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kerie-prince · 3 years

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We're Worlds Apart (4)

Draco Malfoy x American No-Maj!reader

series m.list | general m.list | previous chp

warnings: a curse word if you squint, sassy Draco

summary: Draco Malfoy is a pureblood wizard. Magic runs through his veins and has been since his birth. You're a Wiccan No-Maj; a non-magical being with ordinary blood through your veins, but practices what you call magick. And this very practice upsets your neighbor.

a/n: a day late bc i got distracted watching game of thrones lmao i have adhd so i honestly should've known better than to have something so attention demanding in front of me :P

(gif cred)

Three more days.

Three more days until your brother and his girlfriend come to your Buffalo suburban home to spend Thanksgiving. You came home from work on a better day than the ones from the week before, only to walk inside and was almost convinced you entered the wrong house.

Your mother took the liberty of decorating your house while you were gone. The place looked like an IKEA catalogue. Green and cream colored throw pillows were on your black leather couch, your small dining table had a fall-themed centerpiece and a blood orange table cloth. New dining chairs, all of them matched, unlike the mismatched ones you had before. And that god-forsaken ‘Live, Laugh, Love’ wooden sign hung in your kitchen. That damn thing is leaving first thing in the morning.

“Ma, what the hell did you do to my house?” The more you looked, you groaned at what you saw. Your grandmother’s tapestry was no longer hanging at its original place, now hung hidden behind the tv. “Oh, don’t give me any grief about it. Y/B/N is coming and I don’t want the place looking like the Spirit store.”

You knew you couldn't really fight her on this. It would be more frustrating to have to argue and still not be able to put everything back to how it was until she left. Taking a deep breath, you walked yourself to your room to get changed into comfortable clothes and light some sage for your nerves.

Three more days.

—

One more week.

In a week's time, Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott were to come to New York to spend the month of December with Draco and to say he was excited was an understatement.

He was excited, nervous, and many other feelings that he was too stressed to name. The guest room was prepared for the two of them to share, all he had to do was figure out what to do with them while they were here. He had taken a week off and had no idea what to do. He still hadn’t gone around the city he lived in. He could always ask his friends at Saint Marie but for some reason, he was too shy to.

He could always ask Mrs. Charles for recommendations on what to do. She was a sweet muggle neighbor that he came to like as well as her husband. He could also ask you, but it’s been over a week since he spoke to you in your yards. From glimpses into your window, you seemed so exhausted. Not that he really cared, but he remembered that you would try to get along better and so far, all he’s done was give a nod towards your direction when he walked into his home as you were leaving yours.

His bedroom blinds were always closed now because he knew that if he were to see you doing your… whatever you do in your room just once, he’d change his mind about the whole thing. It still bothered him, but not as bad as it did when he first saw it.

Draco’s stomach growled as he sat on his couch, bringing him out of his thoughts and walked over to the kitchen. To his despair, his pantry, cabinets, and fridge were all empty. Guess I’ll have to grab something. He pondered on what he was in the mood for as he ran out the door. Draco figured he'd just figure it out as he drove around the streets downtown.

Since moving to America, he found so many new cuisines than he had ever imagined. He usually always ate at home, and if his family ever ate outside of home they usually went to the finest restaurants in France. Of course, they were all wizard-owned restaurants. But in New York, he’s been introduced to new things. For one, he had his first ever hamburger with Blaine. Ashley took him to a Chinese restaurant, and Ian bought Draco a traditional New York pizza.

Yes, all these things existed in London. Maybe not so much New York-style pizza, but there was pizza. Draco, however, never had the opportunity to try any of these foods. Lucius was extremely strict about eating out. It was never necessary considering he could afford the best quality foods to be made at home. When they did eat at restaurants in France, it was only because a higher official at the Ministry had invited them for a night out.

Around the streets, the bright lights of buildings and restaurants lit the streets as he drove around them. Draco turned into a street he hadn’t been into yet in hopes to find something else he could find to try. There were a couple places he hadn’t been into; a Greek restaurant, a Brazillian one, and a couple shops. There was one shop close to the end of the street. It was sandwiched between two boutiques and had a neon green and purple sign in the front. Soul Beads. In front of the building was a man with a weird sign in one hand and an even weirder thing that seemed to have made his voice louder in the other. Draco couldn’t make of the rubbish he was yelling into the thing from inside his car.

Draco pulled to the curb to walk around the street and check out the restaurants. A bell jingle caught his attention, turning around to see one person he didn’t really expect to see here. “Draco?” your face showed the same expression as his. He watched as you closed the door to Soul Beads and walked up to him. The weird man that stood in front of the store yelled out, “DON’T TALK TO HER, THIS BITCH HERE WORKS FOR THE DEVIL!”

“Do you know him?” Draco asks with a quirked eyebrow. The stranger kept yelling profanities at you but Draco saw how you couldn’t be bothered by it. “He does this every couple weeks. What brings you out here?” Your hands were stuffed tightly in your pockets for warmth.

“Do you own the street? Can I not be here?” he asked sarcastically. You faced him with a deadpan look as to ask him again without having to say the words to him. Or call him a smartass. Which he is. With a roll of his eyes, he continued, “I’m looking for something to eat but I’ve never been to these places before.”

“Ah,” you started, “Well I don’t know what kind of stuff you’re used to, but I suggest the Greek restaurant right across. Over-priced, but the best gyros you’ll ever have in Buffalo.”

“It’s yee-roh, not jahy-row.” Draco corrected. He couldn’t tell if you were irritated or confused after he said that. Probably both.

“You know Greek?” you asked.

“I studied it when I was a child. My tutor showed me the word once and hit my hand when I had mispronounced it. Learned the hard way to never do that again,” flashbacks to the older woman teaching him the language cursed his mind for a few seconds.

His stomach growled even louder now in the silence between them. Draco blushed in embarrassment, shifting around to look away so you wouldn’t see. You slightly chuckled and tapped his shoulder. “Come on, neighbor’s treat.” And you walked onto the busy street.

This bloody woman is crazy to be crossing a busy street he thought as he rushed to follow you across the street. He got scared as a car got too close and ran to the safety of the sidewalk. “You’re gonna get yourself bloody killed one of these days like that,” he scolded. “If you’re gonna live in New York, you’re gonna have to deal with annoying pedestrians and sometimes be an annoying pedestrian. Be glad you don’t live in Manhattan, they’re worse. A person could be hit by a car and he’d just get on up and keep walking.” you informed.

Draco would be lying to himself if he said that didn’t spook him a little. Sure, he’s seen a few students get hexed, some by him, but they’d never just dealt with it and continued walking in the halls. They’d either have to hope their friends knew the counter curse or they’d end up in the hospital wing and had Madam Pomfrey help them back to normal. These muggles really are just… strange.

The restaurant looked old and desperately needed a remodel but by Merlin, it smelled amazing. “Now, are you getting a yee-roh sandwich or are you getting something else?” you mocked his previous correction with a playful roll of your eyes. Draco looked at the menu but it didn’t matter as he didn’t know the first thing about Greek food. What the hell did my father force me to take lessons for? “Do you want me to just order for you?” you asked as he kept browsing for too long. There were only 12 things on the menu but it still confused him.

He held back a snarl as he agreed to your help. He stood aside as you ordered and waited until it sounded like you were done, then headed up to the window to pay. “Oh, you don’t have to. I insisted I would pay,” you tried to push his hand away and reach for your credit card but he proceeded to hand the money to the cashier. “It’s nothing.”

“Here or to-go?” the lady asked with a thick New York accent. The two of you just looked at each other waiting for someone to say something. “Do you want to just-”

“Eat it here?” He looked at the small space and saw only one unoccupied table by the window. One of two tables. No longer growling, his stomach was shaking nearly violently, indicating that he can’t wait any longer. It was a strange feeling to be starving. Never had he ever had to wait for food at Malfoy Manor nor at Hogwarts. Whether it was house elves or first years, someone always ran to get him food with a snap of his fingers. “Yeah, here’s fine.”

The lady handed your plates to you as he went to claim the small table before someone else did. He looked around the space with a slight disgusted look. It’s not that it was run by muggles, but just because the place looks so old and kind of dirty. Even the house elves at the Manor lived in better conditions. The corner he sat in made him feel slightly claustrophobic. How do they sit and enjoy anything like this?

You sat the food on the table and shook your jacket off on to the chair. Draco watched as you placed the plates as neatly in front of you both. He couldn’t help but notice the rings that covered most of your fingers. Some were simple silver bands, some bronze bands, and some looked like wire that had a wrapped, colorful rock in the center. They were mismatched but coordinated at the same time. If that made any actual sense.

You started some simple small-talk, “So, what brings you all the way out here?”

“I got a better job opportunity,” Draco responded. His voice sounded uninterested, and his eyes stared at the plate. It had three pieces of meat on a bed of white rice, a small salad and a little dipping bowl of some white sauce. He dipped the meat into the sauce and as he tasted it, he nearly groaned in content. The flavors danced around his mouth and he had to hold himself back from devouring the whole plate in a matter of seconds.

He could feel you staring at him but chose not to look up to see judgement in your eyes. Whether it was with amusement or not. The food was so good and he would most definitely order another one to-go on his way out for his lunch break tomorrow. I’m definitely bringing Blaise and Theo here.

“What kind of job do you do?” Draco stopped chewing his food and swallowed nervously. He should’ve expected this kind of question sooner or later, but here he was sitting in silence trying to figure out what to say. He couldn’t just tell you that he’s a Healer because then that would lead to more questions and that’d be more answers he couldn’t give you. “What, you don’t wanna tell me?” you furrowed your eyebrows at him as he continued his silence.

Finally, the word popped in his mind, “I’m a doctor.” Hopefully that ends that conversation.

“That’s cool, what kind of doctor are you?” Shit. There’s more than one kind?

“Uh, I work with people who come into the hospital with major injuries like a broken arm and such,” Draco stuttered.

“So, an emergency room doctor. You work in the ER then,” you concluded with a hand over your mouth as you chewed. “Y-yeah, that.” Draco tried not to sound suspicious. “What about you?”

You cleared your throat, drank some of your soda and pointed out the window, “You see that store over there? Soul Beads? That’s my store.” It was weird how coincidental it was that of all streets to drive into and of all people to run into, he ran into you coming out of your personally owned store. Looking back at you, he saw your face relax and smile at the building. “What do you sell? I’m assuming it’s not food seeing as you didn’t invite me in.”

Now it was time for you to stutter, “Oh, just candles and stuff. Nothing too flashy.” You poked at your food and took small bites of it. There was an awkward silence between you two for about ten minutes before you started the conversation before, “Assuming you don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, will you just be working that day?” Draco didn’t know much about the holiday, only that he was getting paid more that day.

“Yeah, I’ll be at the hospital for the night. Probably until four in the morning.”

“Well that sucks. You’ll miss out on the greatest American tradition that is Black Friday,” you chuckled.

“What’s that?” Yet another thing Draco didn’t understand.

“Black Friday is when people fight to the death for a discount on things like appliances and tvs. It’s quite amusing to watch,” you slightly exaggerated. Keyword slightly. Draco had wide eyes as he heard the description. “I’m sorry, to the death?”

With that, you laughed so hard you placed one hand flat against your chest and the other held the table with a tight grip as if you were to fall from your seat. He then realized you actually didn’t mean to the literal death and mentally scolded himself for being so gullible. You continued laughing and he rolled his eyes before chuckling to himself. You leaned back up and wiped some tears underneath your eyes, “Oh my god, I needed that laugh.”

A shiver went up Draco’s spine once he caught a glimpse of your smile. It wasn’t like he hadn’t seen you smile at all. Before your little argument, you would smile towards him and all the other neighbors all the time. But this never happened before. He looked away from your eyes and tried to find anything else to look at. Tilting his head up, he saw an air conditioning unit. Oh, that’s why.

Small talk ended there with a clear of his throat and proposed to go home. Draco saw how you looked a little disappointed and forced a small, kind smile on your face, “Yeah, it’s getting kinda late and I don’t want to keep my mother waiting. God knows what she’s done to my house while I was gone.” He wasn’t going to keep pressing on the matter as he figured they still weren’t close enough for that. One dinner didn’t make them friends in his book. It wasn’t terrible, though. Maybe he would do it again.

Walking to their own cars, she said “See you around, neighbor,” and got into her car and drove off. He just nodded his head as he always did and drove off as well. They arrived home at the same time and walked inside without looking at each other, thinking that it would just be weird to keep saying goodbye.

—

It was finally Thanksgiving, and Y/B/N and Stephanie were going to be over around three in the afternoon. Your mother was more of a pain than usual, waking you up at six in the morning to do last minute cleaning, grocery shopping, and starting on roasting the ham. The loud argument over ham or turkey in the grocery store the week before lasted for an embarrassing two hours after your mother caved and let you pick the main entree for dinner.

Once you got an hour to yourself, you went to your closet in the hall and grabbed a small glass jar then walked to your backyard for some lavender. You walked to the kitchen for a stick of cinnamon, placed the items on the kitchen counter and walked quickly to your room for something small. Your eyes found a loose ribbon on the floor and grabbed it then went back to the kitchen.

You put all the items into the jar and browsed the kitchen for one more thing. There was a bouquet of flowers on the dining table that your mother bought. Perfect. You grabbed a couple flowers and took the petals to mix in the jar. Once you were done, you chanted to yourself three times:

“Goddess, please take the negativity out of this kitchen.

Replace it with positivity and love. So mote it be.”

You heard your mother waking up from her nap from the guest room and ran into the kitchen to hide the jar somewhere she couldn’t see it. The spell can’t exactly work if she sees something to nag about. She walks in the kitchen and sees you looking suspicious.

She looks at you with squinted eyes - mainly because she had just woken up - but said, “I’m not gonna ask what you’re up to. Can you make the potato salad? I like the way you make it better.” You silently agreed as you looked for the things in the fridge and grabbed a large bowl to mix it in. Your mother walks up to one of the cabinets to grab a pot to boil the potatoes with, only to find the thing you tried to hide. “What’s this, honey?”

You stammered over your words trying to find an explanation before she cut you off, “It’s pretty with all the things in there. You should keep it out.” She placed it beside a photo on the countertop and walked away to fill the pot with water. You were surprised she didn’t ask any further questions. You continued cooking and had a hopeful smile on your face. Maybe it won’t be so bad tonight.

The doorbell rang and you both looked at the clock on the wall. It read 1:55 and you looked at each other in confusion. “Y/B/N must be early,” your mother guessed and went to the door to let him in. The greeting was loud as she greeted him in. You could hear your little brother’s laugh with enthusiasm as he walked into your kitchen, “What’s up, big sis?”

You placed the utensils down and ran up to him with your arms up, “I’ve missed you too, baby brother.” He was much taller than you as he picked you up and hugged you tightly. You slightly swung your legs to give him the signal to let you go. He got his height from your dad, leaving you short thanks to your mother. Your brother had a big smile on his face and you reciprocated the smile. It’s been a long time since you’ve seen each other.

“Oh, lemme introduce you. Steph, c’mere!” He looked over his shoulder and called for the special guest. A beautiful woman with long, chocolate brown hair and doe blue eyes walked next to Y/B/N. “It’s so nice to meet you, I’m Stephanie.” She held her hand out causing you to quickly wipe your hands on your apron. “Hi, I’m Y/N.”

“Y/B/N has told me so much about you. I was so nervous to meet you,” Stephanie admitted with a slight blush on her cheeks. “I wonder what this dummy told you. I bet you I can tell you more embarrassing stories about him,” you jabbed his arm.

“That’s not fair, I didn’t say anything all that bad. You’ll hex me or some shit,” he had his hands up in defense.

“Y/B/N!” Your eyes widened and you laughed nervously, “Don’t listen to him, he’s an idiot.”

Stephanie looked back and forth at the two of you and finally settled on you, waving a hand, “Oh no, that’s okay. I practice, too.” Wait, what? It seemed your mother thought the same exact thing, only out loud. “Yeah, Stephanie also does the same thing you do. Crazy, right?”

Your mother stood shocked before them, not saying anything. Your brother had a smile that wasn’t exactly fitting the situation. Stephanie had a kind smile, and although you were visibly surprised that your little brother’s girlfriend was, of all things, also a Wiccan, you were laughing inside at your mother.

This is gonna be the most interesting Thanksgiving ever.

—

next chp

(っ◔◡◔)っ taglist: @beiahadid @malfoy-styles-wife @fivenightslaughter @juneballoon999 @leydileyla @fangirlanotherjust @originalsoulcollector @opiomancy @lipstickandloveletters @ninacotte @daedric-sorceress @frecklesandfirecrackers

#draco malfoy #draco malfoy imagine #draco malfoy au #draco malfoy angst #draco malfoy fluff #draco malfoy smut #draco malfoy fic #draco malfoy x muggle!reader #draco malfoy x reader #draco malfoy x you #draco malfoy x female reader #draco x you #draco x y/n #draco x muggle!reader #draco x female reader

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mirkwoodshewolf · 3 years

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A new kind of competition RA on the Masked singer pt. 1

*Author’s note*

Hey guys well like I said on my last post, this is the 1st part of my Masked Singer chapter. And let me just tell you after literally MONTHS of trying to figure out a playlist for this chapter I FINALLY came to a good playlist that I could see the Rock Angel doing if she were to compete in the Masked Singer. So follow along and listen to the songs I’ve listed if you really wanna get into the mood of it and I hope you all enjoy this fun little chapter and until next time :)

Taglist:

@bohemiansweede

@plethora-of-things

@waddles03

@psychosupernatural

@ixchel-9275

@simonedk

@queensdivas

@queen-paladin

@jd-johndeacon-or-jackdaniels

@queendeakyy

@5sos-wdw

@wormzteef

@geek-and-proud

@starswin

@labessieisallama

@isabella-bby

@naturalswifty89

@ssa-sadboi

@onebigfangirlworld

_________________________________________________________

*February 2021*

This was a whole new game changer for me, but I’m happy I signed up for it. While visiting my son Georgie (through a very brief period when the pandemic was at a standstill, before the States closed down again), I had been asked by the Producers of NBC’s “The Masked Singer” if I’d be willing to participate in the show.

Having seen the show through Youtube videos and even seeing the UK’s version of it back home during our lockdown, I immediately hopped on board and said I would do it. But of course being as secretive as this show was, they forbad me from telling anyone or announcing it on Social media, if I even breathed a word of my appearance on the show to anyone, they’d revoke it and kick me out of the show.

The character that they had chosen for me was the Lioness and boy was she a gorgeous creature. Much like how they had the Lion all the way back in Season one, she was pure gold however she wasn’t covered with armor like the Lion was. I had asked for some flexibility to the outfit cause I wanted to give the audience a side of me that they’ve never seen before. I wanted to be able to move much like Bow-Wow did on the last season of the Masked Singer as the Frog.

They took some of my ideas into consideration on allowing the outfit to have that flexibility for me to dance my heart out. I wore platform high-heeled boots much like I always did back when I first started off as the Rock Angel.

I also wanted to honor Freddie in a way with my outfit. I had asked for the gloves if it could be possible if we could add some diamond claws. I showed them (whatever pictures I could find of the 1974 Rainbow concert. Thank you all for the lovely gifs) just so they could get the idea and when the costume dept. saw it, they fell in love with the idea. They even agreed to shape the diamonds as real lioness claws.

Once the costume was fully complete and I got to put it on for the first time, it felt like I had actually become The Lioness. Of course it came with a price too, I wasn’t allowed to talk to anyone, even when I just had to go around with the mask, I was given the famed DON’T TALK TO ME black hoodie so that no one was able to hear my real voice.

I was also forbidden from talking to the other contestants as well as hear them rehearse until we would begin filming the episodes. I was placed into GROUP B along with creatures such as the Piglet, Black Swan, the Chameleon, and Grandpa Monster. I was also told that there would be some major game changers this season but no one, not even the judges knew just what those changes were, only the Host.

