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rottmntsimp · 3 months

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Hello how are you? I hope you're doing good.

If i can request Casey jr x female!human!reader? Platonic, fluff hc.

About reader - who isn't related to turtles or April, you can say they met at school - is begin a sweet person and understanding, when she met CJ she didn't push him to open up and waited for him to be comfortable, she knows a lot about cooking so she's making a lot for Casey and whatever he wants.

Personal chef

Pairing[s]: Casey Jr + Reader A/N: Part 2/2 of the B'Day double upload!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!~

Casey

💖 - Ok, let's say it's about a few months, maybe a year post-movie. Casey's settling into this new life, and is still currently adjusting to his new lifestyle!

💖 - Oh boy. Lowkey, I would expect this kid to be really excited about going to school.

💖 - Meeting kids his age, learning, being out in the public and not having his life in constant danger? Sign him up!

💖 - He's not...the brightest per say, but he's willing to learn! He never had time for a proper education in the apocalypse, and will probably require some heavy tutoring.

💖 - That's where you come in!

💖 - After April's mother so kindly offered to be the one to enroll him, she made sure to include the fact that he may be a bit behind and would probably require some extra classes.

💖 - First day, he was in the principal's office during lunch, waiting for his supposed tutoring buddy. With how he'd seen kids walk in late to class all day, he sort of expected you to walk in late, but to his surprise you were right on time!

💖 - Walking in, you introduced yourself to him, smiling sweetly, a stark contrast from the behavior he's seen in the hallways. Of course he's still on guard, but it's nice to see a green flag every now and again, right?

💖 - Since Casey doesn't really have a "normal" place, and won't open up on where he lives, you guys decide to have your tutoring sessions at your place!

💖 - Imagine his surprise when after each and every session, without fail, you send him off with a treat or two.

💖 - He'll probably put it aside once he gets to the lair, afraid that it might be poisoned or drugged or whatnot, but after seeing Mikey and Leo munch away at them, he starts to warm up to you.

💖 - Before you know it, he might even bring a snack or two himself [either having Mikey bake them, or just buying something off of a street vendor]

💖 - You guys sit next to each other at lunch!!

💖 - If you eat alone during lunch, pray that you're fine with him tagging along, because once he's hooked, he's hooked.

💖 - And if you have any friends, don't feel shy to introduce him to them, he may not open up to them easily, but he's still kind!

💖 - I hope you like to bring snacks to school, because my guy will be hungry during class [What?! I'm not projecting onto him lmao /sarc]

💖 - If you guys get to a point in your friendship where he's really comfortable with you [most likely after years of knowing you], he might introduce you to the others!!

💖 - Speaking of the others, you know for a fact he's ranted about your cooking to Mikey before. Hell, he'll probably act as a little messenger boy while you two swap recipes-

💖 - He loves that you're so patient, and might even feel a little guilty for not opening up that much, but it'll all be worth it, because trust me, you guys are going to be attached to the hip at one point.

💖 - If he ever sees you getting picked on at school, he will sock the person hurting you in the jaw.

💖 - He might be a little over protective, almost like an overbearing father or older brother, but give the kid a break, he survived an apocalypse!

💖 - On the topic of the apocalypse, he might not tell you about the whole time travel thing until years later.

💖 - He half expects you to burst out laughing and call him a madman.

💖 - To say he was surprised when you just sat there, looking so...genuine.

💖 - He couldn't help but warm up inside as you hooked onto every word he said. Listening as he spoke of his sensei and his mother with such genuine interest it made him feel as though he'd lucked out. As though he'd won the friendship lottery.

💖 - At this point you guys have no secrets whatsoever, to the point where you two share passwords for random stuff. Spotify, Gmail, hell even your phones.

💖 - Teach him how to cook, oh please-

💖 - His taste buds were ruined after surviving off of rats for years.

💖 - If you and Mikey ever meet, please band together and show Casey the joys of working in the kitchen.

💖 - He may not be good on his first try [or possibly ever] but you'd be lying if you said it wasn't fun having him around.

💖 - Make sure to introduce him to different cuisines as well!

💖 - Chinese, Mexican, Indian, everything!

💖 - I am a firm believer that Casey will not hate anything till he has tried or seen it at least once.

💖 - Expect him to be a bit sentimental about things.

💖 - Maybe on your friend-aversary, he bakes you a batch of the first treat you made him.

💖 - Or maybe on your birthday he takes you out to the first place you guys hung out!

💖 - And yes, this guy will be your taste tester for everything.

💖 - Although he may not understand the concept of "good food," teach him and he'll learn! Explain to him how to recognize if there's too much salt or too less seasoning, and before you know it-

💖 - ✨Refined taste palette✨ /j

💖 - But yeah, overall, I feel that your friendship would help him grow more as a person. And as soon as he recognizes that, he'll make sure to shower you with appreciation <3

Taglist:

@lemme-be-cringe-damnit @sleepytime-fics @ray-of-midnight-storm @hamthepan @charismakat @flapajacker

#rottmnt x reader #rottmnt casey junior x reader #casey junior x reader #rise casey jr #CJ #casey junior #rottmnt casey #tmnt x reader #tmnt 2018 x reader #rise casey x reader #simps fics

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ecoamerica · 23 days

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youtube

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

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symptoms-syndrome · 11 months

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7, 17, 25, 28

7 answered 💚

17. If you could tell someone questioning whether they have DID/OSDD one thing, what would it be?

This is gonna sound dismissive, but like. Don't worry about it man.

Either you do or you don't but thinking about it too hard isn't gonna change anything, and I think that worrying about it too hard might make you fixate on things. Like, you'll be looking for evidence for or against and you're gonna find ways to fit all sorts of irrelevant stuff into either category. Had a hot dog yesterday and liked it, but today you think it tastes a little weird? Put it in the "maybe a part thing" bucket. Remember what you had for lunch last week? Put it in the "don't have it" bucket. That kind of thing, it'll just trip you up.

Like. Think about why you think you might, sure. But rather than "do I have [thing]" in general I think it's best to ask like. Why is it bothering you? Are there things you can do for that?

Like. I've got shit memory right. I had shit memory before I got my diagnosis and I've still got it. So I use a calendar on my phone, as soon as I hear about anything that I want to go to or need to do, I put it right in there so I don't forget about it. What if I woke up tomorrow and my therapist called and was like "JK man, u just have ADHD." My calendar wouldn't like. Explode. It would still be helpful n everything. And that applies to like a lottt of coping skills and strats and stuff. Most stuff that happens with DID happens with other stuff too, sometimes in diff ways but like. A lot of the time the coping skills are the same. DID doesn't exist in a weird little mental illness fortified palace separate from everything else like some people act like it does.

25. What is a piece of misinformation about DID/OSDD do you want to clear up?

I already answered this one but I'm answering it again bc I have a diff lil piece of misinfo.

If you have DID/OSDD, you don't have to be plural.

Not in the sense of you don't have parts. But in the sense that you don't necessarily need to treat your parts/system the same way others may treat theirs. You don't need to "come out" about it, or communicate to other people who's fronting, or drastically change your lifestyle.

I think that this is part of what makes people so weird about DID/OSDD, the idea that it gives you permission to live a Plural Lifestyle because DID/OSDD is associated with automatically enrolling you in the Plural Lifestyle.

There's nothing inherently wrong with not being open about having a deeply stigmatized disorder. You don't need to "fight stigma" or "be visible" and it's not like being in the closet about being gay or trans (though you don't need to come out about either of those either, but that's a different topic.) You aren't betraying your community or a victim of internalized ableism or anything like that for not wanting to be open about your DID and/or not wanting to communicate to others about your parts. Doubly so for things like work or school.

Being open about it/telling people about it also doesn't have to be a black and white thing. You can tell some people but not others. You can be open about parts fronting some times or places but not others. You can tell some people some things but not everything. That's all fine. I have like two friends (outside of my DID-sphere) who know about some of my parts by name, about a dozen who just know I have DID with no further details. And that's fine with me. Even the friends who know some parts by name I don't tell who's fronting all the time.

I think some people think you need to be super consistent across the board or you're "not being true to yourself" or "hiding parts of you" or "ashamed of your identity" or something. Which is not true.

Also conversely, I think that similarly to what I said the last time about misinfo, if seeing yourself in parts helps you somehow I think that's fine. Or if you have an imaginary friend or daydream or whatever else. Embrace non-normativity even if it isn't disordered.

28. Have you met other people with DID/OSDD irl/online? What was it like?

IRL once I went to a conference to give a talk about racism and DID and it was a real mixed bag. It felt like everyone there was either 20s or 40+. I felt more at home with the 40+ crowd because the 20s crowd was very? Plural in a way that I am not and don't feel comfortable being. One of them loudly announced that everyone at the table was plural in like a Starbucks and that made me feel like I was going to die. The older folks were incredible though, very kind and it was nice chatting about our experiences and what things we had in common or didn't.

Also once at a different conference (also about race, but this time about race and disability) I met someone (a like, ~50 year old Asian lady) who shared that she had OSDD in a private moment and I shared that I had DID. It was interesting to talk to her as well.

Plus some various. Weird experiences with other people. Including someone who said I was pluralphobic for not letting them join a group for POC when they are white w an alter that looks Asian. LMAO.

I'm also...vaguely aware of some people in my area who keep being very weird about hosting events for plurals. Which. Whatever do your thing I guess. Just not for me and not when they're being weird about it.

Online. 95% negative experiences but 5% positive! When I was first diagnosed I tried finding online groups but they all sucked TBH, full of drama and teenagers and weird expectations on how I should behave and how much I need to share/know. It made me feel overwhelmed and confused because I didn't fit in. But now I've found my little group of people who I feel like I vibe with and who understand each other.

Also there's like. A few weird experiences I've had on dating apps of all places.

#asks #this was written in two parts days apart hope its coherent

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sweetuality · 3 years

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EPILOGUE (pt. 2)

SIMON

Lady Ruth has practically dragged us inside and into our room, "Simon! Baz! Get comfortable and settle in. I'll be downstairs making you boys some snacks."

She patted my arm, "We can all watch Mr. Bean later. Oh! Jamie loves it. He'll be back from work in an hour."

