl”

#Animal Collective #spirit they're gone spirit they've vanished #paw tracks

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