Weeks and weeks of rehearsals and performing each of my songs that I had picked out and wanted to do, never did I think I’d get as far as I did. But I could care less about the trophy, I just enjoy singing and this was a whole new game changer cause now my fans get to see a whole new side of me that they never do get to see on stage with me.

Sure I’ve had courage to go up on stage constantly, overcome every obstacle known to man, hell even stay a sane person after having a rough childhood, but the Lioness has given me courage to do things that I’ve never done before on stage, whether performing with my boys, by myself, or with other singers that I’ve performed/toured with. Back then or present day.

And I hope you all can guess correct just who is beneath the Lioness mask. Enjoy my dears.

*GROUP B PREMIERE EPISODE*

“Alright! Alright! Alright!” the current host of MS5 Niecy Nash said after the last contestant Black Swan performed her opening song. “Now this next contestant is gonna prove that she belongs on this stage. Give it up….for the Queen herself! The Lioness!”

The crowd cheered and I walked out with the Men in Black strutting down with pride in each step. I greeted the audience with the royal wave before standing next to Niecy. Even though I could vaguely see out of this mask, I still had some sense of the stage.

“Oooo girl you are stunning to look at look at this ya’ll ain’t see a Queen or what?!”

“She looks amazing!” I heard Jenny exclaim.

“Yeah I’m jealous look at those claws of hers. I wish I had those.” Nicole stated. I gave them a sexy clawing motion with my hands as they all hooted and hollered.

“I agree with you Nicole. Now let’s find out some clues on just who this Queen Lioness is.” Through the TV, I knew my first clue package would be playing. Here’s out it went down.

You would see a 3 layered rock platform, on smaller rock, one slightly taller in the middle and finally a large boulder that stood tall like a throne with me sitting on top of it.

“Welcome to my Pride. Being the top lioness isn’t always easy but it’s all worth it in the end. Something that I believe the world could benefit from.” The screen would change to me walking along a virtual plain with various animals. “Growing up, we weren’t allowed to really show our true colors as much as we can now. If you were even slightly different from the rest of the world, you were condemned.” A zebra with the LGBTQ patterns for its stripes came up.

“An LGBTQ flag. Could be a member of it.” Pointed out Robin Thicke.

“But it still hurts me to see that even as society begins to change, there are those that still cling to the old ways of life.”

“Maybe a politician. This is a lot of politics going on here.” Nicole stated. The screen changed to me holding the world in the palm of my hands. I crushed the world down.

“I just hope that one day the world will come to understand that we are all One people, one world.” I opened my hands up and soon a rainbow appeared before ending my 1st clue package.

The stage was dark except for one spotlight shining down on me. Well more like half of me, half of my body remained in the shadows while the other half was sparkling under the spotlight as I spoke with my American accent, the voice modulator turning off for my performance.

“We are a nation with multi-graphic boundaries. Bound together through our beliefs. We are like-minded individuals, sharing a common vision. Pushing toward a world rid of color loins.” Already I could see that people were trying to figure out who I was by hearing my real voice, but due to me American accent and natural British accent being two completely different voices, it was throwing people for a loop.

I then did Janet’s famed countdown with my right hand before the song came on full force and I and my backup dancers began to dance the Rhythm Nation dance. ALL in perfect unison.

The crowd went insane and I could even see the judges standing up in shock as well as cheering. I strutted towards the mic stand at the corner of the stage and began to sing. My natural alto range came forth and I could see the audience singing along and even do some of the dance moves to the song, especially once the chorus hit.

I strutted across the stage before I would rejoin and lead the pride that was my dancers in the famed dance, before strutting forward on the stage, coaxing the audience to cry the chorus out loudly.

*Me*

With music by our side To break the color lines Let's work together To improve our way of life Join voices in protest To social injustice A generation full of courage Come forth with me

People of the world today Are we looking for a better way of life We are a part of the rhythm nation People of the world unite Strength in numbers we can get it right One time (Sing it up!) We are a part of the rhythm nation

My backup dancers and I then did probably the most difficult dance break that Janet had set for all dancers to perform in perfect unison.

“She’s has got this dance DOWN!!” exclaimed Nicole.

“This has to be a natural singer!” Jenny told Robin who agreed.

“No question!”

*Me*

Rhythm Nation baby!

Sing it for the children Sing it for the people

Rhythm Nation baby

Sing it for the man!

We are a part of a Rhythm Nation!

My dancers and I saluted and the crowd went absolutely berserk from my first number.

“Yaas Queen!” I heard Niecy exclaim as she came up to me. “Lioness all up here slaying it!” I gave a graceful bow (as low as I could go without the mask falling off) and she said. “Judges what did you all think of our lovely Lioness’s performance.”

“Niecy you don’t need to say anything else cause you summed it up! I think we are in the presence of a true performer here.” Nicole first started off.

“Agreed. Never did we see someone actually have the guts to pull off—probably one of the hardest choreography dances ever!” Jenny agreed.

“Alright judges now you know the drill. It’s time to put your first impression guesses into the tour bus.” I could see some of them complaining as they wrote down their guesses on who I was as the little tour bus came through to collect their First Impression guesses. “Now then, do any of you have any clues on just who this Queen of the Beasts could be, let’s start with you Mr. Robin.”

“Wha Me? Oh man….” The rest of the panel laughed at his misery while I mimed a laugh by putting my hand to my opened mouth mask. “I mean—this could literally be anyone but based off the clue package she spoke a lot about the world and people around it. So this definitely isn’t someone who is recently famous. She’s been around for a while.”

“Whatcha trying to say Robin that she’s old?” Niecy defended me as I got into a fighting position.

“Oh Robin you’re about to get mauled by the Lioness!” Ken teased him.

“No, no, no, no! Not insinuating anything!”

“Cause you know you never insult a woman’s age there Robin Thicke!” Niecy exclaimed.

“Tell him mommy!” Ken cheered.

“Sit down Kenneth!”

“Yes ma’am.” He said as he sat down on his chair.

“Where I was going with this is that maybe she came from an era where it wasn’t okay to bring about your sexuality or gender.”

“True, true.” Nicole agreed with him.

“And seeing the LGBTQ pattern on the zebra, I’m thinking this might be Shea Diamond.”

“Okay, okay not a bad guess.”

“I’m afraid I’m gonna have to disagree with you there Robin. I’ve listened to Shea Diamond sing and that’s not her.” Ken said.

“Then who do you think it is Ken?” asked Nicole.

“Okay I know exactly who this is.” Oh god here we go. “Okay from the clue package alone there was obviously the LGBTQ brand with the Zebra. Maybe she’s an advocate for the LGBTQ community. I’m going with Lady Gaga!”

Okay not a bad guess but it’s not her. I could see some of the audience pondering Ken Jong’s rare, good guesses.

“Well Lioness whoever you are, you are a star.” Jenny stated as she pointed at me. I blew her a kiss and Niecy said.

“Now Lioness before we go, I have to ask you. How long did it take you to do that dance?” I put the mic up to the thinnest part of my mask and answered with my voice modulator now on, making me sound like a warm, motherly Chipette.

“It took months actually, but I’m a fast learner when it comes to dancing.” I hinted that little clue and only my super fans would realize that I love to dance, especially when it was with my Brother Mine back in the day.

“Okay. Well give it up one more time for the Lioness!” the crowd applauded and I waved goodbye before walking off the stage.

After all the performances of Group B went, we all lined up and found out just who among us was going home for the first round in our group. It was suspenseful but the votes were in and Grandpa Monster was the one to be eliminated from the first round.

I was safe for now. I just hope I can keep going on and maybe go all the way.

*ROUND 2*

It was now Round 2 and I was going to perform after the Chameleon. I heard him do the song “21 Questions” by 50 Cent ft. Nate Dogg. I’ll admit he was an impressive performance, especially with how he can rap so my best guess is that he could be a rapper. Unfortunately, I’m not quite educated in my rappers (plus one rapper in particular still gives me a bad vibe after what he did) so I wouldn’t know who to begin guessing if I were an audience member.

After going to a commercial break it was now time for me to perform my second song choice that both me and the Producers thought would be a good fit for me.

“This Queen last time she crushed it with Janet’s Rhythm Nations, and now she’s back to hopefully crush it once more. Let’s dig up some more clues on the Lioness.”

The next clue package stood as followed:

“I’ll admit, 1st round I was terrified. Never have I done something like this before. But once I got up on stage, I overcame that fear and just sang. In fact, it was music that helped me overcome my shyness.” I told the camera.

I opened up a closet and inside it was my Red Special guitar, a pair of drum sticks and a Fender Bass guitar (the one that Deacy always played with).

“Growing up I had very low self-esteem. I was shy, insecure, and thought I’d never amount to anything.”

“Aww that’s so sad.” Nicole awed. “Don’t worry I’ve been there too honey.”

“But when I found music, it changed my life. I would become a whole different person everytime I played an instrument. Or just sang to myself.” I picked up the Bass guitar and strummed it. “I especially loved the Rock and Roll artists growing up. Just seeing them perform live, gave me the confidence I needed to one day reach a dream of becoming a Rockstar myself. And low and behold it came true.”

I was now performing on stage with the Men in Black surrounding me pretending to be crazy fans holding up signs with hearts and I love you Lioness.

“So I’m here to say that if you feel like you’re alone out there in the world, or feel like it’s against you. Just listen and jam out to some of your fav tunes. Because in them, Life creates a new path for you.” I did a wind-mill and my mask gave a gleam at the right eye, symbolizing a wink.

The lights were dark and I took a deep breath in before exhaling out. Soon the guitar strum of “Eye of the Tiger” came on before I threw my fist in the air with each punch the guitar gave, while fire spurted from the stage.

The crowd cheered as Survivor’s most popular song came through the speakers and I went up to the mic stand and sung my heart out. I changed a word or two just to make it fit more towards me but it didn’t take away the effect my song had on the audience.

The backup band was jamming out to the song with one lioness on the guitar and a male lion at the drums and another male one on the bass. I belted out the last note

*Me*

Rising up, back on the street Did my time, took my chances Went the distance, now I'm back on my feet Just a girl and her will to survive

So many times it happens too fast You trade your passion for glory Don't lose your grip on the dreams of the past You must fight just to keep them alive

It's the eye of the tiger It's the thrill of the fight Rising up to the challenge of our rival And the last known survivor Stalks her prey in the night And she's watching us all with the eye

Of the Tiger

The eye of the tiger The eye of the tiger The eye of the Lioness

At the very last explosion of fireworks and fire, I punched my hand in the air and the crowd cheered.

“YASSS LIONESS!!!” I could hear Nicole cheering from the panel booth as she pointed at me. Ken Jong, Jenny and Robin all bowed before my performance as Niecy came back up and she said.

“And the Queen slays us AGAIN!!” I bowed before her and took her hand and pressed it to my open mouth giving her a ‘kiss’. “Oh and I’m getting a royal kiss from the Queen herself!”

“Lucky mommy!” Ken proclaimed.

“Sit your butt down son! Panel, what did you think of that song?”

“Lioness, you took us to a real rock concert. I mean the fire, the electric guitar. And I think I even saw you doing a little air guitar in there somewhere!” Jenny said. I shrugged guiltily. Yeah I did do a little air guitar, come on I know you all do it too! “But that was a killer performance!” I bowed my head in gratitude.

“What made you choose that song in particular?” Niecy asked me.

“It’s always a good rock anthem. You can just let yourself loose and not have a care in the world. And it really got me through my 1st year of being who I am today.” That got the panelists attention.

“Alright so we went through your personal journal and found out just who exactly your childhood crush was. Men in Black! Bring out the 1st crush clue!” Niecy announced as two of the men in Black came out with a large flat platform with a sheet over it. “I’m excited to see just who it is you had a crush on. Now let’s see who it is…..”

Niecy took off the sheet and it revealed the late great Prince.

“It’s Prince!” exclaimed Nicole.

“Okay! Okay I see you Lioness! Little chocolate love there.” I laughed and said into my microphone.

“First thing I always notice about a man are his eyes. And growing up, Prince stole my heart with those eyes.”

“You sure it wasn’t also his dance moves?” Niecy asked me with a ‘for real’ look.

“Mm that too.” Everyone laughed before Niecy asked the judges.

“Okay so any guesses panel on just who this could be? Let’s start with you Jenny.”

“Oh my god why!?” we all laughed. “Okay going off by the tonality of your voice. You are truly a Rock star under there, there’s no way you could be a Pop artists or rapper under there. And my guess in Pink.”

A very good guess. In fact when Pink came on the music scene, everyone thought she was trying to copy my voice but she’s a total talented artist on her own. That’s all her voice, and I’m proud to have not only mentored her, but become her very dearest friend and confidant.

“Yeah it does kinda sound like Pink. But the clues didn’t really point out to her.” Nicole said.

“What you thinking Scherzinger?” Niecy asked.

“Okay so we saw LGBTQ last time but I also took notice of the instruments that were in this week’s clue package. The red guitar specifically.” Oh shit she’s got it. “And I remember seeing this performer on my 12th birthday. I’m going with the Rock Angel (Y/n) Kline.”

“Ooo okay. Not a bad guess Nicole.”

“Yeah it could be the Rock Angel but it’s not!” Ken bluntly said.

“Oh god here we go again.” Jenny said as she flopped against her chair.

“In the clue package we did see the guitars and the drumsticks. And Sticks rhymes with what? Nicks. Stevie Nicks welcome to the Masked Singer!” Oh god Ken.

No way could I ever be compare to Stevie Nicks! She’s way above me and no way could I ever be better than her or do her vocal ranges like she can do.

“Ken I swear I’m about to hit you in the head with this pen.” Nicole said.

“Alright, alright, alright calm down up there. Look no matter who is under here, let’s agree that the Lioness gave yet another rockin performance. Give it up for the Lioness everybody!” I walked backstage.

“The panel has given some good guesses. But there’s gonna be surprised to see just who I am. And—”

On your screens it would’ve staticed up and there on screen is the infamous Rooster with clues, Cluedle-Doo. The rooster that’s been helping the viewers at home guess just who is under each mask, while also trying to get people to guess who he is.

“So sorry Lioness but I’m here to give the audience a little bit more than you’re letting on. Don’t let her voice fool you for she’s a Lioness that lives……across the pond.” His deep voice spoke to the camera as he walked over to his map with a pushpin pointed right at England.

“Hold on what was that? Something fishy is going on around here, and I’m gonna find out what.” I told the camera as I waved my fist.

A couple more performances later as well as the reveal of our group’s Wildcard, The Crab and it was time to reveal who was going to be unmasked. I almost feared that I was gonna be the one to go home since Nicole had said my name and the fans would demand that I be unmasked.

But when Niecy read out that the Crab was gonna have to be unmasked I sighed with relief but I was also sad for the crab. He actually performed well tonight and I wanted to see just how far he was gonna go. As me and the rest of the group that was safe headed back to our rooms, I kept thinking to myself just how was I gonna make it through without making my voice sound too obvious.

*ROUND 3*

Okay. This round is sure to throw them off my scent this time. This is a song I’d never thought I’d do but it’s the only way to keep me going to the next round and not risk getting unmasked.

“Her last two performances have been killer! Now it’s time to see what else she’s got up her paws. Release, the Lioness!” Niecy announced.

The LIONESS; THE CLUES.

I was staring into my reflection at a watering hole.

“This has been a wild ride for me. Most fun I’ve ever had in years.” The letters MSG flashed on the screen written within the mud.

“MSG? Madison Square Garden?” asked Ken.

“But I’m here to show that I truly belong here and deserve a shot to go the Distance.”

“Go the Distance. Isn’t that a song from a Disney film?” asked Robin.

“Yeah Hercules. Could she be in an adaptation of Hercules?” Jenny said.

“So for this next performance, I’m gonna do a song I’ve never done before, and hopefully that will keep me in with the pride and out of the spotlight for just a little while longer.”

I stood there with the spotlight on me, the mic stand right in front of me as Miley Cyrus’s song “Wrecking Ball” came on. The last time this song had been used on this show was way back during Season 1 with Mrs. Gladys Knight. And she did a phenomenal job with her rendition of the song. However I had a little something extra up my sleeve.

I started off with a smooth, ballad like tone for the opening using my hands and arms to give forth a more deeper emotion as I sang the song. Before I finally unleashed the fire within me.

Like Freddie always did back in the day when Queen first started off, I tore the mic stand off the rest of it and fell into the passion of the chorus using the mic-stand like a sledgehammer when I could. I could see everyone lip-syncing the chorus and even the judges were singing along to the song.

I went back to my ballad like tone as I was kneeling on the ground looking up towards the heavens before standing back up and slowly walked towards the back of the stage as the lights dimmed down to only a spotlight on me.

When the 2nd chorus came back on, I pulled out my big surprise. When the lights came fully on, a makeshift Wrecking ball stood in the middle of the stage. In order for me to fully be on it with this costume, the Wrecking ball was built around a swing-set and was hidden within the walls of the Wrecking ball, but I could stick my feet through a curtain that would give the illusion of me actually being on a Wrecking Ball (much like Miley was).

Everyone in the audience was losing their minds, I even saw Nicole getting really into the song as she would raise and circle her arms in the air. I kept swinging back and forth as I continued to sing until my final note.

*Me*

We clawed, we chained, our hearts in vain We jumped, never asking why We kissed, I fell under your spell A love no one could deny

Don't you ever say I just walked away I will always want you

I came in like a wrecking ball I never hit so hard in love All I wanted was to break your walls All you ever did was wreck me Yeah, you, you wreck me

I never meant to start a war I just wanted you to let me in And instead of using force I guess I should've let you win I never meant to start a war I just wanted you to let me in I guess I should've let you win

Don't you ever say I just walked away I will always want you

I came in like a wrecking ball I never hit so hard in love All I wanted was to break your walls All you ever did was wreck me

I came in like a wrecking ball Yeah, I just closed my eyes and swung Left me crashing in a blazing fall All you ever did was wreck me Yeah, you, you wreck me

Yeah, you, you wreck me

This was probably my best performance of this entire competition. No way was the audience gonna unmask me yet. I got off of my makeshift Wrecking Ball and Niecy came up bowing before me.

“OH MY GOD!!!” Nicole and Jenny both exclaimed.

“The Queen remains on top!” at that point the crowd began cheering my character in a rhythm clap.

“LI-ON-ESS! LI-ON-ESS! LI-ON-ESS!!!” I coaxed them to keep chanting with my hands, going in time with their claps.

“Pardon my language but that performance definitely had balls.” Niecy said which made all of us laugh.

“This is definitely the first time in Masked Singer history that someone was even able to do that with costumes like these.” Robin said.

“Lioness tell us how do you feel after that performance?” asked Niecy.

“Tired.” That got a good laugh out of the audience and the panel. “But it’s all worth it cause it’s either go big or go home. And I definitely do not wanna go home just yet.”

“Well we definitely don’t want you to go Superstar.” Jenny told me. I gave her a heart shape ‘I Love you’ with my hand and pointed at her and she accepted it and sent one back to me.

“So any clues that you guys might’ve picked up on?”

“I’ll start off.” Ken said.

“Oh boy, here we go.” Robin said as Nicole laughed and I placed my hands on my hips. This outta be good Dr. Ken.

“Okay so in this clue package we saw the acronym MSG. What’s that stand for? Madison. Square. Garden. This actress was born in Manhattan, NY. She can sing because she played a Porcupine in a film this my friends is none other than Black Widow herself, SCARLETT JOHANSSON!!”

“No! No way that’s Scarlett!” exclaimed Jenny.

“Have you seen the movie Sing? That’s totally her voice!”

“No it’s not!” Jenny argued back.

“Maybe not but Lioness might be connected to Scarlett in a way.”

“What you got cooking in that brain of yours Mr. Robin Thicke?” Niecy asked him.

“Well going through the clue package we saw the LGBTQ obviously, she is known for speaking up for the community especially since a few friends of hers are a part of that community. I’m gonna go with Nicole and say this is the Rock Angel.”

“Okay. Okay not a bad guess.”

“Just hearing the voice alone it just makes me think of her.”

“Yeah but the Rock Angel wouldn’t be able to do what Lioness did.” Jenny tried to argue.