If she could, she would have hopped her way out, but I think her age can't keep up with her energized personality.

She has been like this ever since she believes that her family got reunited. Happy-go-lucky aura seeps out of her like my magic used to from my body. Like sparks from the skin pores.

I think it's something in our family after all.

I always feel like an outsider inside this house. The walls, the furniture, the rug on the floor are too expensive for me to feel a part of it. But Baz seems like he was born here.

He's wearing a three pieces suit (again) today. A shade of grey that gleams silver in the light and a black button-down with the collar buttons open. His shirt color matches his hair and he looks like he's one of the antiques decorated in this room.

He made sure I don't feel left out in his fashion ramp-walk show and dressed me up in his light blue jumper and white trousers with white lace-up shoes. He cast "Like a glove!" on the jumper and now my red wings stand out quite a contract to the rest of my (his) clothes.

"Do you think Lady Salisbury knows who I am actually?" Baz walks over to me and wraps his arms around my waist.

I place my own hands on his shoulder. "You mean vampire? No. I don't think so." I don't think Lady Ruth would care though. All she cares about is how much of a gentleman Baz is.

"I meant your boyfriend." He narrows his eyes as if it's my fault he has so many secrets and I should be knowing which of them he is referring to.

I lean in to rub my nose on his cheeks. Smells of cold water. "Maybe? Maybe not?"

"Snow, will you tell her if she ever asks?" He has my tail in his hand, rubbing it between his fingers.

Will I? Probably.

Baz is kind of an award for me. A medal. A treasure. Being with him is good for my status. If I could I would have flaunted him to the entire world.

"I will, babe." I kiss him because I'm a fool and I can't resist him.

SIMON

Baz and Lady Ruth- she wants me to call her "Gran" but I'm still hesitant (maybe one day I will. I just need some time to get used to all this. To believe all this is true.) are still at the living room watching Mr. Bean and I'm at kitchen trying to find a can of cider. Jamie hasn't yet come back home from work, we saved him some egg and cress.

My phone rang in the back of my pocket. (Jamie has gifted me this new phone on my birthday. I'm so not used to this. I miss my old phone, it was fine for me. Just needed to replace the battery.)

"Penny?" I answered the phone.

"Simon Snow Salisbury! Do you even have time for me?" Her voice was half sarcasm and full anger.

Ever since she started dating Shepard, Penny and I have had less time for each other. Is this what people do? Outgrow their friendships?

She went to America with him without telling anybody. I was so mad at her. But then she got mad at me for not telling her about my family. And then we kind of nullified each other's anger.

Shepherd moved in with Penny and now he's a part-time journalist. I think he got enrolled in Penny's uni too but I'm not sure. Professor Bunce loves him and Headmistress Bunce hates him as much. And between all chaos Penny, herself hardly has any time left to catch up with me. I wanted to tell her that, but I don't want to get shouted at.

"I have all the time for you Penny. What's up?" I grab the cider can and walk out of the kitchen. I see Baz looking at me when I walk into the living room and I point him I'll be at our room.

"I was hoping we all could meet. I called Agatha too. She's busy with Niamh and doesn't wanna leave the goats alone. I guess she'll spend her Christmas with her girlfriend. But you two! I'll murder you two if you don't come."

Agatha and Niamh are the talks of the mages now. They both are taking care of the goats and a lot of people think that's what restored the peace at Watford.

Baz can't stop laughing at the irony of how Agatha and I had different preferences.

I took the stairs and walked inside our room, closing the doors behind. The room was dark, with only outside street light coming through the window to illuminate the room faintly.

"Just tell us when and where and we'll come."

I sat on the bed, taking a sip of the cider.

"Tomorrow, at my house. Shep is also going. Dad says he wants to chit-chat with him. Mum is at school so it isn't a worry. Did you know the veil lifted and my aunt visited her again to tell her not to look for her books? I think my mum will look for the books just to provoke her. Circe, I've got so much to tell you. Let's all meet! I've also got something important to announce."

"Don't tell me you're pregnant Penny!" I say, only half-joking. Penny's parents already had her when they were her age. So who knows?

"No, Merlin!" She screams so loud I had to pull away the phone to save my ears. I could hear the distant giggling of Shepard. "Just come tomorrow by the evening okay? You'll find out."

"Sure, Penny." She ends the call and I laugh. I'm happy for her. She found someone who looks at her like she's made of magic. Which is true either way.

I place the cider on the bedside table and plops on the bed. The room makes me feel like an outsider. But it also feels like it's welcoming me. A part of me feels like it missed being here all this time. Sometimes it actually feels like I belong here. Maybe I do.

I close my eyes, feeling sleepy.

Suddenly it's so cold. I shiver, bringing my wings around me to stay warm but it feels like the cold breeze is inside me. Like my blood is freezing up. My wings envelopes me tightly as a response but it feels more claustrophobic than comforting. Turning around in bed I feel my tail whipping around too. It gets so much cold so suddenly that I feel like I'm having all my nerves in my body breakdown. It's hard to open my eyes too. My lips quiver. I can't speak. I'm freezing. I'm solidifying.

"My rosebud boy." The voice echoes within me.

Rosebud boy? Natasha Grimm Pitch?

"My rosebud boy," The voice is crying, "I'm happy you're finally home."

I can't breathe. I can't open my eyes. I'm crying.

"I'm happy you're safe." I can feel the voice. It resonates within me. I had heard it before. "Simon..."

I open my eyes, tears involuntarily rolling down my cheeks. My whole body is frozen solid. And then I see her.

Golden hair and a face I recognize. Lucy. Mom?

Her hands are stretched out to touch my face but I really can't see her hand. It's like she's a streak of light. And within the light, I could hardly see the features of her face that looks so much like mine.

"We were so happy to have you, Simon. You make me so proud." She's not speaking, but I can hear her voice inside my head. My head thumps with each word. "I'm sorry I couldn't protect you. I'm sorry I left you."

She's vanishing. The light is fading. I want to call out. Mom!

"I love you so much," She's leaving. No! "my rosebud boy..."

"Mom!" I found my voice hoarse and scratching down my throat harshly. I think I saw her smiling sadly before the room is back in its darkness. The coldness fades away as abruptly as it came.

But I can't stop shaking. My wings are flapping violently behind me and I'm sure I'll knock something over with my tail. I sit up, curling my knees to my chest to calm down. Mom... Lucy... She had visited me before. She came back...

#simon snow #snowbaz #basilton pitch #fanfic #carry on #wayward son #awtwb spoilers #any way the wind blows #rainbow rowell

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dreamsister81 · 3 years

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Jeff and MI:

By age, you fit in the G.I.T generation, but you obviously are not one of them...

These facilities are a mystery to me. There they tell you only one thing: hurry up! This leads you nowhere, afterwards your own children run away from you. Through these trainings you get to know women, you get to know men, music is inoculated into people who have no feeling for it; then they can only scare other people or insult them...

I was in this terrible place too, by the way-G.I.T That was a complete waste of time, apart from the theoretical lessons and the friends that I had there. Otherwise: an absolute wrong decision.

How long have you studied there?

One year, the normal program. They give you tons of material, you have to absorb everything, you practice, you are tested and you go to the next course. An intensive support with development is simply not possible. I did so many things: theory, single string technique, jazz class, rock class, all sorts of genres. My friend John was teaching bass there, and he once said that there is not a single teacher at the institute who says to the students, "OK, you're learning all this stuff here now, you're learning how to entertain people and you're learning to learn. But do you even know that there is no one in the universe other than yourself who plays the music you play? " John left the school then. For me it was all a joke that cost me $ 3,900. People interested in music should take private lessons somewhere, start a band, do something with people who like them and have what it takes. These schools are a scene in their own right, a very small, secluded world-the music, on the other hand, is gigantic and open. If you don't notice it, you miss a lot of magic, pain, development...(thinks) and rock! Apart from Paul Gilbert, there was no one there who really rocked. Session musicians are bred there; and at the end of the year you get a piece of paper that says, "Now you have the skills to become a professional musician." Well, congratulations! And then you look for jobs and play what other people want. But that's not all the music, there's something else isn't there? Where's the music coming from? From your own head or stomach, or the concepts of the people you work for?-Gitarre & Bass, October, 1995

I had a friend named John Humphrey. I went to this really crappy guitar school for a year, and he used to teach there, he was a bass teacher. And then he left, and we ended up being roommates later on, after I graduated. This is the kind of school where you give them a shitload of money in order to spend a year learning their curriculum.

What was it, G.I.T. (Guitar Institute of Technology in Los Angeles)?

Yeah, it was G.I.T.. They give you their curriculum, and it's not too comprehensive, but it's just enough, and then you can [snaps his fingers] move on to the next thing. And pretty soon you have all this shit inside you and then they give you this paper that says you have what it takes to be a professional musician.

It's a rock-oriented thing, isn't it?

In the end, I think, the only true product of that kind of learning is to get you gigs on the studio circuit and to get you gigs on the session guy circuit.

So, Lee Ritenour went there or something?

G.I.T. was started by Howard Roberts, the guy who played the wah-wah guitar on the theme to Shaft. And this other guy named Pat Hayes. I don't know. It just seemed like a racket, really. John said a lot of things to me that stuck in my mind. He said that there was nobody who stopped you, sat you in a room and said, okay, we have all these artists that you're learning the licks from, you have your guitar heroes, your virtuoso lust objects. But there's nobody who can make the kind of music you can make now except for you. And you can make it now. You don't even have to know how to go fast. And that makes all the sense to me in the world. It's also kind of an unseen process, that concept, originality. It's like that in all the education systems; there's never any real...identity education, self-generative identity art sort of thing, to be yourself. If everybody in Melbourne had a Wurlitzer organ and had the passion to sing something or make something, you'd have hundreds of thousands of different styles, if they were coming exactly from only their DNA, only their makeup, and their emotional percepts, their idea about what art is. You could have way-removed genres from what is already accepted, avante-garde country-rock-punk-folk-whatever. It's unlimited. But for some reason, the conventions always take over and there's a very ready and powerful formula to step into...

