#when March asked Gallagher how old he was he played it off with him saying hes thirteen which obviously looking at him is not the case | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

damonjuicyscock · 2 months

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Playlist- Chapter 13: Dont look back in anger (90s Noel Gallagher X Reader)

Pairing: 90s Noel Gallagher X Reader

Warnings: language, a few spelling mistakes, maybe.

Words: 1950

Summary: Dublin incident and Knebworth in 1996. Or more like you deal with these events.

A/N: Heya Y'all ! Here's chapter 13, I hope you'll like it, as per usual. Gave this chapter the name of this famous song because I thought it went well with this chapter and also because yesterday this song tunred 28 years old already. Hope you had a nice weekend, sending love and strength to you all for this week !

Love y'all, take care of yourselves !

Enjoy !

(I've been waiting to put this Gif for so long OMG)

“And so, Sally can wait She knows it's too late as we're walkin' on by Her soul slides away But "Don't look back in anger," I heard you say”

March 22nd 1996- Dublin:

After a gig in Dublin, we were back at the hotel.

We decided to have an afterparty at the bar, with a few friends, and members of our families.

Indeed, Peggy, Paul and my mam came to see the band play and spend some time with us. Everything was fine and going super fine. Peggy and my mam left around midnight and a half and 01:00. Yes. Everything was fine and going super fine, we were happy.

Until we saw an older man approach us with journalists. I immediately recognised him, even before the boys did. So I stood up in front of Noel. I would have taken a bullet for him. He didn’t even to ask me to if it meant protecting him. Protecting him from his past.

Don’t you fucking dare! I shouted to the man who almost arrived to us

Liam eventually recognised the man as well, and stood up, ready to beat the shit out of him. That’s when Noel recognised him too and stood up as well but to protect Liam and prevent him from doing a big mistake. It’s what he wanted. Paul did so as well.

Y/N! Noel shouted, afraid the old man would do something

Ah, the one and only Y/N! Ye grew up into a fine bird but ye didn’t change, not even a bit.

No, but I’m even worse than I was as a child. Get the fuck out of here before I punch you in the face Gallagher.

Yes, you guessed. It was Tommy Gallagher, the boys’ father, aka wife and kids beater. I was happy Peggy wasn’t here to witness that.

He laughed. He fucking mocked me.

Oh me dear Y/N… Ye’re a bird, I would beat yer little arse in a few seconds and ye would be back to London.

Don’t ye fucking touch her! Liam said, pissed off and ready to jump on him and rip out his carotid artery with his teeth

Don’t fucking react, it’s what he fucking wants! Noel said, holding Liam’s arm with all his strength

But I was even more pissed than Liam. So I approached Tommy.

Try me, you fucking wife beater.

He laughed again.

Be a nice lass and sit yer arse down Y/N.

Oh ye shouldn’t have said that ye bastard. Liam said, laughing like a psycho

And he was right. He shouldn’t have. No one tells me what to do.

I stood proudly in front of Tommy, giving him a psycho smile before spitting to his face.

The boys were shocked. Liam was ready to attack and Noel to protect his brother and I. As if their father would react.

Get. The. Fuck. Out. I said, sternly

The man brought his hand to his face to remove my spit and threw a dark look at me.

Good evening gentlemen. He said before leaving

Noel collapsed on his seat as if he was fainting. So did Paul. But Liam stood standing, calling the waiter to order another bottle of champagne. I sat down and turned to Noel and Paul. Noel’s eyes were sparkling. As if he just saw an angel.

Are you boys okay? I asked

They both nodded.

Fuck… I love ye so much, ye know that? He said

I think I guessed, yeah. I answered before kissing him.

He kissed me back.

How do ye do that? He asked

I smiled.

He doesn’t scare me. I could even have done worse, but I didn’t want to cause a scene. It’s what he wanted.

Woman, ye’re something. Noel answered, admiring me

I’m your shieldmaiden Noely. Your warrior.

Goddamn right ye are.

March 24th 1996- Germany:

We arrived a day before in Germany for Noel to rest a bit. At least, that’s what we both wanted. When we woke up, Noel went to buy a newspaper. And I knew he came back even without him being back in the hotel room. Why? Because I heard him yell his brother’s name in the corridor. Oh, this wasn’t good.

Shit! I said, getting up and putting on a bathrobe

I took the room’s keys and ran to the corridor to find him.

And I didn’t, until I saw Liam run fast in the corridor.

RUN Y/N, RUN! He shouted

What have you done this time?! I answered

I didn’t think it would be that serious! He answered, disappearing in another edge of the corridor

Then, I bumped into Noel, who was ready to go after his brother again, but I stopped him.

Let me go after him! He shouted

What has he done? I asked calmly

Tommy called him after the bar incident, and Liam told him he was going to break his legs and now it’s all over the papers!

I won’t let you run after him for that!

Y/N, it’s a fucking private matter!

Yes, and Liam isn’t responsible. It was your old man who spoke about it, not him!

He should have held his fucking tongue!

You know he wouldn’t be Liam if he did. And you can’t hold him responsible for everything!

Noel looked at me, and I saw Liam hide in the corner of the corridor.

I…

Do you really hate him this much? I mean… look at him, you scared the shit out of him, he looks like a goddamn innocent child! You’re projecting your violence onto the wrong person Noel… He’s not your father, and Liam’s not your scapegoat and certainly not a punching bag.

Noel realized I was right. I gave him the keys and he went back to the room. Liam came out of hiding and came to me.

Thank ye, ye saved me life… again.

It’s okay Li’, I know he’s not angry at you. What happened in Dublin shook you both. I got the situation under control.

August 10th 1996- Knebworth:

I was sick. I couldn’t keep anything I ate. I didn’t know how I got this flu, but I couldn’t seem to get rid of it. It had been almost two weeks I got it, and I was mad at myself. Because it was one of the most important days of Noel’s life. I almost didn’t come with him to Knebworth.

What if I vomit in the helicopter, huh? I asked

I’ll take some barf bags with us, but there’s no fucking way ye’re not coming with me. I need ye, ye’ve really got to see this and live this. Without ye it won’t be the same. Please love, oh, and ye’ll be able to rest in there, I promise.

I sighed.

I trust you. Hope I won’t throw up on you.

So when the time had come, we got in the helicopter. I didn’t vomit in there even if the smell of cigarettes and perfumes mixed together didn’t help.

But at the minute we landed, I ran towards the first bushes I found and literally emptied my soul. Noel ran to me and held my hair up while I did so.

After the gig, I had the possibility to rest a bit, when the others were at the afterparty. A lot of people were there, famous one included, but I just couldn’t. I was woken by Patsy, Liam’s girlfriend, who wanted to know how I was doing.

Hi… She said, with her sweet voice

Hey! I answered, opening my eyes and smiling at her

Are you okay?

Could be better.

How did you get this flu?

I don’t know, but you know me, I really hate myself when I’m sick and I can’t move. It’s been two weeks now.

Have you seen a doctor?

Not yet, didn’t have the time to with the gigs and all that. Even if I’m Noel’s girlfriend I’m a roadie you know, so I’m working.

maybe you've been working yourself too hard and your immune system has finally given up on you.

I don’t know, but I don’t think so. Because I’m not vomiting 24/24. It’s only during mornings, evenings and late at night, as if someone was sparing me during daytime. And except throwing up I feel fine.

During mornings you said? huh… wait a minute. I’m no doctor but I think I’ve been through that so I’m gonna ask you some questions.

Huh…okay… I answered, unsure

Are there particular smells that makes you want to vomit?

That means?

I don’t know, like perfume or food?

Yeah.

Sensitive breasts?

Yeah! I answered, starting to feel reassured

No period?

Huh no, sadly I still have to go through this shit.

Doesn’t mean anything. Heartburn, abdominal bloating, bleeding gums?

Yup to abdominal bloating and bleeding gums but no heartburn.

Well… as I said I’m no doctor, but it really looks like what I’ve been through with James when I was pregnant. I mean the first months.

I chuckled.

Oh no no, it’s not possible, I’m on the pill. I’ve been for years now.

It's never been 100% sure, so you should do a test anyway. I'll buy you one or go with you to buy one tomorrow if you like.

I swear Patsy, that’s absolutely not possible.

Do it for Noel. These events can be beautiful surprises but can sometimes be absolute disasters. And especially for us, women.

I rolled my eyes, I was sure of myself, but I knew she wouldn’t let go of it as long as I didn’t do it.

Alright alright. We’ll go tomorrow. If we can find a pharmacy that’s open in this shithole since it will be Sunday.

I’m sure we’ll find one. With Knebworth happening and all the people coming here they might have been forced to open at least one. For the medics as well.

August 11th 1996:

It couldn’t be. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. No, it couldn’t be. And yet it was. I had the proof, right under my eyes. Patsy was right. But how could it be? I had my period, I was on the pill… How could I get pregnant? I never forgot any pill. I was shocked. And I didn’t know how Noel would react. It clearly wasn’t the right moment. Should I tell him at this right moment? Should I wait?

It couldn’t wait. Especially if he told me he didn’t want to keep it. And with what happened with his father when he was a child, did he even want to become a father himself?

It was all about doubts. And I couldn’t keep them to myself. Should I at least wait for him to get off stage?

And yet, you know me. I’m like Liam. I can’t hold my tongue. So a few minutes before he would go on stage, when I had my moment with him, knowing there would be the afterparty after that, was the only chance I had. And he knew me by heart. He knew something was off.

Hey, are ye okay? He asked, taking my face in his hands

Mmmh, yeah, still sick. But I think I might have understood why… I’m…

Ye’re?

I’m pregnant Noel.

#noel gallagher x reader #noel gallagher smut #noel gallagher fanfic #90s noel gallagher #noel gallagher fluff #noel gallagher #liam and noel #oasis #oasis band #britpop #Spotify

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jgroffdaily · 2 years

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The author of a March 2007 feature on Spring Awakening, Brian Keith Jackson, tweeted a link to his New York magazine article. Excerpts:

As spring nears, bringing with it warmer air, a sharp uptick in life lust, and the Tonys, the Spring Awakening juggernaut shows no sign of slowing. The production, which gestated for seven years, is the Little Miss Sunshine of Broadway. Based on Frank Wedekind’s once-banned 1891 play, it’s also the most touchingly wholesome rock musical ever to feature simulated teenage intercourse. These kids channel love, friendship, and compassion along with a healthy sense of repression and rage. There’s a real sweetness on that stage (not to mention one real coupling), and now the young actors are effectively pop stars.

Among a generation not exactly known for flocking to musicals, they’ve set off a whole new wave of swooning, YouTubing fandom. Brian Keith Jackson spoke with them about the show, their lives, and what they listen to when they’re not singing “The Bitch of Living.”

2. Jonathan Groff Plays Melchior, the male lead, and one of the more heartbroken characters. Age 21. Has been with the show for a year. From Lancaster, Pennsylvania—grandfather was a Mennonite preacher. Moved to New York in October 2005. Has been a waiter. On his family seeing him onstage: “The only time it was a little awkward was when it was Off Broadway. I asked if they wanted to sit onstage [where a few audience members sit], but I put them on the side that doesn’t see my ass, because I thought, That’s gonna be weird. But the problem was while I was doing the hayloft [sex] scene with Lea, my parents were right over her shoulder.” Preshow ritual: “Spend time with Lea.” Typical night out: “Go home and watch the DVR of American Idol.” Favorite book: “A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving.” On his iPod: “Rufus Wainwright. I don’t know what album it’s on. [Singing] ‘Men reading fashion magazines.’ Do you know which one I’m talking about?” Want One? “Yeah, that’s it. [Singing] ‘My phone’s on vibrate for you.’ ”

3. Skylar Astin Plays Georg, who’s crushed out on his busty piano teacher. Age 19. With the show for two years. From Rockland County. Dating Lauren Pritchard.On meeting a certain Long Islander: “When Billy Joel came, I freaked. He said, ‘I really love the way you play the piano.’ ” On days off: “I rest. I swear, I’ll join a gym soon.” Ideal night out: “Oh, my God. I don’t drink or smoke or anything like that. I’m kind of boring.” Favorite film: GoodFellas. Most difficult thing about dating a co-star: “Absolutely nothing.” [Lauren, below, concurs.]

5. John Gallagher Jr. Plays Moritz, whose parents truly, and tragically, don’t understand. Age 22. From Wilmington, Delaware. Has been with the production for two years. In a band called Old Springs Pike. Says Spring Awakening has made him a better singer in part by teaching him how to take better care of his voice. On meeting celebrities: “When it happens, you go home and think, Whatever, that was my job tonight. Then a few weeks later you say, ‘Wait a minute, I did shake Steven Spielberg’s hand!’ Kevin Kline was a huge one, because he was so nice.” Favorite movie: “The Last Waltz.” On his iPod: “Sadly, mine just broke. But I’m obsessed with this band called the Avett Brothers, from North Carolina.”

#jonathan groff #spring awakening #spring awakening cast #skylar astin #john gallagher jr #avett brothers #2007

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andrewmoocow · 3 years

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Steven Universe Alternate Future chapter 28: Fusion Frenzy (originally published on October 4, 2021)

AN: It's fusion time everyone! Last time, Black Rutile initiated Phase 2 of her new plan to eradicate her enemies by interrupting the President's emergency address and now, she's on her way to Beach City as we speak to begin Phase 3. Can the Crystal Gems stop this monster and save both Steven & the Earth? Find out today on Steven Universe Alternate Future!

Synopsis: Bluebird Azurite, Black Rutile & White Topaz return to capture Steven.