Oh she don’t know me very well, does she? I’ve got some moves in these old bones Jenny.

“Well whoever is under that mask. This was definitely your best performance not only for you but for the show itself. I don’t think we’ll ever have a number quite like that again.” Nicole said.

“I agree girlfriend. Alright Lioness, you head on backstage and rest up. You’ve earned it honey.” I waved to the audience and left to go backstage.

“That was probably the—toughest performance of my life. With or without the costume.” I laughed. “But I gave it my all and win or lose, I’m glad I did this show.”

After the elimination of the newest Wildcard the Bulldog. Which wasn’t according to the votes, but by Niecy’s own will, Bulldog was revealed to be none other than Nick Cannon. Who had returned to host the show after recovering from his COVID scare.

It was a huge surprise to see him back and actually competing in the show. Although he wished he could’ve gone onward with the show but he was just happy to be back with the judges and to see us progress onward into the final few rounds.

After that filming, I was in my trailer resting after that performance, having the fan on full blast to try and take away my sweat, I phone rang and I saw Brian’s handsome, wrinkly face pop up on the screen.

“Hey Bri what’s up?”

‘Oh nothing much really. Just been……fiddling around with Red Special, keeping Anita company, and above all trying not to lose our minds over the lockdown.’

“I hear yah. America’s really been trying to tighten the leash on restrictions. But of course stubborn Americans, especially Trump supporters are still denying this pandemic and refusing to wear their face masks.”

‘Right up arseholes I tell yah. This isn’t some conspiracy thing. It’s real life.’

“I know Brian. But let’s change the subject before you go off on an angry rant and have another heart attack.”

‘You’re right, you’re right sorry. The reason I called was because I want you to clarify something for me.’

“Clarify what?”

‘Well. I don’t know if you’ve seen my Instagram lately. But our followers are telling me that I should ask you if you’re a part of a show called the Masked Singer?’

“The Masked Singer? Which version? Cause you know we’ve recently got one too now.”

‘They’re saying that you could be the Lioness on the American version. Is it true?’

“Bri. Come on. I’m in lockdown with my son during a pandemic, I run on the high risk factor due to my recent high blood pressure. Why would I do a show like that?”

‘They’re pretty adamant about it. So come on (n/n). Tell me the truth.’

“No Brian Harold May. I am not the Lioness. Besides even if I were, it’d be too obvious. Everyone knows I’m Roger’s lion cub. If I were to choose a creature, I’d be a griffin or White-wolf.”

‘Okay. If you say so. Stay safe out there love.’

“You too Bri. Hopefully, America can get their shit together so that I can fly back home soon. I miss you and Rog and Jack. How are they by the way?”

‘Well that husband of yours is still working hard to preserve the peace in London. Hardly any serious criminal activity, just rotter’s not wanting to wear their face masks inside local buildings. Rog is good, he’s been posting up a lot more on his Instagram lately. Been asking about you and worried sick over you.’

“Some things never change. Alright Bri well I know it’s pretty late over there, so get some sleep. You’ve probably never slept in this late in so long your body must be aching for it.”

‘Yeah I suppose your right. Have a good night love. Love you.’

“I love you too Bri. Bye.” He said goodbye and I hung up on him. “Bloody hell that was close. Thank god he didn’t hit facetime, otherwise he would’ve been suspicious.”

*ROUND 4*

Now it was time to change things up with this weeks performance. I’ve been giving out killer hard-rock/pop songs but now it was time to allow the audience to just solely focus on my vocals alone. Plus this performance was in dedication to a very special someone.

“Now here to wow us once again and seeing if we can dig up more clues on her identity. Here’s the Lioness.” Nick Cannon announced.

THE CLUE PACKAGE. THE LIONESS

“Being on this show has really meant a lot to me.” The screen showed my last performance as well as my 1st performance. “But now I’m gonna take things back and really allow you guys to get to know me.”

I was in my ‘house’ writing at my desk a letter. And on the laptop it said a number code. 149121.

“Oh wow a number code. 149121.” Jenny said.

“Throughout my career I’ve met a lot of great people. But unfortunately I’ve had to say goodbye to some of them, some gone far too soon. Others for other personal reasons.”

“So she’s lost someone. Maybe a partner.”

“This one person in particular even though he’s still around physically, I had no choice but to let him go. We practically did everything together. But I understood why he did what he did, and I never pressured him to come back to the spotlight.” I touched a shadow figure of a male lion. “So this performance is for my brother. And I hope he’s living out a happy life doing whatever it is he wants to. I will always love you forever, my Brother Mine.”

It was just me up there with the spotlight down on me. I took a deep breath in before softly exhaling. This one’s for you Deacy. I opened my mouth and sung my next song, “I will always love you” by Whitney Houston.

The audience was in tranced by voice alone, some of them pressing their hands to their hearts and I could swear I saw some of the judges already starting to cry. When the bridge came up, I thought back to all the memories Deacy and I had together.

Playing the bass, me sitting the Deaklings when they were little babies, us always dancing together at the after parties (after some liquid courage). To the big moments whenever the two of us were on stage together and we’d interact with each other.

Him doing his “Disco moves” on stage during our sets, or how during the medley’s during the “Kind of Magic tour” we’d be the ones to stand together as he played his bass and I would have my acoustic guitar or tambourine on me. Remembering his happy smile, the way his eyes wrinkled whenever he’d smile that adorable, gapped tooth smile of his.

*Me*

If I should stay, I would only be in your way

So I'll go, but I know

I'll think of you every step of the way

And I will always love you

I will always love you

I hope life treats you kind

And I hope you have all you've dreamed of

And I wish to you joy and happiness

But above all this, I wish you love

Finally I unleashed the power that my voice had gained throughout the years. As the lights danced about with the beat of the song as well as my voice, the audience cheered as I belted out that famed last bit of the chorus. Some were in tears while others were just in awe. Ken and Nicole were dabbing their eyes trying to rid of their tears while Jenny and Robin were just shaking their heads in pure awe.

I don’t know if you’ll ever see this Brother Mine, but if you do, know that this performance is for you. I hope you’re happy, safe, and healthy. Both physically and mentally.

*Me*

And I will always love you

I will always love you

I will always

Love you

I will always love you

I, I will always

Love you

You, darling, I love you

Ooh, I'll always,

I'll always love you

I held out the last note as I slowly extended my arms before finally ending the song. The audience cheered and applauded for another killer performance.

“Unbelievable! The lioness really pulling the heartstrings now!” Nick said as he came up and stood beside me. “You even had me going there for a second there Lioness.” I gave him a comforting pat on the shoulder.

“Oh my god Lioness, let me just say. Your last few performances you were slaying and killing it with hardcore dancing, rock and roll and semi-aerial stuff. But this week……we truly got to see your voice. And that—rawness it just……you have me in tears.” Nicole said as she continued to wipe away her tears.

“I agree with Nicole.” Robin said. I gave them a bow of my head. “It’s—it’s really rare when we see female artists do such songs on this stage. Especially one as difficult as that song in particular. But you were the perfect voice to sing that song.”

“Thank you Robin.”

“Now it’s time to find out just what is inside the Mind of our Lioness. If you would just quickly step on over to our mind-reader. We would like to see just what’s within your Lioness brain.” I walked over to the machine that was gonna give an extra clue as to who I was. “Scanning, scanning, scanning and it is…..a Police badge.”

I stepped out from the machine and walked back towards Nick.

“Do we have another Jackson family member on our hands?” asked Ken. I remember thinking back to La Toya Jackson who was “the Alien”.

“Unlike Ms. Jackson I’m not a police officer. But I am directly involved with them.” The audience ooed.

“That give you any guesses panel?” Nick asked.

“Not a single one.” Jenny shook her head which made us laugh.

“Indirectly involved with the police. I mean does that mean she’s an informant? Reality star maybe?” Ken suggested.

“Maybe she played one on TV. Maybe it’s Priyanka Chopra.” Robin added.

“Yeah cause of her role in Quantico.” Nicole agreed.

“No guys I don’t think it’s Priyanka. It really doesn’t sound like her. Lioness has a more richer tone than she does.”

“Well we’re stumped!” Ken said as he sat down on his chair throwing his hands up in surrender.

“Oh now don’t give up son!”

“I can’t do it daddy! Just take off the mask and show us who you are Lioness!” Ken demanded but I shook my head and placed my index finger over my masked lips in shush.

“She knows the drill. Well you wowed us with your vocals, go on and head backstage. Give it up one more time for her royal highness the Lioness everybody.”

“That performance……really took a lot out of me. I was even crying at one point under the mask. But I hope I secured a spot for the Super 8.” As I take my leave, the infamous Cluedle-Doo shows up and he tells the camera.

“Another infamous secret you might want to know about the Lioness here is that she also has ties in with space. Look at these stars, does it give you any hints? Because 2 people she cares about study it.”

“Oh it’s you! Come back you yah cocky Rooster! I’m really gonna turn you into fried chicken now!” I exclaimed as I chased after the Rooster whose been trying to give away more secrets about me. He gobbled out in laughter as he ran away.

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ithinkhesgaybutwesavedmufasa · 4 years

Text

With Cherries On Top

Chapter 3: The Ring & The Save

Summary/Author’s Note: I’m so fucking excited for you all to read this I am like BOUNCING. Max in all of his glory being a fucking SHIT. But we love him dearly.

You and Max start learning a little more about each other. Your current predicament calls for a drink...or seven. And the two of you land in Alaska to meet your family. @pedropascalsource for gif credit. Look at that fucking shit and that grin...it happens a lot in this chapter as he starts to schmooze your family.

Pairing: Max Phillips x Reader (The Proposal AU) Word Count: 3.5k Warnings: R/18+ - drinking, alcohol, sass, so much sass, sexual tension, sexual innuendos, Max is a bastard man but he is...getting better?, also does he own casual clothes?

[Chapter 1] [Chapter 2] [MASTERLIST]

You had taken Tylenol before you even went through security, but at this point you were pretty sure the entire bottle would not have prepared you for flying with Max Phillips. The non stop flight from JFK to Juno was almost ten hours and you had thought multiple times about stabbing your eardrums out with an ink pen. It wasn't that the flight was bad, in fact the flight itself was quite nice. First class was definitely a new experience but you could get used to it. The padded leather seats and extra leg room meant you could lean back and stretch. You propped yourself up with a pillow, and a book and was content to relax. There was just one problem, Max.

His presence was about as loud as he was and he insisted on chatting up the cute stewardesses, reading over your shoulder, and reminding you almost every fifteen minutes that this flight was boring. He at one point in time asked if you wanted to join the mile-high club and you fought the urge to snap your book shut and smack him with it.

The flight attendant walked by and asked if you needed anything and you sat up and gave her a warm smile.

"Yeah, um, I'll take a vodka cranberry, please."

Max raised an eyebrow and looked at you, "It's nine thirty in the morning."

"Oh, shoot. You're right!" You threw yourself over his lap and leaned into the isle to catch the attendant. Max grunted from the sudden weight of you and you bit back a grin. "I'm sorry, can you make it a Bloody Mary? Thank you."

You leaned back into your seat and opened the binder from immigration. Max dusted off his slacks and continued to look at you with curious disdain.

"Maybe you should eat something first?"

"It comes with celery, I think." You said without looking up. You could feel his eyes on you but refused to give him the satisfaction that it bothered you. The words on the page were suddenly the most interesting thing you had ever seen in your life and when he gave a heavy sigh, you grinned.

The attendant came back with your drink and you smiled as she set it on your fold out table tray.

"Is that the binder from I.N.S?" Max said and you nodded as you wrapped your lips around your straw and drank deep.

"Yup, and we have one week to learn all of this about each other. Which will be easy for me, because I can answer all of these questions about you--but you know nothing about me." You looked up and glared as he snatched the binder from you and started flipping through it.

"You expect me to believe you know all of this about me?"

"I do," you took another drink and turned in your seat to face him. "You never stop talking about yourself--and I've been listening to it for five years."

"Well," he said, flipping the page dramatically and looking at you with a grin. "I am my favorite subject."

"At least you can admit it."

He sat back in his seat and crossed his ankle over his knee, balancing the binder on his leg. "Alright, let's have at it then. What's my favorite color?"

"Red." You said without hesitation. "Which is ironic now, all things considered." He ignored the quip about his vampiric state and you leaned over the seat, making your drink slurp obnoxiously. "You know? Because of the blood--"

"Yes, I get the joke, dear." He moved his finger down the page. "What am I allergic to?"

"Soy, gluten," you ticked off on your fingers before waving your hand. "And a whole spectrum of human emotion."

"Are you going to be like this the whole time?" He looked at you exasperatedly and you shrugged. He sighed and shook his head. "Where did I grow up?"

"Transylvania."

"Okay. I'm done." He snapped the binder shut and you almost felt bad...almost.

"No! Okay, okay, come on, Max. I'm sorry," you put your hand on his arm and he looked down at it, making you pull back like he had burned you. "Queens. You grew up in queens. See?"

"Well, you grew up in Sitka. One down. Only two hundred and ninety-nine more questions to go."

You groaned and threw yourself over Max's lap again and held up your finger. "Excuse me, Ma'am?" You hailed the attendant. "Another Bloody Mary, please."

"Will you please, get off of me?" Max said, and you finished your drink and gave his nose a playful tweak.

You plopped back into your seat and leaned back against the headrest. "Next question."

"Do I have any scars?" He turned in his seat to mirror you.

"You have a pretty bad one on your knee. I see it every time you have your meetings with Ted. A.K.A--racquetball." Max nodded, indicating that you were correct and you continued. "So, what's it from? College sports, I'm guessing. What pretentious, frat-boy sport did you play? Soccer? Lacrosse?" You gasped and put a hand to your mouth. "Ultimate Frisbee?"

"You're very funny." He sneered and shook his head. "And I'm not telling you."

"What about me, Max? Do I have any scars?" You switched up the game. Proving that you knew everything about him wasn't going to get you very far with the government unless he could return the favor.

"No," he leaned in and lowered his voice. "But I'm pretty sure you have a tattoo."

You choked on your drink and the action made him smile. Taking a deep breath and a moment to wipe the tomato juice off of your sleeve, you glared at him. "Pretty sure?"

"Yes, when you had the nerve to be out with the flu and they stuck me with that idiotic temp, she accidentally transferred one of your calls to me. It was to confirm that you wanted to cancel your appointment with a laser removal company." He balanced his chin on his palm and continued to give you a smug grin. He was enjoying this now and it was suddenly a lot less fun.

"What are you getting at detective Phillips?"

"So, what is it?"

"No way," you took another large sip and blushed, turning away from him. "I'm not telling you."

"You know they're going to ask. I have to know. Is it a dolphin? An infinity symbol?...'live, laugh, love'?" He gave a mock gasp and put a hand to his mouth. He was imitating your earlier jest about his scar. This was still a game to him and all you had managed to do was encourage it by baiting him.

"You know, I really am glad you're having fun with this, but do remember I could go to prison. Give me that--" you snatched the binder back from him and he let you have it. "Next question. Whose place do we stay at, yours or mine?"

"That's easy," he kicked back in his chair and folded his hands on top of his chest. The action made you realize just how long he was. Between his broad shoulders and impressive calves, he barely fit in the chair. It had to be the alcohol talking. "We stay at mine," he said simply, drawing your gaze from his body.

"Why wouldn't we stay at mine?"

"Because I live at Central Park West. And you no doubt live in some squalid little studio apartment full of houseplants and a dusty, lonely, wine rack that you never use, because it's for guests you never have." He waved his hand as if imagining it and your jaw dropped.

You stayed quiet and closed the binder placing it in the pocket on the back of the seat in front of him. The small bursts of moments when Max wasn't being an asshole, it was easy to forget how real this was. He was charming and you both threw it back at one another so easily that it felt like a game. But when his real nature came roaring back to life and his dig against you was just a tad too deep--well, you didn't want to play anymore.

"What are you doing? We have more."

You sucked the rest of your drink down and put it on the edge of the tray for the attendant to take.

"We should get some rest." You said flatly, pulling the thin airline blanket up over your shoulder. "Knowing my mother, she has a big dinner or something planned."

"Wonderful," he said, folding his hands across his chest as he settled back into his seat.

The two of you stayed quiet for the majority of the trip. You frequently looked over your shoulder to see if he was even still next to you, as he didn't make a sound when he breathed. It was unnerving but no doubt had something to do with him being undead. Did he even need to breathe? You had certainly seen him do it. Was it an act? Fuck all of this was going to send your family over the edge.

The last time you pulled back your silk, airline stamped eye mask, Max wasn't in his seat. His table tray was pulled down and sitting on top of it was a small black velvet box. You looked around but he was nowhere to be seen.

Your fingers traced the shape of the box gently before you picked it up and pried it open. The ring that sat inside was stunning. It was gold, with a few small diamonds in the band on each side before leading up to the main piece--a large teardrop ruby rimmed with more diamonds. You weren't sure if the red stone was meant to be a joke but regardless, it was actually very pretty.

It slid over your finger in a perfect fit and you watched it sparkle in the sunlight from the window over your shoulder. Despite your frustrations, you had to admit, Max Phillips continued to be full of surprises.

Seeing Max rattle in his cramped seat while the puddle jumper took you from Juno to Sitka brought you more joy than it should have. His broad shoulders were folded in on themselves as and he was glaring straight ahead like finding a fixed point on the wall would keep him from committing murder. You knew the flight wouldn't be long, and after the amount of Bloody Marys you had consumed on the last plane, you were too buzzed to care.

As soon as your feet stepped down off of the stairs and onto the tarmac, you saw your family, waving and jumping on the side of the airstrip with a 'welcome home' sign. Oh boy. Here we go.

"Chad! Talk to me, champ." Max said loudly and you turned around to see he had put in his Bluetooth. It made you roll your eyes and you didn't bother to wait for him as you started towards your relatives.

Your mother was soft and sweet and the joy you felt as she squealed and threw her arms around your neck couldn't compare to any other kind of happiness. She smelled like home and fresh baked bread, like holiday candles and clean laundry--things that made you think of home. She pulled back to look at you like you had grown so much since she last saw you, despite being practically the same, and you laughed as she kissed each of your cheeks.

"Oh, I missed you!" She said, hugging you again before passing you off to your grandmother.

"Missed you, too, Mom. Hey, Nana," you said as you stooped down to hug the older woman.

Your mom paused and pulled you back close enough to sniff the air in front of you. "Honey, have you been drinking?"

“Oh--” you leaned back and shook your head, which was a mistake as the world spun just a little bit. “Of course not. There was a guy on the plane and he--”

"We don’t care about any of that," Your grandmother waved a hand to stop your mom from continuing to make a fuss over you. "Where's your man??"

You stopped breathing for a moment as you were suddenly reminded that you were lying to the people who loved you the most. With a bite of your lip, you looked over your shoulder and gestured to Max who was slowly making his way over to you and still talking on his earpiece.

"That's him, the one in the suit."

"Oh, my," your mom said, lowering her welcome sign and taking in the sight that was your boss and now assumed lover.

"You've been keeping that from us for five years?" Nana said as she elbowed you in the ribs and your mother glared at her. “He seems a bit overdressed.”

“Yeah,” you said, glancing down at your leggings, warm boots, and well worn over sized sweater in comparison to Max’s custom blue suit and silk tie. You hoped to god that Max had brought more suitable clothes for what was supposed to be a relaxing family oriented week in Alaska. “He does, doesn’t he?”

“Chad--I think I lost you. Can you hear me? Hello? Helloooo? Shit.” Max tapped the device in his ear repeatedly as he looked around like he would be able to see where there would be better signal. He had yet to acknowledge either you or your family and you clenched your fists at your side.

“Honey,” you said and Max had the audacity to hold up his finger to you as he continued to turn in a half circle. “Honey.” You tried again and finally you raised your voice curtly, “Max!”

“What?” he hissed and you reached up and took the earpiece out of his ear. It took everything you had not to turn and chuck it into the harbor. You gestured to your mom and grandmother and Max’s face changed into his large and inviting smile.