Those are the type of [formula-derived] players who can say, "Well, I was listening to the radio in 1967 and I heard the guitar solo in Jimi Hendrix's 'All Along the Watchtower,' and that guitar sound, that tone, would work perfectly for this television commercial."

Yeah. See? "Stealing from the greats, that's okay." That's right. Once I stopped in [at G.I.T.] years later, when I was on tour going through L.A., just to see what it was like. They've got a completely high-tech, multi-million dollar facility...

More so than when you had been there?

Way more. When I was there, it was just a ragtag bunch of teachers, and they had all left by then. They had video facilities and a class for stage moves and all kinds of things. And I saw this guy who was working the desk, the guy who watches the door. He had a bass on, and he was practicing his Nirvana chops! He was playing "In Bloom" on his bass, way up on his chest, jazz-fusion style, to the Nirvana song. I thought, oh shit--he was practicing his grunge riffs! He was getting his grunge down! Best fucking thing you can do, if you have the interest, is go to a private teacher, go someplace, some college, and learn theory. That was something I really enjoyed, actually, something that wasn't totally pointless. Theory meaning the meaning of the musical nomenclature. I was attracted to really interesting harmonies, stuff that I would hear in Ravel, Ellington, Bartok.-Double Take, February 29, 1996

Once the site of a seakeasy and a bra factory, the 30,000-square-foot quarters were now the home of Musicians Institute, a vocational school for anyone who considered himself or herself a serious musician. With its wooden desks and chipped-tile hallways, MI resembled any other urban school, but at those desks, student guitarists and drummers studied scales and power chords in hopes of becoming the next Eddie Van Halen or Neil Peart, the flashy drummer with Rush. On their way to class each morning, flaxen-haired guitar gods in training could be spotted holding their guitars and practicing licks as they walked down Hollywood Boulevard.

Jeff had heard about Musicians Institute (and its subdivision, the Guitar Institute of Technology) while in high school and told everyone it was his one and only destination. However, potential superstardom did not run cheap. The school charged $4,000 for its one year course, and by the time Jeff Graduated from Loara High School, Mary Guibert was beginning to fall on hard financial times as she went in and out of jobs. In need of money for herself and her two sons, she prematurely broke into a $20,000 fund earmarked for Jeff, but only after he tured nineteen. Once Mary proved to the courtsthat Jeff needed it for his education, he and Mary received it a year early. In a deep irony, the father Jeff had barely met and increasingly resented would be paying his son's way through music school.

On graduation night, September 15, 1985, at the Odyssey in Granada Hills in the San Fernando Valley, Jeff, Stoll, and Marryatt closed the ceremony by playing Weather Report's "Pearl On the Half Shell."-from Dream Brother

With its 30-odd thousand feet of floor space and row upon row of "labs", where hopeful guitar heroes could jam with such shit-hot players as Scott Henderson, LA's Musician's Institute must have seemed like nirvana for someone like Jeff Buckley, trapped as he was behind the Orange Curtain. According to his buddy Chris Dowd, that's exactly why Buckley enrolled there, arriving just before autumn, 1984, bankrolled by $4,000 that Mary managed to squeeze from a Tim Buckley trust fund.

Originally known as the Guitar Institute, which in itself says plenty, the school was opened in 1977. Drawing on the educational philosophy of journeyman guitarist Howard Roberts, it was co-founded and managed by Los Angeles music businessman Pat Hicks, "a real shyster opportunist", in the words of Tom Chang, an expat Canadian who would become very tight with Jeff Buckley during their two years at the Institute. In 1978, thr Bass Institute was opened, followed by the Percussion Institute two years later. Desppite Hicks' questionable business ethics-amongst other things, he'd hire students as cheap labour to do essential maintenance work on the building, which led to Buckley being hired as an electrician's assistant soon after graduating-he did manage to persuade well regarded players and bands to lecture, and play alongside, the hopefuls who'd enrolled there.

What Buckley lacked up in "front" he clearly made up for in ambition. That was proved, in spades, by Buckley's graduation performance which was played out on September 15, 1985, at a venue called the Odyssey in Granada Hills. While the sonic crush and enviable chops of Rush and Led Zeppelin still rocked the world of this Orange County teen, Buckley had also developed a real taste for such "noodlers" as Weather Report.

The number chosen by Buckley for graduation was their "D Flat Waltz" (not "Pearl On The Half-Shell", as documented elsewhere, which they'd performed at a previous event), a typically complicated few minutes of Weather Report neo-fusion-a "really cool piece, very involved", according to Tom Chang-and a standout from their 1983 set Domino Theory. But Buckley, accompanied by Stoll on drums and Marryatt on bass, didn't just play the piece, he also wrote the individual parts out beforehand for the band.-from A Pure Drop

MI pics by me

#jeff buckley #MI #Musicians Institute #GIT #mylove #supremebeing #favorite #music #jeff places

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supernaturalnovelsandmore · 3 years

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Supernatural Novel: Heart of the Dragon

Welcome to my not-quite review of the fourth Supernatural novel, Heart of the Dragon.

Author: Keith R.A. DeCandido

Timeline: Set after Episode 5.08 Changing Channels

Location: San Francisco, California (Chinatown)

Synopsis: An old foe has come back to terrorize San Francisco, but what is the connection between the Campbells, John Winchester and Sam and Dean? Read to find out!

Warning: Spoilers abound!

Oh, where do I start? Heart of the Dragon has a very different feel to it, one that I'm not entirely on board with. Basically, it's a flashback book that spends the first third on Samuel, Deanna, and Mary Campbell, the second third on John Winchester and the last quarter on Sam and Dean. In fact, out of 28 chapters, Sam and Dean were only featured in about 7 of them. It leaves the book feeling hollow and me, a little meh. But, there are some additional insights into the Winchester family history which I'll try and parse out.

One more thought, I'm glad this is the last book from this particular author. Once again he has utilized a culture/race to tell the story, and not well. When the story is in 1969, he utilizes the world Orientals to explain Japanese and Chinese characters. He might have been trying to use the wording of the day, and that's fine if it's in dialogue, but to use it as a descriptor is problematic, at best. He also plays up multiple stereotypes from the Chinese mob to the Japanese Samurai. I'm hoping this book is the Route 666 of the novels and that they can only get better.

I decided to sort my thoughts within the different timelines, so here we go:

1969: Samuel, Deanna, and Mary Campbell

We open with the family hunting a vampire and Samuel using 15-year-old Mary as willing bait. It turns out to be a nest, but they quickly dispatch them without casualties. Deanna appears to be quite the hunter in her own right (her skill with a Claymore outstanding.) Within this hunt we learn a few things about Mary and the Campbell family.

The Campbells have a strong link to their Scottish heritage.

Samuel hates Christmas

Mary is willful, annoying, and disrespectful, but an amazing hunter who was raised practically from birth to how to hunt and defend herself. (Sam parallels, perhaps?)

Mary learned about monsters at 11 when she saw her parents dispatch an avenging spirit.

Samuel hates the idea of Mary hanging out with any boys, though she has a particular fondness for a John Winchester who works as a local auto-mechanic.

Samuel owns a dry-cleaning business and Deanna substitute teaches to help maintain some kind of income.

Mary often wondered about having a normal life, but would dismiss it knowing she couldn't have that and still know monsters are out there. (Seems like a combination of Sam and Dean here).

Other than that, the hunt they go to San Francisco for seems fairly perfunctory. They do a bunch of research, talk to a few locals. Samuel dons his FBI agent schtick, they locate the source of the problem, and quickly dispatch it. There's nothing too dramatic there, just a lot of backstory.

1989: John Winchester

There's a bit more insight here because now we're getting some insight into Dad John, as well as 6-year-old Sam and 10-year-old Dean. I'll touch on a few points.

Leaving his boys with others: We open with John returning to his kids whom he left at Bobby's while he took care of a hunt. He left them long enough that they were enrolled in school and he planned on keeping them there for the fall semester. He felt bad about using Bobby's hospitality for so long.

Training his boys: "John knew his boys would need to be able to defend themselves against whatever was out there - he'd already started that process with Dean... Dean was a crack shot with John's M1911 and could load the shotgun with iron rounds and fire them off in one smooth motion. Eventually he'd need to train Sammy too. But not yet."

Loving his boys: When he arrives at Bobby's, Sam runs out to meet him and wraps his arms around John's legs as he walks in. Sam also tattles on Dean for eating the last donut.

There are also some fun moments between young Sam and Dean, mostly sibling bickering.

Dean and Sam enjoy playing hide-and-seek among Bobby's car on the weekends and Sam enjoys going to school during the week. Dean, not so much.

Sam proudly shares that he's doing 3rd grade work in 1st grade and then teases Dean about also doing 3rd grade work even though he's in 5th grade (Dean then sticks his tongue out at Sam and says "Screw you, Sammy.") At this John calls them out and both boys are chagrined.

Later on, when John calls Bobby for more information, we find Dean holding a pen out of Sam's reach and teasing him with it.

Of course, that call means we also get this heartbreaking line moment from Dean, who wants to talk to his Dad, but can't before John hangs up. Bobby tries to explain: "'Sorry, Dean, he, uh, was on his way out the door. But he told me to tell you both to behave yourselves and do what I tell you. And that he loves you.' Dean: 'Did he really say that?'"

When Bobby presents the next case, John is torn between wanting to spend time with his kids, but going after something that could cause people to burn spontaneously, in the hopes that it might lead him to the demon who killed Mary. I think the book did a good job of capturing John's struggle between revenge and caring for his boys. He's not the abusive, neglectful father people tend to think he is. He's someone struggling to make things right.

"John didn't answer at first. Instead, he looked over at Sam and Dean in the dining room, playing that oh-so-common game of 'I touched you last.'

Christmas was coming up and he did want to spend it with the boys..."

Finally, when John returns and Bobby and the boys meet him at the airport, we get some additional insight into 10-year-old Dean's thoughts regarding his father and his place in the family.

"Waiting there in the airport, he understood how important it was for Dad to be away so much - more than Sammy ever could. Sammy hadn't really known Mom, since he was just a baby when she died. Dean couldn't imagine that his baby brother would ever truly understand what had happened to her.

If he was honest with himself, he didn't really understand it, either. There were some days - though he'd never admit this to anyone - when he couldn't even remember what she looked like.