Cast:

Zach Callison as Monster Steven, Watermelon Stevens

Estelle as Garnet

Michaela Dietz as Amethyst

Deedee Magno-Hall as Pearl, Volleyball, Mega Pearl

Grace Rolek as Connie/Future Connie

Tom Scharpling as Greg

Shelby Rabara as Peridot/Future Peridot

Jennifer Paz as Lapis

Uzo Aduba as Bismuth/Future Bismuth

Kimberly Brooks as Jasper

Noël Wells as Black Rutile/Future Black Rutile

Lauren Ash as White Topaz

Della Saba as Aquamarine

Charlyne Yi as Eyeball

Larissa Gallagher as Bluebird Azurite

Patti LuPone as Yellow Diamond

Lisa Hannigan as Blue Diamond

Christine Ebersole as White Diamond

Sarah Stiles as Spinel

Aparna Nancherla as Lemon Jade

Erica Luttrell as Future Sapphire

Lin-Manuel Miranda as President Eduardo Suarez

Wendie Malick as Vice President Theresa Maxwell

GZA as Major General Wade Grant

Aimee Mann as Opal

Billie Eilish as Turquoise

Esme Bianco as Malachite

Catherine Tate as Lepidolite

Toks Olagundoye as Nanafua

Closed off from the chaos outside, Jasper remained curled up in the bathtub, sobbing quietly over being rejected by her Diamond, over how nothing seemed to go right for her on Earth, and how she'd rather have gone back to Homeworld with the Diamonds rather than stay with all the other healed Gems. However, her misery wouldn't last any longer.

"Can you keep it down?! I'm trying to mope!" Jasper bellowed before she finally burst from the bathroom and marched on outside as she heard roaring from the beach. However, what she saw was a shocking sight. "What is that?"

"Is that you Jasper?" Lapis exclaimed as she hovered over to her orange frenemy. "Where have you been this whole time, you'd be pretty useful here but it seems like you don't want to!"

"I was busy being depressed, brat." Jasper snarled at Lapis. "Depressed over how my Diamond left me again. Now where is he? I want to give him a piece of my mind!"

"Funny you should mention that," Peridot replied loudly. "That monster thing is Steven!"

"You're kidding!" Jasper replied before she began sounding more insecure. "Please tell me you're kidding and that this isn't all my fault because he shattered me, I'm begging you guys!"

"Are you okay?" Pearl asked the big Quartz as Lapis brought Jasper over to the Gems. "You're sounding a bit more frantic than usual."

"Sorry," Jasper began, cringing at the thought of apologizing for something she did. "I just think this might be my fault, since because of me he went mad with power and shattered me."

"It's not your fault Jasper," Garnet said comfortingly. "I think we all might be to blame here. But it could be worse." The fusion followed up by kissing Jasper on the forehead, much to her disgust.

"Ew, what did you do to me?!" Jasper yelped in disgust as she harshly rubbed at her forehead before her vision began to distort. "Wait, what's-"

What Jasper then saw was not a beautiful seaside where a monster stormed about, but the remnants of Little Homeworld, now reduced to ruins in the middle of a desolate wasteland. As far as she could see, no life could be seen for miles, all except for a ragtag band of survivors finding their way in this apocalyptic future.

"Any sign of He Who Must Not Be Named yet?" the possible future version of Peridot, easily distinguished from her regular self through wearing Pearl's blazer, asked a young adult version of Connie.

"No, thankfully." Connie said as she looked through the skies with her binoculars. "But we gotta move at some point, he could be here at any moment now!"

"No, I say we stay and fight!" Bismuth declared. "I don't care if that's still Steven, you all seen what he did to our friends!" she added despondently. "Ruby, Amethyst, Pearl, Lapis, they're all gone now, all thanks to him!"

"Bismuth, you're being irrational." Sapphire calmed the blacksmith down. "But I do agree, there's no future I see where we calm Steven down and rebuild society."

"Well, let him come." Peridot stated tiredly. "Anything to be with Lapis again. I'm just so tired of fighting."

As the surviving Crystal Gems bowed their heads in shame of how powerless they were to save their loved ones, a hoarse, piercing laugh rang out, causing the four to take up arms against whatever foe crossed their path. That foe in question turned out to be Black Rutile, now without her cape and her visor showed many visible cracks.

"Ah, yes." Black Rutile said as her laughing turned into smirking. "Tired of something you barely even did to begin with. Maybe if you two weren't tossed to the side after the Cluster and reduced to a comic relief role, that little witch could've stood a better chance."

"Be very careful with what you say next." Connie threatened the Rutile by pointing her sword straight at her gem.

"Oh come now Mama-Say-Mama-Sah-Warren, I've lost people too." Black Rutile grinned while lowering the sword. "I've lost people too. Heck, you saw how Steven killed my old gang, and now he's after me too for all I've done."

"Well frankly, you had it coming for all that." Bismuth responded before turning her finger into a spike. "Now pipe down while I smash you to pieces."

"Bismuth, stop." Connie advised Bismuth. "I think she might be our best chance at surviving yet."

"Are you serious?!" Peridot shrieked in defiance. "It's all because of her that Steven went nuts, shattered Jasper, and then started rampaging across the planet and maybe beyond! All our friends and family are dead because of Black Rutile, and you think she might help us?!"

"We kept you around despite being a Homeworld loyalist." Sapphire told Peridot.

"So anyways, you might be our best chance at stopping Steven." Connie said to Black Rutile before sticking her hand out. "You in?"

"I'm going to assume that if I don't play by your rules, I'll pay with my life?" Black Rutile asked as she shook the human's hand.

"You bet." Connie answered. "When I found White Topaz before Steven shattered her, she begged me, with her last words that when I'd kill you, and make no mistake I will kill you, I'll give you the slowest and most painful death I can offer. And if you try and run away, I'm going to honor that promise."

As the handshake broke, Black Rutile was left completely speechless at both Connie's death threat and her late bodyguard having the audacity to wish death upon her. Before long, her silence was broken by another bout of maniacal laughter at Connie's expense. "Honor? Really kid?" Black Rutile declared. "You know we live in a society, or at least what's left of one, where honor is but a distant memory."

"You talk too much, you know that?" Sapphire snarked before she received another future vision, one that might spell their doom. "My stars, he's coming!"

While Connie, Peridot, Bismuth, and Sapphire prepared for the fight of their lives, Black Rutile looked up at the pink-colored sonic boom in the sky and laughed as a pink glowing figure landed on the ground in front of the rebels, the resulting impact causing more destruction to Little Homeworld.

Connie pointed her sword at their opponent, and her face softened upon discovering who it was. A pink, gargoyle-like monster whose size was equal to Bismuth's with massive horns on his head, scars on his chest forming a star, and a pink gem on his stomach.

"Steven?"

"So all that could've happened, because of me?" Jasper despaired as she was returned to the present day before dropping to her knees. "You were right, I am nothing but trouble."

"Okay, maybe you are, but you can still change." Amethyst rejected Jasper's notion. "And you can start by helping us stop him!" She then pointed to the pink monster, who took one look at Jasper and began to run away from her, no doubt the Steven inside it afraid to see Jasper again after killing her.

"Hey, get back here!" Jasper yelled as Steven tried to run straight towards Beach City.

"It's gonna smash Beach City!" Amethyst yelled. "We gotta stop him!" Without even a chance to be asked, Lapis summoned a water rope that she used to lasso Steven and drag him away from Beach City.

"So, is there any way to fix him?" Jasper asked.

"None that we know of so far." Garnet replied. "Not even the Diamonds could solve this problem."

"And now, I don't think there's anything we can do." Pearl declared.

"Anything, except surrender." Black Rutile declared as she, White Topaz, Aquamarine, and Eyeball dropped down from and stood before the group with an army of robots behind them. "Oh look, everyone is here! We got the insipid oppressors, their mindless sheep, and the sorry excuses for monarchs!"

"What's your game Black Rutile?" White Diamond angrily asked her former subordinate.

"It's quite simple really." Black Rutile replied. "Thanks to yours truly, all of you are now enemies of humanity for allowing this to happen!" She pointed at Steven. "And not just your little monster problem, but for all the horrible things you've done to this planet! And all while you were too busy crying like babies for the brat."

"Yeesh, someone likes to talk." Spinel murmured.

"Zip it, playmate!" Aquamarine declared. "Once all of you are out of the way, our master shall claim this galaxy as her own!"

"And maybe become one of the great Universal Lords!" Eyeball added.

All across the world, riots began breaking out over Black Rutile's broadcast. Picket signs were made, effigies were burned, and calls were made to eliminate the Crystal Gems' threat to humanity, even though not a single one of them knew of their existence before today.

In Washington, Theresa was showing Suarez a livestream on her phone of a group of people in Russia cursing in their native language of how the Gems deprived them of their ancestors' native land, leaving the president more depressed over the incident just as Wade strolled into the Oval Office.

"I just got off the phone with Prime Minister Sorayama." Major General Grant said. "He's saying the cabinet of Japan is ready to launch everything they've got against the monster and the Crystal Gems. They just need you to give the okay."

"No, we are not nuking anything!" Eduardo screamed, making the vice president and the major general jump a bit. "I know the Gems are good, kind people, but is it really true they're responsible for all that? And who's this Pink Diamond anyway?"

"I know they're your friends Mr. President, but what friends places the world in danger so many times, the only one to address that is another member of their species?" Grant asked. "It's your choice, sir. Your friends or your country?"

"He raises a pretty good point, sir." Theresa stated. "What's it gonna be?"

After wiping a few tears from his eyes, Eduardo turned to face the window behind him and made his decision. "Major General, tell Japan to call off the attack. Because we're doing it ourselves."

Back in Beach City, Black Rutile continued her speech to the Gems. "Look at all of this." She declared. "This is the chaos I've wanted to engender for so long. I wanted to build a new Homeworld order where you failed, but you chose Steven over your own people just because he's family." As Black Rutile continued speaking, she could feel her sanity begin to teeter off the edge more and more. "My purpose was to fight for the Gems, that is the sole purpose I was given. And now, I barely have any people left. That is what you have taken from me. That is what you have taken from EVERYONE!"

"That is where you're wrong!" Pearl boasted in reply. "You may think you're a misunderstood hero, but you're not! You're nothing more than a sociopathic, bloviating monster who only thinks that she's doing what's best for everyone! As actual heroes, we'll fight to stop you till our last breath, because we are the Crystal Gems and we'll always save the day!"

With that, Pearl took Amethyst's hand and the two merged into Opal, who pulled out her bow and fired an arrow at Black Rutile, who only moved her head an inch to the right to dodge it.

"Oh, fusions, eh?" Black Rutile snickered. "I guess we should even the odds then." She then turned to White Topaz. "Topaz, to me!"

"Right away my Rutile." White Topaz sadly complied and fused with Black Rutile to once again form Lepidolite.

"BEHOLD PEONS!" Lepidolite declared bombastically. "THE UNPARALLELED, UNIMAGINABLY ALMIGHTY LEPIDOLITE HAS FINALLY RETURNED!"

"Oh geez, she can fuse too?" Lapis snarled before turning to Jasper. "Hey Jasper, wanna join in?"

"Whatever." Jasper said and the two formed into the turquoise and gold-colored Malachite.

"Well, you know what to do Eyeball." Aquamarine said as she took the Ruby's hand and twirled in place before they formed Bluebird Azurite and unsheathed her ice cutlass & a flaming saber.

"Gems, now!" Garnet gave the order to attack and led the charge against the four rebels. However, Greg was feeling a little left out.

"Uh, what about me?" Greg asked as the battle began. "If only I could still make Steg." However, Greg quickly saw Lion rising beneath him and making the father ride on his back. "Oh, well that should suffice." Greg smiled before he made Lion gallop into combat. "WOLVERINES!"

Lepidolite roared as she threw a punch at Malachite, who caught it in one of her hands and fought back by launching a geyser at Lepidolite's face, sending her flying towards Peridot, who sent Bismuth soaring before the rainbow Gem smacked Lepidolite into the sand with her hammer.

"Feeling a little outmatched?" Malachite boasted with her arms folded.

"Child's play!" Lepidolite growled while summoning her claws and slashing Malachite in the torso. However, Malachite quickly grabbed Lepidolite by the arms and summoned Jasper's crash helmet to give her a nasty headbutt. "Topaz, what are you doing?" the Black Rutile half of Lepidolite asked. "Pull your weight and help me here!"

"But it's the four of us against all the Crystal Gems, the Diamonds, and even a Spinel!" the White Topaz half replied as Malachite began punching Lepidolite at rapid speed. "We're so outmatched here, let's just un-fuse and surrender so we won't have to risk our lives against such an unfair numbers advantage."

"Oh shut up!" Black Rutile yelled before Lepidolite received another punch to the face. However, Lepidolite just as quickly stabbed Malachite with her claws and slowly dragged them up her torso up to her face, hitting both Lapis & Jasper's gems and causing them to un-fuse.

"I got you guys!" Greg shouted as Lion leaped up and he caught the two Gems on his back. Lion then followed up with a roar aimed straight at Bluebird while she was fighting Opal, who was sent flying towards Spinel.

"Comin' at ya!" Spinel exclaimed before she began dribbling Bluebird like a basketball and flung her at some of Black Rutile's robot minions, who were firing at the Diamonds.

"Well, at least we tried with Malachite." Lapis said while getting up before she turned to Peridot. "Hey Peridot, wanna give it a shot!"

"Gladly!" Peridot exclaimed and raced over to her bestie.

"Wait, what?" Jasper asked as she watched her former cohorts fuse into Turquoise. "Since when can you do that?!"