“We agreed not to bring work onto this trip, it’s family time, right?” You raised an eyebrow and he glared at you. “This is my mom and grandmother,” you gestured to them, keeping a firm hold on his Bluetooth and almost daring him to try and get it back.

“You won’t get any reception on that thing anyway, dear,” your grandma waved to Max and then around to the vast landscape. “Too many trees.” She took a few steps over to him and gave him a hug like he wasn’t a complete stranger. You had to give Max props, he hugged her back and managed not to look entirely uncomfortable as he silently worried she was going to wrinkle his suit. “Now, do you prefer to be called ‘Max’ or ‘Satan Reincarnated’? Because we’ve heard it both ways.” She laughed as she patted his chest and smiled up at him.

“Nana!” You looked at her wide-eyed and Max grinned from ear to ear. How was it that the elderly managed to get away with saying the most inappropriate things?

“Oh, have you?” he glanced at you and you felt your face get hot. “Max is fine. As long as I can call you Nana.” He continued to offer that grin that you knew to be his trademark salesman smile but it made your grandmother positively beam.

“Of course!” she said, patting his chest again and adjusting his pocket square. You ran a hand through your hair wanting to scream.

“Shall we?” You interjected and grabbed your suitcase with one hand and your mother’s arm with another. The two of you walked pointedly towards the edge of the pier and she looked at you with parental concern.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” you reassured with a shake of your head, slowing down for Max and your grandma could catch up. “I’m just tired.” If you continued to lie this much you were certain your nose was going to grow pointed.

Your mother helped the elderly woman down the ladder that connected the main strip to the edge of the pier where the family speedboat was parked. The chill off of the water made you shiver, it was definitely coming up on winter time and with the constant overcast came icy waters and snow. Max was just lucky it wasn’t summer time as the non-stop sunlight would have been an issue.

Looking over the ladder and feeling your body sway without even being on the water, you were starting to regret the amount of drinks you had had on the plane. You put a hand to your lips as a small amount of indigestion came up to the middle of your throat. Max stopped beside you and held his hand out expectantly.

“I’ll take my headset back, thank you,” he snarled and you ignored him. “Are you going to be sick? Pull yourself together--”

“Pull myself together? Pull m--” you shook your head and slapped the small device into his hand. “Unbelievable, you’re unbelievable.”

“This is going to be a long fucking week,” he said, looking at the boat as your family settled in. “I’m not getting in that. I cannot get these wet. They’re Armani.” He gestured to his shoes and you vowed in that moment that if you did wind up vomiting, it would be on those shoes.

“Hence the boat,” you gestured. It was the only way of getting to the island that the tiny town resided on, you were happy to make him swim but somehow you doubted that would go over very well with your family. “Either you climb down or you can stay here and I’ll see you in a week--”

“Fine. Fine.” He stopped arguing and climbed down the ladder, hopping the last few rungs to land firmly on the pier. He held up his arms as you passed down the suitcases and tossed his shoulder bag to him and he placed them in the back of the boat. “Are you coming?” he added impatiently as you leaned heavily on the railing at the top of the ladder.

“Give me a minute,” you said through gritted teeth.

“I told you to eat something. You’re drunk--”

“I am not.” You argued with him, straightening your posture and turning around to climb down the ladder. You were going to prove him wrong even if it meant that you landed on your ass. It was simple, all you needed to do was put one foot down in front of the other and keep a tight hold. Rinse and repeat until your feet were firmly planted on the wooden boards--simple.

“Lookin’ good, sweetheart,” Max said, and you didn’t have to look to know he was staring up at your ass. “Those leggings are nice--are you wearing a thong?”

“Oh my god, shut up, Max,” you paused and leaned your head against the ladder, wanting to both strangle him and dive into the pier and let the ocean take you far away from the week ahead of you. After a few moments, you regained your sense of self and took a few more rungs down.

“Almost there,” he encouraged and you let out a heavy sigh. “There ya go--annnnd, congratulations. I am now five hundred years old.”

“Good for you, old man,” you quipped and tried to push passed him. Your boot caught on one of the loose boards and there was nothing to catch yourself on as you started to tumble. Despite refusing to admit that Max was right, maybe you should have eaten something. Your desperate attempt to forget your current situation was about to land you in the middle of the freezing gulf. You heard your mom gasp from the boat but instead of hitting the water, Max’s arm shot around your waist and pulled you back against his chest with ease.

You stumbled and grabbed the front of his suit coat as you tried to turn around and he tightened his grip. He looked down at you with a grin that was much different than the one he had been giving your family. “Got ya.”

“Nice going, Max!” your grandmother cheered and you knew there would be no living with him after this.

“Thank you,” you said curtly and tried to move from his arms but he didn’t release you.

“What, no kiss?” he smirked, keeping his voice low enough that your family couldn't hear him. “I did just save your life.”

“Let. go. of. me. Max.” You said through gritted teeth and you braced for him to force a kiss on you for the sake of your family, but to your surprise, he released you. The way he watched you as you climbed into the boat, all dark eyes and wide grin, sent a shiver down your spine.

PERM TAG LIST

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#max phillips #bloodsucking bastards #max phillips x reader #max phillips x you #the proposal #pedro character fic #pedro pascal #Pedro Pascal x reader #pedro pascal x you

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library-phantom · 4 years

Text

Full of broken thoughts

I’ve been thinking about theories for next season of TUA and one of my favorite ideas is the siblings meeting their alternate versions in the new timeline. So, I had to make this about Klaus and think about he meeting his alternate self. But, I had to make it a little angsty and here we are! Look, I just wanted to write Klaus getting the support he deserves... As usual, English isn’t my first language, so I apologize for any mistakes.

Summary: When the Hargreeves siblings go back to 2019 and find some different things they don't know what to do. All of them feel lost, but Klaus is feeling even worse upon seeing a different Ben and feeling his powers get too much to handle. It couldn't get worse, right? Unless seeing a confused familiar face counts as a possibility

Or...

Klaus meets his alternate self in a different timeline...and his sister

Warnings: a little angst and mentions of the possession scene from season 2, but the ending is happy. The title is from “Hurt” by Johnny Cash.

(GIF isn’t mine)

"Dad, who the hell are these assholes?"

Those words were still echoing in his head. Ben was alive, he was standing there in front of him. But, that wasn't the same Ben. The one who would get annoyed at his behavior, his jokes...no, that Ben was gone. That was what Vanya said, right? Then, that so-called Sparrow Academy and their dad showed up and he couldn't understand what was happening. He followed his siblings out of the house while Five was talking too fast for his own good, saying how they messed up the timeline again.

“So, they are the Umbrella Academy in this timeline?”, Luther asked while Five paced around. They finally stopped walking and were standing in an alley far from the Academy.

“I don’t know! I have no idea what is going on! If they are here, then what happened to us? Where are we? I need to think!”, sighed Five. He looked around, searching for something to write and he found an old marker next to the wall. He turned his back to the others and immediately started writing his equations in the wall of that building, occasionally talking to himself.

“Five, slow down, we need to talk about all of this and…”, Diego tried to say, but Five turned to face his siblings again, rage in his eyes.

“What the hell do you think I’m trying to do? If they are the new Academy and Dad is alive, it means there are different versions of ourselves in this parallel timeline and…”

Klaus couldn't focus on any word his brother was saying, he couldn’t stop thinking about Ben. As if it couldn’t get any worse, the voices of the ghosts were coming back again, it seems that only the sight of their Dad made him remember everything about the mausoleum. Those thoughts worked like a bait and the voices were banging in his head again. Adding to this how tired he was because of the time travel with the suitcase, he felt horrible.

“Guys…”, he tried to say in a weak voice.

“Not now, Klaus!”, Five stopped him while turning back to his equations.

How did the voices get so loud? He needed to breath, take some time, process everything that was going on.

"Klaus, where do you think you're going? We must stay together now more than ever! We have no idea about how bad things are right now!", Five snarled at him, but Klaus didn't care. Vanya and Allison tried to stop him, but he walked away from his siblings, waving his Goodbye hand and started walking without any destination in mind.

Their voices were getting loud again, way too loud. He took some deep breaths while trying to focus and push them away, but he also thought about getting drunk or looking for one of his old dealers. Maybe he could find Old Joe around here, right? No! He wouldn't do that! A little voice inside his head was telling him he could get over this, he stayed three years sober in the 60’s, he had to keep on like that. But, the pills made everything so much easier, it wasn't like he had a reason to actually stay sober anymore. No, he was strong enough, he could do this!

The voices calling him were getting louder by each step he took, his physical state wasn't helping him keep his control now, the emotional side was even worse.

Klaus...Klaus...Klaus…

He didn't actually realize where he was walking to, but the ghosts were so loud that he had to stop for a moment, leaning in a wall with eyes closed, his fingers on his temples, a headache starting to show. Why didn't the voices stop? Why couldn't he make it stop? He needed to calm down, he couldn't pass out now, he had to…

The door of the shop opened and hit his back and he almost fell to the ground. He was so out of himself trying to control his powers that he didn't realize he was standing in the front door of a coffee shop.

"Oh my, I'm so sorry! Did I hurt you? Are you ok?", a worried young woman said with a trembling voice. Klaus was still keeping his right hand on his temples, keeping his back to her while steading his breath.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm ok, don't worry. I didn't actually notice where I was standing", he said trying to sound as calm as possible while turning to face her. But, when he did, he saw her staring at him with a frown.

"Wait, how are you here? I’ve just talked to you back inside right now! And, where did you get those clothes?", she asked very quickly. Then she raised her eyes to his head. "What about this hat?"

"Er, I'm sorry, I think you're mistaking me for someone else", Klaus said in a confused tone. "I don't think we ever met."

"Are you kidding me? Are you really saying you don't recognize your own sister anymore?"

His what now? Klaus only had two sisters and none of them looked like this woman. She was still studying him with a confused look and Klaus noticed she had short black hair and hazel eyes and he assumed she was a little younger than him, if only he actually remembered how old he was now…

"Look, I don't want to be rude, but I really don't know you!"

"Sure, Klaus, keep playing your games with me, pretend it's funny!"

"Wait, how do you know my name?"

"Because you're my brother, maybe? Hello, Earth to Klaus, Liz is calling! God, are you listening to anything I'm saying?"

His head was hurting more and more. Her name was Liz? Did she actually call him by his name? He couldn't think properly, but then, he vaguely remembered something Five mentioned before he walked away from his siblings. Apparently they were in a parallel timeline and there were other versions of themselves? And he was lucky enough to stumble into someone who was the sister of his parallel self? Destiny really liked to make fun of him, right?

"Listen, Liz, I think I know what's happening and I can explain", Klaus started saying. But, then, his vision became a blur and he couldn't say anything else. Without strength to keep himself standing, he fell to the ground, leaning his back on the wall of the shop again. One of the last things he could see was Liz coming closer to him, a worried look on her face.

"Who is this guy, Liz?", he heard a familiar voice say. Maybe too familiar, he thought while he blinked his eyes and saw a man next to Liz. He felt some shivers when he blinked again and wondered if he was looking at a mirror, because the man staring at him was exactly like Klaus.

His eyelids were heavy when he opened his eyes again. Blinking a few times to adjust to the light, he saw Liz staring at him, a sense of worry over her face. Then, by her side, there was a mirror. No, not a mirror, but that was what felt like. Klaus wondered how twins usually felt while looking at someone else with the exact same appearance and he came to the conclusion that he would be very uncomfortable with this idea. If it was any consolation, his other self tried to keep some distance while looking at him with wide eyes. Besides the curlier hair pulled back in a bun and the clothes with light colors, they were a copy of each other. Oh, who was he trying to deceive? They were exactly like each other…

"Where am I? How long have I been like this?", Klaus asked trying to look around. He was sitting on a couch in a small office without any windows to let the sunlight in. A little coffee table was on the side of the couch and he noticed a glass of water. Liz nodded as if saying that he should drink that and so he did. He didn't realize how much he needed it till now, his throat was terribly dry.

"In my office, in the back of the coffee shop. You passed out and we brought you here, it’s been almost two hours. Are...are you feeling ok?", Liz said, a little hesitant. Klaus nodded before looking at his copy standing next to her.

"Why do you look exactly like me?", his other self asked, trying to not be rude. Klaus held back a laugh while sipping the water again.

"Believe me, I wish I could explain and make you believe. I hate to admit it, but Five was right after all…"

"Five? Five what?", the other Klaus furrowed his brows. Gosh, it was like looking at a reflection!

"It's not 'what', it's 'who'", corrected Klaus. "He's my brother. Well, I'm not sure anymore if I can say he's my little brother or my older brother, time is so weird lately…"

"Wait, wait, you brother's name is Five? What do you mean?"

He wondered for a moment if he could actually talk about everything. Well, nothing could get any worse, right?

"Oh, Liz, I wish it was that easy to explain...but, things can't get crazier than already are, so here we go…"

Klaus told them about his siblings, the Academy, the powers, the apocalypse, the time travel, the new apocalypse, the other time travel...by every word he said, the confused faces of Liz and the other Klaus only got bigger. He could almost hear Five screaming at him for saying all of that for two strangers, how dangerous that was. What if the Commission found them here? What if they tried to kill all of them again? Klaus didn't care, for some reason, he had a feeling that he could trust Liz and her brother. Even though it was weird looking at a different copy of himself.

When he finished saying everything, he just let his arms fall to the side of his body with a sigh while studying Liz's face along with her brother.

"I...well...I don't know how to handle all of that right now", she said fumbling with her hands. Her brother, on the other side, had his eyes locked on the floor for some moments before looking at Klaus again.

"You said you have powers, right? You can see ghosts?"

"See, listen, talk to them if I'm in the mood. Apparently they can also possess me which is not cool at all", Klaus answered while remembering how bad he felt when Ben left his body. However, he didn't want to think about Ben, it was still too painful.

"That explains the pills I got from the psychiatrist", the alternate Klaus said, pulling a little tube with pills from his pocket. "The doctors never understood what was wrong with me, I lost count of how many different medicines they gave me until we got to this one. I just feel numb all the time, but this stopped the visions."

"You see them too?", Klaus said in a low voice, almost like trying to hide from the ghosts, so they wouldn't find him again.

"Yes. I feel dizzy most of the time, but that's the price I'm willing to pay for the silence in my mind."

Klaus tried to force a little smile at his alternate version, but the headache hit him again, stronger than before. He closed his eyes and covered his mouth to stop himself from screaming. His powers have been getting stronger lately, but it didn't mean he knew how to be in control all the time.

"Klaus? Klaus, look at me", Liz said kneeling on his side. Klaus took a few breaths before turning to her while following her voice, his eyes still closed. His head was hurting so much with those voices again…"Breath, take a deep breath, focus on something else. Think about your siblings, maybe this will help."

"No, they are too loud, I can't push them away!", Klaus cried, trying to cover his ears.

"Remember them, Klaus! Remember your siblings' names, how you met each other again in the 60’s, how all of you arrived here. Focus on something!", Liz's voice seemed to be far away from him. He felt some movement on his side, his other self was getting closer to try to help him somehow.

"They will be looking for you, you'll need to go back for them", his other self told him with a calm voice.

"No, they won't", Klaus laughed, finally opening his eyes and looking at them. "They don't take me seriously, they still see me as a junkie after all this time. They just can't believe I can get sober if I want to, they probably didn't even notice how long I've been gone today and, to be honest, it wouldn't be the first time anyway! I hear these voices all the time, people calling my name and thinking I can help them, but I can't...not even the person I love believed me when I tried to save his life. My dead brother could take control of my body and nobody cared about how bad that made me feel! Now he's gone for good and nobody seems to care about it, but me!"

He didn't realize how he was screaming when he finished saying all of that, but the pain was so much that made him snap. At least, the voices stopped and his head wasn't pounding so much now. He felt sweat forming in his forehead and tears burning his eyes. That was the truth, right? His siblings didn't take him seriously, he would always be the drug addict, the weird brother, the irresponsible one.

"Klaus? I know I can't say I understand how you're feeling now, but I want to help you somehow", the alternate Klaus said, while touching his arm. "In some weird way we are both the same person dealing with these voices in our heads. Oh, yeah, baby!", he added when Klaus gave him a frown. "If I run out of pills, I have some serious issues, just ask Liz! My little sister had some hard times with me when we were younger. But, I know I can count with her support, no matter what. And, I don't care about what is going on with you and your siblings and all this crazy shit with different timelines. As long as you're here, we want to help you in any way we can. I mean, if you want us to, of course."

Klaus looked at both of them, Liz was still kneeling on the side of the couch, a small smile showing in her face before standing up to hug him followed by her brother and Klaus let his arms hold both of them. Maybe they could be the ones to help him. Maybe that other Klaus could understand his pain and Liz would try to help him like she tried to help her brother. Could they really help him? Perhaps, that was the only way to find out.

#klaus hargreeves #the umbrella academy #klaus hargreeves fanfic #tua fanfic #the umbrella academy fanfic #klaus deserves all the support in the world ok?#please show up in the tags #myfic

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turning-dreams-into-chaos · 4 years

Text

The Lie (Part 2)

*Not My Gif*

The Lie (Part 1)

Post Date: 12-27-19

Paring: Remus Lupin x Reader

Word Count: 3K

A/N: Part 3 in the works! Tell me what you think!

~Master~

~Harry Potter Master~

You couldn’t think as you raced from the classroom, trying to hide from everyone’s eyes as you ended in an abandoned corridor. Your knees gave out, sending you to the ground as you clutched your chest. The world had to of been spinning because your mind was reeling, laying your head on the cool floor below you, and curling into a ball as much as you could as you cried.

You didn’t know how long you stayed there. Seconds, minutes, hours, you couldn’t really tell. It wasn’t until you heard a speeding pair of footsteps slow and someone’s hand touch your back were you finally able to breath properly, trying to compose yourself as you turned around to see a frowning Sirius next to you.

“Hey Pads.” You put on a fake smile, wiping the tears from your eyes but knew it was pointless as Sirius looked at you, moving to sit against the wall as you joined him. You didn’t know what to say as he grabbed your hand.

“I know.” he said and your blood went cold as your breathing shook and your head snapped to look at his perched on the wall. “I know about you and James.” You let out a sob, bringing your hand up to your face for cover as Sirius wrapped his arms around you, pulling you to his chest. “It’s okay. It’s okay.” He whispered but you just shook your head and pulled away.

“It’s not! I had sex with one of the best friends of my boyfriend. I cheated on the love of my life. It’s not okay.” You cried out, burying your face in your knees. Sirius didn’t know how truly guilty you felt until now and seeing you like this. “I have to tell him.” You mumbled, surprising the boy. “I have to tell Remus.”

“You’re actually going to tell him?” You swallow your sobs and sat straighter, ignoring the lump in your throat as you nodded.

“The lie. Sitting behind this lie, it’s killing me.”

Sirius remained silent, nodding his head as he reached for your hand again. You smiled at him, silently thanking him for his comfort. “Pads? How did you find out?”

Sirius sighed, giving your hand a squeeze. “I was in the classroom. I saw what James did.” He admitted and you whimpered, clasping your eyes closed at the unfond memory. “Y/N, what happened between you two was a mistake. I know what it’s like to make a few drunk mistakes.”

“Marlene?” You asked, raising a brow while Sirius’ eyes opened wider in embarrassment and he nodded his head, making you chuckle a little. Sirius gave you a grin, happy that you were a little better before your face fell again. “Do you think he’s ever gonna forgive me?”

Your voice was soft, wavering quite a bit. “He loves you Y/N. You know as well as I do that Remus and you were practically made for each other.”

“But is he gonna forgive me?” Your voice turned desperate and if Sirius was being honest, he had no clue if Remus was going to forgive you. But he would be damned if he was going to let Remus hate you.

“Are you going to tell him about what happened today?” Sirius asked, trying to change the topic as much as he could but he needed to know how much you were willing to tell Remus.

“I can’t.” You sighed, putting your head on his shoulder and looking at the cream colored wall across from you. “The four of you are best friends. I can’t be the reason you aren’t anymore.”