Some kind of monster had killed Mom, and Dad wouldn't rest until he found that monster and killed it. Along the way, he'd kill any other monsters who tried to kill other people's moms...

Dad still fought the bad guys and saved people, but he also cared about his sons.

Because Dad was a hero, and that was what heroes did."

2009 - Sam and Dean

There isn't much to write about here, because they weren't featured in the book. I will just add a couple of notes.

Dean recognizes Samuel Campbell in a newspaper article about the killings. (He'd already been sent back in time and met his grandfather).

It's seems reasonable to Sam that Mary and her parents were hunters. What freaks him out is that he and Dean were named after their grandparents and John never told them.

Sam's been a nerd about the American Interstate system since he was 10 and loved poring over maps.

Sam feels more guilt from trusting Ruby over Dean than starting the apocalypse.

Final notes:

This book introduces Castiel who brings the case to the boys attention. We get the same stuff in here that you see on screen, he has issues with personal space, comes and goes at will, and Bobby's still mad at him for not being able to heal his paralysis. He's only there for a few pages, and then disappears again.

Bobby gets a bit more screen time, as a pseudo-dad to young Sam and Dean, and later as their resource when researching the case and it's history. Favorite quote: "As he went into the fridge for butter to spread onto the pan, Bobby decided it was the entire Winchester family that was making him bald."

We briefly get Hurt Sam who is punched repeatedly by a hulk of a man, but with no lasting consequences and very little caring Dean.

We find out at the end that Zachariah orchestrated the whole thing by planting the idea in Castiel's head.

So, like I said at the beginning, not my favorite, but hopefully I was able to share some of the more interesting parts. Read at your own risk!

#Supernatural #Supernatural Novels #Supernatural Books #SPN Novels #Sam Winchester #Dean Winchester #Bobby Singer #Castiel #Heart of the Dragon

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tabloidtoc · 3 years

Text

National Enquirer, April 19

You can buy a copy of this issue for your very own at my eBay store: https://www.ebay.com/str/bradentonbooks

Cover

Page 2: Michael Douglas' short-term memory loss and frail frame have wife Catherine Zeta-Jones fearing for her older husband's well-being -- Michael once declared he'd beaten oral cancer, but harsh chemotherapy and radiation treatments have left him a shell of his former self and he has even admitted to suffering memory problems -- he was also affected by the 2020 death of his father Kirk Douglas and he hasn't been the same since his dad died -- this is a guy who cheated death with a horrific cancer ordeal, and he's had other medical issues over the years and some serious domestic dramas that have taken their toll -- Catherine always knew that their age difference would mean her taking care of him one day but she didn't expect it to be so soon

Page 3: Reese Witherspoon has ditched her wedding ring during recent outings, sparking rumors her marriage to Jim Toth is on the ropes but she feels their relationship isn't down for the count and refuses to give up the fight to keep their family together but they may not make it -- the desire to make things work is still there on both sides and they've been able to pull it all together all these years, even with personalities as different as theirs mainly for the sake of their family and they got on each other's nerves while cooped up together during the pandemic, but they don't bicker in public and that's one thing they have going for them

Page 4: Ryan Seacrest creeped out his pals when he gushed over Maria Menounos when she sat in for Kelly Ripa on Live recently -- Ryan thinks Maria is the smartest, most talented and beautiful woman to walk the planet and he can't help but swoon over her but Ryan understands Maria is happily married to TV writer and producer Keven Underago and he'd never cross the line and he doesn't want to date Maria, but he makes no secret he'd be dancing on air to have someone like her, which is kind of creepy, but he can't help it -- Ryan would never make moves on someone else's girl, but he does try to imitate her husband Keven's qualities like how funny and creative and sensible he is and Ryan adores Kelly and thinks she's great but he wouldn't mind if she takes more time off just so he can gaze at Maria

* Miley Cyrus' recent boozy night out with party pals, including British punk rocker Yungblud, has loved ones fearing she's slipping back into dangerous territory -- she was spotted at Hollywood's famous Rainbow Bar & Grill, drinking shots and beer chasers, just months after she admitted to her struggles with addiction and after fellow addiction-challenged singer Demi Lovato announced she was California sober, claiming she was safely able to drink in moderation, Miley didn't see any reason why she couldn't do the same -- her family and sober friends are deeply concerned for Miley's well-being and are begging her to stop drinking now

Page 5: Newly robust Celine Dion has her health back on track following a dangerous few years where she looked like a walking skeleton -- she has beefed up her wraith-like frame by making healthier choices during lockdown -- she went through a rough time of transition after husband Rene Angelil's death and lost a lot of weight, but lockdown has given her a chance to rest and focus on taking care of herself and now she looks 15 to 20 pounds heavier and seems in good spirits and is looking forward to rebooting her Courage World Tour when the pandemic ends

Page 6: Fitness fanatic Tim McGraw is a changed man since he kicked the bottle in 2008, but he's now hooked on working out and sculpting the perfect bod and he's publicly admitted exercise is what gets him flying high but his quest to get ripped to the max is now a 24/7 obsession and he spends hours in the gym and he's already flexing a muscular body most men would die for, but he doesn't want to stop until he's an Adonis and he works out twice or three times a day and packs his diet with energy-boosting smoothies and veggie juices and some might say he's going overboard with the workouts, but Tim craves those feel-good endorphins and he considers his workouts to be fun -- he loves the way he looks and thinks he can do better and he does spend a lot of time in front of the mirror admiring himself and tends to wear tight T-shirts that show off his pecs and six-pack abs, and wife Faith Hill loves the results -- a lot of people say he's traded one addiction for another

Page 7: Nearly six years after their bitter divorce, Miranda Lambert has finally extended an olive branch to ex-husband Blake Shelton, but she's still pretty envious over his professional success with fiancee Gwen Stefani -- last year, Blake and Gwen took home the collaborative video prize at the Country Music Television Awards for their duet Nobody but You, and also scored a Top Ten hit with their single Happy Anywhere and it makes Miranda jealous to see Blake making hay on the charts with Gwen but their success also made Miranda recall Over You, her hit collaboration with Blake, which won Song of the Year at the 2012 Country Music Association Awards and during a recent interview, Miranda affectionately blew kisses toward the camera as she recounted how her ballad with Blake was inspired by his grief over the loss of his older brother; still, Miranda also harbors a competitive streak and said she's angling to transform herself and husband Brendan McLoughlin into entertainment movers and shakers just like Blake and Gwen -- Miranda plans to enroll Brendan in acting school and Miranda wants them to act together and they are looking for scripts to make a television movie and even planning to launch a production company in Nashville and Miranda recognizes the musical chemistry Blake and Gwen share, and she believes she and Brendan can match that success on-screen -- meanwhile, as Blake and Gwen prepare to wed, Miranda is finally in a place where she can wish them well and Miranda carried a lot of animosity toward Blake and Gwen, especially since she suspected they started something before she and Blake split up, but she's very happy with Brendan so maybe all that pain she and Blake went through in ending their marriage was for the best

* Reba McEntire is reaching out to save her friend and former daughter-in-law Kelly Clarkson from suffering through a divorce that eerily mirrors Reba's own breakup -- Kelly split from husband and manager Brandon Blackstock in June 2020, and the divorce battle has them fighting over custody of their two kids as well as Brandon suing her for $1.4 million in unpaid commissions, but Reba has seen this before: Brandon's dad, Narvel Blackstock, dumped her in 2015 after 26 years of marriage, and despite initially agreeing to continue as her manager, dumped her as a client weeks later and Reba knows all too well how petty and conniving Narvel and Brandon can be, and her heart goes out to Kelly -- Kelly admits to Reba there are times when she just wants to run away and hide and Reba tells her to run away to me and it means the world to Kelly to have Reba in her corner -- Narvel and son Brandon head Starstruck Entertainment and are adamant that Kelly owes them big bucks for helping her land both her talk show and a coaching spot on The Voice, but with Reba's help, Kelly is fighting back and Reba learned the hard way the pitfalls of mixing business with family life and she's trying to help Kelly because she hates to see another woman suffer at the hands of a Blackstock

Page 8: Sicko Jeffrey Epstein has been accused of a horrific new litany of abuse by a woman who claims he forced her into unwanted genital surgery, raped her in front of her child and threatened to feed her to alligators -- the woman, identified in court papers as Jane Doe, is suing the late pervert's estate, claiming he and his alleged madam Ghislaine Maxwell, groomed her for their sordid pleasure -- in the suit, she claims Epstein drove her to pick up her 8-year-old son and took them to a lake, where he threatened to feed her to alligators, as had happened to other girls in the past, if she dared to squeal on him -- at the time, the woman said she was 26, but she looked much younger and Epstein told her to say she was 17 and he also arranged for a man with a Russian accent to perform an unnecessary vaginal surgery to pass her off as a virgin to a client and this violent and illegal procedure was botched, leaving her mutilated, in pain, disabled, and permanently sexually dysfunctional

Page 9: Ghislaine Maxwell has been slapped with yet another sex trafficking charge and it's got her former pal Prince Andrew sweating bullets -- the new indictment details how Jeffrey Epstein's alleged madam reportedly groomed a 14-year-old for him, but crucially for Andrew, it expands the time frame of Ghislaine's alleged crimes from 1994 to 2004, a span that includes her meeting the British royal in 1999 and then introducing him to Epstein and that time frame also includes the period in which "sex slave" Virginia Roberts Giuffre claims she slept with Andrew three times, charges he's denied -- the new charge also opens the floodgates on other celebrities, politicians and high-profile figures who were in Epstein's orbit at the time and the new indictment widens the pool for Ghislaine and her defense attorneys because who wouldn't want to bring down all of these fat cats and who wouldn't be that desperate?