"Don't ask, just fight!" Turquoise declared while forming a set of three swords out of liquid metal from the air to use, two in her hands and one between her teeth.

"Right." Jasper agreed as she prepared to charge. "Let's kill her properly this time."

Amid the chaos, Volleyball and Lemon Jade were left trying to escape harm with no idea what to do in battle, as they had never engaged in combat before.

"What are we going to do?!" Lemon Jade yelled while shaking Pink Pearl in her hands.

"I have no idea!" Volleyball replied. "I did fuse before, but it wasn't really for fighting an enemy." That was when she got an idea. "Wait, hold on!"

Volleyball ran towards Opal, who was busy shooting down Black Rutile's robots with her arrows when she felt something pulling down at her drape. "Oh, do you need something Volleyball?"

"Can I fuse with you Pearl so I can protect Jade?" Volleyball asked Opal.

"In the middle of something, but that's a definite possibility." Opal replied, unaware of the robot that was now hovering behind her.

"TARGET OPAL CONFIRMED. COMMENCE UN-FUSING." The robot droned and sent out an electric shock that forced Opal back into Pearl & Amethyst.

"Well ain't that a coincidence." Amethyst snarked as the two Pearls fused into Mega Pearl. "It's like she planned for this!"

"She planned for everything Amethyst." Mega Pearl responded before slashing away at robots that were cornering Lemon Jade.

Meanwhile, Turquoise was engaged in a swordfight against Bluebird Azurite, her metal katanas against Bluebird's ice and fire swords. "This is what you get for taking Steven and causing Lapis to leave me!" Turquoise yelled as she tried to stab Bluebird in any opening she could find.

"Oh, did kidnapping Steven hurt you that much?" Bluebird snickered. "I wouldn't have guessed judging by how you never show up." The smaller fusion quickly disarmed Turquoise and prepared to go in for the kill, but she had another thing coming.

"Got this from a manga." Turquoise grinned cheekily while cupping all four of her hands to her side and sticking them out, launching a torrent of water at Bluebird's face.

As for the Diamonds, they were busy protecting Steven from the robots by swatting them away. "These things are multiplying by the second!" Blue said while smashing drones to the ground so that the surviving Watermelon Stevens could dismantle them. "We have to get Steven somewhere safe so we can calm him down!"

"Everyone's trying their hardest, but Black Rutile just keeps coming back up." Yellow replied.

"Don't despair, we can win this!" White added, confident that they could still win the day somehow when she spotted something in the distance. "Wait, what are those?”

"Get a move on everyone, we're wasting daylight here!" Wade Grant barked to his men from his Humvee as the US Army advanced towards Beach City. As their goal was only to capture the Crystal Gems, they didn't need massive tanks, only jeeps, armored vans, and helicopters to get the job done. As the seaside town grew closer and closer, some of the army men felt the need to converse among themselves.

"So, do you think it might be sexist to capture a bunch of alien women?" one of the soldiers driving an armored van asked his companion.

"I'm not sure." The other soldier replied. "From what I've heard, they only look like women. They kinda don't have any gender since they're like, holograms projected by rocks. Holograms that happen to look female."

"Yeah but are there male Gems out there somewhere?" the first soldier continued. "How do they even procreate, if possible?"

"Beats me, they don't look like they have the goods, if you catch my drift." The second soldier wiggled his eyebrows. "Y'know, nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more!"

"Yes, I catch your drift, no need to reference old-timey British comedy." The first soldier groaned before turning on the radio. "Sir, we're nearing Beach City. Permission to be the first to step out?"

"Permission granted Private Eric." Wade accepted over the radio as the two soldiers' van rolled up to Beach City, where its citizens were already evacuating.

"Excuse me, we'd like a word with the mayor of this town." Private Eric said as he and his partner stepped out.

"That's me, Mayor Pizza." Nanafua declared as she walked up to the pair. "Now what brings the military here?"

"We're on official business here Mayor Pizza." Eric stated. "Are you aware you have been housing aliens that have been threatening your planet regularly?"

"Oh, the Gems? They're pretty harmless." Nanafua laughed. "Though that giant monster is a bit concerning."

"Everyone step aside, Black Rutile has convinced us those Gems need to be placed under arrest." Wade stepped forward and prepared a special anti-Gem weapon made from the remains of the Destiny Destroyer. "We won't use lethal force against you all, but we strongly urge you to let us through if you want your planet to live."

The armed forces began marching towards the pink monster menacing Beach City as the townsfolk nervously stepped aside to allow them to pass. Though they treasured the Gems, they couldn't bear to be victims of yet another incident relating to them.

"Get back here!" Lepidolite roared as she chased Connie around and clashed her claws with the girl's sword. "Don't think you've won yet just because you've trained with that rotten Pearl!"

"That's what you think!" Connie yelled before she slashed at Lepidolite's arm, causing the fusion to yell.

"How can we be hurt just like that?!" the Black Rutile half of Lepidolite muttered before looking accusingly at no one in particular while beginning to destabilize. "Seriously Topaz, why can't you contribute?!"

"Seriously, can't you read my lips?!" White Topaz yelled. "I want out!" Suddenly, the two Gems split apart and fell to the ground. Black Rutile fell face-first and spat out some sand before glaring daggers at her bodyguard.

"Does it look like I care?" Black Rutile said. "Besides, we should be getting some back up real soon."

"Wait, back up?" Mega Pearl wondered before she got shot down by a weapon resembling a Gem Destabilizer and forced back into Pearl & Volleyball.

"Fan out, take down anything with a star!" Wade Grant gave out orders while his men zapped the Crystal Gems with their Destabilizer-like weapons, managing to take down Turquoise, Garnet, Amethyst, Bismuth, and Jasper before forcing them into a truck.

"What is the meaning of this?!" Jasper roared as she was herded like cattle into the truck with the other Gems.

"You're finally getting the Earth justice you deserve." Black Rutile declared smugly. "When this planet's government learned of your exploits, the leader tried to make an address that I hacked into and used to expose you to the world. Hope you enjoy confinement!"

"You won't get away with this!" Pearl yelled rebelliously before she, Volleyball, and one of the Watermelon Stevens were forced into the truck as two of the soldiers looked up at Steven and the Diamonds.

"What do we do with them?" Private Eric wondered.

"No need, I got this." Black Rutile bragged, taking Aquamarine's wand and using it to imprison the three Diamonds in a forcefield.

"Hey, you let them go!" Spinel yelled before she found herself getting trapped in the bubble as well, along with Lemon Jade.

"Uh, what is going on?" Greg asked before the major general walked up to him.

"There is no need to panic sir, we are simply following orders." Wade answered calmly. "Alright, move out! We're bringing them to Area 42!"

"Area 42?!" Connie exclaimed. "What are you going to do with them there?!"

"Just gonna ask some questions followed by deciding their fates, no big." Wade responded as he hopped into his Humvee and drove off while turning on his radio. "Gems have been captured, I repeat, Gems have been captured. Requesting a lift to Area 42 in Calivada, over."

As the military drove away with the Gems in tow, Bluebird Azurite picked up Black Rutile & White Topaz before she flew them away from the beach, the combined weight of the Diamonds, Steven, Spinel, and Lemon Jade in the bubble having no effect on her.

"So Crystal Gems," Black Rutile laughed evilly. "Who are you going to believe in now?!"

With the Crystal Gems in government custody, Black Rutile is just a few steps closer to victory. But what plans does she have in store for the Diamonds, what fate shall await the Crystal Gems at Area 42, and do White Topaz's loyalties still lie with Black Rutile? You're just gonna have to wait and see.

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ofclaires · 3 years

Photo

IV. CLAIRE WALSH

PAST SELF PARAS: april 2020 / september 2020 / march 2021.

hi, before the read more i just wanted to say THANK YOU. getting to play claire has been absolutely a treat, a challenge, and genuinely, a huge part of my life for the past year and a half or so. it occurred to me when writing this and looking back at other things i’ve written for claire that i didn’t just feel like i was writing this for myself or for claire ; but i was writing it for you guys, too ! that has been one of the most special things about gallagher for me is the writing community that i feel like we built, taking such a huge investment in our characters and everyone else’s writing. i feel like i’m writing with and for some of my best friends. i also feel like i’ve grown so much ( ok, i actually don’t just feel like it, i can look back at those three paras and SEE how my writing has improved. ) i am so blessed to have gotten to write claire with all of you and to share her story, i feel like she has been so fucking beloved & it’s given her so much life. i am so proud of her and it’s really bittersweet that i’m finally saying goodbye to her as well. so, thank you all so, so much, gallagher has been a writing experience like no other for me & i love you all !

trigger warnings : domestic violence & abuse, death

PART ONE: CHILDHOOD.

The trailer that Claire spent the back half of her childhood in never felt like home. Maybe because trailers are made to be temporary, or the fact that if she accepted that this was where she belonged, she’d have to give up hope.

It’s normal Maggie Walsh to be out late, Claire’s usually cleaned up the kitchen and tucked herself into bed by the time her mother comes in the door – but she’s not sleeping. She’s always had trouble with that, brain bouncing around from one thought to the next until eventually she hears the creak of the door.

Her mom’s home.

She hears the usual stumbling, the clatter of dishes falling from where she’d neatly placed them on the drying rack. Maggie’s drunk, Claire’s sure of that. Ten years old and she knows what it means to be so drunk that you can hardly see straight, that the words you say under the influence are a different reflection from the person that you really are. She inhales deeply and crawls out from under the covers to check on her. Ten years old and she knows the steps: Help her take her makeup off, make sure she sleeps on her side, glass of water on the bedside table, trash can on the floor. Maggie is only twenty-six years old herself now, not done with her childhood by the time that Claire was born, not ready to be a mother. Claire’s had to figure it out most of it herself.

“Mom?” Claire knocks on the door lightly, plastic cup full of water already in hand.

“Don’t – don’t come in!” Maggie sputters, and Claire’s confused. She defies her request and opens the bedroom door the rest of the way. When she sees her mom, she drops the cup on the floor, small hands curling into fists.

“What happened? Who did that to you?”

“I told you not to come in here, Claire,” Maggie repeats, but Claire has always been on to disregard commands. She learns at a young age that authority only means older than you or some assigned title, not that they know best.

“Who did that? Why?” She repeats her questions. Despite being mature for her age, it’s hard for Claire to wrap her head around the black eye obscuring Maggie’s face, and the swelling on her cheek.

“It doesn’t matter,” Maggie sighs, dejected as she flops down on the bed. Even in her state, she knows that there’s not much use telling Claire to back off or go away once she’s decided that she’s not going to. Her little girl is a spitfire, strangely enough reminds Maggie a lot of her own mom, like living with a miniature version of her. Maybe that’s why Claire wins most arguments. “Come here.”

Claire walks closer to the bed, kicking the cup aside on her way for no reason other than to kick something. She crawls into bed next to her mom and looks up at her, waiting for more of an explanation or literally anything but silence.

“I don’t know why I keep looking for a happy ending. I leave you home alone, I come home like this...not helping either of us,” Maggie presses a kiss to the top of Claire’s head, runs her fingers through her daughter’s hair. It’s so soft and Claire is so little, she can’t help but look at the spilled cup on the floor with a pang of guilt. “I’m sorry,” she adds, voice choked up and words a little slurred. Tears squeeze out of the corners of her eyes when she closes them, hugging her daughter closer, “I’ve blamed you for my fucked up life for so long...that’s not fair.”

Now, Claire is only ten, but those are the kind of words that you remember forever. Still, she smiles. “It doesn’t have to stay fucked up. It can get better,” a childish spark of optimism in her heart that hasn’t yet been put out. It makes Maggie smile back though, kissing her daughter on the top of her head yet again.

“I like that,” she says, and they fall asleep curled up beside each other. Claire sleeps soundly, thinking that it’s possible. Things really could get better, and for a while, it seems like there really is a sort of shift. Maggie starts cooking, cleaning again, and she doesn’t even stay out so late. That’s when she meets Martin.

He seems better than the rest. Until he isn’t.

But Claire does her job as her mother’s protector, just as she’s been doing all of her life, and it’s that event that jumpstarts the rest of everything that happens next.

PART TWO: GRADUATION.

Claire’s come to the formal conclusion that graduation ceremonies are a waste of time. There’s all this build up, everyone’s so excited, and then you have to sit around and wait for your name to be called so you can spend two seconds walking across a stage while everyone claps. She would have skipped it entirely if her mother hadn’t already come up, and if she knew that people were going to insist. The small talk afterward is even more agonizing than the ceremony itself. It is sort of painful saying goodbye to everyone, and it occurs to Claire that there’s more people that she’s going to miss than she ever expected.

“Callum and his mother are here,” Maggie points out.

“And?” Claire rolls her eyes. Seeing Callum again to begin with had brought up a lot of old feelings, and generally, even though they’d resolved things, she tries to avoid him whenever possible.

“Well, it’s probably weird if we don’t say hello, at least, right? I’m going to say hello,” Maggie interjects, “he’s such a sweet boy.”

Claire’s eyebrows rise on her forehead as she crosses her arms over her chest. “Go ahead then,” she sighs, “I’ll wait right here.”

“Claire,” Maggie draws out her name with a withering stare, but Maggie has never been able to establish that sort of authority with Claire that would prompt any inclination of obedience, so Claire just shrugs her shoulders, unimpressed. She’s not going to budge. “Fine, I’ll be right back.”