That was so you. Taking all the blame and trying to keep the marauders together, but Sirius couldn’t help but scoff. “We stopped being best friends the moment James forced himself on you today.”

“Sirius-“

“No, James doesn’t get a pass here. He fucked up today.”

“And he has to live with it. But Remus can never know.” You made him promise not to tell Remus and, rather reluctantly, he did.

“So, when are you going to tell him?” He asked you, making you groan, running a hand over your face.

“Soon.”

Sirius nodded, eyes tranfixed on you. “So what exactly happened that night?” Sirius asked as you bit your lip.

“We were drunk.” You began as you told him everything that had happened that unfaithful night.

Soon couldn’t come fast enough. It had been a couple days since Sirius comforted you and James was completely gone. He had been so scared about Sirius spilling the secret that he’s pretended to be busy anytime someone comes to find him. Lily kept asking you if you knew what was up with him and like the liar you found yourself to be, you told her you didn’t know.

Remus had been the best boyfriend you could’ve asked for. It was like he knew something was upsetting you and promised that he’d be there to help you through it, putting no pressure on you to tell him what it was.

You didn’t deserve him.

Remus and you were sitting on his bed, a box of chocolate and your homework between the two of you but you couldn’t focus on it. You kept taking glances up at Remus, barely scribbling a few words down on your paper before Remus sighed, reaching for your assignment and pulling it out of your hands.

“Rem, what are you doing?” You reached for your paper again, only for him to pull it more and smirk at you. You just reached farther until Remus’ arms wrapped around your waist, pulling you into his lap as he twisted to lay down. “Rem!” You giggled as he started to kiss your face dramatically, tickling your cheeks. “What’s happening?”

Remus pulled away, a giddy smile on his smile as he looked down at you. “Somethings on your mind, so I’m helping you forget about it.” Your chest warmed at his words, a feeling of love as well as guilt, and you heard him chuckle as he moved down to your neck. The kisses turned from being fun and childish to more breathtaking, making you gasp as his lips pressed against your skin.

“Remus.” You moaned out, letting one of your hands come to hair, threading your fingers through them as he continued.

“God, I love you.” He mumbled as he started moving down your collarbone, your breathing skipping. “Nothing could change that.”

You couldn’t let this continue. Not without him knowing the truth. “I slept with James.”

Remus froze, trying to figure out if you were telling the truth or not. But by your silence he could tell you were. It was like someone casted a spell to drain all the happiness from his life as he pushed himself off you. “W-What?” His quiet voice made your entire being collapse.

“I s-slept with James.” You sat up completely, pushing yourself as far from Remus as you watched him. He wasn’t screaming, or yelling, or freaking out yet. He was just processing it.

“You slept with James.” He wasn’t asking and when you could no longer bring yourself to look at him he snapped. “What the fuck are you talking about?” Remus wasn’t one to use swear words like nothing and you knew no matter how composed he looked, he was seething on the inside.

“I’m sorry.” You felt tears fall down your face but you didn’t try to wipe them away.

“You’re sorry? You’re sorry?!”

“Remus.” You whimpered. He stood off the bed, pacing back and forth next to you.

He buried his head in his hands to cover his newly red and puffy eyes and screamed. “I loved you!”

Loved. Past tense.

“I’m sorry.” You couldn’t speak. Your entire world just shattered as the person you thought you were going to spend your life with began to question everything.

“Sorry? Again, you’re sorry? You slept with my best friend and you’re sorry?” He couldn’t even look at you right now. “Get out.” His voice didn’t waver. It wasn’t quiet but it wasn’t loud. It was unnerving, really. “Get the fuck out.”

You scrambled out of the bed, choking back your sobs as you pushed past him, running through the common room to your bed in hopes of no one catching you.

But unfortunately Lily had. “Y/N?” She said as she followed you up into the room, landing on the bed at the same time you let everything out, crying into your pillow. “Y/N, What happened?” She rubbed your back but you couldn’t handle being touched, and it being her did not help the situation.

“I slept with James when we were drunk and I’ve ruined everything.” You blurted out without even thinking of the consequences. Lily on the other hand didn’t say anything, just raced out of the room, slamming the door on the way out.

Remus was fuming as Sirius walked into the room, the place looking like a hurricane rolled through as Sirius gulped. “I reckon she told you.” He muttered, starting to clean up a little as Remus spun to face him, eyes burning into the side of his head.

“You knew? You fucking knew and didn’t tell me?” Remus was in front of Sirius in just a few steps, grabbing him by the robes and pushing him against the wall.

Sirius pushed Remus hands off him but they weren’t going anywhere, remaining locked on the boy. “Yes, I knew. And no I didn’t tell you. She wanted to be the one who told you.”

“Oh, well goodie her! Guess that makes it all better then, doesn’t it?!” Remus let go of Sirius’ clothes, sending him to the floor by the force. “Just leave me alone.” He muttered, sitting down on his bed. Sirius, the poor sap, almost obliged but shook his head.

“No.” He simply said as he sat on his next bed next to Remus’. It looked as if Remus had been crying for years and Sirius hated the familiarity he found between this moment and your own cries the other day. “I’m not going to sit here and let you throw away everything you love.”

“Sirius-“

“Do you love her?” He asked as Remus’ Adam’s apple bobbed. Sirius repeated himself, making Remus know there’s no way out as the boy nodded.

“Of course I do. I don’t think I could ever stop.” He admitted as his head hung low with guilt, much to Sirius’ relief.

“Then you need to hear her out. You need to hear the whole story.” Remus knew Sirius was correct but it didn’t make things easier.

“I can’t. I can’t even look at her right now.”

“Then listen to me,” Sirius said as Remus met his eyes, pleading for any chance to defuse his pain. “She loves you Moony. What had happened was a mistake. James and her just won their quidditch game and she wanted to celebrate with you, but Lily and you needed to study for the Charms test. They had a few drinks and then a few turned into several and neither of them knew what was happening. It was a mistake.”

Remus clenched his jaw, falling back completely onto his bed. “Stop making excuses for her.”

“I’m not. I’m not saying that what she did was okay, I’m saying she made a mistake, Remus.”

Sirius hoped that Remus understood what he was getting at and by the way Remus slumped his shoulders, it looked like he was starting to get it. “Look, you don’t have to forgive her, but don’t give up on her. Give her a second chance.”

“But what if she does it again?”

“She won’t.”

“Yeah, I thought that the first time.”

Sirius paused, moving on his own bed to lay down as well. He knew he had to let Remus know what James pulled the other day, but he also promised you he wouldn’t. “I’m gonna tell you something and you can’t tell Y/N I told you.” Remus turned his head, looking at a conflicted Sirius and nodded. “I left my book in class the other day and when I was in there to get it, Y/N and James came in.” Remus felt his blood boil as he listened. “He... he kept wanting to talk to her and she told him no and that it was a mistake... and I thought that would be the end of it but then...” Sirius trailed off as Remus sat up on his elbow, as his nostrils flared, trying to keep his emotions at bay.

“And then what?”

Sirius gulped, looking over to Remus with softened eyes. “He kissed her.” Remus was unmoving, but on the inside he was screaming.

“They kissed?!” He yelled scaring Sirius on his bed.

“No! No! James kissed Y/N! Y/N slapped him and ran out.” Remus hadn’t calmed down by that comment.

“So, either my girlfriend was okay with cheating on me, or my best friend was ok with kissing my girlfriend.”

“Remus, I followed her afterward,” Sirius said, shutting up Remus. “She had a break down in the middle of an empty corridor. Trust me Moony, Y/N’s not okay cheating on you. She hated lying to you everyday. She hated knowing how much you love her and knowing she messed it all up in one night! She hated knowing that you might not forgive her! And you know what? That’s what worries her the most. Not that you and her would break up or James, you, Peter and I wouldn’t be best friends, it was that you wouldn’t forgive her.” Sirius’ voice cracked as he yelled at his best friend, trying to convince him to understand. “She didn’t want me to tell you about the classroom. She didn’t want to be the reason our friendships broke. She loves you Remus. More than anything.”

Remus didn’t know what to say. He was truly speechless as Sirius stood up, patting his back and leaving him to his thoughts. Remus didn’t know what he was going to do, but one thing was certain. He wasn’t going to stop loving you that easily.

He jumped off the bed, making his way through the common room and almost to the stairs leading to the girls room. “She’s not up there.” Lily told him as he paused, turning to see the red head sitting on the couch and staring at the fire. It didn’t take Remus long to figure out that she now knew based on the tear stains leading down her cheeks.

“You know?” Lily nodded, giving him a tight lipped smile.

“She told me after she came running from your room. I went to find my boyfriend- ex boyfriend, and he denied the whole thing before I told him what Y/N said.” Lily bite her lip, turning away from the flames. “Y/N came out about 5 minutes ago, said she needed some air. I’d check by the-“

“By the lake.” Remus finished as Lily chuckled, wiping the new drops of tears before giving Remus a nod and telling him to go find you.

Remus didn’t waste any time in heading down to the lake, seeing you lean against the tree.

“You always come here when you’re thinking.” He grinned as he finished the distance to you, standing next to you as you stared out at the frozen lake. You didn’t know if you could say anything, your words logged in your throat as Remus reached out to grab your hand.

“You should hate me.” You rasped out, tired from crying all the time.

Remus just sighed, “I can’t.” He reached your to brush the hair out of your eye, but you stopped him, holding him gently by the wrist.

“Why don’t you hate me?” He needed to be angry with you. You needed him to be angry with you. It makes no sense that he wouldn’t be.

“Y/N.”

“No!” You yelled, backing up against the tree. “I-I slept with James. I cheated on you a-and lied to you and sat there and pretended like nothing happened when I kissed you day after day. I hate me! Why don’t you?” You started towards the castle, pulling your cloak tight around your body.

“Because I can’t!” Remus yelled, stopping you in your tracks as you turned to him, tears threatening to fall again.

“Why not?!”

Remus couldn’t take your broken tone as he finished the distance to you. “Because I know how much it kills you!” You gasped as you heard Remus’ voice crack when he cried. “Because you regret it! Because I sat there and listened to Sirius tell me how you ran off and cried after that day in the classroom. Because I know how much you love me and I know how much I love you.”

“Remus...”

“I’m not happy with you Y/N. But I can’t be mad at you. You’re my heart.” He grabbed your waist, pulling you to him as he kissed you despite the tears freezing both of your faces as you pulled apart.

“I’m sorry Remus. I’m so so sorry.” He nodded, pulling your body against his and hugging you tight.

“I know, love. I know.” Your breathing finally became normal again as Remus led you back to his bed. Remus sat against the headboard as you rested your head in his lap, letting him run his fingers through your hair as you drifted off to sleep.

Remus had a broken smile as he looked at you, the door to his room swinging open. Sirius peaked his head in, only seeing you and Remus in the dorm as he crept inside, sitting in his bed facing you two.

“How’re you doin’?” He asked Remus who never looked away from you.

“I’m good,” He whispered. “We’re good.”

Sirius just watched, seeing the small sleeping smile on your face before looking up to Remus. “You talked to her?” Remus nodded his head as you shifted in his lap, humming when you found a content spot to rest. “You’re not mad at her?”

Remus shook his head, pulling your hair out of your face from when you moved. “I can’t be mad at her.”

“Good.” Sirius sank into his bed in relief, glad this was practically over before he remembered one thing. “What about James? What are you gonna do about him?”

Remus’ hand stopped moving completely. His entire attitude sinking as he thought about the boy he used to consider one of his best friends. “I’m gonna kill him.”

Part 3?

Feedback is awesome!!

All Tags Open!

(If I forgot someone on the Lie Taglist please tell me!)

Permanent: @literal-fand0m-trash @just4muggles @saturn-aka-six @nathaliabakes @whyamihere-bro @colored-confetti @wiseeggspickleslime @sadn0va @btsiguess-kpop @galacticstxrdust @independentgirl @wellhellotherelovey @hollymac79 @delicately-important-trash @emcchi @rauwz

Remus: @serenefreakgeek

Harry Potter: @accio-rogers @songforhema @hahaboop @paigeyisme

The Lie: @stormborndt @siriuslysirius1107 @padfootlupxn @bitterqueenofhearts

#remus lupin x reader #remus lupin imagine #remus lupin #remus x reader #remus lupin fanfiction #james potter x reader #james potter imagine #james potter #the marauders x reader #marauders x reader #marauders imagine #harry potter x reader #harry potter imagine #the lie #part 2 #sirius black #lily evans #harry potter angst

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thelunaticbinge · 4 years

Text

Kenny Omega is a Siren

And I am but a flailing sailor throwing myself onto the rocks.

I've been watching wrestling since I was about 10 years old, give or take. I'm now 28, almost 29. I fell in and out of watching it along the way, but have been pretty consistent for the past 6 years.

WWF/WWE has been the primary player in my story, understandably. I grew up in love with (and still am in love with Jeff Hardy). I gravitated, as a kid, toward colorful characters and teams like Team Xtreme, and ones that were high flying dare devils. The acrobatic, lightning fast nature of that style captivates kids easily, it can’t be denied. I still love the style, and appreciate any performer that works that way. It’s high energy and grabs the audience.

Despite this preferred style, however, I must admit that the actual wrestling wasn’t what initially drew me in, and it isn’t often what keeps me held nowadays. Obviously, if I didn’t enjoy the physical aspect, I wouldn’t be watching, and I can recognize when someone is particularly talented at what they do in the ring. But it was always the characters and the stories that pulled me in when I was younger, and which continue to do this day. That being said, I’ve gravitated away from WWE in a lot of ways. I appreciate so much of what the guys and girls do, and how hard they work, and how talented they are, and yet I’ve been terribly bored by it all lately. The stories just aren’t there for me. But that’s an essay for another day when I have more patience.

Fast forward to roughly a year and half to two years ago. Enter Bullet Club/The Elite.

I have far too much solitary time at my job so my mind tends to wander into daydreaming about what it would be like to meet some of these guys, or else what it would be like to sit down and actually spew my wrestling fandom story to some made up interviewer. Doing this really helped me dissect what it is I love about Kenny as a performer. Because I love him as a person too, but that much goes without saying. I’ll get this out of the way right now so that I can be genuine and serious for the rest of this. Most of what I explain in this essay lends A TON to the fact that the man is just sexy as fuck. Kill me dead.

God damn angel.

The first thing that drew me to Kenny was, in fact, his in ring ability. As I said before, I don’t often over analyze what the wrestlers do in the ring aside from finishers or signature moves and if I like the way they look. For instance, I think the RKO is one of the loveliest moves to watch. Call me fake all you want, it’s fine by me. I’ve been watching long enough to know what most moves are called and how an in-ring performance aids the story: I’m not uneducated, this is simply about taste. I’m a plot person, a charisma and character person.

But Kenny is one of the special ones.

Something about the way he moves strikes a chord. It took me a while to pinpoint what it might be, but I finally had an epiphany not too long ago. He really does move like a video game character. I grew up loving video games and while I don’t play as much anymore, I really appreciate how his passion for them bleeds into his wrestling style.

And it isn’t just his moves, but his mannerisms. I’ve seen a lot of people say they don’t like that about him; that he’s too over the top and goofy sometimes, and I just want to tell them, “That’s the point, though.” He excels at being over the top. Because depending on what he’s doing, who he’s fighting, what the current arc is, his mannerisms always make sense to me. The deliveries of his finger gun, the “You can’t escape”, some of his crazy eyes. I love it all.

I am 90% sure that the first match I ever saw of his was the one with Jericho at the Tokyo Dome. So obviously I haven’t been around long as far as his career goes. But if there was ever a match to fall in love at first sight with him, that was the one.

His moves, guys. HIS MOVES. The man is a machine. But like a 95% organic, android machine. Terminator, obviously. Wink wink.

Think about it. He is so crisp, concise, and articulate in how he moves. He is both explosive and technical. He mixes the powerful moves in with the high flying, manic style I’ve loved since I was ten in such a seamless way. The one-winged angel is a great move for its established devastation. Rarely have I seen anyone kick out of it, which is why I’m glad he never connected with it in the Mox match at Full Gear. Mox was able to come out on top in his specialty match, and yet Kenny wasn’t lessened by having his finisher made ineffective.

But I’ve found that even though I adore Kenny’s finisher and his flying over the ropes and around the ring, it’s some of the other things he does that fascinate me. For one, I adore the movement for his “You can’t escape” segment. How, may I ask, does a person move like that? And I’m not even talking about the moonsault part. I provide a link to a twitter gif because I can’t save gifs off twitter. Click HERE.

The man is like a gymnast with that stuck landing GOOD LORD.

To make up for the lack of an at hand visual, have this gif because I love it.

Secondly, the V-Trigger. This is a signature, yes, but fucking beautiful to watch. It’s speed and power and looks as life-ending as it does poetic. Just ask Joey Janela.

Have I mentioned yet that I love Kenny’s run? It’s so distinctive. Especially when it first starts. The high knee. The acceleration. The man is gorgeous in motion. Just agree with me and we’ll keep trucking along here.

The one move, though, that really illustrates what I’m getting at here is one that should--at least to my not professional in any way eye--be fairly elementary. I’m talking about the the snapdragon.

Please correct me if I’m wrong in saying this, but to my eye it seems like a move not developed for its power/match ending ability, but simply as a way to bring the opponent down and waylay them for a minute. It’s a suplex of sorts, yes? I imagine it isn’t meant to result in a pin.

But Kenny’s snapdragon is probably my favorite move he does. The Speed. The SPEED. THE SPEED. Whip-like and akin to the RKO in its tendency to strike out of nowhere. I watched him do it 3 times in a row live in person and I could only stare with fucking heart eyes.

He takes this move that should just be a trip up maneuver and makes it look like it could truly kill a man.

This is the best gif I could find, my apologies. Found on reddit.

Again, maybe the move was always supposed to spell obliteration for the opponent. I don’t see it really outside of when Kenny does it. But I think his style largely affects my view of it.

The motion of this man in his performance really drives home to me what so many people love about the art in wrestling. I sit up and pay attention to the physicality in a way I don’t in other matches. Don’t get me wrong. I’ll be up out of my seat for a lot of guys and gals, screaming and electric with the crowd when shit gets crazy. But when Kenny is in the ring, I find myself really absorbing what he does because of how well he does it. His talent has really connected with me, but I get it doesn’t with some people. Well, maybe I don’t get it, per-say, but to each his own.

I find that a lot of the qualities I find so enrapturing about his wrestling transition into what I love about his promos. His work on BTE is often very different from the NJPW/ROH/AEW stuff. His BTE stuff is usually humorous and endearing in weird, chaotic ways. I find him funny and cute and sometimes a bit unhinged. I’ve always liked a little crazy in my faves, let’s be real.

His in-ring promos hit a different nerve.

As with his wrestling, Kenny’s speech is crisp, concise, and articulate. It’s been a while since I’ve watched one, but I call to mind his introduction of Marty into Bullet Club. The wording he uses in such promos really elevate his character, especially when he’s got The Cleaner vibe going on. But for me, its all in his tone, the inflections. He’s quiet and you listen. The promos are smooth, easy to track, and evoke emotion.

It’s been a long time since a wrestler has really snatched my attention in the way Kenny Omega does. I find myself listening to my faves’ promos in both WWE and AEW more often than “listening” to their matches, and this often leads to me missing parts of the story. Do some promos fall flat? Sure. Depends on the character much of the time, and if I dig the current rivalry.

It hasn’t yet mattered to me who Kenny is facing. I pay strict attention. And in turn I pay attention to what the other person is doing, too. I love the wildness of Kenny’s matches--a wildness that isn’t only made obvious by his high flying moves, but by the subtler ones, too, as well as his mannerisms and expressions. The man can lay you out with a one-winged angel, 1,2,3. But first he’s going to tear you apart with a plethora of poetry in motion.

#kenny omega #aew #all elite wrestling #the cleaner #being the elite #bte #welcome to my brain

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annakie · 4 years

Photo

An Annotated Mass Effect Playthrough, Part Six

Wherein we get out into space and explore a bit, and complete our crew.

And post a lot of gifs, because screenshots were lost.