Page 10: Hot Shots -- Rumer Willis got to the root of her gardening needs in L.A., Michael B. Jordan and Chante Adams got cozy as they shared a snack while shooting Journal for Jordan in NYC's Central Park, Heidi Klum in L.A., Mario Lopez tossed the ceremonial first dice roll at the opening of the Mohegan Sun Casino in Las Vegas, Christopher Meloni shot his onscreen spouse's funeral scene for Law & Order: Organized Crime

Page 11: Tony Bennett has a secret weapon in his fight against Alzheimer's disease: his close pal and collaborator Lady Gaga -- Susan Crow Benedetto, 54, the wife of the 94-year-old singing legend, has enlisted Gaga to help keep Tony's faculties sharp as he struggles with advancing dementia because Gaga's telephone calls have always helped cheer Tony up and keep him focused and they laugh together, reminisce and sometimes sing and it always puts a smile on Tony's face and it's great therapy -- when asked whether Tony still recognizes the pop star, Susan joked that Gaga is hard to forget -- Gaga has also played a critical role in keeping the aging crooner active and creative by working with him and they plan to release their second album of duets this spring as a follow-up to their 2014 smash hit Cheek to Cheek

* Worried friends feared ailing rock god Ozzy Osbourne is coming unstrung while wife Sharon Osbourne's career goes into a death spiral -- Ozzy has been plagued by crippling illnesses over the years, including Parkinson's disease, and has to walk with the aid of a cane and now he's at wit's end and pushing himself into a danger zone as his wife fights tooth and nail after leaving The Talk amid a racism scandal and Ozzy's been under a great deal of distress over Sharon's problems over at The Talk and he worries and fusses over her and can't focus on anything else and it's left many in his circle very concerned for his health which is fragile enough already -- the bashing Sharon received during the scandal has the aging rocker concerned she may never work again and he'll have to be the breadwinner

Page 12: Straight Shuter -- five years after Angelina Jolie filed for divorce, she's still battling Brad Pitt over custody of their five youngest kids, now she's filed new court documents claiming she has proof of domestic violence against Brad and accusations like these would kill anyone else's career, but not in this case: Hollywood is 100 percent behind Brad and the sense in the industry is Angelina has weaponized the kids against Brad but Brad is very well respected in Hollywood, and most people find these new allegations hard to believe and if anything, Angie is only hurting the children and herself

* Real Housewives stars featured in the upcoming spinoff are cashing in and Bravo will pay Luann de Lesseps, Teresa Giudice and the others a sweet $200,000 for one week's work in Turks and Caicos and that's more than double what the ladies usually get for filming, plus they get a free trip to a tropical island

* American Idol could be on the chopping block because in just seven weeks the show has lost 2 million viewers and it's simple math: Idol cannot survive with its current budget and ABC has two options which are cancel the show or cut costs, which would mean hiring cheaper judges and a cheaper host to replace Ryan Seacrest and both options are being explored

* Britney Spears' beau, personal trainer Sam Asghari, shows off his toned abs in L.A. (picture)

Page 13: Palace insiders fear Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's vendetta against the British monarchy will take a shocking new turn: they'll bankroll a lurid movie about Princess Diana's death and the conspiracy theories that suggest the royal family was involved -- the rights to the movie script are owned by Hollywood producer Ben Browning, who was just hired by Harry and Meghan to run their film company Archewell Productions -- the controversial movie centers on Princess Diana's lover Dodi Fayed's father, former Harrods' boss Mohamed Al-Fayed, investigating his son's death and his belief that Dodi and Diana were murdered because she was pregnant and planning to marry, and The Firm did not want a Muslim in the royal family

Page 14: Crime

Page 15: Alabama Shakes drummer Steve Johnson has been busted on charges of willful torture and abuse of a child and was also charged with cruelly beating or otherwise maltreating a child under the age of 18 -- his arrest came just a year after he was slapped with a one-year suspended sentence and two years' probation after pleading guilty to menacing his ex-wife Whitney Lee, who called him mentally unstable -- Johnson helped the Shakes score three Grammys in 2016 for their album Sound & Color but the band has been on hiatus since singer Brittany Howard started a solo career in 2018 and Steve was lost after that; he went from playing in front of 50,000 people to playing in bars again -- even if the Shakes reunite, it's highly unlikely Steve would be invited back -- Steve remains in county jail awaiting his court date and his attorneys said Mr. Johnson maintains his innocence

* Danny Masterson and his lawyers believe they are victims of anti-Scientology bias and cannot get a fair trial in his Los Angeles rape case -- celebrity attorney Tom Mesereau, who successfully defended Michael Jackson against child molestation charges two decades ago, claimed his client has been treated unfairly because of his ties to the church, and that the police or district attorney's office leaked damaging details of the case -- Danny and his lawyers feel persecuted and that everybody in Hollywood who isn't a Scientologist is after them -- LAPD Robbery and Homicide Division Capt. Jonathan Tippet said his organization is keeping a tight lid on all information surrounding the case to ensure Masterson gets a fair trial

Page 16: Mormon church officials are being accused of corporate greed for using members' charitable donations to secretly create a $100 billion tax-free fund -- James Huntsman, the son of a prominent Mormon family, is suing the church for fraud, claiming donations solicited to finance charity work were actually used to fill church coffers -- the church boasts at least 15 million members worldwide, including celebrities like Gladys Knight, Donny and Marie Osmond, Katherine Heigl, Julianne Hough, Christina Aguilera, Ryan Gosling, Amy Adams and Aaron Eckhart and many could have tithed money that ended up in the tax-free fund

Page 17: Jen Shah of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City was recently fingered by the feds as the bogus businesswoman behind a multi-state fraud scheme dating back to 2012 -- the Bravo blowhard, known for her extravagant parties, designer outfits and extensive entourage, and her first assistant Stuart Smith were arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering -- the U.S. Justice Department alleged the Park City resident and Smith of Lehi generated and sold lead lists of innocent individuals for other members of their scheme to repeatedly scam, and claimed the greedy creeps defrauded hundreds of victims -- the terrible twosome targeted older adults and computer illiterate folks by using both telemarketing and in-person sales teams to peddle nonexistent online services and then fight the refund efforts of wronged consumers -- if convicted, Shah and Smith each face up to 50 years behind bars

Page 18: American Life

Page 20: L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva triggered a cover-up scandal when he revealed his investigators determined why Tiger Woods drove off a California cliff, then refused to explain what happened, citing the golf legend's privacy -- Villanueva said the black box in the Genesis SUV that Tiger was driving when he flew off a suburban L.A. highway in the early morning helped determine the cause

* Hollywood Hookups -- Bethenny Frankel and Paul Bernon engaged, Melissa and Joe Gorga appear to have reached the finale of their marriage, Fernanda Flores and professional boxes Noel Mikaelian dating

Page 21: Britney Spears said she broke into tears after seeing bits of the new documentary about how she has been in the grips of a conservatorship for years, saying she was embarrassed by the light they put her in and she cried for two weeks and still cries sometimes

* Generous Hollywood legend Dick Van Dyke put a happy face on job seekers in Malibu when he handed out fistfuls of cash -- Dick was spotted withdrawing bills from a bank before driving to the Malibu Community Labor Exchange, a nonprofit that helps unemployed locals find day jobs and he stayed in his car as he handed out money to masked folks who were lined up to look for work

Page 22: The late Aretha Franklin left behind a royal mess of paperwork, including a newly discovered fourth will that has thrown her $80 million estate into fresh turmoil -- the eight-page document, titled The Will of Aretha Franklin, was apparently drawn up not long before her death in 2018, and was recently found among the files of the singer's onetime attorney Henry Grix along with the paperwork describing the terms of a trust but both items are stamped draft and neither has Aretha's signature but Michigan law changed seven years ago, and it made the admissibility of a document like this more flexible -- currently there's a bitter beef among Aretha's four adult sons over how their mother's assets should be divided

Page 23: The battle over Prince's $300 million fortune rages on, and the late pop star's siblings, and legal heirs, fear there won't be anything left after lawyers, accountants, administrators and the IRS take their cut -- five years after he died from a fatal fentanyl overdose without leaving a will, an avalanche of deals and court hearings have left his massive cash stash in limbo -- sadly Prince's distrust of lawyers and other professionals now means that millions will be spent paying those same people to try to sort out the mess he left behind and this could go on for a decade

Page 26: Weird Body Language -- stars cope with bizarre deformities -- Denzel Washington, Steven Tyler, Ashton Kutcher, Matthew Perry

Page 27: Lily Allen, Mark Wahlberg, Karolina Kurkova, Scar Service -- Tina Fey, Padma Lakshmi, Joaquin Phoenix

Page 32: Health Watch

* Ask the Vet -- Watch out for xylitol

Page 34: Just months after John Travolta's beloved wife, Kelly Preston, passed, the actor has been shattered by another death in the family -- his nephew Sam Travolta's badly decomposed body was found in his Wisconsin apartment last September, weeks after he died from a suspected heart attack -- John has suffered through so much loss and Sam's death was another huge blow but he's strong and has a deep faith in Scientology and the church brings him solace and comfort

Page 36: Shark Tank star Barbara Corcoran has stepped up to get a tenant in one of her buildings back on his feet -- Barbara and building co-owner Alex Rodriguez came under fire after Ryo Nagaoka's possessions were reportedly tossed while he was hospitalized with COVID-19 and when Ryo got home he found only his piano and pet tortoise in his cleaned-out crib -- emptying Ryo's apartment was necessary because it had become a health hazard and had a biocleaning crew scrub it -- Barbara donated $12,000 to a GoFundMe page for him, while A-Rod has seemingly not yet contributed anything and Barbara also said the building's management company has renovated Ryo's apartment

Page 38: Beloved game show host Peter Marshall made a miraculous recovery from COVID-19 to celebrate with friends at his 95th birthday party -- Peter was in and out of the hospital for ten weeks and he was at death's door and doctors didn't give him much of a chance but Peter beat the odds to enjoy a Zoom party attended online by Leslie Uggams, Loni Anderson, Sandy Duncan, Ruta Lee, Karen Valentine, Rich Little, JoAnne Worley, Jack Jones and more

* Accused sex freak Armie Hammer's career is in the crapper and he's beginning to believe that's where it will stay -- the kink king was fired from the thriller Billion Dollar Spy amid sexual assault allegations and the release of social media messages claiming he has dark fetishes including cannibalism -- Armie has already gotten to boot from the movie Shotgun Wedding and the series The Offer, and more trouble may be on the horizon: Armie was accused of sexual assault by a woman called Effie, who alleged the actor violently raped her and Armie's attorneys issued a statement denying the claims, saying Effie's own correspondence with Mr. Hammer undermines and refutes her outrageous allegations -- Armie has been keeping a low profile at a Caribbean resort, but fears his entire career is in trouble

Page 42: Red Carpet -- Carrie Underwood

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danurso · 5 years

Text

The assassin AU

Cinder: so, ready for your next mission?