Claire’s done her best to put the chapter of their life that includes Martin out of her mind when rekindling things with her mother, and she certainly doesn’t want to stand around making small talk with his other ex-wife, trying not to look at Callum with his matching jawline, trying not to remember everything she hates. It all comes back in a flash. The horrible cracking sound that her mother’s head had made when it connected with the wall, the blood on the marble floor. They say you don’t remember trauma properly, that your memory doesn’t work quite right, but she will never forget the way her fist connected with Martin’s face : like a puzzle piece, like it BELONGED there, and she’d done it over and over again until she heard sirens.

And yet, Claire can’t deny that it’s a part of her life that got her here, where she is today. She thinks life is shitty and random, and that not everything has to happen ‘for a reason.’ Still, she’ll catch Kass’s eye across the room and see her smiling so brightly that it seems impossible not to believe in something. Claire can’t help herself anyway – she smiles back. No one has ever been able to produce Claire’s smile in its truest form the way Kass has, unashamed of being so happy to look at someone. She once thought the idea of looking at a person and seeing your whole future was ridiculous, that you’d have to be stupid to put that much of yourself into someone, but it isn’t like that at all. All of it was unintentional, like by the time she realized it, Kass was already everything. And she feels so safe with that thought that she doesn’t mind at all.

“Am I interrupting something?” A figure steps in front of her, cutting off her line of sight. She’s not really fond of being snuck up on, so she opens her mouth to say something snarky when she’s met with the gaze of Lisanna Harlin, one of last year’s mentors. Her daughter, Elisa, is there, but she’s not graduating, so Claire’s confused by Lisanna’s presence.

“No, Ms. Harlin,” Claire says, though there’s a spark of indignation in her words that practically goes hand in hand whenever an adult commands authority.

“Lisanna is fine,” she says with a light laugh, like she’s amused Claire’s greeted her this way.

“Can I...help you with something?” Claire asks, mostly curious about how long this interaction has gone on. While she’s friendly with Elisa, she was Kass’s roommate last year, they’re not exceedingly close, so she’s not sure what else Lisanna would have to say to her other than maybe a polite hello.

It’s more than a polite hello. Lisanna Harlin works for Lexon Corp in Durham, North Carolina, a private military company that provides armed guards, bodyguards, and guns for hire. They’re the sort of place that would be looking for the best of the best in combat, and they have a bit of a reputation for hiring Gallagher girls. Claire had given up on the job search months ago since the video went out, in fact, she’s had a job lined up for graduation already : at a boxing gym in D.C., where the scene isn’t too bad. It was suited to her, but not exactly the sort of thing that her Gallagher education had prepared her for. Lexon Corp? Everything her rigorous love of January boot camps were tailored to. And they want to interview her.

A month later, Claire’s sitting on the cusp of a completely fresh start. It wasn’t easy to backtrack on the plans that she and Kass had made together, knowing how much was changing for the both of them, it had been nice to have the stable idea of an apartment together on the horizon. Now, she’s a four hour drive away, and she goes home to her one-bedroom studio in Durham after rigorous training throughout the day. But she’s grateful for the chance to work her way back into the field, and she can remember what Lisanna said to her when they gave her the offer.

“We’re aware that with your history that we’re taking a chance on you, Claire,” Lisanna said. “But we think the reasons that made other agencies look past you are exactly what makes you an asset. You care about your jobs, the people that you’re involved in, and you’d have a partner’s back until the bitter end. You listen to your intuition, trust your gut...and above all else, you have follow-through. I’m excited to be able to offer this position. Don’t prove me wrong.”

Claire swears that she won’t.

PART THREE: KIPTYN.

Kiptyn isn’t supposed to be in the left hall closet.

In fact, he’s not supposed to be awake at all. But who can sleep the night before their birthday anyway? Sure, he’ll be thirteen, and that’s probably old enough to have gotten over the magic of it all, but...he’d still been lying awake with excitement, the anticipation keeping his eyes open for hours on end. Well, that and the video game he’d been playing under the covers, but he’d obviously only been playing it because he couldn’t sleep in the first place.

Then he started thinking about the left hall closet and the conversation that they had at dinner the other night. In Kiptyn’s defense, Dahvia – his younger sister – had totally started it and he was an innocent bystander. After all, Kiptyn’s old enough to know that they don’t bring up Claire to mom, because it just puts her in a mood and then you can forget about doing anything else for the rest of the evening. But Dahvia’s ten, practically a baby, and she doesn’t know any better.

“Hey, mom? What sort of accident did Claire die in? Nina asked me at recess and I didn’t know,” Dahvia pipes up, before she’s even properly sat down. Kip visibly cringes. He’s older, wiser, knows this won’t go well. Still, he dares to look at his mom’s face and he notes the faraway look in her eye, like she seems to experience a bunch of things at once. Kip notices how even though her eyes are glassy, she doesn’t cry. Though sometimes, their mom will just cry randomly, like two weeks ago when he asked for help with his Spanish homework and she couldn’t even help him finish the first worksheet.

“It was a car accident,” she says stiffly, “eat your dinner.”

Kiptyn kicks his sister under the table and flashes her a look that says : Great. Look what you did, ruined dinner. Dahvia sticks her tongue out at him.

So, he knows that he’s not supposed to be in the left hall closet because he could ruin many more dinners, but he’s here anyway. He’s been thinking about it ever since they sat in silence for the rest of that half hour, and he’s come to the conclusion – his mother was lying. Because all sorts of things make their mother cry, like a bowl of mac and cheese or Spanish class, or motorcycles, and she won’t let Kiptyn take boxing lessons though his friend Robert is and he thought it sounded really cool, but she doesn’t have any problem with cars or driving, and also, she’s never told them a single thing about Claire except that. They aren’t allowed to know anything about her, especially not anything true, so Kiptyn is pretty sure that’s a lie. There’s just something just weird about it.

So, in the middle of the night before his thirteenth birthday, he looks up a video on how you pick locks and then he figures it out on the door of the left hall closet. He’s there for at least forty-five minutes, practically ready to give it all up when he hears the clicking sound, and then it opens. His first thought is : Woah. This is a load of junk.

And he’s right. There’s boxes upon boxes of paperwork, old clothes. Some things start to click, like when he finds a pair of worn boxing gloves with Claire’s initials embroidered on them. His favorite thing that he finds is the fattest scrapbook he’s ever seen – his mom always makes them, there’s one for every year of his life. Dahvia’s too, they love looking at them. The cover of this one, though, says Italy 2021. It’s all pictures of his mom and Claire, probably in their early twenties. Kiptyn mostly notices his mother’s smile, how he’s only seen her look like that a couple times in his life and yet it looks so EASY here, like she wears it all the time. It’s so strange to him. He sets the scrapbook down and crawls toward the back of the closet. His eyes land on two leather folders with gold embroidery, and he opens up the first one. In big letters at the top : GALLAGHER ACADEMY.

It’s a diploma.

This certifies that Kassandra Sutton has satisfactorily completed the…

“What are you doing?”

Kiptyn yells out like a child, not having heard anyone creeping up on him. He claps his hand over his mouth as if to shush himself. “The door was open! I don’t know how, but I just...noticed it was open and wanted to make sure that...no one was stealing your stuff!” he grins sheepishly, hoping that he can ride on the high of his birthday week to get him out of this one.

“It was just...open?” his mother looks down at him with raised eyebrows before brandishing a twisted paper clip between two fingers. The one that had formerly been stuck in the door. His guilty expression widens, he can’t help it.

“Okay, I might know how it opened,” Kiptyn admits. He hesitates for a moment, before he realizes that he’s ALREADY in trouble, he might as well just come out with it and pray to the birthday gods. He holds up the diploma with her name on it : “What’s Gallagher Academy?”

Kass’s sigh is heavy and deep, accompanied by the amount of exhaustion that comes with raising two curious kids by herself. After Claire died, she moved her family to London to be closer to their aunt and away from everything that reminded her of Claire. She never told her children why. From hiding that world from them, the world that took so many people from her : her father, her ex-girlfriend, and the love of her life. She swore that she would never lose her children to it, too. But Kiptyn looks up at her with wide eyes, desperate to know about his mother and his past, and Kass also knows what it’s like to have part of yourself missing due to family secrets that are being kept from you. He is practically a teenager now. So, she relents.

Kass doesn’t go into all of the details, of course. Just that Gallagher Academy was a school for spies, and that’s where it all started. Kiptyn already knew that his moms met in college, so it’s the spy part that’s most interesting to him. She talks about Claire with a light in her eyes he’s unfamiliar with, how she was one of the best fighters in their year, that she grew up with such a talent in the ring that she probably could’ve gone pro if her life had gone in a different direction. She talks about how they had to part ways after graduation, because Claire got a job in North Carolina and she got a job in Washington, DC, but they made it work, and both got very accustomed to the four hour drive – though it was sometimes closer to three for Claire, because she always drove too fast, even on this big, black motorcycle which Kass swears that she hated. She tells Kiptyn about how they got married, the way she’d almost moved to England for a dream job and that long distance threatened to drive them apart again – until Claire chased her down in the airport with a ring and proposal.

She also talks about how Claire really died : the abridged version. It was an overseas mission where they’d been cornered, and Claire risked her life to save the rest of their team. There were no other casualties, and the information they were able to bring back helped stop the terrorist organization they’d been chasing to end them for good. Kass tells the abridged version for her son, gives Claire a hero’s death. In some ways, it was. She doesn’t mention the ways that Claire was consumed by the case, it was an organization hellbent on killing spies and it likely reminded her of the brotherhood. Kass had been worried about the case the whole time, because it felt like Claire was taking it too personally. In the end, she may have been right : because Claire had let it take her life in order to close it. She also doesn’t mention that such a sacrificial death means that her wife died fighting alone, swinging her fists until her very last breath. But still, she was all alone.

She had no choice but to take her kids as far away from that life as possible.

Kiptyn tries, but he doesn’t really remember Claire. He’d only been three years old when she passed away, and before then, she’d been so consumed by her last case that she was barely present. Still, he thinks she sounds badass.

He falls asleep on his mother’s shoulder that night, looking through the scrapbook of pictures from their trip to Italy in 2021. He’s animated for the first part, pointing out buildings and asking questions, wonders if Claire was sweating in all that leather, but he slowly starts to drift off. He wakes up on the couch the next morning, no trace of the book or any of the other papers he’d hauled out of the closet the night before. He looks at the closet and there’s an extra padlock. Figures.

It comes up in little ways, like a private joke that he has with his mother, like she’ll say something and flash him a secretive smile. He likes that, and he understands that this is a big secret that he has to keep. It doesn’t come up again until his fourteenth birthday the next year, the summer before high school. It’s a strange letter in a manila envelope, sealed with some expensive red wax, his name written in fancy calligraphy. The most attention-grabbing part, however, is not Kiptyn Sutton-Walsh in big cursive letters. It’s the return address :

GALLAGHER ACADEMY.

learn her skills, honor her sword. keep her secrets.

#*#self para

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onestowatch · 3 years

Text

Aidan Gallagher Has No Limits [Q&A]

Photo By Allan Zaki

There are many facets to Aidan Gallagher. On the surface, his scene stealing prowess as the co-star of The Umbrella Academy has catapulted him to an immense level of popularity on a piece of prime real estate amongst Hollywood’s brightest young A-List celebrities. But beneath the surface of this 17-year-old actor lies a multi-instrumentalist. An independent singer-songwriter who doesn’t seem to care about the mainstream attention that his music may garner in the future, only the substance for which it can bare. Musically, his original compositions like “I LOVE YOU” and “4TH of July” draw early comparisons to acoustic-pop artists like Jack Johnson and Passenger. While lyrically some of his introspective words jump off the paper as if they were indie pop-ballads written by singers like Jason Mraz or Aqualung back in 2003.

For Aidan Gallagher the musician, the year 2020 began with a sold-out show at the Troubadour in his hometown of Los Angeles, California. This live performance on January 6th was supposed to be his introduction to the tour life. In fact, a couple weeks later, he even announced that he would be playing a live set at SXSW in March. But…just as quickly as the Neon Lights Tour began, it came to an abrupt end due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Although his first ever headlining tour has been temporarily delayed, it hasn’t stopped Aidan Gallagher from publishing fresh content for his listeners along with a series of new music videos.

There are many facets to the year 2020. On the surface the pandemic this year alone has derailed the plans of some of the world’s most talented independent recording artists. But when you’re an intuitive songwriter like Aidan Gallagher, times like these can provide the backdrop for some of the most emotional compositions that you may create.

We caught up with Aidan Gallagher to talk about his emotional subject matter, his dream collaborations and his future plans to balance his music endeavors with a budding acting career.

Ones to Watch: With all of the success that you've enjoyed over the course of the past two years, you've become one of the most recognized actors in young Hollywood. But now you're starting to get a lot more attention as a recording artist. In fact, you currently have four music videos that have garnered over 1 million views on YouTube. Those are very impressive feats to have accomplished without the support of a major record label. What was your personal goal when you first started releasing music? And are you happy with the reception that your music videos have received so far?

Aidan Gallagher: There was always less of a defined personal goal in terms of a release schedule other than just to make great music and put it out there and if people enjoy it, that’s really gratifying. I’ve always made music as a means of working out emotions and because it’s one of the most rewarding hobbies one can have.

Two singles that you've released this year are "I LOVE YOU" and "Blue Neon." Lyrically, they're both heartbreaking tracks that teenagers can relate to. But you also reference some introspective experiences that many adults in their 20s or 30s can relate to. What inspired the lyrics to these songs?