List of Posts: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

So I use the NVidia Control Panel app to take screenshots and videos. Since it’s already running and it takes good shots it seems dumb to not use it.

I ended up being super busy this week and didn’t play much, just got through like, talking to Kaidan after the big speech on the bridge more or less for the entire week, and through Therum. I updated my drivers a day or two ago. And then I didn’t notice that for whatever reason, yesterday when I went to play for a few hours, NVidia decided to record videos just fine, but not take screenshots. I probably actually mashed the button several hundred times.... but all I got were videos.

Most of it wasn’t a great loss, it was a lot of talking to the crew, and a few planetary missions which... so I’m going to have to go back and redo some of it later for screenshots.

But I thought... hey, for posting on tumblr, I’ll just make it a shorter update and make a few gifs and most this a mostly-gif post! That’ll be fun!

...and then I spent several hours making almost 80 gifs, including a lot of what I also had screenshots for but thought making gifs would be more fun.

I mean I was watching the last few eps of the newest season of Great British Bake Off on Netflix, and a few other shows this morning so it wasn’t just gif time... but yeah I made a lot. So I might split this into two posts now because... that’s a lot of gifs. This post will still have a lot of screenshots, too. So here we go!

There are so many things to love about this moment. It’s such a great like, re-launch of the game... Bioware telling us “Okay, now you know the plot, you know all the major players, you know a lot about our world (galaxy) and how it works and who lives here, now, it’s time for you to go out on your own.”

First, it starts with being able to vent a little to Joker, which is a nice touch. Shepard might feel guilty about taking the ship over from Anderson, but Joker also assures us here, a great preview of the way he’s tasked with helping Shepard keep it together in ME3.

I love seeing Shepard’s words affect the crew. The swelling music, the same as the “you’re a Spectre now!!” music just underscores the journey, and what’s to come.

I used to always miss this scene by not picking the right speech option, and would be mad Kaidan was left out of this montage. My fault!

This moment is so beautiful and epic.

...and here we go.

ALOT, btw, makes the galaxy map so pretty. Sharper and clearer and more colorful.

We all usually just head to Liara’s Dig Site first, right? Unless you’re doing one of those “Pick up Liara last just to see what happens” playthroughs? I did that once. It felt weird. And sad, when you tell her “oops I killed your mom and I’m not sorry.” Seems like she shouldn’t have gotten over that so quickly, but well, that’s game design. The entire plot just doesn’t feel the same and more flimsy without Liara around from the start.

I usually do Therum --> Feros --> Noveria --> Virmire.

Well okay, first a stop at Edolus, since, you know, it’s on the way.

What a LOVELY day, nothing could possibly go wrong on this barren world. I feel like they gave us a pretty easy-to-get-around-on world to start out with.

I honestly love driving around in the mako 90% of the time? Once you’re used to the controls, it’s not that hard to get most places you want to go. Though I admit the Nomad in Andromeda is a big upgrade. I kinda miss it in ME2 and ME3, though I only do what driving is necessary in Overlord and skip Firewalker like, half the time.

First, let’s check out the map...

I’m pretty sure I didn’t realize you could mark your destination on the map and it’d put a handy arrow on your radar until I started playing on PC. Before then I was checking the map every 5 seconds making SURE I was going the right way. *facepalm*

Generally my scanning strategy on the planet is... just go to the things on the map, but do go to ALL the things on the map. If I see something along the way, stop and get it. I don’t go way out of my way to look for unmarked stuff. Usually the UNC missions can be completed doing that + complete planet / asteroid scanning.

Oh hey here’s a guy, let’s just grab what we can off him...

UGH. MINIGAMES.

Like I get that the minigame is a stand in for “looking for clues, are you successful in finding anything useful?” or whatever but it’s still just the worst. A minigame is fun occasionally, making it as a gate to something like looting a body is stupid. I guess I have to forgo actually putting points into things that keep Kaidan alive at the early levels so he can help me... loot bodies. Cool. Great.

Since I’m cheating in credits, all weapons and armor get medigelled almost immediately so that I don’t have to do the minigame later on when they get harder, like, ever.

The ME2 minigames at least make a little more sense than this moving puzzler thing. That’s at least an attempt to look like some kind of code hacking or rewiring/reprogramming. This thing is just... silly.

ME2 has a disable minigames mod... so there will be no talk of minigames from here on out. They don’t exist after the easy minigames early on in ME1.

So I ... somehow managed to not get video or screenshots of you know the ICONIC THRESHER MAW attack on Edolus? So please enjoy this gif I made of it back in 2013 instead.

It’s such a great fakeout and moment. Like “Oh man how easy my goal is like right in front of me! That’s great, so easy!” then OH HELL NO, FUCK YOU, GIANT WORM!!

These gifs are from another planet later on, but they’ll do.

My normal MO with Maws is to get out of the way, far enough that they can’t appear too close to or especially under me, but close enough that they do still show up, then stay stationary and jump over the goo while shooting at it.

YOU’RE FACING THE OTHER WAY HOW DID YOU SPIT AT ME?!

This is fine. EVERYTHING IS FINE. We’re just A LITTLE ON FIRE. Our shields are at full...

Oh hell, Kaidan slap some medigel on it, please.

Even though we don’t know who Cerberus is yet, FUCK YOU CERBERUS. I always bring the VS to any Cerberus mission because THEY WERE RIGHT NOT TO JOIN YOU IN CERBERUS. Let’s keep a FUCK YOU CERBERUS count going to remember all the horrible shit we SAW Cerberus do in ME1 to remind ourselves why Ashley or Kaidan is the only SANE ONE for going “No, sorry, I’m not joining you in Cerberus.”

Deep breath

OK, let’s go get Liara.

Wrex comes with us to Therum.

Dear Lord, Therum is gorgeous.

This is real nice just a pleasant day on this thresher maw-less planet and great scenery, we’ll find that asari scientist in no ti--- WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?

Have I mentioned how everything is fine lately?

Well it’s time for how I deal with most of the geth while in the Mako...

Armatures are worth five points each!

Rocket troopers are only two points, but I got a lot of them!

Stopping and fighting in the Mako takes way too long. Push on through all the way til we’re stopped.

Hm, this is the one I should push, right?

*crickets*

Fine.

Just... real pretty.

I love this part of Therum right here. A really great, scary fight that feels so dangerous, but winnable. Great level design, too.

Then this happens.

Does everyone’s hair do that in this cutscene, or just mine, or this hairstyle?

Also, ME3 has a mod now that lets chracters use their correct weapons in cutscenes, my eternal devotion to the modder who could do that in ME1. None of these characters use assault rifles in-game!!

I’m fairly certain I have played and replayed this fight more than any other in ME1. AKA RUN FOR COVER OH SHIT AVOID THE BOMBS AND LASERS FLYING AT YOU AT ONCE PLEASE DON’T DIE COMPANIONS PLEASE KILL SOMETHING I CAN’T DO THIS ON MY OWN AHHHHH!!!

This time around, I died my first time, actually did really well the second time, and decided to go back and record the fight for gifs and... won, barely. The gifs would not be good. Wrex and Kaidan didn’t last long.

Anyway, It’s a great cutscene, but hoo boy I wish it were skippable.

Okay but what were these ruins *for*. Also, real lucky that they had the boss fight way up here instead of down where Liara was.

Speaking of Liara...

Hello Doctor T’soni!

I have a lot of questions like... how long have you been in that bubble? How are you sustaining it that long? How long has it been since you’ve eaten? If I didn’t come get you until after Virmire, would you have been holding that bubble up for the weeks in between then and now?

Ah well, you’re here now, and I suppose I’m going to owe you my life later so... welcome to the team.

You gotta admit that’s one badass entrance, though uh, if the forcefield is still up, where did he come from? Doesn’t matter. Wrex, let’s kill us one of your brethren (sorry.)

I’ll just *assume* that Liara is too tired from holding up her stasis bubble she was in to actually be USEFUL.

I love the chaos of running the fuck out of there.

Texture popping is still an issue even with a decent computer and texture packs, but at least it’s quick now.

Also I really feel the loss of this conference room in the future games. The awkward oval table never quite feels the same. But also, uh, this is a lot of room taken up in this small ship for eight chairs and a holoprojector. You gotta think there’s more uses for this space than just that.

But yeah, I love these check-ins, it’s a chance for everyone to get together and really hash out what’s going on, as well as reinforcing the plot to the players in a more natural way. Having Liara this early will let us understand the Protheans better at an earlier stage, even if it turns out she’s wrong about some stuff (though at the time this was written, she was right for all everyone knew.)

Wrex and Garrus don’t talk much here, probably because you can make it through the game without one of them. I did a “didn’t recruit Garrus” playthrough in ME2 once. They change like one or two lines then Garrus goes back to talking about Old Times. So like you CAN, but you really shouldn’t not recruit Garrus, because Bioware didn’t do a great job changing anything aside from your initial greeting during the Omega Archangel mission.

Not recruiting Wrex, though. Wow that’ll have consequences later on.

OK! So the gang’s all here, and this post is already very long. Next time: Let’s go talk to everyone for awhile, and do a few more sidequests because we can’t go back to the Citadel til our persuasion is high enough to grind Mikhailovich’s arguments into the dust!

#mass effect #liara t'soni #urdnot wrex #kaidan alenko #ashley williams #garrus vakarian #annakie's mass effect stuff

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reid-fiction · 6 years

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Maze Misadventures

In which Spencer’s daughter discovers how easy it is to get lost in a corn maze.

a/n: This gif haunts me...

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It was no secret to anyone that Spencer loved Halloween.

In fact, Spencer loved everything about the autumn season, from the crisp smell of the air to the bright, vibrant colors of the changing leaves, to the spooky masks and ghostly decorations that went up in store windows as soon as October began. Any excuse he could find to incorporate a fall activity into your weekend or evening, he would use it.

When your daughter came along, Spencer made sure that she took on his love of autumn as soon as she was old enough to understand the concepts. Her first Halloween - when she was only 7 months old - he had dressed her up in a little cat outfit and paraded her around your neighborhood if for no other reason than to show her off to anyone who passed by. She slept through the last hour or so on his shoulder, but that didn’t stop him. If anything, he was enjoying just wandering around the neighborhood and commenting on how cool all the costumes were to any child who passed him.

A few years back, the two of you had taken her to a local farm that included hay rides, haunted houses and general fall fun. She had been far too little to truly understand and enjoy the experience, but Spencer had vowed he would take her back when she was a bit older so she could try out the one thing you had skipped that day: a corn maze.

The adventure began on a fall day in late September when (Y/D/N) was about 4 and a half. By now, you also had a three-month-old baby boy, so the four of you bundled up and made your way to the farm. The atmosphere was buzzing with activity and excitement, as dozens of families wandered around and engaged in the various activities the location offered.

Your daughter seemed excited, but slightly overwhelmed at the number of people as she kept a tight grip on Spencer’s hand. After taking a hay ride and picking out some pumpkins to take home, there was only one thing left that Spencer wanted to do. As they approached the corn maze, he let go of her hand and knelt down in front of her.

“Sweetheart, would you like to go through the corn maze with daddy?”

He pointed in the direction of the large stalks of corn in the distance.

“What’s a corn maze?” she asked.

“It’s like a game where you have to walk through a path and try to find your way out to the other side and the walls are made of corn,” Spencer explained. “Sometimes, there are paths that don’t go the right way, so you have to go back and try again. It’s really fun!”

She glanced around him at the maze, and then up at you.

“Mommy, do you wanna come too?”

The tiny baby in the stroller had been fussing for the last few minutes and you assumed he was hungry. Going through the corn maze would likely make him more unhappy.

“Mommy’s going to stay out here and feed your brother,” you said. “But you and daddy will have lots of fun in there, and I’ll see you when you come out on the other side, okay?”

You weren’t surprised that the notion of walking through thick corn stalks that were taller than she was, and not knowing exactly how to get out, made her nervous. She had always been a cautious child, even if one of you promised to be there with her. But, it might have been the excitement in Spencer’s voice or the general happiness on the faces of those exiting the maze that gave her that touch of bravery that she needed because, next thing you knew, she was nodding with a wide smile on her face and grabbing Spencer’s hand again as she started making her way toward the start of the maze.

“Bye mommy!” she waved, just before the two of them entered. “Don’t get lonely while we’re gone!”

You laughed, sitting down on a nearby bench and taking your crying son out of his stroller as you watched Spencer and your daughter disappear into the maze.

On the inside, Spencer took your daughter over to the small map at the start of the maze that - while not giving away the correct path to take - did make a point of specifying where the ending was.

“Okay, we have to find our way from here to there, you see?” Spencer said, pointing at the beginning and end of the maze so she knew where they were. “You think you can find our way out?”

She nodded, even more excited now that she was actually inside. Without another word, she took off in a dash, running ahead of Spencer toward the first crossroads.

“Wait for me!” Spencer called after her, picking up his pace. “I don’t want you to get lost. Stay where I can see you.”

She slowed down slightly, but Spencer knew he would have to be on guard the entire time. His daughter was cautious, but she could also be fearless once she was sure of her self. He watched as she paused, looking both ways as if deciding which one to take, and finally chose to go left.

Spencer was able to follow her without an issue for the first half of the maze, but she eventually turned a corner and was out of his sight. He didn’t panic, quickening his pace to a jog in order to catch up, but he ended up coming in contact with a larger group who were also working their way through and it slowed him down. By the time they passed, his daughter was nowhere in to be seen.

On the other side of a wall of corn, (Y/D/N) was having the time of her life. When she eventually hit a wall, she knew to turn back and try another way. She turned around, expecting to see Spencer behind her. When she was met with nothing but an empty path, she frowned. Maybe he was waiting for her around the corner? She ran back in the direction she first came, but turned down the wrong way, leading herself into a totally new area of the maze. Spencer wasn’t there either. A few more twists and turns with no sign of her dad, and that’s when she knew she was lost.

“Daddy?” she called out, a hint of nervousness in her voice.

When she received no reply, her bottom lip started to wobble. She remembered what the two of you had told her about what to do if she ever got lost: stay in one spot and wait for you to find her. It was one thing for her to know that, in theory. It was a whole other thing when she was currently lost in a corn maze, and the tall stalks around her were looking more and more like scary monsters in the waning light of the afternoon.

“D-daddy?” she called again, tears starting to roll down her cheeks, hoping desperately that he would hear her.

Only a few feet away, but on the other side of a wall, Spencer was also starting to panic. It was getting later and later in the afternoon, and the sun - though still a few hours from fully setting - was starting to pull behind the clouds, making the pathways in front of him get darker and harder to navigate clearly.

“(Y/D/N)?” he shouted, not caring how loud he was. “Baby, where are you?”

He dashed around every corner, looking down each pathway to see if he could locate her, and calling her name over and over again.

Finally, he heard tiny cries echoing from just in front of him. A quick turn to the left and he saw her. She had curled herself in close to one of the corn stalks and looked positively terrified. As soon as she saw him appear, she opened her arms for him.

“Daddy!” she wailed, now out of relief instead of fear.

Spencer rushed over, scooping her up and holding her close.

“Shhhh,” he soothed. “It’s okay. I’ve got you, you’re okay.”

“I couldn’t see you anymore! I called for you but you didn’t hear me and I got scared!” she blubbered, clinging to his shirt. “Where were you, daddy?”

Her words broke his heart as he smoothed down her hair.

“I was looking for you,” he replied, feeling his heart rate start to return to normal. “You ran off too fast and got too far ahead of me. You need to stay close to me, love, that’s why I told you to slow down and not run off without me. You have to be careful, okay?”

She pulled her face from his neck, nodding in understanding as she continued to sniffle and cry in hiccuping sobs.

“I’m sorry!” she cried, looking completely devastated. “I’m sorry I ran and got lost, I didn’t mean to!”

“Oh sweetheart, it’s okay! I’m not mad at you, you just scared me when I couldn’t find you.” Spencer reassured her. “But, you’re okay. You did really good staying in one spot when you realized you were lost, like mommy and I told you to. That’s how I was able to find you.”

She seemed to calm down a bit after that, and Spencer reached over to wipe the tears off her cheeks.

“You okay?” he asked, giving her a comforting smile.

“Uh-huh,” she nodded, still pouting and sniffling with the after-effects of her misadventure.

“Alright, let’s find our way out of here,” Spencer said, kissing her forehead. “I think we should find mommy and your brother and head out for a treat.”

Her eyes lit up at the mention of a treat, but she opted to stay in Spencer’s arms for the remainder of their time in the maze. By the time you saw them emerge, she looked completely happy and you wouldn’t have known anything had gone awry if she hadn’t immediately ran over to you and exclaimed,

“Mommy, guess what? Daddy got lost!”

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Tag List:

@cynbx@gabriellewritermua @wheresthewater @toomanyfandomsshreya@thatisthemagic @helayes @marvelouspotterhead @randomfangirl1415 @criminally-me @the-unfortunate-fangirl @everyday-imfangirling @skrrrrrrrrrrt @jhillio @elenarogersbarnes13 @reid-187 @spencerreid-iq187 @princesswagger15

#spencer reid #criminal minds #dad!spencer #fanfiction #spencer reid fanfiction #dad!spencer fanfiction #criminal minds fanfiction #spencer reid x reader #spencer reid fanfic

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topweeklyupdate · 6 years

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TØP Weekly Update #54: COVER ME (7/13/2018)

Finally, after months of solid drought, the barren wasteland known as the TØP fanbase has finally been blessed with rain. And not just a gentle sprinkle; it’s been a consistent heavy downpour, a veritable flood. Even before new music, this week gave us new content from the group every single day. There will probably be something new out by the time you’re done reading this. So let’s not waste any time! Here’s your week in Twenty One Pilots news.

This Week’s TØPics:

Your Band Is Back: Trench Coming This October

“Jumpsuit” and “Nico” Released

New Logo/Theming/Everything

Josh Speaks

And SO. MUCH. MORE.

Major News and Announcements:

This time last week, I was certain that we would be getting new music on the 6th because it was my birthday. Turns out, myself and many others in the Clique read a little too deeply into Clancy’s promise that “everything would be different” by morning. We did not receive new music on that date, which, for the record, was way earlier than most reports had pegged. The fanbase wanted music ASAP and interpreted the letter to fit that, and anyone who said the band lied about when music was coming was just not being honest with themselves.

Things were different starting last Friday. On the one-year anniversary of their departure, Twenty One Pilots directly reached out to their fans for the first time, not through the wide platform of social media, but with an email message to their mailing list.

The message only consisted of the subject line “ARE YOU STILL SLEEPING?” and a gif of an opening yellow eye, with images fitting the iconography of the Dema site flashing under the eyelid. The Clique basically lost their minds at this direct contact, so much so that major publications like Billboard finally started to report on the long gestating speculation. Everyone was excited to see the eye open over the course of the day, bringing everything full circle and culminating (presumably) with new music.

That... didn’t happen. Rather, dmaorg.info was restored after being down for only a few hours, and this gif of torches was added onto the site. This indicated that Clancy had escaped Dema, and the Clique promptly set about assuming that the next day would mark the band’s full return. Further, the name of the gif, “they_ca_ntseeFCE300″, seemed to confirm what people would be speculating ever since Josh dyed his hair nearly two years ago: the next era’s color would be yellow (specifically, FCE300) to symbolize hope and light pushing back against the dark.

The next day brought with it another update from Clancy (and the general concession among the Clique to stop expecting new music every night and just go to bed). In one of my favorite bits of attention to detail so far, Clancy’s latest journal was messily handwritten on a scrap of paper, due to the fact that he had successfully escaped Dema and was now traveling through- big shock- a region called “Trench”. The writing itself is kinda rambly and generic (so I can relate), with Tyler Clancy marveling at how much he loves being in the trees being alone out in nature. That said, I do love that there is a definite story being presented, with Clancy experiencing changes, taking action, and going on a real journey through this world that Tyler’s created.