Jaune: *grins while playing with a dagger* im always ready boss.

Cinder: *hands him a few files* this is your next target.

Jaune: *looking through the files* hmm, pyrrha nikos, the champion of mistral, *smirks* sounds fun.

Cinder: you'll be enrolling at beacon as a student next week.

Jaune: *raises eyebrow* and why is that?

Cinder: while your assassinating skills are top tier, your combat skills can't match hers, she's a trained warrior, she won't fall for any traps we could set for her, and so, you will enroll at beacon and befriend her, it won't be a hard task, she's a very lonely and naïve girl, befriend her is going to be as easy to you as slicing a throat open.

Jaune: And then all i need to is kill her when her guard is down.

Cinder: exactly.

Jaune: sounds interesting, well, count me in, when do i leave?

Cinder: in one week.

*next week*

Cinder: *on beacon's rooftop*

Jaune: *walks in*

Cinder: so? How it was?

Jaune: *grins* you told me she was innocent, i just didn't expected to be that much.

Cinder: really?

Jaune: heh, you needed to see her face when i said that i had no idea of who she was, it looked like a puppy who just received a treat, *chuckles turns i to a dark smirk* i'm going to enjoy this hunt.

Cinder: *grins* that's good to hear, how long do you think it'll take?

Jaune: probably about a month, she doesn't suspect anything, i acted like the doofus when she was around, she 'saved' me from falling and even unlocked the aura that i sealed before coming here. The amount of trust she's putting on me in this short amount of time is almost hilarious, all that trust and faith is going to ruin her.

Cinder: good, i hope to see results soon, but knowing you, i know i won't be disappointed.

Jaune: hehe, don't worry, in a month you'll forget that this girl even existed in the first place.

*two years later*

Cinder: *impatiently tapping her foot on the corridor*

Jaune: *leaves his room* what is it? You know how risky is to show up out of nowhere here.

Cinder: risky? Are you taking any risks here? You told me this was going to take one month, and i'm already waiting for two. years. you can't tell me that you didn't earned enough trust from that girl.

Jaune: i did but...look, im just searching for a good opportunity.

Cinder: and you didn't had a single one after two years!?

Jaune: shhh, do you want to wake up the students?

Cinder: *whispering* don't change the subject, i know you had several opportunities to deal with her.

Jaune: *whispering* i didn't!

Cinder: yes you did! I know about several times you could've killed her but you didn't!

Jaune: i-it just wasn't the right moment.

Cinder: i'm starting to think that the 'right moment' isn't going to come... *narrow her eyes and crosses her arms* are you by any chance getting involved with her?

Jaune: *sweating* ...no. i-i could never be involved with a target.

Pyrrha: *on the door, with slightly disheveled hair and wearing only jaune's hoodie* *in a sleepy voice* jaune, come back to bed...its cold.

Cinder: *deadpans* you 'could never get involved' huh?

Jaune: err... *turns around* g-gimme a sec pyr, i'll be right back.

Pyrrha: *nods rubbing her eyes and going back into the room.*

Cinder: ...are you serious?

Jaune: what?

Cinder: are you really sleeping with your target!?

Jaune: *looking away nervously* ...no.

Cinder: you know, for an assassin you're an awful liar.

Jaune: okay, fine, i'm sleeping with her, not only that but she's my girlfriend too. Only two days after i met pyrrha i was already head over heels for her. she's beautiful, kind, smart, fun, her smile is bright like the sun, her eyes look just like two precious emeralds, her laughter is sweet like honey and if i were to imagine how an angel looked like she would be the first person to come to my mind.

Cinder: *sighs and facepalms* i can't believe in you...look, you better finish this, i don't wanna hear excuses, i want the job done, her being your girlfriend or not.

Jaune: *sighs* fine, i'll find a way to deal with that.

Cinder: you better *turns around and leaves*

Jaune: *walks back into his dorm and lays besides pyrrha*

Pyrrha: *snuggles on his chest* so, who it was?

Jaune: my boss.

Pyrrha: pressing you to kill me again?

Jaune: yup.

Pyrrha: and you're going to do it?

Jaune: dunno, maybe i'll suffocate you with kisses or something like that.

Pyrrha: *with a small smile* sounds like a really nice way to die. But i wouldn't give up that easy.

Jaune: i know you wouldn't.

Pyrrha: it's late and i'm tired, let's just sleep, tomorrow i'll help you to find a way to kill me.

Jaune: nice, thanks pyr.

Pyrrha: you're welcome jaune.

Jaune: ...actually, i think i have a plan.

Pyrrha: and what it is?

Jaune: when beacon is over i'll make you marry me, then i'll make you spend a lot of time with me, have our children's and raise them with me, then i'll make you so happy after that, that your only choice will be to die to run away from me, but i won't let you go that easy, i'll keep torturing you with hugs, kisses and cuddles until you're at least two hundred years old, Only after that i'll let you die...maybe.

Pyrrha: *with a small blush* sounds like a good plan. But when i reach two hundred i'm going to be a ugly granny.

Jaune: nope, you'll be my beautiful granny, just as beautiful as you are today.

Pyrrha: *giggles* i don't know what i love more, you or your plans to kill me.

Jaune: well, i know that you're the one i love more.

Pyrrha: i love you too.

Jaune: not as much as i do you.

Pyrrha: lets not start okay? Last time we spent two hours on this discussion.

Jaune: as long as you accept that i love you more then there will be no discussions.

Pyrrha: that i can't do.

Jaune: *rolls over her* then i'll have to go back to my plan of suffocating you with kisses until you either die or admit that i love you more.

Pyrrha: well, then i think you'll have to kill me.

Jaune: *grins* we'll see about that, when in finished you'll be-

Ren: as cute as this death/love talk of yours is, can you please let us sleep?

Nora: *cuddling with ren* yeaaah, im tiiireeeed.

Jaune/Pyrrha: *chuckles* sorry.

#rwby #jaune arc #pyrrha nikos #jaune x pyrrha #arkos #cinder fall #assassin au

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nova9 · 4 years

Text

Aimi Otsukas Taiyuu Enterance exam!

@taiyuu-high-oct

A/n sorry it wouldn’t let me add a read more page break on my iPad 😩

Word count : 3k

Ps just realized I switched into x reader format and I didn’t even see it while I was spell checking or anything it just shows how tired I am rn sorry about that.

To say Aimis nerves were a little shot was an understatement. Not that the high-end bullet train with unnecessarily good bento didn't help a little but still, anyone would be nervous on their first day at a new school.

She was lucky to have been given the chance to be admitted at all considering her application was so late. In her defense, neither she or her parents actually knew about the school existing. It was Toma who’d suggested it.

Aimi wants to imagine that her loving boyfriend just wanted her to go to the latest and greatest hero school to open but she knew better. She knew that the big softy wanted her as close to home as possible and a two-hour train ride was better than the five hour one she’d have to take to get home for the weekends at the school she’d originally planned on attending.

She was just glad that the principal had agreed to her enrollment at all, considering her quirk she’d been denied by three other schools and she hadn't been hopeful when she submitted an application for review anyway.

But here she was. Standing in front of what was probably the fanciest facility she’d ever seen in her life. Growing up in a small farming community did absolutely nothing to help prepare her for anything that she’d experienced just this morning and she hadn't even done anything other than ride a super fancy train.

She was fishing around in her side bag to see if there had been any more instructions but as far as she could remember, the invitation letter said she’d be met at the train station.

Looking over the slightly smashed piece of paper she confirmed that her memory was right but… there was no one on-site. On both sides of the station, she was the only living thing that she could see.

Then she heard a rapid tapping noise, that she couldn't tell the direction of.

Was the exam starting already? Why wouldn’t it? I mean this is a hero school isn’t it, heroes have to be ready for anything at a moment's notice.

When she felt a cold nose on the back of her calf she almost jumped out of her skin though jumping up and effectively ruining her favorite sweater by activating her quirk on accident.

Thank god she’d jumped though because when she turned around to see her attacker she saw what had to be the cutest little dog she’d ever seen in her life.

All of a sudden she wasn't so mad about her selves being shredded and she was more worried about petting the cute puppy.

The sound of someone clearing their throat behind her caught her attention and had her turning on the spot, a little embarrassed at getting caught gushing over a puppy and even more so about her now scrappy looking clothes.

“Ms. Otsuka I presume?” The man who looked much more deer than anyone else she’d ever seen asked as he bowed politely. She nodded and returned the gesture.

“Sorry I was late, the other students were excited about hearing they’d be getting another classmate. Some wanted to meet you directly at the gate but it's best they didn't.” He said in some kind explanation, Aimi didn't really understand what harm it would have been to have met her classmates sooner rather than later.

Then she realized that they’d all taken the test already and having people give her hints about anything wasn't exactly fair to them, was it? She wanted to go in blind just like everyone else and prove that she had the same rights that they had to be here.

“Your written tests were quite impressive.” The man who’d at that point introduced himself as the vice-principal of the school and preferred that he just be called by his hero name, Buckskin.

It was kinda cool and nerve-racking at the same time, Aimi had never met a hero in real life before. She wanted to seem cool and collected when she internally was freaking out with nerves that quickly sat back in as Buckskin seemed to be leading her to where she’d be taking her exam.

“I’ve been studying for the test since my first year of middle school,” Aimi said trying and failing to sound confident.

“So you’ll have no problem passing the entrance exam, it's not particularly difficult. We’ve personalized it to you and your quirk given that we had the extra time. It will give both us and your future classmates an idea of what we're working with.” He said smiling as if what he’d said was supposed to somehow help you. Others had been able to help one another, you were going in alone with spectators.

If you were to fail everyone would see it. Not that it would really matter to them… You’d just be no one other than some kid with a bad quirk who failed a test that they passed.