I've often found that the melodic structure and the micro-tonal characteristics of a riff are what inspire the emotional landscape of a song. When I hear music, I see colors and shapes and textures that I couldn't necessarily describe to another person. I let that imagery inform my emotional state and the subject matter of the song. The lyrics always coincide with this. Sometimes the lyrics relate more to the music than myself and other times they are stripped word for word from my own personal experience. Either way the lyrics always come from an honest place. I don't see how you could create anything of value without that.

youtube

“4th of July" is a Folk song that pulls on the heart strings of your listeners. The date is very specifically addressed in your lyrics, so why did you choose to release the music video on August 1st instead of the actual day of July 4th?

Thank you! I’m really proud of that song. It brought together a lot of what I’ve been learning about music production and engineering. It gave me a chance to show what I can do. A lot of people have asked about the timing of videos and our team has found through the advice of some very wise music industry people and just trial and error that it’s best to release a listening only video first. I like the idea that people will listen to the work before they start dissecting the visuals. I want them to have their own interpretation and not necessarily the visual scenery I put on it.

Of all the musicians and bands that have released music videos in 2020, which ones have inspired your imagination the most, when it comes to creating your own videos?

I often find myself influenced by a variety of artists across musical genres. To give an example or two, I really love what Jacob Collier and Finneas are doing with their videos. But at the same time, some of my favorite videos are the ones that are stripped down, and the artist is just performing their song in a studio or on a stage. I think it puts a beautiful focus on the music and the emotional texture of the song.

The 2020 Blue Neon Tour was going to be your first heading tour, but it was cancelled back in January due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Can you tell us a little bit about what you had in store for this tour?

Well, I was lucky that I got a chance to kick it off at the Troubadour here in Los Angeles. Just that alone was pretty cool. I had a full tour planned to go around the country and then travel to international cities and do meet-and-greets with my fans and really connect. I was really looking forward to my first SXSW performance, so that was a really hard pill to swallow when they cancelled the festival. But all things considered, I’ve been incredibly lucky in my life and my little plans pale in comparison when you look at the state of the world right now.

How many songs have you recorded since the pandemic shutdowns began? And will you be releasing an EP or debut album anytime soon?

“I Love You” and “4th of July” were released this year but everything else I’m doing is currently in a state of flux. I’ve definitely got the songs but it’s a balance of finding the time to put into recording them. I have a large catalog that I’m really proud of that will be coming out one at a time as I can get to it. With (Covid-19) it’s really slowed down my ability to record because I have to engineer everything myself. With “4th of July” I had 3 different engineers on rotation come to my house to work so it kept me working on a strong schedule and we knocked it out fast. When (Covid-19) put everyone in quarantine I lost that team and schedule. We’ll get it back though.

youtube

Who would your dream collaborators be for a full-length studio album and why?

Wow, I mean, if I was ever lucky enough to work with any of my idols, I’d be over the moon. If I got to collaborate with another artist for an entire album it would probably be on a production or writing level. I’d love to work with John Mayer, Finneas, Charlie Puth or Ed Sheeran.

If you could pick any film director to direct the first music video from your debut album who would it be and why?

Honestly, I don’t think in terms of music videos. I only think about music. Once a song is produced then I have the luxury to get into the ideas for a video. I do have some raw visual impressions in my mind of what the song means to me but it’s hard to say until the song is done. Though there are many film directors that I’d love to work with as an actor such as Wes Anderson, Quentin Tarantino, Damien Chazelle and the list goes on and on and on.

We heard that you're a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador. Tell us about your work with the UN. What made you want to get involved with their efforts to stop Illegal wildlife trade? And why has it been so important for you to shed more light on the animal agricultural industry?

I can’t begin to tell you what a privilege it has been to be able to magnify my concerns about saving our planet through their channels. The environmental crisis is the largest and the most complex problem we face in the world. I have always wanted to use the platform I lucked into as an actor to showcase that. It all started with not being able to go surfing after a rain and that led to many realizations about carbon emissions and the role of the animal agriculture industry in those emissions. I don’t want to seem preachy to people or judge anyone’s choices, but I do want to spread awareness as I learn from the world’s top scientists. The truth is that if we don’t take aggressive action in the next few years, my generation isn’t going to have a viable future in a collapsed environment. The UN is calling the next ten years the "Decade of Action.” As individuals, there are a lot of small steps people can take that make a huge difference collectively such as “Meatless Mondays”, cutting down on single use plastic and cash voting for the environment with your daily spending.

You launched a five-part Q&A series on your YouTube channel back in September. Most of the questions from your fans were centered around your role as Number Five on The Umbrella Academy. Are you planning on creating any new content for your channel that primarily focuses on your musicianship and artistry as a songwriter?

I have a lot of plans for all kinds of content and ways to stay engaged with fans and it all makes me really happy. I’ve been doing music performances for my Patreon members every week, and music performing has always given me happiness. I bet a lot of performers are experiencing depression once they lost the ability to tour. Patreon brought back that happiness to me. Not every person who follows me is into my music, so it’s just for those who are and who would come to a show if I were touring in their city. I try to balance my time between the various things I’m passionate about; however, the past few months have really been about promoting the vote.

You play the guitar and piano. In addition to singing, producing and engineering. Take us back to the early stages of your timeline as a musician. Were you a self-taught musician or did you have instructors and mentors help you develop your skills?

Well, when you're first starting out you generally work on covers to develop your skills with your instrument while also making it fun. Once you can play the chords and you have an understanding of how your instrument works, you can learn things at your leisure. I started off taking lessons but eventually I stopped due to production and had to let my ear guide my learning. That's also when I started writing songs. I never took lessons for songwriting, I just watched YouTube. In particular I remember John Mayer’s seminar at Berklee College of Music to be a defining influence on my methodology for songwriting. As for producing and engineering, I'm completely self-taught and rely only on YouTube research and my own musical instinct to create.

Most of your songs could be categorized as Pop-Rock. What other genres of music would you like to incorporate into your sound?

I like all kinds of music, so I’m not necessarily trying to find a genre to incorporate but I guess you get influenced by whatever you are listening to. Genres are so blended these days, and I really think music operates on more of a spectrum than it does on individual categorizations of itself.

Who are your top five Pop-Rock artists/bands of all-time? And why?

There’s way more than five! But since 5 is my lucky number I’ll try to narrow it down but it’s not in any order. Also know that this list is characterized by how I define Pop-rock. My Chemical Romance, The White Stripes, David Bowie, Queen and Foo Fighters.

We noticed that you filmed season two of The Umbrella Academy in Toronto. How do you think the experience of living in that city helped shape you as a songwriter and artist?

I think in order to write about life you have to live life. At this point in my life, I don't at all consider myself worldly as I simply haven't lived long enough and because of that I find that a lot of my music is introspective, and my songs often feel like the places I've written them. By putting yourself in new environments, I think it pulls new ideas out of you. Travel broadens the mind.

Hypothetically speaking, if you had to choose between winning a Grammy Award as a solo artist or a winning Academy Award with the entire cast of The Umbrella Academy, which option would you pick?

Awards aren’t why I make music or act. I don’t think about them. I just love music and acting. Any part I can play in those fields brings me happiness and I'd love to experiment with the different aspects of those art forms. Initially I got into acting because I wanted to be a director. I also loved listening to music, but I had no idea I would be a musician until I started taking piano lessons.

What’s the plan for your music career moving forward? Do you plan to continue to release material independently or would you prefer to be signed to a major record label?

It was a hard decision, but right now it’s best for me to remain an independent artist as I’m growing my music and balancing an acting career. I had really exciting offers from major labels, but they all want me to drop acting and tour full time. I also really enjoy having creative control over my songs. For the past couple of years, I’ve mostly been writing and because of that, I’ve built up a huge catalog of music to produce when I get the time. After that I’m really looking forward to being able to perform more and on tour. For the time being, I’m really excited about catching up with what I’ve written so that I’ll finally be in a place where I can write a song and begin recording it the next day.

#Aidan Gallagher #Pop #Rock #4th of July #I LOVE YOU #Umbrella Academy

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holidaywishes · 4 years

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just talk to me

Part eight: just talk to me

Summary: After two years, you’re still thinking about the Scrapbook Brendan had made; leading to a awkward argument between the two of you

Warning: It’s a wild ride. Fluff, tiny bit of smut (it’s soft), a lot disorganized and a little bit of angst

Author’s Note: So I’m changing it up. This was going to be the finale chapter but because I can’t seem to get it how I want it, I’m stretching it out a few extra chapters. I hope you enjoy this, even if it is a little all over the place.

P.S. If you saw my post the other day, you’d know the majority of this chapter was supposed to be a little different but I tried to make it as similar as I remember -- and, yes, I realize no one knows how it would’ve gone other than me but still -- so I apologize if it seems like two different chapters in one. I’m working on bringing back as much as I can remember.

masterlist

the other masterlist

You never really talked about the scrapbook after that night. You tried to bring it up a few times but Brendan would always run to practice or change the subject so you dropped it; but, after two years, it was still on your mind. So, when he went to lunch with the team one day, you found the scrapbook again and flipped through it. It made you smile a little more this time than it did when you first saw it and you started imagining what life would be like with Brendan, and what your kids would look like like you’d done before. It brought you back to the beginning of your relationship with him, how it all felt so natural and easy.

“Babe?” Brendan called out when he walked through the door, “I got take-out because I didn’t really want to cook. You here?”

“Hey!” you said, popping out from behind the wall, “I missed you...” He held up the takeout and you smiled at him

“I miss you always” he replied, leaning in to kiss you lightly but you didn’t want to let him go quite yet, so you pulled him close to you, moving back against the wall. “Whoa, hey,” he breathed between kisses, “what’s goin’ on?”

“What? Can’t I kiss you? You don’t wanna kiss me?”

“I didn’t say that”

“Good. Don’t say anything,” you smiled, “just kiss me”

“I just wanna know where this is coming from..” he pulled away again and you wrapped your fingers around the belt loops on his jeans to bring him close to you again, “so I can make sure I do whatever I did again. Because I like coming home to this...” He finally sank into the kiss and tangled his hands in your hair before letting his hands drift down to your hips where he pushed you tightly between him and the wall and you let out a small moan

“I want you, Brendan,” you whispered and he smiled against your lips. Kissing you was his only response before he knelt down to push your jeans off, slowly gliding his fingers up your legs; his lips pressing lightly only when you started to get impatient.

“ah ah,” he taunted, finally standing back up to meet your eyes, “don’t be a brat.” You gasped sarcastically at his words while his hands reached around you to lift you up and pin you against the wall, your hands trailing down to push down his jeans, freeing his member only to take him in your hands as his lips locked onto yours. You continued to stroke him until he broke the kiss, signaling he needed you; the feeling of him finally filling you up left you breathless. He started off slowly, in typical Brendan fashion, but something switched in him and he quickly began pounding into you and, for a second, you worried that the two of you might put a hole in the wall. The two of you panting filled up the room and it slowly built up into loud moans and eventual screams when you reached your climax together. You flopped your body against his shoulder laughing to yourself, “what?” Brendan asked, smiling as he tried to control his breathing

“Nothing,” you replied, “just.. that was fun”

“It really was.” He set you down gently and you leaned against him while you tried to regain the feeling in your legs. When the two of you got upstairs, you were quick to jump under the covers just to cuddle.

“So.. what do you imagine your wedding will be?” you asked sheepishly

“Have you been thinking about it?” he asked

“A little but I wanna hear what you’re thinking first before I say anything...”

“I mean.. I haven’t imagined it but I’ve thought about it a little. I’d get married in the summer, during the off season obviously” he smiled

“Obviously” you joked

“Right. Somewhere not super fancy but nice enough, take that however you want,” he laughed, “I’d be in a nice suit. Friends and family would be there. It would be a party. And at the end of it all, I’d marry the love of my life.” It was so simple that it was almost perfect and yet, something was wrong. You couldn’t actually picture being married to Brendan. What life would be like after the wedding. What being husband and wife would mean. You propped yourself up on your forearm to look at him as you thought more about it.

“What about after the wedding?” you asked

“Well, then we’d be married” he joked

“Har har very funny,” you chided, “I mean what does it look like to you? To be husband and wife? The actual being married part?”

“I mean, not a lot would change I guess..” he started, “we’d keep doing what we’ve been doing. We’d live together, like we have, like we are. We’d take turns with groceries and cooking and laundry. We’d switch off which families we spend holidays with each year. We’d wake up next to each other every morning. We’d have fun like this every night. In every room. We’d binge watch series together and never move onto the next episode if the other isn’t there to continue it. We’d take care of each other when we’re sick. We’d do everything that we’ve been doing. We’d be us.. just more. Oh and with a kid or two thrown in the mix.” He ended with a laugh and your eyes drifted away from his

“So, I’d just be a wife and a mother?” you asked, looking down to watch as you drew shapes on his shoulder

“What?” was all he said and you stood up, wandering into the kitchen to grab a glass of water.

“Are we not supposed to be a team?” you asked, filling the glass of water up and sighing before taking a drink

“We are a team but,” he started, grunting as he stood up from where he was laying, “this is all hypothetical.”

“Hypoth--” you growled, “yes. It’s hypothetical. But how do I know it’s not going to play out exactly like this if we actually get married?”

“How what is going to play out?” he asked, placing his hand on your shoulder but you shifted away from him, “just talk to me (Y/N)”

“I can’t just be Mrs. Brendan Gallagher. I need to have my own life, my own responsibilities.”

“You can”

“Not if we have kids. Because you won’t stop playing Hockey”

“Because It’s my job”

“I have my own job but I guess that doesn’t rate, does it?” you scoffed, marching to sit on the couch

“Of course it rates. What does that even mean?”