On the back of the paper, however, is something much more interesting: a blown-out image that, when reversed, revealed a dead body. That was creepy enough as is; far more creepy was the Clique’s CSI-level discovery that this ripped photo fit with several other dmaorg.info images in a giant puzzle. Who was this man? Was this a random poster that Clancy grabbed as he escaped, or are we supposed to take it as a metaphor? Was it a random citizen of Dema? A bishop? Clancy himself? Blurryface? So many questions.

Twenty One Pilots truly made their mainstream return on July 9th, when they posted a second video of a half-opened eye, not just for hardcore fans, but on all of their social media platforms. This return was accompanied by a total overhaul of the band’s general branding: a new yellow-and-black ||-// logo was revealed for the new era, while the old “silence” banners and even the website subscription box were covered up by bright yellow tape. Billboards featuring the logo on this yellow tape aesthetic sprang up in cities all around the world, from London to Toronto, Berlin to Melbourne, even an entire building in São Paolo. The boys were back.

On Tuesday, Twenty One Pilots again returned to social media to post a second video. The eye, now about 3/4 open, depicted even more of this medieval battle, now with the addition of the Watchers on the cliff throwing... something (rocks? rose petals?) into the air. Instead of generic white noise, this clip was scored by a muffled but still obviously crunchy bass line. As radio stations across the country began to tweet about a major alternative release coming Wednesday morning (with a few even mentioning they were from Columbus), we finally knew that we were going to be ok....

New Releases:

And then I was not okay.

Early Wednesday morning, Twenty One Pilots dropped two singles and announced the names and dates for the next album, Trench, and tour, Bandito. My prediction from last week was 100% correct, and you all may thank and validate me in the comments below like and subscribe. “Jumpsuit” is our main single with a full cinematic music video, while “Nico and the Niners” is the more lore-heavy low-key song for the fans. I’m going to pull back from fully going in on picking apart every sonic and thematic element of both songs and save that for (hopefully) a less busy week, but you know I gotta write about their first new music in two years. Cause that’s what I do: I write too much.

Guys, “Jumpsuit” is a straight-up banger. Featuring a killer driving bassline, some of Tyler’s most impassioned screams, and a truly devastating bridge, I have not tired of this song one bit in the last few days. It takes me on a complete emotional journey in just four minutes every time, and it does so mainly through its soundscape (there’s only the hook, three couplet verses, and that damn bridge). It’s so, so, so, so good, potentially (dare I say it) the best sonically arranged and produced song the band has ever released.

So... what’s “Jumpsuit” about? Well, a lot of things, but in a word: pressure. Again, the lyrics are super vague, I think deliberately so. Clearly the song is about the singer feeling pressured by others into taking a path that he does not want to travel down. That bridge, delivered in an eerie detached falsetto, shows Tyler pushing back even at his weakest point, stating that he will not submit to what others want him to do unless they “grab him by the throat, tie him down, and break his hands.” Certainly you can argue that this is about the music industry. The “breaking his hands” line is killer in that context, as it signifies that the industry can’t control him without taking away the things that makes him valuable to them in the first place, his artistic ability and freedom. You can also say that it’s just playing straight into the concept, with Clancy breaking away from the bishops’ control. But the deliberate vagueness of the lyrics means that the audience can apply the message- and the empowerment of that killer bassline- to whatever struggle they are facing. That’s pretty darn rad.

The music video, directed by “Heathens” and “Heavydirtysoul”’s Andrew Donoho, is sick. Tyler (looking extra fly in his new yellow hooded jumpsuit) attempts to flee from this creepy Red Riding Hood old dude on a white horse (Nico?) through what is certainly a Game of Thrones filming location while other figures in yellow duct tape jumpsuits look on from the cliffs above. Tyler is captured by the bishop, who “smears” him by putting the black Blurryface makeup on his neck. Tyler is freed briefly from the bishop’s control when the other yellow-clad figures throw yellow petals down on him, but he is chased down knocked out or killed. The others flee the scene, save for one very handsome looking drummer boy... Oh, and there’s a bunch of intercut clips of Tyler on the car from “Heavydirtysoul” for some reason.

Besides those “Heavydirtysoul” scenes, which truthfully don’t connect much to the story of the video beyond artificially welding it onto the end of the Blurryface Era, this is one of the band’s best videos yet. It totally fulfilled all of my expectations of a more epic scope for this era, from the gorgeous Iceland setting to the dope as hell costumes to the implication that the story might continue on from this point. And there are tons of little Easter eggs, from brief flashes of the nine bishops to possible cameos from the Josephs and Duns. We don’t really know for sure if Tyler is playing Clancy or if the red dude is Nico, but it will certainly be fun to continue to fill in the blanks as we move forward and (hopefully) hear more from Tyler directly.

“Nico and the Niners” is a weird track, but one that I still absolutely love. In some ways, it’s a more traditional tøp track, with some of the raggae elements found on Blurryface and a rap verse to fit all of Tyler’s lyrics in. But in other significant ways, it’s a totally different path for them. For starters, just look at that title: it’s very explicitly about this album’s concept from top to bottom, with Tyler singing about fleeing Dema and its bishops’ control and even heavily referencing “Jumpsuit”; there’s clearly going to be a great deal of thematic cohesion in this project. But there’s also just the general vibe of it: just as “Jumpsuit” was a heavier rock song than anything we’d yet seen from the band, "Nico” is way more laid back, its repeated references to being high and even its visualizer of assorted shrubbery making it a potential stoner anthem (whether that was Tyler’s intention or not). Regardless, the song is brimming with character and hooks, and it’s already grown on me significantly in just a few days.

Oh, and one more thing: this song lives up to its Dema-referencing title and content by being cryptic af. The track is littered with reversed audio in the instrumental bits, including the “we are banditos” snippet from dmaorg.info and another sample of someone who sounds a lot like Josh saying “We will leave Dema at true east, renounce Vialism [the bishops’ ruling philosophy, alluded to be Clancy in an earlier journal].” I swear, if all it takes for Tyler to make all this stuff is a year break, he should do this after every album.

With all that new music, the fact that we finally have a name for Album 5 almost got lost in the shuffle. Trench was a popular guess over the last few days thanks to dmaorg.info, but it’s good to finally know for sure. Graphic designer Brandon Rike from the Blurryface Era is back again, revealing a cover featuring a badass-looking vulture/falcon/whatever, some new logos (including the return of FPE!), and some more yellow tape that appears to be covering the names of the rest of the album’s songs. Not too much else to say at this point; we’ll just have to wait until some of that tape gets peeled off between now and October 5th.

Finally, let’s talk about the Bandito Tour. It bears mentioning that, amidst the otherwise overwhelmingly positive positive atmosphere of the band’s return, this tour name received the most general opposition from fans and non-fans alike. The fact that “bandito” was probably going to turn up in a lyric from two decidedly white dudes was already enough to put some folks on edge, but the idea of an entire tour of predominantly non-Hispanic tweens flooding arenas and calling themselves banditos was enough to turn a few people against the band. And look, I get it- I hear “bandito” and the first things I think of are John Wayne Westerns and Speedy Gonzalez, and I get why a lot of fans might feel uncomfortable with that. But, to be fair, the band hasn’t used any of those stereotypes and banditos is a word for outlaw used in a number of Romance languages. Perhaps most interestingly, there’s not yet any evidence that the word even appears in the album itself. So far, the only appearance of “bandito” is in a coded message on dmaorg.info and in reversed audio in “Nico”. If this does turn out to be a name meant to only make sense to the most hardcore of fans, it is almost redeemed (I mean, I still think the name is a little silly, but I’m already in presale).

So, with that out of the way, let’s actually talk about the tour itself. It will be an international arena tour- even if the band’s sound is not going in a pop direction, they still clearly feel confident that the Clique will show up wherever they go. The first show will be hosted in Nashville (their first arena concert in that market) on October 16, not even two weeks after the release of the full album. What a baller move, and much preferred to the Blurryface rollout where we didn’t hear most of the songs on the record until nearly two months after the album release and they didn’t play near me for even longer. The boys will tour the U.S. until November 21, even playing arenas in a few markets that they’ve never played large venues in before, and then hit up Australia and New Zealand in December.

The most objectively interesting leg will be in Europe from January through March. Not only will the band play their first arena shows in markets like Moscow, Oslo, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Central Poland, and Manchester, they will return to markets like Dublin and Glasgow they’ve been absent from for years. Most exciting, Twenty One Pilots will play their first shows in Bologna and Stuttgart and venture into the countries of Ukraine, Switzerland, Spain, and Portugal for the first time ever. Needless to say, the rabid fanbases of all of these regions are super excited, and I’m super excited for them!

Other Shenanigans:

While Tyler has continued to stay silent (much as he has since mid-Blurryface Era), Josh immediately jumped back on Twitter with a standard Josh joke and even resumed his morning workout Snapchats. On Thursday, Josh even called into BBC Radio One with Annie Mac to give a quick interview about the new era. He didn’t provide a ton of information, but it was just a delight to hear our kid’s voice again. A few tidbits of info:

Josh reported that he was calling from Trench, I hate him.

The sick bass riff on “Jumpsuit” was born from soundchecks toward the end of Emotional Roadshow. He says that, as a result, it sounds closest to the Blurryface sound, serving as a good transition into the new era. (If this is what he thinks is close to Blurryface on Trench, this album’s gonna be nutter butters.)

Both Josh and Tyler are really nervous about the elaborate rollout, both out of the usual fear that no one stuck around and out of wariness of severely disappointing people when they hear the actual music (so far, so good...)

Trench continues to have the “diverse” sound of the previous records and also was designed to be played live.

Josh also tuned into Apple Music’s Beats 1 for an interview with Hanuman Welch. This conversation was less about the new album and more about the “hiatus”. More tidbits:

The band views collaboration as a “sacred” thing, and while they’re not against it in the future, it has to be done in a context that makes sense and not merely for marketing purposes.

The band has never used the word hiatus because they’ve been working. They drew back from the spotlight to allow themselves some time to recharge, but also because they were worried of oversaturation (particularly after the Grammys pushed them into that next-level pop culture sphere). Rather than make a bunch of social media posts that didn’t mean anything just to stay relevant, the band decided to draw back, focus on music, and in the process “thin the weeds” of fans who weren’t the diehards.

For the last few albums, the music has come from a specific personal place the band was at while write, whether it be a spiritual journey with Vessel or tackling insecurities on Blurryface. Josh says the same remains true with Trench, but notes that there will be a little more fleshing out themes by working on a specific story with this one (he still says it’s not really a concept album, but ok).

Believe it or not, we are not done. While the boys were blazing a brave new path forward, another bit of content reminded us of where the band came from. Greg Wells, the producer who made Vessel the masterpiece it was, gave an hour-long interview to Billboard’s Pop Shop Podcast. He mainly speaks about getting started in the industry back in the 90s and working on the mega-blockbuster Greatest Showman soundtrack, but he does talk about Vessel for a bit approximately forty minutes into the interview. I won’t give the exact time-code, not because I’m lazy, but because the entire interview is worth listening to. Greg just seems like a rad dude. His laid-back nature and the seriousness he takes with his craft really shine through; he and Tyler must have gotten along just fine.

Community Spotlight:

The Clique took some heavy losses over the last year, as a great deal of old fans moved on to greener pastures. But that just left room for a whole host of new fans to rise to the occasion and help us get through that long drought. Today, I wanted to give a shout-out to GingerSheep and Stolen Potential, two Clique vloggers that have really kept the fanbase informed and uplifted and have been working their butts off reporting on the daily content. I know how long it takes me just to research and write one of these- I can’t imagine the work that then goes into filming and editing on top of that nearly every day. Hats off to you, good sirs. Make sure you all check out their channels if you haven’t already! But, you know, don’t stop reading these. I have bills to pay with all the Tumblr money I’m not making.

Well, that wasn’t too much, was it? If you made it all the way to the end, mad props. See you next week for a slightly tamer week (probably).

Power to the local dreamer.

|-/

#twenty one pilots #tyler joseph #josh dun #trench #jumpsuit #bandito tour #nico and the niners #hiatus #dema #top weekly update

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ciathyzareposts · 5 years

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Game 101: Waxworks – Introduction

Written by Deimar

I am starting to think I am the place adventure game sagas go to die. This is the fourth saga I am closing and this time we can even add the company behind it to the list of casualties. Well, it was more like a rebranding. But the fact that this is the last game of Horror Soft as we know it is still relevant. So, without further ado, I give you Waxworks.

I am already missing Elvira’s… erm… personality. This one can’t hold a candle to her

As I said, Waxworks is the last game created by Horror Soft using a modified version of the Abermud engine. Abermud was the first popular open source MUD and the people from Horror Soft took it and used it for their games, starting with Personal Nightmare, the two Elvira’ and finally Waxworks. Both Elvira 2 and Waxworks use the latest version of the engine, AberMUD V, that the company later gave back to the open source community. So don’t expect too many differences between Elvira 2 and this game.

In fact, we get the very same leading trio of Mike and Simon Woodroffe, don’t miss the interview Joe did with Mike, and Alan Bridgman. Apart from that, we also get most of the other people back from the Elviras, the music of Jezz Woodroffe and the graphics of Paul Drummond. All of them usual suspects in Horror Soft’s games. The only thing is that they went and hired a writer called Richard Moran instead of them taking charge as usual. Let’s see if that paid off.

The story so far is one of curses through history. We play the role of “unnamed player character”, a tormented soul since the day his twin brother, Alex, got lost in the tunnels under Vista Forge, our hometown and an old mining village. The remaining family of three left shortly after the incident, to try and avoid the constant remainder of Alex’s demise. However, our eccentric uncle Boris remained there in his stone mansion, more a gallery than a home. A gallery to the macabre, to the horrors of history preserved in wax. The waxworks. From the strange rituals of ancient Egypt to the murderers of Jack the Ripper, mostly chosen, because I think Horror Soft didn’t trust its audience recognizing any more historical events than that.

Today, after so many years, we come back to our hometown to pay respect to our uncle. The return brings back so many memories. For example, like that one time our uncle came visiting to our new home and told the family about the curse pending over them, like the sword of Damocles. In the middle ages, one of our ancestors caught a witch stealing a chicken. The farmer cut the witch’s hand as a punishment, and was about to finish the deal when his wife intervened and stopped it. That gave the witch time to cast a curse on the family. It seems like in the ancient Egypt, their ancestors gave birth to twins, one good and one cursed by an evil pharaoh. And so, the witch decided that every generation bearing twins in the family from that day on would have one twin being good and the other being at the service of Beelzebub. The curse of Ixona. So, usual stuff with twins as the Simpsons have already stated.

The farmer’s wife gave birth to twins, with the evil one having deformed hoofed feet and becoming Vlad the Impaler. The guy got hold of the witch and tried to lift the curse, not so bad so far, but when he couldn’t make her do it, he decided to impale her. And more than half of the population of Romania and Turkey with her. For good measure.

But that gave the opportunity to uncle Boris for finding her remains, whose location was revealed to him in a dream. Those included a crystal ball that might give the family the key to fight the curse. However, with Boris now lying at the bottom of the earth, that seems lost forever. That is, until he conveniently wrote a letter to us before dying, telling us that Alex is alive and well, is the evil twin in this generation and has the power to create an army of zombies from the horrors of the past.

Boris got too carried away with his findings…

And once again, we must try and avoid the end of the world due to supernatural threats. Our only help? The waxworks that Boris gathered in his mansion are doors into the distant past of our family’s twins, which we can influence and make the good triumph over evil. Or something like that, because the manual says we have to stop Alex but the intro says we can save him by defeating the waxworks. Anyway, we have the help of our uncle Boris, whom we can contact through the crystal ball for help and… that’s about it.

So get into a waxwork, defeat the evil twin and get back. Got it? Good, because although the history so far is quite well detailed, I recommend reading the manual (the version sold in GOG doesn’t contain this), that’s everything we are going to get. The game contains four waxworks that we must defeat. There is no order to them and items do not carry over. Basically, the idea of the three sets from Elvira 2, only even more independent. Let’s see what they are all about.

The ancient Egypt shows the original twins. One being the ranking member of the local sect of Anubis with the habit of sacrificing virgins to the god of death. The other being a prince whose fiancee has been kidnapped by his evil twin and had decided to go rescue her from the sect’s pyramid by himself. Instead of sending his army. Because reasons.

The mine is home to an abomination. The seventh pair of twins gave birth to the dark priest of a chaotic cult that practiced satanism and black magic. He was given a formula to make better humans. Extreme vegans if you like. So extreme they started to become plants. The evil twin in fact became so deformed he could no longer move and was placed deep inside a mine with his worshippers feeding him human flesh. He was defeated by a safety inspector that went to the mine to file a report. He turned out to be the good twin.

Jack the Ripper. Do I need to say anything else? He kills women of the night in Victorian London and we decide to stop him because… erm… we were there? Dreamt of it while smoking opium?

The graveyard is home to the fifth pair of twins. The evil one turned to be a natural necromancer that set shop in a graveyard while dedicating himself to make acquaintance with his ancestors. The good ones were now turned into zombies. The evil twin was defeated by a gravedigger that went to the graveyard to search for his lost shovel.

And those are the scenarios I will be spending my next thirty/forty something hours for your pleasure. Since we can tackle the game anyway we want, let’s start a vote that will decide in which order I will play it. There are scenarios that are a bit more dungeon crawly than others. For example, from what I have read, Jack the Ripper is the most puzzle filled waxwork, while the pyramid is perhaps the most RPG-like. Everyone seems to agree that the easiest one is the graveyard. We will close the poll by Friday, ninth of November.

Create your own user feedback survey

Also, don’t forget to bet both on the score of the game and the number of unique death gifs. After all, this is a Horror Soft game, and the most gruesome to date. By the way, I am having some problems recording the game using Dosbox internal record mechanism, colors go haywire. I have managed to make a clean recording with Open Broadcasting Software (OBS) but the images get scaled up and I would prefer to keep the original 320×200 resolution. Any help in this regard is welcomed. See you at the waxworks!!

Note Regarding Spoilers and Companion Assist Points: There’s a set of rules regarding spoilers and companion assist points. Please read it here before making any comments that could be considered a spoiler in any way. The short of it is that no CAPs will be given for hints or spoilers given in advance of me requiring one. As this is an introduction post, it’s an opportunity for readers to bet 10 CAPs (only if they already have them) that I won’t be able to solve a puzzle without putting in an official Request for Assistance: remember to use ROT13 for betting. If you get it right, you will be rewarded with 50 CAPs in return. It’s also your chance to predict what the final rating will be for the game. Voters can predict whatever score they want, regardless of whether someone else has already chosen it. All correct (or nearest) votes will go into a draw.

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/game-101-waxworks-introduction/

#retro games #dos games #retro #crpg #adventure #amiga #oldcomputers #8bit #16bit #blog #repost

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luxus4me · 5 years

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Inspired Magazine http://j.mp/2BziGQ7

Fact is- we all need video editing solutions from time to time. The most ideal type to use, however, is a different thing altogether.

You see, there has been an unending debate about paid and free video editors. While most people would overwhelmingly prefer free, it turns out that the real features are hoarded by the paid versions.

Think about it. Although you might be able to mention numerous free options, most of them pretty much end up being useless. They commonly provide very limited features, which are usually incapable of consistently generating decently edited videos.

And right when you assume that you’ve luckily stumbled on a different one with impressive features, you suddenly discover that you’re permanently stuck with watermarks and the likes. Then to make the situation worse, they probably also throw in a couple of annoying ads.

From limited trial periods to incomplete video outputs, you name it- I’ve tried it all out when it comes to free editors. And frankly, I’ve repeatedly given up on finding a solid one on many occasions.

So, I have to admit that I was not really excited about the VSDC Free Video Editor when I came across it. I thought it would end up being the same old tale with a different title. But surprisingly, things turned out contrary to my expectations…

VSDC Free Video Editor Review: Overview

Developed by Flash-Integro LLC, VSDC Free Video Editor is essentially a nonlinear video editing solution for video, audio, and images.

What does this mean?

Well, if you’ve tried out several standard video editors, you must have noticed the same old framework of placing media in a linear pattern for editing. But VSDC, on the other hand, uses a different non-linear approach. You’re allowed to set any combination or sequence as you work on your videos.