To you, you’d have to explain to your parents who’d almost lost their business with all the money they’d paid down for quirk therapy and control lessons for you, all of the extra tutoring you’d needed to get your test scores to where they needed to be to get what you wanted, why you’d failed.

You’d have to explain to Toma, who’d lost more than a few nights of sleep to help you study and make sure that you were mentally ready for something like this. You didn't know if you’d be able to face him if you walked away empty-handed. He wouldn’t care he’d just be happy to have you home but you wouldn’t.

You were lead to a locker room and given a chance to change from your casual clothes into the clothes you’d brought to take the test with. It never occurred to you that others would be actually watching you take the test so the tank top and gym shorts felt a little revealing but you didn’t have the option to change your mind.

When you exited the locker room you met Buckskin and another woman who was introduced to you as the principal of the school, Ms. Chikyu, you’d never known her real name, you had however recognized her hero name Laccadasiy. Suddenly your lack of confidence plummeted to the point of seemingly no return.

Someone so cool and strong was the actual principal of the school?! How in the hell were you EVER gonna get in? Why should she let you? There isn’t anything you could ever hope to offer.

“Hey enough of the long face!” She said patting your back a little harder than you think she’d meant to but it helped pull your head out of your ass. “We just wanna see what you can do! It’s not gonna be easy but it will sure as hell be fun!” She said earning a sharp look from Buckskin. “Hell isn't even a cuss word Bambie calm down.” She scoffed rolling her eyes and joking around with the other teacher.

“Anyway wait for that light right there to turn green and your good to step up to the door. It’s automatic so it’ll let you in.” She said pointing at a now red number one that hung above a seemingly normal set of metal doors.

“Good luck!” She chimed before both of them disappeared threw a door a little further down the hall.

Being alone gave you the chance to think and at the current point in time, it wasn't exactly a good thing. Why in the hell did you think that this was a good idea in the first place? There were so many other hero’s out there and you? You couldn't even come close even if you tried. It was pathetic that you’d even had hopes and it was downright wrong that you’d dragged your family and friends down in this? What right did you have to drain them of their time and resources? Playing with their emotions was just cruel.

Greenlight.

Your body moved on its own, that malicious voice in your head lowering in volume but not disappearing.

“Your first task is simple.” Laccadasys’ voice rang out over an inter calm system as the wall in the relatively small room started to raise up, revealing an impossibly larger room beyond it. A large stone sphere and a ridiculously steep decline.

“At the bottom of the hill, is a pressure plate, get the stone ball onto it and it’ll unlock the door.” She said and you took a few steps forward checking and seeing that there was, in fact, a place for the ball at the bottom but if it went too far or jumped the short lip at the bottom you were skewed and the door wasn't going to open at all. You were going to have to come up with an idea to get it to stop, if you could get it to move at all.

“GO AIIIIIMIIIIIIIIIII!” You heard a voice screaming from somewhere along with a few other cheers.

Swinging around you were met with a glass wall that separated you from a large group of others that had to be at least close to your age. Most of them looked excited, others looked like they had better things to do and one was even asleep.

There was someone though with blue hair and a sucker in her mouth who was making a few others hold up a handwritten banner that had ‘Welcome Aimi!’ Plastered on it. It honestly looked like it was several pieces of printer paper taped together and it was probably written in crayon but it was the thought that counted.

You had support here too.

Support was all you needed.

You had everything else covered.

You didn't have much time to do anything other than wave before the buzzer sounded and you walked over to the ball that had to weigh at least 2 tons. A tap let you know that it was solid rock.

Looking at the bottom of it revealed it sat on a lip too and you’d have to get it up and over that before you could even worry about the bottom of the hill.

“Now might be a good time to inform you that you have three minutes to get into the next room.” Buckskin said as a large LCD clock appeared on the ball counting down the seconds and minutes.

Cursing under your breath you tried pushing it like an idiot and of course, that did nothing.

Think fast

You manifested a blade on your forearm, curved and blunt, the last thing you needed was to chip the damn ball and stick it where it was forever. You moved to jam your blade in between the stone and the floor it sat on and pushed. It moved but it didn’t move enough.

You switched from your arm to your foot, knowing you’d always had more strength in your legs.

And THAT WORKED!

Too well, it was now rolling away down the incline at increasing speeds and away from you.

You’d never expected to use your blade skates like this but here you were. Gliding down the smooth concrete incline on blades that curved over the bottom of your feet and knees. As close to the floor as you could possibly get to go as fast as you could. You got there before the ball did, nearly overshooting it over the edge of the floor but you were able to hook yourself before that happened.

You didn't have time to think, just stop the ball. So with blades from your thighs at the ready to stop it and standing in the most grounded and immovable stance, you could muster you braced yourself.

“You really need to have more faith in that quirk of yours Otsuka!” Laccadasey called over the intercom. You opened your eyes to see the ball stopped in front of you with the numbers now flashing green revealing you almost had a full minute and a half of time left and the door behind you opened before you’d even pulled the blades back under your skin.

You moved as fast as you could not even taking time to think about how in the hell you didn't even feel that incredibly heavy ball hit your blades. It had to have stopped automatically on the plate it as designed to land on. That made a lot more sense than you being that strong.

You stood in front of an impossibly bigger room on a platform that was at least five stories above a moat of dark water. What it was surround however was what had all the attention. Large raised platforms that looked like giant books standing up on end with the spines up wards, if books were made out of solid looking stone anyway. Thin, and varying in both height and space between each of them with another platform at the end of the room that looked small in the distance. There had to be at least 30 raised platforms you were guessing that you had to get across.

You waited looking around for some kind of directions, a set of rules, a time limit but the intercom speaker you saw hanging on the wall was silent. Turning to look for anything else like a platform on the side you could run up, that wasn't there but there was another glass wall revealing that everyone was moving to watch this task too. The girl and her friends smiling happy and cheering on the other side of the glass, the encouragement might have helped if you could hear it.

You just decided to cut your losses and go for it.

Jumping from platform to platform gripping on with blades and climbing up before jumping to the next one. The task was pretty straightforward and simple but very exhausting. You hadn’t brought any iron gummies with you and you were getting winded from both overusing your quirk and just the physical work that you had to do climbing up the walls.

You stood at the end of the room in front of the now open door that had been so small minutes ago, doubled over with your hands on your knees and grasping trying to catch your breath. Couldn't this have just been a normal obstacle course with normal things? Has this place never heard of a freaking road climb?!

Apparently not.

You wanted to give up out of pure exhaustion and frustration as you stumbled into the next room to be face to face with a battle bot that was at least three times your size.

You wanted to tell the damn thing to shut up as it started announcing that its systems were operational and informing you that the test would only conclude with you or it being unable to battle.

Not only were you pushing it with your quirk already but you absolutely hated using your quirk to fight, you knew that becoming a hero would mean you had to get over that distaste but you weren’t even enrolled yet and here you were.

You waited for the thing to make its first move, but it didn't. It just stood there as if it was guarding the doors raised up on eight legs like some kind of spider tank love child with a purpose.

You were tired and wanted things to be over with so you just went for it, which was a very bad idea. You soon found yourself slammed down on the ground so hard that it cracked the concrete under you and you were surprised that it didn't crack your skull too. Turns out that spider-tanks legs were all made of some kind of magnetic material so your body literally moved towards them on its own accord. Which was totally cheating in you opinion.

You moved dodging another strike that fractured the ground again and you were lucky you got away despite the fact that the thing was literally magnetically pulling your body towards it.

You had to literally dig blades into the floor for leverage to keep from being pulled under its crushing body.

How in the absolute fuck are you supposed to beat this?!

You were just attempting to not die to be honest and you weren’t doing a very good job of that either.

You were cornered with nowhere to go but over, or under it and with how tired you were there was no way you’d be making a jump like that. You did all you could do and dove under neath it and as you did you saw what would probably be your key to beating the thing.

A latch with a danger electrocution risk sticker plastered on it. If that was the things control or the way that it was creating the magnetic pull it would help either way.

You had to pace yourself, getting another chance to get under it wasn't exactly easy like that thing knew what you saw and was trying to protect it at the same time as it was trying to take you out.

It kept charging and keeping low to the ground.

But it did have a pattern you noticed, it would rear up when it was going to strike it had every single blow that it attempted to hit you with. So all you had to do was time it right.

Once you had your opening though you took it.

You weren’t exactly able to destroy it but a blade about two feet deep as you slid under it seemed to do the trick. As you stood up it didnt move from the spot it had been in standing up ready to break your bones into dust.

A soft buzzing and a beep let you know that the last door was open.

And that you’d passed the test.

#bnha imagines #bnha oc #bnha #mha ocs #my hero oc #my hro #bnha reader insert #boku no hero oc #taiyuu #taiyuu high #taiyuu oct

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demiboydemon · 5 years

Text

Salami

"Guys," Hunk said, "You know how we're visiting Balmera tomorrow?"

"Yeah. What about it?" Pidge asked.

"I'm going to hang out with Shay, since you won't need me during the diplomacy meeting. But I need some advice."

"Ooh. Love advice?" Lance asked, laying upside down on his chair, "I'm an expert at that kind of thing."

"Says the virgin," Pidge mumbled.

"Hey!" Lance objected. "I am not a virgin!"

Hunk and Pidge looked at Lance with raised eyebrows. "You're not?"

Lance's face flushed. He glanced at Keith in the corner, who had an angry look on his face. Keith was shaking his head like, 'Lance, don't mess this up.'

"Um, I mean, yeah. No, I had a girlfriend back on Earth. Her name was, um, Salami?"

"You had a girlfriend named Salami?" Pidge asked.

"Why is this the first I'm hearing about her?" Hunk asked, hurt.

"I don't talk about her much." Lance improvised, "She's really ugly, so her parents named her Salami. Because she looked like a salami when she was born. But I see past her hideous exterior. I know the real Salami."

"Kinda mean to call your girlfriend ugly." Pidge said.

"If you have a girlfriend, why do you flirt with aliens so much?"

"I need to keep my skills fresh, for when I see Salami again. She demands the smooth moves. She's ugly, but she's very high maintenance."

"Why do you keep calling her ugly? That's mean."