“If we get married, and you want to have kids--”

“You do too--” Brendan interrupted

“Am I supposed to quit everything? to be a stay at home Mom?”

“You don’t have to”

“But it’s up to me. It’s my choice right?”

“Yes.”

“You wouldn’t offer?”

“To quit my job? I can’t offer that,” he said, furrowing his brow, “it’s not just like an office job. I’ve been working for this my whole life and, now that I’m here, I’m not just gonna quit”

“But I’m expected to?”

“I didn’t say that.” He shouted and you shook your head, “we can get a nanny or a babysitter or day care. It doesn’t have to be an ultimatum.”

“Doesn’t it though?”

“No. Why do you think it does?”

“Because, I’ve watched the people in this city and how they act toward the players...” you started, “my job isn’t something I can do from home or do from anywhere. I have to be here, I have to go in to the office or the locations but as a woman, people would expect me to raise my child, our child, without the help of a nanny.”

“Why?”

“Because,” you said, standing up and pushing past him, “they’re old school here.”

“Okay, well I don’t care,” he challenged, “they can’t tell us how to raise our child.”

“BUT THAT’S JUST IT!” you yelled, “it wouldn’t be you raising our child. That’s not me saying you wouldn’t be there or you wouldn’t be a good father, that’s me saying I would be the one taking care of the kid and teaching them things and making sure they didn’t get screwed up. You’d be their hero. Their dad. I wouldn’t be that to them or to the city of Montreal. Especially if I didn’t quit my job to be a mother.”

“I...” he stuttered, “I don’t know what you want me to say.” You shook your head, heading toward the bedroom

“Whether you believe this is the case or not, B, it’s an issue that we have to talk about. But I guess,” you sighed, “just understand that this is something that can’t just be thrown up in the air. I need to know where you stand. What do you want me to be when we’re married? What do you expect our marriage to look like? What do you expect us to look like?” You waited for him to say something to calm your nerves but he just dropped his head and you scoffed, nodding your head slowly before heading up the stairs. For the first time in a long time, you weren’t sure what Brendan wanted from you. You had always known that he loved you and that he, on some level, wanted to marry you but it seemed now like his ideas of marriage didn’t match what yours did.

And now you were left with what choices to make.

#brendan gallgher #bgally #gally #brendan gallagher series #masterlist #brendan gallagher imagine

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issysindieblog · 6 years

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REVIEW- As You Were (LG)

Yo! My name is Issy, and this is my first review post! It’s a super old Liam Gallagher review of ‘As you were’ that I wrote when it came out last year. I hope you enjoy reading it :)

As you were' from Liam Gallagher may just be the most anticipated solo album of the year. Luckily, it does not fail to deliver and compensate for the lack of music since the oasis and beady eye days.

The fallout of oasis in 2009 left behind two very talented brothers who have successfully gone different ways in the industry; Noel following the rock scene and Liam more down the indie and Brit pop route.

"I didn’t wanna be reinventing anything or going off on a space jazz odyssey,” says Liam when asked about the influences of the album. “It’s the Lennon “Cold Turkey” vibe, The Stones, the classics. But done my way, now.” Listening to the album, you can definitely hear the impact of Liam's teenage idols, re-invented with a special Liam twist to them.

Here’s my track by track thoughts:

Wall of glass - With loud electro guitar solos and rocking drum beats throughout the whole song, it’s a perfect song for the first track of Liam Gallagher's debut solo album. It was the first released single as a new solo artist for Liam and for me, personally, it goes down as quite an iconic one.

Bold - A song with the air of rebellion. The lyrics ‘there's no love worth chasing yesterday’ could be interpreted as a possible dig at his brother, Noel, and his solo album with High flying birds which was titled ‘Chasing yesterday’ and released in early 2015.

Liam's voice here sounds a lot like him in his prime year '94. The man himself has described it as very 'Lennon-y' and I can't help but agree with this.

Greedy soul - American songwriter Jimmy Webb told Liam how one of the lyrics in this song was one of the finest lyrics he's ever heard (this is 'and it's a long way down, when you're the wrong way round'). It’s catchy with multiple layers to the song and and a great guitar riff throughout.

Paper Crown- This is one of the calmest songs on the album, stripped down with an acoustic guitar for the intro and drums and electric guitar throughout the rest of the song. It is very melodious.

For what it's worth - a song about apology, filled with emotion and regret. The beautiful mix of orchestral instruments accompany electric guitars and Liam's raspy but polished voice in this song. It's very much gives me Oasis vibes. ('Underneath my skin, there's a fire within' is a strong metaphor in here).

When I'm in need - the beginning of the song sounds like it's being played on an old vinyl machine, giving it the retro sound. Again, to me, it sounds similar to an old style oasis song, but more of a B Side. Very repetitive but effective, giving it the catchy feel in the end!

You better run - this is a big up song, with a catchy guitar riff during the verses. There is Clever rhyming of shelter and Helter skelter. It is a full bodied song full of aggro!

I get by - similar loud electric guitar sound, an upbeat song about love! Again, it’s got a very catchy chorus.

Chinatown - another one of the released solo singles, another very calm song and by far the on most mellow onthe album. The lyrics ‘Happiness is still a warm gun' is a reference to a song from the Beatles ninth studio album, released in 1968; showing Liam's early music influence from the Beatles.

Come back to me - The electric guitar in the beginning is incredible, come back to me is very upbeat with a quick tempo, following the drum beat. Hats off to Liam's new band here. Guitar music is definitely not dead.

Universal Gleam - Liam's iconic tambourine makes a come back in this song with a riff continuing throughout the whole song. This was a very anticipated song from this album and does not disappoint, with Liam tweeting lyrics to this song back in march. Liam even claims that he wanted to call Beady Eye's last ever album Universal Gleam.

I've all I need - This is a song inspired by a meeting that he had with Yoko Ono eighteen years ago. Liam has explicitly said that some lyrics for the song were taken from a banner that she had in the kitchen, meaning 'while I've been hibernating I've been gathering my wings'.

Overall, I’d give it a solid 4/5 stars as a rating. It’s perfect for former oasis fans who want music with the same kind of feel to it, however, after a while it just becomes a little same-y as the rest of it. This is just an overall view on it. Obviously, we’d all be happier with these songs if it was by Oasis but with the Noel and Liam feud still continuing, I don’t see that happening anytime soon.

If you’re looking for something different to the Oasis sound, maybe you’d be more inclined to listen to Noel’s new album instead of Liam’s debut one.

#oasis #liamgallagher #music blog #music review #liam gallagher #as you were #asyouwere #lg #catb #sam fender #noel gallagher #noelgallagher #ng #beady eye #noel gallaghers high flying birds #solo album #review

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crosbytoews · 6 years

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hockey rpf fic rec

this is an assortment of all the hockey rpf i have bookmarked. it is organized by pairing. if any of this is not your thing that’s valid but i don’t wanna hear it

these fics are posted on ao3 and most of them are locked so you will need an ao3 account to access them!

obviously i like everything on here but i bolded the urls of my absolute faves

JAMIE BENN/TYLER SEGUIN

Look at the wonderful mess that we made by sherlockelly

A name-on-wrist soulmate AU where being outed by a same-sex name is still newsworthy if you're in professional sports and is a very real concern for some NHL players. Despite the shifting attitudes, no one in the sport has ever come out publicly.

Tyler has always felt relieved that 'Jamie' could be a male or female name, it makes hiding his sexuality a lot easier. Jamie's not been so lucky.

Door to Door by Ferritin4

"Hey," Jamie says, pounding on the door. "Hey, open up!"

The dogs shut up.

"Hi, shit, sorry," says the stupidly fucking gorgeous man who opens the door in a tank top and boxers. "Shit, were the dogs loud? They get really excited when I come home."

"It’s three in the morning," Jamie says. On cue, a dog pokes its head around the corner to the entryway and bounces over to the — to this guy. It’s followed by another, browner dog, and Jamie has a moment of surrealist sleep-deprived horror where he imagines an infinite string of dogs forever bounding gleefully towards —

"I work two jobs. I’m Tyler," Tyler says, extending his hand. "Do you want to come in?"

Well, he’s not doing anything illegal, Jamie thinks, shaking it, because no criminal in the history of crime has ever willingly invited a cop into their house, and there is no one in the city of Dallas who hasn’t pegged Jamie as a cop within six seconds of meeting him.

Stating the Obvious by StormDancer

In which Tyler transfers to Dallas, makes some friends, and has emotions, none of which he's prepared to deal with.

Sidney Crosby/Evgeni Malkin

King and Lionheart by thehoyden

Sidney’s wedding day doesn’t go quite as he’d planned. When he’d bothered to imagine it at all, he’d thought of a nice June wedding in Nova Scotia, outdoors with the sun streaming down. He hadn’t imagined this hurried affair on the tarmac on a rainy and unseasonably cool day in early September, a month after his twenty-fifth birthday.

And Never Been Kissed by thehoyden

Sid didn’t introduce himself in the hallway, and he certainly doesn’t assume that people know who he is. So it would only be polite to thank Malkin again, this time more personally.

He could write him a letter. An email? No, a letter.

There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe by Shoshanah-ben-hohim

Amidst rising political tensions between Russia and NATO countries, the KHL and NHL failed to renew their labor agreement this summer. Due to the failed agreement and intense political pressure at home, the Russian NHL players do not return to the NHL.

By March, Geno has played almost a season in Russia, and accepts this is his new reality, no matter how much he misses Sid – until he finds the first child. This sets him and everyone he involves down a dangerous path of international intrigue.

Auston Matthews/Mitch Marner

as long as it's about me by Anonymous

It takes about the length of their first practice for Toronto media to decide that him and Mitch are best friends. And, like, Auston’s been warned about the press in the city a million times, so he gets it. They want a story. He’d be fine with it, honestly, except for the small issue that Mitch Marner is the most annoying person on the entire planet.

I Never Thought He Wouldn't by MycroftexMachina

Mitch loves people. And usually people love him back. Usually.

we've got each other (and that's a lot) by LottieAnna

“I’m gonna be a groomsman,” Mitch says, then flops dramatically into the chair across from Auston, grabs Auston’s glass of whiskey, and takes a long sip. It burns as it goes down, and he makes a face. “Again.”

JONATHAN TOEWS/PATRICK KANE

don't taze me, bro by staraflur

He doesn’t think Zeus is supposed to have a sword, but their Zeus does. So now Jonny does, because of course he’s in charge. He looks, Patrick is drunk enough to acknowledge, far better than anyone has a right to in a grody old Halloween costume that’s probably soaked up the butt sweat of dozens, if not hundreds, of Theta-presidents past. Jonny wears it, Patrick gets the sword. Win-win.

AKA that time there was a frat AU (of course).

Same Time, Same Place by brutti_ma_buoni

It should be a one-off, an awkward airport first meeting that goes nowhere. But this one goes somewhere. Back to Jonny's, for a start.

It shouldn't go any further, a one-nighter with no strings, and plenty of reasons for Patrick not to go back there. But Patrick won't let it go.

It should be a disaster, a mismatch, a scandal, a shoddy secret regret. But... maybe not?

bring it if you really want it by staraflur

It starts like this:

Well, okay, Patrick has no idea how it actually starts. But as pertains to him (in other words, the important part), it goes a little something like so:

America, being a nation composed in large part of a melting pot of immigrants who may or may not have taken over land already owned by others using less-than-savory means, doesn’t have much of a magical national identity. Much less a magical continental identity. There’s no grand heritage going back thousands of years. Magical families home-schooled all their kids until, like, the 1800’s, and tough for the muggle-born, apparently. Hopefully you got noticed by someone who knew what to do with you before you got burned at the stake. Since you probably can’t control your powers, sport.

Call Me Royal Blue by cupstealer

He’s always gotten his kicks giving Jonny shit, but never like this. He feels like the first person to combine ice cream and soda—A) in that he has combined two amazing things to make a more amazing thing, and B) in that Jonny is not having it.

Patrick and Jonny haven't been close friends in six years. Nothing a little friendly competition can't fix.

Random Pairings

Jeff Skinner/Eric Staal

If Heaven’s Hypothetical by impertinence and shoemaster

Jeff runs away from Toronto and finds himself homeless in Raleigh, where he accidentally starts serving eggs to Eric Staal.

Andrew Ladd/Ryan Kesler

Nothing Worth Knowing by beatperfume and shoemaster

Ryan Kesler hates Andrew Ladd on sight. College AU.

Erik Johnson/Gabriel Landeskog

A Month of Sundays by Kelfin

Unlike some guys, who freak out when things get even a little bit gay, Erik is fine with this stuff. Erik's not even fazed when Gabe's attempts at flirting with him start to get semi-public, a fact that, by his own judgment, makes him at least five to seven times more tolerant than your average forward-thinking American.

Sidney Crosby/Claude Giroux

The Battle of Pennsylvania by Robinjay

When they play at Worlds together, Claude Giroux firmly expects a fight to break out. At the very least, he expects derogatory remarks and barely contained fury. Instead of doing any of those things, Sidney Crosby just stares and Claude Giroux loses his damn mind.

In Hours Uncounted by remiges

Claude's grandparents take him to get his first name when he's ten—younger than most people start, but older than his grandparents when they'd had theirs done. His grandmother's skin is threaded red and gold with names, and Claude wants that, wants that sort of history for his own.