For instance, you can put videos directly opposite each other for a side-by-side outlook, or stack one over the other for a picture-in-picture setup. And that’s not all. There are numerous additional parameters you’re allowed to adjust- like media shape and position.

But, here’s the best thing about it. It’s completely free. The system will not lock you out after some time to force an upgrade.

Now, let’s be honest. We’ve seen numerous “free” video editing tools hiding behind that fact only to hit you with a caveat after installation. They usually paste ugly watermarks on your media output to market their brands. Or perhaps force you to install secondary apps they’ve partnered with.

Thankfully, VSDC free video editor doesn’t come with either. It doesn’t announce itself to the world with watermarks or introduce extra applications. You basically get what you see.

And speaking of which, it looks and feels like a genuinely professional tool. The interface is packed with a myriad of editing components that allow you to merge, split, cut, rotate, zoom, crop, and much more. You also get to do things like adding subtitles and shapes, hiding elements, blending, correcting colors, blurring, plus placing Instagram-like filters.

All these are possible on a wide array of video formats and codecs- including mainstream ones like AVI and MP4, plus unconventional versions like SWF and RM. The subsequent output options are also extensive, and you can even choose to produce a DVD video from its disc burner feature.

That said, VSDC is not only about free software. There’s an option of upgrading to a PRO version, which costs $19.99 per year.

But that would only be necessary if you need masking, subpixel accuracy, and video stabilization features, plus hardware acceleration to produce videos much faster. Our principal interest at the moment is the free version.

So, is VSDC free video editing software capable of living up to our expectations? How powerful are its features? And how does it even generate revenue if it’s actually free to use?

Well, let’s find out. This VSDC free video editor review covers all the critical matters- its features, editing tools, monetization model, plus its overall suitability.

VSDC Free Video Editor Review: Features

System Requirements

Admittedly, the biggest problem with video editors is the fact that they all require insanely extensive PC resources to run. You pretty much cannot edit a solid HD video without gaming rig-like PC components.

So, of course, I was extremely curious about the system requirements for VSDC free video editor. And it turns out that the minimum you need to run the software without issues is:

Microsoft DirectX 9.0c or later versions

50 MB disk space for installation

256 MB RAM

1024 × 768 pixels display with 16-bit color

Intel or AMD chipset with a clock rate of at least 1.5 GHz

Windows OS (XP SP3 or later versions)

Now hang on a minute. Does this mean you can edit videos on your old PC? Interestingly, yes- a standard PC can comfortably host and run this software. As a matter of fact, it only takes up 200MB of space in your local disk.

And when it comes operating systems, these are the supported ones:

Windows 10

Windows 8

Windows 7

Windows Vista

Windows XP SP3

Sadly, sorry Mac users. You might have to check later if they’ve released a compatible version. Let’s hope they ultimately do.

As for Windows users, let’s see how it actually performs on your PC…

User Friendliness

Once you run the application, you’ll notice that the primary interface is dark with clear labels on the tools. And to help you get the hang of it all, the system greets you with a pop-up that essentially walks you through the process of opening a new project, starting the editing stage, and exporting a project.

However, you don’t have to go through all that. I found the overall interface surprisingly simple and straightforward.

Starting a project, for instance, is as simple as choosing either screen capture, video capture, import content, create a slideshow, or blank project. You’ll see all these options from a projects tab that kicks in after the pop-up tutorial.

In case you need additional help, you can access the “Get To Know Top Feature” option at the bottom. It contains additional pointers about elements like:

3D pro charts

Multimedia combiner

Waveform

Chroma key

UHD and HD

Blending

Video effects

Now, let’s face it. It might take a beginner some time to get used to everything here. But, I guess that’s something we should expect on a software solution laden with such an array of tools. At least the learning curve is not as steep as we’ve seen with Adobe’s Premiere.

When it comes to the actual editing process, I admit that I haven’t experienced any issue so far. The progress has been smooth all along. However, it’s worth noting that the software’s overall performance depends on your PC’s hardware resources.

The rendering speed, for example, increases slightly as you upgrade the hardware components. It’s not the fastest we’ve seen, but it’s satisfyingly good for a free tool. Only Pro users get optimized speeds thanks to the hardware acceleration feature that VSDC unlocks after an upgrade.

Fortunately, that variation doesn’t affect the video quality at all. I was impressed that the VSDC free video editor can support both HD and UHD output resolutions. In fact, it can produce even H265/HEVC, which is a popular codec that compresses the file size without compromising the quality.

Editing Features

Video Capturing Tool

The video capturing tool connects VSDC with all cameras linked to your computer. You can shoot a video directly through IP cameras and webcams, then save or tweak them with the editor.

Screen Capturing Tool

The screen capturing tool comes in handy when you need to prepare solid video tutorials showing your PC display. It essentially prepares a footage of your activities on the computer monitor. You can then capitalize on the editor to adjust the resultant video accordingly.

DVD Burning Tool

Perhaps you’d like to catch up with your videos on a DVD player. Well, this is basically what you use.

The DVD burning tool allows you to save a DVD version of your video directly to a compatible disc in your PC’s optical drive.

Video Converter Tool

The video converter tool controls the conversion process, allowing you to transform a video file from one format to another. In addition to that, you can use it to merge clips into a single file, or split one into several videos.

Export Video to Social Networks

It goes without saying that YouTube is, by far, the biggest video directory on the web. So, of course, it makes sense to provide a tool that basically connects the app directly with YouTube to help you effortlessly upload a video immediately after editing.

Apart from that, you can also export and publish videos on Vimeo, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Create 3D Charts

VSDC free video editor goes beyond typical video editing to help users enhance their professional presentation videos. You can capitalize on the 3D charts feature to create a funnel, point, pyramid, scatter line, pie stacked bar, general bar, and much more- as part of your final video.

Blending Modes and Instagram-Like Filters

By now, you’ve probably tried out color blending on photos. Well, it turns out that you can also play around with this function as you edit your videos on VSDC. In fact, it also offers effects that are as powerful as Instagram filters- one click alone can adjust the temperature, contrast, or grayscale levels.

Supported Media Formats

The respective formats you can import to edit are:

Image Formats: PNG, BMP, GIF, JPEG, JPG, PSD, CUR, ICO

Audio Formats: MP3, RAM, AC3, CDA, WMA, FLAC, WAV, AIFF, AU, M4A, AAC, RA, CUE, OGG, VOC, MPA, WAV, APE

Video Formats: AVI, HDVideo/AVCHD (TOD, MOD, MTS, M2TS, TS), DVD/VOB, VCD/SVCD, QuickTime (MP4, MOV, 3GP, QT), MKV, Flash Video (FLV, SWF), MPEG, MJPEG, H.264/MPEG-4, XviD, AMV, MTV, Media Video (RM, RMVB), DV, NUT, Windows Media (DVR-MS, WMV, ASF)

Then after editing, you can export them as:

Image Formats: PNG, JPEG, BMP, GIF

Audio Formats: MP3, AAC, WAV, OGG, M4A, AMR

Video Formats: MP4, AVI, DVD, VCD/SVCD, MOV, 3GP, MKV, FLV, SWF, MTV, AMV, WMV, MV4, RM, RMVB

Overall Features

YouTube uploader

Export to social networking sites

Create videos for selected multimedia devices

Video file converter

Shoot videos directly from IP cameras, webcams, and video tuners

Capture PC screen video

Built-in DVD burning capability

Universal format support

4K and HD support

Create charts and diagrams

Color blending and Instagram-like filters

Visual and audio effects

Non-linear video editing

VSDC Pro Tools

Subpixel Accuracy

VSDC Pro employs subpixel accuracy when placing or positioning elements in a video scene. Consequently, the quality of the footage is preserved even after adjusting the angles, skewing, or introducing other visual effects.

Masking

The video editing process occasionally involves eliminating or hiding some objects like watermarks- and VSDC Pro provides a masking feature for precisely that. You can even blur faces to hide the identities of individuals in a video.

Video Stabilization Tool

Have you ever shot a video while moving only to end up with an annoyingly shaky clip? This is particularly common with drones and smartphones.

To help you rectify the problem, VSDC Pro provides a video stabilization tool. It pretty much eliminates the shaking frames to produce a much smoother footage.

Who Should Consider Using VSDC Free Video Editor?

Sadly, most of the free video editing software available on the web provide extremely basic features that would only be ideal for small beginner projects. VSDC Free Video Editor, however, is one of the few ones that provide the entire stack of features without substantial limitations. It’s pretty solid for a tool that won’t ask you to pay anything or embed watermarks on your videos.

That said, anyone can use this software- from beginners to established professionals in the graphic design space. However, I bet the bulk of its user-base is made of people who regularly post videos on social media. They would certainly appreciate a free editor that combines unlimited 4K video editing with social media uploaders.

So, how would you rate this one compared to other free video editors in the market?

header image courtesy of Lily

The post VSDC Free Video Editor Review – Everything You Need to Know appeared first on Inspired Magazine.

http://j.mp/2QJCjzc via Inspired Magazine URL : http://j.mp/2C0op4R

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ralphmorgan-blog1 · 6 years

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The Chrome Extensions We Can’t Live Without

Nearly two-thirds of internet users turn to Chrome for their browsing needs, but far fewer take full advantage of its available extensions, the add-ons that elevate it from good to great. If you're one of those plain vanilla Chrome users—or if you've only dabbled in the extensions game—check out these sprinkles of joy that the WIRED staff swears by.

The following list of Chrome extension recommendations is by no means comprehensive; there are plenty to explore and discover in the Chrome Web Store. (If you go exploring, just make sure you stick with reputable developers.) But these are the ones we depend on every day to keep our internet experience as sane and enjoyable as possible. May they do the same for you.

Wayback Machine

Have you ever clicked on an interesting link, only to be greeted by a 404 Error? Wayback Machine’s Chrome extension can help. Created by the Internet Archive—a nonprofit that preserves billions of web pages—the extension shows you what a website looked like in the past, even if has since been deleted. It can turn up the most recent version of a page it has saved, or go back to the first time the Internet Archive recorded it. That latter can be especially illuminating. For example, you can see what a user’s Twitter account looked like when they created it, or how a company’s website appeared when it first launched. One drawback: Wayback Machine doesn’t have a record of every webpage on the internet. But it can also help you prevent others from vanishing in the future: The extension lets you save the web page you’re currently visiting to the Internet Archive's database. —staff writer Louise Matsakis

The Great Suspender

You'll find many tab management solutions on this list, but the best by far for my purposes is the Great Suspender, an extension which, as the name suggests, suspends any Chrome tabs that you've left fallow for a given amount of time. As someone who keeps well over a dozen tabs open at any given time during the day—and often more—this has been an inestimable boon to my laptop and my sanity. And when it's time to revisit a page, a simple click springs it back to life. It also lets you whitelist any tabs, like Gmail, that are too precious to suspend. —news editor Brian Barrett

PixelBlock

Have I read your email? That’s for me to know and you not to find out. This Chrome extension spots and blocks attempts to track when messages are opened and send that data back to the sender. I know who’s tracking me by the small red eye icon that appears next to messages in Gmail. Sure, I’m not surprised that services like Mailchimp track when messages are opened, but I’m sketched out when professional contacts do the same. — Joanna Pearlstein, deputy editor, newsroom standards

animatedTabs

The best Chrome extensions effortlessly improve our lives in small but impactful ways. And animatedTabs does exactly that. Once installed, the extension will automatically load a random GIF in the center of every new Chrome tab you open. Sound annoying? Come on, people, this is a pure delight. It seems like the GIFs largely source from Reddit’s /r/gifs/, so you mostly get previously undiscovered gems; there's not much crying Jordan, or and shark cat on a Roomba. But what beats new? And all because you opened a tab to finally pay your three months overdue speeding ticket! The only downside to animatedTabs? You never know when it’s going to generate something NSFW or just dumb. But the real internet cred comes from not caring. —staff writer Lily Newman

xTab

Bedeviled by browser-tab clutter? Try xTab. It restricts the number of pages you can have open in a given browser window. Just set your cap and go about your business. When you exceed your limit, the extension gets to culling, automatically axing your oldest, least-accessed, or least-recently-used tab. It can also prevent you from opening excess tabs altogether. I use that last setting the most; I like to do triage myself. Plus, I'm working on killing my reflexive tabbing habit, and being interrupted in the act helps keep my fingers in check. If you've tried other tab managers in the past and found them wanting, this could be your ticket; where most encourage you to cmd-T with abandon, xTab retrains you to curate a more manageable tabscape in real-time. —senior writer Robbie Gonzalez

Go Back With Backspace

In July of 2016, the world changed for the worse. Up until that point, the backspace key on your desktop keyboard doubled as a back button in Chrome. It had been that way since the browser's launch some eight years prior. By mid-2016, this action—a simple keystroke to go back one page in your browser history—had become hardwired in our lizard brains. But Google removed the backspace action that summer, because it caused a particularly Googley problem: People were losing work in web apps. When a user typed into a browser text field and hit the backspace key hoping to correct a typo, they'd sometimes inadvertently cause the browser to jump back one page, nuking whatever efforts they'd spent the last few minutes sweating over. Sure, that's annoying. But imagine the outrage of millions of Chrome users when, upon the next browser update, the backspace key suddenly did nothing. Google had neutered one of the most useful mechanisms for navigating the web. Thankfully, the company recognized our plight and just weeks later released this extension, which restores the back-button functionality of the backspace key. Hallelujah. The preferred keystroke of Alt + left arrow is still the default in Chrome, and maybe you're used to that now. But why force yourself to press two keys when you can install this extension and press only one? —Senior editor Michael Calore

OneTab

You know when you open Chrome and the browser is like, "Are you sure you want to reopen 400 tabs?" (Yes I do, and rude!) Maybe it's a selection of news articles you're planning to read later, or the aftermath of clicking through dozens of Wikipedia pages. Maybe you don't even know what's in all those tabs. Either way, keeping them all open puts a huge strain on your browser. Close them all—without losing them forever—with the handy OneTab extension. One click of the button neatly collates all your open tabs into one list of links that you can revisit later. It saves your computer incredible amounts of RAM, speeds up the browser immediately, and keeps all those links handy for when you're totally, definitely, someday coming back to read them. —senior associate editor Arielle Pardes

HabitLab

My name is Tom and I have a Twitter problem—but I’m getting help from a Chrome extension called HabitLab. Anytime I look at the bird-logoed slot machine of trolling, outrage, and thinkfluencing, there’s now a bold banner at the top counting how long I’ve been on the site that day. If I open a Twitter tab but regain my senses and close it again quickly, a pop-up informs me how many seconds I just saved compared to my usual time-wasting visit. The message comes with a different “Good job!” GIF each time; most recently it was Jimmy Kimmel. HabitLab was developed by Stanford’s Human Computer Interaction group to help those of us suffering internet distraction disorder (most of us?) take control of our online habits. When first installed, it prompts you to identify the sites you want to spend less time on. HabitLab will then keep track of your wasted seconds, minutes, and hours and display them in neat charts. It also offers a menu of “nudges” to help keep those trend lines moving in the right direction. One of them is the timer that now haunts me on Twitter, a nudge called the Supervisor. Others include GateKeeper, which makes you wait a few seconds before loading a page you’ve been trying to give up, and the devilish 1Minute Assassin, which kills a tab after 60 seconds. —senior writer Tom Simonite

Eye Dropper

I am not a designer, and I’m sure that those who are have far better tools for pulling colors off of web pages than Eye Dropper, a mostly, but not always, functional extension that lets you eye-drop any color from around the web and grab its RGB and Hex color codes. It’s particularly handy for quick fixes that don’t necessitate slowing down your computer by opening Photoshop—like, say, updating the text on a WIRED section page to make it more readable. It isn’t the prettiest extension, and it’s all too easy to accidentally trigger the eyedropper if, like me, you’re prone to hitting alt-P instead of command-P when trying to print—but Eye Dropper gets the job done. —digital producer Miranda Katz

Ghostery

If you’ve ever seen a Google ad follow you around the entire web and back, you know just how annoying and invasive online tracking can become. Ghostery is a fascinating way to see which services websites use to track and collect data about you. It creates a little icon with a number, showing you how many trackers every site uses. Wikipedia, for example, has 0. Most other sites have at least a few. You can see what they use to monitor their website traffic and serve ads, then block services that you don’t like. It’s not perfect; sometimes it will break sites you want to visit, and you’ll have to turn it off or pause it, although the latest release uses AI powers to help minimize the collateral damage. —senior writer Jeffrey Van Camp

ProPublica’s What Facebook Thinks You Like

Facebook thinks I like arachnids because my brother writes for a TV show called Scorpion. It thinks I like Christmas Eve because Pearlstein, and it thinks I like flywheels because my late friend Eric Scott was in a band by that name. I know all of this thanks to ProPublica’s cool Facebook Chrome Extension, which helps me see what Facebook thinks about me and then lets me rate how spot-on—or not—the site’s analysis is, using the aptly named Creepy Meter. —J.P.

Pocket

I fly a lot. In the past year, I've taken roughly a dozen round trips, each with their own fun, idiosyncratic layovers and delays. To pass the tarmac time, I could watch a bunch of downloaded episodes of The Crown or The Great British Baking Show. I could read a good ol'-fashioned book. Or I could connect to plane Wi-Fi and incessantly check Twitter. Instead, what I prefer to do before leaving for the airport is save a bunch of stories to Pocket. This nifty extension allows you to stow away things you want to read later, no internet connection necessary (though if you use the Pocket app on your phone, be sure to sync it over Wi-Fi or a network connection before going into Airplane mode). Pocket also recommends stories, based on other users you follow or topics that interest you, and allows you to optimize your reading experience—I prefer a serif font with a black background and very large text to protect my fatigued eyes. But for someone who opens a million tabs with an intention to eventually read them all, it's my preferred way to dog-ear a story. If you want to start saving, here’s a shameless plug to visit WIRED's Backchannel page, chock-full of excellent long-form narratives that will transport you during your disconnected commute. —WIRED.com editor Andrea Valdez

1Password

Getting a password manager extension means getting a password manager, so definitely do that. All the major managers—LastPass, Dashlane, 1Password, KeePass—offer Chrome extensions, and they're crucial to making password managers easy to use. The browser extensions act as a quick control center to fill login forms, generate new passwords, and save new credentials into your manager. And though password managers can work without extensions, switching back and forth to a standalone desktop application can be clunky while you’re browsing online. These extensions do carry some potential security risks, but if they're what get you on a password manager in the first place, they're worth it. —L.M.

Google Calendar

You probably use Google Calendar every day—many, many times. Instead of letting it permanently squat on valuable tab real estate on your desktop, try the Google Calendar Chrome extension instead. It puts a small Calendar icon in the upper right of your browser window, right where you’d expect. Tap it, and a box drops down, showing you all the meetings you have coming up. I like the design because it reminds me of the wonderful Google Cal widget on my Android home screen. It’s just a one-shot view of the meetings and events you have coming up in the next week or two. You can customize which calendars appear, which is also nice, because if you’re like me, you have a ton of them. For more display options—or to get crazy and log in to two Google Calendars at the same time—try the Checker Plus for Google Calendar extension. It’s not official but works well. —J.V.C.

And More

WIRED editor in chief Nicholas Thompson swears by Grammarly, an extension that checks your emails, tweets, Facebook posts, and other online missives for spelling and grammar mistakes. Features editor Mark Robinson recommends Reader View, which he describes as a "one-button, rather lo-fi instant Instapaper," stripping web articles down to the bare essentials. And while senior writer Andy Greenberg has not used it and likely never would, he did find an extension called Kardashian Krypt, which encrypts your messages in images of Kim Kardashian using a technique known as steganography.

The Chrome Zone

Chrome extensions are a delight, but installing them from untrusted sources can lead to a world of hurt. (hurt = malware)

The way Ghostery has evolved ad-blocking with—what else—artificial intelligence is worth a closer look.

In 2016 we took a in-depth look at the 'Department of Chromeland Security'—the Google engineers working overtime to secure the web.