"What? I'm not saying it's a bad thing," Lance explained, "It's just a thing. Like how Shay is a rock. Hunk, your girlfriend is a rock. You aren't in a position to criticize my preferences with the ladies."

"Hey! Shay is amazing. Don't disrespect her like this."

"I never said she wasn't amazing. Just that my girlfriend, Salami, is great, too. Plus, what's with all the questions?" Lance put his hand over his heart. "Do you not believe me? I'm hurt."

"Sorry, Lance." Hunk said, "We believe you. We're just curious because you've never mentioned her before."

"I'm still not sold." Pidge said, "I mean, Salami? What kind of name is Salami? Why didn't she change it?"

"It's hard to change your name once you've enrolled in the Garrison."

"I did it."

"Oh, so now that you've done it, she has to do it, too? My girlfriend isn't a sheeple like you, Pidge."

"I'm not a sheeple. I'm an originator."

"Ignore her," Hunk said, "Do you have any pictures?"

Lance looked uncomfortable. "Um, yeah. Of course I do. But you can't look at them."

"Why not?"

"Because, uh, they're all nudes." Lance said. Keith, still in the corner, smacked his head against the wall.

"How did you get those into space?" Hunk asked.

"I had them in my jacket the night we found the blue lion."

"You had nudes in your pocket?"

"Yes. And you can't look at them, because Salami is embarrassed of her weird, hideous body."

Keith smacked his head against the wall again. "Why?" He groaned.

"Anyway, I have to go write my nightly letter to Salami."

"I'm gonna go, too." Keith said. "Not with Lance, just go in general. I'm going to polish my armor. I'll walk with you, Lance."

"Salami?" Keith asked. "You're so bad at improvising."

"I think I did a good job. No one suspects we're a couple." Lance said.

"Okay, yeah. I'm very happy you didn't tell the group. But Salami? Why didn't you pick a normal name?"

"I don't do well under pressure."

Pidge quietly opened Lance's room's door. She was going to get to the bottom of this. She crept around Lance's room.

"How is his room messier than mine?" She thought aloud.

Finally, after rummaging through a ton of clothes and trash, she found something that looked promising. A red ornate box with a note on top. 'LANCE'S- DO NOT OPEN' is what the note said. Pidge ignored this and opened the box.

"Bingo." She said. Inside we're pictures of Lance with a girl. The girl looked suspiciously like Keith, but with salami for a face. It was not a nude.

Pidge stepped back, examining the picture. Suddenly, a sword flew out of the box and impaled the place Pidge had been standing.

"Pidge?" Lance asked from behind her. "What the quiznack are you doing in my room?"

Pidge held up the photo, "Is this Salami?"

"Yes, she is."

"She looks kinda like Keith with a picture of salami taped over her head."

"I told you she was ugly. Now get out of my room."

"Did you set up that knife to almost kill me?"

"Yes. That's what you get for opening my box."

Lance shoved Pidge out and locked his door. He breathed a sigh of relief. Pidge didn't suspect a thing.

#voltron #Vld #klance #keith vld #lance vld #pidge vld #hunk vld #fanfiction

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throne-of-starlight · 5 years

Text

Clarke walks down the dangerous streets of The Mountain, the hood she's called home for the past two years. Where she's lived with her boyfriend Finn... ex-boyfriend now because she broke up with him after finding him with another woman- not that it was the first time- it always goes down like this, she finds him fucking a random girl in their bed, she yells at him, he beats her up, she cries, he apologizes and says it will never happen again, she believes him and it repeats.

This time though, Clarke's had enough. Enough of cheating, enough of beating, enough of being treated like shit. She doesn't have any friends of her own who could let her stay the night at their place. The only people she knows are the junkies and drunk friends of Finn's and that is not an option so she opts for sleeping on the streets.

It's not the first time she has to. After her father's death, the streets where her home due to her broken mother who started using drugs, lost her job as a doctor because she stole pills from work, she started blaming Clarke for her husband's death from time to time and spent the nights with different men. Abby (her mother) stopped paying for her private school so Clarke had to enroll in a public one and get a job so that she could have food in her stomach.

As Clarke settles under a bridge, she makes plans for the next day, she gets payed tomorrow from one of her jobs so she'll go collect the check and search for an apartment she can afford.

She uses her bag of clothes as a pillow and holds her pocket knife in her hands like she used to do when she was a teenager in case someone came to bother her... she remembers having to use that knife a few times before... she pushes those horrible memories out of her head, pulls her sweater tight to her body and goes to sleep.

She woke up a few times during the night because she heard a few noises that put her in alert mode, but nothing really happened and she was glad for it.

She walks inside the coffee shop -Green's Café- where she's been working for a year now. It's located in the beautiful city of Arkadia, the atmosphere in here is nice and it always makes Clarke forget about her shitty life.

"Hey, Clarke!" Niylah greets her with a smile.

Niylah is the only true friend she has and they have fooled around a few times, but Clarke decided to stop doing it when the bruises on her body couldn't be hidden with make-up anymore. They have remained good friends, but Clarke wasn't going to abuse of that friendship and ask her if she could stay at her place while she got to her feet. She knew Niylah wouldn't hesitate to say yes, but she doesn't want to explain the reason for asking.

"Hey, Niylah." She returns the smile. "Busy morning?"

Niylah sighs. "It's Friday so it's very busy."

"I won't keep you long then, I just came for my paycheck."

"Ah, yes, Mr. Green came by earlier and left them in the office."

"Okay, thanks." Clarke walks to the back of the cafe and into the employees office. As expected Mr. Green is nowhere in sight, to be honest she's only seen him five times during the year she's been working here and from those few times she can tell he's a nice guy, very friendly and cares about his employees.

The first time she saw him he introduced himself as Monty Green the owner of the cafe and asked her her name and when she told him he said, "It's nice to meet you Clarke. I'm glad you are working here if you need anything don't hesitate to let me know." He smiled, greeted the others and left.

She grabs her check and goes back to the front. "See you tomorrow, Niylah." She hugs her friend.

"Take care, beautiful." Her friend tells her.

Before going out the door, a flyer caughts her eye on the board that's on the right wall of the entrance. It says that someone is looking for a roommate and that the rent is cheap, it has a number and says to ask for Bellamy Blake. She takes the paper with her and dials the number, but it goes to voicemail.

She spends all day looking for apartments and calling people who have left flyers saying they're looking for a roommate, but couldn't find anything within her price range which isn't much. It's late in the afternoon and the sun is starting to go down so she decides to give Bellamy Blake a call for the tenth time, but again it goes straight to voicemail.

She stares at the address on the flyer debating whether to go or not... she has nothing to lose so she makes her way to the apartments. When she gets there it's dark, but she can see that there are three buildings of glass, big and beautiful in a nice place of the city so she doesn't know what that man Bellmay thinks cheap means, but since she has no other place to go she thought she'd give it a shot and hope that she could afford it.

She goes into the building in the middle and takes the elevator to the tenth floor, when she gets out she looks for the number 101. She knocks on the door and is glad she grabbed her most decent clothes before leaving Finn.

When no one opens the door she sits on the floor to wait for the man to show up. It's either waiting or going out to find a place on the streets to sleep and she doesn't want to do that yet.

Bellamy's had a rough day dealing with his people, reminding them what to do and what not to do, he had glanced at Murphy as he said that last part. He rubs his temple with his thumb and forefinger as he gets off the elevator and turns right for his apartment.

He stops when he sees a small figure laying on his doorstep, he walks closer and furrows his brow as he stares at the sleeping woman. She looks in her early twenties, blonde hair, creamy skin, long lashes and thin, she is so thin as if she hasn't been eating well. She was resting her head on a bag, that didn't look comfortable.

He kneels down and whispers, "Hey." But she doesn't stir.

He places his hand on her shoulder and gently shakes her, "Hey."

Her eyes dart open and in a blink of an eye she has him pinned down on the floor, straddling his waist and with a knife at his throat. He tenses and meets her eyes, blue like the deep blue sea, she is young and beautiful but those eyes... those eyes are of a person who has lived many things and even though she is trying to be intimidating he can still see some kind of fear in her eyes.

He slowly raises his hands so she can see them and says, "I'm not going to hurt you."

She glances at his hands then back at him, but doesn't say anything. She doesn't trust him.

"Can you please take the knife away from my neck?" He asks her softly.

"What do you want from me?" Her voice is a whisper.

"I just want to get to my apartment." He points to his door.

She furrows her brows, then her eyes open wide and she quickly gets off him. "Oh my God!" She exclaims. "Oh, crap!" She runs her fingers through her hair and looks at him. "I-I am so sorry-Oh my God. I'm sorry."

He stands up and watch her pace and keep on rambling. "I-I must have fallen asleep while I was waiting for you to show up and-" she stops pacing. "Shit! Now you will definitely not let me rent the other room and I spent the whole day looking for something but nothing came up. Ugh! I'm so stupid. I am so sorry, please-"

Bellamy carefully stands in front of her because she still has the knife in her left hand. "Hey, it's okay." He tells her. "Breath."

She looks up at him and she takes a deep breath. "I'm sorry." She says.

He doesn't know why but he chuckles. "It's okay, really."

She puts the pocket knife away and he asks her. "So you were waiting for me?"

She nods once. "I saw your flyer that you're looking for a roommate." She grabs her bag from the floor ready to leave.

"Come in." He says surprising her.

"Y-you want me to come in after I attacked you?"

He chuckles again. "Only if you promise not to stab me in the back."

Her eyes widen. "No, I would never." She says alarmed.

He smirks, "I was teasing you, Princess." And opens the door.

Clarke acted out of instinct. She was surprised the guy invited her in after what she did. He is tall, has bronze skin, black curly hair, sharp jawline, brown eyes and freckles adorn his chiseled face. He is good looking to say the least and young, she thought he'd be older, but he looks like he's in his twenty-four or twenty-five.

Clarke follows him inside the apartment and her mouth almost drops to the floor. It is big, she can only see the living room and kitchen but that is enough to tell her that she can't afford to live here. She knew it was a long shot and now she feels stupid and embarrassed as she turns around and finds the man Bellamy staring at her.

"I'm sorry to have caused you trouble and for wasting your time, but I think I should go." She gives him a small smile and walks towards the door.

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