Sidney Crosby/Tyler Seguin

All New Kinds of Weather by concinnity and Pennyplainknits

Sidney Crosby, Tyler realizes, has just asked him about hooking up. Sidney fucking Crosby. Tyler blinks at Sid and takes a long drink of water. He has possibly never been as grateful for his slutty reputation as he is in this moment. Because, out of a whole room at least 30% of which would happily give Sid what he’d just, hesitantly, asked for, Sid chose him.

Also there are pancakes.

Alex Galchenyuk/Brendan Gallagher

ain't never had a love like mine by bluejayys

Anna installs Grindr on his phone while he drives them back to his place, snickering as she fills out his profile.

“In your About Me section I said that you enjoy hockey, can speak three languages, and have been commended by fans for your excellent stick handling,” she says gleefully. Alex wonders when this became his life.

Brent Seabrook/Duncan Keith

Summerboys by stlkrchck

Brent Seabrook has no interest in working at Camp Quaquanantuck the summer before university. Unfortunately, his mom's signed him up, and he has to go. But between a cabin full of campers obsessed with Lady Gaga, a prank war with two other cabins, and his co-counselor Duncan Keith, Brent might just find himself enjoying the summer after all.

Tyson Barrie/Gabriel Landeskog

Left-Handed Kisses by oflights

The one where Tyson's fooling around with Gabe, already way out of his league, and then finds out he's apparently fooling around with a prince. And he might be a little bit in love with him. It's pretty brutal.

#hockey rpf #fic rec #i made most of this one handed because my cat is in the way but please let me know if i fucked up with the links

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wellimhavinga3outof10day · 7 years

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Lost Lullabies - Chapter Twelve

Description: Mickey Milkovich, former child star turned action movie star, runs into his old co-star, Ian Gallagher, out on the street in the middle of a winter night. When Mickey takes him in, he doesn’t realize that Ian has the power to completely turn his new life upside down.

Chapters: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Read on AO3

Ian didn’t want to go back to set at all. It had only taken him a week to realize what a terrible fucking idea it had been to accept the role, but by then he’d already signed his life away. It was a lot of money. It was more money than he’d ever had in his entire life – hell, more money than his entire family had had in their collective lives. But that didn’t mean he was ready to see all the people he had run away from, all the people who had tried to help him after the show went down the drain, all the people who used to think he’d be the big name and Mickey would be the coked-up one-hit-wonder. It didn’t mean he would ever be ready to walk back onto a set opposite Mickey Milkovich and act like the guy was his best friend.

He’d lost track of how many times he’d apologized, how many voicemails he’d left. The week he’d spent in Mickey’s apartment felt like a dream. How close they’d been to crossing the line between friends and lovers felt like a fucking hallucination. Ian had never in his life been more sure that Mickey hated him and that included the moment when Ian had come out to him.

He remembered it now, on his way to the set on a bus. He was standing, one hand on the wobbly handhold that didn’t really help his balance at all. He kept getting shaken out of the memory by the movements of the bus, but the moment played back like it’d happened yesterday.

Ten years old, sitting across from each other on Ian’s bed, whispering so that they wouldn’t wake his brothers. It was the first time Mickey had spent the night. Fiona had walked him over to his house after dinner, heard something she didn’t like the sound of, and marched him right back. Ian had never been happier to see Mickey, even if Mickey had looked smaller than ever, eyes on the floor, tears glistening in his blue eyes. And this, the boy who hadn’t been able to cry on command no matter what the director said to him.

Ian had coaxed Mickey out of his shell, out of whatever horror he was hiding from, and had gotten him wrapped up in a heated game of truth or dare. A game of truth or dare too explicit for their ages, but they’d grown up in the Southside. Hell, Ian had seen his parents having sex in the kitchen by that age. Mickey had seen a lot worse.

The question had been would you rather fuck Tabitha or Christie? and Ian had answered honestly with the word, neither. Mickey had stared at him for a long moment like he had just admitted to giving away nuclear launch codes. Before he could ask what the fuck was wrong with Ian, Ian had said, I think I like boys.

Mickey had then let loose a thread of curses so violent Ian hadn’t even heard most of them before. Then he refused to sleep in Ian’s bed, demanded to be taken home that instant, made such a racket that Lip had woken up and thrown a pillow at them. Ian didn’t say a word, just waited until Fiona had come to check on them and taken Mickey home when he begged her to.

Ian remembered the first day on set after that less clearly. He remembered the director telling Mickey to perk up, that Ian was his best friend, remember? He remembered three weeks where Mickey didn’t talk to him outside of rehearsing lines or taping scenes. Then he remembered coming out to one of the producers when they told him that the plot line between him and Christie was going to start getting more romantic. When they threatened to fire him, he remembered Mickey cussing them out and saying he’d quit on the spot if that happened.

Mickey had always had his back, just like Ian had always had his. Until the moment that they hadn’t, things had gone to shit, and nine years had passed without them seeing each other. Ian wondered if today on set would be better or worse than the day after he told Mickey he was gay.

The bus came to a stop five blocks from the studio and Ian jumped off. He walked the rest of the way, picked up his pace when he checked the time, and arrived at the gate with the tips of his fingers frozen blue. The guard let him in, called someone in a golf cart to pick him up and bring him to the set, and then he was dropped off at the doors.

He remembered the set blurrily, like even being there years earlier had been a dream, and shook off the feeling. Without the drugs, he’d been having some weird withdrawal symptoms. Blurred vision. Nausea. Racing thoughts. Rapid speech. A libido through the fucking roof. He hadn’t been sleeping well either, but maybe that was the reason for the other symptoms.

A PA greeted him at the door and walked him around the set. As he went, he waved to the other actors he passed. He found he recognized most of them – Gabe, who’d played his dad, Christie, his love interest, even Mark, who’d been their third friend – but they didn’t wave back. The chilly reception didn’t surprise him. He’d made the rest of them look bad when he went off the rails.

He was dropped at the door to his dressing room with a copy of the schedule for the day. He paused to read it, ticked off the scenes in his head. He had memorized most of the script a week ago but still had it with him just in case the atmosphere of the set threw him off. And it was throwing him off big time. Being in the same place made him feel like he was having déjà vu or a weird dream. He wished they had chosen a different building.

No one spoke to him until he got over to Set C – the coffee shop. There the director ran him through the things he should have been told yesterday – what colour tape was his mark, how many cameras they were working with, what he could and couldn’t touch on set. He knew asking to start late had been a bad idea but yesterday had been Carl’s last day of leave from military school. He hadn’t wanted to miss him.

About ten minutes into the set rundown, Mickey appeared and Ian stopped hearing anything the director said. His heart started to beat harder in his chest and he had to swallow the lump in his throat. It had been a month. A month without Mickey and somehow Mickey managed to look even better in that time. Maybe when he was on set, he was on a diet, and therefore immediately looked better, but Ian didn’t know if that was it. It just seemed like Mickey glowed. Maybe his natural place was on a movie set. Maybe he had found his calling early on in life.

“Hey,” Mickey said when he reached them. He gave Ian a brief nod and then focused his attention on the director. Ian followed his lead even though part of him just wanted to pull Mickey aside and apologize profusely and promise to never talk to him again as long as he didn’t ignore him for the entire three months they were filming.

The director finished his spiel – he had a lot of tips on how to do the scene right and Ian immediately remembered why he had hated the guy – and waved them onto their marks so the cameras could set up.

Ian let the silence linger between him and Mickey for just a touch longer than was comfortable. Then he said, “So, about the whole kind of forcing you into this thing—”

“Don’t mention it.” Mickey looked at his feet.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Mickey said. He met Ian’s eyes briefly, then looked away. “Disney pays, man.”

“I know.”

A hint of a smile crept onto Mickey’s lips. “You’re doing good?”

“I’m clean.”

“Good.”

“Mick, I—”

“Ready?” The director called. Ian shut his mouth. “Set. Action!”

They dove into the scene – an argument that happened about halfway through the movie over the fact that Mickey’s character, Lance, wanted to drop out of the babysitting business in order to “really start his life.” Ian had taken issue with this part of the script because, well, the fact that two grown men had been running a babysitting business throughout all of college was creepy as fuck. The response he’d gotten was “get your mind out of the gutter, this is Disney.”

The director called cut on them several times, got them to start at different points in the scene. To Mickey’s credit, he didn’t break once, had all his lines memorized, and didn’t even trip over a single word. Ian thought that, due to his lack of experience, he was keeping up pretty well. He didn’t really know why the director kept telling them to restart.

They’d been at it almost half an hour and barely managed to get past the first three lines of the five minute scene. When the director yelled cut again, Mickey stepped back and rubbed his hand over his lips. “Again,” the director called, “from the top.”

“Fuck that,” Mickey said.

Ian knew he had no standing to agree, but he was glad Mickey’d finally opened his mouth about it. He was getting tired from being on his feet, from the bright stage lights, from saying the same twelve words over and over and over again. He felt like he was wearing a hole in his vocal chords.

Mickey stepped towards the director, but not off set. “At least tell us what’s fucking wrong this time so we can stop this bullshit.”

The director almost looked shocked, then he seemed to remember who he was working with. After a moment, he nodded and got up off his chair to join them on set. “You wanna know what you’re doing wrong?” he said, like it was a challenge. “You really want me to spell it out for you?”

Mickey took a step towards the guy, looked ready to fucking deck him. Ian placed a hand on his shoulder to pull him back.

“This,” the director said, gesturing to where they were touching, “is the fucking problem.”

Mickey glanced over his shoulder at Ian, like he hadn’t registered the pressure of his hand at all. Instead of shaking him off, he looked back at the director. “The problem is that we’re touching each other? I haven’t touched him fucking once.”

“The problem is you two look like you’re about five seconds from going at it against the fucking windows.”

Mickey raised his eyebrows.

Ian blinked and spared a glance at the tired extras.

“Excuse me?” Mickey said.

“Look, I couldn’t tell you this when you were kids, because it would have been inappropriate, but we’re all grown-ups now, right? So you wanna know the real reason they cancelled your show? It’s because they couldn’t tape two fucking seconds of film where the two of you didn’t look like you were head over heels for each other. But, reboot, they thought, hey, they’re older and haven’t seen each other in ten years and even if they still have feelings for each other, they might be able to fucking hide it better now. But apparently not.”

Mickey looked away with a shocked expression and then looked back up with the kind of smile on his face that Ian knew meant back the fuck up. He tightened his grip on Mickey’s shoulder, but didn’t know what good it would do. After all, Mickey was the star. Maybe if he decked the director, the director would be fired, not him.

“If this was the kind of perverted shit going on in your head when we were kids, I don’t wanna know what’s in your brain now,” Mickey said. “But I’ll tell you—”

“No.” The director held up a hand that miraculously silenced Mickey. “I’ll tell you. You might be a big fucking name, but I’ve been in this business longer. You wanna hit me? Fine. It’s not gonna fix anything. So you want to know what I really wanted to scream at you when you two little shits were filming scenes nine years ago?” The director raised an eyebrow like he was waiting for one of them to ask. Ian looked to Mickey. Mickey glared daggers at the director. “Fine. I’ll tell you. Either learn to goddamn act or go fuck it out of your system.”

Mickey’s silence was icy, burning.

Ian took his hand off of him.

“Take five,” the director said. “Come back without the fucking puppy dog eyes.”

Mickey stormed off. Ian hesitated a moment before going after him.

<<Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen>>

#gallavich #shameless #Ian Gallagher #mickey milkovich #ian x mickey #mine #3outof10 fanfic #chapter twelve #lost lullabies

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celticnoise · 4 years

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CQN today marks the 53rd anniversary of Celtic’s historic European Cup triumph in Lisbon with EXCLUSIVE extracts from Bertie Auld’s autobiography, ‘A Bhoy Called Bertie,’ co-authored by Alex Gordon.

Here is part two of the inimitable Hoops legend’s take on the achievement by Jock Stein’s great team that unforgettable day on May 25 1967.

WHEN we took centre stage in the European Cup on a still evening in Glasgow on 28 September, 1966 we could only guess about what lay in store. The European Cup had been won by only four teams – Real Madrid, who had succeeded six times, Benfica and Inter Milan twice and AC Milan once.

These were giants of European football. It seemed you had to come from an exotic part of Europe to lift that trophy. Glasgow didn’t seem to fit the bill! In fact, we were the first team from Northern Europe to gatecrash that particular party. So, what on earth were these upstarts from Scotland doing mixing with the hoi poloi of football? We were about to provide an answer, of course.

Big TG had the distinction of scoring Celtic’s first goal among the European elite when he rocketed in a thirty-yarder in the sixty-fourth minute after the Swiss had proved to be an extremely competent group of players. Big Jock, who was to celebrate his forty-fourth birthday four days later, had told us to keep calm at half-time. ‘Keep moving the ball around,’ he urged. ‘Try to get round the flanks.’ And so on. We had started the season in whirlwind fashion and were used to being in command by the time the interval arrived. Previously, we had taken eight off St.Mirren and blasted in six against Clyde in League Cup-ties. The three league games before Zurich had seen three successes – Clyde (3-0), Rangers (2-0) and Dundee (2-1). We were flying, but Zurich were doing their utmost to bring us back to earth.

TG came up with his wonder strike after the hour mark and their keeper, Steffan Iten, probably did himself a massive favour by getting out of the road of yet another piledriver. Five minutes later we doubled our advantage and felt a lot more at ease. Luggy broke up an attack, passed to Jose, Joe McBride, and he touched it onto me. I feigned to go one way and then backheeled it into the tracks of Jose. He was a guy who never had to be asked twice to have a go at goal and he swept it into the net. It got a slight touch off a defender, but it looked good enough to reach its destination, anyway.

And TG stole the thunder again in the second leg a fortnight later at the Hardturm Stadium when he walloped in two – one from the penalty spot – and Stevie added another. One thing I recall about that evening was the fact that Big Jock was convinced we would find it easier to play them on their own ground. They needed three goals to progress and had to give it a go. That would leave spaces for us to exploit. He was spot-on again.

Next up were the French champions Nantes and this time we played the first leg away from home in their Malakoff Stadium on 30 November. The French, in typical Gallic fashion, fancied themselves and they had some excellent players, notably their main midfield man Robert Herbin, who had captained his country during the World Cup Finals in England the previous year. Robert who? I had him in my pocket in both legs, which we won 3-1 away with goals from Jose, Lemon and Stevie. They had actually taken the lead through Magny in the 20th minute before we decided to put the tie to bed. Jinky gave Europe an advance warning of his glittering array of skills with a marvellous performance.

It was also 3-1 in the second leg at rain-lashed Parkhead where Jinky was once again simply unstoppable. He got the opener in the thirteenth minute, but all credit to the French as they refused to roll over and they levelled through Georgin. It was 1-1 at half-time and Nantes might have thought they were on the verge of pulling off a shock. No chance. Jinky meandred down the right wing, sent over an inviting cross and Stevie met it perfectly to send a header spinning into the net. It was deja vu all over again for the French when Jinky staged a repeat performance with Lemon this time finishing it off.

I have to admit I didn’t know an awful lot about our next opponents, Yugoslavia’s Vojvodina Novi Sad. Their country was enjoying something of a rennaisance and their international side had only lost 2-0 in a replay to Italy in Rome in the old European Nations Cup, now the European Championship, the previous year. Partizan Belgrade also reached the European Cup Final in 1966 before losing 2-1 to Real Madrid in Bussels. Dinamo Zagreb were to win the Inter-Cities’ Fairs Cup, now the UEFA Cup, in 1967, beating Leeds United 2-0 on aggregate over the two legs. We also realised that Vojvodina had seen off the much-vaunted Atletico Madrid, who had overwhelmed their city rivals Real to with the Spanish title, in the previous round.

These days, at the flick of a switch, you can find out what is going on all over the world and watch players and teams in foreign leagues and have a good idea what they are all about. However, in 1967, that was not the case. You had to take the word of your boss and Jock let us all know that this was an exceptionally well-equipped team with quality players who were very comfortable on the ball. They also had a goalkeeper called Ilija Pantelic who was rated as the best in the world at the time. So, we had a fair idea what to expect when we took the field at their stadium on a cold evening on 1 March, 1967. The pitch was rock solid and hardly conducive to football artistry. They were a good side alright, but we were holding out with only 20 minutes to play and they looked just a little bit despondent. They had tried all sorts of ways to get through our rearguard, but we were holding firm. A draw looked on the cards.

Then, horror of horrors! TG, so often the hero, was a bit wayward with a passback that dropped between Chopper and Luggy. Djordic, a speedy little attacker, nipped in, squared it across to Stanic who sent the ball wide of our exposed and helpless goalkeeper. Faither was well known for his infectious sense of humour. It deserted him at that moment, though. The Slavs celebrated like they had won the cup already.

They arrived in Glasgow a week later and one thing I detected was that Jock and his Vojvodina counterpart, Vujadin Boskov, were never going to be big buddies. Boskov, who would later manage Real Madrid, was a cocksure character, that’s for sure, and he had Big Jock sucking out his fillings when he said, ‘We expect to win in Glasgow. Why not? We are the better team.’ Oh, Really? Wrong thing to say, comrade!

Unfortunately, I had to sit this one out through injury and Charlie Gallagher took my place in the middle of the park. What a game he had, too. I’m not the greatest spectator you are ever likely to meet and it was murder sitting up in that stand watching this encounter unravel. The fans, and I make no apologies for repeating myself, were magnificent yet again. The encouragement they gave the side that night was simply awesome. But it didn’t appear to be knocking the Slavs out of their stride. They were a solid, compact unit and extremely well-drilled. I was talking to my big chum TG before the match and he was desperate to atone for his mistake in the first game. ‘I’ve got to score, Bertie,’ he said. ‘I don’t want the blame for us going out of the European Cup.’

TG didn’t score, but he did the next best thing – he set up the equaliser just before the hour mark with another assault down the left wing as he had been doing all night. Yogi, at outside-left, played his part by dragging a defender inside and that allowed our full-back to hit the line and fire over a cross. Pantelic made to grab the ball, but he reckoned without the bravery of Stevie who launched himself at TG’s effort to deflect it into the net. The place was in uproar. Jose and I were dancing up in the stand and the fans, all 69,374 of them, were delirious with delight. If they were overjoyed then, it was nothing to the state they were in just before the final whistle.

My replacement Charlie went over to take a corner-kick on the right wing as Caesar trotted into the packed penalty area. There was the usual jostling as players tried to block our skipper. They were wasting their time. Charlie flighted over as sweet a cross as you will ever see and Caesar, with his usual impeccable timing, soared high to meet it perfectly and arc a lovely header into the roof of the net.

That was the signal for bedlam. The old Parkhead roof must have been close to being blown off such was the racket – and that was just Jose and me! Do you know how long there was to go – TWO SECONDS! Vojvodina just had time to kick off and the referee blew for the end of the game. If Caesar hadn’t scored it would have gone to a replay because extra-time had not been introduced at the time. I believe it would have been in Rotterdam a couple of days later and anything could have happened against this gifted bunch. More and more I was becoming convinced our name was on the trophy.

Now there was just the little matter of taking care of Dukla Prague in the semi-final.

https://ift.tt/2XoiH48

#CelticNoise #Celtic #CelticFC #CelticQuickNews

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touristguidebuzz · 7 years

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Airbnb CEO Says Its IPO Is ‘Halfway’ Ready

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky (L) during an interview with Fortune editor Leigh Gallagher at the Economic Club of New York. Economic Club of New York

Skift Take: As CEO and Head of Community Brian Chesky makes his way around the world, he’s offering some insights into what’s next for his $31-billion company.

— Deanna Ting

Airbnb co-founder, CEO, and newly minted head of community Brian Chesky has embarked on a world tour of seven different cities and midway into his journey, he’s been dropping quite a few hints into the future of his company, which is now theoretically worth almost as much as the world’s largest hotel company.

On March 10, Chesky spoke in front of university students at the Oxford Union in Oxford, England, and on March 13, Chesky stopped by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) to be interviewed on stage by The Airbnb Story author and Fortune assistant managing editor Leigh Gallagher as part of a New York Economic Club lunch meeting.

During both appearances, Chesky spoke about what it was like to launch a now $31-billion company, as well as discussed the possibility of a future initial public offering (IPO) and what Airbnb Flights might look like.

To IPO or Not to IPO?

Airbnb’s latest round of funding seemed to quell rumors that the company was nearing an IPO, but during his NYSE discussion, Chesky confirmed that, yes, Airbnb is on the path to an IPO. However, when exactly that will be is still to be determined.

“We don’t have anything to announce,” Chesky said. “We are working on making sure the company is ready to go public and so, you know, we’ve always said it’s a two-year project and we’re probably halfway through that project as far as being ready to go public. At that point, you know, our investors are very patient. None of them are anxiously waiting for us to go public.”

When reminded he made the same comments in 2015, Chesky said the two-year period was “flexible.”

Chesky also said the only reason Airbnb would seriously enter into an IPO would be to deliver immediate liquidity for the company’s shareholders.

Flights & End-to-End Travel Experiences

During Chesky’s talk at the Oxford Union, he gave bit more insight into one of the company’s most anticipated — and yet to be launched — products, flights. During the Airbnb Open in November 2016, Chesky hinted that Airbnb would enter into the flights arena, but didn’t divulge many details.

Analysts and industry watchers have speculated what exactly Airbnb flights could look like. Would it be metasearch or another booking engine? Would it be an actual airline or something more?

If Chesky’s recent comments are any indication, it certainly seems like the company has something large planned for flights that extends beyond just metasearch or booking.

“I would like Airbnb to one day redefine how we fly,” Chesky said. “I think today, if you look at modern aviation, it’s a bit stagnating.” He recalled the time he recently returned to the first airport he ever flew out of as a seven-year-old, and how it hadn’t changed since 1987, lamenting how the flying experience hasn’t changed much over the years, and remains painful for most passengers.

“The funny thing about flying is, no matter how successful you are in life, you are reminded how much of a mere mortal you are, and that’s another area we really want to invest in,” Chesky added.

Later, when asked whom he looks to for source information, Chesky said that, in his efforts to work on Airbnb’s aviation product, he’s enlisted the help of a variety of sources including major airline CEOs, most of whom told him to read the book, Hard Landing: The Epic Contest for Power and Profits That Plunged the Airlines into Chaos. He said he also hired a former head of a major airline to serve as an advisor, no doubt similarly to how he once enlisted Joie de Vivre Hotels founder Chip Conley to serve as his hospitality advisor. He said he also spoke to Elon Musk and other individuals about topics ranging from vertical takeoffs, technology, and circular runways. And then he ended his statement by asking, “What if you took a home and put it in the sky?

Chesky said that the company’s latest $1 billion in funding will go toward developing its aviation product, as well as into its core homes produce and its newly launched Trips product.

“We’re going to do a lot more with homes … we want to help redefine how to stay in a home again,” he said at the Oxford Union. “We want to massively scale experiences.”

Since launching Airbnb Trips in November with 12 cities, the company has added experiences in Barcelona, Paris, and Singapore, with the hopes of offering Trips in 51 cities worldwide by year’s end.

“We’ve completely changed and created a whole new category of how to stay,” Chesky said. “For the next 10 years I want to get to a place where we can sell end-to-end trips. That we can have hundreds of millions of people every year booking end-to-end experiences, where the home might be a minority of what we are doing. We’ve completely changed what to do. Ten years from now, if it’s Friday night or Saturday night, you’re like, ‘What’s fun to do around here?’ whether it’s a city that live in or you’re traveling, you look to Airbnb. We’ve created tens of millions of entrepreneurs that are creating experiences. [It’s] a whole new part of the economy — an experience-based economy. We’ve also gone to aviation and started to redefine how we fly. Because what if flying were the best part of travel and not the worst part of travel? We call all of this ‘Magical Trips.’ Trips that are amazing, memorable, end-to-end experiences, and that’s what we want to be doing in the next 10 years.”

The Future of Airbnb’s Regulatory Challenges

Chesky’s plans for evolving Airbnb into a company that does more than just serve as a marketplace for homes, could be hindered, however, by some of the many regulatory battles it is facing in some of its largest markets, New York City, in particular.

To curb some of the potential harm that could come from stricter regulations or potential short-term rental bans, it’s clear the company is sending a message to cities like New York that it (1) wants to work with them and (2) that Airbnb can be a vital source of positive economic impact.

During his speech at the NYSE, Chesky acknowledged that he understands the need for regulations on short-term rentals, and he reflected on what has become a rather contentious relationship between Airbnb and local city officials here in New York:

“When we started Airbnb, we didn’t fathom millions of people doing this,” he said. “So I did not consider landlords. I didn’t consider cities. It was so bigger than what our idea was. Our idea was just to bring two people together. It grew so fast.”

Chesky said he soon realized that his “Craigslist school of thought” about how the community could monitor itself wasn’t enough to solve problems that eventually arose, and that the company needed to be more “mindful.” Since then, Airbnb has signed 200 agreements with cities worldwide that often involve tax collection agreements and, in some cases, enforcement of rental caps, but New York City remains one major city where Airbnb hasn’t been able to successfully work with regulators.

“In New York City, there were a number of things going on,” Chesky said. “The first thing is we were slow to be here. I think we didn’t get our story out early. There was a bit of misinformation about who our company was. There were substantive problems, a phenomenon that occurred where landlords saw they could make a lot of money taking units off the market and renting them on a short-term basis. Though I think the scope of this was overstated on our platform, this was a problem, and people were doing this. We were a little behind on this and we had to play catch up.”

He later added that Airbnb wants to work with New York City to collect and remit local taxes as it does in cities such as San Francisco, and that the company is committed to a “One Home, One Host” policy in New York to ensure people are renting out the homes they actually live in, versus acting as commercial operators and taking housing units off the market.

A report issued last week by the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA) and CBRE Hotels’ America Research suggested that commercial operators drive a substantial amount of Airbnb’s business in top markets like New York, however. Airbnb head of public policy Chris Lehane told Skift that the report was “intellectually dishonest.”

Chesky also noted he hopes the company can work more with landlords as part of its Friendly Buildings program, whereby multi-unit housing operators can actually work with Airbnb to regulate Airbnb rentals in their buildings with their tenants and even get a cut of the revenue generated. That particular program is now available in 3,000 cities, said Lehane.

Additionally, Airbnb commissioned a report from NERA Economic Consulting to demonstrate the company’s overall economic impact in 200 cities worldwide. According to this report, Airbnb generated a total global economic impact of $61 billion in 2016 ($14 billion in the U.S.) and supported a total of 730,000 jobs worldwide (130,000 in the U.S.).

By contrast, an Oxford Economics study commissioned by the AH&LA on the economic impact of the U.S. hotel industry found that the industry supports 8 million jobs and contributes $600 billion to the U.S. economy.

Chesky said the report estimates Airbnb will support a total of 1.3 million jobs worldwide in 2017 and that the report demonstrates how Airbnb is empowering people economically. By Labor Day of this year, the company will also allow hosts to take a Living Wage Pledge so that they pay anyone who cleans their home listing a minimum of $15 per hour.

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